says we are in pag 3. he says We speak Sense and English have in a great measure reform'd from the Errors of the Primitive Quakers Thus as his Mood Humor and Occasion Changes we are with him either Subtile or Simple speak Sense or Non-sense Blasphemous to the hight or in some measure reform'd But after all the Ipse Dixit of an Enemy is neither good Argument nor Conclusion as will hereafter appear in the examination of the several Heads of Doctrine P. 3. Many of them have really gone off from that hight of Blasphemy and Madness which was professed among them at their first setting up in the Year 1650. and so continued till after the Restauration Anno. 1660. What the Snake doth acknowledge is at present Sober and Christian in us is really no other than what he calls at our first setting up the hight of Blasphemy and Madness for the colourable Pretences of these are only the spurious Brood of his own ill-forming Fancy and as bad joyning Fingers which have been imploy'd in Mangling the Books of our Friends in his phraise not unlike Rats and Moths Ibid. p. 3. Therefore they endeavour all they can to make it appear that their Doctrine was Vniform from the beginning and that there has been no alteration And that endeavour has not been in vain it having been often made so to appear Ibid. p. 4. I would perswade them openly and above-bord to Renounce George Fox and their first Reformers and all their Blasphemous and Heretical Doctrine Before this be done two things are necessary First to examine whether what our Adversary calls Blasphemy and Heresie be so or not and then to know what he would perswade us to for the first hard names are no Proof For in the Way which some called Heresie the Apostle did Worship God and our Saviour himself The Green Tree was call'd a Blasphemer And for the Last it 's not Good or Safe to be at all much less easily perswaded to forsake Truth for Lying Vanities Ibid. p. 5. And I must say it they give the same Proof for their extraordinary Inspirations as the Quakers do that is none at all but their own confident averring of it And I must say that our first Reformers from Popery having urged for their Separation the Authority of the holy Spirit and being asked for Proof of that Authority could give no other but what in the Language of our Adversary is none at all but their own confident averring of it The Apostle Paul when questioned by the Corinthians for a Proof of Christ speaking in him did not evade the question nor direct to an impertinent Solution of it when he advised them Search your selves try your selves know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 This Proof the Quakers also give and that with reason for the publick Spirit of God privately working in the Hearts of Men is only able to give those in whom it does so Work evidences of its proper effects The Apostle is positive to the same purpose 1 Cor. 2.11 The things of God knoweth no Man but by the Spirit of God And all Inspiration of the holy Spirit will I doubt not be owned to be some things of God and of these no Man can make a right Judgment but by the Spirit of God Which who want it is no wonder that by such this be call'd as by the Snake no Proof but a confident averring of it Though I doubt not but the Sober Reader will have another sense of this Matter Ibid. p. 5. Now I would beseech Mr. Penn who has more Wit than all the rest of his Party to let us know what ground he had for leaving the Church of England more than Muggleton What Muggleton's ground was is not now our Business to examine and what W. Penn's was he hath often declared many Years ago which yet if I should here repeat the Snake might possibly mistake in Judging of it as it is possible he may also in the judgment he pretends to have of Wit Nay supposing it true that W. P. hath more Wit than all the rest of the Quakers yet this Snake not having had distinct Knowledge of every Quaker and of every Degree of their Wit was not capable of more herein than to give some Testimony of his Confidence not Judgment Ibid. p. 5. Why should we trust the Light within him or G. Fox rather than the Light within Lodowick Muggleton W. P. and G. F. did never direct or desire Men to trust the Light within them but have constantly directed Men to trust in the Light of Jesus Christ which is given to each Man for himself and is a sufficient Guide to the true Knowledge and Worship of God notwithstanding all that Men may speak against it Ibid. p. 5. Has Lodowick wrought no Miracles to prove his Mission No more hath G. Fox or W. Penn. To which I may add No more hath the Church of England nor the Snake in the Grass unless we account that for one Miracle in the Snake when he at Billingsgate run away from the Messenger Of which more in its place Are they G. F. W. P. very sure that they are in the right So is Muggleton If the Snake be not very sure that he is in the right he hath but an intention to deceive when he calls others into Communion with him Are they Schismaticks So is he And so is the Snake and by the Snake's Doctrine so is the Church of England as I have shewn p. 15 16 17. foregoing Are they above Ordinances If they be I know not but that we the Quakers are not I know For we own and use Preaching and Praying which the Snake owns to be Ordinances Is he against distinct Persons in the Godhead So are they Distinction in the Godhead we own according to Scripture but think the word Person too Gross to express it Is he against all Creeds So are they It it false we own the Matter contain'd in the Creed called the Apostles Does Muggleton deny all Church Authority So do they So does the Snake that does not please him But that we do not the Snake hath disprov'd himself as see Pagâ— 61. Yet does he require the most absolute Submission to what himself Teaches So does thâ— Snake But we do not so but like the Apostles commend our Testimony to the Conscience c. 2 Cor. 4.2 Does he Damn all the World and all since the Apostles So do they So does the Snake counting all others as the Spawn of the Viper Does he make a dead Letter of the Holy Scripture and resolve all into his own private Spirit So do they 'T is false we reject all private Spirits acknowledge the Scriptures to have been writ by Divine Inspiration and to contain a Declaraion of the Will of God and do refer to the publick Spirit of God for the understanding of them Ibid. p. 6. These are Twin
our Hearts he knoweth that our earnest Endeavour since a People hath been to direct to the Holy Spirit to which as the World comes to be obedient it will certainly raise in them a just value and esteem for the Scriptures and a love and desire to be conversant in the reading of them by which through Faith they may receive comfort as we can abundantly testifie we have found And therefore the Insinuation is false and envious that we have ever sought either openly or secretly to discard them or to set up the Inspirations of any instead of them Ibid. p. 91. They have taken upon them not only to abrogate the most express Ordinances of the Gospel But to set up and institute new ones as Womens Preachings directly contrary to 1 Cor. 16.35 and the Prelacy of the Womens Meetings an Invention never heard of in the World till G. F. Cobled it out 'T is false that we have abrogated any Ordinances of Divine Institution And it is also false that we have set up and instituted new ones For under the Law and in the Apostles days there were Women Prophetesses and Fellow-helpers in the Gospel As for the Prelacy of Womens Meetings we know of no such thing but for the good ends of looking after the Poor and seeing after such things as are Comely Decent and of Good Report do they meet as the Holy Women in ancient times did And as it is no discouragement to us so it will not be of weight with the Sober Reader that this practice is profanely said by the Snake to be Cobled out by G. Fox Ibid. p. 92. The Scripture remains of no Authority with them because if what the Scripture command be a-new required by their Spirit they are bound to obey it because required by their Spirit But if the Scripture command the thing they are by their Principles not bound to obey it unless it is required by their Spirit a-new None may at this day upon the Authority of Scripture walk naked as Isaiah 20.2 3. nor go to the King's Chappel as Amos 7.13 nor do any of these special and particular things which many of the Prophets by the Special Command of God did do unless they are thereunto commanded and required by the same Holy Spirit which did require them This is what Edward Burroughs had formerly said and which W. Penn repeats and maintains though very falsly quoted by the Snake who injuriously quotes W. P. in his Reason against Railing p. 150. in the following manner That what was a Commandment to any Servants of God in Old Time That such are not Commandments to us unless required by the same Spirit a-new But W. P's words as they lye in the Book and Page quoted are thus From our asserting that what was a Commandment to any Servant of God in Old Times is not so to us because so to them that is such as Going to Pharaoh as Going Naked Going to the King's Chappel as Moses Isaiah and Amos did as also those Elementary Types Shadows and Figures appointed for a season and to pass off That such are not Commandments to us unless required by the same Spirit a-new It is not a little his endeavour unrighteously to infer that those Moral Perpetual and Eternal Holy Precepts here W. P. mentions the Laws of the First Table are not binding upon us c. Here Reader behold the subornation of the Snake who by a most unjust practice bites out so much of a Quotation as is not for his purpose and brings the remainder to speak against the sense of the Writer Ibid. p. 94. Thus it being Objected to G. F. that one of his Quakers had pretended to an Immediate Call from Heaven to commit Theft Robbery and Sacriledge in taking out of the Church an Hour-glass c. It is false it was not objected that any Quaker did commit Theft or Robbery or Sacriledge Nor does it appear by the Priest's words that the Hour-Glass was taken away That which appears from the Priest's words is That some Quaker had signified to the Priest that the Glass which he made the limit of his Carnal Preaching ought to be removed and that the Holy Spirit was only that by which they that spake from the Lord ought to begin and end their Preachings and G. F's answer is to the same purpose So that herein the Snake is egregiously abusive by perverting both the words of the Priest and G. F. and also in his false and scandalous insinuations concerning what he calls the Communion Plate Ibid. p. 95. Have they not by the same Light rebelled from Episcopacy Not unless it be prov'd by the Holy Scriptures that Episcopacy at this day be in the same Spirit and Government which the Apostles were in Ibid. p. 95. It is true indeed the Church cannot subsist without Government But it is as true that the Quakers pretence to the private Light in particular Persons as a principle over-ruling Scripture and all outward Ordinances is Inconsistent to the Government either in Church or State It is false that we have ever pretended that the Particular Manifestation of the Light of Christ in any of us did over-rule the Scriptures or Ordinances There cannot be Contradiction in the Spirit of God By the movings whereof it was that the Scriptures were given forth 2 Pet. 1.21 Nor do the Movings of the same Spirit privately working in particular Persons at this day over-rule or contradict what it did give forth as above And as the Light and Spirit of Christ is thus agreeable to it self So it is well consistent with the Government of the State in that it leads all that obey it to be loving and peaceable not Seditious or Tumultuous It leads to give Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's This it hath taught us to be our Duty and our Practice hath been agreeable of which the whole Kingdom are our witnesses And it is not less consistent with the Government in the Church when the Government in the Church hath its beginning and foundation from it as described p. 135 136. foregoing But it cannot be consistent with Government in the Church when the Church is not govern'd by the Spirit of him whom she says is her Spiritual Head Ibid. Or any Security from all the Dismal and Enthusiastical Murthers Rapines and Outrage of the Zealots among the Jews who went upon the same principle The Holy Spirit of God which by the coming of Jesus Christ is given to Men is the Principle that we profess and is the most effectual Security that can be against wickedness and violence of all sorts because where that is obeyed it will finish Transgression and make an end of Sin Now did the Zealots among the Jews go upon the same Principle No no more than the late Horrid Assassines in Communion with the Snake and with him in Separation from the Church could be said to do Murthers Rapines and Outrage are the
