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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47136	Divine immediate revelation and inspiration, continued in the true church second part. In two treatises: the first being an answer to Jo. W. Bajer Doctor and Professor of Divinity, so called, at Jena in Germany, published first in Latine, and now in English. The second being an answer to George Hicks, stiled Doctor of Divinity, his sermon preached at Oxford, 1681. and printed with the title of, The spirit of enthusiasm exorcised; where this pretended exorcist is detected. Together, with some testimonies of truth, collected out of diverse ancient writers and fathers, so called. By G.K.; Divine immediate revelation and inspiration, continued in the true church. Part 2.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1685 (1685)	Wing K158; ESTC R218958	105,601	220

neglect and lay aside the reading of the Holy Scripture and Meditation thereon and the use and exercise of other good means as Preachings or Declarations of Truth in the Assemblies of the Faithful through Holy Men who speak by the Holy Ghost and also prayers and supplications and giving of thanks unto God both in publick and private or the Pious and Christian Admonitions Exhortations and Reprehensions of their Brethren and Elders where they are needful how much sover they make a pretext of the Spirit yet they live not in the Holy Spirit of God and they may pretend to have a name to live with those of the Church of Sardis but they are very dead carnal rude and ignorant whereas the humble meek and faithful Servants of God in the first place they imbrace love and receive with great respect the Holy Spirit of God and watch and attend unto the same and then duely and chastly they regard the Holy Scriptures as the Instruments means organs and vessels of the Holy Spirit as the same useth them and appeareth in them and so frequently and daily make use of them and of all other means ordained and appointed of God and in their so doing find their great profiting to the praise of God and to the increasing in them Divine knowledge and vertue for they do well know and consider that it is a peculiar work and office of the Holy Spirit to expound the Holy Scriptures unto them explain and unfold their mysteries prophecies and hidden things and reveal their deep sence and that sometimes by the means of others preaching unto them and at other times by silent and solitary meditation within themselves which doth not hinder the immediate operation and communication of the Holy Spirit but is altogether made effectual thereby as is showed at large in this following treatise And how can they reject the Holy Scriptures or their use to read and hear them and meditate upon them who believe that the Holy Spirit is given them for that very cause that he may expound unfold and reveal the Scriptures unto them the Holy Scripture therefore is not to be rejected nor laid aside by any however so much inlightned and replenished with the Holy Spirit but greatly to be esteemed and improved according to their great worth The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy who had that excellent gift of the Holy Spirit to read the Holy Scripture and praised him that from his Childhood he had known them and been exercised in them his faithful parents to wit his Mother and Grandmother procuring and moving him unto the same also the Apostles did exercise themselves in reading the Scriptures of the Prophets and did bring many excellent places out of them as the Holy Spirit taught them and opened them in their Preaching Christ and his Gospel and Faith to convince the unbelieving and in their Epistles unto the faithful they did frequently cite the Scriptures of the Prophets and did also meditate in them for the nourishing their hope and consolation as Paul hath expresly affirmed Whatever said he is written for our cause it was written whereby he includeth both himself and all the Apostles as well as other Saints that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope and if they be writ for the Saints as well as for others therefore they are to be read and heard and meditated upon by the Saints as well as others by Men and Women Old and Young and by young Children also that as it were with their Mothers Milk they may draw and suck in the most wholesome precepts institutions and examples of the Scripture and the most profitable Histories thereof for the begetting and forming them unto a good life by the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit which shall not be wanting to them who sincerely wish and desire it for all Scripture Divinely inspired and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work 2 Tim. 3.16.17 Daniel who was a great Prophet of God understood some things out of books and especially out of Jeremiah his Prophecy as he himself did testifie John saith the things he did write concerning Christ were writ unto men that they might believe and by believing may attain everlasting life John 20.31 and therefore the Scriptures are given also in order to work or beget faith into Christ in mens hearts to wit as a means or instrument thereof in the hand of the Spirit and finally Paul saith that the mistery to wit of the Gospel of Christ which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest is by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God to be made known to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25 26. And although