the Christ or the Body of Christ onely I leave with Christ Scripture and Reason to determine Certain I am that this Principle must center in that senseless Dream of J. Reeve and L. Muggleton as well as that it makes a perfect Difference betwixt Him that was before Abraham and Him that said so Him that told his Disciples I will not leave you comfortless and Him that said I will come to you again Nay why should Christ say to his Disciples it was expedient he should go away since certainly if some more Excellent and Profitable Appearance of himself had not been to succeed at least as to them it had been far more Expedient he should in that Manner have remained amongst them And why did the Apostle speak of no more knowing Christ after the Flesh and of his being revealed in him and in the Saints as their Hope of Glory and that he was the Quickning Spirit and Lord from Heaven If that Body was the Intire Christ not rather the Body prepared for that Divine Power Wisdom and Righteousness to transact in and appear by and to the Sons of Men which with respect to that great Manifestation was denominated Christ or Anointed shall we dare think that he who so spoak and of whom the Apostle so testified was not the true Christ which to be sure was before that Visible Body God forbid Let that Sin lie at J. Faldo's Door § 2. But he offers to us Scripture And it was reveal'd to him Simeon by the Holy Ghost that he should not see Death before he had seen the Lord's Christ And he came by the Spirit into the Temple and when the Parents brought in the Child Jesus then took he him up in his Armes and said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation a Light to lighton the Gentiles c. and it is and will be granted that Simeon saw the Lord 's Christ But I hope J. Faldo will not deny unto that good Man who waited for Israel's Consolation that he had as well a Spiritual as Natural an Inward as Outward Sight of Christ For can he think that the Word which took Flesh was nothing of that Saviour and that the True Light which then appeared is to be excluded any Share therein Will J. Faldo or any Man that owns Scripture dare to affirm there was not something belonging to the True and Compleat Christ beyond what his outward Eyes could possibly see Certainly this Allegation from Luk 2. 26. will never prove the Body of Jesus which the Father prepared for him to be the Whole Intire Christ Saviour Light Salvation and Glory of Israel unless Christ under all these Considerations consisted or was made up of the more Outward Body that only was obvious to the Outward Eyes which to affirm were both to deny his Divinity and to conclude Simeon void of any Spiritual Sight or Intendment in these Words of the Lord 's Christ as a Light enlightning the Gentiles and God's Salvation to the Ends of the Earth Though still be it understood that we confess that Child as seen and understood by Simeon with respect to that great End of his Appearance to be the Lord 's Christ Nay J. Faldo himself sayes as much p. 70. otherwise there would be an exalting the Body above the Divinity nay an utter Exclusion of the Divinity with respect to the True Christ Let none then be so Ungodly and Unjust to us as to infer we deny the Lord 's Christ because we rather chuse to say the Body of Christ then Christ for sayes he Christ is God manifest in the Flesh see J. F. p. 72 77. § 3. And lest any should think that therein I contradict the inspired Saying of that Just Man when he said Mine Eyes have beheld thy Salvation the Words import no more then this Mine Eyes have beholden the Manifestation and Breaking forth of thy Seed and Heir who is come to visit the World and bruise the Serpent's Head Mine Eyes have seen him by whom thy Salvation shall be declared through whom thou wilt put forth thine Arm and work mightily for the Salvation of Man And this his other Scriptures prove at large for me the most Considerable of which I take to be this The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree Him hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sin Act. 5. 30 31. which can no more be understood expresly stricktly and intirely so then it would be reason able for a Man to say that when Samuel died the Soul and Body which was call'd Samuel died and not rather the Body of him who was called Samuel And this is the Ground and Reason why the Socinians Muggletonians and several Anabaptists hold the Mortality of the Soul because otherwise those Words which speak of the Death of Christ could not be taken properly as they take and defend them I say then and that with Force of Reason and which at this time may be more to the Conviction of some the Suffrage of our malignant Adversary J. Faldo himself however contradicting to his fore-mentioned Sense the Words are thus to be understood The God of our Fathers who raised up the Body of Jesus from the Dead which ye slew and hung upon a Tree Him whose Body you so cruelly used hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sin To put this out of Doubt hear J. Faldo his own self Let not these Blasphemers of the Lord of Life and Glory delude People with a Fancy as if we believe and preach the FLESH AND BLOOD OF CHRIST TO BE CHRIST SEPARATED FROM HIS SOUL OF THE NATURE OF MAN's SOUL but undefiled OR THAT WE TAKE HIS MAN's NATURE TO BE CHRIST SEPARATED FROM HIS ETERNAL AND DIVINE NATURE One would think I had spent my Time in vain when I set about to prove that the Divine Light Life Power Wisdom and Righteousness were not unconcerned in the true Christ and consequently that the Body which only died was not the Entire Jesus or Saviour since our Adversary calls us Blasphemers and Deluders and I know not for what except it be for Teaching that Doctrine he recommends in the same Paragraph wherein he calls us those hateful Names § 4. But that his great Inconsistency with himself may be further manifest hear him again If Men be so blind as not to see the Error of Disowning Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary who was hanged on a Tree put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia to be yet alive and the Christ of God by all these Scriptures the most considerable whereof are answerd it is a Blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers who professed the Scriptures to be a true Testimony were smitten
and none such had ever yet come to my hand But upon my sober Perusal of the Matter I found this to be the Upshot That the Quakers Deny them to be the Word of God therefore they deny them altogether Whence I take good Heart to show his Ignorance or great Dishonesty § 3. I will allow to him without going any farther that the People called Quakers do deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God and therefore shall take for granted what he quotes out of J. N. F. Howgil J. Parnel and W. Smith But that we do consequently Deny the Scriptures we shall oppose we hope to the Death § 4. I do declare to the whole World that We believe the Scriptures to contain a Declaration of the Mind and Will of God in and to those Ages in which they were written being given forth by the Holy Ghost moving in the Hearts of holy Men of God That they ought also to be Believed Read and Fulfill'd in our Day being Useful for Reproof and Instruction that the Man of God may be perfect And that they have been and are Instrumental to great Good upon the Spirits of People by the secret Power of God which often strikes and presseth home to the very Conscience the weighty Truths declar'd therein yet We do Deny them to be the Word of God ascribing that alone to Christ himself and that not without Scripture and Reason § 5. First It is granted on all hands that Christ is expresly called in Scripture the Word of God but no where that the Scriptures are so styled Secondly That though I should allow it to be a Figurative Expression and therefore says our Adversary Improper yet because a Word among Men conveyes the Mind of one unto another and that Christ is the great Word of God that in all Ages hath convey'd or spoken the Mind of God unto Mankind and so the Author of all good Words he only may by way of Right and Excellency be so styl'd of Us. Thirdly I shall easily grant to him that one Word may stand representative of many and that the Ten Words were not Ten Numerical Words because each Word contained many yet this I will say that Word in Scripture is taken for Commandment and they have an equivalent Signification as in Deuteronomy may be seen And since that was the Import of the Ten Words to wit Ten Commandments each Word has its own Commandment Therefore it is no more against us to allow those Ten Words to be more then Ten Words then Ten Commandments to have more then Ten Words And whatever our Adversaries may say or think of us We therefore Decline to call the Scriptures the Word of God because we believe It to be a Title only due to that Living Quickning Word by which God vouchsafes to disclose his Mind and Will unto Man-kind Christ the Way to the Father § 6. But sayes our Adversary to this Argument The Word was God therefore the Scriptures cannot be the Word because they are not God Let me tell you that the Scripture may be the Word and Christ the Word also and yet though Christ be the Word of God the Scriptures the Word may be quite another thing Certain I am this is quite another thing then good Doctrine How can the Scriptures be the Word of God and Christ the Word of God too Are there two Distinct Words of God the one quite another thing from the other O shameful Arguing If he had said Christ is the Word of God and the Scriptures a Word of God he would have a little better hit the Mark But to assert Two General Comprehensive Words of God sounds Harsh and Inconsistent I would fain know in Case we should admit this absurd Assertion how he would distinguish between these Two General Comprehensive Words For my part I think it as good Sense to call a King's Letters King or an Ambassador's Credential's Ambassador O no says our Adversary you Mistake Christ is called a Light a Rock a Lyon will it thence follow that there are no other Lights Rocks or Lyons I Answer There is no other Light Rock or Lyon then Christ with respect to That for which He is so call'd Neither is there any other Word then Christ with respect to that for which he is so styl'd to wit God's Living Powerful Word And this decides the Controversie and plainly adjudges us the Matter against the utmost Force of our Adversary to the Contrary For if he is therefore a Light because he only can and doth Discover the Unfruitful Works of Darkness a Rock because whoever build on Him is Safe and a Lyon because the King of all whose Utterings are able to Terrifie all Destruction from his Walks but what he brings upon his Adversaries and therefore there is not another Light to inlighten Man's Soul or Rock for Christ's Church to be built on neither any other Lyon to secure them from the Devourer consequently because he is the Living Spiritual Powerful Word of God there is not another that 's The Word of God § 7. But he further says That the Word of God is so exprest in Scripture as it must needs be understood not of Christ but the Scriptures He that regardeth not the Word of the Lord. He that feared the Word of the Lord Stand thou still a while that I may shew thee the Word of God the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God And the Cares of the World choak the Word and it becometh Unfruitful Mark 4. 19. which saith he cannot be understood of Christ or God and that a little Skill in the Original would free us from these Mistakes and to that Purpose To which I answer that the Word of the Lord mention'd in Exodus and Samuel are properly to be understood of the Living Spiritual Word of God which spoke to the People through those Servants of the Lord For who Received or Rejected the Mind of that Word exprest in many Words received the Word and it had a place in their Hearts or else rejected it and it had no place in them This makes nothing against us in the least For that Passage in the Ephesians Beza whom he quotes I suppose as embracing his Judgment has determin'd the Matter for he has it the Spiritual Sword Then let us read the Words thus The Spiritual Sword is the Word of God or The Word of God is the Spiritual Sword For Christ is as truly a Sword an Ax a Fire which the Word of God is call'd as a Lyon a Rock a Door And for the last Passage out of Mark which seems to carry most of Weight in it for our Adversary it may rightly be understood of that Truth which Christ the Word livingly sows in the Hearts of Men Women the Word of Advice Reproof Instruction and the like But of the Scriptures it cannot be understood as neither can any of the other places For first those
out of that Sense in which they were given forth and to an other End then that for which they were given forth which proves to us that the Sense and not the Words shows the End of their being so given forth The Scriptures are a Sealed Book to all but those who know them by the same Hand which Originally gave them So that however Common they may be in the World they are Strangers to them that understand them not And though Old respecting the Time when they were revealed to the Saints yet New to every Age so that we assert not a Revelation of New Things but renewed Revelation of those Things God made former Ages Witnesses of otherwise Men are no more benefited by them And to be benefited they must be made ours by the Spirit which made them the Holy Ancients § 7. In short No Man can understand Spiritual Things but the Spiritually Discerning None can so be without the Inspiration of the Almighty or Spirit of God This is Scripture Now the Author of those Queries and J. Faldo also Denying Inspiration they consequently deny themselves to be Spiritually Discerning and for Men not Spiritual to Judge of Religious and Spiritual Matters much less to Write of them and bid their Writings go and throw down Self-Will and exalt the Truth is Vain and Idolatrous For the Scriptures themselves consider'd meerly as such are unable much less Writings founded on the Authority of Self Will for it is the alone Priviledge of God's Power and Spirit and no Writing whatever distinct from it can perform that Great and Mighty Work in Man § 8. And for Equaling our Writings with the Scriptures because we assert Inspiration and that what we have received and do declare of the Things of God is from the Revelation of his Spirit in our Hearts it is a Foolish Inference Truth was and is Truth all the World over and there was and is but One Way to come to it in all Ages I mean Inspiration The Scriptures are True and our Writings are True but will it therefore follow that we bring them upon a Vie Is this your Disputant But to determine this Case He should first have prov'd if he could what Power God gave to the Ancients and what to Us. How much of his Spirit to those Ages and what to This or else he loseth himself If he can Experimentally tell what were their Discoveries and Experiences and what are Ours he would be a Proper Judge But to think to run us down by Exalting them or to lessen what we are by Increasing their Praise is an old Artifice of the Devil and Sober Men will be more True to Themselves and Just to the Matter then so to censure us Cannot one Man be another Man's Brother and not the Elder Brother Doth it follow that because God has made what we know our own by his Holy Inspirations and Operations that therefore we put our selves upon the Comparison with the Ancients If true Christians fill up or add to Christ's Sufferings yet behind why should their Writings be shuffled out of all Relation to the Scriptures There may be a Relation where there is not an Equality much less a Preference and that we do assert against all Opposers § 9. But now let us see what he says of our setting the Scriptures beneath our own Writings and I will take his own Way to do it The Characters of the Scriptures given by the Quakers as says J. Faldo Characters of their own Teachers Writings and Sayings given by them Feeding Death with Death The Letter which Killeth Declar. from the Minist of the Word p. 7. The Voice of the Son of God was utter'd forth by him by which the Dead was rais'd F. H. Life of E. B. p. 20. Seeking the Living among the Dead J. Parn. Shield His Words Ministred Grace to the Hearers Fox jun. Life E. B. A Mistake for he dy'd before E. B. Reconciliation Death is a State without the Living Experimental Knowledg of God and his Work in the Heart And that State will talk of the Fame of Wisdom as saith the Scripture and that from the Scripture that is from or in the words of Scripture being Ignorant of the true Sense of the Scripture thinking there to have Life which Literal Knowledg it feeds upon and contents it self with where Nations have lain Apostatized from the Life of God and Power of Godliness The Letter Killeth that is the Literal Knowledge or rather their Imaginations from the Letter not being Divinely Inspir'd so as to understand it by which Men buoy and lift up themselves as Christians in the World and yet are Strangers to the inward sensible Work of God And it does Kill the Soul with respect to that true Life the Spirit and Power of God begets in all right Christians through whom the Voice of the Son of God has does and will utter it self to the Ends of the Earth for the Raising the Dead in Trespasses and Sins as that worthy Servant of God did which is now with his Lord. This disreputes not the Scriptures but those who make a wrong Use of them nor is there any Comparison betwixt Reading what God's Spirit requires immediate Hearing his Voice and being sensible of his present living Touches upon the Soul Writings are but holy Things at second hand a Living Ministry is the very Life Power and Spirit present and more immediate In short the Testimony of F. H. we prefer not before the Testimony Luke gives of holy Stephen We prefer the Scriptures before all Writings but before God's immediate Power we dare not do Paper Ink and Writing the same pag. 7. A Shield of the Truth Title J. P's Book Reconcil What 's this to the purpose We say that the Scriptures or the Writings not the Things written of mark that are Paper Ink and Writing which was spoken abstractively and upon a Comparison of them with the Word of God that was with God and was and is God over all blessed for ever Doth any Man think that we believe greater things of J. Parnel's Book By no means He call'd not his Book consisting of so much Writing Ink and Paper a Shield of Truth but that of which it treated was the Truth and with respect to the Controversial part of it as it was writ in Defence of the Truth it might be tearm'd a Shield in which sense the Scriptures by him urged have the upper-hand of his Writing by whose greater Authority with Men he abets and maintains the Doctrine contended for Shews you I suppose the Light your own Faces which the Scriptures cannot do Scorned Quak. accounts p. 20. A Spiritual Glass opened Smith ' s Cat. c. Morn Watch. Reconcil This can be no way hard to reconcile For when we say the Scriptures cannot show Men at all Times and in all States their Conditions but the Secret In-shining Light of God alone we are not so unworthy as to intend that any Book of
