But this Shift will not serve J. Faldo's turn since G. F. meant a visible changeable and not a visible permanent Worship This Passage relates to Figurative and Temporary Services standing in those things which were but Signs of the Substance to come and which are finished by it So that the Apostle did indeed labour to bring the Jews and other weak Christians off from their Visible Typical or Legal to the more Spiritual VVorship of the Gospel not that they should be debarred from expressing that VVorship for while Bodies and Souls are together there is as I writ at large in my Answer a Necessity of some Bodily Demonstration I will yet give one Relish more of the Man 's Disingenuous Spirit before I conclude this Chapter Reply pag. 50. Before W. P. parts from this Argument be grows kind and shews the Power of Condescension to have place in him by these words Yet thus far we could go That Visible Worship as such without a due Regard to what kind of Worship it may be and what is the Root from whence it came cannot be well-pleasing to God A great Compliance indeed which is thus much just and no more a man's filling a Dung-Cart or W. P's acting on the Stage or the Table in their Meeting-place as like a Fencer as ever was seen are not Worship because seen though they should by some be so called for every thing that is seen is not therefore Worship Rejoynder His Acknowledgment of my Condescension is a small Artifice to insinuate my yielding him the Cause But what Reason he had to commend me would be better seen by considering how aptly and honestly he hath replyed to that little piece of my Answer he found in his Heart to give us He thinks to fling us off with his dirty and vain Similitudes I writ of Visible Worship as Praying Speaking c. on a Religious Account he turns it to any visible thing as Filling a Dung-Cart Acting on a Stage or Table as a Fencer Similes right-well suiting his Disposition as if I denyed that to be Worship which was seen because seen which was the farthest thing from my Thoughts and is not at all deduceable from my Words Yet hath this Man the Confidence to tell his Reader that they signifie just thus much and no more But in good Conscience Courteous Reader can this Man think to escape the Hands of God that acts with so much willful Baseness against me as to make no Difference between my saying That visible VVorship as such unless proceeding from a Right Root cannot be well-pleasing to God and saying That visible VVorship is not Worship because Visible though it should proceed from never so true a Ground which he makes my Answer to speak at least he infers so from it though â— direct Contradiction Is it one and the same thing to say Visible VVorship is not therefore true VVorship because Visible and concluding filling a Dung-Cart is not true VVorship because Visible is it honestly done to â—pply that to Acting upon Stages and Fencing which â—lly me was joyned to Worship If I had said Visible Fencing as such is not Worship because seen his â—y Shift might have had something in it but to make Difference betwixt saying that Visible Prayer is 〈◊〉 true VVorship because seen and Fencing or filling Dung-Cart is not true VVorship because seen thereby turning what I said of VVorship to every Trivial or Common Action among Men is unworthy of an Ingenuous Disputant much more an Humble Christian and least of all a Christian-Minister In short I spoak against Visible VVorship not Rightly Grounded a Position as true as Scripture it self for it is Scripture twenty times over and he twisteth it to my Denyal of VVorship because visible be it grounded as it will as his last words in the Chapter tell us For every thing sayes he as the sense of my Answer that is seen is not therefore VVorship instead of this Every VVorship that is seen is not therefore true VVorship But his extending the Major Proposition to every visible Thing and not to visible Worship only opens a Gap for his wild and extravagant Similes I will lay down our Propositions that the whole VVorld may see his Unjust VVay of Dealing with us My Proposition lay in form thus That Visible Worship which ariseth not from a Right Ground is not acceptable with God But John Faldo's Visible Worship say ariseth not from a Right Ground Therefore John Faldo's Visible Worship is not Acceptable with God The Argument as he gives it in my Name formed lies thus That which is seen is not Worship But a man's filling a Dung-Cart c. is seen Therefore Filling a Dung-Cart c. is not Worship Which Argument makes nothing Worship that is seen or visible however truly grounded because Visible instead of making such Visible Worship not true which doth not proceed from a right Root Now be pleased Friendly Reader to observe whither this Evasion drives the Matter If that which is seen be not therefore Worship as says J. F. in my Name then publick Praying or Preaching though of never so True a Kind or arising from never so Right a Ground because seen is not Worship much less True Worship By this it undeniably appears that my Adversary hath at best mistaken my Answer which abundantly confesseth as he himself hath observed in his Reply pag. 50. That there will be there must be and there ought to be a Visible Worship and that such Visible Worship only