remember how Plinie in his Epistle to Trajan does paint the tender and conscientious Practice of the Primitive Christians with the same vermilion of Superstition but I am apt to think it is still the same Spirit of opposition to the Puritie of Ordinances power and practice of Godliness which prompts men to these unjust representations of such as dare not run the same course with them or who are constrained by the love of Christ to hold fast that which is below their Luke-warme temper to contend for But I need not be further solicitious in this vindication being confident that you are not able to proselyte into a beliefe of this reproach any sober or rational men nor will I envie you the advantage you are like to reap as a just retribution from every unprejudiced Reader and that is not to be beleeved afterward when ye speak the truth having with so much calumnious confidence solicited them into the beliefe of what they know to be a falsehood But Sir to shut up this Dialogue with you though raro vidi Clericum penitentem I have seldome seen a Clergy man a repenter hath been mostly verified in the men who have perverted the right ways of the Lord yet the Calumnie is so gross and groundless that I would willingly â—latter my self into a hope that when ye think on what ye have said ye will smite upon your thigh and be brought to an acknowledgement of the sin of unjust accuseing the brethren And I assure you Sir our joy would be almost equal with your advantage to see you weep over the falshoods and calumnies and evil designe of this first borne of your strength The Second DIALOGUE Answered YOu begin with a question What great goodnesse it was which so commended our Partie and having made your N. C. make a pitifull simple vaunt that you may out-vaunt him you proceed to accuse and censure as you list Sir if we dared to make our selves of the number or compare our selves with them that commend themselves we want not matter wherein we might indulge a little to the foolishnesse of boasting but seeing that he whom the Lord commendeth and not he who commendeth himself is approved we will not boast of things appertaining to our selves but endeavour that all our Glorying may be in the Lord. I have already told you how God blessed us with his Ministery and that Ministery with Power and Presence It was he who gave the word and great was the company of these that Published it it was he who clothed his Priests with Salvation and made his people to shout for joy It was he who in the more special times and shinings of his love made the Graces of his People to flow and Souls were ravished with these discoveries And if not only in the Publick Assemblies Gods fear was Great but Families also did seek him apart If the vulgar whom you undervaluingly so name did greatly delight in the Law of the Lord and the Sabbath was called a delight the holy of the Lord honourable we cannot but account these great matters and the very paths and Methods which do most assuredly lead to the great hights of Christianity Yea surely these Gospel Ordinances do lead unto the living God and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant and unto Communion with him and the Participation of all Graces I know there is a shorter way which too many take who forming unto themselves faire Ideas and words of Self-denyal resignation abstraction of minde and the like do entirely and pleasantly rest in the phansie and talk of these things and as much of a specious outward converse as may in some sort salve their reputation from these many forfeitures which by the sinfull accommodations of their love of ease they manifestly incurre and these men commonly in their self-elevation do not only slight the true Ordinances and from the infirmities of â—raile men intrusted therewith do take advantage to mock but license themselves unto an absolute compliance with every mode and dress in Church-Government and worship which humane policie or Sathans Malice please to invent nothing regarding how much thereby they may make themselves partakers of the Perjury Bloud and Violence which promove and the Profanity that followeth the courses that they approve but as they prudently provide for their own advantage and credite by the abused pretext of an illimited respect to Authoritie so they easily quiet all the reluctancies of their inward Light with any verball slender and inoffensive dissent This is the New convenient contrivance of Religion which indeed desires to be admired for its pretended Mortifications high attainments and peaceful enjoyments but in effect doth only recommend it self by a luke-warme and quiet indifferencie in the Matters of God a flattering and safe deference to Authority and a sinfull and sweet veneration of outward peace Whether your discourse and practice do â—avour or not of this way I do not judge I hope the serious seekers of God will still see and ask for the Old Paths and do know that it is the Good way wherein neither by a Pharisaick show of external devotion not yet by vain and Notionall pretendings but by humble and sincere waiting upon God in the means of his own appointment they have really attained to these graces in the names whereof you boast and so do finde rest to their Souls And certainly if to such the present sad alteration which for the former light power and frequencie observed in the Assemblies of the Lords People hath covered his house with darkeness death and desolation doth minister suitable reflections it can be no matter of wonder When David remembred these things and did consider the like changes he poured out his soul in him because he had gone with the multitude and went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise for this Ieremiahs heart diâ—d faint for these things were his eyes dimme because of the Mountain of Zion which was desolate the foxes walking upon it O what want had they of you for a comforter who could have carried them farre above these external shaddows and taught them Resignations and abstractions in such a hight that neither the corruption nor the removing of Gods Ordinances should have overclouded their Easefull Serenety But you insinuat that N. C. do overprize Ordinances and undervalue Moralitie I have already told you that this is but a calumny and that an holy and pure conversation is the greatest and best part of Religion is not by us in the lest questioned without the endeavour of holinesse the other parts may possibly in Hypocrisie be pretended but cannot indeed have any reality only remember that Christ Jesus who is our all is also our Sanctification and let your Morality be indeed Christianity In the next place you fall upon Particulars and alleage That our Discipline was wholly different from the rules of the Gospell and far short of that of the Ancient
be pleased to re-examine your instances I doubt not but you will find them neither to be unanswerable nor that the Doctrine of our Teachers against causeless Separatists doth homologate your inference As to what you add That it is a great cruelty if a Minister be put from his place whether justly or unjustly that the people should be starved Sir I am verily of your opinion and therefore as I wish our outed Ministers had testified more love in despising hazards for the relief of Souls so I cannot but remember you how dreadful a charge this driving away of Pastors and starving of Souls will one day amount to against such who have been its direct Authors However seing the love and faithfulness of Christ the Great Shepherd hath secured the event they that believe need not make haste for verily they shall be fed Your N. C. next Argument is That your Curates are naughtie men and weak preachers Sir such is the notoriety of this charge and so afflicting ought it to be to every one concerned in the credit of the Gospel and honour of its Ministery that I am assured all sober men will rather impute it to tenderness then want of matter that I incline not either to inlarge the objection or insist in the examination of your answere You think it an odd piece of Religion for us to reproach our Pastors by the name of Curats a designation not to be ashamed of but though the name Curate ows its invention only to the vanity of men by whom the lowly Scripture-stile of Minister was disdained and be of no proper origination and in effect the product of the corruption both of the Churches humility and purity of the Latine Tongue yet seing you account it honourable and I and many others do rather use it for distinction I heartily wish that you and others who do appear so sensible of an apprehended reproach may be as serious in reflecting upon that important aggravation it shall furnish in the last Judgement against these who in stead of caring for Souls do visibly destroy them As for what you insinuat that the Curats are our Pastors and over us in the Lord pardon me to say that I cannot finde the relation either in their office or exercise and that if Scripture-marks do intitle to Scripture-names these Intruders entering not by the door are liker to Theeves these false Teachers are but revening Wolves and these Prophets who teach lies are but the taill Nay every one who rightly considers how that in place of minding the Lords Work whereunto they pretend and honouring him before the people they have made his offering and Sanctuary to be abhorred and his name to be prophaned in liew of that honour which you acclaime may justly conclude that they that despise the Lord shall be lightly esteemed Say not where is Christian Charity to call the