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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	year_n	107	3	4.4301	3	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

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

Light within which all Mankind had as well as the Jews but the outward Word of Doctrine delivered by the Prophets according to Psal 147.19 He shewed his Word unto Jacob c. The which external Word he calls Sect. 1. Aliud melius adminiculum i. e. another and better help which was necessary to direct us rightly to the Creator of the World comparing it with whatever other helps God had given to Mankind without them or within them which he calls Communia illa Documenta those common Documents the which external Word he saith is Rectior certior ad ipsum Cognoscendum nota i. e. a more right and more sure Mark whereby to know him which also he calls the Rule of the Eternal verity and cap. 9. Sect. 1. l. 1. inst He calleth them Nebulones i. e. Knaves and chargeth them with Nefarious Sacriledge that divide the Word to wit the external Word from the Spirit which God hath Joyned together by an inviolable Bond and in the Title of that Chapter he calleth them Fanaticks and saith They overthrow all the Principles of Piety who despising the Scripture to wit considered as the Rule flee over to Revelation pretending to be taught by the Spirit without the external Word Where it is evident he doth not mean that whoever are taught by the outward Word are sufficiently taught without the Spirit but that whoever are taught Savingly to know God as the Creator or Christ the Redeemer they are taught of the Spirit with and by the external Word as the instrument of the Spirit which he hath given to us for a Rule of Faith and Life not that it 's the Rule to the Spirit but the Rule to us of the Spirits giving and preparing and which he perswades us to be Truth by his secret operation in us And as unfair and fallacious as W.P. hath been in wresting misapplying and abusing Calvin's words to prove that he was not of another Mind than W.P. viz. That the Scriptures is not the Rule of Faith and Life he is as unfair absurd and fallacious in his quoting other late Protestant Authors as Bish Jewel Dr. Ames Dr. Owen all which are sufficiently known by their Books to be of a contrary Mind as much as one thing can be to another The Quotations indeed taken out of those Authors prove that they did assert the necessity of the Spirits inward Operation in the Souls of Men to perswade them to believe the Truth of the Scriptures and the necessity of his Internal Illumination to give the Saving understanding of them as particularly the quotation given out of J. Calvin instit lib. 1. c. 8. who gives the Sense of all those Authors and indeed of all true Christians viz. It is necessary the same Spirit that spake by the Mouth of the Prophets should pierce into our Hearts to perswade us that they faithfully delivered that which was committed to them of God which he illustrates by the word Obsignare elsewhere in that Book that is by Sealing to the truth of them but this does not prove that this inward Obsignation of the Spirit is the Rule of Faith even in Calvin's sense or that the Scripture was not that Rule Page 36 It 's strange that W.P. should bring a proof against the Lawfulness of Swearing from the Conviction of the Light within some Jews long before Christ came to wit the Esseni that when the Scriptures of the Old Testament made it lawful to Swear in some Cases if W.P. believes that the Spirit of God did Dictate these Scriptures that the same Spirit in the Esseni should teach them that it was unlawful even while the Mosaical dispensation was yet standing But how proves he that the Esseni did think Swearing unlawful from a Conviction of the Light within them when others of the most faithful of the Jews both then and before that time did Judge Swearing Lawful and that from the declared and revealed Will of God in the Old Testament that came from the Light within in Moses and the Prophets that was in force until Christ suffered as to all the other parts of it If he will allow that the eternal Precepts of the Spirit in the Conscience command one thing to some and the quite contradictory to another surely at this rate the Light within must be a very uncertain Rule for by this Concession one may take the liberty to say his Light within commands him to Kill to Steal to commit Adultery though the same Light in another forbids it I had thought that by the Eterprecepts in the Conscience W.P. had meant those unchangeable Precepts and Laws of Justice and Temperance c which in all Ages have been the same to all Men and will ever be the same to all so long as the World lasteth But now it seems even the Precepts of Light within are not Eternal but Temporal and may be changed and one may be commanded to Swear or permitted without Sin to Swear and another forbidden But there are two things that W.P. in his instance of the Esseni that would not Swear which he quotes out of Josephus and Philo. That they shun Oaths worse than Perjury for they esteem him Condemned for a Lyer who without it is not believed should prove neither of which he hath done First That they held it Unlawful in any Case to Swear even when called before Authority for it may rather be thought it was common Swearing they were against a thing that was too ordinary among the Jews seeing the Law did allow Swearing in a Judicial way Levit. 5. that was then in force Secondly Suppose they were against all Swearing that they had this from the Light within them it is much more probable it was an erronious Opinion in them which could not proceed from the Light within otherwise it had contradicted the standing Law of God without then in force which not only allowed Swearing but commanded it upon necessary Occasions And as idle and impertinent are his Instances of Pythagoras the Scythians in King Alexander's time and Clinias all which lived some hundreds of Years before Christ came in the Flesh Now if Swearing was lawful by the Law of God among the Jews in those Ages How can we suppose it unlawful among the Gentiles since I know not one Instance can be given that the Light in any Gentile did condemn what the Light within or Law of God without in the Jews did justifie for this were to set Light against Light It 's nothing to the purpose if some in these ancient Times were against Swearing but the Question is Whither it was the Light in them that taught them so or rather whither it was not an erronious Opinion like that of not eating Flesh said to be taught also by Pythagoras was that thinks W.P. from the Light within If so How does the Light in him allow him to eat it and to take his liberty in diverse things that the Severity of Pythagoras's Doctrine did not