Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	work_n	work_v	6,969	5	7.2984	4	false

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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

Covenants and do not show wherein Ye say The New-Covenant cannot be fallen from Again ye say It is a Contradiction that a man may be a Believer and yet but in Adam 's Covenant and fall away Whi h yet is your own Contradiction for ye have granted That the Faith that can be lost is not a false Faith and therefore if not false it is true in its manner But whether the Faith that can be lost and the Faith that persevereth and holdeth out to the end and is like to Gold and more precious than Gold differ in kind or degree is a Question too subtil and doth involve into Philoso●hical School-Subtilties for it is not altogether agreed among th m called Philosophers and School-men what maketh a specifical difference in all respects as whether Brass Silver and Gold differ in specie and kind or only in degree therefore such a dispute I waved and do still wave as not being so proper to be disputed in School Terms for it is best to keep to Scripture words which the holy Ghost hath dictated As Gold endureth all tryal of fire and is not consumed by it so the most precious Faith of Gods elect Saints and Children endureth all fiery Tryals of all sorts And becaus ye would appear to be such mighty Patrons Defenders of the Protestant Religion and Principles I shall cite the Testimony of Luther whom ye will not be so bold I suppose to deny but that he was a Protestant and a better man than any of you as concerning this matter and another Testimony of these who gave forth the Augustane Confession who were followers of Luther and are generally acknowledged Protestants In Luther's Mensalia cap. 13. p. 227. he saith expresly For Faith is either false or feigned or although it be upright yet it is extinguished when People witting and willfully do against Gods Command and the holy Spirit which is given to the faithful departeth and is lost through evil Works done against the Conscience as the example of David sufficiently witnesseth Thus Luther And the Augustane Confession given forth by Protestants says expresly Article 12. They condemn the Anabaptists who deny that they who are once justified can loose the holy Spirit So ye may see or if ye will shut your Eyes yet the Impartial Readers may see how it is a Doctrine of antient Protestants more antient than your New-England Model that they who are once justified may loose the holy Spirit and they who say they cannot are guilty of the Error of the Anabaptists and the Scripture Testimony is most plain that they may be Partakers of the holy Spirit and may afterwards fall away Heb. 6. So that hitherto ye have not showed any one Article of Faith wherein I or my Brethren differ either from Scripture or the best sort of Protestants for in all these matters we have both the Scipture and the best sort of Protestants on our side and therefore your Charge is false as if I or we did oppose the fundamental Articles of Salvation as ye alledge p. 127. ad fin Pag. 118. Ye falsly charge the Quakers that they boast of Perfection The honest and fober People called Qrs. hold forth the Doctrine of Pefection according to the Scripture as a state attainable by the Grace of God but boast not of their attainment they chuse rather to express any measure of Attainments they have by a good and innocent Life than by a talk of it Pag. 119. Ye falsly charge it upon me as a Cheat and Fraud That I infer it from your D●ctrine that the good Works of Gods holy Spirit are defil●d in and by the Saints Answ I make no such ●●ference but I did set down the express words of the Confession of the Assembly owned by you cap. 16. That the best Work of the Saints which proceed from the Spirit of God as they are wro●ght by them are defiled Let the Reader see the place and he will find the Cheat to be yours and not mine yea p. 119. forgetting your selves ye say expresly That the Works of the Saints which ye confess are wro●ght also by the holy Spirit are defiled by sin And whereas ye say The W●rk is not totally perfect and totally sin yet ye te●● not what part of it is not sin for the whole Work as done by you is sin which is still a Chimaera seeing that whole Work is done also by the Spirit Pag. 120. Ye blame me for alledging it to be ●our Doctrine That they must sin viz. Saints and Believers as long as they live as if there were a fatal necessity that God laid them under o so doing Answ But whether this be not the real and true sence of your Doctrine that saith No man is able by any Grace of God to keep the Commandments o● God but doth daily break them in T●o●ght Word and Deed. Let Impartial Readers judge for wh●t men cann●t do th y are under a necessity not to do and not to do is sin and ye say God hath decreed all this and if it be not a fatal Necessity in the sence