imployed and exercised who attend to his inspirings and find advantage in so doing much more than by all the much pratling of men who presume to Preach or Teach without the Spirit In pag. 37. he saith The Popes Infallibility must be resolved into this Enthusiastical Principle of immediate Inspiration I answer not but a most into a false pretence thereunto which yet argueth nothing against the true Principle itself And though some of the Popish Schoolmen resolve it into a pretence of Immediate Revelation yet many more do otherwise and particularly the University of Paris as I have showed at more length in my Book called Quakerism no Popery They resolve it only into a blind insensible assistance of the Spirit which they call subjective or effective illumination but not objective the which Popish distinction many Protestants and as it seemeth this Author apply to their Faith with this difference that these Protestants make the assistance of the Spirit fallible but the Papists make it as in the Pope and his Council infallible Pag. 29. he saith The Churches Hieroms Augustines Chrysostoms like us were not inspired but studied Divines I answer why might not Hierom Augustine and Chrysostome and such as they be both to wit parly inspired and partly studied as he termeth it seeing there is no inconsistency as he supposeth betwixt the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the frequent and diligent use of all right and lawful means such as reading the Scriptures Meditation and Prayer with other Religious Exercises which this Author calleth studying But studying without all Divine Inspiration makes but poor Divines or rather dead and dry Vines And here I give the Reader to understand that in the very beginning of his Sermon this Author for all his prejudice at Enthusiasts distinguisheth betwixt them and Impostors saying Impostors on one hand and Enthusiasts on the other c. What then are the Enthusiasts no Impostors One thing I like well in the Author as to what he saith and do therein cordially-agree with him pag. 39. The first Apostolical Ages of Wonder were utterly ignorant of killing impulse and zeal which I could not but observe to the utter detestation of Christians Assassines c. I could here cite divers Testimonies of the Ancients for the verity of Divine Inspiration as still remaining among and in the true Christians but to avoid prolixity I shall only cite two Testimonies one of Augustine another of Origene Augustine saith Tract Epist. Ioh. 3. There is an inward Master who teacheth Christ teacheth his Inspiration teacheth where his Inspiration and Anointing is not the words outwardly make but an empty sound Origines contra Celsum lib. 7. circa med 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Mat. 11. Verbum autem Dei divina quadam gratia non athea existente anima sed cum quodam Enthusiasmo demonstrat cognosci Deum The word of God citing Mat. 11. No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him demonstrateth that God is known by a certain divine Grace the Soul not being Atheistical but indued with a certain Enthusiasm Where note that he setteth in opposition Atheism and Enthusiasm or the Atheist and Enthusiast as if whosoever is not Enthusiast or indued with a Divine Enthusiasm were a downright Atheist which is very agreeable to a Title of a Friends Book called Enthusiasm above Atheism writ some years ago by G. W. There is one passage more in this Authors Sermon which I cannot well let pass pag. 32 33. Suppose saith he thou knowest the Gospel like the Apostles by Inspiration what then another Minister who knows it by reading and study is as capable to edifie the Church as thee And besides if thou art like a vain Corinthian ambitious of Inspiration know that it will add nothing to the Reputation of thy parts for an inspired man is but the Vessel to the Treasure the very Instrument and Machine of the Holy Ghost who can ordain strength out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings and make a Child or an Ideot preach as well as thee To the first I answer according to this Authors assertion the bare Minister of the Letter is as good a Preacher and as useful in the Church as Paul or any of the Apostles which is so gross as nothing needs to be said unto the spiritually minded for its Refutation Did then the Scribes preach with the same Authority that Christ did is it not said expressly that Christ preached as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and what was the Reason of this so great a difference was not a main Reason of it that the Scribes preached barely from the Letter without Divine Inspiration but Christ preached by Divine Inspiration wherewith he was exceeding richly endued above all other men And if it should please God to send Preachers who should preach with Divine Inspiration should they not better open and expound the Scriptures and the Mysteries of the Christian Religion being inspired divinely so to do than those who presume to expound them meerly by the strength of their natural parts and human Learning Or why is it that great Schollars so accounted give so contrary Expositions to the same places of Scripture so frequently but that they want the Inspiration of the Spirit that gave them forth For as Hierome saith Epist. Paulin. 