1. 17 which none can say lieth common to all 7. From this blessed Record it is likewise clear how inseparably these are conjoyned for the Churches conduct within time the written Word without and the Spirit within for opening our eyes to see the Truths that are there The Law without as the alone Rule and Pattern and the same Law within as the Transcript bearing both one witness 8. Is it not clearly seen also that where reason hath been most refined and the greatest improvement of mens natural abilities even there The world through wisdom knew not God 1 Cor. 1. 21. And none among the Heathens have made greater opposition to the Gospel than such Nor can an instance be given of any one among all those who by this Light or by the furthest length gone in a right use of natural abilities hath ever attained saving-saving-grace or a discovery of those supernatural Truths revealed to us in the Word nor could this Light teach Aristotle that great Naturalist to know the Worlds having a beginning or restrain Cato the greatest Moralist that ever was among the Heathens from being his own murtherer For that Scripture John 1. 9. That is the true light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world on which they seem so much to build it is most clear what is the plain and express sense thereof That as no true and saving Light is but what must be derived from Jesus Christ so is he the alone Original being truly God whence every one that cometh into the world is eniightned also with that Light of Nature and Reason Pos 2. Since this Light which seems to be their alone Bible and the Scriptures of Truth are incompatible we find them enforced to disown these as the infallible Rule of Faith and Practice and to own them but as an Historical rule only and its Commands are but as Commands from the Letter which oblige not but in a silent posture of heart to wait on an inward teaching of this Spirit A Position were it once admitted we might then say the Christian Cause is lost they who have fallen asleep in Christ are perished who knew no other way for founding both their Faith and Practice but on the express Letter of the Word yea in what a strange mould should men frame a Religion to themselves if but once left to such a Rule within and not that given in the Scripture But it 's well the Holy Ghost speaking to us there taught never such Divinity but expresly sheweth 1. That such a rule the Scripture is as is suited to make the man of God perfect and is profitable for Doctrine Instruction c. 2 Tim. 3. 16. 2. This is the Scriptures record that in the whole of Religion we must betake our selves to the Law and the Tistimony as the alone rule and measure thereof Isa 8. 20 and though strengthning physical power by which we are enabled to duty is from the Spirit working by the Word yet is it sure that all obliging power thereto is from the Letter of the Word alone nor is the Spirit without this a moral Rule for our acting now when the Canon of the Scripture is closed but to obey we must found this that it is intimated to us in the Word and to be strengthened in the inward man for the same is the immediate work of the Spirit concurring therewith 3. Is not the Scripture such a Rule as is given to be the sole Judg of all controversies To whose decision Christ himself refers the greatest question that ever was whether he be the Son of God or not Search the scriptures for they testifie of me Joh. 5. 38. 4. Did ever the Holy Ghost put such a stile as this on his own Word to be a Historical Rule and dead Letter only who so expresly shews that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. 14. as one active mean instrumentally concurring with the Spirit to beget the same and how it is mighty through God for the casting down of strong-holds and every hight and imagination which exalteth it self against the Lord But we known this Honour doth the Spirit of God put thereon that he still moves and acts according to the Word as it moves and acts nor does he make intercession within the Saints or utter one groan but according to the will of God revealed therein Rom. 8. 26. But it is indeed not strange that to a dead Heart this is as a dead Letter and such who under a judicial stroke of induration have a Bar drawn betwixt them and the power of the Word 5. Can these possibly find another rule for tryal of the Spirits whether they are of God but by the written Word and to know that it is not the Devil in Samuels appearance they have met with who is not now to learn that Art of transforming himself into an Angel of Light Since it is so clear there is the spirit of the word 1 Cor. 2. 12. and a spirit which rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. a living spirit 1 Kings 22. 22. and a spirit of error and delusion 1 John 4. 6 And is it not too known so as the world cannot be in the dark here How an enthusiastick spirit leaving the Scripture hath licensed some to such abominations as the Heathens would abhor and from a pretended impulse hath the brother killed the brother Pos 3. However they seem to own the appearance of Christ in the flesh yet nothing can be more clear from most of their Writings than how expresly they turn the History of the Gospel and the incarnation death and resurrection of Christ into a meer dispensation and allegory and upon the matter deny Jesus Christ as a distinct person without us and a Being saved by him who died at Jerusalem holding forth such a view and pourtraiture of the blessed Redeemer of the Church as must leave the world in a muse how to take hold upon any Reality of the Gospel or to find Jesus Christ but in some airy abstract and mystick notion of the Light and Spirit within every one which they thus confound as reciprocal terms A design by which I may say Satan does at no ordinary and common rate essay to ruine the Truth whilst by some high pretences to the Spirit he seeks to make us part with the express Letter of the Word 2. He doth thus essay to shake Christians at the root and in the great foundation of their faith by putting the Gospel in such a dress as may put it beyond all possible understanding to know the same or on what solid reality they can found their soul 3. Thus doth he in a special way attempt to darken that great and most desirable mystery that ever was revealed to men the Incarnation of the Son of God that he is assuredly Man and this no Allegory O! blessed he in whom the fulness of the God-head dwells
