and therefore was justified in that his actions were counted to him for righteousness so that his righteousness was of faith not of works for then would it have been an action of the body when faith is an act of the soule by which he and every beleever is and shall be saved and by faith was he satisfied so as to be accepted and that faith which then was sufficient is the same still even unto the end for he that beleeves shall be saved And by grace are we saved through faith and that not of our selves observe that it is the gift of God And the difference is not of the matter whereof it was and is wrought but in the means and manner at which you are offended in that because he then wrought himselfe immediately he doth not the same now but by his Ambassadors beseeching us to be reconciled unto him But if this be not a limiting of God what is then for shame cease to professe thy selfe the servant of God when thou seekest to pervert his will for that cannot be the spirit of God in thee which so fighteth against it in the Primitive Saints Query 11. Can any preach Christ who have not Christ in them and where he is is he not sole teacher what to preach and pray and how and when and to whom and is he to be limited by any external thing or to any external thing or is any ordinance to be practised but what he in spirit leads the creature to An Answer to the Eleventh Query It is possible that there may now be as in the Primitive times there were them which may preach Christ and yet not have Christ within them for far be it from me to deny or to imagine otherwise but that Judas the Tray tor preached Christ as well as any other of the Apostles and Paul testifieth as much unto the Church of Philippi that some there were that preached Christ out of envy to his cause Such I feare thou art and many more of thy society and some of strife and some of good will but yet still of them all thus testifieth Paul that whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached I doe rejoyce yea and will therein rejoyce And the same Apostle though to another Church renders it a matter possible that whilest a Minister teaches to save others he may become a castaway himselfe when this is an assured certainty that where Christ hath begun a good work of faith in any he will perform also it and the rest of this your Query I suppose tends to that which you and more of your Apostatiz'd Brethren have asserted as that we ought to wait in silence till the Spirit move us and that whoso useth the Scriptures are robbers and stealers of others mens words This you once asserted to me and so consequently urging all to forsake reading teaching and praying or any such like exercises unlesse the Spirit by irresistable motions move us thereunto against which I utterly declare as have others done for this were first to bereave us of that glorious priviledge of communion with God he speaking unto us in his word we unto him in prayer Secondly to shut up the Kingdome of God in some sort from the sons of men in bereaving us of the meanes for discipline and observance is the security of an Army in war and what are glad tydings if they are not told Thirdly this is to presse us to the omission of duty which is questionlesse commission of offence And fourthly this leaves all open to the assaults of Satan we laying downe in our infirmities and not standing up against his invasions and temptations And lastly this giveth way to sluggishnesse of spirit and to an unwatchfulness in matters of salvation and endeavour to engage us to a confidence of beliefe in and to every thing that shall come in the name of Christ and so to receive Antichrist not leaving us the priviledge of the braines to try the words of an Apostle by the umpi of all controversies the sacred Scriptures which is absolutely opposite unto the truth and contrary yea far exorbitant from the known will and temporal expressive word of God for though he hath said The Spirit shall teach us all things yet hath it said againe Meditate on these things give thy selfe wholly to them Now wholly excludes all negligent intermission and the manner how is prescribed too for Study to shew thy selfe approved and stir up the gift in thee as fire which sometimes is covered with ashes and againe Be constant and instant in prayer and pray continually which includes all times and seasons wherefore we ought to put up our supplications at the throne of grace not onely when the spirit especially moveth us but when our occasions or necessities require and far be it from me to imagine that the Spirit of God moved the Apostles to preach when they did onely and at no other time and that they alwayes waited in silence till then for then it stirred up it selfe they stirred it not but rather hid their talents of grace in the earth and so were unprofitable if not unfaithful servants and since the holy Ghost advised and the the Apostles so practised as to meditate study and pray without ceasing it appeares plainly unto me that Christ neither limited or constrained them respectively in particular but onely notionally in general so to doe giving them repenitent hearts to sorrow for sinne and grace to beleeve and power thorow that grace to exercise faith in the performance of those duties and when they prayed Christ also prayed with them and as a faithful Mediatour making continual intercession at the throne of grace that the fruition of their prayers might be the accomplishment of their desires and far be it from me to imagine that Christ can be limited by any external thing though I suppose and really beleeve that it is possible for any man to limit himselfe and then much more for Christ who is God and therefore with him all things are possible and so may limit himselfe in any thing if he please Quere 12. What is the ground and rise of your knowledge whether it be received within man from God or without from the Letter And if without whether this be not the knowledge which all the vaine janglers comes out of and the generation of persecutors comes out of as the Jewes was in which professed the Letter and were strangers to the life of God And whether this generation of men and Professors in our Age do not begin to manifest the same as the persecuting Jewes did yea or nay An Answer to the Twefth Query My knowledge as was Pauls is neither perfectly the one nor the other and yet partly both for as the disciples of Ephesus were ignorant of Jesus though baptized unto John and had not so much as heard of that name or that there was a holy Ghost notwithstanding any inward light until they