103. The Law is Spiritual and needeth Revelation that it may be understood To the second I answer 't is not Pride nor Vanity to desire the saving Inspirations of the Holy Spirit for Christ hath encouraged us to ask the Holy Spirit which is the same to our Souls as bread is unto the Body or the most nourishing Food And whereas he saith that Inspiration will add nothing to the Reputation of a mans parts who hath it I answer yea the Divine Inspiration that we plead for which is of a moral and saving Nature doth add exceedingly to a mans parts whether acquired or natural and consequently to their true and just Reputation for Grace which is a Divine Principle inspired and infused into the Soul doth sanctifie both the Soul of man and all its faculties and parts and healeth all the Souls Diseases and Disorders and consequently doth greatly improve assist and enlarge the mans parts and rational faculties who is so inspired as abundant Experience can be given both of latter and former Ages And tho' Inspiration of the Spirit of God may make Children and Ideots such as some of the Apostles were to preach or speak well yet it leaveth them not still to be Children and Ideots but by degrees doth largely replenish them both with spiritual and sometimes with a great natural understanding And doth not the Author think that Paul had a greater and nobler enlargedness of his rational faculties and the use of them in Preaching Disputing and Writing on the account of his being divinely inspired and although the inspired Man is but the Vessel to the Treasure yet
Religion which is a special Religion more perfect and excellent than the General and perfiting the said General Religion in true Christians are made known unto us by the Scripture means the Holy Spirit inwardly inlightning and inspiring us that we may understand the Doctrines declared in the Scripture and may savingly apply them with true and sincere Faith to the salvation of our souls And what more any can require of us to establish the due use of the Scripture or of any other means I do not understand And as concerning the aforesaid experimental and sensible knowledge of God that is only manifest or obvious to the inward and supreme sences and powers of the Soul as they are opened and awakened in us by the work of Regeneration and Renewing of the Holy Ghost although the Scripture words do not immediately concur in the formal act of such a Divine and Intuitive Knowledge as the words of a mans name do not make me see the man yet the Scriptures do witness abundantly concerning such an experimental and spiritually sensible knowledge of God which is perceived in a most inward union and communion of the Soul with God and in a certain Intellectual or spiritual contact or touch of which not only Plato and Plotin and others among those called Philosophers but the Apostles among the Christians have largely made mention And after the Apostles Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Clemens Alexandrinus Origen and many others among the Grecians and Augustine and Ierome with many others many Ages ago among the Latines and in latter Ages Bernard Thauler and Thomas a Kempis and the Author of the German Theology unto whose Book Luther did write a Preface and did much commend it All these and generally these called Mysticks and Writers upon Mystick Divinity so called do Preach and hold forth a certain Knowledge of God which is received without all words by a certain inward gust taste and touch and inward feeling of God and Divine Things in the souls and hearts of those who have attained unto that due state and degree of purity and holiness requisite in order to such a knowledge and enjoyment And hence it is that they distinguish Theology or the knowledge of God into discursive on the one hand and mystick or intuitive and contemplative on the other and they say the former is had or received by words and verbal discourses syllogisms propositions premisses and conclusions gathered and collected from Scripture which yet without the Spirits inward illumination and operation is not effectual to the salvation of those who have it but that this latter is obtained by a naked and simple perception and intuition of God and Divine Things as the mind is purified and cleansed and denuded as it were from all images and similitudes or signs of words or outward things whatsoever That we may therefore put a conclusion to the forming the state of the controversie aright which is the most principal thing if the question be made concerning doctrinal and discursive Theology or knowledge which require words propositions definitions reasons arguments and conclusions we shall readily grant that the Scriptures are a General Principle of the same but Secundary the Holy Spirit inwardly inlightning and inspiring mens souls and hearts being still the Primary and Principal and that by means of the Scriptures in reading and hearing and meditating upon them and as they are preached and opened and used by men spiritually gifted and fitted of God we attain to the knowledge of the said discursive and doctrinal Theology and most especially the Scriptures are of service unto us when we turn or convert the words of them that do most nearly respect Holiness of Life and Manners such as the precepts and examples of Christian Vertues into good works and deeds and into a good and Christian Life But in the experimental and mystick or intuitive and contemplative Theology not the Scripture words but the things themselves signified by the words to wit God Christ the Holy Spirit the Life Light and Power of God the Love Peace and Joy of God and the Kingdom of God which Christ did testifie to be within us reveal and demonstrate themselves to the souls and hearts of the faithful by themselves nakedly in their own proper and native light glory and evidence without words even as the outward things and riches of this visible world and the beauty glory and vertue of them reveal and discover themselves unto our outward senses without words and far beyond the force or reach of words And if outward things without words are continually presented to our outward senses it followeth that inward things to wit the things of the Divine and Heavenly Kingdom which is in us are presented to our inward and spiritual senses without words seeing these inward and spiritual things are as near to our souls yea much nearer ' as those outward things are to our bodies And thus the state of the Controversie being rightly framed and