weighty Scripture containing the very Work of Regeneration and sine qua non or that only certain Means Condition and Requisit without which there can be no obtaining of Eternal Life and Salvation requires our best notice and consideration in order to which I shall divide the place into these two Heads and briefly raise my Argument thereon 1. Christ's most positive exclusion of all from any Portion in God's Kingdom who were not born again in answer to Nicodemus his carnal Conceit of the impossibility of an old mans entring a second time into his Mothers Womb. 2. That the Birth which all such as would inhererit God's Kingdom should be Witnesses of was and is the Birth of Water and the Spirit upon which I thus proceed to argue If none can Inherit God's Holy Kingdom but those who are regenerated of Water and the Spirit then none can inherit God's Holy Kingdom but such as are cleansed by Water and taught led and guided by God's Holy Spirit The first none can deny that own the Scripture it being but a part of the very verse quoted the second I evidently prove thus If Water and Spirit be the only operative to Regeneration and Regeneration the alone Way to the Kingdom of God then can no man inherit God's Kingdom that is not regenerated neither can any man be regenerated that is not washed by the Water of Life begotten work't formed inspired and acted by that Eternal Spirit to Newness of Life That to be begotten is to be principally guided and acted by that by which any is so begotten I prove No man can live move sensate or act but from the original Heat Life Motion and Action of that which did beget him because the Nature of that which begets being conveyed to the begotten truly renders him begotten or else there were no such thing but every regenerate man is the Begotten of the Eternal Spirit so far as concerns his Renovation or Regeneration therefore every such regenerated man was and is led motion'd and acted by that Eternal Spirit which begot him and consequently the Saints which are the regenerated are not left destitute of an infallible Teacher Judge Rule and Guide amongst them In short We look upon being born of Water and the Spirit to be Our being cleansed from all filthiness and quickened informed ruled and guided by the most pure and perfect Dictates and Operations of God's Eternal Spirit And how a Regenerated man can be made or continue such without the daily Guidance of that Infallible Spirit and the Scriptures kept clear from the Reflection of Contradiction if not gross Error is a Riddle too hard for me to explain and a Task I may without Presumption say too great for our trifling Antagonist to perform Twelfthly John 14. 16 17 18 20. 16. 13. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever Even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Again Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come be will guide you into all Truth Upon these Divine Passages thus particularly exprest by the Holy Ghost I offer these short Arguments 1. If the Spirit of Truth or most infallible Spirit be God's Gift to his Servants in Gospel times to abide with them forever then are they accompanied with an infallible Spirit but we see the plain Text proves that God gives his Spirit of Truth to his Servants that they might be assisted in all their Wants and therefore they are not without such an infallible Spirit And our Adversary is more to blame to reflect upon the Guidance of an infallible Spirit which is so consonant with the express Letter of a multitude of Scripture Passages then we are because we credit G. F. upon Conviction And if he tells us That unless we believe what our Eyes see of Contradictions as he pretends by him collected out of G. F's Book that he will not believe whatever we shall say or affirm we may on much better Grounds conclude never to believe what he asserts and wholy to decline writing or speaking to him to use his own words if hereafter he will dare to continue in the belief of so Anti-scriptural and Anti-gospel an Apprehension as that there is no infallible Spirit to guide men in the Way of Salvation which is as express and evident from many naked Texts of Scripture as that God is Truth else never did any Writing more delude Mankind because none could be more particular and plain in the Promise and allowance of it But let God and his written Will be true and our Vnspiritual Adversary in his confest Fallible Judgment of us a very Lyar. 2. If the not seeing and knowing of the Spirit of Truth be the Reason rendred by our Lord Jesus why the World receives it not then may we most justly infer that they never saw it neither know it but are of the World who cannot receive it but write against it in reference to its greatest Office viz. Of being the Saints Teacher Leader and Comforter And indeed because the Spirit is not some visible elementary thing that may be seen by their outward Eyes and be comprehended by their dark confused and disputative Brains which is contrary to the Decree and Way of God's manifesting of his Will from the conviction of the least sin to the enjoyment of the highest Glory therefore they dis-regard it as