of the Epicureans or others who held a fatal Necessity and denyed a divine Providence yet in another sence it may be called a fatal Necessity Pag. 121. Ye would cover the Impertinency of the Citation of Rom. 3.9 c. from the description of the natural state of man there given But this is but a fig-leaf for the Assembly brings that place of Scripture to prove universally That no man neither Saint nor any other can keep Gods Commandments c. And truly they are sad and miserable Saints who are in the case there described and yet as I said before too like to these in N. England whose feet were swift to shed Blood and their Throat an open Sepulchre Your answers to the places of Scripture I brought to prove the possibility of Perfection by the Grace of God are meer Assertions without any Reasons of the least seeming weight to prove them and therefore I refer both what I and Ye say to the Readers further Impartial Consideration Pag. 123. Ye say Nor was Noah so perfect but that afterwards he was drunken This is a weak Reason ye may at this rate deny that God created Adam free of all sin because after God made him he sinned We plead not for an impossibility of sinning but a possibility of not sinning by the Grace of God Ezek. 36.25 The making them clean from all their Filthyness belongs ye say to Justification Answ I doubt ye have forgot your selves sure I ●m it was the common Doct●ine of the P●●byterians That Justification took away the G●ilt of Sin and Sanctifi●ation took away the Filt● o● it But now according to your New Model it seemeth Sanctification taketh no Filthilness of sin away at all and therefore a● in respect of Sanctification the whole filthiness of sin remains in the best Saints their hea●ts are as filthy inwardly as ever formerly for

sence the seed is not in the ground though sown till it begin to take root but yet according to the more general sence he is in all men for his illumination and operation cannot be seperated from him Ye say I falsly render the place James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Innate Word But ye only say it without proof it is composed of en in and phyo nascor therefore in t●ue English it is innate is so used by Plutarch a Greek Author who saith There is a Faith innate emphutos in every reasonable Creature living and dwelling in the Soul and never leaving the Soul destitute of Guidance and it is used in the same signification by Clemens Alexandrinus writing to the Gentiles where speaking of the inward Witness which was in Unbelievers he calleth it Emphuton Martyra testem innatum fide dignum The innate Witness worthy of Faith and I suppose ye judge not your selves better or so well skilled in the Greek language as Plutarch and Clemens Alexandrinus who were Greek Authors and Grecians by Birth Ye say If the Light be connate with men what needed G. K. make such a splutter about Immediate Revelations It may be said to be both innate and connate with men not as ye imagine Accidents or Qualities to be in a subject but seeing the eternal Word and Wisdom hath created all Souls of men after his Image therefore in a special way of presence that etern●l Word and Wisdom is in all Souls of men by a measure of it planted or if ye will grafted in all men for grafted and innate may be of the same signification and this eternal Word and Wisdom hath its operation and influence on the Understanding of the Souls of men generally to enlighten them gradually first with the more common and plain things of Religion and then as the former are learned with the more special and peculiar Mysteries of the Christian Religion yet not without the use of the holy Scriptures in Gods ordinary way so distinctly and perfectly as Christians know them who have the use of the Scriptures and all internal divine Illumination is properly Revelation P. 102. Ye find great fault that I conclude That the inward Dispensation that is among the Gentiles that have not Christ outwardly preached viz. by the Ministry of men and the holy Scriptures hath its glory and great service to those that are faithful in it and ye say This is to talk at liberty my self and to deny all others a liberty to judge But herein ye wrong me I allow all spiritual men a liberty to judge I question not but to all such who have a spiritual discerning and ability to judge what I have affirmed of the glory and great serviceableness of the inward divine Dispensation in the Gentiles will be approved and my Reasons and Proofs both from Scripture and other Authors found vallid And though ye seek to untye that ye call a knot that I judge is indissolvable p. 91. I judge so still that ye shall never be able to untye it as ye persist in your Doctrine But yet ye pervert my words in that ye call the Knot for I did thus argue That seeing Infants by your confession might be saved by Christ and regenerated by the Spirit of Christ that worketh when and where and how he pleaseth