whereas the best skilful in the Method of Teaching both pious and learned have not only greatly esteemed but highly admir'd the Method of the Scripture even when it seems least to have Method and most especially the Method of our Saviour's Sermons recorded in the Four Evangelists and of that most excellent form of Prayer he taught his Disciples And if the Scriptures must be rejected from being not only the Rule of Faith and Life but a written Rule as his express words above noted are though in contradiction to himself who elsewhere calls them a Rule but not the Rule now he will neither have them to be the Rule nor a written Rule for want of the Method of a Rule he may quarrel against diverse parts of God's Creation as not being placed in that Method and Order that his Wisdom thinks meet Sure I am some Atheists have argued at such like rate against the Worlds being Created by an infinite Wisdom and Goodness because as they imagined things lye in great disorder throughout the visible World here a spot of the Earth fruitful there a great part of it unfruitful and uninhabitable some parts have too much Water that drown the dry Land overflow Cities fruitful Fields and pleasant Meadows other parts are scorched with drought and uninhabitable for want of Water other large parts not fit for Habitation for Cold. Also the Providences of God towards Mankind are greatly disputed by Atheists because of that seeming disorder and want of method in things and Events that happen to Men of all sorts virtuous Men neglected oppressed afflicted and vitious Men exalted honoured and praised It is a great Default in W.P. thus to argue against the Scriptures for want of Method as being the Rule wherein he too much resembles the Atheists arguing against the Ways and Methods of Divine Providence from thence concluding there is no Rule of Divine Providence in the World as W.P. concludes there is not the Rule of Faith and Life in the Holy Scriptures Section 15. Whither the Laws and Precepts of God and Christ as written in the Holy Scriptures do bind the Faithful to Obedience W.P. his absolute Necessaries of Religion no other but what are generally owned by Infidel Jews Mahomitans Deists and the greatest Hereticks HAving thus finished my Answers to his Arguments against the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life yea not only against being the Rule but a Rule as above noted in contradiction to himself who sometimes calls them a Rule to wit a Subordinate Secondary and Declaratory Rule but yet he will not allow this to the whole Scripture but that several parts of it are so that is so much of it as Heathens and Deists have taught them by the Light within to wit Precepts of Moral Honesty c. but Salvation by Christ Crucified and Remission of Sins by his Blood is not taught them by their Light within therefore this Doctrine of the Scripture is not so much as a Secondary Rule to W.P. and his Deist Brethren the unsoundness of which Distinction I have above shewed I shall now briefly point at some other Impertinencies in his Book now before me and so conclude Page 25. We confess saith he the reason of our Obedience viz. to the Precepts written in the Scriptures is not meerly because they are written for that were legal but because they are the Eternal Precepts of the Spirit in Mens Consciences Here divers things need Correction First I know none that ever said that the reason of our Obedience to those Precepts is meerly because they are written but chiefly and principally we are obliged to believe and obey them being the Commands of God but though the reason of our Obedience to them is not meerly that they are written yet being now written and the Wisdom of God having so appointed it that they should be written and the Writers being inspired to that very purpose to write them for our Instruction and that we should believe them and obey them we ought both to believe them and obey them as they are outwardly written otherwise if their deliverance to us by writing have no Influence on us to believe them and obey them we may wholly disregard them as such and only mind those eternal Precepts of the Spirit as he terms them in the Consciences of Men to wit Jews Mahometans Heathens Deists Again that he saith It is legal to obey them meerly because written I see not how it was legal for the Law did not command them to obey them meerly as written but because they were the Commandments of God but to reject them as having any Influence on us or laying any Obligation on us as written is to reject Christ's Prophetical and Kingly Office a part of which was to inspire his Evangelists and Apostles to commit them to writing But again That nothing is to be obeyed for a Rule or the Rule but the eternal Precepts of the Spirit in Mens Consciences as he affirmeth This indeed makes a very short and near way to Heaven were it as true as short and near He seems to give us an account what these eternal Precepts are Page 44. But most Perswasions saith he are agreed about the absolute Necessaries in Religion from that Light and Witness God has placed in Man's Conscience viz. That God is that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him that the way of God is a way of Purity Patience Meekness c. without which no Man can see the Lord. Answ Note well Reader these few things That every Deist Jew and Mahometan that are sober and rational will acknowledge are all the absolute Necessaries in Religion that he lays down But how falsly doth he alledge that most Perswasions are agreed that these without all the Articles peculiar to the Christian Faith as concerning the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of the Word the Satisfaction of Christ by his Sacrifice on the Cross to Divine Justice c. in a word all the twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed are all the absolute Necessaries in Religion Is the whole Christian Catholick Church of Christ throughout the World in all Ages no considerable part of Mankind having Religious Perswasions Or if they are let him tell us what part of Christ's Catholick Church ever held or doth now hold that none of all the twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed or few of them are the absolute Necessaries in Religion together with other Moral parts relating to Moral Virtues I think he can tell us scarce any but such as may be justly doubted or disowned to be Members of the Church of Christ If he bring in himself and his Party and Deist Brethren he but begs the Question to say they are a part of the Christian Church while they deny the great Fundamentals of her Religion to be absolutely necessary But let us hear him further in the same Page he saith Nay they accord in some considerable Matters super added as some of
Instrument of the Spirit in giving him and us all the Knowledge of Christian Doctrines and Mysteries peculiar to the Christian Religion he has all this time been fighting with his own Shadow for if so he agrees with them all from whom he seeks so much to differ and writ against That the Spirit of God can reveal in every Man all necessary Truth is granted by all Christians but the Question is not what he can do but what he doth in God's ordinary way of working Section 11. His eighth Argument answered That the Scriptures cannot give Faith therefore they are not the Rule of Faith And his ninth tenth Arguments answered Page 11. Arg. 8. HIS fourth Argument as he numbers them against the Scriptures being the Rule is Because the Scripture cannot give Faith therefore is cannot be the Rule of Faith Ans The Consequence is denied and he gives no offer of proof for it his Argument is as weak as to argue a Carpenter's Rule or Square cannot build a House therefore it cannot be a Rule or Instrument for him to work by in building a House This his way of arguing destroyeth all use of service of Instruments and secondary Causes the like Failure hath his arguing against the Scriptures being the Rule of Practise Arg. 9. Because it cannot distinguish of it self in all Cases what ought to be practised and what not Well but what if it cannot of it self as the Carpenter's Rule cannot of it self as measure one piece of Wood more than another without the hand of him that useth it doth it therefore follow that the Rule cannot do it when applied by the Hand of the Man himself Page 12. This saith he was the Case of Christ's Disciples who had no particular Rule in the Old Testament for the abolishing of some part of the Old Testament Religion on the contrary they might have pleaded for the perpetuity of it For instance God gave Cirumcision as a Sign for ever Answ By his favour he is mistaken in saying they had no such particular Rule for the abolishing he should rather have said expiring of some parts of the Old Testament Religion Let him read Jer. 3.16 and 31.31 32. compared with Heb. 8.8 and he may find the contrary the word for ever in the place mentioned by him in relation to Circumcision and other Jewish Types signified not to the end of the World far less endlesly but for a certain limited time as the Jews themselves confess at times it so signifies yea and some of the most judicious of them have confessed they were to cease before the end of the World In his tenth Argument he but too much gratifies his Deist Brethren and Profane Atheists by his bringing their and other Popish Arguments against the Scriptures being the Rule Page 13. As that they are not in the Original because that is not extant nor in the Copies because there are Thirty and above in number and it is undetermined and for ought we see saith he indeterminable And the variety of Readings among those Copies amount to several Thousands And if the Copies cannot how can the Translations saith he be the Rule And so goeth on disputing against the Translations being the Rule And then argueth against their being the Rule from diverse of the Books of Scripture being rejected by some and received by others all which Pleas both of Deists and Papists have been abundantly answered by Protestant Writers see Dr. Tillâ—tson's Book called The Rule of Faith in answer to J.S. a Papist whole Arguments against the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith are so much of the same sort with these here of W.P. as if he had taken them from him And the inward Testimony of the Spirit sufficiently asserted to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures without taking away from them their due Honour Use and Service of their being the Rule of Faith and Life in all things necessary to Salvation which yet W.P. labours to rob them of under a pretence of exalting the Spirit but really is a degrading and dishonouring both as is above proved beside the great Mischief it causeth in casting all People who believe W.P. and his Party loose from the Scriptures that Satan may have the more advantage over them to deceive them as he hath wofully done for if the whole Scripture and every part of them be not to them the Rule of Faith they may chuse what to believe and what not to be believe and to believe no more than what the Spirit within which as it may be and often is not the Spirit of God teacheth