applicable to the very best But whether thou intend one or two only or all these Three throughout thy Book when thou contendest for the Scriptures to be now entire to a tittle as at first giving forth to be the Light Word Power of God and such like is not easie to learn If ever we hear of thee again about the Scriptures I desire thee to speak home as to these particulars and to write thy mind more fully and plainly and singly out as in all places of thy Book thou hast not done but as one that hates the Light and is not willing to come to close pinchest in thy mind and winkest and twinklest and triflest and keepest back as if thou wert afraid as no doubt thou art though he that doth truth is not Ioh. 3.20 21. to look the Light too fully in the face or Ex. 4 S. 14. Subtilius Disputare to dive too deep in thy Dispuration about the Light or as the Elephant to drink more then needs must in fair water for fear of seeing a foul face but veritas non quaerit Aâ—gulos For my part I shall deal ingnuously with thee in this There are some things thou affirmest of the Scriptures which I can grant to be true of some one of these Three viz. of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that are not true of either the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Translations And there be some things to be said truly of these two that are not true of the first and some things of the second that are not true of the first nor of the third and somewhat of the third that 's not true of either of the other But when thou scarest so high as to affirm the Scriptures as thou dost in general to be the same in every tittle syllable and iota as at first to be the Word of God the Living Word the Spiritual Light the Power of God and much more as will appear when I come to Reckâ—n up and rank the things thou Praedicatest of the Scriptures in Order in order to my Answering of them I who shall ever put a difference between the Writing of the Word and the Word it self Written of do absolutely deny all these things of all the Three sorts above mentioned and if it stand so as that thou understandest all these Three as thou dost of one of them at least and that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transcriptions if but of one the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first Manuscripts being all lost and mouldred and Translations all corrupted by thy own confession when thou affirmest all these things of the Scripture then so let it stand for me till I have tryed the truth of thy Positions after which I hope all that stands not upon good ground will of it self to the ground come tumbling down And as by the Word Scripture I mean excepting where such things only are Praedicated as are peculiar only to either One or Two of them and not to all the Three no less then all these three sorts of Scripture in the main Controversie with thee so no more then these three sorts and these not one jot more not yet any farther then quâ tales 1 So far only as they are Scriptures properly truly and formally so called and considered or outward Writings Expressions or Declarations ad extra by Letters legible to our bodily eyes however extant upon what ever outward matter capable to receive their impression Tables of Stone Walls Skin Parchment Paper by the finger of God or hands of men whether Writing the issue of which is Propriissime stiled Scripture or Cutting Graving Stamping Printing in which way since that Art came up the Scriptures are now most extant the effect of which though most properly it be called Print or Scuâ—pture yet not to be too close and curious in Criticizing about Cockle-shells shall be allowed by me as to our purpose properly enough to passe under that name of Scripture I say then 't is the Letter and not the Matter the Writings and not the Subjects Things Truths Doctrins or Word written of that is the Subject to come under Consideration between us whatever those things are that are therein declared though 't is like we shall not passe them by neither without taking some useful notice of them yet that makes nothing to us in the State of our Question as it stands before us nor will all thy tumultuous hudling it over in haste hinder this nor thy shuffles about it shuffle it off it is the Declaration that thy Disputation with the Quakers is about considered as abstract from what is thereby declared for by the Scripture I intend not the Law it self written nor the Gospel nor the Light nor the Faith therein exhibited to us and held forth to be read of in the Writing for these are not the Scripture nor is the Scripture any of these but the Writing it self that holds these forth I call no other thing the Scripture then that which is truly the Scripture and that is no other thing then the Scripture it self I call the Scripture or the outward Declaration no other things and by no other Names then those it calls it self by or are truly answerable to its nature and that is no other then the Scripture a Declaration of those things that were believed and of the Word of the Faith that was preached a Letter a Writing Holy Scriptures Scriptures of Truth Books of Writing that consist Treat of and Declare in forms of plain true suitable and sound words various true things sound Doctrines by which many unsound Doctrines of Divels of false Prophets Priests Scribes and Pharisees of false Brethren ungodly Men that creep in and turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness of false Apostles that brought in Doctrines contrary to that at first delivered and served their own bellies and not Christ Taught for Doctrines Traditions of men of Iannes and Iambes that resisted the Truth of Baldam the Nicolaitans of Iezebel and Satan which are all written of and declared in the Scriptures of Truth as well as those of God Christ the Spirit the Light and Truth it self do stand not approved but reproved and condemned useful Histories of what was done and spoken in sundry times and ages past by God and Christ and the Divel himself and Men good and bad and by Balaam and his Asse also Pretious Prophesies of things viz. of good to the good of bad to the bad Comfortable Promises to the seed that is the Heir of them Terrible Threatnings to the seed of Evil doers and Woes to the Wicked Profitable Epistles to such as they were Wrote to Blessings Curses Prohibitions Commands Copies of Psalms and Songs that were sung Proverbs that were spoken Letters that were written from men to men some by good men at the motion of the Spirit of God some by Evil men out of malice against Gods Servants at the motion of the Devil Some not without
men as the others was before them both yea as thou savest of thy so called poor deluded fanatical Quakers Fanatici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So say I of these poor deluding Fantastical Anti-quakers Fanatici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt erroribus stultitia bisce diebus notissimi quos hic inprimis aggredimur These Fantastical self-conceited Seers whom I here primarily Plead against are in these dayes most notoriously known by their errours and foolishnesse already not to a few of their own former followers and will be to ten times as many more in the dayes that are immediately hereafter following Thy many Taunting Terms wherein thou both belyest flingest and quippest at the Quakers being thus not in the same Taunting or Twitting way but in a way of true judgement turned upon thy self and thy own fellow-flouters at them I shall more closely examine what thou falsely accusest us of more particularly as concerning our deportment toward the Scriptures whom thou falsely declarest to be so grossely opposite thereunto as duely and deservedly to be denominated by those Terms by which thou also miscallest us of Fanatical Anti-scripturists p. 147. Ep. p. 28.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex. 3. S. 26. i.e. Haters of the Scripture and to be rankt among the rudest Reproachers of them in such words of thine as are hereunder Repeated and Replied to I.O. Thou sayest Satan in these dayes assaults the Sacred Truth of the Word of God in its Authority Purity Integrity or Perfection especially in the poor deluded Fanatical Souls commonly called Quakers c. Ep. p. 28.30 That to this sort of men the Quakers it was not enough to joyn in with those in Ages past who cast Reproaches on the Scriptures and approve of all the opprobrious speeches that have been cast out against them but they also rejoyce that the care of this matter viz. of spoiling the holy Scriptures of its proper name that glorious Title of the Word of God is by Satan confer'd upon them That they the Quakers who would seem to bear away the Bell from all as to the stout opposing of the perfection of the Scriptures Thou principally encounterest and as 't is an honour to thee that God hath pleased to confer on thy unworthy self this Task of fighting against those enemies of his Word the Quakers so what thou shalt perform in prosecution of this function thou oughtest to ascribe to his grace c Reply Herein thou not onely shewest thy sâ—l to be of that sort of men to whom it is not enough to joyn with those in Ages past who cast Reproaches on the hearers of the Word of God and Tremblers at his Word Isa. 66. 5. now in scorn called Quakers and cast out by their Brethren for his Name sake as then they were and to be an Approver of all the opprobrious speeches that are cast out against them by this adulterous and sinful generation who bend their Tongues like bowes for lyes against the Truth which lyes thou shouldest be a valiant Reprover of but also to rejoyce that the care of this matter of fighting against the truest friends in the World to God and his Word the Quakers and of Raising such Reproaches false Reports scandals and opprobrious speeches as the Rabble of Junior Rabbies Reproach them with is confer'd upon thee by the Devil for thou egregiously belyest the Quakers in this particular who deny not but Purely and Perfectly own all that Authority Purity Integrity and Perfection of the Scriptures which the Scriptures Ascribe unto themselves and rob it not of any proper name or any Title at all which by it self is either Attributed or appropriated to it self as that of the Word of God is not as is seen hereafter much lesse are they such enemies to the Word of God or that Sacred Truth written of in the Scriptures as thou most abusively and blasphemously belyest them to be that thou needest to stand up as thou dost in thy meer demi-â—â—â—gested demications against them for the Scriptures and the Word of Truth between which and the Scriptures in which it is declared they divide aright so as to give its own proper name to each of these whilst ye Divinity Doctors in your deep dotage making no due distinction betwixt them for all your pretended friendship thereunto are found very enemies to them both So that whereas thou who in other matters then this gloriest in thy own shame seem'st to glory in this function of fighting against the Quakers as in some great grace peculiarly given of God to thy unworthy self more then any as if Praemium strenuae contra Trepidantium Perfectionem ac â—anocentiam oppositioni debitum nemini mortalium tibi Praereptum velles thou seemest to thy self to bear the Bell before all others in thy stout opposing of that Innocent Seed of God to which grace of his thou Ascribest what ever Relying on his help and assistance thou performest in thy function aforesaid I conclude against thee to the contrary thus in short that 't is Satan himself who set thee at work against the Quakers and helpt thee as well as he could and furnisht thee with many a lye both against the Quakers and the Truth and led thee in a meer fools Paradise to prate with malicious words and speak evil of thou knowest not whom nor what and left thee to bewray such weaknesse folly and false hood as falls not at all from such as have help and assistance from God but ever flows from the father of lyes and his children with whom thou wilt have thy reward J.O. Whatsoever the Jewes whatsoever the Papists have been bold at any time to utter in disgrace of the Scriptures every whit of that these impure men the Quakers stricken as 't were with some direful inordinate motion or rapture both say and assert so that its a shame to relate the horrid and most foolish Titles of Books the chief Vagrants and Ringleaders of this Flock being urged having spoken wickedly and blasphemously against the Scriptures What their Common Opiniin I have thought good to set down as taken and Collected from their own Books and set Conferrences held with them c. Reply 1 Here 's a most palpable Lye related of the Quakers on whose behalf I here openly professe against thee before the World that we own all those Writings not only of Moses and the Prophets of the Old but those of the Apostles and Evangelists also which are commonly called the Scriptures of the New Testament to be Scriptures of Truth written by holy men of God as those of the Old also were as they were moved by the Holy Spirit whereas the Iewes who own value study and stand for those of the Old to this day as zealously as your selves in words do for both do malitiously and lyingly affirm them to be false fictitious and full of lyes Reply 2. Whereas we say no such thing nay nothing at all in any disgraceful way
about the manner and means and true bounds thereof for as to the Question whether it be a Canon that is a Rule at all yea or not I may defer it also to another place let me Expostulate with thee I O. yet more about it yet how and by whom your Standard comes to be so Bounded as ye say it is and to be limited to those Demensions of Latitude Longitude and Profundity that ad amussim exact Measure Heighth Depth Length and Breadth that is allotted to it as without the Apocripha it stands bound up within your late bound Bibles I mean that such and such Parcels Prophesies Proverbs Histories Epistles Holy Sentences Sacred Sayings shall stand Owned Honoured Signed and Authorized with the Sacred High and Holy Titles of Gods Word Gods Witnesse Foundation Rule inalterable Standard and not one piece of Holy Writing more or lesse then those already so Consecrated and Canonized so that such and such puta those that ye now commonly call Canonical shall shand as the Standard and all others viz. those called Apocryphal and whatever are mentioned in that Scripture ye so own shall stand out of and off from it as no part of the Standard while the World stands Who was it Was it God or was it Man that set such distinct Bounds to the Scripture so as to say such and such a set number of Books viz. Those those that are sum'd up together before your Bibles excepting the Apocrypha which stands between them shall be owned as Canonical and the rest though such as were of the same divine Inspiration be rejected as humane and no otherwise accounted on then other meer mens Writings not to be received with such high respect as the other Whence hast thou this Conceit that God himself Commanded the Close of the Canon of the Old Testament to be Malachi and the bounds of it to consist of such Books of the Prophets as ye now have exclusively of such Prophesies therein mentioned as ye have not and the Close of the Canon of the New to be the Revelation and the bulk of it to be those few Histories and Apostolical Epistles as ye have exclusively of such even therein mentioned as ye have not Who was it that said to the Spirit of God O Spirit blow no more inspire no more men make no more Prophets from Ezra's dayes and downwards till Christ and from Iohns dayes downward for ever But cease be silent and subject thy self as well as all Evil Spirits to be tryed by the Standard that 's made up of some of the Writings of some of those men thou hast moved to write already and let such and such of them as are bound up in the Bibles now used in England be the only means of measuring all Truth for ever Who was it God or Man the Spirit in the Scripture it self or the Scribes in their Synods Councels and Consistories that so Authorized or Canonized these and expunged those Was it not meer Men in their Imaginations Doth the Scripture do the Spirit and the Apostles therein give any order for or make any such mention in the least of such a matter Is it not meer man in his Imaginations that hath taken upon him according to the good or ill Conceit that he hath taken to him of these or those respectively to say which thou sayest is a Contradiction to say he will give Authority to the Scriptures Is it not man in his proud mind that comes in with his sic volo sic Iubeo so I 'le have it thus it shall be Saying to the Books of Scripture as God sayes to the Waves of the outward Ocean hitherto shall ye come and no further So many of the Prophets and Apostles Writings shall be in the Authority Nature Vse and Office of the Supream Determiner of all Truth for ever and all others even such as are written by the same men in the motion of the same Spirits shall be but as common mens Writings and be look'd on afar off as Apocryphal i.e. hidden or unknown Writings that no such notice shall be â—aken of as of the other And as for the Books which ye sprinkle with that Name of Apocryphal and give leave to to have a standing with it but not so as to make any part of your Standard What think ye of them upon second Thoughts Are they fit for nothing but to be Cashiered and cast out of your Canon by whole sale by Tradition one from another without trying them Is there nothing among them that may be judiciously Iudged to be of as divine an Original and Authority as some of those particular Letters to private men as that of Paul to Philemon about private personal or Domestick matters which ye own in such a transcendent manner as ye do Surely if some of hem be fictitious or fabulous or but humane so that ye will say no better of them then Vox hominem sonat yet is there none or nothing among them all that is to be noted or counted upon as of divine Authority and Original and of as self-evidencing Efficacy as some of those ye own None that ye can see cause to sign meliore lapillo with some better Name then ye vouchsafe them and standing in the Church then ye allow them As if they were a certain mongrel seed between that of Canaan and Ashdod that ye know not well what to make of nor how to entreat so ill altogether as not to afford them a middle place in some of your Bibles between the Old Testament Writings and those ye call the New nor yet so well as to entertain them into your Canon neither Surely there be some of them which when ye look them over again not so cursorily as to over-look them as ye ordinarily do ye may find ground to receive as such as have as fair a stamp of the beaming Majesty Truth Holinesse and Authority of God and his Spirit as some at least not to say the most of those ye ascribe to God as their main or only Author and that do favour as much of I. O's so much insisted on Theo-pneusty as some other Historical Doctrinal and Prophetical parts of your acknowledged divinely derived Scripture do of which what Infidels soever ye are as concerning them yet I together with many others whereof some are as Booklearn'd as your selves can say Credo Equidem nec vana Fides genus esse Deorum 'T is indeed the Faith or rather Infidelity of such as call themselves Reformed Churches that all those Books called the Apocrypha without exception are in no wise of such divine Original as them ye call Canonical but who first set the one upon the Bench and the other at the Bar I am yet to learn but this I know that howbeit ye second their depression and digradation of the one so far below the other yet as neither one nor t'other were ever Canonized by God himself if we speak of the Outward Text only about which
ye all falsly say it is that is the Word of God Witnesse not only that so much esteemed Divine in his dayes viz. Ball in his Catechisme but also the Confession of Faith of the Assembly of Divines presented to the Parliament and that of the Congregationals which is verbatim the same also therewith who all unanimously in that Article of the Scripture wherein they falsely affirm it to be the Word of God declare thus in the fifth head viz. by the heavenlinesse of the matter efficacy of Doctrine majesty of the stile excellency and perfection of the whole it doth abudantly evidence it self to be the Word of God yet notwithstanding our full perswasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof i.e. of the Scripture is from the inward work of the holy Spirit bearing witnesse by and with the word in our hearts But thou in page 90. and thorowout thy fifth chapter of thy first Treatise excludest the witnesse of the Spirit immediately in the heart at all or at least the usefulnesse much more the necessity of any such Testimony making as here page 34. the Authority of God shining in it self alone and exclusively of the spirits and words witnesse in our hearts the sole medium of all that evidence which man can have of its being what ye call it viz. The Word of God but as for God and the Spirit who within do give all the evidence that they give at all of the Scriptures being what in truth is is viz a true writing of the truth what if they are willing to grant an evidence within and to afford more then thou talkst of wilt thou bind limit and forbid them so to so who 〈◊〉 unlimitedly here declarest that God is willing to afford and grant no more must not the Spirit blow where it lifts without thy leave or acquainting thee first who art no Prophet with what he will do And this may serve as a sufficient Answer to thy vain Opinion in it it being worth no better to that whole Chapter of thine concerning the Testimony of the Spirit though whether it shall or no so that I 'le say no more to thee about that Chapter is more then I le tell thee here that I may be at liberty to do as I see occasion Only thus much is spoken to that saying of thine above pag. 34. to shew how Majestically still for the eternal Truths of God thou tellest thy own meer trashy untrusty Traditions of which sort I say is that above p. 163 which I am yet in hand with viz. that God probably suffered the losse of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reduce us to a Consideration of his Care in preserving every Tittle that was in them to this day in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Copies we have But I O. seems to take another Reason out of the bottomlesse pit of his own infinite Fancy and Imagination why God was as willing to let the first Manuscripts perish as careful to preserve every Apex thereof in their adored Transcripts and successively Crowned and Canonized Copies to this day viz. left if the immediate individual Writings had been preserved men would have been ready to adore them as the Jewes to adore their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Synagogues Reply Which if it be Cogent or have any Reason at all in it to prove a willingnesse in God to let the first Writings be left hath it not as much to the full to evince God Regardlesnesse of your so copiously regarded Copies upon if there were no other the very self-same Account as he was so carelesse of the other But I. O. is so totally Talpified that as Eagle-eyed as he is abroad to spie a hole in the Iewes Coat he can't see that Iewish Idolatry neerer home For if God to prevent Adoration of that Brazen Serpent and Idolized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Scripture was so regardlesse of it as to permit it to perish and be brought to nothing is there not as much reason why he should be as Carelesse of your remote tottered Transcripts and false Translations ye are so carkingly careful of as to let what will become of them notwithstanding your uncessant pining and whining and whoring after them and solicitous scoldings and tearings one of another so much about them For as much as though ye Confesse ye have but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet so it is that ye Adore and even Idolize them as much as ye would or likely could the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves had you them to bustle and busie your minds about and as much as the Iewes though ye advance them the Right way no more then they do theirs as I have told you at large above do their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Synagogues Suppose ye had here the very Hand writings of Moses and the old Prophets and the individual Letters and Stories that the Evangelists and Apostles pen'd with their own hands yea the very Two Tables of Stone superscribed with Gods own finger which was a Figure and Type of that Hand-writing of his Law in the fleshly Tables of your hearts by his living Spirit the Truth and Anti-type of which ye as little heed as ye heedlesly over-value the other What could you Ministers of the Letter and not the Spirit and your Literal and Formal more then Powerful and truly Spiritual Professours say or do more unlesse you would down on your Knees to them so soon as ever ye see them in way of outward Honour and Adoration thereof then ye do to your falsified Transcripts and your People to the more unspeakably false Translations which they take for Truth but by Tradition and meer implicite Faith from your selves Le ts Reason and Reckon with you here a little while about your Transcripts and Translations which are all that are extant and enjoyed at this day the first by you that have skill in Hebrew and Greek the second by your Independent on God but on their Priests lips dependent People As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Memorandum Oh all People by whom these presents shall ever happen to be read I. O. hath quite quitted the World of them Confessing they are all utterly perished and long since past away and lost So that 't is opon Fiction or miracuâ—ous with him for any one to affirm that there 's any one individual Role Writing or Book that was Pen'd by the Holy men that in their several successive Ages wrote the Scripture now alive and not mouldred into dust So that the World hath done with them and they with us so as never to come within our Ocular Inspection more whereby to try whether our Doctors and Divines Adored Transcripts do to a little agree as I. O. absolutely affirms they do with the Touchstone yea or nay so as to believe our own eyes or any otherwise then as I O. who first positively Asserts it doth after as improbly conclude
