little his Endeavour Vnrighteously to infer that those Moral Perpetual and Eternal Holy Precepts thou shalt have no other God but me thou shalt not Murder thou shalt not commit Adultery thou shalt not Steal thou shalt not bear False Witness c. are not binding upon us But that we give our selves the loose of such horrid Principles as the contrary and are therefore inconsistent with Civil Government Cont. pag. 59 60. As if that Eternal Holy Omnipresent Light with which we are enlightned did not continually declare and require these Just and Righteous Things at our hands God rebuke him 22. From our Use of the Scripture and a Ministry with such like Means though by the Assistance and Leadings of the Eternal Spirit for this End that all may come by them as Helps to the Life and Power it self the great End of all External Means He would insinuate the Insufficiency of the Light and does prefer the very Beggarly Elements of the Jewish Religion before it which holds as well against God Christ and his Power Grace and holy Spirit because the like Means are used notwithstanding to reclaim and restore Men to a State of Happiness but if that were Wicked what can his Reflection be upon the Light Dial. p. 37 41 42 49 23. Because we say that no Man can rightly worship God without the Preparation Motion of his holy Spirit which we daily wait to feel and accordingly are prepared drawn forth to worship the Lord whether in publick or private for we never sought his Face in vain This Envious Man suggests that we never wait to be so prepared or moved But if the Spirit of God compels us not God must go without his Worship and not blame them with such like making as if the Spirit were as far off as he would have Christ and that to stay till Men were mov'd were never to worship which sufficiently shews his Ignorance of that Spirit whose alone Leadings make a Child of God as well as the Wicked Vse he makes of that Holy and Christian Practice Cont. p. 60 61. 24. From our asserting that every Man ought to be convinc'd of what he does and that by the Light in him as his Rule of Faith Duty before he sets about to do or perform it He insinuates the Impossibility of our Renouncing and Rejecting any tenacious Disputer about unprofitable Questions that may go out from us as a Religious Society because such Person or Persons may plead the Light within for it Cont. p. 64 65. As if they might not as well plead the Scripture too upon his Belief of a Rule and give him the same Difficulty Must every one use the Scripture right that pretends to it as their Rule If not then why may not several pretend to the Guidance of the Light for that which the Light really condemns 25. From our denying the Resurrection of the Natural and Corruptible Body and leaving it with the Lord to give us a Body as pleaseth him This Caviller and Foolish Intruder into Sacred Mysteries endeavours to possess People with our being Shufflers about Denyers of the Resurrection of any Body to Life Eternal however Spiritual or Glorified Dial. p. 56 57 58 59 60 61 62. 26. And from our asserting the Unity of God and the Soul and our Denyal of their Carnal Resurrection He blindly concludes that the Soul is part of God and so no future Rewards or Punishments at all to be expected by any Dial. p. 16 17. Thus much to give the World a Taste of the Man's Spirit He that can thus far believe him to be an Honest Man ought to be condemned for great Ignorance and Inhonesty God that made Heaven and Earth will Recompense it into his Bosom with a Vengeance if he Repent not A Collection of a Few of his Many GREAT LYES Arg. III. He that Lyes is not of God but Thomas Hicks is a Lyar therefore not of God then no Christian 1. First That our owning of Christ Jesus is indeed no other then A MEER MYSTICAL ROMANCE and that the Christ we own is no other then a MYSTICAL ROMANCE Dial. p. 10. Contin p. 9. A Prophane Untruth Vntruth in speaking so of us and Prophane with a witness to call the Light a Mystical Romance which he just now said ought to be obeyed Is this your Champion 2. That according to the Quakers Conceits Scripture and Reason must not be made use of Ibid. p. 26. A Lye our Books and Practice plentifully prove 3. That the Light in us sees no Necessity of a Mediator Ibid. p. 35. When God knows we feel the daily Benefit of one 4. That the Quakers account the Blood of Jesus Christ no more then they do the Blood of a COMMON THIEF Ibid. p. 38. An Ungodly Aspersion 5. That we deny his Visible Coming and Appearance in the World Cont. p. 37 45. Though a