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
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
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
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 Scriptures They did not hearken to a light within them to see whether they were true But if you Quakers had such an infallible spirit that you cannot erre as you say you have then all that you speak and write musts need be truth and then we need not examine them by the Scriptures to see whether you write and speak the truth But I am not of that implicit faith to beleive what you write without examining the same by the Scriptures and by them I find you have a falable lying spirit that leadeth you into error but seeing you say you are so infallible that you cannot erre give me leave to examine some of your Books in Print Besides what I have already examined and proved many gross errors in them therefore not written by an infallible spirit so as that you cannot erre I shall examine some particulars in your new Primer made by George Fox the younger and some others in which there is as many errors as Pages I shall mention some few particulars by which we may discern what the rest are of the said Primer Children such are Deceivers who tell you that the way to come to know the truth is by the Scriptures Now if this be a true Doctrine then was Christ and his Apostles Deceivers for they taught the same Christ exhorteth to Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me Now if the Scriptures testifie of Christ then the reading of the Scriptures is a means to know the truth unless you deny that Christ is the truth if you do he affirmeth it saying I am the truth It was a true saying of a good man that The whole Scriptures are the swadling band that foulds the Child Jesus Also Christ saith to the Saduces ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Then by consequence the way to avoyd error and to know the truth is by the knowledge of the Scriptures and therefore Christ would have all to search the Scriptures And the Apostle Paul said that Timothy had known the Scriptures from a Child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation and that is by knowing the truth And the Apostle Peter saith We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto you do well that ye take heed But you are enemies to the reading the Scriptures or expounding them Pag 15 Of the said Primer Children such are no Ministers of Gods word who tell you the Scriptures are the word of God Now if this be an infallible truth then I say the Prophets and Apostles were fallible and were no Ministers of Gods word for the Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and most of the small Prophets said that The word of the Lord came unto them and they spake the word of the Lord. I beleive you may find what the Prophets preached called the word of the Lord or God above a hundred times and in the 20. of Exodus God spake all these words and what God spake is Gods word and what Christ spake and preached is the word of God unlesse you deny Christ to be God Also the Apostle James exhorteth Be ye doers of the Word and if any be hearers of the word and not doers c. And do you think the Apostle meaneth the word of man or the word of God Also the Apostle Peter saith We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed And if the Apostles call the Scripture the word surely they are Gods word and by the word of Prophesie can be meant no other word I marvel that you Quakers who pretend to an infallible Spirit to know all things do not know that as Christ is called the eternal word of God so are the Scriptures written called the revealed will or word of God or his word revealed As when we write our mind or cause another to write our will or mind to another we are properly said to send word or what is so written to be our word Pag. 33. Of the said Primer That by the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing you from all sin is meant the life of Christ Now I would know where you ever read in Scripture that we are cleansed from all sin by the life of Christ or whether the blood of Christ were ever taken for the life of Christ in Scripture I would fain know your meaning of this dark mystical expression Whether you do believe that the blood which Christ shed upon the Crosse when he suffered without the Gates of Jerusalem be that blood that cleanseth from all sin I know partly your meaning by what I have heard from several of your company and read in several of your Books wherefore that I may shew you what I beleive concerning the same according to the Scriptures mind the Apostle saith Without shadding of blood is no remission And he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight And having made peace by the blood of his crosse But I fear you are strangers to this blood of Christ and it is a mystery hid from your eyes who pretend to know all mysteries but they are mysteries of iniquity while you count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing And as you are strangers to this blood of Christ that cleanseth from all sin so I fear you are Ignorant of the life of Christ For I would know whether by the life of Christ you mean the life that Christ lived in the dayes of his converse on earth from the time of his Birth to the time of his suffering death on the crosse or the life he now liveth in heaven or whether by the life of Christ you do not understand the life of a leigned Christ in you or a life imitating Christ his Life I know by what I have heard from the mouths of several and read in several of your books that you are strangers to the true life of Christ mentioned in Scripture and is a mystery hid from your eyes But mind what the Scriptures saith For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them By which texts of Scripture you may see that we are justified or saved by Christ his life living now in heaven to make intercession for us But I never did read in the Scripture that our sins are washed away and that we are saved by what Christ wrought in us nor by imitating the life of Christ and yet I say that all those who are saved by the blood and the life of Christ have faith wrought in their hearts by the Spirit of Christ
