if God will timely Advertise my Reader that the Gospel and it's Attendants are to be accounted things Distinct The Gospel properly taken being Glad Tidings of good things or the Doctrine of the for giveness of Sins freely by Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus For to speak strictly neither is the Grace of Faith Hope Repentance or Newness of Life the Gospel but rather things that are wrought by the Preaching thereof things that are the Effects of it or its unseperable Companions to all them that shall be saved Wherefore the Gospel is said to be Preached in all Nations for the obedience of Faith Hope also is called the Hope of the Gospel not the Gospel it self So again the Gospel is Preached that Men should repent but it is not Preached that men should Gospel But your Gospel which Principally or Chiefly Centers in the Dictates of Humane Nature and your Faith which is chiefly a subjecting to those Dictates are so far off from being at all any near attendants of the Gospel that they never are urged in the New Testament but in order to shew men they have forgotten to act as men Rom. 1. 19 20 21. Chap. 2. 14 15. 1 Cor. 11. 14. Your last Reason is because of several untoward opinions the Gospel is very unsuccessful Pag. 175. Answ. But what these opinions are we hear not nor how to shun them you tell us here nothing at all This I am sure there are no Men in this day have more opposed the Light Glory and Lustre of the Gospel of Christ then those as the Quakers and others that have set up themselves and their own Humanity as the Essential parts of it You in Answer to other things add many other Reasons to prove they are mistaken that count the Gospel a thing of but mean Operation to work Holiness in the heart at which you ought your self to tremble seeing the Son himself who is the Lord of Gospel is of so little esteem with you as to make coming to God by him so trivial a business as you have done Your large Transcript of other mens sayings to prove the good success of the Gospel of Old did better become that People and age then you yours they being a people that lived in the power thereof but you such Bats as cannot see it That Saying you mention of Rigaltias doth better become you and yours Those now adays do retain the Name and the Society of Christians which live altogether Antichristian Lives For take away Publicans and a wretched Rable c. And your Christian Churches will be laâ—entable weak small and insignifieant things I shall add to yours another reason of the unsuccessfulness of the Gospel in our days and that is because so many ignorant Sir Johns on the one hand and so many that have done Violence to their former Light and that have Damned themselves in their former Anathematizing of others have now for a long time as a Judgement of God been permitted to be and made the mouth to the People Persons whose Lives are Debauched and who in the Face of the World after seeming serious Detestings of Wickedness have for the Love of filthy Lucre and the Pampering their idle Carcasses made Shipwrack of their former Faith and that Feigned good Conscience they had From which number if you Sir have kept your self clear the less Blood of the Damned will fall upon your head I know you not by Face much less your Personal Practice yet I have heard as if Blood might pursue you for your Unstable Weathercock Spirit which doubtless could not but stumble the Weak and give advantage to the Adversary to speak Vilifyingly of Religion As to your Seventeenth and Eighteenth Chapters I shall say little onely I wish that your Eighteenth had been more express in discovering how far a man may goe with a notion of the truth of the Gospel and yet perish because he hath it not in Power Onely in your Inveighing so much against the Pardon of Sin while you seem so much to cry up Healing you must know that Pardon of Sin is the beginning of Health to the Soul He Pardoneth our Iniquities and Healeth all our Diseases Psa. 103. 3. And where he saith by the stripes of Christ we are healed it is Evident that healing beginneth at Pardon and not Pardon after healing as you would rather have it 1 Pet. 2. 24. compare Isa. 53. As for your Comparison of the Plaister and the Physitians Potion Pag. 217. I say you do but abuse your Reader and muddy the way of the Gospel For the first thing of which the Soul is sick and by which the Conscience receiveth wounding it is the guilt of Sin and fear of the Curse of God for it For which is provided the wounds and Precious Blood of Christ which Flesh and Blood if the Soul eat thereof by Faith giveth deliverance there-from Upon this the filth of Sin appears most odious for that it hath not onely at present Defiled the Soul but because it keeps it from doing those Duties of Love which by the Love of Christ it is constrained to endeavour the perfecting of For Filth appears Filth that is irksome and odious to a contrary Principle