manifest lewdness and lies of these pitiful Miscreants whose gross abominations are almost every where the grief of the godly and the very scorn of all nay such whereof your self pag. 30. doth abhorre the patrociny and for which you pretend to be a bitter mourner in secret Slight grounds and to bid men be slow to take thence an impression is plain mockery Charity that beleeveth all things resteth and rejoiceth only in the Truth and rejoiceth not in iniquity neither can you alleadge our grounds being good your Church in our not complaining to be neglected it were strange charity to beleeve as the proverb runs that Satan will reprove sin As for your alledging that to separate upon the personal â—ailing much more weakness of a Preacher will open a wide door to Separation Whatever danger may be in your smooth generality yet I am confident not to owne for as to separation I have already cleared how the practice of these you do condemn doth differ from it for Ministers such vitious intruders and flagitious livers as your Curates are is a Soveraign expedient for preserving both of Truth and Christian Unity and that as to ty the good of Worship to the sincere intention of him that manageth it is an error so to think that Gifts and a suitable converse in a Minister are of no influence or regard as to the work of his Ministery and that because not to hear Sermons only but the solemn worship of God is the chief end of our meeting wherein you are mistaken if you think that you and we do not agree which we can do be the Minister what he will is irreligion unmixed which your jejune commending of the reading of good Scriptures and singing of good Psalmes doth not palliate Be the minister what he will What be he Socinian Arminian notoriously flagitious an Adulterer or Incestuous Person a despiser of Discipline a strengthener of the hands of the Wicked and sander of the hearts of the Godly a Symoniack is nothing but what he may will and many of yours do de facto will nay be he Popish Mahumetan Pagan or Atheist all are but what he may will O execrable latitude But you conclude this point that our crouding to hear such weak men now in Conventicles who formerly were of no esteem among us sayes we are not so zealous for good Preachings as we would make the world beleeve Pray Sir if a man in plenty make choise and in penury make a shift will you thence inferre he is not desirous of the best this is too weak but to be ingenuous with you I question not but some Curats make constantly more able and frequently better Sermons for the matter then weaker Non-conformists and vet the just grounds of our exceptions do still conclude that they are neither so good men nor acceptable Preachers as these whom we preferre As for what you add That the way to make a man popular among us is to rail against Church and State It is a malitious calumny wherewith you endeavour to slander us unto our Rulers and which they who ought to be as the Angels of God may easily discerne and repell Your N. C in the next place objects to you the obligation of the Covenant wherein the whole Nation and the posterity are engaged to maintain our former Presbyterian Ministery extirpat your Prelacie and all depending on that Hierarchie and whatsoever shall be found conâ—raire to â—ound Doctrine and the power of Godliness I shall not improve this argument being of such an obvious evidence in any further explication but briefly review what you answere on the contraire And 1. Your evil Conscience foometh forth your indignation against the Covenant in your reproachfull calling it our Goliah alwayes brought out by us to defy the Armies of the living God whose strength like Sampsons lay in its hair the Armies that fought for it and not in any innate vigour But as notwithstanding all the arrowes of malice blasphemy and rage that you and your party have shot at it it still abideth in strength and the Armies of its
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
toward God as the blessed effects of the souls union with him is that which I rather observe And here indeed it is and in your declaring self abhorrence and abnegation and humble applications of the soul unto Jesus Christ to be that strait passage and low gate which is by violence to be entered for attaining unto that heavenly state wherein spiritual solaces here and immediat Divine enjoyments hereafter do not only compense and swallow up all the preceeding anguish but surpass all possible apprehensions of that unconceived glory that I do most heartily embrace that saving truth if rightly understood of Faith and Repentance which hitherto I have desiderat O that in the possession of so great a joy and the hope of a greater blessedness expected we would all vigorously set about the duties of a Christian life not intangling our selves with the pollutions of this world nor with the affaires of this life how to serve our own lusts and ease and comply with every device and invention of men but enduring hardness contradiction reproach and all persecution that we may please him who hath chosen us to be Souldiers Certainly he whose heart is thus fixed on God in and through Christ Jesus his life and actions will quickly manifest that he hath not only the forme but the power of Godliness his rational and unconcerned contempt of this present world his hatred of base and debasing lusts his undervaluing of the things of sense his well squared and solid indifferencie for all conditions and occurrents and lastly his love of truth and study of innocencie and delight in goodness in all his words and works do evidently shew forth the love and fear of God to be as it were the vital springs of all his thoughts and motions while self-denyall emptieth and humility vaileth him as nothing and out of the world the native and genuine lustre of free grace in him is thereby rendered more conspicuous and his light doth the more shine unto the praise of God who hath called us unto Glory and virtue He peaceably and chearfully obeyeth the publick Father of his Countrey but only in the Lord he remembreth and honoureth such who watch for his soul who speak unto him the word of God of these he is a follower as they are of Christ following their faith and considering the end of their conversation he pursueth Charity as the Crown of perfection Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect hath not with him a more commanding Authority then an inviting and soulâ—aâ—ishing attraction Hence it is that as his bounty and beneficence toward men is prompt and unconfined so his obedience toward God is most punctual and circumspect having respect unto all Gods commandments and esteeming his precepts concerning all things to be right and hating every false way a latitude of love and good will toward all men he heartily acknowledgeth and rejoiceth in but a latitude of compliance with sinful courses and indifferency even in the smallest matters of God under whatsomever pretext he from his heart abhorreth These indeed are a few of the faire lines that compose the Christians Character by which as you may see in part wherein Christian Religion doth consist so it is too too apparent that many who in their vain vaunting of serene and still speculations and high abstractions do alledge the strickness of Conscientious practices to be but loud pretenses do themselves sadly and most dangerously recede from it O how much is it to be desired that not only such but all would in their secret retirements often review and examine their actions that discovering their errors and faâ—lings they may be humbled and brought unto the renewed and more serious exercise of repentance stirred up by a more lively and active faith to lay hold on Jesus Christ and from him and by the power of his grace quickened to new vigour and alacrity in the wayes of God! Then should the Divine love in Christ Jesus inflame and elevat the soul and captivate the whole powers thereof unto these pure and free resignations wherewith God is well pleased then should the power of the grace of our Lord mortify sin overcome temptations and advance in every thing acceptable unto God And lastly then should the offerings of our praises to God for all his mercies especially for the invaluable and unspeakeable Gift of Christ Jesus ascend with gladness and bring back the returnes of more grace and joy and our prayers and supplications in the name of Christ according to the will of God for all things that we may be careful in nothing and for all men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty should be set forth before him as incense and mount up as the evening Sacrifice And it is from these heavenly exercises and the communications of Grace which flow therein that the heart is firmly fixed and strenthened to order and do all to the glory of God and the minde continually bended by the strong applications of fear and love to direct all its wayes as in his sight And these truely are the frame and fruits of inward and secret devotion As for publick Worship he who considereth it as commanded by God for the avowed and more solemn acknowledgement of our dependence upon him and testifying our union with his Church and that therefore not only in reason but also by express precept it is to be seriously and sincerely performed with and from the heart and in that holy and pure manner which he himself hath prescribed without the contaminating mixtures of mens presumptuous and vain inventions will certainly go unto the congregation of the Lords people met together in his Name and sincerely professing thus to seek his face not out of custome or formality whereunto of all things the devising and imposing of humane forms and modes do most powerfully delude but that he may jointly with others cordially adore and praise his Maker and Redeemer and give not only an external concurrence according to the Rule and decency of the Worship but with his soul and all that is within him will blesse his holy Name and joine his Amen Thus you have my hearts assent to the truth that I find in your conclusion my desire to God is that both you and we were by a serious humble and holy practice and not by talking only experimenting the solid edification and pleasure that lyeth in these heads If this you had minded more you and your partie would have been farre from vexing the Lords Church and people in these Lands contrary to the Word of God solemn Oaths and Covenants established Laws sound Reason and Policy and the general inclinations of all with that grievous yoke of wicked and pervese Prelacie and these vain and burthensome corruptions wherewith in all Ages it hath been attended Which things as to your own recollected
