as the ordinary and common allowance and priviledge of all God's Saints and People and not only to Saints but to Men and Women in order to their becoming Saints they need God and Christ inwardly to speak unto them for it is the inward Voice and Speaking of Christ that quickneth the dead Souls of Men according to the words of Christ The Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live John 5.25 CHAP. III. Of the Supream Judge and Rule of Controversies of Religion IT hath been already acknowledged in the first Chapter that the holy Scriptures are a sufficient outward Rule and Standard whereby to try all Doctrins of Men however so holy or wise they may be or however much indued with the holy Spirit because the Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets and as the holy Spirit of Truth is one so the words of it do all agree in all the true Prophets Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers and as is already said the Noble Bereans were commended in Scripture for searching the Scriptures to see and examin whether the Apostles Doctrin was according to the Doctrin of the ancient Prophets that wrote the Old Testament and until the Apostles Doctrin was generally received they did appeal to the Scriptures of the Old Testament for a proof of their Doctrin although that was not their only proof for they had a greater proof than that outward was even the inward Witnéss and Testimony of the holy Ghost that made both them and their Doctrin manifest in the Hearts and Consciences of their Hearers whose Hearts God was pleased to open 2. And therefore in respect of any outward Rule and Standard the Scripture is sufficient and to be preferred in all respects to any other latter Writings or Testimonies or Records whatsoever first because writ from a greater measure and depth of divine Wisdom for though the Spirit be one yet it hath diversity of Gifts and Operations and Administrations and all Men divinely inspired had not the same clearness of divine Knowledge Numb 12.6 7 8. Moses exceeded the Prophets generally David and Solomon exceeded many of them and Isaiah and Jeremiah exceeded others of them and among the Prophets some were as Fathers some as Sons hence we read in Scripture that God is the Father of Lights and of these Lights as to us some are higher and some lower which some mystick Writers both among Jews and Christians have taken notice of out of the Scripture it self hence they say Moses drank at the Fountain Samuel David Solomon and some others drank at the Streams and others of an inferior degree at the Pond or Cistern And they further say Moses had his Revelations from Binah Abraham from Gedulah a step lower Isaac from Geburah yet lower Jacob from Tipheret yet lower but partaking of both signified by his dwelling in Tents betwixt the Tents of Abraham and Isaac David sometimes from Tipheret and sometimes from Nezah and Hod hence we read some of the Inscriptions of his Psalms to Nezah and sometimes from Mulcuth and they say that the ordinary Prophets had their Revelations from these two divine Measures Nezah and Hod called Exod. 38.8 The Looking-Glasses of the Lords Hosts that Assemble at the door of the Tabernacle see the Heb. text But Moses had liberty to go into the heavenly Tabernacle it self and so had some others And that God did make himself more known to Moses than to Abraham Isaac and Jacob is clear from these words of his to Moses at the Bush I appeared to Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my Name Jehovah was I not known to them Exod. 6.3 And concerning this distinction of divine Gifts and Illuminations Paul declareth saying To one is given the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge to another Faith all by the same Spirit Hence we read in the Proverbs Wisdom Understandang and Knowledge distinguished Wisdom buildeth the House Vnderstanding establisheth it and Knowledge filleth the Chambers with all precious and pleasant Riches Prov. 24.3 4. Therefore Wisdom is a degree above Understanding and Understanding a degree above Knowledge all which divine Measures are set in order as the parts of a Tree with Root Branches and Tops or as the Members of a Mans Body by way of Allegory and Analogy Cochmah Binah and Daath belonging to the Head Gedulah Geburah to the right and left Hand and Arm Tipheret to the Body Nesah Hod and Jesod to the Thighs and Legs c. and Mulcuth lowest of all all which make up by way only of allegory and analogy the Parts and Members of the Son of Man or heavenly Adam as both Ezekiel and John saw him upon his Throne The English Names of these Hebrew words all which are found in Scripture in their true order are these following Cochmah i e. Wisdom Binah i. e. Understanding or Prudence Daath i. e. Knowledge see 1 Chron. 29.11 Gedulah i. e. Magnificence Geburah i. e. Power Tipheret i. e. Beauty Nesah and Hod i. e. Victory and Glory Jesod i. e. Foundation and Mulcuth i. e. the Kingdom And secondly and most especially we give the Preheminence to the Scriptures beyond all latter Writers because we are well assured that the Scriptures throughout are pure without all mixture of Error or Mistake and this is generally granted by all Christians that the Scriptures are really so being duly and rightly translated but we are not assured that any mans or mens Writings since are altogether pure and free of all mixture of Error and human Weakness until they be duly examined and found to agree to the holy Scriptures and to the inward testimony of the holy Spirit for altho' whatever the Spirit of God inwardly revealeth is infallible and pure from all mixture of Error and whatever any man saith or writeth as he hath receiv'd it from that his Testimony is pure and without mixture yet we are not assured that any man or men are in that state of Perfection that they may not by human frality in some measure or way more or less decline or depart from the pure and infallible Teachings of the Spirit of God for as it is possible they may purely and chastely keep unto them so for want of due watchfulness and holy care they may more or less depart from them and so there may be a mixture of Truth and Error both in their Understandings and Words and therefore they are not to be taken on trust but both their Doctrin in all things is to be tryed by the Scripture and their Spirit by the Spirit of Truth as every one is able according to what he hath received All which doth not hinder but that the Spirit of God in our day both teacheth and leadeth infallibly although the Disciples and professed Followers of it at times by weakness may be liable to mistakes 3. And as concerning that phrase or expression that some use That
live honestly and worthily as many Preachers at this day as well as formerly do both Work and Preach by turns and as they have freely received so they give freely and these no Man can charge them that they have made their Gospel chargeable as the Preachers both of Old and New-England have done who have put the People to great charge of many Thousand Pounds yearly and yet the People is not profited under them and they have by force taken or caused to be taken from many who did not hear them nor own them to be Ministers of Christ for which they have no president either in the Old or New Testament 11. And whereas they who plead That true Piety is not essential to a Gospel-Minister First bring Judas for a president to which it is easily answered first that it is said Judas fell from his Ministry by Transgression and therefore some time he stood and it is more than ever they can prove that Judas never had any measure of true Piety or Sanctification when Christ did first send him forth for although he might have covetous and evil Inclinations that doth not argue that he had nothing of true Sanctification according to their own Doctrin who affirm That a Man may have true Sanctification and yet have not only strong evil Inclinations but very evil Practices But 2 dly when Judas was called the pure Gospel dispensation had not taken place and did not until Christ rose from the Dead and gave the holy Ghost Next they say Christ told the People that the Pharisees sate in Moses Chair and he did not forbid them but rather encouraged them to hear them saying Do what they say but do not as they do To this it is answered The Pharisees and Scribes teaching belonged to the Law and so they pass from the true state of the Question which is whether Ministers of the Gospel need not true Holiness to make them true Ministers 3 dly They object Paul's words concerning some that preached Christ not sincerely and yet he said Christ was preached and therein he rejoyced To which I answer that doth not justifie their Preaching but it holdeth forth the great Power and Wisdom of God that causeth all things to work together for his own Glory and the good of his as when by Persecutions and Reproaches and Slanders and false Accusations and contending against the Truth the Truth doth the more spread and flourish as hath oft been known and therein God's Servants have rejoyced yet this doth not justifie these Persecutors Lyers and false Accusers CHAP. V. Concerning God his Decrees and Election and Reprobation and the general state of Mankind by means of Adam's fall and the Way of Restoration by Christ 1. IT hath been a common thing among both Presbyterian and Independent Teachers in Old and New-England to accuse the honest People called in derision Quakers of being guilty of Blasphemy against God and Christ and the holy Ghost for no other cause but that they express their Faith of the great Mystery of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost in Scripture words and have not freedom to use the words of Man's wisdom and that come only from the Spirit of Man and have not proceeded from the Spirit of God whereby to express and declare their Faith of so great and glorious Mystery And by means of this so great Accusation and others as false and injurious they prevailed with the Magistrates of New-England to cause to be put to Death three dear and precious Men-Servants of the Lord and one dear and precious Maid-Servant of the Lord beside many other cruel Sufferings inflicted upon others for which great Cruelty and Barbarity the Hand of the Lord hath been manifestly stretched out against them in manifest Judgments and Plagues that divers among them have since acknowledged And therefore let all Men know to whose Hands this may come that the People called Quakers never denyed but on the contrary faithfully believed and do still faithfully believe whatever is recorded in the holy Scriptures of that great Mystery to wit that God is one and that the Father the Son and the holy Ghost is that one only true and living God the Creator and Upholder of all and Lord and King of all visible and invisible things and that the Father is begotten of none the Son is begotten of the Father from everlasting and before all Time and the holy Ghost hath proceeded from the Father and from the Son from Everlasting and before all Time and that the Son is God manifest in Flesh who came in the Flesh in the fulness of time as the Scripture declareth and that the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Apostles preached that dyed for our Sins and rose again for our Justification and is ascended and gone into Heaven is that alone Son of God and the only begotten of the Father in whom the fulness of the God-head dwelleth bodily and the Lord Jesus Christ in the intire and perfect nature of Man consisting of Soul and Body is gone into Heaven and is in Heaven and that his Body that was crucified and buried did not see Corruption but was raised on the third day and after forty days did ascend and was glorified according to which glorious Body of the Lord Jesus Christ we believe that at the Resurrection of the Dead our Bodies shall be changed and be made like or conform Acts 1.11 and that the same Jesus who is ascended and was taken up into Heaven shall so come in like manner as they did see him go into Heaven 2. And as concerning God we believe that he is a Spirit infinite unchangeable and incomprehensible omniscient omnipotent and omnipresent infinitely wise holy powerful good merciful and gracious just and righteous that he is Light and Love and whatever the Scripture doth declare of him we faithfully believe although this Name of him to wit Light the Faith-publishers at Westminster have altogether omitted in their Confession whether heedlesly or designedly that I leave but it seemeth they knew little of him if any thing at all by that Name and yet it was the Message that the Apostles heard from him and declared unto Men that God is Light and that he is in the Light to wit in Christ who is the Light of Men and that if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all Sin 1 John 1.5 6 7. And indeed it suits most with their Doctrin that all inward divine Revelation is ceased either to conceal or deny that God is Light as to us and in us or in any of his Saints or that Christ is Light to and in his Saints for the nature of the Light yea of all true Light is to reveal and make it self manifest by it self as well as other things and this description the Apostle Paul giveth of it Ephes 5.13 Whatever maketh manifest is
process of time so changed and renewed that they become good Ground and bring forth good Fruit to the end So the more stony and thorny that the Heart is the more labour is to be used to make it good which by the Grace of God may well be done Sixthly The Parable of the ten Virgins five whereof were foolish hath the same signification for these five foolish Virgins had some Oyl in their Lamps but not being wise to get enough they spent what they had and so their Lamps went out for though they had Oyl in their Lamps otherwise their Lamps could not have gone out yet they had not in their Vessels as the wise Virgins had and so when they were called at midnight to meet the Bride-groom they had no Oyl at all neither in their Lamps or Vessels see Mat. 25. from Verse 1. to 12. Seventhly It is expresly said Ezek. 18.24 and 26 27. When a righteous Man turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity he shall die And again when the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness and doth that which is lawful and right he shall live And Eighthly The example of David is a most clear Instance who fell from his Integrity by these two great and capital Sins of Adultery and Murther and brought Death upon him and had not God renewed him again by Repentance and restored him he had dyed in his Sins and perished and this fall of his was total though not final because God restored him before he dyed But to say as these Faith-publishers say and affirm That no Men once sanctified in the least measure can fall totally from their Sanctification though committing Murder and Adultery as was the case of David see Cap. 17. Sect. 1. and Cap. 11.5 of their Confession nor from their Justification is not only a most false and pernicious Doctrin but a most wonderful piece of Confusion For if he that is both Murderer and Adulterer in the very act and remaining in that or these Sins without Repentance for some time are really Saints and justified then who may be said not to be Saints Or what difference is there betwixt the Saints and no Saints betwixt the godly and the wicked good men and evil men If a man that is both Murderer and Adulterer be a real Saint and a justified man then the worst of men may generally believe they are true and real Saints and ye cannot convince them of the contrary For by what means can they be convinced thereof Tell them of their Sins Lying Stealing Drunkenness Swearing Murther and Adultery none of all this according to this wicked Doctrin doth prove them to be no Saints or that they have not true Faith and therefore if they die in these gross Sins they must go to Heaven immediately because they shall die in Faith they shall die sanctified and justified men than which I know no greater Confusion and daubing with untempered Morter and sewing Pillows under Peoples Arm-holes like the false Teachers of Old and prophecying smooth things unto People in their Sins and flattering them yea imboldning and encouraging them to Sin And no doubt many are wofully imboldned and encouraged to run into Sin and excess of Sin by such poysonous Doctrin that these false Teachers feed them with that is like sweet Poyson that though it be sweet to the Flesh yet it kills the Soul Doth not the Scripture say The Soul that sinneth shall die and the Wages of Sin is death And as every Sin doth in some measure kill the Soul so great Sins such as Murder and Adultery than which we can hardly suppose any greater unless that unpardonable Sin of Blasphemy against the holy Ghost do wholly kill and destroy the Soul insomuch that if any such Soul ever be saved it must be by a new Creation and renewing and of this David was well sensible when after God was pleased spiritually to visit and awaken him again he prayed unto God saying Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Psal 51.10 And thus according to these false Teachers there is no mortal Sin that any Soul once quickned in the least degree can commit and the same Sin that is mortal in the unbeliever is not mortal in him that once was a believer as Murder Adultery yea Incest or worse is no mortal Sin in one and yet is a mortal Sin in the other Doth not this loose the reins to all sorts of Wickedness and make God a respecter of Persons and Faith a sort of Proof that though men once having Faith commit the worst sort of Sins as Murder Adultery Incest Rapine yet their Faith is a sort of proof unto them that none of these Sins doth or can kill them They are still Saints for all this and justified in the sight of God and if Saints then good enough to be your Church-Members yea Members of the Independent or Congregational Church Why what doth hinder but they are as real and lawful Members of the Church as any others And if Murderers and Adulterers while such are still Saints and qualified to be your Church-Members it is no wonder that your Church be large and have a great number of Members It is no great difficulty to be a Member of that Church when a Murderer an Adulterer can be a Member of it Is this your pretence to Reformation And why ye estimate your Church more holy than the Church of Rome But is not your Church and Doctrin in this respect much more unholy For the Church of Rome saith All gross or great Sins as Fornication Adultery Murder and the like are really mortal Sins in all that commit them without respect of Persons and whoever commit such Sins are fallen from their state in Grace And so saith the Scripture 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God The which Kingdom of God is a state of Grace as well as of Glory And here we see the Apostle Paul maketh no distinction betwixt one that hath formerly believed and one that hath not believed but without distinction or respect of Persons he concludeth in general against them all that while such they cannot inherit the Kingdom of God But according to this Westminster and New-England Confession of Faith Fornicators and Murderers and Adulterers that have at any time once believed do still inherit the Kingdom of God to wit a state of Grace which is in a true sense the Kingdom of God and is frequently so called in Scripture And thus it doth most evidently appear that their Doctrin in this particular is Antichristian and contrary to the Doctrin of the holy Scriptures And to say that Murder or Adultery in him that hath once truly believed is not a mortal or killing Sin but is a mortal Sin in him that hath not believed is not only to make God a respecter of Persons in the worst sense
