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
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
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
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
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
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
of the Light within every such Rebellious Person in which the Love of God is marvelously expressed who by his holy Light within and its Testimonies without endeavours the Conviction and Reformation of the Children of Men. § 13. But hear him in his second and last Inference upon the same Ground the Tenets and Assertions of all the Heathens are to be received as of equal Authority with the Scriptures for they resulted from their Light Within improved much more orderly and to Purpose then the Quakers do theirs Yea the bitter Scoffs of Lucian and Julian the Apostate must be admitted into the same Orders for if it be admitted they did not Vilifie and Scorn and Deride the Scripture and Christianity according to the Dictates of their Consciences it cannot be denyed that they therein acted from the Power within which whether it were the Power of Darkness or not the Quakers having no Rule to judge it by but their own Sentiments it is left by them undetermined And I know not hardly any Worse they said of Jesus of Nazareth the Scripture and Christianity then the Quakers have done under other Names This Passage Impertinent enough to the purpose and as Black as Hell it self in Malice against that despised Remnant of People Called Quakers by God's Assistance I will effectually answer to the shame of this ungodly Slanderer The Gentiles Light was one in Nature with that which the Evangelist saith inlightneth all Men a Text whose Plainness Expressness yields that Advantage to us against the utmost Force of all our Adversaries which they are Angry at but can never Invalid I say one in Nature with that Divine Being and as such transcending all Writings whatever yet that the Gentiles had that Light in a more excellent Degree then that in which the Prophets and Apostles enjoyed it whence came those excellent Writings I utterly deny and that in the Name of all true Quakers I say again that though the least measure of Pure Light it self is to be preferred before all the Writings in the World as meer Writings yet that it may not be comparable to that Degree and further Discovery of Light which was witnessed by those who gave forth those Writings I grâ—â—t so that to bring the Sayings and the Assertions of the Heathens upon an Equality with the Writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles we dare not assent to but vehemently oppose any such Inference made to be the Product of our Belief For though as I said before any measure of Light it self is beyond the most excellent meer Writings of a far greater yet the Writings or Sayings given forth by that lesser Appearance are not to be brought into Comparison with those of a greater Discovery no more then the Degrees of Discovery or Manifestation of the Light it self This the Apostle Paul practised who notwithstanding that he rightly knew that Administration to supercede and transcend what want before stuck not to remind the Heathens of their own Authors as Aratus Menander c. by an apt Application of them to this Purpose in Defence of his Doctrine And if Those who became a Law unto themselves Doing the things contained in the Law were to be preferred before the Circumcision who kept not the Law and that who lived without Law outward yet according to Law inward should be judged by Law inward which was substantially the same as testifies the Apostle with what was required by the Law outward Then their Law within Substantially consider'd did not fall short of that Law without nor they who kept it of the Circumcision themselves which most clearly overturns that Ignorant or Malicious Cavil to wit that the Quakers have no Mean by which to judge of the Ground of Wrong and Right Actions For if the Scriptures be that only Judge then there could have been no Knowledg of right or wrong Actions Spirits or Powers before they were given forth which because the Patriarchs and Gentiles had an evident Sight and true Sence of by that Internal Law of Light in the Heart and Conscience without Scripture it follows that the Quakers owning the same Light and that in a more eminent Discovery can not be guilty of such an Ignorance § 14. But a litle further to inspect his Argument If the having no Outward Rule was to be without all Rule whereby to Try a Right from a Wrong Power I would gladly know how the Prophets themselves were assured of the Truth of their Motions being without any outward Touch-Stone and by what means the Apostles knew that the Spirit or Power which acted them to reject and decry the whole Service of the Jews which God had so peculiarly Instituted Circumcision for Instance that was given for a Sign FOREVER was the right Spirit or Power I ask Was it the Scripture without or the Son of God otherwise called the Light or Word of God revealed in them But I will yet proceed Suppose any Man who is call'd an Independent and owns the Scripture to be that which J. Faldo reputes them should pretend a Vision of very strange and unwonted Things should imitate a Trance personate some extraordinary Inspired Person by what place of Scripture would J. Faldo assure himself or others of the Sincerity or Imposture of such a Person his Rationals being otherwise Sound his Life Sober and his Pretences no way anti-Scriptural O Weak Man Is thy Religion without a secret Light Life Power Vertue Sight or Relish of the Root and Ground of things or rather doest thou conclude that all Mankind however Christian are left Destitute of any Inward Power to Try or Discern Spirits because it is thine own State of Darkness I affirm to thee and all the World that in this Case no outward Mean whatsoever decides the Matter or clears the Doubt only the invisible Light Power or Spirit of God Yea and that in far less Cases too In which sense chiefly it is the Dispensation of the Gospel so call'd and justly preferr'd before all other And this I leave with him that nothing can judge of the Root and Ground of Evil but the Root and Ground of Good The Works of Evil the Scriptures tel us are abominable But the Question is How do I know what they declare to be Evil is so what works the Conviction in me and where an Evil Spirit brings it self not forth into those Works what shall discern him except it be the Good Spirit It is the Power of God within that crusheth the Power of the Devil within The Scriptures without Reprove his Works without But since the things contained in the Scriptures were such in themselves and true and experienc'd before they were written will it not follow that the inward Power was both a sufficient Judge and their Author too and consequently Greater § 15. But above all the Impudence of his Wickedness both to charge the Impiety of Julian and Lucian upon the Light within by placing them in the same Order with
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
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
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-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
meer Imitations of real things as I have been credibly told we know not but our Ignorance of an Inward Sence might render us very fit to judge in favour of the Priest his Puppet-Play Doctrine till when we leave Imitating J. Faldo and the Puppets together who alike fainedly represent Life Power and Spirit but in reality are empty Sounds and meer Wind ratling through lifeless Truncks CHAP. XIII But we deny Preaching says he His Disingenuity 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 § 1. ANother of those Ordinances he falsly affirms us to deny is Preaching of which he speaks thus They will allow a Hearing the Word preach'd and that must be the Light within but the Mind of God contained in the Scripture they must by no means hear preached for as I hinted from G. Fox we must not hear Man for the Prophets bid cease from Man This is so far from making against us that it makes for us at an high rate For who preaches without that Light of Christ that the Quakers affirm all True Preaching proceeds from preaches not from the Discoveries and Leadings of the Light and consequently all such Preaching is in the Darkness where God's Counsel cannot be known Nay how is it possible that People can be turn'd from Darkness to the Light the End of Preaching by those who deny that Men ought to preach from the Revelations and Guidings of the Light § 2. He hath also with manifest Baseness brought us in as putting a Difference betwixt our Preaching by the Light within and that Doctrine of God which is contained in the Scriptures Whereas we Read Believe Practise and Preach no other Doctrine for Truth then what is explicitely or implicitely there held forth and testified unto Though we confess that we don't only so believe practise and preach it because there written but from an Inward Living Power or Spirit which both Opens the Mysteries thereof to our Understandings begets right Belief in them and at sundry times moves upon our Hearts to declare a fresh those Ancient Blessed Truths therein exprest And this is what G. F. meant and we All understand by Ceasing from Man to wit meer Man not Man Inspir'd or so Divinely qualified But he has a Scripture and a Passage out of W. Smith to justifie his Charge at least he thinks so And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written How beautiful are the Feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace c. We say so to and did we mean the same 't were happy for J. Faldo By being sent we understand by the Light within and the Scripture without a being anointed by the immediate Power of God without which the Disciples themselves who had so many Advantages above us were not to budge They could have told most of what Jesus had done and suffer'd which though Truth in it self and they able to relate it yet bare Truth and all they had seen or known without a Living Immediate Power and Commission within the Baptism of the Holy Spirit they were not to budge on God's Account If J. Faldo could give us as good Evidence of his being so call'd as he hath done of a False and Enrag'd Spirit against the Truth we should acknowledge him for a Gospel-Minister but since he dis-acknowledges all share in any such Mission we justly refuse him any part in a Gospel-Ministry § 3. In short If none can preach without being sent then since he his Tribe were never so sent they ought not to preach nor any to hear them For Right Faith can never come by such a Ministry No They are Right Gospel-Ministers their Feet truly beautyful whose Gospel is Peace on Earth good-Will towards Men Not Garments rold in the Blood of Kings Princes Rulers and People No Worldly Armies Battles Victories Trophies Spoiles Sequestrations Decimations and the like Blood-thirsty and Tyrannical Projects In which J. Faldo and his POOR NON-CONFORMING MINISTERS have had their Hands almost over Head and Ears till they had well nigh lost their Ears and their Heads too Such Covenant-breaking Self-seeking Proud Covetous Tyrannical Club-law Persecuting Priests we could never own but ever did and ever shall earnestly bear our faithful Testimony against them as the Locusts Caterpillers Serpents and Dragons of the Earth whose Cruelty Self-seeking and Falsness hath griev'd Good Men and caused the Wicked to Blaspheme the Name of the God of Heaven whose Damnation slumbers not if by unfeigned Contrition not prevented § 4. Well but we are to hear what strength William Smith's Primmer can give to his Charge Quest Is there something of God in my Conscience that will give me the Knowledge of him Answ There is not any thing else that can do it That is principally there is no other Teacher no other Revealer or Discoverer of the Mind and Will of God to us then Christ the Light as saith the Scripture No man knows the Father but the Son the true Light and he to whom the Son reveals him And whatever makes manifest is Light Now unless a Man may know God without any Manifestation it is impossible that he should be known without Light that only gives it especially when it shall be considered That HE is Light it self If then there is no Knowing of God but that which we know must first be manifested and that whatever makes manifest the Things of God is Light it evidently follows That the Light is the Alone Author of those Discoveries Men receive of the Mind of God And whatever Knowledg may be given or rightly obtained through the Scriptures is not to be imputed to the Scripture as such but that Divine Light which gives inward Conviction of the Truth of what is outwardly read or writ in that excellent Book called Scripture So that still to Christ the True Light as the Chiefest Cause in which sense he is most properly so called do we rightly ascribe all the Knowledge we have of God and his Everlasting Kingdom 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 Subtilty of Satan in putting upon unacceptable Prayer to prevent True Prayer § 1. BUt we deny Prayer as well as Preaching if he may be credited and indeed we do so by the same Figure or contrary Way of Speaking that We deny them that is as John Faldo owns them but not that therefore we should deny them at all His Charge lies in three parts First That we Contemn True Gospel-Prayer To prove which
