6 th ch 8 th v. having in the former vers told Timothy that we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and having Food and Raiment let us therewith be content Here was the Counsel of an Apostle to a Bishop for it 's said he was Bishop of the Church at Ephesus Now things being well weighed according to the Scripture where is the Divine Right either for Tithes or the other great Revenues you Clergymen compell the Nations to pay you It is not from Christs Command nor the Apostles nor from any of their Examples neither Apostles Bishops Pastors nor Teachers you are without Warrant from the Scripture you have neither Precept nor President for your Practices either as in respect to your great Revenues that you seek after and enjoy nor your manner of forcing people to pay you All we see in Christs Ordination that was to be done to them that would not receive them and relieve them was they were to shake off the dust of their feet as a witness against them and then Christ shews the danger of their rejecting but refers it to the day of Judgment but this will not serve you though ye pretend to be spiritual men yet it plainly appears you are for your carnal ends you cannot trust your selves under Christs Care to live of the Gospel and what that freely produceth in the hearts of the people as Christs Ministers did And you may see what they answered when he questioned them as in Luk. 22. 35. And he said unto them when I sent you without Purse and Scrip and Shooes lacked ye any thing and they answered Nothing So here is Faith and Obedience and the effects also of the Faith and Obedience of Christs Ministers set before us for an example But it 's evident you do no more love to follow the example of the primitive Ministers than you love to submit to what Christ hath ordained as appears by the great bustle thou makest and the many shuffling Arguments thou usest to invalidate the good example of the Apostle in that godly Care that was upon him that he might not make the Gospel chargeable which is no more than the real duty of every true Minister of Christ although you make it not your concern as is evident from your practices And what if the Apostle had Power and asserted his Power thou seest what Power he asserts in these words Have we not power to eat and to drink and again have we not power to forbear working c as in 1 Cor. 9. so thou mayst still see that he pretended to no power above his Masters Commission who said they might eat such things as were set before them the Labourer was worthy of his Meat So still this makes nothing for thee and thy Brethen his Power you will not be content with no more than his Example for then you know you must not live in pride height fulness and idleness as ye do and so being his Power will not answer your ends you fly from his Power which was the Gospel which they that preached it were to live by to Man's Power and Law for your Maintenance and by that force and compell people to pay you for whom you do no work and to whom you cannot say as he did 1 Cor. 9. 1. Are not you my work in the Lord But alas how many thousands do you compel in Ireland to pay you that are not your work in this sense he speaks of you have no concern in their Conversion if they be converted but whether they be or not you matter not you will have your Revenue from among them But thou tellest him He does not consider that the Gospel of Christ was but in its Infancy Paul was but then planting it endeavouring to make it the established Religion of the Nations as now it is Answer That Paul was planting it we grant but that the Religion which he endeavoured to establish is now the established Religion of the Nations we deny For first there is no such Unity nationally in Religion as he endeavoured to establish as in 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing that there be no Division among you that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same Mind and in the same Judgment Secondly They are not established in Holiness and that Perfection which he laboured to establish and present in as Col. 1. 28. Warning every man and teaching every man in all Wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus And likewise in Ephes. 4. we read that he gave Ministers and Gifts for the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the Body of Christ c. till they all come in the unity of the Faith to a perfect man c. And 2 Corinth chap. 7. ver 1. His Labour was to bring them to perfect Holiness in the Fear of God. This is the Religion Paul and others endeavoured to establish in the Nations and to establish people in and for this end Peter exhorts the Believers to be holy in all manner of Conversation that as he which had called them was holy so they might be holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Here is that which they laboured to make the established Religion of the Nations viz. Uunity Perfection and Holiness in all manner of Conversation Thou affirmest that now it is made as he to wit Paul endeavoured to make it If this were true then the Nations would be gathered into Righteousness and Holiness Unity Peace Love Good will But alas there appears no such Fruits of the true Religion amongst the generality of the people of