Shame but that which causes Repentance grieving that we should so long as we have done put off the day There is only required for the condemnation of us the Judgment of our Adversaries their bare affirmation of the matter wherewith we are charged is enough to pronounce us guilty and to expose us to the publick hatred of the misguided World 7. Now to let the World know our Principles we shall do our endeavour to express our Faith in a larger Character than that in which we have but now declared it Not but that which William Pen has said is the substance of all that can be spoken But because all are not of equal Capacities and that the aforesaid word Doctrine is by Adversaries abused and we thereby rendred to hold such things as are repugnant to the Holy Scriptures we shall here do our endeavour to rend the Vail and dispel these Clouds which either has or may yet blind the mind and understanding of the Intellectual part of Man We believe that there is One only Heb. 11.6 Great Almighty Eternal and holy God Eph. 4.5.6 the Maker Creator and upholder of all things Nehem. 9.20 who has given a measure of his Spirit or Grace unto all Men by which they might come to know him the true God Gen. 1.1 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Joh. 1.9 Through this Grace we believe that Jesus Christ our Lord Tit. 2.11 was in the fulness of time manifest in flesh 1. Cor. 12.7 being Conceived of the Holy Ghost Born of a Virgin Mat 1.20 and made in all things like unto us 1. Tim. 6.13 sin only excepted That he witnessed a good Confession before Pontius Pilate Act. 2.23.32 was condemned suffered the death of the Cross Heb. 10.12 was Buried and rose again the third day Ascended Heb. 8.1 and in his own glorious and Heavenly Body Eph. 1 2â— sits at the right hand of the Heavenly Majesty Phil. 7.9 And that this same Jesus God hath highly exalted and given him a Name above every Name Joh. 3.16 that whosoever believes in him Act. 4.12 should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 and that there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men Joh. 11.26 whereby we must be saved We believe in the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.17.26 which is the Spirit of truth the Vnction or Anointing from the Holy One that he proceedeth from the Father Joh. 16.13.15 and will shew us things to come 1. Joh. 2.20.27 and that he beareth witness of the Son and will dwell both with us and in us and that he shall teach us all things and abide with us for ever Eph. 28. Through the teachings and demonstrations of this Holy Spirit we believe 1. Joh. 5.4 that as through faith in Christ we shall be saved so that by the vertue of that faith we shall overcome the World Tit. 2.12.14 and bring forth the blessed fruits of Repentance in an boly Life Eph. 1.7 We also believe that Sanctification is by the blood of Jesus Heb. 9.14 and that so far as we are sanctified so far we are justified and so far made the Righteousness of God in him Phil. 3.9.10 And we believe that the Righteousness of Christ is no otherwise imputed unto us but as we are true Believers and in conformity to his death and sufferings Heb 2.9 And that although Christ our Lord made his Soul an Offering for sin tasted death for every Man and is a propitiation for the sins of the whole World 1. Joh. 2.2 yet none receives the peculiar benefit thereof unless through faith in his name power 2. Thes 2.12 or spirit denying themselves and taking up the daily Cross Col. 3.5 they dye unto sin and live unto righteousness and so through a mortification of the deeds of the flesh come to witness a new Birth Tit. 3.5 and Regeneration in Spirit Joh. 4.23 We believe that the Worship of God is a Spiritual Worship Joh. 3.3.5 and that they that Worship him Rom. 6.4 must Worship in Spirit and Col. 2.11.12.14 truth and that we are Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands Eph. 1.12 in putting off the Body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ Rom. 2.26.29 and in like manner Buried with him in Baptisin if we be also risen with him Philip. 3.3 through the faith of the opperation of God who hath raised him from the dead Eph. 2.15 And that he has blotted out the Handwriting of Ordinances which was against us which was contrary unto us and took it out of the way nayling it unto his Cross Col. 3.17 We believe that Prayer and Thanksgivings are incumbent duties 1 Thes 5.17.18 and holy Ordinances of Gods spiritual Worship to all the Worshipers in Gods holy Temple Prov. 2â— â— 27 but being performed and not in the sence and power of the holy Spirit and in the fear and dread of Gods great and glorious name Psa 50.16 they are not only sin but an abomination to the Lord. Isa 66.3 And we believe that the holy Scriptures are the Jer. 6.20 Declarations Amos. 5.22 Writings