weighty Scripture containing the very Work of Regeneration and sine qua non or that only certain Means Condition and Requisit without which there can be no obtaining of Eternal Life and Salvation requires our best notice and consideration in order to which I shall divide the place into these two Heads and briefly raise my Argument thereon 1. Christ's most positive exclusion of all from any Portion in God's Kingdom who were not born again in answer to Nicodemus his carnal Conceit of the impossibility of an old mans entring a second time into his Mothers Womb. 2. That the Birth which all such as would inhererit God's Kingdom should be Witnesses of was and is the Birth of Water and the Spirit upon which I thus proceed to argue If none can Inherit God's Holy Kingdom but those who are regenerated of Water and the Spirit then none can inherit God's Holy Kingdom but such as are cleansed by Water and taught led and guided by God's Holy Spirit The first none can deny that own the Scripture it being but a part of the very verse quoted the second I evidently prove thus If Water and Spirit be the only operative to Regeneration and Regeneration the alone Way to the Kingdom of God then can no man inherit God's Kingdom that is not regenerated neither can any man be regenerated that is not washed by the Water of Life begotten work't formed inspired and acted by that Eternal Spirit to Newness of Life That to be begotten is to be principally guided and acted by that by which any is so begotten I prove No man can live move sensate or act but from the original Heat Life Motion and Action of that which did beget him because the Nature of that which begets being conveyed to the begotten truly renders him begotten or else there were no such thing but every regenerate man is the Begotten of the Eternal Spirit so far as concerns his Renovation or Regeneration therefore every such regenerated man was and is led motion'd and acted by that Eternal Spirit which begot him and consequently the Saints which are the regenerated are not left destitute of an infallible Teacher Judge Rule and Guide amongst them In short We look upon being born of Water and the Spirit to be Our being cleansed from all filthiness and quickened informed ruled and guided by the most pure and perfect Dictates and Operations of God's Eternal Spirit And how a Regenerated man can be made or continue such without the daily Guidance of that Infallible Spirit and the Scriptures kept clear from the Reflection of Contradiction if not gross Error is a Riddle too hard for me to explain and a Task I may without Presumption say too great for our trifling Antagonist to perform Twelfthly John 14. 16 17 18 20. 16. 13. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever Even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Again Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come be will guide you into all Truth Upon these Divine Passages thus particularly exprest by the Holy Ghost I offer these short Arguments 1. If the Spirit of Truth or most infallible Spirit be God's Gift to his Servants in Gospel times to abide with them forever then are they accompanied with an infallible Spirit but we see the plain Text proves that God gives his Spirit of Truth to his Servants that they might be assisted in all their Wants and therefore they are not without such an infallible Spirit And our Adversary is more to blame to reflect upon the Guidance of an infallible Spirit which is so consonant with the express Letter of a multitude of Scripture Passages then we are because we credit G. F. upon Conviction And if he tells us That unless we believe what our Eyes see of Contradictions as he pretends by him collected out of G. F's Book that he will not believe whatever we shall say or affirm we may on much better Grounds conclude never to believe what he asserts and wholy to decline writing or speaking to him to use his own words if hereafter he will dare to continue in the belief of so Anti-scriptural and Anti-gospel an Apprehension as that there is no infallible Spirit to guide men in the Way of Salvation which is as express and evident from many naked Texts of Scripture as that God is Truth else never did any Writing more delude Mankind because none could be more particular and plain in the Promise and allowance of it But let God and his written Will be true and our Vnspiritual Adversary in his confest Fallible Judgment of us a very Lyar. 2. If the not seeing and knowing of the Spirit of Truth be the Reason rendred by our Lord Jesus why the World receives it not then may we most justly infer that they never saw it neither know it but are of the World who cannot receive it but write against it in reference to its greatest Office viz. Of being the Saints Teacher Leader and Comforter And indeed because the Spirit is not some visible elementary thing that may be seen by their outward Eyes and be comprehended by their dark confused and disputative Brains which is contrary to the Decree and Way of God's manifesting of his Will from the conviction of the least sin to the enjoyment of the highest Glory therefore they dis-regard it as contemptible and dis-believe it as incredible 3. If the Ground of the Saints Knowledge of that Infallible Spirit be the Spirit 's inhabiting them for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you then were they not without that Spirit and consequently they were attended with an infallible Guide within them 4. If the Lord Jesus would not leave them comfortless but though visibly with-drawn yet in a more Spiritual and Invisible manner would come to them again and that at that day they should know that He was in his Father they in Him and He in them Then were his Servants not destitute of an infallible Judge Leader and Guide because they had Him that was the Way Truth and Life to whom all Power and Judgment were committed 5. If both the Spirit of Truth was promised to come and when come to guide into all Truth that is to say that whateve they scrupled were ignorant in or ought to know and practicer with what they were oblieged to reject and testifie against should be by that Eternal Spirit discovered unto them then undoubtedly they were not without an infallible Spirit to Judge Regulate and Guide them in all that concerned Faith Worship and Conversation but the first Proposition is purely Scriptural and therefore the consequent not
grateful is the lowest degree of Reason to us wheresoever we find it that we can no more deny it or occasionally refuse our selves the use of it then the greatest since its being so does not unreason it or render it no Reason in it self though confessedly a less degree of Reason nor is it possible that the meanest Appearance of Reason can withstand the greatest since Reason alwayes acknowledgeth and owneth her self in what Degree soever she meets It is not Stature that makes a Man nor Magnitude a Tree or Stone but the Nature and Property of each And truly we are well contented with our weak Reason as he is pleased to call it we know it to be God's Light Grace and Spirit of Truth that since we gave our Minds intirely to be governed and exercised by it We have found that Mortification of Sin and Corruption that Renewing of Heavenly Divine Life that holy Courage and Patience and it has brought us to so good an Vnderstanding of the Mysteries of God's Eternal Kingdom and Assurance as we are faithful to the same of Everlasting Blessedness that 't is beyond the power of the ratling of these Leaves of Charge and Reproach to scare us from our Standing or beget the least Question in us concerning the certainty of this Pure Unchangeable Way of God in which we walk but is invisible to his vulterous Eye who so disdainfully writes against it I had some hopes he had done with Personal Contest at least against the Body but I find him still in his Reflections For whilst you look upon your selves as led by an infallible Spirit though it be indeed nothing but the Fancy of G. Fox or some other of your