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AN
APOLOGY
FOR THE
TEUE CHKISTIAN DIVINITY;
BEING AN
EXPLANATION AND VINDICATION
0 F TH E
PRINCIPLES AND DOCTRINES
OF THE PEOPLE CALLED
QUAKERS.
WRITTEN IN LATIN AND ENGLISH
BY ROBERT BARCLAY.
Acts xxiv. 14 : After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, bebeving all things which are written in the law and the prophets.
Titus ii. 11, 12, 13, U : For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
1 Thes. V. 21 : Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.
PHILADELPHIA:
FOR SALE AT FRIENDS' BOOK-STORE,
No. 84 MULBERRY STREET.
Stereotyped by John Fagan.
1848.
,^ APR 'i 5 w-.- ^,
TO
CHARLES II.
KING OF GREAT BRITAIN,
AND
THE DOMINIONS THEREUNTO BELONGING:
Robert Barclay, a sen'ant of Jesus Christ, called of God to the Dis- pensation of the Gospel, now again revealed, and, after a long and dark night of apostasy, commanded to be preached to all nations, wisheth health and salvation.
As the condition of kings and princes puts them in a station more obvious to the view and observation of the world, than that of other men, of whom, as Cicero observes, neither any word or action can be obscure ; so are those kings, during whose appearance upon the stage of this world it pleaseth the Great King of kings singularly to make known unto men the wonderful steps of his unsearchable providence, more signally obsei-ved, and their lives and actions more diligently remarked, and enquired into by posterity ; especially if those things be such as not only relate to the out- ward transactions of this world, but also are signalized by the manifestation or revelation of the knowledge of God in matters spiritual and religious. These are the things that rendered the lives of Cyrus, Augustus Ceesar, and Constantine the Great in former times, and of Charles the Fifth, and some other modem princes in these last ages, so considerable.
But among all the transactions which it hath pleased God to permit, for the glory of his power, and the manifestation of his wisdom and provi- dence, no age furnisheth us with things so strange and marvellous, whether with respect to matters civil or religious, as these that have fallen out within the compass of thy time ; who, though thou be not yet arrived at the fiftieth year of thy age, hast yet been a witness of stranger things than many ages before produced. So that whether we respect those various troubles wherein thou foundest thyself engaged while scarce got out of thy
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iv TO THE KING.
infancy ; the many different afflictions wherewith men of thy circumstances are often unacquainted ; the strange and unparalleled fortune that befel thy fatlier ; thy own narrow escape, and banishment following thereupon, Avith tlie great improbability of thy ever returning, at least without very much pains and tedious combatings ; or finally, the incapacity thou wert under to accomplish such a design •, considering the strength of those that had pos- sessed themselves of thy throne, and the terror they had inflicted upon foreign states ; and yet that, after all this, thou shouldest be restored with- out stroke of sword, the help or assistance of foreign states, or the con- trivance and work of human policy ; all these do sufficiently declare that it is the Lord's doing ; which, as it is marvellous in our eyes, so it will be justly a matter of wonder and astonishment to generations to come ; and may sufficiently serve, if rightly observed, to confute and confound that atheism wherewith this age doth so much abound.
As the vindication of the liberty of conscience (which thy father, by giving way to the importunate clamours of the clergy, the answering and fulfilling of whose unrighteous wills has often proved hurtful and pernicious to princes, sought in some part to restrain) was a great occasion of those troubles and revolutions ; so the pretence of conscience avrs that which carried it on, and brought it to that pitch it came to. And though no doubt some that were engaged in that work designed good things, at least in the beginning, albeit always wrong in the manner they took to accomplish it, viz. by carnal weapons ; yet so soon as they had tasted the sweets of the possessions of them they had turned out, they quickly began to do those things themselves for which they had accused others. For their hands were found full of oppression, and " they hated the reproofs of instruction, which are the way of life ;" and they evilly intreated the messengers of the Lord, and caused his prophets to be beaten and imprisoned, and persecuted his people, whom he had called and gathered out from among them, whom he had made to beat their " swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks," and not to learn carnal war any more : but he raised them up, and armed them with spiritual weapons, even with his own Spirit and power, whereby they testified in the streets and highways, and public markets and synagogues, against the pride, vanity, lusts, and hypo- crisy of that generation, who were righteous in their own eyes ; though often cruelly intreated therefor : and they faithfully prophesied and fore- told th^m of their judgment and downfall, which came upon them, as by several warnings and epistles delivered to Oliver and Richard Cromwell, the parliament, and other then powers, yet upon record, doth appear.
TO THE KING. V
And after it pleased God to restore thee, what oppressions, what banish- ments, and evil intreatings they have met with, by men pretending thy authority, and cloaking their mischief with thy name, is known to most men in this island ; especially in England, where there is scarce a prison that hath not been filled with them, nor a judge before whom they have not been haled •, though they could never yet be found guilty of any thing that might deserve that usage. Therefore the sense of their innocency did no doubt greatly contribute to move thee, three years ago, to cause some hundreds of them to be set at liberty : for indeed their sufferings are singu- lar, and obviously distinguishable from all the rest of such as live under thee in these two respects.
First : In that among all the plots contrived by others against thee since thy return into Britain, there was never any, owned of that people, found or known to be guilty, though many of them have been taken and im- prisoned upon such kind of jealousies, but were always found innocent and harmless, as became the followers of Christ ; not coveting after, nor con- tending for, the kingdoms of this world, but " subject to every ordinance of man, for conscience sake."
Secondly : In that in the hottest times of persecution, and the most violent prosecution of those laws made against meetings, being clothed with innocency, they have boldly stood to their testimony for God, with- out creeping into holes or corners, or once hiding themselves, as all other Dissenters have done ; but daily met, according to their custom, in the public places appointed for that end ; so that none of thy officers can say of them, that they have surprised them in a corner, overtaken them in a private conventicle, or catched them lurking in their secret chambers ; nor needed they to send out spies to get them, whom they were sure daily to find in their open assemblies, testifying for God and his truth.
By which those who have an eye to see, may observe their Christian patience and courage, constancy and suffering jomed in one, more than in any other people that differ from them, or oppose them. And yet, in the midst of those troubles, thou canst bear witness, that as on the one part, they never sought to detract from thee, or to render thee and thy govern- ment odious to the people, by nameless and scandalous pamphlets and libels ; so on the other hand, they have not spared to admonish, exhort, and reprove thee ; and have faithfully discharged their consciences towards thee, without flattering words, as ever the true prophets in ancient times used to do to those kings and princes, under whose power, violence and oppression was acted. 1*
VI TO THE KING.
And althougli it is evident by experience, to be most agreeable botli to divine truth and human policy, to allow every one to serve God according to tlieir consciences, nevertheless those other sects, who for the most part durst not peep out in the times of persecution, while these innocent people stood bold and faithful, do now combine in a joint confederacy, notwith- standing all the fornier janglings and contentions among themselves, to render us odious ; seeking imjustly to wrest our doctrine and words, as if they were inconsistent both with Christianity and civil society : so that to eflectuate this their work of malice against us, they have not been ashamed to take the help, and commend the labours, of some invidious Socinians against us. So do Herod and Pontius Pilate agree to crucify Christ.
But our practice, known to thee by good experience to be more con- sistent with Christianity and civil society, and the peace and welfare of this island, than that of those who thus accuse us, doth sufficiently guard us against this calumny ; and we may indeed appeal to the testimony of thy conscience, as a witness for us in the face of the nations.
These things moved me to present the world with a brief, but true account of this people's principles, in some short theological propositions ; which, according to the will of God, proving successful beyond my ex- pectation, to the satisfaction of several, and to the exciting in many a desire of being farther informed concerning us, as being every where evil spoken of; and likewise meeting with public opposition by some, as such will always do, so long as the devil rules in the children of disobedience ; I was thereby farther engaged, in the liberty of the Lord, to present to the world this_ apology of the truth held by those people : which, because of thy interest in them, and theirs in thee, as having first appeared, and mostly increased, in these nations under thy rule, I make bold to present unto thee.
Thou knowest, and hast experienced their faithfulness towards their God, their patience in suffering, their peaceableness towards the king, their honesty, plainness and integrity in their faithful warnings and testimonies to thee ; and if thou wilt allow thyself so much time as to read this, thou mayest find how consonant their principles are both to scripture, truth, and right reason. The simplicity of their behaviour, the generality of their condition, as being poor men and illiterate ; the manner of their procedure, being vilhout the wisdom and policy of this world; hath made many con- clude them fools and madmen, and neglect them, as not being capable of reason. But though it be to them as their crown, thus to be esteemed of
TO THE KING. VU
the wise, the great, and learned of this world, and though they rejoice to be accounted fools for Christ's sake ; yet of late some, even such who in the world's account are esteemed both wise and learned, begin to judge otherwise of them, and find that they hold forth things very agreeable both to scripture, reason, and true learning.
As it is inconsistent with the truth I bear, so it is far from me to use this epistle as an engine to flatter thee, the usual design of such works ; and therefore I can neither dedicate it to thee, nor crave thy patronage, as if thereby I might have more confidence to present it to the world, or be more hopeful of its success. To God alone I owe what I have, and that more immediately in matters spiritual ; and therefore to him alone, and to the service of his truth, I dedicate whatever work he brings forth in me ; to whom only the praise and honour appertain, whose truth heeds not the patronage of worldly princes ; his arm and power being that alone by which it is propagated, established, and confirmed. But I found it upon my spirit to take occasion to present this book unto thee ; that as thou hast been often warned by several of that people, who are inhabitants of England ; so thou may'st not want a seasonable advertisement from a member of thy ancient kingdom of Scotland ; and that thou may'st know, which 1 hope thou wilt have no reason to be troubled at, that God is rais- ing up and increasing that people in this nation. And the nations shall also hereby know, that the truth we profess is not a work of darkness, nor propagated by stealth ; and that we are not ashamed of the " gospel of Christ," because we know it to be " the power of God unto salvation ;" and that we are no ways so inconsistent with government, nor such dis- turbers of the peace, as our enemies, by traducing us, have sought to make the world believe we are : for which -to thee I dare appeal, as a witness of our peaceableness and Christian patience.
Generations to come shall not more admire that singular step of Divine Providence, in restoring thee to thy throne, without outward bloodshed, than they shall adrairfe the increase and progress of this truth, without all outward help, and against so great opposition ; which shall be none of the least things rendering thy memory remarkable. God hath done great things for thee ; he hath sufliciently shown thee, that it is by him princes rule, and that he can pull down and set up at his pleasure. He hath often faithfully warned thee by his servants, since he restored thee to thy royal dignity, that thy heart might not wax wanton against him, to forget his mercies and providences towards thee •, whereby he might permit thee to be soothed up, and lulled asleep in thy sins, by the flattering of court- parasites, who, by their fawning, are the ruin of many princes.
Vlll TO THE KING.
There is no king in the world, who can so experimentally testify of God's providence and goodness ; neither is there any who rules so many free people, so many true Christians : which thing renders thy government more honourable, tliyself more considerable, than the accession of many nations, filled with slavish and superstitious souls.
Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity ; thou knowest what it is to be banished thy native country, to be over-ruled, as well as to rule, and sit upon the throne ; and being oppressed, thou hast reason to know how hateful the oppressor is both to God and man : if after all these warnings and advertisements, thou dost not turn unto the Lord with all thy heart, but forget him, who remembered thee in thy distress, and give up thyself to follow lust and vanity ; surely great will be thy condemnation.
Against which snare, as well as the temptation of those that may or do feed thee, and prompt tliee to evil, the most excellent and prevalent remedy will be, to apply thyself to that Light of Christ, which sliineth in thy con- science, which neither can, nor will flatter thee, nor suflBr thee to be at ease in thy sins ; but doth and will deal plainly and faithfully with thee, as those that are followers thereof have also done.
God Almighty, who hath so signally hitherto visited thee with his love, so touch and reach thy heart, ere the day of thy visitation be expired, that thou mayest effectually turn to him, so as to improve thy place and station for his name. So wisheth, so prayeth.
Thy faithful friend and subject,
ROBERT BARCLAY.
From Ury, the place of my pil- grimage, in my native country of Scotland, the 25th of the month called November, in the year MDCLXXV.
R. B. Unto the Friendly Reader wisheth Salvation.
Forasmuch as that, which above all things I propose to myself, is to declare and defend the truth, for the service whereof I have given up and devoted myself, and all that is mine ; therefore there is no- thing which for its sake, by the help and assistance of God, I may not attempt. And in this confidence, I did some time ago publish certain propositions of divinity, comprehending briefly the chief prin- ciples and doctrines of truth ; which appearing not unprofitable to some, and being beyond my expectation well received by many, though also opposed by some envious ones, did so far prevail, as in some part to remove that false and monstrous opinion, which lying fame, and the malice of our adversaries, had implanted in the minds of some, concerning us and our doctrines.
In this respect it seemed to me not fit to spare my pains and labour ; and, therefore, being actuated by the same Divine Spirit, and the-like intention of propagating the truth, by which I published the propositions themselves, I judged it meet to explain them somewhat more largely at this time, and defend them by certain arguments.
Perhaps my method of writing may seem not only different, but even contrary, to that which is commonly used by the men called divines, with which I am not concerned : inasmuch as I confess my- self to be not only no imitator and admirer of the schoolmen, but an opposer and despiser of them as such, by whose labour I judge the Christian religion to be so far from being bettered, that it is rather destroyed. Neither have I sought to accommodate this my work to itching ears, who desire rather to comprehend in their heads the sublime notions of truth, than to embrace it in their hearts : for what I have written comes more from my heart than from my head ; what I have heard with the ears of my soul, and seen with my inward eyes,
B (9)
10 TO THE FRIENDLY READER.
and my hands have handled of the Word of Life, and what hath been inwardly manifested to me of the things of God, that do I declare ; not so much regarding the eloquence and excellency of speech, as desiring to demonstrate the efficacy and operation of truth ; and if I err sometimes in the former, it is no great matter ; for I act not here the grammarian, or the orator, but the Christian ; and therefore in this I have followed the certain rule of the Divine Light, and of the Holy Scriptures.
And, to make an end ; what I have written, is written not to feed the wisdom and knowledge, or rather, vain pride of this world, but to starve and oppose it, as the little preface prefixed to the propositions doth show ; which, with the title of them, is as followeth.
THESES THEOLOGIC^.
TO
THE CLERGY,
OF WHAT SORT SOEVER,
UNTO WHOSE HANDS THESE MAY COME;
BUT MORE PARTICULARLY
To the Doctors, Pi^ofessors, and Students of Divinity in the Uni- versities and Schools of Great Britain, whether Prelatical, Pres- byterian, or any other ;
Robert Barclay, a Servant of the Lord God, and one of those who in derision are called Quakers, wisheth unfeigned repentance, unto the acknowledgment of the Truth.
Friends,
Unto you these following propositions are offered ; in which, they being read and considered in the fear of the Lord, you may perceive that simple, naked truth, which man by his wisdom hath rendered so obscure and mysterious, that the world is even burthened with the great and voluminous tractates which are made about it, and by their vain jangling and commentaries, by which it is rendered a hundred- fold more dark and intricate than of itself it is : which great learning, so accounted of — to wit, your school divinity, which taketh up almost a man's whole life-time to learn, brings not a whit nearer to God, neither makes any man less wicked, or more righteous than he was. Therefore hath God laid aside the wise and learned, and the disputers of this world ; and hath chosen a few despicable and unlearned in-
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12 THESES THEOLOGICJE.
struments, as to letter-learning, as he did fishermen of old, to pub- lish his pure and naked truth, and to free it of those mists and fogs wherewith the clergy hath clouded it, that the people might admire and maintain them. And among several others, whom God hath chosen to make known these things — seeing I also have received, in measure, grace to be a dispenser of the same Gospel — it seemed good unto me, according to my duty, to offer unto you these propositions ; which, though short, yet are weighty, comprehending much, and de- claring what the true ground of knowledge is, even of that know- ledge which leads to Life Eternal ; which is here witnessed of, and the testimony thereof left unto the Light of Christ in all your con- sciences. Farewell,
R. B.
THESES TIIEOLOGICJS. 13
THE FIRST PROPOSITION.
Concerning the true Foundation of Knowledge.
Seeing the height of all happiness is placed in the true knowledge of God, (" This is life eternal, to know thee John xvii. the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent,") * the true and right understanding of this foundation and ground of knowledge, is that which is most necessary to be known and believed in the first place.
THE SECOND PROPOSITION.
Concerning Immediate Revelation.