the sixth also seeing they believe it only to be but a Figure to wit that called the Eucharist And to say the truth they have not one whit more probability but rather less for the two Sacraments that they have reserved than for the other five that they have rejected And they have no cause to accuse the People called Quakers of Sacriledge for denying these two until they clear themselves of Sacriledge for denying five and give better grounds for reserving these two than as yet they have given 2. And as for Infants Baptism and sprinkling a Child of eight days or more or less on the Fore-head and call it Baptism it hath no footing in all the Scripture neither of Precept nor Practice as will easily appear by considering the places of Scripture they cite for it And first for Sprinkling on the Fore-head instead of Dipping they cite Heb. 9.10 to 22. But this Sprinkling was not of Water but of Blood and we do not read that it was only on the Fore-head and the Cups and Vessels that were sprinkled with Blood or Water were sprinkled all over and not in one single place And why did John baptize Christ by dipping into Water and others that he baptized if sprinkling on the Fore-head was sufficient in that day Next as to the baptizing of Infants they cite for it Gen. 17.9 Where God commanded Abraham that every Man child of his Posterity should be Circumcised and therefore every Infant of one or both the believing Parents are to be sprinkled with Water But this Consequence is meerly begged but nothing proved For the first we find an express command to Abraham For the second we find neither Command nor Practice in all the Scripture nor was the practice of baptizing Infants in use for an hundred of Years and more after the Apostles days among Professors of Christianity And let it be granted that Infants have a right to the Grace signified by Water Baptism it doth not therefore follow that the Figure or Sign belongeth unto them because they have also a right to Christ's Body and Blood and yet they confess the Supper is not to be administred unto them The next place they cite is Coloss 2.11 12. where Circumcision and Baptism are joyned together but neither the Circumcision nor the Baptism there mentioned is outward as is clear especially of Circumcision that is said to be made without Hands and therefore it is not the outward of the Flesh but the inward of the Heart and so is also the Baptism there mentioned verse 12. Buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the Faith of the operation of God Ye see here is nothing of outward Water Nor are all they who are baptized with outward Water either buried with Christ or risen with him but many still alive in old Adam and that too generally The next place they cite is Matth. 28.19 But this saith nothing of Water and if it were granted that Water-Baptism is understood as it neither is nor ought to be granted yet it will not prove that Infants should be any more baptized than taught seeing teaching and baptizing are joyned together Another place they cite is Luke 18.15 16. where Christ biddeth to suffer little Children to come unto him and forbid them not and that he blessed them and laid his hands upon them we read in Scripture but that he baptized them either with dipping or sprinkling we read not but on the contrary it is expresly said That Jesus himself baptized none to wit with Water see Joh. 4.2 Their last place they cite is Rom. 11.16 If the Root be holy so are the Branches but this doth not prove that Infants are more to be baptized than to have that called the Supper administred unto them And these Branches mentioned by Paul in that place Rom. 11.16 were really the unbelieving Jews that because of their Unbelief were broken off at that time yet the Root being holy to wit Abraham and the promised Seed Paul had hope of their conversion as many as did belong to God's election as he expresseth it verse 28. and these were not the immediate Children of Abraham but forty Generations after Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and therefore this Scripture saith as much for the aged unbelieving Children of unbelieving Parents if they have descended from any of their Fore-Fathers upwards of forty Generations that were Believers and if up to forty why not up to sixty and further Yea to Noah who is the common Father of all Men with whom God established his Covenant and with his Seed after him until the end of the World that all his Seed through Christ might receive the benefit of the same unless they do wilfully reject it of which I have said something already in Chap. 6. 3. And as for Water-Baptism in general we say it did only properly belong to John's Ministry and Dispensation and is expresly contradistinguished from the Baptism of Christ both by John and also by Christ himself for John did baptize with Water unto Repentance but Christ who cometh after John and was before him who is more worthy than John he baptizeth with fire and with the Holy Ghost and no doubt there was a spiritual blessing and Grace conveyed unto People by John's Baptism while it stood in force for God never ordained any outward thing but as it was rightly done in its day and season it had some spiritual blessing accompanying it as all the Sacrifices and Services of the Law And if any were raised up by the Lord as John was and could prove and instruct their being sent to baptize with Water as he was these to whom they should be sent ought gladly to receive it but to do it by bare imitation or a meer pretended Call which they cannot prove to be either mediate or immediate is great presumption yea superstition and to call that a Command of God which he hath given them no command to practise is to set up the Precepts of Men in the room of God's Commandments as the Pharisees did of old and is a taking of his Name in vain for which he will not hold them guiltless And they can never prove by all their art and skill that Water-Baptism is commanded by Christ Mat. 28.18 19. for all God's commands and precepts especially of publick institution relating to the Church are express in so many express Words and are not left to be gathered by uncertain and doubtful Consequences When God sent John to baptize with Water Water was expressed but in the Apostles Commission to baptize no mention is made of Water nor no words of Institution commanded to be used but the command is Go teach and baptize all Nations into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And the Name of either the Father or the Son or the Holy Ghost is most frequently if not always used in Scripture to signifie Power and Life as the Name of the
but that only the true Saints and Children of God belong to the invisible Church And again tho such who have true Desires and true living Breathings raised in them after the Lord may be said as such to belong to him and be of his Sheep yet they are still but as scattered and driven from the true Fold and as wandering for most part upon the barren Mountains and the dry and desolate Hills seeking the living among the dead until they come to be gathered into the True and Living Way of God and of Christ so as to know and be acquainted with the Lord and his inward Leadings Rule and Government in them and to be able to distinguish his Voice and inward appearance in them from that of a stranger and to worship him in Spirit and in Truth and serve him in the newness of the Spirit and in pure Holy Fear and Love as Sons and Children in his House And this State ye are generally strangers unto and therefore tho some of you may be allowed in true Charity to be the Sheep of Christ yet ye are but scattered until ye are returned unto Christ the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls and know him revealed in you to lead rule and guide you and feed you with the living Bread and give you the living Water to drink which he himself is inwardly revealed and that ye be turned away from all false Teachers and Shepherds which is the earnest breathing and cry of my Soul unto God for you G.K. Heads or Principles OF Christian DOCTRIN CHAP. I. Concerning the Holy Scriptures 1. THe Holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament being generally and worthily acknowledged by all Christians to be writ by Divine Inspiration without any mixture of Error are a sufficient outward Rule and Standard whereby to examin and try all Doctrins of men 2. They contain a full and intire Declaration of all Christian Doctrin and therefore whatever Doctrins or Principles of Christian Religion men presume to teach which they cannot prove and demonstrate from the Holy Scriptures they lay no obligation upon any to believe them 3. The Scriptures are only sufficiently and savingly believed and understood by the inward Illumination and Revelation of the Holy Spirit which is the same in kind to that which God gave to the Saints of Old 4. Although they contain a full and sufficient Declaration of all Christian Doctrin yet they do not contain the whole Mind Will and Counsel of God as some say they do Because there are many things wherein God doth reveal of his Counsel to his Children which are not in Scripture either expresly or consequentially altogether necessary to their Peace and Comfort as to instance in some particulars First It is a part of the counsel of God for a Christian to know his inward Calling and whether he be indeed one of God's called and chosen Ones whether in favour with God and justified and sanctified And though the Scripture doth give infallible Signs and Marks of such an estate yet no Scripture nor Scripture-consequence can infallibly assure any man that he hath these marks but it is the spirit of God that only can and doth give them this assurance Rom. 8.16 2 dly All true Preachers and Ministers of Christ ought to know the mind and will of God whether they be called of God to the Work of the Ministry which Call is an inward Call that is altogether necessary to their faithful discharge of so great a Work but this they cannot know simply by the Scripture 3 dly Every true Christian should know his inward Call to Pray or give Thanks or perform any Religious Duty or Service unto God as David said When thou said'st Seek my Face my Heart answered thy Face O Lord I will seek hide not thy Face from me Psal 27.8 Again 4 thly It is commonly granted that it is a Duty belonging to every Christian to enquire the Mind and Counsel of God in every weighty matter and concern of our Life as if we be visited with any great Affliction inward or outward to enquire with Job Shew me O Lord why thou contendest with me And as Rebecca when the Twins strugled in her Womb enquired at the Lord and said Why am I thus And the Lord answered her Also in the case of Marriage every true Christian man and woman ought to enquire and wait for God's counsel with whom to be joyned in Marriage that they may know indeed the Lord's joyning of them and that they marry in the Lord But this cannot be known by any Scripture or consequence from Scripture but the Spirit of the Lord must reveal it even the same that led Abraham's Servant to take a Wise to his Son Isaac And every Christian should know the will and counsel of God in his outward Vocation that it is of God and so abide therein as the Scripture saith Let every man abide in the Calling wherein he is called of God And as the Servants of God in days past in traveling and sojourning from place to place received the counsel of God so do these now that wait for it in uprightness of Heart as really as holy men did of old and as Philip received the Word of God which he could not find in the Scripture either expresly or consequentially when the Spirit said unto him Joyn thy self to this Chariot when he was sent to preach Christ to the Eunuch and as Peter was sent to Cornelius and Ananias to Saul and many other the like instances and as James declareth Men ought not to be rash or hasty to say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City c. for that ye ought to say If the Lord will James 4.13 15. Now how can a man know what the Lord willeth in such a case unless it be given him by the Spirit of the Lord inwardly to feel either a Command or Permission to do such a thing For whereas too many make the outward passages of Providence their rule as to say If Sickness or some outward Impediment hinder not they constitute that to be the Will of God And whereas many remove from one place to another and Divine Providence doth not hinder them and yet in that removal they have not had God's approbation and it hath not had a blessing to follow it but on the contrary for leaving their place they have been exposed to sad Temptations and have fallen under them And lastly there are many precious living Soliloquies and Intercourses betwixt the Lord and the Souls of his dear Children while he answers the returns of their Prayers in living Testimonies and words of his Holy Spirit which though they are agreeable to Scripture yet are not express Scripture words but are the real Words and Dictates of the Holy Ghost speaking Peace and Consolation to them beyond all utterance or demonstration of Speech and wonderfully quickning and strengthning them in the inward man as we find in the