neither in the age of the Apostles nor unto this day the outward Testimony of the Scripture in the declaration of the Gospel is come to all and every one of Mankind yet it shall most certainly come into all before the end of the World and the Gospel as Christ hath declared shall be preached to all Nations both inwardly and outwardly for a Testimony to the Salvation of them that believe and to the greater condemnation of these who believe not And surely the time is near wherein God is to visit all Nations with his Spirit Light Life and Grace in a larger measure than in many ages by-gone and by the virtue and efficacy of his Spirit he will sanctify and bless unto the people the outward testimony of the Scriptures that with spiritual fruit and encrease they may read them and hear them and meditate upon them diligently and this my testimony as concerning the worth and use of the Scriptures and of all other true means appointed of God the Holy Spirit assisting I desired to have published ERRATA PAge 18. line 4. read tast p. 20. l. 27. r. airy p. 29. l. 24. r. where p. 41. l. 26. r. is Christ p. 75. l. 10 11 r. Books which they contain in so many words p. 78. l. 10. f. primitive r. intimate p. 78. l. 28. r. implanted and ingrafted p. 79. l. 9. r. worthy of belief p. 81. l. 17. r. at least p. 82. l. 14. r. antient writings p. 84. l. 29. r. refuted The Second Treatise Page 89. l. 16. r. was induced p. 93. l. 8. r. restricted p. 95. l. 23. f. acknowledge r. actually l. 24. r. absent p. 97. l. 6. r. to the Holy Ghost p. 98. l. 1. r. assentiendi p. 104. l. 9 13 18 r. Students l. 12. r. them p. 105. l. 2. r. pretend p. 109. l. 25. r. doth only conclude p. 110. l. 10. r. inspired l. 21. r. supposed p. 114. l. 13. r. inspiration p. 138. l. 19. r. Revelations p. 139. l. 4. r. within p. 145. l. 6. r. at most l. 26. r. partly p. 160. l. 24. r.

declared concerning Divine Inspiration as being absolutely necessary for the attaining of the true knowledge of God are unto the principles of Socrates and Plato whom Augustin in his Books de Civitate Dei commendeth as the best Philosophers I shall give you a summ of their Doctrine out of Marsilius Ficinus his argument in Euthydemum Platonis that wisdom is not acquired so much by humane study as it is divinely infused into purified minds yea Socrates in his discourse with Theages denyeth that ever any men learned ought from him neither would he acknowledge himself to have any further use unto men than to be as a Spiritual Midwife unto them to help to bring forth that wisdom or knowledge which God himself had put in them And concerning the necessity of inward silence and unmoveableness of mind in order to converse with God how agreeable it is to Socrates and Plato let us further hear Marsilius Ficinus Theol. Platon lib. 9. cap. 3. love God alone saith he O soul love the Light alone the infinite Light of the bountiful God love thou infinitely now thou shalt shine and be delighted infinitely I pray thee therefore seek his face and thou shalt rejoyce for ever but I pray thee be not moved that thou may touch that Light because it is stability be not scattered through diverse things that thou may apprehend it for it is Unity Stay the motion gather together the multitude immediately thou shalt find God who hath already found thee In this search Oh how repugnant is the mind unto all bodys how much doth it despise their Images and deceits How much doth it condemn the phantasie and bodily senses Thirdly As concerning that great duty of returning or turning in into the heart which our opposers who deny Immediate Revelation and Inspiration do so much speak against as nonsense and the like that it is a thing required of God and commanded This I prove first from the testimony of Scripture Deuteronomy 4.39 and know this day and return unto thy heart So the Hebrew Deuteronomy 30.1 And shall return to thy heart Hebrew 1 Kings 8.47 if they shall return unto their heart so the Hebrew and 1 Kings 8.48 and shall return unto thee in their whole heart Isaiah 46.8 Return O ye transgressors unto the heart so the Hebrew and the Old Latine Lamentations of Ieremy Therefore or for this will I return unto my heart that so I may wait cap. 3.21 Secondly I prove the same from antiquity I. Augustin quinquagena 2 a Psalm 57.10 citante Beda The written Law what cryteth it unto them who have forsaken the Law written in their hearts return O ye transgressors unto the heart Observe it is worth your observation that all along the Translators have otherwise translated all these places of Scripture which expresly mention this great duty of returning unto the heart because as seemeth they were ignorant of it as people generally now are who when they hear us bidding them turn into their hearts or minds are ready to gnash their teeth at us and to say as I have heard them there is no good in our hearts what should we turn in unto them for and surely if there were no Divine Revelation in the heart it were in vain to turn in unto it Again Augustin in his Confessions lib. 7. cap. 10. And being upon this admonished to return unto my self I entred even into my inwards thou O Lord leading me and I was able to do it for thou becamest my helper I entred into my self and with the eye of my soul I saw over the eye of my soul over my mind the unchangeable Light of the Lord. Observe how Augustin first turned in to his heart that he might see the Light of the Lord but they who believe not that there is any Light of the Lord to be