Seeing "no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and Mat. xi. 27. he to whom the Son revealeth him ;" and seeing the reve- lation of the Son is in and by the Spirit ; therefore the tes- timony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true know- ledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed ; who as, by the moving of his own Spirit, he converted the chaos of this world into that wonderful order wherein it was in the beginning, and created man a living soul, to rule and govern it, so by the revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of men, both patriarchs, prophets, and apostles ; which revelations of God by the Spirit, whether by outward voices and ap- pearances, dreams, or inward objective manifestations in the heart, were of old the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so to be ; since the object of the saints' faith is the same in all ages, though set forth under divers admi- nistrations. Moreover, these divine inward revelations, which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith, neither do nor can ever contradict the outward testimony of the scriptures, or right and sound reason. Yet from hence it will not follow, that these divine revela- tions are to be subjected to the examination, either of the outward testimony of the scriptures, or of the natural reason of man, as to a more noble or certain rule or touchstone : 2
14 THESES THEOLOGIC^.
for this divine revelation and inward illumination, is that which is evident and clear of itself, forcing, by its own evidence and clearness, the well-disposed understanding to assent, irresistibly moving the same thereunto ; even as the common principles of natural truths move and incline the mind to a natural assent : as, that the whole is greater than its part ; that two contradictory sayings cannot be both true, nor both false : which is also manifest, according to our adversaries' principle, who — supposing the possibility of inward divine revelations — will nevertheless confess- with us, that neither scripture nor sound reason will con- tradict it : and yet it will not follow, according to them, that the scripture, or sound reason, should be subjected to the examination of the divine revelations in the heart.
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, 1. A faithful historical account of the actings of God's people in divers ages, with many singular and remarkable providences attending them. 2. A prophetical account of several things, whereof some are already past, and some yet to come. 3. A full and ample account of all the chief principles of the doctrine of Christ, held forth in divers precious declarations, exhortations, 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 itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all truth and knowledge, nor yet the adequate primary rule of faith and manners. Nevertheless, as that which giveth a true and faithful testimony of the first founda- tion, they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, sub- ordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their ex-
THESES THEOLOGIC^. 15
cellency and certainty ; for as by the inward testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them, so they testify, that the Spirit is that guide by which the saints are led into John xvi. all truth : therefore, according to the scriptures, the Spirit i^^^j ^i^^ is the first and principal leader. And seeing we do there- ^'^• fore receive and believe the scriptures, because they pro- ceeded from the Spirit ; therefore also the Spirit is more originally and principally the rule, according to that re- ceived maxim in the schools. Propter quod imumquodque est tale, illud ipsum est magis tale. Englished thus : ' That for which a thing is such, that thing itself is more such.'
THE FOURTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning the Condition of Man in the Fall.
All Adam's posterity, or mankind, both Jews and Gen- Rom. v. 12, tiles, as to the first Adam, or earthly man, is fallen, dege- nerated, and dead, deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward testimony or seed of God, and is subject unto the power, nature, and seed of the serpent, which he sows in men's hearts, while they abide in this natural and cor- rupted state ; from whence it comes, that not their words and deeds only, but all their imaginations are evil perpetu- ally in the sight of God, as proceeding from this depraved and wicked seed. Man, therefore, as he is in this state, can know nothing aright ; yea, his thoughts and concep- tions concerning God and things spiritual, until he be dis- joined from this evil seed, and united to the divine light, are unprofitable both to himself and others : hence are re- jected the Socinian and Pelagian errors, in exalting a na- tural light ; as also of the Papists, and most Protestants, who affirm. That man, without the true grace of God, may be a true minister of the gospel. Nevertheless, this seed is not imputed to infants, until by transgression they actu- ally join themselves therewith; for they are by nature the Eph. ii. 2. children of wrath, who walk according to the power of the prince of the air.
16 THESES THEOLOGIC^.
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH PROPOSITIONS.
Concerning the Universal Redemption hy Christ, and also the Saving and Spiritual Light, wherewith every man is enlightened.
THE FIFTH PROPOSITION.
Ezek. xviii. God, out of his infinite love, who delighteth not in the ifa xlix 6 tleath of a sinner, but that all should live and be saved, Johniii. 16. hath SO loved the world, that he hath ffiven his only Son a
& i. 9. ...
Tit. ii. 11. light, that whosoever believeth in him should be saved;
Heb ii 9^' '^^^ enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, and maketh manifest all things that are reproveable, and teacheth all temperance, righteousness, and godliness : and this light enlighteneth the hearts of all in a day,* in order to salvation, if not resisted : nor is it less universal than the seed of sin, being the purchase of his death, who
i^or. XV. tasted death for every man ; " for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
22.
THE SIXTH PROPOSITION.
According to which principle (or hypothesis), all the objections against the universality of Christ's death are easily solved ; neither is it needful to recur to the ministry of angels, and those other miraculous means, which, they say, God makes use of, to manifest the doctrine and history of Christ's passion unto such, who, living in those places of the world where the outward preaching of the gospel is unknown, have well improved the first and common grace ; for hence it well follows, that as some of the old philoso- phers might have been saved, so also may now some — who by providence are cast into those remote parts of the world, where the knowledge of the history is wanting — be made partakers of the divine mystery, if they receive and resist
* Pro tempore : for a time.
THESES THEOLOGIC^. 17
not that grace, " a manifestation whereof is given to every iCor. xii.7. man to profit withal." This certain doctrine then being received, to wit: that there is an evangeHcal and saving light and grace in all, the universality of the love and mercy of God towards mankind — both in the death of his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the manifesta- tion of the light in the heart — is established and confirmed against all the objections of such as deny it. Therefore " Christ hath tasted death for every man :" not only for all Heb. ii. 9. kinds of men, as some vainly talk, but for every one, of all kinds ; the benefit of whose offering is not only ex- tended to such, who have the distinct outward knowledge of his death and sufferings, as the same is declared in the scriptures, but even unto those who are necessarily ex- cluded from the benefit of this knowledge by some inevi- table accident; which knowledge we willingly confess to be very profitable and comfortable, but not absolutely needful unto such, from whom God himself hath withheld it ; yet they may be made partakers of the mystery of his death — though ignorant of the history — if they suffer his
seed and light — enlightening their hearts to take place ;
in which light, communion with the Father and Son is en- joyed, so as of wicked men to become holy, and lovers of that power, by whose inward and secret touches they feel themselves turned from the evil to the good, and learn to do to others as they would be done by ; in which Christ himself aflSrms all to be included. As they then have falsely and erroneously taught, who have denied Christ to have died for all men ; so neither have they sufficiently taught the truth, who affirming him to have died for all, have added the absolute necessity of the outward know- ledge thereof, in order to the obtaining its saving effect ; among whom the Remonstrants of Holland have been chiefly wanting, and many other asserters of Universal Redemption, in that they have not placed the extent of this salvation in that divine and evangelical principle of light and life, wherewith Christ hath enlightened every man that comes into the world, which is excellently and evidently 2* c
18 THESES THEOLOGICiE.
held forth in these scriptures, Gen. vi. 3. Deut. xxx. 14. John i. 7, 8, 9. Rom. x. 8. Tit. ii. 11.
THE SEVENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning Justification.
As many as resist not this light, but receive the same, in them is produced an holy, pure, and spiritual birth, bring- ing forth holiness, righteousness, purity, and all those other blessed fruits ^vhich are acceptable to God; by which holy birth, to wit, Jesus Christ, formed within us, and working his works in us — as we are sanctified, so we are justified in the sight of God, according to the apostle's words,
1 Cor. vi. <'But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are jus- tified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Therefore it is not by our works wrought in our will, nor yet by good works, considered as of them- selves, but by Christ, who is both the gift and the giver, and the cause producing the eflfects in us ; who, as he hath reconciled us while we were enemies, doth also in his wisdom save us, and justify us after this manner, as saith
Tit. iii. 5. the same apostle elsewhere, "According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renew- ing of the Holy Ghost."
THE EIGHTH PROPOSITION.
Co7icerning Perfection.
Rom.yi. 14. In whom this holy and pure birth is fully brought forth, Id. vi. 2, 18. the body of death and sin comes to be crucified and re- iJohniii.6. moved, and their hearts united and subjected unto the truth, so as not to obey any suggestion or temptation of the evil one, but to be free from actual sinning, and trans- gressing of the law of God, and in that respect perfect. Yet doth this perfection still admit of a growth ; and there remaineth a possibility of sinning, where the mind doth not most diligently and watchfully attend unto the Lord.
THESES THEOLOGICiE. 19
THE NINTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning Perseverance^ and the Possibility of Falling from Grace.
Although this gift, and inward grace of God, be suffi- cient to work out salvation, yet in those in whom it is re- sisted it both may and doth become their condemnation. Moreover, in whom it hath wrought in part, to purify and sanctify them, in order to their further perfection, by dis- obedience such may fall from it, and turn it to wantonness, making shipwreck of faith ; and " after having tasted of i Tim. i. 6. the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy 5^^g_" ^^' ' Ghost, again fall away." Yet such an increase and stabi- lity in the truth may in this life be attained, from which there cannot be a total apostasy.
THE TENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning the Ministry.
As by this gift, or light 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 or- dained, prepared and supplied 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 times when he is to minister. Moreover, those who have this authority may and ought to preach the gospel, though without human commission or literature ; as on the other hand, those who want the authority of this divine gift, however learned or authorized by the commissions 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 un- spotted gift, "as they have freely received, so are they Mat. x.
20 THESES THEOLOGIC-E.
freely to give," without hire or bargaining, far less to use it as a trade to get money by it : yet if God hath called any from their employments, or trades, by which they acquire their livelihood, 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 to them for meat and clothing — as are freely given them by those to whom they have communicated spirituals.
THE ELEVENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning Worship.
All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own Spirit, which is neither limited to places, times, or persons ; for though we be to worship him always, in that we are to fear before him, yet as to the outward signification thereof in prayers, praises, or preachings, we ought not to do it where and when we will, but where and when we are moved thereunto by the secret inspirations of his Spirit in our hearts, which God heareth and accepteth of, and is never wanting to move us thereunto, when need is, of which he himself is the alone proper judge. All other worship then, both praises, prayers and preachings, which man sets about in his own will, and at his own appoint- ment, which he can both begin and end at his pleasure, do or leave undone, as himself sees meet, whether they be a prescribed form, as a liturgy, or prayers conceived extem- Ezek. xiii. porarily, by the natural strength and faculty of the mind, Act^s ii. 4*!' they are all but superstitions, will- worship, and abomina-
?^;"- ^. ble idolatry in the sight of God ; w^iich are to be denied, John 111. b. . , •' , , f. • 1 • 1 z' 1 • • • 1
and iv. 21. rejected, and separated from, ui this day oi his spiritual
Acts xvli. arising : however it might have pleased him — who winked
23. at the times of ignorance, with respect to the simplicity
and integrity of some, and of his own innocent seed, which
lay as it were buried in the hearts of men, under the mass
of superstition — to blow upon the dead and dry bones,
THESES THEOLOGICiE. 21
and to raise some breathings, and answer them, and that until the day should more clearly dawn and break forth.
THE TWELFTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning Baptism.
As there is one Lord and one faith, so there is " one Eph. iv. 5. baptism ; which is not the putting away the filth of the ^2^^*" '"' flesh, but the answer of a good conscience before God, by Rom.yi.4. the resurrection of Jesus Christ." And this baptism is a Coi.' ii!'i2.' pure and spiritual thing, to wit, the baptism of the spirit John 111.30. and fire, by which we are buried with him, that being washed and purged from our sins, we may " walk in new- 1 Cor. i. 17. ness of life ;" of which the baptism of John was a figure, which was commanded for a time, and not to continue for ever. As to the baptism of infants, it is a mere human tradition, for which neither precept nor practice is to be found in all the scripture.
THE THIRTEENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning the Communion, or Participation of the Body and Blood of Christ.
The communion of the body and blood of Christ is m- 1 Cor. x. ward and spiritual, which is the participation of his flesh john v^L 32, and blood, by which the inward man is daily nourished in .^^' '^^■ the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells ; of which things the breaking of bread by Christ with his disciples was a figure, which they even used in the church for a time, who had received the substance, for the cause of the weak ; even as "abstaining from things strangled, and from Acts xv. 20. blood ;" the washing one another's feet, and the anointing J°|'"x"'- of the sick with oil ; all which are commanded with no less James v.i4. authority and solemnity than the former ; yet seeing they are but the shadows of better things, they cease in such as have obtained the substance.
22 THESES THEOLOGICiE.
THE FOURTEENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning the power of the Civil Magistrate, in matters purely religious, and pertaining to the conscience.
Since God hath assumed to himself the power and do- minion of the conscience, who alone can rightly instruct Luke ix. and govern it, therefore it is not lawful for any whatsoever, Mat ^'^i. ^y "virtue of any authority or principality they bear in the 12, 29. government of this world, to force the consciences of others ; and therefore all killing, banishing, fining, im- prisoning, and other such things, which men are afflicted with, for the alone exercise of their conscience, or differ- ence in worship or opinion, proceedeth from the spirit of Cain, the murderer, and is contrary to the truth ; provided always, that no man, under the pretence of conscience, prejudice his neighbour in his life or estate ; or do any thing destructive to, or inconsistent with human society ; in which case the law is for the transglfessor, and justice to be administered upon all, without respect of persons.
THE FIFTEENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning Salutations and Recreations, <^c.
Eph. V. 11. Seeing the chief end of all religion is to redeem man John' V. 44. ^^0™ ^^^ spirit and vain conversation of this world, and to
Jer. X. 3. lead into inward communion with God, before whom, if
Acts X. 26.
Mat. XV. 13. we fear always, we are accounted happy ; therefore all the
° ' "■ vain customs and habits thereof, both in word and deed, are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear ; such as the taking off the hat to a man, the bowungs and cringings of the body, and such other salutations of that kind, with all the foolish and superstitious formalities attending them ; all which man has invented in his dege- nerate state, to feed his pride in the vain pomp and glory of this world ; as also the unprofitable plays, frivolous
THESES THEOLOGlCiE. 23
recreations, sportings and gamings, which are invented to pass away the precious time, and divert the mind from the witness of God in the heart, and from the living sense of his fear, and fi-om that evangelical Spirit wherewith Chris- tians ought to be leavened, and which leads into sobriety, gravity, and godly fear ; in which, as we abide, the bless- ing of the Lord is felt to attend us in those actions in which we are necessarily engaged, in order to the taking care for the sustenance of the outward man.
AN
APOLOGY
FOR THE
TRUE CHRISTIAN DIVINITY.
PROPOSITION I.
Concerning the true Foundation of Knowledge.
Seeing the height of all happiness is placed in the true
knowledge of God ; " This is life eternal, to know thee Johnxvii, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast ^' sent ;" the true and right understanding of this founda- tion and ground of knowledge is that which is most ne- cessary to be known and believed in the first place.
He that desireth to acquire any art or science, seeketh first those means by which that art or science is obtained. If we ought to do so in things natural and earthly, how much more then in spiritual ? In this affair then should our enquiry be the more diligent, because he that errs in the entrance is not so easily brought back again into the right way ; he that misseth his road from the beginning of his journey, and is deceived in his first marks, at his first setting forth, the greater his mistake is, the more difficult will be his entrance into the right way.
Thus when a man first proposeth to himself the know- The way to
ledge of God, from a sense of his own unworthiness, and ^}^^ ^""f^^j ° ' . , , ) "^ knowledge
from the great weariness of his mind, occasioned by the of God. secret checks of his conscience, and the tender, yet real
3 D (25)
26 PROPOSITION I.
glances of God's light upon his heart ; the earnest desires he has to be redeemed from his present trouble, and the fervent breathings he has to be eased of his disordered passions and lusts, and to find quietness and peace in the certain knowledge of God, and in the assurance of his love and good-will towards him, make his heart tender, and ready to receive any impression ; and so — not having then a dis- tinct discerning — through forwardness embraceth any thing that brings present ease. If, either through the reverence he bears to certain persons, or from the secret inclination to what doth comply with his natural disposition, he fall upon any principles or means, by which he apprehends he may come to know God, and so doth centre himself, it will be hard to remove him thence again, how wrong so- ever they may be : for the first anguish being over, he becomes more hardy ; and the enemy being near, creates a false peace, and a certain confidence, which is strength- ened by the mind's unwillingness to enter again into new doubtfulness, or the former anxiety of a search.
This is sufficiently verified in the example of the Phari- Jewishdoc- sees and Jewish doctors, who most of all resisted Christ, Pharisees disdaining to be esteemed ignorant ; for this vain opinion Christ *^^y ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ knowledge hindered them from the true knowledge ; and the mean people, who were not so much pre-occupied with former principles, nor conceited of their own knowledge, did easily believe. Wherefore the Phari- Johnvii. sees upbraid them, saying, "Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed on him ? But this people, which know not the law, are accursed." This is also abundantly proved by the experience of all such, as being secretly touched with the call of God's grace unto them, do apply them- selves to false teachers, where the remedy proves worse than the disease ; because instead of knowing God, or the things relating to their salvation aright, they drink in wrong opinions of him ; from which it is harder to be disentangled, than while the soul remains a blank, or Tabula rasa. For they that conceit themselves wise, are worse to deal with than they that are sensible of their ignorance. Nor hath
OF THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 27
it been less the device of the devil, the great enemy of mankind, to persuade men into wrong notions of God, than to keep them altogether from acknowledging him ; the latter taking with few, because odious ; but the other having been the constant ruin of the world : for there hath scarce been a nation found, but hath had some notions or other of religion ; so that not from their denying any Deity, but from their mistakes and misapprehensions of it, hath proceeded all the idolatry and superstition of the world ; yea, hence even atheism itself hath proceeded : for these many and various opinions of God and religion, being so much mixed with the guessings and uncertain judgments of men, have begotten in many the opinion. That there is no God at all. This, and much more that might be said, may show how dangerous it is to miss in this first step : " All that come not in by the door, are accounted as thieves and robbers."
