he hath wholly omitted and mentioned another in the stead of it which makes nothing to the purpose I deny not but the Miracles were a greater witness than that of John but then will it therefore follow that the inward Testimony of the Father is not greater also This was the matter in question After the like manner he concludeth the Voice spoken of Joh. 5.37 Is not inward but outward citing for Proof Matth. 3.27 2 Pet. 1.17 18. the one is the Voice heard at Christ's being Baptized the other at his being Transfigured But what way he seeks to Infer from thence that the Voice of the Father here spoken of by Christ to the Jews was not inward but outward he hath left unmentioned Likewise the Exposition he adds unto this place as if Christ were only here reproving the Ignorance of the Jews whose Predecessors had heard so much of God It would be the better received that it had some other bottom than his own meer Assertion Page 14. He confesseth That where we are desired to try the Spirits there is no mention of trying them by the Scripture And to my Question asking If there be any surer way of trying of Spirits and by the Spirit of God he returneth no Reply but another Question Viz. Whether there be any surer way than that for which the Bereans were commended I Answer Yes by the Spirit Ananias and Sapphira were discerned by the Spirit Peter could never have discerned Ananias and Sapphira by the Scripture and yet did it by the Spirit To say as he does That this was a matter of Fact and not of Doctrine and that it was extraordinary is a meer silly shift for it was only by the Spirit of God which is so ordinary to Christians that none can be truly one without it Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And if this Spirit can discern the secret hypocrisy of the Heart in matters of Fact far more the Errors and Mistake of the Understanding in matters of Judgment which all grant to be more Obvious And though I never averr'd that John excluded all external Rules by pointing to the Anointing so his Assertion to say That the Anointing directeth us to the Law and to the Testimony as supposing it to be outward is but to beg the thing in question â—lready refuted Page 43. As he affirmeth That man 's being deluded proceeds not from the Scripture but their own blindness so he acknowledges That falling in Delusion proceeds not from the Spirit but from the tricks and deceits of Satan and thereby he hath clearly confessed what is asserted by me page 30. and not answered And whereas he adds That leaning to the Spirit and forsaking the Scripture provokes God to give men up to strong Delusions which he Illustrateth by the Example of one J. Gilpin once a Quaker who by harkening to a voice within was put upon Mischievous and Detestable Practices I Answer He hath not proved that we forsake the Scripture nor will one man's being deceived by harkening to a voice within prove the Spirit not to be a certain Rule more than as himself acknowledges The Pharisees having the Scripture in such high esteem and accounting them their Rule will prove their Delusion proceeded from them That Story of Gilpin's was largely answered about five years ago by E. B. and C. A. who have laid open his Deceit and Wickedness J. Gilpin's Story Answer'd neither can any of these Ridiculous Pranks granting the matter to be true which he pretended to do by a voice within while appearing to be among us prove the Insufficiency of that Light we Preach or the hazzard of following it more than his beastly Drunkenness and open Prophanity naturally known in the Garrison of Carlisle where he was a Souldier proves he was led by the Scripture which it is like he then pretended was his Rule unto these wicked practices which were the best fruits of that Repentance W.M. seems so much to congratulate in him Such filthy Dross whom God purgeth out from among us are fittest persons to be Proselited by him and his Brethren and truly we are well rid of them and can heartily spare such unto them They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us 1 Joh. 2.16 Page 43. He says That though the Scripture be sufficient for discovering of Delusions and ending of Differences in genere Objecti yet the Spirit is necessary in genere Causae Effectivae Now this necessity of the Spirit he saith himself is That we may be right Discerners for removing our natural depravedness and now granting the Scripture were sufficient in this manner will it therefore follow that the Spirit within is not the Rule which was the thing to prove in this Section In so far as he acknowledges this necessity of the Spirit 's work he hath yielded to the Truth yet it is observable how in contradiction to the Truth he overturns it all again Pag. 47 48. Where he expresly pleads For preaching upon and using the Scriptures without the joint Concurrence of the Spirit alledging I have no ground to say they ought not so to do Then consider First he said The Spirit was necessary to