them to believe for they may hence infer since the Spirit that is the primary Rule teacheth them not to believe any such Doctrines or Precepts it is but Spurious and Apocryphal and no part of the Secondary Rule as sometimes they are pleased to call it though the distinction of primary and secondary Rule will not be found in their first Authors for then the Spirit was the only Rule and the only Means and the Scriptures were Carnal and the dead Letter and liâ—eless Precepts as W.P. seemeth to call them else why doth he quote Philo and Phythagoras and others that called all outward Precepts such Section 12. His eleventh twelfth and thirteenth Arguments answered Arg. 11. HIS eighth Argument is That the Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith and Life because they cannot be the Rule in their Translations Page 26. Supposing the ancient Copies were exact it cannot be the Rule to far the greatest part of Mankind Indeed saith he to none but learned Men which neither answers the Promise relating to Gospel-times which is universal nor the Necessity of all Mankind for a Rule of Faith and Life Ans Why not in their Translations by the help of the Spirit as above declared It may be supposed that W. P's Learning is not so great that he needs not the Translation as well as other Men it is well known that the Translations and all the various Copies and Readings make not the least Alteration in any of the Fundamental or Essential Doctrines of Christianity yea scarcely in any much material whatsoever Arg. 12. His ninth Argument is from those voluminous Discourses of Cases of Conscience that are extant among us For saith he had the Scriptures been as Sufficient Note here his fling at their Sufficiency as the Nature of the Rule of Faith and Life requireth there had been no need of such Tracts Answ This Argument equally fighteth against the Light within being the Rule of Faith and Life for if it actually doth all that the Nature of a Rule of Faith and Life requireth then pray What need had there been of so many Tracts of the Quakers Writings about Doctrines and Principles as well as Cases of Conscience which have amounted to a prodigious Number within these Fifty Years seeing all Men have the same Light within them to be the same Rule in all Is not that sufficient without any
with any Blood outwardly shed for them Is not this the ready way to open the Flood-gate and to let in Deism and Heathenism to over-run not only England but all Christendom and not only to destroy the Protestant Christian Religion but any remains of Christian Doctrine that are in the Popish Countries But from this Cure of W.P. we have all great cause to pray Good Lord deliver us But nor would this Cure he proposeth be successful upon the Hypothesis of his general Rule if universally received for a Rule The Heathen Philosophers many of whom professed and owned the Light in every Conscience as it did enlighten their Reason yet how many great Controversies were there among them notwithstanding and oft great Heats and Animosities And if this Cure of W.P. be so effectual how comes it that it has not healed the breaches and great Controversies that have been on foot these Forty Years chiefly about G. Foxes orders his party contending that they were the Dictates of the Light both in G.F. and all his followers the other party as strongly denying it that they were any Dictates of the true Light within and let W.P. tell us when any such Controversie arises which are the true Dictates of the Light and true Spirit abstractly considered from the Scripture what shall be the Cure in that Case He seems indeed to give an answer to this in Page 42. Answ By the same Spirit as well said Gualt Cradock the way to know whither the Spirit be in us is its own Evidence and that is the way to know it in others too and the Man that hath the Spirit may know the Spirit in another There is saith he a kind of Sagacity in the Saints to this purpose To this I answer where the Spirits Doctrine which is the Doctrine both of Christ and the Father goeth along with the Spirit according to Isaiah 59 21. and many other places of Scripture there is a great Truth in it but whatever Spirit either teacheth another Doctrine or draweth Men away from the necessary belief of Christ's Death in the Flesh in being a Sacrifice for our Sins and other Fundamental Principles peculiar to Christianity is not the true Spirit of Christ whatever Unity or Sagacity W.P. and his Brethren may think they have to know it in one another while he and they make nothing to be the Rule of Faith but the Light in every Conscience John 2.9 which teacheth not this Doctrine of Faith nor proposeth this great Object of Faith to wit Christ Crucified to the Conscience they destroy all necessity of that Faith as concerned in our Salvation However with plausible shews he and they will say it is necessary where the History as he terms it has reached but how not for Salvation but historically as we believe the History of Alexander or Julius Cesar or as W.P. and his Brethren pretend to believe G. F's Journal The Difficulty that he moves P. 41. about Interpretation of Scripture is easily resolved without any new material object of Faith if the Spirit of God be acknowledged inwardly to enlighten the Understandings of the faithful and that they faithfully receive the same it will infallibly give to all the Faithful so much of the true knowledge and Faith of all Scripture Doctrine as is necessary to Salvation Page 46. As unfair and fallacious as he hath been in his Definitions and Arguments about the Rule of Faith and Life no less unfair and fallacious is he in his representing many Orthodox and sincere Protestants as if they Judged the Quakers for their asserting an unerring certain or infallible Judgment in things necessary to Salvation This is a very unfair representation of them The Question lyeth not about an unerring certain and infallible Judgment given by the Spirit of God to all the faithful in the things necessary to Salvation which they fully assert But the Question lyeth here whither they have this infallible Judgment either by the common Discoveries and Dictates of the Light in every Man's Conscience or by any new discoveries of the Spirit abstractly and seperately considered from the Scriptures so that the Doctrine as delivered in the Holy Scriptures is not the Rule or Instrument whereby the Spirit works or begets this infallible Judgment in them in all the necessary things of Salvation which â—et are more and others than those assigned by W.P. to wit Faith in Christ crucified and raised again and other fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion A Second part of the question is Whither all or any of the Quakers when met in their Yearly Meetings or any other Meetings or the most enlightned among them have an infallible Judgment given them in all things as their chief Teachers have asserted so that they are not only infallible in the most necessary things but in other things Yea in all that they have given forth either in Preaching or Writing as the Word of the Lord and with an Authority the same in kind with the Prophets as W.P. doth in the Concluâ—ion of this Book where he pretends that he has a Message to tell them and that from the Spirit of the Lord God of Truth and that is Page 48. That Men unregenerated for all their external imitations of the Ancients in some Temporary and figurative parts of Worship will never be accepted But this is no extraordinary Revelation it is a Doctrine that is daily taught and generally believed among all true Christians that never were under the profession of Quakers But the fallacy is here that all are unregenerate in his Sense who own that what they are taught and helped to believe know or practise is by the Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures as the Rule of their Faith and Life and Instrument of the Spirits preparing and giving them the Spirit himself being the principal efficient Author and Cause and primary principle of their Knowledge Faith and Practise Yet all this is Judged by W.P. here in his Conclusion to be nothing but a literal Knowledge Historical Faith and outward Religion that is but as the Old Heaven that are to be wrapt up as a scroul and the Old Wine and Bottles that belong not to the Kingdom of God For which Uncharitable and False Judgment I heartily pray God that he may forgive him and giving him a better understanding and reclaim him if it be the blessed Will of God from those most dangerous errors he is intangled in and especially from this that is the foundation of his other errors to wit his Deism and setting up the Light within or Spirit or whatever he calls iâ— abstractly and seperately from Christ's Doctrine and Words even those divine Oracles and Words which the Father gave to Christ and Christ gave them by his Holy Spirit to the Apostles John 17.8 And by the same Holy Spirit by means of the Apostles writing has given to all the faithful since thus dividing what God and Christ have Joyned together surely this cannot be the true Light nor Spirit in him or his Brethren that leads away People from hearing the true Shepherds Voice either as it is outwardly sounded in the outward Ministry of the Word outwardly Preached or as it is inwardly sounded and Eccho'd by the Holy Spirit in Teaching the faithful to believe the same Doctrine that is outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures My Sheep said Christ hear my Voice they that draw from Christ's Doctrine being the Rule of Faith and Life to every true Christian draw from the Spirit of Christ and from his Voice whatever seeming pretences they fallaciously make to exalt the Spirit by rejecting that Instrument to wit the Rule of the Holy Scriptures by which the Spirit doth both enlighten the faithful and beget Faith and Hope and Love in them by the precious Oracles and Testimonies therein contained and also doth refresh quicken and comfort them If the Spirit and his divine influences be the Wine that refresheth and cherisheth them the Scripture so to speak are the Flagons that convey it to them according to the words in the Song Cant. 2.5 Stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples and many other plain Testimonies of Scripture that hold forth in God's ordinary way the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures as outwardly delivered to be the means and therefore the Rule by which the Spirit doth both Teach and also Quicken Comfort and strengthen them such as these following places which I recommend to W.P. and his Brethrens Consideration Psal 19.7 8 9 10 11. Prov. 6.23 Psal 119. 4 5 6 18 49 50 105. Psal 147.19 20. Isaiah 8.20.59.21 John 10.3 John 17.8 20. John 20.31 John 5 39. Acts 10.44 Rom. 16.17 Rom. 16.25.26 Gal. 3.2 Eph. 1.13 1 Thes 1.5 1 Tim. 4.16 2 Tim. 1.13 2 Tim. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 28th of the First Month 1699. G. K. FINIS Nam cum humana mens pro sua imbecillitate pervenire ad Deum nullo modo queat nisi sacro ejus verbo adjuta sublevata omnes tunc mortales exceptis Judaeis quia Deum sine verbo querebant necesse fuit in vanitate atque errore versari Calvin Instit Lib. 1. c. 6 S. 4