Again, how needful and desirable that knowledge is, which brings life eternal, Epictetus showeth, saying excel- Epictetus. lently well, cap, 38, I'hi oti to Ku^iwaTov, &c. Know, that the main foundation of piety is this. To have o^^as LiroXri-^siSj right opinions and apprehensions of God.
This therefore I judged necessary, as a first principle, in the first place to affirm ; and I suppose will not need much farther explanation or defence, as being generally acknow- ledged by all — and in these things that are without contro- versy I love to be brief — as that which will easily commend itself to every man's reason and conscience ; and therefore I shall proceed to the next proposition ; which, though it be nothing less certain, yet by the malice of Satan, and the ignorance of many, comes far more under debate.
28 PROPOSITION II.
PROPOSITION II.
Of Immediate Revelation.
Mat.xi.27. Seeing « no man knoweth the Pather but the Son, and he
to whom the Son revealeth him ;" and seeing the "reve- lation of the Son is in and by the Spirit ;" therefore the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only re- vealed ; who as, by the moving of his own Spirit, he disposed the chaos of this world into that wonderful order in which it was in the beginning, and created man a living soul, to rule and govern it, so by the revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of men, both patriarchs, prophets, and apostles; which revelations of God by the Spirit, whe- ther by outward voices and appearances, dreams, or in- ward objective manifestations in the heart, were of old the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so to be ; since the object of the saints' faith is the same in all ages, though held forth under divers administrations. Moreover, these divine inward revelations, which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith, neither do nor can ever contradict the outward tes- timony of the scriptures, or right and sound reason. Yet from hence it will not follow, that these divine reve- lations are to be subjected to the test, either of the outward testimony of the scriptures, or of the natural reason of man, as to a more noble or certain rule and touchstone ; for this divine revelation and inward illu- mination, is th^ which is evident and clear of itself, forcing, by its own evidence and clearness, the well-dis- posed understanding to assent, irresistibly moving the same thereunto, even as the common principles of na- tural truths do move and incline the mind to a natural
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 29
assent : as, that the whole is greater than its part ; tliat two contradictories can neither be both true, nor both false.
§ I. It is very probable, that many carnal and natural Revelation Christians will oppose this proposition ; who being wholly apostate ^^ unacquainted with the movings and actings of God's Spirit Christians. upon tlieir hearts, judge the same nothing necessary ; and some are apt to flout at it as ridiculous ; yea, to that height are the generality of Christians apostatized and degenerated, that though there be not any thing more plainly asserted, more seriously recommended, or more certainly attested, in all the writings of the holy scriptures, yet nothing is less minded and more rejected by all sorts of Christians, than immediate and divine revelation ; insomuch that once to lay claim to it is matter of reproach. Whereas of old none were ever judged Christians, but such as had the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 9. But now many do boldly call them- selves Christians, who make no difficulty of confessing they are without it, and laugh at such as say they have it. Of old they were accounted " the sons of God, who were led by the Spirit of God," ibid. ver. 14. But now many aver themselves sons of God, who know nothing of this leader ; and he that affirms himself so led, is, by the pretended orthodox of this age, presently proclaimed an heretic. The reason hereof is very manifest, viz. : Because many in these days, under the name of Christians, do experiment- ally find, that they are not actuated nor led by God's Spirit ; yea, many great doctors, divines, teachers, and bishops of Christianity, (commonly so called,) have wholly shut their ears from hearing and their eyes from seeing this inward guide, and so are become strangers unto it ; whence they are, by their own experience, brought to this strait, either to confess that they are as yet ignorant of God, and have only the shadow of knowledge, and not the true knowledge of him, or that this knowledge is acquired without imme- diate revelation.
30 PROPOSITION II.
Knowledge For the better understanding then of this proposition, we and"literal ^^ distinguish betwixt the certain knowledge of God, and '^'^''h d *^^ uncertain ; betwixt the spiritual knowledge, and the literal ; the saving heart-knowledge, and the soaring airy head knowledge. The last, we confess, may be divers ways obtained ; but the first, by no other way than the in- ward immediate manifestation and revelation of God's Spirit, shining in and upon the heart, enlightening and opening the understanding.
§ II. Having then proposed to myself, in these proposi- tions, to affirm those things which relate to the true and effectual knowledge which brings life eternal with it ; there- fore I have truly affirmed, that this knowledge is no other- ways attained, and that none have any true ground to be- lieve they have attained it, who have it not by this revela- tion of God's 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 God's love, who hath had regard to the good, and hath had of his elect ones among all ; who finding a distaste and disgust in all other outward means, even in the very principles and precepts more particularly relative to their own forms and societies, have at last con- cluded, with one voice, that there was no true knowledge of God but that which is revealed inwardly by his own Spirit. Whereof take these following testimonies of the ancients : Aug. ex. 1. "It is the inward master (saith Augustine) that
Joh.*^iii. ^ 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 thereafter : " For he that created us, and redeemed us, and called us by faith, and dwelleth in us by his Spirit, unless he speaketh unto us inwardly, it is needless for us to cry out."
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 31
2. " There is a difference," saith Clemens Alexandrinus, Clem. " betwixt that which any one saith of the truth, and that strom. which the truth itself, interpreting itself, saith. A conjec- ture of truth differeth from the truth itself; a similitude, of
a thing differeth from the thing itself; 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 im- Peedag. possible 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 TertuUian, " that since the devil TertuUia- always worketh, and stirreth up the mind to iniquity, that de\eland. the work of God should either cease, or desist to act ? Virginibus, Since for this end the Lord did send the Comforter, that because human weakness could not at once bear all things, knowledge 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 cannot as yet 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 this his work we have spoken above. What is then the administration of the Comforter, but that discipline be directed, and the scriptures revealed, &c."
4. " The law," saith Hierom, " is spiritual, and there is Hieron. Ep. need of a revelation to understand it." And in his Epistle Pa"lin-103. 150, to Hedibia, Quest. 11, he saith, "The whole Epistle
to the Romans needs an interpretation, it being involved in so great obscurities, that for the understanding thereof we need the help of the holy Spirit, who through the apos- tle dictated it."
5. " So great things," saith Athanasius, " doth our Athanasius Saviour daily : he draws unto piety, persuades unto virtue, verbi^Dei teaches immortality, excites to the desire of heavenly
things, reveals the knowledge of the Father, inspires power against death, and shows himself unto every one." q jyj
6. Gregory the Great, upon these words [He shall teach Hom. 30. you all things] saith, " That unless the same Spirit is pre- Gospel.
32
PROPOSITION II.
Cyril. Alex in The- sauro, lib. xiii. c. 3.
Bernard in Psal. Ixxxiv.
Luther, torn. V. p. 76.
Phil. Me- lancthon.
By the Spi- fit alone God is known.
sent in 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 is without, laboureth in vain."
7. Cyrillus Alexandrinus plainly affirmeth, <' That men know that Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Ghost, no other- wise, than they who taste honey know that it is sweet, even by its proper quality."
8. "Therefore," saith Bernard, " we daily exhort you, brethren, that ye walk the ways of the heart, and that your souls be always in your hands, that ye 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 built.
Luther, in his book to the nobility of Germany, saith, " This is certain, that no man can make himself a teacher of the holy scriptures, but the hoiy Spirit alone." And upon the Magnificat he saith, "No man can rightly know God, or understand the word of God, unless he imme- diately receive it from the Holy Spirit ; neither can any one receive it from the Holy Spirit, except he find it by expe- rience in himself; and in this experience the Holy Ghost teacheth, as in his proper school ; out of which school no- thing is taught but mere talk."
Philip Melancthon, in his annotations upon John vi. : " Those 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 acknowledge, even all such who satisfy themselves not with the superfi-
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION.
33
cies of religion, and use it not as a cover or art. Yea, all
those 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 shining of
his light upon their understanding."
And therefore to this purpose a modern author, viz. Dr. Dr Smith • 1 T • 1 11 of Cam-
Smith of Cambridge, m his select discourses, saith well ; bridge,
«' To seek our divinity merely in books and writings, is to fng boTk-
seek the living among the dead ; we do but in vain many divinity.
times seek God in these, where his truth is too often not so
much enshrined as entombed. Intra te qucere Deum, Seek
God within thine own soul. He is best discerned, vos^a fc*a(p^,
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. — eri '«i» 4'"X^5 cuff&yjffig Tig, &c., the soul
itself hath its sense, as well as the body. And therefore
David, when he would teach us to know what the divine
goodness is, calls not for speculation, but sensation:
' Taste, and see that the Lord is good.' That is not the Psal.xxxiv.
best and truest knowledge of God which is wrought out
by the labour and sweat of the brain, but that which is
kindled within us, by an heavenly warmth in our hearts."
And again : <' There is a knowing of the truth as it is in
Jesus, as it is in a Christ-like nature ; as it is in that sweet,
mild, humble, and loving Spirit of Jesus, which spreads
itself, like a morning sun, upon the souls of good men, full
of light and life. It profits little to know Christ himself
after the flesh ; but he gives his Spirit to good men, that
searcheth the deep things of God." And again : " It is
but a thin airy knowledge that is got by mere speculation,
which is ushered in by syllogisms and demonstrations;
but that which springs forth from true goodness, is
Seiore^ov tj •zsao'/is v<Ko6iileui, as Origen speaks : ' It brings
£
34
PROPOSITION II.
Apostasy and a false knowledge introduced.
Christian- ity is be- come an art, ac- quired by human science and indus- try.
such a divine light into the soul, as is more clear and con- vincing than any demonstration.' "
§ III. That this certain and undoubted method of tiie true knowledge of God hath been brought out of use, hath been none of the least devices of the devil, to secure man- kind to his kingdom. For after the light and glor}' of the Christian religion had prevailed over a good part of the world, and dispelled the thick mists of the heathenish doc- trine of the plurality of gods, he that knew there was no probability of deluding the world any longer that way, did then puff man up with a false knowledge of the true God ; setting him on work to seek God the wrong way, and per- suading him to be content with such a knowledge as was of his own acquiring, and not of God's teaching. And this device hath proved the more successful, because accommo- dated to the natural and corrupt spirit and temper of man, who above all things affects to exalt himself; in which self-exaltation, as God is greatly dishonoured, so therein the devil hath his end ; who is not anxious how much God is acknowledged in words, provided himself be but always served ; he matters not how great and high speculations the natural man entertains of God, so long as he serves his own lusts and passions, and is obedient to his evil sugges- tions and temptations. Thus Christianity is become as it were an art, acquired by human science and industry, like any other art or science ; and men have not only assumed the name of Christians, but even have procured themselves to be esteemed as masters of Christianity, by certain artifi- cial tricks, though altogether strangers to the spirit and life of Jesus. But if we make a right definition of a Christian, according to the scriptures. That he is one that hath the spirit of Christ, and is led by it, how many Christians, yea, and of these great masters and doctors of Christianity, so accounted, shall we justly divest of that noble title ?
If those therefore who have all the other means of know- ledge, and are sufficiently learned therein, whether it be the letter of the scripture, the traditions of churches, or the works of creation and providence, whence they are able to
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 35
deduce strong and undeniable arguments — which may be true in themselves — are not yet to be esteemed Christians according to the certain and infallible definition above mentioned ; and if the inward and immediate revelation of God's Spirit in the heart, in such as have been altogether ignorant of some, and but very little skilled in others, of these means of attaining knowledge, hath brought them to salvation ; then it will necessarily and evidently follow, that tiJn'^k'the' inward and immediate revelation is the only sure and cer- Jrueknow-
•' ledge 01
tain way to attain the true and saving knowledge of God. God.
But the first is true : therefore the last.
Now as this argument doth very strongly conclude for this way of knowledge and against such as deny it, so in this respect it is the more to be regarded, as the proposi- tions from which it is deduced are so clear, that our very adversaries cannot deny them. For as to the first it is acknowledged, that many learned men may be, and have been, damned. And as to the second, who will deny but many illiterate men may be, and are, saved ? Nor dare any affirm, that none come to the knowledge of God and salva- tion by the inward revelation of the Spirit, without these other outward means, unless they be also so bold as to ex- Ahel, Seth, elude Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Job, and all the holy £stancfd?' patriarchs from true knowledge and salvation.
§ IV. I would however not be understood, as if hereby I excluded those other means of knowledge from any use or service to man ; it is far from me so to judge, as con- cerning the scriptures, in the next proposition, will more plainly appear. The question is not, what may be profit- able or helpful, but \vhat is absolutely necessary. Many things may contribute to further a work, which yet are not the main thing that makes the work go on.
The sum then of what is said amounts to this : That where the true inward knowledge of God is, through the revelation of his Spirit, there is all ; neither is there an ab- solute necessity of any other. But where the best, highest, and most profound knowledge is, without this there is nothing, as to the obtaining the great end of salvation.
36 PROPOSITION 11.
This truth is very effectually confirmed by the first part of the proposition itself, which in few words comprehendeth divers unquestionable arguments, which I shall in brief subsume.
First, That there is no knowledge of the Father but
by the Son. Secondly, That there is no knowledge of the Son but
by the Spirit. Thirdly, That by the Spirit God hath always revealed
himself to his children. Fourthly, That these revejations were the formal ob- ject of the saints' faith. And Lastly, That the same continueth to be the ob- ject of the saints' faith to this day. Of each of these I shall speak a little particularly, and then proceed to the latter part. Assert, i. § V. As to the first, viz. That there is no knowledge proved. ^f ^^^ Father but by the Son, it will easily be proved, be- ing founded upon the plain words of scripture, and is therefore a fit medium from whence to deduce the rest of our assertions.
For the infinite and most wise God, who is the founda- tion, root and spring of all operation, hath wrought all John i. 1, things by his eternal Word and Son. " This is that Word ' ' that was in the beginning with God, and was God, by
whom all things were made, and without whom was not any thing made that was made." This is that "Jesus Eph. iii. 9. Christ, by whom God created all things, by whom, and for whom, all things were created, that are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers," Col. i. 16. who therefore is called, " The first-born of every creature," Col. i. 15. As then that infinite and incomprehensible fountain of life and motion operateth in the creatures by his 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," Mat.
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 37
xi. 27. Luke x. 22. And again, he himself saith, " I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father but by me," John xiv. 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 con- veyed to mankind, and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies.
Hence is easily deduced the proof of this first assertion, thus: ' ^i'i .^ .
If no man knoweth the Fatlier 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 re- pugnance.
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 knowledge of the Father but by the Son.
But the first is true : therefore the last.
The antecedent are the very scripture words : the con- sequence 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 whoso uses not that way, cannot know him, neither come unto him.
§ VI. Having then laid down this first principle, I come Assert, ii. to the second, viz. : That there is no knowledge of the P'''^^^'*- 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 always speak of the saving, certain, and necessary knowledge of God ; which that it 4
38 PROPOSITION II.
cannot be acquired otherways 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 him- self to his disciples and friends in and by his Spirit. As his manifestation was outward, when he testified and wit- nessed for the truth in this world, and approved himself faithful throughout, so being now withdrawn, as to the out- ward man, he doth teach and instruct mankind inwardly by his own Spirit ; " He standeth at the door, and knock- eth, and whoso heareth his voice and openeth, he comes in" to such. Rev. iii. 20. Of this revelation of Christ in him Paul speaketh, Gal. i. 16, in which he placeth the ex- cellency 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 \vorld," confirmeth the same thing ; for this is an inward and spiritual presence, as all acknowledge : but what relates hereto will again occur. I shall deduce the proof of this proposition from two mani- Proof 1. fest places of scripture: the first is, 1 Cor. ii. 11, 12. " What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit The things of a man which is in him ? Even so the things of God known b^y knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have G^tf^^"'*'^ 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 or comprehend the things of a man, as being of a nobler and higher nature, so neither
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 39
can the spirit of man, or the natural man, as the apostle in the fourteenth verse subsumes, receive nor discern the things of God, or the things that are spiritual, as being also of an higher nature ; which the apostle himself gives for the reason, saying, " Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." So that the apostle's 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 those 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 apostle's 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 knowledge of him, is spiritual :
Therefore the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the true and saving knowledge of him, can only be known and dis- cerned by the Spirit of God.
The other scripture is also a saying of the same apostle. Proof 2. 1 Cor. xii. 3. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, Nomancan but by the Holy Ghost." This scripture, which is full of Loldf&c. truth, and answereth full well to the enlightened under- standing 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 re- marked. Here the apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian, that he posi- tively avers, we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it ; which insinuates no less, than that the tmths^are spiritual truths of the gospel are as lies in the mouths of {i'^s spoken carnal and unspiritual men ; for though in themselves they men.
40 PROPOSITION II.
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 actuate it in such things : they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy; neither can it be more truly and pro- perly called a real and true knowledge of God and Christ, than the actions of Alexander the Great, and Julius Ceesar, &.C., if now transacted upon a stage, might be called truly and really their doings ; or the persons representing them might be said truly and really to have conquered Asia, overcome Pompey, &c.
