places of Scripture quoted by him touching the Rule as Gal. 6.16 Phil. 3.16 2 Cor. 10. 13 15. none of them all say either that the Light within or the new Creature is the Rule of Faith and Life nor doth he give any proof by any true Consequence that it is And here by the way W.P. should be put in mind to prove what he asserts by plain Scripture without Consequences which his Brethren commonly allow not of but when any of their Opponents argue with them by Consequences however so fair they will not allow of them And yet throughout this whole Treatise of W.P. he brings not one Argument from express Scripture to prove his Matter but proceeds all along by Consequences not one of which is fairly and truly inferred as will appear in the thorough Examination of them The Rule mentioned Gal. 6.6 hath a plain and easie reference to the Proposition laid down by the Apostle in the foregoing Verse which is this That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature This Proposition laid down by the Apostle in so many express words is an excellent Rule and one of the many excellent Rules appertaining to the Christian Religion the intire body of which Rules is deservedly called the Rule and well might the Apostle say As many as walk according to that one Rule which is very comprehensive Peace be upon them for he that duly walks according to that Rule will be careful to walk according to all the other Rules appertaining to the Christian Religion whereof that one is a main But let it be granted that in some sense the new Creature may be allowed to be a Rule as I see no hurt to allow it in some sense and a Law to him or them in whom this new Creature is wrought or brought forth for even those Gentiles which did the things contained in the Law are said by Paul Rom. 2. to be a Law to themselves Which did shew the Work of the Law writ in their Hearts Then surely much rather every regenerate Person by reason of his new Nature may be said to be a Law or Rule to himself according to that saying of Boetius de Consol Phil. Quis legem det amantibus Major lex amor est ipse sibi The love of Virtue is greater than any Law that can be expressed or laid down in words But how as Law there is understood not properly a Law or Precept informing the Understanding but Metaphorically as it is an inward power having a mighty impulse upon the Will of a good Man even as the love of Vice is a mighty Law that acts with a mighty impulse on the Will of a bad and vicious Man Hence as the one may be understood to be even in the Scripture sense the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus so the other may be understood to be the Law of Sin and Death LAW in both these respects being understood not properly but Metaphorically as when we commonly say God Almighty the great Author and Creator of Nature hath given a Law to the Nature of every thing as weight to Stones and Metals whereby they are moved downwards and levity to Fire whereby it is moved upwards but whither these Motions proceed from an inward or external Cause in these natural bodies is not the proper matter of Debate here only the instance is given to shew that LAW hath commonly a Metaphorical Sense as well as proper and so hath the word or term Rule And I suppose W.P. though perhaps not much acquainted with School-distinctions hath heard of the distinction of a Rule into Regula regulus and Regula regulata i. e. the Rule ruling and the Rule ruled at least of the primary and secondary Rule for he hath allowed in this Treatise that the Scriptures may be called a Secondary Rule at least in several parts of them And why may not much rather the new Creature or work of Sanctification be called a Secondary Rule and the Doctrine of the Christian Religion consisting of many excellent Precepts and Promises and other Gospel Truths the Primary Rule Yea that it is so is evidently proved because the new Creature it self to wit the Work of Regeneration and Sanctification in the Souls of the Faithful is instrumentally wrought by the Form of Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures the Spirit of God working by and with the said Form of Doctrine being the principal Agent and Efficient according to Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart that Form of Doctrine which was delivered unto you or as the better Translation is out of the Greek unto or into which ye were delivered the word translated Form is Type signifying Pattern Mould or Frame according to the Fashion of which a thing is made as when a piece of Clay is formed by the Potter by the Frame to which it is applied or Wax receiveth the Impression of the Seal or a Vessel of Brass Tin or Silver is framed by the Mould into which it is cast Now as the Mould or Pattern whereby any Vessel is framed is prior to the Vessel and the shape or fashion of the Vessel is posterior to the Pattern or Exemplar according to which it is framed even so the new Creature is posterior to the Form of Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures and this evidently proves that the Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures being the same that was extant in the Church of God before it was committed to writing hath the precedency and priority in point of a Rule to the new Creature so that the Doctrine to wit the doctrinal Word and Words of God given by God and Christ to the Holy Prophets and Apostles and by them to other Men who by means thereof are converted and inwardly renewed regenerated and sanctified through the Operation of the Holy Spirit as the principal Efficient is the Rule to the new Creature and not the new Creature the Rule to the Doctrine Hence it is that the Word of God to wit the doctrinal word or word of Doctrine is by a Metaphor called Seed in Scripture for of Seed Plants Trees and Animals are produced And seeing according to Scripture Faith is wrought by hearing the Word outwardly preached in God's ordinary way and that Word is the Doctrine of the Christian Religion given originally by God and Christ to the Prophets and Apostles and by them to us it evidently follows that Faith or the new Creature is not a Rule to the Doctrine but the Doctrine is a Rule to the Faith and consequently the Doctrine is the primary Rule of Faith and Life but not that Faith and Life is the primary Rule or any Rule at all to the Doctrine even as in natural Generation the Seed is before the Birth and Fruit so is the Doctrine before the Faith and before the Person that is the Believer or Saint and regenerated Person as such and before the Church for the
considered as God-Man If by the Saviour of his People he means such a Saviour as saves them with eternal Salvation and makes them Heirs of God and Co heirs with Christ I say without all Faith either explicit or implicit That some of the Gentiles who endeavoured to live up to some Moral Principles discovered to them by the Light in their Consciences and the Improvements that their reasonable Faculties made being enlightned thereby by viewing the Works of Creation and general Providence had a kind of Faith and Hope in God that prompted them to expect Temporal Blessings and some Temporal Rewards from the Observation they could make that Divine Providence did ordinarily bestow such Blessings upon Men that were morally honest may and ought to be granted But this is not the Faith of God's Elect and of the Heirs of eternal Salvation that is grounded upon the Faithful Word of God and his Faithful Promises first delivered to his Holy Prophets and Apostles and by them to us even such a word of Faith as that It is a faithful saying that Jesus Christ is come into the World to save Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 For to him gave all the Prophets witness as Peter preached to Cornelius that whoever believeth in him should receive remission of Sins Acts 10.43 God's Promises come not to Men nor ever came to them by the common Dictates of the Light within whither they call it God or the Word or the Spirit there are diversities of Operations Gifts and Ministrations inward as well as outward of one God one Lord and one Spirit who is over all in all and through all It is but a faint Hope and Faith that Men can have in God without the Promises and without all special Revelation The knowledge of God's Goodness discoverable by the Light in every Conscience in the Works of Creation and Providence may give Men that are morally honest some probable Faith that he will be favourable to them But the infallible ground of certainty concerning eternal Life and Salvation none ever had or can have without the Promises and special Revelation For all the Light and Knowledge that the Ephesian Gentiles had in their meer Gentile State Paul told That at that time they were without hope and without the Promises and aliens and strangers to the common-wealth of Israel Eph. 2.12 An indigent Man that knows a good Man that is able to help him yet he is not sure that he will help him unless he has his promise and some particular intimation of his mind but if he have that then his Faith hath sure footing But the Faithful have not only God's Word and Promises but confirmed by his Oath that by two immutable things they might have strong Confidence and Hope that is as an Anchor sure and stedfast and which enters within the Vail whither the Fore-runner hath gone But there is nothing of this sort of Faith that I can find as any-wise necessary or essential to the Religion here described in this Treatise of W.P. but pure Deism and at best refined Paganism all along as will further appear in what follows I find in Page 50 of the same Treatise a quite differing Definition of Faith which if not plainly contradictory to the former is very disingenous and full of Equivocation but whatever way it be taken if he adhere to it and allow it to be a proper Definition where the Definition it self in the parts of it ought to be essential to the thing defined and such as the thing defined cannot be without it yields as sufficient Argument against his Position That the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith His Definition is this Faith is yielding up to the requirings of God's Spirit in us in full assurance of the Remission of Sins that are past through the Son of his love and Life everlasting Several things are faulty in this Definition First That he confounds the Effect or Concomitant of Faith with Faith it self for the yielding up or Resignation to God's Requirings is rather an Effect or Concomitant of Faith than Faith it self especially in the present case as it hath respect to the Rule which determines what is to be believed or assented unto upon the Credit of Divine Authority Secondly That he makes Remission of Sins to be antecedent and prior to Faith which is the Error of the Antinomians and plainly contradictory to the Scripture that holds forth both Repentance and Faith to be necessary Requisites in order to Forgiveness Thirdly That he makes full Assurance of Remission of Sins to be of the Nature of Faith whereas there is a Faith of Adhesion that is true Faith that many of the Faithful have who have not arrived to that full Assurance But that which I principally notifie in this his last Definition is That he makes this full Assurance of the Remission of Sins to be through the Son of God's love Where that the Equivocation and Fallacy may be discovered I ask him what he means by the Son of his Love through which this Assurance if Remission of Sins is obtained If he means by the Son of his Love only the Light within every Man's Conscience it is a palpable Equivocation and inserted on purpose to deceive the Christian Readers who generally by Mens having Remission of Sins through the Son of God's Love do understand the Son of God's Love to be the Word Incarnate to wit Jesus Christ God-man as he died for our Sins by his Death to purchase to us the Pardon of them But this sense of the words which is the true Scripture sense and the sense of all true Christians W.P. doth not admit if he adhere to what he hath said both here and in his other Books for in his Serious Apology Page 146. he saith in behalf of himself and Brethren That that outward Person that suffered at Jerusalem was properly the Son of God we utterly deny And here in this Book he makes it not any of the absolute Necessaries in Religion but some considerable Matters superadded P. 44. That God was manifested extraordinarily in the Flesh that he gave his Life for the World that such as believe and obey his Grace in their Hearts receive Remission of Sins and Life everlasting But which way soever he understands these words The Son of God's Love seeing he makes the Rule of every Man's Faith not to be the Words of God declaring his Promise of Forgiveness as outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures but the Light in every Man's Conscience he is bound to give us some better proof than his simple Affirmation That the Light in every Man's Conscience or indeed in any Man's conscience reveals to him God's Will to forgive Sins without all special Revelation or Declaration of God's Will as contained in the Holy Scriptures seeing the Holy Scriptures do hold it forth as one of the great Secrets and Mysteries of God's Will declared to Men by the special Revelation of the Holy
