own Eternal Word and Power so no Creature has access again unto him but in and by the Son according to his own express words No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Matth. 11.27 Luk. 10.22 And again he himself saith I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 Hence he is fitly called the Mediator betwixt God and Man For having been with God from all Eternity being himself God and also in time partaking of the nature of man through him is the goodness and love of God conveighed to mankind and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies Hence is easily deduced the probation of this first Assertion thus If no man know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him then there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son But no man knoweth the Father but the Son Therefore there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son The first part of the antecedent are the plain words of Scripture The consequence thereof is undeniable except one would say that he hath the knowledge of the Father while yet he knows him not which were an absurd repugnance Again If the Son be the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him then there is no knowledg of the Father but by the Son But the first is true Therefore the last The antecedent are the very Scripture words The consequence is very evident For how can any know a thing who useth not the way without which it is not knowable But it is already proved that there is no other way but by the Son so that who so uses not that way cannot know him neither come unto him § VI. Having then laid down this first Principle I come to the second viz. That there is no Knowledg of the Son but by the Spirit or that the Revelation of the Son of God is by the Spirit Where it is to be noted that I alwayes speak of the saving certain and necessary Knowledge of God which that it cannot be acquired otherwayes than by the Spirit doth also appear from many clear Scriptures For Jesus Christ in and by whom the Father is revealed doth also reveal himself to his Disciples and Friends in and by his Spirit as his manifestation was sometimes outwards when he testified and witnessed for the Truth in this World and approved himself faithful throughout So being now withdrawn as to the outward man he doth teach and instruct mankind inwardly by his own Spirit he standeth at the door and knocketh and who so heareth his Voice and openeth he comes in to such Rev. 3.20 Of this Revelation of Christ in him Paul speaketh Gal. 1.6 in which he placeth the excellency of his Ministry and the certainty of his Calling And the Promise of Christ to his Disciples Lo I am with you to the end of the World confirmeth this same thing for this is an inward Presence and Spiritual as all acknowledg But what relates hereto will again occur I shall deduce the proof of this Proposition from two manifest places of Scripture The first is 1 Cor. 2.11 12. What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God The Apostle in the verses before speaking of the wonderful things which are prepared for the Saints after he hath declared that the natural man cannot reach them adds that they are revealed by the Spirit of God ver 9 10. giving this reason for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And then he bringeth in the comparison in the verses above mentioned very apt and answerable to our purpose and Doctrine that as the things of a man are only known by the Spirit of man so the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God that is that as nothing below the Spirit of man as the Spirit of Brutes or any other Creatures can properly reach unto nor comprehend the things of a man as being of a more noble and higher Nature so neither can the Spirit of man or the natural man as the Apostle in the 14 verse subsumes receive nor discern the things of God or the things that are Spiritual as being also of a higher Nature which the Apostle himself gives for the reason saying neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned So that the Apostles words being reduced to an argument do very well prove the matter under debate thus If that which appertaineth properly to man cannot be discerned by any lower or baser Principle than the Spirit of man then cannot these things that properly relate unto God and Christ be known or discerned by any lower or baser thing than the Spirit of God and Christ. But the First is true Therefore also the Second The whole strength of the argument is contained in the Apostles words before mentioned which therefore being granted I shall proceed to deduce a second argument thus That which is Spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God But the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledg of him is Spiritual Therefore the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledge of him can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God The other Scripture is also a saying of the same Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Scripture which is full of Truth and answereth full well to the inlightned understanding of the Spiritual and real Christian may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked Here the Apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian that he positively averrs we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it which insinuates no less than that the Spiritual Truths of the Gospel are as lyes in the Mouths of carnal and unspiritual men for though in themselves they be true yet are they not true as to them because not known nor uttered forth in and by that Principle and Spirit that ought to direct the mind and actuat it in such things they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy neither can it be more truly and properly called a real and true knowledg of God and Christ than the actings of Alexander the great and Julius Caesar c. if now transacted upon a Stage might be called truly and really their doings or the persons representing them might be said truly
but inward and immediate revelation as we have before proved Their example can be no ways applicable to us except we believe in God as they did that is by the same object The Apostle clears this yet further by his own example Gal. 1.16 where he saith so soon as Christ was revealed in him he consulted not with flesh and blood but forthwith believed and obeyed The same Apostle Heb. 13.7 8. where he exhorteth the Hebrews to follow the faith of the Elders adds this reason considering the end of their conversation Jesus Christ the same to day yesterday and for ever hereby notably insinuating that in the object there is no alteration If any now object the diversity of Administration I answer that altereth not at all the object for the same Apostle mentioned this diversity three times 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. centreth always in the same Object the same Spirit the same Lord the same God But further if the object of Faith were not one and the same both to us and to them then it would follow that we were to know God some other way than by the Spirit But this were absurd Therefore c. Lastly this is most firmly proved from a common and received maxim of the School-men to wit Omnis actus specificatur ab objecto every act is specified from its object from which if it be true as they acknowledg tho for the sake of many I shall not recur to this argument as being too nice and Scholastick Neither lay I much stress upon those kind of things as being that which commends not the simplicity of the Gospel If the object were different then the faith would be different also Such as deny this Proposition now adays use here a distinction granting that God is to be known by his Spirit but again denying that it is immediate or inward but in and by the Scriptures in which the mind of the Spirit as they say being fully and amply expressed we are thereby to know God and be led in all things As to the negative of this assertion that the Scriptures are not sufficient neither were ever appointed to be the adequate and only rule nor yet can guide or direct a Christian in all those things that are needful for him to know we shall leave that to the next Proposition to be examined What is proper in this place to be proved is that Christians now are to be led inwardly and immediatly by the Spirit of God even in the same manner though it befal not to many to be led in the same measure as the Saints were of old § X. I shall prove this by divers Arguments and first from the Promise of Christ in these words Joh. 14.16 And I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever 17. Even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Again ver 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and 16.13 But when that Spirit of Truth shall come he shall lead you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak and shall declare unto you things to come We have here first who this is and that is divers wayes expressed to wit The Comforter the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost and sent of the Father in the Name of Christ. And hereby is sufficiently proved the fottishness of those Socinians and other carnal Christians who neither know nor acknowledge any internal Spirit or Power but that which is meerly Natural by which they sufficiently declare themselves to be of the World who cannot receive the Spirit because they neither see him nor know him Secondly Where this Spirit is to be He dwelleth with you and shall be in you And Thirdly What his Work is He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and guide you into all Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to the First Most do acknowledge that there is nothing else understood than what the plain words signifie which is also evident by many other places of Scripture that will hereafter occur Neither do I see how such as affirm otherwayes can avoid Blasphemy For If the Comforter the Holy Ghost and Spirit of Truth be all one with the Scriptures then it will follow that the Scriptures is God seeing it is true that the Holy Ghost is God If these Mens reasoning might take place where ever the Spirit is mentioned in relation to the Saints thereby might be truly and properly understood the Scriptures Which what a non-sensical Monster it would make of the Christian Religion will easily appear to all Men. As where it is said A Manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal it might be rendred thus A manifestation of the Scriptures is given to every man to profit withal What notable sense this would make and what a curious interpretation let us consider by the sequel of the same chapter 1 Cor. 12.9 10 11. To another the gifts of Healing by the same Spirit to another the working of Miracles c. But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will What would now these great masters of Reason the Socinians judge if we should place the Scriptures here instead of the Spirit Would it answer their Reason which is the great guide of their Faith Would it be good and sound Reason in their Logical Schools to affirm that the Scriptures divideth severally as it will and giveth to some the gift of Healing to others the working of Miracles If then this Spirit a manifestation whereof is given to every man to profit withal be no other than that Spirit of Truth before-mentioned which guideth into all Truth this Spirit of Truth cannot be the Scriptures I could infer an hundred more absurdities of this kind upon this sottish Opinion but what is said may suffice For even some of themselves being at times forgetful or ashamed of their own Doctrine do acknowledge that the Spirit of God is another thing and distinct from the Scriptures to guide and influence the Saints Secondly That this Spirit is inward in my opinion needs no interpretation nor commentary He dwelleth with you and shall be in you This indwelling of the Spirit in the Saints as it is a thing most needful to be known and believed so is it as positively asserted in the Scripture as any thing else can be If so be the Spirit of God dwell in you saith the Apostle to the Romans 8.9 and again Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 6.19 Without this the
hold upon some little combustible matter lying near unto it yea if it fall out that several met together be straying in their minds though outwardly silent and so wandring from the measure of Grace in themselves which through the working of the enemy and negligence of some may fall out it either one come in or may be in who is watchful and in whom the Life is raised in a great measure as that one keeps his place he will feel a secret Travel for the rest in a sympathy with the Seed which is oppressed in the other and kept from arising by their thoughts and wanderings and as such a faithful one waits in the Light and keeps in this Divine work God often-times answers the secret travel and breathings of his own Seed through such a one so that the rest will find themselves secretly smitten without words and that one will be as a Midwife through the secret travel of his Soul to bring forth the life in them just as a little water thrown into a Pump brings up the rest whereby life will come to be raised in all and the vain imaginations brought down and such a one is felt by the rest to minister life into them without words yea sometimes when there is not a word in the meeting but all are silently waiting if one come in that is rude and wicked and in whom the power of darkness prevaileth much perhaps with an intention to mock or do mischief if the whole meeting be gathered into the Life and it be raised in a good measure it will strike terror into such an one and he will feel himself unable to resist but by the secret strength and vertue thereof the power of darkness in him will be chained down and if the day of his Visitation be not expired it will reach to the measure of Grace in him and raise it up to the redeeming of his Soul and this we often bear witness of so as we had hereby frequent occasion in this respect since God hath gathered us to be a People to renew this old saying of many Is Saul also among the Prophets For not a few have come to be convinced of the Truth after this manner of which I my self in a part am a true witness who not by strength of arguments or by a particular disquisition of each Doctrine and convincement of my understanding thereby came to receive and bear witness of the Truth but by being secretly reached by this Life For when I came into the silent Assemblies of God's People I felt a secret power among them which touched my heart and as I gave way unto it I found the evil weakning in me and the good raised up and so I became thus knit and united unto them hungering more and more after the increase of this Power and Life whereby I might feel my self perfectly redeemed and indeed this is the surest way to become a Christian to whom afterwards the knowledg and understanding of Principles will not be wanting but will grow up so much as is needful as the natural Fruit of this good root and such a knowledg will not be barren nor unfruitful after this manner We desire therefore all that come among us to be prosolyted knowing that though Thousands should be convinced in their understandings of all the Truths we maintain yet if they were not sensible of this inward Life and their Souls not changed from unrighteousness to righteousness they could add nothing to us for this is that cement whereby we are joyned as to the Lord so to one another and without this none can Worship with us Yea if such should come among us and from that understanding and convincement they have of the Truth speak ever so true things and utter them forth with ever so much excellency of speech if this Life were wanting it would not edify us at all but be as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal 1 Cor. 13.1 § VIII Our work then and worship is when we meet together for every one to watch and wait upon God in themselves and to be gathered from all visibles thereinto And as every one is thus stated they come to find the good arise over the evil and the pure over the impure in which God reveals himself and draweth near to every individual and so he in the midst in the general Whereby each not only partakes of the particular refreshment and strength which comes from the good in himself but is a sharer of the whole body as being a living member of the body having a joynt fellowship and communion with all and as this Worship is stedfastly preached and kept to it becomes easie though it be very hard at first to the natural man whose roving imaginations and running worldly desires are not so easily brought to silence and therefore the Lord often-times when any turns toward him and have true desires thus to wait upon him and find great difficulty through the unstayedness of their minds doth in condescension and compassion cause his Power to break forth in a more strong and powerful manner and when the mind sinks down and waits for the appearance of Life and that the power of darkness in the Soul wrestles and works against it then the good Seed as it ariseth will be found to work as Physick in the Soul especially if such a weak one be in the Assembly of divers others in whom the Life is arisen in greater dominion and through the contrary workings of the power of darkness there will be found an inward striving in the Soul as really in the mystery as ever Esau and Jacob strove in Rebeckahs Womb. And from this inward travel while the darkness seeks to obsure the Light and the Light break through the darkness which always it will do if the Soul give not its strength to the darkness there will be such a painful travel found in the Soul that will even work upon the outward man so that often-times through the working thereof the body will be greatly shaken and many groans and sighs and tears even as the pangs of a Woman in travel will lay hold upon it yea and tais not only as to one but when the Enemy who when the Children of God assemble together is not wanting to be present to see if he can let their comfort hath prevailed in any measure in a whole meeting and strongly worketh against it by spreading and propagating his dark power and by drawing out the minds of such as are met from the Life in them as they come to be sensible of this power of his that works against them and to wrestle with it by the Armour of Light sometimes the power of God will break forth into a whole meeting and there will be such an inward travel while each is seeking to overcome the evil in themselves that by the strong contrary workings of these opposite powers like the going of two contrary tides every individual will be
