Arnoldus pag. 18 19. to which I refer For I believe All Men in a Day have by the gracious Visitation of God's Love an Vnderstanding well disposed to some Divine Revelations which becomes Disposed for others as these are Received which will after in its place be discussed And some Divine Revelations which are Prophetick of things to come may so far manifest themselves by their Self-Evidence even to Men not Regenerate as to force an Assent as in the Case of Balaam mentioned by him did apper What he saith further pag. 36 and 37. inquiring How and after what manner these Revelations were the Object of the Saints Faith of Old is easily answered by applying it to what is before mentioned in Answer to his Queries and Conjectures of the Formal Object For those of Old that had these Revelations Immediately the Formal Object of their Faith was God manifesting himself and his Will in them to them by such Revelations And those who received and obeyed the things delivered by the Patriarchs and Prophets those things so delivered as he confesseth were not the Formal The Material and Formal Object of FAITH but Material Object of their Faith but the Formal Object was GOD by the secret and inward Testimony of his Spirit perswading them in their Hearts that these things declared to them were really his Command and thence inclining and bowing their Minds to an Assent and Obedience to them And albeit pag. 38. he terms this a Wild Assertion yet he hath but said and not proved it to be so and till he prove he needs no further Refutation Neither is it Non-sense nor yet a destroying of the Cause as with the like proofless Confidence he affirms p. 37. That where Revelations are made by outward Voices or in a manner objected to the outward Senses the Cause or Motive of Credibility is not so much because of what the outward Senses perceive as because of the Inward Testimony of the Spirit assuring the Soul that it is GOD so manifesting himself Which Testimony to answer his Question is distinguishable from what is objected to the outward Senses albeit it go always along with it simul semel as they use to say since he with me accounts it a Serious Truth to say The Devil may delude the External Senses and he can far more easily deceive them than the True Inward and Spiritual Senses of the Soul by Counterfeiting the Inward Testimony of the Spirit Since by that the Apostle saith We know and partake of that which neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard ¶ 9. Pag. 39. He confesseth with me That the Formal Object of the Saints Faith is always the same But yet that he may say something he spendeth the Paragraph in Railing accusing me As writing Non-sense and being an Ignoramus because I bring Instances which relate to the Material Object which himself Confesseth also to be the same in Substance But by his good Leave for all he is so positive in his Judgment I must shew the Reader his Mistake The Formal Object of Abraham's Faith For those Examples of Abraham and others are adduced by me to shew the one-ness of the Formal Object neither has he shewn that they are Impertinent for that End Since as the Formal Object of Abraham's Faith was God's speaking to him by Divine Revelations so is the same the Formal Object of the Saints now and therein stands the Vnity or Oneness of our Faith with him and not in the Material Object which often differs For to offer up his Son was a part of the Material Object of his Faith which is none of ours now And so for as much as he desires to know of me What was the Material Object of Adam 's Faith before the Fall a Question not to the purpose he must first tell me why he so Magisterially and positively denies Christ to have been the Object of his Faith And then he may have an Answer And whereas he flouts at that Reason That Actions are specified from their objects as Non-sensical he should have proved and shewn Wherein And then I might have Answer'd him He might have Wit enough to know that no man of Reason will be moved by his bare Railing Assertions pag. 40. besides a deal of Railing wherein he accuseth me of Confusion and Darkness He accounts my Arguing for Immediate Revelation from the Revelations the Patriarchs and Prophets had Impertinent to which I Answered before The sum of which is that since these Immediate Revelations were so frequent under the Law Revelations frequent under the Law it must be very absurd to say They are Ceased under the Gospel He himself proveth pag. 41. that under the New there is a more clear Discovery according to that of Paul 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord c. which being brought by him albeit against himself I leave him to Answer In this page and the next 42 he alledgeth the sayings of Christ and his Apostles brought by me and my Arguments thence do prove no more than he Confesseth But whether they prove not all I plead for from thence is left to the Reader 's Judgment Here according to his Custom tho I Condemn the Socinians he will be insinuating that I Agree with them to whose Notions of the Spirit albeit I Assent not yet I desire to know of him That the Spirit is a distinct Person of the Trinity no Proof in Scripture for it in what Scripture he finds these words That the Spirit is a distinct Person of the Trinity For I freely acknowledge according to the Scripture That the Spirit of God proceedeth from the Father and the Son and is God And by what Authority he seeks to obtrude upon others Expressions of the Chief Articles of Faith not to be found in Scripture or to accuse such as will not Accept of them and Assent to them or whether any has reason to think he truly makes the Scripture the Rule of his Faith notwithstanding his pretence when he either will not or can not find words in it to Express the Chief Articles of his Creed ¶ 10. Pag. 43. By a strange Mistake he would have me prove since I make use of these promises of Christ relating to the Spirit I would prove that all have Warrant to write Scripture As if no man could have Immediate Revelation without he write Scripture Whereas himself Confesseth that many of the Patriarchr had it before Moses who yet wrote no Scripture yea and Cain whom I suppose he judgeth to have been no Writer of Scripturs And by the like Mistake pag. 55. He Confesseth all I plead for J. B's Self-Contradiction in granting Revelation and Contradicts all he has been fighting for in affirming That Believers now have free Access to Christ the great Teacher of his People always to get his mind known and Written in their Hearts but not to get Prophetick Revelations
easie Compend of our Active Duty to God and Man yea to ourselves Soberly That is with Moderation Temper Government of our Passions and Affections Let your Moderation be known unto all Men Phil. 4.5 said the same Apostle His Reason was pressing and unanswerable For the Lord is at hand So be Sober for the Lord 's at hand and let Men see that we are so Though the Exhortation chiefly regards Ourselves that we may not Abuse or Disorder our selves Overdo or Act in reference to our own Persons and Affairs As if he had said be sober and moderate in thy Giving Getting Conversing in thy Pains and Pleasures in Thoughts VVords and Deeds in thy whole Man and Life Righteously Refers to our Neighbour to do as we would be done to To defraud none oppress none 1 Cor. 6.7 8 9. Eph. 6.1 10. Col. 3.20 25. Prov. 20.10 Ch. 22.28 but Discharge all Relations and Conditions uprightly to Parents Magistrates Husband VVife Children Servants Neighbours Strangers Enemies Just VVeights and Measures Old Land-marks and an Even Ballance These are well-pleasing to God in all Ranks and Relations Godly in this present VVorld relates chiefly to God the Faith VVorship and Obedience we owe to him Obedience by a pious Life For this is the will of God even our Sanctification without Holiness none shall see him 1 Thess. 4.3 So that to be Godly is to Live after God not the World and after his Spirit not our Flesh but to Crucify the flesh with the lusts thereof Rom. 13.12 14. Gal. 5.22 25. and put on the Lord Jesus Christ his Meekness his Patience Humility Mercy Forgiveness Love Temperance and Righteousness and make no more provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof No more be in pain Matt. 6.31 33. what we should eat or drink or put on or how we may make our selves Wealthy or Mighty in the Earth after the way of the Old Gentiles that knew not God as is the Custom of almost the whole Christian World so called at this very day which General Declension shews that a General Judgment and an Over-flowing Scourge of God is at hand but to seek the Kingdom of God first and deny our selves Job 14.14 and watch and pray waiting all the Days of our appointed Time until our Great and Last Change shall come So that Godliness is God-likeness Translation Renewing yea the First Resurrection that those who Attain to it the Second Death shall have no Power over them This Godliness with Contentment is the greatest Gain 1 Tim. 4.8 Ch. 6.6 1 Joh. 3.5 8. and profitable in all things the Sum and Substance of Religion and of all God's Dispensations in the World yea the very End of Christ's coming and the blessed Fruit of his Victory over Hell Death and the Grave that Sin might have an end the Devil's Works in Man and Woman be destroyed and Man made an holy Temple and Tabernacle for God to dwell in This is Godliness and this Godliness is the way to please God 2 Cor. 6.16 Matt. 6.20 1 Tim. 6.18 19. to lay up Treasure in Heaven to be fruitful in Grace rich in Faith and good VVorks and to lay hold on Eternal Life and become Heirs of an Inheritance Incorruptible Which brings me to the Fifth and Last thing observable from this Comprehensive Passage viz. The Comfortable Reward and End of this Life and Grace in vers 13. Looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ That is Looking for the Fulfilling of that blessed Hope to Have what they Hoped for An Hope that does not make Ashamed those that have it but is an Anchor to the Soul in the greatest Storms that Attend Men on thair Way to Blessedness It is for the Accomplishment of this Hope the gracious Livers have a Title to Expect and Wait. They that have been Taught by the Grace what to deny and what to do and to look and live above the VVorld and by an Eye of Faith to pierce through the dark Clouds of Time and stedfastly to look into the things that are Eternal they are but Travellers and Pilgrims as were all the Godly Fathers of old Time and expect with them a City Heb. 11.10 whose Builder and Maker is God These wait for the Glorious Appearing of the great God and their Saviour Jesus Christ as the Blessed End of their Hope and to them he will certainly come as the Glorious and Faithful Rewarder of the Faith Obedience and Perseverance of his poor Disciples and Servants They shall Reign with him a Thousand Years and for ever Their Obedience and Sufferings are but Temporal but the Recompence Everlasting Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard Isa. 64.4 1 Cor. 2.9 10. Psal. 84.1 10. nor has the Heart of man been able to perceive the good things that God has laid up in store for those that love him But in the Heavens that do not wax Old and which will never pass away those holy Courts of God the true Followers of Jesus the Children of Light and Disciples of the Cross that come through the many Tribulations from Conviction to Conversion from Conversion to Consummation the End of all shall Understand Tast and Enjoy those Hidden and Divine Pleasures that are as Ineffable as they are Eternal This Reader is the Old Divinity that of Christ and his blessed Apostles Time and Teaching renewed in our Days by the fresh Breaking-forth of the same Light Spirit and Grace that brought this Doctrine of Immortality to Light in those Primitive and Happy Ages yea Immortality it self a Divine Never-dying Life into the Soul that which quickens it out of the sleepy and dead Estate Sin brings it into by which it looseth all Savour or Relish of Spiritual Things I say this is the Divinity God has Renewed among us an Experimental Work or Operation of his Light Spirit and Grace in our Souls This Light is the great Luminary of the Intellectual World that expels the Darkness and scatters the Mists of Sin and Death that the Souls of Men labour under where it is Received and Obeyed This is the Day of God in which the whole World has a Visitation that by which we are to see our Way to God and Duty to him and all Men as the outward Sun is the Means by which we see our outward Ways and the Difference of outward Things This was the Principle that divinely endued the Author of the ensuing Volume and has enabled him to Write of God and his Attributes by the Power and Truth of them upon his own Soul He felt his Justice in himself for his Disobedience His Mercy by the Forgiveness of his Sins through Faith and Repentance His Holiness by the Sanctification of his Grace through Obedience to the Teachings of it That God is a Spirit by the Spiritual Operations upon his own Soul the Spiritual Part of himself And Omnipresent because he felt his Presence or him present as a
we acknowledge But that Courtesy consists in taking off Hats and bowing to one another that rests for thee to prove In the next place to prove the indifference of using the Plural Number instead of the Singular to one person thou sayst thou art very confident the Kingdom of God consists not in words So am I too yet I strange thou shouldst say so considering thy Principles for what is all your preaching but words yea what is the Scripture it self I mean that which ye have of it to wit the Letter but words And seeing the very Gospel according to you is but a company of words being a Declaration of what past many hundred years ago how has thy Zeal here to oppose the Quakers made thee forget thy self in this matter Thou sayst that to which the Singular Number is agreeable the Plural may be applied to without making a lie The Proofs alledged for that be Matth. 23.37 Luke 22.31.3 Epistle of John verse 13. evince nothing in this matter for the Context being rightly considered will clearly make out that the words are not applied to one single person only exclusively of others and that of Luke is to a Flock comprehending the Disciples to whom he was speaking just before but there is no confounding of the Number where one single person is only spoken to and that without understanding of any more And though indeed it were good that the difference were not greater yet the differences in these things evidence that there be differences in greater matters And in respect that ye are estranged from the Principle that leads out of Corruption in all things therefore ye cannot see the weight that is in these things which is more then ye are aware of Page 3. Thou seemest to take great advantage of these words Heretofore I walked according to my light and the same I do still and while in the integrity of my heart I walked in the way thou art now in I dare not say but God countenanced me in it Here thou makest a great stir as if thou hadst brought the Quaker to a great Dilemma But to pass by thy examining of the weak Objection which thou makest in the Quakers behalf which I believe was never alledged by any of them unto thee as that wherewith they either only or chiefly defend themselves in this matter to wit Solomon's sacrificing at Gibeon As in many other particulars so in this thou statest the Quakers part but too weakly and faintly yea disingenuously for the Light which we walk according unto and desire to walk according to it for ever is the Light of Christ in us and not our Light otherwise then by the free gift of God which we do freely acknowledge did shine in our hearts in some measure in the time we walked with you though we did not so know it and gave us some knowledge and discerning of things and begot a measure of integrity and honesty of heart towards the Lord in divers of us and turned the bent of our hearts truly towards him in measure And the Lord countenanced and visited and sometimes refreshed us secretly in those days with a regard to that measure of integrity he found in us and not because of or in respect unto that way of Profession we then walked in which way was truly a hurt unto us and not advantage And it was not your way which we walked in with you that the Lord countenanced but the integrity and uprightness which he had begot in us and had placed in us as a tender Plant and as a Root in dry ground under the oppression of your way which burdened it and until we were brought out of your way by his Arm which drew us his Seed and Plant in us suffered and was oppressed as a Cart with Sheaves But after we were delivered from your way and turned to the way we now walk in the Seed and Plant which suffered came to receive strength and be raised unto Life and Dominion as many are Witnesses at this day Nor is this thy Argument any other but that which the Papists did throw against those who sometimes walked with them in the popish way of profession some hundred years ago when they came out from among them whom the Lord visited while they were among them and at times refreshed them till he brought them forth to witness against them For the Lord hath a People in Babylon and hath his Sheep which are scattered on the dry and barren Mountains of many sorts and ways of professions who have some tender breathings and desires after him and with a regard to his breathing Seed in them he visits them and refresheth them at times which yet proves not that they should remain where they are in Babylon and upon the dry Mountains of dead Professions and Observations For the Call of the Lord is unto them to come out of Babylon and his Arm is stretched forth to gather them off from all these Hills unto his own holy Hill Mount Zion that they may seed and lye down with them who were as Sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls Also may not those of the Episcopal Form object the same against those who have left it upon a further Discovery and yet its like thou wilt not deny but some who have been under the Episcopal Form had a measure of integrity to God while under it and with a regard to that the Lord at times refreshed them God does not frequently discover his will to his Children all at once nor lead them throughly out of things out of which they are to come in an instant and yet that he countenanceth them in their travel cannot be denied Did not the Lord countenance Cornelius before Peter came unto him as appears by Acts 10.4 And yet this was no Argument that Cornelius should not own the Apostles and Christians And did not the Lord countenance the Disciples though even when they were following him they were ignorant of many things and in some things wrong And whether did not the Lord countenance Luther in his Testimony against the Pope as well in the first as in the last steps of it although it appears that when he first began to preach against Indulgences he intended not such a thing as afterwards followed but things opened more and more unto him till they came unto that period they were brought unto before his Death And who of you will say that God did not countenance him from the beginning whilst he held many things which he himself came to see to be wrong and erred very grosly in the Matter of Consubstantiation The like may be said of John Husse and others whom you acknowledge to have been Martyrs At last thou endest it with a Question asking Whether it be safe to lean to the Audience of that Light which one while saith that such a way is the way of Christ and another while thou must come
