Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	divine_a	holy_a	nature_n	6,952	5	5.5158	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87658	The pretended antidoe [sic] proved poyson: or, The true principles of the Christian & Protestant religion defended, and the four counterfit defenders thereof detected and discovered the names of which are James Allen, Joshua Moodey, Samuell Willard and Cotton Mather, who call themselves ministers of the Gospel in Boston, in their pretended answer to my book, called, The Presbyterian & independent visible churches in New-England, and else-where, brought to the test, &c. And G.K. cleared not to be guilty of any calumnies against these called teachers of New-England, &c. By George Keith. With an appendix by John Delavall, by way of animadversion on some passages in a discourse of Cotton Mathers before the General Court of Massachusetts, the 28th of the third moneth, 1690.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Delavall, John, d. 1693.	1690 (1690)	Wing K192A; ESTC W42984	110,748	234

Assembly was more wise than John could more properly and warily ho●d forth Gods attributes then John did or coulde The wise Assembly speak properly but Jehn a poor Fisher-man speaks Improperly and metaphorically only when he said God was Light But all this is meerly begged ye say nothing for proof that the name Light is any more improper to be a Name of God then the name Spirit for the name spirit in Hebrew Greek and Latine hath a various signification as well as Light and signifieth wind therfore either Light is a proper name of God or Spirit is not and if Spirit be improper than the Assembly was still partial to say God was a Spirit and not to say he was Light Indeed all Names that the language of men can express fall infinitely short to express him sufficiently but in the Language of men the Name Light is as proper as the Name Spiri● Pag. 65. Ye draw a perverse and blasphemous Consequence from a most great and absolute Truth God is an immense Light and then ye infer Hell it self dwells in his Light and Devils must be full of immediate Inspirations It s strange that ye will so sport with so weighty matters The Scripture saith God is light and God is every where yea in Hell but it doth not follow that either Hell or Devils dwell in God for there can be no communion betwixt Light and Darkness God and Belial and therefore Devils and Hell cannot dwell in God dwelling signifieth Communion and yet in Contradiction ye confess that God is a divine Light and derives of his wisdom voluntarily not to all alike I have never found in any Book so many self-Contradictions as ye are guilty of in this your dark Work Pag. 66. Ye call it Giddiness and Nonsence to say the light is immediate though it comes through a medium but ye have not sense enough to deny it Doth not every man acknowledge that he enjoyeth immediately the outward light of the sun in the open air and yet the Air is the medium through which it comes to him and also it comes into his sence and perception through the medium and organ of his Eye and though we hear a man immediately yet the Voice comes through the air and organ of the Ear Ye are very poor Logicians and Schollars that cannot distinguish betwixt the medium that transmitteth and the medium that doth intermit and hinder the action to be immediate for the medium that transmitteth doth not hinder the immediate action Ye add one Abuse to another for ye alledge I cite Plato saying it was mans in elicity to converse with Images o● things and to oppo●e this ye say Man shall converse with images o● things ●orever in his perfect state of Glory But it is clear by my words what Images I meant by adding the synonymous words Shadowes and Figures and then acco●ding to your Logick man in his perfect state of Glory shall forever converse only with the Shadowes and Figures or Pictures of things but not the things themselves But the Image of God which is Christ Jesus is no Shadow nor Sign but a most excellent Substance Ye say Plato is with me little inferior to Moses But it is a false Charge I judge him beyond what I can express inferior to Moses Pag. 66. Ye heap abuse on abuse falsely accusing me that I say The Word of God hath no more of God than a Glass Window hath of the Sun For I speak not of the Word of God using that Similitude But of the Scripture and though I compare the Scripture to a Glass Window yet it doth not follow that in every respect it answers to the same Pag. 67. Ye excuse one of your brethren for calling the Light of God in people a stinking Vapor from Hell by alledging another falshood upon us That we say the poor imperfect Light of Nature is God and Christ which is a meer Forgery we never said nor thought it But suppose neither God nor Christ is in People which is false yet do ye indeed judge that the poor imperfect Light of Nature that ye Pag. 30. confess Teacheth so many good things and prepareth to the receiving the Gospel is a stinking Vapour from Hell Remember how ye can clear this Ye justifie the Assemblies saying That the Communion of the Saints with Christ doth not in any wise make them partakers of the substance of his Godhead for that would infer as ye alledge the Swenckfeldian Doctrine That a Belever is Goded with God and Christed with Christ and this is the thing ye say that G. K. is here to prove or he proves nothing I Answer That Swenckfeldus used any such manner of Doctrine or Terms I find not that ye prove from any of his Writings and it is possible that ye may abuse him as ye do the Quakers But however Swenckfeldus is to answer for himself I own no such Doctrine or Terms nor my Brethren but on the contrary we have believed and do still believe that none of the Saints are God or Christ and that no man is the Lord Jesus Christ but he only who was born of the Virgin M●ry and suffered Death under Pontius Pilate who is both God and Man and to whom divine Worship Honour and Glory is to be given but to no Man else nor to Saint nor Angel But yet the Doctrine of the Assembly is absurd That the Saints are in no wise partakers o● the Godhead of Christ for this wholly excludes Christ and God from the Saints If they had said The Believers and Saints are not partakers of the Godhead as the Man Christ was in every respect or in that respect so as to be both God and Man they had said well for the difference is wonderfully g●eat The Union of the Man-hood and God-head of Christ is so great and so admirable a Mystery that it surpasseth all created Understanding and shall be the Object of the Admiration of Saints and Angels as now so in the World to come and this Union is not through any Mediator betwixt God and the Man Christ but the Believers are united unto God through Christ the Mediator and therefore he is the Head and they the Members and that is Honour and Happiness enough unto them But since the Scripture saith That Believers are partakers of the divine Nature and of the holy Spirit and that the divine Nature and holy Spirit is one Substance with God and Christ therefore the Assembly's Doctrine is absurd to deny That the Saints are partakers in any wise of the substance of his Godhead Pag. 69. Ye will not own That Believers partake either of Christs God-head or Manhood but ye say They partake of his Graces and they are substantial things But all this will not help you for ye say in the following page Grace it sel● is a Creature and created Principle Now if the Saints partake only of a created Principle or Creature they partake nothing of God's Substance