Psalms and in the Song of Solomon and other places of holy Scripture for by the living Word of God as they come freshly and newly or immediately from the mouth or spirit of God the Souls of God's Children are quickned and kept alive as Christ said The words that he did speak unto his Disciples were Spirit and Life and man liveth not by Bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of God And David waited for the coming of the Word of God to quicken him to wit that God might speak unto him and he said I will hear what the Lord will speak for he will speak Peace to his Saints and to his People So here is God's Promise to all his Saints and People to speak Peace unto them and as he promised to his Israel in Hosea Chap. 14. I will allure or perswade her and bring her into the Wilderness or a solitary place and there I will speak comfortably unto her or as the Hebrew hath it I will speak to her Heart And this is an inward Speech And the Scripture Promises when God is pleased by his Spirit to apply them to the Souls of his Children is as real and proper an inward Voice and Speaking of God unto them as he spoke to the Prophets of old 5. And therefore the Scripture doth not contain either all the Word or Words of God as some say but many thousands of Words of God have been livingly spoke and utter'd by the Spirit of God to the inward Ears of his dear Children since the writing of the Scripture and daily are and will be to the end of the World And as it was said in the Apostles days the Word of the Lord grew and multiplied Acts 12.24 and 19 20. so ever since the Apostles and writing of the Scriptures the Word of God hath grown and multiplied and still shall and must to the end of the World and yet no new Doctrin or Gospel to be Preached but the same which the Prophets and Christ and the Apostles have already Preached 6. And as Christ and the Apostles expounded the Scriptures of the old Testament by divine Inspiration and Revelation of the same Spirit without propounding any new Doctrin or object of Faith unto People so why may it not be so now yea it is so that some at this day by the same Spirit do expound and open places of Scripture both of the old and new Testament and yet bring no new Doctrin And it is a far better way to have such Preachers and Expounders who open and expound the Scriptures by the Inspiration and Revelation of the Holy Spirit as the Apostles did than for men to presume to open and expound them without all new Revelation or Inspiration and who plainly confess They neither Preach nor Write by any Infallible Spirit And such mens Exposition who declare they have no infallible Spirit can neither be the word or words of God which are infallible but only the fallible word and words of man and human Imaginations 7. And as for the term Word the Greek of it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find it variously used and translated in the new Testament as first to signifie Christ Joh. 1.1 2dly to signifie Treatise Acts 1.1 3dly Communication Mat. 3.7 4thly Vtterance 1 Cor. 1.5 2 Cor. 8.7 Ephes 6.19 Col. 4.3 5thly Word of Talk or Discourse 1 Thes 1.5 6thly Reason 2 Pet. 3.15 Acts 18.14 7thly Preaching or Doctrin 1 Cor. 1.18 8thly Account or Business as to have to do Heb. 4.13 and 9thly the Hebrew word in the old Testament is translated Order Psal 110.4 10thly Matter Psal 45.1 11thly Speech Psal 19.2 and 12thly the same Greek word is used by Paul to signifie the empty and dead preaching of false Teachers 1 Cor. 4.19 And therefore whether the Scriptures may be called or are called the Word in Scripture rarely or improperly is not the proper state of the Question for it cannot be denyed and is not denyed but that rarely and improperly the word is used to signifie Scripture or Scripture Words either written or spoken and sometimes the words of evil men are rendred by the same Greek word in Scripture as Ephes 4.29 and 2 Tim. 2. â—7 But the true state of the Question is Whethâ—r first the Scripture doth contain all the Word or Words of God And this I justly deny for the reasons already given and indeed as the Word and Words of God are compared in Scripture Deut. 32.2 to the Dew and Rain that falleth upon the dry ground to refresh it and make it fruitful and the drops of the Dew and Rain are so many that they cannot be numbred which God hath been pleased to speak to the Souls of his People and still doth so nor can the Words of God be numbred by Men and therefore they are of a greater extent than all these set down in Scripture which may be numbred and also they are compared in Scripture to Bread that is eaten as Jeremiah said cap. 15.16 Thy words were found and I did eat them and as none can number the small grains of flower that make up a Cake of Loaf of Bread so none can number the words of God Secondly Whether the Scriptures only as they are outwardly written or spoken by the mouths of natural Men or heard by the outward ears or conceived only by the bare natural thoughts and understanding be properly and without all figure the Word or Words of God I say nay for the words of God are spiritual and of an inward nature as God himself is for the words of God are first and properly spoke to the mind and spirit of man and the outward words whether spoke or writ are but the signs of them as all outward words are but the signs of the inward thoughts of the mind which are the words of the mind or heart of man within it self Thirdly VVhether he who only talketh Scripture words and hath not the true sense of them doth truly and properly speak the VVord of God And whether he that only heareth them from man and hath not received the true sense of them hath properly heard the VVord of God I say Nay for it is not the bare Letter without the sense that is the Word of God properly understood Nevertheless the Letter of the Scripture in a figurative sense may be called the VVord as the Map of England is called England Moses his Books are called Moses and Isaiah his Book is called his Vision and John his Book is called his Revelation CHAP. II. Concerning new divine Revelations and Inspirations 1. THe places of Scripture which they commonly bring against all new divine Revelations and Inspirations of the Spirit of God prove no such thing as will easily appear to any that are impartial and unbyassed in their understanding if they will but read and consider them which places are these following as they are alledged and quoted by them called
the Assembly of Divines at VVestminster in their Confession of Faith cap. 1. sect 1. Prov. 22.19 20 21. Isa 8.9 10. which places if they prove now that all new Revelation is ceased they do as much prove that it ceased in the days of Christ and the Apostles yea in the days of the Prophets that did succed them Is it not admirable blindness that these men did not see how impertinent these Citations are And as for all the places of the new Testament cited by them as Luke 3.4 Rom. 15.4 Mat. 4.4 7 10. 2 Tim. 3.15 Heb. 1.1 2. 2 Pet. 1.19 they do no more prove what these intend than the former for by their own confession divine Revelation and Inspiration continued after all these places of Scripture were writ for divers intire Books of Scripture were writ after them here alledged And if they say that all new Revelation did cease as soon as all these Books of Scripture were in being then they must also affirm that all new Revelation did cease to divers of the Apostles long before they deceased because divers of them and particularly John survived after he wrote his Book of the Revelation 2. It is most readily granted that God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness was pleased that there should be Oracles and Testimonies of his Truth and Gospel committed to writing according to which the Doctrins and Words of Men however so holy that should come in after ages should be tryed and examined for the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets but this doth not prove in any wise all ceasing of Prophecy or Divine Revelation or Inspiration by the same Spirit The Apostles Doctrin and Preaching was tried by the Noble Bereans whether it was according to the Scriptures of the old Testament but it doth not therefore follow that the Apostle Paul did not preach by divine Revelation and Inspiration And both Christ and the Apostles proved their Doctrin generally out of the Scriptures of the Prophets but that doth not argue that they did not Preach by new divine Revelation 3. But for the further clearing of the matter we are to distinguish betwixt new Revelation of new Doctrin and new Revelation of ancient Doctrin The Apostles had a new Revelation yet not of any new Doctrin but the very same that Christ and the Prophets preached before them and all agreed in the same Doctrin for Substance and yet had their own peculiar Visions and Revelations which were new to them to wit new though not in kind or specie yet in particular or individual unto them And so it is as to us we plead not for any new Revelation of any new Doctrin Faith or Gospel differing from what Christ and the Prophets and Apostles have taught before us and is largely and fully declared in the holy Scriptures but for a new Revelation of the same Doctrin Faith and Gospel which was revealed unto them For as the Faith of the Prophets and Apostles is not enough to us but we must also have the like precious Faith with them 1 John 1.2 and we must see with our spiritual Eyes and hear with our spiritual Ears and handle with our spiritual handling the Word of Life as they did so it must be newly revealed to us and in us 4. And if all new divine Revelation and Inspiration be ceased then all spiritual seeing and hearing is ceased and neither God nor Christ is or hath been heard or seen spiritually as the Saints did see and hear formerly nay not in the least degree and all inward spiritual Sensation and feeling is gone and all use or exercise of spiritual Series which is sad tidings to poor Souls But if any grant that there is any true and real spiritual hearing seeing tasting and other spiritual Sensations of God and divine things they must also grant true divine Revalation the same in kind and nature with what the Saints had of old for what is the proper object of the inward hearing and seeing and tasting and feeling Is it not God and Christ As David invited others saying O taste and see that God is good And as the Spouse said in the Song I sate down under his Shadow with great delight and his Fruit was sweet unto my taste his Left-hand is under my Head and his Right hand doth embrace me he hath brought me to his banqueting House c. and again The King hath brought me into his Wine-Cellar And can these sweet and heavenly Experiences be witnessed without divine Revelation or Inspiration And whereas some say It is Revelation by the Word and Spirit going along together but not by the Spirit alone without the Word I Answer granting it to be so in a true sense for the Prophets and Apostles had both the Word and the Spirit going along together in their divine Revelations according to Isa 50.21 and that did not hinder them to be real and proper in their kind But that God hath limited and confined himself so as never to give any inward enjoynment of himself to the Souls of his dear Children by any inward sense sight or hearing but what is conveyed unto them always by means of Scripture words is a most extravagant presumption to affirm without all Scripture proof for besides that the Soul may hear God speaking other words to it inwardly than express Scripture words though not contrary or disagreeing it oft falls out that the inward and spiritual seeing tasting and feeling may be enjoyed and witnessed without all words composed of Letters or Syllables even in a deep inward stillness and quietness according to these words Be still and know that I am God And as the outward seeing tasting smelling and feeling may be used without the present use of the outward hearing so may the inward and spiritual seeing tasting smelling and feeling be used at times and seasons without the inward and spiritual hearing of any Words formally composed of Letters and Syllables or Scripture words or so much as inwardly thought or conceived which Men of spiritual Experience who have their spiritual Senses cannot but readily grant We find by common experience that Words fall short to give us a sufficient and satisfactory knowledge of outward and natural things and therefore we desire rather to see taste and handle them than to hear the best or most true report of them We love rather to see a pleasant Country than to hear of it only and every good Child loveth to see his Parents rather than to hear a report or talk of them so every loving Wife loveth rather to see her Husband and hear himself and be imbraced by him than to hear others tell of him And the loving Subject is more glad to see his Prince or King of whom he hath received so many Favours and to hear himself than to hear others tell of him and thus it is with every Soul that truly loveth God they much rather desire to hear himself and see him than
to hear others tell of him as one well said It is little to see Christ in a Book but to see him and hear him and feel his most lovely Embraces as his Children have witnessed that is very precious It is not the report or discourse of Bread however so true and large that can satisfie an hungry man or the report of good Drink that can satisfie a thirsty Man but to taste and eat of Bread that only satisfieth him that is hungry and to taste and drink of Water Beer Wine or any other refreshing Liquor only satisfieth the thirsty Man And so to eat of Christ and feed upon him who is the Soul 's proper food and nourishment doth and only can satisfie and content the hungry Soul as Christ said John 6.57 He that eateth me shall live by me And Christ is not only the Soul's Meat but its Drink also and therefore David said As the Hart panteth after the Water-Brook so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God for the living God Psal 42.1 2. And surely this so near and inward enjoyment of God and Christ cannot be without an inward and intimate or immediate Revelation of him And if words fall short to give to men a sufficient and satisfactory knowledg of natural and outward things how much more then to give a sufficient and satisfactory knowledg of God and Chirst and Divine things as his Love his Life his Peace and that inward Comfort and Consolation that is in his presence For the Scripture saith 1 Cor. 2.9 10. Ear hath not heard nor Eye hath not seen nor hath the Heart of man conceived the good things that God hath prepared for them that love him and wait for him Where we see all words fall short to discover these things But God hath revealed them to us said Paul by his Spirit And this God did promise as a general priviledg to all his People of all Nations even to bring them to his holy Mountain and to destroy the face of the Covering spread over them and make unto them a Feast of fat things full of Marrow and of Wines upon the Lees well refined And what is this but the enjoyment of himself seen and tasted by them And do not all true Believers eat the same spiritual Bread and drink the same spiritual Drink the Rock that followed Israel of old which Rock was Christ And surely this is beyond all Words or Declaration and according to this the joy of God's People is called a Joy unspeakable even such as words cannot express and the Peace of God is said to pass Vnderstanding and the love of Christ that it passeth Knowledg because no Words either spoken or conceived by men can give the knowledg of these so great and divine and profound Mysteries but only the Spirit of God that searcheth the deep things of God can discover them Again we find by common experience that all outward teaching of men presuppose certain Principles of knowledg of natural things which they profess to teach which Principles are partly known without men's teaching by the outward sense of them and partly by inward Notions of Knowledg innate in the minds of men and therefore it were altogether in vain for a Master of Architecture or Navigation to teach a man these Arts who is altogether blind and senseless and stupid and hath not any inward clearness of his natural judgment and even so it is as to spiritural and divine things all outward teaching of them doth pre-suppose some Principles of Knowledg of these very things and some inward divine and spiritual Sense of them or at least some inward ground and capacity whereby that divine Sense may be excited in them And therefore when Paul Preached to the Athenians that professed themselves ignorant of God he Preached him Acts 17.16 27 28. near unto them yea so near as the Stock or Root of a Tree is unto the Bud or off-spring that groweth upon it and this he proved from some of their own Poets who said of men that they are God's off-spring and he told them plainly the way to seek him and find him was by feeling him so that he joyneth these three together to wit seeking feeling and finding for as a man in a dark Room or having his Eyes shut being perswaded that the thing he desireth to have is at hand or near to him doth grope and feel after it and by feeling doth within a little time find it even thus did Paul teach these ignorant Athenians how they might find God and how all men however so ignorant have a time or opportunity given them to find him God having determined the times before-appointed and bounds of Habitation wherein they may find him And so from this inward Ground or Principle of Knowledg in these Athenians which they had before Paul Preached unto them as a wise Master-Builder or Teacher he proceedeth to Preach Christ and the Resurrection and eternal Judgment unto them as a good Master or Teacher of natural Science beginneth with the first Principles of Knowledg not to teach them but presupposing them and only calling the minds of the Scholars to remember or take notice of them and then from these Principles he proceedeth to teach them the mysteries of the Science 5. But whereas many who deny all new Revelations of the Spirit yet grant the necessity of the inward Illumination of the Spirit of God To give the saving Knowledg and Vnderstanding of God and divine things as these who gave forth the Westminster Confession of Faith being an Assembly made up of Presbyterian and Independent Teachers met at VVestminster about forty Years ago see Cap. 1. Sect. â— Surely if these men had been rightly acquainted with the inward Illumination of the Spirit of God they would never have writ or given forth such Non-sense and Contradiction in the face of the World as to grant the necessity of inward Illumination and at the same time yea in the same Section or Paragraph and within a Line or two to deny all new Revelation for indeed inward Illumination is Revelation and inward Revelation is Illumination the thing is one though the Names be distinct as oft the same thing is expressed by variety of Names and the places of Scripture they bring to prove the necessity of the inward illumination of the Spirit do prove the inward Revelation of the Spirit both which are one as John 6.45 and 1 Cor. 2.9 10 11 12. It is written in the Prophets They shall all be taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me And that other place in 1 Corinth 2.9 10 11 12. As it is written Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God For
