case of immoderate Rains and Colds that altogether destroy the Seed in the ground as sometimes happeneth and then he expects no Crop unless he sow again And that this man will needs meddle with Philosophical matters to confirm himself by false Notions in gross Sadducism and opposition to the plain Doctrine of Holy Scripture is a lamentable case and that he hath got the Second Days Weekly Meeting at London to approve his book in order to disperse it all over the Meetings of the People called Quakers to corrupt and leaven them more and more into Sadducism and unbelief who have been in any degree formerly corrupted as I find too many are and to spoil and defile the minds of young People is yet more lamentable Page 32. He goeth on not so much in contending with me as against the Scripture it self But that which seemeth mightily to vex and disquiet his Thoughts is that he cannot conceive how there can be an incorruptible part lodged or placed in the corruptible body and how the body can have any incorruptible part in it before the Resurrection for then he thinks it would be both corruptible and incorruptible at once and also it needs not be changed from an incorruptible body to an incorruptible body And what change is that I question if any Sadducee did ever argue so ignorantly against the Resurrection of the body as this bold ignorant doth Shall I send him to his Mill or own Trade of grinding or sawing Timber for further instruction Doth he not know that Corn hatâ— two parts in it the one Husk the other Meal And hath not a Tree in it two parts the one Wood the other Bark And is not the one more Noble than the other And when a man eateth Corn with the Husk and swalloweth down at least a good quantity of the Husk or Bran together with the Food that is mixed with it doth the Husk become any part of his body or rather doth it not belong to the Excrement with other gross parts of the food Is there not in all food one more Noble part that becometh not Excrement but is transmuted into real flesh in man And did not what our Saviour eat turn into his real flesh and become incorruptible seeing his flesh saw no corruption And was not his body of flesh that did not see corruption yet further changed after his Resurrection and Ascension from a lower degree to a higher degree of Glory Bus if it were not for the sake of others to whom I hope this may be serviceable I should think my time lost to trace this ignorant man that is so stubborn and presumptuous in his ignorance and it might seem like casting Pearl before Swine that so dares to tread under his dirty feet such precious Truths of Scripture But I hope what he arrogantly treads under and his ignorant Sadducean Fraternity with him others will gather up and value for the worth of them And besides the Scripture Similitude of Corn I brought another Similitude in that same Page of my book p. 113. comparing the mortal and corruptible body of man to a Mass or Mixture that hath both Gold and Dross in it which Mass is an Heterogeneous body and is not pure Gold And though Gold is not in the highest or strictest sense incorruptible yet it is the most incorruptible of all Metals or Minerals or other such visible bodies and therefore in comparison of many other bodies it may be said to be incorruptible Now why may it not be said of a Mass that hath both Gold and Dross in it it is a corruptible body for all Heterogeneous bodies are corruptible and yet it hath that in it which in a certain respect is incorruptible for we know not any thing that can corrupt it seeing it endureth the hottest fire that can be put to it P. 33. My Similitude taken from the Soul of Man that remains the same in substance after its sanctification that it was before when unsanctified and defiled with sin he saith is short of the matter for such a change is surely rather a purification than a transmutation even as the washing of a body besmeared with dirt when cleansed is a purification and not a transmutation But still this ignorant presumptuous man runs himself rashly upon the sharp pricks Formerly he hath laboured in vain to destroy the felicity of the body of a Saint and now he laboureth as much in vain to destroy the felicity of his Soul that he makes the work of Regeneration in the Soul of Man to be nothing else but a purification from sin as when a Body besmeared with dirt is cleansed that is a Purification and not a Transmutation I never heard nor read a more ignorant and nonsensical Assertion This is like that other most nonsensical Assertion of one of their great Preachers here at London Jacob Talner and a Member of their Second Days Meeting who said in a publick Conference at Turner's Hall London 28. 3d. month 1696. desired by himself That Adam before his Fall was neither Holy nor Righteous nor Wise and from this False Assertion he brought an Argument That Spiritual Death could not be an effect of Adam's Sin Both which Assertions are flatly contrary not only to Scripture but to the common manner of Preaching among the People called Quakers and this he boldly affirmed in the hearing of some hundreds many of which were his own Party What is this but to make the Souls of the Saints nothing but as so many Tabulae Rasae washed Tables without any Beautiful Colours or lively Portraiture on them Is then the Image of God in the Saints no positive thing but a Freedom from sin or a Negation of it Is Holyness nothing but a Negation of unholiness Is the ardent Love of God in the Saints nothing but a meer negative of hatred of God Doth not the Scripture plainly distinguish betwixt the finishing Transgression and bringing in everlasting Righteousness O wrerched ignorance And O lamentable shame that falls upon the Second Days weekly Meeting of the People called Quakers for approving such Antichristian Doctrine worse than Heathenism for I never heard that ever any Heathen Philosopher said or taught That Virtue in the Soul of a Man was nothing but the absence of Vice The Holy Scripture doth not only Teach us That the Saints are washed but Sanctified and Transformed Rom. 12. 2. And what is now become of G. Foxes frequent Doctrine in his Preaching and Printed Epistles That Christ the Second Adam brings up them that follow him not only to the state of the First Adam that fell but unto his Image that never fell and is the Holiness of the Second Adam nothing but a freedom from sin and unholiness he may as well say Heat is nothing but the absence of cold Sweet is nothing but the absence of Sower or Bitter Light is nothing but the absence of Darkness and that the best things are meer Negatives and nonentities and
