believe in Jesus Christ of which number we take our selves to be have the Spirit of Jesus Christ Rom. 8. 9 dwelling in them 1 Cor. 3. 16. Which Spirit is God Acts 10. 3. 5. compared with vers 19 20. and therefore Eternal Dout. 33. 27. and he who gave forth the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 16. But we do not believe that there is any substantial essential or personal union betwixt this Eternal Spirit and such Believers For such Unions would either make the Spirit and Believers some third thing as when soul and body are united a third thing which is neither soul nor body but compounded of both ariseth from it which is called Man or else thee will be a confounding of substance which cannot be for God cannot mix with the Creature And else such Union if it should be Personal as betwixt the two Natures in Christ would make Believers God and equal with Christ and consequently equal with God himself The Consequence of which would be thatsuch Persons would have an Almighty Power which they might put forth in working as many miracles as they please as they may see it make for the Glory of God and that they would be omniscient and know all things and would have the rest of Gods Atributes as Christ had who was God andequal with God and in whom this Personal Union was But this is palpsbly false in reference to Saints and is full of Blasphemy And though we believe that the Spirit of Christ dwels in Saints yet we assert the Spirit of Christ to be distinct from the Saint and the Saints from the Spirit And though he dwells in the Saints yet he acts not in them but as it pleaseth him neither doth he impart Wisdom Power Grace and Glory but as it pleaseth him 1 Cor. 12. 7. to 12. And though there be the same Spirit in all Saints that gave sorth the Scriptures yet all Saints have not the same Inspiration of the Spirit which the Prophets and Apostles had so as they should be able to give forth infallible Truths and immediatly discover the pure and clear will of God as the Prophets and Apostles did Timothy had the Spirit of God yet he must give attendance to Reading 1 Tim. 1. 13. and 2 Tim. 1. 14. 15. He must continue in the things he had learned and had been assured of knowing of whom he had learned them And the holy Scriptures which of a child he had the knowledge of are those Writings to which the Apostle sends him as being able to make him wise to Salvation The Spirit within him did not dictate all things to him but he must have recourse to the Scriptures God dwelt in the Temple but God did not make out all his Glory in the Temple Sometimes there was no Glory at all that was visible and yet God was there and when there was Glory there was not all that might have been And Believers are the Temple of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God dwels in them but God doth not make out all his glory in them not all the Glory his Wisdom Power Holiness or of the rest of his Attributes For neither is there a capacity in the Crreature to receive it neither doth the Spirit communicate according to the capacity but it is reserved for another time and place and now every Saint is in weakness and infirmity as in Knowledge so in all other Graces 1 Cor. 13. 9. to 13. Querie 2. Whether the Apostles did give a right meaning Concerning the sense of the Scriptures to the Scriptures when they gave them forth or left them to you to give the meaning of them yea or no Answ The Apostles and so all the Penmen of Scriptures in all the Scriptures they gave forth had a meaning and they gave it forth in and with those Scriptures which they gave forth yet not alwayes so plainly that the meaning thereof might be rightly taken up by those that read them unless compared with some other Scriptures which they also have given out which have a plainer sense in them and are helpful to expound them 1 Cor. 2. 13. Christ saith unto the Jews who required a Sign Ioh. 2. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up again Christ had a sense in which he meant those words he understood what himself said but the Iews understood it not could not take up the sense but applyed the words to a Material Building But the Evangelist gives the right sense in which Christ intended them and we come to know the right sense not by the signification of the words themselves for more things are signified then one by one word as the word Temple signifieth plainly and properly a material house where God gave his Presence and was worshipped but siguratively and mystically the Body of man in which the Soul dwels In this metaphorical sense Christ meant it But this did not appear to them nor would it have appeared to us by the signification of the word if in another place of Scripture the Evangelist had not given the interpretation Ioh. 2. 21 22. The Apostle Peter tels us 2 Pet. 3. 16. that some things in Paul Epistles were hard to be understood which they which were unlearned and unstable did wrest to their own destruction There was a sense which Paul gave forth in those Seriptures in his Epistles but it was not easie but hard to be understood and so hard that they who were unlearned in the Scriptures not well read therein not well vers'd not well acquainted therewith did wrest them and unstable ones by reason of the difficulty that was in the sense of them did pervert them to their own and others ruin Christ in his Parables that he gave out which are part of Scripture had a meaning But the meaning was so mystical and hidden that the Diseiples could not have found it out if Christ himself in other words had not given the sense and meaning thereof And Moses the Prophets wrote of Christ so darkly obscurely that though themselves knew what they meant in what they wrote Iohn 12. 41 yet others did not the Disciples did not till Christ first expounded unto them the things which Moses and the Prophets wrote of him Luk 24. 26 27. Therefore it is that Christ commmands to search the Scriptures because the meaning lieth deep in many places and is hidden from the common eye yet by searching what Scriptures layd together speak the sense may be gotten out In Answer therefore to the Question the Apostles when they gave out the Scriptures they gave out the sense in some places more darkly in other places more clearly so that the sense and meaning may be taken up at least in all the great Points of Faith if Scriptures be compared with each other And they have not left them to us nor to any others to give the sense of them that is to put any sense of
our own upon such Scriptures which they have given out which is not their sense but that which is Jeft to us is to find out the sense and meaneing which they have put as in Re2 13. 18. after some mystical things had been held out in which there was a meaning but hard to be understood it is is said Here is Wisdom let him that understandeth count the Number of the Beast that is let him set all his Wisdom and understanding that he hath on work to search it out Nevertheless it is not to be understood that the meaning which the Apostles intended in the Scripture which they gave out doth perpetually follow the sound of the Letter for the Letter contains contradiction many times in it but the Apostles meaning as he interprets himself hath sweet congruity in it without contradiction Querie 3. Whether Plagues be not added to them who add Concerning adding to and diminishing from the Scripture In what sense it is to be understood to the Prophecies Written in the Book And whether his name be not diminished out of the Book of Life who diminisheth And whether you can witness this name yea or no Answ It is plain and clear from Rev. 22. 18. that the Evils are great and terrible that are threatned against adding and diminishing But what this adding and diminishing is that hath such woes belonging to it is the question If expounding the Scripture and interpreting it and shewing the sense and meaning thereof be the adding or diminishing that the question intends against which such a fearful Sentence is pronounced then it would reach Ezra and those others with him mentioned Nehem. 8. 7 8. For they read and they gave the sense and caused the people to understand the reading And Christ also gave the sense of those words in Isai 61. 1 2 3. and declared how they were fulfilled in himself and he expounded Moses and the Prophets their Writings to those two Disciples who were travelling towards Emmaus And Philip guided the Eunuch in his reading unto the right sense of the Prophet Isar in Chap. 53. 7 8 9. He shewed the Prophet spake not of himself but of another via Christ Acts 8. 31. 34 And what was preaching the Gospal ordained of God for And why were Gifts given unto men but that the People might be brought to Knowledge and might come to understand the Scriptures Therefore the Apostles were much exercised in opening those sealed Prophesies which were often read and never understood which respected Christ and in proving out of them that Jesus was the Christ Therefore the interpreting of Scripture is not adding to it so long as it is not any private interpretation that is given which a mans heart hath found out and his fancy hath imagined but such an interpretation as agreeth to the Spirit of the Scripture in other places 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. and such as accords with the Analogy of Faith Rom. 12. 6. that is holds Proportion with the Doctrine of Faith as it is laid down in other Scriptures This is not adding but adding is when the sufficiency of the Scriptures to build men up to salvation and to make them perfect throughly furnished unto every good work is not acknowledged and thereupon Traditions Canons and Doctrines and Commandments of men are brought in and annexed and imposed upon the people As of old by the Scribes and Pharisees which Christ so often conflicted with and by the Roman Synagogue and by some of that stamp amongst our selves And when Persons assume an Authority and Power to themselves to be the Judges of the Scripture and expunge what they please out of it and introduce into it what liketh them and what sense they give unto it whether it agrees or not agres with other Scriptures yet that must be the sense of of it and none must question it Whereas Scripture it self ought to be its own interpreter else there would be no plain standing rule to try truth by but the Truth of God must be subjected to the various and opposite fancies of men And when Persons pretend the Spirit and say they have dreamed and come with their apprehensions and say it is made out so to them or it is so given in to them and though there be never so much repugnancy in it to other Scriptures yet that must be the sense by which means the Spirit of Truth comes to suffer many affronts in this Age This is adding And indeed the rigid adhering to the letter of Scriptures and to the sound of words therein without admitting a wholesom sense such as accords with other Scriptures is adding which is the way of all Seducers and Deceivers to make their blasphemous doctrine the more vendible For the letter of Scripture in some places without searching out a sound sense will countenance Papists Arrians Ranters and whom not in their Tenents This is the introducing of another Scripture then that which is Scripture indeed and it is properly such adding to the Scripture against which such plagues are denounced Let these Persons who are called Quakers look to this for it is their grand imposture wherewith they beguilc the people they bring the Letter where it serves for their purpose as the Papists were wont to bring their hoc est corpus meum This is my Body to prove the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament And these press upon the people the Letter and cry out upon the Ministers of Christ and say they are lying Priests and they lead the people in darkness and so by the Letter destroy the sense of Scripture and bring in another sense which is not Scripture-sense and so themselves are found both adders to and diminishers from the Scripture Querie 4. Whether you have an infallible Judgement to judge of things eternal yea or no Concering Infalibility in judging how fat men may have it and how far not Answ The first state of every man is darkness the natural man understands not the things that are of God they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. When any man is brought from darkness to light even then he knoweth but in part Paul himself was in some darkness now we see through a glass darkly said he of himself and others 1 Cor. 13. 12. Those to whom John wrote who had the annointment to teach them all things and of whom John said that they knew all things which was but an hyperbolical expression and did import only much knowledge to be in them 1 Ioh. 2. 20 21 27. yet those were not all light without any darkness but they were such who might be deceived and were subject to errour therefore the Apostle warns them of Seducers not withstanding the unction that they have received They had not an infallible judgement but might be mistaken in some of the things of God though they had the Spirit for the Spirit gives himself out
