word as written to have been a rule before it was written Although we shall not doubt to prove that those Patriarchs had the same foundation to build on and the same Law or Rule to walk by though they were not then committed to writing The Apostle tells us Gal. 3. 8. that the Scripture preached the Gospel to Abraham where it is observable that Abrahams light was Scripture light before the Scriptures were written 2. The question between us is not whether the Scriptures be the personall or reall ground of faith but whether as Mr. Thomas well distinguisheth it be the Doctrinall or declarative ground or foundation of faith This distinction whether you will admit or no we must premise because we would not be engaged to fight with a meer shadow If you will own the Scriptures to be a doctrinall foundation or ground of faith i. e. to hold forth from God those Doctrines which and which onely we are bound to beleive our dispute is at an end for we are of a mind we owne Christ alone to be the foundation or ground of faith personall or reall that is to be the person or thing that our faith is built on and the Scriptures to be the onely ground and foundation by way of Doctrine or declaration what we are to beleive concerning Christ and how to beleive on him We hope you will understand us we speak as plaine as we can to avoid cavills about termes All therefore that we are to prove in this question is that all things which vve beleive and do as necessary in order to salvation are to be such as are contained in the Scripture and to be judged by it whether they be so or no. We say All things which we beleive and do as necessary in order Sect. 62 to the salvation of our Soules are to be such as are contained in Scripture If not because to please you we must not argue from Scripture we desire you to satisfie us Q. 1. What thing necessary to be beleived or done in order to salvation there is which we may or must receive from any other Rule or build on any other foundation and what is that Rule or foundation We suppose you are bound either to allow our rule or shew us a bettor Or Q. 2. Whether what the Scriptures containe be sufficient to guide us to salvation or no If you affirme it then we shall think our selves well enough with our old Rule seeing vve may be saved and yet admit no other If you deny it you must out-stare these plaine Texts 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. From a Child thou hast knowne the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation And all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousnesse That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work And that of John wherewith he closeth his twentieth Chapter These speaking of the signes which Christ did are written that yee might beleive that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that beleiving yee might have life through his name Say not that this concernes onely the Gospel of John or if more onely the Histories of the Evangelists For then we shall make bold to conclude our Position à fortiori If there be enough in one or at most four Bookes to work faith and thereby bring us to salvation much more in all the Scriptures Q. 3. Whether the Scriptures of the old and new Testament be the word of God or no or do you owne no word of God but Christ We suppose here you will answer us as your brethren here do We dare not deny it for feare of the Law we dare not affirm it for then we deny our own principles We know not how you will answer it But we must tell you if you deny it we are sure the Scriptures affirme it of themselves else we desire to know what it is that is called the Word of God in the places following Mar. 7. 13. 2 Cor. 2. 17. 4. 2. What it is that David so often calls by the name of thy word Ps 119. whether Christ spake himselfe or the declarative word of God Lu. 5. 1. If you affirme it We ask further Q. 4. Whether it be not the duty of the Creature to beleive and be guided by the declared word of God rather then by any others word whatsoever Q. 5. Whether there be any such thing in the World as Heresie or Errour If there be not to vvhat purpose are all those Prophesies that foretell and Cautions that forewarne Gods people against them in the Scripture If there be may they be discovered or no If they may not how can it be a duty incumbent upon Saints to avoid them is there any avoiding of an undiscoverable evill If they may by vvhat rule but the written Word Q. 6. Whether there be any duty or sin in the World or no The affinity your Sect hath vvith the Ranters in Principles vvhich G. Fox acknowledgeth makes us beleive that some of you vvould they speak out must answer No but what a man thinkes to be so We vvill not judge the thoughts But if you be more sober vve onely ask you Q. 7. What rule vve have to judge of vvhat is Duty or Sin but the vvritten Law of God Is it the light of every mans private bosome This is the forementioned Ranting Principle Is it immediate Revelation For to this your brethren incline as may be seen in the Quaeries sent to Mr. Baxter of Kiderminster one of vvhich vvas Whether he owned Revelations or no And Naylers Answer to his Quakers Catechisme and that very strongly yea they pretend to the same mission from God to this or that place to do this or that errand which the Prophets had of old and to be limited in their stay in and departure from such places by the immediate commands of God * See Deusberies discovery and his owne confession therein That at Derby he answered the Major that he would stay there till the Lord ordered him to go out of Towne and when he was put out returned and staid till he was free in his spirit to depart p. 8 9. If you be of their mind vve further enquire Q. 8. What certaine token you have to know the commands of God from the commands of Satan seeing he can easily insinuate his suggestions by inward voices as commands of God According to the old Law of God to his people the Jewes Pretenders to a Spirit of Prophesie though they gave evidence of their pretended mission from God by signes and wonders and those coming to passe too yet were to be discovered and judged by the written word Deut. 13. 1 2 3. c. And in the new Testament the Doctrine of an Angell from Heaven is submitted under a curse to the Doctrine preached by the Apostles Gal. 1. 8. And we desire to know
whether you vvill submit your Revelations to this Touchstone or no If so you yeild the question If not then whatever Commands or Prohibitions you receive in the way of revelation you must obey vvhether agreeing or disagreeing to the written Law of God And then how far the examples of Abraham offering up his Son and Phinehas executing vengeance yea and vvhen time serves Ehuds message from God to Eglon may be witnessed in you as you speak we know Judg. 3. 19 not and shall pray vve never may by experience Q. 9. Whether the Scriptures do not establish it selfe as the rule of Faith in referring all pretenders to new light to the Law and the Testimony and telling us expresly That if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in Isa 20. 8. them And whether the light in you and in your companions be not darknesse that will not undergo this tryall Q. 10. Whether the phrases of walking in the Law of the Lord keeping Gods Testimonies taking heed to a mans way according to Gods word not wandering from Gods Commandements Ps 119 1 2. 9 10. 21. 30. 35. 51. 102. 110. 133. 157. laying Gods Jugdments before him going in the path of Gods Commandements not declining from Gods Law not departing from Gods Judgments not erring from his Precepts ordering his steps in Gods word not declining from his testimonies Are not cleare evidences that David made the written word that then was his Rule And you owne Davids Rule for yours p. 8. Q. 11. Whether you think in your conscience that Deut. 5. 