the Nations which doth demonstrate that there is no such Establishment of it as thou hast asserted whatever may be professed in words We take notice how much thou art offended at his telling thee that the Ministers wrought with their hands and takest occasion at the word Ministers as if he had said All laboured and then affirmest it's very false whereas he only saith Ministers in the plural number not All which is proved true by the Scripture and thy own consession who grantest that Paul and his Fellow-travelling Apostles did labour with their Hands And then when thou hast asserted it to be false thou challengest him to shew another Apostle besides them in the New Testament that wrought For saist thou they forsook their Boats their Nets their Trades for his sake and the Gospel and the New Testament doth not inform us that they ever returned to these Trades again for a Livelihood Answ. We read John 23. that Peter above three years after he was called by Christ with several other Disciples after they had so forsaken their Boats c. went a fishing and that Peter then had his Fishers Coat not a long Gown as those called Ministers now wear and we do not believe they went
THE HOLY TRUTH And Its PROFESSORS DEFENDED IN AN ANSWER to a LETTER writ by Lawrence Potts Priest of Staplestown near Catherlough UNTO Robert Lacky a Parishioner and formerly Hearer of the said Priest Occasioned by his forsaking his Ministry and embracing the blessed Truth herein vindicated By John Burnyeat John Watson Tâ—â—e counsel together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people saying Say ye Not a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say A Confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Isa. 8. 10 11 12 13. Printed in the Year 1688. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER Christian Reader ANother Letter coming to our hands subcribed J. T. the tendency thereof being to beget a dislike in R. L. to whom it was writ to the Principles of Truth as prosessed by us the truly reformed Christians called Quakers and to prevent the writing of more such occasion'd our making thus publick the following Answer to Priest Potts's Letter and the rather understanding the said J. T. saw it and takes no notice thereof in his although it answers the substance thereof excepting in these following particulars 1. His accounting it an Errour in us not to swear Ans. We in short say we have Christs Command for not Swearing Matt. 5. 3 4. Swear not at all and seconded by the Apostle James 5. 12. which we believe ought to be observed by all Christians 2. He charges us with denying the Trinity as he terms it Ans. We do really own the Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One Joh. 5. 7. and we also own the Three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these Three agree in One as ver 8. and so we do and always did believe according to the holy Scriptures 3. He charges us with denying the Scriptures to be the Word of God. Ans. We believe the Scriptures to be what they call themselves a Testimony or Declaration as in Luke 1. 1. Joh. 5. 39. but Christ we own and believe to be the Word of God according to Joh. 1. and Rev. 19. 13. so we own the Word of the Lord that came unto the Prophets saying as in Ezek. 7. 1. and in divers othes places and we own and believe the Sayings of the Word as recorded in the holy Scriptures so the Word that came unto the Prophets was the Sayer or that which spoke unto them and the Scriptures are the words or sayings which the Word or Spirit of Christ spoke unto and through the Prophets as is evident from the Testimony of the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Dublin the 12th of the 9th Month. 1688. J. B. J. W. The Holy Truth and its Professors defended c. Lawrence Pots WE having met with a Paper of thine and finding our selves and others of the people called Quakers concerned therein with our Christian Religion and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which we are called to bear witness unto and contend for were not willing to let it pass without taking notice of thy false Charges upon us and our Religion together with thy weak Vindication of thy self with the rest of the Clergy of your Church in those things which thou hast yet to prove And we find our selves the more concerned because of thy Challenge in thy Paper where thou saist It does become your Teachers to make this plainly appear to you and me from whom they have drawn you and therefore if they can make it out I again challenge it of them and you By the way we would have thee take notice of this that Robert Lacky in his Letter to thee doth acquaint thee that it was the Light or Grace of God that let him see the Evil or Defects in himself and others and so meerly the Love of God that prevailed in his heart so that it was not Man that drew him from thee and thy Teachings but the Lord Jesus Christ the true Shepherd whom the Father promised that by his Spirit of Light and Grace did draw him and so fulfilled the Promise of the Father in Ezek. 34. 