THE DEISM OF WILLIAM PENN And his Brethren Destructive to the Christian Religion Exposed and plainly laid open IN The Examination and Refutation of his late reprinted Book called A Discourse of the General Rule of Faith and Practise and Judge of Controversie Wherein he contendeth That the Holy Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith and Life but that the Light in the Conscience of every Man is that Rule By GEORGE KEITH LONDON Printed for Brab Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1699. The PREFACE to the Christian Protestant Reader Christian Reader I Have been concerned more earnestly and amply to treat on this Subject in the following Treatise to refute that grand Error of William Penn and his Brethren who make it their great Fundamental that the Light within with respect only to its ordinary and common Discoveries given to all Mankind to Christians Jews Mahometans and Heathens of all sorts Protestants and Papists is the general Rule of Faith and Life to them all So that all under these several Denominations are true and good Christians and ought to own and acknowledge one another as Christian Brethren and Members of one Catholick or Vniversal Church if they obey and walk according to the common and ordinary Dictates thereof without all superadded Revelation External or Internal of Christ without as God and Man in one Person But their constant Practise doth evidently contradict their Principle for though they have acknowledged that such the Heathens who were or now are obedient to the common Discoveries of the Light within them without all Faith in Christ without them are their Christian Brethren and for the same reason they may conclude Jews and Mahometans who are obedient to their Light within to be such yet generally they disown all Christian Protestants among whom they live be they ever so Just and Sober and obedient to their Light within them if they come not under their Profession and Circumstances to be Christians And thus as some have well observed they Christianise the Heathens and Heathenise the Christians calling them all the Worlds People but themselves they call the Children of Light the Elect People of God and say of themselves they are in the Truth and none but they and their Deist and Heathen Brethren and perhaps the Quietists and Followers of Molinus whose Book they so much esteem among the Papists This being their Fundamental and Capital Error and the great Original and Spring of all their other Errors that as so many Streams issue and proceed from it the which being plainly detected as by Divine assistance I hope I have done in the following Treatise it is greatly to be hoped to which I joyn my earnest and sincere Prayers to God Almighty in the Name of Christ Jesus that it may be a means to undeceive and recover from Error many of that People if they will or dare give themselves the liberty to read it The Book called A Discourse of the General Rule of Faith and Life by W. Penn to which this is an Answer was first Printed in the Year 1673 as an Appendix to his part of the Christian Quaker and is now again reprinted in this present Year 1699 which sufficiently sheweth that W.P. and his Brethren are not changed nor reformed from what they were so long ago though his and their late Pretences That they own the common Principles of Christianity and differ not much in Doctrine from the Church of England have occasioned some to think them somewhat Reformed of late but it is their great Mistake which the Fallacies of W.P. and others of his Brethren by their late Fallacious Creeds have led them into Indeed I did not know but that it was a new Book so litte had I read or considered the Contents of it which by occasion of their reprinting it this very Year I have been awakened and as it were alarumed to take special notice of and strictly to examine detect and refute the which whither effectually done or not is left to the free and impartial Judgment of the Intelligent Christian Protestant Reader Their printing it at this juncture doth not a little argue their great Imprudence in laying themselves so open to be rank Deists while they at the same time pretend to hold the Christian Doctrine that is point blank incosistent therewith and great boldness that they are not ashamed in the face of the World to say and unsay and to be profess'd Deists and Christians at once which is as great a Chimera or Impossibility as for one and the same thing to be Horse and Man at once I mean not one part Horse and another part Man for such a Monster perhaps is possible but to be in all the parts both Man and Horse without all Redundancy or Deficiency of either which as impossible as it is to be in Nature it is as impossible that W.P. and his Brethren can be both Deists and true Christians at once that they are Deists the Book to which this is an Answer doth sufficiently prove And therefore notwithstanding all their late Pretences till they retract that and their other former Books true Christians they cannot be ERRATA PAge 35. Line 13. read imperfect p. 43. l. 10. for regulus read regulans p. 76. l. 2. for Iad r. and. p. 99. l. 12. for 13 r. 3. The DEISM of William Penn and his Brethren Destructive to the Christian Religion Exposed and plainly laid open The Introduction Shewing the great Importance of our knowing what the True Rule of Faith and Life is And containing a Retractation of some Vnsound and Erronious Passages in some of my former Books about the Rule of Faith yet no-wise so Erronious as the Doctrine of W.P. nor being of that Tendency as his is to introduce Deism Page 3. HE saith Since there are so many Faiths in the World and perplex'd Controversies about them that is greatly behoves every Man if he contend for then first to know the True Faith that overcometh the World Concerning the General Rule of Faith and Life he is press'd to say something from that weighty Consideration That Men Perish for want of it and can no more arrive at Truth without it than the distressed Mariner can gain his Port who Sails without either Star or Compass This his weighty Consideration is a plain Confession That the not having a right and true understanding of the Rule of Faith what it is is of very dangerous Consequence even no less than Perishing and Destruction to all such who want the true Knowledge of it and set up another thing in the room of it It may therefore be very necessary for W.P. to consider the Matter a little more weightily that in case he himself have not the true Knowledge of the Rule of Faith and Life in what danger he is of Perishing And how in this his Work of labouring to bring all People under a Christian Profession that give up to believe him to
another Rule of Faith and Life than what is the true Rule indeed If he persist in so doing he will not only bring his own Blood upon himself but the Blood of many others that are and may be mislead by him And whether he will yet better consider it or not which I heartily wish and pray that God would be pleased to open his Eyes and give him Repentance and a better Understanding It is a plain Case That the true Knowledge of the true Rule of Faith and Life is very necessary yea so necessary that the Danger for want of it is Perishing or Destruction Yet I mean not that every Error in Circumstance about the true Rule is of that Danger or that some loose and indeliberate Expressions that some have used in Preaching or Printing while their Meaning hath been more sound than their Words even about the RULE are of that Consequence It hath happened to some well-meaning People as it had happened to my self that they and I have both spoke and writ unadvisedly As in some other Matters so in this running along or rather being carried along with the Stream of some of the ancient Friends so called of the Ministry in asserting both in Speech and Print too frequently that the Spirit within meaning the inward Evidence of the Spirit as touching the great Matters of the Christian Faith and Practise was the principal Rule of Faith and Life wherein I acknowledge my Error and great Mistake and do here particularly retract it notwithstanding the general Retractation I have lately made in my late Book called G. K ' s Explications and Retractations But tho' I was then in an Error and under a great Mistake in my way of wording the Matter and darkned too much and clouded in my Understanding in that very Point yet I crave leave of my Reader to shew that even then my Error was not Fundamental nor such as this is of W. Penn's and his Brethren whose Error in the Case has carried them to plain Deism My Mistake chiefly consisted in this in confounding the Term Rule of Faith with the Term Inward objective Medium which I ought to have distinguished for the Rule of Faith is not properly speaking that formal object of Faith called by some Objectum formale quo or objective Medium and Motive of Credibility but the material Objects of Faith to wit all the Credenda or things in Scripture that ought to be believed are the Rule of Faith And therefore instead of saying the Spirits inward Evidence and Testimony was the Rule of Faith and principal Rule I should have said it was the principal objective Medium of Credibility Which as I then did believe and assert so I do still and hope never to retract it And therefore while I continue adhering to this Perswasion I remain as to the main the same I was in my Judgment as when I wrote my former Books touching these Matters my chief Bent and Zeal being against that which I judged a very Erronious Opinion and Hurtful held by some counted Learned Men and which I judge still that so it is to wit That the inward Evidence of the Spirit in the Souls of the Faithful to the Truths of the Christian Religion is only Effective and not Objective and I pleaded warmly that the Spirits inward Evidence otherwise called Testimony Witness Inspiration Illumination or Operation in the Souls of the Faithful is not only Effective but Objective also to wit by way of formal Object or objective Medium and Motive of Credibility And this I reckoned then and do still the greatest Certainty and Assurance that the Scriptures are of Divine Authority and infallibly true wherein I knew and still know I had the best Protestant Authors both for Piety and solid Learning on my side as also my Feeling and Experience to the Praise of God's Grace I say it in the Case hath confirmed me though I know some called Learned Men who have more of that called Divinity Learning in their Heads than in their Hearts do contradict it yea to a Degree of Ridiculing it under the Name of Fanaticism and Enthusiasm not well regarding the Authority of their worthy and judicious Ancestors who in the Articles of the Church have expresly mentioned the Feeling of the Holy Ghost in his Operations and Motions But I erred in calling this either inward Feeling or the Object of it the principal Rule for properly and rightly speaking it is not the Rule of Faith but the principal Motive of Credibility That which is only strictly and properly speaking the Rule of the Christian Faith is the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures especially respecting the great Fundamentals and Essentials thereof To give a preference to the inward Operation of the Spirit and his writing his Law in the Heart to the same Law as writ on leaves of Paper and to the experimental part of Christianity above all that can be outwardly told or heard or read I think no true Christian will deny but when it is askâ—d which is the greater Rule the Inward or the Outward they compare things that are not to be compared that cannot be said to be either the greater Rule or the lesser which is properly speaking no Rule at all but the moving or impulsive Cause that moves and inclines me to take the Holy Scriptures to be my Rule being infallibly true and of Divine Authority And whoever be yet in the same Mistake and Error that I then was in God forbid that I should judge so uncharitably of them as to conclude they err Fundamentally for want of not giving right Names to things or not having so clear inward Idea's and Conceptions of them when as to the main they mean well I am bold to appeal to my Books from first to last whither according to the Strain and Intent in all that I have Printed on that Subject I have not always acknowledged that the Doctrine of Christ Crucified and Remission of Sin by his Blood and other Doctrinal Principles of Christianity were absolutely necessary to be believed by us for our Eternal Salvation And that the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures as outwardly conveighed to us by Preaching or Reading is the ordinary Means whereby God works Faith and Conversion and Regeneration in them that shall be Saved And that therefore so long as we live we are not to lay aside either that or any outward means of Grace and Salvation that God has afforded And how far I have formerly denied that the Scripture was the Rule of Faith I meant that as it was not the Letter or Writing so nor the Doctrine as simply and wholly limited and confined to the Letter As if it should happen by Divine Providence that a Person or Company of Persons should have the Holy Bible by Violence taken from them or not have it in any Language they can understand that therefore they are not in a possible State of Salvation For though in God's ordinary way the
Spirit through his Holy Prophets and Apostles even Remission of Sin and Free Justification by Jesus Christ through Faith in him and not by any Works or Obedience that either the Jew did perform to the outward Law or the Gentile did perform to the Law writ in the Heart When Peter preached Remission of Sin by Faith in Jesus Christ whom the Jews hang'd on the Tree to Cornelius he confirm'd this Doctrine not from the eternal Precepts in every Man's Conscience or the common Dictates of the Light in every Man but from the general Testimony of the Prophets Acts 10.43 To him said Peter give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins But according to W. P's Doctrine the Apostle Peter should have said To him the Light in every Conscience gave the Dictates of that Light in every Conscience witness That whosoever gave up to the Requirings of the Light in them without all Faith in Christ God-man without them shall receive the Remission of their Sins And seeing whatever is the Rule of Faith must teach us all that is needful to Salvation by it self as W.P. argueth he must prove that the Light in every Man's Conscience dictateth to him this Proposition That is thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 Or if it doth dictate some other way than this then that and the like places of Scripture contradict the Dictates of the Light within But that this Proposition laid down Rom. 10.9 is no Dictate of the Light within in Mens Consciences is evident from W. P's plain Confession P. 32 33. who saith That the Light within should tell us that Christ suffered Death and rose again is not needed inasmuch as an account of that is extant in Scripture Whereby it plainly appears he holds it not needful to our Salvation to believe that Proposition Rom. 10.9 seeing the Light within that is the Rule of Faith doth not reveal it and such Revelation is not necessary and consequently according to him the belief of that Proposition Rom. 10.9 is not necessary to any for Salvation And if that be not necessary by the same method of Argument according to W.P. nor is the belief of all the other parts of Scripture necessary to Salvation which are not the common Dictates of the Light in every Conscience The only use of the whole Scripture according to W.P. is meerly Historical which though perhaps true is nowise necessary to our Salvation to believe the truth of it but we are left at liberty to believe or disbelieve all and every part of what is contained in the Scripture without any danger to our Salvation excepting these few absolute necessaries that the Light within every Conscience teacheth us as well as the Scriptures But none of all the twelve Articles of the Apostle's Creed according to the true Sense of Scripture or the common received Sense of all true Christians are taught by the Light within without the external Revelation of the Scripture therefore according to W.P. the belief of none of these twelve Articles is necessary to our Salvation The which being the plain Import of W. P's Doctrine laid down in his Book whither it be not Plain Deism appearing with open face I appeal to all sincere Christians Section 2. His Arguments from Scripture that the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life Answered HE begins with his Proofs Page 4. That the Light in every Man's Conscience is the general Rule of Faith and Life from Matt. 11.27 and 1 Cor. 2.11 he argues That because the Father cannot be known but by the Revelation of the Son and Holy Spirit consequently that Light metioned John 1.3 or Spirit must have been the general Rule of Mens Knowledge Faith and Obedience with respect to God Answ His Consequence is denied he gives no proof of it yea it is manifestly false and to discover its Fallacy observe how he confounds the efficient Cause and Author of Knowledge and Faith with the Rule which he ought to distinguish He might as well argue no Man sees what hour it is on a Sun-dyal but by the Sun and consequently the Sun and not the Dyal is the Rule whereby he knows the hour Page 5. His next Argument is from Eph. 5.13 Whatever makes manifest is Light therefore the Light in the Conscience is the general Rule Answ The Consequence again is denied it has the same defect as the former as will appear by forming the like Argument Whatever makes manifest an outward object to our Eye is some outward light of Sun Moon or Candle c. Therefore that alone without the object manifests it and also without the Organ of sight who sees not the Fallacy of this Argument and as much he may see the Fallacy of the other The next place of Scripture he argueth from is Rom. 1.19 which he falsly quotes as I have observed he hath misquoted this place both here and in pag. 21 for thus he quotes it WHATEVER might be known of God was made manifest within for God who is Light hath shewn it unto them But let the place it self be considered and it saith not WHATEVER but what is to be known of God is manifest in them to wit the Gentiles or Heathen Nations who had not the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Faith revealed to them or Preached among them And that the words what is to be known of God cannot be meant of WHATEVER can or is to be known of God was manifest in them as the Text doth not say it so it is a manifest Falshood It cannot be said of the best Christians â—hat whatever is to be known of God is made manifest in them for the best know but in part and there is still more to be known of God even in the best of Christians than what is at present revealed or made manifest in them And it is very evident from the following words what Paul meant by that saying What is to be known of God or as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. The Eternal power and God-Head which was made manifest partly by the things made or created without Men and partly by some Divine Illumination within them But doth it therefore follow that because those Heathens had some knowledge of the Eternal Power and God-head that therefore they knew all the fundamental Princiles of the Christian Religion By no means more than it followeth that W.P. knoweth some things of England and some other Countries partly by History and partly by his sight of them therefore he knows the whole Earth so far as it is habitable He brings another Proof That the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life from Micah 6.8 He hath shewed unto thee O Man what is good and what God requireth of thee
places of Scripture quoted by him touching the Rule as Gal. 6.16 Phil. 3.16 2 Cor. 10. 13 15. none of them all say either that the Light within or the new Creature is the Rule of Faith and Life nor doth he give any proof by any true Consequence that it is And here by the way W.P. should be put in mind to prove what he asserts by plain Scripture without Consequences which his Brethren commonly allow not of but when any of their Opponents argue with them by Consequences however so fair they will not allow of them And yet throughout this whole Treatise of W.P. he brings not one Argument from express Scripture to prove his Matter but proceeds all along by Consequences not one of which is fairly and truly inferred as will appear in the thorough Examination of them The Rule mentioned Gal. 6.6 hath a plain and easie reference to the Proposition laid down by the Apostle in the foregoing Verse which is this That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature This Proposition laid down by the Apostle in so many express words is an excellent Rule and one of the many excellent Rules appertaining to the Christian Religion the intire body of which Rules is deservedly called the Rule and well might the Apostle say As many as walk according to that one Rule which is very comprehensive Peace be upon them for he that duly walks according to that Rule will be careful to walk according to all the other Rules appertaining to the Christian Religion whereof that one is a main But let it be granted that in some sense the new Creature may be allowed to be a Rule as I see no hurt to allow it in some sense and a Law to him or them in whom this new Creature is wrought or brought forth for even those Gentiles which did the things contained in the Law are said by Paul Rom. 2. to be a Law to themselves Which did shew the Work of the Law writ in their Hearts Then surely much rather every regenerate Person by reason of his new Nature may be said to be a Law or Rule to himself according to that saying of Boetius de Consol Phil. Quis legem det amantibus Major lex amor est ipse sibi The love of Virtue is greater than any Law that can be expressed or laid down in words But how as Law there is understood not properly a Law or Precept informing the Understanding but Metaphorically as it is an inward power having a mighty impulse upon the Will of a good Man even as the love of Vice is a mighty Law that acts with a mighty impulse on the