now implantin the Soul which Principle had its Conveyance thither by Faith in the Sacrifice and death of Christ going before The Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge That if one dyed for all then are all Dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14. The man that hath received Christ desireth to be Holy because the Nature of the Faith that layeth hold on Christ although I will not say as you it is of a Generous mind worketh by love and longeth yea greatly longeth that the Soul may be brought not onely into an universal Conformity to his Will but into his very likeness and because that State standeth not with what we are now but with what we shall be hereafter Therefore in this we groan being burthened with that which is of a contrary Nature to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven Which state is not that of Adam's Innocency but that which is Spiritual and Heavenly even that which is now in the Lord in Heaven But I will Descend to your Nineteenth Chapter it may be more may be discovered there Your Nineteenth Chapter is to shew That a right understanding of the Design of Christianity viz. as you have laid it down will give satisfaction concerning the true Notion First Of Justifying Faith Secondly Of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness Pag. 221. First Of Justifying Faith It is say you such a Belief of the truth of the Gospel as Includes a sincere Resolution of Obedience to all it's Precepts Answ. To this I shall Answer First that the Faith which we call Justifying Faith is like
also Fundamental truths of the Christian Religion as I do heartily believe let all Men know that I quarrel not with him about things wherein I discent from the Church of England but do contend for the truth continued even in these very Articles of theirs from which he hath so deeply revolted that he clasheth with every one of them as may farther be shewn when he shall take heart to reply But to wind up this unpleasant Scrible I shall have done when I have farther shewed how he joyneth with Papist and Quaker against these wholsome and Fundamental Articles Mr. Fowler 's Doctrine compared with Campian the Jesuite upon that question whether Faith onely Justifieth saith Campian 1. Campian We Papists say that as Grace is put into us in Justification so also our Righteousness is inlarged through Good Works and is inherent in us therefore it is not true that God doth Justifie by Faith ONELY Fowler Pag. 221. Justifying Faith is such a belief of the truth of the Gospel as includeth a sincere resolution of obedience unto all its Precepts and that it justifieth AS it doth SO In short is it possible that Faith in Christs Blood for the forgiveness of Sin should be the onely act which justifieth a Sinner 2. Campian So that Faith is urged but not Faith ONELY again by Faith is meant all Christianity and the whole Religion of Christians Fowler Pag. 222. For surely the Faith which intaileth the Sinner to so high a Priviledge as that of justification must needs be such as complyeth with all the purposes of Christ's coming into the World especially with his grand purpose as Lord and that it is no less necessary that it should justifie as it doth this 3. Campian Though Works void of Christ are nothing yet through Grace they serve to Justification Fowler Pag. 225. 226. Of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness this is the true Explication It consisteth in dealing with sincerely Righteous Persons as if they were perfectly so for the sake and upon the account of Christ's Righteousness The grand intent of the Gospel being to make us partakers of an inward real Righteousness and it being a Secondary one that we should be accepted and rewarded as if we were compleatly Righteous 4. Campian Speaking of Faith Hope and Charity he confesseth that Faith in Nature is before them but it doth not Justifie before they come Fowler Pag. 223. What pretence can there be for thinking that Faith is the condition or Instrument of Justification as it complyeth with onely the Precept of relying on Christ's Merits for the obtaining of it especially when it is no less manifest then the Sun at Noon Day that obedience to the other Precepts or Works of Love must go before obedience to this 5. Campian I deny that Faith ONELY doth Justifie for you have not in all the Word of God that Faith ONELY doth Justifie Fowler Pag. 225. And for my part I must confess that I would not willingly be he that should undertake to Encounter one of the Champions of that foul Cause with the Admission of this Principle That Faith Justifieth onely as it apprehendeth resteth or relyeth on Pag. 224. the Merits and Righteousness of Jesus Christ I must certainly have great luck or my Adversary but little Cunning if I were not forced to repent me of such an engagement 6. Campian Abraham being a Just Man was made more Just by a living Faith Fowler Pag. 283. He