ENTHUSIASM Above ATHEISM Or Divine Inspiration and Immediate Illumination by God Himself Asserted And the Children of Light Vindicated In Answer to a Book entituled The Danger of Enthusiasm Discovered By George Whitehead Job 32. 8. There is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Understanding Printed in the Year 1674. AN Introductory Epistle Serious Reader IT is not for Disputation or Contention sake that we thus appear in this Controversie but singly for the Truth 's sake and the Information of the Honest-Hearted who are enquiring after God's Way of discovering himself to the Soul And that they may not be stumbled by those Groundless Blind and Confused Assaults that some ambitious and scornful Minds do make against God's Immediate Way of Illuminating Inspiring and Teaching his People who obey and follow that True Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World even in an Immediate Way in some degree which we assert in Opposition to meer man's Teaching and to that dark and unlearned State wherein People have been kept ever learning under Humane Traditions and Un-sent Teachers for this we are mis-represented to the World as opposing God's Teaching by Instruments or true Ministers which is a gross Perversion for though we have often cal'd people to cease from man mans teaching who speaks Divinations of his own Brain and not from the Mouth of the Lord that they might wait upon God to be taught yet not to cease from or reject Christ's Ministers or his speaking by them but have owned Christ's Teaching both immediately instrumentally as he pleaseth by his Light and Testimony in order to bring man to God who is Light and the All-sufficient Teacher it being written in the Prophets That they shall be ALL TAUGHT OF GOD which is his very Way and Method of drawing men to his Son But our Opposer of Embusiasm as he stiles our owning Immediate Illumination or Inspiration without man's Teaching he confines Immediate Revelation from Christ to the first Promulgators of the Gospel and saith God's ordinary Way and Method of trans-mitting the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel downwards to others successively was by such mens teaching it to others as had themselves learned it of the Apostles or others that taught the same Doctrine Herein he talks like a Papist however he is pleas'd to revile us with Incivilities and toc ompare us to Orders among the Papists But this his Method of transmitting the Knowledge of the Faith successively in Opposition to immediate Illumination and Inspiration we can no more allow of as any real Proof of this man's Ministers being truly called and authorized to preach nor yet that he and his Fraternity have this way received the Knowledge of true Faith which stands in the immediate Power of God then we can own the Pope to be Peter's Successor Surely the Virtues and Fruits of God's Spirit which are necessary to the true Ministry are not successively derived to them by outward Tradition Besides the successive transmitting the Apostles Doctrine to Posterities doth no more prove the Priests Ministers of the Gospel as he calls them then it proves the Quakers or any others who have the same Doctrine such Ministers It s true that Timothy Titus and others who had Gifts in them for the Ministry were approved by Paul and others of the primitive Elders for the VVork but this is no Proof that this Opposer's Ministers are either so gifted or approved But if we run them backward to prove their Race and Call successively it s most likely to stop and center in the Pope if they will persist in denying an immediate Mission or Illumination from God as their VVarrant VVhilst this Anti-Enthusiast construeth Christ's enlightening every man that cometh into the World Jo. 1. 9. to be only with natural Light a created Light unto which he opposeth Gospel-Light and the Faith of Jesus Christ he is inconsistent with himself in granting that by this Light which he also calleth the Faculty of Reason Understanding man may know that there is a God and that he is to be worshipped and that it may possibly be a Light sufficient to direct the Heathen to as much as God expects from them As also that most of the Precepts of the Gospel are desirable in themselves viz. to love and worship God to Repent of that which hath been ill done to be Sober Chaste and Temperate to do to others as we would be done to our selves in Point of Equity Fidelity and Charity to be Humble and Meek Patient and Contented and the like c. and these with theer certain Relation to a future happy State And that there is no man that acts according to the best Reason of his Mind but would chuse these things c. Observe Serious Reader here that this universal Light of Christ in man which he calls Reason directs men to chuse those Precepts of the Gospel which tend to their future happy State and why then he should deem this Light wherewith Christ enlighteneth all men but natural and created we see neither Reason nor Scripture-Proof from him that there should be two such inward Lights as a Gospel-Light peculiar only to some and a Created Light common to all that directs man to chuse those Preceprs of the Gospel which tend to a future Happiness no more then he shews for two kinds of inward Darkness This Distinction appears both Unscriptural and Contradictory and the most gross Contradiction to render this Universal Light as not sufficient to direct men to believe in the Son of God when it shews those weighty Precepts of the Gospel which tend to a future happy State Again Our Antagonist as if he were set upon it to divert peoples Minds from this inward Light of Christ and from attending thereto for God's immediate Teaching he perverts the Scripture where on 2 Pet. 1. 