Will of a bad and vicious Man Hence as the one may be understood to be even in the Scripture sense the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus so the other may be understood to be the Law of Sin and Death LAW in both these respects being understood not properly but Metaphorically as when we commonly say God Almighty the great Author and Creator of Nature hath given a Law to the Nature of every thing as weight to Stones and Metals whereby they are moved downwards and levity to Fire whereby it is moved upwards but whither these Motions proceed from an inward or external Cause in these natural bodies is not the proper matter of Debate here only the instance is given to shew that LAW hath commonly a Metaphorical Sense as well as proper and so hath the word or term Rule And I suppose W.P. though perhaps not much acquainted with School-distinctions hath heard of the distinction of a Rule into Regula regulus and Regula regulata i. e. the Rule ruling and the Rule ruled at least of the primary and secondary Rule for he hath allowed in this Treatise that the Scriptures may be called a Secondary Rule at least in several parts of them And why may not much rather the new Creature or work of Sanctification be called a Secondary Rule and the Doctrine of the Christian Religion consisting of many excellent Precepts and Promises and other Gospel Truths the Primary Rule Yea that it is so is evidently proved because the new Creature it self to wit the Work of Regeneration and Sanctification in the Souls of the Faithful is instrumentally wrought by the Form of Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures the Spirit of God working by and with the said Form of Doctrine being the principal Agent and Efficient according to Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart that Form of Doctrine which was delivered unto you or as the better Translation is out of the Greek unto or into which ye were delivered the word translated Form is Type signifying Pattern Mould or Frame according to the Fashion of which a thing is made as when a piece of Clay is formed by the Potter by the Frame to which it is applied or Wax receiveth the Impression of the Seal or a Vessel of Brass Tin or Silver is framed by the Mould into which it is cast Now as the Mould or Pattern whereby any Vessel is framed is prior to the Vessel and the shape or fashion of the Vessel is posterior to the Pattern or Exemplar according to which it is framed even so the new Creature is posterior to the Form of Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures and this evidently proves that the Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures being the same that was extant in the Church of God before it was committed to writing hath the precedency and priority in point of a Rule to the new Creature so that the Doctrine to wit the doctrinal Word and Words of God given by God and Christ to the Holy Prophets and Apostles and by them to other Men who by means thereof are converted and inwardly renewed regenerated and sanctified through the Operation of the Holy Spirit as the principal Efficient is the Rule to the new Creature and not the new Creature the Rule to the Doctrine Hence it is that the Word of God to wit the doctrinal word or word of Doctrine is by a Metaphor called Seed in Scripture for of Seed Plants Trees and Animals are produced And seeing according to Scripture Faith is wrought by hearing the Word outwardly preached in God's ordinary way and that Word is the Doctrine of the Christian Religion given originally by God and Christ to the Prophets and Apostles and by them to us it evidently follows that Faith or the new Creature is not a Rule to the Doctrine but the Doctrine is a Rule to the Faith and consequently the Doctrine is the primary Rule of Faith and Life but not that Faith and Life is the primary Rule or any Rule at all to the Doctrine even as in natural Generation the Seed is before the Birth and Fruit so is the Doctrine before the Faith and before the Person that is the Believer or Saint and regenerated Person as such and before the Church for the
Word and Doctrine doth not depend on the Church nor is built on the Church but the Church depends on it and is built thereupon Eph. 2.20 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone and great Foundation of both Section 7. The Rule of the Christian Faith must be a Doctrine which sets before our Minds all the Credenda or things necessary to be believed in certain Propositions concerning which the Mind of Man can give a Judgment Affirmative or Negative AGain that the Doctrine is the most perfect Rule being compared with the new Creature or work of Sanctification is evident because so far a Man is said to be the more sanctified and redeemed the more that his Faith Love Hope Humility Patience Temperance Justice and other Virtues comes up to a Conformity to the precepts of God and Christ faithfully declared to us in the Holy Scriptures And notwithstanding the high pretentions of some among the People called Quakers to perfection yet I appeal to W. P's Conscience if he can or dare say or think that his Sanctity or Virtues come up to a full Conformity to the Holy precepts delivered in the Holy Scripture Is his Faith as great as the Doctrine given us in the Holy Scripture requires it to be Is his Love as perfect perfect and compleat Is his Meekness Patience and Humility Justice Temperance and Piety equal to the heighth breadth depth and length of all God's Commands even as outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures I trust he hath so much discretion as to say nay then let him not exalt his Sanctity or Work of the New Creature wrought in him above the Sanctity of the Holy Doctrine and precepts of God and Christ contained in the Holy Scripture making his Sanctity or New Creature in him superior or primary Rule to the Doctrine but let the Doctrine have its due place to be a superior and primary Rule to his Sanctity or work of the New Creature wrought in him let his Faith and Love and other Virtues if he hath them be Ruled by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and subjected thereunto but let not the Doctrine be subjected unto his Faith and Virtues which are far inferior to the Purity Spirituality and Holiness of the Doctrine But if he will say the New Creature in him is the greatest and highest and most perfect Rule whereby to square his Faith and Life it followeth that he is arrived at the highest pitch of Holiness for what can be beyond or above the highest and most perfect Rule of Sanctity But again the greatest Sanctity that is possible of Men or Angels simply considered could not have given the knowledge of Christ's Incarnation and of our Redemption by him without a divine Revelation therefore the Sanctity or New Creature in the Holiest of Men could not be to them a Rule of Faith as touching these Mysteries If he will say there is a higher and more perfect Rule of Sanctity than the New Creature wrought in him let him tell us what it is if not the Doctrine delivered in the Holy Scriptures the Laws Precepts and Commandments delivered there If he say the Light within or Christ and the Spirit within is that highest and most perfect Rule of Sanctity To this I answer The Spirit or Light within abstractly considered cannot be properly a Rule I say abstractly considered from the Doctrines and Precepts delivered by the Spirit whither internally without any external Medium or externally by some external Meidum Nothing properly can be a Rule of Christian Faith as in respect of the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Religion but that Doctrine which sets before our Minds certain propositions of Truth to which the Mind can and ought to assent from sufficient Motives of Credibility which W.P. from his own definition of Faith must allow For he defines Faith Page 4. to be an assent of the Mind in such manner to the discoveries made of God thereto as to resign up to God and have dependance on him as the great Creator and Saviour of his People Where Note that he wholly passeth by Christ Considered as God-Man from being concerned in the object of Faith and so his Faith is no other but the Faith of a meer Deist Now seeing he defines Faith to be an assent of the Mind to certain discoveries made of God thereto c. These discoveries must be certain propositions set before the Mind in some form of Words mentally conceived and apprehended for the Nature of the Mind or intellect of Man is such that it cannot Judge what is true or false but as the truth is set before it in certain propositions consistng of Words at least internally conceived and apprehended for the assent of the Mind is a Judgment of the Mind formed whereby it Judgeth this or that to be true and if it be a true Judgment it must have some proposition consisting of words concerning which it is enabled either to affirm or deny what is really true as the Mind cannot assent to this great truth that God is not a Body but by a negative proposition consisting of some words which is a negative Judgment nor can it assent to this other proposition that God is a Spirit but by an affirmative proposition consisting of some words at least Internally conceived called by some Idea's which is an affirmative Judgment and therefore so far as Faith is an act of the intellect and an assent of the Mind it must needs have some Words at least internally proposed to it whereby it is capable to give an assent to the Truth of what it Judgeth and seeing in matters purely of Faith the Mind is not capable of giving an assent to the truth of them without some sufficient motives of Credibility as that they are given of God who is a God of Truth and cannot lye nor deceive From these Considerations it is evident that as there can be no assent of the Mind or intellect without words or Idea's so there can be no Faith without them and consequently that the Rule of Faith must be certain propositions consisting of words and sentences such as God delivered to the Prophets and which are recorded in Scriptures such are That the Word was made Flesh that a Virgin should Conceive and Bare a Son and that Son should be the Saviour of the World that by his Death he should reconcile us unto God That he should rise again from the Dead on the Third Day and ascend into Heaven and that he should there remain appearing in the presence of God for us our mighty Advocate and Intercessor until he come again to Judge the Quick and the Dead c. How can the Mind of Man assent to these great Truths without words at least Internally conceived if he cannot as every intelligent Person must acknowledge then those very words as they lye in a certain series and order of propositions are the Rule of his Faith But seeing these words have no
