weighty Scripture containing the very Work of Regeneration and sine qua non or that only certain Means Condition and Requisit without which there can be no obtaining of Eternal Life and Salvation requires our best notice and consideration in order to which I shall divide the place into these two Heads and briefly raise my Argument thereon 1. Christ's most positive exclusion of all from any Portion in God's Kingdom who were not born again in answer to Nicodemus his carnal Conceit of the impossibility of an old mans entring a second time into his Mothers Womb. 2. That the Birth which all such as would inhererit God's Kingdom should be Witnesses of was and is the Birth of Water and the Spirit upon which I thus proceed to argue If none can Inherit God's Holy Kingdom but those who are regenerated of Water and the Spirit then none can inherit God's Holy Kingdom but such as are cleansed by Water and taught led and guided by God's Holy Spirit The first none can deny that own the Scripture it being but a part of the very verse quoted the second I evidently prove thus If Water and Spirit be the only operative to Regeneration and Regeneration the alone Way to the Kingdom of God then can no man inherit God's Kingdom that is not regenerated neither can any man be regenerated that is not washed by the Water of Life begotten work't formed inspired and acted by that Eternal Spirit to Newness of Life That to be begotten is to be principally guided and acted by that by which any is so begotten I prove No man can live move sensate or act but from the original Heat Life Motion and Action of that which did beget him because the Nature of that which begets being conveyed to the begotten truly renders him begotten or else there were no such thing but every regenerate man is the Begotten of the Eternal Spirit so far as concerns his Renovation or Regeneration therefore every such regenerated man was and is led motion'd and acted by that Eternal Spirit which begot him and consequently the Saints which are the regenerated are not left destitute of an infallible Teacher Judge Rule and Guide amongst them In short We look upon being born of Water and the Spirit to be Our being cleansed from all filthiness and quickened informed ruled and guided by the most pure and perfect Dictates and Operations of God's Eternal Spirit And how a Regenerated man can be made or continue such without the daily Guidance of that Infallible Spirit and the Scriptures kept clear from the Reflection of Contradiction if not gross Error is a Riddle too hard for me to explain and a Task I may without Presumption say too great for our trifling Antagonist to perform Twelfthly John 14. 16 17 18 20. 16. 13. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever Even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Again Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come be will guide you into all Truth Upon these Divine Passages thus particularly exprest by the Holy Ghost I offer these short Arguments 1. If the Spirit of Truth or most infallible Spirit be God's Gift to his Servants in Gospel times to abide with them forever then are they accompanied with an infallible Spirit but we see the plain Text proves that God gives his Spirit of Truth to his Servants that they might be assisted in all their Wants and therefore they are not without such an infallible Spirit And our Adversary is more to blame to reflect upon the Guidance of an infallible Spirit which is so consonant with the express Letter of a multitude of Scripture Passages then we are because we credit G. F. upon Conviction And if he tells us That unless we believe what our Eyes see of Contradictions as he pretends by him collected out of G. F's Book that he will not believe whatever we shall say or affirm we may on much better Grounds conclude never to believe what he asserts and wholy to decline writing or speaking to him to use his own words if hereafter he will dare to continue in the belief of so Anti-scriptural and Anti-gospel an Apprehension as that there is no infallible Spirit to guide men in the Way of Salvation which is as express and evident from many naked Texts of Scripture as that God is Truth else never did any Writing more delude Mankind because none could be more particular and plain in the Promise and allowance of it But let God and his written Will be true and our Vnspiritual Adversary in his confest Fallible Judgment of us a very Lyar. 2. If the not seeing and knowing of the Spirit of Truth be the Reason rendred by our Lord Jesus why the World receives it not then may we most justly infer that they never saw it neither know it but are of the World who cannot receive it but write against it in reference to its greatest Office viz. Of being the Saints Teacher Leader and Comforter And indeed because the Spirit is not some visible elementary thing that may be seen by their outward Eyes and be comprehended by their dark confused and disputative Brains which is contrary to the Decree and Way of God's manifesting of his Will from the conviction of the least sin to the enjoyment of the highest Glory therefore they dis-regard it as contemptible and dis-believe it as incredible 3. If the Ground of the Saints Knowledge of that Infallible Spirit be the Spirit 's inhabiting them for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you then were they not without that Spirit and consequently they were attended with an infallible Guide within them 4. If the Lord Jesus would not leave them comfortless but though visibly with-drawn yet in a more Spiritual and Invisible manner would come to them again and that at that day they should know that He was in his Father they in Him and He in them Then were his Servants not destitute of an infallible Judge Leader and Guide because they had Him that was the Way Truth and Life to whom all Power and Judgment were committed 5. If both the Spirit of Truth was promised to come and when come to guide into all Truth that is to say that whateve they scrupled were ignorant in or ought to know and practicer with what they were oblieged to reject and testifie against should be by that Eternal Spirit discovered unto them then undoubtedly they were not without an infallible Spirit to Judge Regulate and Guide them in all that concerned Faith Worship and Conversation but the first Proposition is purely Scriptural and therefore the consequent not
from Falshood the Rule of what ought to be received and embraced and the Guide of Life be the Anointing which none denies that I know of to be the Spirit of God then both the only way to be taught all things necessary to be believed and performed is the Anointing and that Anointing is in Believers respectively but the Scripture so asserts And consequently the right Christian is not without that Infallible Spirit to teach and lead him into all Truth 1 John 3. 24. And he that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us If the Union betwixt Christ and his Children be that they dwell in him and he in them and that they thereby know it by the Spirit that he hath given them which implies that they had the Unerring Spirit of Christ then true Believers are not without Christ and his Spirit dwelling in them to Guide Rule and Instruct them in all things necessary to Eternal Life and Salvation He that denyes the first denyes the Scripture and he that rejects the second Proposition had as good deny that Day is an Effect of Light Jude 19 20. These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost c. If such as have not the Spirit are sensual then because the true Children of God are not sensual it follows that they have the Spirit and that those who have it not are not the Children of God because such are sensual This the Apostle further manifests to be his mind because leaving the sensualists he addresses himself to the Sanctified of God exhorting them To build up one another on their most holy Faith Praying in the Holy Ghost which shews that they performed their Worship to God in the Motion of the Eternal Spirit and consequently they could not be destitute of an Unerring Spirit in what concerned them either towards God or Men. Thus have I briefly run through the Scriptures of Truth and doubt not but I have made it appear That God has afforded his People in all Ages such a measure of his Eternal Spirit as hath been sufficient to Inform Rule and Guide them infallibly in and about those things which are absolutely necessary to be known or done unto Eternal Life It remains That I evidence the Truth of my Assertion by Reason also which I shall endeavour with what convenient brevity I can That Christian Men have an Infallible Principle to Judge Rule and Guide them I prove by REASON First I Shall take it for granted That no man whom either Education or Conviction gives to believe there is a God can be so unreasonable as to tâ—ink That any man may be farther able to understand what this God is and his Divine Pleasure concerning him then the same is discovered to him by some external or internal Operation from the same infinite Beeing this then must either be by the visible Creation or that invisible Taste or Rellish the Soul has by vertue of the divine Touches Influences and Discoveries that the Almighty Invisible God is pleased to approach his Creatures by as the next clearest way to communicate unto them the knowledge of himself Secondly And as I know not any who professeth Religion that makes the least scruple of this so how is it possible that such Discoveries as God himself is pleased to make should be fallible or subject to any Defect in themselves for were that admitted as must be upon the Principles of our Adversary then must we conclude an Imperfect Knowledge nay an uncertain not to say Erronious Knowledge of and Faith in God to be from God's own defective Manifestations of himself which however truly deduced from his Positions is a most Vnworthy and False Reflection upon the Mercy and Goodness of God Thirdly There is an absolute necessity That what it is convenient for man to know should be certainly and infallibly discovered to him because of that great Corruption Idolatry and Superstition which through that misty and uncertain Prospect they say man has of the Divine Will he may be subject to fall into and like the vain Worshippers of old conceit an Ape Serpent or Crockedell to be a Deity or some other Beeings or Fancies though less gross yet too gross for a Christian man Fourthly Upon our Adversary's Principles there can be no assured Ground of Comfort for when a man shall think he hath workt out his Salvation in the Way he Conceives most acceptable with God perhaps he hath followed an Erronious Judgment and Unsubject Affection and when Repentance may be too late he is to be fob'd off with such an Award as this You had no Infallible Knowledge and having lived in an Erronious sense of your own you must inherit the Displeasure that follows thereby making well or ill believing or doing a meer Lottery or doing of things by Chance and not from any certain knowledge in themselves of what God required of them A Conceit worthy to be disdained by every sober man Fifthly And were I as our Adversary I would never beat my Brain about what is true or false since upon his Principles when Truth meets me I know her not from Error and after I should have writ Volums I am as certain of the Truth of what I oppose as of what I assert so that the Quakers may be in the right for ought he knows nor have they any certain grounds from him on which to alter or believe the contrary Sixthly Nor does this Opinion of our Adversary that there is no such thing as man's being now led by an infallible Spirit end there for it rendereth the Almighty more injust then the worst of men since first he seems to offer men the clearest Discoveries of so much of his Will as he requires them to live conformable unto yet means nothing less by leaving Mankind to labour under the perplexity of an uncertain Knowledge And secondly Concludes him notwithstanding under the greatest certainty of eternal Punishment Methinks then If these things seem unreasonable though the genuine Effects of a fallible Guide our Adversary should by this time think it fit to allow us 1. That God cannot be known but by the Discoveries he makes of himself through his Eternal Power and Spirit unto Mankind 2. That though such Discoveries may be imperfect in Degree yet not in kind 3. That such Revelation Discovery or Instruction is infallibly true and that there is nothing wanting on God's part to accommodate man with a Spiritual Certain Infallible Discovery and Knowledge of Almighty God his Creator and therefore man has to rectifie and assist his fallible Judgement an Vnerring Certain Infallible Spirit Power or Principle which as man listens unto it and follows it his Vnderstanding becomes illuminated his Reason purified and a sound Judgment restored and in all things is
well suppose that because he doth reciprocally exhort Children and Servants that therefore he stiled them so in a way of singular Respect Either let our Adversary deny that particular Homage and Respect are intended by the vulgar Titles of Master Lord c. or else prove That the Apostle had the same Intention with these of our Times in their Titles of Respect to one another when He wrote to Fathers Children Masters and Servants But let it suffice that he was laying down a general Rule for both as in reference to such relations without having any particular Persons or Titles in his Eye and unless he had known and mentioned all the Names of those that then were and hereafter should be Fathers and Children Masters and Servants he could not otherwise have expressed his Mind But why should I farther contend with so much Weakness yet he seems to have a little Greek for his Ignorance let 's hear what it sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all rendered Master But that which is used by Christ in this Text Mat. 23. 10. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Katheegeetees which signifies as the Learned tells us a Leader of the Way or Guide but as for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kyrios which the Apostle Paul useth to the Ephesians and Collossians and is translated sometimes Master and sometimes Sir most often Lord we find that the Apostles both singularly and plurally suffered themseles to be called by it as the Greeks called Philip Sir we would see Jesus John 12. 