also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life CHAP. II. QV There is indeed but one God but hath not that God declared himself to be as one in Essence so three in subsistence the Father the Word and the Spirit Answ Isa 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me therefore hath the Lord anointed me Gen. 1.26 And God said let us make man in our Image chap. 3.22 And the Lord God said behold the man is become as one of us chap. 11.6.7 and the Lord God said let us go down 1 Ioh. 1.1.7 for there are three which bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one Mat. 28.16 Go therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Ioh. 15.26 but when the Comforter shall come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth of the father he shall testifie of me Ioh. 14.26 But the Comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things 2 Cor. 13.13 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the holy Ghost be with you all Amen Titus 3.5 6. But when the bountifulness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared he saved us by the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Gal. 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts Quest The Father indeed is God and also the Son is God and the Spirit is God of which in its proper place only here repeat one Scripture already named Answ 1 John 5.7 For there are three which bear record in heaven the father the Word and the Spirit and those three are one Quest When God is said to be in a certain place in Scripture as Psal 115.3 Our God is in the heavens and such like places is he so there as to be circumscribed comprehended as included or so there as are the Creatures there and not elsewhere then there how then is God infinite or is he infinite what saith the Scripture Answ 1 Kingt 8.27 ' But will God indeed dwell on the earth Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house that I have builded Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or Whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there If I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me Isa 66.1 Thus saith the Lord The heaven is my Throne and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye builded unto me or where is the place of my rest for all those things hath my hand made Isa 40.12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in Scales or the hills in a balance Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord Jer. 23 24. Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afar off can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth sa th the Lord Quest When we read of the Image of God as Gen. 1 26 27. Let us make man in our Image after our likeness c. the similitude of God or the person of God in Scripture doth it prove that God is corporeal and visible as man is what is meant by the Image of God what say other Scriptures Answ Col. 3.10 Renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Ephes 4.24 And put on the new man which after God is renewed in righteousness and true holiness Joh. 6.46 Not that any man hath seen the Father Joh. 1.18 No Man hath seen God at any time 1 John 4.12 No man hath seen God at any time Exod. 33.20 Moreover he said Thou canst not see my face 1 Tim. 6.16 Who only hath immortality and dwelleth in the light that no man can attain unto whom never man saw nor can see to whom be honour and power everlasting Amen Quest When we read in Scripture of affections and passions as love hatred repentance anger c. attributed to God in Scripture as the anger of the Lord was kindled it repented the Lord c. may we think thereby that God is subject to change as is man or else speaks the Scripture in order to our capacity and apprehensions what saith the Scripture Answ 1 Joh. 1.5 God is light and in him there is no darkness Gen. 28.19 God is not as man that he should lye neither as the Son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it hath he spoken and shall he not accomplish it James 1.17 Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shaddow of turning Psal 33.11 The counsel of the Lord shall stand for ever and the thoughts of his heart throughout all ages Isaiah 46.10 My counsel shall stand and I will do whatsoever I will as I have spoken so will I bring it to pass I have purposed I will do it Quest Touching expressions we meet with in Scripture of Gods tempting of Abraham and having tried him now he knew that he feared God Gen. 22.1 to the 10. that God proves his people to see whither they will walk in his way or no or repenting him of good and evil upon his peoples sins or return of trying them to know what was in their heart and such like places do they prove any such free actions of ours or that God knoweth not till they come to pass or rather speaks the Scripture after the manner of men would not such doctrine destroy the Omnisciency of God what saith the Scripture to this thing Answ Heb. 4.13 Neither is there any creature which in not manifest in his sight but all thinge are naked and open unto his eyes with whom we have to do Psal 139.2 6 7 11 13 16. Oh Lord thou understandest my thoughts afar off thy knowledge is too wonderfull for me It is so high that I cannot attain unto it If I say the darkness shall hide me even the night shall be light round about me yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and light are both alike My bones are not hid from thee though I was not made in a secret place thine eyes