the Material object of it so nor is the Spirits Internal Illumination Inspiration and Revelation the Rule of Interpretation of Scripture but that which enlightens the understanding and opens the Spiritual Eyes of the Mind to understand the Scripture or so much of it at least as contain the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity and beget a Saving Sanctifying and Savoury knowledge of them without any other Rule than the Scripture it self for as when our Eyes are opened and receive outward Light to see an object we need no new object whereby to see the Object proposed but that our sight be strengthned and enlightned so in receiving a Spiritual Understanding of Scripture truths we need no other Rule either outward or inward but the Scripture it self only we need the Spirits inward Illumination Inspiration and Revelation to assist and help us to a Saving Understanding of them by way of an objective Medium Section 10. His seventh Argument against the Scripture being the Rule of Faith from his arguing That they are obscure and have not the Method of a Rule Answered Page 10. Arg. 7. ANother Reason he gives which he calls his Third Reason is From the obscurity of them that they are not plain but to the Spiritual Man they seem not in their own Nature and frame to have been compiled and deliver'd as the general Rule and intire Body of Faith but rather Written upon particular occasions and emergencies the Doctrines are scattered throughout the Scriptures insomuch that those Societies who have given forth verbal Confessions of their Faith have been necessitated to toss them to and fro search here and search there to lay down this or the other Principle Besides here they are Proper there Metaphorical in one place literally in another Mystically to be accepted And after diverse other words of Complaint against their being the Rule he concludes Thus Peter said of Paul's Writings that in many things they were hard to be understood therefore not such a Rule which ought to be Plain Proper and Intelligible Answ Reader What think'st thou of this sort of Language in derogation from the Holy Scriptures What if I should say of W. P's and all his Brethrens Writings what he here saith of the Scriptures That they are neither Plain Proper nor Intelligible would he not account that saying a derogation from them If this be not to prefer the Friends Writings to the Scriptures in these Mens esteem let the impartial Judge most of which have the advantage above the Scriptures by his arguing The Scriptures were Writ upon particular occasions but some of their Books at least designedly Writ in the Scriptures the Doctrines are scattered here and there but in W. P's and G. W's Books the Doctrines and Principles are in excellent Order and lye together Paul's Writings in many things are hard to be understood and beside they were originally Writ in Greek which many understand not and we have not the Autographa but Copies and of these great variety and difference as he argueth against the certainty of the Scriptures upon the foundation of all others that are not one with them in making the Spirit the Rule of Faith P. 23. But we have the Autographa or at least the first Printed Copies of G.W. and W.P. without any variation or difference in matter and which is a great advantage their Writings are the Dictates of the Holy Ghost originally in English whereas we have nothing of the Scriptures originally in English but the whole is a Translation very imperfect and differing from other Translations both of English and other Languages and which is best the unlearned know not at all and even the learned many times are not certain all which give the advantage by very far to the Writings of the Friends above the Scriptures upon the supposition that they are the immediate Dictates of the Holy Ghost as these Men do not suppose but positively affirm many of them to be especially such as they say are given forth from the Spirit of Truth But suppose divers parts of the Scripture were writ upon particular occasions and emergencies as to Men yet many other parts were writ designedly and intentionally for general instruction to all the faithful and these so writ contain all the essentials and fundamentals of Christian Faith and Practice and even these writ upon particular occasions and emergencies seemingly to Men accidental or occasional yet with respect to God were designed by him for a general good without whose wise and all-ruling provividence nothing can happen What seemed more occasional than Joseph's being sold into Egypt yet God Almighty had a glorious design in it though he was neither the Author nor Approver of their Envy who sold him But is it any prejudice against the Scriptures being the Rule that they must be searched to find out the Doctrines contained in them Or that some places are hard to be understood though all the fundamental Doctrines necessary to Salvation are sufficiently plain to all the Faithful who are Spiritually enlightned to understand them Do not the like Objections as much and rather much more lye against the Light within all Men being the Rule of Faith and Life For excepting the common Principles of Moral Justice and Temperance all other things relating either to Faith or Life with respect to the peculiar Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion are not to be found at all in the Light within every Man abstractly and by it self considered Otherwise if W.P. think's they are let him tell me what one peculiar Doctrine of Christian Religion or peculiar Precept of it distinct from Deism or Gentile Religion has the Light within him taught him If he say to believe that there is one great God Almighty that Commands him to be Honest Just and Temperate I say these are not peculiar Doctrines and Precepts of Christianity but common to it with Deism And if he hath no other Principles or Precepts taught him by the Light within but what every Deist Mahometan or Jew who are Enemies to the Christian Faith have then let him speak out yet more plainly though I think he has spoke very plain already If the Light within him has taught him any other Principles or Precepts than what Deists Jews and Mahometans have let him tell us that he may convince us that the Light within every Man is the Rule of Faith and not the Scriptures without but let him not only tell us so but give us some effectual Reason to convince any ratinal Man that the Light within him only has taught him that peculiar Principle and Precept of Christian Religion without the Scriptures being so much as Instrumental in his being so taught For all Orthodox Christians by affirming the Scriptures to be the Rule they give no more to the Scriptures but to be the Instrument of the Spirit in giving all Saving knowledge and Faith of Divine Truth and if he allow them in God's ordinary way to be the
without them but only within them that is the Light in the Conscience and so there is no High-Priest without us nor no Heaven without us into which the Man Christ Jesus is gone nor King Christ without us but only within us for to say he is both without us and within us also will spoil W. P's Argument altogether and mar his Analogy betwixt the Law without under Moses and the Law within under Christ the High-Priest without then and the High-Priest within now If he grant there is a High-Priest without us and who is also King as well as Priest and that he is more without us than within us as all true Christians believe who have not the fulness within them but receive of his fulness and Grace for Grace and therefore that fulness is in the Man Christ without them he must also grant that the Law and Rule of Faith is as well without us as within us and so his Argument is spoiled but that he will be loth to grant for then the fundamental Principle of him and his Brethren is pluck'd up by the Roots by confessing to the Man Christ a High-Priest without us or King without us which will necessarily infer the Law and Rule of Faith delivered us by Christ without us is not within us only but without us also as Christ the Law-giver is Thus we see for Love of their supposed Rule of Faith only within them W.P. and his Brethren who approve his Book abandon and reject utterly any Christ High-Priest or King without them as also he has done in his Christian Quaker where he will have P. 97. The Lamb without in the Passover to shew forth the Lamb within to wit the Light in the Conscience but not the Lamb Christ without as he was outwardly slain And yet W.P. for all this hath said in his late answer to the Bishop of Cork That the Quakers differ little in Doctrine from the Church of England setting aside some School Terms And in his answer to the Bishop of Cork P. 97. he saith We i. e. he and his Brethren plainly and intirely believe the Truths contained in the Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed But possibly some fallacy is latent here also as if he had said they believe the Truths Contained in the Jews Talmud or Turks Alcoran for doubtless there are some Truths contained in them both but many Falshoods and so he may think there are in that Creed for all his seeming fair Confession to it and I offer to prove they have disbelieved them all But how this consists with their having only their High Priest King and Prophet within them as they have the Law and Rule of their Faith only within them as W.P. here doth Argue I leave to the intelligent to Judge and whither this palpable contradiction bewrayes not their great disingenuity considering that they will not grant that they are in any one point changed in their Faith or Doctrine from what they were ever since they were a People but as God and Truth is the same so his People to wit the Quakers are the same as they have in so many express words lately Printed in the Book called the Quakers Cleared c. 3. As concerning the several places of Scripture quoted by him that he brings to prove the inward Teachings of God Christ and the Holy Spirit and God's writing his Laws in the Hearts of the Faithful all this is granted by all Sound Christians but that is not the true State of the Controversie betwixt the People called Quakers and their Opponents But the true State of the Controversie is this whither the inward Teachings of God of Christ and of the Holy Spirit come to believers without all outward means and without all outward Ministry and Service of Men or Books and whither the Law and Rule of Faith that Believers have in them put in them yea and writ in their Hearts by the Lord himself is without all outward Instruction and Teaching or Service of Men or Books or whither the Law and Rule of Faith and Practise within in respect of all the peculiar Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion be not so to speak a Transcript or Copy from the Law and Rule of Faith without us as delivered in the Holy Scriptures which therefore may be called the Original as to us though that Original Law and Rule without us came from an inward Original in the Holy Prophets and in the Man Christ and his Holy Evangelists and Apostles which yet had a higher Original to wit the Archetypal Law as it was in God before the Copy or Transcript of it came to be in the Prophets and from them committed to writing outwardly and from that outward writing transferred and transcribed into the Hearts of the Faithful where it becomes an inward Law or Rule in them And thus the Faithful have the Law and Rule of Faith both without them and within them first without them in the Holy Scriptures