an Eternal Structure of Order and Discipline A Cover for all the Wolves Antichrist's and Hypocrites that have been are or shall be to the End of the World In short No Position can be more destructive to the Power of Godliness the Fellowship of the True Church that lives in God and Pernicious to the Souls of Men by securing them in their Fancied Relation to a gospel-Gospel-Church whilst in an Un-gospel Spirit estranged from the Power of the true Gospel and unacquainted with the Congregation of the Faithful who through Faith overcome the World and know a Washing in the Blood of the Lamb and a being grafted into the true Vine and made to drink into the one Spirit bringing forth Fruits unto Holiness To conclued After this sort of Doctrine Men may be Members of a Gospel-Church and not of the True Church Members of a Gospel-Church and not good Christians no nor good Men it self Indeed such a Pastor as our Adversary fuits such a Church and such a Church exactly sits such a Pastor from whom God deliver me and all People and them from themselves I mean the Power and Prevalency of that Pernicious Doctrine and Spirit that now infects them He proceeds however with what success we shall see Reply p. 59 60. To this of their Invisible Church I told W. P of their Officers very suitable to a conceited nothing Fox Myst p. 2. The Holy Ghost made the Officers of the Church Over-seers The Over-seers to be Invisible for they saw with an Invisible Eye and so were in the Spirit which is Invisible and not in the Flesh But W. Perm meddled not with this which I dare say as much as he hath of the Quakers Spirit he cannot tell the Meaning of himself Rejoynder I had no Reasâ—n to meddle with what I could not noâ— cannot yet find I intreat my Reader to consider the Unreasonableness of his Taunts In his first Book he 〈◊〉 me to pag. 8. where no such thing was to be 〈◊〉 yet did I not place it to the Account of his Trâ—â—chery the best Construction he can make of any Innocent Omission on my part In his Reply he sends me to pag. 2. and there I am as wise as I was before no such Words or Matter appearing What shall I say of such an Adversary Was I then to be blamed for not mâ—ddling with what was not to be found Or deserve I 〈◊〉 better Terms at his Hands who made no hard use of it in my Answer Or Lastly Is he not worthy of double Blame that adds to his first Mistake a second and then abuseth me as if on purpose I had avoided the Diâ—â— of an Authentick Testimony hitherto not produced But suppose G. F. hath ever written any such 〈◊〉 doubtless by Invisible Over-seers he only meanâ— Spiritual not Carnal-minded Men who by the 〈…〉 which the True God hath opened might watch over the Flock as to their inward and spiritual Conditions This the following words make good for they saw with an invisible Eye and so were in the Spirit which is invisible and not in the Flesh In short They were not meer outward Officers exercising an Outward Rule and Dominion about outward Things but Men qualified by the Holy Ghost with an inward Discerning to Over-see the Spiritual State of the Church not that their Persons were invisible or their Actions towards the Church but that Heavenly Faculty given them of the Holy Spirit which rendred them Over-seers or Men able to see or discern the State and Condition of the Church was of an Invisible Nature He fell very foul upon us in his first Book because of a Dutch-Woman's speaking in one of our Meetings in her own Tongue charging upon us That we did orderly according to the Popish Mass which was to Pray in an Vnknown Tongue To which I made a large and I hope sufficient Answer of which he reports but these two or three Parcels First That I called it a Disingeâ—â—ous Reflection Next That we do not affect such Obâ—curity Lastly The Divine Light Power or Spirit inâ—ardly manifested is the one Tongue to the Children of Light This he calls Foolish Antiscriptural Ridicuâ—us But if it be so I owe it to him alone who hath â—ade so Foolish and False a Citation of my Words â—owbeit he saith nothing to what he hath cited his 〈◊〉 Words set aside His Reflection was Disingeâ—ous because such a Practice is not common or usual â—ith us Nay that was accidental Therefore to â—arge it upon us as conformable to the Orderliness of the Popish Mass as if it were a Principle with us to teach as with Romanists to pray in an Vnknown Tongue was more then Disingenuous for it was False and Malicious being thrown out by him on purpose to infame and disgrace us That we do not affect such Obscurity I affirmed and our Practice evidenceth it being rather jeered for our too much Rusticity and Plainness and our frequent decrying of Dark School-Phrases and turning Rhetorick by which great