they urge from Rom. 3.20 by the Deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified Works of the Moral Law Justify not which I shew is to be understood of Works done and not by the Grace of God he answers That such are no good Works at all But may not a Man do some of the Works which even the Moral Law commands such as not to commit Murder Theft or Adultery without the Grace of God Hath not he confessed as much of some Heathens whom he judgeth not to have had the Grace of God and will he say these Works are not materially good albeit not formally with a respect to any advantage as to Salvation they receive by them And though it should be confessed That all is not always Requisite to be Antecedent to Justification which falls out to be Antecedent to Salvation yet the Question is Whether there be anything absolutely Requisite to be Antecedent to Salvation which is not also absolutely Requisite to be Antecedent to Justification If not then if Works be absolutely necessary or so far as they are absolutely necessary to Salvation they must also be so to Justification If he say other ways then as I observed before full and perfect Justification according to him must not be esteemed sufficient to Salvation J. B. pleads the Works of the Spirit to be Impure Pag. 322. N. 42. He comes to prove the Best Works even those wrought by the Spirit in the Saints to be Impure which before also he had affirmed pag. 307. there he would Infer we say the same of good Works because I affirm That Works done by Man's own Strength are polluted But it will not thence follow we believe Works done by the Grace of God to be such But for this Impurity of good Works he marks Psal. 143.2.130 3. Job 9.16 none of which speak one Word of good Works thus understood Then he mentions Esai 64.6 All our Righteousness is as filthy Rags but silently passeth over how I shew their own Authors as Calvin and Musculus c. affirm this not to be understood of Evangelical Righteousness and himself overturns what he urges from this Works of the Spirit to be pure and undefiled confessed by J. B. affirming That we ought not to call the Work of the Spirit of God in his People Filthy Rags But if they were so they might be so called and yet he overturns it further by confessing Some Works wrought by the Apostles were undefiled then all the Works wrought by the Spirit in the Saints cannot be said to be Impure which is their Assertion And the Instance of Clean Water passing through an Vnclean Pipe doth not hold which is their great probation He will not Contend with what I say about the word Merit neither hath he much against my Conclusion in this matter yet that he may end this Chapter like himself he concludeth it with a gross Lie and Railing saying I affirm A Man may be Regenerated without the least help of the Grace of God J. B's gross Lie which as I wholly abhor so there cannot be a greater Falshood alledged upon me SECT IX Wherein his Fourteenth Chapter Of Perfection is Considered ¶ 1. I Come now to his Fourteenth Chapter Of Perfection where after he has repeated my Eighth Proposition he reckons it Confidence in me to Accuse their Answer in their Larger Catechism of speaking against the Power of Divine Grace which saith That Man is not able by any Grace of God received in this Life to keep the Commands of God But in stead of justifying this Assertion he saith They are not ashamed of it Then he recurreth a little to his Author Hicks according to his Custom and falls a Railing where among other great Charges he accuseth the Quakers of Reproaching Reviling Calumnies Scolding and the like J. B. a Railer exceeding others confessed by his own Party Also pag. 329. speaking of bridling the Tongue But he of all Men should have been silent in this who is such a Railer in the Superlative Degree that some of his own Faith who have Bad enough Thoughts of the Quakers have said that he not only Equals them but Exceeds them in Railing Of his Railing in this Chapter the Reader may further observe pag. 332 345-349 Here as in his former Chapter to enervate the Perfection asserted by me he brings forth his old and often-repeated Calumny as if I asserted This Perfection to proceed meerly from the Light of Nature affirming The Light pleaded for by me p. 227. to be such His false Charges as never came from the Grace of God to be Flesh Blindness Enmity to God Natural Sensual c. affirming that I say Man is Regenerated Sanctified Justified though not one Ray of Divine Illumination hath shined into his Soul nor one Act of Grace has reached either his Intellect Will or Affection to cause this Change The like p. 331. All which is most abominable false and never either believed or asserted by me and therefore all he concludes upon this malitious Assertion falls to the Ground and needs no further Answer Next he bestows much Pains p. 328 329. to shew from the Hebrew and Greek Word that Perfection is sometimes understood of Sincerity and Integrity and Perfection in these Respects he thus Defines In Regeneration the whole Man is changed Perfection defined so that he is now born a New Creature sanctified wholly in Mind Heart Spirit Affections Consciences Memory and Body though but in a small Measure or