1. 3 4 5 6 7. Mat. 5. 12. They having here a race set before them to run with patience and hold out to the end of their lives before they can get the prize And a warfare wherein they must fight hold out to the end and conquer before they can obtain the Crown in the day and Kingdom of Christ 1 Cor. 9. 24 25 26 27. Heb. 12. 1. Jam. 1. 12. 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. Yea and hold out unto death and overcome before they can receive the Crown of life and sit with Christ in his Throne and Kingdom Rev. 2. 10 26. Rev. 3. 21. Come ye blessed of the Father and inherite the Kingdom prepared for you Mat. 25. 34. This will not be said and performed by Christ to the righteous until after his coming in glory verse 31. All which places with many more that might be cited if need were do evidently shew That the Church in this world is not the Kingdom of Christ intended and meant in Luk. 1. 33. Isa 9. 6 7. nor in Psal 145. 13. as R. B. very inconsiderately expounds it to be for the Children of God must through much tribulation enter into that Kingdom Act. 14. 22. Through it note that and be past all for they shall have none at all after they once enter into that Kingdom I hope by this time I have quit my self of being an Infidel intimated by R. B. pag. the seventh which I conceive cannot justly be charged upon any man though he should but believe an Almighty God Maker of heaven and earth and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him being no Respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him But as for his term Heathen I know not well his meaning but it may be feared That the righteousness of many who are by us called Heathens will finde acceptance with God when neither the faith nor righteousness of most called Christians will finde any A Gentile I confess my self to be so also must he unless he be a very Jew Thou seest Reader that R. B. his whole drift in this his second Sheet is to prove himself and the Ministers of the Reformed Churches to be the true Ministers of Jesus Christ which he endeavours to do by laying this ground viz. Christ saith he must alway have a true Church upon Earth even to the end of the world Whence he infers a necessity of a true Ministry there also because saith he pag. 8. The Church never did nor can subsist without its Officers who are an essential part of it as it is a politick body and the most eminent part as it is a Community Then he endeavours to prove the Ministers of the reformed Churches to be those Ministers or Officers by an argument pag. 11. thus framed Either those Pastors of the reformed Churches are the true Ministers of Christ or else there are none such visible in the world but there are such visibly and certainly in the world else there is no Church So then thou maist see That the whole stress of his Arguments to prove the Ministers of the reformed Churches to be the true Ministers of Christ hangs meerly upon this single pin namely That Christ must have a true Christian Church upon the earth alway even to the end of the world and his chiefest proof for that is First Mat. 28. 20. from Christs promise to be with his eleven Apostles alway even to the end of the world This promise R. B. saith is absolute that Christ will be with the eleven Apostles and their successors alway c. and therefore a true Church must be alway upon earth even to the end of the world Secondly from Luke 1. 33. and other Texts of like import where it 's said That Christ must raigne over the house of Jacob for ever and of that his Kingdom there shall be no end This house of Jacob and Kingdom of Christ R. B. expounds to be the Christian Church upon Earth in this world and thence concludes no end of the being of a true Church or Ministry upon earth Both which Expositions of his I have denyed and thou hast seen my Proofs and Refutations And mayst yet further see how these two Scriptures do interfere and cross one another and that in the main and chief point for which they are produced by R. B. to accord in viz to prove the time of the continuance of the Christian Church upon earth For if it be granted that both these Texts do mean the Christian Church in this world as they do not yet the one refers the continuance thereof but to the end of the world and the other refers it to no end at all but to be everlasting and for ever even as the Kingdom of Christ must be from the time of its first establishment Rev. 11. 15. Dan. 7. 14 18 27. Micha 4. 7. compared with Luk. 1. 33. Isai 9. 6 7. Psalm 145. 13. These last three being the Scriptures cited by R. B. to prove and uphold the kingly priesthood and raigne of the Ministers of the reformed Churches in Christs stead in his Kingdom over the house of Jacob everlastingly And this must be the fulfilling of the prophesies of Christs inheriting of the Throne of his Father David and of his restoring the Kingdom to Israel and to be the Kingdom wherein he will drink wine new with his Disciples and also the Kingdom wherein the Mother of Zebedees children desired of Christ that her two Sons might sit the one on his right hand and the other on his left Mat. 20. 20. Unto whom Christ answered That to sit on his right hand and on his left was not his to give but to them for whom it is prepared of his Father Whereby it is evident that such places are prepared of God for some to fit both on the right and left hand of Christ in the Kingdom Whence will clearly follow That Christ will be personally present in his Kingdom and therein sit with some on his right hand and some on his left But Christ is no where personally present so to sit in the reformed Churches nor in any of them nor in any other Church upon Earth no not in the Church of Rome nor yet in R. B. his Catholick or Universal Church Therefore the Refomed Churches nor any of them nor any other Church upon Earth no not the Church of Rome nor yet R. B. his Catholick or Universal Church is the Kingdom of Christ Moreover and besides all which Let it be considered how that the Promise in Mat. 28. 20. was not to the Church nor to any inferior Officer thereof for neither any such Officer to officiate in a Church nor any such Church wherein to officiate was then constituted but the promise was made meerly to the Eleven Apostles themselves who afterwards were both to plant Churches and appoint inferior Officers therein and therefore whatsoever the promise was it was specially
