Christs Righteousness received from him and wrought by him in us So then the snare is broken and I am escaped which yet is whole enough to hold T. D. fast enough who set it who while I for whom 't was set am set at liberty by himself cannot with all his struggling strain his own neck out of the string whereinto he hath slipt it unawares Sic ves non vohis fertis Aratra Bâ—ves Further yet much more is to be said in proof of it that our being first led by the Spirit of Christ into the Righteousness of his working in us is Antecedent to our Iustification as a meritorious cause of it though considering how slenderly T. D. slides away from what was at the Dispute urged to that purpose even as he sets it down in his own Relation of it p. 15 16. to his own best advantage there were no great need of more if all wereas wise as some are silly to see the strength of what was urged but some are silly and some are willing rather then to own troublesome truths to wink against it and to seem more silly then they are whereupon when I have Examined the inefficacy of T. Ds. returns to it and turned them home in their native nakedness to the shame of him who sent them out I may not unlikely urge somewhat more 1. To this Argument from Gal. 5.18 They who are led of the Spirit are not under the Law therefore being led of the Spirit is a meritorious cause of not being under the Law and so consequently of Iustification or Non-Condemnation by it Thou T.D. Rep'yest That I am very silly myself or take my hearers to be so thinking this to be a proof of my former consequence or that there is any consequence in this Argument whereas first this Argument is urged not so much in proof of my former consequence as entail'd on that but as entire and absolute within it self for as to the proof of the former consequence viz. Contrariorum contraria est Ratio therefore as evil deserve Condemnation so good works Non-Condemnation in proof of which thou sillily sayeth I should have proâ—â— that there 's Par. Ratio for had I prosecuted that I should have proved that there 's Contraria Barro for the merit of the ones and of the other as I have told thee above I say as to that former consequence it had been sufficiently proved before by telling you but that in such a crowd of conference as ye were in among your selves it could not be heeded that as Condemnation and Non-Condemnation of Iustification were Contraries so good works which I said were not those of our own working without Christ for I oft said not by works of Righteousness we have wrong hâ—â— but what Christs works in and by us none of which are imperfect but all truly good and evil works are truly Contraries and so of contrary desert the one being all as truly good as the other truly evils and as for thy saying I am either silly or take my hâ—â—â—ers sâ—toâ— in that I think there 's any consequence in the Argument from Gal. â— 18 I say I did not take my heedless hearers so silly thus but I now take some of them an â—thy self for one to be much more silly then I did at the Dispute not onely by reason of sundry other remarkably silly passages that are in thy Printed Relation thereof but also in that thou thinkest there is no consequence in that Argument for verily wert thou but as solid as thou art silly in this matter or couldst thou but look an inch or two beyond that 18th verse whereon the Argument is grounded thou might'st see of thy self that which is of force sufficient to prove the seâ—â—et for shewing in the verses between the works of the flesh which the Spirit leads out of and the fruits and works of the Spirit which the Spirit leads such into as follow it the Apostle v. 23 adils this viz. against such there is no Law i. e. such works of the Spirit as Love Ioy Peace Goodness Meekness Temperance and such Persons as are by the Spirit led out of the work of the flesh adultery uncleanness laferviousness hatred wrath envyings drunkenness revellings c. and into the other whence to the proving of the Sequel of that Argument in which thou sillity sayest there 's no no consequence I argue If such as are led by the Spirit out of evill into good works are thereupon deservedly not under the Law then their being led by the Spirit who are led by it from under it is the deserving or meritorius cause of their nor being under the Law and so of Iustification But verum prius ergo posterius The Minor which unless thou wilt deny thy Principles its like thou wilt deny is thus proved Those against whom deservedly there is no Law are thereupon deservedly from under the condemning power of it for such is the Râ—gour of the Law that who ere deserves the Condemnation of it till they come not to deserve it first or last shall assuredly feel it But there is no Law deservedly against such as 〈◊〉 not after the flesh into evil but after the Spirit into good works therefore according to that also Rom. 8.1 deservedly no Condemnation For indeed those and no other what ere ye deem to the contrary being deluded by the Devil to the deceiving of your own Souls are truly in Christ Iesus then those that are led by the Spirit which who is led by is led out of evil for it leads into nothing but good those onely are in the Spirit and all the rest in the 〈◊〉 which follow the flesh in its lustings against the Spirit and so under the Law and câ—â—e thought they name the Name of Christ and after him call themselves Christians while they are not departed from iniquity much more while they plead for its continuance under the name of their infiâ—miâ—ies of necessity while they abide in the body yea those and none else are Christs though millions more may conceit themselves his so as to be interessed into the blessings of Peace Life and Iustification by him and Abrahams Seed and heirs according to the Promise and sons of God that are led by the Spirit of God into good works out of evil to live and walk in the Spirit out of the flâ—sh and the fâ—uits thereof out of vain glory envy hypocrisie and all deceit and if any think he is Christs or any other men are Christs so far as to stand justified before God in him before he be sanctified or while he is guilty of such gross evils as David was defil'd with while he was wallowing in the Mire of that matter of Vriah as T. D. guesses David and all Saints are by which name he paints them out as well while they are in such a nasty pickle as when they are wash of impure the Righteousness of Christ without him to himself or
Scribes that keep scribling and preaching and disputing all their dayes as if they did delight to know Gods wayes enquiring after the Ordinances of Iustice in order as they pretend to the knowledge of what is to be done and yet in what they know naturally as brute beasts by a habit of reading Chapter and Verse as as a Horse that is versed in a way to the Pasture he is used to run in in those very things they corrupt themselves saying to God when he tells them any troublesome truth Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes â—â—taining the truth in unrighteousness that is told them within by the Light of God himself in their own hearts not receiving the love of it that they may be saved having pleasure in unrighteousness and no pleasure in the Truth such shall have at last that they have taken away from them and in the just Iudgement of God be blasted and blinded and given over to strong delusion to believe lyes that they may be damned Nevertheless not as a Principle onely but as a Rule of obedience to such as truly love her the Light within the Spirit of God the Word nigh in the heart and Wisdom not onely with but without the Letter ever was is and will be profitable to direct Eccl. 10 10. And no less then this that the Spirit is the standing Rule of Faith and Life to the Church as well as the Principle thereof doth that Gal. 6.8.16 evince where the Apostle having spoken so much before in ch 5. and the â— verse of this 6. of the lustings of the spirit against the flesh or evil spirit in us that lusteth to envy of walking according to the Spirit living according to the Spirit being led by the Spirit of sowing to the Spirit the crop of which is the fruit of the Spirit the everlasting life the new Creature while the Crop reaped from the fulfilling the lustings of the flesh is more and more Works of the flesh and corruption to death and condemnation at least adds by way of encouragement that the walkers by the Spirit might not not be weary of well doing thus much viz. that so many as walk according to this Rule which Rule is not the Scripture as the Divines and Doctors citing that place as J. O. does twice over at least viz. Ex. 3. S. 26. Ex. 4 S. 22. to that purpose do ignorantly divine but the Spirit the walking in and after which is so often hinted at above and the Light within which and not the Letter without makes manifest both the Works of the flesh and darknesse and the Fruits of the Spirit and the light For the Letter indeed doth declare that the works of the Flesh and the fruits of the Spirit are manifest but it declares also that that which doth manifest them both is the Light by which also they were manifested before the Letter was Which Letter likewise doth de jure declare what is to be done and not done but onely the Light de facto what is done and what is not done of the Mind and Will of God thereby inwardly nigh more immediately revealed and declared as 't is ad extra onely and more mediately and afar off by the Letter For all things that are reproved or approved are as so made manifest by the Light the Letter came from And whatsoever doth primarily and principally make manifest good and evil right and wrong crooked and straight truth and falshood simplicity and deceit it self and darkness it self and all false spirits sound Doctrine and seducing is that Light and Spirit which comes from God and shines more or lesse in all mens hearts This as it is the Principle as J.O. foolishly affirms the Letter only is p. 18. or means of discovery so it and not the Writing only as he there blindly writes is also the Rule or measure of judging and determining about the saving Doctrine of the Gospel this is as the Light of the outward world is in it the discovery of it self and of all things else in their proper appearances This is certum Rectum Regula quae est mensura sui obliqui Hitherto are we sent this and not the Letter as I.O. childishly asserts p. 57. is asserted to be the Rule and Standard the Touchstone of all speaking whatsoever that must speak alone for it selfe and try the speaking of all but it selfe yea it s own also By all which it is evident how the Light and Spirit is designed by God to be the unchangeable standing-Rule of Faith and Life and the Churches Directory in all Divine Doctrines to be believed and practised and not the Letter of the Scripture at least not the Letter onely which is the matter very stifly affirmed and stickled for by J.O. and T.D. the latter of which stands up to vindicate it in these terms see T. D ' second Pamphlet p. 16. that the Scriptures are the Word of God and the Rule of Faith and Life and that there is no other standing-Rule but the Scriptures The former in these If every man's private Light so he floutingly calls that particular measure of that publike Light of Christ which is one and the same in all be the Rule of yeilding obedience unto God then so many men so many Rules but the Divine Canon is but onely one and that the holy Scripture is that only Rule is abundantly shewn quoth J.O. before In proof of which saying the Rule is but one J.O. quotes that Gal. 6.16 which speakes not of the Scripture at all And Eph. 3.16 which speaks expresly of the Spirit of God as the next verse does of Christ the Word which we confess is the Rule but neither the one nor the other of the Scripture Isa. S. 20. which speaks of the Law and Testimony which are the Light and Spirit as I shall shew anon For this place is three times at least alluded to by J.O. to the like little purpose and not the Letter of the Scripture Obj. And if any say But is not the Sripture profitable to direct yea for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousnesse able to make wise to salvacion to make a man of God perfect thorowly furnished or as the word is perfected into all good works according to 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. and so to be the onely Rule Canon Standard Touch-stone in all cases Rep. This place is insisted upon or quoted three or four times by I. O. To whom I say howbeit there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy Scriptures as I have said elsewhere that are not written with Ink and Pen nor ingraven in stones but with the Finger and Spirit of the living God upon the fleshly Tables of mens hearts which make such as Timothy was who knew that spirit in himself spoke of Iob 32.8 and that inward Writing and inspiration of the Almighty that onely giveth the understanding which are most profitable for Doctrine Correction
within viz. Jam. 1.21 Receive with meekness the ingrafted Word able to save souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insitum vâ—rbum That the Word is a light thou dost not deny and that its within sure thou wilt not who sayest Ex. 1 s. 40 thus That Word within is the Word of faith the Apostles preached and that we are here called to it thou canst not So Gal. 5.16 17. Walk in the Spirit c. of which Spirit he saith it lusteth against the flesh which lusting must be where the flesh that private earthly evil spirit that man in the fall is possest with lusteth against it to envy and all evil but that is within and the Scripture saith so not only in Iam. 4.5 but in some other place whence he a leadgeth it whose words are Think yee that the Scripture faith in vain the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy So 1 Joh. 2.24 27. Let that abide in you c. If that ye have heard from the beginning remain in you c. and what 's that but the anointing the Spirit of God within which though â— O. may call a whimsy and delusion a lye and such like yet is Truth and is nâ— Lye yea t is nothing but that which is in the lye which calls it a lye and that which is already deceived and hath nought but deceit it self to bee deceived of that cryes out Deceit and Delusion of the Truth To which I might adde all such places as call to the Light and mention the Light as that which though evil ones hate yet such as dâ— truth come to and Christ both warned men himself to walk by and beleeve in and sent Paul and Iohn and therest of hiâ— Ministers to turn men to and Iohn the Baptist pointed at and witness'd to which Light was not the Letter in which they wrote of this Light as thou silliâ—est supposest for they were not Aâ—inisters of that 2 Cor. 3. But the Light of Christ and Christ the Light of the world who enlightened every man before the Letter was and that is within in the minde and conscience where the darkness is for the darkness is within and not without and therefore the Light must bee much more within which shines within the darkness though not comprehended by it for that Light which shines in the dark place till the day dawn and the day-star arise there which is the heart must be also in the heart and that Light which shineth within the darkness which is within men must needs be much more within them as the candle that shines within a dark Lanthern that is seated within a Room must need be within the Room as much if not more inwardly then the Lanthâ—rn is Another Argument against the Light and Spirits being the Rule and so consequently that the Scripture onely is it is the uncertainty of all sorts of Enthusiasms J O. That which is every way uncertain yea most uncertain deceitful whether we consider thâ— principle of the Revelation or the things revealed that we ought not to attend to as a Rule or guide in the way of life and the worship of God but that 's the nature of all Enthusiasmes Therefore c. Reply Is thy Text then such a certain Rule with thee which thy self confessest to bee so uncertain that Criticks may alter it as they please and about which thou confessest ye are in such a heap of uncertainties 2. Wee talk not of Enthusiasms as the Rule but of the Light within and Spirit of God in the conscience and Word in the heart manifesting good and evill lusting against the flesh which the Letter calls a Light to the feet a lamp to the paths and this as is above shewed from 2 Pet. 1.13 is a sure word of Prophesâ—â— yea this is most certain unchangeable eternally the same incorruptible living and abiding ever what ever become of the dead Letter that is so liable to be altered corrupted nullified that there need no other Argument in the world be used to prove it not to be the Word of God unless God have an uncertain and corruptible Word which iâ— blasphemous and contrary to the Scripture to imagine then the utter uncertainty and corruptibility of it insomuch that we may safely Syllogize thy own Argument against the inward lights being a Rule from its uncertainty back again upon thee against the Letters being a Rule ab eâ—us omne genus incertitudine from its uncertainty and corruptibility thus viz Quod omni modo est incertum incertissimum corruptibile c. That which is every way uncertain most uncertain liable to be altered falsified corrupted to be mis-transcribed mis-translated mis-interpreted wrested this way and that to moulder away to perish be torn to peeces burned and many wayes brought to nothing is not the Word of God nor the only Rule c. But the Letter or Scripture is so as abovesaid witness the written Role of Ieremiahs Prophesie which Zedekiah cut with a pen-knife and consumed in the fire and thy own confessed mouldring away of the very first manuscripts therefore c. Another Argumen of I.O. against the Light and Spirits being the onely Rule is this J.O. It s of no small moment that leaning to these principles following thâ—se guides rejecting the Rule of the Word written the Fanaticks are daily driven to pernicious manners abominable Idolatries Murders Whoredomes Blasphemies and in all Nations to unhappy ends Rep. Whether there be more abominable Idolatries Murders Whoredoms Blasphemies and pernicious manners among Qua. or other men called Christians and Christian Ministers that suck at the breasts of the Vniversities or nursing Mothers is sufficiently shew'd above as for unhappy ends t is tâ—ue by bloody persecution many Fanaticks as thou callest the Qua. have come to untimely deaths the more shame for New England where two of them have been hanged for coming into their coasts and Old England also where for all the pretences to Reformation many have perished in prisons and by blows and bruises for their testimony to the truth the more shame for Oxford it self too where one of the first that came thither dyed of the bruises and abuses there received from the Scholars but if by unhappy ends thou mean such as befall men as his Judgements from the hand of God immediately in some eminent notable way seizing on them and cutting them off these are untimely ends that many not for following but forsaking and fighting against the Light the Qua. testifie to have brought on themselves in these latter years in these Nations besides many sharp sufferings in their lives time in which thy self I.O. hast had a just share for flinging at the Qua. as Fanaticks who art now flouted at as a Fanatick thy self Beware therefore and be warned in thy life-time leâ—â— thy latter end be as some of theirs How scores at least of persons have been taken away for their hands being heavy on the Qua. by the hand of God
D. makes no better then dung loss and filthy rags to both the Justification Sanctification and Salvation of sinful men from All their sins then the Quakers do who are by the Parish peoples Blind Leaders most abominably belyeâ— to them as denyers of it And because we do not with the misty Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the meer Letter which the Apostles were not Ministers of but of the Mystery of the New Testament or the Spirit 2 Cor. 3 own the bare External Text of Scripture which themselves confesse to be corrupted vitiated altered and adulterated in all Translations to be at leaâ—t in their Heb. and Greek Transcripts of it entire in every Tittle Letter Vowel Syllable and Jota the self same without any losse as it was at the first giving out but say it hath suffer'd much losse of more then Vowells single letters and single lines also yea even of whole Epistles and Prophecies of inspired men the Copies of which are not by the Clergy Canoniz'd nor by the Bible-sellers bound up in the Bulk and compasse of their modern Bibles and specially because we own not the said alterable and much altered outward Text and Letter or Scripture but the Holy Truth and inward Light and Spirit which the Scripture it self testifyes to which at times that Text and Letter came from to be as to Name and Thing and that properly the Word of God which is Living the only firm infallible Foundation of all Saving Faith and invariable Right Rule of holy Life the most sure sound Balis stable Standard True Touchstone for the due Tryal determination and discerning of all true Doctrines of Christ from mens Tradition and cunningly devised Fables Therefore they cry out against us as Siders with Jews Papists Athiests and All Scripture haters as decrying the due Authority of the Scriâ—tures as such by whom Satan assaults the sacred Truth of the Word of God in its Authority Purity Integrity and Perfection and as Opposers of the Scripture and the Word of God as to both Name and Thing witnesse J. O's Epiâ—t Dedicatory of his doings againâ—t the Quakers to all young Divinity Students p. 28.30 and elsewhere as is seen hereafter Whereas how though Christ and his living Word in the heart which the Scriâ—ture exalts also is Exalted onely on the Throne yet the Scriptures are owned by us in their due place and how though Christs Light and Spirit alone in the Conscience is according to the Scripture asserted to be the only most perfect Rule Foundation c. and not the â—etter as they darkly Divine yet the Letter is acknowledged by us full as much as it is by it self to have been written by men moved of Gods Spirit and to be useful profitable servicable c. to be read and heeded and how all-J O's lying Calumnies against the Quakers as concerning their carriage to the Scriptures and the Word of God and the Foundation and Rule c. are clearly wiped away and cashiered as well as T. D's foul false Aspersions of them in his Narratives as to matters of Fact are in the 1st part of my 1st Exer from p. 18. to p. 38. is to be read at large throwout the 2 d. and 3 d. Exercitations which consist well nigh wholly in vindication of the Truth against their cloudy conceits about the Scriptures And Moreover because we as the Spirit also in the Scripture bids us Jam. 2.1 c. have not the Faith of God with respect of persons as they are high in this world in the Church where Christ is the one Master and all the rest are Brethren Therefore they misrender us as proud obstinate uncivil churlish discourteous disrespecting contemning all mens persons Whereas we truly honour all men in the Lord and what we do in denying those vain Complemental Customs of the Nations as vailing the Bonnet or putting off the Hat which is part of the outward habit and bowing cringing to the ground when we come before men and in our keeping to that plain yet not True Antient and proper English Language of Thee and Thou which is used to God himself to each single person great or small when we haue to do with them who have no law of man neither whereupon to imprison and punish any for doing herein as we do we do it God is witness and will once Iudg between us and them not in a Spirit of Pride Arrogance Disrespect Disdain or Contempt towards any man but in Conscience to the Lord that we may stand clear before him who forbids us to bow to the likeneâ—â—e of any thing in Heaven Earth or under the Earth and in humility onely and that fear of the Lord whereby we are bound to depart from all conformity to all such fond foolish fashioning of our selves according to our former Lusts in our ignorance and to This World which we are chosen out of A more clear discovery of the unsuitablenesse of which Ceremonious services of men to the Saints of God is made as in the Scripture it self so in the 1st of the ensuing Exercitations from page 40. to page 47. And because Christs Headship Kingship and Supremacy alone we together with the True Church which is in God the Father and in Christ Iesus the Light can own in the Court of Conscience and in matters purely Spiritual and of meer Religious and Soul concernment and not any meer mans much lesse the Popes or any Priests in such Sacred Secrets therefore are we mistaken and misranked among such as are utter enemies to the present Kings Supremacy in these Dominions Whereas we do according to what the Spirit requires of us in all civil causes and cases between Man and man submit our selves to every Ordinance of man himself I say in such cases even for the Lords sake whether unto the King as Supream or to such as are sent of him to be a Terrour to evil doers and a Praise to them that do well And if those who have the Sword in hand shall turn it against us for well doing and so act against the good will of God or impose by Gods permission upon us contrary to our Conscience even there where we cannot obey actively we are willing to bear patiently without violent Resistance what God will leave us to suffer from the hands of such as should protect us not reviling nor threatning nor cursing but committing our case in quietness to him that Judgeth Righteously and our Souls to him in well doing And that Passive deportment must be and is judged by All to be Aequivolent to that Active obedience which others yeild for fear to what lawes soever are made among men And because we are no Strikers or Fighters as some men called Christs Minister's alias Servants are though no such should be 1 Tim. 3.3 1 Tit. 7. with Carnal Weapons the Weapons of our War-fare being not Carnall but Spirituall nor such as theirs among whom are found Warrs and Fightings which