contemptible and dis-believe it as incredible 3. If the Ground of the Saints Knowledge of that Infallible Spirit be the Spirit 's inhabiting them for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you then were they not without that Spirit and consequently they were attended with an infallible Guide within them 4. If the Lord Jesus would not leave them comfortless but though visibly with-drawn yet in a more Spiritual and Invisible manner would come to them again and that at that day they should know that He was in his Father they in Him and He in them Then were his Servants not destitute of an infallible Judge Leader and Guide because they had Him that was the Way Truth and Life to whom all Power and Judgment were committed 5. If both the Spirit of Truth was promised to come and when come to guide into all Truth that is to say that whateve they scrupled were ignorant in or ought to know and practicer with what they were oblieged to reject and testifie against should be by that Eternal Spirit discovered unto them then undoubtedly they were not without an infallible Spirit to Judge Regulate and Guide them in all that concerned Faith Worship and Conversation but the first Proposition is purely Scriptural and therefore the consequent not
Difference I mean Doctrinal in this place I don't see It becomes a Man of his Wit and larger Conscience to perceive it who can make and fling dixt for the Alteration or Omission of a word not absolutely necessary for how can we suppose he meant those good Gentiles that became a Law unto themselves to have thoughts different from their Conscience so far as concerned Evil or Good and the Peace or Trouble that followed the Doing of the one or the committing of the other For to what did their Conscience bear them Witness if not to their Doing Well or Ill and consequently to acquit or accuse Therefore their Conscience did bear Witness to the Accusing or Excusing as well as their Thoughts for that their Thoughts and Opinion of one anothers Innocency or Guilt are squared by the Witness that their Conscience did give the place strongly implies In short they could not make that Judgment of one another without a certain Knowledge of the same thing in themselves and they must have received that only by the Testimony of their own Conscience which is no more but this the Judgment of a man concerning his own good or ill State by the In-shining and Discoveries of God's Holy Light and this the Gentiles had in measure and our Adversary granteth it as well as his Eminent Preacher pag. 40. Eighthly G. F. sayes in answer to the Priest that denyed him to be perfect who bridled his Tongue which is contrary to the Apostle James who saith he is which our Adversary calls belying the Apostle who sayes If any man offend not in word the same is perfect And what Difference is there now one sayes He that bridles or rules the Tongue and the other saith He that offends not in Word is the perfect man unless a mans Tongue can be said to be bridled or ruled when it offends which cannot be supposed by any but Persons of this mans Ignorance In short Not to offend in word or bridle that which would utter it is one and the same thing for that which bridles the Tongue bridles the Body which is the perfect man that offends not in word Ninthly G. F. sayes That God works all in us and for us for which he reflects upon him as at other times saying he knows no such place but it is strange that he never heard or read And there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all according to the Power that worketh in us for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do Now unless when God works all in all c. we are to exempt his working in us and so give the Scripture the Lye or if workt in us yet not for us which is to give our own Understanding the Lye it will follow and doth follow That God who worketh all in all according to his Power in us both to Will and to Do does work it both in us and for us But Oh the Vanity of this poor man that thinks by these Paper Pellets his Malice casts at us either to Wound us in our selves or in the minds of Sober People Tenthly But he thinks he has done G. F's business for him now where bringing him in saying through the Power of God the Gospel again the Gospel is the Power of God he thus adventures to correct him The Apostle saith I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto Salvation c. Now where to find out that Difference which this Quick-sighted Man abuses G. F. for saying it proceeds from the same bitter Root in him that perverts the sence of Scripture is past my skill for if the Gospel be God's Power then God's Power is the Gospel In one of the Passages it is as he would have it which may show that G. F. meant by the other Transposition of the word No new Sence or Doctrine Gross Folly Incharity and Carping Eleaventhly But he stiffly charges him with miscitation in this Passage G. F. And so deny Christ the Lord that bought them Peter saith only Denying the Lord that bought them Which sayes he may as well agree to God the Father as Christ the Son We may guess at his Meaning without an Interpretation But