Writers wrap up their Matter from the Vnderstanding of the Vulgar That the Divine Light Power or Spirit inwardly manifested are none of my words I will report my Answer both more largly and truly and leave it with the Conscience of my Reader thus The single Power of the Almighty may both strike Astonishment and give Refreshment where the Words utterred are not always understood since he frequently doth both without them Understanding and Inward Sense are two Things for the Devil may speak the best Words in the Bible and be an Undiscovered Devil still except by this Divine Light Power and Spirit he be inwardly manifested consequently a right Sense may be had where Words may not be understood which Sense is the one Tongue to the Children of Light yet we do not only decry all designed Obscurity by Praying and Preaching in Unknown Languages but with the Apostle say That we chuse rather by far to speak in a Known Tongue as well as have the Sense of our Spirits Nor did ever any Quaker yet pretend to be moved to pray in an Unknown Language whilst he was Master of that which was well known to the People Since then we do not affect obscurity the Case of the Papists who pray in Latin rather then in their Native or Vulgar Tongue he is very Disingenuous in that Reflection But in Reply to all this he only gives us thus much Reply pag. 60. Sure I am that the Spirit of God by whom the Apostle Paul was directed is not the Quakers Spirit nor its Doctrine the same with theirs in the same Case I shall be to him that speaketh a Barbarian and he that speaketh shall be a Barbarian to me I Cor. 14. 11. Rejoynder I would fain know by what Means J. Faldo hath that Discerning between the Spirit of the Apostle and the Spirit of the Quakers Is it because the Dutch-Woman spoak in an English Meeting Do we Hold Teach or Practice any such Thing
David no Christian who was a Man after God's own Heart Neither can I believe with him that the Apostle's Exhortation Phil. 4. Whatsoever things are True Honest Just Pure Lovely of Good Report if there be any Praise think on these things is no Part of Christianity or that a Man may be a Saint and not a Christian or that a Child of God is not a Good Christian or that James was mistaken who said That the Pure and Vndefiled Religion was to keep our selves unspotted of the World which strange kind of Consequences unavoidably follow from J. Faldo's Assertion and Definition For our Parts As we think it no Wrong to Christianity so no Discredit to our Cause that it should be reported that we believe the Word nigh in the Heart the Apostle Paul calls the Word of Faith and Reconciliation to have been preached by Moses that Chist the Promised Seed bruised the Serpent's Head as well before as at and since his Visible Appearance That Enoch when he walked with God walked in the Light in which he felt the Blood of Christ cleansing from all Sin That the Spirit of God strove with Men as well before Christ's Coming as since and that some were led by it before as well as since and therefore Children of God and if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joynt-Heirs with Christ Not that we deny a Preheminence to Christ's Visible Coming â—nd the greater Benefits that came into the World thereby we would not be thought so to mean at no hand only this that something of that Divine Life Power Wisdom and Righteousness that then so super-excellently appeared and broak forth was revealed in all former Ages as Mankind was in a Capacity to receive it wherefore the Difference lay in the Manifestations of the One Thing necessary and not in several things So that the Law is as it were the Gospel begun and the Gospel the Law finished or as Augustine expresses it Lex est Evangelium absconditum et Evangelium est lex revelata The Law is the Gospel obscured the Gospel the Law revealed That is suited to the Capacity of Ages But J. Faldo is Angry that in my Recital of these words out of his former Discourse But the Thing Christianity might well be before the Name Christian that I left out these following words so short a space Saying I am a Man of a seared Conscience and that it is pitty any Reader should be so tame to be thus imposed on Rejoyn I know not what he means by these last words unless he would have every Man that reads me beat me I have alwayes thought it becoming a Minister of the Gospel to make People Tame and not Wild Sufferers not Hectors but such Expressions very well suit with John Faldo's Religion For my Conscience it is not so seared but I can feel and resent John Faldo's Injustice God knows I left out no words designedly nor could the Insertion of them have disappointed me For if the Thing Christianity may be before the Name a Day then