of Evidence is not the less but rather much more rewardable than is obedience to it upon greater evidence John 20. 29. Jesus saith unto him Thomas because thou hast seen thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed It is not to be imagined but that the Apostles and Evangelists have expressed the Christian Doctrine and the Reasons why it should be believed in as plain terms when they wrote it as when they preached it They could hardly speak those great Doctrines touching the Essentials of Christianity plainer than they are communicated to us by their Writings yet how plain soever they spake them the very same things prejudice worldly interest and the love of Tâ—ust which now detain men from obeying their Doctrine as communicated and transmitted down to us by their Writings did in like manner keep back Multitudes from yielding Obedience to their Doctrine then when they themselves preach'd it to them and wrought many Miracles to convince them that it was from God And as men then that had no mind to obey the Doctrine which Christ and the Apostles preach'd raised Cavils and pickt Quarrels against it Why do you not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my Word said our Saviour to such John 8. 43. Even so at this day those Atheistical and loose men that have no mind to conform their Hearts and Lives to the holy Doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures raise Cavils and pick Quarrels against the Scriptures which are a standing Reproof to their bad Tempers and evil Lives which because they are so they seek by all means to invalidate them that they might the more securely and without disturbance from them hold on their ungodly course secretly or openly How far any that have led you the way may be concerned in such a thing as this I shall not say but sure I am it concerns both you and them to think on 't and so much the rather because 't is seldom if ever seen among other men but that those that are cold in their affection to the Scriptures are as cold to the power of Godliness or rather zealously hot against it And indeed I must needs say you bewray your cold affection to and your little and slight esteem of the holy Scriptures while you think you have ground pleasedly to call them the Dead Letter from that Saying of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit And to call those that preach from the Scriptures Ministers of the Letter Whereas that Expression is so far from serving your purpose herein as that if you understood it which alas you do not you would find it to cast a Glory and Honour upon the Scriptures of the New Testament and no disparagement at all upon those of the old upon any account of the matters therein contained as being written For the Doctrine of the Old Testament it self is not called the Letter because it is in Writing nor that of the New the Spirit because not in Writing but because the Subject-Matter of which the Mosaical Covenant did much consist and many of the things therein contained were but figurative and outward Representations of those excellent Spiritual things which in the Gospel are plainly and nakedly expressed without any such Vail or Cover For so the Apostle in the process of this his Discourse doth more plainly express it ver 12 13 14. We use great plainness of Speech and not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face so that the Children of Israel could not look or see to the end of that which is abolished Which Vail is done away in Christ that is in the Doctrine of Christ in the New Testament in which Doctrine Divine and Spiritual Truth is stripp'd out of its Cloathing and Covering and represented as it is in its own nature and not in dark figures And that this and not the Writing or not Writing is meant by Letter and Spirit will farther appear by comparing other Texts of Scripture with this Rom. 2. 29. Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter By Letter here is plainly meant Circumcision in the Flesh and by Spirit that which was couched under it or signified by it and that is the Circumcision of the Heart which in the New Testament is called Mortification or Purifying of the Heart or crucifying Affections and Lusts So again Rom. 7. 6. But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is according to those plain Precepts of the Gospel which answer the Spirit and Scope of the Law and not in the outward Ceremony which were but figurative of them as in offering our Bodies a living Sacrifice instead of slain Beasts in cleansing our selves from the filthiness of the flesh instead of Legal Purifications by washing the Body in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh and all evil Concupiscence and not in cutting off the Foreskin of the Flesh And those Ministers that preach this and other like Spiritual Doctriue out of or according to the Scriptures of the New Testament and not the Ceremonies of Moses they are Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit Which had you understood you would never have poured your spiteful contempt on them as you have by calling them Letter-Preachers I shall conclude what I have said in this Proposition to shew that the same regard is due to the Doctrine of the Apostles when written as now it is as when it was preached by them by remembring you of this one great Truth That every man shall be tried and judged at the last day by that Law he hath been under The Gentiles that are or have been without a written Law shall be judged without any such Law and the Jews which were under a written Law they shall be judged by it Rom. 2. 12. Even so those that are under the Gospel written will be judged by that as those that were under the immediate preaching of it by Christ and his Apostles before it was written will be judged by that He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the Word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day saith our Saviour John 12. 48. And if that be the Rule by which those shall be judged that have his Word made known to them be it by one means or by another then it greatly concerns all such to make â—hat Word of his the Rule of their Life and Practice as ever they hope to come off well upon their Trial at last whatever you talk of it s not being a Rule as it is a written Word And therefore beware lest then that come upon you and be said of you which is
