in all other Beings the fire light and spirit to be the same in substance and one and the same spirit so it is in God likewise but eminently that is in a more sublime manner as for Illustration sake is felt in the Peace and Joy and burning of the Conscience when after a long conflict of grief horror and despair called the fiery Tryal 1 Pet. 4. 12. Light breaks out in the dark Soul and it hath Light and gladness Esth 8. 16. God being a pure Spirit free from Passion and all that the Spirit is subject to both in Man and in the World where being mixt with Water for there is not an Atome of it unmixt in the World or it would soon enflame it and reduce it to Ashes it becomes Corporeal and hath the three Dimensions except in the Soul of Man which is not all of this World and not only a spirit but the spirit of Spirits that actuates all Spirits and is their Form and their Soul doth act most transcendently and is not confined to the same Laws Order and Rules as created Spirits are in propagating themselves Neither do I suppose that the heat of the fire was manifested in God as it is now in the Sun for God as God is the Good meer Love Light Joy and Delight inwhom there is no darkness fierceness or austerity 1 Joh. 1. 5. 4. 16. and in him therefore is no fire and heat perceptible anger and austerity but in the Creature only when it departs from the Light and the Love of Paradise But the Scripture teaching us that God is an angry God and a consuming fire we may believe that in God is the root of the fire serving as the Gall in Man and Acids in sweet Liquors to exacuate the Light and Love of his blessed State Love and Light being the State in which God aquiesceth Matth. 13. 17. Being not properly God in the Father and Spirit but in the Light of the Son in whom he is well pleased And St. John saith that the World being the Image of God as well as Man and his Soul represents the Trinity or bears witness by three things which all Men may see therein in one and the same subject to wit in the first Spirit infused into the Deep of the Trinity in God for he saith they bear witness to the Father to the Word and to the Holy Spirit which is the whole Trinity and Paul saith that by the World and the Things which are therein we may not only find out but clearly see the God-head Rom. 1. 20. that is God in Unity in the still Eternity and all the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. such as is the Trinity And I believe we may for I see it my self 21. And I see through the World not only the Trinity but the Coeternity of the three Appearances that as no Light can exist and subsist without Fire and neither without the Air So in God there is no Son nor Father without Spirit nor no Spirit without Light but all three appear at once from the very beginning of God's Manifestation Joh. 1. 2. And I see there likewise the Generation of God God generating himself and being generated and introducing himself by his Beams and his Efflux at first into the Great World next into the little World and thirdly when both were fall'n deprav'd and corrupted into the Seed of a Maid there to supply the Office of the Spirit in Mans Seed and to beget the Man God Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all things from Corruption Rom. 8. 21 23. And fourthly and lastly by the Mediation or the Mean of that Man God into the Soul of all those that look for him in Spirit Hebr. 9. 28. and know him spiritually 1 Cor. 2. 24. 11. 29. Secundum modum tamen recipientis in each that is as every one doth evacuate himself or set himself in order or prepare himself for it Act. 13. 48. But most superlatively in his third introduction his Efflux the Holy Ghost which Christ was Conceived by bringing with him at that time all the might of the Father and the virtue of the Light the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Christ bodily Col. 2. 9. he having not received the Holy Ghost by Measure Joh. 3. 34. And if thou hadst my Spectacles which I cannot lend thee Science is the Gift of God not of Man nor of the Schools thou wouldst see and believe it also as well as I without the help of Scripture for thou wouldst understand it and to understand is to believe Intelligere ipsum credere est 22. And thou wouldst see and believe therefore that the Son of Man as the Son and Light of God is the same as Gods Spirit and comes with the Holy Ghost bringing with him in his Wings or the Efflux of his Light Health and Life or Salvation Mal. 4. 