a Year and so an Age till we shall come to the first Man that ever God saved All Men must be saved by either Law or Gospel Now the Law strictly considered could never save it gives Life to none So imports the Scripture and so asserts B. Vsher B. Sanderson Allen and others then it must have been by the Gospel which is by the Apostle called the Power of God unto Salvation and if all Men that were ever saved were saved by the Gospel then True Christians unless Men may believe the Gospel be saved by the Life and Power of it and yet be no Christians that is not the Men the term Christians given first at Antioch doth fignifie I shall offer this short Argument to the Reader 's consideration If He that is born again be a Christian and such as enter into the Kingdom of God be born again then because Abraham Isaac Jacob Samuel David c. entered into God's Kingdom it follows that they were born again and consequently Christians How pernicious is that Principle which denyes the New Birth to be so much as any part of Christianity when indeed the greatest as Christ's own Saying proves The Truth of the Matter is The very Life Power and Spirit of the Gospel or Christianity which to other exteriour Performances is as the Soul to the Body John Faldo would fain exclude from any Share in Christianity and for our preferring and pressing That as the most important Matter he over-runs us with all the Vilifying Scornful Epithetes a Lucian could bestow upon a Christian Indeed his Frothiness is such that were it not for their sakes who may yet be ensnared by his Adventrous and Imperious Assertions and Reflections I should not think his Vindication worth one Minute of my Time But he proceeds Rep. I undertook to prove Quakerism No Christianity from the confessed Newness of it by their own Party Penn tells us p. 21. the first Letters of the Names of some the bare Names of others whose words I quoted but dare not transscribe their words being so fair to my Purpose only a part of Penington's who saith of the Quakers Dispensation that it swallowed up that of Christ and the Apostles which Penn would take off by telling me I have no Candor in so Construing the words as if Penington who was a Schollar could not express his Mind congruously but must have Penn to be his Interpreter Rejoyn Now what any can make of this Cloudy Paragraph that has not read our former Books indeed of the greatest part of his Vindication if then I know not but sure I am he ignorantly or willingly puts the Lye upon himself and greatly berayes his own Weakness Is this your Combatant you that blow him with Pride and Rage that he may only have Wind to Crack out against the Quakers What Reply is this wretched disingenuous Section to my Answer If I quoted not E. Burroughs's and J. Whitehead's words at length and but a few they were I quoted that for which the rest left out were quoted He would fix the beginning of Quakerism about the Year 1651. this was the Drift of his Quotations from whence he concluded Quakerism No Christianity Hear my Answer and by that it will appear how suitable or sufficient his Reply is Well But when came this Quakerism into the World He tells us about the year 1651. quoting E. B's Epistle before G. F's Great Mystery also a small Treatise writ by John Whitehead Isaac Penington from whence he infers that Quakerism is a late Dispensation therefore not that of Christianity But certainly this Man hath taken a very Quick Course to Vnchristian himself and all the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists in the World as well as the Quakers For I would ask him if there was not a Time since the Primitive Age wherein Darkness hath overspread the Earth the Beast did Reign and the pure Religion was
Besides the Apostle tells us That though an Vnknown Tongue might render him as a Barbarian to him that understandeth him not will it therefore follow that he was a Barbarian or that he had not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him By no means for he might speak Mysteries in the Spirit as saith the Apostle vers 2. Men may also pray in the Spirit in an Vnknown Tongue vers 14. A Man may Bless Praise and give Thanks to God in an Vnknown Tongue vers 14 15 16 17. Nay the Apostle saith of such a one Verily thou givest Thanks well Now how all this can be and yet that such a Person should be acted by another Spirit then the Spirit of God and the Apostle for my own part I cannot see In short The Apostle tells us That Tongues are for them that believe not vers 22. But our Friend spoak among them that believed and though they did not all know what her bare words imported yet they might be and were sensible of the Divine Power in which she spoak which gave a general Refreshment