a Gentleman why may not the temporall honour of a Lord be as well put upon a Bishop Sir if you were as innocent of the vanity as you seem to be ignorant of the Nature of these titles Our controversie were at an end a Faithfull Minister truely minding his work values not himself upon points of Herauldriâ— to acquit himself as becometh an Embassadour for the Glory of Christ is all his ambition and truly honourable beyond the accession of all temporall dignity If it were not so I could further inform you that a Gentleman and Nobleman do not only gradually differ but are prorsus disparata wholly different The King wee say can make the one but cannot make the other I grant the privileges of a Gentleman are commonly supposed to belong to Ministers and decent civility may respect them as of that ranck but really there appears to me such a disparity betwixt these things and a Bishops receiving let be the usurping of the temporall and more eminent honour or Lord specially as above his Brethren that if a Minister as such should but tenaciously lay claime to the title of a Gentleman I would think it not only very misbecoming his Profession but a plain forfeiture of the pretended privilege But your N. C. urges to better purpose that Bishops should not Lord it over Gods heritage And you for Answere tell us That by Lording is meant a tyrannicall domination and not a tittle Next That Gods Heritage applyed by us to the Clergie is not in the Text bearing only not Lording over their Lots or Divisions to which you adde That Whatever argument we use to put down Bishops from being as Noble-men will also prove Ministers not born such not to be Gentlemen Sir to put this foolish trifling about titles first by hand Bishops neither are Noblemen nor ought to be esteemed quasi Noblemen because 1. The thing is altogether incompetent and the title without the thing is a vanity 2. Either title or thing as it exalts them above their Brethren is sinful and the very reverse of our Lords Command Whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant not your Lord. He that is chief let him be as he that Serveth not as a Nobleman How then can ye acclaime either thing or title 3. The title of Lord in its Ecclesiastick usurpation hath been and is so grossly abused by Church-men above all that our Lord reprehends in the pride of the Pharisees not only to the pretending to the uppermost roomes at feasts and the chiefe seats in the Synagogues but the chief places in States and the first banches in Parliaments not only to Greetings in the Mercaâ—s and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi but to ride next to the Honours and be called Grace Grace that seriously I marveil how you or any Christian regarding our Lords express words can justify it That these reasons do not militate against the civil and ordinary respect commonly payed to all Ministers and men of any fashion without either a vain usurpation in the receivers or any other thing then that courteous mutuaâ—l preference commended by the Apostle in the givers which without falling into the ravings of the Quakers their austerity you cannot from our Lords words redargue I think it needlesse to resume Now you say that by Lording prohibite to Church-men a Tyrannical domination is only meant why do you thus offer to impose contraire both to the import of the word and tenour of the Scripture the word used by Peter is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the very same used by our Lord Math. 20. Whence Peter himself learned the Prohibition that it signifies not to Tyrannize buâ— simply authoritative Dominari to rule with Authoritie all Lexica attest Neither doth the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 import more of force then what doth more expressively denote and distinguish the dominion of Empire and Authority from that of propriety As for the tenour of Scripture that it repugnes to your exposition is manifest 1. Because that where Math. in this passage useth the compound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke doth indifferently use the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of the same import to the present purpose by which your gloss of a tyrannicall domination is deprived of all shadow of ground 2. Because our Lord by both words doth only prohibite such a domination and authority amongst his Disciples as was exercised amongst the Gentiles by their Princes and which they who were called their Benefactors did use over them but certain it is that neither was the dominion of the Princes of the Gentiles allowedly or commonly tyrannick nor is it our Lords purpose in this place to brand them with such a character 3. The positive Command plainly set down and enforced by our Lords own example is too evident to leave any man hesitant as to the Prohibition But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among youâ— truely great in virtue and reward let him be your Minister Let him exercise the Ministery committed to him by way of humble and painfull service denyed to all worldly advantages and neither affect nor assume the Grandour and Authority of Civil Governours Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to Ministere and to give his life c. and made himself of no reputation contemning his Gentility and not valuing his Nobilitie but took upon him the form of a Servant Sir do we indeed beleeve that this is commanded and proposed for a pattern to Gospel Ministers And yet it is not only most certainly so but also undeniable that if there were in Ministers and Church-men that same Spirit of Obedience to God and love to Souls which was in him who accounted it his meat and drink to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work and if they had the same eye and regard to the joy set before them which he had who is the Author and â—inisher of our Faith it could not be other wayes For my part I think a serious reflection on these things is not only enough to confound for ever the ease vanity and pomp of aspiring Prelats but to make the best of Ministers ashamed to appear so much above their Master even in their indulged honesties and conveniencies But 4. Because the place that you touch is taken from Peter see how it also agrees with that of Math. Feed the flock of God c. Not as being Lords or Lording over Gods heritage but as being Ensamples where it is evident that the adversative doth not only reject your Gloss of a tyrannick domination But by commanding rather to lead and instruct by example then to rule by Authority hold furth the same humble and simple Ministerie to be enjoined here which by our Lord was before recommended The next thing you answere is that Gods heritage applied by us to the
Scripture and your sext to compleat the carier of your delusions Notwithstanding that the clâ—arest light both of Reason and Religion do exact a definite constant portion of time for a rest and this rest to be holy unto the Lord that the Law of God in recommending the celebration of the old Sabbath doth found it upon a perpetual determination of the seventh part of time grounded on Divine Authority and example and lastly that the Scripture in the antiquating of the service and observation of the Jewish Sabbath doth evidently translate the keeping of the perpetual holy rest unto the Lords day the first of the week Notwithstanding I say of these firme grounds your sext attempt darres to unfix this grand Ordinance the reverence or contempt whereof hath in all ages of the Church by experience been found of great moment and unquestionable influence either as to the promoving or decay of true Piety and Godlinesse how justly may it be said of you and your Compliâ—es who endeavour to make void the Divine institution of this day which your predecessours so grosly and wickedly profaned ye be witnesses there ore unto your selves that you are their Children fill ye up the measure of your Fathers But O â—ear lest you do not escape the damnation of Hell I will not take Notice of your own or your Non-conformist's meen reflection on these things That they may prove our Church was not perfâ—ct but will not justify you your answere to that which follows viz. do you mean to lay aside the Scripture 〈◊〉 rather to be considered wherein leaving the retortion of â—ouâ— objected insolence and big pretending to the impartiall examiner of what you have alledged and I replied â— come â—o your summe of the whole matter