Bread Is it the Outward or is it the Inward and Spiritual The one Bread not many If it be the Outward then there is no Inward and Spiritual Bread Or if it be the Inward and Spiritual which is that one Bread then that Outward Bread as being but a Figure is ceased from being of use as to any necessity And this he spoke unto the Wise who saw beyond the Shadow and Figure unto the Substance the end of it which was that Heavenly Bread and Refreshment which Christ himself giveth unto those Souls to feed upon who know the Mystery of his Indwelling in them which Bread is indeed his Body So that now the Bread being one which is the Body of Christ the Outward Bread hath no place in the Supper of the Lord for then there should be not one Bread but two for the Outward Bread and the Inward are two and not one Bread And if any say The outward Bread though it be not properly the Body of Christ and thing signified yet it may be said to be one with it because of that Agreement betwixt the sign and the thing signified I Answer That is not sufficient why the outward Bread should be called the one Bread or one with the thing signified otherwise by the same evasion one might plead for the Continuance of all the Sacrifices and Offerings of Rams and Bulls and Goats and say they are one with that one Offering of Christ mentioned Hebr. 10.14 because they signified that one Offering Now were not this an abominable wresting of the Apostle's words to say All these outward Offerings were the one Offering because they did signify it For indeed he does contra-distinguish them from this one Offering that because of its being come he infers they were to pass away And so it is as plain that the Apostle contra-distinguished betwixt that one Bread and the outward Bread together with the other Figures and Shadows according to which writing to the Colossians he saith Coloss. 2.16 17. Let no man condemn you in Meat or Drink or Holy Day or New Moon or Sabbath-days which are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. And he bids them seek the things above and not the things which the Apostle said did perish in the using saying Touch not taste not handle not Coloss. 2.10 21 22. compared with Coloss. 3.1 2. which he spoke because they began to lay too great a weight upon these things and to hold them up as perpetual which were to pass away For a Sixth Reason thou say'st The Apostles and Primitive Christians who did partake of the Spirit in a large measure did use it Answ. That they used it for some time is granted but that they used it as of Necessity or Command is denied nor did they use it for themselves but for the sake of the weak who could not be suddenly weaned from it Thy Seventh Reason is That it is the Mind and Will of God that this Ordinance should be continued in his Church until the Second Coming of Christ to Judgment Christ's Second Coming is spiritual By which Second Coming thou and you understand his Outward Coming for which you have no ground to say that he bid them Observe it till his outward Coming so many hundred years after for the Scripture speaks nothing so but thus Ye shew forth my Death till I come Now we say he did Come according to his Promise in a Spiritual and Inward way of Appearance in their Hearts feeding them with the heavenly Food and Refreshment of his own Life and Spirit which is the Substance And concerning this Coming he spake unto them in many places particularly John 14.18 I will not leave you Fatherless I will come unto you Yet a little while and the World seeth me not but ye shall see me And Verse 23. If any Man love me he will keep my Word and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our Abode with him Which Coming was inward according to Verse 20. You in me and I in you And those that witnessed him thus Come needed not outward Bread and Wine to remember them of him for his own Spirit would bring all things to their remembrance they need not look upon the Figure and Shadow who have the Substance Paul said We look not upon things which are visible neither will God's Condescendence to their Weakness God's Condescension to the Weak who were but newly Redeemed from out of a mass of Heathenish Superstitions prove a Command or a Rule to the whole Church or a Warrant for any now to be found in the Administration thereof and to hold up the outward Figure do cloak themselves by shutting out and denying the Spiritual Appearance of Christ as he doth immediately Reveal himself in his Children in whom he has made manifest the Substance which ends the Shadow For an Eighth Reason thou say'st That Persons who cast off this Ordinance are their Soul 's great Enemies for they stand in the way of their Soul 's Spiritual good in that this is a Spiritual Nourishing strengthening Ordinance where Spiritual Food is offered and delicate Meat and Drink for strengthening Believers in their Journey to Heaven To which I Answer That those who neglect and despise having Fellowship and Communion with God and laugh and scoff at the useful and necessary Duty of Waiting upon the Lord in silence wherein his Children feel their Souls nourished with the Body and Blood of Christ The â—â—ue Nourishment of the Soul and with Spiritual Manna which descends from Heaven and is distilled into their Souls not only once or twice a year which are the Seasons wherein that which thou termest Spiritual Food is ministred among you but daily and hourly by the fresh Incoms of Life such indeed are to their Souls great Enemies though they be sticking to the performance of some External Ceremonies wherein in former times God in Condescendence to some because of the simplicity of their hearts appeared and yet even then frequently and as much and more at other times But now the Sun is set upon those who will needs be upholding the Shadow in opposition to the Substance therefore their Table is become polluted The polluted Table and may more truly be termed the Table of Devils than the Communion of the Body of Christ where a mixt Multitude of all sorts of Wicked Persons living out of God's fear sit down together being seemingly in words Excommunicated from Approaching by the Preacher and yet presently Admitted to it by the same And to turn away from such an Ordinance so called is no sin nor hurt but all who become obedient to the Light of Christ in them will find in their place to forsake it as being such an Ordinance which the Apostle said Touch not taste not handle not which is all to perish with the using In the fourth place Page 41. thou wilt prove That the Ministry of the
and worship him but to plead so obstinately as ye do that the Fourth Commandment bindeth to a particular observation of that day and yet to be found so slack in the observation of it as you generally are in such an Inconstancy as the Quakers cannot own And so whereas thou would'st confine the Lord his giving rest and comfort to the Souls of his People and the falling of the Manna to the First Days calling them Spiritual Market-days as if there were no other we cannot own it knowing that the Lord giveth rest and comfort every day and causeth the Manna plentifully to fall every day to those that walk in his fear and wait upon him and he has no such circumscribed Market-day as thou dreamest of The Priest's Market-day But that ye I mean the Priests make a Market-day of that day so that ye may call it Your Day as thou say'st Page 44. our day we know wherein you sell and vend your Babylonish Commodities and will be forcing and compelling all to come and buy of them or if not to send you Money whether they receive ought or not or else ye will endeavour by the help of the Magistrate to have them punished So that it is made manifest that it is only the Inventions of Men that we disown and not any of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ. Page 46. Thou grantest the word Original Sin is not found in Scripture and yet thou pleadâ—st for it because say'st thou the thing intended by it is contained and expressed in Scripture Answ. We deny that the thing by you intended is exprest in Scripture to wit That all Infants are sinners before God only for Adam 's sin and that there are Reprobate Infants who are sent to Hell only for Adam 's first sin This we deny nor do the Scriptures cited by thee prove it Psal. 51. Behold I was conceived in sin But first if this place should prove the Infant guilty of any sin Infants not guilty of Adam's sin it should be of the sin of its own immediate Parents In iniquity did my Mother bring me forth Now you say the Infant is not guilty of the sin of its own immediate Parents but only of Adam's and Eve's first sin of which this Scripture speaks nothing 2. It doth not say I was conceived and brought forth a Sinner as you would have it why make you Infants guilty of Adam's sin and not the sins of their immediate Parents Now it is granted that there is a seed of sin derived unto Adam's Posterity The Seed of Sin but we say none become guilty of sin before God until they close with this evil seed and in them who close with it it becomes an Origine or Fountain of evil Thoughts Desires Words and Actions which are their sins who close with it But that the guilt of Adam's first sin lyes at the door of Infants who never actually sinned we deny For a Second Proof thou citest Rom. 5.12 alledging It should be rendred that in Adam all sinned But it is no such matter For the words however they be truly Translated can never be so rendred In Adam all sinned The strictest Translation of the words is thus upon which all have sinned or in which all have sinned They hold forth how that Adam by his Sin gave an entrance to Sin in the World and Death by Sin and so upon this accasion all others have sinned to wit actually in their own Person so that all who ever sinned actually it was upon the occasion of Adam's Sin For the Apostle is here speaking not of Infants who are not capable of any Law but of such as have a Law and act against it Yea from the Apostle's words in the other following Verse it is plain that Sin is not imputed to Infants For saith he Sin is not imputed where there is no Law Now there is no Law given to Infants as such for they are not capable of it What the Law saith it saith to them No Law no Transgression who have in more or less some exercise of understanding which Infants new born have not Or if the words be translated in which all have sinned that word WHICH hath a nearer Relative than ADAM to wit Death for the seed of sin is justly called Death because where it is joined unto and obeyed it killeth and so in this seed all have sinned who ever did actually sin And as for the 18 th Verse of Rom. 5. which is commonly used to prove Infants guilty and under Condemnation it is not rightly translated for the word Judgment or Condemnation or Guilt is not at all in the Greek but those who have drunk-in this imagination have added this word to the Scripture so bending and bowing the Scripture to their false Opinion And whereas thou say'st We were all in the Loins of Adam and therefore wouldest infer That Infants are sinners in him or guilty of his sin I say It follows not more than to say We are guilty of all the sins of our Fore-fathers because we have been in their Loins Again thou labourest to prove that Infants are sinners because they are subject to pains and diseases and death But this proveth them not to be Sinners as it proveth not that the Earth is a Sinner or that the Herbs and Trees of the Field are sinners for even these things have suffered by Adam's fall a great decay And as for the outward Death of those that are saved from Eternal Death it is rather a Sleep The outward and eternal Death than a Death as Christ said concerning Lazarus he sleepeth And concerning the Maid she is not dead but sleepeth And therefore that Scripture Rom. 6.23 cannot be applied to them who dye not or perish not eternally for though the Saints lay down the outward man is not as the punishment or reward of their Sins which are forgiven and from which they are delivered And so the sting of Death being taken away in those who are saved it is not that Death which is the Wages of Sin And seeing the Apostle said unto the Saints that all things were theirs even Death it cannot be that their Death should be reckoned the Wages of their Sin How many of the blessed Martyrs have looked upon their Suffering a most violent Death for Truth and Righteousness as a Gift of God How then could it be said to be the Wages of their Sins which implys as if their Sins were not all freely forgiven Page 48. From this Doctrine thou say'st it will follow First That all Infants that dye in their Infancy are saved and though Charity may be pleaded for this Opinion thou say'st yet what Scripture can be alledged for it Infants dying how saved Answ. If I should bring that Scripture Suffer little Children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven It will much more naturally flow from the words than that they ought to be sprinkled which is the meaning
Scriptures He Answers First That it was a singular extraordinary thing and so supposeth they might have been preserved Secondly He demands What were the hazzard to aver that they were wanting in that which they ought to have had As to the First it is but an Evasion without proof what singular and extraordinary thing is in some of Paul's Epistles which are concerning his outward occasions And if the last be admitted as I find he fears he will be forced to do it overturns his Example of Clean water passing through an unclean Pipe or else he must acknowledge the Scriptures are defiled because they come through the Apostles whom his Principles obliges him to believe not to have been perfect In his Seventh Head pag. 74. he summarily passes over and that by large omissions what is contained in the 44 45 46 and 47 pages of my last which if the Reader do but review he may easily discover that silly shift which he useth to wit That he means to be thrifty of his Paper in answering the Quakers Self-advancing Words Seeing he is such a good Manager of his Paper he might have bestowed some of that he has lavished in the large Capital Titles of his many Heads and Sections to shew the Impertinency or Vanity of my words and then he might have been the better credited after he has omitted my Answer wherein I clear the Quakers from that Calumny of exalting themselves shewing they do therein no more than all other professions have done and do do He adds with a great Exclamation Oh! it is intolerable Pride to vilifie all the Saints and Servants of God in the World and to shut them out from being of Christ's stock A strange Inference according to which we must conclude that because Luke called Theophilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke called Theophilus most good or most good that therefore there was none good but he W. M. will do well to go back to the Grammar-School and there learn the natures of Degrees of Comparison and when he has instructed himself there he may next look over his Logicks and there he will find that Majus minus non variat speciem i. e. Less or more of a thing changeth not its nature or kind I suppose he will not deny but there are several sorts of Christians who though they do all profess Christianity yet are more or less pure in their Doctrine Discipline or Practice Is it not upon this score that the Calvinist hath separated from the Lutheran and the Presbyter from the Episcopalian Certainly W. M. himself lookt upon Independency as more pure than Presbytery when he separated with the Congregationists at Aberdeen and Communicated a-part with them and yet his practice now sheweth that he doth not exclude even Episcopacy from Christ's Stock though his Independant and Presbyterian Brethren do look upon it if not within the Walls at least in the Suburbs of Rome Neither is this Calumny against us as if we trusted in our selves that we were Righteous and despised others for so he mis-applieth the parable Luke 18.9 any other than the same which those of Rome used against the first Reformers to wit they were Proud and Boasters as if all the World had been in darkness before them Or as if they were Wiser than all the Doctors and Fathers of the Church seeking to innvovate the Order thereof which had been Confirmed by the Unanimous Consent of so many Generations It is observable How here as in other places he is so ready to lay claim to the Protestant Churches alledging That in disdain I call them their flocks which is utterly false I speak of their flocks as inferiour to the People called Quakers in point of Mortification but that I intended thereby the Protestant Churches is but his groundless Conjecture I let him understand I look not upon their flocks as deserving the name of Protestants Some Protestants degenerated in Time-Servers and that because of their shameless degenerating from such as were first so called among whom as I freely confess there were several of a heavenly and spiritual Conversation So I look upon W.M. and his Brethrens laying claim unto them but as the Jews boasting of Abraham as their Father After the same dis-ingenuous manner he concludes That the Persons he spoke of in his Dialogue as having such notable Enjoiments of and Communion with God were from Quakerism c. but answers not a word of page 28. of mine where I shew that those Professors agreed with us in many of these things wherein W.M. and his Brethren oppose us but particularly in the matter of the Spirit 's immediate Teaching It is then likely they would have been far from us especially considering that several who have received and owned the Quakers Testimony at Aberdeen are such who were the most Intimate Friends even in Spiritual Matters with these Professors whereas W. M. and some other of his Brethren who walked also among them that are not come to own the Quakers are degenerated and gone back unto that which all of them acknowledged to be Antichristian For which their gross backsliding and degenerating to use rightly his own mis-applied instance it is without doubt these Professors would have lookt upon him and his Brethren as Monstrous and abhorred their Treacherous Time-serving Turnings with the greatest detestation Head 8. page 77. He avers us to be guilty of Equivocating and that because we say We are for Baptism and yet are against Baptism with Water The corrupt Acceptation of the word Baptism denied The reason alledged is because Baptism is commonly understood of Baptism with water and therefore to understand it otherways he concludes is to speak lies in hypocrisie c. But this Conclusion is founded upon a Supposition denied by us and therefore it is a meer begging of the thing in question For since we deny that Common because corrupt Acceptation of the word Baptism and give it the true one as in its place shall be shewn therefore we are not obliged to put another meaning upon it than we are perswaded it ought to be understood But this Calumny against us as Equivocators or Liars W.M. hath also borrowed from the Papist who used to upbraid the Protestants for saying They were for or of the Catholick Church Because the Papist will have the Church of Rome only to be the Catholick Church but the Protestants denied her to be so and therefore would not call her so even as we deny the sprinkling with water to be Baptism and therefore will not account it that which it is not but reserve the name to that which truly is the thing according to the Scriptures The like may be said of the Lord's Supper I mean that which is so called Head 9. page 78. Because he can produce nothing against my Concession of singing of Psalms he suspects I mean not honestly and that because none of his spies whom he sends to our Meetings have had
occasion to be witnesses to our practice in this thing which says just nothing Why might not W. M. his Intelligencers fail him in this as well as his Brother 's David Lyall did in telling him That there was not one word spoken among the Quakers at their Meeting the 3 d of the 11 th Month 1670. Which though a manifest untruth in matter of Fact he spared not to bring forth in his Chair of Verity upbraiding the Magistrates as if God had miraculously sent an Officer to stop or impede our Worship though they had refused to do it J. Nailor's sincere Repentance The Story of J. Nailor which he subjoins any may observe to be meerly brought in to render us Odious and fill up the paper though indeed it tends no ways to our disadvantage he being in that thing and at that time altogether denied by us and hath since in print freely acknowledged his fall in that hour of Temptation of whose sincere Repentance and true return to the fellowship of the Truth we have had many evident tokens whereas were we to retort we could find a Thousand to one among your Church-members many whereof are daily knit up for Thieving Murder c. and some burnt for Witchcraft without the least sense of true Repentance For to vindicate their manner of singing with a mixt Multitude he alledgeth That all men yea all the Earth are called to praise God And though all be called to do so Singing by whar Instrument it is acceptable yet there are things absolutely needful previous to this duty And granting their want of praising to be sinful yet the way to prevent this evil is to come first to that wherein they may be in a capacity to do it acceptably Therefore saith the Apostle I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also 1 Cor. 14.15 Where he speaks of singing he always subjoins the Instrument wherewith it is altogether needful that we take it And that the same may be urged in the case of Praying without any absurdity in its place shall be shewn He says It is no more a lie to use words in singing which sute not our condition such as I water my Couch with tears My heart is not haughty than to read them But there is a great difference betwixt Reading and Singing in Reading we but relate the Conditions and Actions of others as wholly distinct and extrinsick from our selves but in Singing we do really address our selves to God as in Prayer and it is no less a lie to sing to God words that sute not our Condition than to pray with them The Saints in Scripture used such expressions as did sute the present posture of their hearts in their Spiritual Songs see Luke 1.46 and 2.29 He shall not find me in the whole Bible where they borrowed or sealed the Expressions of others Experience which no ways suted their own Condition this is a meer human Invention which has its original from the Romish Vespers and Mattins and from no other foundation Head 10. Concerning Baptism page 81. he alledgeth That John distinguisheth not the matter of his Baptism from Christ but only his work But his proof for this overthrows himself For since as he says truly John could only administer Baptism with water John's Baptism and Christ's differ in the Matter and End but Christ with the Spirit this sheweth them to have differed in the matter for without doubt John could administer the matter of his own Baptism And whereas I told him they differed in the End because the one pointed to the other even as the shadow pointed to the substance Instead of replying to this he tells me That the Scripture speaking of John 's Baptism calls it the Baptism of Repentance intimating its End was to signifie and seal Remission of Sins which likewise is the End of Christ's Baptism As this no ways answers my Argument so it makes nothing to the purpose for it is one thing to signifie Repentance and Remission of Sins and far another to know and possess it which is the End and constant fruit of Christ's Baptism Gal. 3.27 As many of you saith the Apostle as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. And therefore it may be observed that without any proof he concludes that John's Baptism and Christ's agree both in the Matter and End Page 82. As a Reply to Acts 19.2 cited by me to shew And Substance that they differed in substance he saith The meaning is not that they were ignorant of the Person of the Holy Ghost Contrary to the very express scripture-Scripture-words viz. We have not so much as heard if there be any Holy Ghost He saith further That the Apostles did not a-new baptize such Persons that had been baptized with the Baptism of John In direct Contradiction to the scripture-Scripture-words verse 5. When they heard this they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus W. M. contradicts the Scriptures And when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came upon them Now verse 3. sheweth That they were baptized unto John's Baptism before so let him clear himself here of giving the Scripture the Lie if he can Section 2. page 83. To prove the perpetuity of Water-Baptism he begins with that often answered Argument of the Apostle's practice adding That though Christ Matth. 28. doth not mention Baptism with Water so neither with the Spirit alledging That thus the one may be excluded as well as the other Answ. Seeing Christ commanded them to baptize it cannot be denied but it was with his own Baptism which is that of the Spirit He adds That if Baptism of the Spirit were intended it would infer a needless Tautology in the Command of Christ as being all one with these words Go Teach Answ. Teaching and making men holy and righteous are different things Water-Baptism not commanded by Christ. For he will grant that he and his Brethren have been Teaching People these several years and yet he will have much ado to prove all their Church-members are really made Righteous and Holy Why then doth he account these two one reckoning it a Tautology to express them severally A little after he insinuates and that most falsly That I deny Peter's commanding Cornelius to be baptized Concealing my express words page 31. which are these And though it be said ver 48. that he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of Christ yet it holds forth no Command from Christ only the thing being agreed upon that it might be done he bid do it This he hath left un answered And whereas he adds That doing things in the Name of Christ is as much as his Command He bringeth no proof for giving but not granting it did hold so Matth. 18.20 in the case of Meeting that will not prove it is always so taken To evict my Objection against any determinate Commission the Apostles had of Baptizing