understood from their writings though we have not seen with our eyes even as Timothy was commanded to preach and shew what he had heard of the Apostle who yet himself had not heard nor seen nor handled any thing of Christ and he must commit them to faithful men who had seen no more then he and they must teach others also But this Question holds affinity with the seventh Question to which I refer the Reader onely I shall add this that if the persons that make these proposals do glory over us because we have not thus seen Christ and do give it out that he hath appeared to them and that they have seen him and heard him and heard him and that he is with and in them let them seriously consider whether it be the true Christ the same whom Iohn heard or saw with his bodily eyes and handled with his bodily hands which they have seen or a bodiless Christ of their own framing And whether their seeing of Christ be not like Saul his seeing Samuel who indeed saw the Devil in Samuels shape and talked with him and had fellowship with him but saw not Samuel Querie 10. Whether you have this word which was from Concerning the manifestation of Christ what it is And concerning preaching from the letter how far it may and must be and how far not the beginning and this lâ—fe manifest unto you which was to the Apostles And if it be why do you take a Text from the Letter and Preach from it and shew the People the Letter Answ This word and this life which is Christ was manifested in flesh Ioh. 1. 14. The Word was made flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. God was manifested in flesh And this Word and this life in flesh was manifested to the Apostles for there was a glory of Christ in flesh in reference to his mighty works which were done in flesh which never any else did but he Ioh. 3. 2. chap. 15. 24. And this glory was as of the onely begotten Son of God and this glory they beheld and all Saints have beheld it and do behold it but not with bodily eyes as the Apostles did but with spiritual eyes with the eyes of Faith 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom though ye see not yet believing ye rejoyce c. They did not see at that time for Christ was ascended neither do Saints as yet see because the Heavens do yet contain him but they believe and believing is called a seeing in Scripture Ioh 8. 56. Abraham rejoyced to see my dayes He did not live to see it with his bodily eyes but he saw it by Faith by which also the Apostles had the sight of Christ else they could have seen but the outside of glory and have been dazzled therewith as the rest of the Jewes were which saw him and were not ' able to judge whose glory it was that they saw In this spiritual sense Christ is manifest to us so many of us as believe and we have seen him by faith and he is in us by his Spirit and is life within us as a living Word that quickneth us Notwithstanding this we take a Text from the letter because the whole will of God and minde of Christ is left us in letters and blessed is he that readeth and considereth thereof as it is contained and declared in letters Revel 1. 3. And Christ himself who was manifest to himself did take a Text from the letter to preach things that respected himself which the letter contained And Philip he took that Text in the letter which the Eunuch was guided to read and preached Christ from it And though preaching be from the letter that though we make something that is written or something that is comprehended in letters the foundation of our preaching upon which we bottom and build our discourse yet we preach not the letter but such spiritual truths as are contained in it respecting Christ as Christ preached the glorious truths of himself And Philip preached those blessed mysterious truths which concerned Christ which have a vertue and power in them from the Spirit which accompanies them and which is given to the Elect whilst such truths written in words and letters are preached to them by which such persons are quickned who were before dead in trespasses and sins 2 Cor. 3. 6 8. For if the Gospel which is now left us in words and letters in the Evangelists and Apostles Writings be hid from any it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the mindes of them that believe not least the light of the glorious Gospel should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. And indeed this Gospel as it is now upon record in letters and is become as such a standing rule to men is hid from this Generation of men so far as we can judge who are the propounders of this Question and their design is to hide it from others and to draw all persons off from all that is written to depend upon an unwritten word some word immediately dictated to them within them proceeding from him who is as they say the Word from the beginning and is the life and is manifested as they give out within them as to the Apostles And in this sort of men doth the Devil shew his spite spleen and malice against the holy Scriptures Querie 11. And shew me where the Prophets did take a Concerning preaching from a Text and the justification of it And what anoyntment Ministes have to Preach Text and preach from it but only Christ read a place and said it was fulfilled who said he was anointed to preach and which of you can witness you are anointed to preach by the living God yea or no Answ The Prophets took not any Text to preach from it because they were to lay the foundation of preaching unto others Ephes 2. 20. and other were to build upon it all that they should preach and therefore it was that the Priests and Levites did preach out of the Prophets they read therein and gave the sense And the Apostles proved all things from the Prophets which they preached And though they did not preach from one particular Text yet they preached from many Texts for they cited many to confirm their preachings And the Apostles also as wise master-builder sinstructed immediately by the spirit did in their Doctrine perform the same work 1 Cor. 3. 10. viz. did found the Faith of Believers upon their Preachings and Writings And the Ministers of the Word which were to succeed them are onely to put their superstructure to it bottoming upon that ground-work which they have laid and therefore it is that both they and we take a Text that the weight of our building may be laid upon it and that all may see and be convinced that we preach not our own dreams but what we have warrant for from the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets with and to
expresly till Christ come 1 Cor. 11. 26. And let all take heed least slighting Seals and gracious Covenants they be hereafter accompted despisers of Gods Grace which will be reckoned amongst the greatest sins Secondly Concerning our outward teaching I have declared already in part the necessity of it It is the ordinary way Concerning outward teaching and Ministery by which a people that are in darkness are brought to light Mat. 4. 13 14. Act. 26. 16 17 18. It is the way and means by which the deep and profound and many most sweet and necessary Truths of Scripture come to be understood Acts 8. 30 31. It is the means which God hath appointed for the bringing of men to Faith Rom. 10. 14 17. It is the power of God to Salvation Rom. 1. 16. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who do believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. Upon which accompt it is that the Apostle concludes wo unto himself if he preach not the Gospel of Christ 1 Cor. 9. 16. It is the means of exalting Christ which made the Apostle so much to rejoyce that Christ was preached though from an envious Spirit Phil. 1. 18. And hence it is that God in all times and ages in which he hath had a Church hath had such which have preached and taught the people as James observed in that speech of his in the Councel Act. 15. 21. Moses saith he of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogue every Sabbath-day And must Christ be worse provided for then Moses no Christ himself was a Preacher of himself Luk. 4. 18. Mat. 4. 23. and he gave Commission to his Disciples to preach and sent them into all the World for that purpose Mat. 18. 19. and in them he commissioned others in all Ages to the end of the World for he promised his presence to the end of the world and consequently not to them only which were not to continue so long but to such also who should succeed them impreaching If any one should attempt to make this place invalid by interpreting the words which are translated to the end of the World to be meant only to the end of that Age because of the diversity of the sense that is put upon the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated World and sometimes signifies Age to shew the weakness thereof I shall only give this hint these words together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used for the end of the World in a plain proper sense in many places of Scripture as Mat. 13. 39 40. aâ—d cap 24. 3. Heb 9. 26. and I know not that they are together used in any other sense Secondly It seems to be too gross and wicked to restrain Christs presence to an Age much more the things that are given in charge to be preached and observed vers 20. as if one only Age were to observe Christs Commands for howsoever the Apostles were the Persons that immediately received the Commands and had the Promise yet there is a further scope in Christs words and a clear intimation of the continuation of the work by others who should succeed after they should cease to be For sutable to this is that charge which Paul gives to Timothy 1 Tim. 6. 13 14. I give theâ— charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things and before Iesus Christ c. that thou keep this Commandment without spot irrebukably until the appearing of the Lord Iesus Christ Was Timothy to continue til the appearing of Jesus Christ or is there not another thing implyed viz. that Timothy should have successors in that work to whom Paul gives the charge as well as to him and lays it upon them to keep the same Commandment And because it is one work Paul speaks to them all as to one man and so did Christ in the Commission above mentioned And Christ ascended up on high and gave gifts to men and he appointed some Apostles some Evangelists some Prophets some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery and for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the Stature of the falness of Christ Eph. 4. 11 12 13. that is till all Saints come to a State of Perfection so as neither to be subject to errour nor to sin which is not attainable in this World Christ was born in weakness and littleness of stature as other men and he grew up to a perfect man the Apostle alludes to this Saints are growing up whilest they are here in knowledge and in all spiritual Gifts and Graces till nothing be wanting of that proportion which God hath appointed for them which is not in this life And Ministery must last while Saints are in their growing state while any thing is wanting of the measure they must come unto Object But ministerial gifts are not now to be found in the world such which the Ministers of the Gospel had in the Primitive times the Apostles were not to go forth into the world but were to tarry at Ierusalem though they had a Commission to Preach the Gospel in all Nations till they were first endued with power from on high that is till they were annoynted with the holy Ghost as was done at the time of Pentecost as is mentioned Act. 2 1 2 3. c. then had they the Spirit given them and were enriched greatly with gifts by which they were enabled to discharge that service they were called unto so Gal. 3. 5. the person that preached the Gospel had the ministring of the Spirit but now no such gifts therefore no such work ministerial as was then nor any such Officers as Pastors Teachers c. as was then Answ First When the Apostle Paul layeth down the qualification of Bishops or Elders for they are one he mentions many things respecting a good conversation and some other things respecting a right dispensation he must be â—ound in the Faith and setled and established in the Truth and mighty in the Scriptures that he may convince gainsayers and inclinable to communicate what gift he hath by an aptness to teach and he must be good and upright in his life in all things But not one word proceeds from the Apostle of any extraordinary gifts wherewith he is to be endued but a total silence in that point Now if such an anointment had been necessary with such an absolute necessary as that without it there could be no Bishops no Pastors and Elders of any kind at all how comes it that the Apostle omits the mention of so main a thing which is made the principal when he nominates many other things Therefore that anointment which the Apostles had and thole gifts wherewith they were enriched they served for other ends then to qualifie them
