own Eternal Word and Power so no Creature has access again unto him but in and by the Son according to his own express words No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Matth. 11.27 Luk. 10.22 And again he himself saith I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 Hence he is fitly called the Mediator betwixt God and Man For having been with God from all Eternity being himself God and also in time partaking of the nature of man through him is the goodness and love of God conveighed to mankind and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies Hence is easily deduced the probation of this first Assertion thus If no man know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him then there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son But no man knoweth the Father but the Son Therefore there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son The first part of the antecedent are the plain words of Scripture The consequence thereof is undeniable except one would say that he hath the knowledge of the Father while yet he knows him not which were an absurd repugnance Again If the Son be the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him then there is no knowledg of the Father but by the Son But the first is true Therefore the last The antecedent are the very Scripture words The consequence is very evident For how can any know a thing who useth not the way without which it is not knowable But it is already proved that there is no other way but by the Son so that who so uses not that way cannot know him neither come unto him § VI. Having then laid down this first Principle I come to the second viz. That there is no Knowledg of the Son but by the Spirit or that the Revelation of the Son of God is by the Spirit Where it is to be noted that I alwayes speak of the saving certain and necessary Knowledge of God which that it cannot be acquired otherwayes than by the Spirit doth also appear from many clear Scriptures For Jesus Christ in and by whom the Father is revealed doth also reveal himself to his Disciples and Friends in and by his Spirit as his manifestation was sometimes outwards when he testified and witnessed for the Truth in this World and approved himself faithful throughout So being now withdrawn as to the outward man he doth teach and instruct mankind inwardly by his own Spirit he standeth at the door and knocketh and who so heareth his Voice and openeth he comes in to such Rev. 3.20 Of this Revelation of Christ in him Paul speaketh Gal. 1.6 in which he placeth the excellency of his Ministry and the certainty of his Calling And the Promise of Christ to his Disciples Lo I am with you to the end of the World confirmeth this same thing for this is an inward Presence and Spiritual as all acknowledg But what relates hereto will again occur I shall deduce the proof of this Proposition from two manifest places of Scripture The first is 1 Cor. 2.11 12. What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God The Apostle in the verses before speaking of the wonderful things which are prepared for the Saints after he hath declared that the natural man cannot reach them adds that they are revealed by the Spirit of God ver 9 10. giving this reason for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And then he bringeth in the comparison in the verses above mentioned very apt and answerable to our purpose and Doctrine that as the things of a man are only known by the Spirit of man so the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God that is that as nothing below the Spirit of man as the Spirit of Brutes or any other Creatures can properly reach unto nor comprehend the things of a man as being of a more noble and higher Nature so neither can the Spirit of man or the natural man as the Apostle in the 14 verse subsumes receive nor discern the things of God or the things that are Spiritual as being also of a higher Nature which the Apostle himself gives for the reason saying neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned So that the Apostles words being reduced to an argument do very well prove the matter under debate thus If that which appertaineth properly to man cannot be discerned by any lower or baser Principle than the Spirit of man then cannot these things that properly relate unto God and Christ be known or discerned by any lower or baser thing than the Spirit of God and Christ. But the First is true Therefore also the Second The whole strength of the argument is contained in the Apostles words before mentioned which therefore being granted I shall proceed to deduce a second argument thus That which is Spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God But the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledg of him is Spiritual Therefore the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledge of him can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God The other Scripture is also a saying of the same Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Scripture which is full of Truth and answereth full well to the inlightned understanding of the Spiritual and real Christian may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked Here the Apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian that he positively averrs we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it which insinuates no less than that the Spiritual Truths of the Gospel are as lyes in the Mouths of carnal and unspiritual men for though in themselves they be true yet are they not true as to them because not known nor uttered forth in and by that Principle and Spirit that ought to direct the mind and actuat it in such things they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy neither can it be more truly and properly called a real and true knowledg of God and Christ than the actings of Alexander the great and Julius Caesar c. if now transacted upon a Stage might be called truly and really their doings or the persons representing them might be said truly
to offer him up not doubting but God was able to raise him from the dead of whom it is said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called And last of all In that he rested in the Promise that his Seed should possess the Land wherein himself was but a Pilgrim and which to them was not to be fulfilled while divers Ages after The object of Abrahams Faith in all this was no other but inward and immediate Revelation or God signifying his will unto him inwardly and immediately by his Spirit But because in this part of the Proposition we made also mention of external Voices Appearances and Dreams in the alternative I think also fit to speak hereof what in that respect may be objected to wit Obj. That those who found their Faith now upon immediate and objective Revelation ought to have also outward Voices or Visions Dreams or appearances for it It is not denyed but God made use of the Ministry of Angels who in the appearance of men spake outwardly to the Saints of old and that he did also reveal some things to them in Dreams and Visions none of which we will affirm to be ceased so as to limit the power and liberty of God in manifesting himself towards his Children But while we are considering the object of Faith we must not stick to that which is but circumstantially and accidently so but to that which is universally and substantially so Next again we must distinguish betwixt that which in it self is subject to doubt and delusion and therefore is received for and because of another and that which is not subject to any doubt but is received simply for and because of it self as being prima veritas the very first and original Truth Let us then consider how or how far these outward voices appearances and dreams were the object of the Saints faith was it because they were simply voices appearances or dreams nay certainly we know and they were not ignorant that the Devil can form a sound of words and convey it to the outward ear That he can easily deceive the outward senses by making things to appear that are not Yea do we not see by daily experience that the Juglers and Mountebancks can do as much as all that by their Legerdemain God forbid then that the Saints faith should be founded upon so fallacious a foundation as man's outward and fallible senses What made them then give credit to these visions eertainly nothing else but the secret testimony of Gods Spirit in their hearts assuring them that the voices dreams and Visions were of and from God Abraham believed the Angels but who told him that these men were Angels we must not think his faith then was built upon his outward senses but proceeded from the secret perswasion of Gods Spirit in his heart This then must needs be acknowledged to be originally and principally the object of the Saints faith without which there is no true and certain faith and by which many times faith is begotten and strenthenged without any of these outward or visible helps As we may observe in many passages of the Holy Scripture where it is only mentioned and God said c. And the word of the Lord came unto such and such saying c. But if any one should pertinaciously affirm that this did import an outward audible voice to the carnal ear I would gladly know what other argument such a one could bring for this his affirmation saving his own simple conjecture It is said indeed the Spirit witnesseth with our Spirit but not to our outward ears Rom. 8.16 and seeing the Spirit of God is within us and not without us it speaks to our Spiritual and not to our bodyly ear Therefore I see no reason where it 's so often said in Scripture the Spirit said moved hindered called such or such a one to do or forbear such or such a thing that any have to conclude that this was not an inward voice to the ear of the Soul rather than an outward voice to the bodyly ear If any be otherwise minded let them if they can produce their arguments and we may further consider of them From all then which is above declared I shall deduce an argument to conclude the probation of this assertion thus That which any one firmly believes as the ground and foundation of his hope in God and life Eternal is the formal object of his faith But the inward and immediate revelation of God's Spirit speaking in and unto the Saints was by them believed as the ground and foundation of their hope in God and life eternal Therefore these inward and immediate revelations were the formal object of their faith § IX That which now cometh under debate is what we have asserted in the last place to wit That the same continueth to be the object of the Saints faith unto this day Many will agree to what we said before who differ from us herein There is nevertheless a very firm argument confirming the truth of this assertion included in the Proposition it self to wit That the object of the Saints faith is the same in all ages though held forth under divers administrations Which I shall reduce to an argument and prove thus First Where the Faith is one the object of the Faith is one But the Faith is one Therefore c. That the Faith is one is the express words of the Apostle Eph. 4.5 who placeth the one Faith with the one God importing no less than that to affirm two faiths is as absurd as to affirm two Gods Moreover if the Faith of the Ancients were one and the same with ours i. e. agreeing in substance therewith and receiving the same definition it had been impertinent for the Apostle Heb. 11. to have illustrated the definition of our faith by the examples of that of the Ancients or to go about to move us by the example of Abraham if Abraham's faith were different in nature from ours Nor doth hence any difference arise because they believe in Christ with respect to his appearace outwardly as future and we as already appeared For nor did they then so believe in him to come as not to feel him present with them and witness him near seeing the Apostle saith they all drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them which Rock was Christ Nor do we so believe concerning his appearance past as not also to feel and know him present with us and to feed upon him except Christ saith the Apostle be in you ye are reprobates so that both our faith is one terminating in one and the same thing And as to the other part or consequence of the antecedent to wit that the object is one where the faith is one the Apostle also proveth it in the forecited Chapter where he makes all the Worthys of old examples to us Now wherein are they imitable but because they believed in God and what was the object of their Faith
not led by his Spirit but these feign a Christianity that needs not the Spirit of Christ. He makes no hope of the blessed Resurrection unless we feel the Spirit residing in us but these feign a hope without any such a feeling But perhaps they will answer that they deny not but that it is necessary to have it only of modesty and humility we ought to deny and not acknowledg it What means he then when he commands the Corinthians to try themselves if they be in the Faith to examine themselves whether they have Christ whom whosoever acknowledges not dwelling in him is a reprobate By the Spirit which he hath given us saith John we know that he abideth in us And what do we then else but call in question Christ his promise while we would be esteemed the Servants of God without his Spirit which he declared he would pour out upon all his Seeing these things are the first grounds of Piety it is miserable blindness to accuse Christians of Pride because they dare glory of the presence of the Spirit without which glorying Christianity it self could not be But by their example they declare how truly Christ spake saying that his Spirit was unknown to the world and that those only acknowledg it with whom it remains Thus far Calvin If therefore it be so why should any be so foolish as to deny or so unwise as not to seek after this Spirit which Christ hath promised shall dwell in his Children They then that do suppose the in-dwelling and leading of his Spirit to be ceased must also suppose Christianity to be ceased which cannot subsist without it Thirdly What the work of this Spirit is is partly before shown which Christ compriseth in two or three things He will guide you into all Truth he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance Since Christ hath provided for us so good an instructor what need we then lean so much to those traditions and commandments of Men wherewith so many Christians have Burthened themselves What need we set up our own Carnal and corrupt reason for a guide to us in matters Spiritual as some will needs do May it not be complained of all such as the Lord did of old concerning Israel by the Prophets Jer. 2.13 For my People have commited two Evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that hold no water Have not many forsaken do not many deride and reject this inward and Immediate Guide this Spirit that leads into all Truth and cast up to themselves other ways broken waves indeed which have not all this while brought them out of the flesh nor out of the world nor from under the dominion of their own lusts and sinful affections whereby truth which is only rightly learned by this Spirit is so much a stranger in the Earth From all them that have been mentioned concerning this promise and these words of Christ it will follow that Christians are always to be led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God dwelling in them and that the same is a standing and perpetual Ordinance as well to the Church in general in all ages as to every individual member in particular as appears from this argument The promise of Christ to his Children are Yea and Amen and cannot fail but must of necessity be fulfilled But Christ hath promised that the Comforter the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth shall abide with his Children for ever shall dwell with them shall be in them shall lead them into all Truth shall teach them all things shall bring all things to their remembrance Therefore c. Again No man is redeemed from the carnal mind which is at enmity with God which is not subject to the Law of God neither can be No man is yet in the Spirit but in the flesh and cannot please God except he in whom the Spirit of God dwells But every true Christian is in measure redeemed from the carnal mind is gathered out of the Enmity and can be subject to the Law of God is out of the flesh and in the Spirit the Spirit of God dwelling in him Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him Again Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his that is no Child no Friend no Disciple of Christ. But every true Christian is a Child a Friend a Disciple of Christ. Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ. Moreover Whosoever is the Temple of the Holy Ghost in him the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But every true Christian is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore in every true Christian the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But to conclude He in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth it is not in him a lazy dumb useless thing but it moveth actuateth governeth instructeth and teacheth him all things whatsoever is needfull for him to know yea bringeth all things to his remembrance But the Spirit of God dwelleth in every true Christian Therefore it leadeth instructeth and teacheth every true Christian whatsoever is needful for him to know § XI But there are some that will confess that the Spirit doth now lead and influence the Saints but that he doth it only Subjectively or in ablind manner by inlighting their understandings to understand and believe the Truth delivered in the Scriptures But not at all by presenting these Truths to the mind by way of object and this they call medium incognitum assentiendi as that of whose working a man is not sensible This opinion tho somewhat more tolerable than the former is nevertheless not altogether according to Truth neither doth it reach the fulness of it 1. Because there be many Truths which as they are applicable to particulars and individuals and most needful to be known by them are no wise to be found in the Scripture as in the following Proposition shall be shown Besides the arguments already deduced do prove that the Spirit doth not only subjectively help us to discern Truths elsewhere delivered but also objectively present those Truths to our minds For that which teacheth me all things and is given me for that end without doubt presents those things to my mind which it teacheth me It is not said it shall teach you how to understand those things that are written but it shall teach you all things Again that which brings all things to my remembrance must needs present them by way of object else it were improper to say it brought them to my remembrance but onely that it helpeth to remember the objects brought from elsewhere My second argument shall be drawn from the Nature of the New Covenant by which and those that follow I shall prove that we are led by the Spirit both immediately and objectively the nature of the New Covenant is expressed in divers places and First Isa. 59.21 As for me this is my
and whereof he was a Minister is one and the same is not far off but nigh in the heart and in the Mouth which done he frameth as it were the objection of our adversaries in the 12 and 15 verses How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard How shall they hear without a Preacher This he answers in the 18 verse saying But I say have they not heard Yes verily their sound went forth into all the Earth and their words unto the end of the World insinuating that this Divine Preacher hath sounded in the ears and hearts of all men for of the outward Apostles that saying was not true neither then nor many hundred years after yea for ought we know there may be yet great and spatious Nations and Kingdoms who never have heard of Christ nor his Apostles as outwardly This inward and Powerful Word of God is yet more fully described in the Epistle to the Hebrews c. 4. v. 12 13. For the Word of God is quick and sharper than a two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The vertues of this Spiritual Word are here enumerated it is quick because it searches and tries the hearts of all no man's heart is exempt from it for the Apostle gives this reason of its being so in the following verse but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do And there is not any creature that is not manifest in his sight Tho this ultimately and mediately be referr'd to God yet nearly and immediately it relates to the Word or Light which as hath been before proved is in the hearts of all else it had been improper to have brought it in here The Apostle shewes how every intent and thought of the heart is discerned by the Word of God because all things are naked before God which imports nothing else but it is in and by this Word whereby God sees and discerns mans thoughts and so must needs be in all men because the Apostle saith there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight This then is that faithful Witness and Messenger of God that bears witness for God and for his righteousness in the hearts of all men For he hath not left man without a witness Act. 14.17 and he is said to be given for a Witness to the people Isa. 55.4 And as this Word beareth witness for God so it is not placed in men only to condemn them for as he is given for a Witness so saith the Prophet He is given for a Leader and a Commander The Light is given that all through it may believe Joh. 1.7 For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by this word of God which is placed in mans heart both to be a Witness for God and to be a means to bring man to God through faith and repentance It is therefore powerful that it may divide betwixt the Soul and the Spirit It is like a two-edged Sword that it may cut off iniquity from him and separate betwixt the precious and the vile and because mans heart is cold and hard like Iron naturally therefore hath God placed this Word in him which is said to be like a Fire and like a Hammer Jer. 23.29 that like as by the heat of the Fire the iron of its own nature cold is warmed and by the strength of the Hammer is softned and framed according to the mind of the worker so the cold and hard Heart of Man is by the vertue and powerfulness of this Word of God near and in the Heart as it resists not warmed and softned and received a Heavenly and Coelestial Impression and Image The most part of the Fathers have spoken at large touching this Word Seed and Light and saving Voice calling all unto Salvation and able to save Clemens Alexandrinus saith lib. 2. Stromat The Divine Word hath oried calling all knowing well those that will not obey And yet because it is in our power either to obey or not to obey that none may have a preâ—â—xt of ignorance it hath made a righteous call and requireth but that which is according to the ability and strength of every one The self same in his warning to the Gentiles For as saith he that Heavenly Ambassador of the Lord the Grace of God that brings Salvation hath appeared unto all c. This is the new Song coming and manifestation of the Word which now shews it self in us which was in the beginning and was first of all And again Hear therefore ye that are a far off hear ye who are near the word is hid from none the Light is common to all and shineth to all There is no darkness in the World let us hasten to Salvation to the New birth that we being many may be gathered into the One alone love Ibid. he saith that there is infused unto all but principally into those that are trained up in Doctrine a certain Divine Influence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again he speaks concerning the innate Witness worthy of belief which of it self doth plainly chuse that which is most honest And again he saith that it is not impossible to come unto the Truth and lay hold of it seeing it is most near to us in our own houses as the most wise Moses declareth living in three parts of us viz. in our hands in our mouth and in our heart this saith he is a most true badg of the Truth which is also fulfilled in three things namely in Councel in Action in Speaking And again he saith also unto the unbelieving Nations Receive Christ receive Light receive Sight to the and thou maist rightly know both God and man The Word that hath inlightned us is more pleasant than Gold and the stone of great value And again he saith let us receive the Light that we may receive God let us receive the Light that we may be the Schollars of the Lord. And again he saith to those Infidel Nations The Heavenly Spirit helpeth thee resist and flee Pleasure Again lib. Strom. 5. he saith God forbid that man be not a partaker of Divine Aquaintance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in Genesis is said to be a partaker of Inspiration And Paed. lib. 1 cap. 3. there is saith he some lovely and some desirable thing in man which is called the in breathing of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same man lib. 10. Strom. directeth men unto the Light and Water in themselves who have the Eye of the Soul darkned or dimmed through evil up bringing and learning let them enter in unto their own domestick light or unto the Light which is in their own House 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the Truth which manifests accurately and clearly these things that have been written Justin Martyr in his first Apology saith that the Word which
