unworthiest Reflections however unprovoked without any Reproof is to merit their sharpest Retorts in the most vilifying Terms I know not what to infer from such an humorsome Carriage but that it is expected from the Quakers Religion it should bear that which J. Faldo's Vindication tells us his cannot a great Credit to our Cause against his Will Thus far of Christianity and Quakerism as they are contra-distinguished by our Adversary CHAP. III. Of the Scriptures MY Adversary begun his first Chapter in his former Discourse upon this general Charge The Quakers deny the Scriptures The Proof he offered was this The Quakers deny the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and therefore they deny the Scriptures Upon this account I thus delivered my self He entitules his Chapter That the Quakers deny the Scriptures I was almost astonished at it because he pretended to prove all out of our own Books and none such had ever come to my Hand but upon Perusal I found this to be the Upshot That the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God My Adversary's Reply is Rep. This is not the first Cordial you have made of a wilful Vntruth nor yet the last by a great many And you who summed up nine Arguments of mine more which were the Contents of the nine Chapters next following should have been ashamed of calling this one which was the first of ten the Vpshot and then insult But I shall try how you break this single Cord this one of ten Rejoyn I will not say he has Wilfully wronged me but Wronged me he has I did not say that it was the Upshot of his whole Discourse concerning the Scriptures but of that single Chapter For had I reputed his nine following Arguments undeserving of any notice I might have called this single one the Upshot but having singlely refuted his subsequent Arguments I could not in good sense call the First the Vpshot 'T was not therefore the Vpshot of the Whole but of that Chapter in which the Word is used I had good Reason so to term it since the Proof was too particular for the Charge It was not my wilful Untruth but his Mistake His suggesting as if I only encountered that single Cord is very Disingenuous for I throughly considered Nine following Chapters Hear him further Rep. That you deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God you grant But you say pag. 25. I declare to the World that we own them to be a Declaration of the Mind and Will of God with many other things which I have shewed to be short of the main Ends of the Scriptures Rejoyn Whether those other things left out are short of the main Ends of the Scripture or no will best be seen by considering what those Things are I do declare to the whole World that we believe the Scriptures to contain a declaration of the Mind and Will of God in and to those Ages in which they were written being given forth by the holy Ghost moving in the Hearts of holy Men of God That they ought also to be Read Believed and Fulfilled in our Day being Useful for Reproof and Instruction that the Man of God may be perfect Now if this belongs not to the main Ends of Scriptures either there are none or they are unknown However it was 〈◊〉 much the End as name of Scripture that was then controverted Again he goes on thus Rep. I shall easily grant that one Word may stand representative of many An odd Phrase that represents him not able to express himself congruously I have heard of Persons as Parliament-men but never of a representative Word before Rejoyn He might have pardoned me an Incongruous Phrase if such it had been for I have twenty times over been so kind to him But I must tell him it is not less proper though less used in Words then in Persons He shews Ignorance in that Philosophy he pretends to be a Master of where there are many single words or Terms that are significative of entire Sentences but argumentum ad hominem granting to the Scriptures that they are the Word of God does not our Adversary repute that Title Representative as well as Expressive of those many thousand Words contained therein if so then there is a Representative Word If not it can never be called so in our Adversary's sense Again he brings me in thus I think it is as good sense to call a King's Letters King as the Scriptures the Word of God Rep. But by your favour Mr. Penn It is neither non-sense nor bad sense to call a King's Letter the Word of a King Rejoyn This is nothing to the purpose the Stress lies here The Word of God being a Title given to Christ as the Title King is to a supreme Magistrate whether it be Reverent or Significant to call the Declaration Christ the Word of God any more then to call the Declaration of a King by the Title of King For we therefore decline to give that Title to any thing below Christ himself to whom the Scriptures most emphatically ascribe it Because I said that it might be the Word of Advice Reproof Instruction which Christ the Great Word of God livingly sows in the Hearts of Men and Women that Christ spoke of when he said The Cares of the World choak the Word and it becomes Unfruitful He replyes Rep. Here you have yielded the Cause to save Christ from being the choaked and unfruitful Word Rejoyn I need not have done so for any such Reason since Christ may in a sense as well be Choaked as by Sin afresh Crucified and the Spirit Quenched Nor could unfruitful obliege me to give away the Cause since the Word is alwayes Vnfruitful where rebelled against But is there no Difference J. Faldo between a Word of Advice spiritually livingly and powerfully sown in the Heart by Christ the great Word of God and that Advice Reproof or Instruction declared by Writing This brings to the Point Whether the Scriptures or Christ may most deservedly be stiled the Word of God Christ is God's living Oracle and rightly called the Word of God because that which livingly speaks forth the Will of God to the Souls of Men The Scriptures are but that Revelation declared and recorded consequently they can have no right to that Title which is so suitably ascribed to the Author of that Revelation To be sure J Faldo acknowledges that they are not the Living Powerful Self-sufficient Word of God Nor does he pretend to dispute for them to be such a Word of God as the Quakers deny them to be Though it seems very strange to me that there should be Two Words of God the one quite differing from the other or that any Word of God if two there were should be of it self Impotent or Insufficient as he seems to allow in his first Book pag 20 27. Vind. pag. 14 16. That the Word of God
believe great and good things of them and that from no less Evidence then the Eternal Word that gave them forth which hath oftentimes given my Soul a deep Savour of those blessed Truths it declares of only we cannot allow them to be The Word though the Words of God and the rather forasmuch as we see the great and general Neglect that People are guilty of towards that Living Powerful Regenerating Word of Life by whom alone all right Knowledge and lasting Peace is derived to the Soul of Man through this Apprehension that in having the Writings they have the Word of God and therefore look no farther the very State of the professing Jews of old who thought better of the Scriptures then of Christ believing to have Life in them at what time they crucified the Lord of Life and Glory From whose Proceedings we learn thus much That the worst Enemies to the invisible Word of Life may carry the greatest seeming Respect to and bestow the highest Titles upon the Scriptures that were given forth from it In short It was when Men turned from the Power of Godliness to the Form only that they did Canonize and lay so vast a Stress upon them In the first and second hundred years after Christ they were so scattered that very few had all of them and it is not unreasonable for us to believe that many had none of them especially those of the New Testament Were they therefore without the Word of God and a sufficient Rule for Faith and Practice Surely not It was an Administration of Life and Power of writing the Law in the Heart and putting the Spirit in the inward Parts From whence came that Christian Answer to the Heathen concerning Swearing Fighting such contra-Evangelical Practices They could not do so because of God in their Consciences At that time of Day the Anoâ—nting led them into all Truth But in process of time when Christians grew Careless and Worldly whereby they lost the Power of Godliness then they began to set up an outward pompous Religion ascribing that to the Letter and Form which was only due to the Spirit and Power And as thus entered the Apostacy into the World so where Men are not turned and conformed to that eternal Spirit and divine immortal Power the Apostacy still remains And our End in pressing People unto the Eternal Word of Life is that they may be brought out of Death and Darkness which the Scriptures can never do They are a Declaration and Testimony of Heavenly Things but not the Heavenly Things themselves and as such we carry an high Respect unto them We accept them as the Words of God himself and by the Assistance of his Spirit they are read with great Instruction and Comfort I esteem them the best of Writings and desire nothing more frequently then that I may lead the Life they exhort to and whatever sleight Apprehensions my disingenuous Adversary is pleas'd to have of these kind of Acknowledgments I write the naked Truth of my Heart knowing I must give an Account to God CHAP. IV. His Pretence of our Equalling our own Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures VVIthout any flourishing Reflections most commonly the Head and Tail and sometimes Middle too of my Adversary's Reply I shall lay down his words Rep. The Means I used for confirming the first part of this Charge were two First Their pretending them to be from Immediate Inspiration This he is so far from denying that he pleads for it but after such a rude impertinent manner that I should but injure you and shew my self Idle to transscribe and animadvert upon it Rejoyn How rude and impertinent a manner I pleaded for it the Reader may best judge by perusing something of the Passage For Inspiration the Scriptures are not more express in any one thing No man can know the things of God by the bare Spirit of a Man The Scriptures are a sealed Book to all but those who know them by the same Hand that originally gave them so that however common they may be in the World they are Strangers to them that understand them not And though Old respecting the Time when they were revealed to the Saints yet New to every Age. So that we assert not a Revelation of New Things but a renewed Revelation of those Things God made former Ages Witnesses of otherwise men are no more benefitted by them And to be benefitted they must be made ours by the Spirit which made them the Holy Ancients In short No Man can understand Spiritnal Things but the spiritually Discerning nor can he so be without the Inspiration of the Almighty This is Scripture Now the Author of those Queries and J. Faldo also denying Inspiration they consequently deny themselves to be spiritually Discerning And for Men not spiritual to judge of spiritual Matters much 〈◊〉 to write of them and bid their Writings go and throwdown Self-will and exalt the Truth is Vain and Idolatrous For the Scriptures themselves considered meerly as such are unable much less Writings founded on Self-Will For it s the alone Priviledge of God's Power and Spirit and no writing whatever distinct from it can perform that Great and Mighty Work in Man Now as Rude and Impertinent as this Answer may be in John Faldo's Eyes his Reply has not afforded me Light enough to see it He would prove us guilty of holding Inspiration as if to do so were a Crime From a Passage of John Story 's who rejected certain Queries exhibited against the Quakers because meerly grounded upon the Author's Imagination of certain Passages in Scripture and not any certain Knowledge or Experience received from the Revelation of the Spirit It must be left to the Reader to judge how pertinently I returned upon my Adversary Sure I am that Self-willed Queries can never throw down Self-will And to urge Scripture not experienced is to steal the words of Truth from our Neighbour Inspiration was in request after Scriptures were in the World And indeed are unintelligible without it The New Birth is never the more known for Christ's Saying to Necodemus though thereby we are taught that without it no man shall enter into the Kingdom of God It is the Spirit alone that reveals the Mysteries of Regeneration therefore to deny Inspiration or Revelation is to overthrow the only and Evangelical Way to divine Knowledge Erasmus himself could tell us What Men set forth by Man's Device may be perceived by Man's Wit But the thing that is set forth by the Inspiration of the holy Ghost requireth an Interpreter inspired with the like Spirit And without the Inspiration of it the Secrets of God cannot be known which is also the substance of the fourth Article exhibited against the Lutherans in the Council of Trent as an erroneous Doctrine they held That to understand the Scripture neither Gloss nor Comment is necessary but only to have the Spirit of a Sheep of Christ's Pasture Vetablus
Rejoyn What can there be more conceited then this He must live very lonely and far from Neighbours that proclaims so much Praise to himself and have wonderful Confidence to bid Defiance so vainly to others Reader I beseech thee for the Truth 's sake on whose side soever thou shalt find it to be to examine with all impartiallity his Charge our Answer his Reply and our Rejoynder If his Honesty Reason and Justice hold any proportion to his great Confidence we yield But if upon an impartial Consideration he shall be found to clip and pervert our Matter and to shuffle with us in his own once do a poor People Right in giving Judgment against his horrible injustice The Charge thou hast heard the Proof was this That is no Command of God to me what he Commanded to another Did any of the Saints which we read of act by that Command which was to another not having the Command to themselves c Now before I give my Answer as it was set down in my Book I shall insert his Quotation of my Answer Rep. To this saith P. I answer briefly and plainly and he is as good as his word No Commands saith he in the Scripture are any further oblieging upon any Man then as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise Men should be eâ—gaged without if not against Conviction a thing Vnreasonable in a Man Rejoyn He has a notable Way of Contracting his Adversary's Answers I will set down what I writ faithfully plainly and briefly Edward Burroughs's Expression may be taken two ways both safe enough to the Honour and Credit of the Scripture though not to the Charity or Honesty of J. Faldo Now follows that part he cited No Command in the Scripture is any further oblieging upon any Man then as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise men should be engag'd without if not against Conviction a thing Unreasonable in a Man Therefore the Apostle when he wrote to the Churches exhorted them not to do those things whereof they were ashamed to shun what was manifested to be Evil and affirms that whatever might be known of God was manifested within for God had shown it unto them So that Conviction can only obliege to Obedience and since what works that Conviction is the manifesting Light universal Grace or quickening Spirit in the Heart of Mankind it follows that the principal Ground for our Faith in the Scriptures and Reason of our Obedience to the Holy