determination by the Holy Ghost or that we should continue in the use of Circumcision He addeth That Washing of one anothers feet which was expressly commanded was not that we might practice it but only to teach us Humility for this he adds no proof it is only his own Conjecture Upon all which I desire the Reader to observe how W.M. can find shifts to evict those above-said which are expresly commanded by Christ and his Apostles and yet make such a great noise of our forbearing Water-Baptism and the External Supper which are not more particularly pressed So Water-Baptism and the External Supper As also how we can say far more against the Perpetuity of these last than they against the former and yet they clamor against us as if so much as to call the constant use of them in question were to despise the Ordinances of Christ c. He asketh What clearer Command there can be than these words Let a man examine himself and so let him eat But this question does not at all prove these words to imply a Command His folly is observable page 92. where he desires It may be observed That the Corinthians were to be often in the use of it because it is said As often as ye eat c. A rare Argument indeed by which he might conclude that to say as often as a man sins he offends God did import we should sin often It is badly inferred That this thing ought to continue by Divine Authority because the Apostle says 1 Cor. 11.23 That which I received of the Lord have I delivered unto you seeing the very following words declare it to have been the account of the matter of fact which he so received Sect. 1. page 93. He slimly passes what is contained p. 34. of mine alledging I let off my great Guns but make a noise without any spoil The Reader by comparing these pages together will easily observe his lurking in this particular To my Question What the One Bread is spoken of 1 Cor. 10.15 16. If it be the outward or the inward He Answers It is both the inward and the outward and yet but one in respect of the Sacramental Union which is between the sign and the thing signified Now to this I answered in the end of page 34. of my last that it cannot be called one because of the agreement betwixt the sign and the thing signified else by the same Inference one might plead for the Continuance of all the Sacrifices and Offerings and say Discontinued as the Offerings of old they are all one with the one Offering mentioned Hebr. 10.14 because they signified that one Offering And whereas W.M. reckons this a pitiful Evasion saying Any one may see a Non sequitur in it It would have become him better to have proved this by Reason than by his own bare Assertion though any may observe this to be his constant course when other Arguments fail him As he proceeds to prove the Continuance of this Practice he says It cannot be denied there was once a Command for it and there is no Repeal of it But the same recurs in Washing one anothers Feet and Anointing the sick with Oil Jam. 5.14 which were as expresly Commanded and never Repealed And yet W.M. can easily find a gloss to evict these reckoning it a small matter to forbear them He addeth That the Coming of Christ till which the Apostles were injoined to be in the use of the outward Supper must be meant of his outward Coming so many years after because such to whom Christ was come in the Spirit were found in the practice of it But this proves no more its Continuance necessitate Praecepti as he wordeth it than the Circumcising and being Circumcised under the Gospel will prove Circumcision to be binding upon us He concludes saying That surely we are great enemies to our Souls that oppose this Ordinance But answereth not one word of page 35. where I shew how great reason we have to forsake it as also the many Abuses wherewith they have corrupted it it sufficeth him to say That it is meeter to pass it by than to reply unto it For part of it being about the Qualifications of Persons W.M. is loth to tell his Judgment least he should harp upon the old Independent Controversy it is dangerous to touch this string especially while he injoys his Hire under the shadow of Episcopacy Head 12. Concerning the Ministry The Ministry of the Word owned page 96. he hath nothing to say against my affirming that the Quakers own the Ministry of the Word Page 97. speaking of Eph. 4.11 where Paul saith Christ gave some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers He saith The first three are Extraordinary and Temporary the last two Ordinary and Perpetual for this he brings no proof at all but that frequent Argument his own bare Assertion And whereas I told him page 37. of mine That the former three were not ceased citing for proof Calvin who Inst. lib. 4. cap. 3. avers That in his day God raised up Apostles and Evangelists To this he answers not one word As he goes on he repeats my words where I say That though we own the Ministry not to be Common yet that doth not hinder but that any may speak as the Saints are met together according to 1 Cor. 14.31 Asking How I can make out that in that place is meant an ordinary Office Though it might suffice for answer to ask What reason W. M. hath to frame here his distinction of Ordinary and Extraordinary yet it is obvious that the Apostle is here presenting the Ordinary Order of the Church he needed not present an Order to extraordinary Offices for such as are Extraordinarily sent are also instructed how to go about their Office and not limited to set Rules else it were not Extraordinary Page 98. He goeth about to prove this distinction of Mediate and Immediate asking If the Prophets and Apostles were not called immediately And if Timothy was not set apart to the work immediately by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery The Call to the Ministry and laying on of hands What then as the Apostles being called by the Lord did not hinder them from receiving the Approbation and Testimony of the Brethren yea laying on of hands as did Paul who without doubt was as immediately sent as any of the rest Acts 9.17 So Timothy's having the hands of the Presbytery laid on him doth not prove he wanted an inward immediate Call in himself It is without any Proof at all what he subjoins That Paul saying he was an Apostle not by man doth oppose himself to Ordinary Ministers He adds That seeing I say That those who come Preaching the Gospel not in speech only but also in Power and in the Holy Ghost and in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit give sufficient proof that they are called of God he thinks I should have favourable
visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him and for him God hath in these last Days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things Hebr. 1.2 by whom also he made the Worlds Q. These are very clear that even the World was Created by Christ But what Scriptures prove the Divinity of Christ against such as falsly deny the same A. And the Word was God John 1 1. Rom. 9.5 Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Who being in the Form of God thought it no Robbery to be Equal with God Phil 2.6 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an Understanding 1 John 5.20 that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and Eternal Life Q. What are the Glorious Names the Scripture gives unto Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God A And his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor The Mighty God Isai. 9.5 The Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace Who is the Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every Creature Col. 1.15 Who being the Brightness of his Glory and the Express Image of his Person or more properly Hebr. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Greek of his Substance Rev. 19.13 And he was cloathed with a Vesture dipt in Blood and his Name is called The Word of God Q. After what manner was the Birth of Christ Matth. 1.18 A. Now the Birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise When as his Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost And the Angel said unto her Fear not Mary for thou hast found Favour with God And behold thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his Name Jesus He shall be Great and shall be called The Son of the Highest The Birth of Christ. and the Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David Then said Mary unto the Angel How shall this be seeing I know not a Man Luke 1.30 31 32 34 35. And the Angel answered and said unto her The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee Therefore also that Holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Q. Was Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary and supposed to be the Son of Joseph a True and Real Man A. Forasmuch as the Children are Partakers of Flesh and Blood Hebr. 2.14 he also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil For verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels Hebr. 2.16 17. but He took on him the Seed of Abraham wherefore in all things it behoved him To be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a Merciful and Faithful High-Priest c. For we have not an High-Priest Hebr. 4.15 which cannot be Touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all Points tempted as we are yet without Sin And the Gift by Grace which is by one Man Jesus Christ Hebr. 5.15 hath abounded unto many But now is Christ risen from the Dead 1 Cor. 15.20 21. and become the First-Fruits of them that slept for since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead Q. After what manner doth the Scripture assert the Conjunction and Unity of the Eternal Son of God in and with the Man Christ Jesus A. And the Word was made Flesh John 1.14 and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth For he whom God hath sent speaketh the Words of God John 3.34 for God giveth not the Spirit by Measure unto him Now God Anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost Acts 10 38. and with Power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil for God was with him For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.19 For in him dwelleth all the Fulness of the God-head bodily Col. 2.9 In him are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Col. 2.3 Q. For what End did Christ appear in the World A. For what the Law could not do Rom. 8.3 in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh. For this Purpose the Son of God was manifested 1 John 3.8 9. That he might destroy the Works of the Devil And ye know that he was manifested To take away our Sins Q. Was Jesus Christ really Crucified and Raised again A. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received 1 Cor. 15.3 4. how that Christ died for our Sins according to the Scriptures And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures Q. What End do the Scriptures ascribe unto the Coming Death and Sufferings of Christ. Luke 2.30 31 32. A. For mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation which thou hast prepared before the Face of all People A Light to lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of thy People Israel Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God And walk in Love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering Ephes. 5.2 and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savour And having made Peace through the Blood of his Cross by him To Reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven And you that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your minds by wicked Works yet now hath he reconciled in the Body of his Flesh through Death Col. 1.20 21 22. to present you Holy Vnblamable and Vnreprovable in his Sight Hebr. 9.12 14. Neither by the Blood of Goats and Calves but by his own Blood he entered-in once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offer'd himself without Spot to God purge your Consciences from dead Works to serve the Living God 1 Pet. 3.18 For Christ also hath once suffered for Sins the Just for the Unjust that he might bring us to God being put to Death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit 1 John 3 16. Hereby perceive we
10.3 4 5. but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Christ. Q. Ought Strife and Envy to be among Christians No Strife A. Who is a wise Man and endued with Knowledge amongst you Let him shew out of a good Conversation his Works with Meekness of Wisdom But if ye have bitter Envying and Strife in your Hearts James 3.13 14 15 16 17 18. glory not and lie not against the Truth This Wisdom descendeth not from above but is Earthly Sensual Devilish for where Envying and Strife is there is Confusion and every Evil Work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable and easie to be intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisy And the Fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace Q Ought Wars to be among Christians from whence proceed they Nor Wars A. From whence come Wars and Fightings among you Come they not hence even from your Lusts that war in your Members James 4.1 2. Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not Q. What saith Christ even of Defensive War Not Defensive A. But I say unto you that ye Resist not Evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right Cheek turn to him the other also Matth. 5.39 But I say unto you which hear Love your Enemies do good to them which hate you bless them that curse you Luke 6.27 28 29. and pray for them which despitefully use you and unto him that smiteth thee on the one Cheek offer also the other and him that taketh away thy Cloak forbid not to take thy Coat also Q. What say the Apostles A. Recompence to no Man Evil for Evil. Not rendring Evil for Evil or Railing for Railing but contrary-wise Blessing Rom. 12.17 1 Pet. 3.9 knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a Blessing See that none render Evil for Evil unto any Man but ever follow that which is good both among your selves and to all Men. 1 Thess. 5.15 Q. * Oaths and Swearing It was lawful of Old to Swear and an Oath for Confirmation was to them an End of all Strife Is it not Lawful for Christians also to Swear A. Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Matth. 5.33 34 35 36 27. Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths But I say unto you Swear not at all neither by Heaven for it is God's Throne nor by the Earth for it is his Footstool neither by Jerusalem for it is the City of the great King neither shalt thou swear by thy Head because thou canst not make one Hair white or black James 5.12 But let your Communication be Yea Yea Nay Nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of Evil. But above all things my Brethren Swear not neither by Heaven neither by the Earth neither by any other Oath but let your Yea be Yea and your Nay Nay lest ye fall into Condemnation World's Honour Q. Is it fit for Christians or Believers to receive Carnal and Worldly Honour one from another John 5.44 A. How can ye believe which receive Honour one of another and seek not the Honour that cometh from God only Titles Q. Doth God allow us to give flattering Titles to Men Job 32.21 22. A. Let me not I pray you accept any Man's Person neither let me give flattering Titles unto Man for I know not to give flattering Titles in so doing my Maker would soon take me away Q. What should we say to such as quarrel us for speaking proper sound Words Thee and Thou as Thou to one You to many which is Christ and the Saints Language in the Scripture 1 Tim. 6.3 4. A. If any Man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome Words even the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about Questions and Strifes of Words whereof cometh Envy 2 Tim. 1.13 Strife Railings Evil Surmisings Hold fast the Form of sound Words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Q. What is the great Commandment given by Christ to his Disciples as that which even declareth them to be such Love and is also pressed by his Apostles A. A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another John 13.34 35 and 15.12 17. as I have loved you that ye also love one another by this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love to one another This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you These things I command you that ye love one another Be ye therefore Followers of God Eph. 5.1 2. as dear Children and walk in Love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savour If any Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a Liar for he that loveth not his Brother 1 John 4.20 21. whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his Brother also Humility Q. Is Humility very needful to Christians what like must we be e're we can enter the Kingdom A. * Mat. 18.3 4. And said verily verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little Child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven Q. Ought Christians to lord over one another What Rule giveth Christ in this Case A. But Jesus called them unto him and said Ye know Mat. 20.25 26 27 28. that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are Great exercise Authority upon them but It shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be Chief among you let him be your Servant even as the Son of Man came not to be Ministred unto but to Minister and to give his Life a Ransom for many Q. How then are Christians in this World A. Behold I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Mat. 10.16 be ye therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves Go your ways behold I send you forth as Lambs among Wolves Luke 10.3 Q. Are we then to expect Afflictions and Persecutions here Afflictions A. And ye shall be hated of all Men
