and temperate to do to others as we would be done to our selves in point of equity fidelity and charity to be humble and meek patient and contented and the like are things that tend to the peace and satisfaction of the minde to the health of the body and long life to a mans Credit Reputation and thriving in the World and to the good of humane Society Besides their certain relation to a future happy State And there is no man that acts according to the best reason of his minde but would chuse these things though you should suppose him under no express command to do it and though there were no Heaven promised or Hell threatened But when you consider the great reward in another World that is promised to a faithful observance of the Laws of Christ and to a belief in him and the dreadful threatnings against such as despise and neglect them it makes them yet far more desirable and eligible because as it is natural for every man to desire the happiness and perfection of his own being so it is agreeable to the highest reason in man to chuse the means that tend thereto and such is our obedience to the Gospel And these rewards which are such mighty motives to obedience are far more clearly revealed and brought into open Light by the Gospel than they were before which makes the Gospel far more effectual to perswade to Holy Living than the Law could be The Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw nigh unto God Heb. 7. 19. These two things forementioned then the easiness of understanding God's way and method of Salvation from the plainness and fulness of the revelation of it under the New Covenant by which it is fitted to every capacity and the â—nnate goodness of the Laws thereof in conjunction with the promise of eternal Life made to the observance of them by which they are also compleatly fitted to attract and draw mens wills to accept embrace and chuse them these I say are the things I conceive foretold in that Prophesie Jer. 31. here cited in Heb. 8. under those expressions of God's putting giving or conveying his Laws into the mind and writing them in the heart so that they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother c. And when it is so said it is not then said that they shall not be taught neither by Apostles Evangelists Pastors or Teachers but they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother And though the Phrase here used seem absolute in sound yet it may well be understood in a Comparative sence as other expessions in Scripture of like nature sometimes must be As when its said labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting Life Joh. 6. 26. The meaning here of labour not is labour not so much And so again I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice Hos 6. 6. the meaning is I desired Mercy more than Sacrifice or Sacrifice not so much as Mercy So again Eph. 6. 12. we wrestle not with flesh and blood that is not only or not so much but against Principalities c. And so here when it is said they shall not â—â—each every man his Neighbour c. The meaning may be that they shall not so much need to do it under the second Covenant as under the first But indeed the words and phrase here used seem to be a strain of elegance oft used in Scriptures when to set forth the greatness or great abundance and plenty of things expressions are used improperly and hyperbolically in reference thereto and so are not to be understood properly but figuratively As when it is said in reference to the same thing under the Gospel with that I have been now speaking of That the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Isa 11. 9. I suppose you will not understand this in such a strict sence as if it foretold in Gospel-times that there should be no more knowledge of God wanting on the Earth than there is bare ground in the Sea or that David would have the World believe that he did weep a River yea Rivers full of Tears when he said mine eyes run down with Rivers of Tears because men keep not thy Laws Psalm 119. or that St. John did think in a strict sence that the world could not contain the books if all the signs which Jesus did should be written Joh. 20. And if not why should you so much as once imagine that these words of the Prophet should foretel that under the New Covenant there should be no need of teaching by mans Ministry when the whole current of the Scriptures of the New Testament both in precept and example shew the contrary The words of the Prophet here are only a prediction of the rich and plentiful means of Knowledge and Grace that was to be vouchsafed under the New Covenant more than under the Old § 19. One would think you have an aking Tooth against outward teaching when you build such Castles in the Air as ye do rather than none to batter it down But how comes it to pass that you use it so much your selves if there be no more need of it than you pretend I know that which you alledge to excuse your selves in this seeming contradiction is this or to this effect You say though men need not be taught by men what it is which they ought to know believe and do the light within teaching them this and being a Rule to them in these things yet in as much as men may and do rebel against this light its necessary to call upon and perswade them to obey it But in this Plea you suppose for truth that which is a manifest gross and most dangerous and pernicious error which is this That it is not as well necessary to teach men by the Scriptures and by the Ministry of men to know believe what is necessary to their salvation as it is to perswade them to do what is necessary thereto For contrary hereunto I have already proved that for men that live under the Gospel its necessary to their Salvation that they know and believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the World and that remission of sin is promised in his name to such as repent I have proved likewise that these things cannot be known but either by immediate revelation from God or by instruction from them that have had such Revelation or by them whose knowledge thereof hath been derived down successively by outward teaching from the first preachers of such Doctrine To which I will now add as followes In the Apostles days the Converts that were then made such were brought to the knowledge and belief of those great Articles of the Christian Faith fundamentally necessary to Salvation by hearing the