Therefore might the honest and faithful Gentiles be saved by the same regenerating Spirit of Christ who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth and by faith in Christ But that ye may with some seeming show appear to loose the Knot ye word my Argument quite another way I Infants may be saved by the working of the Spirit in them why may not the Gentiles be so by giving obedience to the Light in them And thus ye would make me appear to the ignorant as if I did plead that the Gentiles were or could be saved without faith in Christ and the regenerating Spirit of Christ only by obedience to the general dictates of the Light within but I say though none are saved but who are obedient to the Light in them yet no Obedience can save without faith in Christ and the Spirit of Christ regenerating them that is altogether necessary to every mans eternal Salvation Whereas I produced divers very convincing Arguments to prove That the Light in men that did accuse or reprove for sin could not be some natural faculty of mans Soul these Arguments some of them ye pass over very slightly answering by your bare Affirmations without proof and some ye give no answer unto at all nor take any notice of see my Book p. 119 120 121. which I again recommend to the Readers serious consideration I argued That since ye confess that man is wholly defiled and darkned so that he i● called Darkness in Scripture therefore the Light in natural men could not be any part or faculty of their Souls for that were to say Men are not fallen totally nor totally defiled but in part And I further argued That since your Confession saith All Sin is a Transgression against the Righteous Law of God and since the Heathen are sinners this righteous Law of God must be in them against which they transgress and this righteous Law cannot be any part o● faculty of the Soul which ye confess is wholly unrighteous and d●filed for a thing cannot be wholly unrighteous and defiled yet in part righteous holy and clean To this I find not that ye say any thing Ye say I mistake when I think ye reckon it any distinct Faculty but the Mistake is yours not mine I did not think that ye do reckon it any distinct Faculty but on the contrary I blame you for saying It is nothing else but the natural Conscience or some natural Faculty of mans Soul so that ye are wonderfully careless of what ye say see my Book pag. 119. and your Book pag. 98. And yet ye seem to make it now Not the natural Vnderstanding but something there imprinted Well let it be something there imprinted this evinceth that it is properly Gods Word for I hope ye will not deny but that which God writeth or printeth with his own Hand or Finger is Gods Word and doth as well or rather more deserve to be accounted the Word of God as that printed in the Bible seeing God is the immediate Printer of this without the Ministry of men but the Print of the Bible is the work of Men though the Truth there witnessed is immediately of God and therefore by your Confession there is an inward written or printed Word of God in Heathens and generally in all men and that immediately without the use or help of the Scriptures commonly called the outward Word Hence it clearly followeth that the Word without is not the whole Word of God nor the only Rule in contradiction to you who affirm it And seeing by your Confession the Word of God is in the Gentiles or Heathen who have not the

a good work that is not false and hypocritical ye grant and if ye did abide by what ye have said in this matter the Controversie might end as to that head Pag. 110. The cutting off the Natural Branches If we may believe your bare Authority for ye give no shadow of proof ye will have it relate only to a vi●ib●e Church state but the contrary is manifest from this that as the cutting off is so shall the grafting in again be for that Rom. 11. containeth a plain Prophesie of the Conversion of the Jewes and People of Israel when all Israel shall be saved And surely that Conversion and Salvation is a real thing Ye are no less absurd to say The Oyl that the foolish Virgins had in their Lamps was only a Profession they had of Grace and yet ye say expresly Their Lamps was their Profession which is a gross Self-Contradiction for the Lamp and the Oyl could not be one and the same thing if the Lamp as ye say is the Profession the Oyl must be something else unless ye will say The Oyl is the Cask and the Cask is the Oyl Pag. 112. Ye strangely contradict your selves in answer to Ezek. 18.24 saying The Scriptures assure us that no true Believer shall totally and finally fall away from Grace How strangely do ye forget your selves who within a few Lines before did affirm That the Faith that may be fallen from is not a false Faith see pag. 111. line 8. Pag. 113. Ye argue That David's Fall when he committed Murder and Adultry was not totally from Grace because he prayed Psal 51.11 Take not thy holy Spirit