and therefore was justified in that his actions were counted to him for righteousness so that his righteousness was of faith not of works for then would it have been an action of the body when faith is an act of the soule by which he and every beleever is and shall be saved and by faith was he satisfied so as to be accepted and that faith which then was sufficient is the same still even unto the end for he that beleeves shall be saved And by grace are we saved through faith and that not of our selves observe that it is the gift of God And the difference is not of the matter whereof it was and is wrought but in the means and manner at which you are offended in that because he then wrought himselfe immediately he doth not the same now but by his Ambassadors beseeching us to be reconciled unto him But if this be not a limiting of God what is then for shame cease to professe thy selfe the servant of God when thou seekest to pervert his will for that cannot be the spirit of God in thee which so fighteth against it in the Primitive Saints Query 11. Can any preach Christ who have not Christ in them and where he is is he not sole teacher what to preach and pray and how and when and to whom and is he to be limited by any external thing or to any external thing or is any ordinance to be practised but what he in spirit leads the creature to An Answer to the Eleventh Query It is possible that there may now be as in the Primitive times there were them which may preach Christ and yet not have Christ within them for far be it from me to deny or to imagine otherwise but that Judas the Tray tor preached Christ as well as any other of the Apostles and Paul testifieth as much unto the Church of Philippi that some there were that preached Christ out of envy to his cause Such I feare thou art and many more of thy society and some of strife and some of good will but yet still of them all thus testifieth Paul that whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached I doe rejoyce yea and will therein rejoyce And the same Apostle though to another Church renders it a matter possible that whilest a Minister teaches to save others he may become a castaway himselfe when this is an assured certainty that where Christ hath begun a good work of faith in any he will perform also it and the rest of this your Query I suppose tends to that which you and more of your Apostatiz'd Brethren have asserted as that we ought to wait in silence till the Spirit move us and that whoso useth the Scriptures are robbers and stealers of others mens words This you once asserted to me and so consequently urging all to forsake reading teaching and praying or any such like exercises unlesse the Spirit by irresistable motions move us thereunto against which I utterly declare as have others done for this were first to bereave us of that glorious priviledge of communion with God he speaking unto us in his word we unto him in prayer Secondly to shut up the Kingdome of God in some sort from the sons of men in bereaving us of the meanes for discipline and observance is the security of an Army in war and what are glad tydings if they are not told Thirdly this is to presse us to the omission of duty which is questionlesse commission of offence And fourthly this leaves all open to the assaults of Satan we laying downe in our infirmities and not standing up against his invasions and temptations And lastly this giveth way to sluggishnesse of spirit and to an unwatchfulness in matters of salvation and endeavour to engage us to a confidence of beliefe in and to every thing that shall come in the name of Christ and so to receive Antichrist not leaving us the priviledge of the braines to try the words of an Apostle by the umpi of all controversies the sacred Scriptures which is absolutely opposite unto the truth and contrary yea far exorbitant from the known will and temporal expressive word of God for though he hath said The Spirit shall teach us all things yet hath it said againe Meditate on these things give thy selfe wholly to them Now wholly excludes all negligent intermission and the manner how is prescribed too for Study to shew thy selfe approved and stir up the gift in thee as fire which sometimes is covered with ashes and againe Be constant and instant in prayer and pray continually which includes all times and seasons wherefore we ought to put up our supplications at the throne of grace not onely when the spirit especially moveth us but when our occasions or necessities require and far be it from me to imagine that the Spirit of God moved the Apostles to preach when they did onely and at no other time and that they alwayes waited in silence till then for then it stirred up it selfe they stirred it not but rather hid their talents of grace in the earth and so were unprofitable if not unfaithful servants and since the holy Ghost advised and the the Apostles so practised as to meditate study and pray without ceasing it appeares plainly unto me that Christ neither limited or constrained them respectively in particular but onely notionally in general so to doe giving them repenitent hearts to sorrow for sinne and grace to beleeve and power thorow that grace to exercise faith in the performance of those duties and when they prayed Christ also prayed with them and as a faithful Mediatour making continual intercession at the throne of grace that the