and I my self with others have shared of in suffering there they have often beaten us and cast water and dirt upon us there they have danced leaped sung and spoken all manner of prophane and ungodly words offered violence and shameful behaviour to grave Woman and Virgins jeared mocked and scoffed asking us If the Spirit was not yet come and much more which were tedious here to relate and all this while we have been seriously and silently sitting together and waiting upon the Lord so that by these things our inward and spiritual Fellowship with God and one another in the pure life of Righteousness hath not been hindered But on the contrary the Lord knowing our sufferings and reproaches for his Testimonies sake hath caused his Power and Glory more to abound among us and hath mightily refreshed us by the sense of his love which hath filled our Souls and so much the rather as we found our selves gathered into the Name of the Lord which is the strong Tower of the Righteous whereby we felt our selves sheltered from receiving any inward hurt through their malice and also that he had delivered us from that vain name and profession of Christianity under which our opposers were not ashamed to bring forth these bitter and cursed Fruits yea sometimes in the midst of this tumult and opposition God would powerfully move some or other of us by his Spirit both to testifie of that joy which notwithstanding their malice we enjoyed and powerfully so declare in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit against their folly and wickedness so as the power of Truth hath brought them to some measure of quietness and stillness and stopped the impetuous streams of their fury and madness that as ever of old Moses by his Rod divided the Waves of the Red Sea that the Israelites might pass so God hath thus by his Spirit made a way for us in the midst of this raging wickedness peaceably to enjoy and possess him and accomplish our Worship to him So that sometimes upon such occasions several of our opposers and interrupters have hereby been convinced 〈…〉 Truth and gathered from being Persecutors to be Sufferers with 〈…〉 let it not be forgotten but let it be inscribed and abide for a constant remembrance of the thing that in these beastly and bruitish pranks used to molest us in our Spiritual meetings none have been more busie than the Young Students of the Universities who were learning Philosophy and Divinity so called and many of them preparing themselves for the Ministry Should we commit to writing all the abominations committed in this respect by the young fry of the Clergy it would make no small Volumn as the Churches of Christ gathered into his Pure Worship in Oxford and Cambridge in England and Edinburgh and Aberdeen in Scotland where the Universities are can well bear witness § XIV Moreover in this we know that we are partakers of the New Covenant's Dispensation and Disciples of Christ indeed sharing with him of that Spiritual Worship which is performed in the Spirit and in Truth because as he was so are we in this world For the Old Covenant Worship had an outward Glory Temple and Ceremonies and was full of outward Splendor and Majesty having an outward Tabernacle and Altar beautified with Gold Silver and Precious Stones and their Sacrifices were tied to an outward particular place even the outward Mount Zion and those that prayed behoved to pray with their Faces towards that outward Temple and therefore all this behoved to be protected by an outward arm nor could the Jews peaceably have enjoyed it but when they were secured from the violence of their outward Enemies and therefore when at any time their Enemies prevailed over them their Glory was darkned and their Sacrifices stopped and the Face of their Worship marred hence they complain lament and bewail the destroying of the Temple as a loss irreparable But Jesus Christ the Author and Institutor of the New Covenant Worship testifies that God is neither to be worshipped in this nor that place but in the Spirit and in Truth and forasmuch as his Kingdom is not of this World neither doth his Worship consist in it or need either the Wisdom Glory Riches or Splendor of this world to beautifie or adorn it nor yet the outward power or arm of flesh to maintain uphold or protect it but it is and may be performed by those that are spiritually minded notwithstanding all opposition violence and malice of men because it being purely Spiritual it is out of the reach of natural men to interrupt or molest it even as Jesus Christ the Author thereof did enjoy and possess his Spiritual Kingdom while oppressed persecuted and rejected of men and as in despite of the malice and rage of the devil he spoiled principalities and powers triumphing over them and through death destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil so also all his followers both can and do worship him not onely without the arm of Flesh to protect them but even when oppressed For their worship being spiritual is by the power of the Spirit defended and maintained but such worships as are carnal and consist in carnal and outward ceremonies and observations need a carnal and outward arm to protect them and defend them else they cannot stand and subsist And therefore it appears that the several worships of our opposers both Papists and Protestants are of this kind and not the true Spiritual and New Covenant worship of Christ because as hath been observed they cannot stand without the protection or countenance of the outward Magistrate neither can be performed if there be the least opposition for they are not in the patience of Jesus to serve and worship him with sufferings ignomies calumnies and reproaches And from hence have sprung all those wars fightings and bloodshed among Christians while each by the arm of Flesh endeavoured to defend and protect their own way and worship and from this also sprung up that monstrous opinion of persecution of which we shall speak more at length hereafter § XV. But Fourthly The nature of this Worship which is performed by the Operation of the Spirit the natural man being silent doth appear from these words of Christ John 4.23 24. But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth For the Father seeketh such to Worship him God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth This Testimony is the more specially to be observed for that it is both the first chiefest and most ample testimony which Christ gives us of his Christian Worship as different and contradistinguished from that under the Law For First he sheweth that the season is now come wherein the Worship must be in Spirit and in Truth For the Father seeketh such to Worship him so then it is no more a Worship
of this World but subject to every ordinance of man for Conscience sake Secondly In that in the hottest times of persecution and the most violent prosecution of those Laws made against Meetings being cloathed with Innocency they have boldly stood to their testimony for God without creeping into holes or corners or once hiding themselves as all other Dissenters have done but daily met according to their custom in the publick places appointed for that end so that none of thy Officers can say of them that they have surprized them in a corner overtaken them in a private Conventicle or catched them lurking in their secret chambers nor needed they to send out spies to get them whom they were sure daily to find in their open assemblys testifying for God and his Truth By which those that have an eye to see may observe their Christian patience and courage constancy and suffering joyned in one more than in any other People that differ from them or oppose them And yet in the midst of those troubles thou canst bear witness that as on the one part they never sought to detract from thee or to render thee and thy Government odious to the people by nameless and scandalous Pamphlets and Libels so on the other hand they have not spared to admonish exhort and reprove thee and have faithfully discharged their Consciences towards thee without flattering words as ever the true Prophets in antient times used to do to those Kings and Princes under whose Power Violence or Oppression was acted And albeit it be evident by experience to be most agreeable both to Divine Truth and Humane Policy to allow every one to serve God according to their Consciences nevertheless those other Sects who for the most part durst not peep out in the times of Persecution while these innocent People stood bold and faithful do now combine in a joynt Confederacy notwithstanding all the former Janglings and Contentions among themselves to render us odious seeking unjustly to wrest our Doctrine and Words as if they were inconsistent both with Christianity and civil Society so that to effectuat this their work of Malice against us they have not been ashamed to take the help and commend the Labours of some invidious Socinians against us So do Herod and Pontius Pilate agree to Crucifie Christ. But our practice known to thee by good experience to be more consistent with Christianity and civil Society and the peace and welfare of this Island than that of those that thus accuse us doth sufficiently guard us against this Calumny that we may indeed appeal to the testimony of thy Conscience as a witness for us in the face of the Nations These things moved me to present the world with a brief but true account of this Peoples Principles in some short Theological Propositions which according to the will of God proving successful beyond my expectation to the satisfaction of several and to the moving in many a desire of being farther informed concerning us as being every where evil spoken of and likewise meeting with publick opposition by some as such will alwayes do so long as the Devil rules in the children of disobedience I was thereby further engaged in the liberty of the Lord to present to the world this Apology of the Truth held by those People which because of thy interest in them and theirs in thee as having first appeared and mostly increased in these Nations under thy rule I make bold to present unto thee Thou know'st and hast experienced their faithfulness towards their God their patience in suffering their peaceableness towards the King their honesty plainness and integrity in their faithful warnings and testimonies to thee and if thou wilt allow thy self so much time as to read this thou may'st find how consonant their Principles are both to Scripture Truth and right Reason The simplicity of their behaviour the generality of their condition as being poor men and illiterate the manner of their procedure being without the wisdom and policy of this World hath made many conclude them fools and mad men and neglect them as not being capable of Reason But tho it be to them as their Crown thus to be esteemed of the wise and great and learned of this world and though they rejoyce to be accounted fools for Christs sake yet of late some even such who in the worlds account are esteemed both wise and learned begin to judge otherwise of them and find that they hold forth things very agreeable both to Scripture Reason and true Learning As it is inconsistent with the Truth I bear so it is far from me to use this Epistle as an Engine to flatter thee the usual design of such works and therefore I can neither dedicate it to thee nor crave thy Patronage as if thereby I might have more confidenne to present it to the World or be more hopeful of its success To God alone I owe what I have and that more immediately in matters Spiritual and therefore to him alone and to the Service of his Truth I dedicate whatever work he brings forth in me to whom only the praise and honour appertains whose Truth needs not the Patronage of worldly Princes his Arm and Power being that alone by which it is propagated established and confirmed But I found it upon my Spirit to take occasion to present this Book unto thee that as thou hast been often warned by several of that People who are inhabitants of England so thou may'st not want a seasonable Advertisement from a Memher of thy antient Kingdom of Scotland and that thou may'st know which I hope thou shalt have no reason to be troubled at that God is raising up and increasing that People in that Nation And the Nations shall also hereby know that the Truth we profess is not a work of Darkness nor propagated by stealth and that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because we know it to be the Power of God unto Salvation and that we are no wayes so inconsistent with Government nor such disturbers of the Peace as our Enemies by traducing us have sought to make the world believe we are for what to thee I dare appeal as a witness of our peaceableness and Christian Patience Generations to come shall not more admire that singular step of Divine Providence in restoring thee to thy Throne without outward Blood-shed than they shall admire the increase and progress of this Truth without all outward help and against so great opposition which shall be none of the least things rendring thy Memory remarkable God hath done great things for thee he hath sufficiently shewn thee that it is by him Princes rule and that he can pull down and set up at his pleasure He hath often faithfully warned thee by his Servants since he restored thee to thy Royal Dignity that thy Heart might not wax wanton against him to forget his Mercies and Providences towards thee whereby he might permit thee
not led by his Spirit but these feign a Christianity that needs not the Spirit of Christ. He makes no hope of the blessed Resurrection unless we feel the Spirit residing in us but these feign a hope without any such a feeling But perhaps they will answer that they deny not but that it is necessary to have it only of modesty and humility we ought to deny and not acknowledg it What means he then when he commands the Corinthians to try themselves if they be in the Faith to examine themselves whether they have Christ whom whosoever acknowledges not dwelling in him is a reprobate By the Spirit which he hath given us saith John we know that he abideth in us And what do we then else but call in question Christ his promise while we would be esteemed the Servants of God without his Spirit which he declared he would pour out upon all his Seeing these things are the first grounds of Piety it is miserable blindness to accuse Christians of Pride because they dare glory of the presence of the Spirit without which glorying Christianity it self could not be But by their example they declare how truly Christ spake saying that his Spirit was unknown to the world and that those only acknowledg it with whom it remains Thus far Calvin If therefore it be so why should any be so foolish as to deny or so unwise as not to seek after this Spirit which Christ hath promised shall dwell in his Children They then that do suppose the in-dwelling and leading of his Spirit to be ceased must also suppose Christianity to be ceased which cannot subsist without it Thirdly What the work of this Spirit is is partly before shown which Christ compriseth in two or three things He will guide you into all Truth he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance Since Christ hath provided for us so good an instructor what need we then lean so much to those traditions and commandments of Men wherewith so many Christians have Burthened themselves What need we set up our own Carnal and corrupt reason for a guide to us in matters Spiritual as some will needs do May it not be complained of all such as the Lord did of old concerning Israel by the Prophets Jer. 2.13 For my People have commited two Evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that hold no water Have not many forsaken do not many deride and reject this inward and Immediate Guide this Spirit that leads into all Truth and cast up to themselves other ways broken waves indeed which have not all this while brought them out of the flesh nor out of the world nor from under the dominion of their own lusts and sinful affections whereby truth which is only rightly learned by this Spirit is so much a stranger in the Earth From all them that have been mentioned concerning this promise and these words of Christ it will follow that Christians are always to be led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God dwelling in them and that the same is a standing and perpetual Ordinance as well to the Church in general in all ages as to every individual member in particular as appears from this argument The promise of Christ to his Children are Yea and Amen and cannot fail but must of necessity be fulfilled But Christ hath promised that the Comforter the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth shall abide with his Children for ever shall dwell with them shall be in them shall lead them into all Truth shall teach them all things shall bring all things to their remembrance Therefore c. Again No man is redeemed from the carnal mind which is at enmity with God which is not subject to the Law of God neither can be No man is yet in the Spirit but in the flesh and cannot please God except he in whom the Spirit of God dwells But every true Christian is in measure redeemed from the carnal mind is gathered out of the Enmity and can be subject to the Law of God is out of the flesh and in the Spirit the Spirit of God dwelling in him Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him Again Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his that is no Child no Friend no Disciple of Christ. But every true Christian is a Child a Friend a Disciple of Christ. Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ. Moreover Whosoever is the Temple of the Holy Ghost in him the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But every true Christian is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore in every true Christian the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But to conclude He in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth it is not in him a lazy dumb useless thing but it moveth actuateth governeth instructeth and teacheth him all things whatsoever is needfull for him to know yea bringeth all things to his remembrance But the Spirit of God dwelleth in every true Christian Therefore it leadeth instructeth and teacheth every true Christian whatsoever is needful for him to know § XI But there are some that will confess that the Spirit doth now lead and influence the Saints but that he doth it only Subjectively or in ablind manner by inlighting their understandings to understand and believe the Truth delivered in the Scriptures But not at all by presenting these Truths to the mind by way of object and this they call medium incognitum assentiendi as that of whose working a man is not sensible This opinion tho somewhat more tolerable than the former is nevertheless not altogether according to Truth neither doth it reach the fulness of it 1. Because there be many Truths which as they are applicable to particulars and individuals and most needful to be known by them are no wise to be found in the Scripture as in the following Proposition shall be shown Besides the arguments already deduced do prove that the Spirit doth not only subjectively help us to discern Truths elsewhere delivered but also objectively present those Truths to our minds For that which teacheth me all things and is given me for that end without doubt presents those things to my mind which it teacheth me It is not said it shall teach you how to understand those things that are written but it shall teach you all things Again that which brings all things to my remembrance must needs present them by way of object else it were improper to say it brought them to my remembrance but onely that it helpeth to remember the objects brought from elsewhere My second argument shall be drawn from the Nature of the New Covenant by which and those that follow I shall prove that we are led by the Spirit both immediately and objectively the nature of the New Covenant is expressed in divers places and First Isa. 59.21 As for me this is my
