§ 6 contribute a good measure Neverthelâ—ss deâ—th reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come There are two respects wherein at least many of those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression First They did not sin against a revealed Law which Adam did in eating the forbidden fruit and there was no revealed Law or Covenant of life expresly and explicitely given from God after Adam's time before the fall untill Moses Secondly They did not all sin actually and in their own persons as Adam did yet death reigned over Infants who were in respect of actual sin Innocents And by what Law did Infants suffer death if not as they were included in Adam the first man and his offence becoming theirs thereby according to those words 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die so 1 Cor. 15. 22 in Christ shall all be made alive So that if it were not by the imputation of Adam's sin Children or Infants suffered a penalty without all Law which is contrary to the Apostles words Rom. 5. 13. But sin is not imputed when there is no Law But there was a Law then in force viz. the penalty of Adam's sin which by imputation reached to his posterity And in this very respect Adam was the figure of him that was to come viz. Jesus Christ So that if the righteousness of Christ of that one man Christ Jesus be not imputed to justification of all his children by faith or that are considered by God in Christ the whole frame of the Apostle's arguing seems but trifling and to conclude nothing of what it seems to aim at There are four Objections among others I have § 7 met with against the evidence of these Texts to the Doctrine I have vindicated Object 1. Christ was our example and therein did answer to Adam as his figure for sin came into the world by Adam's example and righteousness by Christ's Answ This is an old error and what error so old and rotten that the Quakers will not embrace who live in error as their element The Texts I have quoted have not the least appearance of sin entring the world by example and the Infants over whom death reigned were not capable of sinning by example Object 2. There might be a derivation of § 9 Adam's corrupted nature to all his posterity and so all of them might be guilty of sinfull disposition and habits in their own persons yet by generation from Adam and not by imputation of his sin committed in his own person so the righteousness that justifies may be derived in spiritual regeneration whereby the soul is disposed and enabled to work righteousness by that spiritual life and vigour it receives from him as its root Answ That cannot be the meaning frr then the condemnation spoken of would be by all and every one which though it be true that dispositions to sin are derived from Adam by natural generation and dispositions to holyness by regeneration from Christ yet cannot be the meaning of these Texts for the emphatical word which as upon the hinge the whole argument turns is the word one by one mans offence by the obedience of one whereas if the Objection did hit the meaning the Apostle must rather have said So by all or every mans offence condemnation came upon all But there is no mention of that middle thing mans corrupt disposition to knit condemnation to Adam's sin as a more original and remote cause Also it should then be in or into all and not upon all Object 3. The condemnation that came upon § 10 all and that reigned from Adam to Moses was but tempopal death and what is that to eternal or to bear a prnportion with justification to life spirtual and eternal Answ It is more than you prove or can prove that it was but corporal and temporal death and we can prove that it was the guilt of eternal death if we go no further to fetch the proof than from what is opposed to it in the last verse of the Chapter righteousness to eternal life And temporal death is not remitted or discharged to those who enjoy the benefit of the grace by the second Adam Jesus Christ Object 4. The Apostle James saith what doth it § 11 Jam. 2. 14. opened 21. profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have no works can faith save him Was not Abraham our Father justified by works c. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only To the first Instance in the objection I answer The saying a man hath faith is not sufficient to render him justified or to justifie him Secondly A dogmatical or historical faith cannot justifie or so act on the promise and Covenant as to put us under the imputation of justifying righteousness for such a faith the Devils have and there is a vast difference between believing the History of the Gospel and believing in Christ And this is the dead faith the Apostle speaks of verse 17. To the second instance Abraham's works though they justified his faith yet they did not justifie his § 12 person And the History of his offering up his Son doth give evidence for this Exposition Now I know Gen 22. 12. Jam 2. 18. that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me And I will shew thee my faith by my works To the third Instance which seems to joyn works § 13. with faith in justification that is our works I answer That although justifying faith is not without works yet faith justifies without works as a man cannot have seeing eyes if he have not lungs and heart and brains which are essential to life and the living motion of every member yet the eye only sees and not the lungs or brains c. but if you should pluck the eyes out of the head they would so alone be to little purpose So works are essential to the being of justifying faith yet faith alone is in the act of justitying or so acts on Christ as to justifie the person in the sight of God by cloathing the soul with Christs righteousness And although in the Text it is translated not by faith only it may and I was going to say ought to be translated alone and then the sense is but this That faith which is alone without works doth not justifie a man in the sight of God And I shall give two good Reasons for it The one because it may be so without wrong to the Original Secondly It must be so because it will otherwise contradict the Apostle Paul and the truth also as expressed abundantly in other Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as well signifie alone as only and is very § 14. often so rendred as Joh. 8.
visible form to the bodily senses And that I take to be the literal sense and import of that Scripture â— John 1. 1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life All these expressions cannot with any shew of reason be construed of a mental or spiritual converse with Christ as an object of faith but must be understood of the exercise of the bodily senses and faculties upon the visible humane nature of the Lord Jesus And if it be objected that it is said this Object was from the beginning which his humane Nature and Body could not be I answer There is a communication of both Natures in the person of Christ by which the properties and concerns of the one are attributed to the other as I might give abundant proof of But I will instance in one which may be sufficient Acts 20. 28. To feed the Church of Gâ—d which he hath purchased with his own blâ—ud God is not a being made up of flesh and bloud but a pure impassible Spirit yet Christ being God as well as man the Bloud of his Man-hood is called the Bloud of God It is observable that the Apostle John brings these proofs of his Apostleship in the front of his Epistle as being necessary for obtaining Credence to what follows To put all out of doubt consider what is expressed 1 Cor. 9 ch â— ver Am I not an Apostle Am I not free Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord Some did probably object against Pauls Apostleship because he had not seen Christ in the flesh as all the rest of the Apostles had done But he answers this Objection Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord It could not be meant of seeing him by the spiritual eye of faith for so all the Saints have seen the Lord that is common to the weakest Babe in the faith And where did he see him but in the way to Damascus Compare the fore-cited Text with 1 Cor. 15. 8 ver And last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time He was not born a Saint or Believer out of due time for conversion will be in season to the end of the world But he was born an Apostle out of due time the Lord Jesus visibly appearing to him to that end in an extraordinary season Thus we see that to Apostleship the sight of the person of Christ as an outward visible object to the bodily sense is necessary A third distinguishing Character is they were all § 3 enabled to work Miracles such Miracles as were neither in secret for the place nor doubtful for the matter I should but waste time and paper to give instances of this the Histories of the Evangelists and Acts of the Apostles will furnish you with enough The Quakers having been conscious of the necessity of this have some of them pretended to Miracles to credit their Apostolical pretended inspirations but none can they prove Some have attempted such like performances but have failed in the undertaking so that if we will not believe them for their bold asserting we are like to have no better evidence and he that is so silly as to believe on so feeble a ground I am sure his faith stands not only below the Power and Wisdom of God but the right reason of man And this must needs be a humane faith in the most sordid sense which hath not any divine evidence for its support We can by the Grace of God give a reason of that hope in us which is grounded on Scripture-verity because we can prove that it is the Word of God which was sent from him by the Messengers by him appointed and furnished to that end Acts 19. 13. Jesus we know and Paul we know but who are ye The Apostles as they were commissionated to teach § 4 all Nations so they were furnished with Tongues and Languages in a supernatural way by which they could speak to the understandings of any Nation or people to whom they were sent Acts 2. 8. And how we hear every man in our own Tongue wherein we were born And it is remarkable that the Apostle Paul was gifted this way above all or most he being the Apostle more eminently to the Gentile-world and travelled more forreign Countries than any of the other that we read of I cannot but wonder at the blindness of the Quakers who give it as a mark to the true Ministry denying and disdaining all others not to be confined to a certain place in the ordinary exercise thereof but as the Apostles to have no less than the Universe for their Bishoprick while it is apparent that they do not more out-strip others in pretences of spiritual and supernatural gifts than they come short of them in visible qualifications for the Ministerial imployment especially the knowledge of the Tongues and who ever among them understand any Tongue or can speak or write it besides their Native Mother-tongue let them say it if they dare that they came not by it by natural and ordinary means And if God had given them an Apostolical Call and and Gifts surely this of Tongues would have made some signe and noise of it for God never calleth to any Gospel-Office and work immediate where he doth not afford abilities for the discharge of it If the Quakers had the Gift of Tongues who direct their pamphlets to all Princes and potentates to every Creature and all Nations in the World surely some of them by that Gift would have preached their Doctrines to forreign Nations But some have attempted it and sped so ill as to become dumb preachers in other Countries Others have learned more wit than to make the adventure their Writings are full stuffed with the bold asserting of their Apostolical Call Gifts and Inspiration Having given you some Characters of the Apostles SECT IV who were called to that Office and were inspired by the Holy Ghost I shall take some pains to give you an account of inspiration it self as it is distinct in its very species and kinde not in degrees only from those teachings and illuminations of the Spirit which are ordinary and common in some measure to all the Saints The right understanding of this will keep not only in the Controversie before us but in many other cases that may occur I shall before I enter on the differences between the Spirits inspirations and common illuminations of the Saints by the Spirit prove that there is such a difference and that the one is not in any degree or measure the other All the Saints have the saving and sanctifying teaching and enlightnings of the Spirit yet not all of them nay but a very few of them had the extraordinary enlightnings of the Spirit by way of inspiration Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
