only by the mention of Sion and the destruction approaching it in the beginning of that Chapter of Joel which signifies it to belong to Jerusalem that then was but also by two further undeceivable evidences 1. By the mention of the wonders immediately subjoyn'd in the heavens and the earth c. as forerunners of the great and terrible day of the Lord the same that had been before described in Joel v. 2. c. and applyed by Christ in the very words to this destruction of Jerusalem Matth. 24. 29 30. 2. By the occasion for which St. Peter produceth it Acis 2. 14. the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles v. 2. 4. which saith he was no effect of drunkenness in them but the very thing which was foretold by that place of Joel before that great and notable day of the Lord that was to fall upon that People to an utter destruction This being a prediction of what should come before the destruction of Jerusalem and the completion whereof was so visible and remarkable in that Age to which by the Prophet it was assigned and this as a peculiar character of those times wherein the Gospel was to be first propagated by this means and to which it had a propriety as a last act of God's miraculous and gracious oeconomy for the full conviction of this peoples sins before they were destroyed it must needs be impertinently and fallaciously applyed to any men or women old or young of this Age so distant from that to which it belonged and so well provided for by the ordinary means the setled Office of Ministry in Christ's Church as to have no such need of extraordinary So that they have no more right to charge God to perform this promise over again than a Creditor hath reason to exact a sum of money by vertue of a cancel'd Bond. The Quakers I perceive pretend to an interest in these Prophesies But then why do not these pretenders to new lights speak with new tongues heal diseases raise the dead and do other miraculous acts according to the tenor of those Prophesies Par. But they will tell you of as great acts for they gain many Proselites and thereby enlarge the Kingdom of Christ. Min. If counting numbers be the thing to establish the truth of their Religion in all probability they will renounce Christianity it self and turn Mahometans for Mahomet has more that follow him than Christ Then wo be to that little flock to whom a Kingdom is promised Par. But what do you say to the third particular in order to applying Scripture seasonably and properly Min. I say if a due regard be not had thereof there is scarce that irregularity in the World which you may not make the Scripture to patronize therefore saith the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah cap. 50. 4. The Lord hath given me the tongue of the Learned to speak in due season And so Prov. 15. 23. A word spoken in season is like Apples of gold in pictures of silver A good thing improperly applyed may be made instead of good the occasion of evil for good things do loose the grace of their goodness when they are not in a good and convenient manner performed Suppose a Carpenter frames a building with great Art and Skill and makes a proper mortise for every tenon as the terms are when this building comes to be set up if you place not the joynts aright the whole building will be in disorder So God Almighty the wise Architect has framed his Word to proper times occasions and emergencies Now if you do not suit the Text to the occasion to which it was originally framed and to the season proper to it you spoil all Though the words be good yet if the application be wrong they will prove like salt which hath lost its savour Suppose a Physician prepares a great many excellent remedies there must be a due application otherwise an antidote may prove a poyson So the great Physician of Souls has prepar'd for all maladies their proper remedies and if we expect any benefit by them we must make a seasonable application of them And to make this more plain you may consult Psalm 91. 11 12. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone Should I say that in this Scripture is represented to us Gods especial providence over his servants and whilst that I am performing my duty to God either in his immediate service or in an honest attendance on my lawful Calling I may expect the Divine protection in this sense I apply the Text seasonably and properly But should I get upon the top of a Pinacle and cast my self down upon confidence of this promise that the Angels shall bear me up then I wrest and misapply the Scripture which no where gives incouragement to a desperate attempt For it is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God that is thou shalt not tempt him to work a miracle by casting thy self down from a desperate Precipice when the ordinary means of his Providence may effect thy preservation Par. What rule have you to prevent mistakes in this kind Min. Take this for one when any Text hath a relation to a particular case that Text must not stand for a general rule but must be applyed to a like occasion for it's a most grand fallacy to draw an universal conclusion from particular premisses take an instance of my meaning from 2 Cor. 9. 