Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A65534
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A brief and modest reply to Mr. Penn's tedious, scurrilous and unchristian defence against the Bishop of Cork
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Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing W1489; ESTC R38532
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21,311
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30
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them who professes as concerning their Principles he was deceived by them thinking they had held sincerely the Principles which by a more diligent search he finds they hold not assures us and has Printed Testimonies out of their Books to prove they deny 1. Faith in Christ as George Keith in his Third Narrative he outwardly suffered at Jerusalem as he rose again Ascended and now Sits at the Right Hand of God to be necessary to Salvation 2. Justification by the Blood of Christ outwardly shed 3. A Resurrection of the Body that Dyeth 4. Christs coming again without us in his glorified Body to Judge the Quick and the Dead Nay the same Person professes as the Bp. has seen under his hand That he really thinks he can prove W. P. holds not one of the Articles of the Christian Creed soundly and intirely and that none ever more plainly oppugned the Doctrine of the Scriptures than W. P. and his Party Upon so close an Evidence as this is let the World judge if the Bp. be unreasonable in demanding a better confession of Faith than by meer Innuendo's as necessary to their being allowed Christians True indeed now in his Defence Mr. P. tells the World he and his Brethren receive all the Articles of the Creed called the Apostles p. 97. But this may be reckoned one of the good effects the Bps Paper has had to bring them to this acknowledgment and t is to be hoped they will be kept to it It would be as endless as needless and besides would swell this Paper to too great a Bulk to follow Mr. P. Page by Page to the End Replying to all his little Cavils and poor Evasions A more Compendious way therefore must be taken Which shall be 1. By reducing Mr. P s Answers and Arguments to some Common Heads or Figures of Speech which he uses so contemptible in themselves as that the instances of them are answered by being shewn And 2. by singling out the more material Points wherein Mr. P. Enlarges and setting them in their true Light The several Heads to which his Answers may be reduced are either manifest Impieties or manifold arts of Uncharitableness and Disingenuity much unbecoming a Christian or even a fair Disputant Manifest Impieties are 1. His falsifying the sense of Scripture and then the words of it so plainly that he cannot well seem insensible of it himself Thus whereas our LORD said John III. 20. Every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Which passage to make look favourably to his purpose he corrupts the 21st verse and reads it thus He that loves the Light brings his Deeds to the Light to see if they are wrought in GOD. p. 10. 4. Whereas the plain meaning of the Text is no more than They that do evil seek to be hid 1 Thes 5. 7. They that are Drunken are Drunken in the Night They who do well fear not to be seen To which sense every Nation has Proverbs Si factum est bonum quorsum tenebris opus est and with us Truth seeks not Corners with many like now contrary to the sense of Mankind as well of the Holy Ghost W. P. produces this Text as a proof of the Light within and that it is to be the Rule and Judge of our Life and Deeds yea to credit confirm and expound Scripture So does he too with like reasonableness Eph. V. 11 12 13. 2. His plain reproaching the Holy Spirit in the Apostles as to what they taught Thus when he had no other way to answer the Bps Argument for the Divine Authority of Baptism by Water taken from Acts X. 47. 48. he says plainly In all which Peter seems more concerned to save his own credit than to recommend or establish Water-Baptism p. 81. A man would think this were not expressing himself reverently on this tender point or as he promised p. 68. These for a Tast Single instances under each Head for brevity sake must suffice Manifold Arts of Uncharitableness and Disingenuity the Bp. accounts these that follow 1. Calumnious and Spiteful Insinuations as p. 30. that he the Bp. believes not the Thirty Nine Articles yet did W. P. never discourse with him touching any one of them with many like passages 2. False Imputations p. 69. He downright charges the Bp. for treating the Quakers with Levity and Scorn as to the Language Thou and Thee The Bp. Challenges him to shew a light or scornful Expression in that his Paper Nay rather than fail W. P. will impute to the Bp. his own uncharitable censures of him The Bishop according to his usual way of plain dealing and speaking home to mens Consciences to the end they may search their Hearts touching their secret and unseen sins which are known only to God and their own Consciences dealt roundly with the Quakers and put some Questions to them conjuring them to put them to themselves and Examine their own Conscience For instance the Bp. has long observed and all Men may observe as Notorious the Quakers eager pursuit of wealth and their effectual wily and secret ways of getting it Now hereupon he bids them Examine their Consciences Whether their main end and study by their pretended Mortifications and renouncing the World be not to enrich themselves and to make themselves a party considerable c. This Mr. P. makes one of the Bps. censures and then charges it upon the Bp. as the worst construction that the most irreligious and profane could make of their behaviour The Bp. did not affix it to them and all along avows that he suspends any Censure or Judgment of them He professes it is not his right in this sense to judge But he now demands of Mr. P. whether when Peoples Actions are suspicious it be not reasonable for nay the Duty of a faithful Pastor to conjure them to examine and judge themselves which is all the Bp. did Yet still Mr. P. goes on in this false imputation p. 117. The Bp. says he tells us he will not judg us yet his whole Paper is one continued Judgment of us Sure Mr. P. does not know or will not attend what judging as it means censoriousness is The Bp. most plainly judged not the Quakers Belief in their Consciences but that Form which Mr. P. and his Brethren professed or to use their own term declared in this Paper And the Bp. stands to it both the Authors and the Paper deserve another kind of Censure then he gave or attempted on Either Notwithstanding Mr. P. sticks not upon this very reason to charge the Bp. of Irreligion making them as bad as bad can be c. p. 117. God give Mr. P. more Charity and Reason for this is plain censoriousness and concluding without consequence 3 Sly Jeers p. 27. I would have my Reader reflect on this though he were as big as a Bp. p. 40. No Bp. in these three Kingdoms has the big and
