judging thy self consequently enjoying the other but that thou art not in any wise for howbeit by thy own confession there Sect. 16. Capellus grants thee that the full enjoyment of the saving Doctrine of the Scripture is yet to be had or obtained by such as look chiefly after that let the Letter be never so corrupted yet thou art at no hand content with this but piteously pinest after something else which is not this saving Doctrine of the Scripture nor the Doctrine in it but another thing from which this contained Doctrine is distinguished and that is the Scripture it self which thou judged thou hast not notwithstanding thou hast its Doctrine unless thou have the Letter or Writing also and that so exactly and entire without alteration and ablation that not a tittle of it nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be found lacking these are thy words Sect. 17. Nor is it enough to satisfie us that the Doctrines mentioned are preserved entire every tittle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture in that Writing see Sect. 13 in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we have must come under our care and consideration and to say the truth as thou putest a difference between the Scriptures of Truth and the Truth written of in the Scriptures sometimes as I ever do so it is the Scriptures of the Truth more then the Truth it self of which they are the Scriptures that thou mostly scrawlest for in those thy Scriptures for them which yet as is said above are not more for in shews and words then in deed and in truth they are against them nor is it the most substantial parts of that bare Letter that thou wranglest for so much as for the more accidental parts thereof viz. the points trivial tittles and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then it is concluded hitherto on both hands First by thy self as well as â—ly by me that the Scripture and its Doctrine are not one but two several businesses whereof the First viz. the Scriptures are the subject matter so contended about between thee and the Quakers As for T.D. he draws his neck out of the Coller here and after he had engaged me to discourse it publickly with him whether the Scripture were the Word of God or not and at the dispute desiring to know what I held about it when he heard how I on the Quakers behalf declared what we meant by the Scriptures viz. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Writing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. the Letter and that we onely deny that Denomination of the Word of God to that not to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word or Doctrine or Truth of God written therein he gave us the Question without more ado saying thus You cannot believe us to be so simple surely as to affirm the Scriptures in that sense the Word of God but we mean the matter contained in the writing whether that be our Rule of Faith and Life P. 26. of his first Pamp. which subject matter or Doctrine and Truth contained in the Writing and testified to in it which was before ever the Writing was and is as to the substance of it eternally and unchangeably the same Christ the Word the Wisdom Righteousnesse of God the War Truth Life both yeaster-day to day and for ever we never denyed to be the Word and Rule and Foundation and what ever else I.O. and the whole School of our English Scribes do ignorantly and falsly say the Scripture is though we are mistaken by most as denying the holy Matter it Treats of so to be but the matter is not the Writing or the Scripture but that which is onely written oâ— in it but the outward written Letter or Scripture much more the Book in which the writing is which I.O. is so busy for and for every point written title and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this not onely we deny to be the Word of God but all our rash reproachers of us as denying the Scripture to be the Word when we come to their faces are fain to fall in and deny the same with us also so Christopher Fowler after a long hot Publick Dispute at Reading with E.B. and my self upon this question Whether the Scripture be the Word of God or no in which he contended a great while together it was at last confessed openly and plainly before all the People and Magistrates there present that the Scripture or Writing and I know not what else is properly and truly the Scripture but the Writing is not the Word of God after which concession of C.F. they would hear no longer dispute but the Quakers were driven out of doors But I.O. standeth stifly to it that the Word of God is the Proper Name of the Scripture and even of every tittle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it against the Quakers for that the Truth and Doctrine of it or of Christ declared in it is Spiritual Powerful saving Perfect so that Cursed will he be that adds to or detracts from it no Quaker will deny and to fight for the perfection and integrity of that with them is but to fight without an Adversary Howbeit I.O. when thy Brains as it were begin to crow as they often do like a man in a maze thou fetchest another turn back again upon the wheel and as inconsiderately as contradictorily to thy self thou blendest and confoundest these two sundry things that were before so severed by thy very self into one again so that as the two sticks aforesaid became one in the Prophets hands so these two that were sometime put asunder and with thy own hand inscribed with different Titles are joyned Indentically Intituled denominated each of other as Synonymous of two that stood divided made one individual of two sticks become one under thy own hand which writes of the writing and the thing written as of one and in its handling of them handles and feels no such matter of distinction between the Scripturam and the Scriptum the Literam Scriptam and the rem or Doctrinam or veritatem Scriptam the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scriptiunculam Verbi de Verbo and the Verbum Scriptum the Letter or VVriting and the Doctrine or Truth written the Scripture of or concerning the Law Light Gospel and VVord of God and the Law Light Gospel and VVord of God it self of which the Scripture is but a true writing or Declration Yea whereas in that one single Section lastly cited Tr. 1. ch 1. S. 13. thou makes distinction in thy sound no lesse then four times between them first the VVritings and the Doctrine secondly the Writing and the Doctrine thirdly the Book and the Truth fourthly the Book and the Faith in the very Section immediately foregoing viz Sect. 12. which is as small as this thou all things well considered as they stand therein almost if not altogether as frequently dost confound them
business avouching that glorious Title of the Word of God and the Light to be the Nomen proprium Scripturae the proper name of the Scripture and that I wrong him not herein see his own stating the Question between himself and the Qua. Ex. 2. s. 1 2 3. de Scripturae nomine proprio nimirum Titulo illo glorioso Verbo Dei and p. 73. the Scripture is a light yet neiâ—her is nor can be called so unless it hath the nature and property of light p. 77. the Scripture a moral and spiritual not a natural Light p. 73 74. Light spiritual hath the preheminence as to a participation of the nature and properties of Light firstly and properly Light from whence the other i. e natural respecting bodily sight is by allusion so denominated in these places either expresly or eventually I.O. calls the Light and Word of God the proper names of Scripture or Letter and so consequently enâ—tails all the other glorious Titles to it as its Right due and proper names which they rob it of and deny it to be what it naturally and properly and really is who own it not properly both to be and be called the Word of God but it neither is actually testified so to be any whereby God nor by its self as I.O. p. 87. most lyingly falsely affirms it in so much that he who owns it not as so doth what in him lyes to make God a lyar And also p. 140. where he sayes If the Scripture be what it reveals it self to be it is then unquestionably the Word of the living God as p. 85. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Word of God Truth it self for that it professeth of it self quoth he frâ—m the beginning to the ending neither can it possibly be so stiled properly or unless it be by a figure as it no where is neither by it self that I know ofâ— by which the Image is called by the name of the Person which it properly is but a dead Picture and lifeless representation of the Lanthorn by the name of the Light that displayes it self more brightly when beheld without it which Lanthorn yet neither is the Light nor properly said so to be I am not ignorant of that Common Metonymy Continentis pro re contenta or figure whereby the thing contained is sometimes but never properly where it is exprest by the name of that which câ—ntains it and as well in that Scripture we talk of as in other Writings Matth. 26.43 and 1 Cor. 11.26 If this Cup may not pass away except I drink it As oft as ye dâ—ink of this Cup meaning properly not the Cups but the wine therâ—in viz. the one the bitter red wine of the wrath of the Almighty God the mixture whereof is powred out into the Cup of his indignation and of the fierceness of his Fathers fury which Christ drank deep of in the dayes of his flesh and humiliation to the drawing of supplications from him with strong crying and tears the other the wine of his blood shed for the remission of sins which such as walk in the light come at last to be cleansed by from no less then all sin neither of which Cups or sorts of wine thou hast yet drunk of or truly knowest what they are by all the skill thou yet hast in the Scriptures thou so scriblest for but shalt assuredly have thy part in the first before thou savingly know the second yea whether ever thou attain to witness the saving efficacy of the second yea or nay But what 's all this to the helping of I.O. in his crazy cause whose fighting is not all for figures or meer figurativâ— denominations but for the formal and true proper names of the Scripture which is the name of the Scripture and not the Word of God say we but is saith he that of the Word of God had he fought for no more then figures against the Qua. that stand for the Truth and said so too though in so fighting he had been foolish yet we could have born with him in that frivolous peece of â—olly and have lent him such a latitude as both by the Letter and Light may bee allowed to speak Metonimically and Metaphorically of Methaphorical matters and left him to his liberty without a check and let him alone in his figures to figure out things by other names then their own and to call them that which yet properly they are not to stile the Heusâ— they sit in by the name of the Parliament which it is not to stile the Picture by the name of the Person it is the image of the Voice by the name of the Word it is but the image of and the Scripture by that of the Word it is but the remote expression of and of the voice it is the more immediate image or expression of for vox est imago verbi Scriptura vocis immediata verbi quaedam mediata imago seu expressio and to signifie the Wine and the Light respectively by the names of this Cup this Glass this Lanthorn and the Word and Law by the name of a Scripture specially if by Scripture he mean that inward Writing of it by the Spirit of the living God in the fleshly tables of the heart where the Law of God is written though that writing and the Word written are not all one neither and we could bate him the impropriety of that figurative expression also though it be far further fetcht then the other whereby he should decypher that outward Letter by the name of the Law which it is but a bart Copy of and the written Word by the name of the Writing which yet in truth doth no more then declare of the Word Retro though I know not where in all the Scripture the Srripture is so much as by A figure denominated by that name the Word of God if the Word be any where so called by the name of Scripture as I.O. sayes at least fortyfold falsely that above fifty times in the New Testament the word Graphs or Scripture is put absolutely for the Word of God but if it were a hundred and fifty times so called it would not prove the high point in that height he takes on him to prove it in viz. that the Scripture is properly the Word of God and the Word of God its proper name any more then the Wine is called by the name of this Cup this Glass or the Light by the name of the Lanthorn Retro the Lanthorn by name of this Light which is all figurative not proper But this is not I.Os. case who runs up to the very highest peg and sings of the Scriptures a note above the Ela and quarrels with the Qua. as deniers of the Scripture unless they swerve aside with him in his silly suppâ—sitions and as well unsâ—holler-like as unsaint-like sensless sayings that the outwarâ— Scripture the Writing the Letter and every Letter and Tittle and Iota though but transcribed
the Spirit by such as lived and walked in the Spirit and were in all they did led by the Spirit to some private Christians about some worldly Affairs as that of Paul to Philemon Some by Chief Captains to their Presidents and by Presidents to their Princes about Prisoners and Tumults and divers other sorts of passages So that as written in the Spirit the Holy Scriptures may be said to be Homogeneous Writings all of one kind but in respect of the several businesses written of therein they are at Heterogeneous I a body or bulk of as various Writings as any extant in the World-besides them Now by the Scriptures I mean these Writings that contain the matters abovesaid and many more and not the matters themselves therein contained And if thou mean by the Scriptures any other things then the Scriptures themselves as like a Reed shaken with the wind thou seemest sometimes to do and again sometimes not to do and which things the Scriptures are not or by any other things which are not the Scriptures when thou speakest of them viz. the Law Word of God the spiritual Light c. meanest the Scripture as sure enough thou dost well-nigh throughout thy confused discourses and disputations about it then thy meanings are too mean to be any otherwise at all then meanly accounted on among any that mean honestly and plainly and know the Truth as it is in Jesus By us when we talk of the Scriptures to use thy own words onely vice versa Ex. 1. Sect. 26. non sanctissima ista veritas seu materia Scripturarium sed scriptura formaliter considerata intenditur honestly and plainly we intend that onely which is so even the form of writing it self and not the matter or holy truths of the Scripture the Scripturam and not the Scriptum or at most the Litteram Scriptam not the rem scriptam not the Verbum Scriptum the Declaration and not the Doctrine declared the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the letter in the oldnesse of which thou art yet serving who knowest not the newness of the spirit the Scripture or Writings of the Prophecy and not the Prophesie of or contained in the writing nor the Prophetical VVord the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the writing for so the word is there translated truly 2 Chron. chapter 21. not the VVord Written or word of Prophesie that came to Elijah and was sent in a Writing to the King which thou falsly sayest p. 12. that Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for in that Text and every wise man that is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially in a dispute where the Question is whether the writing of the Word of God be the Word of God Written of or no while sub judice lis est will till the thing in debate one way or other be clearly determined remember still to keep these two things as two asunder So thou dost thy self while thou art well in thy wits witness thy words above cited by myself Ex. 1. S. 28. where thou puttest a plain difference between the Scripture it self formally considered and the most Holy Truth or matter therein delivered yea when ever thou keepest in any measure of sober-mindednesse thou keep'st these two as distinct in thy discourse as the two sticks of Iudah and Ioseph Ezek. 37 19 17. that were superscribed with two several superscriptions vouchsafing to each its own proper name and not communicating the name of either unto the other but clearly dividing between them so as that any one may see thou thy self dost not believe one of them to be the other nor yet darest affirm them to be Synonymous witness p. 12 13. where thou makest them two and writest of one of them all along as in contradistinction to the other in these Terms viz. not the Doctrine in it but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self The Providence of God no lesse concerned in the preservation of the writings then the Doctrine contained in them the Writing it self being the product of his Counsel for the preservation of his Doctrine Satan hath no lesse raged against the Book then against the Truth contained in it it was no lesse crime of old to be Traditor libri then to be Abnegator fidel which sour last Assertions of thine though they are all four false tales for Providence is not so much concerned to preserve the Writings as the Doctrine neither is the Writing so necessary for the preserving of the Doctrine that as thou there hintest it must it must needs perish if the Writings perish for it was before them and may be without them and will be after them Neither thirdly is the malice of Satan so much against the Book called the Bible as against the Doctrine of the truth for he is willing to let hypocrites alone long enough to carry gaudy Bibles under their arms so be they serve him and abide not in Christs Doctrine nor in the Truth the Scripture tells of neither 4ly is it or ever was it so great a Crime to betray the Book called the Bible as to deny the Faith and the Word of Faith therein written of for the Book is not worth a Pin as to salvation without the Faith but the Faith is sufficient thereto without the Book and was so before the Book was witnesse the Worthies from Abel to Moses whose sufficient faith is written of Heb. 11. and would be if the Pope and the Devils rage should reach so far as to burn all the Bibles in the World so here 's four utter untruths asserted together neverthelesse as they are Tru-lies yet are they true enough to serve the truth I here summon them in proof of viz. that thou thy self who countest it as bad not to be as trusty to the Bible as to the Truth that 's in it as it is to betray the Truth and deny the Faith dost deny the Book or Scripture the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Writing to be one and the same with the Faith Truth and Doctrine or the Doctrine to be the Writing or that these can truly be denominated each of other I say then that here being more sober minded as to thy discerning between the writing and the written verity though drunk enough elsewise to lay so many lyes or at least so many tales that are not true upon the top one of another in so small a space as one short Section thou art freely willing fairly to distinguish them into two Yea further yet that thou dost not judge these two to be one it may appear plainly to thy self or any that are free to peruse the places in the 16. and 17. Sections of the same first Chapter for if thou didst then in the enjoyment of the one thou wouldest be satisfied as
and write as if with thee they were as one for besides thy stiling the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Writing or Scripture which is well-nigh the total Subject Treated on in that Section by these names viz. the Prophecy of Scripture the word of Prophesie the written VVord the Word of God and thy loud lying in saying that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is above fifty times in the New Testament put absolutely for the Word of God not proving it to be so put so much as once not being able sure I am to prove it to be half so often if thou couldest as I shall shew elsewhere prove it so to be put an hundred fifty times all that would prove nothing to thy chief purpose which utter untruth must be more talk't with in another place thou twice there makest one of them as explanatory onely of thy mind and of what thou meanest by the other in these Terms viz. the writing or written word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self or which or is there more conjunctive then disjunctive the Doctrine as written also thou makest the one but explicatory of the other in many other places viz. Ep. Ded. P. 20. Tr. 1. ch 4. S. 2. S. 19. and Ex. 1. S. 24. where thou writest of them not Sâ—orsim as of two but conjunctim as of one and the self same thing thus Scripturam sacram seu verbum Dei scriptum the Scripture or written Word of God sacred Letters the written Word Nâ— so incogiaant art thou as not onely both to divide into two and confound again into one these two distinct Subjects viz. the Scripture and the Word of God the writing and Doctrine of Christ therein declared within so small a compass as the space of two small Sections standing both together but thou both dividest and confoundest them within the little corner of one single sentence witnesse the last clause of the twelfth Section of the first chapter of thy Treatise above cited where thou expressest thy self thus viz. not onely the Doctrine in it but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self or the Doctrine as written is from God 1 as his Word for so thou meanest still by that term from God in the first part of which the Doctrine written in the Scripture and the Scripture it self are made two in the latter the Scripture the Doctrine written as written in it are made one which is the same Doctrine still as well when considered as written as when considered as not Written and is neither more nor lesse of God whether written or not written and under both these notions a distinct thing from the writing evermore If the Serpent can hansomly and fairly twine himself out here from the just censure of a self confounder let him scape scot-free this once and in this one thing for me but if he cannot do it without dawbing and dribling and shuffling and shifting and cutting and lying against the Light within then let him hang there for me in his Fetters of darknesse till he learn to speak without confusion for I know not how in a way of honesty to help him out or take him down CHAP. II. HAving shewed what truly and properly the Scripture is and what we the Quakers intend and I.O. also if we may take him as meaning what he mostly sayes by that Term Scripture when we deny it to be what thou contend'st it to be and pleadest against us for as its Proper Name viz. the Word of God c. I come next to those base abuses put upon us and false matters charged against us partly by T.D. in his first Pamphlet but principally by thee I.O. as concerning our carriage toward the Scriptures Principally in thy Latine Legend wherein thou lyest more at liberty then in thy two English pieces of emptinesse and the more securely by how much thou seemest to thy self at least to lye more hidden or more obscurely out of the reach of their rebuke whom thou reproachest in that Latine Language then in the other insomuch that by thy own speeches we may conclude that thy whole work as relating to the Quakers which is fronted but fronti nulla fides with Pro Scripturis Adversus Fanaticos for the Scriptures against the Fanaticks with which new nick-name the Quakers by many more besides thy self who Arbitrio Diabolico wast one of the first Imposers of it on that truly enlightned people begin now to be abusively branded seems to be designed more to the sporting thy own and thy School-fellowes leâ—d spightful Spirits by playing upon the Quakers in secret in your dark Divinity cels among your selves then either to convince them to their faces of such errors as thou erroneously accusest them of or by thy crude Theological Disputations Determinations tumultuarie sane fatis conscriptas as thou callest them ad lectorem to confute the Quakers plainly and openly before Plain-hearted people witnesse thy own saying to the like effect which I shall first enter at as it lies in thy little Latine Lecture Ad Lectorem J.O. The Fanaticks or with thee the Quak who are in these dayes most notable in their errors and foolishnesse we here Principally assault But no man could be deemed to dote so much as my self if I aimed at the convincing of them by what I here write sith they no more understand the speech we here use then we at any time can perceive that indigested sound of words void of all sound sense whereby they when they speak seem to noise it out to not onely one another but all others also Ex. 2. Sect. 23. They the Quakers are well nigh all unlearned and skild no further then their mother Tongue Rep The more shame for thee I.O. if the Quakers be all so unlearned and utterly unintelligent in the Latine Tongue as thou sayest that thou talkest therein against them as thou dost and chargest them with much more error in Doctrine and evil in life then will ever be made good against them by thy self or any of thine Abetrours or stand approved for Truth while the world stands among spiritually understanding and honest minded men when they come to be divested as hereby they are to be our of that disguise thou dressest them our in to thy Iunior Ieerers at Christs own Image which is seen upon them Was it not enough for thee to have belved them in English as no lesse then twice ore thou hast done in thy Epistle Dedicatory of thy Dean-like doings to thy Reverend Friends the Prebends and Students in Divinity in that Society so called of Ch. Church Col. in Oxford where thou wast lately Dean but quo jure divino I yet know not but thou must likewise needs lay at them and lye in ambush and talk and take on against them in a Tongue wherein if thy surmise of their Vniversal ignorance of thy Latine Lyes had been as sound as it seemed to be they
1. c. 2. s. 3. opened the manner of the Words coming forth from God to prove the Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be the VVord of God much of which makes against himself at large in a long Train of perplexive prittle prattle throughout his whole second third and fourth Chapters from the self-evidencing property and efficacy of the Scriptures which aforehand still he calls the VVord of God but to shut it all up together in short to this purpose viz. That which evidenceth it self to be the Word of God that is and is known assuredly to be the Word of God But the Word of God doth evidence it self unto us to be the Word of God therefore the Word of God is and is known assuredly to be the Word of God The minor in this Syllogisme none denieth it being true in those termes it here stands in◠yet it is false and sophistical as falling from him who by that term the Word of God in the sore part of the Proposition means the Scriptures the utter falshood of which minor and so consequently of the conclusion which is now true but aliud a negato would have too plainly appeared if he had not sophistically placed that subject i.e. the Word of God as it stand formost in both in the room of the right subject i.e. the Scriptures or if he had not changed his minor term but exprest himself thus viz. But the Scriptures do evidence themselves to be the Word of God therefore the Scriptures are and are known assuredly to be the Word of God And to prove that minor J.O. useth another medium viz. Gods magnifying his Word above all his Name by which à minore ad majus i.e. from the self-evidencing power of smaller matters as he counts them i.e. the Works of God and the Light in the conscience the Law written in the heart and the notions inlaid there with his own finger which he calls the voice of God in nature for these are low ◠darke obscure principles and means of revealing God and his will with J.O. in comparison of the writings and letters that are inlayed in parchment and paper with the finger of meer man which low principles yet are able to plead their own divine original and evince them to be of God he argues at large that the Word of God Scripture again he should have said doth much more evidence it self to be his Word and to put his lax and loose words into a narrower room and into a more Argumentative or Syllogistical posture thus viz. If those inferiour Names of God whereby he makes himself known even his works without and his Light his Law written in the heart and conscience to which there need be no other Witness that when they testifie God's Righteousness or Holynesse and call for moral obedience which is eternally and indispensably due to him they speak from God do evidence themselves to be what they are and to be of him then much more his Word the Scripture he should have said which God magnifies over all his Name must evidence it self to be his Word But those inferionr Names do evidence themselves and therefore much more doth the Word of God the Scriptures again he should have said evidence it self to be the Word of God Rep. What a strange story is here as if a man should tell a tale of two things a Cock and a Bull metamorphos'd into one whereof the one having been as confidently as untruly avowed to be assuredly known to be the other viz. The Cock to be a Bull is being denied as Ridiculously as Reasonlesly profer'd to be proved in this illegal and illogical way of Argumentation viz. That which evidenceth it self to be a Bull both is and is assuredly known to be a Bull but the Bull alias the Cock for so he means should say evidenceth himself to be a Bull Therefore the Bull or the Cock both is and is assuredly known to be a Bull. In this shameful manner and sorry sort doth I.O. having once audaciously avouch 't it go about to prove the Scriptures to be and to be assuredly known to be the VVord of God by Anticipation sophistically substituting that subject the Word of God in his disputation for it in the room of the legal subject i.e. the Scriptures taking it perforce from such as give it not for granted that it is so while to them-ward it s yet no more but the thing in Question and utterly unproved so to be which question I.O. not onely begs but also begs so unworthily and basely that I never saw the like to it but once before in all my life and the like to it can't likely be seen again unless a man should beg it on his knees little less then plainly confessing that unless it be aforehand granted him that the Scripture is the Word of God he cannot possibly prove it so to be What wise man that is as willing to do the Truth Right as thee I.O. no wrong can make any better construction of thy own words as they are to be read in the ◠sect of the 4. chap. of thy first Treatise where professing that in the remainder of thy Discourse thorowout that Treatise which is all in proof of the Scriptures being assuredly the word of God thou shalt endeavour to clear and vindicate the self evidencing efficacy of the Scripture and the grounds thereof by such common Mediums as shall as well reach the Reasons of such men as acknowledge not the Scripture to be the Word of God as of such as do thou desirest in effect onely to have thus much first granted thee that thou mayest have leave the Scripture being that out of which thy proofs for and grounds of this self-evidencing efficacy of the Scripture to be the Word of God are to be taken to consider the Scripture as 't is the written word of God or else all thy proofs will be weak and able to prove just nothing This onely quoth I.O. to recite his own words I shall desire to promise that whereas some grounds of this efficacy seem to be placed in the things themselves contained in the Scripture I shall not consider them abstractedly as such but under their formality of being the Scripture or written Word of God without which consideration and resolution the things mentioned would be left naked and utterly divested of their Authority and Efficacy pleaded for and be of no other nature and importance then the same things found in other Books Which is as much as to say Being by the Scripture to prove the Scripture or writing both to be and to evidence it self to be the Word written or the written Word of God let such as deny it deny that their denial of it and but first own it with me that the Scripture or writing formaliter is the written Word of God and let us but under that name nature notion and formality consider it and then let