The Danger of ENTHUSIASM Discovered IN AN EPISTLE TO THE QUAKERS IN WHICH 'T is Endeavoured to convince them of being guilty of Changing God's Method of bringing men to Salvation By one who is no more an Enemy to their Opinions than their Opinions are Enemies to them themselves LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil 1674. AN EPISTLE TO THE ENTHUSIASTS Or the People called QUAKERS Sirs I Have cause to think that your unmeasurable Confidence of the Truth and Goodness of your own Way in opposition to the best men that differ from you and the scornful entertainment the best Endeavours of men have met with to convince you of Error and Mistake have discouraged many of those from attempting it who are best able herein to serve you But my Love to your Souls and Desires of recovering you to a sound mind being stronger than my hopes of effecting it by any Endeavours of mine have prevailed with me to offer a few things to you however whether you will hear or whether you will forbear not being without all hope but that it may have such effect upon some among you or inclining to you as may be worth my Labour § 1. You know it was said by our Blessed Saviour That straight is the Gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it And I little doubt but that an Appearance at the first of a greater Strictness and Narrowness in your way than in theirs that differ from you was a Temptation to some injudicious persons I have known and probably to many other such to strike into it as supposing it must be the best and safest because the narrowest and fewest of it Which Snare I presume they would easily have escaped had they been but wise enough to have considered these two things First That that Narrowness and Strictness consisting in outward Austerities and Incivilities wherein you differed from other Sober Christians was no Narrowness or strictness of God's appointing but a piece of Superstition of your own devising when you placed Religion in it And you are not the first that have been deceived with such Appearances several Orders among the Papists have been built upon the same Bottom long before your way was heard of in the world And we read of others long before them also who subjected themselves to like Ordinances of men such as touch not taste not handle not Such things having a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and Humility and neglecting of the Body not in any honour to the satisfying of the Flesh as the Apostle speaks Col. 2. 20 23. In respect of which and other like little things that had no real worth or goodness in them the false Apostles pretended to more strictness than was in the Apostles of Christ themselves whom they represented but as men walking according to the Flesh in comparison of themselves 2 Cor. 10. 2. And the Pharisees before them by reason of some Austerities they used about Fastings external Purifications and shunning the company of Publicans pretended to greater strictness in Religion than was in Christ's Disciples yea than in Christ himself whom they accounted to be but a Gluttonous person and a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners in compare with themselves By such appearance of extraordinary Zeal and Strictness though alas it be but in things that do not tend at all to the bettering or perfecting men in their Nature Deceivers are wont to procure to themselves a Reputation among people of weak minds by advantage whereof as of a Bait that covers the Hook they obtain a ready reception for their more dangerous Doctrines Again They would not so easily have been overcome with the aforesaid Appearances of Narrowness and Strictness if they had but well considered that in reference to those things wherein the Narrowness and Strictness of Christ's way to Life doth most consist and wherein he hath tied up his followers to strictness indeed ye have taken liberty to walk loosly and to cast off his Yoke and that is in not governing your Spirits Passions and Tongues according to the Laws of his Kingdom and Government He hath strictly enjoyned his Followers to be humble and lowly in heart to esteem others better than themselves to speak evil of no man but to shew all meekness to all men yea and in meekness to instruct even those that oppose themselves to bless those that curse them to overcome others evil with their good not to judge and the like But quite contrary hereunto your very Leaders and such as have been esteemed most eminent among you have by their examples taught you to rail on and revile if not bitterly to curse such as wished you no harm but sought your good and proudly to exalt and justifie your selves and to despise and set at naught yea to judge condemn and sentence to eternal destruction such whom ye ought to have honoured as probably much better than your selves What less signifies such Language as this Thou accursed thou Beast to whom the Plagues of God are due a Reprobate a Child of Darkness thou art thou disobedient one