remove the depravedness of our Nature that we might be discerners but now he says We ought to use the Scripture without the Spirit though our Nature be depraved yea though we be in no capacity to make a right discerning And here he hath notably manifested his Affinity with the Jesuits Jesuits c. Doctrine of the Scriptures Arminians Socinians Pelagians and Semipelagians in saying How many cold Hearts have been Rubbed and Chafed unto spiritual Heat by reading and talking of the Scripture For is not this to set Nature a work and to grant a Capacity in man to beget Spiritual heat without the joint Concurrence of the Spirit And this is altogether agreeable to that known Maxim of the Semipelagians Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam i. e. God will not deny him Grace that doth what in him lies And hereby the Intelligent Reader may perceive how much nearer a kin our Adversaries are to these Errors than we notwithstanding they so falsly and frequently brand us with them in their Pulpits and elsewhere as also that it is meerly constraint when they are hardly put to it that they now and then and that in Contradiction to themselves let a word or two drop concerning a necessary Work of the Spirit Sect. 4. Page 45. He alledgeth There is no convincing People by this Rule of the Spirit within because each way may pretend to the guidance of his Spirit and so both remain obstinate adding That according to them the Scripture is the Rule which lieth patent to both
of the Romish Church and are so far such as to understand their own Principles do unquestionably acknowledge First That no General Council can be lawfully called without the Bishop of Rome as Christ's Vicar and Peter 's Successor call it Secondly That either he himself or some for him as his Legates must be there present and always preceed Thirdly That the Members having Vote are made up of Bishops or Presbyters or Commissioners from the several Orders being of the Clergy Fourthly That what is Concluded on by Plurality of Votes and Agreed to by the Pope and his Legates must necessarily be supposed to be the Judgment of the Infallible Spirit Fifthly That all the Members of the Church are bound Implicitly to Receive and Believe it because it proceeds from a Council to be accounted Lawful in the Respects above-mentioned without Regard to the Intrinsick or Real Truths of the Things prescribed or bringing them in any Respect to the Test or Examination of the Spirit of God in themselves or the Scriptures Testimony or their Agreement or Disagreement with Truths formerly believed and received for so much as to Prove or Try them by Way of Doubt they reckon a Breach of the first Command as on the other Hand a matter of Merit Implicitly to receive and believe them however inconsistent with the Testimony of the Spirit in ones own Heart Scripture Truth and Reason Sixthly That no Man as a Member of the Church of Christ in that simple Capacity unless a Clergy-man or the Ambassadour of some King c. can be admitted to Sit Vote or give his Judgment Seventhly That it is in no Respect to be supposed that any Members especially Laicks whether in a particular City Country or Nation may meet concerning any Things relating to the Faith and Worship of the Church and give by the Spirit of God any Judgment but that all such Meetings are to be accounted Schismatical and Unlawful And Lastly That the Promise of Infallibility and the Gates of Hell not prevailing is necessarily annexed to the Pope and Council called and authorized in the Manner above-expressed Now if to deny every one of these Propositions wherein all Understanding Men know the Errors and Abuses of the Romish Church consist be to be Popish then indeed may we be supposed to be one with the Papists in this Matter but no otherwise So that the very mentioning of these things is sufficient to shew the Difference betwixt us and them But if any will needs plead our Agreement with them thus The Papists affirm an Infallibility of Judgment in the Church of Christ Objection and so do you therefore you are one with Papists I Answer That proves no more our Oneness in this Matter than if Answ. 1 it should be said The Papists plead that God ought to be Worshipped and so do you Therefore ye Agree Notwithstanding of the Vast Differences as to that which is known not only betwixt us and them but betwixt them and all Protestants who Agree more with them in the matter of Worship than we do Next again Infallibility in the Church according as we hold it Answ. 2 and I have above Defined it no man upon our Supposition or Hypothesis can deny it For since we first Assert as a Principle That no Gathering no Church nor Assembly of People The true Church is Led by the Infallible Spirit however True their Principles or Exact their Form be are to be accounted the Church of Christ except the Infallible Spirit lead and guide what can be the Hazzard to say that in such a Church there is still an Infallible Judgment