live in this body and in page 35. Thus you say and unsay and indeed say you know not what your intention is so neer as I can gather to deny the Resurrection of the body out of the grave and to allow only of a Resurrection from the death of sin as may appear in your answer to the 7. Article at the end of your Book and to maintain or rather insinuate this you most wickedly abuse the Scriptures confound the sense of them and pervert the meaning of the Holy Ghost First therefore I will prove the veritie of the Resurrection of the body and then answer your absurd contradictions and cavils First I will prove the Resurrection of the body by the Resurrection of Christs body who is our head and then by the Resurrection of our own who are his members Christs Resurrection is confirmed by the Testimony of the four Evangelists Mat. 28. 7 9 10 12 14. Mark 16. 6 14. Luke 24. 6 7. Iohn 20. 9. And in 1. Cor. 15. 4 5 6. first he was seen of Cephas then of the twelve afterwards of 500 of the brethren at once The testimony of Angels Mat. 28. 6. nay of his enemies Verse 11 12 13. some of the watch came into the citie c. this now is so plain that it cannot be denied and I think you will not be so desperately-wicked as to say that this must be understood spiritually of a Resurrection from sin for Christ was never dead in sin but purified in the womb if you should your Master would confute you We know who thou art even the Holy one of Israel If Christ be risen how say some among you that there is no Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 12 13. If there be no Resurrection then is not Christ risen but Christ is risen therefore there is a Resurrection for Christ is a publick person in the place of all mankinde he rose not for himself but for us all And therefore the Apostle uses that expression as in Adam we all died so in Christ we shall all be made alive Again Christ is compared to the first-fruits which comparison is very significant the first-fruits were a sheaf of the first of the Harvest Levit. 23. 10 11. which was raised and lifted up before the Lord and then not only that was holy but the whole Crop Christ likewise was the first and best of the Crop he was first lifted up and then not only he but we all become living Sheafs Again the same Corn that is sown though it be corrupted in the ground springs up again so the same body that is sown shall arise the qualities thereof being changed as the Apostle says it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised again a spiritual body not a spirit but a spiritual body a body endowed with spiritual qualities and they are first charitie secondly impassibilitie thirdly agilitie The just shall shine as the Sun Mat. 13. 43. 1 Cor. 15. 43 44. Rev. 7. 17. Or if Christ be not risen then are we still in our sins but we are not still in our sins therefore Christ is risen This argument will clear the matter if we observe the force of it The Humanitie of Christ is united unto the God-head from whence it received spiritual life now we are united unto Christ by the spirit which createth faith in us We I say not our bodies only but our souls also And by vertue of this union our souls and bodies do rise again our souls from the death of sin and our bodies from the death in the grave If the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies Rom. 8. 11. Lastly the Resurrection of the body may be proved by that place in Iob Chap. 19. 25 26 27. which is a plain prophesie of the Resurrection of the body observe the words I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold him and not another though my reines be consumed within me Job was then in the condition of a dying man his skin cleaved to his bones he was a meer skeleton and all wordly comfort failed him and therefore he comforts himself with this meditation of the Resurrection I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand upon the earth at the last day The word is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shall stand but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shall rise again upon the earth though he was not upon the earth by the malice of his enemies yet he should rise up again and stand and when should this be in the latter day 2. He argues from our Redeemer to himself because he shall rise again I shall rise again what is done in the head shall also be done in the members 3. He saith I shall see in my flesh with these eyes and not with anothers Lastly for himself for his benefit notwithstanding his â—eins were consumed though he were in that deplorable condition And what can be more plain to prove the Resurrection of the body so that if your eyes be not blinded that you cannot see you must of necessity confesse it You say here is a Mystery there is no Mystery except one of your own making and that is such a confused one as neither your self nor any man else knows what to make of it You say that the Redeemer was in Iob though he knew â—t not How could that be doth not his confession of his Redeemer of the Resurrection nay of his own Redeemer prove the contrary could any man make such an excellent confession of a thing and in such a manner as Iob doth and not know it can such fruits arise from ignorance Doth not Iob say plainly I know that my Redeemer lives You say that Iob was then in darknesse I say so too if you understand it of his civil estate for the Sun of his prosperity was set and therefore he comforts himself with a spiritual estate with the Resurrection a usual thing with the holy Prophets Isa. 26. 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for they dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead See Eze. 37. from the beginning to the ending where God signifies the deliverance of Israel out of captivity by the Resurrection of the dry bones To this purpose hath the Apostle Paul expressed himself in 2 Cor. 1. 8 9. For we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed
An Answer To a printed BOOK falsely Intituled A BLOW AT THE SERPENT It being truly A BLOW of the SERPENT lately published by one Richard Coppin Wherein among many others these following Heresies and Abominable Errours of his are briefly and plainly confuted out of the Word of God 1 That the Deitie of Christ was united to the sinful Nature of MAN and consequently that his conception was impure 2 That there is no Resurrection of the body 3 That the pains of Hell are not eternal 4 That there is no General Day of Judgement but such a Temporal judgement only as befals MEN in this world 5 That God will not destroy any MAN but only Sin in MAN 6 That all shall be saved the Divel not excepted 7 That the Humane Nature of Christ is not ascended into Heaven By EDWARD GARLAND M. A. and Minister of Gods Word at HARTCLIP in KENT Vt homo circa Mortem Phantasias videt sic et Mundus in exitu suo multos patietur Errores Chrysost. in Mat. Hom. 48. 2. Pet. 2. 1. 2. 3. But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in most damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of And through covetousness shall they with fained words make Merchandize of you whose judgement now of a long time lingreth not and their Damnation slumbreth not LONDON Printed for Philemon Stephens in St. Pauls Church Yeard 1657. To the worshipful his much honoured friend and kinsman Robert Watson of Friendsbury in Kent Esq Worthy Sir I Have read over Coppins Book which you were pleased to leave with me And I finde it to be a magazine of Heresies a Pandora's box full of dangerous poyson which Satan hath sent him with into the world to infect the people of God Indeed it is painted over with a golden title for he calls it truth triumphing against falsehood when there is scarce any thing of truth in it But this is a common practise which such Hereticks of whom Hillarie Ingerunt nobis primum nomina veritatis ut virus falfitatis introeat they first set forth unto us the names of truth that the poyson of falsehood may enter now with them Hill de Trin. lib. 6. and St. Aug who was well acquainted with these cunning practises saith that the promise of truth which they are continually making is nothing but a vaile to cover their errours or a goodly fore-gate for errours to enter in stealing into the minde of the unskilful Aug cont. ep. fundantur cap. 11. wherefore St. Paul gives the Church of God an Item to beware of them Rom. 16. verse 17 18. now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple I did think him not worthy the answering as indeed he is not but because I hear he hath done much mischief to the Church of Christ and drawn many proselytes after him I thought it not amiss to borrow so much time from my imployment in the publick ministerie as to return an answer hoping that it might reclaim some of those that are gone astray or else at least settle those who have not departed away or confirm those as have defended the truth against this uncircumcised Philistin of which number Sir I understand you have been one who with Mr. Maior of Rochester some worthy ministers gentlemen Captains and Commanders have laboured to stop the flood of errours which this Serpent hath cast out of his mouth Sir I desire you all not to be weary of well doing your praise will remain in the Church of Christ besides in due time ye shall reap if ye faint not But Sir I conceive the best way to deal with this clamorous Heretick is not by extemporal speaking but by writing let the arguments answers and replies be set down and setled on both sides and then the Church of Christ will easily judge that his doctrine is not from above but from below not from the father of lights but from the father of lies and forger of delusions Sir I shall adde no more at present then that I desire the God of truth to establish you in the truth and to encrease your happiness not only here on earth but in the highest Heavens which is the prayer of your obliged friend and servant EDWARD GARLAND On J. L. and his Verses prefixt to Richard Coppins Heretical Book entituled a Blow at the Serpent truly a Blow at the brazen Serpent Scribimus indocti doctique LIke as a Black-brow'd Whifler to the Play A masked Poetaster leads the way J. L. or Iohn of Leydens ghostly front His Vizard is it frights me to look on 't And that dull Ray shot from the Fiery lake Coppins new light we for his Link may take Being thus prepared up he rashly climes Parnassus foot and belcheth forth his Rimes But with such fortunate success be 't known The Ballet-makers vote him all their own And joy their Tribes increase when loe the Prise He 's but some old one in a new disguise Mean while the Nine and all Apollos Court Have sentenced the bold Intruder for 't And that because he never slumbred on Parnassus or the Banks of Helicon Nor hath been dip't in the Font-Caballine Though in some perhaps right Asinine And all admire that he should have the face To commence Poet with so little Grace When neither Art nor nature seem to be