first age but for 400 years at least after which contain many Ages See this granted and proved by R. B. out of his own writings a little before cited And he further acknowledgeth it in his book of Infidelity part 1. pag. 35. where he expresseth himself as followeth viz. Whence came the Holy-Ghost which the Lord Jesus did send down upon his Church which sate on his Disciples in the likeness of firy cloven tongues which filled all Churches in all parts of the world at once how distant soever with the miraculous gift of strange Languages prophesying interpretation healing casting out of Devils or the like that fell on men ordinarily note that and in such numbers as soon as the Apostles laid their hands on them after they were baptized And in pag. 33. he tells us That tongues are not for them that believe but for them that believe not saith Paul 1 Cor. 14. 22. that it saith R. B. to shew them the power of Christ and so convince them From all which granted and proved by R. B. I thus reason Even as the powerful gifts of the Spirit raising of the dead casting out of Devils miracles prophesie c. were ordinary in the first Age of the Church and for four hundred years at least after and yet lost not their convincing force nor were taken by men otherwise then as some proof of a divine Testimony So they might have been ordinary in all Ages since and yet not lose their convincing force nor have been taken by men otherwise then as some proof of a divine Testimony The third Charge is likewise in page the seventh thus And we saith R. B. have experience of Millions that still do actually and stedfasty believe in Christ without miracles and many have laid down their lives on that belief therefore without miracles men may believe but to this Clem. Writer saith to me These believers of all sorts condemn each other as Hereticks but not saith R. B. as Infidels and none but the ignorant or passionate condemn all other sorts as Hereticks Answ 1. R. B. by his granting here that the ignorant and passionate do it justifies my Answer so far as it needs no other defence 2. By this his grant he concludes the generality of Christians in this and late Ages to be ignorant and passionate and who would deny it though thereto should be added soiteful and malicious as in a thousand pregnant instances might be evidenced though we should omit the late case of Mr. Biddle and others here and Mr. Williams and Mr. Gorton and others in new England who meerly for difference in judgment from them in matters of religion hardly escaped with their lives And is not the mark of Heathens common now upon such as think themselves the best of Christians even by this Authors own confession in his Saints Rest part 1. pag. 137. in the Margent 3. It 's granted on all sides That Hereticks and others who have no true Faith in Christ or the Gospel may yet lay down their lives in maintenance of their respective Tenents true or false as the experience of all Ages can witness 4. Let R. B. therefore prove that these millions were true believers in Christ and in the true Gospel of Christ or did or do so much as truly and undoubtedly know Christ and the true Gospel of Christ without any Miracle or other divine evidence to attest the same which he can never do being good at drawing confident and strange consequences from weak yea and from groundless premisses For 1. If these millions believe the true and onely Gospel of Christ How is it possible for them to condemn each other as Hereticks 2. If they all believe it without miracles or other divine evidence How could or can it be by any divine Faith for R. B positively affâ—rts That divine faith hath ever a divine Testimony 3. If they all believe it by no divine Faith but by some humane Faith how then could or can they still both actually and stedfastly believe and lay down their lives on that belief (e) But that as it was said before mis-believers may lay down their lives for their Opinions for all Faith 's not grounded upon divine Testimony or evidence are no better then humane whose foundation R. B. hath told us is laid in the sand where all will fall at the next assault Here it may be R. B. will seek to relieve himself by some distinction of divine evidences and tell us of some such that these millions had or that he himself now hath which was unknown to the primitive Churches the Church being then in its infancy and Christians but Babies in comparison of us and then fed meerly with the Doctrine of Christ and pure VVord of God and had then no other divine evidence then the gifts of the Spirit with the powerful demonstrations thereof which these like Children as they were contented themselves withall denying themselves in many good and delicate things of this life which we being grown Christians have and know how to use and enjoy without any hurt to our selves which the others being then but Babies in Christ knew not at all what to do with unless to hurt and hinder themselves in their Christian race and warfare set before them and therefore many needless hardships went they through not knowing how to expound Christs injunctions so well and so profitable for themselves as we now can and do such as their forsaking all and following Christ these simple as they were instantly forsook the Riches and Profits of this World contenting themselves meerly with Food and Rayment as Peter said Lord we have forsaken all and followed thee what shall we have But all such Rocks and Shelves have we avoyded knowing the meaning of that and the like Precepts better then so viz. never to forsake the World till it forsake us or at soonest not till it come in direct competition with Christ and Christianity which we hope will never be Then and not till then we intend to fulfil that and all such-like Precepts But to the point in hand R. B. had need to tell us if he can what Divine Evidence these Millions had or that he hath which were not Miracles nor any such other Divine Evidence as were formerly exhibited to the Primitive Churches and before specified And since R. B. himself believes practises and maintains the sprinkling of Infants to be an Ordinance of Jesus Christ and a Doctrine of the Gospel with many other Doctrines of the Gospel which he believes holds and maintains against many other Ministers being of the Reformed Churches as well as he Now let him tell us what Divine Evidence he hath or can produce for any of these which the Dissenters from him have not who hold and maintain the contrary It cannot be the Scripture for all have that nor can it be humane Learning which R. B. makes to be a gift of the Spirit as by and by shall be shewn
then been given to him if the Headship or Lordship over his Church had been omitted or suspended until his Ascention This Jesus God raised up and made him both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 35 36. And he was the first born from the dead of every creature that in all things he might have the pre-eminence Col. 1. 15 18. For nothing was left that should not be made subject unto him but neither then nor since are all things actually made subject unto him although he then was actually crowned with the Glory and Honour of Lordship over all things Heb. 2. 5 6 8 9. which hereafter are to be actually put in subjection unto him as these Scriptures witness Psal 110. 1. Act. 2. 34 35 36. 1 Cor. 15. 24 25 26 27 28 Phil. 2. 8 9 10 11 Heb. 1. 6 13. and 10. 12 13. All which shews the imbecility of the objection being composed meerly of non-sequiturs unto which the Apostle plainly alludes and compares the Church 1 Cor. 12. where he also tells them That they having these spiritual gifts were thereby all of them baptized into that one body of Christ by that one Spirit before which they were not of that body nor sutable matter for Membership in that spiritual body of Christ their Spiritual Head and husband Even as the Apostle writing to a true Church Rom. 8. tells them That if any of them had not the Spirit of Christ the same was none of his i. e. none of his body or Church which is as a building fitly framed together groweth to an holy temple in the Lord in whom they were builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Eph. 2. 