what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the VVorld but the Spirit which is of God whereby we know the things that are freely given us of God There cannot be brought out of the whole Scripture more suitable places to prove the necessity of divine Revelation than these are the one plainly implying it the other plainly expressing it For to be taught of God to hear and learn of the Father as the Prophets and Apostles did what is it but to be taught by divine inward Revelation Or if they will say Nay then the Prophets and Apostles were not taught of God by the same Argument And whereas they bring Paul's words saying God hath revealed them to us to wit these deep things of God to prove the inward Illumination of the Spirit of God to all Saints as well as to Paul the same proveth divine Revelation as it is expresly so called by Paul in this very place for they must needs grant that the divine Illumination which Paul had was Revelation properly so called and what he had he holdeth it forth as common in kind to all Saints and Believers And as for the word Revelation as signifying an inward operation of the holy Spirit in the Heart and Understanding we find it to be a phrase more frequently used in Scripture than the word Illumination or Illuminated or Enlightned or to Enlighten yea I find the word Illuminated out once used in all the English Translation of the whole Bible but Revelation frequently is used in our English Translation and reveal revealed see Isa 40.5 and 53.1 and 56.1 Jer. 33.6 Mat. 11.27 25. Luke 10.21 22. Rom. 8.18 1 Cor. 2 10. Gal. 1.16.3.23 Phil. 3.15 Ephes 1.17 Beside many other places So that it is very strange why these Faith-makers at Westminster should have such a grudge and prejudice at all new Revelation a Word so frequently used in Scripture and yet pretend so great kindness to new inward Illumination which is the same for it passeth their skill or any Man 's else to divide or separate the one from the other 6. But the great knack nicety or mystery of this distinction lieth in this that inward Illumination is only Revelation subjective or effective and in that sense some of that sort of Men say They own the necessity of inward Revelation and hold it to be all one with Illumination But they deny all inward objective Illumination or Revelation that is to say any inward Revelation of any inward object inwardly proposed to the Eye or Ear or other inward spiritual Sense and Faculty of the Soul the alone object of the Souls whole kowledge faith fruition enjoyment of God and communion with him being the Scriptures or God Christ and divine things not in themselves seen or enjoyed but as they are to be seen and known or revealed in the words of Scripture Hence they who use this distinction say the inward Light or Illumination of the Spirit being only effective or subjective but not objective iâ— medium incognitum assentiendi or principium incognitum cognoscendi that is to say an unknown Principle or mean of knowing and assenting which may be illustrated by this similitude that there is an inward vigour of Life and natural Spirits that are necessary to enable the outward Eye to see outward things and Objects but that inward vigor of natural Life and Spirits is not the object of the Eye nor seen by it or otherwise some may or do understand by subjective inward Revelation or Revelation on the part of the subject the Soul 's inward knowledge or perception as in the outward sight of things of this World there is the vision of the Eye or its sight and perception and the Object seen and perceived by the Eye Also in hearing there is the hearing or perception of the Ear and the thing heard be it Voice or sound of Man Beast or Bird or musical Instrument And thus according unto these Mens Doctrin the alone adequate formal Object of all faith knowledge fruition enjoyment sight and sense of the Souls of the most excellent Saints either now living or that have lived in all Ages past since the Apostles lived is the Scripture-words But this is all meerly begged and taken for granted without all proof and altogether contradictory to the experience of all the true Saints of God who have an inward sight knowledge and enjoyment of God far surpassing all Words or Writings And thus according to these Mens Doctrin all the knowledge or sight that the Saints have of God in this Life is but as one that seeth England in a Map but never saw the Land it self or as an hungry Man heareth and readeth good words of Meat but neither seeth nor tasteth it and as a Woman heareth of a Husband she is married unto or seeth his Picture on a Table or on Paper or readeth a Book that describeth his Beauty and Personage but is never admitted to see him or hear himself nor to touch handle or embrace him all which are sad tydings to Souls that love God and Christ but the best is they are utterly false and the experience of the Saints abundantly prove them to be false and such dark ignorant blind Doctrin proveth sufficiently what dark ignorant blind Men these have been or are who have published their own shame and folly to the face of the World and as blind and ignorant are these Teachers who have since received and published the same blind Doctrin But if the inward Light or Illumination be altogether an unknown Principle to him that hath it having no Evidence or Light or Demonstration of its own whereby to discover it how shall any Man be sure or know surely that he hath any inward divine Light or Illumination for no Scripture can tell him that he hath it or that he hath the Works of one that is divinely illuminated One would think the bear naming or mentioning such Doctrin is enough to refute it as to say God and Christ is and can only be known by words or report and hear-say whereas the Scripture saith Ear hath not heard nor Eye seen what these things are which God hath prepared for his Children And yet all Scripture words the Ear doth hear and the Eye doth see 7. But to come to the Conclusion of the matter it is to be noticed or considred that there is a Doctrinal and sensible knowledge of God or discursive and intuitive as for the doctrinal and discursive knowledge of God it is granted that it cannot be without words either of Scripture or some other words given by the same Spirit and also it is granted that Scripture words in God's ordinary way are necessary to give to Men the said doctrinal knowledge of God and Christ and many deep and mysterious things of the Christian Faith
the Spirit of God speaking in the Scriptures is the supream Judge of all Controversies of Religion although it is no Scripture phrase nor proper but figurative as when a man is said to speak in his Books or Writings yet in a figurative sense it might be allowed if they did not confine all the speaking of the spirit of God to his only and alone speaking in the Scriptures so as that the Spirit speaketh not at all as they would have it in the Souls and Hearts of Men as he used to do in the Prophets and Apostles And because they have a wrong sense of it and that it is not proper but figurative it is better not to use it And in the room of it I say the Spirit of God speaking in some measure in the Heart of every true Believer and Spiritual man opening and expounding the Scripture unto him in the due and diligent use of reading hearing and meditation of Scripture words or any other means of God's appointing for our Institution and especially in the frequent use of fervent and earnest Prayer praying earnestly with David who was richly indued with divine Revelation Open my Eyes that I may see the wonderful things of thy Law and most especially in our being found in the way of Righteousness and faithful Obedience to what is already revealed unto us for as we are found here we have good warrant to expect that where any doubt or Controversie in Doctrin or in the meaning of a place of Scripture doth arise that God's holy Spirit whom Christ hath promised to his Disciples to teach them all things and to lead them into all Truth will indeed judge and decide the matter in question in their Hearts by his secret Light and Teaching or Revelation And let it be noted that I say it is not the Spirit abstractly considered from the Scriptures or our due use of them or the duty that God requireth of us but it is the holy Spirit opening or expounding the Scriptures unto us in reading hearing meditation prayer waiting and obedience to what we already know that it is the Judge of all Controversie in matter of Doctrin 4. Next as to the Rule as the Scripture is the best and only external or outward Rule and Standard it is worthily preferred to all other outward Records and Testimonies yet because we both believe the Scriptures not simply for their own Testimony but for the inward Witness and Testimony of the Spirit and also because we can only understand the Scriptures but by the said inward Witness and Testimony of the holy Spirit therefore the inward Witness of the spirit or the spirit inwardly witnessing both to the truth and true sense of Scripture is the greatest and primary Rule as John plainly testified saying If we receive the Testimony of Men the Testimony or Witness of God is greater and he that believes hath the Witness in himself and hath set to his Seal that God is true And therefore Paul recommended his Doctrin to the Witness of the Spirit in the Hearts and Consciences of the Hearers and told the Thessalonians 1 Thess 1.5 that his Gospel came unto them not in word only but in Power and in the holy Ghost and in much assurance And he told the Corinthians that their Faith was to stand in the Power of God and therefore not in the bare words that he preached for he did not preach himself nor his Words but Christ to be the Foundation of their Faith CHAP. IV. Concerning ministerial Gifts and Qualifications and the Call to the Ministry the nature and manner of true Preaching and Praying and Singing and the true Gospel-Maintenance to the Ministry 1. BEcause of the near and close connexion and dependance that the things mentioned in the Title of this Chapter have with the truth of what is delivered in the preceeding Chapters therefore I do see it meet to treat of them in this place The common Doctrin and Opinion of these who deny all new Revelation of the holy Spirit is that natural and acquired Parts of Letter-learning without divine inward Revelation or Inspiration is sufficient to qualifie a man to be a Minister of the Gospel and is necessary to his esse or being of a Minister and Grace or true Piety and Holiness is only accidental and doth but only contribute to his bene esse or making him the better By Letter-learning they do not only mean human Arts and Sciences and the knowledge of Greek Hebrew and Latin but especially a Letter-knowledge of the Scripture without any saving Grace or illumination of the Spirit as being essential to a Minister And indeed they say agreeable enough to their own Doctrin for if all new Revelation of the Spirit is ceased what is left behind to qualifie a Man to be a Minister but only natural and acquired parts of Letter-learning Nor can they with any Reason affirm according to their Doctrin that true Piety and Holiness is essential to a Minister otherwise no Man is a Minister without it and then it doth follow that no Man can infallibly be known whether he be a real Minister yea or nay for if divine inward Revelation be ceased then all infallible discerning of Mens Spirits and spiritual estates is ceased and no Man can know another infallibly whether he be a Saint or Hypocrite for they grant that a Hypocrite may have all the outwards of a true Christian as the Pharisees that made clean the outside but their inward was full of Rottenness and Uncleanness And if a Man cannot be known to be a true Minister according to their Doctrin the People are in a woful case as concerning that they call their Sacraments and especially that called the Supper which they say cannot be administred but by a true and real Minister and if any that is not a true Minister should presume to do any such thing as to Bless or Consecrate and set apart the Bread and Wine from common use it would be no Sacrament at all as some or most of them affirm 2. Now that divine Revelation and Inspiration is necessary to the Being or Essential Constitution of a Minister of Christ is evident from the Doctrin already delivered because it is necessary to the being or essential Constitution of every true Christian No man is or can be a true Christian without inward divine Revelation or Inspiration and therefore without the same no man can be a true Christian or Gospel-Minister for that which is absolutely necessary to constitute a true Christian or Believer is absolutely necessary to constitute a true Christian Minister otherwise it might be said a man may be a true Christian Minister and yet no true Christian But every true Minister of Christ as he ought to be a true Christian so he ought to be more than an ordinary Christian so as to exceed or excel them both in Spiritual Knowledge and other spiritual Gifts even as in natural teaching the Master or Teacher should
Light according to the English Translation or as it may be as well translated the Light is that which maketh manifest every thing to wit both it self and all other things And this description of Light belongeth only to God and Christ and the holy Spirit in the full extent of it for no created Light visible or invisible can manifest or reveal all things the outward Light of the Sun can only manifest some outward things but not all it cannot let us see what is under the Earth or in the bottom of the Seas but God can and doth search all Deeps and can reveal or make manifest every thing however so hid and therefore the Name Light doth more properly belong to God the Father of Lights and to Christ and to the holy Ghost than to any created Light visible or invisible and yet a publick Preacher in New-England in the Town of Hampton before some Hundreds of People most of them his common Hearers did affirm That God was not properly Light but only by a Figure borrowed from the outward Light of the Sun And to say God was Light and Christ was Light was the fundamental Error of the Quakers And though some of his Brethren have blamed his Rashness yet it cannot be denyed but he said that which was most consequential and agreeable to his Brethren's Doctrin and the Westminster Confession of Faith which the Church of New-England hath espoused to be her Confession of Faith also for if God do not at all reveal himself immediately or any other things he is not Light at all unto his Saints now on Earth as we may well say if the outward Sun should with-draw his Beams altogether from the Eyes of Men or that some dark body should be interposed always betwixt the Sun's Light and Men's Eyes the Sun should not be Light unto Men for it is the nature and property of all Light to reveal it self immediately to every one or else not at all and always to be its own Messenger and to discover teach and direct Men by its own Light and Evidence and not by any other thing For to say the Sun doth not lighten us immediately when it giveth us its Illumination is a great Contradiction that the Assertion carrieth to it self for whatever means or mediums the Sun's light passeth through to our Eyes as the Air Glass and the Tunicles of our Eyes or suppose some Lattise or thin vail or cloathing yet it s still immediate or if it be reflected from a Looking-glass or any other Object yet the Light it self coming to our sight through all these means or mediums and not stopping or staying by the way nor employing some other Messenger in its room to carry the tydings of it to us it is still immediate the Light hath a self-evidence whereby to make it self known without any other help or instrument whereby to make it known And thus God is Light and thus not only the Saints knew God to be Light but also divers of the Gentiles who had not the Scriptures knew God to be Light as Plotinus who said As we see know the Sun by his own Light so we see and know God by his own Light And Pythagoras and Plato declared God to be Light and it was one of Pythagora's rules Let none presume to speak or teach of God without his Light wherein he saw further and better into the true Mystery of Preaching and Teaching than these blind Faith makers at Westminster and New-England Preachers who have espoused that blind and dark thing called their Confession of Faith And Plato taught That God created the Soul of Man in a Region of divine Light and then it conversed with the true substance of Light and of every other thing but by its Sin it was thrust down into a Cave or Dungeon where it only conversed with Shadows and Figures or Images of things which are the things of this outward and perishing World And this doth well agree with the Scripture that saith God drove out the Man from the Garden And thus the mind of Man losing the inward enjoyment of God the true Light did joyn it self to the perishing things of this World where it can find no true Rest for they are but Figures and Shadows and the Scripture calleth this World a Fashion or Figure and Scheme 1 Cor. 7.31 And why is Christ called the true Light and the true Bread in Scripture and the Truth but to signifie unto us that he is indeed more truly and properly and satisfyingly the Soul 's true Light and Food than the outward Light and Bread is unto the Body or outward Man And therefore in comparison of God all created things of Heaven and Earth are said to be nothing and less than nothing and the Nations are as nothing and less than nothing before him Isa 40.17 And therefore as the Name Being and Good doth most properly belong to him as Christ said There is none good but God So the names Light Life and Love do most properly belong to him though it is most readily granted that he doth infinitely surpass and excel all that Men can either speak or think of him and that he hath a Name that none knoweth but he himself but since it hath pleased God to call himself by the Name Light speaking unto Men in the Language of the Sons of Men I say in the language of Men the Name Light doth most properly and without all Figure belong to God and Christ and this the Saints in Light well knew but they who know not the Light and believe not in it it is no wonder that they think that God or Christ is Light only by a Figure or Metaphor from the outward Light For indeed the Animal or natural Man that only followeth his natural Thoughts and Apprehensions doth not know God but by Figures and Shadows And though I plead for the immediate Revelation of God and Christ in the Hearts and Spirits of his Saints who is their Light and Life yet the means are owned and acknowledged in their place as good Men are Means good Books and especially the Scriptures are means whereby to transmit the Light of God and Christ unto us as he is pleased to make use of them and not otherwise even as the Air or Glass of the Window cannot convey any light of the Sun unto us but when the Sun shineth for when the Sun withdraweth and hideth his Face the Air and the Glass hath no Light to convey unto us And thus it is as to all Men and Books and Means they can convey no Light to us but what how and when God the Father of Lights is pleased to send forth through them unto us and this David well knew when he prayed saying O send forth thy Light and thy Truth to lead me and guide me to thy holy Hill and lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon us Psal 43.3 Psal 4.6 And as it pleaseth God often to