the Government of our Life in all Estates are not the Rule which the Holy Spirit useth as his Instrument to Guide us in all parts of our Duty But he might have told us some of those Thousand Cases in which the Scripture cannot be our plain and distinct Rule whereby to know either our Duty to perform it or what is prohibited that we may avoid it though we have the inward assistance of God's Spirit to enlighten our Minds and set before them on all necessary occasions and emergencies such Scripture Precepts and Prohibitions as suit with the present occasions But if the cases be of things in themselves simply indifferent i. e. neither commanded nor forbidden either by any Precepts of God or Just Precepts and Laws of our Superiors we are left to our choice according as our rational Faculties and Christian Prudence shall direct us a due regard over all being had to the Glory of God and that whatever we do be done in the Spirit of true Love and Charity which are general Rules plainly given us in the Holy Scriptures the particular application of which in all particular Cases whither in relation to Superiors Inferiors or Equals the Holy Spirit by his special Illuminations in our Hearts will teach us as we faithfully pray and wait for them without the need of any other general or particular Rules than what already are given us in the Holy Scriptures Therefore in opposition to this extravagant and rash Assertion of W. P that there are a Thousand Cases in which the Scripture cannot be our plain and distinct Rule I affirm that there is not one Case respecting our Duty either towards God our selves or our Neighbours but plain Instructions and Precepts are given us in the Holy Scriptures concerning the same but we still need the Grace and Guidance of God's Holy Spirit to give us the Spiritual discovery of them and to enable us rightly to practise them Surely David had a far better and greater esteem of God's Laws Precepts and Testimonies even as outwardly delivered by Moses and also by himself than W.P. hath concerning which he said Psal 119.24 Thy Testimonies also are my delight and my Counsellors Though David was a Prophet yet as King over the People of Israel he was commanded of God to write him a Copy of the Law of God in a Book which was to be with him and he was to Read therein all the days of his Life that he might learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of that Law and these Statutes to do them c Deut. 17.18 19 20. And yet David was highly illuminated and inspired far above W.P. or any of his Brethren but the written Law was to be the Rule of his Actions as well as of other Men. Nor could David have excused himself from taking the written Law to be the Rule of his Life because he had it in his Heart and if it could be no excuse to David nor can it be to any Christian now King or Subject that because they have the Law writ in their Hearts and the Spirit put in their inward parts according to God's promise in the New Covenant that therefore the Laws of God both of the Old and New Testament that are of a Moral concern even as outwardly delivered do not bind them which is in very deed to take away the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and make void the Prophetical and Kingly Office of Christ yea and the Office of the Holy Spirit also who inspired the Holy Pen-men to commit them to Writing And it is no less extravagant and rash in W.P. to assert that there is not laid down in Scripture any general Rule how to answer before Magistrates and to act in times of Sufferings for though no particular words are given us limiting and determining us what to say yet the general matter of our Duty is plainly laid down in Scripture what and how to answer before Magistrates as that of Peter and John Acts 4.19 How that it is better to obey God than Men and that of the three Children to King Nebuchadnezzer Dan. 3.17 18. And how to act in Times of Suffering we have both excellent commands and examples in Scripture as Mat. 10.28 1 Pet. 2.20 1 Pet. 4.16 Luke 23.34 Acts 7.59 60. But seeing he doth so peremptorily require a general Rule to suit all Cases as well as all Persons of Mankind otherwise it could not be general which yet he will have it to be what those dictates or Revelations of the Light in every Conscience are of Jews Mahometans and Christians that can give such plain directions to all Persons in all Cases which the Scripture cannot give I desire him to tell at least some of them If he doth not it is a sign he cannot and that consequently his Argument is vain for the Light or Spirit abstractly considered without all Revelation can be no Rule Section 13. His fourteenth Argument which he calls his eighth answered Page 120. AFter he has given Thirteen Reasons and all false ones enough as I think I have sufficiently shewed he comes to that he calls his eighth reason after his former Thirteen at least Why the Scriptures cannot be the Rule under the New Covenant which is this Christ the Spiritual Leader of a Spiritual Israel writeth his Spiritual Law in the Heart as Moses the outward Israel's Leader writ the Law upon Tables of Stone This was God's Promise and the priviledge and blessing of the New Covenant that as the outward Jew had an outward Law for a directory the inward Jew should have an inward Law for his directory and as the outward Jew had an outward Priest at whose Mouth be ought to seek the Law so the Jew inward and Circumcision in Spirit has an inward and Spiritual High-Priest whose Lips preserve knowledge at whose Mouth he is to receive the Law of Life The King Ruler Judge Law-giver High-Priest Law Rule are all Spiritual so the Scriptures inform us My Kingdom said Christ is not of this World Again the Kingdom of God is within Luk. 17.20 21. I will write my Law in their Hearts They shall be all taught of me Heb. 8.10 quoting Rev. 21.3 Joel 2.28 Tit. 2.11 12. Job 32.8 Rom. 1.19 And here again he falsly quotes the words Whatever may be known of God c. Gal. 5.16 1 John 1.7 Isa 2.5 Rev. 21. 23. Gal. 6.15 16. as also he quotes unduly 1 Cor. 12.7 putting a measure of the Spirit for a manifestation of the Spirit Answ 1. If the Light within be a general Rule to Mankind then the outward Israel had it as well as the inward Israel Where is then the distinction and difference betwixt the one and the other 2. If the Rule of the inward Israel be within and the High-Priest within then as the inward Israel has no Rule to be the Rule of their Faith and Life but the Light in the Conscience so they have no High-Priest
Spirit through his Holy Prophets and Apostles even Remission of Sin and Free Justification by Jesus Christ through Faith in him and not by any Works or Obedience that either the Jew did perform to the outward Law or the Gentile did perform to the Law writ in the Heart When Peter preached Remission of Sin by Faith in Jesus Christ whom the Jews hang'd on the Tree to Cornelius he confirm'd this Doctrine not from the eternal Precepts in every Man's Conscience or the common Dictates of the Light in every Man but from the general Testimony of the Prophets Acts 10.43 To him said Peter give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins But according to W. P's Doctrine the Apostle Peter should have said To him the Light in every Conscience gave the Dictates of that Light in every Conscience witness That whosoever gave up to the Requirings of the Light in them without all Faith in Christ God-man without them shall receive the Remission of their Sins And seeing whatever is the Rule of Faith must teach us all that is needful to Salvation by it self as W.P. argueth he must prove that the Light in every Man's Conscience dictateth to him this Proposition That is thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 Or if it doth dictate some other way than this then that and the like places of Scripture contradict the Dictates of the Light within But that this Proposition laid down Rom. 10.9 is no Dictate of the Light within in Mens Consciences is evident from W. P's plain Confession P. 32 33. who saith That the Light within should tell us that Christ suffered Death and rose again is not needed inasmuch as an account of that is extant in Scripture Whereby it plainly appears he holds it not needful to our Salvation to believe that Proposition Rom. 10.9 seeing the Light within that is the Rule of Faith doth not reveal it and such Revelation is not necessary and consequently according to him the belief of that Proposition Rom. 10.9 is not necessary to any for Salvation And if that be not necessary by the same method of Argument according to W.P. nor is the belief of all the other parts of Scripture necessary to Salvation which are not the common Dictates of the Light in every Conscience The only use of the whole Scripture according to W.P. is meerly Historical which though perhaps true is nowise necessary to our Salvation to believe the truth of it but we are left at liberty to believe or disbelieve all and every part of what is contained in the Scripture without any danger to our Salvation excepting these few absolute necessaries that the Light within every Conscience teacheth us as well as the Scriptures But none of all the twelve Articles of the Apostle's Creed according to the true Sense of Scripture or the common received Sense of all true Christians are taught by the Light within without the external Revelation of the Scripture therefore according to W.P. the belief of none of these twelve Articles is necessary to our Salvation The which being the plain Import of W. P's Doctrine laid down in his Book whither it be not Plain Deism appearing with open face I appeal to all sincere Christians Section 2. His Arguments from Scripture that the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life Answered HE begins with his Proofs Page 4. That the Light in every Man's Conscience is the general Rule of Faith and Life from Matt. 11.27 and 1 Cor. 2.11 he argues That because the Father cannot be known but by the Revelation of the Son and Holy Spirit consequently that Light metioned John 1.3 or Spirit must have been the general Rule of Mens Knowledge Faith and Obedience with respect to God Answ His Consequence is denied he gives no proof of it yea it is manifestly false and to discover its Fallacy observe how he confounds the efficient Cause and Author of Knowledge and Faith with the Rule which he ought to distinguish