Sanctifier in the Hearts of his People when the Disciples and whole Church of Jerusalem were so frequent in this Ordinance and when the Apostle Paul tells us to the Corinthians The Bread which we break c. it was for those to whom Christ was come by a Spirit of Sanctification not those in a State of Sin unconverted to Christ That I may briefly and fully reply be pleas'd to observe 1 That we don't deny Bread and Wine to have been given and that by Command of Christ to his Disciples 2 That it was a Sign to them of that Life he would give for the World and which at that time they were weak in the Knowledge of 3 We believe the Life most eminently meant and which they were to do it in the Remembrance of was that Flesh and Blood that in the 6. of John he said Who did not eat nor drink thereof should have no Life in them and which 5. verses after he calls the Bread that came down from Heaven 4 'T is our Faith that this heavenly Bread and Wine and Flesh and Blood which such were to eat of that would have Life Eternal for which he came and of which the Disciples themselves were then so ignorant was the Thing signified by the Sign Christ gave his Disciples 5 That Sign is no longer of force in Point of Institution then till the thing signified is come so that who truly witness the Coming of Christ into their Souls and the Eternal Bread of Life or Flesh and Blood to nourish are rightly come to an End of the Sign and Figure 6 That Christ did so come is evident from many Scriptures There be some standing here that shall not taste of Death said he till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom I will not leave you Comfortless I will come to you Implying that he was the Comforter that should come to them after the with-drawing of that Outward Appearance which was expedient for them to be done He that is with you shall be in you and abundance to the same purpose 7 That the Practice of it after the Pouring forth of the Spirit is not neither can it be any Institution or so much as a Continuance of it upon an Institution any more then the Apostles forbearing several things lawful in themselves that were upon the Command of the Jewish Ceremonial Law forbidden The Circumcision of many Gentiles and above all the Apostle Paul's Purifying of himself at the Temple of Jerusalem after he had been near thirty years a Christian or Gospel-Preacher and consequently a Thrower-down and Demolisher both of the Temple and all its Ceremonial Worship 8 That every one who believed and were in some measure turned to the Christian Religion and were accounted Members of the several Churches because of such Profession did not presently come to know Christ after the Spirit or discern his spiritual Manifestation and whilst they were as yet Weak and Carnal in their Conceptions of Christ believing in him and accounting of him but after the Flesh a Knowledg of him the Apostle himself confesseth once but to have had the Outward Bread and Wine might be suitable to that sort of Belief and a Sign showing forth a more Spiritual Internal Bread and Cup which the Apostle in the same fore-going Chapter to the Corinthians expresseth thus FOR WE BEING MANY ARE ONE BREAD AND ONE BODY FOR WE ARE ALL PARTAKERS OF THAT ONE BREAD The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ I speak as to wise Men Judge ye what I say Which evidently imports a more Inward Heavenly Bread Fellowship and Communion both with Christ and one and another 9 It ought not to stumble any that it should last to that Day and yet be laid aside Now For Customs when once introduc'd and receiv'd are not easy to be relinquish't or left off and it having been the Token Christ gave to his Disciples in the time of their great Weakness Fear and Unbelief concerning him it was quickly embrac'd and imitated by such as believ'd especially Jews who just coming out of a Multitude of External Services were ready to make part of their Religion consist therein But as such came to grow into the true Jews State they saw beyond all Exteriour Signs and Services And that nothing which could be tasted or handl'd and that perisht with the Using and that could never clense the Conscience from dead Works but were the Shaddows only of Christ the Living Eternal Substance and Bread of Life could be a standing Ordinance of the Everlasting Gospel § 3. And truly when I have somtimes consider'd the Apostle Paul's Inspir'd Epistles to his beloved Timothy that among the many weighty plain and necessary things therein declared recommended for the Encrease of Godliness and good Order in the Church of Christ he should be wanting to express something about these two Points of Water-Baptism the Lord's Supper so call'd and insisted upon as the most weighty Ordinances of the Gospel in Comparison of which Praying Preaching good Life and such like the great Subjects of those Epistles J. Faldo reputes meer Heathenism I have concluded to me self that had his Value of them been equal with what some now adays put upon them he would not or rather the Holy Spirit have omitted a very peculiar Recommendation of them But though this be sufficient to dull the Edge of their Spirits who daily cut and hack us for our not Denial but Affirming the Fulfilling of them by the coming of a more