by their Censure it is evident they think none such to be found in all Christendom but themselves who hold the Head and build on the true Foundation for thus they say VVhich whosoever pleases to bestow the reading on will see whose Communion he labours to insinuate himself into next as holding the Head and only differing in some lesser Matters But unless they be so Unchristianly uncharitable as they too evidently show they are as to judge none in Christendom differing from them in Profession to hold the Head or are sincere Professors of the Lord Jesus Christ but they only Why should I be blamed for owning my Christian Communion with them in things that are not simply unlawful Ought I not to be of David's Mind who said I am a Companion of all them that fear thee c. But more particularly as to the Case of Water-Baptism and the Supper as I have freely declared of late Years viva voce so now as freely I publish it in Print That I am not ashamed to own my general Mistakes I have been under concerning divers Places of Scriptures particularly relative to Water-Baptism and the Supper as Matth. 28. 19. and 1 Cor. 11. 26. and some other places of Scripture relative to some other matters especially in the Misapplication of some places to prove certain Truths which these places did not prove a thing but too common to many Writers and to none more than to some called Quakers for though every place of Scripture prove some Truth yet every place proves not that Truth in particular which some may bring for to prove it and I am so far from being ashamed to publish this Confession that I have great Peace and Joy in it and I also declare that I am justly ashamed that I have been so long deceived and byassed with such weak Arguments as both they called Friends and I have used being too much influenced and byassed by their pretended authority to perswade and draw away the Minds of People from the true Sense of these places of Scripture And the Arguments that we have mostly used against these two things are so weak that they have the same force against the Bible it self and all Books and outward Testimonies and outward acts of Worship and therefore are void in themselves for seeing they have no force against the latter they have as little against the former However I continue in my faithful Testimony against the abuse of these things and the dead empty and formal way that too many practise them and except the Lord be found to bless and accompany them who use them with his Power and Spirit they are but as empty Shadows and Shells But who find the Lord to bless them with his Presence I judge them not and in this I am not singular for divers of good Note among the People called Quakers even Preachers have said the same or equivalent as particularly John Crook and Robert Barclay And it can no more be an evidence of my Apostacy to correct my former Mistakes on these two places of Scripture Matth. 28. 19. and 1 Cor. 11. 26 Which mistakes of mine were That I judged the Apostles were not commanded to practise these things and did not practise them by Command but by Permission of which I am now convinced of the contrary more than it will prove John Crook an Apostate which they will not dare to say who hath owned the same viz. ' That the Apostles and Primitive Believers did do these things by Command And J. N. in his Love to the Lost hath said as much Yea both J. N. and Stephen Crisp allow the practise of the Supper at this Day to weak Believers as is evident from their Books in Print Pag. 43. They blame me for opposing it as an Error That the Garden of Paradise was some part of this visible Earth and for my saying the Hebrew Word translated to dress signifies to Work in it blaming my saying It cannot be well understood that it needed Dressing after the manner of our common Gardens Now whereas G. Whitehead hath approved this Book and boasts that I have fallen into other Hands to deal with me c. Let us see how their Hands at present agree Ye see they blame me for opposing it as an Error that the Garden of Paradise was some part of this Visible Earth and will needs have that it needed Dressing after the manner of our common Gardens But in plain Contradiction to this G. Whitehead in his Printed Book called A Serious Account in 35 Reasons c. Giveth this as one of his 35 Reasons why the People called Quakers have left the Men called Priests pag. 23. Reas 9. Also the Priests Ignorance and Gross Darkness saith he hath appeared who have affirmed That the forbidden Fruit which the Serpent tempted Eve to eat of was an Apple From which Dream of theirs the picture of a Snake and an Apple in its Mouth in a Tree with the Image of a Man a Woman are set up at the beginning of Bibles and in many other places from which some have imagined that the Serpent which beguiled Eve was a Visible Creature or Beast of the Field which for that time had power to speak and to present an Apple to deceive Eve withal when as God said to Man and Woman before the Fall Behold I have given you every Herb hearing Seed which is upon the face of all the Earth and every Tree in the which is the fruit of a Tree yielding seed to you it sha'l be for Meat Gen. 1. 29. and the fruit of such a Tree that beareth seed is an Apple So that could not be the Forbidden Fruit And the Serpent was that which tempted Man from the Simplicity of the Truth and through subtilty led him out from the Innocency and Life wherein God had placed him to feed upon the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge which was desirable to the Carnal or Woman's part that was not content with the pure innocent and simple Being wherein God at first placed Man over the rest of the Creation Now if the Trees of the Garden were not visible and particularly the Tree of the forbidden Fruit as G. W. saith it was not then to be sure the Garden by his judgment was not visible as an Apple or any other visible Fruit growing on this visible Earth and seeing he gives this as a Reason why he left the Men he calleth Priests And it is now his own Faith by the same Reason all the Quakers should leave him In the next place let us hear what G. Fox saith in that famous Book called his Journal pag. 17. ad finem Now saith he was I come up in Spirit through the Flaming Sword into the Paradise of God all things were new c. I appeal to all Intelligent Readers whether G. F. did mean by the Paradise or Garden here any part of this Visible Earth And if any think he meant it of any part
