you went out from us And the Apostle Paul saith Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God Now the thing that I am to prove is that you do deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh and to that end I shall first shew what was the end of Christs coming in the flesh The Apostle Paul to the Romans saith Through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Whom God hath set forth or sent to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood To declare their righteousness for the remission of sins To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of them which beleive in Jesus Where the Apostle sheweth that the end of God his sending Jesus Christ was that he might be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare Christ his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that he might be just and the Justifier of all them that beleive in Jesus Now you deny this for E. B. saith that our Ministers tell people a Lie and why they tell him that Christ is his righteousnesse to justifie him which he denyeth for you teach that Christ did come to send a light into every man and by hearkning and obeying that light he shall be saved which is the old Popish Antichristian Doctrine Also the Apostle to the Hebrews saith to Christ Loe I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Having therefore bretheren boldnesse to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is his flesh By which words it is plain that the end of Christs coming in the flesh was to do the will of God by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And by that one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But you deny that we are sanctified and perfected for ever by Christ his doing the will of God and through the offering of his body once for all and that we have boldnesse to enter into the holyest by the blood of Jesus a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through his flesh But you teach that you are sanctified and perfected by hearkning to a light within you and obeying the same by which you deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh and are of the Spirit of Antichrist Also you do some of you deny that Christ rose from the dead with his Body but his Spirit rose and deny that he ascended into Heaven with a Body and there remaineth with a Body by which you deny the Scripture and deny Christ 〈◊〉 Mediatorship For the Apostle saith There is one God and one Mediator between God and men mind The Man Christ Jesus Now if Christ have no Body how is he a Man Do not you make Christ a monster if he be a Man without a body what a Mediator do ye make And great is the Mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh received up into glory according to that Scripture in the Acts Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into Heaven and that he shall so come Christ himself hath declared and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of heaven with power and great glory Now those that deny these Articles of our Faith are not they of the spirit of Antichrist for they do invent a fantastical Christ in their brains But you say you have a Christ within you and by that Christ within you you shall be saved Christ in you the hope of Glory To which I answer that I deny that you or any man have a Christ within you you cannot have the body of Christ within you because the Heaven must contain it untill his second coming unless you be of the Papists opinion that say they receive Christs body into their mouths and then must Christ have many bodies or his body must be torn into many pieces Wherefore that I may if it may please God shew you your ignorance even in this particular I shall shew you how I do believe Christ is in every true Christian and that is by his Spirit These things have spoken unto you being yet present with you But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name But now I go my way to him that sent me and it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you By which Christ sheweth that he must depart and go to the Father and that he must there abide But his Father should send that Comforter his Spirit which should abide in them But how doth Christ by his Spirit abide in a Christian Answ Not essentially as the Familists hold and aver to many Quakers but operatively by the operation and working of the same Because ye are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby you cry Abba Father In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our Inheritance to be strengthned by his Spirit in the Inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith By which Scriptures and many more we may see how Christ is in us by his Spirit of Adoption by his Spirit sealing the promises of the Gospel by strengthning us in the inner man and Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and as Christ is said to be in us by his Spirit and by faith so we are said to be in Christ and to dwell in Christ which is by faith If any man be in Christ for ye are all one in Christ but of him ye are in Christ Jesus That we may present every one perfect in Christ Jesus And that Prayer of Christ That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they all may be one in us I in them and thou in me that they may he made perfect in one And as Christ is said to be in us by his Spirit and by faith and we are said to be in him by faith and by the Spirit because the same Spirit that dwells in Christ doth act and work in us So also we are said to be in Christ by Love and Christ to be in us by Love as Christ teacheth that the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them