all have in a measure but we understand men that are gracious leavened by it into the nature thereof so as thereby to bring forth these good Fruits of a blameless conversation and of justice holiness patience and temperance which the Apostle requires as necessary in a true Christian Bishop and Minister Thirdly they object the example of the false Prophets of the Pharisees and of Judas But first as to the false Prophets there can nothing be more foolish and ridiculous as if because there were false Prophets truely false without the Grace of God therefore Grace is not necessary to a true Christian Minister Indeed if they had proven that true Prophets wanted this Grace they had said something But what have false Prophets common with true Ministers but that they pretend falsely that which they have not And because false Prophets want true Grace will it therefore follow that true Prophets ought not to have it or need it not yea doth it not much rather follow that they ought to have it that they may be true and not false The example of the Pharisees and Priests under the Law will not answer to the Gospel times because God set apart a particular Tribe for that Service and particular Families to whom it belonged by a lineal Succession and also their service and work was not purely Spiritual but only the performance of some outward and carnal observations and ceremonies which were but a shadow of the Substance that was to come and therefore their work made not the comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience seeing they were appointed only according to the Law of a carnal commandment and not according to the power of an endless life Notwithstanding as in the figure they behoved to be without blemish as to their outward man and in the performance of their work they behoved to be washed and purified from their outward pollutions so now under the Gospel times the Ministers in the anti-type must be inwardly without blemish in their Souls and spirits being as the Apostle requires blameless and in their work and service must be pure and undefiled from their inward pollutions and so clean and holy that they may offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 As to Judas the season of his ministry was not wholly Evangelical as being before the work was finished and while Christ himself and his Disciples were yet subject to the Jewish Observances and Constitutions and therefore his Commission as well as that which the rest received with him at that time was only to the House of Israel Matth. 10.5 6. which made that by vertue of that Commission the rest of the Apostles were not impowered to go forth and preach after the Resurrection until they had waited at Jerusalem for the pouring forth of the Spirit So that it appears Judas's ministry was more Legal than Evangelical Secondly Judas's Case as all will acknowledge was singular and extraordinary he being immediately called by Christ himself and accordingly furnished and impowered by him to preach and do miracles which immediate Commission our Adversaries do not so much as pretend to and so fall short of Judas who trusted in Christs Words and therefore went forth and preached without Gold or Silver or Scrip for his Journey giving freely as he had freely received which our Adversaries will not do as hereafter shall be observed Also that Judas at that time had not the least measure of Gods Grace I have not as yet heard proved But is it not sad that even Protestants should lay aside the eleven good and faithful Apostles and all the rest of the holy Disciples and Ministers of Christ and betake them to that one of whom it was testified that he was a devil for a pattern and example to their Ministry Alas it is to be regretted that too many of them resemble this pattern over much Obj. Another Objection is usually made against the necessity of Grace that in case it were necessary then such as wanted it could not truly administer the Sacraments and consequently the people would be left in doubts and infinite scruples as not knowing certainly whether they had truly received them because not knowing infallibly whether the administrators were truly gracious men But this objection hitteth not us at all because the nature of that Spiritual and Christian Worship Answ. which we according to the truth plead for is such as is not necessarily attended with these carnal and outward institutions from the administring of which the objection ariseth and so hath not any such absurdity following upon it as will afterwards more clearly appear § XVIII Though then we make not humane Learning necessary yet we are far from excluding true learning to wit that learning which proceedeth from the inward teachings and instructions of the Spirit whereby the Soul learneth the secret wayes of the Lord becomes acquainted with many inward travels and exercises of the mind and learneth by a living experience how to overcome evil and the temptations of it by following the Lord and walking in his Light and waiting dayly for wisdom and knowledge immediately from the revelation thereof and so layeth up these heavenly and Divine Lessons in the good treasure of the heart as honest Mary did the sayings which she heard and things which she observed and also out of this Treasure of the Soul as the good Scribe brings forth things new and old according as the same Spirit moves and gives a true liberty and as need is for the Lords glory whose the Soul is and for whom and with an eye to whose glory she which is the Temple of God learneth to do all things This is that good learning which we think necessary to a true Minister by and through which learning a man can well instruct teach and admonish in due season and testifie for God from a certain experience as David did Solomon and the holy Prophets of old and the blessed Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ Who testified of what they had seen heard felt and handled of the Word of Life 1 Joh. 1.1 ministring the Gift according as they had received the same as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God and preached not the uncertain rumors of others by hear-say which they had gathered meerly in the comprehension while they were strangers to the thing in their own experience in themselves as to teach people how to believe while themselves were unbelieving or how to overcome sin while themselves are slaves to it as all ungracious men are or to believe and hope for an eternal reward which themselves have not as yet arrived at c· § XIX But let us examine this Literature which they make so necessary to the being of a Minister as in the first place the knowledge of the Tongues at least of the Latine Greek and Hebrew The reason for this is that they may read the Scriptures which is their only
Lev. 16.2 3 6. the Sabbaths and regard to parents are mentioned with Swearing Obj. Fifthly they Object that solemn Oaths which God commanded cannot be here forbidden by Christ for he saith that they come from evil But these did not come from evil for God never commanded any thing that was evil or came from evil Answ. I answer there are things which are good because commanded and evil because forbidden other things are commanded because good and forbidden because evil As Circumcision and Oaths which were good when and because they were commanded and in no other respect and again when and because prohibited under the Gospel they are evil And in all these Jewish constitutions however ceremonial there was something of good to wit in their season as prefiguring some good as by Circumcision the purifications and other things the holiness of God was typified and that the Israelites ought to be holy as their God was holy In the like manner Oaths under the shaddows and ceremonys signified the verity of God his faithfulness and certainty and therefore that we ought in all things to speak and witness the Truth But the Witness of Truth was before all oaths and remains when all oaths are abolished and this is the morality of all oaths and so long as men abide therein there is no necessity of nor place for Oaths as Polibius witnessed who said The use of Oaths in Judgment were rare among the Antients but by the growing of perfidiousness so grew also the use of Oaths To which agreeth Grotius saying An Oath is only to be used as a Medicin in case of necessity a solemn oath is not used but to supply defect The lightness of men and their inconstancy begot diffidence for which swearing was sought out a remedy Basil the Great saith that swearing is the effect of sin And Ambrose that Oaths are only a condescendency for defect Chrysostom saith that an Oath entred when evil grew when men exerciseth their frauds when all foundations were overturned that Oaths took their beginning from the want of Truth These and the like are witnessed by many others with the forementioned Authors But what need of testimonies where the evidence of things speak it self For who will force another to swear of whom he is certainly perswaded that he abhors to lye in his words And again as Chrysostom and others say For what end wilt thou force him to swear whom thou believest not that he will speak the Truth § XII That then which was not from the beginning which was of no use in the beginning which had not its beginning first from the will of God but from the work of the Devil occasioned from evil to wit from unfaithfulness lying deceit and which was at first only invented by man as a mutual remedy of this evil in which they called upon the names of their idols yea that which as Hirerom Chrysostom and others testifie was given to the Israelites by God as unto children that they might abstain from the Idolatrous Oaths of the Heathens Jer. 12.16 whosoever is so is far from being a moral and eternal precept and lastly whatsoever by its profanation an abuse is polluted with sin such as are abundantly the oaths of these times by so often swearing and forswearing far differs from any necessary and perpetual duty of a Christian But oaths are so Therefore c. Sixthly they object that God swore Therefore to swear is good Obj. I answer with Athanasius Seeing it is certain Answ. it is proper in swearing to swear by another thence it appears that God to speak properly did never swear but only improperly whence speaking to men he is said to swear because these things which he speaks because of the certainty and immutability of his will are to be esteemed for Oaths Compare Psal. 110.4 where it is said The Lord did swear and it did not repent him c. And I swore saith he by my self and this is not an Oath for he did not swear by another which is the property of an oath but by himself Therefore God swears not according to the manner of men neither can we be induced from thence to swear but let us so do and say and shew our selves such by speaking and acting that we need not with our hearers an oath and let our words of themselves have the testimony of Truth for so we shall plainly imitate God Obj. Seventhly they object Christ did swear and we ought to imitate him Answ. I answer that Christ did not swear and albeit he had sworn being yet under the Law this would no waies oblige us under the Gospel as neither Circumcision or the Celebration of the Paschal Lamb. Concerning which Hierom saith All things agree unto us who are Servants that agreed unto our Lord c. The Lord swore as Lord whom no man did forbid to swear but unto us that are servants it is not lawful to swear because we are forbidden by the Law of our Lord. Yet lest we should not suffer scandal by his Example he hath not sworn since he commanded us not to swear Eighthly they object that Paul swore and that often Rom. 1.19 Phil. 1.8 saying Obj. For God is my Witness 2 Cor. 11.10 As the Truth of Christ is in me 2 Cor. 1.23 I call God for a record upon my Soul I speak the Truth in Christ I lye not Rom. 9.1 Behold before God I lye not Gal. 1.20 And so requires Oaths of others I object you saith he before God and our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes. 5.27 I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read to all the Brethren But Paul would not have done so if all manner of Oaths had been forbidden by Christ whose Apostle he was Answ. To all which I answer First that the using of such forms of speaking are neither Oaths nor so esteemed by our adversaries for when upon occasion in matters of great moment we have said We speak the Truth in the fear of God and before him who is our Witness and the searcher of our hearts adding such kind of serious attestations which we never refused in matters of consequence nevertheless an Oath hath moreover been required of us with the ceremony of putting our hand upon the book the kissing of it the lifting up of the hand or fingers together with this common form of imprecation So help me God or So truly let the Lord God Almighty help me Secondly This contradicts the opinion of our adversaries because that Paul was neither before a Magistrate that was requiring an Oath of him nor did he himself administer the office of a Magistrate as offering an Oath to any other Thirdly the question is not what Paul or Peter did but what their and our Master taught to be done and if Paul did swear which we believe not he had sinned against the command of Christ even according to their opinion because he swore not before a Magistrate but in an Epistle
to be soothed up and lulled asleep in thy sins by the flattering of Court-Parasits who by their fawning are the ruin of many Princes There is no King in the World who can so experimentally testifie of Gods Providence and Goodness neither is there any who rules so many free People so many true Christians which thing renders thy Government more honourable thy self more considerable than the accession of many Nations filled with slavish and superstitious Souls Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity thou know'st what it is to be banished thy Native Countrey to be over-ruled as well as to rule and sit upon the Throne and being oppressed thou hast reason to know how hateful the Oppressor is both to God and man If after all these Warnings and Advertisements thou dost not turn unto the Lord withal thy Heart but forget him who remembered thee in thy distress and give up thy self to follow Lust and Vanity surely great will be thy condemnation Against which snare as well as the temptation of those that may or do feed thee and prompt thee to evil the most excellent and prevalent remedy will be to apply thy self to that Light of Christ which shineth in thy Conscience which neither can nor will flatter thee nor suffer thee to be at ease in thy sins but doth and will deal plainly and faithfully with thee as those that are followers thereof have also done GOD Almighty who hath so signally hitherto visited thee with his love so touch and reach thy heart ere the day of thy visitation be expired that thou mayst effectually turn to him so as to improve thy place and station for his Name So wisheth so prayeth Thy faithful Friend and Subject ROBERT BARCLAY From Ury the place of my Pilgrimage in my Native Country of Scotland the 25 of the Month called November in the YEAR 1675. R. B. Unto the Friendly Reader wisheth Salvation FOrasmuch as that which above all things I propose to my self is to declare and defend the Truth for the service whereof I have given up and devoted my self and all that is mine therefore there is nothing which for its sake by the help and assistance of God I may not attempt And in this confidence I did sometime ago publish certain Propositions of Divinity comprehending briefly the chief Principles and Doctrines of Truth which appearing not unprofitable to some and being beyond my expectation well received both by Foreigners though dissenting from us albeit also opposed by some envious ones did so far prevail as in some part to remove that false and monstruous Opinion which lying fame and the malice of our adversaries had implanted in the minds of some concerning us and our Doctrines In this respect it seem'd to me not fit to spare my pains and labour Therefore being acted by the same measure of the Divine Spirit and the like design of propagating the Truth by which I published the Propositions I judg'd it meet to explain them somewhat more largely at this time and defend them by certain arguments Perhaps my method of writing may seem not only different but even contrary to that which is commonly used by the men called Divines with which I am not concerned for that I confess my self to be not only no imitator and admirer of the School-men but an opposer and despiser of them as such by whose labour I judg the Christian Religion to be so far from being bettered that it is rather destroyed Neither have I sought to accommodate this my work to itching Ears who desire rather to comprehend in their head the sublime notions of Truth than to imbrace it in their heart For what I have written comes more from my heart than from my head what I have heard with the Ears of my Soul and seen with my inward Eyes and my hands have handled of the Word of Life And what hath been inwardly manifested to me of the things of God that do I declare not so much minding the Eloquence and Excellency of Speech as desiring to demonstrate the efficacy and operation of Truth and if I err sometime in the former it is not great matter for I act not here the Grammarian or the Orator but the Christian and therefore in this I have followed the certain Rule of the Divine Light and of the Holy Scriptures And to make an end what I have written is written not to feed the Wisdom and Knowledge or rather vain pride of this world but to starve and oppose it us the little Preface prefix'd to the Propositions doth shew which with the title of them is as followeth THESES THEOLOGICAE To the Clergy of what sort soever unto whose hands these may come but more particularly to the Doctors Professors and Students of Divinity in the Universities and Schools of Great Brittain whether Prelatical Presbyterian or any other ROBERT BARCLAY a Servant of the Lord God and one of those who in derision are called Quakers wisheth unfeigned Repentance unto the acknowledgment of the Truth FRIENDS UNto You these following Propositions are offered in which they being read and considered in the fear of the Lord you may perceive that simple Naked Truth which Man by his Wisdom hath rendred so obscure and mysterious that the World is even burthened with the great and voluminous Tractates which are made about it and by their vain jangling and Commentaries by which it is rendred a hundred fold more dark and intricate than of it self it is which great Learning so accounted of to wit your School Divinity which taketh up almost a mans whole Life-time to learn brings not a whit nearer to God neither makes any man less wicked or more righteous than he was Therefore hath God laid aside the Wise and Learned and the Disputers of this World and hath chosen a few despicable and unlearned Instruments as to Letter-learning as he did Fisher-men of old to publish his pure and naked Truth and to free it of these Mists and Fogs wherewith the Clergy hath clouded it that the People might admire and maintain them And among several others whom God hath chosen to make known these things seeing I also have received in measure Grace to be a Dispencer of the same Gospel it seemed good unto me according to my duty to offer unto you these Propositions tho short yet are weighty comprehending much and declaring what the true ground of knowledge is even of that knowledge which leads to life Eternal which is here witnessed of and the Testimony thereof left unto the Light of Christ in all your Consciences Farewel R. B. The First Proposition Concerning the true Foundation of Knowledge SEing the height of all happiness is placed in the true knowledg of God This is Life Eternal to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent the true and right understanding of this foundation and ground of knowledge is that which is most necessary to be known and believed in the first place
The Second Proposition Concerning Immediate Revelation Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son revealeth him and seeing the Revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit therefore the Testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been is and can be only revealed who as by the moving of his own Spirit converted the Chaos of this World into that wonderful order wherein it was in the beginning and created Man a living Soul to rule and govern it so by the Revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the Sons of Men both Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles which Revelations of God by the Spirit whether by outward voices and appearances Dreams or inward objective manifestations in the heart were of old the formal object of their Faith and remaineth yet so to be since the object of the Saints Faith is the same in all ages though set forth under divers Administrations Moreover these divine inward Revelations which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true Faith neither do nor can ever contradict the outward Testimony of the Scriptures or right and found Reason Yet from hence it will not follow that these Divine Revelations are to be subjected to the examination either of the outward Testimony of the Scriptures or of the natural reason of Man as to a more noble or certain rule or touchstone for this Divine Revelation and inward Illumination is that which is evident and clear of it self forceing by its own evidence and clearness the well disposed understanding to assent irresistibly moving the same thereunto even as the common Principles of natural Truths move and incline the mind to natural assent Such as are these that the whole is greater than the part that two contradictory sayings cannot be both true or false which is also manifest according to our adversaries Principle who supposing the possibility of inward Divine Revelations will nevertheless confess with us that neither Scripture nor found Reason will contradict it and yet it will not follow according to them that the Scripture or found Reason should be subjected to the examination of the Divine Revelations in the Heart The Third Proposition Concerning the Scriptures From these Revelations of the Spirit of God to the Saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth which contain 1. A faithful Historical Account of the Actings of God's People in divers Ages with many singular and remarkable Providences attending them 2. A Prophetical Account of several things whereof some are already past and some yet to come 3. A full and ample account of all the chief Principles of the Doctrine of Christ held forth in divers pretious declarations exhortations and sentences which by the moving of God's Spirit were at several times and upon sundry occasions spoken and written unto some Churches and their Pastors Nevertheless because they are only a Declaration of the Fountain and not the Fountain it self therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all Truth and Knowledge nor yet the adequate primary Rule of Faith and Manners Nevertheless as that which giveth a true and faithful Testimony of the first Foundation they are and may be esteemed a secondary Rule subordinate to the Spirit from which they have all their excellency and certainty for as by the inward Testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them so they testifie that the Spirit is that guide by which the Saints are led into all Truth Therefore according to the Scriptures the Spirit is the first and principle Leader And seeing we do therefore receive and believe the Scriptures because they proceeded from the Spirit therefore also the Spirit is more originally and principally the Rule according to that received maxim in the Schools Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud ipsum est magis tale Englished thus That for which a thing is such that thing it self is more such The Fourth Proposition Concerning the Condition of Man in the fall All Adam's Posterity or Mankind both Jews and Gentiles as to the first Adam or earthly man is fallen degenerated and dead deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward Testimony or Seed of God and is subject unto the power nature and Seed of the Serpent which he sows in mens hearts while they abide in this natural and corrupted State from whence it comes that not their words and deeds only but all their imaginations are evil perpetually in the sight of God as proceeding from this depraved and wicked Seed Man therefore as he is in this state can know nothing aright yea his thoughts and conceptions concerning God and things Spiritual until he be disjoyned from this evil Seed and united to the Divine Light are unprofitable both to himself and others Hence are rejected the Socinian and Pelagian Errors in exalting a Natural Light as also the Papists and most of Protestants who affirm that Man without the true Grace of God may be a true Minister of the Gospel Nevertheless this Seed is not imputed to Infants until by transgression they actually joyn themselves therewith for they are by Nature the children of Wrath who walk according to the Power of the Prince of the Air The Fifth and Sixth Proposition Concerning the Vniversal Redemption by Christ and also the Saving and Spiritual Light wherewith every Man is enlightened The Fifth Proposition God out of his Infinite love who delighteth not in the death of a sinner but that all should live and be saved hath so loved the world that he hath given his only Son a Light that whosoever believeth in him should be saved who enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world and maketh manifest all things that are reproveable and teacheth all temperance righteousness and godliness and this Light enlighteneth the hearts of all in a day in order to Salvation if not resisted Nor is it less universal than the seed of sin being the purchase of his death who tasted death for every Man For as in Adam all die even so in Christ all shall be made alive The Sixth Proposition According to which principle or Hypothesis all the Objections against the universality of Christ's death are easily solved neither is it needful to recur to the Ministry of Angels and those other miraculous means which they say God makes use of to manifest the Doctrine and History of Christ's passion unto such who living in those places of the world where the outward preaching of the Gospel is unknown have well improved the first and common Grace For hence it well follows that as some of the old Philosophers might have been saved so also may now some who by Providence are cast into those remote parts of the world where the knowledg of the History is wanting be made partakers of the Divine Mystery if they receive and resist not that Grace a manifestation whereof is given
