the Concurrence and Co-operation of several Causes to the producing of the same Effect as there usually is in God's working savingly upon men As men are said in Scripture to be born of God to be born of the Spirit so they are said to be born of the Immortal Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1.23 Because that is God's Instrument Of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 And the Gospel is the Ministration of the Spirit and the Sword of the Spirit as it is called because it is the great Instrument or Means by which the Spirit doth its Work upon men Indeed the Work of Grace in men is most properly attributed to God to Christ though other Causes concur to the producing of that Effect because he is the principal Cause of it and all other but subordinate and yet the Effect is sometimes attributed to subordinate and second Causes also though less properly Thus Christ the principal Cause of it is said to be The Light of the World the Light of men because he by his Gospel as the Author of it discovers and reveals to them a future everlasting Happiness attainable in another World and the way to it and yet the Gospel it self yea the Apostles and Pastors and Christian Professors are also said to be the Light of the world as subordinate Causes under Christ of the Illumination of men in the knowledge hereof Mat. 5.14 2 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 2.15 16. All which had you well considered you would never have opposed mens being enlightened and taught by Christ as ye do to their being taught by the Scriptures or by men and all because forsooth the Illumination of men is attributed to Christ This very thing here suggested to you would in great part reduce you and set you to rights if you could be but willing to receive and own that for truth which cannot without great absurdity and contradiction to the Scriptures be denied But for want of distinguishing between things and things which in some respect seem to be the same but in other respects greatly differ you run your selves into Error and great Absurdities I will upon this occasion instance in another thing not much unlike to that but now mentioned wherein you greatly mistake for want of distinguishing and that is touching the Presence of Christ in men For because the Scriptures speak of Christ's being in men and because Christ is God and God euery where present and so in all men from these thus jumbled together you infer that therefore Christ is in all men and that being so you farther infer that all men are taught by him himself immediately without external Teaching In doing of which you confound things together which are distinct to the darkning of them in your understandings and the misguiding you in Judgment You do not distinguish as you ought to do between the Essential Presence of Christ as God and his Virtual Presence as Mediator God-man For although Christ as God is present to every man in the exercise of common Providence in the world My Father worketh hitherto and I work saith he John 5.17 yet in respect of his Virtual Presence as Mediator as when he rules and operates in mens hearts by his Authority and by the Evangelical Law in this sence which yet is doubtless the sence in which Christ is said in Scripture to be in men and to dwell in them I say in this sence he is not in all men For men are said to be without Christ until they are converted to Christianity Eph. 2.12 And it is by Faith which only some and not all men have that Christ dwells in any mans heart Eph. 3.17 It is by that Faith that his Authority in his Doctrine and Law is owned and where that 's sincerely owned there Christ is said to dwell Not that Christ as Mediator God-man dwells personally in men for in that sence and respect he dwells in Heaven and is at the right hand of the Majesty on high And therefore as Teacher of his Church he doth not teach men now immediately in person but by his Gospel which he sends to them by which he enlightens them in the way of Salvation Ye do therefore err not knowing or understanding the Scriptures while you attribute those effects to the Essential Presence and immediate operation of Christ in men which are wrought by him indeed but it is by the Instrumentality and Agency of second Causes the Gospel and the Ministration thereof by men I wish that by these Instances you could be made sensible of your great weakness in despising Distinctions as if they were but effects of Carnal Reason and Fleshly Wisdom for sith Words that are the same in sound are often used to signifie things of a different Nature and words different in sound to signifie things of the same Nature instances of which the Scripture abounds with they must of necessity be perpetually liable to Error and gross Mistakes that throw away Distinctions as useless which is your own case in many other things besides these now instanced in Since then it was God's Method in the Apostles dayes to bring men to salvation by believing and obeying the Doctrine preached by them as I have shewed It is marvellous that any that pretend to know any thing in Christianity should deny this Doctrine to be the Rule of Faith and Christian Practice whenas that 's the very end and Reason of the promulgation of it to direct men what to believe and do that they might be saved and to excite them to believe and do accordingly When St. Paul saith Whereto we have attained let us walk by the same Rule doth he not by Rule mean the Apostles Doctrine whenas in the next words he proposeth himself that lived according to what he taught as an example for them to follow Phil. 3.16 17. It was the great commendation of the primitive Christians that they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine Acts 2.42 And St John said Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God And to transgress sure is to swerve from the Rule 2 John 9. This Doctrine of Christ is called the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 4.23 and 9.35 and 24.14 For it is that Rule by which Christ our King doth rule and govern his Subjects both in Heart and Life as the Laws of the Land are the Rule according to which Earthly Kings do govern theirs The Sum and Substance of the Doctrine which the Apostles preached one as well as another and in one place as well as another is called The Form of Sound Words 2 Tim. 1 13. The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. And this Form of Doctrine was delivered to the Christians to rule and govern themselves by Rom. 6.17 But now have obeyed from the heart that Form of Doctrine which was delivered to you And it was so much a Rule to them that they were commanded to mark and
lest then that come upon you and be said of you which is written in one of the Prophets I have written to them the great things of my Law and they have counted them as a strange thing Hos 8.12 § 7. 5. The next Proposition is this That the Holy Scriptures extant in the Apostles days in conjunction with the Doctrine of the Christian Faith however made known by Writing or otherwise were then through that Grace of God which usually attends a due use of them able to make men wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 And that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus If by Scriptures here you will understand the Scriptures of the Old Testament only yet you may easily collect that if those Scriptures were in great part able to make men wise unto Salvation then when the Gospel was on foot then the Scriptures of the New Testament as containing the Christian Doctrine are able to do it much more and both in conjunction to be effectual to that end The Apostle acquainted the Christians then that the Mystery of the Gospel by the Scriptures of the Prophets is and that according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith Rom. 16.25 26. § 8. 6. The Holy Scriptures as the means which God works by are able not only to make men in a private capacity wise unto salvation but also to furnish men for the discharging of the publick Office of Teaching and Governing in the Church of God The Holy Scriptures given by inspiration of God are profitable for Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness so as to make the man of God to wit a publick Preacher perfect throughly furnished to all good works even to enable him to discharge his whole Duty towards the Souls of others 2 Tim. 3.16 And St. Paul by his Writings instructed even Timothy himself how to behave himself in his Office and publick Capacity 1 Tim. 3.14 These things write I unto thee that thou maist know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God And for the better discharge of his Ministerial Office directs and enjoins him to give attendance to Reading and to Meditation or Study 1 Tim. 4.13 15. Which sure would have been needless if he had been sufficiently able to have done all by the immediate Illumination and operation of God's Spirit as you fancy your Teachers are able to do § 9. 7. The same promise is made to the reading of the Word written and to the keeping of it as is to the hearing and keeping of it Rev. 1.3 Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophesie and keep those things which are written therein § 10. 