Precepts therein contained is the Manifestation Conviction and secret Drawings of the Light or Spirit of God in the Conscience And thus E. B's words are sound and scriptural Again Such Commands either relate to Ordinary or Extraordinary Cases By Ordinary Cases I mean such as chiefly concern Faith and holy Life which are general permanent and indispensible and then I deny his Consequence By Extraordinary Cases I understand Moses's going to Pharoah the Prophets several manners of Appearance to the Kings Priests and People of Israel with other Temporary Commands relating to outward Services c. And so we say that what is commanded One Man is not binding as such upon another But when the Lord shall say If thou sinnest thou shalt dye If thou keepest my Commands thou shalt live Be ye holy for I the Lord your God am holy For your selves KNOW YE NOT how ye ought to follow us c. I say these Precepts and Examples are oblieging upon all why because they more or less meet with a Conviction in the Consciences of all For I am perswaded none that has a reasonable Soul who has not out-liv'd his Day but would readily say These are true and weighty Sayings For Faith in God and a holy self-denying Life are necessary both to Temporal and Eternal Happiness It was Reader to this sober Answer he flung out his fore-going Rant and makes this following Comment and Reply Viz. sayes J. Faldo Rep. They are no Commands unless we think so 'T is no Sin to break all the Commands in the Bible if our Consciences can be so blind dead or hardened as not to tell us 't is a Sin They who thought they did God good Service in killing his Servants did not sin in the least because they were not convinced of a Command to the contrary To vindicate my whole Chapter concerning the Scriptures 'T is a Principle that hath all Iniquity in the Womb of it Who can find Names for such Impious Principles Penn hath opposed scorned the Truth vilified its Teachers and Defenders so as scarce never Man did vented the most pernicious Errors told abundance of those things that are known to himself to be false Rejoyn Reader This is all the Justice and Reason I can have from this pretended meek and suffering Non-conforming Parson What would such Men do had they as much Power as Anger But I shall leave him with his Pride and Passion Is there any thing more clear then that he extends the words of E. Burroughs to Ordinary Cases which were wholely writ about Extraordinary and that he takes no more notice of my Distinction then if there had been none made As if it had been formerly an equal Sin for any not to be Circumcised and to Murder his Father or Prince or that there was the same Conviction universally upon the Consciences of all Men not to wear Linsey-Wolsey as to do by others as they would have others do to them That what we say was E. Burroughs's Meaning his own words undeniably prove One sayes he was sent to baptize and another to preach the Gospel which were particular and extraordinary Commands He clearly shuffles evades the dint of my Answer would run us within the Borders of Rantism The Question is not Are God's Commands no Commands unless we think so and therefore no Sin to break all the Commands in the Bible which is the Comment he bestows upon us but whether this or that especial Injunction to any Particular Person or Persons to this or that parculiar End be warrantably imitable without sufficient Conviction and Commission Must J. F. Baptize because John Baptized or turn Preacher because Peter was one E. B. only denyed Imitation of Ancient Times in Temporary and Shadowy Services and all those Preachings Prayers Ordinances and Churches that have not as Peter Martyr well expresses it the holy Spirit for their Root So that instead of his holding a Principle that hath all Iniquity in the Womb of it John Faldo first perverts his words and then to confute them both implies a Denyal of the holy Spirit to be the only right Leader to the Performance of Gospel-Prayer Preaching and Ordinances and of gathering of Evangelical Churches and does as good as tell us that God's Commandments are such to him not because of any Conviction in himself of the Justness of them but from the Testimony of the Scriptures which for all his high Boasts of Christianity is a State
Besides the Apostle tells us That though an Vnknown Tongue might render him as a Barbarian to him that understandeth him not will it therefore follow that he was a Barbarian or that he had not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him By no means for he might speak Mysteries in the Spirit as saith the Apostle vers 2. Men may also pray in the Spirit in an Vnknown Tongue vers 14. A Man may Bless Praise and give Thanks to God in an Vnknown Tongue vers 14 15 16 17. Nay the Apostle saith of such a one Verily thou givest Thanks well Now how all this can be and yet that such a Person should be acted by another Spirit then the Spirit of God and the Apostle for my own part I cannot see In short The Apostle tells us That Tongues are for them that believe not vers 22. But our Friend spoak among them that believed and though they did not all know what her bare words imported yet they might be and were sensible of the Divine Power in which she spoak which gave a general Refreshment unto them of that Assembly that were acquainted with it otherwise all Fellowship in Spirit must be renounced But 't is to be any thing J. F's Froth will have it because its unknown to his thick and carnal Understanding However the want of a Known Tongue may render one less Profitable but not less a Christian for a time should come the same Apostle said that Tongues should cease but never that Christianity or having the Spirit of Christ should cease Therefore to reâ—ute all that cannot speak in a Known Tongue Antichristian or of another Spirit then the Spirit of God and his Apostle is unworthy of any Man that makes any the least Pretence to the Christian-Religion indeed to common Sense One Passage more then we conclude this Chapter Reply p. 60. To my Reflection upon their affirming she spake by the Spirit because they all found Reâ—reshings viz. so have Children many a time of Puppet-Plays W. P. calls me all to nought especially because I could not as he saith but think it meant by Refreshings what came from God But let not Penn think we take our selves bound to reverence such Fooleries Rejoynder That it was a Reflection he confesseth whether it were not an Unseemly one I refer to every Man of Conscience I did not intend to obliege J. Faldo to believe what we say but reprove his prophane Scoffs at what we believe I would have so much regard to any People seriously professing Religion as not to explain what they mean by their Refreshment by the Pleasure some irreligious People take at the vain and frothy Sport of Puppet-Play And the worst Word I gave him and his Comparison was Prophaness further adding that it out-did Ben. Johnson's Alchimist a Play made in Scorn of Puritans which all good Men detest and himself dying abhorred But why may not People be refresht in their Souls from that divine Power which may attend a Person speaking in a Language unknown Suppose a Godly Assembly of English People and an English Preacher endued with God's holy Spirit and there happen into such a Congregation some serious Forreigners of the same Judgment is it absurd to say That notwithstanding their Ignorance of the Signification of the Words spoken they may have an inward and spiritual Sence of the Zeal Power and Spirit that eminently attends the Preacher if it be how much more ridiculous is it then for People to say It gladâ—ed their Hearts to see such a Godly Countenance or to hear the Voice or Sound of this or the other good Man though they had no distinct Understanding of his Words I am in this Case a more allowable Witness then J. Faldo who have seen Sinners struck the Weak strengthned and the Strong confirmed at the hearing of the Truth of God declared in a Language they could not understand The divine Power and Vertue went forth and they were judged comforted or confirmed in themselves and they no Fools though J. Faldo calls such things Fooleries and Pupppet-Playes To deny this is to overthrow Spiritual Fellowship in the Ground of it and to center in this Atheistical Notion That all our Knowledge of God comes in by our carnal Eyes and Ears that is What others have written and what others have told me that I believe and therefore I believe and not from the Testimony of this Infallible Spirit of God in my self which Credulity renders him more like Rome in that wherein she is condemnable then any thing he can truly suggest of us but this gross Doctrine being so obviously taught by our Adversary in his first Book second Part p. 91. we have the less Reason to wonder that Fooleries and Puppet-Playes are the best Words he can bestow upon the divine Consolation Refreshment and Communion of the holy Spirit within Men. We will add these Testimonies as the Conclusion of this Chapter W. Tindal in his Works p. 250. Church the Elect in whose Hearts God hath written his Law with his Holy Spirit and given them a feeling Faith of the Mercy that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. D. Barns's Works p. 244. The Holy Church of Christ is nothing else but that Congregation that is sanctified in Spirit redeemed with Christ's Blood and sticketh fast and sure alonely to the Promises that he made therein So that the Church is a Spiritual Thing and no exteriour Thing but invisible from Carnal Eyes I say not that they be invisible that be of the Church but that holy Church in her self is invisible as Faith is and her Pureness and Cleanness is before Christ only and not before the World for the World hath no Judgment nor Knowledge of her but all her Honour and Cleanness is before Christ sure and fast Peter Martyr fourth part of Common Places cap. 1 pag. 1. The Name of a Church is derived of the Greek verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to call for none can be Partakers thereof which come not thereunto by the Calling of God And to define it we say that it is a Company of Believers and regenerate Persons whom God gathereth together in Christ by the Word and the Holy Ghost It is every where called the Body of Christ because all the Members thereof have him for their Head of whom by the Joints and Sinnews they take their growing and attain unto Life by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Christoph Goad p. 37. 'T is a sad thing that there are Churches that think it is enough there is a Form of Godliness that we are in Church-Fellowship and so lie down together and sleep I have no Quarrel with Churches or any Form but such as have not the Spirit in them here are all asleep asleep in Death T. Collier's Works p. 42. The Church of Christ under the Gospel are the Spiritual Seed the Seed according to the Promise T. Collier p. 102. The Church which is Christ's Kingdom are a People Saints
Testimonial or Signification of their Belief in the Visible Appearance of the then so much denyed so cruelly derided and crucisied Jesus Wherefore I say it was not Evangelical but an Introductory Ceremony suited to the external State of things in that Day which in some competent Time so varied that there could be no Pretence of Christian-Prudence for Perpetuating the Practice of it much less any Reason for its Institution for as the Christian Power and Spirit then brightned and Christ came to be more and more formed in the Hearts of his People VVater gave way to the Holy Ghost and Fire John to Christ and their Carnal Historical Faith of Christ to the Revelation of the Son of God in them the one thing necessary even the Eternal Substance that as He grew up and put forth himself gradually wore off all Shadowy and Figurative Observations Thus did God restore the Kingdom to Israel and bring back the Captivity of his People having laid Help upon one that is Mighty the Son of his Love who alwayes was the Baptizer of all them that believe in him into his own pure Nature which is that Regeneration without which no Man shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God CHAP VII Of the Bread and VVine which Christ gave to his Disciples after Supper commonly called the Lord's Supper OUR Adversary begins his Sixteenth Chapter thus Reply pag. 69. W. P. having little to any purpose to say upon the Point of the Lord's Supper hath recoruse to his old Shifts First he charges the Independents with the Death of J. Parnel p. 141. But what is that to the Question and I believe as little to the Truth as my hand in the Blood of Kings and Princes Rejoynder Then is John Faldo deeply guilty of the Blood of Kings and Princes for certain Persons of that Way apprehended imprisoned and hardly used him to Death Doubtless no Murderer no Traitor was ever handled at that in humance â—ate by English Men as was this poor Young-man by those pretended Saints I refer my Reader to the second Part of our Serious Apology p. 185 186 187. for further Satisfaction Nor have I used any Shifts to avoid the Strength of J. Faldo's Charges or Proofs I am glad when he meddles with Matter for I find more Trouble Chaff Froth and Pedantry then when I encounter any thing more solid But if this be not crying out first there is no such thing as I will make appear in this very Chapter I brought several Reasons to justifie our Discontinuance of the Supper soberly discoursed in four or five pages He takes no more notice thereof then if there had been no such thing saving that he tells us He neglects them because they be speak the Emptiness of their Author Such a Way of Replying that had I loved Shifts more then honest Answers and could put off my Conscience at that easie but unjust Rate it would have saved me the Trouble of having to do with John Faldo's essayes against the Quakers He bestows his time in making good two Proofs he pretended to bring out of our Frinds Writings how well he acquits himself we will examine J. Parnell it seems said The Bread that People broak in that Observation was Outward Natural and Carnal This he counted most Hainous I told him That the Bread and Wine being of an Outward Elementary Nature and Substance may in Comparison of what they signifie be very properly termed Natural and Carnal Upon which he bestows this Reply after his wonted Modesty Reply pag. 69 70. Very well becoming Penn's knowing Divinity and Philosophy Fire and Air are of an Elementary Nature is Fire and Air therefore Carnal Rejoynder We would not that any should think that we intend by Natural and Carnal the worst Sense that may attend these words for sometimes they import a Wicked and Accursed State but simply as they are opposed to things Supernatuaral and spiritual and in this Sense all parts of this visible World may fall under their Signification Outward relates to the same thing and so doth Elementary as vulgarly understood and by me appropriated I was not making a Philosophistical Lecture but writing of plain and Evangelical Doctrine I know that VVords in Philosophy do carry a quite other Sense then what they bear in common Conversation I opposed Natural to Supernatural Carnal to Spiritual Outward to Inward and Elementary which relates to any of these VVorlds Elements to the Nature of that Food which comes down from above and I think Bish VVilkins's Real Character will vindicate me from the Crowing Charge of this pretended Divine and Philosopher His next Testimony was out of VV. Smith's Primmer They Bread and VVine in the Lord's Supper are the Pope's Invention This I utterly denyed to have been delivered by VV. Smith and did require him in the view of the World to produce any such Words out of the Books of W. Smith or any other of our Friends His Reply is this Reply p. 70. What W. P insnuates I charged them with viz. calling the Bread and Wine Christ blessed the Invention of the Pope I am as little concerned to make Proof of as he is honest to make report of for my Book layes no such thing to their Charge Rejoynder What a silly Evasion is this Did he not charge us with calling the Bread Wine of the Lord's Supper the Popâ—s Invention And doth he now tax my Honesty in saying That he makes us to call he Bread and VVine Christ blessed the Invention of the Pope I would fain know what is the Difference between these two Expressions were not the Bread and VVine Christ blessed the Lord's Supper If not he knows what follows and if they were the Lord's Supper then to call the Bread and VVine Christ blessed or the Lord's Supper the Invention of the Pope is equivalent therefore he ought to think himself greatly concerned to make us Satisfaction for having cast so great a Scandal upon us our Doctrine But he hopes to help one Shift by another Hear him Reply p. 70. But you are to take Notice that W. P's Words import that very same Bread and Wine which Christ and his Disciples eat and drank together at Jerusalem Rejoynder Oh J. Faldo leave of these horrible Falshoods Hath neither Christianity nor thy Profession nor common Reputation Power enough to influence thee into more Justice towards thy Adversary What Man of Sence can think I meant only that very same Bread and Wine which Christ and his Disciples eat and drank together There is no Foundation for this ill Comment And I dare appeal to my Readers Conscience in this Matter And so meanly hast thou managed this Matter that thy very next Words show the slightness of thy Reply Reply p. 70. VVhereas my Charge is of the Bread and Wine used in the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper after his Death among God's People and his Churches Rejoynder What Difference was there in Point of Time between