21. and the Jaylor came Trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and said Sirs or Masters what must I do to be saved I Answer This makes nothing for the Business though it makes Business for none questions the use of several words upon several Occasions in Scriptures as the Apostle to the Ephesians and Collossians doth Father Master c. which I have already explained and proved nothing to the matter in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie a Lord or Master thus because it properly imports Authority or One having Power a Governour or the like But this makes for us such as are our Governours we do distinguish by Titles that plainly express their Authority though not with all those gaudy Flatteries that men in Deceitfulness invent and use to gratifie the Proud Part in any Man But what is this to calling Men Master since we deny not the use of Master Father Son Servant c. where they are significantly and not improperly and Sycophantly used And for the Greeks that desired to see Jesus and the Jaylor that tremblingly cryed out Sirs what shall I do to be saved they are no Instances of Advantage to him unless we should be so very ridiculous as to think that because any Man customarily calls me Master therefore I must call him or other Men Master and that I thought it well done in him to call me so or because any man commits an Evil and our Adversary does not immediately reprove him therefore it is no Evil in it self and he commits the like So what if Philip Paul and Silâ—â— were called Sirs not either to Tempt Jeer or Flatter them but in a customary manner in which many scarce think what they say must it follow that the Practice was not after the Proud Fashions of the Gentile Nations or that they were guilty of the same Practice because they did not just then reprove it when the poor Greeks lookt for a Saviour and God's heavy Judgments had taken hold on the Jaylor causing him to possess the Sins of his Youth which made him a Quaker indeed for he came fearing and trembling unto them No no the matter was then of greater moment the Salvation of Souls had they talked to them of the Title Master or Masters that would have been no Answer to their weighty Question nor any allay to that earnest Enquiry and deep Agony the Queriers were under Shew us the Saviour O! what must I do to be saved So that how Reprovable soever that had been in it self or at another time yet it did not seem then to the Holy Ghost to be the time the Matter in hand was how to bring them to the Light and Knowledge of that Jesus which was given for a Saviour and when they had found him and he had Discipled them to call no man Master nor to look for it because One was their Master would all naturally follow as relative to that Evangelical Religion Well but sayes he Mary Magdalene called Jesus Sir supposing he had been the Gardener and you will not say that Jesus suffered her to sin in his presence without reproving her which I abhor to think Yet this won't serve his turn for first that Sir was not of that force and Emphasis which Master was the Title mostly insisted on the next Verse tells us where Jesus said unto her Mary and she turned her self and said unto him Rabboni which is to say Master as if she had first recalled her self and then styl'd him by a more Reverent Title then that she gave him as the supposed Gardener Next we know that till the pouring out of the Holy Spirit which was to bring all things to their Remembrance that Jesus had at times said unto them and to lead them into all Truth the Disciples among whom she was not the least were in the practice of more Customs then that which after they grew up in a more mature Knowledge of Christ and his invisible Kingdom they declined and finally rejected Nor doth it follow that she therefore did well because she was not reproved of Jesus where the Stress seems to lie or did that which in the true State of Christianity was so much as allowable for Christ â—ever particularly chekâ— Peter for denying him that we read of and I suppose all grant Peter did amiss yet by our Adversary's inconsequent way of arguing he either would make Peter not to have done ill in denying his Lord or Jesus so in not reproving him for doing it which let me tell him we also abhor to think But now he doubtless pleas'd himself with the Conceit of having irrecoverably caught us in that passage of Stephen's where he saith That He a man full of Faith and Power said to the Council of the Jews Men Brothren and Fathers Theâ— were not his Fathers but they were Fathers In which his good will is seen but how to effect what he would have is as difficult as before for the Jews being a People peculiarly separated from all other Nations in comparison of others might not unfitly be called a great Family as being lineally descended of twelve Brethren so that it was frequent among them instead of Ancestors to say our Fathers did so and so And this Way of Speach Christ himself used when he said Your Fathers eat Manna in the Wilderness wherefore what Stephen said might be both allowable and true They were Men that is not disputed
prosper such ignoble clandestine Projects and maskt Attempts as what our Adversary and his small Cabal are plentifully guilty of 'T is true I cannot say all are equally concealed in their Endeavours against us for when the man has writ and printed his Book there is a small Cryer of his that like an Eager officious Broaker runs too and fro to disperse it most commonly known by smelling his Breath stinking of such foul Epethites as Knave Puppy Fool Rascal Loggerhead Cheat which with much more of the same loathsome Sent he is pleased to bestow upon George Fox as a necessary Introduction to our Adversary's Confutation of his Book Certainly Reader we have little Cause to esteem these men the Restorers of Paths to dwell in Defenders of the true Religion and Tryers of other mens Spirits who give such little Proof of the Knowledge of their own as to be wanting in the very Alphabet or first Principle of Common Civility But Reader I will not longer detain thee in an Epistle whatever variety of matter I may have to invite me hoping that the ensuing Discourse will abundantly satisfie thee in those very things for which our Adversary thinks us most unfit of all to be believed I have not given my self the common range that other Writers do few caring to buy and fewer to read large Discourses but as the Matter briefly and naturally riz upon every Head without any other artifice or dress it is presented to thee I omit more then an Hundred Things that would engage to personal Reflection for my Soul hath no Pleasure in striving therein as knowing the inconsistancy of that uncharitable virulent Temper with a Christian Spirit which I am assur'd is quite another thing from what is Verbose Abusive Cavelling Airy and meerly Notional which had our Adversary duely considered he would have found it more his true Interest to have liv'd in a daily Subjection to the pure Grace that brings Salvation and have kept his mind diligently exercised therein to the perfecting Holiness in the Fear of the Lord then thus to exalt himself against an inoffensive People but I leave all with God whose Will be done recommending thee Reader to his holy Witness in thy Conscience to be by that alone Condemn'd or Justify'd in this Apologetical Undertaking W. Penn. READER THE Author's Absence from the Press and that Difficulty which otherwise attends our Printing have occasion'd several Errors as well in Words as Letters besides in many places a neglect of due Stops a brief view of which is here presented to thee and the common Curtesie in both Excusing and Correcting them is now desired and expected from thee Page Line Errors Corrected 11 1 is are  14 obstruse abstruse  32 o to 13 17 ruin run 29 8 Contex Context 30 25 sence sense  30 into body into one Body 33 7 Paul Peter 37 28 and so that as and so as that 38 15 these those 39 19 neither either 52 17 faith far the 53 9 he be 54 9 the of the Light of  14 that comes coming  15 the this  17 thaet comes coming 18  20 that comes coming  22 that comes coming 60 8 as blot it out Page Line Error Corrected 76 28 worldly creaturely 78 35 what could what more could 79 21 Motions Notions 81 28 Eternal External  32 or or as 83 38 our your 84 â—1 read fall 92 29 and blot it out 105 11 degree decrâ—e 114 7 sayes he he sayes 115 33 are were 126 6 scarce by scarcely THE Spirit of Truth VINDICATED Against That of Error Envy Unseasonably Manifested In a late Malicious LIBEL Intituled The Spirit of the Quakers Tryed c. I Cannot but esteem it a peculiar Providence of Mercy from the Most High God to us his poor Despised People though an Instance of great Unkindness in our Adversary that after our several years pressure under the Heavy Calumnies of being involved with a Socinian Confederacy he should so suffer it to come to pass that without the least Provocation given on our parts one of that sort of men should become our Compurgator indeed our best Advocate in pleading against us for whilst he goes about to detect the Quakers of an Erronious Spirit it is to be supposed that he denies them any share in his and therefore no Socinians I hope whatever comes of this Debate we shall no longer suffer for being what we are not it would be hard that we should both be condemned for Socinians and then abused for refusing to be so Let them not be offended with me if I use the word it s not from any undervalue of the Man they take it from nor out of any Reproach to them but only as a word of Difference to distinguish Persons or Perswasions by And without any other Prologue or Introduction I shall discend to the Book it self § 1. First then He is pleased to allow us at least a great many among us To be Honest-hearted yet wonderfully deluded and very Dangereus to the Christian Religion I confess it is no wonder when men will make themselves Work and rather then want it bestow their Cavils at the Truth it self that they should fall into strange and impertinent Contradiction but that any man pretending so highly to Reason and Religion should shew so little Understanding in either as to conceive that a Man can be properly Honest-hearted and yet Deluded and Dangerous to the Christian Religion I confess is beyond my skill to reconcile I desire God knows to be the Honest-hearted Man and let him take the rest to himself For that which reduces man fallen short of the Glory of God to an Honest Heart and a Life good and Laudable as our Adversary speaks of us must be the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and not another thing and consequently who has that is not Deluded nor Dangerous to the Christian Religion § 2. If we Excel in all things as he confesseth which is to say that there are but few things wherein we don't transcend all others how possibly can we be Dangerous and Dishonourable to the Christian Religion Is the Christian Religion among the few things wherein we are supposed wanting which is the main thing of all if so What are the many § 3. It was ill done and an Aggravation not only of his Uncharitableness and Incivility but his great Injustice and Deceit to refuse us his Name upon a Pretence of avoiding a Subject for our Personal Reflection whilst both his Beginning and End is an entire Abuse against our Persons and Practices And what he owns Praise-worthy in us is not because he would be honest to us but that he might by paying us our due in lesser matters the more plausibly Rob us of our Right to what is of more weighty Importance namely The true Life and Doctrine of Christianity which shews how little a share he has of either § 4. Nor does
grateful is the lowest degree of Reason to us wheresoever we find it that we can no more deny it or occasionally refuse our selves the use of it then the greatest since its being so does not unreason it or render it no Reason in it self though confessedly a less degree of Reason nor is it possible that the meanest Appearance of Reason can withstand the greatest since Reason alwayes acknowledgeth and owneth her self in what Degree soever she meets It is not Stature that makes a Man nor Magnitude a Tree or Stone but the Nature and Property of each And truly we are well contented with our weak Reason as he is pleased to call it we know it to be God's Light Grace and Spirit of Truth that since we gave our Minds intirely to be governed and exercised by it We have found that Mortification of Sin and Corruption that Renewing of Heavenly Divine Life that holy Courage and Patience and it has brought us to so good an Vnderstanding of the Mysteries of God's Eternal Kingdom and Assurance as we are faithful to the same of Everlasting Blessedness that 't is beyond the power of the ratling of these Leaves of Charge and Reproach to scare us from our Standing or beget the least Question in us concerning the certainty of this Pure Unchangeable Way of God in which we walk but is invisible to his vulterous Eye who so disdainfully writes against it I had some hopes he had done with Personal Contest at least against the Body but I find him still in his Reflections For whilst you look upon your selves as led by an infallible Spirit though it be indeed nothing but the Fancy of G. Fox or some other of your Teachers you must needs reject the clearest Light that God hath given to Men 〈◊〉 Angels when it opposes your Sentments Though he could scarce say any thing of us more disingenious and scurrilous rendring us such deluded Sots and very Iddeots as to captivate our own Understandings if he can think we had ever any to the Dreams and Fancies of a few illiterate men under an Apprehension of being led not by them but an Infalible Spirit Yet since in this one Expression lies wrapt up if not his great undervalue of an Infallible Spirit at least his Disbelief of any such thing as the Guide of men and his unworthy Reflection upon us in crediting any such Doctrine I am more then ordinarily engag'd to state and vindicate that one most necessary Doctrine viz. Whether God's holy and Infallible Spirit be the proper Rule of Faith Judge of Controversies and Guide of a Christian Life or any other thing this I reckon as the main Hing on which all turns and I now make it my Post by which in God's Strength I am resolved to stand firm in its Defence and that by Scripture and Reason hoping whatever uncharitable Thoughts he entertains of us that he is not so devoid of all sense of either as that they may not be used with advantage to him under his present Ignorance and Presumption 'T is true this deserves an intire Discourse of it self as that which above all other Subjects disputed on in the whole World deserves mans most weighty Consideration and if the Lord make way it may be by some or other more distinctly and at large hanâ—llâ—d another time in a perticular Tract however I shall state and briefly defend the Question I hope to present satisfaction The Question Stated Whether God's Holy and Unerring Spirit for I am so Charitable as to think he believes God's Spirit to be so is or should be the proper Judge of Truth Rule of Faith and Guide of Life among men especially under the Administration of the Blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or not I affirm it and proceed to prove it both by Scripture and Reason First Gen. 6. 3. And the Lord said My Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man for that he also is Flesh yet his dayes shall be an Hundred and Twenty Years c. If God's Unerring Spirit has been wont to strive with men either to convince them of and convert them from the Evil of their Thoughts words and Deeds or else to provoke them yet more fully to do the Will of God so as to press on from one degree of Glory to another then Men have had an Unerring Spirit to be their Teacher and Judge and Rule and Guide of that Truth concerning that Faith and in that most holy Way which leads to Eternal Life But the Scripture proves the first Proposition That God's Spirit has frequently strove with men and for the Ends before-mentioned and consequently they have not been without an Holy Vnerring Spirit to Teach Judge Regulate and Guide them Secondly Neh. 9. 19 20. Yet thou in thy manifold Mercies forsookest them not in the Wilderness the Pillar of the Cloud departed not from them by Day to lead them in the Way neither the Pillar of Fire by Night to shew them Light and the Way wherein they should go Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them c. If under the Dispensation of the Law God gave his good Spirit to instruct his People which is to say that it should teach them rule them and guide them in whatever was necessary for them to know or do otherwise God's Spirit would have been lame and defective in his holy Instruction which far be it from any sober man to affirm then will it follow that much more should the same Eternal Spirit be poured out under the glorious Dispensation of the Gospel But all that acknowledge the Divine Authority of the Scriptures must confess to God's Goodness to his People in the outward Wilderness in the free Gift of his Eternal Spirit therefore the Eternal Spirit was and is the Teacher Judge Rule and Guide of his People now besides that state was but figurative of the Mystical Travel of the true Church in the dayes of the Gospel and how is God so propitious now as then if he be not as a Pillar of Cloud by Day and of Fire by Night I mean Spiritually and Invisibly so to illuminate his People concerning the way he would have them to walk in Thirdly Job 32. 8. Prov. 2. 6. But there is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Vnderstanding For the Lord giveth Wisdom out of his Mouth cometh Knowledge and Vnderstanding If the Spirit in man be not of man as the foregoing words shew and therefore is that divine Spirit by and from which comes the Inspiration of the Almighty and if the Understanding he mostly intended be of Divine and Eternal Matters as the whole Subject treated on in the preceeding and following Chapters as well as that in which the words are manifests then is it not from the strength of mans Reason Memory or utmost Creaturely Ability that his Knowledge of Religious and Heavenly Things comes but from the Revelation and Discovery of the
