How so Min. The Gospel you hear commands a Maintenance be provided for the Ministry and the Civil Powers and Nursing Fathers of the Church have set out Tithes for that Maintenance so that if Tithes were not due by a Divine Appointment they are now due by a voluntary dedication of them Par. How does any such voluntary dedication appear Min. You need not scruple this point would you but give your self the pains of consulting Antiquaries or Church Histories especially that famous Charter of King Ethelwolf set down at large by Ingulf where you will find the whole History of the thing to the full satisfaction of any whose prejudices do not obstruct the free use of their Reason Par. I am apt to believe what you say without any further inquisition into the thing but then I suppose they were given in a blind and superstitious zeal which makes all void to us Min. This is another mistake For Tithes being given to God for the Maintenance of his Ministry no blemish in the dedication of them can alter their Property To make my assertion good a parallel case in Scripture shall be produced That which comes most near it is the case of the Two hundred and fifty men who offered Incense Yet there was a vast difference between them The Two hundred and fifty offered in a stubborn rebellious manner and these in an ignorant zeal as some suppose but we do not grant But that which will give us most light into our present case are the Censers which were so offer'd which you will find notwithstanding that damnable sin committed in the consecration of them yet because they were offer'd to God they were not to be alienated to common uses Numb 16. 37. Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the Priest that he take up the Censers out of the burning c. for they are hallowed From hence you may learn how dangerous a thing it is to meddle with any thing that hath been given to God For you see the reason given why the Censers were not alienable was because they were hallowed by being offered before the Lord. Therefore saith a Learned Rabbi they were unlawful for a common use because they had made them Vessels of Ministry Par. I have often heard that Tithes were given at the first by the Pope and therefore not to be endured in a Nation that hath renounced all communion with him Min. This I know is one of the popular Arguments of the Quakers to cast a mist before the eyes of their ignorant Followers but suppose it had been so they would not have been less hallowed than the Two hundred and fifty Censers were and so consequently the alienation of them no less impious yet I deny your assertion that Tithes had their institution from Popery And I have good grounds for what I say for Tithes were setled upon the Church before Popery had made her encroachments in it For Popery is not of that antiquity as some do vainly and falsly boast Though they shew their old shooes and mouldy bread yet upon a strict enquiry they will be found to be but so many Gibeonitish Cheats and that their tenents and corruptions are not of that antiquity as is pretended by them However that you may have a distinct answer to your Question give me first your notion of Popery Par. I call all such Doctrines and Practises Popery as are held in the Church of Rome Min. That this is a wrong notion of Popery will be very evident if you consider that the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity the Incarnation Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord is believed in the Church of Rome Par. I cannot but confess all this to be true Then I pray do you tell me what is Popery Min. I cannot give you a more brief and true account of Popery than this That it is such Doctrines and Superstitious practises which by the corruption of time have prevailed in the Church of Rome contrary to the true ancient Catholick and Apostolick Church Where we agree in any points of Religion there is no more reason to call us Papists than there is to call them Protestants The Socinians maintain the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures the Church of England doth the same shall we therefore be branded with Socinianism By which instance you may see the Quakers folly in their charging Tithes with Popery But to make it more clear do you think that Cranmer Hooper Ridley Latimer Tayler and Bradford were inclinable to Popery Par. I suspect them not in the least for they sealed their detestation of it with their blood and were eminent Martyrs for the Protestant Cause in the bloody dayes of Queen Mary Min. Then I hope you will have a better opinion of Tithes since these in their time were receivers of them As also of the Common-Prayer-Book since some of those good men did assist in the compiling of it Par. Hereafter for their sakes Tithes shall never be reputed Popish by me yet methinks you have not proved yet the Divine institution of them Min. Is it not sufficient that I have proved Maintenance in general a Divine institution and that Tithes have been set out for that Maintenance but that you may be eased in this scruple let me tell you a story There happen'd to be a publick disputation in Germany before the Elector of Saxony concerning Tithes one side vigorously maintaining that they were due by the Laws of God arguing that Tithes were paid to the Priesthood of Melchisedec and so consequently that Tithes were still in force with the Priesthood further arguing that no Law is abolished whilst the reason of it continues still in force now there is as much reason for Tithes in the times of the Gospel as there was in the