This knowledge then of Christ, which is not by the re- velation of his own Spirit in the heart, is no more properly Like the the knowledge of Christ, than the prattling of a parrot, a MrroT 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 prin- ciple of reason actuating it ; so just such is that knowledge 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 which utters them. Where- fore 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, con- cluding in the very terms of this assertion : thus,
If no man can know Jesus to be the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, then there can be no certain knowledge or re- velation of him but by the Spirit.
But the first is true : therefore the second.
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 41
§ VII. The third thing affirmed is, That by the Spirit Assert, iii. God always revealed himself to his children. ^'^'^^'^
For making the truth of this assertion appear, it will be but needful to consider God's manifesting himself towards and in relation to his creatures from the beginning, which resolves itself always herein. The first step of all is ascribed hereunto by Moses, Gen. i. 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 : That reve- and afterwards, through the whole tract of the law, he Jhe°Spirit^^ spake to his children no otherways ; which, as it naturally of God. foUoweth from the principles above proved, so it cannot be denied by such as acknowledge the scriptures of truth to have been written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost : for these writings, from Moses to Malachi, do declare, that during all that time God revealed himself to his children by his Spirit.
But if any will object, That after the dispensation of the Object. law God's method of speaking was altered ;
I answer : First, That God spake always immediately Answ. to the Jews, in that he spake always immediately to the High-Priest from betwixt the Cherubims ; who, when he Sanctum entered into the Holy of Holies, returning, did relate to the Sanctorum. whole people the voice and will of God, there immediately revealed. So that this 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. xi. 25, where
the Spirit is said to have rested on the seventy elders ; j^one shut
which Spirit also reached unto two that were not in the °".* *.™"^
111-1 ^"^^ imme-
tabernacle, but in the camp ; whom when some would diaie fel-
have forbidden, Moses would not, but rejoiced, wishing °^^ '^'
that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that he would
put his Spirit upon them, ver. 29.
4* F
42
PROPOSITION II.
This is also confirmed, Neh. ix.j where the elders of the people, after their return from captivity, when they began to sanctify themselves by fasting and prayer, numbering up the many mercies of God towards their fathers, say, verse 20, " Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them;" and verse 30, "Yet many years didst thou for- bear, and testify against them by thy Spirit in thy pro- phets." Many are the sayings of spiritual David to this purpose, as Psalm li. 11, 12, << Take not thy holy Spirit from me : uphold me with thy free Spirit." Psal. cxxxix. 7, " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?" Hereunto doth the prophet Isaiah ascribe the credit of his testimony, say- ing, chap, xlviii. 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. Assert, iv. § VHI. The fourth thing affirmed is, That these revela- tions were the object of the saints' faith of old. Proved. 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 noiions of the school-men, but stay in the plain and positive words of the apostle Paul, What faith who, Heb. xi. 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 sense 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 pro- mise, word, or testimony of God, speaking in the mind. Hence it hath been generally affirmed, that the object of The object faith is Deus loqueiis, &c. that is, God speaking, &c. which Deus lo- is also manifest from all those examples deduced by the quens. apostle throughout that whole chapter, whose faith was
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 43
founded neither upon any outward testimony, nor upon the voice or writing of man, but upon the revelation of God's 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 righteous- ness which is by faith." What was here the object of Noah's Noali's 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 contra- dicted tlie whole world, saved him and his house. Of which also Abraham is set forth as a singular example, be- Abraham's ing therefore called the Father of the faithful, who is said ^^"^" against hope to have believed in hope, in that he not only willingly forsook his father's country, not knowing whither he went ; in that he believed concerning the coming of Isaac, though contrary to natural probability ; but above all, in that he refused not to offer him up, not doubting but God was able to raise him from the dead ; of whom it is said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And last of all, in that he rested in the promise, that his seed should possess the land, wherein he himself was but a pilgrim, and which to them was not to be fulfilled while divers aees after. The object of Abraham's faith in all this was no other but inward and immediate revelation, or God signi- fying his will unto him inwardly and immediately by his Spirit.
But because, in this part of the proposition, we made also mention of external voices, appearances, and dreams in the alternative, I think also fit to speak hereof, what in that respect may be objected ; to wit,
That those who found their faith now upon immediate Object. and objective revelation, ought to have also outward voices or visions, dreams or appearances for it.
It is not denied, but God made use of the ministry of Answ. angels, who, in the appearance of men, spake outwardly
44 PROPOSITION II.
The minis- to the saints of old, and that he did also reveal some things gels speak- to them in dreams and visions ; none of which we will
ing m the gfJinn to be ceased, so as to limit the power and liberty of appearance .... ' "^
of men to God in manifesting himself towards his children. But
of old. while we are considering the object of faith, we must not stick to that which is but circumstantially and acci- dentally so, but to that which is universally and substan- tially so.
Next again, we must distinguish betwixt that which in itself is subject to doubt and delusion, and therefore is re- ceived for and because of another ; and that which is not- subject to any doubt, but is received simply for and because of itself, as being prima Veritas, the very first and original truth. Let us then consider how or how far these outward voices, appearances, and dreams were the object of the Revela- saints' faith : was it because they were simply voices, ap- dreams^and pcarances, or dreams .'' Nay, certainly ; for they were not visions. ignorant, that the devil might form a sound of words, con- vey it to the outward ear, and deceive the outward senses, by making things to appear that are not. Yea, do we not see by daily experience, that the jugglers and mountebanks can do as much as all that by their legerdemain .'' God forbid then that the saints' faith should be founded upon so fallacious a foundation as man's outward and fallible senses. What made them then give credit to these visions.'' Certainly nothing else but the secret testimony of God's Spirit in their hearts, assuring them that the voices, dreams, and visions were of and from God. Abraham believed the angels ; but who told him that these men were angels } We must not think his faith then was built upon his out- ward senses, but proceeded from the secret persuasion of God's Spirit in his heart. This then must needs be acknowledged to be originally and principally the object of the saints' faith, without which there is no true and cer- tain faith, and by which many times faith is begotten and strengthened without any of these outward or visible helps ; as we may observe in many passages of the holy scripture, where it is only mentioned, "And God said,"
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 45
&c. " And the word of the Lord came" unto such and such, saying, «&c.
But if any one should pertinaciously affirm. That this Object. did import an outward audible voice to the carnal ear ;
I would gladly know what other argument such an one Answ, could bring for this his affirmation, saving his own simple conjecture. It is said indeed, " The Spirit witnesseth The spirit with our spirit," Rom. viii. 16 ; but not to our outward the spiritu- ears. And seeing the Spirit of God is within us, and not al ear not to without us only, it speaks to our spiritual, and not to our ward, bodily ear. Therefore I see no reason, where it is so often said in scripture. The Spirit said, moved, hindered, called such or such a one, to do or forbear such or such a thing, that any have to conclude, that this was not an inward voice to the ear of the soul, rather than an outward voice to the bodily ear. If any Be otherwise minded, let them, if they can, produce their arguments, and we may further consider of them.
From all therefore which is above declared, I shall de- duce an argument to conclude the proof of this assertion, thus :
That which any one firmly believes, as the ground and foundation of his hope in God, and life eternal, is the formal object of his faith.
But the inward and immediate revelation of God's Spirit, speaking in and unto the saints, was by them believed as the ground and foundation of their hope in God, and life eternal.
Therefore these inward and immediate revelations were the formal object of their faith.
§ IX. That which now cometh under debate, is what Assert v. we asserted in the last place, to wit, That the same con- ^"^"^^ tinueth to be the object of the saints' faith unto this day. Many will agree to what we have said before, who differ from us herein.
There is nevertheless a very firm argument, confirming the truth of this assertion, included in the proposition itself, to wit, That the object of the saints' faith is the same in
ours.
46 PROPOSITION II.
all ages, though held forth under divers administrations ; which I shall reduce to an argument, and prove thus :
First, Where the faith is one, the object of the faith is one.
But the faith is one : Therefore, &c.
That the faith is one, is the express words of the apostle, Eph. iv. 5, who placeth the one faith with the one God ; importing no less, than that to affirm two faiths is as absurd as to affirm two gods.
Moreover, if the faith of the ancients were not one and the same with ours, i. e. agreeing in substance therewith, and receiving the same definition, it had been impertinent The faith of for the apostle, Heb. xi. to have illustrated the definition of^ofd'the of our faith by the examples of that of the ancients, or to same with gg about to move us by the example of Abraham, if Abra- ham's faith were different in nature from ours. Nor doth any difference arise hence, because they believed in Christ with respect to his appearance outwardly as future, and we as already appeared : for neither did they then so believe in him to come, as not to feel him present with them, and witness him near; seeing the apostle saith, " They all drank of that spiritual rock which followed them, which rock was Christ;" nor do we so believe concerning his appearance past, as not also to feel and know him present with us, and to feed upon him ; except Christ, saith the apostle, be in you, ye are reprobates ; so that both our faith is one, ter- minating in one and the same thing. And as to the other part or consequence of the antecedent, to wit. That the object is one where the faith is one, the apostle also proveth it in the fore-cited chapter, where he makes all the worthies of old examples to us. Now wherein are they imitable, but because they believed in God .'' And what was the object of their faith, 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. i. 16. where he saith, " So soon as Christ was revealed in him, he consulted not
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 47
with flesh and blood, but forthwith believed and obeyed." The same apostle, Heb, xiii. 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 ; Object.
I answer ; That altereth not at all the object : for the Answ, same apostle mentioning this diversity three times, 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, 6. centereth 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 spe- cificatur ah objedo, ' Every act is specified from its object ;' from which, if it be true, as they acknowledge, (though for the sake of many I shall not recur to this argument, as being too nice and scholastic, neither lay I much stress upon those kind of things, as being that which commends not the simplicity of the gospel) it would follow, that if the ob- ject were different, then the faith would be different also.
Such as deny this proposition now-a-days use here a dis- tinction ; 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 Chris- tian 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 Chris- tians now are to be led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God, even in the same manner, though it befall
48 PROPOSITION II.
not many to be led in the same measure, as the saints were of old. Christians § X- I shall prove this by divers arguments, and first b ^l"d^*° from the promise of Christ in these words, John xiv. 16, the Spirit, "And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another manner as Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." Ver. 17. the saints of n 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 remem- brance." And xvi. 13. But "when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak, and he will show you things to come." We have here first, who this is, and that is divers ways expressed, to wit : The Comforter, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Ghost, the Sent of the Father in the name of Christ. And hereby is sufficiently proved the sottishness of those Socinians and other carnal Christians, who neither know nor acknowledge any internal Spirit or power but that which is merely 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," oJrjy/ja'ei u/xag sig warfav t' ccX^j^siav. Query 1. As to the first, most do acknowledge that there is nothing C^^°fo t^er' ^'^^ understood than what the plain words signify; which is also evident by many other places of scripture that will Nonsensi- hereafter occur ; neither do I see how such as affirm other- cal conse- -yvays Can avoid blasphemy: for, if the -Comforter, the Holy
quences •' ici-- •
from t'.e Ghost, and Spirit of truth, be all one with the scriptures, belief of t\e ^^en it wiU follow that the scriptures are God, seeing it is scriptures true that the Holy Ghost is God. If these men's reasoning
being the . •' . °
Spirit. might take place, wherever the Spirit is mentioned in rela-
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 49
tion to the saints, thereby might be truly and properly un- derstood the scriptures ; which, what a nonsensical 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 rendered 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. xii. 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 seve- rally as he will." What would now these great masters of reason, the Socinians, judge, if we should place the scrip- tures 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 scripture 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 scripture. I could infer an hun- dred 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 Query 2. needs no interpretation or commentary, " He dwelleth ^^pl^^Qi 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 that the Spirit of God dwell in you," saith the apostle to the Ro- mans, chap. viii. 9. And again, << Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. vi. 19. " And 5 G
50 PROPOSITION II.
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ?" 1 Cor. iii. 16. Without this the 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, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit The Spirit of God dwell in you." The context of which showeth, main't'oken ^^^^ ^^^ apostle reckoneth it the main token of a Christian, ot a Chris- both positively and negatively : for in the former verses he showeth 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 same 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 otherways 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, at- tained to the least degree 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 carcase of a man, when the soul and spirit is •^ departed, remains a man ; which the living can no more abide, but do bury out of their sight, as a noisome and useless thing, however acceptable it hath been when actu- ated and moved by the soul. Lastly, Whatsoever is excellent, w^hatsoever is noble, whatsoever is worthy, what- soever is desirable 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
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 51
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, emboldened in their sufferings, and triumphed in the midst of all their persecutions. Yea, the writings of all true Christians are The great full of the great and notable things which they all affirm acts that themselves to have done, by the power, and virtue, and ^^^''Z ^^^"
„ '' . . and are per-
efficacy of this Spirit of God working in them. " It is the formed by Spirit that quickeneth," John vi. 63. It was the Spirit in*aii ages. that gave them utterance, Acts ii. 4. It was the Spirit by which Stephen spake, that the Jews were not able to resist. Acts vi. 10. It is such as walk after the Spirit that receive no condemnation, Rom. viii. 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, ver. 9. It is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us that quickeneth our mortal bodies, ver. 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," ver. 15. It is this " Spirit that beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God," ver. 16. It is this " Spirit that helpeth our infirmities, and maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be ut- tered," ver. 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. ii. 9, 10. It is by this Spirit that both wisdom and knowledge, and faith, and miracles, and tongues, and prophecies, are obtained, 1 Cor. xii. 8, 9, 10. It is by this Spirit that we are " all baptized into one body," ver. 13. In short, what thing 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 say more ? For the time would fail me to tell of all those things
52 PROPOSITION II.
which the holy men of old have declared, and the saints of this day do themselves enjoy, by the virtue and power of this Spirit dwelling in them. Truly my paper could not contain the many testimonies whereby this truth is con- firmed ; wherefore, besides what is above mentioned out of the fathers, whom all pretend to reverence, and those of Luther and Melancthon, I shall deduce yet one observ- able testimony out of Calvin, because not a few of the fol- lowers of his doctrine do refuse and deride (and that, as it is to be feared, because of their own non-experience there- of) this way of the Spirit's indwelling, as uncertain and dangerous ; that so, if neither the testimony of the scrip- ture, 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 : Calvin, of " But they allege, It is a bold presumption for any to ly^ofThT'' pretend to an undoubted knowledge of God's will ; which,"
Spirit's in- saith he, " I should grant unto them, if we should ascribe dwelling in , , ° i • , • , ., ,
us. so much to ourselves as to subject the mcomprehensible
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 an horrible sacrilege to ac- cuse any revelation coming from him, either of a lie, of uncertainty or ambiguity, in asserting its certainty wherein do we 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 actuated by the Spirit of God ; but these will have the children of God actuated by their own spirits without the Spirit of God. He will have us call God Father, the
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 53
Spirit dictating that term unto us, which only can witness to our spirits that we are the sons of God. These, though they cease not to call upon God, do nevertheless dismiss 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 not led by his Spirit ; but these feign a Christianity that needs not the Spirit of Christ. He takes away the hope of a blessed resurrection, unless we feel the Spirit residing in us ; but these feign a hope with- out any such 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 acknow- ledge 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 who- soever 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's 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 blind- ness to accuse Christians of pride, because they dare glory Without of the presence of the Spirit ; without which glorying, p^esenc"'^ Christianity itself could not be. But by their example they Christian- declare, how truly Christ spake, saying. That his Spirit cease!^^^ was unknown to the world, and that those only acknow- ledge 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 indwelling 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 Wiflt^sthe shown, which Christ compriseth in two or three things, ^o;l?^ofthe "He will guide you into all truth;" "He will teach you Johnxvi. all things, and bring all things to your remembrance." 26 5*
54 PROPOSITION II.
Since Christ hath provided for us so good an instructor, why need we then lean so much to those traditions and commandments of men wherewith so many Christians have burthened themselves ? Why need we set up our own The Spirit Carnal and corrupt reason for a guide to us in matters spi- the guide, j-j^y^]^ gg some will needs do ? May it not be com- plained of all such, as the Lord did of old concerning Is- rael by the prophets, Jer. ii. 13 : " For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cis- terns, that can 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 ways 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 then that hath been mentioned concerning this promise, and these words of Christ, it will follow, that A perpe- Christians are always to be led inwardly and immediately nance^o' by the Spirit of God dwelling in them, and that the same
^.'^^'^^ , is a standing- and perpetual ordinance, as well to the church church and ° r r . .
people. in general in all ages, as to every mdividual member m
particular, as appears from this argument :
The promises 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, and bring all things to their remembrance :
Therefore the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, his abiding with his children, &c., is Yea and Amen, &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
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 55
the flesh, and cannot please God, except he in whom the Spirit of God dwells.
But every true Christian is in measure redeemed from tlie 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 Qsif^ '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 dwell- eth, it is not in him a lazy, dumb, useless thing ; but it moveth, actuateth, governeth, instructeth, and teacheth him all things whatsoever are needful for him to know ; yea, bringeth all things to his remembrance.
But the Spirit of God dwelleth in every true Christian :
Therefore the Spirit of God leadeth, instructeth, and teacheth every true Christian whatsoever is needful for him to know.