though we should extend that of the Revelation beyond the particular Prophecy of that book it cannot be understood but of a new Gospel or new Doctrines or of restraining man's Spirit that he mix not his humane words with the Divine and not of a new revelation of the old as we have said before The Fourth Proposition Concerning the Condition of Man in the fall All Adam's posterity or mankind both Jews and Gentiles as to the first Adam or earthly man is faln degenerated and dead deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward Testimony or Seed of God and is subject unto the Power Nature and Seed of the Serpent which he soweth in mens hearts while they abide in this natural and corrupted estate from whence it comes that not only their words and deeds but all their imaginations are evil perpetually in the sight of God as proceeding from this depraved and wicked Seed Man therefore as he is in this state can know nothing aright yea his Thoughts and Coneptions concerning God and things Spiritual until he be disjoyned from this evil Seed and united to the Divine Light are unprofitable both to himself and others Hence are rejected the Socinian and Pelagian errors in exalting a Natural Light as also the Papists and most of Protestants who affirm that man without the true Grace of God may be a true Minister of the Gospel Nevertheless this Seed is not imputed to Infants until by Transgression they actually joyn themselves therewith for they are by Nature the Children of Wrath. Who walk according to the Power of the Prince of the Air and the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience having their conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind Eph. 2. § I. HItherto we have discoursed how the True knowledg of God is attained and preserved also of what use and service the Holy Scripture is to the Saints We come now to examine the state and condition of Man as he stands in the fall what his capacity and power is and how far he is able as of himself to advance in relation to the things of God Of this we touch'd a little in the beginning of the second Proposition but the full right and through understanding of it is of great use and service because from the ignorance and altercations that have been about it there have arisen great and dangerous errors both on the one hand and the other While some do so far exalt the light of Nature or the faculty of the natural man as capable of himself by virtue of the inward will faculty light and power that pertains to his Nature to follow that which is good and make real progress towards Heaven And of these are the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians of old and of late the Socinians and divers others among the Papists Others again will needs run into another extream to whom Augustin among the Antients first made way in his declining age through the heat of his Zeal against Pelagius not only confessing men uncapable of themselves to do good and prone to evil but that in his very Mothers-womb and before he commits any actual Transgression he is contaminate with a real guilt whereby he deserves eternal Death in which respect they are not afraid to affirm that many poor Infants are eternally damned and for ever endure the Torments of Hell Therefore the God of Truth having now again revealed his Truth that good and even Way by his own Spirit hath taught us to avoid both these extreams That then which our proposition leads us to treat of is First What the condition of man is in the Fall and how far uncapable to meddle in the things of God And Secondly that God doth not impute this evil to Infants until they actually joyn with it that so by establishing the Truth we may overturn the errors on both parts And as for that Third thing included in the proposition it self concerning these Teachers which want the Grace of God we shall refer that to the Tenth Proposition where that matter is more particularly handled § II. As to the First not to dive into the many curious Notions which many have concerning the Condition of Adam before the fall all agree in this that thereby he came to a very great loss not only in the things which related to the outward man but in regard of that true Fellowship and Communion he had with God This loss was signified to him in the Command For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2.17 This death could not be an outward death or the dissolution of the outward man for as to that he did not dye yet many Hundred Years after so that it must needs respect his Spiritual Life and Communion with God The consequence of this fall besides that which relates to the fruits of the Earth is also expressed Gen. 3.24 So he drove out the man and he placed at the East of the Garden of Eden Cherubims and a Flaming Sword which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life Now whatsoever literal signification this may have we may safely ascribe to this Paradise a mystical signification and truly account it that Spiritual Communion and Fellowship which the Saints obtain with God by Jesus Christ to whom only these Cherubims give way and unto as many as enter by him who calls himself the door So that though we do not ascribe any whit of Adam's guilt to men until they make it theirs by the like acts of Disobedience yet we cannot suppose that men who are come of Adam naturally can have any good thing in their Nature as belonging to it which he from whom they derive their Nature had not himself to communicate unto them If then we may affirm that Adam did not retain in his Nature as belonging thereunto any will or light capable to give him knowledg in Spiritual things then neither can his posterity For whatsoever real good any man doth it proceedeth not from his nature as he is a man or the Son of Adam but from the Seed of God in him as a new visitation of Life in order to bring him out of this natural condition So that though it be in him yet it is not of him and this the Lord himself witnessed Gen. 6.5 where it is said he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually which words as they are very positive so are they very comprehensive Observe the emphasis of them First there is every imagination of the thoughts of his heart so that this admits of no exception of any Imagination of the thoughts of his heart Secondly is only evil continually it is neither in some part evil continually nor yet only evil at sometimes but both only evil and always and continally evil which certainly excludes any good as a proper effect of mans heart naturally For that
Sun keeps its Prerogative it is such a ones imprudence that he shuts himself out from the common benefit of the Light The same Man in his 11 Book of Cain and Abel cap. 13. saith Therefore he brought unto all the means of Health that whosoever should Perish may ascribe to himself the causes of his Death who would not be cured when he had the remedy by which he might have escaped § IX Seeing then that this Doctrin of the Universality of Christ's death is so certain and agreeable to the Scripture Testimony and to the sense of the purest Antiquity it may be wondered how so many some whereof have been esteemed not only learned but also pious have been capable to fall into so gross and strange an errour But the cause of this doth evidently appear in that the way and method by which the vertue and efficacy of this death is communicated to all men hath not been rightly understood or indeed hath been erroneously affirmed The Pelagians ascribing to all man's will and nature denyed man to have any seed of sin conveighed to him from Adam And the Semi-Pelagians making Grace as a Gift following upon Man's merit or right improving of his nature according to their known Principle Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam This gave Augustine Prosper and some others occasion labouring in opposition to these Opinions to magnifie the Grace of God and paint out the corruption of Man's Nature as the Proverb is of those that seek to make straight a crooked stick to incline to the other extream So also the Reformers Luther and others finding among other errors the strange Expressions used by some of the Popish Scholasticks concerning Free-will and how much the tendency of their Principles is to exalt Man's Nature and lessen Gods Grace having all those sayings of Augustine and others for a pattern through the like mistake run upon the same extreme Tho afterwards the Lutherans seeing how far Calvin and his followers drove this matter who as a Man of subtile and profound judgment foreseeing where it would land resolved above-board to assert that God had decreed the means as well as the end and therefore had ordained men to sin and excites them thereto which he labours earnestly to defend and that there was no avoiding the making God the Author of sin thereby received occasion to discern the falsity of this Doctrin and disclaimed it as appears by the latter writings of Melancthon and the Monpelgartension Conference where Lucas Osiander one of the Collocutors terms it impious calls it a making God the Author of Sin and a horrid and horrible Blasphemy Yet because none of those who have asserted this Universal Redemption since the Reformation have given a clear distinct and satisfactory testimony how it is communicated to all and so have fall'n short of fully declaring the perfection of the Gospel Dispensation others have been thereby the more strengthened in their errors Which I shall illustrate by one singular example The Arminians and other assertors of universal Grace use this as a chief Argument That which every man is bound to believe is true But every man is bound to believe that Christ died for them Therefore c. Of this Argument the other party deny the Assumption saying that they who never heard of Christ are not obliged to believe in him and seeing the Remonstrants as they are commonly called do generally themselves acknowledge that without the outward knowledg of Christ there is no Salvation that gives the other yet party a stronger Argument for their precise decree of Reprobation For say they seeing we all see really and in effect that God hath with-held from many Generations and yet from many Nations that Knowledg which is absolutely needful to Salvation and so hath rendered it simply impossible unto them why may he not as well withhold the Grace necessary to make a saving application of that Knowledg where it is preached For these is no ground to say that this were injustice in God or impartiality more than his leaving those others in utter ignorance the one being but a with-holding Grace to apprehend the object of Faith the other a with drawing the object it self For answer to this they are forced to draw a conclusion from their former Hypothesis of Christ dying for all and God's mercy and justice saying that if these Heathens who live in these remote places where the outward knowledg of Christ is not did improve that common knowledg they have to whom the outward Creation is for an object of Faith by which they may gather that there is a God then the Lord would by some Providence either send an Angel to tell them of Christ or conveigh the Scripture to them or bring them some way to an opportunity to meet with such as might inform them Which as it gives alwayes too much to the power and strength of mans will and nature and savours a little of Socinianism and Pelagianism or at least of Semi-pelagianism so since it is only built upon probable conjectures neither hath it evidence enough to convince any strongly tainted with the other Doctrin nor yet doth it make the equity and wonderful Harmony of Gods Mercy and Justice towards all so manifest to the understanding So that I have often observed that these assertors of Universal Grace did far more pithily and strongly overturn the false Doctrine of their Adversaries then they did establish and confirm the truth and certainty of their own And though they have proof sufficient from the Holy Scriptures to confirm the Universality of Christ's Death and that none are precisely by any irrevocable decree excluded from Salvation yet I find when they are expressed in the respects above mentioned to shew how God hath so far equally extended the capacity to partake of the benefit of Christ's Death unto all as to communicate unto them a sufficient way of so doing they are somewhat in a strait and are put more to give us their conjectures from the certainty of the former presupposed Truth to wit that because Christ hath certainly dyed for all and God hath not rendred Salvation impossible to any therefore there must be some way or other by which they may be saved which must be by improving some common Grace or by gathering from the works of Creation and Providence then by really demonstrating by convincing and Spiritual Arguments what that way is § X. It falls out then that as Darkness and the great Apostasie came not upon the Christian World all at once but by several degrees one thing making way for another until that thick and gross vail came to be overspread wherewith the Nations were so blindly covered from the seventh and eighth until the sixteenth Centuries even as the Darkness of the Night comes not upon the outward Creation at once but by degrees according as the Sun declines in each Horizon so neither did that full and clear Light and Knowledg
can draw near to the Lord with boldness and know their acceptance in and by him in whom and in as many as are found in him the Father is well-pleased The Eighth Proposition Concerning Perfection In whom this Pure and Holy Birth is fully brought forth the Body of Death and Sin comes to be Crucified and removed and their hearts united and subjected to the Truth so as not to obey any Suggestions or Temptations of the Evil One to be free from actual sinning and transgressing of the Law of God and in that respect perfect yet doth this perfection still admit of a growth and there remaineth always in some part a possibility of sinning where the mind doth not most diligently and watchfully attend unto the Lord. § I. SInce we have placed Justification in the Revelation of Jesus Christ formed and brought forth in the Heart there working his works of Righteousness and bringing forth the Fruits of the Spirit The question is how far he may prevail in us while we are in this Life or we over our Souls Enemies in and by his strength Those that plead for Justification wholly without them meerly by imputative Righteousness denying the necessity of being cloathed with real and inward Righteousness do consequently affirm that it is impossible for a man even the best of men to be free of sin in this life which they say no man ever was but on the contrary that none can neither of himself nor by any Grace received in this life O! wicked saying against the power of God's Grace Keep the Commandments of God perfectly but that every man doth break the Commandments in Thought Word and Deed. Whence they also affirm as was a little before observed That the very best actions of the Saints their Prayers their Worships are impure and polluted We on the contrary though we freely acknowledg this of the Natural Faln man in his first state whatever his profession or pretence may be so long as he is unconverted and unregenerate yet we do believe that those in whom Christ comes to be formed and the new man brought forth and born of the incorruptible Seed as that birth and man in union therewith naturally doth the will of God so it is possible so far to keep to it as 〈◊〉 to be found daily Transgressors of the Law of God And for 〈…〉 stating of the controversie let it be considered 〈…〉 that we place not this possibility in man 's own will and 〈…〉 is a man the Son of faln Adam or as he is in his natural state however wise or knowing or however much endued with a notional and literal knowledg of Christ thereby endeavouring a conformity to the letter of the Law as it is outward Secondly that we attribute it wholly to man as he is born again renewed in his mind raised by Christ knowing Christ alive reigning and ruling in him and guiding and leading him by his Spirit and revealing in him the Law of the Spirit of Life which not only manifests and reproves sin but also gives power to come out of it Thirdly that by this we understand not such a perfection as may not daily admit of a growth and consequently mean not as if we were to be as Pure Holy and Perfect as God in his Divine Attributes of Wisdom Knowledg and Purity but only a perfection proportionable and answerable to man's measure whereby we are kept from transgressing the Law of God and enabled to answer what he requires of us even as he that improved his Two Talents so as to make Four of them perfected his work and was so accepted of his Lord as to be caled a good and faithful Servant nothing less than he that made his Five Ten. Even as a little Gold is perfect gold in its kind as well as a great mass and a Child hath a perfect body as well as a man though it daily grow more and more Thus Christ is said Luke 2.52 to have increased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and man though before that time he had never sinned and was no doubt perfect in a true and proper sense Fourthly though a man may witness this for a season and therefore all ought to press after it yet we do not affirm but those that have attained it in a measure may by the wiles and temptations of the Enemy fall into iniquity and lose it sometimes if he be not watchful and diligently attend not to that of God in the heart And we doubt not but many good and holy men who hath not arrived to everlasting life have had divers ebbings and flowings of this kind for though every sin weaken a man in his Spiritual condition yet it doth not so as to destroy him altogether or render him uncapable of rising again Lastly though I affirm that after a man hath arrived to such a condition in which a man may not sin he yet may sin I will nevertheless not deny but there may be a state attainable in this life in which to do Righteousness may become so natural to the Regenerate Soul that in the stability of this condition they cannot sin Others may perhaps speak more certainly of this state as having arrived to it For me I shall speak modestly as acknoâ—ledging my self not to have arrived at it yet I dare not deny it for that it seems so positively to be asserted by the Apostle in these words 1 John 3.9 He that is born of God sinneth not neither can he because the Seed of God remaineth in him The Controversie being thus stated which will serve to obviate objections I shall proceed first to shew the absurdity of that Doctrine that pleads for sin for term of life even in the Saints Secondly prove this Doctrine of perfection from many pregnant Testimonies of the Holy Scripture And lastly answer the arguments and objections of our opposers § III. First then this Doctrin viz. that the Saints nor can nor ever will be free of sinning in this life is inconsistent with the Wisdom of God and with his glorious Power and Majesty Who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity who having purposed in himself together to him that should worship him and be witnesses for him on earth a chosen people doth also no doubt sanctifie and purifie them For God hath no delight in iniquity but abhors transgression and though he regard man in transgression so far as to pitty him and afford him means to come out of it yet he loves him not neither delights in him as he is joyned thereunto Wherefore if man must alwaies be joyned to sin then God should alwaies be at a distance with them as it is written Isa. 59.2 Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his Face from you whereas on the contrary the Saints are said to partake even while here of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and to be one spirit with the Lord 1 Cor.