He might as well argue no Man sees what hour it is on a Sun-dyal but by the Sun and consequently the Sun and not the Dyal is the Rule whereby he knows the hour Page 5. His next Argument is from Eph. 5.13 Whatever makes manifest is Light therefore the Light in the Conscience is the general Rule Answ The Consequence again is denied it has the same defect as the former as will appear by forming the like Argument Whatever makes manifest an outward object to our Eye is some outward light of Sun Moon or Candle c. Therefore that alone without the object manifests it and also without the Organ of sight who sees not the Fallacy of this Argument and as much he may see the Fallacy of the other The next place of Scripture he argueth from is Rom. 1.19 which he falsly quotes as I have observed he hath misquoted this place both here and in pag. 21 for thus he quotes it WHATEVER might be known of God was made manifest within for God who is Light hath shewn it unto them But let the place it self be considered and it saith not WHATEVER but what is to be known of God is manifest in them to wit the Gentiles or Heathen Nations who had not the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Faith revealed to them or Preached among them And that the words what is to be known of God cannot be meant of WHATEVER can or is to be known of God was manifest in them as the Text doth not say it so it is a manifest Falshood It cannot be said of the best Christians â—hat whatever is to be known of God is made manifest in them for the best know but in part and there is still more to be known of God even in the best of Christians than what is at present revealed or made manifest in them And it is very evident from the following words what Paul meant by that saying What is to be known of God or as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. The Eternal power and God-Head which was made manifest partly by the things made or created without Men and partly by some Divine Illumination within them But doth it therefore follow that because those Heathens had some knowledge of the Eternal Power and God-head that therefore they knew all the fundamental Princiles of the Christian Religion By no means more than it followeth that W.P. knoweth some things of England and some other Countries partly by History and partly by his sight of them therefore he knows the whole Earth so far as it is habitable He brings another Proof That the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life from Micah 6.8 He hath shewed unto thee O Man what is good and what God requireth of thee
Word and Doctrine doth not depend on the Church nor is built on the Church but the Church depends on it and is built thereupon Eph. 2.20 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone and great Foundation of both Section 7. The Rule of the Christian Faith must be a Doctrine which sets before our Minds all the Credenda or things necessary to be believed in certain Propositions concerning which the Mind of Man can give a Judgment Affirmative or Negative AGain that the Doctrine is the most perfect Rule being compared with the new Creature or work of Sanctification is evident because so far a Man is said to be the more sanctified and redeemed the more that his Faith Love Hope Humility Patience Temperance Justice and other Virtues comes up to a Conformity to the precepts of God and Christ faithfully declared to us in the Holy Scriptures And notwithstanding the high pretentions of some among the People called Quakers to perfection yet I appeal to W. P's Conscience if he can or dare say or think that his Sanctity or Virtues come up to a full Conformity to the Holy precepts delivered in the Holy Scripture Is his Faith as great as the Doctrine given us in the Holy Scripture requires it to be Is his Love as perfect perfect and compleat Is his Meekness Patience and Humility Justice Temperance and Piety equal to the heighth breadth depth and length of all God's Commands even as outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures I trust he hath so much discretion as to say nay then let him not exalt his Sanctity or Work of the New Creature wrought in him above the Sanctity of the Holy Doctrine and precepts of God and Christ contained in the Holy Scripture making his Sanctity or New Creature in him superior or primary Rule to the Doctrine but let the Doctrine have its due place to be a superior and primary Rule to his Sanctity or work of the New Creature wrought in him let his Faith and Love and other Virtues if he hath them be Ruled by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and subjected thereunto but let not the Doctrine be subjected unto his Faith and Virtues which are far inferior to the Purity Spirituality and Holiness of the Doctrine But if he will say the New Creature in him is the greatest and highest and most perfect Rule whereby to square his Faith and Life it followeth that he is arrived at the highest pitch of Holiness for what can be beyond or above the highest and most perfect Rule of Sanctity But again the greatest Sanctity that is possible of Men or Angels simply considered could not have given the knowledge of Christ's Incarnation and of our Redemption by him without a divine Revelation therefore the Sanctity or New Creature in the Holiest of Men could not be to them a Rule of Faith as touching these Mysteries If he will say there is a higher and more perfect Rule of Sanctity than the New Creature wrought in him let him tell us what it is if not the Doctrine delivered in the Holy Scriptures the Laws Precepts and Commandments delivered there If he say the Light within or Christ and the Spirit within is that highest and most perfect Rule of Sanctity To this I answer The Spirit or Light within abstractly considered cannot be properly a Rule I say abstractly considered from the Doctrines and Precepts delivered by the Spirit whither internally without any external Medium or externally by some external Meidum Nothing properly can be a Rule of Christian Faith as in respect of the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Religion but that Doctrine which sets before our Minds certain propositions of Truth to which the Mind can and ought to assent from sufficient Motives of Credibility which W.P. from his own definition of Faith must allow For he defines Faith Page 4. to be an assent of the Mind in such manner to the discoveries made of God thereto as to resign up to God and have dependance on him as the great Creator and Saviour of his People Where Note that he wholly passeth by Christ Considered as God-Man from being concerned in the object of Faith and so his Faith is no other but the Faith of a meer Deist Now seeing he defines Faith to be an assent of the Mind to certain discoveries made of God thereto c. These discoveries must be certain propositions set before the Mind in some form of Words mentally conceived and apprehended for the Nature of the Mind or intellect of Man is such that it cannot Judge what is true or false but as the truth is set before it in certain propositions consistng of Words at least internally conceived and apprehended for the assent of the Mind is a Judgment of the Mind formed whereby it Judgeth this or that to be true and if it be a true Judgment it must have some proposition consisting of words concerning which it is enabled either to affirm or deny what is really true as the Mind cannot assent to this great truth that God is not a Body but by a negative proposition consisting of some words which is a negative Judgment nor can it assent to this other proposition that God is a Spirit but by an affirmative proposition consisting of some words at least Internally conceived called by some Idea's which is an affirmative Judgment and therefore so far as Faith is an act of the intellect and an assent of the Mind it must needs have some Words at least internally proposed to it whereby it is capable to give an assent to the Truth of what it Judgeth and seeing in matters purely of Faith the Mind is not capable of giving an assent to the truth of them without some sufficient motives of Credibility as that they are given of God who is a God of Truth and cannot lye nor deceive From these Considerations it is evident that as there can be no assent of the Mind or intellect without words or Idea's so there can be no Faith without them and consequently that the Rule of Faith must be certain propositions consisting of words and sentences such as God delivered to the Prophets and which are recorded in Scriptures such are That the Word was made Flesh that a Virgin should Conceive and Bare a Son and that Son should be the Saviour of the World that by his Death he should reconcile us unto God That he should rise again from the Dead on the Third Day and ascend into Heaven and that he should there remain appearing in the presence of God for us our mighty Advocate and Intercessor until he come again to Judge the Quick and the Dead c. How can the Mind of Man assent to these great Truths without words at least Internally conceived if he cannot as every intelligent Person must acknowledge then those very words as they lye in a certain series and order of propositions are the Rule of his Faith But seeing these words have no
of these Tracts If W.P. say it is because the Authority of the Light within is much gain-said among Men and the Dictates of it grievously perverted and made contradictory If both Parties even among the Quakers themselves may be believed G. F and his Party when alive and now W. P's and G. W's Party judging that which John Story and his Party believed to be the Dictates of the Light within to be the Dictates of a False Spirit and they judging the like of them Therefore Books and Tracts have been multiplied among themselves And as good and much better reason can be given why so many truly pious and edifying Tracts have been written by many Godly Men to vindicate both the Sufficiency of the Spirit and true Light within in all the Faithful and also the Sufficiency of the Scriptures without this as the Rule and that as the principal Teacher Agent and Efficient working with and by the Rule and yet none of the two how much ever sufficient excluding the Lord Jesus Christ God-Man without us from being our All sufficient Saviour each being sufficient in their own order and manner of acting As concerning such Gentiles to whom the offer of Faith has not been made neither by Men nor Writings none say that the Scriptures are a Rule to them but as they have no outward Rule of Christian Faith so nor doth it appear that they have the Christian Faith it self If any have it they have it not by the common Illumination but by some miraculous and extraordinary manner unknown to us And how God disposeth of the more Sober and Virtuous among them doth not at all reach the present Controversie which is not whither the Scripture be the Rule to all Mankind that ever lived or now live but whither it be the Rule of Faith and Life to them who have them or may have them by some possible means Page 16. Arg 13. Whereas he saith Doth not your own Language and Practise prove its viz. the Scriptures Insufficiency to that end at what time you both exhort to and go in secret to seek the Mind of the Lord in this or that important Affair Why do not you turn to Chapter and Verse for satisfaction if the Scripture be appointed of God for the General Rule Ans This Argument hath also as great force or rather much greater against the Light within being the General Rule for do none of the Friends both exhort to and go in secret to seek the Mind of the Lord in this or that important Affair Why do they not turn to the Light within to be forthwith without all Prayer or waiting informed and satisfied If they do not yea if W.P. do not both he and they are wofully deceived by neglecting Prayer and