Concurrent in him unto Poetry What Stuffe hath he dropt from his Gooses quill To praise a Subject suitable as ill Had learn'd Erasmus been as void of wit And Art when he the * Praise of Folly writ He would have wanted one to praise him too As both this Poet and his Author do For what appears of Wit or rather shame Is only the concealing of his Name Whereby we doubt what Soul this Mevius yields Although we know not the Arcadian fields But as the Mountain breeds and teem's to light The sillie Mouse that nibbles out of sight Some Pelion hath this Pigmy Poet born To Cant for Baal and Gods Church to scorn To lurk in dark concealment and revile His Ministers in a mad Chem'rim's Stile What doth his Caution fancy'd from the course Of Stars but shew he 's Lunatick or worse And could he make an Almanack his Strein Would much out-rail old Chem ' rim Lilly's vein The Priests should surely have more wounds then any Nay then the Bloody naked man by many But since 't is plain he and his Author look Up to the Host of Heaven witness their Book We can't but judge
St. Paul who was led by the Spirit of Christ Ephe. 1. 20 21 22. God hath highly exalted his Son and placed him at his right hand in Heavenly places where he shews the exaltation of his Humane nature to the highest degree of blessedness that it can be capable of He hath put all things in subjection under his feet and that propter Mortem Crucis because he became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8 9. Your Allegorical fancy is as far different from the truth as a Goat is from a Sheep or an Asse from a rational man Secondly Non-sense in the contents of your third Chapter as all that read it cannot judge it otherwise Thirdly Confusion in turning the Holy Scriptures into Allegories where they are to be understood literally and so overthrow the meaning of the Holy Ghost Disput. 2. You begin with truth as Pilate and yet you go about to crucifie it you assume unto your self the name of a light as the Pharisees did and yet our Saviour calls them blind guides that went into the ditch themselves and drew others after them You tell Mr. French you are not of his Spirit and I believe so too for he defends the truth and you maintain falsehood Neither are you of the spirit of Christ for he hates the doctrine of the Nicholaitans Rev. 2. 15. you hate no mans opinion as you declare page 15. a difference then for there is the spirit of Christ and your spirit they are not the same Here I meet again with two Heresies disputed of and confuted before and therefore I shall not need to adde much The first is that the deity of Christ was not only united to the nature of man but to the sin of his nature which is as impossible as for two contraries to agree together in the same subject puritie and uncleanness Righteousness and unrighteousness Light and darkness He was a perfect man in all things sin excepted Heb. 4. 15. We have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we were yet without sin And Heb. 7. 26 27. for such an high Priest became us to have who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher then the Heavens Who needed not daily as those high Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sin and then for the peoples And what can be more plaine that he was without sin clearly as the other high Priests were not without they having need he having none Again he took upon him the nature of man but not the sin of his nature Sin and concupiscence are not of the nature of man but an hereditary disease that sticks unto his nature as doth the Leprosie For indeed if it had stuck to his nature he could neither have been a Priest nor a sacrifice Not an high Priest for such an high Priest it becommed us to have who was holy as in that Text of Heb. 7. 26. Not a sacrifice for that must be without spot that must take away sin And so was Christ John 14. 30. The Prince of this world had nothing in him 1. Pet. 1. 19. A lamb without blemish and without spot 1. Pet. 2. 22. Who did not sin And whereas you object he bore our sins in his body on the Tree you could not have brought any place that makes more against you Mark the words He bore our sins not his own We were the principals He was but our suertie He suffered not for himself but according to that of Daniel 9. 26. The Messias shall be slain for his people You urge moreover that place He hath made him to be sin that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him which makes nothing for your purpose rightly understood For he made him sin by imputation God imputed his righteousness to us and our sin to him I have shewed you before how he was conceived by the Holy Ghost not begotten by man Here we are come again to that old exploded Heresie of Origen which hath been answered already and that enough to the satisfaction of any good Christian yet because I meet with it again I shall adde somewhat more God doth threaten eternal punishments as he promises eternal blessings as in that Text of Mat. 25. 