Heb. 4. 12. and Rom. 10 8. vindicated Heb. 4. 12. The word of God quick and powerful c. is the word preached ver 2. or the Scripture that we read and hear opened if one verse may interpret another Rom. 10. 8. The word is nigh thee c. This place with the former must needs be Christ within men not the Scriptures without as J. P. thinks because the Apostle directs the mindes of people within them from looking without whereas let people look into Deut. 30. 14. from whence the Apostle quotes it and compare that 14. ver with the 11. and they will finde it is meant of the word of a Gospel-command built upon a Gospel-promise For this commandment of returning and obeying by vertue of the promise ver 6. of heart-circumcision is not hidden from thee neither is it far off it is not in heaven c. nor beyond the sea c. But the word is very nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it Which Paul expounds to be the word of faith or doctrine of faith which comprehends the promise for and to believing and the precept of believing written preached heard and mixed in the heart with faith That Scripture 1 John 2. 27. hath no such meaning 1 Iohn 2 27. vindicated as to exclude Scripture-teaching and Ministers-teaching and as if he that hath the Anointing were come to the end of mans teaching as J. P. expresseth it page 3. But onely that we who have the Anointing which is not Christ as he glosseth for the Unction or Anointing is from Christ Gods holy One ver 20. but that participation of Christs Oyl and Eye-salve of Christs grace and Spirit of knowledge and understanding c. need not that any man should teach us better things or in a better maner but as the Anointing teacheth us The words include both inward and outward teaching and teachers and exclude none but seducers ver 26. of whom the Church and People of God have no need at all in Judea England Essex or in any part of the world Isaiah 30. 20. makes not mention of Christ or but any Isa 30. 20. vindicated one true Teacher but of Teachers meaning the true Prophets and Priests that taught the good knowledge of the Lord as in Jehoshaphats days which should not be removed into a corner but the Lords people should see them and have with them as is promised ver 21. A word behinde them saying This is the way c. i. e. Gods Spirit should prompt suggest and set home that which was outwardly taught upon their hearts at every turn and upon every occasion How doth our Essex Seducer * Christ exalted pag. 4. Iohn 15. 5. Phil 4. 13. vindicated gloss upon John 15. 5. and Philip. 4. 13. Without him we can do nothing but by him we can do all things without the help of Scripture or any thing else without Is this to own Scripture in its place as the Title pretendeth to put it quite out of all place and office or service that it shall not be in the day of the Lords Battels and a Christian warfare in the place of an Auxiliary or of any help and use When as Christ John 15. 3. told his disciples they were clean through the word which he had spoken unto them and the word which he had spoken was according to what is written Psalm 119. 9. Wherewithal shall a yong man cleanse his way by taking heed thereunto according to thy word Did not Paul write that Epistle to the Philippians for their strengthning And did not Apollos Acts 18. 27 28. help them much who had believed through grace shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Lastly to make an end of these Instances of J. P. how ignorantly and rashly doth he twice quote * Page 4 6 Ier 5. 31. vindicated and cleared Jer. 5. 31. as * R. F. In his Truth cleared p 3. and J. W. in his Enmitie between the two seeds pag. 17. others of his Sect frequently The priests bear rule by their means with a glancing gloss at Ministers gain and maintenance As if by means there was meant outward estate wealth livings c. and by their was understood their own lucre when as the affix or pronoun their relates to the Prophets and by means is no more intended but endeavor or procurement of their false messages and pretences to extraordinary mission The priests bearing rule as falsly and corruptly as the prophets prophesied falsly and unsoundly In the Hebrew 't is by their hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as the prophets false counsel and pretended authority as 2 Sam. 14. 19. Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this Hast thou not done this by Joabs means or counsel by reason whereof the priests were so imperious and the people cheated by the false prophets loved to have it so The edge of this Scripture may be turned against our present Seducers thus The Quaking prophets prophesie falsly and Romish priests shrowd themselves under their new stamped Doctrine God knoweth how much they have influence how soon they may bear rule by these prophets means and many people who go for Gods people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof when prophets priests and people have confederately banded themselves against the true Prophets and Ministers of the Lord That our new Prophet is not a true one hear one line or two more of his * Christ exalted c. p. 4. Sheet and judge of his Judgement of the whole Scripture He Christ is the Word and the Scripture is not He is the Light and the Scripture is not He is the Rule and Guide and Teacher and Judge and the Scripture is not but a declaration of him to be so Is Christ think you exalted upon the ruines of his Scripture and are they not razed at the foundation when as they shall neither be the Word nor Light nor Rule nor Guide nor Teacher nor Judge will that salve all that they are acknowledged to be a declaration of Christ to be so when as the but is sufficiently undervaluing Are they but a declaration of Christ Christ speaketh by the Scripture to be so Do they not declare of themselves also or doth not Christ and his Spirit declare in them and of them what they are as what himself is Do they declare that Christ is the Word and are not they the Word of that declaration Is Christ the living Word and are not the Scriptures the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. The lively Oracles Acts 7. 38. Do they declare that Christ is the Light and hath he not put of his Light into the Scriptures for our enlightning Christ enlightneth by the Scripture Psalm 19. 8. Whatsoever doth make manifest is Light Ephes 5. 13. The Scriptures declare and make as manifest as the light in a dark
to settle the hearts and hopes of them that flee thither for refuge with strong consolation In a word the Covenant of Grace excludes works as any condition of life for it is the declaration of Gods way of saving by Grace according to the Election of Grace which if it be of Grace as it is then Rom. 11. 6. is it not at all of works These meditations are heart-establishing you will say in wavering times and all Doctrines agreeable to the fulness of Christ and his Covenant are so David found it so so may you It was a soft pillow to David God 2 Sam. 23 5. hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure on his Death-bed whereon to rest his head so it will be to all that take hold on it and mix it with faith For secondly it is not the Doctrine of the Gospel abstractly considered but as believed that will establish you Faith establisheth Col. 1. 23. by its object acts reflections and fruits Continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard Consider brethren what you believe and in whom ye have believed Christ and his righteousness without you is a sure foundation for your Faith to Isaiah 28. 18. build upon He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed unsetled beaten off Faith gives you an evidence of things not seen and makes things absent present Every act of Faith tends to your establishment having some certainty in its bosom and bowels and so much as strives against doubting and that shall not miscarry in the issue and event But reflections of Faith help on yet more to stedfastness When you know you do 1 Pet. 3. 21. believe then you have the answer of a good conscience wherewith comes peace and liberty Peace with God is discerned and peace with Conscience is setled hereby in much serenity with liberty of access to the Throne of Grace and of making your Appeals to God by vertue of Christs blood sprinkled on the Conscience and by reason of the Acquittance which Christ received for the Believer at his resurrection His discharge is ours and hence the other benefits which Faith brings along with it of Vnion with Christ Communion with God Justification Redemption Adoption and Sanctification But if with the Doctrine and Faith of the Gospel there comes thirdly the Grace of sense or the sense of Gods grace and love in all that is taught and believed how is the heart established by the holy Rom. 5. 5. Spirit that is given us This Spirit is both the seal of what is past the witness of what is present and the earnest of what is to come making all that is in reversion as sure to us as that which is already in our possession Adde unto this fourthly Experimental exercise of grace in all Gospel-institutions and what establishment shall your hearts want now or hereafter Communion with God in Gospel-Ordinances gives rest and satisfaction when we finde the effect of Water-baptism and of Infant-baptism in Christs blood and the Spirits regeneration when we discern the effect of Bread and Wine-Lords-supper in Christs presence at his Table and the quicknings of his Spirit in our singing Davids Psalms and Scripture-spiritual songs use of publique as private Prayer ministery of the Word c. Your souls brethren cannot but finde it eminently helpful to be established with this Gospel-grace First you have hereby an Antidote against all poison of diverse and strange Doctrines Your hearts are as ships well-ballasted against all contrary winds The Doctrine of Free-grace rightly understood believed and adhered to doth at once dispel and scatter all Popish and Arminian fogs The fulness of Christ believed lays open the emptiness of Quakerism The Covenant and Promises grasped by Faith are as the little stone which they say the Bee takes up to flie with in a high wind so as the biggest blasts shall not dash you to the ground Let who will say that Christ doth not justifie by a righteousness without us the Scripture saith We are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. and the Grace of Faith carries out the Soul for righteousness and life in another viz. Christ of this the Spirit with the Conscience and Experience of Believers beareth witness Let the poor Quakers say that the Scriptures are not the word of God the heart that believeth and experienceth the power of the Scripture changing and transforming will finde him a liar and blasphemer Let them say that will they have no sin dwelling in them and their warfare is at an end a gracious heart will slight and despise these Contradictions to all the Experiences of the Saints held forth in Scripture Let them say there is no Baptism of water or let them call the Lords Supper as used by the Churches a humane Invention because they have found no comfort in it or by it the heart established in the faith of the Institution will give them the lie and although he findes not these seals always alike efficacious yet he knows and believeth them always to be the Lords Ordinances and to have a promise of efficacy annexed to them which God will make good at his day and hour and not at our season Secondly The fears which false doctrine terrifieth the Conscience withal are removed and made to vanish Fears of non-acceptance by reason of daily failings in duties fears of falling away totally and finally are expelled by the pure doctrine of faith and of justification by grace alone and by nothing inherent in us as a habit or adherent to us as an act c. Thirdly There is this advantage all pretended Revelations are cast off dreams are not hearkned unto leading from the Scriptures The faith of a Promise makes things as sure to your souls as if God had spoken immediately from the Clouds The sense of Gods Love is as sweet as a rapture into the third Heavens Moses and the Prophets are as sure to a gracious heart as if one arose from the dead for he could not bring up greater Truths or stronger Arguments of perswasion then are found in the Scriptures he could not speak more pathetically with higher strains and stronger lines with more majesty of stile and elegancy of phrase or sweeter floods of eloquence or with more plainness and godly simplicity then the Spirit expresseth himself in the Scripture holding forth all along an evidence and demonstration of himself with holy harmony and efficacy Fourthly When your hearts are established with Gospelgracious Doctrine Faith Sense and Experience thereof you are fortified against all powerful temptations Sometime the soul is tempted to forsake Ordinances but faith of that promise that the house of Jacob shall not seek God in vain keeps Isaiah 45. 19. the heart close to means of Gods appointment Sometime the Christian is tempted to go to a second Baptism or to
of doing and darkly vailed over with Types and Ceremonies They heard of doing more then believing and the administration gendred as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 24. unto bondage every carnal heart conceiving there was nothing ministred of righteousness or strength at all from another and being called and counted nothing but Law hence it is that the spirit of bondage is said more commonly to sute that Old administration The Church in this time was considered as an Heir in its minority As an Heir it was free but as an Infant or in its minority it was but as a servant under Tutors and Governors Gal. 4. 1. As an Heir true believers had then the Spirit of Adoption and Liberty As a Childe it had the spirit of fear and servitude And as it was but a dark and servile administration comparatively to what it is So 2. There was but a scanty proportion of graces and gifts as to the generality even of true believers they had little illumination and a small measure of sanctification I speak of the greater number of the Saints to what is and will be given since Christs Ascension from the greatest to the least 3. The dispensation of Grace and its covenant was but to a few families for a time and afterwards but to one nation springing out of those families under the new admistration the Covenant is made with all sorts of families and with some of every nation In stead of one there have been and are many Churches Acts 9. 31. and 15. 14. Every where God hath had and will have a people taken out from among the Gentiles or nations a select company for his Name 4. The seals and witnesses of the Testament are altered from Old to New and although the writings of the old copy remain i. e. the Books of the Old Testament because the substance of the covenant is there to be read and understood by the shadows yet there are new writings added i. e. the Books of the New Testament for clearer understanding and more assurance of faith when both are compared together The reason of the whole change of the old administration The reason of the change of old into new administration to the new in the particulars named was faultiness or imperfection It is the wisdom of God to proceed from ways less perfect to that which is more perfect Heb. 8. 7. If that first Covenant or Testament that is the first administration of the covenant of Grace had been fault less Heb 8 7. opened then should no place have been sought for the second How was it faulty 1. In that it made nothing perfect Cap. 7. 19. All in that old way especially the Sacrifices being typical and shadowy they of themselves could not take away sins therefore Christ whose body was fitted for a sacrifice he comes and puts by the shadows and types Heb. 10. 