doth not require our holinesse as an antecedent condition seing it is indeed his own subsequent Giâ—t the obvious evidence of so clear a truth may sufficiently confirme and the following argumeâ—ts do unanswerably evince 1. Our Lords own words the surest Rule for understanding the proposal controverted do contain a free tender and not the termes by you represented Hear what he saith to Nicodemus Whosoever beleeveth in the Son of man shall no perish but have eternal life For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3. 15 16. Iohn addeth he that beleeveth on the Son hath everlasting life chap. 3. v. 36. And again our Lord sayeth this is the work of God that you beleive on him whom he hath sent And this is his will that every one which seeth the Son and beleeveth may have everlasting life Verily verily I say unto you he that beleeveth on me hath everlasting life Iohn 6. 29 40 47. Surely these are Gospel proposalls yea the very summe and substance of its offer whereof your condition of a conformable life maketh no part I might add Paul's words to the Jailour believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shall be saved but it is so much the strain of the whole New Testament that it were unnecessary to enlarge 2. If when we were Enemies and not for works of Righteousnesse which we have done we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son then the proposal of life and Justification is made through faith in his Name without the condition of these good works which you join with it but so it is that the antecedent is plain Scripture therefore that the consequent is identick with it as Justification and Reconciliation are cannot be denied 3. That which is the end of our Election Calling and Redemption by Jesus Christ is his undertaking for us in that respect and is the fruit of our faith and of our acceptation therethrough yea and is the product of the Fathers care over us as accepted in the Beloved cannot be said to be required of us as a condition antecedent to our justification no more then the same thing can be thought to be really both antecedent and subsequent But so it is that we are chosen and called to be holy and created in Christ Iesus unto good works through faith it is and that not of our selves it is the Giâ—t oâ— God that we become partakers of Christ for Reconciliation and of all his graces for Sanctification and lastly we are in him Gods husbandrie that we may bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse Therefore c. 4. Your requiring of good works together with faith previous to our acceptance by Jesus Christ is an uncertain and desperat thing in as much as it is evident that unless we be first accepted of him and united to him it is not possible for us to do any thing without me you can do nothing are our Lords own words Say not that this Argument equally militats against previous faith if we did hold faith as it is our act to be required as a proper potestative foregoing condition of our acceptance the objection might be of some moment but since we do affirme faith to be only the instrumental act to which the word of power exciting the Soul doth thereby lay hold on and close with Jesus Christ it is thence manifest that immediatly without any other prerequisite he becometh our propitiation peace and all 5. To these may be added that this your Doctrine joining good works to faith for attaining to our Lords acceptation subverteth the peace taketh away the joy of Beleevers checketh Paul's exultation in his so much professed assurance of the love of God in Christ Jesus and lastly as to sinners in extremity called immediatly before the twelfth hour removeth all ground of hope but I am already too full in a matter so clear and so largely handled by many more able Pens I might here subjoin that as your joining of good works as a condition with faith in the proposal of the Gospel is a manifest perverting of the free grace of God upon which these good works having a subsequent dependence cannot by any reall antecedent influence possibly move it so your turning faith by this conjunction to be a motive of the same nature and to be also respected in the quality of a condition is a palpable depravation of its use and comfort It s true our Divines taking the word condition in a large sense as it signifieth any thing prerequired do ordinarily say that faith and faith only is the condition on our part of the Gospel-covenant but that it is not therein a condition as a condition doth properly and legally import viz. that which though by convention only yet hath a meriting or moving influence upon the other parties performance and such as works previously required either in the Covenant of works or in that of Grace as you would have it certainly hath and can have no other I firmly maintain I further grant that the requiring of faith as a proper condition doth no less exact the existence of the thing then if it were repute to be necessary as an instrument yet that it clearly changeth the office of faith in the new Covenant unto that of the condition of works under the old and that by respecting it as a condition on our part it doth diminish that immediat regard we ought to have to and comfort which we derive from Jesus Christ and his Righteousnesse tendered unto us to be laid hold upon as the alone motive and satisfaction acceptable to God for our Justification cannot be denied But I go on with your discourse you add And as that which giveth us a title to the favour of God is the bloud of Christ so that which giveth us an interest in his death is faith with a life conforme to the rules of the Gospel But passing your conjunction and this your third and which I am certain would require more study to discover therein a connexion then you did adhibite in the using let me ask if the bloud of Christ giveth us a title to the favour of God is it not then the sufficient and sole price and purchase of our Iustification in his sight And must not faith its alone proper application render us accepted to the Beloved What then can your So further import Viz. so that which giveth an interest in the death of Christ is faith with a life conforme to the Gospel Can you or any man elsâ— conceive that a man by faith alone in the propitiation the bloud of Christ should be reconciled unto God and yet not attain to an interest in Christs death without a holy life superadded and concurring in the same causality Nay these things are plainly inconsistent 2. The fairest sense that your words can bear is that as we are restored to a
You say that you feare the Non-conformists do study more to convince us of the need of Christs Righteousness then of having any of our own 'T is answered this your suggestion is a great confirmation of my reflection on your last passage I have already shewed that the fear whereby you usher it in hath no reall nor palpable ground none were more serious sound and powerful in the pressing of holiness then the men you would accuse Neither do I stand to appeal to the fruites of their Ministery notwithstanding of your cavilling at our practice but I have a greater fear of your fear that it prove only proud reason spurning at the righteousnes of Jesus Christ and aspiring to adde a Mantissa an addition of your own to his sole purchase If I could conceive you a man to propose feares both groundless and designless I might be judged uncharitable but the certainty of the first by removing the second too plainly justifies my apprehension beside your fear is so solicitous for your own righteousnes that it doth not so much as allow the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be more pressed and yet you know that not only his righteousnes as being the price spring and acceptation of ours doth therefore acclaime an infinite preference but that the conviction of its necessity by reason of the untoward reluctancie of the pride of reason and blindness of unbeleefe doth require a more powerful perswasion And therefore I must again tell you that I almost suspect your insinuation of a very deep tincture of a greater Sophistrie then that which you give warning against but seing you do profess to beleeve that Christ came to lay down his life a ransome for our sins and Non-conformists are perswaded that without holiness we shall never see the face of God it is certainly the better part for me to applaud your good agrâ—ement Only that you may be assured of this necessarie holinesse and also of its acceptance see that you hold fast Jesus Christ as the sole foundation for he it is who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousnes and Sanctification and Redemption And remember that although Non-conformists love not to talk much of their own righteousnesse at best both freely bestowed and as in us Viatores while we are in the way such as of it self can no wayes endure the consuming fire of divine jealousie yet they not only subscribe to your necessity of holinesse but further do beleeve with joy that it is impossible for any man to lean truely and entirely unto Christ who doth not imbrace him and have him both his Redâ—emer Lawgiver and Sanctifier 4. You suggest that Non-conformists think they may quite the communion of the Church If in their opinion nor in the truth in every point at least you will have this to be the case betwixt you and your Non-conformist Really might it not offend your reverence I would remit you to Eph 4. 