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A54247 Wisdom justified of her children from the ignorance and calumny of H. Hallywell in his book called, An account of familism as it is revived and propagated by the Quakers / by William Penn. Penn, William, 1644-1718. 1673 (1673) Wing P1395; ESTC R24458 61,724 142

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Wisdom Justified OF HER CHILDREN From the Ignorance Calumny of H. HALLYWELL In his Book Called An Account of FAMILISM as it is Revived and Propagated by the QVAKERS By William Penn. But all these things will they do unto you for my Names sake Yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you shall think he doth God Service But be of good Cheer I have overcome the World John 15. 21. and 16. vers 2 33. Printed in the Year 1673. DUM CLAVUM TENEAM TO THE Justices of the Peace IN THE County of Sussex A Certain Person in your Parts hath lately troubled himself and the World with a Book entituled An Account of Familism as it is revived and propagated by the Quakers and this dedicated to Sr. J. Covert Knight and Barronet c. How ill he spent his time in Writing it and how unadvised he was in Publishing it an impartial Perusal of this small Discourse will briefly yet abundantly manifest I come not to you for Protection a thing he and his Cause wanted but for Impartality and Justice Truth is sufficient to patronize and defend her own Cause from the Lash of Envy without the weak Auxiliaries of Humane Force She gives Sanctuary to all that take to her for Refuge but is all-sufficient to her own Relief from the deepest Pressure and most inveterate Prosecutions of her implacable Enemies And though the Evil Disposition of the World to receive her Apologies seems to conspire with the Indefatigable Ende●vours of Her Adversaries to traduce Her yet her own Purest Innocency Unwearied Patience hath ever in the End broke forth to that clear Conviction of its Opposers as hath prov'd at once both their Confutation and their Shame And let it seem no Riddle to you that I write so assured of Truth on our side There is no Objection our Adversary has made to the contrary we shall not easily remove Our Meaness in Quality Breading Literature and Fortunes in the World badges of Reproach with him will r●ceive an ample Parallel from the best Persons and Times and is so far from making to our Overthrow that if the Scripture and other Story be to be credited they tell us that not many Wise Learned or Noble Not that they are excluded but as Persons stumb●ed at the Cross of Christ and the Simplicity of the Gospel through the Power that Greatness and Pleasure have with them they exclude themselves But since Great and Rich Men have Souls to be saved as well as Poor it is equally their Concern to inform themselves of that Way which most assuredly leads to the Rest that is Eternal I confess the Variety of Sects in the World to be a great Discouragement especially when we consider with what Confidence each Party pleads the Truth and Divine Original of his own Perswasion But Men are not to be satisfied with Pretence but Evidence Education is too short nor will Tradition reach far enough to ascertain any Man of the Verity of his Perswasion Could the two first have done there had been no need of Relinquishing the Roman Church who was neither wanting in Pretences nor an Education prejudic'd enough against all Reformation And if Tradition had been all-sufficient the Direction of God's Unerring Grace and the necessary Conviction of Mens Reasons might have been spared For if Men are to believe what is recommended for true because Recommended and not because True we are to believe we know not what and shall be to seek so far for a Reason for the Hope that is in us that in Reality we can have no other Answer to give then that such or such told us so and therefore we believe it But if the Ground of our Faith ought to be more sure and better founded it will stand us greatly upon to examine What is the Reason we have to render for our Faith Hope in God and that Belief we have of Holy Scripture If we erre here our Building is insecure and the Danger is that we shall not only one day loose our Faith but which is worse our Souls too This necessarily brings Man to a more Inward Search and Testimony some Divine Principle in Man planted by God himself which gives to believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that fear him This the best Heathens as well as Jews Christians have highly venerated and many are the Testimonies they have left upon Record to the Divine Original and excellent Use of it both to know God and our selves And truly it was this Holy Principle in all Ages that hath attended Mankind with those Checks Reproofs and Directions by which he hath had any Discerning of what should from what should not be done This is that which has given him the certain Sound and true Relish of what God has ever required at his hand as said the Prophet Micah God hath shewed thee O Man what is Good and what he requires from thee to do Justice love Mercy and walk humbly with thy God Mic. 6 8. In the Psalms thus Thou givest thy Mouth to Evil and thy Tongue frameth Deceit Thou sittest speakest against thy Brother These things hast thou done and I kept Silence Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will Reprove thee and set them in order before thine Eyes saith the Lord. And the Apostle Paul tells us What ever may be known of God is manifested within And what can that be by which God so manifesteth himself but what Moses called the Word nigh in the Heart that the Children of Israel were to obey That Job calls Light which the Wicked rebel against not loving the Wayes thereof The like doth Christ in John when he complained that Men would not bring their Deeds to be examined by it In all Ages hath the Almighty more or less pleaded his own Cause in the Consciences of all People by this Divine Principle of Light however variously denominated And what ever Faith or Hope Man has not grounded upon the Discoveries Convictions and Directions of This it is a by-rote Faith Hope and Religion Therefore I beseech you to whom this Discourse is more particularly dedicated to consider of us not by Tradition Education Religions establisht by Human Laws or Imperial Decrees but by that Understanding this Immortal Law and Everlasting Foundation of Virtue as Heathen Plutarch calls it will afford you to judge us by It has been Man's Venturing to wade into the Holy Scriptures without this Divine Principle that has caused so many fearful Miscarriages about Religion Something in Man prompts him to Religion but Man being not wholy guided by that which so inspires him with Religious Desires hastily spoils all with the Intermixture of his own Fancies and Conceits and because He is assured that What first inclined him was Right he sticks not to stile his own Inventions Orthodox and then Impatient of Contradiction with a Fury as great as his Ignorance endeavours the Overthrow