Living Bread Yet our so knowing and witnessing a more Heavenly Table spread and the Presence of the Eternal God withdrawn out of that so abused Practice by the Idolatries Superstitions and Pervertions of several Ages and that Revenge Blood-shed and Destruction which have follow'd the several Contenders for it all without Commission as well as out of the Primitive Order is the chief Ground nor of denying it ever to have been in Use before its Abuse as is before exprest but of our letting fall any further Practice of it And this I hope will be accounted a Modest Sober and Christian Account of our Faith which we leave with God to weigh against the chaffy Flurts and vilifying Epithetes J. Faldo uses against us and which for Brevity sake I omit to transcribe CHAP. XVII His Charge of our Denying Christ's Transactions to influence into our Justification consider'd His Proofs not for him His Abuse of our Friends Words Justification distinguisht upon as Remission and as daily Acceptance The Transactions of Christ largely own'd by us The Scriptures confirm our Faith in Christ as a general and particular Saviour No Works of Man Meritorious § 1. I Am now come to that part of his Charge which affirms our Denial of the Transactions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh to have any Influence
and moves and inclines to Purity Mercy Righteousness which are of God We deny and abominate that Ranting Spirit that would charge the Spirit of God with their Unholy Liberty God's Spirit makes free from Sin not to Sin Neither can we distinguish as they wickedly do between the Act and the Evil of it wherefore we say that as the Tree is known and denominated from the Fruit so the Spirits by their Motions and Inclinations and the Spirit of God never did incline to Evil. So we renounce that Construction of their esteeming Evil no Evil when any pretend to be lead to it by God's Spirit for that is not the Way and Method of his Spirit that is Pure and Holy forever Priest The Quakers must be all Infallible and Perfect if they have such a Light Quaker This also is a great Abuse of our true Meaning We say the Principle is Pure Perfect Unerrable in it self but we never did assert our selves such meerly because it was in us by no means but that all who are lead by it are so far Perfect and Infallible and no Jot further Who can lay down a more independent Doctrine upon Self and hourly depending upon the Grace or Gift of God Let us not be mistaken nor suffer for these things Priest The Quakers deny the Scriptures for they deny them to be the Word of God Quaker We own the Scriptures as they own themselves a Declaration of those things most truly believ'd given forth in all Ages by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit That they are profitable for Reading for Exhortation for Reproof in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfectly furnished They are the Form of sound Words We believe in them read them and it is the Work we have to do in this World and the Reason why we are so separated from it and the earnest Desire of our Souls to Almighty God that we may witness the Fulfilling of them That God's will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven But to call them the Word of God which they never did themselves but which they peculiarly denominate Christ by in Reverence to Christ alone and no Slight to them do we as in Duty and Reason bound attribute that Title to him only Priest They deny them to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation Quaker This is a very Aspersion True it is that we deny the Scriptures of themselves to be sufficient to resist Temptation But that we should deny them to be any Means whereby to do it when we allow our own Writings may be such is either great Ignorance or Malice God has doth and will make Use of them for Reproof Comfort and Edification Priest The Quakers assert the Spirit of God to be the Immediate Teacher and that there is no other Means now to be used Quaker We never spoak such Language but perceive the Subtilty of the Devil in this thing as in others For since he cannot hinder the Exaltation of the Spirit above all visible Instruments and the Necessity of its Motions and Operations in the Hearts of Men and the great Suitableness of it to the Gospel Administration he would spoile us by Overdoing that is by inferring beyond that our Assertion will allow For we never denyed Means but to this Day from the Beginning we have been in the Use of them But then they are such Means as are used in the Life and Power of God and not in and from Man's meer Wit Will or Imitation the thing we strike at Strange because we deny all false Means or Means not used in the Leadings of God's Power and Spirit that therefore we must deny all Means however rightly employed Behold the Injustice of our Enemies Wherefore be it known unto all that Evangelical Means and Order we love and keep For we Assemble Our-selves together to Worship God where we Pray in the Motion of the Spirit and Prophesie One by One as any thing is revealed Nor are we without Spiritual Songs making Melody in our Hearts to God our Redeemer Priest The Quakers deny the two Great Ordinances of the Gospel Baptism and the Supper Quaker What ever is a Gospel-Ordinance