nay the Evangelist is not yet come so much as to mention any Thing of his Manifestation in Flesh and if we will believe J. Faldo the Verse concerns the Word Creator and not Redeemer which he stints to his Coming in the Flesh see pag. 89. But by his Interpretation THAT is not relative to his Appearance in the Flesh but to the Word which was with God and was God as p. 84. and so the Spanish Translation hath it That WORD was the true Light c. so that either the Word was not before that Appearance or if it were being that true Light that true Light was before that Appearance Therefore Man-kind may very well be said to have alwayes been enlightned by that Light or that the Word should be before that Appearance and that true Light which is the very Life of the Word or Word it self should be stinted to that Appearance is as absurd as any thing well can be Now Reader comes that part which he cited but more regularly That we should take That was the true Light c. to deny Christ now to be true Light that enlightens all because he was so is a strange Impertinency and gross Falshood In Reply to all which next to what I have already transcribed he sayes no more then this Reply p. 82. W. P. should have undertaken to prove that Christ was before that time and is now God manifest in Flesh as he was then and to those Ends. Rejoynder I did abundantly prove it in our Sence and nothing solid hath been offered to invalidate what I alledged but let it suffice that he hath granted my Charge First In denying Christ to have been either Christ or the true Light before that Time a manifest Contradiction to himself p. 84 85 86 87 88 89. of his first Book second Part. Next He therefore denyes that Christ is now the true Light because he is not at this Day God manifested in Flesh in the same Manner as he was then and thus much further that he was the true Light before that Appearance Socinianism in the abstract I do not say so in Disgrace but because he pretends to disown it For his saying I should have undertaken to prove them is absurd unless he had denyed them This with me is matter enough to impeach my Adversary of blackest Sacriledge I need add no more nor no more will I add then this The Question was not whether we affirm Christ to be that Light by his visible and bodily Appearance Life Doctrine Miracles Death Resurrection c. in this Day which he was in that But whether these Words that was the true Light did not relate to the Life of the Word which was with God and was God and consequently if he did not enlighten Men before he took Flesh in the Flesh and after his Resurrection and Ascension by his Eternal Power and God-head as the great Sun of Righteousness and spiritual Luminary of the Invisible and Intelligible World Unto which his Words bear no Relation unless it be any to deny the Question In short I told him the very next Words to those he cited That should we grant the Evangelist to refer to that Appearance Joh. 1. 9. yet it would conclude no Denyal of Christ's being the true Light that enlightens every Man that cometh into the World both before and since that Appearance because it was the most eminent breaking forth of the divine Light which doubtless had been enough to satisfie any moderate or modest Man but not satisfying him I must infer as before that his Displeasure is against our believing Christ to have enlightned before and since that visible Coming which if I understand any thing is in so many Words to deny his Divinity The next Scripture by him exposited and by me rescued was Rom. 10. 3. The Word is nigh thee c. he doth but touch upon it and gives so little of my Answer that there is scarce Head or Tail to be made of his Paragraph I will contract my Answer and give his Reply He made the Word to be the written Laws Statutes and Commandments given by Moses his first Book p. 94. I answer'd It could not be so understood 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 Conmandment but the Word is very nigh thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the innermost Parts of Men whereinto the outward Commandments could never come Besides without the Word nigh in the Heart there could be no Conviction upon the Conscience c. Reply p. 82 83. W. P. puâ—s to fetch the great Word and Commandment in the Letter of the Text as the very Words of Moses A Crime to be abhorred yet frequent with him that pretends a sacred Esteem of the Scriptures In few Words to answer all Moses said of this Word verse 12. It is not in Heaven which may be said of the Book of the Law or written Word but not of Christ the Word also as I cold him before 't is such a Word as uses to be in the Mouth which is the Organ and Instrument of speaking the Greek Word for the Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is never to be understood of Christ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes intended of Christ the Word Rejoynder This looks more like a Reply then any thing we have had a great while yet that it only looks so will ly on our Part to show First He charges me with Forgery Let 's see what it was I said to fetch the great VVord or Commandment and the Scripture sayes to bring the VVord or Commandment Now I know no Difference betwixt fetching and bringing 't is true I added Great which of God's VVord or Commandment be not I did amiss If it be he is an idle Caviller fitter to kill Flies all day with the foolish Emperour then to write Books of Religious Controversie It is called Commandment Deutr. 30. 11. and Word ver 14. But it is not in Heaven therefore it is not Christ sayes our Adversary I believe J. Faldo knew in his own Conscience that those VVords were spoken on purpose to prevent the Excuse of being without a Commandment and that so nigh as their own Hearts or innermost Parts and not to exclude the VVord Heaven but rather thus The Word is not so in Heaven as that it is excluded your Consciences or that ye need to say who shall go up to fetch it down for it is in your Hearts to instruct you that you may do it and reprove you if you do it not God was never the less in Heaven for being nigh unto the Consciences of the Athenians which was Paul's Doctrine Acts 17. 27 28. for sayes he in the Name of their own Prophets In him we live move and
a higher Judge and Rule then any of those written Laws or any Interpretations of men upon them so that if J. Faldo compares the Scripture to the written Laws they who are led by the Spirit have an higher Rule then the Scripture and as he that lives up according to written Laws by the Rule of his Synteresis or Law of Laws the just Principle in himself does not destroy but fulfil those written Laws so they that live according to the Rule of the Spirit do not invalidate but fulfil the Scriptures There is no need of Swearing for a Remedy against that Man's Falseness who is come to the Truth-speaking of Christ's Righteousness he that is come up to the greater does not sleight but answer the lesser Secondly I beseech the Reader to observe that these written Laws had once a beginning and that those that made them were not without a Rule and Judge in themselves both before and in the making of those Laws neither is that peculiar to them the Law-makers I still mean Synteresis of which many Lawyers speak great things particularly a good old law-Law-Book called Doctor and Student which is not lessened by those Laws nor ought any Law to be made or take hold on any Person further then he acts contrary to that just Principle in himself which is called the Law of Laws the Immutable Law by Chief Justice Hobart in his Reports pag. 87. So that both the Law was made according to this Synteresis and is to be understood and judged according to this Synteresis which Synteresis or Law of Righteousness has not left us with a meer Declaration of its Mind subject to many Casuallities and Difficulties but remains in the Heart of Man to inform his Understanding and correct his Life consequently the Judge of Controversie respecting the written Law about which and the Application of it many times arises the Controversie must not be the written but this Immutable Law in Judge and Jury from whence all good Laws proceed It is a very depraved State indeed that knows no further Obligation then a Written Law whereas a great part of Mankind is free from those Enormities the Law forbids and punishes who yet know not the Letter of the Law like unto the Gentiles of old who having not the Law became a Law unto themselves shewing the Work of the Law written in their Hearts which Law Cicero in his Books of the Commonwealth cited by Lactant. 6. Institut 8. calls Right Reason agreeable to Nature given to all constant and eternal which calls to Duty by commanding and by Disswasion deters from Deceit No other Law may be put instead of this neither is it lawful to derogate any thing from it neither can it be wholely abrogated neither can we be loosed from this Law by Senate or People There is no other Explainer or Interpreter of it to be sought neither will there be one Law at Rome another at Athens one now another hereafter but being one Law Everlasting and Immortal shall hold all Nations at every time And there will be one as it were Master and Commander of all God that Inventor Disputer and Maker of this Law to whom he that will not be obedient must fly himself and even in this thing must suffer very great Penalty though he should escape other Punishments An excellent Place which clearly explains the Nature and Vertue of this innate Light sayes Rob. Sanderson late Bishop of Lincoln in his Oxford Lectures concerning the adaequate Rule of Conscience prol 4. where he also calls it from Calvin A Spark of the Light of God that he might have Preachers of his Will in our very Bosoms and that all other Laws are but subservient to this in the Synteresis the very thing that we assert concerning the Scriptures being a Rule Thirdly I would entreat the Reader to consider that cessante ratione legis cessat lex i. the Reason of the Law ceasing the Law ceases is an old Law-Maxim Now who shall be Judge of that the written Law By no means Yet that preposterous Answer only can suit our Adversary's Principle Wâ— say Living Reason must be the Judge In like manner did the Spirit of God give his Servants an Understanding in past Ages how to behave themselves with respect to those Laws which were but Temporary for whose Abrogation there was no express Scripture which the Scribes and Pharisees â—y neglecting and grieving that Spiritual Leader and sticking in the Letter of the Scripture only continued and maintained against Christ himself who fulfilled them To conclude That which makes Law That which explains Law That contrary unto which no Law ought to be made or obeyed That which gives to know what is contrary or according to just Laws That which gives to apply and execute Law rightly must be the Judge and Superior Rule But that is this Synteresis Law of Laws sayes Chief Justice Hobart Right Reson sayes M. T. Cicero Innate Light sayes B. Sanderson The Law of God writ in the Heart sayes Doct. and Stud. Spark of God's Light sayes Calvin A Living Rule and Everlasting Foundation of Vertue planted in all Reasonable Souls sayes Plutarch God within sayes Seneca and Epictetus Consequently not any meer written Law can be the Judge and Determiner of Controversies in Law This Reader holds almost all along the same with the Scriptures That the Law is not Judge of the Doubts that arise about it self but another is already prov'd and that the Scriptures can no more determine Cases of Difficulty within themselves is as evident by the same Argument and that Judge must either be some Man endued with the Spirit of God as in Law Cases some Judge with Right Reason or else thâ— Eternal Spirit as he is universally manifested in Men. The first I suppose our Adversary will think too fair a Pretence for Popery to be allowed and the last he can never avoid unless Man without the Spirit of God be able to determine of the things of God which were to deny the Scriptures of Truth the Faith of the Antients the Doctrine of the Reformers and Right Reason Thus Reader I conclude this Point and could have been willing to have done so long before had not the great Necessity of People's better Information drawn me into a more free and large Discourse then my Adversary's very empty Replyes could have deserved at my hands CHAP. VI. Of our dehorting People from Reading the Scriptures c. as charged by this Adversary THough I have said enough to perswade all sober Persons of our reverend Esteem of the Scriptures yet am I willing to remove any the least Ground of Scruple by a brief Consideration of his Four following Chapters in which he would fain maintain his former False and Vnadvised Charges of our holding in great Contempt those Holy Writings He begins thus Rep. My Charge in my Sixth Chapter was That the Quakers take Men off from reading the Scriptures
for them to have come to the true Sense and Knowledge of him and escaped that Wicked Murder and the Deplorable Consequences of it had not been to have waited upon God for the Convictions Discoveries and Guidance of his Holy Spirit since Flesh and Blood and the utmost VVit of Man with the Exactness of the meer Letter of the Scriptures could never give the certain Discerning Knowledge and Savour of him unto that Generation whose very VVords themselves were Spirit and Life It was by a Divine Touch Sense and Knowledge given from above that he was truly diâ—cern'd own'd and follow'd of those that believ'd in him and cleav'd to him therefore said Christ No man cometh to me but whom my Father draweth Where was that Drawing but within Again Simon Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed what who I am but my Father that is in Heaven So that at last Men must come to this Spiritual Sense in themselves to understand and apply the very Commands of Scripture otherwise not Justice but detestable Murder may under the Name of it be confidently perpetrated Wherefore we Exhort all To have Recourse unto God's Spirit that illuminates certainly and gives to act unblamably by which the Scriptures are only understood as they should be and People brought into the Possession of that Life of Righteousness they plentifully declare of Had it not been for this inward Discerning there had been no Ground for the Abolishment of the whole Jewish Service which follow'd some years after Christ's Ascension And it is the same Eternal Spirit that is the great Rule and Judge now which God promised more particularly to shed abroad in the latter Dayes and is the great inseparable Priviledge from the New and Everlasting Covenant But to conclude Why should it seem so Heterâ—dox in J. Faldo's Judgment since if Men believe the Scripture upon the Testimony of the Spirit they practise it by the Knowledge and Power of the same How else could Paul have decry'd Jewish Ceremonies or we know what to take and what to leave Or why do we omit any Command therein mention'd They Cicumcised therefore must I Circumcise They Baptized must I therefore Baptize with forty more particular Cases wherein nothing can secure any from the Imitation of them set Conviction or Spiritual Disâ—erning aside I will offer two or three Testimonies from approved Men in our Defence William Tindal that ancient faithful Protestant Martyr whom J. Fox that writ the Books of Martyrs calls the English Apostle speaks thus That it is impossible to understand in the Scripture more then a Turk for whosoever or any that hath not the Law of God writ in his Heart to fulfil it Again Without the Spirit it is impossible to understand them John Jewel Bishop of Salisbury in his excellent Book against the Papists writ above One Hundred Years ago sayes thus to our purpose The Spirit of God is bound neither to Sharpness of Wit nor to abundance of Learning Oftentimes the Unlearned see that thing that the Learned cannot see Christ saith I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and the Politick and hast revealed them unto the Little Ones Therefore Epiphanius saith Only to the Children of the Holy Ghost all the Holy Scriptures are plain and clear Again Flesh and Blood is not able to understand the Holy Will of God without SPECIAL Revelation Therefore Christ gave Thanks unto his Father and likewise opened the Hearts of his Disciples that they might understand the Scriptures Without this special Help and PROMPTING of God's Holy Spirit the Word of God is unto the Reader be he never so wise or well learned as the Vision of a Sealed Book Now unless Men are bound to do what they do not understand how to do then only are they to do them where they are Revealed or Discovered to them which being by the Spirit only according to their Doctrine the Testimony and Discoveries of the Spirit are requisite to our understanding of the Scriptures which implies and comprehends a Discriminating Knowledge or Certain Discerning of what we should practise from what is not oblieging upon us to practise and consequently that we ought not to run head-long without such knowledge T. Collier an Ancient and Eminent Man among the Western-Separatists of our Nation writeth thus For me to speak of God because another speaks of him and to be able to talk much of God as I read of him in Scripture NOT BEING MADE ONE IN THE SAME TRUTH I see and speak BUT WHAT ANOTHER HATH SPOKEN and so may speak truly sometimes of God but it is by Hear-say ANOTHER MAN's TRUTH BUT NOT MINE So I doubt many a Soul BOASTS IN ANOTHER MAN's LIGHT Again I see that external Actings according to a Rule without is nothing if not flowing from a Principle of Life and Love within Which is more then E. B. said of whom J. Faldo with unworthy Reflection and base Wrestings hath said so much Thus much of sober Rejoynder and much more then my Adversary's scurrilous Reply deserves but the ConCernment I have for the Information of others drew this from me I shall pass by his Ranting Strain against us at the top of his 36th page desiring to keep close to the Business and where I may without breaking his Matter avoid troubling the World with a Transcript of them I am very careful to do it But this next particular as many more being little else and since he suggests thereby an Untruth with great Confidence against me I should wrong both the Truth and my self in omitting it He charged us with Denying the Scriptures to be any Means to know God Christ or our selves for which he quoted W. Smith's Primmer pag. 2. because he there tells the Questioner that Christ is the Only Way to which J. Faldo answered That though Christ said No Man can come to the Father but by me yet he did not say that there is no coming to the Knowledge of God but by Christ thereby making as I observed in my Return to him a Difference between coming to the Father by the Son and to God by Christ though no other Name be given under Heaven then the Name of Jeâ—us Christ c. That we never deny'd the Scriptures to be a Means in God's Hand to convince instruct or confirm nor could this be W. Smith's Meaning since he would thereby have cut off all Benefit from accruing to People by his Books and also that Ministry he had receiv'd of God In short From our Denying that there is any other Way to the Father but Christ he concludes that we exclude the Scriptures and consequently our own Books and Ministry with them from being any way Instrumental of Good however if I err'd it was in good Company and that J. F. must acknowledge for worthy W. Tindal p. 80. of his Works and H. Bullenger a learned and famous Reformer in Switzerland
unworthily of the Scriptures we utterly detect their Actions For his second I confess I am greatly at a stand I have travell'd several Nations convers'd with Men of most Ways of Religion read a great many Books for my time but never yet did I meet with such an Insolent Blasphemous and Scornful Expression as this I now transcrib'd word for word out of his Reply 'T is true there was an Old Peevish Priest in Ireland who to get a little Money as clearly appear'd writ an Envious Book against us in which he called the Light within an Ignis Faetuâ—â—s a Dim Light c. who lived long enough to vex himself to Death with our Answer as we are credibly informed not long surviving its Arrival and general Acceptance of most sorts of People in those Parts But never yet have I heard or read of such hard Names from the worst of our Adversaries For Tho Hicks himself in his Dialogues against us acknowledges that the Light within checketh for many Evils and excites to many good things c. It were too large to go over the Praises given it by the best Jews Gentiles and Christians Philo the Jew calls it an Immortal Precept Plotin a Gentile sayes it is the Root or Life of the Soul That this Divine Principle in Man makes a true and good Man Clemens Alexandrinus a Christian-Father speaks of it thus The Light will shine out of Darkness therefore it shines in the hidden part of Mankind in the Heart Again Man cannot be void of Divine Knowledge who naturally or as he cometh into the World partaketh of Divine Inspiration c. Thus Munster Vetablus Clarius Castellio Drusius and Codurcus upon this Passage in Job And upon whom doth not his Light arise acknowledge both its Vniversallity and Sufficiency too where obey'd I could produce a Multitude of approved Protestants without being beholding to one Papist whatever J. F. says of us in Commendation of the Universal Light within but will conclude with J. Caryl one of the most ancient and eminent Pastors of the Independent Way in his Exposition on Job and J. Owen that great Doctor of Independency in his Latin Exercitations formerly writ against the Quakers under the Name of Phanaticks a Term since bestowed and improved by he knows who upon such as need no pointing at J. Caryl on Job 32. 8. says that Wisdom and Knowledge in the Things of God come from the Inspiration or In-shining of the Light or Spirit from above And on Chap. 24. 13. That Light there mentioned shined in Wicked Men's Hearts as well as Good or to that purpose And that it is not a Natural or Proper Light as the Sun in the Firmament but such as reproved them for their Iniquity and comes from above c. J. O. abundantly confesseth to the Morallity and Vniversallity of the Light calling it also a Supernatural and Spiritual as well as Moral Light as he frequently phrases it Good Use of which hath been made by our Christian and Learned Friend Samuel Fisher in Answer to Him Rich. Baxter J. Tombs and T. Danson unto which they have never attempted any the least Reply that we hear of though it greatly concerns their Cause and Credit to do something in it For my own part I shall say no more to J. Faldo's Refutation then that he calls the Light within us by which it hath pleased God to redeem us from our Vain Conversation against the Judgment of many Good and Learned Men in several Ages A BLASPHEMER OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD A SORDID SINFUL CORRUPT AND RIDICULOUS THING for which God rebuke him But there yet remains a notable Testimony of our Friends to be consider'd which J. F. produceth to prove our great Affinity with the Papists Rep. If any pretend to be of us and in Case of Controversie will not admit to be tryed by the Church of Christ Jesus nor submit to the Judgment given by the Spirit in the Elders and Members of the Church but kick against it such we testifie ought to be rejected as Heathens Rejoyn Nothing but Rank Ranterism can call this Popery in such Disgrace or reject it as unsound as I will make appear The Church of Christ indued with his Spirit hath a Judgment This Christ allows her and that every Individual ought to rest satisfied in it in Case of Difference therefore said Christ Tell the Church and if he refuse to hear the Church then let him be as an Heathen and Publican The Saints shall judge the World and much more by their Judgment determine or reconcile things among themselves No Caution or Resolution could be more soundly and scripturally laid down First It is the Church of Christ that judges Secondly It must be the Judgment of the Church by the Holy Spirit or rather the Holy Spirit in the Church not consisting of Elders only but Elders and Members which make the whole Church Lastly The Persons rejected are such as first kick or spurn against the Admonitions of the Church of Christ VVhat Man not bereaved of his Senses or as Irreligious as a Ranter can so scornfully upbraid us with this Serious Christian and Necessary Discipline Yes J. Faldo who pretends both to his Wits and Religion dares offer something against it Rep. Oh the Charity of the Quakers Leaders All that will not submit to their little Juncto are with them numbred with Heathens and Infidels Here the poor Quakers may see the Image of the Beast among themselves Rejoyn It were well if J. Faldo would show more Charity in pretending to rebuke us for the want of it But will he allow of those Aggravations the Episcopatians and Presbyterians made upon and against the first Brownists about Gathered Churches Did not they draw as large Conclusions And had they not as much Ground for doing it as our Passage can give to J. F. since they deny'd in most harsh Terms The Church of England to be the Church of Christ The same did the People call'd Anabaptists both of the Church of England and National Presbytery But why our little Juncto otherwise call'd the Spirit of G. Fox and his Ministry or Representative Body Is not this cast out on purpose to insinuate as if G. F. with other publick Travellers in the Service of the Church were Lordly or Domineering as J. Faldo a little further calls it who rarely meddle with those things leaving every Meeting to their own Power But what Occasion had he for this Reflection of our Friends Paper even as by himâ—elf given us Doth it not mention the whole Church and afterwards explain who that Church is by those two Words Elders and Members for such is the Practice of J. F. in his pretended Discovery of us Nor iâ— there any Reason why J. F. should so much stomach the Word Heathen since he thinks it a Priviledge to be so to us at least to call us so Besides we own every such one to have a Saving
