Capacities I shall let pass only minding the Reader That the nature of a Contradiction is difficult many times to understand even in Natural things so that it is reckoned the subtâ—lest part in Logick or Metaphyâ—â—â—â—â— to understand throughly what are alwayes Contradictions and 〈…〉 and therefore much more hard it is to understand in 〈…〉 that contain many seeming Contradictions for tho' 〈…〉 â—cripture containeth no real Contradiâ—â—ons coming from 〈…〉 Spirit of Truth yet it containeth 〈…〉 seeming which 〈…〉 and Scoffers use to object His comparing me to Julian the Apostate favoureth of the like Spirit of Envy as formerly when with no more ground he accused me of being guilty of the Vnpardonable Sin It is a part of my Blessing that being reviled and fully accused I can patiently bear it by the Grace of Christ in whom I believe and to whom I confess even to the Crucified Jesus that was nailed to the Cross for my Sins whom my Soul loveth and whom Julian openly denyed But Cotton Mather will gain no credit nor esteem either to himself or his Cause by 〈…〉 and Extraordinary Revilings rarely to be parallelled among the greatest Readers His Fourth Argument hath as weak and sandy Foundation as any of the rest as namely as he saith That I renounce both the Religion and the Saviour which the Saints have hitherto ventured their Souls upon c. to wit Christ Jesus And this he undertaketh to prove Sathan like by wresting my words and omitting some of them in the very Sentence he citeth that were altogether essential to make up the intire period and sence for I said in my Book Your Visible Churches 〈◊〉 true Churches of Christ for the Religion ye profess is not the true Religion of Christ Jesus yea in Fundamentals and in the very Foundation it self which is Christ Jesus on which the true Church is 〈◊〉 and every Member thereof but ye who say note my following words p. 137. all inward divine Revelation is ceased ye to wit your visible Church build not on Christ but on a meer Hear-say and Historical Report of him for how can ye build on him when ye have no belief that Christ is nearer unto you than in some remote place beyond the Skyes Where the Impartial Reader may see first That my words expresly mention their visible Church that doth not build really on Christ but on a Profession of him even by Cotton Mather's Confession 〈◊〉 nothing is required to make up the Members of a visible Church but a Profession of him and of the true Religion But every judicious leâ—son will say it is one thing to profess Christ in words or show and another thing really to build on Christ that everlasting Rock for by Christs Doctrine none buildeth on the Rock which is Christ 〈…〉 that heareth Christ's Sayings and doth them and that is much 〈◊〉 than barely to profess him But yet I did not question nor â—o but that according to my Christian Câ—arity moving me so to believe divers among all sorts Societies call'd Christian in Christendom that hold the Fundamentals as many do do really build on Châ—ist thâ—â—â—â—e Foundation and because they so do in due time the Wood Hay and Stubble of their Errors in other things while they build on the true Foundation will be burnt up by the divine Fire of the living Word and living Spirit of God in them and their Lord Jesus Christ iâ— mine and mine is theirs and I could be glad that I could entertain that Charity to C.M. but however I have not that uncharitable judgment of him as bad as he is that he hath committed that unpardonable Sin for though he hath reproached the precious workings and operations of the holy Spirit both in my faithful Brethren and me calling them Delâ—sions of Satan yet because I judge he doth it ignorantly therefore his sin is pardonable upon Repentance which I pray God may be given him for that and all his haâ—d Speechâ—â— and all other sins before it be too late But because he cannot fix his â—â—â—se Charge upon me of denying Christ he essayeth 〈◊〉 but with 〈…〉 success to fix it upon my Brethren as dear Isaac Pennington whom I well knew to be a true Believer in the Lord Jesuâ— Christ and a sincere Lover of him even the crucified Jesus and whose Souâ— I believe is in test in Christ in heavenly Glory And as to his words We can never eat the Bodily Garment Christ but that wâ—ich appeaâ—ed and dwelt in â—he Body it is easie to put a fair and charitable construction on it as wâ—â—l as on Christs words when he said He that 〈…〉 seen 〈◊〉 hath seeâ— the Father and yet many saw Christ's body of Flesh that never saw the Father But to clear the thing I 〈◊〉 speaâ—eâ—h â—hâ—s in opposition to Socinians and oâ—hers tincturâ—d with 〈…〉 as if â—he Manhood of Christ that was born of the Viâ—gin exâ—â—ndâ—â—g the 〈◊〉 Word was the only and whole Christ whereas 〈◊〉 was 〈…〉 his Body of Flesh therefore he is said to have come in the Flesh and to have taken Flesh And if we consider Christ as he was before the World was by whom all things were created and in respect of his Godhead the Body was not that but the Garment of it when he assumed it But when we consider Christ as Man as every other man 〈◊〉 both Soul body belonging to his essential Constitution as Man 〈◊〉 and Christ and still hath a moâ—â— gâ—orious Soul and Body and we 〈◊〉 not but according to Scripture 〈◊〉 Christ Manhood yea and his Body iâ— called Christ as when the Scripture saith