and Testimonies not only of holy Men but of the Spirit of Truth it self and that they ought to be read believed and practised 2. Tim. 3.15 being profitable for Doctrine reproof correction and instruction in righteousness that the Man of God might have comfort through the same be made perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works and through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord are able Joh. 5.28.29 to make wise unto salvation Lastly We believe the Resurection of the Dead both of the just 1. Cor. 15.16.17 and unjust the one to salvation to an Inheritance Incorruptible and undefiled which fadeth not away 1. Pet. 1.4 reserved in Heaven where our vile or low Bodies shall be changed Phil. 3.21 and fashioned like unto his glorious Body 2. Pet. 3.7 according to the working of his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself the other to Condemnation and wrath Eph. 1.19 according to the Judgement of the great day 8. Having thus in few words given an account of our Faith without any Equivocation Mental Reservation or secret Evasion we must tell the Adversary in the words of our Lord that Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Our good Confession then being fully agreeable with the tenour and sense of the holy Scriptures is not only an Evidence to our Salvation but also a matter of Justification thereby demonstrating that it is as well the intent and belief of our hearts as the expressions of our mouths And we think the Dilemma is
be witnesses thereunto A Religion repleat with so much purity as ours is has somthing very excellent and Divine which you know not of and your Ignorance takes away your desire of knowing lest by the prevalency of the Justice of our Cause you should be witnesses against your selves Of how much Folly would you judge that Man guilty who never Read any part of the Law should yet assume to teach a Councel the knowledge thereof or he who understanding nothing of Physick should not only pretend to Instruct an old Learned and experienced Physitian but also presume to correct his Method and way of Practise And yet certainly the Folly and Ignorance of our Adversaries far surpasseth this in that they are so far from desiring to know the truth that they hate and malign all such as but offer although in kindness to inform them thereof such is the power and force of blind Zeal that it makes all its prostitutes chuse rather to be the Vassals of wilful Ignorance than to relinquish the greatest of absurdities although in exchange for that whose own worth might be a sufficient recompense for the greatest of deserts 3. We expected that the Adversary should have proved his Assertions in publick but that his prudence or want of abilities has made him decline for it is a thing not only improbable but also impossible for him to perform as in the Sequel hereof we hope we shall both plainly and truly make appear There is no doubt but whosoever shall be saved must necessarily be a Christian since the Scripture saith there is no other name under Heaven by which we can hope for Salvation the which is confirmed in a certain place by the Testimony of that Great and Eminent Apostle Paul where he saith that If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Since therefore we have witnessed to the whole World a good Confession and believe in our hearts what our tongues have spoken we have not only hope but also know if the Credit of so great an Apostle may be prevalent that we are become heirs of Salvation and if heirs of Salvation then Christians since there is no Salvation by any other Name under Heaven If the Adversary Objects we believe not in our hearts it remains on his part to prove his Assertion which we know he cannot if he undertake that work he must take upon him the Prerogative of God Almighty For he that declares to man what his thoughts are the Lord of Hosts is his Name 4. That so good a Confession has been witnessed unto by us has been daily apparent ever since we have been a People called by the Lord and that both by word of mouth Writing as many thousand Witnesses living can abundantly testifie and we are faithfully perswaded that this is so apparent that our very Adversaries themselves believe nothing less in their own Consciences though since Malice and Envy has taken place in their hearts they have had boldness and impudence enough not only to belch out such Poyson and Malignity and in so large a measure that the Mists thereof seem like the Foggs out of the Bottomless Pit to darken the Air but also with such Ardency and Violence that they have even stupified their own Souls So that what they reported although at first they really knew them to be egregious Lyes yet the continuance in and accustomed use of so ill a medium has not only blinded their