21 22. Rom. 12. 4 5. as we have many Members in the body and all the members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another holding the head from which all the body by these gifts of the Spirit as by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2. 19. Wherefore this learned Objector may as well and as soon truly define a Natural body without members or joynts and sinews to knit them together as to define a true Christian Church or body of Christ without these gifts of the Spirit For see we not how the most learned on all sides flounder and fall before each other in their definitions of a true Church and each different party challenging their definition to be truest and the true Church to be amongst them each crying Loe here and loe there as if the Church of Christ when and where it is will not be perspicuously and distinctly discovered as a light set upon a hill to all beholders even by her own eminency and by that divine light and power which alwayes did and will accompany her without the help of blind guides with their dark-lanthorns of humane Arts and Sciences to discover and find her out This consideration alone is sufficient to evidence That the true Church is withdrawn from the earth or at least so far removed that we know not where to find it I shall instance in the definition made by one of the best reformed Churches even the Church of England as it was most advisedly framed by the wisest and ablest of them and then publickly held forth in the Articles of the Church which they stoutly defended against the world insomuch as whosoever would not conform thereto was obnoxious to censure and being a Minister was liable to be reprobated and cast out as refuse and unsavory salt In the ninteenth Article it is thus defined viz. The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christs Ordinance Now let a Heathen be told that by these marks he may know the true Church may he not then demand how he shall know the pure word of God when it is preached c. must he not then be told that he must know that by the true Church and then again may he not ask How he may know the true Church and must he not then again be answered That he must know the true Church by their preaching the pure word of God c. And thus may he run the round again and again to the worlds end and be never the neerer knowing the true Church until he return again into his own countrey and there or elsewhere learn undoubtedly to know what the pure word of God is when it is preached and what the due administration of the Sacraments is according to Christ's ordinance and as soon as he hath learned undoubtedly to know all these he may then return hither again if he please and find out the true Church of Christ amongst us as soon as he can But how unlike are these marks unto those which Christ himself gave to know his true Church by Mar. 16. 17 18. These signs shall follow them In my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover Unto this also accords St. Pauls description of a true Cburch 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly teachers after them miracles then gifts of healing helps governments divers kinds of tongues And accordingly Ancient Christians judged these gifts of the Spirit to be absolutely necessary to the being of a true Church for Eusebius informs us That one Miliades disputing with certain Hereticks proves them no true Church or right Christians by the discontinuance of the gifts of the Spirit amongst them thus If that as they say after Quadratus and Ammias the Philadelphian those women of Montanus succeeded in the gift of Prophesie Let them shew who afterward succeeded Montanus and his women for the Apostle thinketh good that the gifts of Prophesie should reign in every Church even unto the end but now for the space of these fourteen yeers since Miximilla dyed they are able to shew us not one Euseb lib. 5. chap. 15. And so modern Authors likewise doe judge these gifts necessary to the being of a true Church for in a Book intituled The Doctrine of Baptisms set out 1652. by a nameless author supposed to be Mr. Dell in pag. 22. it 's asserted That as Spirit-Baptisme makes us one with Christ the head so with the Church the Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body c. And a little after he saith There are no more of that Church which is the body of Christ-then they that are baptised with that one Spirit The truth of all which our Objector himself so far acknowledgeth as in his Preface to the second Part of his Saints Rest to tell us That
An Apologetical Narration Or a just and necessary VINDICATION OF CLEMENT WRITER AGAINST A Four-fold Charge laid on him BY RICHARD BAXTER And published by him in Print Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Afflictions and to keep himself unspotted from the World Jam. 1. 27. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men Mat. 15. 9. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you FOR I was an hungry and ye gave me Meat I was thirsty and ye gave me Drink I was a Stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye clothed me c. Mat. 25. 34 35 36. Woe be to you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men for ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in Mat. 23 13 14. The Second Edition with an Appendix by the same Author LONDON Printed for Daniel White and are to be sold at his Shop at the seven Stars on the North-side of St. Pauls To the Reader READER I Have here set before thee the whole business between Mr. Baxter and my self intreating thee to bear with such faults as happily thou mayst apprehend either in me or the Book and the rather let me move thee hereunto First Because I may requite thee with the like kindness when ever thou shalt be provoked in like manner to make thy Defence being openly set upon by such a potent Assailant as now I have been Secondly because it is more then probable that thou and I as well as all other men may be mistaken in apprehending of Errors when indeed and in truth the Error may be and many times is meerly in our own apprehension being much vitiated by Custom and Education Wherefore I advise thee once and again seriously and impartially to consider the whole matter over and over and then also not hastily to enter into the seat of Judgment because things of such high deep and weighty concernment need always due and exact weighing and that with sutable Balances wherein humane learning must neither have the pre-eminence nor bear any sway at all And especially in thy judging be very sollicitous and exceeding careful so to doe it as neither to wrong the Truth nor thy own conscience For if thou doest I assure thee whosoever thou art all the Honour and Advantage Profit and Preferment which thou shalt either retain or get thereby will proveâ—tly unreparable damage at last Pray with me therefore that the eyes of our understandings may be opened and anointed with Eye-salve that we may clearly see perfectly apprehend and certainly judge between both Persons and things that differ And in the mean time to exercise mutual Charity and forbearance one towards