46. before spoken of Which Text runs thus in the Original {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Here the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies eternal you see is the Epithite for the future condition both of the righteous and unrighteous and though the English translation render it by two several words as eternal and everlasting yet their force and meaning is the same and signifie the same And here me thinks this one passage might discover to the weakest and most ignorant follower of your erâ—ours what a perverter of Scripture you are But for all this you have the face to tell Mr. French that this Text proves it not and tell him that you had answer'd it before but let us see how you have answer'd it before Your answer was that the word everlasting did signifie a dispensation or administration of God to man which as I told you before is an absurd expression your meaning is as you have somewhat exprest your self in the beginning of the eighteenth Page that it signifies such a perpetuitie as is not absolute but hath a Period Captain Smith very seasonably charg'd you to prove it hath such a signification You instance in the Covenant God made with Abraham which was called an Everlasting Covenant Your words are The Covenant which God made with Abraham was called an everlasting Covenant and this Covenant upon these conditions did last but for a time for we read that God did afterwards make a new Covenant with us that should never be ended To this Mr. French replied I deny that the Scripture you brought out of the 17. of Genesis is taken in your sense For that was an everlasting Covenant And indeed so it was therefore the pains of Hell are eternall that is have no Period To this you say Sir you say nothing but what your brother Roswel had said before which I then answer'd and you understand not for the first everlasting Covenant as to the conditions thereof which were the works of the Law had an end as to us when God made a new covenant with us upon better conditions without end Oh Monstrum horrendum cui lumen ademptum Oh blind deceived deceiver to say that the covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of works when it was a covenant of grace as the Scriptures every where prove but especially Rom. 4. and in that Chapter especially the 16 Verse Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the seed of Abraham who against hope believed in hope and
which you blasphemously and impudently stand to deny Your words are Therefore the Words of Christ are not to be understood carnally but spiritually And again you say concerning his comming to judgement I do believe he is come and comming daily and doth set up his Throne in the hearts of his people c. And thus by your foolish figures and spiritual as you pretend senceless sences you pervert the Scriptures meaning and to your power overthrow two Articles of our faith both necessarie to Salvation First therefore I will shew the veritie of Christs Ascension and that it is to be understood literally and not figuratively and then confute your cavils First for the truth of his Ascension we have the Testimonies of the Evangelists Mark 16. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken to them he was received up into Heaven and sat on the right hand of God Luke 24. 51. And it came to pass while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into Heaven The Testimony of Angels Acts 1. 9. St. Luke sets downs the circumstances and the manner of his Ascension The time 40. dayes after his Resurrection Acts 1. 3. The place from whence Mount Olivet near Bethany Luke 24. 50. Acts 1. 12. The manner first He led them out as far as to Bethany and blessed them Luke 24. 50. He went apart from them Verse 51. Thirdly a cloud did over-shadow him Acts 1. 9. The Testimony of the whole Church of God who make it an Article of their faith And this was not another body but the same body which he had before as the Angels testifie Acts 1. 19. This same Jesus whom you have seen go into Heaven c. this same Jesus not another not a Phantastical body but his true body Iohn 20. 27. Then said he to Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing Revelation 1. 7. They shall see him whom they have pierced Here you see is a whole cloud of witnesses the Testimony of the Apostles of Angels and the spirit of God How is your forehead steel'd that you dare out-face a truth as apparent as the Sun at Noon-day But you except against the Testimony of the Apostles and say they had not received the holy Ghost but were carnal before you Blasphemed Christ now the Apostles for there is a Blasphemie against man also Naboth was falsely charged to have blasphemed God and the King Did not our Saviour breath upon them saying unto them receive the Holy Ghost Iohn 20. 22. though they had not recived him in that manner and measure as they did upon the day of Pentecost yet it doth not follow they had not received him before You say moreover that they were carnal If you mean totally carnal 't is as false as the other for our Saviour gives this Testimony of them that they had followed him in the Kingdome of Regeneration and should sit upon 12. Thrones c. when he should sit upon his Throne of glory Luke 22. 29 30. what can be more plain to prove that they had the Holy Ghost and were regenerated You told us you were a light you are rather a dark Lanthorn or such a light as those Doctors were which St. Paul speaks of 1. Tim. 1. 7. they took upon them to teach the Law not knowing what they taught nor whereof they affirm'd Again you object out of Luke 1. 35. and Ephes. 4. 5 9 10. He that ascended is the same that descended and we do not read of a body of flesh and bones that descended But Sir we read that the second Person in the Trinity descended so low as to take upon him our nature Gal. 4. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman and Heb. 2. 