from me But ye are strangely inconsiderate may ye not think that a Child can answer you when David prayed that Prayer God had begun to restore him again and that Psalm is called one of his penitential Psalms and was a Testimony that God by his good Spirit had begun a true work of Repentance in him after his fall and had given him together with Repentance his holy Spirit and he prayed that it might not be taken from him Do ye think ye deal with Idiots and persons void of common sense when ye argue at this shallow rate I told you before and I again tell you That if a Murderer and an Adulterer while such may be a real Saint the worst of Men may believe that they are real Saints Your Answer hath no Validity when ye say They never had the work of Conversion past upon them but this is barely said Why may not others who have had some real beginning like that of David in some measure fall into these Sins of Murder and Adultry And surely these who commit Murder and Adultry whatever they have been before may be numbred amongst the worst of men They may say a cording to your Doctrine They had the work of Conversion wrought upon them formerly and they are Saints still and ye cannot convince them to the contrary by your Doctrine I say still it would argue great Partiality which far be it from us to think it can have place in God that one and the same Sin is Mortal in one and not Mortal in the other the pure Life of Faith is killed by every gross Sin or Crime such as Murder and Adultry for if he who hateth his Brother hath not eternal Life abiding in him surely nor he who with his hands killeth his Brother That Gods Promises are meerly Hypothetical to his elect Saints and Children I neither said nor say yet the Promises are held forth Conditionally and some are Conditional and some absolute Pag. 115. Ye grosly abuse me by alledging That I introduce the Popish distinction o● Mortal and Venial Sins I use no such words and have not the Popish sence of these words but yet I believe there are lesser and greater Sins and great and hainous Sins and Crimes kill the Soul such as the Crimes of Murder Adultry but every smaller Offence doth not kill the Soul utterly but yet hurteth or woundeth and this both Experience Scripture confirmeth and ye are a sad sort of men if ye think that the gross Sins and Crimes of Mu●der and Adultry do no more hurt the Souls of men than some Weaknesse and Infirmities that are really culpable yet of a smaller kind as a little wandering of Mind a little slackness or remisness for a little time c. Whereas I did affirm There is a state in Grace that men may grow up into wherein they never fall away but are crowned with Perseverance for which I cited divers places of Scripture as Psal 119.2 3 1 Joh. 3.9 1 John 2.19 and these I called such who were the Sons and Children of the Free-Woman and who are made conform to the Image of the second Adam Christ Jesus beyond the Image of the Earthly Adam who fell and who sit down in Christ that never fell and these abide with him and go not out To this ye say nothing that has any weight but meer triffling ye say It belongs to Faith where ever it is that who ever have it are born of God And here ye contradict again your own Doctrine who granted That there is a Faith that may be lost that is not false Ye say I mistake the Notion of the difference between Servants and Sons for ye say true Believers are both Sons and Servants But this I did not deny nor do yet the Scripture maketh a distinction thus Every Son is a Servant as Christ was both Gods Son and Servant as he is called in Scripture and Paul was a Son of God and a Servant of God but yet every Servant is not a Son of God born of the free-Woman The Servant said Christ abideth not in the House forever but the Son abideth forever The Son of Hagar must become the Son of Sarah that he may dwell in the House of the Lord forever But ye falsly alledge against me as if I said None are in the New Covenant until that after Death they come into glory And ye show your great Ignorance and want of Experience to deny that men may be in a middle state between both as partly of a Legal Spirit and partly of a Gospel Spirit for some time for the Disciples were too much of a Legal Spirit when Christ told them Ye know not what Spirit ye are of Too many called Christians who have a measure of Gospel-sincerity are too much of a Legal Spirit and are not wholly leavened into the Gospel Spirit Pag. 117. Ye say I seem to lay the stress upon the strength o● Inherent Grace whereas the Scripture ass●res us it is of God and depends upon his Power I say the same it is of God and depends upon his Power and both God and his Power doth preserve the Faith Love and other Graces and Virtues of his People and keepeth them ever green that they wither not as the Cedars of Lebanon Ye fa●sly alledge I confound the two