to be the Effect or purchase of inward Righteousness and Holiness for its impossible but the free Love and Mercy of God yet without the Holy Sanctifying or Regenerating Work of God in the Heart by the Operation of his Eternal Spirit whereby to do the Will of God as it is in Heaven it is impossible to have Access into God's Tabernable and Holy Hill much less to be justified by him And indeed as true Repentance which is the beginning of the Work of Sanctfication opens the Way for the Remission of Sins that are past which I call the first part of Justification so is Regeneration or Sanctification throughout in Body Soul and Spirit as well the compleating of Justification as Sanctification consequently it is that second Part of Justification because it is a making Man just by Nature who was before Just but by Imputation that is he that was accounted just by not having Sin imputed through Repentance and Faith in the Love of God declared in and by Christ is now inwardly made more just because made Holy as God is Holy Levit. 20. 7. Perfect as his Heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5. 48. Righteous even as God is Righteous 1 John 3. 7. through the effectual Working of the Holy Ghost There are Two Scriptures which prove this The one is 1 Cor. 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption where the word Justification is left out and yet the Thing Justification doubtless included and implyed The other is Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified where Sanctification is left out yet without Dispute the word Justification includes it Nor are we alone in this Judgment since both Ancient and Modern Writers avouch the same Irenaeus adv Heres lib. 4. cap. 30. Irenaeus Disciple to Polycarpus who was Disciple to John the Divine Apostle sayes Justiantem Patres virtute Decalogi conscriptam habentes in cordibus sâ—is legem The Patriarchs sayes he were justified by vertue of the Law written in their Hearts Again Lib. 3. cap. 4. He speaks of many Nations of the Barbarians of whom they that believe in Christ have Salvation written in their Hearts by the Spirit without Paper or Ink. Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. lib. 7. And sayes Clemens Alexandrinus who lived in the same Century Ye are made of him to be Righteous as he is Righteous and leavened of the Holy Ghost Orig. Epist ad Rom. L. 4. c. 4. And Origen also tells us Therefore Christ Justified them only who have betaken themselves to a New Life by the Example of his Resurrection and have cast away the Old Garments of Unrighteousness and Iniquity as the Cause of Death Thus far of Fathers Of the Reformers from Popery H. Bullenger Decad. 1. Serm. 6. de Justif H. Bullenger thus To justifie signifieth to remit Offences that is as I distinguisht the first part but hear what followeth to cleanse to sanctifie and to give utterance of Life Everlasting Again Justification is taken in this present Treatise for the Absolution and Remission of Sins for Sanctification and Adoption into the Number of the Sons of God D. Barns's Works p. 243 244 245. To him I will add D. Barnes Burnt in Henry the Eighth's Dayes who in his Discourse of the True Church against the Romish Bishops asserts in full and pathetical Expressions That what gives her Acceptance in the Sight of God is her being presented to God by Christ her Head without Spot through the Washing of Regeneration B. Downam of Justif chap. 1. So Bishop Downam of Justification distinguisheth and determineth this Point almost in the very same Terms I will conclude with some Passages out of J. Spirgg's Book entituled A Testimony to an Approaching Glory J. Sprig Test p. 81 82 83 84 85 88 89. We may be bold to say after Christ That Flesh profitteth nothing If you only know Christ's Dying and Rising without you it will profit you nothing except you have him Dying and Rising within you Error in this is the Root of the Dead Faith whereof the World is full Paul doth not say that the Hearing that Christ dyed for the Sins of Men doth make them free No there was the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Here is that which puts a Difference when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings the Covenant to the Heart of a poor Creature when the Spirit of Adoption and Sonship revealing us God as our Father revealing God in Vnion with us our Righteousness and our Strength he doth indeed seal us to the Day of Redemption He sets apart Christ's Sheep this distinguisheth them from the other So that if you lay your Salvation upon an Historical Christ ye will be deceived If you will have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit This is the sum of all I desire to commend unto you that we are not justified we are not sanctified by Christ's dying by Christ's suffering in the Flesh only That is not the compleat Ministration of our Salvation There indeed we see our Salvation as in a Glass and it is transacted as in a Figure as in the History but then are we actually sanctified wher as God doth send that same Spirit of Adoption into our Hearts revealing unto us the Love of the Father and revealing unto us our Reconciliation that Reconciliation that was held forth to us on the Cross but which is dispensed unto us by our being offered up upon the Cross as Christ was All these Persons put great Value upon the Inward Work of God and Christ in the Heart and plainly determine Sanctification and Justification to be one and the same thing but if any one have the Preference the Scripture it self gives it to Sanctification 1 Cor. 6. 11. Know ye not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God H. Grotius expounds the word sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accepistis spiritum sanctum ye have received the Holy Ghost and the word Justified majores quotidie in justitia fecistis progressus ye have made daily greater progress in Righteousness And D. Hammond in his Annotations upon the fifth Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Righteousness a being first sanctified and then justified To end this Chapter serious Reader It is our Faith that Christ to conform us to his Heavenly Image who have
to invalidate the most convincing Testimony Man can have of a Deity and to principle Men for the rankest Atheism that ever was Yet such a sort of a Doctor J. Faldo is become and of all other Texts in the Bible from which to preach it hath chosen this Col. 1. 27. This Mystery among the Gentiles is Christ in you the Hope of Glory which indeed of all other doth most oppose and subvert it Once more and he hath done with us upon this Passage for this time Christ is in his People by his Graces wrought by his Spirit which is his Image and Likeness by the Manifestation of his Love and Glory his Works and Image in and on the Soul and do as effectually possess the Soul for Christ his Vse and Interest as a Faithful Friend can do according so that Text That Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. But I would fain know of J. Faldo how Christ's Graces Works and Image can be there and Christ the Workman excluded If Christ be not actually there they can never Actually be wrought there for none can work them but Christ by his Spirit In short either they may be wrought without Christ's Spirit which J. Faldo disallows or Christ's Spirit may work them and yet not be where iâ— works them or if the Spirit may be where it worketh them yet Christ cannot be where it works them and consequently divided from his own Spirit though indeed the Lord Christ is that Quickening Spirit which only makes alive again to God who is the Resurrection and the Life Oh the Dreadful Darkness that yet over-spreads the Hearts of called Christians It may be as truly said of them as it was of the Jews The Vail is yet over them and Christ Jesus the Anointed Saviour is unknown to them by that Redemption which he effectually worketh in all those that hearken to his Voice and are conformed to his holy Government They are Witnesses of his Graces Works and Image through believing in his Appearance and giving up like the Clay in the Hand of the Potter to be ordered and disposed by him Nor doth the Scripture he quotes impugn the Real Presence of Christ in his People for by Faith Christ dwelleth in the Hearts of his Children that is by believing in Christ he cometh to live and dwell in us who through the Unbelief of Men is shut out from being Head and Ruler in them Our Adversary would make Faith and Christ's real Presence incomparable or inconsistent whereas the one cannot possibly be enjoyed without the other Faith being as the opening of the Door of the Heart to receive Christ in to be Lord and King and if this be not J. Faldo's Faith he is void of the Faith of God's Elect which purifieth the Heart and gives to see God according to Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God This Doctrine is the Overthrow of Christianity a turning back of the whole Stream of the New Covenant a cutting off the Spiritual Union for the Christian Dispensation is IMMANUEL God with us the Word is not stinted to Christ as the Head but concerns the Body also and God is manifested measurably in his People as he was in fulness by and through that holy Body nay some eminent Professors have gone so far as to say They make up but one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Anointed for the Oyl runs from the Head to the lowermost part of the Garment which takes in all It gives the Lye to Christs own Words who said He would come and receive them to himself he would not leave them Orphants which implies a real Presence Testimonies Good Old Apostolical Ignatius was not of J. Faldo's mind who in his Epistles produced and endeavoured to be proved genuine by Bish Vsher Isaac Vossius and D. Pearson says in that to the Ephesians pag. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Let us do all things he so dwelling in us that we be HIS TEMPLES and he our God IN us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Corrupters of his House shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Iust Mart. Expos Tid p. 375. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. See saith he how he Paul is teaching the Edification that is in Christ whence we are the Temple of Christ according to what is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God The Story of Richard Woodman in the Book of Maâ—tyrs affordeth us thus much to our Purpose in answer to the Bishop of Winchester I believe verily that I have the Spirit of God No Man can believe aright without the Spirit of God It is impossible to believe in God unless God DWELL IN US C. Goad defends our Faith in these words The Gospel is nothing else but the bringing forth of Christ IN us It calls us from Conformity to the World and from walking as Men unto the Life of God Right Spirit of Christ p. 17. T. Collier God is a Mystery Col. 22. and it is by the Appearance of God IN US we come to know God who is a Mystery The Truth is that we have had and stâ—ll have low and carnal Thoughts of God judging him to be a God AFAR OFF and not a God NIGH AT HAND This is that ANTICHRIST WHICH DENIES CHRIST TO BE COME IN THE FLESH See his Works p. 399. Again God who is in himself and in the Son not only by Union but also by a Dispensation of Grace to Men is likewise IN THE SAINTS and that not as in the Creatures or other Men BUT HE IS IN THE SAINTS AS HE WAS IN CHRIST The Saints are TRULY made Partakers of his Nature hence called CHRISTIANS they are CHRISTED and indeed Christ and Christians MAKE BUT ONE CHRIST ONE ANOINTED ONE GOD FILLS THEM BOTH See his Works p. 241 242. J. Sprig in his Preface saith thus Those that know Christ in them only immediatione virtutis not suppositi know not so Full and Glorious a Proportion in him to their End It is and must be confessed that God is and subsists otherwise in Himself then Men but this hinders not the IMMEDIATENESS OF HIS PRESENCE AND DWELLING IN MEN If you confine Christ's Dwelling to a LOCAL HEAVEN you are ignorant of that which is the greatest Joy that can be CHRIST DWELLS IN THE HEART Sprig ' s Testimony p. 87. Thus Martin Finch who stiles himself Preacher of the Gospel in his little Treatise intituled Animadversions upon Sr. Henry Vain ' s Book pag. 81. The Word of God abided and dwelt in them 1 John 2. 14. If we take it for Christ they had him Christ ABIDING IN THEM and surely they that abide in Christ and have Christ abiding IN THEM they are true Saints Thus Reader we take leave of this Chapter and proceed to examine his next CHAP. XI That we are not guilty of Idolatry as charged by our Adversary True Worshippers The Charge inverted
