Rule and Controversie on foot were manifestly implyed especially when I made no Advantage to my self by it But every such little thing must be called by a hard Name or John Faldo would have little to write and but a few to believe his Books But to the Point avoiding many Occasions for severe Reflection Perhaps he grants us what we can desire For upon my asserting that what was and is more general then the Scriptures is most properly the General Rule he replies Rep. I never affirmed them to be a general Rule nor is it that I charge the Quakers for denying but I charge them with denying them to be any Rule at all of Faith and Life he mistakes the Question and yields my Charge to be their Principle and pleads for it p. 54. Rejoyn If that be not the Question how have I granted the Question Do I plead for his Charge because I plead against the Scriptures being the General Rule p. 54. which he sayes is no part of the Charge and what himself undertakes not to contradict But sure I am if the Scriptures be not the General Rule as he implies and thereby cuts his own Throat and grants to the Quakers the Question as largely as needs to be They are not The Rule by way of Excellency or the Rule by which God's People in all Ages have walked for that was and is General So that the Scripture upon his own Concession is but a particular Rule and therefore must be subservient to the Spirit who is the great Evangelical Rule as are many other Instruments that have been made use of upon several Occasions He might have learn'd thus much in p. 53. of my Answer where I say that we acknowledge the Scriptures to contain many Holy Rules for Godliness I would know of him how that could be and yet deny them to be a Rule in any sense But we have good Reason to deny them to be the Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversies who can neither give nor govern Faith nor Judge of Controversies as the many different Perswasions in the World fully prove for then all that have the Scriptures would be of one Perswasion as it is most certain those are who have and walk by the One Spirit VVherefore since the Scriptures themselves testifie to the Spirit as the great Judge Rule and Leader especially under the New Covenant where the Law is not written on Tables of Stone much less Paper but of Flesh to wit the Hearts of the Sons and Daughters of Men the Spirit and not the Scripture must be the Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversie In short The Scripture cannot try a present Motion or Prophecy Bad Spirits are wholely hid from it For Instance Paul reproved not the Spirit that cryed These are the Servants of the Most High God that shew unto us the VVay of Eternal Life from the Scriptures neither did Peter Deceitful Ananias but from the heavenly Instinct and Savour Relish or Discerning they received from the Spirit of God within them 'T was in a Case of such Difficulty that some in these late Times have writ That the Scripture gave no general standing Rule for all particular Cases in fleeing or standing in Times of Persecution but that it was the Frame of the Spirits of the People of God to retire at that season which whether it be true or false that the Spirit of God did so influence them two things are undeniable first That it was the Frame of their Spirits witness their Practice secondly That the Scripture was not sufficient for them to square themselves by on that Occasion And what else do Professors mean when they advise People to seek the Lord in this or the other Case why do they not go seek the Scriptures rather Doth not such a Practice manifestly detect the Scriptures of Insufficiency and evidently prove their Acknowledgment both of Revelation and their Recourse to a more Living Spiritual Immediate and Sufficient Rule VVhy else do they seek God's Mind say they by Prayers not formal but by the Spirit But this is become despised Heresie with J. Faldo For Faith in his Sense rises no higher then so many Articles laid down suppose truly according to the bare Letter of the Scriptures which the Devil can believe as well as he This Faith I call meerly Verbal and Historical of which the Scripture may be a Rule but not of Saving Faith for of that Faith only the Spirit can be the Rule and why because the Spirit of God alone reveals him to the Soul who is the Object of Faith and works Faith in the Soul upon that Object and as this only begets Faith so it increases enlivens rules governs and strengthens Faith unto Dominion This alone unfolds those Mysteries spoak of in the Scriptures Wherefore answered the Eunuch unto Philip when he queried Understandest thou what thou readest How should I unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had a guide as sayes our old English Translation which implies That the things declared of by the Scriptures are not to be understood from the Scriptures but a more Living Spiritual and Certain Guide Wherefore we affirm That Repentance Faith Sanctification Justification Redemption Regeneration c. are all a Mystery never to be disclosed but by the Revelation and