25. and abide the reproof of the 26. without more answer but because 't is like the sottishnesse of the person you confer with hath induced you to this mistake beleeve me in name of all true Non-conformists that as they do not think they may quite the Communion of the Church if in their opinion not in the truth unless the difference be both reall in profession practice so it is not every reall difference in profession or practice that they hold to be a sufficient cause Nor do they judge that even the cause being sufficient the separation should be alwayes carried to the extremity but the sound and clear rule which they propose for Christian practice in this matter is that where the controverted difference is such as would render a conjunction therein either sinful or contagious then a just and proportionat sepaâ—ation precisely and with all tenderness Commensurate to the exigence is the safer course As for your conceit stating the cause of Separation upon difference of opinion in a truth of greater importance then the article of our faith the Catholick Church the communion of Saints the examining of it by what I have said plainly discovers both its mistake and ambiguitie In the next place let me tell you in behalf of honest Non-conformists that the true reason of their present withdrawing is none other then what you allow That they account themselves bound to obey God in adhering to their true Pastors and disowning Intruding-hirelings rather then man commanding the contraire I will not digress to a more particular inquirie since you are pleased to carry your Non conformist by it but if you had made him give this answer together with a clear condescendence I doubt not but either he or I had made it out I might here take notice how smoothly and perswadedly you suppose that Non-conformists do separate from the Church although they for the most part think your conceiting your partie to be the Church no better founded then the rest of your usurpations but because this point will againe occurre I proceed to your 〈◊〉 hint that in former times Non-conformists repressed some sins specially these of the flesh but fcâ—rce in a Gospel way and for other sins were very gentle to them nay were themselves guiltie of them Sir your suggestion being so general and groundless I only wish that its latter part were as void of malice as its former is farre from truth I know that all men are sinners and heartily desire that all Non-conformists may be serioussly warned throughly and impartially to search and examine their wayes and unfainedly to repent of their transgressions Nay though the frequencie and high import of your generall accusations render the sinceritie of your meeknes in forbearing particulars many wayes suspected yet I urge it not Only remember that as I disown the Patrocinie either of mens failings or infirmities so I do as little hold the work of God chargeable with any such extrinsick and accidentall objections but should thy impudence make men hold their peace and when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed When you offered to reflect upon the infirmities and failings of former times might not and should not the present irreligion and wickednesse every were abounding which are not only connived at by your Church-men but do visibly go forth from them into all the Land for they commit lewdnesse and walk in lies they strengthen also the hands of evil doers that none doth returne from his wickednesse have confounded you unto silence Certainly this your procedour cannot but suggest to all sober men that too applicable passage of the Gospel And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye And thus Sir I am arrived at your plain and set impugnation of the N. C. courses And to begin
capacity of favour with God by the bloud of Christ so it is faith with a life conforme to the Gospel that gives us an actual interest in his Death and thereby unto the peace of God but seing the result of this in plain language is no other then that our Lord having by his own bloud ransomed fallen and forfeited mankind hath in liew of the first Covenant made with man and by him transgressed proposed to us a second adding to the condition of a holy life required by the fâ—â—st that of beleeving That this is altogether dissonant both to the declared love of God and the grace revealed by Jesus Christ in his Gospel any Christian may discern Your next words are And a fourth And the root of this new life is a faith which worketh by love purifieth the heart and overcometh the world and there fore Iustification is ascribed unto it in Scripture But pray Sir how is it that faith becometh such a fruitful root Is it not by laying hold on Christs Righteousnesse by which pardon being obtained and we reconciled unto God we have right unto and so do attain in due time the benefite of all the promises of Grace which in Christ Jesus are yea and Amen or that the same faith which layeth hold on him as our Righteousnesse in Gods sight doth also unite us to him for Sanctification and ingraffing us as it were in him through the communication of his grace purifieth the heart and overcometh the World Or lastly is it not that by faith we are brought to the bloud of Sprinkling which is both the bloud of atonement that sprinkleth from an evill Conscience and also the Laver which cleanseth from all sin and wherewith we are sanctifyed This being then the Scripture account and it being most apparent that Christ through faith becometh first our Righteousnesse for remission of sin and Justification in Gods sight and then our Sanctification unto Good works your own acknowledgement that faith is the root of this new life of holiness may evince that a holy life subsequent to faith and our acceptation therethrough cannot be therewith joined as a condition for our Justification But that which followeth in your discourse and therefore i. e. because of the above enumerat fruiâ—s which it produceth Iustification is ascribed unto faith in the Scripture is the grossest error of all because 1. It directly repugnes to Scripture clearly intimating that it is unto faith as the instrument only whereby the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ is unto us applyed that Justification is in Scripture ascrived If we be justifyed by the faith of Jesus Christ and if by the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ the free gift cometh upon all to the Justification of life if he be the propitiation through faith in his bloud and our righteousnesse which is of God by faith are you not affrayed to say that Justification requiring a satisfactorie righteousnesse is ascrived to faith because of its poor and imperfect fruits in us and thereby to â—light and vilipend the perfect Righteousnesse of Christ the immediat object whereon it layeth hold and our only acceptation in Gods sight 2. Because this your error derogates from Divine justice We have already heard you call Justification a legal or judicial act and consequently an act wherein free grace doth not more favour the lost sinner then justice doth regard a valuable ransome and surety If Iustification then be ascribed in Scripture to faith this must certainly be understood either as faith is in it self or is relative to a compleat and adequat satisfaction Now to think that faith in it self or as it is an act or habite which is the Gift of God or its fruits which beside that