is rejected which ariseth not from a Right Ground in the Heart But how can this be if publick Praying and Preaching springing from never so spiritual a Root because seen must be no Worship which J. F. tells the World in my Name How can these so grand Opposites meet Or how is it possible to reconcile things as contrary as this William Penn owns Visible Worship William Penn denyes Visible Worship For it is no less then to make me renounâ—e Visible Worship for Visibility's sake who by my Principle and Writings hold and maintain such Visible VVorship as is of a true Nature or springs from a good and spiritual Ground So that it is not the Visibility but the Ground or Nature not being as it should be that is the Reason of our Exception Dr. Everad's Sermons Beloved I would have you ponder these things well If ye set up Ordinances c. so as to build and rest in them ye do make Idols of them or at best you play the Babes and the Children with them by resting alwayes on such Crutches and Go-bies and never come to be Young-men much less as Fathers in Christ pag. 562. And truly with some men herein lies the Top or Quintescence of their Religion making such ado about Shadows Figures and Resemblances and they let the Truth the Substance the thing pass and regard it not forasmuch as they are so zealous and hot about Forms But if they are by
the Earth nor ever did For what else can be the Consequence of his decrying our Principle that asserts Christ to be the universal Light enlightning every Man that comes into the World or that the Light wherewith every Man is enlightned is not Christ or God I affirm that which quarrels this Principle would not in the very ground have Christ to be God indeed not God to be God seeing it is an utter Denyal of his Omni-presence since God is not manifested but by his own Light and he being every where his Light cannot be limited because it cannot be distinguished from himself But what our Adversary would be at by this kind of Reasoning he helps us in his next particular to understand Rep. He attempts to excuse Burroughs's Phrase from Blasphemy viz. Your imagined God beyond the Stars But how they were expressed of People's imagining him to be in the Likeness of Man and so denying his Omnipresence that he should not be below as well as above To which he replyes thus A rare Excuse that denies Christ's Manhood and making the Manhood of Christ in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily to be a Popish Vbiquitary Rejoyn Must this pass for my Confutation A rare Excuse indeed But for what Not W. Penn's Denyal of Christ's Manhood But J. Faldo's base Perversion of E. B's words The Question was not about Christ's Manhood but of God himself who prepared it in time A pittiful shift to infer from God who is a Spirit to Christ's Body We know that 's not every where But the Word that was with God and was God is not confinable Though if the Truth were Known J. Faldo's Zeal for Christ's not being a Popish Ubiquitary centers in his Belief of meer Anthropomorphism I mean that God is confined to a Body and that Body to a certain place else why should he oppose to my asserting of God's universal Presence Christ's Manhood the Fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in that Manhood and Christ's being resident in some particular place But it is after this lame crabbed and insignificant way of Writing that he vindicates his first piece of Forgery and wicked mis-giving of our poor Friends meanings But to proceed Rep. He tells you of the Companions I rendered Quakerism to be attended into the World with and adds what else J. Faldo's Devil pleases yet instead of denying what I said except the Epithetes he thus excuseth it Finally did not the Devils howl and roar and tremble who seeing they should be dislodged by one stronger then themselves And was there no Terror in all this yes verily And morcover whereas People have taken the Quakers to be possessed of the Devil when so behaving themselves Mr. Penn hath here confessed they were not mistaken And more then that too that they themselves were Devils for it was them that roared Rejoyn If this be to be a fair Adversary there is no such thing in the World I will transscribe for thy sake Reader what I excepted against in his first Book and how I answered it But once more Christianity entered the World with Ravishing Songs and Hallelujahs of the Angels Healing all Diseases Casting out Devils Preashing Peace But Quakerism entered the World as if Hell had broke loose and Possession by Satan had made way and fit Souls for the Quakers Spirit O the hell dark Expressions of the Quakers Spirit frightful and amazing Words bitter Curses Howlings and Roarings And what else J. Faldo's Devil pleaseth by which to render the Quakers Odious Well! but to answer him It was a time of Joy and a time of Sorrow the Spirits of the Just rejoyced that he was born forth into the World and that Sun of Righteousness risen whose Discovering Light and Refreshing Beams would renew the World that had in great measure been bewildered since its first Innocent State But therefore was it not a time of Wo Sorrow Terror and grievous Distress to all the Workers of Iniquity Did not Christ come to bring War as well as Peace a Sword a Fire upon Earth