observed in his Book giving his Reasons and Arguments That the Scripture is not the Rule of Faith and Life but the Light in every Conscience and having shewn the Weakness yea the Falsity of them I thought it not necessary to take notice of his Enlargements and Amplifications on his several Arguments but answer to the Argument it self wherein its strength seemed to lye I shall be brief in my Examination and answer to his second part to wit concerning the Judge of Controversie for because it hath such a necessary Connexion with the former the former being clearly discussed the latter will easily be determined Page 39. He gives us his explanation what he means by these Terms Judge and Controversie A Judge saith he is one that has not only power to determine but discerning to do it rightly Controversie is a debate between two parties about the Truth or Falshood to be determined by that Judge But as he wrongly stated the Question in the first part about the Rule so here he is very short in stating the Controversie about the Judge It is without all Question among all that own that there is one great God Almighty that he is the Great and Supreme Judge of what is Truth and what is not universally and that most perfectly and infallibly and all that believe in Christ and in the Holy Spirit do own that Christ and the Holy Spirit together with the Father are that Supreme Judge as they are one and the same Supreme God and not only so but all true Christians own that Christ as the Son of Man has all Judgment committed to him and is both Head and Judge in his Church Now that wherein W.P. is short in stating the Question here is that he doth not assign the true Rule whereby the Judge to wit God Christ and the Spirit doth give forth a definitive Judgment to be understood and received by the Members of the Church of Christ Neither God nor Christ nor the Holy Spirit need the Scripture to give a Judgment as to themselves their knowledge of what is Truth and what is not so is wholly independent from the Scripture but the Question is to be thus stated What Rule Standard or Measure God Christ and the Spirit has given to the faithful in particular and to the whole Church in general since the Doctrine of the true Faith was committed to writing whereby they may understand and know the true Judgment and determination of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit the Supreme Judge of Controversie True it is that the Law-giver is the best interpreter of any point that may concern his own Law and therefore as God is the Law-maker so he is the Supreme Judge and Interpreter of his Law But as an Earthly Law-giver suppose an Earthly King with the consent of the great Counsel of the Nation gives forth his Laws to his Subjects if any Controversie arise about the true sense of those Laws the King and his Counsel that made those Laws is to determine the Controversie by the Laws themselves one part of the Law serving as a Key to open what is hard to be understood in another part of it Thus it is in this Nation and commonly in all Nations for the Law is supposed to be such a perfect Law Intire and Compleat that the Sense of it needs not be given by giving forth any new Law to give the sense of the former nor ought any Subject to presume to give his private Interpretation of the Law by any private Gloss or Sense which he cannot demonstrate from the Law it self and as it 's thus as to the Laws of Men how much more is it so as to the Laws of God The Laws of Men indeed receive frequently new Additions and Alterations and yet this cannot be done but by Publick Authority But the Law and Rule of Faith and Life that God has given to the Faithful and to his Church now under the New Testament is so full perfect and comprehensive that is fully Sufficient without any Addition and if it can be supposed that it may please God to give forth any new Laws to his Church it must be allowed that there must be the same Evidence and ground of receiving them to be such as was given for the Old Testament by Moses and for the New Testament by Christ Now had W.P. fairly stated the question he should have stated it thus Whither the Spirit of Christ whose Judgment and Determination is all one with that of Christ and the Father doth give his Judgment to the Church and the Members of it by any other Law or Rule Measure or Standard than what is already to be-found in the Holy Scriptures whether relating to Articles of Faith or positive Precepts of revealed and instituted Religion by Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament Or whither the Spirit gives this Judgment not by the Doctrines and Precepts contained in the Scriptures but by the common discoveries and Dictates of the Light within every Man's Conscience which are commonly the same and of the same extent in all Mankind be they Jews and Mahometans and Painims abroad or Deists at home here in England or elsewhere Or lastly whither by any new particular Discoveries Revelations or Dictates and new Precepts of the Spirit not formerly given either to Mankind in general or to the Church in particular To the first all sound Christians agree The Second is the sence of W.P. and those of his Brethren of the Second Days Meeting that have approved his Book The third is the sence of some of the chief Teachers and Leaders that first arose among the Quakers that did affirm they had new Commands given from the Spirit by immediat Revelation from Heaven some of which are neither the common Dictates of the Light in every Conscience of Mankind nor to be found in the Scriptures either expresly or by any necessary consequence from them And indeed the first Teachers and Leaders amongst that People did not think it worth while to prove their Doctrine or warrant their Interpretations by consequences from Scripture but the general proof was This is the Word of the Lord unto you for G.F. see his Journal plainly told that when he first came forth he was commanded of God to say thee and thou to every Man to whom he spoke and not to put off his Hat to any Also the setting up of Womens Government in their Meetings distinct from the Men by the more devout sort who did think and still think that G.F. was a Prophet as immediately sent as Moses or any other is Judged to have been by a Divine Authority and Power in G.F. without any dependance on Scripture Rule or seeking to fish it by consequence from Scripture And pray what need is there to bring Scripture proof for any thing that Men either believe or practise either by consequence or express words seeing that is not the Rule of either Faith or practise but