Letter that was given me and the Answer which I sent unto it which was directed to his wife together with the Reply that the Quakers made unto it which indeed is too tedious to be read of any who have most time it is such a sottish and senseless piece of stuff and hath so much scurrilous language in it But by it and by the Queries the Saints and World may know what a people these are what little hope there is of any good to be wrought upon them if they would admit of any rational discourse from Scripture some encouragement would be given to spend time that way with them but they can easily evade all with such Answer as this Busie minds give senses to Scripture and are Persons that have nothing to do with Scripture can witness nothing of that they speak of They pretend to speak and act all by the Spirit and if any one will try the Spirit that they speak by their Reply is that such an one can neither witness Scripture nor Spirit and therefore hath nothing to do with such things Yet they deceive many and they increase in number continually but the time will come that they shall proceed no further In the mean time it ought to be sad to every godly spirit that Satan should have such power to work so effectually in and upon many who have been reputed Saints who are drawn into them but God will issue all to his Glory at the last and in this I rest and remain Thine in the Lord Jesus Samuel Eaton THE Quakers QUERIES For some Friends who call themselves Elders of the Church of Christ meeting at Stopport these c. A few Queries to you who profess your selves to be Teachers Pastors and Elders Querie 1. WHether you have the same eternal Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures yea or no Querie 2. Whether the Apostles did give a right meaking to the Scriptures when they gave them forth or left them to you to give a meaning to them yea or no Querie 3. Whether the Plagues be not added to them who add to the Prophesies written in the Book and whether his Name be not diminished out of the Book of Life that diminishes and whether you can witness this Name yea or no Querie 4. Whether you have an infallible Judgement to judge of things eternal yea or no Querie 5. Whether you be above the Apostle and are able to judge his Condition because you say he was not perfect who said he spoke wisdom among them that were perfect Querie 6. Whether you have the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the World was which the Apostle speaks of yea or no Querie 7. Whether you have heard the voice of the liveing God of Heaven and Earth or whether do you not take the Prophets words Christs words and the Apostles words and say he saith it when saith the Lord I never spoke to you Querie 8. Whether a man shall overcome the body of sin while he is upon the Earth yea or no Querie 9. Whether you preach no other Doctrine then that which the Apostles did that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and with our hands have handled of the word of life For this life is made manifest and we have seen it and bear witness and shew it unto you Querie 10. Whether you have this word which was from the beginning and this life manifested to you which was to the Apostles And if it be why do you take a Text from the Letter and Preach from it and shew the People the Letter Querie 11. And shew me where the Prophets did take a Text and preach from it but only Christ read a place and said it was fulfilled who said he was anointed to preach and which of you can witness you are anointed to preach by the living God yea or no Querie 12. Tell me why you sing Davids Conditions and Experiences in Meeter and when you read them hats you keep on and when you sing them hats you put off Querie 13. Whether you have the voice and whether you do know the voice of Christ from the voice of a Stranger My Sheep know my voice saith Christ seing that you are so forward to judge and sit as Judges of the Saints Conditions Querie 14. Whether that which is in you which Judgeth be eternal and infallible yea or no Querie 15. What is the Ordinance which is ordained of God that those which you call Quakers deny and where or when did God command you to observe them As to sprinkle Infants to pray before and after your Sermons as you call them or to set times dayes and hours which was in the Generation which were enemies to Christ who observed such things Querie 16. What these Ordinances of God be which you speak of And where God commanded them and to whom which you say those that you call Quakers do deny mention them in particular and declare them openly in Writing and give over accusing Querie 17. Whether you do not seduce the People to draw them from the anointing within them when as John saith they need no man teach them but as the anointing and the Promise was Eternal Life to him that did abide in the anointing Querie 18. Whether you do not bewitch the people to draw them from the Spirit of God within them to observe these things which God never commanded to tell people of a Sacrament and following your outward Teaching who stand praying in the Synagogues and are called of men-Masters which Christ did forbid Mat. 23. And have the chiefest places in the Assemblies Whether these be not Antichrists which act contrary to the Commands of Christ this yea or no Querie 19. Whether a man shall ever grow up that he need no man teach him under your Ministry yea or no seeing the Apostle saith you need no man teach you and you which have been long Teachers how many have you brought up into this Condition The Church of Christ is the Pillar and Ground of Truth which doth witness the eternal Spirit and if you be the same Church and have the same Spirit Answer me these Queries without any consequences or senses otherwise deny your Eldership and Pastorship and to be no Church of Christ From some Friends in the Truth in Lancashire whom the World calls Quakers An ANSWER to the forementioned Queries brought by one Richard Waller a Messenger of the Quakers and presented by him in the name of them unto the Elders of the Church common-called the Church of Duckenfield now meeting at Stockport in the face and presence of the whole Congregation and an Answer required fromthe above said Elders upon the 5th of Iune 1653. Querie 1. WHether you have the Eternal Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures yea or no Answ We do believe and assert that all Concering the indwelling of the Spirit in the Saints that do
to those in whom he is in light in power and grace as he will Therefore neither we nor any others have infallible judgments in all things at all times but we are subject to Errour and in many things we do not apprehend and speak aright of God of Christ of the Spirit of the Saints of our selves of the mysteries of the Gospel which are some of those things which are eternal As God said to Iobs Friends Ye have not spoken of me the things that are right as my Servant Job hath and Iob himself did darken Counsel by words without knowledge when he spake of God Notwithstanding that fallible mind and judgement that is in all men in some things and at some times yet because the Rule that is left men to judge by is an infallible sure and certain Rule which cannot deceive men and because it is a plain Rule in many things and easily understood Prov. 1. 4. and because the principles of Religion and fundamentals of Salvation are so clearly revealed in the Scripture that Babes in Christ may come to the knowledge of them therefore both we and all the Saints may in some things have an infallible judgement and may judge of things eternal with a judgement of Certainty both respecting God Christ Faith Repentance Resurrection of the dead eternal judgment and many other things How else could there be any preaching if persons could not know infallibly that in some things they hold forth they speak the Truth And how could any thing be assuredly believed if the word of Faith in the true sense of it could not infallibly be held forth and judged of And how could any Person be at a certainty concerning his own Salvation And how could any Christian seal the Truth of Christ with his blood if some things could not be judged of with an infallible judgement But whether any person having not the Spirit can have an infallible judgement to judge of things eternal by the knowledge they may get from the Scripture is the drift and scope of the question if I be able to make a judgement of it They think that none can infallibly judge of things of an eternal nature but such who have the Spirit and that we are persons that have not the Spirit and therefore cannot judge of them nor of their way and that they themselves have the Spirit and that judgement belongs to them only both of persons and of things we are but in our first birth and are carnal and know not things of an eternal Nature they are in the second birth and are spiritual and can judge all things and all men for hitherto tends a great part of a large Letter sent unto us from them by which I come to prove them in this question In answer therefore unto this I must distinguish of infallible judgement There is an infallible Judgment which may be made from the Scripture without the Spirit and there 's an infallible judgment which cannot be made from the Scripture without the spirit The Judgment that may be made from the Scripture without the Spirit infallibly respects the Doctrine which the Scripture contains to be received believed by men that they may be saved what they be and what manner of life it is that Persons ought to live that would come to Life eternal these things are clearly and plainly laid down and may easily be taken up by unprejudiced Persons who have unballanced spirits though they have not the spirit Upon this account it is that the Apostle John would not have every Spirit believed but would have the spirits tryed whether they be of God but how must they be tried unless by the Scriptures for every one will pretend the Spirit and there are many false Prophets who have the spirit of delusion and are gone forth into the world 1 Joh. 4. 1. For if the Scripture were not the judge of the Spirit in this case so far as concerns Doctrines and Manners which men have Received and learned whether they be of God or no or whether the spirit of the Devil hath not inspiried them therewith all men living would be put upon desperate uncertainties which is the Spirit that gives our the Truth and which is the spirit of Errour And they would be confounded through the multiplicity of spirits each spirit pretending to Truth and crying down the contrary as Errour Therefore the Scripture alone being of the Spirits inspiring is a light sufficient to shew the Doctrine what it is and the commandment precept what it is to one that will attend unto it without any further inspiration of the Spirit else in vain were the Scriptures at the first inspired But then again there is an infallible Judgement which cannot be made without the Spirit that is whether those Doctrines and Rules of Life which are clearly contained in the Scripture be Doctrines which proceeded from God whether God spake with Moses sent Christ to declare what he hath declared inspired the Apostles in speaking and writing what they have spoken or written or whether all these spake of themselves It is the Spirit of God alone that can give assured satisfaction concerning this The Jews and their Rulers though they saw the Miracles yet they know not Christ to be the Messiah for had they known him they would never have crucified the Lord of glory These are among those invisible things which are revealed unto us by the Spirit as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 2. 8 9 10. It is easie for any man that hath his reason and hath not the Spirit by reading the Scripture to conclude that Scripture makes Jesus the Son of Mary to be the Son of God and the Christ But for any man to beleeve it and build upon it as a sure truth of God this is from the Spirit flesh and blood hath not revealed this but the Father which is in Heaven Christ told Peter so Mat. 16 16. The conclusion is That the Scripture is the foundation of an insallible judgement concerning things contained in them and not the Spirit but both Scripture and Spirit must concur to give in the certainty of those things that are there contained that they may become a sure rock to be built upon for no one can say assuredly and by a spirit of Faith that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. Quere 5. Whether you be above the Apostle and able to Concerning perfection what may be granted and what not judge his condition because you say he was not perfect who said he spake wisedom among them that were perfect Answ This Question relates to a passage in our Answer to a Letter of theirs which pleaded for perfection which we had the sight of which fell into their hands and hath occasioned this Question The words of our Answer are these He might have discerned that Paul expressly denies perfection in reference to himself Phil. 3. 12. His Question hence is Are you