next within them put in them by the Lord in their Hearts by means of outward Instruction as Preaching Reading c. And if the Question be asked Whither is best to have it without them or within them I answer to have it both ways is very necessary for in God's ordinary way of working we cannot have it within us if we had it not first without us no more than we can have Food within us if we had it not first without us for as our outward and bodily Food that nourisheth our Bodies comes into our Bodies from without us by the Door so to speak of our Mouth so the wholsome Doctrine of eternal Salvation by Christ our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer by means of which our Souls and inward Man are nourished being accompanied with the Divine Influences of the Grace and Spirit of God and of Christ comes into our Souls by the Door of our outward Hearing and Reading in the Holy Scriptures Again though there be ever so good Food and ever so Plentiful without us yet if we receive it not within us it neither doth nor can nourish us And as the clean Beasts under the Law did chew the Cud of what they did eat for their Nourishment so the Faithful what they outwardly hear and read of God's Word in the Holy Scriptures must meditate upon inwardly for their Spiritual Food Thus the great necessity of having the Law and Word of God both without us and within us the Rule of our Faith and Life is evidently apparent so long as we live in these mortal Bodies And therefore God hath appointed and Christ hath given an outward Ministry together with his other Gifts and Graces to his Church to continue to the end of the World and to his last coming But again if it be asked Is there not an Internal word Voice or Teaching of Christ distinct from the outward word Voice and Teaching that outwardly soundeth in our outward Ears I answer There is but in God's
him that never was in the Country Yet this proves not but that the Geographical account of that Country by words and Maps truly and accurately given by Men of great Wisdom and Sincerety is of great Service and Advantage both to Strangers who desire to see the Country and live in it and also to them that already live in it And for all the great Conceit that W.P. has of his knowledge of the great Mystery of Regeneration by his Experience of which he denieth That the Scriptures have given him any Information Yet he is very ignorant of it still if he be of his former mind as he wrote in his Preface to R. B's Works That Regeneration is a greater Mystery than God manifest in the Flesh Had W.P. consulted Scripture it would have better informed him and to be sure the true Experience of Regeneration never taught him any such horrid and extreamly false Assertion Page 31. He saith The knowledge of those Prophesies of Christ's Sufferings was by extraordinary Revelation not falling within the ordinary Discoveries that are absolutely necessary to Man's Salvation by which he shews his Power and Faithfulness that he is God and can foretell and will bring to pass But therefore must there be an extraordinary Light or Spirit and not rather an extraordinary Sight and Sense from one and the same Light and Spirit in them Answ First this quite overthrows his Notion of a general Rule that must be one and the same to all Mankind for if the Prophets had extraordinary Revelation concerning Christ's Sufferings which other Men have not that extraordinary Revelation was the Rule of their Faith touching that matter which could not be the Rule of Faith to them who had no knowledge of that thing Secondly Though the inward extraordinary Revelation given to the Prophets concerning Christ's Sufferings was not necessary to others of the Faithful who were not Prophets for their Salvation yet the Knowledge and Faith of them was necessary to Salvation by some other means to wit by having the Doctrine given to the Prophets by extraordinary Revelation preached or conveyed to the Faithful by the ordinary outward means of Instruction which differing manner of conveyance makes not any difference in the Doctrine nor yet in the Faith of it for Matter and Substance Thirdly That he makes the Faith of Christ's Sufferings none of the absolute Necessaries to our Christianity and Salvation because not given to us as it was to the Prophets by extraordinary Revelation This plainly gives us a new and fresh Instance of his Deism and Paganism appearing with open face for if the Faith of Christ's Sufferings be not necessary to our Salvation because we have it not given us by extraordinary Revelation as the Prophets had which is a false Consequence by the same reason not one of the twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed or any of the other Creeds called the Nicene and Athanasian nor any one of the peculiar Doctrines and Articles of the Christian Faith are necessary to our Salvation though we hear them daily preached or may daily read them in the Holy Scriptures because by his false Inference not given us by extraordinary Revelation and at this rate no more Faith is necessary to our Salvation than what any Infidel Jew or Mahometan or Heathen may have by the common Dictates of the Light in every one of their Consciences abstractly consider'd without all means of outward Instruction by the Holy Scriptures which is a plain undermining of the whole Christian Religion and introducing Deism and Paganism in its room and is really a degree more remote from Christianity than any Pelagianism or Socinianism Fourthly Whereas he querieth Must there be therefore an extraordinary Light or Spirit and not rather an extraordinary Sight or Sense from one and the same Light and Spirit in them I answer Taking Light and Spirit in the highest sense to signifie God Christ or the Holy Spirit it will not infer another Light or Spirit but another Illumination Inspiration and Revelation as well as another Sight and Sense proceeding from one and the same Spirit and from one and the same Light originally according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture that teacheth there is diversity of Operations Administrations and Gifts but one God one Lord and one Spirit But the words and terms Light and Spirit sometimes in Scripture signifie some Internal Act of Illumination and Operation and Gift of the Spirit as when we read of the seven Spirits of God in Scripture and that God is called the Father of Lights this doth not signifie seven real distinct Spirits of God but seven Gifts or Virtues and Operations of one and the same Spirit And because there are several sorts of Illuminations proceeding from one Light originally which is God and the Divine Word therefore they are called Lights and in this sense fully agreeable to Scripture the Prophets and all the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures may be said to have had an extraordinary Light and Spirit as well as an extraordinary Sight that others of the Faithful had not or now have not and yet the Faith the same for Matter and Substance for extraordinary Revelation may be called extraordinary Light well enough and also the Faithful may be said to have an extraordinary Light and Spirit that no Infidel Jew Mahometan Heathen or meer Moralist Deist or meer Formal Professor of Christianity hath to wit in respect of the diversity of the kinds and sorts of the Illuminations according to the differing subjects that of the Prophets differing from that of other Faithful Men that were not Prophets who yet had the same Faith though not conveyed by the same manner of Illumination and the Illumination of the Faithful differing from the common Illumination given in common to Mankind which in the respects above-mentioned may be said to be three several Lights and Spirits according to the three several subjects all which are but originally one and the same like to which we have an Example in the Beams of the Sun that remaining the same in their nature yet according to the differing Mediums and Subjects of reception seem wonderfully diversified so that passing through Glasses of several colours as green red blew and yellow the Beams or Rayes will have these differing colours which diversity proceeds not from the nature of the Sun-beams but the differing Mediums and Subjects and thus also the same Influence of the Sun melteth Wax and hardneth Clay and operating on a Field where Barley is sown contributes to produce a Crop of Barley but operating on a Field where Wheat is sown contributes to produce a Crop of Wheat from the differing Seeds and Subjects it works upon Section 19 His Definition of the Judge of Controversie lame and fallacious as his Definition of the general Rule and Faith in what Sense the Spirit is the Judge of Controversie quoad nos i.e. as to us THus having gone through and examined all that I have
the Light in every Conscience as W.P. saith here in this Book or some New Revelation or discovery that neither Jews nor Turks nor other Deists have nor all Christendom but only and alone the People called Quakers But if these new Revelations be their Rule in the Case it quite overturns W. P's Fabrick of setting up a general Rule of Faith and Life in every Man's Conscience For a new Revelation that only one part of Mankind hath cannot be a general Rule W.P. makes not the Light within which he will have to be the Spirit or God himself or Christ in every Man abstractly considered from the inward discoveries Dictates and Precepts there delivered to be the general Rule which he calls the Eternal Precepts of the Spirit in the Conscience and the Noble precepts writ in Man's Heart Phrases that he has borrowed from some Heathen writers as Pythagoras and Sophocles and which are to be owned in their place to be such and to be a general Rule of Moral Justice and Temperance as is above owned but not either the general Rule of the Christian Religion with respect to its peculiar Doctrines and Precepts nor indeed so much as any Rule at all in that state nor indeed is it at all proper to call the Spirit the Rule in his Sense but rather the Dictates and discoveries of the Spirit which W.P. calls sometimes Revelation to wit Internal and the Internal Testimony of the Spirit Eternal Precepts and noble Laws writ in all Men's Hearts for the Spirit abstractly considered from all Internal and External discovery Revelation and Testimony teacheth Men nothing at all and therefore can be no Rule to them as such And seeing W.P. hath cast away the Holy Scriptures from being the Rule of Faith and Practise even to us Christians that is all and every one of the peculiar Doctrines and Precepts of Christianity that are to be sure no part of those Eternal Precepts and Laws writ in all Mens Consciences not one of them nor all of those peculiar Doctrines and Precepts are so much as a part of the Christians Rule of Faith and Life for if it were then the Christians the Deists the Mahometans and Infidel Jews should not have one general Rule of Faith and Life which he contends for Page 41. He proposeth an Objection and pretends to solve it Obj. But is not the Scripture the Judge of Controversie He should rather have made the Objection run thus Is not the Scripture the