the enlightning in the Text to be a bettering of the faculties of the mind to discern its spiritual concerns I grant that the Lord Jesus Christ did by his redeeming work merit and doth now by his Spirit effect that great good in his people and they have thereby better understandings and a more pure and faithfull conscience than others But that Christ by being essentially considered in the conscience of every man should be its enlightning is a most base dishonour to his divine Majesty for what is it less than to render God under no better notion than the qualification of the faculty of a pityfull creature Therefore however it be expounded it makes nothing for the Quakers light within or rather the enlightning within to be the Being of Christ Every man If this phrase be taken strictly in its full latitude intending every individual without exception Christ enlightning must be understood so doing as Creator not as Redeemer which Exposition hath a better countenance from the Context than any thing that can make on the Quakers side For the Evangelist treats in the introductory Verses of Christ as the universal Creator and by consequence the eyes of the body and mind by which both are enlightned are creatures of his framing This is the opinion of many Superiours to me in judgement by far and I shall not contradict it but modestly and with submission offer my opinion But if that be right which all the Quakers in the world are not able to prove it cannot be so understood the Quakers may quit this Text as doing them no service Some have affirmed that John wrote his Gospel upon the occasion of the Heresie of Ebion and Cerinthus in denying the eternal and divine nature of Christ But suppose it be to be understood of Christs enlightning as Redeemer and so the enlightning to be with respect to the Gospel-discoveries it need not it cannot lightly be understood of all universally Why more than that Text Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man c. Sure the Apostle being but a man himself could not warn and teach every man without limitation it must therefore mean all that he preached to or rather the professors of Jesus Christ to whom he preached he thus taught and warned Commending our selves to every mans conscience c. There were many that never heard Paul nor heard of him therefore it must be understood that he had been so faithfull that he deserved commendation from all and had it from those whose consciences were pure to whom he ministred Well then why may it not be understood thus Every man that is enlightned with a spiritual Gospel-light is enlightned by Christ I will shew you a Text of the like form which must be so construed The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that be bowed down Sure it means that all that are upheld are upheld by God and all that are bowed down and raised up are raised up by God Yet I rather incline to take the every man to be Jew and Gentile without those limitations of the Covenant dispensed before Christ came The Prophets the Temple the Sacrifices and all those typical representations of Christ were restrained to the Church of Israel till the coming of Christ To them were committed the Oracles of God The Disciples must not go to preach the Gospel in the wayes or places of the Gentiles Peter is of opinion he must not converse with those who were Gentiles as a Preacher of the Gospel The Jews are offended with him for going on so good an errand till they heard his commission from God and the blessed effects of his Ministry But they are quickly informed of the partition-wall being broken down and imployed according to their commission to teach all Nations And the vail of the Temple at Christs death was rent from the top to the bottom And as I take it it gives a good countenance to this Exposition I have but one Hill more to get over and that is Whether the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so whether it may be read The light coming into the world enlightneth every man or every man coming into the world the light Christ enlightneth As I said before if it should refer to man every man in the very instant of or before his birth Christ enlightneth it must be meant of created faculties in the natural body as eyes reason c. and so Christ as Creator enlightens all for experience and sense without any one Instance to controul it will tell us that none can believe without hearing nor hear without a Preacher for all the talk of some of the preaching Stars and others of the preaching Gospel-light in the conscience Shew us the man that can express any thing of Christ or the Covenant of promises that never had any other means But there is a Reason in the Text gives such a countenance to referring it to the light as will never be found for the contrary That was the true light not this or this is which plainly imports not the light Christ as he is now in Heaven nor as present with John and his contemporary Saints when he wrote the Gospel for then it would have been this or at least that is the true light c. but it clearly points at Christs appearance in the flesh in his state of humiliation wherein he transacted mans salvation and conversed and shined among men as he shall never do over again that state of Christ which was when John wrote his Gospel past And this construction is the very scope of the words viz. That Jesus Christ who was shadowed out formerly by types and figures and whose Ordinances for conveying knowledge and grace to the sons of men and which were the ordinary acceptable wayes of Gods worship were afore-time restrained to the Temple and Jewish Church was manifest in the flesh and therein fulfilling his work as Redeemer hath abolished those strait dispensations and broken down the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile making no difference but shining by his Ordinances and favour on either indifferently so rising as a Sun of righteousness to give light to the whole world without any restraint by his Ordinance or appointment Whereby those Prophecies are fulfilled And he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my salvation to the ends of the earth So it seems he was not so at the time of this Prophecie although he were then the divine and eternal Being and he who should in time come and redeem and save by his actual merit I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and I will keep
