with a more glorious Manifestation of the same Divine Power Purity Truth Wisdom and Righteousness then former Ages were either capable of or attended with To exclude then all Antecedent Times from any share in Christianity is both Weak and Cruel since it plainly shuts them out of all hopes of Eternal Salvation for if no Name be given but the Name of Christ under the whole Heaven by which Men can be saved then either Christ was alwayes in some measure or other a Saviour and such as were saved in some degree or other Christians or there was one Saviour before Christ's outward coming and another since or lastly all that were antecedent to that Appearance were damn'd § 6. I appeal then to the Consciences and Understandings of all impartial People if our Belief be not the most Just Merciful and True that however it pleased God to send his Son a Light into the World at that time more eminently then before yet that he was so far Spiritually manifested in all Ages as the Word of God nigh in the Heart and great Commandment in the Consciences of Men as who believed and obey'd obtain'd Remission of Sins and Eternal Salvation This is clear for if no man could ever see or know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him then because many of the Holy Ancients both spiritually saw and knew God otherwise they could never be saved it follows that Christ did in all Ages reveal God who being Light and that it is Light alone which can Reveal or Manifest it was as a Light within that he communicated unto the Soul of Man which is within Man the Knowledge of the Pure God Whatever may be known of God is manifest within Man for God hath shewed it unto him so that the Contradiction and Error of the Man's Definition of Christianity is evident § 7. But yet a little further He plainly Heathenizes that notable Christian Passage of the refusing it all Priviledge within the bounds of Christianity viz. Whatsoever things are True Honest Just Pure Lovely of Good Report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things Now if this Religious Chymist shall once extract all things that are Honest Just Pure Lovely and of Good Report from Christianity which the Apostle maketh the Sum of what he had been writing unless it is not a Christian Epistle and therefore ends with a Finally my Brethren tell me O sober Reader what a kind of Christianity there would be in the World O Monstruous Impiety Is this Man fit to write of Christianity that places it beneath the lowest step of Purity making manifest Difference betwixt being a Child of God and a Christian True the outward History of Christ's exceeding Love to Man-kind deserves all humble and reverent Credit as a Godly Tradition and it should forever bind Men to receive and fear and worship him yet I boldly affirm that though the Manifestation was clearer yet Salvation was Salvation and a Child of God a Child of God in all Ages For what is it but to say that Pure Religion and Undefiled which is to keep our selves unspotted from the World belongs not stricktly to the Christian but Jewish or Pagan Religion and that James was but a moral Man in the Matter and not writing on a Christian Subject What an empty Trunk a Vox praeterea nihil a sounding Brass and Tinckling Cymbal would this Man make of true Christianity Yet thus far we may force him to speak Truth though in double Contradiction to himself that since Christianity takes in all that was worthy in all Ages not as Alien then but related to her self something of the Nature of true Christianity was in the World before that more Visible and Glorious Manifestation of it unless Christianity be supposed to take into it self what is not of its own Nature thus was Christ the Rock the Ancients built on before Abraham was whose Day he had a Sight and Sence of and from it exulted greatly § 8. Christianity then is not an Historical Belief of the exteriour Acts the true Christ did in that bodily Appearance which is but Historical Christianity as our Adversary weakly argues for that was the least part of it since Christianity is that which brings to God which thousands that believe the other will never arrive at but a firm belief in him that so Appeared Lived Died Rose and Ascended both as testified of in the Scriptures of Truth and more especially as he breaks in upon the Soul by his Divine Discoveries as the true Light inlightning every Man this I call Christianity and that Man is a Child of Light who obeys that Light a true Christian who is Christ-like a Child of God and Heir of the Promise who is inwardly renewed and begot anew of the Incorruptible Seed and Word of God For those who were Christians of old were such as came to know Christ no more after the Flesh but as the second Adam the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit who said I am the Resurrection and the Life really witnessing him to be that in themselves wherefore they Believed and upon Repentance received Remission of Sins and Eternal Salvation And I do affirm that Christianity stands in the Manifestation of a Measure of that Righteous Power Wisdom Truth and Life in the Soul which appear'd so largely and gloriously in that Body at Jerusalem to work Repentance then give Remission so Renew Redeem and finally Save and who came to be made sensible of that Heavenly Treasure in their mortal Bodies and to improve it as good Stewards were Possessors of true Christianity and therefore Right Christians The Distinction betwixt Moral and Christian the making holy Life Legal and Faith in the History of Christ's outward Christianity Manifestation has been a deadly Poyson these latter Ages have been infected with to the Destruction of Godly Living and Apostatizing of those Churches in whom there might once have been begotten some Earnest Living Thrist after the Inward Life of Righteousness § 9. By this I think it may be pretty well known what we mean by Christianity and a True Christian How far this will agree with his Definition of Quakerism and a Quaker I will proceed to examine Quakerism is a heap of Tenets with the usurped Names of true Christian Principles which are yet really no such thing but subverting both Foundation and Fabrick of true Christianity And I call him a Quaker that professes the Light within every Man to be the Lord and Saviour and very God So that then I say Quakerism is no Christianity § 10. Indeed if Quakerism respecting us were this I would say so too but because it is justly a Stranger to any such Imputation I rightly fasten that of Ignorance or great Malice upon our Adversary I have already exprest our Judgment of Christianity which I suppose to be the Quakerism struck at what ever may be pretended at
least what is our Quakerism or Christianity rather and we leave our Belief with that God who made it so to justifie it and us who thus sted fastly hold and daily yet patiently suffer for it by his own Discoveries in the Consciences of Men. But this I will add That since he has rendred us to be one thing in Shew and another in Reality our Appeal is to the God that made Heaven and Earth to right us in the Minds of all § 11. We dare not Believe or Practise what comes not in by True Conviction things meerly Historical excepted and yet there is a Conviction for them to The Devils who knew Christ and trembled were more sensible then those who know him only by Hear-say and make a Mock of that Trembling which seizeth the Contrite Souls of Men for Sin We declare in the Presence of the Eternal God that it was the Striving of the holy Spirit in us that first moved us to solid Repentance and as we came to be judged byit and reconciled unto God in our Minds so have we appear'd before all Men therefore it is utterly False that We cover our Tenets with the Names of Christian Principles since these following which are ours are truly Christian and Scriptural 1. God created Man Innocent in his own Image created he him 2. That Man or all Mankind has faln short of the Glory of God through Disobedience 3. That in the Seed promised Redemption can only be had 4. That this Seed is He that in time was call'd Christ 5. That by this Holy Seed both before and since that Coming the Serpent's Head hath been particularly bruised in all who have been redeemed or saved as the Holy Men and Women of Old and such in every Age as have known a Sanctification 6. That this Seed appeared in the Fulness and Stature of a Man in that Outward Body prepared of God above 1600. Years since and in it encounter'd and conquer'd Satan and trod him under his Feet 7. That he bore the Sin of the World 8. That he laid down his Life a Ransom for all 9. That such as Believ'd and Follow'd him as he then appear'd receiv'd Remission of Sins and Eternal Life 10. That what was then outwardly done did still refer and had relation to an Inward Work in the Souls of Men the Holy Life put forth it self to work Inward Conviction and drive the Mind into a Measure of the same in it self for the whole End of it was to draw the Minds of Men more Inward to a Manifestation of that same Life Vertue Power Wisdom and Righteousness in each Particular which appeared in that Body in General and qualified it to that great Work and sustain'd it under all its Sufferings and put that great Value upon them which really was in them Wherefore to the Divine Power first and to the Holy Manhood next do we ascribe that Great and Wonderful Benefit that thereby came unto the World § 12. But next we must deny his Quaker as well as his Quakerism indeed they go together who misseth one it is unlikely he should hit the other We never said that the Light in every Man was the only Lord and Saviour and very God Let him but show us any passage of any one acknowledg'd to be a Quaker and he will say something But me-thinks he that has quoted so many passages out of our Friends Books to so little purpose should not have neglected to instance in some one of us that hath so exprest our selves it shows that either he thinks to be believ'd Hand over Head or really there is no such Doctrine by us asserted and consequently he knew no such place to cite But for the Upright-hearted in all Forms who are desirous of the Substance that will give Life to the Soul and who stand only at a distance from us on the account of the many frightful Characters their Teachers give of us I shall briefly open our Faith in this Matter § 13. First We assert that all Men are enlightned let it be Lighted in their Souls or Understandings if our Adversaries will This is prov'd from Joh. 1. 