upon whom God will render vengeance in flaming fire thou dark blind Hypocrite thee man that is Cain with the Light of Christ thou art seen and with the Life judged and condemned thou Sorcerer thou dead Beast and so art not justified before God nor never shall be But such polluted filthy Beasts as thou Thou polluted Beast who art a Reprobate and thou shalt find him to be thine eternal Condemnation thou dark Beast and Conjurer thou dark sottish Beast Works of Edw. Burroughs p. 29 32 33 34. With abundance more in other of your Writings This truly is Language more like to proceed one would think from such presumptuous daring arrogant men whose mouth speaketh great swelling words as Peter and Jude describe than from men inspired with any of that Spirit of Meekness and Gentleness which was in Jesus Christ If Humility Charity and Modesty were the prevailing Constitution of these mens Spirits as it is of those who have been taught of Christ as the Truth is in Jesus and are made one Spirit with him I should think they would by no means speak at this rate And yet this and such like is not the Language only of some bold rash heady women or of men less considerable among you transported with furious Zeal but even of Ed. Burrough himself one of the Chieftains among you in his time And that not upon any sudden surprize of Passion but upon so much deliberation as men use in writing of Books and upon no other provocation than a bare propounding certain Queries touching some points of Doctrine about which you and others differ And truly in vain do you boast of the Light within you if you have not so much left as to discern this behaviour altogether unbecoming not only a man of Note among Christians nor only of
any worthy the Name of a Christian how weak soever but even of any that is worthy but of the Name of a man and not a And yet how are those Works in which these things are found applauded as the Works of a Prophet of the Lord by several men of great Note among you such as George Fox George Whitehead Francis Howgil and Josiah Coâ—le who adjoin their several Testimonials to them And wherfore do I lay these things before you but to give you occasion to reflect upon your selves and your way with a jealous eye and to convince you that ye know not of what Spirit ye are of but that while ye have thought ye have been walking in the Light ye have been walking in Darkness and that whilst ye have fancied your selves the most spiritual among Christians ye have discovered your selves to be but carnal If any man among you seemeth to be Religious and bridleth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own heart that man's Religion is vain Jam. 1. 26. If there be bitter Zeal glory not and lie not against the Truth for that wisdom is not from above as you are apt to boast it to be but from beneath and is Earthly Sensual and Devilish Jam. 3. 15. But it is not strange if men be left first or last to fall into unchristian practices who out of affectation of Novelty and Singularity in Doctrine and a desire to appear more sublime in their Notions than all that went before them have left the old beaten path of Christian Doctrine in which the several Generations of holy men have lived and walked from the Apostles time downwards For when men wax spiritually proud and wanton in rejecting the plain way and method which God hath chosen to bring men to saving Faith Repentance and a holy Life and to continue them in it and invent and chuse another in its stead and call it by the name of his and preach to and press it upon the people in his Name he takes no pleasure in their so doing nor doth he delight to vouchsafe his concurrent Grace and blessing therewith which he doth with his own way and method by which it becomes effectual to make men good and to keep them so And therefore as I said 't is no marvel if men by degrees lose in the goodness of their Frame and Temper which sometimes they had attained while they kept close to God's way and method in which he bestows it and degenerate into men of quite another Spirit and Temper when they forsake that and run into another of their own invention and choice The disobedient Jews who had declined from the better way of their Ancestors and grew into a worse spirit and temper they had a zeal of God still but not according to knowledge They did will and run for Justification and Life they followed after Righteousness and yet attained not to the Law of Righteousness and wherefore but because they sought it not by Faith which was the method of God's chusing but as it were by the works of the Law which was a method of their own chusing in opposition to God's Rom. 9. 31 32. § 2. And whether you are not guilty of rejecting God's way and method of converting men to and keeping them in the way of saving Faith Repentance and Evangelical Obedience and of inventing and chusing one of your own different from that comes now to to be considered I shall state your way in this by what you have published to the world in your own Books and for Brevity sake shall instance but in two Authors Ed. Burrough formerly and Mr. Pen of late who speak for you that which is otherwise well enough known to be your common Opinion In the Works of Ed. Burrough whom you are pleased to stile that true Prophet in the Title-Page which are published by you there are these Sayings In Page 252 thus His pure Spirit is put into the inward parts to be the Rule and Guide of Life in all things And again Only by the teaching of the Eternal Spirit is the Living God known in the Creature Again p. 408 It is promised saith he that the Spirit shall lead into all Truth and such do own the Scriptures but not as their Teacher