Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 1 · Chapter 32 – Chapter 33
CHAP. XXXII. What certainty of faith the Saints may attaine to beyond the Familists fluctuation of faith: of Heresie and Schisme.
5. FAmilists, and Antinomians, goe one with the Belgicke Arminians, and all our late English Independents, who are for Liberty of conscience, and a Catholicke toleration and punishing in a coercive way no kinde of men never so blasphemous, for their conscience teach & print what they will, there being no infallibility now in any,A twofold infallibity. since the Apostles expired: But this is a most false ground; for there is a twofold infallibility; one in teaching, flowing from immediate inspiration, proper to the Prophets and Apostles: and another infallibility and certainty of perswasion common to all beleevers. Now Libertines turne all our faith in a topicke and conjecturall opinion, so most of them are turned Scepticks and affirme that we know nothing with any certainty; yea the more supernaturall and sublime that fundamentalls of salvation are, the more indulgence and latitude of liberty is to bee yeelded to the consciences of all men, because the higher the subject is, the ranker is our propension to erre, God having given a thinner and more scarce measure of knowledge in supernaturall things, that doe so farre transcend the sphere and orbe of naturall reason, then of knowledge in naturall things, our mindes being in their owne element, and in a capacity to reach their connaturall and proper object whē they are among natural things knowable by the light of nature, hence that opinion now so prevailing▪ that all and every Religion is to be Tollerated, and an indulgence yeelding to all in superstructurs in foundamentals, though a man should deny that Christ is the Saviour of the world, therfore Saltmarsh takes on him, Sparkles of glory as p. 185, 186, 187, 188 to reckō out the articles of our faith, especially concerning the first Adams sin, sin originall, of Christ borne of the Virgin Mary, made under the law, bearing our sins, dead, buried, ascended into Heaven, siting at the right hand &c. & speaketh of the highest attaintments of the Protestants generally in the mystery of salvation. but speaketh not one word of the generall resurrection of our bodies, of Christ comming to judge all men, of a Heaven and Hell after this life, as if these were none of the highest attaintments of the Protestants generally in the mystery of salvation.
And Saltmarsh, as I conceive with Hymeneus and Philetus, and other Libertines in the Armie, doubt of, or deny these; therefore not owning these points of faith, nor the doctrine of faith, repentance, love, new obedience, praying, preaching, sacraments, as if hee professed himselfe no Protestant in these points, saith, these are beleeved by Protestants, but doth not owne them as a part of his owne beleefe, but he goeth on p. 190. and teacheth us of a further discovery as to free grace, as if Protestants had never attained to a further discovery as to free grace, and here he falles in on his owne secrets of Antinomianisme and contradicteth the Protestants, and debaseth the confession of the late Anabaptists the seaven Churches & of the assembly of Divins at Westminster: & speaks not one word in this new discovery of Christ God-man born of a womā, under the law, &c. or of the Articles of the faith of Protestants yea, pa. 198, 199, &c. he tels us of the last, and as some say, of the highest and most glorious discovery concerning the whole mystery of God to men, and his creation, in which hee againe saith nothing of the Protestant faith, not one word of Christ, God and Man, of the Resurrection, of the last Judgement, of the Life to come, which yet the Apostle Heb. 6.1, 2. maketh fundamentals of salvation, though the Chapter tells us in the Title, of the last discovery, and highest concerning the whole mystery of God to men.