when he would teach us to know what the Divine Goodness is calls not for speculation but sensation Taste and see how good the Lord is That is not the best and truest knowledg of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of the Brain but that which is kindled within us by an heavenly warmth in our Hearts And again there is a knowledg of the Truth as it is in Jesus as it is in a Christ-like nature as it is in that sweet mild humble and loving Spirits of Jesus which spreads it self like a Morning-star upon the spirits of good men full of Light and Life It profits little to know Christ himself after the flesh but he gives his Spirit to good men that searcheth the deep things of God And again it is but thin airy knowledg that is got by meer speculation which is usher'd in by Syllogisms and demonstrations but that which springs forth from true goodness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen speaketh it brings such a Divine Light to the Soul as is more clear and convincing than any demonstration § III. That this certain and undoubted method of the true knowledg of God hath been brought out of use hath been none of the least devices of the Devil to secure mankind to his kingdom For after the light and glory of the Christian Religion had prevailed over a good part of the World and dispelled the thick mists of the heathenish Doctrine of the plurality of Gods he that knew there was no probability of deluding the World any longer that way did then puff man up with a false knowledg of the true God setting him on work to seek God the wrong way and perswading him to be content with such a knowledg as was of his own acquiring and not of God's teaching And this device hath proved the more successful because accommodated to the natural and corrupt spirit and temper of man who above all things affects to exalt himself in which exaltation as God is most greatly dishonoured so therein the Devil hath his end who is not anxious how much God be acknowledged in words provided himself be but always served he matters not how great and high speculations the natural man entertains of God so long as he serves his lusts and passions and is obedient to his evil suggestions and temptations Thus Christianity is become an art acquired by humane science and industry as any other art and science is and men have not only assumed unto themselves the name of Christians but even have procured to be esteemed as masters of Christianity by certain artificial tricks though altogether strangers to the Spirit and Life of Jesus But if we shall make a right definition of a Christian according to the Scripture videlicer that he is one that hath the Spirit and is led by it How many Christians yea and of these great Masters and Doctors of Christianity so accounted shall we justly divest of that noble title If then such as have all the other means of knowledg and are sufficiently learned therein whether it be the letter of the Scripture the traditions of Churches the works of Creation and Providence whence they are able to deduce strong and undeniable arguments which may be true in themselves are not yet to be esteemed Christians according to the certain and infallible definition above-mentioned And if the inward and immediate Revelation of Gods Spirit in the Heart in such as have been altogether ignorant of some and but very little skilled in others of these means of attaining knowledg hath brought them to Salvation Then it will necessarily and evidently follow that inward and immediate Revelation is the only sure and certain way to attain the true and saving knowledge of God But the first is true Therefore the last Now as this Argument doth very strongly conclude for this way of knowledge and against such as deny it so herein it is the more considerable because the Propositions from which it is deduced are so clear that our very Adversaries cannot deny them For as to the first it is acknowledged that many learned men may be and have been damned And as to the second who will deny but many illeterate men may be and are saved Nor dare any affirm that none come to the knowledge of God and Salvation by the inward Revelation of the Spirit without these outward means unless they be also so bold as to exclude Abel Seth Noah Abraham Job and all the Holy Patriarchs from true Knowledge and Salvation § IV. I would however not be understood as if hereby I excluded those other means of Knowledge from any use or service to Man it is far from me to judge as in the next Proposition concerning the Scriptures shall more plainly appear The question is not what may be profitable or helpful but what is absolutely necessary Many things may contribute to further a work which yet are not that main thing that makes the work go on The sum then of what is said amounts to this that where the true inward Knowledge of God is through the Revelation of his Spirit there is all neither is there any absolute necessity of any other But where the best highest and most profound Knowledge is without this there is nothing as to the obtaining the great End of Salvation This Truth is very effectually confirmed by the first part of the Proposition it self which in few words comprehendeth divers unquestionable Arguments which I shall in brief subsume First That there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son Secondly That there is no knowledge of the Son but by the Spirit Thirdly That by the Spirit God hath alwayes revealed himself to his Chilldren Fourthly That these Revelations were the formal Object of the Saints Faith And Lastly That the same continueth to be the Object of the Saints Faith to this day Of each of these I shall speak a little particularly and then proceed to the latter part § V. As to the first viz. That there is no Knowledge of the Father but by the Son it will not need much probation being founded upon the plain words of Scripture and is therefore a fit medium to draw the rest of our Assertions from For the infinite and most wise God who is the Foundation Root and Spring of all Operation hath wrought all things by his Eternal Word and Son This is that WORD that was in the beginning with God and was God by whom all things were made and without whom was not any thing made that was made This is that Jesus Christ by whom God created all things by whom and for whom all were created that are in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers Col. 1.16 Who therefore is called the first born of every Creature Col. 1.15 As then that infinite and incomprehensible Fountain of Life and Motion operateth in the Creatures by his
but inward and immediate revelation as we have before proved Their example can be no ways applicable to us except we believe in God as they did that is by the same object The Apostle clears this yet further by his own example Gal. 1.16 where he saith so soon as Christ was revealed in him he consulted not with flesh and blood but forthwith believed and obeyed The same Apostle Heb. 13.7 8. where he exhorteth the Hebrews to follow the faith of the Elders adds this reason considering the end of their conversation Jesus Christ the same to day yesterday and for ever hereby notably insinuating that in the object there is no alteration If any now object the diversity of Administration I answer that altereth not at all the object for the same Apostle mentioned this diversity three times 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. centreth always in the same Object the same Spirit the same Lord the same God But further if the object of Faith were not one and the same both to us and to them then it would follow that we were to know God some other way than by the Spirit But this were absurd Therefore c. Lastly this is most firmly proved from a common and received maxim of the School-men to wit Omnis actus specificatur ab objecto every act is specified from its object from which if it be true as they acknowledg tho for the sake of many I shall not recur to this argument as being too nice and Scholastick Neither lay I much stress upon those kind of things as being that which commends not the simplicity of the Gospel If the object were different then the faith would be different also Such as deny this Proposition now adays use here a distinction granting that God is to be known by his Spirit but again denying that it is immediate or inward but in and by the Scriptures in which the mind of the Spirit as they say being fully and amply expressed we are thereby to know God and be led in all things As to the negative of this assertion that the Scriptures are not sufficient neither were ever appointed to be the adequate and only rule nor yet can guide or direct a Christian in all those things that are needful for him to know we shall leave that to the next Proposition to be examined What is proper in this place to be proved is that Christians now are to be led inwardly and immediatly by the Spirit of God even in the same manner though it befal not to many to be led in the same measure as the Saints were of old § X. I shall prove this by divers Arguments and first from the Promise of Christ in these words Joh. 14.16 And I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever 17. Even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Again ver 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and 16.13 But when that Spirit of Truth shall come he shall lead you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak and shall declare unto you things to come We have here first who this is and that is divers wayes expressed to wit The Comforter the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost and sent of the Father in the Name of Christ. And hereby is sufficiently proved the fottishness of those Socinians and other carnal Christians who neither know nor acknowledge any internal Spirit or Power but that which is meerly Natural by which they sufficiently declare themselves to be of the World who cannot receive the Spirit because they neither see him nor know him Secondly Where this Spirit is to be He dwelleth with you and shall be in you And Thirdly What his Work is He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and guide you into all Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to the First Most do acknowledge that there is nothing else understood than what the plain words signifie which is also evident by many other places of Scripture that will hereafter occur Neither do I see how such as affirm otherwayes can avoid Blasphemy For If the Comforter the Holy Ghost and Spirit of Truth be all one with the Scriptures then it will follow that the Scriptures is God seeing it is true that the Holy Ghost is God If these Mens reasoning might take place where ever the Spirit is mentioned in relation to the Saints thereby might be truly and properly understood the Scriptures Which what a non-sensical Monster it would make of the Christian Religion will easily appear to all Men. As where it is said A Manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal it might be rendred thus A manifestation of the Scriptures is given to every man to profit withal What notable sense this would make and what a curious interpretation let us consider by the sequel of the same chapter 1 Cor. 12.9 10 11. To another the gifts of Healing by the same Spirit to another the working of Miracles c. But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will What would now these great masters of Reason the Socinians judge if we should place the Scriptures here instead of the Spirit Would it answer their Reason which is the great guide of their Faith Would it be good and sound Reason in their Logical Schools to affirm that the Scriptures divideth severally as it will and giveth to some the gift of Healing to others the working of Miracles If then this Spirit a manifestation whereof is given to every man to profit withal be no other than that Spirit of Truth before-mentioned which guideth into all Truth this Spirit of Truth cannot be the Scriptures I could infer an hundred more absurdities of this kind upon this sottish Opinion but what is said may suffice For even some of themselves being at times forgetful or ashamed of their own Doctrine do acknowledge that the Spirit of God is another thing and distinct from the Scriptures to guide and influence the Saints Secondly That this Spirit is inward in my opinion needs no interpretation nor commentary He dwelleth with you and shall be in you This indwelling of the Spirit in the Saints as it is a thing most needful to be known and believed so is it as positively asserted in the Scripture as any thing else can be If so be the Spirit of God dwell in you saith the Apostle to the Romans 8.9 and again Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 6.19 Without this the
the daily clamours of their Preachers did not only violently take up the Houses of the reformed Teachers overturn their libraries and spoil their furniture but also with reproachful words yea and with stones assaulted the Marquess of Brandeburgh the Elector's brother while he sought by smooth words to quiet the fury of the multitude they killed ten of his Guard scarcely sparing himself who at last by flight escaped out of their hands All which sufficiently declares that the concurrence of the Magistrate doth not alter their Principles but only their method of procedure So that for my own part I see no difference betwixt the actings of those of Munster and these others whereof the one pretended to be led by the Spirit the other by Tradition Scripture and Reason save this that the former were rash heady and foolish in their proceedings and therefore were the sooner brought to nothing and so into contempt and derision But the other being more Politick and wise in their Generation held it out longer and so have authorized their wickedness more with seeming Authority of Law and Reason But both their actings being equally evil the difference appears to me to be only like that which is betwixt a simple silly Thief that is easily catched and hanged without any more ado and a Company of resolute bold Robbers who being better guarded tho their offence be nothing less yet by violence do to evite the danger force their Masters to give them good terms From all which then it evidently follows that they argue very ill that despise and reject any Principle because Men pretending to be led by it do evil in case it be not the natural and consequential tendency of that principle to lead unto those things that are evil Again It doth follow from what is above asserted that if the Spirit be to be rejected upon this account all these other principles ought on the same account to be rejected And for my part as I have never a whit the lower esteem of the blessed Testimony of the Holy Scriptures nor do the less respect any solid Tradition that is answerable and according to Truth neither at all despise Reason that noble and excellent faculty of the mind because wicked men have abused the name of them to cover their wickedness and deceive the simple So would I not have any reject or diffide the certainty of that unerring Spirit which God hath given his Children as that which can alone guide them into all Truth because some have falsly pretended to it § XV. And because the Spirit of God is the Fountain of all Truth and sound Reason therefore we have well said that it cannot contradict neither the Testimony of the Scripture nor right Reason yet as the Proposition it self concludeth to whose last part I now come it will not from hence follow that these Divine Revelations are to be subjected to the examination either of the outward Testimony of Scripture or of the humane or natural reason of Man as to a more noble and certain rule and touch-stone for the Divine Revelation and inward Illumination is that which is evident by it self forcing the wel-distosed understanding and irresistibly moving it to assent by its own evidence and clearness even as the common Principles of Natural Truths do bow the mind to a natural assent He that denies this part of the Proposition must needs affirm that the Spirit of God neither can nor ever hath manifested it self to Man without the Scripture or a distinct discursion of Reason or that the Efficacy of this Supernatural Principle working upon the Souls of Men is less evident then natural principles in their common Operations both which are false For First through all the Scriptures we may observe that the manifestation and revelation of God by his Spirit to the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles was immediate and objective as is above proved which they did not examin by any other principle but their own evidence and clearness Secondly to say that the Spirit of God has less evidence upon the mind of Man then natural principles have is to have too mean and low thoughts of it How comes David to invite us to tast and see that God is good if this cannot be felt and tasted This were enough to overturn the faith and assurance of all the Saints both now and of old How came Paul to be perswaded that nothing could separate him from the love of God but by evidence and clearness which the Spirit of God gave him The Apostle John who knew well wherein the certainty of Faith consisted judged it no ways absurd without further argument to ascribe his knowledg and assurance and that of all the Saints hereunto in these words Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 Joh. 4.13 and again 5 6. it's the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth Observe the reason brought by him because the Spirit is Truth Of whose certainty and infallibility I have heretofore spoken We then trust to and confide in this Spirit because we know and certainly believe that it can only lead us a right and never mis-lead us and from this certain confidence it is that we affirm that no revelation coming from it can ever contradict the Scriptures Testimony nor right Reason not as making this a more certain rule to our selves but as condescending to such who not discerning the revelations of the Spirit as they proceed purely from God will try them by these mediums Yet those that have the Spiritual sences and can savour the things of the Spirit as it were in prima instantia i. e. at the first blush can discern them without or before they apply them either to Scripture or Reason Just as a good Astronomer can calculate an eclipse infallibly by which he can conclude if the order of Nature continue and some strange and unnatural revolution interveen not there will be an eclipse of the Sun or Moon such a day and such an hour yet can he not perswade an ignorant rustick of this until he visibly see it So also a Mathematician can infallibly know by the Rules of Art that the three sides of a right triangle are equal to two right angles yea can know them more certainly than any man by measure And some geometrical demonstrations are by all acknowledged to be infallible which can be scarcely discerned or proved by the Senses yet if a Geometer be at the pains to certify some ignorant man concerning the certainty of his Art by condescending to measure it and make it obvious to his senses it will not hence follow that that measuring is so certain as the demonstration it self or that the demonstration would be uncertain without § XVI But to make an end I shall add one argument to prove that this inward Immediate objective Revelation which we have pleaded for all along is the only sure certain and