onely is a true Child of Abraham who in the Purity of the Heart obeyeth those substantial Laws that are imposed by God upon him 7. Campian I say that Charity and good Work are not excluded in the causes of ruo Justification Fowler Pag. 215. For we have shewn not onely that Reformation from the practice and purification of Heart from the liking of Sin are as plainly as can be asserted in the Gospel to be absolutely necessary to give Men a right to the Promises of it but also that its great Salvation doth even consist in it Mr. Fowler 's Doctrine compared with William Pen the Quaker 1. Pen's Sandy Foundation Pag. 19. Life and Salvation is to them that follow Christ the Light in all his Righteousness which every man comes onely to experience as he walks in a holy Subjection to that measure of Light and Grace wherewith the fulness hath inlightned him Fowler Pag. 8. That is those which are of an indispensible and Eternal Obligation which were first written in mens hearts and Originally Dictates of Humane Nature 2. Pen Pag. 32. I really confess that Jesus Christ fullfilled the Fathers Will and offered up a most satisfactory Sacrifice but not to pay God or help him to save Men. Fowler Pag. 85. Christ was set forth to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin I will not say that his Father who is perfectly sui Puris might be put by this means into a Capacity of forgiving it 3. Pen Pag. 16. God's Remission is grounded on Man's Repentance no tthat it 's impossible for God to pardon without a Plenary Satisfaction Fowler Pag. 84. There are many that do not question but that God could have pardoned Sin without any other satisfaction then the Repentance of the Sinner c. 4. Pen Pag. 27. Justification doth not go before but is subsequential to the Mortification of Lusts. Fowler Pag. 14 15. This Blessing of making Men Holy was so much the design of Christ's coming that he had his very Name from it Observe the Words He shall save his People from their Sins not from the punishment of them c. And that is the Primary sence of them which is most plainly expressed in them That he shall save his People from the punishment of Sin is a true sence too but it is Secondary and implyed onely as this latter is the never failing and necessary consequence of the former Salvation 5. Pen Pag. 25. Since therefore there can be no admittance had without performing that Righteous Will and doing those Holy and Perfect sayings Alas to what value will an imputative Righteousness amount c. Fowler Pag. 16. Christ shall bring in an inward substantial and everlasting Righteousness and by abrogating the outward Ceremonial and establishing ONELY this Righteousness he should inlarge the Jewish Church an accession of the Gentiles being by that means made unto it 6. Pen Pag. 24 25. Since God hath prescribed an inoffensive life as that which onely can give acceptance with him and on the contrary hath determined not to justifie the Wicked c. Will not the abomination appear greatest of all when God shall be found Condemning the just on purpose to justifie the wicked and that he is thereto compelled or else no Salvation which is the tendency of their Doctrine who imagine the Righteous and merciful God to condemn and punish his righteous Son that he being sanctified for our Sins we might be justified while unsatisfied by the imputation of his perfect Righteousness O why should
Apostles was that which instead of helping forward did hinder and pervert the Gospel of Christ he applieth himself to them in this manner This onely would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith By the works of the Law that is by putting of your principles into practice Nay may I not adde by putting of your principles into practice by a more bright and clear rule then in the beginning of your description is inserted by you for the Law as written and engraven in stones with the addition of all the Mosaical precepts was a more ample and full discovery of the mind of God then can be obtained by your virtues of Soul your purity of humane nature or the first principles of morals as they are written in the heart of man and originally dictates of humane nature Yet by these by following these by labouring to live up to the light of these their own experience told them that they neither could nor did obtain the enjoyment of the holy Ghost but that rather their now declining the word of Faith by which indeed they receive it at first whatever pretences of holiness and godliness were the arguments to prevail with them so to do was in truth none other but the very witch-craft and inchantments of the Devil Farther The Apostle sets this your Spirit and Principles and that which indeed is the Spirit of God in aline Diametrically opposite one against another yea the receiving of the one opposeth the receiving of the other Now we have received saith he NOT the Spirit of the World that is your Spirit and principles of humanity to walk by it or live in it but the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2. 