all Truth and gave this for a reason as it was an inward and hidden Rule if allowed sufficient as Independent to any outward Rule then it opened a way for the Worlds Libertines to plead the light within for their excesses and thus though they owned the light within and Spirit of God in a sense yet they set up the Scriptures as superiour and guide unto it and do not you in effect the same thing For though you do not set up the Scriptures yet both by the management of things and the tendency of our Author's discourse you set up the Church as a Rule and Guide to the Spirit and Light within and what difference is there seeing both have equally been misapplied by the cunning crafty reasonings of Men Now consider is there any cause for all this noise save your Brethren pleading the light within against your forcing new things upon them 'T is true he saith This Plea is a Deviation from the ancient Testimony but how doth he prove it For forcing circumstantial ceremonial or shadowy things is of the same nature with the imposing of such like things by others the difference of the the thing or Persons do not alter the nature of Imposition Imposition is Imposition still so that if you impose it will be the same thing and you must either impose or not if you deny that you impose why are not you quiet But if you own that you do impose to us you justifie their Pleas against you to be short you must bring those things in about which the difference is either as Terms of Communion or not if you did not bring them in as Terms of Communion then why do you criminate your Brethren as evil doers whilst you have nothing against them but refusing compliance with your Opinions As this shews the want of Charity so 't is no proof that your cause is good but as you bring them in as Terms of Communion whilst they are no essential things you must be wrong whether the things be wrong or nay for if brought in as Terms of Communion whether right or wrong they must be received Therefore as the liberty of choice is taken away our Understanding is superfluous such service indeed may be blind or worse but can never be reasonable This appears as an excess in you and as every excess is a wrong for which you must plead the light within or some other thing if some other thing pray let us know what it is in the mean time as this is a wrong must it not be opposed by such as see it a wrong by setting the measure of Understanding God has given against this wrong how else shall wrong now or any for the future be redressed If this be what our Author terms Confusion and setting measure against measure are not you first in the matter by administring the occasion setting your measure not only against but over your Brethren For in the Truth to us it doth not appear but your Brethren have as much power to refuse things as you can have to impose and where the power 〈◊〉 equal the difference about Opinions in circumstantials ought to be discontinued by those that gave the occasion for we are sure it is more according to Truth for you to omit the doing of what you may believe is good in this sense than for others to receive what they believe is wrong it will not be your calling them requisite things that can give you any Authority for ceremonials or circumstantials will still be such when you have said and done what you can But if this be Babel indeed a Term of his own starting are not you the Master Work-men in this building the cause for which the Language is divided And then is not there a plain parallel betwixt your work and that in the Land of Shiner They were there of one Language while they journyed and till they began to build their end was Preservation as well as yours but as they took their own Counsel and not the Lord's he divided their Language not for their hurt but that they might be stopped which otherwise they would not in that fruitless labour that as it could never be perfected so it could not answer the end designed And like to this was not we of one language whilst we truly travelled for the true rest of the Soul to wit Union and Communion with God in that holy Spirit of his Son Christ Jesus But when we found Shinar a Plain and took up our dwelling there in the likeness of Truth then did not we as others before us begin to build and bring in the Brick instead of the true Stone and Slime instead of the true Mortar proper Materials indeed for a great Building and yet but the product of Man's reason and though our end was Preservation yet forasmuch as those Materials that makes this our Building cannot regenerate the Soul nor make the Mind holy and as over-valued hath stopped our Travel and Journeying the Lord has looked down to behold our work and because it cannot answer the end designed and we would not be stopped otherwise has he not as of old and often since divided our language not for our hurt but for our good if we could but make the true use of it which is to cease our Building our Works and so return to him that did begin to work in us by his holy Spirit for he only can perfect it and restore to us not only one language but the pure language which can never be done any other way for no hopes of doing it by our strength and work for that caused the division that way we may become a Sect but can never be born of God's universal Spirit where that one Original language is known to which all that fear God must at last be gathered till this is known as there has been turnings and overturnings on this account so it must still continue till he come to rule whose right it is We wish in the love of God it could be truly weighed and considered before it be too late And in the mean time for you to call such Pleas as those leave me to the Grace of God and to the Spirit of Truth loose Pleas together with several such like mentioned in his Book we must say we look upon it as of dangerous consequence what though some may abuse them will you take them away and with them freedom of Speech 〈◊〉 you demolish those Fortifications that the Truth hath reared against Imposition Innovation and in some sort provided against an Apostacy This appears to us the fore-runner of a Retreat as others before us have done who begun with the Spirit but after sought to be made perfect by some outward way or thing For if such Pleas and Testimonies of truth as these that nothing is a Duty but what we are perswaded on and that we ought to be left to the Grace of God because the Spirit of Truth is