fruition of their prayers might be the accomplishment of their desires and far be it from me to imagine that Christ can be limited by any external thing though I suppose and really beleeve that it is possible for any man to limit himselfe and then much more for Christ who is God and therefore with him all things are possible and so may limit himselfe in any thing if he please Quere 12. What is the ground and rise of your knowledge whether it be received within man from God or without from the Letter And if without whether this be not the knowledge which all the vaine janglers comes out of and the generation of persecutors comes out of as the Jewes was in which professed the Letter and were strangers to the life of God And whether this generation of men and Professors in our Age do not begin to manifest the same as the persecuting Jewes did yea or nay An Answer to the Twefth Query My knowledge as was Pauls is neither perfectly the one nor the other and yet partly both for as the disciples of Ephesus were ignorant of Jesus though baptized unto John and had not so much as heard of that name or that there was a holy Ghost notwithstanding any inward light until they
cries up one while and down another the self and the same thing And are not Scriptures external means and so granted by you to be useless and how then are they means of perfection if they be not useful or doe you mean something not external and so intitle a false thing Scripture But I fear your Ministry is rather misery then mercy for if you had receiv'd the mercy that Paul had you would also renounce the hidden things of dishonesty as Paul did not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully as you do And if you look a little further into the very same chapter of Paul to the Rom. you shall find him make it a matter not only of difficulty but also of impossibility that any should believe without hearing or hear without a Preacher by whom Christ is preached even by them that bring the word of God whose feet are beautiful And this is the word nigh us even at our doors not leaving us to travel to Jerusalem as of old to hear the word of the Lord which now is nigh to us though he be in heaven and we on earth by faith in him But if that that light in every individual man and woman be the sure word of Prophesie is there then a Prophetick light in all if so what doth it prophesie of life and righteousnesse for sinners in a Mediator or of death for disobedience and if this be the light that shines in a dark place what is the day-star and the Sun of righteousnesse for though the Apostle hath said that all may prophecy one by one yet hath he said again are all Prophets no but I wish the Lords people were all such and that Preaching is powerful I believe though you once denied it and I now see truth is no truth till it serve your turn And for every thing that you adde further we know it without your teaching as that every man which comes into the world of nature Christ as God enlightens with the light of nature as reason sense and the like and that he is the Saviour of the world Qu. 5. And if that the external means be useless to what end were those most sacred gifts bestowed upon men Eph. 4. 10 11 12. And how the end and intent for which they were given became void Answ. 5. The end of those gifts was for perfecting the Saints and bringing all into one faith unto a perfect man which they that teach that none can be perfect by those gifts while they live do set up a faith in people contrary to the end of those gifts and by setting up external things in stead of these spiritual gifts have you lost the gifts and have made them void and so are become enemies to the end and intent of them in others who have them and believe the end of them And thus the end and intent for which they were given are become void to you Eph. 4. 10 11 12. Rep. 5. Here also you abuse my intentions wrest my meaning as you doe the Scripture unto your owne will which we are not to query what for that I know as well as you can tell me if not better but if external means were useless and so consequently these gifts how became their end void for which they were given so that you answer not at all to the question but at confused randum and stuffe up lines with lyes First that to teach that none can be perfect in this life by these gifts is to set up a false faith produce a president of one person in all the Scripture that ever was perfect by any meanes whatsoever except Christ if you can or else yeild your self a lyar Secondly that by setting up external things for those spiritual I have made them void which is another lye and that two-fold First prove that ever I set up external things in stead of spiritual things if you can but have not you and your Ghostly Father the Pope done it in setting up carnal dictates of your own brains for that of the spirit of God Secondly that I have made them void testifie this if thou canst O subtil deceiver Thirdly that I am become an enemy to the end of these gifts in others I declare in the presence of God I honour though you oppose them wheresoever they be which is backed by a fourth lye that the end and intent of them is become void to me when my end is is not yet come but how soon it may God knowes but this I can testifie the fruits of those gifts have I reaped in my measure and by them in others have been both established and instructed in the truth and so I can witnesse the effects though not the end of them as yet But what means Paul by the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven if they were perfect before on earth and whether is Paul or you a lyar herein Qu. 6. If natural light be sufficient without the help of the means what then is become of the work of grace Eph. 2. 