brought to a period I shall have little difficulty to answer the following Paragraphs or Sections of the Adversary seeing in all things almost he goeth without or beyond the state of the Controversie and so contendeth not so much against us or R. B. as his own shadow or thoughts CHAP. VI. WHat the Adversary saith in his Ninth and Tenth Paragraphs are of the same tendency with the things he had formerly mentioned belonging to the state of the Controversie In his Eleventh Paragraph he saith the Controversie is not of any sort of Revelation but that of Immediate And in his Twelfth he affirmeth that Revelation considered in it self doth prescind or abstract from that which is Immediate and Mediate And he assenteth unto R. B. his five Propositions pag. 9. of his Apology and that Divine Revelations remain to be the formal object of the Saints Faith but he denyeth them to be Immediate To whom I answer that he granteth with us That he inward illuminations and operations of the Holy Spirit are altogether necessary to beget true and saving Faith in men and that these inward illuminations are objective or by way of Object Par. 32. and Par. 34. So that the act of Faith is occupied or exercised and doth finally stay in God himself revealing as the Object And what he subjoyneth That God revealing as the formal Object in whom the Vnderstanding stayeth or resteth and the Divine Revelation consisting of the external signs are not to be opposed Because when God the revealer by outward words Preached or Writ moveth the Vnderstanding to acknowledge them to be as a Divine Revelation it cannot be denyed that the Vnderstanding doth so rest in God revealing as the formal Object So that it doth also regard these signs depending on God by which that Revelation doth consist meaning the words All this is granted both by me and R. B. yea that is it for which R. B. pleadeth viz. that God inwardly illuminating and moving the Understanding to the assent of the
because they have departed and Apostatised from that Holy Spirit given of old unto their Fathers And therefore was it not also a great glory and honour to the ancient Christian Church to have in it the gift of prophecy or speaking by Immediate Inspiration and would it not be now a great glory and honour to the Church if that gift of prophecy which did anciently flourish in the Church for some Ages after the Apostles days should flourish and spring forth again was not this gift with many others lost by the apostacy of the professors of the Christian Religion and therefore when the apostacy goeth out and people doth return to the sincere worship and obedience of God shall not this excellent gift be restored together with many others Had not the ancient Christian Church after the Apostles days all the Books of Scripture of the Old and New Testament as well as we The Jews also had the Scriptures of the Old Testament which contained all the heads of Christian Doctrine in respect of the substance of Religion a people therefore having the Scripture but wanting the Spirit Immediately teaching leading and inspiring them which both the Jewish Church had and also the Christians after the Apostles days shall be more happy then both these because they want the said Holy Spirit Immediately inspiring teaching and leading them This is a wonderful paradox but most false for the Christians are not more happy than the Jews because out of the Scripture barely they could know the will of God for the Jews had the Scripture also containing all the heads of the Doctrine of their Religion clearly enough But for this cause true Christians are more happy than those Jews that whereas the Jews for all their having the Scripture did need to take long Journeys to consult the Priests to solicite wait for the respouses of the High Priests all true Christians because they partake more largely of the Holy Spirit they need not make these Journeys or travels to consult either Priests or High Priest because they have a most excellent Priest yea an High Priest more high then the Heavens or the Angels that dwell in them to wit Jesus Christ dwelling in their hearts who by his Spirit teacheth them all things and doth clearly and without all doubtfulness answer them iâ— all things needful to be known by them and who doth also clearly and infallibly expound the Scripture unto them And therefore true Christians have no need to run to these Jewish Priests and High Priests nor unto these Doctors so called and preachers at this day who do not so much as profess to have any thing of the Divine Inspiration and inward Revelation with which the Prophets and holy men of God were of old endued and do not pretend to have any infallible sense or understanding of the holy Scripture or to have received any infallible Judgment of its meaning And so true Christians may spare both their labour and their mony and not spend it nor give it away to such Doctors and Preachers but leaving them all behind as unprofitable let them go unto Jesus Christ the Lord the eternal Priest who liveth for ever by whom they shall be well and sufficiently taught and instructed and that freely without either labour or mony And lastly as to these notable testimonies of the ancients and reformers in Luther's times cited by R. B. in his Apology because the Adversary endeavoureth to elude or evade the form of them after the same manner as he doth the testimonies of the holy Scripture therefore he is the same way refused in both and the answers given in the one will serve in the other the which if I have effectually given I leave unto the â—qual and impartial Reader for to Judge THE Pretended EXORCIST DETECTED In a Brief REPLY TO A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE The University of Oxford by George Hicks stiled Doctor of Divinity in the Month called Iuly 11. 