on him to make an ill business good yet the utmost thou makest of it if well examined is as little as 't is nought toward the bettering of it and very much of it at least but very little better then what is urged above about the Lanthorn And when thou hast turned every stone and hast wrought a long time till thou hast tyred thy self with talking to have the Letter and every jot and Tittle of it to be the Word of God till thou canst scarcely go one jot further or adde one Tittle more to the countenancing of thy cause thou even givest out and lyest down and as T.D. had the wit to do at first and C.F. was forced to do at last in a manner givest it in and layest it down so very fairly to thy opposers that all thy after strugling for it again is to no purpose to prove thee any further a friend for all thy ample appearances pro Scripturis then the Qu. are with whom thou art fain to fall in one and say as they say in thy Ex. 1. s. 28. s. 40. and as thy fellow fighters with us about it do all confess that the Scripture no otherwiseâ—is nor is to be called the Word of God then Respectu subjectae materiae or divinae veritatis in earevelatae seu contentae non respectu literae scriptae non formaliter quatenns scripta in respect of the matter or Divine truth therein declared and contained only not in respect of the Writing or written Letter not formally as 't is Scripture and that in innumerit paene locis ubi verbum Dei dicitur c. in those well-nigh innumerable places of it where the Word of God is said to be preacht publisht multiplied and received the holy truth or matter of the Scriptures is intended but not the Scripture it self formally considered and when the Word is said to be nigh us in our hearts and in our mouths Rom. 10.8 and the Word of Christ to dwell in us t is confest by thee that that Word of faith is not litera Scripta is not the Writing but the Truth written which is another thing then the Scriptures neither do the Qua. say as thou there belyest them in thy lame laying down of their Argument which is of force to stop thy mouth however as thou rendrest it weakly much more if urged in its full strength that the VVord within is not Verbum Scriptum for it is the same word that is written but it is not the writing not the Scriptura not the litera scripta between which and the Verbum Scriptum thou art or wilt seem so silly as to make no distinction So then if the Scripture formaliter formally considered is not as secundum te it is not the VVord of God then however thou scruest it into that name and thing by secundum quid yet simpliciter really truly it s not so at all nor so properly to be called for forma dat esse rei and is that per quod res est id quod est and if it have not the form of the VVord of God then the Scripture hath not the being or true nature of the Word of God much less is the Word of God as thou improperly sayest it is its proper name CHAP. V. NOw as to I.Os. third Argument whereby to evince the Scripture to be the only most perfect Rule Standard absolutely sole sufficient way of Revelation of Gods will c. and so consequently the Word of God it s on this wise Ex. 3. s. 30. viz. J.O. The Spirit of God most heavily damns and rejects all additaments to the Word of the Scriptures i.e. the Scriptures with him of what sort soever and specially all those wayes and means of knowing God and communion with him boasted of by the Fanaticks chiefly conference with Angels Col. 2.18 Heb. 1.2 4. 1 Cor. 4.6 Luke 10 29. Revelations not only alienas containing different doctrines Gal. 1.8 but alias also 2 Pet. 1.19 other new Revelations of the same Doctrine then those individual Revelations of it that were made to them that wrote the Scripture Rev. 22.18 Heb. 1.2 1 Cor. 4.6 Col. 2.18 And Col. 2.18 And lastly that inward Spirit the Fanaticks talk of or internal light common to all 1 Joh. 4.1 Isa. 8.20.2 Pet. 2.18 Rep. Surely I.O. thou wast in some deep Divine dream when thou wrotest these thy Divinity Disputations or else thou wouldest never have divined out such a deal of darkness and falsehood at thou hast done or have lent such as thou wouldst have to own what thou writest for light and truth a little more of that thou eallest light even a little more of that Letter a of Scripture thou pleadest for to discry it by or something or whether thou deemest I will not say that men seeing a number of Scriptures quoted by the Dozen for so 't is here as 't is in sundry places above spoken to excepting that counting such as are twice over recited here is thirteen to the Dozen of which it might be said nos numeri sumus would make account of them by whole-sale to be all on thy side and take account of them not by weight but number without so much as looking otherwise on them then to see how many they are but not heed either what they say or whereof they affirm but some odde blinde business or other is i th' wind as the reason of it I know full well for there 's not any of all the Texts of thy own tumbling a top of one another that I meet with yet either in this Dozen or those before that hath the least tendency toward such a thing as thou intendest them to in thy meer Nomenclateral citation of them Thou intendest by all these to prove there is now no other way of knowing God of communion with him but the Scripture that there is now not only no other kinde of Revelation of the Gospel save such as was made of it to the Writers of the Scripture but also none of that same kinde of Revelation of it as was made to them to be expected or on pain of damnation and cursing pretended to by any person by any means whether Angels internal spirit that inward light the Qua. talk of or other medium whatsoever but only that very individual Revelation of it that is made in so much of the Letter as is now extant and bound in your Bibles is and must be the only Standard Rule and measure to which no Scripture must be added tho bounds of which no man for ever nor Angel is for ever to inlarge so as to write any more though of the self-same Doctrine or Gospel mark on so high a pretence as from the self-same true inward illumination vision in the same true light or immediate motion or inspiration of the same holy Spirit on pain or peril of utter rejection and execration Do the Texts set by thee in that Section even all of them together
in the like lame cause who belabouring your selves in talk about the Letter against the Light live and walk more by the false fire and twinkling flash of your own thred-bare thoughts and infatuated imaginations then either by the Letter or the Light I come now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without much Preamble or more ado ad rem substratam to the businesse and work it self as it lies before me And howbeit I shall not regard any External form order or methodical manner of proceeding with you so much as words and matter of profit and truth it self yet as there is a Quaternity of you or rather a Fraternity of four angry Fighters or Quarrellers with the Quakers and the truths told by them viz. I. O. T. D. I. T. R. Baxter all whom first or last one where or other more or lesse I shall have to do with So though not therefore I shall divide my ensuing undertakings against you in the Name and Power of God on their behalf in such wise as thou I. O. dost thy Doctor-like Divinity Disputations or Latine-labours against them viz. into four Apologetical Exercitations or Earnest Expostulations with you The first whereof is to be more down-rightly directed to thee T.D. the rest who are of the same misty mind with thee not excluded in way of Examination of that Legend of Lyes which thou like some great Benefactor to it bestowest on the Clergies Cause against the Truth and its Children and as concerning the point of Iustification in special which thou makest thy self a main Mannager of against us for all the rest who say little of it and in which thou by thy lies about it in both Doctrine and matter of fact most basely abusest both thy self and the Truth and my self in particular and all the Qua. in general also The second is to be most peculiarly directed to thee I. O. in Examination of sundry of thy base belyings and misreportings of the Qua. as to their mis-behaviour toward the Scripture about which T. D. who sides with three therein doth but give us a short snap and away and as concerning the very formal being nature Text or Letter or the Scripture it self ye call your Canon the Bâ—unds or measure of that your supposed Canon the Hebrew Punctaâ—ion Integrity of the Text to a Tittle without Various â—ection and such like passages which thou more preheminently pratest on then all thy Fellows The third is to relate though partly to T. D. and partly to I. T. and R. B. alâ—o as being all three in some sort tampering together with thee in the same muddy manner about at least some of the same mistaken matters yet principally to thee I. O. who in the dark dream of thy night Vision drivest on more down rightly as the Prime Promoter of these Principles viz. that the Scripture and every sylâ—â—â—le and Iota thereof is the Word of the Great God the most efficacious powerful all-sufficient all-perfecting heart-searching soul-saving living life-giving Word of the living God that it even that outward writing Letter External Text and not any such thing as an Internal Word of God Spirit or Light within is the only Infallible Guide Incorruptible Canon perfect Rule of all Faith holy life saving Spiritual Knowledge or Worship the most certain Sanctuary for the preservation of all Sacred Truth the most sure Touch-stone stable standard firm Foundation true Witness of God the most invariable inviolable way of safety and security to all Divine Verity the most absolutely necessary means of Spiritual and Eternal life cum multis aliis quae nunc praescribere longum est with much more id genus of the same soure leven too long to be reckon'd up here sith they are all to be elsewhere reckon'd with in due time and place The fourth will be promiscuously and interchangeably carried on by way of entercourse with you both I. O. and T. D. which two only were intended to be by me so much as medled with when I first was throughly resolv'd on some Reply to your rude reproachings of the Truth As concerning your denial of the universality and sufficiency to save such as heed it of the Light and Grace of God in all mens hearts of modern immediate Divine Inspiration of Perfection as to the purging away of sin in this life and as concerning your Dream of a peremptory Election and Reprobation of persons unborn viz. of very few to life and of many to one as unchangeably to damnation without respect to their doing good or evil in their life about all which as occasion is I must have in a few words a round reckoning with you both I. T. R. B. and all the rest of that self-reverencing black-mouth'd Brotherhood as blindly banding in one body in the self-same mist of darkness not excluded for the Rounds ye run in as to those particulars at the latter end i. e. in the said fourth and last part of these foresaid Presents in which as occasion is ye four aforesaid Fellow-Fighters for your own follies against Gods Wisdome are likely little or more to be all bespoken in one or other of the Chapters into which also I shall subdivide the fore named four divisions If ye four Foxes that spoil the Vine and her tender Grapes whereof inter-scribendum one successively still started out afresh upon me as I was pursuing the sent and chasing the other had like those of Sampsons turned tail to tail in all points as in some ye do and took several wayes ye could not so well have been caught altogether as now ye may notwithstanding all your Majestical craft but sith ye face all one way and joyntly steer your course in general to one Cave running parallel into the same Wood of your own wisdome there housing your selves in the same holeÌ„ dreaming altogether of no danger neer you in one Den of Darkness there needs no more but to set something to the Mouth of that bottomless Pit ye all belong to out of which the Fox-like strong sent and stinking savour of your erroneous Tenets vents it self to the poysoning of poor peoples Souls throughout the whole Countryes where your respective beings are and so digging you out of your foresaid Dens put you altogether into a Bag. S.F. The First Apologetical and Expostulatory Exercitation CHAP. I. FIrst then though they came out last and began to fly abroad some while after I. Owens yet I shall begin with thy two Butterflyes T.D. which have flown up and down the World not only upon the wind of their own wings but also as fast and far as they could carry them upon the light chaffy leaves of the whiffling News-books for some few moneths together to the frightning of all such folk as are befool'd into an Implicit Faith of thy folly to be wisdome out of that little wisdome they have by that fearful flutter they have made thorowout as well the Cities as Vniversities and Countryes with that falâ—e flashy and fair-flourishing
said as the same Seed did to the same sort of Seers whom God sent of old to a Rebellious people lying children that would not hearken to the Law of the Lord See not Prophecy not Soft and Gentle and not Right and Rough things are agreeable to to the duty of this day the Qua. speech the words whereof I have set down in the Margin referring both thee T.D. and the Sandwich doters on thy dowby-doings to a Printed sheet â—old by Tho. Simmons at the Bull and Mouth stiled the Prophet approved by the words of his Prophecy coming to â—ass where ye may read the residue of the Message from the Lord in that place of the Popish Priests consecrating falsly called Christ-Church in London on that day was deemed such a disturbance as was punisht with an orderless New-Gate imprisonment by the multitude at the present ratified by the Rulers order when they were more at leasure from their voluptuous feasting which iniquity of appointing men to preach to them in their own wills and time whether God appoint them yea or nay of despising the true Prophets true Words and trusting in the fraud of the fulse ones and in their own perversness and staying thereon Isa. 30.9 10 15. was then unto them as it ever was to the same generation as a breach swelling out in a high wall whose breaking came suddenly as at an instant for by the 13th of the same month they who were so hand in hand against Righteousness were turned tail to tail against each other for their wickedness yea the Lord spared them not but brake them as the breaking of a Potters vessel that is broken in pieces so that in the bursting of those brittle Potsheards of the earth there is scarce found a sheard of so much uâ—e as to take fire from the hearth ' or water withal from the pit Now as to the very great distuâ—bance thou sayest they made this is but the old Tone of the Tithe-taking Tide-turning Tune-serving Truth-belying Teachers and the wonted out-cry of that Noun-Adjective Ministry thou belongest to that cannot stand nor subsist of themselves without leaning for encouragement defence assistance and maintenance to meeâ— humane Laws to prop them up in the propagating of their meer humane Gospel who like the loud-lying women that having no better shift than to cry whore first are ever hideously bellowing out against the Qua. to the tune of Heresie Heresie disturbance of the Ministers to the Magistrates so that if any Qua. come quietly in and speak or do but ask that Reason which every Christian is bound to be ready to give of his hope to every one that asketh him in meekness and feare they strait call out to have them Punisht as the Iews neither did Act. 13. nor do at this day which said Ministers being in propriis Talpae in alien is linces are more sharp-fighted towards the good behaviour of one Qua. quietly questioning with them or saying any thing to them soberly that is of God then the misdemeanour and tumultuousness of twenty of their own unquiet Spirits stirred up by the Devill to call us Râ—gues-Faces Quaking Doggs to break Windows and bring in Dâ—ggs to fight and such like beastly and Bear-like behaviour in our solemn Assemblies till they are wearied with their own Pains towards us and our Patience towards them under it as well while we are speaking as we are moved of the Lord in our own allowed meetings as in theirs witness their leading a Bear through the place where the Qua. were Preaching publickly at Hith and also the rudeness of some of those that are under thy own Tuition T.D. at Sandwich and belonging to the Flock thou there feedest or rather feedest on who when G. F. E. B. my self and many others were publickly met in quiet in a place of our friends procuring shrew Stones and Gunpowder squibs that fired among us not so as to move us to cry out to the Rulers of Disturbance yet so as to give good occasion to the Lord to permit though ye forget it a sad fire to fall out within the Town no longer after then the next morning Thus ye men of Sin make men of God offenders for a word and hate them as of old they did that reprove sin within the Gate so that when any such stirrs arise upon occasion of the Gospels preaching as did in the Prophets and Apostles days which the Lords Messengers now are no more accessary to as causes then they then were it s still laid to the doore and put on the score of Truth and the Tellers of it which because none else will own it must hear it till against the foul mouth'd Beast the Lambs innocency be cleared as the light which till then may truly say of all mischief that falls out where he utters his voyce Cum nemini obtrudi potest itur ad me The Lambs cauâ—e is better then the Wolfs when charg'd by him for troubling the water with only drinking at the Fountain but the Wolfs Teeth are sharper then his and therefore the Innocent must be devoured And whereas to such like tales as thou hast told as abovesaid thou prefixest the conclusion thou inferrest in these words viz. T. D. What affronts these wretches offer to the Worship of God is notoriously known Rep. I â—ay your Parish Worship is not so truly the Worship of God as 't is true that ye so call it but that of the Qua. who Worship him in Spirit and Truth in the inner parts which ye are out of which those poor Wretches your Parish people are by your lyes instigated to offer such abominable affronts to as Beaâ—ings Buffetings of men in and draggings of them oâ— their own meetings as are notoriously known all the Land over is the true Worship of God indeed which except ye repent in time O ye Priests and Parish-people and own the truth 't were better for you and them that ye had never been born then offer such affronts to as ye do but full well may ye offer affronts to our Worship when ye stick not to do the like to your own Rule of all worship even to that ye call the Word of God for if the Scripture which is a true writing of it were as truly the Word of God as ye say it is ye bawlk not as occasion is to do despite to that witness the ungodly guise of those Giddy Heads about Westminster who when by G. F. holding out the Bible to them they were askt in the mid'st of their mad hurlings of Mud and Kennell dirt as they mostly do upon the Qua. in their meeting there to this purpoâ—e whether they would do such despite unto the Scripture which they say is their Rule and the Word of God ceased not to be dirt that their Word of God any more then they did from dirting him who held it out to thorn T.D. Another of thy Remarkable passages in the first Narrative is of one of
infallible holy chair 8 Our Doctrine of the fallibility of the bare naâ—ed letter of the Scripture and of its lyablenesse to corruption and its being corrupted and falsified by mistranscriptions so as to have various Lections in the most Originall Copyes of it that are extant in Greeke Hebrew at this day which remains to be in its proper place proved against I. O. who pleads that kind of purity of it to every tittle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad nauseam usâ—uâ— is no fair In-let to the Popâ—sh Bag Baggage though I find I. O. So supposing giving us out his sole suppositions and thoughts that 't is but a supposition that it is corrupted and such a one as by which Pâ—peâ—y is supported speaking in at least three places of his English peice to this same purpose viz. p. 147. What use haâ—h been made and is as yet in the World â—f this supposition that corruptions have befallen the Oâ—iginals of the Scripture which those various Lection meaning those that the Prâ—lâ—gamâ—na to the Biblia polyglotta do declare at fiâ—st view seem to intimate I need not dâ—clare It is in briefe thâ— foundation of Mâ—humetisme thâ— chiâ—fâ—â—t and principall prop of Popery the onely pretence of Fanaticall Antiâ—cripturists and the Root of much hâ—dden Atheisme in the World also p. 196. Now if this couâ—se be taken and every Sâ—igmaâ—ized câ—ppy may be seaâ—ched for differences and these presently Pinted for various Lections there is no doubt but we may have enough of them to fâ—ighten poor unstable souls into the Aâ—mes of the pretended inâ—allible Judge also to say nothing here of the hideous affrightments dangers fears of I. O. Who is oft moâ—e afraid then hurt and other of the dreadfull and desperate consequences of this Imaginationâ— as he calls it though a reall truth that corruptions and various Lections are crept into his Originall Text of the Scripture and that Protestants begin now to sent it as well as Papists and to be infected with the Leprosy of that Opinion which he trembles think of as an iâ—convenience which he knows no whither it will grow and fears whether many will not be ready to question the foundati of the letter as dubious and uncertain and not fit to be the Rule as sure enough they will when they begin to see what some have felt and cry out with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeing that their supposed firm foundation to be fallible and falsified as it is having no more yet to releive himselfe against this uncertainty of his standing then that miâ—erable comfort viz. that the generality of leaâ—ned men among Protestants are not yet but how soon they may be he is not aware iâ—fected with this leven which hurries and pittifull Puthers and dreadfull deale ado that the Doctâ— makes in his Dâ—eam about this up and down in the 13.14.15.20.25 and other pages of his preface and throw out the 4th little Chapter of his 2d Treatise which is so falsly figured that the pages cannot easily be coted are enough to make some wise men smile that never meant it I say to let passe all that at present among other mischiefs that he conceives will accrue if men conceive the Scripture to have had by mis-transcriptions the fate of other books and that in their Originall Copyes this must needs be one that they have no where else to betake themselves for a Rule but to run back to Rome witnesse his last words of that forecited Chap. which are these viz. and if this change of judgement which hath been long insinuating it selfe by the curiosity and boldnesse of Criticks should break in also upon the Protestant world and be avowed in publike works it is easie to conjecture what the end will be We went from Rome under the conduct of the Purity of the Originalls I wish none have a mind to return thither under the pretence of their corruption But stay a while I. O. is there for such as are lost no way out of the Wood but that one of thy own fancying or else that other of the Papists which is worse then none Is there nought for men to doe but either they must stare with thee or else for fear of they know not what run stark mad with them either fall in with thy meer figments about the Scripture or else if they find it not as infallible in every Apex of it as thou foolishly fainest be frightend strait into the more fallible fantasmes of that fantasticall holy Father Sure if that judgement that the same fate as to the creeping of corrupttions into it hath befallen that writing as hath done other Scripture be a Prâ—p to Popeâ—y where Popery at preâ—ent stands yet thou wilt find some who are of the Papists mind about the Scripture as far as to the variety of Lections which are found in the very Originaâ—l Text thereof who yet have betaken themselves to and doe stand on such a sure foundation as will sâ—and when Popery and Common Pâ—otestanism too shall faile for ever with whom neither one nor th' other of these whâ— are i th' same nature still though fighting for their different outwardâ—faulty foundations and foolish formes so standing can have any fellowship who instead of returning to Râ—me under a pretence of Corruption in your Originalls under the conduct of your conceited purity of which ye came from thence are running further and faster then ever from Rome and you too that live within her lines of Communication still and feed upon the Taile of her traditions more then on the true word of God for all your wording it so much against them and for the word under the infallible conduct of the pure Originall it self even the pure light living Word and Spirit of God by which Abell Enoch Noah walked with God of oâ—d before your but pretended Rule was written in respect of which the eldest of your Originalls are but upstarts and from which the best of your Originalls had their being Nevertheless who hath believed our report to whom is this Arme of the Lord Revealed c. O nugas hâ—minvm O quantum est in Râ—bus inane quis legit haec vel duo vel neimo I. O. cannot see this and few or none of our skilful Scribs and Scripturists can read this though the Scripture sends them from it self to that it came from nor yet how by raking so unreasonably to make men believe that of the Scripture which 't is unposible for any that can truly read them to believe of them or find from themselves himself frightens honest souls from any further giving of much heed to his own judgement when by a serious search they shall find the falshood of it in so plain and palpable a case as that is he so miserably miscarries in but whether they will give most heed to Christ himâ—elf or no and to his Light in the Conscience and word in the heart or to the bare Letter of
the Supream Iudge to which all should Appeal in all Cases and in whose Sentence all should rest and all Faith be finally Resolved and not coming in at the Compleating Consignation Bounding and Final Closing of the Canon should for ever Iure Ant-Ecclesiastico or Apostatico and in foro hominum forfeit that Originally Equal Title which in foro Dei Iure Christico and Apostolico they else had to be Canonized with their fellows Ah poor men It pities me to see how ye Dream together in the dark and mope up and down in your own misty Imaginations about your Original Texts and external Letter leaving the Original Truth it self which was before your Texts were ever talk'd on or had a being in the World turning your backs on that internal Light in the heart which all the Tendency of of your Letter is to turn men to and from which your Scripture Originally had its being It irks me to see how for want of betaking your selves to the measure of the Light that shines in your own Consciences that infallibly would lead you to that which is the end of all Scriptures and words spoken or written as from God viz. honesty and righteousnesse truth and acceptation with God and Holy men ye trace to and fro till ye tire your selves in the perplexing Cris-Cros Track and endlesse Round of your own meer Thoughts about a thing which the more ye try the more ye Tangle your selves about it and the more ye look after it and in it in the way ye look into your beloved Letter the more ye loose your selves in it and about it till at last you will eternally loose both it and your selves too by not looking to the Light at all even no lesse then altogether See Epist. Ded Pag. 30. I. O's Preaching on that Subject the Scripture and his publishing of it is said by him to be but his Thoughts so pag. 146 147. what he delivers about the Prolegomena and Appendix to the Biblia Polyglotta was but what his own Thoughts had suggested unto him sutable to other learned mens Apprehensions So Pag. 149. He runs the Hazard of giving his Thoughts on them Pag. 151. He discover his Thoughts on the things proposed by them So Pag. 163. What he gives out concerning the Purity of the present Copies of the Originals of the Scriptures he so Scribles for is but an account of his Apprehensions So Pag. 225. He purposes to manifest his Thoughts on the Epistle to the Hebrews So Pag. 278. He desired Dr. Ward to give his Thoughts on the difference of Apert Sounds and Vowels which he did accordingly And Pag. 177. He sayes when he shall Communicate his Thoughts to the World about an Vniversal Character it will doubtlesse yield much if not Vniversal Satisfaction unto learned and prudent men O ye Wise and Prudent Vain Thinkers and Senslesse Surmisers that sit down Universally Satisfied in the shadow of your own and one anothers shallow Thoughts When will you come to busie your selves about that which is infallibly clear and certain and let your deep infinite Disputings about dark and doubtful matters of small moment to you too altogether alone When will you wash your Hearts from that Dunghil of meer deemings and divinity Dreamings with the untempered Morter of which ye are all to be-dawbed so that one can discern little or nothing that savours of more then dubiousuesse and disputablenesse it self descending or flowing from your Well-heads and Fountains of Forgery and Fabulosity little or none from the Breasts of your Nursing Mothers of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plain purely reasonable sincere Milk of the Word whereby the growth is into the Life of God but such as is mangled and mingled with the Mire and Mudde of your putrid and puddlely Opinions and Opinations Will you never cease from Teaching for Doctrines your own Conceptions Apprehensions and Conjectural Conclusions of things for Truth taken from no surer Topick place then that self same that ye Condemn in Papists viz. the Traditions of men Will you never give over filling and feeding the vain World for filthy Lucre with such perishing Food as the thin froth and Foam of your own Fancies instead of the Bread that comes down from Heaven and that Meat which endures to Eternal Life Oh thou European Athens or Academical Minx thou manifold Mother with thy Children for whom t is as easie for the Blackmore to change his Skin and the Leopard his Spots as for thee who hast been accustomed to Apostarize from the Councel of God and erre from the Mind of Christ to with-hold thy foot from wandring after thy own Images and Imaginations wilt thou not be made clean When shall it once be How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Now as to the Four wayes by way of Query above propounded which of them all I.O. means to Answer by who talks so much about the Closure Compleating Consignation and Bounding of the Standard and Scripture Canon ◠I cant well say But as for T.D. with whom I have somewhat to do and to deal alittle here he Replyes Affirmitively to the Third among them saying Pag. 26 of the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians mentioned in that First of Ours and so consequently of all the several Scriptures that are not bound up in your Bibles which I asserted to be as much a Rule as those ye have that they were not intended as much for your Rule as those in your Books To whom when I Replyed at the Dispute with him as he there Relates Thus viz. If that Epistle was wriiten to the same end with those we have as it was viz. to Instruct the Corinthians how to carry themselves to grosse Sinners I Cor. 5.9 compared with vers II. I wrote unto you not to Company and now I have written unto you not to keep Company And the same was said of his First to the Ephesians i.e. that it was to the self same End as that we have Ephes. 3.3 As I wrote before that ye may understand my Knowledge in the Mistery of Christ so now then 't was intended as much for a Rule as the other But it was Written to the same End Ergo If one a Rule then the other T.D. Denies the Consequence Saying Sermons private Religious Discourses have the same common End with the written Scriptures yet the Later only are our standing Rule the former our Rule but so far as they agree with the Later in the Scripture Reply Which Reply of T. D's is so unreasonably ridiculcus that he is scarce Animal Rationale Risibile that receives and entertains it seriously as the Truth For First it supposes as if Pauls First writing to the Corinthians were not Written Scriptures as well as the Rest we have but an Orall Discourse Secondly It supposes Pau's First Epistle of all to that Church which was cited by himself in his Second as written to the same End and was written in the same Spirit