bodily as though it were some low and carnal dispensation to know Christ and him crucified but as he is within But it 's sure if any reality be in the Christian Faith and the whole mystery of Godliness no delusion the Christian Church will never debate 1. That it is the same Jesus who is preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world that is received up into Glory 1. Tim. 3. 16. and the connexion there indissoluble nor can another true conception of him be possible than what the Scripture hath given 2. It is sure the literal sense of the Word is no new distinct sense from the spiritual though by a different Light and evidence understood and this great Truth That Jesus the Son of Mary is the Saviour of the World revealed within by the Spirit doth found no other objective Christ nor hath any different sense from what is objected to us in the Letter but is the very same though seen with another Light and irradiation thereof on the Soul 3. We know there was no dispensation nor Allegory meaned Acts 5. 30. The God of our Fathers hath raised up Jesus whom you hanged on a tree him hath God exalted to be a Prince and Saviour and that we must seek him else where than within even he whom the Heavens must contain till the time of the restitution of all things 4. We have sure warrant to say let him be accursed though an Angel from Heaven should come to give another account of Jesus Christ than what we have in the Scripture and that this is he 1. Who was the Faith of the ancient Church to whom all the types and shadows under the Law did so expresly relate concerning whom the Prophets did diligently enquire searching to what or what manner of time the Spirit in them did point concerning his being revealed to the World and the precise time set thereto 2. He who hath passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God and is still there the glorious Object of our Faith and Worship 3. He who surely was wounded for our transgressions and hruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was on him and by his stripes are we healed Isa 53. 5. O blessed and unexpressibly sweet Truth that we know to be no notion or allegory and that all these Sin-offerings and sacrifices under the Law pointing at this were not the true Victim offered to God but had a discernible respect to that one great propitiatory sacrifice now offered up for the Sins of the people 4. It was in truth and an undoubted reality that Thomas knew a Christ without when his Master gave him leave to put his hand in his side and when his Disciples beheld his Being taken up into Heaven whilst a cloud received him out of their sight even the same Jesus who shall in like manner come again at the last day We know there is an unexpressibly near and spiritual Union betwixt Christ and his People here which is undoubtedly sure and that as he is truly revealed within so he leaves a resemblance of himself on the soul such as neither the World nor the Powers of darkness can ever put a counterfeit in his room but such is this Union as his body here upon the earth doth still know her head to be in heaven at the right hand of God rejoycing in hope of that day when they shall be translated to that blessed place where he is to see and for ever wonder at that inconceiveable mystery of the glorious God-head dwelling bodily in the man Christ Pos 4. This also is a part of the known Doctrine of the Quakers That by no righteousness without us which Christ hath fulfilled in his person we are justified but by a righteousness wrought within and that there is no truth in Christs Satisfaction to justice for the sins of the Elect but in this they are not alone nor is it strange that in all times now under the new Testament men have been acted forth in a high degree of opposition to this head of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ even beyond other Scripture-truths and that so great an assault is made to poyson this Fountain when of such import to the Church as it may be called articulus stantis cadentis ecclesiae But I must say in this the Quakers seem to have taken the most effectual way and have the advantage of others who own the same Doctrine with them that they first essay to depress the credit and authority of the Scripture without which their Cause is lost since nothing possibly can be more express and clear than it is there 1. That our high Priest hath entred into the holy Places having obtained eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. and is that sacrifice which being offered without spot to God pacifies all whose blood alone could silence that cry that sin hath for vengeance having nailed that hand-writing of ordinances which was against us and contrary to us to his cross Col. 2. 14. and hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. Is it possibly conceivable if our sin was imputed to Jesus Christ as the Surety and on him all our iniquities were laid but there must be an imputation of his Righteousness to us and if the Debtor be acquitted by the Cautioners payment and the fruit of Christ's Satisfaction at all redound to us that it must needs be by Imputation of the same Now it is clear thus the Scripture reasons yea I may say with such a plainness as it is strange men can be in the dark here without making it their choice He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 1 Cor. 5. 20 21. and having fulfilled all Righteousness and so fully satisfied the Law as Surety in our stead as a common person representing the whole elect Church Must it not undeniably acquit those at the hand of Justice and be accounted theirs who were then thus represented and judicially one with him 3. We know the Scriptures shew one great end of that blessed contrivance into which the Angels with wonder desire to look is not only to manifest grace but to declare the righteousness of God that he is just and the justifier of them that believe Rom. 3. 20. And no way could ever have been conceived like this to make these two shine forth together in one and the same work or how the Law and Justice could have had such satisfaction as by this blessed Surety who at once and to the full hath satisfied beyond all that the united Obedience of Angels and Men though extended and multiplied to Eternity could ever have done 4. Nor is it possible to suppose how works should be concauses with Faith in the Justification of a Sinner since this acts only instrumentally as the hand embracing that inestimable jewel of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ as