Operation of the Spirit of God in Man the Scripture can only testfie to such things that they are but it is the Spirit alone that works them and illuminates guides governs and rules the Soul in and about such things 'T is true all the Spirit leads to is according to the Scriptures it overturns them not for they declare of most of these Operations yet because we believe know and witness them from the Conviction and Operation of the Spirit before we can possibly understand them in Scripture therefore the Scripture is but a Declaration and not the Rule of Faith c. And the only best way to determine any Controversie on foot about Repentance Faith Sanctification Justification c. is the Judgment of that Spirit which works them For how can the Scripture that has so many Meanings put upon it determine which of those meanings is the true Let them shew me that Scripture that plainly and uninterpretatedly tells me such a Proposition is True and such a one is False that consists only of their additional Meanings such a new Nick-named People right and such wrong and they do their Business if they cannot as it is impossible they should they must have recourse to something else to rule determine and what can that be besides that Eternal Spirit which worked the true Faith and ruled the holy Life of those Ancients who gave forth this Declaration of Faith and Life Can any Man tâ—ll another's Mind better then himself or resolve any Doubt or clear up any Mis-understanding concerning what is delivered better then he that spoak it To understand those holy Men's Mind and disprove them that mistake it
Coherence in Matter and Intelligibleness of Language to all Nations which may render them such a Rule Besides it is more then probable that much of the Writings of the New Testament are lost from Luke ' s Word 's in the beginning of his History where he tells us that he was but ONE OF THE MANY who did set forth a Declaration of those things which were most surely believed amongst them even sayes he as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word For it must be considered when Luke writ his Narrative that John's History was not in being and some will have it that Luke wrote before Mark But whether it be so or no certain it is that Mark and Matthew could not make up those many that took that Work in hand neither can we think he should call Matthew and Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie with the Athenians a Multitude for a certain Learned Man will have it That no better Greek was spoken then that wherein Luke wrote his History That those Narratives were not Apocriphal but at least of equal Authority with his dedicated to Theophilus his own words tell us For those that writ were such as related what they received from Eye-witnesses and the first Ministers of the VVord Besides which there were in the Apostles Age and the two following Centuries several Writings reputed genuine which either dyed out of the World through that Neglect brought upon them by the Advantage some accounted Hereticks might make of them in Defence of their Opinions or stifled by the subtilty of the Romish Church being more expresly opposite to her growing Superstition and Grandeur And for such Writings as still remain among us methinks it should not be unknown to a Man of J. Faldo's Pretences to Learning how much the Authority of several of them has been questioned by some and exploded by others though never by any of us particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of James second and third of John second of Peter Jude the Revelations and with some Matthew's History it self has not escaped the like Censure Of which Reader thou hast an Account at large in that Notable French-Man Dallaeus De usa Patrum and a late Discourse mainly directed against the Roman Church entituled Christoph Christophori Sandy Nucleas Historiae Ecclesiasticae I would not any from hence should repute me so Impious as to endeavour to weaken the Testimony of Scripture or beget any the least Doubt of the Doctrine thereby declared only upon our Adversary's Principles which so strongly oppugn'd the Doctrine of Revelation or Inspiration I must take leave to conclude in his Name and upon his Principles that the VVord of God is imperfect and a great part of the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie is lost and that he has no more Reason to believe the Truth of those great things related in that part of the Scriptures yet remaining then any Legend at Rome For exclude Revelation and what Ground has he for his Faith besides Tradition and what Evidence can he give us upon his Principles of the Truth of the former and Falshood of the latter These Councils and Synods who collected and canonized them he accepts for one part and rejects for the other Again he trusts their Judgment in picking and chusing and yet rejects their Interpretation as if it were not so difficult to relish Genuine from Spurious Scriptures as when rightly discerning them to be such to understand them which is an absolute Contradiction For how should they know