12. But what is the Spirit of the World He tells us in the verse before it is the Spirit of a man which Solomon calls the Candle of the Lord that which searcheth all the inward parts of the Belly Prov. 20. 27. by humane principles good motions to moral duties workings of reason dictates of nature to obey God as Creator These things flow from the Spirit of a man which is the Spirit of all the World They that preach or speak by this Spirit they preach or speak of the World of the virtues of the World and the World the whole World heareth them or know in themselves what they say Now when this Spirit is received imbraced and followed as the Spirit that is of God then it must be branded with the mark of the Spirit of error and of Antichrist because the act in so doing is most wicked yea and Christ himself is made head against by it But I say the holy Ghost is not obtained by these principles nor by the pursuit of them 2. Faith is not obtained by the pursuit of your principle but by hearing of another doctrine He that presseth men to look to and live by the purity of humane nature principles of natural reason or by the Law as written in the heart or Bible he sets the word of Faith out of the World for these doctrines are as opposite as the Spirits I spake of before For Moses describeth the righteousness that is of the Law that the man that doth these things shall live by them Now he that receiveth this Law to do and live by he hath set up and is in pursuit of a doctrine of another nature then that which is called the righteousness of faith that being such as for justification aâ—d deliverance from the curse maketh no mention at all of hearing the Law or of doing good works but of hearing of the mercy of God as extended to sinners and of its coming to us through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus The righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead but what saith it The word is nigâ—h thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mâ—uth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. 5 9. This then is the doctrine of faith or the righteousness with which faith hath to do Now as old covenantâ— works are begotten in men by the doctrine of works so faith is begotten by the doctrine of faith Therefore after he had said faith cometh by hearing â—e insinuates it to be the hearing the preaching of the Gospel of peace peace by the blood of the cross and the glad tidings of good things ver 14 15 16 17. of good things promised for the sake of the Lord Jesus not for the sake of good deeds done of us by humane principles or the dictates of our nature Faith Then the second essential comes into the heart not by the preaching or the practice of your principles but by another a higher and far more heavenly doctrine And hence the Apostle compleatly puts the difference betwixt the worker of good works in the Spirit of the Law and the believer that taketh hold of grace by Christ that he may be saved thereby The one he calls Them that are of the works of the Law the other They which are of Faith This being done he tells us that as they differ in the principles to wit of Faith and Works so they shall differ in conclusion For the Law is not of faith the promise is onely made to faith therefore they onely that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham 3. The third essential is a new Heart and a new Spirit or mind and this also comes not by your principle that being but the old covenant that gendreth to bondage and that holds its Ismaels under the curse for ever there comes no new heart by the Law nor new Spirit It is by the new Covenant even the Gospel that all things are made now Jer. 31. 33. Ezek. 36. Heb. 8. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 17 18 19. The Apostle after a large discourse of the two ministrations and their excellencies 2 Cor. 3. tell us that the heart is nothing changed so long as it abideth in the works of the Law but remaineth blind and ignorant Nevertheless saith he when it shall turn from the Law to the Lord the vail shall be taken away But what is it to turn from the Law to the Lord Why even to leave and forsake your Spirit and principles and works from those principles and flie to the grace and merits the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when the heart is turned to Christ then the vail of Moses is taken off wherefore then the soul with OPEN face beholding as in a glass the glory of