without them but only within them that is the Light in the Conscience and so there is no High-Priest without us nor no Heaven without us into which the Man Christ Jesus is gone nor King Christ without us but only within us for to say he is both without us and within us also will spoil W. P's Argument altogether and mar his Analogy betwixt the Law without under Moses and the Law within under Christ the High-Priest without then and the High-Priest within now If he grant there is a High-Priest without us and who is also King as well as Priest and that he is more without us than within us as all true Christians believe who have not the fulness within them but receive of his fulness and Grace for Grace and therefore that fulness is in the Man Christ without them he must also grant that the Law and Rule of Faith is as well without us as within us and so his Argument is spoiled but that he will be loth to grant for then the fundamental Principle of him and his Brethren is pluck'd up by the Roots by confessing to the Man Christ a High-Priest without us or King without us which will necessarily infer the Law and Rule of Faith delivered us by Christ without us is not within us only but without us also as Christ the Law-giver is Thus we see for Love of their supposed Rule of Faith only within them W.P. and his Brethren who approve his Book abandon and reject utterly any Christ High-Priest or King without them as also he has done in his Christian Quaker where he will have P. 97. The Lamb without in the Passover to shew forth the Lamb within to wit the Light in the Conscience but not the Lamb Christ without as he was outwardly slain And yet W.P. for all this hath said in his late answer to the Bishop of Cork That the Quakers differ little in Doctrine from the Church of England setting aside some School Terms And in his answer to the Bishop of Cork P. 97. he saith We i. e. he and his Brethren plainly and intirely believe the Truths contained in the Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed But possibly some fallacy is latent here also as if he had said they believe the Truths Contained in the Jews Talmud or Turks Alcoran for doubtless there are some Truths contained in them both but many Falshoods and so he may think there are in that Creed for all his seeming fair Confession to it and I offer to prove they have disbelieved them all But how this consists with their having only their High Priest King and Prophet within them as they have the Law and Rule of their Faith only within them as W.P. here doth Argue I leave to the intelligent to Judge and whither this palpable contradiction bewrayes not their great disingenuity considering that they will not grant that they are in any one point changed in their Faith or Doctrine from what they were ever since they were a People but as God and Truth is the same so his People to wit the Quakers are the same as they have in so many express words lately Printed in the Book called the Quakers Cleared c. 3. As concerning the several places of Scripture quoted by him that he brings to prove the inward Teachings of God Christ and the Holy Spirit and God's writing his Laws in the Hearts of the Faithful all this is granted by all Sound Christians but that is not the true State of the Controversie betwixt the People called Quakers and their Opponents But the true State of the Controversie is this whither the inward Teachings of God of Christ and of the Holy Spirit come to believers without all outward means and without all outward Ministry and Service of Men or Books and whither the Law and Rule of Faith that Believers have in them put in them yea and writ in their Hearts by the Lord himself is without all outward Instruction and Teaching or Service of Men or Books or whither the Law and Rule of Faith and Practise within in respect of all the peculiar Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion be not so to speak a Transcript or Copy from the Law and Rule of Faith without us as delivered in the Holy Scriptures which therefore may be called the Original as to us though that Original Law and Rule without us came from an inward Original in the Holy Prophets and in the Man Christ and his Holy Evangelists and Apostles which yet had a higher Original to wit the Archetypal Law as it was in God before the Copy or Transcript of it came to be in the Prophets and from them committed to writing outwardly and from that outward writing transferred and transcribed into the Hearts of the Faithful where it becomes an inward Law or Rule in them And thus the Faithful have the Law and Rule of Faith both without them and within them first without them in the Holy Scriptures next within them put in them by the Lord in their Hearts by means of outward Instruction as Preaching Reading c. And if the Question be asked Whither is best to have it without them or within them I answer to have it both ways is very necessary for in God's ordinary way of working we cannot have it within us if we had it not first without us no more than we can have Food within us if we had it not first without us for as our outward and bodily Food that nourisheth our Bodies comes into our Bodies from without us by the Door so to speak of our Mouth so the wholsome Doctrine of eternal Salvation by Christ our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer by means of which our Souls and inward Man are nourished being accompanied with the Divine Influences of the Grace and Spirit of God and of Christ comes into our Souls by the Door of our outward Hearing and Reading in the Holy Scriptures Again though there be ever so good Food and ever so Plentiful without us yet if we receive it not within us it neither doth nor can nourish us And as the clean Beasts under the Law did chew the Cud of what they did eat for their Nourishment so the Faithful what they outwardly hear and read of God's Word in the Holy Scriptures must meditate upon inwardly for their Spiritual Food Thus the great necessity of having the Law and Word of God both without us and within us the Rule of our Faith and Life is evidently apparent so long as we live in these mortal Bodies And therefore God hath appointed and Christ hath given an outward Ministry together with his other Gifts and Graces to his Church to continue to the end of the World and to his last coming But again if it be asked Is there not an Internal word Voice or Teaching of Christ distinct from the outward word Voice and Teaching that outwardly soundeth in our outward Ears I answer There is but in God's
