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A93770 The reviler rebuked: or, A re-inforcement of the charge against the Quakers, (so called) for their contradictions to the Scriptures of God, and to their own scriblings, which Richard Farnworth attempted to answer in his pretended Vindication of the Scriptures; but is farther discovered, with his fellow-contradictors and revilers, and their doctrine, to be anti-Scriptural, anti-Christian, and anti-spiritual. By John Stalham, a servant of the great bishop and shepherd of souls, appointed to watch his little flock at Terling in Essex. Stalham, John, d. 1681. 1657 (1657) Wing S5186; Thomason E914_1; ESTC R203642 283,651 368

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answer to Rom. 8. 10. though he quotes not the place but some of the words adding his own gloss The words of the Apostle are these And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness By the body here Rom. 8. 10. cleared in its genuine sense is meant the natural body consisting of flesh blood and bones as appeareth 1. By the scope of the Apostle to comfort them against the Law of death ver 2. 2. From the comfort which he raiseth grant the Body is dead frail corruptible mortal subject to death yet first it is not totally dead for the sting of death which is the guilt of sin is pluckt out ver 2. and the Spirit by the law of opposition here to be taken for the soul of a believer is life or a living soul immortal and shall live gloriously to immortality and may and doth live comfortably here because of righteousness i. e. while it takes up this consideration that Christs own personal righteousness is imputed as the cause of a glorious life and Christs infused holiness is the evidence of Justification-life and Glory-life Secondly the body shall not be always under the power of death v. 11. for he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies which epithete mortal is added to shew he spake of the natural body ver 10. and to strengthen and comfort in that the same spirit dwelling in Christ and true Christians look as he raised up Christs body so he shall raise up theirs This being the genuine sense of the Apostle we may grant a pious truth in something R. F. saith but not as properly grounded on this place The truth is the natural body is mortified in part to the acts of unrighteousness as the habits of sin are mortified in the soul Rom. 8. 10. vindicated from improper and abusive interpretation but the Apostle saith not the body is dead because of sin being destroyed as R. F. hath glossed but because of fin that is the natural body is a mortal dying body hath many partial deaths upon it and will dye at last soul and body will be separated for a time because of sin which remaineth in the soul dwelleth and acteth in and by the body and will not be absolutely and in all degrees rooted out till the body dies a natural death Sin is such a troublesome in-mate or like some old inhabitant pleading prescription that it will not out God suffering it so to be till the House be pulled down over its head therefore the Apostles reason because of sin discovers them to erre who deny sin to dwell in act where Christ reigneth Sin dwelleth in the soul the inward rooms chiefly but it so lodgeth within as it acteth and worketh in the outward room and shop of the body till body and soul be dissolved when this troublesome inmate is cast out totally finally and for ever from the Saints Let not R. F. go on to say here thou art contradicting the Scriptures and opposing the work of Christ which is to take away sin for there is not one Scripture which speaks of a perfect Saint absolutely free from the in-dwelling presence and in-working power of sin in the least degree while he lives here upon the earth and the work of Christ in taking away sin is in a way of Sanctification to carry it on by little and little as was his casting out of the Canaanites Exod. 23. 30. Let not him that puts on his armor boast as he that puts it off What is it for R. F. * Page 15. to reason And such as abide in him sins not then sin acts not he that acts sin commits sin and there Christ reigns not but Antichrist under whose dominion thou art that pleads for him and his work Rep. 1. Sin may and doth act in the Saints not they but sin is acting when as Saints and so far as regenerate they do act against sin This is not committing of sin in Johns sense as hath been cleared before Sect. 14. but as Paul speaking of himself in the name of all the regenerate as hath been proved Sect. 20. Rom. 7. 16 17. If I do that which I would not c. it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me 2. Although Christ reigns not where sin is committed in Johns sense yet he reigneth where that in-dwelling principle of sin is mortified in truth and in some degree and where the actings of sin are resistings of sin are hated resisted and unfulfilled Gal. 5. 16. They that walk in the Spirit do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh yet the flesh is lusting and acting what it can against a Christian to make him stumble while he is in a good walk 3. Antichrist reigns in none more then in filthy dreamers who while they preach perfection are found in their pollutions It is Antichrists design to represent a sinners Justification imperfect and his Sanctification perfect that he may glory in himself and not in Christ Antichrist pretendeth as much to Holiness as these men called Quakers but out of order and to a wrong end as they also 4. To plead for perfect inherent Holiness as the Believers Justification as J. Nayler * See Love to the lost p. 21. and 51. and R. F. do is to serve under Antichrists colors and to wear his livery and to make void the obedience and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ 5. He is not under the dominion of Antichrist who pleads against his imaginary perfections is made perfect in his Justification by coming unto Christs sacrifice Heb. 10. 1 14. and in a way of Sanctification presseth after more of the power of Christs death and resurrection to be conformed thereunto But R. F. goes on * Page 15. to mis-apply Scripture and contradict the true scope and sense He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not Rep. 1. It is true the words are so and I believe it is so as the Spirit speaketh in that place 1 John 5. 18. what then 1 John 5 18. vindicated Doth not sin dwell and stir therefore in the regenerate Look back to ver 16. and you may conclude That not onely sin is in every Christian Brother but you may sometimes have it visibly acted before your eyes for saith the Apostle If any man see his brother sin c. 2. Although he sinneth yet we know that whosoever is born of God as every true Brother is sinneth not i. e. unto death as every sin is not unto death so no sin of the truly godly is unto death but he keepeth himself as he is kept and he acteth as he is acted by the principle of the new creature by the Spirits and Christs fresh influence against such a sin and that wicked one Satan toucheth him not with his sting nor instills such deadly poison
with which we are mystically united and in asmuch as it was fulfilled in our Head it is ours as surely by imputation as if it had been possessed in and performed by our own persons 3. Lest R. F. should think I have neglected him to attend his Brother-contradictor let us hear what he saith to the Scripture I quoted for a bottom of that truth we maintain against all gain-sayers viz. That the Saints are not in all degrees perfected in Holiness till they dye or be dissolved * Page 15. As thou hast lyed of James who witnesseth purity as the Saints did so also hast thou lyed of the Apostle and those spoken of Heb. 12. 23. saying that the spirits that is souls separated as thou says from the bodies of just men made perfect in holiness which is at death or at the instant of dissolution when the spirit is separated from the body Rep. 1. Whether I belyed James Nayler or no will appear before where I have cleared the faithfulness and freedom of my Spirit 2. How James witnesseth purity we have heard and proved it not to be after the Scripture-Saints judgement who never went about after they knew Christs fulness and their own emptiness to bottom their Justification upon their Sanctification and establish a righteousness of their own which is said to be our own if it be materially inhercut What is our righteousness in us 3. How I have lyed of the Apostle and of those spoken of Heb. 12. 23. let it come to the tryal First I shall clear out and strengthen the Exposition of that place Heb. 12. 23. cleared in the last clause by the scope Secondly examine what R. F. hath against it or the truth thence deduced of sins continuance in the Saints till death First The Exposition I gave is cleared and strengthned partly from the Scope partly from the Grammatical sense of the words 1. The Scope of the Apostle is to press the exhortations and consolations preceding Ver. 5. That Christians should not faint under afflictions Ver. 12. That weaklings in grace may be encouraged Ver. 14. That peace and holiness be pursued Ver. 16 17. That by no means Saint-ship be undervalued and why all this because they are not under the Old Testament administration at mount Sinai Ver. 18. which was terrible but Ver. 22. under a New Testament condition which is amiable the more by reason of that holy and sweet communion which is now cleared out as with God Christ and Angels so with the Saints in heaven described by this Character The spirits of just men made Communion of Saints on earth with Saints in heaven perfect with whom we that are but weak in Faith and imperfect in Holiness have 1. A communion of right our grounds of right to heaven are as good and firm as theirs who are now in possession 2. Of Interest Saints departed are in living communion with that God and Christ in heaven with whom we have communion on earth 3. Of Praises Begun praises by the Saints on earth are echoed and resounded by the perfect Spirits in Paradise 4. Of will and desires They are doing the will of God perfectly and we as Saints are aiming endeavoring praying striving after that state 5. Of Hopes They hope for the perfection of their Bodies at the resurrection and we hope for the perfection of Soul at death and of our Bodies at the same resurrection day 6. Of Membership They are a part of the Church-Catholique and so are the Saints on earth fellow-heirs we are of the same inheritance children of the family c. Thus for the Scope 2. The words themselves carry their sense with them at Heb. 12. 23. cleared in the terms the first look By spirits cannot be meant Angels for of them he had spoken before And he addeth We are come to the spirits of men The word in Acts 23. 8. is used for souls separated The Sadduces say there is no resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit that is souls of men separated from the bodies to which yet they retain a relation for they held the soul dyed with the body others in our time as in Calvins say it sleeps with the body But the word Spirit notes out a living intelligent substance in action or sensible passion as the souls of them that were disobedient before the Flood in Noahs time are 1 Pet. 3. 19. called spirits in prison those are souls of wicked men made miserable these in our Scripture controverted are souls of just men while they were here in the body perfectly justified and at parting out of the body made perfect in holiness In that it is said Spirits made perfect it implyeth they were not in that sense perfect in the body as they are now out of it Here in life the Saints have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fulness of the Spirit comparatively in respect of what they had at first or that others have at present at death they have a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a final perfection as to a perfect freedom from the roots and remnants of sin and a fruition of as much inherent holiness as they are capable of Here the Lord findeth fault if our works be not perfect or filled up as the word * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Rev. 3. 2. with acts and exercises of grace in all kindes but when we dye in the Lord then our works are perfect or finished * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in degrees and at an end The word for perfect in our Text to the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which comes of a verb * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in its root * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth an end or the end therefore sometime put for death John 13. 1. To the end that is to the death he loved them And 2 Cor. 1. 13. I trust you shall acknowledge to the end i. e. to my death or yours or both When Christ was giving up the ghost and was ending the work of satisfaction with his life he cryed out It is finished * John 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 30. so shall we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit be then able to say with that clear conscience which now cannot in that maner and measure be exercised even as we give up our spirits into the hands of God now Lord the work of mortification and holiness is finished and not before The sense of the Scripture stands clear Secondly Let us examine what R. F. hath against it or against the Doctrine of sin's continuance in the godly till death Against the true meaning of the Apostle now cleared he excepteth * Page 16. Th●se that thou speaks of in Heb. 12. 22. did not say it should be at an instant of death when their bodies Heb. 12. 23. vindicated and souls parted that they should be perfected Rep. 1. I have had no revelations from them nor speech with Saints departed
a covenant of works His Doctrine is b Ib. 175. That there is no certain ordination from eternity upon any soul particularly which is yet to be born but onely a common universal foreseeing of grace which will suit with the light in every man held out by Quakers as the beginning of Christ and the good use of that light as that grace foreseen He jerks at c Ib. page 182 our feeding upon bread and cup of Christ and so doth R. F. In many other things they are agreed He hath stampt a name upon his book of Election d Ib. page 195 The longer the better liked the more sought the more found which I hope will among those that shall be saved never prove true but the contrary The longer the more loathed the more sought and searched the more detected and the more found the more rejected notwithstanding all his Teutonick Sublimations There is a Dialogue between Launcher and Love-well printed with J. Behme's two Letters which is said to be none of his but it harmonizeth with his Doctrine and the Quakers who build up a kingdom of works upon as sandy a foundation A passage most notorious is this * Dialogue between Launcher and Lovewel p 89 Christ hath his deserving and I shall have mine written in opposition to the application of Christ and of his merits by faith and another is like hereunto a Ib. page 112 He hits the nail on the head who perceiveth that all his wen-lacing is that men believe to become as Adam was before the fall Not Christ as a Redeemer then but the improvement of what Talent men have and trusting thereunto in the mutability of their own wills must bring them unto life if they will have it so Such kinde of stuff or worse if worse may be these men have learned haply at home from Will. Erbury of late in his Call to the Churches which book was brought me by the same She-disciple that brought R. F. his Answer before who gave it out that he was the fore-runner to the Quakers as John Baptist was to Christ it seems then he was to decrease as they were to increase but I am of the minde though he hath by his packet of Letters and pamphlets helpt towards their increase yet they shall decrease and consume away with the last piece of Antichrists skin and bones He denies it * Call to the Churches by W Erbury page 4. to be Gospel that few shall be saved and expostulates the matter in these terms What Gospel or glad tidings is it to tell the world that none shall be saved but the Elect and Believers He calls Christ a Legal Teacher and saith if you will believe him The Gospel he taught was but in part that which was proper onely to the Jewish Church not that to be preached to the world And * Ib. page 6. the gospel which the Apostles preached to the world 't was not that which they wrote to the Churches nor yet what they read in the Scriptures of the Prophets But the Gospel was a mystery which in the light of God they could manifest to men and make all men see themselves in God that 's in Christ and * Ib. page 9. God in our flesh as in Christs that is according to the Familistical conceit God dwelling as much and after the same way in our flesh as in Christs For the mystery of faith was more saith he then men imagine and it may be more then Paul wrote to the Romans and Churches of Galatia Here are sweet suggestions to set people a quaking indeed among the devils and to look from the Scripture for another Gospel though there be no other then that which Paul preached and wrote to the Galatians cap. 1. 6 7. in their own hearts and to lay down their lives in another way for the brethren as the fickle woman that brought me the book told me she had thereby learned then the Apostle intended 1 John 3. 16. viz. to die to the use of all our Gospel-ordinances for any of which he saith * Ib. page 19. we have not so much as Scripture As true as that * Ib. page 37. Christs coming again promised Acts 1. 11. was nothing but his coming in Spirit and Power in the Saints and in their flesh when they are most confused and dark Such kinde of cloudy interpretations in Scripture these men have drunk down no coming of Christ in body again is owned by many of them Christ had a body onely while he was upon the earth which W. E. intimateth in his marginal note * Ib. page 39. and inferreth Because the days of his flesh was when he was on earth therefore his being now in heaven is all in the Spirit for he is far above all heavens whereas the Apostle Heb. 5. 7. useth the phrase of days of his flesh to hold forth his state of infirmity and humiliation and not to deny his now being in Heaven in a true body glorified which Heaven where he is is far above all these heavens of air and sky visible to our eyes at present as his person which is not his manhood though the manhood is-united to his person is far above i. e. in dignity and immensity the Heavens as yet invisible to us and with the Godhead is not contained in the Heaven of Heavens But this of W. E. is like the notion and apprehension of J. Nayler who when he was asked by Justice Pearson Is Christ in thee as man answered Christ filleth all places and is not Sauls Errand to Damascus page 32. divided separate God and man and he is no more Christ whereas in Christ God-man his two natures are to be distinguished although his person is not divided Some strengthning to their fort of Babel our Quakers have received from the followers of Pelagius and Arminius who call Nature Grace as these magnifie Natures light and call it Christ within them who call the Notions of the Godhead the Elements and first Rudiments of Salvation as these call them the first Principles of Religion and the Corner-stone How come they to lead men from the Scriptures to the Creatures but that some had said before them Christ was and is preached in the Sun Moon and Stars And again how come they to say We cannot see how the Gospel of Christ is preached to every creature under heaven if it be not the Principle of light in the conscience if they were not acted by the same spirit Or how say they produce one Scripture that speaks of a natural light if they had not read or heard of some Arminian dictate to this purpose viz. The Scripture knows not the word natural in any such sense or signification wherein it should express or distinguish the unregenerate state of a man from the regenerate How do they jump in one minde concerning Peters being out of the state of justification when he denied his Master and about
allusion thereunto say Who shall compare the essence of the Creator to the essence of the creature and who shall liken the divine persons with the humane or the humane unto the divine I shall onely to clear out what hath been said of the holy Ghosts personality adde this argument If those actions are properly attributed to the holy Ghost which are proper to a person then he is a person But those actions are properly attributed to the holy Ghost which are proper to a person therefore he is a person I shall mention but some of many actions properly attributed to the holy Ghost as 1 Cor. 12. 11. all these worketh that one and self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will Here the Spirit is described not as a motion or operation but as a person properly acting willing working Act. 20. 28. he is said to constitute elders or make overseers over the Church the flock of God Luke 12. 12. to teach John 16. 8. to convince Acts 13. 2. to call and ver 4. to send forth Barnabas and Saul Act. 2. 4. to give utterance and that very action which R. F. granteth to the Spirit of dwelling in the Saints is so far from disproving him to be a person for which end he produceth it as it clearly proves him to be one For how doth he dwell in the Saints not personally yet properly more then by way of operation as a owner or inhabitant in his house as a God and as a Lord in his Temple this person dwels in the Saints though not personally yet mystically and in a true spiritual way of inhabitation 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And do we-know that and shall we not know and acknowledge him a person and a person of note and eminency He is not a Person saith R. F. but he dwelleth in persons If that be a reason why the holy Ghost is no person the Father with this corrupt reason must be no person nor the Son any who yet have the very title given them Heb. 1. 3. Christ the express image of the Fathers person for the Father dwelleth in the Saints and the Son also John 14. 21. what have we next to make out R. E. his sense he dwelleth in persons or bodies of Saints It seems he accounts none to be persons but those that have bodies Why beasts have bodies yet are no persons and Angels are persons spiritual immaterial creatures * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subsisting by themselves though not of themselves as not any creature doth thus subsist although they have no bodies of flesh and bones Luke 24. 39. as men have nor is the body of a Saint the person of a Saint as he is a man but a part of it his person or suppositum consisting of body and soul and of such a composition is every humane person but a divine person in the God-head and in particular the holy Ghost of whom I have briefly spoken for R. F. his conviction or for others consolation as information is no compositum or third thing made up of other things different from the Essence yet is he distinguished by his maner of subsisting as hath been shewed To little purpose doth R. F. * Page 8. conclude this subject with that Scripture 2 John ver 9. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son but against himself for as 1 John 2. 23. whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father so he that denyeth the holy Ghost in that maner as R. F. hath done abideth not in the doctrine of Christ and hath neither the Father nor the Son Let him well consider that the holy Ghost dwelleth in the souls of Saints as well as in their bodies let him beware of conceiving him with Samosatenus onely to be that * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 un-personal energy or operation which is in believers And let him be far from putting the Believer in the room of the Spirit or from making no more of the Spirit of God then the believing soul in the bodies of the Saints for this were to turn the glory of the Creator unto the Creature 3. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning the light within them and all men Section 8. IN this Section I had noted what they say about a light that Christ hath purchased for every man * Warning to Underbarrow by Ed. Burrough pag. 4. which leads to the Father These last words which lead to the Father as may appear by the Asterisk or note of reference like a Star * Pag. 8. between man and which I onely observed as Edward Burroughs words R. F. * in answer hath three things 1. Christ is the way to the Father John 14. 6. as Ed. Bur. saith Rep. This Ed. Bur. and he may affirm with us agreeable to the Scripture and yet contradict the Scriptures in saying that Christ is in every man or that the light in every man Light of a Deity in every man no redemption-light leads to the Father Christ God or as God is in every man and a spark of his God-head light is in every man but there is not in every man that Redemption-light which leads to the Father as a Father reconciling sinners to himself in Christ as Mediator nor is Christ given to every man as a Mediator to lead to the Father nor doth Christ give to every man that light which leads him to the Father 2. Saith R. F. There is not such a word as purchased in that page of E. B. Rep. 1. Nor did I say there was the word purchased in that or any other page of his book yet I have had that expression from others of their judgement in this particular concerning every mans light 2. If every mans light leads unto the Father effectivè so as to bring him into reconciliation and communion with the Father it is effectual light which warms and works the heart to the love of it But so doth not the light in every man and therefore deserves not the name of purchased light 3. I received this passage * In a Letter lately from a godly Preacher in Scotland and observer of their new vented Doctrines That he hath often wondred at one Expression of theirs and what they should mean by it viz. That the Elect cannot nor never did sin But of late one of them resolved the doubt viz. That the Elect is the Light within that Christ purchased for every one Sometimes it appears they make the Light within every man to be Christ which is the Savior and Redeemer of him that loveth it as Ed. Burrough * Warning c. pag. 14. expresseth himself Sometime the Elect as this man in Scotland sometime one thing sometime another that at last it will be found but an Idol of their own brain and fancy 3. R. F. for