Flesh is not the same Flesh but there is one kind of Flesh of Men another Flesh of Beasts another of Fishes and another of Birds there are also Celestial Bodies and Bodies Terrestrial but the Glory of the Celestial is one and the Glory of the Terrestrial is another There is one Glory of the Sun and another Glory of the Moon and another Glory of the Stars for one Star differs from another Star in Glory so also is the Resurrection of the Dead it is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption it is sown in Dishonour it is raised in Glory it is sown in Weakness it is raised in Power it is sown a Natural Body it is raised a Spiritual Body There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body Q. The Apostle seems to be very positive that it is not that Natural Body which we now have that shall rise but a Spiritual Body A. * 1 Cor. 15.50 51 52 53 54 55. Now this I say Brethren That Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption Behold I shew you a Mystery We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a Moment in the Twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump for the Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality So when this Corruptible shall have put on Incorruption and this Mortal shall have put on Immortality then shall be brought to pass the Saying that is written Death is swallowed up in Victory O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory CHAP. XV. A Short Introduction to the CONFESSION of FAITH HAving thus largely and evidently performed the chief Part of that which I promised in this Treatise in giving a full account of our Principles in plain Scripture-words and also answering by the Scriptures the chief and main Objections made against us I come to a Confession of Faith in which I shall not be so large for that I judge it not Convenient to make an Interpretation of all the Scriptures before-mentioned which if needful the Reader may easily observe were not very difficult to do But whereas a Confession of Faith called rather for an Affirmative Account of ones own Faith than for the Solution of Objections or any thing of Debate in a Discursive Way which is both more properly and pertinently performed in a Catechism therefore I have here only done so I am necessitated sometimes to intermix some words for Coherence of the Matter as sometimes And and sometimes Therefore and the like but not such as any Ingenuous Person can affirm do add to the Matter or that may any wise justly be reckoned a Comment or Meaning and therefore to avoid the Censure of the most Curious Carping Criticks these are marked with a different Character Likewise unless I should have ridiculously offered to publish incongruous Grammar there was a true need sometimes to change the Mood and Person of a Verb in all which places whosoever will look to the words shall find it is done upon no Design to alter any whit the naked Import of them As for Instance where Christ says I am the Light of the World were it proper for me to write thus I am the Light c. Or can it be reckoned any whit Contradicting of my Purpose and Promise to write Christ is the Light where the first Person is changed to the third Also sometimes I express things which are necessarily understood as when any of the Apostles say We there instead of We I write Apostles and where they say You speaking of the Saints there I mention Saints instead of it for the Connexion of the Sentence sometimes requires it As in the first Article in mentioning that of 1 John 1.5 concerning God's being Light and in such like Cases which I know no impartial Reader would have quarrelled though wanting this Apology which I judged meet to premise knowing there is a Generation who when they cannot find any real or substantial Ground against Truth and its Followers will be Cavilling at such little Niceties therefore such may see this Objection is obviated CHAP. XVI A CONFESSION of FAITH concerning Twenty Three Articles ARTICLE I. Concerning God and the True and Saving Knowledge of him THere is one God a Eph. 4.6 1 Cor. 8.4 6. who is a Spirit b John 4.24 And This is the Message which the Apostles heard of him and declared unto the Saints That he is Light and in him is no Darkness at all c 1 John 1.5 There are Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One d 1 John 1.7 The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father e John 10.38 and 14.10 11. and 5.26 No Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will Reveal him f Matth. 11.27 Luke 10.22 The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God g 1 Cor. 2.10 For the Things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now the Saints have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things which are freely given them of God h 1 Cor. 2.11 12. For the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father sends in Christ's Name he teacheth them all things and bringeth all things to their Remembrance i John 14.26 ARTICLE II. Concerning the Guide and Rule of Christians CHrist prayed to the Father and he gave the Saints another Comforter that was to abide with them for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not nor knoweth him But the Saints know him for he dwelleth with them and is to be in them k John 14.16 17. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God l Rom. 8.9 14. For this is the Covenant that God hath made with the House of Israel He hath put his Laws in their Mind and writ them in their Hearts and they are all taught of God m Hebr. 8.10 11. And the Anointing which they have received of him abideth in them and they need not that any man teach them but as the same Anointing teacheth them of all things and is Truth and is no Lie n 1 John 2.27 ARTICLE III. Concerning the Scriptures WHatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope o Rom. 15.4 which are able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture being given by Inspiration of God and
called with respect to their Animal property and not their Rational or that that Wisdom that is Foolishness with God is not meant of the Rational but only the Animal Property any Rational Man laying aside Interest may easily Judge § IV. I come now to the other part to wit That this Evil and Corrupt Seed is not imputed to Infants until they actually join with it Infants no Sin imputed to them For this there is a Reason given in the End of the Proposition it self drawn from Eph. 2. for these are by nature Children of Wrath who walk according to the Prince of the power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience Here the Apostle gives Their evil walking and not any thing that is not reduced to Act as a Reason of their being Children of Wrath. And this is sutable to the whole strain of the Gospel where no man is ever threatned or judged for what Iniquity he hath not Actually wrought Such indeed as continue in Iniquity and so do homologate the sins of their Fathers God will visit the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children Is it not strange then that men should entertain an Opinion so Absurd in it self and so cruel and contrary to the Nature as well of God's Mercy as Justice concerning the which the Scripture is altogether silent But it is manifest that man hath Invented this Opinion out of Self-love The Absolute Decree of Election springs from Self-love and from that bitter Root from which all Errors spring for the most part of Protestants that hold this having as they fancy the Absolute Decree of Election to secure them and their Children so as they cannot miss of Salvation they make no great difficulty to send all others both old and young to Hell For whereas Self-love which always is apt to believe that which it desires possesseth them with a Hope that their part is secure they are not solicitous how they leave their Neighbours which are the far greater part of mankind in these Inextricable Difficulties The Papists again use this Opinion as an Art to Augment the Esteem of their Church and Reverence of its Sacraments seeing they pretend it is Washed away by Baptism only in this they appear to be a little more Merciful in that they send not these Vnbaptized Infants to Hell but to a certain Limbus concerning which the Scriptures are as silent as of the other This then is not only not Authorized in the Scriptures but Contrary to the express Tenor of it The Apostle saith plainly Rom. 4.15 Where no Law is there is no Transgression And again 5.13 But sin is not imputed where there is no Law To Infants there is no Law so no Transgression Than which Testimonies there is nothing more positive since to Infants there is no Law seeing as such they are utterly Vncapable of it the Law cannot reach but such as have in some measure less or more the Exercise of their Vnderstanding which Infants have not So that from thence I thus argue Sin is Imputed to none where there is no Law But To Infants there is no Law Therefore Sin is not Imputed to them The Proposition is the Apostle's own words the Assumption is thus proved Those who are under a Physical Impossibility of either hearing knowing or understanding any Law where the Impossibility is not brought upon them by any Act of their own but is according to the very Order of Nature appointed by God to such there is no Law But Infants are under this Physical Impossibility Therefore c. Secondly What can be more positive than that of Ezech. 18.20 The Soul that sinneth it shall die the Son shall not bear the Father's Iniquity For the Prophet here first sheweth what is the Cause of man's Eternal Death which he saith is in his Sinning and then as if he purposed Expresly to shut out such an Opinion he assures us The Son shall not bear the Father's Iniquity From which I thus argue Infants bear not Adam's Transgression If the Son bear not the Iniquity of his Father or of his Immediate Parents far less shall he bear the Iniquity of Adam But the Son shall not bear the Iniquity of his Father Therefore c. § V. Having thus far shewn how Absurd this Opinion is I shall briefly Examine the Reasons its Authors bring for it Object 1 First They say Adam was a publick person and therefore all men sinned in him as being in his Loins And for this they Alledge that of Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man Sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned c. These last words say they may be translated in whom all have sinned Answ. To this I answer That Adam is a publick person is not denied and that through him there is a Seed of Sin propagated to all men which in its own Nature is sinful and Inclines men to Iniquity yet will it not follow from thence that Infants who Join not with this Seed are guilty As for these words in the Romans the Reason of the Guilt there alledged is For that all have sinned Now no man is said to Sin unless he actually Sin in his own person for the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well relate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the nearest Antecedent so that they hold forth how that Adam by his Sin gave an Entrance to sin in the World And so death entred by sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. upon which viz. Occasion or in which viz. Death all others have sinned that is actually in their own persons to wit all that were Capable of sinning of which number that Infants could not be the Apostle clearly shews by the following Verse Sin is not imputed where there is no Law and since as is above proved there is no Law to Infants they cannot be here Included Object 2 Their Second Objection is from Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Hence they say it appears that Infants from their Conception are guilty How they infer this Consequence for my part I see not The Iniquity and Sin here appears to be far more Ascribable to the Parents Answ. than to the Child It is said indeed In sin did my Mother Conceive me not My Mother did Conceive me a sinner Conceived in Sin Answer'd Besides that so Interpreted Contradicts expresly the Scripture before-mentioned in making Children guilty of the Sins of their Immediate Parents for of Adam there is not here any mention Contrary to the plain words The Son shall not bear the Father's Iniquity Object 3 Thirdly They Object That the Wages of Sin is death and that seeing Children are subject to diseases and death therefore they must be guilty of sin Answ. I answer That these things are a Consequence of the Fall and of
and enjoyed but as hath been above observed it is by Walking in this Light that we have this Communion and Fellowship not by Walking in John which were Non-sense So that this Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needs be Referr'd to the Light whereof John bears Witness that through that Light wherewith Christ hath lighted every man all men might come to believe Seeing then this Light is the Light of Jesus Christ The Light is Supernatural Saving and Sufficient and the Light through which men come to believe I think it needs not be doubted but that it is a supernatural saving and sufficient Light If it were not Supernatural it could not be properly called the Light of Jesus for though all things be his and of him and from him yet those things which are Common and Peculiar to our Nature as being a part of them we are not said in so special a manner to have from Christ. Moreover the Evangelist is holding out to us here the Office of Christ as Mediator and the Benefits which from him as such do Redound unto us Observ. 2 Secondly It cannot be any of the Natural Gifts or Faculties of our Soul whereby we are said here to be Inlightned because this Light is said to shine in the Darkness and cannot be Comprehended by it Now this Darkness is no other The Darkness is Man's Natural State and Condition but man's Natural Condition and State in which Natural State he can easily Comprehend and doth Comprehend those things that are peculiar and common to him as such That Man in his Natural Condition is called Darkness see Eph. 5.8 For ye were sometimes Darkness but now are ye Light in the Lord. And in other places as Acts 26.18 Col. 1.13 1 Thess. 5.5 where the Condition of man in his Natural State is termed Darkness Therefore I say this Light cannot be any natural property or faculty of man's Soul but a Supernatural Gift and Grace of Christ. Observ. 3 Thirdly It is Sufficient and Saving Arg. 1 That which is given That all men through it may believe must needs be Saving and Sufficient That by Walking in which Fellowship with the Saints and the Blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin is possessed must be Sufficient But such is the LIGHT 1 Joh. 1.7 Therefore c. Moreover That which we are Commanded to believe in that we may become Arg. 2 the Children of the Light must be a Supernatural Sufficient and Saving Principle But we are Commanded to believe in this Light Therefore c. The Proposition cannot be denied The Assumption is Christ's own words Joh. 12.36 While ye have the Light believe in the Light that ye may be the Children of the Light To this they Object Object That by Light here is understood Christ's outward Person in whom he would have them believe That they ought to have believed in Christ that is Answ. that he was the MESSIAH that was to come is not denied but how they Evince that Christ intended that here I see not nay Whether Christ's ouâ—ward Person was the Light the place it self shews the Contrary by these words While ye have the Light and by the verse going before Walk while ye have the Light lest darkness come upon you Which words Import that when that Light in which they were to Believe was Removed then they should lose the Capacity or Season of Believing Now this could not be understood of Christ's Person else the Jews might have believed in him and many did savingly believe in him as all Christians do at this day when the person to wit his bodily Presence or outward man is far removed from them So that this Light The Light of Christ is not Christ's outward Man or Person in which they were commanded to believe must be that Inward Spiritual Light that shines in their hearts for a season even during the Day oâ— man's Visitation which while it continueth to Call Invite and Exhort men are said to have it and may believe in it but when men refuse to believe in it and Reject it then it ceaseth to be a Light to shew them the Way but leaves the sense of their Vnfaithfulness as a Sting in their Conscience which is a Terror and Darkness unto them and upon them in which they cannot know where to go neither can work any ways profitably in order to their Salvation And therefore to such Rebellious ones the Day of the Lord is said to be Darkness and not Light Amos 5.18 From whence it appears that though many Receive not the Light as the Darkness comprehends it not nevertheless this Saving Light shines in all that it may save them Cyrill Alex. Upon Joh. lib 1. cap. 11. Concerning which also Cyrillus Alexandrinus saith well and defends our Principle With great Diligence and Watchfulness saith he doth the Apostle John Endeavour to Anticipate and Prevent the vain Thoughts of men for there is here a wonderful Method of sublime things and Overturning of Objections He had just now called the Son the true Light by whom he Affirmed that every man coming into the world was Inlightned yea that he was in the World and the World was made by him One may then Object If the Word of God be the Light and if this Light Inlighten the hearts of men and suggest unto men piety and the understanding of things if he was always in the World and was the Creator or Builder of the World why was he so long unknown unto the World It seems rather to follow because he was unknown to the World therefore the World was not Inlightned by him nor he totally Light The World knew him not Lest any should so Object he divinely infers and the World knew him not Let not the World saith he Accuse the Word of God and his Eternal Light but it s own Weakness for the Son Inlightens but the Creature Rejects the Grace that 's given unto it and abuseth the sharpness of Understanding granted it by which it might have naturally known God and as a Prodigal hath turned its sight to the Creatures neglected to go forward and through Laziness and Negligence buried the Illumination and despised this Grace Which that the Disciple of Paul might not do he was Commanded to Watch therefore it is to be imputed to their Wickedness The Son Inlightens but Man through Negligence buries Illumination who are Illuminated and not unto the Light For as albeit the Sun riseth upon all yet he that is blind receiveth no benefit thereby none thence can justly accuse the brightness of the Sun but will ascribe the Cause of not seeing to the Blindness So I judge it is to be understood of the Only Begotten Son of God for he is the true Light and sendeth forth his brightness upon all but the God of this World as Paul saith hath blinded the minds of those that believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 that the Light of the
Gospel shine not unto them We say then that Darkness is come upon men not because they are altogether deprived of Light for Nature retaineth still the strength of Vnderstanding divinely given it but because man is dull'd by an Evil Habit and become worse and hath made the measure of Grace in some respect to languish When therefore the like befalls to man the Psalmist justly prays crying Open mine Eyes that I may behold the wonderful things of thy Law For the Law was given that this Light might be kindled in us the Blearedness of the Eyes of our minds being wiped away and the Blindness being removed which detain'd us in our former Ignorance By these words then the World is accused as ungrateful and unsensible not knowing its Author nor bringing forth the good fruit of the Illumination that it may now seem to be said truly of all which was of Old said by the Prophet of the Jews I expected that it should have brought forth Grapes but it brought forth wild Grapes For the good Fruit of the Illumination was the Knowledge of the Only Begotten as a Cluster hanging from a Fruitful Branch c. From whence it appears Cyrillus believed that a Saving Illumination was given unto all For as to what he speaks of Nature he understands it not of the Common Nature of Man by it self Grace no natural Gift but of that Nature which hath the strength of Vnderstanding Divinely given it for he understands this Vniversal Illumination to be of the same kind with that Grace of which Paul makes mention to Timothy saying Neglect not the Grace that is in thee Now it is not to be believed that Cyrillus was so Ignorant as to judge that Grace to have been some Natural Gift Proof II § XXII That this Saving Light and Seed or a Measure of it is given to all Christ telleth expresly in the Parable of the Sower Matth. 13. from vers 18. Mark 4. and Luke 8.11 he saith that this Seed sown in those several sorts of Grounds The Seed of the Kingdom is sown in several sorts of Grounds without Distinction is the Word of the Kingdom which the Apostle calls the Word of Faith Rom. 10.8 James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the implanted ingrafted Word which is able to save the Soul the words themselves declare that it is that which is Saving in the nature of it for in the good Ground it fructified abundantly Let us then observe that this Seed of the Kingdom this Saving Supernatural and Sufficient Word was really sown in the stony thorny ground and by the way side where it did not profit but became useless as to these grounds It was I say the same Seed that was sown in the good Ground It is then the fear of Persecution and deceitfulness of Riches as Christ himself interpreteth the Parable which hindereth this Seed to grow in the hearts of many Not but that in its own Nature it is sufficient being the same with that which groweth up and prospereth in the hearts of those who receive it So that though all are not saved by it yet there is a Seed of Salvation planted and sown in the hearts of all by God which would grow up and redeem the Soul if it were not choked and hindred Concerning this Parable Victor Antiochenus on Mark 4. as he is cited by Vossius in his Pelagian History Book 7. saith That Our Lord Christ hath liberally sown the Divine Seed of the Word and proposed it to all without respect of persons and as he that soweth distinguisheth not betwixt ground and ground but simply casteth in the Seed without distinction so our Saviour hath offered the food of the Divine Word so far as was his part although he was not ignorant what would become of many Lastly he so behaved himself as he might justly say What should I have done than I have not done And to this Answereth the Parable of the Talents Matth. 25. he that had Two Talents was accepted as well as he that had Five because he used them to his Master's Profit And he that had One might have done so his Talent was of the same Nature with the rest it was capable to have proportionably brought forth its Interest as the rest And so though there be not a like proportion of Grace given to all to some Five Talents to some Two Talents and to some but One Talent yet there is given to all that which is Sufficient and no more is required than according to that which is given For unto whomsoever much is given from him shall much be required Luke 12.48 He that had the Two Talents was accepted for giving Four nothing less than he that gave the Ten so should he also that gave the One if he had given Two and no doubt One was capable to have produced Two as well as Five to have produced Ten or Two Four § XXIII Thirdly This Saving Spiritual Light is the Gospel which Proof III the Apostle saith expresly is preached In Every Creature under Heaven even that very Gospel whereof Paul was a Minister Col. 1.23 The Light is the Gospel the Power of God preach'd in every Creature under Heaven For the Gospel is not a meer Declaration of good things being the Power of God unto Salvation unto all those that believe Rom. 1.16 though the outward Declaration of the Gospel be taken sometimes for the Gospel yet it is but figuratively and by a Metonymy For to speak properly the Gospel is this inward Power and Life which preacheth glad Tidings in the hearts of all men offering Salvation unto them and seeking to Redeem them from their Iniquities and therefore it is said to be preached In every Creature under Heaven whereas there are many Thousands of men and women to whom the outward Gospel was never preached Therefore the Apostle Paul Rom. 1. where he saith The Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation adds That therein is revealed the Righteousness of God from Faith to Faith and also the Wrath of God against such as hold the Truth of God in Vnrighteousness for this reason saith he because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them Now that which may be known of God is known by the Gospel which was manifest in them for those of whom the Apostle speaks had no outward Gospel preached unto them so that it was by the Inward Manifestation of the Knowledge of God in them which is indeed the Gospel preached in man that the righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith that is it Reveals to the Soul that which is just good and righteous and that as the Soul receiveth it and believes Righteousness comes more and more to be Revealed from one degree of Faith to another For though as the following verse saith the outward Creation declares the Power of God yet that which may be known of him is manifest within