must Christ be Lord and not Lord at every turn when this presumptious Person will If the fore-going Chapter be considered it will appear That Christ is that Lord that some should deny after they had made Profession of Him In short If a man's believing Christ to be that Lord must conclude him an Impostor c. who is true let all the World read and observe of what Ungodly Stuff and very Trash his Libel doth consist Twelfthly The Scripture saith our Adversary and his own runs thus He that believeth on Christ out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water where His Belly is plainly spoken of Him that believeth But G. F. applies it to the Light Christ out of whose Belly slowed Rivers of Living Water the Light the Light must be Magnified by G. F. To which I shall only say That it is no improper sence at all for no man's Belly can be filled but from His therefore He is the Fountain of Living Water Himself from whose Belly ours come to be filled Besides If a Scripture will admit of two distinct sences without Contradiction they may be used in both those sences upon occasion So Christ the Light whom we will Magnifie above our Adversary's Darkness is that Belly and Fountain and such as believe in Him shall have their Bellies filled with the Rivers of Living Water that come from Him He is the Fountain that is set open for Judah and Jerusalem and the River that makes glad the City of God Thirteenth G. F. The Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth without Spot or Wrinkle or Blemish or any such thing Our Adversary thus And the Apostle saith That He might present it unto Himself a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing He saith that might and should not that it is but this is the old Devilish Distinction of Sin-Pleasers that would never have the Church Compient Two things follow hence First A Disbelief of the Perfection of the present Mystical Church by which Christ is rendred the Head of a spotted Body Secondly That he is himself in a spotted and wrinckled Condition and every such thing and therefore an unfit Person to maintain the Faith of the true unspotted Church of Christ Fourteenth G. F. True Christians are Flesh of His Flesh and Bone of His Bone But the Apostle sayes our Adversary has it thus For we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones The Fault is this that he left out For we are Members hoping that it sufficiently proves Christ to be in Heaven absent from his Church not considering that a Body can be no more without its
from Falshood the Rule of what ought to be received and embraced and the Guide of Life be the Anointing which none denies that I know of to be the Spirit of God then both the only way to be taught all things necessary to be believed and performed is the Anointing and that Anointing is in Believers respectively but the Scripture so asserts And consequently the right Christian is not without that Infallible Spirit to teach and lead him into all Truth 1 John 3. 24. And he that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us If the Union betwixt Christ and his Children be that they dwell in him and he in them and that they thereby know it by the Spirit that he hath given them which implies that they had the Unerring Spirit of Christ then true Believers are not without Christ and his Spirit dwelling in them to Guide Rule and Instruct them in all things necessary to Eternal Life and Salvation He that denyes the first denyes the Scripture and he that rejects the second Proposition had as good deny that Day is an Effect of Light Jude 19 20. These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost c. If such as have not the Spirit are sensual then because the true Children of God are not sensual it follows that they have the Spirit and that those who have it not are not the Children of God because such are sensual This the Apostle further manifests to be his mind because leaving the sensualists he addresses himself to the Sanctified of God exhorting them To build up one another on their most holy Faith Praying in the Holy Ghost which shews that they performed their Worship to God in the Motion of the Eternal Spirit and consequently they could not be destitute of an Unerring Spirit in what concerned them either towards God or Men. Thus have I briefly run through the Scriptures of Truth and doubt not but I have made it appear That God has afforded his People in all Ages such a measure of his Eternal Spirit as hath been sufficient to Inform Rule and Guide them infallibly in and about those things which are absolutely necessary to be known or done unto Eternal Life It remains That I evidence the Truth of my Assertion by Reason also which I shall endeavour with what convenient brevity I can That Christian Men have an Infallible Principle to Judge Rule and Guide them I prove by REASON First I Shall take it for granted That no man whom either Education or Conviction gives to believe there is a God can be so unreasonable as to tâ—ink That any man may be farther able to understand what this God is and his Divine Pleasure concerning him then the same is discovered to him by some external or