A TESTIMONY TO THE Truth of God As held by the People called QUAKERS BEING A short Vindication of them from the Abuses and Misrepresentations often put upon them by Envious Apostates and Mercenary Adversaries Psal 56 5. Every day they wrest my words All their Thoughts are against me for Evil. The Second Impression London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street 1699. READER OCcasion having been given us which we never sought we continue to improve it to the further Explanation and Defence of our so much abused Profession that if possible People may see at least the more Sober and Candid that we are not at that distance from Truth nor so Heterodox in our Principles as we have been by too many either rashly or interestedly Represented But that indeed we hold the Great Truths of Christianity according to the Holy Scriptures and that the Realities of Religion are the Mark we press after and to disabuse and awaken People from their false Hopes and carnal Securities under which they are too apt to Indulge themselves to their Irreparable Loss That by our setting Christian Doctrine in a true Light and reviving and pressing the Necessity of a better Practice They may see the Obligation they are under to redeem their precious Time they have lost by a more careful Employment of that which remains to a better purpose In this short Vindication of our mistaken Principles the Ingenuous Reader may easily discern how Ill we have been treated and what Hardships we have laboured under through the Prejudice of some and the Unreasonable Credulity of others and that we are a People in Earnest for Heaven and in that Way our Blessed Lord hath trod for Us to Glory A TESTIMONY TO THE Truth of God As held by the People called QUAKERS c. BY the Observation we are led to make from Fra. Bugg's late Book upon the Bishop of Norwich's giving him his Recommendatory Letter to the Clergy c. in his Diocess to Relieve by a Collection the Necessities of that Beggerly Apostate a Copy of which Letter the said F. B. hath Published in his said Book And also by the Observation we have made on the malicious Attempts of the Snake in the Grass in his First Second and Third Editions which is a disingenuous and unjust Collection from F. Bugg and some other Deserters of things for the most part long since answered as also lately by the Book Entituled An Antidote c. Though because his Second and Third Edition have some Additions to his first and that being new vamped for a better Market he may expect a Melius inquirendum after a while Yet should we follow the Example of this Rattle-Snake against the Church of which he pretends to be a Member but at present a suspended one we might in Retaliation not only exceed the Cobler of Gloucester but the Scotch Eloquence and that Master-Piece the Ground of the Contempt of the Clergy And Lastly By the Observation we have made on the Relation subscribed by some of the Norfolk-Clergy dated Octob. the 12th 1698. We cannot forbear thinking that as their Confederacy is deep so it aims at nothing less than the Ruine of us and our Posterity by rendring us Blasphemers and Enemies to the Government and to be treated as such The Norfolk-Relation from the Clergy aforesaid charges the said People with Blasphemy First Against God Secondly Against Jesus Christ Thirdly Against the Holy Scriptures with Contempt of Civil Magistracy and the Ordinances which Jesus Christ Instituted viz Baptism by Water and the Lord's Supper by Bread and Wine And Lastly That the Light within as taught by us leaves us without any certain Rule and exposes us to the Blasphemies aforesaid with many others Now because this Charge refers to Doctrine rather than Fact or particular Persons we think our selves concerned to say something in Vindication of our Profession and to wipe off the Dirt thereby intended to be cast upon us in giving our Reader a plain Account of our Principles from the Perversions of our Enemies But to manifest how Uncharitably and Unjustly the said Clergy-Men have Reflected upon the People called Quakers with respect to the said Charge we are contented the Reader goes no further than their own Printed Relation dated Nov. 12. 1698. not doubting but by that very Relation and the Letters therewith Printed he will meet with intire Satisfaction with respect to the Reasonableness and Justness of the Quakers Proceedings in that Affair and how ready they were to come to the Test and to bring the pretended Charge upon the Stage and to Purge themselves from the Guilt of the same Provided they might be accommodated with what the Common Law allows Malefactors viz. a Copy of their Indictment but this could not be obtained And tho' the said Clergy have thought fit to Print the Charge in General without any Proof we think our selves obliged to Vindicate our Profession by freely declaring as now we do without any Mental Reservation our sincere Belief of the very things they most unjustly Charge us with denying I. Concerning GOD. BEcause we declare that God is a God nigh at Hand and that he is according to his Promise become the Teacher of his People by his Spirit in these latter Days and that True Believers are the Temples for him to Walk and Dwell in as the Apostle Teacheth and Experiencing something of the Accomplishment of this Great and Glorious Truth amongst us and having therefore pressed People earnestly to the Knowledge and Injoyment thereof as the Blessing and Glory of the latter Days We have been Ignorantly or Maliciously Represented and Treated as Hereticks and Blasphemers as if we owned no God in Heaven above the Stars and confined the Holy One of Israel to our Beings Whereas we believe him to be the Eternal Incomprehensible Almighty All wise and Omnipresent God Creator and Upholder of all things and that he fills Heaven and Earth and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him yet he saith by the Prophet Isaiah To that Man will I have regard that is poor and of a contrite spirit and which trembles at my word So that for professing that which is the very Marrow of the Christian Religion viz. Emanuel God with us we are represented Blasphemers against that God with whom we leave our innocent and suffering Cause Isaiah 7. 