they are also the gift of God and our dutie as from us are mixed with much weakness and imperfection or lastly that any thing else then the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ apprehended by faith can be commensurable to holy Iustice is more then redargued by the simple proposal 3. This your ascribing Iustification unto faith in regard of a holy life which it produceth doth no less detract from the praise of the glory of the grace of God wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved Is it the praise and commendation of this wonderful love and grace that he spared not but gave his only begotten Son to be a ransome for sinners and that it is in the Beloved that we are accepted and justifyed and should not you be ashamed to say that it is unto faith as the root of a holy life and not as it doth respect and take hold on him who was made to be sin for us and knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousnesse of God in him that Iustification is in Scripture ascrived 4. This your error as it is contrary to the Scripture and derogatorie to the Righteousnesse of Christ the Holinesse of Divine justice and the Glory of free Grace so it is the manifest product of and cannot but be a most dangerous temptation to that inward and spiritual pride in the heart of man of all sin the most subtilly insinuating deeply rooted and pernicious A price or something meriting or moving at least of our own is that which the natural man liketh well nay knoweth not how to renounce was it not a subtile and strange effect of this pride and corrupt selfe Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul When as the thing required by the Lord was to do justly love mercy and walk humbly with God And whence did the Iews their stumbling at the Gospel proceed Was it not that they went about to establish their own righteousnesse and therefore they did not submit themselves unto the Righteousnesse of God Say not that this accusation against you is unwarranted I know you tell us That your explanation ascribes all to Christ through whom it is that our sinnes are pardoned our services accepted and grace and glory conveyed to us But it is evident that these are but vain words in as much as though you here tell us that our services are accepted through Christ yet almost immediatly before we heard you say that it is faith and a life conforme to the Gospel by way of antecedent condition which gives us an interest in his bloud Now that our services cannot be prerequired by way of condition to his acceptance of us and also only accepted as performed by us in himâ— is of it self manifest 2. Though you should more clearly and consistently ascribe all unto Jesus Christ yet by turning his grace into a condition the subtilty and folly of your pride doth but the more bewray it self For as simply to obtrude our own good works which in the acknowledgement of the most exact and confident legalist are both commanded and given us of God is a proud presumption so the more you attribute either the strength or the acceptance of performances
unto the grace of God in Christ Jesus while in the mean time you do still arrogate them as a condition on the creatures part you the more declare the folly but in nothing diminish the sinfulnesse of your vanity These things need not to be illustrat questionless who ever doth consider his lost condition by reason of sin and wrath and hearkeneth unto that fundamental Gospel-precept deny thy self imprimis all self-righteousnesse and beleeve will find the power thereof so deeply descending into his Soul that all the desire trust and hope thereof will be fixed on Jesus Christ alone and to be found in him not having his own righteousnesse which unto his sincere reflection will be so far from appearing a condition that it will disappeare as dung but that Righteousnesse which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousnesse which is of God by faith But who can sufficiently declare and regret the madnes and ingratitude of this pride of man Jesus Christ is made of God unto us Righteousnesse and yet we will thereto join our own for Justification in Gods sight He is also made unto us Sanctification that in Him we may bring forth the fruits of holinesse unto the glory of God and the very same fruits will we impropriat to be the condition and as it were the price of our acceptance even with himself who is our only acceptation and our all Sir be not deceived as they who in the sight of sin and fear of wrath fâ—ee unto Christ alone for a refuge do finde his Righteousness not more sufficient then freely offered to every one that willeth for Justification in Gods sight so your Doctrine requiring both faith and a holy life as the previous conditions to give an interest in Christs Death and ascriving Justification to faith because forsooth of the pitiful fruits of our righteousnesse and not that perfect Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ which it doth apprehend is wholly dissonant unto the method of the Gospel and cannot possibly attain its end What shall be then said of your ensuing words Now judge but a little what it is to have a right apprehension of things since I have in a few plain words told you that which with much nicety swels among you to Volumes Really Sir if I may use the liberty of answering by you permitted I would say what a sad thing is it to have a wrong and conceited apprehension of things since you have in a few involved words in such a manner obscured and confounded a plain point of truth that notwithstanding of express Scripture-light yet it hath necessarily required a great many words clearly to unsold it There remaineth now to be considered the main reason whereby as you shut up so you would seem to enforce the opinion which we have heard and that is the necessity of a holy life which you say Your way of Iustification doth clearly declare as being that whereupon we shall be solemnly judged justified and absolved at the last day and afterward you add That it may correct the error of many carnall Christians who love well to hear of Salvation by the death of Christ provided they be bound to do nothing themselves that they may be saved 'T is answered 1. That there are many seeming Christians who have a name that they live and are dead who have and do delight in a form of knowledge but want the power of whose delusion the error which you mention may be a part is an old and true regret And yet the explication by you delivered being so many wayes unsound and peccant as we have heard cannot possibly be an antidote 2. As these carnal Christians pretending to lay hold on Jesus Christ for Righteousnesse and yet wholly neglecting the study of holiness are of all men the most sadly deceived and most wretched deceivers so your manner of Justification derogating from the holy Iustice of God and the perfect Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ flattering the natural mans pride to which of all vices we are most prone and seducing souls from the free Grace of the Gospel cannot be less dangerous and pernicious But 3. This your reason for departing from Justification by faith only as encouraging to licentiousness is so directly the objection which the Apostle Paul taketh notice of and fully answereth after his having declared the truth of Justification as by us professed that we are thereby exceedingly fortified The passage is thus the Apostle having shewed that it is by the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ that the free Gift cometh upon all men to Iustification of life and that it is by the obedience of one that many are made righteous and summing up the whole matter that it is grace that reigneth through Righteousnesse unto eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord he subjoineth What shall we say then shall we continow in sin that grace may abound Seing it is not by our works but of free grace through faith in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ that we are justified from sin shall we therefore in as much as sin commendeth grace and our good works availl not continow in sin that grace may abound The plain insinuation of what you object Now hear the Apostles answere both for us and himself 1. He saveth justification by faith only cannot encourage to sin because such as do thereby truely lay hold on Jesus Christ partake of his death and are made conformable thereto How