waiting on God to receive Satisfaction in this or that important Affair but if they find their need both for Prayer and waiting for direction then let him answer his own Argument and make due Application But to give a positive and direct answer if it be either a matter of Doctrine or Precept that any Christian wants due Instruction and Direction in they may both Pray and Read and search the Scriptures and Meditate Iad wait for God's inward Illumination and â—nspiration to give them a right Understanding and they may expect it will be given them if they sincerely seek it and use all due Endeavours and Means to attain it one of which is to consult and use the Advice of others whom they have cause to judge Spiritually more enlightned than themselves If it be in Cases that are neither matter of Doctrine nor Precept but where the matter is by it self indifferent and neither simply commanded nor forbidden as many such Cases there are they may and ought to pray and wait for direction and it may please God to give it to them by some secret Motion Impulse or Impression of his Holy Spirit which may sufficiently satisfie them without making that impression Motion or Impulse the Rule of either Faith or Obedience seeing the Matter is neither a Matter of Doctrine nor Precept wherein either Faith or Obedience as touching that particular is concerned but a Motion or Impulse simply from God upon the Will cannot be properly called a Rule because as is above-said a Rule properly speaking is a Form of Words and Propositions either outwardly expressed or inwardly conceived to which the Intellect either assents or dissents And if any true Christian finds such a motion or impulse on his VVill if after examination he find that it doth not incline him to any thing either contradictory to Scripture or true Reason he is in no great danger to yield to it and if he do not yield to it upon just suspicion or fear that it is not of God it will not be charged to be a Sin upon him for nothing is Sin but a Transgression of God's Law Page 19. The Law outward saith he as a Rule was but as Moses till the Son came the Servant abideth not in the House for ever the Written Law held its place but till the inward Rise in more Glory and Brightness or rather till People became more capable of being turned to it and living with and in it Answ Had not Mankind generally the Light within them under Moses How comes it then that it was not the Rule to them and did not dismiss the written Law But if there be no written nor outward Law given by Christ under the Gospel then all that he taught outwardly and for which he sent his Spirit upon the Apostles to bring it all to their Remembrance and to move them to commit it to Writing Yea the whole New Testament Writings must be dismissed and turned out of the Church the House of God as was Ishmael and his Mother out of Abraham's House because by his most false Arguing the written Law given by Christ and the Holy-Ghost under the New Testament is as much the Servant as the Old Covenant was O the Vanity and Folly of this manner of Arguing which wholly makes void Christ's Prophetical and Kingly Office as he was outwardly sent in the Flesh by the Father to give a more full and clear discovery of the way of Salvation as the great Prophet and to give forth his Royal Laws to the Church under the New Testament as King and Head thereof But he further enlargeth upon this Argument P. 17. telling us There are a Thousand Cases in which the Scripture cannot be our Plain and distinct Rule and Guide And he adds on the Margent There 's not laid down in Scripture any general Rule how to answer before Magistrates and to act in times of Sufferings To which I answer First he doth not well to confound Rule and Guide it is granted the Spirit of God is the Guide Teacher and Leader of the Faithful but it doth not therefore follow that the Holy Scriptures i. e. the many excellent Instructions Precepts and Examples given us therein for
ordinary way it works in the Faithful accompanying the outward word and by means thereof the which inward word Voice and Teaching properly and strictly speaking is not any singular new or differing Form of words but rather a Divine Power Light and Life quickning enlightning and strengthning the Understanding and Heart of Man Spiritually and Savingly to understand the Divine Doctrines and Mysteries of the Christian Faith outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures and not only so but giving the Souls of the Faithful at times a Divine Sense Sight and Taste of God's Divine Power Love and Life called in Scripture A tasting of the heavenly Gift and of the good Word of God and of the powers of the World to come which Sight Sense and Taste and Spiritual Feeling is indeed beyond all that can be either uttered with the Mouth heard with the Ear or conceived in the Mind in or by any Form of words as the outward Sight Sense Taste and Feeling of outward delightful Objects is beyond all words and report of them as the Scripture saith Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entred into the Heart to conceive the good things that God hath prepared for them that love him But as saith the Apostle Paul God hath revealed them to us to wit to the Faithful by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.9 10. Isaiah 64.4 viz. in an earnest and first Fruits the Harvest and full Fruition being reserved for the future State And here again if it be asked what is the Rule whereby to know surely the true Divine Enjoyment as above described from the false and counterfeit that may be nothing other than Satan's Transformings I answer It is improper in this Case to ask what is the Rule of Faith or Practise because this high Divine Enjoyment is properly speaking neither an Act of Faith nor Practise though it is a proper Consequent and Concomitant of sound Faith and godly and virtuous Practise for as in the exercise of the outward Sight Hearing and Taste no Form of words can be a Rule to a Man to teach him how to See Hear or Taste but the sound Disposition of the Organs of those Senses and the due Application of the Objects is all that is requisite to enable a Man to know what he certainly Sees Hears and Tasts so when the Spiritual Senses of the Soul are awakened by the quickning Power of God and the Mind fitly and duly disposed whatever Divine and Spiritual Objects are presented to that Soul and Mind it naturally and necessarily apprehends them by its Spiritual Senses which are as it were the Spiritual Organs of the Inward and Spiritual Man the best and fittest Disposition of the Soul and Mind making it capable for such Divine Enjoyment is Internal Purity of Heart as our Saviour hath taught us saying Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God that is always accompanied with a sound Faith grounded upon the sound and wholsome Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures And though no Form of words can be a Rule a Priori whereby to discern true Enjoyments from false and counterfeit yet a Posteriori that is by the Consequents and Effects they may soon and quickly be discerned if duly examined by the infallible Rule of Faith and Life laid down in the Scriptures even as a Posteriori or consequentially a Man may know whither what he apprehends he seeth heareth or tasteth outwardly be real or imaginary Section 14. Diverse places of Scripture explained and rescued from his Corrupt Glosses and Interpretations BUT before I finish my Answer to this his last Argument I think fit to take notice how he has perverted misconstrued and misapplied all and every one of the places of Scripture above recited out of his Page 21 to prove that the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life to every Man and that without any necessary super-addition without or within Men be they Jews Mahometans Infidels Christians they have all but one and the same Rule of Faith and Life as they have one and the same Creator For indeed not one of these places are to be understood as with respect to that part of Mankind that lived or now live in pure Heathenism or Gentilism but such as were or are professed Members of God's Church as the Jews were when our Saviour was bodily present on Earth and as the Christians were and now are excepting that one place Rom. 1.19 which as I have above noted he falsly quotes rendring it Whatsoever may be known of God which as the English Translation doth not so word nor doth the Greek bear it and the Falseness of it I have above described as for the saying of our Saviour My Kingdom is not of this World which is the first of those Quotations above given Can it be supposed that by his Kingdom there he meant nothing but the Light in every Man's Conscience he offers not the least proof of it the Kingdom of God and of Christ in Scripture otherwise called the Kingdom of Heaven hath diverse significations sometimes it signifies his Church that is called a Kingdom of Priests sometimes his Rule and Government in and over his Church by his Laws and Precepts and Power of his Spirit and manifold Gifts and Graces and sometimes the Gospel with the Blessings thereof that is the Doctrine of the Gospel as where Christ said to the Jews The Kingdom should be taken from them Matt. 21.43 as hath been accordingly fulfilled though still they have the common Illumination of the Light within them and sometimes it signifieth his Kingdom of Glory in the future State after Death This next Quotation is out of Luke 17.20 21. The Kingdom of God is within you which also he falsly quotes leaving out the word you so making it universal to serve his Design for a Proof that the Light in every Mans Conscience is that which is meant by Christ in this place the Kingdom of God I grant God has an universal providential Kingdom in and over all his Creatures and more particularly in and over all Mankind according to Psal 103.19 and his Kingdom ruleth over all or in all and that his providential Kingdom among Men is administred in great part by means of the common Illumination in and over all Men but the Kingdom as it is here understood Luke 17.20 21. is not his providential Kingdom but a new Administration of the Gospel that many were looking for and expecting which made the Pharisees ask when the Kingdom of God should come surely as they meant not to ask when his providential Kingdom should come or when should Men begin to have something to reprove or convince them for common Sins in their Conscience nor did Christ mean it so but of some more excellent Dispensation by his Doctrine and Preaching which the Pharisees had heard as well as others and therefore it might well be said to be not only among them as some translate it but