then forbidden at least hidden fruit from you who what light soever ye have from God yet have not learning enough to let you into an intermedling with the open secrets of their living dead letter as for your Scripture which is but Translation out of theirs hear what they say of it who exalt it far above it self into a participation thy the halves of the same high prerogatives with Theirs and a taste of that glorious Title the Word of God yet so as that it must know it self too and not intrude further into it then they give leave by their right or wrong renditions of it ont of their for ever to be adored right-wrong Copies who in the blinduesse of their busie brains vanity and follishnesse of their thoughts and fleshly wisdom that 's enmity against God and enters no farther into the inside of the Scripture than the Eye-sight of a Mole into a milstone may render it as it seems best to themselves and you Lack lingua's little the wiser and if they give your Scripture an Inch it must take heed of taking an Ell for as there 's a Bit so there 's a Knock if it presume too far it s admitted to be the Word of God with theirs but not on even terms theirs wholly and euery Apex of it yours but by the halues or so far onely as it corresponds with theirs from which if it offer to vary by theirs it must be corrected castigated in order to its amendment in time to come theirs being perfectly the word of God yea every Tittle of it the Living Word of the great God though but transcribed as yours is but translated in the Wisedom Skill and Diligence of men yours imperfectly and perfectly too perfectly or imperfectly according as yours expresse the words sense and meaning of their Origina's so that though it can be counted no Robbery for Theirs which is but the fruit of mans Wisdom Skill and Diligence and as now transcribed was not as is confest received immediately from God to be made Equall with that which was at first received more immediately from him as the fruit of his Wisdom Care and Providence yet its Robbery for yours that comes but as theirs doth through the Skill Wisdom and Diligence of Men and within a small matter as immediately from God as Theirs doth to be equall with Theirs and howbeit they may lawfully without pride set up Their meer Transcriptions so as to make them sir cheek by chole with the first hand-writings and set up their own Altar or Altered Copies of Hebrew and Greek with that higher Altar of God even the Letter or first Copy and set up Mans posts by Gods posts even both the first Manuscripts and their own tottered Transcripts too into an Equallity of Titles Honour Power Perfection Authority Necessity c. with the True living Word of God which the first and truest Scripture that ever was was at best but a true Scripture writing or declaration of yet your Posts and Altars and Scriptures must keep aloof and not come so nigh Theirs as Theirs to Gods without a check By all wch that 's here written in this Apostrophe to you O poor deluded people ye may see what a low condition ye are deprest into till you betake your selves to the light of God within which was before any letter to writing was without which the Scriptures cry up call you to while your Scribes cry it down cry out against it and call you from it ye may see how ye are thrust out with a Pueri sacer est locus extra meijete meddle not here ye Mechanicks ye unlearned Laicks from the lines of their communication by your Fanatical Fantastical high flown haughty Haebricians and greedy Graecians that for filthy lucre take the oversight of or rather over you and that take upon them by force to be your guides before whom you are fain to stand like some poor stupified Peasant before his Prince to whom if the one say but Rex sum sic uolo sic jubeo So I mean to have it the other hath no more to do but ineak away nor to say but Amen so be it nil ultra quaero plebeius It follows then that none but Schollars have the undoubted word of God for people understand not Original tongues nor many Priests the Hebre◠and so though they say Hear the Word of God they have no undoubted Word of God to preach out of it while they take their Texts out of English Bibles So people and blind Priests have no undoubted infallible Rule touchstone to try Truth by for if this he so how is the Scripture as they have it the most perfect Rule to them both people and illiterate Priests must either get Hebrew and Greek or else confesse that they live as much by tradition in England taking things on trust from the Priests without tryall as they do at Rome for what difference between having Scripture no Scripture in the mother tongue when notwithstanding that which is so had men cannot be sure which is the Word of God which not but as the Priests tell them so and if Priests be minded to deceive them they may Translate it to their own turn as they please and people ne're the wiser so make the Scripture as a nose of wax to stand to themselves lead the world by the nose as they have ever done which way soever they will So I confesse I. O. that I see the Scriptures as taken for the Translations set somewhat lower by thee than the first Manuscripts and then your Transcriptions in the place above quoted yet entitled too with the name of the Word of God in part but your Transcriptions to an Apex are equalized with the first Manuscripts and both these elsewhere wholly with the light and living Word It is then the meer Transcripts and neither the first Manuscripts nor Translations that thou talkest so exceeding strictly for the non alteration or non-corruption of in a Title the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being lost out of the world and Translations excluded the lists o◠thy Apologetical vindication of the Scripture in the externall Text thereof in vindication of which Transcriptions of the Hebrew and Greek Texts not appearing at all for the English save quatenus agreeing with the other p. 153.174 thou talkst on Argumentatively as follows Arg. 1. To prove the whole Scripture memorandum of old and new Testament to remain entire to this day without ablation or alteration of it in one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tittle thou urgest p. 175. the providence of God in taking care of his word which he hath magnified over all his name as the most glorious product of his Wisdom and Goodnesse his great concernment in this world answering his promise to this purpose Rep. This leads the Front of that Ragged Regiment of Arguments which follow it at the heels in p. 175. 176. 177. being no lesse than 12. in number
their feet are swift to shed blood that wasting and misery are in their wayes and the way to true peace they know not yet this one thing I must say too and of our Vniversity Scriblers pro Scripturis that as there are no men in the world more up to the ears in strife about the Scripture and their own Fancies on it as to matter and letter than the Scribes are so there is no one thing that the Scribes are striving scuffling and scolding at each other more about than about their Scriptures That light or word within and not the letter is the Foundation First I shall take account of what thou falsely assertest concerning the Scriptures being a Foundation Thou affirmest the Scriptures to be the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles spoken of Eph. 2.20 pag 33. saying of them that men may quietly repose their souls upon them in beleeving and obedience and of your selves thus are we built 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and calling them Page 48. The Foundation of that world which he hath set up in this world as a Wheel within a Wheel his Church And page 154. The Foundation of faith hope and obedience And page 155. The Foundation of all that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands And page 316. The great and blessed Foundation of Truth All this I own to be very true of the Word of God of which the Scripture speaks but it is utterly false as uttered by thee of the Scriptures The falsehood of which appears plainly by this Argument 1. Argument That which is the great and blessed Foundation of all that truth faith hope and obedience that God requires at mens hands and of the Church and of the Apostles and Prophets must be something which was in being before any of these things were for the Foundation on which these are built must have a being before they can be built thereupon every Foundation being before the building can stand upon it But though the Word of God be so yet the Scripture is not before but long after that truth faith hope and obedience which God requires at mens hands and long after the Church and long after the Apostles and Prophets were yea after those Apostles and Prophets were Respectively who were the Respective pen-men thereof Therefore the Scripture the Writing the Letter the Greek and Hebrew Text is not the Foundation of any of these things The first Proposition is so true that it were no less then disparagement to I. O's wisdom to suppose him to be mentis inops to go about to prove it to him sith as he builds Castles in the air as easily thrown down as erected upon no better Foundation then his own fancy thoughts conjectures and imaginations yet he cannot be so senceless as to think that that Foundation be it what it will firm or brittle on which any thing is built must be before the building can stand thereon And as for the minor in every part thereof it 's as undeniably true to any save such as having once turn'd their backs upon the Truth are resolved to render themselves devoid of eithet Sense or Reason in their Reasonings against it then to own it For none else can deny but the Church and the Truth Faith Hope and Obedience of it and the Messengers Apostles Prophets Preachers of Righteousnesse such as were Enoch Noah Abraham Lot and others were in the Truth Faith Hope Obedience of the Gospel and also built upon Christ the Light the Word of God the Rock of Ages before Moses dayes who is unversally supposed at our Vniversities to have been the first Pen-man of the Scriptures The grand Master-place of Scripture that is us'd in proof hereof that the Scriptures are the Foundation is Ephes. 2.20 where it 's said by Paul to the Ephesians Ye are built on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-Stone Hence it is strenuously stickled for and as confidently as cloudily concluded by our doting Doctors and dreaming Divines that the Church of God as to all her Faith Hope Obedience Knowledge of the Truth is built upon the Apostles and Prophets Writings as that which is there called the Foundaeion whereas were they but at leisure from that lesser and lower literature wherein they are lost from the Lord and the Light and Life of God and the Letter also which issued forth from thence to look into the Light and by it into the Letter it self they more blindly labour for then truly learn by they would soon see that the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets there spoken of is not the Apostles and Prophets themselves much less uncertain transcribed Copies of those few Fragments of their Letters and some other honest mens true stories of what was done in their times good instructions memorandums and litteral recommendations of wholsome Laws and Statutes most of which as laid down in the Letter saving that they remain in the truth and substance whereof they were the types figures and shadows are above 1600-years since cancelled and abolished Promises Prophesies Psalms Proverbs Parables occasional Letters Epistles and other Writings which such as fell into a foolish following and falling down before outward Images and from the infallible Spirit it self that their Scriptures were written to keepe men to found and fardelled together and fram'd in their own fancies into a Foundation of the Faith and of all the whole Fabrick of Religion to be for ever framed and founded upon But Christ Iesus himself who is there also called the chief Corner-stone and 1 Pet. 2.4 that living Stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious on whom the Saints even all together with the Apostles and Prophets and the whole Houshold of God as Fellow-Citizens and lively Stones are built up a spiritual House to offer spiritual sacrifices yea all into one holy Temple or Habitation of God through the spirit This is the true and sole Foundation of all the matters before mentioned Christ Iesus the Rock of Ages on whom whoever believes shall not be ashamed Christ the living Word of God that also quickneth whose words are spirit and life to the hearers of his voice whose words uttered in the heart do good to those that walk uprightly this is the Stone that you Babel-builders refuse which God hath made the very head stone in the Corner Psal. 118.22 Matt 21.42 This verbum lumen internum Christ the eternal internal Word in the heart and Light of the World given a Light to the Nations and as such Gods salvation to the ends of the earth and the precious sanctuary to such as believe in his light is that stone of stumbling and Rock of offence to such as thee I.O. that stumble at the Word in their wrestlings for the Letter being disobedient unto both whereunto also they are appointed and a Gin and a Snare to the
his liberty to make his choice ex dieabus malis of those two evils seems to chuse the latter saying pag. 7. that as far as their personal concernments as Saints and beleevers lay in the Scriptures and in order to their saving knowledge of the truth they studied the Writings and Prophesies of one another I conclude then against I.O. that by that clause the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles is not intended their Writings as if they laid their own Scriptures for the Foundation of the Church and her faith hope obedience but that which the Apostles themselves were built upon together with the whole Church or houshold of God which could not be nor was their own Writings but Christ the Light The Letter indeed is the foundation laid by I.O. and men of his mould of old for his Wheel in a Wheel as he speaks or his false Church whose works like his own run round on and are found to have in them Wheel within Wheel but as for the true Church of the living God which is the Wheel that will turn the worlds Wheels upside down it never did doth nor ever will acknowledge any fallible letter or meer transcribed Text or any other thing to be the true great and blessed foundation of Truth Faith Hope or Obedience then Christ Iesus the same yesterday and to day and for ever who was before it now is and ever will be when the letter shall be no more at all 2. Argument whatsoever the Scripture it self layes down and testifies to be the only true Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and of the whole Church of God and of her Faith Hope and Obedience and of all Truth that is the only true foundation of all these things But the Scripture it self layes down and testifies Christ alone the Light the living Word and not it self to be the only true Foundation of the things aforesaid therefore Christ alone the Light Spirit and inward living Word that is nigh in the heart and not the Scripture it self is the only true Foundation of them The first and affirmative part of the minor is not denied by thee as the major cannot be and if thou deny the second part of the minor which is negative and denies the Scripture to testifie of it self in any place that its the Foundation then assign where the Scripture calls it self the Foundation or else own that it doth not and so that it is not the Foundation at all much less the truest or the only one as thou often intimatest either expresly or in terms equivalent it is Ep. p. 25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not any means of standing out of utter uncertainty about all sacred truth if the Heb punctation be invention also p. 64 65. not a truer Foundation for for faith to repose it self upon 3. Argument if the Scripture be the foundation for the Church and all her Faith and Repentance to be founded and grounded upon then either there was no Foundation for it before the Scripture or else they who lived before the Scripture had one Foundation for their faith and we another and so consequently there hath been two Foundations for the one faith or the one Church or body of Christ but there was a Foundation before the Scripture and there are not two Foundations of faith one to that part of the body of Christ and of Gods building that was before the Scripture and another for that part that is built since the Scripture therefore the Scripture is not the Foundation Argument 4. The Foundation of the faith must be something that is infallible firm fixt certain stable sure and inalterable as the light Spirit and Word within onely is and Gods Foundation 2 Tim. 2 19. the Foundation of God sure to a Tittle for Error minimus in principio for major in medio maximus in fine the least fault or errour and deviation in the principle or Foundation of any building grows greater toward the middle and is greatest at the top as it is seen in a very Tower if the bottome or basis stands never so little awry as is discernable it is discerned more in the middle and much more still as it ascends higher But the Scripture letter Hebrew and Greek Texts how ever I.O. pleads their integrity in every Apex point tittle and iota yet are as I have shewed above more at large in answer to his long Tattle about the Tittles and points and indentity of Lections of the letter by his own confession mistaken and mistranscribed in small things yea and in some matters of more moment and importance in the best transcribed Copies of the Original Text therefore the Text or letter of the Scripture cannot be a fit Foundation for the Churches faith but the spirit and Word within is onely so Psal. 75.3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved faith Christ the Word of God I bear up the Pillars of it and that is the reason why the earth is so shaken as it is and reels to and fro that it is removed as a cottage and all helpers and healers avail nothing because they reject the corner stone Christ the Word for if the Foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do Psal. 11.3 Isa. 24. 18 19. Each of which Arguments hold good against the letters being the Rule the light the witness of God the Gospel the power of God to salvation the only means or way of coming to the saving knowledge of God Word of God and what ever other high Titles I. O. intitles it by as appears in their order That the Light or Word within and not the Scriptures are the Rule or Canon Another thing thou assertest of the Scripture is that it is the only Rule of the faith and obedience of Gods Church p. 173. that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that more sure word of Prophesie to be attended to 2 Pet. 1.18 19 20. not in its self for so it was as sure as sure could be but in its giving out its evidence to us then that great miracle of miracles greater than which the Apostles of Christ never did behold or hear viz. That voice which came from the most excellent glory This is my beloved Son which we have greater security from and by according to Peter then they had in and by that miraculous voice That Moses and the Prophets which who so will not hear will not be perswaded to repent though one arise to them from the dead Luke 16.31 That Word Law and Testimony mentioned Isa. 8.20 according to which who speaks not are said to be in the dark so that there is no light in them by which what every one sayes be it what or whom it will Church or person if it be in and about the things of God concerning his will or worship or our obedience to him is to be tried That which we are sent to that which is and is asserted to be the
is the Rod of power which God promiâ—ed to send out of Sion even the Rod and sharp Sword of his mouâ—h and breath of his lips wherewith he will now smite the Nations and slay the wicked and reprove with equity on the behalf of the meek of the earth whom the proud oppress even the word of his mouth which he will put into the mouths of his sucklings and their seed and seeds seed out of which he ordains strength to the perfecting his own praise against the persecutor This and not the weak dead letter Bible or Scripture thou so labourest bablest and scriblest for is that Power and Authority of God Able as the outward Writing is not to make it self known so to be for the letter is as lifeless helpless powerless as any other Book Writing or dumb Idols that men adore and receive aâ— ye with the Iews of whom thou speak'st p. 237. do the Bible at this day with the honour and veneration due to God that cannot stir from the place where it s set as neither can the Scripture from where it s laid no more than the Turkish Alcoran yeâ— as Jeremiah in his Epistle saiâ—h of the weakness and vanity of all the Idols of the heathen whom they make powerful Gods of Thâ—se Gods quoth he cannot save themselves from rust and moths though they be covered with purple they wipe them because of the dust of the Temple when there is much upon them men put the Scepter in their hands as if they were the Iudge of the Country and Daggers and Axes but they cannot deliver themselves from Theeves nor of themselves put to death one that offends them as a useless vessel worth nothing when broken so it is with their Gods they are as the beams of their Temples upon their bodies and heads Strâ—Bats Swallows Birds and Cats they are things in which is no breath yet they set and sell and buy them at a high price they are carried having no feet â—o walk with if they fall to the ground they cannot rise up again of themselves the same together with what follows caeteris paribus Baruch 6. may be said of the adored Best Copies of the Great Bibles that lye in the great old mouldy Popish Parish Mass-houses now called the Protestant Churches where the Bells hang the Ministers of the Letter not the Spirit the elder sort of which are Priests by Ordinatioâ—â— fit in their Temples and roar and cry the Word of God the Law the Light the way to life the Gospel the power of God to salvation as the Iews do when their Copy is carried about but these Gods of those Idol Shepherds that leave their poor flock at any time for another that hath a better fleece can do nothing at all cannot withstand any King or enemies are not able to escape either from Theeves or Robbers nor when fire falleth on the houses where they are to help or save themselves or flye away how then shall we think they the Books called Bibles the Scriptures are so powerful and effectual not only in themselves but also in respect of us as without any other helps or advantages to shew themselves to be the great Authority and Power of God vis virtus Dei to our salvation as I.O. dreams If he say he means not the Text but the Word it talks on let him say so then when he writes again and then we will take it for granted he gives the cause in question to the Qua. whom he quarrels with for denying the Bible Letter Scripture outward Writing to be the living effectual able powerful word of God that gives life and saves and such like and so we shall meddle no more with him as to that matter but so long as he will needs damn down the Qua. as denyers of Scriptures and the Word of God too because they deny the Letter or Text to be properly the truth or Word of God it doth but declare and talk on we must thereby understand him to intend the Letter which he talks for Moreover as to the Light of God and Word nigh in the heart which the Apostles preached to turn men to and taught them as the Scripture also doth in its Testimony there to to attend to as the Rule of faith and life this is that Word of the truth of the Gospel which is V is virtus Dei the Power of God by the vertue of which Power it brought forth fruit in the Collossians and in all the World where it so came when it came unto them in the Ministry thereof which was the means by which they heard of it first and then came themselves to hear it and to know the grace of God in truth even that grace that bringeth the salvation and appeareth to all men effectually instructing as well without as with the outward Letter of it all that leâ—rn at it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world which is the Light of God in the conscience called the goodness of God or grace given to lead them to repentance who despising the riches of it are not led by it to repent and so treasure up wrath to themselves c. Tit. 2 11 12. Rom. 2.4 5. This is it which brought forth fruit in the world without Sword Miracles humane wisdome oratory or any inducements or motives but what are meerly and solely taken from it self consisting in things which eye hath not seen ear heard nor the heart of the animal natural man or of any but the spiritual man that by the Spirit which only searcheth and revealeth them discerneth the deep things of God can discern or conceive This is that that hath exerted its power and efficacy to the conquest of the world so far as it hath been capâ—ivated in the high proud thoughts of it to the true obedience of Christ causing men of all sorts times and places so to fall down before its Divine Authority as to renounce all that its dear undergâ—â— all that it dreadful and destructive to nature in its dearest concernment As for the Letter the Scripture which thou speakest of in a sense abstract from all other helps and advantages as that which without need of any other Revelation by the spirit and light within for these thou call'st superfluous mediums doth plead for reception not onely in comparison with but also opposition to all other wayes of coming to the knowledge of God his mind and will founded thereon and calls for attendance and submission with supreme and uncontroulable Authority 57 58. as that which hath brought forth so much fruit and exerted so much power What power hath it put forth to conquer the world into such submission to the truth as it is in Iesus as Christ requires or as the Letter it self either calls for what fruits of righteousnesse hath it brought forth in the world cal'd Christian to the glory of God for all its being