written by or by the Direction of God himself his son or servants inspired by him so we call it the Word of God but with this distinction the written Word Now that the Scriptures are the Word of God in the SECT II senses aforesaid I shall vindicate from the violent contradictions of the Quakers They have these three Objections against this truth 1. That it is improper so to call them viz. The Word of God 2. That many things or sayings contained in them were spoken by wicked men or the devil 3. That this Title is peculiar to Jesus Christ the Son of God First they deny them to be the Word of God in the singular number I must therefore in dealing with this great Criticism reconcile the plural number to the singular I answer to the first it sounds methinks very harshly § 2 that not one word in the Scriptures should be the Word of God because there are in them more words then one Surely if the first second third fourth and so on be the Word of God then every word in it is the Word of God and never the less but rather the more for being united for that there are few single words which standing alone will signifie any thing whereas divers put together have a sense and signification And the whole body of the Scripture considered together doth signifie the mind of God more compleatly then if it were dismembred and considered apart But I know they aim at more then a meer Grammar-nicety at which kind of failings they use not much to quarrel but are rather affected with them as if the Spirit of God delighted in real non-sense though I think the causes to be three especially First that their first Authors could speak or write no better and they take it to be a perfection to write false English and nonsense after such infallible persons Secondly because they have so few of those they call their Ministry able to write true sense and English that those who can if they list will not lest they should disgrace their Brethren and rather then that should be admitted it shall become the fashion and obtain in time to be better English then sense A third reason may be their taking all matter and form to be infallibly from the Spirit and therefore dare not amend the sense of the Spirit But to what is the Question I return after this so § 4 long yet not altogether inexcusable digression One of their zealous Ministers as they call them thus exclaims And what an improper speech were this to call Fr. Howgil one of Antichrists Voluntiers â—efeated p. 26. twenty thousand Sentences one word and it is called a Declaration and what a Declaration would that be which consisted but of one word but where do we say the Scripture is but one word there is a great deal of difference between but one word and the Word And if the Scriptures be a Declaration in the singular number it must take many Declarations into one for it contains what was declared from Moses time to the Apostles and why not the word in the singular as well as a Declaration in the singular seeing the Scripture contains many Declarations But he gives one kick backward more at what he pleads for Pray have the patience to read this man passing the sentence against himself A Rod for the fools back Prov. 26. 3. And what a foolish man is this to assert his own imaginations and then imagines the Scriptures will prove it what an improper speech is this c. I know not the person he brands with folly but I am sure the Cause as laid down by Howgil himself deserves it not I am confident he understands not what improper means if he intend by improper that it is figurative he need not wonder and say what a figurative speech is this Alas the Scriptures and all Writings abound with figurative speeches but if he mean by improper incongruous or unmeet he offends greatly for then the Scriptures are very guilty herein as will appear by and by and I know not what else he should mean by proper unless not peculiar or a tall speech as we call a tall man or woman a proper and by improper a short speech Let a Propheâ— Naylors Love to the lost p. 17. of their own and he none of the small Prophets neither decide this Controversie Nay who never yet came so far as Balaam who had the Word of the Lord from his own Mouth But to cast this Objection out of doors we are to § 5 take it in a collective sence which is very frequent in the Scripture For instance the Scriptures themselves are sometimes expressed by a plural sometimes by a singular word Ye do erre not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 23. Here it is plural It is contained in the Scripture 1 Pet 2. 6. Here it is singular A sentence is called a word Where the word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 3. They were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with Power Either of these instances contain more then one single word The ten Commandments graven on the Tables of Stone are in the Hebr. ten words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you have so rendred in the margin of some of your Bibles Deut. 10. 40. Now divide these Commandments into ten single ones and then each will have but one word come to its share to express it by and some It is too frequent with them to call the holy Scriptures dead Letter and a letter is somewhat less then a word one viz. the fourth hath at least 60 single words in the Hebr. but many more in the English Rom. 2. 9 10. To the Jew not Jews and also to the Gentile not Gentiles can you suppose that one and but one single Jew or Gentile is hereby intended read the sixth verse and you shall have it explained Who will render to every man according to his deeds so that under the single word Jew is expressed all the Jews from first to last in every generation and under the word Gentile all the world of mankind besides Take one Text more to conclude with Isa 8. 20. To § 6 No Morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ei aurora Montanus the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them not so much as the dawning of the day Both Law and Testimony are here rendred by Word in the singular number in this one Text there is enough not only to silence this petty cavil but to pluck up both root and branch all the principles of Quakerism if they who profess them had any regard to the Authority and verity of the eternal and Almighty God and a few grains of understanding at liberty to consult it 2. Object Many passages in the Scriptures contain the SECT III sayings of wicked men Yea some have been so irreverent and
meaning you will take proper speeches for figurative and figurative for proper not careâ—ing for the true sense but as they will serve your turn and thereby you can prove quodlibet ex quolibet what you will and any how and so you seem in the eyes of silly and credulous souls to make your rope of sand to hang finely together and you are no more happy here for Christ the Word is the Word but in a less proper sense whereas the Scriptures are the word of God in a much more proper sence which I shall plainly demonstrate Only take one direction in the mean while That where any phrase or word may be taken in a § 2 proper sense it ought so to be taken unless there be a necessity to do otherwise from the consideration of the Context As in the point in hand 't is said The Word was God in the beginning here it cannot be understood of the Word in a proper and ordinary acceptation because such words or word cannot be God neither were in the beginning Besides what is afterwards spoken of the Word there is plainly and onely to be understood of Christ the Son of God but if you consider the Word expressed Mark 4. 19. And the cares of this World and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entring in choak the Word and it becometh unfruitful Here you must take it for the doctrinal Word or Word of Instruction which is a proper sense of the Word and if you should take it for Christ the Word you must read it Choak Christ which how untrue and uncomely a phrase it is I leave your selves to judge Now I shall shew you what is a word in a proper § 3 sense and that the Scriptures are such and what in a figurative sense and that Christ or the Son of God as the Word in ordinary acceptation is such A word in a proper sense is either an articulate syllabical sound which the eare is receptive of and by which somewhat may be understood as its signification in a commonly received acceptation Or alse a writing impression or graving which is such a disposing of letters in their Order as doth express and signifie to the eye what the other doth to the ear Now Christ is not cannot be the Word in neither § of these senses for he is not a sound thus disposed nor yet an engraved printed or written thing But the Scriptures are such or consist of such words How the Scriptures are the word in the singular number I have already shewed and must refer you thither A figurative word or word in a figurative construction § 5 is somewhat so expressed but is so only by Analogy as haveing some proportion with and similitude or likeness to a word but will by no means bear the definition of a word taking in all that is essential to its being a word For instance God is called a Husbandman John § 6 10. 