even in them to wit the Doctrine of the Kingdom together with which some inward Seed of Light might have been sown in some of their Hearts by his Ministry beyond and above the common Illumination But what proof is this that the Gentiles had the Kingdom of God in them in this Sense who never to this day heard Christ or any of his Ministers nor received any Gospel Doctrine by any outward Testimony by voice or writing And Heb. 8.10 compared with Jer. 31.33 and all the other places do wholly respect that part of Mankind to whom the Gospel is outwardly preached and for most part such who did believe it or were in due time to believe it as that noted place Titus 2.11 12. by the Grace of God that had appeared to all cannot be understood the common Light or Illumination in all because v. 13. it was such a Grace that taught such who gave up to be taught by it and obey it to look for that blessed Hope and glorious Appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to dye for us that by his Death and precious Blood outwardly shed for us he might redeem us from all Iniquity Now can W.P. or any of his Deist Brethren prove that any Jew Mahometan Heathen or Deist that obey the Dictates of the Light within are taught thereby to look for this glorious appearing of Jesus Christ when he shall come in his glorified Manhood to judge the Quick and the Dead for that no doubt is the glorious Appearing here meant the most Obedient of his Jewish Mahometan Brethren to the Light within them and the most strict and exact Deists here in England will tell him they believe no such thing their Light within them hath taught them no such Faith nor Hope yea Cornelius that was a most excellent Gentile for Virtue and I suppose in his Gentile state surpassed for Piety and Virtue the best Deist in England was not taught by the Light that was formerly in him in his Gentile state to believe Remission of Sin through Faith in Jesus of Nazareth whom the Jews hanged on a Tree c. but was informed by the Angel to send for Peter to preach this Jesus to him nor did the Angel direct him to the Light in him simply for Information but to the Apostle Peter without him that by means of his Ministry he might receive the Christian Faith and the special Illumination of the Holy Ghost as accordingly was fulfilled And as to the words Jer. 31.34 compared with Heb. 8.11 they shall not teach every Man his neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord For all shall know me from the least to the greatest This Promise doth only belong to the Children of the New Covenant to wit the Members of Christ's Catholick Church and not to all Mankind therefore cannot be meant of the common Illumination in Heathens and Infidels nor of many Thousands living under a visible Profession of Christianity who are not so taught of God that they need not a Man to teach them or to say know the Lord for to be so taught is a high State and the words have their full and perfect accomplishment in the future State though in part here and comparatively they have their present fulfilling as often indeed many places of Scripture have a comparative meaning Besides that it is granted that that high degree of Divine knowledge above described that is a divine enjoyment of God by Spiritual Sensation Sight and Taste one Man cannot teach it to another for it surpasseth all words either uttered or conceived as one Man cannot teach another that is Blind to see or Deaf to hear or that hath not his Taste to Savour though as to the Doctrinal knowledge he may teach him and by means of that Teaching be made instrumental by the blessing and Grace of God to open his Spiritual Eyes and excite those Spiritual Sensations in him And what though Christ left nothing in Writing by himself for the Rule of Faith and practise as W.P. argueth what his Apostles and Evangelists committed to Writing by his Inspiration was sufficient why it should be received to be the Rule of our Faith that is the outward Instrument whereby Faith is wrought in us and whereby we may be helped through the Spirits inward Illumination and assistance how to discern what we are to believe to be true Doctrine and what we are to practise But it 's very strange what he further saith That had he intended the Rule of his followers to have been a written Rule note a written Rule he would have left it upon record with all punctuality this must be believed and that done on pain of Eternal Death His words plainly import as if such punctuality had not been recorded but as if People who read the Scriptures or hear them ever so truly expounded were left at liberty to believe this or the other thing or not belive it though written and commanded and also to do or not do without any danger of Damnation whereas the plain words of our Saviour are recorded by Mark 16.16 He that believeth not shall be Damned believeth not what surely both what Christ Preached and what his Apostles and Evangelists were inspired to write by his Spirit to whom those Writings should come for others to whom they have not come their Sins against the Law and Light in their Consciences are sufficient to render them without excuse But saith he nor did his followers write in the method of a Rule How knows he that Is he so great a Master of Method so as that he can prove they write not in the Method of a Rule What saith he to Christ's Sermon on the Mount and his other Sermons recorded by the Four Evangelist's which alone though we had no other parts of the New Testament are a sufficient Rule both of Faith and Life which yet makes not the other parts superfluous It is a good saying Abundance of the Law breaks not the Law as God's ways are not as Man's ways so God's Method in delivering us the Rule of Faith and Life is not as Man's Method And what saith he to Luke who Luk. 1.13 declareth that having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first it seemed good to him to write them in Order and said John John 20.31 These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name It is strange that a Quaker should argue against the Scripture being the Rule of Faith and Life for wanting the Method of a Rule who may be thought very improper Judges of Method being so immethodical themselves both in Writing and Preaching and cry out against others for Method and yet now the Scriptures must be rejected from being the Rule of Faith and Life for not being writ in the Method of a Rule If W.P. must be believed
them speak that God was manifested extraordinarily in the Flesh that he gave his Life for the World that such as believe and obey his Grace in their Hearts receive Remission of Sins and Life everlasting First It is needful he should explain what he means by these words That he gave his Life whither the Life of the Man Christ without us or the Blood which is the Life and that Life is the Light within as he hath been heard to preach and is according to his Books And what means he by the word believe Whither to believe that Christ died for our Sins and rose again Well in Charity I will suppose this to be his meaning otherwise he would greatly equivocate but still all this belief is none of the absolute Necessaries in Religion they are some considerable Matters superadded Superadded to what To the Scriptures Nay they are the chief Doctrines of the Scriptures Therefore again I ask Superadded to what Why to the Light within its Dictates But are they necessary to be believed since they are supernumerary and superadded to the Dictates of the Light in every Conscience Yea saith W.P. Page 35. where the History has reached and the Spirit of God has made a Conviction upon the Conscience Well then If they are necessary to be believed where the Spirit of God hath made this Conviction upon the Conscience this Conviction is not the Effect of the general Light in every Conscience but somewhat superadded and therefore the general Light in the Conscience is not the perfect and compleat Rule But what if the Spirit make not this Conviction upon the Conscience of some who have the Scripture which he calls the History Is he sure the Spirit will make it or doth make it on every Conscience to whom the History reacheth If he say yea he throweth down his Fabrick with his own words for if so this Conviction made by the Spirit of God on the Conscience must be a part yea the greatest part of the Rule of Faith to all who have the Scriptures because the Scriptures hold forth many more things to be believed and practised than these few eternal Precepts as he calls them of the Spirit in the Conscience And though W.P. here seems to render them excusable to whom the Doctrine of Christ's Death hath reached and yet believe it not on whom the Spirit of God hath not made a Conviction Yet in his Treatise of Spiritual Liberty he calls it a loose Plea to pretend want of Conviction for not obeying G. F's Orders and tending to Ranterism But if he shall say the Spirit doth not work this Conviction upon many that the History reacheth as his words import then they are left at liberty whither to believe them at all without all Sin or danger Thus we may see what sort of Faith he and his Brethren have of the Articles of the Creed viz. An unnecessary Faith to have it or not have it is all a Case if they have it not it is not their Sin their primary Rule the Light within them tells them nothing of it But then why should the Secondary Rule tell them any of these things As there is nothing in the Copy but what is in the Original so there is nothing in the Secondary Rule the Scriptures at this rate but what is in the Dictates of the Light within and therefore all that is to be found in the Scripture that is not in the Dictates of the Light within is not so much as the Secondary Rule Thus we may see of what little value the Scriptures are and must be with him and his Party by this his way of arguing and answering Objections But note Reader how in his foregoing words I have faithfully quoted he makes the believing and obeying God's Grace for Remission of Sins and Life everlasting to be none of the absolute Necessaries of Religion but superadded as some of them speak Here is Obedience to God's Grace made as unnecessary by W.P. as Faith in Christ as he was outwardly manifest in the Flesh What thinks G.W. and his Brethren of this Doctrine Is it not plain Antinomianism yea plain Ranterism Section 16. The Scriptures are not certainly known and believed upon the Foundation of W.P. and his Party among the Quakers but are upon the Foundation of all Orthodox Christians The Question wrongly stated by W.P. about the Sufficiency of the Light or Spirit of God within which is not what he can reveal but what he doth reveal without the outward Means of Instruction Page 23. HE labours to turn off that Objection against him of his arguing from the uncertainty of the Scriptures that they cannot be a Rule of Faith and Life by answering The Scriptures are uncertain upon their Foundation but not upon ours We would have them received saith he upon the Spirits Testimony and Evidence which gave them forth I answer And so would all true Christians but the difference is great in the way and manner of their and his defining this Testimony or Evidence which he and his Brethren will have wholly to be by Prophetical and Apostolical Inspiration the same in Specie and Kind with what the Prophets and Apostles had giving them a new repetition of the same Articles and Precepts and all this only from the Light within as it is a common dispensation to all Mankind the falsity of which common experience as well as the Testimony of Scripture doth sufficiently prove for if the Light within them doth de novo give W.P. and his Brethren the Revelation of all or most of these peculiar Doctrines of Christianity why should they have it more than Jews Mahometans Deists and Heathens many of whom they account have been and are faithful and obedient to the Dictates of the Light within them Besides if more be revealed to the Quakers by the common Light within than to other parts of Mankind who have not the Scriptures they must needs grant their Rule of Faith is more large and full than that in others and consequently not being so perfect in others as in them it is no general Rule of Faith for thus he argued against the Scriptures But if the Scriptures are so wholly uncertain upon the foundation of other Christians and so certain upon the foundation of the Quakers from their pretence to the same divine Inspiration that the Prophets and Apostles had they would wonderfully oblige the Christian World If we could believe them to tell us from their infallibility what Translations are best or rather to give us a new Translation by divine Inspiration and which of all the Copies and various Iections are truest but that this is a groundless and empty brag is too apparent while their ignorance and gross perversions of Scripture and false Interpretations are greater than any other in Christendom as can easily be proved But in contradiction to all this that the Scriptures are certain upon the Quakers foundation from the divine Inspiration and Revelation that