10. where he saith He would deliver his Flock from the mouth of such as fed themselves that they might not be meat for them c. In the first place we observe thou blamest him for saying If he or any other through the Light of Gods Grace in the heart do see Defects in themselves or others that profess that Religion where in they were bred he does not understand how he incurs Damnation by forsaking it c. And so in thy Answer blamest him for confounding Religion as thou sayest with the Carriage of its Professors c. Answer It 's true there may be wicked men Professors of a most holy and pure Religion and therefore for some particulars being of an evil carriage to condemn a Religion is not proper But when a man finds and understands that in the Exercise of his Religion he receives not power against Sin and Temptation in himself nor yet sees the effect of such a power in others it may be not in the very Teachers but that is lived in which answers not the Law of God nor the Life of a true Christian and yet here is no dismembring of such or excluding them from their Church-Fellowship This may justly give ground to suspect a Defect in that Religion and therefore it may be warrantable for a man under these Observations both concerning himself and others to enquire and seek after a Religion wherein Power may be enjoyed from Christ to overcome Sin and withstand Temptation and we do believe thou thy self art not ignorant how that not only many of the people of your Church are of a loose Conversation but diverse of your Clergy also and yet they suffered to abide in their Places and Offices without either being excluded or silenced though the Apostle exhorts to withdraw from every Brother that walks disorderly And again 1 Cor. 5. 11. He writes unto the Church not to keep company with any called a Brother that was a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner such thou maist see were to be denied Fellowship in the Church But we have often observed how that in your Church there have been and still are both Swearers Liars Drunkards and men given to other profaneness and yet little zeal appearing to excommunicate or exclude them But when any for Conscience sake could not pay the Priest his Wages though it were but some small matter oftentimes such a one should soon be prosecuted and excommunicated so that by your practices whatever you may profess in words you are
more zealous for your Gain and Interest than for excluding Evil and promoting Righteousness in your Church and so like them the Apostle speaks of who minded earthly things whose end he said was destruction Phil. 3. 19. Now such practices are no marks of the Church of Christ but of a false Church where there is want of zeal for Righteousness whereby it is manifest that you are not in the undefiled Christian Religion which keeps from the Spots of the World and leads into Fellowship with the Father and his Son. And therefore there was no such danger as thou insinuates in thy Letter in his leaving of your Church of incurring the Damnation of his Soul or choosing an unsafer way to Heaven in coming to that Religion he hath chosen Next we observe thou seemest to take an advantage at his saying It is the Light of Gods Grace that let him see the evil of his own heart that he lived in and the evil of others also and so wouldst strain these words the evil of others particularly to the seeing of the hidden evils of their hearts in secret as he saw his own whereas it is not to be questioned but that he intended the evil that others brought forth into Words or Actions Though when he speaks of himself he names his heart saying my own heart yet thou unfairly makest a great deal ado about it to bring him under blame as if he assumed Gods Prerogative and plainly contradicted the Apostle Paul in the 14 th chap. of the Romans but that thou hast no just reason for these thy endevours wise men may easily comprehend However it is certain that through the Light of Gods Grace in the heart men may come to see the defects in themselves and also in others without assuming Gods Prerogative And as to thy saying It 's a Term often used by the Quakers but not rightly understood by them thy Charge is false The Quakers understand it and thou canst not make out the contrary though it 's easie for thee and others to accuse but that we leave upon thee to prove and make out But as for his seeing the wickedness of his own heart it is not to be questioned and also to see the vanity and wickedness of others is not difficult For it is apparent enough that men that are in the Society of the people of your Religion may see what is brought forth daily that is not agreeable to Christianity both in words and actions And seeing this and that which Christ lays down being granted that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things Matth. 12. 