in you that was also in Christ Jesus who being in the Form of God thought it not Robbery to be equal with God And He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of One for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Again They that are joyned to the Lord are One Spirit and He that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as He is Righteous To deny this is to deny the most Heavenly Benefit we have by Christ namely Unity and Fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son That it was an Unity not an Equality especially in the Sense he takes the Word the faithful Narrative of that Proceeding printed in the Year 1654. will further testify How great then must this Man's Miscarriage be who to render a good Man an Impostor turns Forger himself but God will reward him The next Pair he pitches upon to prove his Assertion is Maenander and James Nailer The one for affirming Himself to be sent from the invisible Regions to be the Saviour of Man-kind And James Nailer for asserting himself to be Christ and accepting Hosannah's and Divine Worship in the Streets of Bristol Answ What Maenander was I know not and it is hard believing a Character of any Man when it is given by his Enemy But sure I am that James Nailer never asserted himself to be the Christ of God Neither did he ever deny Him that appeard at Jerusalem to be the Lord 's Christ as his Writings plentifully declare especially one Paper written by him to the then Parliament when a Prisoner in Bride-wel Christ Jesus the Emmanuel of whose Sufferings the Scriptures declare Him ALONE I confess before Men for whose sake I have deny'd what ever was dear to me in this World that I might win him be found in him and not in my self whom alone I seek to serve in Body Soul Spirit night day according to the Measure of Grace working in me even to that Eternal Spirit be Glory and to the Lamb forever But to asscribe this Power Virtue to JAMES NAILER or for that to be exalted or worshipped TO ME IS GREAT IDOLATRY So having an Opportunity given with Readiness I am willing in the Fear of God the Father in Honour to Christ Jesus and to take off all Offences from every Simple Heart without Guile or Deceit His third Comparison lyes betwixt Photinus who is said to have denyed the Trinity and G. Fox as guilty of the same Error in his Account Answ I can find no such place in the Book so called Either our Adversary sets up for a New Controvertist or he dishonestly shunned giving us the Page But I am willing to believe that he took it as he found it in some other Adversary for any thing reported or printed against a Quaker is ground enough for an envious Priest to accuse him But what if G. Fox denyed the Unscriptural Expressions viz. The Trinity of distinct and separate Persons must it necessarily follow that he denyed the Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father Word and Spirit We justly renounce those Barbarous School-Terms as not suited to God's Heavenly Manifestations but the dark Conceits of some Popish Doctors His fourth Comparison is made between So●inus and James Nailer in that the one denyed the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ and look'd upon his Passion only as an Example The other in that he affirmed The End for which Christ did suffer was to be a living Example to all Generations Love to the lost page 56. Answ He has not truly delivered the Opinion of Socinus whose Books shew however mistaken about Christ's Divinity that he ever esteemed his Death and Passion to have more in it then a bare Example Nor has he faithfully dealt with J. Nailer in this Quotation For first I find not the Words as cited and next the Word ONLY is by himself omitted which alone renders the Passage heterodox Suppose then that J. Nailer writ that Christ was in his Suffering a living Example to all Generations Is there no Difference between Christ's being in his Death and Passion Only our Example which he charges upon Socinus and Christ's being our living Example in Suffering which he attributes to J. Nailer How can there be a Comparison where there is so great a Disparity The First is denyed by all that own Christ The Last is owned by all that do not deny Peter who thus writ to the scattered Brethren For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that ye should follow his Steps 1 Pet. 2.21 His fifth Comparison he makes between the Valentinians the Quakers The Former he sayes arrogated to themselves a Knowledge beyond Christ and his Apostles The Latter impudently throw away the written Word of God delude the credulous Vulgar with new fangled Revelations which he thinks he has prov'd by two Inances 1. That Th. Hollbrow a Quaker to One that urged Scripture answered What dost thou tell me of Scripture which is no more to me then an Old Almanack 2. That Fox and Hubberthorn in a Book called Truth 's Defence say The Scriptures are no standing Rule and it is dangerous for ignorant People to read them Answ To the first I say there is great Difference between one that was no Quaker and one that was or is a Quaker We have examined the matter and by all we can find both that Saying is not true as charged and it is of an ancienter date then the coming of any of our Friends into those Parts therefore not the Saying of a true Quaker To the second I return thus much 'T is true there is such a Book and it was written by G. Fox and R. Hubberthorn but he has not given us so much as one Page to direct us to the Passage So that either People must read till they find it or else take his Perversion for our Assertion Unworthy Man does he think us such Wretches that we deserve not common Justice Methinks Justice should not be denyed where so little Mercy is shewn But to answer the Instance Our Judgment about the Scriptures being the Rule we have already delivered And in what sense it is Dangerous to read them their own Book will declare 'T is dangerous say G. Fox R. Hubberthorn to read the Scripture in order to make War against the Saints to give carnal Expositions upon them Meanings contrary to them and to make a Trade of them but Blessed is he that doth read and doth understand them If this prove that Sleight to Scripture our Adversary would suggest them to be guilty of then let us be condemned But God's Witness in every unseared Conscience will acquit them and judge him for corrupt Citation and hard Speeches who dares to cry thereupon Are these not as Impudent Hereticks as the Valentinians whom he represents to have arrogated to themselves a Knowledge above Christ