Inspiration of the Almighty And if by such Divine Inspirings it be that the Will of God comes to be understood then certainly must God's unerring Spirit be the Judge of what is God's Will from what is not and the Rule how and in what we ought to believe unto Salvation and that Guide which infallibly leads in the Way that is most acceptable with the Lord. Nothing can be more Natural then these Consequences Fourthly Psal 139. 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If God's Unerring Spirit be so nigh and the sense of it so certain it must either be to reprove for Evil done or to inform uphold lead and preserve in reference to all Good Now in which of the two sences it shall be taken the Presence of God's Eternal Spirit and his being the Saints Instructor Judge Rule and Guide are evidently deduceable from the words Fifthly Psal 143. 10. Teach me to do thy Will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of Vprightness The Question will be Whether it was David's intent and the scope of his desire that God should teach and lead him by his good Spirit or some other thing but methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative in two respects 1. In that David is so very frequent in his desire to the Lord for the Assistance Strength Teaching and Guidance of God's unerring Spirit otherwise declaring how that the Word was hid in his Heart and largly speaking of the Force of that Internal Law Word and Spirit of God which plentifully shews how much he was an Enthusiast and Quaker in the sense this man esteems us most hetrodox 2. The very words imply the thing we urge them for and can import no other sence viz. That God would please to teach him to do his Will and lead him into the Land of Vprightness by his good Spirit else what did that Claws do there the Unerring Spirit being that by which God vouchsafes to discover his Divine Knowledge and convey his most Spiritual Succor and Consolation to his People and consequently his Saints have ever known but do more especially under the Gospel injoy an infallible Judge Rule and Guide in and about Faith and Worship Sixthly Isa 30. 1. Wo to the Rebellious Children saith the Lord that take Counsel but not of me and that cover with a Covering but not of my Spirit that they may add sin to sin From whence I plainly argue thus If they are Rebellious against God and add sin to sin who take not Counsel of him and are not covered with his Holy Unerring Spirit that leads into all Truth Innocence Patience Faith Hope Charity and every good Word and Work Then 1. God's Children have an Immediate Councellor and need not another and are covered or encompast about by the infallible Spirit of God to all Soundness of Mind and Holiness of Life And 2. They must be Heinous Offenders and obstinately Rebellious and Adders of sin to sin with a witness that not only neglect or refuse to be so counsel'd and cover'd but dispute fervently against it as a meer Whimsie and Effect of an Ignorant Erronious spirit for besides that such deprive themselves and others of the unspeakable benefit that comes thereby they are most ingrateful to God and do certainly incur his fierce Wrath in their so wicked requital of him for his Heavenly Gift Seventhly Isa 59. 21. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed's Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever I think it is granted by all that own the Christian Religion that this remarkable place refers to Christ the true Seed and Heir of promise who bruiseth the Head of the Serpent in whom alone all Nations of them that believe come to obtain the Blessing But whether it will be allowed or another Interpretation allotted as that the Promise was to the Church to be sure here is enough to maintain our Position viz. That God in the dayes of the Gospel more particularly has given his good Spirit for an Instructer Judge Rule and Guide in all that concerns the Eternal Well-being of the Souls of Believers as I proceed to prove If that very same Eternal Holy and unerring Spirit which God poured out upon his only begotten Son be in a way of succession ordained to continue with and upon all the Faithful his Seed and Seed's Seed begotten unto a lively Hope by the raising of Christ Jesus from the dead and so become Members of his own Glorious Body then are not the Children of God destitute of his Vnerring Spirit not left to their own frail and fallible Judgments to determine of what is Right or Wrong what Men should believe and what not how they should walk and how not But so gratious is the Promise and so certain is the performance as we livingly witness against all the dry cavelling Letter-mâ—ngers in the World who Quarrel about the holy-mens words and are Strangers to the Convictions Judgments Tryals Tribulations Temptations and Travels they underwent in order to that knowledge they had and which frets their serpentine natures whose vulterous Eye would in its unregenerate state of Worldly Wisdom that knows not God fain without the Death of the Cross creep into the knowledge of the mystery of the Resurrection which state alone knows the things that are above at the Right-hand of God Therefore I conclude That God's Unerring Spirit under the Gospel does attend assist direct and finally establish his Children in the Way of Truth and that his so doing is but the Answer or Accomplishment of the most eminent Prophesies referring to the Transcendent Glory of the last Ages of the Church Eighthly Ezek. 36. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them Behold a most pregnant Instance in the express Language of the Holy Ghost brought to the proof of our Assertion that with reverence we would say it scarcely could it have been more exactly and emphatically worded as I proceed to shew 1. That this Passage has a relation to the Times of Reformation or Coming of the Messiah and Dayes of the Gospel Covenant read the whole Chapter I know not that it was ever doubted or otherwise taken by any no not the very Rabbies themselves who from such places have observed the coming of a Messiah and Glorious times that would ensue 2. That if it be granted then the Vnerring Spirit of God was to be placed within the Hearts and Consciences of his People and consequently they could not be properly and truly under the new Covenant and be without it since the having of that Eternal Spirit for the Ends and
Purposes afore-mentioned is the very Badge Condition and Mark of the New and Last Covenant 3. It seems to be the means under the Gospel by which God causes his Children to keep his Statutes c. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them To conclude to speak strictly If in the dayes of the second Covenant which began from Christ's visible Appearance God put his Spirit within his People as saith the Apostle to the Hebrews and that it was thereby he did and doth cause them to walk in his Statutes and keep his Judgments then God's Children are not without an Infallible Teacher and Leader in the Things that appertain to their Eternal Salvation But we plainly see and read from the very Letter of the Scriptures that God gives his Spirit or Light within to Judge Lead and Guide and consequently the opposit Doctrine is both false and very pernicious I might further argue thus That if God's Unerring Spirit only enables men to walk in his Statutes and keep his Judgments to do them then since all are required to walk therein none are exempted from a sufficient measure of that Vnerring Spirit in order to it Much might be argued hereon but this shall suffice Ninthly Joel 2. 28 29. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall Prophesie your Old Men shall dream Dreams your Young Men shall see Visions And also upon the Servants and upon the Hand-maids in those dayes will I pour out my Spirit That this is generally believed and frequently quoted as a Proof of Gospel-Times is well known to most who are inquisitive after Matters of Religion and how hard it bears upon the Anti-spiritual Opinion of our cavelling Adversary though very evident yet we shall further proceed to shew 1. Here is God's Royal Engagement to effuse or pour forth of his blessed Spirit in the dayes of the New Covenant 2. Here is on whom it is to be poured forth exprest in two words ALL FLESH in more words Young and Old Men and Women Masters Mistresses and Servants Mark the Universality of God's Mercy and Grace Now from hence I argue If God's Unerring Spirit be to be poured out on all under the New Covenant and that this is the time thereof then has God poured out of his Vnerring Spirit as aforesaid that the Spirit is to be poured out under the Administration of the Gospel the Text proves that this is the Time he himself confesses pag. 1 12 13 45. therefore the Conclusion is undeniable viz. That God has poured forth of his Holy and Unerring Spirit Again If the Spirit of God is that without which none can obtain Prophesie and Vision and that Prophesie and Vision are Christian-Church Gifts then since the Church of Christ is not to be without Prophesies and Vision to the End of the World it follows she cannot be without an infallible Spirit to the end of the World Or thus If without having the Spirit none can have Prophesie and Vision and that Prophesie and Vision are both to be and to continue in Christ's Church universally then it will naturally follow that she cannot be without that Vnerring Spirit and that such as are cannot in that state be Members of the true Church then consequently Hereticks as concerning the true Faith Tenthly Hag. 2. 5. According to the Word that I Covenanted with you when yee came out of Egypt so my Spirit remaineth among you fear not This place doth very emphatically prove my Assertion concerning the Judgship and Guidance of God's Spirit two things seem clear 1. That it was a part of God's Old Covenant to wit That his Spirit should remain amongst them 2. That the Spirit 's so remaining was to some eminent Service for said the Lord Fear not as much as to say don't faint in your Minds concerning the Work you have to do neither be ye filled with Doubts or Scruples who shall inform us who direct us or we want a Leader in this difficult matter some one to remove our Objections and Fears and to preside or be as Judge among us how to order and regulate us to the doing of the Service expected from us for thus saith the Lord My Spirit remains among you fear not He is sufficient for you He shall teach and counsel you repair to Him advise with him and you shall be supplied with all things necessary for you Don't rebel against my Good Spirit and you are safe it shall be well with you In short If it was a Condition of the Old Covenant That God should accompany his then Children with the Assistance and Presence of his good Spirit and accordingly he testified by his Prophet That his holy Spirit remained among them then much more reasonable it is to believe that the Presence of that Eternal Spirit should continually accompany his Children under the New and Last Testament The first part the Place proves the second is made good by the plain import of the following Prophetick verses where he saith I will shake all Nations and the Desire of all Nations shall come And I will fill this House with Glory and the Glory of this latter House shall be greater then of the former saith the Lord of Hosts How then can it possibly be That God's Evangelical House and Tabernacle should be a dry empty barren erronious man alwayes enquiring but never come to the infallible Knowledge of the only True God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent whom to know by the Revelation of the Eternal Spirit is Life Everlasting Nay who so great who so pernicious Enemies to the transcendent Glory of the latter House and Temple of God as the cavelling Anti-spiritual Men of our Age who are so angry with those that own a Conviction Faith and Worship grounded upon an Infallible Inspiration that their Rage leads them because they feel it not to the utter denying of any such things but I will assure them they shall yet grope in the dark till they come into the daily obedience of the Light and there rest contented to know only as they experience and not from a ravening comprehending Brain that would in its unregenerated state grasp at the clear Mysteries of the Kingdom into which fleshly Comprehensions and Notions can never enter but all must be as unlearned from their first Birth Education and traditional read Knowledge as he is unmanned that is again become a little Child before the Secrets of God's Work come to be made known therefore said our Lord Jesus Christ I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Prudent and revealed them unto Babes Eleaventhly John 3. 5. Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God This most
deniable by such as own the Divine Truths contained in those Writings Nor is the dint of this to be avoided by saying That these Promises were only to the Apostles and no body denies them to have had all this for if we are to walk as having them for our Examples we are to have the like Sufficiency and Guide Nor does Christ leave the matter there for in his most solemn Prayer to his Father he thus speaks Neither Pray I for these alone but for all them that shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they all may be one in us which how it is possible for those who then believed and us of after Generations to be without being born of and baptized and drunk into the same one Eternal Spirit I know not to believe neither can any man that gives himself the use of his own Understanding Thirteenth Rom. 8. 1 9 14. There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit but you are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God 1. If to be brought and kept out of Condemnation men must walk according to the Leadings and Guidings of the Spirit of God and that it is a state unto which Christian men should come then are they not without God's Infallible Spirit to lead and direct them in what Way they ought to walk and consequently the contrary Opinion is perniciously false since such must needs live ever under Condemnation who are so far from walking after the Leadings of God's unerring Spirit that they deny men to have any such thing Again 2. If to have the Spirit of Christ dwelling that is ruling in us be to live no more after the Flesh and not to have that infallible Spirit of Christ ruling in us be to be none of Christ's then both Christian men should not be without Christ's Spirit dwelling in them and such as are without that Spirit are none of Christ's But we plainly see that the Apostle asserts That every man that walks not after the Flesh has that Spirit dwelling in him and is guided thereby and that such as have not the holy Spirit of Christ are none of Christ's therefore it follows That Christian men are led by an Infallible Spirit But 3. If as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God as saith the Apostle then both God's Children are led by an Infallible Spirit and such as are not we utterly deny to have any part or portion in Him notwithstanding their Praying Preaching Writing Reading and Disputing but the plain unaltered words of Scripture testifie that both God has given his good Spirit to lead men into that holy Life Nature and Conversation by which they truly become his Image and Children and that such and we may say only such are his own begotten Children and Heirs of Eternal Glory Fourteenth 1 Cor. 2. 10 11 12 14 15. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit teacheth all things yea the deep things of God For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him even so the Things of God know no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the spirit of this World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the Things that are freely given to us of God But the Natural man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discâ—â—ued But he that is Spiritual judgeth or discerneth all things yet he himself is judged or discerned of no man Methinks the bare recital of these pathetical Sayings of the holy Ghost on the matter in controversie might be sufficient Proof for the affirmative of the Question did not our Adversary under all his Pretences of honouring the Scriptures either implicitly deny them their just Authority or by false Glosses disguise and pervert them to his sinister Perswasions and so I proceed as before to offer my Arguments upon them 1. If the Blessed Things which God hath prepared for them that love him are not revealable but by his Spirit and were then thereby revealed as says the Scripture quoted and contex then since there were those at that time who loved God and that there be many now who love God it will Naturally follow That both than and now the Things that God has laid up for such both then were and now are revealed by His Eternal Spirit and consequently God's People are not without a familiar Communion with the Holy Spirit of God 2. If the spirit of a man or humane intelligent spirit be that by which man comes to an understanding of those things that strictly and properly concern him in an humane capacity and that the Spirit of God is that only by which man comes to know the Things of God because the Things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God then it is utterly Impossible for our Adversary himself or any else to obtain the Knowledge of the things of God or His Kingdom but by the pure unmixt Revelation of God's Eternal Spirit from all the Comprehensions Conceivings or Imaginations of mans utmost strength or science For as saith the Apostle the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 3. If the Knowledge of those things that are fecely given of God is only to be had from the Revelation of his holy Spirit then since in every Age from the most primitive Times it has behoved every Christian man to understand those Good and Heavenly Things it follows That it has behoved them and still does all to wait for the Knowledge and Injoyment of those Blessed Advantages which only are revealed by the Eternal Spirit And is not that Science infallible which the Spirit of this World ever was and will be a Stranger too under all its disguised Shews of Religious Worship with which it has deceitfully adorned it self in a way of Scorn of and Opposition to the most Spiritual Appearances of God making good the Apostle's saying For they are but Foolishness unto them To conclude 4. If the Spiritual Man or that Man in whom dwelleth the Spirit of God and who is led by it discerneth and judgeth all things and is not judged or cannot be seen or discerned he being in the Light and the natural man in the dark then is or should God's Holy Spirit be the right Judge Leader and Guide of all because it alone gives true Discerning sound Judgment and leads in the Path of Life Eternal for it searcheth the deep
things of God which all Natural Understanding can never fathom because they are Spiritually to be discerned Fifteenth 1 Cor. 6. 19. What Know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own The Apostle treating of the great nearness that every Believer stands in to the Lord and that Blessed Union which the Dispensation of the Gospel brings to by the putting away the Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and the Answer of a good Conscience before God in winding up this subject he thus smartly and as if his Query were enough to clear up all that he had to say to them as to their Duty and his Exhortation What know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you From whence I draw this Argument If Believers be the Temple in which the Holy Ghost dwells as evidently speaks the Scripture then are they not left without an Infalible Spirit as Judge Rule and Guide to repair to but it is apparent to sence that the holy Ghost is by the Apostle affirmed to inhabit or take up his abode in believers therefore they must needs be attended with an iufallible Spirit and for what if not the End before-mentioned Sixteenth 1 Cor. 12 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be Bond or Free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit By which Divine Sence of the Apostle we cannot but allow that if they were both baptized by one Spirit into one Body and made to drink into the same Spirit that the Saints were not without an Infallible Spirit since such Baptizing and Drinking do emphatically imply the whole Work of the Spirit in their Regeneration and their daily Union with and intimate Enjoyment of it the whole course of their lives And certainly If by that Eternal Spirit they were baptized ito that one Body Christ It was as impossible for them as Members thereof to live without the Life Vertue and Spirit of Christ Jesus their Head as for any natural Body to live without the same Life Blood Heat and Motion which belongs to its Head And how this man can be esteemed a good Christian who would render Christ Jesus the Head of a Fallible Body by divesting Christians of an Infallible Spirit I leave to Persons of better Judgment more Honesty and greater Moderation then himself to judge Seventeenth 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. This whole Chapter is an admirable account of the Super-Excellency of the Gospel Administration of Life to that of the Law how far it did transcend it as to all spiritual Knowledge Priviledge and Enjoyment which I desire the Reader seriously to read as well as to consider what is offered from the Verse cited If a Christian's Change into God's Image from Glory to Glory be the Work of the Eternal Spirit in men it follows necessarily That Christians can no more be without the Discoveries Leadings and Orderings of God's Spirit then they can be his Children without his Image since whatever they think say or do in reference to Religion should bear a near Relation to that resemblance of God which above all things they ought to act correspondently with but we see how very expresly and profoundly the Apostle describes the exceeding Blessedness of the New Covenant namely A being changed into the Image of God from Glory to Glory not by our own Notions or Comprehensions from the strength of our natural Reason or any Book without us but by the Spirit of the Lord operating in us therefore God's Children are not without an infallible Spirit unless he should deny God's Spirit to be such which methinks I cannot believe him to do Gal. 3. 3. Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect in the Flesh If Christians are both to begin and end in the Spirit or if a Christian throughout the whole course of his Life from the first step or measure to the fulness and perfection of his stature is to be informed regulated and guided by the infallible Spirit of God as the Apostle's Reproof of the Galatians for their declining to be ordered thereby evidently proves then Christians ought to begin and end in the Strength Knowledge Wisdom and Guidance of an Infallible Spirit aud consequently that Doctrine which denies such an Unerring Spirit to be the Judge Rule and Guide of Christians is Antichristian Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit but the express Letter of the Scripture affirms it and consequently our Adversary's Reflection upon us for making it part of our Belief is unsound and condemnable Gal. 5. 16 18. This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh They that walk by the Spirit must first have it and next be led by it but the Apostle exhorted the Church so to walk therefore the Church had and Christians have the Spirit and should walk in or by it that is according to the Motions Leadings and Rule of â—it Eph. 1. 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him If the Heavenly Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of God be through the Spirit then as without Revelation there is no Knowledge of God so without the Spirit there is no divine Wisdom and Revelation And if the Church was attended with that Wisdom and Revelation then with that Spirit from whence they came and consequently Christ's Church is not without that Eternal Vnerring Spirit as saith the Apostle in the 5th Chapter Be not Drunk with Wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the Spirit which signifies the Apostles mind to be quite another thing from the Judgment of our Adversary who thinks All men ought to be empty of it esteeming such as are filled therewith as the Jews did Paul Drunk with New Wine 1 Thes 15 19. Quench not the Spirit If those could not quench the Spirit who had it not then those to whom he gave that Caution had the Spirit consequently the Primitive Churches were not without an Vnerring Spirit because they were not without the Spirit of God which is Unerring 1 John 2. 27. But the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him If the Judge of Truth
he made a fit Tabernacle for the Glorious God to live in Thus is he King of Saints and will he be King of Nations who is God over all Heaven and Earth blessed forever Amen There be two Objections which I fore-see may be made by some to the way I have taken to prove That a Christians Judge Rule and Guide is the Unerring Spirit of God whom I shall endeavour to answer Obj. 1. Though you have said a great deal to prove that Christians should have an Infallible Spirit in general yet you prove nothing distinctly but confound a Judge Rule and Guide together To which I answer Answ 1. That to me there is no more difference then essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God which are but so many words that agree to express the Perfection of one and the same Beeing and so that as the one cannot be without the other but the same Eternal Godhead is all and that in all for he is truly Wise in being Just and both in being Holy and back again they are so interwoven that the one goes not without the other thus it is in being a Judge Rule and Guide for that which gives me a right Sense or Judgment of Truth from Error is as well to me a Rule what I should believe or dis-believe and a Guide what I should practice or not practice as at first it was my Judge of what was Truth from what was Error So that the same Informing Convincing Spirit is that Ruling and Guiding Spirit and not a dristinct Spirit or medium by which such as are convinced through the Illumination and Reproof of it are to be ruled and guided in all they believe and practice about Matters relating to God and his Worship Obj. 2. But at this rate you utterly contemn and seclude the Scriptures as having no Part nor Portion in being a Judge Rule or Guide to Christians Answ 2. By no means for though we acknowledge it to be our Principle That the Eternal Spirit who in several Generations hath revealed a great part of the things contained in the Scriptures to be superior to these Writings yet far be it from us forever to deny the absolute necessity of our Conformity to such weighty Christian Truths and Principles as are therein expressed and urged upon the Churches as what are indispensable to eternal Salvation So that we plead not that the Spirit of God should be a Judge Rule and Guide contrary to the Truth declared in Scripture nor yet exclusive of the Scripture but as the holy men of old time were ordered ruled and guided by that Eternal Spirit in reference to those weighty things which the Prophets and Apostles were moved to exhort those of that time to press after so that it is impossible for men now to come into a right Christian-frame and keep therein but by the Spirit 's being their Judge Rule and Guide as he was to the Ancients who trusted in God and obtained a good Report In short The Scripture is much like the shaddow of the true Rule which may give us some ground to guess what the Rule it self is as a Card or Map of a Country how it lies yet not be the very Place it self and in this respect it may be a kind of secondary Rule carrying with it a Testimonial Confirmation that what we are led by is the TRUE SPIRIT because the People of God in old time enjoyed the same as the Eternal Spirit first of all confirms the Divine Authority of the Scriptures unquestionably to us That they are a Declaration of the Will and Pleasure of Almighty God to the Sons of Men in several Ages of the World He that is so inward with a Prince as to know viva voce what his mind is heeds not so much the same when he meets it in Print because in Print as because he has received a more living Touch and sensible Impression from the Prince himself to whose Secrets he is privy And this the Scriptures teach us to believe is a right Christian's State and Priviledge for said the Apostle We have the Mind of Christ and the Secrets of God are with them that fear Him and guide me by thy Counsel and bring me to thy Glory To Conclude The Scriptures we own and the Divine Truths therein contained we reverence and esteem as the Mind and Will of God to men and we believe that they ought to be conformed to according to the true intent of the Holy Spirit therein and we know that all good People will respect them read them believe and endeavour to fulfil or obey them And those who trade neither Ministerially or Controversally with them and are out of that Cleansed Holy and Self-denying State they testifie of and believe it not attainable the Plagues therein declared of shall be their Portion forever I Know that AUTHORIâ—Iâ—â— are of no great force with him but since I writer more one of an expectation of benefit to others on whom this Libel has taken any hold perhaps it may not be unseasonable to subjoyn a few and the rather since we have not only the suffrage of some who are called Socinians whom he pretends to follow but thereby we may justly take occasion to detect him of contradiction to their Sentements whilst one of them 1. Then first Upon that remarkable Place in John where Christ promised to send his holy Spirit Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth c. Those two famous Commentators I mean so accounted by the Romanists Tolletus and Maldonatus and the last very frequently and with great Respect commemorated and quoted by Crellius one of the most redoubted of the Scoinian Party Tollet thus He shall when he is come manifest all those things which ye are not able to bear and to discover to you all that Doctrine that is fit for my Church to believe and practice He shall teach you the compleat Truth and to this end God gives it to the Faithful and to his Church that in Doctrine Life and Government she may inerrably be guided Maldonat Shall lead you into all Truth that is sayes he Discover unto them and to the Church of God all that Truth which is convenient or fit for them to know concerning Salvation Thus says Cyrill Theophil August and Beda too Beza tells us That Protestants believe God to have given his Spirit not only to his Apostles but to his Church that by her Testimony the World may be convinced of Sin that many Consciences may be compelled to confess that they have sinned in not believing on him c. Dr Hammond thus But when the Holy Ghost comes whose Title is the Spirit of Truth he shall instruct you what is to be done which he shall reveal to you And I will ask my Father and he shall send you the Holy Ghost to Interceed Exhort and Comfort and when he is come