since their departure nor need I I have Paul and other Pen-man of the holy Ghost to assure me it was not before The word in the Text is Spirits not bodies nor souls continuing in the bodies of just men made perfect and that is enough to me 2. For conviction of gainsayers and confirmation of the weak I might call to minde the sayings of several Saints before Christs coming and since who have had no other faith nor perswasion but that while they were here sin remained with them and within them and till death parted their souls from their bodies Christ parted not sin perfectly from their souls What will R. F. say to that cloud of Witnesses Heb. 11. who while they lived lived by Faith and when they dyed ver 13 they dyed in Faith not onely in respect of a heavenly countrey but that what they felt not the moment before they should be in sensible possession of the moment of and the moment after dissolution Then as Samson slew more at his death then in his life so Christ would and did give them a perfect revenge upon their old enemy sin and all the roots and remnants of corruption What will R. F. say to old Saint Jacob who on his Saints experimentally imperfect death-bed makes this confession Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy salvation O Lord. Salvation as to perfect sanctification being yet to be finished at death And what to precious Saint David 2 Sam. 23. 5. who quieted his heart with this on his death-bed that God had made with him an everlasting Covenant c. although things were not perfect in his house nor heart for then he had been perfect I speak still of perfection in all degrees in the discharge of his relative family duties but that he was not And were any in the New Testament as perfect in sanctification before as at and after death doth Paul for himself and the Saints speak of any more then the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8. 23. doth he not make mention of his and their infirmities ver 26. which are not onely afflictions but sins if not Rom. 8. 26. opened to know what to pray for in every prayer as we ought be a sin but so many ignorances and defects in prayer and duty which ought not to be in us are sins There ought not to be any sinful infirmity in us yet there are and will be do we our best Let R. F. hear what our English Saints have acknowledged at the instant of death or immediately before I am drawing on a pace to my dissolution said M. Bolton famous for piety hold out faith and patience your work will quickly be at an end His work of holy faith and patience was not at an end before his end his death Our English precious Jewel who by his Popish adversaries confession in his life was an Angel though in his faith as they deemed an Heretique immediately before his death he brake forth into these words Christ is my righteousness Father let thy will be done thy will I say not mine which is imperfect and depraved Our dear Countreyman M. Deering hath this farewel Poor wretch and miserable man that I am the least of all Saints and the greatest of sinners c. And again If I were the most excellent of all creatures in the world if I were equal in righteousness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet had I reason to confess my self to be a sinner Holy M. Bradford How oft doth he subscribe in letters to his friends either an Hypocrite or a very painted Hypocrite or The sinful John Bradford for the same man or person as he writeth in one Letter which describes and compares the old man and the new man a little better then Ja. Nayler in his Love to the lost may be called always just always sinful Even men perfectly justified are not made perfectly holy according to his faith and experience which as to this case is the same in all Saints while living here and hereupon when he hourly lookt for the Porter to open to him the gates to enter into desired rest from the very molestations of indwelling sin and was every moment expecting the executioner to dispatch him in a letter to his dear Fathers Dr. Cranmer Dr. Ridley and Dr. Latimer he is bewailing his unthankfulness and hypocrisie clear he was and sure of justification and heaven yet sensible of the remnants of corruption As also M. Philpot who leaped for joy when his martyrdom was at hand yet cryed for mercy against his present unthankfulness and unworthiness And if we look abroad instances are pregnant and plentiful I shall mention onely two or three one in Germany Melanchthon who not onely complained that old Adam was too hard for yong Melanchthon but continued in a sense of his sinful corruptions to his dying day confessing himself at last to be a miserable sinner So did blessed Calvin in France as appears in his last Will and Testament I close up with that noble French man Philip de Morney Lord of Plessis though he died with full assurance of a house not made with hands c. yet he put up this request a little before his death Lord make me to know my sins to weep for them to detest them and to have them in execration These with thousands like them have so believed in life and spoken to this effect at death that when their bodies and souls were parted and at that instant they should be perfected in holiness they felt it not believed not it would be before that time R. F. * Page 16. hath another exception Heb. 12. 22 23. In the present tense they there spoke and not in the future Rep. He that knows any thing of Grammar may well question whether R. F. understands himself or what is the difference between the present tense and future in the present Tense they there spoke who spoke There is but one Paul or some other Pen-man that wrote the Epistle by the dictate of the Spirit and he speaks of believers already come to mount Zion c. and to the Spirits of just men made perfect before he wrote the Epistle The word for made perfect in the Greek * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Participle of the Preter Tense or time past not of the present nor did I say it was of the future onely what was a Truth then is now a Truth that Saints living in their bodies in imperfection of holiness have relation to and communion as hath been shewed with Saints living out of their bodies i. e. the spirits of just men made perfect A third exception R. F. hath against the simile I used sin is as the wild fig-tree thou sayes rooted in the joynts of a stone wall and when the wall is taken down the stones cast asunder body and soul separated then is sin thou sayes pluckt up by the roots as the roots of the fig-tree not before
Rep. This illustration of a light-some ancient writer * Epiphanius seems to dazle R. F. till he staggers again and swaggers twice or thrice against me for mentioning it Once he chewed upon it before * Page 13. out of its place and tels me thou hast no proof for thy saying but thy policy and that is contrary to Scripture Psal 37. 37 38. Mark the perfect man c. for the end of that man is peace But the wicked shall be cut off and the transgressors shall be destroyed together at their end as he reads them but according to the right reading viz. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together the end of the wicked shall be out off nothing will be found in these two verses contrary to or differing from what I held out by that simile for we have marked the end or death of many perfect or sincere Saints mentioned before and it was found to be peace their warsare then being at a ful period when they dyed as while they lived they had perfect peace with God by their perfect justification in Christ so at their death they had a full harvest and reward of peace such shall be the end of every upright soul Isaiah 57. 2. He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds each one while he lived walking in his uprightness This perfection of integrity and sincerity they have who have respect to all Gods commandements though no absolute conformity Sin continues in Saints Saints continue not in sin to them nor do they continue in sin though sin continueth in them till death As for the wicked it is not so with them in life they continue in the state love and practice and under the power of sin and when they dye their end and reward is to dye the second death with the first both the wages of sin Twice afterward * Page 16. doth R. F. let fly against me for the above mentioned simile Thou subtile Serpent and Scotch Politician how hast thou wrested the Scripture and By this thou hast manifested thy Scottish policy and Antichristian deceitful spirit and to be one that would uphold the kingdom of the Devil in people and so art an enemy to Christ and his work Rep. To all which I say no more but the Lord rebuke this reviling Spirit in R. F. my work is not to attend his ink-horn terms but what he pretendeth to from Scripture against the continuance of sin in the Saints during their abode in these vile bodies * Page 16. The Apostle saith that the word of the Lord is quick and powerful so is not the letter of the Scripture to divide asunder soul and spirit joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. Here Soul and Spirit is divided by the living word and the ground of sin shaken at the roots and rooted out of such before their souls and bodies part asunder Rep. If I should deal with him at the weapon which he useth against me it were enough to ask But doth the Apostle indeed say expresly the living word is quick and powerful or findest thou these words the ground of sin shaken and rooted out of such before their souls and bodies part asunder in that Scripture and tell him he belieth the Apostle c. but I have not so learned Christ Better language there is a surer way of arguing then barely to word it the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God to cast down strong holds Mis-interpretation and mis-application of Scripture is a strong hold for error and delusion I shall first discover the true and genuine sense of that Scripture agreeable to the scope and then R. F. his mis-application and false inference from thence 1. The right and genuine interpretation is to be drawn Heb. 4. 12. cleared in its genuine sense from the context as high as Chap. 1. on-wards By the word of God Heb. 4. 12. is meant his word spoken and his word written and spoken according to what is written Chap. 1. ver 1 2. God in these last days hath spoken to us by his Son while he was upon earth What word was spoken Chap. 2. 2 3. That which concerned great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And Chap. 3. 7. the word written is quoted out of Psalm 95. wherefore as the holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice Withal Chap. 4. 2. it is clear that the word preached according to what Christ preached and to what the holy Ghost hath written of Christ is the same with that he mentioneth ver 12. For saith the Apostle unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them in the wilderness and in Davids time but the word preached did not profit them c. This is no other then the declarative word of God which declaration made by Christ and by his Spirit in the Scripture and by preachers from and according to the Scripture is First quick or lively no dead letter though the Pen-men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or many preachers thereof be dead long since and though many that heard the Gospel heretofore be now dead yet it hath as much life in it self as ever Secondly 't is powerful of constant efficacy and operation even to the ransacking of consciences searching of hearts and to the critical discovery of thoughts and intents of the heart it is proved to be so ver 13. because God By the context whose word it is is omniscient hath all things before him with the face upward and therefore by the Scriptures and by his Ministers as by his Son by whom in these last days he spake first he can and doth discover and lay open the hearts of all men c. Of all men I say where the Gospel comes i. e. of those that believe not as of those that believe for that is the scope of the 12. ver as by its immediate connexion and scope with ver 11. appeareth Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief For the word of God is lively in its effects c. It is and will be a swift witness against unbelievers and quick to their condemnation a favor of death unto death in them that perish as it is and will be a swift witness for believers and quick to their consolation a favor of life unto life in them that are saved To understand by the word of God here Christs person is not sutable to the context from the beginning of the Epistle Heb 4 12 and 13. compared and vindicated from 1. indirect glosses nor to the scope and this sense being brought to set aside the Scripture and the preaching upon it and from it is therefore to be suspected and waved Others
who seem not to deny the authority of the holy Scriptures yet would have it meant of Christ for this reason because the word of God ver 12. is in the 13. ver described as a person in his sight and the eyes of him with whom we have to do Now this is but their mistake for albeit Christ in person is the living word yet it is the Apostles scope to gain honor to him by gaining honor to the declarative word which being Christs word spoken by him written by the inspiration of his Spirit and preached accordingly is therefore quick and lively powerful and piercing because it is his word and the words of the 13. ver are not a description of Christs person as he is the living word nor of the declarative word spoken written preached but of God the Father Son and holy Ghost who being the living God his declarative word is like himself and from the knowledge of his nature we may know what his word is If God hath an all-seeing eye his word hath an all-searching power He puts not one but two edges upon this sword of his Spirit Ephes 6. 17. and makes it sharp and piercing for conversion or conviction at least and for such ends as he hath intended by his word and the ministery of it to effect and work out therefore the words of ver 13. his and him with whom must be referred to God ver 12. distinguished into Father Son and Spirit i. e. to all three or any of the three Let sinners in whom sin reigns and Saints in whom sin remains look to it for God by his Scripture-word is able to finde them out even them that pretend to present perfection and have it not for whom these words speak nothing at all Should we take God ver 12. not onely at large and personally for any of the three but strictly for Christs person yet we must take the word to be as I have said the word declarative and read it thus The word of Christ is quick or lively c. We cannot read it out of the Greek the word-Christ nor the living word is lively nor the living word is powerful but as 't is read in our new Translation The word of God is quick and powerful or as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Geneva Translation The word of God is lively and mighty in operation that is as their Note is The Doctrine of God is so and so hath lively and mighty effects why because it is Gods Doctrine Gods Word Gods Scripture if it be but his Letter or outward ministery it is Christs two-edged sword which serveth unto his design of searching hearts of comforting the believer of cutting off and excluding the unbeliever from rest But this place of Scripture will not serve R. F. his design hitherto 2. Let us observe his application and inference Here the ground of sin is by the living word shaken at the roots and rooted out of such before their bodies and souls part asunder Rep. 1. Granting it is divine power that makes efficacious Mis-application the divine truths of the Scripture and that the Spirit doth by conviction shake a sinner at the very heart-root and by conversion shake yea kill sin at the roots for sound conversion is more then lopping of branches or moral restraints the best fruits of Quakerism yet is not all sin at first conversion nor all the life time extirpated or pluckt up absolutely totally and as perfectly as at death and if R. F. proves not this from the place as he doth not but onely say it he had better never have quoted it Nay he dare not affirm it in plain words but obscure The ground of sin c. What makes he the ground of sin If he meaneth the subject where sin dwelleth and is rooted what is that subject but the faculties of the Soul Minde Will and Affections Conscience c Now these are shaken I confess but not rooted out for neither Law nor Gospel the word of Terror or Grace and Peace nor the Power and Grace of the Word doth abolish or destroy the faculties and being of the soul If he meaneth by Ground of sin the cause of sin it must either be guilt of sin or the original stain and filth if the guilt 't is granted that sin is abolished and there is no ground or cause why a Believer justified and discharged from guilt and curse by the imputation of Christs obedience should be condemned Rom. 8 1 33 34. and the abolishing of guilt is the cause and reason why the inherent roots of sin are shaken and mortified in their regency or reigning power for the present and why they shall be rooted out as to residency and inherency at the last yea why no justified believer should allow the least sin that yet remaineth in him If by ground of sin he meaneth the original stain and filth it is the same with the roots of sin and then he proves nothing but idem per idem the same thing by the same namely that the roots of sin are shaken at the roots and rooted out when they are rooted out but the question is when are they perfectly and in all degrees rooted out I have said and proved it from Scripture it is not till the parting of Soul and Body The truth then and the illustration by the simile of the fig-tree stands firm and good for ought that R. F. hath objected to the contrary yet we must hear him * Page 16. out It is Christs work to take away sin here and to sanctifie by his Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 John 3. 5. Rep. We know that he was manifest to take away sin in 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 John 3 5. compared cleared and vindicated and from us as in him is no sin according to that in John and that of Paul to the Corinthians expressing two ways whereby he taketh away sin by the way of justification from defiling guilt and damning curse this is perfectly done here as to Gods act of reckoning and account though as to manifestation in us to us and concerning us it comes by degrees and not till the day of Judgement will all the world know who are now Gods justified ones By the way of Sanctification he takes away the dominion of sin in the very root and the strength of the roots of filth is mortified here in some Saints more in some less as he pleaseth who puts forth the power but in none are the roots of every sin nor of any sin wholly perfectly pluckt up till bodily death I am for purity and holiness here in heart and life but I am for purity of the Scriptures also according to their pure sense What saith the Scripture which R. F. next calleth forth As he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all maner of conversation 1 Pet. 1. 15. 2 Pet. 1. 15. vindicated Rep. This is a command of and
Scripture-contradiction in this very particular To those two Arguments I produced from Acts 2. and 1 Cor. 7. mentioned in the beginning of this Section he saith little or nothing nothing at all to the latter and little to the former and that as falsly as weakly according to his wonted language But thou perverts the Scripture Acts 2. 38 39. saying Be baptized every one of you you and your children Here thou art a lyar it doth not command Children to be baptized with water neither did they ever so baptize them that thou canst prove by one plain Scripture Rep. 1. He attends not my reason which I must repeat for help to his memory or others understanding The Command there reacheth as far as the Promise the Promise extends it self to Children not to all but to their children To you and to your children is the Promise made and therefore the Command Be baptized every one of you is made to the Parent and concerning the Childe and Children also of such Parents as gladly receive the word of Promise for them and theirs as it is said they did ver 41. And although it is not there plainly exprest the Children and Infants were baptized yet the Promise is plain enough and the Precept is explained and enforced by the Promise which had been of far less force to the Jew and Proselyte also if their Children formerly circumcised upon their Parents taking hold of the Covenant Isa 56. 6. had been excluded and left un-baptized and why may not the yongest be included with the eldest among those three thousand souls according to Scripture-phrase elsewhere Gen. 46. 26 27. 2. Why should R. F. if he were not unreasonable tye me or himself to one plain Scripture That which one place giveth not forth so plainly another compared with it may explain that and its self also Let him consult Ephes 5. 26. opened Ephes 5. 26. There is plain mention of water and washing of water by whom by Christ He that sanctifies and cleanseth the soul Whom doth he sanctifie and cleanse or whose souls His Church his mystical body ver 23. How By water and the word both which are the outward means by which he applies his Blood and Spirit to all that he cleanseth The water distinguisht here from the grace of sanctifying and cleansing can be no other then Baptismal-water The word * Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place distinguisht from Christ himself can be no other then the Scripture-command for the use of water and the Scripture-promise for the blessing of water to the ends he hath appointed it in Baptism The Scripture-promise we have found belongeth to Children and the Scripture-command for the use of water to all that have the Promise and to all that are of Christs mystical body Now some Children will be found to belong to his body the Church I hope R. F. will think if he doth not others will believe the Scripture is plain enough for that Luke 18. 15 16 17. In one Verse we read of Infants in another of little Children whom Christ owned as belonging to the Kingdom of God The Kingdom of God and the true Church that is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus 1 Thes 1. 1. differ not an hairs-breadth of some of that age or non-age we may call it of yong ones and little ones is Christs body made up in part yea he is so far from setting all Infants by and shutting them out that he professeth with vehemency ver 17. Verily whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Childe shall in no wise enter therein Let R. F. be humblypassively capable of what a little Childe is capable and he may enter with Christs little ones into the knowledge of this mystery and benefit of Infant-baptism Thirdly I shall prove the sprinkling of Infants or application A sprinkling Baptism warrantable by Scr●pture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of water to them or others that way by plain and sound consequence from Scripture 1. Although the word Bapto signifieth to dip the word Baptizo signifieth to wash diverse ways The Jews had diverse Baptisms as the words are Heb. 9. 10. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated diverse washings Some by sprinkling or putting water upon persons or things to which Ezek. 36. 25. and Heb. 10. 22. alludeth Some civil or superstitious as Mark 7. 4. washing of vessels tables or beds which way was by casting water upon them as by dipping some things into the water so that the command for baptizing is a command for sprinkling as for dipping as the word is used 1 Cor. 10. 2. They were all baptized in the cloud and in the sea some might be more drencht or wet then others but they whether yong or old whether more or less washed or moistned with water were all baptized It is not the quantity but the quality and use of water that was then and is now significative in Baptism The general end and use of water is washing the effect whereof is cleansing and such is the use and force of the word as before hence I reason That action which fully representeth the main end and use of Baptismal-water is lawful and sufficient But sprinkling pouring or putting water upon the body doth represent this main end and use c. For the main general end and use of Water-baptism is to signifie spiritual washing and cleansing of the soul from sin Acts 22. 16. Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins and this is done significatively by a sprinkling-Baptism of yong or old as well as by a dipping 2. When John baptized Christ and Philip the Eunuch their going down to the water was one action and the baptizing another I stand not convinced by any plain or forcible Scripture-phrase or by any circumstance in Scripture-history that there was any other action or rite of baptizing when it came to that then sprinkling or casting water upon the person baptized 3. Sprinkling or putting water upon the baptized is the more ready and easie action and Christ hath not burthened his Church in the New Testament with painful Ceremonies Dipping and plunging is either of the whole body or of a part onely if but of a part it is hazardous and troublesom not onely to Infants but to persons of years Once upon a time I asked a neighbor of mine who was for Dipping how Paul dipped the Jaylor his answer was He took him plum up from the ground and put him into the water By the way I told him there had need be good store of strength in all Administrators of Baptism in this maner and little Paul might not be strong enough for the service if Silas was I asked again whether there was a pond or river in the yard betwixt the prison and the Jaylors proper lodgings and was answered there might be a brook running through the yard These are strange conjectures which men will assume and fancy to themselves
the institution end and use during our corporal eating and drinking of them at that Supper of the Lord. The word which I used in the Concrete Spiritual he turns to the Abstract Spirit and thus clamors me * Therefore it is thy reason is so weak that saith The bread which you break although it be bread in the nature and substance yet it is Spirit in the institution c. What blasphemy is this to say that the Spirit is in the bread which is natural in the substance Here is a Papistical trick indeed Oh horrible delusion Rep. 1. I brought not 1 Cor. 10. 16. or any reason from thence to prove the bread to be material and outward though I could as above I have from the 11. Chap. but to shew it was not carnal in R. F. his sense set in opposition to the spiritual institution end and use For that which is appointed by Christ to be used for signification and assurance of many a souls interest in and communion of his natural body and blood broken and shed upon the Cross that is not meer carnal bread and drink But the bread and wine is after Christs institution to be so used as Paul admonisheth the Corinthians and not to be abused and profaned i. e. used in a common maner as if it were but ordinary bread and wine and had no special signification and end stampt upon it That natural body and blood of Christ which we remember in the Supper as broken and shed at his Passion was and is a true natural body then on earth now in heaven and yet it was and is spiritual food his flesh meat indeed his blood drink indeed there is no sweeter no better there 's none to that So the bread and wine is truly bread materially wine and yet withal in the Lords Supper it is Christs body and it is his blood How significatively a spiritual memorial of Christs death and a pledge of what Christ is to us that believe in him dying for us 2. This man R. F. coyneth phrases and then fathers them upon me The Spirit in the institution and the Spirit is in the bread and would make the world believe he were as ignorant of Popery as of true Protestant Doctrine The Doctrine I held forth according to Scripture was and is in professed opposition to all Papisticall tricks and devices touching the Lords Supper I said the bread as the wine was so and is so in its nature and substance but spiritual in the institution end and use And I adde neither Christs Institution nor the Ministers Blessing doth transubstantiate them or turn them into the natural body and blood of Christ as the Papists imagine after their consecration They do not say that I know the Spirit is in the bread nor did I ever so express my self in preaching at Edinburgh or elsewhere and what I wrote there * page 20. is to be seen and read of all men yet more then this of confused stuff would R. F. in his return to the Agreement of 42. Ministers * Contradiction of the Quakers so called p. 16. make the world believe he can produce under my hand and the hands of other Preachers in that City Had his mistake * See page 18. with the marginal not been onely in a letter of my name to put e for a it were a very venial offence but to refer as he doth to my whole name except that letter is a most impudent forgery But to return to the Pontificians this they hold Popish Transubstantiation a blinde dotage The body of Christ is corporally under the shew of bread and the blood of Christ is substantially under the colour of wine as if the accidents or qualities of roundness redness or whiteness could be without the subject and substance of those creatures and as if Christs natural body and blood for substance could be there and neither be seen felt nor tasted and as if Christ had laid down the qualities of a true natural body and were in moe places then one at once with many such blinde dotages this is to make a very carnal Supper of it indeed Hence it is that they maintaining in words onely and with fire and faggot not by any Scripture rightly understood nor sound Argument from thence the real corporal carnal presence of Christ we protest against them as Antichristian And so must we enter a protestation against R. F. and men of his way to be yet more mysteriously Babylonish For the grosser Papists speak broadly and make a nullity of the Lords Supper by their feigned Transubstantiation and carnal-corporal presence but these speak subtilly and nullifie it by transforming of the Institution and spreading the Lords Table with another cloth as it were and as will more appear anon while we hold up the Ordinance according to Gospel-primitive simplicity and do maintain upon sufficient Scripture-grounds both the outward and inward matter and form of the Lords Supper with the spiritualness of the Institution and the truly-spiritual presence of Christ with his own ordained signs who in relation to them and to his own promise and his peoples faith is there as at Baptism Matth. 28. 19 20. Lo I am with you c. by his Spirit to quicken confirm and seal up our communion with himself as crucified for us Hence The benefit of the Lords Supper it is that the Churches of Christ and every true believer active in his faith have found it and do still experience it to be a faith-strengthning conscience-refreshing soul-comforting love-increasing sin-mortifying salvation-assuring Ordinance although they have not always a like sense of his presence But to cast off this Ordinance and call it a carnal invention as R. F. hath done for want of expected assurance at the participation of it is a rash fruit of unbelief and proud impatience and to call us Deceivers * Page 20. for keeping to the Institution which remaineth firm in it self while it proves ineffectual to many an unworthy communicant is to hide himself in his self-deceivings Finally to cry out Oh horrible delusion is to cast a mist before others eyes that they may not see where the jugling and the jugler lie close together For what saith he further The Kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink but in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost and in that Kingdom wheat-bread and red wine is not the souls food but the precious blood of Christ Rep. 1. Where the Apostle speaks of the choice things wherein the Kingdom of God consists viz. righteousness c. Rom. 14. 17. he is not treating of bread and wine at Rom 14. 17. vindicated the Lords Table but of meats and drinks which Jews and Gentiles made a difference about ver 2. One believeth he may eat all things another that is weak eateth herbs He was the stronger Christian who found his liberty to eat of all things i. e. all creatures appointed for