Teachers you must needs reject the clearest Light that God hath given to Men 〈◊〉 Angels when it opposes your Sentments Though he could scarce say any thing of us more disingenious and scurrilous rendring us such deluded Sots and very Iddeots as to captivate our own Understandings if he can think we had ever any to the Dreams and Fancies of a few illiterate men under an Apprehension of being led not by them but an Infalible Spirit Yet since in this one Expression lies wrapt up if not his great undervalue of an Infallible Spirit at least his Disbelief of any such thing as the Guide of men and his unworthy Reflection upon us in crediting any such Doctrine I am more then ordinarily engag'd to state and vindicate that one most necessary Doctrine viz. Whether God's holy and Infallible Spirit be the proper Rule of Faith Judge of Controversies and Guide of a Christian Life or any other thing this I reckon as the main Hing on which all turns and I now make it my Post by which in God's Strength I am resolved to stand firm in its Defence and that by Scripture and Reason hoping whatever uncharitable Thoughts he entertains of us that he is not so devoid of all sense of either as that they may not be used with advantage to him under his present Ignorance and Presumption 'T is true this deserves an intire Discourse of it self as that which above all other Subjects disputed on in the whole World deserves mans most weighty Consideration and if the Lord make way it may be by some or other more distinctly and at large hanâ—llâ—d another time in a perticular Tract however I shall state and briefly defend the Question I hope to present satisfaction The Question Stated Whether God's Holy and Unerring Spirit for I am so Charitable as to think he believes God's Spirit to be so is or should be the proper Judge of Truth Rule of Faith and Guide of Life among men especially under the Administration of the Blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or not I affirm it and proceed to prove it both by Scripture and Reason First Gen. 6. 3. And the Lord said My Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man for that he also is Flesh yet his dayes shall be an Hundred and Twenty Years c. If God's Unerring Spirit has been wont to strive with men either to convince them of and convert them from the Evil of their Thoughts words and Deeds or else to provoke them yet more fully to do the Will of God so as to press on from one degree of Glory to another then Men have had an Unerring Spirit to be their Teacher and Judge and Rule and Guide of that Truth concerning that Faith and in that most holy Way which leads to Eternal Life But the Scripture proves the first Proposition That God's Spirit has frequently strove with men and for the Ends before-mentioned and consequently they have not been without an Holy Vnerring Spirit to Teach Judge Regulate and Guide them Secondly Neh. 9. 19 20. Yet thou in thy manifold Mercies forsookest them not in the Wilderness the Pillar of the Cloud departed not from them by Day to lead them in the Way neither the Pillar of Fire by Night to shew them Light and the Way wherein they should go Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them c. If under the Dispensation of the Law God gave his good Spirit to instruct his People which is to say that it should teach them rule them and guide them in whatever was necessary for them to know or do otherwise God's Spirit would have been lame and defective in his holy Instruction which far be it from any sober man to affirm then will it follow that much more should the same Eternal Spirit be poured out under the glorious Dispensation of the Gospel But all that acknowledge the Divine Authority of the Scriptures must confess to God's Goodness to his People in the outward Wilderness in the free Gift of his Eternal Spirit therefore the Eternal Spirit was and is the Teacher Judge Rule and Guide of his People now besides that state was but figurative of the Mystical Travel of the true Church in the dayes of the Gospel and how is God so propitious now as then if he be not as a Pillar of Cloud by Day and of Fire by Night I mean Spiritually and Invisibly so to illuminate his People concerning the way he would have them to walk in Thirdly Job 32. 8. Prov. 2. 6. But there is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Vnderstanding For the Lord giveth Wisdom out of his Mouth cometh Knowledge and Vnderstanding If the Spirit in man be not of man as the foregoing words shew and therefore is that divine Spirit by and from which comes the Inspiration of the Almighty and if the Understanding he mostly intended be of Divine and Eternal Matters as the whole Subject treated on in the preceeding and following Chapters as well as that in which the words are manifests then is it not from the strength of mans Reason Memory or utmost Creaturely Ability that his Knowledge of Religious and Heavenly Things comes but from the Revelation and Discovery of the
vere sayes he in the Person of the Apostle ego gaudeo de vestro profectu in Christo ita verum est me quotidie paratum mori As I truly rejoyce at your profitting in Christ so true it is that I am daily ready to dye for it is wanting but may be understood To this of Grotius a considerable but nameless English Annotator does agree And let me further add that the Various Lections have it by way of Correction propter not per for and not by And now it may be time for me to tell our Adversary in general and mine in particular that though I don't blush to read his Impertinencies perhaps I am not ingenious enough for such he sayes will he ought at least to be ashamed of writing them and I am truly in pain for him that he should both afflict himself for the poor man has an irksome way of telling his Tale and is fain to churm long before any thing comes and also disturb others with any thing so meanly inviting and little profitting the People To Conclude If any would in short know the plain and honest Reason of our refusing to Swear to omit the many Arguments that might be urged what Glosses might be given or Authorities produced 't is this That as Christ Jesus is the Author of so perfect a Religion that the least Affirmative or Negative be it but Yea or Nay is compleatly and unquestionably true so it is below his Evangelical Righteousness and such as are gathered not only to the belief but possession of it to so much as admit of an Oath as being fitter to be enjoyned equivocating Pharisees then Honest-Hearted Disciples with whom it is the same thing to Lye as to Forswear for an Oath having been made from the Distrust of Honesty in Him that was to take it where the Cause is removed Lyes Equivocations mental Reserves c. the Effects or that extraordinary scrupulous way of Evidence should cease And if any object the Law of the Land or the Ignorance of Magistrates of our Truth and Innocency I Answer The Law is either answered by Truth being spoken or satisfied by an infliction of the same Penalty upon the Lyar that is incurred by a perjured Person we need no Fines Racks nor heavy Imprecations to scare us into Truth-speaking who Believe in Fear and Worship the God of all Truth and that in Spirit and Truth The next abuse of us so far as concerns our Belief belongs to respecting of Persons he calls it our great Doctrine in a way of Reproach and often cavilling not without his wonted Folly at G. F's Wo unto them that are called of Men Master in which he only sayes what is certainly imply'd in Christ's Prohibition which he should have first confuted he undertakes the Refutation of it thus True indeed sayes Christ Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren c. Now I will take the Liberty to argue a little because the Text seems to be so plain on your side first you do restrain it from extinding all Men from being called Master whilst you allow your Servants to call you our Masters because you are their Masters which Exception is not in the Text why may not another call you Masters because