our selves more than him Thus he that pretends to exalt the Love of God hath debased it above all men I hope some learned Bishop or Clergy-man will soon take this conceited Man and cut him up and send him to the Tribes in Israel with a see consider and speak your minds who hath asserted that the Quakers Cause calls for their most Learned Pens and they may triumph in the Victory if they get it The Quakers ignorance discovers it self on all occasions G. Fox would call Preachers Conjurers But to do him right he was none as all know that read his Books or heard him talk George Whitehead that hath writ so much is a Notorious Dunce as proved before Mr. Speed Mr. Vickris of Bristol never speak among them who are Men of Parts and Sense I will imitate the Quakers way of speaking and judge what if you heard such stuff as this though sometimes better in their greater Meetings where contrary to their first Principles many of them forbid Womens speaking or the speaking of Nonsensical Fools that talk at this or the like rate Frunds I am moved by the to speak unto you though I know not what I shall say Noah was a Perfect Man yet some say Men cannot be Perfect or without Sin yet Noah was so and his Son Cham was Cursed for uncovering his Father's nakedness when drunk Judas was the Traytor and bore the Bag and cared not for the Poor It is said he that taketh Kirjah Sepher Now that is the Spirit of the Book Now look Fruâ—ds the Heart is the Book and the Spirit is the Light within It is said indeed I forbid a Woman to speak in the Church but the Priests are in the dark mind and understand it not by the Woman is meant the Flesh and by the Husband is meant the Devil but they in the Witchcraft cannot see it but I say look to the Light within you Frunds If you have motions to a Woman and do not do the act or desire to take another Man's goods and do not do it you Sin not Mary Fisher had leave from the Lord to go froâ— New-England to save her life when otherâ— had not Now they used carnal Weaponâ— Paul said These hands have ministred to â— necessities And whatsoever doth makâ— manifest is Light Now we abhor thâ— Papist Transubsistation and Infannibility and many things be taken figuratelâ— When I shoed a Horse the other day thâ— Horse went the better so you if you loâ—â— to the Light within you ah the pure Lighâ— The Priests use Heathenish words such aâ— be not in Scripture as Sacrament c. Thâ— word of the is come upon mâ— I am to read a Letter from Friend F. oâ— P. though we read not Scripture thâ— was of old yet we may what comes froâ— the pure streams One came to me 〈◊〉 know where John Steeplehouseman dwelâ— whom he prophanely call'd Mr. Churâ—â— man but I bid him defiance for Woâ—shipping the Beast They say if you 〈◊〉 Persecuted from one City flee to anothâ—â— But these Hell-hounds understand noâ— they be Baals Priests Hirelings a Geneâ—tion of Vipers for it is revealed unto 〈◊〉 Flee to another is to the City Heaveâ— O Frunds flee there flee there Frund There is none that doeth good they say 〈◊〉 not one but David said after O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion The Priests say this world shall in time end but they be in the dark and make Solomon a Lyar who sayeth yea he sayeth One generation passeth away and another cometh but the earth abideth for ever now mark Frunds what abides for ever shall never end but they be Sorcerers Wolves in Sheeps cloathing They say That when the outward fleshly Christ was Crucified the vale of the Temple was rent in twain and the Rocks rent and the Graves were opened But they be blind Guides that lead the blind and so both fall into the Ditch I am moved to tell you Frunds and now the two thumbs must be put against the Breasts that this is meant Mens Hearts were torn Hearts as hard as Rocks what think you Doth the Scripture tell you of outward Temples and outward Books Do not Fâ—unds strike any one after the manner of Men for Paul saith Lay hands suddenly on no man The world is angry if we Honour them not by putting off our upper Covering and say Thee to them but abide you in the Light c. They talk much of Paul's Epistles But what do they tell us of the Epistles of Apostatizing Jews And they talk of Abraham's Faith we must be better than they in their day They telâ— us what David and what the Apostles did 〈◊〉 but being led by Example hath undonâ— the world Now my Frunds the People of God of old were Quakers Moseâ— was a Quaker for he said I exceedingly quake and fear and Habakkuk was a Quaker for his lips quivered yea they were all Quakers for they taught Righteousness which is the very Principle of the Quakers