Paul means not in us but in Christ and so tell Christ he is in us enough to our justification if he be but in himself And as this last sense or senselesse meaning of T.D. who sayes by in us is meant not in us but in another as also that the righteousnesse that is in another i.e. Christ is in a sense too as good as â—on-sense i.e. by imputation Ours and in us for that which is fulfilled not in our persons but in Christ is according to T.D. in that Scripture Rom. 8. Said to be fulfil'd in us as if it had been inherent in selves I say as that distinction of T.D. concerning in us not meant in our persons but in Christ and by in Christ when fulfilling the righteousnesse of the Law is spoken of Ministers Latitude and liberty enough to our Ministers whereby to fence of and save themselves from truth so it lends Liberty and license more then enough to their Priestlike people to save themselves in their sins for what will many care what they do themselves if the Law be not to be fulfil'd in themselves by Christ but 't is enough in themselves fulfil'd to their justification if in Christ for them and as well as if it were inhaerent in them So though the Priests oft preach thus viz. he that made us without our selves will not save us without our selves yet fith they to the contradiction of themselves as oft unpreach it again saying he that made us without our selves will save us without our selves by anothers fulfilling the Law not in us but in himselfe for us their people will quickly cry hang sorrow and care and of their two selfe confusing doctrines cleave to that that 's next to them easiest and most fitting their turns and fall a preaching presently in their works the pleasing things their Priests who do docere faciendo faciendo do preach both in words and deeds he that made us will save us and shew us mercy without any goodnesse of our own If in another in us be and in us in another Wee 'l ne'er be good good deemd are we in this in that ith rather So having wiped out by the way that blot or blurr'd answer of T.D. to my Argument from Rom. 8.3.4 Seeing his answer to what we urge from Rom. 8.2 The 2d of the 4 Scriptures above said is as neer in kind to it for fillynesse as that 2d verse from whence we argue is neer in truth to the 3d and 4. He here make as short a dispatch and round a Reply to that too now I am about it Arg. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free fâ—om the Law of sin and death saith Paul and say we the Law of the Spirit that is in Christ and in the Saints whereby the Saints are justified is the same therefore the work of the Spirit of Christ in us is the cause of our justification That place quoth T. D's p. 16. but I trow not is much against you for the Apostle asserts the holiness of mans nature as a work of the Spirit conforming it to the Law to be the meritorious case of our freedome from sin and death Rep. Thus far is son and not against us I am well assured for 't is no lesse then the very Cardinall truth we plead for against T.D. that the holynesse of our nature as a work of the Spirit conforming it to the Law is the deserving cause of justification for conformity to the Law cannot deserve condemnation but non-condemnation and so which is all one justification and if this be not enough on our side T.D. adds more let me add quoth he p. 17. that the Law of the Spirit of life here spoken of is not onely the meritorious cause of our freedom from death but from the Law of sin or obeying sin as a Law In all this I own T.D. whose Answer to my Argument is thus far as answerable that is as yeilding to it as I do desire But then T.D. whose manner it is often to give a thing and take a thing which is the Devils gold Ring as I have heard Children say when I was a Child doth not in all this give the cause to us so much but he thinks he gets it and carryes it away from us again as much in other parts and particulars of that his parti coloured answer But I hope we shall fetch it all again and no thank to him for his gifts and grants sith what he gives he would have it all again if he could tell how and he thinks he plucks much from us again 1st by saying thus viz. mark withall quoth he though I grant you the holynesse of mans nature as a work of the Spirit conforming it to the Law is the meritorious cause of our freedom from sin and death yet 't is not that which is in us but in Christ the Law of the Spirit and so the holynesse of mans nature I and Paul 〈◊〉 of is that in Christ and not that in our persons R. To which I Reply thus 1. What if I should answer T.D. that by in Christ is not meant in Christs person but in us 〈◊〉 ebâ—tlâ—â— â—â—lionis to serve him in his own kind for when we say with Pâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 4 that the righteousnesse of the Law is by Christ condemning sin in ou◠〈◊〉 to be fulfilled in us he answers us thus that by that Term in us is not meant in our persons but in Christ I might as well say retro that by in Christ is not meant in Christs person but in us adbomiâ—â—m it holds well enough till T.D. recants his own odde distinction of the same kind But as it s as unfound in itselfe as his is so T.D. is not yet come to bear it to be done to by us as he does to us and therefore I must sit him to a better answer 2. Then I Reply that thought the Law of the Spirit of life be in Christ yet not onely in him or exclusively of its being in the Saints but so as that from him and from his being in them it consequently and upon that account is in them also for Christ is not in any as their Righteousnesse in whom his Righteousnesse and the Spirit of life that is in him is not together with him also yea though it will not follow as thou fainest from the Saints being in Christ who were once sinners to their sins being in Christ together with them so the reasons above said where I told thee that men must leave their sins behind them and be by Christ divested of them before they can come indeed to be in Christ to whom no sinners while sinners are or can be united unlesse thou wilt contradict Paul who faith what Concord between Christ and Belial yet if Christ be in Saints who leaves nothing of his own behind him where ere he comes his righteousnesse holynesse and spirit of life is in them also But no more of
true that as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses by imitating what he did by the finger of God and acting outwardly so as he as far as they could till they were forced to confesse they could now fainedly follow no further and in a seeming shew did the same by their Enchantments So 't is now the Saints pray so do the Sinners the Saints fast so do the Sinners the Saints preach of a Gospel a Kingdom to come so do the Serpents the Saints meet so do the Hypocrites the Saints Worship so do the Idolaters the Saints in the Power and Spirit of God professe to be Godly and Holy so do the zealous Sorceters in words who bewitch the people that they cannot believe and obey the Truth and their several seduced Societies which have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Form of Godlinesse denying the power thereof c. And as it is true that as the Quakers Tremble at Gods Word so that the power of Gods voice which shaketh the Cedars of Lebanon when heard as well as the lower shrubs ofâ—â—times greatly affecteth the outward man so the Devil may cause some of his deluded ones to seem only to do the like But what of all this Scillicet because there is something done in Deceit therefore nothing now done in Truth some Quaking is of the Devil therefore none of God himself This is the sum of I. O's sayings of all the Quakers in grosse if not learn henceforth I.O. to take forth the prelious from the vile as Gods Prophets do who are as his mouth Ier. and not to jumble these together in one as hitherto thou hast done till then I tell thee from the Quakers so called that faining and being driven by the Devil thou fatherest on us we are far from and deny it as one of the many Lyes the Devil drives thee to defame us with who are in the Truth which the Devil abode not in whose Works with himself and his Lyes and that Deceit which is of him and dwells in thee we deny and defie also for ever And now whereas thou talkest of only Liberty and Glory and Fellowship with the Father in these dayes of the New Testament and such Quaking Trembling Terrour Dread c. as greatly affects the outward man as a matter belonging to them of old only to the Iewish Paedagogy c. as if the Word must come to you now in a smoother manner then to Gods Servants and Prophets heretofore Herein thou talkest as if the time of all such Trouble Terrour Dread and Trembling at hearing of the Word of God as usually affected the outward man and was in the Prophets was all perfectly past and men should see no more of that in the world among the Servants of the Lord from that time and forward wherein Christ after the flesh was outwardly incarnated Crucified and Risen again from the dead and all the Appearances of the Lord to his Apostles Prophets Messengers Ministers and Servants whom he sends forth on his Errand into the world now a dayes are only in liberty glory dreaming pleasantly in thy dark mind of ease rest peace and familiarity with the dreadful God before thy time damning down the rough severe troublesome terrible trembling spirit doctrine and Ministry of the Quakers to thee ward and thy serpentine generation of Vipers that would fain flee the wrong way when ye are warned thereof from the newes of a wrath yet to come to your lifelesse Formes and fig-leaves and false biding-places sandy sickle foundations literal lurking-holes fained pretences bare Bible bulwarls selfish Fastings Prayers Praisings Preachings misty empty pithlesse and poor Professions as a Doctrine of Devils as a ministration wherein either fictitiously or rather really they are acted surpriz'd by the Devil with trembling in their holy services Ex. 1 S.I. as they said of Iohn that came Fasting and Reproving Iudging and Threatning laying an Axe to the root of their fair leafy tree and flourishing formal prosessings of the old Prophets Words and Writings and pretences to Abraham as his Children and Moses as his Disciples and the Scripture as the Scribes and Openers of it and telling of wrath to come upon them and unquenchable fire to burn them up as Chass this man hath a Devil away with him give us a Ministry that will speak comfortably to Ierusalem Seers that will see better things for Sion that shall answer the Messengers of the Nations that enquire of them the Lord hath founded Sion 't is Babylon that is to be confounded O ye Quakers ye Seers flee ye far away hence to Rome to Papists Iesuites Iewes Turks Heathens among whom many Quakers have been but few or none of our Chimney-corner Church-men that I know of but come not hence with your Plumb-line thundring words of Iudgement laid to the line and Righteousnesse to the Plummet and laying waste the High Places of Israel and the Sanctuaries of Israel with the Sword of the Lord this our Land of Israel ought not to bear these words 't is disturbance tumultuousnesse and Conspiracy against the Pious Magistracy and the Godly Ministry in the midst of it Prophesie no more such rough things at Bethel they are not right things here Prophesie to us Placentia Prophesie smooth things alias Deceits we are the Preists of Bethel the house of God Amos 7.7 c. we are the Ministry of the reformed Churches we are the Well heads and feed at the Fountains from whence Souls draw all their Refreshment we are the Doctors Deans Principals Provosts Presidents Wardens Masters of Magdalene Christ-Church Iesus Trinity Emmanuel and such like Christian Colledges and Halls the Religious Nursing Fathers to the Nursing Mothers themselves that are alias ought to be the very Nurseries of Learning and true Religion If ye come to us with a Word from the Lord come not in your wonted trembling postures and obstreperous horrible vociferation wherewith ye dreadfully found it out throw our Streets Cities and Temples know the Lord as if we were without God in the World Prophesie no more ye Fanaticks to us in your pretended movings by the Spirit if ye do ye must bear and take the shame of the Stocks or the Cage or the Whipping-Post and a Passe to the place from whence ye came or the pulling off your Robe with the Garment or the stopping of your Mouth with stones and the Pumps and Mire and Dirt or such like Mic. 2.6 7 8. But vers 11. if a man walk in a Spirit of Falshood do Lye will Prophesie to us of wine strong drink Ease Pleasure Peace with God in our sins impossibility of being purged from them till we die and of Salvation and Iustification of us by the Example of David while under the guilt of Murder and Adultery and of Profits and Preferments and more Maintenance for a Godly Ministry that suppose Gain to be Godliness let him come he is a Gospel Minister he shall even be the Prophet among our
present Seers gain-getting Priests false Prophets and foolish People But alas poor man thou art far enough from the New Testament or Covenant yet which is a Gospel a Covenant of Light which thou art so far from that thou fightest against it thou thinkest thy Judgement is over past and the Old Testament a thing that thou hast learned long ago but thou art not come so near to the sharp Paedagogy of it yet as thou must do so far art thou from the glorious Liberties of the New Thy words are true enough the Word under the New comes in a way of more Liberty and Glory but it s no newes to hear High Priests speak Truths which themselves know not thou art at best but an Old Testament Talker of the New and one that 's come truly yet under the Tuition of neither As for the New the Word comes under it in Liberty and Glory but not to Old Testament Spirits Doctors Scribes and Pharisees they see not clearly so much as Moses face much lesse the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Condemnation is yet to come from Christ himself first to such as these as well as from Moses Iohn yea Christ himsâ—lf whose friendliness to Publicans and Sinners as a Physitian was found fault with by such Friday fasting Pharisees as this Age is filled with as much as Iohns Austerenesse was found in Iohns rough Spirit Camels hair Garment and astonishing Appearance to them that went about to Murder him in his inward Ministry and Testimony within themselves and then they said of him too as of Iohn Thou hast a Devil Ioh 8. Ah poor Nursing Fathers and Mothers Vniversally Erring Vniversity Seducers poor seducing Priests and seduced People notwithstanding the Glorious Liberty and Gloriousnesse of the Gospel Times that ye are glorying in in a Dream that ye live under ye must most assuredly find a Condemning Iudging Terrifying fiery flaming Law laying hold on your Consciences and finding you out and the Sword of the Lord entering into your Souls and the Wrath of the Lord rending your very heart-strings a sunder and dread terrour and trembling surprizing you Hypocritical sinners in Sion before ever ye shall come to know the true Liberty or Glory of the Gospel which is the Image and Glory of God brought forth among you yea judgement is already laid to the line and Rigeteousnesse to the Plummet and the Hail is falling that will sweep away your Refuges of Lyes and the storm that will overflow your hiding places and break and disinable your supposed Covenant and Agreement with Death and Hell as if your judgement were passed over by the Lord and none of that could come near you and your Bed will be found too short for you to rest on and your Covering too narrow to wrap your selves in from the Wrath of God the power of whose wrathful displeasure shall make your Mount Sier shake like Sinai before ever ye come near to the sight of that glorious Rest that the Saints ly down in on Mount Sion Now as to that other new found Phrase of Fanaticks These Fanaticks the Fanaticks of this time our Fanaticks Fanatical Quakers Fanatical Souls Fanatical Enthusiasts Fanatical Knaves Fanatical Anti-scripturists and under which ever and anon yea so oft that I may say Ferè numquam non thou soamest out as thy fellows do that froth filth and falshood which floats about in thy foolish vain Spirit against the Quakers in gross as against a furious distracted mad crack-brain'd kind of men that for so those Terms signifie as used by thee pretend to Visions Revelations Illuminations Inspirations the Spirit of Prophesie and such like but are Reapse stark besides themselves and bereft of their very wits and senses As new a nick-Name as 't is to this Age this is no other then what all the Prophets of God were entertained with in the several seasons wherein God sent them out by the many false Prophets that were Coaetaneous with them and therefore nibil novi no new business to such as are not blind He is but meanly skill'd in the Scriptures who hath not yet learn'd from thence That the Prophets by whom God spake and by whose Ministry be muâ—tiplied Visions and used Similitudes as Hos. 12.10 were ever counted Deceivers as the snare of a Fowler in all their wayes that the true Prophet was a fool and the spiritual man or man of the spirit Mad Hos. 9.7 8. and hatred alwayes in the House of his God And that Gods People by meer profession rose up against them as against an Enemy and as now the same Generation of Holy Hypocrites do both in Old England and in New pull'd off their Robes and their Garments from them to whip and scourge them sometimes as Seditious and Disturbers that passe by securely as men most averse from War and streitned the spirit of the Lord saying Prophesie not so such as Prophesied in his Name and Power and putting them to shame if they did when if a man would walk in the wind of his own Invention and Lye falsly and Prophesie to them of â—elly Ohear of Wine and of strong Drink even he should be own'd a Prophet by that People Mic 2.8 9 10 11. And that Ioshua the true High Priest and his fellows even Christ and the Children that God had given him were as men wondred at were set as signes to be spoken against even to the house of Jacob from whom he hid his face and their peepers and mutterers out of their own familiar spirits to the unbelieving Despisers that wonder and perish for signes and for wonders from the Lord of Host that dwelleth in Mount Sion Isa. 8.17 18. Zach. 3.8 Luke 2.34 Act. 13.40 41. Yea I. O. hath read his own Book ore but by the halves if he do not learn this Lesson out of it himself pag. 58 59 61 62. that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or divinely inspired men whose Doctrine was to have been received as from God who sent them and in whose Name they spake though but Herdsmen and of mean Occupation were yet generally rejected upon innumerable prejudices that attended the Truth they spake arising from the personal infirmities and supposed Interests of them that delivered it as Amos 7. Ier. 43.2 3. Ioh 9.29 Act. 24.5 and that what with these things and chiefly the Peoples being so eminently perplexed with false Prophets both as to their number and subtilty that they could not well discern aright between Gods Word and that which was only pretended so to be and so became guilty of unbelief and rebellion against God not submitting to what they spake in his Name it alwayes so sell out that scarce any Prophet that spake in the Name of God had any Approbation from the Church of dead stones in whose dayes he spake Matth. 5.12.21.33 to 38 Act. 7.52 Thus much I.O. may learn from these words which are mostly his own that it was alwayes so heretofore and