times of the Law And lastly they argued from that Analogy which the Apostle makes between the Levites Maintenance under the Law and the Ministers Maintenance under the Gospel even so hath the Lord ordained c. The other side as briskly maintaining that Tithes were due only by the Laws of the Land When they had all spent their Arguments the Elector himself gave the determination thus One party I perceive saith he is for the Divine another for the Human right of Tithes yet both sides agree and acknowledge them to be a right therefore according to my duty to maintain right I am bound to justifie and uphold Tithes After all this out-cry against Tithes do the Quakers think the paying and receiving of them to be a sin Par. Do you think that all this stir could have been if they thought it not a sin to demand and receive Tithes Min. What is sin Par. The transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. Min. Now shew me a Law against Tithes If it be the transgression of a Divine Law shew the Text if of an Human Law shew the Statute 'T is the Opponents part to prove and if we be faulty you must shew
but a small time of use because it could not give life none living under it but Adam all hopes of Salvation ever after depending upon the grace of the second Covenant which is the only plank after Shipwrack Par. But do we not read in Heb. 8. of an old Covenant which was to be done away and a new Covenant to succeed in the room of it Was not the old Covenant the Covenant of works and did not Abraham Moses and David live under it Min. That Abraham Moses and David lived under the old Covenant there mentioned I readily grant but that that was a Covenant of works I utterly deny which that you may apprehend you must know that the Covenant of grace though one and the same in substance from the first promulging of it to Adam unto the end of the World yet is according to the several forms or modes of its administration distinguished into Old which was to be abolished and New which was never to be antiquated In the times of the Old Testament the Covenant of Grace was administred by Promises Prophesies Sacrifices c. foresignifying Christ to come which for that time were sufficient to build up those who then lived in faith in the promised Messiah by whom they had remission of sins and eternal Salvation Under the Gospel when Christ the substance was come those Types and Ceremonies were abolished and the Ordinances in which this Covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the Word and the Administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper So that the words Old and New are not applicable to the Covenant as to the substance of it but only to its various dispensation Now that the Covenant in Old Testament times was a Covenant of Grace the same in substance with that under which we live in Gospel times I prove thus That Covenant which teacheth Christ by whom eternal Salvation may be attained and which offereth pardon of sin and acceptance to favour upon repentance must needs be a Covenant of Grace but the Covenant delivered in the Old Testament as well as that in the New is such a Covenant as appears from these Scriptures John 5. 46 47. Luke 24. 25 26 27. with 44 45 46. John 1. 45. John 8. 56. Acts 26. 22 23. Deut. 4. 30 31. Exod. 34. 6 7. 2 Chron. 7. 14. and many other places Par. I thank you for the information you have given me in the nature of the two Covenants for I did think as many of the Quakers do that all that lived in the time of the Old Testament were under the Covenant of Works An I have heard some urge it as it seems Hubberthorn here doth to bring down the credit and authority of Old Testament Scriptures and Preachers but I perceive mine and their great mistake herein I would have you now return to the Query about Oaths and let us suppose Hubberthorn by first Covenant to understand the legal dispensation of the Covenant of Grace under which he saith Oaths were lawful Min. Indeed Hubberthorn yields they were then lawful and yet he brings in his proofs as if they were as unlawful then as now Par. What are those proofs Min. In the beginning of his Book against Mr. Tombs you will find Hos. 4. 3. For Oaths the Land mourns and Zach. 5. 3. Every one that sweareth shalâ—… be cut off these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do you gather from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horrid abuse the Quakers put upon the Scriptures and the Spirit of God by which they were writ Par. How do you make it appear that they abuse the Scriptures Min. Doth it not appear very plainly when they confess that in the time of the Law Oaths were lawful yet do bring in Hosea and Zachary who lived in the time of the Law speaking against that usage which themselves confess was then lawful If Hosea and Zachary were true Prophets how can we think they contradict the truth If they were false Prophets why do the Quakers use their testimony Par. It may be Hosea and Zachary did not mean the unlawfulness of Oaths then but only prophesied of their unlawfulness in the times of the Gospel Min. That you make use of a pitiful shift will be very evident if you consider that there was then a heavy calamity threatned and hanging over the Land the Prophet gives the cause thereof to be for Oaths and if Oaths were then lawful must the people be cut off for doing what was just and lawful or is it reasonable to think the people should suffer for a sin to be committed afterwards Par. Do you suppose that Oaths were unlawful during the continuance of the Law Min. I suppose no such thing my design being only to shew that fallacious way of arguing which the Quakers use and that this Hubberthorn so much esteemed by them is trap't in his own net and confuted by himself while he confesses Oaths to be lawful during the continuance of the Law and yet contradicts himself again by bringing texts out of the Law to prove them otherwise and thus you see he brings in the Old Testament contradicting it self also which in Deut. 6. 