inherent Graces who put off the Saints or believing sinners best robe I see not The Setters and Abettors of this Sect would be more narrowly watched and according to their crimes stigmatized There is one * This for each Parliament man by George Fox page ult hath suggested to the Right Honorable Parliament after this maner All that have a word from the Lord seek not to stop them and limit them from speaking it by the counsel of those Teachers which are made by the will of man and have not the word of the Lord according to the word of the Lord they are to be stopt and to be silent And after the same measure shall it not be meted out to them But whereas he concludeth with an Interrogation that hath a sting in the tayl Is there any law or limit to be made to limit the Spirit of God I shall close with Christ his own charge for the purity and peace of the Churches which some * Brightman Cotton of no mean account do conceive was partly fulfilled by the Edict of Darius Ezra 6. 11 13. * Cant. 2. 15. Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoil the Vines for our Vines have tender grapes Now that Your Highness and Your Honors may be all as Angels of God discerning the false spirits and the true such as proceed out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet from Him that proceedeth from the Father and from the Son that Ye may be established in the old and present Truth that Ye may be preserved blameless that all men may acknowledge their Mercies under Your Government that Your Graces may be heightned yet to farther Service of the Lord and his peoples Interest in the three Nations And that Ye may be prospered in all Your high undertakings at home and abroad for Glory to the Highest is and shall be the Prayer of Your HIGHNES and Your HONORS Meanest Servant in the Gospel JOHN STALMAM TO THE CHURCH of CHRIST Which is at TERLING Grace be with you mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in Truth and Love Beloved in our Lord JESUS AS you were obedient in my absence while I was removed from you for a season so I have endeavored since my return that the Truth of the Gospel might continue with you and therefore have I not given place by subjection no not for an hour to any that have attempted to bring another Gospel among you though there is not another but there be some that have troubled others and would by perverting the Gospel have troubled you also Yet blessed and praised be God who hath kept you in the hour of temptation and helped you to keep the Word of his Patience and not deny his Name That you and yours may ever be preserved when this my earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved I have drawn up this REPLY and do commend it to your diligent perusal charging you in the Lord that you redeem some time for the reading of it especially such of you as have allowed spare hours for the reading of the Adversaries Pamphlets It is above a year since the first of the Sect called Quakers came into the Town and scattered his opinions You had then cautions given you from the Lord. Remember them I beseech you lest you be carried about as the stubble whisked and Heb. 13. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whirl'd about here and there in a circle with the wind of diverse and strange doctrines diverse in colour from the truth and strange to the Scripture-language or meaning of the Spirit speaking in the Scripture Beware of wheeling to the right hand or to the left Take heed what you hear and how you hear Beware of the leaven of the Quaking Pharisees and Sadduces It argues weakness at the best and childishness in the best if they be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine Children will run after a bubble in the wind or on the water a feather on the ground or froth upon the waves Be not like them or as giddy hearers that have no mould but what the next Novellist casts them into Diverse and strange doctrines such as these men I deal with especially open out of their packs tend much to the unsetling of the judgement and disquiet John 10. 5. of the conscience It is a Character of Christs sheep to keep the ear close to his voice they know not the voice of strangers whereas goats will receive those that come in their own name and they whose names are not written in the Lambs John 5. 43. Booke of Life will wonder and wander after th● beast and the Rev. 13. 8. false prophet the Doctors and Doctrines of Antichrist But it is a good thing * Heb. 13. 9. saith the Holy Spirit that the heart be established with grace It is eminently ben●ficial against all distracting opinions to have your souls and consciences established with the doctrine faith and sense of Gods free Favor in Christ and with the experimental exercise of Grace in Gospel-worship 1. The doctrine of his redeeming purchasing grace his pardoning of sinners and reconciling them to himself according to his free electing love establisheth against the thoughts of our greatest unworthiness for the free gift of Christ and his righteousness for justification of life reigneth over all your guilt and the design of Grace is to bring all that obey the doctrine of Grace into a kingdom of Grace and to settle a crown of Life and Glory upon the poor unworthy sinner Hold fast to this as not onely it is free but full The Gospel of our salvation is so full as it answereth all the souls necessities partly from the fulness of the person the Son of God our Savior God and man in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily If there be all-sufficiency of power love will faithfulness in God to save 't is in Christ yea the fulness of Gods vindicative Justice is satisfied and glorified in him This we teach for your heart-satisfaction and settlement partly from the fulness of the covenant whereby God makes over Christ and Life to us which is heart-establishing as 't is founded in the blood of Christ as it is the efflux and issue of Gods everlasting love as all the promises are Yea and Amen in Christ and as the Covenant is of the nature of a Testament which is more absolute then ordinary contracts in full force Heb 9. 16. by the death of the Testator written not onely in the Scriptures the Old Copy and the New but in the hearts of Believers Heb. 8. 10. God begins with promises and writes them and then his Commands are all inlayed and inamel'd with the promises This Heb. 6. 17. Covenant is confirmed by an Oath to shew the immutability of his counsel and
is seen and known to be one that hates it and why 1. He bears record of himself against Christ and his Apostles Let that be found in any passage of his former or present piece and R. F. shall be no false Apostle J. S. will hide his head in a hole or openly recant the folly and wickedness 2. He calls the true light saith R. F. the Light of nature and the common Light of reason Where 's the proof of this allegation J. S. doth peremptorily deny that he ever so exprest himself since he had the Light of reason in him The true Light as 't is printed both in R. F. his Book * Page 2. and in the Bible John 1. 9. with a great L and there spoken of is Christ J. S. never called Christ the Light of nature or the common Light of reason or reason as Page 34. R. F. clamoreth and clattereth Haply he may say again and again That Christ as the very God and the true Light giveth the Light of nature to all men and common light of reason more or less to every man for he is able to distinguish betwixt the Donor and his Gift betwixt the un-created Light-living God and created Light-given before the fall to Adam or given back since the fall to him and his posterity If R. F. or any man will confound Christ-giving or enlightning with the Light-given or lighted up as a Candle in every man he may as well confound God and the Creature and make them as some blasphemously imagine to be one and the same Essence Therefore as in this so in all other instances Fourthly J. S. is confident after R. F. his impudence in his Preface and Proceedings he shall neither be found Lyar nor false Accuser but as he is sure that Saint Pauls Anathema was out long since Gal. 1. 8 9. and is still in force against those that preach another Gospel-way of Justification as do these Quaking-Papists or Popish-Quakers so the Anathema Maran-atha that R. F. denounceth imperatively and imperiously Let him be an Anathema Maranatha against J. S. shall be as the curse causless that shall not come but that God will do him more good as already he hath done something for him by Shimei's railing Tyrants Sectaries Seducers and Hereticks as Luther said do nothing else but drive us unto the Bible to make us read more diligently therein and with more fervency to sharpen our Prayers and I may adde by their buffetings to be more taken off from self-estimation and to be viler in our own eyes then we can be in the eyes of our Adversaries who know not our hearts THE Reviler rebuked PART 1. 1. Head of Scripture-contradiction Touching the Scriptures themselves Section 1. THe holy Scriptures by one thunder-stricken in spirit and blasted in profession with the Quakers Books and company in Scotland were denied to my face to be the word of Truth which I noted as the first and great Contradiction R. Farnworth in answer returns me thus much of truth in form of words That the Scriptures are words that proceeded from the Spirit of Truth we do not deny but own and so they are the words of truth Plainly he doth not say they are the words of truth nor plainly joyn Scripture the word of truth to all issue with him that denied them to be the word of truth but if they be own'd for words of truth as proceeding from the Spirit of truth then for the advantage of Truth I argue 1. They are the word of God and so should be owned by them Surely the Spirit of truth is the Spirit of God proceeding from the Father and the Son and these three John 15. 26. being one their word is one That which is the word of the Spirit of truth is the word of the Father of truth and of the Son of truth The Scripture by R. F. his confession is the word of the Spirit of truth therefore he must grant it to be the word of the Father and of the Son of truth and consequently the word of the true God 2. If they be words of truth as proceeding from the Spirit of truth then they are the Rule Standard and Touchstone of truth the true Spirit being known by his words and directing us to know his minde by his words what we should believe as truth and practise as truth or according to it but we shall anon hear R. F. denying the Scriptures to be the rule of a Christian as of other men that are unchristian 3. If they be the words of the Spirit of truth then they are so to all men or but to some men 1. If so to all men that have the Scriptures by them then why doth not R. F. challenge him that denied them to be so to unbelievers as I noted in my Book Why doth he challenge me for falshood with a therefore too * Page 2. therefore thy saying is false What saying of mine is false and wherefore I truly related what I had from him I mentioned above in discourse once and again That the Scriptures were not the word of truth And doth it follow because R. F. acknowledgeth them to be the words of truth that therefore I heard not the contradiction or mis-related what was spoken 2. If they be the words of truth but to some men not at all to wicked men and unbelievers no not condemningly as were his expressions then it seems the unbelief and wickedness of men doth make the Faith or Truth of God of none effect but S. Paul Rom. 3. 3. is of another minde Rom 3. 3. cleared yea the Spirit there by the Interrogation first and second What if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect forcibly denieth the frustration or making void of Gods word of truth by the Jews former or following continued unbelief God hath laid his faith and truth to pawn as it were in the holy Scriptures and as he is a God of truth his word is a word of truth taking hold of men by the threatning as Zech. 1. 6. who misbelieve or reject the promise And Is he the God of the Jews onely and not also of the Gentiles to justifie and condemn all that are believing or unbelieving according to the Scriptures Such therefore who will say No more is the truth of God or word of God to me then what I believe were they never so dear friends must be as roundly taken up and faithfully rebuked as sometimes Luther took up a man of no mean account Bullenger you erre you know neither your self nor what you hold According to your falsities if the Word findes not the Spirit but an ungodly Person then it is not Gods word whereby you define and hold the word not according to God who speaketh it but according as people do entertain and receive it Whereas as he again a true Christian must hold for certain and must say That word
knowing the Spirit nor power of God declared in the Scriptures Rep. 1. Wherein have I erred who never exprest my self so dubiously as thus the Spirit proceedeth from the Letter but thus The Spirit is given by it The Scripture is but instrumental to the Spirit yet so instrumental he makes it as whatsoever R. F. thinketh of me I know and remember that my first awakening of conscience was by the Spirit and from the power of God upon my spirit as I was reading that Scripture Heb. 10. 26. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth c. The Spirit which gave this Scripture gave forth his convictions by it to my heart What if I say his Terrors as by that in Isa 5. 18. at the ministers reading of the Text and preaching upon it will R. F. or any other say why then dost thou not own our Trembling and Quaking I shall reply to R. F. why doth he reject all my Epistle to the Readers in my former piece where I gave some characters of true Trembling and to all others with him I subjoyn such is the power of the Spirit in and by the Scripture True Trembling is at the truth and power in Scripture and leads thereunto that there is a wide difference between the trembling from a supposed Revelation that is not by nor according to the Scripture but leads men both from it and from the due honor to be given to it and the trembling which ariseth from the Scripture-revelation and from the Spirit speaking in that which is read and heard out of it The former I judge to be theirs who pretend to the Spirit without and beside the Scripture the latter I own and all that the Lord hath wrought upon by the word will own it with me The account which that famous Francis Junius gives of the Spirits working by the Letter of Scripture is upon record * Vita Francisci Junii After he had drunk in that which stirred up in him the seeds of Atheism and had vented something that way before his father and had profited nothing by Sermons to this present time he takes up the new Testament laid before him by his father and reads the former part of the first chapter of John In the beginning was the Word c. Ita commoveor legens c. as it first came to his hand and view Whereby saith he I was so stirred that suddenly I perceived the divinity of Horrebat corpus stupebat animus c. the Argument and the majesty and authority of the style very far excelling all the floods of humane eloquence my body trembled my minde was astonished and I was so affected all that day that I knew not where and what I was And from that time forward he gave himself to the study of the Scriptures and read other books but coldly and carelesly in comparison Here was the mighty operation of the Spirit accompanying the Letter here was a right Scripture efficacy from the Spirits application of it to the conscience As God declares his Spirit and power or speaks of them in the Scriptures so he declares or exerts and puts forth his Spirit and power by them and that upon their hearts who do not believe In this first Section of my book I had noted another of their Contradictions viz. of James Naylers * A few words of J. Nayler pag. 10. 11. thus now more fully Thou callest the Scriptures a standing Rule but it is not so to you who cannot believe that ever it shall be fulfilled in you as it was given out by the holy Ghost Contrary I said so Luke 16. 26. They have Moses and the Prophets for a standing Rule let them hear them and ver 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Here the Scriptures are asserted to be a more standing rule then visions and revelations R. F. * Pag. 3. 4. calls the simple-hearted to judge of my deceitful perverting of this Scripture for my own ends from it raising a false doctrine Rep. Let simple and wise also examine the proofs and reasons of this charge and of his denial of the Scriptures The Scripture a standing Rule 1. To be a standing rule at all or to any 2. To be a more standing rule c. The shew of reason he gives for the first I shall faithfully and for conviction if the Lord please of this Gain-sayer uncase and discover the weakness and nakedness thereof 1. The verse saith not so Rep. The 29 verse meaneth Luke 16. 29. cleared and vindicated and intendeth no less Scripture-sense is Scripture as our Lord teacheth us to reason from John 7. 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water The Scripture no where had said so in so many express letters syllables and words but it saith it in the scope and sense and it speaks as much as amounts thereunto So doth this place for the Scriptures being a standing rule there is the sense of what I spake They have Moses and the Prophets for what for a cypher No but for a rule Let them hear them for what if not to testifie unto them as was desired ver 28. that they might repent as was expected ver 30. if one came from the dead Hence I reason They that constantly testifie in their writings from God how unbelievers should escape hell torments they are in their writings a standing rule to them that do not believe as to all other But Moses and the Prophets do constantly testifie in their writings from God how unbelievers should escape hell torments Therefore Moses and the Prophets in their writings are a standing rule to them that do not believe And therefore again R. F. his charging of me in the presence of God to be a liur of the Scriptures will by the Lord one day be made to fall upon his own pate or conscience notwithstanding his second reason thus If Moses and the Prophets had been left to all and for ever for a standing rule then Christ and the Apostles might not have been after Moses and the Prophets for following examples or rules Rep. It followeth not for Christ and the Apostles brought no new rule for the substance but onely cleared and enlarged it in what was Moral and Evangelical so that R. F. is beside the cushion when he addeth And therein thou bringest the old Covenant to contradict the new What he meaneth by the old Covenant I know not very well or what by the new The old Covenant in Scripture phrase and meaning What the old Covenant what the new was but the old administration the new Covenant the new copy of the same Will and Testament Heb. 8. 13. the same for substance before as now Moses wrote of Christ John 5. 46. The Prophets from Samuel and
in the Old Testament and in the New the same yesterday to day and for ever He that followeth the Apostle as he followed Christ and followeth the Prophets as they spake and wrote by the Spirit of Christ doth the same thing 7. Reason Seeing we are not under the Law but under Grace the Spirit of Christ is our rule and guide Rep. This is added to no good purpose but still to contradict the Scripture and to blot it out from being a rule For R●m 6. 14. cleared 1. Albeit true believers are not under the Law in respect of its ceremony curse rigorous exaction and domination yet they are under the direction and rule that it holds forth and that as they are regenerate Rom. 7. 25. With the minde that is the regenerate part I my self saith Paul serve therefore am under the law of God So again 1 Cor. 9. 21. Vnder the Law to Christ as the rule of holiness and righteousness is dispensed in the hand of Christ and for obedience with a Gospel-frame of spirit unto Christ 2. When the Apostle saith We are under Grace he singleth not out a Sect of men called Quakers unknown in his days but he intendeth all true Christians and their condition under a covenant of Grace not Legally but Evangelically administred having the Spirit of liberty to lead them from under the dominion of sin to the obedience of Christ according to a written word or rule What if the vail be upon the hearts of unbelieving Jews 2 Cor. 3. 15. because they own not the Son of God and Son of the Virgin to be the Messias is the vail therefore upon my heart as R. F. reasoneth Yes because thou setst up Law in stead of Gospel Rep. I wish he well understood what it is to set up Law What 't is to set up Law instead of Gospel in stead of Gospel It is not onely to set up Jewish ceremonies and Typical shadows after Christs abolition of them as the Jews endeavored but to set up all or any act or work required in the Law or word of God whether done in natures strength or by moral abilities or by the Spirits strength to be a mans justifying righteousness before God this is far from what I urge and press when I plead for Moses writings c. to be a standing rule to direct to Christ and to direct in a way of sanctifying righteousness when a soul is come to Christ But we witness the glory that exceeds c. but thou art ignorant of that Rep. I confess I know that glory of Gospel-ministration which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 3. but in part but this I know that when our Lord appoints men constantly to hear Moses and the Prophets as writing of him and as giving out the same rules for Faith and Holiness which himself gave he that shall take men off from attending their writings according to their true scope seduceth and draws off from Christ And as ignorant as I am I can see to the end of that which is abolished which is Christ the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth and I can see that he that believeth not in the same Christ which Moses pointed at believeth not at all or but in a false Christ yea with half an eye through the same grace I can see that he who takes not Moses writings as he wrote of Christ and makes them the rule of his faith and maners and also refuseth the writings of the Prophets to be the like rule he doth more then implicitely refuse the writings of Christ and of the Apostles from being a rule also R. F. * Pag. 4. therefore holding to the first contradiction That the Scriptures are not a standing rule may well pass on to a second That they are not a more standing rule The Scriptures a more standing Rule then visions c. then visions and revelations as I had collected from Luke 16. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead The reason hereof is strong rising from the dead which is of the same nature with visions and revelations Matth. 27. 53. may be counterfeited as we finde 1 Sam. 28. Moses and the Prophets were extant in the volume of Gods book and their authority is owned among the Jews to this day and it is so authentique that when either particular Jews have been or the Nation shall be converted to the Lord they presently adhere to it as to their Rule so the Apostle prophesied 2 Cor. 3. 16. when it any poor Jew or rather 2 Cor 3. 16. with 14. opened collectively when the people and children of Israel the ten Tribes with the two Shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away which is now upon their heart in the reading of the Old Testament that is of the books thereof The books and writings of the Old Testament stand and shall still abide at their conversion though the old administration of the Covenant of grace is abolished and they shall be their Rule together with the books of the New Testament which they will then understand own and imbrace as more certain to them then if one rose from the dead not in a faigned but real way Hence it is that Christ after himself was risen as others with him and appeared called his disciples to the Scriptures and opened them unto them Luke 24. 29. yea he urgeth his own death and resurrection that it ought to have been so And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself This made their hearts burn within them ver 32. when as the rest were cold at heart through fear at their first sight of Jesus supposing they had seen a spirit ver 37. Let visions and revelations be never so certain yet the Scriptures quoad nos as to us are a more standing Rule Why they are not so in R. F. his judgement and others we shall know by his reasons 1. Christ saith in Matth. 11. 27. No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son not the Scripture but the Son will reveal him here revelation is the surer rule of knowing God Rep. If I should deal as rudely with R. F. as he with me Matth. 11. 27. vindicated I should not onely say the assertion is thine not the Lords but therefore thou art a liar and accuser of the Lord but I will not exchange words I will prove him to be what he would fasten upon me He that sets the Son of God and the Scriptures at distance belies Christ accuseth the Lord R. F. doth thus by his Parenthesis not the Scripture but the Son his conscience will draw up the conclusion one day Again he that grants one part of truth and denieth another part wrongs the truth