with any Blood outwardly shed for them Is not this the ready way to open the Flood-gate and to let in Deism and Heathenism to over-run not only England but all Christendom and not only to destroy the Protestant Christian Religion but any remains of Christian Doctrine that are in the Popish Countries But from this Cure of W.P. we have all great cause to pray Good Lord deliver us But nor would this Cure he proposeth be successful upon the Hypothesis of his general Rule if universally received for a Rule The Heathen Philosophers many of whom professed and owned the Light in every Conscience as it did enlighten their Reason yet how many great Controversies were there among them notwithstanding and oft great Heats and Animosities And if this Cure of W.P. be so effectual how comes it that it has not healed the breaches and great Controversies that have been on foot these Forty Years chiefly about G. Foxes orders his party contending that they were the Dictates of the Light both in G.F. and all his followers the other party as strongly denying it that they were any Dictates of the true Light within and let W.P. tell us when any such Controversie arises which are the true Dictates of the Light and true Spirit abstractly considered from the Scripture what shall be the Cure in that Case He seems indeed to give an answer to this in Page 42. Answ By the same Spirit as well said Gualt Cradock the way to know whither the Spirit be in us is its own Evidence and that is the way to know it in others too and the Man that hath the Spirit may know the Spirit in another There is saith he a kind of Sagacity in the Saints to this purpose To this I answer where the Spirits Doctrine which is the Doctrine both of Christ and the Father goeth along with the Spirit according to Isaiah 59 21. and many other places of Scripture there is a great Truth in it but whatever Spirit either teacheth another Doctrine or draweth Men away from the necessary belief of Christ's Death in the Flesh in being a Sacrifice for our Sins and other Fundamental Principles peculiar to Christianity is not the true Spirit of Christ whatever Unity or Sagacity W.P. and his Brethren may think they have to know it in one another while he and they make nothing to be the Rule of Faith but the Light in every Conscience John 2.9 which teacheth not this Doctrine of Faith nor proposeth this great Object of Faith to wit Christ Crucified to the Conscience they destroy all necessity of that Faith as concerned in our Salvation However with plausible shews he and they will say it is necessary where the History as he terms it has reached but how not for Salvation but historically as we believe the History of Alexander or Julius Cesar or as W.P. and his Brethren pretend to believe G. F's Journal The Difficulty that he moves P. 41. about Interpretation of Scripture is easily resolved without any new material object of Faith if the Spirit of God be acknowledged inwardly to enlighten the Understandings of the faithful and that they faithfully receive the same it will infallibly give to all the Faithful so much of the true knowledge and Faith of all Scripture Doctrine as is necessary to Salvation Page 46. As unfair and fallacious as he hath been in his Definitions and Arguments about the Rule of Faith and Life no less unfair and fallacious is he in his representing many Orthodox and sincere Protestants as if they Judged the Quakers for their asserting an unerring certain or infallible Judgment in things necessary to Salvation This is a very unfair representation of them The Question lyeth not about an unerring certain and infallible Judgment given by the Spirit of God to all the faithful in the things necessary to Salvation which they fully assert But the Question lyeth here whither they have this infallible Judgment either by the common Discoveries and Dictates of the Light in every Man's Conscience or by any new discoveries of the Spirit abstractly and seperately considered from the Scriptures so that the Doctrine as delivered in the Holy Scriptures is not the Rule or Instrument whereby the Spirit works or begets this infallible Judgment in them in all the necessary things of Salvation which â—et are more and others than those assigned by W.P. to wit Faith in Christ crucified and raised again and other fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion A Second part of the question is Whither all or any of the Quakers when met in their Yearly Meetings or any other Meetings or the most enlightned among them have an infallible Judgment given them in all things as their chief Teachers have asserted so that they are not only infallible in the most necessary things but in other things Yea in all that they have given forth either in Preaching or Writing as the Word of the Lord and with an Authority the same in kind with the Prophets as W.P. doth in the Concluâ—ion of this Book where he pretends that he has a Message to tell them and that from the Spirit of the Lord God of Truth and that is Page 48. That Men unregenerated for all their external imitations of the Ancients in some Temporary and figurative parts of Worship will never be accepted But this is no extraordinary Revelation it is a Doctrine that is daily taught and generally believed among all true Christians that never were under the profession of Quakers But the fallacy is here that all are unregenerate in his Sense who own that what they are taught and helped to believe know or practise is by the Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures as the Rule of their Faith and Life and Instrument of the Spirits preparing and giving them the Spirit himself being the principal efficient Author and Cause and primary principle of their Knowledge Faith and Practise Yet all this is Judged by W.P. here in his Conclusion to be nothing but a literal Knowledge Historical Faith and outward Religion that is but as the Old Heaven that are to be wrapt up as a scroul and the Old Wine and Bottles that belong not to the Kingdom of God For which Uncharitable and False Judgment I heartily pray God that he may forgive him and giving him a better understanding and reclaim him if it be the blessed Will of God from those most dangerous errors he is intangled in and especially from this that is the foundation of his other errors to wit his Deism and setting up the Light within or Spirit or whatever he calls iâ— abstractly and seperately from Christ's Doctrine and Words even those divine Oracles and Words which the Father gave to Christ and Christ gave them by his Holy Spirit to the Apostles John 17.8 And by the same Holy Spirit by means of the Apostles writing has given to all the faithful since thus dividing what God and Christ have Joyned together surely this cannot be the true Light nor Spirit in him or his Brethren that leads away People from hearing the true Shepherds Voice either as it is outwardly sounded in the outward Ministry of the Word outwardly Preached or as it is inwardly sounded and Eccho'd by the Holy Spirit in Teaching the faithful to believe the same Doctrine that is outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures My Sheep said Christ hear my Voice they that draw from Christ's Doctrine being the Rule of Faith and Life to every true Christian draw from the Spirit of Christ and from his Voice whatever seeming pretences they fallaciously make to exalt the Spirit by rejecting that Instrument to wit the Rule of the Holy Scriptures by which the Spirit doth both enlighten the faithful and beget Faith and Hope and Love in them by the precious Oracles and Testimonies therein contained and also doth refresh quicken and comfort them If the Spirit and his divine influences be the Wine that refresheth and cherisheth them the Scripture so to speak are the Flagons that convey it to them according to the words in the Song Cant. 2.5 Stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples and many other plain Testimonies of Scripture that hold forth in God's ordinary way the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures as outwardly delivered to be the means and therefore the Rule by which the Spirit doth both Teach and also Quicken Comfort and strengthen them such as these following places which I recommend to W.P. and his Brethrens Consideration Psal 19.7 8 9 10 11. Prov. 6.23 Psal 119. 