Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	spirit_n	word_n	write_a	2,319	5	11.0747	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27001	The Quakers catechism, or, The Quakers questioned, their questions answered, and both published for the sake of those of them that have not yet sinned unto death and of those ungrounded novices that are most in danger of their seduction / by R[i]chard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing B1363; ESTC R28362	39,590	58

in it Though I look for no thanks from you for my charitable desires yet you shall have them whether you will or not HAving been at this labour at your command to answer your Queries may I not in reason expect that you should answer some of mine which I do but request and not command But I desire of you that you will not put me by with Gumblestool Rhetorick in stead of Answers but speak considerately truly and to the Point in question I mean first that you will answer all those Queries which I have before put to you among my Answers to yours and then that you will answer also these twenty Queries following Qu. 1. Are they not the very same Ministers which you rail at and which all the Drunkards Swearers Whoremongers and sensuall wretches in the Countrey do hate and rail at as well as you Are you not then on their side and possest with the same Spirit They despise the Preachers of the Gospel and would have them down and so would you even the very fame men as they would When they had opportunity they raged against them with Swords and so do you with filthy tongues Would not all the covetous malignant ungodly Enemies of Piety have Tythes down as well as you What think you I can witnesse it of most of my acquaintance that are such Moreover were they not the same sort of Ministers which the late Bishops silenced suspended and otherwise troubled and which you revile at Is it not then the same Spirit by which you and all these were or are acted Consider and judge Qu. 2. Whether it be not the same Spirit which moveth in you and in the Papists When the Papists say that we are no true Ministers of Christ but deceivers and teach the Divination of our own brain and delude souls and so say you The Papists say Our Congregations are no true Churches who own us as their Pastors and so say the Quakers The Papists know that the great thing that must be done before they can feduce the people among us is first to make them despise and reject their Teachers and therefore they bend all their wits and endeavours to vilifie them and draw the hearts of the people from them And so do the Quakers The Papists main errour lieth in the contempt of the Scriptures They say they will not take it for the Word of God but on the authority of the Church and that it is but part of his word The Quakers say It is not the Word of God The Papists say It is but a dead Letter and so do the Quakers The Papists say It is not fit to be the Judge of Controversies and so say the Quakers The Papists preferre the Vulgar Translation before the same words in Hebrew and Greek which the Spirit did indite the Scriptures in and so do the Quakers in English Could the Papists but get down the Regulating Authority of Scripture they would think they had won the Field For they will not endure that all Spirits should be tried by the written word no more will the Quakers The Papists maintain mans Free-will hath power before conversion to repent and believe and turn to God and that it is not only the fruit of the Spirit in the Elect and so do the Quakers The Papists tell men of the sufficiency of the common-light that is within them and so do the Quakers The Papists say that a man may be perfect without sin in this life and may fulfill all Gods Commandments and so do the Quakers The Papists make this their perfection to lie in casting off worldly callings Emploiments Relations after the flesh and propriety as their Nuns Monks and Hermites do yea and in casting off their old names as their Pope doth when he is made Pope And so do many of the Quakers and much worse as I have seen in Papers under their own hands The Papists place their Righteousnesse in their own works and perfection while they slieght the imputed Righteousnesse of Christ and so do the Quakers The Papists place this Righteousnesse of their own Pharisaically in externals and things that have a shew of wisedom and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh as Touch not taste not handle not which all are to perish with the using Col. 2. 