But in that Chapter, 1. He denieth the Trinity and maketh the three persons (as Mr. Beacon doth, in his Catechisme also p. 47, 48, 49, 50, 51.) but manifestations of God. Thus God being infinitly one, yet in a three-fold manifestation (saith he) to us of Father, Son and Spirit, &c. a person is not a manifestation, but hath need to be manifested to us, and denying the personall union of the second person with the Man Christ, Saltmarsh with Familists, denyeth the personall union of the two natures in Christ God-man.he makes it but God present with men and Angels in the manifestation of grace and salvation, and with Devills and wicked men in the manifestation of Law and Justice. So God is no more united to our nature in the man Christ, then he is united, to Angels and Devills, and to elect men and the wicked and the reprobate: and Christ is no more God-man in one person, then he is God-Angel, or God-Devill, (I tremble to speake it) in one person, and Christ is just God-man the Sonne of Mary, born of a woman and of the seed of David, as he is God-Peter, God-Paul, God Cain, God-Judas Iscariot; for saith he, p. 199. God makes out himself in an image in this creation or nature, & therefore he takes to himself one part of it into union to himselfe, according to one way of manifestation called in the Scripture light, love, grace, salvation, Father, Bridegroome, glory, and that part which injoyes. God in this manifestation is called the Angels, the Saints, the elect, the Sonne, the Tabernacle of God, the new Jerusalem, What a new union between Christ, God and man, devills and Angels, Saltmarsh hath devised.the Temple, the Spouse,—he taketh to himselfe the other part of the creation, and there he is present, but not in this way of grace and light, but of another manifestation called Law, justice, wrath, everlasting burning, and these are called devills, wicked men, flesh, which live in God and subsist in him as creatures in their being. Now the Scripture cals this the great mystery of godlinesse, God manifested in the flesh. Saltmarsh maketh this as great a mystery, God manifested in the Devill to cast him into hell. And as the new Jerusalem, the Spouse is Christ, or God in the flesh of the Saints and Angels by grace and salvation, and Christ liveth in Paul, and Paul is by grace, Godded and Christed, and the Angel Gabriel Godded and Christed, so Christ lives in Cain, Judas, Beelzebub, by justice and condemnation; and the union of God is neither personall in the son of Mary, nor in Sathan, but only in the effects of grace and salvation in all the elect, and by Law and justice in all the damned Angels and men, and here is the mystery. God is all that part of the creation that commeth under the name of reasonable creatures, men and Angels, and all the Angels and men created of God were crucified with Christ; and all are the Lord of glory by union, so that as Libertines made God the soule, forme, and life of all things, men and devills, and said that God wrought all good, all ill in the creatures, and no creature was to be praised for doing well, nor to be blamed or punished for ill doing, because God is the Author of righteousnesse and sinne; so the Familists say that Christ is the form and soul of men elect and reprobate, of Angels elect & reprobate, and that God works in them, & is united to them, and they are meer passive organs in all good or ill. So I beleeve Saltm. and the Familists do subvert the whole faith, and hold nothing with us, but doubt of all.
But I returne to that I said, there is a twofold infallibility: now,A twofold certainty one Propheticall, another of faith, the former was peculiar to the pen-men of Scripture, the other to all beleevers. though beleevers have not that infallibility proper to Prophets and Apostles, in prophesying and writing Scripture, yet must we not runne to the other extremity, and say as these that fight for Liberty of conscience, that there is not, since the Prophets and Apostles fell asleep, any infallible perswasion and certainty of faith; but all our knowledge is conjecturall, and a meere fluctuation and fleeting opinion, and a faith for a yeare, a month, or an houre, which wee may lay aside the next month, and that anointing even the Spirit of God infuseth in us opinions of God contrary among themselves, and false and true which is the present judgement of our minde, which we are to stand to and to suffer for, or to deny as we see the times goe.
For 1. The Scripture tells us of a sure perswasion of things beleeved, Luke 1.1. foreign and Luke holdeth forth to Theophilus a certainty of knowledge foreign that thou mayest know the certainty of these things whereof thou hast been instructed, So the word imports a certainty, Act. 5.23. Act. 21.34. Act. 22.30. Act. 25.26. Act. 2.36. Let all the house of Israel know foreign assuredly. A full and certaine perswasion excludeth all doubting and deception or mistake, and this the Saints have and may have, Col. 2.2. That their hearts might bee comforted—unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, foreign 1 Thess. 1.5. The Gospel came not to you in word only—but in much assurance, Rom. 4.21. being fully perswaded. This was the perswasion of a faith, and such a faith as by which wee are justified without workes, Rom. 14.5. Let every one be fully perswaded foreign in his owne minde, 2 Tim. 4.17. That by me the preaching might bee fully knowne. Nor is that perswasion of Pauls Apostolicke, or by revelation extraordinarily, but common to all Christians, Rom. 8.38. For I am perswaded that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, &c. shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, 2 Tim. 1.12. I know in whom I have beleeved, and I am perswaded that hee is able to keepe that which I have committed to him against that day. This certaine perswasion must bee certaine and infallible both to themselves, and grounded upon the promise and truth of God, who cannot lye, Tit. 1.2. Yea and our Divines with good warrant say the Catholicke in visible Church is thus farre infallible that in 1 fundamentalls,What infallibility agreeth to the Saints, and the Church Catholick, and invisible. 2 necessary for salvation they cannot, 3 finally and totally, erre and fall from the faith.