yea I say so do the Quakers sayâ— Now the world saith That the Body of Christ is gone to Heaven but it turned to the dust They say the Scriptures be Gold's Word but they lie they be dirt Serpent's meat some Frunds threw their Bibles into the fire and they perished and therefore are not God's word Frunds It is often said and truly the Scriptureâ— and the Body of Christ be the Two great Harlots that have deceived the world many things in Scripture are evil in onâ— place Circumcision is commanded in another place forbidden c. That such and worse Speeches have been made in thousands of their Assemblies 〈◊〉 doubt not and I am ready to give an account of the things as their assertions that I have read in their Books or heard in hearing them or talking with them Because many are decoyed by the Quakers mode of Speaking as most agreeable to Scripture as Thou to a Single Person not you which word we use Thou not You to God I will consider it We are no more bound to Scripture modes of communication than to Scripture dresses and because many many weak ones are deceived by these specious pretences I will plead this case Bildad said to Job only 18. Job 1 2 3. How long will it be ere You make an end of words How long shall we appear vile in your sight for be teareth Why may I not say You to one as well as Thou to many When God delivered the Law on Mount Sinai Thou shalt not kill Spoke he not to Thousands We borrow this from the French Vouz for they have no other word to a single Person we took You from it We despise not the word Thee to a King as they often say in all cases he that Marrieth him to his Queen saith Wilt thou have this Woman He that gives him the Lords Supper saith The Body of Christ given for Thee preserve thy Body and Soul What if men agree such a word
a better diversion to shake off Melancholly THou scoffing persecuting Ishmael thou blaspheming Devil thou Limb of Antichrist I testify to thee in the Name that thou hast belied the People called Quakers yea I say unto thee the People called Quakers hast thou belyed They are an innocent people and to that do I bear witness Therefore thou Devils Bloodhound thou Thief and Robber that never didst come in at the door but didst climb up some other way Thus saith Thou art not able to judge for thou art blind Thou Beast thou Sot thou Incarnate Devil I am full of Zeal yea with Zeal I am filled ready to burst in testifying against thee thou scarlet-colour'd Beast thou canker'd Apostate thou Son of Belial Thou greedy Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing thou Dog thou dumb Dog thou barking Dog thou Emissary of Satan thou Beelzebub the Chief of Devils Repent and know that this People whom thou hatest and dost not love are dear precious ones To this will I set my Seal and do I bear witness Hear O thou Serpent fiery Serpent biting hissing Serpent thou unclean Spirit thou Devil-driven Sot I am sent to thee to declare against thee I am sent as Mary Fisher was to the great Turk who could speak nothing but English when she came to him as honest Friend G. Bishop is forced to confess in his New-England tryed Now I speak to thee in the same Language she did to him If any of you intend thus to set upon me I wish it may be when I am so costive that no other Physick would make me soluble I am sorry for the Dishonour that such bring to Religion and the Wrong they do themselves and the scandal they give to the Prophane but as for me I find nothing more easy than to forgive them pity them and love the Men though not the Quakers I must despair of understanding any thing or of proving any thing if in this little Book I have not sufficiently proved and that ex abundanti That William Penn and the Quakers are either Impostors or Apostates which they please from their Avowed Principles and Contrary Practices BUT methinks I hear some say We see what it is for men to talk of the Spirit which is nothing else but a warm Fancy following a deluded Judgment What may we think of Prophets of old and their Inspirations and Prophecies so much talk'd off We doubt all were such as these of the Quakers Stop Reader if these thoughts be in thee let us reason together Though I doubt not but that this giddy People have contributed very much to the increase of Scepticism and Atheism and Contempt of Religion Yet why Because there is so much bad Coin adulterate Coin Case-Pieces Clipp'd-Money is there therefore no Good Money or Money of full Weight Is it all alike Because there is so much False News going and so many Mistakes and idle Stories pass for Truth is there therefore no True News or True Relation of things Because we are so often mistaken in men who are often said to be good-natur'd wise and pious whom in our nigh approaches to them we find ill temper'd half-witted and scandalous are there therefore no good-natur'd no wise no pious Men in the World To talk of the Spirit is a Cant among some Men almost a Community of Men who own Scripture and read Lessons out of it They will talk of God and of Christ but nothing or next to nothing of the Spirit I desire them to read Neh. 9.20 Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts Rom. 8.9 He that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of his John 3.5 6 8. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the Spirit is spirit Rom. 8.16 The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Psalm 51.11 After David sinn'd so foully he prays Take not thy holy spirit from me Consider their abuse of such Phrases should not take us off from the use of them Because the Papist have abused the words of Christ This is my Body by their monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation and so to worship a Wafer for a God we are not therefore to deny the Bread the honourable Name Christ gave it The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is not so call'd from his Essence and Nature for so we might as well say The Holy Father or the Holy Son as the Holy Ghost but from his Office Whom the Father elects the Son redeems and the Holy Ghost sanctifies and makes holy Now a skilful Physician is not to be despised ridiculed because of some Quacks nor a good Lawyer because of some ignorant Pretenders nor a Spiritual Man because of some sensless vain Talkers of the Spirit Though I have written more already than I intended when I begun yet give me leave to add some Directions to cure this Malady which we find occasion'd for want of these things you are now prest to and that our Perfectionists little mind Direction 1. 1. Keep up a due Veneration for the Scriptures and their Authority He that cannot see a God one would think could see nothing Infinity and Eternity must be lodged in somewhat Some Cogitative Being which word with Mr. Lock I like better than Intelligent suited means to end Read him in that excellent Chapter of Human Vnderstanding Mr. Perkins's Cases of Conscience of the Being of God Is the Soul of Man made for God to serve and injoy him Not to say any thing of the Reflex Acts of the Soul That Matter cannot act on it self The tip of my finger that toucheth thousands of things cannot return upon it self touch it self But my Understanding that understands other things reflects on it self and understands it self and therefore the Spirit of a Man is not as the Spirit of a Beast The Poet could say Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Pronaque cum spectant No Creature but Man can turn up his eyes to Heaven for Man hath a Muscle more than they to help to look up to God Doth it not convince you Good Readers as well as this Pagan Ovid Met. That though Man was made in this world yet not for it Are not some men designed for the Recovery of the Lost Love and Favour of God That is hoped by all What then will follow That there must be some Rule whereby Man may know this God and serve him Now this must be either by Revelation or there must be some standing written Rule The former we see is gone and our giddy Pretenders to it prove it Therefore the latter Then say I The Scriptures must be the standing Rule or some other thing But no other thing Therefore the Scriptures If any thing What is it Mahomet's Alcoran I need not confute it None plead for it Nay It is worthy observation
time of Persecution Christ hath said it plainly If they persecute you in one City flee to another Matth. 10.23 Be wise as Serpents said the same mouth and almost in the same breath that said be innocent as Doves Had any of us been let down in a Basket over a Wall as Paul was for fear of the Jews Acts 9.24 25. they would have made sport of us though none were so weak in those days to do so of him We told them That in a time of danger it was lawful to withdraw from the Example of the Prophets Christ the Apostles The Holy Jesus in this respect was not Holy enough for his Holy Brethren in pretence observe Christ did as we do his Brethren who are said not to believe in him objected and censur'd him almost in the same words as the Quakers their Followers do us the Followers of Christ John 7.1 4. Jesus walked no more openly in Jewry but walked in Galilee because the Jews sought to kill him There is no man that doeth any thing in secret and he himself seeketh to be known openly If thou do these things shew