9. He takes away the first administration that he may establish the second the perfection of his own sacrifice and all that attends it in the new administration His blood stancheth all other blood stays the further shedding of the blood of Bulls and Goats and he coming by Blood and not by Water onely hath left to his Church a commemoration and obsignation of both in his new Institutions of Baptism and his Supper 2. In that people could not as it was dispensed after the maner of a covenant of Works though not so in it self possibly see how to stand or continue in it They stumbled at the Ceremonies and stuck in the Letter of the Law and could not see unto the end of that which is now abolished 2 Cor. 3. 13. But whence was the fault God was not to be blamed nor the substance of his Covenant but he lays the blame upon them who were willing to stand under such an administration and would not look to the kernel marrow and substance of it which was Christ But as it was the Jews infidelity which turned as to them that which was a covenant of Grace into a covenant of Works sticking in the rinde and bark of the Ceremony and which excluded and shut them out from the Grace of the covenant so do many thousands under the new administration the greater is their sin insist upon terms of doing and obeying the Light within them and God lets them go on and work their heart out if they will for life let them get it win it and wear it although he tells them it is impossible for if the Jews in all the Ceremonies of old should have lookt to Christ in them and beyond them the Gentiles should upon the first hearing of Christ believe on him and begin and end all their duties with the use of all New Testament Institutions in him or they will lose all their labor as did the Jews Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law as no covenant of works 3. I shall adde a few Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law from having been a covenant of Works 1. It was a covenant outwardly made with the people and that the people outwardly made with God by sacrifice Psalm 50. 6. But the covenant of Works was never made by sacrifice it admits of no expiation or atonement The sacrifices under the Law were shadows of that blood which is the blood of the everlasting covenant Heb. 13. 20. The blood of Christ the blood of the New Testament or the new administration of the covenant of Grace not to be altered but to abide for ever in its all-sufficient vertue and efficacy 2. That which carried all along with it remission of sins was no covenant of Works but of Grace but the Levitical Law had remission of sins going along with it for as the Apostle reasoneth Heb. 9. 22. with 18. without shedding of blood there is no remission whereupon the first Testament or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disposition of Christs will was not dedicated without blood but that there might be assurance of remission to believers even then that blood was shed which not being able to take away sin of it self did type out Christs blood which could and should effect it A covenant dedicated by blood first typical and then true is the same for substance 3. In the Levitical Law was a Mediator a Priest daily to offer and a high Priest once a year to offer the incense of mediation in the Holy of Holies in the covenant of Works there is no Intercessor or Mediator but we have in the covenant of Grace Christ our Priest and high Priest answering that in the new which was typed out in the old dispensation Heb. 9. 15. For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament c. and Ver. 12. by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place c. 4. In the Levitical Law was the Mercy-seat there is no Mercy-seat set up in a covenant of Works There was a common favor in it that God should vouchsafe to enter into
all this time but strengthned his own and fellows Contradictions to the Scripture Section 21. HEre I took up two passages the one of James Parnel in his tryal of Faith * Page 4. While sin is there no purity can dwell The other of James Nayler * Few words c. page 25. God and sin cannot dwell together in one Both contrary as I noâ—ed to 1 Cor. 3. 16. The Saints at Corinth had sin and the holy Ghost dwelling in them at the same time so had Paul Rom. 7. 17. compared with 1 Cor. 7. 25. lets this Section pass without answer and I shall dismiss it with but a little more animadversion whether their Doctrine or mine will stand Sin and purity dwell in one soul not as one let him that readeth understand I am sure of Contradictions one part must be false both cannot be true And if it hath been already cleared as a truth of Scripture and experience That Saints and Regenerate upon earth in whom God dwelleth have sin in-dwelling that must be false First which J. P. teacheth While or where sin is there no purity can dwell by which dictate he would destroy the faith of all those who believe no perfect freedom from the body of sin in this life Secondly which J. N. teacheth That God and sin cannot dwell together in one I suppose he meaneth in one soul by what he hath before Did ever Jesus Christ redeem such a people or dwell in such a people If he would say God and sin cannot dwell together as one or at agreement but as enemies warring and fighting one against another in the same field or house that is a truth evident enough For as Jacob and Esau were in one womb struggling so are grace and corruption in one heart As Hannah and Peninnah were contending in one family so are holiness and sin in one soul Even as two contrary qualities light and darkness are in the same air at the same time and heat and cold in the same water though one in a remiss the other in a higher degree God dwells as a Lord sin as a slave purity as a prince sin as a tyrant in the same Saint and Christian If any that is called a Saint thinks otherwise he is either not as he is called knows not himself as every Saint doth in part and in this case or if he be one really sanctified he is under a strong delusion and in a most drowsie dream for the present the Lord will awaken him in his good time 6. Head of Contradiction to Scripture Concerning Justification R. F. addeth And the end of the reighteous and wicked or unrighteous This I treated not of but he was disposed to darken counsel by words without knowledge Section 22. THe first contradiction I noted here was that which publiquely I had given me in Scotland That God justifieth not a believing sinner contrary to Rom. 4. 5. He justifieth the ungodly that believeth on him R. F. * Page 13. returns me for answer That such as are born of God do truly believe and faith in God purifieth their hearts and giveth them victory over the world and so frees them from sin 1 John 5. Rep. Here is enough before I examine the rest to discover the man and what a friend he is to the man of sin to lay the bottom of a believers Justification not upon Christs Obedience but upon his new birth c. This is plainly to build a mans Justification upon his Sanctification unless his meaning the better then I have reason to judge it is I The new birth is not our justification shall look to the words more then to the writer First 'T is one truth that such as are born of God do truly believe 2. 'T is another that faith in God purifieth the heart A third that faith gives victory over the world But put these together to make a compound for Justification and that so and so and so we are freed from sin that is from the guilt and punishment of it to speak ad idem and accepted as perfectly righteous in the eye of Gods justice This is so Popish a tenet as nothing is more unfound for it makes sanctification wrought within men the material if not the meritorious cause of their justification And that no better construction can be made of R. F. his words taken in any true Grammatical sense may appear by what followeth Such Believers are justified form sin and ungodliness and not in sin and ungodliness Rep. That Believers are justified from sin and ungodliness and not in it I have always and every where taught and was then teaching it at Edinburgh when I was publiquely affronted but the mystery of iniquity lies in the qualification such the Believer considered not as a sinner yet in himself short of Legal obedience but as a Saint conformable in his heart and life to the Law who must in his sense be the subject of justification For by Christ saith he again such as are so born and believe are justified c. And so Christ is their justification who are sanctified and from sin by him redeemed Rep. But how as they are so born thinks he by way of evidence say I. It is not known to whom Christ is righteousness But an evidence of it for justification but as they are found sanctified yet for the thing it self He that is justified is justified by God not under the aspect or notion of a Saint and as such but of a sinner and as a sinner believing in Jesus That Saints are justified is a truth but that they are justified by their sanctification is a falshood and that none are justified but as Saints perfected in holines is a notorious contradiction to the whole Scripture and the tenor of the Gospel For God justifieth sinful persons 1 That God justifieth him who in legal strictness not onely before he is sanctified but after the work of holiness is begun would otherwise stand a sinner at Gods Bar and who hath sin yet dwelling in him is clear by all the instances in Scripture of justified persons think of Abraham David Paul Peter the Corinthians Galatians or whom you will there mentioned you will finde they had sin dwelling in them not holiness enough to answer the absolute perfection of the Law all their days while yet their sins and imperfections were not imputed The imputed righteousness of Christ was the cause why their sins were not imputed why their persons were accepted as perfectly righteous in Christ who were but imperfectly at the best righteous in themselves The best Saint that yet liveth upon the earth is yet a sinner in himself or his worser part and hath not wherewithal to cover his nakedness of any deserved guilt no not by his best in-dwelling and inreigning holiness but as Christ gives him of his white raiment Rev. 3. 18. All they are Laodiceans in this case who have no need or feel not
written is Gospel which was before by these men excepted against as no Gospl 2. Their Self-contradiction in sticking to the Letter denyed to be Gospel I made to appear from their urging the above mentioned place in Matthew in the very Letter Be ye not called Masters By this R. F. would make the simple believe I have cleared them and contradicted my self Rep. But wherein or how no man can tell unless accusing them be clearing of them and discovering of their self contradiction proves me one of them Thou art offended that they witness against thy deceit Rep. I am neither conscious of deceit nor should I be offended at those that discover it were it discoverable from my words but their sticking to the Letter sometimes and at other times condemning the whole Scripture-letter I witness to be an interfering with themselves And when the very Letter is urged against the sense and intendment of the Spirit I witness it to be a deceit in them that so urge it Thou cuts off thy master-ship by thy own Rule Rep. Did I urge the Scripture as they do my servant must not call me Master we have no such servants as Abraham had who gave him this note of respect at every turn Gen. 24. 12. O Lord God of my Master Abraham c. shew kindness unto my Master Abraham ver 36. And Sarah my Masters wife bare a son to my Master when she was old and ver 54. Send me away unto my Master but the fifth Matth. 23 8. 10. cleared vindicated Commandement is not made void by Christs words nor by the true sense of them which is that we should be far from affectation of Titles from men or suffering any to cast their dependence and lay the stress of their conscience-determination upon us in matters of faith and salvation In this very Section I had discovered another of their self contradictions For J. Nayler querieth which of the Saints had the witness of their souls to seek in the Letter and with the same breath he quotes the Scripture-letter for the believers witness in himself This R. F. takes up as if they did not deny and cross the Scriptures Rep. But my work was to shew how J. Nayler both denies and grants the same thing to be in the letter without any distinction If he had said the believers witness is one way in the heart or in himself and another way in the Scriptures he had not cross-shind himself Nor doth R. F. * Page 25. help to cure the wound but makes it fester and rankle the more with his railing words Acknowledge thy lies error and confusion and upon them own thy condemnation Rep. 1. He salves not J. Nayler For the believer knows by the Scripture and by that in particular 1 Joh. 5. 1 John 5. 20. vindicated â—0 that he hath the witness in him self and no generation of Saints ever since that Scripture was written refused to seek and run unto it for confirmation of their souls faith seeing the Apostle addeth so plainly ver 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 Here the Believer hath both the rise and furtherance of his faith and evidence from what is written and if the evidence or witness in the heart be not bottomed upon what is in the Scripture and proved agreeable thereunto it is a false evidence though it lurketh within as the faith which hath not Scripture for its warrant and compurgator is false also 2. He makes the wound rankle the more in that he would have me acknowledge truth to be error and lies and faithful discovery falshood and in that he requires when I have acknowledged c. thereupon to own my condemnation whereas upon confession of my fault where I finde it I am acquitted as in Gods court so in my conscience and though I will judge my self for the root of unseen failings as for what in other things I see yet he is near that â— Joh. 1. 9. justifieth me and I believe the Lord is faithful to forgive me my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness Section 3. HEre I pointed at J. Naylers concession The word nigh in the heart and in the mouth doth not oppose it self but is one with the Scripture contradictious to what at other times they say the Scripture in the mouth or in the book is not the word of God R. F. takes no notice of this Section nor how that which drops from their Pens opposeth it self or the Scripture or from both sometimes what else is that which J. N. in his Few words c. Page 8. thou needest not try the inward substance by the outward declaration the living by the dead when as himself in page 7. had affirmed the outward declaration or Scripture to be one with the word within and this one with the Scripture If the Scripture be dead and yet one with the word in J. Naylers heart then is his heart and the word in it dead also If the word which is nigh in the heart and in the mouth be alive and the Letter of Scripture be dead then the word within and the word without are not one If the word in the heart be alive and the word in the Bible and mouth be dead then the word in the heart and in the mouth opposeth it self It will put any man to his shifts to extricate and winde off here from Self or Scripture-contradiction How much better or worse is that which followeth Page 9. The Saints witness the word from Gods own mouth in Spirit and revelation in Spirit but never any in the Letter Let Saints indeed perpend and weigh seriously is it so as J. Nayler suggesteth Gods mouth then is not in the Scripture he speaks not breathes not there at all by this mans doctrine but then let him tell the world how the Scripture came to be the outward declaration of the minde and will of God and salve himself from Self-contradiction who had said before the word in heart and mouth is one with the Scripture and now there was never any word from Gods own mouth in the Letter and as he subjoyneth That faith which is in Christ stands not in volumes he means of Gods book or letter of which he spake immediately before If it be so as he saith then the faith of his heart is not built upon Gods Testimony in the Scripture He hath a faith and a Christ too which is not to be found in the Scripture and then he opposeth himself who granted at first the word nigh in the heart was one with the Scripture I hope the wary and humble Saint will never pin his faith upon J. N. his sleeve nor suffer it to stand upon his Few words or his multiplyed pamphletical volumes who thus rejecteth the Law of Gods