of the Assembly is manifest from this th●t the far greatest part of them being Presbyterians and but few Independants in comparison of the ●ajor part the Presbyterian Church was then a National Church composed of the whole Body of the Nation both in England Scotland and Ireland as much as possible could be and the Presbyterian League and Covenant did not only take in all who were willing however many thousands of them were of a Scandalous Life but the Promoters of it forced them who were unwilling that either they must take the Covenant or suffer Banishment And it is manifest that the Presbyterian Church in England Scotland and Ireland was as National and consisting of as gross a mixture as the Episcopal or even as the Church of Rome it self as in respect of Scandalous Livers so that what Luther said of his followers in his day may be as much applyed to the Presbyterian Church whose Ministers did mostly compose that Assembly in the fore-cited Book called Mensalia cap. 22. ● 290 The manner of Life said Luther i● as Evil among us as among the Papists wherefore we strive not with them by reason of the manner of Life but for and about the Doctrine And it is manifest as the noon day that not only the far greatest part of the People composing the Presbyterian Church were of a dessolute and scandalous Life but too many of their Ministry and Elders which occasioned the breach betwixt the Independents and them that these called Independents thinking that the multitude of Presbyterian Professors were not duely qualified to be Church-Members as in respect of a strict life erected a new Model of Congregational Churches which are now again almost wholly degenerated if not altogether into a Presbyterian Laxeness and how can it be supposed that a National Church as such can have the multitude of its Professors to be free of a scandalous Life seeing no such instance can as yet be given for the Presbyterian National Church as well as the Episcopal and Church of Rome receiveth Men and Women to be Members of their Church either how soon born or by Infant Baptism and rarely if ever doth excommunicate any for their Vitious manner of living except in some extraordinary cases of Adultery Incest or Sodomy c. but if any dissent from them in Doctrine then nothing but dreadful Thunderings of Excommunication like the Popes Bulls against the primitive Protestants All which showeth that by Profession the Ass●mbly understood much rather a meer verbal thing than the Practise of a holy Life or so much as the outward appearance thereof And ye may be ashamed to cite 2 Tim. 3.5 for that requireth us To turn away from s ch as having a fo●m of Godliness d●ny the Power thereof and that is to be sure from all Hypocrites and such who have not real inward Piety and Holiness for who have not true piety deny the Power of Godliness And that either the Presbyterian or Independent Constitution of a Church require an uniform Practice of a Godly and Christian Life in all the necessary parts of it as of living Soberly Righteously and Godly and denying Ungodliness and worldly Lusts is no wise apparent from their Practise however it may be allowed that some external Practices in some things that Hypocrites may most easily perform yea and Scandalous Persons also may be and are required as particularly To present their Children to be sprinkled To break Bread twice or four times a year more or less c. together To come to Church as it is called once or twice a week To salute the Minister with a Ha●l-Rabbi and a low Cringe in the streets and putting off the Hat and most especially as a most necessary practice To pay every one his share of the Preists Wages These and the like v●ry ordinary and superficial Practices are the mo●t that I can find are required in your Church Members and what is there required of the Spirit of God or real inward Holiness in all this surely nothi●g by your own confession Nor ought ye to blame me for this Character of your Church Members seeing John Fox giveth me a President in his Book of Martyrs 1. volum Pag. 43. in the like cass where he d●fineth a Christian man after the Popes making by his practisi●g some outward things no wi●● in●●rring inward Holiness of Life and afte● concludeth with these expres● words Now look upon this Definition viz. that he hath given of a Member of the Popes Church and tell me good Reader what Faith or Spirit or what working of the holy Ghost in all this Doctrine is to be required Whereby it is most plain th●t John Fox a man of great Authority among Protestants agreeth with the People called Quakers against both Presbyterians and Independents in the true definition of a Member of the true Church visible viz. That every such Member should have the true Faith and Spirit and working of the holy Ghost which yet ye openly deny to qualifie them thereunto requi●ing only an outside Profession of words and at most some outward Practices that may be and are commonly practised by the greatest Hypocrites Pag. 132. Ye