men as the others was before them both yea as thou savest of thy so called poor deluded fanatical Quakers Fanatici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So say I of these poor deluding Fantastical Anti-quakers Fanatici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt erroribus stultitia bisce diebus notissimi quos hic inprimis aggredimur These Fantastical self-conceited Seers whom I here primarily Plead against are in these dayes most notoriously known by their errours and foolishnesse already not to a few of their own former followers and will be to ten times as many more in the dayes that are immediately hereafter following Thy many Taunting Terms wherein thou both belyest flingest and quippest at the Quakers being thus not in the same Taunting or Twitting way but in a way of true judgement turned upon thy self and thy own fellow-flouters at them I shall more closely examine what thou falsely accusest us of more particularly as concerning our deportment toward the Scriptures whom thou falsely declarest to be so grossely opposite thereunto as duely and deservedly to be denominated by those Terms by which thou also miscallest us of Fanatical Anti-scripturists p. 147. Ep. p. 28.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex. 3. S. 26. i.e. Haters of the Scripture and to be rankt among the rudest Reproachers of them in such words of thine as are hereunder Repeated and Replied to I.O. Thou sayest Satan in these dayes assaults the Sacred Truth of the Word of God in its Authority Purity Integrity or Perfection especially in the poor deluded Fanatical Souls commonly called Quakers c. Ep. p. 28.30 That to this sort of men the Quakers it was not enough to joyn in with those in Ages past who cast Reproaches on the Scriptures and approve of all the opprobrious speeches that have been cast out against them but they also rejoyce that the care of this matter viz. of spoiling the holy Scriptures of its proper name that glorious Title of the Word of God is by Satan confer'd upon them That they the Quakers who would seem to bear away the Bell from all as to the stout opposing of the perfection of the Scriptures Thou principally encounterest and as 't is an honour to thee that God hath pleased to confer on thy unworthy self this Task of fighting against those enemies of his Word the Quakers so what thou shalt perform in prosecution of this function thou oughtest to ascribe to his grace c Reply Herein thou not onely shewest thy sâ—l to be of that sort of men to whom it is not enough to joyn with those in Ages past who cast Reproaches on the hearers of the Word of God and Tremblers at his Word Isa. 66. 5. now in scorn called Quakers and cast out by their Brethren for his Name sake as then they were and to be an Approver of all the opprobrious speeches that are cast out against them by this adulterous and sinful generation who bend their Tongues like bowes for lyes against the Truth which lyes thou shouldest be a valiant Reprover of but also to rejoyce that the care of this matter of fighting against the truest friends in the World to God and his Word the Quakers and of Raising such Reproaches false Reports scandals and opprobrious speeches as the Rabble of Junior Rabbies Reproach them with is confer'd upon thee by the Devil for thou egregiously belyest the Quakers in this particular who deny not but Purely and Perfectly own all that Authority Purity Integrity and Perfection of the Scriptures which the Scriptures Ascribe unto themselves and rob it not of any proper name or any Title at all which by it self is either Attributed or appropriated to it self as that of the Word of God is not as is seen hereafter much lesse are they such enemies to the Word of God or that Sacred Truth written of in the Scriptures as thou most abusively and blasphemously belyest them to be that thou needest to stand up as thou dost in thy meer demi-â—â—â—gested demications against them for the Scriptures and the Word of Truth between which and the Scriptures in which it is declared they divide aright so as to give its own proper name to each of these whilst ye Divinity Doctors in your deep dotage making no due distinction betwixt them for all your pretended friendship thereunto are found very enemies to them both So that whereas thou who in other matters then this gloriest in thy own shame seem'st to glory in this function of fighting against the Quakers as in some great grace peculiarly given of God to thy unworthy self more then any as if Praemium strenuae contra Trepidantium Perfectionem ac â—anocentiam oppositioni debitum nemini mortalium tibi Praereptum velles thou seemest to thy self to bear the Bell before all others in thy stout opposing of that Innocent Seed of God to which grace of his thou Ascribest what ever Relying on his help and assistance thou performest in thy function aforesaid I conclude against thee to the contrary thus in short that 't is Satan himself who set thee at work against the Quakers and helpt thee as well as he could and furnisht thee with many a lye both against the Quakers and the Truth and led thee in a meer fools Paradise to prate with malicious words and speak evil of thou knowest not whom nor what and left thee to bewray such weaknesse folly and false hood as falls not at all from such as have help and assistance from God but ever flows from the father of lyes and his children with whom thou wilt have thy reward J.O. Whatsoever the Jewes whatsoever the Papists have been bold at any time to utter in disgrace of the Scriptures every whit of that these impure men the Quakers stricken as 't were with some direful inordinate motion or rapture both say and assert so that its a shame to relate the horrid and most foolish Titles of Books the chief Vagrants and Ringleaders of this Flock being urged having spoken wickedly and blasphemously against the Scriptures What their Common Opiniin I have thought good to set down as taken and Collected from their own Books and set Conferrences held with them c. Reply 1 Here 's a most palpable Lye related of the Quakers on whose behalf I here openly professe against thee before the World that we own all those Writings not only of Moses and the Prophets of the Old but those of the Apostles and Evangelists also which are commonly called the Scriptures of the New Testament to be Scriptures of Truth written by holy men of God as those of the Old also were as they were moved by the Holy Spirit whereas the Iewes who own value study and stand for those of the Old to this day as zealously as your selves in words do for both do malitiously and lyingly affirm them to be false fictitious and full of lyes Reply 2. Whereas we say no such thing nay nothing at all in any disgraceful way
better hath been seen by some Quakers and how the Name of Christian stinks more then it would do among the Gentiles for the sake of such as Preach and Hear and Read and Expound and boast of the Scripture and yet break them and name the Name of Christ without his Nature But what doings there are in other Nations and the Preaching places and Nurseries thereof to which these of our Nation are not inferiour in silth I shall say no more here but let them passe as matters which being Extra nos are parum or nihil or miaus ad nos of lesse moment to us then our own Concluding my Return to this particular Challenge of I.O. with his own words mutatis mutandis additis addendis a little amplified and the Subjects or Persons of whom they are Spoken Altered and Substituting our Modern Academies and their Masters Doctors Divines and other Students and the whole Rabble of Rabbies there in the room of that University at Tiberias which I O. talks against in the words of one Dr. Lightfoot together with his own and the Iewish Rabbies Gemarists and Massorites pertaining thereunto as they are to be read in the 240 241 242 245 246 247 pages of I. O's English part the Censure he passes upon them being no other then what exactly accrews to the Universities universally throughout Christendom from whence come the whole Crew of Clergy-men that count themselves and are counted to be the Clearers of Christs Truth to all other Christian Creatures And what I. O. sayes of the Massorites of that Accademy is a clear Character of these corrupted and earth corrupting Coveats I. O Chap. 4. S. 13. Whilst they keep the Scriptures we shall never want Weapons out of their own Armoury for their destruction like the Philistine they carry the Weapon that will serve to cut off their own Heads Let us then a little without prejudice or passion consider who or what these men are who are the supposed Authors of all Knowledge and Godlinesse 1. Men they are who have not the Word of God committed to them in a pecullar manner as their Forefathers Prophets and Apostles had of old and many have now being no part of his Church or People but are only outwardly Professors and Possessors of the Letter without just Right or Title to it utterly uninteressed in the Promise of the Communication of the Spirit while they so have it which is the Great Charter of the Churches preservation of Truth Isa. 59.21 2. Men so remote from a right understanding of the Word or the Mind and Will of God therein that they are desperately engaged to oppose his Truth in the Books which themselves enjoy in all matters of importance unto the Glory of God or the good of their own Souls from the beginning to the ending Scuffling for the Book itself but persecuting the Life in them where it is The foundation of whose Religion is Infidelity and one of their chief Fundamentals an Opposition to the Gospel in the Quakers whom they glory to fight against and think they serve God in opposing with what spite they can 3. Men under the special Curse of God and his Vengeance upon the account of the blood of his dear Son in his Saints 4. Men all their dayes feeding themselves with vain Fables and mischievous Devices against the Gospel labouring to set up a New Religion under the Name of the Old when the Old they hate as Ier. 6. in despight of God so striving to wrestle it out with his Curse to the utmost 5. Men of a profound Ignorance in all manner of Learning Knowledge but only what concerns their own dunghil Traditions as appears in their stories filled with innumerable sopperies 6. Men so addicted to such monstrous Figments as appears in their Talmuds as their Successors of after Ages will be ashamed of yea for the most part Idolaters Now I dare leave it to the Iudgement of any Godly prudent person not addicted to Parties and Names who is at all acquainted with the importance not of the Hebrew Vowels and Accents but the Light and Spirit the Quakers call to unto the right understanding of the Scripture with whatever influence their present Fixation hath into the literal sense they not knowing the Spiritual embrace whether we have not very clear Evidence and Testimony yea undeniable and unquestionable to cast the rise and spring of all the Irreligion in the Nations upon this sort of men so far are they from bettering things by their Interpretations S. 16. Recount I pray from the first Foundation of Universities throw CHRISTENDOM and what do you find but a sort of Men being made Mad with or above the Pharisees bewitching and bewitched with Traditions blind crafty raging pardon me not for I shall ask none if I say Magical if Simon Magus was so in thinking the holy Ghost of God is to be bought with Money Monstrous what Fools what Sots as to such a divine Work as the Gospel Read and Consider how to every good Work voyd of Iudgement the great Doctors among them do behave themselves how seriously they do of nothing how childish they are in serious things how much deceitfulnesse froth venome smoke nothing is in their Disputations Insomuch that I may say truly of these as I.O. sayes of all men Pag. 104. Those whose Lips should keep Knowledge that is University-men and Clergy-men as much as any are by Nature so vain foolish malicious such Lyars adders detracters have spirits and minds so unsuited to spiritual things so lyable to Alteration in themselves and to Contradiction one to another are so given to Impostures and are so apt to be imposed upon have been so shuffled and driven up and down the World in every Generation have for the most part so utterly lost the Remembrance of what themselves are whence they come or whether they are to go that I can give very little Credit to what I have nothing but their Authority to rely upon for without any Evidence from the nature of the thing its self CHAP. III. Having Cleared the Quakers from sundry of those Calumnies thou falsly castest upon-them as concerning their Carriage toward the Scriptures as if they were Enemies Haters and Reproachers of it and such-like who in Truth are its truest Friends in the former Chapter I come on to Consider some of thy Cloudy Conjectures and Conceits concerning the Bounds of the Canon as ye call it thereof the Hebrew Punctation and thy Asserted Integrity of both that and the Greek Texts of it without any variation to a very Title Concerning the Canon of which thou Writest as follows JOhn Owen Pag. 3. God spake of Old or formerly in the Prophets From the dayes of Moses and downwards unto the Bounding and Consignation of the Canon delivered to the Judaical Church in the dayes of Ezra and his Companions the men of the great Congregation Reply 1. Why sayest thou from Moses downward c. as if he
about the manner and means and true bounds thereof for as to the Question whether it be a Canon that is a Rule at all yea or not I may defer it also to another place let me Expostulate with thee I O. yet more about it yet how and by whom your Standard comes to be so Bounded as ye say it is and to be limited to those Demensions of Latitude Longitude and Profundity that ad amussim exact Measure Heighth Depth Length and Breadth that is allotted to it as without the Apocripha it stands bound up within your late bound Bibles I mean that such and such Parcels Prophesies Proverbs Histories Epistles Holy Sentences Sacred Sayings shall stand Owned Honoured Signed and Authorized with the Sacred High and Holy Titles of Gods Word Gods Witnesse Foundation Rule inalterable Standard and not one piece of Holy Writing more or lesse then those already so Consecrated and Canonized so that such and such puta those that ye now commonly call Canonical shall shand as the Standard and all others viz. those called Apocryphal and whatever are mentioned in that Scripture ye so own shall stand out of and off from it as no part of the Standard while the World stands Who was it Was it God or was it Man that set such distinct Bounds to the Scripture so as to say such and such a set number of Books viz. Those those that are sum'd up together before your Bibles excepting the Apocrypha which stands between them shall be owned as Canonical and the rest though such as were of the same divine Inspiration be rejected as humane and no otherwise accounted on then other meer mens Writings not to be received with such high respect as the other Whence hast thou this Conceit that God himself Commanded the Close of the Canon of the Old Testament to be Malachi and the bounds of it to consist of such Books of the Prophets as ye now have exclusively of such Prophesies therein mentioned as ye have not and the Close of the Canon of the New to be the Revelation and the bulk of it to be those few Histories and Apostolical Epistles as ye have exclusively of such even therein mentioned as ye have not Who was it that said to the Spirit of God O Spirit blow no more inspire no more men make no more Prophets from Ezra's dayes and downwards till Christ and from Iohns dayes downward for ever But cease be silent and subject thy self as well as all Evil Spirits to be tryed by the Standard that 's made up of some of the Writings of some of those men thou hast moved to write already and let such and such of them as are bound up in the Bibles now used in England be the only means of measuring all Truth for ever Who was it God or Man the Spirit in the Scripture it self or the Scribes in their Synods Councels and Consistories that so Authorized or Canonized these and expunged those Was it not meer Men in their Imaginations Doth the Scripture do the Spirit and the Apostles therein give any order for or make any such mention in the least of such a matter Is it not meer man in his Imaginations that hath taken upon him according to the good or ill Conceit that he hath taken to him of these or those respectively to say which thou sayest is a Contradiction to say he will give Authority to the Scriptures Is it not man in his proud mind that comes in with his sic volo sic Iubeo so I 'le have it thus it shall be Saying to the Books of Scripture as God sayes to the Waves of the outward Ocean hitherto shall ye come and no further So many of the Prophets and Apostles Writings shall be in the Authority Nature Vse and Office of the Supream Determiner of all Truth for ever and all others even such as are written by the same men in the motion of the same Spirits shall be but as common mens Writings and be look'd on afar off as Apocryphal i.e. hidden or unknown Writings that no such notice shall be â—aken of as of the other And as for the Books which ye sprinkle with that Name of Apocryphal and give leave to to have a standing with it but not so as to make any part of your Standard What think ye of them upon second Thoughts Are they fit for nothing but to be Cashiered and cast out of your Canon by whole sale by Tradition one from another without trying them Is there nothing among them that may be judiciously Iudged to be of as divine an Original and Authority as some of those particular Letters to private men as that of Paul to Philemon about private personal or Domestick matters which ye own in such a transcendent manner as ye do Surely if some of hem be fictitious or fabulous or but humane so that ye will say no better of them then Vox hominem sonat yet is there none or nothing among them all that is to be noted or counted upon as of divine Authority and Original and of as self-evidencing Efficacy as some of those ye own None that ye can see cause to sign meliore lapillo with some better Name then ye vouchsafe them and standing in the Church then ye allow them As if they were a certain mongrel seed between that of Canaan and Ashdod that ye know not well what to make of nor how to entreat so ill altogether as not to afford them a middle place in some of your Bibles between the Old Testament Writings and those ye call the New nor yet so well as to entertain them into your Canon neither Surely there be some of them which when ye look them over again not so cursorily as to over-look them as ye ordinarily do ye may find ground to receive as such as have as fair a stamp of the beaming Majesty Truth Holinesse and Authority of God and his Spirit as some at least not to say the most of those ye ascribe to God as their main or only Author and that do favour as much of I. O's so much insisted on Theo-pneusty as some other Historical Doctrinal and Prophetical parts of your acknowledged divinely derived Scripture do of which what Infidels soever ye are as concerning them yet I together with many others whereof some are as Booklearn'd as your selves can say Credo Equidem nec vana Fides genus esse Deorum 'T is indeed the Faith or rather Infidelity of such as call themselves Reformed Churches that all those Books called the Apocrypha without exception are in no wise of such divine Original as them ye call Canonical but who first set the one upon the Bench and the other at the Bar I am yet to learn but this I know that howbeit ye second their depression and digradation of the one so far below the other yet as neither one nor t'other were ever Canonized by God himself if we speak of the Outward Text only about which