14 16. for asmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood He also himself likewise took part of the same so he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Et quod semel assumsit nunquam amisit And he remains a Priest for ever Heb. 5. 6. Then when he had perfected the work of our Redemption he ascended up into Heaven sat down at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Now who doth this He that died or rather he that is risen from the dead and who was that Christ Christ is risen and what is Christ God and Man in one Person read Rom. 8. 34. Instance The second Person descended as he was God ascended God and Man therefore he that ascended was not the same that descended You erre not knowing the Scriptures For though the second Person descended and took our nature upon him yet it was without the confusion of natures or transfusion of essential properties though he was made that he was not God and Man in one Person yet he remained that he was before perfect God And therefore he that ascended was the same that descended The Apostle cryes out Great is the mysterie of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World and received up into glory Next follows the Blasphemous Inference if Christ be at Gods right hand in a body of flesh and bones why then this is to make God to be a body of flesh and bones also and such a one as your self confin'd to a local place Which doth not follow for the Godhead was united unto the Humane Nature without any confusion of natures or transfusion of essential properties The Word was made flesh not by turning the Word into flesh but by taking the Humanitie into the Deitie Which the Antients thus exprest Sum quod eram neceram quod sum nunc dicar utrumque And therefore for a man to say in concreto that Christ hath a body of flesh and bones is true but to say that God hath a body of flesh and bones in abstracto or that God is confined to a place is horrible Blasphemy for which you were seasonably taken off by Captain Harrison The next thing to be considered is the comming of Christ to judgement which Pillar of our faith you endeavour to pull down by turning all into an Allegorie and so overthrow the true sense of the Scriptures You say but I do believe he is come and comming dayly and likewise you say in the foregoing Page all this I know and see to be now he is upon his Throne and hath all nations before him and ever had First I will prove the veritie of this Article and then confute your errours The veritie of Christs comming to judgement is confirmed by these places of Scripture Rev. 20. 10. I beheld a white Throne and him that sat thereon from whose face Heaven and earth fled away I saw the dead both great and small stand before God and the Books were opened The
out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the Dead But you say Iob was then in darknesse uttering words without knowledge for which he was reproved first by Elihu Secondly by the Lord and thirdly he confest it 1. Oh horrible that you should have the impudence to say or infer that Elihu reproved Iob for that most excellent Confession when it is plain as the Sun that he reprehended him for saying I am clean and there is no unrighteousnesse in me c. Iob 33. 9. doth not Elihu restrain his words to the same expression Behold in this thou art not just verse 12. 2. You affirm that God reproved him for it By which it seems you know not what you say or care not what you affirm for that which God reproved him for was for standing too much upon his own innocency And though Iob was not thus afflicted for his sin but for a Triall as appears Chap. 1. and Chap 2. yet was there matter enough in him that deserved it if God should have entred into judgement with him 3. You say that Iob confest it Doth he confesse that he had erred in that confession of his concerning the resurrection or that he had maintained a false cause no God himself determines the contrary Chap. 42. 7. My servant Iob hath spoken the thing that is right and you have not and therefore they were appointed to go to Iob that he might pray for them The cause that Iobs friends maintained was that God did handle men in this world according to their deserts and therefore Iob was a wicked and cursed creature because thus afflicted and tormented Iob maintained the contrary that God did not alwayes handle men according to their deserts in this world for many times the wicked have prosperitie and Gods children adversitie Iob 21. 8. Now though the foundation of Iobs cause were good yet in the prosecuting of it he committed many errours through the infirmities of the flesh for which God reproved him but on the contrary the foundation of his adversaries cause was evil 'T is therefore a false and an impudent assertion to say as you do that Iob never spoke the thing that was right of the Lord until he said now do mine eyes see thee c. Job 42. 5 6. The reason that moves you to deny or at least to underminde and overthrow the Resurrection of the bodie is because there is a Resurrection of the soul and you may aswel denie there is no death of the body because there is a death of the soul in sin as Satan slays both so Christ doth raise up both in his members If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead be in you he that raised up Jesus shall also quicken your mortal bodies c. Rom. 8. 11. but this hath been sufficiently proved already I shall only adde our Saviours argument to the Sadduces Mat. 22. 