the light of God the wisdome saving truth immediate witness clearest way of Revelation soul-cleansing Law sure foundation most perfect Rule immoveable stedfast Standard of Gods setting up but it self is nos all nor any of this nor doth it at all any where avouch it self to be any of it at all The Scripture points to that which is the Power of God by the being of which in and upon his people who only own and joyn to it they are made a willing people in the day thereof when such as turn from and against the light which is the power and labour in the weak naked Letter labour in vain and are left unwilling to leave their lusts and lives for Christ as his Maryrs or outward witnesses did in all Ages But the Letter it self is not Power of God that sustained them in the suffering and inabled them to forgo what was dear to them and to undergo what was dreadful and destructive to nature in its dearest concernments The Letter tells us that the Saints did so and tells us and all Saints that we should do for Christ but the Power by which this is done is another matter then a Letter ad extra even the inward light Word and Spirit that thou doest despite to even that in the conscience that made them indure as seeing him who is invisible and discovered the darkâ—â—ss upon the discovery of which they rather chose death then to own it as Light and Truth not only in ages as high as Moses who by faith in the Light chose affliction rather then sin and feared not the wrath of Pharaoh but also from him downward as low as Maries dayes in which some died for denying the darknâ—ss of the Popes Dâ—ctrines of Transubstantiation c. which the Light in their consciences told them were too gross to be of God who yet by their confession could not dispute against it with Vniversity Sottish Sophisters Doctor Dunces out of Letter nor so much as read a letter therein and also as low as these dayes wherein by the Power of God many are born up to bear the Trials of the cruel Academical mockings scoffings scourgings inâ—lictings stonings bonds imprisonments abuses to death witness one of the first of the Lords two Hand-maids that were sent to warn the Vniversity of their universal abomiâ—ations at Oxford in the time of I.Os. Vice chancellorship there who perhaps may not be so learned literally though mystically and spiritually more in the Letter as obtuse aÌ„cuti â—omunâ—ioneâ— many of those dull-beaded nimble disputers out of it are in their bald fashion of Syllogistical form Neither did the Letter either of the Old Testament which is the Letter without of what things soever written or the outward Letter of the New ever conquer the world in which thou sayest it brought forth so much fruit further then into a meer empty fruitless form of Godliness without the power thereof insomuch that though as to the Primitive Christian Churches while they kept in the Light which the Apostles Ministry whether by word of mouth or Writing Letter Scripture was to turn them to walk by and beleeve in and in the Spirit in which they began till fooâ—ishly being bewitched from obeying the truth it self they turned aside to the outward Text that tells it and so thought to be made perfect by the flesh and the fleshly bodily exercises they found in the Letter which once used were as low weak beggeâ—ly elements for a time the power of God and godliness was much â—elt among them and abode with and upon them to the prevailing against the Powers of the earth and the overcomming the world it self and Satan the Prince of it by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of his Testimony not loving their lives to the death and much fruit of the Spirit and of righteousness was brought forth to the glory and praise of God But when Synods and Councels doting Doctors infatuated Ghostly-Fathers and such as admired their persons as they the persons of the Apostles and primitive Disciples began to bundle together what they could get of the Wâ—itings of such as were coaetaneous with Christ and the Apostles and without any such order from either Christ or the Apostles to canonize what in their conceits might be useful to others as they had found them t is like to be to themselves into a Rule or Canon and stated them into a common Standard for all to have their sole recourse to in soul-cases and matters of Christian faith and holy life and so to adore the dead letters of those holy living men and to run a whoring after some remnants of Writings that dropt from them then in the whole world now called Christendome instead of an Apostolical Spouse of Christ as Christians were at first presented a chaste Virgin to himself by them there stands up an Apostatical Strumpet that had the Letter and good words written there but neither the life of God nor the Word of life therein testified to that according to the nature of Error which is ever multiplying degenerated more and more into the dark till at last being gone from the Word Spirit Light and Life within to the outward Letter that relates of it they ran into the Wildernes of their own numberless senses upon it so that they lost the Letter also and fell from it into Tradition and a thousand Old Wives Fables and though it is good and acknowledged so to be so far as it is that the Protestants have marched from Rome under the conduct of the Leâ—ter yet for all they are come back from the blinde screel scrawls of the Popish Scribes for their smoaky imaginations to a pretensive profession of and prate prâ— Scripturis for the Scriptures unless they march on according to the conduct of the Scriptures till they come into the Light and Spirit which they point to and by a dotage upon the Scriptures ye would run from they are not so much as come yet to the Scriptures nor to conform to that counsel of the Prophets and Apostles given in it but are yet erring from the Scriptures even in and by their very eager Scriblings for it as the only most perfect Rule and from the only Rule of faith and way to Life the Letter is as loud for but that they are dull of hearing as they in their naked Writings are loud for the naked Letter it self And so it comes to pass that as Israel was of old who was as laborious in the Letter busie about the Bible and strict for his Scripture-standard as our Israel for the self-same which yet they confess too is abolished as to the Litteral observation of it with the Appendix of a few of Stories and Letters and Revelations of those holy men next to Christs time who by the Spirit wrote much more then is there own'd as their Standard I say as the old Israel proved as to God an empty vine Hos. 10.1 bringing forth
Truth Law Doctrine or Commandement which is a Light and Lamp is within as Rom. 10.8 witnesses it for me so my two Antagonists I.O. and T.D. do both from the Testimony of that very Text testifie the same with it and me against themselves the one viz. T D. sying p. 30 31. of his 1. Pamph. 't is evident that the word spoken of in the heart Rom. 10.8 is meant of the matters contained in the Scriptures for the Apostle sayes expresly that is the Word of faith which wee preach whereby it seems by your selves the Letter is neither the Word there said to be nigh in the heart and mouth nor yet the Word of faith the Apostles preached but some other thing that was actually properly truly and formally within the heart even the holy Word Law Light Truth Spirit of Truth and Doctrine which wee together with the Scripture do testifie unto and you contrary both to us and the Scripture are continually testifying against and the other viz. I.O. saying Ex. 1. s 40. The Word in us is that Word of faith the Apostles preached but they preached nothing but what was written by Moses and the Prophets Rom. 16.26 yea that that Word was a Word written the Apostle professedly testifies in that place vers 10. 2. The Scripture is nigh us in our hearts and mouth not in respect of the Letter written or the Scripture formally considered as written but of the divine Truth or as it contains and holds forth the divine truth it self Reply V. 11. Thou meanest sure for there the Word Scriptures is named but what of that and who doubts or denies but that the Word in the heart was written as well as preached and testified to by writing as well as by word of mouth but wilt thou ever be so blinde I.O. as to make no difference but when it serves thy turn to do it as thou thinkest against the truth for then thou makest a difference See p. 12. 13. between the Word written Doctrine declared and Declaration Book and Truth Scripturam rem scriptam preaching and thing preached publication and will of God published proclamation of good things and the tidings or good things proclaimed and told of Suppose a man should stand at a Market-cross or in Cheapside and preach publish or proclaim by Word of mouth or set up a Bill or Writing that there is special good Wheat Bread Flesh or the like laid up under the custody of the Lieutenant of the Tower enough for all the poor starvelings of the rich City of London where the more shame and wo to the rich Gluttons in it they ly perishing about the streets by him freely to be dispenced who is sealed or authorised to that end to give to all comers according to their wants or in a time of distress or danger that there is safety in the Tower for all that are willing to run in thither within so many dayes or else the gates shall be shut for thus the Publishers of the glad Tidings of the Gospel of peace and salvation by Christ the Light alone and his Spirit and Light which reproves sin is the heart do declare both by Voyce and Letter or Writing in their times as he himself Isa. 45.22 Look to me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth viz. That in him who is the Light is the life of men to be had and not in the Letter which rather killeth Hee is the strong Tower where safety alone is Him hath God sealed to be the giver of the bread of life and the meat that endureth to eternal life to all that come to him in that time wherein he shines in his Light Now if people should run only to the Cryer and hang alwayes on the hearing of his voice or stand reading the good news in the writing he hath set up doting on and delighting only to read that day by day because its comfortable as it tells of good things and never at all according to the counsel thereof betake themselves to the Tower where they only are might they not stand there poring till they perish pine and starve and would they not lose time and perhaps totally withstand it and would yee judge them to bee well in their wits if they should run up and flock all together to the Proclamation or bare Writing supposing to injoy the things themselves though they never look after the said Lieutenant spinning out the time limited in looking upon the writing and so far dote as our Dr doth that the coming to the Scriptures is the only proper way of coming to Christ himself which he counsels us to Rev. 3. as to think that their comming to that Paper every day is their next way to the Tower their very only proper going to the Lieutenant that is required Mutatiâ— mutandis de te fabula the case is your own O ye untaught better fed then taught Teachers it is yours O ye more letter-lauding then letter-learning Preachers and Priest-admiring people Christ is come from God that men might have life and have it abundantly calls all to look and come to him for it yee like the old Scribes search the Scriptures and therein look for the eternal life because they are they that testifie of it and of him who is the life but yee will not come to him that yee may have the life Ioh. 5.35 c. 2. What need I say more but with T.D. and I.O. to heed and beleeve themselves because they are so dull of hearing that they will neither heed nor beleeve the Qua. for they give the cause in Question between the Qua and them about the Scripture or the Letters being the World of faith or light shining in the dark place of mens hearts which Peter sayes men are to take heed to which said dark place that is the heart and consâ—ience where by their own confession so gross a thing as a formal outward Letter cannot come but only some more subtil thing then that is even a spiritual light as that is not is as evident in the Text as the Word and Light it speaks of is to him that is not blinde for the dark place wherein the Word and Light here is said to thine is the same wherein as the Light is taken heed to the day dawns and the day star i.e. Christ him self arises first as that bright and morning star Rev. 2.28 whereby the day spring from on high visits such as sate in darkness Luke 1.78 79. and at last as the Sun of righteousness it self Mal. 4.2 but that is said expresly to be the heâ—rt so far as from Ioh. 1.5 we argue Where the spiritual darkness is which comprehends not the Light within which darkness the light shines There the true light shineth but that is within in the conscience of all men therefore there the true light in some measure is shining As if the dark place within which the Sun shines be a room within
said as the same Seed did to the same sort of Seers whom God sent of old to a Rebellious people lying children that would not hearken to the Law of the Lord See not Prophecy not Soft and Gentle and not Right and Rough things are agreeable to to the duty of this day the Qua. speech the words whereof I have set down in the Margin referring both thee T.D. and the Sandwich doters on thy dowby-doings to a Printed sheet â—old by Tho. Simmons at the Bull and Mouth stiled the Prophet approved by the words of his Prophecy coming to â—ass where ye may read the residue of the Message from the Lord in that place of the Popish Priests consecrating falsly called Christ-Church in London on that day was deemed such a disturbance as was punisht with an orderless New-Gate imprisonment by the multitude at the present ratified by the Rulers order when they were more at leasure from their voluptuous feasting which iniquity of appointing men to preach to them in their own wills and time whether God appoint them yea or nay of despising the true Prophets true Words and trusting in the fraud of the fulse ones and in their own perversness and staying thereon Isa. 30.9 10 15. was then unto them as it ever was to the same generation as a breach swelling out in a high wall whose breaking came suddenly as at an instant for by the 13th of the same month they who were so hand in hand against Righteousness were turned tail to tail against each other for their wickedness yea the Lord spared them not but brake them as the breaking of a Potters vessel that is broken in pieces so that in the bursting of those brittle Potsheards of the earth there is scarce found a sheard of so much uâ—e as to take fire from the hearth ' or water withal from the pit Now as to the very great distuâ—bance thou sayest they made this is but the old Tone of the Tithe-taking Tide-turning Tune-serving Truth-belying Teachers and the wonted out-cry of that Noun-Adjective Ministry thou belongest to that cannot stand nor subsist of themselves without leaning for encouragement defence assistance and maintenance to meeâ— humane Laws to prop them up in the propagating of their meer humane Gospel who like the loud-lying women that having no better shift than to cry whore first are ever hideously bellowing out against the Qua. to the tune of Heresie Heresie disturbance of the Ministers to the Magistrates so that if any Qua. come quietly in and speak or do but ask that Reason which every Christian is bound to be ready to give of his hope to every one that asketh him in meekness and feare they strait call out to have them Punisht as the Iews neither did Act. 13. nor do at this day which said Ministers being in propriis Talpae in alien is linces are more sharp-fighted towards the good behaviour of one Qua. quietly questioning with them or saying any thing to them soberly that is of God then the misdemeanour and tumultuousness of twenty of their own unquiet Spirits stirred up by the Devill to call us Râ—gues-Faces Quaking Doggs to break Windows and bring in Dâ—ggs to fight and such like beastly and Bear-like behaviour in our solemn Assemblies till they are wearied with their own Pains towards us and our Patience towards them under it as well while we are speaking as we are moved of the Lord in our own allowed meetings as in theirs witness their leading a Bear through the place where the Qua. were Preaching publickly at Hith and also the rudeness of some of those that are under thy own Tuition T.D. at Sandwich and belonging to the Flock thou there feedest or rather feedest on who when G. F. E. B. my self and many others were publickly met in quiet in a place of our friends procuring shrew Stones and Gunpowder squibs that fired among us not so as to move us to cry out to the Rulers of Disturbance yet so as to give good occasion to the Lord to permit though ye forget it a sad fire to fall out within the Town no longer after then the next morning Thus ye men of Sin make men of God offenders for a word and hate them as of old they did that reprove sin within the Gate so that when any such stirrs arise upon occasion of the Gospels preaching as did in the Prophets and Apostles days which the Lords Messengers now are no more accessary to as causes then they then were it s still laid to the doore and put on the score of Truth and the Tellers of it which because none else will own it must hear it till against the foul mouth'd Beast the Lambs innocency be cleared as the light which till then may truly say of all mischief that falls out where he utters his voyce Cum nemini obtrudi potest itur ad me The Lambs cauâ—e is better then the Wolfs when charg'd by him for troubling the water with only drinking at the Fountain but the Wolfs Teeth are sharper then his and therefore the Innocent must be devoured And whereas to such like tales as thou hast told as abovesaid thou prefixest the conclusion thou inferrest in these words viz. T. D. What affronts these wretches offer to the Worship of God is notoriously known Rep. I â—ay your Parish Worship is not so truly the Worship of God as 't is true that ye so call it but that of the Qua. who Worship him in Spirit and Truth in the inner parts which ye are out of which those poor Wretches your Parish people are by your lyes instigated to offer such abominable affronts to as Beaâ—ings Buffetings of men in and draggings of them oâ— their own meetings as are notoriously known all the Land over is the true Worship of God indeed which except ye repent in time O ye Priests and Parish-people and own the truth 't were better for you and them that ye had never been born then offer such affronts to as ye do but full well may ye offer affronts to our Worship when ye stick not to do the like to your own Rule of all worship even to that ye call the Word of God for if the Scripture which is a true writing of it were as truly the Word of God as ye say it is ye bawlk not as occasion is to do despite to that witness the ungodly guise of those Giddy Heads about Westminster who when by G. F. holding out the Bible to them they were askt in the mid'st of their mad hurlings of Mud and Kennell dirt as they mostly do upon the Qua. in their meeting there to this purpoâ—e whether they would do such despite unto the Scripture which they say is their Rule and the Word of God ceased not to be dirt that their Word of God any more then they did from dirting him who held it out to thorn T.D. Another of thy Remarkable passages in the first Narrative is of one of
the Scripture which only Testifies of him without ever coming to him that they may have the life or to the Pope I leave it A little time will now detect it howbeit some may go one way some another and like to like and each to what and to whom he best loves and likes but Christs Sheep to whom he onely gives Eternal Life they will assuredly heare his voice which who doeth not must be cut off from among his people 9 Our Doctrine of the Vniversal grace and general love of God to all mankind in giving Christ Intentionally to be a Saviour to all that all that are lost in the fall of the first man may be in possibility and true capability of Redemption and Salvation by him without a bolt by any personal Reprobation of the most therefrom with no reference to their acting any evill and that unchangeably before they had a being unless themselves pâ—nendo obicem debarr themselves from the benefit thereof by Rejecting the council of God against themselves by an obstinate resisting the strivings of his Spirit with them to bring them to it and a wilful putting away of the word of eternal life when by Christ its brought nigh even in their hearts and mouths that they may hear and do it this is no fair In-let to their Bag and Baggage This perhaps is assented to as truth by the Papists the more shame for the most of our hypocritical Churles that gainsay it who would be but must be no more called liberal and bountiful while they are bold to utter errour against the Lords large love as if he were such a niggard as themselves who care not how few men be saved provided that their ever-sinning-selves be not damned but elected to be saved in their sins without being perfectly purg'd from them before they die by Christ of whom they must yet once know what yet they will not that he came to save all people from all sin who aâ—e willing to be saved and not to give any such darlings of his as they darkly deem themselves to be an allowance in the least or a dispensation to sin throw infirmity till they die and then to save them from the desert thereof after death the Instruments of which vile Chuâ—lâ— aâ—so are evil to destroy the poor people of God with their lying words when they speak no other then right things But what if the Romish Clergy do hold such a general grace of God they are by so much the more of a noble spirit then your selves who deny it in the owning of that most pretious truth if they were not far worse then yourselves in other mattters And as for us called Qua. who preach it here for Truth as against I. O. and T. D. it must anon be prov'd to be in the proper place as we take neither it nor ought else to be truth by tradition from Papists or eâ—e the more because they own it but as our selves have received it from the muoth of God so I hope you wise men will grow wiser by then I have done then to judg we must either reject truth it self if their Church once hold it or else be judged to be of them while we hold it with them and as in holding it out freely as we do other Truths we neither fill nor feed as you do your own by holding In the Truth their as Hypocritical as Hydropical Bag so it being no worse then that Golden Gospel Truth which ye Divines darken so much by your dirty distinctions and meer guilded glosses could we make such â—a fair In-let for it that it might shine forth in its brightness as it once will do from one end of England to another we should in so doing usher in no part of their Baggage But indeed your selves in standing against it have not only stor'd your Bag more then is fit for men to do that make a Trade of treading down the Truth But have brought in a piece of Babylonish Baggage of your own as bad if not worse then all the Popes for its all one to me what outward Religion men be of true or false Papism or Protestanism or whether they have any at all among them yea or nay if it be so as our personal Electionists absit blasphemia breath it forth verbatim or at least doctrinally and in effect that the mercy of the Almighty which is said to abound to and over all and extend beyond all his other works and his infinite large and incomprehensible love to all men is yet no larger then may be comprehended in that little corner whereinto they croud it so as to say that one of a thousand only are decreed to be saved and a thousand to one of the Sons and Daughters of men without respect to any evil foreseen in their proper persons to be acted in time are from all eternity decreed by God himself and that unchangeably and everlastingly to be damned For then that one of a thousand shall assuredly be saved and a thousand to one as inalterably perish and die eternally and this or that outward Religion is no remedy against that which was so ordered long before the poor Creatures had any being And as one said once unto me for whom t will be better then he deserves if our God take him not at his word viz he would not own that God that would own a Qua. to be one of his Children so say I but not so desprately as he did the other I know and own no other God but him who will own all to be his Children who will unfainedly own him to be their Father and save all them that are truly willing in his way to be saved from their sins by him who never yet declared himself willing to save any in them who sent his Son a light in the world not to condemn it but to that intent that the world which loving darknesse rather then light will needs be damned through his Light notwithstanding might be saved and will shew mercy upon all them who will have pitty upon themselves so far as not to despise the riches of his grace and reject his unfained tenders and honest offers thereof when they are made neither do I own him to be my God for my God is a God of mercy and truth to all who without any respect to their personal rejectings thereof in time wills never to have mercy upon thâ— most who would have any to perish and not have all to come to Repentance who would not truly have all as well as some to be Saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth who hath any pleasure at all that the very wicked much more that the innocent should die that delighteth in the death of him that dieth and had not really rather that he should turn from his wickednesse and live that means any otherwise then he sayes or is quite contrary to what he seems to be in his speeches to either good or bad