is manifest first That no Commission was given by Christ before he broke Bread with his Disciples Consequently he must intend John ' s onely And next That John ' s Commission it self is not extant muâ—h less any Commission to perpetuate his as generally oblieging But above all that the Disciples of Christ should not onely use but esteem for an Ordinance of Christ a Baptism that had not their Lord for its Administrator as saith the Scripture for Jesus baptised not is absurd and all together Anti-Gospel If we will credit Christ's own saying The least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater then John as if he should have said John's Administration was an Introduction and a Kind of Preparation in order to my Coming but no otherwise is it interessed in my Kingdom which is Spiritual and that I am now about to set up in the Hearts and Consciences of Men and the least of that Spiritual Kingdom is greater then the Children of John ' s Watery Dispensation § 4. That this is Truth I will further prove even from that very Place which they repute a sufficient Commission for Water-Baptism Go therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and the Holy Ghost c. In discoursing of things laid down by the Evangelists it will not alwayes suffice what some one Evangelist saith as in the Passage Controverted We have here a Commission it is granted but what it was with respect to the Baptism mentioned and the Time when it was to take place will be the Question To resolve which we must have recourse to another place without which this cannot be so clear to those who seek after Scripture-Demonstration Luke in his History of the Acts of the Apostles soon after his Address to Theophilus gives us an Account of some farewell-Expressions Christ used to his Disciples not so fully exprest in his History which he delivers to us after this manner And being assembled together with them he Christ commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father which sayes he ye have heard of me FOR JOHN TRULY BAPTIZED WITH WATER BUT YE SHALL BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY GHOST NOT MANY DAYES HENCE From whence nothing can be clearer then first that the Baptism mention'd in Go teach all Nations Baptizizing them c. was not the Baptism of John but the Baptism of the Holy Ghost call'd the Promise of the Father which they were to wait for recorded by Luke both in the 24th Chapter of his History of Christ and the first Chapter of his History of the Acts of the Apostles Nay lest it should be thought that he meant of another Water-Baptism as some vainly imagine to help their Understanding and prevent all such Mistake he distinguishes not betwixt John ' s Water-Baptism and his own but betwixt Any Water-Baptism at all and his own Baptism of the Holy Ghost John indeed baptized with Water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost Then you will be fitly qualified and commissionated after you shall have received the Promise of the Father which you are to wait for and then to go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Suitable to those Expressions of the Baptist himself I indeed Baptize you with Water but he shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost His Fan is in his Hand he will throughly purge his Floor He that cometh after me is preferred before me Besides the very words themselves taken in the Original Tongue import in Point of Propriety nothing less For the Greek knows no such thing as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. baptizing them in the Name but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 baptizing them into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which by the frequent use of that Preposition ' Eis Into it is impossible for Water-Baptism to do no more then for a Man by it to be baptized with the same Baptism where-with Christ was to be baptized to be buried with him Christ to be baptized into Christ and so to be baptized into his Death or by it and not by One Spirit to be baptized into One Body Which because no Water-Baptism could ever do it consequently follows that it was never intended of Water-Baptism since it would then have been to ascribe that to meer Water-Baptism which it is both utterly impossible for it ever to perform and is really the alone Property of the Spiritual Baptism of Christ to effect § 5. To our Objection of the Apostle's Answer Christ sent me not to Baptize but to Preach he argues Because he did Baptize some therefore it was an Ordinance and that he baptiz'd so few was but providential not designed and the Reason why it was not laid upon the Apostle Paul was because his Call was extraordinary and out of due time But the Confusion and the Weakness of this Reply might save me the Labour of an Answer with all but those who might esteem it Unanswerable because almost Unintelligible For if every Practice was an Institution then because the same Apostle Circumcised it was a Christian-Ordinance Practice then we see and all the reasonable World knows is not Institution Many things indifferent in their Nature may be practised and used and yet never instituted or required That he had it not in his Commission the Priest himself grants but excuses that Defect by a greater viz. He was called extraordinarily and out of due time But as they were all extraordinarily called or else the Priest contradicts himself so if we may believe the Apostle he was Inferior to none of them If not in his Works I know no Reason why he should be reputed so in his Commission That his Commission was of God is granted on all hands And if it pleased God to make it none of Paul's Commission we would be glad to see any of our time produce one more large and effectual till when we are contented with no more Extent in the Point then God pleased to give his great Apostle and believe whatever J. Fuldo sayes to the contrary that he was a Gospel-Christian-Apostle And if Water-Baptism had been then reputed a Gospel Christian-Ordinance neither had God omitted that in his Commission nor had the Apostle spoke so lightly of it § 6. But J. Parnel offends him in these words at least he takes Offence at them They who would have one Baptism inward an other outward would have Two Baptisms when the Scripture saith The Baptism is but One. Shield of Truth p. 11. Which he would be thought to Confute thus and it seems more material then any thing he has writ on this Subject I must tell him by the way that he tells an Untruth wilfully He uses or rather abuses the Words of the Apostle just before repeated one Lord one Faith one Baptism and there he adds but which the Text has not And here the Scripture saith the Baptism is but one
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
own'd according to Scriptures p. 157. CHAP. XIX Our Adversary's proposed three Scripture-Places are by us rightly applyed and his Charge is found untrue Christ is prov'd the true Light Comforter Creator and Redeemer Our Adversay's Objections examin'd and refuted His Triumph turneth to his Shame The true signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmed p. 166. CHAP. XX. Our Adversary's Charges deny'd His Proofs fail him The Quakers are no Idolaters and Quakerism no Idolatry We own and profess the only true God that made Heaven and Earth p. 191. CHAP. XXI Our Adversary at a loss to prove his Charge We own so much of the Resurrection as the Scriptures express more Curiosity Dangerous and Condemnable Eternal Rewards own'd by us J. Faldo's Book will prove it to him and our Tribulations to Us. p. 199. An Appendix being a Reply to that Last Part of his Book which pretends to Answer the First of my Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. p. 206. A Key opening a Way to every Common Understanding whereby to discern the Difference betwixt the Quakers Faith Doctrine and Practice and the Perversions and Traducings of their several Adversaries p. 236. J. Faldo's Key proved Defective p. 246. ERRATA READER THough this Civility of Excusing the Author from the Miscarriage of the Press be that which is both due in it self and alwayes acknowledged by Sober and Impartial Men yet having to do with a Generation of People resolved to our Ruin any way whose onely Clemency to the Printer is Cruelty to the Author and are therefore not weary of Excusing the one that they may the more Colourably Accuse the other I have endeavoured at a Correction of such Escapes as seemed to me in over-looking the whole Discourse most hurtful to the Sense For many Literal Mistakes want of due Points Points misplaced Transpositions or the like Impunctuality and Impropriety I bespeak my Excuse from thee If thou art Ingenuous thou wilt not deny it and if thou art not I shall the less concern my self in the Advantage taken Pag. Line Errors Corrected 6 32 Outward Christianity Outward Manifestation 11 28 Comparence Comparison 12 11 and but 23 19 had so had he so 39 17 Reconciliation reconciled 40 8 which who 47 17 want went  20 this his 50 19 for to 51 23 whatsoever whomsoever 68 27 lightned lighted 76 17 to be any c. 85 5 Words Word 88 21 to too 89 25 that Rest the Rest 93 3 our his 94 31 Temporal Temporary  34 Word God 95 16 high highly  25 129 124 96 6 Scriptures Scripture 107 16 God respoke God shall have respoken  17 made makes 109 5 Rich as Rich  6 which what  28 Hawking Hackny 116 9 Certainty Certainly 123 21 are is 125 29 all Conceivings all Self-conceivings 126 4 joyned enjoyed 127 24 pure Ware blot out 128 17 risen departed risen and departed 132 2 punctually punctual 139 5 I blot out 140 4 John ' s John 142 2 my the  13 with respect in Comparison 144 21 or and 146 8 to me self with my self  â—â— back â—â— back at us 152 15 could would 157 19 such too as such as  29 there with where with 158 10 as at 159 12 had has  23 else it was not or else it had not been 161 34 p. 72 77 p. 72 77 84 85 93. 164 1 answer'd consider'd  27 Matter Nature 165 17 Creco crew 168 8 of of our Principles 203 10 to too 209 14 I do and I do  30 when wherein 213 28 the gift of Spirit a Gift of the Spirit  31 not blot out 214 28 not Agents not prime Agents 217 3 the Truth of blot out 227 1 Creator Creation 229 34 reputed reputed him 230 4 due duly 239 7 is rightly is it rightly QUAKERISM A NEW Nick-Name for OLD Christianity BEING A Short and Round Answer to a Book Entituled Quakerism No Christianity c. CHAP. I. The Introduction Our Adversary's Definition of Christianity Defective True Christianity Stated Quakerism Mistaken by him It is proved True Christianity and a Quaker a Right Christian § 1. AMong many other Persons that have of late Industriously essayed the Mis-Representing the Quakers and their Religion overcasting the Sincerity of the One and darkning the Excellent Beauty of the Other by their Mists of Ignorance and Prejudice John Faldo though the Last has not been the Least concern'd § 2. I am truly Sorry to see that among the several Arguments some Men's Prudence render'd for Toleration that of giving Dissenters Liberty and they would War within themselves should be so amply verified by their Unchristian Irruption upon us disturbing those by Slanderous Pamphlets who would not be concern'd in their Heats But this Folly and Uncharitableness I am to tell the World lies not at the Quakers Door who seek Peace with all Men but some Restless Spirits among other Perswasions whose whole Food seems to turn into Contest and shew they can no more live without it then the Air they breath in What shall we do then Suffer their Slanders Detractions Additions and Down-right Abuses of us to pass Unanswer'd No for then we shall be concluded either Guilty or Vanquisht What then Why we will defend our selves with Truth and Moderation and that I hope with God's Assistance to do in this short Treatise to the Confusion of our Enemies and Renowning the Truth and Clearing our Innocence to the World § 3. The Author is pleas'd to call his Book Quakerism no Christianity A Title of more Reproach and Infamy then became a Christian-Man to give But let 's hear what he means by Christianity § 4. By Christianity we are not to understand all those Matters of Faith and Practice which Christianity doth obliege us unto A strange Definition of true Christianity For if to Believe and Do all Christianity requireth be not Christianity then there is something beyond all that Christianity requires to be believ'd and done that is Christianity else I understand nothing But saith he It takes in whatever is worthy in those Religions it hath superceded yea the very Heathens What then Is it not therefore Christianity Egregious Weakness What an Hair has he split but it flyes in his Eyes Is it not therefore Christianity because Christianity takes it in If Christianity takes in whatever is worthy in other Religions then since Christianity is Worthiness It self Comprehensive of whatever was in any degree Excellent among Jews or Heathens will it not follow That to Believe and Practise all that Christianity requires is Christianity unless we are to understand That Christianity does not require what was Worthy and Commendable among Jews or Heathens which he says we are § 5. This then does not make Christianity a Distinct Thing in kind from what was Worthy as he calls it that is Godly among either Jews or Heathen but that Christ did by his Visible Appearance benefit the World
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