1680. the which Sermon is called The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised CHAP. I. UPon my reading of this Authors Printed Sermon which is called the Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcised I find the said Author very unskilful and unacquainted with the true notion of Enthusiasm as it is owned and received among the People called in derision Quakers with all possible moderation And though he hath been pleased to cite my Book of Immediate â—evelation and R. B. his Apology and Theses yet I can hardly believe he hath been at any pains to read and consider throughly what is said by us on that Subject for had he but read and well considered what we have said or writ in that matter he would have â—â—â—â—e fairly and genuinely stated the controversy betwixt us and our opposers as to this particular In my answer to Io. Bajer the Lutheran Doctor in Iena so much is already said as less needs be added for a reply to what this Author hath brought against us As for the word or term Enthusiasm as I have already said in my answer to the Lutheran Doctor we do not plead for it or affect such a name or title for it being no Scripture phrase or expression we can and do very well declare our Faith in the thing we intend without it Yet we cannot altogether reject the term when thrust or cast upon us by opposers on purpose many times to render us odious because the Etimology of the word Enthusiasm according to the best and most approved Greek Lexicons signifieth Divine Inspiration And whereas it hath been used by heathenish writers to signifie the inspirations or inward suggestions of Daemons and evil Spirits yet this hath rather been an abuse and improper signification of the word then a true and genuine acceptation of it and notwithstanding of this abuse of the word among heathenish writers and Poets yet divers of the Fathers useâ— it in a good sense and as applicable to good and sincere Christians Yea this Author himself with respect to the Prophets and Apostles and others their successors for 3 or 4 hundreds of years owneth the term Enthusiasm and that in the Apostles times and downwards to the 4 or 5 Century there were some real and sincere Christians who had Enthusiasms and were enthusiastically acted and moved by the Spirit of God for thus he saith Pag. 12. Edit 3. of this sort of Enthusiastical confidence with which the Spirit filled the minds of men is that place to be understood Math. 21. vers 21. and Pag. 14. he saith prophecy may be taken as it is often in the Old and New Testament for praising of God by inspired Hymns and Psalms for inspired persons did usually spend their Enthusiasm in composing of Hymns and Spiritual Songs And Pag. 16. he saith the groanings wherewith some inspired persons prayed in the Apostles days according to Rom. 8. were the effect of those supernatural raptures and Enthusiasms with which the Spirit filled the souls of those inspired Orators so we see how this Author
he is not a dead Vessel or Machine but is a living sensible rational Vessel and is quickned strengthened and beautifyed yea and perfected thereby as the Body is by the Soul that is lodged in it So that however others who are declared Enemies to Divine Inspiration may judge we have cause to conclude That men indeed Divinely inspired are the most truly Rational Men in the World and have the truest and noblest use of all their Rational and Intellectual faculties if duly improved Several Testimonies of Ancient Fathers so called and other Ancient Writers to the Spirits Inward and Immediate Teachings and the preference of the Spirit of God in his Divine Illuminations and Operations and Inspirations to the Letter of the Scripture also the Vniversality of Divine Illumination and of the benefit of Silence and other things of Truth of the like Nature as owned by the People called in Derision Quakers IGnatius who lived in the first Century or within a hundred years after Christ and is thought that he might have seen Christ in the flesh who died a valiant Martyr for the truth of Christ in his 9th Epistle writing to the Church of Philadelphia saith expressly thus 1. I have heard some saying unless I find the Gospel in Archeis publick Records or Writings I believe not Unto such I say Jesus is unto me for publick Records or Writings again he saith the publick Records or Writings ought not to be preferred unto the Spirit Observe It 's plain that by the Archea or Publick Records he meaneth the Scriptures in which sense Tertullian useth the word Archia lib. 3. against Marcion II. And in his 14th Epistle writing to the Ephesians he saith unto them expresly these words using the Holy Spirit the Rule in Greek thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greek word signifieth a measuring Line Rule or perpendicular III. Athenagoras who lived in the 2d Century legatione pro Christianis pleading for the Christians that they lived a pure life he saith expresly of them whose life is directed unto God as the Rule the Greek words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most properly signifieth a Rule Amussis Regula IV. Clemens Alexandrinus who lived in the beginning of the 3d Century admonitione ad Gentes saith But that holy man Moses speaketh truly Deut. 25.13 14 15. Thou shalt not have in thy bag a weight and a weight a great and a small but thou shalt have a true and a just weight judging the weight and the measure and the number of all things to be God for the unjust and unrighteous at home and in the bag are the Idols that are hid in the unclean soul but there is one just measure who is the only true God ever equal and ever the same measuring and weighing all things in the ballance which is righteousness V. The same Clemens 1 b. 1. Stromatum towards the end saith expresly thus It is evident that Moses calleth the Lord the Testament greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying behold I my Testament with thee for before he said the Testament