lighteth every man that cometh into the world The Exposition of these words I shall give according to what the Lord hath enabled me with and refute what the Quakers give as the meaning of it and conclude from thence We shall not question that the Relative that hath for its Antecedent and is to be understood of the Word which was in the beginning which was with God which was God by whom all things were made the light of men c. The special Character of this Word who was God and Creator that was the true light I thus explain Light is taken properly for that which doth manifest or discover any thing so Christ is light But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel The meaning is That that salvation eternal which God had purposed to give to his people which could not be seen in the purpose of God as such is by the appearing of Christ in the flesh and therein transacting and declaring this salvation and eternal life abundantly discovered For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ And as light properly is that which makes manifest so metaphorically it is that which comforts and rejoyceth and as the first is put in opposition to ignorance or the absence of the means of knowledge so the other is put in opposition to affliction grief distress which are so frequently called darkness in Scripture that I need not turn to their Instances And I do not in the least doubt but Christ the Word is here called light in both respects and that eminently for as he discovers the gracious thoughts and purposes of God for the salvation of man it hath in its open hand the light of comfort they are glad tidings and gladding tidings And this I take to be the import of the 4th Verse In him was life and the life was the light of men That is the salvation and life eternal of poor sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God who being so qualified was capable of working it and this consideration of God manifest in the flesh for those ends is matter of strong consolation as being an adequate and sufficient foundation for faith to build on The qualification of this light the true light comes next under consideration True is taken in opposition to false but so we are not to understand it here True is taken in opposition to types and shadows so Christ is the true light which all the types and shadows in the Mosaical dispensations were not no more than the picture and pourtraiture of a man drawn with the dark lines of Charcoal are the man they so express or the figures for a thousand pounds in a Bond or Bill are the money And this is the true Exposition of the 23 d. Verse of the 4th of John God never accepted in sincere and hypocritical worshippers under the Old Testament dispensation But the question being of worshipping at Jerusalem or Mount Gerazim he tells her as his sense that question was now almost out of date for that the Temple being but a shadow and figure of Christ and Gospel-worship they were now shortly to use those shadows no more Christ being come and the Gospel spiritual-worship which they were but prefiguring of Again The true light is to be understood of the light eminently considered and so though John was a true light and by Christs own testimony a burning and a shining light and so the Prophets were true lights yet Christ excelled them all in light as the Sun doth the Stars The brightness of his Fathers glory and express image of his person So that while they gave a more dim and imperfect light Christ shined as the day-light In the Text last mentioned he is to be understood of Christ in the flesh before his ascension Lastly By true light we may understand his being that light to whom and of whom all the Prophets bare witness as Isaiah did not speak those things read out of him by the Eunuch of himself but of Jesus Christ as Philip expounded them to him I now proceed to the efficacy of this light wherein lies a great part of the controversie Which lighteth It is not to be doubted but this light doth give light both in respect of manifestation which may be of that which is matter of terrour and also of comfort to a miserable world by sin and its effects But I pray how will it follow from hence that Christ is within those whom he lighteth Truly no more than the Sun in the Firmament is within every one it affordeth light unto But it is the scope of some Pages in William Pen's late Piece to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be rendered not lighteth but enlightneth But by this I perceive he is as very as those Physicians who impose severe abstinence on others but they themselves will take their Cups off and their good cheer to wantonness and giddiness I return to the business in hand and grant that most Translators render it enlightneth But what helpeth it 'T is never the more the Quakers