obliging And where this is not freely granted at least among a People that acknowledge the Spirit of Truth to be the only guide into all Truth there the Government of Christ is either directly or indirectly opposed or hindered for admit of one Error or Uncertainty and more will follow an Uncertainty admitted for the Truth in this case standing in the nature of a Lie But now to shew that this part of his Answer which seems to affirm the Question is so far from being a direct and full Answer as 't is not worthy of that name being of no use or service with respect to the Controversie the end for which he pleads his great concern to write For observe though 't is true in the sense he grants that those that are perfectly free from all bad and perfectly free to all good may safely be left to their freedom to act in the things of God as they are perswaded Yet forasmuch as he neither hath nor we believe can give us any certain or undoubted Rule how to know who these are that are so to be left all that he hath said by way of affirming this great and weighty Question is worth nothing for as it is altogether unintelligible 't is every way impracticable Well then if any certain Rule can be given to know who may be left to their freedom as above let us have it and by the contrary Rule we shall know who may not be so left But if no such Rule can be given it must follow all must be left free or none must be left If none must be left then must an outward Rule be set up to govern all and that would make us like Israel that rejected God's Government to be like other Nations But if all must be left free to act in the things of God as they are perswaded let all this Clamour cease that we may be quiet and live like Christians in the fellowship of the Gospel There is but one Objection and that is that this is to give liberty to evil which we may speak to in another place and in the mean time that is far from our thoughts as the Author said it ought not to be named among Saints But now to the latter part of his Answer where he makes a flourish as if he would tell us who were not to be left to their freedom that so he might give some thing like an Answer to the whole Question in which if he succeeds no better than he has done above we believe there is none will be better or wiser for what he has done But to the matter he tells us if thou plead'st thy freedom against such requisite things thy freedom is naught dark perverse and out of the Truth c. This is still to the same tune here is a Judge implied but not set forth 't is not the Spirit of Truth but some outward thing whatever it is But since we know not where he will fix to say no more 't is dark to be sure To help it all we can we shall thus far grant there are some outward things so far essential to true Religion as those that do contrary to them may be detected of Error but if it had been any of those things that had been done contrary too we believe they would not have been omitted here because if certain they would have greatly advantaged this Discourse there being much want of certainty in it But this not being done and things laid down in a general way in which often deceit or cunning lurks we can do no less than judge that the things suggested as the ground of Difference are neither such Principles nor Practices as have been from our beginning nor yet such things as can be truly said to be essential to true Religion and if not essential things observe it nor yet such things as have been from our beginning they can at best be but circumstantial or if you will ceremonial or shadowy things and such things at best are but accidentally good that is as Persons are perswaded of them and what is but accidentally good may on the contrary be accidentally not good and that is as persons are disatisfied with them And if they prove such things as those we believe they concern only that outward Court which God hath left unmeasured on purpose that Christians might never differ about them and if such things as we are fit to take for granted we would gladly know how they can be brought in and made terms of Communion against the mind of other of the same perswasion while we have run down with all our power the like in others What was they wrong there and can they be right here that 's strange according to truth But in the likeness of truth it s not strange it being commonly found that Persons plead for or against things in others which they will neither give nor take themselves Besides it 's seen it 's about such things that the most of Christians have differed denying Communion to one another on some specious pretence or other forgetting to give what they themselves desired to receive And thus hath poor Man been deceived all along by the Devil in the likeness of Truth But to proceed that the Question above is weighty we have noted and that the Answer is evasive and nothing to the purpose we have shewed The Reason wherefore it was evaded remains to be inquired into according to our promise and that we conceive still as above must either be because our Author wanted Ability or else his Cause was not good and so could not bear the answering it according to truth Not the first we are satisfied for those many Tracts wrote by him when directed to a good end do abundantly shew his Ability and skill in things of this kind yea to that exactness that without flattery he might have been compared to the Men of Benjamin that could hit their Mark to an hairs breadth Thus it could not be the want of Ability therefore we are satisfied it was the want of Truth in the design carried on Opinion or the likeness of Truth was endeavoured to be obtruded and set up instead of Truth betwixt which and Truth there is as much difference in the ground nay more than betwixt the shadow and the substance and yet there is that likeness in outward appearance or else it could not be called the Mystery of Iniquity by which all are and have been deceived to their hurt but only such who are sincere to God and cannot sit down before they know their Names writ in the Lamb's Book of Life This is that only which can fully satisfie the Hungry and the Thirsty Soul So that though Men have begun well yet if they travel not for the end they must miscarry for if the Travel cease in any state short of the Rest let former Openings and Experiences bin what they will as that work is stopped by the Enemy so are they