above the Apostle and able to judge his condition because you say he was not perfect It is a senceless foolish causeless Question because he judged nothing of the Apostles condition but perverted what the Apostle judged of his own condition for it is his own words of himself which are spoken in the above mentioned place not our words of him Not saith he as though I had already apprehended or were already perfect We relate his words And do we exalt our selves in it above him and judge his condition As for his speaking of Wisedom among those who were perfect that proves not his perfection of which the Question runs nor indeed doth it prove any perfection at all which excludes all sin which is that which they drive at in making mention of it There is a comparative perfection which some attain unto which the Apostle intends in that place There are some that are in their way towards it and have made a good progress and are still passing thitherward these are perfect in comparison of the rude wild world and of such who are onely babes in Christ He that can bridle his tongue is a perfect man as James affirms not absolutely perfect for the heart may be unruly though the tongue be restrained but comparatively perfect because there are not many who can do it amongst such perfect ones Paul speaks wisdom but not amongst absolute Perfectists Querie 6. Whether you have the hidden wisdom which God Concerning Christ in Saints in what sense they have him and in what sense not ordained before the World was which the Apostle speaks of yea or no Answ This hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the world was which the Apostle speaks of in 1 Cor. 2. 7. is CHRIST for he is called the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. and he is hidden also for he was in the World and the World knew him not and he came unto his own and his own received him not Joh. 1. 11. 12. For though they said they knew him and whence he was yet Christ told them That they neither knew him nor his Father nor whence he was nor whither he went For though they knew him as he was man yet the Divinity which was vailed in his flâ—sh they saw noâ— neither could see for flesh and blood revealed it not but the Father as Christ told his Disciples and it is clear from the above-mentioned place which he alludes to in this Question that Christ is the person that is called The hidden wisdom which God erdained For the Apostle saith vers 8. Had they known it they would never have crucified the Lord of glory Now if Christ be this hidden Wisdom then the Question runs of Christ whether we have him yea or no Our Answer to it is this What we are will appear in time but if we be Believers we have him for all Believers have him for he dwells in their hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. For faith receives him Joh. 1. 12. And who ever hath one of the three hath all the three dwelling in him If Saints have the holy Ghost as was granted in the first Question Then they have Christ also nay they could not have the Spirit if they had not Christ for Christ sends him yet it must be understood in a spiritual sense that they have Christ and not in a literal and carnal They have Christ standing in relation to them and they to him as the members have the head because they are united to it and it to them and as branches have the Vine and the Vine the branches because united to one another And they have Christs influence upon them and Christ in those influences And they have the vertue and power of his Spirit put forth in them in such measure as pleaseth him but always in part and not in perfection 1 Cor. 13. 12. and therein they have him But they have not Christ in flesh or the flesh of Christ dwelling in them for that was taken up into Heaven and will be there contained till the restitution of all things But they intend this Question of an higher way of having Christ and they dream that they themselves have him in a higher way and that neither we nor any others but themselves have him in that way They imagine such an having of Christ as the flesh of Christ had God or as the humanity of Christ had the Godhead The flesh of Christ had God in such sort that it was wholy comprehended of God and taken up into oneness of Person with him so as that the infinite power and wisdom and holiness of God was put forth many times in flesh and always when the flesh that is when the humanity acted any thing it was in perfection of compliance with God which was in it and comprehended it Such an having of Christ as this they conceit in reference to themselves that as the Godhead had the flesh so they have the Godhead which supplies with all Wisdom Knowledge Graces of all kindes strength holiness and with every thing so that they neede nothing that is external neither Scripture nor Ordinances or Teachers but Christ whom they have within them is sufficent for all things and unto all purposes and makes them perfect as Christ is as God is Now such an having of Christ as this is we assume not nor dare assume And we declare against it as a Satanical delusion to which God hath left these poor Creatures who have forsaken him They would be as God as Christ the Devil tempts them to it as at first he did our first Parents tells them that they are so and so they cast off his Institutions Ordinances Servants which he sends in his name and him in them Querie 7. Whether you have heard the voice of the liveing Concerning immediate voyces whether there be any such immediate voyces now as of old time to the Prophets and Apostles Or concerning immediate inspiration God of Heaven and Earth or whether you do not take the Prophets words Christs words and the Apostles words and say he saith it when saith the Lord I never spoke to you Answ This Question consists of two parts The former part demands of us Whether we be persons immediately inspired in what we deliver For the voyce which they en quire after is some voyce that immediately comes from God such as came to the Patriarks to Moses to Samuel to all the Prophets to Christ and to all the Apostles The Jews would confess that God spake with Moses and we Christians will acknowledge that God spake both with Moses and with Christ for all Scripture was given by Inspiration of God and holy men of old spake as they were inspired by the holy Ghost And this we assert in reference to the New Testament as well as in reference to the old because God by signs and wonders and with divers Miracles hath given Witness thereunto Now our Answer is That such a voyce
as this as comes immediately from God we have not heard and such an inspiration as this we have not received nor do we wait for it And if the persons who propound this Question have heard any such immediate voyce as this for they pretend much to it and say Gods speaks unto them and the Spirit immediately suggests what they speak or pray in their meetings coming unto them at such time as they quake and tremble and their quaking is the sign by which others know that the Spirit is come unto them let such persons confirm Gods speaking or the Spirits speaking to them by signs and wonders and by dâ—versitie of Miracles as Christ and his Apostles did Heb. 2. 3 4. else they must of necessity be acounted Impostors and Deceivers of the People The latter part of the Question shews the evilness of their design and what it is that they strike at it is at preaching out of the Scriptures they would have no preaching but what immediately proceeds from the suggestion of the Spirit which they pretend to have and herein lies the venome and poyson of the Question as they are the propounders of it And they would make all preachers save such who preach by the immediate dictate of the Spirit as the Prophets did and the Apostles did to be false Prophets and Teachers of lyes which cell the people that the Lord hath said so and the Lord never spake to them Let this be looked into and examined First It will be granted by themselves that God spake by Moses by the Prophets by Christ and by the Apostles and that all their words are Gods Words and what ever they said in their Prophesies and preachings or Epistles that they wrote God said it by them this is clear from Heb. 1. 1 2. God spake in times past unto our Fathers by the Prophets Secondly It must be granted without contradiction that what ever the Fathers heard of God at any time during the Old Testament it was taken out of the Prophets it was something that God spake by the Prophets For the Priests and the Levites which were the Instructers of the Fathers and Teachers of the people spake not any thing which they had received immediately from God by voyce but what God had spoken by the Prophets or by Moses who was also a Prophet We shall finde that Ezra a Priest and the Levices with him read in the Law and gave the sense Nehem. 7. 8. Now the Author to the Hebrews compriseth all the teaching that the Jewes of the Old Testament had through all Generations whilst that Testament was standing under this head Gods teaching them by the Prophets Now we know there were not Prophets at all times in all Generations who brought immediate Messages from God The last of the Prophets was Malachy and there were many Ages after that yet the people were taught all along by the Prophets for the Apostle saith God spake to our Fathers by the Prophets But how could that be when the Prophets were dead Yea for though the Prophets were dead yet their Prophesies were living and remaining and were made use of by the Ministers of the Old Testament and urged and pressed upon the people as the Word of the Lord And Christ is said to have spoken unto us when onely the words of Christ are brought unto us Heb. 13. 25. And what ever it be that the Prophets or Christ have spoken from the Lord while upon the Earth when such words are urged upon a people it must be accounted God present speaking The Apostles dehortation is Heb. 12. 25. Not to refuse him that speaketh he speaks in the present Tense though Christ was then in Heaven and spake not but what he hath spoken when it is presented must be accounted his present speaking Christ himself expounded unto the Disciples The words that Moses and the Prophers had spoken respecting his sufferings and presseth them upon their Faith as words spoken by God blaming them for their unbelief And Paul applyed the words that God spake by Esay the Prophet to these unbelieving Jews that withstood his preaching as Gods Message to them and said they were The words of the Holy Ghost Act. 28 25. 26. And his whole witness that he gave of Christ was fetched out of Moses and the Prophets Act. 26. 2. And all that are brought to the Faith of Christ are said to be built upon the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2. 20. Not upon an immediate voyce that comes from God to themselves or to any others who are their Teachers but upon the Word of God that was of old spoken by the Prophets and this is called a more sure word then any immediate word unless it come notably marvellously and visibly confirmed unto them 2 Pet. 1. 19. For there may be much fallacy in that and much delusion but we know that God spake with Moses and with the Prophets so also with Christ and with the Apostles and what was spoken to them was intended to continue as a rule till Christs appearing Isai 8. 20. 1 Tim 6. 13 14. Thirdly It is evident from Scripture that what ever the Prophets or Apostles have spoken or written is to be safely kept and retained and also transferred and made over to others and these others are to communicate and make the same known to others after them and so it is to pass from man to man and from age to age and never to be lost but kept as a precious treasury is kept for the benefit of after Posterity And consequently that God did not intend immediate teaching nor to give out an immediate voyce in after ages which should direct and guide men in the wayes of Salvation 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also This is the way in which God intended the propagating of the knowledge of himself and of his Son and of his will Paul must have his knowledge immediately but not Timothy but he must have it from Paul and those faithful men from him and others from them so the truth of God must pass from hand to hand throughout all Generations And the Faith viz. the Doctrine of Faith is said to be once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. and that very Doctrine which was once delivered must be always contended for This once imports as much as already as vers 5. shewes or once delivered is once for all never more to be delivered It hath been delivered that is immediately from Heaven and that cuts off all expectations of any other delivery from Heaven and of all other immediate voyces thence But all Saints must hold what they have once had 2 Thes 2. 15. Hold the Traditions said Paul which ye have been taught whether by word or by our Epistle Every Bishop or Elder for they are one in Scripture expression must hold fast the faithful word as he