the Spirit has given them of their Truth much or indeed most of all this is again denyed by W.P. telling us in answer to that Objection Page 32. This Light you speak of could not tell you which way Sin came into the World that there was an Adam and Eve that they fell after that manner and that Sin so entred the World that Christ was born of a Virgin suffered Death and rose again c. He roundly answereth that inasmuch as an account of those things hath been already revealed and is extant therefore any new Revelation of such things is not needed I answer How not needed and yet certain to you upon the Spirits inward Evidence and Testimony and to none but you and such as you who pretend to the same Revelations with the Prophets and Apostles However seeing he grants he and his Brethren have no Revelation from the Light within them That Christ was born of a Virgin suffered Death and rose again therefore he must needs confess all these things concerning Christs Birth Death Resurrection are uncertain to them and so no matters of their Faith And then seeing other Christians believe these things upon an inward Evidence and Testimony of the Spirit though not by the same Revelation in Kind or Specie with that of the Prophets and Apostles yet by way of Seal to the truth of them as above explained the proper consequence of which is this that all these great things recorded in Scripture concerning Christ's birth of a Virgin his having dyed for our Sins his Resurrection Ascension and Intercession for us in Heaven are altogether uncertain upon the Quakers foundation because as W.P. confesseth not inwardly revealed to them which yet are certain upon the foundation of all true Christians to wit the inward Testimony and Evidence of the Spirit by way of sealing to the Truth of them as by an objective medium as above explained But why are not these things concerning Christ's Birth Death revealed to the Quakers by W. P's confession Why because they are not necessary to be believed they are none of the Eternal Precepts of the Spirit in the Consciences of all Men Teaching some few things of owning a great God Almighty and some few moral Principles of Temperance and Justice as doing as we would be done by this is the Quakers Evangelium Eternum their everlasting Gospel whatever is more is unnecessary and Superfluous Page 32. He saith To say the Light or Spirit could not do it viz. reveal that Christ was born of a Virgin suffered Death and rose again c. is blasphemous as well as absurd Answ I know none that saith the Spirit or God and Christ considered as the Light could not do it but that 's not the Question what the Spirit could do or what the Light within taking it in the highest Sense as to signifie the divine Word could or can do but the proper state of the question is whither the Spirit or Light within hath given generally any such Revelation of these things which if he hath not given and that to all Men then to be sure even by W. P's confession such Revelation is no part of the Rule of Faith for it is not what God who is Light or the Spirit can reveal but what he hath revealed that is the Rule of Faith and doth ordinarily reveal And seeing the Quakers as W.P. hath granted have no inward Revelation of these things viz. That Christ was born of a Virgin c. It is no part of their Faith or Creed for the Rule of their Faith hath not taught it them If any have said the Light within every man cannot reveal these things they do not mean by the Light within either Christ or the Spirit but that common Illumination that is in all Men that is neither Christ nor the Spirit but yet is a gift of Christ and of the Spirit Section 17. His Proofs out of the Fathers and Primitive Protestants for the Spirits being the Rule of Faith all Fallacious An Instance of Calvin quoted by him in some Passage of his Institutions expresly to the contrary Whither the Esseni Pythagoras Clinias and the Scythians before our Saviour's Incarnation thought Swearing unlawful from the Light within AS for these many Authors some Fathers and other late Protestant Authors that he quotes in confirmation of his Assertion viz. That the Scripture is not the Rule of Faith and Life but the Light in every Conscience none of all these quotations which I have diligently read and considered say any such thing viz. That the Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith and Life or that the Light in every Conscience is that Rule Either he is very ignorant and unacquainted in Calvin and Beza's wriings and other Protestants or very unfair to quote them when he cannot but know in his Conscience if he be acquainted with them that all those Protestant Authors did Zeolously contend that the Scripture was the Rule of Faith and Life and though they did Zealously assert the necessity of the Spirits Internal Evidence and Testimony to Seal to the Truth of the Scripture and give the understanding of it yet none of them all that he has quoted say or hold that the Spirit or Light in every Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life I rememno such Doctrine taught by them and yet I suppose I know their Doctrine as well as he and were it needful I could produce sufficient Testimonies from their Books that he has manifestly wronged them but he who takes so great liberty to wrest the Scriptures no wonder if he make bold to do the same with these Mens Writings His Quotation out of Calvin is this Inst Lib. 1. Cap. 8. It is necessary the same Spirit that spake by the mouth of the Prophets should pierce into our Hearts to perswade us that they faithfully delivered that which was committed to them of God This doth not prove that Calvin denyed the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith having expresly taught that they were But to shew how little acquainted W.P. is with Calvin's Doctrine in this point whom he hath quoted for him to prove that the Scripture or written word is not the Rule of Faith but the Light in every Conscience or the Spirit abstractly considered from the written word or how unfair and fallacious in so doing if acquainted with his writings I shall give some passages out of his Institutions That is in English For when the mind of Man for its weakness could by no way come to God unless helped and assisted by his Holy Word it was necessary that all Men the Jews excepted did walk in vanity and error because they sought God without the Word Thus we see according to Calvin how necessary was the Word of God to wit the Doctrine outwardly delivered of God to Men by the Holy Prophets to bring them to God out of error and vanity for by the Holy Word it is manifest Calvin meant not the
allow What if any now should say that the Light within them forbids them to eat Flesh How could W.P. convince them of their Error If he bring Paul's words or any other Scripture words to his Conviction may he not answer that the Scripture is not the Rule of his Faith and W.P. hath confirmed him by his late Book that saith the same and if the Light within in the Esseni might contradict the Scripture of the Old Testament why may not the Light within in a Quaker contradict the Scripture of the New Testament both being given from the same Spirit and the Scripture of the Old Testament as binding to the Jews before Christ's Incarnation as the Scripture of the New Testament is to the Christians since And how can W.P. prove that Poligamy is against the Light within It is granted that the New Testament forbids it But what then by W. P's Doctrine the greatest things in the New Testament are not necessary absolutely to be believed but upon Conviction of the Spirit i. e. upon a new Revelation as that Christ was born of a Virgin dyed for our Sins c. And he plainly tells us Any such new Revelation is not necessary If this be not to turn People loose and to run them into great Confusion Light against Light and Spirit against Spirit while the Holy Scripture is denied to be the Rule of Faith and Life yea a Rule I leave to the Sober and Intelligent to judge Section 18. A Correction of a Saying of W.P. Scandalous and Offensive to Christian Ears That Men are not like to be informed of the Knowledge and Experience of the New Birth from our Saviour's words to Nicomedus John 3. Nor can that Scripture be my Rule saith he in that heavenly travel c. Neither can any other Writing whatever Page 29. HERE I find one passage more in this book of W. P's that I am sure greatly derogates from the Scriptures and is justly offensive to Christian Ears Having quoted our Saviour's words to Nicodemus that he saith may be credited Historically that unless a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3. But what is that saith he to the Knowledge and Experience of the new Birth that they are never like to be informed of there Nor can that Scripture be my Rule in that heavenly Travel respecting the many and wonderful Trials and Exercises that are to be met with in the way to it Neither can any other Writing whatever This Only is the Office of that Spirit and Word Immortal by which we are begotten again I answer Here he excludes not only that place above mentioned but the whole Scripture from being instrumental to our Information and plainly denies that any can be informed of it there this is indeed to make it not only not the Rule but not a Rule in this great case But his assertion is extreamly false the place quoted John 3.3 5. informs us of the necessity of Regeneration and the following words informs us of the way and manner how it is wrought to wit by the Spirit as the principal Efficient and by Faith in the Son of Man as the Instrumental cause v. 14 15 16. and this Faith is wrought instrumentally by the Words and Doctrine of the Gospel called by Paul Rom. 6.17 The Form or Pattern of Doctrine whereunto the believing Romans were delivered as the Mettal that is melted into the Mould that frames it into a Vessel And will W.P. say that his and his Brethrens Preaching and Words inform People nothing of Regeneration nor of the manner of it and the several steps in the progress of it If not their Preaching so much of the New Birth and the manner of it at least as they think is very unprofitable but if they think their Preaching profitable to inform concerning Regeneration and manner of it then their Preaching must be better than the whole Scripture Had he said the Scripture without the Spirit cannot guide or direct us in the way of Regeneration nor be instrumental towards it without the same he had not been to blame all true Christians say the same but to exclude the Scriptures that is the Word and Doctrine contained in the Scriptures from being so much as an Organ or Instrument in the hand of the Spirit as the Spirit giveth Efficacy to it is extreamly false and erronious and contradicts the Scriptures Testimony and the Experience of Thousands who can set to their Seal that the Spirit of God has made the Scriptures to wit the Word and Doctrine delivered in them Instrumental both to their Conviction and Conversion Surely James was of another mind than W.P. who said That the Faithful were begotten of the Will of God by the Word of Truth and Peter said They were made Partakers of the Divine Nature by the exceeding great and precious Promises which are to be found in the Holy Scriptures through the Operation of the Divine Power And as false it is what he saith That Experience to wit of the New Birth must go before all Doctrinal Scripture Meaning the Doctrine delivered in the Scripture which was the same before it was written This is to set the Cart before the Horse as the Proverb is or the Fruit before the Seed Are Men regenerated in Blindness and Ignorance or rather are they not renewed in Knowledge And this Knowledge doth it not presuppose some doctrinal Principles of which Men must be first convinced Has the Doctrine of the great Love of God in sending his Son into the World outwardly to dye for us and inwardly to enlighten us no Influence on our Regeneration Was Adam regenerated before God gave him the Promise of the Womans Seed after his Fall by his Assertion it must be so which is wonderful Ignorance Is he so little acquainted with the Holy Scriptures as not to have seen the Lineaments Steps and Progress of the New Birth fairly delineated and the whole manner of it as clearly as any Country can be delineated in the fairest Map with all the several Roads but as the Map can be of no use to a blind Man though to a seeing it is of great use so to a Man whom the Spirit of God has in some measure enlightned the Scriptures are as serviceable as a Map to a Traveller yea and much more they are really the Instrument of the Spirit both for convincing and converting Men and the Rule according to which the Spirit leads them in the various steps of it It is granted That the Experience of Regeneration in whom it is wrought is much more than any verbal account of it by the best of words and gives a Man in some respect a more satisfactory Knowledge of it than any Man can have by Scripture words or any words whatsoever who is not himself regenerated as the sight of a Country is more and gives a Man a more satisfactory account of it than all verbal Descriptions or Maps can do to