universally your way to say and dictate things Magisterially without proof and since it is so ye might have taken a more easy way and as effectual to have only said to every passage and argument in my Book as it is reported how one refuted Bellarmine saying only to every passage and period in his Book Thou lyest Bellarmine Ye say ye have turned your Minds to the Light o● Christ within you as well as ye can and it tells you that my assertions are bold presumtious and hereti●al But ●ake heed of such ignorant Blasphemy and cease your Mockage The Light of Christ within you that I directed you and all unto is that Light of divine Inspiration and Revelation which is common in some measure unto you and all men but this ye do not believe therefore ye have not turned your Minds unto it nor hearkened to the voice of it And whereas I said It is the same Spirit that giveth to all Readers a right understanding of Scripture ye ask Why then have not all the same understanding o● it but contradictory the answer is easie because all do not duly believe in it as my following words make clear Then ye accuse my following words as guilty of contradiction because I said If ye believe in Christ the Light c. and joyn your minds to his inward divine Illumination he will anoint the Eyes of your Understanding and then your Eyes shall be opened which ye put this silly and impertinent gloss upon I● ye will see of your selves then ●e will give you ability to see and then ye scoffingly add This may be no Contradiction in a Quaker's Logick But his is not my Logick but your Perversion for as blind as ye are ye are not altogether blind as Christ said to the Pharisees John 9.41 I ye were blind ye should have no sin c. and if ye were faithful to what ye already see and know your Eyes should be further opened And this i● good sence and no Contradiction and what ye see or know of Truth in the least thing ye see it not of your selves but it is given you to see by that Light which ye blaspheme calling it Ignis Fatuus and a stinking vapour from Hell In pag. 6. ye alledge a most abominable Falshood upon me as that I said in my Epistle That the quickening in a man as it abides it is impossible it should perish This is an absolute piece of Forgery as much as ever Tho. Hicks coyned against W. Penn I use no such words and nothing but Malice can put such a gloss upon my words which are these p. 5. of my Epistle And every Soul that is thus quickned and made alive unto him as it doth hold fast this beginning viz. of the good Work of God in it c. and as it here abideth it is impossible that it can perish Where my words say the SOUL cannot perish that abideth faithful c. And this is good sence and well warranted by Scripture 2 Pet. 1.10 For if ye do these things ye shall never fall which according to your absurd Logick is as if he had said If ye never fall ye shall never fall or if Grace continue it cannot be lost this Non-fence and Absurdity ye charge upon me is yours and not mine Pag. 7. Because I said the holy Scriptures are a sufficient outward Rul● and Standard whereby to try all Doctrines of men ye most grosly as is your general manner pervert my words as if I did intimate as if God taught us one thing by his Word and another by his Spirit The contrary whereof I have sufficiently asserted in my Book for what the Scripture saith outwardly th● Spirit saith the same inwardly and the Testimony of these two to wit that of the Scripture without and that of Gods Spirit wi●hin cannot differ or disagree Next ye blame me for not making Practices as well as Doctrines lyable to this Test I Answ And so I do for all commanded Practices of a holy Life are contained under that head of Doctrines for things to be done as well as things to be believed are belonging to the Christian Doctrine as the ten Commandments and all other Moral and Evangelical Precepts and Dutites witnessed of in the holy Scriptures And why ye should blame me for calling the Scriptures an Outward Rule showeth your inclination more to Cavil than to Dispute as men of solid Reason Are not the Scriptures an outward thing and if an outward thing then an outward Rule seeing they are a Rule as is confessed ●y us both and Protestants commonly call the Scriptures the external or outward Word witness the Augustine Confession published by Protestants Article 5. And is not the External Word the External Rule and doth not the external or outward Word intimate that there is an inward Word that is the inward Rule and these two agree in one and can never differ as an inward Dom●nstration of any natural Science doth ag●ee with the outward set down in w●it or print on Paper And tho' I call the Scripture an outward Rule yet I denie not but it hath a real service in the hand and management of the Spirit to regulate our inward Apprehensions and Conceptions of all Christian Doctrine as well as our outward words and Actions and so it may be called an Organ●●al and Instrumental Rule in respect of the Spirit of God inwardly witnessing which is the principal Nor do I in the least retract what I have said as ye weakly alledge when ●●ay There are many things wherein God doth reveal of his Counsel to his Children which are not in Scripture either expresly or consequentially wherein I give a five fold instance at least that though ye cannot disprove ye boldly but Ignorantly contradict contrary to the blessed and solid Experience of Thousands for these things instanced as for a man to know his inward state be●ore God c. and for a Minister to know his inward Call and a Christian to know both his call to pray in vocal Prayer or in Publick and returns o● his Prayer from God in secret they are no matters of Christian Doctrine belonging to the common Faith o● common Duty of all Christians but only are relative to a Christians private Condition and Consolation for no Doctrine or Precept in all the Scripture requireth me to believe or to know whether many or one by name besides my self be in a justified state c. but it belongs to me in particular therfore it is no part of the common Doctrine or Faith or Practice of the Christian Religion to believe for another or others but every one to believe for himself And that ye alledge p. 9. that Lucas should say Any Quaker if he ●as a mind to it may make as good a Book himself as the Book of the holy Scriptures is out a fal●e alledgance from a Fo●ger of Lyes against the Truth and is sufficiently refuted by N. Lucas's ●●i●ted