8. The Scripture is said to say this or that which yet God said himself or by his Servants Rom. 9.17 The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee Rom. 10.11 The Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under sin What saith the Scripture Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son Gal. 4.30 Which yet was the Saying of God himself Gen. 16. Another Scripture saith They shall look on him whom they have pierced John 19.17 No Prophesie of the Scriptures is of private Interpretation 2 Pet. 1.20 So that according to this look what God saith in and by the Scriptures touching such things as concern us is in effect the same as if he had spoken them to us himself immediately If any man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things I write until you are the Commandments of the Lord said St Paul 1 Cor. 14.37 You are wont to insinuate indeed as if the Scriptures were not of that use to us now as they were to them to whom they were first written But however they might more concern them than us in some particular cases proper to them yet in things of common concern they are as much for our use as they were for theirs For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning Rom. 15.4 What God said to Joshua I will never leave thee nor forsake thee the Apostle would have all faithful Christians relie on as if it had been spoken to themselves Heb. 13.5 That which was first spoken to the Jews Lev. 26. The Apostle applies to the Believing Gentiles as much as if it had been spoken to them only 2 Cor. 6.16 For ye are the Temple of the Living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people § 11. 9. We that have the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles brought down to us in the Scriptures may according to Scripture-Dialect be said to have Christ and his Apostles as truly as it was said of the Jews in our Saviour's days on Earth that they had Moses and the Prophets for it was by having in the Scriptures what they said and did that were said to have them And by hearing and believing the Scriptures of the New Testament we may as well be said to hear and believe Christ and his Apostles as they to hear and believe Moses and the Prophets which yet they were said to do when they did believe their Writings Luke 16.29 They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Ver. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead John 5.46 47. Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his Writings how should ye believe my Words Christ promised his Apostles upon his giving them Commission to teach all Nations that he would be with them to the end of the world and he is so in one sense when he accompanies their Ministration by their Doctrine and Writings with the presence of his Grace and power in their continuation to the end of the world And as it is said of Moses Acts 15.21 That he had those in every City that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day inasmuch as his Books of the Law were read so for the same or like reason it may be as truly said that Christ hath those that preach him now when the Books of the New Testament written by inspiration of his Spirit are read among us and opened unto us every Lord's Day You may then safely conclude that those that have the Doctrine of Christ in his Gospel among them have Christ among them and all that receive and hold fast that do receive and hold fast him So saith St. John in his second Epist v. 9. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he hath both
they may be with some But though the things necessary to salvation are in the Revelation of them accommodated to the capacities of the weak and simple whose Salvation is designed by them as well and as much as theirs of stronger and quicker apprehensions yet there are things under the New Testament that are hard to be uttered as the phrase is Heb. 5.11 and therefore hard to be understood as the phrase is again 2. Pet. 3.16 As there is milk for Babes who are unskilful in the Word of righteousness so there is meat for strong Men who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both good and evil as 't is said Heb. 5.13 14. And mens differences about these points proceed at the best from their different measures of Light and understanding and sometimes are persisted in from that which is worse So it was in the Apostles time between the believing Jews and the blieving Gentiles Rom. 14. Which by the way would not have been if all good Christians then had been guided by an infallible Light within as you suppose they are now If they had they would not have needed to have been taught and re-taught which are the first principles of the Oracles of God as some of them were Heb. 5. But when men which are but poor in knowledge and yet rich in confidence undertake to manage and master these more difficult points and passages of Scripture they too often wrest them to their own destruction as St. Peter speaks 2. Ep. 3.16 And this they either do or are in great danger of doing when they fasten upon some wrong sence and notion of hard and difficult places of Scripture and then pervert plain and easie places by interpreting them to their wrong sence of those that are more obscure and difficult especially when their interpretations are not mere speculations but such as influence men in their practice as becoming a rule to them therein Whereas the more wise and judicious never interpret hard places in opposition to the common sence of those that are plain and easie but explain those that are hard and difficult by those that are plain The use I would advise you to make of all this is to review the grounds you have gone on and to cease from your new notions and speculations of your being taught only by the Light within which you have taken up from some expressions in Scripture misunderstood by you and wholly disagreeing to the Scope of the places where they are found and contrary to the general current of the Scriptures in their plain and obvious sence Seek not a Knot in a bulrush seek not for Mysteries there where the Lord hath declared his mind plainly and in no parable But form your notions of God's method of proceeding with men to bring them to Salvation according to the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures and receive from and regulate by that Doctrine all your apprehensions perswasions affections and operations of your Souls together with all your words and actions So did the good Christians of Old they obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to them Rom. 6.17 They purifyed their souls in obeying that Truth through the Spirit 1. Pet. 1.22 Yea the Apostles themselves were first taught by Christ's preaching unto them what to think and believe concerning Christ John 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me And just as the Apostles preached so the Christians believed they made their Doctrine the Adequate Rule of their notions of things the Rule of their Faith the Rule of their Life So we Preach and so ye believed saith St. Paul 1. Cor. 15.11 And those great plain known and commonly received Truths necessary to Salvation called the common Faith Tit. 1.4 the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. these I say were the Rule and Standard by which they were to try the Doctrine of such as only pretended to Inspirations from the Spirit Beloloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World 1. Joh. 4.1 And then St. John in ver 2 3. commends to them one known fundamental Doctrine pertinent to his Case then in hand by which they might know the Teachers he cautioned them against were not inspired by God nor authorized by him Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God And again verse 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us adhered to and governed themselves by the Apostles Doctrine he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error And truly if you will not make the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures touching Faith and a good Life your Rule by which to try and to judge of the Truth and erroneousness of your conceptions perswasions motions and inclinations under the notion of the Light within and of all your words and actions consequent thereupon you are and will be in great danger to be like the wandring Stars and the clouds carried with a Tempest of which St Peter and Jude speak unfixed and unstable in your judgment Faith and Ways For it is certain and evident whatever you pretend to the contrary that the Light within you is not in your own account always a certain constant and infallible Rule to you for if it were you would not act so contrary to your selves as you have done under pretence of being taught of God and guided by the Light within One while crying up your former practice of shaking as the effect of God's work in and upon you and another while confessing it to be a delusion as Samuel Fisher one of note with you did to me saying it was so judged One while crying down all Ecclesistical forms of Government as tyrannical another while erecting one among your selves pretending to as much Infallibility in your Body representative in managing it as the Papists do in reference to the Pope One while owning the witnessing of a person to be from God and another while condemning the same for an error or delusion How often have those of your number thought they have been sent by God on messages who after have found themselves deluded By these and other like instances you may be convinced that if you do not make the Doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures the Adequate Rule of the motions and inclinations of your minds and the actions of your lives whereby to know when they are of God and when not you have then no certain Rule to