2. being the same in substance and being not a Person or subject distinct from them But that as the Son of Man or Emmanuel God in Man or as the Human Nature anointed with the Divine he is as much a Person subsisting a part from God tho' in an undivided manner as the Church from him and as the Beams from the Sun as Man and the World it self And thou wouldst see how he is the First Born of the Creature or of the whole Creation Col. 1. 15. not of every Creature for that Translation is false the only begotten Son of God and dwelling in God the Father and God in him Joh. 1. 1. 14. 11. and how he is one with God Ch. 10. 30. and not only one with him but the most Bright Glorious and Excellent of the three Essences of the Godhead the Light or Oyl of gladness which he is anointed with Ch. 1. 9 14. Hebr. 1. 9. And yet less than the Father who Quatenus the Godhead is greater than the Person of Christ or of God and Man Joh. 14. 28. In fine how as God and Man he becomes the Son of Man not only of one Virgin but of all the Virgin Souls that will make themselves Virgins or dis-impregnate themselves of the Lusts and Affections they are fill'd with from their Youth Matth. 24. 19. till Christ is form'd in them Gal. 4. 19. that is before their new Birth of Water and of Spirit And the Head and the Spring Head and the Fountain of Mankind Eph. 1. 22. Col. 1. 18. instead of the first Adam where all the Sons of Adam must re-enter and die in become as dead as Water Rom. 6. 4. and as one Water with him that they may be born again of him and of his Spirit and as the Brooks of the Spring become partakers of his Nature and his Righteousness And as such that is as Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22. he deserves tho' but a Man or however God and Man that every Knee of Things both in Heaven and in Earth should bow and fall at his Name Phil.
the Senses or the whole Life and much less beget the Soul or give it its Life again nor that which comes from Hearing or Understanding viz. Faith And if for reading of Words or for hearing them Preached Men had Faith wrought in them and were regenerated it would follow that all those which heard Christ preach believed and that none of those who hear Sermons and read the Scripture are unregenerated and that all may be saved at the same cheap easy rate that Papists hope to be so that is for hearing Mass said and some few Ave Maries cryed about them when they die And Mr. Keith hath ill Luck to have met with so few Men that believe a he tells us Pag. 12. of his Reasons among so many Hearers for he reckons in that Place no more than 40 Persons brought over by his Preaching from Quakery to his Church 6. So that the Word in the Mouth being not that which begets and worketh Faith in the Soul it remains that the inward spiritual Word in the Heart and Soul is that which doth it being quick and powerful and sharper than any Sword piercing to the very Soul and inward Thoughts of the Heart Hebr. 4. 12. as Peter shewed it to be in the Case of Ananias and of Sapphira his Wife Act. 5. 3 9. to work powerfully there and stir up all the Powers of the Soul and the Body And this Word being Spirit and Life as Christ himself saith Joh. 6. 63. and a Spirit that giveth life and quickneth 2 Cor. 3. 6. it is therefore the only Word that liveth and begets the Soul again and it is on this Account of being a Spiritual and a penetrating Word represented by a Sword coming from the Mouth of Christ Rev. 1. 16. and with some known by the Name of the Sword of the Spirit Eph. 6. 17. And as it is that which was from the beginning with God Joh. 1. 2. it is also that alone which abideth for ever 7. The word of Faith which St. Paul and the Apostles preached and by which they begat Souls 1 Cor. 4. 15. Jam. 1. 18. was inward and spiritual in the heart Rom. 10. 8. and a Spirit for they were the Ministers of the Spirit that gives Life and not of the dead Letter or outward word that killeth 2 Cor. 3 6. Ministring to that Spirit which Christ himself ministreth Gal. 3. 5. that thereby Men might serve God in newness of the Spirit and no more in the oldness of the Letter of Scripture Rom. 7. 6. of the Doctrine of Baptisms of Repentance from dead works and other fundamentals as Mr. Keith doth call them and recommend pag. 10. of the Christian Religion or of the Doctrine of Christ which St. Paul exhorts to leave Hebr. 6. 1 2. and Mr. Keith to stick to And they preached the Gospel which is the Power of God Rom. 1. 16. and which being a Spirit they begat Souls again by 1 Cor. 4. 15. This Power being the same as the Power from on high which is the Holy Spirit Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1 5 8. and which regenerates Souls Joh. 3. 