shall they then that are dead to sin live any longer therein Sin may indeed remain but that they who through faith in his Death are planted in the likenesse thereof and become as crucified with him should live any longer in sin is not possible To the same purpose it is that the Apostle Iohn saith whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin and he cannot sin because he is born of God And yet if any false pretender should therefore say either that he cannot transgress or that his transgressions are no sins and so license himself unto wickedness he but deceiveth himself and the truth is not in him 2. Paul saith that Justification through faith importeth a more certain assurance of good works then any thing by you urged The necessity of good works which ye plead for is only that of a condition strict indeed as to its obligation but very uncertain if not desperat as to its cause and reall existence being previously required unto our acceptance by and being in Christ as I have already shewed whereas the Apostle tells us plainly that according to the truth of Justification by him and by us asserted the necessity of good works is causally certain depending upon such infallible causes that whereever true Faith is the study of holiness must necessarily ensue and where this is not the pretense of Faith and Justification thereby is but vain and groundlesse For seing by Faith the only requisite on our part for Justification we are not only dead indeed with Jesus Christ unto sin but planted
prohibite to Gospel Ministers but the ground of your mistake is that Notwithstanding our Lord hath said of himself and his Ministers that one is your Master and all you are Brethren and fellow-servants among whom an inequality of gifts may well consist with an equality of condition Yet restess and most subtile Ambition for gratiâ—ying its evil lust will even in a plain opposition commanded alleage the affectation and not the thing it self to be discharged and in the low liest state of Service devise superior and inferior degrees The second thing is that though I be â—arre from denying humane infirmities incident to Ministers as well as others and do heartily wish that the of â—nces by them occasioned may be alwayes as the most hurtful to the Gospel most seriously precautioned and regreted Yet I am sure that without regard to our Lords most gracious gifting and most wise ordering of his Ministery for the feeding and ruling of his people to affirme that neverthelesse there is no order of men needs so much to be regulated is a presumptuous and vain imputation against Jesus Christ the Head and King of the Church and his Oeconomie Hath our Lord taken so great paines to Separate Instruct Sanctify and send forth Ministers and promised them so special a presence and assistance for the oversight and conduct of Believers and darre any Christian say that even the order it self for alas I grant the men are but earthen vessels needs more then any other the contrivance of mans invention for its regulation But let none that honoureth Jesus Christ or remembreth the former Beautie Order and Successe of his Ministrie and Courts amongst us be offended this reflection proceeds from the same Spirit that accused our great Master as a Rebell and Usurper and his Apostles as the Troublers and Subverters of the World As to your conclusion when you have disproved the Divine warrant of Presbytrie and shewed both its occasion rise tendencie and proper fruits to be only evil as I have done in the matter of Prelacie then you may equiparat them in the point of abuse but seing the abuse of Presbytrie is only accidental from humane infirmity and that of Prelacie its most native Genius and Product Naâ— seing Presbytrie is indeed the right use of the Churches Government and Prelacie its manifest depravation the maxime which you adduce in its just application doth most clearly say remove the abuse of Prelacie and let the use of Presbyterie be reâ—ained The fourth DIALOGUE Answered SIR since you have said nothing that I have not to my self and I hope to all rational and impartial men satisfyingly answered and seing I can say it in Gods sight that in all the matters hitherto treated I finde in my heart a serious desire to please him in all things and also to comply with his Church and obey the Laws of the Kingdom in what I judge agreeable to his will with as much distrust of my self and charity towards others as humane frailtie doth permit In this perswasion truely and by your own verdict conscientious without either noticing the pitiful shift of a blind conscience which you make your N C. pretend or charging you with that arrogance whereupon you make him weakly to exclaime I shall proceed to consider the grounds which in this place you lay down You say then Private persons have nothing to do with Government submission and not judging is their part I cannot stand to discusse all the ambiguities that may be latent in this General but it is strange 1. That the Government of Gods house â—or that is the point betwixt us should be instituted by him for the Edification and Salvation of private persons and his own Glory as you cannot deny and yet they to have nothing to do with it 2. You say Submission iâ— their dutie And would you have it blind and not rational and conscientious 3. Our Lord hath defined the Government of his Church and did establish the same among us engaging us thereinto by a perpetual Covenant is it then nothing of our concernment But may we breake these sacred tyes and abandone our selves to an implicite compliance with every humane invention I grant that private persons are neither under a righteous constitution to usurpe the part of the Governours nor yet under a sinful unlawfully to solicite and endeavour an alteration but as in the former case both Reason and Religion specially where an Oath hath interveened doth oblige to maintenance so in the latter I am assured that all active owning and approving the thing whereunto we are pressed beyond a providentiall acquiescence is utterly sinful If you require my reasons there is none like your own viz. first because I am perswaded that what ever may be the comparative innocencie of an erring but well-meaning opinion Yet of every Soul who hath seen the Glorious light and work of God in the Lands and engaged himself thereto by solemn Covenant and now of late hath broken these bonds and concurred to change Christs pure Ordinances and set up establish or countenance Prelacie and its wicked Hierarchie God will surely either in this life as we have already seen in the convictions of many or in the last and great Judgement openly require it 2. Because not only perjury manifestly ingredient in the active submission and compliance which you exact hath a plain and direct tendencie to the blotting of the Soul but as the Gospel and all its Ordinances are designed to purify the heart So this of Government so clearly therein appointed and of so necessaire and effectual influence for the conserving of truth edifying of the body of Christ and perfecting of the Saints doth undeniably contribute to the same end And by these two easie rules it is whereby I heartily wish that both you and I and all men may examine our Consciencâ—s In the next place you tell your N. C. That we have no rationall ground to think you wrong in Matters of Religion do you then think that obedience to the Lords Command against swearing falsely and adhering to and owning the Kingdom and Ordinances of Jesus Christ are no Matters of Religion or have you already answered the full and just account that I have given of our differences But supposing there may be error on your side you adde that unless the error be of greater importance then the Communion of Saints is it ought not to unty the bond of the unity of the Catholick Church This is the rule which you gave us before in your first Dialogue and therefore I shall say little to it only if your meaning be that except the conjunction with the erring partie be of greater prejudice then separation upon that account we ought not to unty the unitie of the Church I willingly assent but if there be any other latent sense in your strange weighing the import of error with an article of Faith things quite opposite without all communication of degrees when
