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A89735 The heart of N-England rent at the blasphemies of the present generation. Or A brief tractate, concerning the doctrine of the Quakers, demonstrating the destructive nature thereof, to religion, the churches, and the state, with consideration of the remedy against it. : Occasional satisfaction to objections, and confirmation of the contrary trueth. / By John Norton ... Norton, John, 1606-1663. 1659 (1659) Wing N1318; ESTC W12678 48,692 60

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Essence Who being the brightness of his glory and the express Image of his Person Heb 1.3 The first manner of existence in the Divine Being is here called Hypostasis which imports a distinct subsistence If the Father viz. the Correlate be a distinct subsistence there is the same reason of the Son v●z the Relate If the Father be a distinct subsistence the Son is a distinct subsistence If the Son be a distinct subsistence the Father is a distinct subsistence the Son is as distinct from the Father August de trinit lib. 7 c. 4. as the Father is from the Son that which the Greek calls hypostasis the latine calleth persona from which last is our English word person Christ speaking of the Father Iohn 5.32 calleth him another there is another that beareth witness of mee likewise speaking of the Holy-Ghost he calleth him another Iohn 14.16 I will pray the Father he shall give you another Comforter this predicate another is unintelligible of the Essence for so the Father Son Holy-Ghost are one Iohn 10.30 1 Iohn 5.7 therfore it must proceed concerning the Subsistence what is more manifest then that another Subsistence and another subsistence speake distinct subsistences The distinction of the persons or Subsistences is manifest from the relative properties of begetting being begotten and proceeding Psal 2.7 Iohn 15.27 Begetting is distinct from being begotten being begotten from begetting both from proceeding A personal act is God necessarily relatively and in an Incommunicable manner acting within or upon himselfe Now these acts of the Persons one upon another argue the distinctnes of the subsistences viz to beget being begotten proceeding God in the first man̄er of subsistence is considered as acting upon himselfe in a way of understanding in the second manner of Subsistence as reflecting upon himself understood August de trinit lib. 5. c. 11 lib. 6. c. 5. in the third manner of subsistence as willing of delighting in himselfe Hence the Spirit is called the hand of the Trinity proceeding from the two other persons as the Love of them both which selfe-sufficient and infinitely blessed Communion of God in and with himself before there was either mountain or hill while as yet he had not made the earth wee read of Prov. 8.30 Then was I by him as one brought up with him I was dayly his delight rejoycing alwayes before him The distinction of the Persons further appeares from the order of their operations upon the creature held forth in their mission or sending the second Person is sent from the Father Iohn 8.42 Iesus said unto them if God were your father yee would love mee for I proceeded forth came from God neither came I of my selfe but he sent mee The Holy-Ghost is sent from the Father the Son whom the Father will send John 14 26. whom I will send John 15.26 Sending imports two things First an eternall relative property of the Divine Essence the order original whereof is not of it self Secondly a designation of the Person distinguished by this relative property unto some work concerning the creature to be performed in time Now evident it is that he which sendeth and he which is sent are distinct That the Father sending the Son sent by the Father the Father and Son sending the Spirit and the Spirit sent by the Father Son are distinct subsistences and not the same Concerning satisfaction to some Objections Object 1 The Church was without the Scripture or written Word for the space of 2454 yeares untill Moses during which space the Doctrine of Life was communicated VOCALLY by the Patriarches Therefore there is no need of the Scripture or written Word Answ There are many Reasons obvious why the Tradition of the Rule of life by word of mouth might better suit the state of the Church in the time of the long●evity of the Patriarchs then now as also why God saw not good to continue unto after ages such and so frequent extraordinary manifestations of himself as wee read of in those elder times Why God dispensed the Rule of life then by word of mouth not by writing a principal reason thereof was his good pleasure The same good pleasure may stand for a principal reason way he dispenseth the Rule of life now by the word written and not by vocall tradition Even so Father because it pleaseth thee Distinguish between necessity absolute necessity according to Divine constitution God according to his absolute power can communicate the rule of life by what means he pleaseth therefore the scripture is not necessary absolutely But Gods will being to communicate the Rule of life by his written word hence the scripture is necessary by necessity of divine constitution or appointment Whilest Israel was in the wilderness God give them Manna bread from heaven in an extraordinary manner After their comming into Canaan he changeth his dispensation and giveth them bread in the ordinary way of agriculture or tillage He could still have supplyed them in an extraordinary way out he would not The Maana ceased Josh 5.12 Not the letter without the