with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the throne and the smoak of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand Now that Altar was Christ and that Incense was nothing else but Christs merits and mediation by which alone the prayers of all Saints are perfumed and so become acceptable with God or before him for we do not conceive that Christ now in Heaven maketh any vocal prayers to to God the Father for us but that he doth continually present the virtue of his Death and Sufferings before his Father whereby not only our persons are accepted but our services also Now whoever doth deny this intercession or mediation of Christ doth in effect deny Christ because they deny the end of Christ his coming and all such the Apostle John saith That whoever denyeth that Jesus is the Christ is Antichrist and many deceivers are entred into the world which confesse not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh this is a deceiver and an antichrist Now all those that do deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh do deny his coming in the flesh and all those that deny perfect Justification from all sin in and by Christs Death Resurrection and Intercession alone do deny the end of Christs coming and that you Quakers do for you say you are made perfect not by what Christ did and suffered but by what the Spirit worketh in you I some of you have affirmed that Christ never rise from the Grave and that his body is rotted in the Grave and some of you have made a mock of this Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation and Intercession of Christ and some have written against it in theis Pamphlets Now I pray you that revile against all others that are not of your minde calling them Antichrist and the brood of Antichrist Now see whether you are not the Antichrists your selves and the deceivers spoken of by the Apostle We know from whence you learned this Doctrine better than your selves and that is from your Fathers the Papists as I said before for all you cry out against them and all others that are not of your minde to be Popish and as this Doctrine of the Papists and yours doth make Christ and his Mediatorship void and uselesse so it doth make Faith to be uselesse for if a man be justified and saved not by what Christ hath done and suffered for us but being free from sin inherently in us by following and obeying the light within us then we need not believe our perfection because we see and feel it in our selves Now the Apostle defining Faith what it is saith That Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and the just shall live by Faith and we walk by Faith and not by sight even as Abraham the Father of the faithfull is said by the Apostle to believe against hope and believed in hope and being not weak in faith he considered not his own body nâ—w dead neither yet the deadnesse of â—arahs wombe though he did see and feel nothing in his body nor Sarahs whereby to believe that he should have a Son yet he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification Now the Apostle doth argue that as Abraham believed the promise contrary to what he saw or felt in himself so also should we And as this doctrine doth make Faith void and uselesse so doth it also make Repentance uselesse for if a Christian can live without sin then he need not repent for sin Now the Doctrine of Repentance is of use in the Church as we may see by what the Apostle writeth saying Godly sorrow causeth repentance never to be repented of also Christ saith to the Church of Ephesus I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast born and hast patience and for my name sake hast laboured and hast not fainted Such a commendation as never any Quaker deserved and yet Christ said neverthelesse I have somewhat against thee remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works Now these were the first Churches and lived in the purest times and yet had need of repentance and dare you Quakers say you are more perfect than they I know you are so in your own eyes but Christ knoweth you are solely pride and â—ypocrisie and how you hold and maintain the Popish doctrine That a man is not justified and saved by Faith in believing only what Christ hath done and suffered for us and for our salvation but those workes of the Spirit in us in being obedient unto the light within us Now that you may see and know that this is an old Popish doctrine I shall shall shew you what Luther writeth concerning the Papists judgement in this particular who knew better than you do because he was trained up many years in the same Religion having been one of their Monks I shall write his very words in his Exposition of the Epistle to the Galathians upon chap. 2. ver 16. Know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ We have alwaies saith he recourse to this article that our sins are covered and that God will not lay them to our charge not that sin is not in us minde as the Papists have taught saying that we must be alwaies working well untill we feel that there is no sin remaining in us Yea sin is indeed alwaies in us and the godly do feel it but it is covered and it is not imputed unto us of God for Christs sake Also on the chap. 3. ver 20. Who loved me and gave himselfe for me the Papist saith he use this Verse God will no more require of man Than of himself performe he can Moreover they say that nature is corrupt but the qualities of nature notwithstanding are sound and uncorrupt upon which ground they reason that mans will and understanding are sound and uncorrupt are pure and perfect in him and therefore do infer that a man is able of himself to fulfill the Law and to love God with all his heart and so consequently to be justified thereby It is well known by all that have read the Jesuites writings or have had
