Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
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A65534
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A brief and modest reply to Mr. Penn's tedious, scurrilous and unchristian defence against the Bishop of Cork
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Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing W1489; ESTC R38532
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21,311
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30
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as his Brethren uses to make Scripture for us as well as wrest it But as to the Interpretation by him advanced Though here be a Doubt or Ambiguity raised where there is none yet suppose not admit the Text doubtful However let that be the sense of it which the Saints in Scripture ever understood to be such If then they in whom CHRIST JESUS was already come and in whom he dwelt continually even by the power of his Spirit did notwithstanding this some of them dayly others every Lords-Day celebrate this his Supper Then this shewing forth his Death till he came was not by them understood of his Inward and Spiritual but of his Second Outward coming to Judgement For in such Case feeling so fully his being come in their Hearts they would have desisted But notwithstanding their having received the Holy Ghost and CHRIST's dwelling in them by his Spirit they in some places and while the Disciples dwelt together in Common dayly Celebrated the Lords Supper Acts II. 46. and in others where they were dispersed amongst the Heathens they met on the First Day of the Week to Celebrate it Acts XX. 7. Therefore the Saints in Scripture had no such Notion of our LORD 's coming in this case nor did they understand it as Mr. P. has wrested it of an inward but of an outward coming as the Church Universally has ever taken it since that day to this present Mr. P. has another touch which may stumble some for laying aside Baptism and the Lords Supper These visible Signs saith he which the Bp. calls the Badges of Christianiiy are not made an Article of any of the antient Creeds Had they been of that importance they are by some esteemed we cannot think they would have been forgot by the Compilers of those Creeds Answ Nor were they forgot Mr. P. either was never Catechised as he ought to have been or has forgotten what he was taught to be the meaning of that Article I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints That is in short I believe all the Faithful are made one Body by Communion in the same Faith Covenant and Ordinances of Worship especially Baptism and the Lord's Supper But in the Constantinopolitan Creed which was Compiled about the Year 379 or 380 when Re-baptising of Hereticks had been for some time matter of Controversie and had turmoil'd the Church it is exprest I believe one Catholick Church I acknowledge one Baptism for the Remission of Sins That is Persons being once Baptised and thereby ingrafted into the Church ought not to be Baptised again which is the true sense of one Baptism and not what Mr. P. suggests Further were Mr. P. such a thorough read Man as he would seem the Creeds of the Waldenses to whom he would have us as he pretends more conformable might have satisfied him in this point In one of which presented by them to Uladislaus King of Hungary extant in Fascic Rerum expet fugiend p. 162. there are two distinct Articles one of Baptism the other of the Eucharist too large to be here inserted And in another more brief which is to be seen in Hovedens Annalls fol. 319. we have these words We believe that no man is saved who Eats not the Body of CHRIST which Body is not Consecrated but in the Church and by a Priest We believe also that none is saved unless he be Baptised and that Infants are saved by Baptism This Creed is also produced by Arch-Bishop Usher in his learned Book De success stat Christ Eccl. cap. 8. To mention the Creeds of other Churches would signifie little in Mr. Ps. opinion and the Bp. knows not how much Authority he will allow the poor Waldenses now when he finds they are against him but let him take it as he pleases he must know the consent of all Christians from the time of the first Institution of the Lord's-Supper as has been shewn runs against this his Perversion of the Text. To summ up all in brief that has been now said of the Sacraments The Bp. says to Renounce or cast off the outward Badges of the Profession of Christianity which our LORD CHRIST Instituted and his Apostles delivered and which the Apostolical Churches received and constantly practiced which all Christian Churches ever since have held to is to renounce or cast off the outward Profession of Christianity Put M. P. and his Party renounce or cast off these outward Badges of the Profession of Christianity which Christ Jesus appointed and his Apostles delivered which the Apostolical Churches received and constantly practiced which all Christian Churches ever since have held to Therefore Mr. P. and his Party have recounced or cast off the outward profession of Christianity that is outwardly are no Christians As to their Hearts the Bp. leaves them to GOD and Judges not And thus as to the Sacraments The last Point which the Bp. thinks of moment in Mr. Ps. Book yet remaining untoucht is The great difference or Ground of Dissent betwixt the Quakers and the Establisht Church and this Mr. P. tells us is the great Carnality and Emptiness both of Ministers and People under the profession of Religion amongst us A humane and lifeless Ministry and Worship together with the great Worldliness of Professors The Ministry being made a Temporal Preferment Turning Alms into Dues and by Law making Gifts Rents p. 97 98 99. c. 1. As to Carnality Mr. P. must not be offended if he having exempted himself and Party from all this Guilt and charged it upon the Establisht Church and Ministry the Bp. hereby enforced speak out He says then that if Eating the Fat and Drinking the choicest be Carnality if minding worldly Gain and being so intent on it Day and Night as to pass most Days in the Week without a Prayer to GOD either in publick Assembly or Family if the slyest ways both to get Money and keep it be worldliness he knows no sort of People according to the degree of each more given to these Vices than the Quakers There is nothing to be Eaten which is better than Ordinary that comes into our Markets here which the People observe not presently bought up by the Quakers They are still the earliest and best Chapmen every Market-Day for such Commodities and much good may they do them The Bp. could mention more scandalous Particulars or Instances both of Carnality and Worldliness amongst them but it is not agreeable to his Temper And indeed how they should be a Heavenly minded People who so much restrain Prayer that is lay a side forbear or neglect it as to common Practice at least have done so till of very late Years and defended the same as the Bp. could speak upon his own knowledge is not accountable Next as to the point of their being Spiritual because we of the Establisht Church are often taxed of want hereof and so charged of being unable to understand the Works of the Holy
