any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins And herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins And were these Apostles false Teachers and did they teach the people to sin because they taught this Doctrine of Justification by the blood and righteousnesse of Christ I know the false Apostles did slander the Apostles as you do For the Apostles teaching this doctrine of being justified freely by the righteousnesse of Christ saith We be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come thereof And the Apostle saith Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound What then shall we say as you Quakers do then we may continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid saith the Apostle that any should make such a conclusion from this Doctrine and you are not under the Law but under Grace What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid the Apostle knew that those whose hearts God hath touched with the apprehension of this Doctrine of the Free grace and Love of God in Christ would not make any such conclusions For saith the Apostle The grace of God that bringeth Salvation teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly Lusts VVe should live Godly righteously and soberly The Doctrine of free Grace doth not make Christians carnal Libertines but ingageth them to walk in all thankfulnesse unto God the Love of Christ constraineth us saith the Apostle The Sons of Agar that are in bondage they are frighted from sin by the terrors of the Law and fear of Hell but those that are of the free woman in the new Covenant of grace they are free their hearts are chiefly inlarged by the apprehending the free Love of God in Christ VVho so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish And Christ is the good Shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep And can any man that by faith apprehendeth this love go on in sin as you say No no You know not what you say take the example of Mary Magdalen Many sins are forgiven her for she loved much Her loving much was not the cause of the forgivenesse of many sins as the Papists say and you Quakers Now consider Whether Christ and his Apostles did not teach the same things which our Ministers do and you may as well and as truely say they taught people to live in sin as you may say that our Ministers do so for they preach the Doctrine of Justification no other way nor to no other end and this I proved before in answer to John Horwood but I shall not think my labour ill bestowed if the Lord do convince any one of you of your error in this Doctrine of Justification And now I come to a second Lie The second Lie is that our Ministers if any be wounded and cries out because of the burden of sin and be sick and broken and trembles at the word of the Lord. Such they cry out is deceived and mocketh at them I wonder with what face any man can affirm such such a Lie For our Ministers do labour by their preaching to bring people to a sight and sence of their sins that they may feel sin to be a burden unto them When they see or hear any of you Quakers fall into your Quaking fits they may say you are decieved and do pity them but not mock them as you falsly accuse them A third Lie is that our Ministers have no maintenance but what is compellled from the people by the Law and the Magistrate to pay them Tithes and other things and if the Magistrates hold their hands from causing people to pay them Tithes by their orders and Writs they must either beg or work or a worse thing for a lively hood or else perish so little love is there in the hearts of their own people towards them For because of their wickednesse God hath left them and all honest true hearted people hath left them therefore what a condition are the Teachers in who deserves not the love of men because of their cruel heartednesse towards them And they deserve not the Love of God because they are so wicked against him and concludeth I might yet more fully describe and declare wherein they do exceed the Deceivers and False Prophets of old But of this according as the Lord moves and leadeth For answer to this bundle of Lies for here are many Lies together and of these he saith you shall have more as the Lord moves and leadeth Which I understand to be the great Lord Beelzebub that leadeth unto all Lies for surely the Divel did help to invent all these lies For that they are Lies I shall plainly prove by what I know by my own experience and I question not but that the experience of many thousands knoweth they are Lies Now to prove that these are Lies by what I know by experience for I have lived in London and Middlesex many years and have well observed the carriage and dealing both of Ministers towards their people and people towards their Ministers or Teachers and by what I have observed I know these things to be lies For that many Ministers are maintained by the voluntary love and affections of their people and not by the Magistrates or the Laws compelling them I know not only by what I have heard by inquiring of neighbour Parishes both in Middlesex and Surrey and London but by what I know by experience For I have for many years recieved the Ministers maintenance in the Parish where I live and I never received any mony or any Tithes by compulsion by the Law and by the Magistrates orders but did only receive what the people were willing to give and many have given more shillings to the Minister then of due I could demand pence And never demanded mony or any thing else of poor people thought by right of Law many of them ought to have payed to the Minister But the Minister hath said I had rather give to the poor then take any thing from them and when poor people have told him they were not able to pay him he hath said I will then give it you and hath given them mony besides and he never demanded any maintenance from any Anabaptist or Quaker or any other Sectary that refused to pay their dues And I have spoken with several men that have received the Ministers dues both in London Middlesex and Surrey and they have affirmed the same and is not this Quaker a Liar to affirm the contrary But they measure others corn by their own Bushel For because they will not pay the Ministers their dues but by the Law and the
Magistrates orders therefore they conclude that all men are as unjust as themselves I confesse if all people in our Parish and all other Parishes were Anabaptists and Quakers then the Ministers should have no maintenance but by the Law and the Magistrates and if there was not a Law to compel the payment of the Ministers dues they must work or beg for a Livelyhood or starve so little Charity there is in the Quakers and other Sectaries as E. B. confesseth But the Papists have more honesty and conscience then these for they will pay the Ministers their dues without compelling them by the Law And whereas the Quakers say if there were no Law to compel people and Magistrates to aid and assist them they must work or beg or do worse or starve I say this is most false for hath not the Lord in times of persecutions when the Laws and Magistrates were against the Ministers provided maintenance for them without working or begging or worse and is not God the same You Quakers will find you will be disappointed of your expectations for if you should prevail with the men in present power to take away all the Laws for Ministers maintenance Which God forbid Yet God will find a way to maintain them without working or begging I mean working with their hands for their Labour or work is greater then any of your Quakers Teachers who run idely about the Countries and take meat and drink for nothing I for worse then naught for telling Lies But the Quakersaith how can