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God v. 5. We must needs take this for a description of saving Faith because those that are born of God and overcome the World are the Children and so the Heirs of God To the same purpose are those words John 2â— 31 These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name And to this description of Faith agrees the several confessions of Faith we read of Thus Peters confession runs Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God Mat. 16.16 And again John 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the Living God Thus runs Martha's John 11.27 I believe that thou art Christ the Son of God which should come into the World And thus runs the Ennuchs also Act. 8.37 I believe that Christ is the Son of God But in as much as we are assured by the same authority of Scripture that those that repent not shall perish Luke 13.3 and that those that obey not the Gospel shall be punished with everlasting destruction 2 Thes 1.7 8. and that except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 nor without holiness see God Heb. 12.14 it follows of necessity that the Faith afore described is such a belief that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God as doth effectually draw Men to believe his Doctrine and to obey his Laws in doing of which they become New Creatures and overcome the World For he that believes Christ to be the Son of God and considers what he believes must needs believe all his sayings and the whole of his Doctrine to be true for it is impossible for God to lie And he that believes his Doctrine to be true and considers what he believes must needs be under the influence of the most powerful Motives imaginable to repent of a bad and to lead a good Life because Christ hath expresly declared from God that the one shall be punished with everlasting Destruction and the other rewarded with Life Eternal So that Faith works that change in Men by which they become New Creatures are born of God and sanctified by way of Motive as it doth evidence to the Soul and bind upon the Mind the things not seen as those wherein a Man is infinitely more concerned than in any than in all the things which are seen and therefore must needs be governed in the course of his Life by them and not by the other but in subordination unto them For Faith as it is a powerful Motive is an Operative Principle of a good and Holy Life And upon this accoont all the brave and Heroick Acts of those Worthies mentioned in Heb. 11. are said to be done by their Faith as that was to them the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and as such an active Principle of those effects And thus the Life which St. Paul lived in the Flesh he lived through the Faith of the Son of God as every good Christian doth as being thereby perswaded thereto Gal. 2.20 And because Faith is thus Motive-wise such an Operative Principle of a good and Holy Life therefore it is that Men of such a Life are usually described by it in the New Testament and are stiled Believers And when good Men are otherwise described by their fear of God and Love to him as many times they are especially in the Old Testament it is because Fear and Love are also powerful Principles of Action that Govern Men in their way A true Believer then according to the New Testament Dialect is neither more nor less than a Disciple of Christ or a faithful follower of him one that frames his Belief and Life according to his Doctrine and Example And the Faith of every such one is such in its Operation and Effects as doth constitute and denominate him a good Man By all this it may easily be diserned that when Men are said to be justified or to be saved by Faith it is not to be understood of the meer Act of believing abstracted from its effects and alone but as it is an Active and Operative Principle changing the Heart and reforming the Life And accordingly Justification and Salvation are in Scripture attributed to the Effects of Faith as well as to the Act of believing Jam. 2. And when ever they are attributed to believing indifinitely it is not without reference to the effects proper to it when it is of the right kind Now as Faith is described in the Scriptures forecited by its Object and by its acting upon its Object by assent so it is in other Scriptures described by its effects which are produced by its actings upon its Object And so a Believer is described by his coming to Christ John 6.35 He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that Believet on me shall never Thirst saith Christ For mens coming to Christ to learn of him what he hath done and will do for their Souls and what they themselves are to do that they may be saved is the effect of their believing him to be the Son of God and sent of God to bring Salvation unto Men and to declare how and upon what Terms it is to be had And so when Believers are described by their receiving of Christ as John 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name they are then described by the effect of their Faith also For when they receive him for what indeed he is Priest Prophet and King it is because they believe that evidence by which he appears to be so Furthermore when Believers are described by their Trusting in Christ or Relying on him as in Ephes 1.12 Who first trusted in Christ Their Faith is described by its effect For men will not venture their Souls in trusting in Christ and relying on him for the expiation of their Sins by his Blood for direction what to do that they may be saved and for Pardon and eternal Life upon the condition upon which those Benefits are promised untill they first believe him to be the Messiah the Son of God and Saviour of the World upon some evidence they have that he is so But although the Holy Penmen of the Scriptures did not in every description of saving Faith attend unto the Rules of Art by taking in all the essential parts but described it sometimes by its assenting Act and Object and sometimes by its Fruits and Effects as occasions did occur Yet we for our parts shall be best able to make a right Judgment of the true Nature of Saving Faith by that which results out of the several descript ions of it in Scripture when compared together And by comparing those several descriptions together we may also perceive that when Faith as saving is described by its Effects yet then the assenting Act of Faith upon its Object is still implyed supposed and ought to be understood though it be not there exprest and so are the effects too when but only the Act and Object are mentioned By all which we may learn that those are none of the best definitions of saving Faith which Men make when they define it by the Act and Object alone or by any of the Effects alone THE END ADVERTISEMENT THere is lately published a Book called A Perswasive to Peace and Unity among Christians notwithstanding their different apprehensions in lesser things To be sold by B. Aylmer at the three Pigeons in Cornhil
Apostles themselves by immediate Revelation yet belief of it and obedience to it upon that less degree of Evidence is not the less but rather much more rewardable than is obedience to it upon greater evidence John 20.29 Jesus saith unto him Thomas because thou hast seen thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed It is not to be imagined but that the Apostles and Evangelists have expressed the Christian Doctrine and the Reasons why it should be believed in as plain terms when they wrote it as when they preached it They could hardly speak those great Doctrines touching the Essentials of Christianity plainer than they are communicated to us by their Writings yet how plain soever they spake them the very same things prejudice worldly interest and the love of Lust which now detain men from obeying their Doctrine as communicated and transmitted down to us by their Writings did in like manner keep back Multitudes from yielding Obedience to their Doctrine then when they themselves preach'd it to them and wrought many Miracles to convince them that it was from God And as men then that had no mind to obey the Doctrine which Christ and the Apostles preach'd raised Cavils and pickt Quarrels against it Why do you not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my Word said our Saviour to such John 8.43 Even so at this day those Atheistical and loose men that have no mind to conform their Hearts and Lives to the holy Doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures raise Cavils and pick Quarrels against the Scriptures which are a standing Reproof to their bad Tempers and evil Lives which because they are so they seek by all means to invalidate them that they might the more securely and without disturbance from them hold on their ungodly course secretly or openly How far any that have led you the way may be concerned in such a thing as this I shall not say but sure I am it concerns both you and them to think on 't and so much the rather because 't is seldom if ever seen among other men but that those that are cold in their affection to the Scriptures are as cold to the power of Godliness or rather zealously hot against it And indeed I must needs say you bewray your cold affection to and your little and slight esteem of the holy Scriptures while you think you have ground pleasedly to call them the Dead Letter from that Saying of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 3.6 Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit And to call those that preach from the Scriptures Ministers of the Letter Whereas that Expression is so far from serving your purpose herein as that if you understood it which alas you do not you would find it to cast a Glory and Honour upon the Scriptures of the New Testament and no disparagement at all upon those of the old upon any account of the matters therein contained as