of faith we preach Rom. 10. I told you that was a contradiction and a confused senselesse thing which you say stands as a witnesse against me and bid me prove my accusation Answ 1. I queryed you whether any of you did know and believe what is written in the Scriptures without the outward declaration unto which you answere not at all 2. I query what you mean by the word of faith in the mouth and in the heart which the Apostle preached Rom. 10.6 7 8. whether it be the same with the Doctrine of faith declared in the Scriptures writ to the Churches or different from it As I concluded before in my replie so I shall make it good still notwithstanding all that you have writ that the word of faith which the Apostles preached and writ to the severall Churches is the same with that which you call the outward declaration What are the writings of the Prophets and Apostles but the word of faith I told you that this of the Apostle doth allude to that in Deuteronom 30. and there we find the same of the word as it was written in the law as heer of the word of faith preached The Doctrine of faith was so familiarly preached and beat into mens heads hearts and mouthes that ignorance could not excuse any and the Apostle explains what this word of faith is verse 9. thus That if thou shalt confesse with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved You may see it's clear enough what the Apostle understands by word in the mouth and in the heart if you be not too perverse and in the 10 verse there is a reason urged to make all your cavils fall For with the heart man believes unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and proves it by the Scripture Whosoever beleeveth on him shall not be ashamed Isa 28.16 What can be concluded hence but what the writings of the Scriptures contain and declare and yet you say not any can know the Scriptures by the outward declaration but by the word of faith which word of faith in your quotation is discovered by the Scriptures what it is so that you say and unsay not by the outward declaration but by it a meer contradiction which you will never free your selves of But why cannot any know Scripture by its own writing Can you know what is contained in the holy Scriptures without the outward declaration if not then you must know it by the outward declaration or not at all How do you know what is in your books but by the outward declaration But instead of answering to clear your selves you are froward and very impertinent and obscure and desperately confused as followeth in their next wherein they should shew us the difference between the declaration of Scripture and the word of faith preached And first they witnesse the Scriptures by the same light and Spirit that gave them forth Rom. 10. and in Christ Jesus the Lord of faith which the Apostles preached and declared of they believe Rom. 10.6 7. as the Apostles did who knew the Letter which kil'd and the word of faith which is quick and powerfull which word say they is God that made all things and the letter testifies of him whose name is called the word of God Revel 19.11 12. Joh. 1.1 Heb. 4.12 And then they say they have come off clear of what I have accused them of in their answer Answ Here is nothing but pride and coniusion in these lines unlesse we can credit every thing they have the boldnesse to say as infallible How are the Scriptures beholding to them for their witnesse who have the same light and Spirit which gave them forth the Lord of Hosts gave them forth all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God 1. Tim. 3. and they have the same light and the same spirit equall with God if one may believe what they say of themselves But what think you are not the Scriptures as inspired and given of God a perfect rule of faith and obedience unlesse you witnesse them to be so and what letter was that which the Apostles knew killed you take it for granted that it is the whole declaration of holy Scriptures but it is because you have no light nor Spirit of God in you The word of faith Rom. 10.6 7. is quick and powerfull c. which word is God that made all things Most senselesse Is the profession of Christ in the mouth and believing in him with the heart God that made all things is every gift and work of God in man God that made all things this is like their other notion Christ lighteth all and therefore that light is Christ as if every work and operation of Christ is Christ just like those that make God to be every thing that from him lives and moves c. So again Christ is the word his name shall be called the word of God and they have Christ the word of God within them and what need of that which is written they have it in the life and fountain and they will come under no other writings nor rule although never so much commanded by God in the expressions of the holy Spirit in the Scriptures Touching Heb. 4.12 in the second verse he shewes us what word he meant where he saith That the Gospel was preached to them as unto us but the word that they heard profited not them because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it What word was this which was heard but the outward declaration in voice or writing or both And this word is quick and powerfull c. and the savour of life to some and of death to others according to the pleasure of him with whom we have to doe he blessing or blasting his own word and ordinance to the different ends intended by himself and for his glory whether in the diligent use thereof men be saved or in the contempt and neglect of the word men be damned The 2 Cor. 3.6 where it is said the Letter killeth is to be understood of the ministrie of Moses in comparison of the Gospell ministry administred by the Apostles that of Moses not so spirituall glorious effectuall as the new Testament was and yet it had its glory too but no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth vers 10. The Ceremonials their Gospel were but shadowes of good things to come the substance was Christ who was but darkly seen by the people but the Precepts and Threats of the Law were cleer which brought them under guilt and the remedie obscure and the fruit but little in comparison of the Apostles Ministry c. And hence the letter killed as administred by Moses but grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ It 's true the ministrie of the Apostles without the powerfull operation of the Spirit concurring was not
sufficient For Paul may plant and Apollo water but it is God that gives the increase and yet the word of God as made known in the holy Scriptures must be our rule to act and live by in order to Gods blessing of Spirit and grace to our regeneration and compleating the same unto eternall life Besides we have no promises of Gods giving his spirit unto sinners that have it not to quicken those that are dead in trespasses and sins but what is made in the letter of Scripture and no promises of any thing but what is writ there Rom. 5.15 all good newes from heaven to lost sinners is writ there they are written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And yet will you say that all the letter killeth Now Reader lay things together and then judge by all that they have said how true it is that they say they have come off clear in what I have charged them with what difference have they made between the outward declaration and the word of faith which the Apostles preached and writ to the severall Churches if all be but the same as I have cleered from theirs the contradiction and their confused nonsense still remains notwithstanding their bitter censures and shuffles And how notoriously false is that of theirs That not any doth know the Scriptures by the outward declaration when the outward declaration 2. Tim. 3.16 as consisting of words committed to writing is the Scriptures that we plead Rev. 1.17 for a perfect rule the declaration and the matter and sense contained therein but the same all which is the inspiration of God and that which the Spirit saith to the Churches for what the Scriptures saith the Spirit saith because all Scripture is by inspiration of God 2. Pet. 1.20.21 c. And not only John but all the pen-men thereof writ as they were moved by the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost And hence when you Quakers set up the Spirit to be a perfect Rule of faith and life distinct from the Scriptures it will run you upon these Rocks which you will never evade 1. You must either set up another Spirit distinct from the Spirit of God that gave the Scriptures or 2. Maintain that the same Spirit gives a different rule to that which is written by his own inspiration and so make God not only mutable but contrary to himself which to think is to be abhorred as blasphemous 3. Or that the same Spirit hath given additionall lawes to be the rule above what is written by the Prophets and Apostles on which the Church is built which is hardly so I shall judge untill 1. I see the same divine approbation and confirmation of those Lawes as hath been given of all holy Scriptures 2. And yet those Lawes are as consonant and as agreeable to all the Scriptures as written by the Prophets and Apostles as the Apostles writings are consonant and agreeable to the Prophets 3. And untill they can prove that the Scriptures prophecie of such a change in the Church as to set up superadded Lawes 4. And that themselves are the men that the Scriptures have foretold of to superadde spirituall Lawes in the Church to bind the consciences of all as we affirme that the Scripture doth But to prevent mistakes I grant as they 1. That the Spirit is the rule but then you must understand it as the mind of God is revealed by the Spirit in the Scriptures 2. I grant that we have all need of the illuminating quickning operations and influences of the same Spirit that revealed the rule to enable us to know it and believe it and to apply it to our selves and to applie our selves unto it so as to live unto God in all Christian obedience according to this Rule 3. I grant that the Rule without the blessing of Grace concurring doth not simply of it self enlighten and quicken any nor are any truely and savingly enlightned quickned and renewed but by the revealed word of God as the only means appointed and designed of God to that very end to the intelligent Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. And of his own good will hath he begot us again by his word Jam. 2.1 And now I shall give a word to my dear friends of Farndon and to all that are abused and drawn aside by these deceivers and the deceits and cheats of their own hearts in hope of a blessing to my poor endeavours who am touched with a deep sense of the sad delusions which at the present you are intangled most desperately in My dear friends Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth which you have once received with a great deal of joy and comfort to your souls when with constancie and patience you have made a good proâ—ession of the wayes of Godlinesse revealed by the word practised by men and women fearing God in all the ages of the Church of Christ you know the times and places when and where your Spirits have been made joyfull in the house of Prayer and praising of the ever blessed God Your hearts have been heated and warmed by the power of his word and Sacraments the strict observing of Sabbathâ— a constant course of the worshipping God in your families by a serious calling upon the name of the Lord instruction of those under you in the principles of Gods truth and fear and have walked before them in all Godlinesse and honesty according to this word of the Lord which now is in contempt and reproach by those that seduce you as is too obvious to the impartiall as is above cleared and their slanders shifts and shuffles discovered You may see how they have reproached the Institutions and ordinances of our Lord as heathenish by compareing them to that great Image of that heathen King Dan. 3.3 You may see how they deny the Scriptures to be a perfect Rule of knowing God believing in him and living unto him And yet they reproach me to be a lying slanderer in charging them with that which is an apparent truth as I have witnessed by their own lying Papers and thus they have reproached me most falsely and the lyes are returned upon their own heads whilst they witnesse themselves perfect and without sin and have entred the new Jerusalem in which none shall enter that makes a lie My friends some of you have heard William Duesbury say of himself In Duesbury new Births he thus witnesseth of himself that he was as perfect as that Christ which dyed at Jerusalem this is witnessed by one of credit and fidelity amongst your selves I forbeare his name Oh proud polluted Worme that dare exalt himself to a perfection equall with God the everlasting father whose name is called Wonderfull Counseller the Prince of peace the mightie God Isa 9. who fulfilled all righteousnesse from his birth to the consummating of all