35. Then according to this Rule of Christs by what men bring forth in their Conversations the Heart may be judged and though the Lord search the Heart and try the Reins and to know secrets is his Prerogative yet what is thus manifested according to the rule of Christ is no presumption to believe or give judgment in And as to the Apostles words Rom. 14. thou makest an impertinent application of them in bringing them as a testimony in this concern against him for the case in which they were not to judge one another was in point of Faith or their growth or liberty therein the weakness of the Faith of a weak Brother was to be born with in that straitness that was upon some as in respect to Meats and the observing of Days which others were grown over that were not to be judged but in point of Faith were to be left to their own liberty and in that case saith he Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him and he that did eat was not to despise him that did not eat So thou maist see that the Apostle had a regard to their growth in the Faith and so would have all walk accordingly in wisdom with care not to hurt one another But what is this to people of a loose life whose words and actions are contrary to the Law of God and so sinful May we bear no Testimony against such was it not the practice of the Prophets Christ and the Apostles to reprove such and give Testimony against them and yet not contradict Paul in this case How ignorant thou shewest thy self to be of the Scriptures But mark thy Judgment and where it will fall Have not these many years your Church and Ministry been cencerned in persecuting such as could not for Conscience sake and in the liberty of their Faith observe days and other things which you required and when they could not conform to you they have not only been judged by you but sorely abused and cast into Prison put in the Stocks and their Goods spoiled Thus have many suffered only for matters of Faith and Conscience towards God And so herein it is evident that your established Church thou speakest of is highly guilty of the Fact thou chargest to be plainly contrary to the Apostle in that forecited Scripture in Rom. and so is judging another mans Servant in that wherein he ought to be left to his own Master and presumest to meddle with Christs Prerogative so you are under thy own Condemnation being guilty of that which thou wouldst condemn in others And this to be your practice can be proved by many Witnesses that have suffered upon this account by your Church both in England and Ireland From what is beforesaid it's evident that for a man to say that he sees the evil of his own heart by the Light and Grace of God and the evil of other men which were conversant with him in his loose Conversation doth not bring him under the Censure of the Apostle as thou ignorantly dost imply therefore thou maist take it home to thy self and thy Brethren as a just Judgment upon you for the reasons aforementioned Thou further sayest that perhaps we will object that Christ in Matth. 7. 16. says ye shall know them by their Fruits c. To which thou answerest he does so but tellest us it hath relation to false Prophets and withal wouldst insinuate as if the Teaching Quakers as thou callest them were such but that they are such is a false insinuation which thou canst never be able to prove And by Fruits thou tellest us that both there and in other places is meant the Doctrine of those false Prophets or Teachers that being the proper Fruits of such men and not their particular Actions Answer That Christs words here have a relation to false Prophets we grant it and that they are to be known by their Fruits we also acknowledge but that the Fruits there meant are only their Doctrines and not their particular actions as thou affirmest we do deny And that it is not so as thou saist doth plainly appear from the words of Christ in many parts of the same
for Pleasure but to get Fish from whence we may groundedly conclude that they used that Imploy for a Livelihood at times when they were not immediately imployed in preaching the Gospel and we challenge thee to prove the contrary if thou canst Concerning thy querying for a Command for keeping the First day of the week or calling it the Lords day We say we meet together on the First day of the week for to meet is our Duty and also upon other days and for this Practice we have both Command and Example the Saints were commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. and we account every day is the Lords and he that regardeth a day ought to regard it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. But what Scripture have ye for all such days as you observe which are called such and such Saints days Thou saist thou hast been the longer on this particular because thou findest it galls us most Answ. When thou hast read our Answer which by reason of thine being so long hath caused ours to be so too thou maist consider of it and of thy impertinency in quoting the Scriptures to prove your Practice which being well observed doth witness against you and then we doubt not but it will prove that which will gall thee and thy Brethren who are so found in such covetous practices as the Scriptures plentifully testifie against and for a further Testimony against your Practices read these following Scriptures of which for brevity sake having been so long already we shall forbear to write the words they that can may read them in the Bible Isa. 59. 9 10 11 12. Jer. 5. 30 31. Ezek 13. 19. Ezek. 34. ch Mich. 3. 5 11. Joh. 10. 12. Tit. 1. 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 16. Jud. 11. 12 13. In the next place thou undertakest to inform him of some Defects in that Religion he had chosen and first thou saist our Teachers have no lawful Call to preach the Gospel and quotest the Apostles saying Rom. 10. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent that is saist thou how can they preach the true Doctrine of Christ unless they be sent by him or by those Apostles of Christ who received immediate Commissions from him c. Answ. We grant what the Apostle saith How can they preach except they be sent c. But that our Teachers are not so sent thou neither undertakest to prove by Argument nor Scripture although thou hast the confidence to affirm that they have no lawful Call or Commission to preach the Gospel which we turn back upon thee as a false Accusation and demand of thee to prove and make it appear to be true if thou canst for we do believe that none can be true Ministers but such as are sent by Christ and have their Call and Commission from him and also receive the Gospel which they preach and their ability from him for the Scripture is plain that the Gospel-Ministers were sent by him and received the Gospel they preached and ability to preach it from him and not from men as in Gal. 1. 11 12. and in 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Apostle saith they were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and in the foâ—egoing verse he saith our sufficiency is of God. And Ephes. 3. 7. he declares that he was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto him by the effectual working of his Power And Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified c. And so from him we say we have received our Call by his eternal Spirit and do wait upon him to receive our ability daily that what we do may be by the Gift of the Grace of God given unto us that God in all things may be glorified And if this be not according to the Scripture and the way of God do thou in thy next shew what is and prove your way of being bred up at Schools and learning your Tongues and taking your Degrees there and observing your Ceremonies in your Ordination and coming forth according to your Traditions and then looking for a Benefice the greatest you can get and then settling in a Parish for so much a Year until you can hear of a Place with a greater Benefice and then remove for greater Gain and Preferment and while you stay in a Parish take such Lordship upon you that none of your Church or Hearers may have liberty to speak or preach but such as are so ordained as you are Clear these things in thy next to be according to Scripture if thou canst In the mean while we charge this method and these doings not to be according to the Rule of the Gospel or Example of the primitive Ministers that this is your practice we believe thou canst not deny But in the true Church this Order and Liberty was ordained by the Apostle as in 1 Cor. 14. 30 31 32. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for you may all prophesie one by one that all may learn that all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets But this Liberty which the Apostle ordained you do not admit of no more than you do of other things which were the practice of the true Church and Christs Ministers but instead thereof are gone into things which are of Mans ordaining and setting up And therefore Robert Lacky and all in whom God hath opened an understanding to see you aright have reason enough to forsake you and your Church and as for those Scriptures thou quotest to prove a successive Power to send others they make nothing for your method of Ordination at all for Matth. 28. he said he would be with them c doth not say they should send others In Acts 1. the Apostles desired one in the place of Judas to be numbered with them and he was chosen by lot so here was the Lords lot And in Acts 14. 23. it is said they ordained Elders in every Church Now how these Scriptures do prove a true Succession to your Call and Ordination let all that are wise in heart judge Secondly Thou saist we have no Sacraments administred in our Religion neither that of Baptism whereby people are admitted into the Christian Church nor that of the Lords Supper by which they are strengthened and preserved in it Ans. First we demand whence thou hast this Term Sacraments and what is the proper signification of it we are sure thou hast it not from Scripture And secondly We put it upon thee to prove whence you have your Authority for
that which thou callest Baptism by which thou saist people are admitted into the Christian Church viz. sprinkling Infants We deny that you have any Authority from Scripture either by Command or Example for it for we never read in all the Scriptures of either baptizing or sprinkling Infants there is no such thing in that Scripture by thee quoted therefore thou art in a great mistake in charging this to be a defect in the Quakers Religion not to have such a Practice which is an unwarrantable human Invention and it is a great defect in your Religion to perswade people that when you have sprinkled a little Water on the Head or Face of a Child and signed it with the sign of the Cross it is thereby admitted into the Christian Church and call it Baptism when it is but sprinkling and therefore a defect throughout But thy Charge upon the Quakers Religion that we deny that of Baptism by which people are admitted into the Christian Church we affirm to be false for we own that