32 33. doth not convincingly prove the Scripture to be the Saints rule The words are Yee shall observe to do therfore as the Lord your God hath commanded you and before vve have the repitition of the written Law You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left c. Your answer in your book is in summe P. 7. that all the Scripture was not then written But did not Moses therein establish as much as was then written for the rule the Saints of those times were to walk by Besides these words immediatly refer to the Morall Law before repeated in the same Chapter And will you exclude that from being the Saints rule as well as other Scriptures Then indeed there vvill be no duty or sin but as a man thinks Q. 12. Whether you deale honestly with Calvin in that P. 20. Scripture Eph. 2. 20. whilest you tell your Readers that he saith in Terminis That the Apostle doth in that Scripture intend Jesus Christ to whom the Prophets and Apostles did beare witnesse Whereas Calvin saith expresly It is without doubt that the foundation in this place is taken for the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles And therefore Paul teacheth that the Quin fundamentum hic pro doctrina sumatur minime dubium est Et itaque docet Paulus fidem ecclesiae in hac doctrina debere esse fundatam Calv. in l. Churches faith ought to be founded on this Doctrine And there is not any mention at all of those vvords in Calvin vvhich you quote from him To say the truth vve much vvonder how you could have the brazen face to father a saying upon Calvin vvhich he never said till vve looked upon Marlorate whose mis-quotation or rather the fault of his Printer it seemes deceived you for there vve find among other things there ascribed to Calvin this passage you mention But it concerned a man of your acutenesse not to have taken up a report from another vvhen Calvins vvorks are so common in every Shop and Study that vvith a little paines more you might have conversed vvith the Originall Author whence Marlorate makes his collections But it seemes you vvere vvilling to snatch at any thing that seemed to support your cause vvhere ever you found it And yet you shewed no part of ingenuity in your usage of Marlorate himself vvho together vvith that passage vvhich you quote and under the same note by which he distinguisheth Calvins vvords cites Calvin point blank against you saying that the Apostle shewes in that place how the Ephesians vvere made fellow Citizens vvith the Saints Nempe si fundati sint in Prophetarum Apostolorum Doctrinâ to wit If they be founded on the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles These words and others to the same purpose immediatly precede your owne quotation vvhich renders your dis-ingenuity the more culpable as shewing a vvilfull designe of abusing so reverend a name to delude your Readers Q. 13. In a vvord tell us ingenuously Whether we must or must not beleive the Doctrines which the Scriptures lay downe upon their owne authority If vve must vvhy do you quarrell at those that call them the rule ground foundation of faith seeing every intelligent man will tell you that it is the same thing to beleive the Doctrines of the Scripture upon the Scriptures authority and to make the Scriptures the ground rule foundation of faith If vve must not then tell us what superadded to the Scriptures owne Authority renders their Doctrines more credible We observe the Papists state this question as you do But they vvill answer us ingenuously That they beleive the Scriptures because the Church hath confirmed them And the Socinians are of your mind also but they deale fairely too and speak out That they will beleive the Scriptures as far as reason votes with them Would you speak out vve doubt you must confesse you are very neer these last in your judgment Why do you not tell us plainly that you beleive the Doctrines laid down in the Scripture as far as the light within you concurs with them And then vve shall know vvhat you mean in denying the Scriptures to be the rule and ground of faith Viz. That as much as pleaseth you you vvill beleive and vvhat dislikes you shall be cashiered as an old Declarative or an Almanack out of date as some of your Cater-cosins the Familists have blasphemously called the Bible Q. 14. Lastly Whether God vvill not judge every man vvho lives within the sound of the Gospell by the written word If not what meanes the Apostle Paul when he saith that as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2. 12. 16. And seeing we are upon this subject give us leave to enquire yet a little further what are those Books out of which the dead shall be judged and whence one day God will draw the rule of his proceedings in the day of Judgment as you may find Apoc. 2. 12. If God vvill judge us out of the written word after death surely we are not to be blamed if we study that Statute-Law and labour to conforme our beleif and practise thereunto whilest we live which must judge us when we dye Or else we pray you
of our bodies meet with no other entertainment then an Who hath required these things at your hands And we desire you particularly to consider what the Apostle Paul tells you that if a man give up his very body to be burned and have not charity 1 Cor. 13. 3. it profits him nothing And surely if your generation be sufferers you are the most uncharitable sufferers that ever were and Martyrs that have been in the World from Christs time till the starting up of your new Apostles within these 3. or 4. years are so far from that charity wch other sufferers in Scripture have had to their bloodiest Persecutors that your mouthes are full of rayling reviling cursing and bitternesse to those that do not meddle with you further then it concernes them in their places to preserve others under their charge from the infection of such abominations as those fore-mentioned However We have not so learned Christ as to render evill for evill but desire to suffer under the sharp Arrowes of your tongues as he gave us an example not reviling againe when we are reviled by you but committing our Cause Callings and Maintenance to him that judgeth uprightly And to instruct even the worst of Opposers in meeknesse trying if God will at any time give them repentance to 2 Tim. 2. 25. 26. the acknowledgment of the Truth and that they may recover them out of the snare of the Devill who are taken captive by him at his will which we yet with pity towards and prayer for you are assured to be the condition of your selfe and your Clients in this Cause ANd now Sir after a tedious pursuit of you through all Sect. 57 the windings and turnings of your subtle insinuating Epistle it may be expected we should proceed to your Book it selfe But we shall wave it as we before told you for these reasons First Because a great part of it hath been once served up in the Epistle and because we found it not seasoned with salt by us already discovered and rejected as unsavoury So that we shall not cloy the Reader with a second course of it Secondly Because that we find that it is wholly made up of personall contests with Mr Thomas and insolent reflexions and reproaches upon him into whose harvest we desire not to thrust in our Sicle besides that we are advertised that he intends to take that task in hand himselfe and we are assured that he will not need any assistance from us or any other to answer it as it deserves Onely because you so often call the Scriptures in scorne our Rule in your Epistle and therein expresly reject all Interpretations and deductions which we draw from them in preaching or dispute we will here subjoyne these two questions Q. 1. Whether the holy Scriptures be the Saints ground and rule of faith and practise Q. 2. Whether it be lawfull without an infallible spirit to interpret Scripture or draw consequences and deductions thence In both these you defend the Negative we the Affirmative As to the first of them in your Book you stand only upon Sect. 58 your defence against some Texts quoted by Mr. Thomas concerning which we leave you to his second charge wherein we doubt not but he will fetch them off without losse Mean while we cannot but take notice of the Artifices of your selfe and others of the generation you close withall 1. We observe that in most or all matters of difference betwixt us you put us upon the proof of our Principles and practises and offer none for your owne which is a slye way of hiding your owne weaknesse and discovering our strength that so you may make your advantages