his time in the City of Leichfield as he declareth in his Journal and how he went in Blood a great way and was commanded to pull off his Shoes c. This and some other like passages has occasioned some to think G. F. favoured the Revolutions but I do not say he did And whether the Disciples did not hold that Doctrine that said Master who hath sinned this Man or his Servants that he was born blind and many other places of Scripture there are on which he might as much and much more query concerning the Revolutions as any expressions he hath mentioned of mine as well as he might query concerning the Revolutions all Friends generally who hold That God hath given to every one a day of Visitation wherein he may be saved and that a Time of God's long suffering is extended to every one wherein he may repent and be Converted seeing many Dye in the Morning as it were of their Age without all signs of Conversion and have had but little Time given them between their Birth and Death wherein to Repent And as to his Question If an honest Indian or Poor infant dye without that outward Knowledg c. He quite misseth the matter I never affirmed the absolute necessity of an outward Knowledg universally to Salvation besides that properly all knowledg is inward and not outward the subject of it being the mind and understanding that is inward And seeing it is certain that there are honest men both among Indians and them called Christians that are not born again I return his own Query upon him to Answer what becomes of them when they dye seeing without being born again there is no entring into the Kingdom of God and what becomes of many called Quakers and others that before they dyed had no signs that they were arrived at that high state of a sinless perfection for tho Friends have earnestly contended for the Doctrin of Perfection as attainable by the Grace of God in this Life yet they have generally acknowledged that many in whom the work of Sanctification is begun have not as yet arrived to that state but have many sinful imperfections remaining in them and the Flesh lusting against the Spirit now let him tell me or any for him what becomes of such when they Dye and I may give him the like Answer or some better what becomes of honest Indians when they Dye if he or they say they who are in measure Sanctified but not Perfected in Sanctification before they Dye are made perfect in Holiness at the instant of Death tho this Answer Friends have blamed when given by those against whom they have contended yet if they think fit to allow of it as current now as it will in great part end the Dispute about Perfection and Answer the great Objection about the Popish Purgatory so it is as valid to Answer that Question What becomes of honest Gentiles that before they Died had no Knowledg nor Faith of Christ Crucified to wit that it is given them at the instant of Death by the internal Operation and illumination of the Holy Spirit But if any say this Answer is more alledged than Proved I reply it hath the same probability in the one case as in the other P. 30. To prove my inconsistency and contrariety with my self in the Doctrine of the Resurrection with a most blasphemous presumption he finds fault with Scripture Doctrine it self and like a scoffing Sadducy or rather Atheist goeth to fix a contradiction on the Scripture it self for thus he brings me in contradicting my self that which riseth is the mortal that puts on immortality and the corruptible which puts on incorruption citing my Book called A Testimony against that absurd Opinion p. 3. But in another place p. 10. he citeth me saying The Flesh that is mortal and corruptible is not that Flesh that shall be raised up immortal and incorruptible And citing my Book called Truth Advanced he brings me saying of that which riseth That it is a pure noble part that consumeth not nor corrupteth And then he querieth If that which riseth be the corruptible p. 31. how is it that that which riseth is incorruptible and corrupteth not again Now Reader I desire thee to notice how he quarrels not so much with me as with the Scriptures to prove a contradiction in them for my saying That which riseth is the Mortal that puts on Immortality and the Corruptible that puts on Incorruption this is plain Scripture 1 Cor. 15. 53. For this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality And for the next Citation which he makes a contradiction to the former it is also most plain and evident in the Scripture The Flesh that is Mortal and Corruptible is not that Flesh that shall be raised up Immortal and Incorruptible for the Scripture saith Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. And surely that is the Flesh that is Mortal and Corruptible And p. 37. That which thou sowest thou sowest not that Body that shall be And v. 42. It is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption c. And to his question which implyeth a negation and opposition to plain Scripture I answer That which riseth is incorruptible and corrupteth not again because it is made incorruptible and immortal by the mighty Power of God and to question the immortality and incorruptibility of the Bodies of the Saints after they are raised from the Dead is to suppose that they shall dye again and has this necessary consequence that they shall sin again for the wages of sin is Death But this contradicts the Testimony of Christ and all his Holy Prophets and Apostles and is a plain Introduction to Epicurism and Atheism And that I said in my Book Truth Advanced which he findeth fault with as being a contradiction that that which riseth is a pure noble part that consumeth not nor corrupteth This I say still and is no contradiction for in my Book in that very place cited by him p. 113. I bring a similitude of a grain of Corn which very Similitude the Scripture bringeth to demonstrate the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 37. Now all but fools and idiots know that as there is a Grain of Corn that corrupteth and turneth to Earth or Dust so there is another part in it that is more Noble that corrupteth not but by the corruption and dissolution of the other part is as it were set out of Prison and gets a new Life and Multiplication and as true Philosophy and right Reason and Ocular Experience teacheth that the generation of one thing followeth the corruption of another yet there is something in the new generated thing that was in the old corrupted thing so every Husbandman that has common sense knoweth that his Seed which he soweth doth not all perish or rot in the ground but a part remaineth in every Grain that multiplieth except in some extraordinary
