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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	write_a	write_v	writing_n	203	3	9.0356	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47133	The deism of William Penn and his brethren destructive to the Christian religion, exposed and plainly laid open in the examination and refutation of his late reprinted book called, A discourse of the general rule of faith and practise and judge of controversie, wherein he contendeth that the Holy Scriptures are not the rule of faith and life, but that the light in the conscience of every man is that rule / by George Keith.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1699 (1699)	Wing K156; ESTC R6589	71,572	164

of these Tracts If W.P. say it is because the Authority of the Light within is much gain-said among Men and the Dictates of it grievously perverted and made contradictory If both Parties even among the Quakers themselves may be believed G. F and his Party when alive and now W. P's and G. W's Party judging that which John Story and his Party believed to be the Dictates of the Light within to be the Dictates of a False Spirit and they judging the like of them Therefore Books and Tracts have been multiplied among themselves And as good and much better reason can be given why so many truly pious and edifying Tracts have been written by many Godly Men to vindicate both the Sufficiency of the Spirit and true Light within in all the Faithful and also the Sufficiency of the Scriptures without this as the Rule and that as the principal Teacher Agent and Efficient working with and by the Rule and yet none of the two how much ever sufficient excluding the Lord Jesus Christ God-Man without us from being our All sufficient Saviour each being sufficient in their own order and manner of acting As concerning such Gentiles to whom the offer of Faith has not been made neither by Men nor Writings none say that the Scriptures are a Rule to them but as they have no outward Rule of Christian Faith so nor doth it appear that they have the Christian Faith it self If any have it they have it not by the common Illumination but by some miraculous and extraordinary manner unknown to us And how God disposeth of the more Sober and Virtuous among them doth not at all reach the present Controversie which is not whither the Scripture be the Rule to all Mankind that ever lived or now live but whither it be the Rule of Faith and Life to them who have them or may have them by some possible means Page 16. Arg 13. Whereas he saith Doth not your own Language and Practise prove its viz. the Scriptures Insufficiency to that end at what time you both exhort to and go in secret to seek the Mind of the Lord in this or that important Affair Why do not you turn to Chapter and Verse for satisfaction if the Scripture be appointed of God for the General Rule Ans This Argument hath also as great force or rather much greater against the Light within being the General Rule for do none of the Friends both exhort to and go in secret to seek the Mind of the Lord in this or that important Affair Why do they not turn to the Light within to be forthwith without all Prayer or waiting informed and satisfied If they do not yea if W.P. do not both he and they are wofully deceived by neglecting Prayer and waiting on God to receive Satisfaction in this or that important Affair but if they find their need both for Prayer and waiting for direction then let him answer his own Argument and make due Application But to give a positive and direct answer if it be either a matter of Doctrine or Precept that any Christian wants due Instruction and Direction in they may both Pray and Read and search the Scriptures and Meditate Iad wait for God's inward Illumination and ●nspiration to give them a right Understanding and they may expect it will be given them if they sincerely seek it and use all due Endeavours and Means to attain it one of which is to consult and use the Advice of others whom they have cause to judge Spiritually more enlightned than themselves If it be in Cases that are neither matter of Doctrine nor Precept but where the matter is by it self indifferent and neither simply commanded nor forbidden as many such Cases there are they may and ought to pray and wait for direction and it may please God to give it to them by some secret Motion Impulse or Impression of his Holy Spirit which may sufficiently satisfie them without making that impression Motion or Impulse the Rule of either Faith or Obedience seeing the Matter is neither a Matter of Doctrine nor Precept wherein either Faith or Obedience as touching that particular is concerned but a Motion or Impulse simply from God upon the Will cannot be properly called a Rule because as is above-said a Rule properly speaking is a Form of Words and Propositions either outwardly expressed or inwardly conceived to which the Intellect either assents or dissents And if any true Christian finds such a motion or impulse on his VVill if after examination he find that it doth not incline him to any thing either