another at least until our Ignorances be much less and our Authority much more to judge one another in these matters Worcester this 25. of March 1658. Farewel Reader I am against my will provoked by Richard Baxter to make here my just Defence against some charge laid upon me by the name of Clem. Writer in a Pamphlet of his INTITULED A second Sheet for the Ministry wherein though he something mistakes my name yet I suppose I am the Person he ayms at THe first Charge is in p. 6. thus That Clem. Writer told him That no man is bound to believe that Christ did rise again or the rest of Christianity that seeth not Miracles himself to prove it Answ 1. I deny these words in manner form and sence to be ever spoken by me And 2. If any such words or of like import were spoken by me it was to this effect and meaning namely That no unconverted or unbelieving man is bound by God upon pain of damnation to believe and obey the Gospel without Divine evidence to attest unto him the truth thereof whereon undoubtedly to ground that his faith c. This long hath been yet is and must be my judgement until I am otherwise informed and I conceive there are sufficient grounds both from Scripture and Reason to confirm me therein But I leave it to Gods will not determining what Divine evidence he please to use for that purpose whether Signs Wonders diversities of Tongues Miracles casting out of Devils curing of the Lame healing of the Sick raising of the Dead for I finde that by these and other the like demonstrations of the powerful works and gifts of the Spirit he usually confirmed the Word every-where preach'd by his true Ministers for the conversion of men to the Faith of the Gospel insomuch as by the meer shadow of Peter and by the very handkerchiefs of Paul were special Miracles and many Cures wrought as may be seen in Mark 16. 20. Heb. 2. 4. Act. 2. Act. 5. 14 15 16. Act. 8. 6 7. 1 Cor 2. 4. Compared with Act. 19. 11 12 18 19 20. and many other places And as for Tongues these were for a sign not for them that believe but for them that believe not 1 Cor. 14. 22. And we likewise finde that the end of Christs sending of these powerful gifts of the Spirit to abide with his true Ministry and Church for ever Joh. 14. 16. was chiefly to convince the unbelieving world Joh. 16. 8. Thereby not onely to afford them successively in all Ages an infallible ground of Faith but also to bring them under guilt of much sin if they obeyed not the Gospel which otherwise would have been no sin at all in them Joh. 15. 24. And hence it was that the Apostles themselves were commanded to stay until they were endued with power from on high to enable them to do those mighty Works for the attestation of the truth of their Mission and Message for the conversion of men to the Faith of the Gospel Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 8. And it 's likewise worthy our Observation That neither the twelve nor yet the seventy were sent out at first until they had power given them over Devils and diseases c. whereby to enable them by Divine Evidence to attest the truth of that their Mission although they were then sent but to preach in the Land of Judea only Mat. 10. 5 6. Luk. 10. 1. c. And these being persons meerly of the same Language Kindred and Country might therefore have challenged to have been credited by the Jews upon their own bare testimony only without producing any Divine Evidence at all if any had been so to be credited Yet neither were they nor ought they nor Christ himself to be so credited in these matters as is most evident Joh. 10. 37. Joh. 5. 31 34 36. compared with Joh. 15. 24. And since that none of these were nor ought to be so credited how then dare any mortal man or men of what degree order sort or company soever now upon the face of the Earth assume or challenge to themselves any such Authority or Divine
for all have that also nor can it be the perswasions of the Spirit that he can pretend to have which the others may not pretend to have as well as he And I think it may be boldly asserted unpossible for such different perswasions to proceed from the spirit of God as to judge or condemn one another for Hereticks or Erroneous Persons either as these do Wherefore it is more safe and reasonable to deem that none of them all were nor are indued with the Spirit of God but such onely who could or can and also did or do manifest the same by some Divine Evidence and Demonstration as none being destitute thereof can possibly do The fourth Charge is in the eighth page being thus If the Church or Ministery saith R. B. had an end Christs Kingdom had an end and he Reigned not for ever Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you alwayes even to the end of the world To this express Promise Clem. Writer hath no wiser an answer but that it is conditional if they teach men to observe all things that Christ hath commanded them he will be with them else not To which R. B. replies and saies This is your forgery there is no such words but an absolute Promise Answ And doth the Promise indeed come in so independently as R. B. hath here set it forth Reader see with thine own eyes for thou and I too have look'd too much and too long with other mens see if it hath not a necessary Dependence and Relation to the next precedent words in the Text which thou shalt finde to run thus viz. Going therefore teach or disciple all or in all nations baptizing them c. teaching them i. e. the baptized Disciples to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world The genuine and true sence whereof I conceive to be this viz. That in their so doing and teaching alway Christ promiseth to be with them and their true Successors alway even to the end of the world But R. B. his sense seems to be thus much That Christ doth there promise absolutely to be with them and their successors alway even to the end of the world they teaching whatsoever false Doctrine or introducing never so many humane inventions into the Gospel-Worship yet that Christ's promise is absolute still to be with them alway even to the end of the World notwithstanding An Exposition highly gratifying the Pope and justifying his Divine Authority being Peters Successor No Papist can advantage him by an Exposition of this Text more or better then R. B. hath here done And whereas R. B. tells me This is your forgery there is no such words but an absolute promise Answ Can any man give his Sence of any Text or explain the meaning thereof but he must do it in some other and more words then are in the Text yea and doth not R. B. himself in the next words following tell us That the promise is absolute Christ being with them to support and help them in his Work Answ These words not being in the Text is his forgery also for how else is my taking but the same liberty forgery and his doing the same thing no forgery But perhaps his Commission is with a non obstante to pervert or falsyfie Scripture at his pleasure and yet have the absolute promise of Christ still to be with him to support and help him in that his Work How strangely hath he perverted the true meaning of this Text For 1. He cites the last words thereof as if they had been intire and absolute without dependence upon any precedent words 