other bodies in substance from what they were here on Earth which this Caleb Pusie hath affirmed 6 thly Where doth the Scripture say The Regeneration or Conversion of the Soul is only a purification from sin as the washing of a body besmeared with dirt when cleansed is a Purification and not a Transmutation as Caleb Pusey hath also affirmed as above And though I remain still in the same mind That no Article of Faith should be urged on any but what is contained in plain express words of Scripture or so agreeable to express Scripture as the common sense of all mankind that hears Scripture words must acknowledge as though it is not said in Scriptures That Egypt Arabia Palestine Mesopotamia are Places without us yet common Sense tells us so Yet I see not why I should be so confined to express Scripture words in things that I require no Man to own or believe as Articles of Faith but leave them to their Liberty and others take their Liberty to use great variety of other words and I think I may say it without vanity the manner of my Preaching and writing has been full as much Scriptural as to Phrase as most of the Preachers and Writers among the Quakers As for his querying pag. 56. where are the express Scripture words that say The four hundred pieces of Silver that Abraham Purchased the Burying Place with signifies four hundred Vertues I Answer The Scripture saith that as much though not expresly yet implicitly as it saith The Treasures we are to lay up in Heaven are Spiritual and Divine Vertues which are the true Riches and the Wells that Abraham Digged and Isaack signified the Spiritual Wells of Water within them and Egypt signified the power of Darkness and Canaan that slowed with Milk and Hony signified the Kingdom of God for the Old Testament abounds with such Allegories But if any do not believe my interpretation by way of Allegory on that place of Scripture while they and I own the literal Sense or any others of the like nature I am far from urging it upon them but leave them to their free Judgment and as God shall be pleased to Enlighten them For there are many things both in my Book called Truth Advanced so reproachfully mentioned by him and in many other of my Books wherein I may possibly differ from others in Judgment yet I leave them to their Liberty to Dissent as I desire to be left to my Liberty to believe as I judg God has perswaded me But such as differ from me so far and so wide as this Person doth Caleb Pusie and these of the Second Days Meeting that have Countenanced and Approved his most Antichristian Doctrines directly contrary to the great fundamentals of Christianity affirming Jesus of Nazareth to be nothing else but the Light within and saying The Light within is sufficient to Salvation without any thing else so Excluding our Lord Jesus of Nazareth his Death and Sufferings his Resurrection Ascension Mediation for us in Heaven all which are something else than the Light within from being concerned in our Salvation I can by no means own them to be my Christian Brethren but esteem them to be worse than Mahometans and than other Sober and Honest Heathens or Gentiles for their opposing so great Truths so plainly exprest in Holy Scripture and it is not the Light in them but gross Darkness that leads them into these abominable Errors and the very Spirit of Antichrist Possesses them and they are such Antichrists concerning whom John Testified 1 John 2. 18. and 1 John 9. 3. Every Spirit that Confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God And this is that Spirit of Antichrist c. For notwithstanding their seeming confessions to him yet seeing they own not Justification by his Blood outwardly shed and Salvation by Faith in him as he Dyed for us and Rose again their Faith and Confession is vain and Hypocritical G. K. London the 2d of the 4th Month 1696. Some REMARKS on John Pennington 's late Book entituled The People called Quakers cleared c. and G. Whitehead his Postscript Shewing some of their gross Perversions Flashoods and Groundless Calumnies against G. K. Pag. 3. THeir blaming me for appointing a Meeting to which their Consent was neither sought nor made Necessary Answ They got timely Notice a Month before-hand and were desired to be present and why might not I appoint a Meeting without their Consent to Detect their Errors and to show the Unjustness of their Sentence of Excommunication against me as without my Consent they appointed a Meeting to Excommunicate me I desired them again and again in former Prints to consent to Time and Place yea to appoint Time and Place and I should stand to their Appointment But they still refused Offenders use not to consent to their Tryal P. 3. Their charging me with Spleen and Malice I reject as false and fictitious P. 4. Their telling of two Books lying on my Hand unanswered and my having given them Ground to expect an Answer to two of them Answ To the first some of their own Church have sufficiently answered to show the Badness of their Cause in that Censure they gave against Thomas Elwood which was read at the Meeting at Turner's-Hall 11th of the 4th Month. 1696. and is Printed in the Exact Narrative pag. 46. To the second and all the other I answered at that Meeting and have sufficiently detected their Abuses Fallacies Perversions as well as False Doctrines though I have a great deal more in reserve But all impartial Men will clear me of any blame in not answering them in Print when I have offered to Answer them viva voce at a Meeting for there is no end of answering them in Print and they can and do more securely Forge Pervert and Abuse their Readers and me also in Print because they know few will be at the pains to compare their Books with mine to see who is innocent or blame-worthy But Face to Face and by Word of Mouth it is easily made apparent and beside as I have formerly told to print Books to answer all their Books is too great a Charge for me P. 4. They alledge ' I have vindicated their Principles from their Common Adversaries Answ Such as I did think were their Principles I did formerly vindicate but most of them which I did think were their Principles I have found of late were not their Principles though I retain them still as mine and I challenge them or any Man to prove that ever I did vindicate any of these four abominable Principles which I have proved G. W. and W. P. guilty of at the late Meeting 11th 4th Month 1696. and whereof the late Printed Narrative gives an Account And though they alledge I have changed my Principles yet they have not made it to appear nor I believe they ever shall that in any one Article of the Christian Faith that are
