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A23660 The danger of enthusiasm discovered in an epistle to the Quakers : in which 'tis endeavoured, to convince them of being guilty of changing God's method of bringing men to salvation / by one who is no more an enemy to their opinions, than their opinions are enemies to them themselves. Allen, William, d. 1686. 1674 (1674) Wing A1058; ESTC R13150 64,102 137

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Obedience to him For God saith one of them who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ to give that is to give it forth to others 2 Cor. 4. 6. And again in 1 Cor. 2. 12 13. Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God Which things also we speak not with the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth And besides this of internal and immediate Revelation there is no way imaginable for men to come to the knowledge of Christ as Mediator but by external and mediate Revelation So that by the process of this Discourse you are brought to this either to say that all men to whom the Gospel comes are enlightned by Christ with the knowledge of his being the Son of God the Christ of God and Saviour of the world by immediate and supernatural Revelation as the Apostles were or else to grant that some men in the world are not enlightened by Christ without being ●aught by outward means to know what they are bound to believe upon pain of Damnation For I have shewed before that all men and women to whom the Gospel is preached are bound to believe Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God upon pain of Damnation and that there is but these two ways imaginable by which they can come to know it that they might believe it immediate and mediate Revelation or Instruction If being reduced to this straight you shall be so absurd as to chuse to say that all those under the sound and outward teaching of the Gospel that shall be damned for not believing on Christ as the Son of God and for not obeying him had that knowledge of him by immediate and supernatural Revelation as the Apostles had for the sinning against which they shall be damned as knowing their Masters Will and not doing it yet the Scriptures as well as all Experience will detect your Folly in so saying For I have proved in my Propositiions to which I refer you that God's way method of proceeding with men in justifying or condemning them will be according to their Obedience to or Disobedience against that Doctrine of the Gospel which they had heard preached by men to them Go preach the Gospel to every Creature said our Saviour He that believeth not shall be damned that believeth not that Gospel so preached and made known to them by preaching Mat. 16. 16. And the Apostle supposeth it impossible for the generality of men to believe that have not heard of Christ in the way of preaching the Gospel to them and concludes that those that do believe are brought to it by hearing it preached and that is not by way of immediate inward teaching of God's Spirit without the teaching by man Rom. 10. 14 15 16 17. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher saith St. Paul Yes might it have been said by immediate Revelation and inward teaching of God's Spirit or the Light within if that had been the common way of bringing men to believe the Gospel But you see Paul knew of no such way to propagate the Faith after it was once set on foot in an extraordinary way If he had he would not have put such Questions nor have made such a Conclusion as he doth in v. 17. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And do you know more and better than he did And for your selves it is not to be imagined that ever you could have known that ever there was such a one as Christ in the World any more than the poor Indians or Pagans that never heard of him had you not been beholding to the Scriptures or Oral Tradition for it as God's means for all your great talk of your Light within you If Christ Jesus then doth not savingly enlighten all those who yet are savingly illuminated neither by Natural Light nor by Supernatural Revelation in an immediate way then it follows that such are enlightened by Supernatural Revelation mediately or instrumentally by the Scriptures and Ministration of men unless there can be another way of saving Illumination assigned different from the three before mentioned which none pretend to do so far as I have heard These things are so plain and full of Evidence and so easie to be understood and in their Nature so apt to prevail with all such as do not deny but that the Scriptures are true that after you have considered them I cannot but think you will be convinced by them if there be that love to Truth in you which you pretend to that you have unawares all this while abused that first Chapter of John v. 9. and abused your selves and the world by a misrepresentation of it whereas Christ is the Light of the world divers ways and in several respects as by his Spirit by his Word and by his Works both Miraculous and Exemplary it cannot but be very great weakness or waywardness in you to limit his being so to one of these only § 14. Another Scripture which you alledge as favouring your foresaid Opinion is that Prophesie of Joel 2. 28 29. Cited by St. Peter in Acts 2. 17. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will poure out my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see Visions and your old men shall dream Dreams and on my Servants and on my Handmaids I will poure out of my Spirit in those days and they shall prophesie But that this Scripture also is impertinently alledged to prove that in the days of the Gospel every one is immediately directed and moved by the Spirit of God without outward teaching in what they are to believe and do will appear by two things The one from the Nature of the thing here predicted The other by the Application of this Prediction to the event 1. From the Nature of the Subject-Matter of this Prophesie It is not that the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh so as to direct every one what to believe and do without outward teaching but to qualifie persons extraordinarily for outward teaching it is to enable them to prophesie for that is twice mentioned in the Prophesie fore-cited as the end for which the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh And prophesying is for the instruction of others it is a means of conveying knowledge of the Divine Will from one man to another He that prophesieth edifieth the Church saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. 4. This of Prophets was a Second Order in the Evangelical Ministry God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets 1 Cor. 12. And although seeing Visions and