Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	authority_n	church_n	3,675	5	4.3253	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57809	The Quakers refuge fixed upon the rock of ages, though the swelling waters dash never so violently to overturn it wherein is prov'd, that the narrative of Ralph James is an absolute lying-wonder, according to his own definition : and also, the great controversie between the people of God called Quakers, and others, about the holy spirit of God and the Scriptures, truly stated, and very briefly discoursed, as it is owned by the Quakers, and the truth cleared from the false suggestions and deceitful insinuatins of the anabaptists about the said controversie : in answer to a subtil pamphlet, lately published, intituled, The Quakers subterfuge or evasion overturned : also a few queries propounded unto Ralph James, and the author of the subterfuge &c. / by Robert Ruckhill ; to which is added another postscript in answer to some queries propounded in the said pamphlet, wherein many untruths are suggested ; but herein the truth is cleared, and the evasion and deceit of the Baptists made more fully manifest by John Whitehead.	Ruckhill, Robert.; Whitehead, John, 1630-1696.	1673 (1673)	Wing R2169; ESTC R21457	28,153	51

Light of the holy Spirit then may a whole Nation wanting the Guidance of the holy Spirit be Idolaters also Here you see the Ground and Cause of Blindness and Idolatry is their Eyes not being opened by the holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures so the Argument holds true throughout all and the aforesaid Position is clearly proved as before was promised And now oh ye Anabaptists and Independents who affirm That the Scriptures are to try and judge of the holy Spirit come let me expostulate with you a little What Assurance can you give the Quakers or what Grounds or Encouragements to believe in case the Judicial Power were in your Hands that in your Tryal of the holy Spirit by the Scriptures as he appears in the Quakers or in whomsoever your proceedings will be more equal just and clear and your selves more free from Mistakes of him then the professing Jews were when by the same Rule they would try the same holy Spirit as it appeared in an immeasurable Measure in Jesus of Nazareth Shew us I pray you wherein you are better wiser juster clearer in your Principles and Judgments then they Do you account your selves the Church of God So did they Do you say you have his Commandments and Ordinances So said they Have you Anabaptists such a high Esteem of your Baptism as to account it the Way of Life to avoid from Hell beneath The like Esteem had they of their Fleshly Circumcision as to teach that without it Men could not be saved Have you the Scriptures and do you reckon them a Competent Judge of the Spirit of God So had they and in them thought they had Eternal Life and yet for all this they knew not the Messiah of whom the Scriptures testified but having most wickedly Betrayed Apprehended and Arraigned him before the Roman Tribunal methinks I hear the Deputy and them thus implead each other in the Case of the true Messiah Pilate What Accusation bring ye against this Man Jews If he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him unto thee Pilate Deceit lurks in generals what Evil hath he done Jews He perverts the Nation forbids to pay Tribute to Cesar saying himself is Christ a King In Design doutbless to usurp the Empire and assume Cesar's Revenue Pilate Away away for Shame What nothing but Lyes and Slanders I now perceive your Envy I find no Fault in him at all ●●le release him Jews Crucifie him crucifie him Pilate Why what Evil hath he done Jews He is a Blasphemer A horrible Blasphemer and he ought to dye for it Pilate Take ye him then and Crucifie him for I find no Fault in him Jews By our Law he should be Stoned to Death but ye Romans have taken away that Power it is not lawful for us to put any man to Death Pilate Say then what is his Blasphemy Jews He is but a Carpenter's Son we know his Pedegree and yet he made himself the Son of God and the Saviour of the World and that 's horrid Blasphemy Pilate Son of God! my Heart Trembles at that word ye obdurate Wretches how appears it that he ought to dye for this Jews We have a Law and by our Law he ought to dye because he made himself the Son of God Pilate Produce your Law that I may see it Jews It is in the four and twentieth Chapter of Leviticus and the sixteenth Verse Pilate Read it verbatim Jews And he that Blasphemeth the Name of the Lord shall surely be put to Death all the Congregation shall Stone him to Death as well the Stranger as he that is born in the Land when he Blasphemeth the Name of the Lord let him be Slain And now ye Anabaptists and Independents and thou Author of the Subterfuge be ingenuous and tell the Quakers and the whole Nation truly Whether ye do believe that the Authority of the holy Spirit as he speaks in this precited Scripture did really intend the Murder of the Messiah as a Blasphemer yea or nay if nay as most certainly nay then tell us How it came to pass the Jews should so grosly mistake and misapply it and shew unto us and to all the World if you can what they wanted which might shew them the true Mind of the Lord in that place and in all other Prophesies which spake of the Messiah seeing you