9. also whatever may be known of God is manifest within for God has shewn it unto them Again whatever is reproved is made manifest by the Light for whatever makes manifest is Light All Knowledge of God comes by the Light he gives into the Soul as well as that all have that Light though few obey it § 14. Secondly This Light is Divine because it is the very Life of the Word which is God not an Effect of its Power as a Created Light which some vainly fancy but in Him or It the Word was Life and that Life Numerical was the Light of Men what is Life in the Word is Light in Men and who follow that Light as A Reprover of the Deeds of Darkness shall be made Children of Light and have the Light of Life § 15. Thirdly Though we say that all are enlightned by it or receive Light from it yet far be it from us to assert every such Illumination is the only Lord and Saviour and very God By no means but rather thus that the only Lord and Saviour and very God is the great Sun and Light of Righteousness to the Invisible World of Souls and Spirits if I may so speak who manifests unto every particular that which concerns the State of every Individual but not that every such Inlightning should be the Intire Lord Saviour God so that this Priest is already found deficient in his Work he should better have understood us before he had given an Account of us and discovered his Opposition to us What Superstructure can we expect from so infirm a Foundation how shall J. Faldo prove Quakerism no Christianity who is defective in his Definition of both Certainly the Quaker may be the best of Christians for ought he has groundedly opposed to him I am sure he would have thought such a Mistake in us most hainous to say nothing of that Advantage he would have taken to show his little Wit and great Prejudice in aggravating our Ignorance to the World CHAP. II. How Christianity was introduc'd it hurts not the Quakers The Question is not of Christ's Visible Coming that is Owned by them Nor is their Religion a New One from that of Christianity but the Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity since the Reign of Anti-Christ in the World That Quakerism as call'd made its Way by Purity Sorrow and Rejoycing as well as Christianity The Priest's Vilifying Expressions Rebuk'd That the Distinct Times of their Appearance is no Argument against their Harmony or being but Two Words for the same Thing since the same Truth may appear at Two distinct Ages of the World It would strike out J. Faldo as well as the Quakers if the Contrary were admitted That he grosly Contradicts himself as to Time Christianity hath more or less been in the World where Godly Men
Sanctifier in the Hearts of his People when the Disciples and whole Church of Jerusalem were so frequent in this Ordinance and when the Apostle Paul tells us to the Corinthians The Bread which we break c. it was for those to whom Christ was come by a Spirit of Sanctification not those in a State of Sin unconverted to Christ That I may briefly and fully reply be pleas'd to observe 1 That we don't deny Bread and Wine to have been given and that by Command of Christ to his Disciples 2 That it was a Sign to them of that Life he would give for the World and which at that time they were weak in the Knowledge of 3 We believe the Life most eminently meant and which they were to do it in the Remembrance of was that Flesh and Blood that in the 6. of John he said Who did not eat nor drink thereof should have no Life in them and which 5. verses after he calls the Bread that came down from Heaven 4 'T is our Faith that this heavenly Bread and Wine and Flesh and Blood which such were to eat of that would have Life Eternal for which he came and of which the Disciples themselves were then so ignorant was the Thing signified by the Sign Christ gave his Disciples 5 That Sign is no longer of force in Point of Institution then till the thing signified is come so that who truly witness the Coming of Christ into their Souls and the Eternal Bread of Life or Flesh and Blood to nourish are rightly come to an End of the Sign and Figure 6 That Christ did so come is evident from many Scriptures There be some standing here that shall not taste of Death said he till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom I will not leave you Comfortless I will come to you Implying that he was the Comforter that should come to them after the with-drawing of that Outward Appearance which was expedient for them to be done He that is with you shall be in you and abundance to the same purpose 7 That the Practice of it after the Pouring forth of the Spirit is not neither can it be any Institution or so much as a Continuance of it upon an Institution any more then the Apostles forbearing several things lawful in themselves that were upon the Command of the Jewish Ceremonial Law forbidden The Circumcision of many Gentiles and above all the Apostle Paul's Purifying of himself at the Temple of Jerusalem after he had been near thirty years a Christian or Gospel-Preacher and consequently a Thrower-down and Demolisher both of the Temple and all its Ceremonial Worship 8 That every one who believed and were in some measure turned to the Christian Religion and were accounted Members of the several Churches because of such Profession did not presently come to know Christ after the Spirit or discern his spiritual Manifestation and whilst they were as yet Weak and Carnal in their Conceptions of Christ believing in him and accounting of him but after the Flesh a Knowledg of him the Apostle himself confesseth once but to have had the Outward Bread and Wine might be suitable to that sort of Belief and a Sign showing forth a more Spiritual Internal Bread and Cup which the Apostle in the same fore-going Chapter to the Corinthians expresseth thus FOR WE BEING MANY ARE ONE BREAD AND ONE BODY FOR WE ARE ALL PARTAKERS OF THAT ONE BREAD The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ I speak as to wise Men Judge ye what I say Which evidently imports a more Inward Heavenly Bread Fellowship and Communion both with Christ and one and another 9 It ought not to stumble any that it should last to that Day and yet be laid aside Now For Customs when once introduc'd and receiv'd are not easy to be relinquish't or left off and it having been the Token Christ gave to his Disciples in the time of their great Weakness Fear and Unbelief concerning him it was quickly embrac'd and imitated by such as believ'd especially Jews who just coming out of a Multitude of External Services were ready to make part of their Religion consist therein But as such came to grow into the true Jews State they saw beyond all Exteriour Signs and Services And that nothing which could be tasted or handl'd and that perisht with the Using and that could never clense the Conscience from dead Works but were the Shaddows only of Christ the Living Eternal Substance and Bread of Life could be a standing Ordinance of the Everlasting Gospel § 3. And truly when I have somtimes consider'd the Apostle Paul's Inspir'd Epistles to his beloved Timothy that among the many weighty plain and necessary things therein declared recommended for the Encrease of Godliness and good Order in the Church of Christ he should be wanting to express something about these two Points of Water-Baptism the Lord's Supper so call'd and insisted upon as the most weighty Ordinances of the Gospel in Comparison of which Praying Preaching good Life and such like the great Subjects of those Epistles J. Faldo reputes meer Heathenism I have concluded to me self that had his Value of them been equal with what some now adays put upon them he would not or rather the Holy Spirit have omitted a very peculiar Recommendation of them But though this be sufficient to dull the Edge of their Spirits who daily cut and hack us for our not Denial but Affirming the Fulfilling of them by the coming of a more Living Bread Yet our so knowing and witnessing a more Heavenly Table spread and the Presence of the Eternal God withdrawn out of that so abused Practice by the Idolatries Superstitions and Pervertions of several Ages and that Revenge Blood-shed and Destruction which have follow'd the several Contenders for it all without Commission as well as out of the Primitive Order is the chief Ground nor of denying it ever to have been in Use before its Abuse as is before exprest but of our letting fall any further Practice of it And this I hope will be accounted a Modest Sober and Christian Account of our Faith which we leave with God to weigh against the chaffy Flurts and vilifying Epithetes J. Faldo uses against us and which for Brevity sake I omit to transcribe CHAP. XVII His Charge of our Denying Christ's Transactions to influence into our Justification consider'd His Proofs not for him His Abuse of our Friends Words Justification distinguisht upon as Remission and as daily Acceptance The Transactions of Christ largely own'd by us The Scriptures confirm our Faith in Christ as a general and particular Saviour No Works of Man Meritorious § 1. I Am now come to that part of his Charge which affirms our Denial of the Transactions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh to have any Influence
surely God hath given them up for their Pride Giddiness or Idle Ignorance and that Injustice and the Devil hath blinded their Minds Enough of him at this time in Contradiction to himself and of his Ungodly Censure of us But we hope it may not be improper to observe that though before he recommended to us the Lord 's Christ as Consisting of a Divine and Humane Nature that is God and Man and that he would not be thought to call the Flesh and Blood and Man's Soul intirely Christ in Dis-junction from the Divinity Yet now all those who say that Body which was born of Mary hanged on a Tree laid in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia was not and is not the Living Christ of God are smitten for their Pride Giddiness or Idle Ignorance and the Devil hath blinded their Minds with a Witness From whence Three Things result 1 that the Divinity is no wayes concern'd in the Lord's Christ. A manifest Contradiction to himself or else with Noetus of old and J. Reeve and L. Muggleton of our Age the God-head dyed in Company with the Manhood Blasphemy it self 2 That the meer Body was the Only and Intire Christ whatever he pretends and not so much as the Man's Soul in Conjunction with it unless the Soul was of such a material gross Matter as that it could be hang'd on a Tree dye and be laid in a Sepulchre which is to assert the Mortality of the Souls all which happened to the Lord 's Christ says J. Faldo But because the Man's Soul was not mortal and could not be hanged on a Tree and put into a Sepulchre it follows that it was the Visible Body which could only be hang'd on a Tree and laid in a Sepulchre that was and is the Only and Intire Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in