seen in their hearts think it in vain to turn into their hearts And verily most men are so turned or extraverted unto outward objects that for them to be turned inward unto an invisible object of Light and Life from God in their hearts is to make them change their element which they are as unwilling to do as the Fish is to leave the water And on the contrary one that is truly an inward liver and is come to converse with the inward Light and Life and Word of God in his heart is an unwilling to leave this place and go forth unto outward things which are but as shadows in respect of that inward substance which is to be found and enjoyed in the heart II. The Author de Spiritu Anima joyned with Augustin cap. 34. Let the mind therefore return unto it self and gather it self into it self III. Bernard de Conversione ad clerum cap. 2. as yet wisdom cryeth in the streets return unto the heart O ye Transgressors for this is the beginning of the Lords speech and it appeareth that this word hath gone before unto all who are turned unto the heart Observe how Bernard understandeth it to be one of the first things which God speaks to the heart to return unto the heart Again Bernard in Sermone de verbis Habakkuk super custodiam meam Stabo But he calleth back sinners unto the heart and reproveth them for the error of the heart because he dwelleth there and there he speaketh Again Bernard Tractatu de Precepto Dispensatione Surely to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof ye shall endeavour rather to enter within your selves than to go sorth or to ascend above Again in his Epistle 108. I pray thee return unto the heart Again e Sermone parvo de tribus panibus A Friend cometh unto me off the way when forsaking transitory things I return unto the heart as it is written return unto the heart ye Transgressors Isa. 46.8 Again in the Treatise de Domo interiori cap. 14. But now saith he perhaps thou hast ascended Now thou hast returned unto thy heart and hast learned there to stand neither let this suffice thee learn to dwell there and to make it a mansion and by whatsoever wandring of mind thou be drawn from thence hasten always to return thither again Without doubt by much use at some time it shall become a delight unto thee insomuch that without any difficulty of labour thou maist be there daily yea it will be rather a pain unto thee to make a stay any where else but there And as touching waiting or watching for the Lord in the inward retiredness or recollection of the mind see what Bernard saith Bernard Sermone de visitationibus Domini Who is among us so vigilant and observant of the time of his Visitation and diligently searching after the coming of the Bridegroom at all moments so that when he cometh and knocketh it is opened unto him and after Surely our want doth argue us of neglect and carelesness for if any of us uprightly and perfectly according to the word of the Wise man would deliver up his heart to watch for the Lord early who made it and would pray in the sight of the Most High and also by all endeavours study according to the Prophet Isaiah to prepare the ways of the Lord and to make straight the paths of his God Who hath to say with the Prophet my eyes are ever unto the Lord and I have had the Lord always in my sight shall not he receive a blessing from the Lord and mercy from the God of his Salvation Surely he shall be frequently visited neither shall he ever be ignorant of the time of his Visitation however so secretly and as a thief he cometh who visiteth in Spirit who is a modest lover and while he is yet afar off he well watching soul with a sober mind shall perceive him Now that silent waiting is according unto Scripture I have above showed out of the Lamentations Also the words of Habakkuk do plainly hold forth the same I will stand on my watch and I will hear what the Lord will speak in me Moreover that Socrates and Plato taught this doctrine of the converting or turning in of a man to himself to within himself to behold the innate idea of vertue in him see Plato his Charmides And as concerning profiting by silence in the company of good men Seneca that renowned Philosopher saith thus Epistola 94. est aliquid quod ex magno viro vel tacente proficias there is somewhat that thou mayst profit by a great man to wit who is great in virtue even when he is silent And concerning retiring unto a mans self to converse with the Divine Spirit that is within him that famous Emperor and Philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in his Books of Meditation concerning himself lib. 4. num 3. saith thus A man cannot any whther retire better than to his own soul. And again he saith afford then thy self this retiring continually and thereby refresh and renew thy self and lib. 2. num 11. It is sufficient saith he for a man to apply himself wholly and to confine all his thoughts and care to the tendance of that Spirit which is within him and truly and really to serve him his service doth consist in this that a man keep himself pure from all violent passion and evil affection from all rashness and vanity and from all manner of discontent either in regard of the Gods or men Note that by the Gods Antonius Seneca Socrates Plato and others of the best Philosophers understood Angels and Immortal Spirits which the Scripture at times calleth also Gods for they did believe there was but only one supream and infinite God the Creator and upholder of all things who is over all blessed for ever THE END See Cor.