justices but Criminal Judges a thing no where so practised that I know any where in Christendom beside But however whether G. K. was rightly informed in these Particulars or not that was not the Thing he was fined for but for calling Sam. Jennings an ignorant presumptuous and insolent man and saying he was too high and imperious in worldly Courts And this was and is well known to be a Truth And he since remains sufficiently under that Character And have not many called Quakers used greater liberty than all this to reprove the Pride of greater Men in Magistracy here in England in Times past under their sharp Persecutions And for a witness to it let the Trial of William Penn and William Mead Printed at London declare as well as other Printed Trials and Books not a few But it is but waste of Time and Paper to answer to all his Impertinencies One thing is greatly worth noticing That though these men showed great warmth to fine imprison and otherwse prosecute for some pretended Offences against them that were had they been real but small and had better become them to have passed them by being not against them as Magistrates but as Quakers and Neighbours Yet they did not only tolerate but support and countenance Persons guilty of blasphemous Speeches against both God and Christ and with an unbounded Liberty did abuse me in particular as well as my Friends one of them in a publick Meeting calling me Wicked Fellow another calling me Ranter wicked Man while I was in Prayer on my Knees in the Meeting And though they would not allow us to distinguish betwixt them as being Quakers and Magistrates yet they did so distinguish when they told us They were not for fighting as Quakers but as Magistrates which how apt and proper a distinction it was for them to use I leave to the intelligent to judge Page 46. He saith Now to be plain This is to shew That G. K. may be as well as others have been a man of great Knowledge in Chronology yet being led by a Wrong Spirit what doth it profit But how hath he proved that G. K. is a man of a Wrong Spirit What One Evil Thing hath he proved against me in all his book either in Doctrine or Conversation I know none Though I have proved him guilty of many And taking it for granted That G. K. on extraordinary great Provocations and Abuses did drop once or twice some unadvised yet true Expressions doth this prove him to be a man of a Wrong Spirit He hath been more ingenuous than all his Adversaries who have far exceeded him in heat and hard words to acknowledge it which I never knew that any of them did Page 47. He pretends he has got a great Advantage against me upon the Account of a Citation out of my book called Truths Defence page 169. which he recites though not so truly as is in my book But however as it is I agree to it as to matter and substance And though he saith Page 53. That they do not question that in the least that G. K. is of another mind now It is a false Insinuation I remain in the same mind still That I would have nothing urged nor pressed as Articles of Faith but what is delivered to us in plain express Scripture-words which is the substance of that large Citation And it is as false in him to say That this was so often desired but could not find place viz to take their Confession in express words for this we never refused but I said again and again We shall take your Confession in Scripture-words as many can bear me witness provided ye will condemn your Errors that are contrary either to express Scripture-words or to the plain and manifest Sense of them obvious to every intelligent Christian But this they would never do And whereas he querieth How know we that they have a Sense contrary to Scripture-words I answer They have sufficiently discovered it not only by One or Two unsound Expressions but multitudes of them as their Letters and Manuscripts there and the Printed Books here sufficiently prove And we need go no further for a Proof than the most gross and Antichristian Expressions and Sayings of Caleb Pusie himself in this very Treatise For whereas he hath plainly affirmed p. 15. ad finem That Jesus of Nazareth cannot be something else than the Light Power and Spirit within Now can there be any thing more contrary to express Scripture than this Assertion Was not Jesus of Nazareth a real man consisting of Soul and Body in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily and who above measure was filled with all fullness of Grace and Truth And is that Body and that Soul and that Fullness nothing else but the Light within us Oh Abominable Nonsense and Perversion and Contradiction to Scripture and all true Reason He may as much say The great body of water in the Ocean with the Channels and Places that receive it is nothing else than the River Thames and that little narrow Tract of Earth in which it runs And at this Rate whatever is declared of Christ as born at Bethlem or conversing with his Disciples in Judea teaching them and working mighty Signs and Miracles among them And lastly Crucified on the Tree of the Cross at Golgotha must be understood of nothing else but the Light Power and Spirit within If this be not as great and gross Ranterism as ever was among men I leave all sober Christians to Judge Again seeing he pretends so much to express Scripture let him tell me 1. Where doth the Scripture say That Jesus of Nazareth is nothing else than the Light Power and Spirit within I am sure it is no where to be found in the Holy Bible but in Antichrist's Bible it may be found and is found 2. Where doth the Scripture say That the Light within is sufficient to salvation without any thing else or that it is an Error to say The Light within is not sufficient to salvation without something else Which Two being contradictory if the one be false the other must be true 3dly Where doth the Scripture say it is sufficient to Eternal Salvation only to believe and obey the Light within without all Knowledge and Faith of Christ Crucified and raised again seeing the Scripture plain contrarywise makes it the Terms of Salvation in great part to confess with the mouth and believe with the heart that God hath raised Jesus from the Dead Rom. 10. 9 10. 4thly Where doth the Scripture say The Blood that was shed without the Gates of Jerusalem is not that Blood whereby we are justified which was John Humphreys Assertion a Minister in Pensilvania which we could never get him nor any of you all to condemn and no wonder for G. W. in his book Light and Life hath said as much 5thly Where doth the Scripture say The bodies of the Saints at the Resurrection shall be
Light Citing Rector Corrected pag. 150. But where is my Contradiction here Did I ever say That men may believe in the Light or Christ within and never at any time from first to last believe in Christ without either expresly or implicitly For this they bring no proof and I believe they can bring none Fifthly In pag. 26. they most Ignorantly and Antichristianly blame my sound Christian Assertion where I say The work of Sanctification is ascribed in Scripture to Christ's Blood and Sufferings as well as to his Inward Appearance and to both indispensably necessary and to Faith therein Thus we see plainly they place all upon Christ within and nothing upon Christ without O bold Antichristianism published in the Face of a Nation prosessing Christianity But wherein I have contradicted that Assertion they show not 6thly They bring me in guilty of a Contradiction for saying Nor is the outward Name that which saveth but the inward Nature Virtue and Power signified thereby which was made manifest in them c. But they no where shew how I contradict this I say still It is not the outward Name either of God or Christ that saveth without the Inward Nature