self-evident and yet may be tryed by the warrantableness of Scriptu●e Rules but the warrantableness of a practice doth not prove in the least the impulse or m●tion to be divine for a wrong or evil Spirit may move a man to do a thing that is not unlawful or unwarrantable in it self as to take a Journey from England to America and yet if he obey such a motion or impulse he should not do well and might suffer great hurt thereby And if a divine impulse have no self-evidence or some inward self-evidencing Light to discover it to be divine it is good for nothing for it leaveth a man still in the dark and at uncertainty surely Gods inward leadings are sure certain as thousands to Gods praise can witness against all your ignorant but presumptious Assertions without ●●l Proof And ye say I tell you that Phillip Peter and others were extraordinaryly called to such and such Services where ye pervert my words for I do not say of these particular Services mentioned by me there that they w●re extraordinarily called un●o them for to go to a place or Persons to preach the Gospel is no extrao●dinary but ordinary inward Call of Gods Servants in all Ages though Peter and the other Apostles had in other cases extraordinary Calls and Revelations That place in James 4.15 If the Lord will ye u●derstand it only of divine Providence permitting any man to do what he wi●leth if not forbidden in Scripture But as this is meerly begged by you without all proof but your bare affirmation so it is altogether absurd for how many do rash and hurtful things both to themselves and their Families which yet are not forbidden by Scripture as for a man to leave one place and remove to another beyond Seas is not forbidden in Scripture and yet if he undertake such a thing meerly because divine Providence doth not outwardly stop him by some cross event without the inward sence and approbation of divine will inwardly permitting or allowing him he may have cause to repent it all his daye● for m●ny by so doing have fallen into g●eat Inconven●encies Ye are miserable comforters that wi●l not allow to People that priviledge that they may wait to know Gods divine good Will and Approbation in their hearts in their removals from one place to another and in other weighty concerns of this Life And as concerning Marriages ye do allow People to ask Gods mind and cou●sel with whom to joyn in Marriage and if they are not to expect a return of their Prayers otherwise than a bare outward permission of divine Providence What is this but to mock God and deceive poor People But to Gods praise many can say they have both sought and received Gods counsel with whom to joyn in Marriage and because thereof have found their Marriage made both blessed and comfortable unto them in the midst of all Tryals Pag. 17. Ye call my saying That God answers the returns of the Prayers of his People c. A Quakerism i. e. Non-sence I pity your Ignorance and want of Experience May not the frequent and reiterated Prayers of his People for the same thing be called the Returns of their Prayers as when a Child returneth again and again to seek a thing of his Father and that God answereth these reiterated and returning Prayers as in Pauls Case who Prayed for one thing thrice thousands can witness though to you this is Nonsen●e because ye have neither sence nor salt in your selves to descern it It is a great encouragement to pray unto God that we find him to answer us by his living voice and speech in us and when God speaketh to us Scripture words or promises by his living voice and speech in us it is a new Revelation and divine Inspiration to us although not of any new doctrine for there may be thousands of new and distinct Revelations of the same Doctrine as there may be a thousand sights and eyes beholding the same thing and a thousand Voices speaking the same thing and all these Voices are new and distinct and yet the thing spokon is one and the same and Ancient and not New Pag. 18. That the word of the Lord grew and multiplied ought to be understood as well extensively in respect of multitude of living Testimonies as Intensively in respect of Efficacy for there was both at that time and though there was no new Doctrines yet there were new and that manifold and frequent living Testimonies to the same Doctrine and therefore the Word it self was properly encreased and multiplied Ye blame me for saying Christ and his Apostles expounded the scriptures by Inspiration and yet taught no new Doctrine but it seemeth ye have forgot that Paul said the same Acts 26.22 for all that Christ and the Apostles taught and enjoyned was either declared or fore-told by the Prophets lo●g before therefore the Doctrine was the same for substance and the Gospel was preached to Abraham and to the Prophets but after Christs Resurrection the Dispensation of it was more clear and full Pag. 19. ye blame me for Charging that upon you in the 12th Article which ye never believed much less pro●essed viz. that the Scriptures ought to be believed only for their own outward evidence and Testimony and not for the inward Evidence and Testimony of the holy spirit in mens hearts But in this ye are equally impertinent as in most other things as I have showed in my Answer to Cotton Mather to which I refer more at large Ye say The scripture is the only Rule o● Faith and hath a Self-evidence but the inward Testimony and Witness of the Spirit hath no Self-evidence but as some have called it Medium incognitum assentiendi i. e. and unknown middle or mean of assenting and that ye deny all Inspiration and Revelation properly so called all this proveth you guilty in the sight of all impartial men for to talk of an evidence or witness among men that hath not a certainty or Self-evidencing Authority in it by it self is absurd and illegal he who is a witness or evidence among men must not borrow his evidence from another and to say the Spirit of God in his inward teaching and illumination hath no proper and self evidence as it derogates from the Glory of it so it is as absurd as to say the Suns light at noon day hath no evidence of its own but men must light a Candle to let people see the suns light at noon This is rare Logick of yours Ye insinuate I se●k out more sences of the word Logos than it can bear without Tautologi s but if these be Tautologies the English Translation of the bible hath made them and not I and yet a true difference can be assigned by School-boyes betwixt Communication as pass●ng betwixt two or more and words of talk and speech that may be of one when none doth answer Pag. 20. ye will have the word of God compared to

