had of the Love Purity Justice Mercy Goodness and Recompence of God for such as in any Age could come to God did first know that God was and that he was a Rewarder of all those that did draw nigh unto him to obtain which knowledg God had manifested it in man for he had shown it there unto him I say those who so retained the Sence of God in their knowledg were not aggriev'd Christianity should take Place for they measuring things as they inwardly felt them were proper Judges of Gods Rising and Breaking forth among the Sons of Men they could feel him leading out of and beyond the Use of those Elements which were once added because of Weakness and now became beggarly by a brighter Glory An inward sense being that they kept to as the more sure Word as they felt a with-drawing of the divine Life Power Spirit out of those inferiour Institutions they followed it not staying in any outward dispensation because God had been there if he had once left it But such as were Litteral Formal Exact Critical they were the Persons who having least of the Divine Sight and Sense of God's goings among the Sons of Men they contended for God's Exteriour Appointments as that they were signally given Good Men had Practised them and are we Wiser then our Fathers No we will have our Reasons indeed Darkness satisfied in the Matter Behold the Pharisee and Greek of Old to whom Christ's outward Appearance was to the one a Stumbling Block and to the other Foolishness and the many-headed Professor now who esteems no better of his Spiritual Manifestation in the Hearts of the Children of Men. O! what will the End be of the Gawdy Obstinate Hypocrites of this Age who resist so great Salvation Tribulation and Anguish forever unless they repent for what Men Sow that they shall Reap and who have improved their Talent shall enter into the Joy of their Lord. § 10. Well But when came this Quakerism into the world he tells us about the year 1651. quoting E. B's Epistle before G. F's Gr. Mist also a small Treatise writ by J. Whitehead and J. Pennington from whence he infers that Quakerism is a Late Dispensation therefore not that of Christianity But certainly this Man hath taken a very Quick Course to Un-Christian himself and all the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists in the World as well as the Quakers For I would ask him if there was not a Time since the Primitive Age wherein Darkness had overspread the Earth the Beast did Reign and the Pure Religion was wholly Wildernest If So Consequently the Resurrection of Truth is no more a New Dispensation or not that of Christianity then a Man that is exiled his Country is not essentially the same Man when he returns that he was before And so far is my Argument for those Separatists that though I take them to be short of the True Evangelical Faith and Righteousness yet I acknowledg them to have a Reformation unknown in that thick Apostacy which has couer'd the World and Ecclipst the blessed Light of the Glorious Gospel that shin'd in the first Ages after Christ But since we are of another Religion by his Account then the Christian because we cannot say that we were alwayes successively from the Apostles Time I will argue that the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists are not Christians nor is what they profess to be esteem'd Christianity because they cannot prove a Regular Succession from the Apostles Times their Date also being of later years What will they say then The Church was fled into the Wilderness Truth exil'd God as a stranger in the Earth yet Truth still the same in it self Very well so say we God was pleas'd to Renew the Right Christian Dispensation to us and by us according to John's Vision that the Everlasting Gospel was preacht again intimating that their had been a Time wherein it was not preacht If this be not a New Gospel because anew or again preacht neither is that which J. Faldo calls Quakerism a New Dispensation because it is Preaching anew the Everlasting Gospel to the Sons of Men which is God's Power inwardly manifested for the Conviction Conversion Redemption and Salvation of the Souls of such as believe in it § 11. And though he particularly seems to Triumph over Isaac Pennington's Distinguishing between the Dispensation of Moses Christ and his Apostles and THIS of our Day as if they had been three several Dispensations and consequently if Christ's was not that of Moses because it swallow'd it up neither this the Dispensation of Christ which J. Pennington saith it swallows up yet to me it seems a pittiful Catch and shows he knows not how to take things with that Candor they are writ J. P. means not a Distinct Administration in Kind but Dispensation of one and the same Light Life and Power by Nature at several Times and sundry Manners to the World Christ was before the Law under the Law with the Prophets but never so revealed as in that Holy Manhood will it therefore follow he was not Antecedent to that Appearance or He that appeared then more gloriously had never shown himself before Or because of a Difference in Manifestation therefore not the same HE through all those several Manifestations in himself Certainly this Man is very Unjust to J. P. especially when the Words above quoted that speak of a Dispensation he experienced a little before God broke forth by us called Quakers could have informed him that he meant the Divers Breakin gs forth of God's Light and Truth in order to the full Discovery and Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity So that this present Appearance swallowing up all going before it had so term'd it as he doth not and therefore wrong'd is no more then God's Retriving to us the Ancient Gospel with additional Blessings and Assistances giving us the same Life and Foundation they had and what else he pleased by way of Improvement which alters not the Nature no more then a Child in Christ is not that Numerical Creature but another Distinct Being when a Man And if this Account of Things will not satisfie him he may chuse I have thus far cleared the Truth and those who sincerely profess it and therein my own Conscience both to God and the World CHAP. III. J. Faldo's Charge That the Scriptures are not the Word of God Reasons for it The Scriptures by him urg'd against us clear'd and prov'd to be for us They are the Words of the Word a Declaration of the great Law Word or Commandment but not that Law Word or Commandment § 1. THis Chapter will concern the Scriptures more directly in which we hope to prove that not We but our Adversary is mistaken with respect to what he chargeth upon us § 2. He intitles his Chapter thus That the Quakers Deny the Scriptures I was almost astonisht at it because he pretended to prove all out of our own Books
he ow's all that he hath But why poor Non-Conformists after all their preacht up Battles Spoyls Plunders Sacriledges Decimations c. Rich and Covetous as ever As Rich because the Bason walks and takes its Rounds two to one of which it did and Covetous because they remain as discontented as if they were starving witness a Late begging Book from a Non-Conformist's hand which conjures their Hearers into larger Benevolence though by the style one would think it were their just Due I am perswaded their Preachings Christnings Burials Churchings alias Lying in Visits Exhortations Thanksgivings and Prayers have cheated People of more Gold and Silver then ever they did dare to make the least Pretence to though they alwayes dar'd to take what they could get in their former Dayes of Power But this is nothing to me further then that it is less dishonourable to William Penn or any other Quaker whom God hath blessed with a plentiful Subsistence that having Estates they notwithstanding should sustain the Labour and Suffering of Preaching the Gospel and that at all seasons then in J. Faldo and his Brethren who it's greatly to be feared preach what they call the Gospel that they might get Estates at least Livelyhoods by it let him or them say what they will I could give him a long List of more Exacting Jocky Hawking Mercenary Bargains of Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists then can readily be parallel'd by Parish-Priests A thing once denyed by them and ought still to be Detested of all others § 4. But he ends not here concerning the Ministry For says he The Quakers deny our Ministry because we preach from the Scripture A wicked Lye minted out of Hell it self We have laid down no such Proposition nor tending to it But he supposeth J. Parnel helps him to prove this Assertion And here is the Difference of the Ministers of the World and the Ministers of Christ The One of the Letter the other of the Spirit Strange Impudence to call this a Proof It is a Proof indeed but against him for if a False or Worldly Ministry under the Form of Godliness may not be Farewell Scripture But if such a Thing will be allow'd us then since the Letter or Scriptures are not by them rejected but in Shew most highly admired and that they pretend to collect all they believe or know from thence though indeed they understand them not we have great Reason to say that those who are Ministers only from the Letter with what they imaginarily comment upon it are not Christ's Ministers We are so far from making it a Reason why we deny your Ministry who are under that Qualification that we utterly deny you to have that Knowledge from the Scripture which we except against but your own Inventions and groundless Conceits alone For though J. Faldo thinks it very Heterodox to say that unless we are immediately assured from the Light within of the Truth of what we hold and that all Belief not so discover'd is a Lye deriding at Samuel Fisher's Answer in that Case Those who swore as the Lord lived swore falsly because they knew him not to Live affirming to us that they were such as did not believe him to live at all and therefore S. Fisher erred in his Construction I say though it be so yet we are not forelorn of Reason as well as Scripture to our Defence For no Truth is such to me which I either do not know to be true or have not some real Ground to believe to be such however true it may be in it self And that Sam. Fisher urg'd that Scripture pertinently and Consequently his return upon it is impertinent He himself has provided us with an Argument for if he will not have it that they therefore lyed in saying as the Lord liveth because they knew him not to live we must see what was the Reason that God gave their Asseveration the Lye Sayes J. Faldo they did not believe him to live at all Very well then the Narrow of the Difference lyes here That we say They knew him not to live And J. Faldo says That they believ'd him not to live Now I would fain know which are most excusable One sayes they who said as sure as the Lord liveth lyed because they know not God to live and the other that they believ'd him not to live If any thing be to be gotten it is this that they who know him