will I The Things following which I have declared of are not the Things of Man nor by Man did I receive them but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ W. Dewsberry thus The Word of the Lord to his Beloved City through your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience in the Lord Jesus Christ Now what to say here in their Defence when he lays nothing to their Charge but what hath been generally exprest I know not Certain it is that No Man knows the Father but the Son and Him to whom the Son REVEALS him The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding and No Man can know the Things of God but by the Spirit of God Well may we conclude then that J. Faldo knows God no better then I do Terra Incognita for he denyes all Knowledge of him by any Internal Discoveries What he knows is by Man and from Man What Offence or Undervalue I would fain know can it be to the Scriptures that Men should know God that only Way by which they testifie God can be known of Men Or Why should he be Angry at his Author for Confessing to have known God that very Way by which the Scriptures declare him only to be known But indeed it happens ill to the Priest for all this is to prove too that We deny the Scriptures though hereby we fulfil them § 3. For W. D's Words they are also firm for God promised the Repouring out of his Spirit and the Repreaching of his Everlasting Gospel And since the Question is not whether we have it but whether it be an Invalidating the Scriptures for any under the plentiful Pourings out of the Spirit and Power of God to say This is the Word of the Lord I say it is firm that so Saying may therefore be in the Latter as well as Former Dayes allowable and no Detraction at all from the Scriptures And for the Conclusion of his Epistle it is what every good Christian Man can say What Folly what Impudence is it in J. Faldo to make that an Equaling our Writings to Scripture or Preferring them before it which both his own Tribe I am able to make appear hath frequently us'd though by Themselves Irreproveably And which indeed is the Condition of every good Christian-Man namely to be a Brother and Companion to the Children and Family of God in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience in the Lord Jesus Well! If this Man's manifest Weakness make not for our Cause I should very greatly strange § 4. And therefore says he Pennington prays seriously My Upright Desire to the Lord for you is That he would strip you of your Knowledg of the Scriptures according to the Flesh By Flesh says he their Sense is the Use of our Understandings though Sanctified as will appear in the Key c. But this Expression serves for a Notable Key to open his Ignorance and Dishonesty His Ignorance is evident in Reputing it a Slight of the Scriptures to desire that Men might be stript of their Fleshly Knowledg of them I do affirm it to be both Seasonable and Serious and did not J. Faldo stand upon a tottering Basis he would not so declaim against us for Undermining it But let all behold his Dishonesty to say that we desire to be Script of the Knowledge of the Scriptures after our Sanctified Understandings making a Sanctified Understanding and that Flesh which can never inherit the Kingdom of God to wit the Carnal Dead Dark Unregenerated Understanding to be all one O Disingenuous Man Art thou fit to be a Gospel Minister who hast not learnt to do as thou wouldst be done by I leave it with the Conscience of the Reader how Justly or Unjustly thou hast dealt with us in this Matter and what all or any of it concerns the Scriptures For if Men will not understand them as they are is it the Fault of the Scriptures No surely shall then Isaac Pennington's Desire that their wrong Knowledg of those weighty and Holy Writings be interpreted a Dis-Respect to them and a preferring our own Writings before them which so heartily seeks their Right Knowledge of them If this be the Way to prove Quakerism no Christianity we need not much fear the Issue of his Attempt § 5. But he proceeds to prove our Equaling of the Scriptures two Wayes First from our pretending to Infallibility Secondly our Plea for the Necessity of Inspiration He quotes G. Whitehead's Letter to him Whether Infallibility be attainable by any in these dayes which we affirm is to true Believers which if thou denyst we question thy Call Of Inspiration he cites J. Story 's short Discovery thus Therefore may I say much more it is not in the Power of that little Book either to throw down Self-Will in any in whom it is not yet subdued or to exalt the Truth in general because it is only Queries gather'd by the Author from the Letter of the Scriptures without and no Message of Heavenly Prophesie Doctrine or Exhortation received by the Author from the Lord through the Divine Inspiration of his Light and Spirit within Therefore I say It is a very Vain and Idolatrous Exhortation To all which sober Matter I have no other Answer from him then that the Quakers Writings are full to this Purpose Indeed I am glad of it or we had little Reason to Suffer what we do for our Descent from the Carnal Professors of Religion in the World But I have this to say to him He that doth not Infallibly know what he knows of God or Religion knows nothing certainly which concerns either Now if Men cannot attain to any such Certainty Farewell all Religion For That a Man should affirm and not know whereof That he should profess God and Religion yet be uncertain of both But that J. Faldo should Preach of both and profess himself Errable in all such Doctrine Who ought to believe him Why spends he his Breath at a Venture Rather let him Eat Drink for to Morrow he shall Dye for Death is certain This is your Independent Fallible Errable Uncertain J. Faldo Preacher to a People at Barnet and God knows a Lamentable one too What Reason have any to Believe him against Us who is Uncertain of the Truth of what he says against us by his own Principle § 6. For Inspiration the Scriptures are not more express in any one thing No man can know the things of God by the bare Spirit of a Man But the Spirit of a Man or a Man distinctly considered from the Inspiration of the Almighty can read Scripture and form Queries and call them Christian too yet who will dare affirm this Man's Queries to be Christian Can they beat down Self-Will They may talk of it or exalt the Living Truth that came not from it This is the Scope of J. Story 's Answer to the Questioner For what is this but Stealing the Prophets and Apostles Words when they are made Use of
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
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
Scriptures for What this is to his purpose I cannot understand to be sure it is for ours For W. D. is so far from making it Idolatry to live up to the Scriptures that he condemns their seeking for the true God where he was not to be found which sayes he they HAVE NO SCRIPTURE FOR As much as to say that they seek after God not according to Scripture and therefore are both Deceivers and Deceived Certainly this is a Miserable Farewel he takes of the first part of his Book and the Quakers Denial of the Scriptures that they should therefore affirm a Practice according to Scripture without immediate Inspiration Idolatrous because they assert such to be deceived who seek after God not according to Scriptures If so much Impertinency should fall from a Poor Quaker's Pen what Reproach Insolence and Triumph would there be But he has another Witness that by the Mouthes of two Witnesses his Charge against us may be not establisht but evidently disprov'd § 5. And this is Babylon the Mother of Harlots viz. to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles of the Scriptures of the New Testament and the Abomination of all Uncleanness W. Smith's morning watch p. 23. Forgery in the abstract as base black and dishonest as Man can be to Man What! rob him of Truth of a good Conscience foist in put out alter gloss pervert and what he pleaseth What make us lve against God his Servants Scriptures the Light within and our own Souls But I have the less need to make our Defence where his manifest Corruption of our Words accuse him and my Answer to the first part of his Charge in this Chapter has done it at large Only thus much give me leave to say That if Words urg'd upon one Subject shall be apply'd to another of a different Nature and that our Adversary can never prove his Charge against us but by abusing corrupting mis-rendering and interlineating our Words there is no Reason that we should much concern our selves in the Consequence of such Debates that Way of Demonstration will save us the Labour of a Vindication with all Sober Persons But he has not done with us yet § 6. I am e'en tired with searching the sulphureous Veins of the Pit and Mire of Quakerism the Root of all which is the Deified Light Within if you have not enough of this Smoak to satisfie you it is the Bottomless Pit it rises out of I will give you two Ebullitions more and then leave you satisfied or to get better Senses So amongst the words you find how the Saints in some things walked and what they practised and then you strive to make that thing to your selves and to observe and do it as near as you can and here you are found Transgressors of the Just Law of God who saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the Likeness of any thing And sayes J. Faldo it follows now what Difference is there in the Ground betwixt you and the Pope though in the Appearance there seems to be such a great Space I have been the more punctual in the Recital of this that I might show to my Adversary I will be just to him though he be most egregiously Unmanly with us He says That he is e'en tired indeed he has Reason for it though for nothing else For who ever got any thing by Beating the Air or Spitting against the Heavens The Sulphureous Pit of Quakerism we can in one sense allow and J. F. may be better acquainted with it For the Plagues which the never-dying Worm the sharp reproving condemning Light Within will inflict upon the Spirits of them who resist and gainsay the Truth are aptly resembled to a Sulphureous Bottomless Pit Sulphureous because of the Insufferableness of the Smoak A Bottomless Pit by reason of a Dismal Endless State and Condition of Wo. And I doubt not but J. Faldo has an Earnest of this for his Attempts against the Light and the Children of it This long Discourse is no more to us then the rest of his Trash that we have already rejected as his own Invention and base Perversion of our real Meanings Take W. Smith in his own Sense and Belief and all is well But receive him in J. Faldo's Disguize and truly we should not know him our selves He intended that all those real Experiments of other Persons of which the Scriptures are full talkt unexperimentally over by Unregenerated Spirits can be no wayes beneficial Nay that what Ideas or Notions they may have to themselves of the Holy Ancients Enjoyments while altogether unacquainted with them are but a kind of Images which their believing in and bowing to as indispensible Gospel-Truths is to be reputed nothing below Idolatry it self Yet far be it from us to say that to believe the Truth as declared in the Scriptures is Idolatry as well as that it is manifest Folly in any so to say or think of us when not only we are most careful and desirous of rendering what we believe purely Scriptural But I do declare that as no man can live the Life of the Scriptures without the Operation of that Spirit which gave them forth so to live up to what they do exhort and declare is the highest Pitch of Purity Man's Nature is capable of aiming at and attaining to § 7. He now intends to wind up his Discourse on the present Subject with a retrospective and contracted Argument of all those particular distinct Charges viz. They who deny the Scripture to be the Word of God equal their own Writings Sayings deny them to be a Rule of Faith and Life a Judge of Religious Controversies take Men off from Reading them deny the Scripture to be any Means whereby we may come to know God or Christ or our selves affirm them to be no Means whereby to resist Temptation and are Dangerous to be read deny them to be Profitable but as Experienced put Scripture and Spirit in Opposition affirm the Doctrines Commands and Holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such to be not at all binding to us hold it as the Sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the Instructions and Holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate Revelation as the Apostles They who do all these things mentioned in the fore-going Particulars Deny the Scriptures But the Quakers do all these things therefore they Deny the Scriptures To which I return this Argument If to Deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God to make what Writings are given forth by the same Spirit relative of the Scriptures if not to prefer any Writings before the Scriptures nor equal them to the Scriptures if to deny the Scriptures to be most properly the General Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie and not the Spirit rather if not to take Men off from Reading the Scriptures for Instruction c. if
