2. Wee hould that seeing prophesiing
is a parte of spiritual worship: therefore in time of prophesijing it is
vnlawful to have the booke [the Bible] as a helpe before the eye (John Smyth, “Differences
of the Churches of the Separation,” 1608, in H. Leon McBeth, A
Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage [Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, 1990], 15)
. . . Some make too much of Scripture,
setting it up in the room of the Spirit, and so it is indeed become na Idol,
not in itself, but through that Idolatry which dwels in the hearts of men: For
First, Some say that it is the Spirit,
and that there is no Letter in it; If these make it not an Idol. I know not
what an Idol is.
Secondly, Others know no other
touch-stone or trial, no other light by which they judge of Truth: thus putting
it in the room of the Spirit, who is light, and the greater light to make an
Idol of it; for they say, they cannot know Truth untill they bring it to the
letter for trial: thus making an Idol of the Letter, setting it up in the room
of God, . . . (Thomas Collier, “A General Epistle,” 1651, Chapter X: Of the Scripture,
in ibid., 53)