or Covenant was not to be sought in the Scripture again he saith in the preaching of Peter thou shalt find the Lord called the Law and the Word or Reason VI. The same Clemens in his forecited admonition to the Gentiles expresly declareth that in all men simply or universally and especially in them who are exercised in Doctrines there is instilled a certain divine influx or influence gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the grace or gift of which they acknowledge even they also who are unwilling that God is one incorruptible and unbegotten or uncreated VII Again in the same he saith for as that divine Apostle of the Lord saith The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men c. this is the New Song the appearance of the word which hath shined in us which was in the beginning and was first of all VIII And in his Poedagagus lib. 1. cap. 3. he saith there is a lovely or amiable thing in man which is called the inspiration of God gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IX And writing to the unbelieving Gentiles he speaketh expresly of the inward witness which was in them calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 innatum testem fide dignum the innate witness worthy of faith and what is that but the same which Iames called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the innate word born or inbred in us X. The same Clemens in his Stromata citeth testimonies for the truth out of Matthias Barnabas Clement the Apostle and out of Hermes the Pastor yea he is so far from thinking that only the Prophets and Apostles writ by Divine Inspiration that he plainly declareth that not only Plato but also many others preached and declared the only true God by his inspiration gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admon ad Gentes and in the same speaking of the followers of Pythagoras he saith and these things suffice unto the acknowledging of God which are written by them by the inspiration of God This Clemens Alexandrinus was the Scholar of Pantaenus the Martyr the which Pantaenus taught School at Alexandria in Aegypt and is said to have been the first Christian School-Master in that famous School of Alexandria to whom did succeed Clemens Alexandrinus and to him Origine and others successively XI The forecited Ignatius writing to the Ephesians ep 14. saith expresly thus Let Christ speak in you as in Paul let the Holy Ghost teach you to speak the things of Christ like unto him and in his 13th Epistle writing to Heron Deacon of Antioch he saith Thou art the Temple of Christ the Instrument of the Spirit XII Tertullian who lived about the beginning of the third Century lib. 2. carminum advers Marrion saith Atque adeo non verba libri sed missus in orbem Ipse Christus Evangelium est si cernere vultis In English thus Not the words of the Book but Christ who is Into the world sent the Gospel is If ye will understand this he wrote against the Marcionists a gross sort of Hereticks XIII The same Tertullian a very approv'd Author in what he writ before he was leavened with the Doctrines of Novatus and Montanus and famous among the Christians for his Writings a great defender of the Christian faith against the Infidels In his Book of the Testimony of the Soul against the Gentiles proveth that there is in the souls of all men a testimony concerning God the judgement to come the immortality of the soul the punishment of the wicked after death the resurrection of the body c. he saith moreover thus I bring forth a new Testimony more known than all literature or letter-knowledge and cap. 5. he saith thus These testimonies of the soul how much true so much simple how much simple so much vulgar how much vulgar so much common how much common so much natural how much natural so much
neglect and lay aside the reading of the Holy Scripture and Meditation thereon and the use and exercise of other good means as Preachings or Declarations of Truth in the Assemblies of the Faithful through Holy Men who speak by the Holy Ghost and also prayers and supplications and giving of thanks unto God both in publick and private or the Pious and Christian Admonitions Exhortations and Reprehensions of their Brethren and Elders where they are needful how much sover they make a pretext of the Spirit yet they live not in the Holy Spirit of God and they may pretend to have a name to live with those of the Church of Sardis but they are very dead carnal rude and ignorant whereas the humble meek and faithful Servants of God in the first place they imbrace love and receive with great respect the Holy Spirit of God and watch and attend unto the same and then duely and chastly they regard the Holy Scriptures as the Instruments means organs and vessels of the Holy Spirit as the same useth them and appeareth in them and so frequently and daily make use of them and of all other means ordained and appointed of God and in their so doing find their great profiting to the praise of God and to the increasing in them Divine knowledge and vertue for they do well know and consider that it is a peculiar work and office of the Holy Spirit to expound the Holy Scriptures unto them explain and unfold their mysteries prophecies and hidden things and reveal their deep sence and that sometimes by the means of others preaching unto them and at other times by silent and solitary meditation within themselves which doth not hinder the immediate operation and communication of the Holy Spirit but is altogether made effectual thereby as is showed at large in this following treatise And how can they reject the Holy Scriptures or their use to read and hear them and meditate upon them who believe that the Holy Spirit is given them for that very cause that he may expound unfold and reveal the Scriptures unto them the Holy Scripture therefore is not to be rejected nor laid aside by any however so much inlightned