1. But he is not so in a proper sense for he neither goes to plow nor sowe nor cart and managing grounds and cattel as a Husbandman doth nay he is not a man of any occupation whatsoever but there is some analogy and similitude betwixt the Almighty and a Husbandman in his dealings with his people for he takes care of them he waters them purges prunes plows digs fences feeds them in a spiritual sense Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah the § 7 Vine the door yet he is none of these but with respect to his relation and usefulness to his people there is some similitude betwixt Christ and these Figures and Emblems of him he is strong and courageous fears none overcomes all he encounters with he conveys sap life and fruitfulness to his living branches he is the mean by which we may be reconciled to and enjoy God but enough of this And Christ who is God is the Word but by Analogy § 8 not properly in ordinary acceptation 1. He is a great part of the substance and scope of the Scriptures the Word of God they testifie of him and direct to him in their doctrine types c. To him give all the Prophets witness Acts. 10 12 2. He doth also manifest and signifie to us all the glorious attributes of God in a splendid manner but more especially his love mercy and pity and that not onely as a Prophet and Teacher by the Word of his mouth but also in all his concerns as Mediatour 3. As he is the Executor of the good promised and evils threatned in the Scriptures So Rev. 19. 13. he was employed in bloody work executing the vengeance of God against his Adversaries threatned in the Word and he possesses his faithful ones of the happiness prepared for and promised to them Thus I hope I have cleared my way hitherto One thing only remains to prove their errour which I have reserved as the last blow and that is to shew that the Scriptures do call the Threatnings Promises c. therein contained the Word of God and the written Word If I prove that in any place of Scripture the phrase cannot be taken in the sense the Quakers would have it that is for Christ or God and also that it can be taken in no other sense then for the matter contained in the Scripture I have done enough whether they will be convinced or no and they must deny the Scripture to be true or own their doctrine to be false He that regarded not the Word of the Lord left § 9 Exod. 9. 1â— 20. his servants and cattel in the field He that feared the Word of the Lord made his cattel and servants to flee into houses What colour is here to expound the Word of the Lord in these Texts of God or Christ what more plain then that they feared the threatning or regarded not the threatning or gracious Advice given from God for avoiding the blow And Peter remembred the Word of the Lord what word How Luk. 22 61. he said unto him before the Cock crow c. and that it was the saying of Christ which Peter remembred Mark 14. 72. you have Marks word for it or rather Gods And Peter called to mind the Word that Jesus said to him I am against the Prophets that steal my Word every one from his Neighbour Can Christ be stoln or would Jer 23. 30. God be so much offended with them for obtaining Christ as to put the black brand of theft upon it while he charges it as the highest crime to reject Christ Stand thou still a while that I may shew thee the 1 Sam. 9. 27 Word of God This Word was that God had chosen him King and the Prophecy of what should befal him in his return if you will needs have the Word of God in this place to be understood of Christ you must read it with the Exposition thus Stand thou still a while and I will shew thee the Christ
There are two words in the Greek which are Translated § 10 and signifie the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first is sometimes used for Christ the personal Word but the other never And have tasted of the good Word of Heb. 6. 5. Eph 6. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza renders it Gladium spiritualem the spiritual Sword God And also And the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God A little skill in the Original would free them from this and many more mistakes What I have done here will be to such as are willing to understand good measure pressed down shaken together and running over As for those who are of a perverse mind until the Lord give them a better frame I shall not wonder if they wink out the Sun at noon-day I shall next and briefly say somewhat of the written Word which we are greatly concerned to be satisfied in to be the Word of God for that we have no other § 11 standing Word as our Testimony of Gods revealed Will but what is written or printed which is all to a like purpose the one being by an impression of the Pen the other of Stamps This the Quakers deny with the addition of many absurdities arising from so calling and owning it Where saith one of them and a Chief readest Ja. Naylor Sauls Errand to Damascus p. 33. thou in the Scriptures of a written Word it will be no hard matter to find an Answer to this Question I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were accounted as a strange thing A sharp rebuke to the Objectors The Ten Commands or words according to the Hebr. as I have already shewed were written by the Finger of God himself and Exo. 31. 18. John 5. 47. Thou hast printed my words Naylor afterward by Moses The Law of Moses is called his Writings If ye believe not his Writings And if the matter and sense be the Word of God before surely when it is written which any word that ever I heard may be it is a word written or a written word which you will Some there are who have written against the Quakers SECT V who judge that although the Quakers will not admit of this Appellation of the Scriptures yet in other terms they allow them such titles as amount to as much and that the difference is rather verbal then real But let me tell such that besides the imprudence and danger of removing the ancient Land-Marks and not holding fast the form of sound words there is a wide difference and great shortness in the best titles they will afford them yea take them altogether from this Appellation and therefore I shall examine the◠and discover their defects herein First they will allow them to be of God So they affirm their own Writings and Sayings to Morning Watch. 52. be also of God And let not this seem small in your eyes ye shall you all one day know that the Lord hath spoken it not only in some sense but in a higher then the Scriptures at least with respect to them and the times wherein we live But this phrase to be of God is of so large an import that the silliest Worm and the basest clod of Clay we tread on may claim a share in the Priviledge yea nothing in the whole Creation but will bear this expression sin only excepted in Rom. 11. 36. its obliquity for of him are all things Secondly the Scriptures of truth § 2 This is ground enough for us to deal with them by the Authority of the Scriptures but there are many other Writings that are true and if you take the Scriptures to be understood by way of Eminency the Scriptures of truth so as no other Writings extant are so absolutely and divinely true they will utterly disclaim such a sense Thirdly They are the Experiences of the Saints and § 3 what they witnessed This is with them a very common phrase Though A true Testimony of what the Saints were made witnesses of Smith Prim. p. 10. this be true of some part of the Scriptures especially the Book of Psalms it is too narrow a title by far for the whole Body of the Scriptures And for that part of the Scriptures which expresses the Experiences of the Saints it hath somewhat more as its end then a meer witnessing or expressing how it was with them But I do not wonder that they so much delight in this phrase when I consider that they themselves restrain almost all the Concerns of Religion to their Experiences yea things Historically related that were done without them long ago and are never again to be acted on the stage of this world and things Prophetically related in the Scriptures which shall not have a being until the end of the world They experience the Birth Righteousness Sufferings Death Burial Resurrection Alcension and Exaltation of Christ They experience the downfall of Babylon the Day of Judgment Heaven Hell and all within them and not with respect to some effects impressions and similitudes of these things but really and almost if not altogether exclusively of any other meaning all of which you will find proved in the following Discourse But this is far short and wide of owning the Scriptures to be the Word of God There are no Saints but have their Experiences both good and bad but he that should write them and affirm them to be the Word of God as they are the Experiences of the Saints will fall with Rev. 22. 18. 19. Deut. 4. 2. a witness under that severe censure of that true and legitimate Word of God Fourthly They call them a Declaration of the Mind § 4 of God This all things considered is the highest expression of their esteem of the Holy Scriptures and Word of God for so I will call them whether they will or no but so were some part of the Writings of the Heathen-Idolaters who knew not the true God Yea many things which they spake of as the Duty of Man and against many immoral Vices The Apostle sayes no less when he quotes such Passages out of such Heathen-Authors Evil communications 1 Cor. 15. 33 corrupt good manners This is found in the Comedy of Menander called Thadia For we are also his off-spring Acts 17. 28 is a Declaration of God Jovis omnia plena Virg. And some such things they have not only dictated for the matter but have also pressed them as the mind of God according to those notions they had of him And much more may the large and precious Sermons and Writings of the Servants and Ministers of Christ whose Discourses are grounded on the Holy Scriptures yet he that should call them the Word of God in a strict sense deserves correction A man may declare his mind yea or some things of the mind of God by gestures nods becks frowns smiles yet they are not to be
equalled by the expression of his mind by his Word they being much more imperfect and unintelligible then words the holy conversations of the sound and godly do eminently and effectually declare the mind of God yet had we them in its stead we should be great losers Not only the Writings and Sayings of intelligent § 5 creatures but also the inanimate part of the Creation is a Declaration of God and of his mind also in many things Psal 19. 1 2. And those Psalms wherein they are called upon and are said to praise the Lord. Rom. 1. 19 20. Acts 14. 