thy self to the world said his unbelieving Brethren to him All our Martyrs did as we did These said Barclay Apol. and Thousands of them that by this were they known to be the People of God That they were not found in Corners kept the Places of their Publick Worship which if pull'd down they stood on the Rubbish of them and would have done so even to the death But say I since they are known not to be the People of God for they left those Places in the heat of Persecution I being once a Bristol man will tell you what was done there where were the chief Quakers I will inform you what I know of this Lawrence Steel of Bristol once a Candidate for the Ministry who left us and turned a Perfectionist because of this Principle of theirs yet left their Meeting-place a long time At last when driven here by some hot quakers he was taken only with six or seven persons as I remember He was sent to Gaol a half-year for refusing the Corporation Oath after the expiration of which he never went-more and so continued to the time of his death R. V. another great man especially in his own eyes did the like and all the rest only Elizabeth Sterring and Dorcas Dole two zealous Women wrote a Book against them all damning them in the Name of the Lord for leaving their Testimony contrary to their Manifestation from the Lord. They tell them of Daniel's opening his Windows contemned their Plea that God can hear in secret and they drop this charitable and I doubt not true passage by the way Had many of the Professors for so they call other Dissenters been of your Persuasion they would not have done as you now do Honestly said Heaven forbid Is it not worth while to ask William Pen how he bore his Testimony Did not he flee Not Whitehead after all his mockings of others They would set some to watch at doors to see whether Informers did espy any of them coming into a House warily as others did for a private Meeting This was the great thing these men ever gloried in it was a good Providence before this Liberty was given that these men were tried and cast else how had they now triumphed and exalted themselves above all others The reason of all was this If there were taking away of Goods in one place it was not so in another till now therefore the Sufferers were helped by the Non-sufferers out of their Fund a commendable Practice but now the Storm comes on all and no help Every Quaker now must stand or rather run away on his own Legs Question 4. Whether it were not horrid Impiety to leave Ministers because of their Learning and yet follow Pen and others because of theirs Latin was once the Language of the Beast not fit for the mouth of a Christian This with Greek and Hebrew were the Three Languages nailed at Christ's Cross but they have since cryed to them as the Jews to Jesus Come down from the Cross That Philosophy was Aristotle's Vomit Serpents Meat in us and yet Angelical Food in him In short How can Learning make us like Devils and William Pen like an Angel So that the Light within was almost turn'd to the Light without Pen's Dictates Only some were more eagleâ—ey'd and could look through men Meade told a Friend of mine That all Pen's Party were Factors for Popery But that he himself was so Loyal he would spend his All his Blood in the Service of this King Honestly said Meade I believe thou speakest thy heart Reader I must stop thee here for a while and tell thee Since the sending of this Question I have been informed by some who knew Pen as much as one man can know another That Pen is indeed a grand Politician a great Statesman one that hath great command of words but an Inventer of some which the Quakers use as to Un-religion a man and the Bowed-downness of Souls but that he could not talk plain Latin with any man They believed he could not turn a plain piece of English into Latin That he was no Grecian That he understood little Logick or Philosophy and told me some of his Blunders in Natural Philosophy too Comical now to relate I was surprized And now William Pen seeing I am better informed concerning thee that thou hast more escaped the Pollutions of this Learned Age than I and Thousands of others imagin'd I beg thy pardon for abusing thee and clapping this Indignity on thee and if Reformation may be thy security and Repentance that younger Brother to Innocency set matters right thou needst not fear such foul Aspersions for the future However something of Learning thou hast Barclay more but Samuel Fisher most of all that makes my Question to deserve an Answer I know the Learned Quaker that gave Barclay the Collections in his Apology out of the Fathers as he told me