God in whom we live and move and have our being is most present in all his Creatures in Heaven and Earth and below the Earth and that he doth impart unto them all his Immediate concurrence and influence according to the exigence of every one of them In the Mineral and Metallin region he works immediatly with the minerals and mettals in the vetegable with the herbs flowers and trees and in the Animal he works immediatly with all the living Creatures to feed and nourish them Also he feedeth and nourisheth man not with Bread alone but with every word that cometh out of his Mouth And if this be true in respect of the natural and animal life how exceedingly true is it in respect of the Spiritual and supernatual which after a peculiar manner is called in Scripture the life I do not therefore understand how our adversary can reject this term Immediate from the inward divine Illumination or light of God that operates in the hearts of the faithful But parhaps he will say he doth not reject the term Immediate as the said Immediate concurse and influence of God is joyned with the means having an excellent consistency harmony and concord with them but that he denyeth such an immediate concourse of God as excludeth all means and the use and necessity of them in regard of the common and ordinary way of Gods working or at least doth not require them as necessary Now if this be the mind of our adversary he ought to have explained it in his dissertation and not to have rejected the term Immediate without all distinction and limitation But I answer moreover that we are so far from rejecting any true Means in order to the attaining the true and saving knowledge of God that we most gladly receive all means both inward and outward and both the book of the Scripture and the book of the Creatures as blessings and gifts of God We do also acknowledge that in respect of the more special Heads and Doctrines of the Christian Religion the Scripture is necessary both by necessity of precept and also of means and in what cases the Scriptures are not absolutely necessary yet they are very profitable unto all even unto the most spiritual and perfect And therefore the use of the Holy Scripture is not to be rejected or laid aside by none so long as this Mortal life endureth and this upon the matter R. B. hath sufficiently granted and that it may be the better known in what special Doctrines of the Christian Religion we hold the use of the Scripture to be necessary unto us we grant first that the whole History of the Creation and of all the ages from Adam unto Christ and of all the great works of God in building preserving nourishing and encreasing his Church in all those ages unto Christ and unto the end of the age of the Apostles is made known unto us by benefit of the Scripture of the Old and New Testament the inward divine Revelation and Illumination of the Holy Spirit working together with the Scripture and begetting in our minds and hearts the saving knowledge and faith of all these things Secondly all these most excellent Prophecies both and that especially concerning Christ his coming in the Flesh and his Spiritual Kingdom in the hearts of the faithful and also concerning many other things very necessary to be known and believed are made known unto us by the help of the Scripture the foresaid inward divine Revelation and Illumination of the Holy Spirit working with the Scripture and begetting in us the saving knowledge and belief of those things and here the holy Spirit is the principal cause and the Scripture a means and instrument Thirdly the knowledge of those most excellent examples of the vertues and vertuous and holy living of the Saints that greatly conduce by the working of the Holy Spirit to frame and fashion us after the same Manner and to ingraft and implant in us the same divine vertues and graces Fourthly the knowledge of many mysteries as of Christ his being both God and Man his being born in the Flesh of a Virgin his being crucified and becoming a Propitiatory sacrifice for our sins his Resurrection Ascension and Glorification and pouring out of his Spirit and the fulfilling of all these things many ages ago as they were foretold also the Mysterys of Election Vocation Justification and of the Regeneration of the Saints and of their spiritual ingrafting into Christ through the same and the Mystery of the Resurrection of the Body and its Glorification at the last day with many other secrets and hidden things of the Christian Religion Fifthly the knowledge of diverse Gospel precepts leading and carrying on the true travellers into a Gospel and Spiritual Life until he arrive at a perfect Man Sixthly the knowledge of diverse Gospel promises wherby we become partakers not only of the divine life and nature in this World but shall injoy most abundantly everlasting Happiness and felicity in the World to come I say the knowledge of all these things and of many more which to recite all one by one were too long is conveyed unto us by the Scriptures Testimony as we are exercised in reading and hearing and meditating on them the foresaid inward divine Revelation and Inspiration working as is said together with the Scriptures which can only beget in us the saving knowledge and belief of all these things It may now be asked what remaineth to be revealed by the Holy Spirit inwardly inspiring and Illuminating