Delights of their Morral Principles with the Dictates of their Humane Nature and their gallant Generous Minds Thus making a very Stalking-horse of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Words of Truth and Holiness thereby to slay the silly one making the Lord of Life and Glory instead of a Saviour by his Blood the Instructer and School-Master onely of Humane Nature a Chaser away of evil Affections and an Extinguisher of Burning Lusts and that not so neither but by giving perfect Explications of Morral Precepts Pag. 17. and setting himself an Example before them to follow him Pag. 297. Your Sixteenth Chapter Containeth an answer to those that Object against the Power of the Christian Religion to make Men Holy Answ. And to speak truth what you at first render as the cause of the Unholiness of the Professors thereof Pag. 171 is to the Purpose had it been Christianly Managed by you as namely Mens Gross Unbelief of the truth of it for it Effectuallyâ—Worketh in them that Believe 1 Thes. 2. 13. but that you onely touch and away neither shewing what is the Object of Faith nor the cause of it's being so Effectual to that Purpose neither to you at all treat of the Power of Unbelief and how all Men by Nature are shut up therein Rom. 11. 32. But presently according to your Old and Natural Course you fall First upon a supposed Power in Men to imbrace the Gospel both by closing with the Promise and shuning the threatning Pag. 172. farther adding That mankind is Indued with a Principle of Freedom and that this Principle is as Essential as any other to the Humane Nature Pag. 173. By all which it is Manifest that however you make mention of Unbelief because the Gospel hath laid the same in your way yet our Old Doctrine of the Purity of the Humane Nature now broken out into a freedom of Will and that as an Essential of the Humane Nature is your great Principle of Faith and your following of that as it Dictateth to you Obedience to the first Principles of Morrals the Practice of Faith by which you think to be saved That this is so must unavoidably be gathered from the good opinion you have your self of coming to God by Christ viz. That in the Command thereof it is one of these Positive Precepts and a thing in it self absolutely considered indifferent and neither Good nor Evil. Now he that looketh upon coming to God by Christ with such an Eye as this cannot lay the stress of his Salvation upon the Faith or Belief thereof Indifferent Faith will serve for Indifferent things Yea a Man must look beyond that which he Believeth is but one with the Ceremonial Laws but not the same with Baptism or the Lord's Supper for with those you compare that of coming to God by Christ. Wherefore Faith with you must be turned into a Chearful and Generous Complying with the Dictate of the Humane Nature and Unbelief into that which Opposeth this or that makes the Heart backward and sluggish therein This is also gathered from what you aver of the Divine Morral Laws that they be of an Indispensible and Eternal Obligation Pag. 8 things that are good in themselves Pag. 9. Considered in an Abstracted Notion Pag. 10. Wherefore things that are good in themselves must needs be better then those that are in themselves but Indifferent neither can a Possitive Precept make that which of it self is neither Good nor Evil better then that which in it's own Nature remaineth the Essentials of Goodness I Conclude then by Comparing you with your self by bringing your Book to your Book that you understand neither Faith nor unbelief any farther then by obeying or disobeying the Humane Nature and it 's Dictates in Chief and that of coming to God by Christ as one of the things that is indifferent in it self But a little to touch upon your Principle of Freedom which in Pag. 9. you call an understanding and liberty of Will Answ. First That there is no such thing in Man by Nature as Liberty of Will or a Principle of Freedom in the saving things of the Kingdom of Christ is Apparent by several Scriptures Indeed there is in Men as Men a willingness to be saved their own way even by following as you their own Natural Principles as is seen by the Quakers as well as your self but that there is a freedom of will in Men as Men to be saved by the way wich God hath Prescribed is neither asserted in the Scriptures of God neither standeth with the Nature of the Principles of the Gospel The Apostle saith The Natural Man receiveth not the things that be of the Spirit of God And the Reason is not because not Principally because he layeth aside a Liberty of Will but because they are foolishness to him 1 Cor. 2. Because in his Judgement they are things of no Moment but things as you have imagined of them that in themselves are but indifferent And that this Judgement that is passed by the Natural Man concerning the things of the Spirit of God of which that of coming to God by Christ is the chief is that which he cannot but do as a Man is Evident from that which followeth neither CAN he know them because they are Spiritually Discerned Neither CAN he know them as a Man because they are Spiritually Discerned Now if he cannot know them from what Principle should he will them For Judgement or Knowledge must be before the Will can act I say again a Man must know