§ XI. But there are some that will confess. That the Object. Spirit doth now lead and influence the saints, but that he doth it only subjectively, or in a blind manner, by enlight- ening their understandings, to understand and believe the truth delivered in the scriptures ; but not at all by pre- senting those truths to the mind by way of object, and this they call, Mediwtn incognitum assentiendi, as that of whose working a man is not sensible.
This opinion, though somewhat more tolerable than the Answ.
56 PROPOSITION II.
former, is nevertheless not altogether according to truth, neither doth it reach the fulness of it.
Arg. 1. 1, Because there be many truths, which as they are ap-
plicable to particulars and individuals, and most needful to be known by them, are in nowise to be found in the scrip- ture, as in the following proposition shall be shown.
Besides, the arguments already adduced 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 pre- sents 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 bringeth all things to my remembrance, must needs present them by way of object ; else it were im- proper to say. It brought them to my remembrance ; but only, that it helpeth to remember the objects brought from elsewhere.
Arg. 2. 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
Proof 1. First, Isa. lix. 21, " As for me, this is my covenant with
them, saith the Lord ; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from
The lead- henceforth and for ever." By the latter part of this is suffi-
Smrit*. ^ ^ ciently expressed the perpetuity and continuance of this promise, " It shall not depart, saith the Lord, from hence- forth and for ever." In the former part is the promise itself, which is the Spirit of God being upon them, and the words of God being put into their mouths.
1. Imme- First, This was immediate, for there is no mention made of any medium ; he saith not, I shall by the means of such and such writings or books, convey such and such words
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 57
into your mouths ; but My words, I, even I, saith the Lord, have put into your mouths.
Secondly, This must be objectively ; for the words put 2. Objec- into the mouth, are the object presented by him. He saith *'^^ ^' not. The words which ye shall see written, my Spirit shall only enlighten your understandings to assent unto ; but positively, " My words, which I have put in thy mouth," &c. From whence I argue thus :
Upon whomsoever the Spirit remaineth always, and put- teth words into his mouth, him doth the Spirit teach immediately, objectively, and continually.
But the Spirit is always upon the seed of the righteous, and putteth words into their mouths, neither departeth from them :
Therefore the Spirit teacheth the righteous immediately, objectively, and continually.
Secondly, The nature of the new covenant is yet more Proof 2. amply expressed, Jer. xxxi. 33, which is again repeated and re-asserted by the apostle, Heb. viii. 10, 11, in these words, " For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neigh- bour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord ; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest."
The object here is God's law placed in the heart, and written in the mind ; from whence they become God's people, and are brought truly to know him.
In this then is the law distinguished from the gospel ; The differ-
the law before was outward, written in tables of stone, but uveenthe
now is inward, written in the heart : of old the people de- outward
1 • • p 1 1 ^"" inward
pended upon their priests for the knowledge of God, but law.
now they have all a certain and sensible knowledge of Him ;
concerning which • Augustine speaketh well, in his book
De Litera Ǥ' Spiritu ; from whom Aquinas first of all seems
to have taken occasion to move this question, Whether
the new law be a written law, or an implanted law ? Lex
H
58 PROPOSITION II.
scripta, vel lex indita 1 Which he thus resolves, affirming, that the new law, or gospel, is not properly a law written, as the old was, but Lex indita, an implanted law ; and that the old law was written without, but the new law is written within, on the table of the heart.
How much then are they deceived, who, instead of
making the gospel preferable to the law, have made the
condition of such as are under the gospel far w'orse ? For
The gospel no doubt it is a far better and more desirable thing to con-
tion more '^'crse with God immediately, than only mediately, as being
glorious an higher and more glorious dispensation : and vet these
than that of ^ , , , , ^ ,,,,,.
the law. men acknowledge that many under the law had imme- diate converse with God, whereas they now cry it is ceased.
Again : Under the law there was the holy of holies, into which the high priest did enter, and received the word of the Lord immediately from betwixt the cherubims, so that the people could then certainly know the mind of the Lord ; but now, according to these men's judgment, we are in a far worse condition, having nothing but the out- ward letter of the scripture to guess and divine from ; con- cerning the sense or meaning of one verse of which, scarce two can be found to agree. But Jesus Christ hath pro- mised us better things, though many are so unwise as not to believe him, even to guide us by his own unerring Spi- rit, and hath rent and removed the veil, whereby not only one, and that once a year, may enter ; but all of us, at all times, have access unto him, as often as we draw near unto him with pure hearts : he reveals his will to us by his Spi- rit, and whites his laws in our hearts. These things then being thus premised, I argue.
Where the law of God is put into the mind, and written in the heart, there the object of faith, and revelation of the knowledge of God, is inward, immediate, and objective.
But the law of God is put into the mind, and written in the heart of every true Christian, under the new cove- nant.
Therefore the object of faith, and revelation of the
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION.
59
1. Common.
2.
Certain.
knowledge of God to every true Christian, is inward, im- mediate, and objective.
The assumption is the express words of scripture : the proposition then must needs be true, except that which is put into the mind, and written in the heart, were either not inward, not immediate, or not objective, which is most absurd.
§ XII. The third argument is from these words of John, Arg. 3. 1 John ii. ver. 27, <'But the anointing, which ye have re- Theanoim- ceived of him, abideth in you, and ye need not that any |^|n|ed"a's man teach you : but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie ; and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
First, This could not be any special, peculiar, or extra- ordinary privilege, but that which is common to all the saints, it being a general epistle, directed to all them of that age.
Secondly, The apostle proposeth this anointing in them, as a more certain touch-stone for them to discern and try seducers by, even than his own writings ; for having in the former verse said, that he had written some things to them concerning such as seduced them, he begins the next verse, " But the anointing," &c., " and ye need not that any man teach you," &c., which infers, that having said to them what can be said, he refers them for all to the inward anointing, which teacheth all things, as the most firm, con- stant, and certain bulwark against all seducers.
And lastly. That it is a lasting and continuing thing ; the anointing which abideth. If it had not been to abide in them, it could not have taught them all things, neither guarded them against all hazard. From which I argue thus.
He that hath an anointing abiding in him, which teach- eth him all things, so that he needs no man to teach him, hath an inward and immediate teacher, and hath some things inwardly and immediately revealed unto him.
But the saints have such an anointing :
Therefore, &c.
3.
Lasting.
=-«»««?.<«s,
m
OmaoT.
A-'Ta^V
raintv .it timSpint'
I lEimfkfi grrrve tftiff dhntsoif drmi: miuuf fmim j^iiarss: < fimiyftirif, wiiucii On' lii-tiVTry"!* iaic! £ mnn ,: ami ajHM^ tM> tftff asmimi gart <rtf dte gr»ipi7»iinnr.. wiimK ioti liiitRrtimw Tnmafl)|p Snumnfi ag^nnC it sun antf^via'tfiL
aattttctuaik.
tsimt i»y biftw««it tibi prtTpijiflhunt vat sip^tratjmt. Pm li: m one ttWRj tsr ai&uTrChi^ otiK Cnuit anii imdtmljttni w^datura of Cc(nr!f S^id is (rectian ami: i]riyUitik>; waH mutHten tthn^ to at&rnrv that Aitf or dlat piolsimiinr ptirwtr *7r ^mik » fe£ Bi&ilU)l>« by tdiis reveludijo: iit wiket: dhiy :ipwiit iv ^wnm>. beciBUM chriy atfirur tbemuellwe* trr be *r Ikif by thii inwaci fflni immiiiiiuCe rev^jfiitunt rf tlhr Sjjunfc. THlif tfoc is <nri^ asseitexl by tiSv ditf lUctKr onry be imilKO. or. <flii«tiim;. THiii ^iiKstiira » mjc wbw ar«' (wr an* nwt *r linii? B^ ^witetfewr ^ otnillfc mjt or may oirt: be «r kif i*
S««inn tfcfit we huww aikwalivt pi?rj«et£ tUtaii CltnieC bat& promisBii biu Spirit t»i leaii bis ctttiidr«nv ami mat
ot' tfajgnx bijtli uu^^ ami may b* Ittxi by dv . . jr-^urc frofflL this CCTtaitt iTimiif ma litte^iuv ami y«li iiB w«rctife pmteni to be tiixi by it mm drmii» tdiac an* m:« ' rtoi:
fejoi cbimrtt twil.»rw^ dua: tbe trtie ^rouiim,. . c is
vmrectainv oir ots^iki: mot to^ bif ibfljotwvti! ;: mr mum tthat it will tuiluw t^at till: - . ■;: ■ «etlfc nut liifbd. bticauijtf a: Mim£ mpn., oc aoe wiij." ?iUiCs bis tfyiiSv iiilf* lu&r a JiiKtti
a£ mjotiniay tmr want ot Ugiit : (JC tikat m> wtjcis are sguftttuv Wiraurje a; dKirf" man beiHS tlii«a not : tjr tllat a <4Trnimt liiill oCftagraaC tfiswecs bas aij^ jweet :*imiiL bucuiuw be iiac biw fimst hif smndHngr ^iiotSL out smeflt ilr; tfte tffliit obea: is ut cihr Qt^atv ami net m. tbe objtfirt.
ABU tibese mistakes cheretibtce- Me tw^ be ;»ci!ibexi txr tite weoftatfess QC wickeiihess o£" meov ami Of : ^it^
b3l Siae& as bemi tbemtfwi^jes mxwc :fii«atn:s . mti
m^^fBH^ tesdmciry et^ tibe S^fint vee (^?mmfral!y tx^ affiegjir
vui. mmdUttvona vcflMgs c£
iC SC .
OftnBa
oennitii ofGolk cork. T
T c:.
0F TSBWBBOiXE
€1
aad inwani Kraibdmos, ^(iacb use ^-gfaAJTiA as ■'^ ■■ilit-flg'
so BCi^iBr can ti»p ift any :]ine aBaOBuSot (fte '^ iiryiliii "i testimonj, lar sdob^ wh^mi^, BffmSfHrlfar iiirtiiBnli -iH ■■Aiiiilrti ifl «Mfr of Am aaBa>- ^ exp;^
experience. Par liik %mit aever deemed tie, never anted nor mo^^ed is &> an^ iflhing AoA was aaiiBB ; imt as sdiiHr and 'HUiiiifeHf is ^ iuwiiiaiiB^ '^KUeh aoe t^adcM^ ^s- cenxed by ns, as -we "wait in liiBt pac aoid miflrfflnd If^it: of G-f :!_:- :■:::■ ^Anh ifciy ae ae<
Tkai because some vi ; ■ , liisi. men bsT^e
committed -vraoked ar" :: f moke^
asserted, that Acy we: . lie :^iiit
afG^d^
Therefore, No man ougiii to iean to the Spirh of God, or seek to be led by it,
I utterly : t rnsequence of tiiis proposiaoii. vinnh, Thrmsm-
were it to bt : ; . .. -. _ ^ true, then -woiild all faith ir G:^d rm»^ and hope of salTation become uncertain, and tie Ciirii?tian Q^^^^i^- religion be turned into mere «af)ticjsm. For afrer the same manner I migbt reasoB iftns:
Because Ere -was decerred by the hong nf the serpent;
Therefore she ougiit not to have trusted to tiie promise of God.
Because the old worid "vras delr, ; :
to hart , . : ^ . \ . .
Because a J.ving spint spake tnrougii ihe fcn* : :.
prophets that persuaded Ahab to so up and figirt h\ s^.^^ . ■ ji Gilead ;
Therefore the testimony of the true Spirit in Micaiah was uncertain, and dansrerous to be followed.
60
PROPOSITION II.
Object.
Answ,
The cer- tainty of the Spirit's guidance proved.
I could prove this doctrine from many more places of scripture, which for brevity's sake I omit ; and now come to the second part of the proposition, where the objections usually formed against it are answered.
§ XIII. The most usual is, That these revelations are uncertain.
But this bespeaketh much ignorance in the opposers; for we distinguish between the thesis and the hypothesis ; that is, between the proposition and supposition. For it is one thing to affirm, that the true and undoubted revelation of God's Spirit is certain and infallible ; and another thing to affirm, that this or that particular person or people is led infallibly by this revelation in what they speak or write, because they affirm themselves to be so led by the inward and immediate revelation of the Spirit. The first is only asserted by us, the latter may be called in question. The question is not who are or are not so led ? But whether all ought not or may not be so led .'*
Seeing then we have already proved that Christ hath promised his Spirit to lead his children, and that every one of them both ought and may be led by it, if any depart from this certain guide in deeds, and yet in words pretend to be led by it into things that are not good, it will not from thence follow, that the true guidance of the Spirit is uncertain, or ought not to be followed ; no more than it will follow that the sun showeth not light, because a blind man, or one who wilfully shuts his eyes, falls into a ditch at noon-day for want of light ; or that no words are spoken, because a deaf man hears them not ; or that a garden full of fragrant flowers has no sweet smell, because he that has lost his smelling doth not smell it ; the fault then is in the organ, and not in the object.
All these mistakes therefore are to be ascribed to the weakness or wickedness of men, and not to that Holy Spi- rit. Such as bend themselves most against this certain and infallible testimony of the Spirit use commonly to allege the example of the old Gnostics, and the late monstrous and mischievous actings of the Anabaptists of Munster, all
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 61
which toucheth us nothing at all, neither weakens a whit our most true doctrine. Wherefore, as a most sure bul- wark against such kind of assaults, was subjoined that other part of our proposition thus : Moreover these divine and inward revelations, which we establish as absolutely- necessary for the founding of the true faith, as they do not so neither can they at any time contradict the Scripture's testimony, or sound reason.
Besides the intrinsic and undoubted truth of this asser- By expe- fion, we can boldly affirm it from our certain and blessed experience. For this Spirit never deceived us, never acted nor moved us to any thing that was amiss ; but is clear and manifest in its revelations, which are evidently dis- cerned by us, as we wait in that pure and undefiled Hght of God, that proper and fit organ in which they are re- ceived. Therefore if any reason after this manner.
That because some wicked, ungodly, devilish men have committed wicked actions, and have yet more wickedly- asserted, that they were led into these things by the Spirit of God ;
Therefore, No man ought to lean to the Spirit of God, or seek to be led by it,
I utterly deny the consequence of this proposition, which, Theabsur- were it to be received as true, then would all faith in God conse- and hope of salvation become uncertain, and the Christian quence. rehgion be turned into mere scepticism. For after the same manner I might reason thus :
Because Eve was deceived by the lying of the serpent ;
Therefore she ought not to have trusted to the promise of God.
Because the old world was deluded by evil spirits ;
Therefore ought neither Noah, nor Abraham, nor Moses, to have trusted the Spirit of the Lord.
Because a lying spirit spake through the four hundred prophets that persuaded Ahab to go up and fight at Ramoth Gilead ;
Therefore the testimony of the true Spirit in Micaiah was uncertain, and dangerous to be followed. 6
62 PROPOSITION II.
Because there were seducing spirits crept into the church of old ;
Therefore it was not good, or it is uncertain, to follow the anointing, which taught all things, and is truth, and is no lie.
Who dare say that this is a necessary consequencS ? Moreover, not only the faith of the saints, and church of God of old, is hereby rendered uncertain, but also the faith of all sorts of Christians now is liable to the like hazard, even of those who seek a foundation for their faith elsewhere than from the Spirit. For I shall prove by an inevitable argument, ah incommodo, i. e., from the incon- veniency of it, that if the Spirit be not to be followed upon that account, and that men may not depend upon it as their guide, because some, while pretending thereunto, commit great evils ; that then, neither tradition, nor the scriptures, nor reason, which the Papists, Protestants, and Socinians do respectively make the rule of their faith, are 1. Instances any whit more certain. The Romanists reckon it an error of tradition. ^^ celebrate Easter any other ways than that church doth. This can only be decided by tradition. And yet the Greek church, which equally layeth claim to tradition with herself, doth it otherwise. Yea, so little etfectual is tradition to de- Euseb. cide the case, that Polycarpus, the disciple of John, and cles'.' lib.'v. Anicetus, the bishop of Rome, who immediately succeeded c- 26. them, according to whose example both sides concluded
the question ought to be decided, could not agree. Here of necessity one of them must err, and that following tra- dition. Would the Papists now judge we dealt fairly by them, if we should thence aver, that tradition is not to be regarded ? Besides, in a matter of far greater importance the same difficulty will occur, to wit, in the primacy of the bishop of Rome ; for many do affirm, and that by tradition, that in the first six hundred years the Roman prelates never assumed the title of Universal Shepherd, nor were acknow- ledged as such. And, as that which altogether overturneth this presidency, there are those that allege, and that from tradition also, that Peter never saw Rome ; and that there-
^ -
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 63
fore the bishop of Rome cannot be his successor. Would you Romanists think this sound reasoning, to say as you do?
Many have been deceived, and erred grievously, in trust- ing to tradition ;
Therefore we ought to reject all traditions, yea, even those by which we affirm the contrary, and, as we think, prove the truth.
Lastly, In the * council of Florence, the chief doctors * Cone. of the Romish and Greek churches did debate whole ses- 5. decreuf- sions long concerning the interpretation of one sentence of ni'odani the council of Ephesus, and of Epiphanius, and Basilius, Act. vi. neither could they ever agree about it. 12.^ Cone.