23 24. unto Verse 32. God is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him that is they are alive in his account because he hath decreed to raise them again I shall turn your proof out of the 11. Iohn Vers the 21 22 23 24 25. upon your self Christ comes to Bethany where Lazarus lived who was now dead Martha goes forth to meet him saying Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died Christ answered thy brother shall rise again and this is spoken of the Resurrection of the body for his soul was then in the hands of God Martha replies I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day So 't is plain that the Resurrection was no strange and new doctrine then though it be now so to you Martha knew it and believed it as did Iob also Iob 19. Christ taught it saying I am the Resurrection and the life Iohn 10. 25. that is the cause of the Resurrection of the body and the life of the soul not a bare signe to signifie as you falsely and foolishly affirmed but an effectual cause 1 Cor. 15. 20 21 22. also he teaches it Iohn 2. 19 20 21. where he saith unto the Jews destroy this temple and in three dayes I will raise it up again which he spake of the temple of his body mark Christ can any thing be more plain which he performed accordingly Mat. 28. Mark 16. Luke 24. now Christ was a publick person what he did he did not for himself but for us also so that if we believe that Jesus is dead and is risen even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him CHAP. VIII In this Chapter the doctrine of the Trinity is principally treated of I will therefore first set down the truth that we may the better discern the falshood The Doctrine of the Trinity God is a most simple infinite eternal immutable and omnipotent spirit One in essence three in Persons Father Son and the Holy Ghost A spirit Iohn 4. 24. simple Col. 1. 15. 1. Tim. 1. 17. the image of the invisible God whom no man hath seen nor can see Eternal Exo. 3. 14 15. Immutable Mal. 3. 6. Omnipotent Gen. 17. 1. Rev. 19. 6. I name but some of his Attributes because I am to speak principally of the Trinity God is one in essence three in Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost One in essence Deut. 6. 4. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Three in Person Father Son and the spirit 1 Iohn 5. 7. an example we finde of this in the Baptisme of Christ The Father speaks from Heaven the Son stands in the Water and the Holy Ghost descends in the likeness of a Dove As in the Sun there is the body of the Sun the beams issuing from the body and the light and yet there is not 3. Suns but one Sun so is there the Father the Word and the Spirit three distinct Persons in the Deity and yet not three but one God These three you call three Manifestations Which are three Persons three Hypostases three Subsistances in one essence as in a Rivulet there is the fountain or Well-head in the Earth the spring boyling out of it and the stream which is made of them both and dilateth or sheadeth it self far from thence which three are distinct subsistances and yet but one Water You tell us of Christs being within us c. We know it But not corporally for so he is in Heaven but spiritually or by his spirit 1 Cor. 6. 19. know you not that your body is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you c. this spirit unites us to Christ by working faith in us whereby we are united to him according to that in Ephes. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and Christ is said to dwell in us by
veritie of the general judgement at the last day which is written with a beam of the Sun and with the very finger of God if you be not past all shame be ashamed of your damnable doctrine whereby you endeavour to overthrow as you are truly told by Mr. Head the very fundamentals of Christian Religion CHAP. XIII The practise of Magistrates and Ministers discovered how they one uphold another to serve not the Lord but themselves The Magistrates and Ministers do not denie that they defend one the other and in so doing they fulfil their dutie serve the Lord and discharge a good conscience For they are the two hands by which the Lord doth govern his people and as one hand ought to help and assist the other so ought the Magistrate and Minister to strengthen and defend one another Thou leadest thy people like Sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron Psal. 77. 20. who was it that led his people God wherewith By the hands of whom Of Moses and Aaron what were they The Prince and the Priest the Magistrate and the Minister That these were ordained by God to assist each other you may read Exod. 4. 14 15 16. and how they did assist each other you may finde in Exod. 7. and Numb. 16. when Jannes and Iambres withstood Moses Aaron lends him his Rod and when Corah Dathan and Abiram that cursed crue rose against Aaron crying out as such as you do by us ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi all the Lords people are holy Moses lends him his hand as you may read in Numb. 16. Both Magistrates and Ministers are the Lords Shepherds under Christ the great Shepherd of our souls and both must joyn together in defending the flock from the teeth of the Wolf and from the Claws of other ravenous beasts that seek to devour them the Ministers with the sword of the spirit and the Magistrate with the sword of Justice for the first read Tit. 3. 10. Ephe. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. for the second read Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. and Deut. 13. It is a great curse to have evil Magistrates or evil Ministers and yet it is a far greater to have none at all for then every man teacheth what he will 2 Chron. 15. 3 4 5. every man doth what he will Micah sets up Idolatry and consecrates a Priest Iudges 17. the poor Levite hath his Concubin ravished and Dan goes a robbing Iudg. 18. Those that under colour of Christian libertie go about to take away Ecclesiastical and Civil Government abuse the Scriptures and as much as in them lies endeavour to destroy both Church and state for the libertie which the Scripture speaks of in Gal. 5. 1. is a liberty from the Ceremonial Law from the power and dominion of sin from the rigor and curse of the Law and a liberty in good things not an Exemption from Ecclesiastical and civil Government as is apparent in Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Heb. 13. 17. Those therefore that resist the powers resist the ordinance of God and shall receive to themselves Damnation Also they endeavour to overthrow the Christian State ubi nullus Gubernator corruit Populus Prov. 11. 14. as a ship without a Pilot so a people without a Governour and Counsel must and will fall and excellent is that prayer of Moses Num. 27. 16 Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation which may go out and in before them that the Congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd You say let the people judge who thy are that cause divisions we also say the like and that the Apostle in that place of Rom. 16. 17 18. tells them who they are They that teach Doctrine contrary to that which they had been taught Now I pray who do so you that overthrow the Articles of our faith in that sense they are delivered received and beleeved by all the Christian Churches in the World or we that defend them you that by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 18. or we who tell them the truth that if they live and die in their sins in following after unrighteousnesse and disobeying the truth The Lord in flaming fire shall take vengeance on them for they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. read 2 Thes. 1. 8 9. Rom. 2. 9 10. You that speak evill of Dignities and despise Dominions Iud. 8. or we that defend them T is you build up Babel with blood and raise the foundation of Sion you cannot be said to build up Sion in that you cause the people to err by crying peace when there is no peace that all mankinde Iew and Gentile shall be saved contrary to the very words of Christ Matth. 25. 46. 2. That a Regenerate man cannot sin contrary to St. Paul Rom. 7. 23 24 25. Who shall deliver me from this body of death Me he speaks of himself 3. That there is redemption out of hell and that hell paines shall have an end contrary to the words of Christ Mark 9. 44. Their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched 4. That good works are not needfull to salvation When the Scripture saith without holinesse no man shall see God Heb. Heb. 12. 14. You charge us with preaching for hire saying You the Priests divine for mony c. which page is full of such reproaches and slanders For we preach to convert souls to God to build up the Church of Christ and as for our Tithes which you call uor hire we take them as our inheritance setled upon us by the Laws of God and the Laws of the land Who have thought fit that he that serves at the altar should live by the altar according to that 1 Cor. 9. from the first to the 15. verse It is your self and such as you are that preach for Reward that live by gifts and bribes wherfore you devise false Doctrines such as will please foolish corrupt Mens fancies that put hony in the Sacrifice instead of salt and sow Pillows under mens Elbows that they may sleep at ease in sin that tell the wicked they shall live though God hath said they shall surely die except they repent that strengthen the hands of evil doers that they should not return You I say run without sending Ier. 23. 21. I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran that bring in damnable Heresies and preach aliud Evangelium another Gospel Gal. 1. 6 7. not that there was another Gospel then that which Paul taught but because there was like yours an invention of their own braines Good reason therefore have the ministers to warn the peopel to beware of you and the Magistrates to shut you up that you sow not your damnable doctrines among the people that they follow not your pernicious wayes by
Schools of the Prophets but the School of Antichrist where Cerinthus Marcion Montanus and Muncer had their learning and whereof you are a professour You speak something of another Book of yours called Truths Testimony It seems all your Books are like the Egyptian temples they have a fair and beautiful outside a splendid Title but nothing else then rotten within Mr. Sanbrook tells you he burnt it and well did he doubtless in so doing if I should do the like too by this I am treating of I should do you no wrong I have not met with a worse printed and published You question our calling saying I question whether some of you have received this Gospel-commission from Christ yet or no Which calling of ours hath been sufficiently vindicated by many learned and godly Ministers of the Church of England both against our adversaries the Papists abroad and also our malicious enemies the sectaries at home and will be again when any worthy of an answer shall go about to question it But because I have undertaken to answer your follies I will adde something more in answer to your objections against the Ministers way of preaching the Gospel though I have done it sufficiently already You say that we have no commission from Christ because we preach damnation which is no Gospel-message This or to this effect is that you have said at the beginning of this Chapter Page 61. already answered but something more may be said concerning two places of Scripture quoted there in the Margent which you make the ground of your objections The first is Luke 4. 