reckoned among the Simpliciter credenda I have changed any one Principle Only as to the Sense of some Places of Scripture relating to Water-Baptism and the Supper I own I have changed my Mind but to the better and also as to some other places of Scripture improperly alledged to prove some real Truths P. 4. to p. 10. As concerning these several Testimonies they bring out of my Books in all these pages I own every one of them still as things sincerely believed by me and I believe by many others also so far as they relate to Doctrine But that I held them forth as the Principles of the Teachers among the Quakers universally or as the Principles of G. W. and W. Penn seeing I have since found them so palbably to contradict them in their Printed Books I freely acknowledge my shortness and mistake therein But they most uncharitably alledge That it is hardness in me to have changed my Opinion or Perswasion of these men seeing they have given me so great and just occasion so to do by boldly defending and excusing these vile Errors The next thing they charge me with is my Inconsistency and Self-contradiction but this is a False Charge their manifest failure in their undertaking will sufficiently I hope prove The first Self-contradiction they think they have catched me in is what they bring in pag. 111 2. viz. That I said Nameless Bull pag. 11. Seeing this true Faith is wrought in God's ordinary way by Preaching therefore the true Faith of Christ's Death and Sufferings ought to be one of the first and chiefest things that every true Minister ought to Preach c. But they think I contradict this Way to the City of God pag. 3. The knowledge of his inward coming is that which is the more needful and in the first place as being that by which the true and comfortable use of his outward coming is alone sufficiently understood Answ As I have somewhere else said It is my Lot to have to do with Men that have neither so much true Logick nor Common Sense as to understand what a true Contradiction is Let any Man of common sense judge if it be a contradiction or least inconsistency to say The true Faith of Christs Death is one of the first things that ought to be Preached to bring Men to witness the true Faith of Christs Death and being made Conformable to his Death And also to say The knowledge of his inward coming is the more needful in the first place As it is no contradiction to say George Whitehead was one of the first Quakers in the North of England George Fox was the first Quaker But for the better understanding of the Case the distinction betwixt general Religion and Christian Religion is to be considered which distinction I have used in my Book called Divine immediate Revelation and Inspiration continued in the true Church Printed at London 1684. and which was read and approved by the Second Days Meeting when I was present and therefore G. W. is bound to own what is in that Book unless he will say their Ministers are changed in their Principles see pag. 44. where I also distinguish betwixt general Revelation in Men and special the general I said was common to all Mankind the special given to true Christians By general Revelation which is that common illumination given to all Mankind men are taught to know that God is and that he is the maker of all things and that he hath given a Law to Men in their Hearts which they are to obey and when they disobey this Law they make themselves guilty before God and by this general Revelation or illumination Men generally know that they are Sinners all having sinned and by this inward Law and illumination common to all men is the knowledge of Sin and of the Wrath of God that is due for Sin and by this General or Common illumination many of the Gentiles came so far as the Servants state and had acceptance with God as Servants but were short of the state of Sons because they had not the Faith in Christ Crucified according to Gal. 3. 26. This same distinction of general and special Revelation in other terms I held forth in my Book of Universal Grace approved also by the Second Days Meeting and Printed in the Year 1671. which is about 25 Years ago see pag. 8 9 10. of that Book where I largely treat of a twofold inward Appearance of Christ in Men the first and second and how the first prepareth for the second and how the first is not to be rested in but that we ought to press forward into the second pag. 9. ad finitum And I said the first was that of the Law the second that of the Gospel pag. 8 The former that of the first Covenant the latter that of the second Covenant And I say expresly pag. 8. ' The Gospel lay hid within the Law as within a Vail which the outward Tabernacle did plainly figure and hold forth And notwithstanding that I have held forth this distinction in Print 25 Years ago yet many of my present Adversaries cry out against it as New Doctrine and contrary to Friends Principles And it most evidently appeareth from the express Words of my Book of Universal Grace pag. 120. That I did not then hold that the Light within was sufficient to Salvation without any thing else or without Christ's outward coming and his Obedience Sufferings and Death as my Adversaries Caleb Pusie and the Second Days Meeting that hath approved his Book do affirm and as these Men also do who have given out their Scandalous Book called The People called Quakers cleared for I say expresly in that pag. 120. The Light within and Christ's outward coming with his Obedience Sufferings and Death are both sufficient useful and necessary in their own kind and way Consummating and being Consummate in another And here Note that though I did not say Christ within and Christ without are two Christs yet I said his Light within and his Coming in the Outward with his Obedience Sufferings and Death were two things Consummating and being Consummated in one another Now to wipe off the Injurious Charge of my Adversaries G. W. and J. P. in this particular which I thank God I can as easily do and all other their Injurious Charges against me as Paul did throw off the Viper from his Hand I say conform to the Doctrine of my former Books and in good Consistency with all the passages in them the Light within which in a true sense is God and Christ the Eternal and Essential Word is to be Preached in the first place to Heathens and Gentiles or any other called Christians who have not any true knowledge of God or fear and reverence of him and to all bold and presumptuous Sinners and briefly to all Men whatsoever not really and truly converted to the Christian Religion to bring them in the first place to some