say I find fault with you for using an Hour-glass to know how the time spends and a Bell to gather your Ass●mblies together But for the use of an Hour-glass simply to know the measure of Time I did find no fault with you but that ye commonly measure the Time of your preaching by the Hour-glass which showeth that none of you preach by the Spirit of God which is not limitted to any stinted measure of Time and the primitive Christian Preachers had no such thing as either Hour-Glass or Dial to measure the time of their Preaching nor are we against the civil use of Bells Clocks or Dials but the superstitions use of Bells hanging in high Steeples like the high places used by Idolators of Old and which ye follow the Papists in to call your Assembly together and the sound of which many ignorant and carnal People are vainly delighted with Hospimian de orig Templ saith Bells were not used for certain in the first five Centuries at most of Christianity when yet their Parishes or Church-Precincts were of a greater extent than the most diffused among us P. 133. Ye call the inward Gospel spiritual Bell ringing in the hearts of the faithful which is the living Word sounding in the hearts a Fancy more fabulous than any thing in Aesop Whereby ye show how carnal dark and ignorant ye are for hereby ye deny the inward Call Voice and Sound of Christ the Son of God in the hearts of the faithful which by a figure I call the Gospel Bell whereof Aarons Bells that did hang at his Garments were a Type and it is common in Scripture that the name of the Type is given to the thing typified by it But that Psal 89.15 intends the Silver Trumpets in the time of the Law ye barely alledge without

of God and these times are frequent and at such times the need of Scripture words and of all words that consist of Letters do cease as when a man eateth Bread and drinketh Wine and hath his taste well he needeth no words to tell him of the taste of it he tasteth it without all words that the mouth can utter and even so the Children of God at times yea frequently taste of the goodness and sweetness of Christ by an inward sensible taste without all Scripture words and without all present remembring of them yet if at such times the Spirit of God bringeth them to their remembrance they have a service at least t●●ncrease the doctrinal and discursive knowledge of God in them and further to open the Mysteries of the Christian Doctrine which is a great gift blessing of God in its place Pag. 34. Ye alledge I introduce an Hypothesis that is a Castle in the Air that they say there is no sensible or intuitive knowledge of God in this Life But I say many or most of you expresly deny it I mean most of these call'd Presbyterians and Independents as I have had to do with them before now who have told me There is no sensible knowledge of God at ●●ll no sight nor feeling nor taste of him and they give a reason for it viz. That only bodily things could be seen felt tasted but God being a Spirit could neither be felt nor tasted tho' the Scri●ture use these words of seeing tasting a a●d fe●ling they say they are as improper and metaphorical as when it is said in Scripture God hath Eyes Hands and Feet c. Again though ye seem to affirm it yet it is in contradiction to your selves for it is an absolute Contradiction to say A man hath a sight of God and taste and feeling of him and yet hath no immediate discovery and knowledge of him as much as to say I see and taste Wine and yet I have no immediate discovery or knowledge of it All sensible knowledge is immediate in regard of their Objects P. 34. Ye blame me that I say ye preach altogether an absent Christ but ye wrong and pervert my words as your manner is my word● are p. 36. They preach altogether an absen● Christ as some of them say Christ is not really and properly in his People or if present a Christ altogether dumb and silent c. So ye see my words are not positive but dis-junctive or alternative But if I did say so it is according to your own Doctrine though ye seem to contradict again for do ye not generally accuse the Quakers for setting up a false Christ because they preach him present and in his Saints yea and in all men in some respect and as Pardon Tillinghast and Benj. Keech cal● Christ in the heart a false Christ so John Owen whom ye esteem your reverend Brother in his Latine Treatise against us answered by Sam. Fisher saith If Christ be in every Quaker there are as many Christ as Quakers So you may see I do not wrong you and your Assembly ye so much honour say It is blasphemy to say the Saints are partakers of the Godhead And this is to exclude Christ with a witness And if some of you say God and Christ are in the Saints yet ye deny all immediate discovery sight and revelation of them objective or by way of object which is as g●eat Non-sence as to say A Man converseth with his Wife in one House eateth drinketh lodgeth with her and hath