will have none of the Graces of Christ without himself and if the Graces did come unto him without Christ he would send them away the Gate or way they came And as for the other Scriptures they cite they prove indeed that the Lord Jesus Christ is but one and there is none else nor is any man or men or Angels equal to him which we most cordially believe but they say not in the least nor by any just consequence can it be gathered that the Saints do not partake substantially of God And to shew the great inequality betwixt Christ and the Saints not only in the measure and degree but in the manner or kind of partaking of the holy Spirit which is one Substance with God Christ the Son hath God and the holy Spirit without any middle or mediator betwâ—â—t the Father and him but the Saints only have and enjoy the Father and the holy Spirit through Christ the Mediator and together with him and in him And this I hope will satisfie all sober and impartial Men to clear the Doctrin of the Quakers that it is according to Scripture 4. Next as concerning the Decrees of God these Faith-publishers say That God hath unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass yet so as neither is God the Author of Sin nor is Violence offered to the will of the Creatures Whereby it plainly appeareth they hold that God hath ordained and decreed all manner of Sins and Blasphemies Adulteries Thefts Robberies Homicides Regicides c. which is abominable and blasphemous Doctrin with a witness They need not blame the Ranters seeing they are so fully one with them in Doctrin for that is one of the worst Doctrins that the Ranters have That God doth all and hath unchangeably ordained and decreed all things both good and bad for certainly whatever God hath ordained and decreed to come to pass he is the doer of it for he executeth that is bringeth to pass all his own Decrees as they confess in their large Catechism Ans to Quest 14. and that they say yet so as God is not the Author of Sin they say it indeed and so many of the worst sort of Ranters but how they clear their Doctrin of so unavoidable consequence they have not told the World nor ever can they sufficiently clear it And for the Scriptures they bring as especially Ephes 1.11 That God worketh all things after the counsel of his own Will here is nothing mentioned of the sins of Men and Devils It is plain both from Reason and Scripture that by all things must needs be understood all his own Works and not the Sins of Men and Devils which he is not the Author of as when we say every wise Man doth all things by Wisdom and wise Counsel none is so foolish as to put this gloss upon it that he doth all foolish things It is an approved Maxim and Rule Verba sunt intelligenda secundum subjectam materiam i. e. Words are to be understood according to the subject matter It is worthily granted and acknowledged that God worketh all good things all Virtue and Goodness is of him all good Thoughts Words and Works c. But all Sin is of the Devil and evil Men as John said Whosoever committeth Sin is of the Devil and the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life is all of the Devil and not of the Father And as Christ said The Devil when he speaketh a Lye he speaketh of his own It is also granted that when any commit Sin the power whereby they act is of God but when they Sin they abuse that Power and also whatever Sin cometh to pass is not without God's permission and that is not a bare permission but a most holy and wise ordering and bounding of it to his own Glory And as to Acts 2.23 a main place that Ranters and Presbyterian and Independent Teachers abuse and wrest as they do other Scriptures to their own Destruction if they repent not it giveth them no strength at all For it saith Him to wit Christ being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Fore-knowledg of God ye have taken c. So we see that he was delivered or exposed unto them by the determinate Counsel of God but that they did kill him by the determinate Counsel of God the Scripture saith not For to deliver is one thing and to slay is another Our worthy Friends that were put to Death at Boston in New-England they delivered up their Lives freely into the Hands of these Murtherers and so did many of the Martyrs not accepting deliverance and yet they did not kill themselves as these bloody Persecutors use to alledge And that it s said God hardneth whom he will His hardning is not the making their Hearts hard with infusing any evil Spirit into them but that he justly with-draws his good Spirit from them for great Sins formerly committed and so leaveth them to harden their own Hearts As it is said That Pharoah hardned his Heart And thus do many sober and judicious Protestants understand the Words 5. Again as concerning Election and Reprobation first as to the Election and Predestination of the Saints unto eternal Glory and Happiness whatever the Scripture saith of it or of any other Doctrin we do readily believe and acknowledge it as That God hath chosen the Saints in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the World that they should be holy and unblamable before him in Love Ephes 1.4 and Rom. 8.29 For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conform to the Image of his Son c. and whom he did predestinate them he called and whom he called them he justified And what Christ said to the Disciples Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and appointed you to bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain Joh. 15.16 and 1 John 4.10 Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins and vers 19. We love him because he first loved us A most sweet and comfortable Testimony as all the other But we no where find in all the Scripture that God hath Reprobated any part of Mankind before the foundation of the World nor is it said that Men hate God because he first hated them and because God hated them he made them on purpose to damn or destroy them and decreed and ordained them to sin that he might take occasion thereby to damn them No such thing at all is found in the holy Scriptures nor can be gathered from them by any just consequence for although it be allowed that Gods purpose and holy Will concerning them that finally perish is from before the foundation of the World for there is no new Will or Purpose in God the Thoughts and Counsels of his heart being from everlasting as himself is yet that Will of God regardeth and considereth them that
how in Gospel days the true Believers of Jacob and Esau should become one Body of a Gospel-Church and in this Body they of Esau should be as Hands but the Voice is Jacob's that is the Word of God in the preaching of the Gospel should be sounded out of Jacob's Line to wit from the Prophets and Apostles who were of Jacob. And there is no ground from Scripture that Esau as to his Person was not saved yea Luther and Moller and Oecolampadius all famous Protestants in their day judge rather that he was saved and the whole passage of Jacob and Esau beside that it hath its historical fulfilling is a Figure of two inward Seeds and Births none of which are reprobated but the other preferred But if some alledge Heb. 12.17 to prove that absolutely Esau was rejected and did perish because it s said He found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with Tears I answer that doth not prove his final rejection but only that he could not be heard to have that first Blessing recalled which was already given to Jacob. 6. Where now shall these Men find any place in Scripture to prove that there are any reprobate Infants Or that any Infants dying in Infancy go to Hell and perish eternally only for Adam's Sin although that Sin was forgiven to Adam and Thousands more equally guilty by their own confession If they shall alledge as some do that place in 1 Cor. 7.14 For the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife viz. that believeth and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unclean but now are they holy Yet this cannot prove their Intention for they dare not confidently say that all Infants of believing Parents are elected otherwise they must say that Esau was elected both whose Parents were Bellevers Although some in Church-Covenant have gloried that none of their Children while Infants were Reprobates because they were in covenant and yet at that same time pleading that Esau was a Reprobate in his Mother's Belly forgetting that both Esau's Parents were more holy than they And if any further urge If there be no reprobate Infants that then all Infants are sanctified and holy both the Children of unbelieving Parents as well as of Believers I answer it doth not follow by any necessary consequence although to admit of that Consequence is much more tollerable than to say that any Infants perish eternally only for Adam's Sin And as for the general state of Infants and how they are particularly disposed of immediately after Death who die in Infancy seemeth a great depth and is a great mystery and is best known unto the Lord For it is generally granted that God hath his way to reach to Infants and deal with them both in the Womb and upon the Mothers Breasts and therefore let us leave secret things unto God until he reveal them and be satisfied with what he hath revealed Now this is plainly revealed and declared in the Scriptures that the Condemnation is not simply that Adam sinned or his Posterity in and with him but that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness more than Light And as by the offence of one to wit the first Adam Judgment is come upon all to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness on one to wit Christ the second Adam the free Gift is come upon all to Justification of Life And tho' Men generally are by Nature Children of Wrath if it should be granted or allowed that by Nature signifieth their natural condition as they are born into the World yet by the great Mercy Grace and favour of God they all have an opportunity or possibility to be converted and become the Children of God And what that Holiness or Cleanness is that the Children of one or both the believing Parents have is a great Mystery I am sure to many who have that Scripture place oft in their Mouths and greatly glory in it that they are in Church-Covenant and therefore they are holy and their Children also some call it federal or Covenant Holiness but what is it they know not whether it be any real thing or principle of Holiness lodged or placed in their Children more than in the Children of others that are not in their Church-Covenant they dare not affirm for many yea very many Children of professed Christians of all sorts when they grow up to Youth are as unholy and sometimes worse as the Children of Unbelievers But that Children generally either of Believers or Unbelievers are actually sanctified from the Womb or in the Womb cannot be proved from Scripture or any Observation that we can make It is recorded as a rare and great thing that John the Baptist was sanctified from the Mother's Womb and the like of Jeremiah and so perhaps may be gathered of Moses or some others but these rare and singular Examples rather prove that Children are not in general actually and de facto holy from the Womb and therefore that Holiness of Children mentioned 1 Cor. 7. must only signifie some more near capacity in them than in others to become actually holy in time to come and that not of all Children after the Flesh but the Children of Promise as Paul distinguisheth these two sorts of Children of the same Parents Rom. 9.8 But who are the Children of the Flesh and who are the Children of the Promise Tho' it be well known unto God from the beginning yet commonly it is not known unto Men until they discover themselves by their Works and Fruits 7. As concerning the general state of Mankind by means of Adams fall what the Scripture saith of it is readily believed and granted and it is safest in all things to keep to Scripture words especially in all cases and matters that are in Controversie For the Scripture is a rich Treasury or Store-house sufficient to afford us Words whereby to express our Faith in all matters of Christian Doctrin and it is not safe to leave the Scripture-words and go to words of Mans wisdom and thereby to declare our Faith of Christian Doctrin Now the Scripture saith That in Adam all die 1 Cor. 15.22 and Rom. 5.12 That by one Man Sin entred into the World and death by Sin and so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned And that Christ hath died for all Men proveth that all Men were dead as Paul argueth the case And David though he was the Son of a good Father yet bewailed the state wherein he was conceived and born Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me And that under Moses Law an Offering was to be offered up for the Mother and the Child Levit. 12.4 5 6. when it was Born and that the Mother should be unclean so many days after the Birth of the Child doth certainly signifie a Seed or Principle of Sin and Corruption to be conveyed from the Parents to the Children in
Confession it is revealed to all elect Persons who are uncapable of being outwardly called by the Word the Spirit working in them when where and how he pleaseth 7. But whether any are or can be saved or justified without the express Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified and risen again is one Question and whether without all outward hearing of Christ crucified outwardly Preached unto them is another Question For without all outward preaching of Men the mystery of Christ crucified can be revealed and preached inwardly to Men by the Spirit of God and by the same Spirit Faith can be wrought in them by that inward hearing as these Men confess And though it may seem hard and difficult to prove that all honest Gentiles who did by Nature to wit by the Principle of the divine Nature implanted into the true Nature of Men the things contained in the Law had that express Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified and raised again yet it is more hard and difficult unto them who affirm they had it not to prove it seeing the Spirit who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth might reveal it unto them and that they grant the Spirit doth work in all elect Persons who are not outwardly called by the Word and doth regenerate and save them by Christ. And to the further clearing of this matter we are to consider that the Work of Salvation is not a thing that is commonly done in an instant but hath its gradual Steps its beginning progress and finishing even as Faith it self hath for as at the first instant of a Man's sincere believing he is enâ—â—ed into a state of Salvation so as his Faith groweth his Salvation doth gradually encrease and grow with it the which Salvation is not only a Salvation from Wrath to come or from Hell fire and torment but is a Salvation from Sin and from under the Power of Darkness and from all Ignorance and Error and Darkness of Understanding and a thorow renewing into the Image of God and bringing Man into Conformity unto the Image of the Son of God the heavenly and second Adam And the true knowledge of Christ and of God the Father being a part of the Image of God that is to be renewed in them that are to be saved according to Col. 3.10 And have put on the new Man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him Therefore it doth necessarily follow that perfect Salvation in the full extent of it cannot be had without the full and perfect knowledge of Christ the which full and perfect knowledge of Christ is to know him both as he is that eternal Word and Son of God the only begotten of the Father who was with the Father before the World was by whom all things were made and as he is God manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit c. to wit Christ crucified and raised which Paul calleth the great Mystery of Godliness And that both Salvation and Faith is gradual and hath its steps and progress beginning growth and perfection is very clear both from the Scriptures Testimony and the Saints experience for Paul writing to the believing Philippians exhorted them to work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling 2 Philip. 12. So though they were entred into a state of Salvation through Faith in Christ yet it was not perfected in them but was to be further wrought out and to encourage them in this great Work he told them It was God which worketh in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure And Paul encouraged the believing Romans and also himself saying Now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed Rom. 13.11 And the perfect Salvation of Souls is called the end of Faith 1 Pet. 1.9 And verse 10. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophecyed of the Grace that should come unto you Verse 11. Searching what or 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 And Verse 13. Wherefore gird up the Loins of your Mind be sober and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought unto you in the Revelation of Jesus Christ so the Greek hath viz. Enapokalepsei And Philip. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good Work in you will perform it unto the Day of Jesus Christ And as the Work of the outward Creation is distinguished into six Days and that a Day of Sabbath or Rest which is the perfection So the Work of the inward Creation which is the creating Men anew in Christ Jesus by way of Analogy may be said to have its six Days and then the spiritual Sabbath or Rest according to Heb. 4.9 There remaineth therefore a Sabbath to the People of God And verse 11. For he that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his And Verse 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest c. Where its plain the Writer doth hint at the said Analogy Now though it ought to be granted that the Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified and raised again doth belong to the finishing and perfecting of the Saints Salvation yet it is most clear and plain from Scripture that it doth not universally belong to the beginning of it For we can prove most clearly from Scripture that the good work of God even the Work of Salvation was begun in them who had not that Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified as first to instance in Nathaniel of whom Christ gave a noble Testimony Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no Guile John 1.47 And yet at that time he had not Faith in Jesus of Nazareth as being come in the Flesh but reasoned or questioned saying Can any good thing come out of Nazareth Philip saith unto him Come and see c. Next to instance in the Disciples of Christ who for sometime after they had followed him and that Peter had confessed to him that he was the Son of God and that Christ had told him his Father had revealed it to him yet the mystery of his Death and Resurrection was for all that hid from him and the rest of them For this see Mark 9.31 For he taught his Disciples and said unto them the Son of Man is delivered into the Hands of Men and they shall kill him and after that he is killed he shall rise the third Day And verse 32. But they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask him See again Luke 9.43 But that instance of Cornelius is a most manifest and clear demonstration of this Truth For this Cornelius was a Gentile and uncircumcised and therefore no Proselite of the Covenant to be sure and though some alledge that he was a Proselite of the Gate according to that distinction that was