hollow holes and cavernes throw the several Sections or lesser Rivelets thereof as throw so many dark Cells till driving downward still throw that least and last Head-lesse and Tail-lesse piece of Envy against the inner Light they issue out into the outer darknesse and at last all empty themselves headlong into the bottomlesse pit from whence those Exercitations for the most part were at first exerted and so downward still into the most dismal Lake of all even the Lake of fire that burns with brimstone which is the second death where the strong Warriour who is as â—oe and his work which is as a spark and every Lyar and his Lyes must lye and burn both together for ever and not be quenched And as for thy boasting thy self and glorying over the Quakers as learned no farther then their meer Mother tongue and such as understand not so much as the Latine tongue wherein thou cowardly enough encounterest them nor know how to speak sound sense to your understandings in their seeming bâ—bble to each other and to all others Alas poor man this is no newes to the Quakers to see Sanballats and Tobias's High Priests Scribes and Pharisees Doctors and reverend Rabbies superstitious Athenians University Philosophers Epicureans and Stoicks who worship an unknown God A generation of Arteficial Fools and Scholastick ignorant Ones that of old encountered Paul a better Schollar in Christs School a wiser builder then themselves Acts 17. count Gods Prophets Christ and his Apostles bringers of strange Matters and New Doctrines to their Ears medlers beyond their line measure Rule and Call doers and speakers of bald businesses no newes to hear the Opposers of Truth in their Science falsly so called say of the Quakers What will these feeble folk do Will they fortifie themselves Will they Sacrifice Will they make an end in a day Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the Rubbish that are burnt That which they build if a Fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall Neh. 4.2 3. Oh thou Seer that confessest thou wast neither bred nor born a Prophet but an Herdsman com'st thou to Prophesie at Bethel at the Kings Chappel away hence to thy own Countrey eat Bread and Prophesie there if thou wilt Prophesie but come not here dropping thy word thou art not a fit man to minister here the Land will not bear thy words Amos 7. Whence hath this man these things he pretends too this boldness to teach us having never learn't at our Schooles being never brought up at our Nurseries of Learning and Religion and such like But miserably wretched and deluded men that ye are ye little consider though the old Priests and Scribes as bad as they were took knowledge of such a thing in Peter and Iohn Acts 4. that as outwardly unlearned and ignorant men as the Quakers seem to you to be yet they have been with Iesus from whom they have learned that by looking to him in his own Light which all your meer sublunary literature can never lead you into the knowledge of even that hidden Wisdom of God in a Mystery which the Princes of this world are not acquainted with that Crosse of Christ the Wisdom Power Righteousnesse Image and Glory of God which is foolishnesse to them that pâ—rish Ye glory in your Fencer-like Faculties of Disputing in Form and Mood and Figure over the Quakers as a sort of Rusticks and Russet-Coats disorderly Disputers unruly and vain Talkers because they are not Regulated as your own blinded People are in all things implicitly by the Rules and wordly Rudiments of you Renowned Rabbies but ye forget that the Lord hath rejected the Scribe and Disputer of this World and will confound and make foolish and bring to nought all his strong and wise and mighty Matters that Are by the weak foolish base abject Contemptible things that Are not and by stammerring lips and another Tongue then they wot of and by Precept upon Precept line upon line here a little and there a little make the Drunkard of Ephraim stagger and stumble and go backward and fall and be broken and snared and taken and weary these vain wise wild-Asses out of their Academical Niceties and Punctilio's out of their Accute Astutenesse and Astute Accutenesse out of their witty Wiles and wicked wrestlings against the Truth by a foolish Nation that are even as no People in their eyes Ye tell the World that these People know not the Law and are accursed as your Fore-fathers did saying Do you see any of the Rulers of the Pharisees believe as they do they are un'earned and unstable a giddy headed People that wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction But ye heed not how Christ tells the Scribes that were as well skilled in searching into the Scripture as your selves that they Erred and knew not the Scriptures nor the power of God and how even ignorant and unlearned Peter himself as to that Science of yours falsely so called or Wisdome of the flesh which is ever enmity against God and is never subject to his Law nor can be speaks of another kind of un'earn'd and unstable Ones then those ye count so who are a thousand fold more spiritually discerning then your selves that being out of the Light and spirit in which Paul and holy men gave them forth wrest both Pauls Epistles that are hard to be understood by the learned'st of our Letter-lauders and also other Scriptures to their own ruine The Quakers Preach Christ his Light and Crosse the Power of God the Wisdom of God to the Iew outwardly a stumbling Block and foolishnesse to the Greek the Quakers know not the Originals say they How can they Expound and Open Scriptures They know not the language we here use quoth I.O. whose Lyes are most in Latine against the Quakers who busies himself about the back-side of the Book and tangles and turmoyls himself in tedious Tattle about the External Text about the integrity of the Hebrew the Greek But ye say I know not what is talked of in that Text it self ye so much talk of when it tells of a time wherein the Eyes of all Israel as of one man shall be toward the Lord who will bend Judah for himself and fill the Bow with Ephraim and raise up the sons of Sion against the sons of Greece and make them as the sword of a Mighty man in his hand Yea who so blind about the Scripture it self as well as about the things therein written as the great Scripture searching Scribes and Scholastick Scriblers thereupon who come not at all to Christ himself whom the Scriptures testifie of that they might have Light and Life who never at any time hear either his or the Fathers voice or see his shape so far are they from coming forth into his likenesse or Image which in their own imaginations these Spiritual men of God so called pretend to appear in more then any others Now as to
the Apostles Doors which they will not Father and you shew what you are in Abbetting their Wickednesse Reply 1. What a wicked and Adulterous Generation of men is this like that in which Christ lived who would have something to say against the Gospel and the Truth let it come handed to them which way soever they would neither lament at Christs mourning to them in Iohns Ministry nor Dance at his Piping to them in his own but reject and belye him when he came contrarily to them in Iohns Fastings and condescendingly to them in his own Eatings and Drinkings as either having a Devil or being a Drunkard or a Gluttòn or a Friend of Gods Enemies and Sinners or somewhat or other still that was nought rather then own the Truth at any hand that in both Ministryes was held out unto them So is the Ear of our now Pharifaical generation of Scribes stop'd like that of the deaf Adder at the Voice of the Charmer let him Charm never so wisely among whom T.D. is a Chieftain who Ranks us among the Popish party as spitting out our venome that we are big with against it Page 28. 1 Pamph. and as denyers of the Scripture together with them because we deny many false things that many such Ministers as himself do most absurdly affirm of it and yet Charges us as Brotherly owners and Abbetors of the Papists wickednesse also for owning the holy Scripture in many parts of it wherein our English Ministers do not blush to deny it and so consequently for owning it much more truly and fully then themselves Thus Heu stirpem invisam Hei mihi quod nâ—llis amor est Reparabilis Herbis If we should as they falsly Accuse us own the Scriptures lesse then our Accusers do we must be Papists if we own them more and more of them then themselves do we must be no lesse then Papists We must stand doom'd as Papists who be we nere so wary Are Papists deem'd in this and in the clean contrary But that I am not so Popishly affected as I am as well every way as every where misrepresented to be by those who to sit the more securely in their own Popishnesse do in the Apishnesse of their Spirits sound it out with a dreadful noise to the stunning of their already Pope-serving people Popery Popery against all that come neer to Storm them out of their Popified Parish postures practises and preferments to what I have said sufficiently above I shall now adde what followes in evidence thereof whether you will hear O all ye my unjust Accusers in that particular or whether ye will forbear to the perfect ending of my Protestation which I have begun to enter against that Synagogue of Rome viz. First That whatever they may own of what I have above or shall yet say I own not them as Apostolical nor as any other then that Apostatical Harlot which together with her two Brats that more lately are broken out from her bowels viz. Prelacy and Presbytery hath in Three parts as the great City is said to do before its fall Rev. 16.19 sate like a certain unity in Trinity and Trinity in unity or one great Tripartite Mystical Babylonish Whore with her Tripple Crown upon the many waters or Tongues Nations Kindreds and People and reigned over the Kings of the Earth Rev. 17.1.2.15.18 And as to their behaviour toward the Scripture which they wofully mistake themselves to be the only Trustees to whose care and custody it was committed I professe against them with I. O. that they have wofully misdemeaned themselves towards it as by sowly betraying and to their own eternal shame falsifâ—ing that their pretended Trust corrupting depraving vitiaring interpolating adding detracting forging foisting into the Scripture what never was of the spirit so by abusing it every way so that none of the Copies of it as it comes thorow their hands whether Original or Translated and if thou I O. canst shew any that come thorow other hands of which thou canst say infallibly they are not altered and corrupted as in thy Book thou hast not done Dic quibus in terris eris mihi magnus Apollo are fit to be a fixed stable Rule or infallible Guide to us thoroughout in the knowledge of the Will of God And lastly for take it at the worst its worthy of a better carriage towards it then they afford it in a scurrilous scoffing way underva'uing vilifying defying unworthily depressing it far below it self as much as it is over-valued Idolized blindly worshipped deisted and enthroned far above it self by your selves who together with the Popish party like the Frog and the Mouse being very busie in busling against each other with your Bulrushes about the Scripture in your two opposite Imaginations will find a Generation that waits upon the Lord and mounts up with wings as quick-sighted as an Eagle though no better then a blind Buzzard in your eyes who will winne the field from both you stout Warriours which are at it tooth and nail to your own ruine and shall one have no more thank from God then the other whilest for all your zealous pratings pro and con in two different Erroneous extreams concerning the Letter ye are both exceedingly and both extreamly erred from the Light it came from and the Life it calls for the one exalting the bare dry bones and dead body of the Letter above the Word of Life which Letter too is magnified more in an empty sound of windy plausible Commendations of it then by any so much as outward Conformity to it in Conversation the other establishing the dark lumpe of their own lying Legends and dead stinking Carcase of their Traditional Divinations partly derived from faithlesse Forefathers and partly divined forth from the deep pit of their Great Ghostly Fathers fathomlesse Fancy as a Standard in stead of it So that howbeit I.O. the detestable wickednesse of that Antichristian Conclave who as thou sayest sell themselves to work all manner of Abominations against the Scripture I abominate as much as thou canst do yea be not thou so blind as to believe that I abet them in any of their beastlinesse of that nature yet withal do not thou believe that that while I abandon their brutishnesse I can own thee in thy blindnesse and the many absolute Absurdities whereby thou grossely abusest it and the truth and thy self well-nigh as much another way who perhaps thinkest thou canst not easily if at all be transported into Errour while thou art Extolling the outward Text of Scripture and gain-saying at a venture all that those Debasers of it hold out about it for aâ— the time is coming as thou truly enough Prophesiest unto them wherein it shall repent them for ever that they have lifted up themselves against this sacred Grant of the wisdom care love and goodnesse of God page 4. oâ— thy Epistle So say I to thee the time is at hand wherein it shall repent thee that ever
thou liftedest up thy self as thou dost in so vain a way of lifting up and advancing the Letter over all that which is to be preferred before it and was before it as that it came out from and points men to even the living Word and inward Light and spirit which as held out by the Quakers not in any way of that Devilish disparagement of as thou intimatest Ex. 1. S. 3. or spiteful disrespect to the Scripture thou settest at nought with all the Calumny thou canst likely cast on them yea as thou sayest of the Pope Ex. 2. S. 8. Papae Tempus erit c. So say I to thee Non Papae solum sed tibi tempus erit cum magno optaveris emptam intactam Scripturam And that I am no Iesuite nor sider with them about the Scripture so as to agree with them in upholding their seigned infallible Chaire besides what many can witnesse who have been Eye and Ear witnesses of my opposing them in other Nations I adde this as my Final Defence of my self as to that Aspersion of T. D. He that will give heed to it let him if otherwise let him chuse Non cum Jesu Itis qui Itis cum Jesuitis So then as to Evince it that I am none of those Idiots that Idolize any meer mens Writings as many do the un kilful scriblings of their Scribes for the Scriptures little lesse then Israel did the Golden Calves after which they dotingly ran from God himself saying of these Imuges in their own Imaginations These are thy Gods c. Nor yet any meer Writings of those holy men that wrote the Holy Scripture it self as most of our misty-Ministers and their people do because they were written by Divine Inspiration little lesse then Israel did the Brazen Serpent because it was hung up by Divine Institution I shall First take occasion to thrust down that enthroned Calf of thy Anti-scriptural Triobulary Treatises Theses and Atheological Thoughts upon the Scripture from that high place it hath in the Thoughts of such as fall down before it as Moses threw down that Molten Image which the High Priest made and ignorant people made a God of and stamped it to powder And Secondly As Hezekiah not without Gods own approbation took down the Brazen Serpent which had its being as the Holy Scripture it self had not without Gods own appointment when once men began to do Homage to it and called it no more then Nehushtan that is a piece of Brasse that they might know it was no God So shall I take down the dead Corps and bare Carcase of the best Copy of the Scripture since men begin to go a Whoring after it from God and Christ and the Word of Life it self out of that high and stately Throne wherein thou I. O. statest it and from those surpassing and lofty Titles of the Living Word of God the most glorious spiritual Light in the World above the Sun the most perfect Rule and many more such like with which thou as hereafter appears dost invest and exalt it over all even over the Light it came from which is by thee unjustly put behind it and dehased below it though both in time and worth 't is far before it and stile it by its own true Name of Writings of Truth or Holy Scripture that so men that seek to it more then to God himself for Salvation and search it and therein think to have eternal Life at the old Scribes did that never came to Christ the Light above whom they prefered it may recollect themselves and see that the Letter gives not the Life but doth only testifie outwardly of another whom being lost from him by looking to the Letter which bids look to him they never look to nor never yet came to that they might have Life So withal to evince it that I am none of those Popish Ignoramus's that deal so ignobly with the holy Scriptures as to set them at nought and pluck them down as they do not only below themselves which have as Real and Great an Excellency as any such thing as is no more then an External Writing of an External Truth can possibly have but also below that which is worse then naught viz. their leaden Legend of Lyes their trashy Traditions their mouldy Massora their invented Oral Law their vain verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that meer imagined Moon calf the unerring breast of their most erroneous holy Father and such like I shall in this Work before all the world prefer the bare body and letter of the Scripture which is legible to mens bodily Eyes far before that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as thou truly callest it for all their Abominations before that whole Body of Fools bawbles that bottomlesse pit of Paultrinesse that boundlesse bundle of Baby clouts that endlesse Ocean of Omnigatherums that dirty puddle and deep dunghil of Devility rather then Divinity which the more it s dived and raked into the more rotten it renders it self like some for did sink that stinkes the more the more 't is stirred in for such is the Traditionary Treasury of that saltlesse unsavoury Sea upon which therefore the plagues of the Vials which must be filled upon you also are fallen falling and to fall which Sea of Rome is as the blood of a dead man lifelesse putrid and corrupt so that every living Soul dies that lives therein Yea Consider the naked literal Aspect of the holy Scriptures nor in its highest not in its primitive best and purest as at first given forth but in its meer derivative in its lowest meanest and most altered and adulterated capacity wherein it stands at this day wrested and torn and like a Nose of Wax twisted and twined into more then twice if not ten or twenty times twenty several shapes by mens untrue and tottered Transcripts and Translations for Oh that vast variety of Lections besides the Infinity of Senses throw mens misrenderings corrupt copyings correctings of and commentings on it c. that the World is now loaded with and led out into yet as meer a graven Image as that is with Ink and Pen on Paper or skin of parchment for 't is so though I reject their jeers as improper and impious by whom it is scoffed at as Chartacea Membranae c. for 't is not so and as dead a Letter as it is bear with me in that Expression I. O. till I come to shew where thou so callest it as well as Papists and Quakers whom thou quarrellest with for so calling it and as very a Nose of Wax and Lesbian Rule and no certain stable standard as it is for I know not why what they wickedly because Tauntingly we may not honestly sith truly seriously and soberly so call which may so easily so endlesly be altered by the wills of men as they self I.O. shewest us in the 20 21 22 23 24. pages of they Preface the Scripture may and made to stand which way
any Critick pleases and as no Authority to us at all as they in their basenesse and hatred of it which I condemne do say it is of as 't is my continual exercise in works to do it so do I here in plain words exalt the Scripture which they so debase and state it over all that their Trash and aforesaid Trumpery even on the very top of all their long Train of Traditions and over the archest Tittle of the Tripple Crown the proudest pinacle of Peters now un Peter-like painted Temple the highest point of that pompous pious piteous Pillar and ground of Truth the choicest Chapiter of that holy Church and infallibly erring infallible Chair Thus doing I shall be own'd at last if not by I. O. and such as have his dimme Doings as tâ—ey have his person in admiration because of advantage yet by all unbyassed beholders of both our undertakings for the Scripture to be no more a pander for the Papists as I am more belyed then believed to be the lying Tribe of Levi then for himself but a just plain and impartial Pleader for the Scripture against them both and a doer of Right to those holy Writings which are egregiously wronged by both Papists and Protestants as between Two parties of partial Praters Pro and Con about them by one of which they are scarcely more sottishly and Satanically for Superstitions sake Abhorred then unduly and Superstitiously Adored by the other For howbeit thou deemest thy self and those thy self Reverencing fellow Students of it to whom thou Dedicatest thy Endeavours to Vindicate it to be such as value the Scripture as much as any thou knowest yet there are many whom thou knowest not but supposest to be sleighters and disowners of it who if to own value and exalt it be to ascribe all that to it which it assumes to it self to Preach and practise that holy Life which is the end of it and to give it its due and no more as indeed it is do own value honour and exalt the Holy Scripture much more and much more truly then any of your self-exalting selves who saving your fair Speeches for it and your fawnings on it Ore tenus your common aiëry and meer verbal Commendations thereof and of your selves as valuers thereof do yet in truth no more value or honour it then the Iewes whose grand Idol that is as the whole is yours at this day do their own owned part thereof of whose dotage in that kind I have in sundry Nations been an Eye-witnesse in not a few of their Synagogues who Adorn and carry it about as ye do your Bibles more beautified without then your selves are within and lift it up with loud noises especially when these words are read viz. He shall magnifie the Law and make it honourable when yet the Truth it makes mention of hath no Mansion in their minds to the renewing of them yea I may truly say you do more undervalue the Scripture by your advancing it above it self and over-valuing and worshipping it so much as ye do in your words whilst alienated from the Light it came from and calls to in your Works and Lives then some of the Synagogue of very Rome it self who in lips and lives too do undervalue it by how much Deceit and Hypocrisie is far greater Iniquity then 't is for men openly to disown what Cordially they do not own and to pretend to be no better Friends to it then indeed they are and by how much as all is not Gold that glisters so all that which by its glistring would fain seem to be Gold when it is but Drosse is worse then that which both is Drosse and seems to be so Yea those that undervalue the Scripture so as to set Traditions above it and they that overvalue it so as to set the Light below it both these must come under Condemnation from me as being both Abomination to the Lord before whom witness the Brazen Serpent and Christs Apostles Acts 14.11 to 19. whom the people did worse in Worshipping as Gods then if they had not heeded but hated them as of the Devil it may be worse to overvalue then to undervalue many things which may be of his own Appointment So that ye have little need to decry against Papists as Decryers of the Scriptures and lesse to link us the Quakers and Papists together as Adversaries in Common to the Scriptures as if your selves were the only Patrones thereof for as Anti-Papistical as ye seem to be about the Scriptures yet ye will be found Acting not more against them then though in a different way from the Papists against the Scriptures And howbeit thou taylest us and the Papists together figuring us out by thy fine Tale of the aforesaid Foxes as falling from and fighting against each other and yet both fellow-friends against the Scripture That is false as urged and uttered with that referrence to the Papists and Quakers as joynt Injurers of the Scriptures wherewith thou ridiculously Relatest it but true enough yea too too true If Related in that right Referrence which it bears toward the Papists and your Selves yea Quid Rides be not so merry I. O. about the Mouth for De te mutato nomine Quakers Fabula narratur thou thinkest thou hast shrewdly hurt thy meer fancied Fanatick Foes with a flap of a Fox-Tayle but in that Tale thou hast but made a Rod for thy own Tayle for verily he that hath but half an Eye and by thy mentioning thereof is minded to search where and to whom thy Simile best suits will find how causelesly and incongrously thou crowdest the Papists and Quakers so closely together as Companions in thy abusive Comparison and how aptly it may rather be Applyed to that Romish Synagogue and your Selves to whom it comes as nigh as four feet if any Simile can truly be said to run on all four can well carry it and who as much as ye dissent not only in diverse other matters but also about the Scripture it self the one for and the other against the perfection purity integrity authority and excellency of the meer Text and bare Letter of it do yet concur as closely and come as nigh to one another in denyal of the Truth and Doctrine thereof as four pence comes to a Groat Yea the Truth is your selves and they are far more fitly figured by those fiery-Tayld Foxes which tended two several wayes yet ended in one and the self same work of Destroying the Philistims Corn whil'st turning tayl to tayl and drawing into your two different Extreames one sort crying up Unwritten Traditions to be the most perfect Rule above the Scripture the other crying up the Outward Letter as the most perfect Rule above the Internal Light Word and Spirit which gave it forth ye not only fill the World as with so many Fire brands with your fiery Contentions so that like that Corn which failed when it felt the fire it fell together by the