he shall abide with you that is all that shall suceed you in the Faith forever As in his Comment on the 28th Chapter of Matthew upon these words I am with you alwayes even unto the end of the World And though I shall now shortly part with you yet I will by sending the Spirit upon you to lead you into all Truth and by my perpetual Presence and Assistance afforded you and by that Authority that I have received of my Father and now commit unto you John 20. 21 22. continue with you and your Successors unto the End of the World Now if we read that Scripture he quotes as an Interpretation of what he understands by Christ's being with them and their Successors to the end of the World we shall find it to be this Then said Jesus to them again Peace be unto you As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost What can be fuller then that in his apprehension not only the Apostles but their Successors in the Faith were to have continued unto them the perpetual Presence and Assistance of the Holy Ghost And sayes no mean Protestant upon the Place and very truly It is by the Spirit only that men who do not profit under outward means will be enabled to profit who when he cometh reveals Truths clearly and bears them in with Life and Power upon the Heart and doth renew mens spirits to embrace and submit to them And on the 14th Chapter thus The Spirit of God in Believers is not only a Comforter to apply and bear in the Consolations of God purchased by Christ upon their Hearts but is their Advocate also who pleads their Cause with God by furnishing them with Prayers and Groans that cannot be uttered I shall now produce the sense of several Persons so great in the Socinian way conformable to what has been asserted concerning the Holy Spirit that one would think our Adversary ought to be concluded by it And the first shall be Socinus himself who in his explication of the 1st verse of the 8th Chapter to the Romans speaks in short thus Neque enim jam carni sed spiritui obsequuntur spiritus namque vitalis imperium cui et ego omnes qui Christi sunt subduntur nos a jugo peccati mortis assernit For neither do they now follow or live after the Flesh but the Spirit for the Power of the living Spirit to which both I and all who are Christ's are subdued hath freed us from the Yoak of Sin and Death Slichtingius who in his Comment upon the Passage already mentioned especially that part He shall lead you into all Truth gives us his mind thus Quando autem veniet ille nempe Paracletus spiritus ille veritatis ducet vos nempe interna illuminatione in omnem veritatem nempe ad salutem aeternam pertinentem ita ut omnia sciatis intelligatis quae vera sunt ad salutem pertinent That is When the Paraclet to wit the Spirit of Truth shall come by his internal Illumination or inward Enlightening he will lead into all Truth and to the Knowledge and Vnderstanding of all those things which are true and necessary and do pertain to Eternal Life Now since all are concerned in the End namely Eternal Life methinks it is most reasonable that all should be in a share in the means to it I mean the Teachings and Guidings of that Vnerring Spirit Thus much for this place I will instance one place more and the thoughts of these men upon it I mean this last cited and one not less Famous in the same way Crellius in his Comment upon the Romans Chap. 8. vers 14 15. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of Bondage c. sayes Etenim quotquot spiritui illi divino se regendos tradunt ejusque ductum sequuntur quemadmodum sane faciunt ij qui ejus ope carnis opera in se perimunt eque non admittunt illi Dei ipsius sunt Filij qui quemadmodum jam naturae ipsius sunt quodammodo participes ejusque similes Ita etiam vicissim a 〈◊〉 â—iliorum loco habentur ab eoque sunt adoptâ—ti in Filiorum jus adsâ—iti Eos autem qui a Deo instar Filiorum diliguntur vitae sempiternae fore participes quanquam per se unicuique videtur patere mox tamen planum faciam Certainly then our Adversary if he hath any regard for Crellius will not oppose himself to the necessity of Christians being accompanied by an infallible Spirit when this Author plainly tells us That without that Spirit of God and the Operation of it to a Regeneration of Soul there is no being a true Child of God and Heir to the possession of Glory as he further speaks upon the 17th verse Slichtingius gives us the same Interpretation differing only in the Expression sayes he Probant illos victuros esse si spiritu actiones corporis mortificent Again Spiritu Dei agi ferri impelli regi spiritu actiones corporis perimere They prove themselves to be Conquerors if by the Spirit they mortifie the Deeds of the Body Again To be acted led moved perswaded governed ruled and directed and to overthrow and destroy the Works of the Flesh by the Spirit of God this is to be a true Child of God Crellius is most express upon the 12th verse of the 2d chapter of Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians Sed spiritum qui est ex Deo id est qui ex Deo proficiscitur seu derivatur in homines ideoque Dei Spiritus merito vocatur But the Spirit which is of God that is which proceedeth from God or is derived from God into men it is therefore deservedly called the Spirit of God Crellius upon that remarkable Passage of the same Apostle and in the same Chapter But the spiritual man judgeth all things c. speaks thus Opponit animali homini spiritualem Spiritualis autem homo ille est qui non soluâ— spiritu Dei praeditus est sed etiam ejus ductum sequitur a spiritu ipso totus pendet Sayes he The Apostle opposeth the Spiritual to the Natural man that is the spiritual man who is not only endued with God's Spirit but is also under the Spirit 's Conduct and wholy depends upon it What man speaks more pathetically for inspiration then Crellius doth in whom out Adversary pretends to believe Nor is Slichtingius much behind him who on the same place gives us his mind thus Spiritualis autem id est homo divino spiritu non tantum praeditus sed illi etiam totus deditus But the Spiritual man that is saith he not only the man who is adorned and over-seen as by his good Angel by the holy Spirit but who
is also rendered or yielded forever to his Government Dijudicat quidem omnia id est omnia quae dicuntur cognoscit qualia sint an divina sint an prophana de omnibus judicandi habet facultatem Judgeth all things that is sayes Slichtingius He measureth and knoweth all things that are spoken of what sort soever they may be whether they be Divine or Prophane because he has the Faculty or Gift of right Judgment concerning all things Thus far Slichtingius concerning this place I shall mention one more of this kind and then I shall conclude Crellius upon that passage to the Gallatians God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts further observes Quia in cordibus hominum vim suam exerat Again Spiritus istius operationis est ut nos ex paterno Dei in nos amore certos reddat filialem erga eum fiduciam nobis ingeneret What can we desire beyond this against our Adversary in this Point to prove that the primitive Socinians as they are called believed God to have given and still to give his good Spirit unto Believers as without which they could not neither can be Children of God It is God's displaying his Power in the Hearts of men and it is by the Operation of his Spirit that he makes us acquainted with his Fatherly Love to us who begets in us a filial or Son-like Faithfulness towards him for us Slichtingius on that notable Saying of the Apostle John in his first Epistle and second Chapter But the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you commenteth Unctio pro eo quo facta est unctio id est prooleo coelesti qui spiritus est sanctus Again Hic enim erat spiritus istius sancti effectus qui eo fine dabatur ut esset internus doctor veritatis in omnem deduceret veritatem Again Unctio id est spiritus sanctus vos de omnibus docet nempe ad salutem pertinentibus In English thus Vnotion stands for Heavenly Oyl that is the Holy Ghost or Spirit And to this End was the Holy Spirit given that it might become an internal Doctor or Teacher of Truth and lead into all Truth Again The Unction is the Holy Ghost which teaches you all things to wit what pertains to Eternal Salvation Certainly either our Adversary ought to relinquish his great Opinion of these men or else conclude that Enthusiasm or spiritual Motions Revelations Teachings Rulings and Guidings are not things absurd fantastical or inconsistant with Christianity but most agreeable with and suitable to the Nature of it as that without which no man can possibly be a right Christian But neither is Crellius of this mind in his Commentaries only where the weight of Scripture tends him to these Interpretations but in his Book of One God the Father he frequently takes occasion to declare himself I think most plainly I wish he had been as sound and clear in his Understanding of all other Points The Holy Spirit is the Power or Efficacy of God namely that we may explain it which proceedeth from God and issuing unto men doth sanctifie and Consecrate them and produce various and admirable Effects in them which Power and Efficacy of God they are wont to call Divine Inspiration Again That the Holy spirit is given to men by God and that men obtain receive and have him from God by Prayers as numberless places of the holy Scripture shew out of which it is sufficient to have looked into but these few Luke 11. 13. John 7. 39. 14. 16 17. a place by me quoted to the same purpose Acts 5. 32. 15. 8. Cor. 6. 19. By the Holy Spirit in these places is understood Some Divine and Holy Inspiration or some Power flowing from God which is as it were breathed into man Again The Holy Spirit iâ— properly given unto men and not Metonymically nor Metolepsically that is the Gift of the holy Ghost is simply and plainly to be taken as exprest which signification sayes Crellius was not unknown even to the Gentiles themselves although in the mean time they did most grievously 〈◊〉 in the thing taking a false Inspiration for a true one a Davilish for a Divine It would be tedious to instance a fourth part of what he argumentatively writes on this only I will produce a few of those Scriptures which he so understands and applies 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Ephes 1. 14. here a Pledge and Earnest are mentioned Neâ—â— sayes he all those places where the Holy Spirit is said to be poured out on men as Isae 44. 3. Joel by us cited chap. 2. 28 29. Zachariah 12. 10. Tit. 3. 6. where sayes he men are said to be baptized in or with it again agree to it that of Christ who in John inviting men to the participation of so excellent a Gift thus saith If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Understand it sayes Crellius of that Living Water which it is manifest is the Holy Spirit Let those places be added says he in which Christ himself is said to be anointed or others are signified to be anointed with the Holy Spirit John 7. 37. Isa 61. 1. Luke 4. 18. Acts 8. 38. Heb. 1. 9. Psal 51. 8. 2 Cor. 1. 1 John 2. 20 21 27. He proceeds to several Arguments upon divers other Scripture-Heads as all Scriptures touching divine Participation not quenching the Spirit the Holy Spirit being sent The Spirit searcheth all things c. But above all I shall conclude his whole Discourse with this one Expression viz. In this we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us his Spirit which we have expressed is both perfect and plainly expresseth the thing given and such indeed as may demonstrate most clearly that God dwells in us in some most singular and divine manner and we in him and that there is a most streight Bond of Love and Conjunction betwixt us and him for how could we be more streightly joyned with him or he with us then when he hath imparted to us of his Holy Spirit Curcellius shall conclude these Testimonies Nec enim desinent fideles esse Templum spiritus sancti nimirum quia Deus in ipsis per spiritum suum habitaret That is Neither do the Faithful cease to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost why because God by his Spirit dwells in them Thus much for the first part of this Discourse I shall now apply my self to the Second which concerns a Vindication of George Fox and his Citation of Scripture from the Reproach and Unworthy dealing of our Adversary A VINDICATION OF George Fox And the TRUTH by him Vindicated Particularly his Quotation of Scripture from the Calumny and Cavil of this LIBELLER WE shall say nothing here of the Disingenuity of the Man
either in its Original or the numerous Translations that are in the World whereof so scarcely two agree We say not the Letter but the Life it self is the Evangâ—lical Rule they say not any such Divine Life oâ— Spirit by any Internal Discoveries or Operations but the bare single Letter or Scriptures containing so many express Words Points c. are that only Gospelâ—Rule Wherefore to make G. F. as condemnable as the Priâ—â—ts they must first prove him to hold the same Principle that they do which because he does not he is not liable to the same Reproof with them Indeed to none at all Where let it be further considered That they affirm the Scriptures to be their Rule wholâ— excluding the Spirit of God And we believe the Eternal Spirit to be our Rule not excluding the Serious Use of Scriptures suitable to that Saying They that are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and I will write my Law in their Hearts and put my Fear in their Inward Parts The Scriptures testifie of me but ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life But before I conclude this Subject I must needs tell the Man that he hath not only taken as well a New as Insufficient Way to prove G. F. an Impostor c. but he has equally manifested his Ignorance and Want of Candout in what he has done For who is there that ever understood the Laws of Translation that would revile a Man for giving the same Sense in Words as forceable though not the very same Or Who would count a Man an Impostor False Prophet c. because of a meer Verbal Alteration in a Sentence where the Matter remains intire and unviolated Certain I am that the best Translators in the World have endeavoured to make their Authors speak their matter in the Phrase and propriety of that Language into which they have been rendered which had been utterly impossible if they had been turned Verbatim and after the genuine Phrase and mode of their Original Tongues Such Versions being like the wrong side of the Cloath or reading Words backward Let our Adversary inform himself after what manner all the Classick Authors Great Philosophers and Famous Historians are made French by the Criticks of that Tongue in their New Academy at Paris Nor is Our Country wholely-void of Instances as the Translation of Thusidides Polybius Justinus Caesars Comentaries Quintus Curtius Livius Seneca Tacitus Homer Virgil Ovid Lucan Council of Trent Campanella Du-Plessy Grotius Bâ—colini Malvetzy St Amour and fourty more peeces in which I dare affirm that neither Verbs Nouns Pronouns Participles Gerunds Adjectives Conjunctives Copulates Subjunctives Prepositions Adverbs Tenses Cases Numbers c. are so much as considered in their Translation but only how the Matter so exprest in its Original Tongue may be most aptly rendered into Our own If then this Scope is both practised by and allowed to all Translators I would fain know why it should be so Criminal in G. F. to have given the Scope and whole tendency of Scripture Texts in other Words then what are in our conmon Translations But certainly this shows that rank Enmity which lodgeth in the Man's Mind and is to me a plain Demonstration of his implacable Malice that like the Black Jaundies has so over-run him as I fear it will almost be impossible that he should ever recover to any tolerable moderation though We could desire he might come to a Sight and Sense of his Folly Ignorance and Bitterness against us and not longer continue to kick against the pricks in himself nor to endeavour however he miss his aim to gore the sides of an Innocent People with his False Glosses and Calumnious Accusations for certainly the Righteous God of Heaven and Earth will effectually judge for these things by whose eternal Power and Spirit and for whose Cause on Earth we are what we are at this very day And though the Contradiction of Abstinate sinfull men be truely burthensom on their account and this continual toil of Controversy very unpleasant