Virtue and Power which Inward Nature Virtue and Power dwelt and dwells in all Fullness in the Man Christ Jesus and of whose fullness we all receive and Grace for Grace and all that believe in him who hath the fullness they receive rich supplies out of his Fulness daily of more Grace which they that do not believe in him do not receive Seventhly They charge me with Contradiction because formerly I said That these Gentiles had the Gospel preached unto them who were not under any outward Administration of the Gospel But they bring no place to prove where I contradict this Assertion as I do not at present contradict it but own it in a true sense and the former Distinction will serve here of express and implicit and I still grant that the Gospel implicitly is Preached to all Men in some measure after some sort Samuel Fisher calls it a Gospel-Dram somewhere in his Rusticus ad Academicos as I have read it in him but few have obeyed it as so preached but whoever did obey it I question not but they were accepted But here let it be Noted that whereas they would divert the Main Part and Branch of the Question which was and is betwixt them and me of the Necessity of our Faith in Christ crucified to our Salvation who are professed Christians wholly to the Case and State of the Gentiles who have it not outwardly Preached to them by the Ministry of Men or Books I have sufficiently proved against them at our late Meeting at Turners-Hall 11th of the 4th Month 1696. And in the printed Narrative that they have affirmed That it is not necessary to our Salvation to believe that Christ dyed for us c. This Charge lyeth at their Door which is the main Thing in Question But how the most Pious and Upright among the Gentiles were saved by Faith in Christ Crucified who had not Faith outwardly Preached is neither the great or chief Question nor so proper for us to determine seeing God hath ways to have done it unknown to us whose Ways are above our Ways as the Heavens are above the Earth and it may be one of these Secret things that belong to God and not to us till he please to reveal it Eightly pag. 30. They charge me with a Contradiction for saying He Christ left not the other Nations destitute of the Main and Principal Thing even the Manifestation of the Light c. which would have given them the Knowledge of God c But if they think or would have others to think that by the Main and Principal Thing I meant the Light within compared with Christ without in whom all fulness of Light and Grace dwelleth they both deceive themselves and seek to deceive others For by my following words it is manifest I call the Light within the Main Thing in Comparison with outward Things as is plain from my following words cited by them out of my Book pag. 12. Universal Grace and not in Comparison with Christ without in whom the Fulness of Light dwells As for their suggestion of my holding the Revolution of Humane Souls in pag. 31. and more particularly in pag. 3. of G. Whitehead's Postscript who calls it my Notion of Twelve Revolutions of Humane Souls they have rendred themselves so foolishly impertinent as well as malicious thinking thereby to cast a great Odium upon me for holding such an odd Opinion that I need say little or nothing in answer to them having so fully and plainly in the openness of my Heart answered to that Charge in my Printed Treatise called Truth and Innocency Defended in Answer to John Delavall who was one of the first that charged me with the same and since that no less than Four several Persons have charged me with it in Print whereby they have sufficiently manifested both their Folly and Malice besides the many Whisperings and Mutterings they have used and spread abroad against me far and near on that account their Folly is sufficiently manifested that not one of all my Accusers have brought the least Authentick Evidence against me to prove their Charge And as I have fully cleared my self in the case in my Answer above-mentioned Printed at Philadelphia some Years ago so in my Appendix to the Book called The General History of the Quakers lately Printed at London in this Year 1696. But let us hear G. W. his Evidence to prove his Charge against me He saith That I argued from these Scriptures John 11. 9. Psal 90. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 8. and some others If I mistake not saith he Is this like Infallible George Whitehead If he says I do let him give us a plain State of his own Opinion herein Now would such an imperfect and lame Evidence pass current before any Judicatory The thing is so and so if I mistake not And as to the Manuscript he mentions that I shewed him it is true there was such a Manuscript which I read both to him and George Fox wherein I did undertake to Answer to some Objections against the Universal Principle and there were some things in that Manuscript modestly proposed concerning the Revolutions of some Souls but no ways as any positive Conclusion but simply as an Hypothesis or Supposition and if such a Manuscript or the Contents of it were such a Crime in G. K. to render me an Apostate and gone from Truth why did not G. Whitehead before twelve Years past for so long ago it is since that Manuscript was read to him deal with me by giving me Gospel-Order since what I had writ in that Manuscript was so offensive to him after his telling me my Fault in private and I not amending should he not have observed Christ's order to have taken with him one or two more Matth. 18. 6. And if
I did neglect to hear them to tell it to the Church that they might have dealt with me But he having done none of this only showing somewhat of his private dissatisfaction with the Hypothesis which he could not charge upon me as positive as neither he did Is not he much more blame-worthy and hath he not brought a great Reflection on himself and also on George Fox that they did so Connive at my supposed great Error and so long yea and for all that time thereafter to own me as a Friend in Truth as they both did and writ to me from England to America calling me dear George Keith yea G. Fox in his Letter particularly desired me to visit Friends in New-England and to travel in the Service of Truth in that Country as accordingly I did until now that G. Whitehead hath risen up against me and raised up also many with him against me for no other Cause as is well known but for opposing the Vile Errors I found among them both there in America and here in England And whereas some in Print and George Whitehead in writing has accused me of Hypocrisie for having formerly called him dear George Whitehead and since that I have changed my thoughts concerning him If it be no Hypocrisie in him to have formerly called me so and yet now to have other thoughts of me why should he make it hypocrisie in me to have done but that to him which he hath done to me Doth not this prove him guilty of Hypocrisie with a witness But leaving G. Whitehead a while let me return a little to the Book Postscript pag. 32. When