be truly one must be much more necessary to make a man a Minister of Christianity seeing the one is a degree above the other and has it included in it nothing less than he that supposeth a master supposeth him first to have attained the knowledg and capacity of a Scholar They that are not Christians cannot be Teachers or Ministers among Christians But this inward call power and vertue of the Spirit of God is necessary to make a man a Christian as we have abundantly proved before in the second proposition according to these Scriptures He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God Therefore this call moving and drawing of the Spirit must be much more necessary to make a minister Secondly all ministers of the New Testament ought to be ministers of the Spirit and not of the letter according to that 2 Cor. 3.6 and as the old Latine hath it not by the letter but by the Spirit But how can a man be a minister of the Spirit who is not inwardly called by it and who looks not upon the operation and testimony of the Spirit as essential to his call As he could not be a minister of the letter who had thence no ground for his call yea that were altogether a stranger to and unacquainted with it so neither can he be a minister of the Spirit who is a stranger to it and unacquainted with the motions thereof and knows it not to draw act and move him and go before him in the work of the Ministery I would willingly know how those that take upon them to be ministers as they suppose of the Gospel meerly from an outward vocation without so much as being any ways sensible of the work of the Spirit or any inward call therefrom can either satisfie themselves or others that they are Ministers of the Spirit or wherein they differ from the ministers of the Letter For Thirdly if this inward call or testimony of the Spirit were not essential and necessary to a minister then the ministery of the New Testament should not only be no ways preferable to but in divers respects far worse than that of the Law for under the Law there was certain tribe allotted for the ministery and of that tribe certain families set apart for the priesthood and other offices by the immediate command of God to Moses so that the people needed not be in any doubt who should be Priests and Ministers of the holy things yea and besides this God called forth by the immediate testimony of his Spirit several at divers times to teach instruct and reprove his people as Samuel Nathan Elias Elisa Jeremiah Amos and many more of the Prophets But now under the New Covenant where the ministry ought to be more spiritual the way more certain and the access more easie unto the Lord our adversaries by denying the necessity of this inward and Spiritual vocation make it quite otherways for there being now no certain family or tribe to which the ministry is limited we are left in uncertainty to chuse and have pastors at a venture without all certain assent of the will of God having neither an outward rule nor certainty in this affair to walk by for that the Scripture cannot give any certain rule in this matter hath in the third Proposition concerning it been already shewn Fourthly Christ proclaims them all Thieves and Robbers that enter not by him the door into the Sheep-fold but climb up some other way whom the Sheep ought not to hear but such as come in without the Call movings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ wherewith he leads his Children into all truth come in certainly not by Christ who is the Door but some other way and therefore are not true Shepherds Obj. § VIII To all this they object the succession of the Church alledging that since Christ gave a call to his Apostles and Disciples they have conveyed that call to their Successors having power to ordain Pastors and Teachers by which power the authority of ordaining and making Ministers and Pastors is successively conveyed to us so that such who are ordained and called by the Pastors of the Church are therefore true and lawful Ministers and others who are not so called are to be accounted but intruders Hereunto also some Protestants add a necessity though they make it not as a thing essential that besides this calling of the Church every one being called ought to have the inward call of the Spirit inclining him so chosen to his work but this they say is subjective and not objective of which before Answ. As to what is subjoined of the inward call of the Spirit in that they make it not essential to a true call but a supererogation as it were it sheweth how little they set by it since those they admit to the ministery are not so much as questioned in their trials whether they have this or not Yet in that it hath been often mentioned especially by the Primitive Protestants in their treatises of this subject it sheweth how much they were secretly convinced in their minds that this inward call of the Spirit was most excellent and preferable to any other and therefore in the most noble and heroick acts of the reformation they laid claim unto it so that many of the primitive Protestants did not scruple both to despise and disown this outward call when urged by the Papists against them But now Protestants having gone from the testimony of the Spirit plead for the same succession and being pressed by those whom God now raiseth up by his Spirit to reform these many abuses that are among them with the example of their Forefathers practice against Rome they are not at all asham'd utterly to deny that their fathers were call'd to their work by the inward and immediate vocation of the Spirit cloathing themselves with that call which they say their Forefathers had as Pastors of the Roman Church For thus not to go further affirmeth Nicolaus Arnoldus in a pamphlet written against the same Propositions called a Theologick Exercitation sect 40. averring that they pretended not to an immediate act of the Holy Spirit but reformed by the vertue of the ordinary vocation which they had in the Church as it then was to wit that of Rome c. § IX Many absurdities do Protestants fall into by deriving their ministry thus through the Church of Rome As first they must acknowledg her to be a true Church of Christ though only erroneous in some things which contradicts their fore-fathers so frequently and yet truly calling her Anti-Christ Secondly they must needs acknowledge that the Priests and Bishops of the Romish Church are true Ministers and Pastors of the Church of Christ as to the essential part else they could not have been fit subjects for that power and authority to have resided in neither
men without that art and rules or sophistical learning deduce a certain conclusion out of true Propositions which scarce any man of Reason wants we deny not the use of it and I have sometimes used it in this Treatise which also may serve without that Dialectical art As for the other part of Philosophy which is called Moral or Ethicks it is not so necessary to Christians who have the rules of the Holy Seriptures and the Gift of the Holy Spirit by which they can be much better instructed The Physical and Metaphysical part may be reduced to the arts of Medicine and the Mathematicks which have nothing to do with the essence of a Christian Minister And therefore the Apostle Paul who well understood what was good for Christian Ministers and what hurtful thus exhorted the Colossians Col. 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit And to his beloved Disciple Timothy he writes also thus 1 Tim. 6.20 O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsly so called § XXI The third and main part of their literature is School Divinity a monster made up betwixt some Scriptural notions of Truth and the Heathenish terms and maximes being as it were the Heathenish Philosophy Christianized or rather the literal external knowledge of Christ Heathenized it is man in his first faln natural state with his devilish wisdom pleasing himself with some notions of Truth and adorning them with his own serpentine and worldly wisdom because he thinks the simplicity of the Truth too low and mean a thing for him and so despiseth that simplicity wheresoever it is found that he may set up and exalt himself puffed up with this his monstrous birth it is the devil darkening obscuring and veiling the knowledge of God with his sensual and carnal wisdom that so he may the more securely deceive the hearts of the simple and make the Truth as it is in it self despicable and hard to be known and understood by multiplying a thousand hard and needless questions and endless contentions and debates all which whoso perfectly knoweth he is not a whit less the servant of sin than he was but ten times more in that he is exalted and proud of iniquity and so much the further from receiving understanding or learning the Truth as it is in its own naked simplicity because he is full learned rich and wise in his own conceit and so those that are most skilled in it wear out their day and spend their precious time about the infinite and innumerable questions they have feigned and invented concerning it A certain learned man called it a two-fold discipline as of the race of the centaurs partly proceeding from Divine sayings partly from Philosophical reasons A thousand of their questions they confess themselves to be no ways necessary to Salvation and yet many more of them they could never agree upon but are and still will be in endless janglings about them The Volumes that have been written about it a man in his whole age though he lived very old could scarce read and when he has read them all he has but wrought himself a great deal more vexation and trouble of Spirit than he had before These certainly are the words multiplied without knowledge by which counsel hath been darkened Job c. 38. v. 2. They make the Scripture the text of all this Mass and it 's concerning the sense of it that their voluminous debates arise But a man of a good upright heart may learn more in half an hour and be more certain of it by waiting upon God and his Spirit in the heart than by reading a thousand of their Volumes which by filling his head with many needless imaginations may well stagger his faith but never confirm it and indeed those that give themselves most to it are most capable to fall into error as appeareth by the example of Origen who by his learning was one of the first that falling into this way of interpreting the Scriptures wrote so many Volumes and in them so many errors as very much troubled the Church Also Arius led by this curiosity and humane scrutiny despising the simplicity of the Gospel fell into his error which was the cause of that horrible Heresie which so much troubled the Church methinks the simplicity plainness and brevity of the Scriptures themselves should be a sufficient reproof for such a science and the Apostles being honest plain illeterate men my be better understood by such kind of men now than with all that mass of scholastick stuff which neither Peter nor Paul nor John ever thought of § XXII But this invention of Satan wherewith he began the Apostasie hath been of dangerous consequence for thereby he at first spoiled the simplicity of Truth by keeping up the Heathenish learning which occasioned such uncertainty even among those called Fathers and such debate that there are few of them to be found who by reason of this mixture do not only frequently contradict one another but themselves also And therefore when the Apostasie grew greater he as it were buried the Truth with this vail of darkness wholly shuting out people from true knowledg and making the learned so accounted busie themselves with idle and needless questions while the weighty Truths of God were neglected and as it were went into desuetude Now though the grossest of these abuses be swept away by Protestants yet the evil root still remains and is nourished and upheld and upon the growing hand that this science is kept up and deemed necessary for a Minister for while the pure learning of the Spirit of Truth is despised and neglected and made ineffectual man 's faln earthly wisdom is upheld and so in that he labours and works with the Scriptures being out of the Life and Spirit those that wrote them were in by which they are rightly understood and made use of And so he that is to be a Minister must learn this art or trade of merchandizing with the Scriptures and be that which the Apostle would not be to wit a trader with them 2 Cor. 2.17 That he may acquire a trick from a verse of Scripture by adding his own barren notions and conceptions to it and his uncertain conjectures and what he hath stoln out of Books for which end he must have of necessity a good many by him and may each Sabbath day as they call it or oftner make a Discourse for an hour long and this is called the preaching of the word whereas the Gift Grace and Spirit of God to teach open and instruct and to preach a word in season is neglected and so man's arts and parts and knowledg and wisdom which is from below set up and established in the Temple of God yea and above the little Seed which in effect is Antichrist working in the Ministry and so the Devil may be as good and able a Minister as the
the natural man from a meer conviction of his understanding doth in the forwardness of his own will and by his own natural strength without the influence and leading of God's Spirit go about either in his understanding to imagine conceive or think of the things of God or actually to perform them by preaching or praying The first is a missing both in matter and form The second is a retaining of the form without the Life and Substance of Christianity because Christian Religion consisteth not in a meer belief of true Doctrins or a meer performance of Acts good in themselves or else the bare letter of the Scripture though spoken by a Drunkard or a Devil might be said to be Spirit and Life which I judg none will be so absurd as to affirm and also it would follow that where the form of godliness is there the power is also which is contrary to the express words of the Apostle For the form of godliness cannot be said to be where either the notions and opinions believed are erroneous and ungodly or the acts performed evil and wicked for then it would be the form of ungodliness and not of godliness But of this further hereafter when we shall speak particularly of preaching and praying Now though this last be not so bad as the former yet it hath made way for it for men having first departed from the Life and Substance of true Religion and Worship to wit from the inward Power and Vertue of the Spirit so as therein to act and thereby to have all their actions enlivened have only retained the form and shew to wit the true words and appearance and so acting in their own natural and unrenewed wills in this form the form could not but quickly decay and be vitiated for the working and active spirit of man could not contain it self within the simplicity and plainness of Truth but giving way to his own numerous inventions and imaginations began to vary in the form and adapt it to his own inventions until by degrees the form of godliness for the most part came to be lost as well as the power For this kind of Idolatry whereby man loveth idolizeth and huggeth his own conceptions inventions and product of his own brain is so incident unto him and seated in his faln nature that so long as his natural Spirit is the first author and actor of him and is that by which he only is guided and moved in his worship towards God so as not first to wait for another Guide to direct him he can never perform the pure Spiritual Worship nor bring forth any thing but the Fruit of the first faln natural and corrupt root Wherefore the time appointed of God being come wherein by Jesus Christ he hath been pleased to restore the true Spiritual Worship and the outward form of Worship which was appointed by God to the Jews and whereof the manner and time of its performance was particularly determined by God himself being come to an end we find that Jesus Christ the Author of the Christian Religion prescribes no set form of Worship to his Children under the more pure administration of the New Covenant save that he only tells them that the Worship now to be performed is Spiritual and in the Spirit and it 's especially to be observed that in the whole New Testament there is no order nor command given in this thing but to follow the Revelation of the Spirit save only that general of meeting together a thing dearly owned and diligently practised by us as shall hereafter more appear True it is mention is made of the duties of Praying Preaching and Singing but what order or method should be kept in so doing or that presently they should be set about so soon as the Saints are gathered there is not one word to be found yea these duties as shall afterwards be made appear are always annexed to the assistance