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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	faith_n	rule_n	scripture_n	4,181	5	6.7162	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23636	The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Allen, James, 1632-1710.	1690 (1690)	Wing A1029; ESTC W19401	72,664	176

fall before his in-words acknowledged Test is yet to be Tried And be it known to all men That we are not yet sensible of the wounds that he hath given any further than as the Name of GOD is blasphemously abused by him and drawn in to patronize his filthy dreams When we read his Inscription Benhadad seems to be risen agen who sent that confident Threatning 1. King 20.10 and the Answer of the King of Israel is enough ver 11. He had so much Pride and Gall to crowd into the Title that he is fain to borrow a Room in the left-hand page to put in a few Scr●pture Citations maliciously abused and misapplied which whether they belong to our Churches and Ministry let the Day declare we are not to stand or fall at the menacing Praedictions of an Enthusiast He directs his Epistle to us giving his word for it so far as it will go that the book was written in good will to us and if to slander and calumniate with bitterest Invectives may pass for a Demonstration he hath proved his Love to be Extraordinary and truly it is as much as we expect from one of his humour There is little observable here but what will be met with in the Treatise and once to Answer such paltry stuffe is enough if not to much It may therefore be passed over with two or three Remarks He calls us to turn our minds to the Light of Christ within us for our better information we have done it as well as we can it tells us That his Assertions are bold presumptuous and Haeretical He tells us It is the same spirit that gives to all Readers a right under standing of Scripture but if so why then have not all the same understanding of it but Contradictory Can it be the Spirit of God who is alwaies the same He bids us to Believe in Christ and joyn our minds to His divine Illumination and He will anoint the eyes of our Vnderstandings we shall have our eyes open to see c. q. d. If we will see of ourselves then He will give us Ability to see this may be no Contradiction in a Quakers Logick We have him also in a fit of Charity and we are beholden to him for we shall not alwaies find him in so good a mood granting that some of us may be in some sense of the true Church which how it should be when we have neither Doctrine Ministry Worship c. of a true Church among us let him see to that But we have him afterwards putting on his Spectacles and then he retracts his Charity with a witness We have him also nibling at the Doctrine of Perseverance which we shall shortly find him beating down with Axes and Mauls and there shall take him to task Only It is worth the while to observe what a notable and no doubt inspired Doctrine he recommended to us viz. That the Quickning in a man as it abides it is impossible it should perish To pass the Nonsense of it which must be allowed a Quaker or you undoe him let us note its profoundnese If Grace continue it cannot be lost a thing cannot be and not be at the same time could Delphos have delivered a more mysterious Oracle Finally he tells us plainly that his Design is to turn away our Hearers from us under the Title of False-Teachers i. e. he aims at no less than the subverting of all the Churches of Christ in New-England yea in all the World A Gygantick Essay But let him do his utmost as long as Christ sits upon His Throne we are not dismayed As for the Imputation of being False Teachers we can thro' Grace appeal to many of our Hearers in Paul's words 2. Cor. 3. beginn Reflections on Chap. 1. of the Holy Scriptures We have here a Confession of his Faith such as it is concerning the Scriptures wherein if he gives us his mind candidly which we have cause to suspect and shall give our reason before we part we are sure he doth not express the sense of his Brethren and Predecessors except they say one thing and mean the contrary Section 1 2. As for the two first Paragraphs of this Chapter we will take them as farr as they will go though the word Outward hath a Reserve in it and intimates That God hath one Rule to direct His people by Outwardly and another Inwardly or as if God taught us one thing by His Word and another by His Spirit we shall have Occasion afterwards to discourse how perniciously this undermines the Christian Faith and why he hath not made Practices as well as Doctrines liable to this Test might well be enquired However there will be occasion to rubb up his memory with his own Concessions when we find that he has forgoten himself for a quaker's spirit is not of a perfect Reminiscence and mean while let him try how he can reconcile himself to his Friends who have directly as might be instanced abundantly rejected the Scriptures with Scorn Smith tells us It is the greatest Error in the world and the ground of all Errors to say the Scriptures are a Rule to Christians and many Expressions of the same import But he will salve all with the nice Distinction of an outward and an inward Rule Sect. 3. This Paragraph might have past had it not been for his perverse Interpretation of it in which he spends his Second Chapter where we shall have it out if our patience can but wait a little Sect. 4. We were afraid when we saw him so liberal of his Concessions that he would soon repent of it we have him therefore here trying to get something of it back again but stay Friend and be more frugal of your Largesses henceforward Well he hath given the Scripture leave in a good humour to be so far a Rule at least that No Doctrine that cannot be demonstrated by it layes us under any Obligation to believe it and so we are satisfied that it is no mortal sin to with-hold our Credit from any of their New-Revelations that are neither Scripture nor Scripture-Consequence which in Chapt. 2nd he pleads for G. K. had a mind to wheadle some into a Compliance with his Opinions who had been taught to entertain a good Respect for the Scriptures For which reason he would insinuate that the honest Quakers are not the men that they have been represented to be nor are they such Enemies to the written Word as they are reported but why then doth he not correct his friend Lucas who hath told us That any Quaker if he has a mind to it as they are arrogant enough may make as good himself and they challenge us to tell them what one Scripture hath Light in it and many like Blasphemies not to be named But what shall he do to satisfy his brethren whose Fabrick is built upon the sandy Foundation of a New Light and new Revelations if the Scripture hath all the