hereafter The Old Leaven must be purg'd out and the New Wine have a New Bottle Men must become Children and Religion taken up not upon Conviction must be abandoned for the least Appearance of God's Light breaking in upon the Heart and Conscience reproving the unfruitful Works of Darkness 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 § 1. HE now descends to show our Denial of the Ordinances of the Gospel in particular and we to examine what he says wherein if he succeed no better then in his Endeavours to manifest our Denial of them in general I think the Reader will have reason to think we shall not sit down by the loss But hear him § 2. They Deny all Ministry that hath a mediate Call to that Office quoting J. Parnel's Shield c. p. 16. And their Call to the Ministry we deny which is Mediate Also G. Fox in his Gr. Myst pag. 45. But who can witness an Immediate Call from God and speak as they are moved by the Holy Ghost and such travel from place to place having no certain Dwelling-place this Ministry we own and witness The Charge against the Priests I esteem sound but not J. Faldo's against the Quakers We do for several Reasons already urg'd deny that any Man can be a True Minister who is not immediately Call'd for it 's not go ye forth into all the World and preach the Gospel that belongs unto all Men no more then because Princes send Ambassadors to Princes with their Credentials therefore every Man ought to do the like in Imitation without considering those necessary Qualifications that belong to such an Action Peter John c. were a great while Disciples not at Academies but in Christ's School which taught the Mortification of Lusts and an holy self denying Life To such it was that the Commission came but neither was their Commission of force till they had received that Anointing which was to enable them to act by it If then every Holy Man as such is not fitly gifted and impowerd to be a Minister but that it depends upon a more Immediate and Extraordinary thing certainly those who take upon them the Ministry that have neither learnt by true Mortification to be Holy nor receiv'd any Power from Heaven to be Ministers but explode both as to the present Age and Teach for Hire and Divine for Money are not of Christ's making but their own and therefore to be denied And thus much J. Faldo to his own apparent Overthrow grants us where he says we acknowledge that all True Ministers of Christ ought to have an Immediate Call such as consists in Grace and Gifts And such as have not this Immediate Call we account unworthy of the Thing and Name What more has any Quaker said Why is James Parnel quoted to prove that what he charges upon the Quakers as to their Denying the Ministry of the Gospel is a Truth when it is become no Crime at all in J. Faldo to assert that who are not Immediately call'd are Unworthy both of the Name and Thing Is he become an Enemy himself to that Gospel-Ordinance If Immediate then not Mediate and if not Mediate then J. Parnel and G. Fox writ Orthodoxally consequently we are not to be reputed Denyers of the Ministry of the Gospel because we assert that no Man is a Gospel-Minister who is not Immediately call'd thereto So that his Mincing of the Matter in the next page will no ways qualifie it viz. That Motions by the Holy Ghost he allows yet he affirms that those who are moved by the Commands of the Spirit in the Scripture are mov'd by the Holy Ghost For if any holy Man reading the Apostle's Commission shall at that instant of Time receive an Heavenly Power to make it his laying that same Injunction upon him and induing him with such a Measure of that Divine Power as they received We shall cheerfully grant him to be truly call'd yet not because Go ye into all Nations and preach the Gospel is there written but because God respoke those Words by the same Living and Eternal Power immediately to that Particular Person which made what otherwise was but the Commission of the Apostles his Commission also § 3. But there is a Word or two which having layn hard upon his Stomach he vomits up thus As for having no Certain Dwelling-place and leaving Houses Lands and Possessions let them repair to William Penn and others of their Ministers for an Answer to it who have large Possessions and brave Habitations such as few Ministers as they disclaim especially the POOR NON-CONFORMISTS enjoy What Answer this is to that part of G. Fox's Words which it pretends to refute is obvious to the meanest Capacity that is not prejudic'd For my part I know not what induc'd him to any Answer at all being Scripture Words unless it were that he might reflect upon the Plenty God hath given some of us What! Doth he envy Men the Blessings of Heaven upon their Industry or the Love of Parents to their Children Is his Eye Evil because God's Eye is Good Doth his Mouth water after the Quakers Possessions now the Government hath justly and seasonably prevented him of a fat Benefice But why must William Penn's Name be question'd about Houses and Possessions Is he Angry that an Enmity like his own in his deceas'd Father depriv'd him not of that Estate for Conscience sake he now begrudges him the Injoyment of but he dyed a better Man a more Natural Father and sincere Christian then a Man of J. Faldo ' s Sordid Conscience will ever do But let me tell the Man if yet he be worthy of that Name that W. Penn first lost his Estate before he got it and sacrific'd it the Comfort of his Fathers House and whatever was dear of this World to the Quiet of a Conscience void of Offence before it pleas'd Almighty God to make all his Such as have known him better then J. Faldo's Informers of the most eminent both of Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists could tell him he hath had a Conscience whatever they believe now that was not to be caught by the Bait of Pleasure Estate Preferment or Esteem in this World as well as that no Severity us'd to bow or balk it could prevail to renounce what it had believ'd upon pure Convictions To conclude his Defence in this place He got not what he hath by Preaching as perhaps Mercenary J. Faldo and many of his Coat have done but having it by God's Providence and Faithfulness can notwithstanding through the continued Love of God freely bestow his Strength Labour Estate and Life too for the Promotion of the Unchangeable Pure Way of God in which he has believ'd from whom he received and to whom
he cites W. Smith's Catechism p. 107. Though some may not speak in such formal composed Words yet in the same Wisdom their Words are formal they can set their own Time to begin and end and when they will they can utter Words and when they will they can be silent and this is the Unclean Part which offers to God which he doth not accept Very well and what is this to the denying of Gospel-Prayer It seems then that what Prayer this Passage reflects upon is Gospel consequently if I understand any thing formal wise Words in Man's Time and Will which is Unclean is Gospel-Prayer in J. Faldo's account otherwise it is utterly false to say That W. Smith's Words prove the Quakers to contemn Gospel-Prayer But what can be more clear to the View of every Impartial Soul then that J Faldo's making that Prayer only which he is capable of himself that stands in his own Time Will Wisdom and Invention to be Gospel rather then to deny it and seek after one more truly Evangelical is not so much to maintain the Truth as himself § 2. Secondly he sayes That we own no Prayer that is not by immediate Inspiration and Motion of the Spirit and without the Use of our Conception and Direction of our Understanding His third I will add to this because to the same Purpose viz. That we own no Prayer but what is by and in the Light Within and here he brings 3. or 4. Testimonies which are to the same purpose I grant what he says of us in this particular to be our Faith and shall prove it to be sound Doctrine from the Scriptures of Truth The Worship of God is in the Spirit and in the Truth Now unless Men may perform Gospel-Worship without the Spirit and the Truth or if in the Spirit and the Truth yet not by the Motion of either a thing absurd it must needs be that Men ought only to pray or preach by the Motion of the Spirit and of the Truth If such only are Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God and walk in the Light as Christ is Light and that therein Access alone may be had to God who is Light and in whom is no Darkness at all then with good Reason may we say That no Prayer that ascends to God without the Leading of God's Spirit and which is not by and in the Light can be acceptable with him consequently Gospel-Prayer is only from the Motions of the Spirit of God and by and in the Light of Christ Again If no Prophecy or Preaching was to be of old but by the immediate Revelation or Motion of the Spirit though it was but to Men of far greater Reason should not any Prayer be made without a Motion of the same Spirit which is to the Eternal only Wise God § 3. Nay the Creature considered from under the Leadings of God's Spirit in all Religious Actions is unable to think a good Thought much less to perform one good Work and as the Professors say from the Crown of the Head to the Soal of the Foot are altogether unclean will it follow then that either such corrupt and sinful Duties are Gospel-Prayer and an Ordinance of God or else that what we assert of Praying by the Motions of the Spirit and in and by the Light of Christ in our Hearts must be the only Gospel-Worship which we are yet further inclined to believe For it is said in Scripture that the Word and Prayer sanctifieth all things Now if we take this Word in our sense to wit the Word of God then we are to consider whether the Word derives its Sanctifying Vertue from the Prayer or the Prayer from this Word Not the former to be sure If then it be allowed to be the latter since this Prayer which to be sure is Gospel or the Apostle would not have owned it hath a Sanctifying Vertue in it that no Prayer begun or carried on by meer Man can sanctifie because we are of our selves unable to think one good Thought it evidently follows That this Word of God which gives Prayer that Sanctifying Power doth begin or move first to that Sanctifying Acceptable Truly Gospel-Prayer § 4. But now suppose by Word is meant the Words either of Scripture or Preachings yet are we safe For since nothing can sanctifie but it must be from it self or something else and that meer Man in Preaching or Praying cannot and that God is that alone Power Wisdom and Eternal Spirit that is able to sanctifie it will follow also that God's Spirit or Power moving in the Heart is that alone which renders the Words or Prayers of any sanctifying Nor is this all The Pool of Bethesda is a notable Figure of the Matter in hand where the Certainty of being cured upon stepping into the Pool so soon as ever the Angel had moved the Waters doth very lively represent to us that what Benefit we may ever expect to receive from the Lord comes not from an hasty Rushing into any Religious Performance in our own time but our patient Waiting till the Lord's holy Angel stirs and moves the Waters and then to lay all aside to imbrace so blessed an Opportunity Further § 5. The Gospel-State is an Eternal Sabbath He that prayes in his own Will Time Wisdom Invention is picking Sticks and kindling a Fire and compassing himself about with the Sparks of the Fire of his own kindling This Man hath not Ceast from his own Works he will suffer loss in the Day of God and his Bed will be made in Sorrow § 6. Nor is this the utmost of our Force For whatever God hath not required just will it be with him to say who hath required these things at your hands 'T is true God loves that his People should pray and Christ injoyns it but he also bids all Watch unto Prayer that is wait to feel that Spirit of Life to stir which gives Life to Prayer the Key of David by which Heaven's Door is opened and the Soul comes to receive True and Heavenly Refreshment The Want of which maketh so much Complaint among some that their Duties are Unholy Things they want Power they have prayed long but to little purpose whereas had they pray'd aright that had never been Much more might be said to this but my Conscience is clear in the Matter and I shall conclude this Point with a general Confession and Caution § 7. We do acknowledge That God is That he ought to be worshipped That Worshipping of God is stricktly a bowing down before him in Fear and Holy Reverence according as he makes himself known to the Creature That Prayer is a Gospel-Ordinance That it is not only Good but Necessary to be used That God only can give us to pray aright as well to pray at all That therefore his Assistance is necessary to have which there ought to be a Waiting out of all Conceivings Inventions or Forms to receive
Substantial and Necessary to Salvation then those two of Water-Baptism and the Lord's Supper upon which he more peculiarly bestows the Title of Christian since no Man can ever be saved without the one I mean those Natural Ordinances as he calls them and any Man may be certainly saved without the other that he so peculiarly calls Christian-Ordinances which how Unreasonable and Preposterous it is let the Impartial Judge Yet again his great Ignorance and Abuse of God and true Religion appears in this that not only he himself egregiously errs in such a Construction but confidently affirms God to be more concernd to vindicate the former and take Vengeance for the Breach of his positive and exterior Precepts as the Ceremonial part of the Jews Worship and the Bread Wine and Water Sacramentally us'd now a days if yet as such they may be accounted Precepts which the Devil himself can creep into the Profession of and cannot cleanse as concerning the Conscience then of his fundamental natural and substantial Laws and Ordinances without which God cannot be worshipped nor one Soul saved in plain Contradiction to that notable Passage of the Prophet Bring no more Vain Oblations Incense is Abomination unto me the Sabbaths the Calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is Iniquity even the Solemn Meeting And when you spread forth your Hands I will hide mine Eyes from you yea when ye make or multiply many Prayers I will not hear your Hands are ful of Blood WASH YE MAKE YOU CLEAN PUT AWAY THE EVIL OF YOUR DOINGS FROM BEFORE MINE EYES CEASE TO DO EVIL LEARN TO DO WELL SEEK JUDGMENT RELIEVE THE OPPRESSED JUDGE THE FATHERLESS PLEAD FOR THE WIDDOW Where the Case is determin'd against him For here we have an Account of their Exactness in many Outward Ceremonial Laws standing in figurative things and a most severe Reproof of them for their great Degeneracy Corruption as to their Morals or Rebellion against God's Natural Ordinances as J. Faldo calls them God himself brings the natural and positive Ordinances as by this Priest distinguisht into the Scales gives the weight against the latter Let him show us when ever there was a Man washt and clean'd that was reprov'd for omitting any of those positive and Ceremonial Laws as I have produc'd a plain Scripture that expresses God's Detestation and Abhorrence of those of his Elected Nation the Jews that erred from the Eternal Law of Righteousness writ in the Hearts of the very Heathens though they were never so punctually as to their Observance of outward Institutions and he will do something otherwise as it is manifest what a Kind of Christianity this Man would make that any Celsus or Porphyry would blow away with a breath so it is most clear that God lays a far greater Stress upon Mens walking up to those Immutable Ordinances by our Adversary called Natural which we can accept of as being proper to Mankind then those Temporary and Shaddowy Services that must vanish upon the Appearence of the Substance it self And Lastly It is no less then Blasphemy in our Adversary and an evident Contradiction to himself to assert That the Light he grants those Immutable Ordinances to result from may be doubtful or decay respecting it self since it were to say That God the Fountain of that Rivelet of Light from whence those excellent Streams come is