true from False and not understand the True That Council which made the Writings of the New Testament Canonical left out the Revelations as Apocriphal yet I hope J. Faldo accepts that as heartily and unquestionably as the rest And that Council which took in the Revelations and made it first Canonical brought in with it the Books of Tobi Judith c. which J. Faldo I suppose with all his Brethren rejects as Apocriphal Thus are meer Men and the Judgments of such Councils as he otherwise rejects his Rule for believing the Scriptures that remain to be Canonical if it be proper to say the first is the Rule of his Canon which is too short and the other which is superfluous as by his Account My next Question is What was his Rule for believing those Councils I am sure he must have been without all other then a Willingness to believe so because they said so which how like this is to his Papist unto whom he would resemble us let all sober Protestants consider I cannot see how he is able to oppugn any thing they say upon Tradition who mounts no higher for his Assurance then Tradition and such too as rests mostly within their Hands But if it shall be granted us that to know Scripture to have been given forth upon Inspiration Men must have Recourse to Inspiration then not so much Councils and Synods as the Inspiration of the Almighty which gives certain Understanding is our Rule in the Case as well saith the Assembly of Divines in their Confession of Faith chap. 1. § 4. The Authority of the holy Scripture for which it ougâ—t to be believ'd and obeyed depends not on the Testimony of any man or Church but only upon God who is Truth it self the Author thereof And since J. Faldo himself confesseth the Spirit necessary to the Vnderstanding of the Scripture which implies the Insufficiency of the Scripture to give that Understanding of it self the Spirit must be the Rule of our Vnderstanding the Scripture as it was before the Rule of our Faith concerning the Divine Authority of Scripture For the Light of the Interpreter and not the Thing interpreted is the Rule both of Faith and Practice which is undeniably evident from the reconciling of seeming Contradictions If the meer Letter of the Scripture were to be followed no Man could ever make them meet in the same Truth The many Different Perswasions at this Day about Religion prove this whose respective Authors and Abettors think it no mean Advantage to their Cause that they hold the Scriptures to be their Rule But such as come unto the Spirit of God know and believe the Truth as it is in Jesus David ' s Key that opens and none shuts is given unto them and the Secrets of their God remain with them This reconciles those seeming Contradictions and leads through the Greatest and Deepest Truths mentioned in Scripture without the least Doubt or Stumble This is the Super-excellent Benefit of the New-Covenant Administration the Promise of the Father the Instructer Leader and Comforter of all God's Children And for a further Account of which I refer the Reader to my Book entituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated from pag. 16. to pag. 47. and Reason against Railing from pag. 24. to pag. 46. To prove his former Charge he produces this Passage out of James Naylor
believe great and good things of them and that from no less Evidence then the Eternal Word that gave them forth which hath oftentimes given my Soul a deep Savour of those blessed Truths it declares of only we cannot allow them to be The Word though the Words of God and the rather forasmuch as we see the great and general Neglect that People are guilty of towards that Living Powerful Regenerating Word of Life by whom alone all right Knowledge and lasting Peace is derived to the Soul of Man through this Apprehension that in having the Writings they have the Word of God and therefore look no farther the very State of the professing Jews of old who thought better of the Scriptures then of Christ believing to have Life in them at what time they crucified the Lord of Life and Glory From whose Proceedings we learn thus much That the worst Enemies to the invisible Word of Life may carry the greatest seeming Respect to and bestow the highest Titles upon the Scriptures that were given forth from it In short It was when Men turned from the Power of Godliness to the Form only that they did Canonize and lay so vast a Stress upon them In the first and second hundred years after Christ they were so scattered that very few had all of them and it is not unreasonable for us to believe that many had none of them especially those of the New Testament Were they therefore without the Word of God and a sufficient Rule for Faith and Practice Surely not It was an Administration of Life and Power of writing the Law in the Heart and putting the Spirit in the inward Parts From whence came that Christian Answer to the Heathen concerning Swearing Fighting such contra-Evangelical Practices They could not do so because of God in their Consciences At that time of Day the Anoâ—nting led them into all Truth But in process of