plain Proof to make it appear if they can which I know they are no more able to do than to hinder the Sun from shining nor the Wind from Blowing And therefore the Teachers amongst the People called Quakers exhort People to mind love and receive to believe and walk in this divine Light that will do that for them which no other can it will shew them their Thoughts discover their Conditions let them see they are Sinners and that they cannot save themselves And as they believe in this Light are truly sorry for their Sins and unfeignedly repent of them and come to walk in this Light they will have the Benefit of the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ that dyed for our Sins and rose again for our Justification and experience his Blood to cleanse them from ALL Unrighteousness and may come to find Peace be fitted for God's Kingdom and know Salvation to their immortal and never-dying Souls But those that rebel against it do evil and hate it and will not receive nor believe in it nor bring their Deeds to it if they were as wise as Achitophel as learned as Gamaliel and could live to the Age of Methusalem they can never know true Peace nor enter into God's Kingdom But will be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power 2 Thess 1.9 and will be turned into outter Darkness where the Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth is Mat. 8.12 Therefore let all have a care they do not hate it nor rebel against it nor continue in any thing that this Light manifests to them to be contrary to the Will of God but believe in it that they may receive Power to do that which it shews them they ought to do and become the Sons of God And if B. Bird will but diligently and reverently read the Gospel in the Common-Prayer which is to be read on Christmas-day he may find this Doctrine throughly proved and this Exhorration in the Commination viz. Let us while we have the Light believe in the Light and walk as the Children of the Light that we be not cast into utter Darkness where is Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth The next thing I observe is his quarrelling about the Scriptures concerning which he saith page 5. which was p. 9. of my former viz. That Christ's Light is to be preferred because it was before the Scriptures Answer Yes so it is and so doth B. Bird confess for he saith they were given us by Christ then Christ was before them and is worthy to be preferred above the Scriptures which B. B. saith were given us by Christ See p. 6. and will he prefer the Gift before the giver And in p. 6. he saith I charge those that take the Scriptures for their only Rule of Faith and Obedience as if they did set them above the Spirit and above Christ But he quotes no page of my Book However B. Bird saith This is a false Charge for they are given us by Christ Answer Then Christ was before the Scriptures as aforesaid and B. Bird grants it Where then is the Falsness of the Charge And why is he Angry if he prefers the Spirit of God for the first great or supreme Rule of his Children I 'll grant him that the Holy Scriptures that were wrote by Holy Men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit are the secondary and subordinate Rule What false Doctrine is there in this And in p. 6. B. B. saith Christ sends us to the Holy Scripture to search for him and not to the Light that is within and therefore we have reason to hearken to him and not to those that would draw us from them to something better in our own Hearts and Consciences which we should keep close to Answer The first part relating to what Christ said John 5.39,40 I grant that Christ's Words Search or ye search c. do not carry any Reproof in them for their Searching the Scriptures but for their not coming to him the true Light and thinking to have Eternal Life in the Scriptures For said he They are they that testifie of me and then blamed them that they would not come to him that they might have life so that he did principally desire they might come to him the true Light that shines in their Hearts and Consciences and which is something better than the Scriptures that testifie of him altho' B. Bird is not willing to hearken to them that would draw him to something better than the Scriptures O strange is this the Man that saith we should keep to John 5.39,40 and yet will not come to Christ which is something better than the Scriptures for altho' they he spoke to thought to have Eternal Life they were mistaken And if B. B. thinks so he is mistaken for he cannot have Eternal Life till he comes to Christ the true Light and believes and walks therein which is the some thing better than the Scriptures which B. B. saith he hath more Reason to hearken to And I heartily wish B. B. did so and that all People did practise and believe according to Holy Scriptures And in p. 7 he saith He i. e. John Feild finds Fault with many saying we cannot tell whether we have the Spirit of God in us but by the Scripture but can he or any one else tell how we shall know the Spirit of Truth to be in us but by the Scriptures of Truth Answer Yes by its own Evidence and Work in our Hearts because that is not wanting to do that in us which Christ who is the Truth promised it should see John 16 7-13 He did not say the Scriptures should convince of Sin c. but the Spirit of Truth which those that wrote Scriptures were moved by and by this Spirit and the Light thereof those that never see or hear the Scriptures may know Good and Evil see Rom. yea God and the Things of God as well as those did that were before the Scriptures were as Adam Enoch Abraham and Moses who my Antagonists grant to have had immediate Converse with God And sure that must be by the Spirit and as God and his Spirit changeth not so he can and doth by his Spirit let us know we are of God as Primitive Christians did and that the whole World lies in Wickedness In p. 6. he saith I asked what damnable Errors the Quakers hold And B. B. saith Let him read John Faldo's Book called Quakerism no Christianity and Thomas Danson's The Quaker's Folly and his Synopsis of Quakerism Answer Observe how he recommends me to our Adversaries Books for Proof would he have me refer him to those Books that Papists or Presbyterians have writ against the Church of England for proof that their Doctrines are Erroneous and Damnable This shews his Folly as well as Enmity and that he is not wise but otherwise in that he would have Judgment against us by false Accusations