18. which the Evangelist takes out of Isa. 61. 1. but a place that makes not for you but is full against you for it is not general but to the poor to them that are throughly touched with the feeling of their sin and have their hearts broken with sorrow for their transgressions to set at libertie them that acknowledge themselves to be in bondage sold under sin against their wills as St. Paul did Rom. 7. 14. and are ready to cry out with him who shall deliver me from the body of this death To those that do not acknowledge their condition and the need they have of a deliverer Christ came not to send peace but a sword Mat. 10. 34. They are in effect the words of Isaiah to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God c. he alludes to the deliverance of Israel out of the captivitie of Babylon by Cyrus for as that was a year of Iubile to the Jews so it was a year of vengeance to the Caldeans that held them in Captivitie The second place Iohn 3. 17. which is fully expounded and answered by our Saviour himself v. 18. 19 He that beleeveth on him is not condemned but he that beleeveth not is condemned already because he hath not beleeved on the name of the only begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather then light because their deeds were evil Is not here condemnation preached to unbeleevers as well as salvation to beleevers is it not as clear as the light at Noon-day You quote Col. 1. 6. The Gospel which is come unto you as it is in all the world c. If we should grant it hath been preached c. yet it makes nothing for your purpose for though it be the power of God unto salvation to all that beleeve Rom. 1. 16. yet is it not so to the impenitent and unbeleevers for unto them it is the power of God to destruction 2 Cor. 10. 6. CHAP. XV In this Chapter you talk much of the whore of Babylon her rage her names of Blasphemy against the truth her seat c. Wherein you set forth your ignorance and manifest your malice in that you apply that to another which is proper to your self The whore of Babylon is the Malignant Church the Corps of the reprobate the head of which is Satan and Anti-Christ is his Vice-gerent she is compared to a Whore in opposition to the Spouse of Christ who is compared to the Woman Revel 12. The Whore of Babylon is adorned with worldly Ornaments as Gold Silver and Pearl to difference her from the Church of Christ who is clothed with heavenly the Sun and the Moon are under her feet and a Crown of Stars upon her head The Beast which the Whore rides on is the Roman Empire Dan. 7. 2 3. Her seat Babylon 1 Pet. 5. 13. which the Romists themselves will needs have to be Rome and which is very probable as appears in Revel. 17. 18. onely we must remember that though St. Peter spake then of the time present the spirit of God intends there to foretell the condition of that Church to come She hath in her fore-head the name of Mystery in her hand is a Golden cup full of abominations by the Golden cup is understood the Scriptures which she turns to abominations by wresting them to her own wicked purposes as you have done she rages against the truth and those that maintain it and shews the effect of her rage by making her self drunk with their blood Now what is all this to your Opponents how can you apply any of these things to any particular action of theirs truly falsly I find you do Their zeale for Gods Glory and for the Love of the truth never more abused by any Heretick then your self you call rage their telling you and others the truth in saying you are a Blasphemer and a Perverter of Scripture you call railing or reviling when you may as well say that he is a Railer that calles a thief a thief and a murderer by the Name of Murder Or with what face can you rank your self with the Saints the Martyrs of Iesus the Apostles with Christ himself when you are not wrongfully called but proved a Blasphemer and a seducer when you are strongly suspected for incâ—ntinency for you were indicted at Maidstone this Summer Assises for attempting the Chastity of two of your Proselytes with base actions and filthy speeches the Bills were found and judgement passed upon them by the whole Bench and you were fined accordingly I should now wonder at your impudence but that Saint Paul sayes the devil when he means to deceive the world transforms himself into an Angel of Light and likewise his Ministers whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11. 14. 15. Such Saints as you may fitly be compared to Iezebel who called her self a Prophetesse Revel. 2. 20 that is such an one as was inspired by the spirit of God and so made God the Author of her blasphemies and lies seduced the servants of God and taught them to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to Idols Wherefore God threatens to punish her and her companions except they repent God give you an heart to repent and also your followers for you