leadings and motions of God's Spirit Since then man in his natural state is thus excluded from acting or moving in things Spiritual how or what way shall he exercise this first and previous duty of waiting upon God but by silence and by bringing that natural part to silence Which is no otherwaies but by abstaining from his own Thoughts and Imaginations and from all the self-workings and motions of his own mind as well in things materially good as evil that he being silent God may speak in him and the Good Seed may arise This though hard to the natural man is so answerable to Reason and even natural experience in other things that it cannot be denyed He that cometh to learn of a master if he expect to hear his master and be instructed by him must not continually be speaking of the matter to be taught and never be quiet otherwise how shall his master have time to instruct him yea though the schollar were never so earnest to learn the science yet would the master have reason to reprove him as untoward and indocile if he would always be meddling of himself and still speaking and not wait in silence patiently to hear his master instructing and teaching him who ought not to open a mouth until by his master he were commanded and allowed so to do So also if one were about to attend a great Prince he would be thought an impertinent and imprudent servant who while he ought patiently and readily to wait that he might answer the King when he speaks and have his Eye upon him to observe the least motions and inclinations of his will and to do accordingly would be still deafening him with discourse though it were in praises of him and running to and fro without any particular and immediate order to do things that perhaps might be good in themselves or might have been commanded at other times to others Would the Kings of the Earth accept of such servants or service Since then we are commanded to wait upon God diligently and in so doing it is promised that our strength shall be renewed this waiting cannot be performed but by silence or cessation of the natural part on our side since God manifests himself not to the outward man or senses so much as to the inward to wit to the Soul and Spirit if the Soul be still thinking and working in her own will and busily exercised in her own imaginations though the matters as in themselves may be good concerning God yet thereby she incapacitates her self from discerning the still and small voyce of the Spirit and so hurts her self greatly in that she neglects her chief business of waiting upon the Lord nothing less than if I should busie my self crying out and speaking of a business while in the mean time I neglect to hear one who is quietly whispering into my ear and informing me in these things which are most needful for me to hear and know concerning that business And since it is the chief work of a Christian to know the
would follow as is evident and will be acknowledged by all Next we do not deny but wicked men are sensible of the motions and operations of God's Spirit often-times before their day be expired from which they may at times pray acceptably not as remaining altogether wicked but as entring into Piety from whence they afterwards fall away § XXVI As to the singing of Psalms there will not be need of any long discourse for that the case is just the same as in the two former of Preaching and Prayer We confess this to be a part of God's Worship and very sweet and refreshful when it proceeds from a true sense of God's love in the heart and arises from the divine influence of the Spirit which leads Souls to breath forth either a sweet Harmony or words suitable to the present condition whether they be words formerly used by the Saints and recorded in Scripture such as the Psalmes of David or other words as were the Hymns and Songs of Zacharias Simeon and the Blessed Virgin Mary But as for the formal customary way of singing it hath in Scripture no foundation nor any ground in true Christiansty yea besides all the abuses incident to prayer and preaching it hath this more peculiar that often times great and horrid lies are said in the sight of God for all manner of wicked prophane People take upon them to personate the experiences and conditions of Blessed David which are not only false as to them but also as to some of more sobriety who utter them forth as where they will sing sometimes Psal. 22.14 my heart is like Wax it is melted in the midst of my Bowels and verse 15. My strength is dried up like a Pot-sheard and my Tongue cleaveth to my Jaws and thou hast brought me into the dust of Death And Psal. 6.6 I am weary with my groaning all the night make I my Bed to swim I water my Couch with my Tears And many more which those that speak know to be false as to them And sometimes will confess just after in their Prayers that they are guilty of the Vices opposite to those Vertues which but just before they have asserted themselves endued with Who can suppose that God accepts of such jugling And indeed such singing doth more please the carnal ears of men than the pure ears of the Lord who abhors all Lying and Hypocrisie That singing then that pleaseth him must proceed from that which is PVRE in the Heart even from the Word of Life therein in and by which richly dwelling in us Spiritual Songs and Hymns are returned to the Lord according to that of the Apostle Col. 3.16 But as to their artificial Musick either by Organs or other instruments or voice we have neither example nor precept for it in the New Testament § XXVII But lastly the great advantage of this true Worship of God which we profess and practice is that it consisteth not in man's Wisdom Arts or Industry neither needeth the Glory Pomp Riches nor Splendor of this World to beautifie it as being of a Spiritual and Heavenly nature and therefore too simple and contemptible to the natural mind and will of man that hath no delight to abide in it because he finds no room there for his imaginations and inventions and hath not the opportunity to gratifie his outward and carnal Senses so that this form being observed is not like to be long kept pure without the Power For it is of it self so naked without it that it hath nothing in it to invite and tempt men to dote upon it further than it is accompanied with the Power Whereas the Worship of out Adversaries being performed in their own wills is self-pleasing as in which they can largely exercise their natural parts and invention and as to most of them having somewhat of an outward and worldly splendor delectable to the carnal and worldly Senses they can pleasantly continue it and satisfie themselves though without the Spirit and Power which they make no ways essential to the performance of their Worship and therefore neither wait for nor expect it § XXVIII So that to conclude the Worship Preaching Praying and Singing which we plead for is such as proceedeth from the Spirit of God and is always accompanyed with its influence being begun by its motion and carried on by the power and strength thereof and so is a Worship purely Spiritual such as the Scripture holds forth Joh. 4.23 24. 1 Cor. 14.15 Eph. 6.18 c. But the Worship Preaching Praying and Singing which our Adversaries plead for and which we oppose is a Worship which is both begun carried on and concluded in man's own natural will and strenghth without the motion or influence of God's Spirit which they judg they need not wait for and therefore may be truly acted both as to the matter and manner by the wickedest of men Such was the Worship and vain Oblations which God always rejected as appears from Isa. 66.3 Jer. 14.12 c. Isa. 1.13 Prov. 15.29 John 9.31 The Twelfth Proposition Concerning Baptism As there is one Lord and one Faith so there is one Baptism which is not the putting away the Filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good Conscience before God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and this Baptism is a Pure and a Spiritual thing to wit the Baptism of the Spirit and Fire by which we are buried with him that being washed and purged from our sins we may walk in newness of Life of which the Baptism of John was a Figure which was commanded for a time and not to continue for ever as to the Baptism of Infants it is a meer humane Tradition for which neither Precept nor Practice is to be found in all the Scripture § I. I Did sufficiently demonstrate in the explanation and probation of the former Proposition how greatly the Professors of Christianity as well Protestants as Papists were degenerated in the matter of Worship and how much strangers to and averse from that true and acceptable Worship that is performed in the Spirit of Truth because of man's natural propensity in his faln state to exalt his own inventions and to intermix his own work and product in the Service of God and from this root sprung all the Idle Worships Idolatries and numerous Superstitious Inventions among the Heathens For when God in condescension to his chosen People the Jews did prescribe to them by his Servant Moses many Ceremonies and Observations as Types and Shaddows of the Substance which in due time was to be revealed which consisted for the most part in washings outward purifications and cleansings which were to continue until the time of the Reformation until the Spiritual Worship should be set up and that God by the more powerful pouring forth of his Spirit and guiding of that Anoynting which was to lead his Children into all Truth and teach them to Worship him in a way more Spiritual and acceptable
Pelagians for saying that Infants dying unbaptized may be saved And the Manichees were condemned for denying that Grace is universally given by Baptism and Julian the Pelagian by Augustin for denying exorcism and insufflation in the use of Baptism all which things Protestants deny also So that Protestants do but foolishly to upbraid us as if we could not shew any among the Antients that denyed Water-baptism seeing they cannot shew any whom they acknowledg not to have been heretical in several things to have used it nor yet who using it did not use also the sign of the Cross and other things with it which they deny There were some nevertheless in the darkest times of Popery who testified against Water-baptism For one Alanus pag. 103 104 107. speaks of some in his time that were burnt for the denying of it for they said that Baptism had no efficacy either in Children or adult Persons and therefore men were not obliged to take Baptism Particularly Ten Canonicks so called were burnt for that crime by the order of King Robert of France And P. Pithaeus tells in his Fragments of the History of Guienne which is also confirmed by one Johannes Floracensis a Monk who was famous at that time in his Epistle to Oliva Abbot of the Ausonian Church I will saith he give you to understand concerning the Heresie that was in the City of Orleans on Childeâ—-mass-day foy it was true if ye have heard any thing that King Robert caused to be burnt alive nigh fourteen of that City of the chief of their Clergy and the more noble of their Laicks who were hateful to God and abominable to Heaven and Earth for they did stiffly deny the Grace of Holy Baptism and also the Consecration of our Lord's Body and Blood The time of this deed is noted in these words by Papir Masson in his Annals of France lib. 3. in Hugh and Robert actum Aureliae publice anno incarnationis Domini 1022 regni Roberti Regis 28. indictione 5. quando Stephanus haeresiarcha complices ejus damnati sunt exusti Aureliae Now for their calling them Hereticks and Maniches we have nothing but the testimony of their accusers which will no more invalidate their testimony for this Truth against the use of Water-baptism or give more ground to charge us as being one with Maniches than because some called by them Maniches do agree with Protestants in some things that therefore Protestants are Maniches or Hereticks which Protestants can no waies shun For the question is whether in what they did they walked according to the Truth testified of by the Spirit in the Holy Scripture so that the controversie is brought back again to the Scriptures according to which I suppose I have formerly discussed it As for the latter part of the Thesis denying the use of Infant Baptism it necessarily follows from what is above said for if Water-baptism be ceased then surely Baptizing of Infants is not warrantable But those that take upon them to oppose us in this matter will have more to do as to this latter part for after they have done what they can to prove Water-baptism it remains for them to prove that Infants ought to be baptized For he that proves Water-baptism ceased proves that Infant Baptism is vain But he that should prove that Water-baptism continues has not thence proved that Infant Baptism is necessary That needs something further and therefore it was a pitiful subterfuge of Nic. Arnoldus against this to say that the denying of Infant-baptism belonged to the gangrene of the Anabaptists without adding any further probation The Thirteenth Proposition Concerning the Communion or participation of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is inward and Spiritual which is the participation of his Flesh and Blood by which the inward man is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells of which things the breaking of Bread by Christ with his Disciples was a figure which they even used in the Church for a time who had received the Substance for the sake of the weak even as abstaining from things strangled and from Blood the washing of one anothers Feet and the anointing of the Sick with Oyl all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former yet seeing they are but the shaddows of better things they cease in such as have obtained the Substance § I. THe Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is a mystery hid from all natural men in their first faln and degenerate state which they cannot understand reach to nor comprehend as they there abide neither as they there are can they be partakers of it nor yet are they able to discern the Lord's Body And forasmuch as the Christian World so called for the most part hath been still labouring working conceiving and imagining in their own natural and unrenewed understandings about the things of God and Religion therefore hath this mystery much been hid and sealed up from them while they have been contending quarrelling and fighting one with another about the meer shaddow outside and form but strangers to the Substance Life and Vertue § II. The Body then of Christ which believers partake of is Spiritual and not Carnal and his Blood which they drink of is pure and heavenly and not humane or elementary as Augustin also affirms of the Body of Christ which is eaten in his Tractat. Psal. 98. Except a man eat my Flesh he hath not in him Life Eternal and he saith the words which I spake unto you are Spirit and Life understand spiritually what I have spoken Ye shall not eat of this Body which ye see and drink this Blood which they shall spill that crucifie me I am the living Bread who have descended from Heaven he calls himself the Bread who descended from Heaven exhorting that we might believe in him c. If it be asked then what that Body what that Flesh and Blood is I answer it is that Heavenly Seed that Divine Spiritual Coelestial Substance Answ. of which we spake before in the fifth and sixth Propositions This is that vehiculum Dei or Spiritual Body of Christ whereby and wherethrough he communicateth Life to men and Salvation to as many as believe in him and receive him and whereby also man comes to have fellowship and communion with God This is proved from the 6 of John from verse 32 to the end where Christ speaks more at large of this matter than in any other place and indeed this Evangelist and beloved Disciple who lay in the bosom of our Lord gives us a more full account of the Spiritual sayings and Doctrine of Christ and it 's observable that though he speaks nothing of the ceremony used by Christ of breaking Bread with his Disciples neither in his Evangelical account of Christ's life and sufferings nor in his Epistles yet he is more large in this account of the