Did not his Fore-runner come in an astonishing Manner in differing Attire of another Diet and from a desolate Place to preach Repentance and to warn them with an O Generation of Vipers to flee the Wrath to come Did he not say that an Ax a sharp and terrible Instrument should be laid to every unfruitful Tree And did not the Apostles preach to the Pricking of the Hearts of Thousands and Paul by name that Faelix himself trembled and All as knowing the Terrors of the Lord themselves they warned others wherefore Judgment is said to have begun at the House of God Finally did not the Devils Howl Roar and Tremble foreseeing they should be dislodged by one stronger then themselves Christ the Son of the Living God And was there no Terror Dread and Amazement in all this I perceive it may be a Virtue in the primitive Christians but a Vice in the Quakers at least in J. Faldo's account But this know O Impartial People the Quakers were over-taken by the mighty Hand of God and great were their Travels and Pangs of Sorrow under the Righteous Terrors of the Lord whose Hour of Just Judgments was come and being thereby made Witnesses of his heavenly Work and redeemed through Judgment they became Ministers of Judgment unto others and the Terror of it struck Thousands the Devils trembled c. And art thou given up John Faldo to call Light Darkness and Darkness Light the Terrors of God the Possessions of Satan and the Remorse of Conscience Hell broke loose O Vnhappy Man Reader this was my Answer how much of it he concerned himself with I have already observed What Use he made of that little cited is very obvious viz. to conclude us Devils What a False and Frothy Reflection is that for one that would be accounted a Divine To call this a Reply is to abuse Controversie 'T is manifest that Quakerism was not attended with more amazing Sighs and Symptoms then what our Adversary must needs confess to have been the Companions of Christianity And as they agree in the manner of their Appearance so do J. Faldo and the Pharisees in their Judgment of both Does John Faldo conclude us little better then Devils The Pharisees called our Lord and Master Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Thâ—s has Truth been ever accounted Heresie by the Priests and Rabbies of that Age in which it has appeared we do the less wonder that John Faldo should understand of what Spirit we are who is yet ignorant of his own and scoffs at the Revelation of that eternal Spirit which can alone give him to relish either For the Epithetes he bestows upon Quakerism they stink too much to be meddled with If they be Christian there is nothing Antichristian in the World To rebuke his Reviling he counts Railing and it is come to that pass with his scoulding Adherents that for the Quakers not to pass by his
for them to have come to the true Sense and Knowledge of him and escaped that Wicked Murder and the Deplorable Consequences of it had not been to have waited upon God for the Convictions Discoveries and Guidance of his Holy Spirit since Flesh and Blood and the utmost VVit of Man with the Exactness of the meer Letter of the Scriptures could never give the certain Discerning Knowledge and Savour of him unto that Generation whose very VVords themselves were Spirit and Life It was by a Divine Touch Sense and Knowledge given from above that he was truly diâ—cern'd own'd and follow'd of those that believ'd in him and cleav'd to him therefore said Christ No man cometh to me but whom my Father draweth Where was that Drawing but within Again Simon Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed what who I am but my Father that is in Heaven So that at last Men must come to this Spiritual Sense in themselves to understand and apply the very Commands of Scripture otherwise not Justice but detestable Murder may under the Name of it be confidently perpetrated Wherefore we Exhort all To have Recourse unto God's Spirit that illuminates certainly and gives to act unblamably by which the Scriptures are only understood as they should be and People brought into the Possession of that Life of Righteousness they plentifully declare of Had it not been for this inward Discerning there had been no Ground for the Abolishment of the whole Jewish Service which follow'd some years after Christ's Ascension And it is the same Eternal Spirit that is the great Rule and Judge now which God promised more particularly to shed abroad in the latter Dayes and is the great inseparable Priviledge from the New and Everlasting Covenant But to conclude Why should it seem so Heterâ—dox in J. Faldo's Judgment since if Men believe the Scripture upon the Testimony of the Spirit they practise it by the Knowledge and Power of the same How else could Paul have decry'd Jewish Ceremonies or we know what to take and what to leave Or why do we omit any Command therein mention'd They Cicumcised therefore must I Circumcise They Baptized must I therefore Baptize with forty more particular Cases wherein nothing can secure any from the Imitation of them set Conviction or Spiritual Disâ—erning aside I will offer two or three Testimonies from approved Men in our Defence William Tindal that ancient faithful Protestant Martyr whom J. Fox that writ the Books of Martyrs calls the English