they then be maintained seeing their own peoples Love and hearts is gone from them and God hath left them and all honest true hearted people hath left them because of their wickednesse and they deserve not the love of God nor man I confesse if these things were true then were our Ministers in a sad condition But I wonder with what brazen face this man can write such lies and cause them to be printed for that they are lies by what I have written before of the peoples voluntarily maintaining the Ministers may be sufficient proof But I shall add something more for to prove that our Ministers people of their own Parish all that are honest and godly do love them and their hearts are towards them I shall instance in one particular in the Parish where I live the Vicarage house belonging to the Minister was like to fall and there is no law to compel the people either to repair or new-build the Ministers house for by the Law the Ministers are to repair their Vicarage or Parsonage houses But such was the Love of the honest hearted men in the said Parish that they did in love to their Minister pull down the old house and build a new one which did cost them neer three hundred pound and if these people had not loved the Minister I the Ministry would they have voluntarily given so much mony to build the Ministers House I know they that did do it desire not to have a Trumpet sounded of their good works But I may say for my defence herein as the Apostle said I am become a Fool in glorying ye have compelled me to glory and boast of the love and affections of our people to their Ministers I beleive none of you Quakers can boast of such love to your Teachers But I shall tell you who they are in all Parishes that love not the Minister and that is the profane rude people love not their Minister because they reprove them for their sins and the Papists love them not because they are the greatest enemies to their Religion and you Quakers joyn with these and love them not because they would perswade you that you are seduced and drunk with error because they tell you the Truth you are become their enemies I greater enemies then any of the former mentioned and are not you a most proud censorious Generation that dare say that all honest true hearted people have left our Ministers for do you not thereby plainly declare that you count none honest but Quakers Papists Anabaptists and other Sectaries for none but such have left our Ministers unless it be some Atheists and Rantars which sprang up from amongst your selves But you say our Ministers deserve not the love of God because they are so wicked but it implyeth that you are so godly and perfect that you deserve the love of God I can easily discern how you are Jesuit ridden for you learned this Doctrine of deserving or meriting Gods love from them for they were the first Founders thereof Our Ministers will confess they doe not deserve Gods love but will confess that they deserve Gods wrath and say with the Apostle Paul God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him and not through our merits For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son not by our merits Also the Apostle John saith Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us before we loved him we love him because he first loved us But you are so grounded in the old leven of Pharisaical righteousnesse and the old Popish Doctrine of Merit that it is a very hard matter to beat you off But what is that great wickedness that our Ministers deserve the hatred both of God and man and no love Why you tell many strange stories in your book but they are all lies you say that our Teachers cries peace unto all that put into their mouths though people be never so ungodly but if they put not into their mouth they prepare war against them by suing them at the Law and castin them into prison if they deny to pay Tithes or money and prepare open war against them by destraining their goods and taking treble damages and in page 12. if a poor woman have but ten eggs in all the world they will have one or but ten Chickins they will have one or but a fire in their house they will have a penny for the smoke and such like Woolvish destroying wayes And these he saith Westmerland and Cumberland can witness You doe well to tell us that these witnesses are a great way off for you think people will rather believe your lies then go so far to disprove them For my part I shall never believe them for I know and have proved the contrary here about and I never heard of a tenth egg nor tenth chickin nor a penny for the smoak If any such custome be in any place I doe not believe any Minister will take these of poor people however they should take the smoak for the penny rather then give a penny for smoak But suppose that in these parts where the Quakers first sprang up and grew so numerous and insolent they did abuse both the Ministers and the Magistrates not
the Apostle What doth it profit though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works shew me thy Faith without thy Works and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works according to Christs own words Let your light so shine before men that they may see you good works and glorifie your father which is in Heaven Also the Apostle Paul writing to Titus I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be carefull to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men as the Prophet David saith My goodnesse extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth So that there is a necessity of good works though not for our Justification namely Gods glory it being the end of our Creation and Redemption and the good and benefit of others for we were not made for our selves but for the good and benefit one of another Also good works the fruits of Faith I conceive are necessary and profitable for those that do them in Faith to evidence aud manifest the truth of their Faith unto themselves though Doctor Crips and several others were of a contrary opinion for although it be true which Christ saith By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another yet it is also true which the Apostle John saith We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother abideth in death also in that prayer which Christ taught his Disciples Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors Now when God hath given us a heart to forgive the wrongs and injuries of men against us it is a good sign of Gods forgiving of us and this the Disciples of Christ doth evidence when Christ said unto them If thy Brother trespasse against thee seven times a day and seven times a day return saying I repent thou shalt forgive him and the Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our Faith The Apostles apprehended that they had need to have their Faith increased to believe the forgivenesse of their sins that so they might forgive their Brother so many trespasses against them for if a man have no apprehension of Gods mercy in forgiving his sins he can have no true seeling bowels of mercy to forgive others But having by Faith apprehended the free love and favour of God in Christ in forgiving our sins our hearts are so warmed and inflamed in the same that we cannot but forgive others for as the Apostle saith The love of Christ constraineth us and ye your selves are taught of God to love one another Now I hope by this you will be convinced that this doctrine of being Justified and Saved only by the righteousnesse of Christ is no doctrine of carnal liberty to sin and to live idly without doing good works but contrary that it is the only ground and foundation of all good works But because I have often heard some of your Teachers say that a man is saved by