22. I am made all things to all men Make this a general rule and Christianity which is the most pure Religion in the World will from this Text be a sanctuary for all villany and impurity For if I may be all things to all men then may I lawfully comply with all the irregularities of whatsoever company I come in But suit the Text to its proper occasion and it imports only this That all customs and constitutions of an indifferent nature for the peace of the Church ought to be conformed unto As for the Holy Scriptures they are the lively Oracles of God and contain in them the words of eternal life but in the Quakers impertinent application of them they look like so many Jewels in a Swines snout or like good liquor that is lost by the badness of the vessel that contains it Having thus shewed you at large the first cause of the Scriptures being wrested viz. the want of Learning I need say but little upon the other the instability of mens minds Par. However let me hear what you can say upon that subject Min. Little need be said for 't is no wonder if those who are unlearned especially if they be bold and confident be unstable for it 's the empty cloud which is carried away with every wind Old truths ought to be most loved but commonly they have the same fate with the Manna in the Wilderness
that either that passage of the Apostle or any other part of the word of God doth contradict Right Reason or prohibit whatever is so requisite to the relief of the common and evident necessities of Mankind 2. Other Scriptures do both allow and establish secular Government and enjoyn obedience to the Civil Powers even to those that were Heathen and call them God's Ordinance Rom. 13. 1 2. and command Magistrates to prosecute with all diligence and integrity all Acts of publick justice 2 Chron. 19. 6 7. Fsa 1. 17. And this implies the warrantableness of going to Law for how shall injur'd persons be righted and defended by the Magistrate if it be not lawful for them to bring their Causes before him that is to go to Law 3. If you read on in that Discourse of the Apostle you will find that the fault he reproves in the Corinthians is not all going to Law upon necessary and just occasions but their bringing their private quarrels and disorders before the unjust that is before the Unbelievers which were the Heathen and Infidel-Judges as he interprets himself in v. 6. But brother goeth to Law with brother and that before the unbelievers Which would have been to the scandal and reproach of Christianity among those who hated it and who would improve such occasions to bring it into greater derision And he exhorts them v. 7. rather to take a great deal of wrong and to suffer themselves to be defrauded viz. in their private rights than thus to go to Law one with another to expose their Christian Profession to so open Contempt and to give occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme But fourthly Though the Apostle there forbid all such unbrotherly contentions and bringing them before Infidel-Judges yet he there if you mark appoints them a Judicature before which they might lawfully bring their reasonable and just Complaints that is a Christian Judicature consisting of Believers v. 1. And expostulates with them sharply for not having appointed such a Court among themselves before whom wronged persons might bring their Causes pertaining to this life v. 2 3 4 5. While therefore we live under a Christian Prince governing us by Christian Laws and appointing us Courts consisting of Christian Judges we cannot suppose our selves to be in the fore-cited Scripture forbidden to make application to them in cases just and necessary Par. I have given you diligent attention and cannot but thank you for the satisfactory account you have given me for I must needs acknowledge my self convinced by you of the unreasonableness of my scruple and of taking any Scripture in such a sense as makes void all Law and Government But when I come in a Quakers Meeting I fear new doubts will arise and when I hear them speak such things as I cannot answer I am apt to conclude their Arguments to be unanswerable Min. If so then you have reason to observe in your self such an unstableness of mind as is common to the vulgar no question but your wavering mind would be under the same perplexities did you frequent the meetings of other Separatists A Jesuite Socinian Pelagian nay A Turk or Jew might bring such arguments in vindication of their respective Heresies and Tenents as might puzle you to give a solution to would you therefore conclude them all in the right If you hear the Quakers bring such reasons in vindication of their tenents and ways as your self cannot answer will you conclude they are unanswerable And because you know not a way to China and Japan will you therefore suppose there are no such Countries at least no way to them The consideration of this instability of yours should teach you 1. Humility not to look upon your self as a person fit to trust to your own judgment not to be confident in your own opinion nor to lean to your own understanding Prov. 3. 5. 