Indeed this is so far from Popery that it resolves in a Proposition quite Contradictory to them The Romanists say That the Infallible Spirit always accompanies the Outward Visible Professors and is annexed to the External Succession of Bishops and Pastors though ever so Vitious as to their Lives yea though perfect * For some Popes have been known to deny or at least to doubt the Truth of the Scriptures as to the History of Christ and to call in question the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection Atheists and Infidels in their private Judgments yet if outwardly professing the Catholick Faith and Subjection to the Church they must be partakers of the Infallible Spirit We say the quite Contrary That where there is either Vitiousness of Persons or Vnsoundness of Judgment in the particular Members these cannot by Virtue of any outward Call or Succession they have or any Profession they make or Authority they may pretend to so much as claim an Interest in any part of the Church of Christ or the Infallible Spirit So then if we admit none to be Members of the Church but such as are led and guided by the Spirit The Infallible Judgment where it is it will be no Popery in the Second Place to affirm That were there is a Company of People so gathered who are not any longer to retain justly the Name of the Church of Christ than they are led and guided by his Spirit or a Church so qualified and designed there is still an Infallible Judgment So that this Infallibility is not annexed to the Persons to the Succession to the bare Visible Profession though true which the Church of Rome is denied to be or to any Society because of its Profession but singly and alone to the True Real and Effectual Work of Sanctification and Regeneration the New Creature brought forth in the Heart And this is the Spiritual Man which the Apostle saith Judgeth all Things 1 Cor. 2.15 To affirm there is an Infallibility here cannot well be Condemned by any or whoso doth must needs say the Spirit of God is fallible For we place the Infallibility in the Spirit and in the Power not in the Persons And so these are the Degrees we Ascend by Because such and such Men are led by the Spirit of God and are obedient to the Grace in their Hearts therefore are they Members and Officers in the Church of Christ. And because they are Members of the Church of Christ in the Respect before declared therefore there is an Infallible Judgment among them We do not say Because such men profess the Christian Faith and have received an outward Ordination and so are by a lawful Succession formally established Officers in the Church when they Meet together according to certain Rules above-declared there is an Infallibility annexed to their Conclusions and they cannot but Decide what is Right or rather what they Decide must needs be supposed to be Right Who seeth not here a vast Disproportion Now we differ herein fundamentally that is as to the very Basis and Foundation upon which we build and that not only from the Church of Rome but also from the Generality of Protestants in this matter All Protestants do acknowledge a General Council to be useful The Constitution of a Synod or General Council among yea necessary
already Whereof thou art altogether silent and wouldst insinuate that what thou hast here writ was never answered by any Quaker yea is unanswerable Thirdly In the beginning of thy Epistle thou alledgest That thou hast Examined divers Opinions of the People called Quakers and after trial found them to be naught whereas thou hast not so much as mentioned far less answered the Arguments used by them and in the manner of signifying their Principles thou givest not their own words but couchest them in such words of thy own framing as may bear the most dis-advantagious construction hence thou sayst That they deny Original Sin That they overturn the Doctrine of the Saints perseverance That they call the Ordinances of Christ the Inventions of Men all which things as so conceived are false Fourthly There hath appeared in thee an Airy Spirit full of vanity and self-conceit a thing which thou seemest much to cry out against in others and wilt not see it in thy self hence in thy Epistle thou boastest that thou hast so succinctly confuted their Errors highly commending the manner of thy writing as that which for ought thou knowest was never done by any who never handled these things with greater plainness and condescendingness to the meanest Capacity and in so narrow a compass as thy own words bear The signifying that it was the Judgment of some that the publishing of thy Papers might tend to Edification the crying up of thy Zeal for the Ordinances and many other Passages too tedious to relate do very much evidence an itching desire in thee to be commended and applauded in thy Enterprise Fifthly In the writing and framing of thy Discourse thou hast introduced thy self most childishly and ridiculously and takest frequent occasion