deceit or equivocation the most excellent Writings in the World to which not only no other Writings are to be preferr'd but even in divers respects not comparable thereunto For as we freely acknowledg that their Authority doth not depend upon the approbation or Canons of any Church or Assembly so neither can we subject them to the faln corrupt and defiled reason of man and therein as we do freely agree with the Protestants against the error of the Romanists so on the other hand we cannot go the length of such Protestants as make their Authority to depend upon any vertue or power that is in the Writings themselves but we desire to ascribe all to that Spirit from which they proceeded We confess indeed there wants not a Majestie in the Stile a coherence in the parts a good scope in the whole but seeing these things are not discerned by the Natural but only by the Spiritual man it is the Spirit of God that must give us that belief of the Scriptures which may satisfie our Consciences Therefore the chiefest among Protestants both in their particular Writings and publick Confessions are forced to acknowledg this Hence Calvin though he saith he is able to prove that if there be a God in Heaven these writings have proceeded from him yet he concludes another knowledg to be necessary Insti lib. 1. cap. 7. Sect. 4. But if saith he we respect the Consciences that they be not daily molested with doubts and they stick not at every Scruple it is requisite that this perswasion which we speak of be taken higher than humane Reason Judgment or conjectures to wit from the secret Testimony of the Holy Spirit And again To those that ask that we prove unto them by Reason that Moses and the Prophets were Inspired of God to speak I answer that the Testimony of the Holy Spirit is more excellent than all reason And again let this remain a firm Truth that he only whom the Holy Ghost hath perswaded can repose himself on the Scripture with a true certainty And lastly this then is a judgment which cannot be begotten but by a Heavenly Revelation c. The same is also affirmed in the first publick Confession of the French Churches published in the Year 1559. Art 4. We know these books to be Canonick and the most certain Rule of our Faith not so much by the common accord and consent of the Church as by the Testimony and inward perswasion of the Holy Spirit Thus also in the 5 Article of the Confession of faith of the Churches of Holland confirmed by the Synod of Dort We receive these books only for holy and canonick not so much because the Church receives and approves them as because the Spirit of God renders witness in our hearts that they are of God And lastly The Divines so called at Westminster who began to be afraid of and guard against the Testimony of the Spirit because they perceived a dispensation beyond that which they were under beginning to dawn and to eclipse them yet could they not get by this tho they have laid it down neither so clearly distinctly nor honestly as they that went before It is in these words chap. 1. sect 5. Nevertheless our full perswasion and assurance of the infallible Truth thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our heart By all which it appeareth how necessary it is to seek the certainty of the Scriptures from the Spirit and no where else The infinit janglings and endless contests of those that seek their authority elsewhere do witness to the Truth hereof For the Antients themselves even of the first Centuries were not as one among themselves concerning them while some of them rejected Books which we approve and others of them approved those which some of us reject It is not unknown to such as are in the least acquainted with Antiquity what great contests are concerning the second Epistle of Peter that of James the second and third of John and the Revelations which many even very Antient deny to have been written by the beloved Disciple and Brother of James but by another of that name What should then become of Christians if they had not received that Spirit and those Spiritual senses by which they know how to discern the true from the false It 's the priviledg of Christ's Sheep indeed that they hear his voice and refuse that of a stranger which priviledg being taken away we are left a prey to all manner of wolves § II. Tho then we do acknowledg the Scriptures to be a very heavenly and Divine writing the use of them to be a very comfortable and necessary to the Church of Christ and that we also admire and give praise to the Lord for his wonderful Providence in preserving these writings so pure and uncorrupted as we have them through so long a night of Apostasy to be a testimony of his Truth against the wickedness and abominations even of these whom he made instrumental in preserving them so that they have kept them to be a witness against themselves yet we may not call them the principal fountain of all Truth and knowledg nor yet the first adequate rule of Faith and manners because the principal fountain of Truth must be the Truth it self i. e. that whose certainty and authority depends not upon another When we doubt of the streams of any river or flood we recur to the fountain it self and having found it there we sist we can go no further because there it springs out of the bowels of the Earth which are inscrutable Even so the writing and sayings of all men we must bring to the Word of God I mean the Eternal Word and if they agree hereunto we stand there for this Word always proceedeth and doth eternally proceed from God in and by which the unsearchable wisdom of God and unsearchable counsel and will conceived in the heart of God is revealed unto us that then the Scripture is not the principal ground of faith and knowledg as it appears by what is above spoken so it is provided in the latter part of the Proposition which being reduced to an argument runs thus That the certainty and authority whereof depends upon another and which is received as Truth because of its proceeding from another is not to he accounted the principal ground and origin of all Truth and knowledg But the Scriptures authority and certainty depends upon the Spirit by which they were dictated and the reason why they were received as Truth is because they proceeded from the Spirit Therefore they are not the principal ground of Truth To confirm this argument I added the School Maxim Propter quod unumquodque est tales illud ipsum est magis tale Which Maxim tho I confess it doth not hold universally in all things yet in this it both doth and will very well hold as by applying it as we have
worse condition than the devils in hell For these were sometimes in a capacity to have stood and do suffer only for their guilt whereas many millions of men are for ever tormented according to them for Adams sin which they neither knew of nor ever were accessary to It renders them worse than the Beasts of the Field of whom the Master requires not more than they are able to perform and if they be killed death to them is the end of sorrow whereas man is for ever tormented for not doing that which he never was able to do It puts him into a far worse condition than Pharoah put the Israelites for though he with-held Straw from them yet by much labour and pains they could have gotten it But from men they make God to with hold all means of Salvation so that they can by no means attain it Yea they place mankind in that condition which the Poets feign of Tantalus who oppressed with thirst stands in water up to the chin yet can by no means reach it with his tongue and being tormented with hunger hath Fruit hanging at his very Lips yet so as he can never lay hold on them with his Teeth and these things are so near him not to nourish him but to torment him So do these men they make the outward Creation of the work of Providence the smitings of the Conscience sufficient to convince the Heathens of sin and to condemn and judg them but not at all to help them to Salvation They make the preaching of the Gospel the offer of Salvation by Christ the use of the Sacraments of Prayer and good works sufficient to condemn those they account reprobates within the Church serving only to inform them to beget a seeming faith and vain hope yet because of a secret impotency which they had from their Infancy all these are wholly ineffectual to bring them the least step towards Salvation and do only contribute to render their condemnation the greater and their torments the more violent and intollerable Having thus briefly removed this false Doctrin which stood in my way because they that are desirous may see it both Learnedly and Piously refuted by many others I come to the matter of our Proposition which is that God out of his infinite love who delighteth not in the death of a sinner but that all should live and be saved hath sent his only begotten Son into the World that whosoever believeth in him might be saved which also is again affirmed in the sixth Proposition in these words Christ then tasted Death for every Man of all kinds Such is the evidence of this Truth delivered almost wholly in the express words of Scripture that it will not need much probation Also because our assertion herein is common with many others who have both earnestly and soundly according to the Scripture pleaded for this Universal Redemption I shall be the more brief in it that I may come to that which may seem more singularly and peculiarly ours § VI. This Doctrin of Universal Redemption or Christs dying for all Men is of it self so evident from the Scripture Testimony that there is scarce found any other Article of the Christian Faith so frequently so plainly and so positively asserted It is that which maketh the preaching of Christ to be truly termed the Gospel or an annunciation of glad tydings to all Thus the Angel declared the birth and coming of Christ to the Shepherds to be Luk. 2.10 Behold I bring you good tydings of great joy which shall be to all People He saith not to a few People Now if this coming of Christ had not brought a possibility of Salvation to all it should rather have been accounted bad tydings of great sorrow to most People neither should the Angel have had reason to have sung Peace on Earth and good will towards men if the greatest part of mankind had been necessarily shut out from receiving any benefit by it How should Christ have sent out his to preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.15 a very comprehensive Commission that is to every Son and Daughter of mankind Without all exception he commands them to Preach Salvation to all repentance and remission of sins to all warning every one and exhorting every one as Paul did Col. 1.28 Now how could they have preached the Gospel to every Man as became the Ministers of Jesus Christ in much assurance if Salvation by that Gospel had not been possible for all what if some of those had asked them or should now ask any of these Doctors who deny the Universallity of Christ's death and yet preached it to all promiscuously hath Christ dyed for me How can they with confidence give a certain answer to this question If they give a conditional answer as their principal obligeth them to do and say If thou repent Christ hath dyed for thee doth not the same question still recur Hath Christ dyed for me so as to make repentance possible for me To this they can answer nothing unless they run in a Circle whereas the feet of those that bring the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace are said to be beautiful for that they preach the common Salvation repentance unto all offering a door of mercy and hope to all through Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransom for all The Gospel invites all and certainly by the Gospel Christ intended not to deceive and delude the greater part of Mankind when he invites and cryeth saying Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest If all then ought to seek after him and to look for Salvation by him he must needs have made Salvation Possible to all for who is bound to seek after that which is impossible Certainly it were a mock of men to bid them do so And such as deny that by the death of Christ Salvation is made possible to all men do most blasphemously make God mock the World in giving his servants a commission to preach the Gospel of Salvation unto all while he hath before decreed that it shall not be possible for them to receive it Would not this make the Lord to send forth his servants with a lye in their Mouth which were Blasphemous to think commanding them to bid all and every one believe that Christ died for them and had purchased life and Salvation Whereas it is no such thing according to the forementioned Doctrin But seeing Christ after he arose and perfected the work of our Redemption gave a commission to preach Repentance remission of Sins and Salvation to all it is manifest that he dyed for all For he that hath Commissionated his servants thus to Preach is a God of Truth and no Mocker of poor Mankind neither doth he require any of Man that which is simply impossible for him to do for that no Man is bound to do that which is impossible is a principle of Truth ingraven in every mans mind
by some citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will appear though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostacy so far as ever I could observe been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scriptures Testimony as it hath pleased God to reveal it and preach it forth in this day by the witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that end Which Doctrine though it be briefly held forth and comprehended in the Thesis it self yet I shall a little more fully explain the state of the Controversie as it stands betwixt us and those that now oppose us § III. First then as by the explanation of the former Thesis appears we renounce all natural power and ability in our selves in order to bring us out of our lost and faln condition and first Nature and confess that of our selves we are able to do nothing that is good so neither can we procure remission of sins or justification by any act of our own so as to merit it or draw it as a debt from God due unto us but we acknowledg all to be of and from his Love which is the original and fundamental cause of our acceptance Secondly God manifested this love towards us in the sending of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour and having made peace through the blood of his Cross that he might reconcile us unto himself and by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God and suffered for our sins the Just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God Thirdly then forasmuch as all men who have come to man's estate the Man Jesus only excepted have sinned therefore all have need of this Saviour to remove the Wrath of God from them due to their offences in this respect he is truly said to have born the Iniquities of us all in his Body on the Tree and therefore is the Only Mediator having qualified the Wrath of God towards us so that our former sins stand not in our way being by vertue of his most satisfactory Sacrifice removed and pardoned Neither do we think that remission of sins is to be expected sought or obtained any other way or by any works or Sacrifice whatsomever though as has been said formerly they may come to partake of this remission that are ignorant of the History So then Christ by his death and sufferings hath reconciled us to God even while we are Enemies that is he offers reconciliation unto us we are put into a capacity of being reconciled God is willing to forgive us our iniquities and to accept us as is well expressed by the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath put in us the Word of Reconciliation And therefore the Apostle in the next verses treats them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God intimating that the Wrath of God being removed by the obedience of Christ Jesus he is willing to be reconciled unto them and ready to remit the sins that are past if they repent We consider then our Redemption in a two fold respect or state both which in their own Nature are perfect though in their application to us the one is not nor cannot be without respect to the other The first is the Redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in his Crucified Body without us The other is the Redemption wrought by Christ in us which no less properly is called and accounted a Redemption than the former The first then is that whereby man as he stands in the fall is put into a capacity of Salvation and hath conveighed unto him a measure of that Power Vertue Spirit Life and Grace that was in Christ Jesus which as the free Gift of God is able to counter-ballance overcome and root out the Evil Seed wherewith we are naturally as in the fall leavened The second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect Redemption in our selves purifying cleansing and redeeming us from the power of Corruption and bringing us into unity Favour and Friendship with God By the first of these two we that are lost in Adam plunged in the bitter and corrupt Seed unable of our selves to do any good thing but naturally joyned and united to evil forward and propense to all iniquity servants and slaves to the Power and Spirit of Darkness are notwithstanding all this so far reconciled to God by the death of his Son while Enemies that we are put into a capacity of Salvation having the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace offered unto us and God is reconciled unto us in Christ calls and invites us to himself in which respect we understand these Scriptures He stew the enmity in himself He loved us first seeing us in our blood he said unto us live he who did not sin his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree and he died for our sins the just for the unjust By the second we witness this capacity brought into act whereby receiving and not resisting the purchase of his death to wit the Light Spirit and Grace of Christ revealed to us we witness and possess a real true and inward Redemption from the power and prevalency of sin and so come to be truly and really redeemed justified and made righteous and to a sensible union and friendship with God Thus he died for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and thus we know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to us This last follows the first in order and is a consequence of it proceeding from it as an effect from its cause So as none could have enjoyed the last without the first had been such being the will of God so also can none now partake of the first but as he witnesseth the last Wherefore as to us they are both causes of our Justification The first the procuring efficient the other the formal cause Fourthly we understand not by this Justification by Christ barely the good works even as wrought by the Spirit of Christ for they as Protestants truly affirm are rather an effect of Justification than the cause of it But we understand the formation of Christ in us Christ born and brought forth in us from which good works as naturally proceed as Fruit from a Fruitful Tree It is this inward Birth in us bringing forth Righteousness and Holyness in us that doth Justâ—fie us which having removed and done away the contrary Nature and Spirit that did bear rule and bring condemnation now is in dominion over all in our hearts Those then that come to know Christ thus formed in them do enjoy him wholly and undivided who is The LORD our RIGHTEOVSNESS Jer. 23.6 This is to be cloathed with Christ and to have put
thus reconciled never sin or that when they so do they are still reconciled and their sins make not the least separation from God yea that they are justified in their sins From whence also would follow this abominable consequence that the good works and greatest sins of such are all alike in the sight of God seeing neither the one serves to justifie them nor the other to break their reconciliation which occasions great security and opens a door to every lewd practice Thirdly this would make void the whole practical Doctrine of the Gospel and make Faith it self needless for if Faith and Repentance and the other conditions called for throughout the Gospel be a qualification upon our part necessary to be performed then before this be performed by us we are either fully reconciled to God or but in a capacity of being reconciled to God he being ready to reconcile and justifie us as these conditions are performed which later if granted is according to the Truth we profess and if we are already perfectly reconciled and justified before these conditions are performed which conditions are of that Nature that they cannot be performed at one time but are to be done all ones Life-time then can they not be said to be absolutely needful which is contrary to the very express Testimony of Scripture which is acknowledged by all Christians For without Faith it is impossible to please God They that believe not are condemned already because they believe not in the Only begotten Son of God Except ye Repent ye cannot be Saved For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye And those that were converted I will remove your Candle-stick from you and unless you repent Should I mention all the Scriptures that positively and evidently prove this I might transcribe much of all the Doctrinal part of the Bible For since Christ said It is finished and did finish his work Sixteen Hundred Years ago and upwards if so he fully perfected Redemption then and did then actually reconcile every one that is to be saved not simply opening a door of mercy for them offering the Sacrifice of his Body by which they may obtain remission of their sins when they repent and communicating unto them a measure of his Grace by which they may see their sins and be able to repent but really make them to be reputed as just either before they believe as say the Antinomians or after they have assented to the Truth of the History of Christ or are sprinkled with the Baptism of Water while nevertheless they are actually unjust so that no part of their Redemption is to be wrought by him now as to their reconciliation and justification then the whole Doctrinal part of the Bible is useless and of no profit in vain were the Apostles sent forth to preach Repentance and Remission of sins and in vain do all the Preachers bestow their labour spend their Lungs and give forth Writings yea much more in vain do the People spend their money which they give them for preaching seeing it is all but actum agere but a vain and uneffectual essay to do that which is already perfectly done without them But lastly to pretermit their humane labours as not worth the disputing whether they be needful or not since as we shall hereafter shew themselves confess the best of them is sinful this also makes void the present intercession of Christ for men What shall become of that great Article of Faith by which we affirm that he sits at the Right Hand of God daily making intercession for us and for which end the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered For Christ maketh not intercession for those that are not in a possibility of Salvation that is absurd Our Adversaries will not admit that he prayed for the World at all And to pray for those that are already reconciled and perfectly justified is to no purpose to pray for remission of sins is yet more needless if all be remitted past present and to come Indeed there is not any solid solving of this but by acknowledging according to the Truth that Christ by his death removed the Wrath of God so far as to obtain remission of sins for as many as receive that Grace and Light that he communicates unto them and hath purchased for them by his Blood which as they believe in they come to know remission of sins past and power to save them from sin and to wipe it away so often as they may fall into it by unwatchfulness or weakness if applying themselves to this Grace they truly repent for to as many as receive him he gives power to become the Sons of God So none are Sons none are Justified none Reconciled until they thus receive him in that little Seed in their hearts And Life Eternal is offered to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek Glory Honour and Immortality For if the Righteous man depart from his Righteousness his Righteousness shall be remembred no more And therefore on the other part none are longer Sons of God and Justified than they patiently continue in righteousness and well doing And therefore Christ lives always making intercession during the day of every man's visitation that they may be converted and when men are in some measure converted he makes intercession that they may continue and go on and not faint nor go back again Much more might be said to confirm this Truth but I go on to take notice of the common objections against it which are the Arguments made use of to propogate the Errors contrary to it § VI. The first and chief is drawn from that saying of the Apostle before mentioned 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them From hence they seek to infer that Christ fully perfected the work of reconciliation while he was on Earth Obj. I answer Answ. If by Reconciliation be understood the removing of wrath and the purchase of that Grace by which we may come to be reconciled we agree to it but that that place speaks no more appears from the place it self for when the Apostle speaks in the perfect time saying He hath reconciled us he speaks of himself and the Saints who having received the Grace of God purchased by Christ were through Faith in him actually reconciled But as to the World he saith Reconciling not Reconciled which reconciling though it denotes a time somewhat past yet it is by the imperfect time denoting that the thing begun was not perfected For this work Christ began towards all in the days of his Flesh yea and long before for he was the Mediator from the beginning and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World But in his Flesh after he had perfectly fulfilled the Law and the Righteousness thereof and rent the vail and made way