J. Faldo's sense Which how Impious it is against him that truly is so how grosly Abusive of all People and how Contradictory to himself let the whole World of Reason judge Is this the Man that must be thought fit to vaunt it over us with such Impudent Scurrility Ungodly as well as Unmannerly Reflections But in the Earth there is not any thing so Fantastical Conceited Proud Railing Busie Body and sometimes Ignorant as a Sort of Priests to me not unknown among whom our Adversary is not the least who think their Coat will bear out their worst Expressions for Religion and Practice an haughty Reviling for Christ as one of the greatest Demonstrations of their Zeal an Ill-bred and pedantick Creco the Bane of Reason and Pest of the World the old Incendiaries to Mischief and the best to be spar'd of Mankind against whom the boyling Vengeance of an irritated God is ready to be poured out to the Destruction of such if they repent not and turn from their Abominable Deceits § 5. If to excuse the Matter he or any else shall say the Body is only Synecdochically or Metonymically taken a Part for the Whole or Representatively I answer that such a Distinction overthrows him for ever For if the Body which was called Jesus and Christ and Lord c. be by him allow'd as Representative of the whole Jesus then was not that distinctly the Christ nay what has he been opposing all this while We will as truly and honestly say as it is possible for him to do that it was the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ which sometimes bore the Name of the whole Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of Men that was born of Mary was hanged on a Tree and laid in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia And if he will adventure to say more the Consequences of Excluding the Divinity and Man's Soul from being any part of the True Christ or their Mortality with the Body who are Immortal and not capable of being hanged on a Tree much less buried for dead in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia will inevitably fall upon him and dash him and his Carnal Notions into peeces Thus have I clear'd my Conscience in clearing up the Consistency of our Belief of the Bodily Appearance of the True Christ with Scripture and sound Reason and I hope to the plain Overthrow of our Adversary and that with what Brevity was convenient CHAP. XIX Our Adversary's proposed three Scripture-places are by us rightly applied and his Charge is found Untrue Christ is prov'd the true Light Comforter Creator and Redeemer Our Adversaries Objections examin'd and refuted His Triumph turneth to his Shame The true Signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmed § 1. BUt he undertakes a more particular Enervation of our Understanding of three places of Scripture which he says we grosly abuse It will be worth our while to hear and stop him a little for he makes great hast to Triumph That was the true Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Our Business is to know three things of him 1 What Light it is 2 In what Sense it inlightneth 3 How he understands every Man and this Line Compasseth the Matter THAT says he hath for its antecedent and is to be understood of the Word which was in the beginning with God which was God by whom all things were made the Light of Men c. Light is taken properly for that which doth Manifest or Discover any thing so Christ is Light but is now made manifest by the Appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel The Meaning is said he that Salvation Eternal which God hath proposed to give to his People which could not be seen in the Purpose of God as such is by the Appearing of CHRIST IN THE FLESH and therein transacting and declaring this Salvation and Eternal Life abundantly discovered and as Light properly is that which makes Manifest so metaphorically it is that which Comforts and Rejoyceth I do not in the least doubt but Christ the Word here is call'd Light in both respects And this I take to be the Import of the 4th Verse In him was Life and the Life the Light of Men that is The Salvation and Life Eternal of poor Sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God the Consideration of God manifest in the Flesh for those Ends is matter of Strong Consolation In his First Part about the Scriptures he told us that he was got to the highest Round of the Ladder in this place he has twisted himself Rope enough to answer the End of his Climing thither for if I do not from hence irrefutably prove 1 That the meer Body was not the Intire Saviour 2 That the Light within is of a Saving Nature I shall be ready to allow all our Adversaries Detrectations from the Light within but just Epithetes and a true Character of If Christ be the Light which is that Word which made all things and therefore God as saith J. Faldo then
Christ was before his Appearance and consequently our former Chapter is justified on our part against his Notions of the Lord 's Christ For it was impossible That the Visible Body taken from the Virgin should have made all things which was hung upon a Tree and buried c. But J. Faldo expresly says As the Word is the Light of Men so or in that manner is Christ the Light of Men Nay he calls it Christ's Appearing in the Flesh therein transacting and declaring Salvation c. intimating That Christ was before he took that Flesh or appeared in that Body and that he therefore took it and appeared in it to transact work declare and bring to pass by and through it as a peculiar Vessel and prepared Holy Instrument the great Salvation c. and consequently Christ was and is that Word which was with God and is God and the Light of Men c. And lest we should yet mistake him he calls it God manifested in the Flesh for those Ends to wit Salvation and Eternal Life And that he might speak all for us in a little and give the Deaths-wound to his own Cause he tells us in so many Words That the Salvation and Life Eternal of poor Sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God Is not this pretty fair for an Adversary as ill-willing to us and to the Truth as J. Faldo one of Ten Thousand in his Displeasure against us Certainly if the Quakers are condemnable for believing It was and is Christ as the Word in whom was Life and that Life the Light of Men that he was and is a Saviour J. Faldo must not be the Man that shall give the Sentence who I know not how nor why but that God and his Truth may be glorified by his Self-overthrow hath asserted the Quakers Principle and that at an high rate and if it can be an Honour to him that he has assisted to the Conquest of himself he ought to have it without any Envy § 2. But he is as serviceable to us altogether in Defence of the Light however undesigned which I prove thus If Christ be properly that Light which manifests or discovers any thing the terms of his Concession and therefore it doth manifest the Purpose and Grace of God which was given in Christ before the World was whereby Death comes to be abolished and Life and Immortality brought to Light Then must Christ Jesus this manifesting Light be a Divine and Saving Light without all Dispute Now J. Faldo affirms Christ to be that Word and proper Light that so manifesteth discovereth as exprest consequently that Light which doth so Manifest and Discover is a Saving Light Again If the Light be not only a Manifesting Light which is to take it Properly but a Comforting Light also which is to take it Metaphorically as saith J. Faldo Then this Light as the Word-Creator is not therefore call'd Light from a bare Act of Discovery but is a Principle of Life Power Vertue c. by which such as obey it are consolated and by the Reason of Contraries who rebel against it are condemned Which makes up those two States of Light and Darkness and their Rewards Consolation and Misery And thus much our Adversary further proves for us In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men that is the Salvation and Eternal Life of poor Sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God which is to say That the Life of the Word was and is the proper Light of Men and unto all such poor Sinners as did and do believe in it that Light is unto them Salvation and Eternal Life then which nothing can be more Orthodox in the Point Who would think that J. Faldo should ever undertake the Quakers so little understanding their Principles And if he did know them What should aile the Man to be so much our Friend to write against himself under Pretence of writing against us One would think he did it by the same Figure Irony that some call Fools Wits Yet he would fain distinguish Christ the Light as Creator and Redeemer making the first Common the other Peculiar and that spoils all To which I shall briefly answer for he only starts it himself There is but one Kind of Light which results from the Life of the Word and because it cannot be such but it must be Divine and Sufficient as well to Redemption as Conviction it will unanswerably follow that the manifesting Light of the Word J. Faldo confesseth all Mankind more or less to be lighted with is of a Divine and Saving Nature and that which strengthens this Conclusion is that Christ as God is by our Adversary made the Saviour and unless he would deny him that he calls God to have been before that Manifestation in Flesh a Redeemer to the Ancients which were to conclude the Damnation of all that died antecedent Christ the Word as that Light was the proper Redeemer through all Generations Though I will grant to him and that in the Name of all that People call'd Quakers the Discoveries made by Christ or God manifested in the Flesh transcended all former Manifestations and as in my Spirit of Truth Vindicated it is largely confest had this Adversary been Ingenuous enough to have weigh'd it So again I declare that eminently whatever was before or hath been since might in a sense be said of that Manifestation because he that then appeared was the Fulness of that Light Life and Power which measurably was is and may be dispensed to the Sons of Men wherefore in that sense he was both before and after the same Convincer Converter Redeemer and Saviour to the Souls of Men. § 3. But he is much stumbl'd and not a little abusive because I would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render'd Enlightneth rather then Lighteth in my Spir. of Truth Vindic. saying of me I perceive he is as very as those Physicians who impose severe Abstinence on others but they themselves will take their Cups off and their good Cheer to Wantonness and Giddiness How far this Character may be by any thought to resemble William Penn a Man he often strickes at I know not but I dare say for him he never was so Disingenuous as to deserve it and least of all from J. Faldo with whom he never had to do and who must needs make a Random-guess in the Matter But this is not the only Scurrility William Penn however unconcern'd he be has receiv'd at the hands of that Rude Priest nor that he is able to bear He takes it for granted that W. P's Passive Religion is like to be a Protection to his base Tongue and so long the Priest sleeps in a whole Skin I cannot imagine what his dashoe should signifie But it is ill done of a Priest to quarrell his next Order and one too which if I am not mistaken the Non-Conforming Priests have swarm'd after as the next way of Maintenance to their displac'd Carkasses