they are not the abler Ministers but lesse able and yet I doe not deny but they are lawfull Ministers being lawfully called But I wonder that you make these things to be a ground of their unfitnesse which is rather a ground of their fitnesse for do you not read of the schools of the Prophets and Paul doth thank God that he spake with tongues more than they all which he would not have done if it had been a sin so to do and Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel a learned man in all tongues and if there had been no Scholars that had learned the Hebrew and Greek tongues I wonder how we in England should have understood the Scriptures seeing the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the other in Greek and they are not so perfectly translated but that there is need of the Hebrew and Greek tongues to explaine some texts of Scripture And for the Latine tongue how many learned godly men have written severall excellent books in the Latine tongue usefull in the Church which we had neither known nor understood if they had not been translated out of the Latine tongue into English And besides the Latine tongue is a help to Reading and Writing in the English tongue and by this we may see what friends Quakers are to Religion that would have no helps either for understanding or reading But the Apostle saith that a Bishop must not be a novice and the Apostle Peter saith that there are some things in Paul his Epistles hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction and are not you Quakers such unlearned unstable persons who plead against Learning And that you are unstable doth appear because for the most part you have been of severall opinions in Religion running from one opinion to another and now grow obstinate for the most part in your opinions But I know your objection that Peter and the rest Apostles were not brought up at Schools nor had no humane Learning To which I answer that as they had an extraordinary Call so God did in an extraordinary manner endow them with the gift of Tongues as you may read in the Acts of the Apostles where it it said They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Now when I see or hear you Quakers have the gift of Tongues to speak all manner of Languages without being taught in a miraculous extraordinary manner as the Apostles had then shall I believe you have such an extraordinary Call as the Apostles had and till then I shall believe you are a company of deluded bewitched people To say no more to this particular but beware the Geese when the Fox preacheth who hath more Subtily then Learning or Solidity And now I shall answer your third ground against our Ministers Because they study for what they teach To which I answer that the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy saith Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given by prophesie meditate upon these things give thy selfe wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all Take heed unto thy self and unto thy doctrine continue in them and is not Meditation study if you say it is not then read what the Apostle saith in the second Epistle to Timothy Study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth You Quakers are wiser than the Apostle you say your teachers need not study and Timothy was I believe more able to preach without study than any of your Quakers who take upon them to Teach without study and therefore I marvel not that your Teachers Men and Women speak so much nonsense and use so many vain repetitions of the same things But for dividing the Word or Doctrine which the Apostle exhorteth Timothy to use I never heard among any of the Quakers so oft as I heard them speak also the Apostle exhorteth him that is a Minister to wait on Ministering or he that Teacheth on Teaching the Apostle would that they should make it their businesse or whole work Give thy self wholly to them saith Paul to Timothy I know your objection is that the Apostles preached without study and Paul did work and we Quakers have the same spirit that the Apostles had To which I answer That as the Apostles had an extraordinary Call so they were indowed with extraordinary gifts above any man of an ordinary Calling and although all Ministers have the same Spirit the Apostles had yet have they not the same measure of the Spirit for as the Apostle saith there are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdome to another the word of Knowledge to another the working of Miracles to another Prophesie but all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will Now if you Quakers have the same measure of the Spirit as the Apostles had why do you not work miracles as the Apostle did when I see that then shall I believe you can Preach without study and tâ—ll then I shall believe you Prate and not Preach And now I come to answer your fourth ground which is that our Ministers study old Authors the writings of the antient Fathers and Popish Writers For answer to which I do marvel how you Quakers know those antient Fathers to be Popish Authors seeing most of their writings are in Latine and you count it a sin for a Minister to learn Latine and surely if you Quakers had formerly learned the Latine tongue yet now you dare not read Latine books wherefore you have no ground to say they are Popish Authors from your own knowledge but from hear-say of others and so you are a false witnesse-bearer But it is no new thing for you to count all men Popish that are not of your wild opinions but if you had not plowed with the Papists heifer you had never known nor learned so many of their errors as I shall prove hereafter you have but I do believe it is lawfull for a Minister to read Popish Authors and to study what they read else how shall they know what they hold and how to confute their errors unlesse they do as you do take all by hear-say But the the Apostle saith Try all things and keep that which is good and the Apostle writing to Titus that he should oppose those that say against the truth for saith he There are many disobedient and vain talkers and deceivers of mindes chiefely they of Circumcision whose mouths must be stopped which subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not And that their mouths might be stopped the Apostle alledgeth what one of