for a final Answer to I.O. and T. D. both as to that matter of the non entirenesse or perfection of the Letter which was given out upon Inspiration of its Integrals to this day and an Answer to I O's Confident Positions and Challenge concerning the Uniformity of all Bibles without variety in the least which to his own Confutation I here set down in his own words of which yet more use that way may be made hereafter I O. Pag 319. Neither the Care of God over his Truth nor the fidelity of the Judaical Church will permit us to entertain the least Suspition that there was ever in the World any Copy of the Bible differing in the least from that which we enjoy or that those we have are corrupted as is pretended the Authors of that Insinuation cannot produce the least Testimony to make it good And pag. 317. Let the Authors of this Insinuation prove the Assertion Name'y That there was ever in the World any other Copy of the Bible differing in any one Word from those we now enjoy Let them produce one Testimony one Author of Credit Jew or Christian that can or doth speak one Word to this purpose Let them direct us to any Relick any Monument and kind of Remembrance of them and not put us off with weak Conjectures c. and it shall be of weight with us And Epist. pag. 27 28. We evidently find various Lections n the Greek Copies which we enjoy and so grant that which Ocular Inspection evinces to be true yet none of them are able to shew out of any Copies yet Extant in the World or that they can make appear ever to have been Extant that ever there were any such various Lections in the Originals of the Old Testament And so I come to take my leave of T.D. again for a while till I meet him again as I must do where he meets in one with I.O. in many other places and return to walk on a while with I. O. about the Inclosure and Bounds of his Synodically composed and Humanely Constituted and compleated Canon which he takes it for granted by Tradition before it be given him by the true Anti-Traditionaries that it was Closed and Bounded by Divine Authority And as concerning this Consignation Signing Sealing Setting out or Authorizing of the Canon as to the Measure of it or number of Books so Canonized the Nature of which as a Rule or Canon is anon more spoken to I say as above I am yet to learn that Lesson which I. O. who by road Repeats it for Truth as if he had it at his fingers eâ—ds never yet learn'd himself I believe by root of heart nor can ever Teach me that by divine Authority or any otherwise then Iure Synodico by meer mens Will Wisdom and Imagâ—nâ—tion as they sate in Councel together not standing in Gods Councel the Light in the heart taking Counsel but not of him nor at his mouth but each from other and Covered with a Covering but not of his Spirit it came at first to passe that some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Holy mens Writings by the Spirit must passe for Currant Coin and stand as the Standard and Reign as a Rule and Command in the high Authority of a Canon as the Word of God as truly as that very Word that comes immediately from Gods own mouth to holy Pen-men or that Word it self which the Letter writes of and other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Writings of Holy men yea some of the self same men that wrote some of the rest and those as legitimate too according to T D's Hypothesis as the rest should be spurned out as spurious so far at least that they must not inherit with their fellowes that conceited Immortal Inmutable and Everlasting Crown of that Solemn Canonization I. O. I am sure upon his Principles must grant me thus far that if the Bible of Scripture which he confesses to be his Canon Lydius lapis and Touchstone to try all by doth no where Testifie any such thing within it self of it self that such Books Prophesies Stories Epistles Letters Psalms Proverbs and other Writings as are Bound up in it are of Gods and such as are not there Bound though born Testimony to there as of as divine Original as the rest are not of Gods own Canonization then it must be counted that that precise Consignation of the Canon as Consistent of such only and not of such Books had its Original being from some Convocations or Sessions of meer men that were neither Prophets nor Apostles but some that doted as Doctors do now a dayes being none themselves on the Prophets and Apostles Persons and such Writings of theirs as best pleased them Out of the Scripture I know not where I. O. can pore for proof of any thing who looks awry upon the Light and Spirit it came from saving into that Thing which he so often calls his own Thoughts all which with me are not worth Three-half-pence as to the begetting of any infallible unfeigned Faith And if he will alledge 't is so that this that 's in our Bibles and Copies only is the Rule of Gods own Consignation and none of the rest mentioned there must come into it he is Certain of it he thinks so to which Tune he frequently Sings in his Second Treatise or heap of uncertain Assurances or most Assured Vncertainties about the Points he may keep his Think to himself if he will and never thrust that forth as an Argument to evince any thing to us by its labour in vain for we verily believe that in the most things at least that he gives us his Thoughts about he does think it to be as he sayes he thinks ' t is But what 's what he thinks to other men Is there any reason that we believing our own Eyes should beleeve the Testimony of a man of no Credit with us Asserting that for Truth which we know to be utterly false I appeal to J O. Epist. Pag. 20. But if he will say the Scripture speaks any where of the Bounding and Consignation of its Canon by so many or so few or by such and such Books as are Extant only in your Bibles and no other I would fain know where it mentions any such or where-ever the Apostles in any of their Synods or Sessions had any hand in any such matter and if not I iudge I O. to be past such a Child as to believe that what the Synods of succeeding Ages Constituted Authorized Canonized or Established was done purely Per jus Divinum or Apostolicum either Yea what I O sayes to the Quakers in the Case of Calling to the Light within Ex. 3. S. 32. Proferant Fanatici vel unum sacrae Scripturae locum vel udum caelitus demissum Testimonium quo ad eorum sidei obedientiae Regulas seu directiones mittimur c. causam non dicimas quin triumphant serio c. which Challenge of
in his Age Assistant to Paulus Fagius in his noble Promotion of the Hebrew Tongue Capellus whom he calls a learned man and a Protestant Io. Prideaux who is before I.O. Luther the renownedst Reformer in his time as ever Europe had Zwinglius and others So he no way doubts but that as we enjoy them they were Compleated no higher upwards then Esdras his time by the men of the Great Congregation guided by the infallible direction of the Spirit of God which was after all the Old Testament was written a thousand years after some of it and so pag. 211. 220. See also pag. 247. 259. where he sayes The Jewes generally believe the Points as Old as from Moses on Mount Sinai or at least quoth he from Ezra so he is in doubts not denying but that they as to their knowledge and use received a great Reviving by the Massorites and Gemarists I. O. That the Word of God i.e. Scripture hath been hitherto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to its litteral sense and reading the acknowledged Touchstone of all Expositions render this now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what have we remaining firm and unshaken pag. 219. See more pag. 217. 218. of Uncertainty Reply The Light Spirit Word it self and the Kingdom and things thereof which cannot be shaken but must remain when the worldly kingdom of worldly Priests and their Foundation and their rich Possession of Letter and Hebrew Points and all their Religion Faith Worship House Bottom and whole Building and Fabrick that stands thereon and the old Heaven and Earth and all the Works of man that are therein and their Writings and Tomes and Talmuds c. ut alibi and such like in which I O. is exercised in his Second Tale of a Tub and Sea and Land and all Nations Formalists and their Forms Professors and their Professions Doctors in Divinity and their false Dreames and Divinations and not only Popes Cardinals Mount-Seniors Monks Friars Iesuites and all that Rabble of Rabbies and Deans and Chapters Arch-Bishops Deacons Deans and their Officials Parsons Vicars Curats and all manner of spiritual Persons of that spawn but also all sorts of those narrow mouth'd Bottles that have none of the new Wine in them and are as long in letting out as in getting in what they have of their old Wisdom as well within Vniversity Liberties as without and all Masters and Prebends and Deans of Colledges and their Christs Churches and all their beggarly Elements must be on fire about their ears and melt away with fervent heat and be burnt up and shaken down as leaves from the Fig-tree by the mighty Wind of the Lords Spirit that now blowes upon all flesh that it withers and is as the Grasse and its Flower and utterly like a Cottage which after much reeling to and fro must be removed for ever and for ever I.O. Thou sayest pag. 221. That thou hadst rather all the Works like to the Biblia Polyglotta which yet thou acknowledgest the great usefulnesse of and art Thankful Owen for it were out of the World then that this one Opinion of the Novelty of the Hebrew Points espoused to that great work Epist. pag. 17 18 19. should be received with the Consequences that unavoidably attend it Reply The Consequences that unavoidably attend the receiving of Truth are dangerous to thee but of no other then good concernment to such as dwell not in the Scriptural Skirts meer literal Suburbs of it as thou dost who being without the Salvation it self which God appoints to his for Walls and Bulwarks startest at the newes of every storm and the shaking of every Leaf but in the holy City and in the substance of the Truth it self The Cup of trembling must be taken out of their hands and put into the hands of thee and thine that have hated and afflicted them and Rid over them and said Bow down thy back that we may go over and they have laid their backs as the street for you while in your wrath and fury you have passed over them I. O. Thou sayest pag. 216. That by this conceit of the Novelty of the Hebrew Punctation the Adversaries Hope with Abimilecks Servants to stop the the Wells or Fountains from whence ye should Draw your Souls Refreshments Reply Poor Souls Poor Wells and Fountains Poor Refreshments if ye go down no deeper then the Letters to draw your Water for they are but the broken Cisterns which ye follow that with the totter'd Buckets of your own Brains that hold not the water of Life The Letter doth but declare of the fountain of living waters which ye have forsaken viz. God himself Christ and the Spirit the fountain shut up and sealed to you yet indeed Cant. 4. 12. but set open to the House of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleannesse Zach. 13. 1. The Well of Salvation out of which they that inhabit Sion in the midst of whom the holy One of Israel is now great do with joy draw Water out of whose bellyes flow Rivers of Living Waters which 't is out of the Reach and past the Strength of the Philistims to stop any longer for there 's now Rehoboth or room yea the Water thence given whilst your Euphrates is drying up is as a Well of Water springing up in them to eternal Life I.O. That give this liberty to the audacious Curiosity of men priding themselves in their Critical Abilities and we shall quickly find out what woful state and condition the Truth of the Scripture will be brought unto and if hundreds of words were as 't is said by Capellins the Critical Conjectures of the Jewes what security have we of the Mind of God as truly represented to us seeing that its supposed that some of the Words in the Margent were sometimes in the Line and if it he supposed as 't is that there are innumerabl◠other Places of the like nature standing in need of amendments what a door would be opened unto curious Pragratical Wits to overturn all the certainty of the Truth of the Scripture every one may see pag. 308. Reply Every one may see therefore what Certainty and Security ye are in while ye stand on no bottom but a broken Letter And how wilt thou help the case with all thy prate or hinder Pragmatical Wits from using their Critical Abilities that way Who shall ponere obicem put a stop to them and impose upon all others his Thoughts that things are so or so Shall I.O. who in so many places Confesses he gives men but his Thoughts nay doth nos I.O. Confesse pag. 217 218. that none must give a Rule to the rest the door is open'd man and thou canst not shut it even an effectual door for the Sheep to enter the fold by even him who is the Light as well as the Door opened whereby to see into the uncertainty of your torter'd Transcripts much more ten fold more totterred and untrue Translations much
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
Doctrines Instructions stories Promises Prophesies given out by the Writers of the Scripture were not their own conceived in their minds nor form'd by their Reasonings nor retained in their memories from what they had heard nor by any means before-hand comprehended by them 1 Pet. 1.10 11. But were all of them immediately from God so as that there was onely a Passive concurrence of their Rational faculties in their reception without any such Active obedience to as by any Law they might be obliged pag. 5 6. Rep. Many things in this Parcel are utterly false being uttered as they are of the whole Scripture and all its first Pen-men for what is said of the Old as to the immediate manner of its giving forth is said also saist thou pag. 9.27 of the New insomuch that it s not onely very fond but savouring also of no small ignorance both of and in the Scripture for any such Minister of no more then the meer Letter of it as our Divineâ— are much more below the Ministers of the Spirit to hold out for truth or so much as to imagine within themselves and as they are utter untruths so much lesse are they of force to evince that false Assertion to be Truth which thou J.O. wouldst conclude from thence viz That their Writings are uncontroulably known to be the Word of God 1. What a crude conception of thy vain mind is this that the Laws Doctrines Instructions Stories Promises Prophesies written which I confess were not their own formed as many if not most of thy false Doctrines and strange stories about the Scriptures are thine own formed by unreasonable Reasonings were not so much as conceived in the minds of the Pen-men Were they not conceived in them by the Holy Spirit And â—ly by them so as that for the most part at least they understood knew and believed them as Truths before they committed them to Writing as they were moved by the Spirit of God to do for the use of others And though they wrote not but at the Will of God and his spirit pressing them thereunto and under the burthen of the Word of the Lord that lay upon them till they had discharged themselves of it yet art thou so silly as to conceive they delivered things before they were conceived in them So far at least they were conceived in and by them too as to prove thy saying little less then senselesse and absurd 2. VVhereas thou sayest they were not retained in their memories from what they had heard nor by any means before-hand comprehended by them Is not that as absolutely absurd and false as the rest Did they in writing declare things for truth and teach Doctrines and give out Instructions and tel stories relate passages before they had so much as heard of or seen or believed or embraced what things they wrote rehearsed or entertained them as such or by any means beforehand comprehended them Is not this directly contrary to what the Apostles say who had and wrote from the same spirit of Faith with them of old who write thus 2 Cor. 4.13 As it is written Psal. 16. 10. I believed and therefore have I spoken so we also believe and therefore speak c. 1 Joh. 1.1.3 That which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes look's on and handled declare we to you And when Isaiah wrote things of Christ did he not see his glory Isa. 6.1 Iob. 12.40 41. Lev. 1.2.11.19 Is Iohn commanded to write anything in his Booke but what he had seen And did he write or bear record of the Word of God or the Testimony of Iesus that he did by no means before-hand comprehend or of any things but those he saw And is not seeing one means of comprehending 3. Sith thou saist The things they wrote were not retained in their memories from what they had heard Did they first heare and see and believe and comprehend and entertain them into their memories and then not retain but let them slip and quite forget them before they wrote and then began to write when they had and not before they had remembred to forget them For of the things thou writest this is the sum the whole sum of which though 1 Pet. 1.10 11. is cited to add weight to it which gives not the least dram of evidence to the truth of one tittle of it is found by such as weigh it in the Ballance of right Reason to be a lye and lighter then vanity it self Belike then according to thy fancy Paul when he wrote to Timothy to bring his Books and Pâ—rchments Cloak left at Troas with Carpus wrote that not as a matter conceived in his mind or retain'd in his memory but as a thing forgotten that he had no comprehension of afore-hand Did he not write that and a hundred more matters as retain'd in his memory And though he wrote them as mov'd by the spirit in the wisdom of which he liv'd walk't and did all he did as he saw service in it yet did he not write of his Revelations and Temptations after them by the thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.1 c. and of his many perils and hazards he had gone through and his whippings and stonings and shipwracks and other sufferings and services 2 Cor. 11. as things retained in his memory though some of them fourteen years behinde And when he wrote of the Fornication 1 Cor. 5. and the Divisions 1 Cor. 11. that were among the Corinthians did he not write of them as things he had by hear-say and common Report And did he not retain in his memory what was told him by them of the House of Cloe and thereupon wrote to them thereof as of a matter heard remembred and afore-hand believed For L partly believe it quoth he and comprehended aforehand VVhat innumerable instances of the like fort of stories written as retained in the memories of holy VVriters might be given out of both the Old Testament and the New But this little is enough if thou be not wilfully blind to bring thee into a remembrance of thy babling about the Bible of the writings whereof thou writest as if thou hadst never read it all but in a dream And when Matthew the Publican wrote of his own being called from the Receit of Custom and of his entertaining Christ in his house Matth. 9.9 Did he it not on the account of his retaining that passage in his memory And whereas thou saist they wrote all immediately from God so as that there was onely a passive concurrence of their rational faculties in their reception without any such active obedience as by any Law they might be obliged to I say thou renderest thy self as Ridiculous oâ— Reasonlesse in this thy Reasoning as if thou wert one that had never read any otherwise then at random For hadst thou been as observans as thou art oscitant in thy Readings and Writings of the Scripture thou wouldst
of the Old Testament must be also affirmed of the New with this addition of advantage and preheminenâ—â— that it received its beginning of being spoken by the Lord himself 6. Seeing it is so as is abovesaid that all was not written by the hands of the inspired Authors themselves at the very first but much by such Scribes only as wrote from them as dictated to by them to whom God gave out this minde and so wrote not so immediately from God as thou dreamest but that they might mispell or mistake in more than Titles and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most good men being but bad Schollers and Scribes as to inch more humane earthly skill as your Schollership lyes in how absolutely doth this overturn that other utter untruths that thou tellest twice over to the manifesting of thine own folly more fully in uttering twice such falshood not so much as once observing it viz. pag. 10 11. that the Word which with thee still is the Scripture is come forth unto us mark unto us from God without the least mixture or interveniency of any Medium obnoxious to fallibility as is the wisdome truth integrity knowledge and memory of the best of all men But if what I have shewed above did not contradict and give check to this saying of thine about the Scriptures coming out immediately from God unto us who live so many ages from the last person who received any part of it immediately from God thou whose great Masterpiece of business it is throughout thy whole book to say and unsay and contradict thy self and run in Rounds overturnest and statly contradictest it thy self saying pag. 30. that we have not the Scripture from God immediately our selves in which self-confutation and contradiction of pag. 10. by pag. 30. thou canst not to continue long neither but as one delighting to dance round and shew how well skill'd thou art in tracing to and fro about the Scripture thou to go round again returnest and reiteratest pag. 153. that falsity uttered by thee pag. 10. in this wise over again viz. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were immediately and entirely given out by God himself mark as if God himself had wrote it every tittle with his own finger whereas how little God himself wrote I have shewed above and how such as were immediately inspired the mediation of whose hand writing in what they also wrote comes between God and us did not write it all immediately with their own hands but men that took what they said from them in writing by the active improvement of their knowledge wisdome skill in writing memory and other rational faculties so far is the Text from coming immediately from God to the men of those Cities and places that lived where and when it was written but how much farther from being immediately and entirely without any medium obnoxious to fallibility from God to us who live so many Ages off unto whom that Text J.O. talks of is descended perhaps at the hundreth hand through the hands of who knows what unskilful careless forgetful Scribes or Transcribers the very best of which J.O. at best confesses to be but fallible and that it was possible they might and also did mistake so as that failings fell out among them p. 167. nevertheless on he goes thus concerning that Scripture or writings viz. That Gods minde is in them represented unto us without the least interveniency of such mediums and wayes as were capable of giving change or alteration to the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or syllable 7. Whereas thou sayest there was onely a passive concurrence of the rational faculties of the Writers without any such active obedience as by any Law they might be obliged to though I have shewed thee that all the first Writers were not inspired but some wrote from their lips that were so and so were though never so skilful obnoxious to fallibility yet as thou intendest it of such Prophets Apostles Evangelists as wrote their own Prophesies Epistles Histories Proverbs Psalms c. with their own hands as they were moved by the Spirit it s utterly untrue that thou affirmest for the holy men of God who either wrote their Scripture with their own hands or dictated to such as they required to pen it from their mouthes as themselves spake from the mouth of God out of which came all that wisdome knowledge and understanding that is thereby uttered forth were such as were not so meerly pasive as thou praiest in the reception of what they wrote without any active concurrence of their rational faculties but in order to their receiving the word and manifestation of the minde and will of God to them which was written had both then and long before also an active concurrence thereof and such an active obedience to God as all men are by the Law of God i.e. the light in the conscience obliged to whereby they were made and became first holy men before they were used by God in such an holy work as preaching and wrriting out his minde to others and were brought into the thing or life it self they spake and wrote of and were purged from lusts and defilements and iniquities and foolish and unlearned questions and such prophane and vain bablings as ye are yet exercised in at your Vniversities about the Bible as well as about other books of humane businesses that in comparison of that holy truth that is in the Bible handled are but meer Baubles which a man being purged from 2 Tim. 2.16 19 20 21 22 23. he shall be a vessel of honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work Yea their Prophets that spake out that holy Doctrine and soul-saving truth that is declared in the Scriptures what ever some of them might be that were exercised in the copying out of sundry of those to us more unnecessary and unprofitable parts thereof viz. the endless Legal Genealogical Chronological Catalogues of mens names not so needful to us to know were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy men of God 2 Pet. 1. ult and such to whose souls knowledge and wisdome and the fear of God was pleasant who cried after it and lifted up their voices to God for it and were in such love with it as to wait on God for it out of whose mouth it comes and daily at the posts of wisdomes house which your Vniversities are not yet acquainted with and sought it as silver and searched for it as for hid treasure and though to Prophesie was a gift of God and such as have it are so passive as to receive it from the giver and none can receive any thing of it except it be given him from above Joh. 3. and though it is in no wise to be purchased by mens mony at Schools and Colledges as our Accademical Simon Magus's suppose who to obtain and buy all the gifts whereby they Prophesie to men for mony and sell them for mony