possibly can be which he makes them but to be § 9. In short either the Scriptures are not obscure a thing we daily see or if so yet sufficient which is impossible or they must have a Judge which is most true and necessary and what Judge but the Spirit of Truth which leads into all Truth And so far are Decrees from determining because written that they are therefore determinative of Controversie because of that Conviction the Power from whence they came works upon the Conscience So that though what is true in it self is not the less so because written yet is not the Writing subject to an hundred Casualities nor Matter therein declared as there eminently the Rule much less the Judge after our Adversaries Notion of a Judge But that Living Powerful Spirit which gave it forth and who are made spiritual Men by it For the spiritual Man judges all things Such Writings may be declaratory of the Mind and Determination of the Living Rule or Judge I grant but also I utterly deny that the Writings themselves are that Rule how People are to believe them and a Judge how to determine of the Difficulties and Obscurities within themselves A meer Begging of the Question and a thing altogether absurd We cannot end this Chapter without an Acknowledgment of the Goodness of God in Opening things so clearly to the making known his Divine Light and Truth and manifestly Discovering the great Darkness and Blindness of its Opposers CHAP. VI. We deny the Charge His Proof no Proof but against himself We Own Believe and desire to Obey the Scriptures they afford Comfort and are as Lights in the World but not that True Light The Light and Spirit Superior to them § 1. THe next Charge he brings against us is a Consequence of his already mistaken Judgment and untrue Assertions concerning us viz. That we take People off from Reading the Scriptures and Looking into them for Instruction and Comfort to prove which as he thinks for none else can that is not either as deeply Ignorant of us or as Malicious against us as J. Faldo shows himself in almost every particular he brings out W. Smith speaking thus in his Catech. pag. 95. And this is the Meaning of our Doctrine to bring People to the Everlasting Word of God in themselves O Ungodly Man What Evil Spirit hath possest J. Faldo into this wretched and impious Consequence Certainly he is grosly blind or he has sinned against the Light of his own Conscience if he hath Conscience enough to think it a Sin which I profess I doubt when the Malignity Frothiness Envy and Impious Unjustice of the Man are set before me For 1 let any tell me if it be a Sin to bring People to the everlasting Word of God in themselves though he Dirts us not a little for so doing 2 If we do hereby take Men off from reading and looking into the Scriptures I do affirm against this Ungodly Priest and that by Authority from God the Scriptures Reason and the first Reformers too that no Man on Earth can understand them but by being first brought to the Everlasting Word of God nigh in the Heart by which the Lord speaks forth his Will to the Creature and the Scriptures themselves direct to this and never said that of themselves some over-doing Priests assert concerning them whose whole End is this that by Exalting the Letter and Excluding the Spirit they may lock up all Knowledge in their own Areanum and plead the Impossibility of Knowing the things of God any other way then by their literal Ministration for should Men be but turned to the Certain Witness of God in their own Consciences there placed of the Lord their whole Trade Power and Reputation would fall and their Deceits be made manifest in the View of the World which God the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth is now accomplishing § 2. But he says that J. Parnel censures such that draw Peoples Minds from the Light within to the Light without putting the Letter for the Light c. Shield of Tr. pag. 10. And what then Because we say that he who inlightens all Men God that is the Sun and Fountain of all Divine Light and in whom there is no Darkness at all is greater then the Scriptures therefore will it follow that we take People off from Reading or Looking into them Behold your Priest you that hear him Is this Man to be accounted of as a Minister of the Gospel that thus unrighteously deals with us But God will recompense upon his Head in the Day of his terrible Vengeance for all his Hard and Ungodly Sayings against us We do say and that rightly Whoever puts the Letter in Opposition to or above the Spirit is an Idolater For there can be no Comparison rightly made between them the Heavens don't excell the Earth more then the Spirit does the Letter and the Power the Form But if we do not therefore deny the Form of Godliness because we prefer and press more earnestly the Power neither do we exclude the Scriptures because we prefer and press the Everlasting Word of God nigh in the Heart And this I will tell him that to busie the Minds of Men with the Depth of those Truths the Scriptures declare of by reading and exercising their Minds in Meditating thereon before they have been turned unto the Measure of the Light or Grace of God in the Heart to believe and obey that in its secret Discoveries Reproofs and Strivings is to set Men about Images to conceive a God a Christ a Salvation a Damnation an Heaven an Hell by which the Inward Work of God is overlook't and they become Rich in Notion whilst most barren in Obedience and of all People that live upon the Earth the Greatest Idolaters because they bow down to their own Imaginations for real Truths And this is the State of every Opposer to the Sacred Light within how full soever of the meer Literal Knowledg of the very Scriptures themselves for indeed who knows the new Birth though the Scriptures declare of it but who really experience it § 3. But J. Story he thinks has Contributed much to prove his Assertion in this Passage And although the holy Scripture without and the Saints Practices are as Lights in the World yet far be it from all true Christian Men so to Idolize them as to set them in Esteem above the Light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them Equal with the Light and Spirit of God within J. S. Short Discourse Pag. 2. To this he objects that J. S. confesses them to be as Lights but not a Light and that our Commendations of that Idol the Light within are such that if they were true he were a stark Fool that would direct his Eyes to the Scripture But here the Priest fail's egregiously For if the Scriptures are as Lights I cannot see how they should be denyed to be as in the
spin out the Hour-Glass I mean saying over the same things in other words yet that we may remove all Ground of Scruple I will lay down the several Charges of the remaining Chapters concerning the Scriptures and the best Proofs he brings for them and briefly examine both § 2. The Quakers affirm the Doctrines Commands Promises holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such not at all to be binding to us This sayes he is a Denying of the Scriptures and the Authority of the God of the Scriptures For Proof of this he brings out E. Burroughs Speaking thus That is no Command of God to me what he Commanded to another neither did any of the Saints which we read of in the Scripture act by that Command which was to another not having the Command to themselves I challenge to find an Example to it To this I answer briefly and plainly Edward Burroughs's Expression may be taken two wayes and both safe enough to the Honour and Credit of the Scriptures though not to the Charity or Honesty of J. Faldo No Command in the Scripture is any further oblieging upon any Man then as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise Men should be engaged without if not against Conviction a Thing Unreasonable in a Man Therefore the Apostle when he wrote to the Churches exhorted them Not to do those things whereof they were ashamed to shun what was manifested to be Evil and affirms That whatever might be known of God was manifested Within for God had shown it unto them So that Conviction can only obliege to Obedience and since what works that Conviction is the Manifesting Light Universal Grace or Quickning Spirit in the Heart of Mankind it follows that the principal Ground for our Faith in the Scriptures and Reason of our Obedience to the Holy Precepts therein contained is the Manifestation Conviction and Secret Drawings of the Light or Spirit of God in the Conscience And thus E. B's Words are Sound and Scriptural for the Scriptures are chiefly believed to be true upon Conviction therefore every Practice therein and when any Man is convinced that what was Commanded another is required of him then and not till then he is rightly authoriz'd to perform it Again § 3. Such Commands are either relating to Ordinary or Extraordinary Cases By Ordinary Cases I mean such as chiefly concern Faith and Holy Life which are General Permanent and Indispensible and then I deny his Consequence By Extraordinary Cases I understand Moses ' s going to Pharaoh the Prophets several Manner of Appearance to the Kings Priests and People of Israel with other Temporary Commands relating to Outward Services c. And so we do say that what is Commanded one Man is not binding as such upon another But when the Lord shall say If thou Sinnest thou shalt Dye If thou keepest my Commands thou shalt Live Be ye Holy for I the Lord your God am Holy Also in case of Example as the Priest cites Whose Faith follow consider the End of their Conversation Leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps For your selves know you not how you ought to follow us For after this manner in the old time the Holy Women also who trusted in God adorn'd themselves I say these Precepts and Examples are oblieging upon all Why because they more or less meet with a Conviction in the Consciences of all For I am perswaded none that has a reasonable Soul who has not out-lived their Day and on whom the Night is not come among the Indians themselves but would readily say These are true and weighty Sayings for Faith in God and an Holy Self-denying Life are necessary both to Temporal and Eternal Happiness Thus then are we clear from his Ungodly Consequence indeed Aspersion to wit That the Quakers affirm the Doctrines Commands Promises Holy Examples expressed in Scripture as such not to be binding But let 's hear another of his Consequences by way of Charge and see if he will acquit himself better then before § 4. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be any Means by which we may come to know God Christ and Our selves To prove this he quotes W. Smith's Primmer p. 2. Q. Is there not another Way by which we may come to know God Answ Nay Child there is not another Way for Christ is the Way To which he replies Christ saith I am the Way no Man can come to the Father but by me but he doth not say that there is no Coming to the Knowledge of God but by Christ For some Knowledge of God may be attained not only without Christ as the Means but without the Scriptures also Quoting that Passage in the first of the Romans For the Invisible Things of him are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made c. To all which I say 1. That greater Untruth Irreverence and Impertinency could not well have been exprest then in his saying That no Man can come to the Father but by Christ and no Man can come to the Knowledge of God but by Christ are two different things For it manifestly implies that Men may know God without Christ either inwardly or outwardly though no other Name be given and that to know the Father was to know some other kind of Being then to know God Or that when they did know the one they did not know the other 2. That it was never denyed by any Quaker that God might and sometimes does reach into the very Heart and Conscience by the Scriptures Shall I allow that a Man may be convinced of his Evil by reading one of our Books and shall I deny it to be as possible for any to be convinced by reading some Passages in the Holy Scriptures God forbid Neither did William Smith ever mean that Christ was so the only Way to the Father as thereby to exclude all Instruments for then he had both cut off all Benefit that could accrue to People by his Books and also from that Ministry God had given him to profit others with which was far from his Thoughts we may be sure So that the great Wickedness of this Priest is herein manifest without further Cost to know him for he argues from our denying that there is any other Way to the Father but Christ to our excluding the Scriptures and consequently our own Books and Ministry with them from being any way Instrumental of Good Reader what can be said to such a Man but that he is either Ignorance or Malice it Self I wish it were the former but his Book makes me fear the latter § 5. In short through all Instruments He who in time and with respect to that Manifestation was call'd Christ was is and ever will be the alone Way to the Father And though he may discover himself by divers Instruments yet it is but in order to incline Man to his Holy Voice in Man Some they hear and obey and live Others
Flesh and Blood the Birth that persecutes the Son and Heir Graven Images Morn Watch p. 22 23. It would amaze sayes he a Christian to read what is contain'd in the two Pages quoted of vilifying Reproach to the Scriptures and the Doctrines from them received If this be not Opposing the Spirit of God to the Scriptures and rendering them advers to each other the Devil himself must dispair of Inventing Words to express it by And now Reader it is time for me with a Soul full of Grief to make my Appeal to the Righteous Lord God of Heaven and Earth and his equal Witness in thy Conscience if ever Quakers writ or said any such thing of the Holy Scriptures O far be it from us and very great and heavy will the Damnation of J. Faldo be in the Day of the Lord unless he shall unfeignedly Repent because of these detestable Lyes that he seems wilfully to fasten upon our Writings What William Smith said reflected not in the least upon the Scriptures nor yet those Doctrines which were truly received thence No such words can be produced by our Adversaries had W. S. written any such thing he that adds so much that was not we are to suppose would not have omitted mentioning of that if it had been But W. Smith addrest himself to that Adulterated Spirit which had defiled Nations that nevertheless were under the Profession of God Scriptures and Religious Worship though in Works they deny'd God and as concerning Scripture and true Worship grosly err'd not knowing the Power of God nor how to Worship him in Spirit and in Truth not that he ever durst to entertain so Blasphemous an Apprehension of those Holy Writings or those Doctrines that are truly received thence as is suggested by our most unfair Adversary And is it not the height of all Unrighteousness to our Neighbour that when he condemns the Degenerated Spirit Knowledge and Worship of any People however professing the Scriptures and it may be pretending to believe accordingly as W. Smith does all Apostate Christians J. Faldo should infer that his Neighbour calls the Scriptures themselves and not a wrong Knowledge of them Will-Worship Corruption Rottenness Deceitful Whore's-Cup Apostacy Earthly Root Graven Images c. and that he should intend nothing less then Opposition betwixt the Spirit and its own Scriptures There needs no further Confutation then the gross and black Envy of our Adversary about this one Passage Be it known to all we do affirm the Scriptures never did jarr with the Spirit nor the Spirit oppose himself against the Scriptures and thus much our Writings can plentifully prove to all sober Enquirers § 3. But he offers another and the last Proof of his Charge from J. Naylor That of this sort are they false Prophets as I suppose he means who have their Preaching from Study and other Men's Mouthes and not from the Mouth of the Lord. From which he infers that what we have in the Scriptures is not from the Mouth of the Lord and queries I would know saith he of the Quakers what they will make of the Mouth of the Lord It was said to Jeremiah Jer. 15. 19. Thou shalt be as my Mouth Our Meaning is still over-look't by this disingenuous Adversary and a quite contrary thing substituted The natural Purport of the Words can be no more then this That though the Things declared of in the Scriptures were the Word of the Lord to the holy Ancients and Jeremiah as God's Mouth not his Mouth therefore to the People of Israel yea and much of it the Word of the Lord to us too yet for Men to say any part thereof by wrote especially if they add their own Comments and Glosses fraim'd from Study to any part of the Scriptures and cry Thus sayes the Lord or Hear the Word of the Lord and not in the same living Sense nor upon the like Commission every such one doth Rob his Neighbour and Steal his words And He is no more a True Prophet for so doing then a Parrat is a Man because he can talk If then no such Creature is therefore to be reputed Rational nor what he says Reason as to him though so in it self because it proceeds not from the Root and Principle of Reason but by meer Imitation and consequently a Prater in no case to be minded Neither is he a true Prophet nor that the Word of the Lord with respect to that Prophet who has not received what he delivers from the immediate Word of God himself but by Hear-say or meer Imitation No he is but a very Babbler and begets People no further then into meer Words and Imaginary Glosses which is the Ground of that Uncertainty that is in the World about Religion The Scriptures then are to us oblieging as the Things they declare of were the Word of the Lord to several Ages Temporal Commands excepted and they are not without a Mouth yet they and Jeremiah too are Inferior to the Mouth of the Eternal Word which speaks in this Evangelical Dispensation the Will of God unto Mankind after a more living and immediate Manner as was prophesied of old And I may thus far gratifie our Adversary's Curiosity about God's Mouth and tell him that the Word of God is the Mouth of God and the true Prophets and Apostles in all Ages have been the Mouth of the Word of God and the Scriptures are the Writings of those holy Prophets and Apostles as they were the Mouth of the Eternal Word revealing God's Will in their Hearts that they might declare it whether by Word of Mouth or Writing to the People and this is the true Order and Descent of things § 4. But he has one Kick more at us before he gives up the Ghost in his Mis-representation of us concerning the Scriptures The Quakers hold it is a sin and the sign of Idolatry to Believe and Live according to the Instructions and holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate Inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them And now says he I am come to the highest Round of their Ladder Indeed those Rounds of Ladders are very dangerous places I will not say how often nor for what an Army Chaplin might deserve to be so high exalted but since his eager pursuit after an Innocent People has brought him actually thither and it falls to my Lot to be his Executioner I shall take all the care I can to acquit my self well of my Employment I will warrant him for ever coming down the same way he went up In order to which let us first hear what kind of Speech he will make us to the Point in hand William Dewsbury in his Discovery of Mans Return pag. 21. All People may search the Scriptures and see how you have been deceived by your Teachers who have caused you to seek your lost God in Carnal and Dead Observations which they have not any
by Jesus Christ Now unless it be an Evil for us to say that Men are accepted with God upon Christ's Inward Righteousness when the Scriptures say that the Reign of Grace through Righteousness where Sin reigned which was within Man certainly and therefore Inward is unto Eternal Life as full a word as being accepted with God I cannot see but in our holding forth Christ's Righteousness to be made ours by the Operation of his Holy Spirit in the Heart as the Efficient or Principal if not only Cause of our daily Acceptance with God we are Scripturally Orthodox § 9. We would also provide against the Malice of those Tongues who because we do allow Good Works or Fruits to be well-pleasing to God and necessary to Life Eternal do therefore rank us among the Papists as pleading for the Merit of Good Works For we lay not this second sort of Justification and much less the first upon any Exteriour Works that the very Spirit of Truth himself leads into as meerly Exteriour be they Acts of Justice Mercy Charity or such like But upon the holy Working of God's Power and Spirit in the Heart and the Creatures believing in and resigning himself up unto God to be by him renewed ordered led and disposed So that the Creature has no further Share then as he bows to the Requirings of God and contentedly acquiesceth in what it pleaseth Almighty God to do with him So our Wills there daily submitted to the Holy Will of God which is Sanctification is the Ground of our daily Acceptance with God and being received not as just by the Non-Imputation of Sins formerly committed for that alone depends upon Repentance and Faith in God's free Love to remit but as just by being actually and really made so through the Participation of the Just and Righteous Nature of Christ who is to all such Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and plentious Redemption and here we will end this Argument leaving our Faith therein with God and sober Men. I shall omit here as well as else where taking any notice of his base Revilings sordid Pedantry unworthy of a Good Christian or Man of Learning and Civility and endeavour as God shall enable me to acquit my self of the Remainder of his Book with the same Honesty Truth Reason and Brevity that I hope I have done in what I have hitherto undertaken and dispatcht CHAP. XVIII He sayes we disown the True Christ It is proved that He denies in Contradiction to himself what we deny and that we are Scriptural and Sound in our Belief And though we cannot exclude that Divinity from the true Christ Yet we also own that the true Christ took Flesh that he appeared for the Salvation of Mankind and that his bodily Appearance was instrumental in the Point Christ owned according to Scriptures § 1. HE is now arriv'd at the Root-Error of the Quakers as he is pleased to name it who is a Man of Names and such too as are Beast enough too sometimes but they may pass perhaps for Gospel-Zeal or a pretty sort of Wit amongst some of his small Companions whose Disease is to be mistaken but let 's hear him patiently The Quakers disown and deny the Christ of God and set up a false Christ in his room and stead and attribute all to that false Christ which is due and peculiar to the true Christ This is that Non-such Lye which travels to bring forth that Babel therewith their Religion abound His Proof is at hand This we certainly know and can never call the bodily Garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the Body Pennington's Quest 23 32. To which he sayes They do not deny that there was such a Man as Jesus the Son of Mary and that God or rather Christ was in him but this is no more then they profess of themselves that Christ as God is in them yet that Body of the Man Jesus which he calls here the bodily Garment he tells us they can never call Christ This Quotation he offers as explaining by another from the same Author and Book p. 20. For that which he took upon him was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature VERY RIGHT but what followeth is wofully false which is of an Earthly Perishing Nature But he is of an Heavenly Nature From whence J. Faldo infers against us That the Body Christ took upon himself of our Nature is not the Christ But before we give him off we hope through the Help of our God to prove the Contrary to be highly against Christ Scriptures and sound Reason He has done us right in two respects which may a little answer for the Ill-Language he giveth us in our Charge First That he acknowledgeth we own that there was such a Man as Jesus the Son of Mary in Contradiction to abundance of our Adversaries and that God was in him which makes up our Christ Secondly That he whom we call Christ is not J. Faldo's Christ for he was that Body only that dyed else what mean those words inferred by way of Proof against us in Defence of the Charge The Body which Christ took on him of our Nature c. and therefore they can never call that Christ intimating he doth as the following Paragraph tells us This is a plain Denying the Man Christ Jesus yet behold the Babel of the Matter who after this dare say VERY RIGHT to this part of I. Pennington's words for that which he took upon him was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature Where he manifestly implies that what he just now accounted the whole Christ and reproaches us for denying to be such is not the Christ Himself but his Garment only unless there be no Difference betwixt Christ and his Garment or that Christ was but the Garment of that more excellent Soul or Divine Being that dwelt therein which is Unscriptural and very Carnal If this Man had not charged us with what he cannot prove nay if he has not manifestly contradicted himself in his Endeavours to do it no Man was ever guilty in those Respects But that none may be stumbled by his untrue Characters of us We do believe and plainly declare and that with Holy Reverence and Fear that we cannot we dare not call the meer Body the Christ but the Body of Christ That he was after the Flesh born of the Virgin like unto us in all things Sin excepted and consequently that Body must have been of the same Nature with ours else it was not a Real but Phantastical Body is most true and if it had not been so neither could it have been a Garment of the Nature of our Flesh which is so and to which J. Faldo said just now VERY RIGHT nor could the cruel Instruments have prevail'd against his Life as they did And now whether it be most against Christ Scripture and Reason to say that that Body which was nailed upon the Cross was