purpose to make a long digression concerning the Debates among Protestants concerning the first day of the Week commonly called the Lord's day yet forasmuch as it comes fitly in here I shall briefly signifie our sense thereof § IV. We not seeing any ground in Scripture for it Of the first day of the Week commonly called the Lord's Day cannot be so superstitious as to believe that either the Jewish Sabbath now continues or that the First Day of the Week is the Anti-Type thereof or the true Christian Sabbath which with Calvin we believe to have a more Spiritual sense and therefore we know no moral Obligation by the fourth Command or elsewhere to keep the first day of the Week more as any other or any Holiness Inherent in it But first forasmuch as it is most necessary that there be some Time set apart for the Saints to Meet together to Wait upon God and that secondly it is fit at some times they be freed from their other outward Affairs and that Thirdly Reason and Equity doth allow that servants and beasts have some time allowed them to be eased from their continual labour and that fourthly it appears that the Apostles and primitive Christians did use the First Day of the Week for these purposes We find our selves sufficiently moved for these Causes to do so also without superstitiously straining the Scriptures for another Reason which that it is not to be there found many Protestants yea Calvin himself upon the fourth Command hath abundantly evinced And though we therefore Meet and abstain from Working upon this day yet doth not that hinder us from having Meetings also for Worship at other Times § V. Thirdly Though according to the Knowledge of God revealed unto us by the Spirit through that more full Dispensation of Light which we believe the Lord hath brought about in this day we judge it our duty to hold forth that Pure and Spiritual Worship which is acceptable to God and answerable to the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles and likewise to Testify against and deny not only manifest Superstition and Idolatry but also all formal Will-worship which stands not in the Power of God yet I say we do not deny the whole Worship of all those The Worship in th' Apostasy that have born the Name of Christians even in the Apostasy as if God had never heard their prayers nor accepted any of them God forbid we should be so void of Charity The latter part of the Proposition sheweth the Contrary And as we would not be so Absurd on the one hand to conclude because of the Errors and Darkness that many were covered and surrounded with in Babylon that none of their Prayers were heard or accepted of God so will we not be so unwary on the other as to conclude that because God heard and pityed them so we ought to continue in these Errors and Darkness and not come out of Babylon when it is by God discovered unto us The Popish Mass and Vespers I do believe to be The Popish Mass and Vespers Bernard and Bonavent Taulerus Thomas à Kempis have tasted of the Love of God as to the matter of them Abominable Idolatry and Superstition and so also believe the Protestants yet will either I or they affirm that in the darkness of Popery no upright-hearted men though zealous in these Abominations have been heard of God or accepted of him Who can deny but that both Bernard and Bonaventur Taulerus Thomas à Kempis and divers others have both known and tasted of the love of God and felt the Power and Vertue of God's Spirit working with them for their Salvation And yet ought we not to forsake and deny those Superstitions which they were found in The Calvinistical Presbyterians do much upbraid and I say not without Reason the formality and deadness of the Episcopalian and Lutheran Liturgies The Bishops Liturgy and yet as they will not deny but there have been some good men among them so neither dare they refuse but that when that good step was brought in by them of turning the publick prayers into the vulgar Tongues though continued in a Liturgy it was acceptable to God and sometimes accompanied with his Power and Presence yet will not the Presbyterians have it from thence concluded that the Common-Prayers should still continue so likewise though we should confess that through the mercy and wonderful Condescension of God there have been Vpright in heart both among Papists and Protestants yet can we not therefore Approve of their Way in the general or not go on to the upholding of that Spiritual Worship which the Lord is calling all to and so to the testifying against whatsoever stands in the way of it § VI. Fourthly To come then to the State of the Controversy as to the Publick Worship Assemblies of Worship in publick described we judge it the Duty of all to be diligent in the Assembling of themselves together and what we have been and are in this matter our Enemies in Great Britain who have used all means to hinder our Assembling together to worship God may bear witness And when Assembled the great Work of one and all ought to be to Wait upon God and returning out of their own Thoughts and Imaginations to feel the Lord's Presence and know a gathering into his Name indeed where he is in the midst according to his Promise And as every one is thus gathered and so Met together inwardly in their spirits as well as outwardly in their persons there the secret Power and Vertue of Life is known to refresh the Soul and the pure motions and breathings of God's Spirit are felt to arise from which as words of Declaration prayers or praises arise the acceptable Worship is known which edifies the Church and is well-pleasing to God And no man here limits the Spirit of God nor bringeth forth his own cunned and gathered Stuff but every one puts that forth It s Glorious Dispensation which the Lord puts into their hearts and it 's uttered forth not in man's Will and Wisdom but in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power Yea though there be not a word spoken yet is the true Spiritual Worship performed and the Body of Christ edified yea it may and hath often fall'n out among us that divers Meetings have past without one word and yet our Souls have been greatly edified and refreshed and our hearts wonderfully overcome with the secret sense of God's Power and Spirit which without words hath been ministred from one Vessel to another This is indeed strange and incredible to the meer natural and carnally-minded men who will be apt to judge all time lost where there is not something spoken that 's obvious to the outward senses and therefore I shall insist a little upon this subject as one that can speak from a Certain Experience and not by meer hear-say of this wonderful and glorious
furnished with Power to confer Dignities and Offices using the Word You How the Word You came to be used to a Single Person yea and Deifying him with more remarkable Titles concerning which matter we read in the Epistles of Symmachus to the Emperours Theodosius and Valentinianus where he useth these Forms of speaking Vestra Aeternitas Your Eternity Vestrum Numen Your God-head Vestra Serenitas Your Serenity Vestra Clementia Your Clemency So that the Word You in the Plural Number together with the other Titles and Compellations of Honour seem to have taken their rise from Monarchical Government which afterwards by degrees came to be derived to Private Persons The same is witnessed by John Maresius of the French Academy in the Preface of his Clovis Let none wonder saith he that the Word Thou is used in this Work to Princes and Princesses for we use the same to God And of old the same was used to Alexanders Caesars Queens and Empresses The Vse of the Word You when one Person is spoken to was only introduced by these base Flatteries of Men of latter Ages to whom it seemed good to use the Plural Number to one Person that he may imagine himself alone to be equal to many others in Dignity and Worth from whence at last it came to Persons of lower Quality To the same Purpose speaketh also M. Godeau in his Preface to the New Testament Translation I had rather saith he faithfully keep to the express Words of Paul than exactly follow the polished Style of our Tongue therefore I always use that Form of calling God in the Singular Number not in the Plural and therefore I say rather Thou than You I confess indeed that the Civility and Custom of this World require him to be honoured after that manner but it is likewise on the contrary true That the Original Tongue of the New Testament hath nothing common with such Manners and Civility so that not one of these many old Versions we have doth observe it Let not Men believe that we give not Respect enough to God in that we call him by the Word Thou which is nevertheless far otherwise The Word Thou a greater Honour to one than You. for I seem to my self may be by the Effect of Custom more to honour his Divine Majesty in calling him after this Manner than if I should call him after the Manners of Men who are so delicate in their Forms of Speech See how clearly and evidently these Men witness that this Form of Speaking and these profane Titles derive their Origin from the base Flattery of these last Ages and from the delicate Haughtiness of Worldly Men who have invented these Novelties that thereby they might honour one another under I know not what Pretence of Civility and Respect From whence many of the present Christians so accounted are become so perverse in commending most-wicked Men and wicked Customs that the Simplicity of the Gospel is wholly lost so that the giving of Men and Things their own Names is not only worn out of Custom but the doing thereof is accounted absurd and rude by such kind of delicate Parasites who desire to ascribe to this Flattery and abuse the Name of Civility Moreover that this way of speaking proceeds from a High and Proud Mind hence appears because that Men usually use the Singular Number to Beggars and to their Servants yea and in their Prayers to God Thus the Superior will speak to his Inferior who yet will not bear that the Inferior so speak to him as judging it a kind of Reproach unto him So hath the Pride of Men placed God and the Beggar in the same Category I think I need not use Arguments to prove to such as know congruous Language that we ought to use the Singular Number speaking to one which is the common Dialect of the whole Scripture as also the most Interpreters do translate it Seeing therefore it is manifest to us that this form of speaking to Men in the plural number doth proceed from Pride as well as that it is in it self a lie we found a necessity upon us to testifie against this corruption by using the singular equally unto all And albeit no reason can be given why we should be persecuted upon this account especially by Christians who profess to Follow the Rule of Scripture whose Dialect this is yet it would perhaps seem incredible if I should relate how much we have suffered for this thing and how these proud ones fume Scripture 's Dialect the plain Language fret and gnash their Teeth frequently beating and striking us when we speak to them thus in the singular number Whereby we are the more confirmed in our judgment as seeing that this Testimony of Truth which God hath given us to bear in all things doth so vex the serpentine nature in the Children of darkness § VI. Secondly Next unto this of Titles the other part of Honour used among Christians is the Kneeling Bowing to Men c. Bowing and Vncovering of the Head to one another I know nothing our Adversaries have to plead for them in this matter save some few instances of the Old Testament and the Custom of the Countrey The first are such as Abraham 's bowing himself to the Children of Heth and Lot to the two Angels c. But the practice of these Patriarchs related as matter of Fact are not to be a Rule to Christians now Neither are we to imitate them in every Practice which has not a particular Reproof added to it For we find not Abraham reproved for taking Hagar c. and indeed to say All things were lawful for us The Custom of the Nations no Rule to Christians which they practised would produce inconveniencies obvious enough to all And as to the Customs of the Nations it 's a very ill argument for a Christian's practice We should have a better Rule to walk by than the custom of the Gentiles the Apostle desires us Not to be conformed to this World c. We see Rom. 12. ver 2. how little they have to say for themselves in this matter Let it be observed then whether our Reasons for laying aside these things be not considerable and weighty enough to uphold us in so doing First We say That God who is the Creator of man and he to whom he oweth the dedication both of Soul and Body is over all to be worshipped and adored and that not only by the Spirit but also with the prostration of Body Now Kneeling Bowing and uncovering of the Head is the alone outward signification of our Adoration towards God and therefore it is not lawful to give it unto man Bowing is Adoring and is only Gods ' He that kneeleth or prostrates himself to man what doth he more to God He that boweth and uncovereth his Head to the Creature what hath he reserved to the Creator Now the Apostle shews us that the uncovering of the
All which they barely assert but do not offer to prove Again they say It is but a meer Action and applicatio agentis ad passum But how do they prove it Here they are as dumb as Stones Perhaps they think to prove it because Manifestation is a Nomen Verbale which commonly being derived from the Active Verb signifieth an Action but this is meerly to play in words and not to Dispute for they may as well say because the whole World is called the Creation for Creation is an active verbale therefore the whole World is a meer Action or Applicatio agentis ad passum We deny not but the Action or Motion which proceeds from the Spirit of God may also be called a Manifestation but we say the Seed it self is also a Manifestation and those inward heavenly Refreshments which God ministers unto the Souls of his Saints are as real substantial spiritual Manifestations of his goodness as the outward earthly Refreshments to wit Meat and Drink are real substantial natural Manifestations Lastly they query If the Manifestation be a Substance whether is it One Manifestation or all the Manifestations To this we Answer They that please to call the Action or Motion which proceeds from the Spirit of God as an Efficient Cause a Manifestation may easily distinguish Manifestation as it is a Principle or quid permanens or as it is an Action or quid transiens Now to Apply we say The substantial Manifestations of God inwardly to our souls are many as they are quid permanens and per modum principii for as God nourisheth our outward Man not with Bread and Drink once only but often and many are our outward refreshments all which are Substances agreeing in this that they are Manifestations and pledges of Gods bounty unto us so doth he nourish our inward Man with spiritual Bread and Drink not once only but often giving us daily the Super-substantial Bread as the words in the Prayer may be translated and have been by some Learned Men. And thus we have answered their last Argument in their § 5. without recurring to any Idea Platonica a Term they vainly bring in to their Argument to move People to laugh at their Folly And thus we hope it is apparent that we have no need to retract our Answers given in the Dispute as they vainly imagin It would be more labour and expence of Time and Paper than the thing is worth to answer them in all their pitiful ridiculous Reasonings in these matters in every particular Therefore not to weary the Reader nor mispend Time we shall set down some few clear distinct Propositions which shall clearly Answer any seeming Difficulties alledged by them in this whole Section as in relation to Christ. 1. Proposition The Word or Son of God hath the whole intire Prop. i. nature of Man Spirit Soul and Body united to him in the Heavens and he is the same in Substance what he was upon Earth both in Spirit Soul and Body 2. Christ in us or the Seed is not a third spiritual Nature distinct Prop. ii from that which was in the Man Christ Jesus that was crucified according to the Flesh at Jerusalem For the same that is in us was and is in him and as it is in him it s the fulness or Spring of the same in us as the Stream nor is there any difference but such as is betwixt the Spring and the Stream which are one in their nature and substance 3. We say that the same Seed and Life is in us which was in Prop. iii. him and is in him in the fulness as Water is in the Spring and in us as the Stream and this Seed and spiritual Nature which is both in him and us doth belong to him as he is the second Adam or Man Christ. Therefore this Seed being in us the Man Christ is in us not according to his whole Manhood but according unto that which is proper unto it and yet without all division As the natural Life is in all the Members but more principally in the Head and Heart without any Division so this Spiritual Life and nature is both in Christ our Head and in us by which he dwelleth in us as the Spirit of Man doth in the Body and we eat and partake of his Flesh. 4. But if they argue that at least Christ hath three Natures in Prop. iv himself we say Their own Principle will Conclude that as much as ours For the Godhead is One Nature the Nature of the Soul is a Second and the Nature of the Body is the Third and our Adversaries themselves teach that as God is Three Persons in One Nature so Christ is Three Natures in One Person 5. Although the Word or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should assume into Vnion with Prop. v. it self not only Two Natures but Three it should not make either Two or Three Christs but One. For they grant that the Word hath assumed two to wit the Soul and Body of the Man Christ and yet he is not two Christs but One even as the King is but One King although he possess Three Kingdoms for Ad multiplicationem Obliquorum non multiplicantur Concreta As your Logick teacheth 6. The Seed and Spiritual Body of Christ both in him and in us belonging to Christ as he is the Second Adam is as really and immediately Prop. vi united unto the Word as his outward Body was for the whole Manhood of Christ was united to the Logos and the Logos to it and in it therefore the Sufferings of this Seed and Spiritual Body of Christ in us are as really his Sufferings as these He accomplished at Jerusalem Prop. vii 7. This Seed is not our Souls but is a Medium betwixt God and us and our Vnion with God is but Mediate through this whereas the Vnion of God with this is Immediate Therefore none of us are either Christ or God but God and Christ are in us Prop. viii 8. Seeing this Seed and Spiritual Nature of Christ is one and the same both in him and in us it is most unreasonable to argue that there are as many Christs as Men as it is unreasonable to argue that because the Soul of Man is in all his Members that therefore as many Members as many Souls The Element of the Air is but one only Element although it fill the whole Vniverse betwixt the Stars and the Earth And the Element of Water is but one although it fill many Channels Prop. ix 9. Christ outwardly dyed but once but inwardly he dieth in a Spiritual and Mystical Sense as often as any Crucify him to themselves by their Unfaithfulness and Disobedience as the Scriptures declare Prop. x. 10. As for the Satisfaction of Christ without us we own it against the Socinians and that it was Full and Compleat in its kind yet not so as to exclude the real Worth of the Work and Sufferings of Christ in us nor his present