having a peculiar intrinsick aptitude and fitness beyond all the Graces of the Spirit for applying him to the soul 5. Must not all serious Religion begin first at this great Truth of an imputed Righteousness since no access can be to perform new Obedience till we have got once from under the curse of the Law and be found that in another which we are not in our selves It is a blessed and inseparable tye by which these are conjoined in the Scripture which none may essay to divide but upon that dreadful penalty of being shut out of all possible right or claim thereto that Christ is made over to be both our Righteousness and Sanctificacation yet so as the alone weight of our peace and acceptation with God must still lye on what Jesus Christ hath done for and not what he hath wrought in us but as it is an assured evidence of the former our Faith being thus made discernable and justified by works O what can thus influence so strange an opposition to the Doctrine of Grace as is this day in the World and to that unexpressibly sweet and excellent Truth of the Righteousness of the Gospel the clear breaking up of which Light in these last times hath been as life from the dead to the Church after a long and dark night of Antichristianism had gone before to obscure it It is clear the Holy Ghost hath indissolubly conjoyned our being justified by faith and having peace with God through Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 1. And in this I can attest such as ever knew the sensible intimation of pardon and what it is to have a spirit broken and wounded under the sense of sin put under the hand of the great physician and a solid cure thereunto if this ever came in another way than by some clear warming discovery and sensible application of the Righteousness of Christ and that the alone sure and effectual way to heal is by appplying his blood and laying that blessed propitiatory sacrifice as a salve thereto But oh what another thing is the power and efficacy of the Truth on the soul than can be expressed in some scholastick notions about it such as brings a demonstration of its certainty to those who know it indeed that all the disputers of the World could never answer yea I must say if a possibility could be for such a choice as to carry Heaven by works of our own I should think it a sad evidence of those whose heart did not warrant them to witness that no choice could be to them here but to this alone blessed way of being saved by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ doth their soul cleave and 't is that which gives a more indearing sight of Heaven in holding the same only of him who hath purchased it for them and them for it by his own blood which shall thus draw forth and intend their love to the highest pitch for all eternity Pos 5. It is one of their known Tenets that none should move in the commanded â—â—â—ties of a Christian but by some inward call and motion on their spirit and that we ought to forbear where this is wanting but it is sure herein we are taught from the Scripture 1. To have the command as the rule and object of our Faith and not any spiritual disposition nor is there a restriction thus shewed to the Church when it so expresly injoyns pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5. 17. Trust in him at all times c. Psal 62. 8. nor gives it any Latitude to sift our obedience upon the want of actual influence 2. It is clear moral Commands are perpetually obliging though the breathings of God and his immediate assistance be not in our power But the wind bloweth where it lists John 3. 8. And though it 's ever true that it is in vain for one to rise early or essay any work without God Psal 127. 1. Yet this argument should then conclude for the Husbandmans restraining his plowing and sowing in the season thereof until he be sure of the Lords joyning his influences with the same since it 's as impossible to sow without the common influence of God who is the first Cause as it is to pray in Faith without the special breathings of the Spirit 3. It is not such Doctrine can darken the undoubted experience of all the Saints whilst nothing is more known to them than this what singular advantage they have found in essaying duty under the greatest indisposition and deadness and how oft ere they were aware their spirits with a blessed surprisal even to astonishment have been revived and inlarged 4. What assurance can men have the next hour or to morrow more than in the present time of the Spirits moving on their souls or that they shall be thus at a farther advantage by waiting the call of the Word for duty until they have some inward call and motion thereto Pos 6. Though these men pretend to own Teachers of their own wav and mould such as they say are commanded by the eternal Spirit to that work yet do they expresly deny a fixed ministry in the Church with a mediate call thereto or any Scripture-institution thereof But I confess it needs be no wonder that such whose great intent is to destroy the City have the first and sorest thrust at the Watch-men and that in so strange a manner their rage and passion should burst out against the faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ whom by all possible means they seek to withstand in their work since the more enforcing convictions there are of the Authority of God and his Power with them the more does their pain and torment turn them inraged though in this they are such a sight and should be to us as calls for some sad and compassionate resentment when there seems no access to convince those who do but express the greatest cruelty against themselves in making them the But of their wrath and revilings who before the Lord dare say they have no other revenge but how to pluck such out of the fire and if possible reclaim their soul from perishing But who is that Party here against whom they thus quarrel sure it is not the Ministry so much as the Scriptures of Truth in which it's express warrant is too clear and there 's no possible access to debate 1. That such a marvelous erection of the Church as a politick body is undeniably there shewed with its peculiar offices and service and a fixed Ministry thereto 2. That this Ministry given by Jesus Christ is a perpetual standing ordinance in his house to the end of the world Matt. 28. 20. Ephes 4. 11 12. 3. That it lyeth not common but hath a peculiar guard and hedg set about the same For no man taketh this honour to himself but be that is called thereto as Aâ—ron Heb. 5. 4. And what this calling was is told us in the first verse that he was taken from among men and ordained for