degree and again Yielding impartial Obedience through the Grace of God unto all God's Precepts waving none But if he will stand by what he here Asserts I will desire no more albeit he falsly say in the following page That all this will not satisfy us For I would desire the next time Breaking the Commands daily c. is not Perfection nor a growing in Grace he would Reconcile this with Breaking the Commands daily in Thought Word and Deed. To prove this he insists in Contradiction to what he said before p. 330. N. 7. and his Proofs are 1 Because in Christ's House there are diverse Sizes and Degrees of Persons as Babes or little Children young Men old Men And this is not denied but the thing he should have proved is that none of those Degrees can be without daily breaking God's Commands His Second Proof is yet more rare Christians are exhorted to grow in Grace to put off the Old Man which is corrupt to put on the New Man to mortify their Members Very good But is To break the Commands daily in Thought Word and Deed the way to grow in Grace to put off the old Man and on the New If this be not to pervert Christianity what can be said to be so If Men can dream waking as he sometimes supposes he has sure been in this Posture when he brought this Proof But he adds That this Perfection rendreth Gospel-Commands useless But
of outward Help and where the Arm of Flesh had least hand in it as the Children of Israel's Deliverance out of Egypt as also Judges c. 5 from ver 16. to the end 2 Kings 6 17 c. and Chapters 7 13. and 19. 35. and in other places To prove That Christ in the 5th of Matth. commands no more than in the Law he referreth to the Writings of their Divines but he might have done this to all he has Written if he judge it sufficient and so have saved himself a great deal of labour since he saith elsewhere All I have written is Confuted long ago How can Men love their Enemies and yet kill and destroy them How Men can Love their Enemies and yet kill and destroy them is more than I can reach but if it were to such as rather suffer than do it do surely more love them and to do so is no Injury to our Selves nor Neighbours when done out of Conscience to God in answering our Duty to whom we must not Regard our own or Neighbours profit And if what I grant of the Lawfulness of Fighting to the present Magistrates and State of Christians be considered it will render all his Arguments superfluous since he confesseth A time will come in which the Prophecy of Isaiah 2 4. Mic. 4 3. will be fulfilled and thinks fit there should be a Praying for the fulfilling of it and what if some believe that as to some there is a beginning already of the fulfilling thereof We do nothing doubt but that of Rev. 16.5 7. which he mentions pag. 522. will in due time be fulfilled but we see no necessity of believing that that will be performed by outward Fighting or that the Saints shall need to draw Carnal Swords or shoot Cannons towards the performing of it When he saith Fighting is from the Corrupt Nature of Man that the Argument of Fighting is not taken from the Corrupt nature of Man pag. 519. he must have forgotten himself since had not Man fall'n and so his nature been corrupted he may infer if he can where there should have been an occasion for Fighting with Carnal Weapons And since he Confesseth That in nothing more than in War is seen the Fruits of Man's Rebellion against God He may thence see how little need Christians have to plead for it As for the Citation out of the Confession of Faith wherewith to fill-up he closeth his Chapter I know not to what purpose he did it since no Man doubts their Faith in this matter ¶ 2. He begins his 30 th Chapter of Oaths with saying We deny their lawfulness that we may destroy all Policy and Government But it must only be the Devil's Government for where the Government of Christ prevails and Men speak Truth there all must Confess there is no need of Oaths and also where the like punishment of Perjury is inflicted for speaking falsly Where Men speak Truth there is no need of Oaths the End of Oaths is obtained and that without breaking Christ's Command Thus according to his own Concession since the Verity may be had as well without an Oath none should be urged to take an Oath But let us see what after a Citation out of their Confession of Faith he saith to Answer Matth. 5 34. and James 5 12. which saith so expresly Swear not at all Swear not at all To this he saith That Christ is only Interpreting the Law and not Adding any thing to it and that it only relates to ordinary discourse but for proof of this he has nothing but an Heap of words asserting the thing To all which till he bring some Scripture-proof there needs no Answer But to oppose Christ's and James's words Swear not at all It is not said Except ye be called before a Judge let him prove this Exception by Scripture next time and therefore till he do so his Affirming over and over again That Christ forbad no more than was forbidden in the Law pag. 525. is to no purpose The Law forbad idle Swearing and Oaths in Communication but Christ's Resumption shews throughout that Chapter some more to be urged to any that understand plain words and will not shut their Eyes That