Secondly, As to the scripture, the same difficulty oc- FJ^^^q'^'^^^' curreth : the Lutherans affirm they believe consubstantia- Cone. Flor. tion by the scripture ; which the Calvinists deny, as that 480^&."8eq! which, they say, according to the same scripture, is a gross error. The Calvinists again affirm absolute reprobation, which the Arminians deny, affirming the contrary ; wherein both affirm themselves to be ruled by the scripture and 2- Ofscrip-
ture.
reason in the matter. Should I argue thus then to the Calvinists .''
Here the Lutherans and Armenians grossly err, by fol- lowing the scripture ;
Therefore the scripture is not a good nor certain rule ; and e contrario.
Would either of them accept of this reasoning as good and sound.'' What shall I say of the Episcopalians, Pres- byterians, Independents, and Anabaptists of Great Britain, who are continually buffeting one another with the scrip- ture .'' To whom the same argument might be alleged, though they do all unanimously acknowledge it to be the rule.
And Thirdly, As to reason, I shall not need to say 3 Of reason, much ; for whence come all the controversies, contentions bates hence
and debates in the world, but because every man thinks f 'png be-
' .' twixt the
he follows right reason .'' Hence of old came the jangles old and late between the Stoics, Platonists, Peripatetics, Pythagoreans, phei
philoso- ihers.
64 PROPOSITION II.
and Cynics, as of late betwixt the Aristotelians, Carte- sians, and other naturalists : Can it be thence inferred, or will the Socinians, those great reasoners, allow us to con- clude, because many, and those very wise men, have erred, by following, as they supposed, their reason, and that with what diligence, care and industry they could, to find out the truth, that therefore no man ought to make use of it at all, nor be positive in what he knows certainly to be rational ? And thus far as to opinions ; the same un- certainty is no less incident unto those other principles. Anabap- § XIV. But if we come to practices, though I confess I
their wild do with my whole heart abhor and detest those wild prac- '"^Tp'^ote - ^^^^^ which are written concerning the Anabaptists of Mun- tants and ster ; I am bold to say, as bad, if not worse things, have thmr^wars^ been committed by those that lean to tradition, scripture, and blood- ^^^ reason : wherein also they have averred themselves to
shed, each _ •'
pretending have been authorized by these rules. I need but mention for u."'^^ all the tumults, seditions, and horrible bloodshed, where- with Europe hath been afflicted these divers ages ; in which Papists against Papists, Calvinists against Calvinists, Lutherans against Lutherans, and Papists, assisted by Pro- testants, against other Protestants assisted by Papists, have miserably shed one another's blood, hiring and forcing men to kill each other, who were ignorant of the quarrel, and strangers one to another : all, mean while, pretending reason for so doing, and pleading the lawfulness of it from scripture. Tradition, For what have the Papists pretended for their many and'reas^on, massacres, acted as well in France as elsewhere, but tra- made a co- Jition, scripture, and reason ? Did they not say, that reason
ver tor per- ^ r 3 j j ■> ^
secution persuaded them, tradition allowed them, and scripture der. '^^^' commanded them, to persecute, destroy, and burn here- tics, such as denied this plain scripture. Hoc est corpus meum, This is my body ? And are not the Protestants as- senting to this bloodshed, who assert the same thing, and encourage them, by burning and banishing, while their brethren are so treated for the same cause ? Are not the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, yea, and all the Chris-
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 65
tian world, a lively example hereof, which were divers years together as a theatre of blood ; where many lost their lives, and numbers of families were utterly destroyed and ruined ? For all which no other cause was principally given, than the precepts of the scripture. If we then com- pare these actings with those of Munster, we shall not find great difference ; for both affirmed and pretended they were called, and that it was lawful to kill, burn, and de- stBoy the wicked. We must kill all the wicked, said those Anabaptists, that we, that are the saints, may possess the earth. We must burn obstinate heretics, say the Papists, that the holy church of Rome may be purged of rotten members, and may live in peace. We must cut off seduc- ing separatists, say the Prelatical Protestants, who trouble the peace of the church, and refuse the divine hierarchy, and religious ceremonies thereof. We must kill, say the Calvinistic Presbyterians, the Profane Malignants, who accuse the Holy Consistorial and Presbyterian government, and seek to defend the Popish and Prelatic hierarchy ; as also those other sectaries that trouble the peace of our church. What difference I pray thee, impartial reader, seest thou betwixt these ?
If it be said, The Anabaptists went without, and against Object. the authority of the magistrate, so did not the other ;
I might easily refute it, by alleging the mutual testimo- Answ. nies of these sects against one another. The behaviour of the Papists towards Henry the Third and Fourth of France ; Examples their designs upon James the Sixth in the gunpowder cruelties.* treason ; as also their principle of the Pope's power to depose kings for the cause of heresy, and to absolve their subjects from their oath, and give them to others, proves it against them.
And as to the Protestants, how much their actions differ Protestant from those other above-mentioned, may be seen by the anVperse- many conspiracies and tumults which they have been active cutions m in, both in Scotland and England, and which they have England,' acted within these hundred years in divers towns and pro- f^^^. ° vinces of the Netherlands. Have they not oftentimes sought, 6* I
66 PROPOSITION II.
not only from the Popish magistrates, but even from those that had begun to reform, or that had given them some liberty of exercising their religion, that they might only be permitted, without trouble or hindrance, to exercise their religion, promising they would not hinder or molest the Papists in the exercise of theirs ? And yet did they not on the contrary, so soon as they had power, trouble and abuse those fellow-citizens, and turn them out of the city, and, which is worse, even such who together with them hfid forsaken the Popish religion ? Did they not these things in many places against the mind of the magistrates ? Have they not publicly, with contumelious speeches, assaulted their magistrates, from whom they had but just before sought and obtained the free exercise of their religion ? Repre- senting them, so soon as they opposed themselves to their hierarchy, as if they regarded neither God nor religion ? Have they not by violent hands possessed themselves of the Popish churches, so called, or by force, against the magistrates' mind, taken them away ? Have they not turned out of their office and authority whole councils of magis- trates, under pretence that they were addicted to Popery ? Which Popish magistrates nevertheless they did but a little before acknowledge to be ordamed by God ; affirming themselves obliged to yield them obedience and subjection, not only for fear, but for conscience' sake ; to whom more- over the very preachers and overseers of the reformed church had willingly sworn fidelity ; and yet afterwards have they not said, that the people are bound to force a wicked prince to the observation of God's word? There are many other instances of this kind to be found in their histories, not to mention many worse things, which we know to have been acted in our time, and which for bre- vity's sake I pass by. Lutheran J njiwht say much of the Lutherans, whose tumultuous
seditions ... . .
against the actions against their magistrates not professing the Lutheran teachers, profession, are testified of by several historians worthy of upon^the*^'' Credit. Among others, I shall propose only one example Marquis of to the reader's consideration, which fell out at Berlin in
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 67
the year 1615 : " Where the seditious multitude of the Branden- Lutheran citizens, being stirred up by the daily clamours in"(fer. '" of their preachers, did not only with violence break into "^^ny. the houses of the reformed teachers, overturn their libraries, and spoil their furniture ; but also with reproachful words, yea, and with stones, assaulted the Marquis of Branden- burg, the Elector's brother, while he sought by smooth words to quiet the fury of the multitude ; they killed ten of his guard, scarcely sparing himself, who at last by flight escaped out of their hands." All which sufficiently de- clares, that the concurrence of the magistrate doth not alter their principles, but only their method of procedure. So that for my own part, I see no difference betwixt the act- ings of those of Munster, and these others, whereof the one pretended to be led bj the Spirit, the other by tradi- tion, scripture, and reason, save this, that the former were rash, heady, and foolish, in their proceedings, and there- fore were the sooner brought to nothing, and so into con- tempt and derision : but the other, being more politic and wise in their generation, held it out longer, and so have authorized their wickedness more, with the seeming autho- rity of law and reason. But both their actings being equally evil, the difference appears to me to be only like that which is between a simple silly thief, that is easily catched, and hanged without any more ado ; and a company of resolute bold robbers, who being better guarded, though their of- fence be nothing less, yet by violence do, to shun the danger, force their masters to give them good terms.
From all which then it evidently follows, that they argue very ill, who despise and reject any principle because men pretending to be led by it do evil ; in case it be not the natural and consequential tendency of that principle to lead unto those things that are evil.
Again : It doth follow from what is above asserted, that if the Spirit be to be rejected upon this account, all those other principles ought on the same account to be rejected. And for my part, as I have never a whit the lower esteem of the blessed testimony of the holy scriptures, nor do the
It.
68 PROPOSITION II.
less respect any solid tradition, that is answerable and ac- cording to truth ; neither at all despise reason, that noble Let none and excellent faculty of the mind, because wicked men cenainty of ^^^^'^ abused the name of them, to cover their wickedness,
the uner- ^^d deceive the simple ; so would I not have any reject or ring Spirit . \., • c< ■ ■ i-i/^iii
of God, be- doubt the certamty oi that unerrmg spirit which Uod hath
false^pre- given his children, as that which can alone guide them into tenders to gji truth, because some have falsely pretended to it,
§ XV. And because the Spirit of God is the fountain of all truth and sound reason, therefore we have well said, That it cannot contradict either the testimony of the scrip- ture, or right reason : " Yet, as the proposition itself con- cludeth, to the last part of which I now come, it will not from thence follow, that these divine revelations are to be subjected to the examination either of the outward testi- , mony of scripture, or of the human or natural reason of man, as to a more noble and certain rule or touchstone ; for the divine revelation, and inward illumination, is that which is evident by itself, forcing the well-disposed under- standing, and irresistibly moving it to assent by its own evidence and clearness, even as the common principles of natural truths do bend the mind to a natural assent."
He that denies this part of the proposition must needs affirm, that the Spirit of God neither can, nor ever hath manifested itself to man without the scripture, or a distinct discussion of reason ; or that the efficacy of this superna- tural principle, working upon the souls of men, is less evi- dent than natural principles in their common operations ; both which are false.
For, First, Through all the scriptures we may observe, that the manifestation and revelation of God by his Spirit to the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, was immediate and objective, as is above proved ; which they did not ex- amine by any other principle, but their own evidence and clearness. The self- Secondly, To say that the Spirit of God has less evi- the Ip'irit'! tlence upon the mind of man than natural principles have, is to have too mean and too low thoughts of it. How
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 69
comes David to invite us to taste and see that God is good, if this cannot be felt and tasted ? This were enough to overturn the faith and assurance of all the saints, both now and of old. How carae Paul to be persuaded, that nothing could separate him from the love of God, but by that evi- dence and clearness which the Spirit of God gave him ? The apostle John, who knew well wherein the certainty of faith consisted, judged it no ways absurd, without further argument, to ascribe his knowledge and assurance, and that of all the saints, hereunto in these words; "Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit," 1 John, iv. 13. And again, chap. V. ver. 6 : "It is the Spirit that beareth witness, be- cause the Spirit is truth."
Observe the reason brought by him, "Because the Spirit is truth ;" of whose certainty and infallibility I have here- tofore spoken. We then trust to and confide in this Spirit, because we know, and certainly believe, that it can only lead us aright, and never mislead us ; and from this certain confidence it is that we affirm, that no revelation coming The Spirit from it can ever contradict the scripture's testimony nor contradicts right reason: not as making this a more certain rule to our- ture nor selves, but as condescending to such, who not discerning sl^i. ^^^' the revelations of the Spirit, as they proceed purely from God, will try them by these mediums. Yet those that have their spiritual senses, and can savour the things of the Spirit, as it were in prima instantia, i. e., at the first blush, can discern them without, or before they apply them either to scripture or reason ; just as a good astronomer can cal- Natural de- culate an eclipse infallibly, by which he can conclude, if [i'o°ns^fro'in the order of nature continue, and some strange and unna- astronomy tural revolution intervene not, there will be an eclipse of uy. ^^°™^' the sun or moon such a day, and such an hour ; yet can he not persuade an ignorant rustic of this, until he visibly sees it. So also a mathematician can infallibly know, by the rules of art, that the three angles of a right triangle are equal to two right angles ; yea, can know them more cer- tainly than any man by measure. And some geometrical
70 PROPOSITION 11.
demonstrations are by all acknowledged to be infallible, which can be scarcely discerned or proved by the senses ; yet if a geometer be at the pains to certify some ignorant man concerning the certainty of his art, by condescending to measure it, and make it obvious to his senses, it will not thence follow, that that measuring is so certain as the de- monstration itself, or that the demonstration would be un- certain without it.
§ XVI. But to make an end, I shall add one argument to prove, that this inward, immediate, objective revelation, which we have pleaded for all along, is the only sure, cer- tain, and unmovable foundation of all Christian faith; which argument, when well considered, I hope will have weight with all sorts of Christians, and it is this : Immediate That which all professors of Christianity, of what kind revelation goever, are forced ultimately to recur unto, when pressed movable to the last ; that for and because of which all other founda- of all Chris- tions are recommended, and accounted worthy to be be- tian faith, jjeved, 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 what kind soever, are forced ultimately to recur unto, &c. Therefore, &c.
The proposition is so evident, that it will not be denied ; the assumption shall be proved by parts. Papists' And first. As to the Papists, they place their foundation
their ii^ the judgment of the church and tradition. If we press
church and them to sav. Why they believe as the church doth ? Their tradition, j t j j _ _ _
why? answer is. Because the church is always led by the infalli-
ble 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, commanded the church to observe them. Here again all ends in the revelation of the Spirit.
OF IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 71
And for the Protestants and Socinians, both which ac- Protestants knowledge the scriptures to be the foundation and rule of ni'ansma'ke their faith ; the one as subjectively influenced by the Spirit ''^<^ ^crip-
. . tures their
of God to use them, the other as managing them with and ground and by their own reason ; ask both, or either of them. Why J^^jt'""'"' 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 in- wardly, 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 uncer- Christians tain and dangerous to follow, upon which alone the certain and"norby ground and foundation of their own faith is built; and that "atufe.hold
° ' . revelation
they should shut themselves out from that holy fellowship ceased con- with God, which only is enjoyed in the Spirit, in which we scripture. 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 be- lieve 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 gainsaid and contradicted, let them know, that it is not because it is ceased to become the privilege of every true 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 beginning of the revelation of God's Spirit, which was first sent into the world to reprove it of sin, John xvi. 8. And as by forsaking iniquity thou comest to be ac- quainted with that heavenly voice in thy heart, thou shalt feel, as the old man, or 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, or the spiritual birth and babe raised, which hath its spiritual senses, and can see, feel, taste, handle, and smell the things of the Spirit ; but till then the knowledge of things spiritual is but as an historical faith. But as the
72 PROPOSITION III.
Who wants description of the light of the sun, or of curious colours to sees^m)tthc ^ blind man, who, though of the largest capacity, cannot light. SQ -^ygii understand it by the most acute and lively descrip-
tion, as a child can by seeing them ; so neither can the natural man, of the largest 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 inwardly 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 becomest 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 actuated by the Spirit of God ? Which will appear to thee a question no less ridiculous, than to ask one whose eyes are open, how he knows the sun shines at noon-day ? And though this be the surest and most certain way to answer all objec- tions ; 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.
PROPOSITION III.
Concerning the Scriptures.
From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth, which con- tain,
I. A faithful historical account of the actings of God's peo- ple 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 de-
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 73
clarations, exhortations 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 itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all truth and knowledge, 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 testify, That the Spirit is that John xvi. Guide by which the saints are led into all Truth ; there- ^^-j \°^' fore, 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, proceed- ed from the Spirit, for the very same reason is the Spirit more originally and principally the rule, according to the received maxim in the schools, Propter quod unum- quodque est tale, illud ipsum est magis tale: That for which a thing is such, that thing itself is more such.
§ I. The former part of this proposition, though it needs
no apology for itself, yet it is a good apology for us, and
will help to sweep away that, among many other calumnies,
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, ac- The holy
counting them, without all deceit or equivocation, the most the most^
excellent writings in the world : to which not only no other excellent
, r ^ 1 ■ T writings in
writmgs are to be preierred, but even m divers respects the world.
not comparable thereto. For as we freely acknowledge
that their authority doth not depend upon the approbation
or canons of any church or assembly ; so neither can we
subject them to the fallen, corrupt, and defiled reason of
man : and therein as we do freely agree with the Protestants
7 K
74 PROPOSITION III.
against the error of the Romanists, so on the other hand, we cannot go the length of such Protestants as make their authority to depend upon any virtue or power that is in the writings themselves ; but we desire to ascribe all to that Spirit from which they proceeded.
We confess indeed there wants not a majesty in the style,
■^ a coherence in the parts, a good scope in the whole ; but
seeing these things are not discerned by the natural, but
only by the spiritual man, it is the Spirit of God that must
give us that belief of the scriptures which may satisfy our
consciences ; therefore some of the chief among Protestants,
both in their particular writings and public confessions, are
forced to acknowledge this.