not to live might believe him however to live whilst those who believ'd him not live would not believe a thing they had no Ground or Knowledge inducing them to it But he has lead us to a quick Expedient They did know God to live because he that lives may know from thence that God lives who holds every Soul in Life that lives To which I return that they did believe God to live because they lived for how could they doubt of his Living who held them in Life But enough of this To conclude A Living Spiritual Ministry we own that preaches the Everlasting Gospel in its own Power and that freely to the Raising of People dead in Trespasses and Sin to turn them from Darkness to Light that they might serve the Living Lord God of Heaven and Earth in the Newness of the Spirit who is worthy of all Honour and Glory forever CHAP. XII The Second particular Ordinance is a Gospel-Church His Definition for us by its gross Contrariety to the Scripture His base Inference of our Denial of Religious Societies and Outward Gifts from our Friends asserting of but one Catholick Church and that it is in God A Gospel-Church own'd Our Adversary proved Heterodox about Apostolical Preaching Inward Sence preferr'd before Intelligence § 1. THe Next Gospel-Ordinance he says we deny is a gospel-Gospel-Church Not to spend time about his Way of Phrasing it though uncooth enough We shall attend his Proof And the Church so gathered into God is the Pillar and Ground of Truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher J. N. Love to the Lost pag. 17. Upon which he argues thus The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers and not the Spirit alone whereas the Apostles gave themselves to Preaching of the Word and Elders were ordained therefore the Quakers deny a Gospel-Church and they contradict themselves for they have more Teachers then All others A Lye to be sure There is greatly wanting to this Priest a better Understanding or more Honesty in using what he has for who is not blinded with Prejudice may discern that from our speaking of the Universal Church of God which says the Apostle as well the the Quakers is in God he infers that we deny all Visible Religious Societies commonly called by the Ancients the Churches of Asia Thessalonica Ephesus Corinth c. And from our Asserting the Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher of all who believe he concludes that we deny all Preaching of Men though by the Spirit O blind or else most disingenuous Man
What Charge that upon us which our Practice gives the Lye to every day But when we urge this against him and such like Adversaries then it is not that he hath Mis-represented us but that we have Contradicted our selves But to clear the Point if it can yet be doubtful We do believe there is One and but One Universal Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth and that is in God anchor'd establisht and built upon him the Rock of Ages and Foundation of many Generations and as such neither is every Visible Society making Profession of Religion nor are all of them together that Church but such alone who are washed in the Blood of the Lamb and ingrafted into the True Vine bringing forth the Fruits of Holiness to the Eternal Honour Glory and Renown of Christ the Head who is over all God blessed for evermore And though there be a Mediate Preaching which is to say that the Spirit speaks by such whom he hath anointed to preach yet it cannot be strictly said that Man preaches or it is Man's Ministry but rather the Spirit by Man and that it is the Spirit 's Ministry and Man only a Mean or Instrument through which the Teaching is convey'd or Direction rather to the true Teacher the Light in the Conscience Not that the Lord doth not sometimes plentifully teach his Children without any such Means too who are turned to the Grace in the Heart and believe and walk in his Holy Light where God is to be found and an Access to this Holy Blessed Presence administred for he hath both promised it of old and perform'd it in our Dayes Thus the Apostles were Preachers not from Man nor by Man but by the Revelation of the Son of God declaring of the Mysteries of God's Everlasting Kingdom as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And so none are exempted for all may Prophesie one by one that the Church may be edified Yet I cannot but observe that 1 the Man implicitely denies that to be a True Church which is the Ground and Pillar of Truth for such the Quakers style a Gospel-Church 2 That he affirms the True Church to have other Teachers then the Spirit which is to say that the Primitive Churches were not led guided and taught by the Spirit of God only but by some other Teachers also contrary to express Scripture the Promise of God and very End of the blessed Gospel If he sayes that he meant the Apostles that were inspired I answer that was never deny'd by us because that was the Teaching of the Spirit by them which was very little less then if it had been immediately in them So that one of these two things must follow from his kind of Arguing Either the Apostles preacht without the Motions of the Eternal Spirit Or Preaching as they were moved of God's Spirit was their Preaching and not the Holy Spirit 's that so plentifully dictated to them what they were to say But in as much as neither can be reputed true by true Christian Men I conclude the Quakers sound and their boasting Adversary Heretical § 2. But he thinks he hath clearly got the Point of