17 The Heathen were blamed for not learning the Lesson taught by them after their kind no better yet who will say that the Declaration made by them is of equal value with the Word of God either for matter stile manner or perspicuity Fifthly They are a Declaration of the Word of God § 6 By the Word of God they mean Jesus Christ This is a true Character of a considerable part of the Scriptures but not of all and they often restrain them to this as if it were all the use were to be made of them So much of them the Scriptures as was given Smit◠Cat. p. 14. forth by the Holy Men of God through the Inspiration of the Almighty they testifie of Christ and that is only their service in their place You may observe what a skeleton they make of the Scriptures so much of them as if all of them were not of the same divine Abstract They say the Letter is it the Word which doth but Morning-Watch Farnworth Light out of darkness declare of it They do but testifie of me They testifie of him and it is with a but lest you should take them to have any more hand in conveying Christ and his benefits to the souls then a meer witness of who is or what is the Christ To clench the Nail I have been driving hitherto SECT VII I must demonstrate that to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God is to deny the Scriptures which I shall do three ways in few words First to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God is to deny them that title by which they are commonly known and distinguished from and lifted up above all other Writings whatsoever I will ask any man who understands sense and hath but one grain of reason if to deny the Supreme Magistrate of Great Britain to be the King of England were not to deny the King though he that doth so should allow him to be entituled a Man a Gentleman yea a Nobleman or Duke which are titles common to him with others or below him sure I am we Christians are else under an old musty mistake and guilty of great slander for affirming the Turks to deny Christ because they will not own him to be greater then their Prophet Mahomet or to be the Saviour of mens souls while they own him to be not only a Man but also a great Prophet and next to Mahomet himself I suppose a Quaker whose Child should own him to be a Man and a good man too and one that provides well for him and yet say He is not his Father and stand to it in earnest would say that Son denies him and is a naughty wicked Child It is said of the Jews they denied him in the Act. 13. 13 presence of Pilate vers 14. they denied the Holy One and the just Did they deny him to be a man or some common thing No they denied him to be Christ the Saviour and loaded him with reproaches in stead of his glorious and peculiar titles and this the Holy Ghost calls denying him To deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God § 2 is to deny that Appellation on which their Authority is grounded and which puts an awe upon the Consciences of men Though all truths as such so far as they are apprehended carry with them the countenance of Authority yet how much more when a Command Promise Doctrine c. comes with this written on its forehead the Word of God the Word of the Lord 't is said Where the Word of a King is Eccles 8. 4. there is Power and who shall say unto him What doest thou 't is natural to men to despise the best and most excellent things under common and contemptible titles It is all one in a plain and true construction as to § 3 deny that the matter and sense expressed by them was ever spoken by God Experience hath sufficiently taught this that no sooner this principle is taken in but the Scriptures become with such as weak as a burnt thread and whatever you may pretend to we know and shall prove that after this title is put off they become like Sampson when God was departed from him The Papists who are the more subtil will tell us that in their Image-worship they terminate their worship in God alone but alas the common people are for downright language and they poor souls being exhorted to worship the Images do it devoutly and think no◠on God all the while It is no otherwise in the present case people will understand after the common sense and acceptation of words I have sometimes been amazed and not without § 4 good Company and consideration that men of such dexterity in matters that concern not Religion should be so prodigiously blind and besotted as to deny this truth hitherto vindicated But since I have been better acquainted with their principles I find it to be the most necessary to maintain and support their Great delusion viz. The light within For that they do hereby rob the Scriptures of abundance of places wherein that phrase The Word and The Word of the Lord is found and deck their Idol with them And indeed so many are the excellent Characters given to the Scriptures under that notion that if they wear them and shine in their lustre the Quakers Glow-worm must sparkle no-where but in the dark and may still keep its Court and Confines in the Heathen-world CHAP. IV. The Quakers equal their own Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures and prefer them before the Scriptures I Need not spend time with those who are yet in SECT I their wits to prove that they who fall under the Charge expressed above deny the Scriptures To take all rubs out of the way I shall furnish you with a few Demonstrations First This is to unhallow them and make them common things or worse with the conceits of any who shall be so presumptuous as to pretend to Inspirations and Revelations and of this sort there are a crowd among the Men and Women also of the Quakers If they declare if they write yea whatever religious Action they move in they pretend all to be from the immediate Guidance and Impulse of the Spirit of God and that in as ample a manner as ever the Apostles and Prophets could pretend unto So that this principle being as
Sol. Song 1. 8. way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy Kids beside the Shepherds Tents It were well if young beginners in Christianity would § 8 practise this advice until by diligence and the blessing of the Lord thereon they came to an understanding more ripe and capable of discerning the mind of God in its more proper providence such a practice would evidence humility and a knowledge of themselves and save them many a sin and trouble and the Churches peace in a great measure and secure them from the snares and delusions of Satan and his Agents who have the greatest advantage on those whose hearts are in their aims honest in the main and whose understandings are weak and indigested yet daring and presumptuous I conclude this Chapter with some consequences of SECT III the denying the doctrines commands holy examples in the Scripture contained to be binding to us unless they come to us by immediate inspiration or motion of the Spirit First then all ministry by men is superfluous and vain and that not only our ministry but that also which you call yours who affirm this dangerous untruth Can you say your Ministers are the Spirit if the Spirit teach by or through them it teaches mediately but I say not this as if I took it to be of bad consequence that your Ministry should cease but to shew you how greatly contradictory you are to your own principle You say the light and the anointing within you is a sufficient and only Teacher and no other can oblige or move you yet none make a greater noise in that you call teaching or declaring or are so troublesome and importunate therein as your selves 2. The consequence will be that however the § 2 Scriptures are a Monitor from which we may store our selves with Gods counsel and commands c. yet in the intervals and mean whiles between inspirations and motions from the Spirit within we have no obligation to any duty nor can we commit any sin For where there is no Law there is no transgression take away the Scripture Precepts and to you there is none but as inspirations drop in and then I assure you for all your pretences you may live lawlesly enough inspirations being now so rare and when they were more plentiful but one Balaam among the wicked was so visited as we read of 3. Then the Scriptures signifie just nothing but a § 3 Romance to read to exercise the fancy or at most but as a prophane or common History from which we learn nothing but what others did and said and how it was with them If you read the Scripture commands they are nothing to you if you have a command in Spirit as you call it it is enough though it never were in the Scriptures yea though it be contrary to the Scripture reason and all modesty CHAP. VIII They deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ and our selves THis is a bold and strange assertion from those SECT I who call the Scriptures the Scriptures of truth and would be thought not to deny but own them with some respect But seeing it is within them I love they should speak out If the Scriptures are thus impotent I know no use they are of in things of a Religious concern all Religions aiming at and depending upon the knowledge of God and our selves and the Christian Religion as such on the knowledge of Christ They may notwithstanding this affirmation call them Scriptures i. e. Writings still but sure they do but mock them in calling them holy Scriptures or they are greatly ignorant what the word holy imports If the Scriptures then were burned it would not be a half-penny loss and the world would be rid of a burden or a snare or both I proceed to the proof of the Charge and as I have done hitherto draw my Arrows out of their own Quiver Quest Is there not another way by which we may § 2 come to know God Answ Nay Child there is not Smith Prim. p 24. another way for Christ is the way The Scriptures which are Christs own words which say Christ is John 14. 6 the way are far from countenancing what this Author shelters under their wing Christ saith I am the way no man can come to the Father but by me But he doth not say nor is it in the least implyed in the words as their sense or consequence that there is no coming to the knowledge of God but by Christ for some knowledge of God may be attained not only without Christ as the means but without the Scripture also So the Apostle Paul affirms whom we have reason § 3 to believe before all the Quakers in the world For the invisible things of him from the creation of Rom. 1. 20. the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Either they never read this Scripture or the beam is in their eyes who shall say there is no other way to know God but Christ If he had said no other way to know God savingly without Christ he had saved his credit here and hit the mark but what will not men say that have a mind the Scripture should be silent The reason he grounds this upon is of like strength to most which they produce under that name or form For Christ is the way now this Scripture doth not speak of the knowledge of God but of coming to God which is somewhat more than a bare knowledge of God which mâ—st have a being in us before we can come or move towards him But suppose he had said there is no other way to come to God but Christ only he had spoken falsly For Though there is no other way to come to God § 4 without Christ yet there are many other wayes to come to God by in conjunction with and subordination to Christ So our reading the Scripture knowledge of our alienation from God our sin guilt and danger sanctification c. these are all ways and means by which we come to God Add to these faith love yet who will say that any of these are Christ except James Naylâ—r who saith Christ is the Word and Prayer but though we make these to be some ways and means of coming to God we make not any of them the way as the most excellent and only way nor do we make them our Saviours Mediators and Intercessors with God for us nor that they by shedding their blood satisfied Gods Justice and appeased his anger and made reconciliation between God and man and yet without these any one of them at least such as are within their reach no person can be saved or be re united to God I will give you a demonstration as easie as sense it self Suppose that over a great and deep River there § 5 were but one Bridge and he that would go to the