2. Prudence to withdraw your self wholly from the Meetings of those by whose Sophistries your judgment is in most danger to be perverted and to be carried away from those good Principles you have already recover'd and of the soundness and reasonableness whereof you have already confess'd your self convinced and satisfied For to be led away by a gadding humor to every Conventicle and irregular Meeting is a presumption which may provoke God to withdraw his protection from you and to give you up to a spirit of delusion which makes it very necessary to advise you to keep out of harms way and the reach of so taking an Infection And 3. it is hence fit and seasonable to exhort you to be willing to be taught and to that end to have recourse unto pious and sober men especially Ministers of the Gospel who being by their education and calling separated to Study and Devotion are the fitest persons to advise you and resolve your scruples they being such as by your own experience and acknowledgment have administer'd to you the most rational satisfaction You are ready to consult a Physitian in order to your health and to take the advice of a Lawyer for the settlement of your estate and methinks in matters of Religion and Conscience a Divine will be no less fit to be consulted with The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts And in case of doubts our Church adviseth you to consult either your own or some other discreet and learned Minister of Gods word c. And when you have compared the Discourses of the Quakers and the Ministers of our Church together and weigh'd them well and consider'd them in your heart I doubt not but you will judge our Doctrine to be in your Conscience most agreeable to right reason and to make most to the honour of God and the promoting of godliness righteousness and sobriety wherein the sum of Religion consists Iu which things you will find the Doctrine of our Church far to exceed the new upstart tenents of the Quakers Par. You cannot call their Doctrines new when they are the same which the Primitive Christians had in the Apostles days Min. You may easily perceive this to be a manifest untruth For you know the Primitive Christians were quite different from the Quakers They did not contemn the two great Ordinances of the Gospel Baptism and the Supper of the Lord but with due veneration received both as I am ready to make appear at large when there is occasion for it The Primitive Christians had Bishops and Deacons to govern and teach them and when they had them did not revile them as do the Quakers And these were ordained to their Functions by prayer and imposition of hands The Primitive Christians had no Women-teachers being observant of Saint Paul's injunctions who said in plain words that it was a shame for a woman to speak in the Church 1 Cor. 14. 35. The Primitive Christians had no silent Meetings as the
my self have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou hast done this thing c. Psalm 89. 35. Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lie unto David are as if he had said As I am and as I am holy And for these or what other forms of Oaths we find in Scripture whether in more or fewer words they all do invocate God both as Witness and as Judge both to attest and revenge it if we perjure for the Swearers conscience does tell him that if God be called in to witness a lie he will both detect and revenge it All this is in the sense of every Oath So that that form in the close of our publick Oaths So help me God c. hath neither any thing new in it nor any more than is included in the sense of every Oath for execration is implyed and understood wheresoever it is not express'd even in those Elliptical forms of swearing us'd by God himself whether express'd by a bare attestation Ezech. 14. 16. Gen. 22. 16. Psalm 89. 35. or by a bare execration only as Psalm 95. ult according to that of the Learned Casuist Bishop Sanderson de juramento p. 15. Omne juramentum quocunque modo prolatum c. that is Every Oath in what manner soever it is utter'd either expresly or implicitely invocates God both as Witness and as Judge and even a bare attestation Subinfert execrationem as he saith infers an execration as its necessary consequent According to that of Plutarch Every Oath ends in a curse upon Perjury So that those mentioned forms used by St. Paul were as positive Oaths as any other you find in the Bible or any of those that are impos'd upon you by the Laws of the Land Par. I little thought that Oaths under the Gospel could have been so clearly made out Min. I shall confirm you yet by a further instance and it is that of the Angels swearing Rev. 10. 5 6. and we need not fear to imitate any thing that is done in Heaven where nothing but the will of God nothing evil and unholy can be done Our Lord has taught us to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven that is as it is by the Angels whom he has propos'd to us as patterns for our imitation so that an Oath taken in due order can neither be evil in it self nor inconsistent with the heavenly conversation Par. But may not the Angels and we act under different dispensations so that that may be lawful and commanded them which to us may be forbidden Min. That the Angels and we are joyned in the same fraternity and tye of obedience even to the same Scripture is evident from the Angels confession Rev. 2 2. 9. who calls himself our Fellow-servant and of our Brethren the Prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this Book Par. But perhaps by that Book whose sayings he kept he meant no other than the Book of the Revelations Min. Suppose it were so yet that Book was indited by the same spirit that all the rest were so that whatsoever is allow'd in it cannot be contradicted or forbidden in any other Scripture All which serves to make that example of the Angel sufficiently valid to prove swearing lawful under the Gospel Par. But where do you read that St. Paul layed his hand on the Bible and kissed it when he swore as you do I thought you had held these necessary parts of a publick Oath Min. The laying on of the hand and kissing the Book we hold to be no essential parts of an Oath but only decent and comly ceremonies enjoyned by the wisdome of our Governours to make the act more solemn and to excite the Juror to a greater reverence and dread of the Majesty of God and his threatnings denounced in that Book Par. I have now nothing left to object but the forementioned Texts Matth. 