Coherence in Matter and Intelligibleness of Language to all Nations which may render them such a Rule Besides it is more then probable that much of the Writings of the New Testament are lost from Luke ' s Word 's in the beginning of his History where he tells us that he was but ONE OF THE MANY who did set forth a Declaration of those things which were most surely believed amongst them even sayes he as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word For it must be considered when Luke writ his Narrative that John's History was not in being and some will have it that Luke wrote before Mark But whether it be so or no certain it is that Mark and Matthew could not make up those many that took that Work in hand neither can we think he should call Matthew and Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie with the Athenians a Multitude for a certain Learned Man will have it That no better Greek was spoken then that wherein Luke wrote his History That those Narratives were not Apocriphal but at least of equal Authority with his dedicated to Theophilus his own words tell us For those that writ were such as related what they received from Eye-witnesses and the first Ministers of the VVord Besides which there were in the Apostles Age and the two following Centuries several Writings reputed genuine which either dyed out of the World through that Neglect brought upon them by the Advantage some accounted Hereticks might make of them in Defence of their Opinions or stifled by the subtilty of the Romish Church being more expresly opposite to her growing Superstition and Grandeur And for such Writings as still remain among us methinks it should not be unknown to a Man of J. Faldo's Pretences to Learning how much the Authority of several of them has been questioned by some and exploded by others though never by any of us particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of James second and third of John second of Peter Jude the Revelations and with some Matthew's History it self has not escaped the like Censure Of which Reader thou hast an Account at large in that Notable French-Man Dallaeus De usa Patrum and a late Discourse mainly directed against the Roman Church entituled Christoph Christophori Sandy Nucleas Historiae Ecclesiasticae I would not any from hence should repute me so Impious as to endeavour to weaken the Testimony of Scripture or beget any the least Doubt of the Doctrine thereby declared only upon our Adversary's Principles which so strongly oppugn'd the Doctrine of Revelation or Inspiration I must take leave to conclude in his Name and upon his Principles that the VVord of God is imperfect and a great part of the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie is lost and that he has no more Reason to believe the Truth of those great things related in that part of the Scriptures yet remaining then any Legend at Rome For exclude Revelation and what Ground has he for his Faith besides Tradition and what Evidence can he give us upon his Principles of the Truth of the former and Falshood of the latter These Councils and Synods who collected and canonized them he accepts for one part and rejects for the other Again he trusts their Judgment in picking and chusing and yet rejects their Interpretation as if it were not so difficult to relish Genuine from Spurious Scriptures as when rightly discerning them to be such to understand them which is an absolute Contradiction For how should they know true from False and not understand the True That Council which made the Writings of the New Testament Canonical left out the Revelations as Apocriphal yet I hope J. Faldo accepts that as heartily and unquestionably as the rest And that Council which took in the Revelations and made it first Canonical brought in with it the Books of Tobi Judith c. which J. Faldo I suppose with all his Brethren rejects as Apocriphal Thus are meer Men and the Judgments of such Councils as he otherwise rejects his Rule for believing the Scriptures that remain to be Canonical if it be proper to say the first is the Rule of his Canon which is too short and the other which is superfluous as by his Account My next Question is What was his Rule for believing those Councils I am sure he must have been without all other then a Willingness to believe so because they said so which how like this is to his Papist unto whom he would resemble us let all sober Protestants consider I cannot see how he is able to oppugn any thing they say upon Tradition who mounts no higher for his Assurance then Tradition and such too as rests mostly within their Hands But if it shall be granted us that to know Scripture to have been given forth upon Inspiration Men must have Recourse to Inspiration then not so much Councils and Synods as the Inspiration of the Almighty which gives certain Understanding is our Rule in the Case as well saith the Assembly of Divines in their Confession of Faith chap. 1. § 4. The Authority of the holy Scripture for which it ougâ—t to be believ'd and obeyed depends not on the Testimony of any man or Church but only upon God who is Truth it self the Author thereof And since J. Faldo himself confesseth the Spirit necessary to the Vnderstanding of the Scripture which implies the Insufficiency of the Scripture to give that Understanding of it self the Spirit must be the Rule of our Vnderstanding the Scripture as it was before the Rule of our Faith concerning the Divine Authority of Scripture For