a Christ in the heart we believe that there is but One Christ and that He is in Heaven as to His humane nature infinite as to His Divine Nature and that by His Virtue Influence and Grace He dwells in the hearts of all His people and that they live upon Him by Faith Sect. 10. None of us ever doubted that Faith hath true Assurance in it and infallible too he therefore abuseth us in saying that we deny that faith hath assurance in the being nature of it only he must give us leave or we will take it to distinguish between the Assurance of the Object of the Subject 〈◊〉 by the Assurance of the Object we understand the full Security which a believer is put into of enjoying eternal life in the very instant of beleeving this Assurance we say belongs to faith of its own nature i. e. it cannot be without it but the Assurance of the Subject is that Knowledge or Discerning whereby a Believer reads the Evidence and has it infallibly confirmed to his knowledge this we say is not of the nature of Faith but belongs to inchoate Glorification and that Beleevers may be safe and yet want the Discerning of it Isa 50.10 tho' we still believe and have formerly proved that this Assurance may be had without extraordinary Revelation and he argues foolishly that because no place of Scripture tells us that we have these infallible marks therefore we cannot know them infallibly without such Revelation for the marks are knowable men have understandings and can know what they mean apply 'em and the Spirit can and doth in this way set His seal to the Confirmation hereof Sect. 11. The poison conteined in this Section will be more fully discovered in the next Chapter to which we refer the Reader to prevent the nauseous Tautologies which his book labours of Reflections on Cap. 8. of Perseverence c. It s worth the observing that all those that stand for Justification by works deny the Doctrine of Perseverance and great reason might ●e assigned for it Wonder not then that we have him chopping at this Pillar too but this Doctrine is a Cordial of such worth that we believe that none who have re-received it in the promise will readily part with it let us then vindicate it from his false Comments Sect. 1. Real and true beginnings of faith and Sanctification saith he may be fallen from What meanes he by this There are some previous and preparatory common works that are wrought in men such as Conviction of sin and misery by the law and the terrours of the Lord that make men affraid and may put a stop to their lewd courses yea and work a reformation in many things and make a natural Conscience to act more strongly than before if he meanes these we deny not but they may be lost but then we deny them to be the beginnings of true justifying or saving faith called the Faith of God's elect to distinguish it from other faith and those which he instanceth in Heb. 6.4 5 6. belong to this head they had through these arrived to a Temporary Faith but not to that which is saying and therefore the Apostle charitably exempts his Hebrews from any such danger as having other things in them vers 9. His instance from Rom. 11. relates only to a visible Church state which all that stand in are not true Believers That of the Angels fall is impertinent for they were under a Covenant of Works Their Faith in the thorny and stony ground was but a temporary Faith it had not a saving root●ng and for that Reason abode but a while And we must distinguish between a false faith and one that is not saying it is therefore blame-worthy for men to lose some things the keeping whereof will not save them such are all the moral principles which men have imbibed such as the young man had Mat. 19. And it is to be observed that the good ground is differenced from the other three by the epethete good to shew that the other were not so in a spiritual sense and though God's children feel many thorns stones in their hearts after Conversion yet their hearts being in saving measures softned and broke-up they receive their Denomination from the better part according to Scripture Nor will the Parable of the Virgins Mat. 25. begin help him at all we grant the oyl there signifies true saving grace but then by Lamps we are to understand an outward profession by Vessels the heart the foolish Virgins had oyl in their Lamps i. e. they pretended to and made a profession and shew of Grace though they had none really the wise virgins had it in their lamps i. e. profession and vessels too i. e. hearts and it is no new thing for the Scripture to express things which men seem to have as if they had them because they hold others in hand and often deceive themselves into a beliefe that they have them see Luc. 8.18 compare Mat. 13.20 His allegation from Ezek. 18.24 c. may at first seem to have a face of a plea in it but it only seems so Other Scriptures assure us that no true believer shall finally totally fall away from grace and Scripture doth not contradict it self Several things might here be offered briefly Consider 1. This is but a conditional expression and therefore asserts nothing to his purpose 2. God is pleased sometimes to curb in His people's Corruptions by such Conditional Threatnings see Rom. 8.13 Heb. 12 14. for they have nothing in themselves but what they might lose if God did not secure it God so preserves His People as to stir up fear and care in them 3. And what if we say That God speaks to them in respect of the typical part of the typical Covenant to whom the promises and threatnings concerning the typical blessings of Canaan were made on these conditions which they might either keep or bre●k and by breaking fall from them and forfeit their lives and Land That David is a clear instance of one that totally fell from grace he proves not the sins he committed were great the Aggravation● heinous but if he had totally lost his grace why doth he pray Psal 51.11 take not thy holy Spirit from me Nor doth it follow as he intimates that because a justified man may fall into Murder and Adultery therefore the worst of men may believe that they are true real Saints for they never had the work of Conversion past upon them as David had and besides such horrid falls break their bones defile their hearts wound their grace and consequently be-cloud their Evidences what plea is there for such as never had any Evidence Nor doth it follow that if these men dy in their sins they shall go to heaven immediately For tho' God suffer for holy ends His Children to fall far yet as not to fall totally so He will give them Repentance tho' the just