for the Anointing dwells in them and they need no man to teach them but as that Anointing teacheth all things and they have no need of the Scripture to teach them for all the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher nor need not to say one to another Know the Lord. And yet all such do own the Scriptures to be the Testimony of that which they believe and have received And again in p. 834 The only perfect Rule of Conscience in the exercise to God is the Spirit of Christ and not any other thing And because something besides the Spirit of God exercises the Conscience therefore it is that here are so many Ways and Sects of Religion and kinds of Worship in Christendom and among Christians while the Spirit of Christ only is not the Rule of Judgment and exercise of Conscience to God and man Again pag. 861. The judgment in that matter Heresie must be just equal Holy and only by the Spirit of Christ which is infallible and gives infallibility of judgment and discerning into all Cases and Things Mr. Pen spends the Fourth Chapter of his late Book Entituled Reason against Railing to prove that the Light within and not the Scriptures is the Rule of Faith and Practice In p. 47. he saith We dare boldly affirm in the Name of the Lord that the great reason of our Belief concerning them the Scriptures is not any outward thing but that inward Testimony Record and heavenly Amen that we have frequently received from the Holy Light within us to the Truth and Faithfulness of those Sayings Again p. 48. Wherefore the Scriptures are so far from being the great Rule of Faith and Practice that the Light of Christ within us is both our Warrant and Rule for Faith in and Obedience to them Again p. 114. Let it be remembred saith he that Christ promised to send the Spirit of Truth to lead into all Truth as much as to say none are led into the Truth nor in the Truth but by the Holy Spirit of Truth or that their practice is a Lie or they are led into a Lie who are not led by the Spirit of Truth that alone leads into all the ways of Truth Where by Truth is not meant the meer Letter of the Scripture which notwithstanding is true but the living powerful Truth Christ the Way the Truth and the Life of which the Scripture is but a Record or Declaration And p. 115. Many may run into the practice of several outward things mentioned in the Scriptures to have been the practice of Saints in former Ages and yet not be led into the Truth for all that is but Will-Worship Imitation and Vnwarrantable Your
they are said to be born of the Immortal Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1. 23. Because that is God's Instrument Of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth Jam. 1. 18. And the Gospel is the Ministration of the Spirit and the Sword of the Spirit as it is called because it is the great Instrument or Means by which the Spirit doth its Work upon men Indeed the Work of Grace in men is most properly attributed to God to Christ though other Causes concur to the producing of that Effect because he is the principal Cause of it and all other but subordinate and yet the Effect is sometimes attributed to subordinate and second Causes also though less properly Thus Christ the principal Cause of it is said to be The Light of the World the Light of men because he by his Gospel as the Author of it discovers and reveals to them a future everlasting Happiness attainable in another World and the way to it and yet the Gospel it self yea the Apostles and Pastors and Christian Professors are also said to be the Light of the world as subordinate Causes under Christ of the Illumination of men in the knowledge hereof Mat. 5. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 4. Phil. 2. 15 16. All which had you well considered you would never have opposed mens being enlightened and taught by Christ as ye do to their being taught by the Scriptures or by men and all because forsooth the Illumination of men is attributed to Christ This very thing here suggested to you would in great part reduce you and set you to rights if you could be but willing to receive and own that for truth which cannot without great absurdity and contradiction to the Scriptures be denied But for want of distinguishing between things and things which in some respect seem to be the same but in other respects greatly differ you run your selves into Error and great Absurdities I will upon this occasion instance in another thing not much unlike to that but now mentioned wherein you greatly mistake for want of distinguishing and that is touching the Presence of Christ in men For because the Scriptures speak of Christ's being in men and because Christ is God and God euery where present and so in all men from these thus jumbled together you infer that therefore Christ is in all men and that being so you farther infer that all men are taught by him himself immediately without external Teaching In doing of which you confound things together which are distinct to the darkning of them in your understandings and the misguiding you in Judgment You do not distinguish as you ought to do between the Essential Presence of Christ as God and his Virtual Presence as Mediator God-man For although Christ as God is present to every man in the exercise of common Providence in the world My Father worketh hitherto and I work saith he John 5. 17. yet in respect of his Virtual Presence as Mediator as when he rules and operates in mens hearts by his Authority and by the Evangelical Law in this sence which yet is doubtless the sence in which Christ is said in Scripture to be in men and to dwell in them I say in this sence he is not in all men For men are said to be without Christ until they are converted to Christianity Eph. 2. 