contradictory to Scripture or true Reason he is in no great danger to yield to it and if he do not yield to it upon just suspicion or fear that it is not of God it will not be charged to be a Sin upon him for nothing is Sin but a Transgression of God's Law Page 19. The Law outward saith he as a Rule was but as Moses till the Son came the Servant abideth not in the House for ever the Written Law held its place but till the inward Rise in more Glory and Brightness or rather till People became more capable of being turned to it and living with and in it Answ Had not Mankind generally the Light within them under Moses How comes it then that it was not the Rule to them and did not dismiss the written Law But if there be no written nor outward Law given by Christ under the Gospel then all that he taught outwardly and for which he sent his Spirit upon the Apostles to bring it all to their Remembrance and to move them to commit it to Writing Yea the whole New Testament Writings must be dismissed and turned out of the Church the House of God as was Ishmael and his Mother out of Abraham's House because by his most false Arguing the written Law given by Christ and the Holy-Ghost under the New Testament is as much the Servant as the Old Covenant was O the Vanity and Folly of this manner of Arguing which wholly makes void Christ's Prophetical and Kingly Office as he was outwardly sent in the Flesh by the Father to give a more full and clear discovery of the way of Salvation as the great Prophet and to give forth his Royal Laws to the Church under the New Testament as King and Head thereof But he further enlargeth upon this Argument P. 17. telling us There are a Thousand Cases in which the Scripture cannot be our Plain and distinct Rule and Guide And he adds on the Margent There 's not laid down in Scripture any general Rule how to answer before Magistrates and to act in times of Sufferings To which I answer First he doth not well to confound Rule and Guide it is granted the Spirit of God is the Guide Teacher and Leader of the Faithful but it doth not therefore follow that the Holy Scriptures i. e. the many excellent Instructions Precepts and Examples given us therein for

without them but only within them that is the Light in the Conscience and so there is no High-Priest without us nor no Heaven without us into which the Man Christ Jesus is gone nor King Christ without us but only within us for to say he is both without us and within us also will spoil W. P's Argument altogether and mar his Analogy betwixt the Law without under Moses and the Law within under Christ the High-Priest without then and the High-Priest within now If he grant there is a High-Priest without us and who is also King as well as Priest and that he is more without us than within us as all true Christians believe who have not the fulness within them but receive of his fulness and Grace for Grace and therefore that fulness is in the Man Christ without them he must also grant that the Law and Rule of Faith is as well without us as within us and so his Argument is spoiled but that he will be loth to grant for then the fundamental Principle of him and his Brethren is pluck'd up by the Roots by confessing to the Man Christ a High-Priest without us or King without us which will necessarily infer the Law and Rule of Faith delivered us by Christ without us is not within us only but without us also as Christ the Law-giver is Thus we see for Love of their supposed Rule of Faith only within them W.P. and his Brethren who approve his Book abandon and reject utterly any Christ High-Priest or King without them as also he has done in his Christian Quaker where he will have P. 97. The Lamb without in the Passover to shew forth the Lamb within to wit the Light in the Conscience but not the Lamb Christ without as he was outwardly slain And yet W.P. for all this hath said in his late answer to the Bishop of Cork That the Quakers differ little in Doctrine from the Church of England setting aside some School Terms And in his answer to the Bishop of Cork P. 97. he saith We i. e. he and his Brethren plainly and intirely believe the Truths contained in the Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed But possibly some fallacy is latent here also as if he had said they believe the Truths Contained in the Jews Talmud or Turks Alcoran for doubtless there are some Truths contained in them both but many Falshoods and so he may think there are in that Creed for all his seeming fair Confession to it and I offer to prove they have disbelieved them all But how this consists with their having only their High Priest King and Prophet within them as they have the Law and Rule of their Faith only within them as W.P. here doth Argue I leave to the intelligent to Judge and whither this palpable contradiction bewrayes not their great disingenuity considering that they will not grant that they are in any one point changed in their Faith or Doctrine from what they were ever since they were a People but as God and Truth is the same so his People to wit the Quakers are the same as