perswasion and satisfaction with our selves and here is the ground of mens believing what we speak from and according to what is written Will R. F. or any say If our trust must be in the Lord we are not then to ground our faith on the Scriptures I must tell him from Christ that the not grounding a mans faith upon the Scriptures is an evidence that he grounds it not upon the Lord the very Scriptures will accuse such to be unbelievers for thus our Lord reasoneth against the Jews John 5. 45 46. There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me Section 6. I Had charged them with putting figurative Glosses upon plain Scripture R. F. pag. 7. shuffles in here and there a line or two for answer but nothing to the purpose onely in way of shift he hath these two subterfuges 1 In quoting John 1. 1 2 3. he addeth this is plain Scripture without figurative gloss the glosses are thy own Rep. 1. As plain Scripture as it is it is alledged by him to set all the rest of Scripture aside from being Gods word For what if by the Scripture-letter the world was not made but by Christ the Eternal Essential Word of which John speaks hath it not been sufficiently shewed in what sense the Scripture-letter is and is truly called the word of God 2. By his unreasonable reasoning he doth altogether hide and conceal from the Reader of his book what instance I gave in mine of their figurative gloss upon plain Scripture viz. 1 Cor 14. 34 35. By woman is meant the weak 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. vindicated with 1 Tim. 2. 11 c. corrupt part and by man the Spirit in either sex and by the Husband is meant Christ contrary to the true sense of the Apostle given by the same Apostle not onely in his reasons upon the place but in that first Epistle to Timothy 2. 11 12 13 14. This Gloss is theirs and yet unreasonably he calls it mine the fancy mine and the meaning 's mine which he denieth whereas I gave none but the Apostles own Hence I argue He who sets Paul against Paul or owns not Paul's plain exposition of himself but puts figurative glosses upon the Text contradicts the Scripture but thus doth R. F. with others He that would be further satisfied about his egregious glossings this way may read his Pamphlet of a sheet * Entit led A woman forbidden to speak in Church printed 1654. by it self A taste whereof whosoever meets not with that sheet may take as followeth a page 3. The woman or wisdom of the flesh is forbidden to speak in the Church b page 5. The Apostle saith Let your women keep silence in the Church he doth not say Let the Spirit of God keep silence in the Temple c page 7. It is carnality that is forbidden to intermingle with Spirituality If this be not to play with Scripture and grieve the Spirit that spake it I know not what doth A second subterfuge is in citing that Scripture I will pour out my spirit and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and such may speak of the things of God Rep. 1. Who denies but they may speak according to their gift place and call but women endued but with an ordinary gift are set by and not allowed either the office of teaching or the liberty of a gifted-brothers place to speak to edification c. had they the gift as eminently as some Brethren have or so much as to ask a question for their own learning in the publick meeting place of a Church in order and every place and meeting of such a Church hath a publickness in it because they are commanded to be under obedience it becomes not their sex 't is usurping of the males authority they were the latter sex in creation the first in the transgression and are easily led into deceit as Eve was all which are the Apostles reasons 1 Cor. 14. 1 Tim. 2. and the holy Spirits not mine who dare contradict them and their true sense and scope dare contradict the Spirit to his face 2 Pauls limiting-order issued out from Heaven teacheth us how to understand Peter Act. 2. 17 18. taken out Act. 2. 17 18. opened of Joels prophecy viz. partly as allusions to the old Testament-times when God by dreams and visions by prophecies or predictions of future things revealed his minde in those ages past to a few and so the pouring out of the Spirit c. notes a large and abundant measure of saving grace in ordinary given to some of Gods servants of all sorts and sexes in all nations where the Gospel comes far excelling the ordinary measures of Saints before Christs ascension partly that some of Gods servants women as men daughters as sons should have a prophetical instinct of foretelling things to come which ever hath been a gift more then ordinary and out of a Church-order and course as Acts 21. 9. Philips four daughters and virgins were inspired withall or if any say why might not their gift of prophecy be the gift of explication and application of the Scripture to the profit of the hearer though it is not so probable yet then I say they were subject to the Apostles Rule aforesaid and were kept free from disorderly extravagancies 3 That standing Rule and order of Paul 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. leads us to the understanding of ver 31. ye may all prophesie c. i. e. as all called to the office of Pastor and Teacher 2 Cor. 14 31 vindicated must teach exhort c. so all the brethren gifted with the abilities of prophesying or speaking to edification exhortation and comfort may prophesie the exception of women breaks not the Rule for men but rather confirms the liberty to the brethren and to all of them so gifted which are but a few when the number is cast up in every Church And again what that meaneth Thou shalt not muzzle the 1 Tim. 5 18. cleared Ox that treadeth out the corn c. which the Apostle applyeth to the laboring Elders not to women as R. F. ver 17 of 1 Tim. 5. and at the end of the 18 verse there 's light given to the beginning of it for the laborer is worthy of his reward which words are a reason of the Prohibition and the Prohibition is not to open womens mouths in publick for himself Chap. 2. had stopt them by the injunction of silence but to beware of discouraging their preaching Elders and laboring Pastors and Teachers by abridging them of their honorable maintenance yea that Canon of the Apostle above mentioned is the Key to open all those Scriptures which R. F. produceth in his sheet aforesaid concerning Phebe Priscilla Mary Tryphena and Tryphosa Persis Rom. 16. and those women Philip. 4. Rom. 16 1 2. and ver 6 12. Phil. 4
hath spoken all his sense under the words which he directed holy men to express his minde by and therefore without going forth of Scripture to any private spirit the true and sure interpretation of Scripture may be obtained which if first we know and be perswaded of we may confidently be perswaded still to take heed thereunto as unto a more sure word and as a help in all our darknesses c. But J. Nayler thinks this a blinde absurdity For saith Discovery c. pag. 30. he if the Testimony of the old Prophets was a more sure word then that which Peter heard from the mouth of God then it must needs follow that the Testimony of the old Prophets who spoke but darkly of Christ and did not see his day must be a more sure Testimony then the Apostles who were eye-witnesses and the words of Books a more sure word then the voice that came from heaven which was the immediate voice of God Rep. All this grant but the testimony of Prophetical Writings to be Gods and the words of Scripture-books to be Gods books and his words may and doth follow without any absurdity at all For 1. Although the Apostles preaching was as infallibly true as the Prophets writings in themselves yet as to men and as to the Jew first and then to the Gentile and in respect of our capacity our reception and retention of truth the word of the Prophets writings was and is still more sure yea the Apostles writings such as the holy Spirit moved them to write and hath ordered to be the Scripture of the New Testament are in the forenamed respect a more sure word then their preachings hence it is that Paul perswaded the Jews Acts 28. 23. both out of the law of Moses and out of the Prophets 2. Although Gods immediate voice from heaven hath as infallible certainty as when he orders his minde to be written yet in respect of our frailty and the above-mentioned cases his written word is more sure to us and we have it so left upon record for our constant use Let not then J. Nayler * Discovery c. as above pag. 30. mislead the simple with great swelling words of vanity concerning our blindness about the Spirit of prophecy as the sure word and testimony of Jesus excluding thereby the Spirit from the Scriptures and the Scriptures from being the word of Prophecy and the sure Testimony of Jesus For Jesus Christ appointed John to write because the words he sent and signified to him by the Angel were true and faithful And when the Angel observed what John was about viz. to worship him Rev. 19. 10. he forbad Rev. 19 10. vindicated him upon two Reasons 1. He was his fellow-servant and of the brethren that have the testimony of Jesus 2. The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy And John having the Testimony of Jesus as well as the Angel though not so immediately he had the Spirit of Prophecy so have all they who have the true sense of Scripture and of Johns Revelation though they received it not by the Angel as John did because the Spirit was with John as with others when he wrote and he that hath an Rev. 3. last ear is commanded to hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches in that written word with the rest of the Scripture The Testimony of Jesus immediately given and received is hath in it and carrieth with it the Spirit of Prophecy as that Testimony which is immediately given and received All they that call off from the mediate Testimony may boast of the immediate but do not discover it Let not J. Nayler * Sauls errand to Damascus pag. 33. again upbraid us with his ignorant question Where readest thou in the Scriptures of a written Word It is no more then if he had said Where readest thou in the Scriptures of the Scriptures Let not J. Parnel * Christ exalted c. p 3. further revile us with doting upon the Scriptures without with our dark mindes when as God hath appointed the voices of the Prophets which are read * Acts 13 27. and preached upon with the voices of the Apostles every Sabbath day as a light shining in a dark place and as a more sure word for our daily use then his immediate voice from heaven Let him not heap up Scriptures to press the Scriptures to death Let him not make the world believe we would take the Authority from Christ because we own Christs Authority in the Scriptures and acknowledge them as instrumental unto Christs saving enlightning of us guiding quickning ruling of us Let him beware of despising Scripture lest he sin more wilfully after his first conviction by the Scripture He that would set Christ upon his throne as he pretends to do must not take the Scepter the Scriptures and what is preached faithfully from thence out of his hand This doth J. Parnel with R. F. and that generation of men who have learned as they imagine beyond the Scripture-Light and need neither man nor Scripture to teach them Yet I will unteach their misinterpretations of Scripture as they fall in my way that people may not further be deluded but undeceived In that one sheet of Paper * Christ exalted c. J. Parnel hath put the Conceptions and Imaginations of his own heart upon ten places of Scripture as he hath disparaged all the Scripture at once in more then one passage Christ he saith Page 1. was that Lamp to Davids feet Psalm 119. 105. Psal 119. 105 vindicated and that Light unto his paths Christ indeed gave that word to David which was his Lamp and Light but David speaks not there of Christs Person but of his Doctrine which the holy Ghost by his pen giveth several titles unto throughout the Psalm The word which David speaks of is called and was as called the Law of the Lord his Precepts or Commandments Statutes Testimonies and Judgements Christs person is not the Law of the Lord c. besides what ver 105. is in the singular number thy word is ver 103 57 139. in the plural number thy words Christs person is not two or many but one David therefore is commending that which J. P. is disparaging the written and declarative word of God Again Page 2. he applieth Jer. 20. 9. and 23. 29. in the like maner to Christs person when as the Section 6. Jer. 20. 9. and 23. 19. vindicated Prophet speaks of Christs Doctrine His word or message of Doctrine which God gave me to deliver was in my heart as a burning fire c. which I could no longer forbear from declaring it And Is not my word like as a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces By Gods word here is meant Gods saithful Doctrine which must be spoken faithfully ver 28. then it hath the power of a purging fire and of a battering hammer
light yet he is not to be called or accounted as low as some of his workings are But we honor adore and magnifie him as God Christ and the Spirit above his gifts who worketh but such common works though we put them not into his own place nor lift up that natural or common light into the room of a Savior 3. He that witnesseth not Christ and the light of the Spirit of which witnessing he boasteth above the natural light which is given to every man and above the common light though supernatural which is given to some men doth not witness Christ and the light of the Spirit home and close according to the Scriptures Christ as Christ the Lords anointed anointed above his fellows is above all his gifts which he bestoweth on men not onely as he is God viz. natural and common gifts but as he is Christ viz. peculiar and saving gifts And the light of the Spirit is either that which he is essentially with the Father and Son which is above all created and conferred light as high as God is above the creature or that which he gives now the light which the Spirit giveth he giveth in a common or in a saving way There are but natural and common instincts and lightnings of the Spirit and there are special peculiar and sanctifying The God-head and person of the Spirit is more above all these his gifts then the heavens are above the earth This is to witness Christ and the Spirit according to the Scriptures What light R. F. hath about the Spirit the Reader may discern by what past before in the seventh Section But to make good my Charge at the entrance of this I noted from G. Fox that speaking of every mans light he tells all that would know the way This is the true teacher and the Light within is life the Light in Scripture is death Contrary as I said to Ephes 5. 8. Jer. 10. 14. c. For 1. Grant there is some truth in every mans light or as Vnivers●l light teacheth not the way of salvation Rom. 1. 8. it could not be imprisoned yet it is not the teacher of saving truths That which is but every mans light teacheth the true way to life by a mans own works but it teacheth nothing of the way truth and life that is of Jesus Christ dying for sinners The Ephesians and all the Gentiles were left in the dark for all that natural teaching and the Jews and every man left in a brutish case notwithstanding their natural wisdom I say brutish with that Scripture in Jeremy because the brute beasts are not more below the natural reason of man then the natural minde and reason of every man is below the light of the new creature 2. Grant again as I did in my former piece that the light of the Scripture-law and bare Commandment is death sentencing the transgressors of it to death yet there is another kinde of light mentioned revealed promised and shining forth in the Scripture called the light of the glorious Gospel and Salvation-light which if it be always death to G. F. or R. F. it is because they are among them that perish All that R. F. in defence of George Fox returns me is Where thou art offended at him for saying the Light of Christ is life it is but to manifest thy envy against the truth and thy contradictions to the Scriptures for the Scripture saith Christ is the light John 1. 9. And he is the life John 14. And such as follow him the true light are led out of darkness error and deceit into the light of life John 8. 12. Rep. 1. I was offended at G. F. and am now at R. F. for defending the offence which is this That the light within every man is said to be life in opposition to the light in the Scriptures which he calls death whereas there is no light to bring men to life and glory but it is taught in the Scriptures 2. The light given to all men John 1. 4 and 9. as I said above is indeed the present life of rational creatures and among men but what is that to the life of communion with God in grace and glory 3. The light of life or Salvation by Christ a Mediator to lead such as by grace follow him out of darkness is not known by the remnants of the old creation-light much less can that old creation-light lead into the redeeminglight of life although men follow it never so close and hard at the heels 4. To equal every mans light as if it were for kinde the same with the choicest light of the Saints is to contradict the Scriptures 1. This do all of the Sect. And 2. this doth R. F. 1. The mouth of them all may be heard speak in one Pamphlet * To all that would know the way to the kingdom Printed Anno 1655. pag. 17. to this purpose They will not endure the distinction of Natural and Spiritual and Special Produce one Scripture say they that speaks of a Natural light I can give them two or three if it may do them any good Rom. 1. 21. When they knew God Rom. 2. 14 15. They do by nature the things contained in the law c. Which shew the effect of the law Written in their hearts Jude verse 10. What they know naturally Here is the natural light given to every man more or less this is the light in every mans conscience which is but Natural though they will not have it so called but we will call a Spade a Spade and no more It shall not be set off for Free Grace and the Saints Teacher and sufficient to lead to salvation c. Yet to this effect will they instruct the people * Pag 8. as above To you that tempt God and say Lord give us a sight of our sins you need not tempt God to give you a sight of your sins for ye know enough c. Praying to have more light then what every man hath with them is tempting of God and other light then that it seems they know none or why must men stand still there and seek no further 2. R. F. in another Pamphlet * Light risen out of darkness pag. 19. hath this passage And here you lie ye proud Priests that say the Apostle did not say to every man Col. 1. 27. That Christ or the Light was in them for ver 28. it 's added Whom we preach warning Col 1. 27 28. vindicated every man and teaching every man Here he would level the light of the Saints with every mans light and with Christs person also Whereas 1. When the Apostle saith He warneth every man he doth not speak of every man that cometh into the world for never did every man live in one Age nor did Paul meet with half the men of the world in that Age. 2. The phrase every man in that place must be interpreted by the 26
and 27 verses every such man as is a Saint in one place and another where he came not yet perfect except in Justification that he may be presented perfect in Christ Jesus in holiness 3. Christs person with and by his Spirit dwelleth in every Saint with a light that never was given to every man that cometh into the world nor ever will be given 4. Though Paul preached to the world unconverted as well as to the Saints yet it was to bring them who were of Gods election among the Saints that they might be partakers of that mysterious light which they knew nothing of before But R. F. thinks if the Scripture make mention of every man it must needs include every man that is was or will be in the world therefore he addeth in the above-mentioned Pamphlet The Apostle saith to the Romans That as well as to them God hath given to every man a measure of grace Rom. 12. 3. And none shall be condemned for that Rom. 12 3. vindicated which they know not but for that which they know and do not obey Whereas here 1. By every man is not meant every man that cometh into the world but that cometh into the Church or company of Saints or whether in or out of the Church yet maketh profession of Faith and hath received some supernatural gifts in measure 2. It is a measure of faith the Apostle speaketh of not a measure of grace Faith may be taken there for knowledge of Gospel-doctrine and gifts flowing from that knowledge which may be in men that are not truly sanctified or endued with saving grace 2 Thes 3. 2. All men have not 2 Thes 3. 2. opened faith not so much as knowledge of the Gospel-letter nor the general assent to Gospel-truth as very Gospel much less that justifying faith which onely the Elect have 3. Every man that cometh into the world hath not that which is termed and is but common though supernatural grace i. e. gifts freely given in common to Hypocrites and Formalists as to the Elect and effectually called of Jesus Christ 4. Every man that neither hath true saving grace nor ever lived in times and places when and where God hath given common supernatural endowments will have enough to condemn him for that which he had in Adams loins yet standing and particularly for that which he knew in him but lost yea put it away by his voluntary disobedience in whom all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. Besides for not obeying Rom. 5. 12. opened that which he knows of God of good and evil as natural conscience dictates for God Every man who hath but every mans light will at last be condemned Rom. 2. 12. For as many as have sinned without law i. e. without the written word shall also perish without law i. e. by the law witness and judgement of their own consciences which is that we call the Light of nature the Law of nature or natural Light by good warrant from Scripture and reason that things should be called as they are But to proceed Section 10. TO call the light within them and which every man hath the word of God as they frequently express their natural impressions To you all this is the word of the Lord while as they will not have the holy Scriptures so called This as I noted is still to hold up Contradiction as to the whole Scripture so to that particular place in Isaiah 8. 20. whence I inferred That Light without Scripture Isaiah 8. 20. further vindicated is no light This passage R. F. stumbleth at in his Epistle and saith It comes as the rest of my sayings from the deceitful Spirit that guides me Rep. What doth he less then fasten deceit upon the Spirit of God as far as he can the Spirit of truth who speaks in that as in all the Scripture and guided me to write as I did If they speak not according to this word saith the Spirit there speaking of the Law and the Testimony written in books and tables it is because there is no light in them How Light without Scripture is no Light What clearer and truer inference from the words of the Spirit by the Prophet could I raise then this viz. Light though said to be saving Light without Scripture i. e. besides or not according to Scripture is no Light Men may R. F. His reasons to the contrary in his Epistle dissolved call it light and light of life but the holy Ghost saith it is not so if it be not agreeable to Law and Testimony which is Scripture-light R. F. would fain disprove my inference thus 1. If light without Scripture be no light then I know not the light that was before the Scripture or Letter and so am ignorant of Christ the true light Rep. 1. It follows not for there was no light before the Scripture but what is now revealed in and by the Scripture 2. It is a learned ignorance to know no more in order to salvation then that which is in Scripture revealed The Lord give me and all his more of this learning 3. As the Spirit shews me by the Scripture that God did teach the knowledge of Christ to the Fathers before the Flood and after till Moses without a written Word so I know that all that light which the Patriarchs had concerning salvation and right worshipping of God through a Mediator was according to the Law and Testimony committed to writing in Moses time and since 2. R. F. objecteth By such a saying Light without Scripture c. I would not have God to be God and Christ to be Christ without the Letter of the Scripture Rep. 1. What an absurd that I say not malicious inconsequence is here 'T is as if one should have cavilled against Isaiah when he said To the Law and to the Testimony c. Why Isaiah if there be no light in them that bring not Scripture and that soundly interpreted according to the Spirits word thou wouldest not have God to be God nor Christ to be Christ without the Scripture The charge of R. F. is not against me but contradictious to that Prophet and to the Spirit For when God gives a written Law Doctrine or Rule and Touchstone to try even Prophets and Apostles Doctrine by he that shall speak things discrepant from this Canonical Word speaks as we say without book without ground or warrant without or besides and consequently against the Light of a Rule and against the Spirit that gave the Rule 2. God who was God from everlasting and much more before he appointed his minde to be delivered in writing Isaiah 8 20. farther cleared hath thus given out his minde in that written Text by Isa 8. 20. consult but the verse before When they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar spirits c. should not a people Gods people seek unto their God where should they seek him should they go to the
the sphere of its activity to effect From the Scripture Rom. 7. 7. which I briefly pointed at as contradicted by J. N. and others of this opinion I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet I hinted an Argument which I shall now give forth in form That which will not so much as discover the fall will not though own'd and obeyed lead out of the fall But the light given to every man will not so much as discover the fall Therefore it will not though own'd and obeyed lead out of the fall The first proposition I thus confirm There is no delivery without a discovery The other thus Pauls light did not discover the fall nor other mens light which they have from their coming into the world did never will never so much as discover the fall In the fall will be found Adams sin all mens sinning in him their being born in the guilt of that sin in the want of Gods image and in the roots of all actual sin What a stranger was Paul in his Pharisaism to all these Discoveries who knew not the least lusting of the heart to be sin till he was enlightned by the Spirit into the commandment of the written Law which saith Thou shalt not lust the same ignorance is in every man notwithstanding their in-bred light concerning in-bred lust and original corruption till by the light of the same commandment the Spirit of conviction brings it home to his heart With what an impudent evasion doth R. F. entertain his Reader by telling him that J. Nayler witnesseth with Christ who is the true light and such as obey the light and follow Christ they are led thereby out of the fall Rep. 1. James Nayler saith not such as obey Christ but such as obey it he speaks of the Light-given and its power 2. R. F. confounds the Light-given and the Light-giver as often elswhere together and yet attributes the leading out of the fall to it the Light-given rather then to Christ the Light-giver 3. Should he express himself more plainly and say Christ thereby that is by the Light given to every man as it is obeyed and himself is followed doth lead out of the fall yet would he speak short of the truth and contrary to Scripture For 1. The Scripture speaks not of such a way whereby Christ led any man out of the Fall before the Scriptures were given but onely of the way of offering Typical Sacrifices and by the promise of Christ-mediator 2. The same way he hath chalked out in and by the Scriptures since they were given all along the Old Testament and when Christs sacrifice typed out and promised was once exhibited by his own blood He that was the way yesterday is the same to day and for ever while the world standeth to lead men out of the fall and to raise them up to communion with the Father 3. Although R. F. addes they were saved by him and that is not contrary to Scripture it will not save his judgement from error nor his writing from contradiction if he saith or thinketh that Christ ever saved any man by the meer light which as God he giveth to every man No man ever was or will be saved by his best obedience yielded to the light which every man comes with into the world Every man and onely such as through grace have obeyed and shall follow Christ according as he is revealed in the Scripture is and shall be saved What a loud calumny is that which R. F. hath cast upon me at the foot of his tenth Page Thou contradicts and so sins against Scripture and against Christ that calls him a natural light Rep. I have no such words had no such meaning nor can it be pickt out of what I have any where spoken Although Christ as he is God as every where I express or intend it giveth to every man that which is but natural light yet is not he therefore a natural light For 1. He and his works are not the same He who is the divine spiritual supernatural Being giveth to every creature its proper nature and being and is incomprehensibly above them He is indeed his own nature and his own most simple essence and being present with all beings in created nature and yet not confounded or mixed with created natural beings or lights irrational or rational 2. Albeit as the God of created-nature he giveth that nature life and light of Reason to all men yet as Mediator he giveth a distinct spiritual excelling light to lead men out of the fall partly from the whole written Law How Christ leads men out of the fall and the discovery of its spiritualness reaching the motions of the heart to shew men the fall which prepares for a delivery partly from the Gospel which shews himself the onely effectual way whereby men may come out of their lapsed condition as they are taught and drawn of the Father to believe in him who hath satisfied and merited for a certain number of sinners their deliverance and who applies that merited deliverance by remission of sins and by regeneration and by both a translation out of the power of darkness which all men with their best natural light are under into his own kingdom of saving light and life But to proceed In this Section I had hinted another Argument against the power of natural light given to every man to lead him out of the fall by way of question R. F. takes it up and me up after this maner To manifest thy blindeness and ignorance of the Scriptures thou says Where is there any promise in Scripture of spiritual and saving Light to lead man out of the fall and out of his natural estate Rep. Here like Satan the father of lyes I will not say he is his son he leaveth out part of the question My words Pag. 10. are these Let a man use his common natural light and moral gifts to the utmost where is any promise in Scripture of spiritual saving light and grace annexed to lead him out of the fall or out of his natural state The word annexed he leaves out in the reciting of my words which refers to the good use of natural light and moral gifts and in a shifting way he answereth If there were no promise of spiritual saving light to lead out of the fall man might continue in it and under the curse Rep. 1. Take this passage by it self 't is very good and one of the best that hath dropt from R. F. his pen. But 2. It is produced as an answer to my question and will The light of a promise leads out of the fall prove rather a knife to cut the throat of these mens opinion and an Argument for what we assert That It is the light of a promise by R. F. his concession which shall lead men out of the fall But in the light which every man hath say I and thousands more there