you have Servants and are Masters I Answer First then he has broke his word with us which in plainer English is he has told us a Lye in assuring us at the beginning He would deal with us neither from Scripture nor Reason and yet undertakes both Certainly he is ill able to maintain Right Swearing that is wanting in True Speaking or writing at least We may well suppose his Evidence so much boasted of has left him now that he betakes himself to Scripture and Reason for defence but considering how little they will prove friendly to his Cause he is no otherwise to be complained of for Breach of Word then that the Will may be accepted for the Deed. But next The Text also must be blamed Why may an honest-hearted man say Because upon our Adversaries Principles it seems to be against mens being called Rabbi and yet is not Strange â—rreverence to Holy Writ What make it say one thing in most express termes as much as Thou shalt not Steal and yet mean the quite contrary Who makes it their Rule now We or our Adversary But let 's examine his Meaning and he is so absurd that I am confident I have heard a better Argument out of Bedlam however let us once more repeat it If you call men Masters that are really your Masters why may you not call your very Servants Masters if they have Servants which is as much as to say If you call men Masters that are really your Masters why should not you call other men Masters though they are not really your Masters O I but they are other men's Masters are they Then let other men call them so For there is no more Reason that we should call other Men Masters that are not our Masters because they are really some bodies Masters then that 〈◊〉 should call other men Fathers and Servants and other Women Wâ—â—es that are not our Fathers Servants nor Wives because they are really Fathers Servants and Wives to other Persons We can call Him Master Father Servant or Her Wife who really is so to us but in doing it otherwise we believe we should Err. A Master and Father of old I confess to have signified a Religious as well as Civil Honour I mean Sect-Masters among the Jews but since both are as well repugnant to common Truth as the Christian Religion we renounce the Title and are the rather so to do because of that great Thirst which this Age as well as that in which our Lord so severely reproved it has after that very Vanity Deceit and Wickedness and this simple honest Practice and Zeal for it we are not ashamed to have weighed in the Ballance of God's Sanctuary against all the flattering cringing Customs of Personal Respect whether by Word or Gesture now practiced in the VVorld VVell But he is of the mind that the Scripture is not a little for him since the Apostle both in his Epistle to the Ephesians and in that to the Collossians exhorts Fathers not to provoke their Children and Masters to give what was equal to their Servants in which the poor man is as much besides himself at least the matter as in all the rest for he might as well argue against what he takes for granted viz. That we refuse not to call such Masters as really are our Masters as to suppose we deny that an Apostle or Minister of Christ might not exhort the Fathers of Children to be tender to them and Masters of Servants to be just to them Certainly none can be so stupid as to imagine that the Apostle called them Fathers and Masters in a way of Title or upon singular Respect We may as
pressed thereby as a Cart is with Sheaves and that since the Foundation of the World 4thly He quotes G. F. thus The Promise is to the Seed the Seed is Christ and Christ is all and in all To which he sayes The Apostle has it thus And when all things shall be subdued unto Him then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him that God not Christ may be all in all He could not have doâ—â— greater Injury to the Holy Spirit 's words then to put Christ for God It will not be hard to clear this Mistake in our Adversary and that to his great Shame For who will think him fit to mannage Controversies that is ignorant in the very letter of the Scripture It is evident that he denies Christ to be all and in all and that G. F's so asserting him to be is the Cause of his Cavil at him Now hear what the Apostle sayes in the matter Col. 3. 11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is All and in All And if Christ be All and in All and he that is All and in All be the True and Living God then because Christ is All and in All Christ is the true and Living God Now who has done the Injury G. F. to the Holy Writ or this obstinate and peevish Adversary to Christ Jesus the only Lord of Glory 5thly His next Socinian Clash at G. F's Citation of Scripture is in the same Page with the former and it is at his saying God is the Word instead of the Word was God adding That though the Word was made Flesh or was Flesh yet no considerate man will say that Flesh is the Word A great deal of do for fear Christ should be God but from this notable Distinction of his we are not without a Relief If the Word was God and the Word be God then God must needs be the Word that is If he that is called God be the same Being with him that is called the Word then God may as well be called the Word as the Word may be called God for instance If Christ and Jesus agree equally to one and the same Being what is the difference betwixt saying Jesus was Christ or Christ was Jesus Certainly we may justly say of him what he in a way of Reflection sayes of G. F. Methinks he is more Nice then Wise And for his Instance about the Word 's being made Flesh that is sayes he was Flesh I deny his Paraphrase for it is neither properly to be read was made Flesh nor was Flesh but rather The Word took Flesh and pitcht his Tent or Tabernacle in us Thus Clarius and almost all agree It to import a more Spiritual signification so Erasmus and Grotius especially and for the Ancients they were positive Ireneus Justinus Tertullianus Origen c. but above the rest Tertullian adv Praxeam but this is not so very material to the Point However if the very Word had become very Flesh I mean visible to Carnal Eyes it would not be inconsiderate in any man to say then Flesh is or was the Word and if our Adversary understood himself he would perceive that there would be only a Transposition of words and no material Alteration For that which is now Flesh or as the Hebrews have it Man is the Word as that which is God is also the Word But enough for this only we may observe by the way that the Man is not so hearty an Enemy to Transubstantiation as he would have us believe pag. 44. who can think the Word was properly made Flesh 6thly His Objection against G. F. for joyning Christ with God saying His Father and He are greater then all is Irreverent and Frivolous For who dares deny it and what abuse is it to Scripture Sure I am his saying so and that without any Reason shews him to be a man of Unreasonable Confidence 7thly He is angry that when G. F. mentions this Passage To whom every Knee must bow and Tongue confess to the Glory of God that he adds not Father I could not have believed that any man who loves Seriousness should bestow his Time so idlely Is this the earnest and deep Study â—e talkt of by which he hopes to obtain Divine Knowledge But sayes he Why did he not add the term Father to God nor insert that Jesus Christ is Lord But the truth of this Scripture consists not with their Doctrine that the Father and Son are one I confess it is somewhat hard to understand what he would be at but let it suffice that he who is called God is called Lord above an Hundred times therefore one to which Christ Himself bears Record I and my Father are one my Father worketh hitherto and I work for whatsoever things he doth those doth the Son To us a Child is born to us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon His Shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderful Councellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace the same Power Spirit Light Life Wisdom and Being