knowledge of God and some true fear and reverence of him and also to some true knowledge and sense of their sinful state and condition and that they are liable to the Wrath and Displeasure of God for their Sins all which are in good order previous or prior to the true Christian Faith which is a Faith in Christ crucified and therefore may be Preached before that Faith But that the Christian Faith it self may be received by Preaching that Faith is one of the first things that is to be preached as being one of the first Principles of the Christian Religion as is clear from these Scriptures Acts 20 21. where Repentance towards God and Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ are joined together as first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ compared with Heb. 6. 1 2. And these Ignorant Men so deeply Prejudicod against the Preaching of Christ Crucified to wit G. W. and J. P. as being one of the first things needful to be Preached and Faith in him in Order to make Men true Christians might by the same Silly Sophistry and Quibling accuse Paul and John contradicting each other and inconsistent yea the Holy Ghost himself who did inspire them both in what they wrot For whenas Paul told the Corinthians when he Preached the Gospel unto them 1 Cor. 15. 3. that he delivered unto them First of All Note these Words first of all that which he also received how that Christ dyed for our Sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day c. And yet John Preached not that the first thing but began with Preaching the Word that was in the beginning and how in that Word was Life and the Life was the Light of Men and that Light was the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world John 1. 1. to 9. But in this there is no Contradiction nor Inconsistency betwixt Paul and John for John begins with that Principle of Doctrine that is necessary to General Religion and to the Knowledge of God as Creator Paul begins with the Preaching CHRIST Crucified as one of the first things necessary to Christian Religion and the knowledge thereof And such Order is necessary in teaching Practical Arts and Sciences as in order to teach Astronomy some first Principles of Arithmetick and Geometry are necessary to be taught in the first place as to add and substract in Arithmetic c. And to make a Perpendicular Line or draw a Paralel to bisect an Angle c. Yet none of these are properly Principles of Astronomy as it is a peculiar Science But the first Principles of Astronomy are not to be taught before Arithmetick and Geometry but after them And so the first Principles of Medicine are to be taught after the first Principles of the Physicks and thus the first Principles of Christian Theology are to be taught after the first Principles of Ethicks or Ethology which was the Gentile Religion and which did teach many true and excellent things of God as is to be seen in Aristotle's Ethicks who wrote of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. something Divine in Man by which he could live virtuously and yet who but he that is no true Christian himself will say that Aristotle's Ethicks or Socrate's and Platoe's Morals are enough to teach the Christian Theology Thus I hope I have made it appear that as my Adversaries have not proved me inconsistent with my self so they have proved themselves inconsistent with true Christianity and no true Christians in their Principles but Heathens and falling short of Heathen Morals in Falsly accusing the Innocent a Vice contrary to true Morality The second part of their Charge in pag. 10. is That I did formerly hold that Christ's Inward coming saves where the Outwardis unknown But here they are guilty of gross Forgery and Perversion first of Forgery seeing they cite no passage in any of my Books where I express these Words where the Outward is unknown and seeing by their Words where the Outward is unknown they mean Christ's coming without us I say they are guilty of grosly perverting my Words and Sense as if I did hold that Christ's inward coming saves with Eternal Salvation without all knowledge of Christ's outward coming and in contradiction to themselves they grant I have distinguished betwixt the express or explicit Knowledge and Faith of Christ's Death and Sufferings in order to Eternal Salvation and the implicit Knowledge and Faith of it asserting this last but not the first as universa'ly and indispensibly necessary They object against this distinction idlely and falsly that it is said by me pag. 14. ' That the distinction betwixt explicit and implicit is a late distinction But the place of my Book cited by them saith no such thing But I mention how in divers of my late Books I have distinguished betwixt the express and implicit Knowledge and Faith but this proves it not to be a late distinction for it is an antient distinction and sufficiently implied and understood in my oldest Books when I treat on that subject for whereas they confess that I have used the Word express in my oldest Books that proveth that I did then make that distinction though I did not express the other term of implicit which though not expressed yet was really understood by me as in many cases it is enough to express the one Term or Member of a distinction as when we call a Man a rational Creature though we express not the Word Irrational yet we sufficiently distinguish betwixt a Man and a Bruit that Man is rational and a Bruit is irrational and when I say some or many things commanded us are jure divine this sufficiently implyeth and intimateth to any of common sense that some things may be commanded us that are not jure divino but jure humano yea all things done and practised by the People called Quakers are not jure divine as themselves confess therefore as jure divino implieth the other term of the distinction when not expressed viz. jure humano so the term express implieth the other term implicit though not expressed And though my ignorant Adversaries would make their ignorant Followers think this is only a new and odd distinction of mine yet all true and Orthodox Christians do hold it as well as I and have used it as they do at present and hath its Foundation in Scripture for when Paul said Ephes 3. 6. That the Mystery how that the Gentiles should be fellow Heirs and of the same Body and partakers of his Promise in Christ by the Gospel in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of Men as it is now revealed unto his Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit he plainly implieth this distinction for in other Ages yea in all Ages it was at least obscurely and implicitly made known but not expresly as in Paul's Age and the Ages succeeding and that Great Mystery of