5 8. Rom. 11. 6. and of the growth of faith Luke 17. 5. Mark 9. 24. The practical use of Ordinances 1 Cor. 11. 2 23 24. As Baptism Matth. 8. 9. The Lords Supper Reading 1 Tim. 4. 13. Preaching Matth. 28. 20. and several other places Prayer 1 Thess. 5. 17. Rom. 12. 12 Communion of Saints in publique Assemblies Heb 10. 25. Answ. 6. The light of Christ is the gift of the grace of God which brings salvation which teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. And with this light is the work of grace seen but thou that callest this natural light or wouldst make people believe it is not sufficient must needs be ignorant of that spirit whereby that work of grace and growth of faith prayer and communion of Saints Supper and Ordinances is known for without faith in the light of Christ these are not known nor accepted though dark natural imaginations may make an imitation from them in the letter 1 Cor. 2. 14. And thus are the works of grace become to all that deny the light and spirit of Christ within and take up a tradition from the letter without sensual having not the spirit Jude 19. Reply 6. O deceitful sophistry Is this an answering or a baffling Is it a satisfactory resolve when I asked you what was become of the work of grace faith the growth of Faith which is by the natural use of ordinances c. all which we own as did the Apostles though you deny most if not all of them when you wave it and proceed contrary to request to declare though but shallowly what the work of grace is how sin and how the rest are known all which is impertinent to the thing required and therefore it being only a titular answer it scarce deserves a reply so that it resteth as at
the first wholly unanswered not on thing being properly cleared Qu. 7. Whether the Bible be the written word of God yea or no if not what means the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. 36. 37 38. Gal. 1. 10 11. 1 Thess. 2. 13. Answ. That is the word which the Bible declares of which is invisible and eternal which they that received it of God and had it in their hearts did speak or write it down which writing they called a declaration Luke 1. 1. 1 John 1. 3. But doth no where say the Bible is the word but God and Christ is the word John 1. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 25. And of this word the Apostle means which was of God and not of man nor by man and the word of God is the name of Christ and not the name of the Bible Rev. 19. 13. Reply 7. I must needs confesse though I am loth to use it thine own language best beseems the exordium of this Reply Thou blind Sot canst thou so much boast of the spirit of light and yet be so far blinded in darknes as not to discern between the co-essential and co-eternal word with God the temporal expressive word of God And if they received this word of God as you acknowledge they did how then can it be but it must be the word of God from whence it did proceed and the Scriptures quoted by thee are nothing to the purpose For John 1. 1. The word was with God and the word was God And so this temporal word is but the expressive word of that co essential word and so it is a lye to say that this is that word that the Apostle means when he saith For this cause thank we God alwayes that when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of man but as it is in truth the word of God This is clear and the Apostle saith that it was not of man nor by man but by the revelation of Jesus Christ and so not the word Christ but the word of Christ who is God And for the other it is so clear speaking plainly of writings that it needs not be discoursed And a learned Author renders that place Rev. 19. 13. as being spoken of Christ as to his co-essential name and I the rather believe it in respect that the same St. John records and testifies of what he writ as from the mouth of an Angel These are the true sayings of God and makes a distinct difference between the word of God and the testimony of Jesus and such like titles are usually attributed to the holy volume of the Scriptures as the word of God * the word of the Lord the commandements of the Lord and the like But that the Scriptures should say that the Bible is the word of God is absurd to imagine because it is a word not there to be found it being a word of Art used to expresse the whole volume of the Scriptures in general but yet that which is therein contained is so called and is so indeed Qu. 8. If the Ministry now established be Antichristian where then and who be Orthodoxal Ans. Those Ministers who have their Authority from Chr. are such as abide in the doctrine of Christ and these are they who are hated of the world ever was for crying out against the deceits and filthinesse of the world Priests and people And whereas thou askest where they are I say in Gaoles and Prisons in this Nation many of these are for the same now by means of those who live out of the doctrine of Christ and in the steps of the false Prophets Scribes and Pharisees seeking for their gaine bearing