great Geneva Doctor that made Servetus keep Company with his Books or rather had him burnt by them as if it had been to save Wood for Exceeding their Presbyterian Reformation and instead of repenting defended it in Writing when he had done at what time the said Doctor and that whole City were persecuted themselves with the Anathama's of Rome and 't is not to be doubted but they thought them unchristian It would fill a Volumn to tell the Tragical Excommunications and other notable Feats done by some of this Tribe of Men for the Maintenance of their Church Power and Dignity oft times saving the civil Magistrate the Trouble of abusing such poor Dissenters from them as we are by a licentious Usurpation and Practice of his Power upon their Backs we well know it yet has this man the Confidence to fall hard on us for censuring such as recede from what they once own'd because we can never allow them as such to be of us he cryes out Oh the Charity of the Quakers the Quakers may see the Image of the Beast among themselves c. But on better Grounds may every ingenuous Reader return this Exclamation Oh the Incharity of J. F. and his Adherents whose very Mercies are Cruelties Let him pack up his Pipes and play us no more of these Envious and Hypocritical Notes and hold himself contented that whether we be the Image or no to be sure he has made Sydach Sympson and his Church the Beast in great Letters cum multis aliis not forgetting nor excluding his own railing and excommunicating self The Conclusion of the First Part. WE have now run through his Nine Chapters Seven of which concerned the Scriptures doubtless writ to vindicate his former Discourse but with what Success I leave with Thee Courteous Reader to judge And before I sum up our Sense for a Farewell to this Part of his Pamphlet I request thee when thou next falls into Company with J. F. or any of that Tribe of Men the pretended Admirers of Scripture and one would almost think the devoutest Observers of those Precepts and precisest Imitators of those Examples expressed therein to ask in good Earnest Whether it be the whole and every part of Scripture they call the Word of God and Rule of Faith and Life or No If they say All and every part of it then the Words of Wicked Kings False Prophets Persecutors c. yea the Devil himself therein at large declared with the whole Jewish History and Ceremenial and Judiacal Law containing the Government Sacrifices Priesthood and all other Jewish Rights will necessarily make up a great part of the Word of God and their Rule of Faith and Life But if they shall answer Negatively that they are not in the whole and every part of them the Word of God and Rule of Faith and Life Then ask them Which are those Places Precents and Examples that particularly concern us under this Administration And if they answer this Enquiry and are not grown too hot and angry by this time entreat them to tell thee By what they discern and distinguish in this weighty Matter For if they either set aside what they should receive or continue what should be laid aside they Add or Dminish to what themselves acknowledge to be the Word of God If they say the Harmony of Scriptures the same Question holds How and by What doth it appear so Harmonous since there are very deep and obscure places and sometimes seeming Contradictions and that in highest Points If they say by the Spirit and Vnderstanding of meer Man the Apostle Paul directly opposes himself to every such answer 1. Cor. 2. But if thus driven they answer in the Words of J. Owen That the only Publick Authentick and Infallible Interpreter of the Holy Scripture is HE who is the AUTHOR of them from the Breathing of whose Spirit it derives all its Verity Perspicuity and Authority Exerc. 2 7 9. against the Quakers Entreat their Patience to stand one Question more and thou hast done viz. If the Verity Perspicuity and Authority of the Scriptures depend upon the Breathing of the Holy Spirit or as he expresses it a little further the Infusing a Spiritual Light into our Hearts Then Whether People ought not to have recourse unto the Holy Spirit and Light as the only Interpreter Judge and Rule what Scripture remaine of Force to our Day and how and which way such Scripture is to be understood When thou hast obtained such sober Answers as thy Questions deserve at their hands I should be very glad to have the Perusal of them In the mean time we own and with our whole Hearts confess First That the Scriptures given forth by Inspiration are a true and faithful Narrative or Declaration of the Mind of God towards the Sons and Daughters of Men and his various Dealings with them respecting Precepts Prophecies Threatnings Promises Providences Rewards Punishments Deliverances Doctrines Examples and Practices Seconly That they are Profitable for Reproof Instruction Edification and Comfort Thirdly That it is the Spirit of God which only gives Men to read understand and use them to Advantage as Thomas Collier hath well expressed it about Twenty Five Years ago viz. And truly Brethren it is my earnest Desire to see Souls to live more in the Spirit and less in the Letter and then they will see THAT WE JUDGE OF THE LETTER BY THE SPIRIT AND NOT OF THE SPIRIT BY THE LETTER which occasions so much Ignorance amongst us And they who profess themselves to be our TEACHERS ARE CHIEF IN THIS TRESPASS Four â—hly That the Holy Spirit is the New Covenant Rule and Judge it being the Promise of the Father and Ministry and Dispensation of the latter Days as there Scriptures abundantly prove Neh. 9. 19 20. Job 32. 8. Isa 59. 21. Joel 2. 28 29. Hag. 2. 25. Mat. 16. 17. Jo. 14. 17 18 19. Chap. 16. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. Rom. 8. 1 9 14. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. Gal. 5. 16 18. Eph. 1. 17. I. Jo. 2. 20 27. Yet we deny not but the Lord hath and yet may make the Holy Scripture a Mean to several in the Hand of his Spirit of Understanding and Comfort and so far they may be a particular Rule Yea I do believe they have been and yet are next to a Living and Powerful Ministry a more ordinary Mean then many if not any other whatever Howbeit we are not to center here but press on forward to the Life Power and Spirit it self of which they declare for into That God hath determined to bring and as it were wind up his People by which they come to be fulfilled whereas those that stick in the Letter of them and pass not througâ—â—â—d beyond it into the Life and Vertue they bear record of know but as the Scribes and Pharisees did and cannot as such be true and faithful Witnesses for the
have our Being for we are also of his Off-Spring Erasmus in Deut. saith non supra â—e sed intrate est Sermo valde i. The VVord is not above thee but very within thee The Samaritan Coppy hath it not the Word but the Thing is in thee according to the Hebrew Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is often so translated Fagius upon the Place in Deuter. thus In Corde dicit quia Legem cordibus Judaeorum inscripserat Dominus priusquam in Tabulis illis lapâ—deis Decologum insculpsisset i. e. In the Heart saith he because the Lord haâ—â— written the Law in the Hearts of the Jews before he had graven the Decalogue in the Tables of Stones For its being such a Word as useth to be in the Mouth I must tell him that is such a Word as useth to be in the Heart too which he takes no Notice of in my Answer and I am sure it is not so impossible for the Eternal Word to express it self by the Mouth of a Man and so may be said to be in the Mouth as it is for the Book of written Laws and Statutes to be in the Heart Besides the Commandments are mentioned verse 10. but this Commandment or Word verse 11. 14. which cannot in good Sense be called the same but rather that Law Word or Commandment mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 2. 14 15. which he acknowledgd the good Gentiles both to have had written in their Hearts and to have lived up to in good Measure unless we can suppose that God hath been less propitious to the Jews then to the Gentiles I mean that God gave the Gentiles an inward and the Jews only an outward Law But suppose what our Adversary sayes of the Word in Deuteronomy to be true he hath confounded himself in this That he makes the Word Rom. 10. 8. the same with the Word mentioned Deut. 13 14. The one is as sayes J. F. the Word of Jewish Statutes among whom is the Hand wring of Ordinances the ceremonial and judicial as well as morral Law The other is the Word of Faith which blots out the Hand-writing of Ordinances and ends the Ceremonial and Judicial Law But because these two Laws or Words cannot be one and the same and yet that the Apostle alludes to the Words in Deuteronomy it follows that it cannot be the Book of written Laws but the Word that begets Love to and Faith in God for that was the Word the Apostle preached Nay we may go further yet and assert the Word mentioned in Deuteronomy to be Christ himself for if that be one with the Word of Faith the Apostle writes of to the Romans then because the Word of Faith Rom. 10. 8. is Christ the Word mentioned in Deuteronomy must also be Christ that are one and the same Word the Apostle's Allusion proves and J. F. confesseth and that the Word of Faith Rom. 10. 8. is Christ let the two fore-going Verses of the Text be consulted But the Righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine Heart who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the Dead but what saith it The Word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thy Heart that is the Word of Faith which we preach verse 6 7 8. where nothing is more clear then that the Word nigh in the Heart is Christ the Word for the Question here is how they shall get Christ as it was in Deuteronomy how they should get the Word The Apostle answers it though not under the Name of Christ yet under a Name attributed to Christ If our Adversary count Christ and the Word of Faith two differing things by the same Reason may we say that the Word in Deuteronomy concerning which none needeth to ask who shall go up in Heaven to bring it down and the Word nigh are two Words but if that Question be needless Who shall go up into Heaven to fetch it down unto us ver 12. be answered in ver 14. viz. but the Word is very nigh unto thee and consequently that it is but one Word or Commandment that is understood in the Question and the Answer then may we with good Reason conclude that Christ in the 6th and 7th Verses and the Word of Faith in the 8th Verse are one and the same thing under two Names else there can be no Sence or Coherence in the Apostle's Words for what Answer is this But what sayes it The Word is nigh thee in thy Mouth and in thy Heart that is the Word of Faith which we preach to this Question Who shall ascend to bring Christ down Who shall descend to bring Christ up If Christ and Word of Faith are not Synonimous or equivalent Terms The Question the Apostle makes the Righteousness of Faith to forbid is about Christ's Absence or Remoteness from the Heart Say not in thy Heart and it is answered and resolved with the Nearness of the Word in the Heart which could be no answer or Solution in case that Word was not Christ or Christ that Word for the Reason why the Righteousness of Faith saith on this wise Say not in thy Heart who shall ascend to fetch Christ down implies that he is not shut up in some remote place but that he is nigh and needs no fetching and if nigh then not another from the Word nigh which is the Answer to the Question To make it yet plainer and detect my Adversary I will parrallel the Case Jacob being ancient desired to see Josâ—ph before he died suppose him to have askt how shall I do to see Joseph and that some body answered Do not ask how â—hou shalt see Joseph for thou seest Reuben Tell me if this would be thought a fit Answer to Jacob's Question yet this must be the Cause of those who deny Christ and the Word to be one in this Place But if some body should have said to him Do not ask who shall show thee thy SON JOSEPH for the RVLER of all Egypt standeth nigh thee Would not every Body think the Person meant Joseph that was so This is so plain to our Pupose that every common Understanding may discern the Reasonableness of our Interpreration For the Greek being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it makes nothing against us in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same Significaiton with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scapula informs us out of Plato Clemens Alexandrinus Admon ad Gent. on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calls it the Word of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. the HEAVENLY WORD the true Contender for Mastery crowned in the Theater of the whole World and in his Strom l. 2. speaking of the same Place Rom. 10. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The DIVINE WORD cryes calling all Men without Distinction which must needs be Christ the
's Conscience who hath shown himself the designed Deluder of us two Reply W. P. tells me p. 197. That Fisher did not mean the Spirit of Man that is any Part of Man's Nature whereas his very Words are The Spirit of Man which concurs to the constituting Man in his primitive Perfection I told him also that Fisher allowed no Man in his degenerate Estate to have any Spirit at all as Constitutive of Man Rejoynder 'T is true if he puts primitive Perfection to it for nothing can reduce Man to his primitive Perfection but that Holy Spirit which he may be said to have lost that is any Interest in by his Transgression but to say he told me that S. F. allowed no Man in his degenerate Estate to have any Spirit at all as constitutive of Man meerly is to tell his Reader an impious Falshood twice over and not to essay the enervating of one of those Reasons by me urged to prove it so S. Fisher's Words were briefly these 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 whereby he became a Soul that did partake something of God's own Life This is that living Principle of that Divine Nature which Man did before his Degeneration and shall again after his Degeneration partake of I told him 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 pertake 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 Unto which and much more he affords me no other Reply then what I have already inserted to wit I told him that Fisher allowed no Man in his degenerate Estate to have any Spirit at all as constitutive of Man as if his meer tell him were Convincement enough to his Reader that S. Fisher held all sinful Men to have no Souls and he knows the Consequence If no Souls then no Punishment for to be constituted a perfect Man to God and a meer Man is not one and the same thing neither can pertaking of the divine Life or Nature be so understood as that the Soul is that divine Life or Nature it self or that such as pertake not of it have no Souls Such Doctrine better becomes J. F's adventures Abuses then the Writings of that honest and Christian Man He tells us of some other Quotations which I medled not with particularly that G. Fox in his Book called the Great Mystery c. should say The Soul was Equal with God that it was without beginning infinite in it self and a Part of God for which he assigns us no Page in his Reply in his first Book the 16th I have diligently perused it and find no such thing however should he have ever written these Words I dare say for him he understood no more by Equality then Vnity for God is greater then all by Infinite no more then something that is not finite or which comes to an End and by the Soul 's being without Beginning and a Part of God no other then that divine Breath of Life which is as the Soul or Life of the Soul that came out from God and therefore is of God that Cause is much to be suspected that props it self with such shallow Cavils he observes no Nicety of Expression in his Writings and it is therefore disingenuously done of any to make this ill Use of his plain and vulgar Phrases But least all this should fail and he had Reason to suspect it he brings us out a Piece of a Letter formerly written by Josiah Coal who lived and dyed a faithful Servant of God and is now at Rest with him put into his Hands I suppose by his Gentle-Man p. 94. as he received it at the Hand I suppose of some Vagabond-Quaker First That he should call George Fox the Father of many Nations but what is this more then to say that Men of several Nations have been begat unto Christ through him Thus Paul was a Father to the Romans Corinthians c. 1 Cor. 4. 15. for though ye have ten thousand Instructers yet ye have not many Fathers for in Christ have I begotten you Secondly That his Life hath reached through his Children to the Isles afar off to the begetting of many again unto a lively Hope But what of all this The life of God is one in all Paul lived by the Life of Christ and so did Peter Paul was present in Spirit though absent in Body 1 Cor. 5. 3 4. Thirdly That Generations to come should call him blessed But is not the Memory of the just blessed Prov. 10. 7. and did not God by Isaiah promise concerning Israel I will make thee an Eternal Excellency and the Joy of many Generations Isa 60. 57. This belongs to G Fox Josiah Coal and every Child of God yea and J. Faldo too if he were so good as he should be 4thly That his Being and Habitation was in the Power of the Highest And so it should be for that is the Habitation of every Child of God for others dwell in the Power of the World In short we are exhorted to stand fast in the Power of Godliness and we read that it was the End of the Evangelical Ministry to turn People from the Power of Satan unto the Power of God which is the Power of the Highest 5thly That he ruled and governed in Righteousness This is but what Paul exorts Timothy to do in the Church of Christ as both his Epistles inform us at large Every Elder Overseer or Pastor in the Church of Christ is bound to do so If J. F. can prove he doth otherwise he may then charge him with uncomely walking but not J. Coal with Blasphemy for saying that a good Man governs in Righteousness Lastly That his Kingdom is established in Peace and the Increase thereof is without End So is the Kingdom of the Saints of God That they have a Kingdom and Dominion is clear from several Scriptures It is the Fathers good Pleasure to give you a KINGDOM Luke 12. 23. Wherefore we have received a KINGDOM which cannot be shaken Heb. 12. 28. The Saints shall JUDGE the World 1 Cor. 6. 3. The Nature of this Kingdom is declared Luke 17. 12. The Kingdom of God is within Joh. 18. 36. My Kingdom is not of this World Rom. 14. 17. For the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the
how can he conclude The Quakers deny the Scriptures yet so he concludes per fas per nefas What can be said to a Man of this hardy Stamp whom neither Logick Reason nor Modesty can bound yet a pretended Master of them all Had I used him at this toyish gibing and illogical Rate I had been an airy Sophister of no more serious Conscience or Religion then Punchenello but being his Adversary I must be a Dunce an Ignoramus and something else he was so wise as to hide from us which are the Epithetes he is pleased out of his great Store-House of Ill Language to bestow upon me at parting But which is stranger if any thing be strange that he doth after all the Perversion Addition Diminution Wresting Misquotation Evasion and School-Boy Puns and Gibes he hath the Confidence thus to end this Chapter and his Defence of the first and second Part of his first Book Thus I have honestly clearly vindicated every Charge in that Part of my Book which intends the Proof of Quakerism to be no Christianity How honestly and how clearly he hath vindicated his Charges belongs not to either of us to judge whatever we think but is leâ—â— with every impartial Reader to determine though if it be as he saith I am yet to learn what an Honest and Clear Vindication meaneth for according to that Sense I have had of him through this whole Controversie and the most upright Observation I could make of his Management it seems to me a moral Impossibility that he should not be conscious to himself of exhibiting Charges he hath not proved of abusing our Writings to endeavour it of declining the Strength of our Answers and Vilifying of our Persons for writing them To the Righteous God I recommend the whole and according to our Truth and Honesty in this Matter may we receive the Sentence of Well or Ill done c. I hope my Conscience will abide the Search for God that knoweth all Hearts is Witness I have not the least Guilt upon me for my Concern Carriage in this Affair having done to him as I would all Men should do unto me and therein fulfilled the Royal Law CHAP. XIII My Adversary declines meddling with my Appendix His Dising enuity great His Perversions and Wrestings about his Key pretending to open our Words Detected VVE are now come to his Two and Twentieth and last Chapter which for his Truth Reason Language and Carriage towards me is an exact Representation of his intire Reply which will not be hard for any serious Reader to observe and make that use of it which may forever discard J. Faldo in his Opinion from any future Pretence to honesty in Writing till he hath publickly recanted this but because I always desire he should speak for himself be pleased to hear him this Reply p. 91. In W P's Answer to the third Part of my Book he sayes nothing to the Chapter of the Characters of Apostolical Persons and Inspirations wherein it consisting of Twenty four Pages I agitated at large these Points to the Overthrow of their pretended Apostolical Ministry and Inspirations of the same kind with theirs common to all Believers on which Quakerism is founded Rejoynder This Complaint might have been very allowable in case I had not already sufficiently considered and answered whatsoever was of moment in those Twenty Four Pages under the Head of Inspiration and that himself had not been so shamefully injust as after having attackt the first Part of my Book intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated with Thirty Four Pages and I replied in an intire Appendix of Thirty Pages he had not wilfully neglected to give â—s one word of Rejoynder I beseech my Reader to take notice of this one great Piece of Disingenuity for if I must be chid because I did not unnecessarily repeat Controversie having already defended our Doctrine in this Point under the Head of Inspiration and Gospel-Ministry What shall be said to him that unprovokedly fell foul of my fore named Book and after I had replied in its Defence takes no more notice then if he were wholly unconcerned in any such Attempts He must either think what he writ irrefutable or indefensible If the first then he need not have replyed at all since I am perswaded he believes one part of what he writ to be as irrefutable as the other If because indefensible he is to be excused yet deservedly to be blamed for finding that Fault with others which he is much more guilty of himself To say nothing of his Pretence of Answering Two Hundred Fifty Four Pages within the Compass of Ninety Six and that Skip he makes over my whole Key consisting of about half a score Pages added for the Opening our true Meaning from that perverted sense ignorant and malicious Persons have put upon our Principles And lastly his Vindication of his Key in not a page and an half against Six or Seven Pages of my Answer wherein I hope it was proved abundantly defective But let us hear what he sayes to remedy those defects I therein charged upon it Reply p. 92. In my Key of Two Hundred and Fifty Particulars he excepts against Ten Five of which he further explains the other Five he opposes Rejoynder This looks unfair on my part till my Reader be informed that not one of these Two Hundred and Fifty Particulars had so much as the Name of Man or Book consequently no Page how to find and read any of those things he affirms to be our Sense or Meaning which is enough to discredit an Honester Writer then J. Faldo so that what I did was more then could be justly expected much less challenged from me however I took Ten of the most suspicious If he be disproved in those there is great Reason to suspect him about the Rest till he hath produced more unquestionable Evidence Of these he tells us I explain one Five and oppose the other Let us hear how he gives my Opposition and what is his Replication Reply The first of these is in pag. 247. THE WILL OF THE FLESH i. e. All that is chosen by Man though he be thereto disposed by the Will of God revealed in the Scriptures This W. P. calls False and an Abominable and Notorious Untruth I have proved at large their calling all things of a Religious Nature by that Name which are not by Immediate Inspiration although the Scriptures have Precepts and Examples commanding and prescribing them Rejoynder If this be not to beg the Question no Man ever did since the World was He sayes he hath proved it at large and I say I have refuted it at large and what sayes he to that no more then this I have proved it at large c. Doth this Man look like an able Disputant That he is not an honest one take my Answer by him omitted with his own words faithfully cited J. F. pag. 69. THE WILL OF THE FLESH i. e. All that is