whereby they beleive this blood of Christ shed for them and that Christ now liveth in Heaven to make intercession for them and this faith is not a dead idle faith but a lively working faith working love to God and man Faith worketh by Love But this faith doth not save as it is an act or work in us but as it apprehendeth and layeth hold on Christ the Object And what ever infallible knowledge you pretend unto without the knowledge of this you are in Ignorance and know nothing as your ought But the Devil hath beguiled you as he did Adam and Eve when he made them beleive they should be as Gods knowing good and evil but they became like the Devil by sin And as the Devil hath deceived you so hath the Pope your Grandfather deceived you by sending his Iesuits and Friers here to seduce and delude you as Mr. William Prynne that Patron and Defender of his Countries Laws and Liberties hath plainly proved in his Book called The Quakers unmasked in which he proveth that several Friers of the Franciscan order have been chief Speakers in your metings as Coppinger and others And I know none but the Pope and his Church and you Quakers that do pretend to an unerring infallible Spirit and I know none that hold and maintain more errors then the Pope and you Quakers whom I conceive are made drunk with Popish errors for all your pretending to an infallible Spirit that cannot erre by an inward light What I have here written is by the light within me which you advise me to consider and hearken unto because it convinceth of sin Concerning which we had some discourse when I affirmed that the Law in the heart doth convince man of sin in the estate of Nature according to the Apostle Paul his words The Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while else accusing or excusing one another Also those that accused the woman taken in Adultery Christ said He that is without sin cast the first stone and they that heard it being convicted in their own conscience went out one by one the Law in the Conscience convicted them of sin And as the Law in the heart convinceth men of gross sins though they never had the Law written So doth the Law written convince of lesser and smaller sins As the Apostle Paul saith I had not known sin but by the Law and that he meaneth the moral Law is plain for saith he I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not lust Also the Apostle writing to the Corinthians to reform the evil custome of men wearing long hair saith Doth not nature it self teach you that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair And if it had not been sin they had no cause to be ashamed and the Apostle saith That nature doth teach it to be a shame But I see some Quakers that are not ashamed to wear long hair for I have observed some of those men Quakers wear longer hair then ordinarily Ruffins or Roysters wear and in stead of shame do defend and maintain the same to be lawful But I shall not beleive them for all their pretended infallible Spirit but rather think they are such as Christ spake of whose light is darknesse If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darknesse like those Locusts that came out of the smoak of the bottomless pit who are said to have hair as the hair of women But this by the way But you objected then that Christ saith the Spirit will reprove the world of sin To which I Answer that Christ and the Apostle doth not contradict one another I shall shew how they agree The Law in the conscience convinceth them of sin by discovering what is sin as the Apostle expoundeth I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not Lust Rom. 7. 7. But the Spirit reproveth for sin by shewing or discovering sin to rest upon the conscience by reason of unbelief as Christ expoundeth the meaning of sin because they believe not in me that is the Spirit shall convict by their own conscience that because they believe not in him there is nothing but sin for because of unbeleif sin resteth on the conscience and by beleiving in Christ only sin is abolished and taken away Wherefore Luther saith If the whole world did believe in Christ God would see nothing but a meer cleansing according to that of the Prophet David Thou hast forgiven the iniquitie of thy people and covered all their sins Selah Psal 85. 2. This have written in love to thy soul and the rest of your profession to undeceive thee and others who are lead by a fallible erring spirit Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures I desire you to examine what I have written by the Scriptures and let them be the Judge between us Whether those that are lead by the Spirit are not subject to erre though the Spirit of God is infallible and cannot erre yet the man that hath the Spirit is fallible and doth erre and so I commit you and what I have written to the blessing of Almighty God and remain a friend and lover of thy Soul FINIS 1. Answ Acts 1. 20 21. 22. Act 1 23 24 25. Act. 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 14. 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 22. 1 Tim. 1. 4. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Rom. 12. 7 8. Heb. 13. 7. 13. 17. Numb 16. 1 2 3. Numb 16 Matth. 23. 2 3. Acts 1. 17. 1 Tim. 5. 22. 1 Cor. 14. 18. Act. 22. 3. 1 Tim. 3. 6. â— Pet. 3. 15 16. Act 2. 3 4. Fox the Quaker 1 Tim. 4. 13 14 15 16. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Rom. 12. 7 8. 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6 7 8. 1 Thes 5 21. Tit. 1. 9 10 11. Tit. 1. 12 13. 1 Cor. 9. 14. Math. 10 10. Act. 4. 37. Act. 5. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 9. 4 5 7 8 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. 2 Cor. 11 8. Gal. 6. 6. Luther on Gal. 6. ver 6. fol. 246. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. 1 Tim. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 3. 8 9 10. Matth. 23 23. See Sir Henry Spelman Cancil Anno 855. 1 Object Answ Mal. 3. Ezek. 34. 3. Esa 56. â—0 11. Zeph. 1. 3 4. 2 Object Answ 3 Object Answ 1 Cor. 9. 4. 1 Cor. 9. 20 21 22 23. Acts 16. 3. Minde 1 Tim 4. 15. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Ephes 4. 24. Colos 3. 10. Act 13 38 39. Rom. 4. 5 6 7. 2 Cor. 8 18 19 20 21. Heb. 10. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Levit. 16. 21. 22 23. Minde Esa 53. 4 5 6. Dan. 9. 24 25 26. Zach. 3. 8 9. Joh. 19. 30. Colos 2. 13 14. Colos 1. 21 22. Colos 1. 28. Heb. 10. Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Numb