Knowledge obsuscated their Reason but also so benummed their Senses that they themselves begin now to think those things to be true than the which at the first they really knew there was no greater falshoods could be declared by any Mortal 5. If in order we pass over the several Testimonies of many of the Lords Servants as what John Crook has said in a Book called Truths Principles the Testimony of George Whitehead in his Divinity of Christ Confessed of Isaac Pennington in his Scattered Sheep p. 8. and in his Question to the Professors of Christianity p. 31. Of George Fox in his Declaration to the Jews Of George Fox the younger in the Collection p. 208. Of John Whitehead in his small Treatise p. 7. besides a Cloud of other Testimonies the which time would sail us here to ennumerate whose Declarations and Confessions have been so large and ample that we think they exceed the power of Words to make a more full Profession yet we think it necessary to bring in the Words of William Pen whose Confession of Faith the Adversary calls although in Scripture Language a meer Equivocation an old Art of Deceivers and so much the more especially since his Integrity and Uprightness has been so infinitely wronged by the blackness and malice of the Enemies of Truth Hear his own Expressions in the last page of his Sandy Foundation shaken And lastly as concerning Christ Although the Slander is not new yet nevertheless false for I declare on the behalf of that despised People vulgarly called Quakers the Grace of which we testifie hath never taught us to acknowledge another God than he that 's the Father of all things who fills Heaven and Earth neither to confess another Lord Jesus Christ than he that appeared so many hundred years ago made of a Virgin like unto us in all things sin excepted or any other Doctrine than was by him declared and practised therefore let every mouth be stopt for ever opening more in Blasphemy against Gods junocent heritage who in Principle Life and Death bear an unanimous Testimony for the only true God true Christ and Heavenly Doctrine 6. These things are here reminded for the sakes of such honest and simple Souls who in the integrity of their hearts desire to know the Truth as for our own particulars we could have willingly and patiently born through the strength of Christ which assists us not only all this but whatsoever the fury and rage of the evil ones should be permitted to inflict upon us It is that Christian Charity which is in our Souls towards all mankind which engages us to appear in the behalf of the Truth this day and to bear a witness to that which shall out-live all salshoods and lyes and tryumph over the strongest Power of Hell and Death We are not ashamed to be discovered what we are 't is that we seek after that we may be apparent to the whole world We esteem it our glory to bear the Reproach of our Master and account nothing dishonourable which we undergoe for his sake The Adversary accuses us of evil whose necessary appendices are both Fear and Shame but it is such an Evil as wants the proper Indications of Guilt For we have no other Fear upon us but that which keeps us from offending our God nor any other
impossible to be avoided Either what Christ our Lord spake is Truth or not Truth if Truth then our Confession is in some measure a demonstration of our Justification mangre all the spight and malice of our Adversaries but if they I not own it to be Truth that 's no proof against us while we are faithful Followers of our Master in that we have taken him for our Example and if followers of Christ then Christians But we hope the Adversary will not dare to give our Lord the Author and God of Truth the Lye or yet presume without the Inspiration and Revelation of the Spirit of Truth to give any Construction or add any meaning to those plain words of the Truth it self for fear if he has any fear of God before his eyes that God should add to him the Plagues which are written in that Book 9. The Adversary hath not yet nor indeed can he shew in the least measure any thing of a reason in opposition to what we urged once in a former Paper the which was this Whether what we say is our Faith ought not rather to be taken for our Faith than what our Adversary says it is since we better know what we believe than what another do's if yea wherefore should the Adversary say the contrary if nay wherefore should they or any else be any more believed in any of their Verbal Confessions than we or any other man since there is no reason that their credit should exceed in the least measure ours or any other persons This Argument we think not only unanswerable but also strong enough to make invalid what ever the Adversary can say in opposition to us and not only so but also force him to give himself the Lye It was indeed great