they cannot by fair and direct means prove their charge against me to render me odious they essay to do it by unfair that is by their Consequences not so much from my Words but from the Words of Scripture as from my saying in Truth Advanced pag. 23. As it is observed by some neither Adam nor any of his Posterity living a compleat Thousand Years which in Scripture signifies sometimes a Day Psal 90. It may be said he lived not a whole Day Now say they that this is a Principle of the Revolutionists is plain to all that know their Principles and that it is his also is manifest But what a lame Evidence and Argument is this let all intelligent Persons judge If they had said It is the alone Principle of the Revolutionists and proved it so they had argued somewhat to the purpose Sure I am Just in Martyr held it for I have read it in him Doth it therefore follow that he was a Revolutionist If it doth then the Notion of the Revolutions is not so great a Crime as to render a Man an Apostate or gone from Truth And not only Justin Martyr but many others Worthy Antient and late Christian Writers have held the same Principle that a thousand Years in Scripture sometimes signifies a Day and particularly the renowned L. Neper of Mareheston in his Exposition on the Revelation Surely these Men have greatly missed their aim who thinking to disgrace and reproach me with the Revolutions by allowing me so good company Men highly esteemed for their Christian Piety have rather contrary to their Designs greatly honoured me but Malice is always Blind and throws its Possessor into the Ditch he makes for another And if the reckoning a Thousand Years for a Day prove the Revolutions I shall not only have the above-named worthy Persons for my Companions but David or as others think Moses see the Title of that Psalm and Peter who both so reckoned Psalm 90. 4. compared with 2 Pet. 3. 8. But that these Men may still give me more good Company they will needs have Paul to bear me company in the Notion of the Revolutions and long after him Beza a Renowned Man among Prot stants both for Piety and Learning for thus they argue from my Words or rather the Words of Paul and Beza's Translation pag. 42. Truth Adv. who are under the Law and obey it according to what their Ability doth reach they are held there as in a Custody or Place of Safety as the Man slayer in the City of Refuge in the time of the Law till the Faith came to be revealed This Word say they till the Faith came to be revealed is a plain Indication of his Notion though he dare not defend it for they dying in this City of Refuge say they when should the Faith be revealed to them except in some other Revolution Now that they make Paul and Beza equally alike guilty with me in the case of the Revolutions will be plain if the Words of Paul Gal. 3. 22. 23. be but well considered Let us look back a little to the 19th Verse Wherefore then serveth the Law it wa◠added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom thē Promise was made This Seed was Christ according to the Flesh together with the Spiritual Blessings of Life that accompanied him Then Vers 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under Sin not only Jews but Gentiles who had no other Law but the Law within that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before Faith came we were kept under the Law Note Beza doth excellently well translate it according to the Greek sub legis presidio in his Latin Transsation i. e. Under the safeguard of the Law we were kept shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Where a manifest Allusion is made or rather a real Exposition by way of Anti-Type answering to that Old Testament-Type of the Man-slayer that was kept safe in the Custody of the City of Refuge though as a Prisoner or confined until he heard of the Death of the High Priest Now let the Intelligent Reader judge whether there be any real difference in Sense betwixt Paul's Words Unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed and my Words Till the Faith come to be revealed and if my Words infer the Revolutions do not Paul's Words infer them as much or rather more he using the Word afterwards which I use not Well if they judge me guilty of the Revolutions and condemn me to be an Apostate and gone from Truth on that account while they give me so good Company as Moses David Peter and Paul I need not fear great Reproach to fall on me for the same But in very deed they said well that I dare not defend it as I never did but this not daring to defend it did not proceed in me nor doth from fear of being defamed for if I were perswaded and assured of it as I am of the great Truths of the Christian Faith I should not fear to avouch it But seeing I pretend to no such assurance in the case as I never did nor ever was positive to conclude it so much as in my secret thoughts therefore I let it alone neither justifying nor condemning what I have no certain
of this visible Earth What that part was unless they will say it was that Mountain in Yorkshire he mentions where he had his Vision but surely that could not be Paradise for the Barrenness of it A third Evidence for me and against these Men that have given out this Book is William Shewen a great Man among them lately deceased who to perswade us of his Infallibility hath told us Treatise of Thoughts pag. 14. That he cannot write contrary to Scripture being in unity with them And pag. 19 20. plainly tells us That the Man was not deceived with the Beauty of an Apple or some other outward Fruit nor by the Talk or Perswasion of any Creature like our English Snakes as vain Man in his carnal Mind imagins So we see his Censure of G. Whitehead and J. Pennington that they are vain who have so imagined in their Carnal Minds How G. Whitehead will clear himself of this and many other gross Self-contradictions I leave to the Tryal Pag. 36. Their Abuse and Perverson is manifest in seeking to fix a Contradiction on me for affirming in my Book Help in time of Need That the Scriptures are not that Word to wit that living essential Word more than a Map or Description of Rome or London is Rome or London or the Image of Caesar is Caesar or Bread and Wine is the Body and Blood of Christ And for Querying Truth Advanced Que. 5. Whether it may not be said there is one Baptism as that there is one Land ca led America though the Map or Figure of it is also called America even as there is but one Spiritual Baptism with the Holy Ghost though the outward Baptism with Water is also called Baptism Now beside that this last is only a Query but let it pass for a Position let the Intelligent judge what Contradiction is here or least Inconsistency Contradictories can never be true but both these are true 1. The Scriptures are not that Living and Essential Word which is Christ this is a Truth that all called Christians acknowledge But that they may be called the Word as a Map of America is called America I never denyed but have oft said and which is agreeable to many Protestant Writers who have used such a phrase a Map or Scheme of the Gospel Nor is the Bread and Wine the Body and Blood of Christ though it be so called Now if these Men deny this to be a Truth they must hold with Papists that the Bread and Wine is really the Body and Blood of Christ 2. That though there is but one Spiritual Baptism yet that the outward Baptism with Water is also called Baptism is also true for John's Baptism with Water is called in Scripture the Baptism of John And after they have thus shown their own Folly and Ignorance in a scoffing Spirit they call me Rabby though its the known way of the Quakers not to call a Man Master that is in Hebrew Rabbi Matth. 