saying by which he had once gain-sayed the former returning to his former again Ex. 1. S. 29. where his Latine words Englisht are in this foolish wise viz. to express the sence they conceived of the mind and will of God the words in those tongues in which by the command and ordination of God the Scripture is written were both conceived and disposed by the holy Spirit and not permitted or left to the wisdom and will or arbitrement of the Writers themselves So of this sound piece of round Doctrine of I.O. this is the sum They that wrote the Scripture did not invent chuse or seeke words nor was it left to their minds understandings will wisdoms c. to express the truth yet to go round again they did use words of will or choice their mind and understanding were used in the choice of words yet to go round again to express the will and mind of God the words were not left to the will and wisdom of the writers Let the Reader chuse which of the two contradictory conclusions of I.O. he will take as true yet as one of them is and both cannot be true so true it is that I.O. runs the rounds and contradicts himself here as he doth in twenty places more of his self-consuting Fardel I. O. Thou addest p. 9 10. That in their writing they were not onely on a general account to utter the truth they were made acquainted with all and to speak the things they had heard and seen which was their common Preaching-work but also the very individual words they had received were to be declared And p. 9. quoting Mat. 10.10 That the Apostles were not the Speakers of what they delivered as other men are the Figment and Imagination of whose hearts are the Fountain of all that they speak but the spirit of the Father in them Rep. How hangs this true passage viz. They were to utter the truth they were acquainted withall and write the things they had heard and seen together by the ears with that false passage p. 5 6. Where thou sayest The Stories Laws Doctrines Instructions Promises Prophesies they gave out were not retained in their memories from what they had heard nor by any means before-hand comprehended by them c. What clouds of witnesses be here to the clearing of the Spirit by which thou writest to be a Spirit of self-contradiction 2. Was not their common Preaching-work and their common Writing-work all one as to the choice of Words wherein they declared Were they at liberty when they preached to ramble into words of their own meere will choice and invention and limited when they wrote so that they might not express themselves in such words as in the will and wisdome of God in which they dwelt and liv'd they saw meet for the matter in hand but just tyed to the individual words brought to them as immediately by inspiration as the matter or Word of God it self they wrote of Who acquainted thee with this whimsical non-sensical notion that they in their work of Preaching disposed and ordered their words as in wisdom they saw them acceptable or serviceable but in their work of Writing they might dispose order chuse and in wisdom seek to find out acceptable words but had every Tittle more immediately put into them then when they spake the Truth by word of mouth Dost not thou thy self say p. 9. Mat. 10.10 That the Apostles were not the Speakers of what they delivered but the Spirit in them Whereby the truer that is tthe more clearely thou contradictest thy self again and intimatest no less then thus much that the Spirit as immediately and distinctly brought to them gave and put into their minds and mouths what words they should use when they were speaking as what words they should use when they were Writing So that what ever was their common Preaching-Work and common Writing-Work in both which it 's true enough that they were assisted specially and in both equally by the holy spirit in the wisdom power evidence and demonstration of which speaking in them and moving them who were obedient to him to an active improvement and exercise of their rational faculties minds understandings wills memories thereunto they both preached and wrote 1 Cor. 2.4 2 Cor. 3.12 and so uttered no other truth then they were mostly made acquainted withall by the spirit within themselves and heard and saw by the light within as well as by hear-say and the Writings of one another from without Yet the common Preaching-work and Writing-work of thy self and thy fellow Ministers not of the Light and Spirit but of the Letter out of which ye surtively fetch filch and steal all your stuff and furniture wherewith ye feed people till they starve I say Your Preaching and Writing is of things that ye are not acquainted with from the Spirit of the Father nor from its manifestings the mind of God within you and moving you to utter them in words of his own immediate suggesting and supplying but a certain uttering forth in your own wills and times of what ye have no otherwise then by hearsay or from the Scriptures of those who spake and wrote as mov'd no more then what they both saw and heard and handled of the Word of Life a certain rude handling what ye never felt your selves nor your own hands ever yet handled of that Word of Life ye read others writing of a heedless holding forth of what ye hear not but onely hear of a talkative treating on what Truth ye do not truly taste of an impudent intruding of your selves into a self-ended shewing of what ye have not seen but as at second-hand ye see it shew'd in the Scripture by such as were in the true sight and substantial being of it vainly puffed up in your fleshly minds in which respect ye are no true Ministers nor true Witnesses for God but false Witnesses even when ye testifie the truth which is not yours as well as when ye tell lyes and teach the untruths which are your own as the old Truth stealers and Word-sellers were who though they said because they found it so said by such as felt it The Lord lives which is the truth yet they spake falsely forasmuch as they witnessed him nor risen and alive but murdered stew kill'd and crucified the holy and just one within themselves and spake not as Christ and his did what they knew Ioh. 3.11 and testified not what they had seen but worshipped and worded it about what they knew not Iohn 4.22 And so as a man can't be counted a Legal witness in foro hominum in a civil Court of Judicature among men that shall testifie of another's theft murder and scandal at second hand that is not as an immediate eye or ear-witnesse of it but on his reading in a Letter or hear-say from such as were so so much less in foro Dei Ecclesiae can any be owned as a true Minister of
their feet are swift to shed blood that wasting and misery are in their wayes and the way to true peace they know not yet this one thing I must say too and of our Vniversity Scriblers pro Scripturis that as there are no men in the world more up to the ears in strife about the Scripture and their own Fancies on it as to matter and letter than the Scribes are so there is no one thing that the Scribes are striving scuffling and scolding at each other more about than about their Scriptures That light or word within and not the letter is the Foundation First I shall take account of what thou falsely assertest concerning the Scriptures being a Foundation Thou affirmest the Scriptures to be the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles spoken of Eph. 2.20 pag 33. saying of them that men may quietly repose their souls upon them in beleeving and obedience and of your selves thus are we built 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and calling them Page 48. The Foundation of that world which he hath set up in this world as a Wheel within a Wheel his Church And page 154. The Foundation of faith hope and obedience And page 155. The Foundation of all that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands And page 316. The great and blessed Foundation of Truth All this I own to be very true of the Word of God of which the Scripture speaks but it is utterly false as uttered by thee of the Scriptures The falsehood of which appears plainly by this Argument 1. Argument That which is the great and blessed Foundation of all that truth faith hope and obedience that God requires at mens hands and of the Church and of the Apostles and Prophets must be something which was in being before any of these things were for the Foundation on which these are built must have a being before they can be built thereupon every Foundation being before the building can stand upon it But though the Word of God be so yet the Scripture is not before but long after that truth faith hope and obedience which God requires at mens hands and long after the Church and long after the Apostles and Prophets were yea after those Apostles and Prophets were Respectively who were the Respective pen-men thereof Therefore the Scripture the Writing the Letter the Greek and Hebrew Text is not the Foundation of any of these things The first Proposition is so true that it were no less then disparagement to I. O's wisdom to suppose him to be mentis inops to go about to prove it to him sith as he builds Castles in the air as easily thrown down as erected upon no better Foundation then his own fancy thoughts conjectures and imaginations yet he cannot be so senceless as to think that that Foundation be it what it will firm or brittle on which any thing is built must be before the building can stand thereon And as for the minor in every part thereof it 's as undeniably true to any save such as having once turn'd their backs upon the Truth are resolved to render themselves devoid of eithet Sense or Reason in their Reasonings against it then to own it For none else can deny but the Church and the Truth Faith Hope and Obedience of it and the Messengers Apostles Prophets Preachers of Righteousnesse such as were Enoch Noah Abraham Lot and others were in the Truth Faith Hope Obedience of the Gospel and also built upon Christ the Light the Word of God the Rock of Ages before Moses dayes who is unversally supposed at our Vniversities to have been the first Pen-man of the Scriptures The grand Master-place of Scripture that is us'd in proof hereof that the Scriptures are the Foundation is Ephes. 2.20 where it 's said by Paul to the Ephesians Ye are built on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-Stone Hence it is strenuously stickled for and as confidently as cloudily concluded by our doting Doctors and dreaming Divines that the Church of God as to all her Faith Hope Obedience Knowledge of the Truth is built upon the Apostles and Prophets Writings as that which is there called the Foundaeion whereas were they but at leisure from that lesser and lower literature wherein they are lost from the Lord and the Light and Life of God and the Letter also which issued forth from thence to look into the Light and by it into the Letter it self they more blindly labour for then truly learn by they would soon see that the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets there spoken of is not the Apostles and Prophets themselves much less uncertain transcribed Copies of those few Fragments of their Letters and some other honest mens true stories of what was done in their times good instructions memorandums and litteral recommendations of wholsome Laws and Statutes most of which as laid down in the Letter saving that they remain in the truth and substance whereof they were the types figures and shadows are above 1600-years since cancelled and abolished Promises Prophesies Psalms Proverbs Parables occasional Letters Epistles and other Writings which such as fell into a foolish following and falling down before outward Images and from the infallible Spirit it self that their Scriptures were written to keepe men to found and fardelled together and fram'd in their own fancies into a Foundation of the Faith and of all the whole Fabrick of Religion to be for ever framed and founded upon But Christ Iesus himself who is there also called the chief Corner-stone and 1 Pet. 2.4 that living Stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious on whom the Saints even all together with the Apostles and Prophets and the whole Houshold of God as Fellow-Citizens and lively Stones are built up a spiritual House to offer spiritual sacrifices yea all into one holy Temple or Habitation of God through the spirit This is the true and sole Foundation of all the matters before mentioned Christ Iesus the Rock of Ages on whom whoever believes shall not be ashamed Christ the living Word of God that also quickneth whose words are spirit and life to the hearers of his voice whose words uttered in the heart do good to those that walk uprightly this is the Stone that you Babel-builders refuse which God hath made the very head stone in the Corner Psal. 118.22 Matt 21.42 This verbum lumen internum Christ the eternal internal Word in the heart and Light of the World given a Light to the Nations and as such Gods salvation to the ends of the earth and the precious sanctuary to such as believe in his light is that stone of stumbling and Rock of offence to such as thee I.O. that stumble at the Word in their wrestlings for the Letter being disobedient unto both whereunto also they are appointed and a Gin and a Snare to the
must take account of you by and by for besides such inspiration to make a Rule is necessary Gods appointment of a writing to that end saith he God thought that sufficient which we have therefore we can look upon no more with such regard at we do upon that See T. D's first Pamphlet p. 26 27.43,44 and of his second Pamphlet p. 17 18. The difference quoth he is in Gods arbitrary dispensation so do I give this reason of our true assertion that howbeit the Scripture is profitable and may be useful and called as by it self yet it no where is a Rule as it agree's with the light and spirit where it is not adulterated by mans mistransciptions mistranslations misconstructions Yet the Canon or most perfect and only standing Rule it is not because God did never Authorize or appoint it so to be but to retort back to T.D. in his own vain phrase thought the measure of his light and spirit every one hath from himself sufficient to make a standard of besides whose inspiration of the said Scripture to make a Rule is necessary Gods appointment of a Writing to such an end the difference lyes in God arbitrary dispensation as well as in the excellent preheminence of the Spirit and Light above the Letter who would have that to be the Rule Canon Standard Touchstone which was so from the beginning of the world two thousand years afore the letter was even to this day even the Spirit then which there can be no other designed by him to that end if I. O's words be true Ex. 4. s. 22. who saith Vnicus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinus the Divine Canon or Rule is but one not more then which also there is no other mentioned in the Scripture by that name of the Rule but the Light and Spirit as I have shewed above out of those places where the Rule is spoken of and if there be let I.O. or T.D. assign where and hereupon as he saith in the other case so conclude I here in this we can look upon none but the Light and Spirit upon no letter with such regard as the only Rule as we do upon that So then notwithstanding T. D's impertinent unimportant utterly untrue Reply to this Argument That we are to walk by is our Rule but the Spirit is that the Scripture sayes we are to walk by Gal. 5.16 therefore the Spirit is the Rule which Reply runs viz. that phrase denotes the principle not the Rule of our obedience in that place the Argument stands firm over the head of it for though it betoken the principle also yet not only nor exclusively of the Rule but rather the Rule more evidently and much more eminently than the other yea that the Spirit is the principle of all true obedience is professed positively by us who own nothing to be truly done in way of true obedience unto God nor the letter but what is done from the principle power motion assistance and ability of the Spirit of God or that is done without the Spirits in-dwelling yet in that place considered together with the rest above cited it is most clear that the Apostle speaks of the Spirit principally as of the Rule by which we are to walk and the word walk imports no less than the act of proceeding or going on and not the principle original or primum mobile as I may say from which we are to begin to act and move in way of obedience unto God But as unanswerable as T. D's answer is to our Argument yet it serves us very well to prove him a self-contradicter as he and I.O. also are in multitudes of more matters besides and in that it is as answerable as may to his wonted self for let but any reasonable Reader observe as it follows p. 29. of his first Pamphlet what T.D. sayes next of all to this passage of the Spirits being the principle that is the original or beginning of our obedience from which as being the primum movens and Auxilians beforehand moving and assisting we are after to obey and he shall see how he overthrows it himself in his own most immediately ensuing speech for howbeit he sayes the Spirit is the principle of our obedience which is as much as to say that in which we first walk whose assistance must be antecedent to our true walking according to the letter which is not denied by us yet when we say the same with him he unsayes his own saying again rather then he will side with us for whereas I said as his own self there relates that the Spirit is antecedent to the letter so that none tan walk in the letter till they walk in the spirit he replies thus viz. The spirit is subsequent to the letter in respect of the assistance and ability which he gives to obedience and whereas you affirm quoth he That none can walk in the letter till they walk in the spirit if walking in the spirit be meant of special assistance which is as much as to say if by that phrase of walking in the Spirit you mean the Spirits being the prinriple of our obedience t is false for many walk in many things according to the letter without the spirits in dwelling as Paul while a Pharisee was touching the righteousness of the Law blameless Psa. 3.6 in which beside the rounds he runs in and the contradiction to himself above T.D. sayes false for though none walk according to the letter in truth and as to the spiritual obedience it calls for without the Spirits in-being and assistance and power as the Principle from which they must so walk for howbeit Paul walked according to the righteousness of the Law interpreted in sensu Pharisaico according to the Pharisees outside glosses on it who saw not into the marrow mystery and spirituality of it and was zealous of God as to the literal observation of many things yet till the Law which is the light and spiritual came to him who was in his carnal condition and shewed him sin in the lust of which Christ expounds the Law Matth. 5 he kept not the Tetter as to the spiritual import and true intent and utmost meaning of the spirit and minde Christ exprest therein to the spiritual understanding though not to the natural but abstained only from outward grosse acts of sin and in his blind zeal persecuted the Church as ye in your wild-braind zial do at this day The Spirit is the principle from which we are to walke and with ut which we cannot walke according to the letter yet to go round again many walk according to the letter without the Spirits in-dwelling So pervenire ad summum nisi ex principiis nemo potest Pervenire ad summm sine principiis aliquis potest This is the summe of T.Ds. Doctrine Besides if the Spirit be the principle only that men begin to beleeve and obey from and not the Rule according to which they go on in