Christ is said by Paul to have been kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16. 25 26. Now what is made manifest but expres And what is kept secret but implicit So that this very distinction which my ignorant Adversaries blame in me as new and odd is the very distinction of Paul in equivalent terms And seeing they will not allow that distinction as applied to the Knowledge of Christ without us of express and implicit it is plain they hold that not any Knowledge not the least grain of the knowledge of Christ without men is universally necessary to Salvation neither express nor implicit which how Antichristian and Unscriptural it is I leave to all true Christians to judge But why will they not allow it as well with respect to the knowledge of Christ without us as of Christ within us Will they say that Men may be saved without all knowledge of Christ within either express or implicit If yea then we shall see what ignorant Persons they allow shall be saved and what a prodigious Ignorance they establish If nay then they must answer me with the same distinction in the same terms or in terms equilvalent and if they use that or any other the like distinction it shall be found new enough to them at least as new or rather much more new as that I have used in this case nor needs G. Whitehead blame me for using new Distinctions seeing both himself and William Penn have used them in several Cases to serve a turn a phrase they apply to me pag. 19. as in excusing Geo. Fox his saying Christ is not distinct from the Saints the Soul is a part of God And when they excuse Is Pennington's saying ' Can outward Blood cleanse And George Whitehead his excusing his former Sayings in divers of his old Books ' that Christ is not in all Men. He comes off with this distinction of late saying ' He is not in all Men unitedly or by union Which distinction I used not only in my Book of Universal Grace which was written in the Year 1669. though not printed till the Year 1671. but also in my Answer to the Thirty Queries sent by the Bishop of Aberden expresly mentioned in the Preface to Robert Barclay's Answer to VVilliam Mitchel in his Preface to it called Truth cleared of Calumnies The which Answer of mine to the said Thirty Queries was given in the Year 1666. before R. B. printed any thing or before he was a Quaker And I the rather mention this my Answer to these Thirty Queries because in these chief things which my Adversaries charge me to be changed in my Faith is the same now as it is there declared as well as in my other Printed Books which Answer I have in Manuscript writ 30 Years ago Copies of which are in several Hands and which I shall be ready to show to any sober Enquirers And what pittiful unsound and odd as well as new Distinctions hath G. Whitehead used to excuse G. Fox his saying Your Gospel Matthew Mark Luke and John are Dust and the Serpents Meat He saying It was to be meant of the Ink and Paper which would turn to Dust. But who did ever call the Ink and Paper the Gospel or who did ever think that the Serpent which is the Devil doth eat Ink and Paper Oh for shame let these Men cease to blame me for new Distinctions when they have made so many False and Nonsensical new Distinctions more Foolish than ever were heard of And his excusing Solomon Eccles Blasphemy in saying The Blood that came out of Christ's Side was no more than the Blood of another Saint Behold his most Unlearned and Foolish Distinction inconsistent with and contradictory to that known great Principle of the People called Quakers That Christ dyed for all Men and shed his Blood for all His meaning was said G. Whitehead as to Papists and you viz. Baptists whose Minds are Carnol But another idle impertinent Cavil they make against the distinction of express Knowledge of Christ's Death c. and implicit is ' That I use that Word express as a word of Course and of no ' Force as when I said That many of Adam's Posterity suffer disadvantage by his ' Disobedience who never knew it expresly But that ever any perished by Adam's Sin who never knew it either expresly or implicitly as they alledge seeing they bring no proof of it I reject as false and fictitious It is evident from the Heathen Philosophers Writings and particularly from Plato that they knew at least implicitiy the Fall of Man and the degeneration of Mankind in general for Plato not only mentions the Fall of Man but Tò 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an imbred Evil in Men that is born with them And how can any Impartial Reader that reads my Books when I so oft caution restrict and limit the Words on that subject with the term Express and at other times with the Words clear Distinct Knowledge and at other times with the Words Historical Outward Knowledge all which and the like Words R. Barelay hath used in several Places of his Apology after my Method and divers Years after I used that Method of Expression and I well know we were of One Mind in that thing and I published his Latin Theses in Holland first of all and carried them over with me out of Scotland at his desire whereof I can bring sufficient Witness and we used to Discourse together frequently on that Subject and both of us on purpose used these Cautions and Restricted Words as express clear distinct historical outward and in the outward viz. in the outward History or Letter to signifie that we did not intend that any were saved with Eternal Salvation without all Knowledge or Faith of Christ without though without the express they might and still may where it is not revealed And they are as Nonsensical and Ignorant in seeking to marr my Distinction by falsly alledging I have marred it by their dictator-like saying There is no Medium between knowing very darkly in Vails and Figures implicitly in a very obscure Degree and not knowing at all pag. 15. But to confute their Ignorance let any Man of common Sense answer me Is there no Medium between knowing very Darkly and not knowing at all Is the Particle or little Word very Superlative in the highest Degree or is it not rather Comparative Is there no medium betwixt a Mans being very ignorant and knowing nothing at all If there be none then by George Whitehead's Logick who hath either writ this Book that I answer or approved it because he is very Ignorant as I have sufficiently proved he knoweth nothing at all But surely the most ignorant may and do know some things therefore G. W. is as ignorant in true