to so weighty a place of Scripture with divers others adjoyned But blind men cannot judge of Colours Pag. 29. My Comparison taken from the outward teaching of humane Sciences that presuppose some inward Principles of natural Knowledge in the Learners whereby to show the consistency and harmony of outward teaching of divine things and the inward teaching by the Spirit as presupposed in part and in the other part accompanying the outward Teaching ye understand it not and therefore ye call it Impertinent but impertinently talk against it for I do not intend by the same to hold forth any New Revelation of any new Doctrine as I have oft to●d you but a new Revelation of antient Doctrine and the comparison is proper and pertinent in this respect that as outward teaching of natural things require an inward Principle and light of Knowledge that is natural so the outward teaching of spiritual and divine things require an inward Principle of divine and spiritual Knowledge whereby to enable the Soul to perceive them otherwise a man could be no more capable to know divine and spiritual things than a Beast would be capable to know humane things for as the spirit of a man teacheth man things of men so the Spirit of God in men teacheth them who hearken thereto the things of God Pag. 31. Ye blame me for putting a scurrelous Title upon that ye call the reverend Assembly calling them Faith-makers who never pretended to any new Revelations of any article of Faith more than is contained in Scripture But as they pretend not to that so nor to any new Revelation or Inspiration of that Doctrine which is contained in Scripture and that is their great fault to deny all such Revelation even of that Doctrine there contained for without divine inward Revelation and Inspiration the true Faith of the Doctrines contained in Scripture canot be discovered no more than we can see to read what is printed in a Book without light and therefore their Faith is but a made Faith and also that in the ignorance and blindness of their minds they have made things Articles of Faith which are false and contrary to Scripture and therefore I am not to be blamed for so calling them Pag. 33. By your granting That there is a spiritual ●eeling and tasting and intuitive Knowledge of God and divine things ye give away your cause to the Quakers and contradict your grand Principle That there is no divine Immediate Revelation for intuitive knowledge is immediate and immediate knowledge must have an immediate Light and Revelation as when I see a picture of a man in a Table or read a discourse of him in a Book that knowledge of him is only abstractive and discursive as also when I see England only in a Map and that is but remote and mediate knowledge but when I see a man face to face in the clear light of the day and see the Land of England it self that Knowledge is Immediate and Intuitive But tell me in good earnest do ye indeed grant that there is an Intuitive Knowledge of God that is not discursive and abstractive that is certainly to see God and to hear him without a necessity of the interposition of words or other means I am sure this is Immediate Revelation and I am as sure that ye commonly deny it and tell People They shall no● hear God nor see him in this mortal Life for the vision of God is r●served to the future life as ye use to say But ye say and unsay the same thing a vice ye charge upon me but are guilty therein yourselves And granti●g it be so that we have no Intuitive Knowledge of any divine Truth whereof we had not a discursive Knowledge before this saith nothing against our Principle no more than that a man first hath a discursive knowledge of England before he see it We grant the discursive k●owledge is serviceable and commonly introductory to the intuitive and yet both may consist together though the intuitive excelleth the discursive as far as the sight of the Land of England excelleth the sight of the bare Map of it Discursive Knowledge cannot be without words or pictures of things and signs of them but Intuitive Knowledge can be without all words sign now if ye grant that men have a knowledge of God and Christ and divine Things without all words i. e. without the Scripture ye fairly give away your cause for if without Scripture then surely by Immediate Revelation for the Scriptures are the means ye say altogether necessary to obtain all the knowledge of God that any have or can have in this mortal Life But for the better Information of the Reader I say the Scriptures are the usual necessary means in God's ordinary way of working whereby men obtain the Doctr●nal and Disc●●sive Knowledge of the Christian Faith and Religion And seeing the doctrinal and discursive Knowledge is of great service to prepare the Souls of men for th● intuitive and sensible Knowledge o● God that cometh after that is an immediate enjoyment of him a taste and sight of him that he is good and gracious and also seeing this intuitive and sensible knowledge of God is gradual and is to encrease in the most advanced and that the doctrinal knowledge hath still a preparatory service to the same it followeth that the holy Scriptures have a preparatory service and use to Gods Saints while in the mortal Body yet in so far as the end of this preparatory service is answered by the Souls obtaining some degree of that intuitive and sensible knowledge of God by the sight and taste of him as inwardly revealed in and through Christ that immediate ●ervice and need of the Scripture ceaseth in respect of that degree of intuition sight taste and sensible knowledge of God that the Soul hath for that present time even as when a Husbandman useth many means instruments of Husbandry to procure Bread and other good Provisions for himself the use of these means and instruments are alwayes necessary at times and that frequently but there are times that he enjoyeth the fruits of his labours that he eateth and drinketh and is refreshed and when he sitteth down to eat and drink 〈◊〉 his Table he needeth not in those intervals of time to use his instruments of Husbandry as the Plow the Cart the Hoe c. nor so much as at that time to think of them And thus it is as touching the use and service of the Scriptures and other outward helps and means the use and service and profit of them is great to all the Saints and Children of God in this mortal life to the end of it even as the use of the Instruments of Husbandry is to the Husband-man but yet there are times of feeding in the House of God where the Souls of the faithful either together or apart eat of the heavenly Bread and drink of the heavenly Wine in the House and Kingdom