Doctrine 2 John 10. And if any man teach otherwise saith St. Paul and consents not to wholesom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing 1 Tim. 6. 3 4. These things being all so plain as what can be plainer it cannot but be highly ridiculous for such as are ignorant in the very A B C of Christianity as by your dissent in this plain Truth you appear to be to pretend to such Sublimity and Spirituality as to esteem all other Christians in the world of what denomination soever that are not of your way in comparison of your selves to be all in Darkness and Confusion § 4. The Second Proposition is this Although the first Promulgators of the Gospel were enabled by immediate Revelation from Christ to teach it unto others yet afterward God's ordinary way and method of transmitting the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel downwards to others successively was by such mens teaching it to others as had themselves learned it of the Apostles or others that taught the same Doctrine as they did Thus Timothy and Titus though Evangelists were instructed by Paul in the Christian Faith and how they should behave themselves in their publick capacities as Evangelists or Bishops and this was done partly by Speech and partly by his Epistles to them 2 Tim. 1. 13. Hold fast the Form of sound words which thou hast heard of me 2 Tim. 3. 14 15. Continue in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures Titus learned the Christian Faith by Paul for which cause he stiles him his Son in the Common Faith Tit. 1. 4. And by his Epistle instructs him in the Election of Bishops which he was to place in the Cities of Crete And one of his Instructions about this Affair was that he should ordain such as held fast the faithful word as they had been taught Tit. 1. 9. And the same things which Timothy had learned of Paul he was to commit to faithful men and such as should be able to teach others 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things which thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also § 5. 3. The same Doctrine and many of the same Miracles were committed to writing by the Apostles which were first preached and done by Christ and his Apostles and for the same end to wit to bring men to the Christian Belief and Life John 20. 31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name 1 John 5. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God That is that they might believe more groundedly and firmly and so constantly and perseveringly against all opposition and temptations to the contrary Luke 1. 3 4. It seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of things from the very first to write unto thee most excellent Theophilus that thou mightest know the Certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed 2 Tim. 3. 15 16. The Scriptures given by inspiration of God are profitable for reproof correction and instruction in righteousness and able to make men wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 16. 26. And by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith God of old commanded the Law written to be read to all the Congregation of Israel that they might learn to fear him Deut. 31. 11 12. § 6. 4. The Apostle required the same regard to be given to what he taught by his Epistles as to what he taught by speech face to face 2 Thes 2. 15. Therefore stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle 1 Cor. 14. 37. If any man think himself to be a Prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord. And the Epistles written to particular Churches were intended for the benefit of all in those things which in their nature were of common concern unto all 1 Cor. 1. 2. Unto the Church of God at Corinth With all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours The two Epistles of St. Peter the first Epistle of John the Epistle of Jude and that of James are all General Epistles not directed to any particular Churches as such but to the Christians scattered abroad in the world And the Colossians were to read the Epistle sent to Laodicea and the Laodiceans to read that sent to the Colossians as well as those that were sent to both themselves respectively Col. 4 16. And St. John was commanded to send all the seven Epistles to each of the seven Churches in Asia and not only one Epistle to one Church and another to another And in Rev. Chap. 2 3. It is seven times said He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches as every man in the world hath that is not deaf And Chap. 22. 18. I testifie to every man saith Christ that heareth the words of the Prophesie of this Book c. And there is great reason why the same regard should be given to what the Apostles and Evangelists wrote as to what they spake as long as they either wrote the same Doctrine or History upon the same evidence For the Doctrine is the same after it is written as it was before for its Being written doth not alter the Nature of it And therefore men must needs be as much concerned in their Belief or Disbelief Obedience or Disobedience to it when it is communicated to them by writing as when it is so by Preaching yea I had almost said or by immediate Revelation For 't is not the way and manner of communicating the will of God to us that makes it saving but our belief and serious consideration of it and yielding obedience to it how or by what means soever we come to know it Otherwise 't is possible men may have Revelations from God as Balaam had and as Judas and other workers of Iniquity that prophesied and cast out Devils in Christ's Name had or might have had and yet not be profited by them And if there be any less degree of evidence of Divine Truth when it is communicated to us by writing than when it was communicated to others by the Apostles preaching or to the Apostles themselves by immediate Revelation yet belief of it and obedience to it upon that less degree