had never done so before till then Did not God speak in his Prophets and by them to the men of their several Ages from Moses upwards as well as from Moses downwards Did he not speak in Enooh the seventh from Adam in Noah in Abraham Isaac Iacob Lot and Iob who lived before Moses if Catholick Tradition be to be Credited in one thing as well as another and whose Book who ever Pen'd it whether himself or some other for ought thou knowest was written before Mosâ—s who thou thinkest wrote the first of the Scripture either lived or wrote and by them who were upright righteous just and walked with God to the wicked unrighteous Worldlings and wantons who walked with the Devil in their Generations who all were before Moses as well as by Moses and those that lived after him 2. Why sayest thou downwards to the Consignation and Bounding of the Canon in Ezra's days as if between his dayes and the dayes of Christs flesh the Spirit of the Lord was straitned as it never is Mic. 2. and God had limitted and bound up himself from manifesting his mind cut of his own mouth to any men at all for so many Hundred years together because some Prophets had been moved by him to commit to Writing or at least to permit to be Written by others some few of those things they saw and said concerning partly their own and partly the after times and other Nations Doth not Wisdom say of her self That in all Ages entering into holy Souls she maketh them friends of God and Prophets Wisd. 7.27 And were there no Holy men of God in those dayes wherein ye imagine all Gods speaking in and by any Prophets then was ceased in and by whom he manifested his Mind as he moved them to speak and write as immediately as he had done others before them And who told thee That the Canon as thou call'st it or full standing Rule of Tryal or infallible Touch-stone of the Old Testament Scripture to which nothing must or might be added after it till the time of Christ in the flesh was Compleated and after its Consignation and Bounding by them delivered to the Judaical Church in the dayes of Ezra alias Esdras and his Companions the men as of your own heads ye are pleased to term them of the great Congregation Whence hast thou these fancies of thine Or suppose they be not simply Suppositions but real Truths whence dost thou fetch or take them to be so but from the untrusty-Traditional-Tales of thy Forefathers and such Iewes as are little lesse then unerring Oracles with thee when saying ought that suits with thee yea thou callest pag. 203. the Assertion of Iustin Martyr of the Iewes corrupting the Bible out of their hatred to Christians An Incredible Figment yet little better but much worse then ordinary Infidels men feeding themselvns with vain fables desperate cursed Opposers of Truth mischievous in their devices against the Gospel of a profound Ignorance in all manner of Learning and Knowledge but only what concerns their own Dunghil Traditions addicted to monstrous Figments bewitching bewitched with Traditions Idolaters Magicians blind crafty raging fools sets full of deceitfulness froth venome smoke nothing but faithlesnesse and infidelity it self what not that 's nought where any thing issues from their most Catholick Testimony that makes against thee Pag 241.242.244.303 Yea whence knowest thou who art easily apt to Question when it serves thee so to do whether there ever were such men as the 70. and such men as the Tiberian Massorites in Rerum Natura pag. 243.336 that ever there was such a thing in Rerum Naturâ as that Great Congregation thou art every where in thy Book so greatly taken with and ever and anon betaking thy self to for Refuge but only from thy putting more confidence in thy own uncertain Conjectures together with the Catholick Tradition of the with thee creditlesse Iewes and Christians then in the Conjectures of the Prolegomenâ as Learned as thy self at least who oppose thee in it For there 's not so much as any Scripture at all that mentions such a set Sanydrim of Ezra Nehemia Ioshua Zacharia Haggai c. as thou settest it down in the Book of thy own Brain and the Counting-house of thy own conceit that there was pag. 302.303 And let it be as it can be no more then imagined there was such a great Congregation which it being as not possible to know it so nor here nor there to mine or any mans Salvation I 'le not search into so far as to put my self into any Capacity of either saying or gain saying it that there was and to ground any as I. O. does many things upon its being so as he but thinks is as he sayes in another case pag 293. to build Towns and Castles of Imaginations which may be as easily cast down as they are erected yet when all 's done whence had that Sanydrim such Authority as to confine and bound out that Canon and Canonize some of the Writings of such Prophets as ye wot are Canonical and Cashiere the rest of the Writings of the same Prophets and all the Writings of some other Prophets as of no such divine Authority as to Command with their fellows in Gods Name as his Word and to abrogate them as Apocryphal as ye speak and disband them from the bench of Iudicature and to bind the sweet Influences of the holy Spirit so as to say O Spirit of God be silent now blow no more nor make any more Prophets now for these many hundred years to come but become subject thy self to be tryed by the Touchstone of the Writings of such Prophets as thou hast already moved to write Gods Mind or so many at least as it seems good to us now to Authorize and Establish into a standard for the Tryal of thy self as well as all false Spirits And if I. O. say as he does pag. 303. That was not called the Great Congregation from its Number but Eminency of Persons yet I say are any Persons so Eminent if I.O. be not a Lyar pag. 35. as to have Authority from God to Authorize and Canonize casting aside what they like not what seems good to them into the Name to bespeak I. O in his own feigned phrase of the Word of God that they themselves must be subject to the Authority of and of the Rule that themselves must be Ruled by and of the Foundation that themselves and all others must be built on and of the Basis of their own belief It is indeed quoth I.O. pag 35.36 a Contradiction for men to say and if for other men then for I.O. say I who sayes the same yet sees it not They give Authority to the Scriptures they Bound the Canon and deliver to the Church what it shall be which it hath antecedently to their Charter and Concession And again Moreover to say the same of his supposed Sanydrim that I O sayes to the digrading
the Supream Iudge to which all should Appeal in all Cases and in whose Sentence all should rest and all Faith be finally Resolved and not coming in at the Compleating Consignation Bounding and Final Closing of the Canon should for ever Iure Ant-Ecclesiastico or Apostatico and in foro hominum forfeit that Originally Equal Title which in foro Dei Iure Christico and Apostolico they else had to be Canonized with their fellows Ah poor men It pities me to see how ye Dream together in the dark and mope up and down in your own misty Imaginations about your Original Texts and external Letter leaving the Original Truth it self which was before your Texts were ever talk'd on or had a being in the World turning your backs on that internal Light in the heart which all the Tendency of of your Letter is to turn men to and from which your Scripture Originally had its being It irks me to see how for want of betaking your selves to the measure of the Light that shines in your own Consciences that infallibly would lead you to that which is the end of all Scriptures and words spoken or written as from God viz. honesty and righteousnesse truth and acceptation with God and Holy men ye trace to and fro till ye tire your selves in the perplexing Cris-Cros Track and endlesse Round of your own meer Thoughts about a thing which the more ye try the more ye Tangle your selves about it and the more ye look after it and in it in the way ye look into your beloved Letter the more ye loose your selves in it and about it till at last you will eternally loose both it and your selves too by not looking to the Light at all even no lesse then altogether See Epist. Ded Pag. 30. I. O's Preaching on that Subject the Scripture and his publishing of it is said by him to be but his Thoughts so pag. 146 147. what he delivers about the Prolegomena and Appendix to the Biblia Polyglotta was but what his own Thoughts had suggested unto him sutable to other learned mens Apprehensions So Pag. 149. He runs the Hazard of giving his Thoughts on them Pag. 151. He discover his Thoughts on the things proposed by them So Pag. 163. What he gives out concerning the Purity of the present Copies of the Originals of the Scriptures he so Scribles for is but an account of his Apprehensions So Pag. 225. He purposes to manifest his Thoughts on the Epistle to the Hebrews So Pag. 278. He desired Dr. Ward to give his Thoughts on the difference of Apert Sounds and Vowels which he did accordingly And Pag. 177. He sayes when he shall Communicate his Thoughts to the World about an Vniversal Character it will doubtlesse yield much if not Vniversal Satisfaction unto learned and prudent men O ye Wise and Prudent Vain Thinkers and Senslesse Surmisers that sit down Universally Satisfied in the shadow of your own and one anothers shallow Thoughts When will you come to busie your selves about that which is infallibly clear and certain and let your deep infinite Disputings about dark and doubtful matters of small moment to you too altogether alone When will you wash your Hearts from that Dunghil of meer deemings and divinity Dreamings with the untempered Morter of which ye are all to be-dawbed so that one can discern little or nothing that savours of more then dubiousuesse and disputablenesse it self descending or flowing from your Well-heads and Fountains of Forgery and Fabulosity little or none from the Breasts of your Nursing Mothers of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plain purely reasonable sincere Milk of the Word whereby the growth is into the Life of God but such as is mangled and mingled with the Mire and Mudde of your putrid and puddlely Opinions and Opinations Will you never cease from Teaching for Doctrines your own Conceptions Apprehensions and Conjectural Conclusions of things for Truth taken from no surer Topick place then that self same that ye Condemn in Papists viz. the Traditions of men Will you never give over filling and feeding the vain World for filthy Lucre with such perishing Food as the thin froth and Foam of your own Fancies instead of the Bread that comes down from Heaven and that Meat which endures to Eternal Life Oh thou European Athens or Academical Minx thou manifold Mother with thy Children for whom t is as easie for the Blackmore to change his Skin and the Leopard his Spots as for thee who hast been accustomed to Apostarize from the Councel of God and erre from the Mind of Christ to with-hold thy foot from wandring after thy own Images and Imaginations wilt thou not be made clean When shall it once be How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Now as to the Four wayes by way of Query above propounded which of them all I.O. means to Answer by who talks so much about the Closure Compleating Consignation and Bounding of the Standard and Scripture Canon ◠I cant well say But as for T.D. with whom I have somewhat to do and to deal alittle here he Replyes Affirmitively to the Third among them saying Pag. 26 of the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians mentioned in that First of Ours and so consequently of all the several Scriptures that are not bound up in your Bibles which I asserted to be as much a Rule as those ye have that they were not intended as much for your Rule as those in your Books To whom when I Replyed at the Dispute with him as he there Relates Thus viz. If that Epistle was wriiten to the same end with those we have as it was viz. to Instruct the Corinthians how to carry themselves to grosse Sinners I Cor. 5.9 compared with vers II. I wrote unto you not to Company and now I have written unto you not to keep Company And the same was said of his First to the Ephesians i.e. that it was to the self same End as that we have Ephes. 3.3 As I wrote before that ye may understand my Knowledge in the Mistery of Christ so now then 't was intended as much for a Rule as the other But it was Written to the same End Ergo If one a Rule then the other T.D. Denies the Consequence Saying Sermons private Religious Discourses have the same common End with the written Scriptures yet the Later only are our standing Rule the former our Rule but so far as they agree with the Later in the Scripture Reply Which Reply of T. D's is so unreasonably ridiculcus that he is scarce Animal Rationale Risibile that receives and entertains it seriously as the Truth For First it supposes as if Pauls First writing to the Corinthians were not Written Scriptures as well as the Rest we have but an Orall Discourse Secondly It supposes Pau's First Epistle of all to that Church which was cited by himself in his Second as written to the same End and was written in the same Spirit
purpose howbeit sometimes again I O tells us truly enough that what ever means God appoints to any end it is sufficient thereunto and thereupon not imperfect but perfect and so fearing belike to loose his Word and Doctrine and not knowing any other way all others failing save that of Pen and Inke in his Providence betook himself to that way of Writing which Providence also saw it self concerned to this day to preserve entire Copies to a Tittle of all that Writing much of which yet is lost both to reduce men to a Consideration of it self in that one particular and also that his Word not a jot of which I confesse can ever fail though all Writing in the World come to perish might be secured for ever from perishing and altering by that most alterable and perishing way of Writing which if it should happen to be all lost he had no way to save his Word Doctrine and sacred Truth from dying irrecoverably by a very dreadful and mortal Distemper pag. 314. So seems I.O. summarily to say out of the sacred Secret of Gods Councel which was never with any save such as fear him more then I. O. does whose Position of it Credat Apella So Pag. 14. God by his Providence preserving the whole Text entire suffers lesser variety to fall out in or among the Copies we have for the quickning and exercising our diligence in our search into his Word Reply O nescio quo horrendo percusse Sentomate Whence came this whiffe and whimzy within the Circumference of thy Figmentitious Fancy Who told thee this Toy which thou preachest out for positive Truth Dost thou teach this for a true Doctrine of Christ if so from what Text Or wilt thou own it to be but a meer Tale of thy own a Tradition of I.O. which it thou wilt then own it that in vain thou worshippest God while thou art Teaching for Doctrine thy own Thoughts and the Traditions of thy self or any other men Thou talkest sometime at such a rate as if thou wouldst make all the World believe the variety of our Copies were absolutely none at all no not in the leaft not in one Apex Tittle Iota not in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which how contradictory it is to or consistent with that lesser variety here talk'd on who is so silly save I. O. whos 's own silliness and self Confoundings are never seen by himself as not to see But to let passe that ordinary matter of self-contradiction sifh it s as Common with thee almost as to Talk at all and to take it as it falls Is this the end why God who as thou sayest who knowest not whether thou hast the half or no of what was by Inspiration written preserved the whole entire suffered that variety that is in your Copies to quicken your diligence in your Search into his Word If that be the end as indeed it may well enough be of the total losse of so much of the Letter as there is and non-Integrity nor Indentity of your Transcript Texts that remain that ye should diligently search into his Word it were happy for you that there 's so much variety and uncertainty as there is in your Copies and nere the worse had you none of them at all so ye would betake your selves to the Hearing of the Word of God and the receiving it more immediately and purely from his mouth which the Letter of it tells you is nigh in your own hearts and mouths â—o that ye need not go any where ad extra for it that ye may both hear and do it But alas poor men by the Word ye mean the Letter still the External Text or Writing of it and then so far is your so diligent searching and poring and striving and scribling one to another as the Scribes of old did Iob. 5. that never heard the Voice and Word of God it self from being any end of God at all in giving it out at first or in deriving that part of the Scripture ye have down to you whether fully the same with or falsified from the first Copies that he loaths and detests your long Tales about its Tittles and your idle Treating away your pretious time in such Trivial talk as this That the whole Word of God and all saving Doctrine and sacred Truth is lost and fails for ever without Relief Remedy or Recovery if every Tittle of the Text without losse or variation be not upheld and preserved Entire to this day which yet is some not to say the sum of that unsound Doctrine the proof of which is driven on by thee I. O. As in pag. 18. 314. and many other Pages is to be seen throwout thy Book as well as by other Doctors and Divines So Pag 34. speaking of the Scriptures uncontroulably manifesting themselve so to be that on pain of eternal Damnation men are to receive them as the Word of God thou sayst that they afford unto us all the divine Evidence of themselves and that 's none at all as I shall shew anon of their being his Word which God is willing to grant us or can be granted us or is any way needful for us Reply Another odd Conceited saying this is as like thy self who urâ—erest thy self Doctor-like still as to thy usurped Authoritativenesse but seldom as to the truth of thy Assertions as if it were spit out of thy mouth Who told thee this Vntruth that thou so uncontrollably utterest here for truth that God is not willing to grant more divine evidence of the Scriptures being what thou falsly sayest they are or where they are indeed and that more neither can or need be granted then what the Scriptures themselves do afford sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of the Scripture of thy own head surely or very likely at least and neither from God nor the Spirit nor the Scriptures no nor the Synods nor the Congregational Churches of England to which thou belongest nor the Doctrinal Catechismes of late Divines for these thy brethren though erring with thee in stiling them the Word tell thee of another not humane onely but Divine Testimony or evidence that may be and is needful to be granted and that God is willing to and doth also grant of the Scriptures being what they call it beside that which thou here so absolutely assertest as the onely one that must or can be afforded viz. the Testimony of the Spirit of God in the heart and not that of the Scripture alone concerning itself or of the holy Spirit speaking without us ad extra onely in the Scripture which is the dream wherein thou drawest aside not onely from the truth but also if it were a truth that the Letter is Gâ—ds Word from the joynt Testimony of thy fellow Testifiers to it for they say the Testimony of the Spirit within us also not 〈◊〉 â—â—stimony without uâ— and onely in the Scripture divinely evidences the Scripture to be what
it from what is suggested to his own Thoughts from Hear-say and other mens Talk to and fro and Tradition and as he Confesses all along â— heap of Vncertainties and Conjectures so that all the tumblings and tossings snapings and snarlings of even the Protestant Divines about their Scriptmre is but about their remote Transcribed I cannot say well neither for most Transcribed Copies too are out of the way since Printing came up but Printed Copies of the Text which are all not more lyable in any thing to be then in many things they are already falsified which since the Primitive Copies are concluded to be gone and the infallible guidance of the Spirit by I. O. T. D. and all Divines excluded out of the World also though they tell us Translations must be Rectified by their Transcriptions yet if they happen to be as an hundred to one they are and none knows in how many in any things crooked or various from the first there 's no means of Rectifying or Reducing their supposed Rule to Conformity to the first literal Rule nor of amending it any otherwise then uncertainly for ever But suppose I say ye had the Primitive Copies could you make more ado in Adoring them then ye Doctors and your People that dote on you do about your various respective Transcripts and more various Translations out of them into sundry Tongues and Languages which Translations yet are all in somethings not more several in their sorts then the Tongues into wch they are translated and divided into as many Senses as the many men that Translated them thereinto which said numerous untrue Translations also are as to the Letter if they look not to the Light within and live not by that all that the poor blindly guided mis-led Priest-befoolled People who ken not Hebrew and Greek many of whom can't read English neither have to trust to whose Faith about the Scripture it self which thou callst pag. 155. the Foundation of that Faith and Obedience God requireth at their hands and whose belief of the Truth or untruth of this or that Translation is as much pin'd upon the Priests sleeve here in England still as it is at Rome it self in this and some other matters for there they Believe as their Church alias Clergy believes and take things on Trust being not suffered if they were able as here though suffered they are not able to try the Truth hereof and by meer Tradition from their illiterate Purblind Priesthood and no otherwise do they here as to their Tratslâ—tions then upon Traâ—iâ—ion â—rusting to the fidelity and to that infalible certaines of their supposed learned leaders the Serâ—â—es then whom no men are more humpered in a heap 〈◊〉 uncertainties about the Scriptures What would ye do more to the very writing that was inscribed with Gods own finger if you had it in way of homage then ye are doing to your respective doted on derived copies Do you not dance about them as Israel about their Calf saying these are thy Gods O England that brought thee out of bondage to thy sin to which yet they committing it they remain servants to this day Iob. 8 and must save thee and lead thee into life and are perfectly sufficient without the light and spirit within the Quakers talk of as that which the letter came from and alone can do it to instruct thee in the knowledge and worship of God and thy obtaining of everlasting Redemption Do you not Canonize and crown them with the Titles of the only Perfect Rule Foundation Light Witnesse Living Word of God the Lydius Lapis Unaltered Unalterable Standard Touchstone immediately come forth from God to us without the least interueniency of Wayes or Mediums obnoxious to fallibility or capable to giue Change to the least â—ota or Syllable Are not these as high Titles as ye could give to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they were here Do you not say and do this and much more to your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the People to no more then their meer Translation Yea do the Iewes say or do more in way of Adoration to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Synagogues then beautifie adore guild lift up in their hands exâ—al them with high Applauses Hugge and Kisse them as ye do when ye Swear upon a Book and such like outward magnifyings and makings honourable of them which is the utmost that I have seen them do in their Synagogues throw many Nations without living that substantial Holy Life the letter calls for And do you do any lesse as to outward Adoration or any more as to inward and real Observation towards your Bibles Yea do ye not all as well the People that have no better then their uncertain yet certainly untrue Translations from you as so many of you of the Clergy as can read the Copies of the Originals for many cannot read the Hebrew Text at all and some the Greek as â—etle as that as necessary as these Tongues were made a while since to the very esse or being of Christs Ministers who have no better â—hen your uncertain Transcriptions cry up your several Transcribed and Translated Copies respectively that best like you and every one hugge his own at least as most insallible however crying down others as corrupted And how beit if any one of them were so as none of them at all are yet all of them can't be right as each one faith that is that he takes toâ— Are ye not all noysing it out as the Iewes at â—eâ—usaâ—em and the Gentiles at Ephesus Jer. 7. Act. 19. of their Respective broken Reeds the Temple and Diana to which they trusted Great is Diana The Temple of the Lord The Word of God The Word of God Inspired The insallible Word oâ— God are these The perfect Living Liâ—e giving Soul saving Word the very Power of Gâ—d unto Salvation Are the Iewes more mad upon their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 theâ— People are upon their untruly Translated and you Divines upon your untruly Transcribed and both on the more Kreanously yet Trans-printed Sculptures Talking and Treating up your Respective Texts into the Throne where Christ the Light and Living Word alone should sit making little lesse of your Copies then some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cornu-Còpia Deo forsan quapiam melius For what are all the Ephesian like Glamours eager Out-cryes loud Noises of the people here for against the Quakers Are they not for the bare Bulk of that Book called the Bible the out-side of which they are at great Care and Cost to Paint and Guild and Bind and Beautifie and Adorn and Adore while the Truth exhibited in the Writing or Text thereof lyes trampled under their feet Saying the Ruâ—e the Foundation the infallible Standard the Word of God of no more then their by the self Conâ—essed in many things corrupted Translations counting the Quakers not fit to live in the Land any otherwise then Out-law'd because they can't