which you say is That the Scriptures were designed bâ— God for the purifying of the hearts and conversations of Men Most true And therefore it was not necessaire they should contain direct rules for the Church-policie which being a half Civill matter needs not Divine warrants a strange inference whereof almost every word is a ridle for first you grant that the Scripture doth contain Rules though not Direct rules for the Church-policie and yet you adde almost immediatly that it needs no divine warrant Then what mean you by Direct rules if you mean Particular as the subjoined Antithesis of Common doth give us to understand let these Scripture rules Common or not be observed and particular determinations thereto duely squared and it is all we contend for Search therefore the Scriptures and whatever latitude may be left therein as to the regulation of necessary and common circumstances according to decencie and order for Edification Yet I am confident that as to the substance and main of the Officers Discipline and Government of the Church the matters in controversie betuixt us both you shall be found thereby clearly condemned and we justified but if by denying the Scripture to contain direct rules for the Church-policie you understand that it only holdeth out indirect unstraight and ambiguous rules applicable to any forme as may best sute serve the interests and lusts of vain Men this indeed is agreeable to your scope but as far from Scripture as it is dissonant to the truth of God and Great ends of the Gospel 2. What do you understand by the Church policie its Officers Discipline and Government are the things which we contend for If you think these half Civil I would gladly learn what a Church as such can have more Ecclesiastick certainly if a distinct Head Jesus Christ a distinct Authority flowing from that all Power given to him a distinck manner nothing like but wholly opposite to the way of Civil rule distinct effects and ends as Holinesse and eternall perfection are from external justice and temporal peace and lastly a distinct subsistence of the Church and its Policie not only when disowned but mortally persecute by the Civil Powers may prove the Policie Ecclesiastick to differ from the Civil there can be nothing more clearly disterminat but if by Policie you only mean the externall protection and assistance which the Civil Magistrat may and ought to give to the Church it is not only half but wholly Civil as to its rise and cause and therefore the acknowledgement thereof we render under God heartily and entirely to the Powers which he setteth up I might further question what you call half Civil and how you come to deny that Divine warrant which at first you half grant but I shall content my self to declare the falshood of your inference understood of the Discipline and Government of Gods house the subject of our debate by shewing you that its plain contradictory is a Scripture truth viz. The Scriptures were designed by God for the Purifying of the hearts and conversations of men and therefore it was necessary they should they do contain direct rules for the Churches Policie wholly Ecclesiastick appointed by Jesus Christ The reason of the consequence is clear not only because the Church Policie viz. its Officers Discipline and Government are expresly and directly ordained by our Lord for our Sanctification Salvation as I have formerly shewen therefore their necessity such as cannot without the highest presumption be called in question but also because their usefulnesse in order to these ends is by diverse Scriptures undeniably held forth And he who as the Son was faithful over his own house gave some Apostles and some Prophets c. yea and all the Gifts Power Authority and Directions to be found in Scripture concerning them for the work of the Ministrie the Edifying of the body of Christ and perfecting of the Saints Is a truth so evident that I marvail how you could adventure on this Architectonick reasoning and offer to lay down the end and project of the Gospel and then frame and Modell its institutions and midses according to your own imagination and not rather humbly endeavour in the recognisance of his wonderfull love and fidelity to and care of his Church his own body with all sobriety to pursue the knowledge and practice of what things-soever he hath ordained for its edification I might further remember you that the rebuke and all the Censures of discipline are for Edification the Saving of the soul making sound in the faith and Causing others to fear and that we finde the exercise of the Churches Authority and Government in that Meeting and Decree made at Ierusalem attended with The consolation and establishment of the Churches But if your own concessions be but a little pressed they will easily exhibite the inconsistencie of your vanity you say then That the common rules are in Scripture 1. That there should be Church Officers and are not their Power Degrees and Ministerial Authority as certainly therein defined 2 That these should be separate for that function Ought not then the best among them give themselves continually and wholly to Prayer and to the
the Child which seing it meets not our Question you both objecte and answere to no purpose The next demand your N. C. makes is How then is Saul charged and his Children punished for killing the Gibeonites And to this you make a very pleasant return not unlike your answere made to our obligation of Allegeance viz Shat Saul is taxed for bloud and killing the Gibeonites who by the Lords ratiâ—ying the Princâ—s their Oath to them had got a right to their lives and not for perjurâ— against that Oath which the Princes swore Before I consider this answere let us first hear the Scripture 2 Sam. 21. 2. Now the Gibeonites were not of Israel but of the Amorites and the Children of Israel had sworne unto them and Saul sought to stay them c. Wherefore David said to the Gibeonites what shall I do for you do not these words clearly intimate that the injury done them was contraire to that former Oath whereby they were secured To this you say The Oath is only here mentioned to reminde the Reader of the former History but doth not at all say that the Oath was still binding But if the words be set down to reminde the Reader certainly it is in order to some apposite purpose and the blind account that you make is scarce worthy of your self let be the Scriptures of Truth Next what can be more evident then that the Oath is first mentioned to shew their right thence derived and Saul's injury being thereto subjoyned it is manifest that for his breach thereby incurred a reparation for an attonement is offered and seing the Scripture saith enough if it say not expressly that the Oath was still binding it seems only to be omitted because in that Age there was none who doubted much less of your opinionâ— to deny it Now as to your answer I must take notice of what you seem to insinuat that the Gibeonites were spared not by reason of their Covenant made with the Princes but by the Lords ratisying of it whereby they became to be excepted from the rest of the devoted Canaanites But Pray Sir do you not in so supposing conâ—adict your Fellow-brother the Surveyer of Naphtaly who ranteth as you use to do against his Adveâ—sary the Author of the Apologetical Relation who asserted the same which you here suppose 2. You speak of a ratification of this Oath of the Princes by virtue of which abstracted from the Oath these Gibeonites were spared which you would do well to explain and cleare Seing then you cannot but grant that the Gibeonites were spared and enjoyed their lives by the right of that peace sworne unto them my next reply is most evident viz. that your answere alledging Saul's killing the Gibeonites to have been cruell and bloudy against their Right but not perfidious against that Oath and Covenant whereby their Right was granted can no more be said of Saul then it might have been said of the Princes who at first swore if so be they had the very next hour brocken their Oath and destroyed these whom they had saved it being a truth most certain that as every violation of Faith is an injurious invasion of that right which was thereby secured so it is impossible for a right arising from a Contract or Covenant to subsist unless its cause do still stand be repute to be in force You add that Saul is taxed of bloud and not of perjury A poor shift But I have already shewed him to be noted for both bloudy deceitfull are of too near a conjunction to allow of your negative inference of the exclusion of the other because one only expressed And now Sir I have ended this point only let me say it without vanitie that as I judge your folly in this last discourse to be such as no sober man could lightly fall into without a judicial desertion so I am confident if there be any ingenuity in you the return which I justly make you of the Epilogue which in this place you so vainly use will cover you with blushes viz. Thus I have taken more pains then was needfull to shew the ridiculous fondnesse of your absurd notion viz. That Children can not be bound by their Fathers Oath and have said more to disprove it then ever you will be able to answere What follows in this Dialogue is a meere rapsodie of railing and in the first place to decline your N C. too pungent demand that for all you have said you cannot deny but the Covenant binds these who tooke it you make a hydeous noise of that Little noise which you say we made in breaking it in some things viz. In our silence and not declaring