Scriptures doe the Creation of Angels or Spiritual beings assure us that Mans Body was material Formed of the Dust of the Ground Gen. 2.7 His food was material and the forbidden fruit was also such Good for food and pleasant in the Eyes Gen. 3.6 Which could not have been if Man had been altogether Spiritual and in the future State of Glory Man will need no material food whether we call it the essence or quintescence of things materiall but he will be as the Angels of GOD. 2. That all Men may forsake the Truth L. W. pt 1. p. 33. This is a false Doctrine for if all Men should forsake the Truth the Church might fail which is impossible It being built upon the Rock of Ages against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail Mat. 16.18 And wherewith our LORD JESUS CHRIST will be present to the end of the World Mat. 28.20 3. That Infants dying before they come to the exercise of Reason are either good or bad and consequently must be saved or damned according to the will of their Parents L. W. pt 2. p. 6.7.8.9 and pt 3. p. 155. This is against the Principles of Religion of GODS Election and the tenor of the Covenant of Grace 4. Antichrist is the Devil L. W. pt 1. p. 32. and the Devil is nothing S. V. pt 1. p. 94. These Tenets are overthrown by the Scriptures which teach us plainly that Antichrist is a man or a set of men sitting in the Temple of GOD. 2 Thes 2.4 5. That persons resigned to GOD return to such an estate of perfect innocencie as Adam was in before the fall L. W. pt 3. p. 138. Which is an unsound Doctrine since Adam at first was altogether free of Sin which can be said of no Saint in this Life Jam. 3.2 It is manifest by what is already written on this subject how easie it were to expose the absurdity of all A. Bs. Accessories but they are so many that to go through them all particularly even according to the present method adding a short refutation to every one of them would require as much writting as was designed for this whole Tractate Therefore having excerpted from the Books of A. B. and the Ap. some scores of Accessories like these forementioned equally hurtfull to Religion and noted exactly in a paper apart the places where they are to be found I shall here for brevities sake produce Twenty of them as a swatch of the rest reasonably hoping that every Christian Reader who is acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and being thereby instructed that Hay and Stuble are not fit materials for the building of GOD. 1 Cor. 3.11.12.13 Will be able at the very recitation thereof to confute them himself without my help which GOD willing afterwards shall if it be needful not be wanting in the behalf of Truth or it will be done by abler Pens which the Church will never be destitute of And these Accessories are 1. That there are no true Christians now in the World 2. The ordinary sins of Papists are the sins against the Holy Ghost 3. Protestants disown the civil Magistrat 4. A Spiritual Man is never melancholly 5. A Spiritual Man will not take a walk for recreation 6. Mentall Prayer should be omitted 7 Sin is only a disorder of the five Senses 8. All the advantages that Men reap from others serves but for their damnation 9. The Devil at first moved men to posses their own Goods 10. It had been good there had never been Schools nor Learning in the World 11. GOD'S cursing the Earth made mans returning to GOD the more easie 12. GOD calls no man to any place of Honour or Power 13. CHRIST'S Kingdom comes not according to the second Petition in the LORD'S Prayer 14. GOD doth not permit sin 15. Good motions incite alwayes to suffering 16. Phisitians and Divines doe ordinarily more ill than good 17. The Devil inlightneth our Uunderstanding and maketh us conceive deep Divine Mysteries 18. We should not commend good things because the Devil can do so 19. We should not instruct others but when they desire it 20. A. B. was Divinely Inspired in all things to reform the World It is no less than a spectrous piece of goodly confidence which sheweth it self in all the writtings of A. B. and the Ap. to affright people into the belief of their visionary Doctrines in stead of giving solid reasons for them still to cry that she was Divinely Inspired Obj. 1. For how say they could it otherwise be that she who was unlearned did write of so many things and rare verities and in such a ravishing strain beyond the reach of the chiefest Divines So that to offer to correct her Doctrine is no less presumptuous than to dare to correct the Spirit of GOD and whoever opposeth her Sentiments are like Jannes and Jambres that withstood Moses like the Scribes and Pharisees who opposed CHRIST himself or like the Jewes Atheists and Hereticks that contradicted and persecuted the Apostles and primitive Christians A. 1. That is sufficiently already answered in the third Section where it is proved at large that she was not Divinely Inspired but since they ingeminat it so often some more shall be said to it here 2. To discover oppose