most agrees with his words is in 2 Col. 14. blotting out the hand-writing of 2 Col. 14. opened Ordinances he might have added the next words that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross but these words were not for his turn The true meaning of the Text is that Jesus Christ § 3 by his death fulfilling what was signified by the typical Jewish Ordinances and abolishing the Mosaical Dispensation entred his house his Church to undertake the administration of its affairs which he in all things disposed as was suitable to the gracious nature of the Redeemer and that glory of Gods goodness that now shines in the Face of Jesus Christ But will this great Prophet G. F. say that the pure Gospel-Ordinances are against us contrary to us or as the Jewish standing in the way of the Conversion of the Gentiles through their burthensomness Will he say that Christ by his death abolished his own proper Ordinances Will he say that he nailed them to his Cross before they had a being divers of them not being formed till by his Apostles after his Resurrection Will he say that he blotted out the Lords Supper and nailed that to his Cross also as soon as he had instituted it as if he delighted in a fickle humour as the Quakers and to give life to an Ordinance and within twenty four hours put it to death yea to ingage his Disciples thereby to remember his death as often as they did it and yet abolish the Ordinance by his death and so take away all opportunity of remembring his death thereby And that phrase of the Angel seeking the living § 4 among the dead because they are taken with the sound is often used by them though not only beside the meaning of it but contrary to the sense of any Scripture I am sure it was never intended to prove Gospel-Ordinances dead You may hereby note what he denies viz. outward forms they are not to be touched and his reason is an excellent one the Saints have Christ in them At another time he will say Moses Abraham and the Old-Testament Saints had Christ in them and that in their own sense and yet I hope he will give us leave to believe that it was their duty to observe Gods forms But I wonder not that they that hold not fast the form of sound words are so easily perswaded to let go the forms of sound worship Let us hear another For this I say that the Father hath given his Son James Nayloâ— Love to lost p 52. §. 5. for a Leader and Guide to all Ages and into and out of all forms at his will and in his way and time in every Generation and therefore it is that all who know his will herein cannot endure that any visible thing should be set up to limit his leadings in Spirit Here you have the Tenet and the pretended reason of it all that know his will herein that is the Quakers cannot endure that any visible thing should be set up c. But what if Christ have set them up If they can prove as strongly that Christ hath pulled them down and is departed from them as we can that Christ did set them up and is present with and in them we will quickly in that point turn Quakers But alas the proof that he hath done so is but this they limit his leadings in Spirit that is the Quakers fancies But if he intended the Spirits leadings in a true sense it is very strange that the Gospel and Law of Works should be both sick of one disease That which was ordained to life I found to be unto death The Ordinances of the Gospel were ordained to inlarge and raise the spirits of the Saints but quite contrary they are found to limit and imprison the spirit Sure it must be Satans spirit and not Christs to whom the Ordinances are such Chains That I may shew you the Quakers Babel let us § 6 hear Isaac Pennington's Light speak contrary to the Light of G. Fox When Israel was bent to seek after Isaac Pennington concerning Vnity p. 1. the Lord and applied their hearts to wait upon him in fasting and earnest supplications wherein my heart hath often had the testimony that they were accepted of him and had many times the seal of his presence and power among them yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then given forth and I can never deny the truth and worth of that Dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by the breaking forth of a more lively Dispensation This he saith he found about the beginning of the late troubles How doth this agree to G. Fox's nailing all those forms to Christs Cross at his death and then blotting out these Ordinances § P. 38. I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the means of Grace C. Atkinson But yet I. P. will needs have them swallowed up now though he gave them leave to live 1600 years more mercifully however than G. who would have them stifled in the womb or crucified so soon as born But Pennington is so cruel by that time he arrives to p. 38. that he saith Such of the people of God as do not follow the Lord perfectly out of the City of abomination visible worship but be found in any part thereof when the Lord cometh to judge her the Lord will not spare her nor the spirits of his dearest people who are found there c. Both by the Scripture and their own confession Christ did not long since dwell in those Ordinances which we call Gospel-Ordinances and the Quakers Babylons forms and abominations Until they shew us better grounds for Christs remove than the secret witness of the Spirit within them which we can prove to be a spirit of delusion by Scripture reason and sense it self let none who follow not Christ blind-fold have the worse opinion of Ordinances for all the Quakers talk I now come to particulars and begin with the Gospel-Ministry They deny and subvert the Ministry of the Gospel SECT III railing on the Ministers as the vilest persons and veriest Cheats in the world making ill use of those Scripture words Smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered Next to the Scripture they lay not their batteries against any thing so much as against the Ministers of the Gospel and have so little honesty as to take up all that is to be found on any one or any that pretend to be the Ministers of Christ and cast it in the faces of all without distinction as equally guilty And for their more particular attempts those who are the most faithful and serious are the objects of their greatest fury I shall not blot paper with their railing First They deny all Ministry that hath a mediate § 2 â—arnâ—l ' s Shield
more in the Conscience than the honey was in Jonathan's eyes it will make little for the Quakers notion of the light in the Conscience to be very Christ and not only his manifestations which are his acts and influence not himself The other Text is more plain to the purpose His § 8 Psal 94. 4. lightnings enlightened the world the earth saw and trembled If by the earth be not meant the men on the earth and by the world the men in the world lightning was not likely to be seen by or help them so to see as to effect trembling unless you will say the meer Animals were intended Well then the world was enlightned by Gods lightnings that were totally without them whether their seeing by those lightnings have respect to the objects of their bodily eyes or to God the object of the eye of the mind who is in a good measure made known by his mighty and terrible works But if you will needs have the enlightning in the ◠10. Text to be a bettering of the faculties of the mind to discern its spiritual concerns I grant that the Lord Jesus Christ did by his redeeming work merit and doth now by his Spirit effect that great good in his people and they have thereby better understandings and a more pure and faithful conscience than others But that Christ by being essentially considered in the conscience of every man should be its enlightning is a most base dishonour to his Divine Majesty for what is it less than to render God under no better notion than the qualification of the faculty of a pitiful creature Therefore however it be expounded it makes nothing for the Quakers light within or rather the enlightning within to be the Being of Christ Every man If this phrase be taken strictly in its ◠11. full latitude intending every individual without exception Christ enlightning must be understood so doing as Creator not as a Redeemer which Exposition hath a better countenance from the Context than any thing that can make on the Quakers side For the Evangelist treats in the introductory Verses of Christ as the Universal Creator and by consequence the eyes of the body and mind by which both are enlightned are creatures of his framing This is the opinion of many Superiours to me in judgment by far and I shall not contradict it but modestly and with submission offer my opinion But if that be right which all the Quakers in the world are not able to prove it cannot be so understood the Quakers may quit this Text as doing them no service Some have affirmed that John wrote his Gospel upon the occasion of the Heresie of Ebion and Cerinthus in denying the Eternal and Divine Nature of Christ But suppose it be to be understood of Christs enlightning § 12 as Redeemer and so the enlightning to be with respect to the Gospel-discoveries it need not it cannot lightly be understood of all universally Why more than that Text Whom we preach warning Col. 1. 2◠every man and teaching every man c. Sure the Apostle being but a man himself could not warn and teach every man without limitation it must therefore mean all that he preached to or rather the Professors of Jesus Christ to whom he preached he thus taught and warned Commending our selves to every 2 Cor. 4. 2 mans conscience c. There were many that never heard Paul nor heard of him therefore it must be understood that he had been so faithful that he deserved commendation from all and had it from those whose consciences were pure to whom he ministred Well then why may it not be understood thus Every man that is enlightned with a spiritual Gospel-light is enlightned by Christ I will shew you a Text of the like form which must be so construed Psa 145. 14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that be bowed down Sure it means that all that are upheld are upheld by God and all that are bowed down and raised up are raised up by God Yet I rather incline to take the every man to be § 13 Jew and Gentile without those limitations of the Covenant dispensed before Christ came The Prophets the Temple the Sacrifices and all those typical Representations of Christ were restrained to the Church of Israel till the coming of Christ To them were committed the Oracles of God The Disciples must not go to preach the Gospel in the ways o◠places of the Gentiles Peter is of opinion he mus◠not converse with those who were Gentiles as a Preacher of the Gospel The Jews are offended with him for going on so good an Errand till they heard his Commission from God and the blessed effects of his Ministry But they are quickly informed of the Partition-wall being broken down and imployed according to their Commission to teach all Nations And as I take it it gives a good countenance to this Exposition I have but one Hill more to get over and that is § 15 whether the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so whether it may be read The light coming into the world enlightneth every man or every man coming into the world the light Christ enlightneth As I said before if it should refer to man every man in the very instant of or before his birth Christ enlightneth it must be meant of created faculties in the natural body as eyes reason c. and so Christ as Creator enlightens all for experience and sense without any one instance to controul it will tell us that none can believe without hearing nor hear without a Preacher for all the talk of some of the preaching Stars and others of the preaching Gospel-light in the Conscience Shew us the man that can express any thing of Christ or the Covenant of Promises that never had any other means But there is a reason in the Text gives such a countenance ◠16. to referring it to the light as will not easily be found for the contrary That was the true light not this or this is which plainly imports not the light Christ as he is now in Heaven nor as present with John and his contemporary Saints when he wrote the Gospel for then it would have been this or at least that is the true light c. but it clearly points at Christs appearance in the flesh in his state of humiliation wherein he transacted mans salvation and conversed and shined among men as he shall never do over again that state of Christ which was when John wrote his Gospel past And this construction is the very scope of the words viz. That Jesus Christ who was shadowed out formerly by types and figures and whose Ordinances for conveying knowledge and grace to the sons of men and which were the ordinary acceptable ways of Gods worship were afore-time restrained to the Temple and Jewish Church