Ghost which they feel Mr. P. must give the Bp. leave to be a little more particular also on this Term. Let Mr. P. then know that whatever mens attainments may be it is not good to boast so much of their being Spiritual and greater boasting certainly there cannot be than for men to claim Spirituality to themselves alone and pronounce all the rest of the Christian World Carnal To speak to the true Notion of Spirituality such Spiritual Persons as Mr. P. pretends to be and as the Apostle speaks of 1 Cor. XI the place so much insisted on by Mr. P. p. 53 And ever and anon alluded to by him and his followers neither Mr. P. is nor any Person that we know now living Namely they can none of them Preach in demonstration of the Spirit and Power vers 4. They have not those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit as that they are able to speak with Tongues and Prophesy or to Heal the Diseased by word or touch or to tell us the secrets of mens Hearts Which Miraculous powers were the demonstration of the Spirit their intended They cannot by such works convince the World that they have Mysteries and the Wisdom which has been hidden from the very Princes and Wise-men of the World revealed to them by the Spirit of GOD as those Persons had vers 10. The knowledge of CHRIST Crucified and GOD's design of saving Mankind by him of making him to us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 1. Cor. I. 3. The Mysteries St. Paul delivered to the Corinthians were not by our Quakers attained by any other Revelation than that of Scripture nor could they ever have been attained unto much less proved by Mans Wisdom or natural abilities and methods ver 13 14. But thoâ—e things Paul and others then spiritually received namely by Revelation of the Spirit as vers 10. Now such Spirituality as this Let Mr. P. pretend to what he will is long since ceased and it was foretold it should cease Whether there be Prophesies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge of such inspired kinds as above it shall vanish away 1. Cor. 13. 8. Accordingly all these as to what was Immediate and Extraordinary we see long since not to have been in the Church And further as to those Heroick or Transcendent degrees of Holiness or of all Christian Virtue so suddenly infused into many Primitive Saints and accompanying the aforesaid Miraculous Gifts at the first great effusion of the Spirit whereby men were after a sort created Saints of the first Magnitude the Bp. is well assured that the experience of Mankind has long amply convinced the World this kind of Spiritual men are ceased People are now made holy by the use of outward means and grow up in Grace by degrees Yet in both cases as to Gifts as well as Holiness there are those who by Analogy and Proportion may be still termed Spiritual that is there are Persons who by Study and Industry attain to speak with Tongues c. Others who having from the Holy Scriptures which were Indited by the Spirit of GOD learnt the mind of the Spirit and been in their Hearts perswaded of the Truths and Duties they have thence learnt and felt their Souls strongly moved by the power of the Spirit under the Ministry of the word to the Performance of such Duties have yielded themselves and submitted to the Conduct of the Holy Ghost leading them by Scripture into all Truth as well as Holiness They allow themselves in no known Sin nor in the neglect of any known Duty If they are overtaken through human frailty by any Evil they immediatly repent and return with new Zeal to their Duty purging themselves to their power from all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit Now having their Hearts habituated to such new Life which by the power of the Spirit they have been brought over to these Persons may justly be called in their degree Spiritual And having their Passions mortified their Sense and Belief of true good changed their Counsels and Wills by such belief guided and governed they do certainly judge at another rate in all cases of Practice than they themselves did or the vain giddy worldly wicked part of Mankind do They have their daily frequent retirements to Devotion and besides their Hearts even amidst their common business much with GOD. Their thoughts and affections dwell much in Heaven and they are ever and anon in their Souls breathing and secretly gasping after their Country Now let such Persons as these be allowed to be Spiritual and if so the Bp. says he doubts not but there will be found more such who are no Quakers than who really are Particularly the Bp. claims to be such a one himself and Challenges Mr. P. to prove the Contrary And being in this sense which is all by any can be justly pretended to a Spiritual Man he is able thus Spiritually to discern the things of GOD to discourse of them with feeling and favour and he thanks GOD he is no stranger to such Light and Operations of the Holy Spirit let Mr. P. censure of say what he pleases In the mean while the Bp. does not Monopolise Spirituality either to himself or the Church he his of But touching both rather chooses to take up the words of the Holy Apostle 2. Cor. X. 12. We dare not make our selves of the number or compare our selves with some that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves perhaps are not wise And thus much as to the Quakers imputing 〈◊〉 Carnality to those of the Establisht Church and ingrossing Spirituality to themselves 2. As to our Emptiness The Bp. craves pardon if he be at a loss what Mr. P. means hereby If Emptiness signifie the Ministers Sermons being barren with little Substance or solid Matter in them the Quakers are much more guilty as far as ever the Bps. Experience could reach Witness the first things they Published if compared to the Printed Sermons of the Conformable Clergy Since Mr. Ps. Accession to them it must be confest he has much improved them and brought them to Write what looks like Sense and Coherence But the Bp. would willingly know of Mr. P. what there was in Betty Wheadons holding forth who on a certain day spoke in their Meeting after Mr. P. at Cork and would be heard when he put his Hat before his Face and Laughed And whether She be the only Person from whom in their Assemblies he has often heard such Stuff Let Mr. P. be ingenuous and no more of this Lastly That the Altars being made a provision for those who with wait on the Altar should alienate any Mens minds from Religion seems as monstrous and unreasonable injustice as well can be imagined and if there be any truth in that of the Apostle 1. Cor. IX 13 14. most contrary to GOD's Ordinance It appears that