14. 40. 28. 48. 17. 66. 1 2. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 21. 3. II. Concerning Jesus Christ BEcause we believe that the Word which was made Flesh and dwelt amongst Men and was and is the only Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and whom we ought to hear in all things who tasted Death for every Man and Died for Sin that we might Die to Sin is the Great Light of the World and full of Grace and Truth and that he lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and giveth them Grace for
Suffering for being a Son he learned Obedience has obtained Mercy of God his Father for Mankind and that his Obedience has an Influence to our Salvation in all the Parts and Branches of it since thereby he became a Conqueror and led Captivity Captive and obtained Gifts for Men with divers Great Promises that thereby we might be partakers of the Divine Nature having first escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust In short we do Believe and Confess that the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ Jesus affects our Salvation throughout as well from the Power and Pollution of Sin as from the Guilt He being a Conqueror as well as a Sacrifice and both through Suffering Yet they that reject his Divine Gift so obtained and which he has given to them by which to see their Sin and the sinfulness of it and to repent and turn away from it and do so no more and not wait upon God for daily strength to resist the Fiery Darts of the Enemy and to be Comforted thro' the Obedience of Faith in and to this Divine Grace of the Son of God such do not please God nor truly are in a state of true Christianity and Salvation Woman saith Christ to the Samaritan at the Well hadst thou known the Gift of God and who it is that speaketh to thee c. People know not Christ and God whom to know is Life Eternal John 17. because they are Ignorant of the Gift of God John 4. 10. viz. a measure of the Spirit of God that is given to every one to profit with 1 Cor. 12. 7. which reveals Christ and God to the Soul Flesh and Blood cannot do it Oxford and Cambridge cannot do it Tongues and Philosophy cannot do it For they that by wisdom knew not God had these things for their Wisdom They were strong deep and accurate in them but alas they were clouded shut up and set farther off from the Inward and Saving Knowledge of God because they sought for it in them and thought to find God there But the Key of David is another thing which shuts and no Man opens and opens and no Man shuts And this Key have all they that receive the Gift of God into their Hearts which opens to them the Knowledge of God and themselves and gives them quite another Sight Taste and Judgment of things than their meer Education or Traditional Knowledge afforded them This is the beginning of the New Creation of God and thus it is we come to be New Creatures And we are bound to declare there is no other way besides this by which People can come into Christ or to be true Christians or receive the Advantage that came by the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore we say and upon good Authorities even that of our own Experience and that of the Scriptures of Truth Christ will prove no Saving Sacrifice for them that refuse him for their Example They that reject the Gift deny the Giver instead of denying themselves daily for the Giver's sake O that People were wise that they would consider their latter End and the things that make for the Peace thereof Why should they perish in a vain hope of Life while Death Reigns Of living with God who live not to him nor walk with him Awake thou that sleepeth in thy Sin or at best in thy Self-righteousness and Christ shall give thee Life For he is the Lord from Heaven the quickning Spirit that quickens us by his Spirit if we do not resist it and quench it by our Disobedience but receive love and obey it in all the Holy Leadings and Teachings of it Rom. 14. 15. To which Holy Spirit we commend the Reader that he may the better see where he is and also come to the true Belief and Advantage of the Doings and Sufferings of our Dear and Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who saves from the Power and Pollution as well as Guilt of Sin all those that hear his knocks and opens the Door of their Hearts to him that he may come in and work a real and thorough Reformation in and for them And so the Benefit Virtue and Efficacy of his Doings and Sufferings without us will come to be livingly applied and felt and fellowship with Christ in his Death and Sufferings known according to the Doctrine of the Apostle which those that live in that which made him suffer know not though they profess to be saved by his Death and Sufferings Much more might be said as to this matter but to conclude this Subject we wonder not that we should be mistaken misconstrued and mis-represented in what we believe in