and Saviour in my Question I thought them sober and I am sure I meant them of him that was before Abraham that in time appeared for the Salvation of his People however he would disinterest us in them but indeed the Way he takes to do it will do us no harm For that he may insinuate we mean another thing he calls it Playing at Blind-Man's-Buff which is worse then a Buffle headed Expression Is this your Gospel-Minister Let him go Wrastle at Morefields play Foot-ball Matches turn Ringer a Practice he pleads for in his Book leave off Prophaning the Holy Name of God with such an unhallowed Mouth and unbridled Tongue Some of my Scripture-Arguments he pretends to refute I shall mention and what he objects that both may be weighed in an equal Ballance § 5. The first Scripture by me urged is that in Genes 6. 3. My Spirit shall not alwayes strive with Man c. From whence I infer that God's unerring Spirit both did so strive either for Conviction and Conversion or to prompt to further Attainments and that they were not at that time of the World without an Infallible Spirit to Teach Rule Judge c. To which he sayes My Argument is a Thicket of Impertinences that a Body had need of good Arithmetick to number the Terms that I am a none-such for Diving if I can fetch up from this Scripture what is mention'd in this Proposition What need there is of all this little Wit a better Word for Pedantry I know not and I believe more are of my Mind but if my Consequences are so Impertinent and so Numerous that ordinary Arithmetick will not serve to reckon them and lastly so Unnatural as the Scripture will afford me not one of them I am greatly to be blamed But because what he sayes for me may be of more Force then all that I can offer let this Passage be weighed It is more then probable that the Spirit did strive with them to make them better then they were yet none of these Ends are expressed in the Text An eminent Contradiction to him and which is more to it self For if the Spirit strove to make them better then since that better consisted in a Discovery of Good and Evil with an Election of the Good and a Denyal of the Evil I would fain know of J. Faldo how that could be and the Spirit of Truth not be what I have instanced in my Argument Was it not then a Judge of what was Good from Evil A Rule how to chuse one and refuse the other A Guide to lead direct enable to the Choice and preserve in it O Weak Man Is this the Upshot of all thy poor Insults But why may not William Penn express the Scope of any Scripture in his Argument though he find not the very Words in the Text if it will bear them especially since J. Faldo himself allows it both in granting that the Spirit strove to make them better which is not verbally exprest and by his Weekly Practice of Preaching where nothing is more frequent then his Exposition and after a sort too which the Text many times will not bear But he tells me that my Question is to prove the Spirit 's Teaching indefinitely or without Difference of Persons and my Proof speaks of the Spirit 's Striving with Wicked Men. For this he cries out that I wander from Truth and Reason and am Infatuated questioning if my Conscience have any Eyes and has Impudence enough to tell me that I am beholding to him for giving no further Discovery of my Vanity and Folly c. How groundless his Cavil and Reflection are and with what rude and unhandsom Terms he is pleased to give them I need not trouble my self to shew But certainly if God affords Bad Men his Spirit to strive with them then Good Men who cannot be such without it but Sensual and Devilish rather must needs have this Holy Spirit as well to preserve them as that is made them such if so then may we conclude our Adversary Weak as well as Envious who from that Text denies my Proof of the Universality of God's Spirit For what is it but to say that though all Wicked Men have the Spirit striving Good Men have it not Whose Conscience wants Eyes at this time will not be hard to determine but sure I am it was his Wisdom to leave off where he did since his reputing my Sober Scriptural Argument Infatuation Folly c was the most evident Mark of his own he could well have given us § 6. The Second Scripture I urge and which he perverts is that in Neh. 3. 20 Thou gavest also thy Goo◠Spirit to instruct them which sayes he without being so Ingenuous as to mention much less consider and answer my Argument upon it is mainly the Spirit of God which he put upon Moses and Joshua for which he quotes Numb 11. 17. 27. 18 Psal 77. 20. But does he think us so Credulous as to receive this Stuff for Gospel Certainly we must commit the greatest Cruelty upon our Understandings to strain them to such a Fiction He might with as good Reason have said that the Pillar of Cloud by Day and Fire by Night were seen of none but Moses and Joshua as to grant they had the immediate and general Benefit of them and at the same time deny them to have had the immediate Benefit of the Spirit 's Teachings Beside had they not had some Measure of the Spirit of God they could never have known that Moses had been so inspired nor have so willingly bowed under Moses as they did and have shewn themselves so well assured of his Conduct Nor can the Objection of their Rebellion at times invalid our Reason since it were to say that they sinned not against the Spirit of God in themselves but in Moses only But because they did sin against the Holy Ghost in themselves and that it was the greatest Ground for Charging of Rebellion against them we may well conclude that they had the Spirit that is to Conviction The Scriptures he brings are no more to his purpose then the Story of Toby and his Dog For though there was the Gift of Spirit poured out upon Moses Joshua and others that was not common to the People yet this proves not that they were not without a Measure of the Unerring Spirit to teach them what was acceptable with God The Difference was not that Moses c. had the Spirit and the People had it not but that he and some others had the Spirit of Government and the People had it not But what is this for him Doth not the same Eternal Spirit that teacheth to Rule also teach People to be ruled Nay I affirm that as God did gift several by his Holy Spirit to Govern and consequently they had the Spirit so did he bestow of his Holy Spirit upon the People to enable them to live according to the
serve thee with all Sincerity for the Truth 's sake as it is in Jesus William Penn. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Introduction Our Adversary's Definition of Christianity Defective True Christianity stated Quakerism mistaken by him It is prov'd True Christianity and a Quaker a Right Christian Page 1. CHAP. II. How Christianity was introduc'd it hurts not the Quakers The Question is not of Christ's Visible Coming that is Owned by them Nor is their Religion a New One from that of Christianity but the Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity since the Reign of Anti-Christ in the World That Quakerism as call'd made its Way by Purity Sorrow and Rejoycing as well as Christianity The Priest's Vilifying Expressions Rebuk'd That the Distinct Times of their Appearance is no Argument against their Harmony or being but Two Words for the same Thing since the same Truth may appear at Two distinct Ages of the World It would strike out J. Faldo as well as the Quakers if the Contrary were admitted That he grosly Contradicts himself as to Time Christianity has more or less been in the World where Godly Men and Women have been as well before as since that Appearance We intend no New Dispensation but the Renewed Revelation of the same Power which is the True Gospel p. 11. CHAP. III. J. Faldo's Charge That the Scriptures are not the Word of God Reasons for it The Scriptures by him urg'd against us clear'd and prov'd to be for us They are the Words of the Word a Declaration of the great Law Word or Commandment but not that Law Word or Commandment p. 24. CHAP. IV. His Charge What he quotes proves it not Revelation Infallibility and Inspiration consider'd The Priest prov'd Uncertain of his own Faith Our Friends debase not the Scripture but Lift them up His Objection about our Books Titles answer'd The Use of Scripture asserted The Light vindicated from Insufficiency Something of the True Rule p. 32. CHAP. V. The Charge Stated not Proved The Scriptures not the most Excellent nor only General Rule God may speak by Instruments The Instruments not the Rule but that which useth them That the Scriptures being Obligatory does not conclude it the General Rule under the Gospel The Dis-ingenuity of our Adversary in citing the Apostle's Words Reprehended The Scriptures no Judge in that sense wherein they are not the General Rule The Scriptures Confest to p. 52. CHAP. VI. We deny the Charge His Proof no Proof but against himself We Own Believe and desire to Obey the Scriptures they afford Comfort and are as Lights in the World but not that True Light The Light and Spirit Superior to them p. 63. CHAP. VII Commands upon Conviction to be obeyed All General Commands Obligatory Particular not but upon particular Commission Our Adversary's Dis-ingenuity The Scriptures a Means by which God may be known but not the Principle p. 70. CHAP. VIII His Charge of our Denying the Scriptures any Means by which God doth enable Men to resist Temptations And that we say they are Dangerous to be read rejected His Proofs lame The Scriptures are believed to be a Means c. The true Knowledge of them Divine No Knowledge of Divine Things but upon Experience It does not destroy Faith W. Penn's Words safe and sound The Priest a meer Shuffler Learning a Servant to Truth Christ the Word of God Faith by our Adversary preferred before Scripture The Scriptures ought to be Read Believed and Obey'd p. 76. CHAP. IX That we do not put the Scripture and Holy Spirit in Opposition The Wickedness of the Priest in his Proof They accord and we acquiesce in their Testimony We do not say that they are not to be obeyed without extraordinary Apostolical Revelation as basely suggested His Proof fictitious and forged Such only are by us deny'd as are only Literal Formal Christians The Scriptures own'd and believ'd in by us according as they testifie of themselves p. 91. CHAP. X. He chargeth us with a Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel First in general then in particular His Proof of the first Invalid His great Dis-ingenuity in wresting our Words especially I. Pennington's p. 102. CHAP. XI The first of the particular Ordinances he says we deny is the Ministry His Proof lame W. P. and his Friends defended J. F. and his Gang Reproveable We own a Gospel one but not his The Calling abused by such Pretenders p. 105. CHAP. XII The Second particular Ordinance is a Gospel-Church His Definition for us by its gross Contrariety to the Scripture His base Inference of our Denial of Religious Societies and Outward Gifts from our Friends asserting of but one Catholick Church and that it is in God A Gospel-Church owned Our Adversary proved Heterodox about Apostolical Preaching Inward Sence preferr'd before Intelligence p. 112. CHAP. XIII We deny Preaching says he His Dis-ingenuity in stating our Principles We hold and practise true Gospel-Preaching No Difference between what the Light teacheth and the Scripture Our Gospel is Peace Our Adversary's is War c. True Preaching Converts our Adversary's not p. 117. CHAP. XIV His Charge of our Denial of Gospel-Prayer inverted The Prayer he pleads for Anti-Gospel True Prayer stated asserted and defended with plainness from Scripture and Reason That as well in Families as Meetings and at Meals as both False Worship detestable to God All False wherein God's Spirit is not the first and Chief Mover and Assister The Subtility of Satan in putting upon unacceptable Prayer to prevent true Prayer p. 121. CHAP. XV. His Charge of our Denial of Baptism and the Sacraments introduc'd with a Discourse of positive Commands Destructive of the Foundation of Religion The Priest against God Scripture and Reason He confounds himself Baptism of Water prov'd John's and not to continue Mat. 28. 19. 1 Cor. 1. 17. Ephes 4. 5. cleared and vindicated The One Spiritual Baptism defended p. 129. CHAP. XVI The Supper he says we deny not denyed but fulfill'd The Scriptures consulted No Perpetuity proved That it was a Sign and that Signs were done away in Christ demonstrated The present Practice in the Case not Primitive Our Faith left with God in the Matter p. 141. CHAP. XVII His Charge of our Denying Christ's Transactions to influence into our Justification consider'd His Proofs not for him His Abuse of our Friends words Justification distinguished upon as Remission and as daily Acceptance The Transactions of Christ largely own'd by us The Scriptures confirm our Faith in Christ as a general and particular Saviour No Works of Man Meritorious p. 147. CHAP. XVIII He says we disown the True Christ It is prov'd that He denies in Contradiction to himself what we deny and that we are Scriptural and sound in our Belief And though we cannot exclude that Divinity from the true Christ Yet we also own that the true Christ took Flesh that he appeared for the Salvation of Mankind and that his Bodily Appearance was instrumental in the Point Christ
had of the Love Purity Justice Mercy Goodness and Recompence of God for such as in any Age could come to God did first know that God was and that he was a Rewarder of all those that did draw nigh unto him to obtain which knowledg God had manifested it in man for he had shown it there unto him I say those who so retained the Sence of God in their knowledg were not aggriev'd Christianity should take Place for they measuring things as they inwardly felt them were proper Judges of Gods Rising and Breaking forth among the Sons of Men they could feel him leading out of and beyond the Use of those Elements which were once added because of Weakness and now became beggarly by a brighter Glory An inward sense being that they kept to as the more sure Word as they felt a with-drawing of the divine Life Power Spirit out of those inferiour Institutions they followed it not staying in any outward dispensation because God had been there if he had once left it But such as were Litteral Formal Exact Critical they were the Persons who having least of the Divine Sight and Sense of God's goings among the Sons of Men they contended for God's Exteriour Appointments as that they were signally given Good Men had Practised them and are we Wiser then our Fathers No we will have our Reasons indeed Darkness satisfied in the Matter Behold the Pharisee and Greek of Old to whom Christ's outward Appearance was to the one a Stumbling Block and to the other Foolishness and the many-headed Professor now who esteems no better of his Spiritual Manifestation in the Hearts of the Children of Men. O! what will the End be of the Gawdy Obstinate Hypocrites of this Age who resist so great Salvation Tribulation and Anguish forever unless they repent for what Men Sow that they shall Reap and who have improved their Talent shall enter into the Joy of their Lord. § 10. Well But when came this Quakerism into the world he tells us about the year 1651. quoting E. B's Epistle before G. F's Gr. Mist also a small Treatise writ by J. Whitehead and J. Pennington from whence he infers that Quakerism is a Late Dispensation therefore not that of Christianity But certainly this Man hath taken a very Quick Course to Un-Christian himself and all the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists in the World as well as the Quakers For I would ask him if there was not a Time since the Primitive Age wherein Darkness had overspread the Earth the Beast did Reign and the Pure Religion was wholly Wildernest If So Consequently the Resurrection of Truth is no more a New Dispensation or not that of Christianity then a Man that is exiled his Country is not essentially the same Man when he returns that he was before And so far is my Argument for those Separatists that though I take them to be short of the True Evangelical Faith and Righteousness yet I acknowledg them to have a Reformation unknown in that thick Apostacy which has couer'd the World and Ecclipst the blessed Light of the Glorious Gospel that shin'd in the first Ages after Christ But since we are of another Religion by his Account then the Christian because we cannot say that we were alwayes successively from the Apostles Time I will argue that the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists are not Christians nor is what they profess to be esteem'd Christianity because they cannot prove a Regular Succession from the Apostles Times their Date also being of later years What will they say then The Church was fled into the Wilderness Truth exil'd God as a stranger in the Earth yet Truth still the same in it self Very well so say we God was pleas'd to Renew the Right Christian Dispensation to us and by us according to John's Vision that the Everlasting Gospel was preacht again intimating that their had been a Time wherein it was not preacht If this be not a New Gospel because anew or again preacht neither is that which J. Faldo calls Quakerism a New Dispensation because it is Preaching anew the Everlasting Gospel to the Sons of Men which is God's Power inwardly manifested for the Conviction Conversion Redemption and Salvation of the Souls of such as believe in it § 11. And though he particularly seems to Triumph over Isaac Pennington's Distinguishing between the Dispensation of Moses Christ and his Apostles and THIS of our Day as if they had been three several Dispensations and consequently if Christ's was not that of Moses because it swallow'd it up neither this the Dispensation of Christ which J. Pennington saith it swallows up yet to me it seems a pittiful Catch and shows he knows not how to take things with that Candor they are writ J. P. means not a Distinct Administration in Kind but Dispensation of one and the same Light Life and Power by Nature at several Times and sundry Manners to the World Christ was before the Law under the Law with the Prophets but never so revealed as in that Holy Manhood will it therefore follow he was not Antecedent to that Appearance or He that appeared then more gloriously had never shown himself before Or because of a Difference in Manifestation therefore not the same HE through all those several Manifestations in himself Certainly this Man is very Unjust to J. P. especially when the Words above quoted that speak of a Dispensation he experienced a little before God broke forth by us called Quakers could have informed him that he meant the Divers Breakin gs forth of God's Light and Truth in order to the full Discovery and Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity So that this present Appearance swallowing up all going before it had so term'd it as he doth not and therefore wrong'd is no more then God's Retriving to us the Ancient Gospel with additional Blessings and Assistances giving us the same Life and Foundation they had and what else he pleased by way of Improvement which alters not the Nature no more then a Child in Christ is not that Numerical Creature but another Distinct Being when a Man And if this Account of Things will not satisfie him he may chuse I have thus far cleared the Truth and those who sincerely profess it and therein my own Conscience both to God and the World CHAP. III. J. Faldo's Charge That the Scriptures are not the Word of God Reasons for it The Scriptures by him urg'd against us clear'd and prov'd to be for us They are the Words of the Word a Declaration of the great Law Word or Commandment but not that Law Word or Commandment § 1. THis Chapter will concern the Scriptures more directly in which we hope to prove that not We but our Adversary is mistaken with respect to what he chargeth upon us § 2. He intitles his Chapter thus That the Quakers Deny the Scriptures I was almost astonisht at it because he pretended to prove all out of our own Books