5. 34. James 5. 12. whereof if you can give me as clear an account as you have done of my other doubts I shall hereafter be of your udgment and withal thankfulness acknowledge it an happy hour when I met with you but these Texts look so opposite to your design that I cannot as yet acquit my self of all fears of being Antichristian in thinking swearing lawful Min. By the same way of reasoning that the Quakers charge us with Antichristianism by vertue of those Texts I can prove them Antichristian Par. Shew wherein Min. You know that we are commanded by the Apostle to speak evil of no man Tit. 2. 3. The Quakers transgress this command by speaking evil of the Clergy therefore they do fall under the charge of Antichristianism Par. You are to consider in what sense the Apostle forbids us to speak evil of no man You are not to imagine his design in that Text is absolutely to restrain us from giving true characters of evil and unworthy men upon a just occasion then he himself had been faulty in speaking evil of Hymenaeus and Alexander the Copper-smith Besides how should we reprove or how should justice upon the most notorious offenders be administred if their faults may not be spoken of Therefore the words cannot bear a general interpretation but must be taken with a limitation for otherwise a monstrous train of absurdities must attend such an exposition But I do conceive that the words do relate to that horrid custome of reflecting upon the good names and reputations of men in their ordinary converse whereby we may deprive our Neighbour of that which is as dear to him as his life or livelyhood So that 't is speaking evil detractingly untruly or maliciously or without just occasion in our communication which is the thing there prohibited by the Apostle Min. I must confess you have given the true meaning of the Apostles words And I hope you will not abridge me of the liberty which you take your self in freeing the Texts under debate from a wrong construction of them Whereas you say I ought to consider in what sense the Apostle bids us speak evil of no man so let me tell you that you ought to consider too in what sense our Lord saith Swear not at all You are not to suppose that 't is our Lord's design to forbid all manner of Oaths upon what occasion and solemnity soever they may be tendred then as hath already been shewn St. Paul had not only been faulty in making so honourable a mention of an Oath Hebr. 6. 16. but much more faulty in taking an Oath himself and then both he and the Angel Rev. 10. had fall'n under the charge of Antichristianism Therefore according to your phrase the words cannot bear a general interpretation but must be taken with a limitation there being a peculiar and proper sense to which that prohibition is to be restrained Par. I 'm very willing to be informed therefore I beseech you explain these words Swear not at all together with those in James
to be the meaning of the words so as to make all Oaths unlawful Min. This objection of yours is so far from so doing that it hath in part forestall'd the explication which I was prepariâ—…g to give you of the scope of our Saviours discourse for by the relation you rightly take notice of it is evidently restrained to that abuse of the tongue in common talk and communication here particularly mentioned and so to that very prophanation whereby both Jews and Gentiles had then most licentiously corrupted their conversation yea and that by allowance from the Jewish Interpreters of the Law which therefore it was high time for our great Law-giver to correct and tell them that in ordinary communication those plain asseverations of yea and nay or yes and no which are the same or other words of the like importance either used singly or else for more vehemence sake repeated if need require are enough to give credit to what we say if we would use our selves to speak truth And that these are as much as can be safely used in such promiscuous discourses wherein passion interest transportation and too much haste or inconsiderateness do usually carry the tongue out of its bounds and therefore would provoke men to multiply words and Oaths and bring them in danger not only of rash irreverent swearing but even of perjury it self Par. But is not the explication of this place disproved by that passage in James 5. 12. where he saith But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven nor by the earth nor by any other Oath Doth not the Apostle here expresly forbid all manner of Oaths Min. The Apostle St. James do's mean only all Oaths of that kind there mentioned and then so much used by Jew and Gentile for he leaves out some of those which our Saviour had instanced in and breaks off with this clause nor by any other oath which implyes his meaning to be that as we are not to swear by heaven nor the earth so neither by any other such like Oath which our Saviour had forbidden viz. neither by Jerusalem nor by the Temple the Altar c. and consequently by no created being for if Christ has not forbidden all kinds of Oaths St. James has not for the servant is not greater than his Lord either to institute any new law or to repeal