whom God spake and that the truth of our Doctrine may be read of all men being engraven upon such Scriptures which we make choyce of and by this means also the idle extravagances of mens wits and fancies which will never convince the conscience throughly are prevented But why is the taking of a Text quarrell'd at when yet it is confessed that Christ took a Text And doth he not therein justifie us What if the Prophets did not yet if Christ did will not his example bear out our practise But these men make light of this pattern detracting and diminishing though they know the danger of it mentioned Revel 22. 19. from the fulness of that Scripture that declares it Luk. 4. 16. to 23. They say that onely Christ read a place but the Evangelist saith That as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read and that then there was a Book delivered to him and when he had opened the Book he found the place that he would read and then closed it again and gave it to the Minister They say that Christ said it was fulfilled and as if this were all they mention no more but the Evangelist saith That the people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth And these things are obvious from this Text they mention First there were publike places to meet in which were called Synagogues Secondly there were dayes set apart for service to be performed to God in such places which are called Sabbath dayes Thirdly there was a Minister whose work it was to read out of some book of holy Scriptures to the people to instruct them thence Fourthly it is manifest that Christ approved of all this and he liked this way so well that he himself did go and do likewise and did accustom himself to the same course of teaching the people as that which was edifying to them so that it was not once only done that Christ took a Text but oftend one his custome was to read some portion of Scripture and to preach out of it And it is evident that Christ did not onely say This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears but many gracious words proceeded from him tending as must needs be supposed by any man that hath but the use of his reason to clear it up to their capacities how that Scripture in every part of it was fulfilled by opening and unfolding the many branches of so plentiful and large a Text and shewing how all things therein related unto were accomplished in himself which might be a subject of many Moneths discourse as Christ might have followed it But these men object that Christ was anoynted to preach and demand which of us can witness that we are anoynted to preach by the living God Christs anoynting was not by the pouring of any oyl upon his head after the manner of the High Priests anoynting Psal 133. 2. which was but a shadow of a more excellent Unction which Christ had And the Prophet Psal 45. 7. doth but allude thereunto But his anoynting was by the donation of the Spirit and the gifts and graces thereof Ioh. 1. 32 33. ch 3. 34. by which he was enabled to the execution of such Offices and works to which he was called in redeeming a people to God and especially to preach the Gospel which in a very excellent and glorious way he effected Luk. 4. 22. And all the Saints receive the same spirit and gifts and graces every one according to the measure of such a part which they fill up in the body and are Kings and Priests and Prophets to themselves as Scripture calls them But those persons especially whom God calls out to be to the body in place of eyes to guide them and direct them God gives more of his grace and influence to as appears from Eph. 4. 8. He ascended up on high and gave gifts to men viz. such men as he placeth in his Church for the work of the Ministery and for the perfecting of the Saints till the end of the world therefore Christ is not anoynted alone but all whom he calls to the Ministery are anoynted also with the same spirit and gifts and graces onely he hath the preheminence and hath an anoynment above his fellows for he received not the spirit by measure as those who are his Ministers and servants now do Psal 45. 7. Ioh. 3. 34. Querie 12. Tell me why you sing Davids Conditions and Concerning singing of Scripture Psalms the Lawfulness and necessity thereof Experiences in Meeter and when you read them Hats you put on and when you sing them Hats you put off Answ Davids conditions and experiences are many times our own conditions and experiences and then we sing them not as Davids meerly but as our own by a spirit of Faith making application to our selves of what we sing out of David But many times it s otherwise that something of Davids inditing and of his state and containing his experience is the matter of our Psalms which we cannot so fitly apply to our own condition and temper and many stumble at this and are offended but it s from some darkness in themselves for Psalms are for instruction by the very design and scope of of God who dictated them and enjoyns them as the Titles of very many of them shew And the Apostle enjoyns the Saints to teach and admonish themselves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Song and what ever the matter of them be one end or use of them must be instruction to our selves from them as from any other parts of Scripture And the reasons of singing them are such as these 1. God would have us in our meetings to rejoyce in him which is done in singing 2. God would have his word to be familiar to us Col. 3. 16. it must dwell in us and this must be shewed in singing and would have us so much to delight in it and to finde such sweetness in it that we should make our selves spiritually merry with it 3. Because singing is that which raiseth the Spirit refresheth the heart moves the affections very much God would have the Spirits of his people to be raised and refreshed in the deliberate meditation of his Word what ever the subject matter be For therefore it is that the Psalms which David and other Saints compiled to be sing consist of subjects of greatest diversity and variety Some are Historical some Prophetical some are Hortatory some are Precatory others Deprecatory others Laudative or Psalms of prayse and the soul should take pleasure in all and have the heart raised in the meditation of all Do we not observe how a prophane carnal spirit will compile Songs of every kinde of matter and will make it self merry therewith And shall not a spiritual heart sing every thing that is a Psalm and is Divine and Spiritual with an elevated and raised minde Object But why most
Davids Psalms be sung Many strick at that who will assent unto the singing of other Psalms which are compiled by a special gift Answ There are reasons which are weighty which do carry thereunto 1. Psalms which were immediately inspired by the Spirit of God are most Divine and Heavenly and do contain the most admirable Doctrine 2. The Scripture is given for every use to be read sung preâ—ched out of confened of medicated on and to be the matter of our prayers also And those parts of it which we finde to be Psalms we ought to make use of as Psalms and sing them And though we have liberty to sing other spiritual Songs of our own or others making after we have wel digested them as well as to read other godly Books besides the Scriptures yet as our reading of other Books will not excuse our omission of reading the Scripture so our singing of other spiritual Songs will not excuse our omission of singing Scriptures Psalms 3. Davids Psalms were brought into the Church of God in Hezekiahs time and an express command given to the Levites to sing praise to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Seer which is a president and a pattern for Saints to follow 4. There are Commands laid upon the Churches of Christ and upon particular Christians to sing Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs unto the Lord and nothing suggested unto them concerning the matter of them And doth Christ put a service upon use people and nor afford them any straw or matter to perform the same with There was no need else Christ would not have been wanting There were Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs complied by David to their hands for such Titles we shall meet with in the Book of the Psalms A Psalm of David familiarly a Song often in Hymn sometimes as in the Title of 145 Psalm 5. The Ex 〈…〉 of the Apostle to the Church at Coloss is to let the word of Christ dwell in them 〈◊〉 in all wisedom teaching and admonishing them selves in psalms c. what is this but a clear suggestion that the word of Christ which is some part of Scripture should be famliar unto them and become the matter of their Psalms for their instruction For is there not first an injunction Let the word of Christ dwell in your And is there not after wards a direction how to perfom it and one way is by teaching and admonishing themselves in Psalms 6. It is less warrantable because there is no president for it and more dangerous because of some evil consequences that may attend it to bring in other Psalms of mens compiling and not Scriptural into the Church of God and to impose them upon the people For the people that must act in singing must first know them to be consonant to the Scripture and must have a right understanding of them that they may sing to their edification and them there must either be a book of such Psalms so brought in and imposed which every Saint must have or else the whole Church must be gathered together every time there is singing to peruse such Psalms which must be allowed to be sung amongst them but Scripture is silent concerning such wayes and seemes to give other direction And though he that had a gift brought his Psalm into the Church 1 Cor. 14. 26. yet for ought appears he sung it alone and then the rest might judge and say Amen or not say Amen as they approved or disapproved of it And it was not imposed upon the Church to be sung But the Apostle Paul layes singing of Pslams Hymns and spiritual songs upon the whole Chruch and there are no orders of Musitians now or office of singing Choriston as in the Old Testment but all the people are the Choristers in the dayes of the New Testament to sing Psalms and Songs c. And the Apostle James layes at injunction upon every particular Saint if he be merry to sing Psalmi Jam. 5. 13. But hath every particular Saint a gift to compile a Psalm If not what must such a Saint do Therefore there must of necessity be use made of Scripture-Psalms And as for singing them in Meeter the Hebrews had their Poetrie according to which they both compiled and sung their Psalms And it is but sutable that every Nation should have the liberty of their own proper and peculiar Poetrie among themselves to praise God by and meeter is that which is congruons to our English Poetry Concerning putting on of Hats in reading Psalms and putting them off in singing them I shall not much contest But this I say that reverence is that which is sutable to all Gods Ordinances and because the putting off the Hat doth shew reverence it would be very comely when Scripture is read but if it be otherwise I judge it not to be want of reverence in such a person because reverence may be shewed and not tied to one posture therefore I leave persons to their liberty Yet there is a difference in Ordinances in some we have an immediate address to God and in such we use more reverence as when we pray or give thanks we do not send one to God with our requests but we go our selves to him immediately but in preaching and reading it is otherwise we have not immediate communion with God but God sends by whom he will send his Message to us and speaketh not immediately but by another and so there is no irreverence though the like degree of reverence be not given And hence it comes that we may use a different posture and gesture though the same words be spoken if they be spoken in an Ordinance of a divers nature As if words of prayer he read as a part of Scripture then they are Gods speaking to us by another but if we our selves make use of such words and put them into our own prayers then they become our speaking to God in our immediate addresses unto him and so the Hat may be put on in the former and yet ought to be put off in the latter the like may be said of singing and reading Davids Psalms They are different Ordinances and may require different postures There is also difference betwixt speaking and hearing he that is the speaker though it be but in a civil Assembly shews more reverence speaking to many then they that hear him do to him and is usually uncovered when they that are spoken to are covered and in Religious Assemblies it is so also he that speaketh though it be in the name of God is uncovered when yet the people that are spoken to are usually covered But in singing of Psalms they are all Speakers and have to do with God shewing their holy joy in him and in his word and therefore are all uncovered But the custome of the Churches of God in these things if there be not palpable superstition in them is much to be respected and not rashly departed from
