Supper can any Command be more Express than This do in Remembrance of Me Four times repeated in the New which you call the better Testament To which St. Paul adds It is a shewing forth the Lordâ— Death until He come 1 Cor. XI 26. Now if Christ and his Apostles have commanded this who hath Authorised you to disuse it Remember what St. Paul tells the Corinthians he received from the Lord that which on this Subject he delivered to them 1 Cor. XI 23. And 't is a severe Passage in another Epistle of his Gal. I. 8. If we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed That which lays aside so much of the Old Gospel and sets up a New and Variable Rule oâ— Faith we know not what Light within is Another and New Gospel To draw towards a Conclusion I have written this short Paper in much and true Compassion to you It had been far easier to me to have said more than thus to have confined my self I look upon many of you as an harmless well-meaning People but under strong Delusions This your Deluded State proceeds from your making what you call The Light within you which is in many Cases nothing but your own Presumptive Perswasion or Fancy a Rule of Faith and Practice Co-ordinate if not Superiour and Antecedent to the Holy Scriptures These words in your Paper Which are the Double and Agreeing Record of True Religion intimate at least thus much That you will not believe what Scripture saith except the Light within you dictate the same and so make a Double Record Now my Friends do not flatter your selves GOD is not mocked you must Answer at the Dreadful Day of Judgment amongst other Points to such as these and therefore Examine your Consciences before-hand 1. Is it not your main End and Study by pretended Mortifications and Renouncing the World while there are no sort of Men alive that more eagerly pursue it nor have more effectual wily and secret ways oâ— getting Wealth than your selves Is it no I say your main Aim and End to make your selves a Party considerable and such tâ— which for Reasons of State peculiar Priviledges must be Indulged 2. Are not to this purpose many of your Distinctive Characters such as you Different Garb for it is plain not a few oâ— your Peoples â—loaths as to materials are more costly than many of ours your way of speaking yea even your Looks and Gestures assumed rather to make your selves remarkable and at first sight known from other People than out of any Perswasion Sense of Duty or Conscience of Obligation 3. What reasonable or tolerable Warrant can you plead for waving suppressing at least not confessing much the greater part of the Christian Faith and Rejecting all Outward Positive Parts of Worship especially Baptism and the Lords Supper which have such plain and Repeated Evidences in Holy Scripture Your Light within or Sense and Perswasion which you say you have and are sure is from Christ forasmuch as in the present Cases it dictateth against Holy Scripture can never be proved even to your selves much less to others to be from Christ But must rather in all reason be resolved to be one of the Heights or Depths of Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light And for any Persons to yeild to such Conduct besides or against Holy Scripture is plainly to abandon themselves to the Delusions of the Devil In a word therefore I again require you as you will answer all your Secret Arts and high Pretensions at Christ's Tribunal that you either Embrace and Profess the intire Christian Faith in the Points wherein I have shewn you to be defective and that you receive the Christian Seals or Badges Baptism and the Lord's-Supper or else that you desist to lay claim to the Name of Christians It is not for me to Judge you but again I say unto you truly from GOD as His Minister Judge your selves This is the Case If Men who take away even from the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints at least Two Thirds besides many main Points of the other Third who Equal their own Presumptuous Conceits to the Divine Oracles and Revelations who use and disuse at pleasure what parts of GOD's Instituted Worship they think fit even the very Badges of Christianity I will not here Interpose your Making Gain your Godliness but if the aforesaid Men are in a Way of Perdition what can you conclude of your selves In the Name of GOD Repent and Return And from my Soul I pray That GOD will please to give you Repentance EDW. CORK and ROSS Cork July the 2d 1698. A DEFENCE OF a PAPER Entituled GOSPEL-TRUTHS c. I Have given the Bishop's Exceptions together at Large as he did our Paper and shall now Consider their Validity He is pleased to say at the beginning of his first Paragraph he is such a Reader as in our Paper â—we desire Words that gave me great hopes of not only fair but friendly dealing and I heartily wish it had been so But since it seems to me the Reverse of his Promise he must not take it ill from me if I stop a while and shew him a little to himself and how much he is mistaken in his own Temper as well as in our Principles For tho' he begins with the Names of Moderation Charity and Meekness that 's all He quickly Loses sight of them and forgets them with himself almost all the way And unless my Taste be