they have in so many express words lately Printed in the Book called the Quakers Cleared c. 3. As concerning the several places of Scripture quoted by him that he brings to prove the inward Teachings of God Christ and the Holy Spirit and God's writing his Laws in the Hearts of the Faithful all this is granted by all Sound Christians but that is not the true State of the Controversie betwixt the People called Quakers and their Opponents But the true State of the Controversie is this whither the inward Teachings of God of Christ and of the Holy Spirit come to believers without all outward means and without all outward Ministry and Service of Men or Books and whither the Law and Rule of Faith that Believers have in them put in them yea and writ in their Hearts by the Lord himself is without all outward Instruction and Teaching or Service of Men or Books or whither the Law and Rule of Faith and Practise within in respect of all the peculiar Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion be not so to speak a Transcript or Copy from the Law and Rule of Faith without us as delivered in the Holy Scriptures which therefore may be called the Original as to us though that Original Law and Rule without us came from an inward Original in the Holy Prophets and in the Man Christ and his Holy Evangelists and Apostles which yet had a higher Original to wit the Archetypal Law as it was in God before the Copy or Transcript of it came to be in the Prophets and from them committed to writing outwardly and from that outward writing transferred and transcribed into the Hearts of the Faithful where it becomes an inward Law or Rule in them And thus the Faithful have the Law and Rule of Faith both without them and within them first without them in the Holy Scriptures next within them put in them by the Lord in their Hearts by means of outward Instruction as Preaching Reading c. And if the Question be asked Whither is best to have it without them or within them I answer to have it both ways is very necessary for in God's ordinary way of working we cannot have it within us if we had it not first without us no more than we can have Food within us if we had it not first without us for as our outward and bodily Food that nourisheth our Bodies comes into our Bodies from without us by the Door so to speak of our Mouth so the wholsome Doctrine of eternal Salvation by Christ our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer by means of which our Souls and inward Man are nourished being accompanied with the Divine Influences of the Grace and Spirit of God and of Christ comes into our Souls by the Door of our outward Hearing and Reading in the Holy Scriptures Again though there be ever so good Food and ever so Plentiful without us yet if we receive it not within us it neither doth nor can nourish us And as the clean Beasts under the Law did chew the Cud of what they did eat for their Nourishment so the Faithful what they outwardly hear and read of God's Word in the Holy Scriptures must meditate upon inwardly for their Spiritual Food Thus the great necessity of having the Law and Word of God both without us and within us the Rule of our Faith and Life is evidently apparent so long as we live in these mortal Bodies And therefore God hath appointed and Christ hath given an outward Ministry together with his other Gifts and Graces to his Church to continue to the end of the World and to his last coming But again if it be asked Is there not an Internal word Voice or Teaching of Christ distinct from the outward word Voice and Teaching that outwardly soundeth in our outward Ears I answer There is but in God's

the Government of our Life in all Estates are not the Rule which the Holy Spirit useth as his Instrument to Guide us in all parts of our Duty But he might have told us some of those Thousand Cases in which the Scripture cannot be our plain and distinct Rule whereby to know either our Duty to perform it or what is prohibited that we may avoid it though we have the inward assistance of God's Spirit to enlighten our Minds and set before them on all necessary occasions and emergencies such Scripture Precepts and Prohibitions as suit with the present occasions But if the cases be of things in themselves simply indifferent i. e. neither commanded nor forbidden either by any Precepts of God or Just Precepts and Laws of our Superiors we are left to our choice according as our rational Faculties and Christian Prudence shall direct us a due regard over all being had to the Glory of God and that whatever we do be done in the Spirit of true Love and Charity which are general Rules plainly given us in the Holy Scriptures the particular application of which in all particular Cases whither in relation to Superiors Inferiors or Equals the Holy Spirit by his special Illuminations in our Hearts will teach us as we faithfully pray and wait for them without the need of any other general or particular Rules than what already are given us in the Holy Scriptures Therefore in opposition to this extravagant and rash Assertion of W. P that there