its being said Deut. 6 13. Thou shalt swear by his Name is urged as an Explication or Comprehensive part of Moral Worship I deny and remains for him to prove or that it was more than a Command to the Jews to Swear by the true God that they might not Swear by Idols and till he prove this Arguments founded upon it need no further Answer As for what he addeth N. 8. to prove Swearing not to be of the Devil because commanded of God and afterwards Concluding That my urging against it as being of the Devil is pregnant of Blasphemy because it would infer some of the Ceremonial Laws of God to have their Rise not from the Will of God but from the work of the Devil he sheweth here more Malice than strength of Reason The Bill of Divorcement permitted in the Old Test. because the hardness of their hearts Was not the Command Deut. 24 v. 1. Let him write for her a Bill of Divorcement A part of the Ceremonial Law and yet Christ saith Matth. 19.7 that Moses did this because of the hardness of their Hearts and is not hardness of Heart which gave a Rise to this Command of the Work of the Devil Let him then make the Application and then Answer the Empty Bluster he has made of Blasphemy And doth not what Christ saith of this matter of Divorce Matth. 5 v. 31 32. shew Christ Commanded more there than was Commanded under the Law He confesseth pag. 529. That God cannot be said properly to Swear Albeit some things being ascribed to God makes them not Vnlawful to us yet any things being ascribed to God makes it not Lawful to us when Christ commands the Contrary Christ's and the Apostles Asseverations were not Oaths That Christ's saying Verily Verily is more than Yea and Nay I deny and it remains for him to prove it That the Apostles Asseverations are Oaths he affirms in like manner but proves it not His thinking We in being willing to do as much as the Apostle did do strain at a Gnat and Swallow a Camel is but an Evidence of his Railing Genius as it doth of his Malice in Catching what follows That the Question is not What Paul or Peter did but what their and our Lord For that is not said by me he hath but said it as believing they did Swear or that their Words were Oaths But the giving not granting it had been so to shew it would not prove this thing now lawful and that Peter and Paul both had their Failings so as all though not in that himself will not deny which is enough to shew their practice in all things is not to be our Rule His 531. page needeth no Answer being but his own Affirmations and Conjectures
Which is granted but that proveth not that it is not therefore Vniversal Next he taketh notice of the Context where it is said It became him in bringing many Sons unto Glory c. and therefore these are the All for whom he died But this is strongly to affirm not to prove Albeit Christ brought many Sons unto Glory and called such Brethren it doth not follow he Tasted death only for such The Apostle sheweth us first the general Extent of Christ's Death in saying He tasted death for every Man and then sheweth us how it became Effectual to many And yet the Man is so confident albeit he has urged nothing but only affirmed that he adds If this Context do not sufficiently Confute this Conceit J. B. c. regard the Scriptures no farther than it favours their Opinion and Confutes their Adversaries we need Regard the Scriptures no more But here he has spoken-out the Truth as it is For this evidently shews that for all their pretence to Exalt the Scriptures yet they regard it no more than it favours their Opinion This is the Account for which they Regard the Scriptures if it favour their Opinion and Confute their Adversaries but if it do not They need no more regard it else surely he should have said If the Scriptures do not Confute that which he esteems an Error then he will not judge it so any more but regard the Scriptutes more than his own Judgment but on the contrary he is Resolved if the Scripture do not Confute what he thinks a Conceit that he need no more Regard them Likewise in the rest of this page he gives himself a notable stroke for to my saying That their Doctrine would infer that Christ came to Condemn the World contrary to his own words Joh. 3.17.12.47 he answereth That Prejudice has so blinded mine Eyes that I cannot see the Beam in mine Eye for in my opinion not one Man might have been saved because Christ only procured a meer possibility and no certainty for any one Man c. But as I have above observed I assert as my judgment the express Contrary that Christ has so died for some that they cannot miss of Salvation and this himself also noticeth afterwards p. 276. I would know then and let all honest Men judge if there be any spark of honesty left in him whether himself be not the Man whom prejudice has blinded Almost at the same rate p. 207. he asketh me if my Argument from 2. Pet. 3.9 the Lord is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto Repentance do hold What will I do with those that out-live the day of their Visitation is the Lord willing to give them Repentance I answer No and yet no overturning of my Argument For in respect All had a Day of Visitation wherein they might have Repented God may be said to be Long-suffering and