4 5 6 18 49 50 105. Psal 147.19 20. Isaiah 8.20.59.21 John 10.3 John 17.8 20. John 20.31 John 5 39. Acts 10.44 Rom. 16.17 Rom. 16.25.26 Gal. 3.2 Eph. 1.13 1 Thes 1.5 1 Tim. 4.16 2 Tim. 1.13 2 Tim. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 28th of the First Month 1699. G. K. FINIS Nam cum humana mens pro sua imbecillitate pervenire ad Deum nullo modo queat nisi sacro ejus verbo adjuta sublevata omnes tunc mortales exceptis Judaeis quia Deum sine verbo querebant necesse fuit in vanitate atque errore versari Calvin Instit Lib. 1. c. 6 S. 4
THE DEISM OF WILLIAM PENN And his Brethren Destructive to the Christian Religion Exposed and plainly laid open IN The Examination and Refutation of his late reprinted Book called A Discourse of the General Rule of Faith and Practise and Judge of Controversie Wherein he contendeth That the Holy Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith and Life but that the Light in the Conscience of every Man is that Rule By GEORGE KEITH LONDON Printed for Brab Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1699. The PREFACE to the Christian Protestant Reader Christian Reader I Have been concerned more earnestly and amply to treat on this Subject in the following Treatise to refute that grand Error of William Penn and his Brethren who make it their great Fundamental that the Light within with respect only to its ordinary and common Discoveries given to all Mankind to Christians Jews Mahometans and Heathens of all sorts Protestants and Papists is the general Rule of Faith and Life to them all So that all under these several Denominations are true and good Christians and ought to own and acknowledge one another as Christian Brethren and Members of one Catholick or Vniversal Church if they obey and walk according to the common and ordinary Dictates thereof without all superadded Revelation External or Internal of Christ without as God and Man in one Person But their constant Practise doth evidently contradict their Principle for though they have acknowledged that such the Heathens who were or now are obedient to the common Discoveries of the Light within them without all Faith in Christ without them are their Christian Brethren and for the same reason they may conclude Jews and Mahometans who are obedient to their Light within to be such yet generally they disown all Christian Protestants among whom they live be they ever so Just and Sober and obedient to their Light within them if they come not under their Profession and Circumstances to be Christians And thus as some have well observed they Christianise the Heathens and Heathenise the Christians calling them all the Worlds People but themselves they call the Children of Light the Elect People of God and say of themselves they are in the Truth and none but they and their Deist and Heathen Brethren and perhaps the Quietists and Followers of Molinus whose Book they so much esteem among the Papists This being their Fundamental and Capital Error and the great Original and Spring of all their other Errors that as so many Streams issue and proceed from it the which being plainly detected as by Divine assistance I hope I have done in the following Treatise it is greatly to be hoped to which I joyn my earnest and sincere Prayers to God Almighty in the Name of Christ Jesus that it may be a means to undeceive and recover from Error many of that People if they will or dare give themselves the liberty to read it The Book called A Discourse of the General Rule of Faith and Life by W. Penn to which this is an Answer was first Printed in the Year 1673 as an Appendix to his part of the Christian Quaker and is now again reprinted in this present Year 1699 which sufficiently sheweth that W.P. and his Brethren are not changed nor reformed from what they were so long ago though his and their late Pretences That they own the common Principles of Christianity and differ not much in Doctrine from the Church of England have occasioned some to think them somewhat Reformed of late but it is their great Mistake which the Fallacies of W.P. and others of his Brethren by their late Fallacious Creeds have led them into Indeed I did not know but that it was a new Book so litte had I read or considered the Contents of it which by occasion of their reprinting it this very Year I have been awakened and as it were alarumed to take special notice of and strictly to examine detect and refute the which whither effectually done or not is left to the free and impartial Judgment of the Intelligent Christian Protestant Reader Their printing it at this juncture doth not a little argue their great Imprudence in laying themselves so open to be rank Deists while they at the same time pretend to hold the Christian Doctrine that is point blank incosistent therewith and great boldness that they are not ashamed in the face of the World to say and unsay and to be profess'd Deists and Christians at once which is as great a Chimera or Impossibility as for one and the same thing to be Horse and Man at once I mean not one part Horse and another part Man for such a Monster perhaps is possible but to be in all the parts both Man and Horse without all Redundancy or Deficiency of either which as impossible as it is to be in Nature it is as impossible that W.P. and his Brethren can be both Deists and true Christians at once that they are Deists the Book to which this is an Answer doth sufficiently prove And therefore notwithstanding all their late Pretences till they retract that and their other former Books true Christians they cannot be ERRATA PAge 35. Line 13. read imperfect p. 43. l. 10. for regulus read regulans p. 76. l. 2. for Iad r. and. p. 99. l. 12. for 13 r. 3. The DEISM of William Penn and his Brethren Destructive to the Christian Religion Exposed and plainly laid open The Introduction Shewing the great Importance of our knowing what the True Rule of Faith and Life is And containing a Retractation of some Vnsound and Erronious Passages in some of my former Books about the Rule of Faith yet no-wise so Erronious as the Doctrine of W.P. nor being of that Tendency as his is to introduce Deism Page 3. HE saith Since there are so many Faiths in the World and perplex'd Controversies about them that is greatly behoves every Man if he contend for then first to know the True Faith that overcometh the World Concerning the General Rule of Faith and Life he is press'd to say something from that weighty Consideration That Men Perish for want of it and can no more arrive at Truth without it than the distressed Mariner can gain his Port who Sails without either Star or Compass This his weighty Consideration is a plain Confession That the not having a right and true understanding of the Rule of Faith what it is is of very dangerous Consequence even no less than Perishing and Destruction to all such who want the true Knowledge of it and set up another thing in the room of it It may therefore be very necessary for W.P. to consider the Matter a little more weightily that in case he himself have not the true Knowledge of the Rule of Faith and Life in what danger he is of Perishing And how in this his Work of labouring to bring all People under a Christian Profession that give up to believe him to