them who professes as concerning their Principles he was deceived by them thinking they had held sincerely the Principles which by a more diligent search he finds they hold not assures us and has Printed Testimonies out of their Books to prove they deny 1. Faith in Christ as George Keith in his Third Narrative he outwardly suffered at Jerusalem as he rose again Ascended and now Sits at the Right Hand of God to be necessary to Salvation 2. Justification by the Blood of Christ outwardly shed 3. A Resurrection of the Body that Dyeth 4. Christs coming again without us in his glorified Body to Judge the Quick and the Dead Nay the same Person professes as the Bp. has seen under his hand That he really thinks he can prove W. P. holds not one of the Articles of the Christian Creed soundly and intirely and that none ever more plainly oppugned the Doctrine of the Scriptures than W. P. and his Party Upon so close an Evidence as this is let the World judge if the Bp. be unreasonable in demanding a better confession of Faith than by meer Innuendo's as necessary to their being allowed Christians True indeed now in his Defence Mr. P. tells the World he and his Brethren receive all the Articles of the Creed called the Apostles p. 97. But this may be reckoned one of the good effects the Bps Paper has had to bring them to this acknowledgment and t is to be hoped they will be kept to it It would be as endless as needless and besides would swell this Paper to too great a Bulk to follow Mr. P. Page by Page to the End Replying to all his little Cavils and poor Evasions A more Compendious way therefore must be taken Which shall be 1. By reducing Mr. P s Answers and Arguments to some Common Heads or Figures of Speech which he uses so contemptible in themselves as that the instances of them are answered by being shewn And 2. by singling out the more material Points wherein Mr. P. Enlarges and setting them in their true Light The several Heads to which his Answers may be reduced are either manifest Impieties or manifold arts of Uncharitableness and Disingenuity much unbecoming a Christian or even a fair Disputant Manifest Impieties are 1. His falsifying the sense of Scripture and then the words of it so plainly that he cannot well seem insensible of it himself Thus whereas our LORD said John III. 20. Every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Which passage to make look favourably to his purpose he corrupts the 21st verse and reads it thus He that loves the Light brings his Deeds to the Light to see if they are wrought in GOD. p. 10. 4. Whereas the plain meaning of the Text is no more than They that do evil seek to be hid 1 Thes 5. 7. They that are Drunken are Drunken in the Night They who do well fear not to be seen To which sense every Nation has Proverbs Si factum est bonum quorsum tenebris opus est and with us Truth seeks not Corners with many like now contrary to the sense of Mankind as well of the Holy Ghost W. P. produces this Text as a proof of the Light within and that it is to be the Rule and Judge of our Life and Deeds yea to credit confirm and expound Scripture So does he too with like reasonableness Eph. V. 11 12 13. 2. His plain reproaching the Holy Spirit in the Apostles as to what they taught Thus when he had no other way to answer the Bps Argument for the Divine Authority of Baptism by Water taken from Acts X. 47. 48. he says plainly In all which Peter seems more concerned to save his own credit than to recommend or establish Water-Baptism p. 81. A man would think this were not expressing himself reverently on this tender point or as he promised p. 68. These for a Tast Single instances under each Head for brevity sake must suffice Manifold Arts of Uncharitableness and Disingenuity the Bp. accounts these that follow 1. Calumnious and Spiteful Insinuations as p. 30. that he the Bp. believes not the Thirty Nine Articles yet did W. P. never discourse with him touching any one of them with many like passages 2. False Imputations p. 69. He downright charges the Bp. for treating the Quakers with Levity and Scorn as to the Language Thou and Thee The Bp. Challenges him to shew a light or scornful Expression in that his Paper Nay rather than fail W. P. will impute to the Bp. his own uncharitable censures of him The Bishop according to his usual way of plain dealing and speaking home to mens Consciences to the end they may search their Hearts touching their secret and unseen sins which are known only to God and their own Consciences dealt roundly with the Quakers and put some Questions to them conjuring them to put them to themselves and Examine their own Conscience For instance the Bp. has long observed and all Men may observe as Notorious the Quakers eager pursuit of wealth and their effectual wily and secret ways of getting it Now hereupon he bids them Examine their Consciences Whether their main end and study by their pretended Mortifications and renouncing the World be not to enrich themselves and to make themselves a party considerable c. This Mr. P. makes one of the Bps. censures and then charges it upon the Bp. as the worst construction that the most irreligious and profane could make of their behaviour The Bp. did not affix it to them and all along avows that he suspends any Censure or Judgment of them He professes it is not his right in this sense to judge But he now demands of Mr. P. whether when Peoples Actions are suspicious it be not reasonable for nay the Duty of a faithful Pastor to conjure them to examine and judge themselves which is all the Bp. did Yet still Mr. P. goes on in this false imputation p. 117. The Bp. says he tells us he will not judg us yet his whole Paper is one continued Judgment of us Sure Mr. P. does not know or will not attend what judging as it means censoriousness is The Bp. most plainly judged not the Quakers Belief in their Consciences but that Form which Mr. P. and his Brethren professed or to use their own term declared in this Paper And the Bp. stands to it both the Authors and the Paper deserve another kind of Censure then he gave or attempted on Either Notwithstanding Mr. P. sticks not upon this very reason to charge the Bp. of Irreligion making them as bad as bad can be c. p. 117. God give Mr. P. more Charity and Reason for this is plain censoriousness and concluding without consequence 3 Sly Jeers p. 27. I would have my Reader reflect on this though he were as big as a Bp. p. 40. No Bp. in these three Kingdoms has the big and