and the inspiration of the Job 32 3. Almighty giveth him understanding I shall explain this text by another which carries the full sense of it and almost the same words For the Lord giveth wisdome out of his mouth cometh knowledg and understanding But doth this incourage men to cast off all external means and the use of their reason Nothing less It is given as an encouragement to the use of the means expressed in the four first verses which are made conditional of being blessed with that knowledg and wisdom which comes from the Lord. If thou searchest If thou triest It will now be more easie to take in the right sense of your cited Scriptures There is a Spirit in man that is a rational Soul § 2 say some yet knowledge and understanding doth not so depend upon its improvement as to shut out the breathing and blessing of God from the chief efficiency A young man as Elihu may attain a measure by that divine blessing beyond the aged and more experienced If you can prove that those holy men who carried on that debate of which the Book of Job is a history did neglect the external means which the Lord afforded them for informing their judgments about divine and spiritual concernments upon the grounds of the inward teachings of the Spirit of God Eris mihi magnus Apollo and unless you can do that your arguing from this Text is but meer trifling beating of the air and contending for what is granted on all hands but nothing at all to your purpose And it is not beside the purpose to consider that those holy eminent Saints who contended with Job were rebuked by God for not speaking rightly of God as Job did and Job did not pass free without a chiding also for his miscarriages and presumptions Job 42. verse 7. and forward To conclude this Argument you talk at a miserable § â— lame rate to say that because the inspiration of the Divine Spirit giveth understanding therefore it is not from the strength of mans reason memory or utmost câ—eature-ablities that his knowledge of religious and heavenly things comes but from the revelation and discovery of the inspiration of the Almighty Let me tell you once for all that if reason memory and humane abilities have nothing at all to do in the search and understanding of Divine things a meer animal or such an ideot as Jack Adams may know as much of the Divine and Heavenly mysteries as W. Pen but if I should say such a one is as able a Teacher or Writer as you I doubt not but you would take your self to be not a little affronted And it is as lame arguing to conclude because some § 4 men had Divine inspirations and teachings of some Divine truths when there was not one Book of the written Word in being as I dare undertake to prove and they who had those Inspirations made use also of their reason to know Divine things by all external means within their reach therefore all Gods people i. e. Quakers have in these days wherein God hath blessed us with so large a portion of his written Word or Word without us sufficient teachings by immediate Divine Revelations to lead them infallibly in the way that is most acceptable with the Lord without the use of their created faculties or any outward means is no good consequence The next Scripture you abuse is Psal 139 7. Whither SECT V Psal 139. 7. shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence from whence you scribble thus If Gods unerring Spirit be so nigh and the sense of it so certain it must be either to reprove for evil done or to inform uphold lead and preserve in reference to all good now in which of the two senses it shall be taken the presence of Gods Eternal Spirit and his being the Saints Instructor Judge Rule and Guide are evidently deduceable from the words Rudis indigestaque moles worse than ever Bear brought forth her Cubs which with her licking may be brought into some shape but your products are so defective both in Truth Right Reasoning Syntax and Sense that it is no dis-reputation to your Adversary to be confounded by them It is an effectual but an impudent course to silence all the world from opposing you by writing such confident confused non-sense Were it not for the sake of many who conceit your infallibility which you are here so blindly pleading for I would as soon abandon my time to dispute with a distracted man in his raving fits as with W. Pen till he come better to himself than I can find him in this Pamphlet If Gods infinite Being Omnipresence Omniscience § 2 wonderful works of Creation all-disposing Providence which is the scope of the Psalm and his Omnipresence especially the sense of the Text do prove that which you produce it for and infer from it you have found out a way of seeing that may tempt us to dig out our eyes punish them for meer Cheats and for ever hereafter commend the blind Archer for the best Marks-man We may presume that you intend this Text to § 3 prove that all Gods people are upheld ruled guided c. In reference to all good by the Spirit of God which you say is evidently deduceable from the words But who would have thought that such desirable considerations and the certain sense of them should put so holy a man as David on such expressions of going and flying from the Spirit and presence of the Lord No doubt the presence of God is every where in the Skies the Seas the Wilderness what then doth he therefore perform all these acts where ever he is present in his infinite Being even where there are no intelligible Creatures Doth he judge inform instruct stones and trees and mountains I and must do so too or else he doth not answer the end of his presence being so nigh Truly Mr. Pen we have had more reverend thoughts of the Eternal and Omnipresent God than to assign any thing as the end of his Being but himself But it may be you lay your stress on the certain § 4 sense of it and this joyned to his Omnipresence will do your work Is the sense of it so certain to every good man was it so to David when he so long time was tainted with a heap of impieties Was it so with Jonah when he fled as he thought from the presence of the Lord or was it so with you when you wrote some things in this book of yours which I shall acquaint you with before I have done If it should be granted you that all Gods people have the certain sense of it without doubting or alteration it would be nihil adrhombum far from proving Gods Spirit to be the peculiar Teacher of his people and so to teach them as to render them infallible which is the mark you aim at The next Scripture you produce is Teach me
to do SECT VI thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of uprightness Psal 43. 10. To bend this Text to your bow you talk thus The Question will be whether it was Davids intent and the scope of his desire that God should teach and lead him by his good Spirit or some other thing But methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative in two respects What a strange Question is this Who doubts but David commended the Spirit of God as a good Teacher what then must all other Teachers which the Spirit of God makes use of as the means by which he teaches be cast off Suppose I should say such a man is a good School-master I would fain be taught by him doth that imply I would not learn out of a Grammar or other books which he uses to that end or doth it not rather conclude that I like not only his abilities but his method and means by which he teaches The Psalmist saith Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest out of thy Law You would little less than hoot at him that should from hence conclude the Psalmist to reject the Spirit as a Teacher and to admit of no other Teacher but the Law It is after this lofty manner of disputing you undertake our overthrow When you have so learnedly framed your Question § 2 which by the disjunctive Or you make to consist of two members which would he have for his Teacher the Spirit or some other thing You answer it like your self Methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative But I pray which of the parts of your Question do you affirm which do you deny Why truly it is the safest course you take to affirm it of both for then the truth is owned and in this point the quarrel ended But then what need your fighting against what you affirm unless you are resolved to be quarrelsome Alas poor man it was by a meer mistake you said truth you intended to resolve in the affirmative that he desired to be taught by the good Spirit of God but in the negative of any other thing Canis festinans coecos parit catulos The two respects which thus blinded you are enough § 3 to keep any mans eyes open that is but willing to see First How that the Word was hid in his heart That internal Law Word and Spirit of God which plentifully shews how much he was an Enthusiast and Quaker in the sense this man esteems us most Heterodox Law Word and Spirit are all one with you But where do you find the Word hid in the hearts of the Saints called the Internal Word 'T is true that it is within in the memory faith love and hid there with the hiding of security but it was as much without before it was within as the Childs Lesson which it gets by heart out of a book which when done you might as well call it the Child 's Internal Lesson Your second respect is the very words viz. of the § 4 Text imply the thing we urge them for and can import no other sense Also what did that clause do there viz. thy Spâ—rit is good Can the Spirit be good for nothing if the external word be good for something as a Teacher I mistrust not the eyes of any but the Quakers but that they will see at first glance what a feeble Champion you are without my pointing Parvas habet spes Troja si tales habet I shall trace you foot by foot no further you shoot at so many marks at once that 't is hard to find which you level at only in the conclusion you presume you have hit the Pin of the white Vnisâ—nat cuculis rudibus geminantibus odis Your Arguments are generâ—lly sick of one disease § 5 you argue from the presence of the Spirit of God in and with his people by his motions influences manifestations gifts graces means to his Essential Being as the sense of those Texts which is fallacious as I prove by this Argument answer it when you can The Spirit of God essentially considered or as very God is every where at all times without the least change or alteration for ever But the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not every where at all times without any the least change or alteration for ever Therefore the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not the Spirit of God essentially considered or very God The first Proposition is proved from Mal. 3. 