make the Quakers Blood to be the Blood of Christ by which we are saved To which false and scandalous Charge the Man himself Thomas Speed who writ that Book being yet Living he answers for Himself and Us as follows For the satisfaction of all Persons whom it may concern I do make this my following Solemn Declaration viz. 1. I never knew nor ever heard of any Person or People of what Perswasion in Religion soever that were of so sordid nonsensical and sottish an Opinion that the Blood of any tho' the most righteous of Mortals was the Blood of Christ the Son of God by which Men are saved 2. I do and ever did with utter detestation abhor any such blasphemous Principle as to assert that the Blood of the Quakers or any other sort of Men is the Blood of Christ by which we are saved Which in the Power of Truth I do openly and boldly assert to confront the Snake in the Grass who herein appears to to be the Child of the Father of Lies who was a Murtherer from the Beginning Bristol the 10th Month 1698. Thomas Speed The next and last Quotation which the Snake makes Ibid. p. 120. in this Section is from p. 22. of the Book last mentioned of T. Speed's which is a Reproof and Testimony against false and flattering Titles given to men Upon which the Snake bids See what Tender Consciences are here who at the same time wipe their Mouths and excuse all the bloody Blasphemies before-mentioned And I Reader may here in fit place desire thee to see and consider not how Tender but how hardned and feared is the Conscience of this our Adversary who hath against knowledge and against the true and plain meaning of our words and upon bare hearsay frequently in this as also his other Sections accused us falsly of matters which we never did spake or intended which will also be further manifested in the ensuing Sections to which I now proceed SECT VIII Concerning Our Belief in the Holy Three that bear Record in Heaven IT hath been an Objection often made sometimes foolishly sometimes enviously but always falsly That we deny The Holy Three mentioned 1 John 5.7 which bear Record in Heaven Because we cannot but think the word Person too gross to express them We own their Distinction in all the Instances of it recorded in Holy Writ and have a thousand times declared our sincere Belief in Almighty God the Creator of all things and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son by whom all things were made and in the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son Yet this because it is not given in the Terms of Athanasius or the Nicene Council has been unreasonably refused as insufficient This refusal were the less strange and unreasonable were it not in Persons who pretend the Scriptures to be their only Rule of Faith c. But as it is the refusal of such Persons it is certainly a violent contradiction in them to damn as Heretical an Article of Faith deliver'd in the very words of that Rule But be their Fault in this matter what it will we are not therefore to be moved from believing That the Holy Spirit by which it was dictated as is acknowledged did and does know all the weaknesses of men and the Designs of Satan and has accordingly fenced the Article from his Subtilty and explained it to our Capacities And I take it to be a great aggravation of the former contradiction in this Adversary and our other Opposers herein that they would upon less Evidence of Truth and a Determination not Infallible which they will not affirm either that of Athanasius or the Nicene Council to be infallibly press their Exemplifications made to the Article That such Practices are wrong all Parties in their turns as their several Interests and Necessities have pressed them have declared and many excellent Arguments by divers Men have been urged against it I shall content my self only with some part of what Jeremy Taylor late Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland hath said on this Subject in that excellent Treatise of his Intituled Liberty of Prophecying p. 47. For it is says he most considerable that altho' in reason every clause in the Creed should be clear and so inopportune and unapt to variety of Interpretation that there might be no place left for several Senses or Variety of Expositions Yet when they thought fit to insert some Mysteries into the Creed that called the Apostles which in Scripture were expressed in so Mysterious Words that the last and most explicit sense would still be latent yet they who if ever any did understood all the Senses and Secrets of it thought it not fit to use any Words but the Words of Scripture particularly in the Articles of Christ descending into Hell and sitting at the right Hand of God to shew us that those Creeds are best which keep the very words of Scripture and that Faith is best which hath greatest Simplicity and that it is better in all cases humbly to Submit than curiously to inquire and prey into the Mystery hid under the Cloud and to Hazzard our Faith by improving our Knowledge If the Nicene Fathers had done so too possibly the Church would not have repented it And indeed the experience the Church had afterwards shew'd that the Bishops and Priests were not satisfied in all circumstances nor the Schism of Arius appeased nor the Persons agreed nor the Cannons accepted nor the Article understood nor any thing right But when they were over-born with Authority which Authority when the Scales turned did the same Service and Promotion to the contrary Thus he and as I doubt not but the Truth and Reason of his words will weigh with the Impartial Reader so his Character of Bishop ought to be of some weight with the Snake Snake p. 121. The Quakers and Socinians acknowledge a Three but deny a Trinity which is to confess the same thing in English and to deny it in Latin For Trinitas is only Latin for Three But the meaning is they would not have the Three in Heaven to be Three Persons Though they cannot make sense of what Three they are if not Three Persons What the Socinians acknowledge is not my business to inquire But for our selves We acknowledge the Three mentioned in Holy Writ which bear Record in Heaven and we need not the Pedantry of the Snake to Translate the word into Latin And the sence we make of the Three so bearing Record is the same which is declared by the Holy Ghost and when the Snake shall shew that the Holy Ghost hath declared them Three Persons We will not fail so to express them Ibid. p. 121 122. And the Quakers who own the Divinity of Christ are under greater difficulties than the Socinians who deny the Divinity of Christ. For if Christ be God and that there is but one Person in the Godhead it must necessarily follow that God the Father
any Creature but it 's manifest in his sight and he is in the Saints and they eat his Flesh and sit with him in heavenly places This Reader is so plain Scripture that it would raise an inquiry how envy it self cloaked with pretences to Christianity should carp at it The Snake's next Quotation p. 14. is from Great Mystery p. 88. Christ is the Elect. The Reader may easily suppose G. Fox said more but the Snake thinking from these to draw some unsound sense left the rest behind him In which he being abundantly mistaken I shall not trouble the Reader with a larger Quotation but only observe that the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah 42.1 saith of Christ Behold my Servant whom I uphold mine Elect in whom my Soul delighteth And the Holy Apostle speaking of Christ saith 1 Pet. 2.6 Wherefore it is contained in the Scripture behold I lay in Zion a Chief Corner Stone Elect and Precious The Snake's next Quotation in p. 14. is from Great Mystery p. 310. That they who are of the Faith are the Flesh of Christ the Flesh of him who suffered Here he has false quoted G. Fox's words which are these No Man knows that is savingly the seed Christ that was offered the Sacrifice of the whole World but as he knows it within through the Faith and who are of the Faith they are of Abraham They are of the Flesh of Christ the Flesh of him that suffered The Apostle says as much and says true Eph. 5.30 I have now done with all the Snake's Quotations in his second Section in which Reader I doubt not but thou wilt observe the great injustice of the Snake in several kinds as first in false quoting G. Fox's words which is a practice so base that it is impossible it can consist with a fair pretence of being herein concerned in Love to the Souls of those he would pretend to preserve or reduce No it is a practice directly opposite to all pretences of Humane Justice and it cannot be less but rather more to pretend to do it for God's sake Next his Injustice is not less in perverting the sense and meaning of the places which he truly quotes by cavilling at and giving expositions quite contrary to the plain sense of the Writer For it is very plain that the whole scope of all the Passages hitherto quoted are such as have relation to the Spiritual Vnion and Oneness of Christ with his People Which both Christ himself and his Holy Apostles have very frequently held forth to us by Similies which fall under the notice of sense that thereby mankind might more readily come to apprehend them Thus Christ said I am the Vine I am the Door and except ye eat my Flesh and drink my Blood c. And the Apostle we are of his Flesh and of his Bone with abundance more such like expressions which if in a litteral sense were to be expounded Such exposition would be plain perversion and against it our Saviour hath given a Caution The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are life John 6.63 Snake p. 15. I will tell you before I go Mr. Penn's excuse for G. Fox in all these particulars He lays it upon George 's extream Ignorance For Proof of this the Snake quotes W. Penn's invalidity of J. Faldo's Vindication p. 353. where W. Penn's words are only these He G. F. observes no nicety of expression in his Writings and it is therefore disingenuously done of any to make this ill use of his plain and vulgar phrases See Reader how apt this Man