Contradiction to himself 6. That the Quakers hold they can work a Compleat Righteousness OUT OF THEIR OWN BOWELS Ibid. Epist p. 53. Dial. p. 38. and yet a while since all was to be done by the Motion and Operation of God's Spirit alone O Confusion it self 7. They own Christ in all he did ONLY as an Example Contin p. 54. yet just now he made us deny his Coming at all What strange Lying and Self-Contradicting is here 8. That the Quakers Dissemble when they tell People they own the Scriptures and that they render them of no more Authority then ESOPS FABLES Cont. Epist That a Quaker should say That which troubles thee is thy PUZLING thy self so much in that BOOK THE BIBLE thou wilt never be setled till thou throw that Book AWAY Cont. p. 76. A Wicked Lye Also That a Quaker should saâ— to one T. Hollbrow What dost thou tell me of the Scriptures they are no more to me then an old Almanack Which we renounce both as being a Lye and an Irreverent Expression For J. Nobbs on whom it is charged was a Ranter and if I mistake not it was spoken before the People Quakers were known in the Southern Parts if not before God's Breaking forth by them 9. That any thing against our Ministry though never so true must be looked upon as the greatest Lye Ibid. Epist But this is one to be sure God will clear their Innocency and confound their bitter Enemies 10. That Nicholas Lucas said to one of T. Hicks 's Acquaintance that he might burn the Bible and serve God as well without and that he might write as good Scripture himself if he would have any Ibid. pag. 5. A Lye he disowns and in the Appendix may be seen 11. That they appoint their Ministers afore-hand to speak in such a Place and at such a Time and that they go to Meetings only to encourage that is to decoy trapan and inveagle others Ibid. p. 66. Very Lyes I testifie in God's Fear 12. That the Quakers bid People follow the Light within and if they do so
the Propagation of that Inward Religion however their Form may be more scriptural the same Spirit enters them that reigned in their old Persecutors and they at last run back and end in that from whence they at first reformed So dangerous is it to rest satisfied with a finer Form which in Truth is but a better Covering for the old Enemy of God's Spirit and Power to act more disguisely and securely in But lest any should think that all this is said to justle the Scriptures out of all Use and Service read these few lines following with Patience and Impartiality Though we eminently account the Light or Spirit of Christ to be the Gospel Living and Immediate Rule as the great Promise of the Father and that without being ruled and lead or guided by there is no being a Child of God yet we do not thereby intend an Exclusion of the Scriptures from being Obligatory or as not Declaratory of those heavenly blessed Truths that are fit to be read believed and practised God forbid No we know better and practise otherwise and have good Satisfaction therein Nor do we say that those essential Things relating to Faith and Godliness mentioned therein are by us to be sleighted or contradicted or that the Light and Spirit we are led by doth or can lead to any such thing for by its Holy Discoveries and Convictions are we made acquainted with them and our Faith concerning them is firm and they are thereby made our Duty and such is their Correspondence and Agreement that from an INWARD ASSENT AND LIVING AMEN FROM GOD's LIGHT IN OUR CONSCIENCES do we testifie of their Truth Vse and Dignity And very vain is T. Hick's Objection If your Light be Sufficient why do you read them since we may return to him the same If the Scriptures be Sufficient why dost thou use other Means Though God's Grace be Sufficient of it self therefore is the Creature always in that Condition wherein he needs not Means And notwithstanding it be the Dispensation of Light and Life more Immediately then has been known to former Ages yet we deny not the Use of such Means as may be used of God's Light and Spirit as will be spoken more largly to elsewhere Man's Mind being Carnal and abroad Means in God's Power are us'd not as settl'd Teachers but as Instruments in God's Hand to testifie of and direct to that one Great Prophet and Living Teacher in the Hearts of Men that all may come thither and be taught of him CHAP. V. Of his Insinuations against us concerning the Scriptures BUt T.H. that he may be true to his Ungodly Way of perverting our Principles would insinuate First That we esteem the Scriptures no farther then as they were the