chosen by Man though he be thereto 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 that is any of our Sayings or VVritings in Proof of his Exposition if he can otherwise be hath Slandered Us and Our Principles For the Wâ—ll of the Flesh is that which is quite Contrary to God and inconsistent with the Good of the Creature How well he hath acquitted himself in point of Honesty as well as Ability first in so maiming my Answer and next in saying nothing to it is still referred to my Reader 's Judgment and so we proceed Reply pag. 92. The second is pag. 249. CHRIST THE OFFERING i. e. the Light within W. P. calls this no Quakers Expression that it is take this Proof We believe that Christ in us doth offer himself up a Living Sacrifice to God for us Smith Cat. pag. 64. Rejoynder I still say it is no Quaker's Expression Though the Light that shineth in our Hearts be Christ the true Light But that which I most insisted on he hath as he useth to do quite left out viz. for he would by this insinuate that we deny Christ to be an Offering as in the Flesh and that Body then offered up to be concerned 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 He that hath half an Eye may see how poorly and meanly he hath shifted off the Weight of my Answer Again Reply p. 92. The third MEN-PLEASERS Sense They who comply with Men though in things not only Lawful but also to Edification This W. P. calls an arrant Lye but the ground is provided J. F. meaneth by Lawful unto Edification what we do I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth Rejoynder Indeed I never took him to be so Silly as Mischievous in the Matter not to use his own Phrase more then Ignoramus for instead of putting Bonds on the Truth he hath broken all Bonds of Truth he pretends to give our Sense of Men-Pleasers and substitutes his own in the room of it and when we tell him that if he means by Lawful and to Edification what we do he belies us he confidently replies I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth as if in rendring our Sense of words he were not bound to keep to our Sense of them how is it our Sense if it be his and not ours and how truly ours if it be putting Bonds on the Truth to render ours truly But the Man's present Hardiness is beyond wondring at To the next Reply p. 92. TRADITIONS OF MEN i. e. The Scripture or written Word p. 250. To this W. P. adds But to say they are the Traditions of Men in the sense Christ forbid the Pharisaical Religion God forbid I had rather my Tongue were cut out of my Head Oh base Man to abuse an Innocent People thus grosly I have already proved the Phrase to be the Quakers viz. Smith ' s and Nailor ' s. Rejoynder This answers it self if he had taken off the Force of my Words I might have bestowed a Rejoynder upon him in the mean time I have disproved his pretended Proof where I met with it and what I find here is but a meer begging of the Question The fifth and last Particular he thus endeavours to vindicate is this Reply p. 93. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM p. 251. Their Sense I give of this he presents the greater half of which explains the other by an c. to blind the Reader and make the Quakers believe I deserve the Imputations of Malice and wicked Man which it seems he is resolved afore hand to bestow on me Rejoynder The Man is weary of his Work as we may see by the great haste he makes over every particular No Man living that hath not read both our Books can make any Sense of this Hodge-Podge Section that ever any Man should touch with Religious Controversie that is so visibly defective in it My Answer shall be my Rejoynder for sure I am he hath overlookt it and therefore yet to be replyed to J. F. p. 89. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM that is sayes J. Faldo the Belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be p. 251 252. the Christ c. W. P. Let this be the last though several more might be observed which at this time shall be considered 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 remained 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 injustly to pervert the Scripture in our Name 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 All this my Adversary thought fit to conceal left his transcribing it into his Reply would have made that Discovery of his Baseness which he should never have been able by all his Shifts to palliate I think I did not nick-name this Chapter when I called it a Representation of his whole Reply He ends as he begun with Squibs Puns Evasions and Ill Language for unless the Goodness of a Book be to be measured by the Paint of a Title-Page or bare Writing reputed Replying he might with more Sense and Reason have called it Froth Folly and Fiction then a Religious Vindication c. No Man I ever read of hath exceeded the Bounds of Truth by obtruding Falshoods and wandred from the Dâ—corum of a fair Adversary by unfair Citations and obvious Wrestings betaken himself for Sanctuary to such silly Shifts School-boy Jeers at the rate this Adversary hath done And I have no Reason to Doubt of others being of the same Mind since the World is not so destitute of Understanding as to be cheated with his hocus-pocus Tricks to take Tin for Silver or Copper for Gold or Froth for
Friendship to him yet so invincible was his Displeasure that there was no holding for me of his Good-will and believing Christ to be God They were with him as inconsistent as Light and Darkness I know no other Reason if this be any for his Sharpness to me And God knows this is the very Truth I leave it with my Reader to satisfie his own Conscience concerning this Matter But he never wrote against me Truly he needed not who hath another Instrument so nimble and so able a Scribe as J. F. for the Purpose But if calling me the basest Names undervaluing detracting and traducing me in almost all Companies behind my back and in a Garden at Hogfdon where I went to accompany some of my Relations to affront me with opprobrious Names as many can witness who demean'd my self with all Gentleness towards him and to act in the Quallity of an incessant Agent against us by Informations Reports Books c. WHO ONCE DID ALL THESE THINGS FOR US and we are no worse Men then we were If these things be no just Provocations to mention two Letters I am to blame Yet that I name him in almost all my Writings or all that he hath read is false for in the Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith c. which J. F. quotes he is not named and of above Twelve Books he was mention'd but in Three and that obscurely this makes the Fourth against my Will The Occasion besides what hath been already toucht upon was this H. H. one of his Friends writes a Book against us or rather to us against G. F. J. Faldo's Mr. T. F. was the Promoter and Scatterer of these Pamphlets especially upon the Exchange where not in private Converse as J. F. sayes and makes to be the only Reason of my taking notice of him that he may render me base to his Readers before several and those of divers Perswasions called G. Fox Knave Puppy Logerhead with such like unhandsome Terms unworthy of a Man of T. F's Consideration in the World This I would never have repeated had not J. Faldo drawn yea compelled it from me by suggesting an Untruth and substituting it in the room of the True Reason Well But if his Information fail him not I have been engaged by T. F. to another kind of Deportment And suppose all this hath he not dis-engaged me sufficiently I owe no Man any thing beyond Truth nor will be fettered from my Testimony by any Obligations But I never was engaged to him beyond what I have faithfully related except it was his lending me as he thought by one that was my Servant at that time of my Tower-Imprisonment about Forty Pounds he coming in my Name counterfitting both Messages and Letters as I made appear to him afterwards which though mine Eyes never saw one Penny of it nor was there a Penny employed in my Service or to my use I did when God enabled me having then no Estate in my Hands faithfully repay as if I had really had every Penny believing then and still that it was Kindness in him to me that was abused by a Knavish Servant and I would never let him suffer for it If herein I have wronged him he may forgive me But because in my Answer to J. Faldo and what he said in his behalf against us I told him that some thought it a Shame that so ill a Tongue should go unrebuked of those whose Principles and Interest give them the Liberty of doing it in a way that might be more effectual then all the Moderation and Reason that can easily be shown to him J. Faldo exactly like himself strains these words all the Moderation and Reason which I intended of our bearing his Abuses only showing their Vnreasonableness by writing to nothing below some Vnjust and Violent Course to rid him out of the way which are but softer words for down-right Murder and to Countenance this Comment of his I was told I think by one that had it at T. F's Mouth that he was advised to take the Law of me for his Security But to put all this out of doubt those that thought it a Shame he should so frequently violently and publickly revile honest Men bringing their Common Credit into Question by scurvy Names meant by the way that might be taken only the Law which was what some counselled him to use to secure himself against me These Men had need have good Consciences that are thus affraid before they are hurt Thus have I vindicated those Reflections J. Faldo lay'd such Foundation for and if T. F. be troubled at this I must tell him so am I but I cannot help it Let him better advise his Scribe next time for I have nothing but hearty Love and good Wishes for him nor have I said any thing harsh or disgraceful in this Defence of my self imputing much of what hath happened more to his Natural Haste and sometimes ungoâ—â—rn'd Speech then a Premeditated Injustice He knows how often I have caution'd him in those respects while we conversed together Nor hath it been my only Observation and Admonition by a great many others and some of his own Friends too Thus I leave T. F. â—n perfect Good-will to see what Leave it is that J. Faldo is taking of us His Epilogue degenerates not one jot from the Book it self And as if he would do me a great Deal of Mischief in a little Compass and say whatever is rude and unjust once for all he tells his Reader That I have egregiously played the Forger that I am a Cheat that all Men understanding Controversie will judge me worthy to be made a Proverb of and when they would express an impudent Forger to say no more then W. PENN Rep. pag. 95. And that he may add Prophaneness to his Railing he proceeds A Great Poet of their own hath these words worthy to begin all Mr. Penn's Books on that Subject as it ends this of mine If a meer Scoff in Scripture-Phrase be prophanening Scripture then I have not over-charged him in calling this Phrase wherein he useth Paul's words to the Athenians but with Scorn and Levity against us Prophaneness But let us hear these so much Derided Words And they that would be satisfied concerning us any way they must find us and know us in the Principle of Life where we are and not in their own Reason where we are not and so let none REASON about us for there they can never know us nor come unto us W. Smith's Cat. p. 94. But why so much Contempt upon this Passage unless it be to show us that he can still Scoff at that Principle of Life which is the Strength and Habitation of God's Children as he hath done already throughout both his Books Did the Disciples or the Pharisees find out Christ's Meaning by their Reasoning about it John 6. or would not either have relisht the true Meaning of his Words had they dwelt in the Divine Principle of Life
God himself and so God saves God and God worships God This my Reader may find in his Vind. from p. 75. to 87. particularly this following of E. B. about the Soul 10. From E. Burroughs affirming the Light of Christ in every Man to be one with the Spirit as good as the Spirit of Christ in order to prove it the same J. Faldo infers he made the Soul of Man God because that which is as good as the Spirit of God is God Book 1. Part 2. p. 122. Vind. p. 85 86. As if E. B. had spoken it of the Soul of Man and not the Light of Christ shining in the Soul of Man as his Words express it 11. Lastly from our Denyal of his carnal Resurrection as inconsistent with Scripture and Reason he takes Heart to tell all People that W. P. and all the through Quakers deny the Resurrection of the Dead and are guilty of not believing a future Reward in an other World with a Train of Ill Language too long to bring in Vind. p. 88 89 91. This Friendly Reader hath been the Entertainment we have received at J. Faldo's Hands but all things shall work together for good III. of his evading my Answer and Arguments It is very frequent with him next to leaving out what I say or fastening false Consequences upon what he transcribes to evade the Strength of mine Answer either by pretending to have said enough in his first Book as if that had foreseen my Answer and anticipated his Reply with a Refutation or by some one Word which will serve him to play at or by being in haste or else my Answer deserves no Reply at all c. An Evidence of this Sort of Carriage my Reader may find in his Reply p. 5 17 18 38 51 57 58 59 69 71 76 91 93 One at large for all To my several Arguments in defence of Immediate Revelation Inspiration as he terms it he returns three or four Lines This W. P. is so far from denying that he pleads for it but after such a Rude Impertinent manner that I should but injure you and shew my self idle to animadvert upon it p. 17. The cheapest Way that ever Man took to confute his Adversary Doth this become any Man of his Pretence to either Schollarship or Christianity IV. Of his Forgery or Perversion I am sorry I have such reiterated Occasion to charge him with Forging that is foisting in Words into our Writings and Sayings that are wholly inconsistent with them or perverting those he delivers to the End he may make them ponounce his Mind the more plainly A few of many Places I have observed as in page 22 25 41 42 50 51 92 93. Of which I shall give four Instances more particularly 1. â— Pennington speaking of Knowledge according to the Flesh By Flesh sayes he The Quakers understand the Vse of our Vnderstandings though sanctified first Book p. 41. Vind. p 24 25. 2. His second is making W. Smith to call the Scriptures Traditions of Men Earthly Root Darkness Confusion Corruption Rotten Deceitful the Whore's Cup the Mark of the Beast all out of the Life and Power of God and not that the meant them of those who had degenerated from the Power of Godliness and had set up their own Imagination in the stead of God's Institutions teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of Men first Book p. 117. 119. Vind. 41 45. 3. The Third is his making I. Pennington to call visible Worship the City of Abomination Vind. p. 50. 4. Lastly That he gives in our Name this Interpretation of the Vail is over them i. e. the Belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be the Christ c. Vind. p. 93. V. Of his grand Improbabilities and downright Untruths This Charge I know must needs be very unpleasant to a Man as Vain Glorious as many Places of his Book declare him to be but I cannot help it 'T is Truth if there be anâ— Truth in the World that he hath writ a great many unlikely and absolute untrue Things Let my Reader take the Pains to look over these following Pages of his Reply and I am well assured if impartial he will not think that I have in a Tittle wrong'd him p. 6 7 19 21 33 35 38 39 42 46 47 48 49 55 56 65 70 72 73 89 93. Of which I will only instance four 1. First he affirms that he quoted forty Places out of our Friends Books that would prove the Light within as within us to be the only Lord and Saviour and very God p. 6. whereas he brought not any one that either proved the Terms or the Matter 2. Secondly He confidently accused us of charging the Miscarriage of Mens Souls on the Knowledge the Letter of the Scriptures by God's Blessing doth convey p. 21. 3. Thirdly Whereas I said that W. Smith's Words reflected not in the least upon the Scriptures nor those Doctrines truly received thence neither that any such VVords can be produced by our Adversaries he boldly tells his Reader I intended no other but that Smith doth not accuse himself in so many Words of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received as much as to say We both knew it to be Blasphemy but W. Smith did not call it so p. 41. There is no ingenuous Man that will not abhoâ—â— the Falseness of this Passage 4. Lastly I opposing his Affirmation that we did not profess or believe Eternal Rewards thus pretends to confute me W. P. opposes me rather because he would not be thought to subscribe to me then that he believes not what I say to be true p 69. But if this be true sure I am there is no Truth in the World And indeed there is no giving this Sort of Carriage at large but by transcribing far the greatest Part of his Book VI. Of his idle Jeers and frothy Expressions I have not met with any Man writing upon so serious a Subject as Religion is that gives himself the Liberty of so many vain Expressions as if he had intended his Discourse for vulgar Merriment not to Christian Information If my Reader please to trouble himself with the Perusal of these following pages he shall find enough to nauseate p. 6 22 23 26 27 29 30 34 37 40 47 50 51 53 58 60 69 71 72 95. Take two Instances He cackles like a Hen when he had laid a WORSE THING then an Egg p. 47. Again because we said God spoak once by Balaam's Ass thereby proving that he did not alwayes speak by the Scriptures he thus reflects I wonder not that they leave the Teachings of God by the Scriptures to attend on the Ministry of Asses thereby calling us Asses p. 27. Which how Witty soever he thinks such sort of Sayings to be sure they are more Frothy and Irreligious then becomes a Man professing Religion much less writing of the Weightiest Points of it