us in the time of our ignorance providing always they did not seek to obtrude them upon others nor judg such as found themselves delivered or that they do not pertinaciously adhere to them For we certainly know that the day is dawned in which God hath arisen and hath dismissed all those ceremonies and rites and is only to be worshipped in Spirit and that he appears to them who wait upon him and that to seek God in these things is with Mary at the Sepulchre to seek the living among the dead for we know that he is arisen and revealed in Spirit leading his Children out of these rudiments that they may walk with him in his Light to whom be Glory for ever Amen The Fourteenth Proposition Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in matters purely Religious and pertaining to the Conscience Since God hath assumed to himself the Power and Dominion of the Conscience who alone can rightly instruct and govern it therefore it is not lawful for any whosoever by vertue of any Authority or Principality they bear in the Government of this World to force the Consciences of others and therefore all killing banishing fining imprisoning and other such things which are inflicted upon men for the alone exercise of their Conscience or difference in Worship or Opinion proceedeth from the Spirit of Cain the Murtherer and is contrary to the Truth providing always that no man under the pretence of Conscience prejudice his Neighbour in this life or estate or do any thing destructive to or inconsistent with humane Society in which case the Law is for the transgressor and Justice is to be administred upon all without respect of persons § I. LIBERTY of Conscience from the power of the Civil Magistrate hath been of late years so largely and learnedly handled that I shall not need but to be brief in it yet it is to be lamented that few have walked answerably to this principle each pleading it for themselves but scarce allowing it to others as hereafter I shall have occasion more at length to observe It will be fit in the first place for clearing of mistakes to say something of the state of the controversie that what follows may be the more clearly understood By Conscience then as in the explanation of the 5 and 6 Propositions I have observed is to be understood that perswasion of the mind which arises from the understandings being possessed with the belief of the Truth or Falsity of any thing which though it may be false or evil upon the matter yet if a man should go against his perswasion or Conscience he should commit a sin because what a man doth contrary to his Faith though his Faith be wrong is no ways acceptable to God hence the Apostle saith whatsoever is not of Faith is sin and he that doubteth is damned if he eat though the thing might have been lawful to another and that this doubting to eat some kind of meats since all the creatures of God are good and for the use of man if received with thanksgiving might be a superstition or at lest a weakness which were better removed Hence Ames De Cas. Cons. saith The Conscience although erring doth evermore bind so as that he sinneth who doth contrary to his Conscience because he doth contrary to the will of God although not materially and truly yet formally and interpretatively So the question is First Whether the Civil Magistrate hath power to force men in things religious to do contrary to their Conscience and if they will not to punish them in their goods liberties or lives this we hold in the negative But secondly as we would have the Magistrate avoiding this extream of incroaching upon men's Consciences so on the other hand we are far from joyning with or strengthening such libertines as would stretch the liberty of their Consciences to the prejudice of their Neighbours or to the ruin of humane Society We understand therefore by matters of Conscience such as immediately relate betwixt God and man or men and men that are under the same perswasion as to meet together and worship God in that way which they judg is most acceptable unto him and not to incroach upon or seek to force their neighbours otherwise than by reason or such other means as Christ and his Apostles used viz. preaching and instructing such as will hear and receive it but not at all for men under the notion of Conscience to do any thing contrary to the moral and perpetual statutes generally acknowledged by all Christians in which case the Magistrate may very lawfully use his Authority as on those who under a pretence of Conscience make it a principle to kill and destroy all the wicked id est all that differ from them that they to wit the Saints may rule and that therefore seek to make all things common and would force their neighbours to share their Estates with them and many such wild notions as is reported of the Anabaptists of Munster which evidently appears to proceed from pride and covetousness and not from purity or Conscience and therefore I have sufficiently guarded against that in the latter part of the Proposition But the Liberty we lay claim to is such as the primitive Church justly sought under the Heathen Emperors to wit for men of sobriety honesty and a peaceable conversation to enjoy the liberty and exercise of their Conscience towards God and among themselves and to admit among them such as by their perswasion and influence come to be convinced of the same Truth with them without being therefore molested by the Civil Magistrate Thirdly though we would not have men hurt in their Temporals nor robbed of their Priviledges as men and members of the Common-wealth because of their inward perswasion yet we are far from judging that in the Church of God there should not be censures exercised against such as fall into error as well as such as commit open evils and therefore we believe it may be very lawful for a Christian Church if she find any of her Members fall into any error after due admonitions and instructions according to Gospel order if she find them pertinacious to cut them off from her fellowship by the Sword of the Spirit and denude them of these priviledges which they had as fellow-members but not to cut them off from the world by the temporal Sword or rob them of their common priviledges as men seeing they enjoy not these as Christians or under such a fellowship but as men and members of the Creation Hence Chrysostom saith well de Anath We must condemn and reprove the evil Doctrins that proceed from Hereticks but spare the men and pray for their Salvation § II. But that no man by vertue of any Power or Principality he hath in the Government of this World hath power over the Consciences of men is apparent because the Conscience of man is the Seat and Throne of God in him of
suffer for no man that will persecute another for his Conscience would suffer for his own if he could avoid it seeing his Principle obliges him if he had power by force to establish that which he judges is the Truth and so to force others to it Therefore I judg it meet for the information of the Nations briefly to add something in this place concerning the nature of true Christian sufferings whereunto a very faithful testimony has been borne by God's Witnesses which he hath raised up in this age beyond what hath been generally known or practised for these many generations yea since the Apostacy took place Yet 't is not my design here in any wise to derogate from the sufferings of the Protestant Martyrs whom I believe to have walked in faithfulness towards God according to the dispensation of Light in that day appearing and of which many were utter enemies to persecution as by their testimonies ugainst it might be made appear But the true faithful and Christian suffering is for men to profess what they are perswaded is right and so practice and perform their Worship towards God as being their true right so to do and neither to do more in that because of outward incouragement from men nor any whit less because of the fear of their Laws and Acts against it Thus for a Christian man to vindicate his just liberty with so much boldness and yet Innocency wil in due time though through blood purchase peace as this age has in some measure experienced and many are witnesses of it which yet shall be more apparent to the world as Truth takes place in the earth But they greatly sin against this excellent rule that in time of persecution do not profess their own way so much as they would if it were otherwaies and yet when they can get the Magistrate upon their side not only stretch their own liberty to the utmost but seek to establish the same by denying it to others But of this excellent patience and sufferings the Witnesses of God in scorn called Quakers have given a manifest proof for so soon as God revealed his Truth among them without regard to all opposition or what they might meet with they went up and down as they were moved of the Lord preaching and propagating the Truth in Market-places High-ways Streets and publick Temples though daily beaten whipped bruised haled and imprisoned therefore And when there was any where a Church or Assembly gathered they taught them to keep their meetings openly and not to shut the door nor do it by stealth that all might know it and who would might enter and as hereby all just occasion of fear of plotting against the Government was fully removed so this their courage and faithfulness in not giving over their meeting together but more especially the presence and Glory of God manifested in the meeting being terrible to the Consciences of the Persecutors did so weary out the malice of their adversaries that often-times they were forced to leave their work undone For when they came to break up a meeting they were forc'd to take every individual out by force they not being free to give up their liberty by dissolving at their command and when they were haled out unless they were kept forth by violence they presently returned peaceably to their place Yea when sometimes the Magistrates have pulled down their Meeting-houses they have met the next day openly upon the rubbish and so by innocency kept their possession and ground being properly their own and their right to meet and worship God being not forfeited to any So that when armed men have come to dissolve them it was impossible for them to do it unless they had killed every one for they stood so close together that no force could move any one to stir until violently pull'd down so that when the malice of their opposers stirred them to take shovels and throw the rubbish upon them there they stood unmoved being willing if the Lord should so permit to have been there buried alive witnessing for him As this patient but yet couragious way of suffering made the Persecutors work very heavy and wearisome unto them so the courage and patience of the sufferers using no resistance nor bringing any weapons to defend themselves nor seeking any ways revenge upon such occasions did secretly smite the hearts of the persecutors and make their Charriot-wheels go on heavily Thus after much and many kind of sufferings thus patiently born which to rehearse would make a volumn of it self which may in due time be published to the Nations for we have them upon record a kind of negative liberty has been obtained so that at present for the most part we meet together without disturbance from the Magistrate But on the contrary most Protestants when they have not the allowance and tolerance of the Magistrate meet only in secret and hide their testimony and if they be discovered if there be any probability of making their escape by force though it were by cutting off those that seek them out they will do it whereby they lose the glory of their sufferings by not appearing as the innocent followers of Christ nor having a testimony of their harmlesness in the hearts of their pursuers their fury by such resistance is the more kindled against them As to this last part of resisting such as persecute them they can lay claim to no precept from Christ nor any example of him or his Apostles approved Obj. But as to the first part for fleeing and meeting secretly and not openly testifying for the Truth they usually object that saying of Christ Matth. 10.23 when they persecute you in this City flee ye into another And Acts 9.4 that the Disciples met secretly for fear of the Jews And Acts 9.25 that Paul was let out of Damascus in a basket down by the wall Answ. To all which I answer First as to that saying of Christ it is a question if it had any further relation than to that particular message with which he sent them to the Jews yea the latter end of the words seem expresly to hold forth so much for ye shall not have gone over the Citys of Juda till the Son of man be come Now a particular practice or command for a particular time will not serve for a president to any at this day to shun the Cross of Christ. But supposing this precept to reach further it must be so understood to be made use of only according as the Spirit giveth liberty else no man that could flee might suffer persecution How then did not the Apostles John and Peter flee when they were the first time persecuted at Jerusalem But on the contrary went the next day after they were discharged by the Council and preached boldly to the People But indeed many are but too capable to stretch such sayings as these for self preservation and therefore have great ground to fear when they interpret them
this is against your profession As if indeed so to do were very consistent with theirs wherein though they speak the Truth yet they give away their cause But if they can find any under our name in any of those evils common among themselves as who can imagine but among so many thousands there will be some chaff since of twelve Apostles one was found so be a devil O! how will they insult and make more noise of the escape of one Quaker than of an hundred among themselves § II. But there are some singular things which most of all our adversaries plead for the lawfulness of and allow themselves in as no ways inconsistent with the Christian Religion which we have found to be no ways lawful unto us and have been commanded of the Lord to lay them aside though the doing thereof hath occasioned no small sufferings and buffetings and hath procured us much hatred and malice from the world And because the nature of these things is such that they do upon the very sight distinguish us and make us known so that we cannot hide our selves from any without proving unfaithful to our testimony our tryals and exercises have herethrough proved the more numerous and difficult as will after appear These I have laboured briefly to comprehend in this Proposition but they may more largely be exhibited in those Six following Propositions 1. That it is not lawful to give to men such flattering Titles as your Holyness your Majesty your Eminency your Excellency your Grace your Lordship your Honour c. nor use those flattering words commonly called COMPLEMENTS 2. That it is not lawful for Christians to kneel or prostrate themselves to any man or to bow the body or to uncover the head to them 3. That it is not lawful for a Christian to use superfluities in apparel as are of no use save for ornament and vanity 4. That it is not lawful to use games sports plays nor among other things Comedies among Christians under the notion of recreations which do not agree with Christian silence gravity and sobriety for laughing sporting gaming mocking jesting talking c. is not Christian liberty nor harmless mirth 5. That it is not lawful for Christians to swear at all under the Gospel not only not vainly and in their common discourse which was also forbidden under the Mosaical Law but even not in Judgment before the Magistrate 6. That it is not lawful for Christians to resist evil or to war or fight in any case Before I enter upon a particular disquisition of these things I shall first premise some general considerations to prevent all mistakes and next add some general considerations which equally respect all of them I would not have any judg that hereby we intend to destroy the mutual relation that either is betwixt Prince and people Master and servant Parents and children nay not at all We shall evidence that our Principle in these things hath no such tendency and that these natural relations are rather better established than any ways hurt by it Next let not any judge that from our opinion in these things any necessity of levelling will follow or that all men must have things in common Our Principle leaves every man to enjoy that peaceably which either his own industry or parents have purchased to him only he is thereby instructed to use it aright both for his own good and that of his brethren and all to the Glory of God In which also his acts are to be voluntary and no ways constrained And further we say not hereby that no man may use the creation more or less than another For we know that as it hath pleased God to dispense it diversly giving to some more and some less so they may use it accordingly The several conditions under which men are diversly stated together with their educations answering thereunto do sufficiently shew this the servant is not the same way educated as the Master nor the Tennant as the Land-lord nor the rich as the poor nor the Prince as the Peasant Now though it be not lawful for any however great abundance they may have or whatever their education may be to use that which is meerly superfluous yet seeing their education has accustomed them thereunto and their capacity enables them so to do without being profuse or extravagant they may use things better in their kind than such whose education hath neither accustomed them to such things nor their capacity will reach to compass them For it is beyond question that whatever thing the Creation affords is for the use of man and the moderate use of them is lawful yet per accidens they may be unlawful to some and not to others As for instance who by reason of his estate and education hath been used to eat flesh and drink wine to be cloathed with the finest wool if his estate bear it and he use it neither in superfluity nor immoderately he may do it and perhaps if he should apply himself to feed or be cloathed as are the peasants it might prejudice the health of his body and nothing advance his Soul But if a man whose estate and education had accustomed to both courser food and rayment should stretch himself beyond what he had or were used to to the manifest prejudice of his Family and Children no doubt it would be unlawful to him even so to eat or be cloathed as another in whom it is lawful for that that other may as much mortified and have denyed himself as much in coming down to that which this aspires to as he in willing to be like him aspires beyond what he either is able or hath accustomed to The safe place then is for such as have fulness to watch over themselves that they use it moderately and rescind all superfluities being willing so far as they can to help the need of those to whom Providence hath allotted a smaller allowance Let the brother of high degree rejoyce in that he is abased and such as God calls in a low degree to be content with their condition not envying those brethren who have greater abundance knowing they have received abundance as to the inward man which is chiefly to be regarded And therefore beware of such a temptation as to use their calling as an engine to be richer knowing they have this advantage beyond the rich and noble that are called that the Truth doth not any ways abase them nay not in the esteem of the world as it doth the other but that they are rather exalted thereby in that as to the inward and spiritual fellowship of the Saints they become the brethren and companion of the greatest and richest and in this respect let him of low degree rejoyce that he is exalted These things premised I would seriously propose unto all such as mind in reality to be Christians indeed and that in nature and not in name only whether it were not desirable and would not