light within for a seeing faculty can do nothing alone no more than the best eyes in the head without a light without as a medium by which to discern objects And this faculty of mans understanding is enlightned by Christ so as that by his light it is made capable to discern the face of God shining on sinners according to the import of the Covenant of graâ—… and that enlightning may be no more Two Scriptures will evidence First That concerning Jonathan And dipt it in an honey-comb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes were enlightned See I pray you how mine eyes have been enlightned If the light within be no more in the conscience than the honey was in Jonathan's eyes it will make little for the Quakers notion of the light in the conscience to be very Christ and not only his manifestations which are his acts and influence not himself The other Text is more plain to the purpose His lightnings enlightned the world the earth saw and trembled If by the earth be not meant the men on the earth and by the world the men in the world lightning was not likely to be seen by or help them so to see as to effect trembling unless you will say the meer animals were intended Well then the world was enlightned by Gods lightnings that were totally without them whether their seeing by those lightnings have respect to the objects of their bodily eyes or to God the object of the eye of the mind who is in a good measure made known by his mighty and terrible works But if you will needs have
in them as in his Heaven and Glory To conclude I beseech you who are engaged with the Quakers from the good opinion you have of their Tenets or from other respects which may quickly produce their entertainment do not think it a light thing to disown him who must be your Redeemer or you must for ever perish or that the difference between the true Christ and any thing else that is so called is so small that you may wink and choose no danger of miscarrying which ever be your foundation If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins was the saying of truth it self and he was not the light within but the man Christ Jesus who was then in Judea and no where else who is now in Heaven not on earth How is it that the Apostles whose knowledge of and zeal for Christ is not to be equalled by any of ours did preach Christ so abundantly by the name of JESVS which was the proper name of his humane nature and as the CHRIST which is a name proper to God and man in one person he that is the all-sufficient Saviour and not by the name of the light within which is not to be found once in the Scripture and where the words are found which Christ himself spake which is but once it may be a terrible and a seasonable monitor to you But if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness I beg of you once more to weigh what I have written in this Chapter and beg for you that the Lord would give you understanding in all these things CHAP. XVI The Quakers are gross Idolaters and Quakerism gross Idolatry SECT I. THere have been great Contests in the world about the imputation of this Character of Idolaters and what is Idolatry Some have contended That not only a false worship though of the true God is Idolatry and by consequence that those who live in the practice of such a worship are Idolaters but also that any Appendices to that worship of God which in the substance of it is his true worship are also Idolatry being of mans invention and added by his own proper Authority as a part of divine worship and that so doing is a crime against the second Commandment in the Decalogue or ten words or Commandments written in tables of stone The proof of my Charge against the Quakers will not depend upon such nice and disputable premisses but if there be any such thing as Idolatry in the world I shall prove them guilty in the highest degree And because this Charge looks very big and would be no small sin against both the principles and persons of those concerned if untrue and also that such a crime of theirs is not so visible to the world as may be within the cognizance and notice of all who converse with them I shall dispose my Arguments plainly and formally All those that own and profess that to be God which is not God are gross Idolaters But the Quakers own and profess that to be God which is not God Therefore the Quakers are gross Idolaters My second proof is in this Argument All those who worship that as God professedly and according to their professed principles which is not God are gross Idolaters But the Quakers do so Therefore they are gross Idolaters My first Argument I shall first prosecute and with that perspicuity as will be apparent to all that are not more blind than Bats For the first Proposition viz. That all those that own and profess that to be God which is not God are gross Idolaters I know none but will grant the truth of it who in matters of a religious nature can discern their right hands from their left The Minor or second Proposition of my Syllogism I am concerned to confirm Here will be the issue depending and if this be throughly proved no man convinced thereof but will sit down by the Conclusion That the Quakers are gross Idolaters I shall manage my proof of this by these two Syllogisms They who own and profess the light within every man to be God own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do own and profess the light within every man to be God Therefore The Quakers own and profess that to be God which is not God Again They that own and profess the souls or spirits of all or some men which are constitutive