Logick as in true Divinity Another Forgery and Perversion they put upon my Words in pag. 15. when they make me say Men have been saved without the express Knowledge of the one viz. Christ's outward coming but not of the other viz. his inward coming But I never said or thought any such thing I have judged charitably and so I still judge that many have been saved and may be saved without the express Knowledge as truly of his inward coming as of his outward for many have felt and enjoyed the blessed Vertue and Power of Christ within them and so have had an implicit knowledge of it and it hath been saving to them though they had not that clear and express knowledge to call it by all or many of these Names that the Scriptures call it by expresly and shall we say they must all perish who though they own the Grace and Spirit of Christ and its operation in them yet are shy and fearful to call it Christ in them and to be sure as few of the Gentiles knew this inward Principle of Truth in them by the express Knowledge and Names of Jesus and Christ as knew him to be Man in the outward by these Names And here Note that ten several times at least in the Words and Passages they have quoted out of my Books they bring me in using the Word Express still saying The Express Knowledge and Faith of Christ's Death is not universally necessary to Mens Salvation And seeing in all my late Books and also at present I say the same I appeal to all moderate Persons of common sense if this be any contradiction or rather doth not this false and unfair way of their Arguing evidently prove them wonderfully ignorant and blinded with Prejudice against me and let any School-Boy or Tiro or Person of Common Sense judge if these two Propositions held by me and thousands more are contradictory The express Knowledge and Faith of Christ is not necessary to all that shall be saved Some Knowledge and Faith of Christ is necessary to all that shall be saved Even as whether these two Propositions be contradictory The clear Light of Sun Moon Fire or Candle is not necessary to see and read with Some light of Sun Moon Fire or Candle is necessary to see and read with Their next Head is pag. 23. That I said in my former Books the Inward Principle is to be Preached in the first place and the Effects thereof Answ This I grant still and how and in what sense in the Words aforegoing I have sufficiently declared and I further add That some true knowledge of God springing from the Inward Principle in concurrence with the serious Consideration of the Works of Creation and Providence is necessary as previous and prior to the knowledge of Christ's Death and Sufferings for our Sins for in God's ordinary way we are first taught that there is a God before we are taught that there is one only Son of God that proceeded from him by an Eternal Generation and who became the Son of Man by Generation in the Fullness of Time The first of these Lessons or Doctrines belong to all Men to know and they are rather Bruits than Men who know it not The second of these Lessons is proper and peculiar to Christians and may well be called at least one of the first things needful to be preached known and believed among them called Christians and as the Doctrine of Christ's outward coming is truly and duly Preached by enlightned and well qualified Preachers that more excellent and peculiar Influence and Ministration of the Spirit that accompanies the Faith of Christ crucified is also preached and not only preached but freely given and imparted by God through Christ to all such who hear it and believe it sincerely as it is preached Therefore what is necessary in the first place to be preached to them that have little or no true Knowledge of God or of an Inward Principle is one thing and what is first to be preached in order to bring Men to the Christian Faith and Religion more immedately and proximately is another as what is necessary in the first place to be Preached to Men that they may know God and believe in him as a Creator King and Lord over all is one thing and what is necessary to be preached to Men in the first place that they may know God and believe in him as a Gracious Father pardoning their Sins freely for Christ's sake and accepting them in him and that also they may believe in Christ crucified is another thing All which proveth sufficiently what I have delivered both in my former and latter Books to be well consistent on this very Head viz. That the Faith of Christ's Death and Sufferings is one of the first Principles of the Christian Religion and therefore is so to be preached together with the Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment and Repentance from dead Works according to Heb. 6. 1 2. which according to the Greek is there called The Word of the Beginning of Christ. But what do my Adversaries bring against me on this Head to prove my Self-contradiction Nothing at all therefore they show themselves stronger in Falsly Accusing than in justly Proving Their following Head is pag. 25. Where they charge me with a Self-contradiction in saying The Gentiles were savingly enlightned who knew not the History of Christ's outward coming c. And they think I contradict my self when I said in my Book called A further Discovery pag. 10. of one called a Friend that lately Preached That he was a bold ignorant Soul for preaching that the Blood which cleanseth from all Sin was the Life and the Life is the Light calling it a perverse Exposition I Answer That it is a perverse Exposition and that he who gave it was a bold ignorant Soul I still affirm and I charge them to be guilty of gross Forgery until they prove that I have said the same and gave that Exposition on that place of Scriptrue 1 John 1. 7. which I do not in the least remember but no proof they bring any where that I have so said and their Argument is Fallacious and Deceitful like themselves that because I have said It is the Life that saveth Rom. 5. 10. citing pag. 115. of my Book called Universal Grace therefore that by Blood in that place 1 John 1. 7. I did mean the Life which is the Light within And the Fallacy and Sophistry of their Argument lieth in this that because I have granted the Life within saveth or cleanseth from Sin that therefore the Blood mentioned 1 John 1. 7. is the Life Now if I had said Nothing but the Life within saveth or cleanseth from all Sin they might have justly so argued But seeing I ever held as I do at present hold that there are several concurring Causes in the great Work of our Salvation and cleansing from Sin which though agreeing in one Harmony