is to tell lies for W. Penn lays it not on nor does not say it was his extream Innorance But W. Penn lays the fault upon J. Faldo's extream disingenuity as I now do upon the Snake's Snake p. 15. An indifferent Man would rather have said Ne Sutor ultra crepidam That this Fox should rather have kept to his original Trade Here Reader see this Man's contempt by a Profane Jest upon the meanness of G. Fox's Calling What would he have said to Amos the Herdsman Peter James and John Fishermen and the rest of those Holy Men whose mechanick Occupations were no hinderance to the High Offices in the Church to which God called them It is not unlikely that from men Spirited as this Snake their Entertainment was Ne Sutor c. But this need not trouble us since we find that G. Fox where he speaks of the Soul as in the places before severally quoted doth speak so distinctly of it as that he neither declares it to be God or Christ nor doth he confound the Being of Man with the Infinite Being of his Creator as is falsly charged by this Adversary G. Fox hath frequently said to this purpose and it is very true that the Spirit of Man is illuminated with a divine Light from God through the mediation of Jesus Christ But he hath never said that the Spirit of Man was God No he could not so say but by wilful perversion this Adversary as some former ones perverts as well as mis-quotes him and will not have him to mean as his words plainly speak For when he speaks of the Soul of Man both with respect to its original Life as breathed from God and degenerated through disobedience and also with respect to his spiritual Restoration by the Power and Spirit of his Creator and hath thereupon shewn how that the Soul through disobedience to the Power that Created it became estranged and at enmity to it and that this enmity and wall of Separation could not be broken down and the Soul brought into the Love and Favour of God but by Christ who in Holy Writ is declared the Bishop and Shepherd Our Adversaries have then often perverted his words and would have them to mean which they cannot That the Infinite Essence and Being with other the like terms of the Life of God or Christ were the Soul of Man But these perversions are our Adversaries and as of G. Fox So of all owned by us it never was believed by us that the Soul of Man was the same Person and Substance with God as is most falsly charged by this Snake I come now to the Snake's third Section Of the Quakers aspiring c. which he says p. 17. is in effect proved already but yet he bestows nine pages upon it of which great part is taken up in Quotations which I shall consider in their order The first in p. 17. is from Great Mystery p. 282. For Christ says he makes no distinction in his words but saith Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is And as he is so are we and that which is perfect as he is perfect is in equality the same In this Quotation that the Snake might bring the parts of it together as near as well he could he hath made a break for another Text which G. Fox used viz. And be ye merciful as he is And after all his carping it is the Doctrine preached
send them forth in the Work of the Ministry their Degrees of Immediate Revelation are much higher than that Degree of Immediate Revelation which I have above spoken of And in these higher Degrees of Revelation God may give One to Prophesy or foretell things to come and send Another with a Message as shall seem good in his Sight and all this by the Immediate Revelation of the same Holy Spirit which reproves the World of Sin tho' in a Higher Degree and by the Higher Degrees of this Immediate Revelation it may please God by his Servants for God hath not in his revealed Will declared that he would not to work Miracles But as his Ministers at this Day have no New Gospel to Preach so it is not necessary that the Work of the Ministry should be commonly attended with such external Credentials if so I may call Miracles Ibid. p. 28. And to this G. F. pretended even to Outward Visions and Revelations as in his Blasphemous Journal particularly upon a High Mountain in Yorkshire where he tells of his receiving Commission to Preach That G. F. had Visions and Revelations some of which might be Outward and did receive a Commission from God to Preach he hath given more â—nd better Proofs than the Snake hath that G. F's Journal is Blasphemous For of this I find no Proof but the Snak's own confident averring of it But among the Proofs of G. F's having received Commission to Preach none of the smallest are the many who instrumentally by him were turned from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to the Power of God To which Power of God as they did attend and grow up in they were the Living Seals of his Ministry And for the Visions and Revelations which G. F. hath declared he had there are none of them that are repugnant to the Holy Scriptures but are consistent with and agreeable to the special Manifestations of God to his Children mentioned therein which nothing that is Blasphemous can be Nay further God hath promised Joel 2.28 That in the pouring forth of his Spirit He would give Prophecy Dreams and Visions and that it is fulfilled in the Gospel Dispensation the Holy Apostle Peter hath testified Acts 2.16 Ibid. p. 21. Fox does plainly distinguish betwixt the Ordinary Experiences of the Inward Operations of the Spirit of God upon our Hearts and the being sent Immediately from God with such a Message as the Prophets and Apostles had And this plain Distinction of G. F's is warranted from Scripture it being wholly in the degrees of Operation but the Holy Spirit which does so diversly Operate is the same The Faith of the Woman cured of a Bloody Issue Mat. 9.20 was begotten in her by a degree of the Operation of the Holy Spirit and by a much greater Degree of the Operation of the same Holy Ghost Philip was bid Acts 8.29 Go near and joyn thy self to this Chariot And abundance of Instances of these kinds might be produced in Holy Writ which do as plainly distinguish as any of us can betwixt the Ordinary and Extraordinary Inward Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our Hearts yet both truly and properly Immediate Ibid. p. 29. These are his Words And shew plainly what he meant by Immediate Revelation and how it distinguish'd him from the Professors Yes Snake it is very plain what G. F. meant by Immediate Revelation when he asked Four or Five Priests Journal p. 83. Whether any one of them could say he ever had the Word of the Lord to go and speak to such or such a People viz. that this is a Higher Degree of the Inward Operation of the Holy Spirit than that by which it Reproves the World of Sin This Higher Degree of Immediate Revelation none of those Priests could say they had had and therefore might well be deem'd such of whom the Prophet says They run and the Lord never sent them And to G. F's Question foregoing the Priest made no proper answer when he said He could speak his experiences Because every operation of the Holy Spirit does give some experience to the Heart in which it works And if a Man thereby reproved of Sin be obedient to that reproof he shall witness a forsaking that for which he was so reproved And this is a good Degree of Experience But this Experience barely is no call to the Ministry To which those whom Christ doth Choose Prepare Fit Furnish and Qualifie as it is by a higher Degree of the Inward and Immediate Operations of His Holy Spirit so it does distinguish them from those who can only speak of Experiences as is above declared Ibid. p. 29. And he Vouches this by a company of Vile and Sensless Miracles to which he pretends in his Journal How shews the Snake that the Miracles mentioned in G. F's Journal are Vile and Sensless They are not therefore so because an Enemy says it And yet he has given no other reason And now having gain'd what he meant by Revelation and Immediate Revelation I will shew you that he attributes it not only to his own Worthiness but to the Quakers in General They are says he in his Great Mystery p. 242. in the same Power Understanding Knowledge and Immediate Revelation from Heaven that the Apostles were in There is no dificulty to gain either what G. F. did mean or any of us do mean by Revelation it being in short this 1 Cor. 2.11 The things of God knoweth no Man but by the Spirit of God And whosoever doth know and understand the Gospel of Christ which is Rom. 1.16 The Power of God unto Salvation must receive that knowledge and that understanding by Immediate Revelation from the same Spirit from which the Apostles had theirs The Apostles have declar'd that themselves did receive their Knowledge of the things of God by it and that without this Spirit no Man can know them Yet we do not from hence say nor hath G. F. said that the Gospel of Christ is not to be understood but by the same Degree of Power Understanding Knowledge and Immediate Revelation which the Apostles were in or that himself or any other Quaker as the Snake does falsly suggest are in that same Degree in which the Apostles were The Apostle Peter was in the same Power Understanding Knowledge and Immediate Revelation when he gave Testimony to the Divinity of our Saviour Mat. 16.16 Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God in which he was when he said Acts 2.22 23. Ye Men of Israel hear these Words Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of God among you by Miracles Wonders and Signs which God did by him in the midst of you as ye your selves also know him being delivered by the Fore-knowledge and Counsel of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain c. But I suppose the Snake will hardly affirm he was in the same Degree of Power c. And after all it is false in
the Snake to say that G. F. said this of his own Worthiness as he floutingly stiles him or of the Quakers in General for G. F. does neither mention himself in Particular nor the Quakers in General But after the words before quoted by the Snake adds That understand the Gospel Instead of which words he hath falsly added as above Ibid. p. 29. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 241. Are not ye in the Presumption and Usurpt Authority to Preach or to Teach that have not the Immediate Revelation as the Apostles had Yes Doubtless they do run when they are not sent of God to Preach the Gospel Who before they Teach others the Things of God are not themselves taught them by the holy Spirit Ibid. p. 29. quoted from Great Mystery p. 213. Thou canst not know the Scriptures but by the same Degree of the Spirit that the Prophets and Apostles had The Snake hath here altered the Form of G. F's Words which as they stand are Thou canst not know Scripture c. And it is plain that by the Error of the Press all is left out for it ought to be Thou canst not know all Scripture c. And to shew plainly that G. F. did so write and intend I will produce p. 212. where speaking to the same Adversary upon the same subject he thus saith every Man that hath a Measure of the Spirit of God in the least Measure or Degree it is infallible and so far they may Teach infallibly and know Scriptures but they cannot know all Scriptures but as they attain to the full Measure of the Spirit of the Prophets and Apostles Ibid. p. 30. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 97· They the Quakers says the Snake but says G. Fox who are come to the Lamb They witness Immediate Revelation They are come to that the Apostles was in the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of God They witness Immediate Revelation And 't is very true for who are come to Christ do witness his Spirit and the Apostles were in his Spirit Ibid. p. 30. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 153. But the rest of the World have never heard the voice of God nor the voice of Christ and have not the same Infallible Spirit a◠the Apostles had and no Immediate Revelation nor Inspiration as they had In this one Quotation here is a twofold falshood First Forgery next false Quoting For the Forgery it is this These first words But the rest of the World are not G. Fox's next he has left out a whole Sentence in the middle of the Quotation which is relative to and explanatory of the rest That the falshood and injustice of this Adversary may appear clearly to the impartial Reader I here subjoin the place as it is in the page quoted The Spirit of God in the Apostles being witnessed it opens the Scriptures is the Key lets to see what hath been since the days of the Apostles and rul'd and reign'd and had the Dominion The Wolf in Sheeps Clothing which have deceived the Nations such as have led the World and brought them all upon heaps and have never heard the Voice of God and have published it to the Nation in Print nor the voice of Christ and have not the same Infallible Spirit as the Apostles had and no immediate Revelation nor Inspiration as they had Thus far G. Fox whose words are sound For first it is certain that the Spirit of God does not only open the Scriptures But will also discover the Devourer and Wolf This discovering Knowledge our Saviour hath testified is in his Followers in that A Stranger they will not follow And it is as certain that Men guided by this Devouring Spirit have often brought heaps of Confusion And lastly I take it for granted That such who publish to the Nation that they have never heard the Voice of God nor Christ have not the Holy Spirit nor its immediate teachings and it is no wonder they have it not for God hath said that his Spirit should not always strive with Man and he who resisteth the Day of small things and through the Crowds of Temptations and Vanities will not hearken nor hear the fault is his own Ibid. p. 30. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 321. Revelation is now witnessed in our days as it was in the Apostles but not amongst you who have inwardly ravened from the Spirit of God which have Apostatized from the Apostles And so you be in the Diabolical Devilish that expects not that now which was in the Days of the Apostles This Quotation which the Snake hath jumbled together only with the small distinction of a break Is as it lies in the Book Great Mystery two Answers to things severally asserted by a Priest Josias Dorker at Bransprith Castle Durham The first part of the Quotation to the Break is part of G. Fox's Answer to this following Assertion of the Priest's Immediate Revelation or Inspiration is not to be expected in these days To this false Assertion the words of G. Fox quoted above by the Snake are a proper Answer because as G. Fox in the same Answer shews tho' left out by the Snake according to our Saviour's words None knows the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him which Doctrine whosoever shall deny are most certainly ravened from the Spirit of God and Apostatized from the Apostles But Secondly This Priest Dorker did affirm it to be needless and also Diabolical that is to say Develish to expect any such thing now To this the Latter part of the Snake's Quotation is also part of G. Fox's Answer which Answer is true As for Diabolical and Devilish they are the Priest's own words and were fittly by retorsion given to the Priest And it is a great indication that Men are in that Spirit themselves which is Devilish when they call Good Evil and Evil Good and tell the World that that is needless or not to be expected now which is the Covenant of the New Testament And here Reader is another Mark of that foul Hypocrisie and Envy which is in this our Adversary who pretends to quote the Offices and Services of the Church of England for proof that Inspiration is believed and prayed for and which he would have taken as an Argument that himself does so believe and pray Yet here he is angry with G. Fox for telling the Priests that they were ravened from the Spirit of God even then when they told the People Inspiration was not now to be expected How will the Snake winde this into any agreement Himself says Inspiration is to be expected and prayed for The Priests whom G. Fox answered said It is not to be expected nor prayed for Nay they said more that it is Diabolical to expect it now See Reader the Confusion of these Our Adversaries of former and later times Who no doubt pretended to be true both now and then tho' quite
Spirit because none of them had this Spirit of Discerning To the first That all are excluded c. Every Member of the Church of Christ must necessarily have a measure of the Spirit of Christ else they are none of his Rom. 8.9 And this Spirit of Christ the Holy Ghost as in its fulness it is Infallible so every even the least measure or manifestation of it is Infallible To the second This Infallible Holy Spirit being of the THREE in the Godhead searcheth the Heart and trieth the Reins Jer. 17.10 But tho' this Holy Spirit can discover unto one the Heart and Thoughts of another as of Ananias to Peter Act. 5. Yet as that is not usual so neither is it necessary nor is it that which we pretend to nor hath G. Fox in the fore-quoted places pretended to it But that which G. Fox means and which we pretend to is That such who minister in and by that Holy Spirit which hath an Infallible Discerning of the Hearts and States of all the Persons ministred to This Holy Spirit doth direct the ministry accordingly that it may be suitable to the states of the Auditory Which they who pretend not to be led guided and assisted by that Infallible Holy Spirit in their Ministry cannot pretend to And as to his Objections that the Quakers did not discern G. Keith F. Bugg and other wicked Apostates There was a time when those Men I in Charity think were truly Quakers as they pretended and to have discerned them Apostates before they were such had not been true discerning There was a time when Demas walked with Paul was owned by Paul to be a Fellow-Labourer with him in the Gospel Col. 4.14 Phil. 2.4 There was a time when through the Love of the World he forsook the Apostles 2 Tim. 4.10 so I may say of these and others there was a time when they walked with us and now is the time when through the Love of the World and other things they are departed and fallen from that Unity and Fellowship they once had with us Ibid. p. 37. quoted from Great Mystery p. 105. We says he the Pope and you the Protestants whom he calls Professors are apostatized from the Infallible Spirit that the Apostles was in in which we are come For who witness these conditions that they were in that gave forth the Scriptures they witness Infallibility an Infallible Spirit which is now possessed and witnessed among those called Quakers Glory to the Highest for ever I shall first detect the Snake's base practice of mangling this as other places by setting down G. F's words as they lie in that Book and then shew plainly their Scriptural meaning The first viz. the Quotation And we say the Pope is not Infallible neither though he be your Father the Ancient Yet we say he and you are Apostatized from the Infallible Spirit that the Apostles was in in which we are come with which ye are seen and judged so not to have the Spirit of Christ Jesus not to have the Spirit of the Prophets and Apostles not to be led by the Spirit of Truth into all Truth not to be in the Spirit not to speak as ye are moved of the Holy Ghost But to be such as ravened from the Spirit of God inwardly and have gotten the Sheeps Cloathing ye and the Pope and so have devoured Nations for this many hundred years so have all been like ravening Wolves For who witness these conditions that they were in that gave forth the Scriptures they witness Infallibility an Infallible Spirit which is now possessed and witnessed among those called Quakers Glory to the Highest for ever This the Snake says Ibid. p. 37. Is Dreadfully Astonishing but gives no reason why it is so but that his practice is astonishing there are several reasons to prove it First In so basely picking and mangling Books that they may thereby be suborned to speak what the Writer never intended Next In his wilful perverting the plain and known sense which they carry and which their Writers had And upon Sober Inquiry what in this can be astonishing That the Pope is not Infallible I suppose the Snake will allow And that the Spirit of Truth doth see and judge such who apostatize from it the Scriptures teach And if the Snake doth account it astonishing that the Quakers should possess and witness according to Holy Writ the manifestation of the Holy and Infallible Spirit of Christ he shews his Ignorance therein tho' all who are truly sensible of these manifestations can in deep Humility of Soul give Glory to the Highest Yet to him must be applied that of Hab. 1.5 For it is a Work that God hath wrought in this day whether he will believe it or not Hitherto Reader pray Observe that tho' the Snake as quoted p. 88. foregoing hath said we placed Infallibility in every single Quaker confine it not to Faith but extend it to all Persons and Things in the World by their inward Light Yet the Charge is notoriously false and that the colourable pretence which he had for this his false assertion was owing to his own false quoting curtailing and mangling of our Books of which I have shewn eminent instances since that assertion of his in p. 88. And that our Books in the instances produced speak according to Scripture I shall leave with the Impartial Reader to Judge only adding that the Forms of Speech Try all things Teach all things Know all things and Judge all things which are frequently found in the New Testament cannot without great perversion be applied otherwise than to that Trying Teaching Knowing and Judging which are the proper effects of the Operations of the Holy Spirit in the Hearts of all that are obedient to it And that in order first to their own Salvation and then to the Service of God in his Church In this sense G. F. E. B. and others have used these Forms of Speech in this sense the Woman of Samaria testifies of the Messias our Saviour John 4.25 He will teach us all things In this sense our Saviour promised John 14.26 That the Holy Ghost should teach us all things In this sense John the Beloved Disciple testifies of the Believers 1 John 2.20 Ye know all things And in this sense the Apostle testifies of the Spiritual Man 1 Cor. 2.10 He judgeth all things And in this sense the Beloved Disciple 1 John 4.1 adviseth to try the Spirits whether they be of God Now these forms of Speech in these and many more places all things are truly as E. B. p. 137. foregoing hath said All things that pertain to Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life needful for Man to know all this was discovered revealed and made known to us by the Light which was in us which Christ had Lighted us withal Ibid. p. 37. But I was much more surprized to find the otherwise Ingenious Mr. Penn laugh at his Adversary for not being Infallible It is no surprise to find