not to have been Willing any should have Perished c. But this cannot be said if none ever had such a Day or Season as they affirm He would Insinuate as if This made all to depend upon Free-Will but how frivolous this Calumny is will after appear And whereas both in this and the following page he Rants at an high rate as if I did fight against God's Omnipotency saying God will be God whether I will or not and that Christ must turn a Petioner and supplicate Lord Free-Will exclaiming O cursed Religion The Man doth but shew his Malitiousness and Weakness For if God's Omnipotency because he doth whatsoever he Will God's Omnipotency willeth not Wicked Actions be Urged to prove that Men cannot Resist his Will and that therefore whatsoever Men do even the wickedest Actions are willed by God then Violence is offered to the Will of the Creatures and the Liberty and Contingency of second Causes are necessarily taken away Which yet is expresly denied by the Westminster-Confession Chap. 3. Nor will all his Distinctions far less Affirmations solve this that Peter speaketh only of the Elect because he mentioneth them elsewhere unless he prove All here to be Restricted is but a begging of the Question ¶ 8. Pag. 210. n. 65. Testimonies of Antiquity slighted by J. B. as not being for his Turn He quarreleth my bringing some Testimonies of Antiquity Agreeing with what I say which he termeth a Fouling of Fingers with humane Writings saying Himself layeth not so much Weight upon the Authority of Men in this matter and yet afterwards he Cites some as making for his purpose He may know I as little build upon the Testimony of the Ancients as he can for the bottoming of Faith and yet to shew their Agreement with us and against them is a good Check to their shameless Objection of Novelty considering how the same is Objected to them as strongly and with no less Reason by their Mother the Church of Rome whom when pinched by us they begin to Run to for the Ground of their Church Ministry and Maintenance That ever I said The Quakers whom he terms to be of Yesterday have only found the Truth is false albeit I say they have a more Clear and Full Discovery of it But one would think notwithstanding his pretending he lays little Weight upon the Authority of Antiquity in this matter that it is not so else why doth he so often in this matter Vpbraid us with the Heresy of Pelagius as Contradicting the Sense of the Ancient Church and their Doctors Who are those whose Testimony he calls the Authority of Men in this matter SECT VII Wherein his IX Chapter Of Universal Salvation Possible his X. Of Universal Grace and Light XI Of the Necessity of this Light to Salvation and his XII Of the Salvation of Heathens without hearing the Gospel are Considered ¶ 1. HE beginneth his 9th Chapter Of Vniversal Salvation Possible according to his Custom with Railing accusing me of Ignorance Folly Pride and Pedantry but he thinks it not worth his pains to spend words to discover it yet he gives a main Reason for all to wit I suppose our Opinions were never known in the World before we were raised up to declare them Which being a manifest Vntruth and never said by me the Reader may thence judge of the Grounds he has for this his Railing However he supposeth They are but Old Errors cloathed with New Notions and which himself has sufficiently enough Enervated in his former Chapter of Reprobation and Universal Redemption Which being the Basis of them is by him if he may be admitted Judge in his own Cause already overturned And then he thinks It was Impertinency to say That Quakers can by sensible Experience be Confirmed in their Doctrine and so brings to an end his first two Paragraphs J. B's Comment and false Insinution put upon our Doctrine of Grace and Salvation His next work is to play the Commentator and to tell his Reader my Meaning which to be sure is
to pervert it as he doth in this Chapter throughout affirming It to be my belief that every Man has Power and Ability moral to lay hold of Salvation and that there is not Requisite thereunto any new Grant of Grace and Divine help to quicken the Man he has a stock from his Mother's Womb which is sufficient This he calls the Proper and Native face of my Doctrine and this he putteth down as my Opinion and charges me with it p. 214. And p. 218. he saith it further Without any Concurrence of Divine Grace pag. 220. he saith I Conclude Man has power to believe and obey the Gospel without the Spirit of God as also the like p. 221. twice And p. 222. he saith I Conclude That the Wicked have power of themselves without the Spirit of Regeneration and Grace to do what is commanded in reference to Life Eternal and further p. 223 224 and 226. he affirmeth the like of me which is utterly false and was never Believed nor Asserted by me And its observable that in all these places where he thus Charges me he doth not so much as once point to any one page in my Apology and not only so but not so much as from the Words or Writings of any other Quaker borrowed from some of his usual Authors which is his most frequent Refuge And therefore the Reader may judge what he builds upon his False Supposition or batters against it falls to the ground without further