worse then an Infidel and if all men then surely Ministers ought to provide for their Wives and Children unlesse you would have them worse than Infidels and you say they are Infidels because they do provide for their Wives and Children for you say they ought to preach for nothing and most of them have nothing else to maintain themselves Wives and Children but what they have by their ministery and must not Ministers Wives be maintained and Children brought up and educated as well as other mens Wives and Children must their Wives and Children be lest destitute of all means and maintenance and rely only upon the charity of others if they should I believe you Quakers would rather see them starve than relieve them But you will say if that Ministers must have maintenance yet not by Tithes as our Ministers are To which I answer that none of you Quakers have answered those books that have been written to prove the lawfulnesse of Ministers maintenance by Tithes nor are able to answer them But having proved by Scripture that Ministers ought to have a sufficient maintenance I marvel why not in that way which God first appointed are you wiser then he there was Tithes paid long before any ceremonies were appointed as you may read Gen. 14. 20. and God complaineth that the Jews robbed him but ye say Wherein have we robbed thee In Tithes and Offerings Now I would have you prove where the Lord doth forbid paying of Tithes in the Scripture if you say that Tithes were to continue but till Christ came I say that is more then you can prove for Christ reproving the Pharises saith Ye pay tithe of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgement Mercy and Faith these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Now if Christ had said these ye ought to yave done and to leave the other undone then I should be of your minde but seeing Christ saith the contrary I am bound to believe him before you Quakers or any other whoever he be and shall not spend any more time about proving Tithes of Divine Right but shall prove the lawfulnesse and equitablenesse of paying Tithes to Ministers by humane right and that I shall do from an Author who hath written An Item against Sacriledge whose name is not to his book but I shall make bold to quote his words because they are so pertinent to the point in controversie and being a subject about Lawfulnesse of Tithes I believe few Quakers have ever read it but I hope though you count in a sin to quote antient Fathers yet you will not count it a sin to quote antient Statutes The Author aforesaid doth alledge that Ethelwolp Son of King Egbert who had brought the Saxon Heptarchy into a Monarchy had all the Lands in England for his Demeasne as is acknowledged by Sir Edw. Cook in his Commentaries upon Littletons Tenures and conferred the Tithes of all his Lands and Goods by his Charter Royal upon the Church and adding in the end That who so should encrease that gift God would please to prosper and increase his dayes and if any should presume to diminish the same that he should be called to an account for it at Gods judgement seat and this he did not only as Lord Paramount but as proprietor of the whole Land the Lords and great men of that time having no Property or Estates of permanency but as accomptants to the King whose the whole Land was and yet they also gave their free consents which the King required that thereby they might be barred from pleading any Tenant-right as also to oblige them to stand in maintenance of Tithes against all pretenders Because the people can have no right or propriety in them for they never bought or paid for them neither could they come by inheritance for that which was not their Fathers could not descend to them Now consider whether it be agreeable to Piety Prudence Justice and Equity to alienate Tithes from the Ministery which have been so freely given by our Christian Kings out of zeal to advance Gods glory confirmed by many Acts of Parliament of times renewed and reiterated as by Magna Charta thirty times confirmed and many other Statutes since Now consider whether the ministery in England hath not as good a propriety in Tithes as Noblemen Gentlemen and Free-holders have in their Lands Seeing Tithes were so freely given and confirmed by so many Acts of Parliament who are the Representative of the whole Nation and those Parliaments have taken several Oaths and Protestations to defend and maintain the same and is it not a great sin for any man to endevour to bring the guilt of so many Oaths and Protestations upon the land As for Augmentations and Glebe-land which you also complain of I answer that what is freer than gift is it a sin for a Minister to take that which was and is voluntarily given towards the Ministers maintenance do not your Teachers take what is given them have they not maintenance can they live without meat drink lodging and cloaths while they wander up and down from place to place Now what have our Ministers more than maintenance for themselves and families and those who give the Ministers do it according to the light within them I shall Answer your objections against Ministers taking maintenance which is that the Lord complaineth against such Priests and Prophets that did teach for money and look for gain from their quarters that fed themselves and not the flock To which I answer that the Lord complaineth against such as only teach for Hire and not for Conscience nor love of Souls else why did the Lord complain against such as with-held the Tithes saying You have robbed me but ye say wherein have we robbed thee In Tithes and Offerings Also the Lord doth not simply complain against the Sheepherds because they eat the fat and were cloathed with the wool but because they did so only and did not feed the flock and minde that he calleth them Sheepherds and in Isaiah where he complaineth by the Prophet against such the text saith His watchmen are blinde they are all ignorant they are dumb dogs that cannot bark sleeping lying down loving to slumber they all look to their own way every one for gain from his quarter Come ye say they I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant That which the Lord reproveth by his Prophet is not because they had maintenance but because they cared for nothing else they were ignorant lasie blinde gluttons and drunkards Now I wonder you are ashamed to compare our Ministers to such sure I am you know none such now that are so lasie that they Preach not nor such as give themselves wholly to gluttony or drunkenness Such there have been but blessed