to our selves yet for the alone sake of Gods unchangeable Truth and Heavenly Way to Life Eternal we do cheerfully overlook our own Trouble Weight and Exercise counting it our duty and therein our Satisfaction to be at all times ready for the Service of it let what will ensue And be it known to all the World that as our Religion stands not in the Doctrines Meanings Preachings or Notions of mens devising or deducting from the Scriptures themselves but in the Living Quicking Power of the Eternal God which plainly discovers Sin and wounds deeply for it and as obeyed ransoms the Soul from Death Hell and the Grave to serve the Living Lord God in his New Living and Spiritual Way So do we proclaim it to the Nations that all Religions short of this are but the Form without the Power and make up but that Whâ—re with her golden Cup which has bewitched Tongues and Kindreds and People She that has a name to Live as the Lambs Bride true Church c. whilst indeed She is but that great Harlot that has committed all manner of Abomination with whole Kingdoms under the specious shew of Religion wherefore every one of you to whom this Book comes search and examine in the Dread and Fear of Almighty God how it stands with thee Hast thou ever been prickt to the Heart and repented with that Repentance which sorrows for Sin past and turns from Sin to come which is never to be repented of And dost thou feel the Living Powerfull Workings of Gods Power and Spirit in thy Heart regenerating thee without which thou canst not be a Child of God and Heir of Glory I say O Man unless thou comest to know the work of thy Souls Redemption from the Pit and Deliverance of thy mind from the Snares and Temptations of the Devil begun in thy self by which to live to God and to have the Testimony of his Eternal Spirit in thy Conscience that thou hast turned at the Reproof of Instruction and hast felt the Blood of Cleansing and art now walking on in the strait and narrow Way of Life and Righteousness which â—rucifies the Earthly Mind thy Praying Preaching Observations and whole Religion are vain and will prove all of none effect in the Day when the Lord God Eternal shall make strict Inquisition and Search after what Fruits have been by every one brought forth Wherefore be ye all awakened to the Fear of the Lord and mind diligently that Blessed Light which shines in your Hearts and is able to give unto you the Knowledge of God in the Face of Jesus Christ which is the true Knowledge and Wisdom that come from above that make Wise to Life Eternal for the Wisdom that is from below may study carp contend about Scriptures and Religion and from thence frame and imagine how those thingâ—s are workt that are mention'd therein and I know doth but can never give
THE Spirit of Truth VINDICATED Against That of Error Envy Unseasonably Manifested In a late Malicious LIBEL Intituled The Spirit of the Quakers Tryed c. By a Friend to Righteousness and Peace W. P. Ever Learning and never able to come to the Knowlege of the Truth But Evil Men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3. 7 13. But unto you that fear my Name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with Healing in his Wings And ye shall tread down the Wicked for they shall be Ashes under the Soles of your Feet Mal. 4. 2 3. Printed in the Year 1672. To the Impartial READER I Have at last with some Difficulty obtained a small Respit from more serious Affairs to the Examination of a late Discourse intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed according to the Discovery it hath made of it self in thei◠great Prophet and Patriarch George Fox c. And whilst I was willing to inform my self of the Design and Temper of the Author by a very careful perusal of his Book at least expecting something that might pretend to claim a Reputation in Controversie excelling all other of our Adversaries who never struck higher then at our Doctrines whilst this man ventures to tell the World what Spirits we are of I find him in reallity filled with nothing but disingenious Reflection empty Stories and unprofitable Cavils about a few Scriptures he mostly confesseth that but one of us hath mis-cited either in reference to a disorderly Quotation of the words or an unsuitable Application of them The Judgment I then made of the Man and still continue in is this Had he not wonderfully lov'd being some body in Print he needed not to have given himself or other People the trouble of so many unserviceable Sheets nor a small trifling Solicitor for their kind reception in the World the toil of so much Insinuation even to Nautiating But I design not to be long and theresore shall briefly contract my Exceptions against the Author to the Reader into these four Particulars 1. Then He hath behaved himself the most unjust of any that ever yet undertook to write against us which so ill becomes a man that would reform others that it rather insenseth all worthy minds and is Reason enough to beget a Jealousie both of the Truth of his Cause and his own Honesty For who truly Just would draw a general Charge from a particular Failing in case it were so And what good Christian would stigmatize an entire Body for the Defects of any individual Member He finds fault with George Fox and to be revenged of him bespatters a whole Society so that if I should grant him all he would have against that Person whom I doubt not to defend from his base Abuse yet why he should place his Infirmities suppose them such to our account cannot be resolv'd me by any that is not willing to suffer for other mens Faults George Fox he thinks has mis-cited a Scripture Ergo He is an Imposter and the Quakers a pack of Hereticks It is after this lofty manner of Disputing he undertakes our Overthrow but if this be good arguing the man is Orthodox with a witness and deserves the Chair Nemine Contradicente 2. My second Exception is That if he had been provock't to any hard Thoughts against George Fox from the perusal of his Book it had been handsome and well-becoming a Christian to have visited that so much mistaken Person in his account and have endeavoured either a better understanding of him or his better Information in the Scripture and not at a juncture when he might understand him to be at so great a distance as America to exhibit an angry Charge against him in England But his generosity here is much like to his Reason elsewhere 3. But why above all times of the World does the man chuse the present season to shower down his Displeasure against us just when we should make the best of an unexpected Tolleration to the Refreshment of our afflicted Minds and Bodies by the late Persecutions that have been What! Is he angry that we have Liberty or does he think that none deserve it but himself I wonder what Testimony there had been or how few to have receiv'd a Liberty of Conscience if the Quakers had squar'd their Carriage in the Storm according to his sorded creeping into Holes and Corners or else to publick places of Protection And if he tells us that he had no mind to add to our Troubles he deals deceitfully for as it is almost impossible for him to write against us but he must expresly or implicitly contradict the avow'd Principles of the Church by his scattered Seeds of Socinianism so knowing the Danger that would ensue such undertakings as well as the difficulty of Printing his Self-safety and not Charity to us was the Hindrance 4. And Lastly 〈◊〉 why was he ashamed of his Name I cannot but make his own words good by such an Inquiry without concluding him a Prophet and great Reason there is that we should ask him a Reason for it if we may lawfully ask that which his whole Discourse seems to character him a Stranger to for since he tells us That he declines all wayes of Controversie with us but that of matter of Fact however able we may be to clear our selves from such Indictments yet our ignorance of his Name deprives us of that scope we might otherwise have for producing perhaps as large a Catalogue of Doctrinal Mistakes in what he himself or those to whom he adheres have writ as he hath of Verbal ones out of any Writings belonging to the People called Quakers And though he seems to excuse the absence of his Name by that Occasion he pretends we take to abuse our Adversaries Yet the truest Reason is a Consciousness of a disingenious and unjustifiable Practice in himself perhaps he also was afraid of such Truth as may be seasonably told of him to the discrediting of his Enterprize But till he had been so served by us it had become him not to have reproach't us in the vindication of other men in whose Opinions he will by no means allow himself to be concern'd otherwise then to explode them for Heretical Thus the Man 's for any Game he cares not whom he defends if he can but have his End upon the Party he designs to mischief sometimes he will be a Church-man against a Non-conformist and back again sometimes either against a Quaker then for him against them both and lastly a Socinian against them all His seeming Labours against us for common Principles being but a plowing our Backs with their Heifers for the promotion of his Biddlean or Socinian Cause which Owl-light way of stabbing men or deceiving People under the Livery of every Perswasion whilst for none of them is very remote from being either Christian or Manly nor will the Righteous God of Heaven and Earth bless or
is a False Prophet a Lyar and an Impostor boldly said but prove it who can or wil for him But what then wil become of the man that would have the Text controverted thus rendred Haec est Lux illa vera quae venientem in mundum illuminat omnem hominem this were as ingrammatical altogether but we spare him though we must remember him for we cannot esteem it Doctrinal Error for a man to miss a Tense and would have him all men know that our Religion stands not in Grammatical Tenses but the Fear of God and Faith in Christ Jesus whose Blood cleanseth from all Sin such as walk in his Light Nor did the Prophets and Apostles stand upon Tenses especially Jeremiah and John whose Hebrew and Greek don 't much exceed the Quakers English G. F. was not sent to preach up Propriety of Speech the World is but too Curious and Proud in such Human Science and acquisition But like a Faithful Minister of God by his Eternal Spirit and Power to turn People from Darkness to the Light in which the Ransomed walk with Everlasting Joy upon their Heads and from the Power and Kingdom of Satan which stand in the Lust of the Eye Lust of the Flesh and Pride of Life unto God and his Holy Kingdom which stands in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. And as such it is that G. F. is owned and respected with other publick Labourers amongst us who seek not Honour from men as our Adversary and most of the rest of men do but that which is from God and his Wisdom which is first pnre then Peaceable Gentle and easie to be entreated which is not of this World but by the Children thereof esteemed Foolishness and meer Enthusiasm and that in a way of Derision and we know that we are of God and the Generality of the World lies in Wickedness either of Flesh or Spirit Having I hope sufficiently proved that the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Venientem or Coming is to be referred to Men and not to Light and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly rendered Illuminat and that Enlighten Nay in case they were not so that it would prove little prejudicial to our sense as the difference hath been already explained I am now willing to make appear That the Light of which we have been so treating is no natural nor created Light but a Supernatural and Eternal Light which done the Controversie at least on this Subject we shall conclude 1. If man be enlightened by that Word which was with God and was God and that before the World was then man is enlightened by a supernatural and eternal Light but the Scripture in the first second and third verses of John's first chapter proves man to be so enlightened and that Light to be such as beforesaid therefore man is Illuminated by a Supernatural Eternal Light If he object another sence of these Verses then the words simply and nakedly seem to import for instance that the beginning there mentionedâ— relates not to the World and visible elementary Creation but the invisible Creation as I know is their common refuge I Reply 2. If all things were made by him and without him nothing made that was made then either John spake equivocatingly not meaning what he said or else plainly and properly and consequently all Things of which the World is the greatest part were made by him and therefore He must needs have been before all created things 3. If he were that true Light by way of exemption to all others as the Socinians are wont to interpret God to be true God John 17. 3. and there is no reason to the contrary then was he Light in himself and consequently did not illuminate by a received or borrowed Light from another but exâ—se out of himself and from himself only and therefore God as saith John in his first Epistle This then is the Message which we have heard from him That God is Light c. The first Proposition is Scriptural and needs no Proof and the second I prove thus 4. If the Divine Life of this creating Word be that True Light by way of excellency and exclusion of all others with which he enlightens every man coming into this World then must he be Light in Himself and from Himself unless he can be Himself without that Divine Life which is in Him which because he cannot it will follow that he is such a true Light as hath been asserted and consequently must be God inasmuch as he who is the Fountain of true Life is God Which I further prove thus 5. If he who is eminently that true Light by whom only all Mankind is enlightened neither is nor can be that Light as any part of Mankind however immaculate since so he would be a Light unto Himself which is both absurd and impossible then that Creating Word which is that Divine Life which is evidently that true Light by which all men are enlightened neither is nor could be a Mortal Man however Holy and properly therefore it was not Christ as Man but as God that he was and is eminently the Light of Men. Which I further prove 6. If that Light in which all men ought indispensibly to believe for Salvation be the Light with which men are enlightened then are all Men savingly and supernaturally enlightened But the Scripture here quoted proves the Light in which all should believe and which illuminates all to be the same and consequently the Light wherewith men are enlightened is Saving and Supernatural 7. If that World was made by him in which he was and which knew him not then because this elementary World was the World in which he was and Mankind then in it those that knew him not it follows that this visible elementary World and Mankind in it were made by him and if made by him then necessarily he must have been before them and since this Word is that Light by which men are enlightened it followeth that they are Illuminated by a Supernatural and Eternal Light 8. If to as many as receive him the true Light enlighting all to them he gives Power to become the Sons of God then the way to be a Son of God is to obey the Light or to receive and obey the Light is the way to be a Child of God not born of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God but the Scripture plainly testifies that to be the way therefore the Light is Saving and Supernatural Thus much in short from Scripture I have a few Arguments to offer from Reason It is I think granted on all hands That God has enlightened Mankind with some Light or other the Question then will be this What Nature this Light is of Saving or Insufficient Natural or Supernatural I prove it to be Supernatural and Saving thus 1. If