internal Operation from the same infinite Beeing this then must either be by the visible Creation or that invisible Taste or Rellish the Soul has by vertue of the divine Touches Influences and Discoveries that the Almighty Invisible God is pleased to approach his Creatures by as the next clearest way to communicate unto them the knowledge of himself Secondly And as I know not any who professeth Religion that makes the least scruple of this so how is it possible that such Discoveries as God himself is pleased to make should be fallible or subject to any Defect in themselves for were that admitted as must be upon the Principles of our Adversary then must we conclude an Imperfect Knowledge nay an uncertain not to say Erronious Knowledge of and Faith in God to be from God's own defective Manifestations of himself which however truly deduced from his Positions is a most Vnworthy and False Reflection upon the Mercy and Goodness of God Thirdly There is an absolute necessity That what it is convenient for man to know should be certainly and infallibly discovered to him because of that great Corruption Idolatry and Superstition which through that misty and uncertain Prospect they say man has of the Divine Will he may be subject to fall into and like the vain Worshippers of old conceit an Ape Serpent or Crockedell to be a Deity or some other Beeings or Fancies though less gross yet too gross for a Christian man Fourthly Upon our Adversary's Principles there can be no assured Ground of Comfort for when a man shall think he hath workt out his Salvation in the Way he Conceives most acceptable with God perhaps he hath followed an Erronious Judgment and Unsubject Affection and when Repentance may be too late he is to be fob'd off with such an Award as this You had no Infallible Knowledge and having lived in an Erronious sense of your own you must inherit the Displeasure that follows thereby making well or ill believing or doing a meer Lottery or doing of things by Chance and not from any certain knowledge in themselves of what God required of them A Conceit worthy to be disdained by every sober man Fifthly And were I as our Adversary I would never beat my Brain about what is true or false since upon his Principles when Truth meets me I know her not from Error and after I should have writ Volums I am as certain of the Truth of what I oppose as of what I assert so that the Quakers may be in the right for ought he knows nor have they any certain grounds from him on which to alter or believe the contrary Sixthly Nor does this Opinion of our Adversary that there is no such thing as man's being now led by an infallible Spirit end there for it rendereth the Almighty more injust then the worst of men since first he seems to offer men the clearest Discoveries of so much of his Will as he requires them to live conformable unto yet means nothing less by leaving Mankind to labour under the perplexity of an uncertain Knowledge And secondly Concludes him notwithstanding under the greatest certainty of eternal Punishment Methinks then If these things seem unreasonable though the genuine Effects of a fallible Guide our Adversary should by this time think it fit to allow us 1. That God cannot be known but by the Discoveries he makes of himself through his Eternal Power and Spirit unto Mankind 2. That though such Discoveries may be imperfect in Degree yet not in kind 3. That such Revelation Discovery or Instruction is infallibly true and that there is nothing wanting on God's part to accommodate man with a Spiritual Certain Infallible Discovery and Knowledge of Almighty God his Creator and therefore man has to rectifie and assist his fallible Judgement an Vnerring Certain Infallible Spirit Power or Principle which as man listens unto it and follows it his Vnderstanding becomes illuminated his Reason purified and a sound Judgment restored and in all things is
his own Reproof and in less then two Pages give himself the Lye But it is just with God that such men should be strongly infatuated Is it not strange that he should mock at our desiring to be informed by the Light at the bottom of one Page and make his own Appeal unto it at the top of the very next Is it fit to direct us in and about what he writes and not concerning the Writings of other men or Is it a true and approved Light when it concurs with him and but a weak delusive and what not Light when it leads us to oppose him But out of his own mouth let him be judged I shall therefore contract the benefit I make of his own Appeal into these two Arguments 1. That unto which he makes an Appeal must be capable of giving an Infallible Judgment and so a true Judge or else he appeals foolishly But the Light within is that unto which he makes his Appeal and we would not think him to do it to a thing not fit to give a certain Judgment therefore the Light is an Infallible Judge by his own Appeal 2. If it be appealed to by him as a competent Judge nay that by which we should satisfie our own Consciences touching the things he layes to G. F's charge namely Impostor c. and since those things are of the highest nature in Religion or against it then