them to be things in chief that are Absolutely and Indispensibly Necessary and those in which resteth the greatest Glory or else his Will will not Comply with them nor Center and Terminate in them as such but still count themselves as you though somewhat Convinced that he ought to adhere unto them things that in themselves are onely indifferent and absolutely Considered neither Good nor Evil. A farther inlargement upon this Subject will be time enough if you shall Contradict Another Reason or cause which you call an immediate one of the unsuccessfulness of the Gospel is Mens unaccountable mistaking the Design of it not to say worse as to conceive no better of it then as a Science and a matter of Speculation c. Pag. 173. Answ. If this be true you have shewed us the Reason why your self have so base and unworthy thoughts thereof For although coming to God by Christ be the very chief first the substance and most Essential part of obedience thereto yet you have reckoned this but like one of the Ceremonies of the Law or as Baptism with Water and the Lord's Supper Pag. 7 8 9. Falling more Directly upon the Body of the Morral Law as written in the Heart of Men and inclining more to the teaching or Dictates of Humane Nature which were neither of them both ever any Essential part of the Gospel then upon that which indeed is the Gospel of Christ. And here I may
by us This I say being the Doctrine you have asserted and the Foundation on which your Urim and Thummim stands the Foundation with your tryal are both from the Devil and Hell as hath at large been proved and discovered in this Book And I now will add and bid you take your advantage that should a man with all his might strive to obey all the Morral Laws either as they are contained in the first Principles of Morrals or in the express Decalogue or Ten Commandments without Faith First in the Blood and Death and Resurrection of Christ c. For his Justification with God his thus doing would be counted Wickedness and he in the end accounted a Rebel against the Gospel and shall be Damned for want of Faith in the Blood of the Lord Jesus Your Twenty Second Chapter saith That the Design of Christianity teacheth us what Doctrines and Practises we ought as Christians to be most Zealous for or against Pag. â—37 Answ. But there is not by that it being rightly stated one Sillable that tendeth to incourage any Man to have lower thoughts of coming to God by Christ then of keeping the Morral Law For even the first Text you bring doth utterly overthrow it Contend say you for the Faith I Answer then not for the Law of Work for the Law is not of Faith but the Man that doth these things shall live in them by them Contend earnestly for the Faith for there are certain men crept in unawares which were before of old ordained unto this Condemnation even the Condemnation that is to come upon them that Contend against the Faith for these ungodly Men turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and deny the onely Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now these creeping ungodly Men may be divided into three Rancks 1. Such as by Principle and Practice both say Let us do evil that good may come thereon and their Damnation in Just Rom. 3. 8 9. 2. Such as by Practice onely appear to be such denying to profess the Principle thereof such are they that made excuse and delay when invited to come to the Wedding Mat. 22. 1 2 3. Luke 14. 3. There is yet another sort And they are such as seem to deny it both in Principle and Practice also onely they do it Covertly PRIVILY bringing in Damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them These bring upon themselves swift destruction 2. Pet. 2. 1. This Third sort make of the Doctrine of Grace and of the forgiveness of Sins through the Faith of the Righteousness of Christ a Loose and Liscentious Doctrine or a Doctrine that giveth liberty to the Flesh By reason of THESE the way of truth is evil spoken of and the Hearts of Innocent ones Alienated therefrom These will not stick to charge it upon the very chief of the Brethren if they shall say As Sin abounded Grace hath much more abounded that they press men to do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8 9. But as I said these Vilisie Christ not with open Words but Covertly PRIVILY they bring in their Blasphemy under a Cloak crying the Law Holiness Strictness good Works c. Besides these cloath their Doctrines with Names and Notions that belong not at all unto them as of Christ Grace the Spirit the Gospel when there is onely there the Devil and his Angels and Errours as Angels of Light and Ministers of Righteousness Of this last sort are you and the subject matter of your Book for you bring into the World an Antigospel Holiness Holiness Antigospel Principles and Antigospel Fundamentals and that these things might be Worshiped by your Disciples you give them the Name of Holiness the Design of