Sam. Fisher and others could come with their old heathenish way of Disputing testified against by the Spirit of the Ever-living God by Syllogisms Major Minor Conclusion and Poetry too condemned in others I wrote W. Penn I would not trouble him with one Question more Whether it were not Hypocrisy to condemn all Wars even Defensive as unlawful and Murther when they were called to serve in this way Protestant Princes and yet all was well for a Popish Tyrant Because I knew he did not dare on many Accounts to give me a Reply After I had sent him these Queries I went to his Lodgings but he was not there One of his Friends there knew of my Letter and told me that William Pen said He loved not Controversies that is I suppose Questions he cannot answer for Controversies are his work and trade and that Books might inform me But I know none and I presume he neither What Books vindicated George
there is no Name given under Heaven by which men can be saved but the Name of Jesus There is no Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 If it be asked Why I am sometimes Comical and Reflect so severely on some of their Leaders I answer Quacks and Jugglers and foolish Pretenders to any thing are not to be treated as wise and sober men Answer says the Wisest of Men a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit Prov. 26.25 Says the serious Worshipper at Mount Carmel that approached the Altar of God with all imaginable Reverence and not as a Stage player when he saw the Priests of Baal seemingly most devout cut themselves and leap upon the Altar Cry aloud 1 Kings 18.27 either he is talking or in a journey or sleepeth and must be awaked A goodly God! For my severe Reflections on some Men I lived nigh them knew them well they were some of the great Advocates for their Cause talk'd of all England over for their Zeal among the Quakers who spared not the most Learned Religious Ministers and People in the world for want of self-denial which little appeared in the Accusers for leaving the Places of their open Meetings the Ministers were Hirelings 10. John 12 13. who did flee when the wolf came that cared not for the sheep and that because the sheep were not their own As if to flee from a Place were to flee from an Office And after they had call'd them and the People Hypocrites Children of the Devil Haters of Christ Lovers of the World that should be damned for ever for this their great open Sin and Wickedness they did the same thing themselves when their Fund failed Either what I have Charged them with is True or False if it be False let me be accounted the greatest Defamer upon Earth a Persecutor or what they please If it be true as I call Heaven and Earth to Record it is and can justifie the Charge before God and Man I do say it on mature Consideration and with great Composure of Mind That Pen and the Quakers are Impostors or Apostates Know Reader I have made no use of Books nor Men to help me in this Work tho it is said by some it were impossible I could thus describe them without help from some Man that had been a Quaker I have not troubled you with some stories of Quakers upon common fame though I doubt not the truth of them yet cannot prove them if required as that one Friend came to another and said The Lord hath sent me to thee to tell thee thou must lend me Twenty pound It was a lying Spirit sent thee said the other for the Lord knows I am not worth half the Money Neither have I troubled you with their denying such a sense of Scripture when writing against us and asserting the same sense to serve their own turn and all from one and the same Infallible Spirit Penn is a notorious instance who in a Book call'd Judas and the Jews said on those words Tell the Church 18. Matt. 17. That the Church was to judge of matters of wrong between Man and Man but not of Faith or Conscience yet in another Book to all Protestants asserts The Church had Power about matters of Faith and Conscience when he pleaded for the Church-Quakers Nor much of what I have read of some of them many y s since I remember in the time of a long continued Drought about Twenty year since when many fear'd and talk'd of a Famine out comes Fox and tells us What reason we had to expect a Famine That before the Plague he saâ— the Angel of the Lord with a drawn Sword over the Court. See the Cheat. Rain soon pour'd down You false Prophets tell us your Prophecies before not after their accomplishment I must recommend to you the aforementioned Book The Snake in the Grass If you are Dissenters pardon some warm passages proceeding from intemperate Zeal for Bishops and Liturgies In the Book