the National Teachers concerning Water-Baptism we mean the National Teachers into all the World and teach the Nations who do not so much as believe the Gospel historically If they say This was a Command to the Apostles and not to them Why are they so partial as to take one part to them and reject another But we shall now come to a more particular Examination of their Major We have told them That the Apostles baptized some with Water out of a Condescendency as Paul circumcised Timothy and not from that Command Matth. 28. which saith nothing of Water-Baptism Their First Reason against this is They should have Baptized with Water of their own Will and without any sufficient Authority But we deny this Consequence and they themselves have furnished us with a sufficient Answer where they say Paul Circumcised Timothy but not without a Command for the Law of Charity and other General Precepts obliged Paul so to do though it was a thing indifferent of itself The same we say as to their Baptizing with Water The Jews having so great an Esteem of Water-Baptism and thinking it necessary the Apostles used it although it was a thing indifferent of it self after Christ's Ascension and giving of the Holy Ghost the Law of Charity and other general Precepts obliging them But this proveth not That the Apostles had any Command from Matth. 28. or any such Command any where else that made Water-Baptism of it self to be a Necessary Duty to the End of the World And whereas they Query Will G. K. grant that it was once lively We answer Yes under John Yet it followeth not that it was to Continue because John had no Commssion to the Nations but only to the Jews And that the Apostles Baptized whole Families and Thousands if they so did will not prove that it was Necessary of it self more than that Circumcision was and yet even then many Thousands of believing Jews were Zealous for Circumcision see Act. 21.20 21. Yea many Bishops of Jerusalem were Circumcised after this as Eusebius relates A Condescension in the Apostles by Water-baptism The Reason therefore was That People were Zealous of Water-Baptism because of John and therefore the Apostles Condescended to it out of the Law of Charity Another Question they make Where is Water-Baptism buried We answer where the other Shadows are Buried For it was but a Shadow and Carnal Ordinance Heb. 9.10 the Greek Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again the true Water-Baptism hath been out of use all the Time of the Apostasy for the Apostate Church hath had no true Baptism and so in that respect it hath been Buried And being but a Shadow is not to be raised up again And it is observable That in the Revelation where it is prophesied of the Return and Restauration of the Church there is not any thing mentioned of the Restoring either Water-Baptism or the use of Bread and Wine as Signs c. And so their Second Reason is answered That Water-Baptism is no more to be used out of Condescendency to the Weak than Circumcision because both are long ago buried And what is buried is deadly to be raised up again as Augustin taught Their Third Reason is built on a Mistake That the Godhead of Christ or Names of Father Son and Holy Ghost were a stumbling-block to the believing Jews For of these only we are to be understood Also That the Apostles used the Words Father Son and Holy Ghost when they baptized cannot be proved far less used they the Word Trinity which was not invented long after the Apostles Days Their Second Argument That the Baptism Commanded in Matth. 28.16 is with Water resolves at last into this That it is God only and not Man who baptizes with the Holy Ghost because he is only the proper immediate efficient Cause of Baptism with the Holy Ghost But we deny the Consequence as Weak and False For there is nothing more usual The Effect ascribed unto the Instrumental Cause which is the Principal than to ascribe the Effect unto the Instrumental Cause as truly as unto the Principal Paul was sent to turn or convert the Gentiles from Darkness to Light and to open their Eyes and yet God only was the Proper and Immediate Efficient Cause of this Many more Examples could be given yea the same Reason of the Students would militate against Teaching For even outward Teaching which is by the Motion of the Holy Ghost hath a Power and Vertue in it whereof the Men who Teach are but the Instrumental Conveyers that is only from God as the Immediate Efficient Cause Another Reason they give to make all sure as they say is That it is only Christ as he is God and mightier than John who baptized with the holy Ghost Matth. 3.11 where Baptism with the Holy Ghost is peculiarly attributed to Christ. But this makes their Matter nothing more sure for although that Baptism with the Holy Ghost be peculiarly attributed to Christ as the principal Cause yet it hindereth not that Men are the Instrumental Even as Christ said It is not ye that speak and yet they also spake as Instruments It is true that John did not Baptize with the Holy Ghost as the Apostles did or rather Christ through them because John had not so powerful a Ministry given him as the Apostles of whom Christ said that they should not only do as great Works as he but greater to wit by his Power Again they Argue That giving and not granting that Baptism with the Holy Ghost could be administred by Men yet it is not Commanded here for the Words then would be full of needless Tautologies To this we Answer That this doth not follow For suppose That by Teaching and Baptizing were meant one thing how usual is it in Scripture to express one thing under divers Names without any Tautology However we believe That by Teaching and Baptizing are meant two several Things both which require the special Operation of the Holy Spirit For a Man through Teaching by the Concurrence of the Holy Ghost is first of all Convinced of the Truth and hath a ground laid in him to believe and then he is Baptized with the Holy Ghost upon his believing and obeying in what he is Convinced of Nor is this to confound the Command with the Promise for the Sense of it is this Go ye and Baptize with the Holy Ghost Instrumentally and I shall be with you as the Principal Cause to concur and assist you and thus there is no Tautology the Command and the Promise being in diverso genere id est in a different kind Their next Argument to prove John's Baptism ceased the Reason why That Water-Baptism is to continue to the End of the World is That God sent John to baptize with Water and Christ caused John to baptize him and commanded or causâ—ed his Apostles to Baptize with Water and these Commands were never formally Repealed nor
only for Rejecting the true God and his Law and introducing new and strange Gods Their other proof is from Zech. 13.1 2 c. where it is said That the Fathers and the Mothers of the false Prophets shall say unto them Thou shalt not live and thrust them through when they prophesy This is so far from being taken literally that the Students dare not take it so themselves else the Father and the Mother might do the business without troubling the Magistrate And afterwards the Text speaks of those Who were not to live of their having Wounds in their hands and being alive which shews the Vnderstanding here is to be Spiritual And seeing the Students do not understand it literally of the Persons to whom the Text ascribes this Coercing and that there is not the least word of a Magistrate in the place for them to affirm that it is not to be understood of the Magistrate is but miserably to Beg the Question They begin their 8th Sect. pag. 126. Affirming That Quakerism tends to Anarchy and Confusion Quakers are not against Magistracy and Treason alledging We would pull down the Magistrate if we could and set up our own spiritual Magistrates as John of Leyden c. For this Malitious Insinuation they give no Reason but such an one as destroys it to wit Our giving in Resist not evil pluck not up the Tares as Repeals of some Laws in the Old Test. Now let Men of Reason judge whether Treason be the Tendency of these Mens Principles that Affirm Evil is not to be resisted Or how these can do Violence to the Magistrate without Contradicting their Principles And then it cannot be the Tendency of them And whereas they Conclude saying That Quakerism as they Conceive beyond all doubt tends to Anarchy Confusion of State and Treason Their Conceptions are very false in this matter The Fraternity of the Students Trumpeters of Wars and Confusions and we may upon far better Grounds Retort this upon the Students Confraternity the Clergy who through their Ambition and Turbulency did from the Pulpits blow the Trumpet of all the late Confusion and Treason in the Civil Wars and shew themselves Exact Disciples of John of Leyden acting his Pranks upon the Stage of Great Britain a Charge they have not to lay to the Quakers Their next Effort is to prove We deny the necessity of Professing Christianity because we believe those not bound to believe the History of Christ from whom God hath necessarily with-held the knowledge of it For they Confess That we believe those obliged to believe them to whom they are Revealed But they must here also Act like themselves in making that a horrible Crime in us which their own Chief Doctors Affirm who being pressed by the Arminians with this Argument That which every Man is bound to believe is true But every Man is bound to believe that Christ died for them Therefore it is true They deny the Minor plainly Affirming that those that have not heard of Christ are not bound to believe he died for them so according to the Students themselves are guilty of denying the Necessity of professing Christianity as well as we But further they say We are guilty of this because we set up a new Christ in every Man that is born and grows up unto a perfect substantial Birth Christ within is no new Christ. As their first Charge in this matter hits at their own Doctors so this second is common with us to the Apostle Paul for the Students Dispute like blind Men striking at Random that heed not what they hit seeing the Apostle calls Christ within of which we speak the Hope of Glory which is neither a New Christ nor yet another than He that died at Jerusalem who did travel that he might be brought forth in the Galatians and calls him the New Man born in and put on by others So if in this the Apostle did not deny the outward Sufferings of Christ neither do we unless the Students can shew how our Doctrine differs from his or Contradicts it which they have not yet attempted to do As for that Question of J. Penington How can outward Blood Cleanse We refer them to his own Book in Defence of that Expression as quarrelled by J. Hicks called The Flesh and Blood of Christ Of which there were divers printed Copies at Aberdeen before the Students Book was put to the Press The CONCLUSION Wherein their Observations upon R. B. his Offer and their last Section of the Quakers Revilings as they term them are Examined IN the End of the Account of our Dispute I renewed an Offer to the Preachers of Aberdeen as being the Persons we were principally concerned withal giving the Reasons therefore and shewing the good Effects that might proceed there-from as in the same Offer may be seen At this the Students seem to have gone Mad and Fret and Fume like Persons possessed alledging I betake my self to Railing as my last Refuge But whether there be any Railing in that Offer is left to the Judicious Reader to Examine The Students notwithstanding their Clamours give not one Instance of it but whether they have any better Reason to Answer it withal than Railing let the Reader judge For upon this occasion pag. 127 128. they call me Vain and Arrogant The Students Railing Expressions and Lies like a very Thraso Ignorant and Foolish one whose Weakness and Ignorance is renowned a bold Barker but a soft Biter These are the Modest Young men that profess to be against Railing that say in their Preface They have abstained from personal Criminations and have not rendred evil for evil And with this their unreasonable Railing they mix in a Company of Lies as that Insinuation As if the Theses had been written by G. K. which is a false Calumny they are dared to prove Like unto which is what follows That I provoked all Europe sought Dispute in divers places from any who would without distinction Vpon the Account of this Printed Provocation boasted and gloried that I had got no Dispute which contain as many Lies almost as Words for which they offer not the least Proof Afterwards as an Instance of my Cowardliness and vain Boasting they say I with G. K. fled and deserted a Dispute appointed betwixt us and R. G. my Vncle at the Cross of Elgin Which is utterly false neither G. K. nor I ever spake with R. G. about such a matter nor made any Appointment with him Yea R. G. hath under his Hand declared that being by a Friend of his desired he refused to Debate with us in relation to these Theses nor was there any such Appointment ever made known to us So the Reader may see whether these Credible Witnesses that Attested their Accompt be any better here than those Credible Informers from whom they had this great Vntruth As they proceed they give themselves the Lie for after many needless Words of which it is
Catechism a good part whereof he hath Transcribed and Inserted in his Book albeit it had been a great deal Easier to have cited the Chapters and Referred to them the Book being so Common but it seems it pleaseth the Man's Humour to see a great Bulk go under his Name however it be filled up And 4. Lastly If his many Perversions be considered wherein he either wilfully or ignorantly mistakes my Meaning and sets up to himself a Man of Straw and then batters at it I say this being laid aside which takes up no small part of his work will make a Considerable Abatement Now all these things considered and all this superfluous and chaffy Stuff being laid aside which is little or nothing to the purpose the Reader will find that what remaineth will go into a pretty Narrow Compass and bear no great Disproportion if any at all with these my Observations J. B.'s Introduction with Malitious Railings ¶ 4. But ere I make an End of this Section I judge it needful to take some notice of his Epistle where the manner of his Introduction is very odd Men use to be sober and moderate that write Controversies in the beginning at least and not seek to prepossess the Reader with Prejudice against their Adversaries until by the Strength of their Reasons they have proved them to deserve it but this Man is so full fraughted with Malice and so in love with Railing that he cannot forbear the first Page where we have him calling us Locusts of whose Ministry the Devil makes use only Masculine in Malice against Christ c. Breathing forth nothing but that Putrid Poison that innate Serpentine Venom c. And of this Strain is the whole of his Epistle where we are termed Apostate-Quakers Renegado-Quakers c. Pag. 2. 3. But methinks it should have been more Rational to have forborn this until he had proved us such and not to have begun thus to Rail without the least Probation But however this may take with Malitious or Credulous Persons it will give the Judicious a sufficient Tast of the Nature of his Work and we are not affraid of great Prejudice by this kind of Arguing But as he goes on he gives us a clear Specimen of what Spirit he is of and abundantly shews that if either he had Power or were Able to Influence the Magistrate thereunto he would have saved himself the Labour of all this Confutation by making short in Cutting us all off His Persecuting Spirit For since he Represents us not only as the worst and vilest of Hereticks but as the sworn and most-desperate Enemies of Jesus Christ in all his Offices we need not doubt considering his Judgment expressed in the Case of Liberty of Conscience what he would have done with us And albeit it might have been judged that in Prudence he should have let it alone until that place where it seemed to be most proper and only might be Inferred by way of Consequence yet in this as in most other things his Malice out does his Prudentials and therefore he cannot let three Pages pass and that in the Epistle till he discover his Temper in this For there he tells us a Story of a Turk who caused punish a Jew for blaspheming of Christ to the shame of Christians who have not so much Zeal c. and a Redress of this saith he is called for at the Hands of one and other according to their Place and Station The Language of this is sufficiently understood and beareth no small Reflection upon Magistrates as not being so forward to Persecute as J. B. would have them And if we consider that Flood of Railing that follows the Application is easie and then as he goes on he takes a very convenient way that he may Rail securely and Calumniate without fear of being discovered For he would Fright People from so much as Coming near us yea he will have all fleeing from us more hastily than from Persons having the black Botch such is his Comely Expression yea and under the dreadful hazzard of Incurring Anathema Maranatha so much as to enter into a Friendly Communing with us give us the least token of Kindness and Affection by word or deed What! not Feed us if ready to Starve or Cloath us if Naked Prov. 25. ver 21. Matth. 5.44 Rom. 12.20 Rom. 7.2 Eph. 5. v. 25. Which Christ commands all his Disciples to do to their greatest Enemies But how would this Man have a Husband behaving towards his Wife or a Wife towards her Husband If turning Quaker they must shew one another no Token of Kindness and Affection either in word or deed when the Apostle encourages Christian Husbands and Wives to live with one another respectively if they be willing albeit professed Heathens and open Idolaters But with him they must not so much as shew a Token so much as by one Cast of the Eye far less by more Homely Discoursings And after the same manner a little after he would have all forbear so much as looking into our Writings to which according to his ordinary Style he gives such Epithets as his Railing Genius affords him a very ready way for him to Bely and Calumniate us at pleasure But upon this occasion I would ask him this Question If he judgeth it reasonable that he that readeth his Examination should look into the Apology to which it relates or unto that which is said by way of Reply to it or if he would have them taking all upon trust from him Were not this a brave way of Examining Controversies And doth not this fairly lead to the blind Ignorance and Implicitness of the Church of Rome and to the Custom of the Turks and Mahomet 's Rule whom he hath so often in his Mouth I would willingly know if the Man would avow himself so Irrational as to require or desire this of any body in their wits And yet he must be so Irrational or otherwise allow the breaking of the Rules he so earnestly presseth ¶ 5. After he has proceeded at the same rate of Railing accusing us of Devilry and what not as for the Number of the poisonous Assertions which he saith he has gathered together it shall be spoken of hereafter and his gross Abuse therein detected he comes at last to apprehend That some will think he is too large but he has a quick way of solving that Difficulty J. B's Reason for his Prolixity by answering himself with a Contrary Apprehension That more will blame him for not being larger And so this Objection is easily dispatched As for the Reason he gives of his Prolixity to wit because of the temper of the Quakers who would have been ready to Vaunt and Triumph if he had omitted any thing But for all this Boast it shall be shewen that several times as large as he is he hath Omitted whole Considerable Paragraphs where he found he would be pinched and that the matter was too