against the Apostacy Tyranny and Perjury of the Usurpers and in our faint giving over to Pray for the King Sir contemning your calumny I answere were not the Usurpers sufficiently opposed in their evill courses while there was hope And is this all you can say that the Lord having broken us and brought us under their feet in the humbling sense of his dreadful displeasure we did not madly declaime against such to warn whom after their rejecting of our brotherly admonition the Lord did not further require us We love not to vye with you or any other either in stedfastness in the Covenant or faitfulnes to the King in these confused and calamitous times but of this one thing I am most confident that his Majesty was more obliged to the Covenant and these who to this day adhere to it for the continuance of his remembrance both with God and men in the dayes of his Exile and in disposing to and preparing the way of his return then to all the present high and false pretenders who are not ashamed in their flattering impudence to averre that the most notorious and base acts of Compliance whereof they were then guilty were yet the effects of a pure and constant loyalty As for the thundering you say was in your Pulpits against your course before we were silenced and is at this day in our Conventicles is it not enough that you mock at the warnings of the Lords Servants whom for no other cause then true Zeal for God and tender Love to your Souls and just indignation at your sin you have beaten and expelled but you must also thereto add falshood in your alledgeance anent what you call Conventicles and insolent insulting over our undeniable short-coming in due admonition after his Majesties Restitution whereunto an excessive desire by faireness and moderation to stop the precipitant current of your late defection did too generally tempt us before we were ejected but the Lord hears and regardsâ— You tell us in the next place That the Tyrann's cruelty did formerly terrify us and now we presume upon the King's clemencie If I had ever professed the hundred part of that respect for Oliver that the Chief of your way did I would say and say it truely that what ever he was
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
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
That being made free from sin and become servants to God we have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Now then if there be a constraint in love and gratitude above the perswasion of fear and if the desire of reward be powerful above the apprehension of punishment these considerations are certainly cumulative and in our way above any thing that yours doth contain That I may therefore summe up this discourse anent the necessity of holiness Know that without holiness none shall see the Lord But hence it doth so ill follow that holiness by way of previous condition is to be joined unto our Faith in order to our Justification that on the contrary as God hath elected us in Christ Jesus to be holy so he also justifieth us through Faith in his Name not because we are but that in and by him we may be partakers of the glorious riches of his free grace in begun holiness here and consummat holinâ—ss in Glory hereafter and hereby is our obligation unto and study of holiness so far from being remitted that it is both promoved by the same standing fierie Law against all sin ungodliness and strengthened by that alsufficiency of grace which is in Christ Jesus for our compleating to whom through Faith we are united And lastly we are bound and encouraged unto it by all that is most binding in the Laws Authority and obliging in Divine bounty To all which this consideration may also be superadded that as the exercise of holiness remaineth with us still under the obligation of Divine precept and is certainly the end and effect of our acceptation in Gods sight so the same being the necessary consequence and inseparable effect of beleeving and thereby becoming its most assured test must upon this ground stirre up as effectually unto the truth and sincerity of Faith whence it flows and which doth again incite to the sincere closs and constant study of holiness by a reciprocal influence as your vain stating of it as a condition in our Justification doth but lamely perswade its persuite But I hasten to the last part of your discourse viz. That it is upon the necessity of holiness that we shall be solemnly judged justified and absolved at the last day I cannot now enlarge upon these mistakes that are again by you crouded into these few words it may here suffice that I tell you that it is without all doubt that on that day all men shall be solemnly judged according to the holy Law of God and therefore seing by the deeds of the Law there shal no flesh be justifyed in his sight The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that beleeve without the mixture or conjunction of our imperfect righteousness in the often forementioned respect is only thereby the more recommended 2. Where you say that it is upon this so understood necessity of holiness or upon our holiness that we shall be in that day solemnly justifyed and absolved you erre and impinge most grosly contrary to Scripture-evidence the value of Christs Righteousnesse the holiness of Gods Justice and the glory of free Grace as I have already demonstrat I grant indeed that in that day when our Lord shal gather into one welcome and appear glorious in all Beleevers he will also confess them before his Father and the holy Angels commemorate their charity and good works and in the exceding riches of his bountie reckon his own grace in them unto the increase of their reward but thence to inferre that it is upon our holiness that we are justifyed and absolved in Gods sight is destitute of all truth and reason Nay the very figure of that judgement wherever represented in Scripture bearing only in order to Beleevers their solemne reception and welcome from our Lord and Saviour as such who are already in him blessed and justifyed and by him redeemed and sanctifyed doth most plainly and powerfully confute it And thus I hope I have evidently demonstrat not in the language of men or in Schoole termes which on purpose I have declined but in the express revelation of the Gospel that that Doctrine of yours which you make your N. C. only to taxe as singular in its phrase and you your self do the more commend as being closely Scriptuâ—al is in effect both vain and antiscriptural in matter as well as expression What you mean by preferring the stile of the Catholick Church to Modern and Scholastical expressions under which the Doctrine of all the Reformed Churches is unavoidably comprised let others judge but as for the abuses which you mention viz. the presumption of such who love to hear of Salvation by the Death of Christâ— provided they be bound to do nothing themselves that they may be saved seing there can be nothing more engaging and effectual unto holiness then that which in Scripture termes we do assert viz. That we are saved and called with an holy calling not according to our works or doings but according to his own purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus the sin thereof remaineth with the Authors and pure and certain truth is neither thereby lessened nor ought to be stumbled at And therefore having fully redargued the falsehood of your Doctrine and the vanity of all your pretenses that I may once for all vindicat this most precious and important truth of Iustification by Faith only from all calumnie and warne all of that delusion which you would very unjustly make proper to our way I plainly and positively affirme that the study of holiness is a most necessary and indispensable dutie unto the justifyed Beleever 1. By the necessity of Divine precept at length above declared 2. By the necessity of loves constraint holiness being both amiable in it self and the high path way leading unto the seeing and enjoying of God who therein delights 3. By the force of fears perswasion in regard of Gods fatherly displeasure against all sin a motive most tenderly perswasive to all that are truely godly 4. By the obligation of gratitude which is indeed the cords of a man and cannot but powerfully engage the Beleever to the constant acknowledgement of God's free love and grace and to walk worthy of him who hath delivered us from death and called us with so heavenly a calling 5. For the manifestation to our selves of our faith and justifyed state to our own peace and comfort 6. For the adorning of the Gospel to the edification of others nay in a word if our felicity be in God if glory be our desire if free grace be the most powerfull attractive and sufficient help and if there be any dread and terror from Gods displeasure the study of holiness is by the united force of all these motives most strongly recommended and by the wonderful free love of God in our Justification through faith in Christ Jesus only yea infinitly intended In the next place your N. C. having acquit