But all our Divines and your owne confession of the Assembly at Westminster saith, ch. 31. Art. 4. All Councells, generall or particular, since the Apostles times, may erre, and many have erred.
To which I answer, No Councells, nay nor the whole invisible Church is infallible in the sense that the Apostles are infallible, both in beleeving and teaching by immediate inspiration, and so their word is not a rule of faith.
2. A Generall Councell conveened in Councell may erre in particular Synodicall acts, that is for a time and in some points as the Synod meaneth; but it followeth not, ergo, the invisible Church at all times, and finally may simply fall from the sound faith of fundamentalls necessary for salvation, more then this is a good consequence, this particular beleever may in one particular fundamentall point erre fouly and grossely for a time; ergo, he is not infallibille simpliciter, but may finally and totally fall away. And that of our Saviours, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith faile not, Luke 22.32. though it free not Beleevers from particular failings both in doctrine of faith, and conversation of life, and that grossely and fouly, yet it secures them by Christs intercession in a state of infallibility in fundamentalls, and in a condition of indeclinability in conversion, so as beleevers are infallible in point of faith touching fundamentalls necessary to salvation, except Familists hold the Apostacie of the Saints, or that all may goe to heaven finally doubting.
Pag. 174.175. Sparkles Saltmars. tells what are the tradions of man,How Familists define heresies. and for Mark. 7.9. he citeth Matth. 9. or heresies▪ Now, a heresie (saith he) is something against the doctrine of faith in the word or Scriptures not against any interpretations, doctrins, conclusions, glosses, comments, or preaching of men, who speak not Scripture originally nor infallibly as the Apostles did, but so far as that is the very Scripture they speak, & so far as they speak the truth in Jesus, and in the Spirit of God, else they teach for doctrines the traditions of men.
Answ. Traditions of men, are not necessarily errors in fundamentalls, except only by a remote consequence as all errors are against the fundamentalls.
2. There are heresies that are by good consequence against fundamentalls; else the Saduces their denying of the resurrection, Mat. 22. was no heresie; for Christ proveth by a good consequence that they denyed the Scripture, I am the God of Abraham; when Abraham was then dead when God spake out of the bush to Moses Exod. 3. yet they denyed but conclusions deduced from Scripture.
3. There is another strange ingredient in heresie according to Familists; and that is, because God speakes not now immediatly his word to us as he did to the Apostles: no man is an hereticke that denyeth the whole faith, except he that denyes the Scripture as the Scripture, and except he deny it in so farre as teachers speake the truth in Jesus, and in the Spirit of God, else (that is if they be not Famili…ts, that teach and speake not in the Famisticall spirit) they teach for doctrines the traditions of men, that is heresies for Gods truth; then to speake heresie is to speake only against fundamentall truths, when a Familist in the Spirit of God speaketh them.
2. But then, when a hereticke readeth in the word this fundamentall, Christ came in the world to save sinners, 1 Tim. 1.15 though he deny it, and spit at it, that is no heresie, because the paper and printed booke speaketh not in the Spirit of Jesus.
3. The written word of God is not the word of God, but only the word is spoken by a Familist in the Spirit of Christ.
4. When Preachers void of the Spirit speake that which is the very word of God and fundamentalls of faith, these truths are not the word of God, but the traditions of men, and heresies: so his Master H.N. taught the Scripture & preaching to be but figurative service, the word of God was never published to the world, till H.N. the least among the holy ones of God—was made alive through Christ, anointed with his godly being, manned himselfe with H N. and godded H.N. with himself, The Schisme that Familists acknowledgepublished the light of glory. H. Nicholas, Evangelic. c. 34. sent. 9.