of Righteousnesse and true godlinesse are inclined in charity to hope well of you that there is some good at the bottome and life at the root that will spring forth again and make you instrumentall by your sad experiences to warn others The Third Question propounded WHether any thing besides the holy Scriptures is constituted of the blessed God to reveal Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Saviour to the Spirits of sinfull miserable lost man to bring up men to happinesse On whether lost man without the knowledge of Christ as the Scriptures reveal him may attain unto salvation yea or no. The Quakers Answer None can come to Christ but whom the Father drawes by his unlimited power nor know the Father but he whom the Son reveals him and he that thinks to attain the way to eternall life by reading the Letter of Scripture and regards not the light which comes from Christ that witnesseth for God in the secret of the heart and Conscience deceivs himself for the mystery of eternall life is sealed up in the sealed Book which none shall know by the outward Testimonie of Scripture but by the Inspiration of the Spirit of Christ who is the way the truth and the life to all that in his light wait his power them to guide in faithfull obedience to the Righteous and perfect Law of God written in the heart for the exercise of the Conscience which keeps them void of offence towards God and men according to Testimonie of Scripture Act. 24.16.23.1 My Reply Their Answer to my third Question falls upon other Questions but gives no direct Answer at all for the question doth not exclude the power and grace of the Father and the Son from mans attaining unto salvation but is of another thing namely whether faln lost man without the knowledge and use of the Scriptures may in an ordinary way know Christ as Mediator and be saved by him or thus whether God hath and doth exercise his power and Spirit in bringing corrupt man to the knowledge of Christ as Redeemer and believe in him to eternall life without the use and knowledge of the Scriptures ordinarily The Question is not of extraordinary cases and of Gods unlimited power who can do more then he hath any where revealed he will doe but it is of his ordinary course and power that is limited by his word of truth to do what he will in order to the blessednesse of those that wait upon him in those wayes and in the use of such means himself hath appointed in his holy word all other stamps and forms pretending to the knowledge of God and religious worshipping of him or of being saved by Christ are but the superstitious births of deluded fancies that tend to the deceiving and ruin of a mans self and others Their Answer to this is but dark and to little purpose only they say That their Answer doth stand as a witnesse against me and declares the way to the Father and the Son according to Scriptures Matth. 11.27 Joh. 6.44 Which they say my dark mind is a stranger unto who am querying of Gods constituting ordinary means of salvation and of his ordinary way of working to reveal Christ as Redeemer which say they are unlearned Questions and to be condemned with the light which reproves the world of sin and leads to the Son who is the Redeemer and way to the Father Joh. 14.6 Which way is but one and condemnation you must own unlesse thou canst shew us a Scripture that speaks of ordinary and extraordinary way of Gods exercising his power and Spirit or of a limited power of God which words proceed from thy dark Imaginations and not grounded upon Scripture are concluded to be the births of the deluded fancie you speak of Answ By all this we may judge the sum of their Answer amounts to this That my Question is unlearned and to be condemned with the light which reproves the world of sin and leads to the Son immediately without the help of those means God hath appointed to that end and therefore as before the Scriptures and Ordinances therein commanded are not of necessity but this pretended light and Spirit and unlimited power of God is to be attended upon only not regarding any ordinary means whatever though such as God himself hath appointed and doth only reveal in his word as if all those ordinary and usuall helps that God himself commands in his word for men to use to come to the knowledge of Christ and how to be saved by him were superfluous or opposite to the knowing of him c. although the Scriptures were written and all Instructions therein contained for our learning that we might have comfort and hope all others that have not the use and benefit of Scriptures have no hope and without God in the world as hath been spoken to already and yet this they say is an unlearned Question but surely they say so because they know not how to give a direct Answer to it in plainnesse but it wil lay them open to the weakest judgements to be against Christ as Redeemer as the Scriptures teach him which few would hearken unto should they speak plainly But let all men judge of what Spirit these men are of that condemns the Questions as propounded by the light which condemns the world of sin But let them first discover what sin is in these Questions before they rashly condemn them Secondly let them tell us what light is that which reproves for sin if not the mind of Christ and the voice of the Spirit revealed in the Scriptures Thirdly let them prove that the light which they condemn the Questions with is the true light of Christ or else who will regard them How dare those proud Worms condemne the things they know not how to answer but by denying the holy Scriptures and what they teach But what light is that that leads to the Son who is the Redeemer while you disown the light of Scriptures to be the Rule to make out this high discovery Did you ever know or hear of any since Scriptures were that have attained to know Christ as Redeemer and to believe in him to salvation that never heard of Christ by Scriptures or Scripture ministry Doth not the Apostle determine absolutely as to this case and question by severall interrogations Rom. 10. How shall they call on him of whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not so much as heard of and how can they hear without a preacher and how can they preach except they be sent c. And doth he not conclude from these interrogations that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God he urging that necessity of hearing the word of God in order to faith without which it cannot be And therefore it was that he queries the Galatians thus Received ye the Spirit by the Law or by faith preached not by the Law but by
I beseech you dear friends consider are not such things as these evident expresses of dark deluded minds that have forsaken the right way and are entangled as you see Let me entreat your patience and diligence seriously to read these few sheets without prejudice and contempt the Lord knowes what diligence and tendernesse of bowels I have had to prepare this for you and some others to prevent and reduce from these dangerous snares which I am more sensible of and affected with then any temptation common to man that ever I heard of before It 's carryed on with such mysterious wiles that poor souls are surprized and taken in the net with great content and the more they are surprized the better pleased and readier to embrace whatever is suggested and rarely do any return from this Apostasie that were knowing practising Christians before But I have enlarged my self and opened my heart to my friends of Farndon in this Tract and I hope it will not be an offence unto them if it be it was hoped and intended otherwise I am confident your own hearts will witnesse unto most I have wrote although it be against that way which for the present you groundlesly adore As for those persons that have answered me who have charged me with bringing forth many lies and slanders and have made a noyse thereof as if I were some carnall lying wretch that matter not what I write those that are sober and of judgement may easily conceive by my Questions and Replies what lies I have brought forth and what lies those are they charge me with even such that the holy Scriptures witnesse to be the will and truth of God and as for any personall lye why have they not made the discovery Themselves cannot but be sensible that they have accused me of slanders in things that themselves have published which I did not know of untill afterwards by their own Books But let me desire you in your returns to answer to the main strength that is against you soberly and with as great a strength of reason and of Scripture Authority as you can for nothing else is like to take with him you oppose and be ashamed to asperse and reproach me to the world with meer impudence for want of just matter which trade is too common with you and those of your way to those of best quality and esteem amongst Christians But look into your own Papers and in cold blood consider how frequent you are in reviling and censuring of those that you have nothing to accuse them of justly from any Scripture ground but because they oppose you for being adversaries unto the truth As for your queries at last the most of them have been answered by a Reverend Minister of the Gospel Mr. Baxtor who is sufficiently reviled and reproached for his pains But the day is coming that will declare every mans work of what sort it is And I judge it necessary first to be resolved what the Rule is that we are to answer from to yours seeing you have denyed the Scriptures for being a perfect Rule of faith and obedience for my part I judge those not worthy to be answered at all nor in the least to be regarded that have denyed the Rule of Scriptures and were it not for the sake of