cries up one while and down another the self and the same thing And are not Scriptures external means and so granted by you to be useless and how then are they means of perfection if they be not useful or doe you mean something not external and so intitle a false thing Scripture But I fear your Ministry is rather misery then mercy for if you had receiv'd the mercy that Paul had you would also renounce the hidden things of dishonesty as Paul did not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully as you do And if you look a little further into the very same chapter of Paul to the Rom. you shall find him make it a matter not only of difficulty but also of impossibility that any should believe without hearing or hear without a Preacher by whom Christ is preached even by them that bring the word of God whose feet are beautiful And this is the word nigh us even at our doors not leaving us to travel to Jerusalem as of old to hear the word of the Lord which now is nigh to us though he be in heaven and we on earth by faith in him But if that that light in every individual man and woman be the sure word of Prophesie is there then a Prophetick light in all if so what doth it prophesie of life and righteousnesse for sinners in a Mediator or of death for disobedience and if this be the light that shines in a dark place what is the day-star and the Sun of righteousnesse for though the Apostle hath said that all may prophecy one by one yet hath he said again are all Prophets no but I wish the Lords people were all such and that Preaching is powerful I believe though you once denied it and I now see truth is no truth till it serve your turn And for every thing that you adde further we know it without your teaching as that every man which comes into the world of nature Christ as God enlightens with the light of nature as reason sense and the like and that he is the Saviour of the world Qu. 5. And if that the external means be useless to what end were those most sacred gifts bestowed upon men Eph. 4. 10 11 12. And how the end and intent for which they were given became void Answ. 5. The end of those gifts was for perfecting the Saints and bringing all into one faith unto a perfect man which they that teach that none can be perfect by those gifts while they live do set up a faith in people contrary to the end of those gifts and by setting up external things in stead of these spiritual gifts have you lost the gifts and have made them void and so are become enemies to the end and intent of them in others who have them and believe the end of them And thus the end and intent for which they were given are become void to you Eph. 4. 10 11 12. Rep. 5. Here also you abuse my intentions wrest my meaning as you doe the Scripture unto your owne will which we are not to query what for that I know as well as you can tell me if not better but if external means were useless and so consequently these gifts how became their end void for which they were given so that you answer not at all to the question but at confused randum and stuffe up lines with lyes First that to teach that none can be perfect in this life by these gifts is to set up a false faith produce a president of one person in all the Scripture that ever was perfect by any meanes whatsoever except Christ if you can or else yeild your self a lyar Secondly that by setting up external things for those spiritual I have made them void which is another lye and that two-fold First prove that ever I set up external things in stead of spiritual things if you can but have not you and your Ghostly Father the Pope done it in setting up carnal dictates of your own brains for that of the spirit of God Secondly that I have made them void testifie this if thou canst O subtil deceiver Thirdly that I am become an enemy to the end of these gifts in others I declare in the presence of God I honour though you oppose them wheresoever they be which is backed by a fourth lye that the end and intent of them is become void to me when my end is is not yet come but how soon it may God knowes but this I can testifie the fruits of those gifts have I reaped in my measure and by them in others have been both established and instructed in the truth and so I can witnesse the effects though not the end of them as yet But what means Paul by the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven if they were perfect before on earth and whether is Paul or you a lyar herein Qu. 6. If natural light be sufficient without the help of the means what then is become of the work of grace Eph. 2. 5 8. Rom. 11. 6. and of the growth of faith Luke 17. 5. Mark 9. 24. The practical use of Ordinances 1 Cor. 11. 2 23 24. As Baptism Matth. 8. 9. The Lords Supper Reading 1 Tim. 4. 13. Preaching Matth. 28. 20. and several other places Prayer 1 Thess. 5. 17. Rom. 12. 12 Communion of Saints in publique Assemblies Heb 10. 25. Answ. 6. The light of Christ is the gift of the grace of God which brings salvation which teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. And with this light is the work of grace seen but thou that callest this natural light or wouldst make people believe it is not sufficient must needs be ignorant of that spirit whereby that work of grace and growth of faith prayer and communion of Saints Supper and Ordinances is known for without faith in the light of Christ these are not known nor accepted though dark natural imaginations may make an imitation from them in the letter 1 Cor. 2. 14. And thus are the works of grace become to all that deny the light and spirit of Christ within and take up a tradition from the letter without sensual having not the spirit Jude 19. Reply 6. O deceitful sophistry Is this an answering or a baffling Is it a satisfactory resolve when I asked you what was become of the work of grace faith the growth of Faith which is by the natural use of ordinances c. all which we own as did the Apostles though you deny most if not all of them when you wave it and proceed contrary to request to declare though but shallowly what the work of grace is how sin and how the rest are known all which is impertinent to the thing required and therefore it being only a titular answer it scarce deserves a reply so that it resteth as at