may you be informed of The Authority of the Church-Quakers for so Penn's Faction are call'd who often Assemble at London and assume to themselves power over the Light within especially in the Separate Quakers for so are the Followers of George Keith call'd a Scholar once Master of Arts who owns Faith in an outward Christ crucified him that died at Jerusalem The Resurrection of the Body Defects to be bewail'd The insufficiency of the Light within without Scripture and speaks favourably of Baptism and the Supper All this George Keith hath printed and told me He proves George Fox their Great Apostle to be a Blasphemer and impostor That he said before some Governors That he said he was equal with God and Judge of the world He receiv'd the Title and Worship of Christ from many who lay prostrate before him he smoothing them on the face and blessing them So did Sabbata Sevi his deluded Followers and Nathan the Prophet in the Year 1666. till he turned Turk to save his Neck Penn pleads for this Fox attributes his abuse of many Terms to his Ignorance What! and yet inspired and sent of God! That he call'd on the Army to fight against Rome and the Turks That Balaam must be slain and all the Hirelings turn'd out of the Kingdom He bad them pull down Mass-houses and Colleges Give the Priests Blood to drink for they are worthy said Burroughs The Blasphemy of many of their Leaders who said they were as holy as God not only in quality but equality and that the preternatural distortions of their Bodies and their Quakings at first were of the Devil Though the Numen that then inspired them hath now left them Though Solomon Eccles a Quaker before the Fire of London went up and down with a Pan of burning Coals yet he was proved to be a false Prophet in other things That the Quakers moved not their Goods believing it was a Delusion and knowing that almost every Week one Quaker or another would go up and down the Streets in London and cry Thus saith the Lord Fire Pestilence Sword c. And if Solomon Eccles prophecied of the Burning of the City all know so did Oliver's Porter That Muggleton hath his Prophecies too to be printed How soon Josiah Coal died after he testified against him That Muggleton a Taylor and Fox a Shoemaker set up for Inspired Persons together Though Fox at first condemned all outward teaching by Man till he had gotten men from the Ministry then he set up Preaching but Muggleton doth not but keeps to the old Principle He saith The Father to whom Christ pray'd was Elijah who governed in Heaven when Christ was on Earth because in his absence there was no God there And such Blasphemous stuff They pretended to the Spirit of discerning Persons and Things and could tell what Men were on the sight of them They now Damn one another the Muggletonians and Quakers call one another Sorcerers Serpents and say
God did him good Noah was a Preacher and no doubt a Liver of Righteousness an Hundred and twenty years To have seen but one Convert a year had been sad but he sees none at the end of Twenty Forty Threescore an Hundred years No pricks of Conscience did them good The Spirit strove for a time Men may roar that never Repent No threats of God do them good when they were told of a Deluge they feared not Yet Man's Nature before Sin was conformable to God's Image his Will to God's Law he was designed to serve God here and enjoy him for ever yet after Sin he is call'd Flesh as if dispirited a Worm as David saith of himself a Dog for without are dogs saith Paul nay a Devil so Christ called not only Judas but Peter when he would hinder him from Suffering Get thee behind me Satan 16. Mat. 23. What Devils are the best and much more the worst for Pride Passion c. Now how little the Quakers regard the Fall is notorious Some make Adam Paradise the Tree of Life Serpent and all an Allegory and laugh at Original Sin and believe all come Sinless Creatures into the world Here is the foundation work this makes Man loathe himself Another thing the Scripture teacheth as necessary to be known and which our Perfectionists will not understand is 2. Man's recovery by a Crucified Christ the Son of God Who so fit as he who was the Son of God by Eternal Generation to be so by his Conception Who so fit to make Man the Son of God by Adoption as he that was the Son of God by Nature Who so fit to be a Mediator that in some respect was so for ever Mr. Ainsworth well observes from 3. Gen. 21. God made of Skins Coats and cloathed our first parents That this represented Man's being cloathed by the imputed Righteousness of Jesus for saith he their Cloathing was not of the Skins of Beasts eaten for no Beasts were for food till the time of Noah's Deluge was over 9. Gen. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things Nor yet of Beasts that died of themselves for there was a Ceremonious work of Sacrificing as did Cain and Abel therefore it was saith he of Beasts Sacrificed which were Types of Christ's As Men be Redeemed by the Blood of Christ so are they cloathed by his Righteousness Bishop Hall in his excellent savory Paraphrase thinks this is the sense of the words of Solomon in the Book of Canticles 8. Can. 5. I raised thee up from under the apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee as Christ speaking thus to the Spouse O my spouse I raised thee up from under the tree of offence there Eve brought thee forth under the curse she brought thee forth that bare thee Now Mr. Cotton observes when the Church commends Christ She commends his hands but when Christ commends the Church he commends not her hands Canticles chap. 4. and 5. Man is Justified by Christ's Obedience not his own Now Paul preached a Crucified Christ to all the Gentiles idolatrous and prophane Gentiles But when do any Quakers hear any thing of this in their Christless Assemblies God the Father chose some from everlasting gave them to Christ to be Redeemed to the Spirit to be Sanctified else we cannot as some observe talk of a Predestination but may of a Postdestination if Men be Saved on foreseen Holiness 2 Ephes 5 6. By grace are ye saved and are made to sit down in heavenly places in Christ Jesus The Church is the lower Heaven they above and they below make one Family in whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named saith Paul As the Kitchin below and best Room above Christ may say to every Believer as Pharoah's Daughter of Moses I drew him out of the waters Justice placed us all at the mouth of Ruine the Son of God as the Daughter of Pharoah comes and hath Compassion Without understanding Salvation by Christ there is no hope They that reject the outward Crucified Christ reject life Now they once took all in a Mystery an inward Christ was inwardly Crucified This is saith Penn and Whitebread The Lamb slain the Light within opposed by the Sons of Men. 2. Another thing the Scriptures shew is the way God and Christ have appointed to Salvation so we call the Scripture the word of God Christ is seldom so call'd 1 John 1.19 Rev. 13. The Word was God His Name is called the Word of God Why He declareth the Mind and Word of God to men but 30. Proverbs 5 6. Add thou not to his word What is that to Christ You received our testimony not as the word of man but as it is indeed the word of God saith Paul If they are called Gods to whom the word of God came and the Scriptures cannot be broken said Christ You read of them that corrupt the word of God What did they corrupt Christ The Quakers have thousands of times cursed them that call the Scriptures the word of God Heathens could not find out the way to life by any Light within but by Scripture-Revelation Many Atheists and Quakers object against it though now some more sober Some object Moses 1 Gen. 16. makes the Moon greater than the Stars which all Astrologers know to be so only in appearance What an unnecessary noise do some Divines make to answer this to tell what it is Subjectively what it is Objectively Doth Moses say he made the two greater Bodies the Sun to rule the Day the Moon to rule the Night No Now though a Star is a greater Body than the Moon yet the Moon is a greater Light sure So 9. Acts 7. it is said They that were with Paul heard a voice but saw no man yet in the 22. Acts 9. They that were with me saw indeed the light but heard not the voice of him that spake There is an Inarticulate and an Articulate sound or voice they heard the sound but not the voice not the sense spoken How do some triumph in such trifles If any Learned Men be perplexed about things of this nature let them read Searphius his Symphonia If any Unlearned Man be let him read a Book call'd The dividing of the Hoof both which Books have done this work incomparably well of reconciling seeming contradictions in Scripture Our Perfectionists care not to direct their Children to Scripture Consider how the Old Testament ends and the New begins I have sometimes pleased my self not a little with this Meditation Mal. 1.4 5. what a Prophecy is here of Christ and John Baptist and it is a good Providence that the Jews though in unbelief never added any thing to the Cannon of Scripture since none comes now to tell them how large read Isaiah 53. and the Gospel May not he well be call'd the Evangelical Prophet If you be