by him so may many through negligence miss to hear God often-times calling upon them and giving them access to pray unto him yet will not that allow them without this liberty in their own wills to fall to work And lastly though this be the only true and proper method of Prayer as that which is alone acceptable to God yet shall we not deny but he often-times answered the Prayers and concurred with the desires of some especially in times of darkness who have greatly erred herein so that some that have sit down in formal Prayers tho far wrong in the matter as well as manner without the assistance or influence of God's Spirit yet have found him to take occasion therethrough to break in upon their Souls and wonderfully tender and refresh them yet as in preaching and elsewhere hath afore been observed that will not prove any such practices or be a just let to hinder any from coming to practice that pure Spiritual and acceptable Prayer which God is again restoring and leading his people into out of all superstitious and meer empty formalities The state of the controversie and our sense thereof being thus clearly stated will both obviate many objections and make the answer to others more brief and easie I shall first prove this Spiritual Prayer by some short considerations from Scripture and then answer the Objections of our Opposers which will also serve to refute their method and manner thereof § XXII And first that there is a necessity of this inward retirement of the mind as previous to prayer that the Spirit may be felt to draw thereunto appears for that in most of those places where Prayer is commanded watching is prefixed thereunto as necessary to go before as Matth. 24.42 Mark 13.33.14.38 Luke 21.36 from which it is evident that this watching was to go before prayer Now to what end is this watching or what is it but a waiting to feel God's Spirit to draw unto prayer that so it may be done acceptably For since we are to pray alwaies in the Spirit and cannot pray of our selves without it acceptably this watching must be for this end recommended to us as preceeding prayer that we may watch and wait for the seasonable time to pray which is when the Spirit moves thereunto Secondly this necessity of the Spirit moving and concurrence appears abundantly from that of the Apostle Paul Rom. 8.26.27 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Which first holds forth the incapacity of men as of themselves to pray or call upon God in their own wills even such as have received the faith of Christ and are in measure sanctified by it as was the Church of Rome to whom the Apostle then wrote Secondly It holds forth that which can only help and assist men to pray to wit the Spirit as that without which they cannot do it acceptably to God nor beneficially to their own Souls Thirdly The manner and way of the Spirits intercession with sighs and groans which are unutterable And Fourthly That God receiveth graciously the prayers of such as are presented and offered unto himself by the Spirit knowing it to be according to his will Now it cannot be conceived but this order of prayer thus asserted by the Apostle is most consistent with those other testimonies of scripture commending and recommending to us the use of prayer From which I thus argue If man know not how to pray neither can do it without the help of the Spirit then it is to no purpose for him but altogether unprofitable to pray without it But the first is true Therefore also the last Thirdly This necessity of the Spirit to true Prayer appears from Eph. 6.18 and Jude 20. where the Apostle commands to pray alwaies in the Spirit and watching thereunto which is as much as if he had said that we were never to pray without the Spirit or watching thereunto And Jude sheweth us that such prayers as are in the Holy Ghost only tend to the building up of our selves in our most holy faith Fourthly The Apostle Paul saith expresly 1 Cor. 12.3 that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost If then Jesus cannot be thus rightly named but by the Holy Ghost far less can he be acceptably called upon Hence the same Apostle declares 1 Cor. 14.15 that he will pray with the Spirit c. A clear evidence that it was none of his method to pray without it But Fifthly all prayer without the spirit is abomination such as are the prayers of the wicked Prov. 28.9 and the confidence that the Saints have that God will hear them is if they ask any thing according to his will 1 Joh. 5.14 So if the prayer be not according to his will there is no ground of confidence that he will hear Now our adversaries will acknowledg that prayers without the spirit are not according to the will of God and therefore such as pray without it have no ground to expect an answer for indeed to bid a man pray without the spirit is all one as to bid one see without eyes work without hands or go without feet And to desire a man to fall to prayer ere the spirit in some measure less or more move him thereunto is to desire a man to see before he open his eyes or to walk before he rise up or to work with his hands before he move them § XXIII But lastly from this false opinion of praying without the Spirit and not judging it necessary to be waited for as that which may be felt to move us thereunto hath proceeded all the superstition and idolatry that is among those called Christians and those many abominations wherewith the Lord is provoked and his Spirit grieved so that many deceive themselves now as the Jews did of old thinking it sufficient if they pay their daily Sacrifices and offer their customary Oblations from thence thinking all is well and creating a false peace to themselves as the Whore in the Proverbs because they have offered up their Sacrifices of Morning and Evening Prayers And therefore it 's manifest that their constant use of things doth not a whit influence their lives and conversations but they remain for the most part as bad as ever yea it is frequent both among Papists and Protestants for them first to leap as it were out of their vain light and profane conversations at their set hours and seasons and fall to their customary devotion and then when it is scarce finished and the words to God scarce out the former profane talk comes after it so that the same wicked profane spirit of this world acts them in both
life eternal with it therefore I have affirmed and that truely that this knowledg is no otherways attained and that none have any true ground to believe they have attained it who have it not by this revelation of Gods Spirit The certainty of which truth is such that it hath been acknowledged by some of the most refined and famous of all sorts of Professors of Christianity in all ages who being truly upright-hearted and earnest seekers of the Lord however stated under the disadvantages and epidemical errors of their several sects or ages the true seed in them hath been answered by Gods love who hath had regard to the Good and hath had of his elect ones among all who finding a distast and disgust in all other outward means even in the very principles and precepts more particullary relative to their own forms and societies have at last concluded with one voice that there was no true knowledg of God but that which is revealed inwardly by his own Spirit whereof take these following testimonies of the Ancients 1. It is the inward Master saith Augustin that teacheth it is Christ that teacheth it is inspiration that teacheth where this inspiration and unction is wanting it is in vain that words from without are beaten in And therefore for he that created us and redeemed us and called us by faith and dwelleth in us by his Spirit unless he speaketh unto you inwardly it is needless for us to cry out 2. There is a difference faith Clemens Alexandrinus betwixt that which any one saith of the Truth and that which the Truth it self interpreting it self saith A conjecture of Truth differeth from the Truth it self a similitude of a thing differeth from the thing it self it is one thing that is acquired by exercise and discipline and another thing which by power and faith Lastly the same Clemens saith Truth is neither hard to be arrived at nor is it impossible to apprehend it for it is most nigh unto us even in our houses as the most wise Moses hath insinuated 3. How is it saith Tertullian that since the Devil always worketh and stirreth up the mind to iniquity that the work of God should either cease or desist to act Since for this end the Lord did send the Comforter that because human weakness could not at once bear all things knowledg might be by little and little directed formed and brought to perfection by the holy Spirit that Vicar of the Lord. I have many things yet saith he to speak unto you but ye can not as vet bear them but when that Spirit of Truth shall come he shall lead you into all Truth and shall teach you these things that are to come But of his works we have spoken above What is then the administration of the Comforter but that discipline be derived and the Scriptures revealed c. 4. The Law saith Hierom is spiritual and there is need of a revelation to understand it And in his epistle 150 to Hedibia question 11. he saith the whole epistle to the Romans needs an interpretation it being involved in so great obscuritys that for the understanding thereof we need the help of the Holy Spirit who through the Apostle dictated it 5. So great things saith Athanasius doth our Saviour daily he draws unto piety perswades unto vertue teaches immortality excites to the desire of heavenly things reveals knowledg from the Father inspires power against death and shews himself unto every one 6. Gregory the Great upon these words he shall teach you all things saith that unless the same Spirit sit upon the heart of the hearer in vain is the discourse of the doctor let no man then ascribe unto the man that teacheth what he understands from the mouth of him that speaketh for unless he that teacheth be within the tongue of the Doctor that 's without laboureth in vain 7. Cyrillas Alexandrinus plainly affirmeth that men know that Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Ghost no otherwise than they who tast honey know that it is sweet even by its proper quality 8. Therefore saith Bernard we daily exhort you Brethren by speech that ye walk the ways of the heart and that your Souls be always in your hands that he may hear what the Lord saith in you And again upon these words of the Apostle Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord with which threefold vice saith he all sorts of religious men are less or more dangerously affected because they do not so diligently attend with the ears of the heart to what the Spirit of Truth which flatters none inwardly speaks This was the very basis and main foundation upon which the primitive Reformers walked Luther in his book to the Nobility of Germany saith This is certain that no man can make himself a Doctor of the holy Scripture but the holy Spirit alone And upon the Magnificat he saith No man can rightly understand God or the Word of God unless he immediately receive it from the Holy Spirit neither can any one receive it from the Holy Spirit except he find it by experience in himself and in this experience the Holy Ghost teacheth as in his proper school out of which school nothing is taught but meer talk Philip Melanchton in his Annotations upon the 6. of John Who hear only an outward and bodily voice hear the creature but God is a Spirit and is neither discerned nor known nor heard but by the Spirit and therefore to hear the voice of God to see God is to know and hear the Spirit by the Spirit alone God is known and perceived Which also the more serious to this day do acknowledg even all such who satisfie themselves not with the superfice of Religion and use it not as a cover or art Yea all these who apply themselves effectually to Christianity and are not satisfied until they have found its effectual work upon their hearts redeeming them from Sin do feel that no knowledge effectually prevails to the producing of this but that which proceeds from the warm influence of God's Spirit upon the heart and from the comfortable shinings of his Light upon their understanding and therefore to this purpose a late modern Author saith well videlicer Doctor Smith of Cambridge in his select discourses To seek our Divinity meerly in Books and Writings is to seek the living among the dead we do but in vain many times seek God in these where his Truth is too often not so much enshrined as entombed Intra te quaere Deum seek God within thine own Soul he is best discerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus phraseth it by an intellectual touch of him We must see with our eyes and hear with our ears and our hands must handle the Word of Life to express it in St. John 's words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Soul it self hath its sense as well as the Body And therefore David
and really to have conquered Asâ—â— and overcome Pompey c. This knowledg then of Christ which is not by the Revelation of his own Spirit in the heart is no more properly the knowledg of Christ than the pratling of a Parret which has been taught a few words may be said to be the voice of a man for as that or some other Bird may be taught to sound or utter forth a rational sentence as it hath learned it by the outward ear and not from any living principle of reason actuating it So just such is that knowledg of the things of God which the natural and carnal man hath gathered from the words or writings of Spiritual men which are not true to him because conceived in the natural Spirit and so brought forth by the wrong Organ and not proceeding from the Spiritual Principle no more than the words of a man acquired by art and brought forth by the mouth of a Bird not proceeding from a rational Principle are true with respect to the Bird that utters them Wherefore from this Scripture I shall further add this Argument If no man can say Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost then no man can know Jesus to be the Lord but by the Holy Ghost But the First is true Therefore the Second From this argument there may be another deduced concluding in the very terms of this assertion thus If no man can know Jesus to be the Lord but by the Holy Ghost then can there be no certain knowledg or Revelation of him but by the Spirit But the First is true Therefore the Second § VII The third thing affirmed is That by the Spirit God always revealed himself to his Children For making appear of the truth of this assertion it will be but needful to consider God's manifesting himself towards and in relation to his Creatures from the beginning which resolves it self always herein The First step of all is ascribed hereunto by Moses Gen. 1.2 And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters I think it will not be denied that God's converse with man all along from Adam to Moses was by the immediate manifestation of his Spirit And afterwards through the whole tract of the Law he spake to his Children no otherwaies which as it naturally followeth from the Principles above proved so it cannot be denied by such as acknowledg the Scriptures of Truth to have been written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost For these writings from Moses to Malachy do declare that during all that time God revealed himself to his Children by his Spirit But if any will object that after th dispensation of the Law God's method of speaking was altered I answer first that God spake alwayes immediatly to the Jewes in that he spake always immediatly to the High-Priest from betwixt the Cherubins who when he entered into the Holy of Holys returning did relate to the whole People the voice and will of God there immediately revealed So that his immediate speaking never ceased in any age Secondly from this immediate fellowship were none shut out who earnestly sought after and waited for it in that many besides the High-Priest who were not so much as of the kindred of Levi nor of the Prophets did receive it and speak from it as it is written Numb 11.25 Where the Spirit is said to have rested upon the seventy Elders which Spirit also reached unto two that were not in the Tabernacle but in the Camp whom when some would have forbidden Moses would not but rejoiced wishing all the Lord's people were Prophets and that he would put his Spirit upon them verse 29. This is also confirmed Neh. 9. Where the Elders of the People after their return from captivity when they began to sanctifie themselves by fasting and prayer in which numbring up the many mercies of God towards their Fathers they say ver 20. Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them and ver 30. Yet many years didst thou forbear and testifie against them by thy Spirit in thy Prophets Many are the sayings of Spiritual David to this purpose as Psal. 51.13 Take not thy Holy Spirit from me uphold me with thy free Spirit Psal. 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Hereunto doth the Prophet Isaiah ascribe the credit of his Testimony saying chap. 48. v. 16. And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me And that God revealed himself to his children under the New Testament to wit to the Apostles Evangelists and primitive Disciples is confessed by all How far now this yet continueth and is to be expected comes hereafter to be spoken to § VIII The fourth thing affirmed is that these Revelations were the object of the Saints faith of old This will easily appear by the definition of Faith and considering what its object is For which we shall not dive into the curious and various notions of the School-men but stay in the plain and positive words of the Apostle Paul who Hebr. 11. describes it two ways Faith saith he is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen which as the Apostle illustrateth it in the same chapter by many examples is no other but a firm and certain belief of the mind whereby it resteth and in a sence possesseth the substance of some things hoped for through its confidence in the promise of God And thus the Soul hath a most firm evidence by its faith of things not yet seen nor come to pass The object of this faith is the promse word or testimony of God speaking to the mind Hence it hath been generally affirmed that the object of Faith is Deus loquens c. That is God speaking c. Which is also manifest from all these Examples deduced by the Apostle throughout that whole Chapter whose Faith was founded neither by that outward testimony nor upon the voice and writing of man but upon the revelation of Gods Will manifest unto them and in them as in the Example of Noah ver 7. thus By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his House by the which he condemned the World and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith What was here the object of Noahs Faith but God speaking unto him He had not the Writings nor Prophesyings of any going before nor yet the concurrence of any Church or People to strengthen him and yet his Faith in the Word by which he contradicted the whole World saved him and his House Of which also Abraham is set forth as a singular Example being therefore called the Father of the Faithful who is said against hope to have believed in hope In that he only willingly forsook his Fathers Countrey not knowing whether he went In that he believed concerning the coming of Isaac though contrary to natural probability But above all In that he refused not
but inward and immediate revelation as we have before proved Their example can be no ways applicable to us except we believe in God as they did that is by the same object The Apostle clears this yet further by his own example Gal. 1.16 where he saith so soon as Christ was revealed in him he consulted not with flesh and blood but forthwith believed and obeyed The same Apostle Heb. 13.7 8. where he exhorteth the Hebrews to follow the faith of the Elders adds this reason considering the end of their conversation Jesus Christ the same to day yesterday and for ever hereby notably insinuating that in the object there is no alteration If any now object the diversity of Administration I answer that altereth not at all the object for the same Apostle mentioned this diversity three times 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. centreth always in the same Object the same Spirit the same Lord the same God But further if the object of Faith were not one and the same both to us and to them then it would follow that we were to know God some other way than by the Spirit But this were absurd Therefore c. Lastly this is most firmly proved from a common and received maxim of the School-men to wit Omnis actus specificatur ab objecto every act is specified from its object from which if it be true as they acknowledg tho for the sake of many I shall not recur to this argument as being too nice and Scholastick Neither lay I much stress upon those kind of things as being that which commends not the simplicity of the Gospel If the object were different then the faith would be different also Such as deny this Proposition now adays use here a distinction granting that God is to be known by his Spirit but again denying that it is immediate or inward but in and by the Scriptures in which the mind of the Spirit as they say being fully and amply expressed we are thereby to know God and be led in all things As to the negative of this assertion that the Scriptures are not sufficient neither were ever appointed to be the adequate and only rule nor yet can guide or direct a Christian in all those things that are needful for him to know we shall leave that to the next Proposition to be examined What is proper in this place to be proved is that Christians now are to be led inwardly and immediatly by the Spirit of God even in the same manner though it befal not to many to be led in the same measure as the Saints were of old § X. I shall prove this by divers Arguments and first from the Promise of Christ in these words Joh. 14.16 And I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever 17. Even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Again ver 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and 16.13 But when that Spirit of Truth shall come he shall lead you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak and shall declare unto you things to come We have here first who this is and that is divers wayes expressed to wit The Comforter the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost and sent of the Father in the Name of Christ. And hereby is sufficiently proved the fottishness of those Socinians and other carnal Christians who neither know nor acknowledge any internal Spirit or Power but that which is meerly Natural by which they sufficiently declare themselves to be of the World who cannot receive the Spirit because they neither see him nor know him Secondly Where this Spirit is to be He dwelleth with you and shall be in you And Thirdly What his Work is He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and guide you into all Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to the First Most do acknowledge that there is nothing else understood than what the plain words signifie which is also evident by many other places of Scripture that will hereafter occur Neither do I see how such as affirm otherwayes can avoid Blasphemy For If the Comforter the Holy Ghost and Spirit of Truth be all one with the Scriptures then it will follow that the Scriptures is God seeing it is true that the Holy Ghost is God If these Mens reasoning might take place where ever the Spirit is mentioned in relation to the Saints thereby might be truly and properly understood the Scriptures Which what a non-sensical Monster it would make of the Christian Religion will easily appear to all Men. As where it is said A Manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal it might be rendred thus A manifestation of the Scriptures is given to every man to profit withal What notable sense this would make and what a curious interpretation let us consider by the sequel of the same chapter 1 Cor. 12.9 10 11. To another the gifts of Healing by the same Spirit to another the working of Miracles c. But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will What would now these great masters of Reason the Socinians judge if we should place the Scriptures here instead of the Spirit Would it answer their Reason which is the great guide of their Faith Would it be good and sound Reason in their Logical Schools to affirm that the Scriptures divideth severally as it will and giveth to some the gift of Healing to others the working of Miracles If then this Spirit a manifestation whereof is given to every man to profit withal be no other than that Spirit of Truth before-mentioned which guideth into all Truth this Spirit of Truth cannot be the Scriptures I could infer an hundred more absurdities of this kind upon this sottish Opinion but what is said may suffice For even some of themselves being at times forgetful or ashamed of their own Doctrine do acknowledge that the Spirit of God is another thing and distinct from the Scriptures to guide and influence the Saints Secondly That this Spirit is inward in my opinion needs no interpretation nor commentary He dwelleth with you and shall be in you This indwelling of the Spirit in the Saints as it is a thing most needful to be known and believed so is it as positively asserted in the Scripture as any thing else can be If so be the Spirit of God dwell in you saith the Apostle to the Romans 8.9 and again Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 6.19 Without this the
not led by his Spirit but these feign a Christianity that needs not the Spirit of Christ. He makes no hope of the blessed Resurrection unless we feel the Spirit residing in us but these feign a hope without any such a feeling But perhaps they will answer that they deny not but that it is necessary to have it only of modesty and humility we ought to deny and not acknowledg it What means he then when he commands the Corinthians to try themselves if they be in the Faith to examine themselves whether they have Christ whom whosoever acknowledges not dwelling in him is a reprobate By the Spirit which he hath given us saith John we know that he abideth in us And what do we then else but call in question Christ his promise while we would be esteemed the Servants of God without his Spirit which he declared he would pour out upon all his Seeing these things are the first grounds of Piety it is miserable blindness to accuse Christians of Pride because they dare glory of the presence of the Spirit without which glorying Christianity it self could not be But by their example they declare how truly Christ spake saying that his Spirit was unknown to the world and that those only acknowledg it with whom it remains Thus far Calvin If therefore it be so why should any be so foolish as to deny or so unwise as not to seek after this Spirit which Christ hath promised shall dwell in his Children They then that do suppose the in-dwelling and leading of his Spirit to be ceased must also suppose Christianity to be ceased which cannot subsist without it Thirdly What the work of this Spirit is is partly before shown which Christ compriseth in two or three things He will guide you into all Truth he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance Since Christ hath provided for us so good an instructor what need we then lean so much to those traditions and commandments of Men wherewith so many Christians have Burthened themselves What need we set up our own Carnal and corrupt reason for a guide to us in matters Spiritual as some will needs do May it not be complained of all such as the Lord did of old concerning Israel by the Prophets Jer. 2.13 For my People have commited two Evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that hold no water Have not many forsaken do not many deride and reject this inward and Immediate Guide this Spirit that leads into all Truth and cast up to themselves other ways broken waves indeed which have not all this while brought them out of the flesh nor out of the world nor from under the dominion of their own lusts and sinful affections whereby truth which is only rightly learned by this Spirit is so much a stranger in the Earth From all them that have been mentioned concerning this promise and these words of Christ it will follow that Christians are always to be led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God dwelling in them and that the same is a standing and perpetual Ordinance as well to the Church in general in all ages as to every individual member in particular as appears from this argument The promise of Christ to his Children are Yea and Amen and cannot fail but must of necessity be fulfilled But Christ hath promised that the Comforter the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth shall abide with his Children for ever shall dwell with them shall be in them shall lead them into all Truth shall teach them all things shall bring all things to their remembrance Therefore c. Again No man is redeemed from the carnal mind which is at enmity with God which is not subject to the Law of God neither can be No man is yet in the Spirit but in the flesh and cannot please God except he in whom the Spirit of God dwells But every true Christian is in measure redeemed from the carnal mind is gathered out of the Enmity and can be subject to the Law of God is out of the flesh and in the Spirit the Spirit of God dwelling in him Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him Again Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his that is no Child no Friend no Disciple of Christ. But every true Christian is a Child a Friend a Disciple of Christ. Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ. Moreover Whosoever is the Temple of the Holy Ghost in him the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But every true Christian is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore in every true Christian the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But to conclude He in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth it is not in him a lazy dumb useless thing but it moveth actuateth governeth instructeth and teacheth him all things whatsoever is needfull for him to know yea bringeth all things to his remembrance But the Spirit of God dwelleth in every true Christian Therefore it leadeth instructeth and teacheth every true Christian whatsoever is needful for him to know § XI But there are some that will confess that the Spirit doth now lead and influence the Saints but that he doth it only Subjectively or in ablind manner by inlighting their understandings to understand and believe the Truth delivered in the Scriptures But not at all by presenting these Truths to the mind by way of object and this they call medium incognitum assentiendi as that of whose working a man is not sensible This opinion tho somewhat more tolerable than the former is nevertheless not altogether according to Truth neither doth it reach the fulness of it 1. Because there be many Truths which as they are applicable to particulars and individuals and most needful to be known by them are no wise to be found in the Scripture as in the following Proposition shall be shown Besides the arguments already deduced do prove that the Spirit doth not only subjectively help us to discern Truths elsewhere delivered but also objectively present those Truths to our minds For that which teacheth me all things and is given me for that end without doubt presents those things to my mind which it teacheth me It is not said it shall teach you how to understand those things that are written but it shall teach you all things Again that which brings all things to my remembrance must needs present them by way of object else it were improper to say it brought them to my remembrance but onely that it helpeth to remember the objects brought from elsewhere My second argument shall be drawn from the Nature of the New Covenant by which and those that follow I shall prove that we are led by the Spirit both immediately and objectively the nature of the New Covenant is expressed in divers places and First Isa. 59.21 As for me this is my