as it is not contrary to the Scriptures So it does not cut them off from being useful as before declared viz. for Doctrine Reproof Correction c. For tho' the Holy Spirit is as infallible now as ever and it is the same Holy Spirit manifested in the Hearts of Men at this day by which the Holy Men did write the Scriptures yet the manifestations thereof to them being in greater degree we justly give them the priority this with respect to the Writings of any faithful Servant of Christ at this day But with respect to the Holy Spirit that being as I have just now said as infallible now as ever it must of necessity also follow that whosoever through obedience follows the guidings of it must have as sure because the same rule as the Prophets and Apostles had And this is no more contradictory than the Parable of the Talents Matt. 25. In which our Saviour shews the different proportions of Trust of the same Treasure And the one Talent had it been imployed in the same way which the five were it would as certainly have gained Profit Thus they who through obedience improve their Talent and are in the Apostles Phrase 2 Cor. 6.1 Workers together with Christ they shall witness a growth in his Grace and who do so grow have the same sure rule of the Holy Spirit to read and understand the Scriptures by even the same sure rule which the Prophets and Apostles had when they writ them Hence it is that he that hath and obeys the least measure of this sure Rule the Holy Spirit in himself will easily and readily acknowledge and consent to the further Degrees of the revealed Will of the Holy Spirit recorded in the Scriptures of Truth Ibid. p. 85 86. But because the Scriptures are often brought in crontradiction to the Quaker-Light therefore they have made it their business to depreciate and undervalue them nay sometimes to run them down as hurtful and pernicious That Light of Jesus Christ which we profess cannot be in contradiction to the Holy Scripture and therefore when so brought it hath been by such who as our Saviour saith Matt. 22.29 Do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God Nor did we ever depreciate undervalue or run them down The Charge is false as will more manifestly appear by the instances he brings Ibid. p. 86. To make them false in many things that we may believe them or trust to them in nothing To make their Authority Doubtful by disputing their Pen-Men and raising all the evil Suggestions that can be against them The Quakers Refuge Printed 1673. p. 17. States this as truly owned by the Quakers The Book Quakers Refuge does not State this as owned by us that the Scriptures are false in any thing Nor does it raise evil Suggestions nor dispute the Pen-Men of them That there have been very many Questions raised concerning them and the Pen-Men of some Books or Epistles the many Treatises on them Subjects are sufficient Evidence But it not being profitable here to remember them I pass them by in Silence Now several of these Questions the Author of The Quakers Refuge numbers up and concludes p. 17. It is not the Subject of my Argument at this time But that which he therein declares to be the Subject of his Argument is The Authority of the Holy Spirit in Judging or Discerning the Mind of God in the Holy Scriptures This he saith Is as truly stated as owned by us and he declares it to be the concern therein under most Serious Consideration This Reader is the true import of the Author's words which the Snake hath as Injuriously perverted as before I have detected him p. 144 145. perverting W. P's words and the Advantage he will get is much the same because I must hereupon shew thee Reader that what seems to be the occasion of the Snake's Cavil and Perversion is because we assert the Authority of the Holy Spirit in Judging or Discerning the Mind of God in the Holy Scriptures Which Truth as it obtains upon the minds of Men will rather incline them to wait for the sensible experience thereof in themselves than to depend implicitly upon the guest Opinions of any who deny the possibility of such certain guide at this day Ibid. p. 87. Whitehead says that there were some Priests in the North in and before the Year 1653. when those Books which Bugg quoted were Printed who were thus Ignorant And that this was the reason for those expressions in the Quaker Books First this had been no reason for these Barbarous Expressions if it had been so But Secondly I will joyn Issue with G. W. upon it that there never were such Priests in the North or any where else that were so Ignorant No George This is an Arrant Lye without all doubt did any Man ever think or say that the very material Paper and Ink and Letters wou'd endure for ever That there were in the North c. Priests Scandalously Ignorant herein I will presently shew and if they were reproved herein in such manner as they might account contemptuous The Expressions are not therefore Barbarous because so called by the Snake as I may also shew from Authority of Holy Writ and the Practice of them esteem'd by the Snake the Fathers as that expressions which seem contemptuous are not therefore so being in their end directed to rectify the evil Practices of Men related by John Daille To the First viz. the Authority of the Holy Scriptures we know that the Sacrifices Oblations and Offerings mentioned in the Levetical Law had a Divine Sanction and the promise annexed Lev. 18.5 Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and Judgments which if a Man do he shall live in them I am the Lord. These tho' they had the Promise of this Life yet the Jews thro' their Disobedience made these their Sacrifices not delightful to the Lord their Oblations were Vain and their Incense an Abomination and New Moons and appointed Feasts his Soul hated Isa. 1.11 13 14. And by their continuance in Disobedience while in performance of the Letter of the Ceremonial Law the same Prophet 66.3 tells them from the Lord He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that Sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck and he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol These in the Judgment of our Adversary must be very Barbarous Expressions of these Ordinances and which there was no reason for tho' the People were departed from that true use to which they were at first appointed Tho' this be an abundant Testimony that through Mens misuse of things appointed by God to a determinate purpose he hath been pleased to shew and declare his dis-esteem of them Yet I shall not to confirm this Testimony for it needs it not but for the Readers Satisfaction also shew the Practice of the Fathers herein as testified by John Daille in his Right use
of the Fathers first Book p. 194. Whilst they beat down one Error they seem to run into the contrary Error In like manner as those who would streighten a crooked Plant are wont to bow it as much the contrary way that so having been worked out of its former bent it may at length rest in a middle posture Now if our Friends have formerly met with those in the Priesthood whose crooked expressions did need streightning they are not to be wondred at or condemned in their Christian endeavours for that end And whether there were such or not I will now joyn Issue with the Snake and shew from a much narrower compass than the extents of the Snake's Challenge which is That there never were in any place such Priests I shall at present only give some few instances out of the Book Great Mystery which the Snake does so often quote which take as follows P. 16. John Timson did affirm that the Holy Scriptures alone is to be the object of Faith P. 38. Tho. Collier did affirm that the Scriptures shall be our Judge one day which we call the Letter P. 111. Jeremy Ives did affirm it to be an Error to say the Letter of the Scriptures was Carnal P. 247. Christopher Wade affirmed The Written Word is the Sword of the Spirit P. 261. Roger Atkinson affirmed That the Letter of the Scripture was God Ibid. Richard Stoakes affirmed That the Scripture is God P. 280. Edw. Price affirmed The Scriptures is the Power of God and that all Men shall be Iudged by them Now Reader upon the Issue joyned in this little space whether appears the Arrant Lyar G. Whitehead in saying There were in the North where most of these did live Priests who had so affirmed of the Letter of the Scriptures or the Snake in saying That neither there nor any where else were such Priests For it cannot be allowed I suppose That the Written Word and Letter of the Scripture as above affirmed is either God or the Power of God or the Iudge of the World or Spiritual or the Sword of the Spirit These and the like crooked Expressions of some in the Priesthood it was the necessary work of our Friends to oppose and straiten according to the Authority of Holy Writ not that we then did or now do charge all the Men with whom these so affirming have held fellowship to have the same Sentiments tho' this be the Practice of the Snake against us notwithstanding his distinction in the Title page of his Libel Ibid. p. 88. How comes it that since they are such bitter Enemies to the Letter they yet make a Conscience of saying Thee and Thou instead of You in the Singular because these were old English words in the first Translations I need not ask How comes it That envy and prejudice is Blind and Ignorant We are not bitter Enemies to the Letters of which the Books of Scripture are composed No Sober Reader that which we have opposed and for our so doing have the Authority of the Scriptures is that Men should only from them gather some account of the dealings of God with the Holy Men in past Ages and from their Declarations therein nay sometimes contrary to them make to themselves Creeds and herein Copy after those to whom our Saviour says Ye search the Scriptures in them ye think to have Eternal Life but ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life This we have opposed and directed Men to the Spirit of God in them to which as they are obedient they will find it to open the Scriptures to them and give comfort in the reading of them Thee and Thou instead of You in the Singular are as well Modern English Words as Old from the Essential difference that there is between the Signification of One and Many and upon this account it is according to the best Information I can get that there is hardly any Nation whose Language does not differently express that different Signification And that which engages us Conscientiously to this Practice is not that they are Old English Words but that the same Holy Spirit in us at this day leads to that same Simplicity of Language which it did lead the Servants of God into in former Ages And in all Ages of the World it hath been the Language of the Holy Spirit to Man And accordingly before our day at the beginning of the Reformation Erasmus and others whose Language was not Old or Modern English did reprove that Vanity of Mind which did practice and acccept the contrary Ibid. p. 88. Is there any Immorality or Iniquity in these Letters Y. o. u. more than in T. h. o. u Foolish Question Which may serve to please and tickle the Wanton But Sober Reader I doubt not thou wilt perceive the Vanity of the Querist The Alphabet which with us according to its various joynings does serve to express the thoughts of our Minds cannot have Immorality or Iniquity in the Letters Yet whosoever in evil Mind by joyning them does express words either Blasphemous Profane Hypocritical Unjust as this Snake or any other way bad in their Signification of these Men do pronounce accordingly And thus it is if any to shun the Cross of our Lord Jesus tho' in this small matter of the plain Language and to please the vain Mind contrary to the Convictions of the Spirit of Truth in themselves shall say You instead of Thee and Thou such will find that disobedience their Burden In p. 89 90. Snake has gathered many instances from G. F's Writings wherein he saith This is the Word of the Lord which the Snake puts in opposition to G. F's Answer to Christopher Wade Great Mystery p. 246. They the Scriptures are not the Word of God But this soon vanishes for upon Examination of Christopher Wade's words they seem to imply as if he affirmed of the Scriptures that they were the Eternal and In-dwelling Word of God and therefore and thereupon G. Fox opposed him and asserted Christ to be the Word of God p. 247. Great Mystery which is true and from him the Eternal Word the Servants of God have often said to the People Hear the Word of the Lord. And the meaning of it both in the Prophets and since is only this Hear from the Eternal Word a Declaration of his Will Ibid. p. 91. They knew that the Holy Scriptures could not be discarded openly and above-board nor all at once That the World has been long in the possession of them and of a just Veneration of them and therefore would not part with them nor accept of any Fox 's Inspirations instead of them That the World hath been long in the possession of the Books of Scriptures we well know but for want of being in possession of the Holy Spi-the Power of God they have erred not knowing the Scriptures and therefore could not have a just Value or Esteem for them And God who knoweth the Sincerity of