Lev. 16.2 3 6. the Sabbaths and regard to parents are mentioned with Swearing Obj. Fifthly they Object that solemn Oaths which God commanded cannot be here forbidden by Christ for he saith that they come from evil But these did not come from evil for God never commanded any thing that was evil or came from evil Answ. I answer there are things which are good because commanded and evil because forbidden other things are commanded because good and forbidden because evil As Circumcision and Oaths which were good when and because they were commanded and in no other respect and again when and because prohibited under the Gospel they are evil And in all these Jewish constitutions however ceremonial there was something of good to wit in their season as prefiguring some good as by Circumcision the purifications and other things the holiness of God was typified and that the Israelites ought to be holy as their God was holy In the like manner Oaths under the shaddows and ceremonys signified the verity of God his faithfulness and certainty and therefore that we ought in all things to speak and witness the Truth But the Witness of Truth was before all oaths and remains when all oaths are abolished and this is the morality of all oaths and so long as men abide therein there is no necessity of nor place for Oaths as Polibius witnessed who said The use of Oaths in Judgment were rare among the Antients but by the growing of perfidiousness so grew also the use of Oaths To which agreeth Grotius saying An Oath is only to be used as a Medicin in case of necessity a solemn oath is not used but to supply defect The lightness of men and their inconstancy begot diffidence for which swearing was sought out a remedy Basil the Great saith that swearing is the effect of sin And Ambrose that Oaths are only a condescendency for defect Chrysostom saith that an Oath entred when evil grew when men exerciseth their frauds when all foundations were overturned that Oaths took their beginning from the want of Truth These and the like are witnessed by many others with the forementioned Authors But what need of testimonies where the evidence of things speak it self For who will force another to swear of whom he is certainly perswaded that he abhors to lye in his words And again as Chrysostom and others say For what end wilt thou force him to swear whom thou believest not that he will speak the Truth § XII That then which was not from the beginning which was of no use in the beginning which had not its beginning first from the will of God but from the work of the Devil occasioned from evil to wit from unfaithfulness lying deceit and which was at first only invented by man as a mutual remedy of this evil in which they called upon the names of their idols yea that which as Hirerom Chrysostom and others testifie was given to the Israelites by God as unto children that they might abstain from the Idolatrous Oaths of the Heathens Jer. 12.16 whosoever is so is far from being a moral and eternal precept and lastly whatsoever by its profanation an abuse is polluted with sin such as are abundantly the oaths of these times by so often swearing and forswearing far differs from any necessary and perpetual duty of a Christian But oaths are so Therefore c. Sixthly they object that God swore Therefore to swear is good Obj. I answer with Athanasius Seeing it is certain Answ. it is proper in swearing to swear by another thence it appears that God to speak properly did never swear but only improperly whence speaking to men he is said to swear because these things which he speaks because of the certainty and immutability of his will are to be esteemed for Oaths Compare Psal. 110.4 where it is said The Lord did swear and it did not repent him c. And I swore saith he by my self and this is not an Oath for he did not swear by another which is the property of an oath but by himself Therefore God swears not according to the manner of men neither can we be induced from thence to swear but let us so do and say and shew our selves such by speaking and acting that we need not with our hearers an oath and let our words of themselves have the testimony of Truth for so we shall plainly imitate God Obj. Seventhly they object Christ did swear and we ought to imitate him Answ. I answer that Christ did not swear and albeit he had sworn being yet under the Law this would no waies oblige us under the Gospel as neither Circumcision or the Celebration of the Paschal Lamb. Concerning which Hierom saith All things agree unto us who are Servants that agreed unto our Lord c. The Lord swore as Lord whom no man did forbid to swear but unto us that are servants it is not lawful to swear because we are forbidden by the Law of our Lord. Yet lest we should not suffer scandal by his Example he hath not sworn since he commanded us not to swear Eighthly they object that Paul swore and that often Rom. 1.19 Phil. 1.8 saying Obj. For God is my Witness 2 Cor. 11.10 As the Truth of Christ is in me 2 Cor. 1.23 I call God for a record upon my Soul I speak the Truth in Christ I lye not Rom. 9.1 Behold before God I lye not Gal. 1.20 And so requires Oaths of others I object you saith he before God and our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes. 5.27 I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read to all the Brethren But Paul would not have done so if all manner of Oaths had been forbidden by Christ whose Apostle he was Answ. To all which I answer First that the using of such forms of speaking are neither Oaths nor so esteemed by our adversaries for when upon occasion in matters of great moment we have said We speak the Truth in the fear of God and before him who is our Witness and the searcher of our hearts adding such kind of serious attestations which we never refused in matters of consequence nevertheless an Oath hath moreover been required of us with the ceremony of putting our hand upon the book the kissing of it the lifting up of the hand or fingers together with this common form of imprecation So help me God or So truly let the Lord God Almighty help me Secondly This contradicts the opinion of our adversaries because that Paul was neither before a Magistrate that was requiring an Oath of him nor did he himself administer the office of a Magistrate as offering an Oath to any other Thirdly the question is not what Paul or Peter did but what their and our Master taught to be done and if Paul did swear which we believe not he had sinned against the command of Christ even according to their opinion because he swore not before a Magistrate but in an Epistle
perswading that whatsoever a good man saith may be equivalent with an Oath Who then needs further to doubt but that since Christ would have his Disciples attain the highest pitch of Perfection he abrogated Oaths as a rudiment of infirmity and in place thereof established the use of Truth Who can now any more think that the holy Martyrs and ancient Fathers of the first three hundred years and many others since that tâ—me have so opposed themselves to Oaths that they might only rebuke vain and rash Oaths by the Creatures or heathen Idols which were also prohibited under the Mosaical Law and not also swearing by the True God in Truth and Righteousness which was there commanded as Polycarpus Justin Mart. Apol. 2. and many Martyrs as Eusebius relates Tertullian in his Apol. cap. 32. ad Scap. cap. 1. of Idolatry c. 11. Clem. Alexan. Strom. lib. 7. Origen in Matth. Tract 25. Cypr. lib. 3. Athanas. in pass cruc Dom. Christi Hilarius in Mat. 5.34 Basil. Magn. in Psal. 14. Greg. Nyssenus in Cant. Orat. 13. Greg. Nazian in dial contra juramenta Epiphan ad versus haeres lib. 1. Ambros. de Virg. lib. 3. Idem in Mat. 5. Chrysost in Genes hom 15. Idem hom in Act. Apost cap. 3. Hieronymus Epist. lib. part 3. Ep. 2. Idem in Zach. lib. 2. cap. 8 Idem in Mat. lib. 1. cap. 5. Augustin de serm Dom. serm 28. Cyrillus in Jer. 4. Theodoretus in Deut. 6. Isidor Pelâ—sioâ—a Ep. lib. 1. Epist. 155. Chromatius in Mat. 5. Johan Damascenus l. 3. c. 16. Casiodorus in Psal. 94. Isidorus Hispalensis cap. 31. Antiochus in Pandect script hom 62. Beda in Jac. 5. Haimo in Apoc. Ambros. Ansbertus in Apoc. Theophylactus in Mat. 5. Pascasius Ratbertus in Mat. 5. Otho Brunsfelsius in Mat. 5. Druthmarus in Mat. 5. Euthymius Eugubinus Bilblioth vet patr in Mat. 5. OEcumenius in Jac. c. 5. v. 12. Anselmus in Mat. 5. Waldenses Viclevus Erasmus in Mat. 5. in Jac. 5. Who can read these places and doubt longer of their sense in this matter And who believing that they were against all Oaths can bring so great an indignity to the Name of Christ as to seek to subject again his followers to so great an indignity Is it not rather time that all good men labour to remove this abuse and infamy from Christians Lastly They Object This will bring in fraud and confusion for Impostors will counterfeit probity Obj. and under the benefit of this dispensation will be without fear of punishment I answer There are two things only which oblige a man to speak the Truth Answ. First Either the fear of God in his heart and love of Truth for where this is there is no need of Oaths to speak the Truth Or Secondly the fear of punishment from the Judge Therefore let there be the same or rather greater punishment appointed to those who pretend so great truth in words and so great simplicity in heart that they cannot lie and so great reverence towards the Law of Christ that for Conscience sake they deny to Swear in any wise if they fail and so there shall be the same good order yea greater security against deceivers as if Oaths were continued and also by that more severe punishment to which these false dissemblers shall be liable Hence wicked men shall be more terrified and good men delivered from all oppression both in their liberty and Goods for which cause for their tender Consciences God hath often a regard to Magistrates and their state as a thing most acceptable to him But if any can further doubt of this thing to wit if without confusion it can be practised in the Common-wealth let him consider the state of the United Netherlands and he shall see the good effect of it for there because of the great number of Merchants more than in any other place there is most frequent occasion for this thing and tho the number of those that are of this mind be considerable to whom the States these hundred years have condescended and yet daily condescend yet nevertheless there has nothing of prejudice followed thereupon to the Common-wealth Government or good order but rather great advantage to Trade and so to the Common-wealth § XIII Sixthly The last thing to be considered is revenge and war an evil as opposit and contrary to the Spirit and Doctrin of Christ as Light to Darkness For as is manifest by what is said through contempt of Christ's Law the whole world is filled with various oaths cursings blasphemous profanations and horrid perjuries so likewise through contempt of the same Law the world is filled with violence Oppression Murders ravishing of Women and Virgins Spoilings Depredations Burnings Vastations and all manner of Lasciviousness and Cruelty so that it is strange that men made after the Image of God should have so much degenerated that they rather bear the Image and nature of roaring Lions tearing Tygers devouring Wolves and raging Boars than of rational Creatures endued with reason and is it not yet much more admirable that this horrid Monster should find place and be fomented among those men that profess themselves Disciples of our peaceable Lord and Master Jesus Christ who by excellency is called the Prince of Peace and hath expresly prohibited his children all violence and oâ— the contrary commanded them that according to his example they should follow Patience Charity Forbearance and other vertues worthy of a Christian. Hear then what this great Prophet saith whom every Soul is commanded to hear under the pain of being cut-off Matth. 5. from v. 38. to the end of the chapter For thus he saith Ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you That ye resist not evil But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also And if any man will sue thee at law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain Give to him that asketh thee and for him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust For if ye love them which love you what reward have ye Do not even the Publicans the same And if ye salute your brethren only what do you more than others Do not the Publicans so Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which in heaven is perfect These words with a respect to revenge as the former in the case of