things nor having any Rule for them which he seems to acknowledge is no Argument against their being the Primary and Adequate or Only Rule for that he apprehends no rational Man will think needful to a Compleat Rule Why because General Rules are enough And thence he thinks it would follow That the Quakers must have a new particular Revelation for every Act and Word such as Eating Drinking Walking c. But I deny this Consequence These Acts as simply Considered are Natural and it will not follow because to Spiritual Acts Spiritual Acts and Motions distinguisht from Natural relating to Faith and my Immediate Service towards God I need a Spiritual Motion and Influence of the Spirit that therefore I need such a thing to Natural Acts. If he say These Natural Acts under some Circumstances may be Sin or Duty I Confess then the Revelation of the Spirit is needful For if I be sitting sleeping or eating in one Place when it is the Mind of God I should be Preaching and Praying in another I do sin But how can the Scripture give me a Rule here All that he answers to this p. 76 and 77. resolves into this That all such Doubts may be solved applying the General Rules of Scripture by Christian Wisdom Prudence and Discretion c. But how shall I know that I truly make this Application And to give him his own often-repeated Argument in the Case of Revelation have not some Thought they have made this Application by Christian Prudence when they did not J. B's Christian Prudence so called doubtful and uncertain And not to go further than J. B's own Brethren the Presbyterians yea the Chief and most-Eminent Teachers among them did not some of them judge it Christian Prudence according to the Scripture-Rule to draw near and Adhere to the Remonstrants which others called publick Resolution-men denied Do not some of them think it Christian Prudence to go hear the Bishops Curates which others deny Did not those Chief Men among them as George Hutcheson and others think it Christian Prudence to accept of the Indulgence Anno 1668. in Entring according to the Limitations proposed by the Council to their Places which others especially of the banished Brethren and perhaps himself was highly Offended at whence these Men were termed Council-Curates Other Instances among them I could give But how shall all this be Decided What Scripture-Rules can he Assign that clearly do it Let him answer this distinctly and not pass it over lest he be suspected to Leap where he cannot Step. He confesseth to my Alledging 1 Cor. 12. and Rom. 12. and after a little Railing he tells p. 78. That he that is to Rule is to do it with Diligence c. but that the Scripture saith not that James or Peter should take-on this or that Office By which Confession he destroys all since the Question is How James and Peter knew they should take upon them to Rule This he saith he has shew'n above but how Insufficiently my Reply will Evidence He thinks no less Impertinent p. 78. for me to Argue against their being a Rule as to all things because they do not tell a Man that he has the marks of true Faith upon which knowledge the assurance of Salvation is founded As if I must think the Laws of the Land must prove that R. B. is a Quaker or that if R. B. had murther'd a Man it is a sufficient defence to say The Law doth not name R. B. But such Examples are poor Arguments and do miserably Halt J. B.'s Halting Examples to prove true Faith R. B. Confessing himself to be a Quaker acknowledging every One of their Doctrines is enough to prove him one in the sense of the Law of the Land and the Judge to Condemn him a Murtherer if Convict by Witnesses that he really did the Deed. And both these relate to outward things which can be proved by outward Testimonies for without the Certainty of the Evidence the Judge cannot pronounce his Sentence But is a Man 's own Confessing or Affirming he hath the true marks of Faith enough to prove he has them And what are the Witnesses to Apply the Example of committing the Murther by which a Man shall know he has these Marks And who must Examin the Witnesses and judge of the Certainty or Clearness of their Evidences Must it be the Man that is Accused Who useth that Method Doth not the Man see how miserably his pitiful Example Claudicates ¶ 10. To my Objection against the Scriptures being the Only and Adequat Rule the Example of Deaf Persons Idiots Infants such as cannot Read and are ignorant of the Original Tongues so called all which in some measure less or more are deprived of the Benefit of the Scriptures Deaf Persons c. the Light may Influence which Writings c. cannot so as to Apply them to themselves immediately and effectually for a Rule he asketh Whether if any such Person in a Land should kill a Man or do any thing contrary to the Law would it not punish them and this he Repeats n. 35. in other words Which urgeth nothing but upon Supposition that the Will of God cannot be known otherwise than by the Scripture which Supposition is false and therefore his Argument Concludes nothing Yea himself Confesseth that some things and in particular Murder may be known by the Light of Nature and so overturns his own Argument But he asketh What use can Children or Idiots or Mad men make of the Light within Answ. The Light within being affirmed by us to be a Living Principle that quickens the Soul may Influence such Persons but so cannot any Writings As for his learned Dr. Owen's Book which he Recommends he may find it Answered long ago by Samuel Fisher a Quaker which because the Doctor found too hot to Reply to J. B. that is so busie a Body may supply that Want J. B. Confesses to a Rule obvious to many Doubts But most Rare of all is his Answer p. 80. to my Conclusion That Christ would not leave his own to be led by a Rule obvious to so many Doubts which is And yet we see he hath done it If this be not to beg the Question in the highest Degree the Reader may judge He Confesseth The Spirit is the chief Leader but to seem to come off with some Credit he falleth a Railing upon me for not Distinguishing but Confounding the Spirit 's work and the Scriptures and then bestows many words to prove they are Distinct with a heap of Citations in the next p. 81. All which he might have spared until he had proved first that I denied they were Distinct or shew'n where or when I Confound them What he writes n. 38. and 39. p. 82. is meer Railing as the Reader by looking unto them may observe He flouts there at my Affirming I knew one that could not Read discover an Error in the Version saying But the good
have quick Eyes indeed that see it from thence to be Inferred that they were such ere they Committed any Actual Sin since the Apostle expresly mentions his and their having had their Conversation among the World as a Reason of their having been in the same Condition He saith further 1 Confess 1 Cor. 2. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood of the Rational Soul And what then Therefore so soon as they partake of the Rational Soul they become Children of Wrath This is indeed a rare Consequence But he must Excuse me for not Admitting it till better proved It would seem much more Rational to say That so soon as they come to the Exercise of their Rational Soul and then do Evil they become guilty for he cannot deny That the Gospel nor Condemneth nor Threatneth any Man but him that has Actually Sinned And whether this destroys not his Cause the Reader may judge That Except a Man be born again he cannot enter the Kingdom I never denied Albeit Children be capable of Death yet it will not follow that they are Guilty of Sin since Death is no Punishment but rather an Advantage to such to whom it 's a Transition to a better Life He thinks p. 117. that my saying Such as homologate their Fathers Sins God will visit the Iniquities of their Fathers upon them is no worth Noticing but whether his Answer be worth Noticing the Reader may judge which is That Adam 's sin was not a personal Sin as other Mens are and his own After-sins but the Man forgot to prove this and therefore may do it next But he thinks the Children of Core The Children of Core c. Instanced Dathan and Abiram of Achan and the Sodomites were judged guilty of their Fathers Sins for unless he proves that he saith nothing But for what Reason I know not unless that they were outwardly destroyed But until he prove that infers Guilt he must forbear making his Conclusion He is highly offended should say Their Opinion is contrary to the Justice and Mercy of God alledging It is without proof But if to account one guilty for a Sin committed by another Thousands of years ere they had a Being and to punish for it be not against Justice and inconsistent with Mercy I desire to know of him what is more Vnjust and Vnmerciful To say that this is an Accusing of God is but a silly begging of the Question until he has first proved his Opinion to be true It 's no Accusing of God to Condemn Mens Opinions when contrary to his Nature He will have it to be a Rapsody of Non-sense when I say This proceeds from Self-love founded on their Opinion of Absolute Reprobation but whether it be or not the Reader may judge Sure his saying it makes it not so That this of Infants being guilty of Adam 's Sin and therefore many of them being damned depends upon their Doctrine of Reprobation no Man of Sense that knows their Doctrine will deny since they say some Infants are saved because Elected Are not the rest then according to them Damned because Reprobated He gives me nothing here in answer but Railing and so concludes this Paragraph with this notable Saying Wo Isay that is Some Infants Elected some Reprobated J. B.'s Opinion J. Brown forsooth and thrice Wo to such as drink-in this Man's Doctrine and live and die accordingly p. 118. n. 14. He thinks my saying Papists are more Charitable in allowing a Limbus to Children shews my Affection to them but he has not heard me allow of their Notion of a Limbus as he does in the Chapter of Justification p. 310. of the Opinion of a certain Popish Cardinal preferring it not only to what is said by William Forbes a Protestant Bishop but even as it would appear to Richard Baxter his ancient Presbyterian Brother And in pursuance of this he asks How they come to Heaven meaning Children who have nothing to do with Christ But then what will he say of those he accounts Elect Children go they to Heaven without Christ If not the difficulty is the same way resolved To prove Children are under a Law and subject to Transgression he gives the Common Practices among Men who forfeit Children yea such as are unborn with their Fathers for great Crimes But in what Country do they use to kill all the Children when the Father is put to Death for a Crime and unless this were done his Comparison infers not the Point His plain answer he saith is Adam his being a Publick Person of which hereafter To my Citation Ezech. 18.20 The Son shall not bear the Father's Iniquity how Explained by J. B The Son shall not bear the Father's Iniquity he preaches at large upon the Words alledging his Meaning is that those Persons he wrote to had so much Sin of their own that God might justly judge them albeit he did not visit them for their Fathers Iniquities And this is the quick Dispatch he saith this Place receives It is a quick Way to Dispatch indeed if it were Valid to make the Meaning destroy the Text But Men of Sense use not to be sudden in receiving such Dispatches The Words are plain and positive The Son shall not bear the Father's Iniquity therefore until he give Ground from plain Scripture to take it away it must stand to the overthrow of his Doctrine for the greater Sinners those Men were the more justly and deservedly might their Father's Iniquity be laid upon them ¶ 6. Pag. 120. n. 17. He cometh from my Confession J. B. Infers Original Sin from Adam's being a publick Person That Adam was a publick Person to infer That the guilt passeth from him to all And first in this page he affirmeth That this Sin of Adam 's from whence Original Sin proceeds is the Sin of the whole Nature of Mankind and not like Adam 's After-sins and the Sins of other Men which he confesses are not the Sins of the whole Nature And because upon this dependeth much of what he infers he had done well to have proved this in the first Place by some Scripture Till which Time his Inference is not to be Received For did Adam Cease to be a publick Person after he had Committed that Sin If he say Yea let him prove it by plain Scripture for I deny it If not then his other Sins must be Imputed to all Men which he denies or else nothing can be urged from his being a publick Person And while to urge it he asketh Did ever any hear one stated as a Publick Person whose Failings could have no Effect until the Persons represented did testify their Approbation of it For here speaking of Failings he must either Conclude in Contradiction to himself That Adam's Sins are laid to the Charge of his Posterity or his Instance is wholly Impertinent And yet to go round again he takes notice p. 125. That the Apostle names One Offence in the
Singular Number as if thence he would Infer that One Sin is only Transmitted But how he proves his Consequence thence he has not shewen For albeit by that first Offence he gave Entrance for Sin that being his First yet it will not follow he then ceased to be a publick Person and if not nothing can be proved from granting him to be such as is above observed As by the Offence of one c. Objected Next the Words are The Offence of one and not One Offence as he would Insinuate which though in the Singular Number may include many yea all his Offences For whatever way he seek to urge this from this Place as to Adam the parallel will allow it to be Interpreted of Christ where the Apostle speaking of his Righteousness useth also the Singular Number and thence according to him we might say that it is only the first Act of Christ's Righteousness that is Imputed unto us and none of the rest so that we have nothing to do with his Death Sufferings and Resurrection What thinks he now of his own Divinity Let him loose his Knot the next time to give him one of his own modestest Proverbs The Absurdity he seeks to draw from denying this Consequence of his being a publick Person That if Adam had stood Infants should have no Advantage by him since they have no hurt by his Fall Toucheth not me at all who no where say That Infants have no Hurt by Adam's Fall Adam by his Fall became obnoxious to Temptations Adam by his Fall lost his Glory his Strength his Dominion by which he could have easily withstood the Devil and came under great Weakness whereby the Enemy's Tentations had a ready Access to him and he became very obnoxious to fall under them And so all his Posterity are come under the same Weakness and Obnoxiousness to the Enemy's Tentations who influenceth them by Entring into them and powerfully Inclining them to Sin and this malignant Influence is that Seed of Sin in all Men whereunto they become obnoxious by reason of the Fall which though in it self really Sin yet is it not Man's but the Devil 's until Man give Way to it But I deny not but the least yielding is Man's Sin among which I reckon Concupiscence to be one and so differ from Papists For albeit the Tentation simply considered or as presented by the Devil be not Man's Sin yet if he have the least Love or Desire to it albeit he join not Actually that shews his Mind is already defiled and corrupted and that he is become a Partaker of it Thus are answered his Reasonings and Questionings How this Seed of Sin can be and yet not the Persons Sin p. 121 122 c. as the Reader by Comparing may observe Only it is remarkable p. 121. where he seems to put a great Stress upon the Judgment of Augustin and citing him he brings him in saying these Words among others concerning Infants Shall they sin that are under no Command Now since they Infants are under no Law who are under no Command are under no Law for every Law imports a Command how will he reconcile this saying or his Holy Father which he brings as a matter of Authority with his accounting it both foolish and strange in me p. 119. to prove Children are under no Law J. B. taken in his own Snare So that either the Authority of Augustin he brings is not to be regarded or his Reasonings to prove Children under a Law that is a Command must be naught let him chuse which he will and clear himself of Impertinency His Argument in this page That as the Seed of Grace denominates a Man gracious even while not exercising works of Grace so the Seed of Sin must denominate a Man sinful is but a begging of the Question as in its place will appear when I come to treat of the Seed of Grace ¶ 7. When he cometh p. 123. n. 18. to Reply to my Answer to their Objection Rom. 5.12 among his preliminary Observations the first is very proper where he saith It is observable the Apostle makes Comparison betwixt Adam and Christ. I answer As Christ's Righteousness so Adam's Vnrighteousness is not Imputed to Men before actual Joining with either It is indeed so for as the Righteousness of Christ is not imputed to Men for Justification until they actually Join with it or apprehend it by Faith as himself will acknowledge for I suppose by his accounting the Antinomians Hereticks he will not with them affirm that Men are Justified before they believe so neither is the Vnrighteousness and Disobedience of Adam Imputed to Men for Condemnation until they actually Join with it but this Comparison spoils all his Doctrine Then after he has beg'd the Question a while by meer Allegations affirming his Doctrine to be so clear from the Apostle's words that it cannot be Contradicted without doing violence to the Text he forms an Argument thus That Sin which is so described to us by the Apostle that he saith it brought Death upon all Men that Men sinned by it and were made Sinners even they who could not as yet actually Sin that thereby all became guilty of Death and of Condemnation that Sin by Imputation is the Sin of the whole Nature included in Adam and rendreth the whole Nature obnoxious to Death and to Condemnation But The first Sin of Adam is described to us by the Apostle c. Ergo That Sin is the Sin of Nature c. This Argument may perhaps satisfy such as are already Proselites of his Theam but will not Convince one that either believes other ways or doubts since the Major is a meer begging of the Question And if any thing be a foisting-in of words to the Text this must be it since he foists-in the thing in Debate and words not in the Text such as Even they J. B. foist 's in words of his own to deceive his Reader who could not as yet actually Sin and joineth them with the words of the Text without distinction and not as an Interpretation that his unwary Reader may Conclude them to be of the Text. And yet the Man has the Impudence in the same page to Accuse me of Intolerable Boldness as foisting words into the Text while I expresly shew it is but an Interpretation by saying That is c. so much is he blinded with Self-Interest but I am Content there be neither Addition nor so much as Consequence made use of Let him shew me the plain Scripture that saith Infants are guilty of Adam 's Sin If he say It must be necessarily Inferred from these words in whom all have sinned I say it as necessarily follows that it is only to be understood of all that could sin which Infants could not as not being under any Law as I have above proved and Augustin whom he so much reverenceth doth affirm if his Citation from him be true And
he think they will prove his matter he must shew How the next time he writes ¶ 4. Pag. 309. N. 21. He brings my Argument shewing That where there is a perfect Reconciliation there is no Separation Why doth God then so often Complain of his People for their Sins from this it would follow that Sin made no Separation or that their good Works and worst Sins are the same in God's Account His Answer to this is J. B's Faith that God declares Men Just whilst in their wickedness That a Man may be in a Justified State and declared Just because Constituted so albeit unrighteous as to his Person because of his unrighteous Actions in which sense he is not Justified nor Approved of God That is in plain Scots to say God constituteth and declareth Men Just albeit they be Wicked Men and really Vnjust the first being understood of their Condition the second of their Person But the Misery is there wants something to knit this Incoherent matter together and inform us How a Man as to his Condition is Just while in his Person Unjust And indeed he brings no Proof for all this And albeit I wonder not at this Omission since he could do no better yet I desire he may let me know the next time why I should receive his Answer without Proof That every Sin which may be Committed by a Saint doth not Vnsaint him or destroy his Condition I acknowledge but they suppose no Sin to do it For when they affirm Murder and Adultery and Treachery not to have done it as they do If these Sins are not destructive and killing as to Man's Condition I know none and desire to be Informed how by Scripture it can be made appear that these do not So my Argument still remains in Force and his Charge of Antinomianism against me falleth to the Ground Pag. 311. He brings my Argument shewing the Absurdity of their Objection from 2 Cor. 5.21 thus J. B.'s gross Opinion of Imputative Righteousness If we be just as Christ was a Sinner by Imputation then as there was not the least Sin in Christ so there is no necessity for the least Righteousness in us To which he answers Neither is there to our being Justified upon that account The Reader may judge of this Doctrine which the Man either forgetting or being ashamed of plainly Contradicts in the same page saying That Sanctification is inseparably joined with Justification for then sure Righteousness must be necessary to be Justified upon whatever Account And yet to go round again within five Lines he cites Joh. 6.29 and 9 35.36 and 10.38 and 12.36 and 14.1 and 16.9 to prove That Christ would have People resting upon a Righteousness meerly Imputative for Justification for that is the thing denied by me For if Sanctification be unseparable from Justification it is Impossible to Rest upon that which is meerly Imputative That these Scriptures prove no such thing the Reader may see all of them press believing in Christ but that to believe in Christ is to rest upon a Righteousness meerly Imputative remains yet for him to prove But to proceed with an unparalled Confidence to Answer to my saying Sanctification is Inseparable from Justification That to my Observation that Sentence the Imputed Righteousness of Christ which they so much urge as the Foundation of their Faith is not to be found in all the Scripture he noteth divers places of Scripture in not one of which there is any such thing And indeed this Controversy being of Matter of Fact can be easily decided by any that can Read who can easily see whether that Expression be there or not For the Question is of the Expression in Terminis not of what he apprehendeth may by Consequence import the like What he saith in answer to my proving Justifying to be understood of being really made Just from I Cor. 6.11 he overturneth himself in a few Lines Confessing That the Corinthians were really Changed and if so we need not doubt where it is said They were Justified but they were really made Just that is Changed from Vnrighteousness as he Confesseth they were ¶ 5. Pag. 312. N. 26. He cometh to take notice of what I urge from the Word Justification and from the Etymology of it and having Introduced himself with a Scoff he saith I do place this upon the Authority of the Vulgar Latine Edition but therein he is Mistaken The Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will make as much for my purpose as the Latine He passeth from the Etymology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justifico p. 313. and saith The Words usually import a Juridical Absolution by the Sentence of a Judge But what then Is not that because Judges usually at least Absolve Men upon the account of their Innocency And so his Comparison of a Surety will not here hit For when Men are Accused of Murder or Adultery or Theft and that the case is Proved and Confest what Judges use to declare the person Acquitted upon Surety given by another Innocent Person And therefore Justifico I justify signifies the declaring of one Just To justify signifies the declaring of one Just who is so who is so And though Justifico as being sometimes taken in a Law-sense doth not in the Indicative answer to sanctifico because it is there Active and has relation to another Person yet in the Passive when relating to the Person Sanctified it is understood one way For Justificatus and Sanctificatus signify the same But he overturneth all his Quibbling here p. 313. N. 27. by asking Whether they say That a Man is said to be justified who is not really Just which imports they say not so and then we are Agreed Only I would ask him How a Man is really Just while committing actual Wickedness and Vnrighteousness as to his Person and yet he said before Such were Justified and yet in the next p. 314. he faith I malitiously Calumniate them to say they make use of the figurative Sense of the Word Let the Reader judge of these Consistencies And whereas I cite some Scriptures that Justifying is spoken of some who arrogate Righteousness to themselves though it do not belong to them and at these he carpeth saying The very first Exod. 23.7 is spoken of God himself he should have said It is God speaking of the Wicked that he will not Justify them some of them speak of a not Justifying Joh. 9.20 and 27.5 And what then the Places were marked to shew the Import of the Word Justify and to shew that many of them speak nothing of Justifying at all whence he concludes in these Words So unhappy is the Man in his Citations He notes first Esai 5.23 but it seems he has been in haste and therefore to rectify his Mistake let him read the Words which are Which justify the Wicked for Reward And what though where many Scriptures are noted together by the Mistake of the Transcriber or