Rule whereby the Spirit of Truth who is properly the Judge doth by his inward ordinary illumination in the Faithful determine the Controversie in all the necessary things of Salvation Yea and also in many other things though not absolutely necessary yet very profitable He Answers How can that be since the Question most times arises about the meaning of Scripture I reply yet still the Scripture is the proper Rule to determine the Controversie even when the question ariseth about the meaning of the Scripture because what seemeth obscure in some places of Scripture are opened and made plain by other plain places of Scripture treating on the same Subject that are as a Key to open them with out any other Rule than the Scripture it self only there is need of the Spirits Internal Illumination and assistance to help us to use that Key especially in reference to the saving knowledge of them He proceeds in his answer to the Objection saying Is there any place to wit in Scripture tells us without Interpretation whither the Socinian or Trinitarian be in the right in their differing Apprehensions of the Three that bear record c. Also the Homousian and Arian about Christ's Divinity or the Papists or Protestants about Transubstantiation If then things are left undefin'd and undetermined I mean literally and expresly in the Scripture and that the Question arises about the Sense of words Doth the Scripture determine which of these Interpreters hit the mark From all which he concludes that not the Scripture but the Interpretation must decide the Matter in Controversie and that Interpretation must be given from the Spirit of God to be a true and infallible Interpretation Answ Seeing that Interpretation according to W.P. cannot be given from the Spirit without an extraordinary Revelation the things in Controversie being such according to W. P's Phrase and Confession P. 31. as fall not within the ordinary Discoveries that are absolutely necessary to Man's Salvation and that W.P. also grants that he and his Brethren have no such extraordinary Revelation for it is not needful being none of the absolute Necessaries to our Salvation P. 33. It evidently follows that neither W.P. nor any of his Brethren nor indeed any other Men now living whatsoever have any certainty whither the Socinian or Trinitarian be in the right that is whither Christ is God and whither Christ had any Existence before Mary and whither Christ be in any of the Faithful yea or nay yea W.P. hath no certainty of this Fundamental Principle that Christ is in him or in any of his Brethren the great reason of their Assertion that Christ is in them being that Christ is God so that if it be not certain from Scripture that Christ is God and if the Socinian Doctrine should prove true that Christ is only a Man it will evidently follow as I think W.P. will grant that it is utterly false that Christ is in any Men whatsoever and that that Light that is in Men even the most Faithful is not Christ for how can that which is only a meer Man and a meer Creature as the Socinians say that Christ only is be in all Men. Again If it cannot be determined from Scripture without extraordinary Revelation which W.P. grants neither he nor his Brethren have as touching these Matters whither the Arians or the Homonsians be in the right it evidently followeth that neither W.P. nor his Brethren are certain whither the word mentioned John 1.1 be any other than a meer Creature and consequently they are not certain but that they themselves are Idolaters who give any Divine Worship to Christ as he is that Word Also if it be not certain from Scripture whither the Papists or Protestants be in the right about Transubstantiation without extraordinary Revelation according to W. P's way of arguing If the Papists should happen to be in the right and W.P. by his Confession knoweth nothing to the contrary but that they are he and his Brethren should be guilty of horrid Contempt and Blasphemy to call that which is the Body of Christ nothing but Bread And is not this Assertion of W.P. a fair Inlet to Popery that the Scripture doth not determine expresly without Interpretation and that Interpretation cannot be had without new Revelation whither the Papists Doctrine of Transubstantiation be true So that to him at present it is a Matter of Indifferency and if W.P. should turn Papist or suppose him to be one when he declares himself he
needs only pretend a Revelation for that and all the other Matters in Controversie betwixt Protestants and Papists to justifie him and prove him to be no Changeling And at this rate of W. P's arguing not only all the peculiar Doctrines of Christianity are wholly uncertain and Papists Socinians and Arians and other the worst of Hereticks that oppugn the Christian Doctrine and Faith may happen to be in the right and these called the Orthodox to be in the wrong but the great Fundamental of the Quakers is overthrown and rendred uncertain also yea this very Position that he laboureth so much to establish That not the Scriptures but the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life to every Man For this Position of his is not literally and expresly in the Scripture so that according to W.P. not the Scripture but his and his Brethrens Interpretation must determine this Controversie and this cannot be done without extraordinary Revelation it being none of those things that fall within the ordinary Discoveries of Men to wit that the Light in every Man's Conscience is Christ and God for then Christ would be God and the Socinians would be Blasphemers that deny him so to be By all which it evidently appears that this Argument of W.P. not only renders all the peculiar Doctrines of Christianity meer Scepticism and Uncertainty but the great Fundamental of the Quakers as concerning the Light being Christ in them and the Rule of their Faith to be equally Scepticism and Uncertainty But that he saith Christ's Divinity is left undetermin'd in Scripture literally and expresly is false for it is in several places literally and expresly affirm'd that Christ is God and that and many other Truths suppose not literally and expresly mentioned in Scripture yet by good and necessary Consequences without all extraordinary Revelation from plain places of Scripture can be certainly inferred And if he will not allow that there is any certainty by arguing from the Scriptures by Consequences of true Reason his whole Discourse in this his Book that I am now answering is disallowable for he has not brought one place of Scripture that literally and expresly saith the Scripture is not the Rule of Faith or that the Light in every Man's Conscience is and he doth not pretend to extraordinary Revelation in the Case and if he did of shall he must give us leave to distrust him until he bring sufficient Evidence for it which I believe he will never be able to do Yea the Falsity of his Reasonings by way of Consequence to prove his Position That not the Scripture but the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life is evidently apparent from the answers already given And suppose he should pretend to extraordinary Revelation in the case and that that is the ground of his Certainty and Rule of his Faith even that Pretence destroyeth his Fabrick for seeing all Men have not that extraordinary Revelation it cannot be a general Rule If he say The common discovery that every Man hath teacheth him sufficiently without either Scripture or extraordinary Revelation That the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith I answer How can that be unless it were a self-evident Proposition as that the whole is greater than the part and if it be a self-evident Proposition why hath W.P. taken so great pains to prove it Men commonly think it needless to prove any self-evident Proposition and properly speaking it is impossible to be proved But if his said Position has no self-evidence of the Truth of it how shall it be proved not from Scripture for that would make the Scripture the Rule nor from Humane Reason for that would make Humane Reason the Rule which W.P. seems not to set up for the Rule It is granted that the Light in every Man's Conscience in respect of some Moral Principles of Justice and Temperance has a Self evidence and so far is a Rule but that it is the Rule of Faith to Christians is denied and by whatever Medium he proveth it that must be his Rule by his manner of arguing which runs him into the like vitious Circle as the Papists are run into when they prove the certainty of Tradition by the Church and the certainty of the Church by Tradition so W.P. proves that the Light within is the Rule of Faith by the Scripture and the certainty of the Scripture by the Light within Section 20. His Proposal of the way to determine all Controversie destructive to the Christian Religon le ts in Deism and Heathenism to overspread the World a Remedy worse than the Disease His misrepresentation of sound Protestants and false and uncharitable Judgment of them Several Scripture places that prove the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Life to all Christian People I Confess he hath one very notable and plausible Answer to an Objection made by himself P. 44. were it as true as seemingly fair and plausible The Objection is this How will this determine Controversie viz to cast away the Scriptures from being the general Rule of Faith and Life and to set up the Light in every Man's Conscience according to the general Discoveries it gives to all Mankind and allay the Fury of Debates that are on foot in the World He answereth roundly Nothing like it if Men adhere to it But first were it true it would have this mischievous and yet most necessary Consequence that the Christian Religion would be utterly lost so far as it hath any peculiarity or peculiar Dignity Worth and Advantage above Deism or Paganism A rare Cure indeed that W.P. here prescribes to all Christendom to heal their Breaches and end the Disputes and Controversies betwixt the worst sort of Hereticks and the most Orthodox Christians and betwixt Papists and Protestants such a Remedy here prescribed by him is worse than the Disease He saith Most Perswasions he should have come out more plainly with his Expedient saying most Hereticks Arians Nestorians Sabellians Eutychians and them of the opposed side called Orthodox yea Papists and Protestants agree in his general Rule of Faith and Life that is they own the common and general Dictates of the Light in the Conscience and so doth the civilized part of the whole World of Mankind and agree about what he makes the absolute Necessaries viz That God is that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him that the way of God is a way of Purity Patience Meekness c. without which no Man shall see the Lord. Now all Hereticks commonly few I think excepted own these Generals and many of them have Moral Lives Is this enough to their eternal Salvation though they deny the Lord that bought them with his precious Blood as he outwardly suffered on the Cross on this pretence that their general Rule set up here by W.P. teacheth them nothing of any such Lord that bought them