whom the Money was and is due But how clever any may think this Simile we will prove it Lame and Defective For the Change was not of the Body any further then as the Soul govern'd it after a new Way of Living I cannot think that J. Faldo will dare to say that a Man's Body is rendered ever the less Corruptible by any the best Change the Soul can make in this World The Question is about what that Change must be which makes a Corruptible an Incorruptible Body I mean not by Corrupt Sinful but that gross Elementary Matter which is subject to those Impressions Influences Mutations and Passions which we see all Sublunary Bodies are subject to Either the Resurrection of the Body must be without that Matter or it must not If it must then it is not that same Numerical Body and so their proper and strict taking of the Word Resurrection they must let go If it must not be without that same gross Matter it dyed with then I affirm it cannot be Incorruptible because it will carry with it that which will render it Corruptible ad Infinitum And what can be more Unreasonable then that Bodies compounded of this Elementary World which sayes our Adversary shall and must by Nature have an End should out live their own Matter and which is more never end I say we cannot see how that which is of Dust should be Eternal whilst that from whence it came is by Nature but Temporal And that which is yet most of all Irreconcileable with Scripture and right Reason is that the Loss and Change of Nature from Corruptible to Incorruptible Natural to Spiritual should not make it another Body In vain do such dispute against the Popish Transubstantiation as an Absurd and Impossible Thing who themselves are guilty in a Case of the like Nature The Romanists affirm a Change in the Sacrament though our senses tell us it is the same thing that ever it was Our Adversaries in the Point of the Resurrection boldly affirm that it is the same Body and yet Transubstantiated from Natural to Spiritual or chang'd from what it was to something it never was For my part I think the Last not less Impertinent and the Former more expresly Scriptural But because such things run Men into Unprofitable Questions various Searches and a Philosophical Way of Discoursing no wayes tending to God's Honour nor the Soul's Profit and Comfort I will Conclude this Head with our Confession That every Seed shall have its own Body and that such an one as it will please Almighty God to give and Thou Fool belongs most rightfully to him who acquiesceth not in an humble Contentedness with the good Will of God and that manner of Body he shall give And I think it would make more for Love Peace and Good-Will if our Enemies would leave those things with God quicquid supra nos nihil ad nos whose Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven § 3. To the Second Head of the Charge to be consider'd in this Chapter to wit Our not Professing of Eternal Rewards needs no other Answer then That none ever read so He quotes no such thing nay he says that he has searcht but to no Purpose and I challenge him to name one Person reputed by us to be of us that has ever affirmed so gross a Thing Well then may I call this the Last great Lye of his Second Part of Lyes and Slanders too such as he will be found much to weak to defend before the Tribunal of our God where we have whereof both to Answer and justly Accuse him before Angels as well as that we have now plainly refuted him before Men. But he makes this a Consequence of Denying the Resurrection which is obviously weak since whatever we have scrupled of the common gross Notion of the Resurrection of this Corruptible Body we have ever held an Eternal State of Recompence But so mean are his Proofs for this Conjecture if I may give them that Name that they show far more of his Ignorance and Malice then our Faith in that Atheistical Opinion However hear them R. Farnsworth said he was not saved by what Christ did at Jerusalem therefore says he already saved But can any in their Wits think he meant saved from Sin here to be the whole of Salvation and Blessedness O weak Man Well but I Pennington says Who forget God are to be turn'd into Hell What Hell says J. F. only in this Life A very Lye and Infamous Slander J. Faldo's Book against us unrepented of will prove we believe that Eternal Wo and Vengeance shall be the Wages of that Hellish Work We say That in this Life Men have an Earnest of Heaven and Hell and some Sence of both States as they are Good or Bad but never did we affirm Men to enjoy that full Measure of Joy or Torment they shall have as their Eternal Reward or Recompence hereafter But E. Bourrough the Day he died said he was now putting off this Manner of Person and returning to his own Being Those are not his very Words but what then Is this to prove we deny an Eternal Recompence to produce his own Testimony to an Everlasting State of Blessedness that he Himself was just entering into But W. Penn vindicates an Heaven within after his fashion against the Author of the Spirit of the Quakers tried And what is this to denying an Eternal Heaven for the Righteous Did not the Saints enjoy Heavenly Places in Spirit when on Earth O Carnal Man Be-nighted by the Power of Darkness whose Understanding the thick Fogs and Mists of Ignorance Malice and Revenge have over-cast that thou call'st Good Evil and Evil Good Light Darkness and Darkness Light § 3. I shall here after his Example resume the Question and collect all that has been said and made evidently to appear on the behalf of True Christianity and the Apostolically Professors of it I mean the People of God call'd Quakers and so end this Discourse respecting the main of the Book If QUAKERISM so call'd be not another Dispensation then that of Christ preached and settled by the Apostles If it deny not the Scriptures If it deny not all nor any of the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny not any Influence of Christ's Transactions above 1600 Years since into our Justification and Salvation as he phraises it If it deny not Jesus the Son of Mary after the Flesh otherwise God over all to be the Christ of God If it own not false Gods and be not Idolatry If it deny not the true Resurrection of the Dead If it doth affect an affected Expression of our Adversaries or rather hold forth a future Blessedness or Misery in another World according to the Deeds done in this Then Quakerism in our Adversary's account must be Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism so called Therefore Quakerism so call'd is true
Spirit O the Hell-dark Expressions of the Quakers Spirit frightful and amazing Words bitter Curses Howlings and Roarings and what else J. Faldo's Devil pleaseth by which to render the Quakers Odious Well! But to Answer him It was a time of Joy and a time of Sorrow the Spirits of the Just rejoyced that he was born forth into the World and that Sun of Righteousness risen whose Discovering Light and Refreshing Beams would renew the World that had been in great measure bewilder'd since its first Innocent State but therefore was it not a time of Wo Sorrow Terror and Grievous Distress to all the Workers of Iniquity did not Christ come to bring War as well as Peace a Sword a Fire upon Earth Did not his Fore-runner come in an Astonishing Manner in Differing Attire of another Diet and from a Desolate Place to Preach Repentance and to Warn them with an O Generation of Vipers to flee the Wrath to come Did he not say that an Ax a Sharp and Terrible Instrument should be laid to every unfruitful Tree And did not the Apostles Preach to the Pricking of the Hearts of Thousands and Paul by name that Felix himself Trembled and all as knowing the Terrors of the Lord themselves they warn'd others wherefore Judgment is said to have begun at the House of God Finally did not the Devils Howl Roar and Tremble foreseeing they should be dislodg'd by one stronger then themselves Christ the Son of the Living God and was there no Terror Dread and Amazement in all this I perceive it may be a Vertue in the Primitive Christians but a Vice in the Quakers at least in J Faldo's Account § 7. But this know O Impartial People the Quakers were overtaken by the mighty Hand of God and great were their Travels and Pangs of Sorrow under the Righteous Terrors of the Lord whose hour of Just Judgments was come and being thereby made Witnesses of his handy Work and redeem'd through Judgment they became Ministers of Judgment unto others and the Terror of it struck Thousands the Devils Trembled and all Flesh at least in some was as Grass and the Beauty of their Carnal Outside Religion but as the Flower of the Field which in the Name of the Lord we testify fell and wither'd before the Brightness of his Appearance to us who put on Strength like a Giant that was to run his Race and girded himself with Power and who was able to stand before him the Hills melted at his Presence and the Mountains fled before him into the Sea And art thou given up J. Faldo to call Light Darkness and Darkness Light the Terrors of God the Possessions of Satan and the Remorse of Conscience Hell Broke Loose O Unhappy Man The Lord will reckon with thee for this Blasphemous Impiety and this I say to thee and all thy Associates that Eternal Misery will be the End of you for all your sweet Notions of Religion unless you obtain it through the Fire the firy Judgments of the Lord reveal'd in your Consciences For that end is Christ now as formerly manifested that Judgment might be laid to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet in all and because we earnestly contend for the Inward Work of Christ as the most beneficial to Mankind therefore is it that you Priests have us in Hatred Scorn and Derision all the Day long and indeed we are grievously wronged by your Wickedness and Cruelty but the Lord is our Strength of whom therefore should we be afraid and why do you Rage and Imagine a Vain Thing concerning us § 7. Now for the time when Christianity and Quakerism came as he is pleas'd to