5. So that the Word they preach'd being Power and Spirit it is not the empty Word in the Mouth of Mr. Keith which they begat or became Fathers in God to Souls with but the inward spiritual powerful Word in the Heart of good Men which they stirr'd up and set a working by that which they received of Christ and which his Sheep heard therefore speaking through their Heart and Mouth John 10. 3 5. 8. If the Protestants become Fathers in God by preaching the written outward Word why may not the Popish Priests be so too by their Preaching But if Preachers become such by Preaching and Ministring the spiritual Word of Truth Pray to whom Fathers in God and whose Ministers are they that stand for another Word and countenance its Preaching It is strange Fathers in God should beget they know not how nor by what and if they know should keep their Trades to themselves and should not let Mr. Keith who hath deserv'd it so well at their hands know the Knack on 't I am afraid Mr. Keith will never spoil a Bishop but always remain a Tool Quaere Pray Mr. Preacher what 's Religion now a-days Answ It is nothing but Acting the Story of Christ and a Cloak with as many Facings as Parties or Sects for the Sophisters of each to carry on their Designs and for every Party to act their Non-sense under impudently to the face of those that know better things as the silly Papists did their Mass in King James his time Poor King to take his Priest-craft for a Religious Worship and to be thus put upon in his most weighty Concern by dull Souls more confined and less knowing than himself But tho' Kings pay dear for it and have paid so ever since the time of Jereboam who became a sad Example of God's Justice upon such 1 Kings 13. 34. Yet no Calves no King prevails in the Mouth of their Profets and of their Politicians who must have some Calvish Priests Ch. 12. 31. to preach a Calvish Worship that is fit for Calves only and for making of Men Calves that they may lead them like Calves and will prevail to the End whilst Kings learn nothing from them of God judging in the Earth Psal 58. 11. and disposing of Kingdoms giving them to whom he will and setting up over them even the Basest of Men. Dan. 4. 17. The Kings that knew God themselves not only serv'd him themselves but preached and reformed their Priests and Clergy themselves 1. King 8. 12 14. 2 King 23. 2. 2 Chron. 29. 5. Psal 51. 13. 119. 46. but all they that know him not give their Power to the Beast Rev. 17. 13. Kings might serve God by Proxy if they had none of that Word in the Heart which all Men have and could give God an account by their Priests and Favourites 9. It is the Spirit gives life quickneth 2 Cor. 3. 6. Joh. 6. 63. creates forms reforms and upholds all things living Gen. 1. 2. Psal 33. 6. 104. 30. and that begets Souls therefore Without it all things lie dead and return to their Nothing vers 29. Jam. 2. 26. and he is the conveyer of Life unto all Creatures The hand and the arm of God Joh. 12. 38. whereby he makes all his Works From him the First Man Adam received his Breath of Lives Gen. 2. 7. that is both of the Divine and of the Natural Life for note that the Hebrew Word is Chajim in the Plural not Chajah as it should be to signify Breath of Life And as Adam received the Life of his Soul from him so from him we must get it again and be born of it not from the material Word or dead Letter of Scripture God's Kingdom or Salvation as St. Paul saith is through it Rom. 14. 17. then we must be born again of it Joh. 3. 5. and be born
of God and of this spiritual Seed to have it remain in us 1 Joh. 3. 9. and have the Kingdom of God or life eternal in us Luk. 17. 21. The Seed it self which the Flesh is born and begotten of is a Spirit abstracted from the Soul and the Body of Parents which are but Men Much more then that of the Soul regenerated of God who is only a Spirit and the Father of Spirits Joh. 4. 24. Hebr. 12. 9. ought to be a Spiritual and not a Material Thing such as is the outward Word which Mr. Keith soweth about in Sermons and in Papers which Booksellers and Printers catch at so nimbly and put Impune upon the World 10. Now Christ himself is the word Joh. 1. 1 14. in the Heart and in the Mouth Rom. 10. 9. and being that same Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. by which God made all Joh. 1. 2 3. the World and all Things therein Hebr. 1. 2. and which upholdeth all things v. 3. and gives them their Light and Life Joh. 8. 12. 14. 