the spirit of God by him or by the testimony of them who before had come with such works for the spirits of the Prophets are subject unto other Prophets or else if he were a Prophet the event was to declare whether he was of God or no and yet still if the matter of his exhortation were to withdraw us from the known will of God as is yours and the rest of your praters of the Quaking Society though the signes and wonders should come to passe as the man of Sinne shall abound with such deceivablenesse yet we ought not to hearken unto it though the simple beleeve every word for the Lord by such as you proveth us whether we will be faithful to the death that we may inherit a crown of life by keeping his commandements Quere 8. What eye is that which the god of this world hath blinded how he hath blinded it and how it is opened and by what and whether the Letter can open it yea or no An Answer to the Eighth Quere This seems unto me a Fiction of your own braines for to the best of my knowledge I remember not that ever I read any such phrase as that eye which the god of this world hath blinded and therefore till you produce the proofe this might suffice but I shall freely inlarge to tell you that Paul speaks to this effect if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost and then he adds whose minde the god of this world hath blinded and for minds I suppose you will grant that there is no more but one in general and them whose minds are so blinded to them also is the Gospel hid and it is hid from them onely who are lost and therefore I leave it to you to examine with unexpressible feare and trembling whether it be not hid from you since you see it not as it is the word of God but of men and thus he that is most blind may see it for no one can see it in a lower degree and for the manner how blinded by unbelief and how open'd by faith of which more at large in my Answer to your fourth Query and whether the Letter can open it yea or no the question is absurd for though it be a material it is not the sole and absolute meanes of it for though faith be by hearing yet is hearing not unto them to whom God hath given eares that they may not hear but unto them properly whose eares are sanctified by the grace of the spirit for though Paul may plant and Apollo water yet it is God must assist to give the increase or else it is unsufficient but I might as well ask thee the question whether your plow would accomplish its proper end tillage without you or some other wrought with it or the tooles of any Artificer form the wo k intended without the Workman give it motion and direct guidance which to imagine is simplicity but yet as wise arguing as is yours Quere 9. Whether the true Ministry of Christ be the same now for matter meanes and maintenance that it was in the Apostles time or when was it changed into great Livings Tythes and set maintenance and by whom and in what must it now differ from these An Answer to the Ninth Quere The true Ministry of Christ is the same now for matter meanes and maintenance that it was in the Apostles dayes though you would change it unto that which is no Ministry of Divinity but rather a mystery of iniquity I have partly proved in my answer to your seventh Query as to matter and meanes I come now unto what remaines concerning maintenance for there I shewed how Paul the wise Master buildâ—â— who yet was servant unto all was to and did ordainâ— and chuse by deputation other workmen in the same employment with him as fellow-labourers in the Vineyard of the Lords Church and so it is the same now And concerning maintenance the same Apostle having proved the necessary conveniency of a maintainance for Gospel-ministers by many unquestionable Arguments he comes at last to this Assertion Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And certainly he so ought to live as that he may not become worse then an Infidel but provide for his own Family and the Rehearser of that Ordinance was also a practitioner in the use of maintenance for this he testifies of himselfe I robbed toher Churches taking wages of them to doe you service And therefore since it was lawful for him as certainly it was to take wages for so he calls it of one Church to doe another service then sure is it much more tolerable for a Minister to take wages of a Church to serve the same And though the Apostles in the time of our Saviours presence with them took neither purse nor scrip with them because their employment required haste yet this is annexed The labourer is worthy of his hire and to take two coats might have been cumbersome and therefore they went light but as you read of their going forth so do you of their comming in too in the same Chapter and our Saviour who first instituted also disannulled this command and bids him that hath use and him that hath not buy and they being then to travel from one Region to another were to plant not keep in order the Vineyards and therefore could not be setled in any constant employment and therefore enjoyed no standing maintenance that I have read of except Paul as before named for wages must be some certaine allowance and in that the Scripture allowes and ordaines a maintenance and pet prescribes not the summe it is evidently cleare that it is left to humane providence to order that and so Paul seemes to admonish when he saith Let all things be done with decency and in all things I suppose this was included And since you have nothing else to upbraid our Ministry withal you raile against and abuse Paul as well as them when you cry out against hirelings and therefore false Prophets say you so that it is neither changed nor different from the Primitive Institution And therefore the latter part of this thy Query with most of thy Tenets thou mayest send to Rome to thy great Grandfather the Pope who hath both added to and diminished from the true Ministry and yet calls it the true still And if this satisfie thee not I shall refer thee to more able pens who have writ on this subject above mentioned as Mr. Baxter and others Quere 10. Whether the light of Christ be as sufficient to lead to God now as it was in Abrahams time and if not what must now be added to it to make it sufficient An Answer to the tenth Query This thy Query hath been sufficiently answered in my Answer to thy first Query for that which wrought effectually in other Saints wrought also in Abraham who believed