written in one of the Prophets I have written to them the great things of my Law and they have counted them as a strange thing Hos 8. 12. § 7. 5. The next Proposition is this That the Holy Scriptures extant in the Apostles days in conjunction with the Doctrine of the Christian Faith however made known by Writing or otherwise were then through that Grace of God which usually attends a due use of them able to make men wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus If by Scriptures here you will understand the Scriptures of the Old Testament only yet you may easily collect that if those Scriptures were in great part able to make men wise unto Salvation then when the Gospel was on foot then the Scriptures of the New Testament as containing the Christian Doctrine are able to do it much more and both in conjunction to be effectual to that end The Apostle acquainted the Christians then that the Mystery of the Gospel by the Scriptures of the Prophets is and that according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 25 26. § 8. 6. The Holy Scriptures as the means which God works by are able not only to make men in a private capacity wise unto salvation but also to furnish men for the discharging of the publick Office of Teaching and Governing in the Church of God The Holy Scriptures given by inspiration of God are profitable for Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness so as to make the man of God to wit a publick Preacher perfect throughly furnished to all good works even to enable him to discharge his whole Duty towards the Souls of others 2 Tim. 3. 16. And St. Paul by his Writings instructed even Timothy himself how to behave himself in his Office and publick Capacity 1 Tim. 3. 14. These things write I unto thee that thou maist know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God And for the better discharge of his Ministerial Office directs and enjoins him to give attendance to Reading and to Meditation or Study 1 Tim. 4. 13 15. Which sure would have been needless if he had been sufficiently able to have done all by the immediate Illumination and operation of God's Spirit as you fancy your Teachers are able to do § 9. 7. The same promise is made to the reading of the Word written and to the keeping of it as is to the hearing and keeping of it Rev. 1. 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophesie and keep those things which are written therein § 10. 8. The Scripture is said to say this or that which yet God said himself or by his Servants Rom. 9. 17. The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee Rom. 10. 11. The Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Gal. 3. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin What saith the Scripture Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son Gal. 4. 30. Which yet was the Saying of God himself Gen. 16. Another Scripture saith They shall look on him whom they have pierced John 19. 17. No Prophesie of the Scriptures is of private Interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. So that according to this look what God saith in and by the Scriptures touching such things as concern us is in effect the same as if he had spoken them to us himself immediately If any man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord said St Paul 1 Cor. 14. 37. You are wont to insinuate indeed as if the Scriptures were not of that use to us now as they were to them to whom they were first written But however they might more concern them than us in some particular cases proper to them yet in things of common concern they are as much for our use as they were for theirs For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning Rom. 15. 4. What God said to Joshua I will never leave thee nor forsake thee the Apostle would have all faithful Christians relie on as if it had been spoken to themselves Heb. 13. 5. That which was first spoken to the Jews Lev. 26. The Apostle applies to the Believing Gentiles as much as if it had been spoken to them only 2 Cor. 6. 16. For ye are the Temple of the Living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people § 11. 9. We that have the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles brought down to us in the Scriptures may according to Scripture-Dialect be said to have Christ and his Apostles as truly as it was said of the Jews in our Saviour's days on Earth that they had Moses and the Prophets for it was by having in the Scriptures what they said and did that were said to have them And by hearing and believing the Scriptures of the New Testament we may as well be said to hear and believe Christ and his Apostles as they to hear and believe Moses and the Prophets which yet they were said to do when they did believe their Writings Luke 16. 29. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Ver. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead John 5. 46 47. Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his Writings how should ye believe my Words Christ promised his Apostles upon his giving them Commission to teach all Nations that he would be with them to the end of the world and he is so in one sense when he accompanies their Ministration by their Doctrine and Writings with the presence of his Grace and power in their continuation to the end of the world And as it is said of Moses Acts 15. 21. That he had those in every City that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day inasmuch as his Books of the Law were read so for the same or like reason it may be as truly said that Christ hath those that preach him now when the Books of the New Testament written by inspiration of his Spirit are read among us and opened unto us every Lord's Day You may then safely conclude that those that have the Doctrine of Christ in his Gospel among them have Christ among them and all that receive and hold fast that do receive and hold fast him So saith St. John in his second Epist v. 9. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he