among the Jews of a two fold sort of Proselites one of the Covenant that received Circumcision and the Law another of the Gate that did not receive Circumcision yet this is but barely alledged without all proof But if he was a Proselite of the Gate it is certain at that time when the Angel was sent unto him he had no express Knowledge nor Faith of Christ crucified for that was the thing which Peter was sent to preach unto him by hearing of which he was to receive the holy Ghost and be saved for the Angel told him that Peter should speak Words to him by which he and all his House should be saved see Acts 11.14 Now altho' at that time when the Angel appeared unto him Cornelius had no Knowledge nor Faith of Christ crucified yet he was in a good estate and well were it for many called Christians that they were in as good estate as he then was in When the Angel appeared to him he told him that his Prayers and his Alms were come up for a memorial before God Acts 10.4 And it is said of him verse 2. He was a devout Man and one that feared God with all his House which gave much Alms to the People and prayed unto God alway And with respect to this Peter began his Preaching saying Acts 10.34 35. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Now who dare be so bold to say Cornelius at this time had no real and true beginning of Salvation or of saving Grace and Faith before Peter did preach Christ crucified raised again unto him For although Cornelius had not at that time Faith in Christ crucified yet he had without all question Faith in God and in the Word of God that was in his Heart and that Word was Christ in him though the Mystery of Christ was not fully revealed unto him at that time and in that state he was accepted of God yet not for his Works sake but for Christ And therefore Men may have a beginning of true Faith and of a true Work of Salvation begun in them when the Mystery of Christ crucified and raised again is not revealed unto them For that Mystery being so great as it is was not in that Day to wit before Christ came and suffered in the Flesh preached as one of the first and most necessary things to be first known and believed as without the Faith and Knowledge of which no Man could be in any degree blessed otherwise when Christ began to Preach he would have preached it as one of the first things and when he sent his Disciples to preach the Gospel before he suffered Death he would have given them an express Commission to preach it to all People how he was to be crucified and raised again the third day but the Mystery of it at that time they knew not and therefore could not preach it then Nor did he preach it himself when he began his Ministry nor for a considerable time afterwardâ— until the time drew near that he was to suffer In all that excellent Sermon of his on the Mount not one Title or Word doth he mention of his Death and Resurrection expresly but he taught the Law and the Prophets and expounded the Spirituality of the Law in its extent far beyond the reach and conception which the People had of it at that time and withal dropped some Evangelical Precepts unto them and taught them the right way of Prayers Fasting and Alms and pronounced them blessed that hungred and thirsted after Righteousness and were poor in Spirit that were Merciful that were Meek and Peace-makers and that mourned c. and suffered for Righteousness sake And therefore it may be very safely concluded that the express Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified is not of absolute and indispensible necessity especially where it hath not been preached nor revealed unto the beginning of a Man's Salvation although it is really of absolute and indispensible necessity unto the finishing and perfecting of it because as hath been already said our inward renewing unto God when perfected in us is a renewing us perfectly and not in part only into the Image of God and a part of that perfect Image is the perfect Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom to know is Life Eternal and that perfect Knowledge requireth men to know him as he came in the Flesh and died and rose again which is that great Mystery of Godliness as Paul called it 1 Tim. 3.16 But if these Men who own that said Confession of Faith enquire whether all these honest Gentiles that lived in the world or do now live in the world who have not had Christ crucified outwardly preached unto them but were diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light that was in them died in a state of Salvation I say yea they did and this I may the rather say according to their own Doctrin For what if they had not the perfect Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified when they lived Yet they might have it at their Death to wit in the passing through the Valley of the shadow of Death according to Psal 23.4 Even when they are not able to demonstrate unto the Living what is then revealed unto them And as it is in Job 33.22 23 24. When a Mans Soul draweth near unto the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers there may be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one of a Thousand to show unto Man his Vprightness then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransom or Attonement see the Hebr. or Margin of the English Bible Or if I should say they receive this perfect Knowledge of Christ after Death it is according to your Doctrin who say The Souls of the Righteous generally or universally after Death note after Death being then made perfect in Holiness are received into the highest Heavens c. These are the express Words of your Catechism cap. 32. sect 1. But when and how or at what precise time these honest Gentiles who used their greatest diligence to frame their Lives according to the Light that is in them and yet have not had the Death and Resurrection of Christ outwardly preached unto them when they then lived in the World is not my present business to determine It doth suffice that I have demonstrated from Scripture that Men have been in a state of Salvation and acceptance with God who have not had the mystery of Christ his Death and Resurrection made known unto them and surely these Men continuing faithful to what they had received when they died could not perish For it is impossible that any Man who hath the Work of Salvation really begun in him though but as a Child in Knowledge that holdeth fast the beginning of his Confidence firm unto the end
is this righteous Law but in their Hearts And this righteous Law cannot be any natural Faculty of fallen Man which they confess is wholly defiled and corrupted and unholy and unrighteous 3 dly they confess That it is sufficient to leave men unexcusable sect 1. cap. 1. And therefore it is also sufficient to make men excusable who are diligent to frame their Life according to it and to say the contrary is to contradict the very instinct of common Justice that God hath put into mens Hearts 4 thly the Scripture saith that some of the Gentiles their Thoughts did excuse them in well doing as it did accuse them in evil doing Rom. 2.15 5 thly The Apostle Paul doth plainly distinguish it from the Conscience Rom. 2.15 the true Translation being Their Conscience co-witnessing or bearing a joynt Witness with that righteous Law or Principle 6 thly He calleth it the Truth and that which may be known of God which God hath shewed unto them which gave them the Knowledge of God and shewed them the goodness of God that leadeth to Repentance and also gave them to know the Judgment of God and revealed the Wrath of God from Heaven against them And because that many of them who knew God did not glorifie him as God nor were thankful therefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind and therefore they were not Reprobates from the beginning far less from all Eternity as these men alledg And therefore any Light or Illumination that these Gentiles had in them or that any men have in them is a new Gift and Grace of God and gracious Visitation of God unto them as the Apostle calleth it Rom. 5.18 Moreover that God himself doth inwardly speak to men generally in their Hearts both in good men and bad and is their Teacher and doth warn them yea and fore-warn them of Evil and Wrath to come and doth reprove and convince them of Sin is the Testimony of the holy Scripture in many places see Psal 94.10 Psal 50.1 16 to 22. Amos 4.13 Micah 6.8 Prov. 8.1 2 3 4. Job 28.28 Chap. 24.13 and 21.14 And it is a place greatly worth noticing Luke 12.20 God said unto him Thou Fool this Night thy Soul shall be required of thee And where did God say thus to him but in his Heart And therefore it hath been the way of God and ever will be to speak to men in their Hearts to call them and warn and fore-warn them of evil and danger and to perswade and incline them to that which is good And they who deny this as they belye God and say It is not the Lord that speaketh and calleth to men in their Hearts so they do a great injury and wrong unto men who instead of turning them to God's Teachings in their Hearts turn them away from them and they do ill deserve so great Wages of the People so to turn away the Ears of the People from God's inward teachings in their Hearts and from the Word of his Grace which is able to save their Souls And to conclude although the dispensations of the divine Grace be various and may be variously distinguished into a more or less number yet God and Christ and the holy Spirit are one and the one Author of all these various Dispensations and who-ever is faithful unto God in any of them is accepted in Christ and for Christ's sake and not otherwise And though the last which is the pure and perfect Christian and Gospel Dispensation is far more excellent and far surpassing either that among the Gentiles who had not the outward Law or that among the Jews and People of Israel who had the outward Law and the Prophets yet every one of them had their Glory in their day and that inward divine Dispensation that is now among the Gentiles who have not Christ as yet outwardly preached unto them hath its Glory and great Service and Blessing to them who are faithful to God in it and such who continue faithful therein to the end shall never perish and though it be not purely and throughly Christian and Evangelical but rather more Legal yet it is also partly Christian and Evangelical and the pure Gospel Dispensation is hid within it as a Wheel within a Wheel or as the most holy place was hid within the outer Court and there to wit in that first Dispensation Christ as it were lieth as in swadling Cloathes and though the Jews do not know him as he is there yet such as the Wise men from the East do both know and honour him as the King of the Jews yea as King and Lord both of Heaven and Earth who is in all and through all and over all blessed forever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning Justification and the Nature of true Faith whether Assurance is of the Nature of it 1. WHen the Scripture saith God justifieth the Vngodly Rom. 4.5 It is not to be understood that he doth justifie them in their Ungodliness but from it as the like manner of Speech is used Acts 13.39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses For seeing according to the Law of God He that justifieth the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord Prov. 17.15 God himself can do no such thing as to justifie a wicked or ungodly man in his Ungodliness 2. As it is only the true believer who hath Faith in Christ Jesus whom God justifieth so it is only he who is truly sanctified and regenerated or born again of the Spirit of God whom God doth justifie who are called the Seed of Israel Isa 45.25 In the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory For as a Rich Man when he dyeth by his Will or Testament leaveth his Goods or Riches not to Strangers but to his own Kindred as his Brethern or Children and to his Wife so our Lord Jesus Christ hath left by his Will and Testament when he dyed his Spiritual Goods to wit Remission of Sin Justification Adoption and Eternal Life only to his true spiritual Kindred to wit his Brethren who are born from Above and spiritually related unto him who are the true Children of God by spiritual Regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost and who are his true Church and Body and of his Flesh and Bones according to Ephes 5.30 3. And therefore not only Faith but true inward Sanctification and a thorow inward renewing into the Image of God and Conformity of the whole man unto the Image of the Son of God is a Condition and Qualification necessarily required in order unto mens being perfectly justified in the sight of God and as no man is justified but who is sanctified so no man is any more or further justified than he is sanctified 4. According unto which God doth justifie men not only by Faith in Christ but by a real inward Righteousness or Holiness which he doth beget in