two Passages in Exodus and Samuel concern only particular Cases at a time when not a third part of the Scriptures were written as our Adversary will confess And for that in the Ephesians 't is manifest that the Scriptures are not the Spiritual Sword or Sword of the Spirit which are subject to so many Casualities as they are therefore not the Word of God whose Edge never blunts For as is the Spirit such is the Sword and such the Word to wit Living Spiritual Powerful which the Scriptures of themselves I think all will or should acknowledg are not I will not stick to confess also that a Word of Advice a Word of Counsel a Word of Reproof and a Word of Comfort lodge in the Scripture or the Scriptures with respect to the Times wherein they were given forth and now daily as brought home to the Conscience by the One Word of God who gave them first forth are Words of Truth Knowledg Wisdom Love Reproof Exhortation Edification c. yet never can we be brought to attribute unto the Declaration that Title which is peculiarly due to Him whose Declaration it is A Prince may express his Mind in Words but those Words are not that Prince neither can any one of his Titles as a Living Prince be properly given to his said Declaration Nor have we any other Way to Distinguish between the Word and Words Commandment and Commandments the Thing It self and those Expressions by which it doth declare it self then the Word of God and the Words of the Word which are Words of God or Holy Writings Holy with respect to the Matter or Truth they treat of § 8. But here J. Faldo steps in and seems to offer an Expedient in this Streight Says he Though you say they are not the Word of God eminently and I believe so too for the Scriptures cannot be the Word of God in that Sense wherein Christ is yet you may call them the Written Word of God for so we Distinguish them Truly this seems pretty modest though here we must part too unless he will come a little nearer For neither can the Word of God properly be said to be written The Words by which the Mind or Will of the Word is exprest may be recorded and as such a True Declaration but it is as Impossible for the Word of God to be written as it would be for a Prince or Senate to be written or contained in Letters though their Will and Pleasure may be largely declared by a Writing because it would be to say that the Word of God could grow Old Decay be Lost mis-Rendred Corrupted Transcribed Reprinted Corrected and be Subjected to Fire Water Vermin c. which were impossible So would it be an absolute Derogation from the Dignity peculiarly Due to the Living Word of God to give that which is its proper Title to any thing beneath its Living Powerful Quickning Self He has a Scripture or two for us I have written to him the great Things of my Law A sharp Rebuke says he to the Objecters against the Written Word of God but I don't see it for my share The great Things of the Law Word or Commandment which are required may be written but that doth not follow that the Eternal Law Word or Commandment Requiring is a written Law Word or Commandment but the Contrary And for Moses Writings of which Christ spoke 't is manifest they were not call'd the Word of God but the Word of God himself call'd them Writings § 9. But J. Faldo objects on t'other hand that he much feareth the Scriptures will lose of their Authority with People in case they should not be so acknowledg'd and at last he falls so down right upon us that he boldly but weakly concludes who Deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God deny them in every respect For who Denyes them that Title denyes what they have been generally Known by Distinguisht from and Lifted up above all other Writings and that Appellation on which is grounded their Authority and which puts an Awe upon the Consciences of Men. How Weak and Vain this is I could freely leave to the Reader without any further Consideration But that it might not be thought by any therefore Unanswerable I will say That to call them the Words of God and declared Mind and Will of God to Mankind is no such Diminutive Title but altogether Worthy of them § 10. If we do Deny to them what has been wrongly Attributed that no ways Lessens their Authority but Corrects the Mistake of those who thought of them beyond what they really are It is a poor Begging of the Question to say We Deny them that which many have Ascrib'd to them Their Authority is grounded upon the Living Word of God and who comes to that Honours the Scripture aright and who Err from the Holy Conduct of it their Verbal Praises of the Scripture are but like the Pharisees Painting the Prophets Sepulchres whilst they were Persecutors of One greater then the Prophets And who knows not how much the Shell hath had ascrib'd unto it the Honour only due to its Substance by those Watchmen of the Night whose Dark Minds could see no farther § 11. And for the Awe they have upon Men this is my Judgment and I am not asham'd of it that Attributing so much to the Letter of the Scriptures and Declining that Regard Men ought to have had unto the Holy Living Word of God that alone creates all things New and was the Author of and Rule to those sound Words themselves hath Rob'd the Living Word of God of its True and Rightfull Honour and rendred Mens Hearts more Formal and less Aweful then they would otherwise have been So that the only Way for People to come to a True Sight of Sincere Respect for and Grounded Belief in the Holy Scriptures is to be turned to the Voice of the Living Powerful Word of God from whom they came which is nigh unto every one to Direct and Order and Discipline to and in that Way of Holiness they testifie of and which Leads to Eternal Happiness CHAP. IV. His Charge What he quotes proves it not Revelation Infallibility and Inspiration consider'd The Priest prov'd Uncertain of his own Faith Our Friends debase not the Scripture but Lift them up His Objection about our Books-Titles answer'd The Use of Scripture asserted The Light vindicated from Insufficiency Something of the True Rule § 1. HIs Fourth and next Chapter to be examin'd endeavours to prove That we Equal our Writings and Sayings to the Scriptures and preferr them before the Scriptures In this Undertaking he must either prove what he asserts from our own Writings expresly or consequentially To run through every Quotation he makes would be as Tedious as Importinent But a few of what make most to his Purpose I will faithfully observe with his Inferences § 2. He begins with a Book Intituled Love to the Lost and so
ours can No but with respect to that Principle which it directs to and is able to tell a man All that ever he did The only Spiritual Glass and which the best of Writings fall short of Precepts and Traditions of Men Morn Watch p. 18. Truth 's Principles Title of Crook ' s Book Reconcil It is deny'd that ever any such Words were ever spoken or written of the holy Scriptures as Precepts and Traditions of Men for they contain the holy Precepts and Traditions of the Word of God who is God himself it is base and unworthy thus to mince and mis represent our Writings For Truth 's Principles it signifies no more then the Declaration of what we believe as the very beginning of the Book expresly proves That Light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell me what one Scripture hath Light in it Lip of Truth p. 7. Light risen out of Darkness Title of Farnsworth's Book Reconcil There is not Light in the Scriptures that is there is not Living Spiritual Essential Light in the Scriptures or by way of Excellency but a descriptive and declarative Light they carry with them of the true Light the Author of those excellent Things therein mention'd In which Sense alone do we understand Richard Farnsworth's Title God having caused his Light to spring out of Darkness and he being then the Witness of it testified to the Truth thereof by a Declaration to the World of what he knew in the Matter He did not say That Book was that Light for so it had never been before him that writ it and the Writings of it and what Casualities the Book was or is liable to would fal upon the Light though he bears Record to an Everlasting Spiritual Light that shines Within where his Book cannot be But rather that he knew and witnessed the Visitation of the Day-spring of God's Eternal Light of Life to the World he writ his Book to give Notice thereof calling it by that Name because his Subject treated on doth manifestly import so much not that the Book was that Holy and Eternal Light § 10. Let it suffice to all impartial People that we only desire to make a Difference betwixt the Writings and the Thing written of and to the Eternal Overthrow of our Adversaries not wholly without their own Help since they think the Titles we give our Books very Glorious in themselves most unworthy of them but proper to the Scriptures whom they say we slight Let it be consider'd that not one of those Books is destitute of Scripture but is either generally in a Scripture Style or particularly defended by plenty of express Scriptures cited therefore of Necessity they the Scriptures must also partake with them in Common of those famous Titles And thus far have they the Preference that they are quoted on purpose to give the Truth we write of greater Credit what is that greater Credit but to be exactly agreeable with themselves so that our Adversaries Argument amounts to thus much They therefore prefer their own Writings before the Scriptures because they in all their Writings earnestly endeavour by numerous Quotations to prove what they write to be according to the Scriptures Behold Reader how at one Blow we fall The whole Chapter of this Fallible Errable Uncertain Busie Priest with respect to his Charge of our preferring our own Writings before the Scriptures § 11. But there remain two Things to be considered before we close this Chapter First his untrue Inferences Secondly his base Comparison of us with the Papists with Design to render us Odious to all that abominate their Idolatry First That the Scriptures both are and ever were Superfluous for the Light within as they pretend was alwayes fitted to Inspire every Man and Woman in the same Manner and to all Intents and Purposes as they were inspired and written Which how just and true it is we do reserve the Examination of it to God's Witness in the Conscience of the Reader Only this much I will say that though all Ability was and is in Him whom we declare to be the Light of all Mankind to Reveal the whole Mind of God yet in as much as very few in all Ages were so resigned up to the Holy Conduct of it as they ought to have been the Lord hath put it into the Hearts of Many to stir up the Negligent and Sloathful by a Reminding them with that Counsel in outward Writings or other Verbal Testimonies which they had long slighted in themselves that it might Instrumentally work upon them unfeigned Repentance and Conversion to God Therefore went God's Messengers forth Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little But this I affirm and that in the Name of the Lord against the uttermost Strength of this Busie Priest that had those Prodigal◠in all Ages lived up to that Measure of Divine Light the Talent God gave to every Individual there had not been any such need for those Messages Wherefore the Occasion of them was not for want of any sufficient Gift from God but because of their own Rebellion Nay they were the Testimonies of the very Light of Christ in the Prophets and Apostles who were Heirs and Children of Light which they gave forth at divers Times in their several Ages as God pleased to move upon their Spirits with respect to Mankind so that still it was the Light within which so reprov'd and exhorted But suppose that the World had not been so Rebellious neither will it follow but that a slow Improvement of the Heavenly Gift might have occasioned many Divine Exhortations yea the Exercises of Mens Spirits as Davids for Instance in reference to the Spiritual Travel might for the Benefit of others have been written Let us suppose the highest State of Deliverance and Praise Men are capable of arriving at in this World yet Epistles of divine Love Experience heavenly Praises c. might have been transmitted from Church to Church as of the Flock and Family of God Therefore I utterly deny that the Perfection of the Light 's Teachings makes the Scriptures superfluous much less the general best Attainments that have been and now are in the World § 12. But that any Man so conceited of his Abilities as J. Faldo should so basely mistake Reason and abuse his Reader as to infer from the Ability of the Light in It self whether obey'd or not obey'd the Uselesness of the Scriptures or Testimonies of holy Men to the World is Ground for just Censure and severe Rebuke for it were to say that because a Master is of himself able enough therefore all Books are superfluous The Scripture don't argue the Insufficiency of the Light since so the Instrument would rise against its Principal but the Insufficiency of the Creature in which condition Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept may by the Light within good Men be given forth to invite and encourage Man to yield Obedience to the Conviction
the best of Heathens and Quakers walking up to the Light within and to affirm for all that the Quakers have to judge to the contrary they acted by a Divine Power Ranking the Quakers Faith in Christ upon an Equality in Evil with their horrid Blasphemies The Top of all Uncharitableness a very Lye for this is to say That the best worst of Heathens were all alike that they wanting Scriptures could not rightly discern the Difference between the Bad and Good that those who live up to that Light as he cannot deny the Quakers to do in a great measure are but in Julian the Apostate and scoffing Lucians Ranck In short that the Quakers Believing in one God that he has Enlightned all Men that he has Striven by his Light and Spirit in the Consciences of Men through all Ages and by it in the Hearts and Mouths of his Prophets and above all by that blessed Appearance of Christ Jesus who Tabernacl'd among Men in that Body prepared for that purpose who there in preach't the heavenly Kingdom within worked Miracles laid down his Life for the World rose again and ascended to the Father leading Captivity captive and gave Gifts for Men that who believes in him and takes up his Cross shall be his Disciple and persevering have Everlasting Life That the Quakers Faith I say in this Solemn Conscientious Manner upon which they place the Eternal Happiness of their Souls should scarely be a Jot better then the APOSTACY OF JULIAN AND THE IMPIETY OF LUCIAN AND BUT ONLY SERVE TO RENDER US AS GREAT DESPISERS AND CONTEMNERS OF CHRIST AND ALL HIS RELIGION AS THEY WERE O strange Comparison̄ Well they tell us of a Book coming out of our Hard Sayings to our Opposers But match this impartial Reader But however the Devil blinds and hardens this J. Faldo sure I am the Devil himself knows better What shall I say Truly nothing more but leave it with the Righteous God of Heaven and Earth to plead our Cause in the Hearts of all People and avenge himself upon his Adversaries to whom Vengeance belongs § 16. For his Comparison of us with the Papists we little heed it He tells the World the Papists own Revelation which he proves at large and the Quakers hold Revelation also Therefore the Quakers are Papists or very near them as his Story indeed an arrant Lye either in him or the Papist will inform us where he says that a Papist upon being ask't which of all Sects in England approach'd them most replyed the Quakers How near we are to the Papists in Faith Worship and Discipline shall be left to them that know and have seen more then this conceited Priest But Argumentum ad hominem Thus The Papists own a God a Trinity of Persons c. and J. Faldo owns a God and a Trinity of Persons also therefore J. Faldo is a Papist or very near a Kin to one Would this be just If not neither is his Conclusion of Force against us What is Truth is not discommendable where ever and by whatsoever held It is high Weakness to exclaim against true Christians for holding any Truth in common with the very Turks and much more Condemnable to conclude them Turks But we must be run down if they can and therefore no matter what ugly Skin they cast over us so the Dogs will but fasten The Lord God plead our Cause on Earth CHAP. V. The Charge Stated not Proved The Scriptures not the most Excellent nor only General Rule God may speak by Instruments The Instruments not the Rule but that which useth them That the Scriptures being Obligatory does not conclude it the General Rule under the Gospel The Disingenuity of our Adversary in citing the Apostle's words Reprehended The Scriptures no Judge in that sense wherein they are not the General Rule The Scriptures Confest to § 1. HIs Fifth Chapter designs to Prove That we Deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversies And that he may sufficiently prejudice his Reader against us and our most Holy Faith He not only tells him that to deny them to be the Word of God is a good Reason why he should conclude us to deny them to be a Rule though at the same time it manifestly shows that we would acknowledge them to be such were they the Word of God and that therefore the Word of God is our Rule but he suggests that we believe a Conformity to their Guidance cannot render a prophane Man less prophane To prove this he quotes James Parnel thus And he also that saith The Letter is the Rule and Guide of the People of God is without feeding upon the Husks and is ignorant of the true Light which was before the Letter was Shield of Truth p. 10. William Smith thus And if thou lookest upon the Scripture to be for a Rule and for Trying thou givest that unto them which is due unto Christ for He is the Rule and leads his People and he alone searches the Hearts and tryes the Reins and not the Scripture Again But if you will see a Mouth full of Blasphemies against the Authority of the Scripture read with Horror and Amazement the following words God is at Liberty to speak to his People by them if he please and where they are given by Inspiration he doth so but says J. Faldo the Sting is behind and in the Tayl of this non-such Sentence and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass Nayl Light of Christ c. p. 19. In Answer to all which he says just nothing but thinks it is enough to have cited these Passages and seems to triumph as reasonably as the Man which dreamt he did eat but awaket anhungry delighted himself in his sleeping Feast Let us trie to rouse him out of this Lethargy of Ignorance and Conceit § 2. I shall freely confess that for the same Reasons that we deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God we cannot own them as the General Rule of Faith But also as we acknowledge them to be the Words of the holy living and powerful Word of God so that they express and declare unto us many holy Rules for Godliness and I declare in the Name of all the Right-born Quakers in the World that we utterly reject all such as Deny the Scriptures to be profitable for Reprehension Instruction Exhortation and Eaification How vain then is this Man's Impeachment of us as Persons void of all true Respect for them § 3. In short as the Scriptures are not the Word of God but a Declaration of the Word of God so the Scriptures are not the general Rule but a Declaration of the true general Rule which I prove thus That which alwayes was and is a more general Rule then the Scriptures must needs be and is most properly THE general Rule and not the Scriptures but that was and is the Light