to play upon thy own words and snatch at them as if thou hadst got some great Advantage not unlike Dogs that bark at their own shadow or those Creatures that run and are mad when they see themselves in a Looking-Glass supposing it to be some other when indeed it is but their own Image That this is thy way appears in many Pages in thy Book as they are hereafter examined Now more particularly So soon as thou enterest upon the Matter of Debate Page 2. thou beginnest with great Dis-ingenuity an Evidence of what may be expected or will be found throughout the rest For notwithstanding the words of the Quaker are of thy own framing and that they lye patent before thee yet thou hast not had so much honesty in thy Answer as to subsume them aright The Quaker says I use not flattering Titles and give thee not Heathenish Salutations and Bowings lest I should sin and be found an Idolater In answer to which thou beginnest with a false Subsumption saying Thou wonderest that he should call Salutations and Bowings Heathenish and Idolatrous Indeed it is no strange thing that thou and others mis-represent us and bely us in repeating our words at a distance when in this manner of writing thou canst not truly repeat those words which thou placest for ours when they be just written before thee Is it not one thing to say That Salutations that are heathenish or heathenish Salutations cannot be used without Sin and Idolatry and another thing to say That Salutations and Bowings are heathenish and idolatrous Who is so blind as not to see here a vast difference As to the first who dares deny it to be a Truth that will offer to call himself a Christian to wit that Salutations and Bowings that are heathenish cannot be used without Idolatry and Sin But as to the other that Salutations and Bowings are heathenish and idolatrous being taken in general was never said nor judged by the Quakers and therefore to charge them with it is utterly false and a lie for such Salutations as Christ commands and the Apostles practised the Quakers dearly own and frequently use and find in them great refreshment because there through the life flows and is communicated from one vessel to another but such Salutations thou art ignorant of and of the life that is there-through communicated which bears Testimony against all that is heathenish and idolatrous and leads out of it year 1670 and therefore in thy dark mind wouldst from thence plead for the customary Salutations of the heathen as appears by the Proofs thou bringest wherein thy folly is very much manifested Christ sayst thou commanded his Disciples when they entred into a House to salute it he did so And what more And if the House be worthy their Peace shall be upon it to wit the Peace through the Salutation intimated or offered because they brought to that House the tender of the Gospel and glad Tydings which was a good Salutation But what wouldst thou infer from that That we ought to do off our Hats one to another a thing which they never did by whose Example thou wouldst press us to do it and it is known that it is a thing unusual in that part of the World to this day That other Proof alledged from Paul saluting the Churches makes as little if not far less to the purpose Paul in his Epistles who was at a great distance wisheth Grace and Peace to the Churches from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Ergò We ought to take off our Hats Can there be any thing more ridiculous Is this the great Esteem ye put upon the Scriptures to take the Salutations of the blessed Apostle Paul signified by the motions of the Holy Spirit which was the very blessing of Paul to the Churches or rather of the Spirit through him for to prove your doing off Hats one of the corrupt customs of this World Is not this to make a mock of the Scriptures and a stretching them to plead for that against which is the natural tendence of their Testimony Next thou givest us Abraham's practice but every practice of Abraham is not a Rule to us nor to you either the like may be said of that of Moses Though Moses did Obeisance to his Father-in-law that makes nothing against us far less his kissing of him and asking him of his Welfare both which things the Quakers deny not Thou acknowledgst that Religious Worship given to the Creature is Idolatry What is Religious Worship but that which is given to God And is not the bowing of the Body and uncovering of the Head the signification of your Worship to God And if ye give the same to the Creature also where is the difference for in the external signification it is not distinguished unless it be said to be the Intention which if it be we shall have the Papists pleading the same for their Adoration of Images and the Relicts of the Saints And truly your being found in these things gives them advantage in that matter That Courtesy and Christianity are not repugnant we deny not and therefore for Christians to be Courteous one to another is very fit which indeed that the Apostle commands