Experiences of Ancient Saints thereby rendering the many Prophecies and Promises therein recorded not yet fulfilled Vnprofitable But to take off all Credit to this evil Suggestion let our sober Readers know that by the Light of Christ in our own Hearts and Consciences as to confirm what of the Scriptures we have experienced and press after the Compleatment of those Enjoyments therein expressed so are we taught reverently to believe those holy Prophecies and Promises yet unaccomplished to have been given forth by the Inspiration of the Almighty and that they shall be as certainly fulfilled as they are written Yet we dare boldly affirm and that in the Name of the Lord before whom we shall give an Account for every Deed done in the Body that the greatest Reason of our Belief concerning them is not from any Outward thing but that Inward Testimony Record and Heavenly Amen that we have frequently received from the holy Light within us to the Truth and Faithfulness of those Sayings And if any Quakers there be that are not thus minded they are to me unknown and I publickly renounce and protest against that Principle that would in the least derogate from those Holy Writings which leads me to his Second Insinuation viz. As if because we do deny the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Practice in Honour to that Divine Light which was the Author of them in the Holy Pen-men that we should therefore deny all those holy Precepts Commandments and Rules relating to Life and Godliness that are therein contained A Consequence so foul that God forbid any of us should ever give any Just Occasion for it For we both believe Men ought to livâ— up to them and that they are highly Reprovâ—able if they transgress against them But the Reason why is that Conviction they meet with from the Light in their own Consciences wherefore the Scriptures are so far from being the great Rule of Faith and Practice that the Light of Christ within is both our Warrant and Rule for Faith in and Obedience to them And let T.H. say if he can that the Waldenses Albigenses Loâ—lards Hussites Lutherans Calvinists and other Protestants made not the Testimony of God in their Conscience the chief Ground of their Belief of the Scriptures to say nothing of the primitive Christians and most uncorrupted Fathers who are many and positive on our behalf 3 ly He insinuates that we equal nay prefer our Books before the Scriptures because of the Titles we give our own Books viz. The Voice of Wisdom A Testimony for God c. and what we give the Scripture namely Letter c. This I have largely spoken to in my Answer to J. Faldo but not knowing whether ever that may be where this probably may come I shal say thus much If at any time we call the Scripture the Letter it is not that we mean thereby our Books are the Spirit or that we would irreverently set them below our Writings but upon a Comparison only betwixt the Scriptures and the Spirit that gave them forth and that I hope may be done without the least Disrespect though such whose Religion stands in Letter and Time and not in Spirit and Power be angry at it But that we should be thought to sleight the Scriptures because we bestow such Names upon our Books is a strange kind of Consequence Are not our Books mostly written in a plain familiar and Scripture-stile Do we not earnestly endeavour to confirm what we write by Scripture which not only renders it a Paâ—t of our Book but the most Noble Part too And shall we notwithstanding be reputed Sleighters of the Scriptures Certainly if our Books are called The Voice of Wisdom and A Testimony for God because from the Voice of Wisdom and God's Witness in the Conscience by good Reason must the Scriptures be interested therein who are both a part of them and such a one too as unto whom our Quotation implies a Manifest Preference His next Insinuation is that it is Dangerous for Ignorant People to read the Scriptures flinging those hateful Names of Jesuit and Romanist upon us This Doctrine he layes to the Charge of G. Fox and Rich. Hubberthorn in a Book called Truth