of doing and darkly vailed over with Types and Ceremonies They heard of doing more then believing and the administration gendred as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 24. unto bondage every carnal heart conceiving there was nothing ministred of righteousness or strength at all from another and being called and counted nothing but Law hence it is that the spirit of bondage is said more commonly to sute that Old administration The Church in this time was considered as an Heir in its minority As an Heir it was free but as an Infant or in its minority it was but as a servant under Tutors and Governors Gal. 4. 1. As an Heir true believers had then the Spirit of Adoption and Liberty As a Childe it had the spirit of fear and servitude And as it was but a dark and servile administration comparatively to what it is So 2. There was but a scanty proportion of graces and gifts as to the generality even of true believers they had little illumination and a small measure of sanctification I speak of the greater number of the Saints to what is and will be given since Christs Ascension from the greatest to the least 3. The dispensation of Grace and its covenant was but to a few families for a time and afterwards but to one nation springing out of those families under the new admistration the Covenant is made with all sorts of families and with some of every nation In stead of one there have been and are many Churches Acts 9. 31. and 15. 14. Every where God hath had and will have a people taken out from among the Gentiles or nations a select company for his Name 4. The seals and witnesses of the Testament are altered from Old to New and although the writings of the old copy remain i. e. the Books of the Old Testament because the substance of the covenant is there to be read and understood by the shadows yet there are new writings added i. e. the Books of the New Testament for clearer understanding and more assurance of faith when both are compared together The reason of the whole change of the old administration The reason of the change of old into new administration to the new in the particulars named was faultiness or imperfection It is the wisdom of God to proceed from ways less perfect to that which is more perfect Heb. 8. 7. If that first Covenant or Testament that is the first administration of the covenant of Grace had been fault less Heb 8 7. opened then should no place have been sought for the second How was it faulty 1. In that it made nothing perfect Cap. 7. 19. All in that old way especially the Sacrifices being typical and shadowy they of themselves could not take away sins therefore Christ whose body was fitted for a sacrifice he comes and puts by the shadows and types Heb. 10. 9. He takes away the first administration that he may establish the second the perfection of his own sacrifice and all that attends it in the new administration His blood stancheth all other blood stays the further shedding of the blood of Bulls and Goats and he coming by Blood and not by Water onely hath left to his Church a commemoration and obsignation of both in his new Institutions of Baptism and his Supper 2. In that people could not as it was dispensed after the maner of a covenant of Works though not so in it self possibly see how to stand or continue in it They stumbled at the Ceremonies and stuck in the Letter of the Law and could not see unto the end of that which is now abolished 2 Cor. 3. 13. But whence was the fault God was not to be blamed nor the substance of his Covenant but he lays the blame upon them who were willing to stand under such an administration and would not look to the kernel marrow and substance of it which was Christ But as it was the Jews infidelity which turned as to them that which was a covenant of Grace into a covenant of Works sticking in the rinde and bark of the Ceremony and which excluded and shut them out from the Grace of the covenant so do many thousands under the new administration the greater is their sin insist upon terms of doing and obeying the Light within them and God lets them go on and work their heart out if they will for life let them get it win it and wear it although he tells them it is impossible for if the Jews in all the Ceremonies of old should have lookt to Christ in them and beyond them the Gentiles should upon the first hearing of Christ believe on him and begin and end all their duties with the use of all New Testament Institutions in him or they will lose all their labor as did the Jews Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law as no covenant of works 3. I shall adde a few Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law from having been a covenant of Works 1. It was a covenant outwardly made with the people and that the people outwardly made with God by sacrifice Psalm 50. 6. But the covenant of Works was never made by sacrifice it admits of no expiation or atonement The sacrifices under the Law were shadows of that blood which is the blood of the everlasting covenant Heb. 13. 20. The blood of Christ the blood of the New Testament or the new administration of the covenant of Grace not to be altered but to abide for ever in its all-sufficient vertue and efficacy 2. That which carried all along with it remission of sins was no covenant of Works but of Grace but the Levitical Law had remission of sins going along with it for as the Apostle reasoneth Heb. 9. 22. with 18. without shedding of blood there is no remission whereupon the first Testament or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disposition of Christs will was not dedicated without blood but that there might be assurance of remission to believers even then that blood was shed which not being able to take away sin of it self did type out Christs blood which could and should effect it A covenant dedicated by blood first typical and then true is the same for substance 3. In the Levitical Law was a Mediator a Priest daily to offer and a high Priest once a year to offer the incense of mediation in the Holy of Holies in the covenant of Works there is no Intercessor or Mediator but we have in the covenant of Grace Christ our Priest and high Priest answering that in the new which was typed out in the old dispensation Heb. 9. 15. For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament c. and Ver. 12. by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place c. 4. In the Levitical Law was the Mercy-seat there is no Mercy-seat set up in a covenant of Works There was a common favor in it that God should vouchsafe to enter into
in Tables of stone yet the Ceremonial Law which hath been disproved from being a covenant of works was given at the same time or in the same forty days that Moses was upon the Mount Now no man that I know saith the Ceremonial Law was given to Adam in Paradise or that he was under that Law before the fall 2. As Adam was under the Ceremonial Law after the fall above two thousand years before it was given to Moses so he might be and it hath been proved he was under the whole Moral Law as a covenant of works before the fall notwithstanding the long space of time between his innocency and the promulgation of the ten Commandments on Mount Sinai 3. The reason of R. F. to the contrary is of no more force then if one should argue The promise was given to Abraham two thousand and fourscore years after Adams sin therefore it was not given to the Patriarchs nor were they under a covenant of grace before Abraham which to say would be manifest contradiction to the Scripture and a Non sequitur in Reason and such is R. F. his Divinity and Logick also Section 18. OF this Section R. F. takes no notice wherein I had noted what Ed. Burroughs saith in his Answer to choice experiences page 6 7. not 9 10. as was printed before That is no command from God to me what he commands to another Scripture general commands include particular persons and oblige to acting by virtue of such commands contrary to the whole Decalogue Exod. 20. which speaks to all in speaking to one Thou And the mystery of iniquity in this kinde of doctrine lyes here The word Command in Scripture is not a command to them till they have a word within them neither as E. D. adds did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by the command which was to another not having the command to them selves I challenge to finde an Example to it By this doctrine 1. All the Scripture-commands as such are made void The absurdities of the contrary doctrine stand for Cyphers are of no Authority by them selves and no ways binding to carnal men who want the perfect principle that Adam had or the Spirit of grace which the Saints have whereas moral commands in Scripture are of perpetual obligation whether men have a principle or a Spirit to hear or forbear Ezek. 2. 7. And 2. As if what God commands one Saint as a Saint he doth not command all Saints as such Mark 13. 37. and Luke 12. 4. I say unto you my friends Fear not them that kill the body c. is a command obliging all his friends Or 3. There must be a particular Scripture for every Saint and every action that he puts forth Or 4. A motion from within must be above the motion from without in the Scripture whereas the Spirit of God is of one and the same authority in the Scripture and in the heart and he moveth to duty by commands 1 Thes 4. 2. 1 John 3. 23. Josh 1. 8. Have not I commanded thee yea by the written commandements he presseth Christians upon duty Ephes 6. 2. Honor thy Father and thy Mother Ephes 6. 2. explained which is the first commandement with promise The motive here is threefold 1. The Commandement of the written moral Law 2. The promise annexed That it may be well with thee c. 3. This fifth commandement is the First of the second Table and the first of the Ten that hath a promise and a special promise expresly added to it All the ten have as the Decalogue is subservient to the covenant of Grace a general promise prefixed and the second a general promise inserted but this is the first and the last indeed the onely one of the ten that hath a special express promise added to the keeping of it A command so backt and supported is no small encouragement it being also a command of the holy Ghost as certain as any he brings to the heart Or 5. As if what is spoken to all is spoken to none till the person be named or pointed out by the finger It will be accounted negligence and carelesness in children or servants when the Governor of a family ordereth to them all that the doors be shut up at night if none of them look after what is ordered and in a troop of souldiers not to take the alarum at a distance but the Drum must be beaten close by the ear of every one or else none will stir from their quarters such an abuse of commands to Saints is made of Scripture-general commands by these men who list themselves for Saints The allegations and objections of Ed. Burroughs * Page 7. weighed in the ballance of truth will be too light 1. I challenge to finde an example 1 Objection answered Answ What are all the examples of the Saints actings after the patern of other Saints who had the express precept 1 Thes 1. 6. ye became followers of us and of the Lord c. so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia Christ gave the Apostles an example of Self-denial with a command of taking up the cross and following him The Saints at Thessalonica acted by this Command and after the Lords and the Apostles example and became exemplary themselves for others that believed to act after them and suffer also Commands of this nature to others they took to be to themselves and are commended for such kinde of obedience Acts 1. 4. The Apostles have a command to keep together and not to deport from Jerusalem c. and Act. 2. 42. the converted three thousand which are a superabundant number of examples continue stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers here is acting sufficiently and constantly by virtue of the command for keeping fellowship given to the Apostles more immediately and to them but remotely and at the second hand Object 2 2. 'T is alledged The Saints obeyed every one their own command one was sent to Baptize and to preach the Gospel another was sent not to Baptize but to preach the Gospel Answ 1. Saints as such have general duties incumbent upon them and none of the commandements of God that belong to them as Saints are grievous unto their regenerate heart and part 2. To Baptize and to preach the Gospel are duties imposed but upon some Saints and acts belonging to special office and commission or mission at least Some may be sent to preach the Gospel that have not office-commission of Baptizing as Act. 11. 19. But none were in officecommission to preach the Gospel but might and did as opportunity was offered baptize also as Act. 8. 35. 38. And Paul himself did Baptize and was commissionated for it though his principal work was preaching 1 Cor. 1. 15 1 Cor. 1. 15 16. cleared 16 17. Christ sent me not to Baptize not
there is hyperbolical That seems simply and absolutely to be denyed which is to be understood but in part and comparatively in respect of the greater and more constant elaborate employment of preaching as is the Lords maner of speech Jer. 7. 22 23. But such as Paul Baptized as few as they were he did not Baptize short of besides or without a command And in short every one in his particular vocation the Apostle in his place the Pastor in his the Church in their relation the Husband in his place the wife in hers c. are to obey the commands given to those relations But Object 3 3. You go to duty as you call it by imitation from the Letter without Answ 1. Imitation properly respecteth examples and obedience precepts and it is but duty and obedience to hearken to Scripture-commands for imitation of holy and godly examples Jer. 6. 16. Philip. 3. 15 16 17. and chap. 4. 9. 2. While professors old and new decline the old and good paths let them beware of dangerous precipices of Apish Popish Monkish imitations and of un-warrantable pretences to the Prophets extraordinary Raptures and Postures such as those Isa 20. 2. Ezek. 4. 9 10. c. Object 4 4. You go to duty in your own wills and time your sacrifice is not accepted Answ 1. They that look rightly to a Scripture-command will eye the maner end and other circumstances and watch unto seasons of prayer reading hearing c. required in Gospel-times 2. Every duty or performance to which a Saint is duly tyed by a command respecting his relation and calling and consequently his person is accepted by God for the matter of it because he requireth it but his person is accepted as he is a Believer within the covenant of Grace and hath Christs righteousness reckoned to him for his justification and he is also accepted in the sincere Gospel performance of a duty not for the works sake but for Christs fake Object 5 5. You go without the moving of the Spirit in your own strength and you know not what a command from God in the Spirit is Answ This might be laid in a carnal mans dish and at an unbelievers door but being an objection against Saints to beat them off from performing duties by reason of a Scripture-command is as false as it is bold and daring For 1. Every true Saint hath the Spirit dwelling in him 2. There is no warrantable evidence that the motion is from Gods Spirit if it be not according to a Scripture command and if it be according to it it is as uncharitable as untrue to say the holy soul goes without the moving of the Spirit A command from God in the Spirit is no other What a command from God in the Spirit is for the matter of it then what already he hath commanded in the word of Scripture and that which he forms and stamps upon the fleshy tables of the heart by the Spirit of the living God so effectually that the mind understands it and the will obeyeth it in newness of spirit 3. The Spirit of God is free to move when he pleaseth in and upon the heart but the Saint is obliged to duty when through the flesh he is very dull and indisposed to it Matth. 26. 41. 4. He goes in his own strength to duty who follows Who act in their own strength the light of a natural conscience onely or undertakes it in the strength of his natural parts or moral abilities or common gifts of the Spirit but it is one of the greatest scandals which I have known cast upon the Scriptures and upon the Saints together to say they go in their own strength to duty who act by virtue of a Scripture-command for although Who in the strength of Christ they have not such movings and stirrings of the Spirit at one time as at another yet in sense of greatest deadness they act their faith for acceptation of their persons and believing the work is duty indeed trust not to the stock of grace within them but act faith again upon Christ for fresh influence and new supply in the present performance ordinance or exercise And another is like unto this that they know not what a command from God in the Spirit is when as Saints experience about a command 1 Past every Saint more or less hath had a twofold experience about the commandements of God and from him one in a legal way of ministration when the commandement comes as Paul speaketh of himself Rom. 7. ver 9. 10. that Rom. 7. 9. 10. opened is in the light of its spirituality striking at heart-corruptions which in their native rebellion rise up sin revived the more against the commandement and by the way it was the written-commandment as that opposed the Pharisaical pride of his heart and I died here is yet no Gospel mortification but legal consternation Paul is slain in his false perswasions and presumptuous hopes of getting life by his own blameless obedience to the Law Thus the Spirit of God sets home the law in its vigor of spirituality and rigor of exacting absolute freedom from the least swerving thought and takes off a soul from expecting life in his own righteousness or by the best frame of heart that he may reach unto and keeps him for longer or shorter time as he please under fears of the second death and of the first because of the second The other in a Gospel dispensation 2 Present is experience by the Saints when they are through Gospel-enlightning faith and renovation made to understand what the covenant of Grace is and what a Gospel-command The covenant of Grace calls for satisfaction at Christs hands and hath it The Gospel command from God in the Spirit is not some sudden impulse or rare impression upon the soul which few Saints meet with but it is every Scripture-precept which the Spirit of faith holiness and liberty works the heart to a sweet compliance withall according to the measures of grace received amidst the present and constant conflict with in-dwelling sin This was Pauls experience after conversion as he lays it forth Rom. 7. from ver 14. to the end and in the following Chapter The command wherewith he had no compliance before as to the spirituality of it now he consenteth to and delighteth in and complains against that contrary frame of corrupt nature which remained though it reigned not and rebelled in him but as sin served it self and its own ends grace and the new creature made him serviceable to the law of God the Scripture-command with which he and his new nature was reconciled and he that cannot finde something of this experience will not finde himself a Saint he that elasheth with Scripture-commands so far discovers himself to be unregenerate Let E. B. and R. F. a little more examine themselves by what spirit they are acted while they decline the Scripture-Gospel-Rule 5. Head of Scripture-contradiction
Concerning Sin Section 19. TO this Section also R. F. is wholly silent where I had noted from discourse with some of them in Scotland That sin is not a visible enemy to a Saint Sin visible in and to the Saint contrary to Rom. 7. 23. And I may adde Psalm 51. 3. And my sin is ever before me Isa 6. 5. Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips They that see not their pollutions have no part nor lot in the work of Sanctification and they that see not sin as an enemy and their in-dwelling enemy are friends and in fellowship with it As any are more or less sanctified they have the less or the more to see but the more a soul is sanctified the more he sees his motes to be beams and the more visible and sensible is the body of sin and of death to him Section 20. WHereas I had charged them for saying All the children of light are called to judge them that say the children of God are found groaning under the burthen of sin which I called an arrogant assertion contrary to Rom. 7. 24. R. F. * Page 12. minceth the matter by a new distinction For groaning under sin whilest it is working out that may be but to say that the children of God groan under it all their life time it Sin groaned under while here by the Saints contradicts the Scripture Thus R. F. To which I Reply 1. The new distinction and new because not founded in Scripture lies here that he makes a difference between the time whilest the Saints sin is working out and their life-time For let us consider how long they are working out their sin or the Spirit for them and in them is that but a part of their life-time It 's a truth we teach that groaning under a legal bondage of guilt and curse and fears of damnation is but for a time Luke 1. 74 75. Rom. 8. 15. But when they are formed Saints and endued with the Spirit of Adoption then they groan and sigh and cry out under another bondage not of guilt imputed but of guilt deserved and of corruption felt as tyrannizing In what respect over the whole soul and body of a Saint in part i. e. in every faculty of the soul and member of the body there is some presence of sin with them all their days 2. What Scripture is it that our assertion of continued groaning under the body of sin and death in the Saints doth contradict R. F. quotes Rom. 8. c. 1 john 3. Rev. 14. but never a Verse in all these Chapters he hath to produce for evidence What shuffling is this and cunning craftiness whereby he lyeth in wait to deceive the simple with appearances of that which is not to be found If so be would put off Errors by whole-sale he may do it this way After this he throws dirt in the face of that Scripture Rom. 7. which I had said from ver 14. to the end was spoken Rom 7. 14. to the end vindicated in the name of the regenerate Here though Paul did cry out of the body of death he did not always groan and sigh as dissemblers and Scots do Rep. 1. If he did it not as dissemblers he groaned as a real Saint then the truth is granted at least seemingly 2. Must all be dissemblers that always groan and are sighing all their life time under the body of sin and death then Paul was one 3. Hath the Lord no real Saints among the Scots Grant there is a formality of groaning among the common people not for the body of sin but the sin of their bodies or meerly in imitation and out of custom which latter I could not but tax a little when I was there dare any condemn the generation of the righteous or impute that formality to the whole fraternity or society of Professors at large among whom God hath hidden ones and some who do mourn for the abominations of the Land and pollutions of the Kirk and would willingly come forth to more visible shame for all that is amiss in their Worship and Government Ecclesiastical were they not over-powered partly by in-bred self partly by their super-intending and super-extensive Presbytery R. F. answereth and asperseth yet further Paul did not groan in the name of all regenerate as thou says but spoke his own condition there Rep. 1. Grant he speaks his own condition from ver 14. to the end it is either as he is regenerate or as wholly destitute of grace but he doth not speak it of himself as devoid of grace for when he opened his legal state as yet unregenerate from var. 8 and 9 to 14. he speaks in the Preter tense or of the time past but from ver 14 c. he expresseth himself all along in the Present tense and time and therefore he speaks of the present state wherein he was at the time of the writing of that Epistle Now was he a Saul or a Paul then Was he Paul the Saint or Saul the Persecuter and Blasphemer Was he not then Paul the Servant of Jesus Christ Chap. 1. 1. And have we not the characters he gives of himself as regenerate Ver. 15. What I hate that do I. Ver. 16. I consent to the Law that it is good Ver. 17. It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me where he divides his qualities into two sorts or kindes as Ver. 20. Ver. 18. To will is present with me Ver. 22. He speaks of his inner man and of his delight in the Law after that renewed principle Then he cries out Ver. 23 24. of what he sees and hates Now no man that is unregenerate can truly hate sin as sin which he did nor hath he two contrary principles in him all over of grace and sin nor hath he a will present with him to do a spiritual good action nor hath he an inner man the new man to delight in the spiritual law of God nor doth he feel the universal warring law or power of sin in his members as Paul doth Paul therefore speaks of himself as now he is at present regenerate yea he gives the account of himself as such and therefore he lays forth the estate which is peculiar to the regenerate and common to one and other as they are such more or less But saith R. F. Paul did not always groan under that body of sin and Law in his members but witnessed a Redemption from it for which he thanked God that made him more then a Conqueror Rep. 1. The Apostle writes of the present constant frame of his Spirit to see feel sin hate it and groan under it 2. The Redemption that he witnesseth and giveth thanks Rom. 7. 25. vindicated for ver 25. was first that the guilt of this in-dwelling sin was not imputed there being no condemnation to him nor to any in Christ Jesus which priviledge cap. 8. 1.