and replenished with the Holy Spirit but greatly to be esteemed and improved according to their great worth The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy who had that excellent gift of the Holy Spirit to read the Holy Scripture and praised him that from his Childhood he had known them and been exercised in them his faithful parents to wit his Mother and Grandmother procuring and moving him unto the same also the Apostles did exercise themselves in reading the Scriptures of the Prophets and did bring many excellent places out of them as the Holy Spirit taught them and opened them in their Preaching Christ and his Gospel and Faith to convince the unbelieving and in their Epistles unto the faithful they did frequently cite the Scriptures of the Prophets and did also meditate in them for the nourishing their hope and consolation as Paul hath expresly affirmed Whatever said he is written for our cause it was written whereby he includeth both himself and all the Apostles as well as other Saints that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope and if they be writ for the Saints as well as for others therefore they are to be read and heard and meditated upon by the Saints as well as others by Men and Women Old and Young and by young Children also that as it were with their Mothers Milk they may draw and suck in the most wholesome precepts institutions and examples of the Scripture and the most profitable Histories thereof for the begetting and forming them unto a good life by the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit which shall not be wanting to them who sincerely wish and desire it for all Scripture Divinely inspired and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work 2 Tim. 3.16.17 Daniel who was a great Prophet of God understood some things out of books and especially out of Jeremiah his Prophecy as he himself did testifie John saith the things he did write concerning Christ were writ unto men that they might believe and by believing may attain everlasting life John 20.31 and therefore the Scriptures are given also in order to work or beget faith into Christ in mens hearts to wit as a means or instrument thereof in the hand of the Spirit and finally Paul saith that the mistery to wit of the Gospel of Christ which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest is by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God to be made known to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25 26. And although neither in the age of the Apostles nor unto this day the outward Testimony of the Scripture in the declaration of the Gospel is come to all and every one of Mankind yet it shall most certainly come into all before the end of the World and the Gospel as Christ hath declared shall be preached to all Nations both inwardly and outwardly for a Testimony to the Salvation of them that believe and to the greater condemnation of these who believe not And surely the time is near wherein God is to visit all Nations with his Spirit Light Life and Grace in a larger measure than in many ages by-gone and by the virtue and efficacy of his Spirit he will sanctify and bless unto the people the outward testimony of the Scriptures that with spiritual fruit and encrease they may read them and hear them and meditate upon them diligently and this my testimony as concerning the worth and use of the Scriptures and of all other true means appointed of God the Holy Spirit assisting I desired to have published ERRATA PAge 18. line 4. read tast p. 20. l. 27. r. airy p. 29. l. 24. r. where p. 41. l. 26. r. is Christ p. 75. l. 10 11 r. Books which they contain in so many words p. 78. l. 10. f. primitive r. intimate p. 78. l. 28. r. implanted and ingrafted p. 79. l. 9. r. worthy of belief p. 81. l. 17. r. at least p. 82. l. 14. r. antient writings p. 84. l. 29. r. refuted The Second Treatise Page 89. l. 16. r. was induced p. 93. l. 8. r. restricted p. 95. l. 23. f. acknowledge r. actually l. 24. r. absent p. 97. l. 6. r. to the Holy Ghost p. 98. l. 1. r. assentiendi p. 104. l. 9 13 18 r. Students l. 12. r. them p. 105. l. 2. r. pretend p. 109. l. 25. r. doth only conclude p. 110. l. 10. r. inspired l. 21. r. supposed p. 114. l. 13. r. inspiration p. 138. l. 19. r. Revelations p. 139. l. 4. r. within p. 145. l. 6. r. at most l. 26. r. partly p. 160. l. 24. r.
of the connexion and union of the powers of the Soul we are brought into the divine vision for the things which we read and hear in the Scripture the Holy Spirit cooperating excite our attention attention exciteth memory memory exciteth the imagination viz. not the vain every imagination but that which is a natural faculty of the Soul given it of God the imagination exciteth the reason or reasonable and discursive facultie and reason exciteth in us the love and desire of seeing and lastly this love and desire exciteth vision it self or the intuitive faculty and power of the Soul whereby God himself that most desireable good and most delightful object is seen as he is pleased to reveal himself and not otherwise and enjoyed yea and as it were with both the arms of the Soul is held and embraced for some space of time but this intuitive power of the Soul whereby God is seen is blinded and shut up in all unregenerated and unsanctified men And thus the Soul is led as it were through those six daies or steps of labour of its inferiour powers in reading hearing and meditating on the Scriptures and practising what it reads of the practical part in the leadings and enablings of God's Holy Spirit until it cometh unto the sweet Sabbath and rest of the divine fruition And this is that state of which Augustine seemeth to speak lib. 1. de Doctrina Christiana cap. 39. saying A man that is endued with Faith Hope and Love and holdeth them firmly needeth not the Scriptures but to instruct others that is as I understand in respect