experience the same Judgment Repentance Remission Regeneration called the new Birth and perfect Justification before God Since then the Scriptures can do none of these things of themselves however Instrumental they may be of Good but the holy Light in the Conscience and that these things are not knowable though they may be read talked and writ of without being lead by the same Spirit and treading the same Steps of deep Experience the holy Ancients trod in and have left us for an Example it must be granted whether T. Hicks will or no That the Author of those Discoveries Convictions Judgments c. must be the Standing Immutable Rule to the Soul what how far and which way we are to deny or own reject or embrace relinquish or follow with Respect to those things that please God or that please him not His Objections I shall contract into these Four urged by him for the Scriptures and against the Light 's being the Rule of Faith and Practice and indeed they are the greatest Strength of his Book if any it has First The Light within cannot give a clear and distinct Account how Sin came to be if we consult the Wisest Philosophers we shall find a deep Silence touching this Point They saw Sin did overflow but could not by all the Improvements of the Light in them find out how Sin came to be I am perswaded T. Hicks never consulted so much as the meanest of them at least effectually had he his Dialogue would have savoured of more true Science and Morality for I will make it appear that he has contradicted himself abused the Philosophers and blasphemed the Light in this one Passage Where there is no Law there is no Transgression then where there is Transgression there is a Law Now T. Hicks granting that the Heathen knew there was Sin they must know it by Virtue of some Law that made it so This Law was not written but themselves declared God had imprinted it upon their Hearts as an Immutable and Infallible Guide to them in their Actions If so how could they be Ignorant of Sin 's coming into the World Who knew it to be a Deviation from God's living Commandment in their own Conscience and a Committing quite Contrary Things If T. Hicks means by clear and distinct Account the History of Moses that is that Adam and Eve were beguiled by the Serpent who tempted them with an Apple c. 't is no wayes to his Purpose For that which is Sufficient to that Faith which concerns Salvation is to know that God is that he is Pure and Holy that he has given Man the Knowledge of himself and his Will concerning Him by some Inward Law Command Light Grace or Spirit and that who acts not correspondently to this Guide is a Transgressor and incurs the Penalty and that the Heathen had this their Books at large tell us Nor does Tho. Hicks deny it so that he manifestly contradicts Himself and abuseth the Philosophers in saying They could not find out how Sin came since they expresly say That God made all Good and that Man's Erring from the Divine Law in him brought Evil into the World And I boldly affirm and in the next Head will prove that the meer History is not absolutely necessary to Salvation Now that herein he has Blasphemed against the Light is evident since it is to say That God gave Men a Law and Light not sufficient to let them see how Sin entered the World which is to say in plainer English what is Sin it will and must end there Besides suppose the Philosophers had been Ignorant must it needs follow that the Fault and Want was in the Light and not in them Will T. Hicks become their Warrant in the Matter that they arrived as high as the Light could teach them and that the Deficiency lay on the side of their Teacher and not on theirs Confident yea Impudent Man Why should either the Darkness of any Age be charged upon the Light or render it Insufficient or the more clear Breaking forth of Light in a following Generation be reputed another Light because another Degree then what obscurely shined forth in the former since it was not the obscurer in it self but through the gross Blackness that might have over-cast that People because of Disobedience it seemed so to them But let us hear him further 2. Nor can this Light give any Account of that Remedy which God in his infinite Wisdom provided Jesus Christ that he should be born of a Virgin dye for others and rise the third day This is the Pinch But I answer First That the Prophets saw it by this Light unless that they saw it without Light or that the Light they saw it by was not the Light of Christ as the Word that was with God and was God which I hope T. Hicks upon serious Thinking will not say for of no other do we speak 2 ly Those that believed him when he came could never have received him had they not seen him by an Inward Eye enlightned by that Light in measure in themselves which then so unmeasurably appeared in him For the Jews had the Scriptures and according to their Understanding of them they reputed him a Blasphemer and both plotted promoted and obtained his Crucifixion The Question will be Why did