unmoveable foundation of all Christian faith which argument when well weighed I hope will have weight with all sorts of Christians and it is this That which all Professors of Christianity of whatsoever kind are forced ultimately to recur unto when pressed to the last That for and because of which all other foundations are recommended and accounted worthy to be believed and without which they are granted to be of no weight at all must needs be the only most true certain and unmovable foundation of all Christian Faith But inward immediate objective revelation by the Spirit is that which all Professors of Christianity of whatsoever kind are forced ultimately to recur unto c. Therefore c. The Proposition is so evident that it will not be denyed The assumption shall be proved by parts And first as to Papists they place their foundation in the judgment of the Church and Tradition If we press them to say why they believe as the Church doth Their answer is because the Church is always led by the infallible Spirit So here the leading of the Spirit is the utmost foundation Again If we ask them why we ought to trust Tradition They answer Because these Traditions were delivered us by the Doctors and Fathers of the Church which Doctors and Fathers by the Revelation of the Holy Ghost commended the Church to observe them Here again all ends in the Revelation of the Spirit And for the Protestants and Socinians both which acknowledg the Scriptures to be the foundation and rule of their Faith the one is subjectively influenced by the Spirit of God to use them the other as manageing them with and by their own Reason Ask both or either of them why they trust in the Scriptures and take them to be their Rule Their answer is Because we have in them the mind of God delivered unto us by those to whom these things were inwardly immediately and objectively revealed by the Spirit of God And not because this or that man wrote them but because the Spirit of God dictated them It is strange then that men should render that so uncertain and dangerous to follow upon which alone the certain ground and foundation of their own faith is Built Or that they should shut themselves out from that Holy Fellowship with God which only is enjoyed in the Spirit in which we are commanded both to walk and live If any reading these things find themselves moved by the strength of these Scripture arguments to assent and believe such Revelations necessary and yet find themselves strangers to them which as I observed in the beginning is the cause that this is so much gain-said and contradicted Let them know that it is not because it is ceased to become the priviledge of every Christian that they do not feel it but rather because they are not so much Christians by Nature as by Name and let such know that the secret Light which shines in the heart and reproves unrighteousness is the small beginnings of the Revelation of God's Spirit which was first sent into the world to reprove it of Sin John 16.8 And as by forsaking Iniquity thou com'st to be acquainted with that Heavenly voice in thy heart thou shalt feel as the Old man the Natural man that savoureth not the things of God's Kingdom is put off with his evil and corrupt affections and Lusts I say thou shalt feel the New Man the Spiritual birth and Babe raised which hath its Spiritual Sences and can see feel taste handle and smell the things of the Spirit but till then the knowledg of things Spiritual is but as an historical Faith but as the description of the Light of the Sun or of curious Colours to a blind man who though of the largest capacity cannot so well understand it by the most acute and lively description as a child can by seeing them So neither can the natural man of the large capacity by the best words even Scripture words so well understand the Mysteries of God's Kingdom as the least and weakest child who tasteth them by having them revealed inward and objectively by the Spirit Wait then for this in the small Revelation of that pure Light which first reveals things more known and as thou becom'st fitted for it thou shalt receive more and more and by a living experience easily refute their Ignorance who ask how dost thou know that thou art acted by the Spirit of God which will appear to thee a question no less ridiculous then to ask one whose eyes are open how he knows the Sun shines at Noon-day and though this be the surest and certainest way to answer all objections yet by what is above written it may appear that the mouths of all such opposers as deny this Doctrine may be shut by unquestionable and unanswerable reasons The Third Proposition Concerning the Scriptures From these Revelations of the Spirit of God to the Saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth which contain I. A faithful historical account of the actings of Gods People in divers ages with many singular and remarkable Providences attending them II. A Prophetical account of several things whereof some are already past and some yet to come III. A full and ample account of all the chief Principles of the Doctrine of Christ held forth in divers precious Declarations Exhortotions and Sentences which by the moving of God's Spirit were at several times and upon sundry occasions spoken and written unto some Churches and their Pastors Nevertheless because they are only a Declaration of the Fountain and not the Fountain it self therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all Truth and Knowledg nor yet the adequate primary Rule of Faith and manners Yet because they give a true and faithful Testimony of the first Foundation they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule subordinate to the Spirit from which they have all their excellency and certainty for as by the inward Testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them so they testifie that the Spirit is that Guide by which the Saints are led into all Truth therefore according to the Scriptures the Spirit is the First and Principal Leader Seeing then that we do therefore receive and believe the Scriptures because they proceeded from the Spirit for the very same reason is the Spirit more Originally and Principally the Rule according to that received Maxime in the Schools Propter quod unumquodque est tale iliud ipsum est magis tale That for which a thing is such the thing it self is more such § I. THe former part of this Proposition though it needs no Apology for it yet it is a good Apology for us and will help to sweep away that among many other Calumnys wherewith we are often loaded as if we were vilifiers and deniers of the Scriptures for in that which we affirm of them it doth appear at what high rate we value them accounting them without all
is ascribed and imputed to Believers for Righteousness the merit of his Blood and the Holy Ghost given unto us by Vertue of his merits are equally included And so it shall be confessed that Christ is our Righteousness as well from his Merit Satisfaction and Remission of sins obtained by him as from the gifts of the Spirit of Righteousness And if we do this we shall consider whole Christ proposed to us for our Salvation and not any single part of him The same man pag. 169. In our Justification then Christ is considered who breaths and lives in us to wit by his Spirit put on by us concerning which putting on the Apostle saith Ye have put on Christ. And again pag. 171. We endeavour to treat in Justification not of part of Christ but him wholly in so far as he is our Righteousness every way And a little after as then blessed Paul in our Justification when he saith whom he Justified them he Glorified comprehends all things which pertains to our being reconciled to God the Father and our renewing which fits us for attaining unto glory such as Faith Righteousness Christ and the Gift of Righteousness exhibited by him whereby we are regenerated to the fulfilling of the Justification which the Law requires so we also will have all things comprehended in this cause which are contained in the recovery of Righteousness and Innocency And pag. 181. The form saith he of our Justification is the Divine Righteousness it self by which we are formed just and good This is Jesus Christ who is esteem'd our Righteousness partly from the forgiveness of sins and partly from the renewing and the restoring of that integrity which was lost by the fault of the first Adam so that his New and Heavenly Adam being put on by us of which the Apostle saith Ye have put on Christ ye have put him on I say as the form so the Righteousness Wisdom and Life of God So also affirmeth Claudius Alberius Inuncanus see his Orat. Apodeict Lausaniae excus 1587. orat 2. pag. 86 87. Zuinglius also in his Epistle to the Princes of Germany as cited by Himelius c. 7. p. 60. saith That the Sanctification of the Spirit is true Justification which alone suffices to Justifie Essius upon 1 Cor. 6.11 saith Lest Christian Righteousness should be thought to consist in the washing alone that is in the remission of sins he addeth the other degree or part but ye are sanctified that is ye have attain'd to purity so that ye are now truly Holy before God Lastly expressing the sum of the benefit received in one word which includes both the parts But ye are Justified the Apostle adds in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that is by his merits and in the Spirit of our God that is the Holy Spirit proceeding from God and communicated to us by Christ. And lastly Richard Baxter a Famous English Preacher who yet liveth in his Book called Aphorisms of Justification pag. 80. saith that some ignorant wretches gnash their Teeths at this Doctrine as if it were flat Popery not understanding the Nature of the Righteousness of the New Covenant which is all out of Christ in our selves though wrought by the Power of the Spirit of Christ in us § IX The third thing proposed to be considered is concerning good Works their necessity to Justification I suppose there is enough said before to clear us from any imputation of being Popish in this matter But if it be queried Whether we have not said or will not affirm that a man is justified by Works Quest. I answer I hope none need neither ought to take offence if in this matter we use the plain Language of the Holy Scripture Answ. which saith expresly in answer hereunto Jam. 2.24 Ye see then how that by works a man is Justified and not by Faith only I shall not offer to prove the Truth of this saying since what is said in this Chapter by the Apostle is sufficient to convince any man that will read and believe it I shall only from this derive this one argument If no man can be Justified without Faith and no Faith be living nor yet available to Justification without works then works are necessary to Justification But the First is true Therefore also the Last For this Truth is so apparent and evident in the Scriptures that for the proof of it we might transcribe most of the precepts of the Gospel I shall instance a few which of themselves do so clearly assert the thing in question that they need no commentary nor further demonstration And then I shall answer the objections made against this which indeed are the arguments used for the contrary opinion Heb. 12.14 Without Holyness no man shall see God Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Joh. 13.7 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and through the Gates may enter into the City and many more that might be instanced from all which I thus argue If those only can enter into the Kingdom that do the will of the Father If those be accounted only the wise builders and happy Arg. that do the sayings of Christ if no observation avail but only the keeping of the Commandments and if they be blessed that do the Commandments and thereby have right to the Tree of Life and entrance through the gate into the City then works are absolutely necessary to Salvation and Justification But the First is true And therefore also the Last The consequence of the antecedent is so clear and evident that I think no man of sound reason will call for a proof of it Obj. § X. But they object that works are not necessary to Justification First because of that saying of Christ Luk. 17.10 When ye shall have done all these things that are commanded you say We are unprofitable Servants c. Answ. Answer as to God we are indeed unprofitable for he needeth nothing neither can we add any thing unto him but as to our selves we are not unprofitable else it might be said that it is not profitable for a man to keep God's Commandments which is most absurd and would contradict Christ's Doctrine throughout Doth not Christ Matth. 5. through all those beatitudes pronounce men blessed for their Purity for their Meekness for their Peaceableness c. And is it not then that for which Christ pronounceth men blessed profitable unto them Moreover Matth. 25.21 23. doth not Christ pronounce the men good and faithful Servants that improved their Talents Was not their doing of that then profitable unto them and verse 30. It is said of him
and ought so to be understood doth appear from the other part By the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost seeing Regeneration is a work comprehensive of many good works even of all those which are called the Fruits of the Spirit Now in case it should be objected that these may also be called ours because wrought in us and also by us many times as instruments I answer It is far otherwise than the former for in the first we are yet alive in our own natural state unrenewed working of our selves seeking to save our selves by imitating and endeavouring a conformity to the outward Letter of the Law and so wrestling and striving in the carnal mind that is enmity to God and in the cursed will not yet subdued But in this second we are Crucified with Christ we are become dead with him have partaken of the Fellowship of his sufferings are made conformable to his death and our first man our old man with all his deeds as well the openly wicked as the seeming righteous our legal endeavours and foolish wrestlings are all buried and nailed to the Cross of Christ and so it is no more we but Christ alive in us the Worker in us So that though it be we in a sense yet it is according to that of the Apostle to the same Gal. c. 2. v. 20. I am Crucified yet nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me not I but the Grace of Christ in me These works are especially to be ascribed to the Spirit of Christ and the Grace of God in us as being immediately thereby acted and led in them and enabled to perform them And this manner of speech is not strained but familiar to the Apostles as appears Gal. 2.8 For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the Circumcision the same was mighty in me c. Phil. 2.13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do c. So that it appears by this place that since the washing of Regeneration is necessary to Justification and that Regeneration comprehends works works are necessary and that these works of the Law that are excluded are different from these that are necessary and admitted § XI Thirdly they object that no works yea not the works of Christ in us can have place in Justification Obj. because nothing that is impure can be useful in it and all the works wrought in us are impure For this they alledg that saying of the Prophet Isaiah c. 64. v. 6. All our Righteousness are as filthy rags adding this reason that seeing we are impure so must our works be which though good in themselves yet as performed by us they receive a tincture of impurity even as a clean water passing through an unclean pipe is defiled That no impure works are useful to Justification is confessed Answ. but that all the works wrought in the Saints are such is denyed And for answer to this the former distinction will serve We confess that the first sort of works above mentioned are impure but not the Second because the first are wrought in the unrenewed state but not the other And as for that of Isaiah it must relate to the first kind for though he saith all our Righteousness are as filthy rags yet that will not comprehend the Righteousness of Christ in us but only that which we work of and by our selves For should we so conclude then it would follow that we should throw away all Holyness and Righteousness since that which is filthy rags and as a menstruous Garment ought to be thrown away yea it would follow that all the Fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 4. were as filthy rags