Jesus was Christ Acts 18. 28. He had put the Sadduces to silence Mat. 22. 3. viz. by Scripture Neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is the supream and general judge of matters of Faith   Beccanus item Gretserus Jesuitae in Colloquio Ratisbon   It is impossible for the Scripture to be judge of doubts concerning Faith and the Christian Religion   Lorichius Jesuita in fortalitio Matthew Mark Luke and John is not the Gospel The beginning of the Gospel of Christ the Son of God Mark 1. 1. The Gospel is not Scripture it was commanded to be preached but not to be written  Carranza Jesuita in colloquio The light within every man is the rule and guide and not the Scriptures and this light is infallible and will teach you all things If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. 23. The Tradition of the Church i. e. Roman is the first chief certain and infallible rule from which any thing may be known to be true and certain to be held in matters of saith and Christian Religion  Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Job 11. 12. Carranza Jesuita in prima controversia The Tradition of the Church is the very rule of faith and piety Pighius The Spirit was before the Scripture therefore we must be led by the Spirit not by the Scripture the Spirit with the Quaker is the light within All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3. 16. We say that the Church is a rule before the Scripture and more known than the Scripture   Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scriptures are the Traditions of men Holy men of God spake the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Traditions of the Church to be preferred before the Scriptures Frequent among the Papists Light without must be guided by light within Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 29. The Scripture is to be ruled by the Church not the Church by the Scriptures  I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119. 11. Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scripture is a dead Letter carnal Letter Ink and Paper The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life Joh. 6. 63. The Scripture hath no voice it cannot pass judgment viva voce  For the Word of God is quick and powerful Heb. 4. 12. Beccanus Gretserus in Colloquio Ratisbon The Scriptures are but dumb judges Pighius controversia tertia The Scriptures may be burnt The Scriptures cannot be broken John 10. 35. All the Scriptures in the common and native tongues are to be burnt by a Law  Write this for a memorial in a Book c. Exod. 17. 14.  The light within was the rule from the beginning and not the Scriptures The Scriptures were a rule so soon as they had a beginning The Fathers of the Church were expert in the Traditions of the Church from the beginning as being more effectual than the Scriptures Pighius Jesuita in Colloquio Dry cavelling Letter-mongers Scraping in the Scriptures An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18. 24. These Lutherans and Hugonots are all for the Letter  And Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures Acts 17. 2.  He that prefers the Scriptures before the light within is blind in darkness To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because they have no light in them Isa 8. 20. He that shall say the Scripture is to be believed rather than the Church is to be condemned as a Heathen and a Publican and a Stranger to Gods people Noguera lihro secundo de Ecclesia They are Idolaters that act by Scripture examples not having their rule by inspiration immediate from God Whatever things were written were written for our examples They are Hereticks and to be condemned who take the Scripture for their rule without the authority of the Church Be ye followers of us and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example  The Scriptures do not give light nor are they binding any further than they come by inspiration and are received in Spirit Let us break his bands asunder and cast his cords from us Psal 2. The Scripture not being understood is no Scripture Lorinus Jesuita in Psalmum 119. 105.  They that are under the Law shall be judged by the Law The Scripture without the authority of the Church not binding The Gospel of Matthew no more than the History of Titus Livius Surdisius Cardinalis in Chatechismo No more to be valued than an Aesops Fable Papists Prelats Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists all fly to the Scriptures To the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8. 20. Most of the Hereticks if not all take refuge in the Scriptures Gretserus Jesuita All that are unconverted that is not Quakers must be shut out of the Scriptures I have written to him the great things of my Law but they accounted them a strange thing The Scriptures are neither necessary fit nor profitable for the common people to read Harding Jesuita Petrus Lizetus Scriptures prophaned by their reading All the false Religions this day take their rise from the Scriptures The words of the Lord are pure words Psal 12. 6. Every word of God is pure Prov. 30. 5. All the Hereticks pretend to the Scriptures and will seem from thence to fetch the venom of their Heresies Hardingus Jesuita Bellarminus PART II. CHAP. XIII The Quakers deny and subvert all the Ordinances of the Gospel SECT I. THe Ordinances of God are those means in which God and his creature Man do hold and maintain a professed and mutual converse and communion wherein all men are as their duty to draw nigh to God in their express worship and acknowledgements of the divine Being and therein to expect from God his gracious presence with them and his blessing them both with spiritual temporal and eternal blessings And although God be not tied to this or that way wherein to shine upon his poor creatures by his manifold goodness yet he is far from being bound to the loose and wanton humours of men And having commanded some things to be done by us as means in order to our being so blessed and thereto annexed many great and gracious promises of being so found of us it is an affront of no mean nature to the divine Majesty and contempt of our own welfare yea an implicite denial of our dependance on him to neglect much more to deny most of all to disdain those his Ordinances and to cast reproach and scorn upon them The eternal
wisdom of the flesh and therefore it is by inspiration immediate Let such know that they must shew somewhat more then palpable errour gross ignorance and unparallel'd confidence ere they gain credit with any but those simple ones in a silly sense who believe every word A third Difference is that Apostolical illuminations and immediately inspired are not habitual they are not the more constant frame of the soul but have their fluxes not as Springs or running Rivers or Tydes which have their ebbings and flowings yet the chanel alway plentifully supplied but as bourns and flouds that sometimes rise high yet the grounds they cover for a while are sometimes and ordinarily a long time dry and no appearance remaining of those inundations The Apostles and Prophets had not such a Well and Spring of this sort as alway run or out of which they might ordinarily give advice and teachings of this kinde Whereas the Spirits most ordinary illuminations common to all Saints do in their several degrees and measures in-dwell in their souls and are as qualities adhering to their subjects their mindes and faculties being so united to them as Sugar being melted in the Wine its sweetness is constant and abiding thereby And hence it was that the Apostles though they could alway teach from the habits of light and knowledge they were blessed with yet in some cases at some times could not speak as inspired by the Holy Ghost witness Paul who in the body of his Epistle to the Corinthianâ— makes this distinction 1 Cor. 7. 6 12. to the end of the Chapter But I speak this by permission ver 6. but to the rest speak I not the Lord ver 12. Now concerning Virgins I have no â—ommandment of the Lord yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful 25. But she is happier if she so abide in my judgment and I think also that I have the Spirit of God The same Apostle gives instruction concerning the Choice of Bishops that they be such as are apt to teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies both the habit or faculty and also a promptitude and readiness to imploy it And to Timothy to be instant in season and out of season that is not only at necessary times in a constant course but occasionally and he could not so preach the Word as became it and an Evangelist but from habitual illumination Mat. 13. 52. Then said he unto them Therefore every Scribe which is instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth of his Treasure things new and old A fourth Difference the inspiration of the Spirit doth not grow and increase gradually and according to time and industry Samuel had as elegant and powerful an inspiration or revelation when a Childe as when he was old And the Apostles on the sudden at the effusion of the Spirit in that way of ministration had as eminent inspirations as ever afterward But the illuminations where with God doth usually by the efficlency of his Spirit bless his people doth ordinarily grow at least is capable of it Some to whom John writes were grown to be Fathers For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers Heb. 5. That is ye might have grown to such a degree of illumination if you had stood in the way wherein the Spirit of God doth usually bless there with as to have been able to teach others Yea the Lord Jesus Christ himself as man did increase gradually in these habitual illuminations Lake 2. 45 46 47. Jesus grew in wisdome and in stature And that it was meant of divine light or light in divine things Read the 46 47 Verses where he is said to be disputing with the Doctors and that his answers were astonishing to the Hearers Fifthly Apostolial inspirations were intended by the Spirit foâ—a divine and authoritative Obligation to the Faiâ—â— Order Life and Consciences of others and are therefore rightly placed among the Scriptures or wâ—…tten Word If any man think hinself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write are the Commandments of the Lord. But the teachings of the Spirit to the Saints as Saints are no such obligation any farther than they agree with and have their authority from the minde of God revealed in the Scripture Sixthly Apostolical teachings and inspirations were of authority to constitute a now order and polity of the Church to which the former though of divine authority in their season were to give place Yea those Doctrines and Promises so revealed to them by God and by them declared as such are binding to our faith and practice although we cannot discern any of the like import in the Scripture before written But the teachings and illuminations by the Spirit of the Saints as such do not add to or change any thing of the Doctrine or Order established by Christ and his Apostles neither are they contrary to the written Word nor in point of Doctrine beside the sense of it or beyond it To conclude The teachings of the Spirit and its Motions in the Saints which are most purely divine and immediate in ourdays are the bringing to remembrance explaning to the understanding imprinting on the affections the matter contained in the Scripture and directing them to understand providences to act in their occurent occasions suitable to his will revealed in the Scripâ—…re and moving their wills to a compliance with his out are all to be triâ—d by the Scripture and not the Scripture by them Some I believe will reply How did the Prophets and Apostles when they received immediate revelations and were inspired of God know it was no delusion and if they knew it being men as we are why may not we I dare not attempt to pry into the most secret ways of God and undertake to give you a history and description to the full of the Spirits workings on the Souls of his Prophets in conveying his will to them and satisfying their judgments and Consciences that they were the inspirations of God Yet I shall say so much of them as may satisfie any willing Reader to be informed that they had more to evince it than any have now and we have enough to convince us that they were inspired First Whoever they were that were givers forth of the Law or the Covenants in their first promulgation had the Testimonies of God for them by Gods outward Call to that as their special Office and his promise of guidance in the discharge thereof signs and wonders wrought either by God immediately or by their hands as the Apostles Jesus Christ Moses Secondly All the Prophets have a Testimony of their being inspired of God by Miracles which they wrought or by the quoting Scripture out of the Books written by them or bearing their names in the New Testament by Christ or his Apostles Thirdly For the Historical part