of that supreme power of his Soul whereby he reacheth unto God and apprehendeth him with Faith Hope and Love far beyond and above all manner or measure of words he needeth not the Scriptures although he needeth them in regard of his inferiour powers as well for his own instruction as for the instruction of others And in his first Book de consensu Evangelistarum cap. 5. discoursing of the active and contemplative vertue he saith thus In this mortal life that to wit the active vertue is in the work of a good Conversation but this to wit the Contemplative is more in Faith and with some darkly as in a Glass and in part in some vision of the unchangeable truth These two vertues are figuratively understood in Jacob 's two Wives for Lea signifieth labouring and Rachel signifieth the beginning of Vision Thus Augustine than which what can be more clear as belonging to the present question And Luther also as appeareth out of a Book published in High-Dutch Anno 1618. called the Harmony or Concord did assert Such an inward Illumination and Inspiration immediate of God which did teach the faithful above all Books and outward hearing by vertue of which they needed not the Books of the Scripture but to prove unto others that it is so written And he said That a man so taught and inlightned of God was above all Law to wit outward in a Sermon of his on Pentecost And in the same Sermon he describeth the second Law not to be of the Letter but of the Spirit not pronounced with the mouth nor writ with Pen and Ink but to be the holy Spirit Himself or at least his work which he worketh in the heart And in a Sermon of his upon the Magnificat he saith No man can know God or his Word aright who doth not receive it immediately from the holy Spirit Note here that the term Immediate is used by Luther Again on the fourth Psalm he saith Faith is well called the light of God's countenance because it is an Illumination divinely inspired into our mind and a certain Ray of the Divinity infused into the heart of the Believer whereby every one who is saved is directed and saved Again in his Postill dom 8. Serm. 2. speaking of Faith as aforesaid he saith the Preached Word is to be ruled by Faith and not Faith by the Preached Word And after All Doctrines are to be grounded on Faith to wit that Divine Illumination inspired into the Mind for Faith is the Touchstone Measuring Line Rule and Ballance wherewith all Doctrines are to be weighed proved and judged And on the 11 th Psalm The words of the Lord are pure words he saith The Prophet David here doth not speak of the Scripture but specially of the Word of God and they are then the words or speeches of the Lord when he speaketh them in us as he did in the Apostles And in his Sermon on Pentecost he saith It is necessary that God speak to thee in thy heart and that is Gods Word otherwise the Word of God remaineth unspoken What can be more clearly said for immediate Inspirations and Illuminations or who can be a greater Enthusiast than Luther according to the aforesaid words I know indeed that Luther spoke and writ many things against false Enthusiasts who did vaunt and boast of their Revelations and Inspirations that were false and contrary to Scripture which yet doth not hinder but that Luther might be a true Enthusiast even as he may be a true Christian who Writeth against false or Christians falsely so called CHAP. III IN his Fifth Paragraph he findeth fault with R. B. his words for saying where outward means are wanting God himself infinitely good and merciful is present to supply their defect as to the salvation of Souls and that Gods immediate help is present unto all and that God doth prevent the use of means by the inward and immediate motions influences and illuminations of his Spirit This is that saith our Adversary in which we dissent from him To whom I answer If in this ye dissent from him ye also dissent from your Ancestor Luther on the same Question For he in his Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians cap. 3. Enquiring of Infants and dumb persons how they believe doth answer with Ierome that nothing is deaf unto the Word of God nor void of hearing which speaketh not unto the outward ears but these of which it is said He who hath ears to hear let him hear Again that the Adversary denyeth that God doth prevent or go before the use of means by his inward illumination and operation he dissenteth from Augustine as well as from Scripture lib. 4. de consensu Evangelist where he thus expoundeth the words of Christ Matth. 26.32 I will go before you into Galilee This saying is to be taken saith he prophetically For Galilee signifieth either Transmigration or Revelation According then to its first signification of Transmigration what other thing doth occur to be understood than this that the Grace of Christ was to pass over from the People of Israel into the Gentiles to whom the Apostles when they should Preach if the Lord had not prepared the way in their hearts they would not have believed the Gospel Preached by them and this should be understood by these words He shall go before you into Galilee But according