us about a Quaker's telling him they knew that one of the Dutch Nation spoke by the Spirit in a Meeting of ours though in that Language which was not understood by the Meeting because they all found Refreshings I will be faithful in giving his Observation upon it Of the unknown Language he sayes This was orderly according to the Popish Mass who read Prayers in an Unknown Tongue to the People but herein he wrongs us for though we do acknowledge that the pure and single Power of the Almighty may both strike Astonishment and give Refreshment where the words utter'd are not alwayes understood since he doth both frequently without them and that Understanding and Sence are two things for the Devil may speak the best words in the Bible and be an undiscover'd Devil still except by this Divine Light Power or Spirit he be inwardly manifested consequently a right Sence may be had where words may not be understood which is the One Tongue to the Children of the Light Yet we not only decry all design'd Obscurity by Praying and Preaching in unknown Languages but with the Apostle say that we choose rather by far to speak in a known Tongue that the People may understand our Words as well as have a sence of our Spirits Nor did ever any Quaker yet pretend to be moved to pray in an Unknown Language whilst he was Master of that which was well known to the People since then we don't affect such Obscurity the Case of all those Papists who pray in Latin rather then in their Native and vulgar Tongue he is very disingenuous in that reflection § 3. Upon the Quakers Reason why they knew that Declaration was from the Spirit of God viz. because they found Refreshings he bestows this Confutation so have Children many a time AT PUPPET-PLAYES What a pass are these People come to who yet deny all Teachings of Man But what a Pass may I rather say hath this Man 's implacable Spirit against the Truth of God brought him to who to his Dishonesty before adds Prophaneness joyn'd with Scoff and Impudence when he denies all Refreshment that comes not by sound of Words in a known Tongue to be any more Certainty from God's Spirit then the Pleasure Children take at Puppet-Plays though he could not but think the Person that spoak to him meant by Refreshings what came from God that there can be no Proportion or Comparison betwixt that Pious Answer and the Ungodly Sport of Puppet-Playes Ben. Johnsons ALCHYMIST which all good Men detest and himself dying abhorr'd hath nothing in it half so gross in Abuse of Religion I even tremble at the Thoughts of that Hand writing upon the Wall which this Man's Impiety is writing I fear with indeleble Characters against him who will receive a just and certain Recompence at the hand of the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth for all his hard Speeches against the Holy Way of the Lord. § 4. But let me not omit to show the Blow he gives his own Cause in this Expression since by the same Reason that we know no Refreshment to be any more of God without known Words then that of a Puppet-Play he knows not any more the Teachings of the God above p. 113. nor the Motions of the Holy Ghost or Dictates of the Grace of God within 2. Part. 9 10. known Words being excepted to be of God then that Refreshment little Children have in a Puppet-Play The Consequence of which Diabolical Comparison is nothing less then to overthrow all inward sence of God's Presence or that Refreshment which comes from it And then indeed we must confess we should be necessitated either to deny all Teaching or conclude with this Antichristian Priest That Man 's Teaching or Ministry ought to be adhered to Where if Puppet-Playes be
Government and consequently they had as truly their Measure of the Holy Unerring Spirit as had Moses Joshua c. theirs § 7. The Third Scripture he would unconcern me in is this And the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Understanding Upon this he asks me this Question But doth this Incourage Men to cast off all External Means and the Use of their Reason Nothing less says he Nothing less say I too And who can help it if he understands me so But that he may be as base as base can be he askes this Question as the Result of my Argument upon the Place and never yet answers it at all But I cannot help it if J Faldo will render me a Fool that he may shew himself Wise I confess he wants some such Fool for his Work and his own Weakness may tempt him to that Dishonesty Only I would have the Reader know that Reason Memory and Understanding are all useful Servants we deny them not a Place in the Heavenly Work but as Instruments not Agents what should not move of themselves to Religious Worship but in and by the Motions of the Holy Spirit of God § 8. The next Scripture he thinks I abuse is this Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or Whither shall I flee from thy Presence From whence sayes he you can scribble thus If God's unerring Spirit be so nigh and the Sence or it so certain it must be either to Reprove for Evil done or to Inform Uphold Lead and Preserve in reference to all Good Now in which of the two senses it shall be taken the Presence of God's Eternal Spirit his being the Saints Instructer Judge Rule and Guide are evidently deduceable from the Words rudis indigestaque moles worse then ever Bear brought forth her Cubbs says J. Falde But this is not all hear him further which with her Licking may be brought into some Shape but your Products are so defective both in