Apostle speaks thus That it is impossible to understand in the Scripture more then a Turk for whosoever or any that hath not the Law of God writ in his Heart to fulfil it Again Without the Spirit it is impossible to understand them John Jewel Bishop of Salisbury in his excellent Book against the Papists writ above One Hundred Years ago sayes thus to our purpose The Spirit of God is bound neither to Sharpness of Wit nor to abundance of Learning Oftentimes the Unlearned see that thing that the Learned cannot see Christ saith I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and the Politick and hast revealed them unto the Little Ones Therefore Epiphanius saith Only to the Children of the Holy Ghost all the Holy Scriptures are plain and clear Again Flesh and Blood is not able to understand the Holy Will of God without SPECIAL Revelation Therefore Christ gave Thanks unto his Father and likewise opened the Hearts of his Disciples that they might understand the Scriptures Without this special Help and PROMPTING of God's Holy Spirit the Word of God is unto the Reader be he never so wise or well learned as the Vision of a Sealed Book Now unless Men are bound to do what they do not understand how to do then only are they to do them where they are Revealed or Discovered to them which being by the Spirit only according to their Doctrine the Testimony and Discoveries of the Spirit are requisite to our understanding of the Scriptures which implies and comprehends a Discriminating Knowledge or Certain Discerning of what we should practise from what is not oblieging upon us to practise and consequently that we ought not to run head-long without such knowledge T. Collier an Ancient and Eminent Man among the Western-Separatists of our Nation writeth thus For me to speak of God because another speaks of him and to be able to talk much of God as I read of him in Scripture NOT BEING MADE ONE IN THE SAME TRUTH I see and speak BUT WHAT ANOTHER HATH SPOKEN and so may speak truly sometimes of God but it is by Hear-say ANOTHER MAN's TRUTH BUT NOT MINE So I doubt many a Soul BOASTS IN ANOTHER MAN's LIGHT Again I see that external Actings according to a Rule without is nothing if not flowing from a Principle of Life and Love within Which is more then E. B. said of whom J. Faldo with unworthy Reflection and base Wrestings hath said so much Thus much of sober Rejoynder and much more then my Adversary's scurrilous Reply deserves but the ConCernment I have for the Information of others drew this from me I shall pass by his Ranting Strain against us at the top of his 36th page desiring to keep close to the Business and where I may without breaking his Matter avoid troubling the World with a Transcript of them I am very careful to do it But this next particular as many more being little else and since he suggests thereby an Untruth with great Confidence against me I should wrong both the Truth and my self in omitting it He charged us with Denying the Scriptures to be any Means to know God Christ or our selves for which he quoted W. Smith's Primmer pag. 2. because he there tells the Questioner that Christ is the Only Way to which J. Faldo answered That though Christ said No Man can come to the Father but by me yet he did not say that there is no coming to the Knowledge of God but by Christ thereby making as I observed in my Return to him a Difference between coming to the Father by the Son and to God by Christ though no other Name be given under Heaven then the Name of Jeâ—us Christ c. That we never deny'd the Scriptures to be a Means in God's Hand to convince instruct or confirm nor could this be W. Smith's Meaning since he would thereby have cut off all Benefit from accruing to People by his Books and also that Ministry he had receiv'd of God In short From our Denying that there is any other Way to the Father but Christ he concludes that we exclude the Scriptures and consequently our own Books and Ministry with them from being any way Instrumental of Good however if I err'd it was in good Company and that J. F. must acknowledge for worthy W. Tindal p. 80. of his Works and H. Bullenger a learned and famous Reformer in Switzerland
IN his former Book he charged us with the Sin of Idolatry his Argument lay thus Those who own and profess that to be God which is not God are gross Idolaters But the Quakers do so in professing the Light within and the Soul of every Man to be God Therefore Idolaters The Testimonies upon which he insisted I faithfully and fully considered in above Seven Pages of Sober Answer he returns me about Three in Defence of his Charge not giving above a Dozen Lines of what I writ and those made up of Scraps rather contracting what he said before then making any substantial Reply to them But however I will be just to him Thus he begins Reply p. 84 85. To my Charge of Idolatry he answers as one that intended to confirm not confute it His very Denyals implying a large Grant of the Question p. 192 193. We do forever renounce any such Principle as that the Soul of Man simply as such is the very Essence and Being of God Then it is with him the very Essence or Being of God though not because it is the Soul of Man Rejoynder No such Matter But it is plain how much the Man is upon the Ketches