those that are ignorant of their deceits and apt to be taken with the cunning sleight of seducing men and in hope of convincing my friends that I might be an Instrument to informe the one and reduce the other I had never engaged with these unperswadeable perverse men so wholly turned from the truth as he that runs may read and clearly see John Timson A VINDICATION OF Some Questions propounded to the QVAKERS The first Question WHether the holy Scriptures be the true declaration of the will and mind of God which doth oblige all that professe them necessarily to know believe and observe them as the only rule of faith and obedience The Quakers Answer The Scriptures are a true declaration of the things beleeved among the Saints and a true Testimonie of Jesus but not any doth them know by the outward declaration but by the word of Faith in the mouth and in the heart which word of Faith we preach Rom. 10. My Reply The Answer seems to be in the affirmative by saying the Scriptures are a true declaration of the things beleeved among the Saints But first the Question is who you mean by Saints whether your selves that are against all outward administrations and formes of worship in the Church as the Scriptures teach or those Saints of God that are willing to subject themselves to observe and do whatever is revealed to be done from the written word which hath been the profession and practice of all sound Christians both in and since the Apostolicall Churches unlesse some few upstart Hereticks or Apostates or profane have done otherwise Prove that ever any had the title of Saints Beleivers Christians c. that came not under Water Baptisme the Lords Supper the Churches watch and rule Censures c. which you deny and therefore it stands you upon to prove your selves Saints distinct from Apostates In your answer to this all you say is this That this charge is but a lying Slander and bid me prove it or else let thy mouth be stopped To this I answer What proof would you have Is it not your own profane language both in your Papers and conference It is no newes to heare most of your way to dispute against Water Baptisme the Lords Supper a setled fixed Ministry over particular Churches Tel us what Quakers administer Water Baptism the Lords Supper and constantly watch over a particular Flock or else for shame own the charge and confesse your sin in telling the world that these are my lying slanders when I know and your own consciences do witnesse it that what I have accused you of is the plain truth Nay William Duesbury saith in a lying Paper called A true Prophesie of the mighty day of the Lord already risen in the North of England c. in which paper he makes it his work to reproach and slander the Ordinances of Gospell worship under the notion of outward observations which Christs Kingdome cometh not in Luk. 17. And thus he accounts of all the Ordinances and institutions prescribed by Christ himself in the Apostolicall Churches and accounts all the strict observing of outward formes of Worship is but imitating the Saints practices in this Babylonish and heathenish wisdome all this outward forme is the outward Court which is without the Temple pag. 1 2. meaning they are without the Church and therefore calls them Babylonish and Heathenish as in his 4 pag. is more clear where he profanely compares the holy Ordinances and institutions of the Lord to that great Image set up by Nebuchadnezzar 's proud nature spoken of by Daniel Dan. 3.3 That Image was but a type and figure of this which now shines
gloriously in forms and observations And then speaking to the Anabaptists and Independents he tells them they have set up a finer Image in the Gospell ordinances as you call them pag. 10. Pag. 10. And what other ordinances do these or we set up but what was practised in the Apostolical Churches Thus you may see how this Impostor doth reproach the holy things of God And further in his second page he in the height of his insolent rashnesse and madnesse saith thus The word of the Lord came unto me saying I will gather my people out of all forms and observations and out of all kindreds Tongues and Nations and I will poure out my Spirit upon them And this he writes in a different Character as if it were all scripture By this you may see it proved what I have accused them with in denying the ordinances and administrations of the Gospell Church is true And yet this impudent lyar tells me it is a lying slander They would render me a lyar for telling them the truth but it seems they can rather and with more ease deny the accusation then prove themselves Saints and stand to it thus when they are pincht they will say and unsay or any thing to evade But while you deny the Ordinances before mentioned I say you are none of Gods Saints but are Apostates backsliders that have departed from the living God in transgressing the lawes changed his ordinances and broken the everlasting Covenant Isa 24.5 But I shall come to the next you accuse me of belying you with and that is suspecting you to be under the crime of denying the holy Scriptures to be a perfect rule of faith and life you say ye deny the crime and witnesse them in their place with the Spirit that gave them forth which is a perfect rule of faith and life as Joh. 16.13 Anâ—w You deny the crime but own the thing by asserting the Spirit to be a perfect rule of faith and life for if the Spirit immediately be a perfect rule to us now of faith and life of what use is the Scriptures of I pray you tell Thus you own the charge but deny the crime because you judge it no crime to deny the Scriptures to be a perfect rule of faith and life and hence you insolently inferre that I am judged by the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures who would set the Scriptures in the Spirits place by calling them the rule of faith and life Thus all men may run and read that you are so farre from judging it a crime to deny the Scriptures for a perfect rule of knowing God believing in him and living unto him that by the Spirit you act from you judge me for calling them the rule of faith and obedience And yet you witnesse the Scriptures in their place that is you witnesse that there is such writings but not to any such ends and purpose as to be a rule to know God and live unto him as the question intends The Spirit you make the only rule of faith and life Joh. 16.13 Which I answer unto 1. That promise is made directly to the twelve as is evident if you peruse the 13 14 15. chapt where we have the like promise chap. 14.26 The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost shall come and teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have spoken unto you and accordingly they have declared unto us what they have heard and seen Luk. 7.1 Christ tells them chap. 16.12 13. I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth c. Hence it 's clear these promises are made in speciall to his Apostles which doth assure us of the infallibility of what they preached and writ the Church being built upon the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ the chief corner Stone Eph. 2.20 that hath inspired both to agree in one and the same Doctrine of faith and obedience and he is the same for ever even to the end of the World Now let me ask you are you Apostles have you seen Jesus Christ are you sent for a foundation for the Church to be built upon that go about to overthrow and pluck up the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles recorded in Scriptures Let men and Angels judge 2. If all truth were revealed to the Apostles by the Spirit of truth and the Apostles faithfull in declaring this truth by writing or teaching as cannot be denyed then it will follow that those writings or teachings of the Apostles were the only rule which writings through Gods grace we enjoy and therefore the rule of divine truth It 's true we have need of Gods blessings of Grace to apply the rule to us and our hearts and lives to the rule And so many as walk according to this rule peace be upon them Gal. 6.26 Nay Christ prayed not only for his Apostles but for them also that should believe on him through their word Joh. 17.20 3. We say the holy Scriptures are the inspirations of the Spirit of God in their own sense as expressed and have such sure evidence thereof that without any scruple we so believe the truth and directions discoveries thereof that we are content to stand or fall to their Verdict not caring for mans judging and tell us in what truth of God the Scriptures are imperfect in you proud Worms that so vilifie and diminish from them But they go on and tell me that Abel Enoch and Noah had faith before Scripture was and the holy men of God believed therefore they spake Answ 1. Abel Enoch Noah were not without the word of faith from the Lord the Lord spake to these out of heaven by voyce Heb. 1.1 At sundry times and in â—â—vers manners the Lord hath spoken unto his servants the Prephets But in this last age he hath spoken to us by his Son Theâ—â—fore never look for no other manner of speaking 〈◊〉 what hath been before there was any thing committed 〈◊〉 to writing the Lord did more visibly reveale his will by voice or vision Angels c. but since he hath committed his whole will and mind unto writing by the Prophets and Apostles those former manners are ceased 2. This is our argument because some had faith before Scripture was by an immediate speaking by voyce c. Therefore now although we have the mind of God discovered in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles we must look for the same discoveries still by voyce or vision inspiration as if all that were written by inspiration of God were nothing to us and nothing of force to any but to the present ages they were writ in such madnesse you run into Whereas in your Answere you say That not any doth know the Scriptures by the outward declaration but by the word of faith in the mouth and in the heart which word