distinguish them Some says he date Christianity from the Birth of Christ others WITH MUCH MORE REASON FROM THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST witness that place All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth The Consequence of this Assertion is thus much That Christ taught not Christianity That his Disciples who believed in him were but better kind of Carnal Jews That Christ's Life Doctrine and Miracles were not perform'd under a State of Christianity That he had not all Power before his Resurrection contrary to the Scripture In short That Christ and Christianity did not go together and if you will that Christ was not Christ but a good extraordinary Jew before his Resurrection for I am sure his Notion of the Beginning of Christianity warrants the Consequence O the Orthodoxality of this Wiffling Priest Busy-Body and Conceited enough Well but this is not all we have a Contradiction to add to his Burden Christianity made its Way by many Signs and Wonders wrought before Multitudes and that not only by Christ himself but also by his Disciples and Servants BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER HIS DEATH If this be not Giving and Taking Granting and Denying there is no such Thing in the World For here is Christianity before Christ's Death and yet WITH MUCH MORE REASON here is a Denial of that Assertion and AFFIRMING THAT IT TOOK ITS RISE AFTER HIS RESURRECTION Truly we need not much fear the Consequence of such Encounters when our Adversary puts Weapons into our Hands to his own Shame and Overthrow § 8. But that he may be further kind to us he proceeds The Disciples were called Christians at Antioch Act. 11. 26. but the Thing Christianity might well be before the Name Christian Enough for us Sober Reader to defend our first Chapter but a Woful Contradiction to himself where we say that what was call'd Christ was before the Name and something of the Excellent Nature of Truth Purity Holiness which leads to Salvation c. which the Word Christianity with us imports at large unless they should be excluded as any parts thereof which supposeth a Christianity Destitute of Truth Purity Holiness c. like that of this Age though in no appearance so clear as in that in which Christ visibly manifested himself § 9. But upon Peter's Words If any Man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed 1. Pet. 4. he observes Here Christianity is Distinguisht both from Judaism and Heathenism Both the Gentiles and the Jews were bitter Enemies to the Christian Name and that not for the Name but the Thing 's sake This must either regard the Apostate Jew and Gentile and so we close or the Jew and Gentile upon their Inward Knowledge of God and Obedience to him and here we recede and must deny his Assertion nay it would be a Contradiction to that Justice Purity and Worth he allows them to have had since it were to say that such Qualifications could be Ignorant of Christianity the Perfection of them for the Good among them became Disciples at least Lovers of the Christian Religion then not Haters of either Name or Thing For where among Jews or Gentiles their Hearts were Upright to God according to that Discovery he made of himself to them and that they kept to the divine Sence and Relish which they
the best of Heathens and Quakers walking up to the Light within and to affirm for all that the Quakers have to judge to the contrary they acted by a Divine Power Ranking the Quakers Faith in Christ upon an Equality in Evil with their horrid Blasphemies The Top of all Uncharitableness a very Lye for this is to say That the best worst of Heathens were all alike that they wanting Scriptures could not rightly discern the Difference between the Bad and Good that those who live up to that Light as he cannot deny the Quakers to do in a great measure are but in Julian the Apostate and scoffing Lucians Ranck In short that the Quakers Believing in one God that he has Enlightned all Men that he has Striven by his Light and Spirit in the Consciences of Men through all Ages and by it in the Hearts and Mouths of his Prophets and above all by that blessed Appearance of Christ Jesus who Tabernacl'd among Men in that Body prepared for that purpose who there in preach't the heavenly Kingdom within worked Miracles laid down his Life for the World rose again and ascended to the Father leading Captivity captive and gave Gifts for Men that who believes in him and takes up his Cross shall be his Disciple and persevering have Everlasting Life That the Quakers Faith I say in this Solemn Conscientious Manner upon which they place the Eternal Happiness of their Souls should scarely be a Jot better then the APOSTACY OF JULIAN AND THE IMPIETY OF LUCIAN AND BUT ONLY SERVE TO RENDER US AS GREAT DESPISERS AND CONTEMNERS OF CHRIST AND ALL HIS RELIGION AS THEY WERE O strange Comparison̄ Well they tell us of a Book coming out of our Hard Sayings to our Opposers But match this impartial Reader But however the Devil blinds and hardens this J. Faldo sure I am the Devil himself knows better What shall I say Truly nothing more but leave it with the Righteous God of Heaven and Earth to plead our Cause in the Hearts of all People and avenge himself upon his Adversaries to whom Vengeance belongs § 16. For his Comparison of us with the Papists we little heed it He tells the World the Papists own Revelation which he proves at large and the Quakers hold Revelation also Therefore the Quakers are Papists or very near them as his Story indeed an arrant Lye either in him or the Papist will inform us where he says that a Papist upon being ask't which of all Sects in England approach'd them most replyed the Quakers How near we are to the Papists in Faith Worship and Discipline shall be left to them that know and have seen more then this conceited Priest But Argumentum ad hominem Thus The Papists own a God a Trinity of Persons c. and J. Faldo owns a God and a Trinity of Persons also therefore J. Faldo is a Papist or very near a Kin to one Would this be just If not neither is his Conclusion of Force against us What is Truth is not discommendable where ever and by whatsoever held It is high Weakness to exclaim against true Christians for holding any Truth in common with the very Turks and much more Condemnable to conclude them Turks But we must be run down if they can and therefore no matter what ugly Skin they cast over us so the Dogs will but fasten The Lord God plead our Cause on Earth CHAP. V. The Charge Stated not Proved The Scriptures not the most Excellent nor only General Rule God may speak by Instruments The Instruments not the Rule but that which useth them That the Scriptures being Obligatory does not conclude it the General Rule under the Gospel The Disingenuity of our Adversary in citing the Apostle's words Reprehended The Scriptures no Judge in that sense wherein they are not the General Rule The Scriptures Confest to § 1. HIs Fifth Chapter designs to Prove That we Deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversies And that he may sufficiently prejudice his Reader against us and our most Holy Faith He not only tells him that to deny them to be the Word of God is a good Reason why he should conclude us to deny them to be a Rule though at the same time it manifestly shows that we would acknowledge them to be such were they the Word of God and that therefore the Word of God is our Rule but he suggests that we believe a Conformity to their Guidance cannot render a prophane Man less prophane To prove this he quotes James Parnel thus And he also that saith The Letter is the Rule and Guide of the People of God is without feeding upon the Husks and is ignorant of the true Light which was before the Letter was Shield of Truth p. 10. William Smith thus And if thou lookest upon the Scripture to be for a Rule and for Trying thou givest that unto them which is due unto Christ for He is the Rule and leads his People and he alone searches the Hearts and tryes the Reins and not the Scripture Again But if you will see a Mouth full of Blasphemies against the Authority of the Scripture read with Horror and Amazement the following words God is at Liberty to speak to his People by them if he please and where they are given by Inspiration he doth so but says J. Faldo the Sting is behind and in the Tayl of this non-such Sentence and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass Nayl Light of Christ c. p. 19. In Answer to all which he says just nothing but thinks it is enough to have cited these Passages and seems to triumph as reasonably as the Man which dreamt he did eat but awaket anhungry delighted himself in his sleeping Feast Let us trie to rouse him out of this Lethargy of Ignorance and Conceit § 2. I shall freely confess that for the same Reasons that we deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God we cannot own them as the General Rule of Faith But also as we acknowledge them to be the Words of the holy living and powerful Word of God so that they express and declare unto us many holy Rules for Godliness and I declare in the Name of all the Right-born Quakers in the World that we utterly reject all such as Deny the Scriptures to be profitable for Reprehension Instruction Exhortation and Eaification How vain then is this Man's Impeachment of us as Persons void of all true Respect for them § 3. In short as the Scriptures are not the Word of God but a Declaration of the Word of God so the Scriptures are not the general Rule but a Declaration of the true general Rule which I prove thus That which alwayes was and is a more general Rule then the Scriptures must needs be and is most properly THE general Rule and not the Scriptures but that was and is the Light