the Light of the Interpreter and not the Thing interpreted is the Rule both of Faith and Practice which is undeniably evident from the reconciling of seeming Contradictions If the meer Letter of the Scripture were to be followed no Man could ever make them meet in the same Truth The many Different Perswasions at this Day about Religion prove this whose respective Authors and Abettors think it no mean Advantage to their Cause that they hold the Scriptures to be their Rule But such as come unto the Spirit of God know and believe the Truth as it is in Jesus David ' s Key that opens and none shuts is given unto them and the Secrets of their God remain with them This reconciles those seeming Contradictions and leads through the Greatest and Deepest Truths mentioned in Scripture without the least Doubt or Stumble This is the Super-excellent Benefit of the New-Covenant Administration the Promise of the Father the Instructer Leader and Comforter of all God's Children And for a further Account of which I refer the Reader to my Book entituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated from pag. 16. to pag. 47. and Reason against Railing from pag. 24. to pag. 46. To prove his former Charge he produces this Passage out of James Naylor
Church and so carry the People with whom they prevail only to outward things to an outward Word to outward Worship outward Ordinances outward Church outward Government c. whereas in the true Kingdom of Christ all things are inward and spiritual and all the true Religion of Christ is written in the Soul and Spirit of Man and the Believer is the only Book in which God himself writes his new Testament pag. 19 20. The third Testimony is out of T. Collier's Works p. 249. How can they teach others who know not Truth themselves as they say but as they read it without them And so at the best speak but other Men's Light And if they mis-understand what other Men have written then they speak Falshood instead of Truth Thus much in Countenance of W. Smith's Expression from Three Men of great Note among our English Separatists But let us hear what Use J. Faldo makes of the Testimony he brought and which we have thus clear'd and confirm'd Rep. Then follows in this and pag. 23. all that rabble of villifying Expressions of both their Practices and Authority quoted by me in Quakerism No Christianity p. 119. Rejoyn If this be true W. Smith's Book shall yet be blam'd as much as J. F. will otherwise have abus'd him I will set down his words faithfully They said he hope to be sav'd after this Life is ended by Christ though they be Sinners and so are set down in a Carnal Security and rest at ease in the Formality and are Strangers to the Quickening Spirit and the Faith that they have made is not held in a pure Conscience but is conceived in the Heart that is Degenerated and Corrupted I Query of my Reader if this was meant of the Scripture upon whom J. F. makes W. S. bestow the word Corrupted Again And what was by the Saints given forth and appears in VVritings without them that their Life is in and that they contend about and all strive to set up their own Conceivings and teach for Doctrines Men's Traditions Mark that Reader He speaks not against the Scriptures nor of them but their Blindness in using them and mind not the Measure of God in themselves that is Reader God's Measure or the Grace of God which teacheth to deny those sins he told them a little before they liv'd in with Carnal Security But sayes he stretcht beyond it in the Comprehension and run into other Men's Lines and Labours That is They out-run their own Experiences and intrude themselves into those things which were beyond their own Growth which W. S. rebukes them for making it his Business to turn them to that Grace which obeyed teaches them not to vilifie Scriptures but brings them into the right Possession of them and Title to them which he make appear to be more to their Advantage then to dispute and contend about them whilst in Sinful Security Formality Estrangedness from the Quickening Spirit Humane Faith Impure Conscience and in a Degenerated and Corrupted Heart All which is in his 22th page and give Light enough to any Man that has not like J. F. put out his Eyes of Reason and Candour unto these following words which can no more relate to the Holy Scriptures then that Spirit from whom they came to wit They are all upon the Earthly Root and in Darkness and Confusion in their Practice and Worship Now Reader What does the Scripture practise and whom and how doth the Scripture worship if the word they relate to the Scriptures and not those several ranks of Professors to whom he expresly dedicated his Book Yet further That from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Feet the Image that is the several Sects hath no whole part in it but is full of Putrefaction and Corruption and every Branch rotten and deceitful and no good Fruit is found for the bringing forth of all is from the Heart that is deceitful and corrupted which lies faln and degenerated from God What Man Reader that ever thought to have his Proofs examin'd would have dar'd to apply in the Author's Name these terms to the Scripture that so particularly and plainly relate to Man in his fallen State But please to consider what better Authority he has for the rest viz. And are all found Wanderers in the Night of Apostacy and in the Darkness have taken the VVhore's Cup and do drink it And unto all those is the Cup of God's Indignation poured