no doubt if you had been Prelatick in those dayes you would have made it a far more plausible medium for the same conclusion And now our constancy to the truth once received and most solemnly ingaged unto and our abhorrence of the falshood and perjury of such who casting off all fear of God and regard to their own reputation either as Christians or men have subverted the righteous and pure constitution of this Church usurped its name and authority and are turned to be persecutors of such who cannot comply with all this wickedness is made by you not only a charge of separation but exaggerat as a preparative to the Quakers their folly O with how much more reason and undeniable evidence might the perjurious lightness and versatile falshood of your Prelats and their adherents who have been carried about by every wind of tentation be accused as the cause not only of the Quakers their giddiness by you objected But of all that contempt and regardless indifferency whereinto at present we see Religion thereby precipitat Your next quarrell is that we cherish in our followers a dejection of mind too much as if Religion which gives a man a right to the purest joyes should become a life of doubting and this you say introduceth a spirit of melancholy making way to pretended enthusiasme Whether or not this your challenge doth not in effect coincide with the cavils of the profane world and directly encourage that spirit which continually decrieth Religion as a â—our melancholy and inconversable conceit let every serious soul judge It is enough for our vindication that we do not teach any other dejection then that of humble repentance mortification and self-denial this is indeed a hard work compared in Scripture to the most bitter and grievous mournings nay unto death it self and seeing the superstructure of grace and glory thereupon founded is exceeding weighty and high it is certainly very necessary that these foundations be firmly laid and ever the deeper the better But as it is by the power of the spirit of Jesus and in the sense of his wonderful both depressing and exalting love that these things are best performed so an excess of humbling if not despairing abasement in this matter is no just fear and more unjustly made our reproach As for Religion no question it gives a man a right to the purest joyes and is also even in this life attended with a most ravishing foretaste and a most glorious and satisfying hope but if in this our bodily estate the same pure excellency of the thing and searching discoveries which it makes do by reason of the enmity of Satan and detestable and yet inevitable importunities and warrings of the World and the Flesh render us necessarily obnoxious to many doubtings fears and oppositions against which we are oblidged and by the word commanded to pray watch wrestle and fight continually do you therefore because we thus warn justly accuse us as if we made Religion a life of doubting let be to countenance these melancholy affectations and pretended enthusiasmes Sir if you were as serious in the practice as you appear affected in the speculations of Religion your experience of the many devices of Satan the deceitfulness of your own heart the uncessant oppositions of the Flesh and Spirit together with the oppressing and grievous sense of a body of death and sin which doth so easily beset would certainly convince you not only that security and not doubting is the common bane of professors but that our brightest shinings of joy in time are after the saddest shours of mourning that the most relishing wine of our consolation is made of the water of Repentance that it is from the seed of teares that the harvest of our joy groweth nay that our blessedness here is in a manner wrapped up in mourning and that it is hereafter only that we are to look for the times of refreshing when we shall be fully comforted But the Lord grant your more reall and solid dejections and deliver you from the vanity of an airy imagination which both in it self doth bend to and is frequently in righteousness plagued by these enthusiasmes wherewith you do reproach us And thus all men may see how unjustly we are by you blamed for the progress that Quakerism maketh amongst us and how directly not only that but most of the irreligion and profanity of these dayes is chargeable upon your way To this vindication I could further subjoin a very significant testimony viz. How that King Iames in his first and more innocent years did make his boast of the constitution of Presbyterian government as the most effectual bulwark against error and heresie but the certainty of this truth needeth no such support For your insinuation of piety and love here subjoined we have so often found the most keen arrowes of your calumny dipped in this oyntment that I think you oblidged to my civility when I pass it as one of your poor sweetening transitions In the next place you license your N. C. To characterize you freely to the effect that seeing you are resolved to let him prove nothing even what is truth in his charge may be construed prejudice but seeing it hath been my endeavour so to draw and design in vive collours that naming would appeare superfluous I need not prosecute such a representation As for the answere you return of your brave temper against reproach Apostolick firmness against all reports your pure anger without sin and more then humane goodness even to die for your hating traducers it were folly in me to question the truth where sincerity alone would be an incredible happiness but seeing these elogies are the smoak you capâ—at I grudge you not You go on and truly I beleeve with no less candor to class us in some sober and modest and others sour heady uncharitable and unsociable and for the first yow honour them great civility honour them the more for their first founder Calvin great wit and then lest this be taken for a jeer you tell us that the first being ever Presoytery had was in Calvin's brain and this you assure a great evidence indeed and verily whether your civility wit or evidence be the greater it were hard to determine only as it must be an extraordinary complement to which a scoffing jest doth make an accession and an extraordinary jest to which falshood gives the point and an extraordinary falshood which both the Scriptures the practice of the first and purest times of the Church and the more judicious and ingenuous of your own partie do redargue so questionless in all the three you are eminently singular Now for the second Class of us which you make to consist of narrow headed hot brain'd crosse grain'd Fanaticks you must be licensed to use them severely and with all my heart use such as you please only use the whole party and their cause truly and then I am confident this member of your
by their own interest to teach this doctrine of peace It is not many weeks since the chief of your Fathers as you terme them preaching before the King's Commissioner and many members of Parliament on that Text Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace told his hearers in the very entrie that the particular rules of mutual for bearance and tendernesse given in that Scripture by the Apostle were only convenient for the then state of that Church wanting a Christian Magistrate But now there being a Christian Magistrat his authoritie should quiet all scruples and might not be demurred by these pretenses and going on to show that the only way to peace is to allow to the King not only an outward coercive power but also an inward directive architecktonick uncontrollable power O fear the Lord all ye his Saints over conscience in the matters of Worship with much ado as eye and ear witnesses do attest he stammered through a part of the first chapter of a new Piece entituled a Discours of Ecclesiastical policie And thus he delivered to us the very same doctrine of peace which in several places of your Dialogues you do very plainly hold out Whether or not then it be in the same principle and for the same end that ye do here pray for peace love and charity let men judge For our part your power riches and dignities in themselves to say the truth the very meenest of these trifles are by us neither coveted nor envied Our souls desire and earnest prayer to God both in your and our own behalfe is that God would open our eyes turne back our hearts heal our backslidings and restore unto us his Gospel and blessed Ordinances in power and purity O turne us again Lord God of hosts cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved then shall Glory dwell in our Land mercy and truth meet and righteousnesse and truth kisse each other then should the work of the Lord appear unto his servants and the beauty of the Lord our God even peace unity and love be upon us As for these Scriptures wherewith you second your wish for peace Were I not more tender in opposing Scripture to Scripture then you are in abusing it to your own designe it were easie for me to repay your admonition to love by a more seasonable exhortation to you of repentance But since the very consideration of the words by you cited may rectify your misapplication my single desire is that you had pondered or could yet ponder them If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies let us fulfil the Lords joy that we be first of a sound minde then like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory a short discharge of all the pride persecution and pompe of your prelatick order but in lowlinesse of minde let each esteeme others better then themselves Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among us let him show out of a good conversation his◠works with meeknesse of wisdome But if you have bitter zeal or envying For seeing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wanting this adjunct signifieth also envie without the least reflection upon that holy zeal of God's house which is said to eat up even the pattern of meekness Prince of peace your poor criticisme in altering the translation shewes more of your malice then your learning and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be