Word and Doctrine doth not depend on the Church nor is built on the Church but the Church depends on it and is built thereupon Eph. 2.20 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone and great Foundation of both Section 7. The Rule of the Christian Faith must be a Doctrine which sets before our Minds all the Credenda or things necessary to be believed in certain Propositions concerning which the Mind of Man can give a Judgment Affirmative or Negative AGain that the Doctrine is the most perfect Rule being compared with the new Creature or work of Sanctification is evident because so far a Man is said to be the more sanctified and redeemed the more that his Faith Love Hope Humility Patience Temperance Justice and other Virtues comes up to a Conformity to the precepts of God and Christ faithfully declared to us in the Holy Scriptures And notwithstanding the high pretentions of some among the People called Quakers to perfection yet I appeal to W. P's Conscience if he can or dare say or think that his Sanctity or Virtues come up to a full Conformity to the Holy precepts delivered in the Holy Scripture Is his Faith as great as the Doctrine given us in the Holy Scripture requires it to be Is his Love as perfect perfect and compleat Is his Meekness Patience and Humility Justice Temperance and Piety equal to the heighth breadth depth and length of all God's Commands even as outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures I trust he hath so much discretion as to say nay then let him not exalt his Sanctity or Work of the New Creature wrought in him above the Sanctity of the Holy Doctrine and precepts of God and Christ contained in the Holy Scripture making his Sanctity or New Creature in him superior or primary Rule to the Doctrine but let the Doctrine have its due place to be a superior and primary Rule to his Sanctity or work of the New Creature wrought in him let his Faith and Love and other Virtues if he hath them be Ruled by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and subjected thereunto but let not the Doctrine be subjected unto his Faith and Virtues which are far inferior to the Purity Spirituality and Holiness of the Doctrine But if he will say the New Creature in him is the greatest and highest and most perfect Rule whereby to square his Faith and Life it followeth that he is arrived at the highest pitch of Holiness for what can be beyond or above the highest and most perfect Rule of Sanctity But again the greatest Sanctity that is possible of Men or Angels simply considered could not have given the knowledge of Christ's Incarnation and of our Redemption by him without a divine Revelation therefore the Sanctity or New Creature in the Holiest of Men could not be to them a Rule of Faith as touching these Mysteries If he will say there is a higher and more perfect Rule of Sanctity than the New Creature wrought in him let him tell us what it is if not the Doctrine delivered in the Holy Scriptures the Laws Precepts and Commandments delivered there If he say the Light within or Christ and the Spirit within is that highest and most perfect Rule of Sanctity To this I answer The Spirit or Light within abstractly considered cannot be properly a Rule I say abstractly considered from the Doctrines and Precepts delivered by the Spirit whither internally without any external Medium or externally by some external Meidum Nothing properly can be a Rule of Christian Faith as in respect of the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Religion but that Doctrine which sets before our Minds certain propositions of Truth to which the Mind can and ought to assent from sufficient Motives of Credibility which W.P. from his own definition of Faith must allow For he defines Faith Page 4. to be an assent of the Mind in such manner to the discoveries made of God thereto as to resign up to God and have dependance on him as the great Creator and Saviour of his People Where Note that he wholly passeth by Christ Considered as God-Man from being concerned in the object of Faith and so his Faith is no other but the Faith of a meer Deist Now seeing he defines Faith to be an assent of the Mind to certain discoveries made of God thereto c. These discoveries must be certain propositions set before the Mind in some form of Words mentally conceived and apprehended for the Nature of the Mind or intellect of Man is such that it cannot Judge what is true or false but as the truth is set before it in certain propositions consistng of Words at least internally conceived and apprehended for the assent of the Mind is a Judgment of the Mind formed whereby it Judgeth this or that to be true and if it be a true Judgment it must have some proposition consisting of words concerning which it is enabled either to affirm or deny what is really true as the Mind cannot assent to this great truth that God is not a Body but by a negative proposition consisting of some words which is a negative Judgment nor can it assent to this other proposition that God is a Spirit but by an affirmative proposition consisting of some words at least Internally conceived called by some Idea's which is an affirmative Judgment and therefore so far as Faith is an act of the intellect and an assent of the Mind it must needs have some Words at least internally proposed to it whereby it is capable to give an assent to the Truth of what it Judgeth and seeing in matters purely of Faith the Mind is not capable of giving an assent to the truth of them without some sufficient motives of Credibility as that they are given of God who is a God of Truth and cannot lye nor deceive From these Considerations it is evident that as there can be no assent of the Mind or intellect without words or Idea's so there can be no Faith without them and consequently that the Rule of Faith must be certain propositions consisting of words and sentences such as God delivered to the Prophets and which are recorded in Scriptures such are That the Word was made Flesh that a Virgin should Conceive and Bare a Son and that Son should be the Saviour of the World that by his Death he should reconcile us unto God That he should rise again from the Dead on the Third Day and ascend into Heaven and that he should there remain appearing in the presence of God for us our mighty Advocate and Intercessor until he come again to Judge the Quick and the Dead c. How can the Mind of Man assent to these great Truths without words at least Internally conceived if he cannot as every intelligent Person must acknowledge then those very words as they lye in a certain series and order of propositions are the Rule of his Faith But seeing these words have no