Extreamly Depraved there is little Relish of those Vertues in his Management or a tolerable Temper shewn towards us respecting either our Belief or Practice We desire such a Reader indeed as had rather we were in the Right than in the Wrong One that did not Prejudge our Case and would give us and not our Enemies the wording of our own Belief While the Bishop but too plainly shews he would not have us in the Right Even where he dares not say however freely he suggests it that we are in the Wrong Which appears First by his Unnecessary Exceptions to such Truths as we have Declared in our Paper and he cannot deny as imperfectly Exprest because we have not said all that might be said to Branch them out or Illustrate them tho' enough to be understood by such as are not Captious Secondly by Suppositions Incongruous and that can have no other Service than to Expose us and that in a very ill Manner Thirdly by rendring us to Deny what we don't Express in our Paper Tho' indeed we Believe it Fourthly in not taking due notice of what is Implied as well as Exprest Which had been but Just Fifthly in making the worst of what is not concurrent with his Belief and not the best where we believe the same thing Sixthly by Grosly Misrendering our Pretences to Strict Living Lastly by Condemning us upon Rumour All which is more than leaning
be Baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as We It Imports with submission no more than this That Peter well knowing the Narrowness of his Country Mens Spirits was Cautious lest his Latitude should Distaste them For the Gentiles being Unholiness to the Jews and even Peter himself without a Vision from God too narrow Spirited for the Convictions and Devotion of that excellent Centurion Cornelius It behoved him to ask if any body had any thing to say Why they might not be baptised as well as the Jews being Proselites to the Christian Profession In all which he seems more concerned to save his Own Credit than to recommend or establish that of Water Baptism As if he had said Why should this Custom be forbid to the Gentiles more than to the Jews But this will not warrant the Practice in General because Practice is no Institution and that their appears no Command to make It one So that asking who can forbid what was not commanded strengthens his Question instead of weakening it since what was done of Condescention could not have been forbid upon Authority There needed not so much Care or Strickness in the Matter And indeed the Apostles themselves seem not to have been so clear about the abolishing of the Jewish Observations as appears by the want Peter had of a Vision his own apprehension of the straightness of his Brethren and their calling him to Account for what he had done as may be seen in the same Chapter But I confess I cannot see why the Bishop should assume the Power of Unchristianing Us for not practising of that which he himself practices so unscripturally and that according to the Sentiments of a considerable part of Christendom having not one Text of Scripture to prove that Sprinkling of Water in the Face was the Water Baptism or that Children were the Subjects of Water-Baptism in the first times And yet this is all the Baptism the Bishop practices who seems so severe upon us I think our forbearing of Water Baptism from a Belief and Sense of the coming of the Invisible Grace signified by that Visible Sign cannot be reputed such a slight to Water Baptism as presuming to alter the Manner and Substance of its first Institution For then it was in the River of Jordan now in a Bason it was then unto Repentance now to Children Uncapable of Repentance But that which perhaps misled the Doctors of the Declining Church first into this Practice being at the distance of some Hundreds of Years from the Apostolical Times might be the supposition that Water Baptism came in the place of Circumcision and that being to Children so might Water Baptism too But they forgot among other things which even before that time were crept into the Church without Precept or Evangelical Example that Repentance was not made a Condition to Circumcision at it was to Water-Baptism I would beseech the Bishop to tread softly in this Matter for if Water Baptism should indeed prove a Badge of Christianity he would be at a loss for one that would pass currant in Scripture Thus much for this Point What I have said upon this Head of Water Baptism may serve also for what is commonly called the Lord's Supper which the Bishop Reproves us for Omitting to Practice Urging Luke 22. 19. This do in Remembrance of me And the Apostles words 1. Cor. 11. 24. 25. It is true indeed Christ said when he eat it with his Disciples That they should do it in remembrance of him till he came And this seems much more of the Nature of a Commission than that cited by the Bishop for Water Baptism But the Limitation Christ â—ives to the Practice of it and a Right and â—roper Consideration of the Import of his â—ords and the Nature of the thing will best â—ad us to undestand his Mind therein 1st This was also a Jewish Practice as â—ell as Water Baptism and so in Nature of â—o Gospel Institution but Temporary in its â—se 2dly Christ seems by this to break or â—pen to them what was so hard for them to â—ear to wit his Departure and Death by a â—oken of Memorial till he should come to â—hem again 3dly Christ takes occasion from thence â—o shew forth to his Disciples the Mystical Supper they should eat and the Fellowship â—hey should have with him when he came again Now we believe this Coming was Spiritual suitable to that saying of his I will drink no more of This Fruit of the Vine till I drink it New with you in the Kingdom of my Father And some here shall not taste of Death till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom Matth. 