19. he saith That the Mind of God touching Salvation before and under the old Covenant was but obscurely made known by dark Prophecies which are therefore said to be a Light shining in a dark Place Which is as if in the Dayes of the Gospel and New Covenant the Apostle Peter directed Believers back to those dark Prophecies under the Old to take heed thereunto as unto a Light shining in a dark Place or as to read his words after this man's sense thus viz. We have also more sure Dark Prophecies under the Old Covenant whereunto ye do well that ye take heed And what then is not so sure as they Whereas it was that living Word or Light of Christ in them whereunto they did well to take heed as unto a Light shining in a dark place until the Day dawned and the Day Star arose in their Hearts This inward Light though for a time it shineth as in a dark place in man yet it leads them that believe and follow it to the Day of Christ who is
him and his Spirit be our Rule to know this he must not be limited to Silence or to a being mute from immediately teaching those who are confessed to be made one Spirit with him And what gross Ignorance is it to limit God's Teaching or Saving Illumination to a Mediate or Instrumental Way of Man's Teaching as this Man doth in his denying an Immediate Way of Saving Illumination p. 47. which is all one as if he should tell us that though God dwell and walk in his People yet still they are either Strangers to him or else he is silent from speaking to them except when they hear outward Preaching c. And what is this but to limit the Holy One set him and his People at a Distance when they are his Tabernacle and he dwells and walks in them That God Christ the holy Spirit do by Immediate Illumination of our Minds and without external Teaching by Scriptures or by Men shew us or reveal to us what we ought to do and that the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher p. 13 14. This he excepts against as quite different from God's Method and VVay wherein he hath opposed plain Scripture Testimony They shall all be taught of God they shall not teach every Man his Neighbour c. But the Anointing which ye have received abideth in you and ye need no Man to teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things c. We do therefore assert the Sufficiency of this Divine Illumination or Heavenly Unction as being of it self able to shew and reveal to us what we ought to believe and do in all things for that it was sufficient both to make true Prophets and Preachers and to inable the Holy Men of God to give forth what they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And without the Inspiration of the Almighty men cannot truly understand the Scriptures yet we do not confine the Holy One only to Inward Teaching or an Immediate Way though the Sufficiency thereof to them that are turned to it we do assert yet by this Divine Inspiration or Immediate Teaching God hath been and is pleased to call out Instruments to testifie and preach forth what their Eyes have seen and Ears heard and Hands handled of the Word of Life even the same VVord of Life which they have received and this only is the effectual and powerful Preaching which flows from the VVord of Life or divine Unction within and not that which comes only by Tradition Reading and Hear-say without the Spirit 's Guidance And therefore while we own the holy Scriptures and outward Teaching as proceeding from divine Illumination and the immediate Unction within and as a Proof of the Sufficiency thereof the Man wrongs us in his endeavouring to begeta Suspicion of us as if we had an aking Tooth against outward Teaching of as if the VVork and Office of the Gospel-Ministry it self were the Eye-Sore to us as also with dissembling the Matter heaping Contradictions with Tergiversation and Shuffling p. 83 92 94. And why so but because we teach People give forth Books c. VVhile yet it is our Judgment That Men may be sufficiently taught of God himself by his Light and Spirit within now under the New Covenant p. 93. But how proves he this either a Dissembling or Contradiction when we do not pretend to preach teach or write without God's Teaching and Aid wherein we proclaim the Sufficiency thereof exciting Men to turn from Darkness to the Light and from Satan's Power to God for Power Life Spirit Illumination and Teaching immediately as he hath taught us which is no more Contradiction then was in the Prophets Christ or Apostles who preached and proclaimed the same thing as that all God's People and Children should be taught of him and the Anointing which they had received from the Holy One should teach them so that they should need no Man to teach them but as the same Anointing taught them of all things a plain Proof of its Sufficiency His supposing that we direct Men to a Natural Light in them p. 15. is not true but contrary to his own Citation before of our VVords That God's pure Spirit and the Light of Christ within us as both our VVarrant aâ—d Rule for Faith and Obedience to the Scriptures which therefore cannot be a Natural Light in them He grants that Jesus Christ himself revealed the Gospel to his Apostles and after his Ascension he by sending them the Holy Spirit immediately inspired them