that he was buried nailed to the Cross buâ—â—ited and even his Body was and is a part of his Manhood and his Soul the other and more Noble part most wonderfully and incomparably united with the Godhead and most incomparably filled with all fullness of the Godhead and of Grace and Truth out of whose fullness we all receive and Grace foâ— Grace and yet we do not judge that the Godhead is circumscribed within the Body of Christ for the Godhead is Omnipresent as well as Omnipotent and Omniscient And whereas he querieth saying Let Keith tell us honestly whether he does not count his own Body to be the Body of Christ in the same sence that the visible tangible Flesh which hung upon the Cross was the Body of our Lord I Answer honestly Nay by no means as I have sufficiently formerly declared in my printed Books and Testimonies on all occasions for as the Body of the Head is of far more Dignity than the Body of the inferiour Members and hath the Soul or Spirit and Life of man otherwise dwelling in it than the inferiour Members so much more the Soul and Body of Christ hath the eternal Word living and dwelling in the same than any other and that incomparably as Augustine well demonstrateth lib. de agonâ— Christianâ— cap. 20. thus concluding And therefoâ—e tâ—e Word doth not
did work as it were a striâ—e against Sathan because he did strive against himself he said these things As for his false Insinuation of my calling Prayers Charms and Spells it â—â— easily discovered I own all true Prayer both Vocal and Mental that cometh in the least degree from the inbreathing i.e. Inspiration of Gods Spirit and have through Mercy found the unspeakable advantage of it to my Soul and do earnestly recommend true Prayer in the Spirit of God to all and so do all true Quakers so called In his Third Argument p. 34. wherein he giveth many supposed Contradictions that I give to myself in my former Books and upon that false Supposition as on a false Foundation raiseth his Argument against me I think not to spend Time nor Paper to answer them all in particular for let but the Reader see my own words in my printed Books and well consider them and if he have but a little sound Judgment he will easily find I have not contradicted my self in any thing though I could easily discover many Contradictions of C.M. to himself But to make me seem to contradict my self he has no better way but to wrest and pervert my words as in the very first instance he alledgeth he perverteth my words grosly as if by their Fathers whom I did acknowledge to â—ave had some measure of Tenderness Sobriety and Simplicity in a printed Paper of mine some time a go I did mean these who near â—orty Years a go did put our Friends to Death at Boston Which is a manifest Perversion enough to Discredit all he saith having as little Truth against me Whereas by their Fathers I did not mean the present Generation that taketh in forty Years commonly at least in vulgar sense but these that lived sixty or near seventy Years past that had some measure of Tenderness and Sincerity and were not of a persecuting Spirit as these who put our Friends to Death nor had the generality of the People in New-â—â—â—â—â—nd a hand in our Friends Death for many of them disliked it 〈◊〉 â—ave been credibly informed and some have acknowledged the hand of God against the Land ever since for those Murders and I wish many might see it and repent of it that they might be forgiven and Gods anger quenched towards them that hath been and remaineth to be kindled against them And he is as impertinent in labouring to reconcile his own Contradiction that John Delavall charged upon him as if it were no Contradiction either because the Assertions are thirty pages distant or because he did query and not affirm whereas the manner of his Querying showeth a plain Affirmation in calling or bringing in their deceased Fathers to expostulate with them for their Degeneration And this is all the Answer he giveth to John Delavall's sollied and weighty Appendix with a scoffing airy Spirit as his manner is he compareth to a Dutch Womans unintelligible Babbling And no less doth he bely me to accuse me as if I said or suggested in my Book called The Presbyterian Independent Churches brought to the Test c. That these Churches of Presbyterians and Independents were false upon all accounts beyond that of Rome it self Than which there can be no greater Perversion and Belying of a mans words I said no such thing nor do I think any such thing I have alwayes judgded and do still judge that all these Churches called Protestant Churches whether Episcopal Presbyterian Independent or Baptists in many yea very many things hold better Doctrine than the Church of Rome and in many things are nearer to the Letter of the Scripture and to the Truth and I have Charity that some may belong to Christ as his Members among them all even the Church of Rome not excepted yet all this will not prove that any one of them all is the true visible Church restored to that purity of Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government as was in the Apostles dayes and was before the Church fled into the Wilderness and as will be at her full Return which is approaching He is as weak and impertinent to charge it on me as a Contradiction to my self to say That in some things in speaking or