Doubtful and lyable to Decay for whatever is naturally incident to any measure of Light is so to the whole Nay it is to affirm that from a doubtful and decayable Light may and doth issue forth Clear Divine and Eternal Precepts of Righteousness I would not have J. Faldo lay the Blame of his own Doubts or Decays upon the Light but upon his own Rebellion against it He has too too largely vilified that blessed Manifestation to receive much Benefit by it But O the Injustice of Men that impute all of Incapacity to see which is truly from themselves to the Light Within which yet they refuse to be ruled by Let the sober Reader be seriously warned that he believes in no such Pestiferous Doctrine which in short tends to no more nor less then an Exalting and Preferring the Exterior Coat or Shell of Religion and that most of their own making too above and beyond that Eternal Light which is the Law of God in the Heart that leads to perform our Duty uprightly both to God and Man For I had rather be Moral Socrates in the Day of God's terrible Judgment then Out-side-Christian J. Faldo with all his Jeer and Enmity against Christ's Light within But let 's hear what he sayes to these Christian-Ordinances in particular though we have no Reason to expect much to his own Purpose whatever he may say for ours when we consider how shamefully he has introduced them § 2. I shall begin with Water-Baptism it being the first in order of the two both in its Institution and Practice which the Quakers deny in these words Baptism we own which is the Baptism of Christ with the Holy Ghost and with Fire but we deny all others J. Parnel's Shield of Truth pag. 11. To which I say that we have great Reason so to do for first Christ never was Administrator of Water-Baptism but that of Fire and the Holy Ghost Water-Baptism was John's the Fore-runner figuratively and used to that Preparation necessary to receive the visible Coming of the Messiah were the Messiah now visibly to come and John Baptist alive it would be Indisputable But that Time being past and it being John's Visible Administration which is over and not Christ's and lastly that the Fore-runner is not to continue but give way to Him and his Administration that was so fore run which was Christ and his Baptism we do conclude that there is no such Baptism as J. Faldo charges us with the Denial of that can plead any Continuance in the Christian Church Which John himself was not unsensible of when he said I shall Decrease but he will Increase and who like the Morning Star accordingly Decreast and became Ecclipst by the Encrease of the Brighter Glory of Christ who was and is Lord of all § 3. If any should say that it is not meant of John's Baptism but a new Water-Baptism instituted by Christ because of those onely Words on which they ground their Commission Go teach all Nations Baptizing them c. J. Faldo answers for me that it is a Mistake He means not another Water-Baptism from John's when he tells us that the Water-Baptism which he calls the Christian Ordinance and renders the Quakers a sort of Heathens for denying is that Baptism which was in point of Order and Institution before the Bread and Wine were instituted which how well soever it may square with the Episcopalians Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists Notion of Baptism whom he says he has no further concern'd in his Book then vindicated and his own date of Christianity from Christ's Resurrection it
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
into our Justification an uncooth Phrase before God and our Salvation To prove which he brings forth three Passages of our Friends All that are called Presbyterians and Independents with their Feeding upon a Report of a thing done many hundred years ago E. Burroughs's Trump p. 17. Which J. Faldo wickedly construes thus This he saith by way of Reproach against all that act Faith on and receive Comfort from the Blessed Effects of Christ's Righteousness and Sufferings by him wrought and suffered when he was in the World Whereas in Honesty and Truth which J. Faldo shews himself wholy unacquainted with he meant no more then their Excessive Admiration of and the Regard to what Christ did without whilst they neglected undervalued and decry'd for Blasphemy and Euthusiasm the Appearance Work and Righteousness of Christ within But he thinks we have mistaken him and that he is better armed for us then we are aware of What Righteousness Christ performed without me was not my Justification neither was I saved by it R. Farnsworth he quotes for Author but no Book which is very unfair However this may be said in Defence of R. F. that what gives daily Access and Acceptance to and with the Lord is that Preparation of Clean and Righteous Adornment the Soul actually receives from Christ who is the Lord her Righteousness And take Justification in this sense and not for Remission in which he meant it if ever he said it and we do all own and acknowledge the same and let our Adversary do his worst Only I desire him to tell us the Book next time which affords that Expression § 2. But I. Pennington he thinks he has made his own Can Outward Blood clense the Conscience Can Outward Water wash the Soul clean Quest p. 25. I beseech you that read me hear his comment A plain Denial of the Efficacy of the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross to clense the Soul from the Guilt of Sin by its Satisfaction to the Justice of God I have had to do with many Enemies to God's Truth But I must profess to the whole World I never yet saw spoak to or read of a more disingenuous Man To pervert our Words alter Sentences draw Generals from Particulars and then call them Ours is Base and Unmanly I would fain have an impartial Man answâ—r me Doth I. P. deny or any way meddle with the Outward Blood concerning the Guilt of Sin past how far it had an Influence into Justification taking Justification in that Sense But does he not treat of the Outward Blood with respect to Purgation and Sanctification of the Soul from the present Acts and Habits of Sin that lodge therein Is he so Sottish as to make no Distinction betwixt being pardon'd Sin past and the Ground of it and being renewed and regenerated in Mind and Spirit and the Ground of that Conversion or else is he so impiously Unjust that because we do deny that Outward Blood can be brought into the Conscience to perform that Inward Work which they themselves dare not nay do not hold Therefore I. Pennington denys any Efficacy to be in that Outward Offering and Blood towards Justification as it respects meer Remission of former Sins and Iniquities This may give the Sober-minded some Relish of his Rancker We do say that Outward Blood can no more clense then Outward Water But we also say that Christ's Blood had an Influence into Justification as he phraseth it which I shall presently show § 3. He undertakes the Defence of what he falsly says we deny but so confusedly as ought to shame a modest Man and a Pretender to Controversy His first Scripture is this And he received the Sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that Righteousness might be imputed to them Rom. 4. 11. His Observation and Inference run thus that Imputation is a Reckoning that to any which they have not from themselves nor actually from another otherwise it could not be Grace therefore it was the Righteousness of another not his own This is so base a Pervertion and Mis-using of the Word that Imputation both in Scripture and Common Discourse is always taken and used in the contrary sense Let him produce me one Scripture that countenanceth his Notion This imputed Righteousness is best understood by the Context Even as David also describeth the Blessedness of the Man unto whom God imputes Righteousness without Works saying Blessed are they whose Iniquitys are forgiven and whose Sins are covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord will not impute Sin Cometh this Blessedness then upon the Circumcision only or Uncircumcision also for we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness How was it then reckoned when he was in Circumcision or Uncircumcision And he received the Sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had yet being Uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not Circumcised that Righteousness might be imputed unto them also vers 6 7 8 9 10 11. In which we may perceive First that the Righteousness was by the Apostle inferr'd from David's Words of the Blessedness of that Man unto whom God imputed not Sin As much as if he had said whom God forgives he imputes not Sin to and to whom he imputes not Sin such he lookes upon as Righteous that is to be as clear of the Guilt of former Sin by Remission as if it had never been committed Secondly that not Works of our own no though assisted by the Holy Spirit to perform them stricktly consider'd can justifie in this sense but Faith only in the Goodness Mercy and Promise of God to Pardon Remit and show Favour unto all such who Distrusting their own Weakness and Repenting of their former Miscarriages humbly yet firmly put their Confidence in him This being Abraham's Case with respect to himself and Posterity God no more lookt upon him as a Stranger at a distance from him but one who by Faith was brought nigh and became thus justified not by Works of Righteousness that he wrought but by Faith in God which was accounted unto him for Righteousness and that really too since he could not believe without an Inward Act of Righteousness but not of his own § 4. In short Justification bears a twofold sense in the Scripture and because we are frequently mistaken about it by such as understand not the Extent and Use of the Word I will explain it Justification is sometimes to be understood of Remission or non-Imputation of Sin upon Repentance and Faith in the Promise of God In which sense we say That all the righteous Works Man is capable of either from himself if such can be or from the Assistance of the Holy Spirit stricktly as such can never move one Jot to
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
surely God hath given them up for their Pride Giddiness or Idle Ignorance and that Injustice and the Devil hath blinded their Minds Enough of him at this time in Contradiction to himself and of his Ungodly Censure of us But we hope it may not be improper to observe that though before he recommended to us the Lord 's Christ as Consisting of a Divine and Humane Nature that is God and Man and that he would not be thought to call the Flesh and Blood and Man's Soul intirely Christ in Dis-junction from the Divinity Yet now all those who say that Body which was born of Mary hanged on a Tree laid in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia was not and is not the Living Christ of God are smitten for their Pride Giddiness or Idle Ignorance and the Devil hath blinded their Minds with a Witness From whence Three Things result 1 that the Divinity is no wayes concern'd in the Lord's Christ. A manifest Contradiction to himself or else with Noetus of old and J. Reeve and L. Muggleton of our Age the God-head dyed in Company with the Manhood Blasphemy it self 2 That the meer Body was the Only and Intire Christ whatever he pretends and not so much as the Man's Soul in Conjunction with it unless the Soul was of such a material gross Matter as that it could be hang'd on a Tree dye and be laid in a Sepulchre which is to assert the Mortality of the Souls all which happened to the Lord 's Christ says J. Faldo But because the Man's Soul was not mortal and could not be hanged on a Tree and put into a Sepulchre it follows that it was the Visible Body which could only be hang'd on a Tree and laid in a Sepulchre that was and is the Only and Intire Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in J. Faldo's sense Which how Impious it is against him that truly is so how grosly Abusive of all People and how Contradictory to himself let the whole World of Reason judge Is this the Man that must be thought fit to vaunt it over us with such Impudent Scurrility Ungodly as well as Unmannerly Reflections But in the Earth there is not any thing so Fantastical Conceited Proud Railing Busie Body and sometimes Ignorant as a Sort of Priests to me not unknown among whom our Adversary is not the least who think their Coat will bear out their worst Expressions for Religion and Practice an haughty Reviling for Christ as one of the greatest Demonstrations of their Zeal an Ill-bred and pedantick Creco the Bane of Reason and Pest of the World the old Incendiaries to Mischief and the best to be spar'd of Mankind against whom the boyling Vengeance of an irritated God is ready to be poured out to the Destruction of such if they repent not and turn from their Abominable Deceits § 5. If to excuse the Matter he or any else shall say the Body is only Synecdochically or Metonymically taken a Part for the Whole or Representatively I answer that such a Distinction overthrows him for ever For if the Body which was called Jesus and Christ and Lord c. be by him allow'd as Representative of the whole Jesus then was not that distinctly the Christ nay what has he been opposing all this while We will as truly and honestly say as it is possible for him to do that it was the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ which sometimes bore the Name of the whole Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of Men that was born of Mary was hanged on a Tree and laid in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia And if he will adventure to say more the Consequences of Excluding the Divinity and Man's Soul from being any part of the True Christ or their Mortality with the Body who are Immortal and not capable of being hanged on a Tree much less buried for dead in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia will inevitably fall upon him and dash him and his Carnal Notions into peeces Thus have I clear'd my Conscience in clearing up the Consistency of our Belief of the Bodily Appearance of the True Christ with Scripture and