forever 8thly His next Antichristian Cavil is at G. F's making the Holy Spirit as well to proceed from the Son as from the Father The Scripture runeth thus But when the Comforter is come the Spirit of Truth whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceeds from the Father He shall testifie of Me But sayes he according to G. F. thus Christ is in the Father and the Father in Him and He will send them the Comforter that proceeds from the Father and the Son and for this quotes an Epistle writ by G. F. and J. S. and prefixt to G. W's Book of the Divinity of Christ It is past my skill to understand the Difference unless it be this That the Spirit he makes to proceed as well from the Son as from the Father and so it doth if I understand Scripture for the place it self saith it But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father which shews that not only God but Christ also sends forth the Holy Spirit into the Faithful Also But if I depart I will send Him unto you He shall not speak of Himself but whatsoever He shall hear He shall glorifie me and shall shew it unto you And when he had said this Peace be unto you my Father hath sent me even so send I you He breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost In short If the Holy Spirit be sent by Christ and received of Christ and is breathed on His by Christ then the Spirit must needs proceed or come from Christ and consequently what G. F. said is sound and Scriptural and our Adversary's Clamours are Vain and Envious For whilst he quotes G. F's calling upon Vincent Danson and
either in its Original or the numerous Translations that are in the World whereof so scarcely two agree We say not the Letter but the Life it self is the Evangâ—lical Rule they say not any such Divine Life oâ— Spirit by any Internal Discoveries or Operations but the bare single Letter or Scriptures containing so many express Words Points c. are that only Gospelâ—Rule Wherefore to make G. F. as condemnable as the Priâ—â—ts they must first prove him to hold the same Principle that they do which because he does not he is not liable to the same Reproof with them Indeed to none at all Where let it be further considered That they affirm the Scriptures to be their Rule wholâ— excluding the Spirit of God And we believe the Eternal Spirit to be our Rule not excluding the Serious Use of Scriptures suitable to that Saying They that are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and I will write my Law in their Hearts and put my Fear in their Inward Parts The Scriptures testifie of me but ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life But before I conclude this Subject I must needs tell the Man that he hath not only taken as well a New as Insufficient Way to prove G. F. an Impostor c. but he has equally manifested his Ignorance and Want of Candout in what he has done For who is there that ever understood the Laws of Translation that would revile a Man for giving the same Sense in Words as forceable though not the very same Or Who would count a Man an Impostor False Prophet c. because of a meer Verbal Alteration in a Sentence where the Matter remains intire and unviolated Certain I am that the best Translators in the World have endeavoured to make their Authors speak their matter in the Phrase and propriety of that Language into which they have been rendered which had been utterly impossible if they had been turned Verbatim and after the genuine Phrase and mode of their Original Tongues Such Versions being like the wrong side of the Cloath or reading Words backward Let our Adversary inform himself after what manner all the Classick Authors Great Philosophers and Famous Historians are made French by the Criticks of that Tongue in their New Academy at Paris Nor is Our Country wholely-void of Instances as the Translation of Thusidides Polybius Justinus Caesars Comentaries Quintus Curtius Livius Seneca Tacitus Homer Virgil Ovid Lucan Council of Trent Campanella Du-Plessy Grotius Bâ—colini Malvetzy St Amour and fourty more peeces in which I dare affirm that neither Verbs Nouns Pronouns Participles Gerunds Adjectives Conjunctives Copulates Subjunctives Prepositions Adverbs Tenses Cases Numbers c. are so much as considered in their Translation but only how the Matter so exprest in its Original Tongue may be most aptly rendered into Our own If then this Scope is both practised by and allowed to all Translators I would fain know why it should be so Criminal in G. F. to have given the Scope and whole tendency of Scripture Texts in other Words then what are in our conmon Translations But certainly this shows that rank Enmity which lodgeth in the Man's Mind and is to me a plain Demonstration of his implacable Malice that like the Black Jaundies has so over-run him as I fear it will almost be impossible that he should ever recover to any tolerable moderation though We could desire he might come to a Sight and Sense of his Folly Ignorance and Bitterness against us and not longer continue to kick against the pricks in himself nor to endeavour however he miss his aim to gore the sides of an Innocent People with his False Glosses and Calumnious Accusations for certainly the Righteous God of Heaven and Earth will effectually judge for these things by whose eternal Power and Spirit and for whose Cause on Earth we are what we are at this very day And though the Contradiction of Abstinate sinfull men be truely burthensom on their account and this continual toil of Controversy very unpleasant to our selves yet for the alone sake of Gods unchangeable Truth and Heavenly Way to Life Eternal we do cheerfully overlook our own Trouble Weight and Exercise counting it our duty and therein our Satisfaction to be at all times ready for the Service of it let what will ensue And be it known to all the World that as our Religion stands not in the Doctrines Meanings Preachings or Notions of mens devising or deducting from the Scriptures themselves but in the Living Quicking Power of the Eternal God which plainly discovers Sin and wounds deeply for it and as obeyed ransoms the Soul from Death Hell and the Grave to serve the Living Lord God in his New Living and Spiritual Way So do we proclaim it to the Nations that all Religions short of this are but the Form without the Power and make up but that Whâ—re with her golden Cup which has bewitched Tongues and Kindreds and People She that has a name to Live as the Lambs Bride true Church c. whilst indeed She is but that great Harlot that has committed all manner of Abomination with whole Kingdoms under the specious shew of Religion wherefore every one of you to whom this Book comes search and examine in the Dread and Fear of Almighty God how it stands with thee Hast thou ever been prickt to the Heart and repented with that Repentance which sorrows for Sin past and turns from Sin to come which is never to be repented of And dost thou feel the Living Powerfull Workings of Gods Power and Spirit in thy Heart regenerating thee without which thou canst not be a Child of God and Heir of Glory I say O Man unless thou comest to know the work of thy Souls Redemption from the Pit and Deliverance of thy mind from the Snares and Temptations of the Devil begun in thy self by which to live to God and to have the Testimony of his Eternal Spirit in thy Conscience that thou hast turned at the Reproof of Instruction and hast felt the Blood of Cleansing and art now walking on in the strait and narrow Way of Life and Righteousness which â—rucifies the Earthly Mind thy Praying Preaching Observations and whole Religion are vain and will prove all of none effect in the Day when the Lord God Eternal shall make strict Inquisition and Search after what Fruits have been by every one brought forth Wherefore be ye all awakened to the Fear of the Lord and mind diligently that Blessed Light which shines in your Hearts and is able to give unto you the Knowledge of God in the Face of Jesus Christ which is the true Knowledge and Wisdom that come from above that make Wise to Life Eternal for the Wisdom that is from below may study carp contend about Scriptures and Religion and from thence frame and imagine how those thingâ—s are workt that are mention'd therein and I know doth but can never give