with the clear Knowledge and Understanding of it But for us to assert Immediate Inspiration and the sole Sufficiency thereof he deems now a changing of Gods Method which he confines to Man's Teaching and the Scriptures and yet in plain Contradiction to himself he is made to confess That the Scriptures attribute it viz. the saving Work of Grace to God to Christ to the Holy Spirit p. 18. And further saith Indeed the VVork of Grace in Men is most properly attributed to God to Christ because he is the principal Cause of it and all other but subordinate yet the Effect is some times attributed to subordinate and second Causes also though less properly p. 19. So that we in attributing the saving VVork of Grace in men to God to Christ we take the most proper VVay and Method how then is this contrary to God's Way and Method And our referring Men to his inward Light to be immediately taught by him doth both shew our owning his making Use of Instruments and outward Teaching in order thereto and as subordinate as also that they shall be sufficiently taught of God when they are come unto him to depend upon his Teaching as his Instruments are in their Ministry And this man hath confessed a Concurrence of the Operation of his Grace and good Spirit together with the rational Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel to perswade Men p. 15. And is not this Grace and good Spirit Immediate when it operates in the Hearts though God is pleas'd to make Use of Instruments for the Help and Advantage of the weak it follows not that either there shall be alwayes need of such a mediate Way of Help or that he will not immediately teach and operate in these Dayes for that were still to limit him and his People to a Distance one from another whereas it is confessed That the VVork of Grace in Mâ—n is most properly attributed to God and less properly to subordinate and second Causes But saith this man The Holy Spirit works the saving Change in Men still by the VVord of the Gospel as communicated to Men's Minds by the Scriptures or by Men's Teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures And this in Opposition to our Way as he calls it of God's own Immediate Working p. 16. where observe First He limits the Spirit 's inward Work either to the Scriptures or mens Teaching which
doth savingly enlighten or afford super-natural Revelation in an immediate Way hath at once excluded and denyed both the Knowledge of God and Christ and this is the very Way to bring in Atheism for what shall assure us either of the Knowledge of God Christ Scripture or true Preaching if immediate Illumination be denyed us And yet this man to his own Confutation pretends not to exclude the concurrent Operation of God's Spirit upon the Heart p. 18. But how should we believe that he really owns the Christian Doctrine contained in Scriptures to be any Rule at all either of his Faith or Practice while he opposeth the very thing which it directs us to viz. The New Covenant the Spirit 's Teaching immediate Illumination c. Sect. II. Of the Divine Unction Light New Covenant and Use of the Ministry ANd this Opposer will have his Sense and Meaning upon some plain Scriptures contrary to their very Import as upon 1 Joh. 2. 20. But ye have an Unction from the Holy One and ye know all things And again ver 27. But the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him About this he appears very much puzled and cannot tell how to wind off the plain Words on the Behalf of the Anointing and its full and plentiful Teaching And after he hath spoken doubtfully about the Sense of this Scripture he concludes our Notion of the holy Spirit 's Teaching Men that live under the Gospel cannot be the Sense of it when the Words are plain Ye need not that anyman teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all Things Nor would this render the Design of John in this Epistle and other Writings needless p. 64. while his Epistle and Writing proclaims the Sufficiency of the Anointing wherein he writes both to little Children young Men and Fathers and what he writes was as he had received from the Anointing and not meerly as Man's Teaching and argued no Defect in the Anointing at all but rather exalts it and tends to encourage others to continue in it to abide in the Truth it being confest That both the Apostles other Believers were established in Christ by the Anointing of God upon them from 2 Cor. 1. 21 22. As also That they were induced at the first to believe the Doctrine to be from God because they perceived the Anointing of God to be upon them that preached it p 66 67. So that here it is confest that Believers Establishment in Christ both Preachers and Hearers was by the Anointing of God upon them as he which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God and that they were induced to believe the Doctrine to be from him because that they perceived that Anointing to be upon or in the Preachers Surely then there was a spiritual Eye opened in them so to perceive And this is our Method both for believing obeying and saving Men which one while this Man hath opposed as contrary to God's Way another while he confesseth to it but then he darkens the Matter again upon the Words Ye have an Unction from the Holy One and ye know all Things he gives this Meaning viz. Not that by this Uâ—ction the commmon Christians were immediately inspired with the Knowledge of all Truths but that by it they were assured of the Truth of all things which the Apostles had taught and further adds It is not said that this Anointing did teach them all Things but that it did teach of all Things that is of or concerning the Truth of all Things to which it was a Witness or Evidence p. 66 67. He seems to lay a great stress here upon the Particle Of as if the Anointing did only teach them Of or concerning those Doctrines which the Apostles preached but not the Doctrines themselves and then who taught the Apostles to preach Was it not the Anointing And did not several Gifts flow from one Spirit But the man overlooks the Words of the Apostle cited by him viz. Ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you and did not this Anointing teach the Believers in the Apostles Absence and when they had not their Epistles read among them Or was it only a Witness or Evidence to what they spoke or preacht Or did it abide in them not to speak to them in the Absence of the Apostles and their Epistles but only in their Presence What a strange Limitation would this be that indeed endeavours to stop the Mouth of the Anointing And his denying that by this Unction the common Christians were immediately inspired with the Knowledge of all Truths leaves the Matter still doubtful on his Part and seems at least to be a Sense twarting the Apostles Words Ye have an Unction from the Holy One and ye know all Things He should have told whether he believes that the common Christians as he calls them were inspired with any Truths necessary to Salvation If he denies this then he bids adieu to all divine and saving Knowledge as to those Christians Whereas the same God that anointed the Apostles to preach and established them in Christ did both anoint and establish those Believers to whom they preached so their Ministry was effectual only through that Anointing which enabled them to preach And we never denyed the Apostles Preaching in order to direct men to that Anointing All which still prefers the Anointing as the principal Means and Rule and owns true Preaching as in Subordination to it But does not therefore oppose or deny the Anointing's immediate Teaching or Sufficiency to save them that believe in and obey it And because all are not converted or come to this divine Unction within or Dispensation of the New Covenant God hath been and is pleased to make Use of such effectual Means and to accommodate his divine Truth to mens low Capacities by Preaching and Demonstration of the Spirit as may be for their Help and Advantage in order thereto So that the Controversie is brought to this narow Compass viz. our present Opposer pretends to own super-natural Revelation and divine Illumination but not now in an immediate Way but only in a mediate Way of Preaching and Scripture We own and assert divine Illumination and super-natural Revelation in an immediate Way as also that God is pleased to make Use of such mediate Wayes and Means as are attended with his Presence and divine Illumination without which no outward Means can be effectual or to any real Advantage to the Soul This Opposer reckons that God operates now only in a mediate Way we own that God works both immediately and mediately as also we assert the sole Sufficiency of the Spirt's immediate Illumination and Teaching both as the Ground of the Effectual Ministry and of
the other an Effect the one is the absolute VVay or Rule of knowing God and building up in his Knowledge the other a subordinate Help for Direction to that VVay and Rule He who is the true Light lighteth every man that cometh into the VVorld This is not said of his Ministers but they are sent to direct turn men's Minds to the Light I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh saith the Lord But so is it not said of his Ministers though they direct to wait for it I will write my Laws in their Hearts saith the Lord but the doing of this is not asscribed to his Ministers though they bear witness therof Ye have an Unction from the Holy One it is not said Ye have it from the Ministers though it attend their Ministry and they are taught thereby and direct others to it and to abide in it He that establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who also worketh all our Works in us It is not said that his Ministers do so establish anoint and work all in us though they be instrumental in God's Hand to direct men to God and Christ who is with them in whom is Life and Salvation and from whom every good and perfect Gift comes and to whom be the Glory and not to man From all which let it be seriously minded First The Eternal Word which is the true Light lighteth every man that cometh into the World in an immediate Way 2dly That the Promise or more plentiful Effusion or Pouring forth of the Spirit is also from God himself and so in an immediate VVay to be made good and fulfilled unto them who walk in and obey that Measure or Degree of his divine Light or immediate Inshining as it is in their Consciences 3dly God also worketh savingly by his Spirit Light and Power in an immediate VVay in the Hearts of his People both by illuminating their Understanding opening their spiritual Eyes reviving their Souls and delivering them from under the Power of Darkness Sin giving them Victory by Faith over Temptations leading them through the spiritual VVarfare and Travils and making them more then Conquerors in all which they have their Dependnece immediately upon God who is a present and immediate Help in Times of Trouble as all that truly wait upon him in his immediate Light and Discoveries do experience Sect III. The Prophecy and Testimony of the New Covenant and Gospel-Dispensation rescued from our Opposer's Perversions BUt to that Prophecy They shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother c. Jer. 31. This Opposer saith Though the Phrase here used seem absolute in Sound yet it may well be understood in a comparative Sense bringing Instances with his restrictive Meanings upon Joh. 6. 