called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified This is commonly called the golden chain as being acknowledged to comprehend the method and order of Salvation And therefore if justified were not understood here in its proper signification of being made just sanctification would be excluded out of this chain And truly it is very worthy of observation that the Apostle in this succinct and compendious account makes the word justified to comprehend all betwixt calling and glorifying thereby clearly insinuating that the being really righteous is that only medium by which from our calling we pass to glorification All for the most part do acknowledg the word to be so taken in this place and not only so but most of those who oppose are forced to acknowledg that as this is the most proper so the most common signification of it thus divers famous Protestants do acknowledg We are not saith D. Chamierus such impertinent esteemers of words as to be ignorant nor yet such importunat Sophists as to deny that the words of Justification and Sanctification do infer one another ye we know that the Saints are chiefly for this reason so called because that in Christ they have received remission of sins and we read in the Revelation Let him that is just be just still which cannot be understood except of the fruit of inherent righteousness Nor do we deny but perhaps in other places they may be promiscuously taken especially by the Fathers I take saith Beza the name of Justification largely so as it comprehends whatsoever we acquire from Christ as well by imputation as by the efficacy of the Spirit in sanctifying us So likewise is the word of Justification taken Rom. 8.30 Melancthon saith that to be justified by Faith signifies in Scripture not only to be pronounced just but also of unrighteous to be made righteous Also some chief Protestants though not so clearly yet in part hinted at our Doctrin whereby we ascribe unto the Death of Christ remission of Sins and the work of Justification unto the Grace of the Spirit acquired by his Death Martinus Boraeus explaining that place of the Apostle Rom. 4.25 Who was given for our sins and rose again for our justification saith There are two things beheld in Christ which are necessary to our justification the one is his death the other is his arising from the dead By his death the sins of this world behoved to be expiated By his rising from the dead it pleased the same goodness of God to give the Holy Spirit whereby both the Gospel is believed and the Righteousness lost by the fault of the first Adam is restored And afterwards he saith The Apostle expresseth both parts in these words Who was given for our sins c. In his Death is beheld the satisfaction for sin in his Resurrection the gift of the Holy Spirit by which our Justification is perfected And again the same man saith elsewhere Both these kinds of Righteousness are therefore contained in Justification neither can the one be separate from the other So that in the definition of Justification the merit of the blood of Christ is included both with the remission of sins and with the gift of the Holy Spirit of Justification and Regeneration Martinus Bucerus saith Seeing by one sin of Adam the world was lost the Grace of Christ hath not only abolished that one sin and death which came by it but hath together taken away those infinite sins and also led into full justification as many as are of Christ so that God now not only remits unto them Adam 's sin and their own but also gives them therewith the Spirit of a solid and perfect Righteousness which renders us conform unto the Image of the First begotten And upon these words by Jesus Christ he saith We alwaies judg that the whole benefit of Christ tends to this that we might be strong through the gift of Righteousness being rightly and orderly ordained with all vertue that is restored to the Image of God And lastly William Forbes our Countrey man Bishop of Edinburgh saith Whensoever the Scripture makes mention of the Justification before God as speaketh Paul and from him besides others Augustin it appears that the word justify necessarily signifies not only to pronounce just in a Law sense but also really and inherently to make just because that God doth other waies justifie a wicked man than earthly Judges For he when he justifies a wicked or unjust man doth indeed pronounce him as these also do but by pronouncing him just because his judgment is according to Truth he also makes him really of unjust to become just And again the same man upon the same occasion answering the more rigid Protestants who say that God first justifies and then makes just he adds But let them have a care least by too great and empty subtilty unknown both to the Scripture and the Fathers they lessen and diminish the weight and dignity of so great and divine a benefit so much celebrated in the Scripture to wit justification of the wicked For if to the formal reason of justification of the ungodly doth not at all belong his justification so to speak i. e. his being made righteous then in the Justification of a sinner although he be Justifyed yet the stain of sin is not taken away but remains the same in his Soul as before Justification And so dotwithstanding the benefit of Justification he remains as before unjust and a sinner and nothing is taken away but the guilt and obligation to pain and the offence and enmity of God through non imputation But both the Scriptures and Fathers do affirm that in the Justification of a sinner their sins are not only remitted forgiven covered not imputed but also taken away blotted out cleansed washed purged and very far removed from us as appears from many places of the Holy Scriptures The same Forbes shews us at length in the following chapter that this was the confessed judgment of the Fathers out of the writings of those who hold the contrary opinion some whereof out of him I shall note as first Calvin saith that the judgment of Austin or at least his manner of speaking is not throughout to be received who although he took from man all praise of righteousness and ascribed all to the Grace of God yet he refers Grace to Sanctification by which we are regenerate through the Spirit unto newness of life Chemnitius saith that they do not deny but that the Fathers take the word justifie for renewing by which works of righteousness are wrought in us by the Spirit And pag. 130. I am not ignorant that the Fathers indeed often use the word justifie in this signification to wit of making just Zanchius saith that the Fathers and chiefly Austin interpret the word justifie according to this signification to wit of making just so that according to them to he justified
better without it than with it neither had they been worthy of blame for losing that which in it self was evil But the Apostle expressly adds and of a good Conscience which shews it was real neither can it be supposed that men could truly attain a good Conscience without the operation of Gods Saving Grace far less that a good Conscience doth consist with a seeming false and hypocritical faith Again these places of the Apostle being spoken by way of regret clearly import that these attainments they had faln from were good and real not false and deceitful else he would not have regreted their falling from them And so he saith positively they tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost c. not that they seem'd to be so which sheweth this objection is very frivolous Secondly they alledge Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing Obj. that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ c. and 1. Pet. 1.5 who are kept by the Power of God through faith unto Salvation These Scriptures Answ. as they do not affirm any thing positively contrary to us so they cannot be understood otherwise than as the condition is performed upon our part seeing Salvation is no other ways proposed there but upon certain necessary conditions to be performed by us as hath been above proved and as our adversaries also acknowledg as Rom. 8. v 13. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live And Heb. 3.14 We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end For if these places of the Scripture upon which they build their objection were to be admitted without these conditions it would manifestly overturn the whole tenor of their exhortations throughout all their writings Some other objections there are of the same nature which are solved by the same answers which also because largely treated of by others I omit to come to that testimony of the Truth which is more especially ours in this matter and is contained in the latter part of the Proposition in these words yet such an increase and stability in the Truth may in this life be attained from which there cannot be a total apostasie § IV. As in the explanation of the fifth and sixth Propositions I observed that some that had denyed the errors of others concerning reprobation and affirmed the universality of Christs death did notwithstanding fall short in sufficiently holding forth the truth and so gave the contrary party an occasion by their defects to be strengthened in their errors so may it be said in this case As upon the one hand they err that affirm that the least degree of true and saving grace cannot be faln from so do they err upon the other hand that deny any such stability to be attained from which there cannot be a total and final apostasie And betwixt these two extreams lieth the Truth apparent in the Scriptures which God hath revealed unto us by the testimony of his Spirit and which also we are made sensible of by our own sensible experience And even as in that former controversie was observed so also in this the defence of Truth will readily appear to such as seriously weigh the matter for the arguments upon both hands rightly applied will as to this hold good and the objections which are strong as they are respectively urged against the two opposite false opinions are here easily solved by the establishing of this Truth For all the arguments which these alledge that affirm there can be no falling away may well be received upon the one part as of these who have attained to this stability and establishment and their objections solved by this concession so upon the other hand the arguments alledged from Scripture testimonies by those that affirm the possibility of falling away may well be received of such as are not come to this establishment though having attained a measure of true grace Thus then the contrary batterings of our adversaries who miss the Truth do concur the more strongly to establish it while they are destroying each other But lest this may not seem to suffice to satisfie such as judge it always possible for the best of men before they dye to fall away I shall add for the proof of it some brief considerations from some few testimonies of the Scripture § V. And first I freely acknowledge that it is good for all to be humble and in this respect not over confident so as to lean to this to foster themselves in iniquity or lye down in security as if they had attained this condition seeing watchfulness and diligence is of indispensible necessity to all mortal men so long as they breath in this world for God will have this to be the constant practice of a Christian that thereby he may be the more fit to serve him and the better armed against all the daily temptations of the Enemy For since the wages of sin is death there is no man while he sinneth and is subject thereunto but may lawfully suppose himself capable of perishing Hence the Apostle Paul himself saith 1 Cor. 9.27 But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away Here the Apostle supposeth it possible for him to be a cast-away and yet it may be judged he was far more advanced in the inward work of regeneration when he wrote that Epistle than many who now adays too presumptuously suppose they cannot fall away because they feel themselves to have attained some small degree of true Grace But the Apostle makes use of this supposition or possibility of his being a cast away as I before observed as an inducement to him to be watchful I keep under my body lest c. Nevertheless the same Apostle at another time in the sense and feeling of God's holy Power and in the dominion thereof finding himself a conqueror therethrough over sin and his Souls enemies maketh no difficulty to affirm Rom. 8.38 For I am perswaded that neither death nor life c. which clearly sheweth that he had attained a condition from which he knew he could not fall away But secondly it appears such a condition is attainable because we are exhorted to it and as hath been proved before the Scripture never proposeth to us things impossible Such an exhortation we have from the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure And though there be a condition here proposed yet since we have already proved that it is possible to fulfil this condition then also the promise annexed thereunto may be attained And since where assurance is wanting there is still a place left for doubtings and despairs if we
would affirm it never attainable then should there never be a place known by the Saints in this world wherein they might be free of doubting and despair Which as it is most absurd in it self so it is contrary to the manifest experience of thousands Thirdly God hath given to many of his Saints and children and is ready to give unto all a full and certain assurance that they are his and that no power shall be able to pluck them out of hand But this assurance would be no assurance if those who are so assured were not established and confirmed beyond all doubt and hesitation If so then surely there is no possibility for such to miss of that which God hath assured them of And that there is such assurance attainable in this life the Scripture abundantly declareth both in general and as to particular persons As first Rev. 3. v. 12. him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out c. which containeth a general promise unto all Hence the Apostle speaks of some that are sealed 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts Wherefore the Spirit so sealing is called the earnest or pledge of our inheritance Eph. 1.13 In whom ye were sealed by the holy Spirit of Promise And therefore the Apostle Paul not only in that of the Romans above nored declareth himself to have attained that condition but 2 Tim. 4.7 he affirmeth in these words I have fought a good fight c. which also many good men have and do witness And therefore as there can be nothing more manifest than that which the manifest experience of this time sheweth and therein is found agreeable to the experience of former times so we see there have been both of old and of late that have turned the Grace of God into wantonness that have faln from their faith and integrity thence we may safely conclude such a falling away possible We also see that some of old and of late have attained a certain assurance sometime before they departed that they should inherit eternal life and have accordingly dyed in that good hope Of and concerning whom the Spirit of God testified That they are saved Wherefore we also see that such a state is attainable in this life from which there is not a falling away For seeing the Spirit of God did so testifie it was not possible that they should perish concerning whom he who cannot lye thus bare witness The Tenth Proposition Concerning the Ministry As by this Light or Gift of God all true knowledge in things Spiritual is received and revealed so by the same as it is manifested and received in the heart by the strength and power thereof every true Minister of the Gospel is ordained prepared and supplyed in the work of the Ministry and by the leading moving and drawing hereof ought every Evangelist and Christian Pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the Gospel both as to the place where as to the persons to whom and as to the time wherein he is to minister Moreover who have this authority may and ought to preach the Gospel though without hamane Commission or Literature as on the other hand who want the Authority of this Divine Gift however learned or authorized by the Commission of Men and Churches are to be esteemed but as deceivers and not true Ministers of the Gospel Also who have received this holy and unspotted Gift as they have freely received it so are they freely to give it without hire or bargaining far less to use it as a Trade to get Money by yet if God hath called any one from their Employments or Trades by which they acquire their Lively-hood it may be lawful for such according to the liberty which they feel given them in the Lord to receive such temporals to wit what may be needful for them for meat and clothing as are given them freely and cordially by those to whom they have communicated Spirituals § I. HItherto I have treated of those things which relate to the Christian Faith and Christians as they stand each in his private and particular condition and how and what way every man may be a Christian indeed and so abide Now I come in order to speak of those things that relate to Christians as they are stated in a joynt fellowship and Communion and come under a visible and outward society which society is called the Church of God and in Scripture compared to a body and therefore named the Body of Christ. As then in the natural body there be divers members all concurring to the common end of preserving and confirming the whole body so in this Spiritual and mystical Body there are also divers according to the different measures of Grace and of the Spirit diversly administred unto each member and from this diversity ariseth that distinction of persons in the visible Society of Christians as of Apostles Pastors Evangelists Ministers c. That which in this Proposition is proposed is What makes or constitutes any a Minister of the Church what his qualifications ought to be and how he ought to behave himself But because it may seem somewhat preposterous to speak of the distinct Offices of the Church until something be said concerning the Church in general though nothing positively be said of it in the Proposition yet as here implied I shall briefly premise something thereof and then proceed to the particular members of it § II. It is not in the least my design to meddle with those tedious and many controversies wherewith the Papists and Protestants do tear one another concerning this thing but only according to the Truth manifested to me and revealed in me by the testimony of the Spirit according to that proportion of wisdom given me briefly to hold forth as a necessary introduction both to this matter of the Ministry and of Worship which followeth those things which I together with my Brethren do believe concerning the Church The Church then according to the grammatical signification of the word as it is used in the Holy Scripture signifies an assembly or gathering of many into one place for the Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call out of and originally from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call and indeed as this is the grammatical sense of the word so also it is the real and proper signification of the thing the Church being no other thing but the society gathering or company of such as God hath called out of the World and worldly Spirit to walk in his LIGHT and LIFE The Church then so designed is to be considered as it comprehends all that are thus called and gathered truly by God both such as are yet in this inferiour World and such as having already laid down the earthy Tabernacle are passed into their
up a shadow and form of these orders and so make several ranks and degrees to establish a carnal Ministry of mens making without the Life Power and Spirit of Christ this is that work of Anti-christ and Mystery of Iniquity that hath got up in the dark night of Apostasie but in a true Church of Christ gathered together by God not only unto the belief of the principles of Truth but also into the Power Life and Spirit of Christ the Spirit of God is the Orderer Ruler and Governour as in each particular so in the general and when they assemble together to wait upon God and worship and adore him then such as the Spirit sets apart to the Ministry by its Divine Power and Influence opening their Mouths and giving them to exhort reprove and instruct with Vertue and Power these are thus of God ordained and admitted into the Ministry and their brethren cannot but hear them receive them and also honour them for their works sake and so this is not monopolized to a certain kind of men as the Clergy who are to that purpose educated and brought up as other carnal Artists and the rest to be despised as Laicks but it is left to the free Gift of God to chuse any whom he seeth meet thereunto whether rich or poor servant or master young or old yea male or female And such as have this call verifie the Gospel by preaching not in Speech only but also in Power and the Holy Ghost and in much fulness 1 Thes. 1.5 and cannot but be received and heard by the Sheep of Christ. § XXV But if it be objected here Obj. that I seem hereby to make no distinction at all betwixt Ministers and others which is contrary to the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 12.29 Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers c. From thence they insinuate that I also contradict his comparison in that chapter of the Church of Christ with a humane body as where he saith verse 17. If the whole body were an Eye where were the hearing If the whole were hearing where were the smelling c. Also the Apostle not only thus distinguisheth the Ministers of the Church in general from the rest of the Members but also from themselves as naming them distinctly and separately Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers c. As to the last part of this objection to which I shall first answer Answ. it is apparent that this diversity of Names is not for to distinguish separate Offices but to denote the different and various Operations of the Spirit a manner of Speech frequent with the Apostle Paul wherein he sometimes expatiates to the Illustrating of the Glory and Praise of God's Grace as in particular Rom. 12.6 Having then Gifts differing according to the Grace that is given us whether Prophecy let us Prophecy according to the proportion of Faith Or Ministry let us wait on our Ministring or he that Teacheth on Teaching or he that Exhorteth on Exhortation Now none will say from all this that these are distinct Offices or do not or may not co-incide in one person as may all these other things mentioned by him in the subsequent verses viz. Of Loving being kindly affectioned Fervency of Spirit Hospitality Diligence Blessing Rejoycing c. Which yet he numbers forth as different gifts of the Spirit And according to this objection might be placed as distinct and separate Offices which were most absurd Secondly in these very places mentioned it is clear that it is no real distinction of separate Offices because all acknowledg that Pastors and Teachers which the Apostle there no less separateth and distinguisheth than Pastors and Prophets or Apostles are one and the same and co-incide in the same Office and Person and therefore so may be said of the rest For Prophecy as it signifieth the foretelling of things to come is indeed a distinct Gift but no distinct Office and therefore our Adversaries do not place it among their several orders neither will they deny but that both may be and have been given of God to some that not only have been Pastors and Teachers and that there it hath co incided in one Person with these other Offices but also to some of the Laicks and so it hath been found according to their own concession without the limits of their Clergy Prophecy in the other sense to wit as it signifieth a speaking from the Spirit of Truth is not only peculiar to Pastors and Teachers who ought so to Prophecy but even a common priviledg to the Saints for though to Instruct Teach and Exhort be proper to such as are more particularly called to the work of the Ministry yet it is not so proper to them as not to be when the Saints are met together as any of them are moved by the Spirit common to others For some acts belong to all in such a relation but not only to those within that relation competunt omni sed non Soli thus to see and hear are proper acts of a man seeing it may be properly predicated of him that he heareth and seeth yet are they common to other Creatures also So to Prophecy in this sense is indeed proper to Ministers and Teachers yet not so but that it is common and lawful to other Saints when moved thereunto though it be not proper to them by way of relation because notwithstanding that motion they are not particularly called to the work of the Ministry as appears by 1 Cor. 14. where the Apostle at large declaring the order and ordinary method of the Church saith ver 30 31. But if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace For ye may all Prophecy one by one that all may learn and all be comforted Which sheweth that none is here excluded But yet that there is a subordination according to the various measures of the Gift received the next verse sheweth And the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace Now that Prophecying in this sense may be common to all Saints appears by the 39 verse of the same Chapter where speaking to all in general he saith Therefore Brethren covet to Prophecy and verse 1. he exhorts them saying Covet Spiritual Gifts but the rather that ye may Prophecy Secondly as to Evangelists the same may be said for whoever preacheth the Gospel is really an Evangelist and so consequently every true Minister of the Gospel is one else what proper office can they assign to it unless they should be so foolish as to affirm that none were Evangelists but Matthew Mark Luke and John who wrote the Account of Christ's Life and Sufferings And then it were neither a particular office seeing John and Matthew were Apostles Mark and Luke Pastors and Teachers so that there they co-incided in one and indeed it is absurd to think that upon that particular account the