whereas on the contrary some of the works of the Saints are said to have a sweet savour in the nostrils of the Lord are said to be an Ornament of great price in the sight of God are said to prevail with him and to be acceptable to him which filthy rags and a menstruous garment cannot be Yea many Famous Protestants have acknowledged that this place is not therefore so to be understood Calvin upon this place saith That it is used to be cited by some that they may prove there is so little merit in our works that they are before God filthy and defiled but this seems to me to be different from the Prophets mind saith he seeing he speaks not here of all mankind Musculus upon this place saith that it was usual for this People to presume much of their legal Righteousness as if thereby they were made clean nevertheless they had no more cleanness than the unclean Garment of a man Others expone this place concerning all the Righteousness of our Flesh that opinion indeed is true Yet I think that the Prophet did rather accommodate these sayings to the impurity of that People in legal terms The Author commonly supposed Bertius speaking concerning the true sense of the 7 Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans hath a digression touching this of Isaiah saying This place is commonly corrupted by a pernicious wresting for it is still alledged as if the meaning thereof inferred the most excellent works of the best Christians c. James Coret a French Minister in the Church of Basil in his Apology concerning Justification against Alescales saith Nevertheless according to the counsel of certain good men I must admonish the Reader that it never come into our minds to abuse that saying of Isa. 64.6 against good works in which it is said that all our Righteousness are as filthy rags as if we would have that which is good in our good works and proceedeth from the Holy Spirit to be esteemed as a filthy and unclean thing § XII As to the other part that seeing the best of men are still impure and imperfect therefore their works must be so It is to beg the question and depends upon a Proposition denyed and which is to be discussed at further length in the next Proposition But tho we should suppose a man not throughly perfect in all respects yet will not that hinder but good and perfect works in their kind may be brought forth in them by the Spirit of Christ neither doth the Example of Water going through an unclean Pipe hit the matter because though Water may be capable to be tinctured with uncleanness yet the Spirit of God cannot whom we assert to be the immediate Author of those works that avail in Justification and therefore Jesus Christ his works in his Children are pure and perfect and he worketh in and through that pure thing of his own forming and creating in them Moreover if this did hold according to our Adversaries Supposition that no man ever was or can be perfect it would follow that the very Miracles and works of the Apostles which Christ wrought in them and they wrought in and by the Power Spirit and Grace of Christ were also impure and imperfect
would affirm it never attainable then should there never be a place known by the Saints in this world wherein they might be free of doubting and despair Which as it is most absurd in it self so it is contrary to the manifest experience of thousands Thirdly God hath given to many of his Saints and children and is ready to give unto all a full and certain assurance that they are his and that no power shall be able to pluck them out of hand But this assurance would be no assurance if those who are so assured were not established and confirmed beyond all doubt and hesitation If so then surely there is no possibility for such to miss of that which God hath assured them of And that there is such assurance attainable in this life the Scripture abundantly declareth both in general and as to particular persons As first Rev. 3. v. 12. him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out c. which containeth a general promise unto all Hence the Apostle speaks of some that are sealed 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts Wherefore the Spirit so sealing is called the earnest or pledge of our inheritance Eph. 1.13 In whom ye were sealed by the holy Spirit of Promise And therefore the Apostle Paul not only in that of the Romans above nored declareth himself to have attained that condition but 2 Tim. 4.7 he affirmeth in these words I have fought a good fight c. which also many good men have and do witness And therefore as there can be nothing more manifest than that which the manifest experience of this time sheweth and therein is found agreeable to the experience of former times so we see there have been both of old and of late that have turned the Grace of God into wantonness that have faln from their faith and integrity thence we may safely conclude such a falling away possible We also see that some of old and of late have attained a certain assurance sometime before they departed that they should inherit eternal life and have accordingly dyed in that good hope Of and concerning whom the Spirit of God testified That they are saved Wherefore we also see that such a state is attainable in this life from which there is not a falling away For seeing the Spirit of God did so testifie it was not possible that they should perish concerning whom he who cannot lye thus bare witness The Tenth Proposition Concerning the Ministry As by this Light or Gift of God all true knowledge in things Spiritual is received and revealed so by the same as it is manifested and received in the heart by the strength and power thereof every true Minister of the Gospel is ordained prepared and supplyed in the work of the Ministry and by the leading moving and drawing hereof ought every Evangelist and Christian Pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the Gospel both as to the place where as to the persons to whom and as to the time wherein he is to minister Moreover who have this authority may and ought to preach the Gospel though without hamane Commission or Literature as on the other hand who want the Authority of this Divine Gift however learned or authorized by the Commission of Men and Churches are to be esteemed but as deceivers and not true Ministers of the Gospel Also who have received this holy and unspotted Gift as they have freely received it so are they freely to give it without hire or bargaining far less to use it as a Trade to get Money by yet if God hath called any one from their Employments or Trades by which they acquire their Lively-hood it may be lawful for such according to the liberty which they feel given them in the Lord to receive such temporals to wit what may be needful for them for meat and clothing as are given them freely and cordially by those to whom they have communicated Spirituals § I. HItherto I have treated of those things which relate to the Christian Faith and Christians as they stand each in his private and particular condition and how and what way every man may be a Christian indeed and so abide Now I come in order to speak of those things that relate to Christians as they are stated in a joynt fellowship and Communion and come under a visible and outward society which society is called the Church of God and in Scripture compared to a body and therefore named the Body of Christ. As then in the natural body there be divers members all concurring to the common end of preserving and confirming the whole body so in this Spiritual and mystical Body there are also divers according to the different measures of Grace and of the Spirit diversly administred unto each member and from this diversity ariseth that distinction of persons in the visible Society of Christians as of Apostles Pastors Evangelists Ministers c. That which in this Proposition is proposed is What makes or constitutes any a Minister of the Church what his qualifications ought to be and how he ought to behave himself But because it may seem somewhat preposterous to speak of the distinct Offices of the Church until something be said concerning the Church in general though nothing positively be said of it in the Proposition yet as here implied I shall briefly premise something thereof and then proceed to the particular members of it § II. It is not in the least my design to meddle with those tedious and many controversies wherewith the Papists and Protestants do tear one another concerning this thing but only according to the Truth manifested to me and revealed in me by the testimony of the Spirit according to that proportion of wisdom given me briefly to hold forth as a necessary introduction both to this matter of the Ministry and of Worship which followeth those things which I together with my Brethren do believe concerning the Church The Church then according to the grammatical signification of the word as it is used in the Holy Scripture signifies an assembly or gathering of many into one place for the Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call out of and originally from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call and indeed as this is the grammatical sense of the word so also it is the real and proper signification of the thing the Church being no other thing but the society gathering or company of such as God hath called out of the World and worldly Spirit to walk in his LIGHT and LIFE The Church then so designed is to be considered as it comprehends all that are thus called and gathered truly by God both such as are yet in this inferiour World and such as having already laid down the earthy Tabernacle are passed into their
other are still moved either to preach pray and praise and so in this our Meetings cannot be but like the Meetings of the primitive Churches recorded in Scripture since our adversaries confess that they did preach and pray by the Spirit And then what absurdity is it to suppose that at sometimes the Spirit did not move them to these outward acts and that then they were silent since we may well conclude they did not speak until they were moved and so no doubt had sometimes silence Acts 2.1 Before the Spirit came upon them it is said They were all with one accord in one place and then it is said the Spirit suddenly came upon them but no mention is made of any one speaking at that time and I would willingly know what absurdity our adversaries can infer should we conclude they were a while silent But if it be urged that a whole silent meeting cannot be found in Scripture I answer supposing such a thing were not recorded it will not therefore follow that it is not lawful Answ. seeing it naturally followeth from other Scripture precepts as we have proved this doth for seeing the Scripture commands to meet together and when met the Scripture prohibits prayers or preachings but as the Spirit moveth thereunto if People met together and the Spirit move not to such acts it will necessarily follow that they must be silent But further there might have been many such things among the Saints of old though not recorded in Scripture and yet we have enough in Scripture signifying that such things were For Job sate silent seven daies with his Friends together here was a long silent meeting See also Ezra c. 9.4 and Ezekiel c. 1.14 20.1 Thus having shewn the excellency of this Worship proving it from Scripture and Reason and answered the objections which are commonly made against it which though it may suffice to the explanation and probation of our Proposition yet I shall add something more particularly of Preaching Praying and Singing and so proceed to the following Proposition § XVIII Preaching as it 's used both among Papists and Protestants is for one man to take some place or verse of Scripture and thereon speak for an hour or two what he hath studied and premiditated in his Closet and gathered together from his own inventions or from the writings and observations of others and then having got it by heart as a school boy doth his lesson he brings it forth and repeats it before the people and how much the fertiler and stronger a man's invention is and the more industrious and laborous he is in collecting such observations and can utter them with the excellency of speech and humane eloquence so much the more is he accounted an able and excellent preacher To this we oppose that when the Saints are met together and every one gathered to the Gift and Grace of God in themselves he that ministreth being acted thereunto by the arising of the Grace in himself ought to speak forth what the Spirit of God furnisheth him with not minding the eloquence and wisdom of words but the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power and that either in the interpreting some part of Scripture in case the Spirit which is the good Remembrancer lead him so to do or otherwise words of exhortation advice reproof and instruction or the sense of some spiritual experiences all which will still be agreeable to the Scripture though perhaps not relative to nor founded upon any particular chapter or verse as a text Now let us examine and consider which of these two sorts of preaching be most agreeable to the Precepts and Practice of Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Church recorded in Scripture For First as to their Preaching upon a text if it were not meerly customary or premeditated but done by the immediate motion of the Spirit we should not blame it but to do it as they do there is neither precept nor practice that ever I could observe in the New Testament as a part of the instituted Worship thereof But they alledge that Christ took the Book of Isaiah and read out of it and spake therefrom and that Peter Preached from a sentence of the Prophet Joel I answer That Christ and Peter did it not but as immediately acted and moved thereunto by the Spirit of God and that without premeditation which I suppose our Adversaries will not deny in which case we willingly approve of it but what is this to their customary conned way without either waiting for or expecting the movings or leadings of the Spirit Moreover that neither Christ nor Peter did it as a setled custom or form to be constantly practised by all the Ministers of the Church appears in that most of all the Sermons recorded by Christ and his Apostles in Scripture were without this as appears from Christ's Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 5.1 c. Mark 4.1 c. and Paul's Preaching to the Athenians and to the Jews c. As then it appears that this method of Preaching is not grounded upon any Scripture precept so the nature of it is contrary to the preaching of Christ under the New Covenant as exprest and recommended in Scripture for Christ in sending forth his Disciples expresly mentioneth that they are not to speak of or from themselves or to sore cast before hand but that which the Spirit in the same hour shall teach them as is particularly mentioned in the three Evangelists Matth. 10.20 Mark 13.11 Luke 12.12 Now if Christ gave this order to his Disciples before he departed from them as that which they were to practice during his abode outwardly with them much more were they to do it after his departure since then they were more especially to receive the Spirit to lead them in all things and to bring all things to their remembrance John 14.26 And if they were to do so when they appeared before the Magistrates and Princes of the Earth much more in the Worship of God when they stand specially before him seeing as is above shewn his Worship is to be performed in Spirit and therefore after their receiving of the Holy Ghost it is said Acts 2.4 they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance not what they had studied and gathered from Books in their Closets in a premeditated way Franciscus Lambertus before cited speaketh well and sheweth their Hypocrisie Tract 5. of Prophecy chap. 3. saying Where are they now that glory in their Inventions who say A brave Invention a brave invention This they call invention which themselves have made up but what have the Faithful to do with such kind of Inventions It is not figments nor yet Inventions that we will have but things that are solid invincible eternal and heavenly not which men have invented but which God hath revealed for if we believe the Scripture our invention profiteth nothing but to provoke God to our ruin And afterwards Beware saith he that