2. The word whatsoever he leaves out and also them which relates to the baptized disciples and instead thereof he foysteth in men as if the teaching last mentioned in the Text had relation to men in general and unconverted whereas it is confined onely to the baptized Disciples that they being converted and baptized should then be taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ had commanded those eleven Disciples and accordingly R. B. himself hath opened and given the sense of this very Text in his book of Infidelity Part 4. page 40. And nothing in Scripture is more evident then that Christ after his Resurrection commanded these eleven not to go out in the exercise of their Ministery and preaching of the Gospel for the converson of men to the faith until they were indued with power from on high telling them that they should be so indued when the Holy Ghost was come upon them Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5 8. And as these were commanded by Christ so they accordingly stayed and waited until they received this power before they went forth Now if R. B. had been disciplized and baptized by any of these Eleven or by any true Ministery succeeding them he ought and undoubtedly should have been taught the very same Lesson viz. to stay until he had been indued with like power from on High as these Eleven did and who had run before they had been sent as R. B. hath done if they had not so stayed Multitudes are the Scriptures throughout his first and second sheet which he forceth against their genuine sence to do him Divine Service in up-holding the Ministery he pleads for In his first sheet page 4. he brings in for that purpose Christs speech in Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Answ These words were spoken by Christ to the twelve Disciples Chap. 9. 1. and to the seventy Chap. 10. 1. VVhom he sent out to preach giving them power over all devils and diseases and to do other miraculous works to attest the truth of their Mission and Message as is to be seen Chap. 9. 1 2 6. and Chap. 10. 9 17 18 19. Charging them to take nothing for their journey neither staves shooes scrip bread purse nor money giving them also other special directions for their behaviour wheresoever they came Chap. 9. 3 c. Chap. 10. 3 c. Now although these words of Christ were truly applicable to these to whom they were spoken and to all others succeeding them unto whom God should himself in like manner bear witness by such mighty works yet are they not applicable to any others to whom God bears no such witness The Reason is because their preachings being evidently witnessed by God himself to be truth it was and might therefore be truly said of such He that believed not them made God a lyar And also to such He that heareth you heareth me c. Yet it is no more true nor appliable to the preachings of R. B. nor of any of the Ministers he pleads for coming without such Divine Evidence then it is to the Preachings of the Jesuites or of any other coming without such Divine Evidence to attest the truth of their Mission or
Message And strange it is to see with what seeming Zeal R. B. seeks notwithstanding to maintain the Ministers of the Reformed Churches to be truly Called and divinely Ordained the Ministers of Jesus Christ and to be such as they to whom Christ said He that heareth you heareth me c. whenas he himself makes bold very much and in many things to contradict and gain-say very many of their Doctrines which they preach as from God to the people How would he take it to be charged for his so doing with a despising of Christ and of God and with making God a Lyar would he think you submit unto it confess and repent thereof as of his great and haynous sin or would he not rather think him that should so charge him to be some Fool or Mad-Man for his labour And in page 8. of his second sheet how strangely and untruly doth he expound and apply the Kingdom and Reign of Christ over the House of Jacob for ever making this to mean the Gentile-Christian Church in this World and from the endlesness of that Kingdom of Christ mentioned in Luk. 1. 33. and in other Scriptures of like import there cited by him he would prove the endlesness of a true Ministry and Christian Church upon Earth in this world asserting the Ministers of the Reformed Churches to be the ordinary and true Ministers of Christ continued by him since the extraordinary Ministry ceased and the reformed Churches to be that his Kingdom and House of Jacob over which Christ by these his Officers reigns for ever And this he indeavours to prove by many Arguments from the Third Proposition in the seventh Page to the end of his Book Arguing in the eleventh Page thus Either these Pastors of the Reformed Churches are the true Ministers of Christ or else there are none such visible in the world but there are such visibly and certainly in the VVorld else there is no Church Answ I must here confess that I never so well knew as now I do what was meant by the Presbyterial Discipline and Church-Government which they so much so long and so eagerly have pursued and sought to be established amongst us and are yet restless to get it up Yet I have heard of their Horning men in Scotland for their not conforming to the Worship Discipline and other their humane Inventions even to the utter ruine of the Men their Wives and Children But now I perceive their Government is Imperial and King-like Their Parishes their Kingdoms wherein And see what blind obedience he requires us to yield to these Rulers in the second Part of his Saints Rest pag. 241. Where he tells us That if these Rulers Stewards require us to believe when we know not our selves whether it be Truth or not or if they require us to obey when we know not our selves whether it be a Duty commanded by God or not here it is saith he that we ought to obey them they are to Rule and Reign and their silly Parishioners their Subjects and Vassals over whom they are to Reign as Stewards and Deputy-Kings in Christ's stead And I must also confess that I never saw in so small a Compasse so much Sophistry used and so much Scripture with so much impudence and with so much Ignorance expounded and applied as in these two sheets of his For by Christs Kingdom and Reign over the House of Jacob mentioned Luk. 1. 33. can be meant no other thing then the Throne of David which Christ is to inherit mentioned in the 32 verse and in Isa 9. 7. wherein he must sit and Reign over the House of Jacob for ever according as it was Covenanted and sworn to David who as Peter saith Act. 2. 30. Being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne Now where Davids Throne and Reign over the Twelve Tribes or whole House of Jacob was there Christs Throne and Reign over them must be but David's Throne and Reign over them was in Jerusalem in the Land of Canaan therefore Christ's Throne and Reign over them must be there also It being therefore fore-told by the Prophet Ezek. 37. 16 19 20 21 22. That all the Tribes or whole house of Israel shall be brought again into their own Land and be there again united into one Kingdom and one King shall be King to them all and they shall be no more two Nations neither shall they be divided into two Kingdoms any more at all And the Prophet Jeremy Jer. 3. 