of God in the Hearts of Men Consequently not the Scriptures but the Light was is most properly The general Rule The middle Proposition only to be excepted against is clear in that before the Scriptures were writ and since where they have not been known Men have been are Convinc'd Reprov'd Inclined Taught Order'd and Ruled by the inward Appearance of God's Light in the Conscience And among those who are called Christians let them be just to God and their own Souls and they must confess that there is something very near them when the Scriptures are quite remote both from their Persons and their Thoughts which upon any Miscarriage is as a swift Witness to smite and upon the approach of Temptation is as quick to warn and diswade the Mind from falling into the Foulness of it Is not this then more Living Immediate and General that neither Sea nor Land Day nor Night nor any condition but a Seared Conscience can exempt People or deliver them from the secret living and sensible Touches of this holy Witness whether they be to Counsel Justifie or Condemn This searcheth the Heart this tryeth the Reins of which David said It had made him Wiser then his Teachers who read and expounded the outward Law unto him § 4. And indeed it is unworthy of the Excellency of the Administration of Life it self more glorious then that of Condemnation the State of the Law that an outward Book though declaratory of never so much good and not the Good it self should be the sole general Rule of such as are under it What is it but to subject the Spirituallity of the Gospel to the Letter of the Law And thus much worse that then it self they had either the daily Living Voice of God or a Law engraven on Stone whilst the Scriptures which they call the present Gospel Rule are but in Paper But can any true Christian think that God is so wanting to his Promise who promised to Write a Law in the Hearts of his People as to bound them by meer Literal Prescripts No surely but much rather that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which he promised to write in the Hearts of Men and Women should be the Rule of this Administration which is a Living Powerfull Rule present upon all Occasions and in all straights and ready to assist with Counsel Wisdom and Knowledge all who act agreeably to the Mind of God who will reward every Man according to his Works So that J. Parnel and W. S. their Expressions are clear'd For J. N's the last of the three it was not written in Derision of Scripture as is unworthily suggested but to prove that God is not limited to Instruments God whose holy Spirit is the living substantial Rule may appear after divers Manners either by bringing into the very Conscience the Truth of some weighty Passage in the Scripture or by a Ministry or any other Way yea by Balaams Ass to Balaam and that without Blasphemy or Prophaneness For by whom or what may not the Almighty direct the Sons of Men still it was not so mean a Creature as an Ass which God spoke by to aggravate the Stupidity of Balaam and greaten the Miracle No Nor the Apostles themselves much less their Writings but the Word of the Lord that was as a Fire to the Workers of Iniquity and Sanctification and Reconciliation to them that believe it That was the True Rule wherefore said the Prophet Hear the Word of the Lord. What Word that nigh in the Heart which Moses and Paul preach'd Still the outward Instrument is not the Rule the Prophet is not the Rule the Apostle is not the Rule much less are their Writings being they are but all external Instruments And this I will abide by against all the Insults of our Enemies by God's Assistance that both they are but such Instruments and that such Instruments are not the Gospel-Rule but that Light Life Power or Spirit which useth them and who attributes that Honour to the Instrument which is due to the chief Mover in it or by it commits down-right Idolatry Therefore what is flung upon the Quakers by their Adversaries is more justly chargeable upon their Adversaries But we cannot help it if that People will not work through the Outward to the Inward the Writings or Persons to the Light Life and Power that employ them for any Use or Service in the World Nor shall we ever be condemned of God that we therefore decline to attribute those Titles to the Scriptures otherwise worthy above all Books which are only due to that which gave them forth especially since what we believe in the Matter is with an holy Fear and Reverence towards our God and Good-Will towards all Men. § 5. But he Objects 1 That what is therein affirmed by the Lord we ought to believe proved from Christ's Words O Fools and slow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luk. 24 25. 2 That what is thereby commanded not being repeal'd by the coming of Christ it is our Duty to obey Deut. 5. 34. 3 That the holy Scriptures do in their kind determine or discover to us whether we believe and walk or practice aright or not proved hence All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be Perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works and herein all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets do I excercise my self to have a Conscience void of Offence 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Acts 24. 16. To all which I say we do with him acknowledge that whatever the Lord hath by his Prophets and Apostles who writ the Scripture affirmed and required taking in his Exception about Christ's Coming it is our Duty both to Believe and Obey so that there is no Difficulty in that Matter For the last Passage there is some sober Scruple in our Minds about it For there are manifest Contests in the World both about Faith and Practice They result not from the Scriptures I grant but that they proceed from Mens wrong Apprehensions of Scripture in a great Measure that I affirm and I know no Man so stupid as to deny Now I would fain know which way those wrong Apprehensions are to be rectified He says by Scripture I say Not for the Key is wanting What is that Key may some say The Spirit of Truth who gave them forth Who can explain any Man's Mind so well as Himself in a Matter wherein he is not rightly understood or it is hard to understand Him And if none but what is indued with Reason is capable of understanding a Rational Proposition Neither can any Man whatever understand spiritual Propositions or Propositions about spiritual Matters in the Scriptures but by the Illumination of the Holy Spirit in some Degree or other This is so clear that the Sun is
not more obvious at Noon-day in a clear Sky then this must be to all Discerning Minds so that the Scriptures though professedly own'd by us to be Instrumental to the Knowledge of that Doctrine of Reproof and Instruction in Righteousness weightily mention'd by the Apostle Paul for certainly they do declare to us very Excellent Precepts and Rules yet they are so far from being THE General and Absolute Rule that the very Light or Spirit of Christ is and ought to be our Rule how far which Way and to what End we are to believe and practise them And I cannot forbear at this time though I have often done so to shew the horrible perversion of Scripture this Man is guilty of in the last of these two Scriptures by him quoted for Proof of the Third Head The Apostle in his Defence against the Publick Orator of the Jews tells the Governour then present among other Passages that though he was no Disturber as accused yet said he I confess that after the Way which they call Heresie do I Worship the God of my Fathers Believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets and have Hope towards God which they themselves also allow that there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and the Unjust § 6. Now brings in J. Faldo these words all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets do I exercise my self to have a Conscience void of Offence towards God and toward Men. I do say this is a perversion of Scripture for he hath First left out that which is more applicable to the Words and put that only in which is least so and Next he has done it in the same Character by which common Readers may be mistakenly strengthned against us this is plain And for the former I affirm that it could not be so proper in the Apostle to say he was exercised in his Belief of the Law and the Prophets as in that Way of Worship they call'd Heresie and his Hope of a Resurrection both left out by our Adversary Nor is such a Use of his words sutable to the Condition Paul was in For he having out-stript both the Law and Prophets and being brought to a Brighter Day and more Excellent Dispensation he cannot be so rightly said to have been exercised in that he had left behind him as in the Work of his own Day which fulfill'd and swallow'd up the other Dispensations as but Fore-runners of it which was that spiritual Worship Christ set up and he worshipp'd the God of his Fathers in and endeavour'd to gather others to though they reputed it Heresie and that Hope of the Resurrection of both Just and Unjust which they themselves pretended to own What then could be Paul's Meaning in that Confession to the Law and Prophets I Answer what is ours to the World before whom we stand charg'd by the Professors Tertullus J. Faldo at this Day namely that though he preach'd a further Glory and they therefore accused him of Undervaluing the Law and the Prophets becoming an Heretick Seducer and what not as this Man doth us he then as we now made his Defence confest to the Law and the Prophets yet testified to a more Spiritual Worship but unto which they prophetically tended Whence we observe 1 The greatest Enemies to the Spirituallity of that Evangelical Dispensation where the greatest Professors of a Literal Religion the only seeming Admirers of the Scriptures and earnest Contenders for the Faith and Religion once delivered to the Fathers at least as they pretended 2 That they were wont to account such as were eminent Promotors of the Gospel Contemners at least Slighters of the Law and the Prophets What need I say any more Behold a Parallel as plain as Light it self The Literal Jews then the Literal Christians now the Spiritual Jews then the Spiritual Christians now § 7. But one Passage more The Holy Scriptures determine according to their kind or as much as a WRITING can do whether we believe or practise aright or not For sayes he Those who come under the Executative Determination of Laws do find that Process in Writing doth not loose its Force for the Decrees and Sentences being put into that Form To his Assertion and the Instance he brings to prove it I will return this Answer To say the Scriptures determine as far as a WRITING CAN does our Adversaries business I mean for us since it manifestly implies that it is not so determinative of all Cases as some thing else may be which is a more Living Immediate and Infallible Judge then a WRITING is or can be and we will grant that the Scriptures do determine as much as any Writing in the World can do unless God would please immediately and more full to Reveal something less clearly laid down in the Scriptures and then should require that Revelation to be Written for Men must have a care of limiting either his Power or Will If J. Faldo had at the beginning of his Opposition to the Quakers Belief in the Scriptures well consider'd this I am of opinion that either he would have never given himself and us the trouble of so much needless Discours or have been so Careful of his Cause as never to have wounded it with this fatal Blow that the Scriptures can determin as far as a Writing will go Nothing to the Question at all which lyes here Whether any the best Writing or the Spirit of Truth that gave it forth is Judge and as far from his purpose as quite loosing of his Cause amounts to Again § 8. His Instance about the Law is lame for the good Laws of any Land are but Reason Written or rather declared by writing which is oblieging against the Corruption of a Judge but not the Reason of the Judge Neither is the Law the Judge but there is a Judge who interprets and speaks from the fresh Discoveries of his own Reason the Meaning and Intendment of those written Laws If the Laws be Sufficient without a Judge why is there a Judge If then they are Dark Obscure and Doubtful in many Cases so as to need a Judge and Interpreter which I call Living and Immediate Reason then since the Scriptures are Writings in which are many Things very Difficult to be understood it follows that there must be an immediate Living Judge which must be therefore the Spirit of Truth that gave them forth because none Knows the things of God save the Spirit of God and that those who are the Makers of Laws are the only Persons who are fit to judge and determine in Case of Difficulty by a declaration of their Mind or Intention in any such obscure Passage So that if J. Faldo should write a Thousand Years against the Quakers he would never be able to weather this one Passage in which he has most evidently subjected the Scriptures to a more Living Spiritual and Immediate Judge then any meer Writing
they resist the Grace grieve the Spirit turn from the Way of the Light and are in a State of Death God hath been frequently pleased to move in the Hearts of the Obedient to visit the Rebellious that the Inward Strivings of the Holy Spirit might be the more Efficacious by its Strivings through some Outward Instruments but still it is the same Light Grace or Spirit of God Nor is the Light within any whit the more Insufficient to reclaim the Rebellious if minded for it is the same Light with that which moves in the Hearts of the Obedient to bear Record for God against their Ungodly Deeds Only Mens Minds being far strayed from that Holy Light or Word in the Heart and gone abroad into the wide World of Lusts and Vanities it hath pleased God to visit Mankind so degenerated by those who have been Obedient Children to the End they might be the more easily gained to a Subjection unto the Holy Light in themselves so that all Conviction and Conversion are to be ascribed to the Light Grace and Spirit of God whether immediately in the Creature or mediately by any Instrument Only take this by the way that whatsoever is Efficacious mediately is not to be understood simply of another Man's Measure of Light or Grace but in Conjunction with what God hath given and may be at work in the Party convicted and converting for every Mediate Conviction gives and Addition of Life and Strength to the Immediate Conviction that is wrought by the Operation of that so long neglected Measure of Light Grace or Truth in the particular Conscience We appeal then to every Impartial Person that reads us if we own not the Scriptures in that very Sense he would have People believe that we deny them to wit That God may and doth speak to People through the Writings of the Holy Prophets and Apostles which are commonly call'd Scriptures and consequently we do not deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ and Our selves so often as it shall please the Eternal God to reach into the Hearts of Men by any of those Truths therein declared of CHAP. VIII His Charge of our denying the Scriptures any means by which God does enable Men to resist Temptations and that we say they are Dangerous to be read rejected His Proofs Lame The Scriptures are believ'd to be a means c. The true Knowledge of them Divine No Knowledge of Divine Things but upon Experience It does not destroy Faith W. Penn's Words safe and sound The Priest a meer Shuffler Learning a Servant to Truth Christ the Word of God Faith by our Adversary prefer'd before Scripture The Scripture ought to be Read Believ'd and Obey'd § 1. HE further charges us with denying the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation and that we say That they are Dangerous to be read For Proof of which he quotes a Book called Love to the Lost and mine Entituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated The first is this For those only are Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God to whom they who were led by the Letter were Enemies From whence he concludes That we account it a very dangerous thing to read the Scriptures Now if this Passage hath any relation to his Charge or Conclusion no Man ever saw the like the whole Scope of which is but this That there are Children of the Fleshly Literal and Historical Knowledge of the Scriptures and Religion who are Strangers to and therefore Persecutors of the Children born of the Spirit And that in all Ages there hath been more or less of this among Inward and Outward Jews and Christians and let J. Faldo deny it if he dare How Wicked then is he to extort indeed invent an Inference so forreign to the Matter and then charge it upon the Quakers in general and as if it were prov'd by that Passage in particular which can no wayes be concern'd in any such Unrighteous Doctrine I perceive it is as impossible for our Adversaries to do any thing against us without they have the Making of our Consequences as we are sure to find them mis-shapen enough by that time they get clear of their Hands but blessed be the Name of our God who has given us an Understanding and Boldness both to search the Reins of our Enemies Cause and defend his which he has put into our Hands in this our Day § 2. But hear him further if it may be worth while That this Abominable Tenet is the Quakers Take one Instance more out of their Famous Author W. P. or William Penn. But I will assure them they shall grope in the Dark till they come into the dayly Obedience of the Light and there rest contented to know only as they experience and not from a ravening comprehending Brain that would in its Unregenerated State grasp at the clear Mysteries of the Kingdom into which Fleshly Comprehensions and Notions can never enter but all must be as Unlearned from their first Birth Education and Traditional read Knowledge as he is unman'd that is again become a little Child before the Secrets of God's Work come to be made known Spir. Truth Vind. p. 23. Upon which hear his Comment That W. P. of all others should talk at this rate is most Ridiculous What! Know only as they experience know what God is no farther then they experience Can we experience his Omnipotency What! Know the Death of the Man Christ Jesus the Life to come and judging of all Men by the Lord Jesus only by Experience Where is Faith all the while If none but Believers are Saints such as W. P. are professedly none If Reader we are got beside the Matter charg'd against the Quakers to wit that they deny the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation our wandring Adversary who led me thither is only to be blam'd But since I am here I shall endeavour to clear the Truth and My self before we return to the Point in hand It cannot be so ridiculous in W. P. to assert the Impossibility of any Man 's Knowing God or the Things belonging to his Everlasting Kingdom but by Experience or as God hath been pleased by the Inspiration or Illumination of his Light or Spirit to demonstrate or discover unto Mankind as it is Impious and Antichristian in J. Faldo to assert the Right Knowledge of God obtainable any other way then by Experience And this Reader choaks J. Faldo and the rest of his Partners more then they are willing their Followers should know who for all their Cries against us as Overturners of a Gospel and Establishers of a Legal Righteousness dread the Consequence of having their own Strivings Runnings Willings and Literal Knowledge laid aside in which their Life Faith Worship and whole Religion mostly stand and of being reduced to the very Alphabet of Inward and Experimental Religion where the Righteous Judgements of
would allow some Grains for Ill-Printing to us especially who have not the Press open nor those Advantages for Well-Printing which our Adversaries Enjoy that Day is not yet come to us J. Faldo's Title is Imprimatur enough we swim against the Stream such as be with it But God can and will turn the Rivers of Waters and make the Sea Dry Land Vincit qui patitur § 10. But once more hear him What is to my present purpose is in the last part of his saying All must be as unlearned from their traditional read Knowledg as he is unman'd c. Where he falls out of all bounds upon us and draws this Consequence and asks these Questions Sure the Scripture-Knowledge being Read-Knowledge or Knowledge that comes by reading as one means is a most hateful thing to God That he will impart none of his Secrets to those that will understand any thing by his written Word How came God to fall out with his own Off-spring Did he write and cause it to be written and yet never intended we should read it or reading it that we should not believe a Word of it Shall they be judged by the Law who live under it and yet the Knowledge of God thereby be a Sin and Hinderance to their Salvation To what a height of Wickedness and Folly do they quickly go who are poysoned with that Abomination of holding the Light in every Man's Conscience to be God Father Son Spirit Christ Scripture all W. P. what means your Latine Greek Authors Logick Scripture-Quotations Did you learn all those things by Immediate Inspiration But I smell your Design you would have us throw away all the Knowledge we have by Reading or Tradition till we come to be regenerate that is Quakers But in the mean time you would have us without the Armour of Light For whatsoever makes manifest is Light that we may not be able to defend our selves against the most Ignorant Non-sense that the meanest of your Votaries can attempt us with But the GOD ABOVE and the Scriptures without have taught us better things I am not unwilling to quote a few Scriptures Put on the Armour of Light Rom. 13. 12. The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged Sword Hebr. 4. 12. Above all taking the Shield of Faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench c. and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Observe Faith in the 16th verse is preferred above the Words of God in the 17th verse therefore it is not Christ the Word but the Scripture the Word For Faith is not above Christ Jesus Christ who had less need of Scripture then any of us all resisted Satan's Temptation by Scriptures It is written It is written Mat. 4. I have Reader given his Mind at large and the rather that the Inconsistency of it with the Charge he begun his Chapter upon and the Contradiction of it to himself might more evidently appear My Meaning is too fouly conceal'd and disingenuously evaded by the Man How could he think that I should speak so reverently of the Scriptures and quote them diligently and very often to the Proof of my Assertions and yet mean nothing less abusive of them then his untrue Consequences I intended no more then this That Men in a State of Degeneracy from God may have a Profession of God and Religion taken up from the Words of Scripture and outward Practice of the Saints not being so much as sensible of the Remorse Convictions and Judgments God brings upon every Soul for Sin which is the Beginning of his Work of Redemption and that many are Rich in Notion and a Shew of Religion who never begun right but must know a being stript of all their Knowledge and those wrongly apply'd Promises they have taken as to themselves out of the Scriptures and those Imaginations they have raised thence towards a Fabrick of Religion and so become Poor and Naked and Hungry and Thirsty as a little Child or new Bottle fitted for the new Wine of the Spirit and to which the Scriptures testifie Many can talk of Christ from the Scriptures which crucifie him in themselves by Wicked Works and do render Praises to him as the Seed that hath bruised the Serpent's Head while the Serpent may be yet raigning in them All such Knowledge and Profession of Religion from the meer Letter of the Scriptures distinct from the Revelation and Operation of the Eternal Spirit within must be Unlearnt Unravill'd Unbottom'd one Stone must not be left standing upon one another that there may be a Beginning upon a right Foundation But far be it from me to say that a Man must unlearn that Knowledge he has had of the Scriptures from the Key of David the Living Word of God when it has opened the Mysteries therein declared of By no means for such Knowledge is Right Natural Sanctified from God and to be esteem'd very Excellent and Divine § 11. My Latin Greek Authors Logick Scripture-Quotations I therefore us'd and urg'd with plainness and brevity to prove and recommend the Truth I defended to the World that lying under great Discredit with too many they might see that ready to its Confirmation which they perhaps would not otherwise have thought upon But the Priest has been as Uncandid with me here as with my Friends and Self abundantly elsewhere for he infers general Affirmatives or Negatives from particular Propositions because I affirm'd that Unregenerate Men must begin again that their Religion must be unlearn't as to their way of acquiring it the Priest concludes the Quakers deny all Knowledge which comes from reading Meditation or any such Means however sanctified then which there can be nothing of that kind more Untrue since it were to say because we deny an erroneous Understanding therefore we deny all Understanding or in as much as we comdemn all ill-acquired or wrong-gotten Knowledge for that cause we are to be concluded Enemies to all true and well gotten Knowledge But we must bear this and a great deal more and the rather since he does so seasonably assist to his own Confutation by acknowledging that the Scriptures without and God above has taught him better things Now what is this Teaching of the God above If it be in the Scripture it was impertinent to say any more then that the Scriptures have taught them better things but if he meant that God taught by his immediate Discoveries with and beside the Seriptures then wherein do we differ Why has he taken so much Pains and flung so much Dirt He bids us also to put on the Armour of Light If he means that of the Scriptures he errs egregioussy for no Man can put them on neither are they that Light which manifests every Thought Word or Deed but that Light which we assert to have been before the Scriptures were and now is where they are not or at least when they are not thought upon which