Calvin's Hence Calvin, though he saith he is able to prove that
thaV'thT^ if there be a God in heaven, these writings have proceeded
scripture's from him, yet he concludes another knowledge to be ne-
certainty IS '^ • t, , -, .
from the cessary. Instit. lib. 1, cap. 7, sect. 4. P'"^' " But if," saith he, "we respect the consciences, that
they be not daily molested with doubts, and hesitate not at every scruple, it is requisite that this persuasion which we speak of be taken higher than human reason, judgment, or conjecture ; to wit, from the secret testi- mony of the Spirit." And again, "To those who ask, that we prove unto them, by reason, that Moses and the prophets were inspired of God to speak, I answer. That the testimony of the Holy Spirit is more excellent than all reason." And again, " Let this remain a firm truth, that he only whom the Holy Spirit hath persuaded, can repose himself on the scripture with a true certainty." And lastly, "This then is a judgment which cannot be begotten but by an heavenly revelation," &,c.
Theconfes- The same is also affirmed in the first public confession
Frenrh^ ^ o^ ^^^ French churches, published in the year 1559, Art.
churches. 4 . u \Ye know these books to be canonical, and the most certain rule of our faith, not so much by the common ac- cord and consent of the church, as by the testimony and inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit."
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 75
Thus also in the fifth article of the confession of faith, Churches of the churches of Holland, confirmed by the Synod of Issen the Dort : " We receive these books only for holy and canoni- ^^"''^• cal — not so much because the church receives and ap- proves them, as because the Spirit of God doth witness in our hearts that they are of God."
And, lastly, The divines, so called, at Westminster, who Westmin- began to be afraid of, and guard against the testimony of glonthe ^^" the Spirit, because they perceived a dispensation beyond same. that which they were under beginning to dawn, and to eclipse them ; yet could they not get by this, though they have laid it down neither so clearly, distinctly, nor honestly as they that went before. It is in these words, chap. 1. sec. 5 : " Nevertheless, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts."
By all which it appeareth how necessary it is to seek the certainty of the scriptures from the Spirit, and no where else. The infinite janglings and endless contests of those that seek their authority elsewhere, do witness to the truth hereof.
For the ancients themselves, even of the first centuries, Apocrypha. were not agreed among themselves concerning them ; while Conc.Laod. some of them rejected books which we approve, and others ^'*J}- ^' ^'^ of them approved those which some of us reject. It is not 163. unkno\\% to such as are in the least acquainted with anti- he°d in?he' quity, what great contests are concerning the second epistle y*:^r ^g-*^. of Peter, that of James, the second and third of John, and from the ca- the Revelations, which many, even very ancient, deny to rh"\Vis- have been written by the beloved disciple and brother of |^°"i "^ ^°-
•' ^ lomon, Ju-
James, but by another of that name. What should then djth, To- become of Christians, if they had not received that Spirit, Maccabees, and those spiritual senses, by which they know how to dis- which the
_ . ... /-i • » council 01
cern the true from the false ? It is the privilege of Christ s Carthage, sheep indeed that they hear his voice, and refuse that of a year 399, ^ stranger ; which privilege being taken away, we are left a received. prey to all manner of wolves.
76
The Scrip- tures are not the principal ground of truth.
PROPOSITION UI.
§ II. Though then we do acknowledge the scriptures to be very heavenly and divine writings, the use of them to be very comfortable and necessary to the church of Christ, and that we also admire and give praise to the Lord, for his wonderful providence in preserving these writings so pure and uncorrupted as we have them, through so long a night of apostacy, to be a testimony of his truth against the wickedness and abominations even of those whom he made instrumental in preserving them, so that they have kept them to be a witness against themselves ; yet we may not call them the principal fountain of all truth and know- ledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and manners ; because the principal fountain of truth must be the Truth itself; i. e., that whose certainty and authority depends not upon another. "When we doubt of the streams of any river or flood, we recur to the fountain itself; and, having found it, there we desist, we can go no farther ; because there it springs out of the bowels of the earth, which are inscrut- able. Even so the writings and sayings of all men we must bring to the Word of God, I mean the Eternal Word, and if they agree hereunto, we stand there. For this Word always proceedeth, and doth eternally proceed from God, in and by which the unsearchable wisdom of God, and un- searchable counsel and will conceived in the heart of God, is revealed unto us. That then the scripture is not the principal ground of faith and knowledge, as it appears by what is above spoken, so it is proved in the latter part of the proposition, which, being reduced to an argument, runs thus:
That whereof the certainty and authority depends upon another, and which is received as truth because of its pro- ceeding from another, is not to be accounted the principal ground and origin of all truth and knowledge :
But the scriptures' authority and certainty depend upon the Spirit by which they were dictated ; and the reason why they were received as truth is, because they proceeded from the Spirit:
Therefore they are not the principal ground of truth.
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 77
To confirm this argument, I added the school maxim : Propter quod unumquodque est tale, illud ipsum magis est tale. Which maxim, though I confess it doth not hold universally in all things, yet in this it doth and will very well hold, as by applying it, as we have above intimated, will appear.
The same argument will hold as to the other branch of Neither are the proposition. That it is not the primary adequate rule prfmary^
of faith and manners ; thus : r^'f of faith
.... and man-
That which is not the rule of my faith in believing the ners.
scriptures themselves, is not the primary adequate rule of
faith and manners :
But the scripture is not, nor can it be the rule of that faith by which I believe them, &c.
Therefore, &c.
But as to this part, we shall produce divers arguments That the hereafter. As to what is affirmed, that the Spirit, and not nfie" the scriptures, is the rule, it is largely handled in the former proposition ; the sum whereof I shall subsume in one argu- ment, thus :
If by the Spirit we can only come to the true knowledge of God ; if by the Spirit we are to be led into all truth, and so be taught of all things ; then the Spirit, and not the scriptures, is the foundation and ground of alf truth and knowledge, and the primary rule of faith and manners :
But the first is true, therefore also the last.
Next, the very nature of the gospel itself declareth that the scriptures cannot be the only and chief rule of Chris- tians, else there should be no difference betwixt the law and the gospel ; as from the nature of the new covenant, by divers scriptures described in the former proposition, is proved.
But besides these which are before mentioned, herein Wherein doth the law and the gospel differ, in that the law, being * osperd!"-*^ outwardly written, brings under condemnation, but hath f^''- not life in it to save ; whereas the gospel, as it declares and makes manifest the evil, so, being an inward powerful thing, it gives power also to obey, and delivers from the 7*
78 PROPOSITION in,
evil. Hence it is called EoafyiXm, which is glad tidings. The law or letter, which is without us, kills ; but the gos- pel, which is the inward spiritual law, gives life ; for it consists not so much in words as in virtue. Wherefore such as come to know it, and be acquainted with it, come to feel greater power over their iniquities than all outward laws or rules can give them. Hence the apostle concludes, Rom. vi. 14, " Sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, but under grace." This grace then that is inward, and not an outward law, is to be the rule of Christians. Hereunto the apostle commends the elders of the church, saying, Acts xx. 32, " And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." He doth not commend them here to outward laws or writings, but to the word of grace, which is inward ; even the spi- ritual law, which makes free, as he elsewhere affirms, Rom. viii. 2, " The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death." This spiritual law is that which the apostle declares he preached and directed people unto, which was not outward, as by Rom. X. 8, is manifest ; where distinguishing it from the law, he saith, " Th^ word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart ; that is the word of faith which we preach." From what is above said I argue thus :
The principal rule of Christians under the gospel is not an outward letter, nor law outwardly written and delivered, but an inward spiritual law, engraven in the heart, the law of the Spirit of life, the word that is nigh in the heart and in the mouth.
But the letter of the scripture is outward, of itself a dead
thing, a mere declaration of good things, but not the things
themselves :
The scrip- Therefore it is not, nor can be, the chief or principal rule ture iiot the ~ ^, . . rule. 01 Christians.
§ HI. Thirdly, That which is given to Christians for a
rule and guide, must needs be so full, that it may clearly
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 79
and distinctly guide and order them in all things and occur- rences that may fall out.
But in that there are numberless things, with regard to their circumstances, which particular Christians may be con- cerned in, for which there can be no particular rule had in the scriptures ;,
Therefore the scriptures cannot be a rule to them.
I shall give an instance in two or three particulars to prove this proposition. It is not to be doubted but some men are particularly called to some particular services ; their being not found in which, though the act be no ge- neral positive duty, yet in so far as it may be required of them, is a great sin to omit ; forasmuch as God is zealous of his glory, and every act of disobedience to his will ma- nifested, is enough not only to hinder one greatly from that comfort and inward peace which otherwise he might have, but also bringeth condemnation.
As for instance, some are called to the ministry of the word : Paul saith. There was a necessity upon him to preach the gospel ; wo unto me, if I preach not.
If it be necessary that there be now ministers of the church, as well as then, then there is the same necessity upon some, more than upon others to occupy this place ; which necessity, as it may be incumbent upon particular persons, the scripture neither doth nor can declare.
If it be said. That the qualifications of a minister are Object. found in the scripture, and by applying these qualifications to myself, I may know whether I be fit for such a place or not;
I answer. The qualifications of a bishop, or minister, as Answ. they are mentioned both in the epistle to Timothy and Titus, are such as may be found in a private Christian ; yea, which ought in some measure to be in every true Christian : so that this giveth a man no certainty. Every capacity to an office giveth me not a sufficient call to it.
Next again. By what rule shall I judge if I be so quali- fied ? How do I know that I am sober, meek, holy, harm- less ? Is it not the testimony of the Spirit in my conscience
80 PROPOSITION III.
that must assure me hereof? And suppose that I was qua- lified and called, yet what scripture rule shall inform me, whether it be my duty to preach in this or that place, in France or England, Holland or Germany ? Whether I shall take up my time in confirming the faithful, reclaiming heretics, or converting infidels, as also in writing epistles to this or that church ?
The general rules of the scripture, viz., To be diligent in my duty, to do all to the glory of God, and for the good of his church, can give me no light in this thing. Seeing two different things may both have a respect to that way, yet may I commit a great error and offence in doing the one, when I am called to the other. If Paul, when his face was turned by the Lord toward Jerusalem, had gone back to Achaia, or Macedonia, he might have supposed he could have done God more acceptable service, in preach- ing and confirming the churches, than in being shut up in prison in Judea ; but would God have been pleased here- with ? Nay certainly. Obedience is better than sacrifice ; and it is not our doing that which is good simply that pleaseth God, but that good which he willeth us to do. Every member hath its particular place in the body, as the Apostle showeth, 1 Cor. xii. If then, I being the foot, should offer to exercise the office of the hand ; or being the hand, that of the tongue ; my service would be trouble- some, and not acceptable ; and instead of helping the body, That which I should make a schism in it. So that that which is good IS i^ood for |- another to do, may be sinful to me : for as masters will
one to do, .
maybe sin- have their servants to obey them, according to their good other. pleasure, and not only in blindly doing that which may
seem to them to tend to their master's profit, whereby it may chance, the master having business both in the field and in the house, that the servant that knows not his mas- ter's will may go to the field, when it is the mind of the master he should stay and do the business of the house, would not this servant then deserve a reproof, for not an- swering his master's mind? And what master is so sottish and careless, as, having many servants, to leave them in
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 81
such disorder as not to assign each his particular station, and not only the general terms of doing that which is pro- fitable ? which would leave them in various doubts, and no doubt end in confusion.
Shall we then dare to ascribe unto Christ, in the order- ing of his church and servants, that w^hich in man might justly be accounted disorder and confusion? The apostle showeth this distinction well, Rom. xii. 6, 7, 8, "Having Diversities then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to ° ^' us ; whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith ; or ministry, let us wait on our minis- tering ; or he that teacheth, on teaching ; or he that ex- horteth, on exhortation." Now what scripture rule showeth me that I ought to exhort, rather than prophesy? or to minister, rather than teach ? Surely none at all. Many more difficulties of this kind occur in the life of a Chris- tian. •■'•. r
Moreover, that which of all things is most needful for Of faith and him to know, to wit, whether he really be in the faith, and can the" an heir of salvation, or not, the scripture can give him no scripture certainty in, neither can it be a rule to him. That this thee? knowledge is exceeding desirable and comfortable all do unanimously acknowledge ; besides that it is especially commanded, 2 Cor. xiii. 5, " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves ; know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ? And 2 Pet. i. 10, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and elec- tion sure." Now I say. What scripture rule can assure me that I have true faith ? That my calling and election is sure ?
If it be said, By comparing the scripture marks of true faith with mine :
I demand. Wherewith shall I make this observation? What shall ascertain me that I am not mistaken ? It cannot be the scripture : that is the matter under debate.
If it be said. My own heart :
How unfit a judge is it in its own case ? And how like
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that must assure me hereof? And suppose that I was qua- lified and called, yet what scripture rule shall inform me, whether it be ray duty to preach in this or that place, in France or England, Holland or Germany ? Whether I shall take up my time in confirming the faithful, reclaiming heretics, or converting infidels, as also in writing epistles to this or that church ?
The general rules of the scripture, viz., To be diligent in my duty, to do all to the glory of God, and for the good of his church, can give me no light in this thing. Seeing two diflerent things may both have a respect to that way, yet may I commit a great error and offence in doing the one, when I am called to the other. If Paul, when his face was turned by the Lord toward Jerusalem, had gone back to Achaia, or Macedonia, he might have supposed he could have done God more acceptable service, in preach- ing and confirming the churches, than in being shut up in prison in Judea ; but would God have been pleased here- with ? Nay certainly. Obedience is better than sacrifice ; and it is not our doing that which is good simply that pleaseth God, but that good which he willeth us to do. Every member hath its particular place in the body, as the. Apostle showeth, 1 Cor. xii. If then, I being the foot, should offer to exercise the office of the hand ; or being the hand, that of the tongue ; my service would be trouble- some, and not acceptable ; and instead of helping the body, That which I should make a schism in it. So that that which is good
IS good for £q another to do, may be sinful to me : for as masters will
one to do, y J
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other. " pleasure, and not only in blindly doing that which may seem to them to tend to their master's profit, whereby it may chance, the master having business both in the field and in the house, that the servant that knows not his mas- ter's will may go to the field, when it is the mind of the master he should stay and do the business of the house, would not this servant then deserve a reproof, for not an- swering his master's mind ? And what master is so sottish and careless, as, having many servants, to leave them in
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OF THE SCRIPTURES.
81
such disorder as not to assign each his particular station, and not only the general terras of doing that which is pro- fitable ? which would leave them in various doubts, and no doubt end in confusion.
Shall we then dare to ascribe unto Christ, in the order- ing of his church and servants, that which in man might justly be accounted disorder and confusion? The apostle showeth this distinction well, Rom. xii. 6, 7, 8, "Having Diversities then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to ° ^^ us ; whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith ; or ministry, let us wait on our minis- tering ; or he that teacheth, on teaching ; or he that ex- horteth, on exhortation." Now what scripture rule showeth me that I ought to exhort, rather than prophesy .-' or to minister, rather than teach ? Surely none at all. Many more difficulties of this kind occur in the life of a Chris- tian.
Moreover, that which of all things is most needful for Of faith and him to know, to wit, whether he really be in the faith, and can t^'e" an heir of salvation, or not, the scripture can give him no scripture certainty in, neither can it be a rule to him. That this thee? knowledge is exceeding desirable and comfortable all do unanimously acknowledge ; besides that it is especially commanded, 2 Cor. xiii. 5, " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves ; know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ? And 2 Pet. i. 10, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and elec- tion sure." Now I say. What scripture rule can assure me that I have true faith ? That my calling and election is sure ?
If it be said, By comparing the scripture marks of true faith with mine :
I demand, Wherewith shall I make this observation.? What shall ascertain me that I am not mistaken ? It cannot be the scripture : that is the matter under debate.
If it be said. My own heart :
How unfit a judge is it in its own case ? And how like
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82 PROPOSITION III.
to be partial, especially if it be yet unrenewed ? Doth not The heart the scripture say, that <■<■ it is deceitful above all things ?" cei'Tful! ^''' I find the promises, I find the threatenings, in the scrip- ture ; but who telleth me that the one belongs to me more than the other ? The scripture gives me a mere declaration of these things, but makes no application ; so that the as- sumption must be of my own making, thus ; as for exam- ple : I find this proposition in scripture ;
"He that believes, shall be saved:" thence I draw the assumption.
But I, Robert, believe ; Therefore, I shall be saved.
The minor is of my own making, not expressed in the scripture ; and so a human conclusion, not a divine posi- tion ; so that my faith and assurance here is not built upon a scripture proposition, but upon an human principle ; which, unless I be sure of elsewhere, the scripture gives me no certainty in the matter.
Again, If I should pursue the argument further, and seek a new medium out of the scripture, the same difficulty would occur : thus.
He that hath the true and certain marks of true faith, hath true faith :
But I have those marks : Therefore I have true faith.
For the assumption is still here of my own making, and is not found in the scriptures; and by consequence the conclusion can be no better, since it still followeth the weaker proposition. This is indeed so pungent, that the The inward best of Protes'tants, who plead for this assurance, ascribe ofthrspfrit it to the inward testimony of the Spirit ; as Calvin, in that the seal ot ]arge citation, cited in the former proposition. So that, proEes. not to seek farther into the writings of the primitive Pro- testants, which are full of such expressions, even the West- minster confession of faith affirraeth, chap, xviii, sect. 12, <' This certainty is not a bare conjecture and probable per- suasion, grounded upon fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 83
promise of salvation ; the inward evidences of these graces, unto which these promises are made ; the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, witnessing to our spirits that we are the children of God ; which Spirit is the earnest of our in- heritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemp- tion."