unto them of that Assembly that were acquainted with it otherwise all Fellowship in Spirit must be renounced But 't is to be any thing J. F's Froth will have it because its unknown to his thick and carnal Understanding However the want of a Known Tongue may render one less Profitable but not less a Christian for a time should come the same Apostle said that Tongues should cease but never that Christianity or having the Spirit of Christ should cease Therefore to reâ—ute all that cannot speak in a Known Tongue Antichristian or of another Spirit then the Spirit of God and his Apostle is unworthy of any Man that makes any the least Pretence to the Christian-Religion indeed to common Sense One Passage more then we conclude this Chapter Reply p. 60. To my Reflection upon their affirming she spake by the Spirit because they all found Reâ—reshings viz. so have Children many a time of Puppet-Plays W. P. calls me all to nought especially because I could not as he saith but think it meant by Refreshings what came from God But let not Penn think we take our selves bound to reverence such Fooleries Rejoynder That it was a Reflection he confesseth whether it were not an Unseemly one I refer to every Man of Conscience I did not intend to obliege J. Faldo to believe what we say but reprove his prophane Scoffs at what we believe I would have so much regard to any People seriously professing Religion as not to explain what they mean by their Refreshment by the Pleasure some irreligious People take at the vain and frothy Sport of Puppet-Play And the worst Word I gave him and his Comparison was Prophaness further adding that it out-did Ben. Johnson's Alchimist a Play made in Scorn of Puritans which all good Men detest and himself dying abhorred But why may not People be refresht in their Souls from that divine Power which may attend a Person speaking in a Language unknown Suppose a Godly Assembly of English People and an English Preacher endued with God's holy Spirit and there happen into such a Congregation some serious Forreigners of the same Judgment is it absurd to say That notwithstanding their Ignorance of the Signification of the Words spoken they may have an inward and spiritual Sence of the Zeal Power and Spirit that eminently attends the Preacher if it be how much more ridiculous is it then for People to say It gladâ—ed their Hearts to see such a Godly Countenance or to hear the Voice or Sound of this or the other good Man though they had no distinct Understanding of his Words I am in this Case a more allowable Witness then J. Faldo who have seen Sinners struck the Weak strengthned and the Strong confirmed at the hearing of the Truth of God declared in a Language they could not understand The divine Power and Vertue went forth and they were judged comforted or confirmed in themselves and they no Fools though J. Faldo calls such things Fooleries and Pupppet-Playes To deny this is to overthrow Spiritual Fellowship in the Ground of it and to center in this Atheistical Notion That all our Knowledge of God comes in by our carnal Eyes and Ears that is What others have written and what others have told me that I believe and therefore I believe and not from the Testimony of this Infallible Spirit of God in my self which Credulity renders him more like Rome in that wherein she is condemnable then any thing he can truly suggest of us but this gross Doctrine being so obviously taught by our Adversary in his first Book second Part p. 91. we have the less Reason to wonder that Fooleries and Puppet-Playes are the best Words he can bestow upon the divine Consolation Refreshment and Communion of the holy Spirit within Men. We will add these Testimonies as the Conclusion of this Chapter W. Tindal in his Works p. 250. Church the Elect in whose Hearts God hath written his Law with his Holy Spirit and given them a feeling Faith of the Mercy that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. D. Barns's Works p. 244. The Holy Church of Christ is nothing else but that Congregation that is sanctified in Spirit redeemed with Christ's Blood and sticketh fast and sure alonely to the Promises that he made therein So that the Church is a Spiritual Thing and no exteriour Thing but invisible from Carnal Eyes I say not that they be invisible that be of the Church but that holy Church in her self is invisible as Faith is and her Pureness and Cleanness is before Christ only and not before the World for the World hath no Judgment nor Knowledge of her but all her Honour and Cleanness is before Christ sure and fast Peter Martyr fourth part of Common Places cap. 1 pag. 1. The Name of a Church is derived of the Greek verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to call for none can be Partakers thereof which come not thereunto by the Calling of God And to define it we say that it is a Company of Believers and regenerate Persons whom God gathereth together in Christ by the Word and the Holy Ghost It is every where called the Body of Christ because all the Members thereof have him for their Head of whom by the Joints and Sinnews they take their growing and attain unto Life by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Christoph Goad p. 37. 