18 20 23. so do the Quakers in stead of preaching the Righteousnesse of Christ call out for a formal Righteousnesse and perfection of our own consisting in such things as these following to wit that we wear no Points nor Cuffs nor Lace nor any such like that we preach on the lower places and not as Ezra did in a Pulpit that we use not an hourglasse to discern how the time passeth whether a Clock or Watch be as dangerous I know not That we say Thou and not You to him we speak to when the word that Christ used signifieth You as well as Thou That we call not men Masters or women Mistresses when the Scripture frequently useth and alloweth it and much more though Christ forbid us to have any Sect-Masters or Masters of our Faiths In such like as these doth the Quakers Righteousnesse lie while they are ignorant of Christs Righteousnesse And just is it with God that they who set up their own righteousnesse against Christs should be given up to that hellish delusion as to take the most Satanical slanders lies heresies and railings to be their Righteousnesse Were it not tedious and not much necessary I could shew in many more particulars how the Papists and Quakets do so conspire that we may well know whence their doctrines and delusions came Qu. 3. Whether there were ever greater Monsters of Ingratitude upon the face of the earth then these are who set their hearts and tongues against those Ministers of Christ that lay out themselves for the saving of souls through all the scorns and opposition of all sorts of wicked men with whom these wretches joyn against them Yea and make their very study and labour their crime when it were much easier for us to preach without study and that I hope with somewhat more truth sense and order then they that so boast of the Spirit Qu. 4. Were not those faithful Servants of God that suffered Martyrdom under Heathen and Arian Persecutors just such Ministers as these men do now vilifie or wherein was the difference And do not these wretches justifie their murderers Qu. 5. Are not the Ministers whom these men despise of the same calling and practice as those were that suffered death in the Flames in Q. Maries daies Such as Bradford Hooper Latimer Ridly Cranmer Saunders Philpot and the rest Were not these called Masters Did they not preach in Pulpits and take Tythes or money for preaching as their due maintenance and the other things that the Quakers accuse us for And do not these men justifie the bloudy opposers of them and condemn Gods Saints afresh Qu. 6.

One is the Pope and his Clergy and who more erroneous The other is your selves even distracted with errour The Pope venteth abundance of falshoods in doctrine and corruptions in discipline and worship and with all these errors in his hands protesteth he is infallible The Quakers all that yet have wrote to me or spoke to me pour out the greatest abundance of most impudent Lies and spue their filthy railings in the faces of almost all they come near so that I know not whether ever the Sun saw a more hardened shamelesse abominable Generation then they with their brethren the Ranters are and yet with all this filth upon their lips they confidently professe that they are infallible and without sin You may well excuse us that we be not hasty in beleeving you till we see more reason for it Your 13th Qu. is What is Hels month that the wicked go in at c. I answer 1. You are liker to know ere long then I If a miracle of grace save you not you 'le be better able to answer this Query then yet your unbelief will give you leave 2. It sufficeth me to know that Hell is a state of endlesse misery where such as you shall everlastingly bear the effects of Gods wrath and justice with the devils and his Angels that now seduce you if timely recovery prevent it not Your 14th Qu. is Whether the Bible be the Word of God and Matthew Mark Luke and John be the Gospel and whether there were any Gospel before them and whether they be the light To which I answer 1. Only Jesus Christ is the co-essentiall co-eternal Word of the Father being one with the Father 2. But the holy Scriptures are the temporal expressed Word that is the signs of Gods minde to man so that Christ and the Scriptures are nor called the Word in the same sense no more then is the Word of a mans minde and the word of his mouth or pen This signifying word was preached before it was written and then was the Gospel but it was written after it was so preached at first that it might be a standing Rule and might be kept intire and sure to the Church to the worlds end For the bare memories of men would not have kept them for us with such certainty as they have been kept in Scripture and delivered unto us This Word therefore is the light but not as Christ is the light or as the Spirit is the light for there are many lights that must concurre to give us light It is a wise Question of him that shall ask Whether the light by which a man sees be the visive faculty of his eyes or the light of a Candle or the light in the air or the Sun Why it may be all these There must be 1. A Sun 2. A light from that Sun in the air 3. An inward light in the eyes 4. And that outward received by the inward before you can see So God in Christ is the Sun Mans Reason is the Eye The Gospel or Word of God is the external Light flowing to us from the Sun The Spirit closeth these two together even the Gospel and our Reason and by its powerful work in that closure breedeth a special illumination in the soul which the Word alone could not produce I shall adde some Queries to you 1. Do you beleeve the Scriptures to be true or not If you do then you must beleeve what they say of themselves But they call themselves the Word of God Mar. 7. 