controversies of a Religious concern That the Teachings motions and determinations of the Spirit of God by the Scripture are more suitable to the nature and present condition of man and more certain to his knowledge than any immediate teachings which any enjoy in our days The consequence of this error Chap. VI. The Quakers take men off from reading the Scriptures and looking into them for instruction and comfort The charge proved 1. directly 2. by their affirming the light within every man alsufficient as a Teacher 3. by their affirming the Scripture to be within 4. by their affirming the Scriptures to have no light in them each of these confuted and explained in their order Chap. VII The Quakers affirm the doctrines commands promises holy examples expressed in the Scriptures as such not to be at all binding to us That this is a denying of the Scripture proved That they are guilty of the charge proved and their error confuted That we are to follow the good examples there expressed proved and the manner how that we may not sin on that hand The ill consequences of the error charged on the Quakers Chap. VIII That the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ or our selves proved and confuted in their order The wicked absurd consequences of this error Chap. IX The Quakers affirm the Scriptures to be no means whereby to resist temptation and that they are dangerous to be read The charge proved and that it is a denying of the Scriptures William Pen rebuked for asserting this falshood Chap. X. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit farther than they are beforehand experienced by those that read them Chap. XI They render the Spirit of God and the letter of the Scriptures in direct opposition each to other Chap. XII The Quakers hold it to be a sin and the sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the instructions and examples expressed by the Letter of the Scriptures except we have them by immediate revelation or inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them PART II. Chap. XIII The Quakers deny and subvert all the Ordinances of the Gospel An apologie for and account of Gospel Ordinances as such The Quakers proved to deny Gospel Ordinances in general That they deny and subvert the Gospel Ministry proved the grounds of their denying the Ministry because mediate preaching out of the Scriptures taking maintenance studying for their Sermons that none can speak the truth truly but from immediate revelation All these grounds overthrown in their order They deny a Gospel Church what Church they own and what Ministry what a Gospel Church is and to what ends Chap. XIV The Quakers deny the Ordinance of hearing the Word preached They disown Gospel Prayer In their Families and at Meals altogether Pray in publick not ministerially Deny premeditated Prayer Owne no Prayer but what is by immediate inspiration and motion They pray not in the name of Christ or any Mediator All these proved and refuted in their places The Quakers deny reading and meditating in the Scriptures An apologie for positive or sacramental Ordinances The Quakers deny all Water-Baptism What Baptism they owne The grounds on which they deny Baptism considered and refuted They deny the Lords Supper to be now an Ordinance The grounds of their denial An account of their ridiculous fancies which they call the Lords Supper Chap. XV. The Quakers deny the transactions of Christ when manifested in the flesh 1600 years since and what he doth now at the right hand of God in Heaven to have any influence into our justification and salvation The influence of Christs active and passive obedience considered and objections answered What the righteousness is that the Quakers are as they say justified by and ascribe salvation to Chap. XVI The Quakers disown and deny the Christ of God and set up a false Christ in his room and stead and attribute all that to their false Christ which is due to the true Christ These abundantly proved What Christ they owne as God and as man Those Texts of Scripture on which they chiefly build their great delusion opened largely and discharged the Quakers service Ch. XVII The Quakers are gross Idolaters Quakerism gross Idolatry Abundantly proved by their owning false Gods viz. The Light in every man the Souls of men and the Spirits of men These Charges abundantly proved and that these are no Gods proved plainly The Quakers proved to worship and that according to their own professed principles false Gods Chap. XVIII The Quakers deny the resurrection of the dead Their Evasions discovered Their Objections answered The consequences of their errour Chap. XIX The Quakers do not profess a future reward after the dissolution of the frame of soul and body but are as to that either deeply silent or imply their contempt of such a belief PART III. An Examination of William Pen's Spirit of truth c. wherein his Arguments for the Spirit of God's being in his people essentially and so teaching them immediately as is exclusive of all other teachings their infallibility as the result of such a Proposition and teachings considered and confuted and the unparallel'd vanity and folly of William Pen discovered The Doctrine of immediate inspirations considered more especially and largely the Characters given of Apostolical persons distinguishing them from all others since Christs administration Characters distinguishing the inspiration of the Apostles which gave authority divine to the Scripture from the highest illuminations of the Saints as such in our days A Key to the Quakers new coin'd Phrases and also to their meanings of such Scripture and religious phrases as are commonly used by the Orthodox The Conclusion wherein is shewed that the Quakers contemn all rational demonstration and make their experience and inward sensation the only demonstration to themselves of the principles they hold Scriptures opened in the First Part. Book Ch. Ver. Pag. Words Deut. 5 32 17 The word is nigh thee c. Job 26 13 14 74 By his Spirit he hath c. John 4 23 64 Worship the Father in c. John 14 6 97 I am the way c. Acts. 24 16 71 Conscience void of offence c. 1 Cor. 3 6 122 The Spirit of God dwelleth c 2 Thes 2 4 64 Sitteth in the Temple of c. 2 Tim. 3 15 103 And that from a Child c. 1 John 2 22 64 Antichrist that denyeth c. 1 John 2 27 62 But the anointing c. In the Second Part. Job 23 4 29 I would order my cause c. Psal 85 9 10 11. 58 Mercy and truth are not c. Jer. 5 2 14 Liveth surely they swear c. Mat. 6 11 24 Give us this day our daily c. JOHN 1 9 84 THAT WAS THE TRVE LIGHT c. Rom. 10 8 94 The word is nigh the c. Rom. 5 14 21 Nevertheless Death reigned c
to blossom and bring forth fruit for the Spirit of the Lord came upon me c. So that whatever was the Root the first branch of this degenerate Vine sprung forth in 48 And if the words immediately foregoing those I here quote signifie any thing it must be a new Administration for which the Lord was agalnst them the publick Pastors and brought night upon them that their vision ceased Then those Pastors had sometime the Vision and Presence of God with them who never preached the light within to be the only Rule the only Redeemer nor pretended to minister from immediate Inspirations but from the Scriptures by which they were directed and which were the Treasury out of which they brought forth whatever they handed as from the Lord to the people but about the year 48 or 50. that way of ministration was cried down and those principles called Quakerism by you inserted in their room and stead But let us hear another Witness and he none of the meanest Yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then about the beginning of the late troubles given forth and I can never be drawn to deny the truth and worth of that dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by a greater desolation so in following after and since by the breaking forth of a more lively dispensation And a little after p. 2. and remained fixing their mind on that former dispensation which the Lord had departed from It is hereby as plain and clear as the Sun shining at noon-day that Quakerism is a late dispensation taking its date since the beginning of the late troubles but to put all out of doubt in page 3. he saith Is not this Quakerism the lowest of all dispensations Is not this common to all mankind doth not this fall short in it self as I may say and as it hath formerly bin dispensed by young Countrey-Lads of no deep understanding or ready expression but very fit to be despised every where by the Wisdom of Man of the dispensation of the Law of Moses to the Jewes much more of the dispensation by Christ and his Apostles who would have looked for the Lord here And yet this hath the Lord chosen to gather his people by and to appear to the World in and hath gathered the life vertue and substance of all former dispensations into it c. So that this new dispensation hath swallowed up all others yea that of Christ and his Apostles and if so it is not the dispensation of Christ and his Apostles but another accounted by the Quakers more excellent and compleat and therefore is not Christianity any more then Christianity is Judaism by their own account To shut up the proof of this as owned by themselves according to the most plain Construction of their own words or consequence not to be disowned by a rational man I will give you James Naylor's doctrine Love to the lost p. 16. But yours Commands in the Letter and so of another Administration for the literal Ministration is done away in the spiritual Well then if Christianity began in a manner so vastly differing from and a time so long before Quakerism which is not that but another Administration Quakerism is no Christianity but the former hath been proved to be true therefore the latter CHAP. III. The Quakers deny the Scriptures SECT I. THAT the Quakers pretend to own the Scriptures I do not deny but I shall prove it to be one of the most naked and self-contradicted pretences that ever peep'd out into the World with such a noise and confidence if meer pretences were of sufficient Authority to command our faith that portion of Scripture might be well spared 1 Thes 5. 21. Prove all things c. if they should deny the Scriptures in so many words they canot but know it would nip their designes in the bud and in stead of promoting their principles render themselves odious but Satan is not so silly an Impostor as to spoil his Market by appearing so unseasonably and at first dash in so deformed a shape he is not ignorant of that Text. Surely in vain is the Net is spread in the sight of any Bird. I shall therefore wave pretences on both sides and bring my charge to a fair trial wherein their own Testimonies shall be their principal Judges I desire them not to accuse me of wounding their reputation seeing the stabs are given with their own daggers and the Murther is no better nor worse then felo de se as the Law phrases it but in plain English Self-Murther this I shall prove by sufficient Argument The Quakers deny the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God This Charge none of them that ever I read heard or heard of will deny and if you please to cast your eye on the instances you may take it on their own words Blasphemy for any to say the Letter is the Word of God It is the Devil that contends for the Scriptures to be the Word of God This errour is by some repuâ—ed meerly verbal and that in other words they allow the Scripture as much as this comes to I would it were true of this and all the rest of their errours which they trumpet out in the Scripture titles and dialect upon that condition I would be really content to Yeâ— and Nay it and Thee and Thou it and moreover forbid Ribands Lace and Cuffs though the most modest that were ever worn to pollute my Garments and offend their unnecessary self-denial from that time forward But they have another opinion of it or they would not call it blasphemy to be otherwise minded and we shall finde it ere I have done to be their forelorn Hope by which they attempt to make a breach of the Authority and esteem the Scripture hath justly obtained in the hearts of all serious Christians and thereby with more ease and security to enter the whole Army and gross of their delusions and therefore I shall encounter it first and in good earnest It will be necessary before I proceed to let you know what we intend by the phrase that the Scriptures are the VVord of God that you may know know what we hold and contend for though they know not what they contend against except the vain fictions of their own begetting Know therefore that we do not assert them to be the Son of God the Christ and Saviour nor the Spirit of God neither do we say that they are so self-sufficient and all-powerful as to sanctifie and enlighten savingly without the coagency efficiency or assistance of the good Spirit of the Lord to open our understandings and write them in our hearts These things are too high for them On the other hand we dare not call them a dead letter who have felt them sharper then any two-edged sword and tasted them sweeter then the honey