from Falshood the Rule of what ought to be received and embraced and the Guide of Life be the Anointing which none denies that I know of to be the Spirit of God then both the only way to be taught all things necessary to be believed and performed is the Anointing and that Anointing is in Believers respectively but the Scripture so asserts And consequently the right Christian is not without that Infallible Spirit to teach and lead him into all Truth 1 John 3. 24. And he that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us If the Union betwixt Christ and his Children be that they dwell in him and he in them and that they thereby know it by the Spirit that he hath given them which implies that they had the Unerring Spirit of Christ then true Believers are not without Christ and his Spirit dwelling in them to Guide Rule and Instruct them in all things necessary to Eternal Life and Salvation He that denyes the first denyes the Scripture and he that rejects the second Proposition had as good deny that Day is an Effect of Light Jude 19 20. These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost c. If such as have not the Spirit are sensual then because the true Children of God are not sensual it follows that they have the Spirit and that those who have it not are not the Children of God because such are sensual This the Apostle further manifests to be his mind because leaving the sensualists he addresses himself to the Sanctified of God exhorting them To build up one another on their most holy Faith Praying in the Holy Ghost which shews that they performed their Worship to God in the Motion of the Eternal Spirit and consequently they could not be destitute of an Unerring Spirit in what concerned them either towards God or Men. Thus have I briefly run through the Scriptures of Truth and doubt not but I have made it appear That God has afforded his People in all Ages such a measure of his Eternal Spirit as hath been sufficient to Inform Rule and Guide them infallibly in and about those things which are absolutely necessary to be known or done unto Eternal Life It remains That I evidence the Truth of my Assertion by Reason also which I shall endeavour with what convenient brevity I can That Christian Men have an Infallible Principle to Judge Rule and Guide them I prove by REASON First I Shall take it for granted That no man whom either Education or Conviction gives to believe there is a God can be so unreasonable as to tâ—ink That any man may be farther able to understand what this God is and his Divine Pleasure concerning him then the same is discovered to him by some external or internal Operation from the same infinite Beeing this then must either be by the visible Creation or that invisible Taste or Rellish the Soul has by vertue of the divine Touches Influences and Discoveries that the Almighty Invisible God is pleased to approach his Creatures by as the next clearest way to communicate unto them the knowledge of himself Secondly And as I know not any who professeth Religion that makes the least scruple of this so how is it possible that such Discoveries as God himself is pleased to make should be fallible or subject to any Defect in themselves for were that admitted as must be upon the Principles of our Adversary then must we conclude an Imperfect Knowledge nay an uncertain not to say Erronious Knowledge of and Faith in God to be from God's own defective Manifestations of himself which however truly deduced from his Positions is a most Vnworthy and False Reflection upon the Mercy and Goodness of God Thirdly There is an absolute necessity That what it is convenient for man to know should be certainly and infallibly discovered to him because of that great Corruption Idolatry and Superstition which through that misty and uncertain Prospect they say man has of the Divine Will he may be subject to fall into and like the vain Worshippers of old conceit an Ape Serpent or Crockedell to be a Deity or some other Beeings or Fancies though less gross yet too gross for a Christian man Fourthly Upon our Adversary's Principles there can be no assured Ground of Comfort for when a man shall think he hath workt out his Salvation in the Way he Conceives most acceptable with God perhaps he hath followed an Erronious Judgment and Unsubject Affection and when Repentance may be too late he is to be fob'd off with such an Award as this You had no Infallible Knowledge and having lived in an Erronious sense of your own you must inherit the Displeasure that follows thereby making well or ill believing or doing a meer Lottery or doing of things by Chance and not from any certain knowledge in themselves of what God required of them A Conceit worthy to be disdained by every sober man Fifthly And were I as our Adversary I would never beat my Brain about what is true or false since upon his Principles when Truth meets me I know her not from Error and after I should have writ Volums I am as certain of the Truth of what I oppose as of what I assert so that the Quakers may be in the right for ought he knows nor have they any certain grounds from him on which to alter or believe the contrary Sixthly Nor does this Opinion of our Adversary that there is no such thing as man's being now led by an infallible Spirit end there for it rendereth the Almighty more injust then the worst of men since first he seems to offer men the clearest Discoveries of so much of his Will as he requires them to live conformable unto yet means nothing less by leaving Mankind to labour under the perplexity of an uncertain Knowledge And secondly Concludes him notwithstanding under the greatest certainty of eternal Punishment Methinks then If these things seem unreasonable though the genuine Effects of a fallible Guide our Adversary should by this time think it fit to allow us 1. That God cannot be known but by the Discoveries he makes of himself through his Eternal Power and Spirit unto Mankind 2. That though such Discoveries may be imperfect in Degree yet not in kind 3. That such Revelation Discovery or Instruction is infallibly true and that there is nothing wanting on God's part to accommodate man with a Spiritual Certain Infallible Discovery and Knowledge of Almighty God his Creator and therefore man has to rectifie and assist his fallible Judgement an Vnerring Certain Infallible Spirit Power or Principle which as man listens unto it and follows it his Vnderstanding becomes illuminated his Reason purified and a sound Judgment restored and in all things is
therein contained which is belying him with a Witness I suppose our Adversaries Observation in the World cannot but give him to understand Yet how we can properly Character such Libidinoso's or inordinate Persons false Prophets or Impostors is left with the ingeneous Reader to consider I hope by this time the Way he takes to prove George Fox what he wickedly sayes him to be is evidently detected of Insufficiency and that upon his own positions George Fox can not be concluded either an Impostor or false Prophet I shall now make it appear that he is as well mistaken in the proof of the Truth of his Charge as in the way he took to state it and that no man in that compass could well have manifested more Weakness Folly Malice and Untruth as well in desending of his own as in opposing our Principles then this our Adversary we have in hand To follow him into every Absurdity would not only be more then he deserves at our hands or any mans that loves time better then to lose it But it would needlesly swell the Discourse beyond both my Intention and the Service it is designed to I shall therefore contract and divide his exceptions to George Fox's quotation of Scriptures into these three sorts 1. Such as may refer to