THE Anti-Christs and Sadduces DETECTED Among a sort of QUAKERS OR Caleb Pusie of Pensilvania and John Pennington with his Brethren of the Second Days Meeting at London called Quakers Proved Antichrists and Sadduces out of a Printed Book lately published by them falsly called A modest Account of the principal Differences in point of Doctrine betwixt George Keith and those of the People called Quakers in Pensilvania c. Being an ANSWER to the said Book Signed particularly by Caleb Pusie but expresly recommended in Print by John Pennington and approved by the Second Days Meeting at London With some few Remarks on John Penningtons late Book entitled The People called Quakers cleared c. And Geo. Whitehead his Postscript shewing some of their gross Perversions Falsehoods and Groundless Calumnies against G. K. And a POSTSCRIPT Containing an earnest Expostulation with the most Pious and Learned Persons 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 Quakrs By GEORGE KEITH London Printed for the Author and are to be sold at his House at the Golden Ball over-against Red-Lyon-street in White-Chappel THE Anti-christ's and Sadduces DETECTED Among a sort of QUAKERS IN the first place it is fit I should give the Readers some Information who the Second Days Meeting at London is It is a Meeting of the Ministry of them called Quakers of William Penns and George Whiteheads Party belonging to London and some of the Country that may happen to be present who Meet at Whitehart-Court in Lombard-Street every Second day of the Week and assume a Power to License and Approve of all Books that are to be Printed by any of their Party and have approved this Book falsely called A Modest Account and all the late scandalous Books of Thomas Elwood and John Pennington come forth against me and claim Authority over all other Meetings the Yearly Meeting perhaps excepted sending out their Circular Letters to all other Meetings in all parts of the World as they think they have occasion and to whom the Meetings from all places direct their Letters upon any occurrence of difference as the Churches and Bishops of other Countries had wont to direct their Letters to Rome which was the Rise of that Roman Hierarchy the which Meeting may be fitly compared to the Conclave of Cardinals at Rome but who is the Metropolitan of this new erected Hierarchy at London at present is not certainly known as whether W. P. or G. W. He doth acknowledg 1st differences in point of Doctrine 2. Principal differences How doth this agree with many of them called the Church Party here who say They do not deny G. K's Doctrine P. 8. As concerning the Sufficiency of the Light without something else that he saith you have made such a pudder about of late for this he brings a Proof from my Book Light of Truth p. 12. and 6. where I say the express Knowledg and Belief c. Is not universally of absolute necessity unto Salvation and so I say still annd so saith R. Barclay whom he abuseth as well as me for we both frequently caution and limit the matter saying the clear distinct express Historical Knowledg is not universally necessary See my Book Universal Grace p. 117. ad Finem But whereas he states the difference in point of Doctrine betwixt some in Pensilvania and me as if I said it were an Error to affirm ' the Light within were sufficient without something else which I never so said nor thought for the Light within is sufficient without not only something else but without thousands of somethings else But my assertion was and is ' The Light within is not sufficient to Salvation without ' something else which they blaming they ought to hold the contradictory assertion viz. The Light within is sufficient to Salvation without any thing else for two contradictories are not betwixt two particulars but one particular and another Universal now seeing they hold ' that the Light within ' is sufficient without any thing else it is plain they Exclude the Man Christ without us and his Death c. from being concerned in our Salvation P. 8. He basely forges me to say It is a real degree of Blasphemy to say this Light cannot make satisfaction for sins past citing pag. 38. 39. Refutation See the place I have no such words but plain contrary I say Refut p. 42. 43. Neither is the Saints greatest inward Righteousness or Holiness wrought in them by the Spirit of God an Atonement or Propitiation for their sins but Christ alone who Dyed for us the just for the unjust P. 9. He cites my Book Looking-glass for Protestants p. 10. That Magistrates may Preach which he thinks a contradiction to my late Testimony with Friends in Pensilvania that Friends of the Ministry should not meddle to be Justices and Judges in Criminal Cases but this is no contradiction for it is one thing occasionally to Preach or Teach or Exhort as any Christian can do and another to exercise the Office or Function of a Minister of the Gospel of Peace one day that saith Resist not Evil and our Weapons are not Carnal and another day to hang Men for Murder c. Which scarce any that profess to be Ministers do in Christendom but the Quakers in America P. 9. That I say of Christs Body now in Heaven It being no more a Body of Flesh Blood and Bones but a pure ethereal or Heavenly Body This he brings to prove a contradiction to my self leaving out the foregoing words Which remaineth the same in Substance that it was on Earth c. So that by my saying it being no more a Body of Flesh and Blood I mean it in the Apostles sense 1 Cor. 15. Flesh and Blood cannot inherit c. See my words cited by himself p. 10. a Testimony against the false and absurd Op. The Flesh that is mortal gross and corruptible is not the Flesh that shall be raised up immortal and incorruptible P. 12. He makes me to contradict my self in saying Presb. and Indep p. 133. The Express Knowledg of Christ his becoming Man and suffering was positively denied to be of necessity to Salvation but now I furiously quarrel with Friends about it that it is But his fallacy lyeth in this that I say the express Knowledg is not universally necessary but some knowledg if not express yet implicit is and this is no Contradiction P. 15. He Argues from my Book The Light of Truth p. 8. That the Light within is the only Christ and he saith p. 14. the word only admits of nothing else than Light Power and Spirit within Answ 1. Here it is manifest he placeth all on the Light within so that