the hearkning to the light within him and obeying the same which is a doctrine I have heard taught in the open street in Branford Market by Benjamin Wallis one of the Quakers teachers Wherefore I shall endevour to cleer that to your understandings if you will not shut the eyes of your understanding against the truth Now that there is a light in every man which is a false light by nature teaching him that by doing and obeying the Law of God he shall be saved I deny not but that this light is Christ that I deny but say it is the light that is naturally in every man since the fall of Adam For as Adam did lose the estate of Innocency by disobeying Gods Commandement in eating of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and evill so did he naturally think that by obeying or doing he should recover himself again and therefore The Lord placed at the East end of the garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming Sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life knowing that Adam naturally did think to recover his estate by eatâ—ng of the tree of Life as he lost it by eating of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil and this is natural to all the Sons and Daughters of Adam to believe that they shall come to an estate of blessednesse and happinesse by what they do and therefore the Lord when he gave the Law of the Ten Commandements gave it with Thunder and Lightning and Fire so that the Children of Israel were afraid and desired Moses that he should go neer and here all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it and the Lord said I heard the voice of the words of this people they have well spoken all that they have said Now Moses was to stand between God and the people in which Moses was a type of Christ The Lord your God shall raise up a Prophet among your selves like unto me him you shall hear which was Christ for God never gave the Law to that end that men should be Justified and Saved by it but that it might be the ministery of condemnation to drive them unto Christ for the Law is a School-master to drive us to Christ and so long as we live to shew us ous sins and be a rule of obedience unto us and yet the veil of Moses Law is still upon the hearts of the Jews and many of the Gentiles unto this day for as the Apostle saith The Jews which followed after the Law of righteousnesse have not attained to the Law of righteousnesse Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the Law and thus you may see the natural light in many others did lead them and teach them this way of doing or working for life and Salvation The young man in the Gospel that came unto Christ said Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Christ answereth him according to his question and saith If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements and asking which Commandement said all this have I kept from my youth up what lack I yet and then Christ sets him such a task that he knew he would not do If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor and he went away sorrowfull Now the end of Christs words was to convince him of the impossibility of attaining eternal life by doing Also the Jews that came unto Christ at Capernaum said Minde What shall we do that we might work the works of God and Christ answered them plainly This is the work of God That ye believe on him whom he hath sent
any conference with the Papists Armenians Pelagians and Familists that they all hold plead and maintain that there is a light in every mans conscience which if he improve and husband well they may attain Salvation by which you may see how much you are deluded and deceived that think your selves run so far from the Papists when you are run to their chief principles of Religion I do not much wonder at your change seeing you are fallen from this article of Justification by Faith alone for as Luther well observeth and foretold Wherefore saith he I say as I have oftentimes said that there is no remedy against Sects and Errors or power to resist them but this only article of Christian Righteousnesse if we lose this article it is impossible for us to withstand any Errors or Sects as we may see at this day in the fantasticall Spirits the Anabaptists and such like who being fallen away from this article of Justification will never cease to fall erre and seduce others untill they come to the fulnesse of all iniquity Minde There is no doubt but they will raise up innumerable Sects and shall devise new works but what are all these things though they have never so goodly a shew of holinesse if we compare them to the Death and Blood of the Son of God who gave himself for me and is it any strange thing to see a man go astray when he hath lost his right way Now Christ is the way and the only way all other wayes are by-paths of a mans own invention he is the rock of ages the chief corner-stone and who ever stumbleth on him he must be dashed in pieces and though a man do erre in many things as we all do yet if he hold fast the foundation he shall be safe and this doctrine of Christian righteousnesse or the righteousnesse of Christ alone apprehended by Faith is this sure foundation and if we miscarry in that we perish eternally but holding that fast we shall be safe to all eternity And now I shall endevour to answer you and the Papists objections concerning this doctrine preached and maintained by our Ministers that a Christian is made perfect by what Christ alone did and suffered and not by any thing done in us or by us Now you Quakers and the Papists do object against this doctrine that it is a doctrine that giveth people liberty to sin and to neglect good works for say you if we lay all our sins upon Christ then we make him a pack-horse for to bear our sins and it matters not how we live in sin Christ having satisfied for them For answer to this I say that this doctrine is a doctrine of Christian Liberty and not a doctrine of Carnal Liberty but such who have carnal hearts and never felt the life and power of Faith have abused this doctrine of Christian Righteousnesse to Carnal Liberty and will abuse the same for the best things are most subject to abuse but the abuse of any thing doth not take away the lawful use of it In the Apostle Paul's dayes there were such for the Apostle having preached the doctrine of Free Grace That where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound what then shall we say shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid Offences will come saith Christ but woe be unto those by whom they are given Some followed Christ for by-ends and there were many in the Church of Corinth and Galatia and Philippa that walked disorderly but yet the Apostle Preached and writ this doctrine of Free Justification We know in civil things how apt men are to abuse them as Wine and strong Beer to Drunkennesse good Meat to Gluttony shall we say therefore they are not good nor lawfull to be used and we know a sick Stomach cannot well digest the best meat and shall we therefore say the meat is not good do you not know that Christ saith that many are called but few chosen many called to the external profession of the Gospel but few that live answerable thereunto But the Gospel is still the same and to be Preached as the Apostle saith I am called to Preach the Gospel and wo is me if I Preach not the Gospel and the chief cause why so many walk disorderly is because people do not believe this doctrine of Free Grace for The Grace of God which hath appeared and bringeth Salvation teacheth us That denying ungodlinesse and wordly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world The apprehending of the love of God in Christ is that which draweth the heart