we own and practise We know no such Language in the Scriptures as in the Calumny of our Adversary 'T is true those two Practices are found but that is no Institution That they were then proper we believe but that they were at most but Figures and Signs you acknowledge that are called Protestants Now prove to us that there ought to be any Figures or Signs under the Gospel-Administration when Christ who is the Substance is come 'T is to overthrow the whole Dispensation and to make his Coming of none Effect If it be said But they were used after his Coming and Ascension too I answer So were many Jewish Ceremonies not easily abolished If any say But Christ bid that one should be done till he came Very well and he that said so told his Disciples that He would come to them Some should not taste of Death till they saw him come And he that was then with them should be in them And he would drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till he drank it New that is the New Wine that was to be put in the new Bottel which is the Wine of the Kingdom as he expresseth it in the same place which Kingdom also is within Luk. 17. 20. He was and is the Heavenly Bread that they had not yet known nor his Flesh and his Blood as they were to know it So that though Christ was come to end all Signs yet till he was known to be the Substance to the Soul as the Great Bread of Life from Heaven Signs were usefull to shew forth and keep in hand especially the People of that Day whose Religion was attended with a Multitude of the like Types Shaddows and Signs of the One Good Thing and Substance of all Hence it is that we don't deny them that is too hard a Word but truly witnessing the very thing they signified to be come we leave them off as fulfill'd and henceforth have but One Lord One Faith One Baptism One Bread and but One Cup of Blessings which is the New Wine of the Kingdom Priest The Quakers deny Christ's Transactions at Jerusalem and the Shedding of his Blood to be Beneficial unto them It is the Light within only they expect to be saved by Quaker This is a wicked Suggestion against us We do say That the Appearance of that Second Adam the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit in that Holy Body prepared of the Father for him was for the Salvation of the World who had fain in the First That whatever he then did both Living Dying had a great Influence for Good upon all that then believed and hath still for all that now believe in him as he manifests himself to us by his Light in the Conscience For we do affirm that to come to that is
not to Deny them to be any Means whereby Men may come to know God Christ or our selves if to affirm them to be a Means whereby to resist Temptation not Dangerous to be read if to deny them to be read to any profit without the Assistance of the Spirit especially by such as know them not who are in a Rebellious and Unregenerate State if never to dare to put the Scriptures and Spirit in Opposition to each other if not to affirm the Doctrines Expressions and Holy Examples as such not to be binding Temporary Services excepted if to hold it as no Sin of Idolatry nor any other to Believe and Live according to the Instructions and Holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures If to do all these things so mentioned be not to deny contemn and Undervalue but rather to honour rightly instate and recommend the Scriptures then the Quakers who Believe and Do all this are not Denyers but Owners Asserters and Defenders of the Scriptures so far as they themselves desire to be Defended But we have largely prov'd that so to do is not to deny them and that the Quakers so hold therefore the Quakers are no Denyers but Maintainers of the True and Divine Authority of the Scriptures § 8. For his Comparison of us with the Papists though he has been so Cunning or Unjust rather as to quote their Authors and not ours and some passages we justly doubt it is Ridiculous and every way Unworthy of our Notice A meer Begging of the Question and by what we can guess design'd only to bring an Odium upon us He puts the Scriptures in the middle and the Quakers and Papists like the two Theeves upon the Cross on each side to discover their Harmonious Agreement against them which of them he makes to be him that should go to Paradice I know not but we have the upper Hand But we can never allow of the Comparison since the Papists place the Rule and Judgship in a Pope or General Council and the Quakers in the Eternal Unerrable Holy Spirit of God and consequently our Adversary is basely Irreverent to God that brings the Pope or a Council of Fallible Men upon a Comparison with his Infallible Spirit Nor if it were true would it be any thing against us since Protestants will not allow themselves to be therefore Papists because in several things they agree as about God Eternity Christ his Life Death Sufferings Resurrection Last Judgment and Eternal Recompence § 9. To conclude We dare leave it with God and all sober Men to judge how far J. Faldo hath abused us in giving in so black a Charge against us and traducing our Persons and perverting our Writings to prove it by base Characters fastned upon the one and false Inferences charg'd upon the other Which of themselves