parts of all or some men to be God do own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do own and profess so Therefore They own and profess that to be God which is not God The first Syllogism I shall manage in the first place the Major and Minor of which I shall fully prove And although some have attempted the conviction of the Quakers by shewing the natural faculties of light in man to be far short of what they ascribe to it I shall not go their way to work for so long as the Quakers hold their light within to be Christ or God 't is vain to restrain it to less than infinite And I having to do with those whose opinion of the light within depends on such a conceit I shall prove the light within every man not to be Christ or God For the proof of the first Proposition I must prove That the light within every man is not God and in so doing all that is requisite to the first Proposition will be discharged That the light within every man is not God I prove thus That which hath not power in it to dispose and order the wayes of a man is not God But the light within every man hath not power in it to dispose of the wayes of a man Therefore It is not God The first Proposition will be granted by all who own the omnipotence of God take away that and you un-God him The second Proposition I prove from Jer. 10. 23. O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps If it be not in man it is not within man I cannot say that to be within me that is not in me though that may be said to be in me that is not a part of me So then if the Prophet Jeremy were not mistaken there is nothing in man or within man that hath the power to dispose or wisdom to direct his steps but he may either fail in directing unwisely or for want of power to perform what is well directed or determined Therefore I must conclude against the Quakers That the light in every man is not God That which is not infinite and immense or without or beyond measure is not God But the light within every man is not infinite and immense or beyond measure Therefore The light within every man is not God The first Proposition I prove from Psal 47. 5. Great is our Lord and of
more and more if you will needs deifie such a poor Creature as natural Conscience and reduce so much within the compass of a poor earthen defiled vessel But if you are resolved to go on at this rate let the Title of your next Book be instead of The Spirit of Truth c. The Spirit of Babel and this will much more properly express the Contents of it Babel in the Hebrew is the word from whence Babble in English The Pretences of the Quakers to Apostolical and immediately Divine Inspirations considered and a Spiritual and Rational account of truly Apostolical men and their immediate Inspirations SECT I. Next to their Tenet of the light within every man to be the Christ and God essentially considered This of its immediate Dictates which they hold to be as purely Divine as any the Apostles had or the Scriptures express is the grand Pillar of their other Opinions and Practices called Religious This pretext according to an Author of their own E. H. one of Antichrists Voluntiers defeated pag. 5. gives the credit to what they affirm And yet would fasten all these upon the Lord so that his deceit might be of more Authority and noâ—â— might question the matter thereof because the Lord always moveth to Truth and Righteousness Well then if we can prove that the Quakers are not inspired persons but far otherwise we shall prove them gross Iâ—â—â—stors abominable persons slanderers and blasphemers of the Holy and Divine Spirit and break that snare by which their poor deluded Proselytes are fast bound and chained to their Dictates But sure you will judge that they who pretend thus high have somewhat like a Reason for what they affirm The main props of this Opinion of themselves I shall bring to light and examine The first is a Prophesie of the pouring out of the Spirit Joel 2. 28. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie c. Let us consider how much this will befriend them They will not say I am perswaded that all flesh in the Text is to be understood without any limitation at all for then Sheep and Oxen must prophesie nor yet will they allow that the Spirit shall be poured forth upon all men and women old and young without some limitation for then the most wicked and sottish must be of the number yea those who are the keenest Adversaries to their Doctrine among which I doubt not they will give me a room but if they say every one hath the light within which is a Principle capable of this Character if they gave heed to it and at set it liberty I answer so had all men this principle ever since the world began if what they say themselves be true but the Prophesie saith It shall come to pass after those days So that it must needs be meant of a time then to come but if it be to be understood as without doubt it is as well of some particular persons and not all universally as of some Age or Ages and not all universally They must bring some proof that they are the persons inintended or give us leave to tell them they have here in stollen the words of the Lord which belonged not to them by falsly applying it to themselves And if the Exposition which Peter the Apostle gives of this Prophesie be worth the heeding it was fulfilled at least in a good measure 1600 years since and whether the world shall ever hereafter behold the like in that part of it I shall not assert Act. 2. 