cannot deny but they had the Scripture and according to your deceitful way of wording it the Authority of the holy Spirit as he speaks in the Scriptures not onely read but expounded unto them every Sabbath Day If the Jews mistake arose from their Ignorance of the Authority and Mind of the holy Spirit as he spoke forth the Scriptures as sure enough it did which it could not have done had they receiv d the Spirit then behold the Jews also are found misunderstanding the Scriptures for want of the holy Spirit as well as my Opposite was and here 's one clear proof more come unlooked for of my former position viz. That a Man nay a whole Nation of Men may have the Scriptures in his or their Mother Tongue and yet be utterly ignorant of the Authority and Mind of the holy Spirit And therefore the matter standing thus ye are hereby required and obliged to produce some satisfactory and convincing Reason why the Quakers should expect more equal proceeding at your hands in the Judgment aforesaid in case you had the civil Power then our Lord Jesus Christ found at the Hands of the Jews seeing you have no more then they had to wit the Letter of the Scriptures to judge withal and that you have no more then they appears in this that you deny the holy Spirit as he appears in his Servants to be the Revealer of the Scriptures and supream judge of the Spirits and Doctrines of Men and if ye can produce no such convincing Reason as may give the Quakers reasonable acquiescence in this Concern forasmuch as they are verily perswaded that although you have the Scriptures you want the Guidance of the holy Spirit truly to discern them it lies upon you as a Work of absolute necessity ye Anabaptists and thou Author of this Subterfuge to exhibit unto the Quakers in the Sight of the whole Nation some pregnant Proof and infallible Demonstration that you are not deceitful Sophisters and cunning Jugglers in your doubtful and ambiguous Expressions and Amphibologies dispersed in sundry places of your Books and particularly in that called the Subterfuge as before is noted about the Scriptures the Spirits of Men and the holy Spirit as he speaks in the Scriptures c. which is corrupt and uncertain Language as you use it and it is apparent you do it not only of Ignorance but Wilfulness and your Deceits therein are made manifest unto all You are also oblieged and required to prove if you can positively and plainly to the Satisfaction of all Men that may doubt thereof that all Men whosoever that have the Scriptures have

believe That I own no Body of Christ but the Church and what ever I say to the contrary he would have to be obscured or else he might have had the honesty to have printed this Answer to his Second and Third Queries with the Queries thmselves for it hath been in the Hands of him or his brethren above seven Years Wherefore I shall now appeal to God and spiritually minded men to judge Whether I who did do confess Christ's Glorious heavenly Body or he who cannot discern it but hold forth a Circumscript human Body of Flesh and Bones out of every believer whilst on Earth we are Worthy to be rendered as denyers of the Body of Christ and unfit to preach the Resurrection Ascension and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ 4. Query Whether by the Words people of God thou meanest the Church of Christ in visible profession of the Gospel according to the patern of the Churches in the Apostles Dayes Answ by the words People of God I mean such as are in the new Covenant of Light in whose Heart God hath written his Laws and in whose inward Parts he hath put his Fear who know and believe Christ in them and do hear his Voice and follow him as their Head and Leader as did the true Churches in the Apostles Dayes but I do not believe every gathering of people that are got into an outward or visible Profession of the Scriptures and in Imitation have gotten into some outward things which the true Church in the Apostles Dayes practised are the People of God because I am sensible such as are Aliens in their minds from the Life of God which the Apostles and primitive Christians were in may get their Words and imitate them in Outward Forms and Practises whilst they deny the Power of Godliness which they lived in 5th Query Whether the People called Quakers are gathered constituted and governed in Church-Capacity according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Answ Yea for we are gathered in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is present with us as he promised to be alwayes to the end of the World and we are governed by him who is given to be the Head over all Things to the Church of which we are Members and have Elders ordained in every Country who take the Over-sight of the Flock of God not by Constraint but willngly and in the Power of the Lord Jesus receives True Believers and rejects Hereticks who have refused Admonition according to the Apostle's Doctrine who was an able Minister not of the Letter but of the Spirit And notwithstanding Christ's bidding the other Apostles before his Ascension Go Teach and Baptize all Nations said He was not sent to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel and how ye who are so much for Water-Baptism come to take your selves concerned to Baptize with Water by Virtue of that Commission given before Christ's Ascension