of it Which is as if a man should sue another at Law to produce his evidences by which he holds his Land to be canvassed by his owne Counsell without exhibiting any thing in his owne behalfe to justifie his claime to it 2. We observe also that you reserve to your selves a liberty of excepting against the Jurisdiction of the Court in which the cause is depending not allowing it a power to decide the case if you see you selves likely to be cast in Judgment although you will owne it so far as you suppose it may serve your turne against us For you call us forth to a tryall by the Scriptures and yet will not allow them to be the rule to decide the controversie 3. We observe thirdly that you will have the choice of the Weapons in this encounter not only for your selfe but us also setting up a Star-chamber Court of your own first to damne our Evidences and then forsooth you will fight with us when you have disarmed us You will dispute with us from the Scripture and yet will allow us no Arguments to dispute withall A valiant undertaking and worthy peice of Chivalry for which you deserve to be recorded among the chiefe Champions of the Quaking Knight Errantry But we hope upon second thoughts you may be perswaded Sect. 59 not to disparage your owne atchievements upon us by keeping your selfe within the security of an Irish bogg where it is harder to come at you then conquer you and come forth into the plain field where we may encounter you upon even termes If otherwise we shall take it as an Argument of your Cowardize and yet rather swallow any inconvenience then not dislodge you and set up the Banners of Truth upon your owne ground And first we will try you with a few Quaeries which seeing Sect. 60 they are your owne familiar way of arguing we hope you will admit into your consideration Q. 1. Whether you will receive the Scriptures Testimony concerning it selfe or no If you will then Q. 2. Is it not the rule of faith by your owne confession For it is that to which you submit your saith in this question If you will not then Q. 3. To what purpose do you require of Mr. Thomas to produce a Scripture P. 4. that saith in Terminis it is the rule when if he do the question is as far from being decided as before In the next place we will state the question between us that Sect. 61 we may understand one another First therefore the question betwen us is not Whether the Scriptures or written word have been the ground and rule of faith and practise in all ages of the World but whether in every age of the World since any part of them was written so much as was written in any age were not the rule by which those of that age were to be regulated and consequently whether to the ages that have been and shall be since the whole was compleated the whole be not so and to continue so to the Worlds end So that you are quite besides the Cushion and the Question in the instances of Abel Enoch and Ahraham and all the Patriarchs before Moses who wrote the first Scripture We are not so silly as to affirme the
Baxtet Quakers Catechism Tutors For are they not the very same things which they object against us That we have not an infalliable Spirit to interpret Scriptures and that we differ among our selves in our interpretations and therefore when we appeale to Scripture as the only Judge of Controversies between us they as you do deny it upon this account because we have no infallible Spirit to interpret the Scriptures controverted and thereby give an Authoritative decision of them And what we answer to them we therefore say to you in a word The Scripture we owne as our onely Rule and Judge in matters of faith and we owne no interpretation of Scripture nor desire others to owne any but such as hold proportion with other Scriptures and such interpretations and deductions are so far infallible as they do necessarily agree to them or follow from them But say you further You have some of you been Teachers in Sect. 73 this Nation ten twenty thirty yeares were those things that you have taught so many yeares together necessarily deduced from Scripture What then If not say you then by your owne confession you have taught falsehood But stay Sir every deduction that is not necessarily drawne from Scripture is not falsehood A true conclusion may have but a probable consequence sometimes to infer it from the premisses It s truth is never the lesse for that but its evidence But suppose we should confesse for once that all which we deduce from Scripture is not true We know not what use you will make of it except this that those that do not alwaies speak truth are not to be thought at any time to do so And if so we know whom this inference will hit as well as our selves What think you of the Apostle Peter whom Paul withstood to his face Gal. 2. 11. for countenancing the false brethren in the Doctrine and practise of the Mosaicall Ordinances among the Gentile Churches and compelling the Gentiles to live as the Jewes was he never in the right or not to be beleived to be so because he was then in the wrong Nay doth not God himselfe suppose a possibility of being deceived in the best of his Ministers when he bids hearers prove all things 1 Thes 5. 21. and commends the Beroeans for searching the Scriptures whether the things that Paul and Silas preached were so or no Act. 17. 11. We suppose that no godly Minister will preach that which he knowes to be false But if without his knowledge yea or with his knowledge any one should do so it is the hearers fault if he be deceived thereby because he hath a certain rule whereby to examine what he teacheth and we professe we desire no further to be credited then the Scripture will beare us out in what we say But suppose there be some of us possibly to be found who Sect. 74 will justifie all that they have preached for so long time to be truth necessarily deduced from Scripture What of that Why then say you all that is so taught is infallible True And what then Forsooth then you add why do you not then adjoyn all your Sermons to the Scripture for if necessarily deduced from Scripture they are Scripture and a part of the Saints rule And so you go on it would become so voluminous a Book that many poore Soules Estates would not buy a Bible We shall give you a breif account why we do not if it may do you service And that is because we do not judge our selves so immediatly inspired in our Sermons although we deliver the same truths the holy Pen-men of God were in penning of the Scriptures The sacred Writers of Scripture did not onely write the things they left upon record to the Church by immediate inspiration but the words and phrases in which they expressed them Whereas the best Ministers that since have been have been faine to expresse those truths in notions and tearmes of their owne yea and the Apostles themselves in their popular Sermons And therefore we suppose the H. Ghost thought not fit to record all the popular Sermons which were preached by the Apostles themselves but only appointed them to draw up the summe of the Doctrine they generally taught in expressions of their owne into a forme of sound words of his owne inspiration to be a Standard of Doctrine and expression to succeeding ages And yet supposing the Apostles alwaies preached as they Sect. 75 wrote by immediate inspiration as to matter and forme then we ask you Why they did not bind up all their Sermons with the Canonicall Scriptures seeing all they taught was infallible Whatever you answer hereunto will be applied to our case But we suppose John gives you a sufficient reason in the close of his Gospel There are many other things saith he which Jesus Jo. 21. 