118. G. Fox Great Myst Part 2. pag. 10. G. Fox Gr. Myst 12 J. Parnell Shield of Truth 22 23. W. Smith's Cat. 27. W. Smith's Prim. 37. Love to the Lost 40. W. Smith's Prim. 42. W. Smith's Prim. Part 3. pag. 94. W. Smith's Prim. Vindic. pag. 6 70. Thus much at present of False Citation which to say no more makes any Book uncapable of being answered IV. Several Passages Clipt and Maim'd J. St. Short Discovery Book 1. Part 1. pag. 42. Short Discovery 80. W. Smith ' s Prim. 88. J. N. Love to the Lost 89. E. B. Answ to Choice Experience 89. J. Story Short Discovery 89. W. Smith ' s Prim. 114. J. N. Love to the Lost 120. J. N. Love to the Lost Part 2. pag. 6. I. Penington ' s Quest 19 23. W. Smith ' s Cat. 26. W. Smith ' s Prim. 37. G. Fox Gr. Myst 40. J. N. Love to the Lost 43. W. Smith ' s Cat. 69. Love to the Lost 103. Reader These are but a very few of what we could offer for indeed there is scarcely one Passage that he hath not mangled on purpose to make it speak the better on his behalf which given at length would have cleared it self V. Certain Places more particularly Perverted by Adding or Mis-applying I. Penington ' s Question Book 1. Part 1. pag. 41. E. B' s Answ to Choice Exper. 89. I. Peningt Quest 109. W. Smith ' s Morning Watch 119 W. Smith ' s Morning Watch 126. Love to the Lost Book 1. Part 2. pag. 25. J. N. Love to the Lost 27. W. Smith ' s Prim. 42. I. Peningt Quest 46 47. W. Smith ' s Morning Watch 48 49. I. Peningt Quest 70 71. I. Peningt Quest 81. I. Peningt Quest 126. I. P. Quest 129. These Reader are but some Hints I was willing to give thee of our Adversary's Disingenuous Carriage towards us either in letting drop that which may be most material at least might be more explanatory of our Friends Intentions foisting in words wholely inconsistent with the Scope of our Passages or mis-applying them in favour of his black Charges all which may clearly be seen by a Comparison of his Books with our Friends Writings a great part of which I must confess it will be difficult to procure since to prove his Miscarriage in Citations I have not been able to compass above the one half of the Books he names but that carries this Woful Reflection with it if his use of 15. Books in Thirty affords us so many gross Instances of his Unfair Dealing with us what might we have expected upon our Examination of the rest In the mean time we shall without leave suspect him having so much Reason for it To compleat what I have done in this Particular let me tell thee Reader that in his Comparison of us with the Papists he sets down Twenty several Passages as our Doctrines and Opinions not producing so much as one Person Book or Page to avouch them a piece of Justice he denies not to the Papists themselves at what time he refuseth it to us though not they but we were the People against whom the Discourse was writ which though gross enough yet nothing compared with his Disingenuity at the end of his First Book where under the Pretence of furnishing his Reader with a Key to understand the Quakers Meanings by he sets down no less then about two Hundred and Fifty Particulars in our Name without so much as the bare mention of one Author Book or Page to countenance his Attempt Yet after all this he cannot bear to be told of his unfair Carriage and his Unjust Dealing towards us His Quality or his Pride is so great it will not bear a Reprehension I never met with a Man of so much Falseness and Stomach together He thinks it so great a Punishment to be told of his Miscarriages that if we will not let him pass for a Faithful Sober Meek and Christian Author however he hath proved himself the Contrary we must expect all that his Scorn and Anger can cast upon us But such Vindications of his Essayes will be Hand-writing enough against themselves and their Author who ought not to flatter himself after these great Evils with the Hopes of Impunity for such as he hath sown against us such shall he reap at the Hand of God the Righteous Judge of all who will reward every Man according to his Works But I desire with all my Soul that God may show him Mercy that Repentance may yet over-take him and this Iniquity be blotted out before he departs this World and is no more seen I would beseech him in the Love of God to fight no longer against the Truth and for a Cause his Conscience might it speak would tell him is not the only true God's but the Honour and Interest of the God of this World whom the formal Christian is lead and ordered by that is so sharp against us Let him not be afraid to take Shame for that which is shameful lest vain Credit here brings Sorrow hereafter I cannot be otherwise perswaded but that Reputation prevailed more with him then Conscience in this Controversie he tugs so hard to prop the one and there is so little savour of the other God could never be in that Design nor amidst those Thoughts that were laid with so great Mistake and which have been vented with so much Fury I must needs say There was neither Truth to inform us nor Charity to gain us It stumbled the Weak grieved the Tender offended the Peaceable among those Professions he pretended to vindicate gratifying only such as are of a Litigious and Contentious Nature whose unreasonable Heat it had been his Duty rather to abate by Sweet Perswasion and a meek Example I have this Comfort in my Conclusion of this Controversie that I most heartily forgive him all the Injustice and Vnkindness he hath shown at least so far as I am therein concerned and that I think is more then any Man And with the same Love that God hath loved me I do with all my Soul fervently wish his Solid Vnfeigned Repentance that he may receive the Love and Mercies of God in the Remission of his Sins and Reconciliation of him by the Power and Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord that he may knoâ— the Excellency and Glory of the Truth in the inward pâ—â—ts and what are those good things no Carnal Eye Ear or Heart hath ever seen heard or understood that God hath laid up for them that truly fear him and which he daily reveals unto all such by his Eternal Spirit The Conclusion THus Friendly Reader are we come to the End of our Task wherein I hope the Doctrines of that despised People in Derision called Quakers their Worship and Church-Practice are evidently and firmly vindicated against vulgar Mistakes and Reports and more especially those many black Charges so confidently exhibited by J. Faldo in his first
His Disingenuity great His Perversions and Wrestings about his Key pretending to open our Words Detected pag. 389. CHAP. XIV Of Reflections on Persons and Things pag. 397. CHAP. XV. His several gross Miscarriages summ'd and further observed p. 420. Authors Testimonies Occasionally cited in Defence of this DISCOURSE R. Allen pag 16. Ambrose p. 371. D. Amesius p. 98. Arnobius p. 21. Augustin p. 15 130 285 360 361. D. Barnes p. 129 234 292. H. Barrow p. 176. M. Barker p. 247. T. Beza p. 96 97 333. J. Bradford p. 48 227. T. Brooks p. 247 383. Brownists p. 176. H. Bullinger p. 115 143 245 292 360. J. Calvin p. 46 92 93 96 245. J. Camero p. 358. J. Cann p. 153 176. J. Caryl p. 129 172 247. S. Castalio p. 36 172. D. Cave p. 22. J. Chrysostom p. 46 118. M. T. Cicero p. 92 93. J. Clarius p. 36 43 172 357 372. Clemens Alex. p. 22 173 292 329. P. Codurcus p. 172 358 376. T. Collier p. 73 114 120 154 202 215 236 316 341 377. Council Laod. p. 36 37. G. Cradock p. 43 246. D. Cradock p. 277. J. Dallaeus p. 78. W. Dell p. 45 46 75 120 153 215 230 246. Annot. cert Divines p. 368 372. Doctor and Student p. 91 93. B. Downham p. 293. J. Drusius p. 43 172 357 358 376. Epictetus p. 93. Erasmus p. 36 43 96 97 325 333 358. Ethiopick Version p 331. D. Everard p. 200 239 247 285. Eusebius Pamph. p. 21 22 P. Fagius p. 326 360. Farellus p. 378. D. Featly p. 118. Mart. Finch p. 342. C. Goad p 128 200 214 226 235 315 341. W. Greenham p. 217. H. Grotius p. 36 295. B. Hall p. 383. D. Hammond p 295 378. C. J. Hobert p. 91. P. D. Huetius p. 378. E. Hutter p. 329. Jerome p. 379. B. Jewel p. 113 314. Irenaeus p. 291. Ignatius p. 340. Justin Mart. p. 340 359. Lactantius p. 92. H. Latimer p. 46 50 51. M. Luther p. 46 47 98 120. Lutherans p. 43. P. Martyr p. 98 107 118 360. D. H. Moore p. 358 374. S. Munsterus p. 172 357. Origen p. 292 379. D. Owen p. 172 W. Parker p. 54. D. Patrick p. 277. W. Perkins p. 246. Philo p. 172. J. Philpot p. 47 50. Plato p. 329. Plotin p. 172. Plutarch p. 93. P. S. Polano p. 37. J. Robinson p. 176. A. Sadeel p. 285. Samaritan Copy p. 326. B. Sanderson p. 16 92 93 C. C. Sandius p. 78. Scapula p. 329. Seneca p. 93. W. Sherlock p. 277. Spanish Translation p. 322. J. Sprig p. 127 201 202 293 315 342. D. Stillingfleet p. 89 277. Synesius p. 378. Syriack Translation p. 331. Theophil Antiochenus p. 21 371. Tertullian p. 21 118 360. D. Tillotson p. 89 277. W. Tindall p. 46 113 115 120 226 234. L. Valla p. 36. F. Vatablus p. 36 43 172 357 358. Vossius p. 378. B. Usher p. 16. Waldenses p. 76. J. de Wessalia p. 418. J. Wickliff p. 46. D. Wilkins p. 33 226. R. Woodman p. 341. N. Zegerus p. 36 358. V. Zwinglius p. 46 47. THE INVALIDITY OF John Faldo's Vindication Of his Book called Quakerism No Christianity The Introduction THis Controversie not of Choice but absolute Necessity thus continued and which hath swell'd this Rejoynder beyond both my Desire and Expectation through such great Provocations and multiplyed Wrongs as are utterly inconsistent with the Honour of Truth to put up and which require our serious Notice in its Defence was begun by J. Faldo a Non-conforming Minister at Barnet in a large Discourse entituled QUAKERISM NO CHRISTIANITY disgusted as I have heard at the coming over of some of his Hearers to the Way we profess in which he not only accused us of the Blackest Errors but pretended to prove every Charge out of our own Writings an Essay none had ever yet fallen on besides himself At what Rate soever he proved them certain it is he charged us home and managed it with Equal Disingenuity This it was my Lot to answer which I did in a Book call'd QUAKERISM a New Nick-Name for Old CHRISTIANITY c. Chiefly intending by it to discover how grosly he had mistaken our Principles and unworthily perverted those Words we had employed to maintain them and finally to confirm our true Sence with the Authority of holy Scriptures Unto which he has ventured to give us a Reply doubtless that he might not be thought to have nothing to say so little hath he said to the Purpose which is already become the Discourse of the Moderate and Regret of his Party But what he wants of Solidity he fills up with Air and places his Reflections to the Account of Arguments and when he comes to a Pinch he gives us Confidence for Evidence attended most commonly with a Rout of hard Names to drive it more forcibly home And truly herein he has deceiv'd me for I must needs say I did not take him to be one that would withstand such manifest Conviction and that with no other then Froth Rant and very Obstinacy I hop'd that when I had given him a Serious Answer to his Book he would either have ingenuously acknowledged his Mistake of our Writings with this Satisfaction that he found us not so Heterodox as he apprehended us to be or else have bestowed upon us such a sober and convincing Reply as might have sufficiently proved our Error and justified his own Undertaking But instead thereof behold a Pamphlet stuffed with Rage and scornful Abuse by him entituled A Vindication but is indeed his Condemnation with God and all Good Men. He seems to have deserted the Matter as giving that for gone and under pretence of answering my Book fully payes himself of my Person Of that he has no Mercy I am all that a Man swelled with Passion Prejudice and Revenge can character me to be He complains much yet himself is the Injurer Forgery he layes at my Door and 't is his own beloved Crime He sayes I boast of Victory yet John Faldo is the great Crack Where I rebuke his Froth he returns me Railing and if I improve his own Similes against him then Disingenuous W. P. Devotion he fleers at as if it were an old-fashioned thing My Reprehension of his Ill-Language he counts intollerable Is this your Meek Christian sayes he making it a greater Sin in me to Defend my self then in him to Accuse me Personal and Principâ—â— Reflections run fluently through his first Book My Reproof of that unprovoakt Asperity he storms at and will needs have it to be Reviling and instead of Repenting of his ill beginning with us he hath greatly encreased his score by a more Scurrilous Reply as if the Man's Business were not to make us Better but prove and justifie his own being Worse He would make us in Love with our Errors if such we held that uses so ill a Way to reclaim us Does he think we are to be Jeered or Railed out of our Religion No No. In his first he
Fool in answering of him as he begs Excuse for in Replying to me We affirm with the Scripture that God tabernacles in his Children that Christ dwells in 〈◊〉 People and that the holy Spirit Temples in his Saints He was full of all Grace and Truth and of his Fulness have we received a measure of Grace and Truth and he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one After this Way that he calls Heresie know we worship we and enjoy we the God of our Fathers But what was the second Argument by which he endeavoureth to prove we prefer our Writings and Sayings above the Scriptures Rep. My second is their Characters they give of them concerning the Scriptures Feeding Death with Death the Letter which killeth Of their own Sayings The Voice of the Son of God was utter'd forth by him c. Rejoyn I told him before That Death is a State without the living experimental Knowledg of God and his Work in the Heart And that State I said will talk of the Fame of ◠Wisdom as saith the Scripture At this he Scoffs and makes as Merry with it as would some prophane Stager And in the midst of his Desires to be thought Meek to this little piece of a large and sober Answer basely cropt he gives the hard Names of Non-sense Folly and Impious The Scripture justifies me in what I said For Men dead in Trespasses and Sins talk of God and that perhaps according to the Letter of Scripture too why may it not be then said That Death talks of Wisdom as well as Dead Men. But this he calls arriving at as perfect Non-sense as G. Fox himself He would have done better not only to have answered but considered my following words Death or dead men's talking or feeding upon the Words of Scripture being ignorant of the true Sense of the Scripture But it had been vain to have expected this Candor from him In short The Scripture without the Spirit is Dead say some Independents as well as Quakers Men Unregenerate are dead in Sins say all What can such men's Feeding upon the Scriptures be but one dead thing feeding upon another Remember it was Christ that said It was the Spirit alone that quickens But that this Man may shew himself almost irrecoverably gone in Dishonesty because I said There is no Comparison betwixt what God requires and an immediate hearing of his Voice and being sensible of his living Touches upon the Soul Writings are but holy things at second hand He implyes and replyes thus Rep. Their Writings and Sayings they pretend to be perfectly immediate from the Spirit of God But the Scriptures handed through many Ages And therefore there is no Comparison because he affirms theirs to be more immediate Rejoyn Reader Right me in this Matter Was the Comparison betwixt our Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures or any Writings or Sayings and the Immediate Voice and Living Touches upon the Soul Do not I expresly say Writings are but holy things at second hand If so how do I make our Wrings holy things at the first hand Do not I prefer the Voice of God to the Soul and his Immediate Touches upon it as well before our own Writings and Sayings as the holy Scriptures of Truth And who dare deny that heavenly Enjoyment of God to be the blessed End of Writings and Sayings too It is after a manner not less Perverting though much more Scoffing that he deals with my Answer about Our Friends Denying Light to be in Scripture That is said I There is not Living Spiritual Essential Light in the Scriptures Now hear him Rep. Did he not intend his Writings for the View of those only who understand no more Right Reason then a Horse doth Hebrew He could not expect any success in such pittiful Attempts Whatsoever makes manifest is Light saith the Scripture But if there be no Light but according to the Character he gives Candles Stars Moon Sun Reason W. P's Writings also are gross and perfect Darkness Rejoyn This Man would pass both for Just and Rational Just he is not who has left out those very words which remove all Pretence to Scruple viz. That the Scriptures carryed a Descriptive and Declarative Light with them that is a Declaration from and of the divine Light Dares he affirm more or does this deny all other Lights besides the Living Spiritual and Essential Light Unjust Man to leave out that which only could wrong his Adversary and answer his infamous Ends. Besides he abuseth Scripture the Light mentioned in that Passage is the Living Spiritual Light of God in the Conscience as the Verse at length proves viz. That all things that are Reproved are made manifest by the Light for whatsoever makes manifest is Light Again Hear what he sayes to the same Matter Rep. And yet W. P. tells you of the Author of the Quakers Book he writ to give notice of the Day-spring of God's Eternal Light of Life to the World i. e. the Light within that needeth the Light of Farnsworth's Book to be seen by What cannot such a Reconciler do Rejoyn But what cannot such a Scoffer do who dare Affront God and be Injust to Men in the View of the World which is manifested thus First as I denyed a Living Spiritual and Essential Light to be in the Scriptures or any other VVritings so did I acknowledge a Descriptive and Declarative Light to be in them and measurably in other VVritings as well as the Scriptures which he hides from the Reader and then triumphs over a false Consequence Secondly If the Light within needs Rich. Farnsworth's Book as a Light without to be seen by because it is by it testified to the same upon his Argument may be said of God himself who is Light that he needed the Light of the Scriptures to be seen by But what shall I say The man is desperate in his Ventures From my concluding upon his Accusation and my own Answer so that our Adversary's Argument amounts to thus much We therefore prefer our own Writings before the Scriptures because in all our Writings we earnestly endeavour by numerous Quotations to prove what we write to be according to Scripture For this he flyes out into this following Reply Rep. I leave it to my Reader sayes J. Faldo to give a Name to this Passage the like to which for a daring Vntruth the World hath scarcely been ever acquainted with yet the man pretends besides all other Graces to Infallibility In many a large Libel I could produce where there is not one Quotation of Scripture W. Smith often quoted in Quakerism no Christianity in his Directory for Religious Principles consisting of above Two Hundred Pages hath not one Scripture quoted not one Exhortation to read the Scriptures But as his main Scope denyes and throws Dirt upon them Rejoyn Reader right a poor People once Never I think did man so slander Persons
Principles Dwell ◠while here then give thy Judgment of both My Answer unencountered by him lay thus 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 wholely without their own Help since they think the Titles we gave our Books very glorious in themselves most unworthy of them but proper to the Scriptures whom they say we slight Let it be considered that not one of those Books is destitute of Scripture but is either generally in a Scripture stile this Distinction I fear my Adversary wilfully omitted 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 VVhat is that Greater Credit but to be exactly agreeable with them Now Reader first consider I did not say that no◠one Book is not without plenty of express Scripture cited as my answer clears but that every one of them is in a Scripture stile or particularly defended by express Scripture cited W. Smith's Catechism belongs to the first and if he would have fastened the Lye deservedly upon me he should have made appear that he treated not on the Truth declared of in Scripture scripturally which is as much the contrary as any thing can be For his Catechism contains nothing else neither is it managed any other way Secondly If he can produce one Book endeavouring to defend or prove our Principle to be true without such Quotation for to such Books the Passage by him cited relates I will confess his Ranting Abuse to be a Just Rebuke But I make this Challenge to him To give me one Book out of a Scripture Stile that is not controversal or any Controversal Book without express Scripture cited if he cannot his vain Insults fall thick upon his own Head But let us see if the Design of W. Smith's Catechism be to deny and throw Dirt upon the Scriptures In the thirteenth page of William Smith's Catechism printed 67. we have this Question and Answer concerning the Scriptures Q. Of what Service are the Scriptures as they are given forth and recorded without A. MVCH EVERY WAY unto those that have received the same Spirit from which they were given forth for unto such they are Profitable and make Wise unto Salvation and are unto them of Service for Instruction Edification and Comfort The same Spirit in them receiving the Testimony of the Spirit as it is declared in the Scripture And there is an Agreement and Vnion in the Spirit within AND ALSO IN THE WORDS without And so there is Instruction Edification and Comfort by the Scriptures unto all that are in the same Spirit that gave them forth Now in my Adversary's words I leave it to my Reader to give a Name to his Passage both against me our Books and particularly William Smith The like to which for a daring Vntruth is not commonly told For if to confess to the Scriptures to believe to read and to fulfil them as what by the right Spirit makes Wise through Faith to Salvation being full of Instruction Edification and Comfort If this I say he to deny and throw Dirt upon them William Smith is deeply guilty but I leave it with God and my Reader 's Conscience whether J. Faldo hath not denyed all Honesty in throwing so much Dirt undeservedly upon W. Smith But let us see what Reply he makes to my Answer in his Inferences and indeed there is need of Patience in having to do with so much unworthy Shifting and ill Language His first Inference was this If the Light within was alwayes sufficient the Scriptures and other Means were ever superfluous His second By the same Ground the Writings of the Gentiles yea the bitter Scoffs of Lucian and Julian the Apostate are of equal Authority with the Scriptures for they resulted from their Light within To all which as my full Answer only thus much I will say That though all Ability was and is in him the Light whom we declare to be the Light of all Mankind to reveal the whole Mind of God Here he leaves off and takes the rest from the beginning of another Paragraph about a page off to clap to it Yet that he so 〈◊〉 mistakes Reason and abuses his Reader as to infer from the ability of the Light whether obeyed or disobeyed the Uselesness of the Scripture Now hear his Reply Rep. Obeyed or Disobeyed were no Words of mine But how can we know any thing the better for VV. P's hard Names he puts upon it seeing there is nothing that pinches him but he hath presently 〈◊〉 hard Name for it And so impertinently and slovenly imposed that a man might learn far more gentile Railing under a Hedge As base Comparison p. 43. Black as Hell in Malice p. 46. The Impudence of his Wickedness p. 49. Rejoyn VVhatever pincht me before I hope the Reader will bear witness for him he has been more merciful in this Reply He first brings little or nothing out of my Answer and sayes just nothing to what he brought He did not say obeyed or disobeyed The more the Shame As my Answer to the Inference will sufficiently manifest the substance of which was this That if the Light had been obeyed and God's Spirit not rebelled against there had not been so much need of Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept Therefore was the Light or Spirit in it self insufficient or Line upon Line superfluous Is the Ability of a Master questioned by the Use of Books or the Use of Books superfluous because of his Ability Insufficiency belongs not to the Light but to the Creature that cannot receive it as it is in it self A Condiscension to such VVayes and Means as suits the great VVeakness and Distance of degenerated Man from God can no more conclude the Light insufficient then God Christ and the holy Spirit To which let me add that as the Law so very much of Scripture was added because of Transgression that makes it not superfluous no more then the succesless Strivings of the Spirit to bring out of Transgression because of Man's obstinate Rebellion renders the Spirit not sufficient To the second Inference he drew I gave a large Answer which I shall contract That the Light of the Jews and Gentiles was one in it self That as either writ by that Degree of Light they had they might both be said to write by the same Light and yet the VVritings be no more equal then the Degrees of manifestation That the VVritings of the Jews greatly transcended those of the Gentiles from that greater Discovery God vouchsafed to them That his bringing Lucian and the best Gentiles upon an Equallity was wicked That nothing lies heavier against the Light