better then two in the Bush a little of their own within them far beyond all Christs righteousness without them although we call for the witness within them that will not suffice they must have the ground-work of their justification within them as well as the evidence nay some work within shall be ground and evidence too or they fly off and will not believe till they see and feel but groping in the dark lose themselves in the wilderness of self-fulness and sufficiency 7. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Regeneration Section 27. I Had noted what they say He that believeth is born of God without Scripture and yet witnessed in Scripture contrary to James 1. 18. and 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. which Regeneration by the Scripture promise not onely bear witness of a new birth but saith also it is wrought by the word of truth the word of God the word that is preached which was never without or besides much less directly against but always according to the Scripture both as the Apostles preached it and others after them and their written doctrine R. F. * Page 15. returns me in a retorting way as is his wonted maner this for an answer If thou was not blind thou would see that thou contradicts the Scripture and not they that attributes the work of regeneration and the new birth to the Letter which thou calls the word and so therein denyes God who begets by his own will by that word which liveth and abideth for ever which was in the beginning with God and was God Rep. 1. Gods essential will and the free act of his love and good pleasure is the primary impulsive cause of his regenerating a soul 2. Christ by his death purchaseth the grace of regeneration and by the power of his resurrection applyes it 1 Pet. 1. 3. 3. The Spirit of the Father and the Son comes with the Scripture-promise and quickneth the soul to believing and by believing of the word of truth which at the beginning R. F. acknowledged the Scriptures to be and at that instant the believing soul is as Isaac conceived and formed a childe of promise a believer and a new-creature together by the word of grace which the Spirit useth as the external means of regeneration yea he carrieth the word and voice of the Son of God John 5. 25. from the ear to the heart and makes them hear and live That part of the Scripture which is pure Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit as of righteousness and life 2 Cor. 3. 8. 4. They that speak of a regeneration such as the Scripture helps them not to know and obtain speak wildely of it as J. Nayler in his new piece * Love to the lost page 34. treating of the new-birth he tells his lost creatures There is the old man and a new man but he doth not say there are two contrary qualities in the same regenerate soul lusting one against the other as the Apostle describes their state Gal. 5. 17. He saith * Page 35. Nicodemns knew not the new birth though he loved Christ He did not know the maner and mystery of it before his coming to Christ but if he loved Christ before it was a fruit of the new-born-seed of grace or spiritual principle for even J. N. confesseth as is the man so are his works and as is the Tree so is the fruit And I may adde as is J. N. so is his Book and his his love to the lost for if the man may be known by his writing he may haply know as little of the new-birth as Nicodemus did though he would be a great Teacher in our Israel Some may say he speaks * Love to the lost p. 35. of a Promise as well as a power that puts off the old man with his deeds lusts and affections but if you mark it it is to them who remain in the seed of God and it in them he doth not say the new-creature hath a promise that it shall remain although the Scripture saith it shall Joh 15. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 27. Well if he holds but to what he saith That all who remain in this seed and it in them hath the Promise I would have R. F. ask him whether it be the Promise that begets the new man which helps to put off the old if it be we shall finde the new man quickned as the old man crucified and slain by a word of promise in several places of Scripture scattered The word of promise serveth to regenerate and begin the work as well as to preserve nourish and maintain the regenerate man in his state He that shuts out Scripture from being Christs organ or the Spirits instrument and means of Regeneration it had been better for him he had never known the Scripture or written a word about it 8. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning Sanctification and its Perfection Section 28. I Had noted from a little conference with them in Scotland That sin dwelleth not in act where Christ reigneth Sin dwelleth and acteth in the Saints Rom. 7. 17. opened This R. F. defendeth as true though never so contrary as I hinted in my book to three as many more places of Scripture Rom. 7. 17. It is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me sin is doing as well as dwelling it will not be idle and in whom in Pauls heart where Christ reigned Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and Gal. 5. 7. cleared the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other in whom in the Galatians the sons of God in whom considered in their better part Christ and Grace reigned yet they could not do what they would they could not be so gracious as their regenerate part would have them nor yet so sinful as their unregenerate part would have them Here is sin active enough and yet its force is broken that it cannot reign where Christ reigneth but there it dwells and remains very troublesome to a good heart Rom. 7. 23 25. Rom. 7. 23 25 explained I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members here is action and passion too here is fighting and scuffling a continual conflict Sin in the Saints is no sleepy habit it will be plotting using stratagems striking and serving it self and its own turn as ver 25. With my flesh I serve the Law of sin sin is very active in the Saints when so officious to its self and its own ends What weapons think you will R. F. finde for defence of the Tenet none spiritual I dare say but carnal and weak as followeth * Page 15. Where Christ reigneth the body is dead to the acts of unrighteousness because of sin being destroyed and the Spirit is life because of righteousness living and ruling Rep. I suppose he refers in this
No reason is given for his denial of sprinkling Infants with water which I called Sacramental water but he puts it upon a Quere Canst thou prove it Rep. What I affirm and practise I am not without grounds of proof from the Scripture as touching these three things 1. Sacramental water or Baptismal water or Baptism with water let it be called any of these it matters not which 2. Baptism of Children or Infants 3. A sprinkling Baptism or application of water by sprinkling or putting water upon the party baptized First What more clear then the appointment and use of Baptism with Water proved water-Baptism 1. Water was appointed by God to be used as the outward material sign of inward spiritual washing and cleansing by the Blood and Spirit of Christ John 1. 33. He that sent me to baptize with water c. 2. Where there was much water there were many baptized and the sooner dispatched as not onely at Jordan but in Aenon near to Salim John 3. 23. and at Jerusalem Acts 2. 41. Where there was no water the ordinance could not be administred and therefore the Eunuch till he came where water was called not for it Acts 8. 36. See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized Philips answer If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest hath no such intendment as * Martin Mason in his Reply to Jonathan Johnson p 8 one puts upon it to intimate water-Baptism to be a thing indifferent nor any such sense as he would dawb upon it with his untempered morter viz. As much as if he had said If thou believest outward water to be necessary to salvation thou mayest be baptized c. For the Eunuchs Reply out of which the scope and sense of Philips answer is to be gathered is not touching his faith of the necessity of water of which he stood convinced that the use of it in Baptism was an ordinance but respecting his faith of Jesus Christ to be the Son of God 3. When the inward Baptism of the Spirit and that by extraordinary gifts of Tongues was obtained it sufficed not but the ordinance of Sacramental-water must be obeyed Acts 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized c. And ver 48. He commanded them to be baptized Whosoever is against Baptismal-water forbids or denies that which Peter by the Lords authority dares any man to forbid 4. When Paul baptized Lydia and her houshold the Jaylor and all his Crispus Gaius and the houshold of Stephanas what was it but with water He could do no more then John Baptist except in exercise of gift of tongues and miracles and laying on of hands upon those that were baptized before Acts 19. 6. with 4. 5. Baptism with water is by Christs institution to continue Mat. 28. 19 20. opened as long as Christs presence is with the Apostles or such as teach the same Gospel they taught and make Disciples as they did which is to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. The words * in the Greek are the same with them in Mat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13. 40. * except a small variation of the Preposition and Case or addition of a Pronoun so shall it be in the end of this world which is not the end of the Age wherein the Apostles lived but of all Ages then and yet to come And that baptizing with water is meant in Matth. 28. is clear enough because Christ reserved the gift of the inward Baptism to himself but he commandeth his Apostles and Ministers to give forth the outward as subservient to his saving ends and purposes And although we prefer the inward before the outward part of one and the same Baptism yet we must not reject the outward part because the inward is to be preferred It will not excuse R. F. * Page 20. or any man to tell us Yet Baptism by one Spirit we own while water-Baptism is wholly dis-owned Nor do the Scriptures which he produceth for the Baptism by the Spirit exclude the Baptism with water 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. The Apostles scope in 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. cleared and vindicated the Chapter is to press on to a right use of spiritual gifts by every member for the good of the whole body as from other Arguments so from this ver 12. The body is one though the members are many How is it proved that the Church is one body because ver 13. by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body Hence the force of his Argument for right imparting of gifts If we all agree in the same Spirit and are taught by one Spirit and baptized into one body why should not our gifts be used for the mutual good of the members the whole and every part of the body Now what is in the inward part of Baptism among other things incorporation that is held forth by the outward part Water-Baptism declares and ratifies our being set ingraffed and joyned to the body mystical Ephes 4. 4 5. There is one Body one Lord one Faith one Baptism Is it Ephes 4. 4 5. vindicated enough for R. F. to mention this Here is nothing intended against Baptismal-water by the Apostle what ever be mens intentions now adays It 's a wresting of the Scriptures though the bare words be but mentioned to quote them for another end then they were written Both the inward and outward washing are appointed by one Lord to confirm one and the same Faith and they make but one and the same Baptism which consisteth of the sign and the thing signified He that would divide them or more then distinguish them crosseth the minde of the Lord Jesus Whatsoever R. F. addeth Such as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and that we witness as doth the Scripture which is not contradiction Gal. 3. 27. The Scripture witnesseth the Gal. 3 27. vindicated outward part and the inward and the Apostle intendeth both in this place for pressing faith in Christ alone for Justification without dependence upon any of our acts in obedience to the Law he draweth an Argument from Baptism the outward part as well as the inward As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ for Justification alone as if he should say Ye did sacramentally put on Christ in Baptism you must not now put him off and be clothed with your own rags again in stead of his robes He that denieth either part of compleat Baptism as the Scripture expresseth it of Water and of the Spirit hath so much Contradiction to the Scripture in his denial Secondly As to the Baptism of Infants what ever R. F. Infant Baptism Christs institution thinketh with many others that it is an Invention and none of Christs Institution The grounds from Scripture for the Affirmative must be raised otherwise then he undertakes it ere I will clear him of his Christ and
I may ask again what brook or pond was there in Judas's house where Paul was Acts 9. 11. who when weak and feeble was baptized ver 18. and was not strengthned in body till he had received meat ver 19. sure sprinkling or putting a little water upon Paul at that time and at all times upon feeble Infants as upon feeble Paul is a work of greater mercy which God prefers before sacrifice Who may not observe that dippers and the dipped are more put to their shifts to make out their way by Scripture then we are straitned to prove a sprinkling Baptism or a washing by sprinkling or such kinde of application of water to the party And therefore if water be appointed by Christ and Infants are not excluded the Covenant and Promise wherein their parents if but one do stand and if sprinkling or casting water upon the Church-member or confederate with God and his people be sufficient and suitable to the main end of Baptism I apprehend we depart not from the minde of Christ revealed in Scripture when we so Baptize them 4. As I forbear judging of Saints who differ in some inward notions and outward forms so I cannot but condemn this sect of men who are against all outward Baptism with water what way or to what persons soever it be applyed and vent many falshoods and absurdities in their dictates concerning the baptism of the Spirit onely I shall instance but in one or two of the busie Pen-men J. P. and J. N. * His sh●●ld of the Tru●h page 11 12. James Parnell dictates thus They who would have one Baptism outward and another inward would have two Baptisms when the Scripture saith the Baptism is but one As for the Baptism of water which the Apostles used it was a command of Christ for its time Whereas the contrary hath been shewed from Scripture in this Section that the two parts outward and inward make but one Baptism by reason of the relation that the outvvard sign hath to the invvard thing signified vvhich relation by virtue of Christs ordaining it to be so is the foundation of the union and one-ness And as for his limiting the Baptism of vvater to the time past and novv out of date it is but a Tradition lately received to make void the commandement of Christ which will stand in force effect and virtue when the Tradition will vanish and come to nothing James Nayler a greater doctor J. Lilburn * Resur of J. Lilburn * Love to the Lost pag. 38. calls him a tall man in Christ dictates thus * It was not laid on the Apostles as of necessity but as they found it of service or dis-service This is rotten groundless stuff It was always of service since Christ did institute it and not to be denyed to the proper and capable subject If the Apostles did not always administer it themselves they appointed Evangelists Pastors or some that were commissionated to preach to do it according to Christs command Matth. 28. 18 19. which they were to teach others to observe and do And a necessity there was for Necessity of precept and of means in water Baptism them to obey their masters command and administer or cause to be administred as a necessity on the Believers part to use it for him and his as a means of faiths confirmation c. not but that God can and doth save without it where it cannot orderly be had But then will J. N. say * As above page 40. If any shall come in the power and Spirit of Johns Baptism or if any had a call from God thereto such we judge not nor gainsay But what call doth this man imagine observe what he saith afterwards * Page 42. God never called any to Baptize but first he called them out of the world and their habitations there to follow Christ as into the wilderness which were prophets and Apostles called immediately No call will please him but that which is immediate no minister but an Elijah or an Elisha a Peter or a Paul This man is yet a Seeker and not a perfect finder though he speaks much of present perfection attainable and gives them that deny it this jerking abusive character who preach up imperfection and sin for term of life whereas it is one thing to preach there will be sin in the Saints and need they shall have of the meditation of their Baptism to confirm their faith of the non-imputation of that which is inherent and another to preach it up I am more then afraid I do certainly discern it that the late preaching of present perfection in sanctification hath raised and preach't up the pride of many a Pharisaical spirit to such a height that we shall not expect their saving fall by many years labors unless Gods Almighty arm be revealed And to preach up that which is in deed the Baptism in Spirit on purpose to overthrow Christs institution of water is I dare say not from the dictate of Gods Spirit but of self and flesh in Ja. Nayler That which he saith in one page * Love to t●● Lost pag. 4 is true The Apostles did not baptize Believers over again with water who had had it because they had it not before in their fashion But as false is that which he hath in the page before * Page 41. That Paul preached Baptism in spirit in its stead i. e. in stead of Baptism with water for it is a great injury to the Apostle to represent him as a justler out of any of Gods ordinances and as one like himself who saith prety well one while * Page 42. no form we deny into which Christ leads in Spirit yet presently as ill again and blows as cold as before he blew hot But all forms we deny that are used by men to keep people from following the Spirit For suppose it we may with grief enough that some men do abuse forms this way all men do not nor dare admit the thought but tremble to think any should be so formal and again what warrant hath he to deny any of Christs forms though he may with the best wisdom and zeal he hath help to batter down the Images that men have set up Christ hath withdrawn from men but he never sent for water-Baptism to heaven though it came from thence He never repealed the Covenant made with Believers and their seed The Promise holds to all Christs New Testament institutions to Baptismal-water applyed to all Christs little ones He that denyes it puts down Christ and his ordinance and sets up Idol-self in the room Let J. Nayler make a more privy search into his heart and ponder well of what I have animadverted briefly and of what I shall close with none of his stumblings at the divisions about forms should make him out of love with that which had a divine stamp and is not worn out but in his apprehension as in R. F.
that in Chap. 17. or after his distinct consecrating words of blessing and thanksgiving and his giving and their taking of the bread and wine at the end of the whole action for John 18. 1. compared with Mat. 26. 30. the prayer after the Sermon ended and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymn sung by them all they go forth over the Brook Kedron into a Garden in Gethsemane near to the Mount of Olives It appeareth by what is said it was a distinct Supper from the rest attended with solemn Speeches Prayers and Praises in prose and in a Song If all the Quakers drink in James Naylers Doctrine they will then take up Prayer and Thanks at meals which many have laid down they will be frequent in singing Hymns even as oft as they eat and drink it must be done if they will believe what he saith the lord hath revealed unto him But some will be wiser I hope then some other and hear reason as it divinely lyeth in the Scripture The Scripture calleth the instituted bread and wine this bread and this cup and this cup of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 26 27. And this bread it calls Christs body and this cup the cup of the new Testament and the wine Christs blood Will J. N. or any of his friends be so profane as to call every piece of bread he eateth and every draught of drink with such an Emphasis and such a title Will he make no meals of any thing but of bread and drink or will he have all his own and Believers drink to be of the fruit of the vine Thus the Scripture describeth the Lords Supper to consist for the outward matter of bread and wine as I have before proved for R. F. his conviction The Scripture neither from Christs mouth nor Pauls pen saith As oft as ye eat and drink it is the Lords Supper but as oft as ye do this eat of this bread drink of this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come What boldness is it to make that temporary and of short continuance which the Apostle saith is to be held up till he cometh 1 Cor. 11. 26. And such a coming he speaks of there as in other of his Epistles but especially consult 1 Thess 5. 2. 2 Thess 2. 1 2. Secondly You will finde him suggesting to the lost bewildred soul * Love to the lost pag. 43. That the Church at Jerusalem did continue in the Apostles doctrine c. and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness c. What then If their breaking bread and eating meat be confounded that in ver 42. with that in ver 46. here was confusion in the Churches greatest purity which J. N. denieth If bread and wine was distinctly used after the Lords institution and apart from their civil repasts and meals then he hath nothing makes for his transfigured Supper from this Scripture But ver 42. speaks of Church-ordinances by themselves Acts 2. 42. 46. cleared and ver 46. of Family-repast as distinct from the other and the latter words explain but the former their breaking bread domatim or at home is said to be eating meat which was not the Lords Supper J. Nayler reads it daily breaking bread from house to house but 't is not so read or to be read though 't is a truth to be supposed they did daily take their ordinary repasts more then once a day but they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple c. There is nothing of certain ground for daily use of the Lords Supper but Acts 20. 7. will shew us the primitive practise of assembling every first day of the week for that breaking of bread at the Lords Table and so Tremelius out of the Syriack hath it 1 Cor. 11. 20. When ye come together In die Domini nostri on our Lords day ye do not eat and drink as is meet And if it be read after the Greek as we read it When ye come together into one place c. it sheweth the eating and drinking of the Lords Supper was and should be by the Churches respectively as that at Corinth for one in some one place together and civil ordinary meals should be as they were at Jerusalem at first in their own houses 1 Cor. 11. 34. Thirdly saith J. N. * pag as above In their eating and drinking at all seasons they were to do it to the Lord and therein to have communion with his Body and his Blood and for that end were to keep themselves pure from all pollution It is a truth nor they nor we are to sin in any action but whether we eat or drink c. do all to the Lord and his glory we are not to feed without fear we are to keep from all excess do all in a mortified way think and speak of Christ at dinner and supper but this must not nullifie or make void the peculiar Ordinance of the Lords Supper but rather we must frequently observe it as a solemn help to purity and mortification influential into our whole conversation Communion with Christ and his Body and Blood is to be perpetually held up in all our actions natural civil and sacred by faith and the communion of his Spirit but the communion with him in the use of the memorative signs of his body and his blood viz. bread and wine solemnly set apart by his special appointment for that end is yet an advancing work distinct by it self from other actions of ordinary communion Fourthly J. Nayler in the place aforesaid presumeth when the Christians were to eat with Gentiles-unbelieving they were to partake of the Table of the Lord as is plain 1 Cor. 10. which is neither plain nor true understood of the same time place and company as this man holds it forth for their eating with the Infidels was at best when there was no meat offered to idols or no knowledge of it no scruple made about it but a civil correspondence and there was more then Bread and Wine the onely outward materials at the Lords Table even whatsoever was sold in the shambles ver 25. Besides the place and company where and with whom they did eat and drink at the Lords Table was in some one Meeting-house or other as the house of Gaius Rom. 16. 23. for one where the whole Church and onely the Church did participate It is to no purpose what he saith afterwards * Page 44. Whether they eat or drank they were to do it to the Lord as at his Table for every like is not the same and although different actions meet in the same general ultimate end yet there are special subordinate ends to each of them Fifthly he addes There is no other thing can keep from feeding in the lust and eating to the lust but to eat in remembrance of Christs death til he come c. And I subjoyn It is not our eating every day in fear
agrees with the saying of Christ Matth. 6. 6. Matth 6. 6. vindicated when thou prayest enter into thy Closet c. as if the publique ordinance may not stand with the private for the most retired and secret duties are to fit and make ready for the publique onely 't is our Lords scope there to confine a private prayer to a private place as it is the Apostles order from the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 16. when 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 cleared vindicated we pray publiquely in Church-conventions all which have a publiqueness in them to pray so as others may be edified thereby who are Saints and those who occupy the room of the unlearned may testifie their consents by saying Amen which they could not do if either the person praying spoke onely to his own hearing or in the heart not with an audible voyce to others or when they heard him they could not understand him because he exprest himself in an unknown tongue All that I drive at with the Apostles and our Saviours scope is that every ordinance and outward part of worship be owned in its place and that this of publique prayer may not be disowned ere the more because of these mens crying up their praying by the Spirit in opposition to the Churches publique prayers which the Primitive Church at Jerusalem Act. 2. 42. attended and continued in and which the present Saints and Churches in these nations hold up according to president and precept R. F. in another Pamphlet of his * Truth cleared of Scandals pag. 2. saith they are led by the Spirit and he maketh intercession for them according to the minde and will of God But their practise shews they are not in this led by the Spirit when they cross the minde and will of God by refusing to joyn with the Saints in a publique prayer we acknowledge that no wicked mans prayer is accepted publiquely or privately made by him It is their duty to pray but not their priviledge who are destitute of the Spirit and out of Christ But to profess prayer from the second birth while yet they know not how to pray as they ought but as the Spirit maketh intercession with sighs and groans which are J. Parnells words * Shield of truth p. 14 15 is to contradict their doctrine of perfection And to give a dash at all our publique prayer as the long prayer of the Pharisees is to strike at the Spirit and contradict the Scripture allowance of the publiqueness and length of prayer upon occasion while we give no allowance to Pharisaical ends and pretences but can approve our persons and hearts to God in Jesus Christ our persons in Christs righteousness reckoned to us by faith our hearts so far as renewed by the grace and power of his in-dwelling Spirit James Nayler hath expressions one would think of this tendency that complies with our doctrine in his common place of Worship * Love to the Lost p. 8 9. wherein he instanceth in no part of worship but prayer he acknowledgeth as we teach The worship of the true and living God stands out of mans will and before any man can rightly worship God he must wait to know the Spirit But now let the lost soul beware of his counsel where should they wait you must saith he know the light and in it wait till therein you finde the Spirits leading acting and ordering This counsel if followed keeps men off from the positive parts of worship revealed in the Scripture The light that every man hath as he comes into the world which is the light they nourish up people in in opposition to Scripture-light makes known nothing of publique ministery Church officers therein of water-Baptism Lords Supper publique order of prayer c. nor of Christ mediator nor of the The Spirit of Prayer to be found in the publ●que ministery Spirit of promise nor of one promise of grace or gracious acceptation in Christ Had not the lost soul better counsel while he was under publique ministery to attend there for the coming of the Spirit the Spirit of faith and prayer where God useth to give it Acts 10. 44. and promiseth to pour it out Prov. 1. 22 23. with 20. 21. verses How true is that which J. Nayler hath in the same place according to our Scripture-doctrine when a man hath been doing evil neglecting good and then he runs to act a worship to get peace the prayer becomes abomination for he that regards impurity the Lord will not hear his prayers nor accept his worships that 's Cains sacrifice and Esaus prayers but either must your worship be performed in one that never sinned or it cannot be accepted with the pure God Yet here is his mis-guidance of lost souls 1. That he would lead them off from joyning with him that makes long prayers such a one he seems to speak of who hides his wickedness with pretence of godliness but he makes no difference of any that serve Christ and his people publiquely in the nation as if they were all such to be separated from 2. He directs to the commands in Spirit in opposition to the Scripture-Letter for thus he delivers himself * Page 11. All the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the letter and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual As if the Spirit did not give out his commands by the written letter or the Scripture and his power also by the reading and hearing of it and by praying according to the rules and patterns of prayer therein contained But something O ye lost souls you will finde when the great Shepherd seeks up his lost ones and brings back that which is gone astray Ezek. 34. 16 ever and anon that alienated your hearts from the Scripture by the spirit of Contradiction that is in these mens Teachings and Writings 15. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Singing Section 42. I Gave account of their express words We are against all your Davids Praises and Prophecies in meeter contrary to Ephes 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. and other Scriptures R. F. * Page 21. makes me this return Singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs we are not against but own but your Poetry we deny Rep. He might as well say your translation of them into English meeter we deny But if Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs be owned they are either Davids and other of the Saints penning and the Spirits inditing in the Scripture or of their own composing if they own none but of their own composing they reject Davids and what was left for Psalms cannot be sung without meeter or due measures of speech our use in Scripture contradicting both it by that rejection and themselves also by owning Psalms Hymns and Songs and dis-owning meeter or Poetry for never was there Song Hymn or Psalm sung forth as it ought to be but it had