out because they are Bastards and not Sons Upon which I query with J. F. who are the VVanderers If the People then the fore-going word They of which the word Wanderers must be the Relative concern Professors and then all those Terms before-mention'd belongs not to the Scripture and consequently mis-apply'd by our Enemy But if he says VV. S. meant the Scriptures how could they be said to wander or drink the VVhore's Cup And if the Whore's Cup be the Scriptures as J. F. makes W. S. to mean either the People drank up the Scriptures in the Apostacy or the Scriptures drank up themselves Next VVho are those Bastards to whom the Cup of God's Indignation is pour'd fourth Certainly they are Disobedient Children and not as J. Faldo would have it the Scriptures and holy Doctrines deduced thence Reader Doubtless the Man is desperate and to me he seems to have laid Violent hands upon himself to the destroying of his Reputation among Men and his Soul in the Eye of God since after all this Injury to our deceased Friend he dares yet appear in so impudent a Strain as this following Passage makes him guilty of All this Penn KNEW to be true when he dared to make such Hypocritical Appeals to Delude the World Save the Quakers Credit and Abuse me as a Forger The Righteous God judge between us whether I writ otherwise then I knew or he in affirming it more then he knew My Appeals were solemn in the Grief of my Spirit to see a Man arriv'd at that pitch of Falsness as to pervert and forge about Sacred Things even while himself would pass for a Minister of them and I can scarce think any Man so prejudic'd against us as not to conclude with me that his Aim in this untrue Passage to say no more was to bear People down as to the Honesty of his Quotation by the mighty Vehemence and Confidence of his positive Charge against me to have known what in Reallity I never knew and to have appeal'd hypocritically to God concerning our Innocency who did it in the Humility and Sincerity of my Soul because the Man had no other way left him to secure himself from the deserv'd Imputation of Forgery or wilful Perversion scarce a remove from it But that by which he would clear himself from it fastens it inevitably upon him and renders him one of the daringst and most harden'd Perverters I have ever yet met with in all my Life The next Testimony he brought to prove our Opposition
chosen by Man though he be thereto disposed by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture W. P. This is False Many things may be and are daily chosen by Man that is not in the Will of the Flesh nor by his own Will much less when any should be disposed thereto by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture An Abominable Untruth and so Notorious that I need say no more only Challenge him to produce any of us that is any of our Sayings or VVritings in Proof of his Exposition if he can otherwise be hath Slandered Us and Our Principles For the Wâ—ll of the Flesh is that which is quite Contrary to God and inconsistent with the Good of the Creature How well he hath acquitted himself in point of Honesty as well as Ability first in so maiming my Answer and next in saying nothing to it is still referred to my Reader 's Judgment and so we proceed Reply pag. 92. The second is pag. 249. CHRIST THE OFFERING i. e. the Light within W. P. calls this no Quakers Expression that it is take this Proof We believe that Christ in us doth offer himself up a Living Sacrifice to God for us Smith Cat. pag. 64. Rejoynder I still say it is no Quaker's Expression Though the Light that shineth in our Hearts be Christ the true Light But that which I most insisted on he hath as he useth to do quite left out viz. for he would by this insinuate that we deny Christ to be an Offering as in the Flesh and that Body then offered up to be concerned in our Belief of the Offering but I do declare it to have been an Holy Offering and such an one too as was to be once for all therefore let none receive his Abuse of us for our Faith He that hath half an Eye may see how poorly and meanly he hath shifted off the Weight of my Answer Again Reply p. 92. The third MEN-PLEASERS Sense They who comply with Men though in things not only Lawful but also to Edification This W. P. calls an arrant Lye but the ground is provided J. F. meaneth by Lawful unto Edification what we do I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth Rejoynder Indeed I never took him to be so Silly as Mischievous in the Matter not to use his own Phrase more then Ignoramus for instead of putting Bonds on the Truth he hath broken all Bonds of Truth he pretends to give our Sense of Men-Pleasers and substitutes his own in the room of it and when we tell him that if he means by Lawful and to Edification what we do he belies us he confidently replies I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth as if in rendring our Sense of words he were not bound to keep to our Sense of them how is it our Sense if it be his and not ours and how truly ours if it be putting Bonds on the Truth to render ours truly But the Man's present Hardiness is beyond wondring at To the next Reply p. 92. TRADITIONS OF MEN i. e. The Scripture or written Word p. 250. To this W. P. adds But to say they are the Traditions of Men in the sense Christ forbid the Pharisaical Religion God forbid I had rather my Tongue were cut out of my Head Oh base Man to abuse an Innocent People thus grosly I have already proved the Phrase to be the Quakers viz. Smith ' s and Nailor ' s. Rejoynder This answers it self if he had taken off the Force of my Words I might have bestowed a Rejoynder upon him in the mean time I have disproved his pretended Proof where I met with it and what I find here is but a meer begging of the Question The fifth and last Particular he thus endeavours to vindicate is this Reply p. 93. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM p. 251. Their Sense I give of this he presents the greater half of which explains the other by an c. to blind the Reader and make the Quakers believe I deserve the Imputations of Malice and wicked Man which it seems he is resolved afore hand to bestow on me Rejoynder The Man is weary of his Work as we may see by the great haste he makes over every particular No Man living that hath not read both our Books can make any Sense of this Hodge-Podge Section that ever any Man should touch with Religious Controversie that is so visibly defective in it My Answer shall be my Rejoynder for sure I am he hath overlookt it and therefore yet to be replyed to J. F. p. 89. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM that is sayes J. Faldo the Belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be p. 251 252. the Christ c. W. P. Let this be the last though several more might be observed which at this time shall be considered in which we shall see that J. Faldo has done like himself and the Man we have all along taken him to be The Vail is over them it is a Scripture-Phrase 2 Cor. 3. 15. used by the Apostle to express the Darkness and Ignorance that to that time remained over the Understanding of the Jews in reading the Law and this Vail he makes us to interpret after this gross and absurd manner namely that the Vail is the Man Christ Wicked Man Did ever Quaker so irreverently express himself Give us his Name or tell us in what Book we may find it What greater Malice couldst thou have shown then thus injustly to pervert the Scripture in our Name abusing both As if because Christ's Flesh is called a Vail and the Ignorance of the Jews a Vail that therefore the Quakers must of Necessity mean by Vail in the first Sense Vail in the second Sense as if the Way to have the Vail rent were to deny the Man Christ Jesus All this my Adversary thought fit to conceal left his transcribing it into his Reply would have made that Discovery of his Baseness which he should never have been able by all his Shifts to palliate I think I did not nick-name this Chapter when I called it a Representation of his whole Reply He ends as he begun with Squibs Puns Evasions and Ill Language for unless the Goodness of a Book be to be measured by the Paint of a Title-Page or bare Writing reputed Replying he might with more Sense and Reason have called it Froth Folly and Fiction then a Religious Vindication c. No Man I ever read of hath exceeded the Bounds of Truth by obtruding Falshoods and wandred from the Dâ—corum of a fair Adversary by unfair Citations and obvious Wrestings betaken himself for Sanctuary to such silly Shifts School-boy Jeers at the rate this Adversary hath done And I have no Reason to Doubt of others being of the same Mind since the World is not so destitute of Understanding as to be cheated with his hocus-pocus Tricks to take Tin for Silver or Copper for Gold or Froth for
preach you the Truth or no and send me word what they say that I may learn to speak after them If they say they be Sure ye know what followeth If they say they be Vnsure when shall ye be sure that have so doubtful and unsure Teachers Thus much of Infallibility when he has answer'd this we may give him some more mean time we shall proceed Rep. But further sayes W. P. Cannot one Man be another Man's Brother and not the Eldest Brother This hath done your Work or all Hope is lost It seems the Scriptures and your Writings may without Offience call one another Brother yet not be thought to aspire to Equallity But why Because for sooth you do not say they are the Scriptures Elder Brother I thought till now that Brethren had been a term of Equallity And though in Humane Births there is a Natural Right to the First-born above the Rest yet not in the Productions of Scripture for the new Excelleth the old Testament in Glory Rejoyn In Similes there is some Allowance with honest Men but none to be hoped for from J. Faldo But if it be so hard for him to bear I cannot help it Several Writings may be given forth from the same Spirit without coming upon the Vy If we must needs equaâ— some of our Writings to the Scriptures because given forth by the same Spirit then must every the least True Christian be equal to the greatest Apostle because indued with the same Spirit The Pouring forth of the Spirit which was the Promise of the Father we have proved the very Substance of the Gospel and Inspiration as necessary as divine Knowledge because the only Way to it Whatever therefore hath been writ from Adam's day to this or shall yet be to the End of the World from the Motion of God's Spirit in the Hearts of any of his Children stands as nearly related to the Scriptures as his several Manifestations of his Spirit in his Servants Writing The Ancient Christians were Brethren having one Father Were they therefore equally dignified in Degree of Fellowship And that was the Meaning of my former Simile disingenuously taken by my Adversary For as there is a Degree in natural so in spiritual Births The Dignity of the first lies in Priority of Time the