the single word Jew is expressed all the Jewes from first to last in every generation and under the word Gentile all the world of mankind besides Take one Text more to conclude with Isa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this VVord it is because there is no light in them not so much as the dawning of the day Both Law and Testimony are here rendred by VVord in the singular number in this one Text there is enough not only to silence this petty cavil but to pluck up both root and branch all the principles of Quakerism if they who profess them had any regard to the Authority and verity of the eternal and Almighty God and a few grains of understanding at liberty to consult it SECT III. 2. Object Many Passages in the Seriptures contain the sayings of wicked meâ— Yea some have been so irreverent and irrational as to say some part of it is the words of the devil this expression hath been frequent with them and uttered in contempt of the Scripture I answer although the Scripture make frequent mention of such Passages it is to a good and holy end and hereby Satans malice is discovered whereby in a good measure we are not ignorant of his devices and hereby we understand his snares in which our first Parents were taken and others both good and bad in after-Ages and Satan is also rendred the most wicked and hateful of all that God created But to speak close to the Objection Those speeches of wicked persons such as Jobs wife the Pharisees Jewes and Rabshakeh and the speeches of the Devil are not the Word of God or any part of holy Writ as they were uttered by them but far from it We are to consider the Scripture as partly Historical and all those passages being reported historically there is not the least stain upon the Scriptures thereby What if I make a true report of the Powder-Plot the Massacres in France Ireland c. And that to good ends and purposes â— yea if I report the blasphemous speeches by them uttered against God his Saints and the holy Scriptures am I therefore blameable as if I my self had been their Author I know what hath been said is convincing Now by the Inspiration and Guidance of the Holy Spirit these things were written and there is not only a truth but also a divine truth of History in them Object 3. That this title the Word of God is peculiar to the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ whom they call the light within the Scriptures within and here it is indeed that the shooe pinches and they would fain put off the honour and put out the light of the Scriptures because they stand in the light of their fancy Pardon me the expression for it is a truth I shall prove by the Lords assistance ere I have done But what have they to say that the Scriptures should not be the Word of God notwithstanding the Son of God is so called I will give you the best that ever I met with The first is the Authority of their Leaders who say It is so and it must be so James Parnel Christ exalted p. 4. He Christ is the VVord the Scripture is not VVhy should it be doubted after such an evidence it is unreasonable and superfluous to expect that infallible persons for so the Quakers believe all their Ministry to be should give a reason for what they affirm especially considering they are constrained to be infallible for want of reason And now seeing be can carry it so easily he goes on like an empty Cloud carried with the winde He Christ is the light the Scripture is not he is the Râ—lâ—r Guide Teacher and Judge and the Scripture is not VVhat may not a man prove in one infallible breath did he not prudently to make haste before that gale was spent VVell but who can stand before a whirl-wind one blast hath torn from the Scripture no less then six of those glorious Garments wherewith God hath cloathed it Let us hear G. F. if he do not amend the matter by a thing like an Argument He did not say John 1. 1. the Declaration was the VVord but said in his Declaration the VVord was God and he who saith the Latter is the VVord is a Deceiver and erres for the Scripture saith That in the beginning was the VVord Difference of Ministers p. 1. If you could have found where John said in his Declaration as you call it that the Scriptures are not the VVord of God a thousand to one but some or other of the Lords people would have found it out long before Quakerism was in being and have ceased to take that name in vain For the second Argument he said the VVord was God what then VVhy then the Scriptures cannot be the VVord unless they be God also I am sure I have hit on your Conclusion and the best you can make of it but let me tell you that the Scripture may be the VVord and Christ the VVord also and yet though Christ be the VVord of God the Scriptures the VVord may be quite another thing Let me give you just such another place of Scripture 1 Cor. 10. 4. They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ VVill you conclude from hence that there is no other Rock but every Rock in the VVorld must needs be Christ or that it is sinful yea Blasphemy to call any thing a Rock but Christ but it may be you will say 't is a spiritual Rock in that place And I say it was spiritual only as it was mystical or typical of Christ but in other respects it was a Rock as others are hard and stony So I say of the Word that was God it was the Word that was in the beginning that created all things shew me any such Word and I will call it God too yea I will say it is blasphemy to deny it to be so but the Scriptures which we call the Word of God were not in the beginning nor did they create any thing much less all things Pray let me ask you that are so stiffe in this point do you not take the light in John 1. 9. to be Christ and God say nay if you dare Yea and will you not say that John saith so in his Declaration I know you will and I will say so too what then Is there nothing called light or that is truly so but Christ or God the Sun Moon Day are called Light also Gen 1. 5 16. yea the disciples are called by Christ himself The Light of the World Mat. 5. 14. And must they be God too or Christ be too blame for calling them the light of the VVorld a phrase so very near that in Joh. 1. 9. Christ is called the VVay the Truth and the Life but if you should make every such expression
that it was the saying of Christ which Peter remembred you have Marks word for it or rather Gods Mark 14. 72. And Peter called to mind the VVord that Jesus said to him Jer. 23. 30. I am against the Prophets that steal my VVord every one from his Neighbour Can Christ be stoln or would God be so much offended with them for obtaining Christ as to put the black brand of theft upon it while he charges it as the highest crime to reject Christ I Sam 9. 27. Stand thou still a while that I may shew thee the VVord of God This Word was that God had chosen him King and the Prophecy of what should befal him in his return if you will needs have the VVord of God in this place to be understood of Christ you must read it with the Exposition thus Stand thou still a while and I will shew thee the Christ There are two words in the Greek which are Translated and signifie the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first is sometimes used for Christ the personal Word but the other never Heb. 6. 5. And have tasted of the good Word of God And also Eph. 6. 17. And the Sword of the Spirit which is the VVord of God A little skill in the Original would free you from this and many more mistakes What I have done here will be to such as are willing to understand good measure pressed down shaken together and running over As for those who are of a perverse mind until the Lord give them a better frame I shall not wonder if they wink out the Sun at noon-day I shall next and briefly say somewhat of the written Word which we are greatly concerned to be satisfied in to be the Word of God for that we have no other standing Word as our Testimony of Gods revealed Will but what is written or printed which is all to a like purpose the one being by an impression of the Pen the other of Stamps This the Quakers deny with the addition of many absurdities arising from so calling and owning it Where saith one of them and a Chief Readest thou in the Scriptures of a written VVord it will be no hard matter to find an Answer to this question I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were accounted as a strange thing a sharp rebuke to the Objectors Exod. 31. 18. The Ten Commands or words according to the Hebr. as I have already shewed were written by the Finger of God himself and afterward by Moses the Law of Moses is called his Writings John 5. 47. If ye believe not his Writings and if the matter and sense be the Word of God before surely when it is written which any word that ever I heard may be it is a word written or a written word which you will SECT V. Some there are who have written against the Quakers who judge that although the Quakers will not admit of this Appellation of the Scriptures yet in other terms they allow them such titles as amount to as much and that the difference is rather verbal then real but let me tell such that besides the imprudence and danger of removing the ancient Land-Marks and not holding fast the forme of sound words there is a wide difference and great shortness in the best titles they will afford them yea take them altogether from this Appellation and therefore I shall examine them and discover their defects herein First they will allow them to be of God So they affirm their own Writings and Sayings to be also of God And let not this seem small in your eyes yet shall you all one day know that the Lord hath spoken it not only in some sense but in a higher then the Scriptures at least with respect to them and the times wherein we live But this phrase to be of God is of so large an import that the silliest VVorm and the basest clod of Clay we tread on may claim a share in the Priviledge yea nothing in the whole Creation but will bear this expression sin only excepted in its obliquiry for of him are all things Rom. 11. 36. Secondly thé Scriptures of truth This is ground enough for us to deal with them by the Authority of the Scriptures but there are many other Writings that are true and if you take the Scriptures to be understood by way of Eminency the Scriptures of truth so as no other Writings extant are so absolutely and divinely true they will utterly disclaim such a sense Thirdly They are the Experiences of the Saints and what they witnessed This is with them a very common phrase though this be true of some part of the Scriptures especially the Book of Psalmes it is too narrow a title by far for the whole Body of the Scriptures and for that part of the Scriptures which expresses the Experiences of the Saints it hath somewhat more as its end then a meer witnessing or expressing how it was with them But I do not wonder that they so much delight in this phrase when I consider that they themselves restrain almost all the Concerns of Religion to their Experiences yea things Historically related that were done without them long ago and are never again to be acted on the stage of this world and things Prophetically related in the Scriptures which shall not have a being until the end of the world They experience the Birth Righteousness Sufferings Death Burial Resurrection Afcension and Exaltation of Christ They experience the downfall of Babylon the Day of Judgement Heaven Hell and all within them and not with respect to some effects impressions and similitudes of these things but really and almost if not altogether exclusively of any other meaning all of which you will finde proved in the following Discourse but this is far short and wide of owning the Scriptures to be the Word of God There are no Saints but have their Experiences both good and bad but he that should write them and affirm them to be the Word of God as they are the Experiences of the Saints will fall with a witness under that severe censure of that true and legitimate Word of God Rev 22 18 19. and Deut. 4. 2. Fifthly they call them a Declaration of the Mind of God This all things considered is the highest expression of their esteem of the Holy Scriptures and Word of God for so I will call them whether they will or no but so were some part of the Writings of the Heathen-Idolaters who knew not the true God Yea many things which they spake of as the Duty of Man and against many immoral Vices The Apostle says no less when he quotes such Passages out of such Heathen-Authors Evil communication corrupt good manners 1 Cor. 15. 33. This is found in the Comedy of Menander called Thadia Act. 17. 28. For we are also his off-spring is a
permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the Law And if they will learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for Women to speak in the Church I have known some of them to break the Bonds of this inhibition by expounding the Woman to be weakness she being called the weaker vessel and so weakness must not speak But let us hear G. F's Exposition it may be that may not be so weak Now the woman here hath a husband to ask at home this Note hath some wit in it but he proceeds and not usurp authority over the man but Christ in the male as in the female who redeems from under the Law and makes free from the Law that man may speak Now the knot is united and the womans tongue loosed beyond all question But would any man in his Wits expound this after this fashion the Woman may not speak but the Man Christ in the Woman may and what must their home be then that must be their Consciences within where they say the light Christ is And they are directed to ask their Husbands in the plural number then according to this Exposition there must be as many Christs as there are women in the world at least for every one hath a husband at home Also this home the Conscience must needs be when the women were there in the Church Take but one more though I could fill a Volume with them Ye have Moses and the Prophets within viz. This written spoken manifested in you Quod tibi nervis fieri alteri ne feceris and retro Whatever you would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them This saith Christ is the Law or Moses and the Prophets but if ye will not be admonished nor perswaded by Moses and the Prophets neither will ye be perswaded by such of us who were once dead in sin with you but are now risen to life by the Power of God which is his light and in the same sent to speak unto you from the dead SECT VI. I will conclude this Chapter with some Inferences and Conclusions that naturally flow from this errour for one errour never goes alone viz. That their writings and sayings are equal with the Scriptures and to be preferred before them First it would follow that the Scriptures both are and ever were superfluous for the light within as they pretend was alway fitted to inspire every man and woman in the same manner and to all intents and purposes as they were inspired and written Secondly upon the same ground the tenets and assertions of all the Heathen are to be received as of equal Authority with the Scriptures for although they did not pretend them for divine Inspirations or revelations yet they resulted from their light within improved much more orderly and to purpose then the Quakers do theirs whose ungrounded Pretensions to Inspirations weigh nothing in the case yea the bitter scoffs of Lucian and Julian the Apostate must be admitted into the same Orders for if it be admitted they did not vilifie and scorn and deride Christ the Scripture and Christianity according to the dictates of their Consciences it cannot be denied that they therein acted from the power within which whether it were the power of darkness or not the Quakers having no rule to judge it by but their own sentiments it is left by them undetermined And I know not hardly any worse they said of Jesus of Nazareth the Scripture and Christianity then the Quakers have done under other Names The Quakers reduce their sentiments and motions to the power within of which I will give you one taste from a chief Authorâ— but sink down from these the reasonings about things and wait to feel that which lies beneath in the free nature vertue life power and motions whereof alone is your souls salvation power and motion from within is all with them and if this be truly divine and of equal Authority with the Scriptures or accounted so the scornful and virulent invectives of some of late against many worthy Ministers of Christ and multitudes of serious Christians are not only not to be rebuked but to be reverenced as divine emanations and verities for it could be nothing but a power within with a witness that had such Productions It will absolve many of those from sin whom the Scripture speaks of as gross and heinous offenders The Apostle Paul when a persecuting Saul dealt so hardly with the Cause and precious Saints of the Lord from the Conduct of what he took to be light or the light in his Conscience Christ doth also foretel us of such who should think they did God good service in killing his servants and if meer think so â— perswasions impressions motions without a demonstrable ground may be taken for divine dictates on the one part why not on the other and by consequence the Holy Spirit must be Entituled Dux omnium malorum and every evil which is the fruit of ignorance and conceit fathered on it It will warrantize a great part of the Popish inventions and orders which had their erection on the pretended inspirations and revelations of some among them who were Monkish and cloystered Votaries whose humorous abstinence moroseness and uncommanded sanctity gained credit with the people for any thing they would affirm and the Politick Clergy made their advantage of it I remember a passage of a Romanist who comeing into England and observing the multitude of Sects here he being asked which of them came nearest to the Roman Church he replied The Quakers And if the fundamental principles of Sects as such agreeing together do most exactly express their agreement and likenesse each to other the Quakers and Papists may claim Kindred upon more demonstrable terms then any other Sects whatever SECT VII The three main principles and pillars of the Roman Absurdities are 1. A Contempt of the Scriptures as insufficient to determine in all Religious Concerns 2. And therefore a necessity of some other infallible Judge which may supply that defect 3. Immediate Revelations and divine Inspirations The first of these is so apparently and abundantly proved of both Papists and Quakers in the Parallel in the close of the 12th chapter of this Book and other places here and there that I need not agitate it in this place See chap 5. The second that the Romanists build their faith on the pretence of Infallibility is not doubted by any who are in any degree acquainted with their Writings yet I shall furnish you with a few proofs In doubtful Controversies if they were not doubtful at least to some they would be no Controversies at all we must not go to the Scriptures for satisfaction but to a lively Judge which saith he as was Moses among the Israelites the Roman Bishop is among Christians And Moses whatever he
your quarrel is not so much with the word Trinity as with the thing thereby expressed The next black mark of Antichrist which is upon you is that in 2 Thess 2. 4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Do not you advance your light within above the Man Christ Jesus whom we worship as God and who is so called in the Scriptures even that man whose being is above the visible Heavens Do not you call your light within you God eternal Omnipotent c Yea you say it is the light in the Conscience which is the Temple of God and there it doth as if it were God rule govern judge execute in contempt of the written and true Laws of the divine being I beseech you consider these things and lay them to your hearts CHAP. V. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Life or a Judge and Determiner of Religious Controversies SECT I. THat this is to deny the Scripture is obvious and plain to all who have not the beam in their eyes I have before proved them to deny its proper and most frequent appellation but if that be not sufficient to prove they deny the Scripture methinks denying their main use and employment should render them guilty of the full measure of that iniquity To little purpose will it be to call them the Scripture the Holy Scripture c. if after all a conformity to their guidance and conduct will render our belief and practice never the less prophane I shall not further perswade my Reader that to deny the Scripture to be a rule of Faith and Life c. is to deny the Scripture for if this suffice not I know nothing will carry the Question unless the Scripture should be brought in begging some boon at the Quakers hands and they proved so hard hearted as not to to grant it If this were necessary I should not fail in the proof notwithstanding For the proof of the Charge I shall first call sorth James Parnel an early and forward Quaker and much esteemed for his works sake And he also that saith the Letter is the rule and guide of the people of God is without feeding upon the husk and is ignorant of the true Light which was before the Letter was By this mans Verdict the Scripture is cast and condemned for husks a false light or but a shadow and its Observers charged with ignorance of Christ the true light for so doing But it were well if they could come off so Behold in the next Accusation a Charge of no less than the highest robbery and sacriledge And if thou lookest upon the Scripture to be for a rule and for trying thou givest that unto them which belongs unto Christ for he is the rule and leads his people and he alone searches the hearts and trys the reins and not the Scripture But if you will see a mouth full of blasphemy against the authority of the Scripture read with horrour and amazement the following words God is at liberty to speak to his people by them the Scripture if he please and where they are given by inspiration he doth so but the sting is behind in the tail of this non-such sentence and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass Then such a thing as Balaams Ass may call up our expectations of Gods teachings guidance and rebukes as well as the Scriptures for God is at liberty to teach us by an Ass and he hath put no more authority into the Scripture unless he shall please to hand them to us by renewed and immediate inspiration But I shall not rake into this Dunghill further which of its self gives forth so offensive a savour I intended to have given you upon this head the assertions of some of the Romish Writers who trample on the neck of the Scripture with the same foot only the difference betwixt them and the Quakers lies in the aim and design the Jesuits spurn at them to advance the dictates of the Pope and the Romish pretended Church above the Scriptures but the Quakers to advance the conceit within above them all Yet I care not if I give you one instance at large Omnis Judex praesertim supremus generalis ita debet dicere sententiam ut altera pars litigantium evidenter sciat se vicisse altera pars evidenter sciat se causam amisisse quantum est ex parte hujus judicis At hoc neque Scriptura Sacra neque Spiritus Sanctus loquens per Scripturam potest facere Ergo neque Sacra Scriptura nec Spiritus Sanctus loquens per Scripturam est talis judex Et minorem illustrabat his totidem verbis Stamus ego Collegae Domini adversarii in conspectu hujus judicis Bibliorum en contendimus an sit judex Controversiarum Jam ille judex debet pronunciare sententiam ut nobis constet evidenter Sumus hîc in conspectu Sacrae Scripturae Spiritus Sancti pronunciet sententiam sic dicat tu Jacobe Gretsere male sentis cecidisti causa tua Tu Jacobe Hailbrunnere vicisti Tunc ego statim transibo ad vestrum scamnum Et paulo post Adsit jam Spiritus Sanctus jam judicet jam me condemnet In English thus Every Judge especially who is supream and general ought so to give sentence that the one part of the contenders may plainly know they have overcome and the other that they have lost their cause so far as it is in the Judge But this neither the holy Scriptures nor the holy Spirit by the Scripture can do Therefore neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is such a Judge The minor he illustrates in these very words I and my Collegues and the Lords Adversaries stand before this Judge the Scriptures behold we dispute whether it be a Judge of Controversies Now this Judge ought to give sentence so as it may be evidently manifest to us We are here before the holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit let him pronounce sentence and say thus thou Jacob Gretferus believest not aright thy cause is overthrown thou Jacob Hailbrunnerus hast overcome then I will quickly go over to you And a little after Now let the Holy Ghost come now let him judge me now let him condemn me If he had not had the metaphorical word to have played with the world had not been troubled with so impertinent an Argument and language so ludicrous abusive and daring to the Holy Spirit By this you may see that if the Quakers and Jesuits agreement in the same false Witness against the Scripture will carry it our cause is gone and the Scripture must not determine religious matters But 't is a sign 't is a bad step that so
well fits the Popes Foot to mount his usurped and infallible Chair by and which both Papists and Quakers tug for as for life I remember when I was a small Lad I heard our Protestant Divines usually affirm that every man was born with a Pope in his belly which to my then childish genius seemed a very pretty phrase but such an one as I thought as was not only improbable but also impossible but the Generation I am contending against tug for the truth of it though under other terms tooth and nail And I have ceased wondring that so many so easily turn Quakers when I consider how natural it is to shake off the Doctrine and Discipline even of God himself that we alone may rule if not over the great world of all others at least over the little world our selves without controul SECT II. For convicting the Quakers of gross errour and establishing others in the truth I shall prove from the Divine Authority of the Scripture these four things First That whatsoever is by the Lord affirmed in the Holy Scripture it is our duty to believe Secondly That whatsoever is thereby or therein commanded of the Lord not being repealed by the coming of Christ it is our duty to obey Thirdly That the Holy Scriptures do in their kind determine or discover to us whether we believe and walk or practise aright or not For the first of these I shall prove from our Saviours own words O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken c. If it had not been their duty to believe according to the sayings of the Lord by the Prophets which were not immediate to the Disciples it had been neither their fault nor their folly not to believe or to have been so slow and unready to believe even those Prophecies which foretold the death and ill handling of the Messias which was so much above their understandings and so thwart to their affections Yea the innocent and compassionate Jesus would have been not a little faulty for so severely rebuking them for what was no crime at all But lest you should say these Prophecies were within them as some of you have said know first that they were ignorant of them for as yet they knew not the Scriptures And 't is said Luke 4. 27. Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Thus much may suffice to prove it our duty to believe what the Scriptures speak and that all and universally Secondly What is therein commanded we ought to obey c. Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left If it be objected this was obliging to them not to us who are not under Moses's Administration I answer first that the commands here chiefly intended were such as oblige all men in all Ages for the matter of them which is alway just and righteous Secondly the ground of their authority being the Lord commanding reaches to whatever he commands in his written Word in all Ages of the World Thirdly the Israelites had them not immediately by inspiration but by the hand of Moses either from his mouth to that Generation or by Writing and Tradition to the Generations following Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient to his Law Thirdly The holy Scriptures determine according to their kind or as much as a Writing can do whether we believe and practise aright or not I hope you are not yet resolved with the Jesuits and William Pen that because they do not express the sense contained in them viva voce or direct it to thy conscience without any other help and say thou A. art in the right thou B. art amiss therefore thou wilt not take them to be meet to determine good and evil right and wrong We may as certainly determine by words written as by words spoken and they are altogether as worthy of credit Those who come under the executive determination of Laws do find that Process in writing doth not lose its force for the decrees and sentence being put into that form All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works the words for correction here are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for conviction And herein all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets do I exercise my self to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men What can be more plain the judgment whether he did righteously with respect to God and men was passed in his conscience by the Scripture and that not by immediate inspiration only though he were an Apostle but by the written Law attained by study and serious meditation Herein I exercise my self he laboured by study and meditation therein as the Greek imports he was not an idle Quaker that must have knowledge dropt in his mouth for dig he cannot and to ask of others he scorns it But for all that I had rather be laborious rich and humble with Paul than slothful poor proud and meerly in conceit rich with them To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them G. Fox the grand Quaker will needs have Christ to be the Law and the Testimony if so I am as sure as can be that they that are saved by Christ are saved by the Law and then farewel the Gospel and the righteousness of Faith which the Apostle makes so much ado to bring people to embrace and disclaim justifying righteousness by the Law SECT III. The teachings motions and determinations of the Spirit of God by the Scripture are more sutable to the nature and present state and condition of man and more certain to his knowledge than any immediate teachings which any enjoy in our days More sutable to the present condition of man I prove it first from its being that dispensation of God which he hath put an eminent Character of mercy upon He sheweth his Word unto Jacob and his judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord. If it were not more sutable to man in his fallen state and tending to his good it would hardly by the Spirit of God been expressed as a mercy so singular so excelling his dealings with any other people and such flourishing matter for the praises of the Lord. Never did any of the Saints of old call it a carnal letter husks and by such like scornful names
sensation and feeling of the holy and blessed mind of God for we look on nothing of greater moment than to have a heart and conscience delivered from searedness and being past feeling But our feeling and sense of the truths of God is by the faith of them revealed to us in and by his word into which we desire absolutely to resolve our belief and which is the objective rule to the understanding by the senses CHAP. VI. The Quakers take men off from reading the Scripture and looking into them for instruction and comfort SECT I. IT is no matter of wonder at all that they who are so far entred in the denial and contempt of the Scripture should advance this step further it being but the natural off-spring of what I have already proved to be their Tenets And whatever else is the round of their writings and declarings all centres in putting people upon looking to the light within as the only Counsellour and Comforter And this is the meaning of our Doctrine to bring people to the everlasting Word of God in themselves Smith Catech. p. 95. Whereby they steal away their esteem and use of the Scriptures insensibly and they are shut up and lost in another Book viz. The light within before they are aware whereas if they should in so many words forbid them to read the Scriptures it would make their hearts recoil Alas that men are such Children who suspect not a design to rob them of their Gold when a Counter a trifle iâ— commended to them and imposed upon them that they may not think of or mind that which is a Treasure and by this means the Scriptures are forgotten 'till the love and esteem of them be lost by doting on the new and gay fancy of a divine and perfect light within But to the proof further But turn your ears inward to the measure of light in you which is without guile So to that of God in thee I direct thee Their Pamphlets are stuffed so full with expressions of this nature that I should but shew you their great road in citing their words neither will any of them deny what they are brought to prove But if they intended the judgment and conscience enlightned and that this ought to be minded in its place we should not condemn for such directions but when it is made a God of and by consequence an Idol and those beams of divine light shining in the Scripture excluded as if they had the body of the Sun within themselves it is the highest instance of folly and proof of taking men off from reading the Scriptures for instruction and comfort Yet take their minds in express words And by the same light do we discern and testifie against him to be in darkness and blindness and is a deceiver who putteth the letter for the light and so draw peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them seeking the living among the dead You may here discern the confidence they have in their light within that they dare oppose it to the Scripture yea and take its false witness which it bears against the Scripture and with what a black coal he marks those who put the letter i. e. the Scriptures for the light and this he construes to be a drawing peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them so that by his own way of reasoning I have authority to say that putting the light within them for the Scripture the light without them they draw peoples minds from the Scripture But the close of this sentence is no less than a murtherer of the holy Scripture seeking the living among the dead yea a strangling the Scripture with one of its own silver Cords Why seek ye the living among the dead as if the Scripture were a very Grave and Charnel house from which the living Jesus is for ever departed or which is more congruous to their sense they are no more able to minister instruction and comfort than a dead Carâ—ase rotting in the Grave Hear one more of their Trumpets sounding to the same purpose And although the holy Scripture without and the Saints practices are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them as to set them in esteem above the light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the light and Spirit of Christ within The Scriptures are as lights but they will not right them so far as to call the Scripture a light and the commendations of that Idol the light within are such as if they were true he were a stark fool who would direct his eyes to the Scripture having such an excelling light in his own bosom But lest after all these allurings they should not be understood and people should be so silly as to attempt to light their Candle at the Scripture Taper they will tell you in plain English the vanity of such an undertaking For he Christ the light within alone searches the hearts and not the Scripture Smith prim p. 12. So that to draw people from attending to the Scripture they do not only commend the light within being silent concerning the Scripture in the mean while but tell you in plain words the Scriptures are in this matter of no service at all as Parnel before cited he is the light and guide c. the Scriptures are not SECT II. A second Argument they assert the light within to be sufficient yea allsufficient This where it takes hold of the credulity will draw as hard from attending to the Scripture as the stoutest Team in England Alas it must then if this be true be but a piece of wantonness and the itching disease to read the Scriptures to which we must take a few steps though they lye open in the next room while we have enough in our own bosoms yea which we can be no farther from than from our selves to the use of which we may pass as quick as thought 't is but look inward not outward nor upward turn the ear inward and the turn is served But that this Argument may be heard John Story and some other such Chapmen vouch for its truth The light which is sufficient to guide Before cited And if thou waitest in the measure of the light of Christ within thou wilt be able to try all things Smith's prim p. 10. Quest But if I should turn to it and obey it when it reproves me for sin is there power in it to save me from sin c. Answ Yes Child all power in Heaven and Earth is in it Smith's prim p. 14. Reader canst thou withstand the astonishment wherewith a tender conscience of the true God is wont to be surprised by such an open mouth of blasphemy if thou canst I must conclude thou art acquainted with this sort of people and so custom hath made it no surprise or thou art
them That light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell me what one Scripture hath light in it If the Scriptures gives us a true description of light Ephes 5. 8. for whatsoever doth make manifest is light this is not only an errour of the first magnitude but also one of the greatest discouragements imaginable of looking into the Scriptures for instruction and comfort for if they manifest or signifie nothing to us it will be but lost labour I am apt to believe they may hold it for very Orthodox Doctrine intending thereby that there is no light in the Scriptures more than they have or may have without them and that the Scriptures can add no more to them than the boasting Galatians who were false Brethren though they seemed to be somewhat added to Paul or that there is no Scripture hath Christ the light in it he being in their opinion no where but within as a light I shall only prove that the Scripture is a light or hath light in it and so dismiss this argument O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy bill By which we are to understand the promises made to David he knew the way to Gods holy hill as well as most but his Adversaries had barred it up and therefore he prays that God would perform his promises which were not only the light of comfort to him but a guide to his faith and hope as they were truth and good and such light the Scriptures are replenished with and adorned as the Firmament with Stars and Constellations But lest they should say this is but my meaning put to the Scriptures take one Text that telleth its own meaning in so many words For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light A fifth Argument may be raised out of those dirty and disparaging Titles and Characters which they give of the Scriptures Of this you have enough before CHAP. VII The Quakers affirm the Doctrines Commands Promises holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such not at all to be binding to us SECT I. THis is a denying of the Scriptures and the authority of the God of the Scriptures at once and with a witness If any shall be furnished with so small a measure of reason as not to be able to apprehend that such an affirmation is a denying of the Scriptures I have little hope to convince them Yet I shall not leave them altogether without some Scripture evidence of the strength of this Argument Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord To say who is the Lord or what hath the Lord to do with us to command or bear rule over us is to deny the Lord and to say of the Scriptures what are they to us is as plainly to deny them What is self-denial but rejecting and denying what it would oblige us to and impose upon us to relinquish and abandon its authority To deal so by the Scriptures must needs then be a denying of them But why do I burn daylight the Argument shines bright enough in its own light and evidence The greatest expectation will be of the proving matter of Fact or that they do thus affirm and I do verily believe that few who have some tolerable opinion of the Quakers and their principles except the rank Quakers themselves have had a suspicion that they are so grosly wicked but I shall blow the dust out of their eyes by as strong a proof as their own confession And it was the râ—le unto them that gave forth the Scriptures and they spake the words as the Spirit moved so that the Spirit was before the words and was their rule that spake the words and it changes not but is the same for ever This he writes to prove that the Scriptures are not a rule and doth hereby affirm that they had been no rule to the Penmen of the Scriptures themselves had they not been moved so to take them by the Spirit and that this way of obligation is unchangeable and abides for ever He that shall read the foregoing and following words in the Piece quoted will no more doubt what I have said than that two and two make four For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the Letter and so of another ministration By the phrase in Spirit they intend not that which reaches the heart only but that which hath its original immediately from the Spirit of God in them That Naylor intends no other in this place than its being from the Spirit immediately he telleth you plainly for that it is a different ministration from that of the Letter by which words the Letter they alway intend the Scripture But more plain yet if more plain may be that is no command of God to me what he commanded to another Neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by that command which was to another not having the command to themselves I challenge â—o find an example to it E. D. A bold Challenger who shall be answered in good time but let us hear a few more first Because its only queries gathered by the Author from the letter of the Scriptures without and no message of heavenly prophecy doctrine or exhortation received by the Author from the Lord through the divine inspiration of his light and Spirit within therefore may I say it 's a very vain and Idolatrous exhortation which J. A. hath given to J. B. his little Book But further And J. A. further saith let light without be guide to light within Reply If by this exhortation J. A. means that light without should guide the true light within which shines in the hearts of the Saints then I must needs say 't is a very absurd and foolish exhortation and being spoken upon a divine account it is full of Idolatry and evil and greatly contrary to the Gospel and exhortation of Gods Ambassadours to the Saints on earth which was that they should abide in the light or anointing that was in them 1 John 2. 