Christ and of Christianity by which means you remove the Christ of God from before and set him behind forbiding Men to believe on him till they have Practiced your things first Nay after they have Practiced yours they then must come to God by him still respecting the Principles and Dictates of Humanity as things of the greatest weight things that are good in themselves Still considering that coming to God by Christ is not good in it self but so onely upon the account of certain Circumstances a thing in it self of an indifferent Nature and absolutely considered neither good nor evil Wherefore Sir laying aside all fear of men not regarding what you may procure to be inflicted upon me for this may plain dealing with you I tell you again that your self is one of them that have Closely Privily and Devilishly by your Book turned the Grace of our God into a Lascivious Doctrine bespattering it with giving liberty to looseness and the hardening of the ungodly in Wickedness against whom shall you persist in your Wickedness I shall not fail may I live and know it and be helped of God to do it to discover yet farther the rottenness of your Doctrine with the accursed tendencies thereof What you say about doubtful Opinion alterable Modes Rites and Circumstances in Religion Pag. 239. I know none so wedded thereto as your selves even the whole gang of your rabling counterfeit Clergy who generally like the Ape you speak of lye blowing up the Aplause and Glory of your Trumpery and like the Tail with your Foolish and Sophistical arguings you cover the filthy parts thereof as you sweetly argue in the next Chapter Pag. 242. saying Whatsoever of such are Commended by the custome of the place we live in or commanded by Superiours or made by ANY Circumstance convenient to be done our Christian liberty Consists in this that we have leave to do them So that do but call them things indifferent things that are the customs of the place we live in or made by ANY Circumstance convenient and a man may not doubt but he hath leave to do them let him live at Rome or Constantinople or amidst the greatest Corruption of Worship and Government These are therefoâ—â— doubtless a Third sort of Fundamentals by which you can Wrastle with Conviction of Conscience and stifle it by which you can suit your self for every Fashion Mode and Way of Religion Here you may hop from Presbiterianism to a Prelatical Mode and if time and chance should serve you backwards and forwards again Yea here you can make use of several Consciences one for this way now another for that anon now putting out the Light of this by a Sophistical Delusive Argument then putting out the other by an argument that best suits the time Yea how oft is the Candle of the Wicked put out by such glorious Learning as this Nay I doubt not but a man of your Principles were he put upon it would not stick to count those you call Gospell-possitive Precepts of no Value at all in the Christian Religion for now even now you do not stick to say that that even that of going to God by Christ is one of these and that such an one as if absolutely Considered in it self
Men. 3. The Phreaching of these are first and principally to beget Faith to beget Life to beget Souls to God yea to beget in Men such a Principle whereby they may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear 4. But to Preach free Grace doth much condemn your free-will to Preach Christ's Righteousness doth utter Curse and Condemn yours and to Preach the Promise of Grace doth quite shut out a Covenant of Works Therefore no marvel if you who are so Wedded to these things be such an Enemy to free Grace the Righteousness of Christ and the Gospel-promises that you make even these things a Characteristical note first abusing the Consequences of them of a Church-troubling-Preacher 5. You tauntingly proceed saying Such Preachers also press us to renounce our own Righteousness which they that have none at all to renounce have a mighty kindness for Answ. Indeed those that have a Righteousness of their own as the Pharisees and Hyprocrites of old had never much kindness for the Doctrine of Grace and the Ministers of Christ but the Publicans and harlots had and therefore these while they that had Righteousness stumbled and fell entred into the Kingdom of Heaven The Publicans and Harlots entred the Kingdom of Heaven before you But what Righteousness have you of your own to which you so dearly are Wedded that it may not be let go for the sake of Christ seeing also so long as you go about to establish it you submit not your self to the Righteousness of God Yea Why do you taunt those Ministers that perswade us to Renounce our own Righteousness and those also that follow their Doctrine seeing this was both the Doctrine and Practice of Paul and all others save onely those that had Moses Vail over their Hearts Another sort of Ministers that you say are Enemies to the promoting of