is some thing more Immediate Living Spiritual and Inward and that brings Thoughts Words and Deeds to Light savours relishes discovers and accepts or condemns In short thus if whatever makes manifest is Light then because the Thoughts Words and Deeds of Men and Women have been manifested unto them in all Ages as well before Scritures were and where they have not been as since they were and where they have been it follows that they had Light and that the same Light cannot be the Scriptures though the Matter Written called Scriptures was manifested by that Light to the holy Pen-men before they were written which still makes for the Authority of the Light within The Priest exhorts us to that he endeavours to overthrow and with which holy Armour we have fairly foyl'd him in his own Field The same may be said of the Word of God though not of the Scriptures any further then the sharp-Word of God may speak or pierce through them into the Consciences for with good Reason do we affirm that the Scriptures or Writings are not that Sword but that from whence they came The word was a Fire an Hammer a Sword in the Prophets But the Words or Writings it spoke by were not that Fire Hammer nor Sword neither bad they any other Edge then what the Word put upon them To the same purpose may I argue against their being the Off spring of God properly for as such they could not be subject to Casuality God's Off-spring is more Living and Eternal that Word is to high for properly taken I mean as Writings they were the Off-spring of the Writers only but the Truth they declare of is of God and that will abide forever § 12. But upon the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God he has a pretty Fetch Faith in the 16. verse is preferred above the Word in the 17. verse Therefore it is not Christ the Word but the Scriptures the Word for Faith is not above Christ But neither will this do his Business and a Shame it is that this Man should bring these Places to prove that the Scriptures are Means whereby to resist Temptation which concern them not especially this in hand unless he would have Faith to be the Scriptures or Word of God in his Sense which as it is absurd so it will by him be denied since he allows the Faith to be preferr'd above the Word of God therefore distinct from it and not Consequently the same with it And should we grant to him That Christ is not understood by the Word of God but the Scriptures yet observe the fatal Blow his Cause receives at his own Hand Every true Christian hath Faith that Faith is above the Scriptures therefore every true Christian hath some thing in him above the Scriptures Every true Faith overcomes the World and quenches the fiery Darts of Satan consequently Temptations therefore not so properly the Scriptures but true Faith which is preferred above them and resists Temptations and overcomes the World The just they live by Faith but Faith is above the Scripture Therefore the Just live by that which is above the Scriptures and of course the Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith for how can any thing be ruled by that which is inferiour to it Thus much we get granting to him that the Scriptures are that Word of God But we deny that Gloss too For the Spiritual Sword as he says Beza renders it which is that Word of God must be at least of the Nature of that rest of the Armour mentioned in that Chapter I mean of an Invisible Spiritual Nature which the Bible as a meer Writing is not If any should say but the Truth it declares of I say so to and the very Words when by the living Word brought into the Conscience do Pinch Prick and Wound but then that Operation comes from the Power of the Word which through them reacheth into the Heart of the Creature and so the Words without and the Word within carry a double Conviction with them But said Christ to the Devil it is written what then therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any Means to resist Temptation Or rather are they not such Means when God is pleased to use them which I am sure no right Quaker ever denyed Besides it was Reasonable that Christ should so answer set that Power aside which fill'd up those Words and chained Satan because the Devil used Scripture to prevail upon him as the place proves However we deny not but confess that where-ever God is pleased to speak by any place of Scripture to a tempted Soul the Scripture may be very well acknowledg'd to be a Means by which God scatters such Doubts and Dispondencies and gives Power over Temptations and that it may often so occur Yet we would not have People fly to them as what of themselves may be sufficient but rather have Recourse to that Divine Faith which the Scriptures testifie is able to Quench the fiery Darts and Overcome the Temptations of this World and which J. Faldo has largely confest is to be preferred above the Scriptures themselves § 13. The other part of his Charge to wit That they are dangerous to be read has been answer'd again and again We say Let them that read understand fear believe and Obey and then they will read worthily otherwise men read their own Condemnation and Destruction For the Holy Truths they declare of are not to be seen known or injoyed by every Prophane nor yet professing Person that reads them they are a sealed Book to all who err from and despise that Word of God nigh in the Heart which originally gave them forth and now bears living record to them Blessed are they that rightly Understand and Do them to such they are of great Price CHAP. IX That we do not put the Scripture and Holy Spirit in Opposition The Wickedness of the Priest in his Proof They accord and we acquiesce in their Testimony We do not say that they are not to be obey'd without extraordinary Apostolical Revelation as basely suggested His Proof fictitious and forg'd Such only are by us deny'd as are only Literal Formal Christians The Scriptures own'd and believ'd in by us according as they testifie of themselves § 1. TO close up his false Charges against us about the Scriptures though I thought not to bestow so much time about him be pleased to hear him and his Testimonies which he thinks sufficient to prove what he sayes of us to be true § 2. That the Quakers put the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in Opposition to each other To make this good he quotes W. Smith thus Traditions of Men Earthly Root Darkness and Confusion Nebuchadnezar's Image Putrefaction and Corruption Rotten and Deceitful all out of the Life and Power of God Apostacy the Whore's Cup the Mark of the Beast Babylon the Mother Bastards brought forth of
he ow's all that he hath But why poor Non-Conformists after all their preacht up Battles Spoyls Plunders Sacriledges Decimations c. Rich and Covetous as ever As Rich because the Bason walks and takes its Rounds two to one of which it did and Covetous because they remain as discontented as if they were starving witness a Late begging Book from a Non-Conformist's hand which conjures their Hearers into larger Benevolence though by the style one would think it were their just Due I am perswaded their Preachings Christnings Burials Churchings alias Lying in Visits Exhortations Thanksgivings and Prayers have cheated People of more Gold and Silver then ever they did dare to make the least Pretence to though they alwayes dar'd to take what they could get in their former Dayes of Power But this is nothing to me further then that it is less dishonourable to William Penn or any other Quaker whom God hath blessed with a plentiful Subsistence that having Estates they notwithstanding should sustain the Labour and Suffering of Preaching the Gospel and that at all seasons then in J. Faldo and his Brethren who it's greatly to be feared preach what they call the Gospel that they might get Estates at least Livelyhoods by it let him or them say what they will I could give him a long List of more Exacting Jocky Hawking Mercenary Bargains of Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists then can readily be parallel'd by Parish-Priests A thing once denyed by them and ought still to be Detested of all others § 4. But he ends not here concerning the Ministry For says he The Quakers deny our Ministry because we preach from the Scripture A wicked Lye minted out of Hell it self We have laid down no such Proposition nor tending to it But he supposeth J. Parnel helps him to prove this Assertion And here is the Difference of the Ministers of the World and the Ministers of Christ The One of the Letter the other of the Spirit Strange Impudence to call this a Proof It is a Proof indeed but against him for if a False or Worldly Ministry under the Form of Godliness may not be Farewell Scripture But if such a Thing will be allow'd us then since the Letter or Scriptures are not by them rejected but in Shew most highly admired and that they pretend to collect all they believe or know from thence though indeed they understand them not we have great Reason to say that those who are Ministers only from the Letter with what they imaginarily comment upon it are not Christ's Ministers We are so far from making it a Reason why we deny your Ministry who are under that Qualification that we utterly deny you to have that Knowledge from the Scripture which we except against but your own Inventions and groundless Conceits alone For though J. Faldo thinks it very Heterodox to say that unless we are immediately assured from the Light within of the Truth of what we hold and that all Belief not so discover'd is a Lye deriding at Samuel Fisher's Answer in that Case Those who swore as the Lord lived swore falsly because they knew him not to Live affirming to us that they were such as did not believe him to live at all and therefore S. Fisher erred in his Construction I say though it be so yet we are not forelorn of Reason as well as Scripture to our Defence For no Truth is such to me which I either do not know to be true or have not some real Ground to believe to be such however true it may be in it self And that Sam. Fisher urg'd that Scripture pertinently and Consequently his return upon it is impertinent He himself has provided us with an Argument for if he will not have it that they therefore lyed in saying as the Lord liveth because they knew him not to live we must see what was the Reason that God gave their Asseveration the Lye Sayes J. Faldo they did not believe him to live at all Very well then the Narrow of the Difference lyes here That we say They knew him not to live And J. Faldo says That they believ'd him not to live Now I would fain know which are most excusable One sayes they who said as sure as the Lord liveth lyed because they know not God to live and the other that they believ'd him not to live If any thing be to be gotten it is this that they who know him not to live might believe him however to live whilst those who believ'd him not live would not believe a thing they had no Ground or Knowledge inducing them to it But he has lead us to a quick Expedient They did know God to live because he that lives may know from thence that God lives who holds every Soul in Life that lives To which I return that they did believe God to live because they lived for how could they doubt of his Living who held them in Life But enough of this To conclude A Living Spiritual Ministry we own that preaches the Everlasting Gospel in its own Power and that freely to the Raising of People dead in Trespasses and Sin to turn them from Darkness to Light that they might serve the Living Lord God of Heaven and Earth in the Newness of the Spirit who is worthy of all Honour and Glory forever CHAP. XII The Second particular Ordinance is a Gospel-Church His Definition for us by its gross Contrariety to the Scripture His base Inference of our Denial of Religious Societies and Outward Gifts from our Friends asserting of but one Catholick Church and that it is in God A Gospel-Church own'd Our Adversary proved Heterodox about Apostolical Preaching Inward Sence preferr'd before Intelligence § 1. THe Next Gospel-Ordinance he says we deny is a Gospel-Church Not to spend time about his Way of Phrasing it though uncooth enough We shall attend his Proof And the Church so gathered into God is the Pillar and Ground of Truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher J. N. Love to the Lost pag. 17. Upon which he argues thus The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers and not the Spirit alone whereas the Apostles gave themselves to Preaching of the Word and Elders were ordained therefore the Quakers deny a Gospel-Church and they contradict themselves for they have more Teachers then All others A Lye to be sure There is greatly wanting to this Priest a better Understanding or more Honesty in using what he has for who is not blinded with Prejudice may discern that from our speaking of the Universal Church of God which says the Apostle as well the the Quakers is in God he infers that we deny all Visible Religious Societies commonly called by the Ancients the Churches of Asia Thessalonica Ephesus Corinth c. And from our Asserting the Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher of all who believe he concludes that we deny all Preaching of Men though by the Spirit O blind or else most disingenuous Man
Sanctifier in the Hearts of his People when the Disciples and whole Church of Jerusalem were so frequent in this Ordinance and when the Apostle Paul tells us to the Corinthians The Bread which we break c. it was for those to whom Christ was come by a Spirit of Sanctification not those in a State of Sin unconverted to Christ That I may briefly and fully reply be pleas'd to observe 1 That we don't deny Bread and Wine to have been given and that by Command of Christ to his Disciples 2 That it was a Sign to them of that Life he would give for the World and which at that time they were weak in the Knowledge of 3 We believe the Life most eminently meant and which they were to do it in the Remembrance of was that Flesh and Blood that in the 6. of John he said Who did not eat nor drink thereof should have no Life in them and which 5. verses after he calls the Bread that came down from Heaven 4 'T is our Faith that this heavenly Bread and Wine and Flesh and Blood which such were to eat of that would have Life Eternal for which he came and of which the Disciples themselves were then so ignorant was the Thing signified by the Sign Christ gave his Disciples 5 That Sign is no longer of force in Point of Institution then till the thing signified is come so that who truly witness the Coming of Christ into their Souls and the Eternal Bread of Life or Flesh and Blood to nourish are rightly come to an End of the Sign and Figure 6 That Christ did so come is evident from many Scriptures There be some standing here that shall not taste of Death said he till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom I will not leave you Comfortless I will come to you Implying that he was the Comforter that should come to them after the with-drawing of that Outward Appearance which was expedient for them to be done He that is with you shall be in you and abundance to the same purpose 7 That the Practice of it after the Pouring forth of the Spirit is not neither can it be any Institution or so much as a Continuance of it upon an Institution any more then the Apostles forbearing several things lawful in themselves that were upon the Command of the Jewish Ceremonial Law forbidden The Circumcision of many Gentiles and above all the Apostle Paul's Purifying of himself at the Temple of Jerusalem after he had been near thirty years a Christian or Gospel-Preacher and consequently a Thrower-down and Demolisher both of the Temple and all its Ceremonial Worship 8 That every one who believed and were in some measure turned to the Christian Religion and were accounted Members of the several Churches because of such Profession did not presently come to know Christ after the Spirit or discern his spiritual Manifestation and whilst they were as yet Weak and Carnal in their Conceptions of Christ believing in him and accounting of him but after the Flesh a Knowledg of him the Apostle himself confesseth once but to have had the Outward Bread and Wine might be suitable to that sort of Belief and a Sign showing forth a more Spiritual Internal Bread and Cup which the Apostle in the same fore-going Chapter to the Corinthians expresseth thus FOR WE BEING MANY ARE ONE BREAD AND ONE BODY FOR WE ARE ALL PARTAKERS OF THAT ONE BREAD The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ I speak as to wise Men Judge ye what I say Which evidently imports a more Inward Heavenly Bread Fellowship and Communion both with Christ and one and another 9 It ought not to stumble any that it should last to that Day and yet be laid aside Now For Customs when once introduc'd and receiv'd are not easy to be relinquish't or left off and it having been the Token Christ gave to his Disciples in the time of their great Weakness Fear and Unbelief concerning him it was quickly embrac'd and imitated by such as believ'd especially Jews who just coming out of a Multitude of External Services were ready to make part of their Religion consist therein But as such came to grow into the true Jews State they saw beyond all Exteriour Signs and Services And that nothing which could be tasted or handl'd and that perisht with the Using and that could never clense the Conscience from dead Works but were the Shaddows only of Christ the Living Eternal Substance and Bread of Life could be a standing Ordinance of the Everlasting Gospel § 3. And truly when I have somtimes consider'd the Apostle Paul's Inspir'd Epistles to his beloved Timothy that among the many weighty plain and necessary things therein declared recommended for the Encrease of Godliness and good Order in the Church of Christ he should be wanting to express something about these two Points of Water-Baptism the Lord's Supper so call'd and insisted upon as the most weighty Ordinances of the Gospel in Comparison of which Praying Preaching good Life and such like the great Subjects of those Epistles J. Faldo reputes meer Heathenism I have concluded to me self that had his Value of them been equal with what some now adays put upon them he would not or rather the Holy Spirit have omitted a very peculiar Recommendation of them But though this be sufficient to dull the Edge of their Spirits who daily cut and hack us for our not Denial but Affirming the Fulfilling of them by the coming of a more Living Bread Yet our so knowing and witnessing a more Heavenly Table spread and the Presence of the Eternal God withdrawn out of that so abused Practice by the Idolatries Superstitions and Pervertions of several Ages and that Revenge Blood-shed and Destruction which have follow'd the several Contenders for it all without Commission as well as out of the Primitive Order is the chief Ground nor of denying it ever to have been in Use before its Abuse as is before exprest but of our letting fall any further Practice of it And this I hope will be accounted a Modest Sober and Christian Account of our Faith which we leave with God to weigh against the chaffy Flurts and vilifying Epithetes J. Faldo uses against us and which for Brevity sake I omit to transcribe CHAP. XVII His Charge of our Denying Christ's Transactions to influence into our Justification consider'd His Proofs not for him His Abuse of our Friends Words Justification distinguisht upon as Remission and as daily Acceptance The Transactions of Christ largely own'd by us The Scriptures confirm our Faith in Christ as a general and particular Saviour No Works of Man Meritorious § 1. I Am now come to that part of his Charge which affirms our Denial of the Transactions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh to have any Influence