Nature of a Light unless to acknowledge their Testimonies to be as Lights be to deny them to have any Light at all Is this the great Originalian Linguist Critick Philosopher and what else his own conceit will have him What is it but to say that six burning Candles are six Lights but not that they give a Light either joyntly or separately But 't is below us to pursue every Advantage his Ignorance gives us I find him more in Words then Matter a great deal and I suppose more are of that Mind or else what means his great Pains to be made waste paper of already Quakerism no Christianity has exchang'd the Book-Sellers Stalls for the Tobacco Shops Poor Man perhaps he will write another Book to complain of the Deadness of Professors Hearts that they make so ill Use of the Labours of painful Ministers I am confident nothing but his Fear of loosing by it could divert him from such a Lamentation But to his Reflection upon the Light as our Idol and their Folly who attend upon the Scriptures when they have so excellent a Light in their own Bosomes the Substance of the rest of the Chapter I thus return God is that Light which hath enlightned Mankind and to have the highest Reverence for him and believe in him can be therefore no Idolatry And for the Scripture all grant that there is a State above them For I hope the Man does not think that People shall have Bibles in Heaven and the more any approach to the heavenly Life and Glory the less need there will be and yet not the less value of them But this we also say that they are profitable for Instruction and Comfort in this World And God hath spoke does and yet will by the Scriptures speak to the Consciences of Men For being given forth by the Spirit of God they do declare that Reproof Exhortation and those Promises which being felt in some Sence of the same Divine Light do administer Knowledge and Refreshment But we do also and again declare it as our Faith that the Pouring out of the Spirit is a Gospel Priviledge yea the very proper and peculiar Promise and Blessing of the Father in that State and that as the Spirit is superior to the Letter so we earnestly contend not against the Scripture but for that Living Experimental Knowledge of them which all witness who are truly taught and led by the Spirit and which can't be obtained by any meer Writings whatsoever Nor does it follow that because God has given a sufficient Light therefore all other Means should be superfluous Certain I am this Argument is fitter for Bedlam then one who more then once Vaunts himself to be a Critick indeed a Quibler For what is it but to say that though every Man has Reason enough in him to know that Intemperance is below a very Brute yet because he is Intemperate his Reason is not sufficient to inform him better Or if it be sufficient he ought to despise anothers Admonitions however seasonable his Reason being enough to his Information Was Nathan of no use to David who had so secret and sufficient a Teacher And here I do observe that all our Opposers split themselves and will forever unless better inform'd They ignorantly or basely infer a Fallibility or Insufficiency to be in the Light from the Fallibility and Rebellion of those Persons whom we say are lightned by it And on the Contrary hand that all should be necessarily Infallible who are Inlightned by an Infallible Light not considering that neither is the Grace of God Insufficient to Save because Men refuse to be Saved by it nor though it be sufficient and Infallible in it self that therefore all those to whom it is tender'd are sav'd or therefore are Infallible without any Consideration had to their Obedience How False How Injurious How almost Unpardonable is this Priest then Who seems to charge us with believing that all Power in Heaven and in Earth is in every Particular Man because sayes he this Light in every one is God Christ Spirit c. For though we confess that as to every individual Person all the Power which is requir'd to redeem that Soul from the Pollutions of the World unto the pure and undefiled Religion is in that Divine Principle which with respect to the great Darkness of the World is very aptly denominated Light yet that therefore the whole Light and Power of it should be comprehended by or contained in every Individual Soul I utterly Renounce as no Consequence of our Doctrine For that were to say in every Room where the Sun shines there is a distinct Sun These are but some of the Priests old Bulbeggars to scare the Simple and they will at last do as much for their Inventors It shall suffice us 1 that though the Light shines not alike into all habitable Places yet the same Light by Nature shines into all such Places For illustration only If a Man has six Rooms expos'd to the Sun there may be more Light in some one then another yet not therefore another Sun or Light 2 If People refuse to see by it it implies no Deficiency in the Light but argues manifest Rebellion in the Party 3 That whatever Means it may please God to use to stir up Men to observe obey the Light they withstand they ought not to be thought superfluous or the Light therefore Insufficient 4 That all such Means as can be effectual proceed from that Divine Principle in others and with Design of turning the Rebellious to the Grace which they resist in themselves So notwithstanding the Quakers do own and assert the Spirit to be Superiour to the Scriptures especially in this Administration yet they do not deny the Scripture all Service or Benefit by no means but believe it ought to be Read Believ'd Honour'd and Obey'd as that by which God has doth and may yet reach to the Hearts and Consciences of People And to the Righteous Lord God of Heaven and Earth do we make our Appeal in this Matter against the Unrighteous Dealing of this traducing Priest who is the Searcher of the Hearts of all Men. CHAP. VII Commands upon Conviction to be obey'd All General Commands Obligatory Particular not but upon particular Commission Our Adversaries Disingenuity The Scriptures a Means by which God may be known but not the Principle § 1. THough indeed we need not concern our selves any further in this Subject after the Disproof of his Premisses namely that because the Quakers Deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God therefore they deny them to all Intents and Purposes much less that we should esteem our selves oblieged to consider what remains after such plentiful Confutation being but Consequences of the Priests drawing from his own False Assertions already enervated or a mistaken Understanding of ours plainly discover'd and which indeed seems both to resemble and follow the old way of two and twentiethly Beloved to
God are known for Sin which they shake off on another mistaken Account and in this Mystery the Devil works most subtilly and vigorously against the Light of Christ within and its True and Holy Birth § 3. But says he How Know God's Omnipotency experimentally Very well say I against the Folly of this cavilling Priest Experience is Demonstration and the World without and the Redemption I know within which no Power but what is Almighty could ever have effected make up that Demonstration which is that Experience therefore I only know God's Omnipotency by Experience § 4. But is it thus that you know Christ died that there shall be a Judgment and an Immortality I answer not altogether thus One Part is Matter of Story and is believed first Historically upon the Credit of History and then upon the Account of Inward Conviction too The other is Knowable only upon Experience For we feel in our selves Rewards and Punishments for Good and Evil in this Life and receive them as Earnests of what will attend Man-kind in the next And we have an inward Sence of a never dying Life which as we are Gather'd into it and Grow up in it we shall Inherit Eternal Felicity and as there is an Erring from that Holy Spirit of Life the Wages of such Rebellion will be the direful Portion of Death and Misery to every Soul forever § 5. Nor does this clash with Faith whatever the Priest would suggest For Faith is a believing in or relying upon God with respect to a further Knowledge and Enjoyment of him which no wayes impugnes or withstands a Knowledge of God upon Experience so far as Men do experience wherein they simply believe they do not yet so perfectly experience which ends Faith yet it abides certain that when they do experience that further Revelation of the Goodness and Mercy and Riches of the Love of God as the End of their Faith then and not before they may be said to know those things Why then should we be denyed to conclude and that most rightly that to Know and to Experience are equivalent Terms No Knowledge without Experience no Experience without Knowledge And though Men may believe in a further Enjoyment of what they now have but an Earnest of yet that as such they know not consequently they experience it not And so much this insolent Vilifier of that serious Expression confesseth to us and disputes for as he thinks against us when he sayes where is Faith all the while and if none but Believers be Saints such as W. P. are professedly none Since then my Affirming no Knowledge of God without Experience strikes not at Faith because Faith says our Adversary is not a clear knowing but believing or relying upon God as to things not yet clearly known and enjoyed what has the Man been a doing all the while But here was his shameful Mistake and Contradiction That Knowing and Believing are one and the same thing and this I will make appear from his own Words and a Contradiction to himself at the End of it § 6. He quarrels my affirming all Knowledge to rest upon Experience and opposes to it this question Can we experience his Omnipotency as much as to say yet we know it else he queries impertinently If so then that God's Omnipotency may be known and not Experienced the purport of his Query it must be only by Faith and if by Faith then a Man may certainly know any thing to be what it is and yet at the same time only believe it to be so which he as earnestly withstands when he asks Where is Faith all the while c. I would then sain be resolv'd whether that Man suppose J. Faldo who says that Knowing and Believing are One and Knowing and Experiencing are Contraries be more ridiculous or W. P. who affirms that Faith which stricktly taken is but an Evidence of things not yet clearly seen experienc'd or known and Knowing are not one and the same thing and that experiencing and knowing can never be Contraries § 7. I would advise this Priest to be less conceited and better grounded the next time he has to do with us for even in those places where he seems most Insulting he appeares most Weak Reader what we experience we know and from hence are taught to believe that Fulness to be in God which we can never comprehensively Know so that our Knowing God from Experience does not weaken Faith but as Enjoyment is the End of Faith so from thence great Encouragement is to be taken to press on from Faith to Faith till there is an Arriving at the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ But he leaves not off here § 8. I shall not Comment on his ravening comprehending Brain a most affected Pharisee among the Quakers nor his clear Mysteries as clear a Contradiction as it is nor Fleshly Comprehensions as much Untruth and Non-sense as according to their Meaning of it it Comprehends for I have not Room to spread all his Rubbish I wonder not at his course Usage of me 't is like a Man of his Breeding Fury and Profession there is abundantly more yet behind some of which will be observ'd in a more proper place But to reply Ravening is a most proper Word and due to J. Faldo with his