the things written in this book meaning that particular Writing he was now in hand with not if any man shall write any more Scripture with so high a pretence as by Revelation from the Spirit or loose or shut out any of the Scriptures that are already written by inspiration from the Canon for if he had meant so then as brisk as ye are to breath out Threatnings and Plagues and Curses to such as pretend to write any thing by inspiration revelation or motion from the holy Spirit since the dayes of the complearing and closing of your Canon as you call it which you count from Iohns writing his Revelation though ye are far from adding any inspired Scripture to the Bible but only such Scripture as is the fruit figment and imagination of your own hearts which thou confessest to be the Fountain of all that other men that are not Apostles as ye say ye are not do deliver p. 9. not daring to pretend to the infallible guidance of the infallible Spirit in your Ministry yet yee 'l not scape the taking your names out of the Book of Life and from the good things written in the Revelation for your fault of taking away detracting and diminishing from the Scriptures for ye exclude from your Canon very much of that inspired Scripture that was written some of which is extant at this day too or hath been shewed before But considering the nature and true being of your guilt I confess in this case of varying from the Rule if that were the onely standing Rule of the outward Scripture should be found to be much more in the Ablative than in the Dative Case But of this more hereafter These are J.Os. inartificial Arguments or Testimonies of Scripture used by him as mediums of artificial ones that may be drawn from thence of which Scriptures he affirms that they are as commonly cited so already vindicated à nosâ—â—i Theologis by our Divines from exceptions of Papists and others that hee need not insist any more on them to name them of which say I as he Communiter citantur nonproprie they are commonly but not properly cited but not yet vindicated from the exceptions of all I shall now come to consider his more Artificial Arguments drawn â—rom some of these and some other Scriptures by the Cart Ropes of J.Os. Carnal Reasonings in proof that the inward Light Word Spirit and its Revelations are not at all but the outward Letter Text Writings Scriptures are only and altogether the standing Rule to the Church and all men of all Truthss Doctrines and things that are to be done beleeved tried or determined in point of Gods worship and our obedience J. O s. Arg. 1. The first is on this wise Ex. 3. s. 28. Si Revelatio c. If the Revelation of the will of God in the Scripture be so perfect compleat and every way absolute that there is no need of any other Revelation by the Spirit and Light within Enthusiasm Heavenly breathing discsurses with Angels fained or true to instruct us in the knowledge of God 〈…〉 in order â—o the attaining eternal life then its plain that all those wayes and means of knowing God and his will which the Fanaticks fain to be the means thereof are uncertain dangerous unprofitable and in no wise necessary thereunto and therefore to be rejected and detested But it s so c. Therefore c. Rep. Oh full of all fallacy as well as falsity folly and blindness in the things of God of whom I may truly say Et si non casâ—etamen cause thou art not so little honest in it but thou art well-nigh as much crafty to hide what thou canst the dishonesty of what thou holdest not only from the Qua. as thou thinkest in the Latine language but also from all that would handle thee for thy ill handy-work by thy dark discoursing in words of a double and doubtful reference and signification that thou mayest the more privily pervert the right wayes of the Lord and prepagate thy perverse Propositions the more securely to the prejudice of them what means else thy foisting in of that foolish phrase quae simulant fanatici by the inserting whereof thou mayest either intend thus viz. that all wayes that are fained by the Qua. are unprofitable unnecessary and to be rejected and detested and so creep thy neck out of the collar and shelter thy self from that censure of falshood thou fore-sawest would else befall the minor for meer fained mediums of knowing God and his will wherever found are to be rejected as useless unnecessary and no less then detestable indeed that is true enough who doubts it but then withall how Serpent-like wouldest thou hereby subtilly insinuate it into the younger sort to whose use thou devotest this thy peece of dotage under that Vnive sâ—y vendible Title of Theological determinations Theses or Apologetical exercitations pro Sâ—ripturis as if the Qua. professed means were but a fained Light and Spirit as if thou foughtest against nought but the Qua. fictions and not any true internal Light or Spirit of God or heavenly Revelations or inspirations but only such meer imaginary spiritual Divine motions and notions as the Qua. fain or falsely fancy so to be Whereas no figmentitions matters are found formented or sought for by the Qua. to be the Rule but only the true Revelations Light and Spirit of God himself within the heart Or else thou mayest intend thus as thy words express that forenamed clouding clause being excluded viz. That the Scriptures alone make such an absolutely perfect Revelation of Gods will that there is no need at all of any other Revelation by the Spirit and Light of God within which the Qua. affirm to be useful and needful to instruct in the knowledge of God and his will to the attainment of life eternal but those are uncertain perillous unnecessary means of knowing our duty and so to be rejected and detested in which way understanding thy minde there is so much the less fallacy indeed but the more falsely even so much as amounts to little less then great blasohemy and so thy minor is to be denied with a witness ex duobus malis absurdis hisie unum saltem est elegondum utrum horum mavis accipe if the first which is fallacy and foolery it s the least and the best yet too bad if the last which is falshood and blasphemy it s so bad that its worse then nought yet judging by thy undertaking to prove thy minor which else were true and needing no proof thou intendest the Letter which is the greater of the evils I enter the lists with thee about that and deny utterly thy minor which thou proceedst in proof of by man particular confiderations viz. 1. Of the Author of the Scriptures namely God from whom sayest thou Nothing can come that is imperfect any way much less in respect of that end to which he decrees any work J.O. from a
Saints are under who are therefore said to serve Rom 7.6 not in the oldness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the letter but in the newness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Spirit And then secondly asserting that Novi Testamenti â—adem est ratiâ— the case is the same between the Old Testament and the New which is most false as to the thing in hand and 3. Citing 2 Cor. 3.6 in proof of it By which thou shewest thy folly for thou couldest not have well found out a fitter Text for its disproof whether thou who citest it for borest to set it down yea or nay for fear its should be seen how far it contradicts what thou citest it for I will not say but I am sure a man that is but minded to miss the meaning of it may run and read how that verse subverts the busines thou bringest it in for yea verily so far is that Apostle who truly calls the Old Testament by the names of Book Heb 9.19 and Letter written engraven in stones and such like from affirming with thee that the case is the same with the new Testament as to the name and nature thereof that both in that verse and in the third veâ—se also he more then intimates yea plainly expresses that of the Old and New Testament in that particular more than any diversâ— est raâ—io the case is diverse yea so far different that he flatly opposes the one to the other as things that however agreeing otherwise viz. in their being both glorious in som degree though the New in a far greater degree then the other as a beautiful picture may agree in respect of beauty glory comeliness and compleat resemblance in some degree with the substantial person that is it paâ—tâ—rn of yet disâ—agree in this that the one is Letter Outward writing printing and ingraving c. visible and legible by the outward eye the other not so but internal invisible spiritual written with the Spirit in the heart yea Spirit it self which while the Letter is dead and killing is only living quickning and giving life Yea two varying Ministration doth the Apostle make them not onâ—y as one is that of death and condemnation to the children of it of whom on pain of perishing it requires the living of a life which it gives no ability to and which the other i e. the Spirit only gives and inables to live the other that of Spirit Life Liberty Righteousness Glory but also as the one that is the Old is a writing ad extra only the other that is the New a writing a Scripture only ad intra though written of by that without that he absolutely asserts a present inconsistency since the doing away of the Old between a mans being a Minister now of both as once and that posita novo tollitur vetus the new being now come in full force and confirmed by the Testators death the Old Testament and its Ministry is disanulled in regard of its weakness and unprofitableness however profitable as a Type in its time for many uses to bring immediately to the life so that he who is the Minister of the one i.e. of the Old Testament i.e. of the Letter Outward writing Text or Scripture is not a Minister of the other i.e. of the New i.e. of the Gospel Righteousness Glory liberty life and Spirit and Retro he who is a true Minister of the Gospel or New Testament as now standing in the force and substance it self out of the figure and shadows wherewith it was vailed of old is not though he may utter things as moved of the Spirit that are written in the Letter as Christ himself and the Apostles did a Minister of the Old as the Old Word-stealers Jer. 23. were and our Modern Text-takers and Scripture-sellers are Paul taketh away the one from him on whom he stablisheth the other denies the one of whom he affirms the other and opposes the New Testament which he stiles the Spirit to the Letter by which name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he denominates only the Old God saith he hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life 2. Here is not all nor yet not half of that absurdity and falshood that I.O. in his folly flings abroad in that small parcel above which I am yet under the animadversion of for whereas he sayes I am vero omne Testamentum est perfectum every Testament is perfect intending it both of the Old Testament and the New and not only so but of such a perfection as avails in hunc finens ut assequamur vitam aeternam to this very end viz The obtaining the life eternal it self for so is his assertion of the Books of the Scriptures which he describes as to their nature and concludes under that name of the Old and New Testament his Positiâ—n is so wofully false that himself is as wonderfully foolish who sees it not flatly contradictory to the Scripture for howbeit the very Old Testament or outward letter is duly owned by us to be a Ministration of God from whom nothing can come as is abovesaid but what is perfect praesertim respectu finis cui opus quodcunque deflinat in reference to that end for which he appoints it absolutely perfect to that end for which it is given forth of God which is to be an A B C or elementary help or outward worldly Rudiment to indoctrinate younglings in their â—â—nage concerning the inward Light and Spirit as the only way that leads to Christ the Life from whom the Light comes and is lent as a line or clew of thread that followed conducts through the valley and shadow of death to the Life it self in which respect the Letter of the Law is called a School-master Tutor Governour under whose Tuition the under aged imbondaged ignorant ones may be trained up into a true understanding of the Truth as it is in Jâ—sus as by a Shadow Type Figure Festraw or Finger that points the Primarian Professors more distinctly to that they are to eye and aim at more then it self and by such as are in the faith and obedience to the light may be used too to make them wiser toward salvation and more perfectly furnish◠〈◊〉 every good work as he that is past a novice and is become a well-studied Scholar can and may but must is another matter read in the Horn-book as well and better than when he learned in it yet as to its being so omnibus numeris absoluta perfecta as thou bablest making it so perfect as to bring to the life that is a meer Antiscriptural fiction of thy own fancy for though a man may by the Horn-book learning become the more dispositively fitted to read in the Bible and other books of Latine or Logick and so by degrees come at last to the capacity and degree of a Doctor in the Vniversiâ—y yet he
the light of God the wisdome saving truth immediate witness clearest way of Revelation soul-cleansing Law sure foundation most perfect Rule immoveable stedfast Standard of Gods setting up but it self is nos all nor any of this nor doth it at all any where avouch it self to be any of it at all The Scripture points to that which is the Power of God by the being of which in and upon his people who only own and joyn to it they are made a willing people in the day thereof when such as turn from and against the light which is the power and labour in the weak naked Letter labour in vain and are left unwilling to leave their lusts and lives for Christ as his Maryrs or outward witnesses did in all Ages But the Letter it self is not Power of God that sustained them in the suffering and inabled them to forgo what was dear to them and to undergo what was dreadful and destructive to nature in its dearest concernments The Letter tells us that the Saints did so and tells us and all Saints that we should do for Christ but the Power by which this is done is another matter then a Letter ad extra even the inward light Word and Spirit that thou doest despite to even that in the conscience that made them indure as seeing him who is invisible and discovered the darkâ—â—ss upon the discovery of which they rather chose death then to own it as Light and Truth not only in ages as high as Moses who by faith in the Light chose affliction rather then sin and feared not the wrath of Pharaoh but also from him downward as low as Maries dayes in which some died for denying the darknâ—ss of the Popes Dâ—ctrines of Transubstantiation c. which the Light in their consciences told them were too gross to be of God who yet by their confession could not dispute against it with Vniversity Sottish Sophisters Doctor Dunces out of Letter nor so much as read a letter therein and also as low as these dayes wherein by the Power of God many are born up to bear the Trials of the cruel Academical mockings scoffings scourgings inâ—lictings stonings bonds imprisonments abuses to death witness one of the first of the Lords two Hand-maids that were sent to warn the Vniversity of their universal abomiâ—ations at Oxford in the time of I.Os. Vice chancellorship there who perhaps may not be so learned literally though mystically and spiritually more in the Letter as obtuse aÌ„cuti â—omunâ—ioneâ— many of those dull-beaded nimble disputers out of it are in their bald fashion of Syllogistical form Neither did the Letter either of the Old Testament which is the Letter without of what things soever written or the outward Letter of the New ever conquer the world in which thou sayest it brought forth so much fruit further then into a meer empty fruitless form of Godliness without the power thereof insomuch that though as to the Primitive Christian Churches while they kept in the Light which the Apostles Ministry whether by word of mouth or Writing Letter Scripture was to turn them to walk by and beleeve in and in the Spirit in which they began till fooâ—ishly being bewitched from obeying the truth it self they turned aside to the outward Text that tells it and so thought to be made perfect by the flesh and the fleshly bodily exercises they found in the Letter which once used were as low weak beggeâ—ly elements for a time the power of God and godliness was much â—elt among them and abode with and upon them to the prevailing against the Powers of the earth and the overcomming the world it self and Satan the Prince of it by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of his Testimony not loving their lives to the death and much fruit of the Spirit and of righteousness was brought forth to the glory and praise of God But when Synods and Councels doting Doctors infatuated Ghostly-Fathers and such as admired their persons as they the persons of the Apostles and primitive Disciples began to bundle together what they could get of the Wâ—itings of such as were coaetaneous with Christ and the Apostles and without any such order from either Christ or the Apostles to canonize what in their conceits might be useful to others as they had found them t is like to be to themselves into a Rule or Canon and stated them into a common Standard for all to have their sole recourse to in soul-cases and matters of Christian faith and holy life and so to adore the dead letters of those holy living men and to run a whoring after some remnants of Writings that dropt from them then in the whole world now called Christendome instead of an Apostolical Spouse of Christ as Christians were at first presented a chaste Virgin to himself by them there stands up an Apostatical Strumpet that had the Letter and good words written there but neither the life of God nor the Word of life therein testified to that according to the nature of Error which is ever multiplying degenerated more and more into the dark till at last being gone from the Word Spirit Light and Life within to the outward Letter that relates of it they ran into the Wildernes of their own numberless senses upon it so that they lost the Letter also and fell from it into Tradition and a thousand Old Wives Fables and though it is good and acknowledged so to be so far as it is that the Protestants have marched from Rome under the conduct of the Leâ—ter yet for all they are come back from the blinde screel scrawls of the Popish Scribes for their smoaky imaginations to a pretensive profession of and prate prâ— Scripturis for the Scriptures unless they march on according to the conduct of the Scriptures till they come into the Light and Spirit which they point to and by a dotage upon the Scriptures ye would run from they are not so much as come yet to the Scriptures nor to conform to that counsel of the Prophets and Apostles given in it but are yet erring from the Scriptures even in and by their very eager Scriblings for it as the only most perfect Rule and from the only Rule of faith and way to Life the Letter is as loud for but that they are dull of hearing as they in their naked Writings are loud for the naked Letter it self And so it comes to pass that as Israel was of old who was as laborious in the Letter busie about the Bible and strict for his Scripture-standard as our Israel for the self-same which yet they confess too is abolished as to the Litteral observation of it with the Appendix of a few of Stories and Letters and Revelations of those holy men next to Christs time who by the Spirit wrote much more then is there own'd as their Standard I say as the old Israel proved as to God an empty vine Hos. 10.1 bringing forth
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
innate or ingrafted light of nature the voice of God in nature and common nâ—tions and general presumptions of God and his Authority inlaid in the natures of rational creatures and innate principles of reason and conscience and such like as if they were so de naturae de esse hominis so flowing from the meer natural being of men that they can be no more said to be supernaturally of God then the very natural faculties of reason understanding and conscience it self of which more an on both with thee and T.D. also though it be indeed that very way of supernatural Revelation which thou sayest p. 47. the Scripture is that as now in the world is handed to thee by the meer improvement of menâ— natural faculties in the way of transcribing printing re-printing as also studied by the meer improvement of your natural faculties of reading remembring understanding Hebrew Greek Latine English c. to the begetting of a meer animal or natural knowledge whereby yee know things meerly naturally speaking evil of what yee know not and corrupting your selves in what ye do know naturally as bruit Beasts for as a Horse or Bullock can finde the way to the Pasture where hee hath often been so the Priests by use course custome and concordance more than the work of the Spirit bringing all things to their remembrance can turn readily to Chapter and verse Which forsaid Voice or Light that God as thou sayest truly p. 43. hath indelibly implanted in the minds of men for the minde heart and conscience is as a dark place as to all spiritual moral and supernatural knowledge without the Law or Light of God shining in it and shewing good and evill is by thy own further Confession to thy own further confusion accompanied with a moral instinct of good and evil seconded by that self-judgement which God hath placed in us in reference to his own over us and that by which God reveals himself to the sons of men and that indispensable moral obedience which he requireth of us as his creatures subject to his Law and which is as effectual to reveal God as his works are to which there is need of nothing as thou sayest but that they be represented or objected to the consideration of rational crtatures and bears Testimony to the being righteousness power Omniscience Holiness of God himself and calls for moral obedience which is eternally and indispensably due to him and so shews the work of the Law written in the heart and is that by which the Gentiles or Nations that have not the Law in a letter are a Law to themselves and more then all this by thy own absolute acknowledgement whereby 't is evident that it even that thou callest the Voice of God and the Law written in the hearts of the very Gentiles and not the Letter of the Law written without with ink and pen is that ingrafted word by every one to be received with meekness Jam. 1.21 which is able to save the soul and that sure word as to it its evidencing it self to us or light shining in the dark place of the heart and that more firm stedfast constant standing permanent Word or Light or rule of life to us then that infallibly sure and certain though passing and transient Voyce that in the audience of Peter Iames and Iohn came from God himself that is here spoken of The said voice or light in the heart declares it self to be from God by its own light and Authority so that there is no need to convince a man by substantial witnesses that what his conscience speaks it speaks from God what ever testimony it bears or what ever it calls for from us in his name and so speaks and declares it self not only more constantly as it s ever with men but as to its certainty also that without further evidence or reasoning without the advantage of any considerations but what are by it self supplied it discovers its Author from whom it is and in whose name is speaks and is inlaid by the hand of God to this end to make a Revelation of him as to the purposes mentioned is able to evince its own divine original without the least contribution of strength or assistance from without and therefore I adde without an outward Letter undoubtedly though as undoubtedly an outward Letter cannot do all nor any of all this without the Light or said Voice Word or Spirit of Christ within which only doth and can evidence it unto the conscience that the Letter Scripture and doctrines declared therein are of so divine an original as they are Thus I have done with that Eminenâ— Text which is so much talked on so little to their own purpose by the most eminent talkers for the Text of the Scripture as that thing therein recommended to us to bee taken heed to as the most sure word of Prohesie the light shining in the dark place of mens hearts the Prophesie of the Scripture that is not of private interpretation but spoken forth in writing in the movings of the holy Spirit under which termes the holy Apostle intends not the outward Text in which as well as otherwhile by word of mouth the holy men testified to it and held it forth but that inward Word Light Spirit of Prophesie Truth witness and testimony of Iesus in the conscience which their outward voice words witness and writings were but a Testimony unto and an external means to turn men to upon the account of which Text in Peter and the 11. other aforesaid which I.O. impannels as his Jury to judge the case in question whether the Letter outward writing or Scripture is the spiritual Light or Word of God yea or nay I.O. makes such a full account to carry it his way and to have their unanimous universal verdict for him that the Letter is the Light and consequently the most perfect Rule and consequently the Word of God that in his blind hasty confidence he cannot stay from stiling it so till the trial about it be ended and while the cause is sub-judice and he but in his prosecution of the proof thereof but by way of Anticipation as it were throughout his whole book which is written mostly in ordine ad probationem as an enquiry after and examination of the matter he very often here and there if not as frequently and commonly as by its own proper names of Letter Writing Text or Scripture stiles and denominates it under the foresaid names of of the Light Rule Foundation Witness VVord of God as its nomen prâ—prium which hee will never prove to bee Proper to it whilest hee breathes And so hee runs on blindly in such over ample applaudings and most mighty magnifications of the Scripture that is the subject about which the Argument is driven on by what termes soever whether of the Truth the Foundation the power of God the Rule the VVitness of God the VVord of God c. hee expresses it by