us the Scriptures not concurring so much as means and instruments at least immediatly and formally in the very act of knowledge as touching the things revealed I answer The experimental and sensible knowledge of God that is no ways obvious to the outward senses but to the inward and spiritual whereby God himself in Christ and Christ himself in his Life Light Vertue and Spirit is most inwardly felt seen and heard and a most sweet tast of him is received above all that the natural man can conceive of him and this is that most inward Magisterie or teaching of the inward Master of which Augustin makes mention lib. 14. de Trinit cap. 15. And it is that also of which the Apostle Paul said Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entred into Mans heart to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them who love him but God saith he hath revealed them to us by his Spirit This is that hidden Manna and white-stone which no Man knoweth save he who hath it And for the more full and clear understanding of this thing let the Reader take notice that there is a twofold knowledge of things whether natural and visible or of spiritual divine and invisible There is one knowledge of things which is not received by the things themselves but by the signs of them and such a knowledge is abstractive remote and mediate and therefore is very obscure another knowledge

there is which is not obtained by the signs of the things but by the things themselves immediately perceived and this sort of knowledge is intuitive most near and immediate and therefore much more excellent and pleasant than that other Note secondly that all words and names of divine things and consequently all the words and names of the Scripture are not the divine things themselves the words and names of God and Christ are not God and Christ are not the Light Life and power of God to speak properly they are not the spirit of God the love of God the peace and joy of God the righteousness and holiness and Kingdom of God if we will speak properly and without a figure And even in Natural things the words and names of them do not give us an intuitive clear and immediate knowledge of them but abstractive remote and mediate as when one heareth or readeth of the Kingdom of Italy of the City of Rome or Ierusalem not having seen that Kingdom or these Cities his knowledge of them is only abstractive or discursive obtained by the signs of their names and words But when afterwards by the reading and hearing of those places his desire is kindled to see them and that he travelleth into them when he is come thither he now seeth what only before he read or heard of and he converseth face to face with the Citizens of those places he tasteth of the delightful fruits of the Country and eateth and drinketh abundantly of them this last sort of knowledge is intuitive most near and Immediate and so more excellent more clear and more pleasant then the former only by hear-say and report Now if it be a more excellent and desirable knowledge to know a natural thing and that which is visible by seeing and perceiving the thing it self without and beyond all signs of words and names whatsoever than only to know it by the external signs of words in reading hearing and meditating on them how much more desirable and clear and more delightful shall that knowledge be of God and Christ whereby God and Christ is seen and heard smelled tasted and felt yea touched and apprehended by the most inward parts of the Soul in smost Sweet embraces And let none object unto me that such a knowledge of God belongeth not unto the saints in this mortal life but is reserved for Heaven and the World to come for I answer that a first fruits pledge and earnest of it are communicated to the Saints in this mortal life by the Lord which is abundantly clear both out of many places of Scripture and also from the many experiences of many Thousands of the Saints in all Ages for the places of Scripture see but these few that follow Psal. 34.8 1 Pet. 2.3 Matth. 5.8 2 Cor. 3.18 Eph. 1.17 18. Again the inward Operations Inspirations and Illuminations of the Holy Spirit when they are present in the hearts of the faithful without any outward teacher or signs of words whatsoever make evidence unto themselves and by their own self-evidence beget a most certain and clear knowledge of themselves in the Souls of those who have them even as if one doth take Hony Milk or Wine he needeth not to use the signs of words and names to perceive them but rather in quietness and silence without the noise or whisper of words he doth better perceive those things and enjoyeth the sweetness virtue and benefit of them And so indeed God in Christ and with Christ in a deep silence as well inward as outward of all words the discursive thoughts and reasonings of the mind being also excluded for some time is much better and more clearly and delightfully felt and known then by all the words that the tongues of men and Angels ever did Utter But is therefore the use and exercise of the Scripture Words in reading hearing and meditation of them to be rejected and laid aside Nothing less only the faithful Soul following its inward guide the Holy Spirit is led from that exercise of useing the Scripture words for some time unto another kind of more noble exercise and life as it were from labour unto rest and as it were