to love God and love our Brethren as it is said of Mary Magdelen Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Her loving much was not the cause of her sins being forgiven but her sins being forgiven was the cause of her loving much as appears by Christs own words But to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little As for the other Objection That this doctrine of being Justified by the righteousnesse of Christ alone is a means to make men neglect good works I Answer That no man can do one good work before he be justified by Faith in Christ for The person must be accepted before the work can be accepted By Faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain but without Faith it is impossible to please him The Lord had respect first to Abel then to his offering for as Christ saith Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt Now we are made good trees only by bâ—â—ng ingraffed into Christ by Faith and all the works that men do before Faith though never so good for the matter and morally good in themselves yet are they but beautifull abominations in Gods sight the person being not Justified the works that a man doth though good in themselves do not make any man good no more than the good fruit on a tree maketh the tree good but because the tree is good therefore the fruit is good But you Quakers and Papists say then it matters not whether a man do any good works seeing they make him not good By which you manifest your grosse Ignorance of the truth for the Scripture doth teach that good works do declare and manifest the truth of our Faith that it is not a dead but a living Faith as the fruit which the tree beareth doth shew and manifest what the tree is if the fruit be good then is the tree good if the tree bring forth no fruit then it is a barren tree or a dead tree and that is the Apostles meaning when he saith that Faith without works justifieth not The Apostle treateth of manifesting and declaring the truth of our Faith that it is a living Faith and not a dead Faith or rather a bare profession of Faith for saith
thou livest and art dead And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot but luke-warm The worst of all tempers in Religion Now minde that Christ doth commend what ever was good in any of these Churches and reproveth them for their evill but calleth them Churches and the Ministers Angels But you Quakers will take no notice of any good that is in any of our Churches or Ministers but are like the Crow or Raven that love to feed upon Carren so your only delight is to revile against our Ministers and Churches and to publish any fault you can finde in them but I never read in any of your books one word of commendation of any Minister or Church but your selves neither did I ever hear any of you Quakers speak in the praise or commendation of any Minister or any Church or people but your selves but railing and reviling I have heard more than enough of But surely you Quakers have no love to any but your selves for the Apostle saith That Love covereth a multitude of faults and that Charity or Love suffereth long and is kinde envieth not vanteth not it selfe is not puffed up thinketh not evill beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things But you Quakers vant your selves are puffed up with spiritual pride think speak evil of all persons that are not of your minde calling them Reprobates Heathens and Dogs and that you are the only Church of Christ being pure from sin and so do not only condemn all other Churches now in being but all that ever have been I the famous Churches of Asia Corinth Galatia and Thessalonica who were the first Churches and were as Brightman in his book called A Revelation of the Apocalips the best and the purest Churches for after the Apostles dayes greater corruptions sprang up in the Church Now if there were such corruptions in the Church in the first and purest times shall we think to have the Churches in our times free from all corruptions I do not write these things to plead for sin and corruption I rather desire to mourn and be humbled for them But I write these things to shew you your great mistake in that you say there can be no true Church nor Ministers where such fruits are but beware of condemning the generation of the Just because of miscarriage of some persons that live in the Church or because of the faults and infirmities of the godly men in the Church remember what a curse Ham brought upon himself for uncovering his Fathers nakednesse and what a blessing Shem and Japhet brought upon themselves for covering their Fathers nakednesse But above all take heed of slandering and belying our Ministers and Churches by accusing them falsely a sin that is too frequent among you it is better to erre in over much charity then in sensoriousnesse and rash judging But that I may the better rectifie your judgements and all other that separate from our Churches I shall endevour to shew you your mistake in and about the perfection of the Church of Christ which I conceive is because you do not distinguish between the outward visible Church of Christ and the invisible Church the mystical body of Christ Now I say that the invisible Church is perfect in Christ because all the members of that Church are members of the body of Christ being joyned in one Spirit and to such the Apostle Peter doth speak unto Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ Also the Apostle to the Hebrews saith But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God and unto the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and to the sprinkling of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel Now minde the Apostle saith they are elected or chosen the Church of the first born which are written in Heaven but when Jesus Christ speaketh of the visible external Church he saith Many are called but few are chosen that is many called to the profession of the Gospel of Christ but few of those are elected and chosen to Life and Salvation Also Christ saith The Kingdome of Heaven is likned unto ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom and five of them were wise and five were foolish Minde They were all Virgins and they all had Lamps that is they all had the outward external profession of the Gospel but the wise Virgins only had the oyle of Grace Also Christ saith The Kingdome of Heaven is like unto a Net that was cast into the Sea and gathered of every kinde good and bad Now by the Kingdome of Heaven is not meant the Kingdome of Glory but the Chruch visible here on earth in which there are good and bad But you say that our Ministers are no true Teachers because they profit not the People to which I have answered in part before where I shewed that the Prophet Esai profited not the People of Israel and yet was a true Prophet But I do deny what you speak to be true and say that our Ministers do profit the People what ever you say to the contrary because a blind man cannot see the Sun therefore doth not the Sun shine because you Quakers who are blinded with error and cannot see that our Ministers doth profit the People do they not therefore profit the People I shall shew you what I see and know of a truth of their profiting the People I have known several Ministes who have come to Parishes to Preach where the People have been generally Ignorant Profane and Superstitious and God hath so blessed the labours of the Ministers among those People that they have been generally reformed from their Ignorance Profanenesse and Superstition and is it not profitable to People that were Ignorant to be instructed for those that were Profane to be morally civil for those that were Superstitious to be brought off from their Superstition and many that have been not only convinced of their sins but truly and really brought to believe and repent of their sins and many that have been in great horrour and trouble of conscience even ready to despair have been by their meanes as instruments raised up and have received true spiritual comfort and are not such profitable Ministers Also they do by their Preaching strengthen and confirm the Faith of Believers for it is the work of a Minister of Christ not only to convert