1 Cor. 11. 16. and offence to brethren in such things is vigilantly to be avoyded Rom. 14. 20 21. Querie 13. Whether you have the voice and whether you do know the voice of Christ from the voice of a Stranger My What is Christs voice and how distinguished from a Strangers voice Sheep know my voice saith Christ seeing that you are so forward to judge and sit as Judges of the Saints Conditions Answ The Apostle tells us in the Epistle to the Hebrews that God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last daies spoken to us by his Son for the Word was made flesh and dwelt among the Jews and went up and down teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 4. 23. and this Son of God in flesh sent forth the Apostles to preach and put a word into their mouthes and guided them by his Spirit in writing to the Churches what his minde and will was unto them Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Now that which Christ preached and the Apostles preached and wrote unto the Churches that is Christs voyce as from Heb. 4 3. which is fetched out of Psalm 95. appears David saith to day if ye will hear his voyce What voyce was this The Apostle tells us Heb 4. 2. That unto us was the Gospel preached aswel as unto them but the word preached did not profit them through unbelief The word then which they heard in Davids time which was preaching out of the Prophets was this voyce and so the Gospel which Christ and the Apostles have preached and left upon Record is the voyce of Christ And this voyce we have in the Scriptures and this voyce we know and we are able through Gods Grace to distinguish this voyce from the voyce of a stranger if any bring not this Doctrine which Christ and the Apostles brought we know him to be a Wolf and an Antichrist and after once or twice admonition we dare not say God speed to him But there is another voyce which thâ—se persons who question us intend and pretend to and that is an immediate voyce which speaks within them as they say and dictates unto them all that they say and do Now this voyce we have not heard nor do we know it within our selves experimentally and we believe and hope that we shall be kept that we may never know it For we know it is not the voyce of Christ but the voyce of a stranger We know it from what it speaks and acts in others yea in these persons that pretend to it and we bless our selves from it for it is the voyce of the Devil that comes as Christ to them and pretends to be he but deludes them and deceives them as one of themselves recovered out of their soares hath confessed Now to the praise and glory of Gods Grace we speak it that we have neither heard his voice nor seen his shape Concerning our judging there will be occasion to speak of it in the Answer to the next Question Querie 14. Whether that which is in you which Judgeth be eternal and infallible yea or no Answ These men are harping in many of their Questions Ifallibility further discussed upon one and the same string They have a conceit of Christ within them speaking within them acting within them saying all and doing all immediately and infallibly that is said and done by them so that it is not they that say or do any thing but it is Christ and the Spirit within them And this so fills them that it almost fills all their Questions Now it doth appear that it is a spirit of delusion that thus possesseth them because it contradicts both Christ and the Spirit in the Scriptures in many things And after this Christ and Spirit within they enquire of us whether that which judgeth in us be eternal and infallible But we assert no such thing concerning our selves For though all the Saints have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them which is eternal and infallible yet that this Spirit should do all that Saints do and should say all that Saints say and should judge for them both of persons and of things after an infallible manner and that they should neither say nor do nor judge any thing by any understanding of their own but the Spirit all this we deny For the Apostle speaks of himself When I would do good evil is present so it may be said of every man when I would say or do right errour is present Notwithstanding though we judge not either person or thing by any Spirit of infallibility yet there 's one that judgeth and that is the word which Christ spake and which Scripture speaketh and this word is eternal and infallible And so far as we judge according to this word our judgement becomes eternal and infallible and so we may speak of persons present condition with much certainty because we know what the Scriptures have said of them Christ tells us of Wolves that shall come in sheeps clothing and that by their fruits we shall know them Mat. 7. 15 16. And John tells us who is an Antichrist viz. he that denyeth the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2. 22. And Peter prophesieth of false Teachers that shall bring in damnable heresies denying the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 1. 1. When therefore we see such we may judge of their present state what and who they be but in reference to their future final state we must leave them to the judgement of God who infallibly knows who are his Querie 15. What are the Ordinances which are ordained of God that those which you call Quakers deny Or when did God command you to observe them as to sprinkle Infants and to pray before and after your Sermons as you call them or to set times dayes and hours which was in the generation which were enemies to Christ who observed such things Querie 16. What these Ordinances of God be which you The justification of several ordinations of Christ in the Churches of God speak of and where God commanded them and to whom which you say them which you call Quakers deny mention them in particular and declare them openly in Writing and give over accusing Answ These two Questions are distinct in the paper presented to me but the former entirely comprehends the latter and is more ample then it requiring us not onely to shew reason of accusing them but also grounds for the justification of our own practise therefore I have joyned them together And in reference to the first What Ordinances they do deny which God hath commanded there is no need that we should accuse them for they are accusers of themselves in their very Questions which they propound The Reader may easily discern from them what the things are against which their malignity is
distemper of this kind which is very prevalent in these dayes yet I dare not so affix preaching to office as thereby to exclude all exercising of gifts but the exorbitancy is that which I appear against I would have those that do preach and others also that are solid sober Christians judge together who are fit to preach and who have a gift 1 Cor. 14 32. and I would have them first proved before approved 1 Tim 3. 10. and then they should exercise it occasionally for he that hath an office it belongs to him and is his part to wait upon it but he that hath only a gift without an office must look unto it how he is called out to exercise it before he use it Thirdly Not only outward teaching offends them but Concerning praying standing praying standing will not down with them I know not what posture they would have but that which we intend by it is that he that prayeth may be seen by all the people on whose behalf he prayes For he is their mouth and it doth affect the heart of the people when their eyes behold him who is praying for them and it is justified from Solomons example who when he prayed on the behalf of Israel he stood in the presence of all the Congregation and spred forth his hands towards Heaven And yet we plead not so for standing but that we shall grant other postures to be lawful provided that the person that prayeth be visible to the people but they that love not the duty it self but except against it as in Querie 15. may better be allowed to find fault with the posture Fourthly Nor will they be pleased with the place of Concerning praying in the Sunagogues meeting who would have no meeting at all for such exercises they call them Synagogues in way of derision but there is no harm in that word if they understood it it doth but signifie a place where the people come together a place of Assembling It did signifie the place where the Jews met together to hear the Word of God upon the Sabbath-day It was no holy place in the Jews accompt as the Temple was it was not hallowed and sanctified for sacred uses only as the Temple was but was made use of for civil purposes as to punish offences For they scourged such as they counted malefactors in their Synagogues Mat. 23. 34. If our place therefore be only like a Synagogue it s no brand to us some place we must have if a service be to be done one place will serve our turn as well as another provided it be a capacious place that will hold the company that are to meet in it and that it be also a free place which we may make bold with without detriment to any and a known agreed-on place which all may take notice of and may repair thither yet our place cannot hardly be called a Synagogue in allusion to the Jewish Synagogues for it was not erected for any spiritual or divine use or with any intent of serving God in it as the Synagogues among the Iews were though they made use of them for other services Fifthly After cavelling at places they come to strike at Concerning Title of Master Persons and charge us with Ambition and Affectation of Honour 1. Because we are called Masters 2. Because we have as they say the chiefest places in the Assemblies for the former viz. the title we confess it is put upon some of us and as we have not affected it so neither have we cause to reject it It doth import nothing but civil honour and respect which others shew us It is put upon all persons who have either birth breeding riches of this world office and employment of an honourable nature It was not only put upon Christ but upon the Apostles of Christ also in Joh. 12. 21. and not rejected by them Some came to Philip and said Sir we would see Jesus It is in the Greek Master we would see Iesus and Acts 16. 30. The Gaoler came to Paul and Silas and said Sirs that is in Greek Masters what shall c. and they repelled him not in reference to that Title But these Persons alledge Mat. 13. where it is said Be not ye called Masters for you have one Master which is Christ But this Text will stand them in no stead for this word that is translated Masters is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies such Masters as are Duces viae Guides of ones way and Gubernatores vitae Governours of a mans life which is proper to Christ and not to any man For no man doth-it saving instrumentally from and under Christ And Rabbi which was forbidden them also vers 8. is such another Title which carries too much in the signification of it it imports one Teacher who for the abundance of his knowledge is instead of many And the affectation is that which is principally forbidden and the derogating in the coveting of such-Titles from God in that Glory which is due to him who is that Dux viae that Guide of Guides and that Rabbi that one teacher which is more then all But for the Title Master in a civil acception there is neither hurt in giving of it nor in taking of it provided that pride and haughtiness do not occasion it For the Apostle saith in giving honour go one before another Rom. 12. 10. And we know that he justifieth the Title of Master in all such who have others to serve them and gives direction unto them how they ought to deport themselves towards those who are their servants But these persons may better be born with if they destroy Titles who destroy Relations themselves which founded them Concerning chief places in the Assemblies except the Pulpit be the chief place which the great ones covet not I know nothing of the cause of this charge but do account it a meet slander Querie 19. Whether a man shall ever grow up that he need no man teach him under your Ministry yea or no seeing the Apostle saith you need no man teach you and you which have been long Teachers how many have you brought up into this Condition Answ Persons may grow up under the teaching of such a Ministery as is among us to need no man to teach them in the sense in which the Apostle understands it they may be brought to the knowledge of all the great truths of the Gospel and may come to understand many of the high and deep things of Scripture they may also come to be much confirmed and established therein so that in a comparative sense they may not need Teachers not that they are absolutely perfect in knowledge but that they know very much and are able to teach others also and of this we have some experience But in the sense in which these persons understand it for they intend such a perfection in knowledge as excludes all ignorance and all humane helps for any