from the six days working it is led into this pleasant Sabbath yea from all its other exercises whether outward or inward where the Scriptures have a good place and service it is brought into this rest and Sabbath and spiritual sleep so to speak where with Iacob it seeth the Heavens opened and as it were the Angels of God ascending and descending Nor is this to reject the Scripture or its use and exercise if at any time the soul is led from that unto another exercise wherein the Scripture hath not Immediate place As he doth not reject preaching who from preaching passeth unto prayer nor doth he reject prayer who from that passeth unto singing and blessing or praising the blessed name of God Nor doth a man reject his studies who leaving them at certain times goeth to rest and sleep or to refresh himself with meat and drink and many such examples may be brought But if it be further enquired what the use of the Scriptures can be to a man who hath received such an Immediate knowledge of God as doth not in many things depend Immediately upon the use and exercise of the Scripture I answer the powers or faculties of the Soul are various some inferiour as the Imaginative and discursive and some superiour as the intuitive and from the good and right use of the inferior powers whose proper object are the words of Scripture or any other words proceeding from the same spirit the Soul is carried unto the use and exercise of its superior or most supream power which is the intuitive whose proper object is God and Christ with his divine riches and gifts without and beyond all words Now it is the will of God that not one only power of our Souls be exercised in the knowing and worshiping of him but all the powers and faculties or abilities of our Souls both the low and high yea and our whole man inward and outward And therefore the most bountiful and gracious God hath provided sutable and fit objects unto every power of the Soul unto the highest he hath prepared himself in his son Christ to be seen and enjoyed by the Soul without those veils and coverings of words but to the inferiour and lower powers of our Souls he hath provided the words without which they could not reach to that knowledge or apprehension of God And moreover by reading and hearing these most sweet and excellent Testimonies of Scripture our outward man is piously and holily employed the holy Spirit concurring and when the words pass or extend into outward good works and deeds then not only the tongue and ears but the hands and feet and whole body is duely and fitly exercised in the service of God And by these inferiour exercises the Holy Spirit leading and assisting because

this is such an Inspiration as is commonly obtained in the use of the ordinary means of salvation as of reading the Scriptures hearing them preached expounded and opened also meditating upon them with frequent Prayer unto God to give the Understanding of them and his gracious Assistance rightly to use and improve them and so is not an immediate Inspiration or Revelation that cometh unto the Saints without the use of the means as it did come unto the Prophets and Apostles whereas the Inspirations and Revelations which the people called Quakers pretend unto are immediate and come as they say unto them immediately as unto the Prophets and Apostles of old without all use of the means But this I have so abundantly answered to the Lutherian Doctor in the aforesaid Treatise that little here needeth to be added where I have sufficiently shewed That though we own and plead for immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Spirit yet this Revelation and Inspiration is ordinarily obtained by us and all true Christians in the diligent and frequent use of all the true means of Salvation appointed of God according to the direction of Gods Holy Spirit And we readily grant That reading and hearing the Scriptures also true and right Preaching and Prayer with Meditation are special means in the right use whereof the spirits Inspirations and Revelations are ordinarily obtained Nor doth this hinder the Inspirations of the spirit to be immediate because they are conveyed and given to true Christians in the use of these aforesaid means or any other not named as I have in the above named Treatise largely made apparent which I need not here repeat And it is a great mistake in them who think that the Inspirations and Revelations of the holy spirit which came unto the Prophets and Apostles were commonly obtained by them without all use of means the contrary whereof I have also clearly proved in the aforesaid Treatises And indeed this Author himself doth save me the Labor of further insisting upon the Proof of so clear an Assertion For in the last page of his Printed Sermon he saith Among the Jews themselves there were Schools of the Prophets in which as the Jewish Writers agree the Youth were trained by study and discipline for the reception of the Prophetical Spirit which according to Maimonides whom the Jews call the second Moses rarely came but upon persons so qualified and prepared Thus we see according to this Authors acknowledgment the Prophetical Inspirations which were immediate came ordinarily unto the Prophets being prepared and qualified by the use of means in study and discipline And thus indeed Christ prepared his Apostles before-hand for the more abundant