not build up themselves on their faith nor pray as is your practice and for Prayer some of your company are not ashamed to say and write that Ministers praying before and after Sermon is a will-worship and that you know not one example left for it either by Christ or any of his Apostles and that praying is for the honor and magnificence of our Idol and that is preaching they are Tomlinsons own words But let all sober minded persons judge whether your silent meetings or praying and preaching is will-worship and an Idol If you have no example of Christ and his Apostles of such silent meetings then it is an Idoll and a will-worship of your own devising which I challenge all you Quakers to bring any one example of Christ or his Apostles of any such meetings or any example of any Church since the Apostles dayes whether Separate or any other and do you think that the Apostles and all the Churches were ignorant of any part of the Service of God while now of late dayes you Quakers have found it or rather invented it had not they the light of Christ within them to direct them seeing you say all men have the light of Christ within them Wherefore I conclude that this your light is darkness and this your practice is a meer invention of your own brains and therefore are not perfect A ninth particular practice used amongst you is your Quaking fits with which many among you are strangely taken falling on the ground their arms and leggs shaking their mouths foaming their bellies swelling and some of them purging to which I may add your strange kind of disfiguring your faces and countenances hanging down your heads or holding them awry looking like a company of forlorn dejected condemned persons that were afraid to look up to Heaven Now for those quaking fits from whence you have the name of Quakers many are of opinion that they are Diabolical by a kind of witchcraft and to that end I have heard strange relations of inchanted ribins of giving of drink after which the persons have been taken with quaking fits and some say possessed with the divel And when I have read John Gilpins Book called The Quakers shaken and John Toldarns Book called The foot out of the snare in which they relate such strange kind of actings and workings of their bodies besides the relations of several others and compare them with those whom we read of in the Evangelist Luke I confess there is a likeness and a resemblance between them And lo a spirit taketh him and he suddenly crieth out and it teareth him that he foameth again and bruiseth him All which actions the Quakers have had in their quaking fits as you may read in the two forenamed books and many have been eye witnesses of the same effects in others in which fits some of the chief Quakers have said that now the good spirit was driving out of the bad But however if it be not a bodily witchcraft sure it is a spiritual witchcraft whereby the minds of the people are bewitched to believe that those shakings and quakings of the body are from the Spirit of God I have read in the Scripture that the Mystery of iniquity in the spirit of Antichrist even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power signes and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie I believe these are some of those signs and lying wonders with which the followers of Antichrist shall be deceived The Papists who have deceived you Quakers as that divine Lawyer M. Will. Prin doth at large prove in his book called The Quakers unmasked Also I have read in the Scripture that God hath caused such shaking and trembling to fall upon wicked men as a punishment for their sins as Belshazzar that his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against another And in the Philistians Camp or Loft there was trembling and among all the people the Garrison and they all trembled so it was a very great trembling and among those curses pronounced in Deuteronomy against wicked men this is one The Lordshal give thee a trembling heart And it is threatned as a curse upon the wicked Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their loyns to shake I wish it be not your condition that your eyes be not darkned in that you take shaking for a blessing when it is a curse the Devils are said to tremble But you object that we read in the Scripture of shaking quaking and trembling rejoyce with trembling Psalm 2. 11. and work out your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. and Paul is said to tremble Acts 9 6. and the keeper of the prison came trembling before Paul and Silas Acts 16. 29. By trembling I understand no other then the fear and trembling of the heart generally spoken of in Scripture and not a quaking and trembling of the body as is usual amongst you Quakers and that fear and trembling is twofold First that which is at the first Act of conversion as that of Paul and the Jaylor whose trembling I understand of the soul and if it were of the body it was extraordinary and not to be brought to a rule and that fear or trembling of the soul at the first act of conversion is general to all that are truly converted called the spirit of bondage Ye 〈◊〉 not received the spirit of bondage again to fear and those that were converted at Peters Sermon being about three thousand souls they were pricked in their hearts We read not of any trembling or quaking of their bodies but that they gladly received his word and this fear or trembling of the soul at the first conversion is not in all alike but in some more and in some less though in all some We read that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia hearing the Apostles that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul and she was baptized and her houshold We read not of any fear or trembling much less quaking and yet no doubt but she had a conviction of her own unworthiness the Apostle John saith that perfect love casteth out fear that is all slavish hellish fear Secondly there is a son-like fear after conversion which is a fear whereby the soul is fearful of doing any thing that is contrary to the will and mind of such a good loving and kind God and Father and this fear or trembling is no wayes agreeable to the quaking and trembling of the body practised amongst you nor to the disfiguring your faces with holding down the head