is the great Maker and principal Cause and man the Instrument But though ye would make the ignorant multitude believe that your Doctrine in this is Protestant Doctrine yet I say it is Popish and ye have no other Argument but the Papists Arguments to defend it to wit some Perversions and false Glosses of some Scripture places as The Pharisees sit in Moses 's C●air c. But Luther who is judged as it were the Father of the Protestants and whose followers were first called Protestants hold with the Quakers against you and called them Sectaries and Seducers that know how to preach much of Christ but feel him not in their hearts cap. 1. p. 19. Mens ●s noted above To my Arguments against an impious Ministry who have no true Piety ye answer little but with a strong Denyal and so may any child or fool give a denyal to the strongest A●guments that can be b●ought And seeing ye plead so expresly That an Impious Ministry is God's Ordinance to wit such as have no true Piety it is no wonder that New-England abounds with such impious Ministers for this Doctrine opens a door unto them Pag 42. Ye deny Tha● God gives you infallible Rules ordinarily and immediately whereby to know mens hearts It may be granted they are not given to you because ye believe not that which giveth a true discerning but that Gods People who are made alive unto him and begot into his Image being Children of one Father and having his seal upon them are known one to another where due watchfulness and diligence is used and that kept in which giveth the true discerning is not only a Christian Doctrine and Experience but hath been the experience of some Presbyterian Ministers in their purest times above seventy Years ago witness The fulfilling of the Scriptures a Book set out by a zealous Presbyterian not v●ry long ago who relateth how Robert Bruce a Presbyterian Preacher in Edinbrough in Scotland had a spirit of discerning by which he freely declared to Robert Blair That though his Sermon was elaborate yet it had not the Spirit of God although the Doctrine wa● not blamed by him And I have oft heard them say one to another Let us go hear such a man he is a living man and hath a lively and powerful Ministry and of others they would say They were dead and dry And seeing one living man can know another naturally why cannot one spiritual man know another living spiritual ●an spiritually a Sheep can know a Sh●ep and a Dove a Dove and a Man can know a Man and yet a Saint cannot know a Saint by your Logick viz. certainly and infallibly And as to the word Immediately used by you I say a Saint may know a Saint as immediately and infallibly as a man may know a living man to wit he knows him to live by immediate Motions and workings of Life that immediately reach to his natural Senses and he seeth him breathe and heare●h ●im speak with strength of natural Life and ●h●t his discourse has Wisdom and Reason in it so a Saint or spiritual man may and doth know another Saint or spiritual man by immediate motions and operations of spiritual Life that immediately reach to his spiritual Senses and it is the divine Inspiration of the Spirit of Life that maketh a spiritual man and g●veth him both these spiritual Senses and the infallible use of them Pag. 42. Ye say The Apostles never pretended to a Spirit of Discerning If ye mean to know all the secrets of mens hearts I did not affirm it but that they had a knowledge of the sincerity of some and of the insincerity of others is most clear from many places of the New Testament for did not Paul most positively affirm of some particular Names That they were writ in the Book of Life And did not Peter know and that by a spirit of discerning the dissimulation of Ananias Saphira And that they might be deceived before they received the holy Ghost in that plenty as after Christ's Resurrection or even after in some particular men argueth nothing against the infallible sence discerning where it is given all it proveth is that they had not alwayes the perfect exercise of it The natural Senses are infallible touching natural Objects not absolutely but according to such due conditions and so the spiritual Senses according to their due conditions have their Infallibility And whereas I shewed in my Book That neither the example o● the Pharisees nor o● Judas could defend a Ministry without Piety because the Pharisees and Judas were yet under the legal Dispensation But ●he question relate● to the Gospel Dispensation in its more clear and perfect discovery after Christ's Resurrection this ye slightly pass telli●g That the Gospel was preached in the time of the Law But yet the Dispensation and Model was changed as ye confess and as there was a change in many things as the Sacrifices and Circumcision c. so of the Priesthood and manner of it Ye insinuate falsly against us That Hypocrites may be infallibly known by their meer looks Pag. 44. That a man may have Piety and real Sanctification and yet not have a ministerial and spiritual Gi●t of Knowledge and V●terance so as to be able to teach others is granted but yet whoever have these spiritual Gifts have in some measure the Grace of Sanctification which is the root of them ●ven as every School-master is a man but every man is not a School-master every man is a living Creature but every living Creature is not a man Unsanctified Gifts that any may pretend unto are not spiritual but carnal and are not so worthy as to be esteemed th● f●uit of Christs purchase Your saying Ye have too much cause to be perswaded by Scripture Rules that G. K. is an Apostate and unsanctified man I little regard your Tongue is not slander ye know me not and ye pretend to no infallible discerning of me and therefore by your confession ye may be mistaken and ye neither have given not can give any Scripture Rules to prove me su●h Men of your spirit called the Lord a Blasp●emer a Glutton and a Wine bibber and therefore it is no strange thing that ye ca●l me as ye do but my comfort is that I am known to God and to many of his Servants and this your Reviling and false Speeches will turn to my good and to your hurt and shame if ye repent not whi●h I wish ye may Pag. 45. Ye say Ye do not plead for scandalous Ministers whose Conversation is contradictory to their Profession and Doctrine But by this ye fall into a gross Self-contradiction for did ye not plead your Doctrine from the example of the Pharisees whose Conversation was contradictory to their Doctrine for Christ said They did not as they said Ye blame me unjustly of forge●fulness but are exceeding guilty of it your selves and much worse And besides the Qualifications required in a