reception of the holy spirit by his Preaching and Labouring among them during the time of his Ministry and Preaching before his Crucifixion which continued about three years and a half But whereas the Author addeth That he dare boldly say were it not for the two Schools of the Prophets in our Israel the Nation would soon be over-run with Ignorance c. I suppose the Author knoweth that the Schools of the Prophets whose Masters were divinely inspired and the Schools of Oxford and Cambridge are very unlike and have little in common but the name In the Schools of the Prophets by study and discipline and especially by vertuous and godly Education in a holy Life the minds of the Studients were prepared and qualified to receive the spirit of Prophecy and the divine Influences and Inspirations thereof and accordingly so did receive they which the Studients in your Universities are not like to receive while they are taught to believe that all such Prophetical Inspirations are expired and that the spirit of Enthusiasm or Inspiration where-ever it is now found is the Devil or some unclean spirit But surely the Studients in the Schools of the Prophets were of another belief A third thing which possibly this Author or some may alledge is That the Inspirations or Revelations which the People called Quakers own pretend to discover and introduce new Doctrines into the World and impose them on people as new Articles of Faith and as a new Rule of their Belief and Manners for so much the Authors words imply when he saith And lastly when with all this they to wit the Quakers shall Preach no other Doctrine than what the Apostle hath Preached and the Catholick Church received then we will believe if they be lawfully Baptized that it is the Spirit which is speaking in them But in Answer to this I say we pretent to no new Doctrine nor do we believe that any Doctrine not already delivered in the Scriptures and sufficiently Preached by the Prophets and Apostles is revealed to us by Divine Inspiration nor do we expect the Revelation of any new Doctrine or any other Articles of Faith or Precepts of holy life but what are already declared in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament only we say that we need the Inspiration of the holy Spirit to work in us a right Faith and Understanding of the Doctrines and Precepts declared in the Scriptures and to enable us rightly to use and apply them the which is according to the Common Prayer of the Church of England as is sufficiently made apparent from what is abovesaid What the Author saith of our being lawfully Baptized as one of the Conditions requisite to have us to be believed that we have the spirit of God I shall not insist upon seeing it tendeth to lead us into a new Controversie only this much in short by the way I query 1. Why may we not have the spirit supposed not Baptized with Water seeing Cornelius and his Friends received the spirit before they were Baptized with Water 2. Whether in the Primitive Church when many delayed their Baptism with Water till death or old Age they were deprived of the spirit all that time wherein they were not baptized with Water and whether all who have died without Water Baptism have died without the spirit and so without salvation 3. Whether many of us have not been as lawfully Baptized with water as the Author himself if that did or could contribute any thing to the receiving the spirit 4. Whether he can prove from Scripture That Infant-sprinkling with Water is the Lawful Baptism or ever was 5. Whether he can prove that Christ hath commissioned all or any of those who sprinkle Infants on the Forehead so to do or why some more than others why the Teachers of the Church of England more than Papists or Presbyterians But there are other two Conditions he requireth in order to our being believed that we have the spirit the one is That we work Miracles and together with the gift of Tongues have all other miraculous Gifts But surely this Condition is very unreasonable and unequal for by the same Law he would have excluded Iohn the Baptist who was a great Prophet and yet as it is said expresly of him he wrought no

his Church and the contrary doth plainly appear from the words themselves for they were such Gifts as were given to the Rebellious that God might duel among them as signifying the sanctifying and renewing Gifts of the spirit most especially Again they are such as were given for the work of the Ministry the perfecting of the Saints the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. And whereas this Author will have that the Church was come to her full stature in the primitive times and that consequently there was no more need of any of those Gifts mentioned in that aforecited place being all miraculous it seemeth to me wonderfully strained this his assertion And to be sure is far from the mind of many of his Brethren who from this very place of Scripture use to argue That there will be a Ministry and Office of Teachers in the Church till the Worlds end because however so perfect the Church was in those days by reason of new Converts and others in the present succeeding Ages who were to be converted Ministers and Teachers are still necessary for granting that some are come to the full stature yet many more are not so far advanced and so long as the World stands there will be Children as well as young