Religion requiring both heart and mouth the reasonableness of our service consisting in their Harmony the practice of the Lords people in all Ages the frequent examples every where in Scripture the experience of every serious Soul yea the common reason of all men redargue the gross absurdity of such a perswasion Were David's Thanksgiving 1 Chron. 29. 10. Solomon's Prayer 1 King 8. 23. and Iâ—hosaphat's Supplication 2 Chron. 20. 5. all without Book or Set-form only extemporary heats Are the praying Psalmes with all the exercises of the Lord Servants in the Nynths of Ezrah Nehemiah and Daniel and in other places clearly flowing as the Spirit gave utterance without any taught frame of words frisking fits of the Fancy Was our Lords Prayer Ioh. 17. only a sensible servour 〈◊〉 Sir I would rather suppose that although your airy discourse hath wildly seduced your observation yet your heart abhorres such impiety I will not therefore insist on the advantage which this your laxe inadvertencie so fairely offereth nor shall I content my self with this obvious retortion that where one instance can be given of conceived Prayer only managed by Fancie and subsisting in its vain exercise thousands may be found of persons through the practice and custome of Set-forms habituate to a most lifeless and superstitious mummery more suteable to the worshiping of stockes and stones then to the service of the true and living God Nor lastly will I vex you by shewing that the distinction which you make of praying by the Spirit and by words is so impertinently by you applied to our present purpose that though you endeavour thereby to impugne extemporariness multiplicity and variety of words in Prayer yet it plainly concludes all words to be superfluous for seing that in opposition to the spiritual worship of God which we contend for you tell us that we may pray by the Spirit use we words or not and that spiritual devotion is a still inward thing Is it not evident that all outward Forms whether set or extemporarie are thereby rejected But freely waving these your lapses that I may come more closely to the present purpose it is to be considered that the right and true worship of God is certainly inward in the minde will and affections God who demandeth the heart doth thence expect that tribute of reverence love fear acknowledgement and praise which in his sight is acceptable and all other outward performances as they ought to be the sincere expressions and significations of this internal devotion so they are wholly and only regulable by the prescriptions of Divine appointment If this truth were as seriously heeded as I am perswaded it is fixed and constant both by you and me our controversie would soon be ended The Question then is not concerning the life and truth of internal Prayer wherein without doubt the spirituality of that exercise doth principally consist but seing that you and we are agreed that God whom we serve is to be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth the debate is anent the manner how this worship specially when Publick is to be performed Whether in set and imposed Forms or as the Spirit giveth utterance Or if for preventing mistakes you please to take it at greater length whether it be lawful for men to compose and impose Set forms for Prayer and Worship and thereto to astrict the People of God in their performances Or whether it be more agreeable to the will and service of God that prayer and worship which are to be performed inwardly in the liberty and truth of the Spirit and understanding in their outward expression be left to be managed by the free and sanctified use of the rational faculty for that end given and in many observably gifted By which state as you may easily perceive that I do allow not only the antecedent improvement of the expressive power by all warrantable aides and advantages but also the free using upon occasion of such words as others have formerly either dictated or made use of Nay even in so ne cases of several of you Set forms both which I conceive are very consistent with praying by the Spirit either as by you or by us defined So the precise point controverted and to which I would have you all along to advert is anent the imposing and astricting which I plainly judge to be both destitute of Divine warrant and contrary to the liberty of spiritual devotion and so repugnant in both qualities to that Worship in Spirit and Truth which only is acceptable But before I proceed to a confirmation there occurre some mistakes to be removed one is of some of your way who defining praying by the Spirit the uttering of such petitions as are immediatly suggested both matter and words by the Holy Ghost hold it for a Gift proper to the Apostles and their times and now ceased thus the English Debater and your own headless allegeance that extemporarie Prayer cannot be called praying by the Spirit unless we also call it infallible doth also coincide But seing by your description above mentioned you do allow of praying by the Spirit as not yet ceased and do thereby very justly understand rather the Grace then the Gift of Prayer although even the Gift where it is as it may be without the Grace may also have the name of praying by the Spirit and seing that both the Debater and you I suppose would be offended if any should affirme that no man using the Service-book-forms could pray by the Spirit I only add that as the Spirit is the great promise of the Gospel its Grace the life and its Gifts the strength of all Christian duties so praying by or in the Spirit can no more be impugned for want of infallibility then any other good work of the same Spirit in us denied for want of perfection But who would not pitie two Doctors of the Church either so disingenuous or unable as not to distinguish betwixt the Spirits ordinary measures and extraordinary assistances The next mistake is that reflecting upon the greater exactness of phrase attainable in a Set-form above what can be expected in an extemporarie work and commending the propriety conciâ—neness and gravity that may be in the former in respect of that rudeness incohesion and levity supposed to be incident to the latter you exaggerate the comparison as if the whole stress of the debate did ly in this point whereas he that duely considereth will not only finde your Forms at best to be but humane and imperfect and that the Gift of Prayer promised if duely improved in and with the exercise of the Grace is farre more likely to furnish sound savory and acceptable words then these jejune and lifeless composures for framing and enjoining whereof men have no promise of the Lords assistance And lastly that the whole word of God and the excellent patterns therein recorded with many other helps are at hand and allowed by us by way of Directory but he must
God as the great Judge attempeâ—ing justice with mercie doth thereby accept of a Ransome and Surety offered and therefore absolve yea justify the Criminal and yet notwithstanding of the evident Scripture testimonies that shew the Lord our Righteousness to be in very deed this Ransome and Surety and faith only its instrumental application to join good works with it and state both as the condition of our Justification is not only reproved by the Papists their more consequent explication who because they admit of works in Justification do therefore hold it not to be a judicial act but rather a gracious work but by the common sense of all men in these similare instances from which the manner of explaining these things is borrowed If in our ordinarie Courts the Law being transgressed and the transgressor convicted the pronouncing of the doome of judgement and its execution were stopt by the interposition of a ransome and surety offered so fully satisfying and acceptable in the eyes of the judge that for his sake the poor Criminal were both pardoned and received to special favour would any rational man say that the person guilty were thus absolved and justifyed either for his act of laying claime to the price and pledge as a condition seing it is only the moral instrument whereby the true motive of the ransomers satisfaction is applyed or yet for the act it self together with the absolved person his consequent good behaviour which is the parallel of your interpretation which is yet more absurd And not rather affirme plainly that it is for the ransome and surety only that the man is acquit and accepted Certainly common ingenuity which must acknowledge all the defects of this similitude to be