of Richard Scoryer's And we do also certify that some Part or Portion of the Old or New Testament is daily Read in the said School beginning at Genesis and so Reading on in the said Scriptures untill both the Old and New Testament are Read throughout Wansworth 22 d August 1698. Law Ball Edm. Phillips Tho. Darking Steph. Webb Nich. Lesow Sam. Webb Thus Reader thou here hast this Story to a Demonstration proved a Lye as is also done in divers others foregoing and may be hereafter done in other Instances And if this our Adversary had not a natural propensity to tell Lyes he could not thus err from Truth For hiding and sculking as he generally does in the City he might with small pains have gone by Water to Wansworth 5 Miles or with less cost have sent a Penny-Post Letter to many Persons of that Town who could have better inform'd him herein if he had not been both Hypocritical and Unjust in that he pretends care to our Souls while he wilfully tells Lyes with purpose to destroy us This his practice leads me to observe of him that he is fitter to all the purposes of Destruction and Hate than to that one great purpose to which he falsly pretends viz. to promote the Vnity of the Church 〈◊〉 indeed pretends Great Charity Real Kindness and Good Wishes for the Generallity of us yet tells Lyes of us which in their end and design are to raise Persecution by influencing the Government against us if they would but take the Alarm from him But as it hath pleased God who hath the Hearts of all Men in his hand to incline the Government to give us some security against the evil practices of ill designing Men by affording us a Toleration in the matters of the Worship of our God so we are truly thankful to God and the Government herein and are at no time backward to give an account of the Faith which is in us and our agreeable practice however misrepresented by this Incendiary in Religion Ibid. p. 148. I will end this Section with shewing that the Quakers have in their Blasphemies against the Divinity of Jesus and Humanity of Christ only lick'd up and improv'd the Ancient most Anti-christian Heresies And I may fitly end this Section with shewing that whatsoever the Marcionites Manichees Eutychians and Saturnians might hold as to the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ yet we have always said and believed according to Scripture that Jesus so fore-named by the Angel and born of the Virgin in Bethlehem of Judea was truly and properly Man and in all respects Sin only excepted like unto us and that in this Man Jesus the Godhead dwelt Bodily and that through the Power of the Godhead in him he did open and consecrate a New and Living Way for Men to Salvation and Eternal Life through the Veil that is to say his Flesh And this Truth the Apostle does not deny when he allegorizes Eph. 5.30 The Spiritual Union and Fellowship of Christ with his Followers under the terms of being Members of his Body Flesh and Bones and in a like acceptation are very many other such expressions in Scripture to be understood yet is it not thence to be concluded unless falsly as this Snake does that they are Heretically agreeing with the Cerdonites the Eutychians and Manicheans Ibid. p. 149. But lastly because I must not stay here to deduce and compare all their Heresies those Ancient Heretickâ— the â—bonites and Naâ—areens from whom our Modern Socinians and from them the Quakers do derive their Doctrine did mightily undervalue the Scriptures Some of them pretended to mend the Scriptures and did boldly Adulterate them and set up other Scriptures against those received by the Church And this the Quakers have done beyond any that went before them The Snake does p. 336. Demand Reparation in the Name of the Church of England insinuating his real or assumed Power and if I should now do the like for or in the name of the People called Quakers I may be as much to seek for Reparation from him for this his abuse as I am to seek for proof in this Charge However I do at least demand a proof where ever the Quakers pretended to mend the Scriptures or did boldly Adulterate them or did set up other Scriptures against those received 'T is no Proof of this Charge to say p. 150. We have cannonized our own Writings If that were true it 's no proof but it is false We may have said and said truly that Writings given forth from the movings of the Spirit of God in any are given forth from the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures But we have always readily offered and submitted our Words and Writings to the Testimony of the Holy Scripture because tho' the Spirit of God in his People at this day is the same Holy Spirit which was in the Holy Apostles yet they had greater Manifestations of it So that tho' it is both now and then the same in kind the Degree of Manifestation differs But to return I do as above demand proof where ever we have pretended to mend the Scriptures or have boldly Adulterated them or set up others against them As Euseb. Hist. l. 5. c. 28. Theod. Haerit Fab. l. 2. c. 5. do mention instances of some that did and as he says we have beyond any that ever went before us yet gives not one instance The Snake's Ipse Dixit is no Proof and if he cannot give better it will at least be a fresh Proof both of his Impudence and Lyes SECT X. Concerning the Satisfaction of Christ in Opposition to the false Charges of the Snake herein IN the Section immediately foregoing the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ is largly treated of and I have therein shewn that we own and believe both as declared fully and truly in the Holy Scriptures and also that our Books rescued from the perversions of this our Adversary do speak according to that acknowledged Rule It remains that in this I now shew that we have always owned in like Scriptural sense that Jesus Christ in Life Doctrine and Death did fulfil his Father's Will and did offer up himself a most Satisfactory Sacrifice for the Sins of Mankind in opposition to the false Insinuations of the Snake herein who says p. 151. Herein the Quakers are direct Socinians for they positively deny the Satisfaction Under which cloudy Charge he insinuates as if we did deny what the Scriptures do declare herein Which is false and he might with equal Sincerity have said the Church of England do deny The Satisfaction For to come nearer The Satisfaction which is positively denied by us is as positively denied by the Church of England which is that rigid and strict Notion of Satisfaction which some had Doctrinally but unscripturally laid down in the terms following viz. That Man having transgressed the Righteous Law of God and so exposed to the Penalty of Eternal Wrath it 's
Satan Disrob'd See likewise Mr. Crisp c. To which he might have added See Bugg see Keith and so see see see till he had refer'd to all our Adversaries both Apostates and others To which I doubt not the Reader will Judge I should give sufficient answer in saying See G. Whitehead W. Penn E. Penington c. who have writ in answer to them SECT XI Concerning the Resurrection of the Body THIS Adversary the Snake after the example of some former Enemies does charge us falsly with the denial hereof And it is in some sort unaccountable to me how they should make it a Charge upon us to deny that which is indeed so firmly believed by us and by which we are stayed and supported under the Evils we meet and the reproaches which we suffer For were our hope in this life only we might with the Apostle say 1 Cor. 15.19 We are of all men most miserable But we have Faith and Hope in Christ in whom we have believed that after having passed through this Vale of Tears wherein we are encompassed with Perils of many sorts from Apostates and other Adversaries and are accounted Deceivers yet True We shall after this Life receive if we persevere in Faith and Obedience a resurrection to a Glorious Immortality through Christ our Saviour Thus and often more largely have we testified our belief of this Great Doctrine of the Christian Faith but because we deny as not being Scriptural that the same Natural Fleshly Body shall rise Our Adversaries do thence unrighteously infer and conclude that we deny the resurrection of the Body in any sense And thus does the Snake who in this Section does chiefly as in the last Section wholly quarrel and pervert these Books of W. P's Reason against Railing c. and the Invality of John Faldo 's Vindication c. and so gross is he in his perversion and abuse of them that he begins the very first line of this Section with saying Snake p. 155. This viz. the Resurrection the Quakers do positively deny Now that this Charge is positively false as made by the Snake from the two Books before mentioned will best appear by transcribing from the Books themselves not in Bits as this Snake has done both the occasion by which this Doctrine came to be spoken to and also pretty largely the manner in which W. P. does in them speak to it And I doubt not Reader but his Christian Belief and Scriptural Expression therein will be so much to thy satisfaction that thou wilt find reason therefrom to conclude in opposition to the Snake that we do positively own the Resurrection of the Body First To the occasion on which it came to be spoken to it was this Tho. Hicks an Adversary had published a piece under the Title of Dialogues wherein upon many of the Doctrines of the Christian Faith he propounds Questions And then brings in under the names of Quakers generally such Answers as might answer his purpose either to Refute or Cavil at In the 57th p. of his Dialogues he propounds a Question whether the same Carnal Body that Dies shall rise again In Answer to this Question he brings in G. W. saying Is it not written Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not the Body which shall be but God