16. 28. Again He that dwelleth with you shall be in you John 14. I in them and they in me Chap. 17. All which plainly Imports a Spiritual Coming Also Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the Door I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me which was said near Fourty Years after his Ascention Now since this is acknowledged to be an Outward Sign of an Inward and Invisible Grace what can Outward Bread and Wine more properly Signifie and Resemble than Inward Bread and Wine And an Outward than an Inward Supper And if so the words may reasonably be read thus Eat this Supper of Outward Bread and Wine till I come into and sup with you and be your Supper that am the Bread and Wine from Heaven which Nourishes the Soul unto Eternal Life 4thly The Kingdom of God being Spiritual and in the Soul such should be the Ordinances of that Kingdom Now Christ tells the Pharisees Luke 17. 20. The Kingdom of God is within And the Apostle Paul Rom. 14. 17. saith The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost But the outward Supper is Meat and Drink and therefore not of the Kingdom of God which is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And this was made Use of by Christ in the State of Humiliation before his Death and the pouring forth of the Holy Ghost to fasten upon his Disciples that were weak and of little Faith the Remembrance of him till they should know him with them and in them by his Spiritual Appearance as he was the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit according to his Promise For if the Scripture be consulted we shall not only find that Christ Reproves the Apostles for their Infideâ—ity in him but after all the Example Precepts and Miracles they saw by him and that he had so very lately left them with such Assurances of his Coming to them again yet when Mary c. brought them the Tidings of his Resurrection it is said Luke 24. 10 11. Their words seemed to the Disciples as Idle Tales and they believed them not Which sufficiently shews the low State they were
Spirit to open and move upon our Hearts before we dare offer Sacrifice to the LORD or Preach to others the way of his Kingdom That we may Preach in Power as well as Words and as GOD Promised and Christ Ordained Without Money and without Price John 4. 23 24. 1 Thess 1. 5. Isa 55. 1. Rev. 22. 17. Matt. 10. 8. IX This also leads us to deny all the vain Customs and Fashions of the World to avoid Excess in all things that our Moderation may be seen of all Men because the LORD is at hand to see and judge us according to our Deeds Tit. 2. 12. Rom. 12. â— Philip. 4. 5. Eccl. 12. 14. Mat. 16. 27. Rom. 2. 6. Rev. 20. 12. X. We believe the Necessity of the One Baptism of Christ as well as of his One â—upper which he promiseth to Eat with those that open the Door of their Hearts to him being the Baptism and Supper signified by the Outward Signs which tho' we disuse we judge not those that conscientiously practise them Mat. 3. 11. Ephes 4. 1. 1. Pet. 3. 21 22. John 6. Rev. 3. 20. XI We Honour Government For we believe it is an Ordinance of GOD and that we ought in all things to submit by Doing or Suffering But esteem it a great Blessing where the Administration is a Terror to Evil Doers and a Praise to them that Do Well Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. This hath all a long been the General Stream and Tendency both of our Ministry and Writings as our Books will make appear notwithstanding what Ill-minded and Prejudic'd Persons may have strained to Mis-represent Us and our Christian Profession Dublin the 14th of the 3d Month 1698. William Penn. Thomas Story Anthony Sharp George Rooke THE TESTIMONY OF THE BISHOP OF CORK As to a Paper Intituled GOSPELâ—TRUTHS held c. by the PEOPLE called QUAKERS And Delivered to Him by an eminent Member of them Friends I Am such a Reader as in your Paper you desire I have read and soberly weighed the account you give of those things which you say are chiefly Received and Professed amongst you And I will exercise so much Moderation and Charity as to lay a great weight on that word chiefly hoping these are not the Only Things or All that you Believe I should have been heartily glad to have found that you had been in the Truth as I am well assured I my self am But as I professed when the Paper was given Me That if I took it you must expect I should bear my Testimony touching It or against It So I now must tell you I think my self bound in Conscience to perform what I then professed and that upon more Reasons than I will now trouble the World with You must not be offended if I say You have such a way of