self-evidence but the evidence of the truth of them depends on the veracity of God the Original Author of them the next thing to be enquired into is what is the great and most principal motive of Credibility to move and effectually perswade the Mind that they are the Words of God surely he who believes that there is a God cannot but assent to this proposition that whatever God hath said is true that all the Words of God are Words of truth it hath as immediate evidence to him that has the least true knowledge of God as that the whole is greater than the part That then which is only requisite to move the Mind of Man to assent to any words delivered to us as the words of God is to have a sufficient motive of Credibility given us why we should believe them to be indeed the words of God That the Prophets and Apostles knew that all the words they delivered to Men as the words of God were infallibly the words of God is generally granted by all that own the Truth of Divine Revelation the manner of their Conveyance to their Understanding being with such a Divine Power Majesty and Glory and making such a Divine Impression on them as infallibly assured them and this many times without all Miracles proposed to their outward Senses Section 8. That the Faithful have as good Assurance of the Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures by the ordinary Inspirations of the Spirit in the use of the outward Means as the Prophets had by Extraordinary and Prophetical The Distinction betwixt them explained THE great Question therefore that remains now to be considered and resolved is Whither the Faithful cannot have and actually have not as good Assurance in respect of all Fundamentals and Essentials of the Christian Faith at least that the words delivered by the Holy Prophets and Apostles were the Words of God as if they had received them in the same way and manner as the Prophets and Apostles received them which was without any external Medium such as the Ministry of Men and Books whereas the way that we now receive those words is by some external Medium to wit the Ministry of Men and Books I shall not here insist upon the external Motives of Credibility taken either from so many Thousands of the best and wisest of Men in the several Ages of the World since the words were committed to writing who have received and embraced them to be what really they are even the Words of the Living and True God or such as are taken from the Words themselves as outwardly delivered such as the Simplicity Purity Majesty and Efficacy of their Doctrine the Harmony of the several Parts the fulfilling of the many Prophecies contained in them the many other incomparable Excellencies of them the wonderful Effects they have had on many Thousands and Millions of Men in being instrumental to their Conversion from Idolatry and Ungodliness to true Piety and Sanctity all which are of great weight to convince the Reason of Men but because all this doth amount to no more but a rational Conviction and doth not beget a Divine Assent or Perswasion Therefore I conclude with all Orthodox and Sound Christians that our full Perswasion and Assurance of the Infallible Truth and Divine Authority of them is from the inward Work of the Holy Spirit by his Internal and Supernatural Illumination Inspiration and Revelation and secret and most inward Teaching in our Hearts by sensible and perceptible Impressions Sealing to the Truth of them upon our Hearts and Minds And here I think fit to guard against a two-fold Extream that I find too many run into both greatly and dangerously erroneous the one is of some that grant indeed that the Spirit doth inwardly operate in the Souls of Men and more especially in the Souls of the Faithful but this Operation or Agency and Efficiency of the Spirit they will have it only to be effective and no-wise objective that is to say no-wise perceptible or sensible to the Soul in which the Spirit doth so operate Hence it is that some of them have called this Internal Operation of the Spirit even in the Faithful Medium incognitum assentiendi the which Assertion being so repugnant to the Scripture Testimonies in many places that hold forth the Spirits internal Operations and Virtues to be as sensible upon the internal and spiritual Senses of Souls in any good degree inwardly quickned and made alive to God as the Operations of outward Light Heat Cold or the most affecting Objects of Sight Taste Smelling and Feeling are upon our outward and bodily Senses and also being so contrary to the Experience of many Thousands of true experienced Christians I shall not insist here any further to refute it The other as dangerous and erroneous Extream is of such of whom is W.P. and his Party as plainly appears by what he layeth down in this Treatise and oft elsewhere in his Books who hold That the Manner and Kind of the Spirits Internal Inspirations Revelations Illuminations and inward Teachings is the same with that which the Prophets and Apostles had that is to say that whatever they think they have a Divine Knowledge and Faith of the words which are necessary to be the Rule and Medium to the obtaining this Knowledge and Faith must be given them as they were given to the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures to wit without the external Medium of the Holy Scriptures and without any external Teaching whatsoever and that therefore their Faith and Knowledge so far as it is Divine hath no dependence on the words delivered in the Holy Scriptures but whatever they know or believe by a Divine Knowledge and Faith it is wholly from words inwardly given them from the Spirit without all outward conveyance of Men or Books Hence it is that W.P. calls his and his Brethrens Rule of Faith and Life the eternal Precepts of the Spirit in Mens Consciences but as for the Precepts and Words outwardly delivered in Scripture they are but to him what Pythagoras and other Philosophers quoted by him Page 6. judged of other Writings to wit liveless Precepts Hence many of his Party have presumed to call them a Dead Letter Death and Carnal Yet Page 25. he is so yielding and seemingly kind to the Scriptures that he grants them to be a subordinate secondary and declaratory Rule Such a subordinate secondary and declaratory Rule saith he we never said several parts of Scripture were not Here observe for all his professed kindness to the Scriptures he will not allow all the parts of Scripture but only some parts of it to be so much as a subordinate secondary and declaratory Rule though even the Ceremonial Precepts he has as great reason to believe them to be the Words of God and consequently a Rule of Faith though not of Practise as touching the external Types as truly as any other parts of Scripture But seeing every subordinate