23. 7 8. yet to Indulge a Scoffing Humour they will transgress their Rule Here this Rabbi say they hath foiled himself sorely But let the Intelligent judge whether they have not foiled themselves sorely all along their abusive and scandalous Book that excepting these Sound Passages and Testimonies they have collected out of my Books which greatly make for me and show that I am constant in my Principles as to the Faith of Christ contains little else than a heap of Falsities and Perversions But that they say He once boasted in his Serious Appeal pag. 29. That he hath the Gifts both of Sound Knowledge and Expression with manifold other Mercies bestowed on him In this they falsly accuse me for there is nothing in that place that either expresses or implyeth any boast in the least For whereas my Opponent had charged me with marveous Ignorance Falshood and Giddiness I said among other things I doubt not but judicious and impartial Readers who compare his Books and mine will have another judgment concerning me and acknowledge to God's praise the Gifts both of Sound Knowledge and Expression with his manifold other Mercies bestowed on m for which I desire to Praise him forever But to make it look like a Boast they leave out these last Words and also the foregoing Words and its evident I used these Words only Comparatively and not Absolutely for I never judged my self absolutely Infallible nor have been a Self-Praiser as too many of them are and I may now say let their Books who have appeared against me of late as W. Penn G. Whitehead T. Ellwood and others be compared with mine and I doubt not but judicious and impartial Readers will have another judgment concerning me than these my prejudiced Adversaries and acknowledge to God's Praise the Gifts of sound Knowledge and Expression that God hath given me for which I desire forever to Praise him but this I understand only Comparatively for I never had such thoughts of my self nor have but that the Sentiments of my Mind and Expressions of my Mouth and Pen in divers things may admit of Correction though as to the main every true Christian as well as I may say We have a Sound Knowledge and Faith And whereas they pass another Scoff upon me pag. 34. calling my Book Truth Advanced His bulky Book which is but of small bulk in comparison of the bulky Volumns of G. Whitehead W Penn and divers others I am not doubtful to say that Intelligent Readers who compare their great bulky Books with that one small bulky Book of mine will say there is more Sound matter of Doctrine in it and the Contents of it are more for Edification than in their great bulky Books Yet I have been so modest a thing I never found in any of them to acknowledge that in some things I may receive some Correction and better information See my Pref. Truth Adv. pag. 45. Pag 44. They quarrel my expounding Adam and Eve's hiding themselves among the Trees of the Garden to be in a Tree of the Garden and that one Tree may be well understood to be the divine Mercy or Clemency I had said in my Book Truth Adv. the Hebrew doth bear it in a Tree of the Garden pag. 25. But I must excuse their Ignorance in the Hebrew that they will not admit of this true Translation And are they not Carnally Minded to think that Adam thought he could hide himself either among the Trees of an outward Garden or in any one Tree of it so as God might not see him this is to think at least that Adam was an Anthropomorphit or Mugletonian as having such a gross Opinion that God had bodily Eyes as a Man and that an outward Tree could hide him from God And their Argument is as foolish against my saying That Tree might be the Divine Mercy or Clemency They say The Divine Mercy is in Christ Jesus and if they were got there when they heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in
were they armed with Truth and Righteousness they needed not have complained of want of due preparation its odd and a new sort of Language for one called a Quaker to tell us of his not being prepared the Scripture saith 1 Pet. 3. 15. Be ready always to give an Answer to every Man that asketh you a Reason of the Hope that is in you When I was most falsly and uncharitably accused by John Voughton John Field and Thomas Ellwood at the Yearly Meeting 1694. I sought no Particulars of Quotations and Pages referred unto nor did any intimate to me before-hand the particular Passages in my Books that they justly excepted against I intirely relyed on the Assistance of God to help me what to answer to the many false Accusations and Perversions that my Accusers used against me and I found him a present help to me I had offered in Print before to Tho. Elwood that he would appoint Time and Place and I would stand to his Appointment And I make the same Offer to you again I freely allow you to serve me as I have served you Give out your Advertisement in Print appoint your Time and Place and let me have your Charge without your Proofs until we meet and then bring them forth against me I premise God permitting to meet you provided the Meeting be free and open to all Sober Persons A POSTSCRIPT Containing an Earnest Expostulation with the most Pious and Learned whether in the Church of England or among other Protestant Dissenters and a serious Invitation unto them to employ some of their Time and Labour by their Pious and Learned Writings to oppose and refute those vile Errors boldly avowed and publickly broached in the late Printed Books of some Leading Men among a Gang and sort of Quakers IT may seem strange how it comes to pass that while so many Pious and Learned Men are judged to be found in this Nation not only of the Church of England but among the Dissenters and Nonconformists there are found so few among them all that do imploy their Gifts to oppose such Vile Errors as are boldly and avowedly promoted among a sort and Gang of the People called Quakers not only as bad as any Popery but much worse than the worst of Popery in divers respects and I am confident if such Antichristian Errors and Heresies were but the tenth part so avowedly broached in the City of Rome or any where else in Popish Countries these esteemed Watchmen among them would be more alarmed to oppose them by Word and Writing than most among Protestants do which would seem to cast a great Reflexion on the Protestant