he calls it but also that there are many mistakes in those Books that are out of his own hand writing which is no better then snares and bands a certain piece of contradictory net-work of his own composing to the catching and binding down himself wherein he hangs hampered intangled and tumbled up and down in his own fruitlesse contests fallible perswasions and perplexing self-contradicting conjectures so that there 's scarce a Chapter or so much as a Lection in it fully free from or rather not fully fraught with some or other of his uncertain conceits and certain confusions about the defending of his Assassinated Assertion one while Asserting and striving stiffly to maintain it in the very rigidity universality and utmost strictnesse of it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not the Iot or Tittle of the Original Text is added altered lost mis-transcribed sometimes Assenting to the contrary onely begging that all various Lections of what sort soever one or other without exception may be excepted from the account of various Lections and then Asserting that his Assertion on that condition will stand entire concerning the entirenesse and integrity of his Text to a very Tittle Now then since it is so 〈◊〉 at the outward Letter of the Scripture not only in its Translations which I.O. himself Asserts to be so universally altered and corrupted from the Originals but a little also in its Copies of the Original is by I.Os. own confession both so abundantly altered by the addition of the Points since the first writing and the Variations of so many severall kinds as himself enumerates and at best so easily so infinitly alterable as that at the wills of men exercising their critical faculties about the Text it may by Transposition and Transcription of one Letter for another or supposition and subscription of one Vowel for another be turned divers contrary wayes and subverted in its sense so exceedingly that some one word instancing in that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. p. 24. may as it may be pointed or printed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afford no lesse then eight severall senses as distant from one another as life and death seeing also that there is no relief against all that huge heap of uncertainty that is found among the founders that are continually confounded within themselves about their sickle foundation unlesse they will be perswaded to come to that firm inâ—allible sure foundation and inalterable Rule of all Truth the light word and spirit of God in the heart but their own vain empty groundlesse confused thoughts imaginations conceits fancies fallible perswasions and opinions taken up by Tradition from each others Tomes Treatises Targums and Talmudical twatlings as if there were neither Light nor Spirit nor word of God throughout the whole world whereby any soul saving Truth can possibly come to be known or entertained at any certainty further then the Text-tâ—ining Text-men tell and teach it forth either by their Oralâ— Talkings for Tythe or manifold Translatings of it out of their falsely supposed entirely Transcribed Copies Shall we then think because I O. to the contradiction of himself so thinks and imposes his own thoughts on us as uncontroulable proofs that there is no variation in the Copies we have from the first Manuscripts of the Scripture but that they are come to us without the least interveniency of any such mediums or wayes as are capable of giving change or aâ—teration or obnoxious to fallibility in the least Syllable or Iota p. 10. 153. or that the some varieties that I. O confesses R. Aaron and R. Moses found in their exact consideration of the Bible were small and of no importance to the sense of any word p. 179 especially since with I.O. if a body might take his Tattle for Truth every Letter Tittle Iota there Transcribed was a part of the word yea no lesse then the Word of the great God wherein the eternall concernment of all soules dothâ—lâ—e p 168. 169 Shall we think because I.O. thinks so p. 17. that there is not any colour or pretence nor any tollerable evidence from all the discrepancies in the Copies themselves that are extant that there ever were any other in the least differing from these extant in the world Shall we think because I. O so thinks p. 181. 193. that all that yet appears impairs not in the least the Truth of his Assertion that every Tittle and Letter that was in the Original Copies remaines in the Copies of the Original to this day without any losse or any alteration or passing away of one iot thereof and that with them that rightly ponder things abovesaid there thence ariseth nothing at all to the prejudice of that his so often o're and oâ—re again affirm'd Assertion And if men must deal by instances in this case as he sayes and not by conjectures though himself gives us no instance of any one Copy of which he can say unlesse he had the Autographa by him that it agrees every Accent and Syllable therewith upon any better ground then his own bare conjectures yet if I had not given him instance enough of whole words verses books prophesies c. lost of inspired mens Scriptures doth not I.O. himself give us instanâ—es enough of variety of Lection to the assuring us of the falsenesse of his first Assertion which instances of his own insisting on are obvious to all Readers of his Book and believed by us to be true rather then his idle talk to the contrary of his Texts integrity to a Tittle And is there any reason as he sayes of himself and his adherents Ep. p. 28 that we should be esteemed Ridiculous because believing our own eyes we will not believe the Testimony of I.O. imagining otherwise then the case is according to his own instances dealing by conjectures against his own instances a man deservedly of no credit with us running in ridiculous rounds and asserting that to be Truth which we know from his own Book to be utterly false Shall we think that the literal Text in the very Transcripts he so talkâ— for is any other then he cals it as to its most ancient Translation a corrupt stream a Lesbian â—ule p. 15. 16 or any other then some call it a nose of wax no certain stable 〈◊〉 or standard to try all Truth by guide throughout in the knowledge of the will of God Shall we think because I.O. thinks so strangely that so corruptible and corrupted a stream as the meer Letter now is since vitiated and interpolated can be judged a fit means to judge the fountain by i. e the Light Word and Spirit it came from and a fit measure to correct and authoritatively to examine and determine those Originals by Shall we think because I.O. hath and uttereth such high and hyperbolical thoughts apprehensions and affirmations of
saying by which he had once gain-sayed the former returning to his former again Ex. 1. S. 29. where his Latine words Englisht are in this foolish wise viz. to express the sence they conceived of the mind and will of God the words in those tongues in which by the command and ordination of God the Scripture is written were both conceived and disposed by the holy Spirit and not permitted or left to the wisdom and will or arbitrement of the Writers themselves So of this sound piece of round Doctrine of I.O. this is the sum They that wrote the Scripture did not invent chuse or seeke words nor was it left to their minds understandings will wisdoms c. to express the truth yet to go round again they did use words of will or choice their mind and understanding were used in the choice of words yet to go round again to express the will and mind of God the words were not left to the will and wisdom of the writers Let the Reader chuse which of the two contradictory conclusions of I.O. he will take as true yet as one of them is and both cannot be true so true it is that I.O. runs the rounds and contradicts himself here as he doth in twenty places more of his self-consuting Fardel I. O. Thou addest p. 9 10. That in their writing they were not onely on a general account to utter the truth they were made acquainted with all and to speak the things they had heard and seen which was their common Preaching-work but also the very individual words they had received were to be declared And p. 9. quoting Mat. 10.10 That the Apostles were not the Speakers of what they delivered as other men are the Figment and Imagination of whose hearts are the Fountain of all that they speak but the spirit of the Father in them Rep. How hangs this true passage viz. They were to utter the truth they were acquainted withall and write the things they had heard and seen together by the ears with that false passage p. 5 6. Where thou sayest The Stories Laws Doctrines Instructions Promises Prophesies they gave out were not retained in their memories from what they had heard nor by any means before-hand comprehended by them c. What clouds of witnesses be here to the clearing of the Spirit by which thou writest to be a Spirit of self-contradiction 2. Was not their common Preaching-work and their common Writing-work all one as to the choice of Words wherein they declared Were they at liberty when they preached to ramble into words of their own meere will choice and invention and limited when they wrote so that they might not express themselves in such words as in the will and wisdome of God in which they dwelt and liv'd they saw meet for the matter in hand but just tyed to the individual words brought to them as immediately by inspiration as the matter or Word of God it self they wrote of Who acquainted thee with this whimsical non-sensical notion that they in their work of Preaching disposed and ordered their words as in wisdom they saw them acceptable or serviceable but in their work of Writing they might dispose order chuse and in wisdom seek to find out acceptable words but had every Tittle more immediately put into them then when they spake the Truth by word of mouth Dost not thou thy self say p. 9. Mat. 10.10 That the Apostles were not the Speakers of what they delivered but the Spirit in them Whereby the truer that is tthe more clearely thou contradictest thy self again and intimatest no less then thus much that the Spirit as immediately and distinctly brought to them gave and put into their minds and mouths what words they should use when they were speaking as what words they should use when they were Writing So that what ever was their common Preaching-Work and common Writing-Work in both which it 's true enough that they were assisted specially and in both equally by the holy spirit in the wisdom power evidence and demonstration of which speaking in them and moving them who were obedient to him to an active improvement and exercise of their rational faculties minds understandings wills memories thereunto they both preached and wrote 1 Cor. 2.4 2 Cor. 3.12 and so uttered no other truth then they were mostly made acquainted withall by the spirit within themselves and heard and saw by the light within as well as by hear-say and the Writings of one another from without Yet the common Preaching-work and Writing-work of thy self and thy fellow Ministers not of the Light and Spirit but of the Letter out of which ye surtively fetch filch and steal all your stuff and furniture wherewith ye feed people till they starve I say Your Preaching and Writing is of things that ye are not acquainted with from the Spirit of the Father nor from its manifestings the mind of God within you and moving you to utter them in words of his own immediate suggesting and supplying but a certain uttering forth in your own wills and times of what ye have no otherwise then by hearsay or from the Scriptures of those who spake and wrote as mov'd no more then what they both saw and heard and handled of the Word of Life a certain rude handling what ye never felt your selves nor your own hands ever yet handled of that Word of Life ye read others writing of a heedless holding forth of what ye hear not but onely hear of a talkative treating on what Truth ye do not truly taste of an impudent intruding of your selves into a self-ended shewing of what ye have not seen but as at second-hand ye see it shew'd in the Scripture by such as were in the true sight and substantial being of it vainly puffed up in your fleshly minds in which respect ye are no true Ministers nor true Witnesses for God but false Witnesses even when ye testifie the truth which is not yours as well as when ye tell lyes and teach the untruths which are your own as the old Truth stealers and Word-sellers were who though they said because they found it so said by such as felt it The Lord lives which is the truth yet they spake falsely forasmuch as they witnessed him nor risen and alive but murdered stew kill'd and crucified the holy and just one within themselves and spake not as Christ and his did what they knew Ioh. 3.11 and testified not what they had seen but worshipped and worded it about what they knew not Iohn 4.22 And so as a man can't be counted a Legal witness in foro hominum in a civil Court of Judicature among men that shall testifie of another's theft murder and scandal at second hand that is not as an immediate eye or ear-witnesse of it but on his reading in a Letter or hear-say from such as were so so much less in foro Dei Ecclesiae can any be owned as a true Minister of
Inhabitants of that earthly Jerusalem which is from beneath the fleshly Church of Jews and Christians according to the meer Letter which is in bondage with her children Isa. 8.14 28.16 1 Pet. 2. And that it is Christ Iesus alone and not the Scriptures that is there call'd the Foundation is most evident not onely from the Text it self wherein Jesus Christ himself is instanced in as such for the same that is call'd the Foundation is there also call'd the Corner-stone but also from other Scriptures whereby the truth hereof is yet more illustrated viz. Isa. 28.18 where speaking both in the foregoing and following Verses of the false Foundations short beds narrow coverings and lying refuges that the Drunkards of Ephraim that erred from the simple plain truth thorow the Wine of their own Wisdom and were out of the way and stumbled in Wisdom and Iudgement thorow the strong Drink of their own devised Doctrines so that they could not discern nor learn the Lords Doctrine that was divined to them thorow the stammering lips of such as ministred Precept upon Precept Line upon Line here a little and there a little among them he summons all to fix their Faith on the one onely true and firm Foundation saying Behold I lay in Sion for a Foundation a Stone a tryed Stone a precious Corner-stone a sure Foundation he that believeth shall not make haste Where it 's very observable as it is in Eph. 2.20 That the self-same that is called the Corner-stone is also ca'led the sure Foundation Likewise 1 Cor 11. where it's expresly said That other Foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is JESUS CHRIST Now if no man can lay any other Foundation of the Church which is God's Building then Christ whom the Apostle sayes ver 10. He himself laid as a wise Master-Builder according to the Grace of God given unto him Then all things else besides Christ the Word of God the Light of the World and that measure of Light that shines from him which is not divided from him any more then that of the Sun from it but one with him whatsoever men go about to lay as the Foundation of the Church and her Faith Hope and Obedience are not truly really and properly so but imaginarily supposively fictitiously so and but falsly so called meerly seigned found out and founded onely in the Fancies of foolish blind Babel-builders which Founders and their fictitious Foundations must be confounded For the layers of a false Foundation and such are all they that with I.O. lay the Letter or Traditions with the Papists and Iesuits he justles with or any other then Christ the Light must come to confusion as wel as the meer Formalists their Wood Hey Stubble Trash Imitations empty forms and such like Superstitions and all sorts of Superstructions of the Babilonish Builders upon the true Whereupon as much as J.O. blesses himself in his holding the Foundation and feeds himself with hopes of salvation so long as he is found holding that though he build Hay and Stubble upon it and his Works come to be consumed saying p. 160. It will be well for us if we be found holding the Foundation if we build hay and stubble upon it though our Work perish we shall be saved Yet alas poor deluded man J.O. thou mistakest thy self exceedingly it would be well for thee indeed if thou held'st the Foundation Christ the Head the Light of men thy person might then be saved though thy Work of wood hay stubble will assuredly perish in the fire But thou art far from being found holding that Foundation then which there is no other and found laying another even thy uncertain Transcripts of the Greek and Hebrew Texts and an outward fallible Letter and its Points and Syllables and Tittles and Iota's one jot or tittle of which if it fail thou confessest all thy Faith and Fabrick of Religion falls to the ground confessing also that 't was not impossible for the chiefest Transcribers thereof to mistake in any thing yea that they did fail in their Work so rasing thy false feigned and fallible Foundation to the ground and pulling down thy House with thy own hands like the foolish woman And as for the true Foundation Christ the Light and Spirit which are infallible stable firm fixt sure and certain as every true laid Foundation ought to be and is though thy flexible Letter is not so which is of it self an Argument of its not being the Churches Foundation of Faith and Obedience This true one I say is by thee trampled on and flouted at under the Names of Nescio quod Lumen quem Deum seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deo quopiam melius merae Tenebrae aecitas fines salutares quod attines non sufficiens ad salutem Christus Fanaticorum imaginarius fictitius qualitas nescio quae divina seu anima Mundi omnibus misia quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit i.e. vere nihil Ex. 4. S. 15.17.21 Doctorem infallibilem nihil habens commune cum Scripturis Ex. 3. S. 22. I know not what Light what God or cornucopia better then any God infallible Doctor inconsonant utterly with the Scripture imaginary Christ of the Qua. I know not what Divine Quality or Soul of the World made up of all things that is all things and truly nothing Moreover if none can lay other Foundation then Christ then Paul himself by these words Ephes. 2.20 Ye are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets cannot rationally be concluded as he is both senselesly and reasonlesly conceived by I.O. to intend any other Foundation then Christ himself neither can he be understood by any that have common understanding to intend himself and other Prophets and Apostles or his own and their meer outward Writings for then there are two whereof they must have one Foundation of Faith and Obedience and we another they Christ the Light and we them and their Letter which is an absurdity utterly unbecoming men call'd Christs Ministers to imagine seeing the Foundation quicquid id est of the Church and her faith hope and obedience from the beginning of the world to this day is but one and not many yea as the Faith is one and the Baptism one and the Temple and building one and the Body one and the Spirit one and the Lord and God and Father of all saints is one so the Foundation is but one what ever it is Eph. 4 5 6. Or else secondly if there be but one foundation for us and them to stand upon and that be the Apostles and Prophets themselves or thei Writings then Incidit in Scyllam c. the Apostles and Prophets must be supposed to be built not upon Christ but upon themselves their own Writings as to their faith and saving knowledge of the truth or at least on the Writings one of another which is an Imagination as if not more absolutely absurd than the former yet of the two I.O. having
Paul said no other things then what Moses and the Prophets said should come John Baptist came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might beleeve God sayes If the Israelites observe not all the words of the Law written in that Book of Deuteronomy he would make their Plagues wonderful Christ expounds to his Disciples all the Scriptures in Moses and the Prophets concerning himself bids Search the Scriptures as testifying of him Paul sayes Whatsoever was written afore time was for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope He says To write the same things to the Church is safe John sayes he writes his Epistles to the Saints that their joy might be full Therefore the outward Letter of the Scripture is the onely Rule of all faith and Divine worship and not the Light and Spirit of Christ ye only call to nor any internal Revelation whatsoever ficta vel facta In which of all these Scriptures the Title and Authority of the only most perfect standing Rule of Faith Life and Worship is either expresly or by any true mediate much more any immediate consequence ascribed to the Scriptures who can finde but he 's that not blinde There is but one of all the places viz. Gal. 6.16 where that term Rule is at all expressed by which as I have said and shewed above is not at all intended the Scriptures but Christ the Light and his Spirit and some of them mention expresly neither the term Scripture nor Rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such as have in them terms equivalent to that of the Rule neither express nor imply at all the Letter of the Scripture as that of Psal. 19.7 8. and that of Isa. 8.19 20. and that of Rom. 10 17. and that of Eph. 2.19 20. where by the Law and Commandment and Testimony and Statutes of the Lord rejoicing the heart converting the soul enlightening the eyes making wise the simple is expressed the Lamp and the Light Prov. 6.23 and by the Word in the hearing of which Faith comes the Word hid in the heart nigh in the heart and mouth to hear and do Psal. 119.105 Deut. 30.12.14 Rom. 10.8 The Law in the heart Isa. 5 1.7 Psal. 37.31 The Law in the mind which the Law of sin and death in the members wars against Rom. 7.23 The Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ the life and light whose life is the light of men that made Paul free from the other Rom. 8.2 Which light shines in the darknesse that is in our very Doctors hearts but the darkness comprehends it not The Statutes of God and Judgements to be put into the minds of men according to the tenour of the New Covenant typified by the Old where the Statutes were with Pen and Ink written and engraven on Tables of stone and by the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Eph. 2. Christ the Light as is above declared and not the Writing and Letter and Text in which the internal truth is but ad extra declared and by that sure Word of Prophesie ' 2 Pet. 1. not the Scripture but somewhat within as I shall shew more abundantly by and by and by Moses and the Prophets Luke 16. Writings within as I shall shew anon All which were and were the onely perfect pure right inalterable standing Rule long before any external Text or Letter was and have not ceased so to be by the coming in of the outward writing with which they are since clothed upon nor yet have surrendered their ancient Authority of being the onely Rule by which all speakings and writings and doctrines are to be tryed nor resigned up that their Right to the Writing that testifies to their suprrmacy veracity and dignity above it self to this very day Nor have they submitted themselves that were once the chief Judge and Rule for the tryal of Truth to be now tryed ruled over judged sentenced and ultimately determined authoritatively to be received or rejected as true or false of God or the Devil Divine or diabolical Delusion Enthusiasme Figment Fanaticism and what nick-name men lift to stile them by in their learned lusts by the fallible Transcriptions Translations and Expositions of miserably mistaking men in which ways only and meerly some of that Scripture that was of old written by holy men as the spirit moved them is transmitted downward to these modern ages And as for those Texts that do make express mention of the Scriptures and outward Writings of the Apostles and of Moses and the Prophets and the Old Testament as Iohn 20. ult Luke 1.3 4. 16.29 Acts 1.1 2 Cor. 3.24 2 Tim. 3.14 15 16. do there is not the least considerable much less any cogent necessary or immediate consequence in any of them to conclude the outward Letter of the Scriptures to be the onely most perfect standing Rule Touchstone for all Truth to be tryed by so exclusively as I.O. states them Spiritus verbi Luminis cujuscunque tandem generis interni Revelatienis c. Of all inward Spirit Light Word or Revelation of what sort soever For what 's the vail's being over the Iews hearts in the reading of the Old Testament which Vail is done away in turning to Christ the Light to evince any such matter Doth it not rather evidence the very contrary For if the Old Testament which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Letter written with Ink or Pen or engraven on stones is as a Vail over the hearts of such as read it as the Iews do of whom I.O. sayes pag. 236. They read it without the administration of the Spirit so that its a dead Letter of no efficacy for the good of souls Which Vail is to be and is done away no otherwise then in Christ the Light and by turning to the Lord that Spirit as Paul sayes it is then doth it not rather appear that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Letter written and engraven outwardly is not the onely most proper standing Rule but Christ's Light the Spirit and the measure and manifestation thereof within given to every man to profit withal And what though Paul to Timothy doth commend the inspired Scripture if yet we shall take that for the outward Writing as profitable to make the man of God who onely knows how to use it wisely more and more wise and to furnish him perfectly to exhort c. and every good work against the gainsayers as I have shewed above that I deny not the outward Scripture so to be to such a one And what though Christ saies in order to escaping the place of torment Let men hear Moses and the Prophets if yet we shall take Moses and the Prophets for their outward Writings And what though John sayes Christ did more then he wrote of him as well he might For Matthew Mark and Luke wrote many things that he did not and others wrote other matters that were written by none of