writing we may err if we be not duely watchful And yet That in many things we have been taught infallibly by the Infallible Spirit of God to believe them as to believe That God is and hath given his dear Son for us and many such precious Truths and if he hath no infallible Belief and Knowledge of these things and other Fundamental Truths he is neither Ministâ—◠〈◊〉 Christ nor a true Christian but a meer Sceptick Any Colledge Scâ—â—â—â— Boy knoweth that Contradictions lie not betwixt two Particuâ—â—â—â— nor two Universals but one Particular and another Universal as if one should say That he is in all things taught infallibly and yet again say That in some things he might or did err it would be a Contradiction but this I have not said Nor is a Contradiction betwixt two Positives but the one Positive the other Negative and therefore it is no â—ontradiction to say Some are Elected in Christ Jesus before the Foundation of the World to be Holy c. and yet to deny That others are eternally or absolutely Reprobated for Elected and Reprobated are both Positives and therefore not Contradictory no more than White and Black as it is no Contradiction to say Some Colours are White and therefore all other Colours that are not White are Black It seemeth that Cotton Mather whom some as he telleth us have called The Colledge Boy of New-England hath not well learned his Logick or at least doth not well remember it since he was a Colledge-Boy for he bewrayeth shameful Ignorance in the way of right Dispute that Colledge Boyes might be ashamed of Nor is it any Contradiction to say That the Lord Jesus Christ is the alone and sure Foundation and Ground of Justification and yet to assert That Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are necessary Conditions and Instruments thereunto required and if he will not believe me let him ask his admired and revereâ—d Baxter as he calleth him who will tell him the same But whereas he alledgeth I say A true Believer may be only in the first Covenant citing my Book pag. 147. But this is no Contradiction when by Believers I mean such as may have a true Belief that God is from some true and real inward Conviction and Sense and yet not have the true Faith in Christ Jesus as he dyed and rose again for such a Faith Cornelius had before Peter preached Christ to him also according to Christs Doctrine in the Parable of the four Grounds some may believe in Christ for a time and yet fall away and that Faith is not a false Faith but true in some sort Thus I have given a short hint to demonstrate how groundlesly he would charge Contradictions on me the other being more obvious to the weakest
to give any one instance wherein I have not faithfully quoted the Antient Writers named by me whether in my former Book called The pretended Antidote c. or in this in each particular And were I so minded and saw a service in it to the People of New-England I could easily produce sufficient plain Testimonies from Antient Fathers so called and Writers both Greek and Latine to confirm the Doctrine of the People call'd Quakers in all the principal and most material things wherein they differ from C.M. and his Brethren but the Scripture Authority being that of greatest weight in respect of any outward Testimony I have chosen rather to make use of that Nor will it serve to justifie C. Matâ—er his Exclamations against me that seeing the Quakers hold all these Doctrines which Baxter and some other Protestant Writers hold to be Fundamental that therefore I should not have so charged them as I have done in my first Book called The Presbyterian and Independent visible Churches brought to the Test for if they and we agree in Fundamentals then why are we so uncharitable to them as not to judge them a true Church To which I Answer Although we hold all their Fundamentals according to what Baxter has delivered as I have above showed yet they hold not all our Fundamentals so it is a Fundamental Doctrine and Principle held by us to wit The inward Revelation of Christ in all true Believers and That God teacheth all true Believers by his inward Voice Word and Teachings or inward divine Inspiration and Revelation properly so called that is as well Objective as Effective and by way of Object working sensibly and infallibly upon the inward and spiritual Senses of their Souls and which their Souls and Minds if onely and fitly disposed and qualified do infallibly apprehend but yet this Fundamental held by us is plainly denyed by C.M. and his Brethren and it is a Fundamental Error in them who hold it as the generality of their visible Church Members do That all sâ—ch divine inward Objective Revelation and Inspiration is ceased and from this Fundamental Error divers other very great Errors flow as so many unclean streams from an unclean Fountain for if all true and saving Knowledge of God and Christ and all saving Faith require true divine inward Revelation and inspiration properly so called and the true and real inspeaking of God and his internal Word and Voice that doth as sensibly and perceptibly operate by way of Object upon the inward and spiritual heaâ—ing or discerning Faculty of the Soul as any outward Voice or Woâ—d of a man doth upon the outward Hearing then if that be ceasâ—d all true and saving Knowledge and Faith are ceased and all true Love Hope and