the Light with which God hath enlightened Men were natural then could it inform men only in and about natural Affairs but we see that men do thereby in measure know and discern things that are Supernatural therefore this Light is not Natural but is Supernatural and consequently Saving 2. That it gives men some Knowledge of Divine Things I suppose all believe however I thus prove it God gave it for some End or no End for no End we cannot we dare not suppose if for some End then not in reference to Natural Things because they are knowable by the spirit of Man as such consequently it must be in and about things relating to Man's Duty to God and his Neighbour in which consists the Salvation of his own Soul if so then I prove it s sufficiently thus 3. Whatever God gives to any Man for any end is sufficient for that End for which he gives it him but God has given his Light unto men in order to their Duty to Him and their Neighbour in which consists the Salvation of their Souls and consequently that Light is sufficient to that End That what God gives to any End is sufficient to compass it I thus prove 4. God requires all Men strictly to serve and obey him and to work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling or else their End shall be Destruction but this the Almighty with Reverence I say it could not justly do unless the Light with which he enlightens men were sufficient and saving therefore unless our Adversary will impeach him of manifest Injustice or deny that he thus requires men to fear him and work out their own Salvation he must grant that not only God hath illuminated all men but that the Light wherewith he hath illuminated them to that great End is Saving and Supernatural Object I know the Objection that is on these Occasions frequently started viz. How cometh it then that all Men have not a clearer View of this Light whereof you speak But Men must have a care of concluding the Light ever the less Divine in it self because of that dim and imperfect sight their own infirmities cause them to have of it perhaps some are as incapable to behold the Light as it is as an Infant to make a true Prospect by the natural Day Others are grievously infested with Rumes Bloodsheds and many other Distempers whilst not a few either wilfully close their Eyes are blinded with Motes and Beams run into obscure Places or by their continued obstinacy in Wickedness come at last wholy to lose both the Light and their Capacity of seeing it Such are those on whom the Night comes in which none can work and this was impenitent Jerusalem's Case which is too too frequently and lamentably paralelled in our dayes Men must not think to see all at once and because their inquisitive impatient and wondring Mind is not answered by whole heaps of glittering Discoveries therefore in a brittle unsubject Nature sling off all regard to the Light of God and vainly think to compass Salvation in their own unwarrantable strivings Let men consider seriously their own dark state how song the Light hath shined there uncomprehended and since it has pleased the Eternal God to visit them with such a Ministry and Testimony as turns them unto that blessed unchangeable Light diligently to adhere to it and be humbly contented to practice what they know for to that only End and Purpose does God cause it to shine in their Hearts before they look after other Discoveries from that grasping ravenous comprehending spirit in man which would know the End before it practiseth the beginning which is cursed of God and is for eternal Judgment this lost Adam his Paradice and obstructs Thousand from entring into the Way of God at this very day Wherefore Blessed are they who knowing their own Weakness wait diligently upon the Lord for such daily Dawnings of his own saving Light as suit their own states as to their daily Temptation Preservation and Increase in the experimental Knowledge of the Way of God Such are not wise above what 's written in their Hearts by the Finger of God and speak and declare of God and his Unchangeable Way according as they have felt and handled I mean as He hath revealed Himself both in Judgment and in Mercy through the in-shining Light of his Son And this I publish to the whole World That I never knew God truly and heartily to be of purer Eyes then to behold Iniquity I was never conscientiously convinced of any Evil I never was brought into true Repentance I never experienced real Attonement I never had right Faith in Christ nor did I ever inwardly come to feel a cleansing from any sin and a being justified by his Blood by which to know him my Mediator Saviour and Redeemer but by the Reproofs of that Light wherewith Christ has enlightened me and by turning to it and walking in it with all Godly Fear and Subjection according to its blessed Discoveries and Requirings Wherefore I boldly call it A Sufficient Saving and Supernatural Light And according to the truth of this so let my Soul find Mercy with my God by Jesus Christ I shall sum up my Sence briefly thus All Mankind have been Benighted All Men have Degenerated In that state all are Ignorant In that state all are Corrupted And in that state all are damned And this Certainly God would have all men be saved But they can never be Saved Till they be Regenerated To be that they must be Washed To be Washed they must Believe And to Believe they must Repent And to Repent they must see why And to do this they must have Light And all this Certainly This Light must give true and right fight This Light must be sufficient Then this Light is infallible Then this Light must needs be Saving And all this is True This by their own Principle cannot be denyed as well as that it is true in it self I conclude therefore That all men of themselves want Light that God since he would have all be saved has given all Light that this Light must give a certain Discerning and that such as are guided by it are consequently certainly led In short The Light is both Universal Supernatural and Infallible That this is not our Judgment only I shall mention a few of many that assert it to be a Saving Light 1. Thus believed Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is truly called the Light of Nations or the Gentiles by Isaiah I have given thee for a Light to lighten the Gentiles and for my Salvation to the uttermost parts of the Earth But truly our Saviour is the great Light of the intelligible World enlightening those in the most excellent parts of their Souls who are capable of Reason that the Mind may discern and perceive to it self those things that are most proper and worthy of mens pursuit after 2. Chrysostom positively declared his Judgment in
vere sayes he in the Person of the Apostle ego gaudeo de vestro profectu in Christo ita verum est me quotidie paratum mori As I truly rejoyce at your profitting in Christ so true it is that I am daily ready to dye for it is wanting but may be understood To this of Grotius a considerable but nameless English Annotator does agree And let me further add that the Various Lections have it by way of Correction propter not per for and not by And now it may be time for me to tell our Adversary in general and mine in particular that though I don't blush to read his Impertinencies perhaps I am not ingenious enough for such he sayes will he ought at least to be ashamed of writing them and I am truly in pain for him that he should both afflict himself for the poor man has an irksome way of telling his Tale and is fain to churm long before any thing comes and also disturb others with any thing so meanly inviting and little profitting the People To Conclude If any would in short know the plain and honest Reason of our refusing to Swear to omit the many Arguments that might be urged what Glosses might be given or Authorities produced 't is this That as Christ Jesus is the Author of so perfect a Religion that the least Affirmative or Negative be it but Yea or Nay is compleatly and unquestionably true so it is below his Evangelical Righteousness and such as are gathered not only to the belief but possession of it to so much as admit of an Oath as being fitter to be enjoyned equivocating Pharisees then Honest-Hearted Disciples with whom it is the same thing to Lye as to Forswear for an Oath having been made from the Distrust of Honesty in Him that was to take it where the Cause is removed Lyes Equivocations mental Reserves c. the Effects or that extraordinary scrupulous way of Evidence should cease And if any object the Law of the Land or the Ignorance of Magistrates of our Truth and Innocency I Answer The Law is either answered by Truth being spoken or satisfied by an infliction of the same Penalty upon the Lyar that is incurred by a perjured Person we need no Fines Racks nor heavy Imprecations to scare us into Truth-speaking who Believe in Fear and Worship the God of all Truth and that in Spirit and Truth The next abuse of us so far as concerns our Belief belongs to respecting of Persons he calls it our great Doctrine in a way of Reproach and often cavilling not without his wonted Folly at G. F's Wo unto them that are called of Men Master in which he only sayes what is certainly imply'd in Christ's Prohibition which he should have first confuted he undertakes the Refutation of it thus True indeed sayes Christ Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren c. Now I will take the Liberty to argue a little because the Text seems to be so plain on your side first you do restrain it from extinding all Men from being called Master whilst you allow your Servants to call you our Masters because you are their Masters which Exception is not in the Text why may not another call you Masters because you have Servants and are Masters I Answer First then he has broke his word with us which in plainer English is he has told us a Lye in assuring us at the beginning He would deal with us neither from Scripture nor Reason and yet undertakes both Certainly he is ill able to maintain Right Swearing that is wanting in True Speaking or writing at least We may well suppose his Evidence so much boasted of has left him now that he betakes himself to Scripture and Reason for defence but considering how little they will prove friendly to his Cause he is no otherwise to be complained of for Breach of Word then that the Will may be accepted for the Deed. But next The Text also must be blamed Why may an honest-hearted man say Because upon our Adversaries Principles it seems to be against mens being called Rabbi and yet is not Strange â—rreverence to Holy Writ What make it say one thing in most express termes as much as Thou shalt not Steal and yet mean the quite contrary Who makes it their Rule now We or our Adversary But let 's examine his Meaning and he is so absurd that I am confident I have heard a better Argument out of Bedlam however let us once more repeat it If you call men Masters that are really your Masters why may you not call your very Servants Masters if they have Servants which is as much as to say If you call men Masters that are really your Masters why should not you call other men Masters though they are not really your Masters O I but they are other men's Masters are they Then let other men call them so For there is no more Reason that we should call other Men Masters that are not our Masters because they are really some bodies Masters then that 〈◊〉 should call other men Fathers and Servants and other Women Wâ—â—es that are not our Fathers Servants nor Wives because they are really Fathers Servants and Wives to other Persons We can call Him Master Father Servant or Her Wife who really is so to us but in doing it otherwise we believe we should Err. A Master and Father of old I confess to have signified a Religious as well as Civil Honour I mean Sect-Masters among the Jews but since both are as well repugnant to common Truth as the Christian Religion we renounce the Title and are the rather so to do because of that great Thirst which this Age as well as that in which our Lord so severely reproved it has after that very Vanity Deceit and Wickedness and this simple honest Practice and Zeal for it we are not ashamed to have weighed in the Ballance of God's Sanctuary against all the flattering cringing Customs of Personal Respect whether by Word or Gesture now practiced in the VVorld VVell But he is of the mind that the Scripture is not a little for him since the Apostle both in his Epistle to the Ephesians and in that to the Collossians exhorts Fathers not to provoke their Children and Masters to give what was equal to their Servants in which the poor man is as much besides himself at least the matter as in all the rest for he might as well argue against what he takes for granted viz. That we refuse not to call such Masters as really are our Masters as to suppose we deny that an Apostle or Minister of Christ might not exhort the Fathers of Children to be tender to them and Masters of Servants to be just to them Certainly none can be so stupid as to imagine that the Apostle called them Fathers and Masters in a way of Title or upon singular Respect We may as
They were Brethren as being of the same Blood and Fathers as Elders of the Tribes under that particular Constitution Besides both his own and if Married his Wifes Fathers and Grand-Fathers might be then living and either of the Council or concurring with it In short We therefore refuse the style of Master and are very cautious of being in the least lavish in Titles of Worldly Honour because We with Lamentation behold through the Illumination of God's blessed Light the Spoil Cruelty and manifold Evils that Proud Flattering Honour-seeking and Honour-giving Spirit has made amongst the Sons of men who to compass unjust Dominion hath sacrific'd the Blood Wealth and Peace of Nations to its ambitious aims and esteem'd it no small accession to the Magnificâ—nce of its exploits that almost in all Ages she hath led the Rights Properties and Persons too of Millions as Captives in Triumph after her and through the Gulf of Rapine and Blood laneâ—t into the vast Ocean of unlimited Power What Impiety is there in the World that may not in some sence be resolved into that of Pride or Covetousness after Honour as its proper Center Mens over-value of themselves and their Displeasure against such as have not the like thoughts of them beget Revenge which taking its opportunity breaks forth into Blood and Murder O! let men learn to dread the Living God and fear all their dayes before him and that will sweep the mind of these vain thoughts and bring it from such exalted conceits and its insatiable Thirst after Honour and will establish it in the Humility and Lovely Plainness of a Meek and Quiet Spirit which is of great Price in the Sight of the Almighty God which because the World is not adorned with but doth both seek and give wordly Honour and Personal Respect whilst perhaps such entertain deadly Hatred against each other and resolve one anothers Ruin for outward Ends we are constrained by the Meek and Lowly Spirit of Christ Jesus our Lord to testifie against the World's Vain Honours and to hold forth an Example to them what they must all expect to come to before they can receive that Honour which is from God And this is that Honest Reason why We of this Age do with Elihu say We know not how to give flattering Titles for in so doing our Maker would soon take us away Thus much in Answer to his Cavills whose Emptiness might have been enough to sound out their own indesert of any but for the sake of the Honest-Hearted I have said some thing enough for the place and occasion If any desire further Satisfaction they may please to peruse a Book entituled No Cross No Crown and the Serious Apology for the Principles and Practices of the People called Quakers pag. 139 140 141 142. which with several others sufficiently vindicate both our Principle and Practice in this particular as also others of the same Nature and tendency His fourth Fling at us is about Womens Sâ—aking in the Church in which point he would seem to Triumph not a little over G. F. Let your Women keep Silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak bnt they are commanded to be under Obedience as also saith the Law And if they will learn any thing let them ask their Husbands at home for it is a shame for Women to speak in the Church 