order to Salvation since our Betters have been so treated in the Primitive Times nor indeed is it only about Doctrines or Principles for our Practice in Worship and Discipline have had the same Success But this is what we earnestly desire that however bold People are pleased to make with us they would not deceive themselves in the great things of their own Salvation That while they would seem to own all to Christ they are not found disowned of Christ in the last Day Read the 7th of Matthew it is he that hears Christ the great Word of God and does what he enjoyns what he commands and by his Blessed Example recommends that is a Wise Builder that has founded his House well and built with good Materials and whose House will stand the last shake and Judgment For which cause we are often plain close and earnest with People to consider that Christ came not to save them in but from their Sins and that they that think to discharge and release themselves of his Yoke and Burden his Cross and Example and secure themselves by Complementing Christ with his having done all for them while he has wrought little or nothing in them nor they parted with any thing for the love of him will finally awake in a dreadful surprise at the sound of the last Trumpet and that irrevokable Sentence Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity I know you not Which terrible End may all timely avoid by hearkening to Wisdom's Voice and turning at her Reproof that she may lead them in the Ways of Righteousness and in the midst of the Paths of Judgment that their Souls may come to inherit Substance even durable Riches and Righteousness in the Kingdom of the Father World without end XV. Of Scripture Satisfaction and Justification BEcause we with many others have denied that Ridged Satisfaction which some hold as that God could not Possibly save Men any other way than by Condemning and Punishing his Innocent Son unto Death with the utmost Justice and Severity and that his Wrath or Justice is now so fully Satisfied for Sin past present and to come as that he will now Look upon Man holy for Christ's sake tho' unholy in himself and as if he was in Christ tho' not a new Creature We are made
his Worship Whereas nothing can be more absurd since without it no Man can truly call Jesus Lord Besides it is our Duty to wait upon him who hath promised not to compel but fill them with Renewings of Strength that so wait upon him by which they are made capable to Worship him acceptably be it in Prayer Preaching or Praising of God And how warrantable our Practice herein is from Holy Scripture see Psal 25. 5. 37. 7. 27. 14. 130. 5 6. Hosea 12. 6. XIII Of God and Christ's being in Man BEcause we say as doth the Holy Scriptures that God is Light and that Christ is Light and that God is in Christ and that Christ by his Light lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and dwelleth in them and with them that obey him in his Inward and Spiritual Manifestations People have been told by our Adversaries that we believe every Man has whole God and whole Christ in him and consequently so many Gods and Christs as Men Whereas we assert nothing herein but in the Language of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures of Truth and Mean no more by it than that as God is in Christ so Christ by his Spirit and Light dwelleth in the Hearts of his People to comfort and consolate them as he doth in wicked Men to reprove and condemn them as well as to call enlighten and instruct them that out of that state of Condemnation they may come and by believing in him may Experience their Hearts cured of the Maladies Sin hath brought upon them in order to compleat Salvation from Sin here and from Wrath to come hereafter 2 Cor. 5. 9. 1 Joh. 1. 5. XIV Of Christ's coming both in Flesh and Spirit BEcause the Tendency generally speaking of our Ministry is to press People to the Inward and Spiritual Appearance of Christ by his Spirit and Grace in their Hearts to give them a true Sight and Sence of and Sorrow for Sin to amendment of Life and Practice of Holiness And because we have often opposed that Doctrine of being actually Justified by the Merits of Christ whilst actual Sinners against God by living in the Pollutions of this wicked World We are by our Adversaries render'd such as either deny or undervalue the coming of Christ without us and the Force and Efficacy of his Death and Sufferings as a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World Whereas we do and hope we ever shall as we always did confess to the Glory of God the Father and the Honour of his dear and beloved Son that he to wit Jesus Christ took our Nature upon him was like us in all things Sin excepted That he was born of the Virgin Mary went about amongst Men doing Good and working many Miracles That he was betrayed by Judas into the Hands of the chief Priests c. That he suffered Death under Pontius Pilate the Roman Governour being Crucified between two Thieves and was buried in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea Rose again the third day from the Dead and ascended into Heaven and sits at God's Right Hand in the Power and Majesty of his Father and that by him God the Father will one day judge the whole World both of Quick and Dead according to their Works But because we so believe must we not believe that Christ said He that dwelleth with you shall be in you John 14. I in them and they in me c. Chap. 17. When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me Gal. 1. The Mystery hid from Ages is Christ in the Gentiles