6. it is he that begets Souls and he is the same also as the Spirit or Power which hath been shew'd to doe it Jesus being the same Word as Paul spake of v. 8. of Chap. 10. of Rom. and the same Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. as Paul saith the Gospel is Rom. 1. 16. And the Lord is that Spirit which Paul was Minister of 2 Cor. 3. 8 16. and when the Holy Ghost comes it is Christ that comes Himself Joh. 14. 16 18. And upon the whole Matter Christ being the Word of God that was from the Beginning Chap. 1. 2. and by whom all things were made and Emmanuel God in us Matth. 1. 23. dwelling in us for ever according to his Promise Joh. 14 17. except we be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. and the Holy Ghost himself he is the Word in the Heart that abideth for ever and of whom St. Peter meant the Faithful are born again Being upon this account called the second Adam that is the second Father or Begetter of Mankind and the Bridegroom infusing his spiritual Seed in Man and impregnating his Soul which becomes his Mother thereby and by the same means he becomes the Son of Man and is formed within Man Gal. 4. 19. And in short Christ and the Word and the Spirit are all one 11. And he is called the word in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reason because he is Wisdom Light and Understanding in God in the World and in the Soul In God he is the Wisdom and the Power 1 Cor. 1. 24. Will and Act For God having no Organs as Mouth or Hands his word is the thing it self that is done by his Power and Wisdom and having no other Will than his Power and his Act because Voluntas saith one Consilio nascitur and there is nothing but Sight no thinking nor consulting at all in the most Wise God his Wisdom Power Will Act are all one that is his Word In the World he is the Light Joh. 8. 12. and the Spirit that moved in the deep to form the Light Gen. 1. 2. and which the Wise and Pulcher ordo Mundi proceeds from And in the Soul he is both the Light of Nature in all and the Light of Grace that is the Understanding in some being natural in all granted to all at their Birth by the prerogative of their Essence or nature above other Animals enlightning every Man that cometh into the World Joh. 1. 9 This is what they call Reason And supernatural in the regenerated granted them of Grace again by the gift of the Spirit upon their Birth of Water And this is properly that which they call Understanding I say he is called the word because he is Light Understanding and Wisdom in us as well as in God Quicquid in nobis videt audit verbum Dei That Light and that faculty whereby we see and perceive and hear and understand things is the Word of God in us that is Christ and his Spirit Understanding comes from Christ 1 Joh. 5. 20. and he is the Light of Men. Joh. 1. 4 9. and from the Spirit he sends Ch. 16. 17. to Guide Men into all Truth V. 13. to teach all things Ch. 14. 26. and to search even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. understanding comes likewise Understanding is the word in the Heart The Light whereby the Mind conceiâ—â— in the Heart and sends forth the Spirit thence into the Mouth is the Woâ—â— not the combined Syllables nor the sound which the Air makes in the Thrâ—â—â— and in the Mouth The Heart conceives from the Light that riseth there the flash at every pullation and sends it into the Head whence returning to the Heart it is sent with the Spirit that issueth out of the Flash into the Tongue to move it the Tongue moving beats the Air in the Throat and in the Mouth according to those Organs which articulates its sound and forms the out spoken word and speaks forth the conception So that the Light the Spirit and the Conceit or notion is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the word That which the vulgar call Words being nothing but vo ces an articulated Noise and a combination of divers Sounds or Syllables by the Spirit from the Heart and neither the thing conceiv'd nor the Spirit expressing or speaking it forth themselves 12. To conclude Understanding Reason and Light in the Soul is from the Spirit of Christ the word of God Christ himself of whom we are born again and who worketh Faith in us From him and from his Spirit the hearing of Faith proceeds For Understanding as was said before proceeds from them and hearing in the Scriptures signifyeth Understanding as in that place where Christ saith he that hath Ears to hear let him hear c And Faith is one of the Gifts and Effects of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 9. No Faith without Conversion and no Conversion without Understanding Matth. 13. 