Baptism according to what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles c This we own to be Christs Baptism and we also own Johns Ministration of Water to have been Gods Ordinance in its day but yours we leave for thee to prove from whence you had it Secondly Thou saist Nor that of the Lords Supper by which they are strengthened and preserved in it Ans. Let all that are wise in heart consider whether that which thou callest a Sacrament which you take hath such a great effect in it as to strengthen preserve in the Christian Church which is Christs Church for the Protestants do account it no more than a Sign of an inward spiritual Grace But we are satisfied concerning what Christ did as in that Scripture thou quotest Luke 22. for he had regard to the fulfilling of the Law and his time drawing near that he was to be sacrificed and so the true Passover as Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. 7. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us had a desire to eat the figurative Passover with his Disciples before he suffered as thou maist see Luke 22. and in eating the Passover he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and bid them divide it among themselves and likewise took Bread and brake it and gave it to them and after Supper again he took the Cup and gave them and thou maist see what he said both of the Bread and the Cup the one was his Body which was given for us the other was the Cup of the New Testament in his Blood which was shed for us which words import that his Body which is broken for us is the substance of that unleavened typical Bread and his Blood which was shed is the substance of that Cup not that the Bread and Wine was his Body and Blood for that was but typical though some do ignorantly imagine that ho meant the outward Bread and Wine was his real Body and Blood as the Jews thought he had meant the Temple made with hands when he spake of the Temple of his Body For we read that when the Passover was instituted they were to have a Lamb without blemish and unleavened Bread and the Door-posts were to be sprinkled with the Blood of the Lamb which Passover was certainly a Type of Christ the immaculate Lamb whose Body is the true Bread that nourishes the Soul to Life eternal and his Blood sprinkles the Concience from dead works to serve the Living God. This is that we have an eye to that which was broken for us and shed for us and we think by thy Writing thou art not of the Papists mind for the Real Presence and if not then consider what that Bread and Drink was that was broken and shed for us which he spake of though he was then eating the Passover with his Disciples and then come on and see what the Apostle saith to the mystery of it which was that which he preferred in the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 10. there he tells them of the Fathers viz. the Church in the Wilderness and saith they did all eat of the same spiritual Meat and did all drink of the same spritual Drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. So here thou maist see the Meat was spiritual and the Drink was spiritual and the Rock was spiritual that they drank of and that was Christ So the Apostle speaking to wise men bids them judge what he saith as in ver 15 and in ver 16. saith he The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ and ver 17. For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread. The Judgment of this thou seest the Apostle referred to wise men and we know wise men will judge that it is this spiritual Meat and Drink that strengthens and preserves in the Church of Christ whatever thou maist say to the contrary and so thou wrongest the Quakers in saying that we have not the Lords Supper administred in our Religion for we greatly delight in the Lords Supper to eat and drink that which strengthens and and preserves us in the Church of Christ and for your Practice that you use in your Church we demand your Example for it and whence it did arise for thou maist see that Christ in the Figure did eat the Passover with his Disciples according to the Law and gave them the Cup both before and after Supper as aforesaid Thou pretendest thou hast other notorious defects in our Religion but forbearest to bring them forth only one thou saist thou canst not omit which is so great a one that it renders the generality of the Quakers almost no Christians at all and thou saist most of us are guilty and that is a defect in the very badge and mark of a Christian Disciple which saist thou is Love and Charity and so quotest Christs words Joh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another Ans. Thou dost in this as thou hast done in other things before charge us to be guilty but dost not bring one Proof or Argument to prove the Guilt upon us from matter of fact unless thy saying it is so be either Proof or Argument which no wise man will understand to be so Thou saist perhaps we have charity among our selves we love one the other who are of our Perswasion However that is well so far it answers this Text of Scripture which thou hast quoted we wish we might say in truth so much for all of your Persuasion But thou goest on to shew how we should love Enemies c. and tellest us what John