25. did which if they should be written every one I suppose that even the World it selfe would not containe the Bookes that should be written So that God therefore thought fit to keep from after Ages part of the History of Christ that the Bible might not be too voluminous And we hope the same reason will serve for us if we do not bind up our necessary and infallible deductions with the Bible In a word this question is proposed with no greater measure Sect. 76 of discretion then if you should ask Whether all the Bushells and Yards and Pints in every mans house or shop in Bristoll be exact measure or no If all say yee then you further enquire Why they do not all bring them into the Market-house or publick place appointed for that purpose and chaine them all to the common Standard seeing they are all alike exact with it Surely to such a wise question the answer will be easie Viz. Because one publick Standard is enough to measure private Measures by and the severall Tradesmen according to their severall imployments having once had their private Measures tryed by that can make profitable use of them at home We shall leave you to make the application to the Question in hand But before we dismisse this captious Argument of yours Sect. 77 you shall give us leave to retort it upon you and then see whether you can give a wiser answer to your owne question in your owne case then we have done in ours We ask therefore Is all that George Fox James Nayler or your selfe teach write and pronounce as from God For from Scripture you will not say you speak seeing that it is not your rule of Doctrine necessarily true or no If not then by your owne confession you have if your owne Argument be good taught falsehood if so then all you and they have taught is infallible for you say it is dictated by the same Spirit that indited the Scriptures and so equall to them your Epistles are as good as St. Pauls is before-said by some of you And then why do you not adjoyne all your Preachments and
to conceit the case altered in their own concernments from what they rigorously pronounce concerning others We have not yet quite done with you and therefore we must Sect. 84 crave your patience a little longer whilest we ask you a few plaine Questions upon this subject now at hand Q. 1. Sir you will admit of no interpretations of Scripture we entreat you therefore to tell us Christ saith he is the true Vine and his Father an Husbandman Jo. 15. 1. Are they properly so or Metaphorically If you say metaphorically or improperly you interpret for the Texts expresse words are not I am a metaphoricall Vine and my Father a metaphoricall Husbandman If you say properly you blaspheme Q. 2. Christ saith I am the door Jo. 10. 9. You beleive you Epistle p. 7. say that Christ meanes as he speakes and therefore you deny our meanings and interpretations as needlesse Is Christ then that which we in propriety of speech call a door If you say he is in a spirituall sence a door who interprets now Do we offend if we interpret this Text of a spirituall door to a mysticall building and you though you give the same sense not so Q. 3. Nay what say you further to those two places of Paul and James which in words flatly contradict one another Yee see saith James that by workes a man is justified and not by faith onely Ja. 2. 24. But we know saith Paul That a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 2. 16. You will allow vve hope that the Scriptures are truth though they be not the word of God Now truth and truth contradict not each other so that vve must find a different sense from the contexts of both places wherein the one affirmes that works justifie not and the other that they do This reconciliation is usually made by our Divines thus St. Paul denies works to constitute any person just before God and James affirmes that workes declare a person just How you without interpretation vvill reconcile them we know not especially when vve consider that you are a greater friend to constitutive justification by workes if you be of the mind of your fellow Quakers then vve believe James was and so are more concerned to study how to come off fairely with Paul then vve Q. 4. And now vve are upon the point of reconciling Scriptures vve shall make you a little more work in this kind Christ saith The Father is greater then I and yet he saith againe I and the Father are one And Paul saith of him That he accounted it no Robbery to be equall with God Phil. 2. 9. The Apostle John saith There are three that heare record in Heaven the Father the Word and the H. Ghost and these three are one Shew us without interpretation how Christ can be equall with the Father without robbery and one with him and yet the Father greater then he how the Father the word and the H. Ghost can be three and yet one And we might here also put you the question that our Saviour put to the Pharisees Mat. 22. 41. How Christ is Davids Son and yet Davids Lord and we suppose with the same successe that you will never be able to Answer us a word if you hold your Principle of denying all interpretations but that your forehead possibly may be harder then the Pharisees Q. 5. What will you say to a Papist but that you owne not the Scripture as a rule of Doctrine which indeed is a quick way of Answering all difficult Texts when he tells you that he finds Transubstantiation in this is my body Is the expression proper or figurative was the bread his body indeed or a Signe of it if you say his body indeed you are a Papist if not you interprete Sir to be short we shall take leave to mind you of these particulars and we have done 1. As to that un-christian passage of yours viz. a righteousnesse beyond the Stars a Righteousnesse far above us as you call the Righteousnesse of Christ in a slighting manner and we have just ground to feare some of those you plead for speake to that purpose in a spighting way we heartily advise you to take heed what you doe that you may not be found in the number of those who by wicked hands labour to pull the Crowne from the Head of Jesus and destroy the very being of Holynesse amongst men for all the workes of such Persons at the best are but beautifull deformities and although they may be highly esteemed amongst men yet they are abomination before the Holy God for our parts we are not ashamed of the Gospell of Christ and have through mercy determined not to know any thing amongst our People but Jesus Christ and him crucified and we judge it a speciall duty in this season the Lord helpe us in it that the more you and your complices doe either wretchedly reflect upon or downe right Blaspheme and speake against that Glorious Righteousnesse the more to exalt and make mention of that Righteousnesse even that only 2. Whereas you say could the Scripture be a rule before it was Scripture We answer the word now written even the selfe same word was the very same and had the same Office viz. to be a Divine ground of faith and rule of life before it was written as for instance Enochs Prophecie quoted by Jude 14. 15 concerning the judge the attendants the Persons to be judged the judgement it selfe the deeds and words for which they are judged is the very same with the written word and Gods word to Abraham Gen 17. 1. I am God al-sufficient waelke before me and be upright is the same with nay is the summe of the written word yet this was spoken foure hundred yeares before a word was committed to writing it being generally agreed upon that Moses was the first holy man that did write by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Pray Sir tell us what difference was there between the Law as spoken by the mouth of God and afterwards written by the finger of God When Moses being provoked in the businesse of the Golden Calfe had broken the two Tables God commanded him to make two Tables of Stone more and the Text tells us that God did write the very selfe same words that he had written before in the first Tables Exod. 34. 1. the Truth is you doe but trifle in your Quaerie yet we feare you border not far from Blasphemy you nusle up your quaking freinds in their horrid rejecting of the Scriptures to be the rule and so make them listen after inspirations you would make void the word of God through your pretended Revelations and pull that pure and perfect clear Light out of the Firmament of Assembleis that men might follow the ignis fatuus of their darkned minds and deceitfull hearts 3. You quaere Whether our Sermons are infallible and if so why they