but also to strengthen and confirm those that are converted that they may grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ though you Quakers say you are so perfect that you cannot grow in knowledge nor grace Also know that were it not for our publick Ministers people would in time grow Atheistical and become like Savage bruitish Heathens as for those sins which you say do abound among Teachers and People I say it is no new thing for you Quakers to accuse revile and slander all men that are contrary to your judgement But if such sins did abound among us that doth not prove our Ministers to be no true Ministers nor our Churches to be no true Churches for I have proved that there hath been as great sins in the first age of the Church as in Corinth Galatia Thessalonica and the Churches of Asia and yet they were all true Churches and the Ministers true Ministers but for your selves you are like the Pharisees that could finde faults in others but could see none in themselves And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy Brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye which bringeth me to the tryal aud examination of the perfection among you Quakers that it may appear whether you be the innocent Lambes of Christ the holy Seed the Called the chosen of the Lord the Witnesses the Saints the children of the Light the perfect ones for so you write in your Paper but it had been better if it had been written or spoken by others than by your selfe but you follow your Fathers the Pharisees who praised themselves and your Fathers the Papists who say they are the only true Church which cannot erre as you Quakers say of your selves Wherefore I shall now endevour to examine your perfection whether you have that perfection which the Scripture doth hold forth and teach I have at large proved the perfection which our Ministers teach to be by Faith alone in believing what Christ hath suffered and done for us Also I have proved that there is no perfection in our selves that is to say no man is able perfectly to keep and fulfill the whole Law in thought word and deed but you Quakers say that Christ hath abolished the Law an old Antinomian error which hath been often confuted wherefore I shall not trouble my self about it but I shall exaamine whether you Quakers do perfectly keep and obey the commands of Christ and his Apostles and whether you walk according to the example of Christ and his Apostles Now Jesus Christ hath given forth several commands which you Quakers do not obey but teach men that they ought not to be obeyed now Christ saith that whosoever shall break one of these least Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdome of Heaven that is none at all Now if Christ threaten such as teach men to break one of the least of the commands of the Moral Law how do you think to escape that teach men to break his commands which he gave forth with his own mouth in the time of the Gospel and that neer the time of his Suffering and Ascension but you will say this is a false accusation wherefore it remaineth on my part to 〈◊〉 it And to that end I shall first begin with that 〈…〉 which Christ gave to his eleven Disciples And Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway unto the end of the world Now I do affirm that this command of Christ was given by him not to the Disciples only but in them to all the Ministers of the Gospel that shall succeed them unto the end of the world and that this command of baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is the baptizing with Water which ordinance is to continue unto the end of the world or Christ his second coming Now you Quakers do deny the observing of this command of Christ and teach men not to obey the same but say it was a command that was to continue only for a time untill the coming of the Holy Ghost this several of your Teachers have affirmed unto me at several times and Jona Dell in his book called A voice from the Temple saith that Baptism and the Lords Supper were but ceremonies that were to last but for a time Wherefore I shall prove that this command of Christ to his Disciples was to continue in the Church untill his second coming and was not to cease at the coming of the the Holy Ghost as you say it is Now Minde the words and they do plainly prove it for Christ saith I am with you alway even unto the end of the world Now the Apostles did not live alway unto the end of the world but some of your company say by the end of the world Christ doth not mean the time of dissolving of all things in the world or Christ his second coming but till the world was ended in them and that was when they were perfect but consider what an absurd interpretation this is for if that be the meaning then it must needs follow that Christ left the Apostles when the world was ended in them but I would know where you finde the end of the world in Scripture to be taken for the end of the world in a Man but while you go about to defend one error you run into many but I shall shew from the Scripture that this ordinance of Water-Baptisme was practised in the Church after the sending of the Holy Ghost and after the Holy Ghost was received by many In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the Apostles were all filled with the Holy Ghost Surely no Quaker ever had such a measure of the Spirit and yet the Apostles after that baptized with Water as we may read in several places in the Acts to instance one which may serve in stead of many the Apostle Peter being sent for by Cornelius by the Lords own appointment and coming into Cornelius's house preached the Gospel unto him and many other Gentiles And to him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word Minde Peters Preaching is called the Word Then answered Peter Can any man forbid Minde Water that these should not be Baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Now can you tell how to deny this practice of the Apostle Peter if Christ his meaning