be turned away from because in so far as I observed before as Sanctification to wit those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus make the Church and give the right Definition to it where that is wholly wanting the Church of Christ ceaseth to be and there remains nothing but a Shadow without Substance Such Assemblies then are like the dead Body when the Soul is departed which is no more fit to be Conversed with because it corrupts and proves noisom to the living But by the Church of Christ I understand all those that truly and really have received and hold the Truth as it is in Jesus and are in measure sanctified or sanctifying in and by the Power and Virtue thereof working in their inward Parts The true Church and this may be made up of divers distinct Gatherings or Churches in several Countries or Nations I say so long as these or any of them do retain that which justly entitles them the Church or Churches of Christ which they may be truly called though there may fall out some Differences Divisions or Schisms among them as we may see there was no small Dissension in the Church of Antioch and yet it ceased not to be a Church Acts 15.2 and 1 Cor. 1.11 For it hath been declared unto me of you my Brethren that there are Contentious among you and yet Vers. 2. he entitles them the Church of God them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus So long I say as they truly retain this Title of the Church of Christ as being really such there will never be wanting the certain Judgment of Truth For which The certain Judgment of Truth is never wanting in the Church of Christ. besides the positive Promise of Christ before-mentioned which is not without Blasphemy to be called in question or doubted of I shall add these Reasons That seeing the Church of Christ is his Body of which he is the Head it were to make Christ negligent of his Body who stiles himself the good Shepheard and hath said He will never leave nor forsake his own or else which is worse it would infer a possibility of Error or Mistake in Christ in whom as the Head are the Eyes of the Body by which it is to be Ruled in all things Next we never find in all the Scripture since the Gospel that ever this was wanting but that God still gave Infallible Judgment by his Spirit in some of the Respects above-mentioned If the Transactions and Controversies of the after-Centuries be alledged I will boldly affirm and prove that there was never a true Judgment wanting so long as the Nature and Essence of the true Church was retained If any will needs affirm otherwise let them shew me where and I shall answer it Though I deny not that after the Mystery of Iniquity did begin to work or had so wrought first by intermixing and afterward by altogether forsaking the Nature of Truth retaining only the bare Name of the Church but that there might be some scattered ones here and there one in a Nation and now and then one in an Age who by the Power and Virtue of the Spirit of Life working in them might be truly sanctified yet these were but as Witnesses in Sack-cloth Witnesses in Sack-cloth no ways sufficient to give these Assemblies in which they were engrossed the Appellation of the Church of Christ coming no more under Observation by the Generality nor having as to them any more Influence than some Tittle or scarcely discernable Sparks of Fire in many great Heaps and Mountains of Ashes And thus much to prove that where there is any Gathering or Assembly which truly and properly may be called the Church of Christ the Infallible Judgment will never be wanting in Matters of Controversy Secondly That ordinarily God hath in the Communicating of his Will Assert 2 under his Gospel imployed such Proved whom he had made use of in Gathering of his Church and in feeding and watching over them though not excluding others For as in a Natural Body to which the Church of Christ is compared the more-substantial and powerful Members do work most effectually and their Help is most necessary to supply any Defect or Trouble in the Body so also if there be Diversities of Gifts in the Church as is above proved and some have a greater Measure and some a lesser those that have the greater are more capable to do good and to help the Body in its need than others that are weaker and less powerful since there are strong and weak Babes and Young Men who have overcome the Evil One and in whom the Word of God abideth such are more able when the Enemy besets to Resist having already Overcome than others who are but yet Wrestling and not Conquerors Now From the Besetments of the Enemy Dissensions arise every Controversy and Dissension in the Church comes from the Besetments of the Enemy yet if any of these Strong or Young Men or Powerful Members go from their Station it is not denied but that they are as Weak as any and it is presupposing their Faithfulness in their Place that I thus Affirm and no otherwise Nor yet do