suffering God by his Spirit both to prepare peoples hearts and also give the preacher what may be fit and seasonable for them But he hath hammered together in his closet according to his own will by his humane wisdom and illeterature and by stealing the words of Truth from the letter of the Scriptures and patching together other mens Writings and Observations so much as will hold him speaking an hour while the Glass runs and without waiting or feelling the inward influence of the Spirit of God he declaims that by hap-hazard whether it be fit or seasonable for the peoples condition or no and when he has ended his Sermon he saith his Prayer also in his own will and so there is an end of the business Which customary worship as it is no waies acceptable to God so how unfruitful it is and unprofitable to those that are found in it the present condition of the Nations doth sufficiently declare It appears then that we are not against set times for worship as Arnoldus against this Proposition Sect. 45. No less impertinently alledgeth offering needlesly to prove that which is not denyed only these times being appointed for outward conveniency we may not therefore think with the Papists that these daies are holy and lead people into a superstitious observation of them being perswaded that all daies are alike holy in the sight of God And albeit it be not my present purpose to make a long digression concerning the debates among Protestants concerning the first day of the week commonly called the Lords day yet for as much as it comes fitly in here I shall briefly signifie our sense thereof § IV. We not seeing any ground in Scripture for it cannot be so superstitious as to believe that either the Jewish Sabbath now continues or that the first day of the week is the anti-tipe thereof or the true Christian Sabbath which with Calvin we believe to have a more Spiritual sense and therefore we know no moral obligation by the fourth command or elsewhere to keep the first day of the week more as any other or any holiness inherent in it But first for as much as it is most necessary that there be some time set apart for the Saints to meet together to wait upon God And that secondly it is fit at some times they be freed from their other outward affairs And that thirdly Reason and Equity doth allow that Servants and Beasts have some time allowed them to be eased from their continual labour And that fourthly it appears that the Apostles and primitive Christians did use the first day of the week for these purposes We find our selves sufficiently moved for these to do so also without superstitiously straining the Scriptures for another reason which that it is not to be there found many Protestants yea Calvin himself upon the fourth command hath abundantly evinced And though we therefore meet and abstain from working upon this day yet doth not that hinder us from having meetings also for worship at other times § V. Thirdly though according to the knowledg of God revealed unto us by the Spirit through that more full dispensation of Light which we believe the Lord hath brought about in this day we judg it our duty to hold forth that Pure and Spiritual Worship which is acceptable to God and answerable to the testimony of Christ and his Apostles and likewise to testifie against and deny not only manifest Superstition and Idolatry but also all formal Will-worship which stands not in the power of God yet I say we do not deny the whole Worship of all those that have born the name of Christians even in the Apostacy as if God had never heard their prayers nor accepted any of them God forbid we should be so void of Charity The latter part of the Proposition sheweth the contrary and as we would not be so absurd on the one hand to conclude because of the errors and darkness that many were covered and surrounded with in Babylon that none of their prayers were heard or accepted of God so will we not be so unwary on the other as to conclude that because God heard and pitied them so we ought to continue in these errors and darkness and not come out of Babylon when it is by God discovered unto us The Popish Mass and Vespers I do believe to be as to the matter of them abominable Idolatry and Superstition and so also believe the Protestants yet will either I or they affirm that in the darkness of Popery no upright-hearted men tho zealous in these abominations have been heard of God or accepted of him Who can deny but that both Bernard and Bonaventur Thaulerus Thomas a Kempis and divers others have both known and tasted of the love of God and felt the Power and Vertue of God's Spirit working with them for their Salvation And yet ought we not to forsake and deny those Superstitions which they were found in the Calvinistical Presbyterians do much upbraid and I say not without reason the formality and deadness of the Episcopalian and Lutheran Liturgies and yet as they will not deny but there have been some good men among them so neither dare they refuse but that when that good step was brought in by them of turning the publick Prayers into the vulgar Tongues tho continued in a Liturgy it was acceptable to God and sometimes accompanied with his Power and Presence yet will not the Presbyterians have it from thence concluded that the Common Prayers should still continue so likewise tho we should confess that through the mercy and wonderful condescension of God there have been upright in heart both among Papists and Protestants yet can we not therefore approve of their way in the general or not go on to the upholding of that Spiritual Worship which the Lord is calling all to and so to the testifying against whatsoever stands in the way of it § VI. Fourthly to come then to the state of the Controversie as to the publick Worship we judg it the duty of all to be diligent in the assembling of themselves together and what we have been and are in this matter our enemies in Great Britain who have used all means to hinder our assembling together to Worship God may bear witness and when assembled the great work of one and all ought to be to wait upon God and returning out of their own thoughts and imaginations to feel the Lord's presence and know a gathering into his Name indeed where he is in the midst according to his promise And as every one is thus gathered and so met together inwardly in their Spirits as well as outwardly in their Persons there the secret Power and Vertue of Life is known to refresh the Soul and the pure motions and breathings of God's Spirit are felt to arise from which as words of Declaration Prayers or Praises arise the acceptable Worship is known which edifies the Church and is well-pleasing to God
strongly exercised as in a day of battle and thereby trembling and a motion of body will be upon most if not upon all wbich as the power of Truth prevails will from pangs and groans end with a sweet sound of thanksgiving and praise and from this the name of Quakers i. e. Tremblers was first reproachfully cast upon us which though it be none of our choosing yet in this respect we are not ashamed of it but have rather reason to rejoyce therefore even that we are sensible of this power that hath often times laid hold upon our adversaries and made them yield unto us and joyn with us and confess to the Truth before they had any distinct or discursive knowledg of our Doctrins so that sometimes many at one Meeting have heen thus convinced and this Power would sometimes also teach to and wonderfully work even in little Children to the admiration and astonishment of many § IX Many are the blessed experiences which I could relate of this silence and manner of Worship yet do I not so much commend and speak of silence as if we had a Law in it to shut out Praying or Preaching or tied our selves thereunto not at all for as our Worship consisteth not in the Words so neither in silence as silence but in an holy dependence of the mind upon God from which dependence silence necessarily follows in the first place until words can be brought forth which are from God's Spirit and God is not wanting to move in his Children to bring forth words of Exhortation or Prayer when it is needful so that of the many gatherings and meetings of such as are convinced of the Truth there is scarce any in whom God raiseth not up some or other to minister to his Brethren that there are few meetings that are altogether silent For when many are met together in this one Life and Name it doth most naturally and frequently excite them to pray to and praise God and stir up one another by mutual exhortation and instructions yet we judg it needful there be in the first place some times of silence during which every one may be gathered inward to the Word and Gift of Grace from which he that ministreth may receive strength to bring forth what he ministreth and that they that hear may have a sense to discern betwixt the precious and the vile and not to hurry into the exercise of these things so soon as the Bell rings as other Christians do yea and we doubt not but assuredly know that the meeting may be good and refreshful though from the sitting down to the rising up thereof there hath not been a word as outwardly spoken and yet Life may have been known to abound in each particular and an inward growing up therein and thereby yea so as words might have been spoken acceptably and from the life yet there being no absolute necessity laid upon any so to do all might have chosen rather quietly and silently to possess and enjoy the Lord in themselves which is very sweet and comfortable to the Soul that hath thus learned to be gathered out of all its own thoughts and workings to feel the Lord to bring forth both the will and the deed which many can declare by a blessed experience though indeed it cannot but be hard for the natural man to receive or believe this Doctrine and therefore it must be rather by a sensible experience and by coming to make proof of it than by arguments that such can be convinced of this thing seeing it is not enough to believe it if they come not also to enjoy and possess it yet in condescension to and for the sake of such as may be the more willing to apply themselves to the practice and experience hereof that they found their understandings convinced of it and that it is founded upon Scripture and Reason I find a freedom of mind to add some few considerations of this kind for the confirmation hereof besides what is before mentioned of our experience § X. That to wait upon God and to watch before him is a duty incumbent upon all I suppose none will deny and that this also is a part of Worship will not be called in question since there is scarce any other so frequently commanded in the Holy Scriptures as may appear from Psal. 27.14.37 v. 7.34 Prov. 20.22 Isa. 30.18 Hosea 12.7 Zach. 3.8 Matth. 24.42 25.13.26.41 Marc. 13.33 35. Luc. 21.36 Act. 1.4.20.31 1 Cor. 16.13 Col. 4.2 1 Thes. 5.6 2 Tim. 4.5 1 Pet. 4.7 Also this duty is often recommended with very great and precious promises as Psal. 25.3.37.9.69.7 Isa. 40.31 Lam. 3.25.26 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength c. Now how is this waiting upon God or watching before him but by this silence of which we have spoken Which as it is in it self a great and principle duty so it necessarily in order both of nature and time proceedeth all other But that it may be the better and more perfectly understood as it is not only an outward silence of the body but an inward silence of the mind from all its own imaginations and self-cogitations let it be considered according to Truth and to the Principles and Doctrines heretofore affirmed and proved that man is to be considered in a two fold respect to wit in his natural unregenerate and faln state and in his Spiritual and renewed condition from whence ariseth that distinction of the natural and spiritual man so much used by the Apostle and heretofore spoken of also these two births of the mind proceed from the two Seeds in man respectively to wit the good Seed and the evil And from the evil Seed doth not only proceed all manner of gross and abominable wickedness and profanity but also hypocrisie and these wickednesses which the Scripture calls spiritual because it is the Serpent working in and by the natural man in things that are spiritual which having a shew and appearance of good are so much the more hurtful and dangerous as it is Satan transformed and transforming himself into an Angel of Light and therefore doth the Scripture so pressingly and frequently as we have heretofore had occasion to observe shut out and exclude the natural man from medling with the things of God denying his endeavours therein though acted and performed by the most eminent of his parts as of wisdom and utterance Also this spiritual wickedness is of two sorts though both one in kind as proceeding from one root yet different in their degrees and in the subjects also sometimes The one is when as the natural man is medling in and working in the things of Religion doth from his own conceptions and divinations affirm or propose wrong and erroneous notions and opinions of God and things spiritual and invent superstitions ceremonies observations and rites in worship from whence have sprung all the Heresies and Superstitions that are among Christians The other is when as
consisting in outward observations to be performed by man at set times or opportunities which he can do in his own will and by his own natural strength for else it would not differ in matter but only in some circumstances from that under the Law Next as for a reason of this Worship we need not to give any other and indeed none can give a better than that which Christ giveth which I think should be sufficient to satisfie every Christian to wit GOD is a SPIRIT and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth As this ought to be received because it is the words of Christ so also it is founded upon so clear a demonstration of Reason as sufficiently evidenceth its verity For Christ excellently argues from the analogy that ought to be betwixt the Object and the Worship directed thereunto God is a Spirit Therefore he must be Worshipped in Spirit This is so certain that it can suffer no contradiction Arg. yea and this analogy is so necessary to be minded that under the Law when God instituted and appointed that Ceremonial Worship to the Jews because that Worship was outward that there might be an analogy he saw it necessary to condescend to them as in a special manner to dwell betwixt the Cherubims within the Tabernacle and afterwards to make the Temple of Jerusalem in a sort his habitation and cause something of an outward Glory and Majesty to appear by causing Fire from Heaven to consume the Sacrifices and filling the Temple with a Cloud through and by which mediums visible to the outward Eye he manifested himself proportionably to that outward Worship which he had commanded them to perform So now under the New Covenant he seeing meet in his Wisdom to lead his Children in a path more Heavenly and Spiritual and in a way both more easie and familiar and also purposing to disappoint carnal and outward observations that his may have an Eye more to an inward Glory and Kingdom than to an outward he hath given us for an example hereof the appearance of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ who instead that Moses delivered the Israelites out of their outward Bondage and by outwardly destroying their Enemies hath delivered and doth deliver us by suffering and dying by the hands of his Enemies thereby Triumphing over the Devil and his and our inward Enemies and delivering us therefrom he hath also instituted an Inward and Spiritual Worship so that God now tieth not his People to the Temple of Jerusalem nor yet unto outward Ceremonies and Observations but taketh the heart of every Christian for a Temple to dwell in and there immediately appeareth and giveth him directions how to serve him in any outward acts Since as Christ argueth God is a Spirit he will now be worshipped in the Spirit where he reveals himself and dwelleth with the contrite in heart Now since it is the heart of man that now is become the Temple of God in which he will be worshipped and no more in particular outward Temples since as Blessed Stephen said out of the Prophet to the Professing Jews of old the Most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as before the Glory of the Lord descended to fill the outward Temple it behoved to be purified and cleansed and all polluted stuff removed out of it yea and the place for the Tabernacle was overlaid with Gold the most pretious clean and clearest of all metals so also before God be worshipped in the inward Temple of the heart it must also be purged of its own filth and all its own thoughts and imaginations that so it may be fit to receive the Spirit of God and to be acted by it and doth not this directly lead us to that inward silence of which we have spoken and exactly pointed out And further This Worship must be in Truth intimating that this Spiritual Worship thus acted is only and properly a true Worship as being that which for the reasons above observed can not be counterfeited by the Enemy nor yet performed by the Hypocrite § XVI And though this Worship be indeed very different from the divers established invented Worships among Christians and therefore may seem strange to many yet hath it been testified of commended and practised by the most Pious of all sorts in all ages by many evident Testimonies might be proved so that from the professing and practicing thereof the name of Mysticks hath arisen as of a certain Sect generally commended by all whose Writings are full both of the explanation and of the commendation of this sort of worship where they plentifully assert this inward introversion and abstraction of the mind as they call it from all Images and Thoughts and the prayer of the will yea they look upon this as the heighth of Christian perfection so that some of them though professed Papists do not doubt to affirm that such as have attained this method of Worship or are aiming at it as in a Book called Sancta Sophia put out by the English Benedictines Printed at Doway anno 1657. Tract 1. Sect. 2. cap. 5. Need not nor ought to trouble or busie themselves with frequent and unnecessary Confessions with exercising corporal labours and austerities the using of Vocal Voluntary Prayers the hearing of a number of Masses or set Devotions or exercises to Saints or Prayers for the Dead or having solicitous and distracting cares to gain Indulgences by going to such and such Churches or adjoyning ones self to confraternities or intangling ones self with Vows and Promises because such kind of things hinder the Soul from observing the Operations of the Divine Spirit in it and from having liberty to follow the Spirit whether it would draw her And yet who knows not but that in such kind of observations the very substance of the Popish Religion consisteth Yet nevertheless it appears by this and many other passages which out of their Mystik writers might be mentioned how they look upon this Worship as excelling all other and that such as arrived hereunto had no absolute need of the others yea see the Life of Balthazar Alvares in the same Sancta Sophia Tract 3. Sect. 1. cap. 7. such as tasted of this quickly confessed that the other Forms and Ceremonies of Worship were useless as to them neither did they perform them as things necessary but meerly for order or examples sake and therefore though some of them were so overclouded with the common darkness of their profession yet could they affirm that this Spiritual Worship was still to be retained and sought for though there be a necessity of omitting their outward Ceremonies Hence Bernard as in many other places so in his Epistle to one William Abot of the same order saith Take heed to the Rule of God the Kingdom of God is within you and afterwards saying that rheir outward orders and rules should be observed he adds But otherwise when it shall happen that none
the apostasie if we did not this way stand immoveable to the Truth revealed but should join with them both our testimony for God would be weakned and lost and it would be impossible steadily to propagate this worship in the world whose progress we dare neither retard nor hinder by any act of ours though therefore we shall lose not only worldly honour but even our lives And truly many Protestants through their unsteadiness in this thing for politick ends complying with the popish abominations have greatly scandalized their profession and hurt the reformation as appeared in the Example of the Elector of Saxony who in the Convention at Ausburg in the year 1530. being commanded by the Emperor Charles the Fifth to be present at the Mass that he might carry the Sword before him according to his place which when he justly scrupled to perform his Preachers taking more care for their Princes Honour than for his Conscience perswaded him that it was lawful to it against his Conscience which was both a very bad Example and great scandal to the Reformation and displeased many as the Author of the History of the Council of Trent in his first book well observes But now I hasten to the objection of our adversaries against this method of praying Obj. § XXV First They object that if such particular influences were needful to outward acts of worship then they should also be needful to inward acts as to wit desire and love God But this is absurd Therefore also that from whence it follows I answer that which was said in the state of the controversie cleareth this because as to those general duties Answ. there never wants an influence so long as the day of a man's visitation lasteth during which time God is alwaies near to him and wrestling with him by his Spirit to turn him to himself so that if he do but stand still and cease from his evil thoughts the Lord is near to help him c. But as to the outward acts of Prayer they need a more special motion and influence as hath been proved Secondly they object that it might be also alledged Obj. that men ought not to do moral duties as Children to honour their Parents men to do right to their neighbours except the Spirit moved them to it I answer there is a great difference betwixt these general duties betwixt man and man Answ. and the particular express acts of worship towards God the one is meerly Spiritual and commanded by God to be performed by his Spirit the other answer their end as to them whom they are immediatly directed to and concern though done from a meer natural principle of self-love even as beasts have natural affections one to another and therefore may be thus performed though I shall not deny but that they are not works accepted of God or beneficial to the Soul but as they are done in the fear of God and in blessing in which his Children do all things and therefore are accepted and blessed in whatsoever they do Thirdly they object Obj. that if a wicked man ought not to pray without a motion of the Spirit because his Prayer would be sinful neither ought he to plough by the same reason because the ploughing of the wicked as well as his praying is sin This objection is of the same nature with the former Answ. and therefore may be answered the same way seeing there is a great difference betwixt natural acts such as eating drinking sleeping and seeking for sustenance for the body which things Man hath common with Beasts and Spiritual acts And it doth not follow because man ought not to go about Spiritual acts without the Spirit that therefore he may not go about natural acts without it The analogy holds better thus and that for the proof of our affirmation that as man for the going about natural acts need his natural Spirit so to perform Spiritual acts he needs the Spirit of God That the natural acts of the wicked and unregenerate are sinful is not denied though not as in themselves but in so far as man in that state is in all things reprobated in the sight of God Fourthly they object that wicked men may according to this doctrin Obj. forbear to pray for years together alledging they want a motion to it Answ. I answer the false pretences of wicked men do nothing invalidate the truth of this doctrin for at that rate there is no doctrin of Christ which men might not turn by That they ought not to pray without the Spirit is granted but then they ought to come to that place of watching where they may be capable to feel the Spirits motion They sin indeed in not praying but the cause of this sin is their not watching so their neglect proceeds not from this doctrin but from their disobedience to it seeing if they did pray without this it would be a double sin and no fulfilling of the command to pray nor yet would their Prayer without this Spirit be useful unto them and this our Adversaries are forced to acknowledg in another case for they say It is a duty incumbent on Christians to frequent the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as they call it Yet they say No man ought to take it unworthily yea they plead that such as find themselves unprepared must abstain and therefore do usually excommunicate them from the Table Now though according to them it be necessary to partake of this Sacrament yet it is also necessary that those that do it do first examine themselves lest they eat and drink their own condemnation and though they reckon it sinful for them to forbear yet they account it more sinful for them to do it without this examination Fifthly they object Acts 8.22 where Peter commanded Simon Magus Obj. that wicked Sorcerer to pray from thence inferring that wicked men may and ought to pray Answ. I answer that in the citing of this place as I have often observed they omit the first and chiefest part of the verse which is thus Acts 8. verse 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee So here he bids him first repent now the least measure of true Repentance cannot be without somewhat of that inward retirement of the mind which we speak of and indeed where true repentance goeth first we do not doubt but the Spirit of God will be near to concur with and influence such to pray to and call upon God Obj. And Lastly they object that many Prayers begun without the Spirit have proved effectual and that the Prayers of wicked men have been heard and found acceptable as Achab's Answ. This objection was before solved for the acts of God's compassion and indulgence at sometimes and to some persons upon singular extraordinary occasions are not be a rule of our actions For if we should make that the measure of our obedience great inconveniencies