true Bishop or Preacher do equally require him to be really holy and pious and virtuous as to seem or appear so to be 1 Tim. 3.1 Tit. 1.7 8. A Bishop must be blameless c. sober just holy temperate c. he doth not say let him be a Hypocrite only let him seem to be so but let him be so Pag. 48. Ye say Grace hath a spiritual sence and when the Spirit of God influenceth it it can feel it Ye need to explain this further how Grace feeleth the influence of the Spirit is Grace an intelligent perceiving intellectual being doth not the Soul feel it or is it only the Grace that is sensible of the Spirits influence and the Soul insensible and stupid If a Quaker had so expressed himself ye would have called it Non-sence My application of H b. 12.27 to things of mens maki●g though ye call it most gross it is but your bare affirmation for why may not things of mens making be comprehended under thi●g made as well as the things of the old Law which though first appointed of God yet seeing men did seek to hold them up beyond their due season they were nothing as such but beggerly Rudiments and things of mens making and Christ ●aid Every plant that is not of my heavenly Fathers planting must be pulcked up and every work o● man wro●ght and not in the Wisdom Spirit and Power of God shall be burnt up Pag. 49. Ye grosly and most falsly accuse th● Quakers That they confound the witness of Gods Spirit and their own Spirit This is utterly false Pag. 50. Ye say The Spirit when he witnes●th doth it infallibly yet he doth not make our Spirits infallible Here ye use a little fallacy but it is a very thin fig-leaf and will not cover your Nakedness for though he doth not make the spirits of his Children absolutely and in all respects infallible yet when he speaketh to the spirits and hearts of his Children infallibly and fitteth and prepareth them to hear it and understand it have they not so far i● that particular thi●g or things an infallible knowledge and assurance for even among men he who tells me an infallible truth as that the Sun is risen and I hear him tell it and my sense of hea●ing i● sound I can say I did infallibly hear him for to say the Spirit is only infallible to himself but giveth us no infallible knowledge and ●aith of what he saith is most ab●ur● for all that t●ue real Knowledge and Faith ●hat God giveth to men is infallible and to think otherwise reflects upon Gods goodness wisdom and veracity for why should the infallible God give men only a fallible knowledge Well then let it so remain that your Doctrine is All the Knowledge and Faith that ye have of God and Christ and Christian Doctrine is fallible and may deceive you and be only a fancy or dream How will this relish to sober Pro●estants Is not this rather with a witness to betray the cause of the Protestants than to defend it But in contradiction again though ye say The Witness of your Spirit is fallibl● and ye may be mistaken yet so far as the Spirit of god confirms you by his Witness ye are infallibly assured What greater Contradiction can there be in mens words first to say The Spirit of God witness●th infallibly but your Spirits are not infallible Again ye say Ye are infallibly ass●red so far a● the Spirit o● God co●fi●ms you by his Witness So in one thing and at one time and in one and the same respect ye ●re fallible and yet not fallible This Logick is fittest for Bedlam But ye tell not whether the Spirit of God at any time confirms you of any Truth by his inward infallible Witness for if ye grant this ye grant all that the Quakers desire in the case for that is divine inward Revelation and Inspiration and none of us pretend to an absolute Infallibility but only so far as the Spirit of God witnesseth to us and in us Pag. 58. Ye most grosly pervert my words and cite them falsly when ye say I make the Ministers more than meerly instrumental and that they can by their own virtue heal and convert a Soul Nothing can be more falsly alledged for when Grace Spirit and Life or living Virtue doth emanate through the Ministers to the Hearers they are but Instruments and instrumental Pipes and Conduits yet not dead but living Instruments and that Grace Spirit Life and Virtue is not their own as of themselves derived but is Gods and Christs and is only freely given them Pag. 52. That ye say The Spirit of God cometh in betwixt the Mouth of the Speaker and the Hearts of the Hearers is granted but so it cometh in betwixt the heart of the Speaker and the hearts of the Hearers and a good Minister out of the good Treasure in his heart bringeth forth good things and that is more than bare words 1 Pet. 4.11 Ye say Relates only to an outward ability or estate enabling them to give Alms. Which as it is meerly begged so is singularly strange and will be strange to the Ears of many who hear it Doth ever the Scripture call outward Riches the manifold Grace of God And doth not vers 11. say If any man speak So it relates to a Ministry of the Mouth and not of giving by the Hands Pag. 55. Ye grosly pervert to say I am for pulling down Preaching Praying Singing that are Gods Ordinances for neither I nor we are against but for all preaching Praying and singing that is rightly performed viz. by the help and ability of the Spirit of God and that is Inspiration and is confessed so to be by better Protestants then your selves yea the Church of England prayeth in the Common Prayer for Inspiration as above noted That men without the Spirit are under a command to pray is granted but yet Prayer without the Spirit is no Obedience to that command as men who have no Money nor Goods equivelent to Money may owe a debt to a man and yet if they go to pay him without money or moneys worth they do nothing in order to the payment they only but mock their Creditor and offend him even so all Prayer without the Spirit is a Mockery and the like of Singing That want of Grace dischargeth none from moral Obligations is granted but yet without Grace none can perform their Obligations Ye grosly deny that the Prayers of Abraham and the saints were universally by divine Inspiration contrary to the sence of many sober Presbyterians and Episcopals and that Abraham prayed for Ishmael by a natural affection sanctified doth not prove that he prayed not by divine Inspiration what is Inspiration but the breathing of the spirit into mens hearts both to enlighten and to sanctifie them and to quicken and warm them with warm and fervent Affections Christ ascribes the work of Regeneration in men to the