13. Rom. 10. 8. 2 Cor. 2. 17. 4. 2. 1 Thes. 4. 15. 1 Pet. 1. 25. And often they are called the Laws of God his Testimonies his Statutes his Precepts his Promises Gospel Covenants c. All Scripture is written by divine Inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 16. The word of Prophecy is a sure Word 2 Pet. 1. 19. 2. Will you give us leave to smell the Pope in your endeavours to disgrace the Scriptures though your own Noses be stopt For we have been used to deal with him at this weapon and know that this is the main point of his New Religion Your 15th Qu. is Whether we own Revelations or no Ans. I own all divine Revelations and disown all diabolicall ones so farre as I know them I own all those blessed Revelations contained in the holy Scriptures for they were infallibly sealed by multitudes of uncontrolled miracles and a spirit of holinesse I believe that the Scriptures or Laws of Christ being finished and sealed we must hold these till the coming of Christ 1 Tim. 6. 13 14. and that Christ will be with the Preachers of this same doctrine to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20 21. and that these are able to make men wise to salvation without any more additions and therefore no more is to be expected But yet I beleeve 1. That God hath not tied himself from revealing particular matters in subservierty to Scripture extraordinarily as divers murders have been revealed and the like matters of fact 2. And I beleeve that all true Christians have the illuminating sanctifying Spirit of Christ to help them to know all the meaning of the Scripture which is of flat necessity to salvation and more according to their several measures of the Spirit with other helps Your 16. Qu. is about Singing Davids Psalms To which I say Till you have considered what is already written on that Question by Mr Cotton and Mr Foard I know not why I should adde any more If all Scripture be written for our use and learning why may not we speak to God in the words of Davids Psalms as well as any other Scripture Tell me if you can And further Qu. 2. They being used by the Church till the Apostles times where do you finde that they did ever forbid or abolish that use Qu. 3. Whether is it more lawful for us to speak Gods praises in the words of holy Scripture and particularly of Davids Psalms or for you to rake together all the threatnings and sharp reproofs in Scripture to serve your turn to rail and slander me with Your 17. Qu. is What 's the soul of man which the Ministers of the Gospel are to watch for as they that must give an account to God and what is it that captivates the soul and what death is it that hath passed over all c. and what is the Serpents head that must be bruised Ans. Seeing I am fallen under your Catechizing I will readily obey 1. The soul is that spiritual substance which causeth by its lower power your life growth and nourishment by its next power your feeling and by its highest power proper to man of all inferiour Creatures your Reasoning Intellective knowledge and rationall willing and affections which together with the Body constituteth the whole man Supposing that you look not for a Definition because you so abhorre Logick I think this in brief may serve your turns 2. The whole man is oft called the

almost only of This Inward Light In which I perceived 1. That you falsly intimate that we deny the necessity of an inward light when as we maintain that the external light of the Word alone is not sufficient without the inward light of the Spirit 2. You there intimate to us a supposed sufficiency of the inward light that every man in the world hath Concerning which I shall say more anon and now only demand of you 1. Whether you mean it is sufficient to leave men without excuse That we maintain as well as you or is every mans light sufficient to his salvation If so Q. 2. Was it sufficient before Christ preached the Gospel and sent his Apostles Or is it now sufficient to all that never heard the Gospel If so Is not the Gospel a vain and needlesse thing or are you Christians that dare so affirm Q. 3. If the world have sufficient light what need they your teaching or discourse or conviction Q. 4. If all have sufficient light within them what need there any converting grace Q. 5. Then why did Christ send Paul to open mens eyes and to turn them from darknesse to light if they had sufficient light before Act. 26. 