the man Christ Jesus of Nazoreth without us is nothing of Christ but as his Assertion and Consequence is Blasphemous so it follows not from my words for as I then said so I still say Christ is but one and there are not two Christs one within and another without but it will not follow that there is nothing of Christ without us but what is within us Suppose Caleb Pusey's Head is without the House and some or most of his Body is within the House as is possible the Caleb Pusey that is within is the same that is without yet there is something of him without that is not within it is the same Body of Water in the Complex that is in the Thames and in the Sea yet it follows not that there is nothing of the great and vast Body of Water but what is within the Thames But when Men that have neither Learning nor good Exercise of Human Reason will meddle to Dispute we see how ignorant they prove themselves to be in the face of the World or how they expose themselves in Print neither to be true Christians nor Men of true Reason he had better kept with working at his Mill being by profession a Miller than enter into a Dispute of matters wherein he is so grosly ignorant But seeing the Second Days Meeting at London hath countenanced his Book and the Quakers generally at London allow it to be Sold next door to their Meeting-house in Grace-Church-street they make his ignorance unbelief Saducism and Antichristian Doctrine to be theirs And seeing my Book called The Light of Truth in Answer to R. Gordon was approved by the Second Days Meeting and that he would infer from my words That Jesus of Nazareth cannot be something else than the Light Power and Spirit within it is plain that it is both their Sense and his that Jesus of Nazareth is nothing at all of Christ without us which is a plain contradiction to themselves and to himself in his following words But no such consequence doth really follow from my words P. 17. He so mingles my words with his own that no man can distinguish the one from the other but the Reader that doth not compare my words in my own Book with his Citations would think them to be mine for whereas my words are in the pag. cited by him For whereas thou not only affirms that Salvation and Justification hath a necessary respect to Christ his taking on him the form of a Servant or Man in the outward and humbling himself therein even to the outward Death which we also grant God having so ordered it to be c. He makes as if I said his words are for as G. K. saith the Lord having ordained it so to be how can or dare we say therefore that he was or is not sufficient by his Light Power and Spirit to save without something else But see Reader his Forgery I say no such words but my words are a plain contradiction by necessary consequence to his presumptuous assertion for seeing God had Ordained it so to be as I have said that our Salvation and Justification hath a necessary respect to Christ his taking on him the form of a Servant in the outward therefore it evidently followeth that God could not save us without respect to the Man Christ in the outward otherwise he could or should contradict his own Ordination but as God cannot lye so nor can he contradict his own Counsel and Ordination and therefore the presumption is his and not mine And seeing they grant that God in the Man Christ without us cannot save us without an inward work of his Power and Spirit within us to Regenerate and Sanctify us which is a Truth and yet is no Reflection on his Sufficiency and Omnipotency so nor is it any reflection on him that God in us cannot save us without the Man Christ without us for he is as truly God without us and incomparably more manifest in the Man Christ without us than in us P. 19. He saith I exposed Friends to the World in Print for retaking a Sloop without ever admonishing them before hand for it and that when I reckoned my self an Elder in the Church among them Answ This is a gross falshood and Forgery I Printed nothing about their retaking a Sloop till a considerable time after 28 of the Ministers had Excommunicated me at Philadelphia to which Sentence some that gave a Commission to retake the sloop by force of Arms did put their hands and all the rest consented and they have disowned me to be any Member of their Church and how then could I own my self to be any of them which I did not So that this whole passage is false and a wilful piece of Forgery P. 20. He also alledgeth That I came to them and commended them for what they did and said It was very well done adding methinks you should consider these things Answ But what proof brings he for his Affirmation None at all and he having sufficiently discovered his gross forgery in other things rendreth his credit of no value in this and I well remember that at the retaking of the Sloop I was not in the Province but that I commended them that they had done well to send Armed men to retake the Sloop I affirm is an absolute forgery for it never was my Principle since I was called a Quaker and I have many to bear me witness that it hath been my constant Principle that Friends should not in any case use the Carnal Sword and the same Principle Robert Barclay in his Apology hath largely asserted and whom we have quoted and it is well known that many of greatest note among the Quakers hath declared the same And suppose I did say that they who did retake the Sloop did well which I do not remember all this might have been well said without any contradiction or equivocation for it was Peter Bosse and one or two more with him in a little Boat having neither Gun Sword nor Spear that retook the Sloop when a great many Armed Men that filled several Boats stood off at a distance and were afraid to come within shot and so the praise of that work belonged to him and not to them and the Magistrates did ill reward him for they not long after Fined him 6 Pounds and put him in Prison for some passages writ to Sam. Jennings in a private Letter and kept him in Prison 20 miles remote from his Family till the Magistrates that were Quakers and had cast him into Prison were turned out of the Government by G. Fletcher who was made Governour of Pensilvania by a Commission from K. William and Queen Mary and how soon he came unto the Government he Released him after inquiry that they had nothing justly against him See a further Account of this in the printed Tryal of G. K. T. B. and Peter Bosse first printed at Philadelphia and Reprinted at London 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
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
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
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