it withall For do you believe in earnest that those Prophets of whom Sect. 4. Micah speaks that teach for hire and divine for money or those Mic. 3 11. Mar. 23. 5 6 7. whom our Saviour notes for doing their works to be seen of men for standing to pray in the Synagogues and the corners of the streets for loving the uppermost roomes at Feasts c. are characters suiting the men of your indignation whom you endeavour to degrade from the esteem they have as Ministers of Christ by such intimations as these You pretend to something of Scholarship and reason and cannot but know except your new light have quite put out the old that the Priests and Prophets that Micah speaks of were such as made their hire the end of their teaching and prophesying and accordingly accommodated their Doctrines to the corrupt humours of those from whom they expected their reward a thing which a fixed maintenance by Tithes or otherwise by Law established secures our Ministers from the tentation of It is you and your brethren that would make us such as you slander us to be by reducing us to voluntary contributions which would be quickly detained from us as often as we should dare to differ from the opinions or reprove the Vices of our Neighbours And who are you Sir that judge our hearts when you tell Sect. 5. us what we aime at and set up as our end in teaching which you do more then once and twice in your Epistle and Book How long have you been seated in the Throne of the most high God and made a Judge of the secrets of mens hearts that you tell us that we preach for hire and do our works to be seen of men and that we love the upper-most roomes c. As for standing to pray in the Synagogues if you consult the place whence you pretend to draw that parallell between the Pharisees and us you will find that the action is not condemned but the end to be seen of men they neglecting in the mean time to pray in their Mat. 6. 5. Closets where man could not take notice of their devotion And so this charge except you will say with some of your companions that you know the heart comes under the same G. Fox see the perfect Pharisee p. 49. and 4. condemnation of slander with the rest The corners of the streets if they be used by any persons in these daies for religious uses we know not who herein resemble the Pharisees more then those of your own Fraternity and Sisterhood too who though they meddle little with prayer it is to be seared any where yet choose the streets and Market-places to vent their pretended Declarations from God Your next Paragraph endeavours to fasten upon us the imputation Sect. 6. of Persecuters and upon your selves the character of Christian sufferers To which we shall say only thus much in this place That we adore that gracious Providence which keeps us out of the reach of your malice otherwise we are assured we should not be long without that persecution which you make the badge of true Ministers for better Doctrines and practises then those which some of yours suffer for In the mean while we have our shares sufficiently in the persecution of your tongues and hands as far as you can by impoverishing us and our Families by detaining our just and legall subsistence disturbing us in the exercise of our publick worship c. which we suffer constantly from those of your fellowship and communion What further needs to be spoken to this head as it concernes your usage from us will be taken up in its due place and more largely debated with you hereafter See Sect. 9 10. That we are not the Ministers of Christ because we indent Sect. 7. for our maintenance where we sit down in a charge and that we sue for the tenth of their increase those that owne us not for their Pastors is the summe of your charge To the first branch whereof we can divers of us reject it as a meer slander many Ministers in this Nation living upon as free a contributionmaintenance as any of your selves but in a more orderly way Their people contribute to those Pastors that reside among them and not to wandering Preachers whose faces they seldome see and from whose standing converse with or inspection over them they can receive no benefit And others of us maintain many Lectures either simply or joyntly for which we receive as little as the Quakers themselves would wish And as for those that either indent for maintenance or enter upon the maintenance already setled by Law we are sure they are not blame-worthy for that to gain the repute of Ministers they do not prove themseles worse then Infidells in not providing for themselves and their Families which the Apostles light makes a badge of one that hath denied the faith the proper 1 Tim. 5. 8. character of some of yours who wander up and down to the manifest and apparent ruine of themselves and those that they are bound to provide for Nor are we at all startled at the practise of the Apostles under an extraordinary command so confessed in effect by your selves in your own practise for why else do you not travell about to declare without Purses or Shooes on your feet or Staves in your hands commands immediatly subjoyning to that of giving freely what they had Mat. 10. 8 9 10. freely received in the same place of Scripture and appearing to be such if we compare Luke 22. 36. where Christ in another exigency of time allowes them to make that provision for themselves which in the former command he forbad them For we are sufficiently assured that the Apostles themselves were maintained by the Church in which they laboured excepting only the Apostle Paul and his companion Barnabas and that only Act. 20. 34 See 2 Cor. 11. 7. v. 9. and 2 Thes 3. 8 9. at Ephesus Corinth and Thessalonica where little to their credit too if we mark the tart reflexions of the Apostle upon their sordidnesse they wrought with their hands for speciall reasons assigned in the Texts themselves yet withall the said Apostle asserts it as an Ordinance of God and that founded upon reason and Scripture too that they that preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel and withall affirmeth his owne and his brethrens power to have claimed the same from them which they received from other Churches We forbeare transcribing Texts you may find this and more 2 Thes 3. 9. and 1 Cor. 9 from verse 6. to the end of the 14. which Scripture we observe in most of the Pamphlets published by the Adversaries of Ministers maintenance is passed over with deep silence and so expect it will be by you and your brotherhood or answered by the common refuge of Hereticks the decrying of interpretations and inferences upon Scripture When you further urge
then from the spirit of the Lord and call them the word of the Lord to us when we can produce the printed Books of others of your Fraternity whence they are most of them stollen word for word †T. C. his Quaeres to one of us borrowed to a Title out of a Book directed to all that would know the way to the Kingdom Excepting false english Sect. 32 To your eleventh Article wherein you justifie your confidence in advising us to preach no more to the people then the Lord hath spoken to us and then we our selves witnesse the life and power of in our selves We say that t is true your are noted for confidence enough and none more then your female Declarers who for such a scolding religion as yours is are very well furnished with a Billingsgate confidence Concerning whom by the way we will be bold to examine you upon a few Interrogatories Q. 1. Whether the Spirit of God ever did act any persons with a boldnesse and confidence that breaks the Lawes of Nature and Civility Q. 2. Whether your Prophetesses that come to declare in publick Assemblies and some of them sometimes naked * As at Whitehall not long since and elsewhere Jer. 3. 3. do not break the Lawes of Nature and civility Q. 3. Whether such immodest practises be not too great evidences against many of them that they are so far from Religion that they have much corrupted the principles of common honesty And whether such brazen-faced impudency in such be not in the language of Scripture an Whores forehead Q. 4. Whether Pauls light or yours be better who saith Let the woman learne in silence with all subjection But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence 1 Tim. 3. 11. 