16 17. and so on But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel c. What They spake with other Tongues about fifteen in number the wonderful works of God and this was ushered in by Signs from Heaven A sound as of a mighty rushing wind cloven tongues like as of fire all of which were witnesses sent by God for the confirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they preached to be God's Messias before promised But let us see how neer the Quakers approach to this evidence That they began with a noise yea a rushing noise we know but that it was a sound from Heaven we are sure of the contrary that they have tongues and fiery and cloven-tongues also we shall not deny but these are not such cloven-tongues like as of fire sitting on them and appearing to the bodily eyes of others Nor do they speak variety of Languages by the gift of the Holy Ghost though some of them have gone into forein Countries with a confidence they should be gifted with strange Languages but their Spirit deceived them Those in the Text in those Languages or Tongues spake the wonderful works of God but the Quakers with their native Language only speak the amazing delusions of Satan The persons in the Text had and used these gifts to confirm and evidence Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ 22 verse and that same Jesus to be exalted by the right hand of God verse 32 33 but the Quakers improve their gifts with al their might to disclaim that man Christ Jesus Christ as having any being and to exalt their own Christ whom they call the light within every man And considering also that the Prophet saith the Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh methinks they of all others should claim the least share in it who call others flesh who are not of their mind but themselves Spiritual and will not seem to endure any thing that hath a relation to the flesh though sanctified by the Spirit and Grace of God which they rebuke in such-like terms as these Silence all flesh before the Lord. Thus I have discharged this Text from so bad a service SECTION II. The next main prop for this mistake is that they speaking and writing by the conduct and motion of the light within them that being with them the Spirit of God as well as Christ the Son of God it must needs be by Inspiration of God and motion of the Holy Ghost And by the same light light within do we discern and testifie c. Parnel Shield of the Truth pag. 10. Yea they will have Moses and all the Prophets to be inspired Divinely as they were guided and moved by the light within The Word said Let there be light Gen. 1. 4. mark this and the light was brought out of darkness so the morning was come and the day was created in the Eternal Word and into this life I suppose it should be light was Moses gathered and had his understanding opened that he could see to the beginning And there was no Tradition to give him the knowledge of it but the light which shone out of darkness in his heart Morning-Watch pag. 2. What words can express the untruths absurdities and blasphemies of this saying The Word Christ created the light Christ the first created morning is Christ and all this together within was the inspiration by which Moses
them or that are gathered from the written Word or pretended to be so Baptism Not any thing by Water but the Spirit i. e. the Quakers Spirit to an obedience and devotedness to the light within and inspirations and immediate teachings Blasphemy To speak against the light within every man to be Christ and God and what they hold it to be Blind Not to acknowledge the light within to be Christ not to know by immediate inspiration The Blood of Christ The life of Christ i. e. the power of the light in them The spiritual Blood which they say came down from Heaven and was part of a spiritual Body which Christ brought with him from thence which dwelt for a while in the man Jesus who died at Jerusalem Salvation puririfying reconciling by the Blood of Christ Not by the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross but by the Blood of the spiritual Body of flesh blood and bones which they say Christ descended in which is in every Quaker as really as in the man that was the Son of Mary and so salvation is by no other blood but what is in themselves The Body of Christ Not that which was crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem in Judea but the spiritual Body aforesaid which they say took up its Habitation and Tabernacled in the Body of Jesus the Son of Mary and so the Body of Christ is as much in them as it was in him Bondage Not only our selves in bondage to sin but the light within the seed of God or Christ being in bondage under the disobedience of men Born again Regeneration Perfect Obedience to the light within as Christ and God Comprehending Brain A large understanding oâ— a desire of Knowledge by the use of the rational Faculty C. Gall. The motions of the Light Christ in the Conscience Christ Not the man Christ Jesus the Son of Mary which the Godhead assumed and united to its self in one person but the light within every man a Christ that had nothing of Adams Nature whose Body now in being was not Created or had a beginning in time which was never visible to the bodily eye   Not in any respect distinct from God the Father and God the Holy Ghost Christ in the Saints Not Christ without them an Object of the faith and love within them but his very Being his Divinity his Soul and his Body consisting of spiritual Flesh Blood and Bones not his Image and likeness but the self-same in his Being and Essence Christs coming In the Spirit or his spiritual coming into his People i. e. no other but the prevailing motions of the light within or by inspiration