Text Eph. 4.5 One Lord one Faith one Baptism where the Apostle positively and plainly affirms that as there is but one Body one Spirit one Faith one God c. so there is but one Baptism As to what is commonly alledged by way of explanation upon the Text Obj. that the Baptism of Water and of the Spirit make up this one Baptism by vertue of the Sacramental Vnion I answer This exposition hath taken place not because grounded upon the Testiomy of the Scripture Answ. but because it wrests the Scripture to make it sute to their principle of Water-baptism and so there needs no other reply but to deny it as being repugnant to the plain words of the Text which saith not that there are Two Baptisms to wit one of Water the other of the Spirit which do make up one Baptism but plainly that there is one Baptism as there is One Faith and One God Now there goeth not two Faiths nor two Gods nor two Spirits nor two Bodies whereof the one is Outward and Elementary and the other Spiritual and Pure to the making up of the one Faith the one God the one Body and the one Spirit so neither ought there to go Two Baptisms to make up the One Baptism But secondly if it be said the baptism is but one whereof water is the one part to wit the sign and the spirit the thing signified the other I answer this yet more confirmeth our doctrin for if water be only the sign it is not the matter of the one Baptism as shall further hereafter by its definition appear in Scripture and we are to take the one baptism for the matter of it not for tbe sign or figure and type that went before even as where Christ is called the one Offering in Scripture though he was tipified by many Sacrifices and Offerings under the Law we understand only by the One Offering his offering himself upon the Cross whereof though those many Offerings were signs and tipes yet we say not that they go together with that Offering of Christ to make up the one Offering so neither though Water-baptism was a sign of Christs Baptism will it follow that it goeth now to make up the Baptism of Christ. If any should be so absurd as to affirm that this one Baptism here were the Baptism of Water and not of the Spirit that were foolishly to contradict the positive testimony of the Scripture which saith the contrary as by what followeth will more amply appear Secondly that this one Baptism which is the Baptism of Christ is not a washing with water appears first from the testimony of John the proper and peculiar administrator of water baptism Matth. 3.11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose Shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Here John mentions two manner of baptisings and two different baptisms the one with water and the other with the Spirit the one whereof he was the Minister of the other whereof Christ was the Minister of and such as were baptized with the first were not therefore baptized with the second I indeed baptize you but he shall baptize you Though in the present time they were baptized with the baptism of water yet they were not as yet but were to be baptized with the Baptism of Christ. From all which I thus argue If those that were baptized with the baptism of water were not therefore baptized with the Baptism of Christ then the baptism of water is not the Baptism of Christ But the first is true Therefore also the last And again If he that truly and really administred the baptism of water did not withstanding declare that he neither could nor did baptize with the Baptism of Christ then the Baptism of Water is not the Baptism of Christ. But the first is true Thereforefore c. And indeed to understand it otherwise would make John's words void of good sense for if their baptism had been all one why should he have so precisely contradistinguish them Why should he have said that those whom he had already baptized should yet be be baptized by another baptism Obj. If it be urged that Baptism with Water was the one part and that with the Spirit the other part or effect only of the former Answ. I answer this exposition contradicts the plain words of the text for he saith not I baptize you with Water and he that cometh after shall produce the effects of this my Baptism in you by the Spirit c. or he shall accomplish this baptism in you but he shall baptize you So then if we understand the word truly and properly when he saith I baptize you as consenting that thereby is really signified that he did baptize with the baptism of water we must needs unless we offer violence to the text understand the other part of the sentence the same way that where he adds presently but he shall baptize you c. that he understood it of their being truly to be baptized with another baptism than what he did baptize with Else it had been nonsense for him for thus to have contradistinguished them Secondly this is further confirmed by the saying of Christ himself Acts 1.4 5. but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he ye have heard of me For John truly baptized with Water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many daies hence There can scarce two places of Scripture run more parallel than this doth with the former a little before mentioned and therefore concludeth the same way as did the other For Christ here grants fully that John compleated his baptism as to the matter and substance of it John saith he truly baptized with water which is as much as if he had said John did truly and fully administer the baptism of water But ye shall be baptized with c. This sheweth that they were to be baptized with some other baptism than the baptism of water and that although they were formerly baptized with the baptism of water yet not with that of Christ which they were to be baptized with Thirdly Peter observes the same distinction Acts 11.16 Then remembred I the word of the Lord how that he said John indeed baptized with Water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost The Apostle makes this application upon the Holy Ghost's falling upon them Whence he infers that they were then baptized with the baptism of the Spirit As to what is urged from his calling afterwards for water to it shall be hereafter spoken From all which three sentences realtive one to another first of John secondly of Christ and thirdly of Peter it doth evidently follow that such as were truly and really baptized with the baptism of water were notwithstanding not baptized with the baptism of the Spirit which is that of Christ and such as truly and
own Eternal Word and Power so no Creature has access again unto him but in and by the Son according to his own express words No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Matth. 11.27 Luk. 10.22 And again he himself saith I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 Hence he is fitly called the Mediator betwixt God and Man For having been with God from all Eternity being himself God and also in time partaking of the nature of man through him is the goodness and love of God conveighed to mankind and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies Hence is easily deduced the probation of this first Assertion thus If no man know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him then there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son But no man knoweth the Father but the Son Therefore there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son The first part of the antecedent are the plain words of Scripture The consequence thereof is undeniable except one would say that he hath the knowledge of the Father while yet he knows him not which were an absurd repugnance Again If the Son be the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him then there is no knowledg of the Father but by the Son But the first is true Therefore the last The antecedent are the very Scripture words The consequence is very evident For how can any know a thing who useth not the way without which it is not knowable But it is already proved that there is no other way but by the Son so that who so uses not that way cannot know him neither come unto him § VI. Having then laid down this first Principle I come to the second viz. That there is no Knowledg of the Son but by the Spirit or that the Revelation of the Son of God is by the Spirit Where it is to be noted that I alwayes speak of the saving certain and necessary Knowledge of God which that it cannot be acquired otherwayes than by the Spirit doth also appear from many clear Scriptures For Jesus Christ in and by whom the Father is revealed doth also reveal himself to his Disciples and Friends in and by his Spirit as his manifestation was sometimes outwards when he testified and witnessed for the Truth in this World and approved himself faithful throughout So being now withdrawn as to the outward man he doth teach and instruct mankind inwardly by his own Spirit he standeth at the door and knocketh and who so heareth his Voice and openeth he comes in to such Rev. 3.20 Of this Revelation of Christ in him Paul speaketh Gal. 1.6 in which he placeth the excellency of his Ministry and the certainty of his Calling And the Promise of Christ to his Disciples Lo I am with you to the end of the World confirmeth this same thing for this is an inward Presence and Spiritual as all acknowledg But what relates hereto will again occur I shall deduce the proof of this Proposition from two manifest places of Scripture The first is 1 Cor. 2.11 12. What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God The Apostle in the verses before speaking of the wonderful things which are prepared for the Saints after he hath declared that the natural man cannot reach them adds that they are revealed by the Spirit of God ver 9 10. giving this reason for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And then he bringeth in the comparison in the verses above mentioned very apt and answerable to our purpose and Doctrine that as the things of a man are only known by the Spirit of man so the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God that is that as nothing below the Spirit of man as the Spirit of Brutes or any other Creatures can properly reach unto nor comprehend the things of a man as being of a more noble and higher Nature so neither can the Spirit of man or the natural man as the Apostle in the 14 verse subsumes receive nor discern the things of God or the things that are Spiritual as being also of a higher Nature which the Apostle himself gives for the reason saying neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned So that the Apostles words being reduced to an argument do very well prove the matter under debate thus If that which appertaineth properly to man cannot be discerned by any lower or baser Principle than the Spirit of man then cannot these things that properly relate unto God and Christ be known or discerned by any lower or baser thing than the Spirit of God and Christ. But the First is true Therefore also the Second The whole strength of the argument is contained in the Apostles words before mentioned which therefore being granted I shall proceed to deduce a second argument thus That which is Spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God But the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledg of him is Spiritual Therefore the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledge of him can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God The other Scripture is also a saying of the same Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Scripture which is full of Truth and answereth full well to the inlightned understanding of the Spiritual and real Christian may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked Here the Apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian that he positively averrs we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it which insinuates no less than that the Spiritual Truths of the Gospel are as lyes in the Mouths of carnal and unspiritual men for though in themselves they be true yet are they not true as to them because not known nor uttered forth in and by that Principle and Spirit that ought to direct the mind and actuat it in such things they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy neither can it be more truly and properly called a real and true knowledg of God and Christ than the actings of Alexander the great and Julius Caesar c. if now transacted upon a Stage might be called truly and really their doings or the persons representing them might be said truly
Apostle reckoneth no man a Christian. If any man saith he have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his These words immediately follow those above-mentioned out of the Epistle to the Romans but ye are not in the Flesh if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you The context of which sheweth that the Apostle reckoneth it the main token of a Christian both positively and negatively For in the former verses he sheweth how the carnal mind is enmity against God and that such as are in the Flesh cannot please him Where subsuming he adds concerning the Romans that they are not in the Flesh if the Spirit of God dwell in them What is this but to affirm that they in whom the Spirit dwells are no longer in the Flesh nor of those who please not God but are become Christians indeed Again In the next verse he concludes negatively that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his that is he is no Christian. He then that acknowledges himself ignorant and a stranger to the inward in being of the Spirit of Christ in his Heart doth thereby acknowledge himself to be yet in the carnal mind which is enmity to God to be yet in the Flesh where God cannot be pleased and in short whatever he may otherwayes know or believe of Christ or however much skilled or acquainted with the Letter of the Holy Scripture not yet to be notwithstanding all that attained to the least desire of a Christian yea not once to have embraced the Christian Religion For take but away the Spirit and Christianity remains no more Christianity than the dead Carcass of a Man when the Soul and Spirit is departed remains a man which the living can no more abide but to bury out of their sight as a noisome and useless thing however acceptable it hath been when actuated and moved by the Soul Lastly Whatsoever is Excellent whatsoever is Noble whatsoever is Worthy whatsoever is Desireable in the Christian Faith is ascribed to this Spirit without which it could no more subsist than the outward World without the Sun Hereunto have all true Christians in all Ages attributed their Strength and Life It is by this Spirit that they avouch themselves to have been converted to God to have been redeemed from the World to have been strengthened in their Weakness comforted in their Afflictions confirmed in their Temptations imboldened in their Suffering and triumphed in the midst of all their Persecutions Yea The Writings of all true Christians are full of the great and notable things which they all affirm themselves to have done by the Power and Vertue and Efficacy of the Spirit of God working in them It is the Spirit that quickeneth Joh. 6.63 It was the Spirit that gave them utterance Act. c. 2.4 It was the Spirit by which Stephen spake That the Jews were not able to resist Acts 6.10 It is such as walk after the Spirit that receive no condemnation Rom. 8.1 It is the Law of the Spirit that makes free ver 2. It is by the Spirit of God dwelling in us that we are redeemed from the Flesh and from the carnal mind v. 9. It is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us that quickneth our mortal Bodies v. 11. It is through this Spirit that the deeds of the Body are mortified and Life obtained ver 13. It is by this Spirit that we are adopted and cry ABBA Father v. 15. It is this Spirit that beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God v. 16. It is this Spirit that helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us with grâ—anings which cannot be uttered 26. It is by this Spirit that the glorious things which God hath laid up for us which neither outward Ear hath heard nor outward Eye hath seen nor the Heart of Man conceived by