fellowship with her and yet she hath no immediate sight nor knowledge of him which she must needs have if she be not blind sensless and stupid and it is a most palpable Contradiction in you to say Men have a● intuitive and sensible knowledge of God that is distinct in specie from discursive knowl●dge and yet God and his Spirit in all his inward operations giveth no self-evidence thereof but is medium incognitum assentiendi i. e an unknown mean or Principle of assenting as the School-men phrase it particularly Robert Baron Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen in his Book called Apodixis Catholica de formali objecto fidei against Jesuit Turnbul more particularly cited in my Book of Immedi●te Revelation Pag. 37. The different degrees of Revelation well warranted by Scripture ye blasphemously and ignorantly call Rabbinical Fopperies That there is not only a gradual but specifical difference of divine Revelations I never denyed CAP. III. I Intend throughout principally to notice your gross Perversions and other gross Abuses and Mistakes which will in effect sufficiently answer all ye have said and leave my Book and the evidence of Truth held forth in it remaining in its full force and strength against you and the rather that the principal Controversies viz. That o● the Scriptures and That of inward divine Revelation and Inspiration i● the more fully already here handled for indeed these two are the Basis and Pillars of the following Controversies Pag. 36. Ye pervert my words as if I did affirm That the Scriptures only were a Rule to try Doctrines betwixt men and men But I neither mean nor say any such thing I believe they are a Rule in the hand and management of the Spirit to regulate our inward apprehensions and thoughts concerning all Christian Doctrines and yet the Spirits inward Witness is the greater Rule Pag. 39. Ye say To call the Spirit the Rule ● Non-sence I say to call the Spirit not abstractly but conjunctly with his inward witnessing and speaking is good sence to all but such as you who have not sence to understand it Ignatius as I have said above a more worthy man and precious Martyr of Jesus Ep. 14. to Ephes called the holy Spirit one Rule CAP. IV. PAg. 41. Ye own That natural and acquired Gifts of Letter Learning without a divine Inspiration are sufficient to qualifie a Gospel Minister and that Grace and true Piety is only accidental which ye confess may look black at first view It is so far well that since this is your Doctrine that we have it under your hand and it deserveth to be engraven in Capital Letters on the Doors of your Meeti●g Houses that the People may generally know it for very many to whom I have told it could not believe it to be your Doctrine but however now it is a good proof th t y● print it as yours Another saying of yours equally famous and which deserveth the same equal inscription in Capital Letters is that ye say It is no absurdity t●at a man may be a true Minister and not a true C●ristian But how then can he beget any unto God If he who is no true Christian can beget a true Christian by his Ministry it will as easily follow That he who is no man may beget a man for as in spiritual generation a man is but the Instrument so in the natural when a man begets a man child God

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

find Moon and Sun inwardly and spiritually understood in Scripture so I find seven Days and a Seventh Day inwardly and spiritually understood see Isa 30.26 but this to you is still a Mystery And whereas it is the outward and natural Sun that constitutes common and natural Days therefore did Origine Augustine and many others conclude That the seven Days mentioned Gen. 1.2 and Exod. 20. could not be common and natural Days for there was no Sun until the fourth Day nor Firmament until the second nor dry Land and Sea till the third P. 147. That God altered the Sabbath from the Seventh Day to the First ye meerly alledge without any proof as your common manner is I suppose ye are not so ignorant as not to know that Calvin the Father so called or Founder of the Presbyterian Church and the French Protestants generally and also the Dutch tho' they keep the First Day for worship after the manner of primitive Christians as we also do yet do not judge it to be the Sabbath or commanded by divine Institution we set apart that day worthily and commendably with other Protestants neither for any betterness in it simply as a Day nor as being commanded for a Sabbath but in honour of our Saviours Resurrection after the Example of the primitive Christians in the Apostles days mentioned in Scripture and that we see a great conveniency and service in it to keep a Day weekly unto the Lord and as said the Apostle He who keepeth a Day keepeth it unto the Lord and that Day rather than another because of Christs Resurrection on the first day of the week and the worthy Example of primitive Christians