were that this Baptisme should last but while the coming of the Holy Ghost then did not Peter know Christs meaning for he obeyed that command of Christ baptizing them after they had received the Holy Ghost But as you are ignorant of the Covenant of Grace so are you ignorant of the Signes or Seals of the Covenant for when God made a Covenant with Abraham he gave Circumcision for a signe or seal of that Covenant And ye shall Circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and you Also the Apostle saith that He received the signe of Circumcision a seal of the righteousnesse of the Faith which he had yet being nncircumcised Now as Circumcision was a sign and seal in the time of the Law before Christ his coming in the flesh so hath Christ ordained Baptisme a sign and seal of the righteousnesse of Faith in the time of the New Testament to the end of the world according to that of the Apostle Peter in the dayes of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight soules were saved by Water The like figure whereunto even Baptisme doth now save us that is it is a sign or seal of Salvation by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God Minde he saith Baptisme doth now save us I never read of a Light within us that saveth us Also the Apostle John saith that as there are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost so there are three that bear witnesse in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one Now by Water can be meant no other thing than the Water in Baptisme that as Water doth wash away the filth of the Body so doth the Water in Baptisme witnesse that Christ by his Blood hath washed away the filthinesse of sin but one of your Teachers asked me if I were so Ignorant to believe that the Water in the Thames or any other Water could do a mans Soul any good To which I answer that Water simply considered in it self it hath no such vertue but consider it in relation unto Gods Ordinance used according to his command and appointment it is profitable to the Soul But you speak and believe like Naaman the Assyrian who coming to the Prophet Elisha to be cleansed of his Leprosie when the Prophet sent him word to only go and wash himself in the waters of Jordan seven times he was in a great rage saying Are not the Waters of Damascus better then all the Waters of Israel he considered not that Gods command doth give vertue and efficacy to the thing for which it was appointed and this cleansing of Naamans Leprosie by the Water of Jordan was an emblem or type of our Baptisme we know God did make the Walls of Jericho fall by the blowing of Rams hornes because he had commanded and appointed so it is a great sin to disobey Gods command although the thing commanded seem never so smal and contrary to our sense and reason We know what the Lord did unto Moses because his Son was not Circumcised according to Gods command And it came to passe by the way in the Inne that the Lord met him and sought to kill him Now if the Lord would not bear with Moses his neglect of Circumcising his Son how do you Quakers think to escape Gods displeasure who not only neglect Gods Ordinance of Baptisme but also teach that it is abolished and uselesse and make a meer mock at Water-baptisme but the Apostles of Christ did highly esteem of that Ordinance of Baptisme I Christ himself did not only command it but honoured it in being Baptized himselfe who had no need of it for himself but that he might be an example unto us for saith he Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousnesse Minde Christ calleth it righteousnesse Also God the Father did highly honour Baptisme in that he opened Heaven at the Baptisme of Christ and sent the Spirit descending like Dove and lighting upon him and a voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And as God the Father Christ his Son and the Apostles did honour this Ordinance of Baptisme so did the Ministers of the Gospel since the Apostles dayes highly esteem the same I shall alledge what Calvin writeth concerning Baptisme I hope you do 〈◊〉 count him a Popish Father in his 23. Sermon on Gal. 3. 17. his words are these And in good sooth all of us professe the Gospel and yet we shall finde a number of people that know not the true use of Baptisme nor whereto it availeth nor to what end it is ordained but such shall pay dearly for taking such a pledge at Gods hands he will shew them that it is too costly a thing to be abused for as much as it is said to be a Seal whereby we are assured of the benefits of Christ his Death and Resurrection that whereas many have lived some twenty some forty some fifty years in the world without knowledge to what end they were Baptized it were better for them that they had been born dead and to have been sunk a hundred times in the earth than so to have unhallowed so holy a thing And therefore let us bethink our selves the better and learn that although there be but a little water cast upon our heads yet notwithstanding it is not a vain figure for the Heavens are opened upon us and God speaks in it as it were from Heaven and Christ is there present with his blood as witnesses of the usage and operation of the Sacrament Let us think well upon these things and let them be well rooted in your hearts by which you and all others may see what an esteem Calvin had of Baptisme Also in his fourth book of Institutions chap. 11. concerning Baptism his words are these Baptisme is a token and proof of our cleansing or to expresse my minde better it is like a sealed Charter whereby God confirmeth unto us that all our sins are cancelled and abolished that they may never be rehearsed nor imputed Also Beza in his Annotations upon the fifth chapter to the Ephesians ver 26 27 Christ loved the Church and gave himselfe for it that he might sanctifie it and clense it by the washing of water through the word that he might make it unto himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing o Baptisme is a token that God hath consecrated the Church to himselfe and made it holy by his word that is his promise of free Justification and Sanctification in Christ p because it is covered and clad with Christ his justice and holinesse I have written what these two eminent Ministers did believe and maintain concerning Baptisme who lived in the Church of