13. commands it as a duty as also in other places Jer. 4. 2. I pray you judge of these things Par. You have highly and I think not untruly charged the Quakers in the use of these Texts of the Prophets for I cannot but acknowledge it an absurdity to alledge the Scripture against it self but I pray you discover the true meaning of them and what swearing the people were there threatned for Min. If you mind the scope of the Prophet Hosea and the sins which swearing is there joyned withal in the first verse of the Chapter you will discern that the cause why the Land mourned was not for taking Oaths for those are already proved and confessed to be then lawful but for taking them against Truth and Mercy with malicious or injurious designs But their bringing in Zachary's words to disprove the lawfulness of swearing discovers a most dishonest principle in the Quakers because they cannot but know that the Prophets words are wrested by them for the fourth verse expresly interprets swearing for which the people are threatned to be cut off to be false-swearing only Therefore consult both at large Zach. 5. 3 4. This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it I will bring it forth saith the Lord of Hosts and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsly by my Name Par. But what do you say to an Oath now under the dispensation of the Gospel Min. I say the Gospel has no where abolished the lawful use of it Par. You will fall under John Tombs his charge of Antichristianism for
5. 12. Min. Seeing our Saviour in that gracious Law of his has forbid nothing that is morally good nothing that is either indifferent or expedient 1 Cor. 6. 12. it must needs follow that an Oath is no further forbidden than as it is evil that is when it prophanes the Name of God Deut. 19. 12. and 28. 58. or doth any way dishonour him which an Oath doth when it is false irreverent or needless In these instances an Oath being so dishonourable to the Divine Majesty is absolutely forbidden namely all swearing by the creature or by any thing propos'd to our vain fancy that being to make an Idol of the creature and to set it up for a God as also all swearing by the express name of God in mens ordinary communication which is for the most part so full of passion and vain transportation as to expose men to the frequent abuse of Gods Name and the danger of perjury And therefore I must inform you that our blessed Saviour took the occasion of this prohibition from the gross errors both of Jew and Gentile about this point and from the wicked customs of common swearing and prophaneness which by those errors were encouraged I will therefore shew you first what those evil customs were and then give you the sense of the words as they lye in the Text and are accommodated to the healing of those corruptions in doctrine and practise The erroneous glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and the Jewish Doctors taught that while they abstained from the mention of Gods Name it was lawful to swear by the Creature as oft as they pleas'd and that such swearing though falsly was no perjury See Mattb. 23. 16 18 21. There you will find that they made nothing of swearing by the Temple the Altar or by Heaven supposing it did not bind the Conscience Secondly that it was lawful at any time to swear by Gods Name so that they swore nothing but truth and performed their Oaths unto the Lord. And these opinions it seems the Jewes thought consistent enough with that part of the Law cited by our Saviour Matth. 5. 33. You have heard that it hath been said by them or rather to them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self And according to those corrupt Doctrines they acted without fear or measure by that wretched custom of common swearing To the confuting of which Doctrines he accommodates his answer in the verses following Against the first of them viz. swearing by the Creature he opposes that prohibition in the 34 35 36 verses But I say unto you swear not at all neither by Heaven c. Against the latter viz. swearing by the Name of God in our ordinary converse he gives this precept v. 37. Let your communication be yea yea c. Par. But does not our Saviour say there Swear not at all and so do's he not generally forbid all Oaths whatsoever Min. To ease you in this scruple let me tell you what advice I heard a famous Judge give to a Jury You must not said he determine by bits and parcels of what you have heard attested but you are to consider your whole evidence and accordingly bring in your verdict So let me tell you that to give the true account of any Scripture you are not to imitate the Quakers who determine upon such bits and scraps as they steal out of the Word of God by which means they make one part of the Scripture contradict another and so expose themselves to the greatest errours imaginable but to find out the true sense of any Scripture you must determine according to the whole evidence by comparing the parts of it together with each other and by considering the scope of the Text from the whole so compared and considered to gather the true meaning of it And so here in this place you are not to take these words single by themselves for you see they stand not alone and are not a whole sentence by themselves but are immediately conjoyned in a continued discourse with other words which do restrain and limit them So that when he sayes Swear not at all he adds neither by heaven c. nor by the earth c. so as the prohibition is limited to those things the Jewes were wont to swear by in order to the reforming of that evil custome amongst them and therefore to each of those Oaths which he forbids he adds a reason to convince them of their errour He bids them not swear at all by Heaven because it is Gods throne c. as if he had said The Pharisees teach you that swearing by heaven by earth by Jerusalem by your head by the Temple by the Altar c. Matth. 