rule by their meanes being call'd of men Masters c. all which are forbidden by Christ and for bearing witnesse against such much innocent blood hath been shed though they ever call themselves Orthodoxal and the Ministry of Christ establisht by men Reply 8. That these Ministers who are of Christ abide in the doctrine of Christ we know and witnesse and need not you to teach us and hereby are assured you are not of him but of some other And the persecuters in all Ages like you sought to set up â— doctrine and way of worship of themselves and yet were sensual having not the spirit though separated as peculiarly sacred such as are you and your Founder the Pope Yet still was it their practice like as you doe now to cry down and as the Eagle to her prey pick forth first the right eye of Christianity to wit the Ministry that they might no more speak uprightly of that name in which onely is Redemption that so the Shepherds being destroyed and the flock dispersed they might with the more ease and the lesse difficulty be devoured by such wolfes as thy selfe and so be made a prey for the deceiver But since you say the true Ministers are in Gaoles and Prisons in this Nation who doe you meane the Romish Priests from whence you sprung and such like if these be they speak out or are they some of those branches which are sprung from that grove of heresie to wit your vagabond fraternity taken up as strayed from their habitations and from their Religion too But that these are for the same now that the true Saints in former times were martyr'd for is a most notorious lye and prove it if thou canst that ever any dyed for this cause wherein you now persevere except Jesuits and you seem to accuse us as being out of the doctrine of Christ as also saith Rome because we are not one with you and them And you seem to alledge that they seek for their gaine from their quarter speaking of our Ministry of which in my Answer to your Queries and bearing rule by their meance speaking of Scribes and Pharisees which is another lye for it is by Gods Authority they rule over us and watch for our soules and you againe further adde it being called Masters of men which is cleared by that most Reverend Mr. Baxter and answer him if thou canst And then thou sealest all this with thine own Signet a most damnable lye that it is forbidden of Christ and that for bearing witnesse against such much innocent blood hath been spilt but whether you meane the Gunpowder Traytors or Garnet that Jesuit with the rest of those Romish Priests whose beginning was at Tyber and whose end not undeserved at Tyburne but prove that ever any unlesse such dyed for that cause you now stand for if you can name them Qu. 9. Since that you say that Presbiterians Independents and the like differing Forms are of Babylon and under the distruction thereof I quere who are out of it and where is the true Church Qu. 10. And if you say a small number of Quakers I query againe where then hath the Church of Christ been since his passion for this 1600. years and more
any thing that men or Angels are able to conceive but onely the finger of God is able to accomplish it as the worker for with man it is impossible but not with God for though we may heare the word of God sounding in our eares as a whistling wind yet cannot we comprehend the secret motions of it in our hearts and therefore not understand the depth of this unsearchable Mystery In a word the begetting or fashioning of this New Creature the Ministry of the word of God by man is but the instrument whereby the spirit of God worketh without the which it is no more able to form this new creature then are the tools belonging to any work able to bring the same to passe without the hand or guidance of the Artificer and he that knoweth it by the Letter of Scripture knowes it not without the light for the Scripture was written by man but revealed by the true light and therefore the words of him from whom it proceeded and God is pleased to reveal himself but two wayes to the best of my knowledge and that either ordinary by his written Word by which we may try and in some sort judge of spirits too that hee which denies Christ as come in the flesh is a lyar and an Antichrist and he that denies the use and ministration of Ordinances mentioned there resists that power that instituted them and he that resists receiveth unto himself damnation a sad word or extraordinary by his spirit which is not commonly usual but still with this limitation he never reveales himselfe to any by his spirit to oppose his commands in the letter And since your spirit is such a one I leave it unto you to examine whether it be a spirit of delusion or no for Christ never resisteth his own will and ordinances and if it seems so unto you remember Satan hath transformed himselfe into an Angel of light and if you be his Ministers as the tree Antichrist is known by his fruits heresie in Doctrine cease to call thy selfe the Minister of Christ and pull off the sheeps cloathing of your faire pretences that so we may discerne you in your colours and see the Pope in your wolvish shapes Quere 5. Whether the least measure of saving faith in Christ Jesus be not present power above the Devil and all the powers of darknesse which if it be then what is the cause that men must be captivated to commit sin while they live whether it is want of faith or that there is not