some modulation musical measure or tune What is Poetry but a confined speech or words bound up into verses of so many feet Or what is meeter but a form of words ordered into set pauses and rests and sung in its due measures And what better Poetry then that in the Scripture which is translated and ordered as suteth best to our own mother Tongue for singing and teaching others to sing Davids words and praises with Davids spirit But saith R. F. We deny your teaching people to sing lyes in hypocrisie saying they are not puft in minde when they are puft in minde and they have no scornful eye when they have Rep. 1. We call none to sing that which is not true for the matter and we exhort them to sing in a sincere maner with an upright heart 2. A sincere heart may sing that or other Psalms as Davids frame of spirit more then his own yet with desires and breathings after a farther measure of humility weanedness of affection from the world faith joy in the holy Ghost c. 3. If the wicked take the name of God in vain sin lies at their door we warn them against hypocrisie For this man therefore to say We teach people to sing lyes in hypocrisie is to speak a falshood in plain English He may think his tongue and pen is his own and none shall control him yet I would have him remember Psalm 52. ver 2 4 5. 16 Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Elders and Ordination Section 43. ORdaining of Elders was not by man said one this I noted as contrary to Acts 14. 23. where by the direction and assistance of the Apostles with the suffrages or consenting voices and gestures of the Brethren in the Churches Elders Teaching and Ruling were ordained or being chosen were set apart to their office by Prayer and fasting in every Church R. F. * Page 21. represents me as if I had not truly quoted James Nayler his Discovery of the man of sin Page 38. and calls the wise-hearted to read that book and it will witness and clear him and the truth declared in it Rep. Agreed let the wise-hearted read all that book if they please and gather up more of his Errors to witness against it then I have done But for that which concerneth Ordination I again affirm saith J. Nayler that the ordaining of Elders by the direction of the Spirit was not by man nor of man nor any created power c. The wise-hearted here appealed to will soon grant that which they never denied That the direction of the Spirit was his own not mans and the gift of the holy Ghost was his gift But if the holy Ghost makes use of the Apostles and of the Churches to chuse and set Elders apart as he did then the wise-hearted will conclude agaist J. Nayler this call is not immediate but mediate a call of God by man or by the ministery and service of man and is not disproved by what he hath said to the contrary What hath R. F. to say against it This I say The holy Ghost made Overseers and so Elders in the Church Acts Acts 20. 28. vindicated 20. 28. and the holy Ghost is not such men as you are Rep. 1. It were well for R. F. if he knew what or who the holy Ghost is Under that Head of the Trinity as before Section 7. he was no person in his judgement distinct from the Father and the Son and now he tells us he is not such men as we are Why what is he Is he a man or Angel speak out R. F. tell us what he is in thy judgement for in ours and according to the grounds of our faith laid down in Scripture he is neither such men as we or the Sect of men called Quakers nor is he such a person as man nor is he man or Angel but the very God And as he is God with the Father and the Son so he is a divine person distinct from the personal subsistences of the Father and the Son as hath been proved above 2. What the Father and the Son do he doth as to the making of Overseers or Bishops and Elders he gives the office he designs the officer he furnisheth the Elders with graces and gifts fitting for the function and he directeth the Church by his word and rule whom to chuse and set apart 1 Tim. 3. Yea he approveth of mens service in the setting apart of men to this as other offices he made use of the Prophets and Teachers at Antioch to separate him Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto he had appointed them as R. F. acknowledgeth but if he thinketh that which followeth and they were sent out by the holy Ghost cuts off Ordination by man it is a contradicting-thought to the very Scripture he quoteth Acts 13. ver 3. When they had Acts 13. 2 4. vindicated fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away and yet are said to be sent forth by the Spirit because they were but instrumental to the Spirits sending but if he sends by them instrumentally he sends by them mediately If R. F. thinketh the Spirits sending in this maner doth not cut off Ordination by man then he contradicteth his fellow J. Nayler who saith Ordaining no not so much as of Elders was not by man 17. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Ministers maintenance Section 44. I Had noted what R. F. saith in another Pamphlet viz. The Apostle had a free spirit and was chargeable to no man building this assertion upon 2 Cor. 11. 9. and 2 Cor. 11 9. vindicated mounting it up against Ministers taking any maintenance He attends not the Apostles limitations I preached to you at Corinth the Gospel of God freely ver 7. With you I was chargeable to no man ver 9. nor how he used his liberty elsewhere to take wages ver 8. But he * Page 22. returns me some truth and some railing as his maner is Paul coveted no mans silver nor gold nor apparel but preached the Gospel freely and his hands ministred to his necessities That is truth and will stand as a witness against all proud covetous self-seeking hireling Priests in Scotland and elsewhere and at the Truth which witnesseth against your deceit thou art offended Rep. It no ways offendeth me that R. F. or any man can write out a Scripture-truth viz. That Paul was free of covetousness in outward manifest acts while he had the body of all sin within him take that truth with the other Rom. 7. but it offends me and much more the holy and true God when his words are alledged to bad ends and purposes and when more is collected from them then he intendeth as in this case of Ministers maintenance and in these instances of Preaching freely may stand with taking maintenance the Apostles words and practise For First Preaching the Gospel freely may stand with taking
mouth in the Scriptures while he would but seemingly make Gods Law and the heart to be one with it Another of this mans Self contradictions though common to his fellows I noted in this Section crying up Thou and Thee to a particular as Scripture-language and yet crying down the Letter as no Scripture that is the mouth of God the word of God or a binding Rule What J. Nayler means by that * Few words page 14. Thou wilt neither make Scripture thy Rule nor suffer them that would let R. F. well consider for if J. Nayler would have it to be a rule R. F. and others would have it to be none much less a standing rule as hath appeared in 1. Part Section 1. Section 4. THe Scriptures say they were given us by inspiration and by inspiration are to be understood again In this passage there is coucht another of their Self-contradictions which R. F. neither approves nor condemns but passeth it over un-toucht un-answered The Reader may please to peruse what was said for discovery of their clashing Principles in my former piece This I shall adde The Spirit of God who breathed forth the Scriptures must give us the spiritual understanding of them if we have it at all but this he doth in another way then that whereby he inspired the Pen-men of the Scriptures They were so inspired when they wrote the holy Canon of Scripture as men rapt up with an extatical motion 2 Pet. 1. 21. The word there translated moved signifies a forcible acting of the Spirit 2 Pet. 1. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon them they were mightily born away by the impetus and impulsive power of the Spirit The same word is used by Luke Acts 2. 2. in the description of the visible pouring forth of the Spirit by a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind this rushing power of the Spirit invisibly acted the holy Men of God who wrote the Scriptures in a way immediate when they had not a letter of Gods Book before them But thus the Scriptures come not to us nor the understanding of them we have the Book and Canon written down and by providence printed translated into our Mother tongue and preached to us Now then they that profess they own the Scriptures and they own the reading of them and they own prayer for the understanding of them c. and yet when it comes to the upshot they dis-own and deny all actings of the Spirit upon them by means of second causes instruments and ordinances by which we are to get understanding and by which he gives it forth it plainly appears that as the beasts that have no understanding they kick down the good pail of milk before-given by frustration and neglect of Gods gift of the Scriptures and exercises about them thereby to come to the knowledge of them under the conduct of the Spirit Section 5. ANother of their Self-contradictions I shewed to be this That they profess to own the Scriptures to be true in themselves c. but do not own them in their true sense and meaning I gave instance of their interpreting 1 Cor. 14. 35. Husbands at home to be Christ in the heart and I referred to all the other instances of their Scripture-contradiction for conviction of their dis-owning the true sense R. F. * Page 25. would make the world believe I had confuted my self and cleared them because I granted they said That they owned the Scriptures c. whereas this doth evidently make the more against them that they will pretend so much to the Scriptures and yet rend the sense of them all a pieces And although that sense put upon the fore-mentioned place in the Epistle to the Corinthians be broached by no man more then by R. F. in another Pamphlet by it self and he entitleth this Piece of his I now deal with The Scriptures vindication yet he doth not in the least undertake the vindication of this place either when I alledged it against them before Part 1. Section 6. or now onely he speaks his wonted swelling words of vanity Thou art under the guilt and the pit which for others thou diggedst thou art faln in thy self and catcht in thy own snare and craftiness take notice of that and see how thou hast contradicted thy self Rep. But that I desire some may be convinced of the folly and falshood of this man and of his Sect I would not spend time and waste paper to transcribe such empty stuff If it be proof enough for him to accuse and recriminate I cannot be innocent who shall in the like case That which hitherto I have charged him or other of this way withal I have not given words but Arguments for proof and demonstration of the Charge Let me give another instance R. F. * Page 2. in answer to my first Section Part 1. saith thus That the Scriptures are words that proceeded from the Spirit of truth we do not deny but own and so they are words of truth Now hear what * An untaught Teacher p. 2. Th. Lawson judgeth of this matter To say that the word of truth is called the Scripture or that the Scripture is called the word of truth that is a lye I ask the simple honest hearted Reader whether Th. Lawson puts not the lye upon his brother R. Farnworth or whether these men do own the Scripture of truth as it is stiled Dan. 10. 21. or rather whether they do not contradict it and themselves also Let it be observed also that R. F. doth not quit himself of that other Self-contradiction of his which I closed this Section with by bare words * Page 25. Thou hast manifested the same therefore take thou the shame Rep. It seems R. F. will take none as one past shame and blushing Where I have manifested my ignorance of the life of the Scriptures and of the Letter as he lets fly against me I am willing to see it and bear my own shame but will he be as the unjust Zeph. 3. 5. that knoweth no shame when his sinful folly and self-conceited Contradictions are detected The words that R. F. hath in his other Pamphlet * Light out of darkness p. 18 are these Herein you shew your ignorance in the life of the Scriptures that are ignorant of the Letter which is without life This he chargeth upon three Ministers for asking a question to this effect If the light wherewith every one is enlightned be Christ what then is become of the person of the Mediator Must they be ignorant in the life of the Scriptures who acknowledge not every mans light to be Christ and must they be ignorant of the Letter of the Scripture who do not understand it as he doth But that which I inferred from his words was If there be life in the Scriptures as he grants there is then the Letter or Scripture is not without life as he saith it is nor are they
ignorant of the Letter who knew before he spake it that the Letter declares of life unless he will enwrap himself in the same ignorance But as he is ignorant of the Scripture-letter who denies it to be a means of coming to life so he contradicts himself who saith The Scriptures have life in them and yet with the same breath saith also They are without life as R. F. doth What if the life from which the Scriptures proceeded be not the Letter or Scripture yet the Scripture is the Scripture of life given from Christ who is life The chief subject matter contained therein is Christ the light of life not by the works of the Law by which way the unbelieving Jews thought to obtain life eternal but Christ shut the door against them that way and he directeth them to himself John 5. 39. as revealed in the Scriptures and more then that as conveyed by the Scriptures to a soul For albeit Christ saith They are they that testifie of me yet he doth not say They do but testifie of me This but is R. F. * Light out of darkness page 18. his additional gloss to corrupt the Text to disparage the Scriptures and never a whit the more to advance Christ for he is the more honored among men and savingly owned as he is known to be that living Savior that Way Truth and Life who is testified of in the Scriptures and is come unto or believed on by the Scriptures Wherefore Christ blameth them John 5. 40. that they would not taking the Bible and searching for him come unto him by the knowledge and faith of the Scriptures Section 6. THis and the following Section R. F. returns no Answer unto at all I had noted what Ed. Burroughs saith in his warning to the Inhabitants of Vnder-barrow page 2. That he came not to them with enticing words neither what he had gathered out of the Scripture from without him but to declare the word of the Lord and not to speak his own imaginations and conceivings How cross is this to themselves They use frequently to call the Scriptures the Declaration of the Word and if he came to declare the Word of the Lord as he affirms he either came with what he had gathered from Scripture which he denies or he came with his own imaginations and conceivings which he denies also but both his Negatives cannot be true if there be any truth in his book for that is a Collection of above an hundred places of Scripture quoted in the margent and transscribed in the line The words he had from the Scripture the mis-applications he did not indeed learn from thence nor from the Spirit of God who never teacheth any man to mis-apply his own Letter therefore it was not in true sense the word of the Lord that he declared if he spake the same doctrine for substance that he writes but the visions of his own brain And if I speak a lie saith he page 8. let me be accounted as accursed for ever But he that compiles a book out of Scripture-collections and yet preacheth not what he gathered out of the Scripture deals falsly in one of these ways and speaketh a lie and therefore he is found not onely as a self-contradictor but as a self-curser And to do him no wrong I would know the meaning of that passage page 9. He that hath the word of the Lord from the mouth of the Lord to declare unto you him you revile and mock c. but he that speaks the imagination of his own heart from the Saints conditions him you own and hear If he intends by the Word of the Lord Christ onely what intends he by the mouth of the Lord but the Scriptures which are the Declaration of his word by their own confession If he had the Scriptures to declare Christ unto the people by then he spake what he had gathered out of the Scriptures which is contrary to what he said before If the Scriptures be not the mouth of the Lord how are they a declaration of his word if they be a declaration of his word why are they denied to be the mouth of the Lord Again if he speaks of the Saints conditions as discovered in Scripture and chargeth him that speaks from them to vent the imagination of his own heart he blasphemes the Scripture written for our instruction and consolation Rom. 15. 4. If he condemneth another as he doth page 22. for preaching that which is gathered from without by imagination and conceiving upon that which the Prophet prophesied or which Christ spoke c. and judgeth it carnal and heathenish never commanded by the Lord and yet makes mention of the Saints conditions himself and glosseth upon Scripture according as his fancy worketh he alloweth that which he condemneth as he condemneth what God alloweth not that God alloweth the working of every mans fantasie but in a sanctified way if his worketh otherwise God condemneth what he alloweth Section 7. Section 7 8. THey call as I noted here the Scriptures the Worlds Touchstone and yet as appeared Part 1. Section 1. Some of them at least will not have the Scripture to be the Word of Truth to the world If it be not the Word of Truth to the world how can it be the Worlds Touchstone This interfering of men of his way R. F. undertakes not to cure or touch at with the least of his fingers and beyond my skill it is to salve the Contradiction onely I heartily desire of God that the discovery hereof may prove good eye-salve to let them see the shame of their nakedness Section 8. IN the second Section of this second part I noted down two of their Self-contradictions the latter of them might have there been spared and entirely spoken to here where I toucht at it again a little more plainly But R. F. though he glanced at it there took it not off nor doth he any more here then pass it over in silence which of the Saints had the witness of their souls union to seek in the Letter thus querieth J N. in his Few words page 11. I shall now to what was discovered as contradictory to himself in Sect. 2. or here adde his other words in the same page viz. The Spirit it opens and brings all that is spoken in Scripture to remembrance this is so a truth as it crosseth his Negative implyed in the Interrogation viz. That none have their witness to seek in the Letter and what he addes expresly He that believeth hath the witness in himself in Spirit and not in the Letter had he said and not in the Letter onely it might have salv'd the contradiction but as it is contrary to the Scripture to say the Saints have not comfortable testimony of their union and interest in Christ in and by the Scripture-letter so 't is contrary to himself to deny the Believer hath his witness in the Letter and yet grant that the Spirit opens and
reason light and understanding though lighted up as a candle within me by Christ the true God working with the Father in all acts of Creation and Providence hitherto is truly called as it is natural light and seeing every man John 5. 17. hath some of it the most of whom have no saving light it is truly called as it is common and universal light Will R. F. allow Ed. Burroughs to call some light natural and not me so to phrase it or will he allow J. Nayler to distinguish between common light and saving and may not I and others with me have the same liberty First let Ed. Burroughs be heard * Warning to under barrow pag. 37. I write not as from man whose light Section 20 is onely natural and carnal and doth onely make manifest carnal transgressions c. And again By the natural light through the earthly law is no natural man able to judge of that which is spoken or declared from that which is eternal And again I deny to have this cause put into the judgement of carnal Lawyers who judge by the natural light c. Let us hear J. Nayler speak his minde * Discovery of the man of sin pag. 29. In your reply meaning the Ministers at Newcastle you deceitfully put in that word saving light which is not spoken by me for though Christ be the light of the world that enlightens all yet none are saved by him but who believe c. There is a light then which is in natural men unbelievers and all the Heathen which is but natural and a light which is not saving and therefore but common by their own confession what unreasonableness is it in them to except against the term of distinction what contradiction to their own reason 2. The preeminence of Scripture-light is this that it is our standing rule for faith and maners so are not immediate Revelations or Teachings of which see 1. Part Sect. 1. Here is the Letter or Scripture-fulness that I assert There is sufficient light in it to guide men to salvation seeing it is the Spirits light and given by the Spirit for a rule yea the Spirit gives out himself thereby for our clear understanding and satisfaction in the things of God insomuch as that very witness which a believer hath in himself the Scripture bears testimony of The Spirit tells us in the Scripture what he worketh in our hearts and he stamps upon our hearts what he had before caused to be stampt into Scripture or upon the Bible R. F. objecteth Thou wouldst have the Spirit to be bought and sold if it were in the Letter Rep. How the Spirit is in the Letter that is in the Scripture I have opened in its due place 2. Part Sect. 8. but that it followeth it may therefore be bought and sold is a weak and poor exception R. F. his minde goes along with his Pamphlet and his spirit is in his book yet it is not his person but the ink and paper that is bought and sold so the ink and paper of the Scriptures as other creatures of God are bought and sold not so the Spirit though he be more in them then R. F. is in his book for this poor man cannot change my minde nor many thousands more if they read his Pamphlet with me into his erroneous judgement when as the Spirit in the Scripture changeth my minde and all that are made to own the light and authority of it into the same truth that is there delivered Again he taunteth Thou wouldst have a Letter-Savior if the Letter could give the Spirit and eternal life Rep. 1. I never said the Letter could or did give the Spirit but the Spirit is given by it or as I even now exprest it the Spirit gives out himself by it and he gives out Christ or the knowledge of Christ and eternal life by it also who shall hinder him if he will begin and further our salvation by it 2. It is R. F. his disdainful expression not mine a Letter-Savior Christ a Savior according to Scripture but this I say from the Lord He that slights the Savior which the Scripture witnesseth and maketh known is not like to finde any Spirit-Savior of him or a Savior in vigor life and Spirit to his soul and if he be not such a Savior he is not at all a Savior to him Did ever any of the Apostles or such as had indeed immediate teachings from the Spirit vilifie and reproach Christ or the Scripture with such inkhorn terms Yet again With a Letter-fulness thou wouldst have no witness of God without the Letter Rep. 1. That follows not for his providential works are witnesses of him Acts 14. 17. to the very Heathens and much more to Christians But 2. He shall be no Christian to me or in my account who brings any testimony as from God without the Scriptureattestation But saith R. F. If the Scripture be lost the fulness and the witness would be lost and his people be without supply and strength according to thy account Rep. 1. Should they be lost that one way whereby God gives out his fulness and by which he witnesseth and worketh for his peoples supply and strength would be lost yet God loseth none of his fulness in himself and Christ hath other witnesses of him John 5. His Father his Works John Baptist But 2. Seeing there are Scriptures as they cannot be broken John 10. 35. they cannot be lost God hath and will ever preserve them for his peoples supply and strength 3. What vain jangling is here from R. F. his pen tending to no edification at all of the Reader but to the alienation of peoples mindes from the Scriptures and from those that teach according to them to seduce and draw poor souls after their pretended immediate teachings while yet they will be quoting of Scripture as if it were written and pen'd to destroy it self For thus R. F. gathers up the Rere of his forces * Page 28. He to wit Christ is before all things and by him all things consist and he is the Head of the body the Chruch who is the beginning and first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence for in him the fulness dwells Rep. 1. Are not these words written by the Spirits secretary Col. 1. 17 18 19. And is not R. F. beholden to the Scripture for that literal knowledge 2. If ever he feels the power of these as other Scriptures The Scripture magnifies Christ above it self God will teach him to honor the Scripture so much the more as it magnifies Christ above it self and to speak more wisely of it then to conclude as he doth In him the fulness dwells then not in the Letter yet the Letter declares of it Rep. 1. If the Letter declares of Christs fulness then we shall need to know no more of Christ then what for substance is in the Scripture there