Light within which all Mankind had as well as the Jews but the outward Word of Doctrine delivered by the Prophets according to Psal 147.19 He shewed his Word unto Jacob c. The which external Word he calls Sect. 1. Aliud melius adminiculum i. e. another and better help which was necessary to direct us rightly to the Creator of the World comparing it with whatever other helps God had given to Mankind without them or within them which he calls Communia illa Documenta those common Documents the which external Word he saith is Rectior certior ad ipsum Cognoscendum nota i. e. a more right and more sure Mark whereby to know him which also he calls the Rule of the Eternal verity and cap. 9. Sect. 1. l. 1. inst He calleth them Nebulones i. e. Knaves and chargeth them with Nefarious Sacriledge that divide the Word to wit the external Word from the Spirit which God hath Joyned together by an inviolable Bond and in the Title of that Chapter he calleth them Fanaticks and saith They overthrow all the Principles of Piety who despising the Scripture to wit considered as the Rule flee over to Revelation pretending to be taught by the Spirit without the external Word Where it is evident he doth not mean that whoever are taught by the outward Word are sufficiently taught without the Spirit but that whoever are taught Savingly to know God as the Creator or Christ the Redeemer they are taught of the Spirit with and by the external Word as the instrument of the Spirit which he hath given to us for a Rule of Faith and Life not that it 's the Rule to the Spirit but the Rule to us of the Spirits giving and preparing and which he perswades us to be Truth by his secret operation in us And as unfair and fallacious as W.P. hath been in wresting misapplying and abusing Calvin's words to prove that he was not of another Mind than W.P. viz. That the Scriptures is not the Rule of Faith and Life he is as unfair absurd and fallacious in his quoting other late Protestant Authors as Bish Jewel Dr. Ames Dr. Owen all which are sufficiently known by their Books to be of a contrary Mind as much as one thing can be to another The Quotations indeed taken out of those Authors prove that they did assert the necessity of the Spirits inward Operation in the Souls of Men to perswade them to believe the Truth of the Scriptures and the necessity of his Internal Illumination to give the Saving understanding of them as particularly the quotation given out of J. Calvin instit lib. 1. c. 8. who gives the Sense of all those Authors and indeed of all true Christians viz. It is necessary the same Spirit that spake by the Mouth of the Prophets should pierce into our Hearts to perswade us that they faithfully delivered that which was committed to them of God which he illustrates by the word Obsignare elsewhere in that Book that is by Sealing to the truth of them but this does not prove that this inward Obsignation of the Spirit is the Rule of Faith even in Calvin's sense or that the Scripture was not that Rule Page 36 It 's strange that W.P. should bring a proof against the Lawfulness of Swearing from the Conviction of the Light within some Jews long before Christ came to wit the Esseni that when the Scriptures of the Old Testament made it lawful to Swear in some Cases if W.P. believes that the Spirit of God did Dictate these Scriptures that the same Spirit in the Esseni should teach them that it was unlawful even while the Mosaical dispensation was yet standing But how proves he that the Esseni did think Swearing unlawful from a Conviction of the Light within them when others of the most faithful of the Jews both then and before that time did Judge Swearing Lawful and that from the declared and revealed Will of God in the Old Testament that came from the Light within in Moses and the Prophets that was in force until Christ suffered as to all the other parts of it If he will allow that the eternal Precepts of the Spirit in the Conscience command one thing to some and the quite contradictory to another surely at this rate the Light within must be a very uncertain Rule for by this Concession one may take the liberty to say his Light within commands him to Kill to Steal to commit Adultery though the same Light in another forbids it I had thought that by the Eterprecepts in the Conscience W.P. had meant those unchangeable Precepts and Laws of Justice and Temperance c which in all Ages have been the same to all Men and will ever be the same to all so long as the World lasteth But now it seems even the Precepts of Light within are not Eternal but Temporal and may be changed and one may be commanded to Swear or permitted without Sin to Swear and another forbidden But there are two things that W.P. in his instance of the Esseni that would not Swear which he quotes out of Josephus and Philo. That they shun Oaths worse than Perjury for they esteem him Condemned for a Lyer who without it is not believed should prove neither of which he hath done First That they held it Unlawful in any Case to Swear even when called before Authority for it may rather be thought it was common Swearing they were against a thing that was too ordinary among the Jews seeing the Law did allow Swearing in a Judicial way Levit. 5. that was then in force Secondly Suppose they were against all Swearing that they had this from the Light within them it is much more probable it was an erronious Opinion in them which could not proceed from the Light within otherwise it had contradicted the standing Law of God without then in force which not only allowed Swearing but commanded it upon necessary Occasions And as idle and impertinent are his Instances of Pythagoras the Scythians in King Alexander's time and Clinias all which lived some hundreds of Years before Christ came in the Flesh Now if Swearing was lawful by the Law of God among the Jews in those Ages How can we suppose it unlawful among the Gentiles since I know not one Instance can be given that the Light in any Gentile did condemn what the Light within or Law of God without in the Jews did justifie for this were to set Light against Light It 's nothing to the purpose if some in these ancient Times were against Swearing but the Question is Whither it was the Light in them that taught them so or rather whither it was not an erronious Opinion like that of not eating Flesh said to be taught also by Pythagoras was that thinks W.P. from the Light within If so How does the Light in him allow him to eat it and to take his liberty in diverse things that the Severity of Pythagoras's Doctrine did not