23. are no real binding Oaths and that therefore to swear by them falsly is no perjury But I say unto you swear not by heaven for it is Gods throne and therefore includes him that sits on it so that he that shall swear by heaven sweareth by the throne of God and him that sitteth thereon Matth. 23. 22. and therefore his Oath is as really binding both to the sin and punishment if he forswear as if he had sworn expresly by the Name of God Neither swear by the earth for it is his footstool and therefore agreeable to the other argument he that sweareth by the earth sweareth by it and him that setteth his foot upon it Neither shalt thou swear by Jerusalem for it is the City of the great King he therefore that sweareth by Jerusalem sweareth by it and him that inhabiteth in it And this is the same our Saviour saith Matth. 23. 21. Whoso shall swear by the Temple sweareth by it and by him that dwells therein Again he saith here Neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black that is it is not in thy power to engage or pawn it for the truth of any thing thou affirmest for thou didst not make it neither canst thou so much as change the colour of one hair therefore he that swears by his head swears by it and him to whom he owes his head his life and safety So that whensoever you swear by any Creature you do by interpretation swear by the Maker of it Which when you swear falsly by the Creature involves you in the guilt of perjury before God and of the breach of that Law which saith Thou shalt not forswear thy self for in every Oath whatsoever a man swears by it is God which is call'd upon either expresly or implicitly Par. But while our Saviour saith Swear not at all neither by heaven c. and then immediately addeth these words Let your communication be yea yea nay nay have not these last words a relation to the other So that his meaning should be Do not bind or urge any thing you shall say by any forms or further inforcements than by these terms of asseveration yea yea nay nay This is that I took
occasion and by that means of the true scope of them how much more difficult must they needs be to us at this distance especially to such as are wholly strangers to all those things aforemention'd that are so necessary to the making any dark Scriptures intelligible Par. This I cannot deny but then I would gladly know how to reconcile this with such passages in the Bible which contrary wise call the Gospel a Light and bid us walk in the Light Min. You are greatly mistaken in supposing that I affirm all the Scriptures hâ—…rd to be understood I only say as St. Peter sayes that some passages are so for so run the words in which are some things hard c. Par. Are then the necessary points of Religion in them hard to be understood Min. No they are not for whatsoever is necessary to salvation either to be believed or to be done are in some place or other in holy Scripture fitted to the most vulgar capacity and shallowest understanding as for example the history of Christs birth death resurrection and ascension is as necessary to be believed so plain to be understood though yet it hath been perverted by the mis-interpretation of the Quakers and some Hereticks and from plain History turn'd into meer Allegory Then the duties of the first and second Table of the Law and the Love of God and our Neighbour all the Evangelical Precepts and the Essentials of Religion are in the Gospel made such easie Doctrines that he that runs may read them being fitted to the capacity of the most unlearned And this reminds us of our duty of thankfulness to our great Law-giver in that he hath made those Doctrines most plain which are most necessary to be believed and those things least necessary which are most difficult As for example it is not necessary to salvation to be knowing in all the Circumstances of the Levitical Rites nor in all the Genealogies of the Scripture nor in all the Apocalyptical Prophesies and therefore the obscurity of them need not dismay us Par. Certainly God would never have sent his Messengers to deliver those things to the world which he did not indispensibly require every one to understand Min. I hope to convince you of this mistake and to assist your apprehension by this plain comparison Suppose a King makes a great Feast for his Subjects he prepares meats for all constitutions and different dishes for different stomachs that among all this variety every person should feed upon that which is most agreeable to his constitution just such preparations hath God made for the Church in holy Scriptures where are Vyands for all pallats For the strong there is strong meat and mysteries to exercise the greatest Wits and the most improved Understandings Heb. 5. 