THE INVALIDITY OF John Faldo's Vindication Of his Book called Quakerism No Christianity BEING A REJOYNDER In Defence of the Answer intituled Quakerism a New Nick-Name for Old Christianity Wherein many Weighty Gospel-Truths are handled and the Disingenuous Carriage of our Adversary is observed for the better Information of all Moderate Inquirers In II Parts By W. P. Who loves not Controversie for Controversie sake Every day they wrest my Words all their Thoughts are against me for Evil Psa 56. 5. But he that doth a Wrong shall receive for the Wrong which he has done Col. 3. 23. Printed in the Year 1673. To all that Seriously Profess RELIGION Among those called Episcopalians Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Socinians and Latitudinarians THe Duty I ow to Almighty God and the Respect I bear to his Truth with that great Concern which lives in my Mind for your better Information about us a poor People traduced by some despised by others and our Principles mis-given here perverted there are the only Inducements I have to pursue this tedious and unpleasant Controversie And that you might be undeceived of those false Apprehensions vulgar Stories or the Insinuations of more prevalent Agents have imprest you with I could God knows be contented that even Sufferings were added to my Labours What would I not cheerfully undergo to win you into a serious View and impartial Consideration of our Case Truly I have that Belief of many of you that were the Prejudice of Education and common Vogue of the World set aside you would do us some Justice And I beseech you weigh how much it becomes you you the serious Professors of Religion to give us a fair Hearing for our Principles and Reputations before you finally determine any thing against us To Try all things was an Apostolical Exhortation Nor can you escape the Censure of Dis-regarding it if you decline a fair Inquiery after us Let not Education be dearer to you then Truth and see if more be not to be known by you then yet you know Objected Novelty ought to have no Force with a Christian since had that prevailed he had never been one Nor should the Offence Formality or Worldly Learning takes at us stave you off from a serious Search much less the Crucifie Crucifie of the Vulgar because the God of Truth when manifested in the Flesh was not exempted from more of that then ever yet attended us Indeed it should rather be an Argument for us Believe us we intreat you when we tell you that Religion Pure and Vndefiled Religion we greatly love 'T is that we desire as well to Live as Defend God knows we have long made it the Bent of our Hearts and the whole Aim of our Lives without it we were the Miserablest of Men Yet how are we Defamed Undervalued Contemned and set at Nought for a Company of Seducers Blasphemers Idolaters and what not But why because we are not understood and as cunningly by some hindred from being so But therefore is this Discourse more particularly Dedicated to you that you may be both acquainted with the Foulest Charges one of our greatest Enemies hath exhibited against us his kind of Witnesses produced to confirm them and his Management of the whole Debate with our Plain and Honest Vindication If we shall be found guilty then let us be Condemned for such as he hath represented us to be but if innocent suffer us not any longer to Groan under the Heavy Pressure of such Infamous Accusations for in omitting to Right us for these Grievous Wrongs you will make your selves Accessories to an Injustice that must needs be detested of all Vertuous and Good Men. I leave this Rejoynder with you containing the True Meanings of our Wrested Principles those confirmed by express Scriptures many Râ—â—sons and a Cloud of Testimonies And shall conclude with a Passage out of Jerome well-becoming all Honest Writers and fit to be observed of every impartial Reader Quaeso Lector ut memor Tribunalis Domini de judicio tuo te intelligens judicandum nec mihi nec Adversario meo faveas neve Personas Loquentium sed causam consideres I beseech thee Reader that remembring the Judgment-Seat of the Lord and understanding that as thou dost judge so thou shalt be judged thou favourest neither me nor mine Adversary that writes against me that thou regardest not the Persons but the Cause only I am a real Valuer of whatsoever is Worthy in any of you and an Hearty Wisher of your Improvement in the Knowledge of those things that lead to Eternal Peace which are only to be found in the Light and Life of Righteousness William Penn. THE CONTENTS Part I. CHAP. I. OF Christianity in General pag. 12. CHAP. II. Of Quakerism as this Independent Priest scoffingly calls our Holy Religion pag. 25. CHAP. III. Of the Scriptures pag. 31. CHAP. IV. His Preâ—ence of our Equalling our own Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures pag. 41. CHAP. V. Of the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie p. 68. CHAP. VI. Of our Dehorting People from Reading the Scriptures c. as charged by this Adversary pag. 94. CHAP. VII Of Scripture-Commands what are binding and what not Our Adversary's Disingenuity observed pag. 103. CHAP. VIII That we do not Deny the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation in Opposition to and Denyal of our Adversary's Charge pag. 121. CHAP. IX Not we but our Adversary opposeth the Teachings of the Spirit to the Doctrines of the Scriptures The Testimonies brought by him cleared and delivered from his Application Our Doctrine proved from Scripture and several Testimonies His frequent and gross Perversions of our Words and Writings discovered and justly rebuked pag. 141. PART II. CHAP. I. Of Gospel-Ordinances in general such truly imbraced pag. 187. CHAP. II. Of true and false Ministry p. 203. CHAP. III. That we own a Gospel-Church contrary to our Adversary's Charge pag. 217. CHAP. IV. His Charge of our Denying to hear the Word of God examined True Preaching acknowledged pag. 237. CHAP. V. Of True and False Prayer p. 240. CHAP. VI. Of Positive Ordinances as our Adversary calls them to wit Baptism and the Supper Of Baptism in particular pag. 249. CHAP. VII Of the Bread and Wine which Christ gave to his Disciples after Supper commonly called the Lord's Supper pag. 264. CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrine of Justification pag. 273. CHAP. IX Of the True Christ We own and our Adversary proved to deny him pag. 296. CHAP. X. Three Scriptures rescued from the false Glosses of our Adversary Joh. 1. 9. Rom. 10. 8. 2 Pet. 1. 19. pag. 317. CHAP. XI That we are not guilty of Idolatry as charged by our Adversary True Worshippers The Charge inverted pag. 343. CHAP. XII Of the Resurrection of Dead Bodies and Eternal Recompence Our Doctrine maintain'd by Scripture Reason and Authorities pag. 362. CHAP. XIII My Adversary declines medling with my Appendix
David no Christian who was a Man after God's own Heart Neither can I believe with him that the Apostle's Exhortation Phil. 4. Whatsoever things are True Honest Just Pure Lovely of Good Report if there be any Praise think on these things is no Part of Christianity or that a Man may be a Saint and not a Christian or that a Child of God is not a Good Christian or that James was mistaken who said That the Pure and Vndefiled Religion was to keep our selves unspotted of the World which strange kind of Consequences unavoidably follow from J. Faldo's Assertion and Definition For our Parts As we think it no Wrong to Christianity so no Discredit to our Cause that it should be reported that we believe the Word nigh in the Heart the Apostle Paul calls the Word of Faith and Reconciliation to have been preached by Moses that Chist the Promised Seed bruised the Serpent's Head as well before as at and since his Visible Appearance That Enoch when he walked with God walked in the Light in which he felt the Blood of Christ cleansing from all Sin That the Spirit of God strove with Men as well before Christ's Coming as since and that some were led by it before as well as since and therefore Children of God and if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joynt-Heirs with Christ Not that we deny a Preheminence to Christ's Visible Coming â—nd the greater Benefits that came into the World thereby we would not be thought so to mean at no hand only this that something of that Divine Life Power Wisdom and Righteousness that then so super-excellently appeared and broak forth was revealed in all former Ages as Mankind was in a Capacity to receive it wherefore the Difference lay in the Manifestations of the One Thing necessary and not in several things So that the Law is as it were the Gospel begun and the Gospel the Law finished or as Augustine expresses it Lex est Evangelium absconditum et Evangelium est lex revelata The Law is the Gospel obscured the Gospel the Law revealed That is suited to the Capacity of Ages But J. Faldo is Angry that in my Recital of these words out of his former Discourse But the Thing Christianity might well be before the Name Christian that I left out these following words so short a space Saying I am a Man of a seared Conscience and that it is pitty any Reader should be so tame to be thus imposed on Rejoyn I know not what he means by these last words unless he would have every Man that reads me beat me I have alwayes thought it becoming a Minister of the Gospel to make People Tame and not Wild Sufferers not Hectors but such Expressions very well suit with John Faldo's Religion For my Conscience it is not so seared but I can feel and resent John Faldo's Injustice God knows I left out no words designedly nor could the Insertion of them have disappointed me For if the Thing Christianity may be before the Name a Day then a Year and so an Age till we shall come to the first Man that ever God saved All Men must be saved by either Law or Gospel Now the Law strictly considered could never save it gives Life to none So imports the Scripture and so asserts B. Vsher B. Sanderson Allen and others then it must have been by the Gospel which is by the Apostle called the Power of God unto Salvation and if all Men that were ever saved were saved by the Gospel then True Christians unless Men may believe the Gospel be saved by the Life and Power of it and yet be no Christians that is not the Men the term Christians given first at Antioch doth fignifie I shall offer this short Argument to the Reader 's consideration If He that is born again be a Christian and such as enter into the Kingdom of God be born again then because Abraham Isaac Jacob Samuel David c. entered into God's Kingdom it follows that they were born again and consequently Christians How pernicious is that Principle which denyes the New Birth to be so much as any part of Christianity when indeed the greatest as Christ's own Saying proves The Truth of the Matter is The very Life Power and Spirit of the Gospel or Christianity which to other exteriour Performances is as the Soul to the Body John Faldo would fain exclude from any Share in Christianity and for our preferring and pressing That as the most important Matter he over-runs us with all the Vilifying Scornful Epithetes a Lucian could bestow upon a Christian Indeed his Frothiness is such that were it not for their sakes who may yet be ensnared by his Adventrous and Imperious Assertions and Reflections I should not think his Vindication worth one Minute of my Time But he proceeds Rep. I undertook to prove Quakerism No Christianity from the confessed Newness of it by their own Party Penn tells us p. 21. the first Letters of the Names of some the bare Names of others whose words I quoted but dare not transscribe their words being so fair to my Purpose only a part of Penington's who saith of the Quakers Dispensation that it swallowed up that of Christ and the Apostles which Penn would take off by telling me I have no Candor in so Construing the words as if Penington who was a Schollar could not express his Mind congruously but must have Penn to be his Interpreter Rejoyn Now what any can make of this Cloudy Paragraph that has not read our former Books indeed of the greatest part of his Vindication if then I know not but sure I am he ignorantly or willingly puts the Lye upon himself and greatly berayes his own Weakness Is this your Combatant you that blow him with Pride and Rage that he may only have Wind to Crack out against the Quakers What Reply is this wretched disingenuous Section to my Answer If I quoted not E. Burroughs's and J. Whitehead's words at length and but a few they were I quoted that for which the rest left out were quoted He would fix the beginning of Quakerism about the Year 1651. this was the Drift of his Quotations from whence he concluded Quakerism No Christianity Hear my Answer and by that it will appear how suitable or sufficient his Reply is Well But when came this Quakerism into the World He tells us about the year 1651. quoting E. B's Epistle before G. F's Great Mystery also a small Treatise writ by John Whitehead Isaac Penington from whence he infers that Quakerism is a late Dispensation therefore not that of Christianity But certainly this Man hath taken a very Quick Course to Vnchristian himself and all the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists in the World as well as the Quakers For I would ask him if there was not a Time since the Primitive Age wherein Darkness hath overspread the Earth the Beast did Reign and the pure Religion was
things which they received of the Apostles therefore to understand the Scriptures in those things which are necessary to Salvation for those things those Believers had received of the Apostles With much to the same Purpose in that Chapter I could produce many more Testimonies from Great and Famous modern Writers besides the Pathetical Expressions of a multitude of Martyrs both English and Forreign as well famous for their Learning as great Fidelity that express themselves fully in Defence of our Assertion That to bring Men and Women to the Obedience of the Everlasting Word nigh in the Heart is so far from being repugnant to or undervaluing of the holy Scriptures as without their Acquaintance with it and Conformity to it they can never be read by any with Instruction and Comfort But if God please there may be a time for our more full Disquisition of this Point But be thinks to supply his Wilful Omission and Disingenuous Carriage about my Answer to the ill use he made of my other Proof by reflecting upon my Honesty in transscribing his Second taken out of our Friend James Parnâ—ll his Book entituled The Shield of the Truth pag. 10. because I added not these words Seeking the Living among the Dead at the end of this Sentence By the same Light do we discern him to be in Darkness who putteth the Letter for the Light and so draw People's Minds from the Light within them to the Light without them And as if he had fully obtain'd his Will upon us by making us speak what he untruly sayes we own and practice he goes on This needs no Comment to render its Proof valid and is out of the Reach of the utmost stretch of Penn ' s Wit and Confidence to put any Appearance of another Construction upon it But methinks this Sound renders him very Empty It must be a very plain Case if not so much as the Appearance of another Construction can be made upon it then what he would have it to import but I am wholely of another mind and that there is no Difficulty in making a very free and sufficient Defence for the Passage I ought to take it for granted that the whole of his Objection lies against the Words I omitted inasmuch as he pretends not to reply to my Vindication of the former part of the Sentence which was to this purpose That by turning People to the Light of Christ we did not teach them to undervalue but how they should most truly understand and value the Scriptures that the Spirit was more excellent then the Letter the Power then the Form of Godliness yet both Letter and Form to be respected in their place and that we only took our Aim against such as put the Letter in the Place of the Spirit thereby keeping People from the Holy Spirit by which alone the Scriptures are read and understood unto Edâ—fication and Comfort My Adversary I say taking no notice of this I must think he had nothing to say saving his Charge of the fore-mention'd Omission To which thus much It was not designed I took and defended the Substance of the Passage For I would faiâ— know what Life is to be had in the Letter without the Aâ—â—â—stance of the Light or Spirit of Christ If then the Letter is Dead without the Spirit which is Old Protestant