sound Reason and I hope to the plain Overthrow of our Adversary and that with what Brevity was convenient CHAP. XIX Our Adversary's proposed three Scripture-places are by us rightly applied and his Charge is found Untrue Christ is prov'd the true Light Comforter Creator and Redeemer Our Adversaries Objections examin'd and refuted His Triumph turneth to his Shame The true Signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmed § 1. BUt he undertakes a more particular Enervation of our Understanding of three places of Scripture which he says we grosly abuse It will be worth our while to hear and stop him a little for he makes great hast to Triumph That was the true Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Our Business is to know three things of him 1 What Light it is 2 In what Sense it inlightneth 3 How he understands every Man and this Line Compasseth the Matter THAT says he hath for its antecedent and is to be understood of the Word which was in the beginning with God which was God by whom all things were made the Light of Men c. Light is taken properly for that which doth Manifest or Discover any thing so Christ is Light but is now made manifest by the Appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel The Meaning is said he that Salvation Eternal which God hath proposed to give to his People which could not be seen in the Purpose of God as such is by the Appearing of CHRIST IN THE FLESH and therein transacting and declaring this Salvation and Eternal Life abundantly discovered and as Light properly is that which makes Manifest so metaphorically it is that which Comforts and Rejoyceth I do not in the least doubt but Christ the Word here is call'd Light in both respects And this I take to be the Import of the 4th Verse In him was Life and the Life the Light of Men that is The Salvation and Life Eternal of poor Sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God the Consideration of God manifest in the Flesh for those Ends is matter of Strong Consolation In his First Part about the Scriptures he told us that he was got to the highest Round of the Ladder in this place he has twisted himself Rope enough to answer the End of his Climing thither for if I do not from hence irrefutably prove 1 That the meer Body was not the Intire Saviour 2 That the Light within is of a Saving Nature I shall be ready to allow all our Adversaries Detrectations from the Light within but just Epithetes and a true Character of If Christ be the Light which is that Word which made all things and therefore God as saith J. Faldo then
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
we have invincibly proved to be more Immediate Living Fresh Convincing and Confirming to the Disciples then any the best written Prophecies they had It will follow that it was meant of the holy Anointing that Spirit and measure of the Grace or blessed Light of Christ which is Internal and out of the Reach of all Visible Things to sophisticate corrupt mis-represent mis-render or mis-translate all which have greatly befallen the Scriptures For I do affirm that Sense it self is not so certain as Reason and what clearly and fully occurs to the Understanding part of Man is a more solid Ground for Faith and Knowledge then those External Sights and Visions which Man might be attended with to Confirmation For what shall be the Rule for trying the Certainty and Truth of any such Visions and Prophecies It must be some measure of that Anointing which was afterwards given more largely to them in order to try Spirits and in all other Cases which concern the Gospel otherwise they should not have believ'd with any Certainty or upon spiritual Conviction as to themselves For if a Man has not something Divine to direct and inform his Understanding as to the true Relish Judgment and Application of what he may read in any Book or externally might appear to his Sences in the Way of extraordinary Vision there could be no probable much less certain Ground for his Belief in or Knowledge of the Truth of that thing however true in it self In short That which is Truth it self which is able to teach all things to try all things and to lead into all Truth which the Scriptures though Truth cannot do for then they would be Clear Plain Perfect uncapable of Additions Diminutions Corruptions Mistranslations c. must be this more sure Word of Prophecy But that the Anointing which the Saints had received of him was able to do as saith the Apostle John but the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and need not that any Man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lye And even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him Therefore this Anointing thus able to do all things must needs be that more sure Word of Prophecy if more shall be allowed In short The Law written in the Heart is a more sure Covenant Law and Word then the Law written upon Stones or the Outward Book of the Law else the Dispensation of the Law of Life within the Gospel-State would be less Sure and therefore less Noble then the Law without and the Prophecies of the Old Testament so call'd more Certain then the Scriptures of the New that belong to a more excellent Dispensation and are an Account of the fulfilling of those very Prophecies Nay it would be to assert that the Words of both Scriptures are more sure and certain and our Regard ought to be more eminently after them then the very Spirit from whence they came which at least in the Church of God every one has received a Measure to profit with and so perfectly subvert the very State of the Gospel which was and is the Time of the Pouring out of the Spirit upon all Flesh and bringing Mankind to a more near sure and living Word of Prophecy then any Outward Writings whatever can possibly be § 11. But because he tells us in another place that a little Skill in the Original would free us from many Absurdities we shall a little examine both what the Original Text will make for the clearing the Point in Controversie and what may be the sense of some Men of Learning a thing he pretends to and Impartiality which I hope he has not Confidence enough to pretend to I will suppose then the Prophecies of the Ancients to be intended but deny any Comparison at all to have been made between them and that Voice in the Mount 2 Pet. 1. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We also have a More sure Word of Prophecy as by our late Translation render'd I cannot perceive that Comparison in the Greek so hugg'd by the Priests and insisted upon by our Adversary with manifest Design to prefer the Writings before the Spirit that gave them forth the great Evangelical Word of Prophecy for the Words without any wrong not only may which were enough but ought to be rendred thus Also we have a very sure Word of Prophecy which neither questions the certainty of the Voice nor so much as intends any the least Comparison at all with it which I take to be the very Ground of that Opposition which is made against us The Reason why I so render it is ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also I know our Translation hath but it is commonly understood by our Adversaries for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But which is a great Injury to the sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also is conjunctive and signifies onely another confirmatory Testimony whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or But is a word that mostly doth and to be sure in that place would signifie a Comparison and Opposition Also then not being taken in the same sense with But there is nothing therein that can make for the Comparison or any Opposition whatsoever Now the Comparison it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately rendred more sure is in the ancient Translations more truly interpreted sure and very sure in which there is no room for any Comparison or Opposition in the least And if J. Faldo has but Greek and Honesty enough he must needs acknowledge that Positives Comparatives and Superlatives are used promiscuously in the Greek See Acts 25. 10. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred as thou very well knowest whereas in J. Faldo's sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be interpreted as thou knowest better then I which certainly the Apostle Paul never intended when he spoke to Festus And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also is connective and joyns the 19th Verse to the 18th Verse so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the expositive and distinctive Article doth not preceed but follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Syriack one of the most approv'd Versions by learned Men has it thus We have over and above a true or sure Word of Prophecy The Arabick We have beside a very true Prophetick Word The Aethiopick has a Comparison not respecting the Sureness but the Antiquity of the Voices We have over and above an ancienter Word or Testimony which is so respecting time The French German Low-Dutch Swedish and several of our ancient English Traslations run thus We have also the sure Prophetick Word We have also the right sure Word of Prophecy We have also the very sure Word of the Prophets All which imports no more then that they had over and above their own particular Assurances of the Truth of the Christian Religion the Testimony of the Prophets whose Prophecies were fulfilled by the Coming of Christ and the Pouring out of
the Holy Spirit but if it were more it was only so in point of Authority with their Adversaries Not that the Voice the Disciples heard in the Mount was less sure in it self or that Knowledge of God and Christ through the Operation of the Power of the Gospel in the Hearts of those Believers then the ancient Prophecies of the Prophets But perhaps they were not so effectual to perswade as the words of the ancient undoubted Prophets to confirm their Allegations Thus Christ in our Translation Search the Scriptures not that they were a more sure Testimony then what he himself livingly and immediately gave forth But they so reputing them whilst they opposed him his Direction to search the Scriptures was for Confirmation of the Truth they seem'd to gain-say from the Scriptures What then Shall we say that the Prophets are a more sure Testimony then what Christ the Living Word of God himself declar'd or the Saints became Witnesses of By no means But rather that the old Prophecies are also a true Prophetical Testimony like a small Light in a dark Night they do shew forth a Prophetick Light till the Day-Star of fulfilling them which some then knew and others prest after should arise in their Hearts which is that Blessed State of Witnessing J. Faldo and T. Hicks have bestow'd so many impious Scoffs upon To this agree many learned Men. I will begin with Erasmus If so be that the Prophets plain Oracles be in great weighty Estimation among you which Prophecy by figurative dark Shaddows of Christ of much more Gravity or Weight ought so evident a Declaration by the Father himself of his Son be They with their Prophecies prepare the Minds of Men to the Truth of his Gospel In that they Shaddow and covertly point out the thing that the Gospel doth preach The Prophets agree with the Father's Voice if a Man do rightly interpret them The thing that Men set forth by Man's Device may be perceiv'd by Man's Wit But the thing that is set forth by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost requires an Interpreter inspir'd by the like Spirit A severe Check to the Contra-Spirituality of J. Faldo and those other of the Carnal and Apostate Professors of Religion in our time who have forgot the Ground of their Fore-fathers Revolt from the Idolatry of Rome and Superstitions of a degenerated Prelacy as well as that is shows how much more Erasmus inclines to give the Preference if any there be to the Voice of God then to the Ancient Prophecies He also quotes Aug. to his Defence Beza not only renders it we have also a very firm Word of Prophecy shutting out all Comparison the Priests Break-neck but affirms if it should be accepted as a firmer Word of Prophecy it can only relate to such who might have entertain'd such an Extraordinary Belief of the Writings of the Prophets and not that in themselves they were a surer Word of Prophecy Vatablus in short tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or more sure is a Comparative for a Positive more sure for sure usual with the Greeks So sayes Clarius And Grotius that great Man thus renders this part of the Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sayes he the Writings of the Prophets have been alwayes in Credit and of Force with us But now much more because we have seen the Fulfilling of them by the Messiah and their Agreement with him Certainly then others besides the Quakers must needs have been Perverters of this place of the Scripture in J. Faldo's sense But he may hear from Grotius that the Scriptures are never the less valuable by those who witness their Accomplishment but the more A Notion very rife in J. Faldo's head Let it suffice that we have stated and Vindicated the true Christ to wit God manifest in Flesh That we have attributed to God manifested in that visible Body what we believe to be congruous and according to Scripture and sound Reason And lastly that those Scriptures which he thought to disinterest us in are fully and clearly vindicated from his false Glosses proving their express Design perfectly destructive of those Ends our Adversary endeavour'd to bend them to which were his own and not the Truth 's CHAP. XX. Our Adversaries Charges deny'd His Proofs fail him The Quakers are True Christians and Quakerism True Christianity We own and profess the only True God that made Heaven and Earth § 1 HE has hitherto charg'd us one would think as home as ever Man did for what is beyond Denying the Lord's Christ and that Love he manifested in the World for the Salvation of Mankind But it is our Happiness that his Proofs have been alwayes found as Weak as his Charge Desperate and the little Quarter promised us by the One more then made up by the faint Performances of the Other else how terrible would this Grim Character be to our selves and much more to others who do and yet will we hope believe better things of us viz. The Quakers are gross Idolaters and Quakerism gross Idolatry And he assures us if there be any such thing as Idolatry in the World he will prove us guilty in the highest degree The Way he takes to prove this heavy Charge is this Those which own and profess that to be God which is not are gross Idolaters but the Quakers do so The second Proposition the first being granted by all he endeavours to prove thus Who own and profess the Light within and the Soul of every Man to be God own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do so therefore Idolaters The making good this Charge will lie upon the Testimony he brings out of our Friends Writings since he pretends to no less Demonstration for every thing he has to lay against us I deny in the Name of all that abused People first that we ever own'd or profest the Light within every Man to be God though we say it is of God much less that we worship it as such And secondly we do forever renounce any such Principle As that the Soul of Man simply as such is the very Essence or Being of God If he fails in his Proofs he must fall with Infamy to the Ground The first Man he hopes to make sure with is G. Fox the Younger The words as he quotes them are these I will make you know that I the Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World that all through me should believe am the True Eternal God which created all things that by me the Light all things are upheld and that there is not another beside me can save Fox Young p. 53. Although sayes he in this Passage be doth not call it the Light within Pag. 50. You scorn me the Light in you p. 54. which will not own me the Light in them They he says that cannot from hence read the Quakers own and profess the Light within