15. By Hearing we Believe Turn or Convert and what we understand not we neither do nor believe Intelligere ipsum credere est by your leave Mr. Keith and Madam Rome No implicite Faith avails When God openeth our Hearts or gives us Understanding we believe as Lydia Act. 16. 14. and confess with our Mouth Rom. 10. 9. and come and shew our Deeds as Zacheus Luk. 19. 8 9. and those which burned their Learned Books did Act. 19. 18 19. and Faith is dead without Deeds Jam. 2. 26. So that to have Faith we must Understand in the first place and so have Understanding and the light of Christ's Spirit or Christ himself within us All which if we can obtain from the outward word Preached Mr. Keith is in the right but then Christ died in vain for he died to get us the effect of the Promise which is the Holy Spirit Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5. from which Understanding comes 13. Therefore since we
in the Unity and the still Eternity no such thing as Father and Son and Holy Ghost known all Three being as part of the Generation of God Included within the Bounds of this Denomination to wit of the Nasciture or Generation of God the Father being not known more than the Son or Spirit without Nature or before the Generation of God or his Manifestation tho' at him this Nasciture or Generation Beings Natura quasi dicas Nascitura La naissance the Nativity of God Respectu Creaturae or God bringing forth himself to a Generation or a Manifestation to Communicate himself or his good without himself to some things besides himself So that Nature is only God himself Manifested and his Motion to Nature is his Generation And as he moved himself as by three Steps or Degrees in this his Generation he Manifesteth himself under three Appearances Forms Natures or Essences of Fire Light and Spirit or Father Son and Spirit which tho' the Trinity be from Eternity in God or Coeternal to God that is to the Unity the Generation of God being from Eternity are not known as I said before God moved himself to Nature without himself but were hid in God himself and brought to pass in himself before his outward Nature or his manifestation the Godhead in Unity as it is without Nature being but a dark Abyss And these three appearances or distinct forms and degrees of Gods manifestation are called Father and Son and Spirit Father because the Godhead or Unity is the ground the stock the Womb that brings forth out of its deep the Light its first Born or Son and only begotten Son called Son by the Hebrews on the very same account as their Language calls a Spark the Son of the burning Coal Son because he doth come forth like a Spark out of the Coal by breaking and shining forth out of the dark lump or deep 2 Cor. 4. 6. And thirdly they are called by the name of the Spirit because the same Unity doth not only shew it self or make it self manifest in the Light or by the Son but makes it self to be felt and communicates its good in the form of a Spirit or Beams flowing from the Light nothing in Nature being so fit to diffuse convey and communicate the good as the Light and its efflux the Influences whereof are the Holy Ghost in God and in the World the Spirit which makes what we call the Air by vapourising Water or turning it to vapour 17. Quaere What is a Spirit Answer It is a Substance as imperceptible as God himself to natural Men whose knowledge goeth no higher than sense and intelligece 1 Cor. 2. 14. The thing that is and exists Exod. 3. 14. for it is the same as God who is but a pure Spirit Joh. 4. 24. the substance of substances that actuates all substance and gives it form and Essence In God alone and the Soul to wit regenerated it is simple immaterial but in this World where it was at first mixt with the Water its concrete and material and hath the three dimensions that all other concretes have and is that which raiseth up the Water into vapours Out of it and of Water comes all material Substance or Matter for out of both this material World was made Gen. 1. 2. 2 Pet. 3. 