are a Thousand Cases in which the Scripture cannot be our plain and distinct Rule I affirm that there is not one Case respecting our Duty either towards God our selves or our Neighbours but plain Instructions and Precepts are given us in the Holy Scriptures concerning the same but we still need the Grace and Guidance of God's Holy Spirit to give us the Spiritual discovery of them and to enable us rightly to practise them Surely David had a far better and greater esteem of God's Laws Precepts and Testimonies even as outwardly delivered by Moses and also by himself than W.P. hath concerning which he said Psal 119.24 Thy Testimonies also are my delight and my Counsellors Though David was a Prophet yet as King over the People of Israel he was commanded of God to write him a Copy of the Law of God in a Book which was to be with him and he was to Read therein all the days of his Life that he might learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of that Law and these Statutes to do them c Deut. 17.18 19 20. And yet David was highly illuminated and inspired far above W.P. or any of his Brethren but the written Law was to be the Rule of his Actions as well as of other Men. Nor could David have excused himself from taking the written Law to be the Rule of his Life because he had it in his Heart and if it could be no excuse to David nor can it be to any Christian now King or Subject that because they have the Law writ in their Hearts and the Spirit put in their inward parts according to God's promise in the New Covenant that therefore the Laws of God both of the Old and New Testament that are of a Moral concern even as outwardly delivered do not bind them which is in very deed to take away the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and make void the Prophetical and Kingly Office of Christ yea and the Office of the Holy Spirit also who inspired the Holy Pen-men to commit them to Writing And it is no less extravagant and rash in W.P. to assert that there is not laid down in Scripture any general Rule how to answer before Magistrates and to act in times of Sufferings for though no particular words are given us limiting and determining us what to say yet the general matter of our Duty is plainly laid down in Scripture what and how to answer before Magistrates as that of Peter and John Acts 4.19 How that it is better to obey God than Men and that of the three Children to King Nebuchadnezzer Dan. 3.17 18. And how to act in Times of Suffering we have both excellent commands and examples in Scripture as Mat. 10.28 1 Pet. 2.20 1 Pet. 4.16 Luke 23.34 Acts 7.59 60. But seeing he doth so peremptorily require a general Rule to suit all Cases as well as all Persons of Mankind otherwise it could not be general which yet he will have it to be what those dictates or Revelations of the Light in every Conscience are of Jews Mahometans and Christians that can give such plain directions to all Persons in all Cases which the Scripture cannot give I desire him to tell at least some of them If he doth not it is a sign he cannot and that consequently his Argument is vain for the Light or Spirit abstractly considered without all Revelation can be no Rule Section 13. His fourteenth Argument which he calls his eighth answered Page 120. AFter he has given Thirteen Reasons and all false ones enough as I think I have sufficiently shewed he comes to that he calls his eighth reason after his former Thirteen at least Why the Scriptures cannot be the Rule under the New Covenant which is this Christ the Spiritual Leader of a Spiritual Israel writeth his Spiritual Law in the Heart as Moses the outward Israel's Leader writ the Law upon Tables of Stone This was God's Promise and the priviledge and blessing of the New Covenant that as the outward Jew had an outward Law for a directory the inward Jew should have an inward Law for his directory and as the outward Jew had an outward Priest at whose Mouth be ought to seek the Law so the Jew inward and Circumcision in Spirit has an inward and Spiritual High-Priest whose Lips preserve knowledge at whose Mouth he is to receive the Law of Life The King Ruler Judge Law-giver High-Priest Law Rule are all Spiritual so the Scriptures inform us My Kingdom said Christ is not of this World Again the Kingdom of God is within Luk. 17.20 21. I will write my Law in their Hearts They shall be all taught of me Heb. 8.10 quoting Rev. 21.3 Joel 2.28 Tit. 2.11 12. Job 32.8 Rom. 1.19 And here again he falsly quotes the words Whatever may be known of God c. Gal. 5.16 1 John 1.7 Isa 2.5 Rev. 21. 23. Gal. 6.15 16. as also he quotes unduly 1 Cor. 12.7 putting a measure of the Spirit for a manifestation of the Spirit Answ 1. If the Light within be a general Rule to Mankind then the outward Israel had it as well as the inward Israel Where is then the distinction and difference betwixt the one and the other 2. If the Rule of the inward Israel be within and the High-Priest within then as the inward Israel has no Rule to be the Rule of their Faith and Life but the Light in the Conscience so they have no High-Priest