the hope of Glory Col. 1. Unless Christ be in you you are Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. Or must we be industriously represented Deniers of Christ's Coming in the Flesh and the Holy Ends of it in all the Parts and Branches of his Doing and Suffering because we believe and press the Necessity of Receiving and Obeying his Inward and Spiritual Appearance and Manifestation of himself through his Light Grace and Spirit in the Hearts and Consciences of Men and Women to Reprove Convict Convert and Change them This we esteem hard and unrighteous Measure nor would our warm and sharp Adversaries be so dealt with by others But to do as they would be done to is too often no part of their Practice Yet we are very ready to declare to the whole World that we cannot think Men and Women can be saved by their belief of the One without the Sense and Experience of the Other and that is what we oppose and not his Blessed Manifestation in the Flesh We say that he then overcame our Common Enemy foiled him in the open Field and in our Nature triumphed over him that had overcome and triumphed over it in our Fore-Father Adam and his Posterity And that as truly as Christ overcame him in our Nature in his own Person so by his Divine Grace being received and obeyed by us he overcomes Satan in us That is he detects the Enemy by his Light in the Conscience and enables the Creature to resist him and all his Fiery Darts and finally so to Fight the Good Fight of Faith as to overcome him and lay hold on Eternal Life And this is the Dispensation of Grace which we declare has appeared to all more or less teaching those that will receive it to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for which none else can justly do the blessed Hope and glorious Appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ c. Tit. 2. 11 12 13. And as from the Teachings Experience and Motion of this Grace we minister to others so the very drift of our Ministry is to turn Peoples Minds to this Grace in themselves that they may all come to do even the good and acceptable Will of God and work out their Salvation with fear and trembling and make their High and Heavenly Calling and Election sure which none else can do whatever be their Profession Church and Character For such as Men sow they must reap and his Servants we are whom we obey Regeneration we must know or we cannot be Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Glory And to be Born again an other Spirit and Principle must prevail to leaven season and govern us than either the Spirit of the World or our own depraved Spirits and this can be no other Spirit than that which dwelt in Christ for unless that dwell in us we can be none of his Rom. 8. 9. And this Spirit begins in Conviction and ends in Conversion and Perseverance And the one follows the other Conversion being the Consequence of Conviction obey'd and Perseverance a natural Fruit of Conversion and of being Born of God For such Sin not because the Seed of God abides in them 1 John 3. 7 8 9. but through Faithfulness continue to the end and obtain the Promise even Everlasting Life But we do acknowledge that Christ through his Holy Doing and
Deniers of Christ's Satisfaction at large Whereas we Sincerely Believe our Lord Jesus Christ was that most acceptable Sacrifice to God for the Sin of Mankind that whatsoever sin is forgiven is not forgiven only because of Repentance but for his sake that dyed and offered him self through the Eternal Spirit an Offering once for all The Doctrine of Satisfaction and Justification truly understood are placed in so strict an Union that the one is a necessary Consequence of the other and what we say of them is what agrees with the suffrage of Scripture and for the most part in the terms of it always believing that in Points where there arises any difficulty be it from the Obscurity of Expression Mistranslation or the Dust raised by the Heats of Partial Writers or Nice Criticks it is ever best to keep close to the Text and maintain Charity in the rest We shall therefore first speak Negatively what we do not own which perhaps hath given occasion to those who have been more hasty than wise to judge us defective in our Belief of the Efficacy of the Death and Sufferings of Christ to Justification As First We cannot believe that Christ is the Cause but the Effect of God's Love according to the Testimony of the Beloved Disciple John Chap. 3. God hath so loved the World that he hath given his only Begotten Son into the World that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Everlasting Life Secondly We cannot say God could not have taken another way to have saved Sinners than by the Death and Sufferings of his Son to satisfie his Justice or that Christ's Death and Sufferings were a strict and rigid Satisfaction for that Eternal Death and Misery due to Man for Sin and Transgression For such a Notion were to make God's Mercy little concerned in Man's Salvation and indeed we are at too great a distance from his Infinite Wisdom and Power to judge of the Liberty or Necessity of his Actings Thirdly We cannot say Jesus Christ was the greatest Sinner in the World because he bore our Sins on the Cross or because he was made Sin for us who never knew any Sin an Expression of great Levity and Unsoundness yet often said by great Preachers and Professors of Religion Fourthly We cannot Believe that Christ's Death and Sufferings so satisfies God or justifies Men as that they are thereby accepted of God They are indeed thereby put into a State capable of