any which Christ left in force Neither can we think St. James intended any thing he said to charge St. Paul's Oaths with sin which we find in those Epistles he writ by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and which were used by him for the more solemn confirmation of those truths he wrote to several Churches And as little can we think that he accuseth the holy Angel in Revel 10. for swearing Without doubt St. James offers at a repetition of our Saviours doctrine for while he saith Let your yea be yea and your nay nay his meaning is Let your promise be performance and let your word be the truth to the end that amongst all with whom you converse you may be believed without an Oath And so he adds lest you fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some authentick Copies have it that is into hypocrisie and so into lying and perjury by occasion whether of your passions of any sort or of those frequent inadvertences which we are so subject to in our common talk Par. I thank you for the large pains you have taken in giving me the sense of this Scripture which has so much puzled me and that you may see I have not heard you without attention I thus apprehend your meaning An Oath being in it self an act of Religion towards God and of so much justice and charity towards my Neighbour in determining publick causes it remains that it is a part of that Moral Law which our Saviour came not to repeal and therefore this Text must not be interpreted to do so but hath a peculiar reference to those errours in doctrine and practice among the Jews which the words are designed to correct that is all swearing by the Creature which the Jewes falsly suppos'd to be no Oaths and so not binding and all swearing by the Name of God in our common talk because such a license might daily expose men both to rash and false swearing in place whereof our Saviour hath therefore substituted those plain asseverations of yea yea nay nay or such like but the use and lawfulness of swearing remains when I am called by lawful Authority to declare my conscience in order to the ending of any controversie wherein my evidence may be concern'd I shall give you no further disturbance in the case of an Oath having had all my scruples about it sufficiently answer'd I shall now only desire to know whether the Quakers tying themselves to the strict use of yea and nay in all their communication do not live in a stricter conformity to that precept of the Gospel then those who neglect the use of them Min. I wish the Quakers did as seriously consider the meaning and occcasion of these phrases as they superstitiously affect the use of them Our obedience to this command of Christs consists not in the precise use of the words yea and nay but in the truth and integrity of the speakers heart in what forms and phrases soever he expresseth himself No words being of further use than as they are the Interpreters of the heart For it is not words and phrases wherein good and evil consisteth but truth and honesty which commends us to God and the only thing commanded in his Law Par. I have no other objection concerning Oaths I pray therefore let us pass to some other subject of Controversie wherein if you can give me as much satisfaction as I have received in this beyond my expectation I hope neither will you have cause to think your pains nor I my time ill bestow'd Min. I shall readily embrace your motion and therefore let me hear what your other scruples are Par. You pretend your selves to be the Apostles successors and imitators if so how comes it to pass that you preach not as they did but single out a Text out of which you compose your Sermons What warrant have you for so doing Min. The Apostles themselves took texts out of Scripture to expound and apply them St. Peter did so in his Sermon Acts 2. and St. Paul in the Synagogue at Antioch Act. 16. And they both preached Christ out of the same text namely Psal. 16. 10. And the whole fourth Chapter to the Romans is but an enlarged discourse upon Gen. 15. 6. Again you may consider the Apostles and we act under different circumstances They might sometimes without a Book speak by the sole authority of infallible inspiration But now such extraordinary gifts being ceased we take texts to shew we have no other Doctrine to deliver but what is taken out of the written Word of God And our only work is
wherein and the Accuser must make good his Charge Par. You are very faulty in intimating that the Quakers can produce no Texts against Tithes for you cannot be ignorant that they have produced several as that in Jeremiah 5. 31. The Prophets prophesie falsly and the Priests bear rule by their Means Isaiah 65. 