Churches if some able Men and of good esteem among them both for Piety and Sound Knowledge be not awakened to bestow some of their time and labour by their Writings to oppose such Vile Errors and such a Work would be so far from unbecoming the ablest and most valuable Persons in this Nation for Piety and Learning that it would turn much to their Honour and real Advantage to bestir themselves in this Work It frequently happeneth that Books are more valued and the Contents of them the more regarded and considered and the more universally read and recommended that Persons of publick Note and Fame when Pious and Learned are the Authors of them And whereas many of the chiefest Teachers and Leaders among the People called Quakers have formerly with great boldness provoked such as have differed from them to publick Disputes viva voce and have oft gloried over them who refused to answer them that their Cause was bad and that they had not Truth on their side and in these days there was no such Cry to be heard from them as now That such publick Disputes will offend Authority and break the Civil Peace yea how oft have some of their Teachers assaulted the National Ministers in the Face of their Congregations and provoked them to dispute with them and on their refusal have cryed out against them to be Fugitives and Hirelings when the said National Ministers way of Religion and Worship was approved by Authority and that of the People called Quakers was not Would it not therefore be a most equal reasonable and commendable Practise for any Persons of true Piety and solid Learning moved with the Zeal of God's Glory and love of Truth and with a Holy Indignation against these Vile Errors that are publickly avouched by some Leading Men among the Quakers as appeareth both by their former and later Printed Books and with a tender Compassion to the Souls of so many Thousands in this Nation that are in danger to perish by the Infection of these Errors openly and publickly to call them forth to a publick Hearing and to press them by earnest Perswasions to retract and condemn those vile and damnable Errors contained in their Books or if they continue to justifie them to refute them openly in the Face of their own Meetings and in the presence of them that do so much admire and follow them And thus to serve them at they have served others and with what Measure they have met to others with the sone to mete to them again And it would be a Commendable and Praise-worthy thing for the Civil Authority to encourage such a Practise throughout the Nation that Men of true Piety and solid Learning might be allowed and Countenanced to Refute these Vile and Abominable Errors of these chief Teachers and Leaders anong them called Quakers in their Meeting-Houses at the end of their Meetings or at other fit times Surely such a Practise as this as it is no ways inconsistent with the Civil Peace and Liberty of Conscience granted to Dissenting Protestants notwithstanding of the idle Clamour of such Men who have an Evil Conscience and a lad Cause would be more effectual to Preserve the True Protestant Christian Religion in these three Nations than all the severe ways in former times used against then of Fines Imprisonments c. And though it is far from me to desire the least Suffrings to come on these Mens Persons or Estates yet if such a zeal were raised in them bearing Authority in this Nation to give order that all such Books of them called Quakers as can readily be found as great store of such there are that contan such Vile and Abominable Errors to the dishonour of the worthy Name of Christ and the Christian Religion and the great danger of many Souls be diligently searched and examined by the most Pious and Judicious Persons in the Nation and after due search and Examination be found guilty that by publick Authority all such Books may be suppressed and witnessed against I may freely say these Men should have no just Cause to Complain that their Books should be so dealt with for they have done the like to Books that have opposed their gross Errors witness a Parcel of Books writ by me some Four Years ago that came to London from Pensilvania opposing the
gross Errors of some called Quakers in that Province which were designed to have been Sold in single Books and dispersed through City and Country for a general Service But the Quakers here at London gave large Money to the Man that had them that they might get them all into their Hands on purpose to suppress them as accordingly they did and hinder the Service of them and these very Books generally lie in these Mens Custody suppressed unto this very Day and some of them have burned others have torn and trod under Feet in open view Books that have opposed their vile Errors Advertisement WHereas there is lately Printed a Scandalous Libel against me with this Title Master George Keith at Turners-Hall in Philpot Lane London in 1696. contradicting c. Signed only with two Letters W. C. wherein he laboureth in vain to prove my Inconsistency and Contradiction betwixt my Book of Immediate Revelation and the late Exact Narrative the Author of which Scandalous Libel seemeth to profess himself to be a Member of the Church of England but his Speech bewrayeth him to be a Counterfeit and rather one of that Gang and sort of Anti-Christ Quakers above-mentioned seeing he doth so eagerly patronize them against the known Doctrine of the Church of England as well as of all true Christians I give this publick Intimation that I desire this W. C. to appear and meet me at any convenient time at our Meeting-place at Turners-Hall which time I allow him to appoint and give Notice of before-hand and I doubt not but by God's Assistance to prove him guilty of divers Forgeries and palpable Falsities Perversions and Wrestings of my Sound Woros contained in his said Scandalous Libel together with his base Reflexions and False Surmises against me And if he refuse this my fair Proposal it will be manifest he is a Cowardly Spirit and smiter in the dark and as well Unmanly as Unchristian thus in a Clandestine way by palpable Falsities and Perversions to seek to deceive his unwary Readers and to divert me from a Business of greater Concern by his trifling And I judge no Impartial Observer of the state of this Controversie betwixt my open and professed Adversaries G. W. and W. P. and others of their party and me will think me obliged to Print Answers to such Clandestine Enemies and Smiters in the dark or to regard their Nameless Libels which might prove as much an Unprofitable as an Endless Work I also desire the Friendly Reader to take notice that the Corrections and Explanations of some Passages contained in my former Books which I have freely declared did need Correction in some things and Explanation in others are in great part already given in this Treatise and indeed the greatest Mistakes that I find I have been under were my mis-understanding these places of Scripture Matth. 28. 19. and 1 Cor. 11. 