14. And as for those whose understanding is either clouded by an unhappy constitution or was never well open'd and improv'd by education to such there is not wanting what is necessary even milk for babes many passages especially those of the greatest concern being written in such a plain and familiar style that the weakest and most illiterate of which number a greatest part of the members of the Church are shall never be able to excuse the neglect of them the Omniscient Author of the Scriptures herein graciously condescending to the shallowest capacities to let them see that they were not forgotten nor overlook't by him who says All Souls are his Ezek. 18. 4. The Scriptures being ordinarily compared to such a River wherein the Elephant may swim and the Lamb may wade But when illiterate people who commonly see no further than the outward appearance of things will venture to be guides and will be rashly passing judgment upon that which is above their understandings according to that character given of such men 1 Tim. 1. 7. Desiring to be teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm and do leave the plain easie paths and confidently falling upon points too high for them no wonder if such wrest and pervert the Scriptures Par. I remember that was the second particular that the Scriptures have been wrested How do you make that good Min. This is matter of fact and known to all that are acquainted either with men or Books for we all too sadly know that there is not that opinion in Religion be it never so wild and absurd but challengeth authority from the Scriptures Though truth be the same yet every sect lays claim to it and though the Scripture be the fountain of truth yet is it by some rendred the very sink of errours Go to all the wild Sects yea Heresies in the world those of the Arrians Socinians Antinomians Ranters as well as this of the Quakers all these will with equal confidence challenge an authority from the Word of God The fault here is not in the Scriptures but in them that do abuse and wrest them to their own conceptions to make them speak their own sense as for instance Suppose a man that is troubled with a Vertigo in his head should tell you that he is confident the earth turns round 't is not the earth but a disturbed brain that is the cause of this mis-apprehension So every Fanatick will tell you that he 's confident he has the Scripture on his side in the behalf of his opinion where is now the fault in the Scripture or in the whim in his pate The Scriptures are in no fault for any irregularities in the conceptions of such men The fault is in their byass'd affections and their want of steady principles and defect both of wit and grace but the true sense of Scripture words continues one and the same though mens erroneous conceptions and interpretations of them should still abound and vary to the worlds end Par. But how then happens this strange variety in the interpretation of Scripture Min. By taking the words thereof to put what construction they please upon them while they mistake their true scope and meaning for it is not the Letter but the Sense that is the Word of God And 't is not only Quakers and other Separatists that have the words of Seripture but the Devil also as you will find Matth. 4. 6. when he tempted our Saviour He replyes there with a Text of Scripture But the Devil and these wanting the sense and design take the shell and leave the kernel It was St. Augustines saying That Hereticks and Schismaticks steal the words of Christ intimating that they may use his Name his Word and his Ordinances but then 't is only as Thieves and Robbers use their stoln goods to which they have no right nor property Par. Give me now leave to remind you of your third particular viz. the causes there exprest why the Scriptures are thus wrested Min. I am ready to gratifie your desires and begin with the first cause namely the want of learning which is derided by Hubberthorn and censur'd by those
to feed us without our industry with Manna and Quails as he did his Church in the Wilderness or by the Ravens as he did Elisha or to make the small provisions we have to abound by an inexhaustible increase as he did the Widows barrel of meal and cruse of Oyl and in the Gospel the five loaves and two fishes though he could soon introduce the Golden Age to make it a perpetual Spring and to cause the earth to bring forth all her fruits and teem her riches to us of her own accord though God could quickly do all this and more though he could translate us instantly and carry us up into a better habitation though he could perfect us out of hand and the next minute wrap us into the third Heaven and rest us in Paradise though this be in his power yet we see it is not in his will It is not his pleasure thus to dispense his favours nor to pour out his blessings all at once For though the Divine power and Goodness too be both of them infinite yet do not engage God though an Almighty Father in doing good to act like natural Agents both alwayes and all he can For the acts of his Power and Goodness are determin'd by his infinite Wisdome And he dispenseth his gifts according as there is necessity and occasion for them That the Spirit helpeth us to understand old truths already revealed in Scripture we confess and pray for his assistance therein but to pretend to such miraculous inspirations as the Apostles once had or to new revelations beyond what was discover'd to them is a horrible cheat set up at first by St. Francis and St. Bridget and some other Fanatical Friers and Nuns of the Romish Church whose steps the Quakers do now follow but the delusion and falshood of such pretences will appear if you consider 1. How highly these new revelations disparage the Holy Scripture which if it be true and may be believed declares it self to be a perfect and sufficient rule in order to salvation 2 Tim. 3. 