whole Tribe of Priests and if he will Raving too some few more moderate ones excepted for we commonly understand by a Ravenous Dog one that is Greedy Sharp-set that hunts hard for Prey that snatches and ketches at every thing it likes or may answer his hungry Appetite now whether this may relate to that greedy pursuit of the Priests after Hire the Bason the Box the Purse or that insatiable Thirst they have after Knowledge of those Religious Matters which were the dear-bought Experiences of ancient Saints whilst Strangers to the Fiery and Refining Judgments of the Lord through which alone it is obtained certain it is that the Word is most aptly used by the Quakers against that Ravenous Generation § 9. Comprehending Brain is compassing or mastering of any thing in the Understanding and where People are more studious to fill their Heads with Knowledge then to adorn their Hearts with Righteousness we use those Words in a way of Reproof Since having learnt of God what we know of him through the Operation of his Light in our Consciences it is our Testimony and our work in the World to beat down that Thirsting Spirit after much Head-Knowledge and press all to the continual Observance of an humble and constant Obedience to the Grace of God manifested in their Hearts that teacheth to deny all Ungodliness and Worldy Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godlikely in this present Evil World which is the Undefiled Religion Nor his Clear Mysteries as clear a Contradiction as it is It was not Clear but Clean in my Copy which I suppose I can produce and has been so corrected by me Ingenuous Men
Scriptures for What this is to his purpose I cannot understand to be sure it is for ours For W. D. is so far from making it Idolatry to live up to the Scriptures that he condemns their seeking for the true God where he was not to be found which sayes he they HAVE NO SCRIPTURE FOR As much as to say that they seek after God not according to Scripture and therefore are both Deceivers and Deceived Certainly this is a Miserable Farewel he takes of the first part of his Book and the Quakers Denial of the Scriptures that they should therefore affirm a Practice according to Scripture without immediate Inspiration Idolatrous because they assert such to be deceived who seek after God not according to Scriptures If so much Impertinency should fall from a Poor Quaker's Pen what Reproach Insolence and Triumph would there be But he has another Witness that by the Mouthes of two Witnesses his Charge against us may be not establisht but evidently disprov'd § 5. And this is Babylon the Mother of Harlots viz. to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles of the Scriptures of the New Testament and the Abomination of all Uncleanness W. Smith's morning watch p. 23. Forgery in the abstract as base black and dishonest as Man can be to Man What! rob him of Truth of a good Conscience foist in put out alter gloss pervert and what he pleaseth What make us lve against God his Servants Scriptures the Light within and our own Souls But I have the less need to make our Defence where his manifest Corruption of our Words accuse him and my Answer to the first part of his Charge in this Chapter has done it at large Only thus much give me leave to say That if Words urg'd upon one Subject shall be apply'd to another of a different Nature and that our Adversary can never prove his Charge against us but by abusing corrupting mis-rendering and interlineating our Words there is no Reason that we should much concern our selves in the Consequence of such Debates that Way of Demonstration will save us the Labour of a Vindication with all Sober Persons But he has not done with us yet § 6. I am e'en tired with searching the sulphureous Veins of the Pit and Mire of Quakerism the Root of all which is the Deified Light Within if you have not enough of this Smoak to satisfie you it is the Bottomless Pit it rises out of I will give you two Ebullitions more and then leave you satisfied or to get better Senses So amongst the words you find how the Saints in some things walked and what they practised and then you strive to make that thing to your selves and to observe and do it as near as you can and here you are found Transgressors of the Just Law of God who saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the Likeness of any thing And sayes J. Faldo it follows now what Difference is there in the Ground betwixt you and the Pope though in the Appearance there seems to be such a great Space I have been the more punctual in the Recital of this that I might show to my Adversary I will be just to him though he be most egregiously Unmanly with us He says That he is e'en tired indeed he has Reason for it though for nothing else For who ever got any thing by Beating the Air or Spitting against the Heavens The Sulphureous Pit of Quakerism we can in one sense allow and J. F. may be better acquainted with it For the Plagues which the never-dying Worm the sharp reproving condemning Light Within will inflict upon the Spirits of them who resist and gainsay the Truth are aptly resembled to a Sulphureous Bottomless Pit Sulphureous because of the Insufferableness of the Smoak A Bottomless Pit by reason of a Dismal Endless State and Condition of Wo. And I doubt not but J. Faldo has an Earnest of this for his Attempts against the Light and the Children of it This long Discourse is no more to us then the rest of his Trash that we have already rejected as his own Invention and base Perversion of our real Meanings Take W. Smith in his own Sense and Belief and all is well But receive him in J. Faldo's Disguize and truly we should not know him our selves He intended that all those real Experiments of other Persons of which the Scriptures are full talkt unexperimentally over by Unregenerated Spirits can be no wayes beneficial Nay that what Ideas or Notions they may have to themselves of the Holy Ancients Enjoyments while altogether unacquainted with them are but a kind of Images which their believing in and bowing to as indispensible Gospel-Truths is to be reputed nothing below Idolatry it self Yet far be it from us to say that to believe the Truth as declared in the Scriptures is Idolatry as well as that it is manifest Folly in any so to say or think of us when not only we are most careful and desirous of rendering what we believe purely Scriptural But I do declare that as no man can live the Life of the Scriptures without the Operation of that Spirit which gave them forth so to live up to what they do exhort and declare is the highest Pitch of Purity Man's Nature is capable of aiming at and attaining to § 7. He now intends to wind up his Discourse on the present Subject with a retrospective and contracted Argument of all those particular distinct Charges viz. They who deny the Scripture to be the Word of God equal their own Writings Sayings deny them to be a Rule of Faith and Life a Judge of Religious Controversies take Men off from Reading them deny the Scripture to be any Means whereby we may come to know God or Christ or our selves affirm them to be no Means whereby to resist Temptation and are Dangerous to be read deny them to be Profitable but as Experienced put Scripture and Spirit in Opposition affirm the Doctrines Commands and Holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such to be not at all binding to us hold it as the Sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the Instructions and Holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate Revelation as the Apostles They who do all these things mentioned in the fore-going Particulars Deny the Scriptures But the Quakers do all these things therefore they Deny the Scriptures To which I return this Argument If to Deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God to make what Writings are given forth by the same Spirit relative of the Scriptures if not to prefer any Writings before the Scriptures nor equal them to the Scriptures if to deny the Scriptures to be most properly the General Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie and not the Spirit rather if not to take Men off from Reading the Scriptures for Instruction c. if
he ow's all that he hath But why poor Non-Conformists after all their preacht up Battles Spoyls Plunders Sacriledges Decimations c. Rich and Covetous as ever As Rich because the Bason walks and takes its Rounds two to one of which it did and Covetous because they remain as discontented as if they were starving witness a Late begging Book from a Non-Conformist's hand which conjures their Hearers into larger Benevolence though by the style one would think it were their just Due I am perswaded their Preachings Christnings Burials Churchings alias Lying in Visits Exhortations Thanksgivings and Prayers have cheated People of more Gold and Silver then ever they did dare to make the least Pretence to though they alwayes dar'd to take what they could get in their former Dayes of Power But this is nothing to me further then that it is less dishonourable to William Penn or any other Quaker whom God hath blessed with a plentiful Subsistence that having Estates they notwithstanding should sustain the Labour and Suffering of Preaching the Gospel and that at all seasons then in J. Faldo and his Brethren who it's greatly to be feared preach what they call the Gospel that they might get Estates at least Livelyhoods by it let him or them say what they will I could give him a long List of more Exacting Jocky Hawking Mercenary Bargains of Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists then can readily be parallel'd by Parish-Priests A thing once denyed by them and ought still to be Detested of all others § 4. But he ends not here concerning the Ministry For says he The Quakers deny our Ministry because we preach from the Scripture A wicked Lye minted out of Hell it self We have laid down no such Proposition nor tending to it But he supposeth J. Parnel helps him to prove this Assertion And here is the Difference of the Ministers of the World and the Ministers of Christ The One of the Letter the other of the Spirit Strange Impudence to call this a Proof It is a Proof indeed but against him for if a False or Worldly Ministry under the Form of Godliness may not be Farewell Scripture But if such a Thing will be allow'd us then since the Letter or Scriptures are not by them rejected but in Shew most highly admired and that they pretend to collect all they believe or know from thence though indeed they understand them not we have great Reason to say that those who are Ministers only from the Letter with what they imaginarily comment upon it are not Christ's Ministers We are so far