Doctrinal Difference I mean wherein he opposeth us 2. Such as refer to his Socinian Interpretation of the Scriptures wherein Christ's Divinity is asserted where we oppose him 3. Such as are meerly trivial in which there can be no pretence for accusing George Fox of any alteration as to what himself judges generally to be the sence of the places only perhaps a transposing of the words or the using of a word of equal force but not the same no wayes detracting or varying from the mind of the Scriptures But that a man should make fifty Cavils and faithless number doctrinal or to any solid purpose befits no man that loves to be profitably employed but it therefore suits him that is so over-run with the Lazy as I am really perswaded he busies not himself in one serviceable Work in a week together only sits upon his own Saturnal Dreams till he has with difficulty hatcht them into some seeming consistency and then they are to slutter abroad upon his paper wings scarce good enough for waist to the shop which traffiques in such kind of ware till persecution comes with the Scorch of which they are wont to singe and wrap up like a Scrole But enough of this Now for his Doctrinal Exceptions He begins with what we confess to Gods Glory to be our beginning and stumbles at it as much as did the Jews of old I mean Christ Jesus the great Son of Righteousness and Light of the invisible and spiritual World by Which the invisible Souls and Spirits of men come to obtain the saving Knowledge of God and what is required from them in order to their eternal Salvation What can we expect then but Darkness from him that seeketh to disparage the Light But let us hear him The first Scripture which I shall pitch upon as misrecited in his Language that is George Fox's perverted and corrupted shall be that in John 1. 9. he cites it almost as often wrong as right The Scripture runs thus in our translation That was the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World A long Porch where 's the House says he in the Greek it is coming not that cometh and so it may refer to light as well as man But George Fox hath it thus John said Every man that cometh into the World is enlightned and several sayings of the like tendency But now hath he observed that Exactness which he requires in others may there be no Difference between lighteth and enlighteth must every man of necessity he enlightned because the Light lighteth him Wonderful Distinction Certainly this man sets up for a new Class of Criticks I wonder into what Labyrinth he hath travell'd for this notable gloss a body would think he had left his Wits if ever he had any behind in exchange But I answer I look upon it as conceited and presumptious for any man to undertake what he cannot prove and not less base to affirm a man mis-cites perverts and corrupts Scripture when he renders the genuine sense of it And this I briefly prove If I grant to this Pseudo-linguist that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Participle and not a Verb as our English renders it what then must it needs follow that it refers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Has he made no better use of his Greek Grammar 'T is strange that any man so mean in that Tongue should undertake to thwart the current of all indifferent Translators whom he sticks not to make use of at other times I have taken a view of the most and best Editions both of Greek Syriack Arabick Aethiopick and Latine I could at present find besides several other Languages amongst others a Gothick and Anglo Saxonick Testament which I suppose I understand as much as he doth Greek or thereabouts which I shall also produce for satisfaction The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was the true Light which enlighteth every man coming into the World The Syriack Version has it Omnem venientem in mundum All coming into the World Which sayes Drusius is sufficient The Arabick hath it thus That was the true Light which enlightens every man making coming to begin the next verse which I suppose was a Mistake in the Version of it however it gives no force to our Adversary since he is said to enlighten all men before his coming or being come into the World is mention'd by the Evangelist in him was Life and that Life was the Light of men he was the of men In the Aethiopick Version we find it thus And he is the Light of Righteousness which enlightens all men coming into the World Which Luther renders thus Erat lux vera quae illuminat omnen hominem venientem in hunc mundum Luther He was the true Light which enlightens every man that comes into the World Which Erasmus renders thus Erat lux illa lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in mundum Erasmus That Light was the true Light which enlightneth every man that comes into the World Which Beza renders thus Hic erat lux illa vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in Mundum Beza This was that true Light which enlightens every man that comes into the World Montanus thus Erat lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum Montanus He was the true Light which enlightens every man that comes into this World The Italian Version thus La vera Luce era quellach illumina ogni huomo che viene all mondo Italian The true Light was that which enlightens all men which come into the World The Spanish thus Aquella
Phesictha 2. 1. Testimonio sunt omnibus venientibus in mundum quod inter â—os 〈◊〉 Divinitas That is to say Every man coming into the World sayes he All coming into the World had been sufficient But he may he called Man before he comes into the World he comes into the World when he is born Therefore Man coming into the World is not simply a man but a man born But the Hebrew call all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is coming or being both into the World Lib. Musar c. 5. If all that come into the World should meet to make a Fles and to infuse a Soul they could not do it In Munere novo a Book so called All coming of the World that is into the World shall see 78. 2. and often elsewhere Phesictha 2. 1. All coming into the World have a testimony that there is a Deity among them Thus much concerning the sense of Learned men upon the place controverted which if it doth no good will I hope do no hurt though a man would think that so many able to teach him Greek might conclude him unless he has more to tell us then in his late Libel Overlooking then some other Authors I shall as I am able give my own reasons why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more properly belongs to man then Light First Iâ— Christ be that true Light by way of eminency which not only the Scriptures most plainly character him to be but all Criticks and Interpreters agree to be the import of the place then will it necessarily follow upon their â—â—tion who generally make coming the participle of Light rather then Man that true Light never saw the World or rather the World true Light till the Messiah's visible coming and that consequently all Antecedent Livers to his external appearance however good and holy men were destitute of the true or saving Light as having never rose upon them nor they been illuminated or refresht with the Divine Light and Heat thereof which as it is a most irreverent thought of God and uncharitable towards many deceased Generations so it is forever to be exploded foâ— false and inconsistant with the impressions incident to every man as well as the testimonies of the Scripture For who living â—an believe that before the Mâ—ssiah's coming there was not a sufficient Light given to those holy Patriarchs and Prophets which if true Christ as that true Light by way of eminency must have been before such manifestation We shall easily grant that in reference to the transcendency of its appearance as to what had been it might be said more eminently to come at that time but to exclude all lesser degrees of Illumination by the same saving Light antâ—cedent to its brighter Discoveries in that day we can never do but do and shall maintain the contrary knowing that it is not a distinct or other Light that saves now then formerly did but a more large Discovery of the same To which agrees that of Christ himself Joh. 8. 