Velata quaedam Revelata pag. 13. of which he is very cheery As to the Spirit of Man which concurs to the Constituting of Man in his primitive Perfection it is the Breath of Life which God breathed into his Soul after he had formed him as to his Body of the Dust of the Earth whereby he came to be a Living Soul a Soul that did partake something of God's own Life This Spirit of Man is that living Principle of the Divine Nature which Man did before his Degeneration and shall again after his Regeneration partake of This Charge sayes our Adversary being of so black and horrid a Nature I did judge it meet to prove it by abounding Instances and now Reader put on the largest Charity and give me thy Verdict if I have not made appear that the Quakers are gross Idolaters c. To answer which briefly and to Purpose and to close this Chapter with a contrary Conclusion I say That the Spirit of Man is not to be taken as of or from Man or that it is any part of Man's Nature take Man in an Abstractive sense And had he been so fair as to give us S. Fisher's Words at large they would have prov'd themselves of Age enough to answer for themselves S. Fisher is to be understood of that Spirit or Breath of Life not that made Man simply a Living Creature of a meer Reasonable Capacity but that Divine Life or Breath which makes alive to God and gives a kind of Heavenly Animation Motion or Life to live to him which constituted Adam not a meer Man but a blessed holy heavenly-minded Man before his Degeneration And that S. Fisher did never intend it of the Natural Soul of Man but rather of the Divine Life of the Soul without which the Soul is destitute of the Knowledge of the True and Living God his own Words very plainly show For if S. Fisher intended that Spirit which is the Divine Principle that Man did partake of before his Degeneration certain and clear it is that since Man did under that Degeneration partake of his own Soul or else he could not have been a Man S. Fisher never meant the meer Soul of Man but the Life of that Divine Principle which regenerates and renews the Soul unto a Life of Purity and Blessedness So that we conclude the Quakers not believing any such Strange and Unscriptural Doctrine as that the Soul of Man is the God that made the Heavens and the Earth for so it would make it self and what is greater then itself They are not those Idolaters they have been represented and fouly charactered by J. Faldo But Innocent and Free of all such Imputation and he their Accuser most of all Condemnable yea and that for Idolatry too who professeth no Knowledge of God but from Outward Sense by Hearing Reading c. p. 91. So that being destitute of the Revelation of the Son that only can make known the Living Father what Apprehensions he has of God are not Experimental but Imaginary and worshipping such an Idea he worshippeth not the true God but the Images of his own Brain therefore an Idolater See Bish Andrews upon the Command and Pagnin upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XXI Our Adversary at a loss to prove his Charge We own so much of the Resurrection as the Scriptures express more Curiosity Dangerous and Condemnable Eternal Rewards own'd by us J. Faldo's Book will prove it to Him and our Tribulations to Us. § 1. THe two last Charges of this second Part of his Discourse are our Denyal of the Resurrection of the Dead that is Dead Bodies and future Rewards To the First he brings in I. Pennington thus We say that Christ is the Resurrection to raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him viz. Adam so Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and so renews Man c. Princ. Elem. Peop. cal Quak. p. 34. Upon which he comments What is this Resurrection but what they call Regeneration it seems he does not and the Resurrection of the Body is but in the same sense as the Soul and Spirit is raised I can't help it if J. Faldo has made so unapplicable a Quotation out of I. P. to his Business I hope none are so Blind or Partial as to be angry that I. P. did not write to his Purpose it was sufficient that he spake to his own or rather to the Truth 's Our Adversary falls down right upon us with a Charge of Denying the Resurrection of the Body and is angry that the Place he produces helps not his Design Certainly with sober Men the Blame will not lie at our doors for not making good his Charge but at his own that he exhibited one he could not prove But will he deny the Resurrection in I. P's Words If he does I pronounce him no Christian nor indeed will a bare Confessing to it render him One And where he stands I fear he is but too far from both Let it suffice that those Words are a modest serious and full Answer to this Caviller since he does plainly acknowledge All that the first Adam lost to be restored by Christ the second Adam and all that the Sin of one incurr'd the Righteousness of the other redeem'd from Now let his Notions of the Way and Method of Effecting this be what they will we desire not to be wise beyond what the Lord sees convenient for us as this busie Intruder into sacred Mysteries hath done that lives in the Land not of Light but gross Darkness within and whose very borrowed made framed Light from Reading Art Study and his own Conceptions is the very Blackness of Darkness § 2. But he affirms that George Whitehead should say being prest in the Matter that he did not believe his Body should rise again after its Death which he can prove by many Witnesses I know not if ever G. Whitehead did so express himself But I see every Expression must be treasured up to defend a decrepit Cause Truth stands in no need of such Watchings that would make a Man an Offender for a Word But what if he did say so and I should second him would it follow that we deny a Resurrection I am sure I will deny all such Consequences Doth not the Apostle say expresly Thou Fool thou sowest not THAT BODY THAT SHALL BE. Is Scripture grown into such mean Request with J. Faldo or doth his Rage against the Quakers so transport him that he knows not Scripture when he meets it from a Quaker But sayes our Adversary upon a like place and to this purpose viz. We shall all be changed I would ask if they would be content to be refused their Debts if contracted before Quakers and demanded when Quakers I suppose they would believe that the Change in a Person is not the Change of a Person and that they are the same still to
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
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
so besotted as to think that when a Measure of the Spirit was given to all to profit with and that the Children of God were led by the Spirit of God and the Spirit that was sent into the Hearts of the Sons of God and the Anointing that was in the Saints that was able to teach them all things was any Measure Part or Parcel of the Prophets or Apostles Writings I cannot yet think him so Blinded as Ignorant or Envious as he is Either these Passages are no Scripture or that gross Absurdity must follow § 15. But he tells us that we may be mistaken ever since some of us thought Paul Hobson ' s Mumbling through a Trunck an Hole in the Wall to be the Voice of the Lord. But were it as true as it is in many things false it shews the Prophaneness of that Anabaptist who dar'd to take the Lord's Name in his Mouth and counterfeit a Solemn Commission to a poor whimsical Wretch and as it happened out of a Spirit of Covetousness and Inhospitality for he had no Mind to give him longer Entertainment so that not knowing how better to be rid of him then to forge a Commission wickedly contrived a Passage into the Chamber where the Man lay and through a Trunk prophanely utterred a kind of Commission to go to a certain place where I cannot tell but I am sure as the Story goes out of his House to whom his little Victuals had been a Burden A Practice for the Avarice Prophaneness and Abuse of it to be abhorred and detested of all sober Men. And I think the Man more excusable under his Mistake then Major Hobson who ventur'd into so much Wickedness that with Design to bring him into it 'T is true that such a Man there was that he went to Major Hobsons House that he dealt so wickedly by the Man to be rid of him that the Man had been among us but as his Practice shew'd him to be none of us so was not any of his Imaginations countenanced by us but sharply rebuk'd and therefore that part of J. Faldo's Reflection a Lye Yet since he has gotten this Story by the End I will see how much better grounded J. Faldo would be upon his Principles against a Quaker should he be so Impious as to put the same prophane Abuse upon him Suppose J. Faldo either by a Trunk or Hole through a Wall or one of the new invented Trumpets that carry a Voice a Mile should have as far as Words go a very solemn Commission to go preach the Gospel in any other Place then Barnet where I hear he now lives within this Isle or some more remote Part of the World and that not only once or twice but many times joyn'd with Threats and Promises I will suppose his Inclinations will lie at home unless more be to be gotten an Infallible Ground of Motion with many of his Tribe But I would know of him which Way or upon what Foot he would Receive or Reject such a Commission The Scripture makes no mention of any such thing in Particular in General it will not reach it because this is no other Gospel that he should be required to preach then that which he pretends to be according to Scripture I say with what would he relish savour or try this Voice Would he reject it because the Scripture did not particularly own it There is the same Reason why he should embrace it because it does not particularly deny it How will he do then Why perhaps he will go because there is no General in Scripture that withstands it But how does he know that so many good Words in themselves were spoken from God and not to deceive tempt or abuse him 'T is true the Scripture has general Denials to False Spirits and general Testimonies to the Motions of the True One but still here 's but a Begging of the Question for how shall I know that the Voice or Spirit be True or False It is not Unscriptural Unreasonable nor Improbable Alas for John Faldo Have all his Preaching Praying Writing c. no better Foundation then Hear-say Imitation strong Fancy and external Sense Can he not savour and relish Spirits as well as Words If not he may truly be styled a Man of Words but void of that Spirit which tryes Spirits and gives right Discerning to all that believe in it and are led by it of those things that may concern them I might say much upon this Theme but let this suffice to detect the Weak Foundation of J. Faldo's Faith Knowledge and Practice and that such as he though pretendedly 2 or 3 degrees more refined then the present Protestants are miserably apostatized from the First Revolters from Romes Idolatries who asserted none could understand the Scriptures themselves much less benefit by them who had not the same Spirit that gave them forth consequently the Spirit and not the Scriptures were the Principal Cause of Right Knowledge and Rule for our very Understanding of them And truly though J. Faldo would have the World think he both understands the Quakers Principles very well and has refuted them very clearly yet whether he will give me leave or no I will make him speak the Language of the Quakers passing well in this particular of the Spirits being the Judge Rule and Guide of Faith Worship and Conversation the thing aim'd at in that First Part of my Spirit of Truth Vindicated by him so much quarrell'd at perverted and scurrilously abused or else I greatly mistake his Mind And which will be much to my Defence he must likewise have done so himself Hear him § 16. But Mr. Penn do you deal fairely and honestly with your Adversaries to imply in your Question that we deny the Spirit of God to be a proper Rule of Faith Guide of Life Judge of Truth You know that we own it to be such and that it doth both IN THE CONSCIENCE and by the Scripture Creation and Providence perform such Acts c. and is to such Purposes that of Right What can we say more Has he not strangly mis-understood us Again Only we deny that the Spirit alwayes performs these Acts without the Use of the Scripture or any External Means Truly and so do we For we daily enjoy the Benefit both of God's Spirit by the Scripture and publick Worship as Means If this be the Grindstone my Nose is to be held at and by not mentioning of which as he falsly sayes of me I abuse and trifle him and my unwary Reader I am contented to abide here while I live as my Discourse at large upon the Scriptures must needs have informed those who have read it But I am of the Mind that J. Faldo will finde it too hot for him and I am assured that so much Concession overturnes him for ever as to his present Basis For that he should oppose my Discourse that intended nothing more then to prove God's Spirit