Dear friend Christian I have sent you a little book read it without partiality and you may see deceit discovered My wife desires you to present her service to her Master and Mistress and all the children and her love unto you and all the servants We are both well and our child grows fast As for me as I begun with my dear love unto you all so I end For I dare not complement because it is a Custom of the World Farewell A Copy of an answer to the forementioned Letter written in the name of the Church of Duckenfield now meeting in Stopport and sent unto the wife of Richard Waller for the setling and establishing of her in the faith of Christ being a member of the forementioned Church wherein all such Scriptures which were brought to prove an absolute Perfection and Quaking are Interpreted and the true sense given to them and freed from such corrupt fense for which they are alledged Sister Waller YOu are very precious to us though your miscarriage against God and us hath been very great We are apt to hope that the Lord either hath or will convince you of the sin you committed in your unadvised Marriage Which you so selfwilledly carried on against us And when your heart is kindly humbled we know you will give praise to God and justifie us And then we shall conceive as much can see of joy from your repentance as we have done grief from your sin We cannot yet think otherwise but that you do belong to the Lord And if so he will not suffer you to have rest in any evil way you have gone in till he have made you truly sensible and sorrowfull after a Godly manner which if ever you once manifest to us we shall with as much tenderness own you as in any time heretofore For you are very dear to us and our bowels do very much yearn after you Especially since we heard of a Letter which your husband wrote to Duckenfield which some of us have seen by which we discern what deadly poyson he hath sucked in to the undoing of his poor Soul if God be not very mercifull to him and bring him to Repentance And you also through your nearness of Relation to him are exposed to multiplicity of Temptations to forsake the faith of our Lord Jesus and to turn aside to such Satanical delusions which he is carried away with We do conceive hope that as yet the Lord hath kept you by observing one passage of his Letter which holds out your desire that your service may be presented to your Master and Mistress therein owning the relation they stood in to you and you to them which he declares against making it the worlds way and not Gods Our desire and prayer to God for you shall be that he will yet keep you even to the end And who can tell but that the Lord may bring out a great deal of good to your soul by this evil of your Husbands fearfull apostacy which his Letter holds out God may open your eyes thereby to see your sinfull haste which you made in that Marriage He may humble you for rushing upon it against Counsel he may make you to know that he was angry against you by leaving him to such fearful error of way He hath laid a sore affliction upon you by giving up one so near and dear to you to such fearfull Temptations You have offended God through him and now you must be chastned in him Be awakned be awakned and consider the Lords righteous hand in this matter The person whom you have chosen God seems to have forsaken at least for a time he is become the Devils Captive O fear you and repent you least he also forsake you But we hope better of you and our prayer is that you may be setled and established in the truth We foresee that you will be strongly sollicited He that thought himself bound to tempt persons by his Letters at so great a distance what alluring ways will not he take to cause you to forsake your integrity and to turn aside to such fleshly deceits of Satan take heed you be not bewitched with pretences and quotations of Scripture presented in the Letter there lyes the greatest danger The Devil tempted Christ by telling him that it was written and his Instruments will use the same fleights They will put false Glosses upon Scripture while they deny all senses to be put upon Scripture to deceive themselves and others thereby The Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 3. 16. that some that are unlearned and unstable do wrest Scripture to their own destruction and he doth warn them lest they being led away by the error of the wicked do fall from their own stedfastness by such means And we also do beseech you to beware of this Snare viz of Scripture abused by misconstructions It is a misconstruction when the construction is made to follow the sound of the words though it be never so much repugnant to other Scripture You know that all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim 3 16. And that holy men spake as they were Inspired by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Now God is a God of Truth and the Spirit is a Spirit of Truth and cannot speak contrary things nor contradict himself therefore if there be any seeming contradiction in Scripture taken in the Letter of it we must seek after a right sense by which the seeming contradiction may be removed Your husband produceth many Scriptures to prove an absolute perfection without sin And the first Scripture he mentions is Phil. 3. 15. Let us saith Paul speaking of himself and the Philippians as many as be perfect be thus minded He Collects from hence that the Saints here have such a perfection that excludes all sin Alas poor Creature We thought he had been better acquainted with his own heart But he might have looked a little higher in the Chapter upon ver 12. and have discerned that Paul expresly denies Perfection in reference to himself Not as though I were already perfect saith he Was Paul perfect and yet was he not perfect In the Letter there is a contradiction But Paul speaking by the Spirit of God cannot contradict himself therefore we must look after the sense of the word Perfect It is many time taken for sincere 2 Kings 15. 14. Asa took not away the high places that was his failing Yet his heart was perfect In what sense perfect Was it perfect without sin Not so For it was his sin that the high places were not taken away But perfect that is Upright He did not serve God in pretence but in truth They say we must not give the sense of Scripture but must take it in the Letter but that is contrary to the examples of Scripture Those in Nehemiah 8. 8. read in the Book of the Law and gave the sense and it is necessary sometimes to avoid contradiction which is in the Letter to
and false Accusations Can you give a better sense upon the Scriptures then they are thereby you shew another Spirit then that which did give forth the scriptures For all Scriptures being given forth by the Inspiration of the spirit it is of no private Interpretation nor came not by the will of man O flesh be silent before the Lord who art giving senses and speakest with thy own will wherein thou hast uttered forth thy solly who art unlearned therefore thou art wresting the Scriptures which thou wouldst turn upon the backs of others and the same turns upon thy own back and pate who art giving senses who livest in the corrupt nature and pleadest for it a servant to the Devil maintaining his Kingdom Whereof thou Accusest him being led Captive and thou art led Captive doing the work of the Devil and art a witness against him or them who are in the second Birth and the children of the living God Jacob was a perfect man God saw no iniquity in him Iob was a perfect man And God saw no transgression in Israel and Christ said be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect and the Apostle said see that you stand perfect in the will of God And he that is born of God sinneth not neither can be sin because the seed of God remains in him he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous let no man deceive you with vain words and in that number you shew your selves to be deceiving with vain words and we speak wifdom among them that are perfect saith the Apostle Yet not the wisdom of this world that cometh to nought but in the wisdom of the world thou art witnessing against that which the Apostle justified and hast raised thy self out of that which he was in giving Senses and Meanings upon his words as they painted Serpents did shewing a contrary Spirit then the Apostles had Shewing thy self in the first Birth and not in the second which is perfect Litterally learned but not Spititually that which will own it own without any Witchcraft Sorcery or twining humane inventions or its sence upon the Scripture which all is for Destruction and Fire For to that in thy Conscience do I speak which shall eternally witness for me and before you witness the same Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures you must witness these things in your selves The contradiction is in your selves and a seeming contradiction and not in the Scripture Therefore it is you that look after the sense of the word which cannot own it as it is and so make the contradictions had you the Spirit which Paul had and which gave forth the Scriptures you would not wrest it to your own destruction but the confusion is in your own minds and that is wresting the Scriptures in you and giving senses to it which is for destruction And whereas you speak of Pauls condition I desire you to let Pauls condition and the Saints alone For you know nothing of them but are giving senses upon their words and wresting them being unestablished with his Spirit and his life and the Saints For that mind in you hath nothing at all to do with it The Letter saith that the Saints were compleat in him and is not upright perfect Wherein it shews that you are not compleat in Christ but without in the world giving meaning to his words whereas you speak of giving a particular exposition of every Quotation it is the busie mind which would be exalted So if I should answer to every sense which you have given upon the Scripture from your conceivings I should make fools wise in their conceits which God hath promised he will scatter the proud in their imaginations and there you are and there is your portion Friends Your weakness you have uttered while any one thinks they are perfect they cannot tell but are in the same mind that you are in giving senses upon the Scripture which was given forth by an eternal spirit and you are giving senses upon ir with your external minds and your own imagined wisdom which is from below you utter it forth for it denies perfection and while your minds stand in imitation there is an Image in your minds which sets something up in it that neither knows Christ nor the way nor the Scripture Neither can it refolve doubtfull minds But that sense giving upon the Scriptures doth heal up the beast which hath a wound and applies the Scriptures to a wrong nature to your own sense that thereby many are led blind by you and led into doubts and instead of stablishing you unstablish and that is it which keeps so many in sin and from waiting upon Jesus Christ which comes to take away sin Friends here you sit as Judges of the Saints conditions speaking you do not know what of the Gospel of Moses Law of Justification and Sanctification which of these things you know nothing of but are busie minds uttering forth your folly for none of these things can you witness which you speak of not the Law of Moses nor Justification nor Sanctification nor the Gospel not in the inward man but in the Notion he that is sanctified is justified and witnessed and where it is not it is babled and disputed upon as you do giving your own imaginations and senses upon it which leads into temptations from God both your selves and others By one offering he hath for ever perfected them that are Sanctified Friends give over your babling and see which of you can witness this Christ this Sanctification and this Perfection and give over your disputes and rabling and rambling with an unclean mind For the Grace of God teaches to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts Which I do see you know nothing of but in the Notion and the History of it who are Ministers of the Letter Friends see if you be brought to see a Conscience that doth accuse for sin For that you must witness before you witness the Gospel and look within your selves and gad not abroad For that is the woman that abides not in her own house Friends let me ask you one question are you come to the end that you are Teachers of others I believe it will appear with a literal knowledge or have you an infallible judgement to judge of perfection who were perfect and who were not perfect For you make it appear as though you were able to judge but it is with your own sense and dark thoughts and not with the spirit that gave forth the Scriptures who was the Minister of Christ which had it said that they might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus You speak forth your imaginations Is the perfection that is in the Saints but a kind of perfection as you speak of These are your Saints which live in the Imaginations and your Perfection and your Sanctification which is your own sense who wrest the Scripture to your own destruction by one offering he hath for