turn away much people saying God is not worshipped in Temples made with hands but within onely in Spirit and Truth talking as if they would teach us as if they heard Gods voice and not we who search the Scriptures and expound the Law and have the Key of knowledge have been train'd up in the Scriptures in reading the holy letters but these we take notice of them that they are ignorant unlearned men yet they say we are unstable and unlearned and wrest Scriptures to own destruction but whence hath this man letters having never learnt at Universities as we have done away with them and their Scripture no more holy Scripture now the Canon is compleated the Standard sealed no immediate motion now no such mission as the Prophets had now no speaking by divine inspiration now no Divine authority in any mans writings now though they write not others but the same Divine truths as of old no extraordinary infallible â—uidance of men by the infallible Spirit of God now and suchlike Thus they said then and thus our wise Ignorants at Athens say now of the same Spirit that then spake in Paul pressing others now to write or speak to them of their woâ—shâ—pping an unknown God seeing their Universities given wholly to Idolatry and thus I.O. one of the sore men against the truth What will these Bablets say and in a manner so they say all But slay friend Gods arm is not shortned neither is the mouth of God more made up now then formerly from making out and manifesting his own mind immediately from himselfe in the minds and consciences of men and women so as that men may without manifest imprudence not to say impudence imagine so ignorantly as in effect I.O. doth that God spake his last to the Sons of men and all that ever he meant from his own mouth to make known of his will to any man when Iohn had at the command of Christ written that pretious Revelatio â—which God gave unto Christ to shew to his servants who was pleased to signifie it unto them by the hand of his servant Iohn and when once in after ages a Syned of some honest men who we know not upon some some mistakes and sailings which weâ— I.O. confesses Tr. 2. c 2. S. 4.5 They were lyable to establish so much as they could get together which was but little 't is like of that much that was written of the transcribed Copies of the holy mens Histories and Apostles Epistles and letters to particular Churches and private persons and canoniz'd it together with the writings of Moses and the Prophets into such a standing Rule of faith and manners for all ages to come that whatever should from thenceforth be found as not a little was even of the Apostles own and some of Christs own writings and whatever should be written after that with pretence as much hath been since then not in pretence onely but in truth of motion from the same holy spirit should be shut out for ever from standing in their Canon sith it came not in at that time to their hands and be ever of so low esteem as not to be own'd among the rest under so much as the name of holy Scriptures with them but as to all ends uses and purposes for which all holy Scripture is written be utterly raced out of the Record cancel'd made void and of none effect while those few they Authoriz'd because of their Stamp of the onely Standard upon them must be had in as high if not an higher Esteem Honour and Authority then the Light it selfe from which directing holy men in the writing thereof they had all the being they have at all as holy Scriptures Let not I.O. in any wise say so for there are yet though himselfe is none of them 7000 of the people of Christ in England that bow not the knee to Baal many of whom as they are under the new Testament i.e. the Spirit and not under the old i.e. the letter where thou yet art have even both men and women the promises thereof made good unto them concerning the gift of the holy Spirit of the Lord and power to prophecy which of old also the true had Mic. 2. and of judgment and of might to declare unto the rebellious house of Iacob and Israel even the Heads and Princes thereof if they abhor judgement and pervert all equity and the Priests and Prophets thereof that Preach for hire and Divine for money and build Sion with blood and Ierusalem with iniquity and yet leane on the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evill shall come upon us their sins and their transgression And to use thy own words I.O. p. 331.332 to thy self who are much in the dark as thou utterest them to such as are further in the dark behind thy self much more to the same purpose will same of them be found to say when men of outward wisdome and learning who are as they think able to instruct them shall condescend personally so to do Yea of myself I will not speak who by the grace of God am what I am and if the least measure of that grace be imparted to me among other of his servants that I should Preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ it is to one that for ought I know is of all the rest least worthy or rather most unworthy of it but I am bold to say so much and no more then what will stand as truth against thine or any others gain sayings that there are some who do not more professe themselves to be then they are indeed inspired by the holy Spirit whose messages and ministrations whether by voice or writing are so immediate from the mouth of the Lord that your not receiving nor submitting to them on that account but rejecting and denyall thereof with such rigour as ye do doth justify your predecessors in all ages who rejected and slew those that spake to them in the name of the Lord and speakes out in plain terms your imagination to be this that you may with safety to your selves reject them whom God sends yea to go on yet for a while much what in thy own words Tr. 1. C. 3. S. 9 10.11 12 There are some whether they work miracles yea or nay as thou confessest most of the Prophets did not that 's nothing to thee who pretend not to this inspiration falsely but both can and do to youward insist upon this that being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely inspired their doctrine is to be recieved by you as from God and in their so doing it will be found in due time to be your sin even unbeliefe and rebellion against God not to submit to what they speake in his name as that of his word they receive from his mouth and this is not onely pleaded and insisted on by some but also whether their Testimony be received or not received by you preachers and the
turn then and his people must be contented with it so making them like the Popish Priests and people of the world which have as at Rome and elsewhere ordinary Ornaments Lessons Anthems Songs and Services that must serve for every ordinary day and extraordinary shewes and sing-songs and ornaments and number of candles and fine candlesticks plush canopyes and copes Altar-clothes white Surplices Pictures Pompes and pipings as on some great Saints holyday or festivall times or general proecessions or as our poor still bepoped people have here one fine suit for Sundayes and holidayes and a cheaper and lesse costly one for working dayes Or when this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or divine guidance and inspiration is pleaded by thee as peculiaâ— to those first times I inquire of thee whether there be any middle way T. 1. C. 3. S. 8. but either that the Saints in after-times if guided by the guidance of the spirit of God at all and that thou darest not deny though thou own his guidance by the letter onely be guided by it as an infallible spirit giving them that infallible guidance which thou callest extraordinary or as a fallible spirit allowing them not so much as the Saints of old but affording them onely some kind of ordinary or fallible guidance and direction for it remaines according to thy principles that it must be one of these or else there is some middle way some midling spirit of God and some middle sort of direction of that spirit that is neither fallible nor infaâ—lible but between both partly faâ—lible partly infallible some participie that iâ— neither one nor the other but taking part of both fallibility and infallibility And howbeit this is such a messe of mixture as may well make awise man and excuse him in it too believe him to be no wiser then he should be and to have Hand plus cerebâ—i quam cimex sanguinis that makes it yet I know not why thou mayst not as well make God to have two spirits and his spirit two guidances viz. one infallible one fallible or one absolutely infallible and another neither fallible nor infallible as thou makest God to have two Words viz. on that infallible living Word which the fallible dead Letter declares of the other that fallible dead Letter which declares of that infallible living Word for each of these thou makest the Word God yea O the depths of the Doctors and Divines of our times thou art not onely so exceeding expert in cutting and cobling dividing and botching and piecing and patching for thy own turne as when thou wilt to turn two into one and one into two but also so well vers'd and exactly taught in the point of Trinitizing as to turne that one Word of God at first into two and at last secundum quid into three for whether we examine what thou sayest of either the Letter or the Word it self this testimony thy book beares to them both 1. as to the Word thou sayest in one place truly it's Living T. 1. C. 4. S. 19. in another place thou sayest horresco referens more then I dare say for the world whatever I say of the Letter that the Word is dead T. 2. C. 5. but falsely figured our with the figure of 4. S. 12.2 as to the Letter thou sayest in one place viz. Ex 3. S. 4. It is living and no where said to be dead yet in the forcited falsely figured chapter S. 12. thou thy self as no where as the Letter is said so to be sayest thy own self that the Letter is dead Thus Gods one Word is cut out by thee into two viz. the Letter and that Word it witnesses of and then each of these are cut out into three for which ever of these two be that tâ—ue Word of God or if thou taking these conjunctively wilt have them one at least thy opinion as exprest in those places put together is tantamount to no lesse then this viz. that God hath 1. a living Word 2. a dead Word 3. a Word that is both dead and living And why sayest thou of the Prophets and Apostles they were borne acted carried out by the Holy Ghost to speake deliver write c. and suppose a man were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspired by the Spirit indeed As if it were a matter now not to be expected in this age as if it were no lesse then a wonder but so the Saints and Prophets were in every generation to thy generation therefore I wonder not that thou fo wonderest at it that any should now professe so to be though sapiens miratur nihil and the things of God are no where wondered at or evil spoken of but where ignorance of them is to see such a man as can truly say he is moved of the Lord and inspired with his spirit whereas when was it otherwise in any age wherein God had Saints And who is otherwise that is not in name onely but a Saint or a Christian indeed and truth Was ever any otherwise or lesse then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspired of God that was born acted carried out by the Spirit and was any otherwise or lesse then so that is moved guided led by that Spirit to act speake write c. and ought any now any more then formerly or do any now that are truly Saints act write speak think any thing more then formerly out of the Spirit â—or in the Flesh that is of any savour or hath any acceptance in the sight of God Is that accepted of God that is done written spoken thought ministred out of the Spirit or in the Flesh not in and by the motions of the Spirit but in and by the motions of the Flesh and in the wisdome and will of the Flesh Is not all that Cains sacrifice that is offered in that nature of his or while men are yet but in the Flesh not in the Spirit which Sacrifice is as all wicked mens are while their ear is turned from the Law in the Spirit i.e. the light and Spirit of God within abomination unto God And are not all I. O's prayers preachings writings who dare not pretend to have live in be moved or guided by the infallible Spirit of God in ought that he does acted and done in the Flesh and the oldnesse of the Letter and is any thing that 's done in the fleshly minde thoughts imaginations wisdome worth a Rush when the very wisdome of the flesh is enmity against God and â—all the enmity is to be slain and not any of it accepted or to be reconciled for ever Do not all the Israel of God that are Israel not after the Flesh or the Letter but after the Spirit the Iewes and the Circumcision not outwardly in the Flesh and Letter but inwardly in the Heart and Spirit Do not all these minde the same thing that one and the self-same spirit and as far and in such a measure as every one hath attained it walk by the
same rule thereof Phil. 3. Galat. 6 Walk they not in the same spirit walk they not in the same steps which that Spirit of God in them treads out for them Have they not that Spirit of Christ And if any man have it not for his Guide Leader Governour in all he doth as well as his Comforter is he Christs He that hath it not dwelling in him infallibly directing divinely inspiring him is he Christs Do not all that are in Christ Iesus to whom there is no condemnation all save such as go condemned in themselves to whom there is nothing but condemnation from God walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Do they not live in the Spirit walk in the Spirit pray in the Spirit sing in the Spirit serve in the Spirit and not in the Letter minister every one as of the ability God giveth from the Spirit not barely from the Letter And so though they may use the very words that are Letter and be well read in the Letter and quote the Letter as Christ did and the Prophets and Apostles did the outward writings one of another and by the Spirit be guided to utter the same words verbatim See Isa. 2. Mic. 4. and be mightier in the Letter then those that are Ministers of no more then the Letter yet are Ministers not of the Letter but the Spirit Are they as well as the Spirit is in them not in the Flesh but in the Spirit Are not all that are not in the night and in the darknesse and the children thereof but the children of the day of the light which is the Lords day in in the Spirit Rev. 1.10 Do they not by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body Are they after the flesh Come they not by walking in the Spirit not to fulfill the lusts of the Flesh but to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Doth not the Spirit of God in them I ust against the flesh Doth not the law of the spirit of Life which is by Christ Jesus deliver them that follow it from the law of Sin and Death that they were once captivated by Doth not the Spirit quicken and give them life Doth it not help their infirmities pray in them with sighs and greanes and because they know not how to aske any thing as they ought doth it not make intercession for them according to God Are they not born of the Spirit and after the Spirit Doth not the Spirit of God bear witnesse to their spirit that are his children that they are so Doth it not reveale the great things of God and by that revelation make them know the things that are freely given them of God Is it not the unction from the holy one whereby they know all the things the Anoynting which was the Canon or Rule of the Saints from the beginning before any Letter was which is truth and is no lye which if they quench not grieve not let it not but let it abide and remain in them will teach them infallibly of all things so that they shall not need that any man teach them and which they abiding in the Doctrine or teaching of do not erre as the wicked world thinks they do but continue in the Son and in the Father Are they not led by it from under the Law and out of the Letter up into the life which the Letter speaks of but it self onely giveth out of the works of the flesh which in and by the light are manifest into the fruits that it self brings forth Doth it not bring all things to the remembrance of such as are led by it as all the Sons of God are that ever Christ spake Doth it not guide all such into all truth and onely into truth and not into any falshood delusion or deceit Doth it not take of Christs and shew it unto them Doth God do all this first or last more or less for all his people and doth none of all this amount to so much as the motion of the Spirit or divine inspiration Are there no spirituall men now in the world and is not every spiritual man a Prophet or more then a Prophet for though all in the Church are not Prophets on such a score and in so high a rank as thou reckonest on i.e. such as have witnessed a sending forth abroad on some service to others the service of some lying yet nearer home and in present reference onely to themselves some like the Sons of the Prophets at Iericho and Bethel 2 Kings 2.2 Kings 6. being yet under the Schoolmaster that leads to Christ in their nonage going as it were to schoole not at Athens nor yet at Oxford nor Cambridge where the Schools are not like that of theirs neither is the waiting in order to the Ministry like that of the Sons of the Prophets at Iericho but rather like that of those to whom it was said tarry at Iericho till your beards be growne which injunction many of our Iunior Academicall Students do not keep neither for howbeit Barbá non facit Philosophâ—m nec cucullus Monachum much lesse do either of these make Ministrum Christi yet severall of them if a good Living can be had before do not abide so long as till they be Masters of either beard or hood but are ready to run out with the shells on their heads and to hasten into their humane work of Prophesie before that time But at Bethel i.e. the house of the Lord waiting at the gates of wisdome it self and watching daily at the posts of her house taking councel at the mouth of God out of which onely cometh knowledge and understanding learning of him in silence with all subjection to his will as in the light it is manifest concerning themselves first in the particular purging their own persons first from youthfull and noysom lusts that they may go forth if the Lord please to send them and say go as Vessels of honour sanctified and fitted for the Masters use and prepared to every good work tarrying at Ierusalem till they he indued with power from on high till of carnall Babes in Christ as they are at first walking as other men having a remainder of strife and such divisions as are seen in children they may proceed Men indeed skilfull in the work of righteousnesse having their senses exercised to discern both good and evil and commence Masters not of Arts but over their own hearts and spiritual or Prophets which are intimated to be all one by the Apostle in the same Epistle wherein he saith some are yet but babes and in a measure carnal and all are not yet spiritual nor Prophets 1 Corinth 3.1 2,3 1 Corinth 12.29 1 Cor. 4.37 yet all to covet the gift of Prophecy as the best of Spirituall Gifts yet inferiour in excellency to that way of love Though then I say all be not Prophets yet all spiritual ones are prophets or more then Prophets and