Repentance and all other Fruits and Virtues of the Spirit because all these have a necessary connexion with the true saving Knowledge and Faith also all true Preaching Praying and Worship and all true Obedience and Service unto God and all real and true Religion all depending upon the inward Principle of inward divine Revelation and Inspiration properly so called and yet we do readily acknowledge a distinction betwixt these extraordinary divine Revelations and Inspirations that the Apostles and Prophets had 〈◊〉 they were Apostles and Prophets and these other that they had common â—o them and ordinary with all Christians and for the latter we contend that were and are ordinary and common to all Saints in all Ages of the World but not for the former that were extraordinary whereby they not only wrought Miracles and spoke with Tongues but had Doctrinal things of Faith revealed to them without all outward teaching of Men or Books whereas we do not say any peculiar Doctrine of the Christian Faith is made known to us without all outward Teaching but by it Instrumentally and by the immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Spirit Principally and we are sufficiently charitable that we judge there are true Believers among them though we cannot own their visible Church that either hold not these Errors with them or if some hold them in words or Notion and Theory yet as in respect of their Experience and inward sence and feeling hold them not but the contrary and such have better Hearts than Notions and though they err in holding an unsound form of Words through too much relying upon their Teachers yet their inward sence and experience doth contradict them And in all these twelve Particulars I first charged upon them I still affirm they do grosly err and they are such great matters of Difference betwixt them and us although they are not all Fundamentals that no Society holding such Errors deserve to be esteemed the visible Church of Christ restored to that purity of Doctrine that the visible Church ought to have and had in the primitive Times and yet will have as she cometh to be fully restored to her primitive Purity And though it seem a strange and new Doctrine to C.M. and his Brethren to distinguish betwixt the Scripture called by some the external or outward Word and the inward living Word of God that proceedeth from the Mouth of God immediately as every mans word that proceedeth from his Mouth and goeth into the Ears of the Hearers is his immediate Word yet not only antient Writers and Fathers so called did so distinguish but even these called the Reformed who began the Reformation from gross Propâ—ry And for the antient Writers I shall give but one though I could give divers besides to wit Augustine of great esteem and fame with Protestants and particularly with Calvin whose Authority he more useth in his Institutions than any of all the Antients In his 5th Book de Trinitate cap. 11. Augustine saith expresly Proinde Verbum quod foras sonat signum est verbi quod intus lucet cuj magis verbi competit nomen nam illud quod prosertur caruis ore vox verbi est verbumq et ipsum dicitar propter illud a quo ut foris appareret assamptum est In English thus Therefore the Word that soundeth outwardly is a sign of the Word that shineth inwardly to which the Name of the Word doth more agree for that which is pronounced with the fleshly Moâ—th is the Voice of the Word and it is called the Word because of that from which it is taken that it might outwardly appear Where I desire the Reader to Note these two things 1 st That Augustine doth acknowledge the Word within or internal Word 2 dly That the Name of the Word doth more belong to the internal Word than to that which outwardly soundeth in our fleshly Ears in both which he doth contradict C.M. and his Brethren who do not acknowledge any inward Word in the Saints since the Apostles dayes and hold That the Scripture is the only Word that is the Object and Rule of our Faith And that famous Reformer Zuinglius whom 〈◊〉 the rather cite because C.M. maketh him his
Preâ—â—dent for his zeal against the Quakers in the end of his Address in his Commentary De vera et falsa Relig. de Verbo Dei cap. de Ecclesia contra Emserum saith Qui in Ecclesia Scripturam Caelestis Verbi explicari audit c. In English thus Who in the Church heareth the Scripture of the heavenly Word explained judgeth what he heareth but that which is heard is not the Word it self whereby to wit chiefly we believe for if we did believe by that Word which is heard or read then all should become Believers and after he saith It is therefore manifest that we are made faithful by that Word which the heavenly Father preacheth in our hearts whereby he doth also enlighten us that we may understand and draweth that we may follow And again Who are instrusted with that Word judge the Word that soundeth in the Preaching and striketh the Ears but yet the Word of Faith which is seated in the Minds of the faithful is judged by none but by it the external Word is judged which God hath appointed to be preached although Faith cometh not to wit chiefly by the external Word Both which Testimonies of Augustine and Zuinglius do manifestly confirm the Quakers Doctrine against C.M. and his Brethren who acknowledge no inward Word in the hearts of the faithful by