56 58. before Abraham was I am Abraham saw my Day and was glad And that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 4. for they dranâ— of the Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ The Way of the Just is a shining Light 2. Besides what shall we say upon their Transposition of the words as to the time then present I mean when the Light after their sense was coming into the World for that the Scriptures will be most false methinks they themselves should see since it is notorious that neither whilst he was coming nor come one quarter of Mankind was any whit extraordinarily enlightned much less savingly by him but they remained Infidels as before 3. Nor is this all for at this rate We since his Departure are left as destitute as they before his coming and as they who heard not of him when he was come were wholly ignorant for how is it possible upon their Interpretation that we should have any saving Light Christ in whom was the excellent Light and Power is gone Say they the Scriptures in many points are left dubious as Peter testifies of Paul's Epistles Say I neither is there any unerring Interpreter or Guide to be obtained at this time a day Say they again Certainly then there can be but little true Knowledge sound Faith or well-grounded Comfort in so ill-founded a Religion whose Belief is a kind of Fiction and their Hope but a better sort of Despair To conclude 4. We therefore think it a wrong done to the Text because of the Participles unsuitableness to Light and its natural agreement to Man for men are continually coming into the World and at such enlightned which can not be said of Light in their sense The Messiah don 't visibly appear as formerly That Light is ecclipst as he himself said it was convenient to be or the Comforter would not come but that Divine intellectual Light which was most excellent he promised should endure with his to the End by a degree of which also the holy Patriarchs of old saw the Glory of his Day and Evangelical Dispensation though as to the then State of the World it was altogether unfit for it wherefore it is said that they desired to see his Day and saw it not How Did they not see it as to themselves By no means for many of them saw it but they never saw it break forth as Gods Dispensation to the World though they much desired it because of the Worlds incapacity to receive it What shall I further say If coming cannot so properly be said of Light in their sense as of Man in ours since so every man in all ages comes to have the benefit of that Light offer'd unto him which in the other sense must be lost to thousands or they loose the advantage of it being not then born in that Age in which that Sun though for a little season was pleased to visit the World then let it not be Light coming but Man coming into the World In short take it in their sense and one Age is hardly benefitted take it in ours and all mankind is illuminated As to the drift of our Adversary in his Transposition of the Participle viz. the Divestigating Christ of all Right to Eternal Divinity which is the Snake in the Grass I shall anon sufficiently I hope vindicate that great Truth though I cannot but wonder since we without dammage can allow him that the Words may be true both wayes as I have already and may yet further demonstrate that he would desire only to receive them in one as if on purpose he had a mind to dethrone him from the Seat of his Eternal Majesty For what if John had chiefly intended a Description of the Heavenly Structure of the New World and Christ to have been the Enlightner of all that come into it and further that the Messiahs then coming was Author of that most excellent Creation must it needs therefore follow
the Matter as we have observed before 3. Erasmus upon the same place tells us That its import so far as concerned the nature of the Light lies here Illa Lux erat Fons Luminis unde ipsi quoque Johanni suum fluxit Lumen That Light was the Fountain of Light from whence John himself received that Light he had If so then a supernatural and saving Light then God and consequently more then a Man because as such John was before Him and could not be enlightened by him 4. Beza though he restraineth that Light to a particular Number which is not the Point in Controversie yet he confesseth it to be a Saving Light at least to as many as God hath destinated it Quasi de regenerationis gratia hic agatur quae Filijs Dei peculiariter est destinata 5. Tollet speaks very notably on this occasion Sunt vero tres illius lucis proprietates antiquitas veritas communitas quae cum Johanni non insint recte concluditur illum lucem illam non esse quae illuminant omnem hominem venientem in Mundum non in Iudaeos solum sed et in omnes gentes Lumen suum diffundit Dicitur autem Lux illa omnem hominem illuminare sicut Sol qui sufficiens lumen expandit omnes illuminat omnibus propositus est ut videant quod si qui non vident defectus Solis non est sic Christus in hoc Mundo omnibus quidem hominibus quantum est in se et ex efficacia Lucis suae lucet That is There be three Properties which are peculiar to the Light Antiquity which sayes he else-where is Eternity Truth by way of Excellency and Community in that all men who are born into the World partake of it or are enlightened by it But that Light like unto the Sun is said to enlighten all men who streams forth Light sufficient that it may give Light to all and he is set before all that all may see Thus doth Christ on his part illuminate all men with his Efficatious Light 6. Maldonatus to the same purpose thus Non-nulli hoc de naturali rationis lumine intellexerunt Sed minime dubium est de spirituali lumine intelligendum de doctrina de fide de gratia de vita illa de qua diâ—â—erat vita erat Lux hominum Cypri lib. 1. Christ us non solum in hunc Mundum veniens sed postquam antequam veniret erat Lux vera quae illuminabat omnem hominem venientem in hunc Mundum Which is to say Some have understood this place as treating of the Light of Nature or Reason but sayes he there is little doubt but it is to be understood of a Spiritual Light of Doctrine of Faith of Grace and of that Life concerning which he viz John had said and that Life was the Light of men as sayes Cyprian lib. 1. And not only as Christ's coming but both before and after he came he was the true Light which enlightens every man coming into the World 7. Vatablus has it in the same sense with Erasmus He was the Fountain of Light it self Unde etiam Johannes quicquid habebat Lucis From whence John received what Light be had Zegerus though not on these very words yet to the context In him was Life c. speaks thus Et Vita erat Lux hominum Lux in tenebris lucet illa inquit vita per quam condita sunt omnia illa vita quae est Verbum imo quae Deus omnis Vitae Fons ipsa semper fuit est Lux omnium hominum quae omnibus impertit naturalis luminis gratiae beneficium haec Lux in tenebris animarum nostrarum lucet quas animas obscurarat Princeps iste tenebrarum Diabolus And that Life was the Light of Men and the Light shines in Darkness c. that Life sayes be by which all things were made that Life which is the Word yea which is God the Fountain of all Life that very Life ever was and is the Light of Men which furnisheth all both with the advantage of natural or worldly Light and the Light of God's Grace And this Light shineth in the Clouds or dark places of our Hearts which the Devil that Prince of Darkness hath vailed Cameron also is not forreign in his Exposition but seems to conceive the same thing Etsi verum est omnem humanae mentis Lucem esse ab illo Sole attamen intelligendum est praecipue de illa Luce quae est ad salutem qua fit ut tenebris peccati mortis liberemur And though it be true that what Light man hath it proceeds from that Sun yet it is chiefly