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. Here if the Apostle sayes he doth not command Silence to Women by Sex in those cases wherein he allows men by Sex to speak I understand nothing that is written But G. F. pag. 380. sayes Now the Woman here hath an Husband to ask and not usurp Authority over the Man but Christ in the Male as in the Female who redeems from under the Law and makes free from the Law that man may speak c. Now if we may take Liberty to expound the Scripture thus it will be a Nose of wax that may be turned which way we please Besides it seems to be built upon a misreading of Husband for Husbands because Christ who is but One is made the Husbands that must be asked at home So one of your Authors saith But what Husbands have Widdows to learn of but Christ And was not Christ the Husband of Philip's four Daughters and may not they that learn of their Husbands speak then But before I go any further it may be observed how very slight his return is to G. F's Sense of the place and especially that though he quotes another Friends Query on the matter he never offers to give it any Answer and I am really perswaded he was confounded by it However why is it so abusive of the Scripture to say that which the Scripture saith it self Are not the Spirits of Believers properly the Lambs Bride as being the â—â—ue Church to which he is a Bridegroom and â—f which he is the Head Methinks he must never have read or at least have forgot what he read in the Scriptures of Truth who denies this If so then why is it Improper or Abusive as he calls it to say that when Mens Spirits of themselves especially in the unlearned State speak it is that Woman which is forbidden to speak of her self since the Context saith that though they may all speak one by one yet it is if any thing be revealed to them which because that cannot be without Christ reveal it whom the Father hath ordained to be his eternal Word by which to declare to man the invisible things of his Kingdom it follows that it is Christ the Bridegroom and Husband of his People who by his Power speaks through his People to the Edification of his Body And as the Woman is the Weaker Vessel so is Man in comparison of Christ and therefore may not unfitly be accounted a Woman from his comparative imbecillity So that as Christ Presides or Governs in the Assemblies of his People it may be rather said the Man thâ—â— is the Bridegroom and Husband of his People speaks in them and by them then they themselves who without him are but as the Strength of a Woman and it being her place to yield to the Soveraignity of her Lord and Husband to whom is ordained the Rule she ought to receive the Law from his mouth who is the everlasting High-Priest and Prophet of his People But now suppose I should yield it to him that the Apostle chiefly intended the Words in a Literal Sense and not so mystically as we have already discours'd will it therefore be untrue mystically by no means it is frequent to find both a mystical and literal Sense in the same passage as when the Evangelist alludes to Isaiah's Prophecy Chap. 5. 3. proving it to be fulfilled by Christ's bodily Cures which is true in that Sense yet hath one more inward and mystical But to be short I utterly deny from the Literal Text that Women are prohibited to preach singly as Women or of that Sex
pressed thereby as a Cart is with Sheaves and that since the Foundation of the World 4thly He quotes G. F. thus The Promise is to the Seed the Seed is Christ and Christ is all and in all To which he sayes The Apostle has it thus And when all things shall be subdued unto Him then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him that God not Christ may be all in all He could not have doâ—â— greater Injury to the Holy Spirit 's words then to put Christ for God It will not be hard to clear this Mistake in our Adversary and that to his great Shame For who will think him fit to mannage Controversies that is ignorant in the very letter of the Scripture It is evident that he denies Christ to be all and in all and that G. F's so asserting him to be is the Cause of his Cavil at him Now hear what the Apostle sayes in the matter Col. 3. 11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is All and in All And if Christ be All and in All and he that is All and in All be the True and Living God then because Christ is All and in All Christ is the true and Living God Now who has done the Injury G. F. to the Holy Writ or this obstinate and peevish Adversary to Christ Jesus the only Lord of Glory 5thly His next Socinian Clash at G. F's Citation of Scripture is in the same Page with the former and it is at his saying God is the Word instead of the Word was God adding That though the Word was made Flesh or was Flesh yet no considerate man will say that Flesh is the Word A great deal of do for fear Christ should be God but from this notable Distinction of his we are not without a Relief If the Word was God and the Word be God then God must needs be the Word that is If he that is called God be the same Being with him that is called the Word then God may as well be called the Word as the Word may be called God for instance If Christ and Jesus agree equally to one and the same Being what is the difference betwixt saying Jesus was Christ or Christ was Jesus Certainly we may justly say of him what he in a way of Reflection sayes of G. F. Methinks he is more Nice then Wise And for his Instance about the Word 's being made Flesh that is sayes he was Flesh I deny his Paraphrase for it is neither properly to be read was made Flesh nor was Flesh but rather The Word took Flesh and pitcht his Tent or Tabernacle in us Thus Clarius and almost all agree It to import a more Spiritual signification so Erasmus and Grotius especially and for the Ancients they were positive Ireneus Justinus Tertullianus Origen c. but above the rest Tertullian adv Praxeam but this is not so very material to the Point However if the very Word had become very Flesh I mean visible to Carnal Eyes it would not be inconsiderate in any man to say then Flesh is or was the Word and if our Adversary understood himself he would perceive that there would be only a Transposition of words and no material Alteration For that which is now Flesh or as the Hebrews have it Man is the Word as that which is God is also the Word But enough for this only we may observe by the way that the Man is not so hearty an Enemy to Transubstantiation as he would have us believe pag. 44. who can think the Word was properly made Flesh 6thly His Objection against G. F. for joyning Christ with God saying His Father and He are greater then all is Irreverent and Frivolous For who dares deny it and what abuse is it to Scripture Sure I am his saying so and that without any Reason shews him to be a man of Unreasonable Confidence 7thly He is angry that when G. F. mentions this Passage To whom every Knee must bow and Tongue confess to the Glory of God that he adds not Father I could not have believed that any man who loves Seriousness should bestow his Time so idlely Is this the earnest and deep Study â—e talkt of by which he hopes to obtain Divine Knowledge But sayes he Why did he not add the term Father to God nor insert that Jesus Christ is Lord But the truth of this Scripture consists not with their Doctrine that the Father and Son are one I confess it is somewhat hard to understand what he would be at but let it suffice that he who is called God is called Lord above an Hundred times therefore one to which Christ Himself bears Record I and my Father are one my Father worketh hitherto and I work for whatsoever things he doth those doth the Son To us a Child is born to us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon His Shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderful Councellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace the same Power Spirit Light Life Wisdom and Being forever 8thly His next Antichristian Cavil is at G. F's making the Holy Spirit as well to proceed from the Son as from the Father The Scripture runeth thus But when the Comforter is come the Spirit of Truth whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceeds from the Father He shall testifie of Me But sayes he according to G. F. thus Christ is in the Father and the Father in Him and He will send them the Comforter that proceeds from the Father and the Son and for this quotes an Epistle writ by G. F. and J. S. and prefixt to G. W's Book of the Divinity of Christ It is past my skill to understand the Difference unless it be this That the Spirit he makes to proceed as well from the Son as from the Father and so it doth if I understand Scripture for the place it self saith it But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father which shews that not only God but Christ also sends forth the Holy Spirit into the Faithful Also But if I depart I will send Him unto you He shall not speak of Himself but whatsoever He shall hear He shall glorifie me and shall shew it unto you And when he had said this Peace be unto you my Father hath sent me even so send I you He breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost In short If the Holy Spirit be sent by Christ and received of Christ and is breathed on His by Christ then the Spirit must needs proceed or come from Christ and consequently what G. F. said is sound and Scriptural and our Adversary's Clamours are Vain and Envious For whilst he quotes G. F's calling upon Vincent Danson and
But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the Thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose Goings forth have been from of Old from Everlasting the Hebrews phrase it from the dayes of Eternity Mich. 5. 2. Observ 4. Where we have and for but Ephratah not quoted though thou be little for thou art the least among the Princes for among the Thousands out forth and shall come a Governour that shall Râ—le my People Israel we have for shall he come unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose Going forth have been from of Old from Everlasting For it is written in the Law of Moses Thou shalt not muzzle the Mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn 1 Cor. 9. 9. Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox when he treadeth out the Corn Deut. 25. 4. Observ 5. In this Passage we also have an addition and alteration the Mouth of the Ox for the Ox and that treadeth for when he treadeth c. which though all one in sence yet had been matter of Crime enough against G. F. had he but made the same alteration Of this man's Seed that is David the Son of Jesse hath God according to his Promise raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus Acts 13. 22. And there shall come forth a Rod out of the Stem of Jesse and a Branch shall grow out of his Roots Isa 11. 1. Observ 6. The great Difference of which I mean as to expression one would think might sufficiently justifie G. F. and I believe will in the Judgment of all such as reverence the Scriptures of Truth for I don't see that there be four words alike yet the sence one Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in Victory Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Gravâ— where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15. He will swallow up Death in Victory Isa 25. 8. Oh Death I will be thy Plagues Oh Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13. 14. Observ 7. The alteration here is manifest also Death is swallowed up for He will swallow up Death and Oh Death where is thy sting for Oh Death I will be thy Plagues c. We shall conclude with one more out of the Epistle to the Hebrews But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is forever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Heb. 1. 8. Thy Throne O God is for forever and ever the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a Right Scepter thou lovest Righteousness Psal 45. 6 7. Observ 8. Here we have A Scepter of Righteousness iâ— the Scepter of thy Kingdom for The Scepter of thy Kingdom is a Right Scepter Thus beside many more places past over for brevity sake have I made it evidently appear that G. F. cannot be accused by any that would not accuse Christ Jesus and his Apostles themselves as to Mis-citation of Scriptures if their not Citing of these express words may be justly so reputed which though I utterly reject it yet since our Adversary hath made it a Crime so capital in G. F. it may not be â—â—seasonable to offer That he doth inevitably conclude Christ Jesus and his Apostles under the same Fault which how suitable soever it may be to his Religion we have more Godly Fear and Reverence upon our spirits then to so much as admit of any the least Detraction from them any where and least of all would our Understandings let us in this Occasion But what if we were unable to render those obvious Reasons already offered Would it follow that G. F. must necessarily be condemned as a Perverter of Scripture and as having censured others for that wherein he is as inexcusable himself By no means For it is granted on all hands that what most of all aggravates the Blame of any Dispuâ—â—nt is erring from or falling short of or contradicting his own avow'd Principles This was the Case of the Priests G. F. disputed against but not his They say That the Scriptures or Writings of the Holy Men of God as they are transmitted to us with every Point Iota or parcel of them are such a Sufficient Infallible Perspicuous and Constant Rule as that God hath not left or given unto men any thing more clear certain c. But G. F. and we who are called Quakers although we heartily acknowledge the Scripture so given forth to be a Declaration of the Mind of God so far as it pleased him to discover it and that men ought to believe read obey and fulfil them as the Ancients did yet that the Eternal Spirit is by way of Excellency the Rule and Guide of Christians who convinceth the World of Sin reproves for and redeems from it into the perfect Liberty of the Sons of God as received and obeyed And this only gives the Knowledge of the Truth of the Scriptures and brings into those States of which the Scriptures are but a Godly Narrative And that this Infallible Living Divine Spirit is therefore the most Certain and Unerring Rule above and beyond the meer Letter which hath been and is subject to any Miscarriages Wherefore G. F. had good Reason to put the Priests upon Scripture Proof and that so critically as that they might not foyst in any Doctrines upon Abstruse and disputable Consequences of their own drawing but grounded on express Texts of Scripture For if they defended the Scriptures in every Iota to be the very Word of God and only standing Rule of Faith Worship and Conversation under the Gospel it was but reasonable in him to tye them to their own Rule whilst on the contrary G. F. not believing them to be that alone most excellent standing Rule of Christians however he might otherwise esteem them as rightly believing That not a Law engraven on Tables of Stone much less writ on Paper but an invisible Spiritual Law of Life writ in the Hearts and Consciences of Men and Women was and is the Great Living Infallible and Perpetual Gospel-Rule he was not confined to the very express Words and Points thereof as his Rule So that there is not there cannot be the same Reason for reproving G. F. of what they are most deserving of severe censure Nay G. F. is very excusable in what they by their own Principle are condemnable And therefore he cannot be upon the same terms with them For it would be to say that because I obliege a man with strictness to his own Rule therefore I am an Impostor if I do not as precisely square my self by the same which is to beg more then becomes a Modest Man to ask or a Reasonable Man to grant for it is the very thing controverted Whether that Light Life Power and Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures at several times on several Occasions be that only Infallible Rule of Christians or the Letter so subject to variety of Corruptions Additions Diminutions c.