or comments to save his credit we say so too without true ones And let not Biddle say or any for him we need a mystical or figurative interpretation though many texts of Scripture are of that nature to make the doctrines of Truth in our hand and the texts of Scripture alledged to maintain their sence for we do not as Biddle in this Instance draw the Scripture falsly to our doctrine but our doctrine truly from the Scripture nor do we once take this liberty to impose our mystical and figurative interpretations on the Scripture without express warrant of the Scripture it self and with that they are no more our interpretations but the Scriptures neither have we the less settled belief nor are we the more liable to be turned aside by any one can Invent a new mystical meaning of the Scripture there being as sure a rule to judge of such meanings as there is of the litteral ones to wit the spirit of Revelation in the knowledge of him I say Revelation conversant in not without and besides the Scriptures and that form of wholsome words once to the Saints nor is there any error how absurd or impious soever can on such terms be accorded with the Scripture nor the abominable Idolatries of the Papists nor the superstitious fopperies of the Turks nor the licentious opinions and practice of the Ranters nor all these abominable and damnable heresies the smoak belched out by Satan in several ages from the bottomless pit and now all Epitomised in the Person and Catechism of Biddle may upon such terms be palliated much less defended by the Word of God Certainly we do not of our own heads figuratively interpret the Scripture when the Letter seemeth repugnant to our spiritual sense to the scope of the respective Text and to many plain Texts to the contrary for in such cases Biddle himself confesseth we must of necessity admit figures in the sacred volume as well as we do in profane ones that the Scripture clash not with it self or with our spiritual sense which indeed as it hath the word for its foundation and only so is of infallible certainty I say if then we do admit a figure or spiritual meaning in the plain word of God neither do we make as some blaspemously and Biddle wickedly would make the Scripture a nose of wax for Instance it s delivered in the Scripture that the heaven of heavens cant contain God that there is no flying from his presence that he is present in heaven and in hell and in the uttermost parts of the Sea that the Heaven is his Throne and the Earth his Foot stool and alt these things hath his hand made that he is a God at hand and a God afar off that no man can hide himself in secret places from God and that he fills the heaven and the Earth neither is any thing said in the Scripture to the contrary but that several places say he is in heaven none saying he is not elsewhere I say now in this or such other cases why should I thus stick to the Letter of the Word and boldly affirm with Biddle having his understanding darkened with vain Philosophy of which we are bidden to beware that God is in a certain place would not this be to use the Scripture as a nose of wax and when of it self it looketh one way to turn it another at our pleasure the like may be said of the similitude or shape of God his Passions and affections the Redemption of all men and the falling from the faith and such like whatever is controverted in the ensuing Catechism And doth not God so speak to our capacity in his Word which is a sure refuge in many matters concerning God in Scripture as that he doth not render us uncapable of finding out his meaning when he speaks one thing and explains himself by another yea is not that way of his a direct course not to make us substitute an Idol in his place but to prohibit our so doing when he tells in one place our God is in the heavens and explains himself in another yea sundry other that he is also in the Earth in Hell and in the furthestmost parts of the Sea for thus doth he in plain terms express himself that we may not conceive amiss of him Thus we see that when sleep which plainly argueth weakness and imperfection is ascribed to God Psa 44.23 the contrary is said of him Psa 121. Thus does God in these forementioned things he tells us he is in heaven but that he is in the Earth and the Sea also which is the manner of God in Scripture to explain himself in one place what he means by another which hath so much weight in it that it cannot be avoided and he that shall deny it to any heretical end does but take up one erroneous tenet to maintain another But it s no wonder indeed this fellow doth so who entertains himself and would have us to entertain such conceipts of God and Christ as are repugnant to the current of the Scripture and far below the Divine Majesty as he hath pleased to discover himself in the plain but certain Letter of sacred writ which he doth in design to beguil the rude apprehensions of the vulgar and instead of making them meer Christians to make them worse then Heathens the root whereof is pride desiring to be accounted a learned man and able to speak more truly of God and the things of God then himself hath spoken in his word This indeed hath brought that more then Babylonish confusion into the Church whilst men such men who being of their Father the Devil his works they will do have framed those horrid doctrines under colour of Religion and Truth but in Truth to put a baffle on the simplicity of the Scripture and usher in heresies that so they may with the more advantage carry on their designs whither of applause or profit by their seduced followers which could not be effected but by the ignorance of such people and by wrapping up such dangerous conclusions in the guilded coverts of wrested misapplied Scriptures such things probably as our Author for so he would but shall not be called doth not and the first Inventors thereof for he hath taken them all from the inventions of others indivers ages before him who did not themselves believe even then when they did whither in design or in malice or both I say not first of all broach them wherefore there is no possibility to keep the Christian Religion in its primitive purity a thing worthily boasted of in reformed Churches as having been sincerely indeavoured and in some good measure effected by the good hand of God upon the labour among others his Servants Luther and Calvin but by detecting and cashiering those many false notions and devised forms of lying fathered on religion and wholly keeping our selves to the plainness and Truth of the Scripture for I have observed and