173. concerning the Lord's Prayer 245. to pray without the Spirit is to offend God 249 369. concerning the Prayer of the will in silence 256. see Worship Prayer the Prayers of the People were in the Latin Tongue 207. Preacher see Minister Preaching what it is termed the Preaching of the Word 211 218 233 234. to Preach without the Spirit is to offend God 249. see Worship it is a permanent Institution 291. it is learned as another Trade 218. Predestinated God hath after a special manner predestinated some to Salvation of whom if the places of Scripture which some abuse be understood their objections are easily solved 97. Priest under the Law God spake immediately to the High-Priest 14 27. Priests see Minister of the Law 187. 188 205 220 221. Profession an outward profession is necessary that any be a member of a particular Christian Church 183. Prophecy and to prophecy what it signifies 215 216. of the liberty of prophecying 217. Prophets some Prophets did not miracles 198 199. Protestants the rule of their Faith 30. they are forced ultimately to recur unto the immediate and inward revelation of the Holy Spirit 36. what difference betwixt the execrable deeds of those of Munster and theirs 30 31 32 33. they make Phylosophy the hand-maid of Divinity 50. they affirm John Hus prophecyed of the Reformation that was to be 57. whether they did not throw themselves into many errors while they were expecting a greater light 83. they opposed the Papists not without good cause in the doctrin of Justification but they soon ran into another extreme 130 131. they say that the best works of the Saints are defiled 136. whether there be any difference between them and the Papists in superstitions and manners and what it is 184 185 197 198. what they think of the call of a Minister 188 189 190 191 192 196 197 198 199. it's lamentable that they betake them to Judas for a Patron to their Ministers and Ministry 205. their zeal and endeavours are praised 206. of their School-divinity 210 211. of the Apostles and Evangelists of this time 217. whom they exclude from the Ministry 219. that they Preach to none until they be first sure of so much a year 221. the more moderate of them exclaim against the excessive Revenues of the Clergy 224. tho they had forsaken the Bishop of Rome yet they would not part with old Benefices 226. they will not labour 227. whether they have made a perfect Reformation in worship 231 232. their worship can easily be stopped 251. they have given great scandal to the Reformation 272. they deny water-baptism to be absolute necessary to Salvation 285. of water-baptism 299 300 301. of the flesh and blood of Christ 308 309 310. they use not washing of feet 320. how they did vindicate liberty of Conscience 341. some affirm that wicked Kings and Magistrates ought to be deposed yea killed 342. how they meet when they have not the consent of the Magistrate 248 249. of Oaths and Swearing 372 373. Psalms singing of Psalms 275. Q Quakers i. e. Tremblers and why so called 117 242. they are not contemners of the Scriptures and what they think of them 38 40 41 48 49 50 54 55 89. nor of Reason and what they think of it 91 92. they do not say that all other secondary means of knowledg are of no service 9. they do not compare themselves to Jesus Christ as they are falsly accused 88. Nor do they deny those things that are written in the Holy Scriptures concerning Christ his conception c. 89 141. they were raised up of God to shew forth the Truth 83 84 115 116 126 212 243. their doctrin of Justification is not Popish 129 134 151 158. they are not against meditation 248. their worship cannot be interrupted 250. and what they have suffered 249 252. how they vindicate Liberty of Conscience 346 347. they do not persecute others 349. Their adversaries confess that they are found for the most part free from the abominations which abound among others yet they count those things Vices in them which in themselves they extol as notable Vertues and make more noise about the escape of one Quakea than of an hundred among themselves 351 352. they destroy not the mutual relation that is betwixt Prince and People Master and Servant Father and Son nor do they introduce community of Goods 352 353. Nor say that one man may not use the Creation more or less than another 353. R Ranters the blasphemy of the Ranters or Libertines saying that there is no difference betwixt good and evil 167. Reason what need we set up corrupt reason 23. concerning Reason 30 92 93. Rebekkah 241. Reconciliation how reconciliation with God is made 136 to 141. Recreations see Plays Redemption is considered in a twofold respect First performed by Christ without us and secondly wrought in us 134 135. it is Universal God gave his Only begotten Son Jesus Christ for a Light that whosoever believeth in him may be saved 67 68 103 104. the benefit of his death is not less Universal than the seed of sin 67. there is scarce found any Article of the Christian Religion that is so expresly confirmed in the holy Scriptures 71 72 73 74 75 76. this doctrin was Praached by the Fathers so called of the first 600 years and is proved by the sayings of some 78 79. those that since the time of the Reformation have affirmed it have not given a clear testimony how that benefit is communicated to all nor have sufficiently taught the Truth because they have added the absolute necessity of the outward knowledg of the history of Christ yea they have thereby given the contrary party a stronger argument to defend their precise decree of Reprobation among whom were the Remonstrants of Holland 68 80 81 82. God hath now raised up a few illiterate men to be dispensers of this Truth 89 90 116 117. this doctrin sheweth forth the Mercy and Justice of God 83 84 96 97. it is the foundation of Salvation 84. it answers to the whole tenor of the Gospel promises and threats 84. it magnifies and commends the merits and death of Christ 84. it exalts above all the Grace of God 84. it overturns the false doctrin of the Pelagians Semi-pelagians and others who exalt the Light of Nature and the freedom of man's will 84. it makes the Salvation of man solely to depend upon God and his condemnation wholly and in every respect to be of himself 84. it takes away all ground of Despair and feeds none in security 85. it commends the Christian Religion among Infidels 85. it sheweth the Wisdom of God 85. and it is established tho not in words yet by deeds even by those Ministers that oppose this doctrine 85. it derogates not from the attonement and sacrifice of Jesus Christ but doth magnifie and exalt it 89. there is given to every one none excepted a certain day and time of
iii 27 277 iv  156  19 148 v 12 20 339  24 383 vi 6 220  14 78 Ephesians i 13 179  14 279 ii  63  4 5 6 169  5 148  8 200  15 134 iii 9 10 iv  214  5 18 277  7 11 16 201  11 165 294  23 239  23 24 149  24 169 iv 30 279 v 8 104  11 350  13 83 93   116  25 26 27 165 vi 12 383  18 268 Philippians i 6 177  8 376  21 66 ii 13 155 iii 10 134  14 178  15 346 Colossians i 13 104  23 83 108  24 135  27 28 148  28 74 ii 6 16 20 327  8 350  12 277  15 253  19 194 iii 1 325  2 370  16 276 iv 2 243  12 166 I Thessalonians i 5 215 ii 12 158 iii 13 166 v 5 104  6 243  12 13 217  17 265  19 20 219  21 346  23 166  27 376 II Thessalonians i 5 8 158 ii 11 12 175 I Timothy i 19 177 ii 1 3 4 6 75  3 71  8 9 10 366  11 220 iii 2 203  2 3 4 5 6 229  15 193 v 16 220  17 217 vi 5 6 c. 229  7 8 9 10 224  8 230  20 209 II Timothy iii 2 229  15 16 17 49  17 166 iv 5 243  7 180 Titus i c  203  7 8 9 229  10 11 230  15 93 ii 11 118 200  14 134 164 iii 5 154  7 144  10 331 Hebrews i 3 356 ii 9 76 iii 14 177 iv 12 13 110 v 4 204 229 vi 16 377 vii 26 140 viii 10 26 ix 9 168  10 328 x 24 259 xi  17  6 138  7 14 15 xii 14 151  16 17 87  22 23 169 xiii 7 8 18  17 217 James i 21 107  25 249  27 78 ii 24 151 iii 9 10 170 iv 1 383 v 6 128  12 371  14 303 326 I Peter i 5 177  14 350  17 367  23 114 ii 5 205  21 90  22 140  22 24 134 iii 3 4 366  18 134  20 99  21 277 iv 7 243 249  10 11 202 229 v 5 217 II Peter i 4 135 162  10 45 179  12 13 49  16 356 ii 1 2 3 230  3 211  1 3 14 15 229  20 78 iii 9 71 77  15 99 I John i 1 206  7 133  8 170 ii 1 2 77  2 to 6 167  15 78  27 27 iii 1 13 78  2 to 10 167  4 172  5 8 164  7 20 149  9 163 iv 4 5 78  9 75  10 134  13 35 46 v 3 169  6 35 46  14 269  19 78 Jude i 16 229  20 268 Revelation ii 9 194  20 338 iii 12 174 179  16 292  20 11 315 xiv 1 to 5 169 xix 10 363 xxii 9 363  14 151  18 56 A TABLE Of the Chief Things A ABraham's Faith 15. Adam See man sin redemption what happiness he lost by the Fall 63. what death he died 59 66. He retained in his nature no will or light capable of it self to manifest Spiritual things 59. whether there be any reliques of the heavenly image left in them 62 91. Alexander Skein's Queries proposed to the Preachers 271 272. Anabaptists of Great Britain 31 251. Anabaptists of Munster how their mischievous actings nothing touch the Quakers 28 29 30 31 32. Anicetus 30. Anointing the Anointing teacheth all things it is and abideth for ever a common priviledge and sure Rule to all Saints 27 28. Antichrist is exalted when the seed of God is expressed 20 92. his work 213 214 228. Antinomians their Opinion concerning Justification 137. Apostasie 174 211. Apostle who he is their number was not limitted and whether any may be now adaies so called 216 217. Appearances See Faith Arians they first brought in the Doctrin of Persecution upon the account of Religion 342. Arius by what he fell into error 210.211 Arminians See Remonstrants Assemblings are needful and what sort 33 237 c. See Worship they are not to be forsaken 245. Astrologer 35. Aurelia there ten Canonicks were burnt and why 301. B Baptism is one its definition 277 279 280 281 283 284. It is the Baptism of Christ and of the Spirit not of Water 277 279 to 287. the Baptism of Water which was John's Baptism was a figure of this Baptism and is not to be continued 277 280 285 286 to 302. Baptism with Water doth not cleanse the heart 280 288. nor is it a badge of Christianity as was Circumcision to the Jews 202 291 301. that Paul was not sent to Baptize is explain'd 290 291 292. concerning what Baptism Christ speaks Mat. 28.20 it is explained 293 204. how the Apostles Baptized with Water is explained 296 297 298 299. to Baptize signifies to Plunge and how Sprinkling was brought in 299 300. those of old that used Water-baptism were plunged and they that were only sprinkled were not admitted to an Ecclesiastick Function and why 399. against the use of Water-baptism many heretofore have testified 301. Infant-baptism is a meer humane tradition 277 302 Bible the last Translations alwaies find fault with the first 47. Birth the Spiritual birth 37. holy birth 248 see Justification Bishop of Rome concerning his primacy 30. how he abuseth his authority and by what he deposeth Princes and absolveth the people from the Oath of Fidelity 341 344. Blood to abstain from blood and things strangled 303 326 329. it hath been shed 310. Blood of Christ see Communion Body to bow the body see Head Books Canonical and Apocryphal see Canon Scripture Bonaventure 236. Bow to bow the knee see uncover the Head Bread the breaking of bread among the Jews was no singular thing 317 321. it is now other waies performed than it was by Christ 322. whether unleavened or leavened bread is to be used also it is hotly disputed about the manner of taking it and to whom it is to be given 321 322. see Communion C Calvinists see Protestants they deny consubstantiation 30. they maintain absolute reprobation 26. they think Grace is a certain irresistible power and what sort of a Saviour they would have 115 116. of the flesh and blood of Christ 307 309.310 they use leavened bread in the Supper 321. Canon whether the Scripture be a filled up Canon 55. whether it can be proved by Scripture that any Book is Canonical 55 56. Castellio banished 345. Ceremonies see Superstition Christ see Communion Justification Redemption Word He sheweth himself daily revealing the knowledge of the Father 6. without his
School there is nothing learned but busie-talking 6. He is the Eternal Word 9. No Creature hath access to God but by him 9 10. He is the Way the Truth and the Life 10. he is Mediator between God and man 10 133. He is God and in time He was made partaker of man's nature 10. yesterday to day the same and for ever 18. the Fathers believed in him and how 17 18. his Sheep hear his voice and contemn the voice of a Stranger 40 201 203. it is the fruit of his ascension to send Pastors 50. he dwelleth in the Saints and how 88. his coming was necessary 89. By his Sacrifice we have remission of sins 89 119 120 133. whether he be and how he is in all is explained 90. being formed within he is the formal cause of Justification 128 148. by his life death c. he hath opened a way for Reconciliation 149 150. his obedience righteousness death and sufferings are ours and it is explained that Paul said he filled up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh 135. how we are partakers of his suffering 167 168. for what end he was manifested 164 165. he delivers his own by suffering 265. concerning his outward and Spiritual body 305 306. concerning his outward and inward coming 325. Christian how he is a Christian and when he ceaseth so to be 4 8 20 21 23 24 169 290 191 193 200.201 the foundation of his Faith 36 37. his priviledge 37. when men are made Christians by Birth and not by coming together 184 185. they have borrowed many things from Jews and Gentiles 278 279. they recoil by little and little from their first purity 293. the Primitive Christians for some Ages said We are Christians we Swear not 378. and We are the Souldiers of Christ it is not lawful for us to fight 386. Christianity is made as an Art 8. it is not Christianity without the Spirit 19 20 21 39 40. it would be turned into Scepticism 208 290 300. it is placed chiefly in the renewing of the heart 186. wherein it consists not 244. what is and is not the mark thereof 290 291 300. why it is odious to Jews Turks and Heathens 309. what would contribute to its Commendation 354. Church without which there is no Salvation what She is Concerning her Members Visibility Profession Degeneration Succession 181 to 199. whatsoever is done in the Church without the instinct of the Holy Spirit is vain and impious 203. the same may be said of her that in the Schools of Theseus's Boat 219. in her corrections ought to be exercised and against whom 323. she is more corrupted by the accession of Hypocrites 340. the Contentions of the Greek and Latin Churches about Unleavened or Leavened Bread in the Supper 321. the lukewarmness of the Church of Laodicea 192. there are introduced into the Roman-Church no less 〈◊〉 and Ceremonies than among 〈◊〉 and Jews 185. Circumcision a Seal of the Old Covenant 298. Clergy 214 218 216 226 227 321. Cloathes that it is not lawful for Christians to use things superfluous in Cloaths 364 365 366 388 389. Comforter for what end he was sent 6 7. Commission The Commission of the Disciples of Christ before the Work was finished was more legal than Evangelical 202. Communion The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is a Spiritual and inward thing 303. that Body that Blood is a Spiritual thing and that it is that heavenly Seed whereby life and Salvation was of old and is now communicated 303 304. how any becomes partaker thereof 307 308 309. it is not tyed to the Ceremony of breaking Bread and drinking Wine which Christ used with his Disciples This was only a Figure 304 308 to 316. whether that Ceremony be a necessary part of the New Covenant and whether it is to be continued 316 to 331. Spiritual Communion with God through Christ is obtained 59. Community of Goods is not brought in by the Quakers 333 352 353. Complements See Titles Conscience See Magistrate It s definition what it is It is distinguished from the Saving Light 92 93 94 332. the good Conscience and the Hypocritical 176. He that acteth contrary to his Conscience sinneth and concerning an erring Conscience 332. What things appertain to Conscience 332. what sort of Liberty of Conscience is defended 333. It is the Throne of God 333. It is free from the Power of all men 345. Conversion what is man's therein is rather a Passion than an action 102. Augustine's saying 95. this is cleared by two Examples 95 96. Correction how and against whom it ought to be exercised 333. Covenant The difference betwixt the New and Old Covenant-worship 26 232 233 253 254 255 289 290. See also Gospel Law Cross. The Sign of the Cross 301. D. Dancing See Plays Daies whether any be holy and concerning the Day commonly called The Lord's Day 235 316. Deacons 323. Death See Adam Redemption it entred into the World by sin 65 66. in the Saints it is rather a passing from Death to Life 66. Devil He cares not at all how much God be acknowledged with the mouth provided he be worshipped in the heart 8 116 117. he can form an outward sound of words 16. he haunts among the wicked 165. how he came to be a a Minister of the Gospel 211 212 213. when he can work nothing 249 250. he keeps men in outward signs shadows and forms while they neglect the Substance 310 311 323. Dispute The dispute of the Shoemaker with a certain Professor 208 209. of an Heathen Philosopher with a Bishop in the Council of Nice and of the unletter'd Clown 209 210. Divinity School-Divinity 200. how pernicious it is 209 210 211 212 213. Dreams See Faith Miracles E Ear. There is a Spiritual and a bodily Ear 7 16. Easter is celebrate other-waies in the Latine Church than in the Eastern 30. the celebration of it is grounded upon Tradition 30. Elders 14 217. Elector of Saxony the scandal given by him 272. Eminency Your Eminency See Titles Enoch walked with God 169. Epistle see James John Peter Esau 241. Ethicks or Books of Moral Philosophy are not needful to Christians 209. Evangelist who he is and whether any now adaies may be so called 216 217. Excellency your Excellency see Titles Exorcism 301. F Faith its definition and what its object is 14 15 16. how far and how appearances outward voices and dreams were the object of the Saints Faith 16. that Faith is one and that the Object of Faith is one 17. its foundation 36 37. see Revelation Scripture Farellus 321. Father see Knowledge Revelation 14. Fathers so called they did not agree about some Books of the Scripture 39 48. they affirm that there are whole Verses taken out of Mark and Luke 29. concerning the Septuagint Interpretation and the Hebrew Copy 48. they preached universal redemption for the first four Centuries 78. they frequently used the word Merit in