26. and others the like places relating to these outward Practices of Baptism and the Supper which in the foregoing Treatise I have freely acknowledged and this may suffice at present to silence the Clamour of such that cry out I should first acknowledge my own Errors before I charge others with their Errors For as I had done it in general in the first place so since I have done it in particular in great part and may yet more fully do it as God shall be pleased to give me an Opportunity But I bless God I have no such Errors to retract or correct as my Adversaries have for put all my Mistakes and Errors together in one Bundle and they will not weigh the one thousand part of the weight that one of these four Errors do weigh that I have proved my Adversaries guilty of both in the Exact Narrative and in this fore-going Treatise and in other late Treatises And were but my Adversaries so sincere and ingenuous to acknowledge either in general or in any particulars wherein they have been mistaken and need to correct their Sentiments it would give great Satisfaction to many as well as to me But this they will hardly do nay it is impossible they can do it so long as they seek to keep up in their credulous Followers their esteem of their Infallibility and beside to own that they are changed from their former Sentiments would be either to acknowledge themselves as great Apostates as they now charge me to be for some small change in me touching lesser Matters or rather to clear me of that foul Charge of Apostacy they have so invidiously cast upon me And it is great dis-ingenuity in them and Hypocrisie to blame me for saying I did not know they held such Principles till of late times for it is certain that as these their Erronious Principles were unknown to me which I call Anti-Christian and Sadducean so what they call my Presbyterian and Priestly Principles were unknown to them or if they did know them they were great Hypocrites if they judged them false not to discover them before now For whereas now they commonly say I hold Priests and Professors Principles I know no such Priests and Professors Principles that I now hold but I am able to prove I have held them ever since I came among the People called Quakers as touching all the Articles of Faith commonly called the simpliciter credenda and wherein I am changed in my Judgment as to the Sense of these places of Scripture relating to Baptism and the Supper I can prove my agreement with some of chiefest Note among the People called Quakers therefore for that I am no Apostate Some of the Chiefest of these False Contradictions the foresaid Libeller hath unjustly charged upon me that prove him extreamly Ignorant or wickedly Impudent Pag. 5. That an Unbelieving Iew is no Christian That a Believing Iew in Moses time was a Christian That which makes one a true Christian is the Spirit of Christ the anointing in him Faith in Christ without us wrought by the Spirit of Christ in us is universally necessary to make Men true Christians Pag. 6. The History or Historical and express Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified is not universally necessary to make Men true Christians Some Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified though not the Express and Historical yet Implicit is universally necessary to make Men true Christians The Manifestation of God in the Flesh of Christ and his Incarnation is a greater Mystery than mens Regeneration Christ's inward Ministry and Teaching by the Spirit in our Hearts is more than his outward Ministring and Speaking was to them who outwardly heard him and saw him Pag. 7. Christ crucified in whom the Fulness dwelleth is a greater Mystery than Christ in the Gentiles Jesus Christ revealed in Man is the Foundation of the true Church Note I did not say Christ only within c. Pag. 8. Christ without us as he is both God and Man the Emmanuel as well as his inward Appearance in us is the Object of Saving Faith The Internal Revelation of Christ is the formal Object of Faith Note His Ignorance in not understanding the distinction betwixt the material Object of Faith and the formal Object also betwixt the objectum formale quod and objectum formale quo maketh him think the two above-mentioned Passages to be Contradictions but for his Instruction I send him to R. B. his Apology on that Head and his and my Answer to the Students of Aberdene Pag. 11. The wisdom described Prov 8. is Christ the very fulness of God Note His abominable Forgeries and Falsities in saying I give all these Names he mentions p 11 to the Light within which is a notorious Falshood as the Reader will see that will be at the pains to view the several pages he refers to for though some of these Names I give to the Light within yet not all of them but some I give to Christ as he is both God and Man and I divers times in that same Book and near to these places that he cites call the Light within a Measure of that Fulness of Life and Spirit whose Fulness is in the Man Christ without us The Light in us is the Voice of Wisdom the Path of Wisdom a Measure of that Fullness See my Book Immediate Revel pag. 117. 243 245. Mary was the Mother of Christ according to the Flesh and in that respect Christ is the Seed of the Woman in the literal sense of Gen. 3. 15. And as in all his Instances he grosly prevaricates so he is guilty of most gross Forgery in saying That I Allegorize his Birth in the Flesh and his Miracles Crcucifixion and Resurrection But his Ignorance proceeds from his not understanding to distinguish betwixt an Allegorical Allusion warranted by Scripture and turning the true Literal Sense of places of Scripture into an Allegory so as to destroy or make void the Literal Sense which I have proved G. W. guilty of But this Libeller has proved no such thing on me and he is most shamefully deceitful in saying the Word away we must justly drop on both sides I having accused G. W. that he hath Allegorised away Christ's Births Burial Resurrectionn and proved him guilty of so doing in my Narrative by Allegorising away the Literal Sense of these places of Scripture Isaiah 9. 6 53. 9. and 1 Cor. 15. 8. Believers are the Mother of Christ in an Allegorical Sense not grounded on Gen 3. 15. but on Matth. 49. 50. and Rev. 1â— 5. And in this Allegorical Sense Christ is formed in the Saints Gal. 4. 19. and by his Power in them he the Seed of the Woman bruiseth the Serpent's Head London the 24th of the Month called July 1696. G. K. ERRATA Pag. 9. line 29. for servants read parents p. 11. l. 17. after is r. a part in p. 22. l. 50. r. ad finem p. 26. l. 11. after books r but think that I did so distinguish p. 29. l. 40. r. deisme p. 34. last line for general r several p. 35. l 47. r. Man and Woman Of Christ Crucified Citing Way cast up p. 113. false quot true quot p. 131. * That was Peter Bosse Note These few Lines are but a small part of many more English Verses made by the said John Homes that he spread abroad having this Title The Fighting Quakers Expedition in Pensilv