the visible Church of Christ that are under the Doctrine and ordinances of the grace of the Covenant many are called but few are chosen And these Impostors and Perverters of the new Covenant that teach that all have the Lawes of the new Covenant writ in their hearts may as truly say that all have the promises thereof writ in their hearts then which nothing is more absurd therefore I conclude that as the promises of the Covenant are upon Divine record that we may have hope for our selves and children so likewise is the rule that we are to conforme unto in order to the receiving of the spirituall blessings promised In the next place to excuse their rash insolent censures they assume to themselves To be the spiritual man that judgeth all things and thereupon by their light they say that my blindnesse and deceit is seen and judged who accuseth them of waving the Scripture-authority as if they were out of date Answ And let the World judge what use they make of the Authority of holy Scriptures that have in plain terms denyed them to be the perfect rule of faith and obedience as you have seen before and not many lines off again where they judge me they say The Spirit and light of Christ in them which they witnesse is absolutely binding and the sole judge of error for to him is all judgement given Joh. 5.22 Thus you see they set up another Rule to be sole judge of error and yet they judge me for accusing them falsely But this is but the same in other words which they have urged and I have answered already in the first Question There they say the Spirit is the rule here the light of Christ in them the sole judge of error for they make the light within the law in the heart the Spirit and Christ the exercise of the conscience to be all one and they quote Scriptures meerly to delude the simple and to colour over their real delusions and deceits for if the Spirit and the immediate Revelations of Christ in the heart be the only rule and sole judge of error to what end do they prove it by Scriptures for that which is the sole Judge of error is infallible of it self and needs not any demonstration but faith to believe it that it is so and their going to the Scriptures to prove the Spirit to be the rule in that very thing they make the Scriptures the absolute rule and therein contradict all they say If Christ in them be the sole judge of truth and error why do they make such a noyse of Scripture expressions can they not speak in the Authority of that Christ within them unlesse they fill up their Revelations with those borrowed expressions of the Scriptures which they call a dead Letter that killeth Certainly in the secret of their Consciences they are convinced that the holy Scriptures are the sole Judge of error they being given by the Inspiration of God and the word that we shall be judged by at the last day Joh. 12.48 although they reject it from being the Judge of error now because it crosses their idle proud fancies and itching humors to set up something of their own brain in their Apostate condition and therefore like condition like rule rather then they will repent and return to the right Rule they will set up a Rule of their own making that shall please them better but what will they do in the end thereof Because they had not executed my judgements but despised my statutes and polluted my Sabbaths c. wherefore I gave them statutes also that were not good and judgements whereby they should not live and the Lord polluted them in their own Gifts c. Ezek. 20.24 25. The Lord give them hearts to consider the judgement of God upon such that despise the judgements statutes and Sabbaths the Lord hath commanded in his word Was this judgement of the Lord inflicted for the despising the judgements and Statutes and Sabbaths that were written in their own hearts think you no but for the despising and breaking the statutes lawes and ordinances commanded to be writ and taught the people by Moses and the Prophets as innumerable Texts do evince But while they quote Scripture although they deny it for a rule let us not be beaten with our own weapon and therefore give me leave to examine their quotations to prove the spirituall man and the light of Christ within to be the sole judge of error distinct from the Scriptures The 1 Cor. 2.14 15. them that are spirituall are put in opposition to the naturall man the one knows approves and judges of spiritual things the other receives not the things of the Spirit nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned the spirituall man hath his senses exercised to discerne and judge of things that differ but it is no where said he doth this without the rule of the word that gives that discovery The spirituall man as well as all others may not judge his brother nor another mans servant for we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ our Lord and Master and all judgement is committed to the Son that men may honour the Son as they honour the Father Joh. 5. as they quote hence they inferre that Christ is the sole judge of error Indeed Christ as he is the Son of man God and Man in one person who hath ascended farre above all heavens sitting at the right hand of God from thence shall he come in the clouds of Heaven with his mighty Angels in flames of fire to render vengeance on the disobedient to the Gospell Because God hath appointed him a day in which he shall judge the World in righteousnesse even by that man whom he hath ordained whereof God hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17.31 We believe that Jesus Christ shall come in his day with that very same body that suffered death upon the Crosse and was raised from the dead the third day and he shall judge the whole world of mankind that ever were even all those that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth the righteous to the resurrection of everlasting life and the wicked to the resurrection of condemnation Joh. 5.28 29. And let these seduced people take notice of Joh 12.28 29 He that receiveth not my words saith Christ hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day And this word of Christ they reject from being the rule of faith and obedience but whether they will or no they must stand to the judgement of this word of Christ which he hath spoken at the last day William Dusbury tells us that the mighty day of the Lord is appeared in the North of England and is arising towards the South and shall overspread this Nation and all Nations of the world What
the mans fancie and design is in bruiting and making such a noyse of the the appearance of the mighty day of the Lord judge ye I am sure he hath sufficiently discovered his own follie in blazing abroad such dreams of his own lying heart as if he could perswade people to believe that he can tell them of a lying wonder Well but all judgement is given to the Son and by his light and spirit in them they assume to judge all error and bind all persons that oppose them as they tell me in his power thou art bound and thy error judged Themselves you see are set in the Throne of Christ and under the notion of a Christ they are judgeing the whole world but if all judgement be given to the Son of man in them whom they hold is not distinct from themselves then men must honour their persons as they honour the Father and every knee must bow to them in Heaven and Earth Christ came not to judge the world but that the world should be saved through him while the day of salvation lasteth Nay he forbids this judging Judge not lest you be judged and will they say that the person of Christ is come from heaven and appears in his Majesty and Glory with his mighty Angels in them why do they not command the dead to arise and appear before them and receive their everlasting Doom but they will sooner deny the resurrection and say it 's past already with Hymeneus and Philetus then raise one dead Corps to life again But let them tell us plainly how Christ is the sole Judge of error and how persons are judged in the time of Grace by Christ in them if not by his word that shall judge all at the last day that reject it and not receive it by what then They say the light of Christ Ausw 1. Are not the holy Scriptures a light given to the Church by Christ the head thereof 2. Christ is to be considered in his person and natures simply or in his Authority and divine operations vertually There is not any whom Christ dwells in by his person and natures for so he is farre above all heavens at the right hand of God Act. 7. And it is blasphemy to say that Christ is in them by his person as God and man and to deny the glorified body of Christ that God hath raised from the dead as the Quakers do and will not allow the Divinity of Christ any other union with his humane Nature but what he hath with his body the Church is a pernicious blasphemous opinion also for by this they make all the particular bodies of his Saints to be but one and that the Godhead is in them bodily so that the Saints are God and man in one person as Howgill Borrough and others commonly spaeke And hence they judge that Christs sufferings in them makes satisfaction for all their own sins and so make the death of Christ in that body that suffered at Jerusalem of none effect as to satisfaction and salvation they call him a Christ without which was but a type and figure of this Christ within but to leave these Infidell Dreams I told you that Christ is to be considered in his Authority as revealed unto us in his word by commands backed with promises and Precedents for to encourage to obedience And 2. His Commands are guarded with menaces and threats and with Precedents of Gods executing his judgements upon transgressors for the terror of those that shall transgresse afterwards And this written word of God is the sole Judge of error given by Christ to that very end And those Divine operations and workings of Christ in the hearts of those whom he doth quicken with his speciall renewing grace doe work up his peoples spirits to a willing obedience to his holy rule prescribed in the holy Scriptures Now for them to say that the power and workings of Christ in his chosen and the gifts of grace he gives to them is Christ and the eternall word that made the world is such a frenzie that cannot be expressed as if every influence and operation the Sun hath upon the Earth upon Plants and all other creatures so farre distant and distinct from it were the Sun or as if every drop of water that the clouds exhale out and scatter from the Sea was the Sea or as if the gift was the giver but we may question whether they that thus spake of a Christ in them that made the World know any thing of Christ or of themselves as they ought to know at all In the next place they tell me Thou in thy dark mind talkest of the Revelations of Christ and the Apostles Doctrine and the Christians life and the ground of their obedience all which thou thou art a stranger to as is manifest by these thy following words Namely where I writ to them thus That God hath ordained the holy Scriptures alone to be the object of Faith and ground of all our obedience and serving of God and to do any religious service to God out of any other rule or principle is but Will-worship and to follow the imaginations of our own hearts serving the Divell and not God Unto this they Answer With the eternall word of God that was from the beginning art thou judged to be none of Abrahams seed and art raised out from his faith to which thou art a stranger for it had an object before the Scripture was written in which faith he see Christs day who is the object of our faith and ground of our obedience Heb. 11.16 c. And in his light we see thee to be in the Will-worship who obeyes from another ground and walks after the imaginations of thy own heart which leads thee to worship the Devill in bringing forth the many lies in this paper which he hath begotten in thee who is the Father of lies My reply to theirs is In these lines the spirit in them moved very strongly as the indifferent Reader may easily judge by their insolent rash censures and ignominious crimes they reproach me with for my asserting that which every one that is a Christian can do no lesse then own namely That God hath ordained the holy Scriptures alone to be the object of faith and ground of all our obedience and serving of God c. For this I am sentenced by the eternall word to be none of Abraham's seed and rased from his faith But 1. How shall I be sure they received this sentence from the eternall word which they have pronounced against me it being so directly contrary to what Christ hath forbidden Judge not lest you be judged Mat. 7. And they themselves say in their Answer to the Question we are upon That the Revelations of Christ are according to Scripture if this judging came to them by Revelation from Christ how will you make it to accord and be reconcileable with Scripture I but say they Thou art judged