17. and accurseth all that shall preach any other Doctrine Gal. 1. 8 9. and in the close of that holy Book a woe is denounced to all that should add any thing to it or take any thing from it So that they who would make new additions by daily inspirations make God himself a lyar in commending that to us for a perfect rule which needs continual additions and the preaching of Christ and his Apostles at this rate must be thought imperfect and that Word which should try the Spirits must submit to every new revelation Nor do the Papists more dishonour Gods Word by making their Traditions of equal value to it than the Quakers by esteeming their new revelations to be as much from the Spirit of God 2. Consider how contrary these new revelations are to Gods constant method in regard they came naked without any miracles to attest them for when did God ever send any new Doctrine into the World and did not also give the Preachers thereof a power of working miracles to confirm that it was from him Moses had this power when he was to set up the Law Jesus when he was to preach the Gospel to the Jews the Apostles when they were to convert the Gentiles But as St. Austin notes when once the World did believe this power ceased which was only given that they might believe Now if God had sent the Quakers with any new revelations how comes it to pass he hath given them no power of doing miracles or why do any believe them whenas God doth not bear witness to them as in other cases he alwayes did shall we take their own words for it or esteem their new Doctrines not confirmed with any Divine Powers as highly as we do the Holy Gospel witnessed by many thousand miracles this were to make our selves as foolish as those who dote upon them and to encourage every Cheat to impose his fancies on us as Divine Revelations who hath the confidence to say he is inspired 3. New Revelations do manifestly contradict the Faith of the primitive Christians and holy Fathers who called the Scriptures the truest rule of Doctrine the ancient measure of Faith the Divine Standard the Repository of all things necessary either to Faith or Manners they esteemed it great impudence to affirm any thing without their Authority or to expect any truths beyond what was written they desired not to be believed unless they proved their assertions by Scripture Did they not in every Councel examin all Doctrines and Opinions by the written Word of God and condemn those for Hereticks who invented new fancies not agreeing to it And when the Gnosticks Montanists and Messalians pretended to Prophecy Raptures and Inspiration they were censur'd as Impostors and Deceivers By all which it appears that if the Quakers had held forth their new Revelations in those pure and zealous dayes they had also been solemnly convicted and denounced Hereticks and why should we embrace that for a truth in these last and worst of times which the best Ages of the Church did reject as a notorious falshood 4. And yet this new Doctrine of new Revelations is not more false than it is mischievous to those who do believe it for hereby their faith is uncertain as their Teachers fancy and poor deluded souls do receive falshood and railing non-sense and blasphemy as if they came from the Spirit of God They despise the ancient and pure certain and fixed principles of Christianity received from Jesus and his Apostles sealed with the blood of Martyrs and retained by all good Christians and admire the discourse of a bold and empty man above them all they take upon them to appoint new wayes of worship and reject the old even the very Sacraments which Jesus himself instituted they neglect Learning themselves contemn it in others and would bring the World into an Egyptian darkness if others were of their mind and all this and much more they do for a thing that never was nor never will be proved for a dream a meer fancy and a miserable mistake which none can believe till they have first bid adieu to all sense and reason So that in meer pity to those mis-guided souls who follow this false and fantaltick light I cannot but make this digression to convince them that they adore a lie for Divine Revelation to the great hazard of their eternal damnation Par. But do you deny all Revelations Min. I own those Revelations which are upon Râ—…cord in the Holy Bible which is the Word of God wherein he hath revealed his Will to the Church but no other Revelations do I hearken after Par. But the Quakers tell us the Bible is a dead Letter but the Word of God is quick and powerful so is not the Bible Min. By such like sottish wayes of Reasoning I conceive the Speakers among them