within in that Blasphemous Saying then against the Spirit in the Prophets Apostles and every good Christian who by his infatuated way of Arguing would make us believe that Lucian and Julian acted from the Light within because they acted from something within and that there is no Distinction to be made between their Writings and the Scriptures themselves upon our Principle because they writ according to the Light that was in them as he sayes VVhat is this but to deny all Testimony within or at least allows but of such a one as gives equal Evidence to Apostates and Christians Men acted by the Power of Darkness and the Principle of Light It shall now rest with my Reader to point where the Pinch was For the Ill Language he sayes I gave him to wit a Line and a half made up out of six pages given on distinct Provocations Let us examine Base Comparison pag. 43. This fell out upon his comparing us with the Papists which we shall anon consider How slovenly I was in doing so I will not be mine own Judge Black as Hell it self in Malice page 46. fell from me on this Occasion sayes J. Faldo I know not hardly any worse Lucian and Julian said of Jesus of Nazareth the Scripture and Christianity THEN THE QUAKERS HAVE DONE VNDER OTHER NAMES Now Reader if thus to Unchristian Unscripture in fine Unreligion Prophane yea Atheize a whole Body of People bringing them into parallel with loose and heathenish Scoffers and Persecuters of the Christian Religion who all this while reverently believe in Christ Jesus the Saviour of the VVorld in his Life Death Resurrection Ascension Doctrine and Miracles I say If thus to use us is not as black as Hâ—ll in Malice against us there can be nothing Black Hellish or Malicious For the last piece of Raiâ—ing as he calls it The Impudence of his Wâ—ckedness p. 4 9. VVhat could it be else to charge the Impiety of Julian and Lucian upon the Light within and telling the VVorld That upon the Quakers Principle they may conclude their Writings as Canonical as the Scriptures of Truth But this man studied Personal Reflection more then the Cause or he would not have given but five Lines of nine Pages of my Answer and never have considered that as he ought I could be glad to read one page of his Vindication without unnecessary Reflection who for a Line and a half of pertinent Rebuke by him out of six Pages of my Answer hardly pickt and by me fully defended cryes out of my impertinent slovenly hard Names and that gentiler Railing may be learned under a Hedge where I leave him to be better taught But he is very angry I contract his Comparison of us with the Papists in the Matter of Infallibility and Inspiration thus He tells the VVorld the Papists own Revelation and the Quakers hold Revelation also therefore the Quakers are Papists or very near them Hear his Reply Rep. How can I guide W. P's Pen to write Truth in Matter of Fact If he find such an Argument in my Book I will be content to be his Bond-slave Can you believe that a man can be blest with Apostolical immediate Revelations for every thing in Religion that is not so honest as to use the very Eyes in his Head Rejoyn By this we may perceive it is high Tide with J. Faldo First Reader I deliver not the words in a different Character from my own because I did not pretend to quote him But that it was the drift of the Comparison and so no wrong to his Intention the thing it self abundantly proves The Papists hold Revelation and the Quakers own Revelation what 's the meaning of these two Propositions unless it be the Conclusion I drew But lest the Man should be believed hear what he sayes himself in his first Book It is no little Absurdity in the Quakers to make Out-cry against Popery while they plant and hug the Root in their own Bosoms Again in the same page It were no hard matter to prove an Agreement in a multitude of Particulars between the Papists and Quakers Besides all this he brings in a Story pag. 55. of a certain Romanist who coming into England and being asked which of the multitude of Sects came nearest unto the Roman Church replyed The Quakers And this J. Faldo sayes he remembers How then he should forget to that degree of Abuse that there is any Argument in his Book to prove the Quakers very near to the Papists who in his Story uses that very Word to make People believe it I cannot tell unless his great Desire to bedirt William Penn transported him beyond all remembrance of what he had writ I might now demand his Promise of being my Bond-Slave But alas Proud Man and Insolent he is too high for that Office if such I could accept of Though I know not how he can come off unless with this Passage p. 57. The Quakers out-go the Papists FAR therefore the Quakers are not Papists nor NEAR them He thought I made him abuse us beyond his Intention and he both intended and abused us beyond what I represented If in that I wronged him he has more Reason to Forgive then Revile me But how comes it to pass that he sayes nothing of my argumentum ad hominem The Papists own a God a Trinity of Persons c. And J. Faldo owns a God and a Trinity of Person therefore J. Faldo is a Papist or near a kin to one VVould this be just If not neither is his Conclusion of force against us J. Faldo holds something in common with Jews Turks Heathens and Papists he would not take it kindly if we should therefore conclude him to be all or any of them But he gave this the go-by which shews he seeks not the Promotion of Truth but Disgrace of his Adversary indeed his very good Friend though his own Indeserts will not let him believe it CHAP. V. Of the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie THe first thing in this Chapter he chargeth me with is Forgery Let us see how he proves it Rep. The Charge in my fifth Chapter is That the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Life or a Judge and Determiner of Religious Controversies but P. as if he had sworn not to repeat my words faithfully trans-scribes them That we deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversies Rejoyn Reader observe the Forgery lies here that I left out Life after Faith and Determiner after Judge and Religious before Controversies But because that which is the Rule of Faith is the Rule of Life and that Judge and Determiner are all one and that the Controversies intended were not about Questions in Mathematicks Philosophy Trade or Law common or civil but purely about Religion I thought it no Forgery to leave out words not necessary or what from the Nature of the
Coherence in Matter and Intelligibleness of Language to all Nations which may render them such a Rule Besides it is more then probable that much of the Writings of the New Testament are lost from Luke ' s Word 's in the beginning of his History where he tells us that he was but ONE OF THE MANY who did set forth a Declaration of those things which were most surely believed amongst them even sayes he as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word For it must be considered when Luke writ his Narrative that John's History was not in being and some will have it that Luke wrote before Mark But whether it be so or no certain it is that Mark and Matthew could not make up those many that took that Work in hand neither can we think he should call Matthew and Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie with the Athenians a Multitude for a certain Learned Man will have it That no better Greek was spoken then that wherein Luke wrote his History That those Narratives were not Apocriphal but at least of equal Authority with his dedicated to Theophilus his own words tell us For those that writ were such as related what they received from Eye-witnesses and the first Ministers of the VVord Besides which there were in the Apostles Age and the two following Centuries several Writings reputed genuine which either dyed out of the World through that Neglect brought upon them by the Advantage some accounted Hereticks might make of them in Defence of their Opinions or stifled by the subtilty of the Romish Church being more expresly opposite to her growing Superstition and Grandeur And for such Writings as still remain among us methinks it should not be unknown to a Man of J. Faldo's Pretences to Learning how much the Authority of several of them has been questioned by some and exploded by others though never by any of us particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of James second and third of John second of Peter Jude the Revelations and with some Matthew's History it self has not escaped the like Censure Of which Reader thou hast an Account at large in that Notable French-Man Dallaeus De usa Patrum and a late Discourse mainly directed against the Roman Church entituled Christoph Christophori Sandy Nucleas Historiae Ecclesiasticae I would not any from hence should repute me so Impious as to endeavour to weaken the Testimony of Scripture or beget any the least Doubt of the Doctrine thereby declared only upon our Adversary's Principles which so strongly oppugn'd the Doctrine of Revelation or Inspiration I must take leave to conclude in his Name and upon his Principles that the VVord of God is imperfect and a great part of the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie is lost and that he has no more Reason to believe the Truth of those great things related in that part of the Scriptures yet remaining then any Legend at Rome For exclude Revelation and what Ground has he for his Faith besides Tradition and what Evidence can he give us upon his Principles of the Truth of the former and Falshood of the latter These Councils and Synods who collected and canonized them he accepts for one part and rejects for the other Again he trusts their Judgment in picking and chusing and yet rejects their Interpretation as if it were not so difficult to relish Genuine from Spurious Scriptures as when rightly discerning them to be such to understand them which is an absolute Contradiction For how should they know true from False and not understand the True That Council which made the Writings of the New Testament Canonical left out the Revelations as Apocriphal yet I hope J. Faldo accepts that as heartily and unquestionably as the rest And that Council which took in the Revelations and made it first Canonical brought in with it the Books of Tobi Judith c. which J. Faldo I suppose with all his Brethren rejects as Apocriphal Thus are meer Men and the Judgments of such Councils as he otherwise rejects his Rule for believing the Scriptures that remain to be Canonical if it be proper to say the first is the Rule of his Canon which is too short and the other which is superfluous as by his Account My next Question is What was his Rule for believing those Councils I am sure he must have been without all other then a Willingness to believe so because they said so which how like this is to his Papist unto whom he would resemble us let all sober Protestants consider I cannot see how he is able to oppugn any thing they say upon Tradition who mounts no higher for his Assurance then Tradition and such too as rests mostly within their Hands But if it shall be granted us that to know Scripture to have been given forth upon Inspiration Men must have Recourse to Inspiration then not so much Councils and Synods as the Inspiration of the Almighty which gives certain Understanding is our Rule in the Case as well saith the Assembly of Divines in their Confession of Faith chap. 1. § 4. The Authority of the holy Scripture for which it ougâ—t to be believ'd and obeyed depends not on the Testimony of any man or Church but only upon God who is Truth it self the Author thereof And since J. Faldo himself confesseth the Spirit necessary to the Vnderstanding of the Scripture which implies the Insufficiency of the Scripture to give that Understanding of it self the Spirit must be the Rule of our Vnderstanding the Scripture as it was before the Rule of our Faith concerning the Divine Authority of Scripture For the Light of the Interpreter and not the Thing interpreted is the Rule both of Faith and Practice which is undeniably evident from the reconciling of seeming Contradictions If the meer Letter of the Scripture were to be followed no Man could ever make them meet in the same Truth The many Different Perswasions at this Day about Religion prove this whose respective Authors and Abettors think it no mean Advantage to their Cause that they hold the Scriptures to be their Rule But such as come unto the Spirit of God know and believe the Truth as it is in Jesus David ' s Key that opens and none shuts is given unto them and the Secrets of their God remain with them This reconciles those seeming Contradictions and leads through the Greatest and Deepest Truths mentioned in Scripture without the least Doubt or Stumble This is the Super-excellent Benefit of the New-Covenant Administration the Promise of the Father the Instructer Leader and Comforter of all God's Children And for a further Account of which I refer the Reader to my Book entituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated from pag. 16. to pag. 47. and Reason against Railing from pag. 24. to pag. 46. To prove his former Charge he produces this Passage out of James Naylor
in his 4 Decad. and 8th Sermon dedicated to King Edward the Sixth accord with me in the Matter The former thus Without the Spiriâ— it is impossible to understand them Then say I They are not a Mean to know God savingly without the Spirit The other sayes plainly Men fetch the understanding of Heavenly Things and Knowledge of the Holy Ghost FROM NO WHERE ELSE THEN FROM THE SAME SPIRIT This hits the Mark But to proceed Of all this and two whole pages more he cites but two Lines and an half included in what I re-cited on which he bestows this notable Reply Rep. This might look like an Argument for his Meaning if it concerned almost any but the Quakers who assert nothing almost but with a Contradiction I should think it as hard a Task to reconcile the Quakers to themselves as to make the Poles to meet or to dig through the Earth with a Spade to the Antipodes Rejoyn Yes J. Faldo it concerns W. Tindal and H. Bullenger thou seeâ—t as well as the Quakers But did ever any Man not miserably baffled put off such serious Matter with such vain Reflections and Pedantick Similes Will nothing serve the Man's Fancy besides Poles and Antipodes Must the Quakers needs contradict to save him from the Discredit of fouly belying them They are there it seems to oppose one another where they will not harmonize to his End Certainly this Reflection can never be consistent with J. Faldo's own Practice who in a Book of nigh Thirty Sheets writ wholely against the Quakers pretends to confirm his many infamous Charges by scores of Testimonies cold out of many of their own Books which must be unanimous or they prove not his Charges as he calls it nay he has again and again brag'd of their Harmony to his Purpose Thus are we in highest Concord when he thinks it makes for his Designs and when against them as opposite as the Poles But blessed be the Lord We have receiv'd that One Eternal Spirit by which we have been Baptiz'd into One Living Body and are of One Heart One Mind and One Sense concerning the Mysteries of God's Everlasting Kingdom But as our Adversary has said nothing sober or rational to what I answer'd in Defence of W. Smith's words so would he make the World believe I dared not to encounter with one of his Testimonies Hear him Rep. I produced many Testimonies to prove my Charge which Penn dares not deal with nor bring to Light take two of them Matthew Mark Lukeand John are not the Gospel but the Letter The next Hebrew Greek and Latine is nothing worth as pertaining to the Knowledge of God J. Hig. VVarning pag. 7. Rejoyn That he so suggests as I said his own Words prove yet that I did examine some of his Testimonies is undeniable and to let him see I dare handle these without fearing they should bite me I say and that not without very good Seconds They are not the Gospel I mean Matthew Mark Luke and John or their Histories for the Gospel of Christ is the Power of God to Salvation so are not the Scriptures The Gospel is Everlasting so are not the Scriptures John saw the Angel flying in the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to preach which could not be the Scriptures The Gospel was preached before the Scriptures were written therefore the Scriptures cannot be the Gospel The Gospel is but One but after this Man 's Reckoning there should be Four therefore they cannot be the Gospel Which is further proved from the Signification of the Word Gospel to wâ—t Glad-Tidings which are to be understood of the Coming of him that was the Saviour of the World of whose Blessed Appearance and Wonderful Transactions these Scriptures are but the Narratives Besides one of their Authors Luke expresly calls them a Declaration consequently not the Gospel thereby declared of which Definition Peter Martyr that Superintendent Reformer in England chuseth of all other Part 1. Chap. 6. of his Common-Places Tertullian calls the Scriptures Instrumenta doctrinae i. e. Instruments of Doctrine And the New Testament Writings Evangelicum instrumentum i. e. An Evangelical Instrument And Matthew he calls A Faithful Commentator of the Gospel Chrysostom being requir'd to Swear upon the Gospel both denyed those Histories to be the Gospel and to Swear at all And D. Featly will not acknowledge the English Bible to be the Authentick Word of God because of Corruption consequently not Authentick Gospel therefore not the Gospel for that is Authentick I hope then I may without Offence in Defence of the Trâ—th and that Honest Man now at Peace yet so severely reflected upon conclude that Matthew Mark Luke and John are not the Gospel but the Letter or Declaration of the Gospel For his second Proof viz. That Hebrew Greek and Latine is nothing worth as pertaining to the Knowledge of God I see no Error nor Blasphemy in so Innocent an Assertion This is so like the catching at Twigs by drowned Men for Safety that no Man not as Destitute of Succour would boast of the Evidence of so Speechless a Witness There is not one Word it can speak on the behalf of his Charge He is fled from the Scriptures to meer Language and makes that a Letter indeed which one would think he took just now for all Spirit perhaps with this Distinction though that the Scriptures may be the Gospel in Hebrew Greek and Latin but by no means in the English What becomes of the Vulgar then But what can there be more Sottish then for a Protestant at this time of day to talk of knowing God by Hebrew Greek and Latine but above all 't is unpardonable in an Independent Priest to write at this rate whose Folk for these Threescore Years have totidem verbis in express terms deny'd the Knowledge of all or either of those Tongues to be necessary to the Knowledge of God Alas who once pretended more to the Spirit and was more derided for doing so then some of the Predecessors of these very Independents and Anabaptists now so hot against us What less were the Invectives cast abroad against Ancient Separatists as the Alchimist Assembly-Man Heudebrass with abundance of more serious Declamations against them under the Names of Tub-Preachers Gifted-Brethren c. But if Language learn Men to know God which Christ himself said was Life Eternal how comes it that Schollars are such Ill Christians and Jews the natural Hebrews were such Persecutors in Christ's time and that they remain Infidels to this very day Methinks at this rate the Greeks when God condescended to speak forth the Gospel in their Language should not have counted it Foolishness nor have mocked at his Embassadour when he came on no less Errand then that of Salvation and least of all since they believ'd should they have Degenerated into so much Superstition But why the Latin must be brought in I cannot conceive unless it be the better
to enable People to understand the Romish Translation for we never yet heard of so much as any part of the Scripture that was Originally writ in that Tongue 'T is strange to me he should so much despise the People whose Language he so much extols and count the one serviceable to the Knowledge of God whilst with more Reason he reputes the other such gross Idolaters Luther jerks the Papists for their laying that Stress J. F. doth upon Humane Learning W. Tindal rejects it W. Dâ—ll and T. Collier write expresly and unanswerably against the Necessity of it or that it can give Man the Knowledge of God In short Common Experience and the Christian-Spirit and Conversation of Thousands that understand nor one Sentence of Hebrew Greek or Latine make good the Assertion of our Honest Friend and is a sufficient Rebuke to this vapouring Adversary whose Defiance to me to encounter his Proofs return Weakness with Shame upon his Head For though he thought to fling me to the Dogs or give me a Prey to Fierce and Lyonly Seconds behold they are my Friends and unananimously turn with me against himself who had designed them upon such ill Service a Recompence may he ever find at what time he shall endeavour to abuse our Friends and pervert their Writings And so I shall end this Chapter wishing for his sake as well as mine own that I may meet if not with more Reason yet with more Moderation in the remainder of his Discourse CHAP. VIII That we do not deny the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation in Opposition to and Denyal of our Adversary's Charge THe Charge by him endeavour'd to be defended in his Eighth Chapter is this That the Quakers affirm the Scriptures to be no Means whereby to resist Temptation I will set down his words Rep. He passes over no less then Six Testimonies without a word to invalidate them among the rest this If you use any other VVeapon then the Light within in-this Spiritual VVar you cannot prevail against him that is the Devil So I more then proved my Assertion Rejoyn I therefore avoided considering every Testimony he brought first because many of them were so forraign that there could be no Pretence for bringing them And next that I might not be prolix I thought it sufficient to examine three in six and with good Conscieâ—e I can assure my Reader I took as I thought those he built most upon if he doubted of any he should not have brought them I have answer'd the Law in the case For this now recited 't is as weak as Water to his Purpose though a strong Truth in it self For the Intent of the words could be no other then this that the Armor of Light the Apostle exhorted the Church at Rome to put on was sufficient to Encounter the Power of Darkness and that such as would overcome should not neglect or exchange that Armour for other Weapons thereby not in the least excluding other such Instruments as this spiritual Light might arm or give Strength and Invigourate to our Help And I am so far from doubting that I firmly believe that God's Spirit not only in times past hath made this use of the holy Scriptures to Instruction and Comfort but doth even yet to them who read them in his holy Fear and Wisdom Reader I am truly weary not because I find my way difficult from the great Perspicuity and Reason that are on the Side of my Adversary no nothing less in this VVorld But I know not which way to turn my self but I meet either with School-Boy Jeers Insolent Language Equivocations or horrible Perversions God is Record between J. Faldo and I who of us two hath behav'd himself with most Ingenuity in encountering the strongest and fullest Arguments and shown most Reason and Moderation in Confuting them Two or Three Instances of his Failure in both respects this Chapter presents thee with Rep. The first thing VV. P. deals with is a Passage of James Naylor ' s For those only are the Children of God who are lead by the Spirit of God to whom they who were led by the Letter were ever Enemies From whence saith Penn 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 He should have added that was alwayes stark blind Rejoyn Here he has given my Reflection upon his ill Application of the Passage omitting both my Exposition and Argument An Injustice I do affirm every Page of his Book to be guilty of VVhat I said to explain the Sentence was this That there are Children of the Fleshly Literal and Historical Knowledge of the Scriptures and Religion who are Srrangers 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 outward Jews and Christians And let J. Faldo deny this if he dare To all which and much more he sayes nothing but to his blind Squib before-mention'd he adds this Wrestâ—ing of the Passage by me so clearly exposited Rep. It is a Sign his Judgment is very feeble that â—ould not or would not know that it is dangerous to be â—od by the Letter if they that were so led were ever Eâ—emies to the Children of God Rejoyn What is this but to make us Enemies to thâ— very Scriptures who without any Distinction gives so Wretched a Meaning to words so far from bearing it whose true Sense was as I observ'd already to which I may add for further Explanation thus That those who have Confidence in the Letter Erring from and Grieving the Holy Spirit are not withstanding Enemies to the Children of God who are led by the Spirit according to the true Meaning of Scripture which the meer Letter-Professor as such can never attain to so that the Danger lies here to be led by the Letter without the true Meaning of the Letter or rather by his own dark Apprehensions concerning the Mind of it in the stead of it As the Jews when they crucified Christ by the Law of God against Blasphemers This is the genuine Sense of our Friend's words For had they been writ in the Sense in which John Faldo takes them we had then as greatly detested them as he has now wrong'd them A second Passage is in his first Book pag. 109. his words these Isaac Penington who speaking of Knowledge gain'd by the Letter of the Scriptures writes thus Making him wise and able in his Head to oppose Truth and so bringing him into a State of Condemnation Wrath and Misery beyond the Heathen and making him harder to be wrought upon by the Light and Power of Truth then the very Heathen Upon which J. Faldo bestows this Comment If reading the Scriptures and getting Knowledge from them puts us into a bad Condition beyond the Heathen I scarce know what is more