and holding it awry with dejected countenances which as I said before is usuall among you Quakers Now to shew you your error in these things mind what the Lord saith by the Prophet Isaiah concerning the Hypocriticall Jews in his time to bow down the head as a bulrush and Christ doth describe the hypocrites in his time by the same saying they are of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces Now consider how contrary these practises are to what the Scripture holds forth in the dayes of the Gospel the Prophet Isaiah prophesiing of Christs coming in the flesh saith Sing unto the Lord a new song and his prayses from the end of the earth ye that go down to the Sea and all that is therein the â—sles and the Inhabitants thereof By the Isles some Interpreters do understand our Islands of Britain And fear not I have redeemed thee I have called thee by my Name thou art mine Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Sion and mind everlasting joy shall be upon their head they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation thy watch-men shall lift up the voice With the voice together shall they sing break forth into joy sing together mind The Ministers of the Gospel their feet are beautifull they bring good tidings of peace and salvation they shall lift up the voyce with the voice together with the people shall they sing contrary to the practice of your teachers or praters who revile against singing But the Prophet David prophesiing of Christs Kingdom saith The voice of rejoycing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the the righteous and this salvation made the Virgin Mary to sing My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour and this salvation caused the heavenly Host to sing Gods prayses saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men And Christ said to his Disciples Rejoyce that your names are written in heaven and the Apostle Paul saith The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The Apostle did not place the Kingdome of God in meat and drink nor apparel as you Quakers do And the same Apostle exhorteth the Philippians to rejoyce in the Lord and to rejoyce in Christ Jesus and rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say rejoyce and he commendeth the Thessalonians that they received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost and exhorteth them to rejoyce evermore and this joy of the soul though it be inward in the heart yet it is manifested in the countenance an outward gesture as Salomon the wise saith A merry heart maketh a chearful countenance and a sad heart a dejected countenance aâ—â— example we have in Cain having a guilty conscience it is said his countenance fell and the Lord said unto Cain Why art thou worth and why is thy countenance fallen The Lord would have Cain know that his countenance did discover the guilt of his inward part his soul I cannot believe that those who have true inward peace and joy can have such heavie dejected countenances as most of you Quakers generally have I can know you by your countenances though I never saw you before nor heard you speak and I wonder not that you are generally of such heavie dejected countenances because you do not believe that you are justified by faith but by what you do act and work or by what is acted and wrought in you Now the Apostle saith Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts and not onely so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the Attonement Oh that the Lord would by his Spirit perswade your hearts to believe this Doctrine of Iustification by faith alone and then I doubt not but you would soon change your countenances And yet I know the natural constitution of the body doth much prevail with many for those that are of a melancholy constitution cannot so well express the joy and comfort in the heart as those that are of another temper and it is my charity to believe that most of you Quakers are of that melancholy temper which doth much help forward your Quaking fits and your dejected countenances But if your hearts were well grounded in the Doctrine of Justification by free grace it would bring you some of your quaking fits and would make you strive to express the peace and joy of your hearts by your countenances for I believe it is a sin to walk so heavily with such dejected countenances because I conceive it bringeth dishonour to God that his people should walk so as if God had never sent a Christ to save them and redeem them and purchased heaven for them is he not gone to prepare a place for them It is for wicked men who have not tasted nor seen the goodnesse of the Lord in the Land of the Living whose portion is only in this Life so to walk Also it is a sin because it is a means to hinder others from coming into the society and company of the godly for will not they think and say Surely these are none of Gods children that look as though they never had any joy or comfort in all their lives I have heard some persons say when they have come to the Quakers meetings to hear them and seeing in what posture they sit hanging down their heads sighing and groaning I will never be of this Religion for these people look like a company of condemned persons that were going to be executed liker then Christians that hoped to be saved by Christ Wherefore I conclude this particular that this your practice of Quaking and dejected carriage is a sin and therefore you are not perfect And so I come to the tenth and the last which I shall trouble you and my self with The tenth perticular practise much used by you Quakers is Lying now that ling is a sin I need not trouble my self to prove I hope you will all confess it I wish I could convince you that you are guilty thereof which I hope I shall plainly prove and first Do not you say that you are perfect free from all sin which I have already proved to be false therefore you maintain a lie nay you do make God a lier
you went out from us And the Apostle Paul saith Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God Now the thing that I am to prove is that you do deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh and to that end I shall first shew what was the end of Christs coming in the flesh The Apostle Paul to the Romans saith Through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Whom God hath set forth or sent to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood To declare their righteousness for the remission of sins To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of them which beleive in Jesus Where the Apostle sheweth that the end of God his sending Jesus Christ was that he might be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare Christ his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that he might be just and the Justifier of all them that beleive in Jesus Now you deny this for E. B. saith that our Ministers tell people a Lie and why they tell him that Christ is his righteousnesse to justifie him which he denyeth for you teach that Christ did come to send a light into every man and by hearkning and obeying that light he shall be saved which is the old Popish Antichristian Doctrine Also the Apostle to the Hebrews saith to Christ Loe I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Having therefore bretheren boldnesse to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is his flesh By which words it is plain that the end of Christs coming in the flesh was to do the will of God by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And by that one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But you deny that we are sanctified and perfected for ever by Christ his doing the will of God and through the offering of his body once for all and that we have boldnesse to enter into the holyest by the blood of Jesus a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through his flesh But you teach that you are sanctified and perfected by hearkning to a light within you and obeying the same by which you deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh and are of the Spirit of Antichrist Also you do some of you deny that Christ rose from the dead with his Body but his Spirit rose and deny that he ascended into Heaven with a Body and there remaineth with a Body by which you deny the Scripture and deny Christ 〈◊〉 Mediatorship For the Apostle saith There is one God and one Mediator between God and men mind The Man Christ Jesus Now if Christ have no Body how is he a Man Do not you make Christ a monster if he be a Man without a body what a Mediator do ye make And great is the Mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh received up