being written For the Doctrine of the Old Testament it self is not called the Letter because it is in Writing nor that of the New the Spirit because not in Writing but because the Subject-Matter of which the Mosaical Covenant did much consist and many of the things therein contained were but figurative and outward Representations of those excellent Spiritual things which in the Gospel are plainly and nakedly expressed without any such Vail or Cover For so the Apostle in the process of this his Discourse doth more plainly express it ver 12 13 14. We use great plainness of Speech and not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face so that the Children of Israel could not look or see to the end of that which is abolished Which Vail is done away in Christ that is in the Doctrine of Christ in the New Testament in which Doctrine Divine and Spiritual Truth is stripp'd out of its Cloathing and Covering and represented as it is in its own nature and not in dark figures And that this and not the Writing or not Writing is meant by Letter and Spirit will farther appear by comparing other Texts of Scripture with this Rom. 2.29 Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter By Letter here is plainly meant Circumcision in the Flesh and by Spirit that which was couched under it or signified by it and that is the Circumcision of the Heart which in the New Testament is called Mortification or Purifying of the Heart or crucifying Affections and Lusts So again Rom. 7.6 But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is according to those plain Precepts of the Gospel which answer the Spirit and Scope of the Law and not in the outward Ceremony which were but figurative of them as in offering our Bodies a living Sacrifice instead of slain Beasts in cleansing our selves from the filthiness of the flesh instead of Legal Purifications by washing the Body in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh and all evil Concupiscence and not in cutting off the Foreskin of the Flesh And those Ministers that preach this and other like Spiritual Doctrine out of or according to the Scriptures of the New Testament and not the Ceremonies of Moses they are Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit Which had you understood you would never have poured your spiteful contempt on them as you have by calling them Letter-Preachers I shall conclude what I have said in this Proposition to shew that the same regard is due to the Doctrine of the Apostles when written as now it is as when it was preached by them by remembring you of this one great Truth That every man shall be tried and judged at the last day by that Law he hath been under The Gentiles that are or have been without a written Law shall be judged without any such Law and the Jews which were under a written Law they shall be judged by it Rom. 2.12 Even so those that are under the Gospel written will be judged by that as those that were under the immediate preaching of it by Christ and his Apostles before it was written will be judged by that He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the Word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day saith our Saviour John 12.48 And if that be the Rule by which those shall be judged that have his Word made known to them be it by one means or by another then it greatly concerns all such to make that Word of his the Rule of their Life and Practice as ever they hope to come off well upon their Trial at last whatever you talk of it s not being a Rule as it is a written Word And therefore beware
the Father and the Son And again 1 John 2.24 If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father § 12. 10. That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature is a most important Doctrine declared in writing by St. Paul Gal. 6.15 And when he saith in the next Verse As many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them it is most evident he was not of your mind and way who hold that the Holy Scriptures or Doctrine contained in them which is the same are not a Rule of Christian Faith and Practice This written Doctrine of the Gospel we see is a Rule for Christians to walk by as the written Law and Testimony was to the Jews and as it was said of those that walked not according to that Word or Rule that it was because there was no Light in them Isa 8.20 Even so and for the same reason it may now be said of you that if you walk not according to this Rule it is because in truth there is no Light in you how much soever you vainly boast of it and censure others for want of it that yet make it their daily care and endeavour to walk according to the Light and Guidance of that Rule that hath its seat in their Conscience And now Sirs by this time methinks you should not but perceive that I have given you proof in good measure heaped up shaken together pressed down and running over That Gods way and method of directing men what to believe and do as necessary to their Salvation and of perswading them to believe and do accordingly is and hath been by that teaching which comes from God into the Soul by outward means such as is his Word written or by mens teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures and if so then not by his immediate teaching and operation without such outward teaching which yet is that which you hold and teach in opposition to God's Method The Proof of this is so evident and convincing that if you will but give your minds and Consciences Liberty seriously to consider it I cannot imagine how you should possibly persist in your way without offering some violence to the reason of your Minds § 13. But since you have strengthened your selves in this your perswasion out of an Opinion you have that some Scriptures are on your side in it I shall yet add something farther to convince you of Error and Mistake therein You seem to ground your selves much upon John 1.9 Where it is said of Christ This is the true Light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world That Christ doth one way or other lighten every man that comes into the world is a great truth here declared But that which you are wont to alledge it for and which you are to prove hence if you would have it do your business is That Christ lighteneth every man that comes into the world with the knowledge of what he ought to believe and do in order to his salvation without learning it from or by any Outward Means That no such thing as that Christ so lightens all men without Outward Teaching can be proved either from this or any other Scripture I shall easily shew you Christ doth enlighten all whom he doth enlighten in one or more of these three ways either 1. By Natural Light Or 2. By Supernatural Revelation Or 3. By outward Teaching by Speech or Writing or Example in conjunction with the inward assistance of his Spirit 1. Christ indeed as God Creator as he is described in the beginning of that Chapter doth enlighten every man that comes into the world with the faculty of Reason and Understanding by which he may know that there is a God and that he is to be worshipped and that he is placable and the difference between moral good and evil in many things But however this may possibly be a Light sufficient to direct the Heathen to as much as God expects from them if they live up to it to whom he affords no other Light yet this Natural Light is not sufficient to direct those that live under the Gospel to believe and do what they are bound to believe and do upon pain of Damnation They that live under the Gospel are bound to believe Jesus to be Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the world and that upon pain of damnation If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins said our Saviour to them to whom the Gospel came Jo. 8.24 Every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but is the Spirit of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 He that believeth not the Son of God shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.36 Now that no man can know Christ know him to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world by his Natural Light without Supernatural Revelation from God or Instruction from without derived from them that had such Revelation is most evident When Peter said to Christ Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God our Saviour told him Flesh and Bloud had not revealed that unto him but his Father Mat. 16.16 17. And the Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that is they are knowable only by means that are purely spiritual and supernatural as the revelation of the Gospel at first was And it may well be that in this respect 't is said that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 For no man could know that he was so but by that Revelation and discovery which the Holy Ghost several ways at the first made concerning him He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you said Christ to his Apostles concerning the Holy Spirit John 16.14 And Christ is said to be justified in or by the Spirit to be what he himself said he was and his Apostles witnessed him to be 1 Tim. 3.16 All this shews that though Christ do enlighten all men with Natural Light yet this is not sufficient without somewhat else to enlighten all men particularly those that are under the Gospel with the knowledge of what is necessary for all such to know and believe in order to their Salvation For to whom much is given of him much shall be required Luke 18.48 Then secondly Another way by which Christ enlightens men with the knowledge of himself and of what is necessary for mens Salvation is by immediate and supernatural Revelation and thus he enlightened the Apostles that they might be able infallibly to teach the way of Salvation by Christ through Faith in him and Obedience to him For God saith one of them who commanded the