he concludes J. B.'s false Accusation why we come to their places of Worship It is to do open Contempt This is but his malitious Conjecture We come not there but in Obedience to the Lord when moved by his Spirit so to do to bear a faithful Testimony against all Superstition and Will-worship For it is not pleasant to us to come there where for the most part we are saluted with knocks and stones and other such brutish and Paganish dealings by their Church-Members which is the fruit of their holy things and whereunto the People are often encouraged by their Preachers who sometimes shew an Example of this themselves and of whose barbarous Actions even by the Presbyterian-Preachers there is a Book Extant entituled Fighting Priests falling upon the Innocent with their own hands Of Fighting Priests giving account how many of them fell upon these Innocent Servants of the Lord with their own hands and I my self have seen of the present Preachers of Scotland do it As for his flouting at the Quakers for laying claim to a Spirit of discerning so as to distinguish who pray from the Spirit and who not he doth but therein declare himself to be none of Christ's Sheep who are said to know his Voice from that of a Stranger And as for his saying That the Quakers judge of this by the Mimical posture of the Body it is false and would agree far rather to his Brethren whose affected Postures of Body as well as their Nonsensical and Absurd Expressions in Prayer have disgusted many of their Way of which I could give some eminent Instances but that I spare them at present The Example I gave of their Excluding some from their Sacrament of the Supper so called doth not halt as he affirmeth pag. 462. as to the main for if the Command to take it is with presupposition of Examination so the Command of praying is with the presupposition of its being in the Spirit in which all Worship is now to be Praying always in the Spirit Eph. 6.18 To my shewing in answer to their Objection of Peter his Commanding Simon Magus to pray that he says Repent and Pray after a meer Assertion without proof he says He sees that with our Quaker a graceless Person can Repent but not Pray To which I answer If he speak of possibility I believe a graceless Person may both Repent and Pray but as he cannot Repent without Grace so not Pray without the Spirit but Grace worketh in all if not Resisted as the Spirit doth in all to Prayer when they have received the Grace in measure but that some Measure of Repentance must go before Prayer A measure of Repentance goes before Prayer in a sense of Iniquity and desire of Deliverance himself I judge will hardly deny since the very offering to Pray importeth in the Person applying himself thereunto a sense of his Iniquity and a desire to be delivered from it for which end he approacheth to God to demand Pardon and help to Amend ¶ 6. Now I come to his 25 th Chapter of Singing Psalms where I shall not need to be large J. B. endeavours to Justify their Custom of Singing Davids Conditions and their speaking Lies I deny not as he observes Singing But to Justify their Custom of singing David 's Conditions by which many are made as I observed in my Apology to speak Lies in the presence of God he objecteth the practice of the Jews but their practice in matters of Worship without a Gospel-precept is not a Rule to us Neither doth the Instance given by him of Psal. 66.6 answer the matter for the Jews might very well praise the Lord for the deliverance of their Fore-Fathers out of Egypt but that will not allow Drunkards and Impenitent Persons to fay They water their Couch with Tears as by singing Psalms many do which is false As for his saying They do but praise God for what he hath done for others why do they not express it so then And whereas he asketh Whether the Spirit inspireth the Meeter in the Song and the Tone of the singing he sheweth his Folly and Lightness while he ridiculously supposeth that Meeter is necessary or any other Tone than Nature hath given to every one of which God by his Spirit maketh use as an Instrument as he doth of other parts and faculties of the Body to the performing of Spiritual duties And the like Folly he sheweth when he tells What they do not in Scotland since he knows it was not particularly or only against the things practised in Scotland that I write in that Apology SECT XIII Wherein his Twenty Sixth Chapter Of Baptism is Considered ¶ 1. OUR Author to shew how angry and froward he resolves to be in this Chapter J. B. a Compleat Railer makes his first Paragraph a Compleat stick of Railing He begins with telling That the Paganish Antichristian Spirit which reigneth and rageth in the Quakers manifesteth a perfect and compleat hatred at all the Institutions of our Lord Jesus Christ and he endeth with this Exclamation O! what desperate Renegado's must these Men be More of this kind may be seen pag. 472 473 474.480 481. As for what he adds from several Scriptures of Baptism pag. 466 467. what of it relates to the weight of the Question will be Examined afterwards He gives us here a Citation out of their larger Catechism and then comes at last pag. 468. n. 4. to Examin what I say in the matter where upon my urging the many Contests among Christians concerning these things called Sacraments as one Reason against them he concludes Contests about their Sacraments among Christians so called I might as well plead against all Christianity because of the many Debates about it and with this Conceit he pleaseth himself a little which only evidenceth his malitious Genius for I should never have used that as an only Argument and did not use it at all but as having many other Considerable ones against their Vse of these things and therefore I add That these things contended for are meer Shadows and outward things Then to cover their making use of the word Sacrament which is not to be found in Scripture he objecteth my making use of the word Fermentation and of the Vehicle of God but I use not to make use of these words when I speak Scots or English but these words when Interpreted are made use of in Scripture For the Latine fermentum which signifies Leaven Fermentum or Leaven is oft used in Scripture is oft used even as compared to Spiritual things as Matth. 13 31. Luk. 13 21. 1 Cor. 5 6 7 8. yea the word Leaven and Leavened is to be found in Scripture above 30 times but the word Sacrament never so much as once And it is not as he saith a poor thing to Challenge them for expressing the Chief Mysteries of their Religion in words that cannot be found in all the Scripture
the Church of Christ is not to usurp Authority over their Fellow-Members 229. decisive Judgment explained 243. true and false Decision 244. unsettled Men Judging 683 684. Charitable and uncharitable Judgment 686. God the Judge of conscience 516 517. he that is Spiritual Judgeth all things 795 see Church Justification the Doctrine thereof is and hath been greatly vitiated among the Papists and wherein they place it 364 365 380 382 Luther and the Protestants with good Reason opposed this Doctrine though many of them ran soon into another Extream and wherein they place it and that they agree in one 366 387 370. it comes from the Love of God 367 379 380. to Justify signifies to to make really Just not to repute Just which many Protestants are also forced to acknowledge 370 371 374 377. The Revelation of Christ formed in the Heart is the formal Cause of Justification not Works to speak properly which are only an Effect and so also many Protestants have said 364 380. we are Justified in Works and how 364 370 371 380 387. this is so far from being Popish Doctrine that Bellarmine and others opposed it 365 369 385 386. We are Justified by Christ Jesus both as he appeared at Jerusalem and also as he was made manifest and revealed in us 19 20. Justification by the indwelling of Christ is denied by the Papists 78. Primitive Protestants Belief concerning Justification 79. concerning Faith and Justification 129 166. a twofold Justification 25. it is the making a Man just by an Inward Righteousness 77. 811. the Doers of the Law Justified 806. Antinomians Imputative Justification refuted 812. J. B's gross Opinion of it 814. no Man is Justified before he be sanctified 816 The real Justification falleth under the inward sensation of the Soul 817. K. Keith G. K. vindicated from our Adversaries malitious Insinuations against him 621. Kingdom of God 459 511 517. Christ's Kingdom needs no outward protection 846. the Kingdom of God is within you 803. the Kingdom of God is in the Seed in the Hearts of all Men 354. Kirk the Greedy Kirk become a Proverb 437. Knowledge the Heighth of Man's Happiness is placed in the true Knowledge of God 467. Error in the Entrance of this Knowledge is dangerous 267 268. Superstition Idolatry and thence Atheism hath proceeded from the False and Feigned Opinions concerning God and the Knowledge of him 269. the uncertain Knowledge of God is divers ways attained but the True and Certain only by the inward and immediate Revelation of the Holy Spirit 269 271. it hath been brought out of use and by what Devices 272 273. there is no Knowledge of the Father but by the Son nor of the Son but by the Spirit 268 274 275. the Knowledge of Christ which is not by the Revelation of his Spirit in the Heart is no more the Knowledge of Christ than the pratling of a Parret which hath been taught a few Words may be said to be the Voice of a Man 276 277. The Objection that the Apostle prefers the Knowledge of Christ as outwardly Crucified to all other Knowledge answered 9. his Inward Knowledge preferred 67. the true and saving Knowledge of God 115 161. the Knowledge of the History saves none 355. many by the Light may be saved that have not the outward Knowledge of christ 356 of the true Ground of Knowledge 728 733. the Difference between Head-Knowledge and the partaking of the Divine Nature 763 764. Monopolizers of Knowledge 889. 428 see Clergy The Christian Religion consists not in the Historical Knowledge of Christ 895. see Indians c L. Labour they wanted nothing whom God sent they labour'd with their Hands 435. Laces and Ribbonds 873. Laicks 429 432 433. Laity 433 507. Lake of Bethesda 338 339. Lamb see Paschal Lamb. Language the plain Language used in the Scriptures 58. concerning our using Thee and Thou which is the Singular Number to one person 61. to use the Plural instead of the Singular Number to one Person is no Indifferent thing 3 4. see Number the Singular Number to one person used in the Latine 539. how the Word You came to be used to a single person ibid. the Word Thou a greater Honour to one than You 540. Scripture-Dialect the plain Language 541. Law the Law is distinguished from the Gospel 287 384. the Difference thereof 287 493. see Gospel under the Law the People were not in any Doubt who should be Priests and Ministers 408. see Minister of the Law Worship The Testimony Law and Word is inward in the Heart 15 71. the ending of the Law and beginning of the Gospel 187. wherein the Law and Gospel differ 298 393 484. the outward and inward Law 286. the Law of Christ more perfect than of Moses 558. the Divine Law was implanted in Man's Nature before all Laws made by Man 701. J. B's Proof for what is meant by Law and Testimony 756. his Asserting the Law of Nature against his former Reason 793. Law of Moses see Legal Rites Lawyers by Tricks and Intricacies foment Controversies 209 Laying on of Hands 511. see Hands Learned the Lord is angering the Wise and Learned 885 Learning what true Learning is 421 422. Humane Learning is not the Qualification of a Minister 140 305 703 730. see Literature Schools of Learning Leaven J. B's Objection against the Word Fermentum Leaven or Fermentation a Leavening answered 855. Legal Rites had a Command as well as John's Baptism 857. Leonisis a Sect they have a great Shew of Truth 532. in the Margent Letter The Letter killeth quickneth not 393. like Pharisees the outward Law so now Professors plead the Letter 15. How the Letter killeth 18 76. Levi a Figure of Christ 655 Leyden John of Leyden and Ignatius Loyola their Practices resembled by W. M. and his Brethren 58 Liars their Punishment 557 Libertines see Ranters Liberty the true Liberty in the Church 222. breach of Liberty begets Jars ibid. a false Liberty 224. a wrong Spirit of Liberty 246. what Liberty we claim in things Religious 516 520 524 Lies 276. lying Titles 535. Christians not to speak a Lie 875. J. B s refuge of Lies 877. Light The innate Light is explained by Cicero 361 362. Light of Nature the Errors of the Socinians and Pelagians who exalt this Light are rejected 310 311. Saving Light see Redemption is universal it is in all 330 331. It is a Spiritual and Heavenly Principle 333 334. it is a Substance not an Accident 334 335. it is Supernatural and sufficient 346 348. It is the Gospel preached in every Creature 349 350. It is the Word nigh in the Mouth and in the Heart 350 351. it is the Ingrafted Word able to save the Soul 353. Testimonies of Augustin and Buchanan concerning this Light 363. it is not any part of Nature or Reliques of the Light remaing in Adam after the fall 337. it is distinguished from the Conscience 337 338. It is not a common Gift as the Heat of the
while they affirm it to be the only adequate Rule of their Faith and Manners That we deny the thing truly imported by the Trinity is false As for the word Vehiculum Dei The like of Vehiculum Dei a Chariot or Vehicle signified by the Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having a respect to Christ's Body or Flesh and Blood from Heaven that it is a Scripture-word see Cant. 3.9 King Solomon made unto himself a Chariot of the Wood of Lebanon and v. 10. Vehiculum ejus purpureum the Hebrew words for Chariot and Vehiculum are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Appirion and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Merkabh or Merkaba both which signify a Chariot and Vehicle and that by Solomon is mystically understood Christ of whom Solomon was a Figure or Type Solomon a figure of Christ. none who are spiritually minded can deny and consequently that this Chariot or Vehicle must be mystically and spiritually understood Nor can it be meant of Believers or the Church because it is said The midst of it being paved with love for the Daughters of Jerusalem i. e. for Believers so that they are received by Christ into this Chariot or Vehicle and therefore not it but distinct as the Contained is distinct from the Containing But for the further understanding of these Hebrew words see Buxtorff his Hebrew Lexicon and the Book called Apparatus in lib. Sohar part 1. p. 144. and 553. And however he might Cavil upon this Mystical Meaning yet the word is Scriptural which their Barbarism Sacrament is not And to his saying in answer to my shewing that by laying aside this Vnscriptural Term the Contest of the number of the Sacraments will evanish that it will Remain if instead of Sacrament they use Signs or Seals of the Covenant This is but his bare Assertion until he prove by clear Scripture that there are only Two Signs or Seals of the Covenant which he will find hard and yet harder that these two are they Pag. 469. n. 5. he denieth the Scripture saith There is one only Baptism instancing the Baptism of Affliction But I speak here of the Baptism of Christ in a true and proper sense and Eph. 4.5 will prove as much The One Baptism That there is one only Baptism as there is one only God which is in the next verse But before I proceed any further I must desire the Reader to observe What J. S. understands by Baptism of the holy Ghost which in his Account is Ceased how this Man speaking of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost understands it only to relate to the Extraordinary Gift of speaking with Tongues which the Apostles had and not as any thing Common to all true and really Regenerated Christians so that he concludes the Baptism with the Spirit and with Fire now to be Ceased And upon this his supposition he buildeth pag. 471-473 474-478 without so much as offering to prove it And to this he addeth a gross Lie upon me pag. 472. That I will have none to be Baptized in the Spirit but such as are endued with these Extraordinary Gifts which I never said nor believed and therefore this his false supposition I deny and consequently till next time that he take leisure to prove it all that he builds thereupon is meerly precarious and needs no further Answer John the Baptist speaking of the Baptism of Christ in general as Contradistinct from his saith He that cometh after me shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire which could not have been the mark of Distinction if this had only been Restricted to what the Apostles Received the day of Pentecost and not of the Baptism wherewith Christ baptizeth all his Children But to rectify the Mistake he supposeth I am in J. B.'s One Baptism not the True One. concerning the One Baptism he tells me The One Baptism comprehendeth both the outward Element and the thing Represented and Sealed thereby but the Reasons he gives for this are so weak that thereby I am Confirmed I am not in a Mistake I might say saith he there were two Circumcisions because Circumcision is called Circumcision of the heart And what then In that sense there were Two so long as the Outward continued to wit the Outward and the Inward that of the Flesh and that of the Heart and if he can Answer this no better than by smiling at it we must pity the levity of his Spirit but not be moved by the weight of such airy Arguments What he addeth of the Object of Faith being called Faith as also the profession albeit the Apostle say there is One Faith is not to the purpose since these are included in the One true Faith the Apostle speaketh of but for him to fay That the Baptism of Water is included in the One Baptism spoken of there by the Apostle is only to beg the question And yet all he doth is strongly to Affirm this without proof So that all that he saith in Answer to me being built upon this and such like Mistakes needed in strictness no more Reply as his Answer to my Argument pag. 471. sheweth where he supposeth Two Baptisms one administred by Men another administred by Christ himself by his Spirit and not by Men That Water-baptism cannot be the Baptism of Christ. But he should have proved this ere he had used it as a distinction and till he do so my Argument to wit That since such as were Baptized with Water were not therefore baptized with the baptism of Christ therefore Water-baptism cannot be the Baptism of Christ will stand for all his blowing I desire the Reader take notice here of his Insinuation as if I had borrowed this Argument from Socinus which he hath over and over again afterwards as to others speaking expresly pag. 433. of my Stealing Arguments from Socinus But to shew him how unhappy he is in being so apt to speak Vntruth he may understand that I never read three Lines of Socinus's Writings hitherto nor knew what Arguments he used till now he Informs me in case his Information be true Instead of Answer to what I urge from 1 Pet. 3.21 in my Apology he giveth a Preaching made up of meer Assertions built on the former Mistakes and Railing his Answer is built upon the supposing That Water-Baptism goes to the making up of Christ's Baptism which is now to Continue which yet remains for him to prove And on the other hand supposing That I affirm that by the Answer of a good Conscience there mentioned is to be understood the Extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit which is false And upon the same two Mistakes he grounds his Answer pag. 473. N. 8. to what I urge from Gal. 3.27 and Col. 2.12 as a supplement That the putting on of Christ there mentioned by the Apostle may be understood of putting on Christ by profession though not in Truth and reality which he also