Mediator according to the Scriptures for such an high Priest it became us to have let us hear what testimony the Scripture gives to the Godhead of Christ and that he may see the wisdom of that God whom he hath blasphemed as a token of vengeance to him bring out one dart for the heart of him and his blasphemy out of his own quiver The two first Scriptures he quotes in this God defying Chapter what say they and other Scriptures Answ He begins with Ephes 4.5 and 1 Cor. 8.6 One Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things Col. 2.9 In him in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Isaiah 9.6 For unto us a child is born and unto us a Son is given the Government is upon his shoulders he shall call his name wonderful Counsellour the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Jer. 23.5 Behold the days come saith the Lord I will raise unto David a righteous branch and this is the name whereby they shall call him the Lord our righteousness Mat. 16.16 Then Peter answered and said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God John 1.1 In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and that word was God John 20.28 Then Thomas answered and said Thou art my Lord and my God Acts 15.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock whereof the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Rom. 9.5 Of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is God over all blessed for ever Amen 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the Mysterie of godliness God manifested in the flesh 1 John 5.20 But we know the Son of God is come Christ and we are in him that is true Christ that is his son Jesus Christ this same is very God and eternal life Ioh. 3.13 No man ascendeth up to heaven but he that descended from heaven the Son of man which is in heaven before Abraham was I am Phil. 2 6 Who being in the form of God thought it no robberie to be equal with God took on him the form of a servant Mat. 24.44 The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool Joh. 5.17 18 My Father worketh hitherto and I work therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him not only because he had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father and made himself equal with God Joh. 19.7 The Jews answered we have a Law by which he ought to dye because he made himself the Son of God Rom. 8.3 15 God sending his own son not sparing his own Son Isa 7.14 Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and she shall call his name Emanuel God with us John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Ioh. 1.14 And the word was made flesh and we saw the glory thereof as the only begotten son of the father Col. 1.13 Giving thanks unto the Father who hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son who is the Image of the invisible God the first born of every creature for by him were all things created which are in heaven and which are in earth things visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or powers all things are created for him and by him and he is before all things and in him all things consist Heb. 1.6 Let all the Angels of God worship him vers 8. Vnto the Son he saith O God thy throne is for ever and ever vers 10. And thou Lord in the beginning hast established the earth and the heavens are the works of thy hands Heb. 3.3 Christ is worthy of more honour then Moses inasmuch as he that built the house hath more honour then the house and he that built all things is God Heb. 13.8 Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever Isa 45.21 22 23. Who hath declared this from the beginning who hath told it of old have not I the Lord there is none other God beside me a just God and a Saviour look unto me and ye shall be saved all the ends of the earth for I am a God and there is none other I have sworn by my self every knee shall bow unto me and every tongue shall swear by me compared to Rom. 14.10 11 12. We shall appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ for it is written I live saith the Lord and every knee shall bow to me and all tongues shall confess unto God so then every one shall give account of himself to God Isa 44.4.44.6 Rev. 1.18 compared who hath wrought and done it he that calleth the generation from the beginning I the Lord am the first and with the last I am the same thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts I am the first and the last and without me there is no God And I saw seven Candlesticks and in the midest one like the Son of man and he said I am the first and the last Pro. 8.22 The Lord hath possessed me the beginning of his wayes I was before his works of old Mar 3.1 Behold I will send my Messenger and he shall prepare my way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall speedily come to his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye desire Psal 45.6 Vnto the Son he saith O God thy Throne is for ever and ever Esa 40.3 A voice cryeth in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a path for our God CHAP. V. QVest We find the Blasphemer pretending to the Letter of the Scripture without Consequent or Comment how then does Eph. 4.4 one Spirit resolve his Question how many holy Spirit 's of Christians are there Ans No ways Quest Whereas then he would ungod God the holy Ghost he makes a phrase and gives the holy Ghost a new name The holy spirit of Christians whereas we find no such thing in Scripture but the holy Spirit of God what shall we then say to such a Blasphemer who would under pretence of express Scripture put on us that for Scripture which we never find there that to so damned an end Answ The Lord rebuke thee Satan to the Law and to the Testimony Quest The Scriptures indeed are the rule of faith and no God ought we to worship but the God in the Scriptures What Scripture have we then that expresly proves the Deity of God the holy Ghost Answ The first Scripture being unhappily quoted by our Adversary being 1 Chron. 10.11 I shall therefore first give you The Spirit searcheth all things Esay 6.9 compared to Act. 28.25 and I heard the voice of Jehovah the Lord saying whom shall I send And I said here am I send me Then he said go and fay unto this people they shall