Zealous there fore and repent of your perjurie and Covenant breaking this wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish for where zeal or envying The word is indeed still the same and so is your folly in this remarke and strife is there is confusion and every evill work But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable not first peaceable and then impure as that of your partie is Gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercie and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie O desirable quality And the fruit of righteousnesse is sowen in peace of them that make peace Let us put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave us so let us do and above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness And let the peace of God rule in our hearts to the which also we are called in one body and let us be thankfull Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing one another in Psalmes and Hymns and Spiritual songs singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord and whatsoever we do in word or deed pray observe this fundamental direction Let us do all in the name of the Lord Iesus What shall we then say to these who in the Bond to the Publict Peace would not admit the name of the Lord to be mentioned Giving thanks to God and the Eather by him In all this I wish we were sincerily agreed And that these words were more deeply infixed in our mindes for I confesse I am wearie of vain janglings as much as you are and do long for truth and peace as much as you do for your much courted peace and indeed there is nothing that doth so much portend the Lords displeasure and imminent wrath as that not any pleadeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak lies they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquitie they hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web he that eateth of their eggs dieth and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper their works are works of iniquitie and the act of violence is in their hand they do much love outward peace but the way of peace they know not and there is no judgement in their goings they have made them crooked Pathes whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Therefore is judgement far from us and justice doth not overtake us we waite for light but behold obscurity for brightness bot we walk in darkness for our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them in transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood and judgement is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey Whether you or your N. C. account these words to proceed from a fretted minde or not I know not sure I am
there is that truth in them that though David's wished for wings may better suit your desire of rest yet Ieremiah's waterie head and weeping eyes with his retirement to a wildernesse would be the more agreeable wish to our condition But our relieff is that the Lord seeth and who knowes but he is displeased that there is no intercessor and that therefore his arme may bring salvation when he shall put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head when he shall put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and cloath himself with zeal even that zeal which you go about to maligne as with a clock However this is most certaine that the Redeemer is come to Zion and unto them that turne from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. But your N. C. recals me and tells us that the further he seeth in the great businesse of Religion he is the the more coovinced of a serene and placide temper which so qalisies the soul for Divine converse And these words do ravish and unite your heart to him in such a manner that for a conclusion to these your roving Dialogues you do very agreeably evanish in a fancied transport And really Sir I do as little question that the further a man seeth and is seriously exercised in the great businesse of Religion he will certainly be therby rendered of a more serene and placide temper The statutes of the Lord are indeed right rejoyceing the heart the commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes the divine light doth certainly give pure joy and pure joy no doubt doth elevat above all carnall perturbations and drossie pleasures there is a vertue in Religion that powerfully rebuking not only the windes of our tempestuous passions and the tossings of our vaine desires but the dreadful tempest of Gods anger doth make a great calme which bringeth unto Jesus Christ for refuge unto God for our rest and blesseth us with his peace that passeth understanding and filleth us with all joy in believing But your insinuation as if a serene and placid temper not flowing from but previously disposing unto Religion and fellowship with God were of special influence as to divine converse is at best but a continuation of your delusion I shall not say deceit suited to your great designe of preferring peace to truth and fraiming Religion to your own accommodation And truly in order to that end the advantages of a serene indifferencie and placide compliance resolving all difficulties by the conveniencie of ease and not striving in any case against the Authority and commands of such on whom our outward peace depends can not be denyed But seing it is the great work of Religion first to open the eyes and to turne from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God that we may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith and in these excellent graces true peace and full joy let him who would have a minde truly serene and not only a placide temper but a tranquill and joyful conscience studie and walk in this light discovering and abhorring every evill way and by purity and faithfulnesse even in that which is least make sure his peace and so shall he not only be qualified for but certainly attaine unto divine converse Serenity and tranquillity of minde when flowing from that wisdome from above which is first pure then peaceable and is the product of pure Religion and undefiled is no doubt no other then that light wherein God dwells and that calmness and weakness of Spirit wherein he delights But as for your serene and placid Temper whith you exhibite to us rather as preparatory then subsequent to Religion I must again tell you my feares that I find it so little agreeable to Religion's genuine methode and so very suitable to your carnal designes that I greatly apprehend that instead of advancing you to true divine converse it only seduce you into a fools paradise of your own dreams and imaginations Whether your ensuing raptures do thence proceed I leave it to others to judge But sure I am were you as earnest to pray Deliver my soul O Lord from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue as you would appear serious in the following regrete of having too long dwelt among them that hate peace You had rather choosed to suffer affliction with the people of God esteeming the reproach of Christ even treason and sedition great riches and respecting and looking for the recompense of the reward the eternal love and peace of God then to have taken the compendious way of a sinful compliance for obtaining this worlds ease and quiet Which I am confidentâ— that holy man whose words you usurpe would have abhorred at the rate As for the thick fogs and mists of contention which you complaine of if this life were indeed to you a valley of tears as you give it out while all light and purity is almost destroyed by the lust and ignorance of your prelatick party it would have been to these infernal vapors and clouds of smok by which our Sun and air are darkned and not to the just and necessary opposition of a small faithful remnant against your apostacy that you had ascribed the noisomness which you mention But behold the nimblenesse aswell as the delusion of the mans fancy he hath for outward ease cast away a good conscience and preferred all along peace unto truth All the disturbance he meeâ—eth with is the dissent of a few faithfull unto God and stedfast in his Covenant whom he and his party do therefore persecute This small innocent non-complyance he complaineth of as if he were the most refined and tender Saint grieving for the wicked and rageful persecution of the ungodly from which imaginary and feigned distresse with the same artifice and facility he pretendeth that his relieff is in divine contemplation whither as to the mountaine of God he flieth forsooth for Sanctuary that he may take rest But this triumphing of your presumption shall be but short the joy of the hyhocrite is but for a moment though his excellency reach up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is he he shall fly away as a dream and be chased away as a vision of the night for who Lord shall dwell in thy holy hill and who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousnesse and speaketh the truth in his heart he that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evill to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift vp his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his Salvation If therefore your pretensions be such as you professe you must not overlooke the way that God himselfe hath designed but walk in it with fear Your vain phantastick soarings will not carry you either over or by it Nay in the end they will prove a lie and tumble you into destruction For what is the hope of the Hypocrite when he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Think