have not been the least to blame and the same Rocks or like them on which they were split is our danger wherefore we should not think by what we know to measure what is to come or that the form that is now set up is that which the People of God for the future are to be found in for as that may and certainly will make us miss of the appearance of the Lord that is still to come so do we hereby limit the Holy one as much as is in our power and such may as justly be reproved as they was of old to whom the Lord said by his Prophet Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool where is the House that you will build for me or where is the place of my Rest Page 6. he asketh If there be not a Christian Body and whether this Body hath not a Head and whether Christ be not this Head and whether this Head be without Eyes Ears Smell and Taste and this Body without Sense and Feeling if not whether this Head beareth smelleth seeth tasteth differingly and contrary to it self and whether this Body hath a contrary feeling at the same time about the same thing and if it be true that the Church of Christ redeemed by his most precious Blood to live to him see with the same Eye hear with the same Ear speak with the same Mouth live by the same Breath and are led by the same Spirit where is this Disagreement Contrariety or dissent about the things of his Church We shall subjoin part of Page 8 and consider them together They that have Christ for their head have one Counceller they disagree not in their Judgments in things relating to Christ and good of his Church they have one and the same guide c. Now to every Member is a Measure of the same Spirit given to profit with uâ— and though every Member is not an Eye nor an Ear nor a Mouth yet every Member hath unity with the Eye with the Ear and with the Mouth in their proper and respective Acts and they one with another The Eye sees for the Mouth and the Mouth speaks for the Eye and the Ear hears for both c. it must be granted that there are helps in the Church as well as that there is a Church at all and the holy Ghost has compared those helps to several Members and Senses of a Man's Body as an Eye an Hand a Foot Hearing Smelling c. all then cannot be the Eye neither can all be the Hand for then they would confound their Offices and if I will not comply with him that is made an Eye because I am not that Eye or an Hand because I am not that Member my self nor a Party to the Action or Performance of that Member I resist the Lord though under pretence of resisting Man for the Lord's Sake c. with much more to the same purpose Answ The most of all this is in the way of queries but in short something or nothing must be intended by them if nothing they 're vain and to no purpose if something 't is plain 't is to gain a dependance upon what he calls the Church and that he makes infallible as she relates to Men that she must relate to Men is clear the difference being betwixt Men and Men that he intends her infallible is also clear if he writes his Mind for as he makes no provision in all his Book to the contrary by allowing Conviction to preceed Conformity to her Orders so also he seems to make her immediately joyned to Christ for her Head as the natural Body is joyned to the natural Head to speak a little to all this which might be subjects of many and large Discourses first it doth not seem to hang well together in the first part he tells us this Church hears with the same Ear sees with the same Eye and speaks with the same Mouth in the latter part that Members of this Church except he means another Church are made an Ear an Eye a Hand c. as may be seen plainly above is not this inconsistent In the first they all seem to hear for themselves c. in the latter some hear immediately and some secondarily the first hear immediately not only for themselves but for others also the second hear only for themselves by others is this to hear with the same Ear see with the same Eye we doubt not but if it be to say no more to this we desire it may be better explained In the mean time as to the Church that is perfectly redeemed by the most precious Blood of Christ to be Bone of his Bone and Flesh of his Flesh and so united to him as the natural Body is to the natural Head we grant it may be said in a good sense that she sees with the same Eye c. but this is that Church that is hid from the World as Christ is hid from the World yet he knows who are his and they know him and his Voice All should travel for this and not fit down contented in any thing till they know the white Stone where the new name is writ that none can know so well as them that have it and though the Bride the Lamb's Wife in this sense is making her self ready to do the Father's Will yet we find not that this Church hath shewed her self unto the World or that she may thus shew her self we cannot determine for her Life is hid with Christ in God but if she have or may be known by any infallible Character that so what is or may be said of this Church that is truly in God in which there is neither spot nor wrinkle may be truly applied to any visible Society let him then set her forth as a City on a Hill that she may not be hid which he ought to do if there must be that dependance which his Writings imply And then let us know what Member is this Eye that we must see by and what Member is this Ear that we must hear by and what Member is this Mouth that we must speak by in those things that relate to Christ and his Church that so we may not be imposed upon by such as may pretend to be that Eye that Ear and Mouth and are not for if this be the Ordinance of God it both may and ought to be done for God yet never designed an end with respect to Man but he discovered the means Therefore let us have what is certain or we cannot have Truth Will he have us to depend and not certainly tell us what on He doth not intend that sure for that would be to bring in as great a Chimera on a Religious score as we have ever heard of when this is considered if this can be done that is insisted on above let it be done that so difference may come to an end but if this cannot be done then that we may