well as perswade them to do it as appears abundantly in your Books particularly in those of Edward Burroughs So that by this tergiversation and shuffling it plainly appears to intelligent men that the business at the bottom is not that you are against the needfulness of mans teaching notwithstanding all the teaching by the Light within but only against all other mens teaching but your own So that if you knew your own hearts in this business you would find that the meaning of your crying down all other Teachers is that yours alone might be exalted But if your Teachers or any among you do see and know the inconsistency of these your Pretences and Practices and yet use the Pretences for a blinde to hide the designe from the people it is then a perfect piece of There is another thing like unto this you say those that are taught of God need not that the Scripture should teach them and that all men are taught of God by his Light within them and yet it seems you think that men have need to be taught by your Books though they have no need to be taught by the Scriptures else why is the World troubled with so many of them The Pharisees made void the Commandments of God that they might establish their own Traditions and it looks but untowardly that while you represent the Holy Scripture as such a needless thing that you at the same time have sent out such a croud of your own Books as you have done And if you would have the people believe that they proceed from the same teaching of the Spirit as the Books of the Holy Scriptures do what shall the people then do when they find them to contradict one another as they may easily do if they will but do as the noble Bereans did who searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so which were preached to them in the Name of the Lord. As in the present case before us the Scripture plainly teacheth one method of bringing men to Salvation and your books another Ed. Burrough in his book teacheth that that is not the body of Christ which was not with the Father before the World began p. 465. But the Scripture teacheth that in the fulness of time God sent forth hi Son made of a Woman Gal. 4. 4. Which of these two now must the people believe or which of these must be the rule to try the other by your Books or the Holy Scriptures I pray you speak out and tell the people plainly For if the Scriptures be true as you dare not deny but they are than your Books in such things as contradict them must be false and consequently not the Issue of the infallible Spirit as you would have the world believe they are But though we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have Preached unto you let him be accursed said St. Paul Gal. 1. 8. I have been the longer upon the Point of your Enthusiasm by which you have set up a new method of your own in opposition to God's method of bringing men to the Christian belief and Life because I deem it a Mother and a Master-Error to many others which you hold And therefore have good hopes that if you could but be cured of this you would be in a hopeful way of being cured of the rest which depend on it with less difficulty Having therefore been so long upon this beyond what I first intended I shall draw towards a conclusion of this address to you not engageing in particular with the rest of your mistakes But before I make an end I would caution you touching two or three things which among others may probably have had a large share in introducing you into this strange mistake § 20. The one is an opinion or conceit that the Gospel is a more mysterious thing than indeed it is It is true there are things in the Gospel called a Mystery the Mysterie of God's will the Mystery of Christ the Mystery of Faith the Mystery of Godliness and to you saith Christ to the Disciples 't is given to know the Myeries of the Kingdom of God and the like Upon occasion of all which and the like expressions in Scripture Some people have fancied that there is something else necessary to make a man a true Christian indeed than what is obvious to vulgar apprehensions and easie to be understood as other matters are And therefore they have been wont to esteem a plain and familiar way of teaching the Doctrine of repentance and the necessity of obedience to the Law of God together with a belief that Christ dyed for our sins and rose again according to the Scriptures to be but a dry and legal way of Preaching And those that have vented high Speculations and almost or altogether unintelligible notions and new coined Phrases and expressions concerning the work of God in the Soul and of Union with Christ and Communion with God of living by faith and walking in the Spirit these they have accounted Evangelical Preachers and such preaching and discourses in conference to be truly Spiritual and those to be Spiritual Christians that are of this make And because this way obtained a great reputation among a great many of Christian Professors many persons have been tempted hereby to proceed so far from one thing to another in this way both allegorizing Scriptures of plain import and turning plain points of Doctrine and of great concern into Mystical speculations until they have made another thing of the plain Doctrine of the Gospel than Christ made it And this seems to be directly your Case who in this way are come at last to turn the plain and intelligible method of God's proceeding with men to bring them to the Christian belief and Life and so to salvation into Enthusiastical Fancies Airy Notions and speculations Such is your conceited Mistery of of the inward Flesh of Christ in contradistinction to the Flesh of the Veil as you phrase it as if Christ had two kinds of Flesh one hid under another by which you trouble yea utterly confound the true Notion of Christ's humane Nature and the great effects which the Scripture attributes to the Flesh or humane Nature of Christ those you attribute to a meer fiction which you call the inward Flesh a thing altogether forraign to the Scripture an error doubtless of a very high nature Such also is your spiritualizing Baptism and the Lords Supper to the exclusion of their literal use and to the disparagement of his wisdome and goodness that ordained them as well as to the contempt of his Authority which hath enjoined the use of them for the ends for which they were first instituted Such likewise is your invented Mistery of the Redemption of the Seed in men for the Scripture speaks of no such thing but of the Redemption of men themselves This mistake about the Mysteriousness of the Christian Religion hath