the Kingdom of the Messias as Moses who also was a Mediator in that respect had delivered a standing Law to the Jews by which they were to govern themselves throughout their Generations and the Administration of the Mosaical Covenant By what hath been said touching the plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon the first setting out of the Gospel into the world you may see if Prejudice do not blindfold you that what was done in that kind is so far from giving any countenance to your Opinion of the Spirit 's being given to teach men immediately by internal Illmination and Operation without outward Ministry and Teaching that it is an evident proof of the quite contrary For the Spirit was thus given to the Apostles and others that they might propagate the Christian Faith in the world being enabled thereby to make it known to them of other Languages in their own Tongues and to embolden them to run all hazards in so doing for they being filled with the Holy Ghost spake the Word of God with all boldness Acts 4.31 And likewise to convince the World that Christ and his Apostles and their Doctrine were all from God All which was done by Vocal Teaching and Visible Signs not excluding the Inward Assistance of divine Grace All which would have been needless if God had chosen to teach men by the Light of Christ within only as you speak So that either your Enthusiastical Notion overthrows God's Method of proceeding to teach men the Christian Religion or else his Method overthrows your Notion for doubtless they are contrary one to another and whether it be better to follow God or man judge you § 15. Another place misunderstood and misapplied by you is John 16.13 When the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth Which is not a Promise of sending the Spirit to guide all Christians by its immediate motions but a Promise to his Apostles for they only were then present with Christ at the Passeover just before his Apprehension and Suffering And this and other like Promises of sending the Spirit were made to them to encourage them the better to bear his departure from them giving them to know thereby how they should be enabled when he should be taken from them to carry on the great work of Apostleship to which he had chosen them And this he did first by giving them to understand that this Spirit should bring all things to their remembrance which he had spoken unto them while he was yet with them 2. That this Spirit of his should teach them all things in which Christ himself had not instructed them while he was with them inasmuch as they were not then able to bear them 3. That this Spirit to wit in his miraculous Gifts should concur with them in testifying of Christ John 14.26 But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you John 16.12 13. I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and he will shew you things to come Chap. 14.26 He shall teach you all things Chap. 15.26 27. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father he shall testifie of me and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning This agrees exactly with what he said again to them after he was risen Acts 1.8 Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be Witnesses unto me c. And that these Predictions and Promises of sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the better to qualifie them for their great Work and Office began to be made good to them in those extraordinary Gifts which were poured out on them on the day of Pentecost and that Christ's Prediction of the coming of the Holy Ghost did refer to that appears by what St. Peter said in his Sermon upon that occasion Acts 2.33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear the Spirit in its sensible effects Compare herewith Acts 1.4 5. Wait for the Promise of the Faoher which saith he Jesus which ye have heard of me ye shall he baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence The giving of the Spirit thus was purposely reserved for the honour and evidence of Christ's Exaltation in Glory but the Spirit to sanctifie was given before The Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified John 7.39 But the sending of the Holy Ghost to these ends is greatly remote from the end you assign thereof as hath also been shewn before and which you may easily see by what hath been here represented to you if the Light which was once in you be not become Darkness Your applying Promises as if made to all Christians as Christians and to common and ordinary cases which were made to the Apostles only or to them and some others in extraordinary cases peculiar to persons extraordinarily qualified and extraordinarily sent hath led you and some others into very dangerous errors that have made very bad work in the Church of God § 16. Another Scripture which you are wont frequently to produce in defence of this Opinion of yours touching the Spirits inward Teaching without outward Teaching by man is 1 John 2.20 But ye have an Vnction from the Holy One and ye know all things And again ver 27. But the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him Whatever the right sence of this Scripture is 't is certain your Notion of the Holy Spirit 's teaching men that live under the Gospel as those did to whom these words were written whatever they ought to believe and do without any outward Teaching by Speech or Writing cannot be the sence of it because such a sence of the place is inconsistent with what is manifestly proved in my Propositions before laid down and because it would render the design of St. John in this Epistle and other Writings of his needless in which he labours to settle and firmly establish the Christians in the Belief and Practice of what they had heard and by hearing had been taught from the beginning against all Temptations to Apostacy from or Loosness in the Profession of Christianity But if we consider upon what occasion these words are here brought in and compare them also with what we find in some other Scriptures it will be no hard matter to understand the Apostles scope in them He
had observed to them in the 18. v. that even then there were many Antichrists And in ver 19. that they those many Antichrists went out from them And his scope in the rest of the Chap. is to fortify and antidote them against the poysonous pretensions of those Antichrists who as he describes them in ver 22 did deny that Jesus was the Christ That this was here his scope and design appears by ver 26. where he saith these things have I written unto you concerning those that seduce you Now the means he makes use of to preserve them under this danger and to establish them is by putting them in remembrance by what means they at the first came to be perswaded of the truth of that Doctrine by which they were taught that Jesus is the Christ and that was by pouring out the Holy-Ghost in visible effects upon the Apostles that taught it and upon those that believed it and consequently upon themselves by which the truth of it was abundantly confirmed to them as coming from God For that doubtless is meant by the anointing here spoken of Jesus Christ himself in respect of the Spirit of glory that appeared in him by his Doctrine and Miracles was said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Act 10.38 As it was foretold by Isaiah the Prophet saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor Isa 61.1 Luke 4.18 and so in like manner the pouring out of the Holy Ghost in miraculous gifts both upon the Apostles and believers for the confirmation of the Doctrine the one preached and the other believed is elsewhere called their being anointed by God as here also it is called the Unction of the holy one which is the same thing 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Now he that establisheth us with you into Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts By this it appears that both Apostles and other believers were established into Christ by the anointing of God upon them which anointing was his pouring out of the holy Spirit Ye have an unction from the Holy one and ye know all things Not that by this Unction the common Christians were immediately inspired with the knowledge of all truths but that by it they were assured of the truth of all things which the Apostles had taught them and consequently must needs know thereby that Jesus was the Christ because that was one of the principal Doctrines which they taught and taught all they did teach in the name of him as such As they were induced at the first to believe the Doctrine to be from God because they perceived the anointing of God to be upon them that preached it so they were afterwards confirmed in the truth of it because upon their receiving of it they themselves also received of the same anointing It is not said that this anointing did teach them all things but that it did teach them of all things that is of or concerning the truth of all things to which it was a witness or evidence as I have shewed it was to the Apostles Doctrine from Heb. 2.4.5 Mar. 16.20 and other places When then this Apostle says ye have an Unction from the holy one and ye know all things he did not intend thereby to tell them that all things they were to beleive and do were revealed to them by it but that the Doctrine by which they were taught all things necessary to their salvation was thereby attested to be from God appears evidently by that which he perswades them to by it in v. 24. and that was that the Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning might therefore be retained and held fast by them that had been so ratified and confirmed to them by the Unction they had from the Holy one Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father Agreeable to what he says also in his second Epistle verse 9. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son And therefore when he says again ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie he doth not thereby mean that they needed no farther teaching by man for their establishment and building up in the Faith for if he had he had contradicted himself in what he was now doing in this Chap. and all along in this Epistle And therefore his meaning must be that they needed not from him or any other man any teaching that could or could reasonably pretend to give them greater assurance of any thing than that anointing gave them of Jesus his being the Christ and of the truth of that Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning for that anointing saith he is truth and is no lie but such as could not deceive them it being God's witness from Heaven And from thence concludes saying that as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him As if he should have said as this anointing did at the first prevail with you to receive Jesus as the true Messias so for the same cause I am confi-you will as you have the greatest reason still abide in him notwithstanding all pretences of Seducers to take you off This then being the scope and drift of the Apostle in this place to which the several expressions here used are accommodated and by which they are to be interpreted and understood how I pray you will you find your opinion here of the Spirits inward teaching of all things without any outward teaching You are wont to say that the Scriptures are not to be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth And the Spirit doubtless is not wanting to assist the sincere endeavours of men in searching after the sence of the Scriptures in order to practice But truly if we should judge of mens having the Spirit by their understanding the Scriptures I think there would be as little reason to think you have the Spirit as any sort of men that have read the Scriptures for doubtless there are scarce any sort of men if any at all that do more grosly misunderstand and misapply and so abuse the Scriptures than you do and that under the greatest confidence too of being guided in your sence and notions of them by the Spirit of God You take the sound of words in Scripture which as you fancy comport with your notions and opinions and then apply them to your purpose and then are confident the Holy Spirit hath guided you therein When as alas you do not understand the intent or design of the Writer in the places where such expressions are no nor as is to be feared do you
would let the word of Christ dwell in them richly in order to the same end Col. 3.16 From both which passages compared it appears that the Word of Christ which is the Gospel and the Spirit do concur and co-operate in producing the same Spiritual effects in men Yea it seems they are so unanimous in their operation in reference hereto that when but one is named the other is to be understood or else that the variation of expression is but another word for the same thing These things being so plain throughout the current of the Scriptures your bold and confident assertion to the contrary discovers your very great unskilfulness in the nature of the Evangelical Dispensation and your utter insufficiency and unfitness to take upon you to teach others and that you need rather your selves to be taught the first principles of the Doctrine of Christ § 18. Heb. 8.10 11. is another place which you would constrain to serve your turn and to make it evident that under the New Covenant God himself doth so inwardly teach men and write his Laws in their hearts that they need no outward teaching what to believe or do by any other means because it is there said I will put or give my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest But when you can but obtain of your selves seriously and impartially to consider for what end God hath set in his Church first Apostles and then Pastors and Teachers if not to teach men what to know believe and do that they may be saved I doubt not but you will then find it necessary to understand this place of Scripture so as that it may not run counter to and contradict the whole current of Scripture elsewhere as it will if your sence of it take place as I have already shewed at large And therefore seeing your sence of it cannot stand unless the general testimony of the Scriptures fall another sence of it must of necessity be accepted of These words then as noting the difference of the second Covenant from the first are a form of speech to set forth after a rhetorical way how plainly and easily to be understood the mind of God touching the Salvation of men shall be revealed and made known under the Gospel in comparison of what it was before Before and under the old Covenant it was but obscurely made known by dark Prophesies which are therefore said to be a light shining in a dark place 2. Pet. 1.19 and under types and figures and literal representations so that the Children of Israel could not see to the end of those things which are now abolished they could rarely and not without much difficulty and uncertainty if at all understand the end or design of them or what was signified by them till the Gospel came and revealed them And therefore St. Paul saith before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Gal. 3.23 So that by all the teaching they had though there were Precept upon Precept Precept upon Precept Line upon Line Line upon Line here a little and there a little as the Prophet speaks yet they had and could have but a dim and very imperfect sight and knowledge of what is now revealed in the Gospel And therefore it s said of the Prophets themselves who having their predictions by immediate revelation from God were like to know more in this kind than any other in those times yet it s said of them that when they Prophesied of the Grace that should come to them that are under the Cospel though they enquired diligently what as well as what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow yet I say 't is said of them that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are reported by them that have preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven 1. Pet. 1.10 11 12. In this respect it was said though none of the Prophets were greater than John the Baptist yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he This was their Case then But now by the Gospel the way of Salvation by Christ and the terms and conditions upon which it is promised are so nakedly plainly and clearly revealed and fitted to mens understandings and capacities that so much as is necessary to Salvation may very easily be understood by persons of very ordinary and common capacities and without much teaching as appears by those that were converted and baptized as the Jaylor and his Houshold and the three thousand in Acts 2. with little teaching Upon account of which clear revelation it s said we all with open face behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord the Glory of his Wisdome Goodness Grace and Mercy in the way of Salvation now exhibited in the Gospel 2. Cor. 3.18 Upon account of this difference it is I conceive that St. John saith the darkness is past and the true Light now shineth 1 Joh. 2.8 Besides the Laws and terms of the New Covenant are not only fitted to the understandings and capacities of all sorts of persons by the plainness of the Revelation of them but are such also in the very nature of them as that they commend themselves to every mans acceptation and choice and are every whit as worthy to be embraced by their wills as they are easie to be understood by the reason of their minds A great part of the Laws of the Old Covenant which were but figurative of the terms of the New had little or nothing in them to commend themselves to mens acceptation and choice so long as their Symbolical nature was not understood save what the authority of God in commanding them gave them Circumcision Sacrificing legal washings and Purifications and the like were in St. Pauls account but beggarly Elements when the command of God for the observation of them was taken off And not only so but they were a Yoke which as St. Peter said neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear a Yoke of Bondage as St. Paul calls them Whereas most of the Precepts of the Gospel the things commanded there are desirable in themselves if they had not been commanded by a promulgate Law To love and worship God to repent of that which hath been ill done to be sober chast and temperate to do to others as we would be done to our selves in point of equity fidelity and charity to be humble and meek patient and contented and the like are things that tend to the peace and satisfaction of the minde to the health of the body and long life to a mans Credit Reputation and thriving in the