'T is a sad thing that there are Churches that think it is enough there is a Form of Godliness that we are in Church-Fellowship and so lie down together and sleep I have no Quarrel with Churches or any Form but such as have not the Spirit in them here are all asleep asleep in Death T. Collier's Works p. 42. The Church of Christ under the Gospel are the Spiritual Seed the Seed according to the Promise T. Collier p. 102. The Church which is Christ's Kingdom are a People Saints
chosen called out of the World they are not of this World as he is not of this World W. Dell's Sermons p. 152 156 186. The Church is a Spiritual Invisible Fellowship gathered together in the Unity of the Faith Hope and Love Christ and the Spirit are the only Officers CHAP. IV. His Charge of our Denying to Hear the Word of God examined True Preaching acknowledged HE hath maintained this Charge against our Answer with the same sort of Jeers and Florish but manifest insuccess too that he hath done what went before His words are these Reply pag. 61. Concerning denying the Ordinance of hearing the Word preached to my Proof from G. F. We must not hear Man c. W. P. saith That is so far from making against us that it makes for us at an high rate Much like the Mad-man of Athens who called all the Ships that came into the Port his own while he was for all that but a poor Thred-bare Gentle-man I proved that they asserted the Light to be only preached to be the only Preacher and only â—eached to yea and the only Obeyer Rejoynder If this be done Erit hic mihi magnus Apollo If to cease from Man be not false Doctrine then not to hear Man is no false Doctrine for Man is taken in the same sense in both places For as God never intended by ceasing from Man that they should not regard his Prophets who were Men when they came to declare his VVill so neither did G. F. intend that Man ought not to be heard when he comes on God's Errant or Message in the Name of the Lord but meer Man Man in his Natural Capacity and Ability without the Holy Spirit and Power of God which is but a carnal humane and worldly Ministry To say we only preach the Light is no more then to report The Quakers preach Christ for our Doctrine directs People to the Knocks of Christ the true Light at the Door of the Soul who is the Saviour Redeemer and Preserver of them that believe in him and keep his Commandments But that we ever said That it was only preached to yea and the only Obeyer of such Preaching is as false as any Thing that can be said He tells us he proved it I will give the strongest Passage he brought J. Parn. Shield c. Epist To the Light of God in all your Consciences I speak Very well and what then Is the Light therefore preacht to taught or instructed when he only appealed to the Light in all their Consciences concerning the Truth of what he said as the Apostle did To the Light I speak that is To the Light I direct my self To that I make my Appeal if what I write be not true for what soever is reproveable is made manifest by it Ephes 5. 13. This Construction is Natural Our Adversary's forced for nothing is more common with us in General and that Author in particular then to turn People to the Light pressing their Conformity to the Reproofs and Instructions of it alwayes respecting it as given us of God to be our true certain and constant Teacher and alwayes have we been reproacht by such as J. Faldo for doing so But above all that this Passage should be brought to prove the Light is the Obeyer of such Doctrines and Instructions who is the Author of them is an Absurdity that reflects great Ignorance or something worse upon our Adversary We have already declared our Faith so freely and plainly in this Matter besides the Testimony of our dayly Practice that we need say no more then this A true Living Gospel-Ministry we own and the Service and Benefit of such a one we have enjoyed and beautiful are their Feet who come in the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit that open the blind Eye turn People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. that He may be their Instructer according to that Promise They shall be all taught of Me which is the chiefest End of all External Instrumental Ministry