be the outward Commandments and Statutés For the Question was not about them but about the Commandment of Commandments and Word of Words which he resolves thus Let none say who shall ascend descend or go beyond the Seas to fetch the Great Word and Commandment But the Word is very nigh thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Innermost parts of Men. Whereinto the Outward Commandments could never come Nay I do affirm and that with holy Boldness in the Spirit Power and Illumination of the blessed Gospel that all the by rote Learning of the Letter of either Law or Gospel as they are conâ—â—â—-distinguisht is of no more Value to the true Knowledge or Worship of God then the Cutting off a Dog's Neck either to God's Honour or Man's profit without the Inward Living Word should powerfully write and engrave upon the Soul its Holy Precepts neither could there be any Conviction in the Conscience concerning the Truth of those Statutes nor indeed any Conscience at all since Conscience is no other then that manifest Judgment Man makes of the Truth or Falshood of things with respect to his own Soul from the Word or Light of God in his Heart according to the Practice of the Apostle who was manifest and desir'd to Commend himself to the Consciences of all Men Not as to a blind unsensible Thing but that Judgment in Man though not from him which was right and not learned of Man but received of God Whereas J. Faldo scoffs at such kind of Knowledge the Perniciousness of which Doctrine ought to antidote all sober Persons from ever adhering to it or him that preacheth it For I will be bound to make it appear that by his own Principles he is assured of nothing and must set down under the extreamest Scepticism in the World Or if concludable by any thing it must be by the way Rome takes to resolve all Scruples that is Plurality of Votes however directed and this too rather for Peace sake then any Certainty there can be in it For who bars out of all Inward Senses Motions Revelations Inspirations or Enlightnings resolving only to insist upon what may arrive them from meer Books because of the Fallibility of Man and Difficulty of the Matter they do contain which Way can there be to compass any tolerable Certainty to rest Men's Souls upon This is your once Phanatical t'other day Enthusiastical now Pragmatical and Scoffing J. Faldo The first in the very beginning of Independency in the World the best part that belong'd to it I meane Enthusiasm but now deserted by many as much as the true Religion is by the Church of Rome § 9. The third and last Scripture he undertakes to secure us from all Share in is that of Peter We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a dark Place until the Day dawn and the Day-Star arise in your Hearts By this more sure Word of Prophecy says J. Faldo is meant those Prophecies written in the Old Testament which are call'd Verse 20. Prophecy of Scripture and are called the Light that shineth in a dark Place I hope it will be alwayes forreign to me to detract from the holy Scriptures But the Truth I will take Liberty to defend The whole Chapter is a very weighty and zealous Recommendation of the Gospel to the Churches pressing them to call to Mind the Love of God unto them and to mind their Duty to him who had so loved them And as a great Ground both of their Faith Love and Duty the Apostle in the 16th verse tells them For we have not followed cunningly divised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ But were Eye-Witnesses of his Majesty for he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the Excellent Glory THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED And this Voice which comes from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy c. Now that this cannot be meant of the Scriptures and take in the Comparison I thus prove If the Reason of their Assurance that what they delivered to the Churches was not Fabulous but true was their being Eye-Witnesses of his Majesty and Eye and Ear-Witnesses of that Testimony God gave of his Son in the Mount by that Honour Glory and Voice of Words which were there utter'd and did in that Plaee uppear then the Scriptures not only were not a surer Word of Prophecy but not so sure because they never heard nor saw them so delivered nor yet had any of the Prophets so Glorious so Transcendent and Unquestionable a Testimony to their outward Eyes and Ears that we read of J. Faldo's most infallible Way of true Knowledge see pag. 91. as was that which God gave to the Disciples when he testified This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased But we may inform our selves from the Verses recited that they were a more eminent Ground for their Knowledge Assurance and Belief then the meer Scriptures And consequently the Scriptures are not the more sure Word of Prophecy Again the written Account of another's Revelation cannot be more sure to me then that Revelation which I do immediately receive from God suppose it be from God But this was a Revelation to the Disciples and they were sure it was from God Consequently the writen Account of another's Revelation as were the Prophecies of the Old Testament so called to the Disciples could not be a more sure Word of Prophecy For it were to say that they were more sure that he among them who was called Jesus was the Son of God from Isaiah's Testimony That he would give him for a Light to lighten the Gentiles c. then the Immediate Voice of God when he pointed so clearly at him This is my beloved Son He that is amongst you whom you have followed This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Then which what could be more demonstrable on God's part and incredulous on their side who should yet subject that living Testimony to any the best Tradition Let me not forget to add That what the Disciples then saw and heard from God and the Epistle Peter wrot by the holy Ghost being made part of the New Testament-Writings and they accounted more eminent by far then the Old with respect to the more eminent Pouring forth of the Holy Ghost in that Day which the Prophets fore-saw and they enjoyed the Old cannot in any wise be reputed a more sure Word of Prophecy as J. Faldo asserts therefore this more sure Word of Prophecy must be another thing § 10. What that is which may be reputed a more sure Word of Prophecy will much deserve our serious Consideration If it was not the Voice in the Mount which
to be God are not like to be much the wiser for what they read This cuts off all Hopes of J. Faldo's being wiser for I suppose he read what he writ as blind as he is However for the sake of others I will endeavour to reconcile this seeming Contrariety In the first Passage he grants that within Man was not mentioned and by his Silence I suppose I may conclude it Orthodox For no Man that believes Scripture will dare to deny that God is Light That every Man is enlightned by Him and that by Him who is call'd Light all things are upheld and that He alone is Saviour A Doctrine J. Faldo teaches pag. 84. 85 89. To the other Scraps of Matter I answer That we never did do nor shall assert the God that made Heaven and Earth to be comprehendable within the Soul of Man No it is more impossible then that the Sun in the Firmament could be contain'd within the Body of any individual Person But that God who is the great Sun of Righteousness doth as truly cause his Light Spiritual to arise upon the Souls of Men as his Sun Natural upon their Bodies and as what Knowledge we have of the Natural Sun is by its Light Operations and Effects upon the World so our Knowledge of the Eternal Sun of Righteousness God who is Light and in whom is no Darkness at all is only and alone by his Divine Light Operations and Effects in and upon our Understandings and Consciences so that when we say that the Light is within any we do not intend the whole Being of Light nor was it in this gross sense that G. Fox the Younger ever meant it But that He who is the Eternal Fountain of all Life and Sun of Light causeth his Light to visit the Hearts and shine into the Consciences of all Mankind as well of such as Rebel against it and scorn it to reprove them as those who Receive it and gladly submit to it to direct and justifie them Wherefore we utterly deny that the Manifestation in Man strictly consider'd is the most-high God but a Manifestation of or from God by the Inshinings of his blessed Light And we cannot be said to Worship the Manifestation but that Eternal God which is Light that is thereby manifested and all Worship otherwise founded is not of God nor pleasing to him but of the Invention of Men which he will confound and this Scripture and Reason are ready to defend Scorning the Light in them and not owning the Light in them by our Adversary so strongly insisted upon is no more then scorning and disowning him who is the Light that shines in them and that gives Light to them What very vanity then is all his Boast And how does his Charge retort upon himself But that we may send it quite back to the Pit from whence it came le ts hear how he proves our Belief of the Soul to be God which he begins to do with no small Shew of Assurance that he shall cleaverly compass his End § 2. Every Man has that which is one in Union and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure E. Burroughs True Faith c. And what 's this to the Purpose Can any Man be so stupid as to think that E. Burrough ever intended the Soul of Man that purely simply constitutes him such For he is speaking of that Universal Grace Light and Spirit which God has given unto all whereby they may be led to Eternal Felicity And unless he will say that a Measure of the Holy Spirit a Scripture-Phrase which God hath given to every Man to profit with is not in Union with Christ nor as Good in Kind as the Spirit of Christ which our Adversary sayes is God it will evidently follow that what E. B. writes is found and Scriptural however this makes nothing for our Adversaries present Charge But he ends not with him Now my Soul and Spirit is center'd in its own Being with God and this Form of Person must return from whence it was taken F Howgil Test of E. B. This Expression is deliver'd to us by Francis Howgil as Edward Burorghs's a little before his Departure in that sensible Testimony he gave to the late Life Labours and Death of that worthy painful effectual Labourer and his Companion in the Gospel of Jesus But to help J. Faldo's Intellects that they may no more look asquint upon such weighty dying Words Let him know that E. B. spoke not of God as his Souls Being by Nature or as of that very Being for so the Soul would be God indeed and yet subject to all those Pollutions and Punishments which do and will attend Wicked Men Blasphemy with a Witness but God as that Being which by Regeneration the New Nature and Spirit of Adoption all the Righteous Souls are gather'd too and center'd in as their Everlasting Habitation and Life Eternal The World may perceive with ease at what rate and what Tearmes J. Faldo swaggers over the Quakers But let him boast that puts off his Armour § 3 The next Person he singles out is G. Fox thus answering a Priest But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrin Great Myst pag. 16. I perceive J. Faldo will rather quarrel Scripture when he meets it in a Quaker's Book then not have something against them But certainly if that be the Way to prove that we believe the Soul is God to wit that God and Christ are in the Saints what will become of the Scriptures Will they escape J. Falao's heavy Censures who say That Christ is in his Saints the Hope of Glory I in them and they in me The Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell in them Must every thing that is in another be necessarily of that in which it is But I hope his Heat being abated he may discern the Weakness of his Attempts against us To proceed I. Pennington he also brings in to make good his Charge How serviceable he may prove will better appear when we have examin'd the Passage That which the Lord from Heaven begetteth of his own Image and Likeness of his own Substance of his own Seed of his own Spirit and pure Life Quest 27. But J. Faldo has mist his Aim and mistaken his Man For I. P. is not now speaking of the Soul of Man simply consider'd but of that Divine Life Nature Image and Birth that God by his Word of Life creates or begets in the Souls of those who once lived not to God but themselves bearing the Image of the Earthly and do turn at his Reproof to walk in the Way of Life This will not move the Business one Jot further on the behalf of our Enemies Charge § 4. We will close this Point with a Passage out of Samuel Fisher's
of private Spirits and not rather of the Holy Spirit of God and such only as were conformable to it § 11. His other Cavil confirms the Truth of my former Argument and his own great Ignorance or Baseness My words are these If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit grounded upon that Scripture Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts Gal. 4. 6. To which he sayes Your Adversaries have not so little Knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is Fallible nor yet so Ignorant of your Spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are Infallible Now I have two things to desire of the Ingenuous Reader First to find me out so much as one Syllable in my Argument that infers or concludes the Spirits of such to be Infallible into whose Hearts God has shed abroad his Infallible Spirit whether they are led by it or not or that I could intend a concluding of the Spirit of Man Infallible because God has given his own unto Men that is unquestionably so I am sure such a Thought never entred my Mind as fruitful of them as our Adversary may be Adversary I may well say not only because he is one but that he acknowledges to me as much which let him know however I am not such to him The Second thing I have to desire of the Candid Reader is that he would weigh with himself how Unjust this Man is to me to infer Infallibility to Men from my Affirming it to belong only to the Spirit of God And as if he fear'd I should not be as Heterodox as his Envy would have me to conclude on my Account from what I urged to prove That God's Children in all Ages had an Infallible Spirit to Judge Rule and Guide them the Affirmative of the very Question debated that is God's Spirit That every such one was Infallible in and from his own private Spirit Oh Monstrous Perversion I would impute it to his Mistake of me it being far better to be Ignorant than Dishonest but he will not let me who a little below has Impudence enough to write but we are NOT IGNORANT that your Principles make no Difference or Distinction between the Spirits of God's People and the Spirit of God manifestly intending not that they are at variance for so we should esteem his Charge a piece of Justice but that the Spirit of the Creature and the Spirit of God are but one Spirit An Absurdity that never fell from us How many times hath J. Faldo been guilty in his Discourse of plain Forgery and Dishonesty against us So certain as there is a God in Heaven terrible will his Judgment be in that great Day of Inquest if he repent not § 12. He makes a great Stir about my Checking the late Socinian for making Christ the Head of a Fallible Body saying If Christ be Head to none but the Infallible Wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath Pitty on the Ignorant and those that are out of the Way and I am sure Christ is then none of your Head We have enough and leave his very Ill Language out 1. It is granted to us that Christ is Head to a Fallible Body or at least to Fallible as well as Infallible I charge him to give us one Scripture for this or he is gone for all his idle Puns Shifts and scoffing Flings at us 2. That a Man may be a Saint which if we take it strictly is one of that Number the Apostle prayed the Churches might be of I mean those which were sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit I say that a Man may be such a Saint and yet be Fallible or Erring 3. That the Saints are Ignorant and out of the Way Truly this Doctrine very well becomes J. Faldo I had rather it should be his then mine I will venture them in the Scale of Truth without thinking I run an Hazard in the Matter especially when if I err that hinders not from being a Saint Member of Christ But J. Faldo can a Man be a Saint and yet Ignorant of so much of God as is requisit to constitute him such Or can he be such and yet out of that Way which renders him a true Saint It is the first time that I ever heard in so many words that a Man might be a Saint and out of God's Way Oh Doctrine of Devils No Marvel so many Unclean Fowls flock to this Carkass What! Saints and err from God's Way Strange Saints and ignorant of God's Mind It seems then that neither Ignorance nor Erring from God's Way indispose any to be Saints If this be not a plain Contradiction to the whole Record of Scripture none ever was is or shall be esteemed such to the End of the World How many how grievous and how sharp have God's Complaints been against those who have left the Right Way of the Lord which has been the Way of Light and Righteousness the Just Man's Path through every Generation No Wonder that such Doctrines are hoth greedily received and furiously maintained that sooth up People in the Belief of such Pernicious Soul-murdering Doctrines And the Truth is and I do boldly affirm it and that in the Counsel of the Eternal God it is our striking so constantly and earnestly at this and such like Sin-pleasing Principles that makes the Devil thus bestir himself in his ready Agents to raise up and bespatter us with such heavy Calumnies as almost every one produceth against us But we lose not an Inch of Ground nor a Dram of Courage our Godly Resolution redoubles with our Adversaries On-sets and whatever may befall us here as our Hope so our Reward is from God in that high and heavenly Place which is above the Reach of Time and every Assault of our Implacable Adversaries § 13. He tells me He might proceed to my fallacious Arguing from the Spirit 's Teaching indefinitely expressed that is by Scripture Visions Providences c. means our Adversary to its Teaching peculiarly frequently in my Pampblet pag. 18 29 c. that is to the Spirit 's Teaching Men and Women by its daily and Inward Discoveries Motions and Operations But he will not the Reason is he dare not For if the Spirit be not an Immediate Living Teacher and works not as such to the Information Conviction and Conversion of Men to God in these dayes let him for Shame relinquish all Pretence to Gospel or an Evangelical Dispensation of which it is the peculiar Promise and Priviledge § 14. Though for want of better Language he is pleased to bestow upon this Godly Proposition the Term of Beetle-headed Saying and affirms that the Scripture knows nothing of it For which I may more reasonably affirm that He knows nothing of it For can this Man be
to be the Great Rule to Believers and yet himself after much Opposition to give it away and accord as far as any Man need to do that would be of one Mind with us in the Point savours of great Weakness and Inadvertency not that he now speaks Truth but that he should so eager ly oppose it before § 17. There is one Passage more which being to this Purpose I will mention We value not the Sense of the Scripture for the Print's sake but the Print for the Sense sake and the Blessings that attend that Way of Conveying the holy and revealed Will of God and so much as to correct your Vapour This he speaks upon my Words that the Intimate of a Prince needs not so much an Edict because in Print as because of his living and more immediate Touches he may have had from his Prince Now let any tell me if the Quakers have put the Scriptures into any degree below that wherein J. Faldo himself has plac'd them Do the Quakers say that true Christians have the Spirit so sayes J. Faldo too Do the Quakers affirm that the Spirit of God is a Judge Rule and Guide and speaks forth the Mind of God into the very Conscience Does J. Faldo come one Jot behind them But do they say that it is the Sense of the Truth declared of in the Scripture that puts a Value upon the Declaration and that written or printed Words are valu'd for the Matters sake they treat of rather then their own yea that the Scripture of it self can do little It is J. Faldo's own Doctrine Very well But does J. Faldo say that God doth not alwayes speak in the Conscience immediately by his Spirit but sometimes by the Spirit through the Use of Means as the Scriptures Preaching Praying Creator Providence c. and that by such wayes he reacheth into the Consciences of Men so say the Quakers too Would the Man but be certain to himself we needed no other Advocate But his Ignorance of our Principles or Prejudice to mis-represent them makes him at once oppose us and contradict himself And now we are come to the Conclusion of the Matter which he sayes is to shew me my self in the Glass of Sense if I think my Eyes worth an Using Indeed I do and am willing to behold all he hath to shew me◠Reader hear him soberly § 18. Foul Epithites as Knave Puppy Fool Rascal Loggerhead Cheat This you say was the Language of your Adversaries smal Crier but as you call it of a loathsome Sent. It seems J. Faldo's Nose calls it no such thing A long experienced Chaplin a kind of a Religious Gentleman-Usher should have learned better Manners So sayes he You blow it on the Author of the Book within five Lines Tryers of other Mens Spirits who have it should be give so little Proof of the Knowledge of their own as to be wanting in the very first Principles of Cavility This is not fair sayes J. Faldo to charge him with anothers Faults It is some Justice to us that he will account such Language to a Quaker a Fault But I would have him know that I never intended any such thing as be basely infers that is to make H. Hedworth in the least guilty of usually calling G. Fox those scurrilous Names For though I think him Envious enough against G. F. in particular as appears by another sort of Language and the Quakers in general yet I believe him to have more Civility and Regard to his Way whatsoever he thinks of me then to dirt it with any thing so gross But for as much as T. Firman the Author of that foul Language was his great Intimate and Associate that they have in common the same Creed are joyntly interested against us thereby earnestly endeavouring to promote their beloved Socinianism or Bidleism in the World and Men acted not by two distinct Spirits though one might lanch forth more extravagantly then the other And lastly that H. H. had shewen other sorts of Rudeness and Injustice to us in general and many by Name in his Spirit of the Quarters tryed I did say These Men and continue there still the Method of their Proceed then and since especially that restless Calumniator Tho. Firman being such as must needs offend every Good Man Knave and Fool being more in his Mouth still then becometh any Man that is not more of both then such he very frequently calls so Some think it a Shame that so ill a Tongue should go unrebuk'd of those whose Principles and Interest give them the Liberty of doing it in a way that if they know the Man might be more effectual then all the Moderation and Reason that can easily be shown to him But sayes John Faldo in his or their Defence for they love to claw one another Compare this Civility of yours with your own To all this I say He obtrudes an arrant Lye upon our very Senses Wretched Scribler How Idle how Frivolous and how very Troublesome is he with his Ridiculous Remarks Very well And is this the great Blow threatned I fall not from one tittle of it 'T is all true all his due I could not well have spoken more plain and pertinent Words No Knave Puppy Fool Rascal Logger-head Cheat c. No Impostor False-Prophet Lyars Trapans and what not did we accost them with What! Must not we fling off the Dirt they cast upon us Shall it be accounted well-Phrasing to call us all to naught and our earnest Refuse of such base Epithites and severe Censure of such Scurrility be reputed Railing Oh Unreasonable Men Ought People therefore to be kill'd because they cry Murder or lose their Reputation because they are Zealous to maintain it But it was notably done of J. Faldo to provide for himself whose Ill Languague he thought might meet with as sharp Rebukes as that of our other Enemies had done Nor indeed will we let slip this Opportunity of Collecting Publishing to the World after what manner he has us'd us throughout his Discourse and my self in particular who never had any thing to do with him in all my Life If he has not said worse of us with whom we have had so little if any thing at all to do then he pretends I have against those Men that gave such Provocation let me fall in the good Opinion of the Reader and the Just Witness in his Conscience condemn me but if it appear that this unprovoked Person is far more guilty then he can possibly render us by vilifying Expressions against our Persons and Principles I hope and expect so much Justice from the Reader as that the Innocent may go free and the Guilty only be Condemned That J. Faldo has not shewn himself that Man of Moderation Civility or Religion he pretends himself to be and which I hear some few have hitherto reputed let the following Faithfull and True Collection of but some of his many