gives a Body as pleaseth him Thus says T. Hicks Whitehead reply'd and G. Fox the Younger speaks to the same purpose Fools that say this Body of Natural Flesh and Bones shall rise I say the Body which is sown is not the Body which shall be I query says T. H. whether both these Persons do not tacitly deny the resurrection This Reader was the occasion on which W. P. in his Reason against Railing c. speaks of this Doctrine I now come to the manner in which he speaks of it in that Book But will first only observe to my Reader that as in the Proverb A Lye does not lose by Carrying So the Snake has improv'd upon T. Hicks's disingenuity He was contented with querying whether we did not tacitly deny the Resurrection But the Snake scorning to mumble doubtingly says we positively deny it which as above and will also hereafter appear is a positive falshood But first I desire it may be observ'd from the foregoing that the Question was whether the same Carnal Body that Dyes shall rise c. In answer to which with the Appendices of the Question as laid down in the Dialogues W.P. imploys eight pages of the Book Reason against Railing c. and of all of them the Snake hath taken about so many lines by which according to his own words p. 350. It was intended purely to have it say that there was an Answer to such a Book or rather to this part of that Book But to shew that the Snake hath neither answered W. P. herein nor that the Quakers do therein deny the Resurrection take the following Quotation from that Book p. 132 133. Now that T. H. hath shewn himself at once dishonest and erroneous too let it be observed 1. That from our denial of the Resurrection of the same Natural Fleshly Body he absolutely infers and concludes our denial of the Resurrection of the Body in any sense Which is great injustice to any Adversary 2. Let it be well observed that he makes the Scripture it self to deny the Resurrection and so Heterodox by accounting G. W. and G. F. their Answers in Scripture Language to be a denial of the Resurrection For if T. H. does not intend by his arguing that the same Body that died without any mutation shall rise again what makes him to quarrel at the Apostle Paul's saying Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not the Body which shall be and repute us Hereticks for believing him Certainly his gross belief of the Resurrection is inconsistent with Scripture Reason and the Belief of all Men right in their Wits in the point Who can have the Confidence to call the Scripture his Rule and yet contradict it so Egregiously as when the Apostle tells us It is not the same Body that is sown that shall be to assert that it is the same Body and that who says the Contrary denies the Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Recompence In short We do acknowledge a Resurrection in order to Eternal Recompence and that every Seed shall have its own Body and rest contented with what Body it shall please God to give us But as we are not such Fools as curiously to enquire what So must we ever deny the Gross conceits of T. H. and his Adherents concerning the Resurrction p. 134. But he T. H. thinks he is not without reason For says he if the It in the Text be not the same Body how can that be called a Resurrection for that supposeth the same Dialog p. 58. I Answer if a thing can yet be the same and notwithstanding changed for shame let us never make so much stir against the Doctrine of
be known which is also a very great Truth that we have towards all Governours utterly denied all Fase Dealing and have dealt faithfully and plainly with every one without favour or partiality reproving and blaming every one for their Faults shewing every one their Dangers and warning every one by the Fall of others that went before them to beware of shun and turn from those Evils which brought ruine upon the former But they never joined with fell in with acted with sought or accepted Places of Profit or Trust from any of them which the Fawning Priests and some Professors did and therefore as with very great Truth and Boldness they might and did say all that the Snake has quoted above So with like Truth and Boldness they say more which the Snake has cut out least while he remember'd their Faithfulness his relucting Mind should object his own past Treachery The words as they stand in the place he quotes from are these Treason Treachery and False Dealing we do utterly deny False Dealing Surmising or Plotting against any Creature upon the Face of the Earth and speak the Truth in plainness and singleness of Heart If the Snake could for himself in truth say so much it would be a brave Testimony I come now to a Book of George Bishops Entituled The Warnings of the Lord to the Men of this Generation Printed 1660. Under the Title of which Book because of Directions to two Places at which it was then sold the Snake says they did industriously spread their Treasons But I would know of him why a Warning to Peace Love and Vnity and Caution against Persecution and such this Book is may not at least be disposed of at as many publick Places as his Defamatory Libels or as his Seditious ones was at private Places But now from the Manner of its Disposal we come to the Matter of the Book The Snake begins with p. 27. of this Book and quotes thus p. 228. Beware of falling under this Spirit or of thinking the Breach between you can be healed for I declare it to you from the Lord That it is irreconcileable it cannot it will not be healed Thus far the Snake quotes and by a dash strikes out about three following Lines which are these Yea the day will come and now is wherein it will be said we would have healed Babylon but she would not be healed let us depart every one to his own place And now upon a Consideration of these Lines what more can be the meaning than that that separation and distance which was between the Spirits and Interest of the Conquerors and Conquered was irreconcileable And the Breach of their Contention was such as could not be healed with the peaceable and quiet possession of those who were then uppermost viz. in the Year 1659. which some might then either foolishly hope or wish But now the Snake after his Dash at which he left out the Lines above-mention'd continues his Quotation thus Therefore in the Power and Dread of the Almighty stand and bear over it viz. that Spirit of Persecution which would vainly hope a Reconciliation Crush it to pieces for that Spirit of which G. Bishop is here speaking had persecuted and afflicted and in many ways made Men to suffer for their Tender Consciences Stamp it to Powder i. e that Spirit of Persecution But the Forgery of the Snake is remarkable here for that after the words last above-quoted he puts an c. and then goes on as if what followed in his Quotation did follow in the same order in the Book from which he quotes it but it is far otherwise for the Lines which he here makes to follow do in that Book precede the beginning of his Quotation eleven or twelve Lines and by the like packing and transposing of Lines which this Snake uses a Man may make the Decalogue or the Lords-Prayer speak to answer any purposes which the wicked Projector shall design Ibid. p. 229. Yet in their Declaration to Him the King after his Return p. 7. they Gravely tell Him We are a People that follow after those things that make for Peace and Vnity and which the Snake has left out it is our Desire that others Feet may walk in the same and here the Snake goes on do deny and bear our Testimony against all Strife and Wars and Contentions c. that is says the Snake when they were beaten and cou'd fight no longer First It is notoriously false that the Quakers did Fight or bear Arms in the Year 1659. or any other Year to the opposing of the Restauration Nor indeed was the Restauration brought to pass by Fighting but there was more immediately the Hand of God in it in that without outward Strength the Powers which then were crumbled and broke to pieces as they were often by our Friends foretold they should having in their several Days and Times of Trial been found to encrease that Yoak which was the Original Pretence of their First Opposition to the King And that it was always our Principle to follow after those things that make for Peace and Unity and have desired that others might walk in the same and did bear our Testimony against all Strife and War and Contention c. George Bishop does in this Book of his the Warnings of the Lord testifie where in p. 10. speaking to O. Cromwell and shewing him in what and how far he had regard to him He saith in behalf of Liberty of Conscience which Oliver had before declared to be a Natural Right yet was herein so far darkned as not to establish this Right which once was in his power to have done and therefore G. B. enumerates some of the Sufferings of our Friends to him herein and at the same time tells him what was the nature of that Dispensation which the Quakers were come to which he tells him in these words We who through the unspeakable love of the Father are come to Witness the end of the Wars the Son of God made manifest in the Flesh whose is the Kingdom and the Glory and the Dominion for ever even his Immortal Seed raised and raising up in us by which we are brought to testifie against the World and all the Deceivers therein and against the Fashions and Customs and Works and Deeds thereof that they are Evil as by his Light we have been shewn and by his Blood redeemed therefrom in our own particulars c. And in p. 14. G. B. enumerating some Instances of those whom the Spirit of Persecution had overthrown and the pretences on which they went as Haman to Ahasuerus the Informers against Daniel and the Three Children and the Pretences of the Elders Chief Priests and Scribes against our Saviour as also their pretences against the Apostles under which they would cloak their wickedness hath these words This is what that Spirit viz. of Persecution suggested throughout all Ages on Record in the Scriptures of Truth and with this