Dignity of the last in a more full Discovery of Immortality and eternal Life Thus the Scriptures of the New exceed those of the Old Testament Where there is the first and most ample Declaration there must be the Preheminence Now alas what can we boast of that was not formerly testified unto we exalt no singular Spirit neither walk we in an untroden Path 't is the Everlasting Gospel we bear witness unto and to the Revival and Breakin gs forth of that ancient Life Truth Spirit and Power which according unto divers Dispensations hath made People true Children of God What do you esteem your own Meanings and Interpretations Do you not intitle them to a very near relation the Text interpreted We never intended to bring our Writings upon the Vye and dispute with it the Scriptures for the Preheminence But our Writings further declaring of the same Truth from the same Spirit are related to them If to testifie and exhort to the same Truth the Scriptures declare of and that in the same Spirit of Christ by which they were given forth be offensively to equal or prefer such Testimonies we are indeed guilty of great Presumption But if it be Scripturally True That as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and that such as so led may by that Spirit further be drawn forth to fresh Testimonies to any ancient Truth or Truths declared of in the holy Scriptures whether by way of Prophecy Information Exhortation Reproof or Comfort to Believer or Unbeliever as must not be denyed since God cannot be limited it cannot be Presumptuous or Arrogant to affirm any Kindred or Relation between any such Writing or Wrirings of the Scriptures of Truth In short Either there are never to be more Inspiration after the Apostles Decease and consequently no more Testimonies nor Prophecies to be then what the remaining Scriptures give us or the Pouring out of the holy Ghost belongs as well to after Ages as to that as hath been abundantly proved and therefore fresh Testimonies and Prophesies by way of further opening or pressing the ancient Truth recorded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament may in after Ages be given forth unless God and his Spirit should be limited and many parts of the Scripture remain unfulfilled If any shall object 'T is Adding according to Revel 22. 18. I would have them know that the Addition intended was not of other Writings but other Doctrines I will conclude this with a very notable Passage delivered in a Book entituled An Examen of the late Assembly of Divines Confession of Faith presented to the Parliament Anno 165â— pag. 8 10. It is evident that the Lord will have Prophets in all Ages especially when he is about to bring extraordinary Judgments upon the World in general and upon the Church is special and that the Last Times shall abound most of all with the Prophetical Spirit So that these extraordinary Wayes of God's revealing himself neither are ceased nor shall determine in the militant Church Thirdly whereas you say in the sixth Section that nothing at any time is to be added to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament whether by new Revelations of the Spirit or Traditions of Men We desire to know what Warrant you have thus to determine If you say that in Revelat. 22. 18. it is written That if any Man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book We answer That so much in effect was forbidden long before as Prov. 30. 6. Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a Lyar yet many Books of the Holy Prophets and Apostles have been added since the written Word of those times Yea the same Inhibition was given by Moses Deut. 4. 2. 12. 32. Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it Therefore this Addition thus probibited must necessarily be understood of any new Doctrine in substance differing from the Old but even that of Moses But that there should be a Vindication of the same when mis-understood or a more full and free Publication of the same by the Prophets of the Old Testament or Inspired Men of the New Rep. My Adversary tells me a Blind Story a preferring our Writings above the Scriptures as being from God essentially in us But this saith he P. has not one word to Rejoyn I had little Reason for it He confesseth pag. 43. of his former Discourse that he expected not to find any such word as Essentially in our Authors Doth he think I was to play the
as said of the Scriptures out of W. Smith's Book which was one part of my Stress he was willing to shake off but it will not so easily acquit him Observe his Reply Rep. And whereas W. P. saith No such Words can be produced he intends no other but that Smith doth not accuse himself in so many words of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received Rejoyn His first Words belye me nor can any Man be so sottish as to believe I intended any such thing as he would have his Reader believe for that were no Answer to the Objection but an arrant yet fond Cheat and Illusion My Meaning went with my Words and my Words meant as I just now explain'd them the substance of which was in my Answer though evaded by his Reply and perhaps my Rejoynder will meet with no better Usage For his Phrase of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures I will tell him and that upon very good Authority that he now playes the Canter with us and that shamefully The Spirit of God IN the Scriptures a Scripture for that I intreat him You may see what a Doctor he is you that believe