not that these things are from ill nature and spoken in bitterness Nay Sir I may very seriously protest that when I reflect on your laxe and unsound principles not only in the matters of Government and Worship but even in the head of justification and several other parts that you have given me occasion to touch with your enmity and reproaches against the work of God and the Kingdome Ministry and Ordinances of our Lord Iesus Christ and how on the other hand you endeavour to shreud your self under the high pretenses of peace love charity and devotion wholly heavenly I can scarce refrain from trembling in the thoughts of such deep and abusive hypocrisie And therefore though you should scorn my compassion yet will I not forbear to give you my best advice You seem to have the forme of knowledge and of the truth in the word Nay thou makest thy boast of God and divine contemplation the secret of Gods presence and the refreshfull shades of the Almighty where joy unspeakable and the most pure solaces flow appear to be your familiar retreat But as it is too too evident that neither your principles nor practice are very suitable to this profession nay that there is no noise heard of this profession while you are bussied in serving mens designs and your own fancies And that it is only after you have striven to the outmost in perswading or contradicting that you seek to evade or delude by these pretensions So my earnest request is that in place of fancie that evaporats all your knowledge into imagination faith and love may suck down the truth into your heart to convert you indeed unto God and reveal in you with power his Son Iesus Christ that you may love the Lord with all your soul and strength and trust in him alwayes have respect unto all his Commandements and observe all his Ordinances then should you walk in the way safely and the Lord should be your confidence And though you should be exercised with the same perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes the same strife of tongues and persecution of adversaries whereof we have so large an experiment yet amidst all these boisterous windes and tossing waves God would be your Rock light joy strength and salvation for ever Sir this is our faith and also our victory for which when you shall as seriously contend as you do vainly pretend to outward peace and mans favour then shall true peace even that peace which the World neither gives nor can take abound unto you to establish you unto the end Let us therefore fight the good fight keep the faith and lay hold on eternal life that we may finish our course with joy so shall we receive that Crown of Righteousnesse which the righteous Iudge shall give unto us at that day and not unto us only but unto all them also that love his appearing Even so come Lord JESUS FINIS
together with him in the likeness of his Resurrection and alive through him unto God that we also should walk in newness of life the necessity of holiness is evidently thereby as much assured as the acts of life are in their proper principle How can it then be alledged that in our way the necessity of holiness is less secured then in yours Nay such is the certainty of this truth that true Faith in Jesus Christ is the root and principle of the new life of holiness that as it is by you acknowledged so I cannot but wonder how reason could so quickly desert you as to think that any necessary effect such as you must grant good works to be of true Faith can be rationally joined with its cause in the consideration of a condition which your discourse imports If fire or life were in any case required as a condition he that should thereto join heat or motion necessarily thereon dependent were plainly ridiculous I need not take notice of what may be objected from these seeming Beleevers who because of their profession are said to be in Christ and yet for want of fruits to be cut off as it doth not more militat against us then against you who acknowledge true faith to be alwayes fruitful so it answereth it self But 3. because by necessity its like that you do understand the obligation to holiness as if in your way it were rendered more binding and pressing and thence would commend your explanation as more engaging unto a holy life I shall not here resume what I have already declared viz. 1. That to press the necessity of holiness antecedently to our being and acceptation in Jesus Christ is vain and fruitless 2. That to join our imperfect holiness with Christs unspotted and alone sufficient Righteousnesse which is faiths value is proud and presumptuous but rather represent these true grounds of the necessity of holinesse which are found in our way equally yea more obliging then all your vain pretenses And 1. We say with the Apostle that the holy and just and good Law of God remaineth in its entire force threatning and condemning all sin whereever found and as the poor sinner convicted is thereby urged to flee for refuge unto Christ who alone delivereth from the wrath to come so he who expecteth Salvation by the Death of Christ and doth not witness the truth of his profession in a holy life is in so farre no less exposed to its severity and terror neither can the Beleever sinning whatever may be the difference of his state in Gods sight more pretend to the peace and favour of God without repentance renewed and faith in Christ reacted whence the study of holiness will undoubtedly revive and flow then the wicked persisting in his impenitence What is then the difference betwixt you and us You must acknowledge that the great obligation of holiness doth descend from the Law of God and we grant that this holy Law continueth in the same force and power against all sin I say not sinners whereever found whether in the Beleever or Unbeleever so that thereby in our way licentiousnesse to sin must be equally excluded If you say that by requiring Faith alone for Iustification we relaxe the study of holiness I must again tell you that true faith in Christ Iesus the thing which we require cannot be without the study of holiness Next if any person should thence delude himself unto licentiousness the Holy Law of God remaining in the same severity against it cannot but in our way wherein that high aggravation of turning the Grace of God unto wantonnesse is more manifest be also more powerful If any man go on to urge us with the possible delusions of presumption and libertinisme whereunto the Devil both hath and may abuse the truth and free grace of God he but fighteth with the Devils weapons whereby mans wretched frailty is indeed discovered but the truth by Paul plainly asserted against the like cavâ—â—â—aâ—ions and by us owned not in the least impugned Nay I may further affirme that as all error is delusâ—on and inductive of more so where one hath been tempted to abuse the proposal of free Grace hundreds through Natures pride both desiring and overvaluing propriety have stumbled upon this your so descrived conjunction of our good works and fallen into that not entire submitting unto the Righteousness of God and a going about to establish their own Righteousness by which sin the rock of Salvation became unto the Iews a rock of offence 2. As the Law in the severity of its sanction doth still abide in force to deterre from all sin to bring in and reclaime unto Iesus Christ our Righteousnesse and also our Sanctification so it s more binding Authority derived from the greatness and goodness of God it s own holiness and perfection are upon none so powerful and in none so effectual as these who through faith have laid hold on Christ Iesus for Righteousness and therethrough alone have attained unto peace I need not tell you that true repentance discovering the sinfulness as well as the guiltiness of sin cannot but endeare holiness and that God appearing in Christ Iesus in that inconceivable glory of his Holiness Iustice Love and Mercy and justifying us through Faith in his Name cannot but beget a deeper reverence and a greater regard to his will and commandments then all the thunderings of mount Sinai the greatest motive to holiness in the construction of your way But when I consider that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousnesse and that the Law through Faith is not made void but more established and therefore we are chosen and created in him unto holiness and good works to the Glory of God when I observe the connexion that God hath established and his word holds out betwixt Iustification and Sanctification 1. In his purpose Eph. 1. 4. 2 Thess. 2. 13. 2. In his promise Ezek 36. 25 26 27. Micah 7. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 3. In his precept Tit. 3. 8. 4. In Christs purchass Tit. 2. 14. 5. In the Gift of Christ to his people 1 Cor 1. 30. 6 In the sincere desire of and great dâ—light in holiness as well as pardon recorded of the Saints in all the Scripture specially Psal. 51. 103. 3. 7. In the description of lustification given us by Paul in the first 6 chap. Rom. and Gal. 2. I seriously wonder how you or any man can doubt but a holy life both in its obligation and also in its performance is by the way of Iustification by Faith only molsty assured 3. In the way of Justification by faith only not only the obligation of the Law of God remains in the manner declared but also our Lord for our further encouragement unto holiness hath graciously intimat that even these good works wâ—ich we performe in his strength shall be by the same grace from which they flow also graciously rewarded Wherefore the Apostle saith