into glory according to that Scripture in the Acts Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into Heaven and that he shall so come Christ himself hath declared and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of heaven with power and great glory Now those that deny these Articles of our Faith are not they of the spirit of Antichrist for they do invent a fantastical Christ in their brains But you say you have a Christ within you and by that Christ within you you shall be saved Christ in you the hope of Glory To which I answer that I deny that you or any man have a Christ within you you cannot have the body of Christ within you because the Heaven must contain it untill his second coming unless you be of the Papists opinion that say they receive Christs body into their mouths and then must Christ have many bodies or his body must be torn into many pieces Wherefore that I may if it may please God shew you your ignorance even in this particular I shall shew you how I do believe Christ is in every true Christian and that is by his Spirit These things have spoken unto you being yet present with you But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name But now I go my way to him that sent me and it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you By which Christ sheweth that he must depart and go to the Father and that he must there abide But his Father should send that Comforter his Spirit which should abide in them But how doth Christ by his Spirit abide in a Christian Answ Not essentially as the Familists hold and aver to many Quakers but operatively by the operation and working of the same Because ye are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby you cry Abba Father In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our Inheritance to be strengthned by his Spirit in the Inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith By which Scriptures and many more we may see how Christ is in us by his Spirit of Adoption by his Spirit sealing the promises of the Gospel by strengthning us in the inner man and Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and as Christ is said to be in us by his Spirit and by faith so we are said to be in Christ and to dwell in Christ which is by faith If any man be in Christ for ye are all one in Christ but of him ye are in Christ Jesus That we may present every one perfect in Christ Jesus And that Prayer of Christ That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they all may be one in us I in them and thou in me that they may he made perfect in one And as Christ is said to be in us by his Spirit and by faith and we are said to be in him by faith and by the Spirit because the same Spirit that dwells in Christ doth act and work in us So also we are said to be in Christ by Love and Christ to be in us by Love as Christ teacheth that the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them
for so saith the Apostle Iohn If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we say that we have not sinned we make him a lyer and his word is not in us you make God a lier because he saith All men are liers you are men therefore liers and therefore sinners in themselves which I have formerly proved at large Wherefore I should insist upon those lies which you have written and printed and reported For those untruths which thou John Horwod hast written in thy Letter concerning the Ministers and my self I shall but briefly touch them Thou sayest that our Ministers keep people in sin abominable lie For they preach against sin Thou saist that our Ministers know nothing but by Tongues and Art and that they preach for nothing but money Most gross lies If our Ministers did not preach for Conscience to discharge their duties in publishing the Truth how and why have so many of them suffered the loss of their lives and estates and so many lost their Livings and suffered Imprisonment and some Banishment I never heard of any Quakers that suffered so much for their Religion nor never shall for it is not worth suffering for but you cry out of suffering and persecution when none hurt you and that is another of your lies that you are persecuted when you are only perswaded out of your errours And this I know by experience and shall endeavour to clear my self from your lying slanderous tongues for some of your Quakers did report to several of my friends and acquaintance in London and to some of near relation that I was the greatest persecutor of the Quakers in all the Countrey which is a most gross lie for I never did doe them the least harm but indeavoured to doe them all the good that lay in my power both by labouring to convince and reclaim them from their errors and by endeavouring to restrain people from offering any violence against them I was sent by the Magistrate to desire a man at whose house they met to come to him where the Minister of the place was present and the Magistrate and Minister both did use all the love and meekness that could be expressed to perswade and convince him of his errour and did bring such plain proofs from Scripture to prove him to be seduced and brought into severall errours that both of them and my self did hope that the man was convinced he promising to come to the Ministers house for a Catechise of the grounds of Religion and to read the same but after the man came to his old company of Quakers they turned him to his errours and did continue their meetings at his house on the Sabbath day and on the Thursdayes where I had several conferences with them and their Teachers and seeing many rude boyes and others come about the door I desired the Magistrate to send the Officers of the Parish to fetch them away from the House lest their should be any disturbance which he did And now let all persons that hear this judge whether there were any persecution in all this and whether it was not a lie to say that I was the greatest persecutor of them in the Countrey For at Branford some of them were set in the stock some sent to Newgate and indited at the Scessions and severall of them beaten and was my reasoning with them and endevouring to reclaim them and endeavouring to restrain rude persons from disturbing them worse than all that they suffered at Branford which I never knew of while afterward But the first time that I met Sarah Blackbury at Cheeswick after some discourse with her she looked on me and said Thou wilt be a great or the greatest Persecutor of Gods People in all this countrey and I suppose because she would be counted a true prophetess she raised this lie on me which was soon spread abroad by her Disciples for she was counted one of the chief Teachers and doth send several of them abroad to several places to teach or rather to seduce and spred their lies abroad which are so many that I should weary my self to write them and others to read them wherefore I shall onely make mention of the lies in Print which are the greatest lies in Print that ever I read and that is in a Book or Pamphlet called A just and lawfull Trial of the Teachers and professed Ministers of this Age and Generation by a friend to Englands Common-wealth for whose sake this is written and sent abroad E. B. Which Book being given me as a piece unanswerable in the conceit of him that gave it me I did ingage my self to answer it I saw it was nothing but revilings and slanders and lies against our Ministers and indeed they are the Buts at which they shoot their Arrowes and the truth is I had answered all the chief grounds alleadged in the said Book against our Ministers before I saw it in answer to John Horwood But for those many Lies in the said Book I shall give answer to some of the chiefest proving them to be grosse Lies and