all his Reasonings are revealed unto us 1 Cor. 2.9 10. It is by this Spirit that both Wisdom and Knowledg and Faith and Miracles and Tongues and Prophesies are obtained 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. It is by this Spirit that we are all baptized into one Body v. 13. In short what things relating to the Salvation of the Soul and to the Life of a Christian is rightly performed or effectually obtained without it And what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of all those things which the Holy Men of Old have declared and the Saints of this day do witness themselves to enjoy by the vertue and power of this Spiritual dwelling in them Truely my Paper could not contain those many Testimonies whereby this Truth is confirmed wherefore besides what is above mentioned out of the Fathers whom all pretend to reverence and these of Luther and Melancthon I shall deduce yet one observable Testimony out of Calvin because not a few of the followers of his Doctrine do refuse and deride and that as it is to be feared because of their own Non-experience thereof this way of the Spirit 's in-dwelling as uncertain and dangerous that so if neither the Testimony of the Scripture nor the sayings of others nor right reason can move them they may at least be reproved by the words of their own Master who saith in the third book of his Institutions cap. 2. on this wise But they alledg it is a bold presumption for any one to pretend to an undoubted knowledg of God's will which saith he I should grant unto them if we should ascribe so much to our selves as to subject the incomprehensible counsel of God to the rashness of our understandings But while we simply say with Paul that we have received not the Spirit of this World but the Spirit which is of God by whose teaching we know those things that are given us of God What can they prate against it without reproaching the Spirit of God For if it be a horrible Sacriledg to accuse any Revelation coming from him either of a lye of uncertainty or ambiguity in asserting its certainty wherein we do offend But they cry out that it is not without great temerity that we dare so boast of the Spirit of Christ. Who would believe that the sottishness of these men were so great who would be esteemed the masters of the world that they should so fail in the first Principles of Religion Verily I could not believe it if their own writings did not testify so much Paul accounts those the Sons of God who are acted by the Spirit of God but these will have the Children of God acted by their own Spirits without the Spirit of God He will have us call God Father the Spirit dictating that term unto us which only can witness to our Spirits that we are the Sons of God These tho they cease not to call upon God do nevertheless demit the Spirit by whose guiding he is rightly to be called upon He denies them to be the Sons of God or the Servants of Christ who are
granted that place the Scriptures themselves give it I do freely concede to the Scripture the second place even whatsoever they say of themselves Which the Apostle Paul chiefly mentions in two places Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture given by inspiration from God is profitable for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work For tho God do principally and chiefly lead us by his Spirit yet he sometimes conveys his comfort and consolation to us through his Children whom he raises up and inspires to speak or write a word in season whereby the Saints are made instruments in the hand of the Lord to strengthen and encourage one another which do also tend to perfect and make them wise unto Salvation and such as are led by the Spirit cannot neglect but do natural love and are wonderfully cherished by that which proceedeth from the same Spirit in another because such mutual emanations of the heavenly Life tend to quicken the mind when at any time it is overtaken with heaviness Peter himself declares this to have been the end of his writing 2 Pet. 1.12 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwaies in remembrance of those things tho ye know them and be established in the present Truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance God is Teacher of his People himself and there is nothing more express than that such as are under the New Covenant they need no man to teach them yet it was a fruit of Christ's Ascension to send Teachers and Pastors for perfecting of the Saints So that the same work is ascribed to the Scriptures as to Teachers the one to make the man of God perfect the other for the perfection of the Saints As then Teachers are not to go before the teaching of God himself under the New Covenant but to follow after it neither are they to rob us of that great priviledg which Christ hath purchased unto us by his Blood so neither is the Scripture to go before the teaching of the Spirit or to rob us of it Secondly God hath seen meet that herein we should as in a looking glass see the conditions and experiences of the Saints of old that finding our experience answer to theirs we might thereby be the more confirmed and comforted and our hope strengthened of obtaining the same end that observing the Providences attending them seeing the snares they were liable to and beholding their deliverances we may thereby be made wise unto Salvation and seasonably reproved and instructed in righteousness This is the great work of the Scriptures and their service to us that we may witness them fulfilled in us and so discern the stamp of God's Spirit and ways upon them by the inward acquaintance we have with the same Spirit and work in our hearts The prophecys of the Scripture are also very comfortable and profitable unto us as the same Spirit inlightens us to observe them fulfilled and to be fulfilled For in all this it is to be observed that it is only the Spiritual Man that can make a right use of them they are able to make the man of God perfect so it is not the natural Man and whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our comfort our that are the believers our that are the Saints concerning such the Apostle speaks for as for the other the Apostle Peter plainly declares that the unstable and unlearned wrest them to their own destruction these were they that were unlearned in the Divine and heavenly learning of the Spirit not in humane and School Literature of which we may safely presume that Peter himself being a Fisher-man had no great skill for it may with great probability yea certainly be affirmed that he had no knowledg of Aristotles Logick which both Papists and Protestants now degenerating from the simplicity of Truth make hand-maid of Divinity as they call it and a necessary introduction to their carnal natural and humane Ministry By the infinite obscure labours of which kind of men mixing in their heathenish stuff the Scripture is rendred at this day of so little service to the simple People whereof if Jerom complained in his time now twelve hundred years ago Hieron Ep. 134. ad Cypr. tom 3. saying It is wont to befall the most part of learned Men that it is harder to understand their expositions than the things which they go about to expound what may We say then considering those great heaps of commentarys since in ages yet far more corrupted § VI. In this respect above mentioned then we have shown what service and use the Holy Scriptures as managed in and by the Spirit are of to the Church of God wherefore we do account them a secondary rule Moreover because they are commonly acknowledged by all to have been written by the dictates of the Holy Spirit and that the errors which may be supposed by the injury of times to have slipt in are not such but that there is a sufficient clear Testimony left to all the essentials of the Christian faith we do look upon them as the only fit outward judg of Controversies among Christians and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary unto their Testimony may therefore justly be rejected as false And for our parts we are very willing that all our Doctrines and Practices be tryed by them which we never refused nor ever shall in all controversies with our adversaries as the Judg and Test. We shall also be very willing to admit it as a positive certain Maxim That whatsoever any do pretending to the Spirit which is contrary to the Scriptures be accounted and reckoned a delusion of the Devil For as we never lay claim to the Spirit 's leadings that we may cover our selves in any thing that is evil so we know that as every evil contradicts the Scriptures so it doth also the Spirit in the first place from which the Scriptures came and whose motions can never contradict one another though they may appear sometimes to be contradictory to the blind Eye of natural Man as Paul and James seem to contradict one another Thus far we have shown both what we believe and what we believe not concerning the Holy Scriptures hoping we have given them their due place But since they that will needs have them to be the only certain and principal Rule want not some shew of arguments even from the Scripture it self though it no where call it self so by which they labour to prove their Doctrin I shall briefly lay them down by way of Objections and answer them before I make an end of this
men without that art and rules or sophistical learning deduce a certain conclusion out of true Propositions which scarce any man of Reason wants we deny not the use of it and I have sometimes used it in this Treatise which also may serve without that Dialectical art As for the other part of Philosophy which is called Moral or Ethicks it is not so necessary to Christians who have the rules of the Holy Seriptures and the Gift of the Holy Spirit by which they can be much better instructed The Physical and Metaphysical part may be reduced to the arts of Medicine and the Mathematicks which have nothing to do with the essence of a Christian Minister And therefore the Apostle Paul who well understood what was good for Christian Ministers and what hurtful thus exhorted the Colossians Col. 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit And to his beloved Disciple Timothy he writes also thus 1 Tim. 6.20 O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsly so called § XXI The third and main part of their literature is School Divinity a monster made up betwixt some Scriptural notions of Truth and the Heathenish terms and maximes being as it were the Heathenish Philosophy Christianized or rather the literal external knowledge of Christ Heathenized it is man in his first faln natural state with his devilish wisdom pleasing himself with some notions of Truth and adorning them with his own serpentine and worldly wisdom because he thinks the simplicity of the Truth too low and mean a thing for him and so despiseth that simplicity wheresoever it is found that he may set up and exalt himself puffed up with this his monstrous birth it is the devil darkening obscuring and veiling the knowledge of God with his sensual and carnal wisdom that so he may the more securely deceive the hearts of the simple and make the Truth as it is in it self despicable and hard to be known and understood by multiplying a thousand hard and needless questions and endless contentions and debates all which whoso perfectly knoweth he is not a whit less the servant of sin than he was but ten times more in that he is exalted and proud of iniquity and so much the further from receiving understanding or learning the Truth as it is in its own naked simplicity because he is full learned rich and wise in his own conceit and so those that are most skilled in it wear out their day and spend their precious time about the infinite and innumerable questions they have feigned and invented concerning it A certain learned man called it a two-fold discipline as of the race of the centaurs partly proceeding from Divine sayings partly from Philosophical reasons A thousand of their questions they confess themselves to be no ways necessary to Salvation and yet many more of them they could never agree upon but are and still will be in endless janglings about them The Volumes that have been written about it a man in his whole age though he lived very old could scarce read and when he has read them all he has but wrought himself a great deal more vexation and trouble of Spirit than he had before These certainly are the words multiplied without knowledge by which counsel hath been darkened Job c. 38. v. 2. They make the Scripture the text of all this Mass and it 's concerning the sense of it that their voluminous debates arise But a man of a good upright heart may learn more in half an hour and be more certain of it by waiting upon God and his Spirit in the heart than by reading a thousand of their Volumes which by filling his head with many needless imaginations may well stagger his faith but never confirm it and indeed those that give themselves most to it are most capable to fall into error as appeareth by the example of Origen who by his learning was one of the first that falling into this way of interpreting the Scriptures wrote so many Volumes and in them so many errors as very much troubled the Church Also Arius led by this curiosity and humane scrutiny despising the simplicity of the Gospel fell into his error which was the cause of that horrible Heresie which so much troubled the Church methinks the simplicity plainness and brevity of the Scriptures themselves should be a sufficient reproof for such a science and the Apostles being honest plain illeterate men my be better understood by such kind of men now than with all that mass of scholastick stuff which neither Peter nor Paul nor John ever thought of § XXII But this invention of Satan wherewith he began the Apostasie hath been of dangerous consequence for thereby he at first spoiled the simplicity of Truth by keeping up the Heathenish learning which occasioned such uncertainty even among those called Fathers and such debate that there are few of them to be found who by reason of this mixture do not only frequently contradict one another but themselves also And therefore when the Apostasie grew greater he as it were buried the Truth with this vail of darkness wholly shuting out people from true knowledg and making the learned so accounted busie themselves with idle and needless questions while the weighty Truths of God were neglected and as it were went into desuetude Now though the grossest of these abuses be swept away by Protestants yet the evil root still remains and is nourished and upheld and upon the growing hand that this science is kept up and deemed necessary for a Minister for while the pure learning of the Spirit of Truth is despised and neglected and made ineffectual man 's faln earthly wisdom is upheld and so in that he labours and works with the Scriptures being out of the Life and Spirit those that wrote them were in by which they are rightly understood and made use of And so he that is to be a Minister must learn this art or trade of merchandizing with the Scriptures and be that which the Apostle would not be to wit a trader with them 2 Cor. 2.17 That he may acquire a trick from a verse of Scripture by adding his own barren notions and conceptions to it and his uncertain conjectures and what he hath stoln out of Books for which end he must have of necessity a good many by him and may each Sabbath day as they call it or oftner make a Discourse for an hour long and this is called the preaching of the word whereas the Gift Grace and Spirit of God to teach open and instruct and to preach a word in season is neglected and so man's arts and parts and knowledg and wisdom which is from below set up and established in the Temple of God yea and above the little Seed which in effect is Antichrist working in the Ministry and so the Devil may be as good and able a Minister as the