27. I shall say somewhat to this in its order hear one more and I have done And this is your work who at this day set up an imitation from the letter of what other men have done but have not received your command and power in Spirit from the Lord and to you it will be said who hath required these things at your hands for all the Saints have their commands in spirit but yours is in the letter But in your vain imaginations are judging you know not what and limiting the spiritual Covenant of God to the literal Not in spirit but in the old letter or tradition from men I suppose that by this time my Reader is past doubting whether they are guilty or no of this charge it must not be expected that I should take up all
able to defend our selves against the most ignorant nonsense that the meanest of your votaries can attempt us with But the God above and the Scripture without hath taught us better things I am not unwilling though I hope few need it to quote a few Scriptures that people may have them in a readiness against these untruths of the Quakers Put on the Armour of light c. the Scripture makes it day in the World but especially in and with the Saints for it makes manifest abundantly There is your defensive Arms. The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword c. There is an offensive Weapon Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench c. 17. and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God A Sword of the Spirits making and is effectual when of the Spirits managing Observe faith in the 16. ver is preferred above the Word of God in the 17. verse therefore it is not Christ the Word but the Scripture the Word for Faith is not above Christ Jesus Christ who had less need of the Scriptures than any of us all resisted Satans temptations by the Scriptures it is written it is written and what was written being opposed to Satans temptations silenced and confounded him But it seems since then he hath gotten more confidence Consider that the Quakers will allow the man Christ to leave us a perfect example CHAP. X. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit any further than they are before hand experienced by those that read And they put the Spirit of God and the Scripture in opposition SECT I. THey may as well say that hearing the word preached is to no profit neither any farther than it is experienced before hand for there is the same reason of the one as of the other But this is a strange Doctrine that at one blow cuts off both hearing and reading the matter contained in the Scriptures by men unregenerate For what I pray you have they experienced who are according to your notions stark blind and utterly without sense of the things of God Quest But if there be not another way to God c. Answ Why Child all that are faithful to God in what he makes known unto them they are not judged This is pretty charitable but hear farther the reason he gives why they that read the Scriptures profit not in the knowledge of God c. is but they read in that book notionally before they have passed the judgment experimentally Again p. 30. For people wanting the life and power of Christ in themselves they are betrayed into the words c. And such were the Scribes who were ever scraping in the Scriptures to find God and his life yet never knew him at any time nor saw his shape because they heard not his voice nor heeded not his word within themselves John 5. 37. What a vile insinuation is here of the Scriptures and the study of them as if the Scriptures were but a dunghil and every unregenerate person at least which all are with them who adore not the Light within as Christ did but the part of a Brute which scraping implies in searching the Scriptures to know the things of God For his blasphemous insinuation that God hath a shape and that they who heed his voice within themselves see it I am too sensible of the invisible Majesty of God to work my thoughts on such a horrid subject yet he dares quote John 5. 37. to countenance it which so far as it reaches it doth deny any such thing to be seen To reprove this evil Spirit of worse than errour read and understand these Scriptures wherein there is not any great difficulty Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me and ye will not come to me that ye might have life I have known more than a good many of the men of this controversie expound this Scripture as if Christ rebuked them for searching the Scripture and having such a fallacy in their opinion as to think eternal life were to be had by searching of them and instead of and which gives the absurdity of their searching the Scriptures to find the true Christ by their testimony and its testimony being so plain and clear that Jesus of Nazareth he that then talked with them was he they have read it but you will not c. as if the one was exceeding opposite to the other viz. searching the Scripture whereas the true sense is it condemns you as irrational men that you should think to have eternal life in the Scriptures and will not believe their testimony I must remember to tell you that I do not take the Scriptures to be able to give eternal life to all that have them in their houses or heads or that do barely search them and not set their hearts according to its direction to find eternal life It were ten to one if I had not said so much some or other of them would have had a fling at me as making a Christ of the Scripture By what hath been produced you may be sure there is the best profit by Gods blessing on an honest reading of the Scriptures Young Timothy was bred up from a Child in the Holy Scripture and it was the commendation of his Mother and Grand-Mother for so educating him but can you think he experienced all he read before he read it some of them are prophetical of things to come Can any of you alll experience things that never yet had an existence or being And should the Gentiles and Jews have been reproved for hearing Paul and Peter and Christ himself preach the Gospel and the Mediatour of it because they did not experience it in themselves But why should I use many words about such a cause the willing to understand may see its grossness and for those that will be ignorant means signifie little to their cure CHAP. XI The Quakers put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other SECT I. I Could produce a thousand instances of this crime against the life and being of the Scriptures committed by the Quakers as their principle and duty This wickedness is their open high-way and beaten road If the Scripture had not been the word of the Spirit of God the revelation of his mind and will whose holiness and authority had its being from God its author the frame of it agreeing to the nature and will of God we would not think it worthy the name of Scripture in that peculiar sense which it hath obtained among Christians But if once we knew it opposite and an adversary to the Spirit so far at least that it must come to a parting and they that cleave to the teachings of the Spirit must forsake being taught comforted
understand the whole written Word as written that is the body of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament Law and Gospel without distinction and by the Spirit the inward immediate teachings of the Spirit of God they are in both mistaken For it is as certain as that the following words are truth that by the Letter here is meant the Law as given forth by God from Mount Sinai and by the Spirit the Covenant of Grace especially as expressed in the New Testament under the administration of the Redeemer But if the ministration of death written and engraven on stones was glorious c. for if the ministration of condemnation be glory c. All these passages express and explain the same thing called the Letter in the 6. Verse and that it was the Law given forth by God before it was written not only as written the matter and manner of which was glorious but in terribleness insomuch that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake and it was death for any to touch the Mountain yea the Israelites were ready to dye with fear at the appearances of God on that Mount Sinai at the giving forth of the Law And as the manner of giving it forth by God so the matter of it was mortal nothing but death was written in the forehead of it going alone The Law worketh wrath That is the Law of meer Commandments And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it slew me Thus it is plain what is meant by the Letter the Law of meer Commandments as given forth on Mount Sinai That by the Spirit is to be understood the Covenant of promise in the hand of the Mediator is as certain and not of the Scripture or written Word in general for in the 6. Verse it is opposed to the Letter of the New Testament not of the Letter that is the Gospel not the Law and it is called the Spirit in three respects First As the New Testament or Covenant of promise especially in the hand of Christ promiseth and conveyeth soul-quickning grace in a good measure to sanctifie and enable and dispose the soul to keep the Laws of God Secondly As by the New Testament or Covenant life and spirit comfort and refreshment is put into the hearts of poor drooping sinners under the sense of the severity of the Law and their liableness to the punishment of it Thirdly And chiefly the intent and mind of the Spirit in the terrible dispensation of the Law of Works was by discovering mans woful estate to make the promises of the Gospel or the new Covenant sweet and welcome and to put souls on embracing the redemption through Christ So that the matter of the pure New Testament or Covenant in the hand of the Mediator was that which God especially aimed at to promote by the Letter or the meer Law of Commandments in which alone there was not the least appearance of mercy or mans welfare implied CHAP. XII The Quakers hold it is a sin and the sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the instructions and holy examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them SECT I. I Am now come to the highest round of their Ladder and I know not what one step of sin beyond it except the unpardonable one they could charge those with who walk by the light of Scripture day Samuel whose rebuke to Saul for his sin in the matter of the Amalekites was expressed in the keenest and highest terms compared his sin but to Witchcraft Iniquity and Idolatry And if this charge againstus were as true as it is that they so charge us it is high time to serve the Scriptures as Hezekiah served the Brazen Serpent And brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made for unto those days the Children of Israel did burn Incense to it and he called it Nehushtan that is Brass nothing of a Deity in it but a little piece of Brass So it were fit the Scriptures should be demolished as having nothing of divine authority stamped upon them When I have established this Charge by the mouths of two or three Witnesses it will be time to leave off pouring in more where the measure is already running over All people may search the Scriptures and see how you have been deceived by your Teachers who have caused you to seek your lost God in carnal and dead observations which they have not any Scripture for Who this lost God should be except Jesus Christ who is ascended above the visible Heavens is not to be imagined by those who are acquainted with the Quakers Tenets and Phrases as will appear more plainly where I treat on their Idolatry and if so as there is reason to believe there are two grand parts of Idolatry we are charged with in complying with the Scripture Precepts and Institutions as in Preaching Prayer Church-order Baptism Lords-supper The first is a false object of worship which all of them that ever I met with in print or otherwise will not deny that to be which is given to the man Christ Jesus who was crucified between two Thieves at Jerusalem The second is false worship for the matter which is Idolatry although it were intended to the true God as the object the sacrificing of Children was intended ultimately to the true God yet it was gross Idolatry And they have built the high places of Tophet which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom to burn their Sons and Daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart But you will say how is this charge for walking according to Scripture instructions and examples seeing he doth expressly exhort to trying by the Scriptures whether they do not thus I answer that they take not any thing in the Scripture to be obliging but what comes by immediate inspiration as the Scriptures were given to the Prophets and Apostles and whatever we do however consonant to the precepts there expressed is all contrary to the Scriptures with them as I have proved already if not by immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit If this be not clear we shall pump clear by and by And this is Babylon the mother of Harlots viz. to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles in the Scripture of the New Testament and the abomination of all uncleanness That many Children have been brought forth of flesh and blood and of the will of man that is our choice and not passive obedience to the motions of the thing within which is the birth that persecutes the son and heir And not one of them must stand though ever so seemingly glorious for the day is come and the true birth is