The Command in Spirit By immediate inspiration and motion Comprehension Fleshly Comprehensions That Opinion or Belief which is grounded on a rational demonstration though from the Written Word of God Carnal All things of a religious concern which we are not enlightned about and moved to by immediate inspiration yea whatever hath a form or is visible to the bodily Eye Fleshly Conceivings Those Opinions or expressions whose beginning and birth are in the humane faculties very great weakness if not â—in and unbelief contrary to the assured and undoubted dictates of the infallible light and Spirit within them Condemnation The reproofs and sentencings of the light in the Conscience Conversion A full obedience to the light in the Conscience a total freedom from the prevailing of any sin such a state as the Disciples of Christ had not attained when Christ was crucified nor Paul when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans Crucifying of Christ Not that crucifying on the Cross of wood but a crucifying within us by disobedience to the light in our Consciences  A strange merit and purchase of Salvation and way of pacifying the wrath of God for sin D. Damnation Being condemnd within by the light in the Conscience the terror affliction arising from thence but nothing of a pain of sense after the body is dead and turned to dust Darkness Not acknowledging the light in every man to be Christ and being guided by its immediate teachings as the only and all-sufficient rule Death of Christ The light within not obeyed The dead Body The Body living in sin Disciples of Christ No other but those who submit to the light within and follow only its dictates E. Election Christ the sâ—ed not the persons of men and women Vulturous-Eye The understanding faculty piercing into and earnestly seeking after Divine Knowledge F. Faith A believing in the light within Righteousness of Faith Those acts of Obedience performed by themselves in their own bodies conformable to the dictates of the light within and in the Faith of its being Christ and the Rule Teaching or doing falsly When not from the immediate motions and teachings of the light within though what is taught be in its self true and what is done be in its self good False Prophets All that are called by men however qualified otherwise all that teach from or out of the Scriptures and not from immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles by whom the Scriptures were penned False Witnesses All who speak not from inspiration and inward meerly divine motions and experience not what they affirm in themselves Flesh Whatever is not from the light within originally and immediately Wisdom of the Flesh All Wisdom attained by industry Denying Christ come in the Flesh Denying Christ come in the Flesh of Joseph John Sarah or any other who are Quakers Christ come in the Flesh Come in their Flesh The Flesh of Christ The spiritual Flesh that descended from Heaven not the Flesh that lay buried in the Sepulchre after death The Fold of Christ Christ himself Following Christ Obedience to the Light within The Friends Friends All professed Quakers The will of the Flesh All that is chosen by man though he be thereto disposed by the will of God revealed in the Scripture G. Preaching for Gain Receiving any thing as the reward of preaching the Gospel State of Glory The State of Peace and Joy resulting from the witness of the light within in this life GOD. Father Son and Holy Ghost without distinction the light within every man the spirit of the Quakers every one of them the soul the seed and much more that he is not Foundation of God The light within and the inspirations and motions of it The Gospel Christ the light within not the written word or the sense of it as a narrative of the good will of God to men in Christ H. Handled the Word of Life Not as the Apostles who handled the Body of Christ but feeling by a spiritual sensation the motions of the light within or the Christ within them Hearing the Gospel or Word Listening to and obeying the light within Heaven Not the place where the man Christ is above or beyond the visible skies but the happiness they have within them  I could never yet hear or read them mention any other
the Gospel they are but the Letter The Gospel is as much as to say a good message or glad tidings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strange that they should not be glad tidings because they are the Letterâ— as if a good message or glad tidings were never written in this world And the Scripture brings no tidings of Christ because they are tidings in the most ample form viz. in writing or printing which will abide much longer than a breath or sound and may be better considered Take another to couple with him as very a Wiseaker as he And the knowledge of the Languages of Hebrew Greek and Latine which they call the Orignal is nothing worth as pertaining to the knowledge of God This Author did certainly lose the light or the light lose him when he wrote this I never heard the Latine called the Original of the Scripture Translations before Sure he believed that the Scriptures peept first out of Rome in that their Original Copy should be in the Roman Language as others of them that the Lords Supper and Baptism were from Rome and the Pope But however we have been hitherto of this mind the Quakers infallible monitor the Light within by which I am perswaded he wrote this will have it otherwise and I dare assure this learned person if he be alive and can but prove the Latine to be the Original the Pope of Rome will willingly give him a Cardinals Hat for