6. For § 6 I am the Lord I change not The second Proposition I prove from Joel 2. 28 29. which you cite Pag. 21. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie c. This was in time what and where it was not before Ezek. 36. 27. Pag. 20. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes c. it was future what it was not before and is spoken of the gathering of the Jews from all Countries Then the Spirit of God shall be put within them but this is not alway the same without alteration 1 Cor. 6. 19. cited by you Pag. 30. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you The Holy Ghost did not dwell in them according to the import of that Text before their Conversion The Lord was in the Temple at Jerusalem and dwelt therein I have built a House of habitation for 2 Chron. 6. 2 thee and a place for thy dwelling Who is able to build him an House seeing the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens 2 Ki. 19. 15 cannot contain him How did God dwell there more then elsewhere but by placing his Name owning a relation to it as his house sanctifying it to his own use manifesting himself in it to those who waited on his Ordinances there solemnized But now the place is void of all the foot-steps of that presence I deny not I doubt not but the presence of God § 7 by his Spirit in and with his people is much more glorious than that Type possessed yea such a Mystery of Union and Glory as will be matter of intellectual exercise and delight for ever yet it is most certainly no more his Essential Presence than is every where The difference is his being related to actuating of effecting in and manifesting himself to and union with the Souls of his people so as none in the world but they are blessed withal And herein the Saints are so happy they may well be content and not put the name of the God-head in a strict and proper sense on these his blessings Such conceits are the natural source and have been of Opinions and practices
all his Vagaries who hath the faculty only to the stupidly ignorant Fallere mille modis nâ—c non intexere fraudes In the winding up of your intangled bottom you frame an Objection thus Object 1. Though you have said a great deal to Page 37. prove that Christians should have an infallible Spirit in general Yet you prove nothing distinctly but confound a Judge Rule and Guide together Habemus confitentem reum Least you eat your words I shall put good proof § 2 of the truth of your confession upon Record You say in your answer to your own Objection That to me there is no more difference then essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God They are so interwovâ—n that the one goes not without the other P. 17. 6 Thus it is in being a Judge Rule and Guide c. What would you say of a man that should affirm his brains heart and lungs being essential to the life of the body and so interwoven that the one goes not without the other are but one and the same thing the one cannot live and be in good state without the other and therefore they are but one and the same thing without difference or distinction And the man suppose John-a-Nokes should upon this ground when he hath a Delirium or Vertigo diseases seated in the brain be very busie to enquire what is good for the Pthysick or Cough of the Lungs or palpitation of the heart but being rebuked for his impertinencies should reply they cannot be one without the other They are essential to the body of man its perfection therefore what is said of the one may be said of the other and what is good against the Pthysick or Cough is good must be good for a Vertigo or Delirium Let me advise you next time you write to frame no Objections against your self unless you shall have learned better to solve them A second Objection you frame thus But at this § 3. Page 38. rate you utterly contemn and seclude the Scriptures as having no part nor portion in being a Rule Judge or Guide to Christians I would your whole book had consisted of Objections for you have spoken more truth of your own framing in two Objections than in most of your affirmations You attempt to solve this with much the like success as the other you praise the Scriptures and hug them hugely till you have reduced them to much like the shadow of the true Rule And then you illustrate the sense of their Authority in these very words He that is so inward with a Prince as to know vivâ voce what his mind is heeds not so much the same when he meets it in print because in print as because he hath received a more living touch and sensible impression from the Prince himself to whose secrets he is privy And this the Scriptures teach us to believe is a right Christian state and priviledge For said the Apostle we have the mind of Christ and the secrets of God are with them that fear him And guide me by thy counsel and bring me to thy glory What Friends but when they read this Princely § 4 flourish but will conclude not only that he hath done it neatly but hit the Nail o' th' head full and spoken their minds e'n as right as if he had been inspir'd by them all and no doubt he shall be their White Boy for all his defects who strokes them so finely and advances them to such a singular Dignity of privacy and inwardness with God that not only his revealed will in print is known by them in a more honourable and immediate way but also his secrets which never stooped so low as to be wrapt in letters Here we have as in a glass W. P.'s Opinion of the immediate teachings of the Spirit to be not only above his teachings by the Scripture as to have a thing whispered in the ear from the Princes own mouth doth excel any Narrative by a Declaration but also so much above them that he who enjoys this favour which must still be no other but a Quaker heeds not so much the same in print How much just not at all For if this viva vox more living touch and sensible impression do not put Authority into them they are but meer Cyphers And if this living touch c. as he believes be without or contrary to the Scripture 't is all as good and Authentick It is upon my Spirit is of much more Divine Obligation than it is written But Mr. Pen That the Scriptures teach us to believe this is a right Christians state and priviledge is a hard-hearted saying The Scripture knows nothing of it nor could I ever yet have a proof that any of you all ever heard the Voice of God as vivâ voce is to be understood and I am very well satisfied the Quakers may be mistaken if they should presume they did ever since some of them took Paul Hobsons mumbling through a Trunk and a hole in the wall to be the voice or the Lord. But that this should be the state of a right Christian wo worth the days past for so many Ages wherein among all professed Christians but now and then one were in this state and that but a little while e're their folly appeared to all men only now and then the Papists had a Job to do for which a viva vox was a fit pretence But you have little Charity in unchristianing all the § 5 world whose very state is not according to these Characters A man in the dark especially if his fancy be strong is full of Visions which have no other being than his imagination affords them this appears to be your state and the part you are acting I shall in short consider your warrants which you § 6 annex to your rare Harangue For said the Apostles we have the mind of Christ Sure he had a good part of it by Tradition from the other Apostles who were Christs Witnesses of what he said and did and we have it in the Scripture And the Secrets of God are with them that fear him But where did the Apostle say this 'T is no matter if it was not the Apostle Paul it was the Apostle David and that 's as good Psa 25. 14. Nay it is all one if it had been the Apostle G. Fox or the Apostle W. Pen whose words and writings are of Prophetical and Apostolical Authority and may be numbred among the Scriptures as well as Pauls or Davids or any other witness your audacious lines put in a different letter to be so understood You say but the Scriptures are herein fulfilled the holy way the vulturous eye did never see Pag. 84. and that same ravenous Spirit after knowledge our adversary must come to know judged c. It is further to be considered that the words you quote out of the Scripture you pervert and the sense also
Moses and other Prophets were seized with at the appearance of God The Truth No other but Christ the light within Speaking Truth Truly When it is spoken from immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit but however true without these it is falsly spoken Witnessing to the Truth Declaring or suffering for the light within and its dictates V The flesh of the Vail The Body wherein Christ dwelt and tabernacled which for a while he took of the Virgin Mary but at the death of that left it no body knows where The Vail is over them The belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be the Christ and now existing in Heaven in that body of flesh of our Nature which he took of the Virgin Mary The Vessel The Body wherein for a while Christ dwelt also our bodies Victory over the devil sin flesh world Perfection in this life resulting from the travail of the light within In the Vnbelief Not acknowledging the light within to be the only Teacher and Saviour whatever the faith and life otherwise may be The Vncircumcised and Vnclean All that are not Quakers Vngodly The same Vnlearned and without Vnderstanding To be without the light within its teachings and immediate Revelations The Voice of the Lord. The secret immediate lively touches and teachings within W Hirelings serving for Wages Ministers who receive maintenance little less then Robbery at least very Jewish and Antichristian Wait on the light Desisting from a search after Truth by any external means and passively attending to the motions and teachings within Watch to the light To be so listning and attentive to the inward teachings as not either to let slip any of its motions or reject them Blind Watch-men Those Ministers who see and warn by Scripture-light and not their light within Watch to the Morning To be diligent to observe and improve the first breakin gs forth of the power of the light within The Way CHRIST The way of Truth Those into which they are led by the pure light within The Whore of Babylon All forms of Worship visible Worship all that is believed or practiced from the written