being accepted of God and through the Obedience of Faith and Sanctification of the Spirit are in a State of Acceptance For we can never think a Man justified before God while Self-condemned or that any Man can be in Christ who is not a New Creature or that God looks upon Men otherwise than they are We think it a State of Presumption and not of Salvation to call Jesus Lord and not by the Work of the Holy Ghost Master and he not Master of our Affections Saviour and not saved by him from Sin Redeemer and yet not redeemed by him from Passion Pride Covetousness Wantonness Vanity Honours vain Friendships and Glory of this World Which whoever do will deceive themselves for God will not be mocked such as Men sow such must they reap And tho' Christ did Die for us yet we must by the Assistance of his Grace work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling As he died for Sin so we must die to Sin or we cannot be said to be saved by the Death and Sufferings of Christ or throughly Justified and Accepted with God But now possitively what we own as to Justification comes next We do believe that Jesus Christ was our Holy Sacrifice and Attonement and Propitiation that he bore our Iniquities and that by his Stripes we were healed of the Wounds Adam gave us in his Fall and that God is just in forgiving true Penitents upon the Credit of that Holy Offering Christ made of himself to God for us and that what he did and suffer'd satisfied and pleased God it being for the take of fallen Man that had displeased Him And that by the Offering up of himself once for all through the Eternal Spirit he hath for ever perfected those in all times that are sanctified who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Mark that In short Justification consists of two parts or hath a two-fold Consideration viz. Justification from the Guilt of Sin and Justification from the Power and Pollution of Sin and in this sense Justification gives Man a full and clear Acceptance before God For want of this latter part it is that so many Souls Religiously inclin'd are often under Doubts Scruples and Dispondencies notwithstanding all that their Teachers tell them of the Extent and Efficacy of the first part of Justification And it is too general an Unhappiness among the Professors of Christianity that they are apt to cloke their own Active and Passive Disobedience with the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ The first part of Justification we do reverently and humbly Acknowledge is only for the sake of the Death and Sufferings of Christ nothing we can do though by the Operation of the Holy Spirit being able to cancel Old Debts or wipe out Old Scores It is the Power and Efficacy of that Propitiatory Offering upon Faith and Repentance that Justifies us from the Sins that are past and it is the Power of Christ's Spirit in our Hearts that purifies and makes us acceptable before God For till the Heart of Man is turned from Sin God will never accept of it He Reproves Rebukes and Condems those that entertain Sin there and therefore such cannot be said to be in a Justified State Condemnation and Justification being Contraries So that they that hold themselves in a Justified State by the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ while they are not Actively and Passively Obedient to the Spirit of Christ Jesus are under a strong and dangerous Delusion and for crying out against this Sin-pleasing Imagination not to say Doctrine we are Staged and Reproached as Deniers and Despisers of the Death and Sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ But be it known to such they add to Christ's Sufferings and crucifie to themselves afresh the Son of God and trample the Blood of the Covenant under their Feet that walk unholily under a Profession of Justification for God will not acquit the Guilty nor justifie the Disobedient and Unfaithful Such deceive themselves and at the Great and Final Judgment their Sentence will not be Come ye Blessed because it cannot be said to them Well done Good and Faithful for they cannot be so esteemed that live and die in a Reproveable and Condemnable State but Go ye Cursed c. Wherefore Oh Reader Rest not thy self wholly satisfied with what Christ has done for thee in his Blessed Person without thee but press to know his Power and Kingdom within thee that the strong Man that has too long kept thy House
Grace and Light for Light and that no Man can know God and Christ whom to know is Life Eternal and themselves in order to true Conviction and Conversion without Receiving and Obeying this Holy Light and being taught by the Divine Grace and that without it no Remission no Justification no Salvation as the Scripture plentifully testifies can be obtained And because we therefore press the Necessity of Peoples receiving the Inward and Spiritual Appearance of this Divine Word in order to a Right and beneficial Application of whatsoever he did for Man with respect to his Life Miracles Death Sufferings Resurrection Ascension and Mediation our Adversaries would have us to deny any Christ without us First As to his Divinity because they make us to confine him too within us Secondly As to his Humanity or Manhood because as he was the Son of Abraham David and Mary according to the Flesh he can't be in us and therefore we are Hereticks and Blasphemers Whereas we believe him according to Scripture to be the Son of Abraham David and Mary after the Flesh and also God over all blessed for ever So that he that is within us is also without us even the same that laid down his precious Life for us rise again from the Dead and ever liveth to make Intercession for us being the Blessed and alone Mediator betwixt God and Man and him by whom God will finally Judge the World both Quick and Dead All which we as sincerely and stedfastly believe as any other Society of People whatever may be Ignorantly or Maliciously Insinuated to the contrary either by our declared Enemies or mistaken Neighbours Deut. 15. 