mind of the Author nor the Spirit without the letter but the Scripture i. e. the word-written as including the sense of the author is the Rule of life Distinguish between Moral-obliging-power and strengthning-Physical-power All the strengthning-Physical-power whereby we are enabled to obey the Rule is from the Spirit but the Moral-obliging-power is from the Scripture it self or Cōmand as denoting the will of God signifyed thereby Surely they are under a Rule who have not the Spirit Since the Canon of the Scripture is closed so farr is the Spirit from being a Rule of life that to us it is not the Spirit but as it moves agreeably to the written word Hereby we are taught to discerne between the Spirit of trueth and the Spirit of error Object 2 The words of the Scripture are to be taken simply without interpretation or consideration of what is signifyed by them Answ This Objection exposeth Scripture to the imputation of non-sence which cannot be without at least the reflexion of blasphemy interpretative upon the author It was wont to be said Scripture lyeth not in the Sound but in the Sence They are not the inkie characters without the mind of the author that can constitute Scripture But taking the mind of the objection more favourably as proceeding only against any other sense or interpretation to be given of Scripture then according to the sound of the words in a proper or according to some in a literall sence yet it unscriptures a considerable part of the Scripture unto us becommeth a fruithfull womb of confusion error and absurdity should it stand in force The example those words that they may be one as wee are one John 17.22 give an uncertain sound Nay the Papists Transsubstantiation Origen's castration are hence warrantable Distinguish between no interpretation mis-interpretation sound
The question is not concerning God's Power but concerning his Will God can preserve his Truth immediatly without any external meanes but his pleasure is ordinarily to doe it mediately Hence he surrounded the Arke according to divine Institution with a double fence both Ecclesiastical and Civil God can also save man immediately from evils committed against the second Table but hee ordinarily effects it by the helpe of the magistrate The injurie done unto the trueth hurteth man whose welfare depends upon the imbracing of it It hurts not God nor the Trueth in it self but only in the estimation of man As Satan is permitted to raise up men to be offendors so Christ raiseth up men to be defenders thereof to manifest that through Grace the Trueth hath even amongst men as great lovers as it hath haters When there was no Christian Magistrate God watched over the cause of Religion in an extraordinary man̄er The continuance of the gift of miracles together with the then recent fresh memory therof conducing not a little for that end But extraordinarie gifts ceasing and the Christian Magistrate succeeding God now expects the Civil power in an ordinary way of Providence to be subservient therunto God can bring up his sons daughters without making any use of Civil power but it hath pleased him to appoint Kings to be nursing Fathers and Queens to be nursing Mothers unto them They are but ill nurses who seing the danger of those committed to their trust so much as in them lyeth save not their nurse-lings from the poyson of the destroyer A late memorable testimony of Gods owning blessing Civil Authority in the defence of Religion who so consulteth History shall find in the many flourishing Citties and Churches with other places of name in upper Germany Helvetia lower Germany and else where Saved from the pestilence of the Heretical and blasphemous sectaryes of the last Centurie then destroying at noone-day with and not without the interposal of Civil-Authority and that not once nor twice but frequently by the very sentence of Banishment Lysander's counsel of old was when the lions skin will not hold out to piece it with a fox-skinne Why should it seeme strange that men speaking doctrines of devils and lies in hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron and therefore past feelling of spiritual weapons object may that serve their turn against obnoxiousnes to Civill weapons of which they remain only sensible that so priviledged with impunity they may proceed in their madness without all restraint That ancient stratagem of destroyers otherwise often frustrated in their attempts to open their way unto their flock by endeavouring the removal of the keepers is famously notable from Demosthenes's recital of the folly of the sheep sometimes delivering up the doggs that kept them at the motion of the wolves Whereby he stayed the Athenians from delivering up their Orators unto Alexander upon his proposal out of whose hands they had been instrumental to save the City Should the People not of Athens but of Sion suffer themselves to be abused by heretical deceivers destroyers into a persuasion that whil'st it is Lawfull for them under a praetence to invade it is unlawfull for Civil power to defend Religion they would render themselves more like those sheep in the Fable then men of understanding in Israel not to make regular seasonable use of the meanes instituted blessed unto such an end in time of danger is to Tempt not to Trust God That God makes use of Civil power consequently of man is not from his need of him but his favour to him Not from defect of power but abundance of Goodness Notwithstanding God could save his people without the assistance of man and both could and did