Geneva because that Church hath and is counted one of the best reformed Churches from Popery and therefore I hope you will not say they were Popish writers and I am certain they were no Quakers for they observed Christ his ordinance of Baptisme which you deny teaching that it is of no use now in the Church in which you disobey Christ his command and walk contrary to his practice and walk contrary to the practice of the Apostles and all the Ministers of the Gospel in the best reformed Churches and therefore are not perfect But you say that if it be lawful now to Baptize yet is it not lawful to Baptize Children and therefore our Ministers do that which Christ never commanded which is the thing you all fly unto when you are put upon the tryal of the lawfulnesse of Baptisme and that is one of E. B. his objections against our Ministers in his book called A just and lawful tryal of the Teachers and professed Ministers of this age and generation by a prefect proceeding against them and justly weighed measured and condemned Which book was given me by a Quaker in London as being unanswerable I have answered already all the chief grounds and reasons alledged in the said book against our Ministers but this being one ground that our Ministers Baptize or sprinkle Infants and tells them they are Christians before they preach to them contrary to the practice of Christ and his Apostles Now although it was not in the least any part of my intention when I began to write to medle with that controversie of Baptizing Childen because I was to write against Antibaptists not Anabaptists yet finding since that Quakers who are Antibaptists in that they deny all Water-baptisme do make that one of their chief grounds against the lawfulnesse of our Ministers both in their writings and disputings I was moved to bestow a little more time and labour in answering you in that particular although I might have saved that labour in regard Mr. Richard Baxter hath so plainly proved the lawfulnesse of Infant-baptisme in his answer to Mr. Tombes but because I know you Quakers do not usually read any books but such as are of your own stamp or such as are written in opposition to your opinions I shall write such grounds and reasons as I conceive are sufficient to prove the lawfulnesse of Infant-baptisme Wherefore I shall first lay down this assertion That the Covenant of Grace which God made from the beginning with Adam and renewed unto Abraham is the same for substance which we have now in the dayes of the Gospel and as he did give Circumcision a Sign and Seal of that Covenant before Christ his coming in the flesh whereby they and their children were distinguished from the Heathen Gentiles so hath the Lord Christ appointed Baptisme a Signe and Seal of the same Covenant in the dayes of the Gospel whereby all those that believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ they and their children are also distinguished from Heathen Infidels that believe not the Gospel Now the Covenant of Grace was made to the children of all those that are within the Covenant I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Now all those that are of the Faith of Abraham are the seed of Abraham and if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and Heirs according to the promise and the Father to them that are not of Circumcision but also walk in the steps of that Faith of our Father Abraham Now the children after Christ his coming in the flesh were counted within the Covenant so as to be accounted visible Members of the Church and so capable of the outward external Sign and Seal of the Covenant I shall prove first by the words and example of 〈◊〉 â—imself when they brought Infants unto him 〈…〉 saw it and they rebuked them but 〈…〉 and said suffer little Children to 〈…〉 not for of such is the kingdome of God Now if children belong to the Kingdome of God then surely the Seals of the Kingdome do belong unto them Also when Christ gave Commission to his Disciples he said Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Now are not children part of the Nations and if you say they must be taught first I answer that Mr. Baxter hath proved that by Teaching is in the Original Disciple them where he also proveth that children are Disciples as well as others Also the Apostle Peter said unto those converts in the Acts Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Now if the Promise did belong unto their children surely the Seal of the Promise doth belong unto them and it cannot be Circumcision for that was abolished wherefore it must needs be Baptisme which is the Badge or Seal whereby Christions are distinguished from others Also the Apostle writing to the Corinthians some men having unbelieving Wives and the Women unbelieving Husbands were in doubt whether they might live together the Apostle therefore doth resolve their scruples telling them that there was no cause of separation for saith he The unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the believing Husband and the unbelieving Husband by the believing Wife else were your Children unclean but now they are holy Where the Apostle cannot be understood of any inherent holinesse but rather a relative holinesse which makes the person capable of being a member of the visible Church by the Ordinance of Baptisme I know the Anabaptists say the meaning is else were your children Illegitimate that is base born but that cannot be the Apostles meaning for the Apostle saith that the unbeliever is sanctified by the believer Now I never read in Scripture that being lawfully Married made children holy or unholy for I believe Jews and Turks are lawfully Married but that doth not make their children holy but if that interpretation were granted it will serve to prove the point in controversie for no Bastard was to be admitted into the Church and Congregation of the Jews and were therefore not to partake of holy things but all children that were born being not Bastards were admitted visible members of the Church and were capable of that federate relative holinesse and if the Apostles meaning be of their being not base born but legitimate then I say he doth thereby intimate that then their children were capable of being made visible members of the Church by Baptisme as well as the children of the Jews by Circumcision or else the Jewes and their children had a greater priviledge in the time of the Law