therefore that he who writ the same being a Quaker is not perfect The first of E. B. his grosse Lies against our Ministers is that our Ministers do things contrary to the Spirit of Jesus and they have seen nothing but lying vanities and divinations whereby they seduce the people for Life is promised him though he be wicked and ungodly living in all unrighteousnesse Now I appeal to the Consciences of all that hears this whether this be not a grosse Lie for was there ever any Minister in the worst of times or the worst of Ministers that ever taught such Doctrine or speak such words but how doth this profound Lier prove these words for saith he they tell him that Christ is his righteousnesse to justifie him and then he thinks he needs not turn from his sin and so their hands are strengthned that they cannot turn from their sins By which E. B. doth discover his grosse Ignorance as well as Malice For he doth believe that the Doctrine of free Justification by Christ his righteousnesse is a Doctrine that doth teach peole to live in all unrighteousnesse But doth not this Lier make the Apostle Paul to be a false Teacher and one that had seen nothing but lying Vanities as well as our Ministers seeing the Apostle taught the same Doctrine Now to him that worketh not but beleiveth on him that justifieth the ungodly His faith is counted for righteousnesse Even as David describeth the blessednesse of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one that is Christ shall many be made righteous being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ And did not the Apostle John teach the same Doctrine And if
and I in them and we have known and beleived the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him And that I may make it more plain I will set this forth by a similitude We know that the Sun doth shine and give light and heat by its beams or operation and we do say the Sun shineth into such a house or room and the Sun doth warm such a place and such a creature Now the body of the Sun remaineth in the Firmament but its beams and light and heat are in several places here below So in like manner Christ his body is in Heaven but he sendeth abroad his light and heat several operations and workings of his Spirit in the hearts of his people and this Metaphor of the Sun is often used in Scripture wherefore I shall alleadge some of those Scriptures because they do fitly serve to illustrate this truth The Prophet Malachy prophesieth of Christ saying but unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings And as it is the property of the Sun to give light and warmth or heat and to expel mists and fogs that do infect the Air and to compleat and enliven things that seem to be dead in the Winter so is Christ to his Church and people here on earth though he be in Heaven he is the light of his Church as the Prophet Isaiah saith Arise shine for thy light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising And this Sun of righteousnesse is said to expel the of his people as a thick cloud is expelled by the Sun And the Lord is said to be a Sun to his people that is in Christ for out of Christ he is a consuming fire Object But you say that Christ doth enlighten every man as the Sun giveth light to all and by hearkning too and obeying that light all may be saved I have answered this before but for a farther answer Answ That I confesse Christ doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world in some sense for as the Sun in the Heaven doth give light and heat unto all so doth Christ as the Creator give a common light of nature He maketh his Sun so shine or rise upon the evil and the good All that common light of Knowledge and understanding that wicked men have and all outward blessings come from Christ In him saith the Apostle we live move and have our being but that Christ doth give a spiritual light of grace unto all that are born that I deny For we are all born blind and dark in regard of spiritual light so saith the Apostle ye were once darkness and St. John saith That the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not as the Sun shining on a man that is born blind he receiveth no light from the Sun and every man that hath this spiritual light hath it or receiveth it from God in and through Christ as the Apostle Paul saith For God who commanded light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ This light is a free gift and we were not born with it If we were what need Christ have dyed for our sins Or what use is there of his intercession if all men have a light within them by hearkning to which and obeying it they may be saved I have taken this by the way because it is one of your cheif grounds upon which you build your religion But it is a sandy one that hath no foundation on Christ or the Scriptures For you do not make the Scriptures to be the rule of your faith and practise but some revelations or impulse of Spirit And therefore you object against what is spoken or written by reading or study or reading other mens works which is the last of your objections that I know of with answering of which I shall conclude For Answer I say that your slighting of reading and studying the Scripture and reading of the writings of godly Ministers and others that have written on them is a chief cause of all your errors For Christ exhorteth all to search the Scriptures and that cannot be without reading them And the Apostle Paul exhorteth Timothy To give attendance to reading and to meditate upon these things and give thy self wholly to them Surely Paul knew Timothy was no Quaker for some of you Quakers have said that they may not read the Scriptures But the Apostle commendeth Timothy That from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation If he had not been a Reader of Scriptures he had not known them for although many read the Scriptures that never knew the will and mind of God revealed in them yet ordinarily none knoweth the Scripture but those that have read them or heard them read or preached upon and as faith cometh by hearing so by reading some have been converted if we may believe their own testimony in History which bringeth me to the second part of your objection The reading of other mens Books or writings To which I say that the Apostle Paul though a man indued with extraordinary gifts of revelations Yet he did read other mens Books or writings as you may see by his writing to Timothy When thou comest bring with thee the books but especially the parchments Now if the Apostle did not read them what need he to have sent for them but that the Apostle did read other books besides the Scripture is plain for the Apostle writeth of Jannes and Jambres withstanding Moses and he must read it in some other book or writing then the Scripture for there is no such thing there Also the Apostle to Titus doth alledge what one of the Cretians own Prophets said which he had read in some of their books and the Apostle Jude saith that Michael the Arch-angel strove with the Devil and disputed about the body of Moses and Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophecied of such men saying Behold the Lord cometh with thousands of his Angels Now we read of none of these in the Scripture and therefore the Apostle did read them in some other books or writings and will you say the Apostles did not bost in other mens lines as you say of us surely if the Apostles made use of other mens writings much more may we and to what end hath God given gifts unto men if they may not improve them by writing for sometimes they have not opportunitie to exercise them otherwise unless you would have them hide their Talents and to what end doe you Quakers write so many books and spread them