will it follow that the Light is to be the Judge of George Fox and not only of him but concerning those weighty Points of Religion wherein he is abusively charged by the Libeller And if so I would both tell him That G. F. is pronounced not guilty by the Verdict of that Light from which there is no Appeal and Himself first guilty of charging him with what he has not proved and secondly of Abusing Degrading and Contemning the Light and then contradictorily to himself of making his solemn Reference and Appeal to the Light as the most Impartial and Vnerring Judge Tell me now what could we have said more in praise of the Light so far as meer words go and what could he have said against himself He further adds That 't is the Protestant Principle as well as ours that it is evident by their dissent from the Church of Rome who pretending to be the Infallible Guide in Religion No sayes the Protestant Everyman is Judge for Himself Further That God hâ—s for that End endued every man with such a Light of Common and Certain Principles written in every man's Heart that if a Prophet should come and give them a Sign or a Wonder to draw them away from the observance of that Light and those Principles they ought not to adhere to that Prophet see Deut. 12. 1 2 3. Moreover God they say has promised his holy Spirit to those that humbly implore it in the Obedience of that Light Further That we have entertained it under new Names that the Contention between us and our Adversaries is about words Natural Light say they quoting than in the Romans For when the Gentiles that have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law they having not the Law are a Law unto themselves Divine Light say you John 1. 9. Is not the Difference betwixt you and others about Names for whether God hath given it Men by Nature or not it is of God in respect of its proceeding from Him and tendring to Him Thus an eminent Preacher in a great Assembly of late upon the Text And so far the Quakers are in the Right That every man hath the Motions of Good and Evil within him which in plain Cases of Good and Evil Right and Wrong will tell him what he ought to do and what he ought to avoid by which he ought to be directed and that his Conscience will acquit and excuse if he do the One and accuse and condemn him if he do the Other Thus far our Adversary and his eminent Preacher To the first I shall say that taking it for granted he is as Orthodox as a Protestant whose Cause he would seem to vindicate yet he grosly contradicts himself compared with his several lessening Expressions of the Light But I hope now he has told us that both the Protestants and himself receive and assert the Light to be the right Judge and Guide that both will never more be angry with the poor Quakers for being of that mind And that our Adversary will particularly retract his Manuscript to G. W. in Defence of the Scriptures being the Judge Rule and Guide or to that Effect As for his refusing us the Reputation of having shown them the Way to such Belief saying It was alwayes theirs We are contented to sit down without the Glory of being so much as Instrumental to such Convictions In short If the Light within be a more certain Ground then very Signs and Wonders Nay that excellent Gift with which God has endu'd Man in order to the safe Conduct of his Life as our Adversary hath plentifully confest then have we obtained our Post viz. that the Light is an Infallible Guide and need no more contend about what is so expressly yielded to us and the accord confirmed by the Concessions of an Eminent Preacher too whom I wish as Eminent a Practitioner and not less sound in his Life then Pulpit But alas such is our mans's Uncertainty to himself as well as others that it seems Impossible with him to write two Pages and they not quarrel with each other and both mutiny against their Author for after his Elogies bestowed upon the Light he is once more come to unbespeak them like the Sullen Cow that spills the Milk she gives And that which is more to be wondr'd at this miserable man begins to except against the Sufficiency of the Light from those very Reasons for which he seems to have asserted it at an high rate thus And this helpes me to shew in the third place that you extend the Doctrine of the Light in every man further then you ought for it is not to be extended to all Cases whatever as if every man that attends to the Light in him did certainly know what is good what is Evil Right or Wrong in every Case I heartily pitty the man and am really afraid he has overcharged the Strength of his Brain for with me such manifest Contradiction is but a smaler degree of Distraction I would fain have a rational Answer from him if he be yet capable of one How can the Light be a Judge of good and evil and yet not be so and all within the space of ten lines If the Light as by him acknowledged be a Judge of Good from Evil and the contrary then in all Cases where Good and Evil Right and Wrong make up the Question the Light cannot be secluded as wanting in true Judgment because Good and Evil are part of the Queston in the granted Proposition Deny that the Light is