ye may do well to manifest since the Apostle Paul did not so take himself concerned in it but according to that Commission which he received from the Lord who appeared unto him delivering him from the People and the Gentiles he laboured to open the blind Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from Satan's power to God Acts 16 17 18. as we do according to the Call and Precepts given us of the Lord who is also manifest in us by whom we are taught not to run because others were sent nor to act without Power from on High but to go as we are led and commanded by the Lord and act in the Motion of his Power whereby we have been made a Sweet Savour to God in them that believe and in them that perish though in one the Savour of Life unto Life and in the other the Savour of Death unto Death and God hath so blessed our Labour that many Thousands are brought to the Knowledge of the Son of God and to Unity in the Faith which gives Victory over the World wherein they are growing to a perfect Man and to the Measure Fulness and Stature of Christ Though we thank God we have Baptized none of them in Water but have instructed them to the blessed Appearing of the Lord. Jesus Christ who Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire having his Fan in his Hand throughly to purge the Floor and those which have waited for the Appearing of the Lord and received him to be their Leader Way and Baptizer are baptized with one Spirit into that one Body which is his Church of which they are Living Members fitly joyned together by Christ who is their Head who gives them Life and sills them with the Virtue of his Love wherein they Edisie one another So Christ is the Door into the Sheep-sold whereat all that are accepted by him do enter And this way of gathering constituting and governing the Church is according to the Doctrine of Christ his Evangelists and Apostles as appeareth at large in their Writings And although thou in thy 6th Query sayst doubtless it is not because we are not gathered according to thy Apprehension of some particular Verses quoted by thee I must tell thee thou therein takest that granted which we never gave thee and therefore we need shew no Authority for the Abrogating that Order of Gathering Constituting and Governing the Church of Christ which was in the Apostles dayes since our Practice doth more establish it in the Substantial Part then yours who have visible Doors whereat to enter as your Water-Baptism instead of Christ's Baptism and other Ways whereat to climb up like Thieves and Robbers Joh. 1. which steal the Saints words and imitate their Practices as in all Ages False Prophets have imitated the True and False Worshippers have imitated the True Worshippers as ye do thinking because Christ said before his Ascension Go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit therefore Thomas Grantham and Ralph James must go Teach and Baptize in Water though they have neither seen the Lord Jesus Christ nor heard him speak Nor will they believe in the holy Spirit as the principal Guide but have the Boldness to try its Doctrine or Teaching in these dayes by their own understanding of the Scriptures which ever leads men to speak Evil of and condemn those things which they cannot understand to be according to Scriptures though they be never so consonant to the Mind of the Spirit which they received which gave forth the Scriptures And therefore laying aside all vain Jangling we would perswade you and all men to learn of Christ Jesus the Second Man that is a Quickening Spirit by whom ye are reproved when ye do Evil that ye may know his Mind in your selves and do it and then ye may better understand it as declared by others Although thy Seventh Anti-Query is in part answered by what is before written yet I shall now manifest That Richard Anderson neither was conversant

THE QUAKERS REFUGE Fixed upon the Rock of Ages Though the Swelling Waters Dash never so Violently to Overturn it Wherein is prov'd that the Narrative of Ralph James is an absolute Lying-Wonder according to his own Definition And also The great Controversie between the People of God called Quakers and others about the holy Spirit of God and the Scriptures truly stated and very briefly discoursed as it is owned by the Quakers And the Truth Cleared from the False Suggestions and Deceitful Insinuations of the Anabaptists about the said Controversie ●n Answer to a subtil Pamphlet lately published Intituled The Quakers Subterfuge or Evasion Overturned Also A few Queries propounded unto Ralph James and the Author of the Subterfuge c. By ROBERT RUCKHILL To which is added another Postscript in Answer to some Queries propounded in the said Pamphlet wherein many Untruths are suggested but herein the Truth is cleared and the Evasion and Deceit of the Baptists made more fully manifest By JOHN WHITEHEAD The Lip of Truth shall be Established forever but a Lying Tongue is but for a Moment Prov. 12.19 Righteous Man hateth Lying Words but the Wicked causeth Slander and Shame Prov. 13.5 Printed in the Year 1673. Honest Impartial Reader WHen first the * There being about Nine Years between the Generation and the Birth Monstrous Production of the Anabaptists Lying-Wonder extant in their Narrative and prefixed Letters had so Vigorously alarum'd the Nation I was under some exercise of Mind