born the light within whose right it is to reign and his glory he will not give to another nor his praise to Graven Images If erecting and worshipping God by Graven Images be Idolatry then the Quakers do charge us with Idolatry for walking according to Scripture instructions and examples He who will take the pains to read this inspired Author thou by an evil spirit pag. 18 19 20 21 22 23. will find it his scope to prove all Idolaters that ground their worship and order on the Scripture examples and in page 17. he likens all professions among Christians this day to Nebuchadnezzar's Image and though some are more shining and glorious in appearance as the head of Gold was beyond his legs of Iron yet he calls all parts of the Image and the Scriptures the Feet of Clay they had their standing on And in pag. 16. hath these words Then searches the Scripture for words to prove their Image a lawful Son and this is the bottom and foundation of all Religions this day I am e'en tired with searching these sulphureous Veins of the Pit and Mine of Quakerism the root of all which is the deified light within If you have not enough of this smoak to satisfie you it is the bottomless Pit it rises out of I will give you two ebullitions more and then leave you satisfied or to get better senses So amongst the words you find how the Saints in some things walked and what they practised and then you strive to make that thing to your selves and to observe it and do it as near as you can and here you are found transgressors of the just Law of God who saith thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing And it follows now what difference is there in the ground betwixt you and the Pope though in the appearance there seem to be such a great space SECT II. The Quakers having thus stript the holy Scriptures of their divine beauty and authority both name and thing plucked out their very heart and strength let us resume the particular Arguments produced to prove that they deny the Scriptures and look on them at one view so shall we better discern their united testimonies and strength They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Equal their own writings and sayings with the Scriptures and prefer them before the Scriptures They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Deny the Scriptures to be a rule of faith and life or a Judge and determiner in religious controversies They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Take men off from reading the Scriptures and looking into them for instruction and comfort They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ or our selves They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Affirm the Scriptures to be no means whereby to resist temptation and that they are dangerous to be read They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit any farther than they are beforehand experienced by them that read them They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Affirm the doctrines commands promises holy examples expressed in the Scripture as such to be not at all binding to us They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Hold it is a sin the sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the instructions and holy examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate revelation as the Apostles They who do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars deny the Scriptures But the Quakers do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars therefore the Quakers deny the Scriptures If any one or all these arguments together will prove what they are brought to confirm it is proved if it be not I shall for ever dispair to prove any thing For as much as the holy Scriptures being our compass on earth and our evidence for Heaven are mostly struck at by the Prince of Darkness and grand enemies of Souls especially the two great Antichrists the Roman Bishop and Church and the new Upstarts who hold the Light within every man to be the Saviour Light Righteousness all who do not only as other erroneous or heretical persons a little eclipse or pervert the light of the Scriptures but attempt to pull it down out of the Firmament or render it a dark and useless body but as it receives Light from their Idol the one party to set up the Pope at Rome as absolute in matters of Religion The other to set up the Pope within as absolute and more than he in the little world of every individual man I shall within these following parallel lines give you a view though but in part how both these adversaries do openly spit their venom and discharge their shot against the holy Scriptures And considering how they in most things jump together in the contempt of and detracting from the Scriptures you may conclude that although the Jesuite was not the first contriver of the Quakers grand notion of the Light within to be Christ which I am verily perswaded of to be true yet that he was a promoter of the building erected on that foundation we may easily guess by his mark on so many parcels of it yet I must say that the Romanists were much more sound in their opinions of the Scriptures until about Luther's time wherein the Protestants were too hard for them at those weapons I give you the mind of the Spirit of God expressed in the middle colume the Quakers Tenets on the left and the Jesuites and Papists on the right hand I do not give the Quakers books names and pages because it would not be contained in any order and in the body of the Book they are exactly proved I give you the Jesuites names and quotations of most or all because they are not mentioned in the body of the Book The Quakers Opinions and sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Spirit of God speaking by the Scriptures The Jesuites and Papists Tenets and sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scriptures are not the rule of Faith and life Thou shalt not turn aside to the right hand or to the left viz. Gods Statutes and Judgments Deut. 5. 31 32. The Scripture is not the rule of Faith Greg. de Valentia Jesuita libro quarto analyseos   Carranza in prima controver The Scriptures are not the judg and determiner of Controversies in religious matters He mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that
the power of God vvhich is his light and in the same sent to speak unto you from the dead I know not how they can deny his words to be his gloss on 16 Luke 31. If they vvill not hear Moses and the Prophets neither vvill they be perswaded if one should rise from the dead If Christ had intended conversion or regeneration there by rising from the dead it were no rare thing to have such preachers sent to them for all the Saints of God are such as are regenerated And such preachers they had many at that time we may conclude That the resurrection spoken of by Christ was of some one in the state of the dead to have his body raised to life and with that advantage of experience to preach to them Whereby the heart is set free from corruption and made able to escape the pollutions of the World and to run the pare vvayes vvith delight vvhich is the glorious liberty of the Sons of God the resurrection from the dead I have said enough of what abundantly implies their denial of this great and fundamental truth I do not at all expect nor can I with any reason that they should in their writings in so many words deny the resurrection of the dead because so open and plain dealing in this great point would render them intollerable and shut the door against Proselytes but yet in verbal and private converse they stick not to deny the resurrection of the same bodies which ordinarily when dead are put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth I have examined many of their books that pretend to give a full account of their tenets and belief but in all of them their resurrection is no other than I have already expressed Take an Account of one or two in their systems of their doctrine of the resurrection of the dead We say that Christ is the resurrection and the life to raise up that vvhich Adam lost and to destroy him vvho deceived him viz. Adam so Christ is the resurrection unto life of body soul and spirit and so renews man c. What is this resurrection but what they call regeneration and the resurrection of the body is but in the same sense as the soul and spirit is raised which is not from a natural death or dissolution of their essential form but from their depravation and defection to a sensual and sinful disposition and their aversation from God Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead In the Chapter intituled as above he hath these words But to such busie minds who are saying how are the dead raised And with what bodies do they come I say to such the Apostles words are very suitable Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die but the mystery is sealed with the Sons of God nor can any ever know with what bodies they shall arise but who comes to the flesh of Christ and discerns his body the sight whereof in the life slays the Serpent and opens the mystery till then cursed is he that reveals that which God hath sealed and hidden from the Serpents Wisdom c. Naylor before and after quotes many Scripture Phrases which abundantly prove the resurrection of the body after dissolution or natural death but when all is done there is a mystery a sealed mystery in his meaning and a curse layd on those who reveal their tenet no wonder then that they speak not out to any other but themselves whom he dare trust with the greattest abominations in their delusions but notwithstanding his inhibition divers of them have to me acknowledged that they believe not that the body which when dead is ordinarily put into a hole in the ground and covered vvith earth and turns to dust shall ever be made alive again And that which may put you out of doubt that this is their Tenet I can prove by many Witnesses that George Whitehead one of their chief Misleaders after much importunity to speakhis mind plainly in this matter did affirm That he did not believe that his Body should rise again after its Death I never knew any of them affirm the Resurrection of the Body intending there by the Body which is such in a proper sense and common acceptation I have often discoursed them about it and when I have proposed the question so plainly that they had no room to evade by their allegories their answers have been Thou art upon the Catch we shall not answer thee Or Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Sometimes with that in Job If a Man die shall he live again and as the Beast dieth so dieth Man But when all their Arguments are answered which they think are lodged in these Scriptures their last refuge is their false interpretation of 15. Cor. 38. God giveth it a Body as it pleaseth him Who will doubt but that such who will not give a plain answer yea or nay when questioned about the Resurrection of the Dead but instead thereof produce all those Texts which to them seems to deny the Resurrection I say who will doubt that such do deny the Resurrection of the Dead before I discharge this subject I shall answer their Cavils about this point prove the truth and give some inferences from their corrupt wicked Religion and foul destroying Tenet First their Cavil from that Scripture 1 Cor 15. 50. Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God By Flesh and Blood here is to be understood Corruptible flesh and blood which is clear from the consideration of the following words neither doth corruption inherit incorruption compare this with ver 42. it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption and ver 49. and as we have born the Image of the Earth so also we shall bear the Image of the Heavenly So that it is still the same body only with the Change to spiritual and incorruptible For that in Job if a Man die shall he live again the meaning can be no more than this if Job understood himself he shall not live again in this world and in that state in which he liveth before death which is plain from what he most confidently affirms Job 19. 26 27. And though after my skin Worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my Reins be consumed within me And it is remarkable that God whom he here speaks of seeing is intended by him Christ the Redeemer who shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth verse 25. for that in Ecclesiastes 3. 19. As the one dieth so dieth the other It is expounded in the next verse all go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again But this doth not at all oppose Mans Resurrection out of his dust again But that silly evasion which is very frequent with them but God giveth