they not better understand them The Answer is because they Rebelled against that Spirit which could only so inform them Had they brought their Deeds to the Light they had received sound Judgment and a true Measure would have been given them which they rejecting that was both the Ground of their Ignorance and the Just Reason of their Condemnation Hence we see that Light and not the Scriptures was the higher Rule and Judge of Thoughts Words and Deeds yea and which way the Scriptures themselves were to be understood And truly it is strange that the Light in Men should not lead naturally to its own Being and Fountain 'T is Proverbial among Men The Way to the Fountain Head is to trace the Stream Iâ— the Light in Man leads not to Christ who gives thâ— Light let us leave off all Talk of Religion for tâ— what or whom else was it given to lead us But Thomas Hicks tell me Who or what wâ—â— Christ in that Manifestation it self but that Dâ—vine Word Life or Light manifested in Flesh Wilâ— not then a Measure of the same in Man lead him â—â— course to acknowledge the Fulness or in following its Leadings bring to Eternal Salvation Or can that Light resist that Manifestation as thou dost elsewhere seem to affirm If Christ his enlightned Men with the Light of his own Life and if they are required to bring their Deeds to be tryed by it and if they are invited to follow it and in following it are promised no more to abide in Darkness but have the Light of Life because of the Blood of Cleansing that is therein met with whereby
contradict and count us Impostors Hereticks c. for these Matters they oppose and contradict themselves like Wavering Unsettled and Uncertain Persons not to be credited in their Contentious Work As for those Passages of Tho. Collier they were Printed in the Year 1050. which was before these Controversies happened between us and so before their Enmity broke forth as it dothâ— and therefore the more to be taken notice of as being writ from an Unprejudiced Mind and a Capacity more fit to receive Spiritual Sights and Openings which divers of them heretofore have had But now plain Prejudice Darkness and an Apostacy is come over these Carnal Contenders who have lost that former Sincerity Tenderness and Spiritual Desires that appeared in divers and now with their Flesh Darkness Carnal Imaginations and Selfish Spirits they are Raising up a Smoak and Darkness against the Glory of this Dispensation of Spirit Life Light and Power revealed among us which will out-live their Enmity and wear-out their Shadows and Empty Profession For this Spiritual Transcending Dispensation shall Increase their Shadows shall Decrease grow into Disesteem naturally Decay and by Degrees Vanish thereupon G.W. THE END Dial. p. 66. Pag. 13 15 25 44 45 49 54 60 76. Dial. p. 3 4 5. John 1.16 Col. 1.19 Rom. 8.9 10 11. vers 7. pag. 8 9. pag. 9. Dial. Joh. 1.5 Prov. 4.18 1 Joh. 1.1.2 3 4 5 6 7. Joh. 8.12 Joh. 11.9 10. Pag. 7. Dial. p. 21 22 33. Pythag. Socrat. Cleanth c. Pag. 33. Dial. Dial. p. 38.42 Dial. P. 22. Stob. 28. Id. 114. Val. Max. 2.10 Cic. pro Bal. Laert. Dial P. 35.36 Rom. 1.19 20. Jo. 10. P. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30. pag. 42. Contin pag. 3. Pag. 20. See p. 21. Dial. p. 43 44 45 46 47. Contin pag. 40 41 43 44. Isa 6.9 Cont. p. 48. Contin P. 49. Rom. 1. Dialog pag. 47.48 Isa 59.16 Isa. 63.4 4. Dialog p. 1. Read G. Fox 's Gr. Myst p. 91. Contin P. 50. * If wholely without us then none of it within us It was such a Justification as respected being made just by the Destruction of Sin inherent by the Spirit Power of Christ Jesus and not being accounted Just from the Guilt and former Sins freely Remitted in his Blood as an Offering for Sin once for all to every one that truly repents Apolâ—g p. 148. Gal. 6. Rev. 22. Rom. 8. P. 51. Contin Ezek. 18.20 26 27 28. * As wholely without us It is to be understood of a Righteousness Wrought by Christ's Power within when I speak of being justified that is made just by it Rom. 5.19 Rom. 2 3 4 5. Chap. 2. Cor. 5.19 Act 3.38 Contin P. 52. Sand. Found Shaken p. 26. * He was Our Example in Holiness though not in his Ending Types Shadows Contin p. 52. Sand. Found Shaken p 30. * God's Love is not excluded nor his Power that so worked in Abraham's Heart * That is within them as to Qualification Ibid. p. 52.53 Dialog p. 38. Contin p. 53. Contin p. 53. * Justification not as Remission but as made Just Contin p. 54. Isa 45.24 25. 1 Cor. 1.30 31. Cont. Pag. 59. Micah 7.18 Mat. 6.12 Rom. 14.12 2. Cor. 15.10 Mat 7.21 24 25. Rom. 2.13 Rom. 8.13 * Justification is compleatly taken Jam. 2.21 24. Rom. 8.30 Cont. p. 56. 