conspire the Overthrow of their Inventer and thus is he fairly turn'd off from the highest Round of the Ladder which he hath so unadvisedly adventur'd to mount And as it fares with some Notorious Malefactors he remains there Pendent as a Monument of his own Rash and Dishonest Undertakings to the Terror of all Passengers who shall happen to travel by this way of Controversie to the Land of Truth CHAP. X. He chargeth us with a Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel First in general then in particular His Proof of the first Invalid His great Disingenuity in wresting our words especially I. Pennington's § 1. THe Second part of his Book begins with the Quakers Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel as he will have it It is more then possible that we shall prove him ere we part not only to be a Denier of the True Gospel Ordinances but indeed an Introducer of another Gospel if such a thing may be But to his Charge First in general then in particular The Quakers deny the Ordinances of the Gospel in general by which sayes he I understand not those of Nature's Book nor what was revealed by Moses but those Ordinances which were commanded by Precept or prescribed by Example in the New Testament Now to prove what he says of the Quakers he cites G. Fox thus And we say He Christ hath triumphed over the Ordinances and blotted them out and they are not to be touched and the Saints have Christ in them who is the End of outward Forms G. Myst p. 52. In all which I find no Denial of Gospel Ordinances Nor were they so much as meant by him His Language is Scriptural For Christ did blot out the Hand-writing of Ordinances and he was to the Saints then and is to those now who rightly believe in him the End of all Meats Drinks Washings Days or any other Temporal Elementary or Figurative Worship for J. Faldo then to charge a Denial of all Gospel-Ordinances upon these words is to plead for a Legal Dispensation and Bondage to the Shadows of the Good Things to come thereby making Christ's coming of none Effect and Consequently introducing of another Gospel as speaks the Apostle besides that he basely wrests our Words § 2. Again But Pennington is so Cruel by that time he arrives to P. 38. of Unity that he says Such of the People of God as do not follow the Lord perfectly out of the City of Abomination VISIBLE WORSHIP but be found in any part thereof when the Lord cometh to judge her the Lord will not spare them I perceive that unless we will allow J. Faldo the Liberty of telling the World our Meaning or rather making his own to be ours his Essays come to nothing What Words can be sounder of their Kind Visible Worship being left out and which our Adversary unworthily puts in Are not People to follow God fully Strange Doctrine that he teacheth But grant him his Gloss alias gross Comment without Distinction and I know he do's his Work But we are not so easily to be overlaid We do declare that while Men have Bodies which are the visible Parts of Men and the Bodies of Men are conversably concern'd in Religious Worship as well as the Soul there will be there must be and there ought to be a Visible Worship Therefore most false is J. Faldo's Paraphrase yet thus far we could go That Visible Worship as such without a due Regard to what Kind of Worship it may be and what is the Root from whence it came cannot be well pleasing to God For then that so Splendid Whore and Deceitful Prophet at large described in the Revelation of Saint John would be therefore true Worshippers because their Worship was Visible But I do perceive that here it pincheth with almost all Professions The Quakers would put us off our own Strivings Willings Runnings in our own Wisdom Contrivance Appointment whereby we must take up such a Cross to self as is insupportable to Flesh and Blood And indeed it is so which all must come to know a Crucifying of or they enter not into the Kingdom of God here nor
hereafter The Old Leaven must be purg'd out and the New Wine have a New Bottle Men must become Children and Religion taken up not upon Conviction must be abandoned for the least Appearance of God's Light breaking in upon the Heart and Conscience reproving the unfruitful Works of Darkness CHAP. XI The first of the particular Ordinances he says we deny is the Ministry His Proof lame W. P. and his Friends defended J. F. and his Gang reproveable We own a Gospel one but not his The Calling abused by such Pretenders § 1. HE now descends to show our Denial of the Ordinances of the Gospel in particular and we to examine what he says wherein if he succeed no better then in his Endeavours to manifest our Denial of them in general I think the Reader will have reason to think we shall not sit down by the loss But hear him § 2. They Deny all Ministry that hath a mediate Call to that Office quoting J. Parnel's Shield c. p. 16. And their Call to the Ministry we deny which is Mediate Also G. Fox in his Gr. Myst pag. 45. But who can witness an Immediate Call from God and speak as they are moved by the Holy Ghost and such travel from place to place having no certain Dwelling-place this Ministry we own and witness The Charge against the Priests I esteem sound but not J. Faldo's against the Quakers We do for several Reasons