witness that you are made free from the Law for the Law hath power over a man as long as he lives The Saints that did witness they were made free from the Law by the body of Christ witnessed this quaking and trembling which you with your serpentine wisdom would give senses upon them and despise but he shall not enter into the Kingdom Did not Habbakuks lips tremble and his belly quake And did not the Prophets knees knock together and quake David and Ioh their flesh trembled and so must all proud flesh he laid low and the loftiness of man be brought down and your imaginations and God alone be exalted the power that makes you to quake and tremble is now made manifest which you know not for if you did you would not give so many senses upon the Scripture and the same Power is now made manifest as ever was praised be the Lord for ever As they that saw the outside of the Vision as you speak so you see the outside of the Letter and would flie from them who have the power of the Letter as Daniel had so you see the outside but not the inside as Daniel did if you did you would not utter forth your solly ignorance and weakness the same Christ they do witness to be made manifest that makes proud flesh to tremble and the same operation and death to be brought conformable to Christ they witness but this power working in them as thou sayest thou knowest not and whereof you speak that you know them whom God spake to by Angels and Visions whom he wrought wonders by but only by a history-knowledge by Paper and Ink and there you shew your selves to be lyars for them whom you do accuse which you call Quakers the wonderous Works of the Lord are made manifest among them though that Christ wrought Miracles among the people yet they said he did it by Belzebub the Prince of Devils and thou shewest thy self to be in the same Adulterous Generation that the Scribes and Pharisees were which would have a sign or a wonder but there in none shall be shewed to thee but the sign of Jonas for an adulterous Generation seeks for a sign and there thou art Friends you say there is nothing in all the Scriptures makes out of the people meeting together as concerning trembling did not the Corinthians tremble when Titus came to preach among them and did not the Assemblies that came to Ezra tremble there is nothing in your minds of God born up in your understandings to judge withall so in your'own conceits you are satisfied and doth not the Lord say I will shake all Nations and let all the Inhabitants of the Earth tremble so ye shew forth the ignorance of the form for the power of it you cannot own nor believe where it is operating and working Friends you have uttered forth many lyes and slanders and scandalous speeches lay your hands upon your mouths blush and be a shamed who art in Cains nature murdering the righteous ones in your hearts and spewing forth your venome against a harmless people was it not the practice of the Saints to wait alone upon God for counsel for wisdom for grace and for the Spirit and being guided by the light of God they waited upon God and the Apostle exhorts them that they should take heed to the light within them until the day dawn and the day-Star arise in their hearts and no Prophesie of the Scripture came by the Will of man so it was of no private Interpretation but Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost this moving you speak not from neither know therefore as dogs fnarle and bite them who are guided by the same Spirit and wait for the same Spirit by which we have unity with them in the same Spirit and you shew your selves to be in the number of them who use their tongues and say he saith when saith the Lord I never spoke to them but you speak a vain divinatition of your own brain and not from the mouth of the Lord gathering your selves together against the Lord and against his annointed but I am satisfied that I see your folly and weakness uttered forth which doth blind many but God is raising up a light which will discover you the Doctrine of God they own but your Doctrine which is of man they deny And if these be your Ordinances which you speak of as sprinkling Infants and telling people of a Sacrament these we deny for God never commanded them and if you draw people to these things which God never commanded you bewitch them for the Galathians were bewitched which were drawn to act these things God had not commanded when the substance was come so you do bewitch them to follow your Traditions from the sight of God within them And as touching Magistrates you are false accusers which the Scripture speaks of which have the form and not the power For all who are brought into the Truth do labour with singleness of heart unto God and not with eye-service and their souls are subject to the power of God and Justice they own and honour in their soul which cuts down filthiness and corruptions which are alive in you which makes you to give forth so many false accusations upon a harmless people who wait for the restoring of the Kingdom and the overturning the World and the Kingdoms of it and the Image of the Devil defaced in man and the Image of God renewed in Righteousness and man brought into his being from whence he was fallen and so you are yet under the dominion of Satan judging truth errour and blasphemy as ever they did which had the form and not the power in whose steps you walk seeing you have uttered forth your folly so and filthiness and call your selves the Church of Christ his Church is not a sinful Church for that you stand up for but his Church which he hath purchased with his blood is without spot or wrinkle or any such and yours is but an imitation therefore slander not the Church of Christ as they which say they are Iews and are not but are Synagogues of Satan and there you are I charge you by the Lord that you read this among all your Churches as you call it and as you will answer it before the Lord for to that in your Conscience do I speak From some Friends in the Truth whom the World calls Quakers in Lancashire Annotations upon this Reply and an Extraction of the unsavory passages contained in it THe greatest part of this Reply contains nothing but reproachfull and villifying expressions and is extremly censorious of us as of persons who have nothing but darkness in us and is self-magnifying as conceiving themselves onely in the light and having themselves and they onely the spirit And some small part of it makes mention of the very self same Scriptures which Richard Wallers Letter doth contain and of some few
more of like nature But there is scarce the shew of an answer to any thing in ours though it be very large and tedious Some of the un-favory and un-Christian expressions I have gathered out and presented to publike view that all persons that have to do with them may know what scurrilous language they may expect instead of an Answer I find many busie minds giving senses upon Scripture O flesh be silent before the Lord who art giving senses Who speaks with thine own will Thou hast uttered forth thy folly Who are unlearned therefore thou art wresting the Scriptures The same turns upon their own back and pate Thou livest in corrupt nature and pleadest for it A servant to the Devil maintaining his Kingdom Thou art led Captive doing the work of the Devil Thou art a witness against him and them who are in the second birth Thou art deceiving with vain words In the wisdom of the world thou art Shewing a contrary spirit to the Apostle Shewing thy self in the first birth and not in the second Litterally learned but not spiritually Had you the Spirit you would not wrest Scripture to your own destruction The confusion is in your own minds Let Pauls condition alone for you know nothing of it You are not compleat in Christ but without in the world It is the busie mind that would be exalted If I should answer to every sense you give I should make fools wise God will scatter the proud and there you are and there is your portion Your exernal mind and imagined wisdom which is from below There is an Image in your mind which neither knows Christ nor the way nor the Scripture That sense giving heals up the beast that hath a wound Here you sit as Judges of the Saints conditions speaking you do not know what of the Gospel of Moses of the Law of Justification of Sanctification Of these ye know nothing but have busie minds uttering forth your folly None of these can you witness to not the Law not Moses not Justification not Sanctification not the Gospel in the inward man but in the Notion It is babled and disputed upon as you do Friends give over your babling Give over your disputing and rabling and rambling with an unclean mind Look to your selves and gad not abroad for that is the woman thae abides not in her own house Paul did not tell you these words but you are thieves and steal his words You live in that nature by whom offences come But here you are not in this light nor can witness this blood nor the confession of your sin You are in the Generation of the Pharisees contending against Christ Children of the Devil and in that Generation are ye pleading for sin and not for faith You have one of the beasts colours of profession You appear beautifull as every harlet doth None in your Church and Generation can bridle his tongue Herein thou shewst thy self and thy Religion to be vain You are evil beasts and slow bellies You are Blinded Fogged Misted with the corruptions of a dark mind You are liars which would draw somthing out of Johns words Here you stand up for the Devils Kingdom You have uttered forth your folly without knowledge The world by wisdom knows not God and there are you You are in the same nature who justifie them who are for condemnation The earth within is that which pleads for the Devils Kingdom Thou shewest thy self to be of the same Adulterous Generation of the Scribes and Pharises You have uttered forth many lyes and slanders and scandalous speeches You are in Cains nature murthering the righteous one You are spewing forth your venom against an harmless people As dogs ye snarl and bite them that are guided by the Spirit of God You speak a vain divination You are yet under the dominion of Satan You have uttered forth your folly and filthiness They that say they are Iews and are not but are of the Synagogue of Satan there are you This is some of that mire and dirt which as the Sea they cast up against us meerly for the cause of that Letter which we sent to one of their wives who stood related to us But this is not all for the whole Reply consists of such kind of Language save that here and there there is some small intermixture of some Scriptures produced for the Justification of Perfection anh Quaking which I see no cause to return any further answer to because the answer that is already given in the Letter that we sent which is now presented to publike view may be equally applied to such Scriptures which are here added as to those other Scriptures which I met with before and will remain in like force These are the persons who alone pretend to the Spirit and to the second birth and do not onely lay us but all the Saints in all the World under the condemnation of such who have not the spirit and are in the first birth and not in the second But what spirit it is that Dwells and Acts and Rules in them doth appear from their expressions for their speech bewraies them These things have I presented for this end and purpose to obstruct their way and stop their further proceedings that by their impostures they may pevail no longer If God shall be pleased to give his blessing to my endeavors herein it will be a good reward of my labors however I have discharged my duty and shall have peace in that There was a paper given unto me containing the confession of Iohn Gilpin a Quaker Which is now printed for publike view that all may take notice what spirit it is that possesseth these persons and may fear and tremble at Gods just Judgements who delivers up them to Satan who cast off him FINIS There is lately Printed and sold by Thomas Brewster at the three Bible in Pauls Church-yard near the West and these Books viz. A discovery of Mystical Antichrist Displaying Christs Banners but attempting to lay waste Scriptures Churches Christ Faith Hope c. Containing an examination of the Doctrines and ways of the Quakers in York-shirie Written by John Pomroy Pa. Glissen Ioseph Kellet Milk for Babes in Christ or Meditations Observations and Experiences Divers Cases of Conscience Resolved c. by M. Fynch Preacher of the Gospel in Lincoln-shire Sions glory Discovered in the Churches and Ordinances before the fulness of the Iews come in by I. Prowd Three Treatises 1. A Discovery of the unsupportable burthen of sin 2. The Resolution of a soul to return to God that is sensible of his withdrawings 3. The Entertainment that such meet within their returnings by P. Hobson The Resurrection of the Witnesses and Englands fall from Rome by M. Cary. Refractoria Disputatio Or the Thwarting Conference In a Discouse between different Interests Disputing about the Dissolution of the late Parliament and other Changes of State A stop to the mad multitude being an Answer to a scurrilous book published against the peace of this Commonwealth Entituled The Grand Politick Informer A Description of Ierusalem as it flourished in Christs time With a large Map Explaining 268. places therein and in the Suburbs thereof shewing the several places of the Acts and sufferings of Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles As also of the Kings and Prophets c. Also seven general Rules for expounding Scriptures that speak of Christs coming and Kingdom and calling the Iews by H. Jessey Vindicae Justificationis Gratuitae Justification without conditions or the free Justification of a sinner and the absoluteness of the New Covenant Explained Confirmed and Vindicated from the Exceptions Objections c. Cast upon it by the asserters of conditional Justification viz. Mr. Baxter Mr. Woodbridge Mr. Cranford By W. Eyre Minister of the Gospel and Pastor of a Church at New-Sarum