12. And it is by Faith which only some and not all men have that Christ dwells in any mans heart Eph. 3. 17. It is by that Faith that his Authority in his Doctrine and Law is owned and where that 's sincerely owned there Christ is said to dwell Not that Christ as Mediator God-man dwells personally in men for in that sence and respect he dwells in Heaven and is at the right hand of the Majesty on high And therefore as Teacher of his Church he doth not teach men now immediately in person but by his Gospel which he sends to them by which he enlightens them in the way of Salvation Ye do therefore err not knowing or understanding the Scriptures while you attribute those effects to the Essential Presence and immediate operation of Christ in men which are wrought by him indeed but it is by the Instrumentality and Agency of second Causes the Gospel and the Ministration thereof by men I wish that by these Instances you could be made sensible of your great weakness in despising Distinctions as if they were but effects of Carnal Reason and Fleshly Wisdom for sith Words that are the same in sound are often used to signifie things of a different Nature and words different in sound to signifie things of the same Nature instances of which the Scripture abounds with they must of necessity be perpetually liable to Error and gross Mistakes that throw away distinctions as useless which is your own case in many other things besides these now instanced in Since then it was God's Method in the Apostles dayes to bring men to salvation by believing and obeying the Doctrine preached by them as I have shewed It is marvellous that any that pretend to know any thing in Christianity should deny this Doctrine to be the Rule of Faith and Christian Practice whenas that 's the very end and Reason of the promulgation of it to direct men what to believe and do that they might be saved and to excite them to believe and do accordingly When St. Paul saith Whereto we have attained let us walk by the same Rule doth he not by Rule mean the Apostles Doctrine whenas in the next words he proposeth himself that lived according to what he taught as an example for them to follow Phil. 3. 16 17. It was the great commendation of the primitive Christians that they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine Acts 2. 42. And St John said Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God And to transgress sure is to swerve from the Rule 2 John 9. This Doctrine of Christ is called the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 4. 23. and 9. 35. and 24. 14. For it is that Rule by which Christ our King doth rule and govern his Subjects both in Heart and Life as the Laws of the Land are the Rule according to which Earthly Kings do govern theirs The Sum and Substance of the Doctrine which the Apostles preached one as well as another and in one place as well as another is called The Form of Sound Words 2 Tim. 1 13. The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. And this Form of Doctrine was delivered to the Christians to rule and govern themselves by Rom. 6. 17. But now have obeyed from the heart that Form of Doctrine which was delivered to you And it was so much a Rule to them that they were commanded to mark and avoid such as caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned Rom. 16. 17. And forbid to receive into their Houses such as brought not this
seen how it was The Spirit in some extraordinary gifts was poured on some of the Prophets of old but we never read that it was in such sort poured out on them that believed their Prophesie likewise as now it was upon those that received the Apostles Doctrine And therefore such a thing as this was foretold by the Prophets as peculiar to the coming of the Messias and as that by which he might be known to be come when the event of such Predictions took place even as it came to pass here The Prediction Joel 2. 28. was that in the last days the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh in the last days that is in the last days of the Jewish State or Common-wealth as may be evinced by the Context i◠which Christ came as was foretold by his Prophets in which time also the Spirit was poured out in miraculous gifts and operations as a testimony that the Messias was come The Holy Spirit in the effects of it in these extraordinary gifts and operations is called the testifying of Christ or the witness which he bore touching his being the true Messiah and Saviour of the world John 15. 26 27. But when he the Comforter is come 〈◊〉 even the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also Apostles shall bear witness because ye ye have been with me from the beginning And again 1 John 5. 6. This is he that came by water and blood and it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth John 16. 8. And when he the Comforter is come he will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me saith Christ of Righteousness because I go to my Father was taken up into heaven and of Judgment because the Prince of this world is judged the Devil dethroned and cast down as he was when the Mouths of his Oracles were stopped and the Idol-Temples shut up and his Kingdom and Rule demolished by the preaching of the Gospel among the Heathen accompanied with these Miraculous Effects of the Spirit which bore down all before it as it were and therefore this is called the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power as opposed to Humane Oratory among Heathen Philosophers and the way of Humane Demonstration 1 Cor. 2. 