Holiness are such as are never in their Element but when they are talking of the Irrespectiveness of God's Decrees the absoluteness of his promises the utter disability and perfect impotency of Natural Men to do any thing towards their own Conversion and that insists with great Emphasis and Vehemency upon such like false and dangerous opinions Pag. 262. Answ. The Men that Preach these things being rightly stated Preach the truth of God if the Scriptures may bear sway they having all been prooved the truth of the Gospel both by the Prophets and Apostles And when you shall think meet by argument to contradict them either I or some other may shew you the folly of your undertaking In the mean time let the Reader take notice that here you have judged not by Scripture nor by Reason but upon a bare Presumption a rising from your Pride or Ignorance Wherefore pray you in your next shew us 1. What is in Man that the decree of Election should respect as a thing fore-seen of God to prevail with him to predestinate him to Eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. Make it manifest that in the Word of God there neither is nor can be any absolute promise contained 3. Shew us what ability there is in a Natural Man as such to do things towards his own Conversion I mean things immediately tending to and that must infallibly consummate therein and let us see what things they are And know that when you have well done all this according to the Scriptures of truth that then it will be time enough to condemn the contrary for false and dangerous opinions But shall I speak the truth for you The reason of this your presumptuous exclamation and condemnation of these things is because they stand in the way of promoting your ignorant tottering promiseless and Gospelless Holiness they stand in the way of old Adam they stand in the way of your dunghil rebellious Righteousness they stand in the way of your freedom of will and a great rable more of such like pretended Vertues Yea they do and must and shall stand there when you and the rest of the Socinians and Quakers have said their all against them There is yet another sort of Preachers whom you condemn and so do I as well as you though not in your Spirit nor to advance your Pestiferous Principles and they are such as make it their great business to advance the petty interest of any party whatsoever and concern themselves more about doing this then about promoting and carrying on that wherein consists the chief good of all Mankind and are more Zealous to make Prosilites to their particular Sects then Converts I will add first to Jesus Christ and then to an Holy Life and press more exact and ridged conformity to their Modes and Forms then to the Laws of God and the Essential Duties of the Christian Religion Lastly the Caution which you give to Ministers because there wanteth for it among you a Foundation is to be esteemed but an Error and an abuse of the words and practices of the Apostle And as for your subtile and close incensing the power to persecute Non-conformists know that we are willing God assisting to overcome you with truth and patience not sticking to Sacrifice our lives and dearest concerns in a faithful Witness-baring against your filthy errors Compiled and Foisted into the World by your Devilish design to promote Paganism against Christianity Pag. 265 266. I come now to your Twenty Sixth Chapter which is spent to prove that an obedient temper of mind is a necessary and excellent qualification to prepare men for a firm belief and a right understanding of the Gospel of Christ Pag. 267. Answ. 1. For as much as the obedient temper you mention is Precedent to or before Faith and the right understanding of the Gospel it must needs be also that which stands with unbelief and ignorant of the same Now that this should be an excellent and necessary qualification to a firm belief and right understanding of the Gospel is altogether without proof and truth But this is affirmed for the farther promoting of your Humane Nature and the things that Originally are Dictates thereof But 2. The obedience or inclination to obedience that is before Faith or the understanding of the Gospel is so far off from being an excellent preparative or good qualification for Faith and the knowledge of the Gospel that in its own Nature which is more then in its Consequences it is a great obstruction thereto For while a Man remains faithless and ignorant of the Gospel to what doth his obedient temper of mind incline Not to Faith nor the Gospel of Christ for with these as yet you suppose he hath not to doe therefore he inclineth to the Law of Morrals either as it was delivered in Tables of Stone from Sinai or as written in the hearts of all the Children of Men to it under the last consideration which is in truth the most Heathen and Pagan to it as so you intend your obedient temper of mind should incline Pag. 7 8 9 10. Now this