To prove our Sence of true Preaching we may add these two following Testimonies out of that renowned Independent Dr. Everad Dr. J. Everad's Sermon Militia Coelestis Truth it 〈◊〉 many toss and tumble the Letter and make you believe they expound it and give you the Sense and Vertue yet how shallow how literal how humane how low how sensual and carnal do they make the Worlâ— to be Even your Rabbies your Doctors your great Schollars which shews if God himself if the Lion of the Tribe of Juda if the Root of David do not open the Seals 't is not all the Learning or all the Universities in the World can help us to the Mystery and the Mind of Christ as the Apostle calls it Shadows vanishing c. p. 326. I dare not offer at any Method in the whole nor at any Connection in the Parts For I find that all the curious Dichotomzers do but dream and play with the Scriptures feeding themselves with Fancies and not Truth for Sure I am the only Method that holy Men of old observed was to speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit There be many Expositions on this Place which I will not trouble you withall for Men speak according to Men but the Scriptures were written by God's Spirit dictated by his own Finger We must therefore labour to find out what is God's Mind in the Scriptures whatever Men say pag. 369. 370. CHAP. V. Of True and False Prayer HE pretends in this Chapter which containeth not a page to refute several pages in my Book relaing to Gospel-Prayer in which if I 〈◊〉 not he hath done me and the Truth I defend the greatest Service that a reasonable Man would desire at the Hands of his Adversary for the Truth of the Matter is the Man hath shrunk from his Post and deserted his Colours which we shall make appear by comparing his first Book with his Reply Reply VV. P. according to my Charge disowns man's Wilâ— and the Vse of his Conceptions to have any thing to do in Gospel-Prayer pag. 122. and disowns all Prayer that is not by and in the Light within The Quakers Christ The Reasons he gives are as Witless as his Assertion Truthless Thus Now unless Men may perform Gospel-VVorship without the Spirit and the Truth or if in the Spirit and the Truth yet not by the Motion of either a thing absurd it must needs be that Men ought only to preach and pray by the Motion of the Spirit and of the Truth How absurd is W. P' s Reasoning here as if the Vnderstanding Conceptions Will of Man in Prayer must needs exclude the Motions of the Spirit or the Motions of the Spirit exclude them Rejoynder The first Thing our Adversary charged upon us in his former Book was our Denyal of Gospel-Prayer to prove which he cited W. Smith who in his Catech. p. 107. spoak against Prayers of Man's forming
Christ's eating the Supper with his Disciples just before his Death and their breaking Bread together soon after his Death Not a Year whereas the Pope showed not himself till near six hundred Years after I cannot see Friendly Reader how much more criminal I made my Adversary by charging him with saying in our Name The Bread and VVine Christ blessed is the Invention of the Pope then he hath made himself by his own Saying That we call the Lords Supper eaten soon after his Death the Popes Invention unless he should deny the Latter to be the same Sort of Supper with the former In short We cannot but repute this an Injury too apparent for John Faldo's utmost Invention to cover But that he may not suffer the Imputation of Forgery at least a very gross Perversion he thus braveth me Reply p. 70. If Pen dare deny it to be in W. Smith's Book which Iquoted three or four times over in pag. 39. I shall prove him a Deceiver to all that will but read it W. S. answers to this Question I would know Father how it is concerning these things called Ordinances as Baptism Bread and Wine which are much used in their Worship Answ Why Child as for those things they rose from the Pope's Invention Rejoynder This Citation as rankly and partially as he hath put down doth not prove that we account the Lord's Supper either as it was eaten by Christ and his Disciples before his Death or by his Disciples after his Death to be the Pope's Invention How can it since we know the Pope's Date to have been so many hundred Years after that Practice His Citation must therefore be understood of such a Baptism and such a Supper as the Apostate Church hath presumed to practice and that I put not a fairer Gloss then his own Answer will allow observe these Words and the whose Practice of those things AS THEY use them had their Institution by the Pope and were never SO ordained of Christ strongly implying that what was of Christ's Ordination was not of the Pope's Invention and Institution consequently That the Lord's