12. Whereas you allow your women to teach in our Assemblies and your owne and in the very Streets and Market-places and to usurp Authority over us who take our selves to be men charging us to speak no more in the name of the Lord c. And what confidence emboldens the rest of you to come into our Assemblies and against the wills of the Officers to deliver your rayling charges there to the disturbance of whole Congregations your selves best know Only this we desire to know of you Q. 1. Whether Christ or his Apostles ever practised the like liberty in the Synagogues of the Jewes without leave first obtained from the Rulers We find not that our Saviour Christ at Nazareth opened his mouth to speak to the people in the Synagogue till the Minister delivered him the Book in token of the liberty granted him to teach there Luke 4 17. 20. And we find the Apostle Paul and his companion Barnabas at Antioch sate down and were silent till the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them and gave them liberty Act. 13. 14 15. And yet supposing they did their miraculous gifts were a sufficient demonstration that they had an higher authority We see no such in any of you Q. 2. Whether you be not herein so confident as to offer violence to that very Article of the Government by which you yourselves claime liberty in disturbing those who as professing faith in God by Jesus Christ are worshiping him according to their Consciences Q. 3. Whether it be not an apparant designe of Satan to imploy such confident men and women to make such disturbances at such a time when people should go home and meditate upon what they have heard to hinder and divert them But you think that you have warrant for all this confidence Sect. 33 because you only advise us to preach no more to the people then the Lord hath spoken to us c. Which advice of yours were it delivered in a sober private Christian way we hope we should take well at your hands and do assure you that we will to our utmost ability practise accordingly But we doubt that so much will not satisfie except we renounce what God speaks to us in the written word and hearken for Gods voice in unwritten revelations In which sense we must professe we think it were great boldnesse indeed in you to require us not to preach more then God hath spoken to us Seeing you undertake to forbid what God requires and our Saviour Christ and his Apostles accordingly practised The Apostle to Timothy tells him and us that the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God and are profitable for doctrine reproof correction c. To what purpose is the Scripture avouched to be profitable for Doctrine if we may raise no Doctrines from it for reproof correction and instruction if we may not lay it as the ground of all these 2 Tim. 3. 16. And in the same Epistle chap. 2. 2. he commands Timothy to commit what he had heard of him to faithfull men who shall be able to teach others also Had your quaking Generation been on foot then would they not have had the confidence to charge Timothy to speak nothing to the people but what he had heard from God immediatly and those that received Pauls Doctrine at the second hand from Timothy much more But whether the Apostle Paul or you be to be obeyed let sober men judge Sure we are that our Saviour Christ himself took for his Text what the Lord had many years before spoken to the Prophet Isaiah Luke 4. 17. 18. And for the Apostles and Apostolicall men we find them preaching those things which they learned from the Scriptures Apollos Act. 18. 28. shewed by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ And when the great question concerning Circumcision and the Mosaicall observances was started among the Apostles and Elders Act. 15. James quotes the word of the Lord to Amos v. 16 17. in that Assembly And the Apostle Paul Act 26. before Agrippa and Festus professeth He in all his Doctrine witnessed saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say So that he preached the word that was spoken to Moses and the Prophets and yet none that we read of charged him to cease from preaching more then God had immediatly spoken to him And we hope we may safely disobey your councels or commands herein under the protection of such great examples As for the other part of your advice to us that we preach no more then we our selves witnesse the life and power of within our Sect. 34 selves We would hope you mean Orthodoxly in it to wit that we practise what we preach wch if it be all you intend herein we assure you we do and we hope shall be enabled by grace to do so more and more But when we look upon the papers of others of your brethren we doubt you mean we must not preach any thing of the Histories and Prophesies of the Scripture See faith full discovery of mysticall Antichrist pag. in their literall sense but only the experiences of the Allegoricall senses their
upon you by those Witnesses vvho vve are assured vvill stand to their vvords vvhenever they are called to make them good The Quakers Doctrines 1. That they are equall with God as holy just and good as Sect. 54 God himself Affirmed by G. Fox and J. Nayler before Witnesses Perfect Pharisee p. 3. See also the Relation of the irreligion of the Northern Quakers vvho attest it in a Book called the perfect Pharisee published by five Ministers of Newcastle 2. Suitable hereunto vvas the blasphemy of one of your Shee-Quakers lately in hold in this Towne vvho being convented before the Major of this Corporation and asked what she was and what was her name roundly answered and stood to it againe the next day I AM THAT I AM which will be attested upon Oath by the Major and one of the Constables 3. Suitable to this was the blasphemy of another of your Brethren who meeting with a godly Londiner occasionally being in this Town on a Lords day lately and asking him the way as he met him to one of our Churches answered him in these words The Church is in God and the Church is God 4. That the being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him Sword of the Lord by James Atkinson Quaker 5. That the Nature and Glory of the Elect differ not from the Nature and Glory of the Creator For the Elect are one with the Creator in his Nature enjoying his Glory That the Elect is not distinct from the Creator Howgill and Burroughs two Quakers in an answer to Reeve 6. And that God is not distinct from living Creatures for in him living reatures lives moves c. 7. That God is three persons or subsistences they say is a lye That there is no distinctions of persons in the Godhead Sword of the Lord by J. Atkinson G. Fox Errand to Damascus 8. That the Soul is a part of the Divine Essence See perfect Pharisee p. 6. 9 That Jesus Christ is God and man in one person they say is a lye 10. They deny and detest this Doctrine That Christ being the only God and man in one person remaines for ever a distinct person from all Saints and Angels notwithstanding their Vnion and communion with him Sword of the Lord by James Atkinson 11. That the person that Son of God which died at Jerusalem is not the Redeemer of man from sin but the Redeemer is in every man that light by which he is given to see him c. The discourse of a Quaker vvith Jo Toldervy Foot out of the snare p. 7. 12. That Christ is in every man even Heathen Indians and in the Reprobates he is held under corruption J. Nayler See perfect Pharisee p. 7 13. That Christ was a man had his failings for he distrusted God upon the Crosse Rob. Collison See Gilpins Book p. 2. 14. That we are not justified by that Righteousnesse of Christ which he in his own person did fulfill without us And that whosoever expects to be saved by him that died at Jerusalem shall be deceived For Christ in the flesh was in all that he died and suffered a Figure and nothing but an example 15. That we are therefore to be saved not by the righteousnesse of Christ imputed to us but by the righteousnesse of Christ inherent in us See both these in the perfect Pharisee with their Testimonies p. 9 10 11. And Howgill and Burroughs Answ to Bennet Q. 9. And another to the same purpose saith That the faith and justification which stands in the comprehension of Christ without will stand us in no stead Fr. Gawler to Mr. Miller of Cardiff 16. That God and man cannot be perfectly reconciled till he be brought into the state of the first Adam and able in his own power to stand perfect And that holy workes and lives of Saints are not excluded from justification Howgill c. Answ to Bennets 11 12. Quaeries 17. That no man that is not perfectly holy or commits sin can ever enter into the Kingdome of Heaven except there be a Purgatory And there is no Saint but he that is so perfectly holy in this life without sin Nayler perfect Pharsee p. 1. 