17 18. likewise tells us of a time when they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord And the House of Judah shall walk with the House of Israel and they shall come together cut of the North to the Land which was given to their Fathers to possess And therefore it is that Ezekiel in Chap. 20. 41 42. tells us that they shall be gathered out of all Countreys wherein they are scattered or wherein they yet shall be led captive by the power of Antichrist upon his surprisal of them at his taking of Jerusalem mentioned in Zach. 14. 1. compared with Dan. 7. 25 26. which is not yet nor will be until a little before the Personal coming of our Lord Jesus Christ whose coming will be to avenge them on Antichrist and on all other their Oppressors to redeem them out of captivity to set up that his Kingdom and to set them therein from thenceforth and for ever then will the Kingdom be restored to Israel and Christs Reign over them and the whole earth shall be thenceforth everlasting World without end Zach. 14. 3 4 5 9 17. compared with Luk. 19. 11 12 15. and with Luk. 21. 23 24 27 to 33. Luk. 18. 5 9. with Jer. 30. 4 to 11. Act. 1. 6. with Act. 3. 20 21. Isa 45. 17 18. Heb 2. 5. with Psal 93. 1. This being the same Kingdom wherein Christ promised his Disciples that they should eat and drink at his Table and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Luk. 22. 29 30. This Kingdom also is mentioned Dan. 7. 14 18 20 to 28 and which shall not begin until the fourth and last Monarchy together with Antichrist set forth by the Little Horn vers 8. be destroyed which will not be until the Personal coming of Christ as Saint Paul informs us 2 Thess 1. 7. compared with Chap. 2. 1 to 9. and which also is pointed out in the seventh of Daniel verse 8 to 12. For Satan is the Prince of this world John 14. 30. The portion therefore of the righteous in this life is Tribulation as Christ tells his Disciples John 16. 33. 2 Thes 1. 4. The Church-state in this world being a persecuted and an afflicted estate wherein they are to exercise much patience expecting rest and reward in the Kingdom of Christ at his coming 2 Thes
and principally to the Eleven Apostles and to their Successors in the Apostolical Office Whence will follow That if this promise be absolute as R. B. would have it then it will prove the Apostolical Office to continue alway even to the end of the world but this promise though it should be absolute yet it will neither prove the continuance of the Church nor of any inferior Officer any otherwise then by a Consequence and that from the continuance of the Apostolical Office which together with the prophetical and the rest of the powerful gifts of the Spirit R. B. grants is ceased long since and by consequence both Church and inferiour Ministry likewise for the inferiour Ministry was by gift as well as the superiour and the superiour as well as the inferiour and both were of equal continuance and for many reasons were both of them useful and necessary to continue with the true Church the one as well as the other and the superiour office most necessary of any Eph. 4. 8 11. 12. 13. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Wherefore it is the less to be marvelled at That R. B. being so learned and so wise yet makes no learneder nor wiser a Reply to Clem. Writers foolish or no wiser an Answer And now I hope a man may without any blasphemy or forgery either say to this great Clerk That he erreth not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God As for the Scripture see how grossly he hath wilfully or ignorantly perverted it And as for the power of God which always did accompany the true Ministry of the Gospel and Church for the Conviction and Conversion of unbelievers to the Faith this he denies rendring it now useless and unnecessary as if now there were no unbelievers in the world nor any Children born unbelievers to be converted and as if Christs sending of that his powerful gifts of the Spirit to accompany and abide with his true Ministry and Church for that purpose for ever had been for the most part useless and unnecessary John 14. 16. John 16. 7 8 9. whereby he casts a foul aspersion on the Wisdom of Christ himself in his doing that by much which he might have done by little a sault seldome or never committed by a wise man But the task here undertaken by me was onely to make some necessary defence for my self against his open assault made upon me by his fourfold Charge which having done I shall not follow him in the rest of his fallacious Arguments to discover the vanity and falshood of them but shall leave that to be done by some abler pen who can throughly anatomize and lay the faults of them open particularly and in their Colours which I am as unable to do as that plain and unlearned man was who assembled at the first Nicene Councel of whom Socrates Lib 1. Chap. 5. relates this Story viz. Before the Bishops met together in one place the Logicians busied themselves propounding against divers others certain Preambles of Disputation and when divers were thus drawn to Disputation and allured as it were by bayts a Lay-man one of the number of Confessors of a simple and sincere mind set himself against the Logicians and told them this in plain words That neither Christ neither his Apostles had delivered unto us the Art of Logick neither vain fallacies but an open and plain minde to be preserved of us with faith and good works The which when he had spoken all that were present had him in admiration and held with his sentence then the Logicians after they had heard the pure words of plain truth quieted and setled themselves aright so that at length by that means the stir raised by reason of Logick was wholly suppressed From which we may observe how great the bashfulness of humane learning was in former times as so to be repulsed from medling or intermixing it self in matters of Divinity by the check of one plain man and how impudent it is now become even to bear all the sway therein getting admission no doubt at first under the colour of being but a Servant or Hand-maid to Divinity but now this Hand-maid maid hath gotten into the Chair and Room of her Mistris the gifts of the Spirit and justled her quite out both of Doors and esteem These being now deemed both useless and unnecessary matters and Humane Learning having now gotten the sole possession of all the Glory Honour and Praise due onely to her Mistris for do not some make great boast What a g Whereas the more learned they are in humane Arts and Sciences the more able they are to delude by transforming the grossest Errors into the similitudes of the purest Truths learned Clergie is now amongst us that the whole world hath not the like Yea and how doth my Assaylant R. B. glory and boast therein and that so transcendently in his Book of Infidelity part 1. pag. 37 38. as there to express himself thus viz Let the wisdome of God be observed both in the stream of Doctrine and in the effect of the Holy-Ghost in illuminating the Church so that you may look over all the rest of the world at this day and easily see that they are all but Barbarians even in humane and common knowledge in comparison of the Christians especially in the things of God they are utterly blind He further goes on Indeed Christ did at Rome and Athens cause a Star of humane learning to arise but it was only for a time and that at that season a little before his own coming in the flesh of purpose h Note how he all along denies the powerful gifts of the Spirit to be now useful or necessary yet see how useful and necessary he here makes humane learning as to be even a Star caused by Christ to arise of purpose to direct men to the Son of righteousness and to be an Usher to prepare the way for the Gospel and after all that he makes it a gift of the Spirit and continued in the Church by Christ as if Christs being exalted at the right hand of the Father and by his receiving of him the promise of the Holy-Ghost and his shedding it forth on his Disciples Act. 2. 