Doctrine Can it be any thing else then seeking the Living among the Dead to draw People from the Light and Spirit of Christ within to seek for Life in the meer Letter without â—or so the Question ran This was the State of the Jewish Church in her Apostacy and is the Condition of Thousands at this very day who under Pretence of Honouring the Scriptures despise grieve and in a sense quench the Spirit that gave them forth for which God is wroth with the false Christian and his Religion Worship is an Abomination in his Sight and great sudden will be their Distress for his Indignation is kindled aud his Fury ready to be revealed and in that day shall such lofty Boasters as my Adversary be brought â—â—ow their Spirits faint and Hearts fall within them â—at what time the Light Spirit and Life of Jesus shall be unto all that trust therein a Rock of Everlasting Strength an immoveable Foundation and Sanctuary full of Comfort Peace and Joy forever And indeed this thing â—oth so deeply affect my Soul that I cannot refrain from â—rying Wo Wo Wo against all such Watchmen of the Night who rack their Wits for Tales and Stories to care well-meaning and devout People from the Enjoyâ—ent of the Life Vertue and Substance of the Scripâ—ures Nick-naming that only Way by which so great â—nd heavenly Benefit can ever be procured I mean the â—nspiration of the Almighty with such hateful Terms â—s Enthusiasm Quakerism Familism a more refined â—rt of Ranterism c. and what else may keep them â— their Snare stop their Enquiery and render the â—iving Eternal Truth of God odious in their Sight â—etter were it for such that they had never been born then â—nder Pretence of being Ministers of the Gospel to â—urder the Life and Spirit of it estranging the minds of People from that unchangeable Covenant instead of inâ—teresting them in it thereby manifestly depriving their Souls of blessed and Eternal Priviledges They are like Troops of Robbers indeed as the Prophet anciently said they murder by Consent most of them combining against the in-dwelling Life of Jesus and immediate Springings and Flowings forth of his Spirit in the Hearts of his Children Let it never be forgotten that the first Murderer was a Sacrificer and the deadliest Persecutor a Pharisee Nor has there been a more Venemous Enrag'd Blood-thirsty Generation of Men then the Formal Literal Professor who ever called God Father and Christ Beelzebub who crucified his Son and persecuted the Apostles reputing them Mad Men that is Phanaticks or Enthusiasts Seditious Fellows Sect-Masters Introducers of New Doctrines Innovators upon the Church Turners of the World up-side down in fine Despisers of the VVritings of the Law and the Prophets while they themselves thought to have Eternal Life therein being of the Circumcision Sons of Abraham and Children of the Promise Oh! that these of our Day might Repent which those of that Day did not lest neglecting God's present Visitation neither entering themselves nor suffering others to enter into the blessed Rest the miserable Doom of that Hard-hearted Generation overtake them and that speedily CHAP. V. Of Scripture-Commands what are binding and what not Our Adversary's Disingenuity observed BUt however he has fail'd in his last Chapter doubtless he thinks he has done my Business in this he begins like himself Rep. My Charge and Argument in this Chapter is The Quakers affirm the Doctrines Commands Promises holy Examples expressed in Scripture as such not to be at all binding to us such an Argument and so proved by me mark Reader as a Thousand Penns can never invalid it
far beneath those noble Gentiles who not having an outward Law were a Law unto themselves having the Effect of it written in their Hearts their Conscience bearing witness c. And this we may boldly say That such as ever acted from that inward Sense never thought they did God Good Service in Killing his Servants whilst great Admirers of the Letter of the Scriptures and who as concerning this Commandment Thou shalt not Murder thought themselves most unblamable believed They did God Good Service in killing his Servants Nor can I think it so great a Disgrace to our Cause that we ingenuously profess the Reason why we desire to fear God and keep his Commandments doing unto others as we would have them do unto us not so much to be from the Letter of the Scripture as the Convictions of the Eternal Light and Spirit of God in our Consciences As it ought to be unto John Faldo and his Adherents who ground their Obedience upon the Letter of the Scripture and not upon such internal Convictions What is it but to say They could Lye Swear Steal Kill c. without any Remorse did they not find such Injunctions and Prohibitions upon record A Consequence so detestable yet so natural to their Principles that if this render them not able Guides to the very Confines of Rantism and Atheism I shall gladly ask an Excuse for my Ignorance But that I may leave nothing undone that may compleat the Satisfaction of every moderate Inquirer I shall further weigh and rejoyn to these words of his They who thought they did God good Service in Killing his Servants did not sin in the least because they were not convinced of a Command to the contrary nor the Idolaters in the Case of Baal because they thought Baal to be a God indeed Now Reader observe the Evasion This Passage relates not to Men's practising what God Commands or our Tenderness in imitating other Saints without Commission for fear we should offer strange Fire which is our Question but their doing that which God never commanded yea which Mankind in all Ages hath adjudged impious and which to be sure his Holy Spirit that E. B. said All Men should wait to be convinced assisted and led by in fulfilling God's Commandments never moved any to He unworthily draws a general Conclusion against us from meer particular Premises It seems Men are to act without if not against Conviction upon his Principle and that it is the same thing with him to commit moral Enormities from an Hardned Heart and to be tender of taking up any external Practice or performing some Religious Duty without the Convictions and Leadings of the Holy Spirit The Apostle said to such as had not as yet so full clearness as others That if any were otherwise-minded God would reveal it He did not injoyn them during that Scruple to believe or practice the thing doubted but therefore did Persecutors act inexcusably in their fiery Zeal because their blind Consciences checkt them not Again If Blindness came from Education it is though Blindness still and therefore it was basely done of J. Faldo to say in our Name that it is not Sin in the least c. more excusable for in the dayes of such Ignorance God winks But if it be a Blindness proceeding from long Disobedience and Rebellion against the Convictions and Strivings of the Good Spirit of God as his Word Hardned implies then I say it is not only very hainous in God's Sight but those Persons can never be excused neither from great Guilt nor the Sense of it in themselves let them or J. F. talk never so much of Conscience Besides the most Essential and Universally Necessary Commands of God were through all Ages confest to both before there was any of those Writings we rightly call the Scriptures of Truth from the Law of Nature as many stile it or rather the Law God placed in Man's Nature and since where they have never been Therefore whatever particular hardned and seared Consciences may say we have the Consent of Mankind and their own Rebellion and Lewdness against them But the Words of J. Faldo in plain terms import as if 1 st Men were not generally convinced of the Righteousness of the Moral Commands of God but that Men keep them because they are in the Bible only which runs against the Testimony of Scripture the Consent of Ages and the Writings and Judgment of the most Honest and Learn'd Protestants 2ly As if it were a like Evil Conscientiously to forbear Running Willing and Striving in Matters of Worship without the Spirit 's Conduct and searedly to plead for the Commission of Murder and Idolatry because Men of such Consciences bogle not at it though that is more then J. F. can prove I mean that they have no Stroak or Remorse 3 ly As if we could worship preach gather Churches and administer Gospel-Ordinances aright without the Spirit 4 ly That he is not convinced by any other Testimony then the Scripture without of any Transgression against God's Law 5 ly It supposes that if Men stay'd till the Spirit mov'd they should stay long enough who vainly prate of Praying by the Spirit notwithstanding never considering that the Spirit standeth ready to Reveal it self to their Assistance and Assurance who wait for it and that all the Children of God are led by the Spirit of God which being our Position had it but been weighed by this Adversary he could not methinks be so Unjust in his Aggravations 'T is true should we believe as he doth the Spirit is not to be waited for now adayes to lead us or that it is not ready to our Information when we wait for its Discoveries and Leadings our Assertion would look very absurd and loose for it were to let fall all Worship but not upon our own Principle as I said before for first all Worship to God ought to be performed by the Assistance of his holy Spirit for of our selves we can do nothing that is Good And secondly God's Spirit is ready to assist instruct and comfort those that wait diligently and patiently for it yea God has given it to the Rebellious that it may judge them if it don't lead them It is such Protestant Doctrine that I wonder Men should not know their Admired Ancestors Faith when they met it Oh great Degeneration into Hardness and Ignorance Lastly There is the same to be said against him that pretends to ground all upon the Scripture that he objects against us who plead for the Conviction of Conscience which the Instance of the Jews Murder of our Lord Jesus Christ unanswerably proves There was a Law that Blasphemers should be put to Death By this Law they apprehended Jesus adjudged and got him to be executed These Men above any Age exalted the Scriptures as the Only Rule Where lies the Mistake Not in the Scripture but in their blind and envious Application of it Now I ask if the only Way
for them to have come to the true Sense and Knowledge of him and escaped that Wicked Murder and the Deplorable Consequences of it had not been to have waited upon God for the Convictions Discoveries and Guidance of his Holy Spirit since Flesh and Blood and the utmost VVit of Man with the Exactness of the meer Letter of the Scriptures could never give the certain Discerning Knowledge and Savour of him unto that Generation whose very VVords themselves were Spirit and Life It was by a Divine Touch Sense and Knowledge given from above that he was truly diâ—cern'd own'd and follow'd of those that believ'd in him and cleav'd to him therefore said Christ No man cometh to me but whom my Father draweth Where was that Drawing but within Again Simon Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed what who I am but my Father that is in Heaven So that at last Men must come to this Spiritual Sense in themselves to understand and apply the very Commands of Scripture otherwise not Justice but detestable Murder may under the Name of it be confidently perpetrated Wherefore we Exhort all To have Recourse unto God's Spirit that illuminates certainly and gives to act unblamably by which the Scriptures are only understood as they should be and People brought into the Possession of that Life of Righteousness they plentifully declare of Had it not been for this inward Discerning there had been no Ground for the Abolishment of the whole Jewish Service which follow'd some years after Christ's Ascension And it is the same Eternal Spirit that is the great Rule and Judge now which God promised more particularly to shed abroad in the latter Dayes and is the great inseparable Priviledge from the New and Everlasting Covenant But to conclude Why should it seem so Heterâ—dox in J. Faldo's Judgment since if Men believe the Scripture upon the Testimony of the Spirit they practise it by the Knowledge and Power of the same How else could Paul have decry'd Jewish Ceremonies or we know what to take and what to leave Or why do we omit any Command therein mention'd They Cicumcised therefore must I Circumcise They Baptized must I therefore Baptize with forty more particular Cases wherein nothing can secure any from the Imitation of them set Conviction or Spiritual Disâ—erning aside I will offer two or three Testimonies from approved Men in our Defence William Tindal that ancient faithful Protestant Martyr whom J. Fox that writ the Books of Martyrs calls the English Apostle speaks thus That it is impossible to understand in the Scripture more then a Turk for whosoever or any that hath not the Law of God writ in his Heart to fulfil it Again Without the Spirit it is impossible to understand them John Jewel Bishop of Salisbury in his excellent Book against the Papists writ above One Hundred Years ago sayes thus to our purpose The Spirit of God is bound neither to Sharpness of Wit nor to abundance of Learning Oftentimes the Unlearned see that thing that the Learned cannot see Christ saith I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and the Politick and hast revealed them unto the Little Ones Therefore Epiphanius saith Only to the Children of the Holy Ghost all the Holy Scriptures are plain and clear Again Flesh and Blood is not able to understand the Holy Will of God without SPECIAL Revelation Therefore Christ gave Thanks unto his Father and likewise opened the Hearts of his Disciples that they might understand the Scriptures Without this special Help and PROMPTING of God's Holy Spirit the Word of God is unto the Reader be he never so wise or well learned as the Vision of a Sealed Book Now unless Men are bound to do what they do not understand how to do then only are they to do them where they are Revealed or Discovered to them which being by the Spirit only according to their Doctrine the Testimony and Discoveries of the Spirit are requisite to our understanding of the Scriptures which implies and comprehends a Discriminating Knowledge or Certain Discerning of what we should practise from what is not oblieging upon us to practise and consequently that we ought not to run head-long without such knowledge T. Collier an Ancient and Eminent Man among the Western-Separatists of our Nation writeth thus For me to speak of God because another speaks of him and to be able to talk much of God as I read of him in Scripture NOT BEING MADE ONE IN THE SAME TRUTH I see and speak BUT WHAT ANOTHER HATH SPOKEN and so may speak truly sometimes of God but it is by Hear-say ANOTHER MAN's TRUTH BUT NOT MINE So I doubt many a Soul BOASTS IN ANOTHER MAN's LIGHT Again I see that external Actings according to a Rule without is nothing if not flowing from a Principle of Life and Love within Which is more then E. B. said of whom J. Faldo with unworthy Reflection and base Wrestings hath said so much Thus much of sober Rejoynder and much more then my Adversary's scurrilous Reply deserves but the ConCernment I have for the Information of others drew this from me I shall pass by his Ranting Strain against us at the top of his 36th page desiring to keep close to the Business and where I may without breaking his Matter avoid troubling the World with a Transcript of them I am very careful to do it But this next particular as many more being little else and since he suggests thereby an Untruth with great Confidence against me I should wrong both the Truth and my self in omitting it He charged us with Denying the Scriptures to be any Means to know God Christ or our selves for which he quoted W. Smith's Primmer pag. 2. because he there tells the Questioner that Christ is the Only Way to which J. Faldo answered That though Christ said No Man can come to the Father but by me yet he did not say that there is no coming to the Knowledge of God but by Christ thereby making as I observed in my Return to him a Difference between coming to the Father by the Son and to God by Christ though no other Name be given under Heaven then the Name of Jeâ—us Christ c. That we never deny'd the Scriptures to be a Means in God's Hand to convince instruct or confirm nor could this be W. Smith's Meaning since he would thereby have cut off all Benefit from accruing to People by his Books and also that Ministry he had receiv'd of God In short From our Denying that there is any other Way to the Father but Christ he concludes that we exclude the Scriptures and consequently our own Books and Ministry with them from being any way Instrumental of Good however if I err'd it was in good Company and that J. F. must acknowledge for worthy W. Tindal p. 80. of his Works and H. Bullenger a learned and famous Reformer in Switzerland