Refutation After he has branded this Brat of his own begetting p. 214. with Pelagianism Jesuitism Arminianism and Socinianism thence accusing the boldness and confidence of the Quakers and of my self in particular in terming it a New Discovery of ours he endeth this page with a Fit of Railing and beginneth in his next to Wonder how the Heathens can be said to have a day of Visitation The Heathens have a day of Visitation since nothing can be called a day of Visitation in reference to Salvation but what is in and through the Preaching of the Gospel But this Wonder is built upon his Supposition that the Preaching of the Gospel is no where but where there is an outward Administration of it wherein his Mistake will come hereafter to be manifested into which Mistake he falls in the next page and elsewhere in this Chapter where I shall pass it over until I come to speak of it in its proper place To none God denies the Means of Salvation In this page 215. he thinketh that since I Affirm their Doctrine makes God unjust as denying to some the means of Salvation that which I affirm may be likewise so charged because some may think God is not just in not granting to all an equally long Day of Visitation But the Question is not what some may think but whether these Thoughts be built upon Justice and Reason All Men know it is manifest Injustice to punish a Man and torment him for non-performance of that which he that Commands him to perform has by an invincible Necessity barred and hindered him from doing and therefore to suppose this of the most-just God must be a great Error and Abuse But it is no Injustice to punish a Man for not performing that which he had received sufficient Power to do albeit another had received more to say so is like the Labourers whom Christ Reproves in the Parable for murmuring that those that came-in after them received equal Wages with them Matth. 20.12 13 14. That the preaching of the Gospel is not a Mocking of those whose Day of Visitation is Expired as it is to the Reprobates among them I have in the former Section shewen But he asketh here Obdurateness or hardness of Heart when begotten Whether such become obdured before or after their Day of Visitation be expired What if I shall say both though not in the same manner and degree It was before Removeable but not after since albeit simply considered the same and always pardonable yet with a Respect to certain Persons and their Circumstances unpardonable or not pardonable That God permitteth Sin to be in the World I never denied nor accused their Divines for so saying But whereas he saith It is a manifest untruth that I would make the Reader believe they say God doth Impell Men to sin necessarily he seeketh to hide their Doctrine and beguile the simple Reader Calvinistâ— blasphemous Doctrine of God's forcing decreeing Men to Sin Since P. Martyr upon Rom. 1. saith expressly That God forceth the Will of Wicked Men unto great Sins And Piscator saith That the Wicked are absolutely Decreed Necessarily to sin and therefore to sin that they may be justly punished Now these being More Eminent Divines among them than I suppose J. B. presumes for all his Scribbling he is to be Accounted The Reader may judge and by the passages elsewhere cited by me Whether he doth not here most untruly Charge me with an Vntruth That the Sins charged upon the Gentiles were only such as were against the Light of Nature he has affirmed p. 217. but not proved For the great reason of their Condemnation is because What was to be known of God is manifest in them and that this is not only the Light of Nature will after appear If what he urges from Rom. 11. concerning the Jews and the Imprecation those brought upon themselves who said His Blood be upon us and upon our Children hold True we must suppose no Jew since that saying of Paul and Barnabas Act. 13.46 to have been really Converted But how came any of them to be Converted before since that Imprecation was long before Paul and Barnabas spake these Words of their turning to the Gentiles and according to this Reasoning all the Preaching of the Gospel which the Jews have since heard and do hear is in Vain I have sufficiently explained The Day of God's Visitation to Man spoken of what I mean by this Day of God's Visitation to every Man in the explication of the 5 and 6 Theses in my Apology N. 17. And albeit he thiâ—k otherwise as I know I have satisfied many Moderate Readers who are not Quakers so I hope to have satisfied all that are truly Vnprejudicate After he has p. 218. given large Citations to shew their Doctrine out of the Confession of Faith and Catechism and thereafter made a kind of Preachment thereupon he comes at last p. 221. to Examin the Proofs I bring for my Assertion ¶ 2. And first to my Argument drawn from the Reproofs in Scripture to Men for rejecting of God's Visitation and Love he answers That my Proposition is Vniversal and these Complaints and Reproofs only particular and so can prove nothing The like he answereth p. 224. to what I urge from Esai 5.1.2 3 4. where the Vineyard is Expostulated with as likewise Mat. 23.33 Mark 12.1 Luk. 20.9 and p. 225. To what I urge from Mat. 23.37 Luk. 13.34 and 19.41 42. where Christ