the Scripture Rep. 1. How would I have him that believeth born of the Letter my words were these If the Scripture be in the heart of every one sure he that believeth is born of that seed even of the Scripture-promise set into the heart by the holy Ghost hence he that is born of the Spirit is born of the word written and preached which the Spirit useth as the instrumental means of our regeneration as upon that place in Peter 1 Ep. Chap. 1. ver 23 and 25. hath been cleared heretofore Part 1. Sect. 5. 2. The Scripture-promise declaring Christ is the more apt means by which the Spirit begets a soul to Christ or formeth him in the soul 3. That the Letter declareth Christ doth not contradict the Scripture but it contradicteth the Scripture to say the declaration of Christ is not a means of begetting a soul to Christ 4. To say Let all see whether we do not set the Scripture in the heart of every one and yet to deny the Scripture to be a means of the new birth or that the believer is born of God without the Scripture is to say and un-say But R. F. * page 26. would retort this upon my self and why I have not the same minde with them and know not their meaning and so raise lyes as he chargeth upon me by my imaginations Rep. 1. If I have the minde of Christ as it is in Scripture I shall not be ambitious of nor much regard their meaning but as I know it to be cross to the minde of Christ I have according to the grace given unto me witnessed against it and yet studied to put the most candid and favorable construction upon their words 2. If their sense of setting Scripture in the heart of every one be nothing else but telling people they have a light of Conscience within them and stirring up that light which every man hath that cometh into the world First they delude poor people who never heard that Light called Scripture before yet this is more then probably their best Scripture for their Tenents and Doctrines as might be gathered from the answer that J. P. a yong stripling who came into this Town last summer gave to a weak re-baptized woman shattered by his discourse whose question was But may I not read the Scriptures The answer was Read thy heart woman as she told me that was all she could get of him There is a book of Conscience to be read indeed but is not the book of the Scriptures and Gods Statutes to be read according to which beyond the book of every mans Conscience all that have that written rule shall be judged Secondly If every mans light be the onely Scripture in the minde that these men are in why doth R. F. * In his Book entituled A true testimony c. pag. 53. appeal to that which is the alone proper perfect Scripture in our judgement and which he calls for to stand as judge betwixt them and 42. Ministers Will he stand to the judgement of the Prophets and Apostles as it is the minde of Christ the word of God Will he not appeal when all is done to a higher Court of immediate Teachings in the heart If the Scripture be judge it must be so from its own light that is superior not onely to every mans light but also to the degree of light that is in every Saint and that is superior to our meanings and theirs for the Scripture must judge by its own words and meaning together and from its own rule we must not separate the Letter of the Law and the true interpretation of the Letter The Law-makers we say are best able to give the right sense of the Law The great Law-giver gives out his sense of one part of Scripture by another Can any Law judge of Heresie but the Law of God saith R. F. in the Book and Page last referred unto in the margent If he intends there any Law of God but the written word and text of the Bible Gods great Law-book he contradicts in heart what he pretends to in words If he understands by the Law of God the holy Scriptures of God called the Bible then he pretends to that acknowledgement of them as a standing rule and a more standing rule then visions and revelations and if he intends what he pretends to then he must recant what he wrote in the 3. and 4. Page of his imaginary Scripture-vindication or else lie setter'd in his Self-contradictions 2. Head of their Self-contradiction Concerning hearing of the Word Section 10. I Had granted they say and say truly because the Scripture saith so Joh. 8. 47. They that are of God hear his word and they that hear his word hear his voice and yet they deny the hearing of Ministers that speak this word and consequently they do either un-say what truth they spake before or deny themselves to be of God in that they both refuse themselves to hear and call off others from hearing R. F. * Page 26. because I granted the first part of their contradiction to be a Scripture truth runs away with the conceit of an advantage when 't is nothing so Thou says They say and say truly then they lye not neither do they say and un-say and so thou art taken with the lye again and clears them thy self Rep. How weak and giddy this mans apprehension is may appear many ways by the review of this passage 1. I attributed truth to their words no further then they agree with the word of God in Scripture and so far I will acknowledge truth because I love it and the Scripture of truth but this man when I grant an inch will take an ell 2. It followeth not if men say true in one thing that they speak the truth in every thing The devil can speak a truth the more cunningly to put off his lyes That may be a truth materially which will not be found in mens practical experience so acknowledged 3. It is beyond all controversie that in this as many other instances they say and unsay first owning the Scriptures and ministery and hearing of the word and then dis-owning all teachers and teaching but what is within first saying * A discovery of some fruits c. pag. 9. the peoples Teacher cannot be removed into a corner and by and by telling them you will finde your teacher as you lye in your beds Even as customary swearers reproved for their sin will swear they did not swear so men habituated in Self-contradiction will vehemently protest against it but it helps them never a whit 4. It is no new thing to have the reproach of lying cast upon me or others by one who cannot judge or understand what is truth or when 't is spoken truly 5. I am so far from clearing them that I renew my charge against them if they be all like R. F. in this maner and form following The more candidly the
mens mindes or will he have his words The light is pure standing out of all corruption to be understood of Gods Essence onely and not at all of that which is but a quality in the creature If he would be understood to speak of Gods Essence onely we agree in the light and understanding of the Text 1 John 1. 5. But if he would have it partly meant of God and partly of the Light either innate or regenerate in the creature then he confounds uncreated and created Light and shews his own woful darkness 2. He that would speak aright of God must say with the Apostle God is light and in him is no darkness at all no ignorance 1 John 1. 5. impurity or corruption to be discovered or found in him And he that would speak aright either of the inbred or of the new-bred light in the creature must distinguish of it either as it is in it self or in the subject-person First in it self created light is pure such as it is and so much as there is of it since the fall but yet imperfect Secondly in the subject the person in general particularly the minde or understanding and there is a mixture of light and darkness purity and pollution the one discovers the other and if the Saints should say We have no darkness no ignorance no sin they are so much the more dark sinful ignorant and there is no truth in what they say 1 John 1. 8. But I say quoth R. F. and so doth the Scripture that he that abideth in Christ sinneth not 1. John 3. 6. Rep. Will R. F. make no Scripture of 1 John 1. 8. because 1 John 1. 8. with 1 John 3. 6. compared cleared and vindicated this in the third chapter is Scripture or will that perverse and wicked evesion pass with him which one at a meeting of their fraternity in Essex not long since vented to him that urged the Emphasis if we we that have communion with the Father and with the Son if we say we have no sin c. That the Scriptures have been much altred and corrupted and though it be now so written yet at first it was thus If we that have fellowship say we have sin we deceive our selves c. Oh the diabolical strong delusion that these kinde of professors are under and leading others into or let me farther reason with those who are not so far infatuated either the Apostle John and such as he wrote unto did not abide in Christ or there is some other sense of his words in the third chapter then R. F. or his fellows would give of it for as full of contradictions as men are the Holy Ghost by the Apostle doth not contradict himself Let God be true and his word true and every man a lyar and his words lyes which agree not with the Canon Doctrine and harmonious Sense of the Scriptures And therefore when it is said He that abideth in Christ sinneth not the words and sense must be reconciled in our mindes for in themselves they were never at variance with the words in the first chapter thus 1. Although every man that is in Christ while here hath sin in him and he is neither perfectly free from the presence of original nor actual sin yet so far as he abideth in Christ he sinneth not It is no sin to cleave to Christ and his Doctrine Spirit and Grace and to persevere in it and him 2. The meaning of verse 6. must be gathered from verse 1 John 3. 6. cleared by ver 8 9. 8. and 9. where the Apostle speaks of committing sin or of trading in sin and that in a constant course That this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very sense and minde of the Holy Ghost is clear from the reason for the devil sinneth from the beginning He therefore that constantly goes on to sin plots sin and practiseth it with delight he is of the devil He that abideth in Christ sinneth not after such a maner And yet more clear from ver 9. whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed Gods seed remaineth in him and he neither doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor can commit sin as the devils nor as those who have no regenerate part in them because he is born of God and so far as born of God be sinneth not nor shall he ever be left to a total and final relapse into sin seeing he hath a contrary principle of the new birth abiding and remaining yea reigning in him And me thinks R. F. his conscience tells him he should be captivated by the truth of this interpretation For he tells me thou commits sin and so art a servant of the devil for thou goest on with thy lyes It is not then the presence of sin that makes one to be of the devil but the purpose practice and procedure in a way of sin If we say we have not sin present with us and dwelling in us we lye and if any say that every one that hath sin in him is a committer of sin a workman in sin he is in a foul error If any say he hath not sinned since he was converted he goes about to make God a lyar and his word is not in him 1 John 1. 10. That nor any other Scripture that speak of the Saints sinnings is not written in his heart nor believed by him But although I have an old lying heart and flesh wherein there dwells no truth no good thing yet R. F. hath not hitherto detected and proved a lye in my right hand or in my pen nor will he be able to make good what he boldly calumniates me with Let tryal be made in what follows Section 15. R F. here reviles me with thou lies of Ed. Burrough because I had noted the expression which he puts upon every mans light which is but common light at the best viz. The corner-stone And how doth he prove it not by denying there is any such expression as the Corner-stone but there is not such a word as common light there Rep. Nor did I use the word common as E. Burrough's and therefore put it in a Parenthesis as now and ordered it to be printed as my own phrase not his in a differing letter from his and accordingly it was so printed What lye is here in my mouth that deserves the lake which he threatens Had I not studied brevity I might have more fully given it thus How can he teach saith E. B. * Warning to the inhabitants of Underbarrow p. 7 and direct toward true Religion who denies the Corner-stone the first Principle of Religion which is the foundation the light of God which hath enlightned every one that comes into the world which he denies speaking of the Preacher at Vnderbarrow to have enlightned every one R. F. backs him thus Christ is the Light and Christ is the chief Corner-stone Acts 4. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 6 7. and so saith
better then two in the Bush a little of their own within them far beyond all Christs righteousness without them although we call for the witness within them that will not suffice they must have the ground-work of their justification within them as well as the evidence nay some work within shall be ground and evidence too or they fly off and will not believe till they see and feel but groping in the dark lose themselves in the wilderness of self-fulness and sufficiency 7. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Regeneration Section 27. I Had noted what they say He that believeth is born of God without Scripture and yet witnessed in Scripture contrary to James 1. 18. and 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. which Regeneration by the Scripture promise not onely bear witness of a new birth but saith also it is wrought by the word of truth the word of God the word that is preached which was never without or besides much less directly against but always according to the Scripture both as the Apostles preached it and others after them and their written doctrine R. F. * Page 15. returns me in a retorting way as is his wonted maner this for an answer If thou was not blind thou would see that thou contradicts the Scripture and not they that attributes the work of regeneration and the new birth to the Letter which thou calls the word and so therein denyes God who begets by his own will by that word which liveth and abideth for ever which was in the beginning with God and was God Rep. 1. Gods essential will and the free act of his love and good pleasure is the primary impulsive cause of his regenerating a soul 2. Christ by his death purchaseth the grace of regeneration and by the power of his resurrection applyes it 1 Pet. 1. 3. 3. The Spirit of the Father and the Son comes with the Scripture-promise and quickneth the soul to believing and by believing of the word of truth which at the beginning R. F. acknowledged the Scriptures to be and at that instant the believing soul is as Isaac conceived and formed a childe of promise a believer and a new-creature together by the word of grace which the Spirit useth as the external means of regeneration yea he carrieth the word and voice of the Son of God John 5. 25. from the ear to the heart and makes them hear and live That part of the Scripture which is pure Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit as of righteousness and life 2 Cor. 3. 8. 4. They that speak of a regeneration such as the Scripture helps them not to know and obtain speak wildely of it as J. Nayler in his new piece * Love to the lost page 34. treating of the new-birth he tells his lost creatures There is the old man and a new man but he doth not say there are two contrary qualities in the same regenerate soul lusting one against the other as the Apostle describes their state Gal. 5. 