Word Will of God The Commands from within from the light Will of Man Will of the Flesh All that we chuse by the direction of the understanding or in which the humane faculties have any thing to do Will-worship Whatever Worship is not from the motions of the light within Children of Wisdom The Quakers born to the light within We Witness We experience we speak it from the testimony and feeling of the light and motions within And Pen saith This is right witnessing to witness what they experience But they that testifie what they believe from the Scriptures and right rational demonstrations go by hear say and reports but cannot witness it The Word The Word of God The Word of the Lord. No other but Christ the Eternal God The secrets of the Work of God The inward power and motions neither wrought nor perceived by or with the use of the humane understanding and will Righteousness of Works Whatever man hath any hand in or doth chuse The World All that are not Quakers Worship in Spirit Not the Worship where the heart and will goes along with the outward appearance but what is from the motions of the light within Wrath of God Day of Wrath. The inward judgings and terrours by the Light Christ within and that in this world The Writings when spoken diminishingly The Scriptures or written Word I have the Witness of my Conscience that I have not in this Key in any measure abused or wronged the Quakers but have declared what in their Writings and Verbal Converse I have found to be true and could have proved by particular instances but for being too large They who weigh what is written in the Body of the Book may find satisfaction in the most if not all of them THE CONCLVSION I Have not in this Treatise dealt with the more minute and light Errours and Absurdities of the Quakers because they would amount to too large a Volume for this Subject and I love not to Tythe Mint Annis and Cummin where weightier matters call forth my thoughts Where the Lord shall make what hath been written convincing and effectual those Superstructures and Appendices of the conceit of Perfection denying the sober use of Civil Ceremonies unnecessary scrupling at modest Ornaments Pedantick Words Phrases and Gestures obstinate Jewish and Ceremonious respect to this or that place for Worship and a multitude more will quickly and easily dissolve of themselves I doubt not but all whose Judgments are not in § 2 captivity to the silliest Errours will conclude with me that Quakerism is no Christianity yea Not consistent with Christianity being no more capable of dwelling together in one Breast than light and darkness in their absolute and supreme Dominion I am perswaded that all who have honest meanings among the Quakers little think that in turning to Quakerism they turn Christianity out of doors yet it is a truth a sad truth that calls for more serious notice than themselves or most others afford it who profess and that sincerely a love to Truth and Souls My greatest discouragement in writing this Treatise § 3 was from the sense of the Quakers being out of the reach of Scripture and Reason to almost or altogether a Spiritual Delirium Yet I was not without some encouragement from my hopes that the Lord would bless it to the informing and securing of many whose feet are yet out of their snare I have not a little been amazed to read in their Authors such Expressions as prompt us to divest our selves of being men that we may be Christians As if Rational and Spiritual God and the Scriptures Understanding and Christianity were mortal Foes I intended a Chapter by it self to demonstrate Quakerism to be no Christianity from its excluding right Reason any thing called Reason from having to do in the search after Christianity its Choice Defence or Approbation I care not if I collect a few for my Readers satisfaction § 4 Smith's Prim. pag. 56. Quest How do you manifest this inward foundation which you say is Christ to be the true and only foundation which God hath laid Answ From the feeling we have of it by which we know that it is sure in us and from the sure and certain knowledge which we have of it in the feeling we manifest it from its own Nature and Being to its own Nature and Being You may here perceive what a reasonable Religion the Quakers is whose demonstration is nothing else but sense and feeling and this sense and feeling nothing is capable of but the very nature and being of this Foundation He proceeds further pag. 65. Quest And can § 5 none have true Faith unto Salvation and Life Eternal but such as are of your Opinion Answ We are not in any Opinion but in the principle of Life by which we are
the present posture of the Quakers Religion as may render it no great strain to jump into it when-ever they find it their interest For why should it be thought unreasonable that they should rather choose to submit their particular Sentiments to the Determinations of a Pope and Council who pretend to the Spirits guidance infallibly therein than to the Determinations of George Fox and his silly Adherents called the Body who can give no better assurance of their Infallibility or common Reason either than mere pretences mounted on confident Ignorance and Arrogancy Especially considering that such a change will better bear the fine affected Mystery of being felt in a measure of the Vniversal Spirit which seems to be no other than the so-much vaunted Universality of Rome cast in the Canting Mould of the Quakers Phraseology Besides they will then have the Accession of the numerous Auxiliaries of Rome not needing to be so straitned and put to their shifts as now by laying the weight of their yet unformed Cause on so many Equivocations and thin Subterfuges defended by only two or three unskilful and unwary Patrons And what if they shall think meet to embrace the Traditions of Rome instead of THE DOCTRINES OF GOOD ANCIENT FRIENDS I am sure it would be short of a Miracle And the things being the same in Substance why should a mere verbal difference be a Gulph unpâ—ssable And if many of the more devout sort of Quakers should be loth to part with their Darling Singularities and Morosities If Rome be pleased so far to indulge to them as to afford them a Dispensation till time and other things have weaned them it is not the first time she hath been so kind a Mother However if they will but own the Roman Head as far as they now own George Fox they may have their Religion with all or most of its other Disorders and be owned good Catholicks of the Foxonian Order and George Fox Sainted to boot for his good service I desire the Quakers to be but so just to themselves as to consider whether what hath been said do not at least call them to a suspicion that their Leaders are rowing towards Tybur whatever face they put upon it And what an exchange they have made in rejecting the Scriptures from being their Rule taking at length the Impositions of men in its room which are so much the more wicked and blasphemous as they lay them to the Spirit of God as their Father and so much the more dangerous as the Opinion these men have obtained among them will render it neither pleasant nor credible for them now to question any thing they say or reject any thing they impose A Summary of the Capital Errours and Blasphemies of the Quakers Concerning the Godhead THey deny a Trinity of distinct Persons to subsist in the Godhead They own the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be God under those distinct terms yet deny either of them to have any relation or property incommunicable to each other They divide the Divine Being and Godhead into measures and parts Concerning the Scriptures They hold That the Scriptures are not the Word of God and that Christ only is the Word of God That much of them were the Words of God but those things are not now the words of God That a great part of the Scriptures were the words of wicked men and the Devil therefore cannot be the Words of God Not considering those parts of the Scriptures to be the Historical Word or Words of God containing in them a Divine Truth of History That the Scriptures are not a Rule of faith and life That not any part of the Scripture hath Authority to oblige us to any matter of faith or practice unless it be dictated to us or inspired into us by the Spirit immediately as the Prophets Apostles and Penmen of the Scriptures received it That those who determine their faith and practice by the Scripture are begotten into the words without the life and power That he that preaches the Doctrines of the Apostles and Prophets expressed in the Scriptures not having them by Inspiration as they and yet calls them the Word or Words of the Lord tells lies is a Thief and a Robber stealing the Prophets words c. and runs into other mens lines and labours That to follow the examples of the Church in those things which were commanded to them and practised by them under the Gospel or New-Testament-Administration is to commit Idolatry and to offend God by making to our selves Graven Images and Likenesses That to own and embrace the Scriptures for our Rule is Idolatry placing them in the room of Christ the Light within Concerning Christ. They hold That the Son of God is Christ and also that the Father or the Spirit is Christ as well as he That God or the Godhead only is the Christ That Christ is not of the Humane Nature or Man according to Adam's nature That the Body of Jesus the Son of Mary which died on the Cross without the Gates of Jerusalem was never nor is not an Essential Constitutive part of the Christ of God That the aforesaid Body is not now glorified and in Heaven and that it is not now alive That Christ was never seen with bodily eyes That Christ never died in a proper sense he being only God and so immortal That God is now manifested in the flesh as he was in the Son of Mary above 1600 year since That Christ hath Manhood but is not a Man of our nature That there is a heavenly Body of Christ consisting of Spiritual flesh blood and bones which came down from Heaven and dwelt in the Body that was born of the Virgin Mary and dwells now at least in every Quaker That every man hath a Light in him which is Christ the Eternal Word of God Concerning Christianity They hold That the Quakers only are true Christians and own the true Christ and all who own not and submit not unto the Light within as Christ are Infidels That those whom we call the Heathen have somewhat of Christianity because they have some justice and common naural Vertues although they believed not on Jesus the Son of Mary nor have any knowledg of him nor make any Profession of him to be their Lord and Saviour Concerning the Soul of man They hold That the Souls of men are a part of the Being of God of his very Life and Substance came out of God are no Creatures are Infinite in themselves and shall return into God again Concerning Redemption They hold That Christ came to Redeem the Seed which is no other but Christ himself That Christ before man's Conversion is the lost in man That the Redemption by Christ is to obedience to the Light within and thereby to Peace and Righteousness That we are not redeemed by what was done and suffered by the Son of Mary above 1600 years since and without us in respect of place That Christ