already urg'd deny that any Man can be a True Minister who is not immediately Call'd for it 's not go ye forth into all the World and preach the Gospel that belongs unto all Men no more then because Princes send Ambassadors to Princes with their Credentials therefore every Man ought to do the like in Imitation without considering those necessary Qualifications that belong to such an Action Peter John c. were a great while Disciples not at Academies but in Christ's School which taught the Mortification of Lusts and an holy self denying Life To such it was that the Commission came but neither was their Commission of force till they had received that Anointing which was to enable them to act by it If then every Holy Man as such is not fitly gifted and impowerd to be a Minister but that it depends upon a more Immediate and Extraordinary thing certainly those who take upon them the Ministry that have neither learnt by true Mortification to be Holy nor receiv'd any Power from Heaven to be Ministers but explode both as to the present Age and Teach for Hire and Divine for Money are not of Christ's making but their own and therefore to be denied And thus much J. Faldo to his own apparent Overthrow grants us where he says we acknowledge that all True Ministers of Christ ought to have an Immediate Call such as consists in Grace and Gifts And such as have not this Immediate Call we account unworthy of the Thing and Name What more has any Quaker said Why is James Parnel quoted to prove that what he charges upon the Quakers as to their Denying the Ministry of the Gospel is a Truth when it is become no Crime at all in J. Faldo to assert that who are not Immediately call'd are Unworthy both of the Name and Thing Is he become an Enemy himself to that Gospel-Ordinance If Immediate then not Mediate and if not Mediate then J. Parnel and G. Fox writ Orthodoxally consequently we are not to be reputed Denyers of the Ministry of the Gospel because we assert that no Man is a Gospel-Minister who is not Immediately call'd thereto So that his Mincing of the Matter in the next page will no ways qualifie it viz. That Motions by the Holy Ghost he allows yet he affirms that those who are moved by the Commands of the Spirit in the Scripture are mov'd by the Holy Ghost For if any holy Man reading the Apostle's Commission shall at that instant of Time receive an Heavenly Power to make it his laying that same Injunction upon him and induing him with such a Measure of that Divine Power as they received We shall cheerfully grant him to be truly call'd yet not because Go ye into all Nations and preach the Gospel is there written but because God respoke those Words by the same Living and Eternal Power immediately to that Particular Person which made what otherwise was but the Commission of the Apostles his Commission also § 3. But there is a Word or two which having layn hard upon his Stomach he vomits up thus As for having no Certain Dwelling-place and leaving Houses Lands and Possessions let them repair to William Penn and others of their Ministers for an Answer to it who have large Possessions and brave Habitations such as few Ministers as they disclaim especially the POOR NON-CONFORMISTS enjoy What Answer this is to that part of G. Fox's Words which it pretends to refute is obvious to the meanest Capacity that is not prejudic'd For my part I know not what induc'd him to any Answer at all being Scripture Words unless it were that he might reflect upon the Plenty God hath given some of us What! Doth he envy Men the Blessings of Heaven upon their Industry or the Love of Parents to their Children Is his Eye Evil because God's Eye is Good Doth his Mouth water after the Quakers Possessions now the Government hath justly and seasonably prevented him of a fat Benefice But why must William Penn's Name be question'd about Houses and Possessions Is he Angry that an Enmity like his own in his deceas'd Father depriv'd him not of that Estate for Conscience sake he now begrudges him the Injoyment of but he dyed a better Man a more Natural Father and sincere Christian then a Man of J. Faldo ' s Sordid Conscience will ever do But let me tell the Man if yet he be worthy of that Name that W. Penn first lost his Estate before he got it and sacrific'd it the Comfort of his Fathers House and whatever was dear of this World to the Quiet of a Conscience void of Offence before it pleas'd Almighty God to make all his Such as have known him better then J. Faldo's Informers of the most eminent both of Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists could tell him he hath had a Conscience whatever they believe now that was not to be caught by the Bait of Pleasure Estate Preferment or Esteem in this World as well as that no Severity us'd to bow or balk it could prevail to renounce what it had believ'd upon pure Convictions To conclude his Defence in this place He got not what he hath by Preaching as perhaps Mercenary J. Faldo and many of his Coat have done but having it by God's Providence and Faithfulness can notwithstanding through the continued Love of God freely bestow his Strength Labour Estate and Life too for the Promotion of the Unchangeable Pure Way of God in which he has believ'd from whom he received and to whom