and sure then either the greatest miracle that ever was or immediate voice that ever God himself spake by from heaven and to be the sole Rule and determiner of all Doctrines whether they be Truths or but cunningly devised fables which two Texts together with Isa. 8.20 how little they evince any such matter and what is meant in them by Moses and the Prophets and by that sure World of Prophesie which thou and thy fellows foolishly affirm to be the Scriptures I shall God willing take occasion to examine anon Three of thy main inartificial Arguments as thou truly callest them p. 50 51 52 56. or Testimonies to thy untruth being by the head and shoulders without either sense or reason wrested from them Again it is true the Bereans did search the Scriptures whether the things were so as the Apostles spake who spake nothing but summarily substantially the same which Moses and the Prophets did say should come but what though they did so of their own accord and their searching was succesful and useful also to the fortifying of the faith they had in the World of Truth which they received readily not as the word of man but of God not as fables but as truth it coming to them as to the Thessalonians not in word only but in power and the holy Spirit and in much assurance 1 Thes. 1.5 must it needs follow therefore that the Scriptures were their only Rule of determining the Doctrines whether they were truths or fables the Word of God or the word of man and that their faith and owning that truth was à priori first originally and immediately founded as thou preachest all faith and repentance must be page 58.64 on the Scriptures so that if they had not first searched the Scriptures and there found a congruity of the things with the old Writing they neither would nor could have beleeved or received the truth thus thou and most of thy faternity foolishly fancy but look again and ye will finde it far otherwise for howbeit they searched the Scriptures and did commendably and nobly therein and were commended as more noble in that then they of Thessalonica who yet are commended as noble excellent and exemplary as the other in receiving the Word in much affliction with joy as Gods and not mans word though it seems not so serious in searching the Scriptures as these 1 Thess. 1.5 6 7 8. and were not a little confirmed in their faith begotten before yet they first received the Word with all readiness of minde as hundreds do at ths day as preacht to them by word of mouth from the Apostles the witness of God being reached and answering to the truth of it in their hearts in which they were noble as Thessalonica was yet more noble by how much they were unwearied and uncessans in seeking to be more and more gradually and groundedly growing in fuller assurance of the truth as many are at this day who first beleeving and receiving the Word with joy and readiness do not sleight as ye suppose but à posteriori being in the faith Timothy more seriously and singly then your selves see into the Scriptures that being already brought into the things the Scriptures write of through patience and comfort thereof have hope according to that other Scripture of thy coating Rom. 15.4 as yourselves cannot have any more then the Scribes who stand studying and sraping with your own Animal understandings before ye are ceme to walk in the Light and Spirit they witness too and came from But what 's all this more then just nothing at all to prove the Scripture to be the only standing Rule of Faith and Life which is asserted of it to the evincing it to be the Word Nay if your eyes were in your head ye might see of your selves O ye Studentall more than truly Prudential searchers of the Scriptures that the Word the Apostles preached and the Scripture which we confess truly testifies thereof are two distinct things and in no wise one and same individual as ye would make them if ye look no farther then the present Text in hand for in that he sayes they received THE WORD with all readiness of minde and searched the SCRIPTVRE whether the things were so it imports to any but the blind searchers of the Scripture that the word they received was one thing and the Scripture they searched about the truth of it was another Again it is true and not to be denied but Apollo an eloquent Iew was from his being well versed therein before he came to own the Light mighty in the Scripture and learned in the Letter so as mightily to confound the Gospel gain saying Iews thereby when once he came to obey it himself though yet there was a tradesman and his wife further grounded in the Gospel and learned in the light than himself who was beyond them in the Letter of whom he was not ashamed as our Vniversities Literatists are at this day to learn of women that know more of Gospel mysteries than they do to stoop to be instructed in the way of God more perfectly but how little this proves the Scripture to be the only standing Rule for which end I.O. cites it he that is blinde cannot see but others cannot chuse when as he that was so well skilled in the Scripture had that been the only Rule that he could have instructed Aquila and Priscilla about the Letter with which suo sejugulaus gladio he slew the Letter-learned Iews as it were with their own sword was not so clear in his understanding of the Truth Way Gospel Spirit Word and Light of God which is indeed the only standing inalterable Rule for ever as it ever was but that he had need to be Regulated and Rectified therein by such as in meer Scripture all knowledge were as inferiour as they were superior to him in spiritual understanding Moreover what makes it to the proof of the Scripture to be the only standing Rule exclusively of the Light and Spirit that Paul sayes to write the same things to the Philippians by which its questionable whether he 〈…〉 something to them before which is lost and not bound up in your Bibles nor canoniz'd into your Canon was safe for them As much as if he had said nothing at all for nothing at all is that to I. O's purpose nor yet that of Iohn saying These things I write unto you that your joy may be full which J O. cites to the same end And true it is Christ expounded the Scriptures to his Disciples as he did also his own Parables that he uttered by word of mouth amongst them and the mixt multitude togeâ—her and opened their understandings also as he does theirs that walk in his light that they might understand them but where is the immediate cogent consequence from hence to the conscience of any that the Letter or Scripture is the onely most perfect standing Rule of all Faith Truth holy life
conceived in thy brain to be the power of God both in it self and in respect of you Look upon all litteral Professâ—rs that run a whoring from God the Lord the Spirit and the Light that shines in them there shewing moral good and evil and spiritual good and spiritual wickedness also for the fruites of the spirit and works of the flesh and the lusts thereof envy hatred lasciviousness c. are manifest and what ever manifests them and all things in the conscience is the light within which is the Armour against the one and the enabler to the other and not the Letter wihout which only sayes so of the Light and see what works most abound in the most Reformed Nations and Churches of it that are turned aside from the truth it self to a meer talking of the Text that talks of it are they not the same that are to be found among Papists that live by no other professed Rule but tradition and Popish putasion yea set aside that grosser sort of superstition and thicker cloud of superfluous Ceremonies in matter of outward observations in Religion in which the Kingdome of God which stands in inward Righteousnâ—â—s of the heart expressing it self outwardly in the life comes not as to Moralities Mercy Iudgement Equity Honesty Innocency Love Purity Humility Faith and Fear of God unfained which are the end of carnal Commandements contained in Ordinances and bodily exercises that else are profitable to little which said Moralities as little as thou makest of Moral obedience Moral good is that which the light in all mens hearts may avail to lead them to p. 42 43 45. as if these were some pedling trivial matters that God regards not which yet indeed being done in the Light out of which God who is Light accepts of nothing nor hath pleasure or delight in any of your litteral performances are nâ— less then Spiritualities fruits of the Spirit and of the Spirics only and not the Letter bringing forth for the Letter never yet brought forth the Spirits fruits in its Ministers and children who for all their searchings and lookings into and labouring for the letter sow to the flesh still as the Scribes and Pharisees did of old that trusted in Moses and the Prophets Writings and of the flesh reap corruption whilest the Ministers not of the Letter but the Spirit the children of the Light sow to the Spirit and of it and the Light reap the life it self and these are the weightier matters of the Law I say as to the foresaid Moral matters saving the grosser dimnest of their devotions are not the same that is to say as good fruits found among poor Papists as amongst you and as bad among you as with them and as unsound yea V in tu câ—rtis Iudaeis â—ppederâ— wilt thou judge and disdain the concised Letter-lauding â—ew O thou meerly Rantized Scripture-profissing-Christian when they who make their boast of the antient Ceremonies and Letter of the Law do not more through breaking the Law in the Morals and Spirituals of it then ye who boast of the later Letter and Ceremonies thereof through breaking the weightier Moral and Spiritual matters of it do dishonour God Is not your Vine aâ— the vine of Sodome to the Lord notwihstanding your solemn meetings and Sabbaths and Fasts and fained forms and many things that God never required at all as much as theirs who were punctualin performance of the very things that God himself required and are not your goodly Grapes of Injustice Cruelty Whippings imprisonings Persecutings of tender conscences for telâ—â—ng truth for not paying Tythes c. and all other iniquity dissoluteness and propaneness that overflows in Vniversities Cities Countries as the Grapes of Gommorrah as theirs were and as clusters of Gall and Wormwood yea shall not the Gentile the Heaâ—hen as ye call them the uncircumcistâ—n the unchristned people as to the Letter that by the remants of the pure nature for the corâ—upt nature only breakes the Law do the things contained in the Law and shewed them in the Light within them by which they are a Law to themselves and go accused or excused in their own conscences before God judge as well thee who by the Letter and Baptism transgressest it as the Iews who by the Letter and Circumcision do transgress the Law and Rebel against the Light is not as much of the true Righteousness found among many Heathens as among most litteral Christians who ever name the Name of Christ but never depart from iniquity What geat efficacy and power then hath the Letter alone of it self without any other helps advantages or any other Revelation by the Spirit and Light within put forth and exerted to the conquering of the world and the bringing forth of fruit in all the world when as it is evident that it never yet subjected any one whether Minister or Professor of it to the perfect obedence of it self in the main matters of it as the Light and Spirit hath done done the children of it As for our Parochial and Academical livers by the Letter temporally I mean for otherwise they live neither by the Letter nor the Light but beside both both they and their Bible-blessing Beleevers are far from answering the call of their very literal Rule which is all they own under that name and notion that they are not come by it into the faith that ever they shall conform to it or be perfected in holiness or cleansed from sin by it either in this world or that to come for whereas much of it is written in way of warning not to sin 2 Ioh. 2.1 and is profitable and powerful as they say themselves from 2 Tim. 3.16 which speaks of Timothy men of God only and also not exclusively of all other helps and advantages from the Spirit and Light as I.O. but as in conjunction with faith which is in the Light as is shewed above to make men wise to salvation and perfect in good works they are so far from beleeving it possible in this world not to sin and be perfected in holiness or good works that they deny it as little better than plain Popery to affirm any works done though by Christs own power in us to be truly or perfectly good or any better than dung and filthy Rags witness T.D. who as above said p. 13â— of his 1 Pamp. sayes the Righteousness wrought in Paul after his onversion was Christs and yet renounced by him as dung damn it down â—â— Doctrine of Devils to teach men that they may be fully free from sin here witness T. Rumsey whose blinde judgement therein T.D. justifiâ—r in p. 41. of his â— Pamph. and that its most false to say the Scripture either doth or can obtain its end fully towards us while we are in this world and yet that it is of no use to us in the world to come also so denying again what other whiles they affirm of the power and perfection of the Scripture
innate or ingrafted light of nature the voice of God in nature and common nâ—tions and general presumptions of God and his Authority inlaid in the natures of rational creatures and innate principles of reason and conscience and such like as if they were so de naturae de esse hominis so flowing from the meer natural being of men that they can be no more said to be supernaturally of God then the very natural faculties of reason understanding and conscience it self of which more an on both with thee and T.D. also though it be indeed that very way of supernatural Revelation which thou sayest p. 47. the Scripture is that as now in the world is handed to thee by the meer improvement of menâ— natural faculties in the way of transcribing printing re-printing as also studied by the meer improvement of your natural faculties of reading remembring understanding Hebrew Greek Latine English c. to the begetting of a meer animal or natural knowledge whereby yee know things meerly naturally speaking evil of what yee know not and corrupting your selves in what ye do know naturally as bruit Beasts for as a Horse or Bullock can finde the way to the Pasture where hee hath often been so the Priests by use course custome and concordance more than the work of the Spirit bringing all things to their remembrance can turn readily to Chapter and verse Which forsaid Voice or Light that God as thou sayest truly p. 43. hath indelibly implanted in the minds of men for the minde heart and conscience is as a dark place as to all spiritual moral and supernatural knowledge without the Law or Light of God shining in it and shewing good and evill is by thy own further Confession to thy own further confusion accompanied with a moral instinct of good and evil seconded by that self-judgement which God hath placed in us in reference to his own over us and that by which God reveals himself to the sons of men and that indispensable moral obedience which he requireth of us as his creatures subject to his Law and which is as effectual to reveal God as his works are to which there is need of nothing as thou sayest but that they be represented or objected to the consideration of rational crtatures and bears Testimony to the being righteousness power Omniscience Holiness of God himself and calls for moral obedience which is eternally and indispensably due to him and so shews the work of the Law written in the heart and is that by which the Gentiles or Nations that have not the Law in a letter are a Law to themselves and more then all this by thy own absolute acknowledgement whereby 't is evident that it even that thou callest the Voice of God and the Law written in the hearts of the very Gentiles and not the Letter of the Law written without with ink and pen is that ingrafted word by every one to be received with meekness Jam. 1.21 which is able to save the soul and that sure word as to it its evidencing it self to us or light shining in the dark place of the heart and that more firm stedfast constant standing permanent Word or Light or rule of life to us then that infallibly sure and certain though passing and transient Voyce that in the audience of Peter Iames and Iohn came from God himself that is here spoken of The said voice or light in the heart declares it self to be from God by its own light and Authority so that there is no need to convince a man by substantial witnesses that what his conscience speaks it speaks from God what ever testimony it bears or what ever it calls for from us in his name and so speaks and declares it self not only more constantly as it s ever with men but as to its certainty also that without further evidence or reasoning without the advantage of any considerations but what are by it self supplied it discovers its Author from whom it is and in whose name is speaks and is inlaid by the hand of God to this end to make a Revelation of him as to the purposes mentioned is able to evince its own divine original without the least contribution of strength or assistance from without and therefore I adde without an outward Letter undoubtedly though as undoubtedly an outward Letter cannot do all nor any of all this without the Light or said Voice Word or Spirit of Christ within which only doth and can evidence it unto the conscience that the Letter Scripture and doctrines declared therein are of so divine an original as they are Thus I have done with that Eminenâ— Text which is so much talked on so little to their own purpose by the most eminent talkers for the Text of the Scripture as that thing therein recommended to us to bee taken heed to as the most sure word of Prohesie the light shining in the dark place of mens hearts the Prophesie of the Scripture that is not of private interpretation but spoken forth in writing in the movings of the holy Spirit under which termes the holy Apostle intends not the outward Text in which as well as otherwhile by word of mouth the holy men testified to it and held it forth but that inward Word Light Spirit of Prophesie Truth witness and testimony of Iesus in the conscience which their outward voice words witness and writings were but a Testimony unto and an external means to turn men to upon the account of which Text in Peter and the 11. other aforesaid which I.O. impannels as his Jury to judge the case in question whether the Letter outward writing or Scripture is the spiritual Light or Word of God yea or nay I.O. makes such a full account to carry it his way and to have their unanimous universal verdict for him that the Letter is the Light and consequently the most perfect Rule and consequently the Word of God that in his blind hasty confidence he cannot stay from stiling it so till the trial about it be ended and while the cause is sub-judice and he but in his prosecution of the proof thereof but by way of Anticipation as it were throughout his whole book which is written mostly in ordine ad probationem as an enquiry after and examination of the matter he very often here and there if not as frequently and commonly as by its own proper names of Letter Writing Text or Scripture stiles and denominates it under the foresaid names of of the Light Rule Foundation Witness VVord of God as its nomen prâ—prium which hee will never prove to bee Proper to it whilest hee breathes And so hee runs on blindly in such over ample applaudings and most mighty magnifications of the Scripture that is the subject about which the Argument is driven on by what termes soever whether of the Truth the Foundation the power of God the Rule the VVitness of God the VVord of God c. hee expresses it by
eyes and stumble at noon-day as in the night is not a mist upon thee already from the hand of the Lord so that thou seest not the Sun as it was on the false Prophet Act. 13.6.10 11 12. that sought to turn away the Deputy from the faith and from beleeving in the Doctrine of the Lord which yet he could not do by all his mischievous subtilty and to pervert the right wayes of the Lord And now thou hast brought mee upon that Text 1 Iob. 4.1 't is true hee bids the Saints not beleeve every Spirit but try the Spirits for many false Spirits and Prophets were then abroad and as Christ said Matth. 24. there should in the last time come false Prophets false Christs Antichrists even so witness Iohn here and also 1 Iob. 2.18 they did come and were even then already in the world and have multiplied since then into a number numberless and spawned themselves over the face of the whole Europian earth and more so that all Cities Countries Vniversities so called Parishes through Christendome are even overflowed therewith the more shame for them that cannot see Wood for Trees and how Christ is now coming to consume the Antichristian locusts of all sorts where they swarm with the Spirit of his mouth and brightness of his coming in Myriads of his Saints Iud. 14. but rather dream they are now newly rising out of the bottomless pit so I.O. Ex. 3. s. 19. and so mistake the true Prophets to be them who rather are armed with the Light and standing up in the might and power of the Lord against them But let me ask thee I.O. what were they to try the Spirits and the Prophets by was it the Letter or the Light the Scripture or the Spirit of God it self which of these two is the Rule or touchstone of trial which is the Iudge that must give the resolution in whose sentence there must ultimately be a resting and undoubted discerning what Spirit or Prophet is of God and speaks truth and what is false and comes with cunningly devised fables I know thou sayest p. 67 68. the Scripture and that alone we are sent to in this case to give the determination but saving thy single say so there is no evidence of any such matter either in this Text or any other t is not denied by me but the Scriptures may bee searcht and that that which is of God contradicts not them So the Bereâ—â—â— did who are commended for receiving the Word first as it was spoken 〈◊〉 readiness of minde and recorded as searching the Scriptures also but that on the account of which they beleeved the doctrine before they lookt into the Letter was the Light in their own hearts whereby then very conscience could witness it to be the truth it answering to that of God in them as face to face in a glass and not the Letter without for being lookt on without the Light and Spirit of God it came from that gives to see into the mystery of it to say nothing here how the Light and Spirit within only gives to know the Letter to be more of God then the Iewish Talmud or the Turkish Alcoran the Scripture answering to the eternall unchangeable infallible light of God in the conscience then those Fables do the Letter would have further blinded them from all beleef of the truth as it did the old Scribes and doth the new that search it in the darkness of their own understandings more then the Bereans did the Letter being but such a History Record and Writing of certain outward things transacted in a ceremonial or temporary figure and Type of some spiritual inward substantial invisible and eternal truth as lookt upon by them that are not in some measure in that Truth it self it in a figure calls to and is the Type of benights the dark minds and prejudices them more against the truth then if they had no outward Letter at all as the Pillar of fire to Israel that were on the inside thereof was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians that were on the backside which is the reason why all sorts of porers on the outside of the Letter and backside of the Bible and Professors as well in separated Assemblies as Parochial of the Letter in the carnal Commandements thereof are further hardned in hatred against the Qua. the children of light who are let and lead by the Spirit and light of him who only opens the seales to his Disciples into the inside of it and into the power of the endless life yea more then very heathens that never heard of any Letter at all for to such as read the Letter any other way but in the Light and Spirit that gave it forth by holy men as Animal men do and therefore discern it not it seems to contradict the things of the Spirit whereupon the Apostles were counted blasphemers of the Truth because they called men into it out of the Types and taught men to forsake Moses Testament that stood in outwards viz. Heb. 9.10 eatings drinkings of flesh bread and wine and divers Baptisms carnal Ordinances outward or in the flesh c. which all had their institution and were in being before Christ crucified who dâ— jure put an end to all these by the Sacrifice of himself though de facto used after by permission for a time in regard of peoples weakness at first to bear the total leaving them off for indeed to the lookers for the Kingdome and coming of Christ in outward observations hee that seeks to bring them off from these which decrease to Christ who increases that they may witness him formed and his image brought forth in them seems to such as Paul did to the foolish bewitcht ones of the Galatians that hung in the Letter and stuck short of the Spirit thinking to be made perfect by the Letter and fleshly performances to bee a very enemy both to them and truth and then most when he tells them most of the truth I say then 't is the Spirit and Light and not the Letter by which Doctrines Spirits Prophets true or false are to be tryed neither is the Spirit of God which was before it so to stoop to the Letter as to stand at the Bar before the Letter that is inferâ—â—◠〈◊〉 it and came from it but both the Letter and all false Spirits and their speakings and it self and its own also to bee tried judged and determined by the Spirit of God which judges all and is not to be judged by any which as the Light discovers discerns and comprehends the darkness but is not discovered discerned nor comprehended by it nor is this absurd as it may seem to some blinde ones to say the speakings writings doctrines things of Gods Spirit as well as all false Spirits and the things thereof are to bee tried by the Spirit of God it self for as the Sun outward is that which shews both it self and all things and