and confute Errours in any persons Books is not to oppose the Spirit of GOD but rather to be led by the famen for GOD is Truth and whosoever defends the Truth is on his side 3. Good words and a zealous strain of writting are only good when Truths and no falsities are thereby expressed for the most pernicious writters that ever existed in the World seemed to affect a pious strain and mixed many Heavenly like words with their poysonous positions to cover from the unadvertent the Venom thereof such as Gelsus Porphyrie Julian Vaninus and in fine Heretickes Shismaticks Sectarians and Enthusiasts in all their writtings 4. For A. Bs. pretending to have been unlearned and her crying down all Schools and Learning she had many infamously famous impostors for Precedents who to impose their damnable Doctrines and delusions on the World declaimed loudly against all Learning as their most deadly enemy such as the Gnosticks Montanus Manes and Mahomet 5. CHRIST and his faithful Servants were opposed by many in all Ages slighted and persecuted for holding the Truth but it is an undue thing for A. B. to compare her self to them and her Opposers to their persecutors when she is confuted and contemned only for teaching Errours 1 Pet. 2.20 For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently 6. The Cabine of A. Bs. rarities can be disclosed without a miracle or flying so high as to Divine Inspiration for a key to open it For most of her extravagant flights anent Mans primitive Estate of Innocencie and the future state after the day of Judgement have been catcht with little variation from the Jewish Cabala It was formerly showen Sect.
the Amalekits contrary to GOD's command pretending that he did so For the good purpose of Sacrificeing 1 Sam. 15.21.22 Neither should Books be approven in which Errours are mixed with Verities since evil is through any defect but good from the intire cause So I distinguish this Rule if a Writter having a good design mistake in a few things of no great moment and upon sound Advice will revoke his Errours I grant this should be favourably interpreted but if the Errours be gross and many and the Author boasting of being Divinely inspired in writting them and to have had more Light and Piety then all men in that case I deny that such mistakes should pass uncensured Lastly as to the first of the four Pre-concessions for disputing that we should be well acquainted with what we censure that is a very good Rule and by it the Ap. seems to insult his Opponents that either they did not well know the French Language in which A. B. wrote or had not read all her Twenty two Books So not only the Ap. but likewise all that own A. B. whensoever her Errours are mentioned they answer warmly that whatsoever seemeth hard in some of her Writtings is explained in others which the censurers either have not read or will not be at the pains to compare places together Now to ward of this thrust the Reader shall be judge if I censure any thing of A. Bs. Writtings but what I understand well enough having had sufficient means for it by reading sundry of her writtings and particularly The Light of the World which is held for the chiefest of them all and the standard of all both be herself and Poiret see the admonition prefaced thereto by P. P. p. 36. And now I have read the Ap. which is aequivalent to the reading of all her Books since the Author hath read them all and defends all and if I quarrel nothing but what he mantains it were a frivolous shift to bid me go and search any of A. Bs. Books for any explication of her Opinions And if there be reall Errours and Contradictions found in her writtings what explications can remove them To conclude this Section I shall to the foresaid four add other three rules of arguing and especially anent Points of Divinity 1. To explain the Termes and state the Question aright 2. To reason and answer candidly without Sophistry or Deceit 3. To seek Verity rather than victory and therefore though we may justly commend some good things in any Person or his writtings not to mantain their Errours and Evtravagancies which if through fondness we have failed in upon second thoughts to do so no more SECTION III. If A. B. was Divinely inspired A. THis Question cannot be well resolved untill the Terms thereof be cleared in the first place and the Question be rightly stated according to my first Rule for unless this be done all abrupt disputs turn to a meer Logomachie or a proud and ignorant doting about Questions and strife of words which God expresly forbids 1 Tim. 6.4 Divine Inspiration is taken in very different Senses for First in a large sense every man may be said to be Divinely Inspired because of his Rational Soul which was made after the Image of God Gen. 2.7 God breathed into Mans Nosethirls the Breath of Life and Gods breathing into Man is a Divine Inspiration 2ly One is said to be Divinely Inspired to whom God giveth a capacity Genius or fitness for an Office or Imployment as it is written