I limit the Lord to this Method for in him are all the Treasures both of our Wisdom and Strength and the weakest in his Hand are as strong as the strongest who may now as well as heretofore kill a Goliah by the Hand of little David yet we see the Lord doth ordinarily make use of the Strong to support the Weak and indeed when such as may be termed Weak are so made use of it alters the Nature of their Place and constitutes them in a higher and more eminent Degree For though it was little David it was also he that was to be King of Israel Though the Apostles were mean Men among the Jews yet they were such as were to be the Apostles of the Lord of Glory Instruments to gather the lost Sheep of the House of Israel and to proclaim the Acceptable Day of the Lord. And though Paul was once accounted the Least of all the Saints a Child born out of due Time yet was he him who was to be the greatest Apostle of the Gentiles Now then let us Consider whom the Lord makes use of in the Affairs of the Primitive Church and through whom he gave forth his Infallible Judgment Did he not begin first by Peter he wes the first that spake in the first Meeting they had Acts 1. and who first stood up after the pouring forth of the Spirit and who first appeared before the Council of the Jews and spake in behalf of the Gospel of Christ Though I am far from calling him as some do the Prince of the Apostles yet I may safely say he was one of the most Ancient and Eminent and to whom Christ in a Manner somewhat more than ordinary had recommended the Feeding of his Flock We see also he was first made use of in
World which for several Generations they have only had the Shadow of but have not enjoyed in the Substance And because many are the Calumnies that such are Reproached withal as holding forth Strange and Pernicious Doctrines therefore I have herewith sent you a large Apology for the true Christian Divinity held forth and preached by them That therein you may see how the truly Christian Principles which have been lost in the Apostacy while the Life of Christianity was not to be found is Restored by their Testimony Desiring you seriously to Read and Consider the same as well as Transmit it to the several Princes you are Employed by that both you and they may see That the Day of the Lord is dawned and may Learn to walk in the Light of it which would bring Peace and Quietness and felicity to all both outward and inward And thereby all may be stirred up to receive with Gladness such as the Lord will move to Preach and Declare this Day as it is dawned and made manifest in them following the Apostle's Rules In receiving Strangers willingly Heb. 13.2 for that some in so doing have entertained Angels unawares And that none of you may be like the Pharisees who Cried Crucify him Nor like those who intreated him to depart out of their Coasts and like those who would have none of him to Rule over them lest with them ye receive the like Condemnation However I shall be clear of all your Blood in so far as I have faithfully Answered what God Required of me towards you and Discharged my Conscience in Love to your Immortal Souls as well as to the Common Peace and Good of Christendom Whereof and of all those that profess the Name of Christ I am A True Friend and Hearty Well-wisher Robert Barclay This Came upon me from the Lord to Write unto You at Ury in my Native Country of Scotland the Second of the Month called November 1677. COpies of the foresaid Epistle in Latine were upon the 23 d and 24 th Days of the Month called February 1678. delivered at Nemeguen to the Ambassadors of the Emperor of the Kings of Great Britain Spain and France Sweden and Denmark of the Prince Elector Palatine as also of the States General and of the Duke of Lorain Holstain Lunenburg Osnabrug Hannover and the Pope's Nuncio to wit one to each Ambassador and one to each of their Principals together with so many Copies of the Book whereof the Author makes mention in the Letter the Title whereof is Roberti Barclaii Theologiae verae Christianae Apologia Carolo secundo Magnae Britanniae c. Regi oblata Robert Barclay his Apology for True Christian Divinity offered to Charles the Second King of Great Britain Typis Excusa 1676. pro Jacob Claus Bibliopola habitante Amstelodami Printed 1676. for Jacob Claus Bookseller at Amsterdam R. B.'s APOLOGY FOR THE True Christian Divinity VINDICATED FROM JOHN BROWN's Examination and pretended Confutation thereof in his Book called Quakerism the Path-Way to Paganism In which VINDICATION JOHN BROWN his many Gross Perversions and Abuses are Discovered and his Furious and Violent Railings and Revilings soberly Rebuked By ROBERT BARCLAY Whereunto is Added A Christian and Friendly Expostulation with ROBERT MACQVARE touching his Postscript to the said Book of J. B. written to him by LILLIAS SKEIN Wife of ALEXANDER SKEIN and delivered some Months since at his House in Roterdam Isaiah 51.7 Hearken unto me ye that know Righteousness