by the eternall word which was from the beginning not by themselves Answ 1. That word was manifested in the flesh and dwelt amongst men justified in the Spirit and received into glory farre above the Heavens I demand how they know his mind touching my particular state in this censure pronounced whether they have it by voice from heaven or by vision or by the ministrie of Angels or dream or fancie or how 2. If the eternall word that was made flesh revealed it to them as he is in them for that 's the fancie then the word made flesh is in them bodily and not at the right hand of God where he lives for ever to make intercession for those he dyed for and obey him 3. If these censures be from the eternall word what is the reason they are so contrary to the written word which is the inspiration of God and the revelation of Christ and that which the Spirit saith to the Churches which every one that hath an eare to heare let him hear What have I pleaded but the Spirits rule as contained in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles Christ the chief Corner stone on which the true Church is built in all ages and for this these great Prophets judge me to be none of Abraham's seed and say I am rased out of his faith but what was his faith as to salvation more then what the Scriptures reveale and the weakest true Beleever hath In that I say the Scriptures are the object of faith c. is to be understood of what is contained in them and taught by them How do you or any know that there is but one God and what he is and how he will be worshipped and served but by the Scriptures How do you or any know that there is a Christ what he is and how he came into the World to save sinners and how he saves them and who he saves but by the Scriptures How do you or any know that there is a Covenant of grace and promises of eternall life and what commands but by the Scriptures Hence the Scriptures are the only rule of knowing God and Jesus Christ beleeving in him and living unto him They say Christ is the object of faith but that this is known and for what ends and uses and what is faith and how to live by it the Scriptures only make the discovery and they are writ for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope all those that are without the Scriptures are without all comfort and hope and God in the World And now whether they that oppose and deny the Scriptures to be a perfect Rule of faith and obedience or I that defend them to be the only rule deserve to be judged let every one that would be reckoned for a true Christian judge And as touching the faith of Abraham and who are his seed themselves are not much skil'd in who talk of the Law of the new Covenant writ in every mans heart as if every man were of the seed of Abraham and in the new Covenant made with him except my self and some others that out of zeale to the truth and doing service for the Church oppose them Both Abraham and all the faithfull upon Divine Record were obedient to the Commands of God and gave glory to God in believing his promises which you are farre from that reject his commands and promises in the Prophets and Apostles which not any of the children of Abraham in a spirituall sense ever did Them that are of faith are children unto Abraham and blessed with him but as for those that have departed from the true Doctrine of faith and obedience the Apostles writ to the Churches for their Rule as it is manifest from your own tongues and pens your selves have and chuse your own wayes following the imaginations of your own deceiving hearts that your selves are not of Abraham's seed much lesse of his faith while you cast off that Christian obedience to the lawes of Christ revealed in his word so did not our father Abraham And let me tell you in plainnesse your Worship and all your service is meerly vain so long as you like the Pharises teach for Doctrine the precepts of men namely such precepts that are the Dictates of your own idle brains And by an excessive fondnesse to the commands of your own fancies or the Devils suggestions you wickedly make voyd the holy just and equal commands of God What think you is not God the same as he ever was Hath he not given his statutes lawes and ordinances to Israel and to all that are of the same Church And is not this a great blessing among his people God hath not done this for the Heathen no they have not known his wayes Hath not God strictly forbidden either to adde to or diminish from his lawes upon the penalty of a curse Did not God say to Joshua thou shalt diligently observe and do all that is commanded not turning to the right hand or to the left Doth not Christ charge his Disciples to teach the baptized to observe and do all things whatever he hath commanded Matth. 28. And doth not Paul commend the Church of Corinth for being obedient in all things and for keeping the ordinances that he delivered unto them 1 Cor. 11.2 The Lawes and Ordinances of Jesus Christ were in force in the Apostolical Churches when were they repealed by what Authority and by whom Is not Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever You talk of the light of Conscience much can this light be blotted out of the Book of your Conscience it will not be long before conscience be fully opened to accuse and condemn you for reproaching the commands and ordinances of the Lord Jesus You talk of a Christ within you while you are disobedient and rebellious to Jesus Christ without you that gave his life a ransome for many Do you think a Christ within of your own making is able to secure you from the wrath of the Lamb when he shall come with his mighty Angels in flames of fire to render vengeance upon the disobedient to the Gospell You say you are perfect and in heaven and in the mean time strengthen your selves with lies and open your mouths with blasphemies and contempt of the holy things of Christ as hath been shewed but what will you do in the end thereof you tell me now out of your wonted boldnesse to belie the truth which the Scriptures teach that I am in the Will-worship in acting obedience from another Principle namely the Scriptures and so walk after the imaginations of my own heart which leads thee to worship the Devill in bringing forth those many lies in thy Paper begotten by the father of lies But I tell you the time is coming when your mouths that are opened in blasphemies shall be stopped and that word that I have urged against you shall judge you in that day
were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope but the particular application of the whole or a part is by consequence because they were not firstly writ to us at all Therefore the conclusion is unavoydable against them and yet while themselves are denying the Scriptures to be the rule of faith and obedience and for which they are under the plagues written therein as was urged against them their insensible stupid spirits shift it from themselves and make my self the man that dare adde to the Scriptures my own conclusions and so am under all the plagues written therein Rev. 22.18 19. But let them prove wherein I have in the least diminished and added to the Scriptures who am defending their Divine authority unto all against them who out of Apostasie and strong delusion have denyed the Authority of Scripture to be the Rule of faith and life I spake of consequences and conclusions that naturally flow from expresse Texts of Scripture not forced far-fetched out of Texts perverted and misunderstood as themselves by concluding my self the man that are under all the plagues even while I am defending their Authority and themselves free even while they are denying Scripture Authority In their next judging me the cast-away 1 Cor. 9.27 And found in the old Covenant when the Law and Testimonie is without and shut out of the new Covenant where the Law is written in the heart Because I queried how the Law and Testimonie may be said to be in the heart seeing that the Scripture placed them in the Ark which is called the Ark of the Testimonie where the two Tables were placed that were written with the finger of God Exod. 25.16.20 21. and 31.18 and to this is those Texts Isai 8.16 and verse 20. to be referred which they interpret to be the Law and Testimonie of the heart and would have the Law and Testimonie in the Ark writ with the finger of God but a figure of the other as if the Lawes writ in the two Tables were not reall Lawes which all are bound to obey but a figure of some other Lawes writ in the heart of corrupt man that would make every idle fancie and suggestion of Satan a Law to be ruled by as is too evident by themselves who will allow of no Lawes of God nor Scriptures but the Revelations and Edicts of their own bewitched fancies for they have rejected the word of the Lord Jam. 8.9 and what wisdome is there in them But Christians what think you were not the Children of Israel to whom God gave these Lawes in writing the seed of Abraham and in that everlasting Covenant made to Abraham Gen. 17.7 8. where the Lord promiseth to be a God to him and his seed in their Generations for ever and was not this the Covenant of Grace which included all the saving blessings thereof unto salvation and the Law of Grace in the heart and yet the Lord in his wisdome and mercie to his Covenant people gave them his Lawes in an outward writing and they were bound to the keeping and observing of these Lawes upon promises of the greatest blessings and threats of the greatest penalties annexed Were not Moses Joshua Caleb and all the godly that had the fear of God and the Spirit of God in their souls bound to the observance of this Law which was in the Ark of the Testimonie and were they in the old Covenant so as to be shut out of the new as they say of me for defending the same truth which those servants of the Lord practised and all others that feared God after them What think you Christians is the book of the Law inconsistent with the new Covenant when the truth is the great blessing of the new Covenant is so to renew our hearts and incline them to the Law of God that with love and delight we may walk in Gods Lawes and ordinances prescribed to his Glory But behold their censures they judge me none of Abraham's seed and rased out from his faith and shut out of the new Covenant and judged to be under all the plagues written in the Book of God and now are come to deny my prayers and the God whom I serve Who doth thee guide say they to belie the truth and slander the innocent I say the Lord rebuke thee Satan thou enemie to mankind who by thy wiles beguilest weak man who all his life time is subject to temptation and error and although thou hast prevailed upon these frail men to run upon mistakes putting light for darknesse and taking darknesse for light and thereby hath drawn them to deny the true and living God whose being and blessednesse is in himself infinite yet God forbid that I shoul cease praying for them and that unto my God in the name of Jesus Christ to heal their back slidings and to reduce them from wandring from thy truth and Church in all the mysterious errors they are bewilder'd and scattered in in the cloudy and dark day not for