guide and a Light to Davids Paths was not the outward Letter only of Moses Law for Moses Scriptures and Writings and Davids too did only Testifie of it Deut 30. 14. 18. Rom. 10.8 Psal. 119. 9105 But the Word that was nigh in the Heart which David had and hid also within him that he might not sin against God Psal. 119. 11. yea no lesse then a Canon that had its compleat Consignation and Bounding for all Truth which was the same then as it is now substanâ—ially to be Tryed by when no more then Moses Five were extant so long before it was enlarged into such a Volume as now the Bible is by adding to the Old Word were the Letter that Word of God that 's the standing Measure I know not what to make of all these Additions to the Word if the Letter be the Word which have been made from Moses downward to this day but matter of Plagues Woes and Reproofs to the Adders of their Writings to the First Writings but this I can say to the Excuse of such as call Moses Five only a compleat Canon and in compleat Authority as a Standard and a Rule and the Word of God and such like full well may Five or any one Book of Moses or any one Chapter or one Verse never so small in either his or any other Prophets Scripture be so when if wee l believe I. O. when he Lyes every Tittle and Iota of any of these outward Writings is not only Part of the Word but The Word of the Great God as Pag. 168.169 Yea every Apex of it equally Divine and as immediately from God as the Voice wherewith or whereby he spake to or in the Prophets and is therefore accompanied with the same Authority i.e. as the whole is both in it self and unto us Pag. 27. so then every Tittle is no lesse then a compleatly constituted Canon and the whole is no more then so And further as to the New Testament as ye call the Letter of it as there is not the least Evidence that any such thing as the specifying of what and whose Scriptures or Writings the Canon should consist of and what not so can any of you that stand up so stifly for your fancied stable Standard shew us where any Order is given out by Christ or his Apostles to such as should succeed them to take Care to gather up their Writings and Judge and try which of them they thought fit and which not to own as their Rule and Iudge and accordingly digrading the rest to Canonize such as liked them best to submit themselves to the Tryal and Iurisdiction of into the high Names and Authority of the Word of God the Iudge the Rule the standing Canon both to them and all the world and all after Ages of it to the Worlds end Doth 2 Tim 3.13.14 twice at least cited by I O. for fear of failing viz. Ex. 3. S 26.31 prove it And doth 2 Tim. 2.2 which is without either heed or wit urged and by heedlesse I. O. as well as others quoted though mis-quoted in the Margin of Pag. 166. to that purpose prove in the least any such matter If it do then say I am a Dunce if not then see whether they are fit to be Doctors or Teachers in Divinity that by reason of the beam in their eyes cannot behold but divine so darkly besides a businesse that is as clearly contrary to what their brain conceives about it as if it were written with a Sun beam For the words of Paul to Timothy are these viz. The things that thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be Able to Teach others also And in the other place these But Evil men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived and so they do at this day for all their scufling for the Scripture but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them Whence it is by many that would look upon themselves as wronged if not looked upon as learned as hastily concluded as the places are hand-over head alledged That Paul bids Timothy take the Scripture first committed to him by himself and commit it downwards to faithful men that must commit and continue it downwards still to others and so successively to the worlds end as a Common Continual Permanent perpetually remaining Canon and only Standard for all Nations and Spirits Gods and Mans and Doctrines true and false to stand or fall by from thenceforth even for ever Which what a crooked Consequence it is who but Ignoramus can be ignorant whenas if the Scripture had been the subject spoken of there by Paul either it had extended no further then to his own Scripture to Timothy which is but a petty Portion and poor Pittance of Pauls Epistles or if to all the rest of his Epistles then it had been conclusive of that to Laodicea and his first to Corinth and Ephesus which have no being in your Bibles which you say Contains all your Canon and are by T. D. excluded from any Claim to it but in very deed there 's no such thing at all as the Scripture or outward Text there either talkt on or intended but the things Timothy had learn't and heard from Paul by word of mouth as well as writing which though I own to be Truths and Doctrines and things which are evermore according to the Scripture the Spirit from which that was never contradicting it self yet were another thing then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Writing or Scripture it self Paul sayes not those Scriptures which thou hadst of me c. commit to faithful men to make a Standard of but those Doctrines Truths which thou hast heard of me commit and those Truths were concerning the Light which Paul was sent to turn men to and not the Letter for he sayes God made him and the rest Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit Act. 26.18 2 Cor. 3.6 And the Gift of God within Timothy which he bids him stir up 2 Tim. 1.5 Neither did Paul go up and down testifying to the Scriptures as a Standard and telling men which should be the Touchstone and which Scriptures not but the things which were Witnessed to there testifying no other things Quod Essentiam to be believed or done then what were written in and spoken by the Law and the Prophets Acts 24. 14. 26. 22. And those things Timothy heard learned and was assured of from Pauls both Words and Writings As also the things the Thessalonians 2 Thess. 2.15 had delivered to them partly by Pauls Preachings and partly by his Epistles and were accordingly to stand fast and continue in but they were not the bare Bible it self or Writings or Scriptures themselves which were not then by Paul or any bundled up and carried about in a Book to take a Text and Talk out of
ye all falsly say it is that is the Word of God Witnesse not only that so much esteemed Divine in his dayes viz. Ball in his Catechisme but also the Confession of Faith of the Assembly of Divines presented to the Parliament and that of the Congregationals which is verbatim the same also therewith who all unanimously in that Article of the Scripture wherein they falsely affirm it to be the Word of God declare thus in the fifth head viz. by the heavenlinesse of the matter efficacy of Doctrine majesty of the stile excellency and perfection of the whole it doth abudantly evidence it self to be the Word of God yet notwithstanding our full perswasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof i.e. of the Scripture is from the inward work of the holy Spirit bearing witnesse by and with the word in our hearts But thou in page 90. and thorowout thy fifth chapter of thy first Treatise excludest the witnesse of the Spirit immediately in the heart at all or at least the usefulnesse much more the necessity of any such Testimony making as here page 34. the Authority of God shining in it self alone and exclusively of the spirits and words witnesse in our hearts the sole medium of all that evidence which man can have of its being what ye call it viz. The Word of God but as for God and the Spirit who within do give all the evidence that they give at all of the Scriptures being what in truth is is viz a true writing of the truth what if they are willing to grant an evidence within and to afford more then thou talkst of wilt thou bind limit and forbid them so to so who 〈◊〉 unlimitedly here declarest that God is willing to afford and grant no more must not the Spirit blow where it lifts without thy leave or acquainting thee first who art no Prophet with what he will do And this may serve as a sufficient Answer to thy vain Opinion in it it being worth no better to that whole Chapter of thine concerning the Testimony of the Spirit though whether it shall or no so that I 'le say no more to thee about that Chapter is more then I le tell thee here that I may be at liberty to do as I see occasion Only thus much is spoken to that saying of thine above pag. 34. to shew how Majestically still for the eternal Truths of God thou tellest thy own meer trashy untrusty Traditions of which sort I say is that above p. 163 which I am yet in hand with viz. that God probably suffered the losse of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reduce us to a Consideration of his Care in preserving every Tittle that was in them to this day in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Copies we have But I O. seems to take another Reason out of the bottomlesse pit of his own infinite Fancy and Imagination why God was as willing to let the first Manuscripts perish as careful to preserve every Apex thereof in their adored Transcripts and successively Crowned and Canonized Copies to this day viz. left if the immediate individual Writings had been preserved men would have been ready to adore them as the Jewes to adore their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Synagogues Reply Which if it be Cogent or have any Reason at all in it to prove a willingnesse in God to let the first Writings be left hath it not as much to the full to evince God Regardlesnesse of your so copiously regarded Copies upon if there were no other the very self-same Account as he was so carelesse of the other But I. O. is so totally Talpified that as Eagle-eyed as he is abroad to spie a hole in the Iewes Coat he can't see that Iewish Idolatry neerer home For if God to prevent Adoration of that Brazen Serpent and Idolized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Scripture was so regardlesse of it as to permit it to perish and be brought to nothing is there not as much reason why he should be as Carelesse of your remote tottered Transcripts and false Translations ye are so carkingly careful of as to let what will become of them notwithstanding your uncessant pining and whining and whoring after them and solicitous scoldings and tearings one of another so much about them For as much as though ye Confesse ye have but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet so it is that ye Adore and even Idolize them as much as ye would or likely could the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves had you them to bustle and busie your minds about and as much as the Iewes though ye advance them the Right way no more then they do theirs as I have told you at large above do their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Synagogues Suppose ye had here the very Hand writings of Moses and the old Prophets and the individual Letters and Stories that the Evangelists and Apostles pen'd with their own hands yea the very Two Tables of Stone superscribed with Gods own finger which was a Figure and Type of that Hand-writing of his Law in the fleshly Tables of your hearts by his living Spirit the Truth and Anti-type of which ye as little heed as ye heedlesly over-value the other What could you Ministers of the Letter and not the Spirit and your Literal and Formal more then Powerful and truly Spiritual Professours say or do more unlesse you would down on your Knees to them so soon as ever ye see them in way of outward Honour and Adoration thereof then ye do to your falsified Transcripts and your People to the more unspeakably false Translations which they take for Truth but by Tradition and meer implicite Faith from your selves Le ts Reason and Reckon with you here a little while about your Transcripts and Translations which are all that are extant and enjoyed at this day the first by you that have skill in Hebrew and Greek the second by your Independent on God but on their Priests lips dependent People As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Memorandum Oh all People by whom these presents shall ever happen to be read I. O. hath quite quitted the World of them Confessing they are all utterly perished and long since past away and lost So that 't is opon Fiction or miracuâ—ous with him for any one to affirm that there 's any one individual Role Writing or Book that was Pen'd by the Holy men that in their several successive Ages wrote the Scripture now alive and not mouldred into dust So that the World hath done with them and they with us so as never to come within our Ocular Inspection more whereby to try whether our Doctors and Divines Adored Transcripts do to a little agree as I. O. absolutely affirms they do with the Touchstone yea or nay so as to believe our own eyes or any otherwise then as I O. who first positively Asserts it doth after as improbly conclude
it from what is suggested to his own Thoughts from Hear-say and other mens Talk to and fro and Tradition and as he Confesses all along â— heap of Vncertainties and Conjectures so that all the tumblings and tossings snapings and snarlings of even the Protestant Divines about their Scriptmre is but about their remote Transcribed I cannot say well neither for most Transcribed Copies too are out of the way since Printing came up but Printed Copies of the Text which are all not more lyable in any thing to be then in many things they are already falsified which since the Primitive Copies are concluded to be gone and the infallible guidance of the Spirit by I. O. T. D. and all Divines excluded out of the World also though they tell us Translations must be Rectified by their Transcriptions yet if they happen to be as an hundred to one they are and none knows in how many in any things crooked or various from the first there 's no means of Rectifying or Reducing their supposed Rule to Conformity to the first literal Rule nor of amending it any otherwise then uncertainly for ever But suppose I say ye had the Primitive Copies could you make more ado in Adoring them then ye Doctors and your People that dote on you do about your various respective Transcripts and more various Translations out of them into sundry Tongues and Languages which Translations yet are all in somethings not more several in their sorts then the Tongues into wch they are translated and divided into as many Senses as the many men that Translated them thereinto which said numerous untrue Translations also are as to the Letter if they look not to the Light within and live not by that all that the poor blindly guided mis-led Priest-befoolled People who ken not Hebrew and Greek many of whom can't read English neither have to trust to whose Faith about the Scripture it self which thou callst pag. 155. the Foundation of that Faith and Obedience God requireth at their hands and whose belief of the Truth or untruth of this or that Translation is as much pin'd upon the Priests sleeve here in England still as it is at Rome it self in this and some other matters for there they Believe as their Church alias Clergy believes and take things on Trust being not suffered if they were able as here though suffered they are not able to try the Truth hereof and by meer Tradition from their illiterate Purblind Priesthood and no otherwise do they here as to their Tratslâ—tions then upon Traâ—iâ—ion â—rusting to the fidelity and to that infalible certaines of their supposed learned leaders the Serâ—â—es then whom no men are more humpered in a heap 〈◊〉 uncertainties about the Scriptures What would ye do more to the very writing that was inscribed with Gods own finger if you had it in way of homage then ye are doing to your respective doted on derived copies Do you not dance about them as Israel about their Calf saying these are thy Gods O England that brought thee out of bondage to thy sin to which yet they committing it they remain servants to this day Iob. 8 and must save thee and lead thee into life and are perfectly sufficient without the light and spirit within the Quakers talk of as that which the letter came from and alone can do it to instruct thee in the knowledge and worship of God and thy obtaining of everlasting Redemption Do you not Canonize and crown them with the Titles of the only Perfect Rule Foundation Light Witnesse Living Word of God the Lydius Lapis Unaltered Unalterable Standard Touchstone immediately come forth from God to us without the least interueniency of Wayes or Mediums obnoxious to fallibility or capable to giue Change to the least â—ota or Syllable Are not these as high Titles as ye could give to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they were here Do you not say and do this and much more to your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the People to no more then their meer Translation Yea do the Iewes say or do more in way of Adoration to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Synagogues then beautifie adore guild lift up in their hands exâ—al them with high Applauses Hugge and Kisse them as ye do when ye Swear upon a Book and such like outward magnifyings and makings honourable of them which is the utmost that I have seen them do in their Synagogues throw many Nations without living that substantial Holy Life the letter calls for And do you do any lesse as to outward Adoration or any more as to inward and real Observation towards your Bibles Yea do ye not all as well the People that have no better then their uncertain yet certainly untrue Translations from you as so many of you of the Clergy as can read the Copies of the Originals for many cannot read the Hebrew Text at all and some the Greek as â—etle as that as necessary as these Tongues were made a while since to the very esse or being of Christs Ministers who have no better â—hen your uncertain Transcriptions cry up your several Transcribed and Translated Copies respectively that best like you and every one hugge his own at least as most insallible however crying down others as corrupted And how beit if any one of them were so as none of them at all are yet all of them can't be right as each one faith that is that he takes toâ— Are ye not all noysing it out as the Iewes at â—eâ—usaâ—em and the Gentiles at Ephesus Jer. 7. Act. 19. of their Respective broken Reeds the Temple and Diana to which they trusted Great is Diana The Temple of the Lord The Word of God The Word of God Inspired The insallible Word oâ— God are these The perfect Living Liâ—e giving Soul saving Word the very Power of Gâ—d unto Salvation Are the Iewes more mad upon their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 theâ— People are upon their untruly Translated and you Divines upon your untruly Transcribed and both on the more Kreanously yet Trans-printed Sculptures Talking and Treating up your Respective Texts into the Throne where Christ the Light and Living Word alone should sit making little lesse of your Copies then some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cornu-Còpia Deo forsan quapiam melius For what are all the Ephesian like Glamours eager Out-cryes loud Noises of the people here for against the Quakers Are they not for the bare Bulk of that Book called the Bible the out-side of which they are at great Care and Cost to Paint and Guild and Bind and Beautifie and Adorn and Adore while the Truth exhibited in the Writing or Text thereof lyes trampled under their feet Saying the Ruâ—e the Foundation the infallible Standard the Word of God of no more then their by the self Conâ—essed in many things corrupted Translations counting the Quakers not fit to live in the Land any otherwise then Out-law'd because they can't
O's wisedom in this point yet I am not such a fool yet or not so wise or something as to believe him howbeit who e're believes or believes him not in such wise as this aforesaid he talks in effect while p. 12.13 he sayes thus without proof as he does most things according to his own vain thoughts as followes viz. I. O. The Providence of God hath manifested it self no lesse concerned in the preservation of the writings then the doctrine contained in them Rep. Which is a loud one for many Holy Prophets writings are lost but not a Doit of the Doctrine I. O. The writing it self being the product of his own eternall Councel for the preservation of the Doctrine after a sufficient discovery of the insufficiency of all other means for that end and purpose Rep. Which is another for the Doctrine can never perish if every Tittle of the Text should I. O. The malice of Satan hath raged no lesse against the Book than the Truth certained in it Rep. Which is a third For Satan will allow people Bibles and Texts enough to talk of Truth out of so they walk not in Truth I. O. It was no lesse Crime to be Traditor libri then Abnegator fidei Rep. Which is a fourth false Tale for the burning the Book can't murder the faith as having the light does which with it's fellows I have disproved and given Reasons against above and while p. 17.18.19 in answer to Capellus his honest Grants that the Saving Doctrine of the Scripture as to the matter and substance of it in all things of moment is preserved in the Copies of the Original and Translations that do remain J.O. assenting first to it as Truth to the overthrowing of himself as he often does that notwithstanding all the errours and mistakes in the most corrupt Translations yet every necessary saving fundamentall truth is found sufficiently Testified to therein or if he deny that of Translations let him do it and see what a pickle he puts poor people into who upon the account of that denyal will be found not to have all saving Truth in their Bibles he asserts I. O. That 't is not enough to satisfie him that in his doted on Transcribed Copies of the Original the doctrines mentioned are preserved entire every Tittle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must come under Care and consideration or else injury is done to the Providence of God towards his Church and care of his word and that it will not be found an easie matter upon a supposition of such corruptions of the Originals in Tittles and points c. as is pleaded for against him to evince unquestionably that the whole saving Doctrine it seâ—f at first given out from God continues entire and uncorrupt Rep. Oh grosse as if the entirenesse of the eternall Truth that was before all external Text was was now so subjected as to depend on the entirenesse of a tottering Text for its security or else is lost for ever and yet yielded to be preserved entire in Translations that are corrupt in more then Tittles but not possibâ—e to be kept entire in Transcriptions if any Tittle be mis-transcribed therein I O That the nature of the doctrine is such that there is no other principle and means of its discovery no other Rule or measure of Iudging and determining any thing about or concerning it but onely the writing out of which it is taken Rep. As if the Doctrine comes from the writing when as the writing came from the Truth and Doctrine I. O. It being wholly of divine Revelation and that revelation being exprest onely in that writing Rep. Absit absurdum de quo vere dicitur quod posito uno sequuntur millia As if Revelation were not made more truely clearly distinctly and immediately by the light and Spirit then mediante litera by the mediation of the letter that comes from it in which thou sayst Revelation only is made before which yet the doctrine was revealed I. O. That upon any corruption supposed in the Transcript Copies of the Originall but not the Translations there 's no means of rectifying the Doctrine Rep. No by no means its like as if the Spirit and Light could not now possibly reveal it as easily as at first and as if Truth were not as equally by the Spirit exposed to the understanding of men in all ages as in some and as if pure Revelation were not made now by the light and Spirit of Truth which depends solely on Revelation as it ever did and not on a letter that came from it Thus much to the first of those Scriptures urged by thee I. O. to prove the promise of God to preserve the Scripture even every Tittle of the external Texts in Transcripts not Translations for Ever and the second is like unto it viz Math. 5.18 where though Christ talks of not one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tittle failing he that shall understand him speaking there of the outward writing and outward Tittles of the Law of it many Tittles and Books of which were lost before that and not of the light it self which is that Law the Letter is but a Copy of and of the word it self that Christ speaks which is that that is heard by his sheep onely in the heart and that comes immediately from his own mouth understands neither what he says nor whereof he affirmes yet in three places I. O. quotes it to evince the Integrity and Identity of every Tittle of the Text as 't was at first viz. p. 13.155.317 The Third is as little alias not one jot not Tittle to I. O's purpose viz. 1 Pet. 1.25 where Peter speaks no more of any outward Texts or Transcripts then if he had said nothing at all nor of such a corrupting thing as Manuscripts Texts and Transcripts Titles and dead Letters are but of the incorruptible seed the Word of God that liveth and endureth for ever ver 23. Even the word of the Gospel which was that word of faith Paul also writes of Rom. 10.8 which was preached by the Apostles and Testified to by them and their Scripture and Moses Scripture Deut. 30.14 and all outward Scripture that its nigh within in the heart and mouth The Fourth viz. 1 Cor. 11. no verse of which is quoted is so far from adding a cubit to I. O's cause about the Scripture that there 's no mention made of any Scripture at all thoroughout the whole Chapter so that what verse he should infer or scrue any thing from to evince the Scripture to be entire to a Tittle I can't imagine Paul tells of things he had delivered to them before which-whether it were by word of Mouth or Epistle he intimates not there but whether it were by Orall preaching or writing is much at one to I. O. for if by writing which serves I O. most yet he means not the writing it self or Epistle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things he delivered as he
or Syllable without the least mixture or interveniency of any medium obnoxious to fallibility as thou sayest it is p. 10. for in the very next words p. 10.11 thou utterest enough to the confutation of thy self in this while according to thy wonted manner of running round as one borrendo percussus Scotomate thou sayest the wisdom truth integrity knowledge and memory of the best of all men is obnoxious to fallibility and consequently say I capable to give change in the most careful Transcription that can be made by mans hands that is uninspired in much more then the least Iota or Syllable thus art thou contrary to thy self still 5. But I say for all thy reasonlesse rounds and self contradictory conceits more then Transcribers care and diligence is necessary thereunto i.e. to the producing of Copies infallibly conformable in every Tittle Iota and Point to those of the first Penmen and to the begetting of the divine faith which is more then meer humane fallible perswasion that thou oughst to have about the soundnesse universal incorruption certainty integrity invariablenesse and infallibility of that thou callest thy foundation even that immediate manutenentia Dei or undeceivable direction and divine inspiration of God which if it be wanting as thou confessest it was from the first to the last of thy Transcribers such is the weaknesse of men where never so much carefulnesse is in Transcribing of Books that there may be miscarriages and mistakes which if there be in the least Iota or Syllable it 's great enough to lay thy universal grand Assertion to the ground and all thy proof of it from the foresaid care and diligence will prove not worth a pin to thy purpose But alas what do I talk of weaknesse where either the leading of the Spirit of God is wanting or a willingnesse in men to be led by the holy Spirit as it is in all that assert as thou dost his infallible guidance to be gone out of the world in these dayes there 's not onely much weaknesse to such a weighty work as thou makest the Transcribing the Scripture to be but as thou sayest p. 104. so I in this case about the Scriptures so much vanity foolishnesse falsenesse unfaithfulnesse negligence ignorance and sloth love of money for which many write at others appointment being well paid for their plains more then of the matters they are writing as well in Scribes as Printers of the very Scripture it self carelesnesse adding detracting unsuitablenesse of their Spirits and minds to spiritual things losse of all remembrance of what they are and what they do c. that I can give very little credit to what I have nothing but the Authority Ability Integrity Wisdom Knowledge Truth Memory Care and Diligence of such to rely upon for without evidence of their being divinely and infallibly guided which guidance thou denyest to thy Scribes nor can any wise man groundedly believe any other but that the Books of Scripture passing through the hands of many such Transcribers have upon them the marks of their neglects ignorance and sloth and have had as hard of belief as thou seemest to be of this p. 206. the fate of other books Yea I. O. let me but ask thee this Is that faith thou hast that thy Greek and Hebrew Copies are to a Tittle so uncorrupted as thou contendest a divine faith or a fallible perswasion onely if the Latter it 's not worth a figge if thou have no bettr faith then so and art not more infallibly assured then so of the infallibility of that which thou callest thy most perfect Rule and infallible foundation If the former what is it must beget this divine faith in this thing that there 's not a Point nor Tittle varying in thy now Canon standard or adored Copy from the first Copy of the Text that ever was will thy vain confidence hopes conjectures good conceits of thou knowest not what Scribes that wrote thou knowest not when give thee such a faith or the Traditions and Authority and Testimony of honest men saying so and so downward for many generations or some infallible ground of certainty that they were guided to write every word by divine inspiration Not the first for thou utterly disclaimest that as no ground of divine faith about the Scriptures by saying thus p. 105. if numbers of men may be allowed to speak we may have a Traditional Testimony given to the blasphemous figments of the Alcoran But the constant Tradition of more then a thousand years carried on by innumerable multitudes of men great wise and sober from one generation to another doth but set open the gates of hell for the Mahometans and thus p. 114.115 though I should grant that the Apostles and penmen of the Scripture were persons of the greatest industry honesty integrity faithfulnesse holinesse that ever lived in the world as they were and that they wrote nothing but what themselves had assurance of as what men by their senses of seeing and hearing are able to attain yet such a knowledge and assurance is not a sufficient foundation for the faith of the Church of God if they received not every word by inspiration and that evidencing it self unto us otherwise then by the Authority of their integrity it can be no foundation for us to build our faith upon Not the latter for thou disclaimest that and darest not ascribe any such thing as infallible guidance or divine inspiration to thy Trustee Transcribers so where the divine faith about the firmnesse of thy foundation it self stands founded and bottom'd unlesse it be in the bottomlesse pit it self of thy own fancy he must have more Rope to fathom with then I have that will ever find Wilt thou not then I. O. say of the first Transcribers of the Scriptures that the were infallible and divinely inspired I do not say thou dost ill in refusing so to say nay rather thou dost very well and somewhat honestly and ingenuously in that for indeed we cannot tell nor say safely that they were so but art thou then freely willing in very deed to yeild it to us that they were fallible and that 't was not impossible for them to mistake This grant of thine we are as free to accept of as thou art to give it and make good use of it too not so much against as for thy self viz. to shew and instruct thee from thence that there 's rottennesse at the very root of all your Religion and a fearful flaw of fallibility that is in the very foundation of your faith and believing in which thou sayest ye are built on the writings of the Prophets and Apostles T. 1. c. 2 S. 4 that so ye may which is the worst that we wish you come to be better built on a firmer foundation and both you and your foundation and faith and all may stand fast and never as now ye must do fall any more from thenceforth for ever even the foundation of the
by the inserting of this clause into it viz. of no importance and indeed that is the second of the generall heads whereby he seeks to heave his high Assertion up into its health again after he had half knockt it on the head and laid it a bleeding by his own many grants against the Truth of it I.O. 2. ly quoth he let the same judgement i.e. of no various Lections passe upon all those different places which are altogether inconsiderable consisting in Accents or the change of a Letter not in the least intrenching on the sense of the placeâ— to what end should mens minds be troubled with them they are but evident mistakes of the Scribes and of no importance at all Rep. 1. Observe how this by I.O. is spoken to clear it up that there 's no considerable corruptions nor various Lections crept into the Copies of their Text and Transcripts by the mistakes of the Scribes and in every reasonable mans understanding 't is just as if he should have thus said viz. There is no Reason that men should surprize us with the sense of so many varieties of Readings as they do through the evident mistakes of the Scribes for though I confesse there are many yet what should they be counted on as considerable as Corruptions or mistakes of the Scribes being they are no more then evident mistakes of the Scribes and so of no importance at all whereas the very Question it self that is pleaded by us against I. O. and pleaded for against us by himself is whether the Scribes have been mistaken or no in their writing over the Scripture so as that various Lections are from thence crept into the Copies of the Originals Bare us but all those different places quoth I.O. which are but evident mistakes of the Scribes which are of no importance and then let 's see how many various Readings you 'l find in the Scripture to the prejudice and impeachment of our Assertion viz. that the Text of our Original Transcripts are written entirely to every Apex Tittle and Iota agreeably to the first hand-hand-writing of the holy men that were moved to write it Here 's petitio principii again such a base begging of the Question as is utterly unbecomming any Iunior in his Humanity much more a Senior Doctor in his Divinity disputations yet a course as fowly as foolishly made use of by I.O. in his Scribe-like disputings for the Scriptures grant us the Scripture to be the word of God quoth he under that very formality let us consider it and then I 'le prove it so to be or else my proofs will be left naked and utterly divested of that Authority and Efficacy that I plead iâ— in them p. 71. grant me that the evident mistakes of the Scribes are not evident mistakes of the Scribes in their transcribing of the Scripture and then I 'le prove evidently enough that the Scribes were not so much mistaken as ye say they were in Transcribing it But 2 ly as to the diminutives upon which I.O. perhaps will plead he puts the prime stresse in the case in hand somewhat must be said lest I.O. judge himself sleighted if they be answered with nothing but silence for as little importance as they are of to his cause and as little importance as he would by them make our Assaults to be of against his Arch Assertion yet 't is like he sets so much store by them as to suppose them to be strong supporters for his small matters and pidling propositions which to him as he sayes p 153. are important Truths to stand stedfast upon away with all those different places quoth he which are altogether inconsiderable consisting in Accents or the Change of a Letter or so not in the least intrenching on the sense of no Importance at all lest these passe as no alterations or various Lections and ye shall see anon what a little corner your corruptions ye charge upon our Copies will be crouded into Rep. 1. Observe how diminutively I.O. delivers himself concerning the many mistakes errours and corruptions faults and falsities that are sound to have befallen his Transcriptions when he talks of Translations in which the Word and Churches interest lyes and in which the souls of poor people that are not Book-learned any further then to read the Letter in Lingua vernacula is much more concerned then in the Greek and Hebrew Texts and Transcripts which the Linguist onely Labours so much about as if all mens soules and all Truth lay at stake and were eternally to live or dye at the Priests mercy shutting out or letting people into the light of life by their lips as laborinthically as laboriously unlocking of that humane secret then I.O. magnifies multiplyes the mistakes errors and corruptions thereof as is shewed above rendring all Translations for his own ends as much mistaken mis-rendring the Literal sense as may be yea p. 325. to 343. and so all along in his last Chapter of his second Treatise from thence to the very end of it speaking of the Arabick and other Translations he expresses himself Hyperbolically on this wise viz. would I make it my businesse to give instances of the mistakes ignorance falsifications errours and corruptions of these Translators my discourse would swell into a volume and of the Chaldee Paraphrase p. 334. thus Seeing it hath not lain under any peculiar Care and merciful providence of God whether innumerable other faults and errours as it happened with the Septuagint be not begot into it who can tell and of the Septuagint it self which some Clergy men cry up as high as he can do his Transcript Copies p. 335. 336. thus All things here are exceedingly uncertain it 's rise is uncertain some call the whole story of that Translation into question as though there had never been any such persons in Rerum natura c. nothing almost is manifest concerning it but that it is wofully corrupt and p. 15. This Translation either from the mistakes of it's first Authors or the carelesnesse or ignorance or worse mark of it's Transcribers is corrupted or gone off from the Original in a 1000. places twice told it 's a corrupt stream a Lebian Rule p 15.16 But when I.O. talks about the mistakes errours corruptions falsifications failings of the Scribes of his curious courted Copies having once so critically commended them in his hast as to deny any corruptions in Tittles and Iota's to be crept into them so as to occasion various Readings then he Minifies then he Nullifies as far as his little or nothing to the purpose can do it either there 's none at all or if any but novell or if Antient but in small matters or if in any matter of moment but very few or if never so many but euident mistakes of the Scribes or in spurious Copies or meer superfluities and redundancies of unnecessary and deficiencies of necessary words or risen out of some apparently corrupted Copies or other
he calls it but also that there are many mistakes in those Books that are out of his own hand writing which is no better then snares and bands a certain piece of contradictory net-work of his own composing to the catching and binding down himself wherein he hangs hampered intangled and tumbled up and down in his own fruitlesse contests fallible perswasions and perplexing self-contradicting conjectures so that there 's scarce a Chapter or so much as a Lection in it fully free from or rather not fully fraught with some or other of his uncertain conceits and certain confusions about the defending of his Assassinated Assertion one while Asserting and striving stiffly to maintain it in the very rigidity universality and utmost strictnesse of it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not the Iot or Tittle of the Original Text is added altered lost mis-transcribed sometimes Assenting to the contrary onely begging that all various Lections of what sort soever one or other without exception may be excepted from the account of various Lections and then Asserting that his Assertion on that condition will stand entire concerning the entirenesse and integrity of his Text to a very Tittle Now then since it is so 〈◊〉 at the outward Letter of the Scripture not only in its Translations which I.O. himself Asserts to be so universally altered and corrupted from the Originals but a little also in its Copies of the Original is by I.Os. own confession both so abundantly altered by the addition of the Points since the first writing and the Variations of so many severall kinds as himself enumerates and at best so easily so infinitly alterable as that at the wills of men exercising their critical faculties about the Text it may by Transposition and Transcription of one Letter for another or supposition and subscription of one Vowel for another be turned divers contrary wayes and subverted in its sense so exceedingly that some one word instancing in that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. p. 24. may as it may be pointed or printed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afford no lesse then eight severall senses as distant from one another as life and death seeing also that there is no relief against all that huge heap of uncertainty that is found among the founders that are continually confounded within themselves about their sickle foundation unlesse they will be perswaded to come to that firm inâ—allible sure foundation and inalterable Rule of all Truth the light word and spirit of God in the heart but their own vain empty groundlesse confused thoughts imaginations conceits fancies fallible perswasions and opinions taken up by Tradition from each others Tomes Treatises Targums and Talmudical twatlings as if there were neither Light nor Spirit nor word of God throughout the whole world whereby any soul saving Truth can possibly come to be known or entertained at any certainty further then the Text-tâ—ining Text-men tell and teach it forth either by their Oralâ— Talkings for Tythe or manifold Translatings of it out of their falsely supposed entirely Transcribed Copies Shall we then think because I O. to the contradiction of himself so thinks and imposes his own thoughts on us as uncontroulable proofs that there is no variation in the Copies we have from the first Manuscripts of the Scripture but that they are come to us without the least interveniency of any such mediums or wayes as are capable of giving change or aâ—teration or obnoxious to fallibility in the least Syllable or Iota p. 10. 153. or that the some varieties that I. O confesses R. Aaron and R. Moses found in their exact consideration of the Bible were small and of no importance to the sense of any word p. 179 especially since with I.O. if a body might take his Tattle for Truth every Letter Tittle Iota there Transcribed was a part of the word yea no lesse then the Word of the great God wherein the eternall concernment of all soules dothâ—lâ—e p 168. 169 Shall we think because I.O. thinks so p. 17. that there is not any colour or pretence nor any tollerable evidence from all the discrepancies in the Copies themselves that are extant that there ever were any other in the least differing from these extant in the world Shall we think because I. O so thinks p. 181. 193. that all that yet appears impairs not in the least the Truth of his Assertion that every Tittle and Letter that was in the Original Copies remaines in the Copies of the Original to this day without any losse or any alteration or passing away of one iot thereof and that with them that rightly ponder things abovesaid there thence ariseth nothing at all to the prejudice of that his so often o're and oâ—re again affirm'd Assertion And if men must deal by instances in this case as he sayes and not by conjectures though himself gives us no instance of any one Copy of which he can say unlesse he had the Autographa by him that it agrees every Accent and Syllable therewith upon any better ground then his own bare conjectures yet if I had not given him instance enough of whole words verses books prophesies c. lost of inspired mens Scriptures doth not I.O. himself give us instanâ—es enough of variety of Lection to the assuring us of the falsenesse of his first Assertion which instances of his own insisting on are obvious to all Readers of his Book and believed by us to be true rather then his idle talk to the contrary of his Texts integrity to a Tittle And is there any reason as he sayes of himself and his adherents Ep. p. 28 that we should be esteemed Ridiculous because believing our own eyes we will not believe the Testimony of I.O. imagining otherwise then the case is according to his own instances dealing by conjectures against his own instances a man deservedly of no credit with us running in ridiculous rounds and asserting that to be Truth which we know from his own Book to be utterly false Shall we think that the literal Text in the very Transcripts he so talkâ— for is any other then he cals it as to its most ancient Translation a corrupt stream a Lesbian â—ule p. 15. 16 or any other then some call it a nose of wax no certain stable 〈◊〉 or standard to try all Truth by guide throughout in the knowledge of the will of God Shall we think because I.O. thinks so strangely that so corruptible and corrupted a stream as the meer Letter now is since vitiated and interpolated can be judged a fit means to judge the fountain by i. e the Light Word and Spirit it came from and a fit measure to correct and authoritatively to examine and determine those Originals by Shall we think because I.O. hath and uttereth such high and hyperbolical thoughts apprehensions and affirmations of
me alone to prove it to them so to be or else I must acknowledge that all I have to say will be just nothing to the purpose and of no validity at all to the proof thereof Reply But stay a while I.O. and take thy answer from us along with thee though we love thee more then we are beloved by thee and are loath to deny thee in any Reasonable Request Yet for the Truth 's sake which we love and prefer before thee and which is not ours to give away we may not give way to thy Petition of the main Principle from us though thou crouch down to the ground to petition for it we must not give thee leave to run away with the Cause so as to consider the Writing the Scripture under the false formality of its being the Word of God written the Verbum Scriptum while thou art but in the meer way of proving it till thou hast as infallibly prov'd it so to be as 't is infallible to us that 't is impossible for thee to prove it For this is the thing sub judice whether the Scripture be formally the VVord of God or no And since thou confessest thou canst not prove it unless we upon thy begging of it yeild it to thee before-hand so to be thou wert better grant it to us that it is not so Nevertheless not unlike to thy Fore-fathers the Bishops and thy fellow-Clergy-men in other Cases so bold a Lord-Beggar thou art that if we give it not thou wilt take it by force though thou crack thy credit for it and get to thy self less of that earthly Honour thou so hastenest after with thy having it by stealth then thou wouldst gain of that heavenly Honour from above by an honest confession of thy former ignorance and a repentance to the future acknowledgement of the truth For upon that score thou resolvest so to go on in thy proof and accordingly dost run rashly on like him who as aforesaid proves a Cock to be a Bull or like one who because he thought so in the dark having ignorantly asserted an Horse to be a Man will rather then recant as impudently go on to prove it to all denyers of it by begging of them first to grant it and if they will not by beating what he can the belief of it into them by his often calling the Horse a Man and bearing them down that he is a man before he begins and under that very Name and formality of his being so begins and proves him to be evidently so in this following form viz. That which doth evidence it self to be a man is a man but a Man Horse he should say but then the naked untruth of this minor would be too manifest doth evidence himself to be a Man Therefore a man alias Horse doth evidence himself to be a man Risum tenoatis A-cade mici For my part if I were now as sometime formerly I have been Petulanti splene cachinno I should hardly hold from laughing at the nugacity of I. O.'s Arguments But now nucibus faciens quaecunque relictis being turn'd into that which leads into more sobriety and seriousness then so I shall dare to laugh no further then 't is allowed the saints to do at the proud Assyrian that haughtily exalteth his voice and lifteth his eyes on high against the holy one of Israel and his holy ones Isa. 37.22 23. But as for many of those juniors what the Seniors may do I know not or younger sort of Students and Gown-men in the Vniversity to whose use and instruction thou dedicatest part of thy Booke though thou being once a man of some Authority among them they may possibly not be so bold nor so loud as to laugh out at thy hum-drum doings and at thy Idem per Idems yet they will scarce forbear laughing at them in their sleeves Yet this is thy sophistry I.O. call'd among Schollars Petitio principij or a Begging of the Question before one begins to prove it a taking of that to be a Ground Principle or Foundation to build on which is not yet granted but to be debated nor another thing from the thing debated or inquired after but the self-same thing which is in controversie and as unknown as that that is disputed For the Question between thee and the Qua. is whether the Scripture be in essereali cognoscibili the Word of God or no we deny it thou being to prove it so to be wouldest have it first granted or at least takest it ungranted so to be and then out of it self it being granted thee so to be thou wilt undertake to prove it so without which concession consideration and resolution thou even grantest the things thou art to alledge will be naked and utterly inefficacious to that purpose out of which way of Sophistry it seems thou canst not prove it and in which way though de jure thou oughtest not yet de facto thou doest prove it as much and no whit more then as is said above the Cock is proved to be a Bull and a Horse a Man whilst thy Argumentation in many places is no better than this viz. that which is the Word of God doth evidence it self to be the Word of God But the Word of God Scripture or writing thou shouldest say but dost not every where lest thy nakedness too much appear is the Word of God Therefore the Word of God doth evidence it self to be the Word of God In which Syllogism which is thine if the long loyns of thy loose dispute and that stragling multitude of thy matter of proof be girded up close into its own mifigured form thy minor hath subjectum aliud à substrato a different subject from that which was of right to stand there and to be proved to be the VVord of God viz. the VVord of God which is Idem cum predicato the self-same with that which is predicated of it and thy conclusion infers aliud à negato quite another thing then that which is denied for that the VVord of God is by it self evidenced to be the VVord of God is as much undenied as it is undeniable by us but that the writing in which the VVord is but held forth and declared is the VVord of God that is held out and declared by it this I shall make as bold and as warrantably against any one to deny as I should against such a Sot as following a Foolshead of his own should assert such a thing that the Glass window thorough which the Sun shines and the Lanthorn thorough which the light of the candle shews it self are of a truth and in very deed respectively the very Sun it self or Candle-light it self that display themselves thorow the said Glass or Horn or that the Cup-glass by which the VVine gives its colour and is handed out that men may drink it is truly and properly the very wine itself that is given out to be drunk of and that sparkles and
gives out his goodly colour in the Glass or that the picture of a Prince or eminent person is in esse reali cognoscibili and in all propriety of speech so to be called the very Prince or person him self it is but the Image of or the Map of the City London Rome Jerusalem is the very City it represents so that he bereaves it of its proper name that will not allow it to to be any otherwise but figuratively so called Now as to the Scriptures being the Word of God and evidently known to be so or evidencing themselves to be so and that of right and properly they are to be so called all which thou J. O very absolutely averrest I do here as absolutely deny confessing that if they be so or can be evidenced so to be they ought accordingly so to be called or else not for tum demum propriè dicuntur resfieri quoad nos cum incipiunt patefieri what is not so is not known to be so much less can challenge that as its proper name so that if in essereali they can be made appear to be the Word of God then I give the rest for granted or if I make it appear that they are not so then all wise men that not for want of ignorance of it yet do not will once grant that they are not so infallibly known as J.O. avouches they are to be the Word of God and that the Word of God is not the proper name of the Scriptures so distinctly and abstractively understood as is above said And seeing that thou J.O. art first out in the field appearing for them it s but meet that I should first examine what thou urgest in way of evidence for their being the Word of God and so subjoyn what I have to say truly of them against what falsely thou hast said And seeing that which thou thy self layest as the very basis and foundation of thy whole brittle building and of all that divine Authority ascribed by thee to the Scripture of its being owned sub paena to be submitted to as the Word of God on peril of eternal damnation is its Divine original and is best also to be first medled with that the bottome being shaken and shewed to be unsound the body of sticks and straws thou buildest thereon which is torn and shattered not a little within it self as it stands untouched in the eye of any intelligent and observant Reader may yet with the more ease and less labour be shaken to the ground I shall enter first at the front of thy Formidable forces and begin to undo where thou beginnest to do thy Do which yet will not be so much in one sense to undo as truly to do Right to the Truth about the letter which thou wrongest in uttering so many utter untruths concerning it as thou doest J. O. The whole Authority of the Scripture in it self depends solely on its Divine original pag. 2. This Original is the basis and foundation of all its Authority pag. 28. Rep. As to the Divine original of the Scripture which is the first and fundamental matter that in the very original or first Chapter of thy first Treatise thou pleadest on its behalf as in proof of its Divine Authority or Right to be owned as the Word of God I deny not but that it is of Divine original and so one way or other is every thing else that hath a truly good and honest being yea the very Devil himself as a creature of God though neither any of his deeds which are sin which is deceit and defect nor himself quà 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is a Deceiver and as immediate an original from God as any meer writing or Scripture in the world hath this Scripture hath and some little of it such an immediate emanation from God as neither the most of it self hath or ever had nor yet the best that ever any holy man of God was the Pen-man of now hath or ever had I acknowledge that Scripture which is the present subject had at its first giving out to men for a few words of that outward writing the mee◠writing or letter of which yet though the matter still remains and ever will when all writing fails is lost and perished out of the world as well as the original manuscripts of the holy men who wrote the rest was written more miraculously at first then with the hands of holy men namely some with such Fingers as came out from the wall by God◠appointment in Belshazzars carousing Room Dan. 5.24 25 26 27 28. and some with no less than the Finger of God himself Exod. 32.18 16.32 15 16. 34.1.28 Deuter. 9 10. 10.12 But what of all this that the meer Transcripts of that Text which was so immediately though little or none of it so immediately from God as J.O. contends neither or at least none at all of it immediate unto us that our modern Transcripts I say thereof which is all that is immediate to us and which J.O. who confesses all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first writings to be lost busies himself to prove to be so are at all immediately come forth from God to us or that that letter which was most immediately penned from Gods own hand is thereupon evinced to be truly and in proper location the Word of God or any more then externa mera licet vera Imag◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer though true outward copy expression or express Image as vox omnis is and Scripture too ad intra of the Word of God which is that only that is written of and not the writing of it This I both dare and do deny again J.O. or any other that asserts it yet what a deal of stress doth J.O. put upon his strict and strong Asseveration of this throughout his first Chapter insomuch that he layes the whole load of his cause and makes all his labours to lean upon this weak Reed and broken Basis the falseness shallowness and sandiness of which as he manages this matter viz. the manner of the Scriptures coming out from God by then I shall have a little examined it will shew it self unable to bear up the weighty Fabrick of the Scriptures being the Word of God which is the Babel that he builds upon it against a storm I shall here take notice of some at least of J. O.'s foolish false fictitious and self-contradicting talk about that prime Prop and Pillar on which his grand Proposition that the Scripture is assuredly and infallibly known to be the Word of God and all his proofs thereof are grounded viz. The Divine Original of the Scripture CHAP. II. I Shall consider this matter of the Scriptures Original both Absolutely taking notice of a few of thy false and foolish fancies about it and also Relatively as it 's laid by thee as the Basis of the Scriptures Divine Authority or being th◠Word of God J. O. The Laws
himself as it seemed good to him wrote a story of certain Truths not upon the account of such a meer passive immediate reception thereof from God by inspiration of every Tittle into him as he wrote as thou doest without any conception of the things in his minde or retaining them in his memory or by any means before hand comprehending them but rather as it were at second hand as they were heard and beleeved and undeâ—stood by him as true matters of fact from the mouthes or writings of such as were eye witnesses thereof and did first deliver them and so to the confutation of thy vain figment not without a concurrence of his rational faculties in the receiving of what he wrote 3. What thinkest thou of those Proverbs of Solomon whose Proverbs were 3000. in all not 300. of which are contained in your Canon and his Songs a hundred and not five of which are come to your cognizance King 4 3.2.5 or those which stand in your Standard from the very first inserting of them there stand but at second hand at best as they were copied out of whether the first manuscript or some remote and more uncertain Transcript who can tellâ— by the men of Hezekiah some nine or ten Generations after him see Prov. 25.1 were these received by the Writers that affixed them to that ye call your Canon so immediately from God as thou dreamest without any but a passive concurrence as things not by any means comprehended by these men of Hezekiah before they wrote them 4. What thinkest thou of such parts and parcels of thy so called Canon as are each of them written in two several places or books of thy Bible one of which places and the Respective parcels whether Histories or Prophesies or Praises therein recited are at most but repetitions and meer transcriptions out of the other with some such Additions or Ablations or Alterations of more than Titles and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is not unusually made among Transcribers of which sort for instance in a few I refer thee and all such as scrape so unskilfully as thou doest about the Scriptures being in every Title as it now stands in your Copies immediately written from God by inspiration and without meditation or any means of comprehending the things they wrote beforehand by the Writers thereof to consider and compare Psal. 14. with Psal. 53. and 2 Sam. 2.2 with Psal. 18. also 2 King 18.13 c. 19. c. 20. with Isa. 36. Isa. 37. Isa. 38. Isa 39. also 2 King 24 18. c. 25. throughout with Ier. 39. Ier. 52. by which places perused howbeit every word of this is asserted by J.O. to be written as immediately from Gods own mouth as any of it it is yet plain and evident that some of it was but copied and transcribed out of other some and such a useless Repetition of the same over and over again as neither need be nor would be if the Bible as consistent of neither more nor less than what is ordinarily bound up in it had beâ—n intended by either God or the holy Pen-men of the sundry parcels thereof to be the inalterable constant Canon and only steady Standard for all succeeding ages of men universally to the worlds end 5. Moreover what thinkest thou of such Scripture Prophesies and Epistles as were first written and pend not by the holy men themselves that were moved to give them forth by inspiration but by such as wrote them not mmediately from God but from the mouthes of such only as indited them as the spirit moved of which there are not a few but how many exactly who knows since evident it is that those men after whom they are denominated did not at first write all their own Prophesies and Epistles with their own hands witness much at least of Ieremiahs Prophesie that was written not by himself but Baruch his ordinary Scribe as Jeremiah dictated to him See Ier. 36.4.6.17 18 32. Baruch 6.1 c. Witness also Pauls Epistle to the Romans which though indited by him yet Tertius was the Pen-man thereof Rom. 16.22 which verse Tertius himself it seems added as he wrote Besides many if not most of his Epistles were sent not from Paul alone sigillatim but from himself and such other of his fellow-labourers as were with him at such times and places when and from whence they were sent viz. some from him and Timothy 2 Cor. 1.1 Col. 1.1 Philip. 1.1 Philem. 1.1 Some from him and Silas and Timothy 1 Thess. 1.1 2 Thes. 1.1 one from him and Sosthenes 1 Cor. 1.1 of which which of the two or the three was the Scribe though we beleeve Paul to be under God the chief Authour who knows one from him and all the brethren that were with him at the writing thereof Gal. 1.1 2. which is the only one to any whole Churches that we have clear evidence of that he wrote with his own hands of which he sayes Gal. 6.11 Yee see how large a letter I have written to you with mine ownhand and verse 17. Henceforth let no man trouble me which very expression of his verse 11. intimates that it was not very usual with him to write his letters to the Churches with his own hand but only signed them when others had wrote them for him therefore he often intimateâ— his love to them under his own hand and no more See 1 Cor. 16.21 Col. 4.18.1 and 3.17 The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand which is the token in every Epistle so I write now it being so were all the writings and things written received so immediately from God as thou imaginest by the first Pen-men with out retaining any thing in their memories of what they had learned or comprehending them by any means beforehand or without any but a meer passive concurrence of their rational faculties in the reception thereof what ignorance is this Besides whether with Pauls own hand or any others his Epistles were written some things therein were therein spoken to the Churches by himself as delivering his judgement by permission only and not by Commandement from God by him not the Lord To the rest quoth he speak I and not the Lord 1 Cor 7.6 12.40 which as it contradicts J. O's talk in the parcel above cited so also it overturns that talk and fabulous piece of praie as to some parts of it and shall here stand as an answer to it which he as ignorantly utters pag. 25 26 27. viz. They were carried out by the Holy Ghost to speake deliver write all that and nothing but that to a very tittle that was so brought unto them they only received the words from God himself Every aspect of the written word i.e. writing with J.O. is equally Divine and as immediately from God as the voice wherewith or whereby he spake to or in the Prophets and is therefore accompanied with the same Authority in it self and unto us What hath been spoken thus of the Scripture
is added So every Apex equally Divine and as immediately from God as any of it yea and as the voice whereby he spake in the Prophets pag. 27. But I say as written by thee so universally of the Writers and meer Writing of the Scriptures as they are they are for the most part as false as that foregoing and that I have said above concerning the Writing of much of the Scripture at first as it stands in your Bibles by Scribes that wrote either out of other Copies or from the mouths of men more immediately inspired or from what was commonly reported and generally believed and what they had heard as delivered to them by more immediate eye and ear witnesses and what they retain'd in their memories and some way or other comprehended beforehand may stand as a sufficient Answer to this parcel also wherein according to thy wonted habitual darkness ignorance and contradiction to the Truth thou deniest the Pors-men and holy Prophets in their Writings to be enabled to declare and write what they wrote by any habitual light knowledge or conviction of the Truth As if they wrote what they neither saw nor heard nor knew nor believed to be true but besides all sight and understanding discerning mental conception meditation Rational Apprehension Faith or any manner of Antecedent comprehension of the truths they told as if they were all acted and us'd in the Writing of every Tittle by the Lord just no otherwise but as a Musical Instrument in a man's hand or the Pen itself by an expert Writer which can yeeld no more then a meer passive concurrence having no principle of life within it self from whence to act any thing at all or to move a hairs breadth in any business but as it 's mov'd or as some stark dead Corps which can neither stir nor stand but as extrinsecally born up and carried forth because deest aliquid intus Whereas as I have shew'd above some of them wrote not by immediate inspiration or bringing of the things into their minds so by the spirit but mediately that is from the mouths or writings of such as received the truths more immediately as they were inspired wrote as they also spake no other things then what by some means or other they beforehand comprehended no other then what they heard and saw and believed and retained in their minds and memories whereinto the spirit of truth and the truths he guided them into which the world receives not were both received conceived and entertained yea and I here add no other then such as in the same light were more or less seen known understood and believed before any Scripture at all was though 't was by the same way then which I know no other that the Scripture speaks of of knowing God or Christ viz of internal spiritual Revelation Matth. 11.27 Ioh. 6.47 1 Cor. 2.9 10 11 12. Gal. 1.16 Did Paul believe or witness or write any other things when he wrote with his own hands what was immediately revealed in spired into him by the same holy spirit then what by the same spirit in which and no other way all the things of God are known and ever were holy men of God believed owned witnessed wrote and both in their Writings and Speakings acknowledged to be the truth see Act 24.14 26.22 23. 2 Cor. 1 13. 4.13 Did he write any other things then what they to whom he wrote might and did read elsewhere even in the light and spirit within themselves and did thereby acknowledge to be the truth And did not he himself before he wrote them in the movings of the spirit acknowledge them to be the truth himself And did he in the light in which he liv'd and saw them acknowledge them to be the truth and yet was not enabled by any habitual Light knowledge or conviction of the truth to declare them in writing as he did but wrote as one ignorant in the dark unbelieving and unconvinced of the truths he wrote and as senselesse unintelligently and passively without any active obedience to the spirit pressing him or yeelding any but a meer passive influence and concurrence of his rational faculties in the worker as a meer dead thing that is utterly devoid of all kind of life motion or principle of Action within it self and uncapable of any action at all or motion but as it is acted ab extra by some forensical force or compulsion as a Musical Woodden instrument or a pen by the hand of the writer what a weak crooked crazy piece of conception of Scripture in this of thine of which I may truly say there was not so much active concurrence of the rational faculties of the Scribes in their writing of the Scripture but there is as little in this of thine who writest as if all the Prophets of God that ever spake and wrote what of his minde they received from his own mouth by standing in his counsel and hearkning to what he said in them and waited on him to know and understand his will and word first that they might do it in the particular in their own persons and as moved or commanded in obedience to him declare it to others were absolutely and meerly as passive as Balaams Ass was whose mouth miraculously was opened and his minde indued with rational faculties supernatural to him as he was a Beast to Reason out the case with his unrighteous Master and to reprove the madness of that Prophet and as meerly passive in their work of Prophesie as Caiphas the High Priest was whose mouth was opened to speak truer than he was aware of and to prophesie of a thing out of his irrational faculties that was as high above the reach of the best rational faculties he had being a man degenerate from pure perfect reason and in the fall as fallen mans best reason is above the brute beasts of the field for as Herod and Pontius Pilate did with wicked hands the things that God before determined should come to pass fulfilling the Prophets words in slaying Christ little thinking they served the truth as they did in it as the Assyrian in the like case they meant not so nor did their heart think otherwise than to destroy Isa. 10.5 6 7. Act. 4.27 28. Act. 3.17 18. Act. 13.27 28 29. So that Priest with a wicked heart intentionally to counsel them to murther Christ had his mouth prepared to Prophesie a precious truth which as so he spake not of himself so as one that had the light knowledge or conviction of the truth but besides himself as the Ass in the other case Numb 22.28 29 30. Joh. 11.29 50 51 52 53. Joh. 10.14 Whereas most evident it is that the holy men of God who wrote any part of the Scripture by immediate inspiration with their own hands to let pass that which some wrote for and from them as dictated to by their mouthes were in the light sight knowledge prae-conviction comprehension
other good work when called by him to it i.e. not without but with such an active obedience as by his Law or Light within they are obliged to not without an active concurrence of rational faculties reduced to their primitive perfection not without but with ability thereto from an habitual light knowledge and conviction of truth and use of their wisdomes and understandings memories not without but with an aforehand containing and comprehending of the truths they wrote in their mindes as things they had heard seen beleeved acknoledged c. God who who is the giver of every good gift and the chief Author and Actor of all good works in his Saints Isa. 26. using every instrument according to what he hath fitted it for a Beast as a Beast a Man as a Man a Saint as a Saint a Prophet as a Prophet and not a Man a Saint a Prophet a spiritual man as a stock or stone but being a reasonable creature and prepared by him naturally with such a soul such faculties and supernaturally and spiritually with such gifts and graces as whereby he is capable to act when by him commanded and a body suitable as a fit instrument to move in such a work as writing his will revealed when it is revealed also to be his will that he should write it he uses him so to write as that though himself be the principal or primum movens not only in act◠primo as he gives the pomer faculties gift graces c. but in actu secundo also he holds the hand of the Scrib◠so that he would else draw but mishapen characters and guides assists and acts in and by him yet he lets the action bear its denomination from its next and immediate Agent which is not God himself who gives the word for the writing of what he will have written in the penning of the Scripture except that little i.e. the ten words as is abovesaid but men as being moved by him to write or to dictate to others whom they willed to write from their mouthes so that the immediate spring and emanation of the Scripture was not from God but men who were the agents in it under him which overturns J. O's Apish opinion of every Apex of the writing being equally divine and as to its original as immediately from God and of the same Authority in itself and to us i e. of being received as his word sub paena c. on pain of peril of eternal condemnation as his voice in the Prophets which indeed was immediately from himself and his own witness whereas the letter was mostly but the immediate work of man witnessing for God as moved by him as first given out and as we now have it by so remote away of Transcription welnigh as far from being immediately from God to us as J.O. imagines it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as it is with Saints indeed when they pray beleeve preach write c. as moved by the Lord it is not denominated ever by the Author of it all which is God who speaks and works all in such and is in such of a truth 1 Cor. 14. but the Saints who are said to pray beleeve preach write so was it in the giving out of that Scripture or writing that was of old called the Bible which J.O. calls his Canon to which no Title more must ever be counted which was not nor is not so immediate from God to us as his own voice is that is at this day to be heard in the heart but onely mediantibus manuscriptionibus yea by the interveniency of mediums and hands of Transcribers and Translators obnoxious to fallibility and capable to give change and alteration in more then the least syllables and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 's but at the first it was no more immediately from God than the writings of his moved and inspired Prophets are at this day whom he stirs up to reprove the madness of the Priests and false Prophets which is as that was but the spiritual mans testimony for God though specially assisted by him in it concerning all whom from the beginning of the world to this day so many as have spoken or written or done any thing for the truth in his name I here say and so conclude as to that above Certum est no ◠velle cum volumus dicere cum dicimus praedicare cum praedicamus scribere cum scribimus facere cum facimus sed Deus est qui facit ut faciamus J.O. Thou addest pag. 26. They invented not words themselves suitable to the things they had learned but only expressed the words they received their words were not their own but immediately supplied unto them from God himself and so they gave out the writing of uprightness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of truth Rep. And yet it 's said Eccles. 12.9 10 11 12. as concerning the Writings and Proverbs of Solomon the Wise the Preacher which very place thou alludest to though thou quotest it not which if thou hadst there 's few so unwise but they might see thy folly therein for that Scripture clearly confutes thy self who touchest at it that in teaching the people knowledge as he did by those Writings and Books of Proverbs he gave forth he took good heed and sought out and set in order many Proverbs even thousands more besides above a thousand Songs more then are systematiz'd into thy standing-Canon and that he sought to find out acceptable words or words of delight or rather as thy self expoundest it more clearly to the confounding of thy self as if thou wert accustomed and wonted to that work and course of self-contradiction words of will or choice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which if it be not Tantamount to this He invented words suitable to what he himself had framed whereby to utter and express the wisdom he received to people in writing and yet what was written was upright too and words of truth not beside the spirit of truth and so I.O. consequently confuted by I.O. himself about the Scripture If the Scripture it self had not confuted him then self-confounding which I.O. is so often found in shall pass for me for current confirmation and confusion which I.O. is a most eminent Author of shall go from henceforth for good order and to dance the rounds as I. O. often doth in his shall be held the rightest way of sound Doctrine and of all Divinity Disputation For as if he had not been satisfied with his own gain-saying what he uttered concerning their not inventing of words and non-improving of their understandings wisdoms minds memories p. 25. to order dispute give out what truth they wrote in such words as they saw best suited for the things they had learned of God by saying to the contrary thus Viz. Their mind and understanding were used in the choice of words they did use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of will or choice I.O. to go round again gain-sayes this latter
God by the writers of the Scripture to the Pedagogie of the Old Testament and times before Christ such as greatly affected the outward man with trembling and astonishment for which thou citest both Habakkuk and Daniel as it the times since Christ knew no such matter as true Trembling or any such Quaking as may affect the outward man but what is fained and from Satan and the force and power of the evil Spirit imitating in his filthy Tripodes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Dread and Terrour which is by the Power of God upon his people of which said fictitious sort thou falsely and foolishly fainest all that outward Trembling that is found among the Qua. to be at this day pag. 8. Ex. 1. S. 1. I say hadst thou been as well read and skilled in Scripture as by thy scribling pro Scripturis thou wouldest fain seem to be surely thou wouldest have found that Paul and John both were found in as great Tremblings and Astonishments Dread and Terrour to the great affecting of the outward man under the Appearances of the Lord to them in Visions and Revelations of his minde and will to them which they wrote as either Daniel Habakkuk or the rest of the Prophets before Christ that wrote them insomuch that they scarce knew sometimes where they were whether in or out of the body but were as dead with fear Act. 9 6.26.14 1 Cor. 2.3 2 Cor. 12.2 3. Rev. 1.17 But alas J.O. is so taken up and hurried in his thoughts in a hideous talking for the Scriptures that he hath little time to give any very great good heed to the Scriptures themselves he so talks for J.O. Thou addest pag. 6 7. That as far as their own personal concernments as Saints and beleevers did lye in the things they wrote they studied the writings and Prophesies of one another Dan. 9.2 and made a diligent enquiry thereby in order to the investigation of the things which the Spirit that spake in themselves did signifie 1 Pet. 1.10.10 without which though their Visions were express yet they understood them not and that they attained a saving useful habitual knowledge of the truths delivered by themselves and others by the illumination of the Holy Ghost through the study of the Word i.e. Scripture with thee still even as ye do Psal. 119 104. but as to the receiving of the Word from God as God Spoke in them they obtained nothing by study or meditation by enquiry or reading Am. 7.15 Rep. Here is such a parcel of uncouth prate about the Prophets and their Prophesie of Scriptures and the Scriptures of their Prophesies as favours of nothing but that illiterateness and ignorance of the true wayes of coming to the saving knowledge and understanding of the minde and will of God that abounds in Vniversities the supposed Nurseries as well of spiritual learning as any other well nigh as much as in any places of the so called Christian world besides What dreaming what darkness and confusion is here As if the Writers of the Scriptures because they were moved by the holy Spirit to write what they did therefore wrote they did not know what themselves nor in any wise sawingly understood every one his own piece of writing or Scripture pag. 5. whether of Histories or Prophesies or Proverbs or Psalms or Instructions or Doctrines or Laws or Promises or what ever tru he recorded delivered made known given out revealed by themselves revealed to them first from God as to their own concernment therein as Saints or beleevers by the Revelation thereof to them from God which as I said above is the only way of coming to the saving knowledge of any truth and not that of reading it as truth in anothers writings without running out to study and read the writings of some other men in order to their attaining any habitual saving useful intelligence of their own as if Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet did not savingly understand the Gospel Doctrines and Promises and Instructions and his own Recorded History of Senacherib and Hezekiah and other saving truths delivered and written by himself as they were revealed to him by the Lord nor by the voice Spirit and light of God himself manifesting them within him nor as he received the word so revealed and manifested in order to which receiving the word thou assertest also they obtained nothing by study or meditation enquiry or reading but onely as he made diligent enquiry study and search after the things the Spirit signified by him in the writings and Scriptures of some other Prophets I wonder what other parts of Scripture of the other Prophets he studied so to get that saving knowledge by since unless it were the Psalmes the last book of which is judged to have been compiled together by the Maccabees long after his dayes excepting also the three i.e. Hos a Amos and Micah that were co aetaneous with him all other Prophets that are ranked after him in your Bibles though not in the same order of time wherein they wrote wrote long after him and as if Ezekiel Jeremiah Daniel or the rest knew not savingly what they wrote themselves no more then we do as to themselves or any personal interest they had in the truths of their own writings but as they got an useful saving knowledges thereof out of each others writings in proof of which if a man would wrest them as thou doest to thine by the head and shoulders to such a purpose he might almost as easily evince the Pope to be head of Christs Church as draw any such matter as this thou concludest from Scripture That of 1 Pet. 1.10 11. Ministers no more matter of evidence to thy imagination in this particular that the Prophets searched other Prophets writings to finde out each the meaning of his own then Peters being at Rome if ever he were there doth to his being the Popes Predecessor there in the holy Chair 'T is true the Prophets are there said to enquire and search diligently after the salvation and the grace that comes unto the Saints at the revelation of Christ but is there no searching and enquiring after the salvation and the fulness of the grace of God but iâ— the letter is not the most succesful searching after these matters made in the light it self that teaches and shews it and brings the salvation nigh to all that wait for it therein which light or grace hath appeared to all men Tit. 2.11 12. and is tâ—eâ—e any way whereby God gives the knowledge of his own glory but the light from himself which the letter speaks of wherewith God who commands the light to shine out of darkness shines into the hearts of the Saints in order thereunto 2 Cor. 4.5 6. And are not all things that are manifested manifested in the light and is there any thing that doth make manifest but the said light and Spirit which the letter speaks of and which was before the letter was Eph. 5.13
and doth God reveal the hidden mysteries of the Gospel any way but by his Spirit to his Saints which searcheth all things even the deep things of God and doth any know the things of God but the Spirit of God and the spiritual men who in it and not by the letter which letter the world hath yet hath not the other have minde of Christ 1 Cor. 2.9 to the end And in that of Peter coted by thee is there the least hint of the Scriptures or of the Prophets searching the Scriptures or of any signification of the things they ministred to others in their writings by the Scriptures but only by the Spirit And as for Daniel it is true he understood by the books of Jeremiah the cerâ—ain number of seventy years how long the Captivity should last but what of that num ex puris particularibus aliquid sequitâ—â— universale Wilt thou argue from one to all much more wilt thou infer from thence that neither Daniel nor any other Prophets understood their own writings but by the Scriptures of the other Prophets which is the absurdity thou assertest And as for Davids saying Through thy Precepts I get understanding Hast thou got no more understanding yet then to beleeve that the Precepts Statutes â—udgements Laws Commandments Testimonies Word Ordinances Wayes Truth Name one or other of which names is either in the singular or in the plural number used in every individual verse excepting two throughout that long 119. Psalm consisting of an 176. verses no other thing is meant but the outward letter writing or Scripture of Moses five books very little more than which was extant in Davids dayes wherein the ten words which God wrote with his own hand and a few more Ceremonious matters were recorded by the hand of Moses Is not the Commandement or Word or Law of God as the letter speaks the Lamp or Light that the letter only speaks of Psal. 19.7 c. 119.105 Prov 6.23 And if all the other Prophets that succeeded Moses studied the writingâ— of Moses and one another in order to the knowledge of their own Prophetical writings without which they understood them not savingly as thou sillily sayest yet I wonder what other Prophets writingâ— Moses himself who was one of the Prophets not excepted by thee searched and studied that he might get a saving understanding of that truth that was penn'd by himself sith as thou thinkest at least there were no Scriptures extant before him for Enochs Prophesies have no standing in your Standard I wonder Quae colliquia cum Angelis vel ficta velfacta quis enthusiasmus quis afflatus caelestis aut reapse vis mali spiritus did suggest these fantasms into thy fancy Ex. 1. Ex. S. â—8 thou hast little need to detest the Qua. as Enthusiasis that entertainest and utterest to the world as undoubted truths such Amick Enthusiasmes as these Sundry other such shallow furmises and suppositions are very positively propounded and set down by thee in thy first Chapter of thy first Treatise which I shall let pass here some of which may possibly be touch't on elsewhere But this may suffice to give a taste of that untruth which thy two Treatises are under-propt with whereby from the falsenesse faultinesse foolishnesse and unsoundness of thy ground-work and foundation and from the brittleness of thy Basis so thou call'st p. 1.28.30 this Original part of thy Book concerning the Divine Original and immediate manner of the Scriptures coming forth from God to us the reasonable Reader may read aforehand what a Come-down Castle the rest of thy Babylonish Building is like to be for howbeit I grant that the Word of God and the holy truth in its first coming forth from God to the holy Pen-men that heard his voice and so wrote it as moved by him was of an immediate Divine original in which respect it is said no Prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation or to be counted no more upon than a private mans wriâ—ing which writes of his own head as thou dost the figment and imagination of whose heart fancies thoughts are the fountain of all that is uttered but as that which holy men of God were moved to write and the outward Scripture it self may be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. penned by men as they were inspired by God or the fruit and effect of no self-afflation but according to the motion or inflation of the holy Spirit yet that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou makest such a deal of work about as the Original of the Copies of the Original of the Scripture and their coming forth from God was not so immediately from God to those that lived when they were first given out much less to us now as thou imaginest in thy vain mind who dotest that every Apex of that Text is equally Divine and as immediately from God to us as the very voice of God in the Prophets was to them without the least mixture or interveniency of any mediums or wayes obnoxious to fallibility or capable of giving change or alteration to the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or syllable thereof pag. 10.30.153 for that came from God at first excepting the Decalogue and that little to Belshazzar which ye have now but remote Copies of not without the interveniency medium and way of mans hand-writing which is it were as being infallibly guided by the Spirit obnoxious to no fallibility yet as it comes to you who own that and no other to be your inalterable Standard it s far from coming immediately from God sith it is not without the interveniency of the hands of welnigh innumerable unknown Transcribers the very first and best of whom were so far from non-obnoxiousness to fallibility that thou thy self sayest pag. 167. that neither all nor any of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible or divinely inspired so that it was impossible for them to mistake and that religious care and diligence in their works with a due reverence of him with whom they had to do is all thou ascribest to them and p. 10. that the wisdome truth integrity knowledge and memory of the best of all men is obnoxious 〈◊〉 fallibility and also that it s known they did fail Neither if the Question were about the Autographae or first Manuscripts that were far more immediate then thy far fetcht Apographae or modern Copies are howbeit thy main business is about the magnifying thy confestedly mistranscribed Transcripts and fallible Copies and not the other which being acknowledged by thee to be lost perished and mouldred out of the world nemo post homines natos aequè ac tu delerasse censendus esset si pro scripturis ipsis scriptis hisce argumentare statueris thy dotage would justly be deemed of a deeper die than any mans to argue for them if he be a fool of al fool that fightâ— for the non-corruptibility of what is long since corrupted but I say were thy
in whom thou foolishly fanciest Satan assaults the Sacred truth of the Word of God in its Authority purity integrity and perfâ—ction against whose abominations as thou sayest in thy Epistles thou subjoyned thy Latine Theses in the close of the other Treatises for the instruction of the younger sort of students to whom thou dedicatest thy dribling doings and for the clearing of the Qua. in their principles from thy shallow rash censure of them as being therein confused opposers of the truth I shall endeavour to comprize the whole Truth not only about the Word of God but also about the Scripture of it as to Name and Thing most miserably mistaken by thy poor deluded self in this one general Argument the minor Proposition whereof being plainly proved to be true in each particular of it for the major is not only undeniable but also undenied or rather absolutely affirmed by thy self the conclusion which is perfectly contradictory to the main matter and principal Proposiâ—ion contended for throughout thy Book viz. That the Scriptures known to be the Word of God and that is the proper name thereof will necessarily follow as true to its full and final confutation and overturning The Argument is on this wise The Word of God is the most stedfast relief against uncertainty and confusion the firm foundation the most perfect Rule of all faith and obedience that God requires at mâ—ns hands the most effectual means of bringing men to repentance and which immediately it is to be grounded upon the chiefest among all wayes of coming to the knowledge of Gods minde and will the truest Touchstone stable Standard Lydius lapis that gives determination of Doctrines by which all is to be examined and proved necessary to beget and increase faith perfect in its integrals the most glorious spiritual light in the world above the Sun the Witness of God the very Doctrine of God the power of God to salvation the powerful living quickning soul-saving Word of God that which challengeth that glorious title to its self as it own proper name that which evidenceth manifests and testifies of it self to be the Word of God and is so stiled welnigh a thousand times in the Scripture to be received as such on peril of eternal ruine every tittle of which is the Word of God the great God in which the eternal concernment of souls doth lye and such other things as J.O. denominates the Scripture by But the Scripture is none of all this therefore the Scripture is not the Word of God much less known so to be nor so properly to be called That the Scripture is none of all that which thou testifiest above that it is and which no Qua. do deny the Word of God to be is the business which now lyes before me to make good in order whereunto I shall take the several particulars into examination and make some Animadversion of what thou sayest in proof of those particulars in the Affirmative affirming I that not the Scripture but the light the letter came from is the only most stedfast relief against contentious confusions darkness and uncertainties Thou sayest indeed the Scripture is the stedfast Relief against all that uncertainty darkness confusion c. That the mindes of men heightned by the unspeakable alterations that are found among them run out into But I say not blaming the Scripture as the cause of it which is holy just and good when wise men have the handling of it that throw the doting disputers of this world about it who in their wrangling mindes and restless pens wrest the Writings of it to their own and the worlds ruine the Scripture canoniz'd by men as their rule of faith is become as the Gospel of peace is of war to the lewd mindes the occasion or causa sine qua non of all the confusion darkness uncertainty which by the vanity folly and loosness of mens mindes drawn out a whoring after the letttr without from the light and spirit within by divine dotages on it and dim divinations out of it for means and the unspeakable alterations of it and endless enmities and hatreds and envyings one of another about their own sottish senses and mishapen meanings on it hath too certainly been heightened and is already long since run out into So that as Aristotle and Ramus the two received and respective Standards for the junior Sophisters of our two Nurseries Oxford and Cambridge to fight under in their Logical scoldings So the Scripture is made by our senior School-men in their Scholastical Theological Sâ—nffles a Standard more to squabble about and fight under than a Standard to try and determine Truth by as they call it and is nothing but an ample Armory from which they fetcht most of their furniture where with all in their mad malicious mindes to fence against each other concerning the Scriptures it self and such plain truths as lye open to all honest capacities therein and lye hid from none more than these wise and prudent Praters of it who like the Horses and Riders Zach. 12.4 being of the Lord smitten with madness blindness and astonishment run on to battel as Warriours Isa. 9. with confused noise till the Nations where they live lye languishing for their wicked wills sakes with their Garments rolled in blood Yea the Scripture as canoniz'd into an Authentick common Standard to themselves stands but as Truncus locorum c. a certain Topick or Common place from whence to scrue Arguments to the assaulting one of another and from which to fetch fuell to feed the fire of their wrathful and hellish life of disputing out their giddy guessings to each other so nauseously that some Saints have been weary of the world and wisht to be out of it upon nothing more than a desire to be rid of the angry direful doings and divisions of the men called Divines which Topick of theirs too they chop to pieces and criticize into such crums and bits the better to beat one another out of and about it that as the Oxonians used to say of Ramus In tot Ramos Ramulos Ramusculos locorum hunc Truncum dividit c. So I may say of all our admired Erasmus's or supposedly learned Divines that either hate or dote on each others Divinity doings of the best of whom when all is done as renouned as they seem to themselves I can say no better yet such Dunces are they in the School of Christ than I can of Erasmus himself of whom as to the things of God were he now living it might be said Mus at Erasmus eras Mus at Erasmus eras In quot Puncta Punctula Punctillula c. into how many points punctualities and punctilioes do they spring out in their pratings pratlings and prittle prattles upon and concerning it till as Heterogeneous as the Scripture is in the sense above shewed in respect of its various matters they make the bare writing so Homogeneous a thing that every point tittle
affirm nor more nor less yet ye own and justifie your selves as owners and deny and judge us as deniers as of of the Scriptures Ye challenge us to dispute it against us that the Scripture is the Word of God the only Rule c. when we meet you before hundreds to that end you confess with us as Christopher Fowler did at Reading T.D. at Sandwich and I.O. doth in his Declartion or Latine Divinity Disputations that you mean not the Scripture formally considered the Letter or Text it self ye talk for not the Writing but the holy matter and doctrine contained held forth testified to therein the Word in the heart of which we say its a Light a Rule denying the letter only so to be yet the same truth when ye tell it is the truth when we tell it as a lye Ye venture upon the open stage against us a vile persons in our Tenets about the Scriptures when ye are there ye verefie the very self-same truth we vindicate against you and say with us the Scripture or Writing which is the formality of the Scripture quae dat esse Rei sormally considered is not the Word nor the Rule nor any thing but a dead letter only the matter and truth of the Text testified to is the Word Rule Light c. as we say it is only Yet when ye go away though from the first to the last ye give us the cause yet we must give you leave or else you will steal it to carry away the colours and boast and brag and vapour as the men that had the victory till by venting your lyes so fast to manifest the Qua. folly ye fling out your own folly to the view of all men T.D. But quoth T.D. p. 30.1 Pamph. All this while you go about to delude the simple as if you denied only this way of writing to have alwayes been the only way of conveyance and you magnifie the Spirit that with more security ye may throw down the letter of the Scripture and if you would speak out plainly that ye call the Spirit will be found to be the dictates of your consciences blinde and corrupt as they are the Lord knows and you are no further bound to obey the letter of the Scripture then you are willing to obey it Rep. As for thy lyes of the friends of truth that light stuff like the chaffe the winde will drive away The Lord knows whose consciences are blind and corrupt yours or ours and as to thy slighting the dictates of conscience which work I.O. is not behinde thee in flouting at what is dictated by the Light of God in it and by the light therein from it to men as Figment Fannaticism Enthusiasm and such like dirty denominations I need refer no further then too I.O. whose magnifications of the dictates of conscience otherwhiles may well serve to the contradiction and confutation of himself and thee too and stop both thy mouth and his own too who â—ayes pag. 42. â—3 44,45 of the conscience and the voice of God therein and the instinct of good and evil and self-judgement God hath placed and indeleably planted therein it declares it self to be from God by its own light and Authority there is no need to convince a man by substantial witnesses that what his conscience speaks it speaks from God whether it bear testimony to the righteousness of God or that obedience which is eternally and indispensably due to him it shews the work of the Law written in the heart and discovers its Author in whole name it speaks and much more to the like purpose so that he and thou too may with shame enough reflect upon your ignorant vilifications of it As for our obedience to the Letter we are by the Spirit so bound to that not so far only as we are willing as thou belieâ—t us but in a cross to our own wills that while we walk in the Spirit which is our Rule we cannot disobey the Letter but fulfill it while your selves who prate of your being bound to obey it walk at large after your own wills and lusts in the liberty of your flesh and through your boundless boasting of that ye as boundlesly break do dishonour both God and your selves As for our going about to deceive the simple we deny all Deceivers and Deceit teaching no other Doctrine nor Gospel then what Paul delivered then which whoever it is that brings or broaches another whether it be we who are hated as Devils or you who are honoured as Angels of light from heaven by such as dwell in the depths and darkness of hell I say with Paul let him be accursed but those are now marked and manifested plainly enough who cause the Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine the Saints learned of old by the children of the day are avoided also for they that are such serve not the Lord Iesus Christ but their own bellies and yet by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16.17 18. What T.D. sayes in his second Pamph. as to this question of the Scriptures being a Rule is no new thing but a Reference of men for an answer to G. Whiteheads Queries which he was shye of saying much to seeing he had not much to say to his old trite trivial Toy entituled the Qua. Folly the very book that G. Whitehead had Routed before and so dry is T.D. pumped that most of his two Butter-flyes excepting the wings it flyes with i. e. His Epistle and his Narrative consists of Repetitions of what he had uttered in the other that was Routed and new References of his Reader to that old one notwithstanding so much is added to to this head in p. 16. of his second Pamph. as more fully gives us the cause we contend for against him viz. That the Truth Doctrine Matter and not the Scripture Text or Letter is the Rule to men I must quoth he again refer the Reader for an answer to these Queries meaning G.Ws. to Qua. Folly in which yet none of them are answered and I adde the matter contained in the Scriptures is a Rule to all men so far as t is revealed to them and was so before it was put into writing and so much of it as is written upon the hearts of Heathens is a Rule to them Rep. Minde Reader how T.D. yeelds the Question to the Qua. again in his late last Lazy labours which Question between the Qua and the Priests is not about the holy Doctrine Truth and matter for the Qua. still own that to be as to the substantials before which the shadowy figurative part thereof flyes away everlastingly the same an inalterable fixt firm inward spiritual Word and Light which neither doth not can ever perish corrupt or pass away but about the outward Scripture Writing Text or Letter which uno ore with one voice all our Priests and people vote to be the Rule Touchstone Word c.
which we deny which matter notwithstanding when it comes to the point of proof before people they dare denominate only to be the only Rule and Word denying those high Titles to the naked Letter as well as we crying out with a dreadful ditty against the Qua. in their Pulpits as deniers of the Scriptures the Bible to be the Word of God the Rule c. and when we enter the lifts with them then finding themselves unable to carry it against us falling down before us in confessions to us that it is the Divine truth and matter only contained in the Scripture which is the Rule to all men so far as it that is that Truth and matter is revealed to them as it is here confessed also by T.D. to be to the very Heathen in their hearts that have no Scripture and was so before it was put into writing that is before the Scripture was which seeing it is so confest in the same way as I argued above about the Foundation against I.O. so may I here against T.D. and him both about the Rule viz. Arg. 1. The Rule must be something that is in being before the faith and life that is to be Regulated by it 2. Must be that the Scripture testifies to be the Rule 3. Something that is firm fixt sure stable inflexible infallible inalterable else all the work wrought by a Lesbian Rule a soft waxen measure may be ad infinitum crooked scanty erroneous disorderly in all Dimensions at mens pleasure who may as our Priests mostly do transcribe translate expound rectifie the Scripture according to their crooked conceits and their Antichristian Analogy of faith as they use to speak and not their crooked conceits and false faith according to the true Theology that is plain to godly honest hearted men in the Sâ—ripture wrest their Rule to their own wills self-ends interests and where it likes not their unruly selves to be Ruled by it Run from it or rather Rule over ir as they list But the Light and Spirit and Truth and living Word and holy Doctrine was in being before the faith and life of any man 2. Is testified by the Scripture at is above shewed to be the Rule 3 Is inalserable firm c. and the Scripture it self is already proved and is yet more to be proved not to be so therefore the Light Truth c. not the Scripture Text c. is the Rule Be sides what Ioh. Tombs and Rich. â—axter who must here be wrapt with their own weapon argue falsely against the Lights being the Rule I may truly argue against the Letters being it For page 51. of their Book entituled The true old Light Thus they dispute viz. That which is variable and alterable cannot be a persons Rule for its the property of a Rule to be invariable and the same at all times The Rules Measures and Weights and Dialls and Squares and what other things are made if they be varied they cease to be Rules for Rules should be fixed and certain But there is nothing more variable then mens light in them say they falsely but say I truly then a Letter or Writing without That which is to day say they taken for light is to morrow judged to be darkness and that light which is this day in a person may be lessened to morrow a person may become Fanatick and dote who yesterday was heard with applause therefore each persons light cannot be his Rule so us that at all times he should be bid to look to it as a safe guide as the Qua. do And say I that which is to day Transcribed Translated Interpreted so and in such a sense by some may be through Mis-transcription Mis-translation Mis-interpretation be wrested as a Nose of wax to morrow by others into a clear contrary sense by Transposition of Hebrew letters which in shape and sound are alike either in way of mistake among the most careful Scribes in the world or at the mâ—er will and pleasure of Criticks who ad libitum may turn the Text into twenty senses one after another as seems good to them witness I.O. himself who as is elswhere shewed in many pages together of his Epistle Dedicatory tells how easie it is so to do yea to turn that one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the different pointing of it into 8 sundry senses some whereof are clear contrary to each other yea it is but doing so or so saith he and as many various lections arise in the very original Text as a man pleases to make It being so then with the Letter that it is so variable and flexible and contrariwise the Light being fixt firm stable without variation as it is for all their lying of it it 's eternally and unchangeably the same even yesterday to day and for ever as Christ is from whom it comes one and the same in all the Foundation and witness of God which stands sure and keeps its place in the consciences of men let them go whether they will testifying the same truth as Gods witness in all men that it doth in any mâ—n both de jure defacto also never consenting to any evil but condemning it all in all men more or less Therefore say I in consutation of I O. T. D. I.To. and Rich. Baxter out of their own Books the Light Word and Spirit of God within every one may and ought to be every mans Rule so as that at all times he should be bid to look to it and follow it as a guide as the Qua. do But the Text or Letter without however owned as it is by me above to be useful and profitable for men of God that know how to use it cannot be the most perfect stable Standard much less the only infallible Rule and guide of mens faith and life as the blind guides say in words it is though in works they themseves live and walk besides it as much as any Again if the Scriptures be the Rule and not the Light and Spirit then either there was no Rule before the Scripture or else they who lived before the Scripture had one Rule we another and so consequently there are two Rules for the one faith of the one holy Church But all these whimsies are most absurd for then the one Church hath tot regulus quot novas explicationes ejusdem veritaetis as many Rules as particular wayes of Revelation of the truth And T.D. said the Truth was one and that the matter was the Rule before the writing was and I.O. sayes Ex. 4. s. 22. Vnicus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinus the Divine Rule is but one and so say I of the one general Catholick Church or Assembly of the first born from Abel to this day therefore the Light Spirit and not the Scripture is the Rule As for I. Os shallow shuffling off the Lights being the Rule and sleight slinging at it Testaque lutoque with his muddy pellet in that Section
these What though he doth write that his writings were that the Saints might believe that Christ was the Son of God and believing might live through his Name and that their joy might be full i.e. That encrease might be to them of Faith and Joy see 1 Joh. 5.13 does their being useful and profitable and penn'd for the same common end as the Light is given for in the conscience conclude them by such an immediate consequence as J.O. conceives to be design'd and appointed by God to be canoniz'd and established into the onely Canon into the sole standing Rule and Standard for all things of Faith Manners and Worship to be tryed by so that nothing can or may safely be believed done or practised in obedience to God or acceptable to him without particular and expresse recourse first had unto the Scriptures If this be good and immediate consequence of J.O. viz. the Scriptures and Letter hath the same common end with the Spirit and Light and is useful and profitable comfortable and serviceable as the other is though not so much Therefore the Scripture or Letter is the onely most perfect standing-Rule universally for all truth to be tryed by the onely Canon for men to come to whereby to be rectified in Faith Life Worship and all Obedience Then at least must T.D. J. O's joint Antagonist against the Qua. and the Truth be judg'd a meer jugling Disputant and shufling Sophister if he own it as any other then a non sequittar unless he will rather chuse to join with me here against J. O. in denying of this consequence and against himself too as to his asserting the Scripture to be the Rule for as much as when 't was urged against him in the same kind at the Dispute but in a way of much more necessary consequence then J. O's crooked Conclusion comes in by to the defect of Scripture-Canon as they call it in its integrals on this wise If there were other inspired Scriptures that are not bound up in your Bibles as useful and profitable and written to the same end with those you have then they were as much a Rule as those ye have But there were c. in proof of which minor instance was given in the first Epistle to the Corinthians mentioned in the first we have 1 Cor. 5.9.11 Where Paul sayes I wrote unto you in an Epistle not to keep company with Fornicators c. and now have I written to you not to keep company c. By which it seems both Epistles one of which is not in the now Bible were written by the same Apostle to one and the same end T.D. Replyes to this effect see p. 26 27. of his first Pamph. I deny your Consequence Sermons Religious Discourses have the same common end with the written Scriptures yet the Letter onely are our standing Rule And p. 27. All that was written by holy men and preserved for our use is not therefore our standing Rule And two bald Reasons is rendred in the same page viz. Because God intended these that are bound up in our Bibles but not the rest neither such as are lost for had he intended those so lost Poovidence would have watcht over them as over the rest nor such as are by his providence preserved neither if not in our Bibles And pag. 17. of T. D's second Pamph. Suppose quoth he we had the signs faithfully recorded i. e. in our Bible where they are wanting yet were they not our Rule because God did not give order for them He hath assured us as much as is sufficient to create and encrease Faith And pag. 18. If you say as you seem to do if they all were done to the same end then being written they must reach the same end I deny your consequence quoth he the difference lyes in God's Arbitrary Dispensation Now if T.D. deny the consequence of the Qua. which is two fold clearer and more cogent then I. O's when they say all Scriptures written by inspiration and preserved for our use to this day are a Rule to us as much as any of them are whether bound up or not bound up by Stationers in our Bibles Then how much more must he side with me in denying J. O's far fetch 't consequence though J.O. calls it immediate unlesse he will be denied justly for a daubing deceiver when J.O. argues thus viz. The Scriptures are useful profitable and written to the same good ends and purposes as the Light Spirit and Word of God Therefore the Scriptures the Letter and not the inward Light Spirit Word or any internal Revelation at all are the only most perfect standing Rule of all things in matter of Faith Life Doctrine Worship c. But I have reason to suspect and fear that Night-Birds of a Feather however they clash and thwart one another and fall out among themselves in the dark yet will fall in flock and flye all together in the face of the Light rather then seem to side therewith against each other and that by some sillycome-senceless secundum quid or other they 'l seem to qualifie their more then seeming confusions if they can Nevertheless let them agree as they please I may safely make bold before all but partial prejudiced persons to deny J. O's consequence and put my self under T. D's Patronage in so doing who denyes the same save onely that its much more sound and cogent when used to him ward by the Qua. and indeed so it fares and falls out with my two Antagonists I.O. and T.D. that though they join to carry on the same Cause against the Qu. improving their Wits to-patch up what proofs they can in the points wherein they oppose them yet their witnesses agree so little with each other and within themselves that what either of them asserts is for the most part overturned if not by the individual party so asserting as it often is yet at least by the other of them one where or other in such wise that had some wiser man then my self had the management of this matter and work against them that is now under my hands I see so much though minding matter more then method I am carryed to the confutation of them into sundry other wayes of partly positive and partly polemical Discourse intermingled among my Animadversioâ—s Examinations and comparings of their sayings that he need go no further then T.D. and I.O. to fetch matter wherewith to conâ—ute I.O. and no further then J.O. and T.D. to confute T.D. I conclude then my Reply to the routing of the first Rank and cashiering the first Classe of J. O's Scriptures urged in proof of the Scriptures being the only most perfect standing Rule and it may serve for an answer to T.D. himself too in T. D's words to me mutatis mutaâ—dis p. 20. 1 Pamph. To make the business short suppose we grant the Scripture to be divinely inspired to be very useful and profitable as we do and to be
fruit only to himself so is our National Gospel Israel an empty Vine fruitful to themselves in temporals and in suâ— gerere in such spiritual also as their Religion lyes in viz. in empty forms of fastings prayings praâ—sings preachings singings of Davids Psalms with Doegs Spirit Text applauding Treatises talkings for Tithes multiplyings of Ministers of the Old Testament not of the Spirit but of the Letter that may labour soundly to the blowing out if they couâ—d tell how of the Qua. extolled light magnifyings of the maintenance for such Ministers as maintain themselvs out of Augmentations by the Impropriations of Kings Bishops Deans Chapters Lands Tenths first fruits and such Levitically legal â—molumenis far better than they are able to maintain either the true internal eternal Gospel which they are utterly ignâ—rant of or their own external Gospel either against the Qu. who maintain the true But utterly as fruitles to God as full of leaves and broad Shews wherein they flourish yea as barren as the figtree that God came three years together seeking fruit from and finding none for which the Word had long since gone forth effectually from the Lord but that intercession is yet made for it by the dresser of the Vineyard who digs and dungs it in hopes of somewhat but hath yet from it as small thanks for his great pains as the unskilful dressers not to say devourers of it have great thanks for their small pains Cut it down why cumbreth is the ground So what thou so pompously utterest I O. on behalf of the efficacy of the Letter in this particular as the All-sufficient All-accomplishing power of God in its self and to us ward to salvation and such like is nothing so nor doth any one of all Scriptures cited by thee in proof thereof evince any such thing they all excepting that in 2 Tim. 3. which as it may relate to an inward Scripture thou yet searchest not if intended of the outward yet not without the Light and Spirit within which said Light and Spirit thou still excludest and damnest down as detestable and no way needful to be so much as concurrent with the Scripture toward salvation as is shewed above intend no other Word or Light then that which is uttered and shines within in the eâ—rt Iam. 1.21 expresly speaks of the wording rafted there which is able to save the soul which 〈…〉 â—innate word for it s there put planted and sowed as his seed by the Lord himself some refuse and reject to walk by whose condemnation it is some receive it hear it mix it with faith in it beleeve in it to the salvation of the soul. In Joh. 17.20 Christ speaks of the same and not of any outward Scripture for by that word their word is intended the Word which they preached or held forth or testified to by their words in their preachings and writings as that which men were to come to hear and beleeve in and do till tâ—eir beleeving in which though they shâ—uld or do beleeve Historically the outward declaration as the Papists do the litteral declaration at this day with their heart and confess it with their mouths that the Lord Iesus was raised frâ—m the dead yet they perish and beleeve not on the Name of God savingly or to salvation Which Word is not the Letter nor their preachings but that which the Letter and their oral preachings testified to that it was nigh men in their hearts and mouths that they might hear and do it even the word of faith which they preached Compare Ioh 17.20 with Rom 10.8 9. Which word that they preached was not their Preachings or Writings or Scriptures but that which in their preachings and writings they called them to hear which was not a word without but the word nigh in the heâ—rt between which Words and Writings of the Preachers and Writers of the Scriptures and the Truth Faith Doctrine Light Gospel Holy matter which they preached and wrote of if our Divines couâ—d keep constant in distinguishing at all times as they do sometime they would come out of their conlusions wherein they are found jumbling things on heaps without heed into the clear understanding and comprehendings of the truth in their heads at least whether it may have place in their hearts and lives or no that is saving their being ashamed to own it from Babes and chusing rather to be ignorant then submit to be taught by them so often told them by the Qua. T D. sayes It s evident the Word spoken of Rom. 10.8 in the heart is the holy matters contained in the Scriptures the things contained there pag. 30 31. of his 1. Pamph. Rep. Who doubts of that But are not the holy matters one thing and the outward Letters that write of those matters another the things written of which the Scripture sayes are in the heart one thing and the Scriptures that write of those things another why then do you jumble these together as one in your blindly busie brains which are so bewitcht that ye either cannot or will not own that from the Qua. without crying out of them as deniers of the Scriptures to be the Word of God which your very selves are forced to confess to the Truth of For T.D. dances between within and without in the fore-named pages as if he could not well tell where to be nor what to say the Word of faith they preached is himself denies not from Col. 3.16 which I urged but that it was within the Colossians but yet because we say its within a light within he will needs say and so he had need or else he could not out word us it s the Letter without also the Word spoken of in the heart is meant quoth he of the holy matters contained 1. Declared of in the Scriptures which are say we the living Word Light Gospel c. and yet in the same page the Word spoken of is without or it is the Letter of the Scriptures quoth he also though at the beginning of the dispute upon that subject when I told him wee denied the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the outward writing or Letter written on paper with inke to be the Word of God himself p 26.1 Pamp. he denied the same with me saying You cannot beleeve us so simple surely as to affirm the Scriptures in that sense to be the Word of God but we mean the matter contained in the Writing c. And p. 30. When I said the Scripture is not the Word of God for that is within but the Scripture is without â—rging Rom. 10. The word is nigh thee in thy heart You read not all quoth he t is in thy mouth too so that it is without as well as within Rep. Oh gross what an absurdity is here as if that which is in the mouth of a man were not within but without him if T.D. should tell mee of a man that is no Monster that his
teeth and tongue are in his mouth and I should Reply t is a mistake for that which is in the mouth of a man is not within but without him T.D. would suppose me to be some Monstrous Simpleton and a doer of the said man no little wrong in making no less then a Monster of him by saying his teeth and his tongue are all ad extra without him when they are no otherwise then other mens are al orderly within his mouth but I must take this of his who sayes the word is said to be without a man while it iâ— said to be in his mouth for the voice of wisdome from him or else the Qua. folly will not be manifested to all men by it but much more of his own then all theirs amounts to And so as wise as he is in his own generation byond the children of Light I shall think my think of this to my self and to let it pass with no more then this notice by the way to the Reader 1. That as the word is in the heart shewing good and evil thoughts there searching and separating between the precious and the vile which is the work of the Word and Mouth of God there Ier. 15.19 so it is in the mouth distinguishing between the good and evil words there in the particular persons in whose mouthes it s planted and put for that purpose first according to the promise Isa. 59. ult My word which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor of the mouth of thy seeds seed for ever from out of the mouth of which Seed of God the righteous Race which are mostly babes and sucklings to the wise and Disputeâ—s of this world Psal. 8.2 Mat. 11.25 It is secondarily to go forth as the strength of the Lords ordaining against the enemy in the latter dayes Jer. 1.9 2. That it is no news to me now that T.D. sayes in the mouth is without which was somewhat strange to me at first till I was acquainted with his quaint and coyn'd kinde of distinctions and sinister senses and many uncâ—uth meanings that he puts upon Scripture phrases wherewith to blinde people from being begotten into true wisdome by that which he calls the Qua. Folly for t is his usual manner of expounding and the ordinary meaning that he gives to these two terms In and Out to say by within is meant without and by without within for as he counts the righteousness of Câ—rists person without us to be in us to our justification whilst not inherent in us but in him only So the righteousness wrought and fulfilled in us by his power and Spirit not to be in us but without in his Person only for Rom. 8.4 in us quoth he imports not in out persons but in Christ p. 17. 1. Pamph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he thought had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 17.22 by in you in among you without p. 5.1 Pamph. and so I.O. will have to be expounded in that place to avoid the dint of that Doctrine of the Qua who tell of a Kingdome and righteousness within men that are not in it which he confesses is used but in one more place in all the New Testament as he calls the new Letter of it viz. Matth. 23.26 and there it s used for the inside of a Vessel Cup or Platter by Christ saying to the blinde Pharisees first cleanse the inside that the outsiâ—e may be clean also yet in Luke 17. it seems quoth he to be used in the same sense as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so making it thus the Kingdom of God ad vos pervenis is come to you a T.D. does within in effect to signifie without Ex. 3.5.47 and so in the place in hand in the mouth is without quoth T. D. which fine new-fangled way of Respondency to an opponent urging otherwise an irresistible Truth I should never have learnt had I not met with these two Sophistical Shufflers howbeit now I hâ—ve learnt their wonted way of winding away from plain truth I shall tâ—eâ—eby learn at least to avoid it turn from it and pass away but shall never learn how to walk in it it is so crooked unless I mean to leave the good way of uprightness to walk in the wayes of darkness Now as to I.O. though often he puts a difference between the Writing and the Doctrine and sayes the Scriptura formaliter or litera scripta is one thing and the materia or veritas scripta is another yet rather then he will give the Question to the Qua. who care not whether he doth or no which Question as is shewed above he is not ashamed basely to beg he will distemper and conjumble all that together again into one Chaos or lump of confusion which he had once orderly set asunder and therefore drives on in gross without dividing between the Scripture Writing Letter or Text and the Word Doctrine Light or Truth that 's written of and earnestly endeavouring to blend all these into one And though for haste jumbling and posting on he gets many a stumble by the way whereby he layes himself on the ground yet up again he gets and on he goes though haltingly never heeding how he interfears nor feels how he often hacks and cuts one leg against the other hoping that so long as he stands not still nor gives quite out nor lyes flat he rids ground as well while he stumbles on as when he seems to slide away more smoothly but his blinde blunderingâ— in which he thinks he posts on unseen are noted and seen by such as are not far behinde him who finde him full of flâ—ws altering often where he himself supposes his work is most firm and what ever he thinks of it himself yet to every understanding Reader he little lesâ— then gives the cause in effect not onely in other places agâ—inst his will and unawares to himseâ—f but also in p. 71. where is a passage that while it here presents it self to me I must take notice of lest I let it pass altogether and finde not a fitter place hereafter to observe it in J O. It is the Writing quoth he it self it now supplies the roome and place of the persons in and by whom God originally spake to men as were the persons speaking of old so are the Writings now it was the Word spâ—ken that was to be beleeved yet as spoken by them from God and it s now the word written that is to bee beleeved yet as written by the command and appointment of God Rep. all this I grant to be very true but tending to the overturning of J.Os. own cause and purpose in it which is to prove the Scripture or writing to be the Word of God and to the confirming of the Qua. cause who against him deny that assertion for the Word spoken and written even as spoken and written by Gods appointment is that which we say is still within the
Truth Law Doctrine or Commandement which is a Light and Lamp is within as Rom. 10.8 witnesses it for me so my two Antagonists I.O. and T.D. do both from the Testimony of that very Text testifie the same with it and me against themselves the one viz. T D. sying p. 30 31. of his 1. Pamph. 't is evident that the word spoken of in the heart Rom. 10.8 is meant of the matters contained in the Scriptures for the Apostle sayes expresly that is the Word of faith which wee preach whereby it seems by your selves the Letter is neither the Word there said to be nigh in the heart and mouth nor yet the Word of faith the Apostles preached but some other thing that was actually properly truly and formally within the heart even the holy Word Law Light Truth Spirit of Truth and Doctrine which wee together with the Scripture do testifie unto and you contrary both to us and the Scripture are continually testifying against and the other viz. I.O. saying Ex. 1. s 40. The Word in us is that Word of faith the Apostles preached but they preached nothing but what was written by Moses and the Prophets Rom. 16.26 yea that that Word was a Word written the Apostle professedly testifies in that place vers 10. 2. The Scripture is nigh us in our hearts and mouth not in respect of the Letter written or the Scripture formally considered as written but of the divine Truth or as it contains and holds forth the divine truth it self Reply V. 11. Thou meanest sure for there the Word Scriptures is named but what of that and who doubts or denies but that the Word in the heart was written as well as preached and testified to by writing as well as by word of mouth but wilt thou ever be so blinde I.O. as to make no difference but when it serves thy turn to do it as thou thinkest against the truth for then thou makest a difference See p. 12. 13. between the Word written Doctrine declared and Declaration Book and Truth Scripturam rem scriptam preaching and thing preached publication and will of God published proclamation of good things and the tidings or good things proclaimed and told of Suppose a man should stand at a Market-cross or in Cheapside and preach publish or proclaim by Word of mouth or set up a Bill or Writing that there is special good Wheat Bread Flesh or the like laid up under the custody of the Lieutenant of the Tower enough for all the poor starvelings of the rich City of London where the more shame and wo to the rich Gluttons in it they ly perishing about the streets by him freely to be dispenced who is sealed or authorised to that end to give to all comers according to their wants or in a time of distress or danger that there is safety in the Tower for all that are willing to run in thither within so many dayes or else the gates shall be shut for thus the Publishers of the glad Tidings of the Gospel of peace and salvation by Christ the Light alone and his Spirit and Light which reproves sin is the heart do declare both by Voyce and Letter or Writing in their times as he himself Isa. 45.22 Look to me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth viz. That in him who is the Light is the life of men to be had and not in the Letter which rather killeth Hee is the strong Tower where safety alone is Him hath God sealed to be the giver of the bread of life and the meat that endureth to eternal life to all that come to him in that time wherein he shines in his Light Now if people should run only to the Cryer and hang alwayes on the hearing of his voice or stand reading the good news in the writing he hath set up doting on and delighting only to read that day by day because its comfortable as it tells of good things and never at all according to the counsel thereof betake themselves to the Tower where they only are might they not stand there poring till they perish pine and starve and would they not lose time and perhaps totally withstand it and would yee judge them to bee well in their wits if they should run up and flock all together to the Proclamation or bare Writing supposing to injoy the things themselves though they never look after the said Lieutenant spinning out the time limited in looking upon the writing and so far dote as our Dr doth that the coming to the Scriptures is the only proper way of coming to Christ himself which he counsels us to Rev. 3. as to think that their comming to that Paper every day is their next way to the Tower their very only proper going to the Lieutenant that is required Mutatiâ— mutandis de te fabula the case is your own O ye untaught better fed then taught Teachers it is yours O ye more letter-lauding then letter-learning Preachers and Priest-admiring people Christ is come from God that men might have life and have it abundantly calls all to look and come to him for it yee like the old Scribes search the Scriptures and therein look for the eternal life because they are they that testifie of it and of him who is the life but yee will not come to him that yee may have the life Ioh. 5.35 c. 2. What need I say more but with T.D. and I.O. to heed and beleeve themselves because they are so dull of hearing that they will neither heed nor beleeve the Qua. for they give the cause in Question between the Qua and them about the Scripture or the Letters being the World of faith or light shining in the dark place of mens hearts which Peter sayes men are to take heed to which said dark place that is the heart and consâ—ience where by their own confession so gross a thing as a formal outward Letter cannot come but only some more subtil thing then that is even a spiritual light as that is not is as evident in the Text as the Word and Light it speaks of is to him that is not blinde for the dark place wherein the Word and Light here is said to thine is the same wherein as the Light is taken heed to the day dawns and the day star i.e. Christ him self arises first as that bright and morning star Rev. 2.28 whereby the day spring from on high visits such as sate in darkness Luke 1.78 79. and at last as the Sun of righteousness it self Mal. 4.2 but that is said expresly to be the heâ—rt so far as from Ioh. 1.5 we argue Where the spiritual darkness is which comprehends not the Light within which darkness the light shines There the true light shineth but that is within in the conscience of all men therefore there the true light in some measure is shining As if the dark place within which the Sun shines be a room within
the house then some light from the Sun must be within the said Room also so wee argue Retro from hence If the dark place where the day is to dawn as the lesser light therein is observed be the heart then the place wherein the lesser light shines which even therefore secundum vâ—s O ye bâ—nighted ones cannot be the Letter must be the heart also but verum prius c. the first is true therefore the latter We have a more sure word of Prophesie to which ye do well to give heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts 2. The word of Prophesie or Prophetical word is a phrase that of it self seems to any but blinde Expositors to intend another thing than the outward Letter and to found forth no less then that more inward Word or immediate Testimony of Christ himself in the conscience elsewhere stiled the Words of Prophesie or Word of God and Witness or Testimony of Iesus or Spirit of Prophesie from which of which and to which the holy men that were internally illuminated thereby and made acquianted with Gods secrets bare Record or Testiminy without by Voice or Writings Rev. 1 2 3.19 10. the trâ—e and faithful words of the Lord himself inlightning such as wrote the Letter who having no need so to do the Lord and the Lamb being their light wrote not by though not against the Directory of I.Os. outward Candle Moon or Sun ad extra i.e. the external Text of others Writings Rev. 21.23 22.25.6 the Words of the Prophesie of this booke as Iohn calls it Rev. 22 8. i.e. the inward Spirit of Prophesie or Testimony of Iesus from which all Prophesie went forth whether by voice or writing which the Angels and Gods servants the Prophets had and kept Rev. 22 9 compared with Rev. 19.10 which book I.O. dreams 't is like was the outward Writing or Copy that Iohn gave forth the uncertain Copies of which to say nothing of the doubts of the old dimn sighted Doctors that were at oddes about the outward Book called the Revelation and some others even of those that are owned as Authentick whether they are not spurious yea or nay only are extant at this day little deeming that was an inward Book which I.O. tells us of too if he will own his own words p. 9. 25. which Iohn took in at first from which he gave out the the other and prophesied in the way of manual wiriting even the inner book of Gods secrets which are only with such as fear him revealed to Christ by the Father and by Christ to Iohn and opened by Christ to his servants at this day who eat it and prophesie out of it again before many Peoples Nations Tongues and Kings though sealed with 7 seals to the Scribes on the backside or outside of it on which backside or outward letter they are busily poring but they cannot read it neither learned nor unlearned because it is a Book sealed Rev. 5.3.10.2 9 10 11 12. Isa 29 9 ao 11 11. 3. That very Epethite which to the Word of Prophesie here spoken of is annexed doth even infallibly evidence it to be intended of that inner Word Spirit and light in the conscience which the Qua. call too and thou scoffest at and not at all of that fallible external Text which thou art so talkative for for it s called a sure permanent firm or stable Word which is more then can be saving all thy blinde bable about it asserted of the best and most original Copies of that Letter thou contendest for that are extant in the world in these dayes and not only so but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more sure or stable word then that voice which Peter Iames and Iohn heard immediately from heaven out of the Fathers own mouth concerning his beloved Son Christ the light of the world given as a light to the Nations shining and shewing the will of God to them in every one 's own heart so Gods salvation to the ends of the earth saying unto them Hear ye him v. 17. comp with Mat. 27.5 which voice coming from the excellent glory which was infallibly sure to them no cunningly devised fable they heard when they were with Christ in the holy Mount Now the Word Spirit voice and light of Christ in the conscience is properly and truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more stable firm and permanent Word or standing Rule constant Canon and lasting light and so more sure to us ward then that voice to them not surer in respect of its evidence to the hearers of it or the security given by it that it was no fable nor fancy in which sense thou most foolshly fanciest p. 66. that the immediate voice above said absit absurdum was not so sure i.e. not so certainly evident to be Gods voice as the Letter is certainly evident to be Gods Word for in that sense the said voice was to them that heard it most infallibly sure or evident so as nothing can bee surer to be God and I.O. in saying as he dotingly doth p. 66. that comparatively we have greater security from and by that written Word meaning the Scriptures or Writing for that is the Word written with all along such is his illiterate language then they had in and by that miraculous voice as he calls it and that the Scripture is more sure in respect of its giving out of its evidence to us then that voice of God was doth thereby absit blasphemia render the very voice of God himself whereby he spake in and to the Prophets that wrote the Scriptures to us less sure and certain more doubtful and questionable whether it might not be a mistake or no then the outward Writing or Text they wrote as it is transferred to our hands at this day through the hands of such a mighty multitude of fallible Transcribers none at all of which no not the first were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible or divinely inspired so that they could not in any thing mistake by his own confession p. 167. where I.O. confesses and grants also that it s known that failings have been among them from whence various lections of which it cannot be ascertained to men now which is right which wrong are arisen which so variously transcribed Scripture it is shame enough for I.O. to assert as he doth p. 10. under that term of Word by which he terms it and p. 153 under its own name of Scripture that it is come forth to us from God without the least mixture â—r intervenience of medium obnoxious to fallibility as is the wisdome truth integrity knowledge and memory of the best of all men or capable to give change or aâ—teration to the least Iota or syllable and more shame yet to say as hee doth p 27. that every Apex of it is equally Divine and as immediately from God as the voice wherewith or
in it is the Word of God as T. 2. c 2 s. 5.6 that tam in esse reali as cognoscibili Ex 1 s. 1. the Scripture both is and doth infallibly evidence it self unto the consciences of men that are not blinde to be assuredly the Word of God See his first Title page and T. 1. c. 4. s. 1. and that men that beleeve not as he implicitly beleeves in this being obliged so to beleeve upon the penalty of eternal damnation at the peril of their own eternal ruine and such like are left unexcusable in their damnable unbeleef T. 1. c s. 5. T. 1 c. 3. s 6. T. 1 c 4. s. 14. and who saith That his chief business with the Qua. is de noveine Scripturae proprio Ex. 1. s. 1 2 3. about the proper name of the Scripture and to stablish it under that glorious Title the Word of God as that proper name of it which the chief business committed by Satan to the Qua. that they rejoyce in is to spoyl it of yea how will all those figurative forms of speech list I.O. out of that Quâ—gmire wherein he sticks and into which he hath rashâ—y run himself by his hasty quarrelling with the Qua. who is far from being satisfied if the Truth and Doctrine of the Scriptures be confessed to be sufficiently declared in the Scripture unless he be infallibly assured that every Tittle and Iota as it was at first written stands truly transcribed in his Copies of it and so far from being satisfied if by a figure it should be granted as it need not for it s no where called so that the Scripture is the Word of God that he professes Ex. 1.34 that if that Declaration that Writing which declares the minde and will of God be not the Word of God he knows not what is the Word of God if he may not call the Scriptures by that name the Word of God is so far Ignorant of any name else to call it by as to call out to the Qua. to tell him what to call it if he may not call it by that name Si hoc non sit verbum Dei quoth I. O ego nescio quid sit aut deceant nos Fanatici quid illud dicendum sit c if the declaration of the will of God i.e. the Scripture be not the Word of God I know not what it is or let the Fanaticks teach us what we may call it these and many more to the like Tune are the eminent Titles which I.O. not by a metonymy but in truth as their proper priviledge and real right attributes in words at length and not in figures to the outer Scriptures these are the lofty terms wherein in throughout all his Treatises he treats on their behalf not with all others only that are his Opposers in other matters but with the Qua. also who own the Scripture in its own proper name use and place and own the Truth written of to be the Word much more then he doth himself but about the Scriptures oppose him only as to these his childish thoughts Such are the high rigid unrighteous strickt streins he stands upon and stickles in and that so stifly that he is minded either to win all or lose all and if he be not owned as stiling of the Scripture truly and properly when he stiles it by the names of other things which truly and properly it is not he will no more own it under its own true and proper names of writing Letter Scripture but make himself altogether ignorant of these as if hee had quite forgotten and could in no wise call to minde that hee hath any other names at all whereby it can be called save those undue ones of his own imposing Now when a man begins to swell out with his wind of Doctrine into such a bubble as knows no bounds its time to blow him out and when he grows into such a giddy greedy hydropical humour as not to know what ground he stands on nor how to stand still and sit down satisfied when hee is well nor well to understand when he hath enough nor to slack his thirst with a just and lawful allowance its good Venienti occurre morbo Danda est elleboritali pars maxima Avaro As there is no reason that he should have all he desires so it s but reason that his brain be purged from such excrements as occasion such extraordinary extravagancies that if he will never be otherwise then so fantastically Fanatical yet hee may insanire cum ratione be moderated at least as to his height of madness be taken down a peg or two and brought from his high Garret into a lower Story about the Scriptures that if he will have no nay but they must needs be call'd the Word it may be no otherwise then the Cup is called the Wine which though by a Metonymy the Wine is sometime called the Cup yet is never or very seldome if at all For my part I am free rather then he shall take on ad ravimusque and cry himself hoarse and wrong himself as he doth with so much wrangling and restless wrestling for the Letter which he more loves to talk of then lives the life of and longs for so that is not likely he will be at quiet unless we still him by piping to the same tune with him at least a little to please him so far to his profit in order to the saving of his longing as to allow him a little i.e. so much leave as by the foresaid Figure to call the Glass window or the Lanthorn the Light which in truth and properly are not so but as that Taylor which having an inch of cloath granted him for his minds sake about so much as will serve for a pattern incroaches so as to steal an ell or enough to make a suit of and from Top to Toe cloaths himself therewith accordingly wouâ—d have no wrong to have his goodly garment torn off or else beaten well upon his back with his own yard so if I.O. who begs the whole question be not pleased with his poor pittance which yet is the largest allowance that Truth it self allows us to allow him but will be a chuser as Beggars must not be and his own Carver and carve out the Scriptures which is more then salva veritate we can give him or he can justly take on him to do into no less then a patern a lydium lapidem a touch stone of all Truth a standard for all Spirits even that of God by which it and all Spirits and Scriptures else are to be tried to be most truly tâ—ied by a Rule an immoveable stable perfect the most perfect the only Rule of Gods worship and our obedience in matters of faith and manners as Ex. 3. s. 20 24 25. Ex. 1. s. 5 6. Ex. 3. s. 32. Ex. 4. s. 17. so that since the Churches compleating of its Canon no Revelations internal Spirit and consequently not that
the House and Traytors that will not so own it to be and shall say Die mihi c. tell me what it is to be called if not so not heeding that himself calls it the House where the Parliament sits and that that is the most proper name of it I should judge that man utterly unfit to be chosen a Parliament-man or if he should be chosen as unmeet to meet there among the rest as in regard of his Clergy-ship I.O. himself once chosen to that honour as I hear was thought unmeet to meet among them Or to prosecute the matter rather under that Metaphor of the Lanthorn and the Light that shines in it with which the Letter and the Light the Writing and the Word doth so exactly correspond and hold proportion if there should appear such a man as would not be contented by the fore-mentioned Metonymy only to call the Lanthorn the Light it self which makes out it self thereby and other things also to the view of others but stand up to contend tooth and nayl that the Lanthorn is the very Light in very deed and ought so to be denominated as that which really is so yea and every inch of it from the Top to the very bottome or else it is spoyled of its own glorious due and proper name and denied to be what it is and abused and depressed quite below it self debased and disgraced at their peril of mens utter râ—ine for their damnable unbeleef though they beleeve own and acknowledge it to be a very special good serviceable profitable clear useful and perfect Lanthorn above all other Lanthorns as to all ends and purposes for which it was at first made and framed unless they see it with such eyes as his own and beleeve it with himself to be veraciter the real light and only rule and guide of the way that mafests both it self and all things else that are needful to be seen to all such as are neâ—r to and within the sight of it and as concerning the Light it self which reveals both it self and the Lanthorn and the dark room also round about wherein it shines and shews it self and other things as well yea more brightly when it s beheld immediately and is abstracted from the Lanthorn which it reveals and in which to say the truth it self is more properly vailed then revealed for the Light or new Testament is vail'd in the Old the Old Letter revealed in the new will not beleeve there is any such thing nor without impatience hear the Testimony of those that testifie of it unto him and tell him that he is mistaken 't is not the Lanthorn that enlightens the room as he supposes for that is though transparent yet a dark body of it self that can no more by and of it self without somewhat else i.e. the light to manifest evidence either it self or other things then a stool or chair or any such opacous body like it self but it is another thing within it that shews it self in some measure through it and as the whole room and all things therein are by it most evidently seen when it stands and shines in the room and is severed from it and that its that Light only and not the Lanthorn that can properly challenge to it self that name of Light and that the Lanthorn under no consideration whatsoever whether formally considered in its own proper nature as an instrument made into that form of of a Lanthorn of such materials as Wood Horn Tin Glass or the like nor yet quatenus containing the Light in it either iâ— or can properly be said to be the Light at all but the man will rather vilifie and utterly nullifie the Light for the Lanthorns sake so that men become his enemies for telling him the truth about it and his hand is up and at work against every man whose hand is against his crude conceptions stigmatizing them in Print as poor erroneous foolish Fanatical Knaves Ex. 25.22 deluded Dreamers c. and belying the Light as a meer â—ained imagined peece of business a figment of Fanaticks fanaticisme Enthuss â—isme dotage Ex. 2. s. 32. Nelcio quid vere nihil And moreover if the said man will not only positively assert but also not blush to profess in effect that if the Lanthorn be not to be called the Light he knows not what to call it and thereupon call out to such as deny it to tell and teach him what the Lanthorn is to be called if it be not properly to be called the Light saying you must either call it the Light aut doceat nos aliquis quid dicendum id sit and lastly shall not blush to put himself upon the proof thereof against all that shall gainsay the Lanthorn to be the Light and that in no better then such a piteous either flatly false or foul and fallacious manner as here under followeth viz. 1. The Lanthorn doth sufficiently evidence it self to be the Light therefore most assuredly unquestionably incontroleably infallibly the Lanthorn is the light by which men must see or not at all in which Enthememe the Antecedent is as most assuredly unquestionably uncontroleably infallibly false as I.Os. saying that the Letter doth so evidence it self to be the Light and consequently the Conclusion yet this is I.Os. way p. 68 69. For thou triest it out in these Termes which are the truest though the more thou keepest to them the more false thy Propositions as to the matter asserted in them both are and do appear viz. the Letter the Scriptures the VVriting with every Tittle and Iota that is therein arguing as aforesaid thus The Scriptures do abudantly infallibly incontroleably manifest themselves to be the VVord of God Therefore we know the Scriptures assuredly to bee the Word of God Tr. 1. c. 2. s. 5. c. 4 s. 1 21. Which Argument is fair and not fallacious yet its frame not more fair then its Antecedent flatly false understood as it must be by thee if there be at all such thing as uniformity in thy two Enlish Treatises and not so much noniformity as that we may not safely judge of thy meaning in that word Scriptures in one place by thy own expression and explanation of it in another of the writing or the written Letter and the transcribed Tittles and Iotaes of it the falsity of which Antecedent as uttered in such open termes being not unlikely seen by thy self to be too obvious to be seen by others thou fetchest it about in a way of fallacy acting arguing minus caste but magis cause from this foundation 2. Or else thus viz. The Light in the Lanthorn Tr. 1. c. 4. s. 14. doth evidence it self infallibâ—y to him that is not blinde to be the Light Therefore the Lanthorn is and is assuredly known to be the Light in which the Antecedent is most true but the consequence denied as no less false and fouly fallacious then the other is true and as non-sensical a non
prove that general ignorant audacious Assertion of thine Doth any one of them respectively prove the particulars thereof that it is particularly alleadged to Doth Gal. 1.8 because it is said If we or any man or Angel from heaven bring any other Gospel then what we have preached to you twice over let him be accursed prove him cursed that writes more Scriptures of the same Gospel by the same Spirit if so was not Iohn hereupon accursed that wrote more Scriptures of it after Paul was dead by a new Revelation not the same and was not Paul if he wrote any Epistle after to Galatia cursed out of his own mouth by saying though wee bring any other Gospel let us be accursed if that were his meaning ' that no more Scripture must be written is every new Revelation and new writing by way of Revelation of the old Gospel a new Gospel or doth Rev. 22.18 prove there must be no more Scripture nor Revelation within nor new outward Scripture and Revelation of the Gospel by motion from the Spirit after by Iohn because he saith If any shall adde to the words of this Booke God will adde the plagues of it to him Said he therein any more then what was said long before Deut. 4.2.12 ulz. Prov. 30.6 Adde thou not to his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar were all those adders to Gods Word or words and reprobate and liars as they must be if the Scriptures bee Gods Word and the adding of more Scripture be additament to his Word that added all that Scripture which was written after Deuteronomy and the Proverbs and if the Scripture were the Word of God is not taking away his name out of the Book of Life threatned to him that takes away from the words of that Book as well as plagues to him that addes and so ye in that ye discanonize most of what was writ there by the Prophets are discarded from the comforts of the Scripture by the places of you own quotation Doth Col. 2.18 twice over cited and allowed two votes in this Section vote either of those particulars it is cited for Doth the Spirit there condemn Angelorum alloquia alias called by thee Colloquia Angelica s. 28. all conference with Angels or only that worshipping of Angels forbid more expresly as I hinted to thee before in Rev. 19.10.22.9 where I also told thee of the lawfulness of talking with Angels or receiving of Revelation of the truth from Angels unless thou wilt Tax such as received the Law which was given by the disposition of Angels and Daniel and Mary and Zachary Cornelius and Paul and Iohn that wrote the Revelation and Christ himself who all were spoke to and ministred to by Angels were these all guilty of sin and condemnation Look again I.O. on the words in English which thou Greekest out perhaps to the further hoodwinking of Idiots that ken not Greek lest they should finde out thy folly who settest it for a Cypher if rendred in plain Latine which to give thee the reading as they stand in your Translations run thus Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility or worshipping of Angels Is the talking of Angels to men here deeply damned by the Spirit of God as thou dreamest And 2. what 's that Text to prove there must be on pain of cursing no additament of more Scripture or Writing to that Scripture that is in your Bibles with pretence of immediate Revelation of the same Doctrine Truth or Gospel there taught from the same inward Light and holy Spirit which is the second purpose for which it s cited a second time And again as to Heb. 1.2.4 cited Heb. 1.1 3. for thus thou citest that twice to the 2. same purposes with Col. 2. what hath that in it to the evincing the Spirits damning of either all talk with Angels or addition of more Scripture thereof from the Revelation motion or inspiration of the same holy Spirit to that Scripture of the Truth that is now truss'd up as the close of the whole Councel of God that ever must be declared in writing or counted upon as part of your Canon according to the Clergies Councel who first caused that consignation of it by Book-binders within the bounds of your Bibles thus run the words God who at sundry times and in diverse maners spake in times past the Fathers to the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken to us in his Son who is better then the Angels c. Must not his eyes be out that sees any such things hinted at here as those above the proof of which I.O. intends by this quotation Because Angels are here named inferiour unto Christ therefore Anathematized is he that hears or heeds any thing that shall be spoken to him by an Angel though he reveal the same Truth and not another seeing that truth is already written in the Scripture yea cursed be hee from henceforth even for ever there 's one of I.Os. Concâ—usions who consequently concludes Iohn accursed that wrote the Revelation from thenceforth even after this of Paul to the Colossians and the Hebrews were written from whence forward I.O. drives his execration downward to this day sith the said Iohn had his Revelation immediately from an Angel by whom Christ who had it from the Father sent and signified it to his servant Iohn Rev. â— 1 And because Christ is better then the Angels and God in these last dayes speaks in and by him his only begotten Son the light of the world the great Shepherd and Over-seer of the soul whose own voice his Sheep hear warning all to hear him to hear his voice in all things what ever he sayes on pain of being cut off from among his people therefore the Scripture must have no more writing though of the same truth that is there added to it on pain of damnation for ever there 's the t'other of I.Os. Conclusions from Heb. 1. from which Conclusion I can much more clearly conclude that a cloud of darkness is drawn over I.Os. understanding and that a beam is in his eye then draw such an untruth as that no more Scripture since Iohns time was to be written by the holy Spirits moving and added to that from that Text which tells the truth if I.O. would once heed it viz. that the hour now is wherein God speaks to the Sons of men in and by his own Son whom he hath given to be a Light and Leader to all people wherein the dead must hear his voice before ever they live to God who since God speaks by him and hee by his own light Spirit Voice in I.Os. conscience why doth not I.O. heed him then but scoffe at him in his inward Light and Spirit the Qua. call to as at Christum quendam Imaginarium infallibilem Doctorem nescio quod lumen scu verbum internum nescio quem Deum seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deoforsan quopiam
melius c. for woe unto him that ever he was born if he repent not of it but run from him to the Letter which doth but testifie of him and call to him in the reading and searching of which if he think he hears Christs voice and Gods voice truly then the Scribes that read the Scripture as much as hee could not be truly reprov'd Ioh. 5. as not hearing it as they are by Christ And 2. I shall think hee is not only without his sense of spiritual hearing but as 't is shewed above of others in the like case not so well as he ought to be in his natural wits and understanding And as to that 2 Pet. 1.19 which I insisted so lately and so largely upon above if there were the weight of one half grain in it towards the turning of the scales to his purpose I would weigh it once again but he that shall say these words We have a more sure word of Prophesie to which yee do well if yee take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place till the day dawn and day star arise in your hearts hath ought in it if the Letter of Scripture were there meant as I have shewed it is not to prove there must bee no more Scripture written as from the Spirit after that verse was written on pain of damnation as I.O. doth for that 's his drift in quoting it doth no more condemne the Qua. by that Text of Peter then he damn Iohn himself whose Revelation was written as by the Spirit no little while after that As to that 1 Cor. 4.5 spoken to once before where I met with it Ex. 3. s. 28. yet twice here cited by I.O. to the self-same purpose as before from which because Paul there sayes hee would have none think of him and Apollos above what he wrote of himself and him as no more however Idolized by the Church then meer Ministers by whom they beleeved I.O. concludes there must be no addition of more Scripture to his Canon Rep. If any man be minded to look so long till hee finde a pin in a pack of wool which he may sooner do if lost there then finde I.Os. conclusion coming from the Text aforesaid let him look till he is weary for mee who will meddle no more with that And the same summarily and in short say I of 2 Pet. 2.18 another Text of I.Os. urging For when they speak great swelling words of vanity they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped from them who live in errour Rep. He that will spend so much time as to study on that Text till hee can duely draw either of these Doctrines from it viz that the holy Spirit downrightly damns 1. All addings whatsoever of more Scripture or writing as from the Spirit to that Scripture now in the Bible which our Clergy calls their Canon And 2. All the wayes and means of knowing God and of communion with him even that internal Spirit and light in the conscience to use I Os. phrase boasted of by the Qua. as in some measure communicated to all men shall most assuredly have his labour for his pains The same may be said of 1 Ioh. 5.1 Beloved beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they he of God or no for many false Prophets are gone out into the world Rep. What damnation is thundred out here at all to the Adding of any thing or Revelation that is true to the outward Writing or Scripture where the Scripture is neither talked on nor intended he talks of Spirits there and not Letters much more what follows thence to the condemnation of the inward light and spirit the Qua. talk of call to live and walk and hold communion with God in now according to the counsel of the Scriptures as Abel Noah and all holy men of God did from the beginning before the Scripture was Is this to adde to the Scripture and to fall under condemnation from that Scripture and from that Text too as Adders to the Scripture to hold forth preach publish in the movings of the Spirit and therein also to commit to writing the holy Truths revealed in the Light and Spirit of God they obey and walk in and to call men by Voice Scripture or Writing as they are moved to live and beleeve in the Light to walk not after flesh but the holy Spirit of God in them which reproves them of sin and lusts against their flesh as they did of old who wrote in the same Light and Spirit of God that outward Scripture ye more scrible for then walk by so long as ye walk not by the Light and Spirit as it bids you doth not the Scripture call to beleeve and walk in the Light and Spirit and not in the darkness and in the flesh and where is that Spirit and Light is it not within in the heart where the flesh and darkness dwells which lust against it And for as much as thou sayest here the Spirit damns all wayes and means of knowing God and communion with him beside the Scripture O thou Elymas Wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord Doth not the Scripture and Spirit of God by it rather down rightly damn all them out of al' communion with God let them jactitare joy and boast never so much of their having the Scriptures that walk not in the said Light the Qua. testifie to which thy self only contrarily both to the Scriptures and sound reason and Gods Spirit also damnest down as Diabolical to the Pit of hell who yet sometimes again confessest it to be of God and Gods voice in nature by which he reveals his minde to men and that infallibly without the least contribution of strength or assistance from without and therefore surely without a Letter ad exera p 42 43 44 45 46. yea and rejectest with abhorrency and detestation Ex. 3. s. 28 Doth not the Spirit by the Scripture condemn them for Lyars and such are all the formal Professors of the Letter that have got the good words to talk on for hire and make a trade of whose portion is the Lake while they are not under the power of the Light but hate it and the holders of it out that pretend to communion with God out of the Light and own 's it any other way or means of fellowship with God but the light saying 1 Iob. 1 4 5 6 7. God is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship together and the blood of his Son cleanseth us from all sin dost not thou then instead of light walk in obscurity instead of brightness in darkness it self dost thou not grope for the wall yet like the blind as if thou hadst no
to blow where it listed Ioh. 3. without looking at any light within without walking in any way or using any other means of knowing God of having or holding fellowship or communion with him which was wont to be only in the light 1 Ioh. 1. but that of the Scriptures on pain of rejection and heavy damnation from God own Spirit in the Scripture In a word That Law and Testimony which alone is to be consulted with in all doubtful cases to which God calls from our seeking and attending Pythonibus aut Aryolis qui pipiunt qui mussitant to Wizards and familiar spirits that peep and that mutter yea that very word there spoken of Isa. 8. which whoever speaks not according to these is no light to him I say the two Texts abovesaid are not only frequently cited and recited in evidence of these various and sundry particulars but also judged by J.O. to be such sure grounds Hercules pillars firm props and principles as are not only satisfactory to mens consciences but sufficient to stand that way he draws them against all mens objections so that relying thereon men have a sure bottome and foundation for their receiving all the other Scriptures so assuredly as the Word of God and consequently all that that it abovesaid that who even from thence even from these Text own them not in that manner as such are left inexcusable in their dammâ—ble 〈◊〉 p. 56. That therefore the utter in â—onsequence of J.Os. deductions from them which are meer non sequiâ—â—â—s may the more plainly appear I shall letting fall J.Os. other trifling Arguments and sidling Replies to what the Qua. urge on behalf of the light of inartificial Arguments as himself calls them draw them into the form of artificial ones and express the manner of his illegal inferences from them which is in such wiâ—e as here under follows We are by that Text in Isa. 8.19 20. sent to the Law and to the Testimony to try what evâ—y Churches or persons speak about the things of God his will worship or our obedience to him who if they speak not according to that Word there is no light in them Therefore 't is evident that the Scriptures are the Word of God and consequently all that that is abovesaid The second viz. Christ Luke 16.31 bids men attend not looking for Miracles to Moses and the Prophets the written Word as the best and most effectual means to bring to repentance and which all faith and repentance is immediately grounded upon Therefore the Scriptures are evidently the Word of God c. Rep. In which two Arguments thou reasonest in Print well nigh as ridiculously as he works in Paint who doth Humano capiti cervicem jungere equinam For the head of the corner is strait sound and sure the body of the building upon it corrupt and crooked weak and rotten That we are sent to the Law and Testimony to that Word there talkt of and intended and to Moses and the Prophets and that that Law Testimony and Word that Moses and the Prophets spake of in those two Texts is that Word that is the true touchstone of all truth a greater ground for faith and repentance to be founded on then that of Miracles and a more sure stable firm fixt stedfast or standing Word then the voice which came from heaven all this I do not in the least deny but that the bare outward Writing which thou falsely callest the Written word and the external 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as at first written much more the present transcribed Copies of that Letter much more yet every Letter Tittle and Iota of it which thou keepest such a tatling for to be no less then the Word of the living God is that Law Testimony Moses and the Prophets or written Word as thou callest it intended in those two Texts or that by these termes in those two places is meant the said outward Scriptures and lastly most of all that it follows by any good consequence from those two places by such sound deduction as will stand against all objections gives such assurance thereof that he is a damnable unbeleever that beâ—eeves not from thence that the said Letter and Letters are infallibly known to bee the Word of God and the rest above said which are the things by thee inferred from them all this I both do and dare deny For the Law that in Isaiah is spoken of is not the literal Copy nor outward legible Letter that thou pleadest for and divinest it is but another Law which I see by thee thou art not yet very much ver'st in nor used to read even that in the heart not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Letter of a Law of carnal Commandements not the formal Letter or literal form of a writing without but an inwardly written spiritual Law or Light within which is the power of the endless life that Law in mens mindes which is warred against by that Law of sin and death that dwells in their members The Law in the Spirit lusting against that and lusted against by that flesh or evil spirit that is also in men lusting unto envy and all evill the Law of the Spirit of life which is by Christ Iesus that is powerful to that which the Letter or Copy thereof which is figuratively called the Law is weak to cannot do viz. to deliver such as take heed thereunto from that Law of sin aforesaid that leads men captive unto death The Commandement that is a Lamp and not a dark Lanthorn p. 6.23 the Law that is the Light it self that leads to the life it self for so that of the Spirit doth and not the dead Letter that is used instrumentally as a knife to kill but in any wise cannot quicken And that Testimony or Witness is that Testimony of Iesus which they have hear that keep the Commandements of God even the Light in the conscience as aforesaid This Testimony of Iesus who is the true and faithful Witness of God of whom also God himself testifieth and beareth witness is Jesus his own Witness or testimony for God born by his own voice and writing by his own Spirit and light immediately in the heart who there testifyeth what he hath seen and heard of the Father though few such a thou art receive not his Testimony whose light voice spirit speakings and counsel from heaven in their own hearts who so turns away from and hears not in all things is none of his sheep but shall be condemned and cut off from among his people and not the testimony or witness of men in outward Writings or Letters testifying though as moved by him what they have seen and heard from him not that Scripture thou so wâ—itest for and callest the witness of God for that of God is far greater the Testimony of Iesus is a Letter indeed a Writing and an Epistle Prophesie yet not the outward Writings Letter and Copies of the Epistles and Prophesies of
another that as the most must needs be false so 't is enough to confound and amaze mens minds they are so many to meddle to finde which is true among their meanings and to set a man out of his own senses to set himself so several are they to seek out their several senses on the Scriptures many bumbling Volumes larger then the Bible it self being written or some one Text of Sripture Is it for want of power or efficacy in the Letter Yea that is one reason for howbeit I.O. sayes It is absolutely called the power of God and effectual to salvation yet to his own confutation I. O sayes the Letter is dead and without the Spirit of no efficacy for the good of souls But another and that not the least is because they live in Rebellion against the light which while they turn not to though Moses is read and the Prophets also and all the Letter or Old Testament yet the Vail remaineth over Moses and the Prophets faces and as over the Iewes over the heart of these Christians also which Vail is done away only in Christ and in turning to his Light and the Spirit within their minds are blinded being off from the Light so that they know neither Christ nor Moses nor the Voyces of the Prophets that are so often read which through ignorance they fulfill as the Iews did in condemning Christ and putting him to open shame in his Light Doctrine and Disciples Nevertheless if their heart shall yet turn to the Lord that Spirit and to his Light which is within that vail shall be taken away and they shall see with open face behold the glory of God and be changed into his Image be led indeed to that true Repentance that is never to be repented of but if they continue in their unbeleef in the Light and their hearturn not to the Lord in and by the Light in the time and space that is given them for that Repentance yet at least the face of the covering that is now cast over all people and the vail that is yet spread over all Nations shall be so far removed and destroyed at last that there shall be repentance enough to no purpose when it is too late when the Gulph is once fixed and Abraham is seen by these rich worldlings and Belly-gods afar or and Lazarus in his bosome when every eye that look's for him shall see him who now cometh in the Clouds and they also that have pierced him and all Kindreds of the earth that are no kin to him shall wail because of him Even so AMEN The Fourth Apologeticall and Expostulatory Exercitation CHAP. I. NOw to proceed in way of answer to I. O's Arguments for the Scriptures and Letter and Book and Bible and Texts and outward Writings of Moses and the Prophets as the onely Rule in alterable Standard now compleated Canon Touchstone of all Truth to which since its close and consignation after Iohn had written no new Revelations Writings or Scriptures of the old Truth as from the old Spirit of it are to be added no immediate manifestations inspirations motions missions from God as of old to be expected or if pretended to be admitted or owned but to be damned down as Delusion Fanaticism Enthusiasm Quakerism Diabolism vain uncertain unprofitable fancy figment detestable meraae tenebrae caecitas fines salutares quod attinet as to salvation meere darknesse and blindnesse it self and what not that 's naught Seeing it is so as abovesaid that all these false Prophets and Divines can prevail no further then to tangle and hamper and hinder men and to hide the truth by that hideous heap of unharmoneous Heterogeneous Heterodox more then Orthodox volumes of Divinity and to smoother darken confound and drive men away from the naked truth and draw them off from the Scriptures themselves that are plain and cleare to honest and plain-hearted men by their Smoak and Clouds and Circumferences and by that boundlesse bottomlesse incomprehensible chafly Chaos of their contradictory and confused Commentaryes with which the world is now burdened even beyond what it can well bear and contain sith I say there 's none to guide these poor erring lost perishing and as yet more deformed then reformed Nations into the life of God and power of godlinesse from which they are alienated because of the blindnesse of their hearts among all the Sons whom they have brought forth Isa. 51.18 Neither any that can take them by the hand and lead them in the true way of eternall life of all the Sons whom they have brought up at their Vniversities who sit together with them under the shaddow of death notwithstanding all their Tumbling ore of so many Tames about the Scripture is it then for want of true Prophets or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men divinely inspired and sent of God to call people to Repentance and to turn them to that light of God within that leads to Repentance by voice and writing to them as them elves have had the true way thereof manifested in them by the light as themselves being taught of God have learned and practiced it and are moved of the holy Spirit to preach and presse the practice of it upon others according to the scope of the Scriptures No! For there are many in England at this very day speaking reproving writing and prophecyâ—ng from the same light and by the same Spirit that the Scriptures came forth from and as themselves have received and heard from the voice and mouth of God and seen felt and handled of the word of life as the Prophets Amos 7. and the Messengers and Ministers of God and Christ of old Act. 26.16 17 18. 1 Ioh. 1.1 2 3 4 c. The Spirit of the Lord is not more straitned in these days from blowing where it lists then it was in the dayes of old howbeit because it lists not much as it never did to blow upon or inspire the learned Scribes Hypocritical Pharisees chief Priests aspiring Rabbies Divinity Doctors Proud Diotrepheses preheminence loving Praters hireling Preachers Fawning prudentiall Parasites Politicall Polliticians and such like but mostly upon a meaner sort of men as to outward account these wise men are most hardly brought to beleive it to be so and so as said the Priests Scribes Pharisees Rabbies and Doctors of old of Moses and the Prophets we own them know them and their Scriptures which yet they knew not nor the power of God We are their Disciples wee 'l stick to their writings that 's our compleat Canon our stable Standard our immutable measure to which nothing must be added and of Christ and his in the dayes of his flesh we know God spake to Moses as for this fellow and his fellows we know not whence he is and whence they are they are of the Devill have a Devill and are mad Why hear ye them they speak blasphemous words against Moses and the Law and this place the holy Temple and
Tâ—mbs R. Bax. dark conceits to the contrary which is sufficient to bring them that follow it to Salvation but only that it s not attended to And this together with that about the Letter above spoken to which ye lay as your chief foundation being the chief matters at first intended by me to be controverted with I.O. but that well nigh at my beginning in carnest to enter the Lists with him T. Ds. two young Cubâ— one some while after another coming out upon me occasioned me to make many an extravagant vagary after them into some other doctrinal accountative and narrative businesses for the Truths sake more then my own that people might no longer unless they will be led aside from it by his lyes and guâ—â—'d with his guilded glosses and counterfeit colours wherewith â—he â—awbs and smooths and sooths them up in sin and sinister suâ—mizes against the truth and the tellers of it in the points abovesaid and covers himself and his false doctrines of Iustification of Saints in Sin personal Election of all but a very few non-puâ—gation from sin in this life and sundry others either more directly and largely as that of Iustification or more briefly occasionally or but interlinearily resured before in which I.O. is as co-incident with him as he with I.O. in the rest I shall now betake my self to some more single though short Animadversion thereof as it lies in difference between the Qua. who hold it out for truth and I.O. T.D. I.T.R.B. and the owners of their books extant in which they oppose the Qua. in print very much if not more then in any other whatsoever and so I shall have done with them both at this time And first I shall begin with T.D. his two Do-littles and take account of his mighty weak mannagement of his many meanings as to that matter of the light against the Qu. of which in many things he means much what as I.O. does and is confused and contradictory to himself not a little about it yet I must needs say not by ten-fold so much as I.O. is in his mad mangâ—nization of his mind in this matter howbeit T.D. as to his Dispute goes clear beside the Question as it was stated about the Light as he did about the Letter and Iustification and strikes much more upon the Anvil then on the iron and yet he gives us the Quest. too at the very beginning to dispute it as he did those two about Iustification and the Scripture as may appear by what follows The Question between the Qua. and T.D. was as he relates p. 1. of his 1. Pamph. viz. Whether every man that cometh into the World be enlightned by Christ which when R H. affirmed T.D. as himself relates replyed thus viz. But what Light is it you intend we grant that every man hath some Light by which he discernes though dimly many sins and duties and severall divine attributes but the mystery of Godliness as it is summ'd up 1. Tim. 3. ult God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. we deny that all men have the knowledge of To which Question of T.D. What Light is it you intend When R.H. honestly and truly replyed thus viz. The Light i.e. the Light of Christ about which only the Question was is but one T.D. replies thus viz. The Lights mentioned viz. â—aturall and supernaturall Light are two and though all have the one yet few have the other Rep. 1. Here let all reasonable men judge whether thou T. D. dost not clearly yeild us our Question which was not at all about the measure of the Light whether all have the same measure of it or not for we affirm not that but whether all have some measure of that same light that shines from Christ the light of the world yea or nay not whether all have so much as whereby they actually see all the things of God and the Gospel which are to be seen or arè seen by some but whether every man hath some or no i.e. so much as whereby to discern some of the things of the Spirit of God and the Gospel severall divine Attributes and many duties i.e. so many or such as God requires of him in particular who requires of every one according to the ability and degree of light he giveth and accepteth every one according to what he hath from him and not according to what he hath not which measure walking answerably to they stand excused uncondemned alias justified in the sight of God but rebelling against stand accused or condemned and this T.D. thon consentest to and affirmest with us so clearly that all thy after dispute upon it does not fetch that again which thou grantest to us it being about another Question of thy own starting which we deny not viz. Whether all have the actuall knowledge of the mystery of the Gospel in the light yea or no For mark We grant sayest thou that every man hath some light i.e. is in some sort enlightened by Christ for thy grant is to the Question above whether by Christ or not or else thy Answer is beside the purpose And besides p. 4. thou denyest not but the Gentiles afore Christ were enlightned by Christ as God though yet to the contradiction of thy self again as if the being enlightned to know and a man knowing were all one thou there sayest they were afarre off from the knowledge of that by whose light be discernes though dimly and how dimly or clearly is nothing to the purpose many sins and duties and several divine attributes In which words thou sayest as much to our purpose as we would desire thee It s ill stumbling at the threshold T. D. at the very entrance of thy work and yet no lesse thou didst again in Limine at the very beginning of our Disputation with thee about the Scriptures being the Word of God as is to be read in thy own Relation of the second dayes work p. 25 26. of 1. Pamph. where thou sayest the Question I promised to discourse upon was Whether the Scriptures were the word of God and that indeed was the Question to which as soon as in answer to thy desires of knowing what I held about it I denyed that the Graphe the Gramma the Scriptures ieâ—te writing or outward text is the Word of God thou repliedst by way of compliance with me saying You cannot believe us so simple surely as to affirm the Scriptures in that sense to be the Word of God And I say if not in that sense then in no sense are they so truly and properly that I know of but I.O. his foresaid non-seâ—sâ— who howbeit he is forced to confess Ex. 1. S. 28.40 to the yielding the cause to the Qua. that the matter contained in it only is said to be so but that the Scripture formally considered or the littera Scripta or letter written is not within and is not intended in those innumerable places of Scripture where the word
of God is said to be preached published multiplied received which as is shewed more at large above is as non-sensicall as for a man to say that the Lantern though formaliter it be not so but only the light that is contained in it is so doth yet challenge to it self that name of the light as its proper name yet engages himself against the Qua. in vindication of the Word of God to be the proper name of the Scriptures so truly that those are injurious to it and opproâ—â—ious reproachers of it who will not allow it to be properly called by that glorious title So thou engaging thy self in vindication of the Scriptures to be the Word of God 1 Giving us the Question to have been debated flinkest away into the proof of another matter saying that ye upon the matter contained in the writing which say we is another business the holy truth that is there told and the Light and Word of God Law and Gospel there witnessed to being a thing to distinct from the Scripture of it that as it is now where the letter is not and was two thousand years before the letter was so it will be for ever for its an euerlasting Gospell when the letter of it shall be no more Whether that be your Rule of Faith and Life a matter in no wise denyed by the Qua. if not only by the Scripture ye mean as properly ye cannot do the holy Doctrine Truth Word Light Law Gospell of Christ therein declared to be in some measure at least in the heart of every man preached in every Creature that they may hear and do it but also by thy Term Our Rule of Faith and Life that which de jure ought to be your Rule otherwise if ye say even of that de facto that it is your Rule or in esse actuall that which ye do actually and indeed walk by I deny even that also for howbeit ye should own that also and not the letter and text only as I.O. doth yet so farre are ye from so doing that if thou do not yet at least I.O. both doctrinally and practically denies and damnes it down as a meer nescio quid of the Qua. coyning Moreover much what in the same manner dost thou in the Point of Iustification give us no lesse then the Question as to the Termes wherein it was stated and then startest a new Question in thy Sophisticall sâ—â— it of subtilâ—y which is so familiar with thee that it 's seen by any that are but â—â— unculi only in the thing called Dispute by staring and translating the old one under new termes For witness thy own disagreeing counterfeited Account thereof p. 14. 1. Pamph. the new Termes wherein that thou mighest the more easily wrong me by thy wrong Representation of me to the world as a rank Papist and render me suspitious and the more securely write me out as thou doâ—t in the second Page of the lying Narrative of thy second Pamp. under that traducing Title of one suspected to be a Iesuite thou with much ado as thy phrase there is drewest and wrestedst the Quest. into and â—ayest on thy own head they were slated in were whether Our Good Worâ—s are the meritorious cause of our Iustification which I hold in the affirmative no further then as by Our good works are meant the good works of God and Christs own working in us by his Spirit which though most truly his are by the Spirit it self vouchsafed that name of Ours witness Isa. 26.12 not as by Ours those only of our own working in our will wisdome and strength are expressed and intended for all such are Our righteousnesses which I who own none of Christs working in us to be so as thou T.D. blasphemously dest if p. 15. and 22. of thy I. Pamp. be rightly soan'd do own to be but durg lâ—ss and filthy rags according to Isa. 64.6 But the true terms of the Quest in which it was stated and debated if we may as sure enough we may believe the joynt testimony of both thy self and those Gentlemen and Ministers in the Margent as in thy Epistle thou stilest them of whom there thou sayest also they are witnesses of the terms of the Questions agreed to by the Qu. before the testimony of thy single double lying self-contradicting self were otherwise witness thy own Relation thereof in thy lying Narrative which hath not any thing at all of that little truth that 's in it more true then this wherein p. 58.1 Pamp. setting all these witnesses viz. Hen. Oxenden Io. Boys Esqs N. Barry T. Selyard C. Nichols Ministers o're against it in the Margin to testifie the truth thereof together with thee thou relatest thus The terms of the third Quest. were Whether Good Works be the meritorious cause of our Iustification which was expresly affirmed by them i.e. by the Qu. in which terms staring the Question without that term Our which is of thy own foisâ—ing in the other place where even thereby on thy own head thou alterest the stare thereof and makest it clearly another Question I affirm it to this very day and ever shall to the faces of any of you as occasion is yet owning no works to be truly good but what are done by the Believers in Christ and his Light and done by Christ and his Power and Spirit whether in their persons or his own who never did evil work in his or without blasphemy in Paul that can be call'd as thou call'st that he wrought in Paul and works in us Pauls own and ours which is but dung less and filthy rags or deserve condemnation or any less then Justification both of himself and his Saints in the sight of God by any good work that ever he wrought either in himself or them And so my Argument a Contrariis ye so ball and squabble with me about was both intended and urged in effect viz. If evil works deserve condemnation then good works no Condemnation alias Iustification but this is true therefore the latter Which question so stated thou T.D. not only affirmest with me For thou neither dost nor daâ—est deny but that we are justified by the good works of Christ or that any of his worksare not good or are a violation and not a fulfilling of the Law only thou foolishly flamst it off with his good works done ad extra and not ad intra without only and not within us thy folly in which I have largely enough manifested before but also urgest the same thy self P. 15.1 Pamp. thus viz. Evil works which are the violation of the Law d serve Condemnation Ergo Good works that are the fulfilling of the Law deserve Salvation and we know no good works such sayest thou but Christs and so say we too Thus thou givest us that Question also And this G.W. tells thee of and turns upon thee in his Reply to thy first so plainly that thou dost but add to thy shame in thy Reply
upside down so that it shall be said Where is the Scribe where the Disputer â— where is he that counteth the Towers c. Mich. 5. per totum Zach. 9 10 per totum Isai. 33. 1 Cor. 1. And thanks be to God who alwayes maketh us thus to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place which ye Doctors and Divines cloud and darken with your diâ— dry Divinity for we are unto God though a stink to your unsavory selves a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish through their hatred of the light that enlightens every of â—homs without an illumination by which there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them for rejection of it neither are we as the many 〈◊〉 that huâ—ksterinâ—â— and deal deceiâ—fully about the Word of God for their own self ends but as of sincerity as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ 〈…〉 J. O. They say that Scripture Speaks of Christ he therefore is the light Christ is the light and moreover be inlighteneth not this and that man only but every man that comes into the world that is all men and every individual of them neither could anything be affirmed more clearly Repl. Neither could it in truth but that the selfish Seers are all blind and its niâ—ht unto them so that they cannot divine I. O. That the Scriptures are to be interpreted extorsimus we have enforced it from own Adversaries 〈…〉 wâ—ll do 〈◊〉 thou say extorsimus we have wrested it from them by force 〈◊〉 how 〈◊〉 own the interpretation of the Script which is no way of any procure interpretation may be interpreted by the same publick Spirit of God that gave it forth and by those that open it in the light of that Spirit yet we never yielded it to you yet nor never shall that the Scripture is to be opened by that dark private narrow selfish sottish spirit of Satan that in you lusts to envy against the truth nor by that fallible Spirit that ye are searching the Scripture and preaching out of it by who your selves deny any man as is above shewed to be in these dayes guided by any infallible direction of the infallible Spirit of God for that fallible Spirit of yours which leads you into as many meanings on it well nigh as ye are men that meddle with it and more too sometimes one man putting two or three senses as T. D doth and two men no lesse then four between them as I.O. and T. D. on one Text does but make such a nose of wax of the Scripture as may be and is too whereby ye may see what a steady Rule ye have of the Letter without the Light turned and twined by every of you into his own turn till as the Picture that every Passenger had liberty with a Pensil to mend what he thought and fancied to be amisse in it as he passed by at last became a mishapen Monster so the Scripture is scrued into such a multiformity of mens monstrous meanings that he must be monstrously blinded indeed within a while who will not see a necessity of a more stable Standard to measure Truth by then a transient much mistranscribed much more mistranslated most infinitely misinterpreted Text Letter or outward writing can ever possibly be which more stable Standard is that of the infallible Light and Spirit not as I. O. judges it must needs be if not the letter that pretended unerring Popes breast and bosome and his infallible chair J. O. The sense of this place comes now in question 1. Christ is light to wit in the same sense in which we have shewed God is light he is light in respect of his essentiall Majesty Holiness and Glory also he is light quatenus â— as he is the Fountain Author and Cause of All light that is essentially and efficienter as the efficient of it 2. Christ is said to be the light of men not that light which is in men he is the cause of all light not all light not that accidental and corrupt light whereof we speak Repl. O yes hear all manner of people who is so blind but I O himself who is in suis Talâ—â— as not to see how I O gives up his Cause by the way while he is but upon his triumphant march toward the Text before he touches it whereabout the pitcht Battel is to be The grand Question about which his Quarrell with the Quakeâ—s is is Whether Christ as an Efficient doth enlighten all men yea or nay That all men have some light are in some measure enlightaed within themselves to discern sins duties divine attributes moral good and evill the things of God and themselves this is not denied but abundantly affirmed by T D and I O specially who oft o're and o're tell us of a Voice of God by which he speaks so in all men that there is no need of other witness to evince it that its God that speaketh by which he reveals his Will and that obedience which from us is eternally indispensably due to him and abuudance more id genus as abovesaid then is fit or needfull here to be repeatedâ— Only the case sticks here whether this come from God only or from Christ also nâ—â— as God alone but as the true light of the World whether Christ be the Efficient Fountain Author Cause of this universal light that is confessed to be in common in all men without exception of any unlesse Infants and naturall fools We say yea Christ the true light of the World is the Cause of all that Mâ—ght whereby anything of God is to be known by them that is at all in any or all men T.D. I.O. say no such matter they 'l fight with us before they 'l yield to that that Christ as the Cause enlightens all men and we stand upon Iohn 1.9 Out of that strong Hold I. O. draws nigh in a very audacious daring way to storm us but behold as T. D. in other cases in ipso lumine he stumbles at the threshold before he euters the Garrison where our Guard is he yields falls down and flatly consesses 't is so as we say in theâ—e words which are his owns Christus lux est eodem sersu quo Deum lucem esse demonstravimus c. Christ is light in the same sense as we have shewed God is light How is that Thou mayest read it Reader abundantly in I. Os. 42 43 44 45 p. where he shews how God enlightens speaks in shews himself and will and their duty even to all men in their own hearts and consciences But what sayes he here Expresly thus As God so Christ is light not only essentialiter in regard of his own Majesty Holiness Glory but efficienter also quatenus omnis lucis sons c. as he is the Fountain Author and Cause of All light he is the light of men that is the Cause
the universal Grace of God who in his love freely to all men sends his Son a Light into the world and by him puts all as well as some into a capacity to live if they list and if any die then Gods Grace and Love is nere the less for all that and though secondarily and immediately the case be left by the Lord to depend on mans choice as it was in the first Adam though yet I know such as are perfectly restored by the second stand a little surer then he did I say when perfected in his life yet if man chuse life and live when life and death are set before him as they are God is no more rob'd of the glory of his goodness then he would have been by Adams standing if he had stood when God set him in aequi librio to stand or fall and made him upright as he has done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not him only but mankind till they go out from him after their own inventions Eccl. 7.29 and that was not one jot at all for though the shame of Adams sinning fell justly on himself yet the glory of his standing would have been to God who made him able to stand had he stood neither would Adam had he stood have plaid the fool so as to fall a praising and thanking himself for the life and happiness he would have had but God who in his love and bounty originally stated him in it though for his misery he may as all men also most justly thank none but himself and the Devil E.G. If I should see two men ready to starve for want of money to trade with and out of true equal bowels of pity to them both should freely bestow an equal stock of money on them or if not equal yet so much to each at least that each using and improving well what he hath may come to live like a man one of them plays the good Husband with what he has and thrives whom shall he thank when unavoidably else he had perisht for the money he had given him and now hath Would you not think him a fool to fall a thanking himself never thinking on the man that first set him up of whom unless besides his wits he would say I am bound to thank not my self that I now live when my fellow starves but that honest man that took pity on me and him too if he he had but used what he had â— T'other spends all his portion in riotous living and is as likely to starve as ere he was for want of improving what I gave him whom shall this man thank for his present poverty me that gave him whereon to live or himself who lavish't it every wise man will see my love was nere the less and though he perish yet the thank that he might have liv'd belongs to anothers bounty and the thank shame sorrow of his own woe to himself alone O Israel thy destruction is of thy self but in me is thy help Hos. 13.9 That Iudas is damn'd he may thank himself who sold his Master as Esau his birth-right and blessing that Peter and Iacob live for ever the thank of this belongs only unto the Grace of God Moreover if Christ who is often either expresly or implicitly so call'd be not a Saving Light to the whole world the Leader and Commander and Witness for and from God to All people without exception of any individuals among any people or in any Nations I would fain know of any one of these 1. How it can be truth which themselves are fain to confess That God will and doth in all Nations out of every Tongue Kindred and People effectually save some And 2. In what manner or by what way means Light or Leader he leads them few of all Families of the Earth to Life whom he doth save if it be not by that Light Law and Spirit of Life that is from Christ some of which is in every as well as any conscience sith its evident that neither All nor half those Nations in each of which some are saved have not the Scripture or Letter which they call the only Saving Light the Way the Rule Foundation the most effectual means c. and in a manner every thing which the Letter it self sayes Christ only is Indeed I find I. O. telling us such a tale of the outward Text as if in respect of the giving out of that only by the motion of his Spirit through some Holy Penmen Christ were the Saviour and Light of the world and of All men in it that are at all savingly enlightned and saved We confess quoth he Christ is the Light of the World and so of All men in it because that Light shining in the holy Scripture is sufficient savingly to enlighten All men to whomsoever by the Providence of God it shall come But to bespeak him in his own Language to us more proper to himself and his Followers then to us Quod hoc ad Fanaticorum delirium 〈…〉 What 's this to that piece of dotage of himself and his Fellow Doctors who deny the vouchsafing of any saving Illumination to most men yea to very many to one in the world scilicet a little deeper discovery of their dotage Scriptura nempe 〈…〉 omnia belike I. O. deems All the ends of the earth to be so fully filled with his adored Transcripts and Texts of Scripture that by them Christ saves and enlightens All he saves which are say they in every Nation some whereas Ridiculum Caput who knows not that the Scripture or writing is so saâ— from appearing in every dark corner of the earth where I affirm the true Light shines in every conscience so that there 's nor Speech nor Language where it shines not and the Voice of Christ the Light may not 〈◊〉 heard that the Text hath scarce been heard or 〈◊〉 of buâ—in some few corners of this so call'd Christian world which yet more idoliâ—ing 〈◊〉 only loving the Letter and hating the Light are for all their Letter as much as any in the unfruitful deeds of darkness also even until now Oh the Inanity of these men call'd Divines in the matters of God and the Gospel as if the Letter only were that Voice of Christ which is every where heard by some that Light which in every Nation savingly enlightens some that Rule which All the World is required to walk by in order to peace and on pain of damnation which Letter yet was never read or seen perhaps not so much as heard of in half the world the only rule of the whole whereof it is to be say they and not the Light of Christ in the Conscience at any hand the Expansion Beams and Rays of which but that few heed it and the darkness comprehends it not reach into the darkest inmost corners of each 〈◊〉 Conscience throughout each corner of the whole Creation The Letter is not in every Nation to save some
Psalmist they can perswade others from what they have seen felt and handled of Gods Word and his Iudgements which are a gâ—eat deep yet to the rest that live alienated from the Light and by them have bâ—en purged from their filth and warned from the wickedness of their way and of simple been made wise of which precious uâ—e Gods Iudgements are to all that thus witness and know them as Psa. 19. Yea these are that Nation of Israel and not that which is now become a curse and perished out of what ever outwaâ—d Nation or People they are gathered into the one Light and Spirit of whom it s said Who is like unto thee O Isâ—ael â— a people saved by the Lord who rideth on the Hâ—avens for thy help And in that of these mens quoting Deuter. 4.8 What Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Iudgements so righteous as all this Law which is set before them in the light their keeping and doing of which shall be their wisdome and understanding in the sight â—f those Nations which though now they count them fools shall at last see themselves to have been infatuaated and say of Gods now dispersed and despâ—sed Seed of Israel after the Spirit Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people And as for others though as R. B I. T. T. D. and ye all say God hath not dealth so richly with any as he does with them that receive the riches of his Grace and they have not known his Iudgements in such a measure as these know them yet all as they heed the Light in that may know them as in some degree the Heathen heeding the Light are said to do Rom. 1. and degrees never vary the nature of a case neither follows it that because some know not so much as some therefore many neither do nor for want of Light can know nothing of the Gospel or Saving Truth of God at all The 30th from Rom. 7.7 is thus The Light within neither did to Paul nor doth nor can discover sin even the sin of Lust without the Law therefore the Light within each person is not a sufficient guide of it self to lead to God and to warrant mens actions without the written Word i. e. Scripture with them Rep. Why not as well as before the Law was written in an outward Letter at all if by the Law ye will needs understand nothing but outward Scripture for some sure knew lust before Moses wrote the Law But in very deed how deeply soever ye dream in this as ye do in most things this Law without which the Lust is not well known is no other then the Light it self within for the Letter sayes lust is a sin but 't is the Light that shews thy lust to filth envy or any evil to be thy sin within thy self and that Law by which the knowledge of sin comes is that Law and Commandment which Prov. 6.23 is said to be the Light and the Lamp even the wâ—rd that David hid of him that he might see the way of covetouâ—ness that was eâ—sewise hid in his heart and so not sin against Gâ—d by which only the young man in whom lust is strong taking heed thereunto shall come to cleanse his way which is never clean while he hangs only on the lips of Letter-stealers and meer Letter-lauders who lauding the holy life they liâ—e not in are at best but lyars when they preach the Tâ—uth But this being elsewhere handled I shall need to say the less of it here So having done with these two mens thirty Arguments a few words more to their ten wâ—aâ— Reasâ—ns against the true Light in all men and then I have done with them as to that Reason 1. Because what each man conceives according to his Light within him cannot be right and â—rue for one mans conceits do sometimes contradict anothers Nor are thâ— Quak. all of one mind when they follow the Light within them Rep. This is one of your own croâ—ked odd conceits indeed but far from truth and good consequence that the Light or Rule it self cannot be true or right or a safe rule because mens conceits of things to be or not be according to it may be contradictory one to another and so not both true 'T is true contradictoâ—y conceivings abâ—ut one Rule cannâ—t be both true but he contradicts aâ—l truth and common reasâ—n who conceives the Rule or Light it self to be ere the worse or ere the less a true Rule or Light because of that Two men may have contradictâ—ry thâ—ughts and conceits whereof one must needs be false about a piece of Cloths agreeing or nor agreeing with the yaâ—d or measure but it follows nor therefore from any thing but these faithless mens false and foolish fancies that the Taâ—d is not a Yard or no good rule or measure and if this were good consequence R. B. and I. T. but that they are blind still might see it conclude more strongly against their Letters being as they plead it to be the only true Light or Rulâ— then against the Light since there 's as many silly senses misty meanings and contradictory conceits in the minds of them that are Ministers of it almost as they are Ministers of it For whereas they tell us of two Qua. contradicting one another I have told these four men I.O. T.D. R.B. I.T. of contradicting one another many times o're in their books against us and shall do yet a little more before this book I here write be at an end yea â—n truth as I have shewed already before and shall do more behind there 's little else then confusion and contradiction to themselves by our men called Clergy well nigh in all the Doctrines they have to do with besides this reaâ—on rendred by them is not at all against the Light of God but against mens meer conceits which we are more against then any men whatever calling men out of their own conceivings into Gods own Counsel the Light So quid hoc ad rem Reas. 2. Because that which unvariable and alterable cannot be a persons Rule for its the property of a Rule to be invariable and the same at all times Rules Measures Weights Dials Squares and what other things are made if they be varied câ—ase be Rules Rules should be fixt and certain but nothing more variable then mens light in them Rep. Igrant that 's no rule which is variable and alterable and therefore have above from hence concluded and do here again from your own premises conclude the Letter the Rule ye talk for more then walk by not to be that only Rule of Faith and Life as ye would have it but Gods Light in the heart which the Letter came from sith as I. O. teaches us in his Epistle though he will not learn the same lesson himself but teaches in his book as much against it as he does for it that the Letter in the very Original copies of it
Hee goats Horn broken So I let them passe Witnesse also T. D. who though he together with I.O. p. 77. Nor doth it in the least impair this self evidencing efficacy of the Scripture that it is a morall and spirituall not a naturall light owns the Scripture specially the light in the Scripture or holy matter contained in the Scripture to be a morall spirituall supernaturall and not a naturall Rule or Light yet affirms it to be common or universall i. e. in some measure in the hearts of all even the very Heathen p. 16.2 pamp The matter contained in the Scripture quoth he is a Rule to all men so far as t is revealed to them and was so before 't was put into writing and so much of it as is written upon the hearts of the Heathens is a Rule to them Rom. 2.12 Thus T. D. who before made the one light to be Two viz. Naturall and supernaturall here to go round again makes that light which is in the Scriptures and in the Heathens hearts Rom. 2.12 truly One and the same and no lesse then supernaturall and spirituall Witnesse also I. O. who calls the light often naturall yet to go round again Ex. 4. S. 9. Splits this one light which they all somtimes falsly call no more then naturall into a Light which is both naturall civill supernaturall and spirituall as it were all at once This Light quoth he or faculty of understanding so he foolishly calls it splits it self into meerly naturall and civill and supernaturall i. e. spirituall which discerns spirituall matters and all things in order to the last end and this inward spirituall light quoth he or faculty of understanding spirituall things spiritually is various c. Where note how I. O. falsely calls the light no other then the faculty of understanding which he calls elsewhere truly enough but naturall and yet to go round again calls the very faculty of understanding which is common to all men as men by the Title of this inward spirituall light which discerns spirituell things and that spiritually in order to the supernaturall and ultimate end i. e. Salvation And this inward spirituall light common to all that discerns spirituall things spiritually in order to that ultimate end I. O. sayes is various too and very well he may if it may be divided again into those two severall sorts into which I.O. sub-splits it for whereas here he calls this Light in the Conscience which the Qua. call to lumen internum spirituale c. An inward spirituall light which discerns spirituall things spiritually in order to the supernaturall spirituall and ultimate end yet a little lower viz. S. 17. to go round again he calls it meer darknesse it self by which no divine saving thing can be seen witnesse his words This Light within common to all however attended to is quoth he in no respect saving but in all divine matters so far as to the ultimate end meer darknesse and blindnesse One while again they deny this light to be the visive i.e. Intellective faculty or eye of the soul or to be given for any such end as so much as to remove the defect of the visive faculty Witnesse I. O p. 77. Light will not remove the defect of the visive faculty Light is not eyes Otherwhiles to go round again It is the very visive faculty as Ex. 4. S. 9. This light or faculty of understanding which is meerly naturall c. This inward spirituall light or faculty of understanding spirituall things spiritually c. So S. 8. 18. Lux quae proprie mentem respicit seu facultas illa intelligendi est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oculus acies mentis The light which properly respects the mind or the faculty of the understanding is the sight the visive force the very eye of the mind One while they tell us that its true among the Gentile Philosophers there was light that guided well and that in the Law there was light and that no light that is truly such though dimene and imperfect as say they that of the Philosophers and the Law was is to be rejected Witnesse R.B. I.T. p. 68. Otherwhiles some light yea even the Philosophers light which led them well as they say asore in some did in most things lead men into crooked and dangerous wayes therefore unlesse men love and it be best to be led into crooked and dangerous wayes to go round again to be rejected Witnesse against themselves R.B. I. T in the self same page the next line but one after the other witnesse also I.O. against them both who Ex 3. S. 28. sayes of the spirit and light within the Qua calls to among other things that he calls incerta periculosa inutilia minime necessaria rejicienda atque detestanda that they are to be both rejected and detested Thus when they begin of their own accord among their own supposed friends somtimes these men commend and extoll and call men to heed this light in the Conscience which the Qua call to so eminently that the Qua scarce need more words to recommend it to men in as to its excellency divinity usefullnesse profitablenesse needfullnesse and necessity to be heeded and obeyed then the same which our Divines themselves who hate it do seem to set it out in Otherwhiles that is when any Qua begin to call men to it to commend and extoll it among their Parish people though in their own forms of speech about it and when the Qua desire them as they will prove themselves true Ministers of Christ with Paul to labour to turn all men to the light within themselves then to go round again either they 'l be silent or if they sing anything at all concerning it sing out no more so loudly as before to the praise and glory of it but rathe what they are able they sing their old new song to the Turncoats Tune of Truth turned out of Doores in way of dispraise and disparagement and utter detestation of it to the utmost as if t were the vilest kind of Canting in the whole world to utter one word in order to the begetting of any people into so much as any measure of any good opinion at all of a light within so that I may truly say of these Seers as the Poet once of one of Caesars Singers Omnibus hoc vitium est cantoribus inter amicos Vt nunquam inducunt animum cantare rogati Injussi nunquam desistunt c. To shew the World how Sepharically these Ministers sing out the high praises of the light of Christ the light of the World the light in the Conscience when they please to begin of themselves and to go round again how symphonically they set it at their heels in opposition to the Qua rather then the Qua shall prevail with them to say any thing of it that is any better then nought