33. was meant humane Learning Is not be with the cloven foot filled with this gift of the Spirit as much as R. B. or the most learned in Europe to direct men to the Son of righteousness and to be an Usher to prepare the way for the Gospel and when the Gospel was come he hath now delivered even all the learning in the world that is worth the speaking of unto his Church and continued even these common gifts of the Spirit therein If this be the best Divinity he can afford us I shall send him to a Cobler Samuel How by name to learn better out of a Book extant entituled The sufficiency of the Spirits teaching being a Sermon of his upon a Text given him by Mr. John Goodwin and
That is no member of his Body or true Church A. For this Body of Christ is capable onely of profitable Members by having some manifest gift of the Spirit to profit the Body withal for the manifestation of the Spirit for that purpose was given to every Member of that Body 1 Cor. 12. 7. c. Whence will follow No manifestation by some gift of the Spirit no Spirit of Christ and no Spirit of Christ no Member of Christs Body Page 87. B. The Spirit by extraordinary works formerly and by holy actuating the Church to the end is Christs great witness to the world N. Christs great witness to the world by his Spirit is by outward works not by inward workings in the hearts of his Saints A. For how can any unbeliever be convinced and brought to the Faith by the secret workings in another mans heart or spirit without some powerful manifestation thereof outwardly Page 96. B. All this you know is Scripture N. Although all this is Scripture yet little of all this is of Scripture and that which is is little to the purpose to prove that which is endeavoured by the Author Page 98. B. For the same spirit will not say and unsay N. How ill will this prove the generality of preaching now to be of the Spirit since the same is so full of Contradictions Page 99. B. The spirit of Illumination is the same and given onely by Scripture and for any spirit that shall contradict Scripture it can never be holy nor true nor faithful as contradicting Truth N. VVhen various and contradictious Expositions are made of Scripture how may we certainly know which is for and which is against the Truth and when or by whom were Miracles ever wrought to confirm Scripture or Doctrines taught now by our Ministers or whether all Scriptures Ministers and Doctrines now extant be or have been so confirmed since all do or may challenge it the one as well as the other Page 105. B. There is the Spirit of God within that doth second these Doctrines and take the received Species of them and impress them upon the Soul and doth this effectually and potently according to the mighty unresistible power of the Agent N. How then is unbelief any sin deserving damnation or belief any vertue if it be wrought by an inward unresistible power Page 106. B. You see the truth of Christian Religion by the Spirit of holiness besides that of Miracles formerly All Sects and sorts of Christians pretend to have this Spirit of holiness and may challenge the former Miracles to give evidence for the one as well as the other The Second PART Page 32. B. And to make the giving of the Holy Ghost to be that seal which should credit this report with their hearers N. VVhere is this seal to credit your Doctrine and Ministry if you had it it were more to purpose then a thousand such Books as this Page 34. B. No man can know that the Magna Charta the Petition of Right or any other Statute of this Land are indeed Genuine and Authentick N. Nor is any man bound upon Pain of Damnation so to know or believe it as he is the Gospel that hears it declared and attested by Signs and Gifts of the Holy Ghost wherefor the Comparison is frivolous Page 34. B. The most unlearned man is so far bound to believe the Statute of Felony to be authentick and in Force that he shall be justly hanged if he break it N. But no man can justly be hanged for not believing it onely nor can any man be justly blamed for not believing you more then another contradicting you Page 36. B. Miracles if common would lose their Convincing Force and be as none N. Miracles though common in the first Age lost not their Convincing Force Then Miracles though common in after Ages may not lose their Convincing Force But the first is true Besides in page 242 of the Third Part of this Book you tell us That it 's certain from current History and Church-Records that the Gift of casting out of Devils and making them confess themselves mastered by Christ did remain in the Church for long time after the Apostles even for three of four hundred yeers at least Page 45. B. God doth still effectually convince millions of men of the certainty of Christian Religion and that without renewed Miracles N. All several sorts of Christians have this Conviction respectively yet condemn one another for Hereticks Page 50. B. It was the Office of the Apostles and the Duty of all other that saw Christ's Miracles to bear witness of them N. It was the Office and Duty of such to stay until they were indued with power to do the like Miracles See Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5 8. before their witness was to be received Page 50. B. Those that saw not those Miracles were bound to believe their witness N. Prove this if you can Page 55. B. Lillies Grammar may be mis-Printed or the Writings of Cicero Virgil or Ovid which were written before the Gospel and yet we are past all doubt that their Writings are not forged N. That which God bindes men to believe upon Pain of Damnation comes with more certainty then these or any other Writings or Words either especially they coming to them in an unknown Tongue A. As the Scriptures did from the Pen-men thereof unto nineteen parts of twenty men in the world Page 55. B. Must you not believe him that tells you the Truth and proves it to be so N. If one by his Scholarship proves it true and another in like manner prove it false which of the two is a man bound to believe or must he believe both Page 56 B. Object Christ saith If I had not done the works which no man else could do ye had no sin Answ But doth not say If ye had not seen them ye had no sin N. This Text is cited falsely and deceitfully for it affirmeth in effect that which is denied in the Answer A. For you wilfully have omited among them and that they did both see and hate both Christ and the Father which being cited and duly considered will quite overthrow that Doctrine which you seek here to up-hold by omiting it which is neither fair nor honest Page 58. B. All Historians are fallible and liable to Error N. How then can it be any sufficient ground of true and saving Faith A. Or how then can any History or words from men fallible and liable to Error without infallible Evidence be any sufficient Ground for Divine Faith since you tell us elsewhere That Divine Faith hath ever a Divine Testimony but no Testimony that is fallible and liable to Error can possibly be a Divine Testimony Page 59. B. Such are the Scriptures and it was necessary that the Language should be suited to the matter so to the capacity of the generality of the Readers N. How is this true when it is Barbarism to the generality