5. All things saith Lucretius are come from their spiritual and their invisible State to a visibility and a palpability By its joyning to Water which it inspissates to Oyl then concocts into a Salt Earth and Body comes to be Corporification and Terrification being one and the same thing And by its separation and freedom from its vehicle whilst it is clearing it self of the Vapour that holds it for it leaves it not wholly not a spark of pure Spirit being suffered in the World for then it would inflame it fire and the destruction of things compacted by it for ejus ope totum cum toto compactum est are still made and come to pass From the Spirit all encrease and decrease or corruption of material things proceed From the Spirit as Spirit their Multiplication Multiplication being but a flux or extension of the first central Spirit infused into the deep and a propagation made a traduce of the same and from it as a fire Quateuus become fire their decrease and corruption that is the separation of that which was compacted In fine the stock of all things of God and of the Creature being Spirit and all things coming from a spiritual invisible and unknown state into materiality Ken perceptibility all things agree in substance and as God is a Spirit and Spirit is the substance and stock of the Deity the three in the Deity which we call the Trinity agree into this one thing and are but one in substance not so in Form or Essence 18. And the Truth is the Scripture speaking of Persons no where there is no reason wherefore we should set up this Notion and make of Hypostasis which is the stock and substance the things dependent of it viz. the form or the Persons tho' I am not ignorant that the Schools make of the form what I make of substance to wit The most Essential and Principal part of things But Christians who learn of Christ being anointed by him with that which teacheth all things Joh. 14. 26. 1 Joh. 2. 27. or else they were not Christians for a Christian signifyeth one that is anointed ought not to take upon tick from the Schools and the Heathen their Theosophick Notions nor such as is or may be the occasion of Errours but from Nature and Scripture and the Etymology of words if they have any as here of Hypostasis ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is by no Greek Author made use of to signify an individual Person And the Scriptures speak only of Three or a Trinity which bear Record in the World or make known the Deity which three things agree in one and are One and the same Thing 1 Joh. 5. 7. in the stock or the substance but divers in the Essence The Nature or the Essence of the Light being divers from that of the dark fire which is the Father of it and from that of the Spirit or beams that flow out of both as is that of the Spirit different from that of both the Light and Fire likewise 19. And that it is so to wit that these three appearances being divers in Essence are the same in the substance or one and the same Spirit and so that the Holy Ghost and Christ as the Light of God and the second Appearance of the Three in the Godhead are but One and the same Thing St. John saith there be three things in Earth bear Record of it the Spirit Water and Blood which last is but a concrete of Water and of Spirit digested and concocted in the Animal Bodies and I say that all things in the whole World witness it the World it self Man and Beast
and God loves him and meets him and makes himself and his Will known or manifest to him Esa 64. 5. Joh. 14. 21 23. Whilst the Readers of the Word remain in their Ignorance and Sin are not justifyed by the Sufferings of Christ Rom. 2. 13. nor perconsequent by him made Wiser or enlightned as appears from all those Sects who keep their false Opinions tho' they have read and peruse and hear the Scriptures Preached The Will of God is saith Paul 1 Thess 4. 3. our Sanctification or that we should become good for God hath no other will but that good should take place of and overcome the Evil Rom 12. 21. which Will every Man knows by his Light without Scripture A better Rule than Scripture to know the Will of God by is to learn what our Will and Lust and desire is and to do nothing of it but to do or endeavour to do that which we would not Ch. 7. 20. and to War and Fight always against our fleshly Mind V. 23. Ch. 8. 7. and to carry if we can that Captivity Captive by the strength of Gods Spirit Gal. 5. 16. which he gives more willingly to them that ask him in Faith than a Father or Mother do good things to their Children Matth. 7. 11. Luk. 11. 13. 30. The Scripture is positive that the Holy Ghost teacheth all things guides into all Truth both Natural and Divine for the Word of Christ is all and Christ himself Excepts none searcheth the deep things of God and shews even things to come to such as are born of it becoming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a discerning Faculty in the Soul that receives it 1 Joh. 5. 20. So that the Disciples of Christ have no need to go to learn of any other Master School or University than of Christ and his Spirit in their Heart the inward Word Matth. 23. 8. By him being taught of God Joh. 6. 45. Hebr. 8. 