men and Fathers in the Church But it is strange that he thinketh not only the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists but also Pastors and Teachers or Doctors to have ceased or expired with these miraculous Gifts Whence then have these who are now called Pastors and Doctors their Gifts and Authority it seemeth verily unto me that the Author hath here far out-reached and done a great disservice to his Brethren instead of thinking to do them a great service and how the University of Oxford can let this pass without a censure I do not well understand And whereas he saith From whence it is evident viz. from the afore-cited place Eph. 4.8 9 10 c. that as the Gospel increased and the Church grew up God like a wise Nurse weaned her by degrees from these miraculous Gifts till at last having arrived at her full stature in Christ he left her as Parents leave their Children when they are grown to be men to subsist without extraordinary helps and supplies But hath God left her without Pastors and Teachers and all the Gifts of Christs purchase when he ascended or are Pastors and Teachers these extraordinary helps how much better were it to say that the Gifts here mentioned are some extraordinary and miraculous and some ordinary and however that the persons of the Apostles or their bodily presence be removed from the Church of God on Earth yet their Testimony Words and Writings remain together with a measure of the same life and spirit that was in them for the spirit is one in all and therefore that very Gift of God his giving the Apostles to the Church and Evangelists and Prophets hath still its service in the Church and will to the VVorlds end and so in respect of that Service doth still remain and the Pastors and Teachers with all the common and ordinary Gifts of the Spirit necessary to Salvation do actually remain Again whereas the Author will have it that when the Church was in her more Infant-state the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit did most abound and when she was come to her most adult and perfect state they did wholly cease This also may be called in question viz. VVhether the Church in the Apostles days when those miraculous Gifts did most abound was not in a more perfect state than in the succeeding ages and whether the Author thinketh in his conscience that the Church in these latter ages since these miraculous Gifts have generally ceased viz. from about the beginning of the fifth Century till this time hath been in the most perfect state or rather have we not good ground to believe that the Church that was in the Apostles days and the ages immediately succeeding for the first three hundred years was in the purest and most perfect state of all and that the Churches of the succeeding ages have not arrived at her perfection Is not the Apostolical Church worthily reckoned the Patron of all other Churches hath not a great Apostacy come upon the far greatest part of that called the Church which began about that very time when these miraculous Gifts did cease in great part and though the Lord knoweth best why these miraculous and extraordinary Gifts did cease yet may it not be judged a better reason than any given here by the Author that these so excellent Gifts were taken away because of the Apostacy that was coming on apace upon the visible face of the Church and that the Unfaithfulness of Professors who did abuse both the ordinary and extraordinary Gifts of God provoked the Lord to take both sorts away from the greatest number in a great part if not altogether But whether when the Church shall Universally recover her former purity and sincerity it may please God to restore unto her those very extraordinary Gifts I leave to his infinite counsel and good pleasure to determine Again as to the other Scripture alledged and applied by him for the ceasing of these extraordinary Gifts he seemeth to have as far missed the mark as in the former as if forsooth Paul did reckon not only all those miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit wherewith he was so richly endued but also all his Visions and Enjoyments he had of God by Inspiration and Immediate Revelation but as childish things and as belonging to a Childs state in comparison of more perfect attainments of Believers in the succeeding ages when all Divine Inspiration and Immediate Revelation should cease as this Author supposeth and if so then the Author may think himself and such as he as men in respect of Paul and the other Apostles who were but as Children to him and his Brethren for thus he expoundeth Pauls words 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. Even as when I was a Child I spake as Child I understood as a Child I thought and conceived things as a Child but when I become a man and to the full use of my Reason I put away childish conceptions and things for now we see Divine Revelations thus he glosseth upon Pauls words as the Prophets did of old in a dark Enigmetical manner and by symbolical Representations of things upon the phansie as in a Glass but in the adult state of the Church we shall see them after the Mosaical manner in a more rational way and more accommodate to human Nature as it were face to face Now I know them imperfectly but then I shall know them clearly even as I am known Now I appeal to the Impartial Reader if he doth not prefer himself and