112. 13. 18. That to preach the impossibility of such a freedome here on earth is to preach up sin while the world stands and to bring men into Covenant with the Diuill for term of life See also J. Parnell Shield of faith p. 29. to both these Nayler in his answer to Mr. Baxter p. 28. 19. That Christ took not humane flesh upon him at any time otherwise then he daily doth and that Christ is now conversant on earth among men since his ascension as he was in the Apostles times It is the summe of Howgills and Burroughs answer to two Quaeres of Mr. Bennet See Howgill c. in their answer to Benéts 18 and 19. Qu. 20. That the Scriptures are not the word of God This is their constant judgment though they dare not professe it for feare of the Law as one of the most eminent in these parts confessed before the Magistrates here in the hearing of one of us asking Whether if the Bible were burnt the word of God were burnt or words fully to this purpose See the proof Perfect Pharisee p. 23. T. C. Parnells book p. 10. saith He that saith the Letter is the word is a deceiver 21. That they had a light in them sufficient to lead them to salvation if they had never seen or heard of the Bible The substance of this was affirmed before some Magistrates of this Towne and one of us by the same party And this light extended to Heathen Indians by him Suitable to the assertions of James Nayler in a discourse of his in the book quoted here And he that saith the Letter is the rule and guide of the people of God is without feeding upon the Husk c. p. 11. See way to the Kingdome p 8. See perfect Parisee p. 17. 18 22. That the Scriptures are not the Saints Rule of knowing God and living unto him but that which was before the Scriptures were written This is also your owne concerning which anon more at large Atkinson ubi supra p. 1. Parnell p. 11. 23. That there is no need of outward teachings by reading or hearing of the Scriptures opened and applied See perfect Pharisee p 20. 24. That no mens interpretations of the Scripture or Arguments from them are to be received except those that give them be infallible See Quakers Cat. published by Mr. Baxter where the Quaerists require Infallibility in a Minister And Perfect Pharisee p. 27. This is generally their straine We renounce and deny all your meanings interpretations arguments calling them adding to the Scriptures And concerning it we must have a brush or two with you anon 25. That the light in them is the Gospell and the more sure word of Prophecy so sure that some of them say That it is a like
have suggested to him Viz. That that Scripture did not expresly forbid Jesus of Nazareth to throw himself down from the Pinnacle And in the third Tentation according to your Tenet our Sect. 67 Saviour had been hard put to it to prove that it was unlawfull to worship the Devill himselfe had Satan been disciplined by your principles and required of him an expresse Text That it is not lawfull to worship the Devill Whereas it seemes for want of your Artifice the silly Tempter was put off with a Scripture that requires us to worship and serve God onely and concludes the unlawfulnesse of Devill-worship by this Argument If we must worship and serve God only ergo not the Devill But we must worship and serve God only therefore not the Devill And the Sadduces afterwards were very silly animalls that Sect. 68 they would let our Saviour go away in triumph for putting Mat. 22. 32. Exod. 3. 6. them to silence by so weak a proof of the Resurrection as the words of God to Moses in the Bush I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Why had they not required in so fundamentall an Article of faith especially a positive and expresse Scripture affirming in so many words that the dead shall rise againe But you think our Saviours example will not beare us out in Sect. 69 our interpretations and deductions because he was infallible in P. 6. what he spake and neither did nor could erre in what he said which you suppose cannot be said of us or our meanings and arguments To which we answer we do not compare our selves with our Saviour in point of infallibility although your generation do who account themselves equally perfect with him But this we say that our Saviour in these places and others where he argues from the Scriptures doth not urge his owne infallibility as the ground upon which he requires beleif neither did Satan or the Sadduces acquiesce in the acknowledgment thereof but in the conviction wrought in them by the strength of his Arguments And we must tell you that any one who can draw an Argument rightly from Scripture is no lesse infallible in the conclusions so deduced thence then our Saviour was in his The question therefore will be Whether any person in interpreting and arguing from Scripture be infallible but whether such interpretations and deductions be truly and bona fide according to the mind of the H. Chost in Scripture whether they be drawn by a person that is fallible or infallible For be the person never so fallible that gives the interpretation or drawes the argument yet if the interpretation be sound and the argument rightly concluded he is therein infallible For you cannot be altogether ignorant of that common Maxime That nothing Ex veris possunt non nisi vera sequi but truth can rightly follow from truth and a false conclusion can never be regularly drawn from true premisses So that all that flourish which you afterwards make is but a meer rhetoricall vapour and signifies just nothing to an understanding Sect. 70 Reader For whereas you bid us either tell the people P. 6. plainly that we are infallible that they may receive our deductions from Scripture for true Doctrine nay Scripture it self or else say that we are fallible that so they may take liberty of proving our actions and doctrine We answer we need not tell the people we are infallible and yet they are no lesse bound to receive our deductions if rightly drawne from Scripture then if we were indeed so Because although we be not infallible yet so far as we regularly argue from Scripture we are not deceived nor can deceive them The authority of our deductions from Scripture depends not on our fallibility or infallibility but upon the evidence they carry in them of their necessary connexion with the truth we argue from And this because we owne our selves fallible we allow our hearers to use their owne judgments and consciences to prove and try whether it be so or no. God forbid but they who as you say must dye for themselves and account to the Lord for themselves should interpret for themselves and beleive for themselve But what then will it therefore follow that they must not receive our interpretations or beleive our deductions Or that we may not help them to interpret or draw deductions which they cannot so well do themselves They interpret for themselves that by the light of the Scriptures and their owne Judgments led by them see cause to owne our interpretations And they beleive for themselves who are upon a serious weighing of our Arguments convinced that they ought to admit them as just and lawfull deductions from Scripture What you add in the close of that Paragraph that it may so Sect. 71 fall out that six of those that esteem themselves the ablest Doctors if shut asunder shall so vary in the interpretation of one Scripture that scarce two of the six shall agree in the same interpretation Whence you would infer how little credit is to be given to our deductions we might take for an unsavoury scoff and so passe it by But we shall forgive you this and many more such if it will do you any good and vouchsafe to answer even where you deserve no answer but silence and scorne Be it therefore as you say which