the People in whose heart is my Law fear ye not the Reproach of Men neither be ye Affraid of their Revilings Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men shall Revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of Evil falsly against you for my Name 's sake London Printed for Tho. Northcott 1691. THE Preface to the Reader Serious READER I Shall not need to trouble thee here with a Long Preface most of what is commonly Inserted in such Epistles being proposed to thee in the First Section only I will take occasion here Ingenuously and Solemnly to profess That no Delight in Controversy hath Induced me to undertake this Treatise but pure Necessity to Vindicate the Truth professed by me from the many gross Perversions wherewith this Author hath Abused it For as for his Personal Reflections at me which are very frequent and whereby he labours to Represent me to his Reader as the Veriest Fool Ignorant Sensless Non sensical and yet Proud Presumptuous and Blasphemous Miscreant for such are his Expressions that can be imagined I should not have troubled my self nor the World with a Vindication being perswaded none who truly knows me will believe him and that none of Solidity and Judgment who knows me not will so easily Agree to this Censure As for such Credulous Creatures if his Book find any such for I have heard of several of the same Faith with him who much Condemn his Railing Style who will judge of me upon so small and suspicious Evidence I must be Contented as many better Men have been before me to abide the Rash Judgment of those Inconsiderate Souls As for the Book from which he Assumes and Pronounces this Character of me thou wilt find it here Vindicated and see that hideous Mask wherewith he laboured to Vail it that he might Rail the more securely Taken off I could easily shew the Lightness of his Judgment by filling the other Scale with a pressed-down Measure of the Testimonies both by Word and Writ of several Persons at Home and Abroad who are not Quakers and yet such to whom without Disparagement he must give the Precedency both for Parts Piety and Learning but I desire not to Raise my Reputation that way it is his Work that needs a Postscript of that Nature And truly he hath saved me this Pains while at other times he manifestly Implies a Contradiction to this Character while he perswades the Reader of the Necessity he was under to write so great a Volumn as if the whole Christian Commonwealth had been in Danger to be Overturned and many Souls in Hazzard to be hurt by the Quakers among whom both he and his Brother R. M. C. give me and my Writings a Chief Place as their Goliah Patron Sharpest and Neatest Pen if not seasonably supplied by this his Antidote For sure had it been so Inconsistent and Contradictory a piece of Work as he sometimes Represents it to be as being written by so silly and pitiful an Ignoramus as he is sometimes pleased to term me there could not have been so great Cause of Fear nor such need of a great Volumn especially to such as could not understand mine being not yet Extant in a Language they skilled to whom he principally directs his and though they had could have no great Hurt if he speak true when he represents me frequently to write things Vnintelligible And yet he is so Wise as to Apprehend he has Refuted what he Confesses he doth not Vnderstand But the Reason
Which is granted but that proveth not that it is not therefore Vniversal Next he taketh notice of the Context where it is said It became him in bringing many Sons unto Glory c. and therefore these are the All for whom he died But this is strongly to affirm not to prove Albeit Christ brought many Sons unto Glory and called such Brethren it doth not follow he Tasted death only for such The Apostle sheweth us first the general Extent of Christ's Death in saying He tasted death for every Man and then sheweth us how it became Effectual to many And yet the Man is so confident albeit he has urged nothing but only affirmed that he adds If this Context do not sufficiently Confute this Conceit J. B. c. regard the Scriptures no farther than it favours their Opinion and Confutes their Adversaries we need Regard the Scriptures no more But here he has spoken-out the Truth as it is For this evidently shews that for all their pretence to Exalt the Scriptures yet they regard it no more than it favours their Opinion This is the Account for which they Regard the Scriptures if it favour their Opinion and Confute their Adversaries but if it do not They need no more regard it else surely he should have said If the Scriptures do not Confute that which he esteems an Error then he will not judge it so any more but regard the Scriptutes more than his own Judgment but on the contrary he is Resolved if the Scripture do not Confute what he thinks a Conceit that he need no more Regard them Likewise in the rest of this page he gives himself a notable stroke for to my saying That their Doctrine would