his pains But this is not his original errour though an errour concerning the Original He saith the Original is nothing worth pertaining to the knowledge of God â—f so our Translations which we had from thence are less worth than nothing for they must give the upper hand to the Original I have sufficiently proved their denial of the Scriptures being any means by which we may come to the knowledge of God or Christ one Witness of the third viz. of our selves and I shall call in no more of them for the proof of this Charge Christ by his light within shews you in a glass your own faces which the Scriptures cannot do Here I find them in love yea so in love with a little Rhetorick that rather than go on plain ground they will kick their own shins and trip up their own heels Truly friends you have here gone on Glass or Ice which you will You teach or declare in almost all your Writings which concern teachings in a religious sense that you are taught immediately by the light within Was ever any thing in this world shewn in a Glass immediately that Glass may more congruously be called a Mirrour the ancient name of a Looking-Glass than any I ever saw or heard of however let whatever be the Glass or means by which or in which we may see our faces the Scriptures by your leave must not be it But whether you will or no the Scriptures are a Glass or as a Glass wherein if you or I will please to look with an honest mind God will by it in a good measure shew us what we are and they have one property above all the Looking Glasses in the world viz. that we can see your faces in and by them though you should not look into them nor suffer the Book wherein they are contained to be in the same house where you are SECT II. For the help of the unready in the Scriptures I shall quote a few of its testimonies to confute this Doctrine although the consciences of the greater number of themselves if they will but turn over their records placed in their memories will give verdict against them And for all those who have been at the pains to learn what the Scriptures are capable of teaching and have not engaged themselves right or wrong to the service of the light within I doubt not but they will subscribe themselves experimenters of the truth here by you opposed That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord that it is mighty that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever As the heathen Nations so the Generations and Posterity of Israel who had not seen those works with their own eyes were helped to the knowledge of them and of the Lord who wrought them by the means of the Scripture History And it shall be when he sitteth on the throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God Here the Scriptures are not only a means to know God but also to fear God which cannot be without knowledge of him and is more than a meer notion of God And for the knowledge of Christ it is not possible that the Scriptures should be a prophetical historical and doctrinal account of the natures person and offices c. of Jesus Christ and yet no means for the knowledge of him And according to your own common phrase a testimony declaration and witness of Christ and that they are some means though not the only means that Text is enough to prove 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus And who will doubt but that which is a means to save is a means to know God and Christ I have met with such a silly cavil as this in some of your Writings viz. that they are no such means to them who have not faith i. e. that obey not the light and believe not in the light True if you understood Christ aright but yet they are a means of some kind or it is not true that they are able to make wise to salvation whatever else be in conjunction with them we never yet said that they alone can do it if we should say so we should be like unto you who deny they can contribute any thing towards it Concerning the knowledge it gives of our selves whether we are believers or unbelievers take two or three testimonies These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God Surely if they are a means to know if we have eternal life they thereby shew us our faces that we have the faces of Children not Swine or Swine and not Children and those characters and marks by which one Saint may know it self may be a means by which another Saint may know it self and so on the contrary Paul knew himself by the Law to be such a sinner as he knew not before But I shall give you one Scripture which answers the case in the Metaphor a Glass used by our Adversary For if any
which hath a respect to the things done within their knowledge as men the Writers of that or those parts of the Scripture were either under the Testimonies of Miracles or were by some express Testimony of God rendred holy men and being so qualified they would not write more than they knew and could not easily be mistaken in matter of fact and being Scripture is said by Paul to be of Divine inspiration Fourthly All those Books of the Old Testament out of which somewhat is not quoted in the New as Scripture were received as Scripture by the Jews and then Church of God and that in the time of many Prophets to whom Divine Testimony hath been given and it cannot with any shew of Reason be supposed that those Writings should be faâ—â—â—y fathered on God or taken for authentique Scripture and the Prophets not discover and reprove it whereas far less haâ—nous evils than that would have been were often the subject-matter of their sharp reprehensions Let any Quaker of other give me or themselves