Church and so carry the People with whom they prevail only to outward things to an outward Word to outward Worship outward Ordinances outward Church outward Government c. whereas in the true Kingdom of Christ all things are inward and spiritual and all the true Religion of Christ is written in the Soul and Spirit of Man and the Believer is the only Book in which God himself writes his new Testament pag. 19 20. The third Testimony is out of T. Collier's Works p. 249. How can they teach others who know not Truth themselves as they say but as they read it without them And so at the best speak but other Men's Light And if they mis-understand what other Men have written then they speak Falshood instead of Truth Thus much in Countenance of W. Smith's Expression from Three Men of great Note among our English Separatists But let us hear what Use J. Faldo makes of the Testimony he brought and which we have thus clear'd and confirm'd Rep. Then follows in this and pag. 23. all that rabble of villifying Expressions of both their Practices and Authority quoted by me in Quakerism No Christianity p. 119. Rejoyn If this be true W. Smith's Book shall yet be blam'd as much as J. F. will otherwise have abus'd him I will set down his words faithfully They said he hope to be sav'd after this Life is ended by Christ though they be Sinners and so are set down in a Carnal Security and rest at ease in the Formality and are Strangers to the Quickening Spirit and the Faith that they have made is not held in a pure Conscience but is conceived in the Heart that is Degenerated and Corrupted I Query of my Reader if this was meant of the Scripture upon whom J. F. makes W. S. bestow the word Corrupted Again And what was by the Saints given forth and appears in VVritings without them that their Life is in and that they contend about and all strive to set up their own Conceivings and teach for Doctrines Men's Traditions Mark that Reader He speaks not against the Scriptures nor of them but their Blindness in using them and mind not the Measure of God in themselves that is Reader God's Measure or the Grace of God which teacheth to deny those sins he told them a little before they liv'd in with Carnal Security But sayes he stretcht beyond it in the Comprehension and run into other Men's Lines and Labours That is They out-run their own Experiences and intrude themselves into those things which were beyond their own Growth which W. S. rebukes them for making it his Business to turn them to that Grace which obeyed teaches them not to vilifie Scriptures but brings them into the right Possession of them and Title to them which he make appear to be more to their Advantage then to dispute and contend about them whilst in Sinful Security Formality Estrangedness from the Quickening Spirit Humane Faith Impure Conscience and in a Degenerated and Corrupted Heart All which is in his 22th page and give Light enough to any Man that has not like J. F. put out his Eyes of Reason and Candour unto these following words which can no more relate to the Holy Scriptures then that Spirit from whom they came to wit They are all upon the Earthly Root and in Darkness and Confusion in their Practice and Worship Now Reader What does the Scripture practise and whom and how doth the Scripture worship if the word they relate to the Scriptures and not those several ranks of Professors to whom he expresly dedicated his Book Yet further That from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Feet the Image that is the several Sects hath no whole part in it but is full of Putrefaction and Corruption and every Branch rotten and deceitful and no good Fruit is found for the bringing forth of all is from the Heart that is deceitful and corrupted which lies faln and degenerated from God What Man Reader that ever thought to have his Proofs examin'd would have dar'd to apply in the Author's Name these terms to the Scripture that so particularly and plainly relate to Man in his fallen State But please to consider what better Authority he has for the rest viz. And are all found Wanderers in the Night of Apostacy and in the Darkness have taken the VVhore's Cup and do drink it And unto all those is the Cup of God's Indignation poured out because they are Bastards and not Sons Upon which I query with J. F. who are the VVanderers If the People then the fore-going word They of which the word Wanderers must be the Relative concern Professors and then all those Terms before-mention'd belongs not to the Scripture and consequently mis-apply'd by our Enemy But if he says VV. S. meant the Scriptures how could they be said to wander or drink the VVhore's Cup And if the Whore's Cup be the Scriptures as J. F. makes W. S. to mean either the People drank up the Scriptures in the Apostacy or the Scriptures drank up themselves Next VVho are those Bastards to whom the Cup of God's Indignation is pour'd fourth Certainly they are Disobedient Children and not as J. Faldo would have it the Scriptures and holy Doctrines deduced thence Reader Doubtless the Man is desperate and to me he seems to have laid Violent hands upon himself to the destroying of his Reputation among Men and his Soul in the Eye of God since after all this Injury to our deceased Friend he dares yet appear in so impudent a Strain as this following Passage makes him guilty of All this Penn KNEW to be true when he dared to make such Hypocritical Appeals to Delude the World Save the Quakers Credit and Abuse me as a Forger The Righteous God judge between us whether I writ otherwise then I knew or he in affirming it more then he knew My Appeals were solemn in the Grief of my Spirit to see a Man arriv'd at that pitch of Falsness as to pervert and forge about Sacred Things even while himself would pass for a Minister of them and I can scarce think any Man so prejudic'd against us as not to conclude with me that his Aim in this untrue Passage to say no more was to bear People down as to the Honesty of his Quotation by the mighty Vehemence and Confidence of his positive Charge against me to have known what in Reallity I never knew and to have appeal'd hypocritically to God concerning our Innocency who did it in the Humility and Sincerity of my Soul because the Man had no other way left him to secure himself from the deserv'd Imputation of Forgery or wilful Perversion scarce a remove from it But that by which he would clear himself from it fastens it inevitably upon him and renders him one of the daringst and most harden'd Perverters I have ever yet met with in all my Life The next Testimony he brought to prove our Opposition
great Geneva Doctor that made Servetus keep Company with his Books or rather had him burnt by them as if it had been to save Wood for Exceeding their Presbyterian Reformation and instead of repenting defended it in Writing when he had done at what time the said Doctor and that whole City were persecuted themselves with the Anathama's of Rome and 't is not to be doubted but they thought them unchristian It would fill a Volumn to tell the Tragical Excommunications and other notable Feats done by some of this Tribe of Men for the Maintenance of their Church Power and Dignity oft times saving the civil Magistrate the Trouble of abusing such poor Dissenters from them as we are by a licentious Usurpation and Practice of his Power upon their Backs we well know it yet has this man the Confidence to fall hard on us for censuring such as recede from what they once own'd because we can never allow them as such to be of us he cryes out Oh the Charity of the Quakers the Quakers may see the Image of the Beast among themselves c. But on better Grounds may every ingenuous Reader return this Exclamation Oh the Incharity of J. F. and his Adherents whose very Mercies are Cruelties Let him pack up his Pipes and play us no more of these Envious and Hypocritical Notes and hold himself contented that whether we be the Image or no to be sure he has made Sydach Sympson and his Church the Beast in great Letters cum multis aliis not forgetting nor excluding his own railing and excommunicating self The Conclusion of the First Part. WE have now run through his Nine Chapters Seven of which concerned the Scriptures doubtless writ to vindicate his former Discourse but with what Success I leave with Thee Courteous Reader to judge And before I sum up our Sense for a Farewell to this Part of his Pamphlet I request thee when thou next falls into Company with J. F. or any of that Tribe of Men the pretended Admirers of Scripture and one would almost think the devoutest Observers of those Precepts and precisest Imitators of those Examples expressed therein to ask in good Earnest Whether it be the whole and every part of Scripture they call the Word of God and Rule of Faith and Life or No If they say All and every part of it then the Words of Wicked Kings False Prophets Persecutors c. yea the Devil himself therein at large declared with the whole Jewish History and Ceremenial and Judiacal Law containing the Government Sacrifices Priesthood and all other Jewish Rights will necessarily make up a great part of the Word of God and their Rule of Faith and Life But if they shall answer Negatively that they are not in the whole and every part of them the Word of God and Rule of Faith and Life Then ask them Which are those Places Precents and Examples that particularly concern us under this Administration And if they answer this Enquiry and are not grown too hot and angry by this time entreat them to tell thee By what they discern and distinguish in this weighty Matter For if they either set aside what they should receive or continue what should be laid aside they Add or Dminish to what themselves acknowledge to be the Word of God If they say the Harmony of Scriptures the same Question holds How and by What doth it appear so Harmonous since there are very deep and obscure places and sometimes seeming Contradictions and that in highest Points If they say by the Spirit and Vnderstanding of meer Man the Apostle Paul directly opposes himself to every such answer 1. Cor. 2. But if thus driven they answer in the Words of J. Owen That the only Publick Authentick and Infallible Interpreter of the Holy Scripture is HE who is the AUTHOR of them from the Breathing of whose Spirit it derives all its Verity Perspicuity and Authority Exerc. 2 7 9. against the Quakers Entreat their Patience to stand one Question more and thou hast done viz. If the Verity Perspicuity and Authority of the Scriptures depend upon the Breathing of the Holy Spirit or as he expresses it a little further the Infusing a Spiritual Light into our Hearts Then Whether People ought not to have recourse unto the Holy Spirit and Light as the only Interpreter Judge and Rule what Scripture remaine of Force to our Day and how and which way such Scripture is to be understood When thou hast obtained such sober Answers as thy Questions deserve at their hands I should be very glad to have the Perusal of them In the mean time we own and with our whole Hearts confess First That the Scriptures given forth by Inspiration are a true and faithful Narrative or Declaration of the Mind of God towards the Sons and Daughters of Men and his various Dealings with them respecting Precepts Prophecies Threatnings Promises Providences Rewards Punishments Deliverances Doctrines Examples and Practices Seconly That they are Profitable for Reproof Instruction Edification and Comfort Thirdly That it is the Spirit of God which only gives Men to read understand and use them to Advantage as Thomas Collier hath well expressed it about Twenty Five Years ago viz. And truly Brethren it is my earnest Desire to see Souls to live more in the Spirit and less in the Letter and then they will see THAT WE JUDGE OF THE LETTER BY THE SPIRIT AND NOT OF THE SPIRIT BY THE LETTER which occasions so much Ignorance amongst us And they who profess themselves to be our TEACHERS ARE CHIEF IN THIS TRESPASS Four â—hly That the Holy Spirit is the New Covenant Rule and Judge it being the Promise of the Father and Ministry and Dispensation of the latter Days as there Scriptures abundantly prove Neh. 9. 19 20. Job 32. 8. Isa 59. 21. Joel 2. 28 29. Hag. 2. 25. Mat. 16. 17. Jo. 14. 17 18 19. Chap. 16. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. Rom. 8. 1 9 14. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. Gal. 5. 16 18. Eph. 1. 17. I. Jo. 2. 20 27. Yet we deny not but the Lord hath and yet may make the Holy Scripture a Mean to several in the Hand of his Spirit of Understanding and Comfort and so far they may be a particular Rule Yea I do believe they have been and yet are next to a Living and Powerful Ministry a more ordinary Mean then many if not any other whatever Howbeit we are not to center here but press on forward to the Life Power and Spirit it self of which they declare for into That God hath determined to bring and as it were wind up his People by which they come to be fulfilled whereas those that stick in the Letter of them and pass not througâ—â—â—d beyond it into the Life and Vertue they bear record of know but as the Scribes and Pharisees did and cannot as such be true and faithful Witnesses for the