Writing and Speaking that it is very hard in many matters of Religion to know what you mean But as far as I understand you I will candidly acknowledge what Truths you have sufficiently or tolerably exprest I will shew you with meekness how far your Faith if this be your Faith comes short of being sufficient or Christian and I will sincerely tell you what I apprehend to be the cause of your Delusion and how dangerous a condition I really fear nay believe you to be in And first The only Articles in which you have exprest a sufficient Christian Belief are your IV. which is touching Justification and your last touching Government and your Submission thereto I wish you may always stick to this Belief and Practice And I heartily rejoyce to find you acknowledging the Necessity of Christ as a Propitiation in order to Remission of Sins and Justifying You as Sinners from Guilt 'T is the first time I have heard of it amongst you As to all the rest of your Articles I mean those which I understand I must tell you the declaration of your Faith comes so short of what is required from People to denominate them Christians that except under each Article you believe more than you have declar'd you cannot be accounted Christians For first in those Articles of Faith which you have thought fit to mention you have set down only some little Ends I had almost called them Snaps of the Article And Secondly many more whole Articles of the true Christian Faith and which are of no less import you have intirely omitted waved or suppressed You acknowledge in your I. Article there is a God and you own his Providence as to the other Life But that He made Heaven and Earth that He is the Almighty and at present by his Sovereign Power most wisely and holily Governs Orders and Sustains all by his Mercies as well as Judgments even in this World not â—â—aving Himself without witness you say not 〈◊〉 word Creation in the beginning and Providence as to this World at present are not here acknowledged by You. We hope you believe both Your II. Article is wholly true for it is express Scripture 1 John V. 7. But it is onely what the Apostle there had occasion to say and what was to his purpose touching the Father Son and Holy Spirit far from being the sum of what the Holy Scripture teaches of them and therefore iâ— not a sufficient Confession of Faith on that head In your III. Article you acknowledge indeed the Son of God to have been made Flesh but neither Conceived by the Holy Ghost nor Born of the Virgin Mary So that it does not appear by this your Confession but that He was at first an ordinary corrupt sinful Person Nay you own Him not so much as Jesus or the Christ the great Saviour who delivereth from the wrath which is to come or the Great Prophet Priest Lord and King of his Church You acknowledged him indeed to have dyed for Sin but not to mention the Articles inferible from and relating to the Circumstances of his death You have not one word of His Resurrection from the Dead or of His Ascension into Heaven which iâ— may be proved some of you have expresly denyed saying He is not ascended into Heaven He is in us Nor again of Hâ—… sitting now at the right hand of the Majesty oâ— high And so you seem not to own any thing of His Mediation Intercession or Appearing now in Heaven for us Nor further have you said a word of his coming again to Judgment or the End of the World Thus indeed You have here neither own'd the Creation nor Dissolution of the World so that it does not appear by this Account of your Faith whether you do not judge it Eternal and so otherwise Infinite Yet again Not a word of One Church which it may be feared you strike out of your Belief because you are resolved never more to return into the Unity of the Church but to make and maintain a Schism or Party for ever Nor further have you a word of the Resurrection of the Body which divers of you have been
known to deny and others of you only say It may be so And Lastly Tho' you acknowledge Everlasting Rewards for them that fear GOD yet nothing of the Everlasting Punishment of Wicked Men You mention Hell indeed in a very unnatural place viz. in your first Article of â—he Being of GOD but whether you mean thereby the Grave as most commonly in â—cripture is meant or a place of Temporal Punishment after this Life as some have â—one or a State of total Destruction and Annihilation as many now a days do no one knows Upon the whole As to the Sum of the Christian Faith which you have been pleased to set down there is not any one Article of our common Twelve that you have own'd intirely and Eight at least if not more of them that you have here totally suppressed or waved And how influential to a holy Life those which you have waved are and therefore how necessary to Salvation I must require and conjure you on your own Eternal Account to consider I will only mind you of two passages out of the Scriptures of Truth 1 Cor XV. 16 17. If the Dead rise not that is if there be no Resurrection of the Flesh then is not Christ Raised And if Christ is not raised your Faith is vain you are yet in your Sins Hence it appears All other points of Faith are in vain if this be not true The other is Rom. X. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy Heart that GOD hath raised Him from the Dead thou shalt be saved This Article alone is of such force and influence on Mensâ—Hearts that if believed as it should be such belief will save Men. But both Christ's Resurrection and Our own are by You in this Paper left out of your Faith I judge You not but judge Your selves lest you be condemned of the LORD Your V VI and VII Articles treat of what you call The Light of Christ within Man This You have never been able yet that I could find to make out what You mean by For You will not allow it to be either the Natural Rational Faculty or common innate Notions or Natural Conscience or Conscience Illuminated by the Preaching of the Gospel and the Operation of the Holy Ghost thereby Till You can make us understand your meaning or indeed till You understand it Your Selves that is till you are less confused in this the very Fundamental Principle or Rule of what you profess You must not think of Declaring or Publishing an Account of your Faith See you understand it first There are some Men who have a Faculty to speak things seemingly profound but in the End neither themselves nor others can make any distinct sense of what they have said This we usually call Banter And I must acknowledge as far as I can see your Discourse of his Light within is perfectly such Take notice We in our Preaching require People to look within as much as You do We strictly charge all to walk according to the Convictions and Light they have received We daily appeal unto Conscience but then we teach that Conscience opened by the Holy Spirit under the Ministry of the Word Acts XVI 14. does and must take in its Light from Holy Scripture The Commandment of the Lord is pure inlightning the Eyes Ps XIX 8. viz. of the Mind Ephes I. 18. Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a Light to my Path. Ps CXIX 105. To the Law and to the Testimony If they even Men in their Consciences speak not according to this Word it is because there is NO LIGHT in them Isai VIII 20. Now these things are intelligible This Rule is fixt and certain nothing of which can be said of Your Light within In Your VIII Article You tell us Worship under the Gospel is Inward and Spiritual If You mean hereby that all Outward and Bodily Worship ought to be accompanied with an Inward and Spiritual Worship it is what we daily Preach and Practice and even in private press But if as it would seem You mean all the Worship GOD now requires is from the Inward Man or from the Spirit this is abominably false For Our Bodies are GOD's handy-work and Christ's Purchase as well as Our Souls on which reason GOD by His Apostle commands Glorifie â—OD in Your Body and in Your Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Plural Number that is both which are GOD's Not to tell You that You your selve now a days perform somewhat of Bodily Worship And indeed if there be not a worship of the Body as well as of the Spirit there can be no Publick Worship This Article therefore must also be mended to make it Christian In your IX Article You tell us of youâ— Denying all the vain Customs and Fashions of the World as also Excess in all things I know no sort of Christians who teach otherwise I wish I could say I knew none even of your selves that practice otherwise It is one part of the Catechism We teach our Children to renounce all these But there are many Innocent and laudable Customs which You call vain Would it not almost make a Mans Stomach turn to hear one forbear in point of Conscience â—â—ying You to a single Person because it 〈◊〉 improper and at the same time while â—e is speaking to his Superiour because Thou doest sounds a little rudely to soften the Thou and say Thee doest which is commonly Your Peoples Practice and much more improper Will You ever be able to prove the Primitive Christians â—sed a Dialect or Dress different from others of their Nation and Qualities and placed Religion in it Does not Christ require Saluting even those who salute not us And no doubt his and his Apostles Salutations were in the common form In a word There is more Vanity in Singularity and Affectation than in moderate following a common innocent Phrase Garb or Custome In your X Article you believe you say a Spiritual Baptism and a Spiritual Supper and Communion but acknowledge you Disuse the Outwards Signs by us commonly called Sacraments Now did not Christ command Water-Baptism Go ye and Baptise all Nations Matth. XXVIII 19 20. The Baptism here commanded was Water-Baptism For Baptising with the Spirit was GOD's work not the Apostles and tho the Baptism of the Spirit commonly accompanied Baptism with Water yet not always as in the Case of Simon Magus and many others Yet did not Christ promise to be with them Preaching to all Nations and Baptising to the End of the World Further Did not the Apostles in Obediencâ— to Christs Command both constantly practice and also require Water-Baptism to all Initiated Christians Can any Man forbiâ— Water that these should not be Baptised which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And he Peter commanded they should bâ— Baptised Acts X. 47 48. Then as to the Outward use of Bread and Wine for the Lord's