Moreover, the scripture itself, wherein we are so ear- nestly pressed to seek after this assurance, doth not at all affirm itself a rule sufficient to give it, but wholly ascribeth it to the Spirit, as Rom. viii. 16, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." 1 John iv. 13, "Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit;" and chap. v. ^, « And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth."
§ IV. Lastly, That cannot be the only, principal, nor That the chief rule, which doth not universally reach every indivi- are not^the dual that needeth it, to produce the necessary effect ; and chief rule. from the use of which, either by some innocent and sinless defect, or natural yet harmless and blameless imperfection, many who are within the compass of the visible church, and may, without absurdity, yea, with great probability, be accounted of the elect, are necessarily excluded, and that either wholly, or at least from the immediate use thereof. But it so falls out frequently concerning the scriptures, in the case of deaf people, children, and idiots, i.Deafpeo- who can by no means have the benefit of the scriptures. P^^' ^'^''^ Shall we then affirm, that they are without any rule to God- idiots in- ward, or that they are all damned ? As such an opinion is ^^^"'=^'^- in itself very absurd, and inconsistent both with the justice and mercy of God, so I know no sound reason can be alleged for it. Now if we may suppose any such to be under the new covenant dispensation, as I know none will deny but that we may suppose it without any absurdity, we cannot suppose them without some rule and means of knowledge ; seeing it is expressly affirmed, " They shall be all taught of God," John vi. 45. " For all shall know me from the least to the greatest," Heb. viii. 11. But
84 PROPOSITION III.
secondly, Though we were rid of this difficulty, how many illiterate and yet good men are there in the church of God, who cannot read a letter in their own mother tongue ? Which imperfection, though it be inconvenient, I cannot tell whether we may safely affirm it to be sinful. These can have no immediate knowledge of the rule of their faith ; so their faith must needs depend upon the credit of other men's 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 some iniquity ignorant-
2. Papists ly, or believe a lie confidently. As for example. The second Papists in all their catechisms, and public exercises of ex- command- aminations towards the people, have boldly cut away the
ment irom r r , ? j j
the people, second command, because it seems so expressly to strike 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 thorough knowledge of the original languages in which they are written, so as in that respect immediately
3. The un- to receive the benefit of them? Must not all these here
the inter- depend upon the honesty and faithfulness of the interpre-
thfscrip- ^^^^ ^ Which how uncertain it is for a man to build his
ture, and faith upon, the many corrections, amendments, and various their adul- , • , t^ , , j
terating it. essays, which even among Protestants have been used,
whereof the latter have 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 need 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 occurs even to those skilled in the original languages, who cannot so im- mediately receive the mind of the authors in these writings, as that their faith doth not at least obliquely depend upon the honesty and credit of the transcribers, since the origi-
&c.
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 85
nal copies are granted by all not to be now extant. Of which transcribers Jerome in his time complained, saying, Hieron. That they wrote not what they found, but what they under- fd Lucfn' stood. And Epiphanius saith, That in the good and cor- P- 247. rect copies of Luke it was written, that Christ wept, and Epiph. in that Irenajus doth cite it ; but that the Catholics blotted it ^^ g^'o^r out, fearing lest heretics should have abused it. Other fathers also declare. That whole verses were taken out of Mark, because of the Manichees.
But further, the various readings of the Hebrew cha- The various racter by reason- of the points, which some plead for, as [heH^ew coeval with the first writings, which others, with no less character, probability, allege 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 controversy among the fathers, whereof some highly approve the Greek Septuagint, decrying and rendering very doubt- ful the Hebrew copy, as in many places vitiated and altered by the Jews ; other some, and particularly Jerome, exalting the certainty of the Hebrew, and rejecting, yea, even de- riding the history of the Septuagint, which the primitive church chiefly made use of; and some fathers that lived centuries before him, affirmed to be a most certain thing: and the many various readings in divers copies of the Greek, and the great altercations 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 alleged, 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 al- ways 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 unmovable rock, left them not to be principally ruled by that, which was subject in itself to many uncertainties : and therefore he gave them his Spirit, as their principal guide, which neither moths nor time can
8B PROPOSITION III.
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 in- formed by it.
Through and by the clearness which that Spirit gives us it is, that we are only best rid of those difficulties that oc- cur to us concerning the scriptures. The real and un- doubted experience whereof 1 myself have been a witness of, with great admiration of the love of God to his children in Wrong these latter days: for I have known some of ray friends, of^scripture ^^° profess the same faith with me, faithful servants of the discerned in Most Hiffh God, and full of divine knowledge of his truth,
the Spirit ... o 7
by the un- as it was immediately and inwardly revealed to them by the leuTrs. "^ 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 their adversaries with some citations out of the English translation, and finding them to disagree with the manifestation of truth in their own 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 significa- tion of the words, as strain them to express that which comes nearest to that opinion and notion they have of truth. And this seemed to me to suit very well with that saying of Augustine, Epist. 19, ad Hier. Tom ii. fol. 14, after he has said, " That he gives only that honour to those books which are called canonical, as to believe that the au- thors thereof did in writing not err," he adds, " And if I shall meet with anything in these writings that seemeth re- pugnant 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 un- derstood it." So that he supposes that in the transcription and translation there may be errors.
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 87
§ V, If it be then asked me, Whether I think hereby to Object. render the scriptures altogether uncertain, or useless ?
I answer; Not at all. The proposition itself declares Answ. i. how much I esteem them ; and provided that to the Spirit from which they came be but granted that place the scrip- tures themselves give it, I do freely concede to the scrip- tures the second place, even whatsoever they say of them- selves ; which the apostle Paul chiefly mentions in two places, Rom. xv. 4: "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17 : The holy scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable — for correction, for instruction in righteous- ness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- nished unto all good works.
For though God doth principally and chiefly lead us by his Spirit, yet he sometimes conveys his comfort and con- solation 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 doth also tend to perfect and make them wise unto salvation ; and such as are led by the Spirit cannot neglect, but do natu- The saints' rally love, and are wonderfully cherished by that which comfort 13 proceedeth from the same Spirit in another ; because such g ^. ?^?^® ,, 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. i. 12, 13 : " Wherefore I will not be neg- ligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth ; yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this taber- nacle, to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance."
God is teacher of his people himself; and there is no- thing more express, than that such as are under the new covenant, need no man to teach them : yet it was a fruit
88 PROPOSITION III.
of Christ's ascension to send teachers and pastors for per- fecting 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 perfeetion 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 privilege 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. Assw. 2. Secondly, God hath seen meet that herein we should, as The scrip- in a looking-glass, see the conditions and experiences of looKi^- ^^ saints of old ; that finding our experience answer to glass. theirs, we might thereby be the more confirmed and com-
forted, and our hope of obtaining the same end strength- ened ; that observing the providences attending them, seeing the snares they were liable to, and beholding their deliver- ances, we may thereby be made wise unto salvation, and seasonably reproved and instructed in righteousness. The scrip- This is the great work of the scriptures, and their ser-
tores* work yj^g ^q ^g ^^^ ^^g j^^y ^.-itness them fulfilled in us, and so and service. ' •' . ^
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 prophecies of the scriptures are also very comfortable and profitable unto us, as the same Spirit enlightens us to observe them fulfilled, and to be ful- filled ; 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 others, 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 learn- ing of the Spirit, not in human and school literature ; in which we may safely presume that Peter himself, being a
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 89
fisherman, had no skill ; for it may with great probability, yea certainty, be affirmed, that he had no knowledge of Aristotle's logic, which both Papists and Protestants now,* Logic, degenerating from the simplicity of truth, make the hand- maid of divinity, as they call it, and a necessary introduc- tion to their carnal, natural, and human ministry. By the infinite obscure labours of w'hich kind of men, intermixing their heathenish stuff, the scripture is rendered at this day of so little service to the simple people : whereof if Jerome complained in his time, now twelve hundred years ago, Hierom. Epist. 134, ad Cypr. Tom. 3, saying, <' It is wont to befal 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 commentaries 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 ; where- The scrip- fore we do account them a secondary rule. Moreover, be- c"nd\rv^* cause they are commonly acknowledged by all to have rule. been written by the dictates of the Holy Spirit, and that the errors which may be supposed by the injury of times to have slipped 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 judge 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 tried by them ; which we never refused, nor ever shall, in all con- troversies with our adversaries, as the judge 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 ourselves in any thing that is evil ; so we know, that as every evil 8* M
■'""'«*»»*. .c^'*'?^
00
puoposmoN III.
Obj. 1.
A NSW.
To try all tiling!^, by wliat ?
contradicts the scripliires, so it doth also the Spirit in the first place, from which the scriptures carne, and whose mo- tions can never contradict one another, though they may appear sometimes to be contradictory to the blind eye of the natural man, as Paul and James seem to contradict one another.
Thus far we have shown Ijolh what we believe, and what we believe not, concerning the holy scriptures, hop- ing 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 show of arguments, even from the scripture itself (though it no where calls itself so) by which they labour to prove their doctrine ; I shall briefly lay them down by way of objections, and answer them, before I make an end of this matter.
§ VII. Their first objection is usually drawn from Isaiah viii. 20, << To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Now this law, testimony, and word, they plead to be the scriptures.
To which I answer; That that is to beg the thing in question, and remains yet unproved. Nor do I know for what reason we may not safely affirm this law and word to be inward : but suppose it was outward, it proves not the case at all for ihem, neither makes it against us ; for it may be confessed, without any prejudice to our cause, that the outward law was more particularly to the Jews a rule, and more principally than to us ; seeing their law was out- ward and literal, but ours, under the new covenant, as hath been already said, is expressly affirmed to be inward, and spiritual ; so that this scripture is so far from making against us, that it makes for us. For if the Jews v.-ere directed to try all things by their law, which was without them, written in tables of stone ; then if we will have this advice of the prophet to reach us, we must make it hold parallel to that dispensation of the gospel which we are under: so that we are to try all things, in the first place, by that word of faith which is preached unto us, which the
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90 PROPOSITION III.
contradicts the scriptures, so it doth also the Spirit in the first place, from which the scriptures carne, and whose mo- tions can never contradict one another, though they may- appear sometimes to be contradictory to the blind eye of the 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, hop- ing 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 show of arguments, even from the scripture itself (though it no where calls itself so) by which they labour to prove their doctrine ; I shall briefly lay them down by way of objections, and answer them, before I make an end of this matter.
Obj. 1. § VII. Their first objection is usually drawn from Isaiah
viii. 20, " To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Now this law, testimony, and word, they plead to be the scriptures.
Aksw. To which I answer ; That that is to beg the thing in
question, and remains yet unproved. Nor do I know for what reason we may not safely affirm this law and word to be inward : but suppose it was outward, it proves not the case at all for them, neither makes it against us ; for it may be confessed, without any prejudice to our cause, that the outward law was more particularly to the Jews a rule, and more principally than to us ; seeing their law was out- ward and literal, but ours, under the new covenant, as hath been already said, is expressly affirmed to be inward, and spiritual ; so that this scripture is so far from making
To try all against us, that it makes for us. For if the Jews Avere
what ?' ^^' tlii'ected to try all things by their law, which was without them, written in tables of stone ; then if we w^ill have this advice of the prophet to reach us, we must make it hold parallel to that dispensation of the gospel which we are under : so that we are to try all things, in the first place, by that word of faith which is preached unto us, which the
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 91
apostle saith is in the heart ; and by that law which God hath given us, which the apostle saith also expressly is written and placed in the mind.
Lastly, If we look to this place according to the Greek interpretation of the Septuagint, our adversaries shall have nothing from thence to carp ; yea, it will favour us much ; for there it is said, that " the law is given us for a help ;" ■which very well agrees with what is above asserted.
Their second objection is from John v. 39, " Search the Obj. 2. scriptures," &c.
Here, say they, we are commanded, by Christ himself, to search the scriptures.
I answer, First, That the scriptures ought to be searched, Axsw. i. we do not at all deny ; but are very willing to be tried by them, as hath been above declared : but the question is, Whether they be the only and principal rule.-' Which this is so far from proving, that it proveth the contrary ; for Christ checks them here for too high an esteem of the scriptures, and neglecting of him that was to be preferred before them, and to whom they bore witness, as the fol- lowing words declare ; " for in them ye think ye have Search the eternal life, and they are they which testify of me : and ye ^c?^*^"^^^' will not come unto me, that ye might have life." This shows, that while they thought they had eternal life in the scriptures, they neglected to come unto Christ to have life, of which the scriptures bore witness. This answers well to our purpose, since our adversaries now do also exalt the scriptures, and think to have life in them ; which is no more than to look upon them as the only principal rule and way to life, and yet refuse to come unto the Spirit of which they testify, even the inward spiritual law, which could give them life : so that the cause of this people's ignorance and unbelief was not their want of respect to the scriptures, which though they knew, and had a high esteem of, yet Christ testifies in the former verses, that they had neither " seen the Father, nor heard his voice at any time ; neither had his word abiding in them ;" which had they then had, then they had believed in the Son. Moreover, that place A.\sw. 2.
92 PROPOSITION III.
may be taken in the indicative mood, Ye search the scrip- tures ; which interpretation the Greek word will bear, and so Pasor translateth it : which by the reproof following seemeth also to be the more genuine interpretation, as Cy- rillus long ago hath observed. Obj. 3. § VIII. Their third objection is from these words, Acts
xvii. 11, "These were more noble than those in Thessalo- nica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
Here, say they, the Bereans are commended for search- ing the scriptures, and making them the rule. Ans. 1. I answer ; That the scriptures either are the principal or
only rule, will not at all follow from this ; neither will their searching the scriptures, or being commended for it, infer any such thing : for we recommend and approve the use of them in that respect as much as any ; yet will it not follow, that we affirm them to be the principal and only rule. Ans. 2. Secondly, It is to be observed that these were the Jews
The Bere- of Berea, to whom these scriptures, which were the law ^the'^'^ * ^"^ ^^6 prophets, were more particularly a rule; and the scriptures, thing under examination was, whether the birth, life, works, them not and sufferings of Christ, did answer to the prophecies con- rufe^totry cerning him; so that it was most proper for them, being doctrines. Jews, to examine the apostle's doctrine by the scriptures ; seeing he pleaded it to be a fulfilling of them. It is said nevertheless, in the first place. That "they received the word with cheerfulness ;" and in the second place, " They searched the scriptures :" not that they searched the scrip- tures, and then received the word ; for then coukl they not have prevailed to convert them, had they not first minded the word abiding in them, which opened their understand- ings; no more than the Scribes and Pharisees, who, as in the former objection we observed, searched the scriptures, and exalted them, and yet remained in their unbelief, be- cause they had not the word abiding in them. Ans, 3. But lastly, If this commendation of the Jewish Bereans
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 93
might infer that the scriptures were the only and principal rule to try the apostle's doctrine by, what should have be- come of the Gentiles? How should they ever have come to have received the faith of Christ, who neither knew the scriptures, nor believed them ? We see in the end of the same chapter, how the apostle, preaching to the Athenians, The Athe- took another method, and directed them to somewhat of "tancod.' God within themselves, that they might feel after him. He did not go about to proselyte them to the Jewish religion, and to the belief of the law and the prophets, and from thence to prove the coming of Christ ; nay, he took a nearer way. Now certainly the principal and only rule is not different ; one to the Jews, and another to the Gen- tiles ; but is universal, reaching both : though secondary and subordinate rules and means may be various, and diversely suited, according as the people they are used to are stated and circumstantiated : even so we see that the apostle to the Athenians used a testimony of one of their own poets, which he judged would have credit with them ; and no doubt such testimonies, whose authors they esteem- ed, had more weight with them than all the sayings of Moses, and the prophets, whom they neither knew nor would have cared for. Now because the apostle used the testimony of a poet to the Athenians, will it therefore follow he made that the principal or only rule to try his doctrine by? So neither will it follow, that though he made use of the scriptures to the Jews, as being a principle already believed by them, to try his doctrine, that from thence the scriptures may be accounted the principal or only rule.
§ IX. The last, and that which at first view seems to be the greatest objection, is this :
If the scripture be not the adequate, principal, and only Obj. 4. rule, then it would follow that the scripture is not com- plete, nor the canon filled ; that if men be now imme- diately led and ruled by the Spirit, they may add new scriptures of equal authority with the old ; whereas every one that adds is cursed : yea, what assurance have we, but
94
PROPOSITION III.
Answ.
Obj. 1.
Ans. 1.
Ans. 2.
Gal. i. 8.
A new re- velation is not a new gospel.
Books ca- nonical.
at this rate every one may bring in a new gospel according to his fancy ?
The dangerous consequences insinuated in this objection were fully answered in the latter part of the last proposition, in what was said a little before, offering freely to disclaim all pretended revelations contrary to the scriptures.
But if it be urged, That it is not enough to deny these consequences, if they naturally follow from your doctrine of immediate revelation, and denying the scripture to be the only rule;
I answer ; We have proved both these doctrines to be true and necessary, according to the scriptures themselves ; and therefore to fasten evil consequences upon them, which we make appear do not follow, is not to accuse us, but Christ and