18. Mi◠5. 2. John 1. 1 2 3. Rev. 22. 16. III. Concerning the Holy Scriptures BEcause we Assert the Holy Spirit to be the first great and general Rule and Guide of true Christians as that by which God is Worshipped Sin Detected Conscience Convicted Duty Manifested Scripture Unfolded and Explained and consequently the Rule for Understanding the Scriptures themselves since by It they were at first given forth from hence our Adversaries are pleased to make us Blasphemers of the Holy Scriptures undervaluing their Authority preferring our own Books before them with more to that purpose Whereas we in Truth and Sincerity believe them to be of Divine Authority given by the Inspiration of God thro' Holy Men they speaking or writing them as they were moved by the Holy Ghost That they are a Declaration of those things most surely believed by the Primitive Christians and that as they contain the Mind and Will of God and are his Commands to us so they in that respect are his Declaratory Words and therefore are Obligatory on us and are Profitable for Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished to every good Work Nay after all so Unjust is the Charge and so Remote from our Belief concerning the Holy Scriptures that we both Love Honour and Prefer them before all Books in the World ever choosing to express our Belief of the Christian Faith and Doctrine in the Terms thereof and rejecting all Principles or Doctrines whatsoever that are Repugnant thereunto Nevertheless we are well persuaded that notwithstanding there is such an Excellency in the Holy Scriptures as we have above declared yet the unstable and unlearned in Christ's School too often Wrest them to their own Destruction And upon our Re 〈…〉 r Carnal Constructions of the 〈…〉 made Undervaluers of 〈…〉 But certain it is That as the Lord hath been pleased to give us the Experience of the fulfilling of them in Measure so it is altogether contrary to our Faith and Practice to put any manner of Slight or Contempt upon them much more of being guilty of what maliciously is suggested against us since no Society of Profest Christians in the World can have a more Reverend and Honourable Esteem for them than we have John 4. 24. and 16. 8. Rom. 1. 19. Luke 1. 1 2. Tim. 3. 16 17. 2 Pet. 3. 16. IV. Concerning Magistracy BEcause we have not actively complied with divers Statutes which have been made to force an Uniformity to what we had no Faith in but the Testimony of our Conscience against and because for Conscience sake we could not give those Marks of Honour and Respect which were and are the usual Practice of those that seek Honour one of another and not that Honour which comes from God only but Measure and Weigh Honour and Respect in a false Ballance and deceitful Measure on which neither Magistrate Ruler nor People can depend We say because we could not for Conscience sake give Flattering Titles c. We have been render'd as Despisers and Contemners of Magistracy Whereas our Principles often repeated upon the many Revolutions that have happened do evidently manifest the contrary as well as our Peaceable Behaviour from the beginning under all the various Forms of Government hath been an undeniable Plea in our Favour when those that also have Professed the same Principles of Non-Resistance and Passive-Obedience have Quitted their Principles and yet Quarrel with us upon a Supposition that we will in time write after their Copy which as nothing is more contrary to our Principles Faith and Doctrine so nothing can be more contrary to our constant Practice For we not only really believe Magistracy to be an Ordinance of God but esteem it an Extraordinary Blessing where it is a Praise to them that do well and a Terror to Evil-doers Which that it may be so in this our Native Land is the fervent Desire of our Souls that the Blessing and Peace of God may be continued thereupon Job 32. 21. John 5. 44. Acts 5. 29. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. V. Concerning Baptism BEcause we do not find in any place in the four Evangelists that Jesus Christ Instituted Baptism by Water to come in the room of Circumcision or to be the Baptism proper to His Kingdom which stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost we are therefore render'd as Contemners of Christ's Baptism Whereas the Baptism of Jesus Christ of which he was Lord and Administrator according to the nature of his Office and Kingdom is even by John the Baptist declared to be that of Fire not Water and of the Holy Ghost of which Water-Baptism was but the Forerunner and is by them that now Practice it called but the Outward and Visible Sign of the Inward and Spiritual Grace and therefore not the Grace it self which Grace as the Apostle saith is sufficient for us and which we Believe Profess and Experience to be come by Jesus Christ who is the Substance of all Signs and Shadows to true Believers he being no more a Jew or Christian that is one outwardly by the cutting or washing of the Flesh But he is a Jew and Christian who is one inwardly and Circumcision and Baptism is of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the