infer that Christ came to Condemn the World contrary to his own words Joh. 3.17.12.47 he answereth That Prejudice has so blinded mine Eyes that I cannot see the Beam in mine Eye for in my opinion not one Man might have been saved because Christ only procured a meer possibility and no certainty for any one Man c. But as I have above observed I assert as my judgment the express Contrary that Christ has so died for some that they cannot miss of Salvation and this himself also noticeth afterwards p. 276. I would know then and let all honest Men judge if there be any spark of honesty left in him whether himself be not the Man whom prejudice has blinded Almost at the same rate p. 207. he asketh me if my Argument from 2. Pet. 3.9 the Lord is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto Repentance do hold What will I do with those that out-live the day of their Visitation is the Lord willing to give them Repentance I answer No and yet no overturning of my Argument For in respect All had a Day of Visitation wherein they might have Repented God may be said to be Long-suffering and not to have been Willing any should have Perished c. But this cannot be said if none ever had such a Day or Season as they affirm He would Insinuate as if This made all to depend upon Free-Will but how frivolous this Calumny is will after appear And whereas both in this and the following page he Rants at an high rate as if I did fight against God's Omnipotency saying God will be God whether I will or not and that Christ must turn a Petioner and supplicate Lord Free-Will exclaiming O cursed Religion The Man doth but shew his Malitiousness and Weakness For if God's Omnipotency because he doth whatsoever he Will God's Omnipotency willeth not Wicked Actions be Urged to prove that Men cannot Resist his Will and that therefore whatsoever Men do even the wickedest Actions are willed by God then Violence is offered to the Will of the Creatures and the Liberty and Contingency of second Causes are necessarily taken away Which yet is expresly denied by the Westminster-Confession Chap. 3. Nor will all his Distinctions far less Affirmations solve this that Peter speaketh only of the Elect because he mentioneth them elsewhere unless he prove All here to be Restricted is but a begging of the Question ¶ 8. Pag. 210. n. 65. Testimonies of Antiquity slighted by J. B. as not being for his Turn He quarreleth my bringing some Testimonies of Antiquity Agreeing with what I say which he termeth a Fouling of Fingers with humane Writings saying Himself layeth not so much Weight upon the Authority of Men in this matter and yet afterwards he Cites some as making for his purpose He may know I as little build upon the Testimony of the Ancients as he can for the bottoming of Faith and yet to shew their Agreement with us and against them is a good Check to their shameless Objection of Novelty considering how the same is Objected to them as strongly and with no less Reason by their Mother the Church of Rome whom when pinched by us they begin to Run to for the Ground of their Church Ministry and Maintenance That ever I said The Quakers whom he terms to be of Yesterday have only found the Truth is false albeit I say they have a more Clear and Full Discovery of it But one would think notwithstanding his pretending he lays little Weight upon the Authority of Antiquity in this matter that it is not so else why doth he so often in this matter Vpbraid us with the Heresy of Pelagius as Contradicting the Sense of the Ancient Church and their Doctors Who are those whose Testimony he calls the Authority of Men in this matter SECT VII Wherein his IX Chapter Of Universal Salvation Possible his X. Of Universal Grace and Light XI Of the Necessity of this Light to Salvation and his XII Of the Salvation of Heathens without hearing the Gospel are Considered ¶ 1. HE beginneth his 9th Chapter Of Vniversal Salvation Possible according to his Custom with Railing accusing me of Ignorance Folly Pride and Pedantry but he thinks it not worth his pains to spend words to discover it yet he gives a main Reason for all to wit I suppose our Opinions were never known in the World before we were raised up to declare them Which being a manifest Vntruth and never said by me the Reader may thence judge of the Grounds he has for this his Railing However he supposeth They are but Old Errors cloathed with New Notions and which himself has sufficiently enough Enervated in his former Chapter of Reprobation and Universal Redemption Which being the Basis of them is by him if he may be admitted Judge in his own Cause already overturned And then he thinks It was Impertinency to say That Quakers can by sensible Experience be Confirmed in their Doctrine and so brings to an end his first two Paragraphs J. B's Comment and false Insinution put upon our Doctrine of Grace and Salvation His next work is to play the Commentator and to tell his Reader my Meaning which to be sure is