yet in Scriptures that containe matter of saith and practise we cannot suppose most of us we conceive in such are at least till the new-fangled conceits of these times infected some of the Ministry as well as others were of the same mind in most of them yet herein we are no more to be blamed then the Apostles and other primitive Teachers themselves who differed as much in those times of clearest light about the Scriptures that enjoyned the observation of Jewish Ceremonies whilest some of them earnestly contended that they extended to converted Gentiles and others affirmed the quite contrary And will you thence conclude that there is little credit to be given to any of their deductions because they disagreed among themselves All that can be hence solidly inferred is no more but this that therefore it concernes Gods people to search with the Noble Beroeans whether the things the one or the other saith be most consonant to the Scriptures But you that will not beleive our interpretations or deductions Sect. 72 because we are not in all things agreed will you beleive them in those things wherein we are all or the greatest part of us of a mind Surely if so most of the quaking Doctrines will fall to the ground for very few if any of us shall dare to interpret Scriptures to the countenance of those horrid Doctrines before mentioned In a word this whole discourse about infallibility and differences Sect. 73 among our selves in interpretation of Scripture as one hath very well observed before us smells rank of your Popish
tell us whether we must live by one rule here and be judged hereafter by another In your answer to these Quaeries we must desire you not to play Childs play with us and endeavour to put us off with trifling fallacies which every Sophister can discerne as you do frequently in your particular contests with Mr. Thomas which we doubt not you will here of with both eares when he is at leasure to reply upon you but deale candidly and positively as becomes a Scholar and a Christian with those who assure you they will with all possible fairenesse examine whatsoever of that nature you shall think necessary to rejoyne hereunto And here we shall put a period to our first debate with you Sect. 63 concerning the Rule ground or foundation of faith Which we say is the Scriptures you that we can find yet say not what it is but say roundly it is not they Our next friendly collation is about the way of drawing those Doctrines from the Scripture which are to be beleived and practised Concerning which your declared judgment is as P. 5 6. 19. c. well as vve can gather it from your own expressions That it is unlawfull to interpret or give any meaning of Scripture or to draw any deductions and conclusions from it but that we must rest satisfied with the bare words of Scripture insomuch that nothing according to you is proved from the Scripture but what is there in so many words Concerning vvhich Tenet vve have a little knockt Shins with you before at armes end but vve shall now wrestle a faire fall and come as close as we can to give you a down-right Cornish hugg First therefore we must informe you that your Generation Sect. 64 are not the first that have started the question or so held it We know not vvhether you understand French or no but if you do vve refer you to a discourse of Mr. Daillé as learned a French man as any this latter age hath bred who in a Book Lafoy fondee sur les S. Escritures par Jean Daille printed about sixteen yeares since hath a large dispute vvith certaine Popish Methodists vvho undertook to teach their deluded Proselites the same way of confuting the French Protestants which you now principle your Disciples withall to gravell those of this Nation They deem saith he that there needs no more ado to baffle us but to demand of us an expresse formall Text for every Article of our confession This facile way saith he further hath produced a rabble of Disputants among them and whereas at first they fled and declined all conferences of Religion and permitted none but their Clergy to speak of it now all sorts of people will adventure to engage with us even Seamsters and Carters Boyes being created Doctors in an instant by this handsome Method The same Author derives the rise of it higher then that age too But from such a Family as neither they nor you have much cause to boast of Eutiches the Heretick that confounded the Natures of God and man in the Lord Jesus Christ * Act Concil chalcedon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas Ep. de Synod Arim. Seleuc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et Dialog cont Arianum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. Ep. 174. 178. Id. Contra maxim T. 6. fol. 144. G. required an expresse Scripture to affirm that in Christ there are two Natures The Arians in Athanasius his time and after denied the consubstantiality of the Son of God Viz. That he was of the same substance with the Father asserted by the Councill of Nice to express the Eternall Deity of the Son as you do the word Sacrament because it is not in so many Letters found in the Scripture And concerning the very Godhead of Jesus Christ in a Dialogue between Athanasius and an Arian Let alone Syllogismes saith the Arian and shew it us written that the Son is the true God So Pascentius an Arian requires of Augustine to shew him the word consubstantiall in Scripture without Argument And in a like dispute between him and Maximinus concerning the Godhead of the H. Ghost when the Father proved it from the Scripture that tels us He hath a Temple the proper adjunct of Divinity the Heretick replies Truth is not concluded by Argument but proved by certaine Testimonies These things we have the more largely transcribed out of that learned Author to let you know out of what Forge that Weapon is hammered wherwith you encounter us Follow you now if you please the ancient Hereticks and moderne Papists For our parts we are glad that we insist upon the same way and method of disputing which the sounder part of the Church hath ever used to encounter them withall Surely our Saviour Christ better knew the way of proving Sect. 65 conclusions from Scripture then you or we And yet he never thought it necessary to tye himself up to expresse Texts but allowed himself the liberty of the interpretations and deductions When Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread he thought it sufficient to repell the Tentation by that Text of Moses Man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that Mat. 4. 4. Deut. 8. 3. proceedeth out of the mouth of God The force of which Answer lies in this Syllogisme If God be able to supply the want of ordinary food that a mans life shall be sustained without it whilest God hath work for him to do then should I do ill if in distrust of him I should command these stones to be made bread But God is thus able for man lives not c. Therefore I should do ill if I should command these stones to be made bread Had one of your Brethren been at the Devills elbow he would have taught him more wit then to take such an answer and have turned him to put our Saviour upon the producing of an expresse Text of Scripture that forbad Jesus the Son of Mary to command stones to be made bread So in the second Tentation both our Saviour and the Devill Sect. 66 also if no meanings or deductions be allowable in urging of Scripture might have gone to School to you The Devill urgeth Scripture to our Saviour to conclude the lawfulness of his casting himself down from the Pinnacle For saith he it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee c. We do not find our Saviour so well versed in your way of disputing as to deny his proof because it was not expresly God shall give his Angels charge over Jesus the Son of Mary and in their hands shall they beare him up c. But answers by another Scripture to shew that that Text was not to be understood of protection in waies of tempting God by running our selves upon unnecessary dangers Nay when our Saviour had answered him with that place Deut. 6. 16. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Satan also was to seek of that plea which you could