affirmeth That the Jews have corrupted the Scriptures in diverse places as first that they have taken out of Esdras where he declareth the Law of the Passover these following words and Esdras said unto the people This Passover is our Saviour and our refuge and if ye think and call to mind to restore him being cast off in a sign and then shall place your hope in him this place shall not be forsaken for ever saith the Lord of Hosts but if ye shall not believe nor hear his words teaching and preaching ye shall be a derision to all Nations and out of the 96th Psalm whereas he saith it was written say among the Nations the Lord hath reigned from the tree viz. the tree of the Cross mentioned by Peter on which Christ was crucified they have left out or taken away these words from the tree leaving only these other words the Lord hath reigned he mentioneth also a third place in Ieremiah corrupted by them XX. Athanasius in his Synopsis Sacris Scripturis acknowledgeth that many Books of the Prophets are lost as the Book of Nathan Addo Achias the Silonite Semei and Iehu and of three thousand Psalms of David only an hundred and fifty now remaining also there were five thousand Parables of Solomon and five thousand Songs also he wrote of Trees from the Cedar of Libanon to the Hysop on the Wall and of Beasts Fouls Creeping-things and Fishes which are not now to be found in the Hebrew and Iosephus declareth that Ezekiel writ two Books of Prophesie It is manifest saith Athanasius that all these are lost by the madness and sloth of the wicked Jews XXI Tertullian in his Book de Virgini Velandis cap. 1. saith The Law of faith remaining the other things belonging to discipline and conversation admit the newness of correction the grace of God working and promoting unto the end for what sort of thing is it that while the Devil is always working and daily adding unto the engines of iniquity that the work of God should either cease or leave off to profit seeing for this cause he sent the Comforter that because mans weakness could not receive all at once by degrees the discipline should be directed and ordered and brought to perfection by that Holy Spirit the Vicar of the Lord. XXII Gregory Nazianzen in his Oration concerning Athanasius saith expresly thus What the Sun is to things sensible the same is God unto things intellectual for the Sun enlightneth the visible World and God enlightneth the invisible World and the one maketh us see the Sun the other maketh us see God Again the same Author saith thus ibid. Whosoever breaketh through the matter and this fleshly body whether saith he it may be lawful to call it a Cloud or a Vail and obtaineth to be conversant with God unfolding or revealing himself and to apprehend that most pure or supream light fo far as is lawful to the nature of man such a man is blessed both because he hath ascended from what is here below and also because he hath obtained that oneness with God or deiformity gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the true Philosophie giveth These things saith he have been the care and study of some few both of old and now in this present time and among such he reckoneth Athanasius as equaling some and excelling others and falling little short of some others to wit even the Prophets and Apostles XXIII Clemens Alexandrinus already cited admon ad gent. As the true Sons of the Light let us behold the Light and look upward lest the Lord find us to be but Bastards as the Sun discovereth the Eagles And lib. 5. Stromatum he saith he who neither maketh use of his sight nor any other of his bodily senses in his contemplating but by the pure mind it self applyeth to things obtaineth the true Philosophy XXIV The same Clemens lib. 1. Stromatum directeth men in general to go to the Light and Water that is within themselves But he who hath the eye of his soul dimmed or made dull with evil education and doctrine let him go into his Domestick Light or the Light that is in his own House gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the truth which graphically manifesteth things that are not written Ye who thirst go unto the Waters saith Esaias and Solomon admonisheth saying drink Water out of your own Cistern Prov. 5. therefore Plato who is a Philosopher out from among the Hebrews as having learned much from them in his Laws commandeth the Husbandman not to pour Water upon the Land nor to take Water from others to water it but that they first dig by themselves even unto the earth which is called Virgin-earth and in the same Book he saith the Scripture exciteth or stirreth up that which is within us which he calleth the fire of the Soul igniculum animae XXV In his admonition to the Gentiles he saith The Saviour hath many voices and ways for the salvation of men threatning he admonisheth them and reproving he converteth them c. also he terrifieth them by the fire kindling a flame out of a Pillar which is both a signification of grace and of fear if thou obeyest it is light if thou dost not obey it is fire And in the same Admonition to the Gentiles who were unbelievers he saith It is not difficult to come unto the Truth nor impossible to apprehend her for she is most near in our Houses even as the most wise Moses declareth living in our three parts the Hands the Mouth and the Heart for so the Septuagint rendreth these words this saith he is a true symbol of the Truth which is fulfilled universally in three viz. Counsel Action and Speech XXVI Athanasius whom I formerly mentioned as one greatly approved among the Fathers in his Oration against the Gentiles saith As God who is over all so the way which leadeth unto him is not far off nor is it forth without us but it is in us and the beginning of it may be found out by us even as Moses taught in these words the word of Faith is within thy heart which our Saviour also signified and confirmed saying the Kingdom of God is within you for because we have in us Faith viz. the word of Faith and the Kingdom of God therefore we may speedily understand and contemplate the King of the University to wit the saving word of the Father Neither can the Heathens pretend any cause who serve Idols nor let any man vainly deceive himself as if he wanted that way or method and therefore find out a pretext of his impiety for we all stand upon that way and have it although all do not endeavour to walk in it but transgress it being drawn a-away by the outward pleasures of this life XXVII Origin reputed by many inferiour to none of these called Fathers both for his great piety and great knowledge of the Scriptures who lived before Athanasius and was a Disciple of Clemens Alexandrinus