up a shadow and form of these orders and so make several ranks and degrees to establish a carnal Ministry of mens making without the Life Power and Spirit of Christ this is that work of Anti-christ and Mystery of Iniquity that hath got up in the dark night of Apostasie but in a true Church of Christ gathered together by God not only unto the belief of the principles of Truth but also into the Power Life and Spirit of Christ the Spirit of God is the Orderer Ruler and Governour as in each particular so in the general and when they assemble together to wait upon God and worship and adore him then such as the Spirit sets apart to the Ministry by its Divine Power and Influence opening their Mouths and giving them to exhort reprove and instruct with Vertue and Power these are thus of God ordained and admitted into the Ministry and their brethren cannot but hear them receive them and also honour them for their works sake and so this is not monopolized to a certain kind of men as the Clergy who are to that purpose educated and brought up as other carnal Artists and the rest to be despised as Laicks but it is left to the free Gift of God to chuse any whom he seeth meet thereunto whether rich or poor servant or master young or old yea male or female And such as have this call verifie the Gospel by preaching not in Speech only but also in Power and the Holy Ghost and in much fulness 1 Thes. 1.5 and cannot but be received and heard by the Sheep of Christ. § XXV But if it be objected here Obj. that I seem hereby to make no distinction at all betwixt Ministers and others which is contrary to the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 12.29 Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers c. From thence they insinuate that I also contradict his comparison in that chapter of the Church of Christ with a humane body as where he saith verse 17. If the whole body were an Eye where were the hearing If the whole were hearing where were the smelling c. Also the Apostle not only thus distinguisheth the Ministers of the Church in general from the rest of the Members but also from themselves as naming them distinctly and separately Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers c. As to the last part of this objection to which I shall first answer Answ. it is apparent that this diversity of Names is not for to distinguish separate Offices but to denote the different and various Operations of the Spirit a manner of Speech frequent with the Apostle Paul wherein he sometimes expatiates to the Illustrating of the Glory and Praise of God's Grace as in particular Rom. 12.6 Having then Gifts differing according to the Grace that is given us whether Prophecy let us Prophecy according to the proportion of Faith Or Ministry let us wait on our Ministring or he that Teacheth on Teaching or he that Exhorteth on Exhortation Now none will say from all this that these are distinct Offices or do not or may not co-incide in one person as may all these other things mentioned by him in the subsequent verses viz. Of Loving being kindly affectioned Fervency of Spirit Hospitality Diligence Blessing Rejoycing c. Which yet he numbers forth as different gifts of the Spirit And according to this objection might be placed as distinct and separate Offices which were most absurd Secondly in these very places mentioned it is clear that it is no real distinction of separate Offices because all acknowledg that Pastors and Teachers which the Apostle there no less separateth and distinguisheth than Pastors and Prophets or Apostles are one and the same and co-incide in the same Office and Person and therefore so may be said of the rest For Prophecy as it signifieth the foretelling of things to come is indeed a distinct Gift but no distinct Office and therefore our Adversaries do not place it among their several orders neither will they deny but that both may be and have been given of God to some that not only have been Pastors and Teachers and that there it hath co incided in one Person with these other Offices but also to some of the Laicks and so it hath been found according to their own concession without the limits of their Clergy Prophecy in the other sense to wit as it signifieth a speaking from the Spirit of Truth is not only peculiar to Pastors and Teachers who ought so to Prophecy but even a common priviledg to the Saints for though to Instruct Teach and Exhort be proper to such as are more particularly called to the work of the Ministry yet it is not so proper to them as not to be when the Saints are met together as any of them are moved by the Spirit common to others For some acts belong to all in such a relation but not only to those within that relation competunt omni sed non Soli thus to see and hear are proper acts of a man seeing it may be properly predicated of him that he heareth and seeth yet are they common to other Creatures also So to Prophecy in this sense is indeed proper to Ministers and Teachers yet not so but that it is common and lawful to other Saints when moved thereunto though it be not proper to them by way of relation because notwithstanding that motion they are not particularly called to the work of the Ministry as appears by 1 Cor. 14. where the Apostle at large declaring the order and ordinary method of the Church saith ver 30 31. But if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace For ye may all Prophecy one by one that all may learn and all be comforted Which sheweth that none is here excluded But yet that there is a subordination according to the various measures of the Gift received the next verse sheweth And the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace Now that Prophecying in this sense may be common to all Saints appears by the 39 verse of the same Chapter where speaking to all in general he saith Therefore Brethren covet to Prophecy and verse 1. he exhorts them saying Covet Spiritual Gifts but the rather that ye may Prophecy Secondly as to Evangelists the same may be said for whoever preacheth the Gospel is really an Evangelist and so consequently every true Minister of the Gospel is one else what proper office can they assign to it unless they should be so foolish as to affirm that none were Evangelists but Matthew Mark Luke and John who wrote the Account of Christ's Life and Sufferings And then it were neither a particular office seeing John and Matthew were Apostles Mark and Luke Pastors and Teachers so that there they co-incided in one and indeed it is absurd to think that upon that particular account the
another retaining nothing but the name and that also unjustly Secondly from this distinction of Laity and Clergy this abuse also follows that good honest mechanick men and others who have not learned the art and trade of Preaching and so are not licentiated according to these rules they prescribe unto themselves such I say being possessed with a false opinion that it is not lawful for them to meddle with the Ministry nor that they are any ways fit for it because of the defect of that Literature do thereby neglect the Gift in themselves and quench many times the pure breathings of the Spirit of God in their hearts which if given way to might have proved much more for the edification of the Church than many of the conned Sermons of the learned And so by this means the Apostles command and advice is slighted who exhorteth 1 Thess. 5.19 20. Not to quench the Spirit nor despise Prophecying And all this is done by men pretending to be Christians who glory that the first Preachers and Propagators of their Religion were such kind of plain mechanick men and illiterate And even Protestants do no less than Papists exclude such kind of men from being Ministers among them and thus limit the Spirit and Gift of God though their Fathers in opposition to Papists asserted the contrary and also their own Histories declare how that kind of illiterate men did without learning by the Spirit of God greatly contribute in divers places to the Reformation By this it may appear that as in calling and qualifying so in preaching and praying and the other particular steps of the Ministry every true Minister is to know the Spirit of God by its vertue and life to accompany and assist him But because this relates to worship I shall speak of it more largely in the next Proposition which is concerning Worship The last thing to be considered and inquired into is concerning the maintainance of a Gospel Minister But before I proceed I judg it fit to speak something in short concerning the preaching of Women and so declare what we hold in that matter Seeing Male and Female are one in Christ Jesus and that he hath given his Spirit no less to one than to the other when God moveth by his Spirit in a Woman we judg it no waies unlawful for her to preach in the Assemblies of Gods People Neither think we that of Paul 1 Cor. 14.34 to reprove the inconsiderate and talkative Women among the Corinthians who ttoubled the Church of Christ with their unprofitable questions or that 1 Tim. 2.11 that all Women ought to learn in silence not usurping authority over the man any waies repugnant to this Doctrin because it 's clear that women have prophesied and preached in the Church else had the saying of Joel been badly applied by Peter Acts 2.17 And seeing Paul himself in the same Epistle to the Corinthians giveth rules how women should behave themselves in their publick preaching and praying it would be a manifest contradiction if that place were otherwaies taken in a larger sense and the same Paul speaks of a Woman that laboured with him in the work of the Gospel And it is written that Phillip had four Daughters that prophesied and lastly it hath been observed that God hath effectually in this day converted many Souls by the ministry of Women and by them also frequently comforted the Souls of his Children which manifest experience puts the thing beyond all controversie but now I shall proceed to speak of the maintainance of Ministers § XXVIII We freely acknowledg as the Proposition holds forth that there is an obligation upon such to whom God sends or among whom he raiseth up a Minister that if need be they minister to his necessities Secondly that it is lawful for him to receive what is necessary and convenient To prove this I need not insist for our adversaries will readily grant it to us for the thing we affirm is that this is all that these Scripture testimonies relating to this thing do grant Gal. 6.6 1 Cor. 9.11 12 13 14. 1 Tim. 5.16 That which we then oppose in this matter is first that it should be constrained and limited Secondly that it should be superfluous chargeable and sumptuous And thirdly the manifest abuse hereof of which I shall also briefly treat As to the first our adversaries are forced to recur to the Example of the Law a refuge they use in defending most of their errors and superstitions which are contrary to the nature and purity of the Gospel They say God appointed the Levites the tithes Obj. therefore they belong also to such as minister in holy things under the Gospel I answer all that can be gathered from this is that as the Priests had a maintainance allowed them under the Law Answ. so also the ministers and preachers under the Gospel which is not denyed but the comparison will not hold that they should have the very same since first there is no express Gospel command for it neither by Christ nor his Apostles Secondly the parity doth no waies hold betwixt the Levites under the Law and the preachers under the Gospel because the Levites were one of the tribes of Israel and so had a right to a part of the inheritance of the land as well as the rest of their brethren and having none had this alloted to them in lieu of it Next the tenth of the tithes was only allowed to the Priests that served at the Altar the rest being for the Levites and also to be put up in Store-houses for entertaining of Widows and Strangers But these Preachers notwithstanding they inherit what they have by their Parents as well as other men yet claim the whole tithes allowing nothing either to widow or stranger But as to the tithes I shall not insist because divers have clearly and learnedly treated of it apart and also divers Protestants do confess them not to be jure Divino and the parity as to the quota doth not hold but only in general as to the obligation of a maintainance Which maintainance though the hearers be obliged to give and fail of their duty if they do not yet that it ought neito be received nor yet forced I prove because Christ when he sent forth his Apostles said Freely ye have received freely give Mat. 10.8 and they had liberty to receive Meat and Drink from such as offered them to supply their need Which shews that they were not to seek or require any thing by force or to stint or make a bargain before hand as the Preachers as well among Papists as Protestants do in these daies who will not preach to any until they be sure first of so much a year but on the contrary these were to do their duty and freely to communicate as the Lord should order them what they had received without seeking or expecting a reward The answer of this given by Nicolaus Arnoldus Exercit. Theolog Sect. 42.43
therein he did not by vertue of his Apostolick commission but rather in condescendence to their weakness even as at another time he circumcised Timothy Our Adversaries to evade the Truth of this Testimony usually alledge that by this is only to be understood that he was not sent principally to baptize not that he was not sent at all But this exposition since it contradicts the positive words of the text and has no better foundation than the affirmation of its assertors Answ. is justly rejected as spurious until they bring some better proof for it he saith not I was not sent principally to Baptize but I was not sent to baptize As for what they urge by way of confirmation from other places of Scripture where not is to be so taken as where it 's said I will have mercy and not sacrifice which is to be understood that God requires principally mercy not excluding Sacrifices I say this place is abundantly explained by the following words and the knowledg of God more than burnt Offerings by which it clearly appears that Burnt offerings which are one with Sacrifices are not excluded but there is no such word added in that of Paul and therefore the parity is not demonstrated to be alike and consequently the instance not sufficient unless they can prove that it ought so to be admitted here else we might interpret by the same rule all other places of Scripture the same way as were the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2.5 That your Faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the Power of God it might be understood it shall not stand principally so How might the Gospel by this liberty of interpretation be perverted If it be said That the abuse of this baptism among the Corinthians Obj. in dividing themselves according to the persons by whom they were baptized made the Apostle speak so but that the abuse of a thing doth not abolish it I answer it is true it doth not Answ. provided the thing be lawful and necessary and that no doubt the abuse abovesaid gave the Apostle occasion so to write But let it from this be considered how the Apostle excludes baptizing not preaching though the abuse mark proceeded from that no less then from the other For these Corinthians did denominate themselves from those different persons by whose preaching as well as from those by whom they were baptized they were converted as by the 4 5 6 7 and 8 verses of the third chap. may appear and yet for to remove that abuse the Apostle doth not say he was not sent to preach nor yet doth he rejoyce that he had only preached to a few because Preaching being a standing ordinance in the Church is not because of any abuse that the Devil may tempt any to make of it to be forborn by such as are called to perform it by the Spirit of God Wherefore the Apostle accordingly chap. 3.8 9. informs them as to that how to remove that abuse but as to Water-baptism for that it was no standing Ordinance of Christ but only practised as in condescendence to the Jews and by some Apostles to some Gentiles also there so soon as the Apostle perceived the abuse of he let the Corinthians understand how little stress was to be laid upon it by shewing them that he was glad that he had administred this ceremony to so few of them and by telling them plainly that it was no part of his commission neither that which he was sent to administer Some ask us how we know that baptizing here is meant of water and not of the Spirit Quest. which if it be then it will exolude baptism of the Spirit as well as of Water Answ. I answer such as ask the question I suppose speak it not as doubting that this was said of Water-baptism which is more then manifest for since the Apostle Paul's message was to turn People from darkness to Light and convert them to God and that as many as are thus turned and converted so as to have the answer of a good Conscience towards God and to have put on Christ and be arisen with him in newness of life are baptized with the baptism of the Spirit But who will say that only these few mentioned there to be baptized by Paul were come to this Or that to turn or bring them to this condition was not even admitting our Adversaries interpretation as principally a part of Paul's Ministry as any other Since then our Adversaries do take this place for Water-baptism as indeed it is we may lawfully taking it also urge it upon them Why the word baptism and baptizing is used by the Apostle where that of Water and not of the Spirit is only understood shall hereafter be spoken to I come now to consider the reasons alledged by such as plead for Water-baptism which are also the objections used against the discontinuance of it First some object that Christ who had the Spirit above measure was notwithstanding baptized with Water As Nic. Arnoldus against this These Sect. 46. of his Theological Exercitation I answer so was he also circumcised it will not follow from thence that Circumcision is to continue for it behoved Christ to fulfill all Righteousness not only the Ministry of John but the Law also Therefore did he observe the Jewish Feasts and Rites and kept the Passover It will not then follow that Christians ought to do so now and therefore Christ Matth. 3.15 gives John this reason of his being baptized desiring him to suffer it to be so now whereby he sufficiently intimates that he intended not thereby to perpetuate it as an Ordinance to his Disciples Secondly they object Matth. 28.19 Go ye therefore Obj. and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost This is the great objection Answ. and upon which they build the whole Superstructure whereunto the first general and sound answer is by granting the whole but puting them to prove that Water is here meant since the text is silent of it And though in reason it be sufficient upon our part that we conclude the whole expressed in the place but deny that it is by Water which is an addition to the Text. Yet I shall premise some reasons why we do so and then consider the reasons alledged by those that will have Water to be here understood The first is a maxime yielded to by all Arg. that we ought not to go from the literal signification of the Text except some urgent necessity force us thereunto But no urgent necessity in this place forceth us thereunto Therefore we ought not to go from it Secondly that Baptism which Christ commanded his Apostles Arg. was the One Baptism id est his own Baptism But the One Baptism which is Christ's Baptism is not with Water as we have already proved Therefore the Baptism commanded by Christ to his Apostles was not
se est Deus non denegat gratiam Servant whether it be lawful to say I am your humble Servant 358. Servetus 345. Shoe-maker he disputes with the Professor 208 Silence see Worship Simon Magus 222 Sin see Adam Justification it shall not have dominion over the Saints 42. the seed of sin is transmitted from Adam unto all men but it is imputed to none no not to Infants except they actually joyn with it by sinning 57 58 64 65 66. and this seed is often called Death Original sin Of this phrase the Scripture makes no mention 66. by vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ we have remission of sins 90 132. forgiveness of sin among the Papists 129. a freedom from actual sin is obtained both when and how and that many have attained unto it 160 to 174 every sin weakens a man in his Spiritual condition but doth not destroy him altogether 161. it is one thing not to sin another thing not to have sin 170. whatsoever is not done through the Power of God is sin 249. Singing of Psalms 275. Socinians see natural light their rashness is reproved 19. they think Reason is the chief rule and guide of Faith 19 30. albeit many have abused Reason yet they do not say that any ought not to use it and how ill they argue against the inward and Immediate Revelations of the Holy Spirit 29 30 31. yet they are forced ultimately to recur unto them 36. they exalt too much their natural power and what they think of the Saving Light 115. their worship can easily be stopped 92. Son of God see Christ Knowledge Revelation Soul the Soul hath its senses as well as the body 7. by what it is strengthened and fed 248 311. Spirit the Holy Spirit see Knowledg Communion Revelation Scriptures Unless the Spirit sit upon the heart of the hearer in vain is the Discourse of the Doctor 6 16. the Spirit of God knoweth the things of God 11. without the Spirit none can say that Jesus is the Lord 6 11 12. he rested upon the Seventy Elders and others 14. he abideth with us for ever 18 19. he teacheth and bringeth all things to remembrance and leads into all Truth 19 20 23 24 25 38. he differs from the Scriptures 19 20. he is God 19. he dwelleth in the Saints 19 20 21 22 23. without the Spirit Christianity is no Christianity 20 30 40 whatsoever is to be desired in the Christian Faith is ascribed to him 19 20. by this Spirit we are turned unto God and we triumph in the midst of Persecutions 21. he quickens c. 21 22. an observable Testimony of Calvin concerning the Spirit 22 23 39 40. it is the Fountain and Origin of all Truth and right reason 34 35. it gives the belief of the Scriptures which may satisfie our Consciences 39. his Testimony is more excellent than all reason 39. he is the chief and principal Guide 46. he reasoneth with and striveth in men 98. those that are led by the Spirit love the Scriptures 50 183 184. he is as it were the Soul of the Church and what is done without him is vain and impious 208. he is the Spirit of order and not of disorder 213. such as the Spirit sets apart to the Ministry are heard of their Brethren 214. it is the earnest of our inheritance 237. Spiritual iniquities 243 244. spiritual discerning 336. Stephen spake by the Spirit 21. Suffering How Paul filled up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ. How any is made partaker of the Sufferings of Christ and conformable to his Death 168 169. Superstition 231 232. whence superstitions sprung 244 277 300. Supper see Communion Bread it was of old administred even to little Children and Infants 3.7 T Tables 323. Talent one Talent is not at all unsufficient of it self The Parable of the Talents 101 102 107. those that improved their Talents well are called good and faithful Servants 152. he that improved well his two Talents was nothing less accepted than he that improved his five 161. Talk see Plays Taulerus was instructed by the poor Laik 200. he tasted of the love of God 237. Testimony see Spirit Theseus his Boat 219 Thomas a Kempis 236. Tithes were assigned to the Levites but not to the Ministers of this day 220 221. Titles it is not at all lawful for Christians to use those Titles of Honour Majesty c. 352 354 to 360 388. Tongue the knowledge of tongues is laudable 200 206 207. Tradition how unsufficient it is to decide 30. it is not a sufficient ground for Faith 329. Translations see Bible Truth there is a difference betwixt what one saith of the Truth and that which the Truth it self interpreting it self saith 6. Truth is not hard to be arrived at but is most nigh 6. Turks among them there may be Members of the Church 182 183. V Vespers 236. Voices outward Voices see Faith Miracles W War that it is not lawful for Christians to resist evil nor wage War 352. 380 to 389. Washing of Feet 212 213. William Barclay 342. Woman a Woman can Preach 214 220. Luther also 303. Word the Eternal Word is the Son It was in the beginning with God and was God it is Jesus Christ by whom God created all things 10 87. what Augustin read in the writings of the Platonists concerning this Word 126. Works are either of the Law or of the Gospel 152. see Justification Worship what the true and acceptable worship to God is and how it is offered and what the superstitious and abominable is 231 c. the true worship was soon corrupted and lost 231 232. concerning the worship done in the time of the Apostasie 235 267. of what worship is here handled and of the difference of t he worship of the Old and New Covenant 232 233 252 253 254. the true Worship is neither limitted to times places nor persons and it is explained how this is to be understood 231 233 234 258 259 266 267 289 290. concerning the Lord's-day and the daies upon which Worship is performed 234 235. of the Publique and Silent Worship and its excellency 236 to 261. of Preaching 260 261 262 263 264. of Prayer 264 to 276. of singing of Psalms and Musick 275. what sort of Worship the Quakers are for and what sort their adversaries 276. FINIS John 17.3 Matth. 11.27 Joh. 16.13 Rom. 8.14 Rom. 5.12 15. Eph. 2.1 Ezek. 18.23 Esa. 49.6 John 3.16.1.19 Tit. 2.11 Eph. 5.13 Heb. 2.9 1 Cor. 15.22 1 Cor. 12.7 Heb. 2.9 Tit. 3.5 Rom. 6.14 Rom. 8.13 Rom. 6.2 18 1 John 3.6 1 Tim. 1.6 Heb. 6.4 5 6. Mat. 10. Ezek. 13. Matt. 10.20 Acts 2.4.18.5 John 3.6 4.21 Judges 19. Acts 17.23 Eph. 4.5 1 Pet 3.21 Rom. 6.4 Gal. 3.27 Col. 2.12 Joh. 3.30 1 Cor. 1.17 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Joh. 6.32 33 55. 1 Cor. 5.8 Acts 15 20 Joh. 13 14. Ja. 5.14 Luc. 9.55 56. Matt. 7.12 29. Tit. 3.10 Eph. 5.11 1 Pet 1.14
cannot suppose them without some rule and means of knowledg seeing it is expresly affirmed They shall all be taught of God Joh. 6.45 And they shall know me from the least to the greatest Heb. 8.11 But secondly Though we were rid of this difficulty how many illeterate and yet good men are there in the Church of God who cannot read a Letter in their own Mothers Tongue Which imperfection though it be inconvenient I cannot tell whether we may safely affirm it to be sinful these can have no immediate Knowledg of the rule of their Faith So their Faith must needs depend upon the credit of other mens Reading or relating it unto them where either the altering adding or omitting of a little word may be a foundation in the poor hearer of a very dangerous mistake whereby he may either continue in an iniquity ignorantly or believe a lie confidently As for Example the Papists in all their Catechisms and publick Exercises of Examination towards the People have boldly cut away the second Command because it seems so expresly to hit against their Adoration and use of Images Whereas many of these People in whom by this omission this false Opinion is fostered are under a simple impossibility or at least a very great difficulty to be outwardly informed of this abuse But further suppose all could read the Scriptures in their own Language where is there one of a thousand that hath that through knowledge of the original Languages in which they are written so as in that respect immediately to receive the benefit of them Must not all these here depend upon the honesty and faithfulness of the Interpreters Which how uncertain it is for a man to build his Faith upon the many Corrections Amendments and various Essays which even among Protestants have been used whereof the latter hath constantly blamed and corrected the former as guilty of Defects and Errors doth sufficiently declare And that even the last Translations in the vulgar Languages needs to be corrected as I could prove at large were it proper in this place learned men do confess But last of all there is no less difficulty even occurs to these skilled in the Original Languages who cannot so immediately receive the mind of the Authors in these Writings as that their Faith doth at least obliquely depend upon the honesty and credit of the Transcribers since the Original Copies are granted by all not to be now extant Of which Transcribers Jerome in his time complained saying that they wrote not what they found but what they understood And Epiphanius saith that in the good and correct Copies of Luke it was written that Christ wept and that Irenaeus doth cite it but that the Catholicks blotted it out fearing least Hereticks should have abused it Other Fathers also declare that whole verses were taken out of Mark because of the Manichees But further the various lections of the Hebrew Character by reason of the Points which some plead for as coaevous with the first writings which others with no less probability alledg to be a later invention the disagreement of divers citations of Christ and the Apostles with those passages in the Old Testament they appeal to the great controversie among the Fathers whereof some highly approve the Greek Septuagint decrying and rendring very doubtful the Hebrew Copy as in many vitiated and altered by the Jews other some and particularly Jerom exalting the certainty of the Hebrew and rejecting yea even deriding the History of the Septuagint which the primitive Church chiefly made use of and some Fathers that lived centuries before them affirmed to be a most certain thing Add the many various lections in divers copys of the Greek and the great alterations among the Fathers of the first three Centuries who had greater opportunity to be better informed than we can now lay claim to concerning the books to be admitted or rejected as is above observed I say all these and much more which might be alledged puts the minds even of the Learned into infinite doubts scruples and inextricable difficulties Whence we may very safely conclude that Jesus Christ who promised to be always with his Children to lead them into all Truth to guard them against the devices of the Enemy and to establish their Faith upon an unmoveable Rock left them not to be principally ruled by that which was subject in it self to many uncertainties and therefore he gave them his Spirit as their Principal Guide which neither moths nor time can wear out nor transcribers nor translators corrupt which none are so young none so illiterate none in so remote a place but they may come to be reached and rightly informed by it Through and by the clearness which that Spirit gives us it is that we are only best rid of those difficulties that occur to us concerning the Scriptures The real and undoubted experience whereof I my self have been a witness of with great admiration of the love of God to his children in these latter days For I have known some of my Friends who profess the same faith with me faithful servants of the most High God and full of the Divine knowledg of his Truth as it was immediately and inwardly revealed to them by the Spirit from a true and living experience Who not only were ignorant of the Greek and Hebrew but even some of them could not read their own vulgar Language who being pressed by the adversaries with some citations out of the English Translation and finding them to disagree with the manifestation of Truth in their hearts have boldly affirmed the Spirit of God never said so and that it was certainly wrong for they did not believe that any of the Holy Prophets or Apostles had ever written so which when I on this account seriously examined I really found to be errors and corruptions of the Translators Who as in most translations do not so much give us the genuine significations of the words as strain them to express that which comes nearest with that opinion and notion they have of Truth And this seemed to me to sute very well with that saying of Augustin Epist. 19. ad Hen. Tom. 2. fol. 14. after he has said that he gives only that honour to those books which are called Canonical as to believe that the Authors thereof did in writing not err He adds and if I shall meet with any thing in these writings that seemeth repugnant to Truth I shall not doubt to say that either the volume is faulty or erroneous that the expounder hath not reached what was said or that I have in no wise understood it So that he supposes that in the transcription and translation there may be errors § V. If it be then asked me whether I think hereby to render the Scripture altogether uncertain or useless I answer not at all The proposition it self declares what esteem I have for them and provided that to the Spirit from which they came be but