false Prophets did also speak in his Name and say Thus saith the Lord when he sent them not Ibid. p. 281. This is the Prince of the Spirits of Delusion and this Prince they worship for God who mistake his Inspirations for God's Very well I say so too but that the Quakers are they who mistake his Inspirations for God's is Gratis Dictum 't is saying but not proving as more particularly will appear upon the several Instances which the Snake brings The first Instance in this Section is what he calls a Prophetical verse of George Whitehead's with which he says G.W. pursued George Keith after he was denied by us He gives it in these words Thus saith the Lord Because thou hast poured out great Contempt and Reproach upon my Servants and People I will assuredly pour out and bring great Contempt and Confusion upon thee Of this the Snake says p. 282. Copies were given out amongst the Friends that they might admire these Prophetical Gifts and if any thing unfortunate should in all George Keith 's Life-time befall him that it might certainly be esteemed as the Consequence of this Curse What Proof is this that what he calls G. W's Prophetical Verse did proceed from Rage Malice or Folly Or that G. Whitehead hath therein mistaken the Inspirations of the Prince of the Spirits of Delusion for God's See Reader how forward the Snake is to give hard words and how backward to prove them That G. Keith hath with great Contempt and Reproach treated the Quakers is very certain and not only so but hath Contemptuously and Reproachfully spoken many things of that way of Truth which they profess and which himself did also for many years profess with them which practices as it is an apparent mark of Confusion in him so it nâ—â—essarily draws after it Contempt upon the Actor from all Observing Men. So that the Prophetick Verse as the Snake calls it of G. W.'s carries with it many evidences of Truth which plainly shew he did not therein mistake the Inspirations of the Prince of the Spirits of Delusion for God's And which is further seen in that there is no proof given by the Snake that it did proceed from Rage Malice or Folly in G. W. as is falsly and maliciously suggested by the Adversary And as there can nothing more unhappy fall out to G. K. in all his Life-time than to continue and go on from one degree of Confusion to another so that Confusion is not the Consequence of what the Snake calls George Whitehead's Prophetick Verse But that Verse was the Consequence of Confusion began in G. K. Ibid. Mr. Penn did own before the Yearly Meeting That the Glorious Power of God which he felt did so transport him that he was carried beyond himself and knew not whether he was Sitting Standing or Kneeling when he pronounced that Sentence of Apostacy concerning G. K. This was like St. Paul's whether in the Body or out of the Body he could not tell Well! Suppose it is like it I would ask the Snake whether he dare affirm that at this day it is altogether impossible for the Spirit of God to influence any to that degree of Extasie or Rapture If he will deny that or which will answer the end of our Present Inquiry if he will allow that but deny this to be so it will then be necessary for the Snake to produce the marks by which he proves it to be what in p. 283. he hath so confidently said it is viz. the Violent Transports of Passion But if the Force of this Mad Spirit of Malice had not govern'd the Snake he might have seen that while he does acknowledge what he there says W. P. does speak of himself to be like the Apostle This was like says he St. Paul whether in the Body c. and calls W. Penn's words The force of this Mad Spirit of Enthusiasm He does then Intimate that the Apostles words proceeded from the like force And how far this may expose Religion and the whole Scriptures to Loose and Atheistical Wits may concern some to see who are more truly concern'd for the honour of both than he who while he is inquiring How great is the force of this mad Spirit of Enthusiasm Observes not how great is the force of the mad Spirit of Atheism in himself But further I do own with the Snake that this Extasie or Rapture of W. P's is like that of Paul Whether in Body or out of Body he knew not That is they are a-like in Kind but not Degree W. Penn's as the Snake says did relate to the Posture of the Body but the Apostle's was much higher even so as to forget the Body Ibid. p. 283. And he is thus far towards it that he must either make out his own Inspirations to be from God in as High a Degree as those which were given to the Prophets and Apostles or otherwise that he has no Authority to inscribe the name of God upon them as they did The Snake does here as before allow the Inspiration to be the same but falsly supposes W. Penn under a necessity to make it out to be in as High a Degree which he is not because the Operation of it on W. Penn the Snake says was not in so High a Degree as on the Apostle And while the Snake does falsly suppose that the Inspirations from God at this day must be made out to be in as High a Degree as those which were given to the Prophets and Apostles Or else his name is not to be inscrib'd on them Besides that the Snake does hereby overthrow what in Pref. p. 31. he calls The greatest Flights and Extasies of Devotion and which he there advises to let Rise as High as they can the Higher the better He does also overthrow all that Enthusiasm which he says the Church of England owns for these he hath acknowledged to be Revelations and in some sense immediate too Yet here he says they are not so to be inscrib'd unless they are in as High a Degree as those given to the Prophets and Apostles Which I think he will hardly presume to affirm But altho' this Adversary is thus Contradictory to himself by denying and affirming the same thing yet Truth remains unmoveable and the Inspirations of the Holy Spirit at this day in what Degree soever they are given are truly the same in kind with those given to the Holy Prophets and Apostles In that now as then God by the divers Gifts of his Spirit doth fit furnish and qualifie his Children and Servants to the several Duties and Services in his Church to which he calleth them Ibid. He must likewise justifie all the False Lying Prophesies before told or otherwise he must unherd W. P. is not obliged to defend False Lying Prophesies but deny them nor doth he Herd as the Snake scornfully speaks with any such Ibid. p. 284. Gives two Quotations one for G. F's Answer to The Westmerland
he sheweth that the Devil on a time Assaulted him not in visible Form but by dreadful Suggestions in his Conscience as it were thus calling him to remembrance These many Years thou hast said Mass thou hast shew'd up Bread and Wine to be Worshipped as God yet now thou knowest it was a Creature and not God thereof follow'd Idolatry and thou wert the Cause thereof All these things he saw to be true by the Testimony and Light of his own Conscience and therefore confess'd he had offended and yielded himself unto God The Devil's purpose was to lead him to Despair but God mercifully deliver'd him If he think it so heinous a Matter for a Godly Man to be vex'd by the Devil perhaps he will also find some fault with Christ who was carried by the Devil into the Mount or with St. Paul that had the Angel of Satan to buffet him Thus the Bishop who seems to have had another Sense of this Matter than this our Adversary I shall only add to this before I come to his particular Instances to my Reader That if any Person Professing Unity with us in whom was began the work of Reformation hath not abode Faithful but run into the Temptations of the Enemy and hath had freakish Actions and Gestures and loose and wild Imaginations and have Falsly and Blasphemously Ascrib'd them to be the Operations of the Spirit of God We are not accountable for them as the Apostle was not for those in his time who were given up to strong Delusion because they receiv'd not the Truth in the Love of it All that we find the Apostle did to them that we have done to such that is testifie against them and their ways For we do not own such Inspirations as have not for their Origen the Holy Spirit and are warranted by the Scriptures of Truth I come now to the Snake's Instances His first is thus p. 288. John Gilpin of Kendal in Westmerland has given us a strange and wonderful account of his own Possession by the Devil while he was a Quaker in a Book which he Entituled The Quakers shaken Printed 1653. In Answer to this there was Published in that same Year 1653 a Book Entituled The Standard of the Lord c. to which Book E. Burroughs writ the Epistle to the Reader In which speaking of this same John Gilpin p. 2. he saith By hearing of the Truth declared through the Witness in his own Conscience he was Convinced of the Everlasting Truth c. This was very well but it seems he continued not under that Convincement for he ran out into Airy Imaginations and Imitations as E. B. saith who speaking further of him says I was mov'd to go to see him and his Will was at liberty got above the Judgment though the Judgment was upon the head of the Beast in him and a true Power working but his Will not being kept in Subjection it led him into Impatiency and into Rebelling against the Lord who was made manifest to destroy the unruly Will and wandring Mind And then I did declare against him and shewed him the deceit where it lodged in him Thus E. B. who it hereby appears did shew the Man his state and did also deny him and his doings But the Matter issu'd thus This Gilpin continu'd to go on in that same Rebellion of which E. B. speaks so that he quite run from under the Judgment and Gilpin in this his worst Estate endeavoured with the help of the then Priest of Kendal in a Book Publish'd under Gilpin's Name to charge the Wicked and Blasphemous Actions and Sayings which he had been guilty of upon that Principle of the Light of Christ in Men which the Quakers Profest though Gilpin being Charg'd with it did deny it in these Words I have neither written nor spoken any thing against the Quakers So that by this it should seem the Book was writ by the Priest and Gilpin's Name put for a Cover And if it had not been so but that Gilpin did really write it there was a fair opportunity given them to have prov'd it because the Words above-mentioned spoke by Gilpin were Publish'd in the Answer before-mention'd Entituled The Standard of the Lord c. which came forth in the same Year which that Book Subscrib'd by Gilpin did Ibid. Attested by the then Mayor of Kendal the Minister of Kendal and several other Persons It was not strange that the Mayor of Kendal should be procur'd to Subscribe what the Priest had so eminent a Hand in though he owns it no further than a Fellow Subscriber But as this was an early Instance viz. 1653. wherein the Priest did lead the Civil Magistrate into such a Mistake which a prudent Inquiry wou'd have prevented so we have often since found they have endeavoured to Ride the Civil Power blindly into Mistakes and Prejudices against us and where such have been able to Hood-wink a Magistrate we have seldom found so little disadvantage from it as is the setting his Name to Partial and Untrue Relations of Fact In fine the Case is thus Gilpin as before related was once under a Convincement of Truth but he abode not under the Judgment of God manifested in him for Sin but started aside as a broken Bow He got into Wild Blasphemous and Airy Whimsies and Notions In all this he was presently denied and testified against For Edw. Burroughs did while this Gilpin was under these Extravagancies deny him and we were sufficiently discharg'd of him And what may further shew the Degeneracy of the Man was the Dissoluteness of his After-time for some Actions of which a Warrant was it seems Issuâ—d out for his Apprehension but he like this Snake ran away from it as is express'd in the Book aforesaid which was writ in Answer to him The Snake's next Story is of one James Milner mention'd p. 66. fore-going This Man and some others did as the former start aside from under the Judgment but the Event was not the same as is seen in G. F's Journal p. 103. where speaking of this Man and his Condition he saith James Milner and some of his Company had true Openings at the first but getting up into Pride and Exaltation of Spirit they run out from Truth I was sent for to them and was mov'd of the Lord to go and shew them their Goings forth And they came to see their Folly and Condemn'd it and came into the way of Truth again That he did see and condemn his Folly was very well and it was yet better for him that he return'd into the way of Truth Ibid. p. 289. But then as an Excuse for his false Prophesies and his Blasphemies in calling himself Christ c. he G. F. makes this Comical Apology In some things his mind runn'd out and that he Condemns and yet these wicked Men will go tell the Nation of it Great Mystery Page 298. It is not very Comical but very Provoking to find one who