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
Unchristian Reflections Names and Epithites upon our Faith and Principles be due weighed by the Impartial Reader § 19. Penn furnished with Fore-head and Tales beyond measure I am assured that 's a Lye I think my Fore-head and Tales are like other Mens if not I have this Satisfaction they are unlike J. Faldo's His Post is the Quakers conceited Strong-hold of the Infallible Guidance of the Spirit of God A Post his Post can never stand long by and such Hold as all his Assaults can never enter or force And we are glad it is ours indeed for as above all People we need it most so are we the only Sufferers in Defence thereof Satan's Bulwarks shall be broken down before it § 20. In debating of which he waves and tosses like a Man in a confus'd trouble some Dream I thought meet to give some Account of his Forces considering him to be a Man of Noise and no small People the Quakers Cause in their own Esteem I toss not beyond the Bounds of Scripture and Truth my Arguments were short and plain and what I writ was in Conscience and Seriousness little meriting such rough and flashy Reflection from any Person pretending to seriousness and least of all one that I never had to do with in my Life Dreams I have none they lie on J. Faldo's side He that calls Christ Lord and not by the Holy Ghost He that says he is his Redeemer Saviour c. and knows not the Internal Operation of his saving Power nor that Vertue and Life to quicken to God which comes there-from dreams of all these things and that is J. Faldo's Condition who scoffs at Internal Knowledge without External Means though to his own Consusion he sometime reads another Lecture I am no Man of Noise further then your Noise makes me The Profession of the Way I am in I came to through Sorrow for Sin Circumcision from the World Desires after God and Life that is Everlasting and ever since God has enabled me to his Service and here I hope to stand while I live My Life Spirit Power and Principle wars against all yours that are embattell'd against us and no Quarter I proclaim in the Name of the Lord to that wicked Spirit that acts you all against us though to you Peace and Salvation if ye Repent Do you leave off your Envious Endeavours against us or else blame your selves and not us for appearing on the Stage against us § 21. Deformed Confidence neither Logick nor Honesty Certainly if he had not turn'd Quaker and in that Fall put all out of Joynt he could not likely after such Good Nursing have been thus lamentably cripled in his Intellects Rankness of Quakerism The latter Part of the Question which expresses the Administration of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is PLAYING AT BLIND MAN's BUFF your Guilt c. Baseness confused Thicket of Impertinencies if your Conscience have any Eyes Infatuated I have shewed your Vanity and made your Folly a Spectacle to the World you talk at a miserable lame Rate worse then ever Bear brought forth her Cubbs confident confused Non-sense I would as soon abandon my Time to Dispute with a distracted Man in his Raving Fits as with W. Penn till he come better to himself c. your pittiful Scribbling yet wretched Scribbler was my hardest word to H Hedworth he has observed against me not worth while to trace such a Trifler in all his Vagaries intaugled Bottom Beetle-headed Saying Audacious Lines he will daub his Adversary per fas per nefas Right or Wrong and he that shall say the Contrary you will chastize him with Sarcasms as keen as a Badger's Teeth The next Book you write let the Title be The Spirit of Babel from whence Babble in English This Reader is a short Account of some of that unhandsom Entertainment I a Stranger to J. Faldo have received at his hands May my Soul never come within his Habitation Prejudice Envy and Cruelty lodge with him Vanity Frothiness and Incivility are like Veins through his Book and serve to convey what Life it has to such as please themselves with that base kind of Satyre Strange that it should be reputed so Criminal by J. Faldo to check my Adversary for Abusing me and my Friends by Name when yet he exceeds in his Reflections upon us and that without any such Occasion given But if we were condemnable sure I am it belongs not to J. Faldo to fling the first Stone I am very willing to leave it with all sober Readers our Circumstances considered which of us ought to be accounted the Unfair Adversary Oh when will it fall to my Share to engage a sober modest Adversary But why do I wish for that since such are our Friends Well it will greatly become me to be contented with my Lot Faith I have these things will not last long and Patience will give to see the End of that Belief A little foul Weather and our Enemies are for their Creeks again 'T is natural with Insects to sting and Frogs to croak in Summer and therefore it is that our Best Actions are Evil in the Sight of these carping Zoilus's If a Man be one of them then a Saint though a Devil if gone from them then a Devil though a Saint Such is his Farewel to me who in three Lines tells me he is a little pleasant he cannot sweat about Cracking of Nuts and yet that he has had some Heart-akes for me Miserable Man Does Levity and Seriousness go together Froth and Sorrow keep Company What would any Man give for such Heart-akes that bring true ones upon a serious Mind But what are his Heart-akes Why he bewails that a Man of my Hopes should be thus left of God he fears for Pride and Giddiness as to be made a Pillar of Salt c. It seems then that there were once Hopes But to what To a Party I know you very well you will few of you stand by all that I could say and prove of some of you I would advise such Opposers to be quiet enjoy their Toleration a Kindness as great as they deserve and mind their own Concerns and now their Hands are tyed against the Powers not employ them upon our Shoulders But why should God leave me a Sufferer from 14 Yeares of Age for Conscience sake he feares for Pride and Giddiness But the Cause of my leaving you was that of my once frequenting you I mean Conscience when some I then dissented from had as hard Names to give for that non-Conformity But the Truth is when the King came First in at what time you were a little dejected there was something more Serious and Tender then ordinary revived among some of you which did begin to gather out of the National Pollution and sit for a further thing but taking up a Rest growing hard gaping after Changes looking back like Lot's Wife upon your Old Sodom for-sworn Government Kings and Bishops-Lands
Rich Benefices full and stately Livings many of you grew dry again were turned to Pillars of Salt my Soul wandered for Rest and at last found it in that Tender Holy Pure Principle of Life and Righteousness which had been wont from a Youth to attend me mollifie my Heart allay my Affections and preserve me out of gross Pollutions which whilest such of you in some Measure kept that are now manifestly gone from it there was another Kind of Spirit that rul'd in you And 't is to this First Love and Works we desire your Return such of you whose Day is not utterly past over your Head And what any shall think of me as this uncharitable Adversary hath expressed himself as that I should seek Credit a Party c. I heed not for what I am at this Day I am by through and to God Almighty the Righteous Lord of Heaven and Earth alone It is basely done of any Man that is a Professor who pretends to some Acquaintance with tender Conscience and those Tryals that attend it to censure another Man's Change and Afflictions for Counterfeit and meer Designe Oh! The Righteous God will reckon with such Uncharitable Disingenuous Perverse Spirits in the Day that hasteneth to Try all and then will he recompense this ungodly Censurer of an Innocent Stranger to him who were I upon my Tryal at the Bar of his own Party there be of them enough to give Evidence of another Spirit then that of vain Glory or Self For where none of these things have induced but Sharpeness and Severities have met me there has been a Faithful Answering of Convictions to some of their knowledge who I believe to be better Men then to refuse me a ful Testimonial if sought for But as I shall not think my self so deeply engag'd or my Reputation so shaken in the Minds of Thousands as to need or desire it by any Power or Force J. Faldo can attacque me with so shall I leave the Concern of God's Truth the Innocency of his People in General and my own in Particular to his Holy Wisdom and Providence who we are well satisfied will plead our Cause in the Consciences of Ten Thousands to the Shame and utter Confusion of all our Obstinate Adversaries A KEY Opening a Way to every Common Understanding whereby to discern the Difference betwixt the Quakers Faith Doctrine and Practice and the Pervertions and Traducings of their several Adversaries Reader THere is not any thing more Indiscreet then for People to deny what they do not understand It has been our Unhappiness far more then all that our Adversaries have been able to say against us that hitherto we remain unknown by those who yet stick not to condemn us I will confess that our Principles as disguised and mis-represented in the World have given Offence or rather those who have so besmear'd them nor indeed can we be displeased that People should refuse them Entertainment under those frightfull Vizzards some make them to wear But it will be the Business of this little Key to explain the Difficulty and give Entrance into so clear and plain an Understanding of the Quakers Principles from the Priests Perversions as I doubt not but with Impartial Inquirers it may be an Ending of much of that Controversie which is now on foot between us and our Opposers Priest THe Quakers hold That the Natural Light in the Conscience of every Man in the World is sufficient to Save all that follow it and so overthrow Salvation by Christ Quaker This is false For our Belief and Assertion is that Christ who is the Word that was with God and was God and is so forever hath enlightned every Man that cometh into the World with his own Light as he is that true Light or such a Light as there is no other to be compared to him which is the Meaning of the Emphasis True and that such as follow the Reproofs Convictions and Leadings of that Light with which he enlightens the Understandings and Consciences of Men shall not walk in Darkness but have the Light of Life which Life is a State of Salvation for which End he was given I will give him for a Light to lighten the Gentiles and for my Salvation to the Ends of the Earth So that we assert the Light of Christ Sufficient not a Natural outward Light which may be properly so called in opposition to Spiritual nor yet that bare understanding Man hath as a Rational Creature Priest The Quakers hold the Light within them is God Christ and the Holy Spirit so that every Quaker has whole God Christ and Spirit in him which is gross Blasphemy Quaker This is also a Mistake of our Belief We never said That every Illumination in the Hearts of Men was whole God Christ or the Spirit whereby to be guilty of the gross and blasphemous Absurdity they would fasten on us But that God who is Light or Christ who is Light the quickning Spirit and God over all blessed for ever hath enlightned Mankind with a saving Measure of Light So that the Illumination is from God or Christ but not therefore whole God or Christ There are no such harsh and Un-scriptural Words in our Writings it is only a frightfull Perversion of our Enemies to bring a Scandal upon our Faith yet in a sense the Scriptures say I in them and they in me Christ in us the Hope of Glory Unless Christ be in you ye are Reprobates I travel again a second time until Christ be formed in you If they who deny'd his Coming in the Flesh though high professing Jews were Anti-Christs What must they be reputed who as stiffly disown his Spiritual Coming Formation and Dominion in the Soul Certainly though call'd Christians yet no whit less anti-Christs then the obstinate Jews of old Priest By the Quakers Doctrine every Man must be saved for every Man is savingly enlightened Quaker I deny that For though the Light or Grace of God hath and doth more or less appear to all Men and that it brings Salvation to as many as are taught by it to deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live Soberly and Righteously and God likely in this present evil World yet it no way follows that Men must obey and learn so to do whether they will or not God tenders saving Light or Grace to all he strives and pleads with all but if they will not hearken his Spirit Grace or Light is clear of their Blood In short Though Men are Lighted or Visited with a saving Light or Grace yet we never Concluded nor is rightly Concludable that such Men must necessarily be saved whether they obey or Rebel Priest By the Quakers Light or Spirit they may be moved to Murder Adultery Treason Theft or any such like Wickedness Quaker This never was our Doctrine For herein know we the Spirit of God and Motions of it from the Spirit of this World and its Fruits that it condemns all Ungodliness
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