observed in his Book giving his Reasons and Arguments That the Scripture is not the Rule of Faith and Life but the Light in every Conscience and having shewn the Weakness yea the Falsity of them I thought it not necessary to take notice of his Enlargements and Amplifications on his several Arguments but answer to the Argument it self wherein its strength seemed to lye I shall be brief in my Examination and answer to his second part to wit concerning the Judge of Controversie for because it hath such a necessary Connexion with the former the former being clearly discussed the latter will easily be determined Page 39. He gives us his explanation what he means by these Terms Judge and Controversie A Judge saith he is one that has not only power to determine but discerning to do it rightly Controversie is a debate between two parties about the Truth or Falshood to be determined by that Judge But as he wrongly stated the Question in the first part about the Rule so here he is very short in stating the Controversie about the Judge It is without all Question among all that own that there is one great God Almighty that he is the Great and Supreme Judge of what is Truth and what is not universally and that most perfectly and infallibly and all that believe in Christ and in the Holy Spirit do own that Christ and the Holy Spirit together with the Father are that Supreme Judge as they are one and the same Supreme God and not only so but all true Christians own that Christ as the Son of Man has all Judgment committed to him and is both Head and Judge in his Church Now that wherein W.P. is short in stating the Question here is that he doth not assign the true Rule whereby the Judge to wit God Christ and the Spirit doth give forth a definitive Judgment to be understood and received by the Members of the Church of Christ Neither God nor Christ nor the Holy Spirit need the Scripture to give a Judgment as to themselves their knowledge of what is Truth and what is not so is wholly independent from the Scripture but the Question is to be thus stated What Rule Standard or Measure God Christ and the Spirit has given to the faithful in particular and to the whole Church in general since the Doctrine of the true Faith was committed to writing whereby they may understand and know the true Judgment and determination of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit the Supreme Judge of Controversie True it is that the Law-giver is the best interpreter of any point that may concern his own Law and therefore as God is the Law-maker so he is the Supreme Judge and Interpreter of his Law But as an Earthly Law-giver suppose an Earthly King with the consent of the great Counsel of the Nation gives forth his Laws to his Subjects if any Controversie arise about the true sense of those Laws the King and his Counsel that made those Laws is to determine the Controversie by the Laws themselves one part of the Law serving as a Key to open what is hard to be understood in another part of it Thus it is in this Nation and commonly in all Nations for the Law is supposed to be such a perfect Law Intire and Compleat that the Sense of it needs not be given by giving forth any new Law to give the sense of the former nor ought any Subject to presume to give his private Interpretation of the Law by any private Gloss or Sense which he cannot demonstrate from the Law it self and as it 's thus as to the Laws of Men how much more is it so as to the Laws of God The Laws of Men indeed receive frequently new Additions and Alterations and yet this cannot be done but by Publick Authority But the Law and Rule of Faith and Life that God has given to the Faithful and to his Church now under the New Testament is so full perfect and comprehensive that is fully Sufficient without any Addition and if it can be supposed that it may please God to give forth any new Laws to his Church it must be allowed that there must be the same Evidence and ground of receiving them to be such as was given for the Old Testament by Moses and for the New Testament by Christ Now had W.P. fairly stated the question he should have stated it thus Whither the Spirit of Christ whose Judgment and Determination is all one with that of Christ and the Father doth give his Judgment to the Church and the Members of it by any other Law or Rule Measure or Standard than what is already to be-found in the Holy Scriptures whether relating to Articles of Faith or positive Precepts of revealed and instituted Religion by Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament Or whither the Spirit gives this Judgment not by the Doctrines and Precepts contained in the Scriptures but by the common discoveries and Dictates of the Light within every Man's Conscience which are commonly the same and of the same extent in all Mankind be they Jews and Mahometans and Painims abroad or Deists at home here in England or elsewhere Or lastly whither by any new particular Discoveries Revelations or Dictates and new Precepts of the Spirit not formerly given either to Mankind in general or to the Church in particular To the first all sound Christians agree The Second is the sence of W.P. and those of his Brethren of the Second Days Meeting that have approved his Book The third is the sence of some of the chief Teachers and Leaders that first arose among the Quakers that did affirm they had new Commands given from the Spirit by immediat Revelation from Heaven some of which are neither the common Dictates of the Light in every Conscience of Mankind nor to be found in the Scriptures either expresly or by any necessary consequence from them And indeed the first Teachers and Leaders amongst that People did not think it worth while to prove their Doctrine or warrant their Interpretations by consequences from Scripture but the general proof was This is the Word of the Lord unto you for G.F. see his Journal plainly told that when he first came forth he was commanded of God to say thee and thou to every Man to whom he spoke and not to put off his Hat to any Also the setting up of Womens Government in their Meetings distinct from the Men by the more devout sort who did think and still think that G.F. was a Prophet as immediately sent as Moses or any other is Judged to have been by a Divine Authority and Power in G.F. without any dependance on Scripture Rule or seeking to fish it by consequence from Scripture And pray what need is there to bring Scripture proof for any thing that Men either believe or practise either by consequence or express words seeing that is not the Rule of either Faith or practise but
the Light in every Conscience as W.P. saith here in this Book or some New Revelation or discovery that neither Jews nor Turks nor other Deists have nor all Christendom but only and alone the People called Quakers But if these new Revelations be their Rule in the Case it quite overturns W. P's Fabrick of setting up a general Rule of Faith and Life in every Man's Conscience For a new Revelation that only one part of Mankind hath cannot be a general Rule W.P. makes not the Light within which he will have to be the Spirit or God himself or Christ in every Man abstractly considered from the inward discoveries Dictates and Precepts there delivered to be the general Rule which he calls the Eternal Precepts of the Spirit in the Conscience and the Noble precepts writ in Man's Heart Phrases that he has borrowed from some Heathen writers as Pythagoras and Sophocles and which are to be owned in their place to be such and to be a general Rule of Moral Justice and Temperance as is above owned but not either the general Rule of the Christian Religion with respect to its peculiar Doctrines and Precepts nor indeed so much as any Rule at all in that state nor indeed is it at all proper to call the Spirit the Rule in his Sense but rather the Dictates and discoveries of the Spirit which W.P. calls sometimes Revelation to wit Internal and the Internal Testimony of the Spirit Eternal Precepts and noble Laws writ in all Men's Hearts for the Spirit abstractly considered from all Internal and External discovery Revelation and Testimony teacheth Men nothing at all and therefore can be no Rule to them as such And seeing W.P. hath cast away the Holy Scriptures from being the Rule of Faith and Practise even to us Christians that is all and every one of the peculiar Doctrines and Precepts of Christianity that are to be sure no part of those Eternal Precepts and Laws writ in all Mens Consciences not one of them nor all of those peculiar Doctrines and Precepts are so much as a part of the Christians Rule of Faith and Life for if it were then the Christians the Deists the Mahometans and Infidel Jews should not have one general Rule of Faith and Life which he contends for Page 41. He proposeth an Objection and pretends to solve it Obj. But is not the Scripture the Judge of Controversie He should rather have made the Objection run thus Is not the Scripture the Rule whereby the Spirit of Truth who is properly the Judge doth by his inward ordinary illumination in the Faithful determine the Controversie in all the necessary things of Salvation Yea and also in many other things though not absolutely necessary yet very profitable He Answers How can that be since the Question most times arises about the meaning of Scripture I reply yet still the Scripture is the proper Rule to determine the Controversie even when the question ariseth about the meaning of the Scripture because what seemeth obscure in some places of Scripture are opened and made plain by other plain places of Scripture treating on the same Subject that are as a Key to open them with out any other Rule than the Scripture it self only there is need of the Spirits Internal Illumination and assistance to help us to use that Key especially in reference to the saving knowledge of them He proceeds in his answer to the Objection saying Is there any place to wit in Scripture tells us without Interpretation whither the Socinian or Trinitarian be in the right in their differing Apprehensions of the Three that bear record c. Also the Homousian and Arian about Christ's Divinity or the Papists or Protestants about Transubstantiation If then things are left undefin'd and undetermined I mean literally and expresly in the Scripture and that the Question arises about the Sense of words Doth the Scripture determine which of these