is no necessity then of immediate teachings setting Scripture aside nor ought we to receive any against the Scripture 2. Why may not fulness be in Christ and in the Letter How fulness is in Christ how in the Scripture conjoyned still with the sense of Scripture also The fuller the fountain is the more full is the conduit and its pipes The more full the heart is the fuller the mouth out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and the pen writeth what is good or bad truth or error In Christ is the fulness of the fountain in the Scriptures is the fulness of the stream flowing from and carrying to the fountain and and abiding inexhausted as a well fed by a continual spring Sect. 21 22 23. Christ having all fulness superabundantly in himself he doth abundantly and sufficiently fill the Scriptures with the savor and sweetness of his good oyntments which make the virgins and the upright love him and seek after him in these footsteps of the flocks the good and old ways of Scripture-teaching 8. Head of Self-contradiction Concerning Perfection Sections 21 22. IN the former of these Sections I noted their profession of Perfection and of Quaking after Moses example at the foot of mount Sinai to cross-shins one with the other R. F. returns me nothing in answer as if convinced it is no better then I judged it a Self-contradiction and one of his own In the latter the contradiction to themselves is as gross they speak of perfection in holiness here attained before death and yet acknowledge sin dwelleth in them though not in act R. F. hath nothing to say to this also and so it must stand as a testimony against them with the rest when he and all his fraternity have said what they can their self-justifications will end in self-confusion 9. Head of Self-contradiction Concerning Quaking and Trembling Section 23. HEre I had noted the Contradiction between their profession of Quaking and trembling and prosessed boldness never having observed more daring creatures to open their lips or put pen to paper It fell out that R. F. his Reply to the Priests about Beverley was quoted for an instance he is therefore the more concerned in vindication but how doth he take off the self-contradiction even as along the Book by persisting in his evil cause * Page 28. The same power that made Moses c. to quake shake and tremble the same power we witness Rep. But Moses was under a Legal administration and at Legal what that time when he said I exceedingly fear and quake he was under a type of that Legal bondage which believers are freed from The false Apostles indeed by their corrupting the Doctrine of Justification carried Christians as much as laid in their power under the Law again for which the true Apostle Paul blames the Galatians Chap. 4. 21. Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law c. So these pretenders to a new Apostleship are discovered by their Doctrine of a Righteousness within them that is their Justification to lead people the same way as the ring-leaders among the Jews and Galatians did and would make them children of the bond-woman whom Christ hath made children of the free-woman yet boldly they will profess they are come from mount Sinai to mount Zion while their Doctrine of Justification hath no other tendency then to carry back to bondage R. F. yet seems to bleat more like a sheep then bark like a wolf in this passage We witness working out our salvation with fear and trembling Rep. 1. The fear and trembling which Paul speaks of Phil 2 12. vindicated Phil. 2. 12. as proper to believers is not that which Moses did typically represent at the foot of mount Sinai for the Apostle to the Hebrews Chap. 12. 18. to 21 denies that believers are under that state or that Legal administration with the effects of it 2. The fear and trembling wherewith believers are to Evangelical trembling what work out their salvation issueth from faith and love and Gospel-humility and is not the fruit of Legal humiliation 3. The Gospel-fear and trembling is not to be found visible or legibly to be discerned in all R. F. his vindication hitherto But he rounds me in the ear with this Thou speaks against the power of God that worketh effectually in his people as it did in Moses Habakkuk David Paul and other witnessed in Scripture thou there in contradicts the Scripture Rep. 1. To contradict the Scripture is worse then to contradict a mans self and therefore I desire the first part of this Reply may be minded by R. F. before the latter Yet there is scarce a Self-contradiction which I have mentioned and charged upon these men but the Reader will finde in it one contradiction or other to the Scripture If I should deny that Moses quaked or that Habakkuk or Paul trembled I should deny the Scripture and the Power of God but I deny that such a quaking as Moses Habakkuk or Paul when fallen to the earth Act. 9. 5 6. were taken with is the fear and trembling believers are to work out their salvation withal as for Davids it coming from the power of piety I desire we all had his measure of love to the word of God then should we tremble as he did Psal 119. 120. at the footstool of the Lord at the threatnings and judgements written and executed even upon Nations and the wicked ones and at the fatherly righteous chastenings upon our selves or his own people 2. When Gods power of majesty in visible manifestations to the eye of the body discovers it self to any as to Moses or to Paul or in visions as to Habakkuks spirit such a bodily trembling becomes them and they will not be able to avoid it but the power of Gods Majesty in visible manifestations to body or minde is not that power which worketh effectually to salvation in his people take it alone for Balaam had such a work but the Power of his love and grace in Christ which in the majesty of the Gospel is made known to us from the efficacy of our high Priest sat down Heb. 8. 1. at the right hand of the Majesty of God in the heavens is that power whereby he worketh in us and whereon he commands us humbly to rest and depend for the finishing of our salvation the same way as it was begun according to Gods good pleasure 3. How contradictious these men are to the profession of trembling I instanced for demonstration in their standing in an evil cause before magistrates without Quaking or fear R. F. * Page 29. in answer hereunto makes good the former branch of demonstration which I mentioned the boldness of his pen This is a fallacy of thine where thou hast shot out thy sting in thy tail herein thou art taught thy gradations methodically in old Antichrists school to lye slander accuse falsly and jeer and
cannot prove what thou hast said Rep. 1. Neither do my words sound as if I jeered nor was it my sense nor do I mis-report their practise 2. The proofs I shall give will evidence the truth of the charge They stand in an evil cause who being convented before magistrates deny the Scriptures to be the word of God disturb the Churches in their publique worship and that sometimes on a solemn day of humiliation All this did J. P. last summer in Essex at Cogs-hall yea and that without quaking and fear witness his challenge of him that had preached witness his question to the magistrate when he was bidden pull off his Hat why he did not bid him in the Pulpit pull off his Cap witness his skipping up the Table before four Justices of the Peace placed at it with his back towards them in the room where they examined him after the publique work was ended pretending he should be heard the better witness his denyal of the Scriptures to be what they are the word of God neither regarding what was held forth to him from Hosea 8. 12. what God hath written is his written word c. nor from Prov. 30. 5 6. Every word of God is pure c. Adde thou not unto his words c. Again that is standing in an evil cause not to own and confess the Scripture to be a Rule to walk by when called to such an acknowledgement before the magistrate this William Dewsbery and Hen Williamson would not directly afford to Judge Windham when he askt the question but put it off another way as their maner is and that Discovery of persecution in Northamp pag. 12. without fear or due respect of the Power ordained by God for they would not stand uncovered till their Hats were taken off R. F. may shoot out his arrow against me Stop thy mouth deceiver and take in thy slander again but it will light upon his own pate or he thinks to answer all with what follows The Lord makes the righteous as bold as Lyons but it cannot be applied here when men will be silent in a good cause and bold in a bad one There is a bad Lion as well as a good the roaring Lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour and that first by seducing the minde to error and then come forth the effects of bodily shaking falling to the ground and roaring as lately at Witham in Essex hath been visible and audible enough The late Teachers hereabouts some of them have been so bold as they will not give over till they knock down people as Butchers do their calves although one of the last that came by name Will Dewsbery was against such violent dealing The boldness of J. P. lately in Colchester Castle is legible enough in Print * Fruits of a Fast p. 5. 6. c. What a bold falshood is that to say our Intent was to ensnare him and bring his body into bonds or that we were gathered against the truth a bold calumny That the four Teachers as he names them of Independent companies are all Parish-Priests a bold lye as is that which followeth that I spake to the Rulers in the publique place thereby to stir up their spirits to persecute The chiefest passage which I had in my Sermon none of which he heard reflecting upon this Sect was occasionally taken up by reason of his interrupting our work viz. that in stead of the term Quakers henceforth they may be stiled Church-disturbers That this was plotted among the Priests and gathered Churches to appoint meetings to insnare the innocent is still more impudent our meeting on a solemn day of seeking God was designed to bear witness against their errors to strengthen the hands of one another in the truth and to preserve the innocent in the way of truth but for insnaring it was far from our intendment the Lord knows nor did we know that J. P. would be there till we met But all these passages with his bold Letters to the Justices after his Commitment and to the Judge after the Assizes and his bold entituling his Book The Fruits of a Fast the Lord hath rebuked after his bold undertaking a Fast of his own for many days together in the aforesaid Castle and therefore I say no more but the Lord rebuke all those of his way by this warning piece though if it be his will I desire not one of them should perish either by death or by imprisonment Section 24. Section 24. 25. THey deny as I noted from their Books all them that deny Quaking and one saith Moses was a Quaker and yet they think it scorn to be called Quakers R. F. who was concerned in this seeing of all that I have read it is he that expresly affirmeth * A return to the Priests about Beverly page 14. Moses was a Quaker hath not a word for reconcilement what I noted therefore must stand with the rest of their Self-contradictions as a Testimony against them 10. Head of Self-contradiction Concerning growth in Grace Section 25. HEre I observed their witnessing as they say of the Saints growth and the time of their pressing after perfection and weighed it with their exclamations against those who deny perfection of degrees and affirm sin to dwell in the Saints all their life time R. F. cunningly asks me * Page 29. Art thou offended that we witness the Saints growth and the time of pressing on to perfection but hides from the Reader the contradiction that follows The time of prossing after perfection is not the time of perfect attainment by their condemning those that deny perfection of gradual holiness in this life For they that are yet to grow further are not at their full and perfect growth and if the time of this life be but a time to press after perfection it is not the time of the Saints attainment to those degrees which at death their souls are filled withal And if they that witness a time of pressing on do not therein cross nor contradict the Scripture as R. F. acknowledgeth and I acknowledge that their witness doth not cross us why then will they by their acclamations of some here already perfect and without sin both cross us and contradict themselves 11. Head of Self-contradiction Concerning Forms of Religion Section 26. WHereas they pretend against all mens Forms and are against Gods Forms of administring water-Baptism and a Bread and Wine-Supper yet they take up a Form of keeping on the Hat a Form of words Thou and Thee c. All this R. F. passeth over as having said enough to the latter at least in a Pamphlet of a sheet that he entituleth The pure language of the Spirit of truth where also he defendeth nakedness or some mens going naked in these times as a figure and sign of their nakedness who are naked from God and clothed with filthy garments all this upon supposition if the Lord bid them
him also even of strong Paul and of weak Paul strong in the Lord weak yet in and of himself and willing to glory in this that he knew himself to be weak and nothing As he * M. Nicholas Price of Lyn-Regis that said when he had attained to no small measure of mortification in the eyes of others I thank God I know my self to be a sinner while these proud up-starts think many of them have reached to the highest pitch of Perfection 3. It is Pride that hath bred and doth feed and nourish their opinions and practises What makes them level Legal and Gospel-light but Pride The light which every man hath saith William Deusbery i Christ exalted page 26 is not common to man by nature it is the great gift of God the Grace that hath appeared c. The truth is Every mans light where the Gospel comes not is neither for degree nor kinde the same with Gospel-light it is but a shimmering of the Laws light a gift of God indeed but no such great Gift as the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ or as the doctrine of that Grace Every man writes E. B. k True faith of the Gospel of peace p. 18. hath that which is one in Vnion and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure A proud elevation of the fallen posterity of Adam either exalting the gifts of the Spirit as high as the person of the Spirit or levelling the high and peculiar Grace of the Spirit in true Saints with the low and common work in every man Weigh but what J. Nayler hath in his Answer to Math. Cuffin l Light of Christ and word of life page 19. and see if there be not wicked Pride God is at liberty to speak to his people by them viz. the Scriptures if he please and where they are given by inspiration he doth so And so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass As if God did not speak constantly by the Scriptures the voices of the Prophets * Acts 13. 27 and Apostles though his people are not always alike affected with and by them nor doth the Lord give the same impression from the same Text at one time as at another or as if all the Scripture at all times were not of divine Inspiration and as if he would have his disciples with himself ascribe no more authority to the Scriptures then to Balaams Ass 4. Unbelief begets and procreates all their Errors and their love of Error with their derisions of the Truth How come they to slight the Scriptures and the Ordinances of Christ They have lost that first faith or never 1 Tim. 5. had any concerning their Institution and Authority or the efficacy of the Spirit put forth by them Would they else judge it Blasphemy m To all that would know the way p. 4. for any to say the Letter or Scripture is the Word of God when as 't is that which the Spirit dictated and hath ever blessed and prospered to his own purposes Would they else scribble and quibble as they do n Ibid page 8. Thou that sayest thou had not come to repentance if thou had not known the Letter thou deniest Christ The Scripture is say they A Declaration of the Spirit but the Spirit is not in it A Declaration of Power but the Power is not in it And why is not the Spirit and Power in it this is nothing but the voice and spirit of unbelief which makes them so to judge How like a Pelagi-Arminian doth J. Nayler speak o Answer to Quakers Catechism p. 24. Who hath the Spirit hath an infallible guide in matter and maner if he keep to it And I know that so far as any are led by the Spirit it guides into all truth if it be not erred from Whence come these ifs but from unbelief What Luther said of his Popish Devotions is true here We always prayed in Colloq mens Popedom conditionaliter with condition uncertainly and at hap-hazard And upon such a hazard do these ifs run mens salvation beside the pride of such ifs determining all Grace the Spirits infallible guidance and what not upon the will of man and his improvements Whence is it that they speak with such disparagement of Christ dying at Jerusalem but from unbelief Had Ed. Burrough a Faith working by love when he sounded his Trumpet p A Trumpet of the Lord sounded out of Sion by E. B. page 17. and upbraided all that are called Presbyterians and Independents with their feeding upon the report of a thing done many hundred years ago They that believe not that word John 6. 53. will not tremble at it Did those called Presbyterians and Independents more heartily feed upon Christ who dyed and as he dyed above sixteen hundred years ago by faith every day and meet ofter at the Lords Table in faith and love they would be more strengthned in one against their common enemies 5. They do subtilly couch many Errors under specious words of Truth or terms that are ambiguous and of a doubtful sense q The inheritance of Jacob page 24. The Righteousness saith Francis Howgil whereby the Saints of old pleased God and was accepted was wrought in them the same that is now wrought in the Saints by Christ As if God were not pleased with them as clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ or they would have that which is within the Saints to be that which is imputed to their pardon and acceptance whereas God is more pleased with that which Christ wrought for them then with what he worketh in them Yea that which Christ wrought in his own person and in that flesh which he assumed is that alone which the Father accepteth and imputeth to their Justification Not but he is pleased with his own work in us in a way of Sanctification and Service That seems very fair which Alexander Parker hath r Testimony of God p. 4. It is an inward work that every one must know and witness if ever they know true peace and rest But let all know that the work within is not the ground and purchase of their peace but the blood of Christ alone and his obedience although it is a witness and an evidence and yet every inward work is not an evidence or witness of peace with God but that alone which is the New-birth or true Sanctification and the parts of it flowing from and inseparably attending and accompanying the Believers union with the Lord Jesus Light saith Tho Lawson Å¿ Lip of truth c. page 45 and 47. is the same in him that hates it and in him that loves it And again Grace is the same in him that turns it into lasciviousness as in him that is taught by it The same seed as fell on the good ground fell on the high way
Singing See Psalms Spirit of God How in the Scripture-Letter 4 254 How proceeding from the Letter how not 5 How given by it 6 10 255 Leads to the Scripture-Rule and and by it 9 10 His Prerogative above the Scripture 31 Swearing By creatures forbidden 235 By God commanded ibid. Not in ordinary speech 237 Oaths lawful 238 Vnlawful 239 By a book unlawful ibid. Upon a book superstitious 240 T. Teaching All Believers not immediately taught 216 Who were or were not immediately taught in the Apostles days 217 220 They that pretend to immediate Teaching have had it by men and means 279 280 Transubstantiation A blinde dotage 189 Trembling True at and by the word or Scripture rightly understood 6 286 Trinity A Trinity of Persons in the Godhead proved 46 W. Warfare Saints not out of it till out of their bodies 167 Woman A woman not to speak in the Church 33 Word of God Essential or spiritual 22 25 Language of the Spirit and Word of the Scripture all one 292 Scriptures vindicated and explained   Psalm page Ps 119. 105 40 Proverbs Cap. Verse   20 9 158 22 20 21 32 Eccles 7 20 166 Isaiah 8 20 23 24 64 65 20 2 291 30 20 42 48 16 17 30 Jeremiah 5 31 42 20 9 41 23 29 Ibid. Daniel 9 1 219 Matthew 5 8 158   34 to 36 235   37 237   48 228 6 5 201   6 202 11 27 14 23 8 10 245 28 19 47   19 20 177 Luke 16 29 7 17 21 Ep. to Ch. 22 32 129 John 1 1 25 1 1 to 14 54 to 58 1 9 53 55 261 5 44 232 6 45 216 8 12 53 260 15 5 42 16 13 10 Acts 2 17 18 34   38 39 179   42 46 195 13 2 46 208   39 122 20 28 160 207   34 209   35 210 Romans 1 18 19 274 2 4 170   12 63   15 16 269   29 268 3 3 2   21 92 5 12 63   13 99 6 14 11 7 9 10 110   14 to the end 113   17 138   23 25 139   25 12 115 8 1 115   2 168 8 3 266   3 4 144   4 145   10 139 140   14 9   26 149   37 169 10 8 41   18 82 12 3 62 14 17 190 16 1 2 6 12 35 1 Cor. 1 15 16 108   21 72 2 6 162 164   9     10 17 6 11 156 9 14 209 11 1 11   26 191 198   29 197 12 7 30   12 13 178 14 14 15 202   26 29 217   31 34   34 35 33 16 19 35 2 Cor. 3 2 71   6 5   16 with 14 13 17 9 4 6 23     24 263 5 21 132 11 7 209   9 208 12 7 c. App. 2 13 11 164 Gal. 1 1 211   16 263 2 17 18 19 123   20 21 124 3 19 104   20 89   21 99   27 178 5 17 138 6 17 44 Ephes 1 17 15 2 17 18     20 81 3 17   4 4 5   5 1 9   26 179 6 2 106   17 25 Phil. 2 5 226 2 12 286 3 12 161   15 16 162 4 3 35   13 42 Col. 1 23 82   27 264   27 28 62 2 17 89 1 Tim. 2 11 33 5 18 35   24 267 Titus 2 11 75 Heb. 4 12 41     152   12 13 154   15 153 5 7 Ep. to R. 11 6 1 162   16 238 7 16 24 8 7 94 10 14 135 12 1 116   23 146 to 150 13 8 277 1 9 10 234 5 12 237 240 1 Pet. 1 13 16   15 156   22 160   23 with 25 28 4 7 App. 2 2 Pet. 1 16 19 15   19 36   20 21 37 219   21 248 1 John 1 5 68     77   8 78 2 27 41   29 142 3 3 117   5 156   6 78     79 165   10 142 4 4 169   17 164 5 7 45 46   10 245   12 73   18   Rev. 19 10 39 20 12 45 FINIS ERRATA sic emendanda in the Book PAge 4. Line 8. read the two witnesses p. 9. l. 35 r. is to make p. 21. l. 15 r. Blockhouses p. 33. l. 26. r. he may p. 39. l. 31. for immediately r. mediately p. 41. Marg. r. Jer 23. 29. p. 55. l. 21. r. re-assumeth p. 58. l. 2. r. arbitrement p. 60. l. 21. r. Rom. 1. 18. p. 91. l. 2. dele is the old p. 100. l. 24. dele to be p. 103. Marg. r. Gen. 3. last p. 106. l. 8. r. the word of p. 117. f. 28. for now r. know p. 120. l. 11. for form r. from p. 124. l. 34. for that r. but. p. 134. l. 4. the parenthesis to end at Book p. 137. l. ult dele his p. 138. Marg. r. Gal. 5. 17. p. 209. l. 26. r. Acts 20. 34. p. 215. l. 23. for to r. till p. 221. l. 2. for we are r. were p. 238. l. 13. dele to them p. 245. l. 11. r. we should p. 256. l. 1. r. be not p. 258. l. 32. for that r. the. In the Epistles Epist Ded. for debate r. debase Epist to the Reader for Bellarmine r. Bellarmine p. 9. l. 9. for professed r. possessed Julii 18. 1656. Imprimatur JOSEPH CARYL
3. vindicated which labored with him in the Gospel for all these were employed not contrary to his order unto the Church at Corinth in publick preaching or so much as acting by their votes and suffrages in Church affairs but either in succoring Paul and others or in messages or in working out Pauls liberty mean while hazarding their own lives or in composing differences or in entertainment of strangers or in some other Christian-gospel-service sutable to their sex gifts and graces And as for that which R. F. collecteth from 1 Cor. 16. 19. that if Priscilla be not permitted to speak in the Church and the Church be in her house she must not speak but go out of her house Sure it is that as she 1 Cor. 16. 19. vindicated and her husband Aquila had taken up a house at Corinth Act. 18. 3. so they had a godly family like a little Church for knowledge piety and good order but the order of a godly family is after one way and the order of a ministerial Church is after another way Besides the Church at Corinth did ordinarily meet in Gaius's house therefore he is called Pauls Host and of the whole Church Rom. 16. 23. and Paul at other times wrought with his hands at Aquilas house Act. 18. 3. and in some one place compare 1 Cor. 14. 23. with chap. 11. 20. or other where that order was observed which was given to the Church ministerial and where Priscilla her self must not speak in the case in controversie with R. F. though haply she was more eminent in grace and gifts then her husband Aquila and upon that account her name may for once Rom. 16. 3. be set before his Lastly as for her own house it is not said the whole Church met there as at Gaius's house but it may well be collected those of her family were part of the whole and so the name Church is given to it and speak there she might to teach her family and with her husband to instruct an Apollos in the way of God more perfectly Act. 18. 26. without going out of her house or out of her place Will J. Nayler notwithstanding all this persist in his bold opinion that Pauls words of a womans keeping silence in the Church must not be taken in the Letter and will R. F. defend him with his own glosses I must leave them to the Lords rebuke for being wise in their own conceit and proceed to the close of this Paragraph in my book where I had given another instance of their new gloss upon 2 Pet. 1. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 19. vindicated affirming the sure word of prophecy there spoken of to be the Prophecy and Spirit of Prophecy within them and not the outward Prophecy or declaration of Gods minde in the Scriptures R. F. * page 7. hath nothing to say but this the sure word of prophecy we witness to and do not to it say No and then falls upon me with reproachful language as his maners serve him But how doth he witness it If by the word of Prophecy he means as Peter interprets it ver 20. the prophecy of the Scripture then he contradicts his fellow J. N. and doth not say no where his fellow saith no if he witnesseth onely the prophecy within or the light * Discovery of the man of sin by J. Naylar pag. 30. as J. N. glosseth till the day dawn c. which is not without nor in books then he with Nayler contradicts Peter and the holy Ghost moving him to write of a more sure word of prophecy of Scripture then the voice on the mount To clear this further As Peter v. 20. expounds v. 19. calling the more sure word of prophecy the prophecy of Scripture or Scripture-prophecy not heart-prophecy or breast-prophecy arising and residing onely in the minde but written down in books so this written-prophecy he sets in opposition to cunningly devised fables which ver 16. he professeth against in which fables there was no sureness or certainty at all and then he lays it in the ballance of comparison with his and others making known the Lords power and coming on the mount Peter James and John Mat 17 1 c. were ear-witnesses of a voice from heaven concerning Christ and eye-witnesses which is ten times more then onely to take a thing by the report of the ear of Christs majesty honor and glory this Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus they preached of to the scattered Jews as others yet notwithstanding their preaching of what they had heard and seen and the certainty of the voice they heard and the glory they saw We saith Peter including James and John with himself and the believing Jews whom he wrote unto who honored the writings of Moses and the Prophets as infallible have a more sure word of prophecy or of the Prophets writings whereunto ye do well that ye take heed hereby commending them for their respect to the Scriptures and encouraging them to be intent thereunto as unto a light shining in a dark place the Scripture-word being a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path of Saints amidst Psal 119. 105. all the darkness of the heart of the world or of the Church until the day dawn and day-star arise in our hearts i. e. until by the study of the Scriptures more light be cleared up and Christ make himself more manifest to us and within us But lest any should stumble at the Apostles assertion which comparing ver 19 20. as before is to this effect that all or any part of the Scripture is a more sure word then what is spoken in the air and but to the ear the Apostle preventingly addeth ver 20. Knowing this first let this be laid as for a fundamental truth in your mindes that no prophecy of the Scripture whereof we speak 2 Pet. 1. 19. with v. 20 21. more cleared is of any private interpretation Were it so that every man might as his private minde leads him interpret Scripture the authority and certainty of it would vanish as the light Scripture to be interpreted by Scripture and truth of it would be eclipsed it would be far from being a more sure word men might that way turn the Gospel into a Fable and make the Scriptures as Antichristian Popelings do a nose of wax well how proves the Apostle that no Scripture is of any private interpretation why verse 21. For or because the Prophecy came not in old time or at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any time by the will of man but holy men of God spake it as they were moved by the holy Ghost As was the Genesis such is the Analysis as was the composition such is the resolution and meaning of it from the same Spirit the publique Spirit of the Saints and of the Scriptures the holy Spirit of God composed the word of Prophecy not mans will but Gods digested it his Spirit indited it and