18. Q 6. I pray you do not disdain to tell me when you have rub'd your eyes if all men have sufficient light within them Why you got up into the Judgement seat and pronounced me so oft to be in darknesse and to be void of the light and to have none of the Spirit If all have it why may not I have it But let me tell you further in your ear that we that you so frantickly bawl against have read Bellarmine and other Papists so oft that we cannot be ignorant who are your Teachers though your selves are ignorant We know how earnestly the Jesuites would perswade us that there is a light in every mans conscience which if he improve and husband well God is bound to give such additions as shall make it become saving and that by the good use of natural light men may certainly get supernatural and that it is in mens own power what light soever they have to improve it to salvation Your 11th Query is Whether we have seen Gods face Ans. Whether these be Learning or Teaching or quarrelling or doting Questions I leave to your consideration but what Call you had to propound them to such Serpents Dogs and Children of the devil as you call us I know not But however I 'le answer you truly 1. By the eye of reason I have seen that there is a God and that he is infinite incomprehensible most great and most good c. 2. The same I have seen more cleerly by the eyes of faith 3. But I never saw God by the eye of flesh for none can so see God and live Nor hath any man seen God at any time saving the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of his Father he hath declared him 4. Nor have I seen him in glory intuitively or as the glorified in heaven do If you say you have seen more I shall not be very forward to beleeve you till I see better fruits of it I also therefore demand of you Whether he that hath seen God do not abhor himself as Iob did in dust and ashes and whether the true knowledge of God do not ever abase the soul and make a man very mean in his own eyes And then is it likely that ever those men had the true knowledge of God who make it their businesse to exalt themselves as having the Spirit and beign perfect without sin and to revile and bedung other men with their reproaches as being all the Children of the devil and of darknesse that be not of their strain and rave not as they do The Pharisee that thanked God he was not as other men nor as the Publicane spoke humbly and modestly in comparison of you and yet was he counted a proud self-justifier If ever you come to the least saving sight of God it will mightily change the proud strain of your spirits and make you abhor the thoughts of your present evil waies Your 12. Query is Whether we have the same infallible Spirit as the holy men of God had that spoke forth the Scriptures Ans. Why must you know this Are all Dogs and Serpents with you that have not that Infallible Spirit But we hear the croakings of your Papist guides in that word Infallible that's the pillar of their Kingdom and the master-point of their New Religion That their Church is infallible For denying which Knot the Jesuite against Chillingworth and a late ●otable gawdy Orator S. W. against Dr Hammond and others of them would fain perswade us that we subvert Christianity and are little better then Infidels because we are not Infallible But I will answer you and your Masters together in a word 1. The Prophets and Apostles had infallible Inspirations of new matters of divine verity not before revealed because they were to be Gods penmen and Messengers of such New Revelations I have none such that I know of 2. The Prophets and Apostles were guided infallibly in the manner as well as the matter so that every word that they wrote to the Churches was infallibly true I have no such Infallibility nor your Grandfather the Pope neither He may erre while he pretendeth to the greatest Infallibility in deciding Controversies 3. What man soever he be in the world that beleeves any Truth he doth infallibly believe it For he that is in the right is not deceived so far and he that is not mistaken is so farre infallible which is no more then non fallitur 4. But if by Infallibility you should mean the clearnesse and subjective Certainty as distinct from the objective and the bare truth of our conceptions then I say that 's another thing then Infallibility and not to be so called and of that Certainty men have different degrees All true Christians are certain of their Fundamentals yet sometime with some doubting so that they may finde cause to say with the Apostles Lord Increase our Faith or We beleeve help thou our unbelief But in lesser controverted Points which Salvation dependeth not on the best man on earth may erre much more be uncertain So that in a word Every Church in sensu composite while a Church is infallible in the essentials of Christianity and so is every true Christian And also they know infallibly every other truth that indeed they know because Truth is Truth whether they know it or not and when they do know it they are not deceived But in many things we all erre because we know but in part and so farre are deceived Well I say still Fair fall the honest humble Christian that will confesse with Paul that we know but in part For I shall never like pretenders to un-erring Infallibility more I know but two such pretenders and they are both the most abominable deceivers and deceived