hire The Mystical sense viz. the still further intendment of that Law was a Divine ordination that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel i. e. the Ministers of the Gospel ought to be provided for 1 Cor. 9. 9 12. Now as some Scriptures will bear a literal sense with the moral and the mystical there are yet other Scriptures that will not therefore in the fourth place such Texts as these are to be interpreted tropically Par. What do you mean by that Min. Such a figurative expression whereof there are several sorts which you will meet with in the reading of the Scriptures Some are metaphorical which is a borrowed expression when another thing is made use of to express our meanings by and cannot be taken literally as that of John 15. 1. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman The Prophet Isaiah prophecying of the admirable effects of Christianity useth these expressions Chap. 11. 6 7 8. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Child shall lead them And the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Ox and the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den Do you suppose that this Scripture is to be understood literally as if a time were coming when there should be a perfect reconcilement among the Creatures their natural antipathies being taken away No these are but so many metaphorical representations of the excellent temper of Christianity that the doctrine thereof will effect a real change in our natures That that savage waspish crusty humour of our natural dispositions shall by the Christian laws and the Spirit of Christ be transformed even into the meekness and innocency of a Lamb. And when our Lord bids us put out and cut off our offending eyes and hands he hath no design to provoke us to dismember our selves no 't is our darling sins and beloved vices which he levels at Again as some Scriptures are to be interpreted metaphorically so others allegovically which is by continuing of a Trope and this you have in the case of Hagar and Sarah Sinai and Sion which the Apostle calls the two Covenants and saith they are an Allegory Gal. 4. 24. c. to the Chapters end for so far you will find the explication of the Allegory continued Again there are other Scriptures which must be interpreted by an Hyperbole which is another kind of Trope or Figure when the truth of the thing affirmed lies not in the letters but in the priviledge of the phrase as John 21. 25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did which if they should be written every one I suppose that the World it self could not contain the Books that should be written Where the Evangelist takes a Rhetorical liberty that he might with greater elegancy express that our Saviour was not idle in this life but marvellously busie and active in it In other places God represents himself to us after the manner of men as attributing to himself eyes ears and hands walking sleeping repenting and the like it being the great mercy of God in so revealing himself and his dispensations to mankind that thereby he may accommodate himself to the understandings of men in such expressions as suit most with their weak capacities and common apprehensions by which he may make the more sensible impressions on us like to that Prophet who shrunk himself into the proportions of that Child whom he meant to revive Par. What do you infer from all this discourse Min. The necessary use of Learning lest we confound the senses of Scripture and take that Allegorically which we ought to take literally and that literally which we ought to take figuratively And what disorder this may create I leave to your self to judge After all these there remains a necessity of being acquainted with such Histories as give us a relation of those Rites Opinions Customes and Proverbs in use among the Jews and neighbouring Nations to which the Scriptures in many places have particular references without the knowledge whereof 't is impossible we should understand a Book of so great Antiquity or read it with that judgment estimation relish and delight as we should do did we discern the references and allusions that in it are frequently made to them Par. If you please we will pass to the next particular you told me of viz. That there is great use of Learning now for the right timing of Scripture What mean you by that phrase Min. That is to observe to what period of time the Histories and especially the prophecies in Scripture have a peculiar and proper relation and if due care be not taken therein the mischiefs that may arise from your want of circumspection will be innumerable Par. Explain your meaning by some instance and shew where any one Prophecy hath been mis-timed by the Quakers Min. What do you think of that famous Prophecy of Joel so much abused by Quakers Joel 2. 28. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions Which Prophecy they apply to this present Age therefore they say That the Quakers have an extraordinary Spirit according to the prediction thereof Par. But have not the Quakers reason to time that Prophecy to this present Age wherein we live and do we not see the Prophecy fulfilled in them Min. I cannot tell how to undeceive you better than in the words of a Learned Commentator upon that place who tells us that that Prophecy was cited and applyed by St. Peter Acts 2. to the times of the Gospel It shall come to pass afterward or in the last dayes saith God that I will pour out my Spirit or of my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those dayes will I pour out my Spirit or of my Spirit and they shall prophecy Whatsoever can be collected from this place to the benefit of the Pretenders will receive a short and clear answer by considering the time to which this prediction and the completion of it belonged and that is expresly the last dayes in the notion wherein the Writers of the New Testament constantly use that phrase not for these dayes of ours so far advanced toward the end of the world which yet no man knows how far distant it still is but for the time immediately preceding the destruction of the Jewish Polity their City and Temple That this is it appears not