from making it a Reason why we deny your Ministry who are under that Qualification that we utterly deny you to have that Knowledge from the Scripture which we except against but your own Inventions and groundless Conceits alone For though J. Faldo thinks it very Heterodox to say that unless we are immediately assured from the Light within of the Truth of what we hold and that all Belief not so discover'd is a Lye deriding at Samuel Fisher's Answer in that Case Those who swore as the Lord lived swore falsly because they knew him not to Live affirming to us that they were such as did not believe him to live at all and therefore S. Fisher erred in his Construction I say though it be so yet we are not forelorn of Reason as well as Scripture to our Defence For no Truth is such to me which I either do not know to be true or have not some real Ground to believe to be such however true it may be in it self And that Sam. Fisher urg'd that Scripture pertinently and Consequently his return upon it is impertinent He himself has provided us with an Argument for if he will not have it that they therefore lyed in saying as the Lord liveth because they knew him not to live we must see what was the Reason that God gave their Asseveration the Lye Sayes J. Faldo they did not believe him to live at all Very well then the Narrow of the Difference lyes here That we say They knew him not to live And J. Faldo says That they believ'd him not to live Now I would fain know which are most excusable One sayes they who said as sure as the Lord liveth lyed because they know not God to live and the other that they believ'd him not to live If any thing be to be gotten it is this that they who know him not to live might believe him however to live whilst those who believ'd him not live would not believe a thing they had no Ground or Knowledge inducing them to it But he has lead us to a quick Expedient They did know God to live because he that lives may know from thence that God lives who holds every Soul in Life that lives To which I return that they did believe God to live because they lived for how could they doubt of his Living who held them in Life But enough of this To conclude A Living Spiritual Ministry we own that preaches the Everlasting Gospel in its own Power and that freely to the Raising of People dead in Trespasses and Sin to turn them from Darkness to Light that they might serve the Living Lord God of Heaven and Earth in the Newness of the Spirit who is worthy of all Honour and Glory forever CHAP. XII The Second particular Ordinance is a Gospel-Church His Definition for us by its gross Contrariety to the Scripture His base Inference of our Denial of Religious Societies and Outward Gifts from our Friends asserting of but one Catholick Church and that it is in God A Gospel-Church own'd Our Adversary proved Heterodox about Apostolical Preaching Inward Sence preferr'd before Intelligence § 1. THe Next Gospel-Ordinance he says we deny is a Gospel-Church Not to spend time about his Way of Phrasing it though uncooth enough We shall attend his Proof And the Church so gathered into God is the Pillar and Ground of Truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher J. N. Love to the Lost pag. 17. Upon which he argues thus The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers and not the Spirit alone whereas the Apostles gave themselves to Preaching of the Word and Elders were ordained therefore the Quakers deny a Gospel-Church and they contradict themselves for they have more Teachers then All others A Lye to be sure There is greatly wanting to this Priest a better Understanding or more Honesty in using what he has for who is not blinded with Prejudice may discern that from our speaking of the Universal Church of God which says the Apostle as well the the Quakers is in God he infers that we deny all Visible Religious Societies commonly called by the Ancients the Churches of Asia Thessalonica Ephesus Corinth c. And from our Asserting the Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher of all who believe he concludes that we deny all Preaching of Men though by the Spirit O blind or else most disingenuous Man
by Jesus Christ Now unless it be an Evil for us to say that Men are accepted with God upon Christ's Inward Righteousness when the Scriptures say that the Reign of Grace through Righteousness where Sin reigned which was within Man certainly and therefore Inward is unto Eternal Life as full a word as being accepted with God I cannot see but in our holding forth Christ's Righteousness to be made ours by the Operation of his Holy Spirit in the Heart as the Efficient or Principal if not only Cause of our daily Acceptance with God we are Scripturally Orthodox § 9. We would also provide against the Malice of those Tongues who because we do allow Good Works or Fruits to be well-pleasing to God and necessary to Life Eternal do therefore rank us among the Papists as pleading for the Merit of Good Works For we lay not this second sort of Justification and much less the first upon any Exteriour Works that the very Spirit of Truth himself leads into as meerly Exteriour be they Acts of Justice Mercy Charity or such like But upon the holy Working of God's Power and Spirit in the Heart and the Creatures believing in and resigning himself up unto God to be by him renewed ordered led and disposed So that the Creature has no further Share then as he bows to the Requirings of God and contentedly acquiesceth in what it pleaseth Almighty God to do with him So our Wills there daily submitted to the Holy Will of God which is Sanctification is the Ground of our daily Acceptance with God and being received not as just by the Non-Imputation of Sins formerly committed for that alone depends upon Repentance and Faith in God's free Love to remit but as just by being actually and really made so through the Participation of the Just and Righteous Nature of Christ who is to all such Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and plentious Redemption and here we will end this Argument leaving our Faith therein with God and sober Men. I shall omit here as well as else where taking any notice of his base Revilings sordid Pedantry unworthy of a Good Christian or Man of Learning and Civility and endeavour as God shall enable me to acquit my self of the Remainder of his Book with the same Honesty Truth Reason and Brevity that I hope I have done in what I have hitherto undertaken and dispatcht CHAP. XVIII He sayes we disown the True Christ It is proved that He denies in Contradiction to himself what we deny and that we are Scriptural and Sound in our Belief And though we cannot exclude that Divinity from the true Christ Yet we also own that the true Christ took Flesh that he appeared for the Salvation of Mankind and that his bodily Appearance was instrumental in the Point Christ owned according to Scriptures § 1. HE is now arriv'd at the Root-Error of the Quakers as he is pleased to name it who is a Man of Names and such too as are Beast enough too sometimes but they may pass perhaps for Gospel-Zeal or a pretty sort of Wit amongst some of his small Companions whose Disease is to be mistaken but let 's hear him patiently The Quakers disown and deny the Christ of God and set up a false Christ in his room and stead and attribute all to that false Christ which is due and peculiar to the true Christ This is that Non-such Lye which travels to bring forth that Babel therewith their Religion abound His Proof is at hand This we certainly know and can never call the bodily Garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the Body Pennington's Quest 23 32. To which he sayes They do not deny that there was such a Man as Jesus the Son of Mary and that God or rather Christ was in him but this is no more then they profess of themselves that Christ as God is in them yet that Body of the Man Jesus which he calls here the bodily Garment he tells us they can never call Christ This Quotation he offers as explaining by another from the same Author and Book p. 20. For that which he took upon him was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature VERY RIGHT but what followeth is wofully false which is of an Earthly Perishing Nature But he is of an Heavenly Nature From whence J. Faldo infers against us That the Body Christ took upon himself of our Nature is not the Christ But before we give him off we hope through the Help of our God to prove the Contrary to be highly against Christ Scriptures and sound Reason He has done us right in two respects which may a little answer for the Ill-Language he giveth us in our Charge First That he acknowledgeth we own that there was such a Man as Jesus the Son of Mary in Contradiction to abundance of our Adversaries and that God was in him which makes up our Christ Secondly That he whom we call Christ is not J. Faldo's Christ for he was that Body only that dyed else what mean those words inferred by way of Proof against us in Defence of the Charge The Body which Christ took on him of our Nature c. and therefore they can never call that Christ intimating he doth as the following Paragraph tells us This is a plain Denying the Man Christ Jesus yet behold the Babel of the Matter who after this dare say VERY RIGHT to this part of I. Pennington's words for that which he took upon him was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature Where he manifestly implies that what he just now accounted the whole Christ and reproaches us for denying to be such is not the Christ Himself but his Garment only unless there be no Difference betwixt Christ and his Garment or that Christ was but the Garment of that more excellent Soul or Divine Being that dwelt therein which is Unscriptural and very Carnal If this Man had not charged us with what he cannot prove nay if he has not manifestly contradicted himself in his Endeavours to do it no Man was ever guilty in those Respects But that none may be stumbled by his untrue Characters of us We do believe and plainly declare and that with Holy Reverence and Fear that we cannot we dare not call the meer Body the Christ but the Body of Christ That he was after the Flesh born of the Virgin like unto us in all things Sin excepted and consequently that Body must have been of the same Nature with ours else it was not a Real but Phantastical Body is most true and if it had not been so neither could it have been a Garment of the Nature of our Flesh which is so and to which J. Faldo said just now VERY RIGHT nor could the cruel Instruments have prevail'd against his Life as they did And now whether it be most against Christ Scripture and Reason to say that that Body which was nailed upon the Cross was