4. This wonderful effusion of the Spirit in miraculous Gifts was that Baptism of the Spirit we read of which you with some others have in these days vainly pretended to under another Notion of being baptized with the Spirit But if you will but compare Mat. 3. 11. and Acts 1. 5. with Act. 2. 3 4. and 11. 15 16. you may easily discern your Error in applying it to any thing but to that extraordinary and miraculous effusion of the Spirit By all this you may see how one Scripture falls in with and explains another if you will but take hold of a right Notion of the end for which the plentiful effusion of the Spirit was foretold and promised Which was not to guide all Christians by its inward motions without outward teaching but to enable some to teach the right Faith and Life to others even to those of other Tongues in their own Language and to confirm their Doctrine thereby and by other operations of the Spirit to be from God And these extraordidary effects of the Spirit were greatly necessary to accompany the first promulgation and planting of the Gospel in the world to procure credit to it belief of it from the Jews who otherwise would not have been taken off from their old way of Levitical Ceremonial worship which they had received from God and from the Gentile-Nations who otherwise would not have been taken off from their Idolatrous and Superstitious way of Worship in which they had been deeply rooted by long and ancient Tradition received from their Forefathers And therefore St. Paul saith as was observed before that Tongues that is the gift of speaking divers Tongues on a sudden are a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14. 22. As the giving of the Law by Moses was accompanied with Signs and Wonders which were wrought by Moses both before and after the first promulgation of it to procure belief from the Jews that he was sent of God and that the Law given by him was from God So it was as necessary that the first promulgation of the Gospel by the Son of God himself and by those that were immediately sent by him should be for the same reason accompanied with more and greater Miracles and Wonders than those wrought by Moses were as Christ himself was greater than Moses and as the abrogation of the Old and the giving of the New Law was more than the giving of the Law only when there was no promulgate Law before in being And therefore our Saviour said of the Jews that would not receive his Doctrine but still stuck to the Letter of the Law of Moses If I had not done among them the works which none other man hath done they had not had sin John 15. 24. And as it was not necessary to continue those or the like Miracles and Wonders in the Jewish Church after the Law had been well established by them but that the Law being once committed to writing might be as it was their standing Rule of Worship and Conversation Even so after the Gospel had received a sufficient attestation to be from God by the continuance of those miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Church for some time till the Doctrine and History of the Gospel were committed to writing and those Writings owned as Authentick Records every where by the Church in all known parts of the world it was then no more necessary as the event shews to perpetuate Miracles in the Christian Church for the confirmation of the Gospel than it was to perpetuate them in the Jewish for the ratification of the Law but that the Doctrine and History of the Gospel in Books of the New Testament should be of like use to Christians as the Law and Prophets in Books was to the Jews of old The Prophets of old who though they were extraordinarily inspired did all along in their time call the Jews to obedience to the written Law of Moses and to Repentance for transgressing that And when prophesying in this sence was to cease from among them for several Ages God by Malachy the last of those Prophets gave it in charge to that People to remember the written Law of Moses as that by which they were to govern themselves Remember saith he the Law of Moses my Servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments Mal. 4. 4. And it was foretold by Moses concerning Christ that a Prophet should be raised up by God like unto him Deut. 18. 15 18. And although Christ that Prophet was unlike unto Moses in many other things wherein our Lord excelled him yet he was truly
and temperate to do to others as we would be done to our selves in point of equity fidelity and charity to be humble and meek patient and contented and the like are things that tend to the peace and satisfaction of the minde to the health of the body and long life to a mans Credit Reputation and thriving in the World and to the good of humane Society Besides their certain relation to a future happy State And there is no man that acts according to the best reason of his minde but would chuse these things though you should suppose him under no express command to do it and though there were no Heaven promised or Hell threatened But when you consider the great reward in another World that is promised to a faithful observance of the Laws of Christ and to a belief in him and the dreadful threatnings against such as despise and neglect them it makes them yet far more desirable and eligible because as it is natural for every man to desire the happiness and perfection of his own being so it is agreeable to the highest reason in man to chuse the means that tend thereto and such is our obedience to the Gospel And these rewards which are such mighty motives to obedience are far more clearly revealed and brought into open Light by the Gospel than they were before which makes the Gospel far more effectual to perswade to Holy Living than the Law could be The Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw nigh unto God Heb. 7. 