11. Every one for his gain front his quarter Min. I must confess I have seen these in many of their Books and by some Quakers they have been urged to my self but when I reflect hereupon I cannot forbear concluding that they discover not only a sottish ignorance but downright dishonesty herein Par. Make good your charge Min. Can there be more sottish ignorance than to apply Jeremiah's words either against Tithes or the Maintenance of the Ministry under the Gospel and that I may manifest their folly let me tell you a story parallel to this case Two men disputing when Guns had their first invention One said that a certain Monk as he was making some Chymical Experiment accidentally found out Powder c. and consequently Guns must come after The other dated their original to be of as long a standing as David's dayes because he saith in one Psalm O Lord I have kept thine Ordinances which was impossible for him to have kept had there not been Guns then Par. Why do you bring in here this idle story Min. To convince you that the Quakers use the Prophets words as idly and as little to the purpose For it is as proper to say that Ordinances signifie Guns in the Text quoted as to say that Means in the Prophet's sense signifie Tithes Maintenance or any other Estate The Priests bear rule by their Means that is by the means or procurements of those false Prophets or by reason of them And Solomon tells us that by means of an whorish woman a man is brought to beggery not by reason of her Estate but by her means i. e. by reason of her inticements it so comes to pass Par. I must confess this is an oversight but wherein doth their dishonesty appear Min. That will be as apparent as their ignorance They say Tithes are unlawful why then is it said Mal. 3. 8. Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me but ye say wherein have we robbed thee in Tithes and Offerings Par. You are to conceive that Malachi lived during the continuance of the Law and Burrough's will yield that Tithes then were of Gods commandment of heavenly ordination c. What then signifies the Text in Malachi for Tithes in the time of the Gospel Min. Here it is that Quakers discover their dishonesty in acknowledging Tithes of an heavenly ordination under the old Testament and yet condemn them by producing Texts out of the Prophets who lived under the same dispensation which they knew did both allow and command Tithes Par. I must confess I am not furnisht with a Reply to this how well soever others may Min. I told you before that Tithes and other Church Revenues have been setled by those that were actually seized of them in Law now if the Quakers can prove from the Laws of God or right reason that it 's not lawful for every one to do what he will with his own and consequently that he may not settle Tithes Lands or Moneys upon the Clergy then they do something to the purpose if not they do but beat the Air with empty words and you have reason to look upon them as indeed they are a company of Cheats and Impostors Par. All this while you do not consider that Tithes are a great oppression to all sorts of people concern'd in the payment of them Min. So all Tenants may as reasonably say that the payment of Rent to their respective Landlords is a National burthen and oppression Par. There is not the same reason for every Landlord will tell you that he or some for him purchased their respective Tenements upon a valuable consideration Min. But the main question is behind Whether they purchased the Tithes with those Tenements if not where is your grievance Par. Do you suppose then that Tithes are no grievance Min. None at all neither to the Landlord nor Tenant Par. Prove this Min. You cannot be ignorant that every Purchaser buys his Land according to the Rent it gives and every Tenant payes Rent according to the conveniencies he enjoys Now if a Tenant stand charged with Tithes Taxes chief Rents and the like these are computed to every Occupant according to which he models his Rent and though he pays these dues and duties as they are called yet are they no inconvenience to him because he pays less Rent in consideration thereof Neither is it any inconvenience to the Landlord because his purchase was according to that Rent and the Land he bought he knew or might have known was lyable to these charges Par. Here must needs be some mistake for were I to sell my Estate I could not have so much for it by a considerable sum because it stands charged with the payment of Tithes And if this be no grievance judge you Min. But pray satisfie me whether you gave not as considerable a sum less upon this consideration when you bought it if so will you sell what you never bought Where then is that intolerable grievance which I perceive is no where to be found but in the mouths of Fanaticks and ill affected people Par. But I pray you resolve me thus much where the Apostles had Tithes Glebes and the like Min. I confess the Apostles had not the Tithes in their dayes and you ought not to bring this for an Argument because they could not have them if they would for they were not only persecuted by the Civil Authority but the Levites themselves were in possession of them which they kept during the continuance of their Nation and Temple Besides you ought to consider that Tithes or any other fixed Maintenance was utterly inconsistent with their unfixed state of Life being to preach the Gospel in all Nations they became an improper Maintenance for them and besides you are to consider that the Apostles needed them not for as they had their Gifts so their Maintenance by a miraculous Providence Luke 22. 35. And he said unto them when I sent you without Purse and Scrip and shooes lacked ye any thing and they said Nothing Par. Ought not you then to be in all things as were the Apostles Min. If you conciude that we must be in all things as were the Apostles then must you of the Laity now do as the Laity did then who sold their possessions and laid them down at the Apostles feet Acts 4. And I can argue the one with the same reason you can the other But I have one Query wherein I shall desire your answer Whether the Quakers think it lawful to pay the King his Revenues Par. You know the Quakers willingly pay the King all his dues which they do for Consciencesake