whole Book is this Men ought to teach and preach to others no further then they have a living Sense or Experience of what they so teach or preach that this was his Meaning by those Words Running into the Lines of what others have written hear the following Words in his Defence How dare any of you saith he make mention of his Name or speak of his Glory or of his Power seeing you have not beheld him yet made manifest in your selves Again thus For John testified that the giving forth of the Law was by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. Mark says he Grace and Truth were come unto John by Jesus Christ and he had felt the Vertue of it by which Moses ' s Admistration was fulfilled in him I say Reader his whole scope was to inforce the Necessity of coming into the Enjoyments of the Holy Ancients and an Experiencing of the Truth of those Doctrines they declar'd before Men are fit to teach them unto others And as this is the Tendency of his Words so does holy Scripture strongly warrant the same Particularly Jeremiah and the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians in Jeremiah thus He that hath my Word let him speak my Word faithfully What is the Chaff to the Wheat saith the Lord Is not my Wordlike a FIRE saith the Lord and like a HAMMER that breaketh the Rock in pieces Therefore I am against the Prophets saith the Lord that steal my Word every one from his Neighbour Chap. 23. Vers 28 29 30. The Meaning of which notable place is plainly this Such as have God's Word to declare which is known from all False Pretenders who steal the Word from their Neighbour and then cry he saith as the 31th Verse expresseth by the Resemblance it bears to Fire a thing easily to be felt let them faithfully speak it But those who steal and preach the Word or Testimony that came from the Lord by and through another as if the Lord spake the same by them unto whom the Lord never spoak it such Prophets the Lord is against which strikes J. Faldo dead respecting his Pretence for Preaching who abundantly proves it to be his Belief that such are as Good Ministers as any yea the only Orthodox and the other but a Pack of giddy-headed Enthusiasts The next place is in the Apostle's 2d Epist to the Corinthians Chap. 10. Vers 15 16. Not boasting of things beyond our measure that is of other Men's Labours but having Hope that when your Faith is encreased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our Rule abundantly to preach the Gospel in the Regions beyond you and not to boast in another Man's Line of things made ready to our Hands Of this sort of Boasters is John Faldo who hath nothing for his Religion but the mâ—er Bible and but an usurpt Title to that Reader take notice that all along J. F. hath made no Difference between the Truths the Scriptures truly declare of and Man's dark and unregenerated Conceptions upon Scripture about Truth and Error Thereby confounding that which in it self is most clearly different to the end he may bring all those Blows we give at Men's Traditions and Doctrines which they pretend to be rightly deduced from Scripture but in Reallity are their own Imaginations to bear hard upon the Scriptures themselves and those Doctrines and Traditions that are truly delivered by them which is a wretched begging of the Question that was not about the Scriptures to which he would turn it but his and their way of understanding them as if it were the same thing to decry the Scriptures as to disclaim against J. F.'s false Opinions concerning them But he thinks he has quite done our Business and sav'd himself from the Black Blemish of Forgery by another Testimony produced to the same purpose which is this And reading in the Scriptures that there were some who met together and exhorted one another they observe and do as near as they can what they read of the Saints Practice and so conceive a Birth in the same Womb and bring it forth in the same Strength that others do and in the Ground it differs not W. S. pag. 22. But what of all this J. Faldo Can this Saying rise higher then a Reproof of those who are but in the Form of Godliness whom the Scriptutes exhort us to turn away from But why was he so disingenuous as to refuse us our Friends words at large thereby making People believe that the Imitation reprov'd by W. S. concerns the holy Life and Conversation of the Saints For it s not two Lines before that he tells us expresly what sort of Practice he means when he writes thus And because they Baptists read of some that went into the Water and were baptized they do the same In short The Zeal of his Spirit runs against all Apish Religions and those Persons who take unto themselves the Name and Form they are Strangers to the Nature and Power of being not led by the Eternal Spirit to Worship God but with an Unregenerate Mind and Ambitious Will eagerly rush into those things for which they have neither Commission nor Quallification I could urge several Testimonies out of Authors that neither liv'd nor dy'd in Fellowship with the Quakers as a further Vindication of their Sense in this Particular but Three shall suffice at this time The first is given us by Jo. Canne stiled by Parson Ball an Eminent and Early Presbyter The Leader of the English Brownists or Independents at Amsterdam more then 30 Years ago viz. Labour to Experience the Power and Leading of the Spirit It is very dangerous to rest in any thing that comes from the Creature till you have the Witness of the Spirit which is not fleshly heady or empty but powerful inward and abides and settles the Soul In thy Light shall we see Light and no where else let them pretend never so high Attainments A Knock to J. Faldo The second is a Passage in W. Dell's Tryal of Spirits writ as I take it while he was Master of Cains Colledge in Cambrige They says he who want Christ's Spirit which is the Spirit of Prophecy though they preach the EXACT LETTER of the Word yet are FALSE PROPHETS and not to be heard by the Sheep And one Reason among many for this Assertion was this Under the New Testament we are not to regard the Letter without the Spirit but the Spirit as well as the Letter yea the Spirit more then the Letter And therefore Paul saith That Christ shall destroy Antichrist with the Spirit of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming He scarce saith this Author takes any notice of the Letter but calls the true Preaching of the Gospel the Spirit of Christ's Mouth or the Ministration of the Spirit His next Reason is this They that preach only the outward Letter of the Word without the true Spirit they make all things outward in the
Church and so carry the People with whom they prevail only to outward things to an outward Word to outward Worship outward Ordinances outward Church outward Government c. whereas in the true Kingdom of Christ all things are inward and spiritual and all the true Religion of Christ is written in the Soul and Spirit of Man and the Believer is the only Book in which God himself writes his new Testament pag. 19 20. The third Testimony is out of T. Collier's Works p. 249. How can they teach others who know not Truth themselves as they say but as they read it without them And so at the best speak but other Men's Light And if they mis-understand what other Men have written then they speak Falshood instead of Truth Thus much in Countenance of W. Smith's Expression from Three Men of great Note among our English Separatists But let us hear what Use J. Faldo makes of the Testimony he brought and which we have thus clear'd and confirm'd Rep. Then follows in this and pag. 23. all that rabble of villifying Expressions of both their Practices and Authority quoted by me in Quakerism No Christianity p. 119. Rejoyn If this be true W. Smith's Book shall yet be blam'd as much as J. F. will otherwise have abus'd him I will set down his words faithfully They said he hope to be sav'd after this Life is ended by Christ though they be Sinners and so are set down in a Carnal Security and rest at ease in the Formality and are Strangers to the Quickening Spirit and the Faith that they have made is not held in a pure Conscience but is conceived in the Heart that is Degenerated and Corrupted I Query of my Reader if this was meant of the Scripture upon whom J. F. makes W. S. bestow the word Corrupted Again And what was by the Saints given forth and appears in VVritings without them that their Life is in and that they contend about and all strive to set up their own Conceivings and teach for Doctrines Men's Traditions Mark that Reader He speaks not against the Scriptures nor of them but their Blindness in using them and mind not the Measure of God in themselves that is Reader God's Measure or the Grace of God which teacheth to deny those sins he told them a little before they liv'd in with Carnal Security But sayes he stretcht beyond it in the Comprehension and run into other Men's Lines and Labours That is They out-run their own Experiences and intrude themselves into those things which were beyond their own Growth which W. S. rebukes them for making it his Business to turn them to that Grace which obeyed teaches them not to vilifie Scriptures but brings them into the right Possession of them and Title to them which he make appear to be more to their Advantage then to dispute and contend about them whilst in Sinful Security Formality Estrangedness from the Quickening Spirit Humane Faith Impure Conscience and in a Degenerated and Corrupted Heart All which is in his 22th page and give Light enough to any Man that has not like J. F. put out his Eyes of Reason and Candour unto these following words which can no more relate to the Holy Scriptures then that Spirit from whom they came to wit They are all upon the Earthly Root and in Darkness and Confusion in their Practice and Worship Now Reader What does the Scripture practise and whom and how doth the Scripture worship if the word they relate to the Scriptures and not those several ranks of Professors to whom he expresly dedicated his Book Yet further That from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Feet the Image that is the several Sects hath no whole part in it but is full of Putrefaction and Corruption and every Branch rotten and deceitful and no good Fruit is found for the bringing forth of all is from the Heart that is deceitful and corrupted which lies faln and degenerated from God What Man Reader that ever thought to have his Proofs examin'd would have dar'd to apply in the Author's Name these terms to the Scripture that so particularly and plainly relate to Man in his fallen State But please to consider what better Authority he has for the rest viz. And are all found Wanderers in the Night of Apostacy and in the Darkness have taken the VVhore's Cup and do drink it And unto all those is the Cup of God's Indignation poured out because they are Bastards and not Sons Upon which I query with J. F. who are the VVanderers If the People then the fore-going word They of which the word Wanderers must be the Relative concern Professors and then all those Terms before-mention'd belongs not to the Scripture and consequently mis-apply'd by our Enemy But if he says VV. S. meant the Scriptures how could they be said to wander or drink the VVhore's Cup And if the Whore's Cup be the Scriptures as J. F. makes W. S. to mean either the People drank up the Scriptures in the Apostacy or the Scriptures drank up themselves Next VVho are those Bastards to whom the Cup of God's Indignation is pour'd fourth Certainly they are Disobedient Children and not as J. Faldo would have it the Scriptures and holy Doctrines deduced thence Reader Doubtless the Man is desperate and to me he seems to have laid Violent hands upon himself to the destroying of his Reputation among Men and his Soul in the Eye of God since after all this Injury to our deceased Friend he dares yet appear in so impudent a Strain as this following Passage makes him guilty of All this Penn KNEW to be true when he dared to make such Hypocritical Appeals to Delude the World Save the Quakers Credit and Abuse me as a Forger The Righteous God judge between us whether I writ otherwise then I knew or he in affirming it more then he knew My Appeals were solemn in the Grief of my Spirit to see a Man arriv'd at that pitch of Falsness as to pervert and forge about Sacred Things even while himself would pass for a Minister of them and I can scarce think any Man so prejudic'd against us as not to conclude with me that his Aim in this untrue Passage to say no more was to bear People down as to the Honesty of his Quotation by the mighty Vehemence and Confidence of his positive Charge against me to have known what in Reallity I never knew and to have appeal'd hypocritically to God concerning our Innocency who did it in the Humility and Sincerity of my Soul because the Man had no other way left him to secure himself from the deserv'd Imputation of Forgery or wilful Perversion scarce a remove from it But that by which he would clear himself from it fastens it inevitably upon him and renders him one of the daringst and most harden'd Perverters I have ever yet met with in all my Life The next Testimony he brought to prove our Opposition
chosen called out of the World they are not of this World as he is not of this World W. Dell's Sermons p. 152 156 186. The Church is a Spiritual Invisible Fellowship gathered together in the Unity of the Faith Hope and Love Christ and the Spirit are the only Officers CHAP. IV. His Charge of our Denying to Hear the Word of God examined True Preaching acknowledged HE hath maintained this Charge against our Answer with the same sort of Jeers and Florish but manifest insuccess too that he hath done what went before His words are these Reply pag. 61. Concerning denying the Ordinance of hearing the Word preached to my Proof from G. F. We must not hear Man c. W. P. saith That is so far from making against us that it makes for us at an high rate Much like the Mad-man of Athens who called all the Ships that came into the Port his own while he was for all that but a poor Thred-bare Gentle-man I proved that they asserted the Light to be only preached to be the only Preacher and only â—eached to yea and the only Obeyer Rejoynder If this be done Erit hic mihi magnus Apollo If to cease from Man be not false Doctrine then not to hear Man is no false Doctrine for Man is taken in the same sense in both places For as God never intended by ceasing from Man that they should not regard his Prophets who were Men when they came to declare his VVill so neither did G. F. intend that Man ought not to be heard when he comes on God's Errant or Message in the Name of the Lord but meer Man Man in his Natural Capacity and Ability without the Holy Spirit and Power of God which is but a carnal humane and worldly Ministry To say we only preach the Light is no more then to report The Quakers preach Christ for our Doctrine directs People to the Knocks of Christ the true Light at the Door of the Soul who is the Saviour Redeemer and Preserver of them that believe in him and keep his Commandments But that we ever said That it was only preached to yea and the only Obeyer of such Preaching is as false as any Thing that can be said He tells us he proved it I will give the strongest Passage he brought J. Parn. Shield c. Epist To the Light of God in all your Consciences I speak Very well and what then Is the Light therefore preacht to taught or instructed when he only appealed to the Light in all their Consciences concerning the Truth of what he said as the Apostle did To the Light I speak that is To the Light I direct my self To that I make my Appeal if what I write be not true for what soever is reproveable is made manifest by it Ephes 5. 13. This Construction is Natural Our Adversary's forced for nothing is more common with us in General and that Author in particular then to turn People to the Light pressing their Conformity to the Reproofs and Instructions of it alwayes respecting it as given us of God to be our true certain and constant Teacher and alwayes have we been reproacht by such as J. Faldo for doing so But above all that this Passage should be brought to prove the Light is the Obeyer of such Doctrines and Instructions who is the Author of them is an Absurdity that reflects great Ignorance or something worse upon our Adversary We have already declared our Faith so freely and plainly in this Matter besides the Testimony of our dayly Practice that we need say no more then this A true Living Gospel-Ministry we own and the Service and Benefit of such a one we have enjoyed and beautiful are their Feet who come in the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit that open the blind Eye turn People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. that He may be their Instructer according to that Promise They shall be all taught of Me which is the chiefest End of all External Instrumental Ministry To prove our Sence of true Preaching we may add these two following Testimonies out of that renowned Independent Dr. Everad Dr. J. Everad's Sermon Militia Coelestis Truth it 〈◊〉 many toss and tumble the Letter and make you believe they expound it and give you the Sense and Vertue yet how shallow how literal how humane how low how sensual and carnal do they make the Worlâ— to be Even your Rabbies your Doctors your great Schollars which shews if God himself if the Lion of the Tribe of Juda if the Root of David do not open the Seals 't is not all the Learning or all the Universities in the World can help us to the Mystery and the Mind of Christ as the Apostle calls it Shadows vanishing c. p. 326. I dare not offer at any Method in the whole nor at any Connection in the Parts For I find that all the curious Dichotomzers do but dream and play with the Scriptures feeding themselves with Fancies and not Truth for Sure I am the only Method that holy Men of old observed was to speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit There be many Expositions on this Place which I will not trouble you withall for Men speak according to Men but the Scriptures were written by God's Spirit dictated by his own Finger We must therefore labour to find out what is God's Mind in the Scriptures whatever Men say pag. 369. 370. CHAP. V. Of True and False Prayer HE pretends in this Chapter which containeth not a page to refute several pages in my Book relaing to Gospel-Prayer in which if I 〈◊〉 not he hath done me and the Truth I defend the greatest Service that a reasonable Man would desire at the Hands of his Adversary for the Truth of the Matter is the Man hath shrunk from his Post and deserted his Colours which we shall make appear by comparing his first Book with his Reply Reply VV. P. according to my Charge disowns man's Wilâ— and the Vse of his Conceptions to have any thing to do in Gospel-Prayer pag. 122. and disowns all Prayer that is not by and in the Light within The Quakers Christ The Reasons he gives are as Witless as his Assertion Truthless Thus Now unless Men may perform Gospel-VVorship 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 preach and pray by the Motion of the Spirit and of the Truth How absurd is W. P' s Reasoning here as if the Vnderstanding Conceptions Will of Man in Prayer must needs exclude the Motions of the Spirit or the Motions of the Spirit exclude them Rejoynder The first Thing our Adversary charged upon us in his former Book was our Denyal of Gospel-Prayer to prove which he cited W. Smith who in his Catech. p. 107. spoak against Prayers of Man's forming
Christ's eating the Supper with his Disciples just before his Death and their breaking Bread together soon after his Death Not a Year whereas the Pope showed not himself till near six hundred Years after I cannot see Friendly Reader how much more criminal I made my Adversary by charging him with saying in our Name The Bread and VVine Christ blessed is the Invention of the Pope then he hath made himself by his own Saying That we call the Lords Supper eaten soon after his Death the Popes Invention unless he should deny the Latter to be the same Sort of Supper with the former In short We cannot but repute this an Injury too apparent for John Faldo's utmost Invention to cover But that he may not suffer the Imputation of Forgery at least a very gross Perversion he thus braveth me Reply p. 70. If Pen dare deny it to be in W. Smith's Book which Iquoted three or four times over in pag. 39. I shall prove him a Deceiver to all that will but read it W. S. answers to this Question I would know Father how it is concerning these things called Ordinances as Baptism Bread and Wine which are much used in their Worship Answ Why Child as for those things they rose from the Pope's Invention Rejoynder This Citation as rankly and partially as he hath put down doth not prove that we account the Lord's Supper either as it was eaten by Christ and his Disciples before his Death or by his Disciples after his Death to be the Pope's Invention How can it since we know the Pope's Date to have been so many hundred Years after that Practice His Citation must therefore be understood of such a Baptism and such a Supper as the Apostate Church hath presumed to practice and that I put not a fairer Gloss then his own Answer will allow observe these Words and the whose Practice of those things AS THEY use them had their Institution by the Pope and were never SO ordained of Christ strongly implying that what was of Christ's Ordination was not of the Pope's Invention and Institution consequently That the Lord's Supper was neither a popish Invention nor Institution which is yet plainer from his following VVords For he did not ordain sprinkling Water in a Child's Face or to make a Sign of the Cross in his Forehead nor God-Fathers and God-Mothers to undertake for it Neither did he ordain Bread and VVine to be SO or after that Manner used and received So that nothing can be plainer then that his Reflection lies against their Manner of practizing and using them not against the Things themselves as at any time practiced by Christ or his Disciples Followers Therefore he is quite beside the Truth in telling the VVorld that he doth but apply these VVords Pope's Invention to the Name that is Lord's Supper which the Quakers apply to the Thing since we so clearly distinguish betwen Baptism the Lord's Supper Name and Thing and these Practices and Usages of them which have risen since the Apostacy Now it rests with thee Friendly Reader to pass Judgment which of us two hath acted the Deceiver to leave out a great many more of his hard VVords he that affirmed VV. Smith called that Baptism and Lord's Supper which was in Use some time as well after Christ's Death and Ascension as before the Pope's Inventions or I that affirmed and from VV. Smith's own Book have expresly proved that there was no such thing said as Primitively practiced but only as they have been since abused by the Apostate Church For the Supper it self I refer the Reader to the sixteenth Chapter of my Answer and shall only say at this Time that as it was a Commemoration or Remembrance of Christ to the Disciples who were at that Day so weak in Faith as Luke 24. 11. Mary Magdalen's news about Christ's Resurrection seemed to them as Idle Tales yet that the Service and consequently the Institution of it were of as they came to witness him the Evangelical Supper of Passover to their Souls and that we therefore discontinue it First Because the false Church hath made Market with her imitating that primitive Practice drawn the Minds of People abroad from the Heavenly Bread of Life which is only to be received within and hath been shedding so much Blood about it rendring it and Water Baptism the Seal of Christianity thereby puffing up People to believe that of themselves which they are not Next we have the Testimony of God's Spirit that he is withdrawn from such Observations that have been so much insisted on and magnified in the World Lastly and eminently we discontinue it because Christ is become unto our Souls that very Thing which it was most truly and properly the Sign of to wit the Heavnely Bread and Passover which nourisheth the Soul unto Eternal Life Where by the Way it must not be forgotten how perversly he wrongs Christ and Holy Scripture who turns this Passage Do this till I come after this strange Manner The Lord's Supper is a Remembrance of Christ's Death past NOT TO COME Rep. p. 71. wherein first he makes as if there were a Death to come Next Instead of exhorting People to look for his Coming until which he bid his Disciples practice it he turns back their Eyes from that Expectation and makes the Sign wholy to have Reference to what was past and not what was to come thereby seeking to perpetuate his Absence and bar out his Appearance implyed in these Words till I come which ends the Absence during which the Institution lasteth For the plain English of it framed into an Argument is this The Supper is to remember Christ's Death that is past but that will be alwayes past therefore it ought to be alwayes so remembred The like may be said upon the Word Remembrance for if it ought to be practised because of remembring Christ's Death then forever because his Death ought never to be forgotten Thus it perverts the Text in that it makes not the outward Supper to cease upon his Coming as John 14. 23. Rev. 3. 20. which is the Evangelical Supper till whose Coming Christ bid his Disciples do it But to continue upon the Score of remembring Christ's Death only which as I said before ought never to be forgotten is consequently to continue it upon Institution forever I shall only leave two things with my Reader and so proceed to the next Chapter first That from our discontinuing the Practice of these outward and temporary Observances J. Faldo concludes our absolute and general Denyal of them 2ly Because some of our Friends have denyed rejected and termed Popish the long Abuse of these Things he makes no Difficulty of charging us in so many Words with calling Water-Baptism and the Lord's Supper as laid down in Scripture and primitively practised Popish Inventions c. God if he please make this Man sensible of his notorious Injustice towards us CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrine of