11. all Wisdom and all Knowledge Col. 1. 9. And it hath been fully proved in the Eternal Gospel of which a Messenger took near 1500 Copies that the Holy Ghost is still given to all the Faithful and that in the same manner and measure as formerly to the Primitive Christians when they believe equally that is go from faith to faith follow Christ under the Cross in the Regeneration or second Birth of Water in a true resignation of their own will to God's will as much as those Christians did For man must be born of it the Spirit to be saved Joh. 3. 5. and as Salvation it self consisteth in Righteousness thro the gift of that Spirit Rom. 14. 17. all they that will be saved must have it and receive it to work righteousness by it and become righteous and shine in Glory or be saved Matth. 13. 43. The gift and receit of it is the fulfilling of the Promise made to Man through Christ Luke 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5. 2. 17. and this same Promise of it being made to all Mankind it belongs to all Mankind to us and our Children and to as many as God shall ever call and believe v. 39. and so all men may have it and not only what they now call its ordinary gift but also all the other called extraordinary of Healing Tongues Prophecy Wisdom casting out Devils and other Signs and Miracles if they will believe in Christ and take the right way and means fit to get and obtain it which are dying to their will and becoming like Water that they may be born of it for according to St. Mark 16. 17. Christ saith positively so And St. Peter confirms it Act. 10. 47. 11. 15. 15. 8. by saying that God gave it to the Gentiles that believed not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum modum nostrum saith he in the same measure as it fell on us at first And the Scriptures say the same teaching that all the Churches of Samaria Act. 8. 12 16 17. Antioch Ch. 13 12. Galatia Gal. 3. 2 3 5. Corinthus 1 Cor 6. 11. 19. Rome 8. 11. and Thessalonica 2 Thess 2. 13. Not only the Apostles and the 120 who were all with one accord Act. 1. 14 15. filled with the Holy Ghost Ch. 2. 4. received the holy Ghost in the same way and measure as those first believers did Ch. 10. 46. 19. 6. Gal. 3. 5. 1 Cor. 1. 7. God putting no difference between them that purify their hearts by their Faith and Vs saith St. Peter of himself and the other Apostles Act. 15. 9. but giving them the Spirit even as to us at first in witness that their Faith was as strong and great as ours Thus giving it to all men and sealing all that believe with that Spirit of Promise Eph. 4. 30. and with a Portion equal to that of the Apostles when they believe equally and never permitting it to cease amongst Believers except they cease to believe Hence the reason why it hath ceased amongst us is plain 31. I must here by the by take notice of these two things first that Mr. Keith tending to debase the inward word and to extol the outward by ascribing it the Title and Property of the first calls this a Revelation which is a giving of Sight or taking off of a Vail to make one see and perceive the Things lay hid under it and herein he shews his End and Mistake at the same time for sight as it hath been shew'd Hearing and Understanding come not from the outward Word and the Scripture it self is but a Parable or Enigme to him that hath not the Key that lets into God's Kingdom Mark 4. 11. to wit the Holy Spirit Joh. 3. 5. like the Philosophers Books of the Philosophers Stone where none but the Sons of Art find out the hidden Secret and like the Revelation of St. John concerning Christ which tho' the Revelation of Christ and of many things are come to pass already Rev. 1. 1. since they were to be shortly after they were written yet is understood of none but such as the Lamb of God opens the Seals of it for Ch. 5. 5 6. all Revelation or Light belonging to the Spirits which be sends in all the Earth If Mr. Keith by turning Churchman had got the new Name and the Manna promised Rev. 2. 17. or were what he saith he is that is further enlightned he saith so pag. 14. he would understand better what a Revelation is 32. Secondly to the same end he makes of the Light within which I have declared in the 116. to be natural in all and supernatural in the Regenerated but one part of what it is that is the same and no more than the Light of Nature is saying in the 9th page That the utmost extent that this Light within goeth to without Illumination and the light of the Scripture is no more than the Righteousness of the Moral law and terms of the first Covenant do and live