true and living God Fifthly We have proved our Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit as by us distinguisht and cleared from J. F.'s Perversions by abundance of such Authorities as I think he dares not gain-say So that we cannot be longer Hereticks and those continue Orthodox showing thereby that we are but pressing more intirely plainly and effectually what the best Protestants and Separatists have at times not only let drop from their Mouths and Pens but insisted on and prophesied also the increase and Enlargement of in the hearts of Men however forgot or denyed by their Dry and Degenerated Posterity Lastly That we do not therefore exhort People to hearken unto the Voice and Leadings of the Holy Spirit which strive with them as that by which God who is a Spirit comes truly to be known and the Scriptures themselves only to be read with a right Understanding and true Benefit with any the least Design to justle the Scriptures out of their place and Authority No God knows it is not our Purpose but for this very End do we so write and speak that People may come to possess what they declare of and witness them fulfilled in themselves instead of contending about what they do not understand and which can never be revealed to that dead dark and unregenerate State in which they live for the Lord is at work as I said before to gather People more and more into the Spirit and Life of his Son accomplishing his Glorious Promises in these latter Dayes and bringing People to the good Things themselves by which Out-sides are daily wearing off more and more and the Testimonies of Holy Scripture witnessed and fulfilled in them that believe Which is not to Overthrow but to answer the great End of their first Publication Preservation unto this very Day Whereas the contrary is not truly to esteem them but under the very vain Pretence of it to withstand and as much as in them lieth to bar out the Great Gospel-Ministration which stands in the Convictions Instructions Leadings and Orderings of the Holy Spirit And unto that must all come who in this Life would witness a Translation into Christ's Kingdom that is not of this World and know a being made free of that Jerusalem which comes down from above the Mother of the Free-born which they only are that have been born again by the Regenerating Word to whom the Formal and Literal Professors are but as Hagar and her Off-spring unto Sarah and the Seed of the Promise And this is the Word of the God of Heaven and Earth unto all those that are yet unacquainted with this Convincing Baptizing Reconciling Ingrafting and Regenerating Word Power or Spirit within And so I am thus far clear of your Blood and am at Peace with the God of my Salvation THE INVALIDITY OF John Faldo's Vindication Of his Book called Quakerism No Christianity PART II. CHAP. I. of Gospel-Ordinances in general such truly embraced THis second Part of my Rejoynder is a Consideration of his Defence of his Charge of our Denying Gospel-Ordinances the True Christ with his Transactions at Jerusalem also that we are guilty of Idolatry and own not the Resurrection of the Dead The Work of this Chapter will be to see how he will make good our Denyal of Gospel-Ordinances in general Be pleased to hear how he handleth both me and the Matter Reply pag. 49 50. The first Proof is out of Fox Myst p. 2. He hath triumphed over the Ordinances and blotted them out and they are not to be touched and the Saints â— Christ in them who is the End of outward Forms This saith W. P. pag. 103. is Scripture Language But why so because some Scripture-words are in it although the Text be mangled Corrupted and abused to the Contradiction of Scripture-Truth Thus they apply sinfulyenough False Prophets Dogs Serpents Hypocrites Devil Lyar c. But if I should call W. P. Thou Child of the Devil Thou Enemy of all Righteousness he would not therefore allow it to be all very true though so applyed it looks much more like Truth then G. Fox's scriptural Language who hath these Words about Baptism and the Lord's Supper Rejoynder For his Proof as he calls it it is not in pag. 52. of G. F's Book which were Answer enough to so shuffling an Adversary I confess in page 16. I find it but it is so far from being immediately directed to either Baptism or Supper that there is no such thing mentioned much lest insisted on from the Beginning of G. F's Answer to J. Timson's Book to the very place wherein the Words are found Now what to call this piece of Invention is sest with every Readers Discretion But it is not less worth our notice that of all my Explanation of G. F's Words he only reports these three viz. is Scripture Language who further told him Christ did blot out the Hand-writing of Ordinances Collos 2. 14. That he was to the Saints then and is to those now who rightly believe in him the End of all Meats Drinks Washing Dayes or any other Temporal Elementary or Figurative Worship according to verse 16 17. By this it will appear whether of us two have most honestly and most truely applyed Scripture I in thus expositing and vindicating G. F's Passage or J. Faldo in calling me by Implication a Child of the Devil and an Enemy of all Righteousness But again Reply p. 50. I also told Mr. Penn That if the Saints having Christ in them were the Consideration of which the Ordinances were not to be touched then not only we but even all other Saints under the Mosaical Administration sinned in their Practices of God's Ordinances also for they had Christ in them in those Dayes in the same Sence as the Saints in these Rejoynder This Saying carries with it a large Concession to Christ's Manifestation in the Hearts of his People as well under the Mosaical Administration as that which we call for Distinction Evangelical Indeed larger then true if by the same Sence he understands that all that he was to his Apostles and the Churches by them planted he was to the People of Israel under the Conduct of Moses for first it is manifest they were not capable of such Discoveries being weak-Sighted carnal and greatly addicted to embrace the Fopperies of the Heathen Secondly There would have been no need of shewing forth a further Glory by Types and Figures or to entertain minds so enlighted and Heavenly with such low and as the Apostle phraseth them beggarly things had they enjoyed Christ under the Administration of Moses as in more Gospel Times But above all that J. Faldo should plead for the Continuance of Ordinances after Christ had blotted them out and such Meats and Drinks c. as Christ ended being the Substance of them because Christ might be in some measure known to the Saints of old at what time such Ordinances were given forth and such Meats
nay the Evangelist is not yet come so much as to mention any Thing of his Manifestation in Flesh and if we will believe J. Faldo the Verse concerns the Word Creator and not Redeemer which he stints to his Coming in the Flesh see pag. 89. But by his Interpretation THAT is not relative to his Appearance in the Flesh but to the Word which was with God and was God as p. 84. and so the Spanish Translation hath it That WORD was the true Light c. so that either the Word was not before that Appearance or if it were being that true Light that true Light was before that Appearance Therefore Man-kind may very well be said to have alwayes been enlightned by that Light or that the Word should be before that Appearance and that true Light which is the very Life of the Word or Word it self should be stinted to that Appearance is as absurd as any thing well can be Now Reader comes that part which he cited but more regularly That we should take That was the true Light c. to deny Christ now to be true Light that enlightens all because he was so is a strange Impertinency and gross Falshood In Reply to all which next to what I have already transcribed he sayes no more then this Reply p. 82. W. P. should have undertaken to prove that Christ was before that time and is now God manifest in Flesh as he was then and to those Ends. Rejoynder I did abundantly prove it in our Sence and nothing solid hath been offered to invalidate what I alledged but let it suffice that he hath granted my Charge First In denying Christ to have been either Christ or the true Light before that Time a manifest Contradiction to himself p. 84 85 86 87 88 89. of his first Book second Part. Next He therefore denyes that Christ is now the true Light because he is not at this Day God manifested in Flesh in the same Manner as he was then and thus much further that he was the true Light before that Appearance Socinianism in the abstract I do not say so in Disgrace but because he pretends to disown it For his saying I should have undertaken to prove them is absurd unless he had denyed them This with me is matter enough to impeach my Adversary of blackest Sacriledge I need add no more nor no more will I add then this The Question was not whether we affirm Christ to be that Light by his visible and bodily Appearance Life Doctrine Miracles Death Resurrection c. in this Day which he was in that But whether these Words that was the true Light did not relate to the Life of the Word which was with God and was God and consequently if he did not enlighten Men before he took Flesh in the Flesh and after his Resurrection and Ascension by his Eternal Power and God-head as the great Sun of Righteousness and spiritual Luminary of the Invisible and Intelligible World Unto which his Words bear no Relation unless it be any to deny the Question In short I told him the very next Words to those he cited That should we grant the Evangelist to refer to that Appearance Joh. 1. 9. yet it would conclude no Denyal of Christ's being the true Light that enlightens every Man that cometh into the World both before and since that Appearance because it was the most eminent breaking forth of the divine Light which doubtless had been enough to satisfie any moderate or modest Man but not satisfying him I must infer as before that his Displeasure is against our believing Christ to have enlightned before and since that visible Coming which if I understand any thing is in so many Words to deny his Divinity The next Scripture by him exposited and by me rescued was Rom. 10. 3. The Word is nigh thee c. he doth but touch upon it and gives so little of my Answer that there is scarce Head or Tail to be made of his Paragraph I will contract my Answer and give his Reply He made the Word to be the written Laws Statutes and Commandments given by Moses his first Book p. 94. I answer'd It could not be so understood for the Question was not about them but about the Commandment of Commandments and Word of Words which he resolves thus Let none say who shall ascend descend or go beyond the Seas to fetch the great Word and Conmandment but the Word is very nigh thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the innermost Parts of Men whereinto the outward Commandments could never come Besides without the Word nigh in the Heart there could be no Conviction upon the Conscience c. Reply p. 82 83. W. P. puâ—s to fetch the great Word and Commandment in the Letter of the Text as the very Words of Moses A Crime to be abhorred yet frequent with him that pretends a sacred Esteem of the Scriptures In few Words to answer all Moses said of this Word verse 12. It is not in Heaven which may be said of the Book of the Law or written Word but not of Christ the Word also as I cold him before 't is such a Word as uses to be in the Mouth which is the Organ and Instrument of speaking the Greek Word for the Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is never to be understood of Christ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes intended of Christ the Word Rejoynder This looks more like a Reply then any thing we have had a great while yet that it only looks so will ly on our Part to show First He charges me with Forgery Let 's see what it was I said to fetch the great VVord or Commandment and the Scripture sayes to bring the VVord or Commandment Now I know no Difference betwixt fetching and bringing 't is true I added Great which of God's VVord or Commandment be not I did amiss If it be he is an idle Caviller fitter to kill Flies all day with the foolish Emperour then to write Books of Religious Controversie It is called Commandment Deutr. 30. 11. and Word ver 14. But it is not in Heaven therefore it is not Christ sayes our Adversary I believe J. Faldo knew in his own Conscience that those VVords were spoken on purpose to prevent the Excuse of being without a Commandment and that so nigh as their own Hearts or innermost Parts and not to exclude the VVord Heaven but rather thus The Word is not so in Heaven as that it is excluded your Consciences or that ye need to say who shall go up to fetch it down for it is in your Hearts to instruct you that you may do it and reprove you if you do it not God was never the less in Heaven for being nigh unto the Consciences of the Athenians which was Paul's Doctrine Acts 17. 27 28. for sayes he in the Name of their own Prophets In him we live move and
and one to whom that eminent Reformer writ many Loving and Respectful Epistles usually beginning with Clarissime Charissime and such like did both deny the Resurrection of the same numerical Body but defended his Opinion and disputed strenuously against the vulgar Notion which plainly opposeth John Faldo's But more especially The Vincent's gross Notion of The Resurrection who hath taken upon him in a large Discourse called Christ's Certain and Sudden Appearance to Judgment p. 48. 49. to write the History of it wherein he is so punctual that he doth not only tell them what Bodies they shall have but what Encounters and Dialogues are like to pass even to Scolding Railing Scratching and I know not what besides so vain and ridiculous is that Author I will wrap up these Testimonies with two Passages out of Origen in Jerome Non easdom Carnes nee in 〈◊〉 formis restinent quae fuerunt Sermina i. e. The Seed shall not restore the same Flesh nor in the same Form Again Non oculis videbimus c. We shall not see with Eyes hear with Ears act with Hands walk with Feet in that Spiritual and Ethereal Body that is promised that is not subject to be toucht or seen with Eyes nor to be weyl'd c. This and much more is urged by Jerome against John of Jerusalem Epist cap. 8. These Testimonies I have produced to shew the Arrogancy and Uncharitableness of J. F. in counting it an horrid Thing to reject his Carnal Notion of the Resurrection of the Dead and that to such a Degree destroyes if you will believe him all Hope of Immortallity most absurdly placing Eternal Felicity therein The Resurrection we own and for the Manner of it we are not inquisitive and as I told him before so again because these things run men into unprofitable Questions and a Philosophical Way of Discoursing no wayes tending to God's Honour nor the Soul's Profit and Comfort I shall decline any further or nicer Disquisition and content our selves with this that if we live holily we shall dye happily and if we walk in his Fear we shall depart in his Favour and at being unclothed of Mortallity we shall be clothed on with Immortallity and Eternal Life For God will raise all such into Immortal Life and Glory who truly dye in the Lord But we cannot but take notice of the Subtilty of God's Enemy who by casting curious intrical and unprofitable Questions about what Bodies the Dead shall rise with and bringing us under vulgar Reflections by not consenting thereto endeavours to divert the Minds of People from our most frequent and fervent pressing a part in the first Resurrection that only saves from the Power of the second Eternal Death of which let my Reader receive this friendly Warning for besides that it is a Satanical Decoy Thou Fool belongs to none more then him who acquiesses not with all humble and contented Submission in the Good Will of God whose Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven To the Second Part of his Chapter which concerneth our Denyal of Eternal Rewards although it deserves not our notice for the Folly and Falshood it contains yet that he may not make my Silence to yield his Charge and to show that in every Point he behaves himself dishonestly towards us I shall consider that little he sayes Reply p. 89. Concerning a Reward in the World to come which I affirm they did not profess W. P. opposes rather because he would not be thought to subscribe to me then that he believes not what I say to be true Rejoynder This Man pretends to judge Hearts not only without Words but also contrary to Words I did most expresly tell him that though we own the Beginning of Heaven and Hell to be in this World who charged us with the Denyal of them any where else yet that they were but Earnests of