Judg. 3.10 The Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel and he judged Israel and went out to Warre so it is a necessary Qualification of a Bishop that he be Apt to teach 1. Tim. 3 2. and the Holy Ghost maketh Bishops Acts 20.28 Yea this is ascribed to men of Manuary Callings as to Bezalcel and with him Aholiab Exod. 31.3 I have filled him with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and in all manner of workmanship for the tabernacle 3ly A Spiritual man judgeth not of Divine things by carnal reason Church Authority only Tradition or Custom but according to the Truth and Minde of God revealed in the Scriptures 1 Cor. 2.14.15 But the Spiritual man judgeth all things c. Job 32.8 The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth man Knowledge Which Apothegme may also be referred to the former sense that God qualifies and fitteth every person whom he commissioneth for any Imployment as to teach others Yea persons unregenerated may have something like to this Orthodoxie as that understanding Scribe who in Conference with the Lord did give the true and Spiritual sense of the Law upon whom it was accordingly pronounced That he was not far from the Kingdom of God Mark 12.34 Yet being at a distance from true Conversion all the knowledge he had was only by the common illumination of the Spirit which and other common gifts of the unconverted whether they differ specifically or gradually only from the saving knowledge and graces of the Godly I shall not here abide to determine 4ly Every Pious Person is led by the Spirit of God both in his Conversion when Gods Spirit enlightneth the Understanding and reneweth their Will and likewise afterwards directing and quickning to all Duty which Light and Grace he bestows in such measures as fitteth the work wherein He in his Infinite Wisdom imployes them as reading the Scriptures Praying Preaching Writting doing of good Works and suffering when called thereto Of this the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause he bids us do well Yet it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12.13 so 1 John 2.20 Ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things And this Illumination is by Divines called Subjective Revelation because of the agreement betwixt our Souls and the Divine assistance and to distinguish it from the pretended Enthusiasm of deluded Persons who boast of new Revelations as the chief Rule of their Faith and Manners And in this sense Luther Zuinglius and other Divines who are cited in Quakerism no Popery from pag. 19. are to be understood when they write that the inward word of God and the dictats of the Holy Spirit are the true word of God which profit unto Salvation which is also the Sense and meaning of the ancient Holy Fathers when they speak of the leading of the Spirit of God as S. Chrys upon John 6.63 Christs words are to be heard according to the Spirit And whoso heareth them after a carnal manner profiteth nothing And S. Cypr. de S. sancto p. 485. edit Par. cum Annot. Ja. Pamel Suspiration Inspiration and Aspiration in the Godly they have from the Holy Spirit the cause and effect Matter and Increase 5ly The Prophets and Penmen of the Holy Scriptures were in a strict sense Divinely inspired 2 Pet. 1.21 They spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Tim. 16.17 All Scriptures is given by the Inspiration
of God c. The Prophets and Apostles were without any previous Ratiocination of themselves powerfully moved by God both to Teach and Write the Rule of Faith and Manners and that infallibly both as to Matter and Words which they proved to be immediat Objective Revelation or rather Gods word than their own 1 Thess 2.13 by the gift of Tongues Miracles Oracles Visions discovering of Secrets foretelling things to come and the conversion of men to God beyond and above the ordinary Humane Means The phrase thus explained I come to state and answer the Question to wit if A. B. was Divinely inspired The Ap. spends the third part of his Treatise being 38 leaves aiming to prove that A. B. was led by the Spirit of God or what is the same on the matter divinely inspired but never shewing in what sense or meaning he would have the World believe that she was so and therefore all discoursing to that purpose looks too like a continued Sophism commonly called Ignorantio Elenchi or a Fallacious way of arguing seeming to prove the thing intended by an hudle of pretended Arguments which yet conclude nothing as to the main point under Debate Viz. In what sense or respect he alleadgeth his A. B. to have been Divinely inspired 1. Which now to examine particularly I grant that she was Divinely Inspired in the first of the five respects forementioned i. e. She had a Rational Soul if ever there was such a person as A. B. which some doubt of who lived in Flanders about the time she is said to have been at Lisle and yet heard nothing of her but this is not all which the party means by her being Divinely inspired since she