otherwise not He Quest Page 6 and 7. But the Members of Christ's Church in the Primitives had different apprehension as the Apostle and the People gathered by them To this he answers Pray let me know who they were and in what cases the Person was Paul and Peter and those Christians that differed about Meats Answer As to that difference betwixt Paul and Peter we believe it was more the Author 's own stating than any bodies else except some might bring it to beat down that over-value which Men are ready to take to themselves because of their Eldership or Priority considering that here an elder Apostle was corrected by a younger though the best of it is he bore it well for any thing that we hear As to that of Meats it is true 't is an instance of weakness but that doth not conclude them weak that made the Objection but rather strong that was contented to be accounted weak rather than you should be unquiet but whether weak or strong seeing we are sure there are some that is conscienciously dissatisfied you ought to hear or forbear and so avoid or provide for the cure of Dissatisfaction and Division But to that of Meats he has unfairly avoided the weight of the Objection by omitting days 't is true he has an c. but his Answer is as foreign to it as if no such thing had been As to Meats he pleased to say It did not concern Church-Communion but was private and personal Freedom and centered here as what I will eat and when as a Man having power over his own Appetite when 't is plain from Scripture they were not free but bound on the account of Conscience however we hope he will not say they observed days too under the same notion but if he will to make way for blind Obedience who can help it However 't is plain from Rom. 14. that the Church at Rome or some eminently concerned therein took things under another notion tho' wrong too as all have been since that have made circumstantial things Terms of Communion or how comes it that the Apostle bids them receive such By which 't is plain either that such had been rejected or could not be received on those Terms so that the Objection if fairly stated is valid and thus far to the case in hand as to prove various Practices in such things tollerated by an Apostle though contrary to a Churches mind or some eminently concerned therein and if various Practices then in Circumstantials why not now To say those then did not concern Church-Communion but those now do is to make the Church now or some eminently concerned therein the Author of Schism or Dissatisfaction as she or they was then the only difference that we can find they could not then be admitted because they stuck too much to Circumstantials and now some are thrust out or rejected because they cannot receive such like things But that we may accept of those things in question whatever they are he tells us They are not Jewish Rites doth it therefore follow they are no Rites or because not Jewish Rites they ought to be accepted as Christian Rites But further as he tells us they are not Jewish Rites so he tells us nor shadowy Ceremonies doth he mean they are no shadowy Ceremonies because not Jewish or because in Christ's Government at last there is none Therefore he would not have those received as such but if not shadowy Ceremonies pray let us know what they are For if not ceremonial or circumstantial they must be essential and if not shadowy they must be substance cannot Men be true Christians without them or cannot Mens Lives and Conversations be such as adorn the Gospel if they want them If not we must confess they are essential otherwise they are but ceremonial or circumstantial when all is done Again will those things he speaks of lead into all Truth those that observe them or at best but into some things that is true If into all Truth then we must acknowledge they 're substance but if but into some things that is true they 're but shadowy We find the great hurt and mischief among Christians is a mistake conceiving because Christ came to end the shadowy ceremonies of the first Covenant to the Jews therefore as there should be none in Christ's Government so there is none and so under this mistake contend for such Rules and Forms as they have not as shadows but as essential things while the contrary is plain for the best of outward Means Rules and Forms as they direct unto God's worship and unto Communion and Fellowship with him are but shadows for they must be substance or shadow as above if substance they lead into all Truth if shadows but into some things that is true The substance is God's Holy Spirit that only and alone guides into all Truth the outward rule the shadow in Christ there is no shadow and therefore all that are in him though they may do the same thing the shadow leads to yet they do it not by an outward Rule but by his immediate Government they do it naturally by participating of the Divine Nature Christ being truly not only the object of their mind but the whole Government of the Mind and Soul is immediately upon his Shoulder one Spirit with him by being joyned to him where every Addition is fulfilled for Righteousness sake but such as are under the shadow though Christ be their end yet the shadow is the object of their Mind thinking to find Christ in this or that Duty or serve him in this or that thing and though every thing that is observed for a good end is serviceable if that end be looked for through the use of the outward things but if a sitting down in the outward Court then it will not only be a shadow but become a vail and a snare as well as the abuse of Moses Law did unto the Jews Page the 9th he saith 'T is true the People of God ought to be left to the guidance of the Spirit of God in themselves c. Answ This is as fair as a Man can say but hitherto through-out his Book what he gives with one Hand he takes away with the other for he proceeds and says For this to be so applied as to disregard the Preachings and Writings of Christ's inlightned Servants because by them properly applied to the Preaching and Writing of false Prophets and Seducers will by no means follow Answer We are of his mind in this and do say so too but this is but a beging of the Question who are those Servants and what are those Writings that are true that are rejected We grant readily to apply this and such like sayings as this That I must mind the Spirit of God in my self c. only because others have applied them or against such as we believe are Christ's inlightned Servants in the things that we believe they are inlightned in