Supper was neither a popish Invention nor Institution which is yet plainer from his following VVords For he did not ordain sprinkling Water in a Child's Face or to make a Sign of the Cross in his Forehead nor God-Fathers and God-Mothers to undertake for it Neither did he ordain Bread and VVine to be SO or after that Manner used and received So that nothing can be plainer then that his Reflection lies against their Manner of practizing and using them not against the Things themselves as at any time practiced by Christ or his Disciples Followers Therefore he is quite beside the Truth in telling the VVorld that he doth but apply these VVords Pope's Invention to the Name that is Lord's Supper which the Quakers apply to the Thing since we so clearly distinguish betwen Baptism the Lord's Supper Name and Thing and these Practices and Usages of them which have risen since the Apostacy Now it rests with thee Friendly Reader to pass Judgment which of us two hath acted the Deceiver to leave out a great many more of his hard VVords he that affirmed VV. Smith called that Baptism and Lord's Supper which was in Use some time as well after Christ's Death and Ascension as before the Pope's Inventions or I that affirmed and from VV. Smith's own Book have expresly proved that there was no such thing said as Primitively practiced but only as they have been since abused by the Apostate Church For the Supper it self I refer the Reader to the sixteenth Chapter of my Answer and shall only say at this Time that as it was a Commemoration or Remembrance of Christ to the Disciples who were at that Day so weak in Faith as Luke 24. 11. Mary Magdalen's news about Christ's Resurrection seemed to them as Idle Tales yet that the Service and consequently the Institution of it were of as they came to witness him the Evangelical Supper of Passover to their Souls and that we therefore discontinue it First Because the false Church hath made Market with her imitating that primitive Practice drawn the Minds of People abroad from the Heavenly Bread of Life which is only to be received within and hath been shedding so much Blood about it rendring it and Water Baptism the Seal of Christianity thereby puffing up People to believe that of themselves which they are not Next we have the Testimony of God's Spirit that he is withdrawn from such Observations that have been so much insisted on and magnified in the World Lastly and eminently we discontinue it because Christ is become unto our Souls that very Thing which it was most truly and properly the Sign of to wit the Heavnely Bread and Passover which nourisheth the Soul unto Eternal Life Where by the Way it must not be forgotten how perversly he wrongs Christ and Holy Scripture who turns this Passage Do this till I come after this strange Manner The Lord's Supper is a Remembrance of Christ's Death past NOT TO COME Rep. p. 71. wherein first he makes as if there were a Death to come Next Instead of exhorting People to look for his Coming until which he bid his Disciples practice it he turns back their Eyes from that Expectation and makes the Sign wholy to have Reference to what was past and not what was to come thereby seeking to perpetuate his Absence and bar out his Appearance implyed in these Words till I come which ends the Absence during which the Institution lasteth For the plain English of it framed into an Argument is this The Supper is to remember Christ's Death that is past but that will be alwayes past therefore it ought to be alwayes so remembred The like may be said upon the Word Remembrance for if it ought to be practised because of remembring Christ's Death then forever because his Death ought never to be forgotten Thus it perverts the Text in that it makes not the outward Supper to cease upon his Coming as John 14. 23. Rev. 3. 20. which is the Evangelical Supper till whose Coming Christ bid his Disciples do it But to continue upon the Score of remembring Christ's Death only which as I said before ought never to be forgotten is consequently to continue it upon Institution forever I shall only leave two things with my Reader and so proceed to the next Chapter first That from our discontinuing the Practice of these outward and temporary Observances J. Faldo concludes our absolute and general Denyal of them 2ly Because some of our Friends have denyed rejected and termed Popish the long Abuse of these Things he makes no Difficulty of charging us in so many Words with calling Water-Baptism and the Lord's Supper as laid down in Scripture and primitively practised Popish Inventions c. God if he please make this Man sensible of his notorious Injustice towards us CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrine of