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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	write_n	write_v	yield_v	40	3	6.7920	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54126	The counterfeit Christian detected; and the real Quaker justified Of God and Scripture, reason & antiquity. against the vile forgeries, gross perversions, black slanders, plain contradictions & scurrilous language of T. Hicks an Anabaptist preacher, in his third dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker, call'd, The Quaker condemned, &c. By way of an appeal to all sober people, especially those called Anabaptists in and about the City of London. By a lover of truth and peace W. P.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1674 (1674)	Wing P1271; ESTC R220484	73,223	125

Ghost be this Discoverer and Instructor and yet not eminently the Rule But in asmuch as thou chargest me with denying the Scriptures Authority and then railest p. 61. because I place it upon the Te●●timony of the Light and Spirit of God In the Conscience Hear what D. John Owen sayes The only Publick Authentick and Infallible Interpreter of the holy Scripture is He who is the Author of them from the Breathing of whose Spirit it derives all its VERITY PERSPICUITY and AUTHORITY Exerc. 2.7 9. VVhat would have become of me T. H. if I had spoken so broad as this This makes the Spirit Interpreter Judge and Rule of our Knowledge therefore eminently the Rule T. Collier an ancient and considerable Baptist shall be my last instance here There is the Law and Testimony in the Spirit saith he as well as in the Letter The Law of God is in the Heart there it is written and there it testifies the Truth of God And if any man speak not according to this Rule it is because there is no Light or Morning risen in him See his Works pag. 249. Again Others know no other Touch-Stone nor Tryal no other Light by which they judge of Truth then Scripture thus putting it in the room of the Spirit which is Light and the Greater Light For they say they cannot know Truth till they bring it to the Letter for Tryal thus making an Idol of the Letter setting it up in the room of God Ibid. pag. 248. I could produce a great Cloud of more Witnesses both of Fathers and other Authors But I hope I have discharged my self of my Engagement and made appears That what I asserted was not too hard for me to prove and therefore thou T. H. wert too confident in saying so but thy notorious Ignorance in these things may a little excuse thee But thou chargest us with undervaluing the Scriptures a Fault I abhor to be guilty of Let me hear in what C. You contemptibly call the Scriptures the Letter whilst you entitle some of your own Pamphlets The Voice of Wisdom A Message c wherein you manifestly prefer your own Writings before the Holy Scriptures pag 55. Q. This Cavil has been answered again and again I told thee before and thou hast cited me thus If at any time we call the Scriptures Letter it is not that we mean our Books are the Spirit or that we irreverently set them the Scriptures below our own Writings but upon a Comparison only between the Scriptures and the Spirit that gave them forth What Return dost thou give to this C. It is aggravate not to excuse your Error Q. It is an Error to call the Scriptures the Letter in a Comparison with the Spirit And an Aggravation of that Error to prefere the Spirit before the Letter But as this all thou hast to say to the Matter C. Why have you not respect to this Comparison when you entitle your own Books But that you would have us to believe that your Writings are more eminently from the Spirit then the Sciptures p. 56. Q. How do we prefer our Writings above the Scriptures which we prove by the Scriptures I perceive it is become almost impossible with thee to make any other Constructions then what rather shew thine own Envy then our Sense Was there ever the same Reason for a Comparison between our Writings and the Spirit Did we ever set them up for the only Rule of Faith and Obedience and that in Opposition to the Spirit as the New Covenant Rule and those that maintain that Plea If there were the same Occasion thou shouldst quickly hear of the same Distinction and Comparison But go on C. Hence it is That when both stand in Competition you thus distinguish them Letter yea Dead Letter as the proper Term for the Scriptures but The Voice of Wisdom to your Books Art thou not ashamed of this Bas●ness and Prophaneness pag. 56 Q. Whatever I am I perceive thou art not ashamed of making me base and prophane too and printing a most horrid Untruth to render me so There is not a Sentence in thy Book gives a clearer Testimony of the Injustice of thy Carriage then this in hand For nothing is more frequent with thee throughout thy Dialogues then first to invent something odious in our Name and then as if none so Modest and Righteous as thy self cry out Who would not be astonished at this Blasphemou● Absurdity p. 30. Art thou not ashamed of this Prophaneness and Baseness p. 59. O Impious Man c. p. 13. But let this determine this Point between us Produce but one of our Friends that ever brought his VVritings in Competition with the Scriptures calling the Scriptures the Dead Letter his own Books the Voice of Wisdom c. and I will yield thee to have written Truth If thou canst not thou hast but fastened Baseness Prophaneness and Lying upon thy self with thee I leave them for there thou ought est to rest till thou canst better clear thy self of them I charged thee with having wronged Geo. Fox and Rich. Hubberthorn in making them to say It is Dangerous for ignorant People to read the Scriptures and then fixing the Name of Jesuit and Romanish upon us producing their words at large which thou hast basely contracted to thy own Ends leaving out what might most make for their Innocency and the evincen●●ent of thy own Forgery Thou givest the words thus The Letter killeth is Dangerous In my Quotation and in their own Book thus The Letter which killeth 2 Cor. 3.6 is D●ngerous for thou Priest takest in h●re to war with●l against the Saints with thy carnal Mind giving out thy carnal Expositions upon it All this T. H. thou hast unworthily left out that thou mightest the better fasten thy Fiction upon G. F. and R. H. I ask Is it not Dangerous to read the Scriptures to these Ends And the Ministers of the Letter are the Ministers of Death here thou leavest out again which is to Condemnation and you take it to make a Trade with it and with what the Prophets Christ and the Apostles said so that some have 60 and some 100 l. a year but Christ cryed Wo unto such Whited Walls having left out this part that concerned the Hireling thou puttest in again And here you read with Danger who speak of them and speak a Lye because you speak of your selves Here again thou lettest drop and you wr●st the Scriptures to your own Destruction as the Unlearned and Unstable do and is not this Dangerous in them Then thou bringest in this And to you it is Dangerous to read or speak of them omitting all that here follows by me cited to clear them of thy Charge viz. who know not the Life of them as the Pharisees who were learned in the Letter but knew not Christ But I say Blessed is he that readeth doth understand All this so necessary to give the Undertstanding of their true Meaning thou

are therefore incosistent with Government Contin pag. 59 60. Who would have expected this from a profest Baptist and Preacher too XIII From our denying the Resurrection of the natural corruptible Body leaving it with the Lord to give us a Body as pleaseth him as 1 Cor. 15.36 37 38. This Caviller endeavours to possess People with our Denyal of the Resurrection of any Body to Life eternal however spiritual or glorified Dial. 1. p. 56. to 62. And lastly from our asserting the Unity of God and the Soul and Denyal of his carnal Resurrection he concludes That the Soul is Part of God a●d that no future Rewards or Punishments are to be expected Dial. 1. p. 16 17. These Reader are some of the many Perversions this Ungodly Man is guilty of against our Principles Is this to condemn the Quaker out of his own Mouth and to evince his Objections against him to be real Truths Is not Counterfeit a Name good enough for him that has thus counterfeited a Quaker an● a Christian too Will this bring Honour to his Brethren Or can it be consistent with their Credit to encourage such base Attempts when but a midling Heathen would have abhorred to have been the Actor of half that Injury T. H. hath not only committed but continues in and boasts of And that he has betaken himself to no better Refuge from the Pursuit of our Arguments notwithstanding the Cautions of our former Book I shall in a few Instances make evidently appear to all that dare trust and will but impartially use their Eyes 1. From my saying That those that crucified Christ were Admirers of the Scriptures and pretended out of their own Law that it was both lawful and necessary he should be put to Death Whereas had they brought that Deed to the Light the Light would have shown it not to have been wrought in God which the Scriptures without the Light could not effectually do He makes no Cons●ience of inferring That I intimate an Insufficiency in the Scriptures to convince the Jews that Murder was a Sin Dial. 3. p. 13. Whereas the Question was not whether Murder was a Sin but whether the Jews thought that Murder by the Scripture if they did give us an Instance if they did not then I have the End of my Allusion to wit If the Scriptures are not therefore insufficient in T. H's Account because the Jews were not convinced by them of Murder neither ought the Light within to be reputed insufficient because Men were not convinced of their Unbelief in Christ by it I will answer him in setting down his own Words to me O Impious Man sayes he The Defect was not in the Scriptures but in themselves in not attending what was therein delivered wherein Murder is peremptorily forbidden Right But O Impious Man say I the Defect was not in the Light but themselves in not attending to it whereby Murder is also forbidden How much more sufficient now T. H. is the Scripture then the Light Vain Shuffler But this is not all his Perversion for he further infers in my Name That the Scriptures did rather countenance and justifie then condemn them in that Fact Dial. 3. p. 13. Which Reader in plain Terms is as much as to say because the Scriptures do not so effectually discover evil Conceptions as the Light within therefore the Scriptures rather countenance and justifie them Monstrous Baseness The Truth is were his Endeavours against us but well weighed of all that see them there were little need of our Labour in his Discovery or our own Defence But that which aggravates his Sin is the hard Words he gives me after all I know not why unless to cover his own Guilt or make his credulous Reader think me as hateful as he would have me 2. The second Perversion I shall instance is this Because I told him in Answer to his Objection about the Light 's Insufficiency for it s not discovering to the Heathen-Philosophers how Sin came into the World If he meant by that Discovery a clear and distinct Account and particular History how Adam and Eve were beguiled by the Serpent it was nowayes to his Purpose unless he can prove the Knowledge of it absolutely necessary to Salvation He according to his usual Baseness makes me to say The Penning of that History was to no Purpos● Dial. 3. p. 41. thus interrogating of me Wilt thou dare to say the Knowledge of this is to no Purpose Why then did sacred Penmen give such full Account thereof As if it were one and the same Thing for me to say the Penning of that History is to No Purpose and to say It is not to T. Hicks 's Purpose Is this the Way to prove the Quaker no Christian But since this full Account is made such a great Instance by T. H. for the Sufficiency of the Scripture and Insufficiency of the Light let him tell me What Paradise Adam was put in and where it was What was that Serpent that tempted Eve a fallen Spirit or a Beast of the Field And what was that Fruit and Tree God forbad and the Serpent tempted the Woman to eat of And what was the Voice Adam heard in the Garden What were those Fig-Leaves he covered himself withall And what was that Death that he dyed And what were those Cherubims and the flaming Sword and the Tree of Lif● all mentioned in that History If he takes the Account Literally let him say so but let him take this with him that then Adam bodily dyed before he begot his Sons and Daughters and the History gives us no Account of his corporal Resurrection But if he take the Account in whole or in Part mystically then how is it full clear and distinct not distinguishing Literal Natural from Mystical and Spiritual Things Is this the Way to prove the Insufficiency of the Light within that sends all People to the Light within for a sufficient Account which sayes Dr. Henry Moor of Cambridge spoke in and reproved Adam for his Lapse from God Philosoph Cab. p. 27. However it be this lies at T H's Door that because I said his Instance of Moses's Writing was nothing to his Purpose he makes me to conclude They were writ to no Purpose If he loved his Soul he would hate these Courses that need no Aggravation their own Infamy is enough 3. Again from my acknowledging that the Scripture furnisheth me with the Knowledge ●f Christ's visible Transactions he infers thus which is as if thou shouldst say God manifeste● 〈◊〉 lesh c●uld not have been known by thee were it not revealed in the Scriptures intimating thou couldst NEVER have known it but by the meer Light in thee Dial. 3. p. 44 48. Which intimates that Thomas Hicks is an arrant Perverter of my Sen●e Is there no Difference between saying I was informed of a certain Passage by A. B. and saying It was impossible I should have known it any other Way then by A. B. But why

hast designedly overlookt However let us hear what Defence thou hast made for thy self C. The Question respects the whole Scripture which you say is Dangerous and Killing The Ministers of the Scriptures are Ministers of Death and it is Dangerous for such to read them What a shameless Man art thou thus to confess what I accuse you of and yet condemn me as a Forger pag. 57. Q. These foul and confident Questions thou usest to ask me with which thou wouldst insinuate thy Innocency do but aggravate thy Forgery For first How do I confess what thou accusest us of when it is neither to be found in my words nor theirs upon whom thou chargest them viz. It is Dangerous for Ignorant People to read the Scriptures 2dly I told thee they meant by Ministers of the Letter Ministers of the Law and Death because of Transgression and thou makest it Dangerous for such to read the Scriptures whereas G. F. and R. H. said It was Dangerous for Hirelings and whi●e Walls to use them against the Saints with their carnal Exp●sitions opposing them Pharisee like to the Life of them wresting them to their own ●estruction It is Dangerous for such to read them to such Uses and Purposes not in any Sense as thou untruly sayest Of this thou takest no notice So that here the Reader may plainly see thy first Forgery since it was not the Man of no Letters but the Men of Letters such as the Scribes and Pharise●s who used them against the right Heirs of them of whom G.F. and R.H. ●poak And thy second is not less visible in that thou hast imposed upon the Reader my Confession of thy Accusation who never confessed any such thing These are some of thy wonted Tricks ever anon imploy'd to cover thy Nakedness with and to get off unsuspected from encountering the Difficulty of our Charge Proof or Argument I appeal to God's Witness in my Reader 's Conscience to right us against the many Injurious Practices against us And shall conclude with this Acknowledgment and Argument concerning the Scriptures We do receive and believe the Scriptures given forth by Holy Men of God as they were moved of the Holy Ghost and that they are profitable for Doctrine for Reproof and for Instruction in Righteousness yet since they are Writings relating to the things of God no man can understand them or have an assured Testimony of them but by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. which alone reveals the deep things of God It was not the Scripture but the Father that revealed Christ to Peter Mat. 16.5 Further The New Covenant Times are Times of Fulfilling of the Scriptures by the pouring out of the Spirit therefore Peoples regard should be to the inward Drawings and Leadings of the Holy Spirit The Law outward was a Rule to the Jew though not eminently unto them for the Lord gave them also of his good Spirit what for if not to rule them But the Law of the Spirit of Life promised to be reveal'd within under the New Everlasting Covenant was certainly to be the Rule under that Covenant being a time for the more immediate Flowings forth of Spirit and Life We do not say that every one hath hereunto attained But we affirm that God hath given a measure of his Spirit unto Men Women that they might receive the pretious Promises unto w ch we direct them for that End I know that T. Hicks according to his wonted Baseness pag. 49. interprets our saying that we deny the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Practice in honour to the Divine Light to be our denying rejecting the revealed Will of God thereby must hate their Parents because they are to love Christ first Mat. 10. This were to say that Paul's regard to the Law of the Spirit of Life in him as his Rule was not to fulfil but to deny rej●ct the Law without If this Consequence be false agains● Paul How can T. H.'s Consequence be good against us Is it to reject and deny the Scriptures to have the good things they declare of brought in by the Eternal Spirit And since the Scriptures can not fulfil themselves in us but the Spirit is not the Spirit the Rule and Guide to our Divine Knowledge and Enjoyments But from our asserting the Spirit to be the Rule T.H. infers That we deny to live according to the Scriptures a Mi●take he fell into before which I offer'd to help him out of in my Answer for to own the Scripture to be the Rule and to live according to the Scriptures are not one and the same thing For the Gentiles did the things contained in the outward Law and yet had not the outward Law for a Rule Rom. 2.14 Nor is it to be doubted but that Paul and the primitive Christians lived up to the outward Law that is the inward Law outwarly declared by the Law of the Spirit of Life which was the Rule of their Obedience Yet can any infer that the outward Law and not the inward was the Rule of their so living And I must tell thee Th. Hicks that thy Exalting of the Scriptures is but an Endeavour to throw down the Spirit which Sacrifice be it known unto thee the Lord of Heaven loathes And I will say to thee as G. F. and R. H. said to the Priest They are Dangerous to be read and used for those Evil Purposes thou employest them upon But as they said though that also thou didst overlook so say I Blessed is He that doth read and understands them Testimonies concerning the Rule Irenaeus pag. 242 384 389. The Writing in the Heart is the Rule Again l. 5. c. 8. The Word giveth his Spirit to all to some according to Condition And l. 4. c. 30. The Fathers justified by the Righteousness of the Law in them therefore had no need of REPROVING LETTERS W. Perkins Works 3 Vol. pag. 220. The Light of Nature and Grace teacheth to do as we would be done to pag. 221. It is the Fulfilling of the Law the Rule to judge Scripture That of God made the Rule Something in the Conscience Happy Times if Men would follow it Bp. R. Sanderson De Obligat Conscient pag. 127. A Rule of Discerning without the Scriptures Regula discernendi extra Scripturam And T. C●llier in plain words saith The Spirit of God who is God is the ALONE RULE of a Christian Gen. Epist to the Saints chap. 12. The Spiritual Man judgeth all things by the RULE OF THE SPIRIT ibid. The Law of the New Testament is written in the Heart ibid. But what need is there further of my maintaining this Point concerning The Light being the Rule in all Ages since thou hast made such ample Confession That the Godly in all Ages before Christ in the Flesh were turned from the Darkness to the Light pag. 64. This Light must needs be within because the Darkness is there And it must needs be sufficient because