19. These two things forementioned then the easiness of understanding God's way and method of Salvation from the plainness and fulness of the revelation of it under the New Covenant by which it is fitted to every capacity and the â—nnate goodness of the Laws thereof in conjunction with the promise of eternal Life made to the observance of them by which they are also compleatly fitted to attract and draw mens wills to accept embrace and chuse them these I say are the things I conceive foretold in that Prophesie Jer. 31. here cited in Heb. 8. under those expressions of God's putting giving or conveying his Laws into the mind and writing them in the heart so that they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother c. And when it is so said it is not then said that they shall not be taught neither by Apostles Evangelists Pastors or Teachers but they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother And though the Phrase here used seem absolute in sound yet it may well be understood in a Comparative sence as other expessions in Scripture of like nature sometimes must be As when its said labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting Life Joh. 6. 26. The meaning here of labour not is labour not so much And so again I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice Hos 6. 6. the meaning is I desired Mercy more than Sacrifice or Sacrifice not so much as Mercy So again Eph. 6. 12. we wrestle not with flesh and blood that is not only or not so much but against Principalities c. And so here when it is said they shall not â—â—each every man his Neighbour c. The meaning may be that they shall not so much need to do it under the second Covenant as under the first But indeed the words and phrase here used seem to be a strain of elegance oft used in Scriptures when to set forth the greatness or great abundance and plenty of things expressions are used improperly and hyperbolically in reference thereto and so are not to be understood properly but figuratively As when it is said in reference to the same thing under the Gospel with that I have been now speaking of That the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Isa 11. 9. I suppose you will not understand this in such a strict sence as if it foretold in Gospel-times that there should be no more knowledge of God wanting on the Earth than there is bare ground in the Sea or that David would have the World believe that he did weep a River yea Rivers full of Tears when he said mine eyes run down with Rivers of Tears because men keep not thy Laws Psalm 119. or that St. John did think in a strict sence that the world could not contain the books if all the signs which Jesus did should be written Joh. 20. And if not why should you so much as once imagine that these words of the Prophet should foretel that under the New Covenant there should be no need of teaching by mans Ministry when the whole current of the Scriptures of the New Testament both in precept and example shew the contrary The words of the Prophet here are only a prediction of the rich and plentiful means of Knowledge and Grace that was to be vouchsafed under the New Covenant more than under the Old § 19. One would think you have an aking Tooth against outward teaching when you build such Castles in the Air as ye do rather than none to batter it down But how comes it to pass that you use it so much your selves if there be no more need of it than you pretend I know that which you alledge to excuse your selves in this seeming contradiction is this or to this effect You say though men need not be taught by men what it is which they ought to know believe and do the light within teaching them this and being a Rule to them in these things yet in as much as men may and do rebel against this light its necessary to call upon and perswade them to obey it But in this Plea you suppose for truth that which is a manifest gross and most dangerous and pernicious error which is this That it is not as well necessary to teach men by the Scriptures and by the Ministry of men to know believe what is necessary to their salvation as it is to perswade them to do what is necessary thereto For contrary hereunto I have already proved that for men that live under the Gospel its necessary to their Salvation that they know and believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the World and that remission of sin is promised in his name to such as repent I have proved likewise that these things cannot be known but either by immediate revelation from God or by instruction from them that have had such Revelation or by them whose knowledge thereof hath been derived down successively by outward teaching from the first preachers of such Doctrine To which I will now add as followes In the Apostles days the Converts that were then made such were brought to the knowledge and belief of those great Articles of the Christian Faith fundamentally necessary to Salvation by hearing the