His Argument led me to such an Answer for he calls it The Soul or Spirit of a Man which is a constitutive Part of a Man pag. 114. I was therefore led by him to write in that Abstract Sense which thus far makes for him in case he can maintain his Charge that the Idolatry would be the grosser Besides God is the Soul or Life of the Soul therefore there was a Necessity for such a Distinction Reply p. 85. W. P. pag. 193. We never did do nor shall assert the God that made Heaven or Earth to be comprehendible within the Soul of Man so that when we say the Light is within any we do not intend the whole Being of Light All that W. P. denyes here is but God's being so in the Soul of Man as that he is no where else or nothing else yet allowing the Soul and Light within to be God essential Rejoynder It were heartily to be wished we had nothing but Ignorance to charge him with in this Passage but methinks he would not have us to take him for a Man of so little Understanding as he hath need to have that writes so much Falshood and does not know it First He hath dropt the most substantial part of my Answer in the middle Secondly These Passages relate not to the Soul but to the Light upon occasion of a place he cited out of G. Fox the younger therefore not applicable to the Soul yet by him as well applyed to the Soul as to the Light Thirdly He sayes All that I deny in those words he quoted out of my Answer is only God's being so in the Soul of Man as that he is no where or nothing else which if he had only said it of the Light it would be no Contradiction to my Principle or the Truth for the Light is as well on the Earth as in the Heavens and in my Chamber as in the Firmament without any Error in Physicks and so may God whom in my Answer I called the great Sun of Righteousness that caused his Spiritual Light to arise and shine into the Souls of Men be God as well within as without the Soul for where-ever Divine Light is God is and where God is Divine Light is Howbeit we do not call the Manifestation of Light God though the Manifestation of God Fourthly His saying That I yet allow the Soul and Light within to be God essential is a down-right Falshood as with respect to the Soul it is nigh two pages before that I considered his Charge against us about the Soul What shall I call then his thrusting of it in here which cannot be concerned in the very Nature of the Answer as thus appears If the Soul be God God is comprehended within the Soul and is no where or nothing else but Soul and where the Soul is An Absurdity yea a Blasphemy never rightly to be inferred from any thing I ever said or writ thus scandalously flung upon my Answer by J. Faldo for want of a better Reply I cannot think that ever man adventured under his Pretences of Religion so knowingly to pervert wrest and misapply Men's Words about Doctrines of the greatest Importance This shows he values Credit more then Conscience who undertakes to fasten a Blasphemous Consequence untruly on my words lest he should be thought to have charged us beyond what he could prove but his Weakness bewrayes his Malice For if the Soul may be God and yet I deny that God may be nothing else his very Words in my Name then may the Soul be God and God the Soul and yet God something else and that something else God When or where did I ever give Occasion for such Biasphemish Gibberish Yet this is the Result of what he dares tell the World is my Meaning I may say the same respecting Locallity or Place for what Man not stark Mad would say the Soul is God yet deny not but that God may be else-where which J. Faldo also makes though an express Contradiction to his wrests a piece of my Meaning for unless God may be divided from God where-ever he is the Soul is if the Soul be God and so one Man is in another and every Man â—biquitary or every where at the same time Friendly Reader none of this Blasphemy and Nonsence belongeth to me therefore I return it to the True Parent to maintain it as he is able But he would have the VVorld believe that of 23. Citations out of acknowledged Quakers I did but nibble a little at five of them I think him not worth proving a L that have already so many times done it upon unquestionable Ground in this Discourse besides I should be necessitated to transcribe my whole Answer but I beseech this Kindness of the Reader that he would not think his Time lost in perusing the 20th Chapter of my Answer where he may see himself if I have only nibled perhaps he will have a better Opinion of my Endeavours I shall have Occasion here to touch upon some of them and no more yet enough to show my Adversary's unfair Dealing Reply To Fox Junior's who calls the Light the Eternal God which created all Things In his continued Discourse personating the Light he calls it the Light in you me the Light in them which P. would evade by saying I granted that in the first part within Man was not mentioned Rejoynder Had I said no more then this it might have past for an Evasion But to pass over a page and a half of pertinent Answer to his Application of both Passages out of G. F. and then say I evaded them by urging his Grant that within Man was not mentioned in the first Passage is to act the Shifter with a Witness especially when the little Part he quotes was