the manifest advantages of the point principally pressed will both cede to the conviction of its evidence aud transferre it plainly to the case in hand Having thus set down a Scriptural and easie account of this important truth which reflecting upon almost all Protestant Divines with whom in this we agree and wandering in your raveries after no better guid then Patrick the Pilgrim you say is by us handled with much niceness and subtilty for it s further clearing and the better discoverie of your vanity I shal now examine your discourse in its particulars and 1. you say Iustification and Condemnation are two opposite legal termes By legal I know you mean judicial and therefore in place of urging your mistake I seriously wish that the tenor of what ensues had been consistent to so true and solid a ground but you add That they relate to the judgement shall be given out at the last day a strange fetch to compasse a false designe I might remember you that the Scripture is express That being justifyed by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ and there is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who by their assured partaking of his grace and in consequence of their true faith in him and Justification therethrough walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and that thence it is evident that as it is God that judgeth so it is by an act of his free grace in Jesus Christ antecedent to the last judgement that we are reconciled unto him and justified in his sight But your own words viz. For though we are said to be now justified as the unbeleeving are said to be condemned already this is only that we are now in the state of such as shall be solemnly justified or condemned do sufficiently reprove you because 1. It is certain that the unbelieving are not improperly and with respect only to that future judgement said to be condemned already but as by reason of sin judgement is already come upon all unto condemnation and he that beleeveth not the Son shall not see life is under the curse and the wrath of God abideth on him so it is manifest that now it is that they stand truely under the condemning power and sentence of Gods holy Law from which it is most unquestionable that condemnation doth directly proceed against all transgressours however in the forbearance of God they are not only for a time reprived but place left for a ransome 2. To be justified freely through grace doth plainly import the person justified to be antecedently under condemnation if by the offence judgement had not come upon all to condemnation there had been no need of the Righteousnes of Christ to the Iustification of life How then can the opposite instance of Condemnation be by your referred unto the last day Far less made an argument to deferre untill that judgement our Iustification which of necessity doth presuppose it Certainly you cannot but grant it to be most absurd to think that Believers shall in that day be first condemned and thereafter justified 3. When you say That it is in that day that men shall be solemnly justified or condemned you clearly resolve the matter viz. that as the solemnity of the judgement of that day shall be only declarative and finally executive so it evidently concludes that the judgement then to be pronounced was given and established of before Pray Sir do you think the Spirits of just men made perfect are not as yet justified But 4. you grant that we are now in the state of such as shall be solemnily justified or condemned which clearly shews your insinuation premised to be only a designe to obscure by words without knowledge in as much as the question remains the same anent this state and how we now attaine to it as anent the justification which you would deferre And 1. What is the state of Iustification Is it not that we who were under the Curse and aliens are accepted unto favour pardoned and brought near Wherein doth it then differ from actual Iustification 2. How is it that we attain to this state Sure not by works either alone or in conjunction with faith as we have heard from Scripture and shall be further evinced But if it be by faith alone as the instrument laying hold on the sole meritorious Righteousnes of Christ our difference is only verbal wherein you foolishly resile from Scripture phrase If you shall further add that by faith we do indeed attain to this state but only inchoatly or unfixedly and changeably then you evidently impinge both upon the perfection of Christs Righteousnes and the faire and certain grounds of the Saints their perseverance It followeth in your discourse Now at the great day we must give an account of our actions and we must be judged accordingly And I note in your ensuing words That since all must be condemned if God enter into judgement with them and that not only if he should charge us with our transgressions but even if he should only reckon with us upon our good works and for that imperfection and weakness wherewith as they are from us they are tainted doth not the certainty of this judgement
above all things plead the necessity and alone sufficiency of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ for our Justification But to restore your words to their own channell you say that since all must be condemned if God enter into judgement therefore God gave his Son unto the death for us that thereby we might obtain Salvation And though by this passage it be clearly enough imported that it is before God and by the sentence of his Law that all men stand condemned and that therefore he hath given his Son whose Death and Bloud is the Propitiation and in whom he is well pleased to be a ransome for liberation and acceptation to all that believe on him whereby Justification by faith in Jesus Christ without the deeds of the Law is in substance granted yet for ushering in your good works to share with faith in Justification by a strange connexion you subjoin And all judgement is committed by the Father to the Son and Iesus Christ hath proposed life through his death to as many as receive his Gospell and live according to it But I must take notice 1. That by laying down the commission of judgement given to the Son as a ground to his proposing of the Gospel offer you manifestly repugne to our Lords own words and testimony expressly distinguishing the character of his first coming which was in the form of a servant to minister not to be ministered unto and by performing the Fathers commandment to save the World and not to judge it from that of his second coming which shall be with power and great glory to the Salvation of all that look for him and to judge and to execute judgement upon all that are ungodly 2. By making our Lords commission to judge antecedent to his ministration of the Gospel you invert Truth and plain Scripture-evidence whereby it is clear that our Lord was first sent into the World to preach the Gospel and lay down his life for sinners that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life And then because of his compleat and perfect obedience is exalted to be the Head of all things unto the Church and hath Authority also to execute judgement committed to him because he is the Son of Man But. 3. By this your doctrine you in effect subvert the grace of the Gospel in as much as in the place of the Gospel-covenant offering pardon and peace to poor lost sinners through Christ Jesus and with and in him all grace and glory you introduce our Lord as having by his death indeed merited the privilege of a new offer of life unto sinners but making and renewing the same in no better termes then these of the Law-covenant for as the Law sayeth that the man that doth these things shall live by them so you tell us that the termes of the Gospel-tender are to receive the same and live according to it Now if the Law doth offer life to such as receive and live according to it and our Lords proposal stand in the like termes admit the proposers not to be the same yet the proposals are certainly coincident and therefore although the eternal transaction betwixt the Father and the Son may be of Grace yet it is undeniable that in your opinion the tenders of the Law and Gospel as to us-ward do rune in the same tenor and the condescendence of both prerequiring our works is equally to be reckoned of debt These being the consequences of that Gospel-method by you here contrived and its designe no less evident