26. Hos. 6. 6. Ephes. 6. 12. upon the Particle Not as not so much not only wherein the plain Scripture is not his Rule but his Meaning unfairly added to limit this Prophecy besides the Extent of the VVords for saith he p. 82. The Meaning may be that they shall not so much need to do it that is teach every man under the second Covenant as under the first yet he would have them alwayes teaching and al was learning in a mediate VVay only But indeed saith he the Words and Phrase used here seem to be a Strain of Elegancy oft used in Scriptures when to set forth the great Abundance and Plenty of Things Expressions are used improperly and hyperbolically in reference thereunto and 〈…〉 e not to be understood properly but figuratively Observe here serious Reader that the plain Text of Scripture fore-telling God's writing his Laws in the Hearts of his People that they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord but all should know him This he slightly turns off with this Meaning or May be that they shall not so much need to teach every man his Neighbour saying know the Lord under the second Covenant as under the first yet implying that they shall still much need to say know the Lord under the New Covenant though not so much as under the Old But how agrees this with the plain VVords I will be their God and they shall be my People and they shall no more or they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest see Jer. 31. 33 34. Heb. 8. 10 11. But these Expressions the man reckons are used improperly and hyperbolically and what is his Rule for thus censuring the plain VVords of the Prophet and Apostle and reflecting upon them equally with us as improperly proposing God's Method and New Covenant Way to be his own immediate Teaching and Knowledge of himself wherein they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and yet in Contradiction to himself hath confessed That the Work of Grace in men is most properly attributed to God to Christ c. p. 19. His Instances for such limited Meanings upon several Hyperbolical Expressions supposed in Scripture if granted prove not these very Texts so improper or hyperbolical as he renders them and he evinceth not what his Rule is for thus rendering these particular Texts improper and hyperbolical which so plentifully make for God's immediate Way of Illumination Teaching and VVorking under the New Covenant If he say other Instances of Scripture compared are his Rule herein I must deny that they prove these very Texts lyable to such an Exception or Limitation as he puts upon them If he say that Reason is his Rule then he owns another Rule as Judge and Determiner of the Sense of the Scripture then the Scriptures themselves But if he pretend the Spirit to be his Rule in this then the Scriptures are not Howbeit the Spirit will not contradict its own Sayings in the Scriptures and we do not own his limited Sense Restriction or private Interpretation of such an eminent Prophecy as this of the New Covenant for no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation for the Prophecy came not in Old Time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And they who deny the immediate Illumination therof are not like truly to understand those Prophecies and Scriptures that proceeded thence And to his asking Why we should so much as once imagine that thâ—se Words of the Prophet should foretell that under the New Covenant there should be no need of teaching by man's Ministry when the whole Current of the New Testament both in Precept and Example shew the contrary p. 82 83. Which is as much as to say that the whole Current of Scriptures of the New Testament shews that there will be need under the New Covenant of Teaching by man's Minâ—sty which is to allow the New Covenant no Preheminence above the Old for in the Time of the Old
excludes all that have not the Scriptures or mens Teaching from the saving Work or Change in them and confines all God's People as Children under Tutors and Governours that they may be alwayes learning and then when shall they know the Truth And of whom do their Teachers learn and receive the Understanding of the Scriptures 2dly To his saying That the Doctrine contain'd in them is the Rule of Faith and Practice He should rather have said A RULE subordinate to the great Rule of Faith and Practice to wit that divine Light which was the true Prophets and Apostles Rule in giving forth the Scriptures is now the true Believers Rule in truly believing understanding and obeying the wholesom Doctrine contained in them which none truly own but they who believe in the Light and follow and walk in the Spirit which the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles directs men to His accusing us with opposing mens being enlightened and taught by Christ to their being taught by the Scriptures is not true unless he intended the Scriptures without Christ's Light within for we assert his immediate Illumination and Teaching in Opposition to mens preferring the Scriptures before the Spirit and excluding its immediate Teaching in these Dayes we do not oppose Christ's Enlightning men to the true Knowledge or Understanding of the Scriptures which proceeded thence His rendering the Spirit and the Word two several Causes that produce the same Effect viz. God's Working savingly upon men and his calling the immortal Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1. 