carnal Ordinances are no more to be imposed For how Baptism with Water comes now to be a Spiritual Ordinance more than before in the time of the Law doth not appear seeing it is but Water still and a washing outward man and a puting away of the filth of the flesh still and as before those that are so washed were not thereby made perfect as pertaining to the Conscience neither are they at this day as our adversaries must needs acknowledg and experience abundantly sheweth So that the matter of it which is a washing with Water and the effect of it which is only an outward cleansing being still the same How comes Water-baptism to be less a carnal Ordinance now than before Obj. If it be said that God censers inward Grace upon some that are now baptized So no doubt he did also upon some that used those Baptisms among the Jews Answ. Obj. Or if it be said because 't is commanded by Christ now under the New Covenant Answ. I answere first that 's to beg the question of which hereafter But secondly we find that where the matter of Ordinances is the same and the end the same they are never accounted more or less Spiritual because of their different times Now was not God the Author of the Purifications and Baptisms under the Law Was not Water the matter of them which is so now Was not the end of them to signifie an outward purifying by an inward washing And is not that alleadged to be the end still And are the necessary effects or consequences of it any better now than before since men are now by the vertue of Water-baptism as a necessary consequence of it no more than before made inwardly clean And if some by Gods Grace that are Baptized with Water are inwardly purified so were some also under the Law so that this is not any necessary consequence nor effect neither of this nor that Baptism it is then plainly repugnant to right reason as well as to the Scripture Testimony to affirm That to be a Spiritual Ordinance now which was a carnal Ordinance before If it be still the same both as to its Author Matter and end however made to vary in some small circumstances The Sairituality of the New Covenant and of its Worship established by Christ consisted not in such superficial alterations of circumstances but after another manner therefore let our adversaries shew us if they can without beging the question and building upon someone or other of their own principles denied by us where ever Christ appointed or ordained any institution or observation under the New Covenant as belonging to the nature of it or such a necessary part of its Worship as is perpetually to continue which being one in substance and effects I speak of necessary not accidental effects yet beceause of some small difference in form or circumstance was before carnal notwithstanding it was commanded by God under the Law but now is become Spiritual because commanded by Christ under the Gospel And if they cannot do this then if Water-baptism was once a carnal Ordinance as the Apostle positively affirms it to have been it remains a carnal Ordinance still and if a carnal Ordinance then no necessary part of the Gospel or New Covenant Dispensation and if no necessary part of it then not needful to continue nor to be practised by such as live and walk under this Dispensation But in this as in most other things according as we have often observed our adversaries Judaize and renouncing the Glorious and Spiritual Priviledges of the New Covenant are sticking in and cleaving to the Rudiments of the old both in Doctrin and Worship as being more suted and agreeable to their carnal apprehensions and natural senses But we on the contrary travel above all to lay hold upon and cleave unto the Light of the Glorious Gospel revealed unto us And the harmony of the Truth we profess in this may appear by briefly observing how in all things we follow the Spiritual Gospel of Christ as contradistinguished from the carnality of the legal Dispensation while our adversaries through rejecting this Gospel are still labouring under the burthen of the Law which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear For the Law and rule of the old Covenant and Jews wus outward written in Tables of Stone and Parchments So also is that of our adversaries But the Law of the New Covenant is inward and perpetual written in the heart so is ours The Worship of the Jews was outward and carnal limitted to set times places and persons and performed according to set prescribed forms and vations so is that of our adversaries But the Worship of the New Covenant is neither limited to time place nor person but is performed in the Spirit and in Truth and is not acted according to set formand prescriptions but as the Spirit of God immediately acts moves and leads whether it be to Preach Pray or Sing and such is also our Worship So likewise the baptism among the Jews under the Law was an outward washing with outward water only to tipifie an outward purification of the Soul which did not necessarily follow upon those that were thus baptized But the Baptism of Christ under the Gospel is the Baptism of the Spirit and of Fire not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God and is the baptism that we labour to be baptized withal and contented for Arg. § VII But again If Water baptism had been an ordinance of the Gospel then the Apostle Paul would have been sent to administer it but he declares positively 1 Cor. 17. That Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the Gospel The reason of that consequence is undenyable because the Apostle Paul's Commission was as large as that of any of them and consequently he being in special manner the Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles if Water-baptism as our Adversaries contend be to be accounted the Badg of Christianity he had more need than any of the rest to be sent to Baptize with Water that he might mark the Gentiles converted by him with that Christian sign But indeed the reason holds better thus that since Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles and that in his Ministry he doth through all as by his Epistles appears labour to wean them from the former Jewish Ceremonies and Observations though in so doing he was sometimes undeservedly judged by others of his Brethren who were unwilling to lay aside those Ceremonies therefore his commission though as full as to the preaching of the Gospel and New Covenant Dispensation at that of the other Apostles did not require of him that he should lead those Converts into such Jewish Observations and Baptisms however that practice was indulged in and practised by the other Apostles among their Jewish Proselytes for which cause He thanks God that he baptized so few intimating that what he did
therein he did not by vertue of his Apostolick commission but rather in condescendence to their weakness even as at another time he circumcised Timothy Our Adversaries to evade the Truth of this Testimony usually alledge that by this is only to be understood that he was not sent principally to baptize not that he was not sent at all But this exposition since it contradicts the positive words of the text and has no better foundation than the affirmation of its assertors Answ. is justly rejected as spurious until they bring some better proof for it he saith not I was not sent principally to Baptize but I was not sent to baptize As for what they urge by way of confirmation from other places of Scripture where not is to be so taken as where it 's said I will have mercy and not sacrifice which is to be understood that God requires principally mercy not excluding Sacrifices I say this place is abundantly explained by the following words and the knowledg of God more than burnt Offerings by which it clearly appears that Burnt offerings which are one with Sacrifices are not excluded but there is no such word added in that of Paul and therefore the parity is not demonstrated to be alike and consequently the instance not sufficient unless they can prove that it ought so to be admitted here else we might interpret by the same rule all other places of Scripture the same way as were the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2.5 That your Faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the Power of God it might be understood it shall not stand principally so How might the Gospel by this liberty of interpretation be perverted If it be said That the abuse of this baptism among the Corinthians Obj. in dividing themselves according to the persons by whom they were baptized made the Apostle speak so but that the abuse of a thing doth not abolish it I answer it is true it doth not Answ. provided the thing be lawful and necessary and that no doubt the abuse abovesaid gave the Apostle occasion so to write But let it from this be considered how the Apostle excludes baptizing not preaching though the abuse mark proceeded from that no less then from the other For these Corinthians did denominate themselves from those different persons by whose preaching as well as from those by whom they were baptized they were converted as by the 4 5 6 7 and 8 verses of the third chap. may appear and yet for to remove that abuse the Apostle doth not say he was not sent to preach nor yet doth he rejoyce that he had only preached to a few because Preaching being a standing ordinance in the Church is not because of any abuse that the Devil may tempt any to make of it to be forborn by such as are called to perform it by the Spirit of God Wherefore the Apostle accordingly chap. 3.8 9. informs them as to that how to remove that abuse but as to Water-baptism for that it was no standing Ordinance of Christ but only practised as in condescendence to the Jews and by some Apostles to some Gentiles also there so soon as the Apostle perceived the abuse of he let the Corinthians understand how little stress was to be laid upon it by shewing them that he was glad that he had administred this ceremony to so few of them and by telling them plainly that it was no part of his commission neither that which he was sent to administer Some ask us how we know that baptizing here is meant of water and not of the Spirit Quest. which if it be then it will exolude baptism of the Spirit as well as of Water Answ. I answer such as ask the question I suppose speak it not as doubting that this was said of Water-baptism which is more then manifest for since the Apostle Paul's message was to turn People from darkness to Light and convert them to God and that as many as are thus turned and converted so as to have the answer of a good Conscience towards God and to have put on Christ and be arisen with him in newness of life are baptized with the baptism of the Spirit But who will say that only these few mentioned there to be baptized by Paul were come to this Or that to turn or bring them to this condition was not even admitting our Adversaries interpretation as principally a part of Paul's Ministry as any other Since then our Adversaries do take this place for Water-baptism as indeed it is we may lawfully taking it also urge it upon them Why the word baptism and baptizing is used by the Apostle where that of Water and not of the Spirit is only understood shall hereafter be spoken to I come now to consider the reasons alledged by such as plead for Water-baptism which are also the objections used against the discontinuance of it First some object that Christ who had the Spirit above measure was notwithstanding baptized with Water As Nic. Arnoldus against this These Sect. 46. of his Theological Exercitation I answer so was he also circumcised it will not follow from thence that Circumcision is to continue for it behoved Christ to fulfill all Righteousness not only the Ministry of John but the Law also Therefore did he observe the Jewish Feasts and Rites and kept the Passover It will not then follow that Christians ought to do so now and therefore Christ Matth. 3.15 gives John this reason of his being baptized desiring him to suffer it to be so now whereby he sufficiently intimates that he intended not thereby to perpetuate it as an Ordinance to his Disciples Secondly they object Matth. 28.19 Go ye therefore Obj. and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost This is the great objection Answ. and upon which they build the whole Superstructure whereunto the first general and sound answer is by granting the whole but puting them to prove that Water is here meant since the text is silent of it And though in reason it be sufficient upon our part that we conclude the whole expressed in the place but deny that it is by Water which is an addition to the Text. Yet I shall premise some reasons why we do so and then consider the reasons alledged by those that will have Water to be here understood The first is a maxime yielded to by all Arg. that we ought not to go from the literal signification of the Text except some urgent necessity force us thereunto But no urgent necessity in this place forceth us thereunto Therefore we ought not to go from it Secondly that Baptism which Christ commanded his Apostles Arg. was the One Baptism id est his own Baptism But the One Baptism which is Christ's Baptism is not with Water as we have already proved Therefore the Baptism commanded by Christ to his Apostles was not
Pelagians for saying that Infants dying unbaptized may be saved And the Manichees were condemned for denying that Grace is universally given by Baptism and Julian the Pelagian by Augustin for denying exorcism and insufflation in the use of Baptism all which things Protestants deny also So that Protestants do but foolishly to upbraid us as if we could not shew any among the Antients that denyed Water-baptism seeing they cannot shew any whom they acknowledg not to have been heretical in several things to have used it nor yet who using it did not use also the sign of the Cross and other things with it which they deny There were some nevertheless in the darkest times of Popery who testified against Water-baptism For one Alanus pag. 103 104 107. speaks of some in his time that were burnt for the denying of it for they said that Baptism had no efficacy either in Children or adult Persons and therefore men were not obliged to take Baptism Particularly Ten Canonicks so called were burnt for that crime by the order of King Robert of France And P. Pithaeus tells in his Fragments of the History of Guienne which is also confirmed by one Johannes Floracensis a Monk who was famous at that time in his Epistle to Oliva Abbot of the Ausonian Church I will saith he give you to understand concerning the Heresie that was in the City of Orleans on Childeâ—-mass-day foy it was true if ye have heard any thing that King Robert caused to be burnt alive nigh fourteen of that City of the chief of their Clergy and the more noble of their Laicks who were hateful to God and abominable to Heaven and Earth for they did stiffly deny the Grace of Holy Baptism and also the Consecration of our Lord's Body and Blood The time of this deed is noted in these words by Papir Masson in his Annals of France lib. 3. in Hugh and Robert actum Aureliae publice anno incarnationis Domini 1022 regni Roberti Regis 28. indictione 5. quando Stephanus haeresiarcha complices ejus damnati sunt exusti Aureliae Now for their calling them Hereticks and Maniches we have nothing but the testimony of their accusers which will no more invalidate their testimony for this Truth against the use of Water-baptism or give more ground to charge us as being one with Maniches than because some called by them Maniches do agree with Protestants in some things that therefore Protestants are Maniches or Hereticks which Protestants can no waies shun For the question is whether in what they did they walked according to the Truth testified of by the Spirit in the Holy Scripture so that the controversie is brought back again to the Scriptures according to which I suppose I have formerly discussed it As for the latter part of the Thesis denying the use of Infant Baptism it necessarily follows from what is above said for if Water-baptism be ceased then surely Baptizing of Infants is not warrantable But those that take upon them to oppose us in this matter will have more to do as to this latter part for after they have done what they can to prove Water-baptism it remains for them to prove that Infants ought to be baptized For he that proves Water-baptism ceased proves that Infant Baptism is vain But he that should prove that Water-baptism continues has not thence proved that Infant Baptism is necessary That needs something further and therefore it was a pitiful subterfuge of Nic. Arnoldus against this to say that the denying of Infant-baptism belonged to the gangrene of the Anabaptists without adding any further probation The Thirteenth Proposition Concerning the Communion or participation of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is inward and Spiritual which is the participation of his Flesh and Blood by which the inward man is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells of which things the breaking of Bread by Christ with his Disciples was a figure which they even used in the Church for a time who had received the Substance for the sake of the weak even as abstaining from things strangled and from Blood the washing of one anothers Feet and the anointing of the Sick with Oyl all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former yet seeing they are but the shaddows of better things they cease in such as have obtained the Substance § I. THe Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is a mystery hid from all natural men in their first faln and degenerate state which they cannot understand reach to nor comprehend as they there abide neither as they there are can they be partakers of it nor yet are they able to discern the Lord's Body And forasmuch as the Christian World so called for the most part hath been still labouring working conceiving and imagining in their own natural and unrenewed understandings about the things of God and Religion therefore hath this mystery much been hid and sealed up from them while they have been contending quarrelling and fighting one with another about the meer shaddow outside and form but strangers to the Substance Life and Vertue § II. The Body then of Christ which believers partake of is Spiritual and not Carnal and his Blood which they drink of is pure and heavenly and not humane or elementary as Augustin also affirms of the Body of Christ which is eaten in his Tractat. Psal. 98. Except a man eat my Flesh he hath not in him Life Eternal and he saith the words which I spake unto you are Spirit and Life understand spiritually what I have spoken Ye shall not eat of this Body which ye see and drink this Blood which they shall spill that crucifie me I am the living Bread who have descended from Heaven he calls himself the Bread who descended from Heaven exhorting that we might believe in him c. If it be asked then what that Body what that Flesh and Blood is I answer it is that Heavenly Seed that Divine Spiritual Coelestial Substance Answ. of which we spake before in the fifth and sixth Propositions This is that vehiculum Dei or Spiritual Body of Christ whereby and wherethrough he communicateth Life to men and Salvation to as many as believe in him and receive him and whereby also man comes to have fellowship and communion with God This is proved from the 6 of John from verse 32 to the end where Christ speaks more at large of this matter than in any other place and indeed this Evangelist and beloved Disciple who lay in the bosom of our Lord gives us a more full account of the Spiritual sayings and Doctrine of Christ and it 's observable that though he speaks nothing of the ceremony used by Christ of breaking Bread with his Disciples neither in his Evangelical account of Christ's life and sufferings nor in his Epistles yet he is more large in this account of the