as having the Ground and Design of the Anabaptists opened in me in that their Undertaking which I feared could not be so obvious to that Southern Friend who was first engag'd in the Detection of their Slanders by reason of his remote Residence from those Parts where those things were pretended to be acted But when I had seen the first and second Books of T. R. where their Deceits were so evidently discovered and so signally detected although their Ground was not so much perceived I did acquiesce in a patient Hope and Expectation of a Succesful Issue on the Truth 's behalf Afterwards came forth another Book put forth as I conceive by a Clandestine Author intituled The Quakers Subterfuge or Evasion Overturned c. whereat I was much stirred in mind to observe somewhat concerning the said Book but was still stay'd by a certain Expectation shortly to see the Answer by that Friend who was already engaged in that Service But being at Lincoln the 25th of December last where I expected to have sound the said Answer I not onely understood that the Book was unanswered but much contrary to my Expectation the Work it self brought to my Hands which I accepted not without Fear and Trembling wherefore my Soul humbly implores the Assistance of the Eternal Wisdom without which I am both unable and unfit to do Him any Service And now Reader sith the all-disposing Providence has thus order'd things I shall candidly address my self to communicate unto thee and to the whole Nation if they please what I have observ'd to be the original true Ground and Cause why the Anabaptists at this Season should produce their Lying-Wonder which the Author in hand affirms was brought ONLY to oppose the spirit of Falshood in Richard Anderson when as about Nine Years by this Authors Confession have expir'd since the Matter contain'd in their Narrative was acted see their Subterfuge p. 9 13. Surely if the Anabaptists had been as slow in the cure of Leprosies Pains Exstasies c. as they have been in opposing R. A's false spirit what had become of him his Leprous Child Wife and Family or of Mary Brown long ere this day But I proceed About the 26th day of the 6th Moneth 1669. was the Dispute at Wrawby mention'd by the Anabaptists and upon the last day of the same Moneth William Smith of Eltham late a Brother of the Baptists but now a faithful Follower of the Light of Christ that Light of the World gave forth a Writing thus dedicated To all such as deny that the holy Spirit ought to be Supream Judge in Man and in Matters of Faith above the holy Scriptures This was directed in particular to Ralph James and John Kirk by of Brigg but they have not answer'd it to this day though J. K. did promise to answer it At last after some Provocation used J. K. writes a reviling Letter about 17 Months after while R. James is imply'd to bring forth into the World this Monstrous Birth the Narrative which had lain in the dark womb of Oblivion about 9. Years thus after the mode of Antichrist to establish their false Doctrines by Signs and Lying Wonders at one fatal Blow to assassinate the Innocent Name Cause of the Quakers forever In this seeming Distress the Quakers flee to the Name of the Lord their strong Tower there to repose in Safety until a just Defence might advance in their Vindication which no sooner appears under the hand of T. R. but presently advances another Opposer of God's Everlasting Truth charges the Quakers in their chiefest Strength intending by fine Force to overturn their Subterfuge and render them obnoxious to the Pursuit and Chase at least of every insulting Enemy that none might forever hereafter dare to assert the Dignity and Power of the Spirit of God above the Writings of Men lest their Children should be smitten with Leprosie and themselves with intolerable Pains This R●ader is the Ground and Design as I perceive of the Anabaptists Envy and Wrath against an Innocent People and in all probability had it not been for the Writing aforesaid which they have not been able to answer and are therefore vex'd and gaul'd the Matter of their Narrative and Lying-Wonder might have rotted in the Grave forever without all Hope of a Resurrection whereas now after the Second Death thereof it must unburied stink above Ground to the Shame and Reproach of the Anabaptists in all succeeding Generations For the Truth on the Quakers behalf and the Anabaptists Deceits are so Perspicuous in two Books written by T. R. intituled The Anabaptists Lying-Wonder and The Anabaptists Preacher Unmask'd unto the serious Perusal whereof I refer the Reader for ample Satisfaction that its verily hoped their Envy against us in this Particular will not survive another Paroxism Le ts therefore leave it on its Death-Bed a while and examine what considerable Supplies the Author under Consideration hath brought to their Dying Cause in his last Expedition From Adlingfleet in Merceland the 8th day of the 11th Moneth 1672. Robert Ruckhill THE Quakers Refuge Fixed upon the Rock of Ages c. FOrasmuch as the Matter of Fact with its Circumstances contain'd in the two first Books of the Anabaptists with the Additions and also so much as concerns their Cross Examination of their own Member Richard Anderson extant in this Book now under search called The Quakers Subterfuge c. hath been sufficienly answer'd by my Friend T. R. I shall not need