in him that thinks he can clasp up the Spirit with his Bible It seems thus far John Faldo and Simon Magus agree for the one thought he could buy it of Peter and the other implies he may have it of his Book-seller Indeed if I thought J. Faldo could believe what he sayes I should be the tenderer of him for Ignorance is to be pittied But when he shall shut the Spirit of God out of Men and shut him up in the Scripture though it call Men the Temples or Tabernacles of God and his Spirit whilst it never calls it self so but Holy Writings or a Declaration of things certainly believed he is to be censur'd for his improper and ambiguous Terms and the rather because his Charity is so small to others in Cases more excusable and that no Man acts the Doctor of the Sentences to others more snappishly and imperiously then himself however I shall be so favourable as to take his Words in this Sense else I know not which way he will turn himself viz. The Spirit of God speaking when it pleaseth by the Scriptures which brings him and his Cause unavoidably over to us But let us see if J. F. can honestly fasten any of those fore-cited Epithetes upon W. Smith's Book If he can we will condemn the Book as heartily as J. F. traduceth us in his But if he shall be found to have wrong'd W. S. God that lives forever will avenge our Innocency upon him which we desire may extend no further then to work him into true Repentance and effectually to vindicate us in the Understandings of the Mis-informed His words are these Rep. But that all that Inventory of execrable Names W. Smith doth intend of the Scriptures and the Holy Doctrines grounded on the Authority of the written Word take these Testimonies John 1. 9. He that is John beheld him and his Glory and felt his Power and what his Power took away then he declared him as he knew him and not from any Tradition or Writing before him why then do teach for Doctrines Men's Traditions running into the Lines of what others have written Morn Watch pag. 6. Rejoyn The Passages from whence the particular Epithetes are taken shall be consider'd anon This is one of those Testimonies he brings to prove he rightly cited and apply'd his former Testimonies out of the same Author which had he intended in reallity he should as well have inserted the one as the other to help such as had not seen his other Book into a true Judgment of this but then may he say I should not make the best of my Case which to do him no Wrong he studies more then the Truth or any thing else next to his making the worst of ours And now Reader that this Proof is as lame as his former and wholely as silent to his Wicked purposes consider I entreat thee the Drift of this Man as his Discourse at large manifests Two things he had in his Eye First to beat People off from the Doctrines and Traditions of Men in the Sense Christ once spoke those words to wit not the Scriptures but Men's humane Interpretations of them with such Forms and Worships as they had invented in the Apostacy from the true Spirit of Christianity as these words by J. F. purposely omitted notwithstanding they lay between the two first Sentences which therefore make an absolute Break though he makes none do undeniably evince to wit VVeigh this Truth all ye Priests and Professors and ponder it in your Hearts have you beheld Christ and seen his Glory Have you felt his Power to take away your sin If yea then why do ye teach for Doctrine Men's Traditions Again pag. 16. For they being from the Life that gave forth Scriptures their Vnderstandings are darkened and they err and know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God Lastly in the 14th page he hath these words All the vain Worships and Customs which People at this day are in who yet abide in Forms and Traditions are all come up since the dayes of the Apostles and are after Men's Traditions and not after Christ And the Conception of all hath been in Man's Imagination and hath been brought forth in his own Will and Wisdom By all which Reader it appears that he distinguisheth between Men's Traditions and God's Tradition For first how can he mean the Scriptures in the first Passage the middle of which our Adversary so wilfully dropt when he implies that from feeling the Power of Christ to take away Sin Men would leave off Teaching for Doctrine the Traditions of Men making them thereby sinful and a Sin to teach them when J. Faldo confesses that upon the Spirit 's moving and giving us the understanding of Scripture we do allow the Doctrines therein deliver'd to be rightly preach'd In the second Passage he undeniably distinguishes between the Scriptures rightly understood and their Mistake of them to whom he wrote Not knowing says he the Scriptures nor the Power of God being darkned which imports that truly to know and teach according to the sense of Holy Scripture is a quite differing thing from Teaching for Doctrine the Traditions of Men. Nor is his third Passage less clear in the Point pag. 14. sinâ—â— he explains what he means by those offensive Words to J. Faldo's Ear by such Customs Worships and Traditions as were not of Christ and that took their rise since the time of the Apostles and proceeded from the Imagination Will and Wisdom of Man therefore not the Writings of either Prophets or Apostles that were before such Apostacy and which were given forth as they were mov'd of the Holy Ghost The second thing greatly in the Author's Eye and with which his Spirit seems to be prest through the