than a cutting off from the Church is not nor can be shewn Beza upon the place saith We cannot understand that otherwise than of Excommunication Such as was that of the incestuous Corinthian And indeed it is madness to suppose it otherwise for Paul would not have these cut off otherwise than he did Hymenaeus and Philetus who were Blasphemers which was by giving them over to Satan not by cutting off their Heads The same way may be answered that other argument drawn from Rev. 2.20 Where the Church of Thyatira is reproved for suffering the woman Jezebel Which can be no other waies understood than that they did not excommunicate her or cut her off by a Church censure for as to corporal punishment it is known that at that time the Christians had not power to punish Hereticks so if they had had a mind to it Fourthly they alledge Obj. that Heresies are numbred among the works of the Flesh Gal. 5.20 Ergo c. That Magistrates have power to punish all the works of the Flesh Answ. is denyed and not yet proved Every evil is a work of the Flesh but every evil comes not under the Magistrates cognisance Is not Hypocrisie a work of the Flesh which our adversaries confess the Magistrates ought not to punish Yea is not Hatred and Envy there mentioned as the works of the Flesh and yet the Magistrates cannot punish them as they are in themselves until they exert themselves in other acts which come under his power But so long as Heresie doth not exert it self in any act destructive to humane society or such like things but is kept within the sphere of those duties of doctrin or worship which stand betwixt a man and God they no waies come under a Magistrates power § IV. But secondly this forcing of mens consciences is contrary to sound Reason and to the very law of Nature For man's understanding cannot be forced by all the bodily sufferings another man can inflict upon him especially in matters Spiritual and Supernatural 't is arguments and evident demonstrations of Reason together with the power of God reaching the Heart that can change a man's mind from one opinion to another and not knocks and blows and such like things which may well destroy the Body but can never inform the Soul which is a free agent and must either accept or reject matters of opinion as they are born in upon it by something proportional to its own nature To seek to force minds in ony other manner is to deal with men as if they were brutes void of understanding and at last is but to lose ones labour and as the proverb is to seek to wash the Blackmore white By that course indeed men may be made Hypocrites but can never be made Christians and surely the products of such compulsion even where the end is obtained to wit an outward assent or conformity whether in Doctrin or Worship can be no waies acceptable to God who desireth not any Sacrifice except that which cometh througly from the Heart and will have no constrained ones so that men so constrained are so far from being members of the Church that they are made ten-times more the Servants of Satan than before in that to their Error is added Hypocrisie the worst of Evils in matters of Religion and that which above all things the Lord's Soul most abhors But if it be said their error notwithstanding is thereby suppressed Obj. and the scandal removed I answer besides that this is a method no waies allowed by Christ Answ. as is above proved surely the Church can be no waies better'd by the accession of Hypocrites but greatly corrupted and endangered for open Heresie men be aware of and shun such as profess them when they are separated from the Church by her Censures but secret Hypocrites may putrifie the Body and leaven it ere men be aware And if the Dissenters prove resolute and suffer boldly for the Opinions they esteem right experience sheweth that such sufferings often tend to the condemnation of the sufferers but never of the persecutors for such suffering ordinarily breeds compassion and begets a curiosity in others to inquire the more diligently into the things for which they see men suffer so great losses so boldly and is also able to beget an opinion that it is for some good they do suffer it being no waies probable that men will venture all meerly to acquire fame which may as well be urged to detract from the reputation of all the Martyrs unless some better arguments be brought against it than a Halter or a Faggot But supposing this principle that the Magistrate hath power to force the Consciences of his Subjects and to punish them if they will not comply very great inconveniencies and absurdities will follow and even such as are inconsistent with the nature of the Christian Religion For first it will naturally follow that the Magistrate ought to do it and sinneth by omission of his duty if he do it not Will it not then hence be inferred that Christ was defective to his Church who having power to force men and for to call for legions of Angels so to do did notwithstanding exert that power but lest his Church to the mercy of the wicked without so necessary a bulwark Secondly seeing every Magistrate is to exercise his power according to the best understanding he hath being obliged so to do for the promoting of what he in conscience is perswaded to be Truth Will not this justifie all the Heathen Emperors in their persecutions against Christians Will not this justifie the Spanish Inquisition which yet is odious not only to Protestants but to many moderate Papists How can Protestants in reason condemn the Papists for persecuting them seeing they do but exercise a lawful power according to their Conscience and best understanding and do no more to them than the sufferers profess they would do to them if they were in the like capacity Which takes away all ground of commiseration from the sufferers whereas that was the ground that gained of old reputation to the Christians that they being innocent suffered who neither had nor by principle could hurt any But there is little reason to pity one that is but dealt by according as he would deal with others For to say they have not reason to persecute us because they are in the wrong and we in the right is but miserably to beg the question Doth not this Doctrin strengthen the hands of persecutors every where and that rationally from a principle of self preservation For who can blame me for destroying him that I know waits but for an occasion to destroy me if he could Yea this makes all suffering for Religion which of old was the glory of Christians to be but of pure necessity whereby they are not led as Lambs to the Slaughter as was the Captain of their Salvation but rather as Wolves catched in the snare who only bite not again
that they shun to witness for Christ for fear of hurt to themselves lest they mistake them As for that private meeting of the Disciples we have only an account of the matter of fact but that suffices not to make of it a president for us and mens aptness to imitate them in that which for ought we know might have been an act of weakness and not in other things of the contrary nature shews that it is not a true zeal to be like those Disciples but indeed a desire to preserve themselves which moves them so to do Lastly as to that of Paul's being conveyed out of Damascus the case was singular and is not to be doubted but it was done by a special allowance from God who having designed him to be a principal Minister of his Gospel saw meet in hss Wisdom to disoppoint the wicked council of the Jews But our adversaries have no such pretext for fleeing whose fleeing proceeds from self preservation not from immediate revelation And that Paul made not this the method of his proceedure appears in that at another time notwithstanding the perswasion of his Friends and certain Prophecys of his sufferings to come he would not be disswaded to go up to Jerusalem which according to the fore-mentioned rule he should have done But lastly to conclude this matter Glory to God and our Lord Jesus Christ that now these twenty five years since we were known to be a distinct and separate People hath given us faithfully to suffer for his Name without shrinking or fleeing the Cross and what liberty we now enjoy it is by his Mercy and not by an outward working or procuring of our own but 't is he has wrought upon the hearts of our opposers nor was it any outward interest hath procured it unto us but the testimony of our harmlesness in the hearts of our Superiors for God hath preserved us hitherto in the patient suffering of Jesus that we have not given away our cause by persecuting any which few if any Christians that I know can say Now against our unparalleled yet innocent and Christian cause our malicious enemies have nothing to say but that if we had Power we would do so likewise This is a piece of meer unreasonable malice and a priviledg they take to judg of things to come which they have not by immediate revelation and surely it is the greatest heighth of harsh judgment to say men would do contrary to their professed Principle if they could who have from their practice hitherto given no ground for it and wherein they only judg others by themselves such conjectures cannot militate against us so long as we are innocent And if ever we prove guilty of persecution by forcing other men by corporal punishment to our way then let us be judged the greatest of Hypocrites and let not any spare to persecute us AMEN saith my Soul The Fifteenth Proposition Concerning Salutations and Recreations c. Seeing the chief end of all Religion is to redeem men from the Spirit and vain conversation of this World and to lead into inward communion with God before whom if we fear always we are accounted happy therefore all the vain customs and habits thereof both in word and deed are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear such as the taking off the Hat to a man the bowings and cringings of the body and such other Salutations of that kind with all the foolish and superstitious formalities attending them all which man has invented in his degenerate state to feed his Pride in the vain pomp and glory of this world as also the unprofitable Plays frivolous Recreations Sportings and Gaming 's which are invented to pass away the precious time and divert the mind from the witness of God in the heart and from the living sense of his fear and from that Evangelical Spirit wherewith Christians ought to be leavened and which leads into sobriety gravity and godly fear in which as we abide the blessing of the Lord is felt to attend us in those actions which we are necessarily ingaged in order to the taking care for the sustenance of the outward man § I. HAving hitherto treated of the Principles of Religion both relating to Doctrine and Worship I am now to speak of some practices which have been the product of this Principle in those Witnesses whom God hath raised up in this day to testifie for his Truth It will not a little commend them I suppose in the judgment of sober and judicious men that taking them generally even by the Confession of their Adversaries they are found to be free of those Abominations which abound among other Professors such as are Swearing Drunkenness Whoredom Riotousness c. And that generally the very coming among this People doth naturally work such a change so that many vitious and profane persons have been known by coming to this Truth to become sober and vertuous and many light vain and wanton ones to become grave and serious as our adversaries dare not deny yet that they may not want something to detract us for cease not to accuse us for those things which when found among themselves they highly commend thus our gravity they call sullenness our seriousness melancholly our silence sottishness Such as have been vitious and profane among them but by coming to us have left off those evils lest they should commend the truth of our profession they say that whereas they were profane before they are become worse in being hypocritical and spiritually proud If any before dissolute and profane among them by coming to the Truth with us become frugal and diligent then they will charge them with covetousness And if any eminent among them for seriousness piety and discoveries of God come unto us then they will say they were always subject to melancholly and to enthusiasm though before when among them it was esteem'd neither melancholly nor enthusiasm in an evil sense but Christian gravity and Divine revelation Our boldness and Christian suffering the call obstinacy and pertinacy though half as much if among themselves they would account Christian courage and nobility And though thus by their envy they strive to read all relating to us backwards counting these things vice in us which in themselves they would extol as vertues yet hath the strength of Truth extorted this confession often from them that we are generally a pure and clean people as to the outward conversation But this they say is but in policy to commend our heresie But such policy it is say I as Christ and his Apostles made use of and all good Christians ought to do yea so far hath Truth prevailed by the purity of his followers that if one that is called a Quaker do but that which is common among them as to laugh and be wanton speak at large and keep not his word punctually or be overtaken with hastyness or anger they presently say O!
to his Brethren Ninthly they object Isa. 65.16 where speaking of the Evangelical times Obj. he saith That he who blesseth himself in the Earth shall bless himself in the God of Truth and he that sweareth in the Earth shall swear by the God of Truth because the former troubles are forgotten and because they are hid from mine Eyes For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth Therefore in these times we ought to swear by the Name of the Lord. I answer It is ordinary for the Prophets to express the greatest duties of Evangelical times in Mosaical terms as appears among others Answ. from Jer. 31.38 39 40. Ezek. 36.25 and 40. and Isa. 45.23 I have sworn by my self that unto me ever knee shall bowe every tongue shall swear Where the Righteousness of the New Jerusalem the purity of the Gospel with its Spiritual Worship and the profession of the Name of Cbrist are expressed under forms of speaking used to Old Jerusalem under the washings of the Law under the names of Ceremonles the Temple Services Sacrifices Oaths c. Yea that which the Prophet speaks here of Swearing the Apostle Paul interprets it expresly of confession saying Rom. 14.11 For it is written As I live saith the Lord Every knee shall bowe to me and every tongue shall confess to God Which being rightly considered none can be ignorant but these words which the Prophet writes under the Law when the Ceremonial Oaths were in use to wit Every Tongue shall swear whereby the Apostle being under the Gospel when those Oaths became abolished expressed by Every tongue shall confess Tenthly they object But the Apostle Paul approves Oaths used among men when he writes Heb. 6.16 Obj. For men verily swear by the greater and an Oath of Confirmation is to them an end of all strife But there are as many contests fallacies and differences at this time as there were ever Therefore the necessity of Oaths doth yet remain I answer the Apostle tells indeed in this place what men at that time did who lived in controversies and incredulity not what they ought to have done nor what the Saints did who were redeemed from strife and incrudulity and had come to Christ that Truth and Amen of God Moreover he only alludes to a certain custom usual among men that he might express the firmity of the Divine Promise that he might excite in the Saints so much the more confidence in God promising to them not that he might instigate them to swear against the law of God or confirm them in that no not at all for neither doth 1 Cor. 9.24 teach Christians the vain races whereby men often times even to the destruction of their Bodies are wearied to obtain a corruptible prize So neither doth Christ who is the Prince of Peace teach his Disciples to fight albeit he takes notice Luk. 14.31 what it behoveth such Kings to do who are accustomed to fight as prudent warriors therein Secondly as to what pertains to contests perfidies and diffidences among men which our adversaries affirm to have grown to such an height that Swearing is at present as necessary as ever that we deny not at all for we see and daily experience teacheth us that all manner of deceit and malice doth encrease among worldly men and false Christians but not among true Christians but because men cannot trust one another and therefore require Oaths one of another it will not therefore follow that true Christians ought to do so whom Christ has brought to true faithfulness and honesty as well towards God as one towards another and therefore has delivered them from contests perfidies and consequently from Oaths Eleventhly they object We grant that among true Christians there is not need of Oaths Obj. but by what means shall we infallibly know them It will follow then that Oaths are at present needful and that it is lawful for Christians to swear to wit that such may be satisfied who will not acknowledg this and the other man to be a Christian. I answer It is no waies lawful for a Christian to swear whom Christ hath called to his essential Truth Answ. which was before all Oaths forbidding him to swear and on the contrary commanding him to speak the Truth in all things to the honour of Christ who called him that it may appear that the words of his Disciples may be as truly believed as the Oaths of all the worldly men Neither is it lawful for them to be unfaithful in this that they may please others for that they may avoid their hurt for thus the primitive Christians for some ages remained faithful who being required to swear did unanimously answer I am a Christian I swear not What shall I say of the Heathens some of whom arrived to that degree For Diodoris Siculus relates lib. 16. that the giving of the right hand was among the Persians a sign of speaking the Truth and the Scythians as Qu. Curtius relates said in their conferences with Alexander the Great Think not that the Scythians confirm their friendship by swearing they swear by keeping their promises Stobaeus in his third Sermon tells that Solomon said A good man ought to be in that estimation that he need not an Oath because it is to be reputed a lessening of his honour if he be forced to swear Pythagoras in his Oration among other things hath this maxime as that which concerns the administration of the Common-wealth Let no man call God to witness by an Oath no not in judgment but let every man so accustom himself to speak that he may become worthy to be trusted even without an Oath Basil the Great commends Clinias an Heathen that he had rather pay three talents which are about three thousand pound than swear Socrates as Stobaeus relates Serm. 14. had this sentence the duty of good men requires that they shew to the world that their manners and actions are more firm than Oaths the same was the judgment of Isocrates Plato also stood against Oaths in his judgments De Leg. 12. Quintilianus takes notice that it was of old a kind of infamy if any was desired to swear but to require an Oath of a noble man was like an examining him by the Hangman Marcus Aurelius Antonius the Emperor of Rome saith in his description of a good man Such is his integrity that he needs not an Oath So also some Jews did witness as Grotius relates out of Maimonides It is best for a man to abstain from all Oaths The Esseans as Philo Judaeus relates did esteem their words more firm than Oaths and Oaths were esteemed among them as needless things And Philo himself speaking of the third Commandment explains his mind thus viz. It were better altogether not to swear but to be accustomed alwaies to speak the Truth that naked words might have the strength of an Oath And elswhere he saith It is more agreeable to natural Reason altogether to abstain from Swearing
perswading that whatsoever a good man saith may be equivalent with an Oath Who then needs further to doubt but that since Christ would have his Disciples attain the highest pitch of Perfection he abrogated Oaths as a rudiment of infirmity and in place thereof established the use of Truth Who can now any more think that the holy Martyrs and ancient Fathers of the first three hundred years and many others since that tâ—me have so opposed themselves to Oaths that they might only rebuke vain and rash Oaths by the Creatures or heathen Idols which were also prohibited under the Mosaical Law and not also swearing by the True God in Truth and Righteousness which was there commanded as Polycarpus Justin Mart. Apol. 2. and many Martyrs as Eusebius relates Tertullian in his Apol. cap. 32. ad Scap. cap. 1. of Idolatry c. 11. Clem. Alexan. Strom. lib. 7. Origen in Matth. Tract 25. Cypr. lib. 3. Athanas. in pass cruc Dom. Christi Hilarius in Mat. 5.34 Basil. Magn. in Psal. 14. Greg. Nyssenus in Cant. Orat. 13. Greg. Nazian in dial contra juramenta Epiphan ad versus haeres lib. 1. Ambros. de Virg. lib. 3. Idem in Mat. 5. Chrysost in Genes hom 15. Idem hom in Act. Apost cap. 3. Hieronymus Epist. lib. part 3. Ep. 2. Idem in Zach. lib. 2. cap. 8 Idem in Mat. lib. 1. cap. 5. Augustin de serm Dom. serm 28. Cyrillus in Jer. 4. Theodoretus in Deut. 6. Isidor Pelâ—sioâ—a Ep. lib. 1. Epist. 155. Chromatius in Mat. 5. Johan Damascenus l. 3. c. 16. Casiodorus in Psal. 94. Isidorus Hispalensis cap. 31. Antiochus in Pandect script hom 62. Beda in Jac. 5. Haimo in Apoc. Ambros. Ansbertus in Apoc. Theophylactus in Mat. 5. Pascasius Ratbertus in Mat. 5. Otho Brunsfelsius in Mat. 5. Druthmarus in Mat. 5. Euthymius Eugubinus Bilblioth vet patr in Mat. 5. OEcumenius in Jac. c. 5. v. 12. Anselmus in Mat. 5. Waldenses Viclevus Erasmus in Mat. 5. in Jac. 5. Who can read these places and doubt longer of their sense in this matter And who believing that they were against all Oaths can bring so great an indignity to the Name of Christ as to seek to subject again his followers to so great an indignity Is it not rather time that all good men labour to remove this abuse and infamy from Christians Lastly They Object This will bring in fraud and confusion for Impostors will counterfeit probity Obj. and under the benefit of this dispensation will be without fear of punishment I answer There are two things only which oblige a man to speak the Truth Answ. First Either the fear of God in his heart and love of Truth for where this is there is no need of Oaths to speak the Truth Or Secondly the fear of punishment from the Judge Therefore let there be the same or rather greater punishment appointed to those who pretend so great truth in words and so great simplicity in heart that they cannot lie and so great reverence towards the Law of Christ that for Conscience sake they deny to Swear in any wise if they fail and so there shall be the same good order yea greater security against deceivers as if Oaths were continued and also by that more severe punishment to which these false dissemblers shall be liable Hence wicked men shall be more terrified and good men delivered from all oppression both in their liberty and Goods for which cause for their tender Consciences God hath often a regard to Magistrates and their state as a thing most acceptable to him But if any can further doubt of this thing to wit if without confusion it can be practised in the Common-wealth let him consider the state of the United Netherlands and he shall see the good effect of it for there because of the great number of Merchants more than in any other place there is most frequent occasion for this thing and tho the number of those that are of this mind be considerable to whom the States these hundred years have condescended and yet daily condescend yet nevertheless there has nothing of prejudice followed thereupon to the Common-wealth Government or good order but rather great advantage to Trade and so to the Common-wealth § XIII Sixthly The last thing to be considered is revenge and war an evil as opposit and contrary to the Spirit and Doctrin of Christ as Light to Darkness For as is manifest by what is said through contempt of Christ's Law the whole world is filled with various oaths cursings blasphemous profanations and horrid perjuries so likewise through contempt of the same Law the world is filled with violence Oppression Murders ravishing of Women and Virgins Spoilings Depredations Burnings Vastations and all manner of Lasciviousness and Cruelty so that it is strange that men made after the Image of God should have so much degenerated that they rather bear the Image and nature of roaring Lions tearing Tygers devouring Wolves and raging Boars than of rational Creatures endued with reason and is it not yet much more admirable that this horrid Monster should find place and be fomented among those men that profess themselves Disciples of our peaceable Lord and Master Jesus Christ who by excellency is called the Prince of Peace and hath expresly prohibited his children all violence and oâ— the contrary commanded them that according to his example they should follow Patience Charity Forbearance and other vertues worthy of a Christian. Hear then what this great Prophet saith whom every Soul is commanded to hear under the pain of being cut-off Matth. 5. from v. 38. to the end of the chapter For thus he saith Ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you That ye resist not evil But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also And if any man will sue thee at law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain Give to him that asketh thee and for him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust For if ye love them which love you what reward have ye Do not even the Publicans the same And if ye salute your brethren only what do you more than others Do not the Publicans so Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which in heaven is perfect These words with a respect to revenge as the former in the case of