17. He saith * Page 35. Nicodemns knew not the new birth though he loved Christ He did not know the maner and mystery of it before his coming to Christ but if he loved Christ before it was a fruit of the new-born-seed of grace or spiritual principle for even J. N. confesseth as is the man so are his works and as is the Tree so is the fruit And I may adde as is J. N. so is his Book and his his love to the lost for if the man may be known by his writing he may haply know as little of the new-birth as Nicodemus did though he would be a great Teacher in our Israel Some may say he speaks * Love to the lost p. 35. of a Promise as well as a power that puts off the old man with his deeds lusts and affections but if you mark it it is to them who remain in the seed of God and it in them he doth not say the new-creature hath a promise that it shall remain although the Scripture saith it shall Joh 15. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 27. Well if he holds but to what he saith That all who remain in this seed and it in them hath the Promise I would have R. F. ask him whether it be the Promise that begets the new man which helps to put off the old if it be we shall finde the new man quickned as the old man crucified and slain by a word of promise in several places of Scripture scattered The word of promise serveth to regenerate and begin the work as well as to preserve nourish and maintain the regenerate man in his state He that shuts out Scripture from being Christs organ or the Spirits instrument and means of Regeneration it had been better for him he had never known the Scripture or written a word about it 8. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning Sanctification and its Perfection Section 28. I Had noted from a little conference with them in Scotland That sin dwelleth not in act where Christ reigneth Sin dwelleth and acteth in the Saints Rom. 7. 17. opened This R. F. defendeth as true though never so contrary as I hinted in my book to three as many more places of Scripture Rom. 7. 17. It is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me sin is doing as well as dwelling it will not be idle and in whom in Pauls heart where Christ reigned Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and Gal. 5. 7. cleared the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other in whom in the Galatians the sons of God in whom considered in their better part Christ and Grace reigned yet they could not do what they would they could not be so gracious as their regenerate part would have them nor yet so sinful as their unregenerate part would have them Here is sin active enough and yet its force is broken that it cannot reign where Christ reigneth but there it dwells and remains very troublesome to a good heart Rom. 7. 23 25. Rom. 7. 23 25 explained I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members here is action and passion too here is fighting and scuffling a continual conflict Sin in the Saints is no sleepy habit it will be plotting using stratagems striking and serving it self and its own turn as ver 25. With my flesh I serve the Law of sin sin is very active in the Saints when so officious to its self and its own ends What weapons think you will R. F. finde for defence of the Tenet none spiritual I dare say but carnal and weak as followeth * Page 15. Where Christ reigneth the body is dead to the acts of unrighteousness because of sin being destroyed and the Spirit is life because of righteousness living and ruling Rep. I suppose he refers in this
exhortation to what should be viz. imitation of Gods holy nature and will as long as we converse upon earth in all maner of conversation Let holiness not onely be mixed with all you do in all your relations and actions but let it reign and bear sway in your whole life and be growing up to perfect holiness in Gods fear having promises 2 Cor. 7. 1. to encourage quicken and convey as well as precepts to oblige and binde us unto holiness But thou denyest the holy call also as well as the holy conversation that pleads for sin to act and press down and make you all your life time to sigh it out and under it groan Rep. 1. I plead against no commands nor means of holiness through grace I have obeyed Gods call to universal holiness in a Gospel-covenant 2 It is one thing to plead for the truth viz. that by Gods wise and righteous ordering of our condition here sin is left dwelling acting and stirring in us and another thing to plead for sin which must be granted from his own words we do not if all our life time we sigh it out and groan under it Oh that we could do it more sincerely and sensibly with the Apostle Rom. 7. 24. Section 30. TO what I noted of one answering to the holy Ghosts question Who can say his heart is clean I can and see all your hearts unclean because there wanted the marginal reference to the particular page R. F. * Page 16 17. shifts off answering or taking off so foul a contradiction with railing at my supposed policy and serpentine subtilty and particular lies not one piece whereof I am conscious in this matter What if the words I can c. are not so set down there to wit page 1. This was the reference to the second charge against that book entituled A short answer to seven Priests which the author thereof arrogantly cals The word of the Lord not to the first charge which had onely a reference to that Book not to the Page as may at first view appear to any heedful Reader * See contradictions of the Quakers page 13. That arrogant contradiction to the holy Ghosts question which implies a strong negative will be found in another Page by any that meet with the Short answer c. before mentioned which I had to peruse in Scotland but cannot here obtain it for the Readers direction and satisfaction The rejoycing testimony of my conscience sufficeth me for the present that not in fleshly wisdom but in godly simplicity I drew up this with other collections and I hope it will cause the unprejudiced Reader to exercise his candor and charity toward me if he doth but observe R. F. his reservedness they are not so set down there not denying but they may be found in an after page and his ungrounded inference as false as groundless therefore thy policy hath manifested subtlety c. for as neither I intended nor used deceit so it had been poor policy to mis-guide him whom I purposed to set right in his way But saith R. F. all thy pleading is against purity Rep. How appears it I discovered indeed a double contradiction and a triple arrogancy in him that proclaimed No heart perfectly pure from sin Prov. 20 9. Matth. 5. 8. compared cleared and vindicated his cleanness from all sin and challenged the knowledge of other mens hearts c. as I specified it in my Book but this is a thread-bare cavil doth R. F. produce any new Scripture for absolute purity and perfection yes Christ hath said Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 5. 8. then there was and are pure in heart as Christ said Rep. If this man would have added and as Christ meant we might soon agree Albeit Christ was greater then Solomon yet he never spake a word nor that word in particular to cross what Solomon said from the holy Ghost who is equal and of the same essential minde and will with Christ What saith the holy Ghost by Solomon consult the place Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin the sense of this place is there is none could ever say it none in any age before or in Solomons time before or in Christs time or since none can now say it truly It 's a question that will silence all the world all the Churches a question that will hold un-answered till every Saints dying day and in this last age till the resurrection day Shall we believe R. F. and take it upon his word with his own meaning that 's thus There was and are pure in heart as Christ said and as Solomon meant it this were not to reconcile seeming differences of Scripture among our selves but to set Christ and Solomon at variance between themselves What then will any help R. F. with an evasion Solomon doth not say God gives not pure hearts but Who can say I have made my heart clean this will not serve his turn for it followeth and I am pure from my sin i. e. Who can say that either he hath cleansed his own heart or that he is pure from his sin which way soever he comes by it and if it be true and perfect purity he must come honestly and purely to it or even in that respect he is impure and far from truth of purity I would to God the generation of Quakers would better attend this question Art thou pure and perfect how camest thou by it Is it not a dream a delusion may not a foul and filthy heart be transformed into a fancy of pure perfection and perfect purity as well as a black devil be transformed into an Angel of light Solomon how ever must be understood as denying absolute purity in any man and Christ when he asserteth Blessedness to the pure in heart intendeth not to nourish any in a conceit of their present perfect attainments but to encourage them who were sincere and have truth of holiness set into their hearts and the purpose of their hearts with the Gospel endeavors of their lives set upon purity for from the context Ver. 1. they were his disciples he spake unto whom Ver. 3. compared with Luke 6. 20. he pronounced poor in Spirit Blessed are ye poor not yet enriched with all perfections but sensible of their spiritual wants and Ver. 4. they are mourners under sin and after more of God and Christ Ver. 6. they are hungring and thirsting after righteousness not yet filled but blessed in their present state of hunger and thirst and in their hopes by that promise of being filled These are the pure in heart whom Christ pronounceth blessedness upon who are poor mourning souls hungring and thirsting after more purity in the mean time not Pharisaical and hypocritical in their profession of holiness as were others And had these been pure in heart in R. F. his sense they had then
they preach that men should repent I ask how shall the ungodly sorrow after a godly maner If they lay the burden upon the ungodly onely and absolve the godly altogether they may by that way preach down all godly sorrow and startle the wicked with legal convictions and that which is remorse of conscience but no way help toward the pulling down the old man or building up the new in the true Believer 11. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning the Word and means of Grace Section 37. I Had expresly cited C. Atkinsons words viz. I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the means of grace which were spoken of before in his book as reading hearing prayer c. contrary to 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 10. 17. Luke 11. 13. c. R. F. in answer * Page 19. saith I would raise a slander c. as if they should deny the way and means that God useth to reveal himself to his people by How makes he it to appear why Christ is the light and the way to the Father and that they own and he reveals his secrets by his Spirit Rep. In all this confession here is no acknowledgement Christ and the Spirit give light and grace by outward means of reading hearing prayer c. That Christ is the light and light-giver hath never been denyed by me and that with his Spirit he is the author and worker of all grace who but graceless men will gain-say We do with the Scripture attribute higher things to God and Christ and the Spirit then to be the means of grace but R. F. will not ascribe so much to the Scriptures read heard sung prayed upon i. e. according to the rules and patterns of prayer there set down to be so much as outward means of grace we can have no such outward ingenuity from him But what saith he The Scriptures are not Christ nor the Spirit Rep. What if they be not they are Christs word and the word of the Spirit as hath been shewed and what the Scripture saith Christ saith and the holy Ghost also the same He therefore that rejects the Scripture and its several exercises from being the means of grace rejecteth Christ and his Spirit also But the Spirit he saith teacheth us how to pray and profit Gal. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 12. 7. c. and this doth not contradict the Scriptures Rep. No for the Spirit of grace and the outward means agree very well yet this is not a yielding them to be the means by which Christ and the Spirit revealeth their secrets and convey grace It is one thing for the Spirit to teach how to pray and read another thing for the Spirit to work by reading praying c we grant the former but he grants not the latter as he ought that I can finde Yes may some say what think you of that which followeth we know that faith is given by the ministery of Christ in the Spirit Rep. But speak plainly is it given by reading and hearing the Scriptures opened and preached as 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 10. 17. hold it forth And we know that God giveth us his holy Spirit Rep. But doth he give it in a way of preaching and prayer as Act. 10. 44. and Luke 11. 13. bear testimony As soon as Paul is converted is he not at Prayer and had he not the fillings of the Spirit given him in that way as by Ananias putting his hands upon him Act. 9. 11. 17. And the wisdom saith R. F. which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace James 3. 17 18. for which we praise God Rep. 1. But doth he give this wisdom by asking as saith James 1. 6. If any lack wisdom let him ask it of God is not prayer a means of wisdom 2. I wish we could finde the wisdom James describeth in R. F. As yet I discern not any seeds of it sown in his books one or other 3. Let him beware of taking Gods name in vain by praising him legibly in print for that which he hath not printed in his heart nor holdeth forth visibly in practise Why but he addeth we own reading hearing prayer and the teachings of God according to his promises Rep. I wish he doth well understand the promises of Means of grace have a promise of blessing annexed God Gods promises are made of a blessing upon such means as reading hearing and prayer as well as of gracious abilities to read hear and pray with Isaiah 55. 3. He that heareth and inclines his ear shall live 1 Tim. 4. 13. 16. If Timothy attend to reading meditation preaching to others watching himself In doing this he shall save himself and those that hear him To prayer is promised salvation Rom. 10. 13. Christs presence Matth. 18. 20. Returns and answers Matth. 7. 7. To preaching Christs presence assistance and blessing Matth. 28. 20. To the Saints conditions which C. Atkinson rejected with the ordinances all blessed success Rom. 8. 28. They shall look unto him and run to him and their faces shall not be ashamed Psal 34. 5. why so Ver 6. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles and therefore we may from others experiences together with our own have hope Rom 5. 4. And Hope in and by a promise an experimental promise and a promised experience maketh not ashamed If therefore R. F. doth own these means and the teachings of God according to Gods promises he must own them otherwise then C. Atkinson even as means by which God hath revealed himself and will communicate his grace and then I will not accuse him as I have not slandered C. A. when I speak the truth I harm them not The more nakedly their Errors are detected by the Truth the more good it may do them and I wish it with my heart 12. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning Baptism Section 38. THat they are against Infant-Baptism I had noted contrary to Acts 2. 38 39. where the command for application of Baptism reacheth as far as the Promise and as I hinted in my shorter piece the Promise extendeth it self to Children while Children they are part of the Saints of the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 7. 14. if but one of the parents be a Believer and a Church-member R. F. is for the Negative in a transition from what was spoken of before But your brain-imaginations we deny and sprinkling Infants with water Rep. 1. If he puts this scandalous title of brain-imaginations upon the other means of Grace reading preaching hearing prayer experiences c. he doth but back his sellow Atkinson Suppose God should leave him as one of that name if it be not the same C. A. to Fornication were it not just for his casting reproach upon the ways of God 2.