them by his holy Spirit and not only Faith but Love Hope true Righteousness and Holiness Meekness Temperance and Humility and all other Evangelical Virtues and Fruits of the holy Spirit are the Instruments and Means whereby men obtain free Justification through Christ Jesus and whereby they are enabled and fitted or qualified to apply Christ Jesus and his Righteousness unto them so as to have the same imputed unto them and made theirs to wit Christ and all his spiritual Blessings Gifts and Benefits and his Death and Sufferings and Obedience with all the blessed Effects and Fruits of it For as a Line that is straight cannot be applyed unto another Line that is crooked but unto a Line that is straight so cannot the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Righteousness of God be applyed unto men for Justification unless these men be made righteous as he is in likeness or conformity unto him although not equal unto him And therefore John did seasonably give the warning and caution fore-seeing that many would claim to be righteous or justified when they were not really doers or workers of Righteousness 1 John 3.7 Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous And the same John said Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life c. Which is equivalent to their being justified seeing Justification doth include in its Nature a Right or Interest in Christ who is that Tree of Life 5. It is therefore a gross Error and a false and Antichristian Doctrin in these Faith-publishers at Westminster espoused by the Presbyterians and Independant Teachers in New-England That God doth justifie men not by infusing Righteousness into them but by pardoning their Sins and accepting them as righteous c. cap. 11. sect 1 2. And also that they say Faith receiving and resting on Christ and his Righteousness is the alone Instrument of Justification is another great Error For as Faith may well be compared to one Hand of the Soul whereby it receiveth and embraceth the Lord Jesus Christ so Love which is an inward Evangelical Grace and Virtue that is shed abroad or infused into the Soul by the holy Ghost may be compared to another Hand and Arm whereby it doth receive and embrace him And all the inward Evangelical divine Virtues and Graces that are wrought and begot in the Soul by the holy Spirit of Christ are so to speak as a whole intire Body consisting of many Members whereby the Soul doth embrace and cleave unto the Lord Jesus Christ and thus a perfect Union cometh to be witnessed betwixt the faithful Soul and the Lord Jesus Christ when it is joined unto him receiveth him and cleaveth unto him not by one single Grace or Virtue called Faith but by all other divine Graces and Virtues which make up a whole intire Body having many Members and Joynts whereby the Soul cleaveth to him as one streight Line is joyned to another or as one streight Body to another not in part only but in all parts And thus also doth the Lord Jesus Christ embrace the whole Soul in all its spiritual and divine Powers and Virtues that he hath freely conferred upon it And hence it is that true Believers are said to put on the Lord Jesus Christ as a man putteth on a Garment Now he that putteth on a compleat or intire Garment every part of his Body cleaveth to it even so the Soul that putteth on Christ cleaveth to him by all its spiritual Members which are the divine Evangelical Virtues wrought in it by the holy Spirit of Christ even as the Sins and evil Lusts are called the Members on Earth Col. 3.5 6. But though real inward Holiness and Righteousness as well as Faith be the Instruments whereby men are justified yet they are not the Foundation and Ground of Justification but the Lord Jesus Christ alone even Jesus of Nazareth who dyed for our Sins without the Gates of Jerusalem and rose again in his intire and perfect Obedience and Righteousness is the alone and only Foundation and ground of Justification on which the Souls of all the Faithful are to rest for Justification and Remission of all Sin and therefore no man is to rest or relie upon the best Works or Righteousness or Obedience that he doth or can do even when helped to perform the same by the help of the holy Spirit For this were to put good Works in the room of Christ which ought not to be for no Works of Righteousness or Holiness done by us even by the help of the holy Spirit is the Foundation of the Saints Faith or Justification but Christ alone and the free Love Mercy Grace and Favour of God the Father revealed in him and by him through the holy Spirit For seeing all men generally have sinned no mans best Obedience for Sin formerly committed can be a Ransom unto God but Christ alone is the Ransom even he who was Crucified and rose again 1 Pet. 3.18 The Just having suffered for the Vnjust that he might bring us unto God And as no man can redeem the Soul of his Brother so nor can he redeem his own Soul For the Redemption of the Soul is precious and ceaseth forever Psal 49.8 viz. to be the Work of man but it is only and alone the Work of him who is both God and Man according to verse 15. But God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah See further these other Scriptures Ephes 1.7 Col. 1.14 Heb. 9.12 15. Gal. 3.13 1 Pet. 1.18 Rev. 5.9 Mat. 20.28 1 Tim. 2.6 Job 33.23 24. 7. And seeing Remission and Pardon of Sin for Christ's sake is a part or branch of Justification as these Faith-publishers do acknowledg and that repentance is of such necessity that none may expect pardon without it as they confess cap. 15. sect 3. Is it not very manifest by their own Confession though in plain contradiction to their own Doctrin that Repentance is a necessary Instrument and Condition whereby to obtain Justification And indeed the Scripture layeth equal weight upon Repentance and Conversion as it doth upon Faith in order to obtain Remission or Pardon of Sins Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out Acts 26.18 To turn them from Darkness unto Light and from the Power of Satan unto God that they may receive Forgiveness of Sins c. And when the Scripture saith Titus 3.5 Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us It is clear that Works before or without true Faith are understood and not the inward Work of Sanctification as is clear from the following Words by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost And if the real inward Work of Sanctification and Obedience had not been necessary to Salvation the
but to extenuate the Sin in the Believer and to aggravate it in the Unbeliever contrary to the Scriptures Testimony which doth aggravate any Sin that Men having once believed fall into more than in unbelievers as is clear from 2 Pet. 2.20 21. 2. And as for the Scriptures they bring in their said Confession to prove their false Doctrin let them be impartially examined and they will be found to prove no such thing some of them being expresly conditional as that in 2 Pet. 1.10 For if ye do these things ye shall never fall Here it is only promised conditionally but not absolutely that they shall not fall to wit if they give all diligence to add to their Faith Virtue c. Verse 5. And this serveth them not only from falling totally but from falling indefinitly or universally so as not at all to fall for he saith not Ye shall not fall totally But Ye shall not fall And there are many other Scriptures that though they do not expresly mention the Condition yet do Imply it and are to be expounded by other Scriptures that do express it 3. It is readily and willingly granted that there is a state in Holiness or Sanctification that may be attained and grown up into wherein men cannot fall away totally from a state of Grace but as they cannot fall away totally so they cannot commit any gross or great Sin which in the Scripture phrase is commonly called Sin to wit a hainous Sin or Crime which John calleth A Sin unto Death 1 John 5.16 17. And here he distinguisheth betwixt a Sin unto Death and a Sin that is not unto Death viz. that doth not totally slay the Soul's Life but woundeth it and killeth only in part as some small wandring or evagation of mind or giving way through slackning the Watch unto a vain Thought for some small time something of Anger or Passion upon some sudden occasion something of glorying in Sufferings or Services or Knowledge or in spiritual Attainments something of too forward and hasty Zeal and divers like sudden Motions that a gracious and godly Soul may be tryed and afflicted with that are as Thorns in the Flesh-and do wound and afflict the Soul but are not suffered to proceed so far as to carry it forth into any secret or open gross Crime either inwardly in the Heart or outwardly in Word or Deed. Hence both in the Old and New Testament we find divers kinds and degrees of Sin more or less heinous and these expressed by divers both Hebrew and Greek Words The more heinous are called Iniquities Vngodliness Impiety Vnrighteousness Perverseness Rebellion and others of an inferiour Nature are called Trespasses Debts Omissions Faults c. Now the least kind or degree of Sin doth weaken and wound yea kill in part the Soul 's spiritual Life as when in the natural Body some Member is mortally wounded and killed and yet the whole Person is not slain thereby but all gross Sins such as Fornication Adultery Murder Theft Robbery c. make havock waste and destroy the Soul's Life and kill the whole man whom notwithstanding God in his infinite mercy may and doth at times restore For we read of no Sin unpardonable but that of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and doing despite to the Spirit of Grace And such who are come to this noble degree and state of Sanctification are described Psal 119.2 3. Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with the whole Heart they also do no Iniquity they walk in his ways And such have their Calling and Election made sure unto them such are not meerly or barely Servants nor Sons of the Bond-woman but Sons of the Free-woman and throughly renewed and born of God who doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in them 1 John 3.9 And he cannot sin because he is born of God For indeed to him that is born of God Sin is contrary to his new Nature as much as Holiness or Righteousness is contrary to the Devil's Nature or as one contrary thing can be to another as it is contrary to a Fish to live on dry Land or for a Sheep or Dove to live in the bottom of the Seas But whoever commit any gross thing as Fornication Murder Adultery Theft Robbery Perjury c. never arrived to this pure and perfect state of Sonship were but Servants and not purely and perfectly Sons and yet the state of the Servant is a true and good state in its place and as faithfully improved leadeth on infallibly to the state of pure and perfect Sonship and such who have attained to this pure and perfect state of Sonship can say with Paul Gal. 4.31 So then Brethren we are not Children of the Bond-woman but of the Free And with John 1 John 2.19 They to wit such who were not true Sons but at best only Servants went out from us but they were not of us c. To wit Sons and Children of the Free-woman or the Children of the New Covenant they were only of Hagar that signifieth the Law or first Covenant And to conclude the Righteousness and Holiness of the first Covenant may be totally fallen from such as was that of the Angels who fell and Adam the first man he fell totally and so may they who are not further advanced than to bear the Image of him the earthly Adam but the Righteousness and Holiness of the New Covenant such as they attain unto who are throughly born of God and are made Overcomers and Conquerors yea more than Conquerors as the Scripture phraseth it and are made conform to the Image of Christ the second Adam the Lord from Heaven heavenly cannot be fallen from or lost such having overcome are made Pillars in the House of God so as no more to go out Rev. 3.12 And to this state only do all these places of Scripture relate that hold forth and imply a sure and absolute stedfastness in Holiness and Righteousness But who are thus far advanced and who are not although infallible Signs and Marks of distinction may be given of these two so differing states God only infallibly knoweth and they to whom he doth reveal it For it is God that must make known by the inward Revelation of his holy Spirit who hath these marks otherwise men may presume to have them when they have them not And of these infallible Signs and Marks some of them are to love God with the whole Heart to love him purely and perfectly to love him for himself and to desire to enjoy him as he is a God of Holiness Purity and Righteousness more than for Gifts or Comforts or Rewards that are of an inferiour Nature to hate and fear Sin more than all punishment for Sin to have no inward inclination or desire to revenge Injuries but most willingly and heartily to forgive and bear them to love Enemies from the very inward ground and bottom of the Heart and always to render
just Man and perfect in his Generation and Noah walked with God Another place they cite Rom. 3.9 Answ This place is as impertinently alledged as the former for it is plain that Paul there describeth the condition of Men both Jews and Gentiles as they are generally under the Law and before they have Faith in Christ as is clear from Verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law But no where can it be found in Scripture that there are none of these who are under Grace that are righteous Men and made free from Sin but the contrary is manifest which expresly testifieth of many righteous and perfect Men in their Generation both before and after Christ came in the Flesh who pleased God and were Men of good Hearts and good Lives and especially Enoch is recorded to have walked with God by Faith of whom nothing blame worthy is mentioned in any one particular And Christ speaking of good men saith A good Tree cannot bring forth evil Fruit and a good Man out of the good Treasure of his Heart bringeth forth good things But to apply these words Rom. 3.9 and the following words to the Saints generally as these Faith publishers do sutes more with Ranters than sober Christians see and well consider the words from Verse 10. to Verse 19. There is none Righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God they are gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that dâ—th good no not one Their Throat is an open Sepulchre with their Tongues they have used Deceit the poyson of Asps is under their Lips whose Mouth is full of Cursing and Bitterness their Feet are swift to shed Blood Destruction and Misery are in their ways and the way of Peace they have not known there is no Fear of God before their Eyes O ye Presbyterian and Independent Teachers of New-England and Old How are ye not ashamed to apply these words to all God's true Saints Yea to the best that ever lived in the best state and to bring them as a proof against the possibility of the Saints perfection in this Life For if these Words do hold forth the best condition of the Saints that ever they were in upon Earth ye may as well say all Men yea the worst of Men are Saints or the Saints are the worst of Men and there is no difference of Men at all but all are equally wicked equally ungodly unholy unrighteous which is indeed the plain and express Language of Ranters Libertines Atheists some of whom to the wounding and loathing of my Soul I have heard so affirm But we cannot grant unto you that any of God's Saints are in that state and condition described by Paul in that place Rom. 3. from verse 9. to verse 19 and 20. which Words he citeth out of some of the Psalms of David describing the state of Men as they are in the fallen state and before the new Birth and spiritual Regeneration in Christ But thus to confound these so differing states is to confound Heaven and Earth yea rather Heaven and Hell and to soppose a concord betwixt Light and Darkness God and Belial Christ and Antichrist But let it be known unto you we can allow none of God's true Saints to be such as are there described by Paul Rom. 3. from verse 9. to 19. But it doth too much sute and quadrate with many of your supposed New-England Saints who have most bitterly and falsly accused God's Servants called in scorn Quakers and most cruelly whipped imprisoned and robed many of them and hanged some of them It may be well enough said of them indeed Their Throat is an open Sepulchre with their Tongues they have used Deceit the poyson of Asps is under their Lips whose Mouth is full of Cursing and Bitterness their Feet are swift to shed Blood destruction and misery are in their ways c. Take this home to you and blame not me for the Application seeing ye make it your selves and judge it to be your own condition 5. And that the said Doctrin viz. The best of the Saints by the greatest Grace of God given in this Life cannot perfectly keep the Commandments of God but doth daily break them in Thought Word and Deed and cannot be free from Sin for term of Life but must sin so long as they live and are only set free from sinning after Death as they expresly word it in answer to Quest 89. larger Catechism is not only warranted by any place of Scripture but is most expresly contrary to Scripture in many places and is quite opposite to the very Nature of the New Covenant and Gospel Dispensation and highly injurious to the Lord Jesus Christ tending to make void and of none effect the very end of his coming and to frustrate his exceeding rich Grace and also it is most wofully injurious to Mens Souls not only discouraging Men to press after Perfection in Holiness and Freedom from Sin but tending to encourage them in sloath and neglect to live and die in their Sins and yet for all this be Saints and immediately go to Heaven although they both live and die in their Sins And first That the said Doctrin is expresly contrary to Scripture see Rom. 6.18 Being then made free from Sin ye became the Servants of Righteousness And Chap. 8.2 3 4 5. and Verse 9. and Chap. 6.6 7 8. John 8.32 33 34 35 36. Ephes 4.13 Coloss 1.28 Heb. 7.19 Next God did promise in the New Covenant That he would pour clean Water upon his People and they should be clean from all their Filthiness Ezek. 36.25 c. and he would write his Law in their Hearts Jer. 31.33 and put his Spirit in their inward parts and give them a Heart of Flesh and a new Heart and a new Spirit and put his Fear in their Hearts that they shall not depart from him And surely all this doth plainly hold forth a freedom from a total sinning and that daily in Thought Word and Deed. Thirdly The very end of Christ's coming was to save his People from their Sins and not in their Sins to put an end to Sin and to finish Transgression and bring in everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 and to do or effect that which the Law could not do viz. to destroy Sin and him who hath the power of Death to wit the Devil that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.4 And the Lord said unto Paul 2 Cor. 12.9 My Grace is sufficient for thee But if it cannot preserve any Soul one day or hour or moment from sinning actually in Thought Word and Deed it cannot be understood to be sufficient and Paul said Where Sin did abound Grace hath much more abounded and he was able through Christ that strengthened him to do