1 Thes 5.23 1 John 5.18 2.1 3. Matth. 15.48 Ephes 4.13 2 Tim. 23.17 Hebr. 13.12 1 Pet. 5.10 2 Cor. 7.1 E. B's Works p. 47. Dialog p. 8. Cont. p. 68. Contin p. 61. * Observe how T. Hicks can quote Scripture to keep Ordinances never mentioned nor intended in it Again that he puts more Value upon such Commands as are Temporary then those that are Immutable and brings Scripture that concerns the Latter to confirm his Belief of the Former Mat. 3. Acts 1. James 4.3 Mat. 7.21 Spir. of Alex. p. 9. Contin p. 64. Contin p. 63 69. Comin pag. 65 66 67. 1 John 2.27 Ibid. Dialog p. 57. Dialog p. 58. Dialog Ibid. 2 Cor. 5.1 Rom. 8.11 2 Cor. 5.8 9. Cont. P. 18. Ibid. P. 27.29.32 33 34 38. Dial. p. 1 10 27 28 41 43 78 79 80 81 89. Cont. Tit. Pa. p. 50 56 58 66 68. 70. Dial. P. 83 84 85 92 93 94. Contin P. 87. The Waldenses accounted themselves Witnesses their best Argument was their Conscience P.P. Perrin Hist Wald. Luther oppos'd the Pope and his Adherents particularly about Justification by Works upon Experience He made it to stand in the Testimony of God in the Conscience that he was accepted from an Inward Work of God's Spirit and not any Outward Woâ—ks much less such as their Works were Wessel Luth. confer Fox Mart. 2. Tom. The English Martyrs laid the Stress of their Opposition to Popery upon their Witnessing better things Book of Mart. The Brownists call themselves God's Sack-Cloth-Witnesses in their Apology dedicated to King James in the beginning of his Reign 1. yea in that Epistle Dedicatory they speak several times to that purpose their being Witnesses that they did Witness c. The like often in the Preface Book it self with great Zeal and Honesty 'T was what they al in their several day felt springing up in them that gave them to relish Persons Words and Things and as they savoured so they testified Their Experience was the Ground of their Knowledge And their inward Witnessing the Work and Will of God the Reason of their outward Witnessing for it unto Death it self Dial. p. 20 25 68 72. Cont. p. 23. pag. 88. * Which if it must be taken for any Reply he hath broken his Promise but if no Reply then it clears him not * These are both Abominable Lyes * Where is his Quotation for the Reader to Examine here * If T.H. did not pick and call out of our Adversaries Bookâ—â—oâ— tâ—â—â—â— his Butchery â—gainst us but 〈◊〉 In partially Moâ—â—rate we should have fairer Dealiâ—gâ— than we have from â—im Heb. 9.28 * In what Sense Christ is in Man and in what not is explained Serious Apology p. 35. Nat. Christ p. 49. Cont. p. 40. * Contin p. 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69.
's Defence pag 101. But the truth of the matter I will relate out of that Book it self which has been most partially and basely represented by him The Priest's Query lies thus Whether the Scripture being Carnal and the Letter Killing as you say we may read them without Danger Answ The Letter which killeth 2 Cor. 3.6 is Dangerous for thou takest it here to war withal against the Saints with thy Carnal Mind giving out thy Carnal Expositions upon it And the Ministers of the Lâ—tter are Ministers of Death which is to Condemnation and you take it to make a Trade with it and with what the Prophets Christ and the Apostles said so that some have Sixty some an Hundred pound a Year But Christ cryed Wo unto such Whited Walls And here you read with Danger who speak of them and speak a Lye because you speak of your selves and you wrest the Scriptures to your own Destruction and to you it is Dangerous to read or speak of it who know not the Liâ—e of it as the Pharisees who were learned in the Letter but knew not Châ—ist But I say Blessed is he that doth read and doth understand This is the true Account in brief â—f their Answer to the Priâ—st's Quâ—ry And I appeal to God's Witness in the Reader 's Conscience if any thing of whâ—t that Vile Man would suggest is to be found in these Mâ—ns Words who by Letter evidently mean the Legal State of Condemnation by Dangerous not what Edification was to be got with respect to reading but that Aggravation of Punishment which would be the Recompence of those who make a Trade of them and oppose them Pharisee like to the Life and Spirit of Christ Jesus wresting them to their own Destruction Reading to such End and Purpose will prove Dangerous with a Witness And that it was at such a sort of Reading they struck consider this Passage But I say Blessed is he that doth read and doth