to be understood of that Light which leads to Salvation and by which we may be freed from the Darkness or Grave of Sin and Death Thus much as to the Judgment of these Grandees in the World's account as to their concurrent Exposition of this place by which it may be seen that Men famous for accute Learning have had that sense of the truth of the letter of the Scripture which we have been reputed Hereticks indeed what not for maintaining as an Article of Christian Faith It is to be hoped that People will accept of Truth from them if their Prejudice will not admit them to embrace it from us but since it is not our Praise we seek but the Glory of Him that made us and the Salvation of others we shall not be displeased if they receive the Truth at any hand so they receive it as it in Jesus Here I would fain break off but that I feel my self somewhat prest with a few Passages which refer to the Light towards the Conclusion of the Libel that may not improperly be considered under this Head Certainly it would be thought very strange and that I have spent my time as unprofitably as the Emperor that would be all day a killing of Flies if at last I should make this man speak the Language of the Light nay to be a Defender of it too against whom I have been all this while defending it but who can help it if men will self-contradict and put Weapons into their Opposers Hands to Disarm and Conquer themselves Though in one page he tauntingly sayes He is perswaded that some of us have such an Opinion of the Light our great Fundamental that though an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Doctrine then that which G. F. hath preached they could not give ear to it which Saying one would think abusive enough of the Light yet he makes amends in the next where he thus addresseth himself to us Or rather that so much reproached Light I appeal to the Light in every one of you whether he is not guilty Himself in a much higher degree of such things as he condemns in others Monstrum horrendum What man of tollerable sense would thus write
things of God which all Natural Understanding can never fathom because they are Spiritually to be discerned Fifteenth 1 Cor. 6. 19. What Know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own The Apostle treating of the great nearness that every Believer stands in to the Lord and that Blessed Union which the Dispensation of the Gospel brings to by the putting away the Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and the Answer of a good Conscience before God in winding up this subject he thus smartly and as if his Query were enough to clear up all that he had to say to them as to their Duty and his Exhortation What know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you From whence I draw this Argument If Believers be the Temple in which the Holy Ghost dwells as evidently speaks the Scripture then are they not left without an Infalible Spirit as Judge Rule and Guide to repair to but it is apparent to sence that the holy Ghost is by the Apostle affirmed to inhabit or take up his abode in believers therefore they must needs be attended with an iufallible Spirit and for what if not the End before-mentioned Sixteenth 1 Cor. 12 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be Bond or Free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit By which Divine Sence of the Apostle we cannot but allow that if they were both baptized by one Spirit into one Body and made to drink into the same Spirit that the Saints were not without an Infallible Spirit since such Baptizing and Drinking do emphatically imply the whole Work of the Spirit in their Regeneration and their daily Union with and intimate Enjoyment of it the whole course of their lives And certainly If by that Eternal Spirit they were baptized ito that one Body Christ It was as impossible for them as Members thereof to live without the Life Vertue and Spirit of Christ Jesus their Head as for any natural Body to live without the same Life Blood Heat and Motion which belongs to its Head And how this man can be esteemed a good Christian who would render Christ Jesus the Head of a Fallible Body by divesting Christians of an Infallible Spirit I leave to Persons of better Judgment more Honesty and greater Moderation then himself to judge Seventeenth 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. This whole Chapter is an admirable account of the Super-Excellency of the Gospel Administration of Life to that of the Law how far it did transcend it as to all spiritual Knowledge Priviledge and Enjoyment which I desire the Reader seriously to read as well as to consider what is offered from the Verse cited If a Christian's Change into God's Image from Glory to Glory be the Work of the Eternal Spirit in men it follows necessarily That Christians can no more be without the Discoveries Leadings and Orderings of God's Spirit then they can be his Children without his Image since whatever they think say or do in reference to Religion should bear a near Relation to that resemblance of God which above all things they ought to act correspondently with but we see how very expresly and profoundly the Apostle describes the exceeding Blessedness of the New Covenant namely A being changed into the Image of God from Glory to Glory not by our own Notions or Comprehensions from the strength of our natural Reason or any Book without us but by the Spirit of the Lord operating in us therefore God's Children are not without an infallible Spirit unless he should deny God's Spirit to be such which methinks I cannot believe him to do Gal. 3. 3. Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect in the Flesh If Christians are both to begin and end in the Spirit or if a Christian throughout the whole course of his Life from the first step or measure to the fulness and perfection of his stature is to be informed regulated and guided by the infallible Spirit of God as the Apostle's Reproof of the Galatians for their declining to be ordered thereby evidently proves then Christians ought to begin and end in the Strength Knowledge Wisdom and Guidance of an Infallible Spirit aud consequently that Doctrine which denies such an Unerring Spirit to be the Judge Rule and Guide of Christians is Antichristian Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit but the express Letter of the Scripture affirms it and consequently our Adversary's Reflection upon us for making it part of our Belief is unsound and condemnable Gal. 5. 16 18. This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh They that walk by the Spirit must first have it and next be led by it but the Apostle exhorted the Church so to walk therefore the Church had and Christians have the Spirit and should walk in or by it that is according to the Motions Leadings and Rule of â—it Eph. 1. 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him If the Heavenly Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of God be through the Spirit then as without Revelation there is no Knowledge of God so without the Spirit there is no divine Wisdom and Revelation And if the Church was attended with that Wisdom and Revelation then with that Spirit from whence they came and consequently Christ's Church is not without that Eternal Vnerring Spirit as saith the Apostle in the 5th Chapter Be not Drunk with Wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the Spirit which signifies the Apostles mind to be quite another thing from the Judgment of our Adversary who thinks All men ought to be empty of it esteeming such as are filled therewith as the Jews did Paul Drunk with New Wine 1 Thes 15 19. Quench not the Spirit If those could not quench the Spirit who had it not then those to whom he gave that Caution had the Spirit consequently the Primitive Churches were not without an Vnerring Spirit because they were not without the Spirit of God which is Unerring 1 John 2. 27. But the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him If the Judge of Truth