manifested himself by it was from Everlasting In short Christ qualified that Body for his Service but that Body did not constitute Christ He is invisible and ever was so to the ungodly World that was not his Body as honest J. Bradford told Arch-Deacon Harpsfield B. Mart. 3. Vol. p. 293. and so much the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or anonted signifieth which was not outward after the Jewish Ceremony but by the Spirit and invisible Power of God Lastly I will leave it with my Reader to consider what better terms then Earthly and Perishing J. F's Comparison implyeth to Christ's Body for such was the Apostles and the Bodies of those Saints he writ to But he will by no means have himself concerned with a great Part of my following Discourse which was he thinks in Opposition to no Body because I argued that the meer Body of Christ could not be the intire Christ though he makes our Denyal of it to be a disowning of the true Christ producing a Passage out his Book to my Purpose in Contradiction to himself viz. p. 72. The Flesh and Blood of Christ we do not believe to be Christ separated from his Mans Soul or that to be Christ separated from his Divne and Eternal Nature bestowing upon me for so ill employing of my time these Terms Vain Trifler Pedantick Magesterialness Forger and that it is a greater Wickedness then being a Thief to make him assert the meer Body to be the intire Christ adding but this is Penn ' s high-way and beaten Rode One would think after all this that I had wronged him with all imaginable Baseness in fastning upon him any such Conclusion yet if I make it not appear by his Reply which one would think he should have penned a little more cautiously after he had given such Occasion by his former Discourse and that to in his very next page let my Reader say I merit all thâ—se hard Words that J. Faldo flingeth so angrily upon me He produced several Scriptures to prove as I understood him the Manhood to be the Christ of God or else he did nothing for without so believing and arguing it was impossible for him to prove our Denyal of the true Christ because we asserted Christ to have been before that Body consequently that it was not the the intire Christ which I explained and rescued He omits giving the Reader any account of it only in general Tearms and that not without Perversion His Reply unto which will make good my Construction of his Words or I am greatly mistaken Reply p. 77. Whereas I produced Abundance of Scriptures to prove that the Man Jesus is the Christ W. P. will by no means allow them to have that Sence no not that in Luke 2. 26. And it was revealed to him Simeon by the Holy Ghost that he should not see Death before he had seen the Lord's Christ neither that the Child Jesus whom Simeon took up in his Arms was the Christ Certainly sayes W. P. p. 161. This Allegation from Luke 2. 26. will never prove the Body of Jesus which the Father prepared before him to be the whole intire Christ c. Neither did I produce It to prove the Body to be such what Disputing can there be with a Man that keeps neither to my Words nor to the Question Rejoynder But is this the great Enemy to Forgery the express Quoter one that cites to a Tittle and scorns as to Ignore his own Concessions so to render his own Conclusions for his Enemies Assertions who charges me with denying this Passage among others as any whit proving the Man Jesus to be the Christ whilst he quotes my own Conclusion upon it to have been no other then the Body of Jesus to have been the whole and intire Christ Now he cant compass his End he produced not those Scriptures to prove any such Thing but what is clearer then that it is the same thing with J. Faldo to deny the Body of Jesus to be the intire Christ of God and to deny the Christ of God consequently that by the Christ of God he understands with L. Muggleton only the Body that died So that he did but evade when he said that I argued against no body in affirming and proving that the Body taken in that time was not the whole Christ of God and that he produced those Scriptures to that very End notwithstanding what he sayes to the contrary for what else can any infer when he so obviously makes no Difference between saying The Man Jesus is not Christ and the visible Body of Jesus is not the whole intire Christ Thus Reader he Faulters at the Entrance I will give a brief Account of neer two pages of Answer by him omitted It is and will be granted that Simeon saw the Lord 's Christ but I hope J. F. will not deny unto that good man who waited for Israel's Consolation that he had as well a spiritual as natural or inward as outward Sight of Christ for it were both to deny Christ's 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 c. 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 Let none then be so unjust as to infer we deny the Lords Christ because we rather chuse to say the Body of Christ then Christ for sayes J. Faldo as well as we elsewhere Christ is God manifest in Flesh See my Answer pag. 161. Nothing can be clearer then that I only argued in Opposition to his carnal Doctrine against the meer Bodie 's being the Christ of God Now since he makes me hereby to deny the Man Christ Jesus I must conclude that by the Man Jesus he understands no more then the meer Body of Jesus otherwise how do I deny the Man Jesus to be the Christ of God in only scrupeling to call the meer and only Body of Jesus the â—hrist of God His next Animadversion was this Reply p. 78. Let us observe how W. P. abuses that Scripture Acts 5. 30 31. The words sayes he 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 at his Right Hand c. Beside this Construction which renders it not to be Christ but only his Body that suffered and so Christ never suffered nor dyed nor rose he W. P. puts instead of whom he slew which he slew that it may intend only the Body and not the Person of Christ Rejoynder I appeal to my Reader 's Understanding and Conscience if J. Faldo doth not in this Sentence make the meer Body of Christ to be the Christ of God for one Reason why he denyes my Interpretation is my
to invalidate the most convincing Testimony Man can have of a Deity and to principle Men for the rankest Atheism that ever was Yet such a sort of a Doctor J. Faldo is become and of all other Texts in the Bible from which to preach it hath chosen this Col. 1. 27. This Mystery among the Gentiles is Christ in you the Hope of Glory which indeed of all other doth most oppose and subvert it Once more and he hath done with us upon this Passage for this time Christ is in his People by his Graces wrought by his Spirit which is his Image and Likeness by the Manifestation of his Love and Glory his Works and Image in and on the Soul and do as effectually possess the Soul for Christ his Vse and Interest as a Faithful Friend can do according so that Text That Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. But I would fain know of J. Faldo how Christ's Graces Works and Image can be there and Christ the Workman excluded If Christ be not actually there they can never Actually be wrought there for none can work them but Christ by his Spirit In short either they may be wrought without Christ's Spirit which J. Faldo disallows or Christ's Spirit may work them and yet not be where iâ— works them or if the Spirit may be where it worketh them yet Christ cannot be where it works them and consequently divided from his own Spirit though indeed the Lord Christ is that Quickening Spirit which only makes alive again to God who is the Resurrection and the Life Oh the Dreadful Darkness that yet over-spreads the Hearts of called Christians It may be as truly said of them as it was of the Jews The Vail is yet over them and Christ Jesus the Anointed Saviour is unknown to them by that Redemption which he effectually worketh in all those that hearken to his Voice and are conformed to his holy Government They are Witnesses of his Graces Works and Image through believing in his Appearance and giving up like the Clay in the Hand of the Potter to be ordered and disposed by him Nor doth the Scripture he quotes impugn the Real Presence of Christ in his People for by Faith Christ dwelleth in the Hearts of his Children that is by believing in Christ he cometh to live and dwell in us who through the Unbelief of Men is shut out from being Head and Ruler in them Our Adversary would make Faith and Christ's real Presence incomparable or inconsistent whereas the one cannot possibly be enjoyed without the other Faith being as the opening of the Door of the Heart to receive Christ in to be Lord and King and if this be not J. Faldo's Faith he is void of the Faith of God's Elect which purifieth the Heart and gives to see God according to Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God This Doctrine is the Overthrow of Christianity a turning back of the whole Stream of the New Covenant a cutting off the Spiritual Union for the Christian Dispensation is IMMANUEL God with us the Word is not stinted to Christ as the Head but concerns the Body also and God is manifested measurably in his People as he was in fulness by and through that holy Body nay some eminent Professors have gone so far as to say They make up but one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Anointed for the Oyl runs from the Head to the lowermost part of the Garment which takes in all It gives the Lye to Christs own Words who said He would come and receive them to himself he would not leave them Orphants which implies a real Presence Testimonies Good Old Apostolical Ignatius was not of J. Faldo's mind who in his Epistles produced and endeavoured to be proved genuine by Bish Vsher Isaac Vossius and D. Pearson says in that to the Ephesians pag. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Let us do all things he so dwelling in us that we be HIS TEMPLES and he our God IN us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Corrupters of his House shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Iust Mart. Expos Tid p. 375. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. See saith he how he Paul is teaching the Edification that is in Christ whence we are the Temple of Christ according to what is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God The Story of Richard Woodman in the Book of Maâ—tyrs affordeth us thus much to our Purpose in answer to the Bishop of Winchester I believe verily that I have the Spirit of God No Man can believe aright without the Spirit of God It is impossible to believe in God unless God DWELL IN US C. Goad defends our Faith in these words The Gospel is nothing else but the bringing forth of Christ IN us It calls us from Conformity to the World and from walking as Men unto the Life of God Right Spirit of Christ p. 17. T. Collier God is a Mystery Col. 22. and it is by the Appearance of God IN US we come to know God who is a Mystery The Truth is that we have had and stâ—ll have low and carnal Thoughts of God judging him to be a God AFAR OFF and not a God NIGH AT HAND This is that ANTICHRIST WHICH DENIES CHRIST TO BE COME IN THE FLESH See his Works p. 399. Again God who is in himself and in the Son not only by Union but also by a Dispensation of Grace to Men is likewise IN THE SAINTS and that not as in the Creatures or other Men BUT HE IS IN THE SAINTS AS HE WAS IN CHRIST The Saints are TRULY made Partakers of his Nature hence called CHRISTIANS they are CHRISTED and indeed Christ and Christians MAKE BUT ONE CHRIST ONE ANOINTED ONE GOD FILLS THEM BOTH See his Works p. 241 242. J. Sprig in his Preface saith thus Those that know Christ in them only immediatione virtutis not suppositi know not so Full and Glorious a Proportion in him to their End It is and must be confessed that God is and subsists otherwise in Himself then Men but this hinders not the IMMEDIATENESS OF HIS PRESENCE AND DWELLING IN MEN If you confine Christ's Dwelling to a LOCAL HEAVEN you are ignorant of that which is the greatest Joy that can be CHRIST DWELLS IN THE HEART Sprig ' s Testimony p. 87. Thus Martin Finch who stiles himself Preacher of the Gospel in his little Treatise intituled Animadversions upon Sr. Henry Vain ' s Book pag. 81. The Word of God abided and dwelt in them 1 John 2. 14. If we take it for Christ they had him Christ ABIDING IN THEM and surely they that abide in Christ and have Christ abiding IN THEM they are true Saints Thus Reader we take leave of this Chapter and proceed to examine his next CHAP. XI That we are not guilty of Idolatry as charged by our Adversary True Worshippers The Charge inverted
which are Heavenly and as we have born the Image of the Earthy we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly v. 44 45 46 47 48 49. I say this doth not concern the Resurrection of carnal Bodies but the two States of Men under the first and second Adam Men are sown into the World natural and so they are the Sons of the first Adam but they are raised spiritually through him who is the Resurrection and the Life so they are the Sons of the second Adam the Lord from Heaven the quickning Spirit The very Words of the Apostle undeniably prove this to be the Scope how else could the first Adam's being made a living Soul and the second Adam a Quickning Spirit be a pertinent Instance to prove Natural and spiritual Bodies upon which follows that the Natural was first that is the first Adam and then that which is spiritual which is the second Adam the quickning Spirit the Lord from Heaven who came to raise up the Sons of the first Adam from their Dead to his Living their Natural to his Spiritual Estate But perhaps it will be objected that the 47th Verse The first Man is of the Earth Earthy and part of the 9th Verse We shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly seem to imply a bodily Resurrection But let the whole Verses be considered and we shall find no such thing The first Man is of the Earth Earthy The second Man is the Lord from Heaven who sees not that this is rather spoken of the Earthy-Mindedness then the Earthy Body of Adam It was mentioned to show the great Disparity that is between the Nature and Qualification of the first and second Adam the following Verse puts this Interpretaion out of Doubt as is the Earthy such are they that are Earthy and as is the Heavenly such are they also that are Heavenly For those Words We shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly I cannot see how they should relate to the Resurrection of the Carnal Bodies of Men for the Image of the Heavenly is a renewed State to God through the Operation of the Spirit and Power of Christ the first Part of the Verse clears it and as we have born the Image of the Earthy we shall or rather let us bear the Image of the Heavenly as Ambrose and Theophilact read it and six or seven Copies besides have it which is as much as to say That as we having born the Image of the God of this World by becoming his Children so may we bear the Image of the True and Living God by being redeemed from a vain Conversation having our Consciences sprinkled from dead Works and being born again of the incorruptible Seed by the Word of God which lives and abides forever Had this concerned the Resurrection in our Adversary's Sense the Image would be changed wholy Accidents would not serve his Turn therefore not the same Image unless the Earthy could be the Heavenly Image which were Impossible for we should loose our Earthly Bodies at what time we become the Image of the Heavenly in this World if this conceit had any Truth in it and if of the other they to be sure must never enter for another takes Place But as it was never understood so by any that I know of but evermore of that Earthly Image which came by transgression and the Heavenly Image that comes in obeying the Truth by the Spirit according to what the Apostle saith Col. 3. 8 9 10. But now you also put off all these Anger Wrath Blasphemy filthy Fornication out of your mouths lye not one to another seeing that you have put off the old Man with his Deeds and have put on the new Man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him So till the natural Man that is sown comes to dye to his own Image Will and Affections he can never be quickned into this Glorious Image of the second Adam the quickning Spirit who is the Lord from Heaven But suppose it were to be understood rather of Bodies then Souls the Text may be as well translated a Living as a Natural Body is sown yea rather so for the Word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Animale that imports as much as a Soulâ—-Body and such an one I dare say J. Faldo would not be willing to sow except he had a Mind to be buried alive So Clarius both translates it and interprets it Corpus animale accipiendum est cui anima vitam prestat ne intereat i. e. A Souly or Living Body is that to whom the Soul gives Life that it doth not dye But to go farther suppose the Apostle treated of a natural Change and not only of the spiritual State of the Soul in this Life yet can it be extended no farther then this when good Men lay down this Earthly House or Tabernacle of Clay the Image that came to us from Adam's Loyns we shall be cloathed upon of Immortality received into the Building that is Eternal in the Heavens and be made like unto his glorious Body 2 Cor. 5. 1. Philip. 3. 21. We sow a natural we reap a spiritual and we sow not that Body which shall be but God giveth a Body as pleaseth him 1 Cor. 15. 37 38. I also parralelled my Adversary's Change yet Sameness of Bodies with the Popish Transubstantiation showing that the Absurdity Protestants Charge upon this is equally chargeable upon that only with this Distinction that the Papists deny it to continue a Wafer after Consecration but J. Faldo asserts the spiritual Body to be the same carnal Body after Mutation which is a Kind of Consubstantiation and far more ridiculous But of this he took no notice and his Silence is prudent Things unanswerable are better unmedled with then cited and not confuted He knows who pasâ— for wise Men by holding their Tongues I wish that were his greatest Fault I will conclude this Head with a few Testimonies in Defence of what we have said against J. Faldo's Carnal Resurrection referring my Reader to my Chapters of the Resurrection both against him in my Answer and my Book against T. Hicks entituled Reason against Railing and particularly the second Part of a Discourse that we hope will suddenly be publisht call'd The Christian-Quaker for his fuller Satisfaction of our Scriptural Judgment and our Adversary's fleshly Apprehension concerning the Resurrection H. More Myst God p. 221 224 225. Dr. H. More the Cantabridgian Philosopher begins his Discourse of the Resurrection with this Censure of J. Faldo's We come now to the second particular propounded the Resurrection of the Dead which I dare say the Atheist will listen to with more then ordinary Attention and greedily suck in the Doctrine provided it be stated with the most curious Circumstances that the RIDGIDEST OF THEOLOGERS will describe it by that we shall have the same NUMERICAL Bodies in which we lived here on