power in faith to overcome the evil one or hath any faith in Christ further then they have power over sinne and the world or is there any rest to a beleever short of that power An Answer to the Fifth Quere The least measure of saving faith in Christ Jesus is sufficient to support us from everlasting misery and from the condemnation which the Devil would by his power bring us under and to build us up to that inheritance immortal which fadeth not away but is reserved in heaven for us and it is present power above the destructive powers of the Devil and darknesse but not against the disturbative power of sinne whose policy hath in the first Adam purchased an interest in all his posterity unlesse that with the second Adam we became one in unity and glory with him and if it were present power to conquer Satan and all the powers of darknesse and by its puissance to wholly subdue him presently this were present victory which is the end of war when as a Christians pilgrimage to heaven is a continual warfare the victory whereof is onely sealed perfectly in death for though by faith in Christ we are free from the dominion of sin and death too yet is the most faithful not perfectly free from the remnants of sinne which is the sting of death for though the least measure of saving faith in Christ be sufficient to free and keep us from the dominion of sinne yet the greatest portion or fulnesse that ever was distributed unto the greatest of the Apostles exempted them not from the remnant of sinne not onely original but also actual too for Peter he was accused get thee behinde me Satan and after deny'd his Master and then dissembled so as to be contradicted by Paul who also was so far lifted up on the wings of ambition that he needed to be corrected and therefore received a prick in the flesh which was neither through the wants nor disabilities of faith through which he boasted he could doe all things but the law of his members the remnants of sin there warring against the law of his minde brought him captive to the law of sinne and death which remnants are commonly called sins of infirmity which are left as thorns in our sides to prove us whether we will continue faithful to the end that so we may be crowned with glory And who had faith so much and so strong as to be translated in the spirit and give his soule the prospect of that no lesse eternally sacred then incomprehensibly glorious object of the third heavens and by this overcame the power as a Saint but could not shun the temptation as he was a man but both his will and affections were so far subordinate as the latter to those powers of darknesse that faith he the good that I would doe that doe I not and the evil that I would not that doe I but then as the former If any man may bâ—ast muâ—h more I I live and yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and until the one be separated from the other there can be no perfect perfection for the same Apostle asserts this is a faithful saying Christ died to save sinners of whom I not onely was but am the chief and we including himselfe too have all sinned all none excepted and come short of the glory of God and James saith also the same that in many things we â—ffend all and John that Apostle of love and Eagle-ey'd Evangelist to pry into the secrets of those Mysteries of the Son of glory records this that he that saith he hath no sinne is a lyar and the truth is not in him and therefore you are lyars and void of the truth if then the Apostles who had the most eminent faith above all others were not free from the remnant of sinne nay and some grosse ones too I cannot be convinced that perfect perfection can be in any before a dissolution of mortality and a resurrection unto glorification I say since that they were contented to rest without discomfort in perseverance till Jesus the Author and Finisher of their faith should come to change their vile bodies therefore not pure and make them like his glorious body I cannot apprehend that any one shall attaine any higher perfection until they come to the end of their race eternal rest if they run so as to obtaine and they that content
were informed of it by the outward teaching of Paul and then they beleeved on Jesus and so their saith and their knowledge too was from without not within but the Jewes who like you thought to inherit glory by a Covenant of works not of grace endeavoured to pervert and subdue all knowledge save of their way who professing obvious light were found to be in obscure darknesse and therefore persecuted the lights of the world the Apostles and Ministers of Christ fearing lest their deeds should be brought unto the light and be found evil as you doe and so they walked short both of the Spirit and the Letter too yet professing as much and as peculiar sanctity as your selves and you and your generation manifest as much malice as did they wanting only their might against those precious candles of the Gospel who waste themselves that we may grow up unto perfection and I speak sincerely and I suppose I may doe it without breath of Christian Charity That if ever we should live to see that dismal disconsolate day wherein Quakers should predominate in might as much as now they doe in malice I feare fire and faggot would be a deare commodity through the frequent use thereof for any may see with a single eye without a paire of spectacles not