the like satisfaction of their being immediately inspired and they shall have my leave to hold such an Opinion of it But for those inspirations which they say many had before the Scriptures were written the mention of their time will give full satisfaction it will be a poor Argument to prove men are now inspired as they considering they had not the revealed written Word at all and we have it so full that all things necessary for any to know are therein included and thereby expressed The second thing I must reply to is what the Quakers frequently Object viz. That we make the Scripture the judge of the Spirit whereas the Spirit gave forth the Scriptures I answer this is for want of judgment in the Objectors Far be it from us to bring the to-be-adored Spirit of God to any mans bar for judgment to be passed on it or any thing that is his immediate Work or Word all we profess in this matter to make the Scripture a judge or determiner of is whether this or that be the mind of the Spirit or no but if once it appear to be the Voice and Mind of the Spirit we profess it our duty to reverence and submit to it And we being certain that the Holy Scriptures were given forth from God and that God is not opposite to himself we conclude that what is contrary to the Scripture cannot be the Word of the Spirit because then the Spirit should bear witness against it self and the word of the Spirit would be contrary to the word of the Spirit And moreover if any shall pretend to abolish by the Authority or inspiration of the Spirit those Ordinances and Institutions which were setled by Christ or Christ in his Apostles it would be unreasonable to credit them without the same Testimonials such Miracles as they wrought by which they were erected But the Quakers are far enough from shewing such a zeal for their pretended Ministry and Order And further we are obliged not to receive another Gospel and that by the Holy Spirit though an Angel from Heaven should preach it and we are warned not to believe any other as Truth Divine against it though many Wonders should be wrought for confirmation The third thing I must reply to is that our knowledge of the mind of God by the Scripture is uncertain I answer If you mean a knowledge of all Gods mind you are not to expect it it you mean all that is there contained it is not necessary and you may go to Heaven and do your duty without such a vast knowledge and if you endeavour it in your places and as God hath given you the means it will not be your sin much less your condemnation that you do not know it all Sure there are many Babes in Christ's Family yet they are Children and all are first Babes and that would be a Monster never yet seen in the Church of Christ a new-born Babe knowing the mind of God contained in the Scripture as fully as the most serious Christians of the longest standing Jesus Christ himself grew in wisdom and in stature and I intreat you be content to leave a little of the mind of God to be found out in the Scripture by the generations to come If you mean our knowledge of the mind of the Spirit is uncertain so far as it is necessary for our living in an acceptable manner to God soberly righteously and godly in this present world and to attain Heaven at last it is a great mistake for if pride lust and idleness stand not in our way there is no person that hath a few grains of Reason but may understand so much of the mind of God by the Scripture as is necessary for him to know to his eternal salvation But if you talk of the Scriptures being a dead Letter and not moving and teaching with a voice or impulse without our reading praying and applying it in the Lords strength you talk at a strange random as if God had given us our eyes and brains only to look after the world and the things thereof but in the knowledge of God we must be meerly passive A KEY TO THE Quakers Usurped and to most UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASES THere is not any thing in the Quakers Method of deluding which doth more tend to the insnaring of unwary Souls than their asserting their false Antichristian and Anti-Scriptural Tenets under Scripture-Words and Phrases and in those very Terms wherein are expressed the Truths of God while in the mean time they mean nothing less than their true import and what People who are not well acquainted with their Tenets suppose them to mean By this Artifice they beget a good Opinion of themselves and Errours with too many and by degrees so vitiate their Principles that in a short time they are prepared to embrance the grossest errors bare-faced I shall therefore as a work of no small use to such who are attempted by them or who have a Call or opportunity to deal with them for their convincing or confuting or the securing others who are in danger by them give you a true and candid account of their sense and meaning of a multitude of Scripture and Religious Phrases which they utter and apply to their falshoods and also of their new-coin'd Words and Phrases which are more peculiar to their Sect and Notions I dispose them Alphabetically for their more easie finding on any occasion A. Above NOt in locality but excelcie so Christ and Heaven they say are above i. e. excellent and may therefore be nothing but what is within them The Anointing The Light within Christ the Spirit essentially Assembling Meeting in Spirit Assurance What they feel in themselves not what they believe from the Scripture the inward witness viz. experience teachings of the light within B. Babylon All the Ordinances Worship Faith Obedience that have any thing of a form or visible in