Substance or Inventions for Texts or Wrestings for Meanings or Gibes and Taunts for pertinent Replies I have hitherto abundantly satisfied my self concerning him and I hope all that read me both of him and his Essayes against the People called Quakers If not it ought not to be charged upon me as wanting good Will to do it I was never more sedulous and I think never more faithful in any such Affair And to the End my frequent Complaint of his unfair Dealing may be further justified and confirmed and his Deportment in the whole of this Controversie more exactly related I intreat my Reader to consider what I have now to tell him CHAP. XIV Of Reflections on Persons and Things IF we will believe John Faldo in his own behalf he abhors that sordid Way of Writing which some Practise of Reflecting Nick-Naming giving Ill-Language c. either to his Adversary or his Doctrine But as it fares with most Men they condemn in others what they indulge in themselves so truly No Adversary in the midst of all his severe Censures of that unchristian Way of procede hath made more bold with his Reader nor fallen more fouly upon his Adversary yea Persons unconcerned then J. Faldo hath done We were as quiet as Men that had scarcely known there was such a Person in the World when our Peace was disturbed by a great Book intituled with no more Modesty nor Mercy then in plain Terms QVAKERISM NO CHRISTIANITY In this he chargeth us at once with whatever all our Adversaries put together had from time to time insisted upon to render us Odious almost every Charge as scandalous and impious as rankest Blasphemy and both rendred and called so for ought I know more then Twenty Times in that Discourse This Book I thought I answered with more Moderation then either it deserved or the Law of Retaliation would have granted At the latter-end of it I ran up a few of his many unworthy Reflections Jeers and Scoffs together that I might the better help my Reader to a true Relish of our Adversary's Spirit He sayes nothing to them which makes me conclude I have not injured him nor in one word done him wrong for had I without doubt he had not past over my Collection with so deep Silence I think it fit to transcribe them that my Reader may see what Provocations I met with to draw Rebukes from me Horrid Imposture Ditch of Grossest Delusion Subverting Christianity Their Feigned Christ Folly Madness It began in Blasphemies against Christ Gratifying Pride Idleness Giddiness In Professors Prophane Vanity Folly Non-sense Error Whether it smell more of the Fox or the Goose Imposture Babble Blockish Person QUAKERISM ENTERED THE WORLD AS IF SATAN BROKE LOOSE and POSSESSIONS BY SATAN WERE TO MAKE WAY AND FIT SOULS FOR THE QVAKERS SPIRITS O the Hell Dark Expressions of the Quakers Teachers What bitter Curses and Execrations Dismal Howling Horrible Roaring Blasphemy Wretch Vain Fictions Quakers Glow-Worm Deck their Idol Real Non-sense But 't is Pitty not to lash a little Idiots Stark Blind Steel Hard Your Crooked Unholy Principles Their Light grows Wiser and Wiser Opium of Quakerism The Quakers Divine Spirit Dumb Refreshments at Quakers Meetings so there is at Puppet-Playes Impudent Fore-Heads Non-such Ignorance Proud Dreaming Intollerable Notions Ignorance and Delusion Outstrip all in the Crooked Way Blasphemers of the Lord of Life and Glory Surely God has given them up for their Pride Giddiness or Idle Ignorance and that in Justice And the Devil hath blinded their Minds with a Witness Horrible Abomination Gross and Dark Conceits The Rankness of Quakerism And though I have carefully avoided his ill Example yet such is my Unhappiness that my Reproofs are stiled Railing and Religious Censures given forth from a grieved Spirit counted Ill-Language But what seems yet most insufferable this very Man that calls every sober Reprehension by an Hard Name is most profuse in his black Epithetes upon us as if notwithstanding the Circumstances he mostly confesseth he is under in the World as his complaints tell us which is no Fault lay'd to his Charge he thinks it more intollerable that we should censure his Domineering Scoffing Strain against an intire People be they what they will in Reputation Merit Honesty or Acceptance among Men then that he should use it What Blindness hath seized him that he should not see this a Fault in himself Is he fit to reprove who out-does the Reproved in that for which the Reproof is given But before I reflect his Miscarriages of this Nature upon him he hath something to say to me It seems I have not behav'd my self towards him with that Subjection to his unprovok'd Abuses which he thought became me to a Man of his Quality Let us hear what hath stumbled him and how patiently this pretended Enemy to Personal Reflections takes it The first is this I happened to let fall in my Answer not material to the Point this but as a passant Expression and so intended I find him more in Words then Matter and I suppose more are of that Mind or else what means his Pains to be made Waste Paper of already QUAKERISM NO CHRISTIANITY hath exchanged the Book-sellers Stall for the Tobacco-Shops This so harmeless and true Saying hath given him great Offence at least he hath taken it what had become of me had I bin either as petulant or vain-glorious I will give his words that my Reader may judge if the Man have any Vanity After his Debate of serious Matter Now Reader sayes he I am come to a Passage which makes me conclude its Author desperate As if all the Error and Blasphemy he laid at my Door in his fore going five Chapters had been Toyes and Trifles but dark Conjectures and meer Guesses to this great Discrimen of my desperate Condition Oh monstrous Vanity of Vanities But he goes on A Passage sayes he that renders W. P. careless how justly odious he becomes with Thousands so he may but lessen the Reputation of my Book Better and better or worse and worse which my Reader will Doth my Reputation depend upon the Good-liking of J. Faldo's Ungodly Charges propt with falâ—e Citations Perversions c I am miserable then No Head not empty would make so great a Sound It seems his Books have Thousands of Votaries Hundreds are a Number too diminutive to vow Maintenance to his Labours These words show the great Vanity of the Author or the Debility of the Cause that must have whole Regiments of Auxiliaries to his Protection chuse him whether But that he may leave no part of his Picture undrawn by his own hand for who can or will do it so well hear him yet further The Acceptation my Book hath had in the World becomes not me to express A cleaver Way to tell us both his Book 's Acceptance and his own Modesty Yet he so loves the Theam he can't give over The second Impression of above 1250. may be abroad ere
the true Freedom of this Mighty Nation from greatest Thraldom I could particularize in twenty great Instances and bring the Complaint of many considerable Persons against them Many Pamphlets are extant that loudly speak the same especially two call'd The first and second Narrative of the late Parliament's Proceedings c. printed Anno 1658. and 1659. as I take it in which the greatest Hypocrisie the most detestable Falseness to God and Men and a Sort of Flattery to their new Monarchy exceding all modern Idolatry yea Blasphemy it self are brought to Light and laid at the Doors chiefly of the Priesthood among all Perswasions in any Power at that time Out of which and several others I have extracted about one Sheet which I intended for the Press but pure Tenderness to those that acted with Integrity and Conscience stopt its Publication I was careful not to give any Occasion for them to be born hard upon by such as knew not well how to distinguish between Persons and Things that differ though such as I meant well deserve it from us that when in Power persecuted us contrary to their own Engagements and now out of Power malign and abuse us by slanderous Reports and invective Libels Nor is it wholly laid aside though pro tempore suspended New Provocations may give Occasion for their History to come abroad to the Nation more compendiously then ever A Work I take no Pleasure in but am heartily sorry that such as have given that just Occasion for Rebuke should as not having their Fill of us before fall so severely on us now about Religion who have so eminently prov'd themselves false to God Religion and the Kingdom and thereby necessitated us to rip them up and show how nauseous this Officiousness of theirs is as if they thought to expiate old Crimes and prove themselves Zealous for Religion by perverting abusing and gainsaying ours This is the present Plague that infects the Families of but too many through the secret Instigations of their Ministers yet too inward with them And I know that the most honourable left among Dissenters lament at this Day the Stingeness of their Clergy whose Fierceness is rather encreased then lessen'd with their Loss of Power But such generous Persons as have acted truly upon Conscience according to the best of their Understandings and have ever continued immoveable for General and National Good no Man holds them in greater Value then my self I wish for every such one the King and Kingdom had a Thousand It is an Abuse therefore in my Adversary to extend my Words to all Non-conformists which only relate to the Narrow-Spirited Angry and Imperious a-among their Teachers And if it be for my Plain Dealing with them he like himself and his Cause threatens me with the Punishment of the Judge Law and I know not what beside unless I repent me of my Saying at what time he pleads the King's Oblivion showing himself more below him in Mercy then he is in Dignity Let him begin when he will it will never lessen my Credit nor greaten his But that he should after so much Provocation such scurrilous Replies Hard Names and black Characters given by him say I am turned CAVALIER and PRELATE too to satisfie my Lust of Anger adding We see what a Change the Quakers Light can make when it acts the Part of Fire are Words very Indiscreet and Ungrateful as well as Scoffing and Prophane for they fling such scurvy Reflections upon Cavaliers and Prelates as become not one who got his Oblivion by the former and his present Liberty of Preaching and License for Printing by the latter For it is as much as to say that both Cavaliers and Prelates are a Sort of Revengeful Angry and Fiery Persons to be sure bad enough or he would not have rendred me either when he went about to character me to Disgrace So unthankful is he for his Oblivion and all other Benefits that he now enjoyes at the Hands and by the Moderation of either Cavaliers that is Royalists or Prelates that is Episcopal Protestants whom notwithstanding he pretended to be no further concern'd in his Essayes against us then vindicated as I have frequently observed But lastly he accepts against my mention of one of his new Benefactors There is a Gentleman Mr. T. F. against whom Mr. Penn hath such a Slpeen that to my great Wonder I find him in all his Writings I have read attempting his Disgrace who never wrote against him and if my Information fail me not P. hath been engaged by him to another kind of Deportment How black am I with J. Faldo's Dirt but none of it will stick Spleen I never had to the Man but once a Friendship that had never been broken by me but as it came it went At the time of our Disputation with T. D. T. V. T. D. and W. M. at the Spitle being engaged in the Negative concerning the common Doctrine of distinct and separate Personallity he and some others fell into great Intimacy with us Who but we in his and their Thoughts at what time they were not quite discovered by us But pulling off their Masks at last we found them to have been the Followers of J. Biddle in that which is commonly called the Socinian-Way and that their peculiar Regard to us came from an implicite Vindication of one of their Principles for which we came under the Scandal and Odium of Socinians Pulpits rang how the Quakers had unmaskt themselves on that Occasion and their warm Disputes in our Defence did not a little strengthen the common Reports that went of us and me in particular When my Book intituled The Sandy Foundation Shaken came out it being a further Detection of what we call Errors and it happening that Socinians did the same as I was a rank Socinian who had never read any one Socinian Book in all my Life if lookt into one at that time so these Men at least T. F. was ready to believe me nearer a kin to them then God he knows I was that is to say in Denying the Divinity of Christ At this time what would he not have done for me if I might have believed him and in Reallity the Man was wonderfully taken but which was grievous he was shamefully mistaken and when he came to read my Confession to Christ's Eternal Godhead in my little Book intituled Innocency with her Open Face though he had another called The Guide Mistaken that p. 28. abundantly doth the same which was writ and read by him before the Sandy Foundation was thought of he deserted me broak all Bonds of Friendship and Rules of Civility and his extream shews of Kindness turned to continual excessive Reflections He would have it a Retraction rather then be thought to have been mistaken He had built his Hopes too high for the Foundation and then became wrathful that they fell And though I sought his friendly Behaviour having no Thought in my Heart but Love and
Why did Christ say I thank Thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and revealed them unto Babes if they are discoverable by humane Reasoning for Babes are ignorant of that Art yet out of the Mouth of Babes and Sucklings c. The Apostle's Question 1 Cor. 1. 20. was very impertinent if J. Faldo may be of Authority who said Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer c. for this implies an Exclusion of all those Arts Sciences and Natural Gifts from any Capacity to reveal the deep Things of God shut up in the Divine Principle of Life Besides W. S's Words imply a Clouded Understanding and degenerated and therefore Uncapable J. F. must either intend by his Derision that he thinks W. S. deserves to be hiss'd for denying the Knowledge of Divine Things to be attainable by the Degenerated Understanding of Man or sanctified If the first All may have Cause to abhor his False Doctrine If the latter I would know which way that can be without the Divine Principle of Life This abundantly manifests J. Faldo's unsavory Spirit and proves him to be ignorant of the Way Method Work of God in his Children When the Natural Man by his Reason can know Christ he may know his Sheep the Scriptures and the Power of God and not before but because it is impossible in Reasoning or Arguing pro and con by the utmost Strength and Search of Natural Abilities to know Christ but by the Revelation of the Spirit of God alone as hath been abundantly proved therefore William Smith's words are sound and weighty and J. Faldo's carnal and prophane showing himself to be a Mocker of the Priviledges and Mysteries of the Gospel but what else may we expect from one that walks after the Lusts of his own vain Mind having not the Spirit Jude 18 19. Yet that we may manifest how inconsistent he is with himself as that he can't write against us but he must write for us take this Passage out of Quakerism No Christianity which ought alwayes to begin his Books against us upon this subject as it ends this Chapter of mine Those Gospel-Illuminations are beyond the utmost reach of our Natural Faculties of the Mind though sanctified and therefore it is said to be 2 Tim. 3. 16. Divinely inspired It is not produced in the Exercise of the Rational Faculties the Soul is purely passive or receptive therein and is to those Illuminations as the Wax is to the Seal CHAP. XV. His several gross Miscarriages summ'd and further observed I. Of his Over-looking my Answer and Arguments OF Twenty Two Chapters in his Reply there is not one of them in which he hath not wilfully declined inserting my Answer and Arguments and only flutters about pecks and scratches at some part that is of least moment to the Reason of the Point perhaps some Rebuke or Reflection upon the ill use he makes of our Friends Writings particularly pag. 9 22 23 24 30 31 35 53 56 57 71 73 82 83 85 86 90 92 93. How is it possible my Arguments should be conquered when they were never encounter'd I was never yet so unjustly dealt withal in this Particular by any Adversary of his Pretences II. Of his drawing False Inferences Where he ventures at any time to insert any considerable part of my Answer he is sure to draw some Inference that may bring an Odium my words never deserved I could particularize at large pag. 6 13 17 18 31 35 41 42 47 49 71 72 73 74 75 85 86 87 88 89 90 91. but take these following for the rest 1. From Edw. Burroughs Reflecting upon Peoples imagining God to be confined to some place beyond the Stars he implies they deny Christ's Manhood Vindic. pag. 6. 2. From our not styling the Scriptures the Word but Words of God he infers that we deny the Scriptures First Book p. 18 19. 3. From our Asserting the Doctrine of Inspiration and Certainty of what we are inspired either to write or speak he infers not only our Equalling with but preferring what we speak and write before the Scriptures First Book pag. 40. Vind. p. 17. 4. From our Condemning the Imitation of any of the Holy Men of God of former Ages in particular Cases without they are thereunto required by the Spirit of the Lord he infers that Commands of God in Scriptures are no Commands unless we think so and that it is no Sin to break all Commands in the Bible if our Consciences can but be so blinded as to tell us it is no Sin Vind. p. 34 35. 5. From our Asserting that there is no knowing of God but by the Spirit and that Mens Apprehensions of God and his Work in the Souls of his People are but the Endeavours and Effects of the Wisdom of the Flesh he infers that we oppose the Spirit and the Scriptures nay that we reject and scorn them Vind. pag. 41 42 47. 6. From our denying a Carnal Worldly Mercenary Ministry Lifeless Prayers a meer formal Church Preaching and not by the Spirit and W. Smith's saying that the present Use of Bread and Wine and Water called Baptism and the Supper as they are used at this Day are no other then Popish and Humane he infers that the Quakers deny the Gospel-Ministry Gospel-Prayer Gospel-Church Gospel-Preaching and that we CALL Baptism and the Lord's Supper as PRACTISED IN THE FIRST AGE AFTER CHRIST the Popes Inventions c. Vind. from p. 49. to p. 71. Oh Injurious 7. From our reproving People for feeding in an Unconverted State upon the meer Report of what Christ hath done without them and depending thereon from our asserting that Justification taken for Remission goes not before Repentance which is an inward Work much less that Men can be compleatly justifi'd or made inwardly just but by the washing of the Word of Regeneration Sanctification of the Eternal Spirit this Man dares to infer Our Denyal yea our Vndervalue and that to the Degree of Blasphemous Contempt of the Transactions of Christ at Jerusalem Vind. p. 71 72 73 74. 8. From J. Penning asking If outward Blood would cleanse the Conscience from indwelling Sin he infers that we deny all Benefit by the Blood of Christ shed upon the Cross for the declaring of Remission of Sins Rom. 3. 25. First Book 2. Part p. 46 47. Vind. 77. 9. From our chusing to call that Body God prepared in which to do his Will the Body of Christ rather then the Christ of God And from our asserting God to be that Light which enlightens every Man and that the Soul of Man had something of the Life of God in its primitive Perfection he makes no more ado but concludes First That we deny the Christ of God 2dly That we make the Measure of Light in every Man the Eternal God thereby confining him to Man's Soul And lastly That the Soul of Man is
VII Of his Vain Glory and Self-Praise At this he is excessive So conceited is he of his own Abilities and impatient after Praise the greatest Discovery of Pride and Weakness that any Man can make which my Reader may find p. 28 32 33 34 50 52 61 63 65 84. I will give one Proof for all My Charge and Argument in this Chapter sayes he is such an Argument and so proved by me as a THOUSAND PENNS can never invalidate it p. 34. The truth of which as also the Vanity of it may be seen both in my Answer and Rejoynder however he stops his Reader 's Mouth and counts him senseless and desperate that is not of the same Mind p. 36. VIII Of Railing and Ill Names No Man pretends to dislike yet no Man practises these ill-bred as well as un-christian Courses more then J. Faldo where he wants Reason he imposes an hard Name and if he be rebukt he calls it Railing reflecting that upon us for reprehending it in him If I call his Comparison base that is so and that he manages it malitiously against us he replies that more gentile Railing may be learned under a Hedge and that those Words are slovenly imposed UPON HIM as if he were too great to be reproved or licensed to rail without Controle at least against the Quakers for if I tell him he is unmannerly he counts our own Practice a Dispensation inferring from our Dislike of vain and fruitless Complements a Liberty to treat us with what unseemly Language pleased him best This my Reader may see at large if it please him to look into these Pages of our Adversary's Reply p. 5 8 16 20 27 29 33 35 45 49 50 52 54 58 62 63 64 69 72 73 77 82 87 91 95. But to omit whole Sentences and yet to give some Instance more at large then by bare Figures my Adversary hath liberally bestowed out of his great Store of ill Language these following Epithetes as well upon our Religion and Friends as my self for defending them That our Light is the second Antichrist the Quakers Idol Pernicious Guide and Saviour Fancyful Teacher in fine a sordid sinful corrupt and ridiculous Thing and our Religion and Practice Blasphemy and Idolatry p. 47 85 87. Our Friends Quakers so called benighted with palpable Knavery and Impudence Absurd and Blasphemous Idiots Out of the Knowledge and Wits also Prodigiously wicked Speak the amazing Delusions of Satan And that I am a presumptuous and blind Accuser a Sophister an Hamam an accursed Ham a treacherous and wilful Deluder a Mad-man an Hangman an infallible Stager a Fool an Ape a Dunce an impudent Forger and what not that his Rage and Folly can foam out pag. 4 53 54 59 61 63 65 90 91 95. I desire my Reader would also take notice that besides his excessive ill-using of us and ruputing our Rebukes for doing so Railing which shows the Beam to be in his own Eye and that his Nature is as proud to reject Reproof as it is foul and rough to occasion it he gave us the On-set Had he not begun with us we know not that ever we should have meddled with him but having begun and withal so miserably abused us by foul Charges false Citations and vilifying Language that it should be more unreasonable in us to censure him then in him to deserve it no impartial Man can ever think What is John Faldo for a Man of what Rank what Quality what eminent Office or Dignity in the World that we must be kickt by him up and down four or five Hundred Pages for whatever he pleaseth to count us not be told he wrongs us Is the Quality of this diminutive Priest so much and the whole Body of the People called Quakers and that to stop him in his Career of Scoff Jeer Taunt foul Names and Reflection is to deserve them But over and above that this shows his Disposition to be Imperious and Impatient as well as Rude and Frothy and therefore very inconsistent with his Pretences to Meekness and Good Manners but most of all with his Reprehension of others in Cases less offensive it will neither confute my Arguments nor damnifie my Person which makes me the less solicitous of making any other Rejoynder I should here bring in my Conclusion to this whole Discourse but lest any may yet doubt of the Truth of these things as believing me to have made an ill Use and partial Relation of them I shall yet offer for further Confirmation of my Sense of the Man and his Undertaking against us this undeniable Evidence to wit that he hath dealt imperfectly and falsly with the World in his Account of our Writings which he makes the Foundation on which every Charge is built that he exhibits and aggravates against us I have here and there in my Book toucht already upon this great Failure But I shall more particularly inform my Reader of it in this place Of Imperfect and False Citations Forasmuch as J. Faldo would have all People believe that he hath charged the People called Quakers with nothing that their own Books do not clearly and plentifully prove insomuch as he counts those that think not so senseless and desperate and that many who read him may be ready to credit him because they see Books Names and Passages frequently cited especially those who have not the Books by them to examine how honestly he deals with us I thought it requisite to end this Book with this further Unanswerable Discovery of his Defective Foundation that in many places we find Names without Book Books without Parts Chapters Pages yea without Names and Pag. without Number or Figure many falsly cited some added to others diminished from in the beginning middle or end of Sentences thereby robbing them of their own Explanation that he might the better fit them for his purpose Take these few Instances I. Names without Books G. Fox Book 1. Part 1. pag. 47. G. Fox 48. J. Nailor 90. C. A. Part 2. pag. 7. W. Dewsbury 11. C. A. 45. R. Farnsworth 46. G. Fox jun. 83 119. R. Farnsworth 142. E. Burroughs 143. Thus far of Names without Book which is not fair in any Adversary Now of Books without Pages and Pag. without number II. Books Without Parts Chapters Pages Morning Watch Book 1. Part 1. pag. 37. Light out of Darkness 37. Shield of Truth Book 1. Part 1. pag. 45. Love to the Lost 45. Life of E. B. 45. Epistle of W. Dewsbury 47. Velata quaedam revelata 53. Morning Watch 92. Morning Watch Part 2. pag. 19. W. P. Spir. of Truth 32. Love to the Lost 39. True Faith 122. F. H. Testimony 123. Great Myst 124 125. Velata quaedam revelata 133. Great Myst 142. Some Principles of the Elect People 142. Great Myst Vindic. pag. 86. III. Books Falsly Cited G. F's Great Myst Book 1. Part 1. pag. 41. W. S's Primmer 44. Great Myst 52. Great Myst 57. Love to the Lost