of things which is Tantamount to infallible Luke 1.1 2 3 4. Act. 1.3 and to have plerophorian full assurance but also Omniscient Omnipotent panta anakcinontes eidontes iscuontes c. And whereas T. D. sayes p. 33. the Apostles themselves did not partake of that Divine property of infallibility giving also this reasonless reason for it viz. for then they would have been infallible at all times and in all things which they were not as appears by the instance of Peter Gal. 2.11 Rep. In this as he contradicts the Scripture so I. O. himself serves us so far as to contradict him to our hands for howbeit he denies any participation of infallibility to us or any Ministers in these dayes and also to the very immediate Transcribers of the Scriptures saying p. 167. we say not they were all or any of them Anamartetoi infallible yet he denies it not to the first Writers p. 60. And as for his proof that if they were infallible at all then they would have been so at all times and in all things That is as pedling a proof as he would count it if I should go to prove that David was not at al partaker of the property of holiness because he was not holy but wicked at that time and in that thing wherein he was desil'd in the matter of Vriah which T. D. would judge as silly an argument as I judge T. Ds. assertion silly who sayes that David was not i â— a condemned but in a justified estate alias accounted just in the sight of God at that time when he was under the guilt of adultery and murder which a wise man need not be taught to see the folly and fowlness of Thus then I. O. and T. D. do unminister themselves at least by denying any to be Theopneustoi infallibly guided by the infallible spirit in these dayes both of whom I may truly bespeak thus Say ye that Gods inspir'd ones are all gone Then ye of Gods inspired ones are none And who that 's wise will mind I. O. much in what he saith about things of God who cannot pretend so far as to say he is but rather yeilds to the contrary viz. that he is not mov'd acted carried forth nor guided in what he does speak write minister by the infallible direction of the infallible Spirit of God but by the fallible guidance of his own and other mens fallible spirits opinions conjectures thoughts c Who but fâ—ols will take such a fallible guide as I. O. is fain to confess he is while he denies any guided by the infallible guidance of Gods Spirit in this age Yea doth he not utterly unminister himself and all his fellows while he supposes none now to be Theopneustoi moved and inspired by the spirit in their ministerial functions nor to speak as the Spirit only gives utterance and as they receive the word immediately out of the mouth of God and while he can say no farther of himself and them but only that they minister out of that furtive furniture which in their fleshly minds they filch from the Letter which out of which and from their fallible expositions of which they minister and of which they are Ministers and not of the Spirit as the Apostles and Prophets were which gives the life And is not he an ill bird that bewrayes his own nest an ill son that discovers his own and his fellows and his fore-fathers nakednesses so far as to print it out as obvious to all that the infallible guidance of the infallible Spirit is not continued with them nor to be found in these dayes directing any otherwise then without by an outward letter which is fallible and lyable to be falsified at fallible mens pleasure and fancy and to deny all inward pure Revelation and immediate inspiration as Enthusiasm and to say that there 's no means of doing and determining any thing about the matters of God or Doctrine of Christ now but the letter or writing T. 1. C. 1. S. 16. and yet in the self-same Section to the contradicting of himself to say that that Doctrine and these things of God and Christ are things of pure divine revelation the knowledge whereof depends upon no such fallible thing as all outward writing is now by his own confession but wholly solely on their Revelation from God And what difference is there I.O. between such a one as is pheromenos upo tou pneumatos and one agâ—menos or to whom the Spirit of the Lord is odegos or egoumenos are not all these so neer kin that he who is agomenos is pheromenos Is not he who is led guided acted by the Spirit moved and carried forth by the Spirit And are not all Saints led by it And what difference between one that speaks as moved by the Spirit or as the Spirit gives utterance and one that hath it given him by the Spirit what to speak so that he need not premeditate what to say And have not all the Saints and Disciples of Christ a share and part in that promise of having it given them what to speak at the same houre when they are call'd before Rulers and Governours for Christs sake Mat. 10.18 19 20. and what between one that is divinely inspired to speak and one in whom the Spirit of the Father speaketh Is it not intended of all Gods children and Christs Disciples in the case aforesaid as well as of some when it s said It is not you that speak but the Spirit of the Father which speaketh in you And is it not said of all that Prophesie in the Church of God as all are to covet to do and are in capability to come to do and may do one by one as they grow in the Spirit and have any thing revealed to them as they sit before the Lord in which caâ—e they are to give way to each other that the unbelievers and unlearn'd ones in the mysteries and language of the Spirit and such are ye that surseiting with your inferiour literature out of the Light and Spirit in which holy men wrote it ly looking in the letter of the Scriptures which ye know not as the old Scribes did not Mat. 22.29 but wrest to your own ruine O insipidi sapientes obtus Acuti Academici quae supra vos nihit ad vos in the account of Christ Paul and Peter as unlearned as Christ himself was with some and as very Babler as Paul was at Athens as unlearned as Peter was counted by the chief Priests Scribes when he and Iohn stood before them Acts 4.13 2 Pet. 3.16 being convinced and judged of them all and having the secrets of their hearts manifested shall be forced to their own shame to fall down and report at last that God is in them of a truth 1 Cor. 14.23 24 25. And what difference is there that can help thy cause between pneumaticos and Theopneustos a spiritual man and one by the Spirit inspired or a
bids search and Paul 2 Tim. 3.15.16.17 sayes are useful and profitable the Qua. say no say they but look to the light within you Rep. I say though the Qua. say look to the light within as Christ and Paul did yet they no more deny the usefulness of the Scripture then either of those Scriptures ye quote proves that absolute necessity of the Scripture as to Salvation which ye seem to plead though Christ and Paul never did so nor do we any more dehort from searching the Scripture then Christ Iohn 5.39 exhorteth to search them which is not at all in that Text for howbeit Ereunate search may be rendred either Indicatively or Imperatively as to its own signification as I elsewhere shew its most evident that he speaks there by way of complaint of the Scribes for looking for life in the Scriptures without coming to him who is the Light ver 40. and not by way of command to search them ye search not search ye Their sixteenth is from Isa. 8.20 Psa. 119.105 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word there is no light in them Thy Word is a light to my feet a lamp to my path whence they sillily argue or rather blindly assert the Qua. Opinion and Speech concerning a sufficient light in All men to be contrary to the Law and Testimony and Gods Word Ordinances Ministry and many other things and therefore erroneous and without light in it Rep. The Antecedent here is most false for the Law Testimony and Word there spoken of which is a Lamp and Light to the feet and path and according which who speaks not it is because the morning is not yet to him for the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the mistranslation of which phrase thus there 's no light in him many not knowing the Hebrew and many that know it not heeding it make no small ado against the Lights being in All men as Vavasor Powell did once at Eltham is no other then that Light within even that word which David had and hid within him that he might not sin against God by which young men taking heed thereunto may come to cleanse their way Psa. 119.9 that Word of Faith that is nigh in the heart which the Apostles preached or witnessed to Rom. 10. that Law and Commandment which is said to be a Lamp and Light Prov. 6. that inward testimony of Iesus or Spirit of Prophesie which we with all the Prophees of old by words and Scriptures bear our outward testimony unto call'd by Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 the more sure word of Prophesie to which men do well to give heed as unto a light shining in the dark place of their heart till the day dawn and the day star arise therein This I say and not the external Text as ye all triflingly talk is that Law and Testimony and Word there spoken of even the Law and Testimony that comes and is written and is given and received immediately from and out of God and Christ's own Light Voice and mouth in the hearts minds and consciences of all people which his own people only give ear and hearken to even the Rod the Spirit the Word and Sword of his mouth which Priests and all people are summoned to seek to to stand in as Gods own Counsel and to take counsel at and be cover'd with and take heed to their way by that they may not sin against the Lord and which all the wicked that sin against must once be slain by Psa. 37.31 Isa. 51.7.30.1 Ier. 31.33.32.40 Ezek. 11.19.36.26 Zach. 2.6.7.8.9 Ier. 23.15.16.17.18.22.26.27 c. Hos. 4.6.12 2 Thes. 2.8.19 Rev. 15.28 which the Priests above all others usually depart from and forget and are partial in and cause people in stumble at and forget who therefore neither profit people nor thrive in any thing but ignorance and deceit themselves because they stand not in it from whom though their Schools are call'd Nurseries of learning Well-heads of true Religion and Divinity there goes forth no true Divination but sottishness and profaneness into all lands This is that Law and living Word and true testimony even the Light and Word of God in the heart a testimony that 's said to be bound up from the outward Israel which may have the outward Bible bound among them a Law that 's said to be sealed up among Christs Disciples from the sight of the be-nighted Seers which such as seek to seek to the Lord himself and such as forsake go from the Fountain of the living water to broken Cisteers and such as leave for an outward letter leave the living for the dead and seek for the living Lord among the dead These are the Wells of Salvation out of which Souls should draw the living Water which the Philistines in envy to the Seed of Abraham will strive alway to slop till the Lord make room for them to flow out to the full These are that Word Law and Testimony and not the most Original Copies of the Letter as I.O. and ye all with him do emptily imagine page 216. which who so deprives of the Hebrew Punctation by proving the novelty thereof do with Abimelechs servants no less then utterly stop the Wells or Fountains from whence ye should draw all your Souls refreshment These as I have shewed so abundantly above at the end of my third Exercitation in answer to I.O. that I shall need say no more here in proof thereof are the matters meant by the said Law and Testimony Isa. 8.20 which are not contrary to the writing without neither and the true outward Ministry and Ordinances but consonant thereunto which inward Law Word and Testimony your selves being contrary to and opposing are therein contrary to Gods Word and the outward Scripture of it also therefore not the Qua. who own all these but your own Opinion is erroneous and your speech is without light The seventeenth from Eph. 4.11 runs thus The Opinion and practise of the Qua. makes every man a Teacher and Teachers set by God for the work of the Ministry needless as if thâ—y were no gift but a burden to the Church cryes them down therefore it s contrary to Gods and Christs way and so Antichristian Rep. The Antecedent here is a false tale and a meer slander of the Qua. for neither do they so much as doctrinally make every man a Teacher for they deny both your selves and all that side with you to be men fit to be Teachers of others unless ye were better taught your selves or had learn't the truth of God much better then as yet ye have done and howbeit they know your Ministry who are set by men to minister for money to be not only needless but also useless fruitless unprofitable burdensome chargeable and more destructive then saving both to peoples Souls and to the Nations yet we own All Teachers set by God for the work of the Ministry which are such only
which yet ye count an unalterable Rule is variable alterable flexible at Criticks wills by the changing of some one point or Hebrew Letter alike in sound or shape no less then eight several wayes in that one very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some of those as countradictory each to other as Life to Death as is shewed more at large above besides all various Lections that are risen by I. Os. confession from the actual mistakes of them it Transcribers But the Light however men run out into various conceits and imaginations about this or that which and what is or is not agreeable to it is inviolably the same for ever the Councell and foundation of God which is Christs Light in the heart the Rock of ages stands sure let the drunkards of Ephraim rock and reel too and fro or ramble about and run out whether they will after their own councells and inventions Reas. The 3 and 4 are both of one unlearned leven and coincident with what 's urg'd above viz. if the light within men were a safe guide and ride then 't were unnecessary unsafe and foolish for men to seek councell of others each might be guided by his lightâ— also then the meetings of Quakers to consult about and 〈◊〉 in Commuâ—â—on to Teach each other or to Communicate revelations is needless and vain sith each may guide himself That 's done in vaâ—â— by more which may be done by 〈◊〉 c. Rep. Frustra sit per pâ—ara quod porest fleri tâ—m bene per pauciora that 's done in vain by more that may be done as well by lesse Is true but what may be done better by more then fewer is not in vain and therefore as vis unita fortior is true among Schollars so in the multitude of councellors there 's in many cases so much the more safety is as true among Christians yet it proves not but that there 's also security to assurance enough wheee every one attends to that of God within himself Therefore it 's neither unsafe nor foolish as ye foolâ—shly affirm but may be both safe and profitable for so the Apostles and Elders did of old Act. 15. Who yet in all were guided by the Spirit to meet together in councell but it s in no wise so absolutely necessary as ye make it to seek for other Teachings then that of the Light and Spirit of God within in order to each mans holy living much lesse such as is given out in your Synods where ye teach Gods worship and fear after your own thoughts and traditions yea to such as are turn'd to the Spirits teaching 't is said ye need not that any man teach you save as the same anointing teacheth you of all things which is truth no lye and if we do hear men speak that are moved by the Spirit it s not in vain it being all one whether that holy Spirit speak in me or in another to me we still own no other teaching but that of the anointing and so the Apostles though met in councell yet concluded no other things to be imposed on men then what seemed good to them and the holy Spirit which taught them and impos'd not as ye do what seems good to your selves who deny also the guidance of that infallible Spirit to be present in the world at this day Reas. 5. Then it s in vain to desire and expect revelations and discoveries which they had not before sith they have the light within of themselves Therefore when they compose themselves to their quaking fits that they may have some word of the Lord to speak to people what 's this but an hypocriticall devise blasphemous false and unrighteous or else needless Sith they have a light within them sufficient to guide them without other revelation Rep. This is nothing but an addition to these mens many lyes for which they must know part in the laâ—â— and blasphemâ—us reproachâ—s of the Qua. Who own no such thing as a light in men that is of themselves but that only which is though in them yet of God As for composing of themselves to quaking fits Hypocriticall devices and pretences of new revelations and much more such like Riff-raff as is reckon'd to them in this 5th Reason the Qua. deny them who expect no other then true revelations of that old true Gospell in that way of waiting on God in that true old Light R. B. and I. Ts. Title Page pretends to exalt but their book ignorantly and impiously depresses as new light and darknesse in which true old light â—f God in the heart it was ever revealed from faith to faith to the Just who lived by faith in that light before the letter was Reas. 6. By ascâ—ibing so much to the light within them Satan hath advantage to draw men to hoâ—â—id acts sith what ever he can imprint on them as their light they must receive it without any examination and obey it Rep. What silly stuff is this As if because Satan may transform himselfe as an Angell of Light in mens hearts to decieve them if they look not well to the true light of God that shines therein and receive not the truth told by it in the love thereof Therefore there 's no true light there shining As if because there 's much errour and many lyes that the Father of lyes and Ruler of the darkness seeks to beguile by and does beguile unstable soules by Therefore there 's no truth to be beguiled from and to be sâ—aid upon Scilicet sic aiunt praedicâ—nt clamitant non probant Reas. 7. Then he that 's counted unlearned and foolish if he follow his own light doth as well as he that 's never so wise and learned whereas Solomon tells Eccl. 2.13 14. That wisdome excells folly as far as light excells darkness Rep. Why not He that 's counted unlearn'd and foolish by the wise men of this world who follow the foolishnesse of their own fleshly fancies whose wisdom is foolishness with God if he follow the light of God doth not only as well but a thousand-sold better then such wise and learned as abovesaid and the wisdome of these that are fools with you excelleth your seeming wisdome in which ye are acting real folly as far as light excelleth darkness by all which wisdome of your own ye cannot discern so much as your own Scipture which tells you of a way which is called the way of holiness in which the unclean cannot walk though never so worldly wise yet the way-faring man that walks in it though a fool shall not erre therein Isa. 35.8 Reas. 8. Then the Phylosophers Light was sufficient to guide them for surely they had as much Light without the Scripture as any and did improve it to the utmost and the Jewish Rabbins besides the natural light in them did by the study of the Law and Traditions of Elders endeavour to attain the knowledge of God to whom yet Christ was foolishness
to face each other but when that came then he saw sin was alive in him and he dead and that he was then while beginning to war with it sold under it and captivated by it and wretched by reason of it Rom. 7. but that now when he wrote this the Law of the Spirit of Life or Light in his mind which was by Christ had made him free from thâ—t Law of sin and deaâ—h which warr'd in his members and oft enslav'd him I say when Paul made this and many other modest acknowledgements of Gods Grace and Power towards him in delivering him and how now he walkt not after the flesh but the Spirit and how holily and justly and unblameably he and other Apostles behaved themselves 1 Thes. 2.1 2. 3. c. and should have said as to the same effect he did that they were no lyars nor deceivers nor wicked ones nor hypocrites and 2 Cor. 13.8 could do nothing against the truth as every sin is but for the truth and such like Whether I.O. would have punisht him as an Impudent Boaster yea or no and have put him in Bâ—cardo where besides whippings and other punishments and abuâ—es some of the Qua. have been put if yea see what kind of provision the poor Flock of Christ must expect from out of the silken Snapsacks of these University Shepherds and Overseers if they had the over-sight of all Corrective as much as they have it Directive over Magistrates and all And what a Generation of Godly Ministers as they have been call'd have grown up under pretence of Reformation of late even in old England which has been so long renewing as well as in New-England which is now growing old again where they punish the same seed to deathâ— where however they idolize Christs holy Apostles now they are dead would no less then persecute them were they now alive if nay I would know Quo Iure some Reason if that these Rabbies can render a right one why the Saints that walk and live in and after the same holy Spirit now that leads into all truth and no transgression and witness the same freedome from the Law of sin thereby should for making the same confession to the glory of Gods Grace be so ill used as I.O. would have them as Impudent Boasters any more then them of old What ever the Qua. do and are who by the Grace of God being what they are glory in nothing of their own knowing they have nothing but what they have received I shall here clear many Clergy men more then any men unless some Lawyers be as clear as them from that so punishable crime of glorying and boasting in being free from the least sin or from those fore-named grosser evils either for as if they should be found glorying in freédâ—me from either they would be found lyars one way more then now they are so in truth both those kinds of wicked hypocritical deceitful lyars I mean in plain terms many Priests and some Lawyers who can neither of them live on poor mens labours as many of them do in all lands any longer then while men lye dead in their trespasses and sins are for ought I find so far from glorying in their immunity from those and all other iniquities that like those old Christian Enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.18 19. whose end is destruction whose God is their belly who mind earthly things and whose glory is in their shame they glory yet in that immunity and freedome they can get from the powers that are intoxicated with the wine of the wrath of their fornications to commit all evil and so continue in those lyes deceits frauds cheats hypocrisies bloody persecutions spoilings of mens goods devouring Widows houses for Tythes and for a pretence making long prayers and much more wickedness and prophaneness which from these Law and Gospel spoilers is long since gone forth into all lands By that little Cloud then which appears dropping from I.Os. pen though no bigger then a mans hand we can see his complexion and what muddy stuff was working what bloody storms of persecution were brewing in I.Os. mind against that more tender and true Tenet of perfect purging from sin in this life and the innocent Asserters of it and so I shall take him till he either takes in again that terrible tale of his or at least till he tells the world that it repents him that ere he told it for a joynt Antagonist to the Quâ— together with T.D. in that point Nevertheless T.D. being the only man that mannages that matter more at large on behalf of himself and many others I shall without more ado let this short Return stand as to I.Os. brief opposition of us in this point of perfection and the rather sith I believe it will be long enough ere it return from him to us again with any solid or satisfactory answer and address my self to deal more down-rightly yet no otherwise then uprightly neither with T.Ds. writing with whom I together with R. H. G. W. and A.P. also once have had to do about it by word of mouth The second Quest. between him and the Qua. as himself relates both it and what little he thought fit which is scarce one word to his ten in such manner also as might best serve his turn to set down of our Discourse with him about it 1 Pamp. was this Whether in this life the Saints attain to a state of perfection or freedome from sin Which we as to the possibility thereof viz. that they may and also as to the necessity that they must be purged from sin in this life or no where there being no Purgatory in the world to come holding in the affirmative T.D. brings in himself replying thus T.D. Your Doctrine of perfection is against the tenor of the Scripture let us hear what you can say for the proof of it And to R. H. urging 1 Ioh. 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin T.D. replyes thus viz. T.D. That cannot be meant of freedome from sin but either there is an Emphasis in the word sin intending under that general â—eâ—m one kind or sort of sin which is spoken of 1 John 5.16 There is a sin unto death Or if not in the Substantive on the Verb Poiei which notes to make a trade of business of sin as 't is explain'd ver 8. where he uses the same Verb for the Devil sinneth from the beginning He hath never ceased to sin since he began thus indeed the Saints sin not but a course of sin is broken off and there is not such a free trade between the Soul and sin as in the state of unregeneracy whereof this is given for one character that cannot cease to sin 2 Pet. 2.14 Rep. 1. Here thou art in thy old wonted way of scruing the Scripture besides the proper import and ordinary literal sense of the words and true mind of the Spirit in them into thy