onely the persecuting and censorious Jew but also the Saint-murdering and truth-opposing Pope enthroned both in your malice and your Tenets The Lord defend us and his cause from your envious power Quere 13. What Scripture have you for your manner of worship as to read a Chapter and to give meanings to it and call it expounding to take a text of another mans words and raise points reasons and uses c. to sprinkle Infants to sing Davids words in order of your ballads to stand praying in the Synagogues at your set times before and after your glasse Prove your practice by command from Christ or practice of Gospel-Ministers else for shame cease to call it Gospel-worship since none of Christs Ministers worshipped in that manner An Answer to the thirteenth Query When first I read this common hackny and overthredbare worne Query which hath been the publick frequent Strumpet of all your blemished vitiated pens answered more then once and againe I could not but smile to see your so often battered armour wherewith you war against the cause of Christ become the harnesse of your resistance in the list of this controversie against the truth at this time also and though in respect it hath been as often answered as proposed by several learned pens who have writ on this occasion and by others who have treated on this subject whose abilities are manifest in their works of precious concernment which might induce me to wave my Answer But as I said before so say I now againe that since your intosticated braines are so soone lifted up on the haughty wings of vainglorious pride of the victory before the encounter I shall give it a curb if not a crush And I very much wonder that you should enquire for an outward evidence when you say yours is within and may not we say the same But that you and the whole world may know we practice not the dictates of our own minds but bow all to the commands of God be it known to thee and whosoever else shall enquire after the same that an evidential command we have and what we doe is of an obediential submission to Gods revealed will And for expounding of Scriptures I answer if thou knowest not but art ignorant I shall doe my endeavour to informe thee that it was the practice of the Church in all Ages to read the Scriptures distinctly and give the senses and is not this expounding and be there not doctrines reasons and uses in all the Sermons and Epistles of the Apostles and did not our Saviour himself take a Text expouned it and apply it who also began at Moses and all the Prophets expounding unto the Disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe insomuch that the hearers hearts burned within them at his doctrine whose words were with power Philip also took a Text and expounded it and beginning at the same Scripture preached Jesus unto the Eunuch Paul also expounded unto the Romans the testimony of the Kingdom of God and the things concerning Jesus both out of the Law and the Prophets from the morning until evening who also testifieth this unto Timothy That the Scriptrues are able to make a soule exceeding wise unto salvation and are profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and observe this for instruction in righteousnesse which I suppose comprehends all things mentioned by you except you can prove them not necessary to that end to direct in matters of righteousnesse that the man of God may be made perfect So having thus proved that Scriptures were expounded by the Apostles and Ministers of Christ our practice is justified and further yet we have this not onely as a President but a Precept rightly to divide the word of truth as workmen that need not to be ashamed Now if there can be any right division without parts prove it if you can nay further still study is required in this exercise and commanded also by Pauls spirit although cryed out against by yours and though you dare boldly blaspheme the word of God and call it the words of men and so call God a man by consequence I feare you will finde it a terrible word in the last day of Christs judgements when you shall be found a lyar and Paul a Preacher of truth who calls it in truth the word of God and the commands of the Lord And for your questioning of Baptism administred unto children I now finde the root from which you spring even from that well-spring and fountaine-head from whence flow streames unto every heresie for the truest Relations that ever I could come unto the perusal of since John of Leyden that grand fomenter and prick-louse Preacher the founder of that Sect I have not read of any grand Apostate or heretick but what sprung from that truth-corrupting Faction as witnesse most of your Society for to hinder the children of Believers The priviledge of Baptism seemes unto me a dividing of that Covenant I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee observe that to thy seed as well as unto thee Now I shall leave it unto you to examine whether it be not a clipping of the wings of Gods dominions and a limiting of and setting a bound unto his Authority that when he hath said I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed and this shall be a Covenant between me and thee for ever yet you shall put a period uno the time and a limitation unto the condition and so allow him onely the first and deny him the latter and certainly there were children in the house of Israel when they marched