to make works with saith the condition and procuring cause of our Iustification at least in the sight of Christ as the Judge appointed I add 1. That your attributing of Iustification to Christ as judge ordained over all in the last judgement is contrary to the Scripture that telleth us that it is one God that justifieth it is Christ that died marke the distinction made and no doubt reason it self informing us that it is the Law and Law-giver and not the Judge which define dutie determine paines and condemne the transgressors poenae enim persecution non Iudicis voluntati mandatur sed legis authoritati reservatur It doth also confirm that it appertaines unto God only as the Law-giver to remit the punishment incurred and accept and justify sinners upon an aequipollent satisfaction 2. The Authority to execute judgement being given to our Lord as the Mediator and because he is the Son of Man in which respect he is not the principal Author and efficient but only the meritorious cause of our Iustification not the very act but only the solemn declaration thereof can be ascrived to him in this capacity unless you can conceive that our Lord is not only both the Ransome and the accepter thereof but that by becoming the Propitiation he also becometh the partie to be appeased which are palpably inconsistent 3. The plain Scripture-truth in this point is that our Lord having compleatly obeyed the will of God and being made perfect through suffering is therefore highly exalted above every name and hath all power and judgement committed to him whereby as he doth here in time enrich with all Grace guid support and preserve all that beleeve in him and also over-rule restrain and punish all his and their Adversaries so shal he in the last day appear first to receive and welcome all his redeemed ones formerly justified by his Righteousnesse and sanctified by his Grace unto his Fathers joy And then with them to judge the reprobate and take vengeance on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel by which it is evident that Justification proceeding from God for Christs sake and necessarily preceeding both our Sanctification here and Glorification in the last day cannot be referred unto that judgement which is only declarative and executive according to these words Come ye blessed of my Father nor explicate according to its scheme And therefore although our Lord do therein for our encouragement in well doing and the commendation of the riches of his bountie make mention of our good works and shall certainly in that day also crown his own free grace in us with a reward yet thence to inferre that our Justification before God and in order to his holy justice having for its alone cause the Righteousnes of Jesus Christ and imported in the compellation ye blessed of my Father is founded on our weak love and scant charity which even the Righteous in that day seeme ashamed to owne is both a groundless error and high presumption But I proceed to your next words viz. That Christ Iesus hath proposed life through his death to as many as receive his Gospel and live according to it That this is a manifest perversion of the free Grace of God whereby our Lord Jesus doth freely hold out himself unto us not only for to be our Righteousnesse for Justification but also our Sanctification through his Spirit unto the glory of God and therefore
Redemption of sinners through Jesus Christ and proclaiming that whosoever beleeveth on him shal not perish but have everlasting life to reconcile us enemies and bring us aliens nigh unto God and then being thus accepted that in the same Lord Jesus we may be filled with all grace by the Spirit of grace to the knowledge and acknowledgement of God his wonderful bountie his unmeasurable love his glorious holiness his eternal truth and faithfulness and unto the exciting in usâ— of that ravishing and constraining love that filial and perswasive fear and that comforting and joyous hope which graces more and more moulding us into a lively conformity unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud and is become our life our light and our all and thereby causing us to bring forth the fruite of holiness meekness patience brotherly love and of all virtues to the praise of God are the sweetness excellency and delight of Grace here untill it shall be perfected by and swallowed up of Glory hereafter This this is the work and purpose of the Gospel And seing it shall availl us nothing to gain the whole world and lose our own souls it ought indeed to be the great designe of our lives to conforme unto it even to hearken unto the call of God and by beleeving in Christ Jesus that we may be delivered from the wrath to come to labour to be fouâ—d in him not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but the righteousness which is of God by faith that so we may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and still reaching forth unto these things which are before press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus The way then to purify and save our souls is not barely to affect a little virtue or morality nay nor yet from our selves without the Mediator to apply our mindes to God God not in Christ Jesus is a consuming fire the contemplations of his Glory and Holiness instead of deriving into our souls his excellent perfections would but fill them with amazement and horrour If the externall shew and figure only of this sight was so terrible even to Moses that he said I exceedingly fear and quake How do you think that poor sinners can approach We are therefore to apply onr minde unto God but only in and through Christ Jesus that by him obtaining peace and from him grace we may have access and by faith not by speculation only have our hearts purified Your precepts of stilness and abstraction of minde to become of a thinking temper and give up with passions c. and use much inward recollection As by you proposed for the way to spirituality without Jesus Christ who is the only true way are but stoical dreamesâ— and deluding vanities The awakened sinner whom sin affrights and wrath terrifies findeth no rest nor refuge but in Christ Jesus and the peace and favour of God in him and being in him accepted is by his grace purified and made to partake of that blessedness pronounced by the procurer of it Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And thus with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord he is changed into the same image from glory to glory untill that hereafter he be brought to see him as he is and thereby be perfected these are the great means to attain to and continue in converse and fellowship with God If any man love me saith our Lord he will keep my words and the Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him And thence no doubt it is that not only all that sweetness of the meditation of God and his attributes the admiration of his mercie and love in Christ the adoration of his excellencies and these soul breathings and continual aspirings toward him which you here mention will flow in into the soul to its constant satisfaction in an entire submission and delightsome complacencie in all Gods wayes and actings but also the Beleever will be stirred up prompted and animat in the holy and pure zeal of God's Glory to fight out the good fight of faith acquit himself strenuously in that warfare with the World Sin and Sathan wherein now we stand ingaged and readily to embrace every occasion whereby he may approve himself unto him who hath so dearly loved us and walk worthy of God who hath called us unto his Kingdom and Glory but to suppose that a man may think himself into this frame or by the simple means of that Metaphorick assâ—â—ilation that is in meer thinking attain to this Divine likeness is no less groundless then the active militant state of Christians within time is ill defined by your imaginary stilness Now if any man would understand wherein the sweetness that is to be found in Divine converse doth consist The stilness wherewith the minde is overflowed the clearness of the judgement stedfastness of the will and calmeness of the passions wherein you place it are indeed qualities which do highly advance a man unto the perfection of his nature and the Divine touches that you mention whereby the soul is sometimes carried unto sublimities not utterable are also found in the records of Christian experience but the only