Policy in him to decline that which he could not approach to evade those things which neither his Abilities nor Malice dare venture to oppose and to let all those things pass by in silence the bare remembrance of which might be enough perfectly to overthrow his Cause But alas I talk to them who say the Confession of our Faith in Scripture Language is an Old Art of Deceivers Surely the Christian Faith and Holy Scriptures were never thus abused before But this is that the Scripture might be fulfilled they shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name sake 10. It is Policy in him that intends to tell a Lye to tell such an one as might have some seeming probabilities of Truth with it and not such as almost the whole world knows to be a notorious Falcity thereby rendring themselves not only void of Honesty but also Wit Let but this Calumny of the Adversaries viz. That the Quakers are no Christians be but seriously considered and you will not only find it look like an egregious Slander but such an apparent Lye as that nothing in the world could be told to exceed it either in Matter End or Evidence I hope there is none thinks but that we believe we have Souls as well as others and that we desire hope for and seek after the Salvation of them as well as others do or at leastwise that we have as much reason to do it as any have And if so who should be so simple as to believe that we should jest with Heaven or trample underfoot the blood of the Covenant as an unworthy thing What Mortal can be so void of Reason as to imagine that we should despise or slight that which has sought us or deny him from whom we not only know we receive all our Mercies here but of whom we hope to have an everlasting Life hereafter and by whom we do believe we shall be made partakers of Glory and Heirs of an eternal Inheritance The Adversary could tell no greater a falcity of us than to say that we deny him who is more to us than all the World beside for whose sake we esteem nothing we have in this world and account all things loss that we may gain him and without doubt his end of speaking of it was only to render us odious to the world and to make us the mark for all to shoot their Arrows at that if possible we might be rooted out from off the face of the Earth This is the Adversaries Charity II. Reflections upon J. Ives his Papers in Particular 1. IN the Adversaries first Paper he lays down his Charges against the Quakers upon a Chalenge to meet them to dispute but more properly to rail and that with so much Confidence and Impudence as if he intended to make the world think he positively believed them himself the which I supose and am perswaded any sober and rational man would judge the contrary and really conceive it was Prejudice not his Faith which made him lay down those Assertions 2. He says that By force of Argument he had driven them to that strait that they could make no reply but the true reason of his not having a reply was because he could not be induced by any means to stay to hear William Pen make his Answer wherein was plainly detected his falshood and Calumnies and to salve that he says he was under some indisposition of Body a notable come off and so it is not to be doubted but he may always be when he sees he is like to come by the worst 3. He says We own such Books as contain in them Doctrines no way reconcilable to Scripture Language or Christian Religion but are destructive both of the one and the other but all the proof he gives us is his bare Affirmation he needs but only say so though nothing be more false he thinks it is a good means of rendering us odious to the world there is no Artifice so excellent with him as to dare and say he will do it that people which know not his Impudence may believe he can though nothing is more impossible to be done 4. In his second Paper he reiterates his Charges and instead of seriously considering and answering of a Paper sent to him by W. S. he makes a long descant because he put not his name at length and then at length taxeth the said W. S. with Contradiction in these words that the Adversaries Tongue was no slander with sober Citizens yet that he never met with more Lyes and Slanders in so few Lines All which may well be true for in respect of the falsity of the Adversaries words themselves they are both Lies and Slanders but in respect of their acceptation with some sober Citizens they might be no Slanders because of their not believing of them 5. And totally to avoid an Answer to the said Paper he relates some Opinions he holds as That the same Body which is now the Habitation of the soul shall rise again and enter with the Soul into everlasting joy or Torment But we query whether this Body must be corruptible and Earthly Elemental or not if Earthly or Elemental the Adversary