Truth right Reason and Syntax and Sense that it is no Dis-reputation to your Adversary to be confounded by them A notable Excuse for no Answer but Silence which is always counted Answer enough by him that hath never another to give Again It is an effectual but an impudent Course to Silence all the World from Opposing you by writing such confident confused Non-sense We may suppose then that there is such a thing as confused Sense Yet again Were it not for the sake of many who conceit your Infallibility which you are here so blindly pleading for I would as soon abandon my Time Non-sense to dispute witha distracted Man in his Raving Fits as with W. Penn till he come better to himself then I find him in his Pamphlet And Reader Canst thou think that my Adversary has taken a fair or probable Way to bring me to my self again whose best Arguments are sordid ill-bred Names down-right Lyes and Slanders I challenge any Man that can soberly pretend to Religion to so much as abet this manner of Proceeding against me and the Way I profess if this were to be Christian as it is Antichristian were I a Turk I should take great Care I came not within the very Suburbs of so base a Profession Where 's J. Faldo's Reading Learning Conscience in this one Passage I will not so much as attempt the Defence of my Argument for it were to say it needed my Assistance or that my Adversary had done somthing to indanger its Security who has so pleaded the Sobriety and Truth of it by an Opposition that could become none but a Creature as for-lorn of all Honesty as himself that it is a Credit to my Cause almost equal with our Clearness that so much Rancour and Ignorance set themselves against it This is no less Man then your Vaunting Struting J. Faldo his own self who thinks as well of himself and deserves as little of it from other Men as any Person that has come within my Ken a long time In short whether I am out of my Wits or he out of all Bounds of good Sense or Manners shall be left with the Reader to determine For my part if this be the Way he intends to take to confute his Opposers he is like to answer himself And give him his due he is as good at it as most Men I know and 't is not to be doubted but he may increase in that Science § 9. But he tells me that my main Fallacies are these two First from an Infallible Spirit-Teaching to the Infallibility of the Subjects in which the Spirit dwells as a Teacher Next from the Spirit 's Teaching to its Immediate and Peculiar Teaching If the First be true without any Consideration had to the Obedience of the Creature and his being guided by the Holy Spirit I will yield it to him that I am mistaken though not fall aciously that implying a Design to do so which I had not And for the Second I am content to stand by the Charge not of a Fallacy but our Faith and such as is Defensible both from Scripture and Reason For if the Truth of no Argument I have made nor any Expression that has fallen from me doth so much as imply his Charge let him not be angry with me that I say He is one of the basest Perverters among Men And if that very Passage by which he hopes to prove this great Deceit of mine is found mute in the Case I hope no Reader will be so unjust as to refuse me the Censure of his being an Unfair Adversary § 10. The first Place he thinks to make for him is this Quench not the Spirit On which I argu'd thus Those to whom he gave the Caution had the Spirit if those could not quench it that had it not consequently the primitive Churches were not without an Unerring Spirit To which he sayes but suppose they had the Spirit it is a miserable erronious and weak Conclusion that they were Infallible How far this makes for him or rather how greatly he has mistaken me is evident if it may be considered that there is not one Word of any Man 's being Infallible in all my Argument only that the primitive Churches had an Infallible Spirit not of their own or from themselves but from God and that they were only so in their Knowledge or Determinations from the unerring Guidance of God's Spirit unless they either were without the Anointing or that the Anointing was Fallible both which are contradicted by the Apostle John in that noted passage 1. 2. 27. So that my Adversary is manifestly guilty of that Fault He doth with no small Aggravation charge upon me viz That from my Arguing the Certainty of the primitive Churches having the Holy Spirit of God to direct them from the Impossibility of their Quenching what they had not he makes me to conclude the Infallibility of the Churches whether they were led by it or no As if I intended to plead the Infallibility
of private Spirits and not rather of the Holy Spirit of God and such only as were conformable to it § 11. His other Cavil confirms the Truth of my former Argument and his own great Ignorance or Baseness My words are these If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit grounded upon that Scripture Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts Gal. 4. 