23. The Sword of the Spirit and God's great Instrument or Means by which the Spirit doth its Work upon Men meaning the Scriptures p. 18 19. In these is he greatly mistaken For first The Spirit and the Word are no such differing Causes for they are one and the immortal Word was before the Scriptures 2dly This Spirit or living Word doth work upon men both with and without the Scriptures as it pleaseth Howbeit the Spirit is immediate in its inward Manifestations and Discoveries and is only God's Gift And while this man hath granted That Christ is God and God every where present and so in all Men p. 20. He must grant an Immediateness both of his Presence Light and Teaching in Man or else he allows man no Preheminence above a Beast and endeavours to limit God to Silence in man unless when he hears outward Teaching or Scripture which cannot profit him without God's immediate Teaching and inward Speaking His accusing us with jumbling about Christ's being in all Men and saying that in Respect of his vertual Presence as Mediator as when he rules and operates in Men's Hearts by his Authority and by the Evangelical Law in this Sense he is not in all Men p. 20 21. And when did we ever say that he was in this Sense in all men that is as ruling c. or to dwell in the Hearts of all men by Faith But while 't is granted that as God Christ is every where present and so in all men it 's granted that he is in all men in some Sense and his Presence is immediate and though he does not rule in wicked mens Hearts by his Evangelical Law and dwells not by Faith in the Hearts of Unbelievers yet by his Light he reproves them for Sin often and immediately in their Consciences and his immediate Reproofs daily persue the Transgressors who rebell against his Light and there is both Vertue and Power in his Presence immediately to torment the Wicked and refresh the Righteous therefore he is not alwayes confined to speak by the Instrumentality and Agency of second Causes as this Opposer darkly imagins who neither rightly knows our Principle to state it nor doth clearly state his own but runs into a Multitude of Tautologies and Repetitions and Contradictions that a Body hath something to do to find out the Matter he drives at though one search his Book with a great deal of Care Memory and Perspicuity as for Instance He confesseth both the Work of the Spirit and Christ dwelling in the Heart and a being made one Spirâ—â— with him as also to a super-natural Revelation and Illumination in the Way of Salvation and the Presence of God every where and in all Men and yet opposeth the immediate Operation of Christ in men but saith He doth not teach Men now immediately in Person p. 21. And who saith he doth But if he teach men immediately in Spirit as to be sure he doth his own who hear his Voice it 's sufficient And this man confesseth in Rev. 2 3. That it is seven Times said He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches as every Man in the VVorld hath that is not deaf as also He adds That when it the Doctrine is communicated to them by VVriting as where it is so by Preaching yea saith he I had almost said or by immediate Revelaâ—ion p. 28. Reader observe here how uncertain variable and unstable this man is in his own Judgment and Principle for one while he opposeth immediate Revelation or Enthusiasm as none of God's Way or Method now another while he does assent to the hearing of the Spirit or receiving its Doctrine by immediate Revelation and so then the Controversie he seems to place not so much upon immediate Revelation as the Belief Obedience or Disobedience of the Doctrine and those Revelations which he confesseth 'T is possible Men may have from God as Balaam had and Judas and other Workers of Iniquity that prophesied and cast out Devils in Christ's Name had p. 28. But now you who deny immediate Revelation to the Church of Christ in these Dayes do ye not therein render the Church inferior to Balaam Judas and those Workers of Iniquity nay I may add to Adam after the Fall who heard the Voice of God and to Cain to whom also God spoak And I cannot understand how this Man can really own the Doctrine of Christ and the Apostles to be a Rule much less the Rule of Faith and Christian Practice as he asserts p. 22. while he saith That Christ Jesus doth not savingly enlighten all thos who yet are savingly illuminated neither by natural Light nor by super-natural Revelation in an IMMEDIATE Way and addeth Then it follows that such are enlightened by supernatural Revelation MEDIATELY or instrument â—â— p. 47. Note here Reader that he pretends to own super-natural Revelation but not in a immediate Way and a being savingly illuminated but not immediately and yet pretends to own that Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles which directs both to God's Teaching and Hearing and learning of the Father and coming to Christ for Life hearing what the Spirit saith and to wait for the Revelation of Christ from Heaven and to look for the Appearance of the great God the Father whom no Man knows but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And therefore this man's denying that Christ Jesus