abroad if the reading of other books beside the Scriptures be not necessary unless you believe what some of your fellow Quakers have said that James Naylors books are of as Divine authority as the Scriptures because he is inspired by the same Spirit the Prophets and Apostles were when they writ the Scripture in which you are like your Fathers the Familists for such like Titles and Stiles I have read in their books written by H. N. and have heard some Familists call them his Gospels and that they 〈◊〉 of equal authority with the Gospels of Jesus 〈…〉 such blasphemous Familists and Quakers errors good Lord deliver us And the Lord open your eyes that you may see your errors that you have patched up your new Religion with the old errors of the Papists Arminians Anabaptists Antinomians and Familists and the Lord give you hearts to repent and do your first works A POST-SCRIPT Courteous Reader SInce the writing the foregoing answer to the Quakers I had some conference with a woman Quaker one of my ancient friends whose name I forbear to mention about the said answer after which the said friend did write me a letter the Contents whereof were as followeth That my written paper is higher then Vanitie because as she saith I confessed that I was not led by the infallible Spirit therefore it must needs be flesh for the Spirit of God is infallible and cannot erre which she desireth I would consider by the light of Christ that convinceth me of sin and that lest I be found fighting against God wherefore she saith in love to thy soul I warn thee Wherefore lest the said woman or any other Quakers should say that I have not answered all their Objections I resolved to answer the said letter though the things objected in the said letter are in part answered before yet for a more full answer I desire the said friend and all other Quakers whether friends or enemies to mind and consider what I have written in answer to the said letter Having received thy letter I was moved to write an answer to shew thee thy error in misunderstanding and misreporting my words for I neither writ nor said that I was not led by the infallible Spirit but said that I doe not pretend to an infallible spirit so as that I cannot erre For I say that all the faithfull are led by the Spirit of Christ which Spirit is infallible but I say they are not so led by that Spirit that they cannot erre which is the thing you maintain but I deny And yet I say that all the Prophets and Apostles were led by the Spirit infallibly guiding them in writing the Scriptures so as that they could not erre and that all the faithful are led by the Spirit so as that they erre not in the foundation or fundamentals of Religion but in other things I say they are subject to erre and the best men that ever lived that that we read of in Scripture have erred Christ Jesus who was God and Man excepted and this I shall plainly prove by Scripture the Prophet David a man after Gods own heart and a Penman of holy Scripture said Lord who knoweth the errors of his life clense me from my secret sins Psal 19. 12. and he having a mind to build the Temple and spake his mind to the Prophet Nathan the Prophet said to the King Go do all that is in thine heart for the Lord is with thee they being both Prophets were both mistaken they were not infallible for that night the Word of the Lord came to Nathan to the contrary that David should not build the Lords House but his Son Solomon but you Quakers will say this was before Christ his coming in the flesh and before the fulness of the Spirit was sent wherefore mind what is written in Scripture after that time There arose a dissention and a disputation among the brethren about Circumcision and Paul and Barnabas with others were sent to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Elders to have their advice and there were great disputations between them about it no one pretending by an infallible Spirit to determine the same were not Paul and Barnabas led by an infallible Spirit what need they then to have gone to Jerusalem to the rest of the Apostles and Elders surely if they had been infallible they made a needless journey and the rest of the Apostles and Elders made a needless disputation Also there arose a doubt amongst the Corinthians about believing husbands having unbelieving wives and believing wives having unbelieving husbands and other things concerning which they wrote unto the Apostle Paul to determine the matter Was there never a man among them that had an infallible spirit so as that he could not erre surely then they were no Quakers for then they needed not to have sent to the Apostle to have the matter determined and the Apostle in his answer concerning some thing saith I speak this by permission and not by command and concerning Virgins I have no commandment from the Lord yet I give my judgement I suppose saith the Apostle but had he been a Quaker and of your opinion would he not have said why or what need you write unto me to know the lawfulness of these things are you not all led by an infallible spirit that cannot erre But the Apostle was so humble and modest that he said I suppose he would not say I am sure or I know certainly I having an infallible spirit I cannot erre No the Apostle confesseth of himself and others we know but in part But you Quakers say you have such an infallible spirit that you cannot erre But God resisteth the proud and hath promised to teach the humble also the Apostle saith If any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble where the Apostle plainly proveth that Christians do sometimes build upon the foundation wood hay and stubble that is some things of their carnal spirits for there is some carnality in those that are in Christ for saith the Apostle I speak unto you as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ now there being flesh as well as spirit and sence and reason as well as faith in every christian is it any wonder that they sometimes erre And therefore honest Luther saith That there being flesh as well as spirit and sence as well as faith in the best men that therefore sometimes that will fall from their tongues and their pens that savours of the flesh as well as of the spirit and of sence as well as of faith and therefore saith he All Christians should be like the clean beasts that chew the Cud and devide the Hoofe that is they should meditate and examine what they hear and read by the Scriptures and devide the truth from the error as those men of Barea did they searched the Scriptures to see whether those things which they heard were according to