own hearts in this business you would find that the meaning of your crying down all other Teachers is that yours alone might be exalted But if your Teachers or any among you do see and know the inconsistency of these your Pretences and Practices and yet use the Pretences for a blinde to hide the designe from the people it is then a perfect peice of There is another thing like unto this you say those that are taught of God need not that the Scripture should teach them and that all men are taught of God by his Light within them and yet it seems you think that men have need to be taught by your Books though they have no need to be taught by the Scriptures else why is the World troubled with so many of them The Pharisees made void the Commandments of God that they might establish their own Traditions and it looks but untowardly that while you represent the Holy Scripture as such a needless thing that you at the same time have sent out such a croud of your own Books as you have done And if you would have the people believe that they proceed from the same teaching of the Spirit as the Books of the Holy Scriptures do what shall the people then do when they find them to contradict one another as they may easily do if they will but do as the noble Bereans did who searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so which were preached to them in the Name of the Lord. As in the present case before us the Scripture plainly teacheth one method of bringing men to Salvation and your books another Ed. Burrough in his book teacheth that that is not the body of Christ which was not with the Father before the World began p. 465. But the Scripture teacheth that in the fulness of time God sent forth hi Son made of a Woman Gal. 4.4 Which of these two now must the people believe or which of these must be the rule to try the other by your Books or the Holy Scriptures I pray you speak out and tell the people plainly For if the Scriptures be true as you dare not deny but they are than your Books in such things as contradict them must be false and consequently not the Issue of the infallible Spirit as you would have the world believe they are But though we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have Preached unto you let him be accursed said St. Paul Gal. 1.8 I have been the longer upon the Point of your Enthusiasm by which you have set up a new method of your own in opposition to God's method of bringing men to the Christian belief and Life because I deem it a Mother and a Master-Error to many others which you hold And therefore have good hopes that if you could but be cured of this you would be in a hopeful way of being cured of the rest which depend on it with less difficulty Having therefore been so long upon this beyond what I first intended I shall draw towards a conclusion of this address to you not engageing in particular with the rest of your mistakes But before I make an end I would caution you touching two or three things which among others may probably have had a large share in introducing you into this strange mistake § 20. The one is an opinion or conceit that the Gospel is a more mysterious thing than indeed it is It is true there are things in the Gospel called a Mystery the Mysterie of God's will the Mystery of Christ the Mystery of Faith the Mystery of Godliness and to you saith Christ to the Disciples 't is given to know the Myeries of the Kingdom of God and the like Upon occasion of all which and the like expressions in Scripture Some people have fancied that there is something else necessary to make a man a true Christian indeed than what is obvious to vulgar apprehensions and easie to be understood as other matters are And therefore they have been wont to esteem a plain and familiar way of teaching the Doctrine of repentance and the necessity of obedience to the Law of God together with a belief that Christ dyed for our sins and rose again according to the Scriptures to be but a dry and legal way of Preaching And those that have vented high Speculations and almost or altogether unintelligible notions and new coined Phrases and expressions concerning the work of God in the Soul and of Union with Christ and Communion with God of living by faith and walking in the Spirit these they have accounted Evangelical Preachers and such preaching and discourses in conference to be truly Spiritual and those to be Spiritual Christians that are of this make And because this way obtained a great reputation among a great many of Christian Professors many persons have been tempted hereby to proceed so far from one thing to another in this way both allegorizing Scriptures of plain import and turning plain points of Doctrine and of great concern into Mystical speculations until they have made another thing of the plain Doctrine of the Gospel than Christ made it And this seems to be directly your Case who in this way are come at last to turn the plain and intelligible method of God's proceeding with men to bring them to the Christian belief and Life and so to salvation into Enthusiastical Fancies Airy Notions and speculations Such is your conceited Mistery of of the inward Flesh of Christ in contradistinction to the Flesh of the Veil as you phrase it as if Christ had two kinds of Flesh one hid under another by which you trouble yea utterly confound the true Notion of Christ's humane Nature and the great effects which the Scripture attributes to the Flesh or humane Nature of Christ those you attribute to a meer fiction which you call the inward Flesh a thing altogether forraign to the Scripture an error doubtless of a very high nature Such also is your spiritualizing Baptism and the Lords Supper to the exclusion of their literal use and to the disparagement of his wisdome and goodness that ordained them as well as to the contempt of his Authority which hath enjoined the use of them for the ends for which they were first instituted Such likewise is your invented Mistery of the Redemption of the Seed â—in men for the Scripture speaks of no such thing but of the Redemption of men themselves This mistake about the Mysteriousness of the Christian Religion hath I fear had a bad influence upon and produced ill effects in some others as well as your selves who perhaps have not been yet carried so far out of the way by it as you have been Whereas those things that are absolutely necessary for men of all capacities to know believe and do in order to their Salvation are delivered in the Gospel with great plainness and easiness to be understood even of those of meanest
capacities that have but a mind to understand them and will attend to them and consider them Who is so weak as not to understand it when it is declared to him that there was such a one as Jesus Christ and that he was declared to be one come from God and his Doctrine touching his being the Son of God and concerning all other things to be true by the wonderfulness of his Birth of a Virgin and the many and mighty miracles which he wrought and which were wrought by others in his Name and by his Resurrection from the dead Who is so weak as not to understand when it is declared to him upon good grounds that this Jesus was put to death not for his own but for our Sins and that he rose again from the dead the third day Who is so weak as not to understand when he hears it declared in the Gospel that forgiveness of Sins a glorious Resurrection and eternal Happiness in another World are promised to those that believe in him as such and that believe his Doctrine and sincerely obey it touching the necessity of Repentance consisting in amendment of Life proceeding from sorrow for Sin and in a sincere observing all his Precepts These are things that may be understood by every body that hears and considers them And yet these are the things revealed by the Gospel as necessary to be believed and done in order to salvation The reason why so many of those that hear the Gospel do not believe and obey it to the saving of their Souls is not because they cannot understand it but because they are not willing to obey it and so not willing to believe it or to consider it that they might believe it but chuse rather to please themselves in their evil ways for the present and so run the hazard for the future of the Gospels being true or not true or else flatter themselves with hopes that they do repent and obey the Gospel under vain and delusive notions of the nature of saving Repentance and Obedience And it is not congruous to the goodness of God's nature to think that when he hath been pleased out of his great compassion to lost men to make a New Covenant of Salvation upon terms suitable to that love and goodness of his to think I say that he should lay the stress of their Salvation upon terms not easie to be understood by all one as well as another that are concerned therein And therefore the greatest reason I conceive why some things in the Gospel are stiled a Mistery is because they were so till they were plainly revealed by Christ a great part of the things therein contained being such as no man by the highest improvement of reason could discover or apprehend till God in a supernatural way was pleased to reveal them Such was God's sending his Son to assume our Nature and to die for our Sins and the granting Remission of Sins and eternal Life for his sake to those that believe and obey the Gospel But when they are once revealed and by revelation made plain and easie to be understood by men of all capacities they are sure then no longer Mysteries to them unless they remain so through their own wilful neglect to understand them Agreeable to this is that of St. Paul Col. 1.26 Speaking of the Gospel even saith he the Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and from Generations but now is made manifest to his Saints Eph. 1.9 Having made known to us the Mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself So the calling of the Gentiles is called a Mystery not because