or beeing unless ye will say That a Creature is any part or measure o● Gods Beeing or Substance And whereas ye say Graces are substantial things and are not meer Accidents but Adjuncts And thus ye seek to hide you from the ignorant in the Thicket of some Loicgal and School Terms and Phrases but when ye say Graces are substantial things ye do not tell whether ye call them so properly or metaphorically as when ye call God Light ye say it is not properly but metaphorically And for your distinction of Adjuncts and Accidents I suppose I learned that thing ye call Logick that ye seem to glory in as well as ye and do remember what is any wise useful in it as well as ye and I never understood that either Logicians or Philosophers so called did hold that the Soul of man had any Adjuncts that was neither the real Essence and Substance of the Soul nor yet Accidents and therefore if the Grace of God in the Soul be no Accident but the Adjunct of the Soul it must be the Soul it self and this is Pelaganism and Socinianism with a Witness for Pelagius and Socinus denyed the need of any inward Grace that was not th● S●ul it self for the Attributes of every being and so of the Soul are such Adjuncts as are either essential to that being or accidental and for this I can and do appeal to all who have any ordinary taste of that called Logick or Metaphysick but I shall not insist on this School-nicity And for your Proof that Grace is a Creature or created Principle from Ephes 4.29 If you mean the virtues brought forth in the saints called the fruits of the Spirit as Faith Hope Love Temprance Righteousness c. we own them in the Scripture sence to be the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness but that they are such a Created Principle as are neither the Soul it self nor Christ nor Accidents but a substance of another nature from all these is a novelty that I have not formerly heard of As for our Doctrine concerning Grace it is plain according to Scripture the Seed or Original Principle of Grace in the Soul is a measure of the Spirit and Life of Christ and is not Properly a Creature as commonly taken but a Pure divine Emanation and stream from Christ the Fountain and is of the same nature with the Fountain and is substantial and every Soul that is by a true and living Faith joyned to this Seed and Principle of Gods Grace is partaker of it Substantially and none else and is there by made fruitful to bring forth heavenly and divine Fruits as Love Joy Peace Me●kness Temperance Humility c. which are Divine Effects and may be said to be the New Creation or the Image of Christ formed and brought forth in us and where these effects are yea where that Seed is neither God nor Christ can be separated from the same Pag. 69. 70. Ye say Nor doth the Doctrine of Dr. Owen or Mr. Rutherford in the words of theirs which he cites at all run into the Quakers Blasphemy Ans Ye do then hold it Blasphemy for the Quakers to say that God and Christ dwell in the Saints and true Believers and therefore to avoid this Blasphemy ye will not own that God and Christ dwell in them and then surely ye preach an absent God and Christ for if Christ dwell not in Believers he is absent from them And yet ye contradict your selves herein as your manner is ye say The Person of the Holy Ghost dwells in us by his Operations And thus ye would falsly gloss upon the words of J. O. and S. R. for J. O. h●ld a peculiar Perswasion far differing from his Brethren the Presbyterians for which Cauldrey severely taxed him that whereas they held it that the holy Ghost dwelt not by himsel● or personally as they phrase it in Believers but by his Operations Graces and Gifts J. O. in his Book of Perseverence useth many reasons and words to prove That the holy Ghost himself together with his Operations and Graces he as well as they dwelt in Believers and not the Graces without him and upon this he buildeth the Doctrine of Perseverance And S. R. said He will not have the Graces of Christ without Christ. But ye plead that the Graces of Christ are in the Saints but not Christ himself and therefore if our Doctrine be blasphemous ye must allow J. O. and S. R. equally guilty but the guilt of Blasphemy is yours who would exclude Christ from the Saints and divide the Graces of Christ from Christ which is impossible and is contrary to all sound Reason as well as Scripture to divide and seperate the Operator from his Operations Pag. 70. Ye do acknowledge That ye agree with the Ranters in that Principle viz. That God doth all and hath unchangeably ordered all things good and bad are we therefore Ranters say ye Answ Let impartial men judge seeing this is the fundamental Error of the Ranters and the Root and Base of all their other Ranting Principles and Practices Pag. 72. Ye most falsly charge me as if I were restoring Maniche●sm into the World as if there were two Principles or first Causes the one of Good the other of Evil for ye are very ignorant if ye know not that the Manichism Principle was That there was an Evil first Cause or Principle essentially evil uncreated eternal independent and equal to the good But we hold no such Doctrine there is one only first cause of all things originally that is essentially good and goodness and all things were originally good and all the Evil that came afterwards into the World was not any real Creation or Production of any substance for Evil in the abstract i. e. Sin is no substance but either a privation as the sin of Omission or some depraved mode or modification or alteration in the Cr●ature that the Creature it self is the Author of and therefore Christ said The Devil was a Lyar and Murderer from the beginning and when he speaketh a Lye he speaketh of himself Pag. 73. Ye require me to tell you How God did fore-know all evil Actions that should be done in Time unless he had pre-determined them Answ The way and manner of Gods fore-knowledge surpasseth all creaturely Understanding and therefore it is too great boldness and presumption in you to imagin ye can tell it and it is yet worse to think y● can tell it by a way that contradicts the Scripture and the invvard sense of God in mens hearts as Because God pre-determines all evil Actions Thefts Murders Adulteries therefore he fore-knoweth them This is to make God equally the Author of Evil as of Good It is suffici●nt to us to believe and know that the dec●ee of God is Permissive but not Pre-determinative of evil Actions and as he knoweth evil Actions that are at prese●t brought fo●th as they now are so