that Compleat Joy or Torment that Men should receive as their Eternal Reward or Recompence hereafter But this passes for Hypocrisie with John Faldo's present sort of Conscience And He proceeds Reply p. 89. W. P. tells me p. 203. None ever read so J. F. quotes no such thing nay he sayes he hath searcht but to no purpose My Charge was not that they deny a Reward in another World but that they profess no such thing yet being silent to it hath a full Consequence that it is none of their Belief Rejoynder How could his Charge imply no such thing who makes our Silence upon which he grounded it to have this full Consequence that a future Heaven and Hell are none of their Belief and if not believed denyed However it makes not a little for us that he not only never read so quotes no such thing and says he hat◠searcht to no purpose but that he hath made no Reply to these words he recites out of my Answer which hath this full Consequence that for J. Faldo to charge what he has never read what he hath searcht for and could not find p. 141 142. and therefore could not quote upon us to our Scandal is unworthy of any Man pretending to Common Honesty But what doth he mean by our not professing Eternal Rewards Our not daring to enter into the secret of the Almighty What how and by whom they are to be distributed What other End have our Meetings Writings and Sufferings Must I alwayes deny Eternal Recompence where I do not expresly declare I own it How many Times in Religious Discourses will J. Faldo come under the like Imputation he cannot show me one Book that was ever wrought by any of us in which it is not abundantly implied if not most plainly expressed Were there no such thing it would belong to us above all other People to use the Apostles Words We are of all Men most miserable but God hath fixed that Hope of Immortality and Eternal Life in our Souls which all J. Faldo's Clamours will be too weak to shake But were we darker in this Point then whom none are clearer we and our Books have Moses the Prophets and their Writings to keep us company who mention it but obscurely and not so frequently and unquestionably as we do J. Faldo loves to hear talk of Heaven but despises and shuns the Way which leads to it and because our greatest Pains are imployed in bringing People into that streight and narrow Way that leads thither rather then by delicious Fables to preach them into an Hope of Heaven whilst in a State of Disobedience to God's Holy Spirit therefore is it that he concludes us not to believe Eternal Rewards that is to deny them Never did Man catch at such broken Reeds to save himself from the just Abhorrence of all sober People We deny his Carnal Refurrection therefore we must needs deny Eternal Rewards Again We do not believe Eternal Rewards if he may be credited yet he never read so much less found it so by his own Confession and therefore could never
chosen by Man though he be thereto disposed by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture W. P. This is False Many things may be and are daily chosen by Man that is not in the Will of the Flesh nor by his own Will much less when any should be disposed thereto by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture An Abominable Untruth and so Notorious that I need say no more only Challenge him to produce any of us that is any of our Sayings or VVritings in Proof of his Exposition if he can otherwise be hath Slandered Us and Our Principles For the Wâ—ll of the Flesh is that which is quite Contrary to God and inconsistent with the Good of the Creature How well he hath acquitted himself in point of Honesty as well as Ability first in so maiming my Answer and next in saying nothing to it is still referred to my Reader 's Judgment and so we proceed Reply pag. 92. The second is pag. 249. CHRIST THE OFFERING i. e. the Light within W. P. calls this no Quakers Expression that it is take this Proof We believe that Christ in us doth offer himself up a Living Sacrifice to God for us Smith Cat. pag. 64. Rejoynder I still say it is no Quaker's Expression Though the Light that shineth in our Hearts be Christ the true Light But that which I most insisted on he hath as he useth to do quite left out viz. for he would by this insinuate that we deny Christ to be an Offering as in the Flesh and that Body then offered up to be concerned in our Belief of the Offering but I do declare it to have been an Holy Offering and such an one too as was to be once for all therefore let none receive his Abuse of us for our Faith He that hath half an Eye may see how poorly and meanly he hath shifted off the Weight of my Answer Again Reply p. 92. The third MEN-PLEASERS Sense They who comply with Men though in things not only Lawful but also to Edification This W. P. calls an arrant Lye but the ground is provided J. F. meaneth by Lawful unto Edification what we do I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth Rejoynder Indeed I never took him to be so Silly as Mischievous in the Matter not to use his own Phrase more then Ignoramus for instead of putting Bonds on the Truth he hath broken all Bonds of Truth he pretends to give our Sense of Men-Pleasers and substitutes his own in the room of it and when we tell him that if he means by Lawful and to Edification what we do he belies us he confidently replies I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth as if in rendring our Sense of words he were not bound to keep to our Sense of them how is it our Sense if it be his and not ours and how truly ours if it be putting Bonds on the Truth to render ours truly But the Man's present Hardiness is beyond wondring at To the next Reply p. 92. TRADITIONS OF MEN i. e. The Scripture or written Word p. 250. To this W. P. adds But to say they are the Traditions of Men in the sense Christ forbid the Pharisaical Religion God forbid I had rather my Tongue were cut out of my Head Oh base Man to abuse an Innocent People thus grosly I have already proved the Phrase to be the Quakers viz. Smith ' s and Nailor ' s. Rejoynder This answers it self if he had taken off the Force of my Words I might have bestowed a Rejoynder upon him in the mean time I have disproved his pretended Proof where I met with it and what I find here is but a meer begging of the Question The fifth and last Particular he thus endeavours to vindicate is this Reply p. 93. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM p. 251. Their Sense I give of this he presents the greater half of which explains the other by an c. to blind the Reader and make the Quakers believe I deserve the Imputations of Malice and wicked Man which it seems he is resolved afore hand to bestow on me Rejoynder The Man is weary of his Work as we may see by the great haste he makes over every particular No Man living that hath not read both our Books can make any Sense of this Hodge-Podge Section that ever any Man should touch with Religious Controversie that is so visibly defective in it My Answer shall be my Rejoynder for sure I am he hath overlookt it and therefore yet to be replyed to J. F. p. 89. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM that is sayes J. Faldo the Belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be p. 251 252. the Christ c. W. P. Let this be the last though several more might be observed which at this time shall be considered in which we shall see that J. Faldo has done like himself and the Man we have all along taken him to be The Vail is over them it is a Scripture-Phrase 2 Cor. 3. 15. used by the Apostle to express the Darkness and Ignorance that to that time remained over the Understanding of the Jews in reading the Law and this Vail he makes us to interpret after this gross and absurd manner namely that the Vail is the Man Christ Wicked Man Did ever Quaker so irreverently express himself Give us his Name or tell us in what Book we may find it What greater Malice couldst thou have shown then thus injustly to pervert the Scripture in our Name abusing both As if because Christ's Flesh is called a Vail and the Ignorance of the Jews a Vail that therefore the Quakers must of Necessity mean by Vail in the first Sense Vail in the second Sense as if the Way to have the Vail rent were to deny the Man Christ Jesus All this my Adversary thought fit to conceal left his transcribing it into his Reply would have made that Discovery of his Baseness which he should never have been able by all his Shifts to palliate I think I did not nick-name this Chapter when I called it a Representation of his whole Reply He ends as he begun with Squibs Puns Evasions and Ill Language for unless the Goodness of a Book be to be measured by the Paint of a Title-Page or bare Writing reputed Replying he might with more Sense and Reason have called it Froth Folly and Fiction then a Religious Vindication c. No Man I ever read of hath exceeded the Bounds of Truth by obtruding Falshoods and wandred from the Dâ—corum of a fair Adversary by unfair Citations and obvious Wrestings betaken himself for Sanctuary to such silly Shifts School-boy Jeers at the rate this Adversary hath done And I have no Reason to Doubt of others being of the same Mind since the World is not so destitute of Understanding as to be cheated with his hocus-pocus Tricks to take Tin for Silver or Copper for Gold or Froth for
they may come to receive the Benefit thereof for without that necessary Condition it will be impossible to obtain Remission of Sins though it be so generally promulgated thereby To conclude As in my Answer at large so here in short I say Justification may be taken in a two-fold Sense Compleatly and Incompleatly or rather thus compleat Justification hath two parts the first is not imputing past Sins or accounting a true Penitant as Righteous or clear from the Guilt of past Sin as if he had never Sinned through the Remission which God declared and sealed up to all such in the Blood of his Son and thus far Righteousness as imputed goes and is the first part or Justification begun The compleat or last part of compleat Justification is the Cleansing of the Conscience and Regenerating the Mind from the Nature Power and In-dwelling of Sin by the effectual working of the Heavenly Power of Christ and bringing into the Heart and establishing his Everlasting Righteousness in the room thereof Some Scriptures considered relating to this Doctrine To the first part belong such Scriptures as these Isa 53. 11. He shall bear their Iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is He shall bear away their Iniquities as did the Scape Goat figuratively under the Law or That God would declare his remitting or passing over the Sin that was past and. that he would be in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them Also Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justified the Vngodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness that is God acquitted upon Repentance and Faith in his Promise such as have lived in a Course of Vngodliness For no present Work how good soever can justifie any Man from the Condemnation which is due for the Guilt of Sin that is past So that justifying the Ungodly in this place is pardoning the Ungodly and being so pardoned upon Faith in the Promise of God is accounted for Righteousness or as if the Person pardoned had never sinned and this appears from the 7th and 8th verses Blessed are they whose Sins are forgiven and whose Iniquities are Covered Again Chap. 5. 6. For when we were yet wit hout Strength Christ in due time dyed for the Vngodly and verse 8. But God commended his Love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us That is Christ laid down his Life to reclaim Sinners and to declare the Righteousness of God for the Forgiveness of the Sin that is past to all Ungodly and Sinful Men that turn from the Evil of their Wayes by unfeigned Repentance it was done in and by Christ for all Ungodly Men but not to the Benefit of any without Repentance Not that people should go on in Sin but by so recommending of his Love and sealing such Glad-Tidings with his own Blood to allure and engage them from their present Course of Sin 1 John 4. 19. He first loved us men must not therefore continue in Sin that Grace that is Forgiveness may abound God forbid Rom. 6. 1. The last considerable Place is in the second Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 5. 21. For he hath made him Sin for us who knew no Sin That is He was made a Sacrifice for the remitting or passing over of the Sin that was past for such as repent and believe that they might be made the Righteousness of God or rather accounted Righteous in the Sight of God as if they had never committed Sin by not imputing or forgiving the Sin that was past This Sence the two fore-going Verses confirm to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them and hath committed unto them the Word of of Reconciliation Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseeeh you through us We pray you in Christ's Stead that you would be reconciled to God verse 19 20. agreeing with Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitâ—ation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission or passing over of Sins that are past through the Forbearance of God which is neither a rigid Satisfaction for nor a Justification from Sins that are past present and to come as a late shallow VVriter in his Preface to the Hartford self-confuting Pamphlet idlely and falsely called the Quaker converted would have us believe but an acquitting from or remitting of past Sin upon Faith and Amendment of Life which makes up that only imputative Righteousness that the Scripture holds forth or we can allow of The Scriptures that belong to the second Part of this Doctrine which makes up compleat Justification are such as these Keep thee far from a false Matter the Innocent Righteous slay thou not for I will not justifie the wicked Exod. 23. I. Lord who shall ABIDE in thy TABERNACLE who shall DWELL in thy HOLY HILL He that WALKETH UPRIGHTLY and WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS and SPEAKETH THE TRUTH IN HIS HEART Psalm 15. 1 2. When a Righteous man turns away from his Righteousness for his Iniquity that he has done shall he dye Again when the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness and doth that which is Lawful or Right he shall save his Soul Ezek. 18. 26 27. Not every one that sayeth unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that DOTH the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Math. 7. 21. Vnless a Man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3 5. If ye keep my Commandment ye shall abide in my Love John 15. 10. For not the Hearers of the Law are justified but the Doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God Rom. 18. 13 14. That the Offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 16. But this is the Will of God even your Sanctification 1 Thes 43. Because God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and Belief of the Truth 2 Thes 2. 13. Was not Abraham our Father JUSTIFIED by WORKS when he offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Ye see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only Jam. 2. 22 24. In all these weighty Passages there is nothing more clear then that Sanctification both ushers in and compleats Justification First In that no Man can have right to Remission of Sins but upon Vnfeigned Repentance and True Faith begotten in the Heart which is as well the Beginnings of Sanctification as Introduction to Justification 2 dly That though we grant as before at large Remission of Sins not