needs only pretend a Revelation for that and all the other Matters in Controversie betwixt Protestants and Papists to justifie him and prove him to be no Changeling And at this rate of W. P's arguing not only all the peculiar Doctrines of Christianity are wholly uncertain and Papists Socinians and Arians and other the worst of Hereticks that oppugn the Christian Doctrine and Faith may happen to be in the right and these called the Orthodox to be in the wrong but the great Fundamental of the Quakers is overthrown and rendred uncertain also yea this very Position that he laboureth so much to establish That not the Scriptures but the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life to every Man For this Position of his is not literally and expresly in the Scripture so that according to W.P. not the Scripture but his and his Brethrens Interpretation must determine this Controversie and this cannot be done without extraordinary Revelation it being none of those things that fall within the ordinary Discoveries of Men to wit that the Light in every Man's Conscience is Christ and God for then Christ would be God and the Socinians would be Blasphemers that deny him so to be By all which it evidently appears that this Argument of W.P. not only renders all the peculiar Doctrines of Christianity meer Scepticism and Uncertainty but the great Fundamental of the Quakers as concerning the Light being Christ in them and the Rule of their Faith to be equally Scepticism and Uncertainty But that he saith Christ's Divinity is left undetermin'd in Scripture literally and expresly is false for it is in several places literally and expresly affirm'd that Christ is God and that and many other Truths suppose not literally and expresly mentioned in Scripture yet by good and necessary Consequences without all extraordinary Revelation from plain places of Scripture can be certainly inferred And if he will not allow that there is any certainty by arguing from the Scriptures by Consequences of true Reason his whole Discourse in this his Book that I am now answering is disallowable for he has not brought one place of Scripture that literally and expresly saith the Scripture is not the Rule of Faith or that the Light in every Man's Conscience is and he doth not pretend to extraordinary Revelation in the Case and if he did of shall he must give us leave to distrust him until he bring sufficient Evidence for it which I believe he will never be able to do Yea the Falsity of his Reasonings by way of Consequence to prove his Position That not the Scripture but the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life is evidently apparent from the answers already given And suppose he should pretend to extraordinary Revelation in the case and that that is the ground of his Certainty and Rule of his Faith even that Pretence destroyeth his Fabrick for seeing all Men have not that extraordinary Revelation it cannot be a general Rule If he say The common discovery that every Man hath teacheth him sufficiently without either Scripture or extraordinary Revelation That the Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith I answer How can that be unless it were a self-evident Proposition as that the whole is greater than the part and if it be a self-evident Proposition why hath W.P. taken so great pains to prove it Men commonly think it needless to prove any self-evident Proposition and properly speaking it is impossible to be proved But if his said Position has no self-evidence of the Truth of it how shall it be proved not from Scripture for that would make the Scripture the Rule nor from Humane Reason for that would make Humane Reason the Rule which W.P. seems not to set up for the Rule It is granted that the Light in every Man's Conscience in respect of some Moral Principles of Justice and Temperance has a Self evidence and so far is a Rule but that it is the Rule of Faith to Christians is denied and by whatever Medium he proveth it that must be his Rule by his manner of arguing which runs him into the like vitious Circle as the Papists are run into when they prove the certainty of Tradition by the Church and the certainty of the Church by Tradition so W.P. proves that the Light within is the Rule of Faith by the Scripture and the certainty of the Scripture by the Light within Section 20. His Proposal of the way to determine all Controversie destructive to the Christian Religon le ts in Deism and Heathenism to overspread the World a Remedy worse than the Disease His misrepresentation of sound Protestants and false and uncharitable Judgment of them Several Scripture places that prove the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Life to all Christian People I Confess he hath one very notable and plausible Answer to an Objection made by himself P. 44. were it as true as seemingly fair and plausible The Objection is this How will this determine Controversie viz to cast away the Scriptures from being the general Rule of Faith and Life and to set up the Light in every Man's Conscience according to the general Discoveries it gives to all Mankind and allay the Fury of Debates that are on foot in the World He answereth roundly Nothing like it if Men adhere to it But first were it true it would have this mischievous and yet most necessary Consequence that the Christian Religion would be utterly lost so far as it hath any peculiarity or peculiar Dignity Worth and Advantage above Deism or Paganism A rare Cure indeed that W.P. here prescribes to all Christendom to heal their Breaches and end the Disputes and Controversies betwixt the worst sort of Hereticks and the most Orthodox Christians and betwixt Papists and Protestants such a Remedy here prescribed by him is worse than the Disease He saith Most Perswasions he should have come out more plainly with his Expedient saying most Hereticks Arians Nestorians Sabellians Eutychians and them of the opposed side called Orthodox yea Papists and Protestants agree in his general Rule of Faith and Life that is they own the common and general Dictates of the Light in the Conscience and so doth the civilized part of the whole World of Mankind and agree about what he makes the absolute Necessaries viz That God is that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him that the way of God is a way of Purity Patience Meekness c. without which no Man shall see the Lord. Now all Hereticks commonly few I think excepted own these Generals and many of them have Moral Lives Is this enough to their eternal Salvation though they deny the Lord that bought them with his precious Blood as he outwardly suffered on the Cross on this pretence that their general Rule set up here by W.P. teacheth them nothing of any such Lord that bought them