understand Let this Forgery so obvious ring through the Streets and Towns where-ever his Book or Name is known however this is little to what 's behind For my part I speak my Conscience in Sincerity I had rather perish off the Earth then live so great a Burden of foul Dishonesty as I doubt not but a little time will manifest him to be That the Baseness of his Intentions in this kind of Arguing may yet further appear let this gross Inference directly charged by him upon our Principle of the Light 's being our Rule be diligently considered From our Asserting the Light Within to be our Rule he tells the World That we mean the holy Qualification that is in us Which were it true he would hit the Mark when he sayes that Holiness being a Conformity to the Rule it cannot be the Rule But never yet certainly did any but Thomas Hicks so mis-represent the poor Quaker Nay he Confounds and Contradicts himself How can we be said to make our Holiness the Rule when we affirm it only to be a walking up to the Light within which is Holy He sayes that we assert the Light to be the Rule how then is our Obedience to it the Rule for that is true Holiness Is there no difference between a Rule and Obedience to it Holy Life and that which gives it or makes it so What a Meeting here is of Ignorance Malice and Lying Any thing to spoil the Quakers but God will break the Bow and Spear of their Enemies Again From his Quaker's telling him Thou takest up the Saints Words but if thou hast not the same Spirit what are the Words to thee he dares to suggest that our Opinion of the Light 's Sufficiency in every Man cannot be true And all the Reason he gives us for his strange Collusion is this That those Words imply that the Spirit or Light of God is not in all Men. Now what is more evident then first That it is not our Answer 2. That it concerns not the Sufficiency so much as the Universallity of it 3. By not having the Spirit or Light is not meant that we believe that God has not given a Measure of his Good Spirit unto all to profit with or that there be some whom he never enlightened but that they so have not the Spirit as to walk by it be benefitted by it or come to enjoy it as their Teacher and Comforter and that some may be said not to be Enlightened who are not through Faith in and Obedience to the Light come to be advantaged and made Children of Light by it Let this suffice at present to shew the Man's Ignorance of our Principles or his great Unrighteousness to pervert them I shall now attend the next Point by him handled and that is Christ's Person and our Faith in him which he sayes we deny and indeed he does but say it CHAP. VI. Of our Faith in Christ HIs next Cavil is at our Belief in Christ and which is worse he would be thought a Christian in doing so The great Stress lies here Tho. Hicks would have the World think we Equivocate about our Faith in That Christ which after the Flesh appeared and dyed at Jerusalem The Reason of all this Clamour and Injustice on the part of our angry and restless Adversary is this if I wrong him let him shew me The Quakers say that Christ is in them Christ is God is God Man in them Again The Quakers say that Christ is in them But since there is but One Christ who was born of a Virgin and that he suffered at Jerusalem being there crucified can that Christ be in Man The false Doctrine or Absurdity he would run us upon is one of these two Either that we deny Christ's Manhood or that He is actually in our Bodies with that Body he appeared in at Jerusalem which is Impossible witness this one Passage If God be Christ as Penn saith or If the Light within you be the Christ as Naylor and Hubberthorn affirm is it proper or safe to say God was Slain or the Light in you was Crucified To which I answer That as in other things so in this our Adversary has shewn his great Ignorance or Malice For is it reasonable to infer from our Affirming in Scripture Language Christ is in the Saints that we deny him as to his Visible and Bodily Appearance in the World and that because he is God therefore he was never Man or that the Word took not Flesh Is this to understand us right or give the World a true measure of our Belief who is it confesseth Christ to be every where and if so then in his People see Cont. p. 34. Ah God the Righteous Judge shall plead with thee in a Day that thou shalt not be able to escape his Terrible Recompence if thou repentest not Let it suffice to the sober Reader for of him I have little Hopes that we do believe that Christ who is God over all blessed