turn away much people saying God is not worshipped in Temples made with hands but within onely in Spirit and Truth talking as if they would teach us as if they heard Gods voice and not we who search the Scriptures and expound the Law and have the Key of knowledge have been train'd up in the Scriptures in reading the holy letters but these we take notice of them that they are ignorant unlearned men yet they say we are unstable and unlearned and wrest Scriptures to own destruction but whence hath this man letters having never learnt at Universities as we have done away with them and their Scripture no more holy Scripture now the Canon is compleated the Standard sealed no immediate motion now no such mission as the Prophets had now no speaking by divine inspiration now no Divine authority in any mans writings now though they write not others but the same Divine truths as of old no extraordinary infallible â—uidance of men by the infallible Spirit of God now and suchlike Thus they said then and thus our wise Ignorants at Athens say now of the same Spirit that then spake in Paul pressing others now to write or speak to them of their woâ—shâ—pping an unknown God seeing their Universities given wholly to Idolatry and thus I.O. one of the sore men against the truth What will these Bablets say and in a manner so they say all But slay friend Gods arm is not shortned neither is the mouth of God more made up now then formerly from making out and manifesting his own mind immediately from himselfe in the minds and consciences of men and women so as that men may without manifest imprudence not to say impudence imagine so ignorantly as in effect I.O. doth that God spake his last to the Sons of men and all that ever he meant from his own mouth to make known of his will to any man when Iohn had at the command of Christ written that pretious Revelatio â—which God gave unto Christ to shew to his servants who was pleased to signifie it unto them by the hand of his servant Iohn and when once in after ages a Syned of some honest men who we know not upon some some mistakes and sailings which weâ— I.O. confesses Tr. 2. c 2. S. 4.5 They were lyable to establish so much as they could get together which was but little 't is like of that much that was written of the transcribed Copies of the holy mens Histories and Apostles Epistles and letters to particular Churches and private persons and canoniz'd it together with the writings of Moses and the Prophets into such a standing Rule of faith and manners for all ages to come that whatever should from thenceforth be found as not a little was even of the Apostles own and some of Christs own writings and whatever should be written after that with pretence as much hath been since then not in pretence onely but in truth of motion from the same holy spirit should be shut out for ever from standing in their Canon sith it came not in at that time to their hands and be ever of so low esteem as not to be own'd among the rest under so much as the name of holy Scriptures with them but as to all ends uses and purposes for which all holy Scripture is written be utterly raced out of the Record cancel'd made void and of none effect while those few they Authoriz'd because of their Stamp of the onely Standard upon them must be had in as high if not an higher Esteem Honour and Authority then the Light it selfe from which directing holy men in the writing thereof they had all the being they have at all as holy Scriptures Let not I.O. in any wise say so for there are yet though himselfe is none of them 7000 of the people of Christ in England that bow not the knee to Baal many of whom as they are under the new Testament i.e. the Spirit and not under the old i.e. the letter where thou yet art have even both men and women the promises thereof made good unto them concerning the gift of the holy Spirit of the Lord and power to prophecy which of old also the true had Mic. 2. and of judgment and of might to declare unto the rebellious house of Iacob and Israel even the Heads and Princes thereof if they abhor judgement and pervert all equity and the Priests and Prophets thereof that Preach for hire and Divine for money and build Sion with blood and Ierusalem with iniquity and yet leane on the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evill shall come upon us their sins and their transgression And to use thy own words I.O. p. 331.332 to thy self who are much in the dark as thou utterest them to such as are further in the dark behind thy self much more to the same purpose will same of them be found to say when men of outward wisdome and learning who are as they think able to instruct them shall condescend personally so to do Yea of myself I will not speak who by the grace of God am what I am and if the least measure of that grace be imparted to me among other of his servants that I should Preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ it is to one that for ought I know is of all the rest least worthy or rather most unworthy of it but I am bold to say so much and no more then what will stand as truth against thine or any others gain sayings that there are some who do not more professe themselves to be then they are indeed inspired by the holy Spirit whose messages and ministrations whether by voice or writing are so immediate from the mouth of the Lord that your not receiving nor submitting to them on that account but rejecting and denyall thereof with such rigour as ye do doth justify your predecessors in all ages who rejected and slew those that spake to them in the name of the Lord and speakes out in plain terms your imagination to be this that you may with safety to your selves reject them whom God sends yea to go on yet for a while much what in thy own words Tr. 1. C. 3. S. 9 10.11 12 There are some whether they work miracles yea or nay as thou confessest most of the Prophets did not that 's nothing to thee who pretend not to this inspiration falsely but both can and do to youward insist upon this that being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely inspired their doctrine is to be recieved by you as from God and in their so doing it will be found in due time to be your sin even unbeliefe and rebellion against God not to submit to what they speake in his name as that of his word they receive from his mouth and this is not onely pleaded and insisted on by some but also whether their Testimony be received or not received by you preachers and the
to face each other but when that came then he saw sin was alive in him and he dead and that he was then while beginning to war with it sold under it and captivated by it and wretched by reason of it Rom. 7. but that now when he wrote this the Law of the Spirit of Life or Light in his mind which was by Christ had made him free from thâ—t Law of sin and deaâ—h which warr'd in his members and oft enslav'd him I say when Paul made this and many other modest acknowledgements of Gods Grace and Power towards him in delivering him and how now he walkt not after the flesh but the Spirit and how holily and justly and unblameably he and other Apostles behaved themselves 1 Thes. 2.1 2. 3. c. and should have said as to the same effect he did that they were no lyars nor deceivers nor wicked ones nor hypocrites and 2 Cor. 13.8 could do nothing against the truth as every sin is but for the truth and such like Whether I.O. would have punisht him as an Impudent Boaster yea or no and have put him in Bâ—cardo where besides whippings and other punishments and abuâ—es some of the Qua. have been put if yea see what kind of provision the poor Flock of Christ must expect from out of the silken Snapsacks of these University Shepherds and Overseers if they had the over-sight of all Corrective as much as they have it Directive over Magistrates and all And what a Generation of Godly Ministers as they have been call'd have grown up under pretence of Reformation of late even in old England which has been so long renewing as well as in New-England which is now growing old again where they punish the same seed to deathâ— where however they idolize Christs holy Apostles now they are dead would no less then persecute them were they now alive if nay I would know Quo Iure some Reason if that these Rabbies can render a right one why the Saints that walk and live in and after the same holy Spirit now that leads into all truth and no transgression and witness the same freedome from the Law of sin thereby should for making the same confession to the glory of Gods Grace be so ill used as I.O. would have them as Impudent Boasters any more then them of old What ever the Qua. do and are who by the Grace of God being what they are glory in nothing of their own knowing they have nothing but what they have received I shall here clear many Clergy men more then any men unless some Lawyers be as clear as them from that so punishable crime of glorying and boasting in being free from the least sin or from those fore-named grosser evils either for as if they should be found glorying in freédâ—me from either they would be found lyars one way more then now they are so in truth both those kinds of wicked hypocritical deceitful lyars I mean in plain terms many Priests and some Lawyers who can neither of them live on poor mens labours as many of them do in all lands any longer then while men lye dead in their trespasses and sins are for ought I find so far from glorying in their immunity from those and all other iniquities that like those old Christian Enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.18 19. whose end is destruction whose God is their belly who mind earthly things and whose glory is in their shame they glory yet in that immunity and freedome they can get from the powers that are intoxicated with the wine of the wrath of their fornications to commit all evil and so continue in those lyes deceits frauds cheats hypocrisies bloody persecutions spoilings of mens goods devouring Widows houses for Tythes and for a pretence making long prayers and much more wickedness and prophaneness which from these Law and Gospel spoilers is long since gone forth into all lands By that little Cloud then which appears dropping from I.Os. pen though no bigger then a mans hand we can see his complexion and what muddy stuff was working what bloody storms of persecution were brewing in I.Os. mind against that more tender and true Tenet of perfect purging from sin in this life and the innocent Asserters of it and so I shall take him till he either takes in again that terrible tale of his or at least till he tells the world that it repents him that ere he told it for a joynt Antagonist to the Quâ— together with T.D. in that point Nevertheless T.D. being the only man that mannages that matter more at large on behalf of himself and many others I shall without more ado let this short Return stand as to I.Os. brief opposition of us in this point of perfection and the rather sith I believe it will be long enough ere it return from him to us again with any solid or satisfactory answer and address my self to deal more down-rightly yet no otherwise then uprightly neither with T.Ds. writing with whom I together with R. H. G. W. and A.P. also once have had to do about it by word of mouth The second Quest. between him and the Qua. as himself relates both it and what little he thought fit which is scarce one word to his ten in such manner also as might best serve his turn to set down of our Discourse with him about it 1 Pamp. was this Whether in this life the Saints attain to a state of perfection or freedome from sin Which we as to the possibility thereof viz. that they may and also as to the necessity that they must be purged from sin in this life or no where there being no Purgatory in the world to come holding in the affirmative T.D. brings in himself replying thus T.D. Your Doctrine of perfection is against the tenor of the Scripture let us hear what you can say for the proof of it And to R. H. urging 1 Ioh. 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin T.D. replyes thus viz. T.D. That cannot be meant of freedome from sin but either there is an Emphasis in the word sin intending under that general â—eâ—m one kind or sort of sin which is spoken of 1 John 5.16 There is a sin unto death Or if not in the Substantive on the Verb Poiei which notes to make a trade of business of sin as 't is explain'd ver 8. where he uses the same Verb for the Devil sinneth from the beginning He hath never ceased to sin since he began thus indeed the Saints sin not but a course of sin is broken off and there is not such a free trade between the Soul and sin as in the state of unregeneracy whereof this is given for one character that cannot cease to sin 2 Pet. 2.14 Rep. 1. Here thou art in thy old wonted way of scruing the Scripture besides the proper import and ordinary literal sense of the words and true mind of the Spirit in them into thy
* Per spiritum aut lumen internum enthusiasmum afflatum caelastem colloquia Angelica ficta vel facta c. Ex. 3. s. 20 21. 25 28 29. * Heb. 5.12 with Heb. 6.1 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in effect same o Si oujusque lumen privatum sit Regula Deo obedientiam prae standi tum tot Regulas habeâ—nus quot homines ut unicus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinus Gal. 6.16 Eph. 3.16 Isa. 8.20 Sacram Scripturam hanc Regulam esse abundèantea demonstratum est Ex. 4. S. 22. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Non tantum ingeneratio fidei sed et in eâ dum spiritum hunc ducimus aedifitio finis est Scripturae * Vbi verbum Dei locis paene innumeris praedicari promulgari multiplicari recipi enarratur sanctissima ista veritas seu materia scripâ— rarum non scriptura formaâ—iter considirata tenditur Ex. 1. s. 28. In corde nostro est scriptura non formaliter quatenus scripta sed quatenus divinam veritatemcontinet atque exhibet non respectu literae scriptae sed veritatis divinae in eâ contentae * Si cujusque lumen privatum sit regulatum tot Regulas habemus qust homines at unicus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinis * Intermediae quibus ad sui cognitionem Revelandam Deus utitur sacra Scriptura non tantum longissime omnibus aliis antecellit sed fines salutares quod attinet unicum est singulare Ex. 2. s. 14. * Christ the Light and his Spirit * Colloquia Angelica ficta vel facta * So that it s but just and meet to reâ—or thy own Tauntings of the Qu. Ex. 3. s. 17. upon thy self lia inepic atque ediose in explicando animi uâ—i sensis garris dubie incertae significationis vocibits indis ut quaenum sit â—eusis atque perfectione Scriptururum sine uliâ Revelatione pâ—r Spiritum lumen internum non facile quis declarabit ut multo sacilius sit Argumentum tuum profligare quem monrem percipere c. * See J.O. p. 42 43 45 46. T. D p. 1 of his 1. Pamph. * See J.O. p. 46. Ex. 4. s. 21. T.D. p. 1 2.3 4 30. of his 1. Pamp. * Nullius luminis interni â—juscunque tandem quam vis fit salutare is usus aut finis est ut ei tanquam duci viae nostrae Regulae attendere debeamus fed c * See how J. O. even teaches men so ill minded to criticize on the Scriptures and turn them easily as a nose of wax which way soever they are minded to make them stand in his Epistle Dedicatory p. 21 22 23 24 25. It is quoth he if a man have a minde to criticize and mend the Bible but trying what the Word or Words he fixes on will make by the commutation of Letters c. it is but saying the Scribe was mistaken in the likeness of letters or affinity of â—ound c. and then it s done and various lections arise and corruptions come into his originals in more then Tittles and Iota's one Iota or Tittle of which yet quoth he blindly speaking of the bare bones of the Letter T. 1. c. 1. s. 13. as written shall never change or pass away * Remember this yemy two Antagonists J.O. who sayst Christus sub nulla consideratione lumen salutare omnibus singulis indulsit Christ under no consideration hath vouch safed saving light to all and every man Ex. 4.5.17 how ye limit God in his goodness and grace and T.D. who p 4. of thy first Pamph. sayest Salvation is by God offered to more then to whom t is intended And J.O. Ex. 4. s. 20. The light is sufficient to leave excuseless not to save * See the Book of Ordination of Priests and Deacons * Though T.D. told A. P. before many people at Sandwich that 't is corrupt nature by which the Heathen do the things contained in the Law at A.P. informed me * Ex. 3. s. 24. Deus sacrae Scriptur Author c. Perfeâ—tiâ— Scripâ—â—r aruminnâ—lla aliâ re consiâ—â—eré potest quam insufficientiâ suâ respectu finis c. * Faâ—siâ—imum est Sâ—ripturam â—um in hoc mundo haeremus respectis nostri â—ecum suum sinem obtinereaut obtinere posse â—on enim tantuÌ„ ingeneratio sidei sed in eâ dis-â—spiritum hunc ducimus aedificatio sâ—niâ—est Scripturae quando adducimur ad Christum in gloria cessabit Scripturaeusus praesentistatui accommodat us quinâ—tiam ipsa fides quatenùss in verbo Dei 〈◊〉 to niâ—ebatur abulibitur * For the Letter still is to send from it self to the Light so was Moses Letter a School-master to direct to another for the life Moses sent his Disciples to Christ saying A Prophet shall the Lord raise to you like to me of whom I am but a shadow who writes the Law of God in the fleshly tables of the heart as ye have it handed ministred to you from me in outward gravings in Tables of stone and writings with pen and inke c. him shall you hear in all things whatever he sayes whoever hearâ— not him though he seem to hear me and to be zealous of my outward Writings must be cut off from among his people and he that truly hears me will go to him for I write of him Iohn 5. John Baptist sent from himself to Christ the Lamb of God for the taking away the sin and to the true light he bare witness of that enlightneth every man that comes into the world confessing himself and his Ministry must decrease before the increasings of the other So the Apostles Writings and Letters were not to state them as the Standard to call men thereto as the only Canon but to keep men a way looking to the Lord the Light it self of which use our Ministry and Writings now are that by the Light they may come to life and not go from Christ the Light whose words are Spirit and life who hath the word of eternal life to either letter or any thing else to keep them to the hearing of his own voice as his sheep do to take heed to his word of Prophesie which is the Testimony of Jesus in the heart as to a light shining in the dark place of the heart till the day dawn day-star arise in the heart to which purpose was the Letter written and that excellent voice sent which said to them of the beloved Son hear him and all the Apostles drift was to drive the Jews from Moses Thou teachest all every where to forsake Moses saying They must not circumcise children nor walk after those customes the letter required as a shadow for a time And indeed their Epistles point all at that one Faith Truth Way Life Passover Baptism Circumcision Supper Body Lord Spirit Rule whereas if â—e steer
of the Scriptures but say only in words of truth and sobernesse that they are not to be so exceedingly Adored and Idolized by men as theyâ—â—re by you who make them little lesse then All in all things to the Church the Papists speak much in disparagement of the Scriptures in which we say they do but blasphemously babble against them viz. That they are inferrior to the Humane Traditions of their Church or at least to the unerring breast of their Ghostly holy Father without whom opening and authorizing them they are of no more use nor authority then Aesops Fables and such like Reply 3. Whereas thou art ashamed to Relate the horrid foolish Titles of the Quakers Books in proof of their blasphemies against the Scriptures I believe that 's true indeed though all the rest are palpable Lyes for if thou shouldest Relate the Titles of the Quakers Books in proof of the Truth of this thy Charge of them which is utterly false then thy Lye which is plain enough already would be seen more plainly then it is for in all the Titles of the Quakers Books that ever I read who have read Ten times more of them I believe then thou hast done as I have seen Christ only exalted on the Throne and the Scripture owned in its place so I never saw and am perswaded also thou never hast seen any thing Written by the Quakers that borders on the foresaid Iewes and Papists blasphemings of the Holy Scriptures and therefore as I cannot much marvel at it that thou art ashamed to do it so I do not much blame thee that it doth so much shame thee as thou sayest to Relate the most foolish of them If it were true there was malice enough in thee I.O. to provoke thee to have instanced some Particulars in proof of this parcel of Scandal to the fuller shame of the Quakers whom to scandalize what thou canst is thy chief design and to have named those blasphemers and their Books but pudet referre sayest thou I am ashamed to Relate c. Thou art loath to be too punctual in thy Proof lest it proving too short of thy Charge the stain thou wouldest have stuck upon the Truths Friends should be stricken back upon thy self and the Lye come to lye at thy own door for if sounded out too loudly and distinctly it might Eccho and rebound home again to thee the Author and so redound to thy dishonour so thou fold'st thy self like the Serpent whose seed thou art in indefinite complexes or at least lapest thy self up in Universals and darest not lay thy self out at length nor grow too far into Particulars for dolus later in universalibus quae nunquam bene sentiuntur nisi ex particularibus suis as Deceit lyes most securely and keeps best hid in Universals which are not clearly perceived but by the Particulars in which they exist so by being beheld in the said Particulars both they and the Lyes that lye often in them undiscerned come more unavoidably to be discryed Reply 4. Whereas thou saiest thou thinkest meet to set down our Opinion as Collected out of our own Books and Speeches and accordingly dost declare what we hold as concerning the Scriptures thou most plainly Confutest thy self as to the Lyes thou tellest of us for thy self acknowledgest of us that we own that the Scriptures do contain a true Declaration of the Will and Mind of God proceeding from the spirit of Christ inspiring the Writers that thus far we are right and that we stand to this Confession without any renouncing it only that we would have wholly rejected the Scriptures without doubt but that things have not fell out according as we could wish do deny them to be the ordinary inalterable perfect and standing Rule of Gods Worship and our Obedience without the Revelations of the spirit and such like And this sayest thou is the summe of these mens Iudgements c. Which if it be where 's the wicked Blasphemy all this while wherewith thou Chargest us For there 's none as shall appear in the worst of this which yet thou settest down as gathered out of the Quakers Books and Speeches which thou sayest bear blasphemous Titles against the Scriptures but pudet referre I blush to set them down must answer all These things I O. do convict thee of telling many notorious Lyes against the Quakers even too many for a man to tell that calls himself a Minister of Christ and D. D. though not all by very many which thou tellest in thy Book some of which lyes yet left they should not be loud enough ' to come under every ordinary Readers Observation if told but once are either expresly or implicitly two or three times over related J. O. The Jewes Papists and Quakers differ among themselves it so falls out that they who in all other matters are most different in Opinion conspire altogether in this blasphemy viz. against the Scriptures The Papists and Enthusiastical Fanaticks do perpetually War against each other they mutually devote each other to destruction They are not acted by the same Reasons but those for their Traditions these for their Enthusiasms and Revelations Contending tooth and nail and so like Sampsons Foxes with their Tayles turned to each other bringing fire-brands on the Churches Bread-Corn they all attempt together very friendly to thrust down the holy Scripture from its Place The Papists do earnestly endeavour to detrude the Scripture out of its proper Place in the Church our Fanaticks tread in the same foot-steps with them into which wickednesse those among the Papists that are called the Spiritually have led them the way And elsewhere thou Reckon'st us up among the rest as Enemies of Gods Word and haters of the Scriptures Reply 1. Howbeit I. O. thou who in thy Epistle pretendest it to be thy aim and intention in thy Discourse to discover the Reproach that is cast by many upon the Scripture to its disparagement and to vindicate it therefrom dost as in most things else wherein thou bend'st at us discharge thy Bow at a venture so as at Random to rank us as joynt Abettors with them in grosse in that one grosse and common Cause of Caluminating Vilifying Decrying Denying the Scriptures among Atheists Pagans New Testament Contemning Iewes Papists and the whole Rabble of Rude Reproachers thereof whether in Whole or Part as if we were if not the Ring leaders yet at least the Rere-ward of the Ragged-Regiment of Anti-scripturists of what ever sort yet in this thou hast most grosly abused us and thy self also by thy false Accusing and Belying of us to the world in that Particular and must most assuredly come into Condemnation in â—he Judgement for Condemning the Generation of the Just for however thou mis-reportest of us to the causing of many to mistake us yet of a truth we are no such manner of People as thou wouldest make men believe we are but such as shall manifest our selves