and sensible impression from the Prince himself to whose secrets he is privy And this the Scriptures teach us to believe is a right Christian state and priviledge For said the Apostle we haue the mind of Christ And the secrets of God are with them that fear him And guide me by thy counsel and bring me to thy glory What Friends but when they read this Princely flourish but will conclude not only that he hath done it neatly but hit the nail o' th' head full and spoken their minds on as right as if he had been inspir'd by them all and no doubt he shall be their White Boy for all his defects who strokes them so finely and advances them to such a singular dignity of privacy and inwardness with God that not onely his revealed will in print is known by them in a more honourable and immediate way but also his secrecs which never stooped so low as to be wrapt in letters Here we have as in a glass W. P's opinion of the immediate teachings of the Spirit to be not only above his teachings by the scripture as to have a thing whispered in the ear from the princes own mouth doth excell any narrative by a declaration but also so much above them that he who injoyes this favour which must still be no other but a Quaker heeds not so much the same in print How much just not at all For if this viva vox more liveing touch and sensible impression do not put authority into them they are but meer Ciphers And if this living touch c. as he be lieves be without or contrary to the Scripture 't is all as good and authentick It is upon my Spirit is of much more divine obligation than it is written But Mr. Pen That The Scriptures teach us to believe this is a right Christians state and priviledge is a beetle-headed and hard hearted saying The Scripture knows nothing of it nor could I ever yet have a proof that any of you all ever heard the voice of God as viva voce is to be understood and I am very well satisfied the Quakers may be mistaken if they should presume they did ever since some of them took Paul Hobsons mumbling through a trunck and a hole in the wall to be the voice of the Lord. But that this should be the state of a right Christian wo worth the dayes past for so many ages wherein among all professed Christians but now and then One were in this state and that but a little while ere Their folly appeared to all men Onely now and then the Papists had a job to do for which a viva vox was a fit pretence But you have little Charity in unchristianing all he world whose very state is not according to these Characters A man in the dark especially if his fancy be strong is full of visions which have no other being than his imagination affords them this appears to be your state and the part you are acting I shall in short consider your warrants which you annex to your rare harangue For said the Apostles we have the mind of Christ Sure he had a good part of it by tradition from the other Apostles who were Christs witnesses of what he said and did and we have it in the Scripture And the Secrets of God are with them that fear him But where did the Apostle say this 't is no matter if it was not the Apostle Paul it was the Apostle David and that as good Nay it is all one if it had been the apostle G. Fox or the apostle W. Pen whose words and writings are of propherical and apostolical authority and may be numbred among the Scriptures as well as Pauls or Davids or any other Witness your audacious lines put in a different letter to be so understood You say but the Scriptures are herein fulfilled the holy way the vulturous eye did never see and that same ravenous Spirit after knowledge our adversary must come to know judged c. It is further to be considered that the words you quote out of the Scripture you pervert and the sense also For secret you put secrets For Lord you put God For the latter you 'l say it is one and the same sense for the Lord is God and God is the Lord but here you are too bold for all that God hath more Names in Scripture than one and if the varying had nothing of significancy whâ— wisdom of God would not have so expressed himself But to put secrets for secret marrs the sense But you 'l say not the truth Yes verily the truth in this place for this text doth not say so and to say it saith and the Apostle saith what they say not is an untruth and if I greatly mistake not the words that that follow and he will shew them his Covenant are interpretative of the word secret For indeed though the matter and surface of the Covenant be obvious to every common intelligence yet the necessity worth a considerable part of the sense but especially the faith interest and well grounded comfort of it are the secrets which this one great secret the Covenant contains and this Scripture speaks of imparting to those who fear the Lord yet it excludes not external means And guide me by thy counsel What is this to oppose or exclude Gods guidence by his written or printed word Have I not written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge Sure these were then afit guide as Gods means But verily there appears such a Spirit of slumber idleness and worse in your labours as if you gloried in a careless or designed perverting the Scriptures both for sense words and form and to vindicate the sense of G. Fox by the authority of your like crimes or greater The text saith thou shalt guide me c. Which expresses his faith in Gods promises but you turn it in to a prayer guide me c. I had almost forgotten a main consideration in your flourish about immediate teachings viz. he meets it in print because in print you here insinuate the formal cause of our respects to the written word or printed to be its being in print and that there lyes the difference between you and us Not so good Mr. Pen the beam in our eye is not so big neither are we inclined to that piece of superstition for then no sooner you could get your conceits in print but immediately we must hugg them and get the second impression in our hearts without more a do for they are in print But if you would know the Truth and speak it of us the next time you have occasion it is this We value not the sense for the prints sake but the print for the sense sake and the blessings that attends that way of conveying the holy and revealed Will of God And so much to correct your vapour which may do you good if you
understood what he wrote of the Creation Hear a third that by the mouth of more than two witnesses what I have said may be confirmed John Story Short Discovery c. pag. 2. And though the holy Scripture without and the Saints practises are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them the Scripture and Saints practises as to set them in esteem above the light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the light and Spirit of Christ within from which the Scriptures were given forth and are but branches of that holy root and as it were fruits of that heavenly Tree viz. the appearances of God in the hearts of his people You may see then whence their Opinion of Divine Inspiration to be the inlet of their Notions arises and that the Scriptures are but branches growing from the same root viz. the light within That I may arm those who are willing to be defended against such a strong delâ—sion where-ever it hath once seized the belief by Scripture-light I shall take she pains to lay down some certain Characters of all the Apostles divinely inspired all their Doctrines that flowed from the Spirit of God by way of inspiration immediate contained in the Scripture and having the ame divine Authority SECT III. Characters of the Persons who were Christs Apostles and preached or wrote the Gospel by Inspiration of God which we call the Scripture or Word of God They had an immediate Mission and Call from without them by Jesus Christ to preach and declare the Gospel That Call and Commission which the Apostles had Mat. 28. 16. to the end of the Chapter was from without it was Christ who conversed with them and was the Object of their bodily eyes It was that Christ whom the women held by the feet ver 9. and his Call as his person was without them the sound of which was received by their bodily ears in those words ver 18 19. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore c. And it is a strong Argument to prove this immediate outward Call to be essential to the Apostolical Office and Power that when by Judas's fall the number was imperfect he that was chosen in his room was chosen and called by an outward Call the Spirit of God determining by a Lot Matthias to be the twelfth Apostle as Christ did the rest by his voice without them Acts 1. 24 25 verses they had a large measure of the Spirit within and Matthias in particular but that was not sufficient Yea the Apostle Paul who was born out of due time had this immediate outward Call when Christ appeared to him in that glorious and terrible form Acts 26. 13. At mid day O King I saw in the way not in the heart or I in the way saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun the light in the Quakers I am sure would be seen by any who are not bodily blind if it were such shining round about me then it could not be a light only within and them that journeyed with me if it had not been without him they could not have seen it Verse 14. I heard a Voice speaking unto me not within me I am Jesus Chap. 10. Ver. 22. Jesus of Nazareth and I am sure the light within is not of Nazareth These things are enough to prove the Apostles had all of them an outward Call or a Call from Christ without them to their Ministry and Apostleship and that the Quakers apostleship and inspired ministry is far from Apostolical They were all such as had seen and conversed with the Lord Jesus in an outward visible form to the bodily senses And that I take to be the literal sense and import of that Scripture 1 John 1. 1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life All these expressions cannot with any shew of reason be construed of a mental or spiritual converse with Christ as an object of faith but must be understood of the exercise of the bodily senses and faculties upon the visible humane nature of the Lord Jesus And if it be objected that it is said this Object was from the beginning which his humane Nature and body could not be I answer There is a communication of both Natures in the person of Christ by which the properties and concerns of the one are attributed to the other as I might give abundant proof of But I will instance in one which may be sufficient Acts 20. 28. To feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud God is not a being made up of flesh and bloud but a pure impassible Spirit yet Christ being God as well as man the bloud of his Man-hood is called the bloud of God It is observable that the Apostle John brings these proofs of his Apostleship in the front of his Epistle as being necessary for obtaining Credence to what follows To put all out of doubt consider what is expressed 1 Cor. 9 ch 1 ver Am I not an Apostle am I not free have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord Some did probably object against Pauls Apostleship because he had not seen Christ in the flesh as all the rest of the Apostles had done but he answers this Objection Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord It could not be meant of seeing him by the spiritual eye of Faith for so all the Saints have seen the Lord that is common to the weakest babe in the Faith And where did he see him but in the way to Damascus Compare the fore-cited Text with 1 Cor. 15. 8 ver And last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time He was not born a Saint or Believer out of due time for conversion will be in season to the end of the world But he was born an Apostle out of due time the Lord Jesus visibly appearing to him to that end in an extraordinay season Thus we see that to Apostleship the sight of the person of Christ as an outward visible object to the bodily sense is necessary A third distinguishing Character is they were all enabled to work Miracles such Miracles as were neither in secret for the place nor doubtful for the matter I should but waste time and paper to give instances of this the Histories of the Evangelists and Acts of the Apostles will furnish you with enough The Quakers having been conscious of the necessity of this have some of them pretended to Miracles to credit their Apostolical pretended inspirations but none can they prove Some have attempted such like performances but have failed in the undertaking so that if we will not believe them for their bold