the World without them or from the natural and mortal part in them that we plead a freedom from for it is readily granted that such Temptations may and do follow the best Men and therefore they ought to watch against them and resist them the which if they do and that they no wise joyn and consent to Temptation it is not sin unto them according to that saying of an Ancient Non nocet sensus si desu Consensus i. e. the sense of the Temptation doth not hurt if the consent be not given unto it 5 thly The Seed or Principle of Evil tho' it remain in the mortal or natural part at times move to evil Thoughts and Desires c. yet not being in any wife joyned nor consented unto neither outwardly in Word or Deed nor inwardly in the least Thought or Desire or delight and love of the Heart yielded unto nor obeyed is not imputed to be Sin unto Men who do not joyn to it nor obey it even as the Seed and Principle of God's Grace of Truth Holiness and Righteousness that is in the Hearts of wicked Men and oft moveth in them to turn and convert them unto God from the evil of their ways yet not being consented or yielded unto nor obeyed by them it is not in that case their Righteousness nor doth it make them in any respect righteous unless they joyn and yield unto it in true Obedience 6thly It is not the same degree and stature of Perfection that God requireth of every one but according to that measure and degree of Grace and Light that God hath imparted to every one to some more to others less but to every one sufficient to the present time and state For he that was faithful in the improving his two Talents to make them four was accepted although he made them not ten as he that was faithful in his five and made them ten and they were both proportionally rewarded hence we read of good and holy Men who are said to be perfect in their Generation according to the Light and Grace that God gave them in their Day and Age. And the high Priest that had on his Breast the Vrim and Thummim that signifieth Lights and Perfections was a Type of Christ our great and only high Priest who hath the Vrim that is Lights and the Thummim that is Perfections and distributeth of these Lights and Perfections variously towards his Saints and Children but to all sufficiently And so the degree of Perfection and perfect Obedience ought to answer to the degree of Light and Grace that God giveth through Christ unto every one and he who is faithful in that degree though he hath not the same equal degree and measure that another hath is perfect in that respect and the Child in the Child's state is perfect being faithful to the Grace and Light that is given him and if he die in that state he is safe and cannot perish as well as he that is a Man in Christ and is come up to the spiritual stature and growth of a spiritual Man So that Faithfulness in the Work and Service of God is that which doth render a Man perfect in the sight of God according to the ability of Light and Grace received whether in the state of a Child Young-man or Elder in Christ And thus I have gone through all the twelve particulars which I charged on the four Teachers whether Presbyterian or Independent at Boston and have given them not only my Assertions but my Arguments against their false and pernicious Doctrins that do not feed but starve and kill the Souls of them that believe and receive them CHAP. IX Of the Constitution and Government of their visible Church who are called Presbyterians and Independents or gathered Churches 1. THe visible Church they define to be or to consist of all those throughout the World that profess the true Religion together with their Children see Confession Cap. 25. Sect. 2. where it doth plainly appear that they require no other qualification to constitute or make the Members of their visible Church but a Profession of the true Religion So that nothing of true Piety or Holiness nothing of the Spirit of God nothing of an inward Possession of Christ or his Life and Power or Grace or heavenly Presence and Appearance is requisit to constitute any Members of their visible Church and thus though all the Members of their visible Church were gross and notorious Hypocrites and meer empty Formalists having only a Form of Godliness without the Power of it they are sufficiently qualified to be their Church-Members yea notoriously slanderous Persons notoriously Lyars Deceivers Drunkards Adulterers Thieves Murderers are qualified Members of their Church for all these and the worst of Men may profess the true Religion It is strange that Independents so called require no more but to profess the true Religion to make People Members of their Church Why did they formerly separate and set up Churches apart not only from the Popish and Episcopal but from the Presbyterian Churches so called if a Profession of the true Religion be enough to qualifie Persons to be Church-Members of their Church Do not those profess the true Religion as well as these called Independents Yea Do not the Presbyterians profess the same Religion in all parts with these called Independents and differ nothing from them but in some small Circumstances of Discipline Government and the like 2. We find no such Church in all the Scripture owned to be a Church of God or Christ that the outward Form or Profession of true Religion doth make a Church of God or Christ But on the contrary these who have the Form of Godliness but have not the Power of it and deny the Power the Scripture bids turn away from them For of this sort are they which creep into Houses c. see 2 Tim. 3.5 6. And consequently these can be no true Church of Christ And as for the distinction of the Church visible and invisible it may be owned in a sense but not in that sense given by them as if to profess the true Religion was sufficient to make a People to be a true visible Church of Christ For the invisible Church and the visible do not differ in Substance or Nature but in some circumstances of Time Places and outward Actions And it may be well allowed that a Company or Assembly of truly holy Men and Women meeting together at certain Times and Places that are known to People among whom they dwell and calling together upon the Name of the Lord and teaching and instructing and edifying one another every one using his spiritual Gift of Ministration whether in Praying or Prophecying to the Edification of the whole may be called a visible Church insomuch that they appear in external or outward and bodily Works and Actions that are visible But as the Body without Life or Spirit is dead and cannot properly be called a Man
we say they are not the only Rule nor being compared with the inward Rule of God's holy Spirit are they above it but inferior and under it and ought only to be used in Subordination to it And if the Scripture were the only Rule as our Adversaries say then all poor Heathens should have no Rule nor Law and consequently no Sin nor Judgment which is false And we deny not but the Scriptures are a means of our enlightning as God the Father of Lights is pleased to cause his Light to shine unto us in our Hearts in the serious and faithful hearing reading and meditating on the Scriptures c. but not otherwise even as the Air or Windows of a House are means of letting in the Sun 's light to us but if the Sun shine not neither the Air nor Window can give us light 2. That they denyed the Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ and affirmed that as Man he is not in Heaven This is a notorious false Charge which they can never prove And in this Treatise in several places I have given a large Testimony to the Man Christ Jesus in Heaven and how he is the Object and Foundation of the Christians Faith as the Mystery of his coming in the Flesh Death and Sufferings c. is inwardly opened revealed and applyed by the holy Spirit in Men's Hearts 3. That they deny the Resurrection of the Dead This is also a most false charge which they can never prove But because we deny their Carnal Conceptions of the Resurrection and hold us to Scripture-words which is most safe therefore they have so belyed us And for the more satisfaction of the Reader I refer him to a little Book called The Principles of Truth published by some noted Men of the Quakers in which Book it is expresly affirmed That we to wit the Quakers believe that the same Body which is laid down shall be raised up at the Resurrection of the Dead as much as a natural Body can be the same with a spiritual Body on an earthly Body can be the same with a heavenly Body according to the Scriptures Testimony it is sown natural but raised spiritual and the Glory of the Heavenly is one and the Glory of the Earthly is another And this may satisfie any sober enquirer And Paul writing concerning the Resurrection of the Dead saith That is not first which is Spiritual but that which is Natural or Animal and afterwards that which is Spiritual 1 Cor. 15.46 and vers 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Hevenly He that readeth let him understand 4. That an absolute Perfection in Holiness or Grace is attainable in this Life 5. That they placed their Justification upon their Patience and Sufferings for their Opinions and on their righteous Life both which are grosly false Charges and the contrary of which I have shewed in this Treatise at length in their proper places 6. They allowed not nor practised any civil Respect to Magistrates Parents c. This also is grosly false there are divers other ways sufficient whereby to shew both our Civil and Christian Respect to Magistrates and Parents c. without either doffing the Hat or cringing and that both in Words and Gestures There are only two other things which he chargeth that we grant to be true but deny them to be either damnable or corrupt Doctrin but affirm them to be truly Christian one is That all Men ought to attend to the Light within them to be the Rule of their Lives and Actions But if this be corrupt and damnable Doctrin he accuseth his own Brethren who in their Confession of Faith say That there are many Sins that Men commit against the Law or Light of Nature as they call it which are the more hainous And surely that is a Light within them and is e'en so far a Rule of Life containing as is commonly acknowledged the Substance of the ten Commandments see their answer to Quest 151. larger Catechism But we do not say That that general Illumination that is in all men many of whom have not the Scriptures is a Rule to oblige them to believe and receive these great Mysteries of Christianity declared in the Scriptures which they who have not the Scriptures have not revealed unto them The other is That we deny the use of Oaths But this is no corrupt but truly Christian Doctrin which saith Swear not at all Mat. 5.34 It is a marvelous thing that these Men have no other ways to oppugne the Quakers but by grose 〈…〉 Lies and false Calumnies and 〈◊〉 Abuses like unto the ways that ever the 〈◊〉 sort of the Adversaries of Truth have used against the true Witnesses of it It had been more Manly and seemingly Christian for Increase Mather and Nath. Morton or any others of their Sect or Society fairly to have stated the Quakers Principles and then to have gone and refuted them by the best or strongest Arguments they could find But this none of them have done nor did I ever see to this day any one Writer that did write against the Quakers that did fairly state their Principles but miserably belyed and abused them either by affirming things to be their Principles which were not or by so unfairly representing and wresting the Words of our honest Friends by their Addings and Diminishings that they could not at all acknowledge them as such All which is a manifest Evidence of the weakness badness of their Cause as well as of that evil Conscience that is in them when they use such unlawful ways and means to defend themselves or to oppugne others Read and well consider Ezekiel 9.3.4 1 Cor. 5.2
transmit the Beams of his divine Light Life and Love into our Souls through Means and Instruments as good Men and good Books and especially in reading or meditating in the Scriptures and also good Angels who are ministring Spirits and do minister to the Heirs of Salvation so many times it pleaseth him to bring them into a solitude or solitary place Hos 2.14 and there to speak unto them and reveal himself to the unspeakable satisfaction of their Souls without all means whatsoever save only that great and always most necessary and desirable Mean the Lord Jesus Christ in and through whom the Father doth always speak and reveal his Glory to his dear Children even as Christ declared saying No Man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him For none of all the Prophets or Apostles did know or converse with God but as the Son did reveal him who is that most lovely and aimable skreen cloathing or vail through which the Glory of the Father shineth forth into our Souls meekly and gently and yet most sweetly according as every one is able to receive 3. And they who deny all inward divine Revelation of God in his Saints ever since the Apostles days and would wholly exclude the Saints from all inward enjoyment of God and Christ in their own immediate Light Glory and Brightness may be justly charged with Blasphemy against the great love and kindness of God to his People And such of the Priests of New-England who have blasphemously called the Light of God in his People A stinking Vapour from Hell and do blaspheme against the Light of God and Christ in all Men in a Day of Visitation that is given to lead and bring them unto God a meer human and natural Light corrupt and dark as some of them have called it and as they generally esteem of it And yet for this their Blasphemy we would not have the Magistrate to hang them or any way to punish them but our desire and Prayer unto God is for them if it be his good will that such of them who have not out-lived the Day of Visiation may find Mercy to repent and believe and acknowledge the Truth they have so long gain-sayed And whereas these Faith-publishers at Westminster in Old-England and at Cambridge and Boston in New-England do say in their Confession cap. 26. sect 3. This Communion which the Saints have with Christ doth not make them in any wise partakers of the Substance of his God-head and that to affirm it is impious and blasphemous It deserveth our serious consideration and to examin where the Impiety and Blasphemy lieth whether at their door who deny it or theirs who affirm it Even that the Saints are partakers of the Substance of his God-head And first as to their Proof from Scripture they cite Col. 1.18 19. And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the first-born from the Dead that in all things he might have the preheminence for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell But this place of Scripture saith not that the Saints are not partakers of the Substance of the God-head of Christ but the contrary may be proved from this very place which calleth him the Head of the Body the Church For as it is the same Substance of Life that is in the Head and in the Body and every Member of it So it is the same divine Life and Spirit that is in Christ the Head and all his Members and that Spirit is the holy Spirit and that Life is the Word and the Word and the Spirit are one Substance and Being with God as the same Confession saith cap. 2. sect 3. And that the Saints are partakers of the divine Nature and of the holy Ghost the Scripture expresly declareth it 2 Pet. 1.4 and Heb. 6.4 So that it is marvelous blindness or inadvertency in these Men so to contradict the express Scripture testimony And for the Word Substance with respect to the inward enjoyment of God and Christ the Scripture hath it expresly in several places Prov. 8.21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit Substance and I will fill their Treasures And Heb. 10.34 Knowing that in your selves for so the Greek doth bear it ye have in Heaven a better and more enduring Substance For as they had it in Heaven so they had an earnest of it on Earth in their Hearts and that all fulness dwelleth in Christ doth not prove that his Saints enjoy none of that fulness but on the contrary Out of her Fulness as said John we have all received and Grace for Grace John 1.16 And not only the Saints receive Gifts and Graces from Christ but they receive him and the Father in him and with him to live and dwell in them according to John 17.23 I in them and thou in me And yet this doth not infer that the Saints are equal with Christ that they have the same Spirit and Life with him and through him and by and from him as it doth not prove that the Foot is equal with the Head because the same Soul or Spirit that is in the Head is in the Foot and the same Life that is in the Root of a Tree is in the Branches and as Christ said I am the Vine ye are the Branches And if the Saints do no wise partake of the Substance of the Godhead of Christ I ask them what do they partake of him Do they partake only of the Substance of his Manhood without the Godhead or of neither If the first then the Manhood of Christ as they partake of it is without the Godhead which is Blasphemy indeed or if the second that is to say the Saints do neither partake of the Substance of his Godhead nor of the Substance of his Manhood then they partake nothing of Christ at all substantially according to their Doctrin O miserable Teachers What then do they partake of him if nothing Substantially Of his Accidents as they commonly say All Graces are nothing but Accidents Then here is a new sort of Doctrin of Transubstantiation as these of Rome say The consecrated Wafer or Cake hath the Accidents of Bread in it as the colour taste and smell of Bread but nothing of the Substance of Bread is there So say these Faith-makers The Saints that did see smell taste and feel of Christ in ancient times that which they did spiritually see smell taste and feel with their Souls and Hearts is only Accidents and no Substance This is more strange than that other that there is no Substance of Bread in the Cake but only the Accidents But why was not your reverend Brother as ye called him John Owen taxed with Blasphemy for affirming That the holy Ghost doth well in Believers really and as he worded it personally together with his Graces And Samuel Rutherfold a great Presbyterian who said in one of his Printed Epistles He