which their Faith is wrought and will have the Word of Faith to be only the written or outward Word contrary both to Paul and Zuinglius who give the preheminence to the inward Word and call it the Word of Faith And as Zuinglius holdeth for the Quakers in asserting the inward Word against C.M. and his Brethren so in that called Original Sin for thus he saith expresly lib. de Baptismo Paul cap. 3. to the Romans saith That the knowledge of sin cometh by the Law where therefore there is no knowledge of the Law as in Infants there can be no knowledge of sin but where no knowledge of sin is there is no Prevarication and so Damnation cannot be And after Because Paul saith That Death is come upon all men because all have sinned Theologues from these words judge That that Disease and Contagion that is Hereditary unto us all and is naturally lodged in us is sin that bringeth to us Damnation but they Err the whole Heavens wide Where it is to be noted That Zuinglius doth acknowledge That there is a sinful Disease and Contagion conveyed from Parents to Children but yet it is not imputed unto them to bring Damnation upon any Infants plain contrary to C.M. and his Brethren who affirm That many Infants both of unbelieving and believing Parents are eternaly Reprobated and Damned only for Adams Sin imputed to them Which is most horid Uncharitableness and horridly reflecting upoâ— the Mercy of God And the same Zuinglius in his Chapter of the Eucharist plainly asserteth That Christ by his Flesh and Blood with which he feedeth the Souls of the faithful doth understand a spiritual thing which only the Spirit giveth and not any Flesh consisting of Veins and Nerves withal affirming with Origine and Augustine That Christs Flesh and Blood which he feedeth the Saints with is called so by an Allegory and 〈◊〉 but is really the Word it self called also by an Allegory Bread Wine Milk Honey Marrow Fatness c. Again the same Zuingâ—ius in his Commentary de vera falsa Relig. doth thus comment on Pauls words Rom. 1.19 The knowledge of God is manifest in them so doth he translate the place so doth the old English Translation for God hath showed it unto them We see here openly saith he that 〈◊〉 knowledge concerning God is of God which we ascribe to I know man what Nature for he saith God hath manifested it and what other thing is Nature but a continuing and perpetual operation of God and disposition of all things And again in his Cap. of God he saith If any of the Philosophers have spoken truly of God somethings it was from the Mouth of God who hath scattered some Seeds of his Knowledge even among the Gentiles although more sparingly and more obscurely So that Zuinglius had far more Charity towards honest and conscientious Gentiles than C.M. who differeth fâ—om him very widely as in the 〈◊〉 particulars mentioned so in this last that he affirmeth That what knowledge of God the Gentiles have ought to be attributed to God and not to Nature and therefore not to mans Reason as C.M. would have it which is nothing but a natural Faculty of the Soul And Thomas Shepherd that had been a Preacher at Cambridge in New-England in his Exposition of the Parable of the Ten Virgins saith plainly That that inward Law given to the Heathens is falsly called the Law of Nature for it is of God and so saith Buchannan in his Book De jure Regni apud Scotos and a large Volumn might be printed of Testimonies both out of antient and latter Authors all of good esteem for Piety and Learning yea and even divers Protestants that do acknowledge That the Illumination that is generally in men that teacheth them that there is a God and showeth them good and evil is a Principle above Humane Reason As among English Protestants Henry Moore cited by Increase Mather against the Quakers and praised by Baxter as above who saith expresly in his Moral Cabbala cap. 1. v. 1 2. of Genesis By the Will of God every man living on the face of the Earth hath these two Principles in him Heaven and Earth Divinity and Annimality Spirit and Flesh but that which is Annimal or Natural operates first the spiritual or heavenly Life being for a while closed up at rest in its own Principle c. but by the Will of God it is that afterwards the Day light appears though not in so vigorous Measure out of the heavenly or spiritual Principle And carrying on the Process of Gods work in mens hearts by way of Analogy from the First Day to the Seventh concerning the Seventh he saith Gen. cap. 2. v. 3. of his Mor. Cabb So the divine Wisdom in the humane Nature celebrated her Sabbath having now wrought through the Toil of all the six dayes Travel and the divine Wisdom looked upon the Seventh Day as blessed and sacred a Day of Righteousness Rest and Joy in the holy Ghost And thus if C.M. had but some ordinary Reading in English Writers and did but understand what he reads he might have found an inward and spiritual Sabbath or Day of Rest not only in the Scriptures and the Quakers Books but in Henry Moore a man of far more Sense and Learning than I suppose C.M. will pretend unto Also he might have found it in Calvin lib. 2. Instit cap. 8. n. 30. So that he showeth his Ignorance sufficiently in comparing the finding of a spiritual or inward Seventh Day to the difficulty of finding the Quadrature of the Circle which if it were found it is probable the Penury