save them without Meroz yet curse yee Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because thy came not to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 If Esther seeth her opportunity and that she is come to the Kingdom for such a time Good But if she altogether hold her peace God can cause enlargement and deliverance to arise to the Jewes from another place Albeit as the Heterodoxie of the Sectaries pre-mentioned in the last Centurie was universal corrupting the whole body of Religion so also Quakerism as to the substāce therof their geniune offspring be in like manner a total heresie yet both because the former is legible in many Authors and the latter obvious from the penns and tongues of the present Dogmatists and because the scope of this discourse is chiefely practical the Reader may soon perceive way other errors omitted the principal heads of their doctrine are herein onely considered It remaineth that all orders persons amongst us respectively Sanctifie God according unto the prescript of Scripture and that at such a time in the regular excercise whereof wee may secure our selves of a greater blessing then the adversary threatens trouble Vnto former trials of our love unto the trueth by leaving of our countrey kinred and Fathers house and by the sufferings of this wilderness God in his wisdome now addeth this of trying us by false doctrine That this divine fatal season appointed for the revealing of the thoughts of many hearts through the judicial discovery of not a few who have had a name that they lived by their defection to heresie may amongst the rest of the Saints be also through Grace New-Englands manifestation to be approved That the evill example of the Apostacie of formerly fellow-professors may as sometimes the like did with the Apostles John 6. bring forth so much the more zealous luculent a confession of the Trueth As the enmity of opposers increaseth so the testimony of the witnesses increaseth Though the Beast blasphemeth the witnesses overcome Ye are of God little children and have overcome him because greater is h●e that is in you then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 The Apostacie of Adam ends in the confession of Adam The apostacy of both reprobate Angels men ends in the confession of the Elect. The Apostacy from the Covenant of workes ends in the most Illustrious confession of the Covenant of Grace The greatest Apostacie in a farr greater confession The threatning example of the revolt of many disciples with that of Judas foreseen superadded notwithstanding Christ well knowing how to improve the apostacy of hypocrites unto the furtherance of his interest in the very height of the scandal put forth that question triumphantly not timerously Then said Jesus unto the Twelve will yee also goe away The Rule of doctrine discipline and order is the Center of Christianitie Sincere and grave spirits are like grave bodies they cannot rest out of their Center i e. the Rule Religion admitts of no eccentrick motions Doctrine and actions not according to Rule when quickened with erroneous zeal are but run̄ing so much the faster out of the way This people bought the trueth with Realities Countrey Relations Estates oportunities as to the things of this life were Realities should wee now sell it for that which is not Bread yea for Fanatick Frantick worse then sick Imaginatiōs What advantage will it be to have departed from praelacie to ataxie From the Tradition of man unto delusions not onely contrarie to Scripture but also unworthie rational men Many momentous are the peculiar considerations whereby wee are engaged in our respective stations to own our profession stand in the regular and effectual defence of the trueth with perseverance unto the end in both It concerneth N. -E alwayes to remember that Originally they are a Plantation Religious not a plantation of Trade The profession of the purity of doctrine worship discipline is written upon her forehead A spot of this vast Jeshimon converted into Corn-fields Orchards streets inhabited and a place of Merchandize cannot denominate New-England All these notwithstanding if shee fall away from her profession call her Ichabod the Glory is departed In such case what was said of Samnium sometime a famous Citty in Italy viz that they could not find Samnium in Samnium will be verified concerning these Churches viz that N. -E is not to be found in N. -E God forbid that after N. -E hath now shined twenty years and more like a light upon an Hill it should at last go out in the snuff of Morellianism The converting of these and the like meditations into so many Nayles Goades is not the least part of the scope of this poor Script but the work of that one Shepheard in the effectual looking unto whom for wisdom faithfulness in such a season the welfare of his few ●heep in this wilderness doth in a great degree depend That wheresoever the Trueth lyeth in the points now controverted between the godly-Orthodox of the Presbiterian and Congregational way which the day will declare We may yet when we shall ly in dust le●ve this report to posterity that as we renounced the pollutiōs under Episcopacie on the one hand So we kept far from the Tents of Morellianism Scepticism and confusion on the other hand And also that having given in our Testimonie against the Heterodoxies Heresies and Blasphemies of this Generation We both lived and dyed in the FAITH and ORDER of the Gospel Err. page 33 l. 17. Read Pastors Teachers are to continue c Pastors Teachers are Church-Offic erg FINIS