pretends to more than an ordinary Spirit 2. It is more to be doubted if she was divinely inspired in the second sense to wit if she was fitted and well qualified for the condition and imployment that she set out for in the World which was three fold the Mistris of a Familie a School-Mistris and a Prophetess or a Teacher to reform all Mankind There is but little evidence given in her own writtings of he Discretion and far less of Divine inspiration in guiding either her School or Family tho she pretended to the knowledge of discerning Spirits and the very thoughts of peoples hearts Pref. to L. W. p. 41 for she testifieth of her self S. V pt 1. p. 196. how all her 32 Scholars at Lisle were in Actual compact with the Devil and yet did very well what she taught them Also the Ap. writes of her pt 4. p. 323. that all her Servants were Witches and for a long time designed to murder her for her Riches yet mentioneth nothing that ever she dismissed them before her Death And if she had a Prophetical Spirit that shall be tryed anon 3. The third and fourth Respects may be considered together whereanent I charitably think that A. B. was a pious person and so was led by the Spirit of God as any other godly person is Rom. 8.1 But this concession will not satisfie the Ap. who holds her to have been incomparably holy and to have exceeded in knowledge the greatest Divines pt 3. p. 240.241 And therefor her pretension must be tryed in another sense Obj. How can she be called pious who wrote many Errours and was very proud and Uncharitable A. 1. She spake aright of Religion in sundry things which might have been by Divine Conduct but in her Mistakes and Errours she was led by her own spirit Ap. p. 216.217 As she confesseth in another Case when she was deluded by St. Saulien p. 239. And it is probable that she intended not to have written Lies or Fopperies which happened either through her want of the means of true Knowledge or the neglecting thereof as the Reading of the Holy Spriptures and Systems of Divinity and medling with things too high for her Ps 131.1 She might have been Pious tho not pefect and persons ought to be charactered from their better pairt and not from the worst from the set of their Spirit and tract of their Life rather than from particular Actions or Escapes and especially if they endeavour to discover and mortifie all Sins in themselves 2. This Obj. might be easily answered in the opinion of A. B. that Saints may apostatise totally and finally even they who have attained to perfection and could keep all the Commandments of God Which is defended be the Ap. pt 2. p 136. which yet is a gross Errour as shall afterward be shown for according to her Hypothesis it might follow that she wrote only Truth she was Humble and Charitable so long as she continued in the state of Grace but wrote her Errours became Proud and Uncharitable how soon she lost the Grace of God and fell into the estate of Damnation 4. As to the fifth Sense or Consideration of the Conduct of the Spirit of God which is the publick and ordinary acceptation of it namely a Prophetick infallible Spirit This I positively affirm A. B. had not in her writtings and so the Question is answered Negativly in Oposition to the affirmation of A. B. and her Ap. and it is thus proved 1. The Holy Scriptures which were written by the Holy Prophets and Apostles have a self Evidence in them shewing themselves to be the Word of God or the Dictats of the Holy Spirit to wit the matchless Sublimity of the matter the Holiness Purity and Harmony of the whole the Efficacie or effectual working for converting Souls to God besids their confirmation from the Pen-mens speaking of all Languages which they had never heard nor learned and other Miracles accompanying them extraordinary Visions sure Prophecies the Antiquity and preservation of the samen and the Confession of Adversaries But A. Bs. writtings have nothing the like Confirmation and therefore she had no Divine Inspiration in writting them The Major is granted by all Christians and the Minor is also clear since neither A. B. nor her Ap. pretend to such Testimonys tho their pretence be very high 2. The Scriptures written be men Divinely inspired are a perfect Rule in Religion teaching us how to glorifie God and be saved our selves 2 Tim. 3 16.17 That the man of God may be prrfect And we are to hold them accursed who would add to this Canon Gal. 1.8 Rev. 22 18. Therefore A. B. dare not pretend to such inspiration under pain of the curse Obj. You have wronged A. B. by mistateing the Question for she did not pretend to Prophecie or to write by an Infallible Spirit as the Prophets and Apostles did but only to interpret the Scriptures to live well and to teach others to do so L W. pt 1. p. 133. There she promiseth to write a Commentary upon the whole Scriptures tho she never performed it A. First denying the Charge for she is not wronged by me nor the Question mistated since it is the ordinary and received Sense of the Phrase to be