points at Christ as both God and Man that most excellent middle that unites God and Men together for in all the Creation we see how the wonderful Wisdom of God and his wonderful Power hath united extreams by certain means or middles and these do plainly point unto us how as the highest and lowest Creatures are united by a certain medium or mediating nature partaking of both extreams so God the Creator and most high over all is united with men the noblest of his visible Creatures by him that is both God and Man made like to us in all things but without si● and therefore behoved to dye and rise again to lay a Foundation for our Faith and Hope that though we dye we shall also rise again Nor is this my single Perswasion but that of very judicious and wise Men long before me and Paulus Ricius a Jew by Birth but who became a Christian in his Treatise de Coelesti Agricultura lib. 1. from pag. 40 to 52. showeth how there are many excellent Symboles in the Creation that as Types and Examples hold forth that great Mystery of Christ God Man that were to be united in one and that this man could be but one only single man in the intire nature of Man of Soul and Body in all essential parts who should be both God and Man and for this he citeth a saying in Aristotle which is this lib. 10. Metaph. In quolibet genere rerum daturmum maximum et omnium ahorum summum i. e. in every kind of things there is one the greatest and highest of all others And who is this but the Man Christ Jesus who only among all men is both God and Man and the Head of all m●n And by exce●lent Symboles and Examples he showeth how this one man was to dye for all othe● men rise again And therefore however strange it may seem unto you not only many things in the Creation but the whole Creation it self is a Book full of Symboles Vails and Figures pointing at Christ even the Man Christ who was to suffer Death and rise again for the Salvation of men and yet I do most freely acknowledge that the Books of Moses and the Prophets did mo●e fully and distinctly hold forth this great Mystery But seeing ye grant That the Vails and Types of the Ceremonial Law did suffice to the Jews and People of Israel so far as outward helps and means were requisit to shadow and hold ●orth Christ unto them the same may be said as concerning the Gentiles that in some sort sufficient as in respect of outward helps and means for that day and time until more knowledge should come into the World was the Book of the outward Creation together with that knowledge they had that they were to sacrifice unto God as is above said And as God gave to the Jews and People of Israel his good spirit to instruct them in the signification of the Mosaical and Ceremonial Law and the Types and Shadows thereof so no doubt he gave a measure of his good Spirit to instruct the Gentiles what these Types and Figures legible in the Book of the whole Creation did signifie for as the Book of Wisdom saith The incorruptible Spirit of God is in all that is confirmed by Scripture for God gave his Spirit unto and by his Spirit strove with the People of the old World and it is the Light of Christ the Word and of the Spirit that convinceth and reproveth of sin that lighteth every man that cometh into the World which however ye call it only natural and humane we have good cause to believe it is divine and supernatural yet lightning the dark nature of Man and as it is absurd for any to hold a Book to a mans face in the dark and bid him read therein when he hath no sufficient light to read with so it were absurd that God hath set so excellent a Book as the whole Creation before the Eyes of men universally I mean the Eyes of their understanding and not give them sufficient Light in some measure to enable them to understand what is writ therein and seeing that Book contains true and real Types and Symboles Figures and Shadows of Christ as he was to come in the flesh and suffer death and rise again it followeth God hath given all men so much inward Light as whereby they might read and understand what is written therein concerning the Man Christ altho the express Hebrew and Greek Names Messiah and Christ be not known to them in such an obscure way and manner as might serve to that time but the great Glory and Light of the Mystery of God manifest in flesh which is Jesus Christ come in the Flesh who is both God and Man and yet one Christ doth incomparably surpass not only what all Vails Types either of the Law or outward Creation can discover but all declaration of words and cannot be perfectly known but by a very high degree of divine Revelation and no doubt the full discovery of it is reserved to the Life to come where it shall be matter of eternal Admiration and Adoration to Saints and Angels And lest you should say This is some new Fancy of mine and some other late Writers or apostate Hereticks as ye use to say I shall recite a Testimony of a very antient Writer who is judged to be either Ambrose or Prosper above twelve hundred Years ago in that famous and noted Treatise De vocatione Gentium i. e. of the calling of the Gentiles much esteemed and cited by Protestants of great note and particularly by Vossius and Grotius learned and judicious Protestants In the said Treatise de vocatione Gentium lib. 2. cap. 1. ad fin he saith in express words citing Acts 14. And indeed he left not himself without a Witness giving Rains from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons filling Your hearts with Food and Gladness But what is this Testimony that was alwayes serviceable to the Lord and never was silent of his Goodness and Power but the very indeclarable Beauty of the whole World and the rich and orderly largition o● his indeclarable benefits by which cretain Tables o● his eternal Law were given to the hearts of men that the common and publick Doctrine of divine Institution might be read in the pages of the Elements and in the Volumns or Books of the Times therefore the Heavens and all heavenly things Sea and Land and all things in them by the ●armonious Consent of their kind and order did attest the Glory of God and by a perpetual preaching did speak the Majesty o● their Author But this is not all he further saith And yet the greatest number of men who were permitted to follow the ways of their own will did not understand and did not follow this Law and the Savour of Life which breathed or inspired unto Life Note is not this in some degree Evangelical was made unto them the savour of Death