No reason is given for his denial of sprinkling Infants with water which I called Sacramental water but he puts it upon a Quere Canst thou prove it Rep. What I affirm and practise I am not without grounds of proof from the Scripture as touching these three things 1. Sacramental water or Baptismal water or Baptism with water let it be called any of these it matters not which 2. Baptism of Children or Infants 3. A sprinkling Baptism or application of water by sprinkling or putting water upon the party baptized First What more clear then the appointment and use of Baptism with Water proved water-Baptism 1. Water was appointed by God to be used as the outward material sign of inward spiritual washing and cleansing by the Blood and Spirit of Christ John 1. 33. He that sent me to baptize with water c. 2. Where there was much water there were many baptized and the sooner dispatched as not onely at Jordan but in Aenon near to Salim John 3. 23. and at Jerusalem Acts 2. 41. Where there was no water the ordinance could not be administred and therefore the Eunuch till he came where water was called not for it Acts 8. 36. See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized Philips answer If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest hath no such intendment as * Martin Mason in his Reply to Jonathan Johnson p 8 one puts upon it to intimate water-Baptism to be a thing indifferent nor any such sense as he would dawb upon it with his untempered morter viz. As much as if he had said If thou believest outward water to be necessary to salvation thou mayest be baptized c. For the Eunuchs Reply out of which the scope and sense of Philips answer is to be gathered is not touching his faith of the necessity of water of which he stood convinced that the use of it in Baptism was an ordinance but respecting his faith of Jesus Christ to be the Son of God 3. When the inward Baptism of the Spirit and that by extraordinary gifts of Tongues was obtained it sufficed not but the ordinance of Sacramental-water must be obeyed Acts 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized c. And ver 48. He commanded them to be baptized Whosoever is against Baptismal-water forbids or denies that which Peter by the Lords authority dares any man to forbid 4. When Paul baptized Lydia and her houshold the Jaylor and all his Crispus Gaius and the houshold of Stephanas what was it but with water He could do no more then John Baptist except in exercise of gift of tongues and miracles and laying on of hands upon those that were baptized before Acts 19. 6. with 4. 5. Baptism with water is by Christs institution to continue Mat. 28. 19 20. opened as long as Christs presence is with the Apostles or such as teach the same Gospel they taught and make Disciples as they did which is to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. The words * in the Greek are the same with them in Mat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13. 40. * except a small variation of the Preposition and Case or addition of a Pronoun so shall it be in the end of this world which is not the end of the Age wherein the Apostles lived but of all Ages then and yet to come And that baptizing with water is meant in Matth. 28. is clear enough because Christ reserved the gift of the inward Baptism to himself but he commandeth his Apostles and Ministers to give forth the outward as subservient to his saving ends and purposes And although we prefer the inward before the outward part of one and the same Baptism yet we must not reject the outward part because the inward is to be preferred It will not excuse R. F. * Page 20. or any man to tell us Yet Baptism by one Spirit we own while water-Baptism is wholly dis-owned Nor do the Scriptures which he produceth for the Baptism by the Spirit exclude the Baptism with water 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. The Apostles scope in 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. cleared and vindicated the Chapter is to press on to a right use of spiritual gifts by every member for the good of the whole body as from other Arguments so from this ver 12. The body is one though the members are many How is it proved that the Church is one body because ver 13. by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body Hence the force of his Argument for right imparting of gifts If we all agree in the same Spirit and are taught by one Spirit and baptized into one body why should not our gifts be used for the mutual good of the members the whole and every part of the body Now what is in the inward part of Baptism among other things incorporation that is held forth by the outward part Water-Baptism declares and ratifies our being set ingraffed and joyned to the body mystical Ephes 4. 4 5. There is one Body one Lord one Faith one Baptism Is it Ephes 4. 4 5. vindicated enough for R. F. to mention this Here is nothing intended against Baptismal-water by the Apostle what ever be mens intentions now adays It 's a wresting of the Scriptures though the bare words be but mentioned to quote them for another end then they were written Both the inward and outward washing are appointed by one Lord to confirm one and the same Faith and they make but one and the same Baptism which consisteth of the sign and the thing signified He that would divide them or more then distinguish them crosseth the minde of the Lord Jesus Whatsoever R. F. addeth Such as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and that we witness as doth the Scripture which is not contradiction Gal. 3. 27. The Scripture witnesseth the Gal. 3 27. vindicated outward part and the inward and the Apostle intendeth both in this place for pressing faith in Christ alone for Justification without dependence upon any of our acts in obedience to the Law he draweth an Argument from Baptism the outward part as well as the inward As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ for Justification alone as if he should say Ye did sacramentally put on Christ in Baptism you must not now put him off and be clothed with your own rags again in stead of his robes He that denieth either part of compleat Baptism as the Scripture expresseth it of Water and of the Spirit hath so much Contradiction to the Scripture in his denial Secondly As to the Baptism of Infants what ever R. F. Infant Baptism Christs institution thinketh with many others that it is an Invention and none of Christs Institution The grounds from Scripture for the Affirmative must be raised otherwise then he undertakes it ere I will clear him of his Christ and
his fancy 13. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning the Lords Supper Section 39. I Had noted out of a Pamphlet as it fell out of R. F. what a title of dishonor he gives to the Lords Supper no better then a Carnal invention as strong a contradiction to 1 Cor. 11. 23. as his reason is weak because he wanted that assurance which he expected at the Participation of that ordinance whereupon he takes me up with his old reviling language * I charge thee in that to be a gross The visible outward Lords supper no carnal invention lyar I said that your imagination was a carnal invention but the Lords Supper I own Rep. What Lords Supper doth he own that in the heart onely for he owneth what he witnesseth and what doth he witness it followeth in his book and witness that he is come in to sup with me Rev. 3. 20. Rep. But at that Supper I never heard or read before of one drunk with the opinion That the commemoration of the Lords death by breaking and eating of blessed Bread and drinking of blessed Wine i. e. bread and wine set apart by prayer and thanksgiving as he appointed was mans imagination and a carnal invention It is matter of Faith and not imagination to me as to many thousands and as with my heart I believe so with my mouth and Pen I make this confession that That Lords Supper which Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 10. 16. and 11. 20. and which chap. 10. 21. he calls the Lords Table was and is something besides the inward mystical communion with Christ Rev. 3. 20. even the visible sign and seal of that Communion and of other effects of his death and if this be proved and found to be none of mine nor mans imagination it will appear to all men who is the gross lyar and that R. F. hath called that Lords Supper or the ordinance of bread and wine instituted by Christ in the night wherein he was betrayed a carnal invention But he goes on And the bread which we break it is the Communion of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink it is the Communion of the blood of Christ and as Paul said so say I Let those that are spiritual judge what is said Rep. Agreed in Pauls sense not in the apprehension of R. F. but where hath Paul these words Let those that are Spiritual judge c. It is true the spiritual man judgeth of colors white and black truth and error grace and corruption something he can judge of all spiritual things which a natural man cannot But it is the wise man which the Apostle appealeth to in that place which R. F. shot at at rovers 1 Cor. 10. 15. I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say If any man think himself to be a Prophet or spiritual and be not wise he may think as R. F. that the words ver 16. are meant of bread broken onely in the heart and of the cup drunk in the heart c. but no wise man that ever yet I met with nor any truly spiritual have so thought or will so judge excluding outward bread and the visible Cup from being the sign and pledge of inward communion in and with the body and blood of the Lord as R. F. * Page 20. Bread and wine the outward matter of the Lords Supper doth Thou canst not prove that Paul broke outward bread and drunk outward wine with the Corinthians nor the maner how Rep. The truth doth not rest upon my proof nor needs there any more but the reading of the words 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25. which I shall transcribe at large for the memorial of the institution as the blessed Apostle hath left it to the Saints For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same maner also he took the cup when he had supped saying This cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me What proof lies in these words which R. F. calls for I shall demonstrate in this argumentative way What the Lord Jesus brake and drank with his disciples and after what maner that Paul brake and drank with the Corinthians and after that maner But the Lord Jesus brake material or outward bread and drank material or outward wine with his Disciples Mat. 26. 26 27 Mark 14 22 23 24. having first blessed the bread and given thanks distinctly at the taking of the cup and then gave it to them to be used in remembrance of him Therefore Paul brake material or outward bread and drank material or outward wine with the Corinthians after the maner that the Lord brake and drank and gave it to his Disciples to be used in remembrance of him The Major or first proposition is undeniable else Paul had been unfaithful to teach and practise among the Corinthians and to write it over to them and us for imitation but Paul obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful 1 Cor. 7. 25. The Minor or second proposition is as true as the first for Christ took of the Bread upon the table the reserve of it after the Passover Supper and blessed that brake that gave that to be eaten and he took of the Cup upon the table and gave thanks afresh and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is i. e. this is a sign pledge memorial seal or assurance of my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you as Luke hath it Chap. 22. ver 20. and for many as Matthew and Mark record it * Mat. 26. 28 29 Mark 22. 24 25. for the remission of sins which Cup put by a Metonymie of the Subject for the Adjunct i. e. the thing containing put for the thing or outward matter contained in it i. e. for the Wine in the Cup he calleth the fruit of the vine as it was in its own nature and substance it must of necessity follow that Paul following his Masters institution at the heels or to a hair as even now was cleared the bread that he brake and the wine that he drank and ordered for the future to them and all the Churches to be broken and drunk 1 Cor. 11. 26. was the fruit of seed-corn material outward bread and the fruit of the vine material outward wine which because R. F. in another piece of his had said was carnal I added for explication and to discover how he contradicted 1 Cor. 10. 16. that albeit the bread and wine which we use according to the Lords precept and Pauls practice in the Lords Supper are in their nature and substance very bread and wine yet they are Spiritual in