want of light who have been in a valley of vision but for want of love thereof and wholesome Discipline to prevent such extravagances And now my dear Friends of Farndon and all others that are entangled in these dangerous snares and unheard of errors that men of perverse minds and proud presumptuous spirits have the boldnesse to vent and publish in our loose dayes What think you now you have been ready to defend these deceivers and tell us that they keep to the Scriptures and teach nothing but what they have ground of Scripture for and they are as full of Scripture quotations as any whatever But what think you now have not they in plain words denyed the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith and obedience and set up another rule to be the sole Judge of error and ground of all obedience namely the light of Christ in them which sometimes they call the eternall Word by which they judge of errors and persons bind and sentence at pleasure as if all judgement in heaven and earth was given to them only and the same honour due to them which is due to the Father as you have seen it cleared unto you before I beseech you to be serious in your thoughts of what hath been writ in discovering their deceits and blasphemies and the very foundation of all heresie their denying the Rule that all things are to be tryed by and make themselves the absolute rule and we may not question what themselves say be it never so insolent and to be abhorred of all sober Christians But they presently passe sentence and judgement on us as if all judgement was given to them indeed and as if themselves were the only Masters that all must stand or fall unto Had they but power to execute as they have pride and insolencie to judge and censure what flesh were able to stand before them that should but crosse their proud fancies
But their pride will be their ruine And the Lord will rebuke the madnesse of these Prophets and they are in the same way of perishing as in the gainsaying of Corab But dear friends I hope that there is that fear of God in your hearts that will preserve you from running out into these desperate heresies as to deny the holy Scriptures to be the Rule and ground of faith and obedience For you know deny the Authority of Scriptures the only boundary of truth and the only Touch-stone that every spirit and opinion is to be tryed by then all shall be left to follow the imaginations of their own idle heads and act as their deceitfull hearts shall suggest then they that can get the greatest confidence conceitednesse and strongest fancies and the impudentest tongues to vent their own inventions will be the only men for the true Religion and then who can tell what is truth and who are guided by the spirit of God and who by the Devill The very denying the Authority of the Scriptures bringeth all into confusion and heathenisme inevitably Cast off that which God hath ordained to direct us then the Devil will put in to mislead into all error and how shall any be able to know his workings and temptations from the pure workings of God for our good when the authority of the Scriptures are laid aside Nay who can be certain of any things in himself or in others that they please God when I or they cannot be certain they are ordained of God to that end if you lay aside the Authority of Scriptures And how just is it for God to punish the hearts of men with all spirituall delusions blindness and error and to let Satan loose upon mens souls when they cast off that which God hath given to direct and instruct in all righteousnesse and to every good work as 1 Tim. 3. You know how it is said that he that provideth not for his own hath denyed the faith as to that particular duty which the Doctrine of faith teacheth and is worse then an Infidell What would the Apostle have said of these that deny the whole Doctrine and Rule of Faith and yet have been once Christians sure they are worse than Infidells and it had been better they had never known the way of righteousnesse then after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandements of the Lord delivered unto them by word or writing 2 Pet. 2.20 see chap. 3.1.2 wherein the Apostle endevoured to stirre up their pure minds by way of remembrance that they might be mindsul of the words that were spoken before by the holy Prophets and of the Commandements of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour which comprehends the whole Scriptures of old and new Testament on which the Church is built the Scriptures are and in them do contain the Oracles of God which is a great advantage and preferment to those they are committed unto beyond all others Rom. 2.1 2. To them is the Covenant and the promises and the service of God chap. 9. And whatever were writ before time was writ for our learning that the Church of God through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15. Whereas on the other hand those that are denyed the Scriptures are Aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenant of Promise and without hope and God in the world Ephes 2.12 as is clear of the like Infidel state that the Ephesians were in before their conversion to Christianity I tell you to deny the Scriptures is the desperatest error that any mortals can possibly plunge themselves into having once professed them such I am sure forsake their own mercies and judge themselves unworthy of eternall life by despising the Gospel of Christ contained in the Scriptures they slight the everlasting Covenant of Grace and all the promises writ in the Book of God there being not a promise made to any in the world but what is in the Scripture nor can any expect that God will give that which he doth not promise to any Let them tell me what promises are writ in the heart that deny the Scripture to be the only rule of faith and obedience if they be without the promise then they are without hope and God in the world as the poor Indians are if not worse by denying that which they have the means to know nay have known and been convinced and rejoyced in the spiritual blessings promised but now wilfully deny them and reject them as not to be believed that are written for the great comfort of the Lords people I tell you friends these miserable Worms uncovenant themselves and unchrist themselves as if they cared not for grace and mercie in their standing before God In denying the Scripture they deny all that grace and mercy that is writ there for the comfort and hope of poor penitent finners If the Scriptures shall be denyed their Authority by them then it will follow that they have removed the Lords antient bounds and the only Judge of all error What is heresie but the broaching of errors and vain opinions and practices contrary to the holy Lawes and Institutions of God recorded in Scriptures in taking away the rule they are involved in all heresie whatever for God will not be any otherwayes known trusted in worshiped and obeyed then himself hath taught and prescribed us in his word When men dare think of God after their own fancies and believe in him after their vain minds and worship God as seems good in their own eyes as all do that deny the Scripture to be a perfect Rule no wonder that they make God like themselves and themselves like God and that they preach another Gospell and set up another Christ and fancie another Heaven and another day of judgement and another Law and Rule to try all things by If men cease to be Christians and forsake the rules of Christianity while they continue to be men and have any sparks of immortality in them they will be doing in one way or other in order to eternity But will you receive these seducers into your houses and bid them God speed that deny the only Rule of righteousnesse and not be partakers with them Judge ye And can a greater proof and demonstration be given against any that they are Impostors and deceivers false teachers then this that in plain terms will deny the Authority of the holy Scriptures to be the only Rule of faith and obedience as those do which you receive and adhere unto which is a confirmation to me of the truth and Divine approbation of the publike ministry that you have forsaken when I observe what teachers you follow even those that deny the Authority of Scriptures And should our Teachers deny the Authority of holy Scriptures to be the Rule of faith and obedience and set up their own fancies to be the Rule as they do which you adhere
unto it were time to forsake and abhorre them Remember the Argument of our Saviour to distinguish between those that are of God and those that are not Joh. 8.47 He that is of God heareth Gods words but ye therefore hear them not therefore ye are not of God They are blessed that hear the word of God and keep it and this word is that word which they heard from the beginning as the same Apostle witnesseth 1 Joh. 2.7 Brethren I write no new Commandement unto you but an old which you had from the beginning and the old Commandement is the word which you have heard from the beginning and he that saith he knowes Christ and keepeth not his Commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him Even those Commandements which were writ and spoke from the beginning that we love one another and this is love that we walk after Christs commandements and this is the Commandement that as you have heard from the beginning so should you walk in it Our duty is to look unto what Christ hath spoken and was heard by them that lived when he was upon the earth as his Apostles who had the promise of the Spirit to bring all things to their remembrance which he had spoken unto them And we are not to look for new commands from Christ now but to cleave to the old and we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip How shall we escape if we neglect so great salsation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him Heb. 2.1 2 3. So likewise God who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets Heb. 1.1 hath in these last dayes spoke unto us by his Son he doth not say that God in these last dayes doth speak or will speak unto us by his Son but God hath already in time past spoke by his Son and that speaking is to these last dayes so that we are not to look for any other speaking or Revelations from any let them pretend what they can but must hear what the Spirit hath said unto the Churches for whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God and this Doctrine of Christ confists in the Commandements that ye have heard from the beginning that we should walk in them 2 Joh. 2.6 9. For many deceivers are entred into the World who confesse that Jesus Christ is not come in the flesh this is is a deceiver and an Antichrist and that is another rule to try the Spirits by whether they be of God or no. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but is Antichrist I confesse in the Apostles dayes that was lookt upon to be the great herefie that troubled the Church namely that Jewish denyall of Christs being come in the flesh and that which did overthrow the Christian faith And we cannot say that the Quakers directly are in that Antichristian heresie but this we can safely say that they deny the benefits that come to the Church by Christs sufferings in that flesh he received from the Virgin Mary or else deny it to be a reall body of flesh and so make him but a figure and type of Christ in the Saints who are his true reall body which he now suffers in and by suffering makes satisfaction for them making that death upon the Crosse of none effect which is all one with denying that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh because they deny him that body of flesh that God prepared for him to suffer in even for all those his blood was shed for for remission of fins hence it is that they so commonly say that we must not think to be saved by that Christ without us that dyed at Jerusalem but by Christ within us and that Christ within they make to be all one with the light that is in all Such mad confused notions they have of Jesus Christ who shed his blood for many for remission of sins and did he not shed his blood without us and he is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him seeing he liveth for ever to make intercession for them For such a high Priest became us who is holy undefiled separate from finners and made higher then the heavens Heb. 7.25 26. And is this done within any think you It 's true Jesus Christ worketh powerfully and effectually in the Saints to their converfion and reforming but to imagine that his powerfull workings in the hearts of his people is Christ in his being and person is a foule mistake as much as to say the actions of a man is the man Dear Friends I cannot but admire and wonder that ever you should adhere to such Teachers that so notoriously derogate from the death and blood-shed and intercession of Jesus Christ who hath suffered but once for sins the just for the unjust to bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickned in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Heb. 9.28 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified chap. 10.14 All which these Impostors which you follow make void which is to make the whole Gospell of no effect All good newes to sinners is grounded upon this one suffering of Christ without us thereby bearing our sins and taking them away by his bloud his blood cleanseth from all sin and that alone without blood is no remission by his stripes we have healing in him we have redemption through his bloud even the forgivenesse of sins Ephes 1. Doth Christ undergo the stripes of a just God and shed his bloud for our Redemption and forgivenesse within you What abhorred dotages are you bewitched with And no great wonder when you depart from the Counsells of God revealed clearly in the holy Scriptures why whither will you wander when you are got beyond all true bounds If one should have told you when you first had prejudice against the faithfull Ministrie that you wil fall off from all Ministrie and Worship and Sabbaths and private exercises of Religion in your families and from Scriptures and from Christ as the Scriptures teach him for Justification and Salvation c. you would have took it as ill as Hazael but by sad experience you may see your souls surprized with all this and I fear have added obstinacie unto it even scorning all counsel and endeavours to reduce you from these miserable snares with which you are taken and undone if God prevent not by his everlasting love and Covenant mercle from which they that have had good experience of your constancie and fidelity in the wayes
the simple and David acknowledges it to be both a Lamp and a light Psal 119. Besides whatsoever makes manifest is light but the Scripture doth make manifest what Christ is and what he hath done and suffered and for whom and for what ends So also they make manifest what sin is and the wages thereof what holinesse and true Worship of God is and how God will be served by all that shall be saved therefore the Scriptures are a true light If the Spirit of Christ doth give forth light to men then the Scriptures are a light to enlighten men because holy men writ them as they were moved and inspired by the holy Ghost and all Scripture were given by Inspiration of God and therefore deny the light of Scriptures and deny the light of the Spirit for what the Scripture saith the Spirit saith they being the Revelations and Inspirations of the Spirit And what may we think of these seducers that under pretence of a light within and a perfect Law of God in the heart and the Revelations of Christ in them condemn me for making the Revelations and Inspirations of God in Scripture a perfect Rule of faith and obedience but we are sure the Law of God which Scriptures teach is perfect holy just and good and a sure word and the Inspirations of God contained in Scriptures are true as God himself but as for that Law and Spirit that cannot stand unlesse the Scriptures fall it is easie to discern from whence it is But say they this light is not received from the Scripture but from Christ c. Answ The light of Scripture is the light of Christ as also the Scripture Ministry by which alone Christ became a light to the Gentiles and in that Christ hath appointed a Ministry of men and given them gifts and Authority to preach the Gospell unto the Gentiles and by his blessing hath made them successefull to turn them from darknesse to light as in the Apostles age especially Thus and no otherwise is he sent to be a light unto the Gentiles for how can any believe in him of whom they never heard as hath been spoke to already and what ever is wrought by his Authority in the use of means is all one with being wrought by Christ himself to any that are sober And hence those distinctions of mine are grounded of Christ more strictly and immediately and of Christ more comprehensive and in a mediate sense as he hath made the promise of his presence and blessing to those Ministers of the Gospell that teach and administer in the Church all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded to be done Matth. 28.19 He that walks in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks will be with the Scripture Ministry to the end of the World untill the whole be gathered and united to their head and made compleat in him They say this light of Christ cannot be blotted out as thou sayst That which I said was a supposition thus Suppose that all the light of Christ as Redeemer which you from time to time have received from the use of Scriptures Ministry Education Discourse were blotted out of your minds and heads tell me what you could know of Christ as he is designed of God to redeeme lost man and how the work of Redemption is wrought more then the rude heathen that never heard of his name All that they Answer to this is That the light cannot be blotted out as thou saist But what light is that which cannot be blotted out Say they The light of Christ that leads out of darknesse to the knowledge of God to eternall life though they have not the use of Scriptures this light is not received into the mind and head from the Scripture neither cannot be blotted out but it comes from Christ the light of the Gentiles such as thou callest Heathens who many of them shew the work of the Law in their hearts and shall be excused when thou and all that oppose the light of Christ shall be condemned Christians look about you for the Devil was never so bold as now and I think there is more of the Devil in so few lines then ever were writ by man before consider them well I assure you it 's all their own Was ever such an abominable thing asserted amongst Christians The light of Christ that leads out of darknesse to the knowledge of God to eternall life is not received in the mind from the Scripture but from Christ the light of the Gentiles As if the Scriptures were opposed to the light of Christ or of no use to reveal Christ as Redeemer to the salvation of lost man Christians you see now their Answer what it is to the Question namely That the light of Christ without the use of Scripture leads out of darknesse to the knowledge of God to eternall life c. even to the Gentiles that never heard of Christ nor believe in him to salvation But if this be true to what end did Christ come into the world and lay down his life to be a ransome for many and why did he shed his blood for many for remission of sins Christs death and resurrection is all in vain for all the world from the beginning have had this kind of light shewing the work of the law in their hearts and do by nature the things contained in the Law 1. But let them prove that this work of the Law is the light of Christ that Simeon prophesied of and the Prophets and that the Apostles witnessed fulfilled by their preaching and writings 2. And let them prove that the work of the Law in their hearts leads out of darknesse to eternall life The Scriptures say the contrary By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified nor is there any law that can give life 3. And let them prove that the work of the Law in the hearts of unbelieving Gentiles is a spirituall blesseing of the new Covenant Heb. 8. which the Apostle applyed to the believing Church so did the Prophets of old time Jer. 31. If they cannot prove these three things let shame stop their lying mouths Jesus Christ as he was promised to be a light of the Gentiles Isai 42.6 7. is to be understood of a peculiar spirituall light Christ was given for such a light to the Gentiles as should open the blind eyes and bring out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in darknesse in the Regions and shadow of death out of the Prison house to guide their feet in the way of peace Luk. 1. Which accordingly was fulfilled in the Apostles age but how not by Christ immediately but by Christs Authority who appointed men and furnished them with gifts and abilities to preach the Gospell unto them and opened their hearts to receive it and become Christians in profession and truth And in that they were converted and enlightened by means himself appointed is all one by being converted and enlightened