Interpreters hit the mark From all which he concludes that not the Scripture but the Interpretation must decide the Matter in Controversie and that Interpretation must be given from the Spirit of God to be a true and infallible Interpretation Answ Seeing that Interpretation according to W.P. cannot be given from the Spirit without an extraordinary Revelation the things in Controversie being such according to W. P's Phrase and Confession P. 31. as fall not within the ordinary Discoveries that are absolutely necessary to Man's Salvation and that W.P. also grants that he and his Brethren have no such extraordinary Revelation for it is not needful being none of the absolute Necessaries to our Salvation P. 33. It evidently follows that neither W.P. nor any of his Brethren nor indeed any other Men now living whatsoever have any certainty whither the Socinian or Trinitarian be in the right that is whither Christ is God and whither Christ had any Existence before Mary and whither Christ be in any of the Faithful yea or nay yea W.P. hath no certainty of this Fundamental Principle that Christ is in him or in any of his Brethren the great reason of their Assertion that Christ is in them being that Christ is God so that if it be not certain from Scripture that Christ is God and if the Socinian Doctrine should prove true that Christ is only a Man it will evidently follow as I think W.P. will grant that it is utterly false that Christ is in any Men whatsoever and that that Light that is in Men even the most Faithful is not Christ for how can that which is only a meer Man and a meer Creature as the Socinians say that Christ only is be in all Men. Again If it cannot be determined from Scripture without extraordinary Revelation which W.P. grants neither he nor his Brethren have as touching these Matters whither the Arians or the Homonsians be in the right it evidently followeth that neither W.P. nor his Brethren are certain whither the word mentioned John 1.1 be any other than a meer Creature and consequently they are not certain but that they themselves are Idolaters who give any Divine Worship to Christ as he is that Word Also if it be not certain from Scripture whither the Papists or Protestants be in the right about Transubstantiation without extraordinary Revelation according to W. P's way of arguing If the Papists should happen to be in the right and W.P. by his Confession knoweth nothing to the contrary but that they are he and his Brethren should be guilty of horrid Contempt and Blasphemy to call that which is the Body of Christ nothing but Bread And is not this Assertion of W.P. a fair Inlet to Popery that the Scripture doth not determine expresly without Interpretation and that Interpretation cannot be had without new Revelation whither the Papists Doctrine of Transubstantiation be true So that to him at present it is a Matter of Indifferency and if W.P. should turn Papist or suppose him to be one when he declares himself he
with any Blood outwardly shed for them Is not this the ready way to open the Flood-gate and to let in Deism and Heathenism to over-run not only England but all Christendom and not only to destroy the Protestant Christian Religion but any remains of Christian Doctrine that are in the Popish Countries But from this Cure of W.P. we have all great cause to pray Good Lord deliver us But nor would this Cure he proposeth be successful upon the Hypothesis of his general Rule if universally received for a Rule The Heathen Philosophers many of whom professed and owned the Light in every Conscience as it did enlighten their Reason yet how many great Controversies were there among them notwithstanding and oft great Heats and Animosities And if this Cure of W.P. be so effectual how comes it that it has not healed the breaches and great Controversies that have been on foot these Forty Years chiefly about G. Foxes orders his party contending that they were the Dictates of the Light both in G.F. and all his followers the other party as strongly denying it that they were any Dictates of the true Light within and let W.P. tell us when any such Controversie arises which are the true Dictates of the Light and true Spirit abstractly considered from the Scripture what shall be the Cure in that Case He seems indeed to give an answer to this in Page 42. Answ By the same Spirit as well said Gualt Cradock the way to know whither the Spirit be in us is its own Evidence and that is the way to know it in others too and the Man that hath the Spirit may know the Spirit in another There is saith he a kind of Sagacity in the Saints to this purpose To this I answer where the Spirits Doctrine which is the Doctrine both of Christ and the Father goeth along with the Spirit according to Isaiah 59 21. and many other places of Scripture there is a great Truth in it but whatever Spirit either teacheth another Doctrine or draweth Men away from the necessary belief of Christ's Death in the Flesh in being a Sacrifice for our Sins and other Fundamental Principles peculiar to Christianity is not the true Spirit of Christ whatever Unity or Sagacity W.P. and his Brethren may think they have to know it in one another while he and they make nothing to be the Rule of Faith but the Light in every Conscience John 2.9 which teacheth not this Doctrine of Faith nor proposeth this great Object of Faith to wit Christ Crucified to the Conscience they destroy all necessity of that Faith as concerned in our Salvation However with plausible shews he and they will say it is necessary where the History as he terms it has reached but how not for Salvation but historically as we believe the History of Alexander or Julius Cesar or as W.P. and his Brethren pretend to believe G. F's Journal The Difficulty that he moves P. 41. about Interpretation of Scripture is easily resolved without any new material object of Faith if the Spirit of God be acknowledged inwardly to enlighten the Understandings of the faithful and that they faithfully receive the same it will infallibly give to all the Faithful so much of the true knowledge and Faith of all Scripture Doctrine as is necessary to Salvation Page 46. As unfair and fallacious as he hath been in his Definitions and Arguments about the Rule of Faith and Life no less unfair and fallacious is he in his representing many Orthodox and sincere Protestants as if they Judged the Quakers for their asserting an unerring certain or infallible Judgment in things necessary to Salvation This is a very unfair representation of them The Question lyeth not about an unerring certain and infallible Judgment given by the Spirit of God to all the faithful in the things necessary to Salvation which they fully assert But the Question lyeth here whither they have this infallible Judgment either by the common Discoveries and Dictates of the Light in every Man's Conscience or by any new discoveries of the Spirit abstractly and seperately considered from the Scriptures so that the Doctrine as delivered in the Holy Scriptures is not the Rule or Instrument whereby the Spirit works or begets this infallible Judgment in them in all the necessary things of Salvation which â—et are more and others than those assigned by W.P. to wit Faith in Christ crucified and raised again and other fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion A Second part of the question is Whither all or any of the Quakers when met in their Yearly Meetings or any other Meetings or the most enlightned among them have an infallible Judgment given them in all things as their chief Teachers have asserted so that they are not only infallible in the most necessary things but in other things Yea in all that they have given forth either in Preaching or Writing as the Word of the Lord and with an Authority the same in kind with the Prophets as W.P. doth in the Concluâ—ion of this Book where he pretends that he has a Message to tell them and that from the Spirit of the Lord God of Truth and that is Page 48. That Men unregenerated for all their external imitations of the Ancients in some Temporary and figurative parts of Worship will never be accepted But this is no extraordinary Revelation it is a Doctrine that is daily taught and generally believed among all true Christians that never were under the profession of Quakers But the fallacy is here that all are unregenerate in his Sense who own that what they are taught and helped to believe know or practise is by the Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures as the Rule of their Faith and Life and Instrument of the Spirits preparing and giving them the Spirit himself being the principal efficient Author and Cause and primary principle of their Knowledge Faith and Practise Yet all this is Judged by W.P. here in his Conclusion to be nothing but a literal Knowledge Historical Faith and outward Religion that is but as the Old Heaven that are to be wrapt up as a scroul and the Old Wine and Bottles that belong not to the Kingdom of God For which Uncharitable and False Judgment I heartily pray God that he may forgive him and giving him a better understanding and reclaim him if it be the blessed Will of God from those most dangerous errors he is intangled in and especially from this that is the foundation of his other errors to wit his Deism and setting up the Light within or Spirit or whatever he calls iâ— abstractly and seperately from Christ's Doctrine and Words even those divine Oracles and Words which the Father gave to Christ and Christ gave them by his Holy Spirit to the Apostles John 17.8 And by the same Holy Spirit by means of the Apostles writing has given to all the faithful since thus dividing what God and Christ have Joyned together surely this cannot be the true Light nor Spirit in him or his Brethren that leads away People from hearing the true Shepherds Voice either as it is outwardly sounded in the outward Ministry of the Word outwardly Preached or as it is inwardly sounded and Eccho'd by the Holy Spirit in Teaching the faithful to believe the same Doctrine that is outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures My Sheep said Christ hear my Voice they that draw from Christ's Doctrine being the Rule of Faith and Life to every true Christian draw from the Spirit of Christ and from his Voice whatever seeming pretences they fallaciously make to exalt the Spirit by rejecting that Instrument to wit the Rule of the Holy Scriptures by which the Spirit doth both enlighten the faithful and beget Faith and Hope and Love in them by the precious Oracles and Testimonies therein contained and also doth refresh quicken and comfort them If the Spirit and his divine influences be the Wine that refresheth and cherisheth them the Scripture so to speak are the Flagons that convey it to them according to the words in the Song Cant. 2.5 Stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples and many other plain Testimonies of Scripture that hold forth in God's ordinary way the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures as outwardly delivered to be the means and therefore the Rule by which the Spirit doth both Teach and also Quicken Comfort and strengthen them such as these following places which I recommend to W.P. and his Brethrens Consideration Psal 19.7 8 9 10 11. Prov. 6.23 Psal 119. 4 5 6 18 49 50 105. Psal 147.19 20. Isaiah 8.20.59.21 John 10.3 John 17.8 20. John 20.31 John 5 39. Acts 10.44 Rom. 16.17 Rom. 16.25.26 Gal. 3.2 Eph. 1.13 1 Thes 1.5 1 Tim. 4.16 2 Tim. 1.13 2 Tim. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 28th of the First Month 1699. G. K. FINIS Nam cum humana mens pro sua imbecillitate pervenire ad Deum nullo modo queat nisi sacro ejus verbo adjuta sublevata omnes tunc mortales exceptis Judaeis quia Deum sine verbo querebant necesse fuit in vanitate atque errore versari Calvin Instit Lib. 1. c. 6 S. 4