Pag. 175. Schisme is a dividing from Christians who are in an outward profession of truth. Now there may bee schisme i… visible Churches or fellowships of Saints upon this account, but there can bee none in the true body of Christ, or the spirituall Church;—for they that are joyned to the Lord, are one spirit, and they are made perfect in one.
Answ. There is no outward Schisme or renting but it begins at the heart. Schisme is a dividing of the hearts as well as a visible parting with the Church or a part thereof, else schisme were no sinne, which yet Paul reproveth as a sinne, 1 Cor. 1. 1 Cor. 3.1.
2. The Church of Corinth, and these that made a rent, were both the visible and the invisible Church, that they were the visible, Saltm. cannot deny, they were the invisible Church also, 1 Cor. 1.13. Christ was crucified for them, and they were babes in Christ fed with milke, 1 Cor. 3.1.2. and built upon one only foundation. v. 10. Saltmarsh must say they were all unconverted that made the schisme.
3. Familists will have none the true body and spirituall Church of Christ, but the invisible Church: so that upon this account, they that beleeve and visibly professe neither Christ nor his truth before men, yea who all their dayes deny Christ, and so shall be denyed of Christ before the Father and his holy Angells, Matth. 10.32, 33. may be and are the true body of Christ and the Spirituall Church▪ so H. Nicholas Epistle to the two daughters of Warwicke.
4. May not a schisme and seperation fall in these that are both the true body and spirituall Church, when of a Church of beleevers effectually called consisting of foure hundred, two hundred seperate, from two hundred? I think they may as well as Barnabas, a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, seperated from Paul.
But in so farre as they are (saith he) in that one Spirit they cannot be divided.
Ans. True, but Saltm. speakes lyes in hypocrisie, when he saith, the spirituall Church are made perfect in one Lord in this life, upon the same reason as they are one, and as united to the Lord they cannot lye, whore, steale, murther; but out of some remnants of corruption they can sinne. But Familists put them in a condition they can in this life sinne no more, or if they sinne, their transgression is not sinne; it is not they but their Asse the flesh that sinnes, as Libertines said, but that is no violation of the Law of God.
CHAP. XXXIII. Saltmarsh Sparkles, pag. 22…. Familists minde touching Prayer.
ALL constant speakings to God in this (as they call) a conceived way or impremeditate or extemporary way, is taken commonly amongst Christians for prayer in the Spirit, and for that Spirituall way which the Disciples of Christ used in the Gospel, who were growne up from the infancy and childishnesse of formes or words taught them, which is but a meer natural or outward thing, as they say, which any may perform by strength of naturall parts, as wit, and memory, and affections.
Saltmarsh here first condemneth prayer morning and evening, under the words of constant speakings to God, because he will have no praying but when the Spirit acts immediatly.
2. All extemporary prayers goe not for praying in the Spirit, among Christians commonly, he belyeth Protestants, and the truly anointed of God in this, words are but the outward skin of prayer, the Spirit must adde soule, heat and breath to words.
Some have a sort of eloquence in praying who have as little of the Spirit of adoption, as some that cannot pray without a booke, a growing up from booke praying▪ to extempory praying is no growing in the Spirit, because if we distinguish (as we should) between a gift of praying and preaching, and the grace of adoption, or of praying and preaching in the Holy Ghost, many al their daies have a naturall liberty of praying, and say Lord, Lord without a Booke, that are but workers of iniqu…ty, as divers Antinomians and Familists are for the most part, and their mere shining gifts and golden words are bought and sold by the simple, for grace and the spirit of adoption.
3 Nor is extemporary prayer always a mere outward thing, because wit, memory, and affections act therein, these powers are not mere blocks and stones in praying, and by this argument, all that Saltmarsh writes is but a mere naturall and outward thing, and not writing in the spirit, as he vainly boasteth in his Books, because wit, memory, affections act in the producing of such prayers, yea, they that are fleshly may write all the new discoveries and sparkles of darknesse, and flesh that Saltmarsh writes, for the Spirit never taught such dreames, or rotten phancies, nor such interpretations, as he doth offer to us, as dictates of the pure spirit.