by him because his appointing means and blessing them to that end was that which did the work as severall Texts doth witness in the writings of the Apostles Act. 11.15.17 18. who concluding Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life and this was wrought by the ministry of the word by Peter Act. 13.46.47 It was necessary that the word of God should first be preached to the Jewes but they rejecting it lo we turn to the Gentiles for so hath the Lord ordained us saying I have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of the earth Paul and Barnabas attributing that to Christ which was to be done by their ministry by his Authority and command Act. 15.14 15 16 17 19. Peter hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name as it is written in the Prophets that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the Lord. Wherefore my sentence is saith James that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God and how were they turned to God Not by a light immediate as the Quakers would but by the ministry of the word as further appears Act. 26.17 18. as is witnessed by the Apostle Paul which received it from Christ himself Christ promised to appear unto him delivering him from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I now send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and in he itance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me working in them the same faith by the word on which forgiveness and eternal life only depend that is faith in Christ To open the blind eyes of the Gentile world that were darknesse it self and turn them to the true light is the only work of Jesus Christ as he is God and yet Paul as he was made a Minister of the Gentiles he was sent to do it by the preaching of the Gospell and the Lord wrought wonderfully by his ministry to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed Rom. 15.18 19. How many Churches of the Gentiles were gathered by the Preaching of the Gospel came under Baptisme and all other known duties of Christian obedience Was not Christ a light to all these beleeving Gentiles in granting them repentance unto life as I quoted before As for the other Gentiles which never heard of Christ or hearing of him rejected him they remained Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel without Christ and Covenant of promise and hope and God in the world having their understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts Ephes 2.12 4.18 But on the other hand how doth the Apostle admire and wonder at those unsearchable riches of Grace to the Gentiles that beleeved in Christ Jesus Ye who were sometimes far off are made high by the bloud of Jesus therefore now ye are no more strangers and foreiners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone in whom all the building fitly framed together Jewes and Gentiles groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. Hence see what that building is of whom Christ is said to be the chief Corner-stone not the profane building of the pagan unbelieving world that are built upon the Devill and the vain imaginations of their dark minds as you haveâ—â—t â—â—ard these Quakers blasphemingly apply this text but Believers be they Jewes or Gentiles that are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles to them only is Christ the chief Corner-stone chap. 2.19 20 21. If they have ears to hear let them hear what the Spirit hath said unto the Churches and in particular how Christ Jesus hath enlightened and grafted the believing Gentiles into his visible professing Church and made them a peculiar chosen people to himself distinct and separate from the heathen Idolatrous world But it seems they are angry because in my reply I told them it will pose them to prove that that righteous and perfect Law of God in their hearts they so much pretended to to be of God and not from their idle brains And good cause there was that they should be put to the proof thereof they answering so deceitfully and subtilly about the Authority of Scriptures as I have sufficiently discovered Besides I bid them tell me plainly whether the perfect Law of the heart to which all their obedience is bounded be the same perfect Law of God which the holy Scriptures teach consisting of precepts morall and positive Institutions of holy Worship in force in the Apostolicall Churches c. Or whether is the Law in the heart different from it If say I that in the heart be but the very same with the whole of Scriptures then it will follow that the perfect Law and Rule of Scriptures is superfluous and writ in vain Then on the other hand if that in their heart be different from the Scriptures it concerns them to prove it to be of God and not from their idle brains To that purpose I writ Their Answer is We speak in plainnesse as the Law of God written in our hearts directeth us which Law we know is perfect and a blessing of the everlasting Covenant which thou talkest of but knowest not being disobedient and abominable c. Answ 1. What may we judge of that Law that accuseth another to be disobedient and abominable for proposing rational queries and demanding proof of what they assert 2. Is their saying they know they have the perfect Law of God in their hearts a satisfying proof Judge ye But 3. If this Law be but a blessing of the Covenant then it is not the eternall word that made the world as before they Answer upon the like occasion upon the first Question unlesse they will confound God that gives the blessing and the blessing given into one Well they take it for granted in stead of proof That the perfect Law of God is written in their hearts by which they judge my error who am pleading for that Law to be the ground of the Saints obedience that made nothing perfect say they This is notable Did I ever plead for that Law of Priesthood that were exercised in the sacrificing beasts sprinklings of blood which were but types of Christ the bringer in of a better hope Heb. 7. I say did I ever plead this Law of Ceremonies which were but a shadow of good things to come the ground of the Saints obedience Let them produce it or else cease thus to abuse me with lying words But if they will wickedly pervert
the preaching of the Doctrine of faith Neither is there salvation in any other but in that Saviour and Redeemer which the Apostles preached Act. 9.12 for there is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom the Jewes crucified and God raised from the dead ver 11. and this name and person Christ Jesus designed of God to be a Saviour cannot any know of or believe in him but by the help of Scriptures or the ministrie thereof and he that believes not in this name Christ Jesus the Son of the living God shall be damned Mark 16.16 And doth not our Saviour affirme that salvation is of the Jewes as they were the Church of God peculiar from all other people under heaven because unto them was committed the Oracles of God and is not the christian Church grafted into them and peculiar from all others Infidels and misbelievers and have the same and more spirituall priviledges and blessings of the Covenant while all others are left to wander in their own wayes were not the Apostles Doctrine which they preached the only means of enlightning the dark world and let them shew us where and to whom they preached the light in men to be the Gospell and Christ within them that the Gentiles should be saved by No they preached Christ crucified a dying bleeding Christ for remission of sins It pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching Christ as they did to save them that believe as they were fitted and sent of God so they were directed in doing his work faithfully and were accompanyed with an answerable successe witnesse the many Churches that they gathered and converted to the christian faith turning them from darknesse to the true light and from the power of Satan unto God striving to preach Christ where he never had been named before Rom. 15.20 And what Christ did they preach is easie to determine may the Scriptures judge Either let these sinners against their own souls preach the same Christ to sinners for the same ends and purposes as the Scriptures witnesse of the Apostles or else let their lying mouths be stopped and persist no further in deceiving themselves and seducing others Reader thou canst not but judge the Question rational and religious if the Scriptures may judge and to be answered in the negative and yet these men who out of their thick darknesse having denyed the Scriptures to be the Rule of faith and obedience are forced to forge out of their dark imaginations another Rule of revealing Christ to lost man besides the Scriptures which Rule is in every man sometimes under the notion off light within law of the heart heer they bring in an unlimited power of God distinct from the use of those Ordinances and wayes which God hath appointed to make usefull in those Divine discoveries of Christ the only Mediator between God and sinfull man and without which Christ as Mediator and Redeemer is not known nor believed in unto salvation at all They carp and cavill at my expressions because the Question is to Gods ordinary and usual dealings with the souls of men and have waved the extraordinary and unusuall operations of the hidden unlimited power of God doing what he will to Infants distracted deaf in the Church in shewing them mercie but they reject all ordinary means of Scripture and ordinances therein appointed and onely set up an immediate unlimited power of God though if the word of an Apostle be of credit before them the Gospell of Christ is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 So necessary is the ministry of the Gospell to salvation that it 's called the power of God to that end and yet I have all along yeelded that to the means must be added a Divine hand in working effectually upon the souls of men or else nothing can be wrought unto salvation and as for the expressions themselves it is not much materiall that they be found in Scripture so long as the thing and sense is there as hath and much more might be added in proof thereof were it needfull The word ordinary food is in Ezekiel Ezek. 16.27 there the Lord threatned to deny it which were their dayly bread but I say the thing it self is grounded upon Scriptures Israel drank of water in the Brooks and Springs and Wells that they digged which was ordinary and yet Gods gift they also drank of water that God gave them out of a Rock in the Wildernesse where no water was before and thâ—t was extraordinary Israel took of their Dough for bread which they had prepared in Aegypt and that was ordinary but when their food was spent the Lord gave them bread from heaven and that was extraordinary for a time till they could be put into a capacity of ordinary food again I might instance in twenty things more but I forbear But see the peversenesse of these men because God at some times hath revealed himself immediately by his Spirit without means therefore they conclude he doth so still although we have his word to reveal his mind and will unto us in all things necessary to be known and done Their quotations are perverted and wrested as they do all other Scriptures to their own destruction and to what end do they quote Scriptures in proof of any thing they assert while they deny the Scriptures to be the Rule of faith and obedience In my reply I urged Joh. 5.39 against the latter part of their Answer in which I told them that Christ commands the Jewes to search the Scriptures for in them you think to have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me But these Quakers say contrary He that thinks to attain the way to eternall life by reading the Scriptures and regards not the light that comes from Christ deceives himself To this I said it seems the holy Scriptures are opposed to the light which comes from Christ and I judge that the Scriptures are a light that comes from Christ and the only way and means appointed by God both to know and believe in Christ to eternall life where and to whom the Lord is pleased to give his blessing Their Answer To say that we speak contrary to Christ is false but he that reads the Scriptures and regards not the light which gave them forth to learn wrests them to his own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 and so deceivs himself and such are they that put them in place of the light and think them the only way and means appointed by God to eternal life Answ Did not Christ approve of the Jewes opinion in thinking that in the Scriptures they should have eternal life for where is there any promise of eternal life or discovery of the way and means to attain it but in the Scriptures and from that good opinion the Jewes had of the truth of Scriptures Christ refers them to the Scriptures as bearing testimony that he