and moves and inclines to Purity Mercy Righteousness which are of God We deny and abominate that Ranting Spirit that would charge the Spirit of God with their Unholy Liberty God's Spirit makes free from Sin not to Sin Neither can we distinguish as they wickedly do between the Act and the Evil of it wherefore we say that as the Tree is known and denominated from the Fruit so the Spirits by their Motions and Inclinations and the Spirit of God never did incline to Evil. So we renounce that Construction of their esteeming Evil no Evil when any pretend to be lead to it by God's Spirit for that is not the Way and Method of his Spirit that is Pure and Holy forever Priest The Quakers must be all Infallible and Perfect if they have such a Light Quaker This also is a great Abuse of our true Meaning We say the Principle is Pure Perfect Unerrable in it self but we never did assert our selves such meerly because it was in us by no means but that all who are lead by it are so far Perfect and Infallible and no Jot further Who can lay down a more independent Doctrine upon Self and hourly depending upon the Grace or Gift of God Let us not be mistaken nor suffer for these things Priest The Quakers deny the Scriptures for they deny them to be the Word of God Quaker We own the Scriptures as they own themselves a Declaration of those things most truly believ'd given forth in all Ages by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit That they are profitable for Reading for Exhortation for Reproof in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfectly furnished They are the Form of sound Words We believe in them read them and it is the Work we have to do in this World and the Reason why we are so separated from it and the earnest Desire of our Souls to Almighty God that we may witness the Fulfilling of them That God's will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven But to call them the Word of God which they never did themselves but which they peculiarly denominate Christ by in Reverence to Christ alone and no Slight to them do we as in Duty and Reason bound attribute that Title to him only Priest They deny them to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation Quaker This is a very Aspersion True it is that we deny the Scriptures of themselves to be sufficient to resist Temptation But that we should deny them to be any Means whereby to do it when we allow our own Writings may be such is either great Ignorance or Malice God has doth and will make Use of them for Reproof Comfort and Edification Priest The Quakers assert the Spirit of God to be the Immediate Teacher and that there is no other Means now to be used Quaker We never spoak such Language but perceive the Subtilty of the Devil in this thing as in others For since he cannot hinder the Exaltation of the Spirit above all visible Instruments and the Necessity of its Motions and Operations in the Hearts of Men and the great Suitableness of it to the Gospel Administration he would spoile us by Overdoing that is by inferring beyond that our Assertion will allow For we never denyed Means but to this Day from the Beginning we have been in the Use of them But then they are such Means as are used in the Life and Power of God and not in and from Man's meer Wit Will or Imitation the thing we strike at Strange because we deny all false Means or Means not used in the Leadings of God's Power and Spirit that therefore we must deny all Means however rightly employed Behold the Injustice of our Enemies Wherefore be it known unto all that Evangelical Means and Order we love and keep For we Assemble Our-selves together to Worship God where we Pray in the Motion of the Spirit and Prophesie One by One as any thing is revealed Nor are we without Spiritual Songs making Melody in our Hearts to God our Redeemer Priest The Quakers deny the two Great Ordinances of the Gospel Baptism and the Supper Quaker What ever is a Gospel-Ordinance we own and practise We know no such Language in the Scriptures as in the Calumny of our Adversary 'T is true those two Practices are found but that is no Institution That they were then proper we believe but that they were at most but Figures and Signs you acknowledge that are called Protestants Now prove to us that there ought to be any Figures or Signs under the Gospel-Administration when Christ who is the Substance is come 'T is to overthrow the whole Dispensation and to make his Coming of none Effect If it be said But they were used after his Coming and Ascension too I answer So were many Jewish Ceremonies not easily abolished If any say But Christ bid that one should be done till he came Very well and he that said so told his Disciples that He would come to them Some should not taste of Death till they saw him come And he that was then with them should be in them And he would drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till he drank it New that is the New Wine that was to be put in the new Bottel which is the Wine of the Kingdom as he expresseth it in the same place which Kingdom also is within Luk. 17. 20. He was and is the Heavenly Bread that they had not yet known nor his Flesh and his Blood as they were to know it So that though Christ was come to end all Signs yet till he was known to be the Substance to the Soul as the Great Bread of Life from Heaven Signs were usefull to shew forth and keep in hand especially the People of that Day whose Religion was attended with a Multitude of the like Types Shaddows and Signs of the One Good Thing and Substance of all Hence it is that we don't deny them that is too hard a Word but truly witnessing the very thing they signified to be come we leave them off as fulfill'd and henceforth have but One Lord One Faith One Baptism One Bread and but One Cup of Blessings which is the New Wine of the Kingdom Priest The Quakers deny Christ's Transactions at Jerusalem and the Shedding of his Blood to be Beneficial unto them It is the Light within only they expect to be saved by Quaker This is a wicked Suggestion against us We do say That the Appearance of that Second Adam the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit in that Holy Body prepared of the Father for him was for the Salvation of the World who had fain in the First That whatever he then did both Living Dying had a great Influence for Good upon all that then believed and hath still for all that now believe in him as he manifests himself to us by his Light in the Conscience For we do affirm that to come to that is
the readiest nay the only Right Way to come to true Faith in Christ as he then appear'd and to receive any Benefit by him And it is not another then that Blessed Light Power Wisdom and Eternal Righteousness who then appeared by whom we have received any true Spiritual Benefit How then can our ascribing particular Salvation in this Age to him who thus now appears to our Souls render him no Saviour in that or invalidate his then Appearance whose Doctrine pierc'd whose Life preach'd whose Miracles astonish'd whose Blood atton'd and whose Death and Resurrection confirm'd his then Manifestation to be no less then God who is Light manifested in the Flesh Priest The Quakers set up Works and Meriting by Works like the Papists Whereby Faith in Christ is layd aside Quaker We say That True Faith in Christ cannot be without Works no more then a Body can live without a Spirit Nay by the Comparison if they were separable Works being compared to the Spirit would have the better The very Believing of any is an Act of the Mind and therefore a Work to God and no sooner is that Faith begotten but it falls to Working which is both the Nature and End of it Nor do we say that our very best Works proceeding from True Faith it self can merit No nor Faith joyn'd with them All that Man is capable of Believing or Performing can never merit There can be no Proportion as there must be in Merit between the best Faith and Works of three score and ten and Eternal Felicity Wherefore all that Man can do even with the Assistance of the Holy Spirit can never so merit but that Right Faith and Good Works which will follow it may and do obtain that blessed Immortality it pleaseth Almighty God to give and priviledge the Sons of Men with who perform that necessary Condition and that we groundedly and therefore boldly affirm So that we deny all Merit from the best of Works especially by such as the Papists are wont to conceive Meritorious But as we on the one Hand do stifly deny them so neither can we joyn with that lazy Faith which works not Let not Good Works make Men Papists because they make Men Christians I am sure Believing and not Working and conceiving a Salvation from Wrath where there is no Salvation from Sin the Cause of it is no whit less un-scriptural and abundantly more Pernicious and Damnable Blessed is He that hears the Word of God and does it The Blessing is to the Doer Priest They acknowledge no Resurrection nor Rewards to come Quaker In this also are we greatly abused We deny not the Resurrection but are cautious in expressing the Manner Are People angry with us for not Believing or Asserting what is Hidden and they know not themselves THOU FOOL is to the Inquirer We shall be contented with that Body God will please to give us and think it to be both our Duty and Wisdom to acquiesce in that For Eternal Rewards we not only own them but above all People have the greatest Reason so to do for otherwise who so Miserable Do we inherit the Reproach and Suffering of all that have separated from time to time That is Are the Out-crys that have been against the Protestants by the Papists and theirs against Puritans Brownists and other Separatists fallen upon us And shall we hold Principles inconsistent with an Eternal Recompence of Reward By no means It is our Faith and the contrary both a Malicious and Foolish Suggestion of our Adversaries J. Faldo's KEY Prov'd Defective I Was not willing J. Faldo's Key should go wholy Unconsider'd The greatest Part of which I here publickly acknowledge to have done us such Right that if his Explanation of many of our Words be not True I am not asham'd to pronounce that the Scriptures must be False so agreable to and consonant with Scripture has he spoken on our behalf And not only with Scripture but that Sense of it too which the Best Wisest and most Learned both of the Fathers and first Reformers have unanimously had and on which Foundation in some measure both Puritans and Brownists began their Building Low Meek Spiritual and Plain as is yet well remembred But how grosly he has mis-represented us in other Parts that the True may not give Credit to the False with any I will observe a few with what Brevity I may J. Faldo pag. 62. ASSEMBLING says he Meeting in Spirit W. Penn. This is not Ingenuous For with such as know us not nor our Practice it insinuates a Denial of Publick Worship which we ever own'd and hope shall to the End It is well known who have most shrunk from that Testimony And if J. Faldo means that they do not Worship in Spirit because he makes it Criminal in us we have Reason to say He and They are no Gospel-Worshippers For People must either worship in or out of God's Spirit If out of his Spirit then no Worship in Spirit and Truth but the Device of their own Hearts If in the Spirit then the Quakers assemble as they should do and J. Faldo is to be rebuk'd for little better then an Upstart Scoffer at Assembling in Spirit The once avowed Principle of the Ancient Brownists now call'd Independents J. F. pag. 69. THE WILL OF THE FLESH says he All that is chosen by Man though he be thereby disposed by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture W. P. This is false Many things may be and are daily chosen by Man that is not in the Will of the Flesh nor by his own Will much less when any should be disposed thereto by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture An Abominable Untruth and so Notorious that I need say no more only Challenge him to produce any of us in Proof of his Exposition if he can otherwise he hath Slandered us and our Principles For the Will of the Flesh is that which is quite contrary to God and inconsistant with the Good of the Creature J. F. pag. 69. STATE OF GLORY says he The State of Peace and Joy resulting from the Witness of the Light within in this Life W. P. It is true That Glory is revealed from Faith to Faith in this Life But to stint the State of Glory to the Peace and Joy of this Life only may justifie his wrong Opinion of us that we deny Rewards to come but it cuts off from our stedfast Faith in an Everlasting Mansion of Glory and Blessedness which from the Light within to all who obey it shall spring as a River and flow as an Inexhaustable Fountain And J. Faldo shall never know true Peace another way That is the Word of the Lord to him J. F. pag. 70. PREACHING FOR HIRE HIRELINGS says he to have a Provision for the Outward Man as a Maintenance for Preaching though no Bargain be made yea though such who receive it would Preach if they had never a Penny Reward in this World from
those they Preach to W. P. This is done like the Fox indeed He would suggest because we deny Hirelings that is Bargainers Men that make it their Trade that have no other will seek no other and yet preach perhaps but once a Week if then and bestow the Six Days that might be otherwise employ'd to Study for that Day instead of Preaching most of those Dayes that therefore we are such Cruel Hard-hearted People that is such as Preach and are Poor either through a numerous Family low Estate many Losses or a continual Attendance from Day to Day upon the Ministry they have receiv'd of God we will not minister to their Necessities for such as so receive any Assistance are Hirelings and we should contribute to make them so No no J. Faldo the Quakers are no such People but for all that they can do and I will renounce Thee and such as Thou art for Hirelings First in that you have not received the Living Heavenly Gift of the Ministry And secondly because you do generally Bargain will not preach without it and can basely leave an Honester People for a better Allowance This is Notorious therefore stop thy Mouth J. F. pag. 72. THE LUST sayes he all Desires that accord not to the Light within and proceed not from thence W. P. What accords not with the Light within is not of God and so far we own his Explanation but to say that all Desires about such ordinary things as are left to the common Understanding Prudence and Liberty of Man to do or not to do are Lust if they come not from the immediate Impulse of the Light within is his own Notion not the Quakers We do not subject that heavenly Principle to nor concern it with every Inferior and Frivolous thing belonging to this World J. F. pag. 75. CHRIST THE OFFERING says he the Light within W. P. This is no Quakers Expression and unless we are to answer for J. Faldo's Mistakes we are unconcern'd in it Only his Malice is manifest for he would by this insinuate that we deny Christ to be an Offering as in the Flesh and the Body then offered up to be concern'd in our Belief of the Offering But I do declare it to have been an holy Offering and such an one too as was to be once for all Therefore let none receive his Abuse of us for our Faith J. F. pag. 79. MEN-PLEASERS says he They who comply with Men though in things not only Lawful but also to Edification W. P. We Charge this upon him as an Arrant Lye We are so far from reputing such Men-pleasers that we account them Sober Courteous and Commendable Persons provided he means by Lawful and to Edification what we do otherwise he is not Honest to obtrude Matters in Question for our Meanings J. F. pag. 81. RAVENING BRAIN sayes he Studying and following after Divine Knowledge W. P. This is not fair The Word studying and following we own in a sense Studying that is Meditating Following that is Obeying the Light and Spirit of God But because we deny the Dark and Heathenish Metaphysicks the prolix and abstruse Niceties of the School-men and affirm There is no way to become vers'd in the Things of God but by being an humble Student and diligent Disciple in the School of Christ that is to be taught of his Light Grace or holy Spirit Therefore all right Study and all right Wayes to come to the Knowledge of Divine Things we must be charg'd with the Denyal of Disingenuous Man J. F. pag. 86. TRADITIONS OF MEN that is says he The Scripture or Written Word W. P. Show us that in any Book that is subscrib'd by an acknowledg'd Quaker Tradition is a Delivering any thing down From one Generation to another and as such the word is Inoffensive but to say They are the Traditions of Men in the sense Christ reprov'd the Pharisaical Religion God forbid I had rather my Tongue were cut out of my Head O Base Man To abuse an innocent People thus grosly The Scripture is a Godly Tradition or Writing given forth by Inspiration and preserv'd through Generations which we read believe and desire to fulfil through the Power of God J. F. pag. 63 82 83 87. BABYLON Shaddows Spirit of Anti-Christ Outward Court that is says he all Ordinances Worship Faith Obedience that have any Form though Christ's and Gospel Forms being with them the Worship of Heathens not of Christians W. P. This Key opens into as many Forgeries as ever I knew one Key do in my Life Certainly were not this Man left of God for his Enmity he could never run into such extravagant Dishonesty What! Belye us in the Sight of all Indeed it turns upon himself For Visible Worship the Form of Godliness Faith and Obedience to every Ordinance of God we own profess and practise daily and publickly through the Power of our God in whose Name we renounce his Constructions and trample upon all his Malice black and enrag'd as it is J. F. pag. 89. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM that is says J. Faldo the Belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be the Christ c. W. P. Let this be the Last though several more might be observed which at this time shall be consider'd in which we shall see that J. Faldo has done like himself and the Man we have all along taken him to be The Vail is over them it is a Scripture-Phrase 2 Cor. 3. 15. used by the Apostle to express the Darkness and Ignorance that to that time remain'd over the Understanding of the Jews in reading the Law and this Vail he makes us to interpret after this gross and absurd manner namely That the Vail is the Man Christ Wicked Man Did ever Quaker so irreverently express himself Give us his Name or tell us in what Book we may find it What greater Malice couldst thou have shown then thus unjustly to pervert the Scripture in our Name belying and abusing both As if because Christ's Flesh is called a Vail and the Ignorance of the Jews a Vail that therefore the Quakers must of Necessity mean by Vail in the first sense Vail in the second sense as if the Way to have the Vail rent were to deny the Man Christ Jesus which were to make Christ rend and destroy himself who as the Quickning Spirit alone rends all Vails of the Hearts of Unbelievers Nor indeed have I met with one Term absurd or un-intelligible unless the Scripture use such therefore 't is an Untruth to stile them absurd and a Contradiction in him to offer at Explaining any thing that is truly un-intelligible And that all the World may behold the Spirit of J. Faldo how Ill he governs himself against the Quakers which makes not a little for them let his following Epithetes and Expressions be well weighed I think they are so naked they want no Key and glad we are he found no such Subjects from us to