recorded in Scripture And thus I have gone through all the Heads contained in your Book relating to the Doctrinal part and have showed our agreement in every one of them with the holy Scriptures and also with famous Protestants and Antient Writers call'd Christian Fathers except in that one matter of Infant Baptism wherein if we differ from many of these called Antients in one thing ye differ in another for they generally judged it absolutely necessary to Salvation which ye as well as I judge an Error in them and these called Baptists commonly who may be judged as good Protestants as ye deny your Infant-Baptism as a humane Invention and yet ye have no other And if this doth not unchristian them so nor can it us and ye deny their baptizing into Water such who have been baptized when Infants why then may ye not allow the same Charity to us that ye viz. the more fober part both of Presbyterians and Baptists so called tho' the more Rigid sort call one another Hereticks allow one to another and that we allow to the sober and tender and honest hearted of you both yea and to such in all Professions where the Head and Foundation is held which is Christ we have that Charity that there is a sincere sort among all Professions who belong to God and Christ and tho' they have wrong Notions and Conceptions of some things belonging to Christian Doctrine and have not a form of sound words in delivering some matters of Faith which is a great hurt unto them yet they have some true inward sence of Christian Truth and Doctrine and their faith and sence may be partly sound where their words where by they express it may be very unsound for many have a right sence and feeling of things whereof they have not a right Elocution Utterance and form of Speech as in Naturals so in Spirituals as when Men taste Money and their taste of it is the same yet they differ in the Names they give it or in some subtile and curious Questions about the Nature of it or the nature and manner of tasting it that is not so very material So men may have some real sence and experience of the workings of the holy Spirit inward divine Revelations and Inspirations that work and beget in them some measure of true Faith Hope Love and other Christian Virtues and yet by the Prejudice of Education and wrong outward teaching or ill wording of things may give wrong Names to things yet God forbid we should unchristian them simply for a Mistake or defect in not giving proper words names to things and yet many things of Controversie among single hearted men lie but in words and such should have a regard to that which is good tender and sensible one in another where it is felt But where a persecuting and malitious Spirit and great hardness of Heart prevaileth in any these are not to be regarded as Christians whatever they profess So I would have you all to know all the sober and tender hearted People of New-England and else-where whether called Presbyterian Independent Baptist or Episcopal yea and others holding the Head and being sincere in the main That we can and do own that your sincerity altho' we cannot but differ from you in matters both of Doctrine and Practice wherein we find you to err from the path of Truth and so far as we have together attained and are agreed in all good things of Christian Doctrine or Practice let us walk by the same Rule and live in Charity one with another Pag. 148. In your Reflections on that I called A Call and Warning to the People of Boston c. first ye falsly charge me That I arrogate as much to my self as any of the Prophets of Old had of an immediate Mission from God But let that Paper be considered and it shall not be found that I arrogate or assume any thing equal to the Prophets of Old only I did and I do still affirm That I had the Word of the Lord to declare to the People of Boston c. and it was as a burden unto me until I had delivered it he who hath not Gods Word as it liveth and is the Word of Life in his heart is no true Minister of Christ but every Minister of Christ is not either Apostle or Prophet in that high and eminent sence that is frequent in Scripture Ye charge me with 1st Lying 2dly Slandering 3dly Railing 4thly False Doctrine 5thly Non-sence but all this ye alledge without proof as your manner is Sharp Speeches are not Railing always but commendable in some cases for both Christ and the Prophets and Apostles used them to men of your Generation your Speeches are more sharp against me my Friends than ours are against you and which are most deserving we freely leave it to the Lord and his Witness in mens Consciences Ye would six Non-sence on my words that I said Your Self-actings of all sorts in that ye call your Duties and Performances ye are to repent of c. Where it is clear by that ye call your Duties I did understand and so might ye your Preaching Praying Singing without the Spirit of God and them pag. 149. ye call Dirt and Dung and yet ye