proper answere which can be returned is O tast and see that the Lord is good The unsearcheable treasures of his goodness have no measure the excellencies of his glorious perfections have no parallel the poor narrow soul admitted unto these felicities by attributing unto God the very form essence and substance of all its pleasure and magnifying him as its alone love joy and delight hath by these as by the application of whatsomever else it doth conceive to be amiable and delectable endeavoured to adumbrat this Divine satisfaction But as the constant result of these refâ—ections hath been ever admiration and wonder so a forced silence in that transport of the Spouse her raptures yea he is altogether lovely is only its most significant period What part our affections and passions have in these enjoyments it is not needfull to mention certainly God who hath commanded that we love him with all the heart with all the soul with all the strength and with all the minde will both purify and satiat all these capacities As for your telling us that sensible passions may be very high in an impure minde and of a natural devotion specially in a person melancholick a woman or hysterical which may mount very high but doth not humble or purify the minde I judge it to be such an unsavorie and little pertinent mixture that I must expresse my fears that it doth denote a minde in your self little humbled and less purified But that which you add of Persons Divinely acted their deniedness unto all things their absolute resignation unto and intense delight in and desires
such extenuations I verily think all circumstances considered their exigence duely ballanced that the deed was rash precipitant of evil example but wherefore accursed since against such a sacrum caput and a person self-devoted upon whom and his associats by executing justice both our Rulers and the whole Land may so certainly consecrate themselves unto the Lord that he might bestow a blessing upon us I confesse I hesitate In the next place you adde that though the providence of God sheilded one of your fathers toâ—ally from his fury and preserved the life of the other though with the losse or rather disabling only of his arm yet his malice was not to be blamed for that assassinations were only wanting to complete the parallel betwixt that Spirit and the Iesuits which is indeed the same moving in different characters But seing you would appeare so accurate an observer of Providence why do ye not also remember how easily and safely the invader did escape Surely whatever may be the moment of these circumstances of the sight of the Sun and the chief street of our royal City as to the aggravation for which you adduce them yet in order to this passage of the escape they are of a more important consideration to render it remarkable If you say that eventual impunity doth not argue innocency the retorsion is so just and manifest against your reasoning from the Bishops their providential preservation that I need not insist But this was an assassination only wanting to complete the parallel betwixt that Spirit and the Iesuits which is indeed the same moving in different characters Sir if I did intend the patrocinie of this fact I could tell you 1. That there can be no proper assassinat without an interveening price which in this case you do not so much as alledge 2. Admitting your meaning to be only of a deliberat insidiating murther yet I would have you to consider that it is from the matter and not from the manner that the guiltiness of many deeds doth principally descend For as we must acknowledge the greatest villanies to have been sometimes perpetrat in forme of justice so it cannot be denyed that very eminent acts of righteousness have been performed without any legal process as the deed of Phineas and the other examples above adduced with many such like Histories that might be alledged do plainly hold out and really when I consider but this one viz. how Saul's murthering of the Lords Priests and Iehu his killing of the Priests of Baal as to their summare manner of procedor of so near alliance nay that this later hath plainly in respect of the dissimulation used a worse appearance then the former I think this one reflection may direct you unto a more solid judgment in thir matters 3. The Iesuits their mischievous plots flowing from a pernicious principle enslaving mens consciences to an implicite compliance to their dictats without all regard to forms of justice and being levelled against innocent persons in order to their most wicked ends and designes are not only most remote yea most opposite to Naphtali's doctrine but nothing countenanced by this very fact wherewith you urge us But having above seriously disowned this rash and inconsiderat attempt and already cleared how that it is not only the matter but the concurrence of circumstances bearing such a pressing exigence as either cannot be satisfied by or needeth not to attend the ordinary course of law which doth sustain their more singular and heroick attempts your paralleling of that Spirit of Naphtali's I suppose so congruous both in principles and practice unto undeniable scripture grounds and precedents with that perverse and cruel one working in the Iesuites and making them to be the same moving in different characters is like unto the rest of these bold and groundless calumnies wherewith you study to reproach However it were to be wished that you who upon so unlikely grounds have the confidence to draw parallels were upon the other hand as ingenuous as to consider these most certain and evident arguments of pride violence falshood irreligion whereby your prelatick Spirit doth discover it self to be not only Jesuitick but unquestionably Antichristian and diabolick Now in the close and after having made it your work all along to brand any measure of zeal for God to be found amongst us with the characters of a â—our unsociable violent and cruel disposition you adde that you charge not this fact upon the party but acknowledge that all of them abhorre it but yet you subjoine that without all uncharitableness you may charge it on the Author of Naphtali And thus having before mentioned Naphtali as one of their Books and Authors at lest owned by them the vanity and deceit of this your insinuation is too too palpable But seing that which is crooked cannot be made streight it shall suffice me to say that as I have evinced Naphtali's doctrine to be none other then the just vindication of Phineas his practice copied from our first Reformers and also shewed that the fact which you do here objecte hath not thereon any rational dependence so your particular charge with all the foolish clamour of your party upon this account against Naphtali doth not so much reflect upon him as on Phineas and the Holy Ghost by whom he was acted After this you cause your N. C. complain of your design To make him regardlesse of the state of the Church and neglective oâ— the interest of Christ contrary to that tender affâ—ction we ought to bear him and the example of his Saints and only after the manner oâ— Gallio's indiffâ—rency And to this you Answer That all things have two sides and so this doctrine oâ— resignation on the wrong side seems like unconcerned stupiditâ— and yet rightly considered it is one of the highest pieces oâ— Christianity Whence you go â—n from the infinite Power Goodnesse and Wisdom of God to reprove the â—olly aâ—d presâ—mption of anxiety aâ—ent the Lords management oâ— matters specially the concâ—râ—â—ments of his Church and to perswade us to commit the â—ame to him and to rest securely on this thaâ— all things cooperat c. But still you say We are to concerne our selves in the good of the Churâ—h as by fervent soliciting of â—od in her behalf wâ—ereby our zeal for God's glory and charity to the Brethren are expressed so by improving all opportunities of doing good in as for as we are called upon all hazards Yet even in this we are with David not to meddle in matters too high for us And with Paul notâ— to sâ—retch our sâ—â—ves beyâ—nd â—ur line And with all not to let deâ—ecting melancholy possess our selves contrary to the end and contrivance of Reliâ—ion which is to beget in us â—verlaâ—ing joyes which by such sorrows are mostly marred Sir I have set down this passage at large not that I find in your answere abstractly considered any error seing it is very certain that the wrongs