fulfilling of this is not to be until the personal and second comming of Christ the three precedent verses do shew And in Ps 67. 7. God shall bless us i. e. Jews and all the ends of the earth shall fear him consonant to this is Esa 2. 2 3. Zac. 8. 23. before cited Likewise Zac. 14. informs us of the coming of the day of the Lord ver 1. of Christ's personal coming ver 3 4. of his being King over all the earth in that day ver 9. of the subjection of all Nations to Christ and their worshipping of him being then King at Jerusalem ver 16 17. even as it was foretold by the Ange to Mary Luk. 1. 32 33. That he should be great and that the Lord God would give him the throne of his Father David and that he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever hereunto contribute Luk. 19. 11 13. and Luk. 21. 23 to 33. where when Christ had set forth his personal coming and his redeeming of the Jews out of captivity he then after all this tells them That when they see these things come to pass then they should know that the Kingdome of God will be nigh at hand Note but nigh then therefore not in being at his Ascention nor at any time since And as to his conjecture that the Christian Church in this world is the Kingdome of Christ and his only Kingdome upon earth as some imagine These conceipts are already answered and refuted in the 24 25 26 27 30 and 31. pages of the foregoing discourse And as to the phrases in Scripture which some stumble at such as these The Kingdome is neer you or in you this is to be rendred among you as the margent in King James his Bible shews and the taking the Kingdom from one people and giving it to another and the like These are to be understood of the Gospel of the Kingdom being a special means of obtaining the Kingdome and that to be neer them or preacht among them whereby they might come to inherit the Kingdome for the word Gospel or good news of the Kingdome cannot be the Kingdome it self and by the phrase of taking the Kingdom from any is only meant the taking from them the Gospel or means of their attaining the Kingdom which in effect is the taking the Kingdome it self from them It is evident therefore though Christ was a King at and ever since his Ascention yet his Kingdom is not yet nor will be until the sound of the Seventh Trumpet When the Kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ thenceforth for ever Rev. 11. 15. Then and not till then shall the Heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth be taken into his possession although his right thereunto and Lordship thereof was given him of the Father long before Psa 2. 8. The result of all which is this That as he was a King before his Kingdome was set up so might he be made Head and Saviour before his Body or Church was constituted and so may he remain whilst the Church is extinct driven or withdrawn from off the face of the earth as it must needs be when all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the Beast Rev. 13. 8. and when the way of God is not known upon earth Psal 67. 2. For although the relation between a natural head and its body be such as neither can subsist without the other yet it is not so between Christ and his Body the Church being spiritual as by and by I shall make appear And therefore to that part of the objection No body no head I shall here offer him this short Dilemma Christ being made Head of his Church at his Ascention either had a Christian Church then upon earth or he had none if none then was he a head without a body a husband without a wife and if he had one then there was one before that time for there were very many and as many baptized Disciples and beleevers before his death as there were at or after his Ascention until the powring down of the gifts of the Spirit and the conversion of three thousand mentioned in Act. 2. How else could he have been seen of more then five hundred Brethren at once and of many other of his Disciples with whom he conversed at least forty days after his Resurrection and before he Ascended 1 Cor. I would fain know of R. B. If he and his fellow-Members of his Catholick Church are any fitter or truer matter or in a better capacicy for Membership in Christs Body and Church now then these Apostles Disciples and Brethren were in before Christ Ascended these had true faith and baptism hath he and his fellow-members more or truer I think not but that it will be found upon due examination to come many degrees and in many respects short of the others How then can they be a true Church and the other none 15. 5 6 c. Act. 1. 3. And if any of these were a Christian Church before his death or before his ascension then there was a body and wife before he was made a head or husband Or else thus either these were a Christian Church before Christ ascended or they were not If he say they were then there was a body without a head if he say they were not then there was no Christian Church upon the earth for certain dayes after he Ascended and until the gift of the Holy Ghost were powred down upon the Disciples mentioned in Act. 2. And then for that distance of time between his Ascention and his powâ—ing down of these gifts there was a head but no body Let him now chuse which of these he please since either of them invalidates his objection And indeed the very truth is That these were nobody or Church of Christ until they had these gifts of the Spirit poured down upon them mentioned Act. 2. presently after which but not before they were denominated a Church being then formed into several Spiritual memberships for the several Offices and services of the whole body like as the several members of a Natural Body are serviceable to the body Now if these gifts of the Spirit formed Members and knit them together and also to their head from whom they received nourishment growth and increase of the whole body as is most evident they then neither were nor could be any body or Church of Christ until the powring down of the gifts of the spirit upon the Disciples at Pentecost ten dayes after Christs ascention when it is granted by the Objector he was invested into Headship and I suppose it must also be granted that this Head-ship was conferred upon him before that time even at his Resurrection for how else could he presently after and before his Ascention have told his Disciples That all power was given unto him both in Heaven and in Earth Mat. 28. 18. But all power had not