it was hard to be understood when the thing was revealed by Christ's Commission to preach the Gospel to them and by preaching the Gospel had given them the Holy Spirit as he had to the believing Jews at the first but because this calling of them was little known or understood in the World till then God saith St. Paul by revelation made known to me the Mystery which in other ages was not made known unto the Sons of men as it is now revealed unto his Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit that the Gentiles should be fellow-Heirs and of the same Body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel Eph. 3.2 6. And so again Ver. 9. and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the Mystery which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God So that as the Gospel is called a Mystery as containing things in it which had been altogether a Mystery till they were revealed so it is called a Revelation of the Mystery by reason of its discovering that which was a Secret before Rom. 16.25 26. The preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith In all this I do not deny but that there are in the Gospel things very Mysterious and hard to be conceived as touching the manner of their existence as the Union of Christs two Natures and the Doctrine of the Trinity of Persons and Unity of Essence and some other things But it is not hard to understand that those things really are when God hath revealed and declared that they are though it is very hard or rather beyond our apprehension to know how and after what manner they are and to know and believe more than he hath plainly revealed is not doubtless necessary to mens Salvation and therefore men should be cautious of laying too great a stress upon their different apprehensions about them If you shall say if Evangelical Truths be made so perceptible by the plainness and fulness of the Revelation of them how comes it to pass then that there is such difference in mens opinions and so many controversies about them as there is I answer if the differences and controversies be about those things that are necessary to Salvation I have told you the reason already it is because men will not be satisfied nor acquiesce in that plainness in which such things are delivered in the Scriptures but still fancy there is some farther Mystery in them than indeed there is And when men take that liberty and think they do excellent well in it then one fancies he sees this hidden Mystery couched under truths plainly exprest and another that when both are wide of the mark And then men weary themselves in defending their notions on both sides and can never be reconciled until both lay down their bye-opinions and submit their judgments to the plainness and simplicity of the truth labouring to improve it to practice which is the true and proper use of it which will bring more solid satisfaction to the mind than all mens Airynotions how taking soever
all thoughts and conceits of high attainments in the things of God they would repent and do their first works and begin as it were again at the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and so lay their Foundation a new in the beginning work of Christians Also that they would frame their Notions and apprehensions of things absolutely necessary to Salvation according to that plainness in which they are expressed in Scripture not affecting nor entertaining Mystical Notions of them More particularly that they would furnish their minds with right apprehensions of the person of Christ as Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary and of the Nature of his Mediatory Office That as Priest he offered himself in Sacrifice to expiate Sin by his Death and in vertue thereof makes continual Intercession for us That as Prophet he revealed and declared the New Covenant of Salvation That as King he hath given Laws to the World and that he doth Rule and Govern his Church through his Spirit by those Laws and that at last he will try and judg all men by them that have lived under them and that he will reward all with eternal happiness or endless torments according as they have been obedient or disobedient to them That they be careful also that their Notions of the New Covenant be according to the plain Doctrine of the Gospel in the Scriptures Particularly That it consists of two parts of Promises and of conditions of those Promises Also that the Promises of it are made upon account and for the sake of Christ his undertaking as Mediator That the great and special Promises of it are pardon of sin or justification the assistance of God's Spirit in our endeavouring to perform the condition and eternal Life That the condition on which these Promises are made are Faith in Christ Repentance sincere Obedience and the craving of the assistance of God's Spirit in the use of appointed means and our endeavours to perform the condition That they be careful also to form right Notions of the nature of the condition on our part on which the Promises of the New-Covenant are made As that no Faith short of such a belief in Christ and of his Doctrine as worketh unfeigned Repentance and sincere Obedience is justifying and saving That no Repentance short of a desire resolution and endeavour to forsake all known sin is saving Repentance That no Obedience short of a desire resolution and a continued endeavour to observe all the Laws of Christ without baulking any one of them when known to be such is sincere That no Faith no Repentance no Obedience short of these as thus described is a fulfilling of the condition of the Promises of Salvation in the Covenant of Grace As these great things of the Gospel are in Scripture expressed in great plainness so great care must be had to keep close to and to hold fast the form of sound words according to which they are so declared not affecting any Notion Phrase or Expression which makes them more hard to be understood by common capacities than they are by the very Letter of the Scriptures but when other expressions are used than what are in the Letter of the Text as its necessary there should sometimes especially in explaining metaphors and Idioms of Speech proper to the times and places in which the Scriptures were written they should be such and so used as may give a clearer insight into the Nature of the things themselves than without them can well be had carefully avoiding to take words properly which are spoken metaphorically or to be led by the meer sound of words but to take the measure of the sence of them by the scope and design of the Author since words of the same sound are not always of the same signification § 24. And now after I have laid things before you which are very apt in their own Nature to rectifie you in one of your grand and fundamental mistakes especially if invincible prejudice hinder not I should be very sorry to think or suspect that what is done herein should turn to no better account than to be a witness against you in that great day in which every mans work will be tryed of what sort it is And therefore to prevent that I cannot for your sakes and for the longing I have after your salvation but earnestly perswade you to give things purposely prepared to serve you a due consideration in your minds and not to pass over such things slightly as wherein your eternal Estate is much concern'd Remember that Heresie is one of those works of the Flesh which shut Men out of the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.20 21. And considering the Nature and bad influence of several of your opinions and with what pertinaciousness you persist in them it s greatly feared not to say confidently believed by such as are jealous over you with a Godly jealousie that many of you at least lye under no less guilt than that of grand Heresie And do you not then owe all seriousness of consideration to what is offered to rescue you from so great a danger Doubtless you do Let not then the height of your confidence to the contrary deceive you For it is not the greatness of your confidence that will in the least alter the nature of things or make them bend to your humour You are not the first that have been as confident as confidence it self could make them that they had fast hold of Truth when all the while it hath been but a lye they have had in their right hand But the more confident you are in your way you are like to be so much the more surprized with amazement when in another World you shall find yourselves to have been mistaken in that of which you are now so strongly confident in this if you should be so unhappy as to carry such mistaken confidence with you thither without a pardon Which that you may not is I assure you all the hurt that is designed you in this Address And therefore let me tell you again that it will be your wisdom much rather to bestow your thoughts and pains in labouring to find out whether you be not indeed under a delusion than in darkning of words without knowledge in labouring to obscure to your selves and others the evidence of Truth offered which clearly tends to your conviction FAREWEL THE END POSTSCRIPT THere being some vacant Leaves and because I have not so plainly represented the nature of Faith which is the condition of the New Covenant as I have the other parts of it in my advice touching a right Notion of the Nature of the Mediatory Office and of the Covenant of Grace I shall for these and other Reasons add a short hint of the help which the Scripture doth offer us herein When St. John saith Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 1 John 5.1 and again Who is he that overcometh the World