agrees with the saying of Christ Matth. 6. 6. Matth 6. 6. vindicated when thou prayest enter into thy Closet c. as if the publique ordinance may not stand with the private for the most retired and secret duties are to fit and make ready for the publique onely 't is our Lords scope there to confine a private prayer to a private place as it is the Apostles order from the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 16. when 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 cleared vindicated we pray publiquely in Church-conventions all which have a publiqueness in them to pray so as others may be edified thereby who are Saints and those who occupy the room of the unlearned may testifie their consents by saying Amen which they could not do if either the person praying spoke onely to his own hearing or in the heart not with an audible voyce to others or when they heard him they could not understand him because he exprest himself in an unknown tongue All that I drive at with the Apostles and our Saviours scope is that every ordinance and outward part of worship be owned in its place and that this of publique prayer may not be disowned ere the more because of these mens crying up their praying by the Spirit in opposition to the Churches publique prayers which the Primitive Church at Jerusalem Act. 2. 42. attended and continued in and which the present Saints and Churches in these nations hold up according to president and precept R. F. in another Pamphlet of his * Truth cleared of Scandals pag. 2. saith they are led by the Spirit and he maketh intercession for them according to the minde and will of God But their practise shews they are not in this led by the Spirit when they cross the minde and will of God by refusing to joyn with the Saints in a publique prayer we acknowledge that no wicked mans prayer is accepted publiquely or privately made by him It is their duty to pray but not their priviledge who are destitute of the Spirit and out of Christ But to profess prayer from the second birth while yet they know not how to pray as they ought but as the Spirit maketh intercession with sighs and groans which are J. Parnells words * Shield of truth p. 14 15 is to contradict their doctrine of perfection And to give a dash at all our publique prayer as the long prayer of the Pharisees is to strike at the Spirit and contradict the Scripture allowance of the publiqueness and length of prayer upon occasion while we give no allowance to Pharisaical ends and pretences but can approve our persons and hearts to God in Jesus Christ our persons in Christs righteousness reckoned to us by faith our hearts so far as renewed by the grace and power of his in-dwelling Spirit James Nayler hath expressions one would think of this tendency that complies with our doctrine in his common place of Worship * Love to the Lost p. 8 9. wherein he instanceth in no part of worship but prayer he acknowledgeth as we teach The worship of the true and living God stands out of mans will and before any man can rightly worship God he must wait to know the Spirit But now let the lost soul beware of his counsel where should they wait you must saith he know the light and in it wait till therein you finde the Spirits leading acting and ordering This counsel if followed keeps men off from the positive parts of worship revealed in the Scripture The light that every man hath as he comes into the world which is the light they nourish up people in in opposition to Scripture-light makes known nothing of publique ministery Church officers therein of water-Baptism Lords Supper publique order of prayer c. nor of Christ mediator nor of the The Spirit of Prayer to be found in the publâ—que ministery Spirit of promise nor of one promise of grace or gracious acceptation in Christ Had not the lost soul better counsel while he was under publique ministery to attend there for the coming of the Spirit the Spirit of faith and prayer where God useth to give it Acts 10. 44. and promiseth to pour it out Prov. 1. 22 23. with 20. 21. verses How true is that which J. Nayler hath in the same place according to our Scripture-doctrine when a man hath been doing evil neglecting good and then he runs to act a worship to get peace the prayer becomes abomination for he that regards impurity the Lord will not hear his prayers nor accept his worships that 's Cains sacrifice and Esaus prayers but either must your worship be performed in one that never sinned or it cannot be accepted with the pure God Yet here is his mis-guidance of lost souls 1. That he would lead them off from joyning with him that makes long prayers such a one he seems to speak of who hides his wickedness with pretence of godliness but he makes no difference of any that serve Christ and his people publiquely in the nation as if they were all such to be separated from 2. He directs to the commands in Spirit in opposition to the Scripture-Letter for thus he delivers himself * Page 11. All the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the letter and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual As if the Spirit did not give out his commands by the written letter or the Scripture and his power also by the reading and hearing of it and by praying according to the rules and patterns of prayer therein contained But something O ye lost souls you will finde when the great Shepherd seeks up his lost ones and brings back that which is gone astray Ezek. 34. 16 ever and anon that alienated your hearts from the Scripture by the spirit of Contradiction that is in these mens Teachings and Writings 15. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Singing Section 42. I Gave account of their express words We are against all your Davids Praises and Prophecies in meeter contrary to Ephes 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. and other Scriptures R. F. * Page 21. makes me this return Singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs we are not against but own but your Poetry we deny Rep. He might as well say your translation of them into English meeter we deny But if Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs be owned they are either Davids and other of the Saints penning and the Spirits inditing in the Scripture or of their own composing if they own none but of their own composing they reject Davids and what was left for Psalms cannot be sung without meeter or due measures of speech our use in Scripture contradicting both it by that rejection and themselves also by owning Psalms Hymns and Songs and dis-owning meeter or Poetry for never was there Song Hymn or Psalm sung forth as it ought to be but it had
ignorant of the Letter who knew before he spake it that the Letter declares of life unless he will enwrap himself in the same ignorance But as he is ignorant of the Scripture-letter who denies it to be a means of coming to life so he contradicts himself who saith The Scriptures have life in them and yet with the same breath saith also They are without life as R. F. doth What if the life from which the Scriptures proceeded be not the Letter or Scripture yet the Scripture is the Scripture of life given from Christ who is life The chief subject matter contained therein is Christ the light of life not by the works of the Law by which way the unbelieving Jews thought to obtain life eternal but Christ shut the door against them that way and he directeth them to himself John 5. 39. as revealed in the Scriptures and more then that as conveyed by the Scriptures to a soul For albeit Christ saith They are they that testifie of me yet he doth not say They do but testifie of me This but is R. F. * Light out of darkness page 18. his additional gloss to corrupt the Text to disparage the Scriptures and never a whit the more to advance Christ for he is the more honored among men and savingly owned as he is known to be that living Savior that Way Truth and Life who is testified of in the Scriptures and is come unto or believed on by the Scriptures Wherefore Christ blameth them John 5. 40. that they would not taking the Bible and searching for him come unto him by the knowledge and faith of the Scriptures Section 6. THis and the following Section R. F. returns no Answer unto at all I had noted what Ed. Burroughs saith in his warning to the Inhabitants of Vnder-barrow page 2. That he came not to them with enticing words neither what he had gathered out of the Scripture from without him but to declare the word of the Lord and not to speak his own imaginations and conceivings How cross is this to themselves They use frequently to call the Scriptures the Declaration of the Word and if he came to declare the Word of the Lord as he affirms he either came with what he had gathered from Scripture which he denies or he came with his own imaginations and conceivings which he denies also but both his Negatives cannot be true if there be any truth in his book for that is a Collection of above an hundred places of Scripture quoted in the margent and transscribed in the line The words he had from the Scripture the mis-applications he did not indeed learn from thence nor from the Spirit of God who never teacheth any man to mis-apply his own Letter therefore it was not in true sense the word of the Lord that he declared if he spake the same doctrine for substance that he writes but the visions of his own brain And if I speak a lie saith he page 8. let me be accounted as accursed for ever But he that compiles a book out of Scripture-collections and yet preacheth not what he gathered out of the Scripture deals falsly in one of these ways and speaketh a lie and therefore he is found not onely as a self-contradictor but as a self-curser And to do him no wrong I would know the meaning of that passage page 9. He that hath the word of the Lord from the mouth of the Lord to declare unto you him you revile and mock c. but he that speaks the imagination of his own heart from the Saints conditions him you own and hear If he intends by the Word of the Lord Christ onely what intends he by the mouth of the Lord but the Scriptures which are the Declaration of his word by their own confession If he had the Scriptures to declare Christ unto the people by then he spake what he had gathered out of the Scriptures which is contrary to what he said before If the Scriptures be not the mouth of the Lord how are they a declaration of his word if they be a declaration of his word why are they denied to be the mouth of the Lord Again if he speaks of the Saints conditions as discovered in Scripture and chargeth him that speaks from them to vent the imagination of his own heart he blasphemes the Scripture written for our instruction and consolation Rom. 15. 4. If he condemneth another as he doth page 22. for preaching that which is gathered from without by imagination and conceiving upon that which the Prophet prophesied or which Christ spoke c. and judgeth it carnal and heathenish never commanded by the Lord and yet makes mention of the Saints conditions himself and glosseth upon Scripture according as his fancy worketh he alloweth that which he condemneth as he condemneth what God alloweth not that God alloweth the working of every mans fantasie but in a sanctified way if his worketh otherwise God condemneth what he alloweth Section 7. Section 7 8. THey call as I noted here the Scriptures the Worlds Touchstone and yet as appeared Part 1. Section 1. Some of them at least will not have the Scripture to be the Word of Truth to the world If it be not the Word of Truth to the world how can it be the Worlds Touchstone This interfering of men of his way R. F. undertakes not to cure or touch at with the least of his fingers and beyond my skill it is to salve the Contradiction onely I heartily desire of God that the discovery hereof may prove good eye-salve to let them see the shame of their nakedness Section 8. IN the second Section of this second part I noted down two of their Self-contradictions the latter of them might have there been spared and entirely spoken to here where I toucht at it again a little more plainly But R. F. though he glanced at it there took it not off nor doth he any more here then pass it over in silence which of the Saints had the witness of their souls union to seek in the Letter thus querieth J N. in his Few words page 11. I shall now to what was discovered as contradictory to himself in Sect. 2. or here adde his other words in the same page viz. The Spirit it opens and brings all that is spoken in Scripture to remembrance this is so a truth as it crosseth his Negative implyed in the Interrogation viz. That none have their witness to seek in the Letter and what he addes expresly He that believeth hath the witness in himself in Spirit and not in the Letter had he said and not in the Letter onely it might have salv'd the contradiction but as it is contrary to the Scripture to say the Saints have not comfortable testimony of their union and interest in Christ in and by the Scripture-letter so 't is contrary to himself to deny the Believer hath his witness in the Letter and yet grant that the Spirit opens and
brings all that is in the Letter to remembrance for to what end doth he bring it to remembrance not onely for explication of Scripture by Scripture but for consolation of our spirits by the good words of the Spirit of God When heaviness makes the heart to stoop a good word seasonably remembred as spoken makes it glad and he that slights the turning over of the sacred Pages of the Bible after he hath got his evidence within may be glad of crums one day after his high Feastings and well if seeking the Spirit where he lost him his comforts return at last upon him Many lose the Spirits comforts by slighting his Love-letters in the Scriptures where the Spirit is and whereby he giveth forth himself Such a passage I had in my former piece That the Spirit is in the Letter and given by it which R. F. hath excepted against once and again heretofore but now in its due place where it was spoken he lets it pass I promised in the first part of this Reply to clear it further for his conviction if it may be or for the Saints edification First The Spirit is in the Letter or the whole Scripture for so these men comprehensively use the term Letter How the Spirit is in the Scripture-Letter 1. As he owneth what he dictated to his Secretaries the Pen-men of Scripture He is in all their writings with the subscription of his own hand as it were they spake and wrote as they were moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost Rev. 1. 10. John is in the Spirit viz. he is rapt up by the Spirit and the Spirits impulse is more then ordinarily upon him when he is commanded to write and of all that John writeth the Spirit beareth Testimony that it is himself that speaks it Rev. 3. 22. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches what wretched men are they who will not suffer the Spirit to be where he speaketh 2. If the Spirit was in the Pen-men he is more in the matter and contents of the Scripture penned down None will deny but he was in the Pen-men more then ordinarily when they wrote from his mouth or inspiration and therefore he is in what they wrote much more for the word written is of greater Authority and Spirit then the Writer or Secretary They were holy men of God who wrote but that which is written is the holy Truth of God They were imperfectly holy but Gods word as written from the Spirit is perfect in all degrees of holiness 3. The Spirit is where there is with perfect holiness perfect Truth and Majesty in the Matter and in the very Stile and where is sweet Harmony in all the parts put together In the Scripture-letter there is not one Iota or Tittle that shall fall to the ground to eclipse the Glory Truth and Majesty or spoil the Harmony of it Secondly the Spirit is given by it in this sense How given by it 1. As his minde is given out by it whether the words be proper or figurative the Spirit hath his proper intendment scope and sense in the whole Letter and in every part of what is written and as by his words he makes known his minde he is where his words are 2. As his work is given by it even what work he pleaseth See second part Section 10. of Conviction Instruction in Righteousness Consolation c. If the Scripture convinceth gainsayers and sinners evil livers if it instructeth the ignorant comforteth the feeble-minded it is as the Spirit gives out himself thereby He is there indeed as a free Agent ad placitum not tyed to work or manifest himself or put forth his power and grace but as the wind bloweth where it listeth so he worketh where when and upon whom he pleaseth 3. As the Promises of the Scripture are his Chariot to convey him whither he pleaseth to go into the hearts of the Elect that they may believe and after they have believed that they may be established Thus according to his promise he will fill a Believers sails of endeavor in reading meditating c. with gales of grace and advances towards glory To conclude that the Spirit is in the Letter and given by it daily experience doth demonstrate For such as forsake the Scriptures authority and own not the Spirits dwelling in the Letter as truly as in the heart they lose their faith of the Spirits presence with them in the reading and meditation of it and losing this faith they run to other Doctrines and Gospels The spirit of error is in all mens doctrines which have not the Spirit in them that breatheth in the Scriptures We may easily discern whether R. F. his spirit be not in his writings and whether much of the spirit of Error not conveyed and given out by his and other mens Pamphlets of the same stamp And shall the spirit of Satan the father of lyes be in Seducers books and not the Spirit of God and of the Father of truth be in and go along according to his free mercy with his own blessed Books of the Scripture Yes verily and James Naylers words import as much when he saith * Few words by J. N. p. 11. That the Spirit opens and brings all that is spoken in Scripture to remembrance which if R. F. denies he contradicts his fellow if he grants it a truth he must recant his frequent descants upon that which I asserted and judge himself as erring because he knew not the Scriptures and the Spirit and power of God dwelling in them and acting by them Section 9. WHat answereth R. F. to this Section where I evidenced another of their Self-contradictions concerning the Scripture which was this He that believeth is born of God without Scripture and yet Let all see if we do not set the Scripture in the heart of every one Why this is his answer * Page 25. 1. So saith the Scripture 1 John 5. And that the word of God is nigh in the heart is witnessed Rom. 10. 8. And he that believes and is born of God knows the seed of God within him 1 John 3. 9. Rep. Do any of these Scriptures bear witness against themselves or say That he that believeth is born of God without Scripture yet dare R. F. put it forth in the front of his answer So saith the Scripture The Scripture saith the full truth He that believeth is born of God but the Pamphlet I quoted * Answer to 7 Priests p. 13 said more then the Scripture that the believer was born of God without the Scripture and R. F. pretends to answer to what their Pamphlets hold forth but cannot in his answers salve his own nor his fellows contradictions Ans 2. He is not born of the Letter as thou wouldst have him yet he is begotten by the immortal word which endureth for ever which the Letter declares of and that doth not contradict
men called Quakers are dealt with the more abusive they are If any do make ingenuous confession as the 42 Ministers Pastors and Preachers of their failings the more readily they will hang them up in a legal way without any Gospel-mercy And if we grant they speak a truth sometimes they would make the world believe they speak all truth at all times when as hitherto so many lies as R. F. for his share hath charged upon me and hath proved none nor will be able God still keeping me and guiding my Tongue and Pen to make good a proof so many slanders will by the Lord be set upon his score and account The Lord himself rebuke him in time savingly and to purpose even to the manifestation of the purpose of his love to do him good for ever 3. Head of Self-contradiction Concerning the light within them Section 11. I Noted how from John 1. 4. and 9. they dreaming of a Christ and Saviour in all deny the sense to respect the natural light of every man and yet speak of their own living in a natural condition for several years And R. F. both blindly and boldly answereth If we do we have warrant for it for it is the light supernatural John 8. 12. John 8. 12. cleared Rep. What if Christ speaks of supernatural light given to believers and his followers John 8. 12. doth it follow that he speaks of such a light John 1. 4. 9. a blind and bold consequence it is neither modest nor true The Evangelist indeed speaks of him chap. 1. 4. 9. as the Author of light which is given to every man and He of himself chap. 8. 1â— as the fountain of light which is given to some men but although the giver of light be the same the light given and way of giving is different in its proper form and kinde First the light given to all men John 1. 4. and 9. is a dim Difference of every mans light and the believers light light and as the light of the Moon cold and insufficient to salvation unable to make discovery of the true Saviour the light given to some men is the light of life a quickning light as the light of the Sun a saving light Secondly for the way of giving Christ as God as hath been shewed in the first part of this Reply gives reason and common judgement about some things to all men but as Mediator he gives onely to some men that saving supernatural light or light of supernatural things in a saving way which effectually brings them into a gracious life and unto a glorious life R. F. goes on * Page 26. If one of them did say he lived in a natural condition before his conversion is that such a strange thing and then he instanceth in Paul Gal. 1. and others with him 2 Cor. 4. 6. who had given them the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus c. which is a mystery Col. 1. 27. But tels me I am minded to cavil on purpose against the work of God c. Rep. 1. All this doth not salve the contradiction viz. of every mans having a supernatural light from his coming into the world a light of life which is saving and yet yield his as others living in a natural state at that time when he hath such a light 2. It is not strange to me that unconverted men should live as they are natural and carnal but it was and is strange that men will grant a natural life and condition lived in for several years and yet imagine a saving supernatural light in every such man as if every man brought a Saviour with him into the world at his first birth That every man hath a Pope in his belly I have heard and believe that he hath roots and seeds of all Antichristian doctrine of all heresie and sin in him from and by his first birth of men as men sinning in Adam this is not strange But that every mans light should be accounted supernatural and saving light and nature accounted grace though it be not strange to Pelagians yet it is strange to me that professors of the Gospel for many years should now interfere and halt and limp as they do and be bewitched with this notion If the Apostle Paul and others as R. F. granteth were natural before they were spiritual what a contradiction is it to their doctrine of every mans light as they state it and account it in a degree spiritual while the best Saint upon earth is no more but spiritual in some degrees of light and holiness 3. This is neither my cavilling against Gods work nor envy at the breakings forth of light as he would make men believe but a naked representation of his and others fallacies R. F. thinks he had in the words before laid in a sure proof of my cavilling and envy for thus he wraps up his argument * Page 26. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness c. and if it had not been there in a mystery Col. 1. 27 how could it in them have been so after manifested in them but that thou art mindeful to cavil on purpose c. Rep. 1. Here is a piece of the mystery of Iniquity as subtle as Christ for salvation not in every man any the Antichrist of Rome hath in his budget viz. The light of Christ for salvation which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 4. 6. and Gal. 1. 16. Gods son revealed in him and Col. 1. 27. Christ in you was there and in them twice repeated by R. F. for emphasis sake that is it was in the hearts of Paul and the Gentiles as of every natural man before their conversion for as my Antagonist reasoneth If it had not been there c. how could it in them have been so after manifested but if he will have patience to hear I will tell him A thing may be manifest at the very coming in to a place that was not there before A Sun-beam makes it self manifest at its first breaking into a dark room where it never shone before Christ for salvation was not in the heart of Paul till God revealed him to him and in him Christ by his Spirit of grace was not in the Gentiles before their conversion Ephes 2. 12. They were all at that time without Christ and without hope Christ therefore was not in them while they were in a natural state as he was when they were sanctified viz. the hope of their glory Were it as this man imagineth Mysterious Absurdities The grace of the Gospel is but a manifestation of natures light A natural state is but grace under an eclipse The light in every man is their little Savior and at their conversion it becomes their great Savior for now the Sun is come out of the eclipse But 2. To assert Christ-mediator to be in natural men is contrary to the Apostles sense and to these mens plain words
sometimes uttered First The Apostles sense 2 Cor. 4. 6. is by allusion to 2 Cor. 4. 6. vindicated Gods work in the old creation to witness his power in the new In the old he commanded light to shine out of darkness He said Let there be light and there was light creating it of nothing There was a pre-existent subject before light was created viz. darkness of the air but no pre-existent matter which light was made of much less was light there before within the darkness for though God commanded the light to shine out of darkness it doth not follow that light was there before So God working by his Almighty power in the new creation he hath saith the Apostle shined in our hearts to give the light which was not there before of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The faculty of the natural understanding was there as the pre-existing subject but there was no fore-existing matter out of which this light is produced The Apostles sense again in Gal. 1. 16. is not to Gal 1. 16. vindicated favor these mens opinion as if Christ had been in Paul vailed over before conversion and then revealed in him as being there but Paul did not know it till his conversion But God revealed his Son in Paul when he did immediately effectually and experimentally shine into his heart and gave him the knowledge of the glorious mysteries of the Gospel in the clear knowledge of Christ given for him given to him and now dwelling in him and he doth reveal his Son in others ordinarily when after he hath knockt at their hearts he opens the door by his Spirit gives faith to consent that Christ shall come in and dwell there Ephes 3. 17. Before faith Christ is kept out of the heart but when a soul believes and his faith worketh by love and love by obedience as Christ came in and took possession from first believing so in his good time he doth manifest himself unto the soul John 14. 21. The Apostles sense Col. 1. 27. Col. 1. 27. vindicated is not as if the light of Christ for salvation had been in the Gentiles hearts in a mystery before their effectual calling The mystery of salvation by Christ was wrapt up in the Scriptures of the old Testament and in Types and Figures among the Jews not in the least hinted to the Gentiles mindes before the Gospel came But when the Apostles When and how Christ is in the soul came to preach Christ crucified to their ears through grace they believed the report for themselves at Coloss as elsewhere and knew the grace of God in truth had Christ his image stampt upon their hearts and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them This was not light breaking forth from their hearts as having been there before their union with Christ and Christs taking up their hearts as his Temple but the light of the glorious Gospel breaking into their hearts which 1. Is called the riches of the glory and the Pronoun which before is Christ in you refers not to mystery for that is of the Neuter and the Pronoun * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Masculine Gender but to riches * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same Gender with which in the Greek The glorious treasure and substance of the mystery which rich glorious treasure is Christ in you the light in every man is a poor base beggerly scrap to this Gospel-pearl and treasure 2. This riches summ'd up in Christ and Christ the substance of the Mystery is confined to the Saints ver 26. and is onely in them ever after their closing with Christ reigning and prevailing to the purity peace and joy of their souls and evidential hope of their future glory Secondly The assertion of Christs being within men before conversion contradicts themselves as I discovered in my former piece who say In the Ages past Christ was not revealed every man had not that light The Son of God is not revealed as Christ but as he is Mediator in the Ages past Christ was not so revealed they had not say they that light viz. as he is Mediator therefore Christ as Mediator was not within men by the light given to every man And here I leave them R. F. among them as I found them and discovered them in this Section in their own darkness of Confusion and Self-contradiction till the Lord shall convince them thereof and bring them out of it Section 12. ANother Contradiction of themselves concerning the Light in every man I noted in this Section viz. That they magnifie it and vilifie it in the same respect as it is the light of the first nature and of every man in his first state since the fall R. F. * Page 26. takes up two of the passages to answer but takes not off their Self-contradiction The first They magnifie every mans light to be a Law written in the heart to judge and condemn all sin and therefore they say the day of judgement is come and anon they vilifie the light of natural men who are a part of mankinde as filthy waters and every man in his first state is a beast To this all that R. F. hath to say is Where judgement is brought forth into victory sin is condemned in the flesh and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus c. and such have boldness in the day of judgement for as some mens deeds goes before-hand to judgement others they come after and therefore a day of judgement is to come Rep. If these men would disparage every mans light in respect of the Saints light they would be something ingenuous and if they did not put every mans light in the place of Christ the Spirit and his writing in the heart and then call them waters of Babylon nor sometimes say upon Adams fall pure reason was destroyed c. and anon call every mans light pure light they would not be so Scripture and self-contradictious as they are nor would they confound what they ought to distinguish as R. F. confounds the judgement of a natural conscience and the Spirits Gospel-conviction of sin Righteousness and Judgement together Justification he confounds with Sanctification and a day of Judgement present with the day of Judgement which is to come Scripture-expressions he useth here as elsewhere but not with the Scripture-scope and meaning The passage I quoted out of Ben. Nicholson his Returns to a Letter Page 13. speaks of the Law written in the heart of The Spirits conviction of judgement beyond the judgement of a natural conscience every man which they say doth judge and condemn all sin R. F. tells us of a Judgement brought forth into victory and when that is done sin is condemned in the flesh but say I according to Scripture the Law written in the heart of every man neither condemns all sin nor discovers either the root of