exprest and another that when both are wide of the mark And then men weary themselves in defending their notions on both sides and can never be reconciled until both lay down their bye-opinions and submit their judgments to the plainness and simplicity of the truth labouring to improve it to practice which is the true and proper use of it which will bring more solid satisfaction to the mind than all mens Airy notions how taking soever they may be with some But though the things necessary to salvation are in the Revelation of them accommodated to the capacities of the weak and simple whose Salvation is designed by them as well and as much as theirs of stronger and quicker apprehensions yet there are things under the New Testament that are hard to be uttered as the phrase is Heb. 5. 11. and therefore hard to be understood as the phrase is again 2. Pet. 3. 16. As there is milk for Babes who are unskilful in the Word of righteousness so there is meat for strong Men who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both good and evil as 't is said Heb. 5. 13 14. And mens differences about these points proceed at the best from their different measures of Light and understanding and sometimes are persisted in from that which is worse So it was in the Apostles time between the believing Jews and the blieving Gentiles Rom. 14. Which by the way would not have been if all good Christians then had been guided by an infallible Light within as you suppose they are now If they had they would not have needed to have been taught and re-taught which are the first principles of the Oracles of God as some of them were Heb. 5. But when men which are but poor in knowledge and yet rich in confidence undertake to manage and master these more difficult points and passages of Scripture they too often wrest them to their own destruction as St. Peter speaks 2. Ep. 3. 16. And this they either do or are in great danger of doing when they fasten upon some wrong sence and notion of hard and difficult places of Scripture and then pervert plain and easie places by interpreting them to their wrong sence of those that are more obscure and difficult especially when their interpretations are not mere speculations but such as influence men in their practice as becoming a rule to them therein Whereas the more wise and judicious never interpret hard places in opposition to the common sence of those that are plain and easie but explain those that are hard and difficult by those that are plain The use I would advise you to make of all this is to review the grounds you have gone on and to cease from your new notions and speculations of your being taught only by the Light within which you have taken up from some expressions in Scripture misunderstood by you and wholly disagreeing to the Scope of the places where they are found and contrary to the general current of the Scriptures in their plain and obvious sence Seek not a Knot in a bulrush seek not for Mysteries there where the Lord hath declared his mind plainly and in no parable But form your notions of God's method of proceeding with men to bring them to Salvation according to the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures and receive from and regulate by that Doctrine all your apprehensions perswasions affections and operations of your Souls together with all your words and actions So did the good Christians of Old they obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to them Rom. 6. 17. They purifyed their souls in obeying that Truth through the Spirit 1. Pet. 1. 22. Yea the Apostles themselves were first taught by Christ's preaching unto them what to think and believe concerning Christ John 17. 8. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me And just as the Apostles preached so the Christians believed they made their Doctrine the Adequate Rule of their notions of things the Rule of their Faith the Rule of their Life So we Preach and so ye believed saith St. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 11. And those great plain known and commonly received Truths necessary to Salvation called the common Faith Tit. 1. 4. the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. these I say were the Rule and Standard by which they were to try the Doctrine of such as only pretended to Inspirations from the Spirit Beloloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World 1. Joh. 4. 1. And then St. John in ver 2 3. commends to them one known fundamental Doctrine pertinent to his Case then in hand by which they might know the Teachers he cautioned them against were not inspired by God nor authorized by him Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God And again verse 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us adhered to and governed themselves by the Apostles Doctrine he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error And truly if you will not make the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures touching Faith and a good Life your Rule by which to try and to judge of the Truth and erroneousness of your conceptions perswasions motions and inclinations under the notion of the Light within and of all your words and actions consequent thereupon you are and will be in great danger to be like the wandring Stars and the clouds carried with a Tempest of which St Peter and Jude speak unfixed and unstable in your judgment Faith and Ways For it is certain and evident whatever you pretend to the contrary that the Light within you is not in your own account always a certain constant and infallible Rule to you for if it were you would not act so contrary to your selves as you have done under pretence of being taught of God and guided by the Light within One while crying up your former practice of shaking as the effect of God's work in and upon you and another while confessing it to be a delusion as Samuel Fisher one of note with you did to me saying it was so judged One while crying down all Ecclesistical forms of Government as tyrannical another while erecting one among your selves pretending to as much Infallibility in your Body representative in managing it as the Papists do in reference to the Pope One while owning the witnessing of a person to be from God and another while