6. To which he sayes Your Adversaries have not so little Knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is Fallible nor yet so Ignorant of your Spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are Infallible Now I have two things to desire of the Ingenuous Reader First to find me out so much as one Syllable in my Argument that infers or concludes the Spirits of such to be Infallible into whose Hearts God has shed abroad his Infallible Spirit whether they are led by it or not or that I could intend a concluding of the Spirit of Man Infallible because God has given his own unto Men that is unquestionably so I am sure such a Thought never entred my Mind as fruitful of them as our Adversary may be Adversary I may well say not only because he is one but that he acknowledges to me as much which let him know however I am not such to him The Second thing I have to desire of the Candid Reader is that he would weigh with himself how Unjust this Man is to me to infer Infallibility to Men from my Affirming it to belong only to the Spirit of God And as if he fear'd I should not be as Heterodox as his Envy would have me to conclude on my Account from what I urged to prove That God's Children in all Ages had an Infallible Spirit to Judge Rule and Guide them the Affirmative of the very Question debated that is God's Spirit That every such one was Infallible in and from his own private Spirit Oh Monstrous Perversion I would impute it to his Mistake of me it being far better to be Ignorant than Dishonest but he will not let me who a little below has Impudence enough to write but we are NOT IGNORANT that your Principles make no Difference or Distinction between the Spirits of God's People and the Spirit of God manifestly intending not that they are at variance for so we should esteem his Charge a piece of Justice but that the Spirit of the Creature and the Spirit of God are but one Spirit An Absurdity that never fell from us How many times hath J. Faldo been guilty in his Discourse of plain Forgery and Dishonesty against us So certain as there is a God in Heaven terrible will his Judgment be in that great Day of Inquest if he repent not § 12. He makes a great Stir about my Checking the late Socinian for making Christ the Head of a Fallible Body saying If Christ be Head to none but the Infallible Wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath Pitty on the Ignorant and those that are out of the Way and I am sure Christ is then none of your Head We have enough and leave his very Ill Language out 1. It is granted to us that Christ is Head to a Fallible Body or at least to Fallible as well as Infallible I charge him to give us one Scripture for this or he is gone for all his idle Puns Shifts and scoffing Flings at us 2. That a Man may be a Saint which if we take it strictly is one of that Number the Apostle prayed the Churches might be of I mean those which were sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit I say that a Man may be such a Saint and yet be Fallible or Erring 3. That the Saints are Ignorant and out of the Way Truly this Doctrine very well becomes J. Faldo I had rather it should be his then mine I will venture them in the Scale of Truth without thinking I run an Hazard in the Matter especially when if I err that hinders not from being a Saint Member of Christ But J. Faldo can a Man be a Saint and yet Ignorant of so much of God as is requisit to constitute him such Or can he be such and yet out of that Way which renders him a true Saint It is the first time that I ever heard in so many words that a Man might be a Saint and out of God's Way Oh Doctrine of Devils No Marvel so many Unclean Fowls flock to this Carkass What! Saints and err from God's Way Strange Saints and ignorant of God's Mind It seems then that neither Ignorance nor Erring from God's Way indispose any to be Saints If this be not a plain Contradiction to the whole Record of Scripture none ever was is or shall be esteemed such to the End of the World How many how grievous and how sharp have God's Complaints been against those who have left the Right Way of the Lord which has been the Way of Light and Righteousness the Just Man's Path through every Generation No Wonder that such Doctrines are hoth greedily received and furiously maintained that sooth up People in the Belief of such Pernicious Soul-murdering Doctrines And the Truth is and I do boldly affirm it and that in the Counsel of the Eternal God it is our striking so constantly and earnestly at this and such like Sin-pleasing Principles that makes the Devil thus bestir himself in his ready Agents to raise up and bespatter us with such heavy Calumnies as almost every one produceth against us But we lose not an Inch of Ground nor a Dram of Courage our Godly Resolution redoubles with our Adversaries On-sets and whatever may befall us here as our Hope so our Reward is from God in that high and heavenly Place which is above the Reach of Time and every Assault of our Implacable Adversaries § 13. He tells me He might proceed to my fallacious Arguing from the Spirit 's Teaching indefinitely expressed that is by Scripture Visions Providences c. means our Adversary to its Teaching peculiarly frequently in my Pampblet pag. 18 29 c. that is to the Spirit 's Teaching Men and Women by its daily and Inward Discoveries Motions and Operations But he will not the Reason is he dare not For if the Spirit be not an Immediate Living Teacher and works not as such to the Information Conviction and Conversion of Men to God in these dayes let him for Shame relinquish all Pretence to Gospel or an Evangelical Dispensation of which it is the peculiar Promise and Priviledge § 14. Though for want of better Language he is pleased to bestow upon this Godly Proposition the Term of Beetle-headed Saying and affirms that the Scripture knows nothing of it For which I may more reasonably affirm that He knows nothing of it For can this Man be