in Christ without them and yet hope to be saved by him whom they despise and with whose white rayment and wedding garment they will not be covered 7. Head of Self-contradiction Concerning immediate Teaching Section 20. I Observed what they clamorously object against us That the Gospel we preach is from man and by man from the Printers and Stationers but theirs is immediate altogether and yet they write print and have taken their light as they call it one from another Here they condemn in others what they allow in themselves and if the teaching of God as they say be immediate in the least degree and all their teaching be immediate why do they condemn by their practice what they allow onely in doctrine why do they write or print any thing which is a mediate way of teaching R. F. hath nothing to say but in his old reviling language * Page 28. All thy scraped stuff and thy twistings and windings we deny and so runs to old matter already dealt with except a few expressions which I shall touch at presently But 1. I would know what he doth deny of my scraped stuff as he calls it which is but collections from their own words and writings If he denies his fellow-writers then he makes out more contradiction among themselves If he denies that I have drawn up true collections it is yet to be proved for either their very words as in most places or the sense and effect of them I have faithfully presented to the world and because I know it pincheth them but to have hinted Ed. Burroughs acknowledgement how he was formed to Quakerism by G. Fox while they boast of none but immediate Callings and Teachings knowing also that the Book * Warning to Under barrow is but in the hands of a few I shall transcribe part of the said Ed. Burroughs account of himself After twelve years of age he enquired where the chief Presbyterian Priests as he calls them preached and heard them At seventeen years of age he was struck with terror falls a praying but by a voice was taken off prayer reading and hearing the Scripture thought himself in the light followed the highest Notionists but had the world in his heart pride and covetousness lived in the lustful nature and grew to be weary of hearing any Priests though never so high for something that shined deep in him shewed him ignorance in all profession and he was put to a stand Now hear him further verbatim Then it pleased the Lord to send his true and faithful servant and messenger George Fox he spake the Language which I knew not notwithstanding all my high talking for it was higher and yet lower and it pleased the Lord to speak to me by him that I was in the prodigal state and above the Cross of Christ and not in the pure fear of the Lord but full of corruption and the old nature though I had professed freedom yet it was but such as the Jews professed for I saw my self to be in bondage to my own will and to my own lust and through the word of the Lord spoken to me by him I began to see my self the witness being raised where I was and what I had been doing and saw I had been making an image to the first Beast which had the wound by a sword and did live whose deadly wound was healed and was full of airy notions and imaginations and was worshipping the image which I had made and then I saw my self to be a childe of wrath and that the son of the bond-woman lived and that harlots had been my companions and was no more worthy to be called a son And so he goes on to shew his trouble and distress till he separated himself from the world and his acquaintance and betook himself to the company of a poor despised people called Quakers and now he is one of that generation God hath made him partaker of his love in whom his soul hath full satisfaction joy and content At last he concludeth he hath travelled through the world even unto the end and is now come to the beginning of that which never shall have end which the dark minde of man knows not Will R. F. deny this to be his Narrative truly taken if not then he must grant there are some mediate Teachings in these days among themselves or if God teacheth not but immediately then God taught not Ed. Burroughs by George Fox and then Ed. Burroughs is not much bettered by being of the generation of the people called Quakers Whatsoever have been his apprehensions sorrowful or joyful the Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it A new instance we have in J. Lilburn who professeth himself to be one with the generation of Quakers raised and formed up to that fraternity partly by conference with them partly by reading of their printed papers His words in one place * The Resur of J. Lilburn pag. 7. are these Meeting here with one of those precious people called Quakers and getting into my hands two Volumes of their printed papers amounting to about seventeen hundred pages I have with serious discourse and seriousness of reading therein been knockt down off or from my former legs or standing and giving scope to my true teacher and guide the Light of God speaking in my soul I am become at present dead to my fallen or first natures reason c. Yet elsewhere * Page 9. he pretendeth to the immediate power of God upon his soul But notwithstanding that he exhorteth his friend to read J. Naylers and W. Dewsberies Books and desires the Lord by his Almighty power to set them home to his soul Is not this a mediate way of learning by a mediate way of teaching And shall these mens scriblings have Gods Almighty power at hand and shall not his own blessed Scriptures be attended therewith I shall advise J. Lilburn and all my friends and all such as are become my enemies for the truths sake to turn over those sacred Pages and in particular 1 Cor. 8. 2 3. and Gal. 6. 3 4 5. desiring the Lord by his Almighty power of free grace to set them home to their hearts 2. As to what follows in R. F. Thou wouldst have a letter-Savior and a letter-fulness and givest all the preeminence to the Letter of the Scripture Rep. Neither in what I wrote before nor in this Reply can any such passage be found but R. F. will take liberty to scrible what comes next to the nib of his quill The preeminence I give to the Scripture is 1. In respect of natural light or that which every man Preeminence of Scripture light hath And if I call every mans light natural and common I mis-call it not I call not Christ so who as God gives that light As my natural body framed by Christ as he is God is rightly called as it is a natural body so my natural
this is Chap. 6. 1. Therefore we are not to continue in sin c. Another Point floweth from the former viz. of the necessity of Sanctification and the inseparable connexion of it with a justified state though it is no ingredient to constitute a justified person Chap. 6. and 7. are full of spiritual Reason in the asserting of the necessary presence of holiness in every believer although sin be present in the same heart warring and fighting the believer must abide the conflict Of both the Points viz. of Justification and Sanctification the Apostle makes singular Vse Chap. 8. for consolation of believers both against sin and sufferings Against sin in respect of the guilt that is condemned and abolished in respect of in-dwelling corruption that reigns not though it remains against sufferings and afflictions they shall all work to good shall not separate from the love of Christ c. A third main Point is touching Election and Rejection in Chapters 9 10 11. of whom the Lord pleased before good or evil was in them to chuse or pass by as a Potter who hath power over his clay c. leaving it as a depth not to be far waded into but swim over it we may with the arms of faith and admiration And of all this Gospel-doctrine and what dependeth thereupon he makes the Vses from Chap. 12. to the end of the Epistle exhorting unto Holiness toward God Righteousness toward men Chap. 13. Love to the Saints and to all men Chap. 14. and 15. calling c. for the practice of all the duties of the Moral Law and that by way of Motive Chap. 12. 1. By the mercies of God justifying sanctifying mercy the mercy of God in calling and glorifying according to eternal predestination I beseech you c. And by way of Tryal Chap. 15. 14. I am perswaded of you my brethren that ye also are full of goodness c. Chap. 16. 17. I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them If this suffice not let R. F. who must be tryed and judged by the Scripture read any of Pauls Sermons mentioned in the Acts or pitch upon that Chap. 13. ver 15. The Apostle he will finde after the reading of the Law and the Prophets was desired to say on The Scripture Text was laid as the foundation the Jews expect as all their true Prophets and Teachers since God gave his written word were wont he should build upon that foundation and say on neither do his work beside it nor without it but say on as if they had thus exprest themselves We have the whole Scripture and every part of it as the Doctrine improve it now give us a word of Exhortation for our use and improvement Paul doth both he preacheth upon the Point of Gods dispensation to his people Israel of old and of the promise made to David of a seed and of Christs death and resurrection the accomplishment of that promise he proves Christs resurrection by Reason as by Scripture because Christ saw no corruption in the grave ver 37. and was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem c. ver 31. He preacheth the Doctrine of Justification by remission of sins to all that believe ver 38. and from all makes Vse to call them to faith in Christ and ver 40. to caution and warn them who did not believe lest that come upon them which is written in the Prophets a Motive from the Scripture Behold ye despisers and wonder c. Such an Vse I wish R. F. and his followers and leaders may make of all this discovery of Scripture-warrant which himself called for for raising Points Reasons Vses c. Let him beware of despising such a way of teaching by which God hath wrought wonders upon the mindes and consciences of men to their conviction conversion consolation c. If R. F. had ever known experimentally and savingly the power of Sermons by Doctrines Reasons and Vses from Scripture or had felt the force of Gospel as Legal Motives and soul-searching Tryals would he have put me or any man upon justifying this practice surely his own heart and conscience might have been a witness for the truth and not his pen a scoffer against it I pity such men in the North as South who either have not heard or regard not to hear some Boanerges or other some plain powerful Perkins Rogers Hooker Price Preston Bolton or other to pronounce the word Damnation in their ears that it may echo in their consciences Let R. F. and his brethren attend to what I say He that believeth not our Points soundly raised from Scripture I must tell him from Christ he shall be damned He that stands not convinced by our Reasons from Scripture will lose his reasonable soul and perish He that despiseth our Vses deduced from Scripture doctrine and Scripture reason will inevitably be ruined He that is not moved by Scripture motives is a man of a cauterized conscience and will be shut up in the lowest prison He that declineth Scripture tryals shall will he nill he be judged and condemned according to the Scripture What will become then of R. F. his bold daring words that follow Therefore against you and such deceivers as profess Scriptures to be your rule and act contrary to them we declare and against you testifie but as words of wind that vanish like smoke out of the bottomless pit no fruits of the Spirit can I finde in all this their Self-justification with their Scripture and Self-contradiction Section 28. HVmility and Love are precious fruits of the Spirit which they pretend to own as I noted but this I desired might be observed withal they deny common courtesie to equals and due outward respect to superiors and I may adde while they call for it to be given to inferiors such as themselves most of them are And if they say they honor all in their hearts who will believe them till it hath power to express it self outwardly in words and gestures of honor and of love which doing nothing unseemly will do what is comely and honorable With an Exhortation to love the Apostle stirs up to humility and common courtesie 1 Pet. 5. 5. and Chap. 3. 8. Be subject one to another be clothed with humility i. e. in minde and conversation as in apparel Love as brethren c. be courteous Peter learnt this of his Master who was loving and lowly in spirit and carriage bowed to the feet of his servants even to wash them John 13. and spake with words of entreaty where he might have commanded Luke 5. 3. entring into Simons ship he prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land R. F. hath nothing to salve their Contradiction unless it be this * Page 29. for a flourish to skin it over not to cure the wound As for your forms