time when Christians grew Careless and Worldly whereby they lost the Power of Godliness then they began to set up an outward pompous Religion ascribing that to the Letter and Form which was only due to the Spirit and Power And as thus entered the Apostacy into the World so where Men are not turned and conformed to that eternal Spirit and divine immortal Power the Apostacy still remains And our End in pressing People unto the Eternal Word of Life is that they may be brought out of Death and Darkness which the Scriptures can never do They are a Declaration and Testimony of Heavenly Things but not the Heavenly Things themselves and as such we carry an high Respect unto them We accept them as the Words of God himself and by the Assistance of his Spirit they are read with great Instruction and Comfort I esteem them the best of Writings and desire nothing more frequently then that I may lead the Life they exhort to and whatever sleight Apprehensions my disingenuous Adversary is pleas'd to have of these kind of Acknowledgments I write the naked Truth of my Heart knowing I must give an Account to God CHAP. IV. His Pretence of our Equalling our own Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures VVIthout any flourishing Reflections most commonly the Head and Tail and sometimes Middle too of my Adversary's Reply I shall lay down his words Rep. The Means I used for confirming the first part of this Charge were two First Their pretending them to be from Immediate Inspiration This he is so far from denying that he pleads for it but after such a rude impertinent manner that I should but injure you and shew my self Idle to transscribe and animadvert upon it Rejoyn How rude and impertinent a manner I pleaded for it the Reader may best judge by perusing something of the Passage For Inspiration the Scriptures are not more express in any one thing No man can know the things of God by the bare Spirit of a Man The Scriptures are a sealed Book to all but those who know them by the same Hand that originally gave them so that however common they may be in the World they are Strangers to them that understand them not And though Old respecting the Time when they were revealed to the Saints yet New to every Age. So that we assert not a Revelation of New Things but a renewed Revelation of those Things God made former Ages Witnesses of otherwise men are no more benefitted by them And to be benefitted they must be made ours by the Spirit which made them the Holy Ancients In short No Man can understand Spiritnal Things but the spiritually Discerning nor can he so be without the Inspiration of the Almighty This is Scripture Now the Author of those Queries and J. Faldo also denying Inspiration they consequently deny themselves to be spiritually Discerning And for Men not spiritual to judge of spiritual Matters much 〈◊〉 to write of them and bid their Writings go and throwdown Self-will and exalt the Truth is Vain and Idolatrous For the Scriptures themselves considered meerly as such are unable much less Writings founded on Self-Will For it s the alone Priviledge of God's Power and Spirit and no writing whatever distinct from it can perform that Great and Mighty Work in Man Now as Rude and Impertinent as this Answer may be in John Faldo's Eyes his Reply has not afforded me Light enough to see it He would prove us guilty of holding Inspiration as if to do so were a Crime From a Passage of John Story 's who rejected certain Queries exhibited against the Quakers because meerly grounded upon the Author's Imagination of certain Passages in Scripture and not any certain Knowledge or Experience received from the Revelation of the Spirit It must be left to the Reader to judge how pertinently I returned upon my Adversary Sure I am that Self-willed Queries can never throw down Self-will And to urge Scripture not experienced is to steal the words of Truth from our Neighbour Inspiration was in request after Scriptures were in the World And indeed are unintelligible without it The New Birth is never the more known for Christ's Saying to Necodemus though thereby we are taught that without it no man shall enter into the Kingdom of God It is the Spirit alone that reveals the Mysteries of Regeneration therefore to deny Inspiration or Revelation is to overthrow the only and Evangelical Way to divine Knowledge Erasmus himself could tell us What Men set forth by Man's Device may be perceived by Man's Wit But the thing that is set forth by the Inspiration of the holy Ghost requireth an Interpreter inspired with the like Spirit And without the Inspiration of it the Secrets of God cannot be known which is also the substance of the fourth Article exhibited against the Lutherans in the Council of Trent as an erroneous Doctrine they held That to understand the Scripture neither Gloss nor Comment is necessary but only to have the Spirit of a Sheep of Christ's Pasture Vetablus
preach you the Truth or no and send me word what they say that I may learn to speak after them If they say they be Sure ye know what followeth If they say they be Vnsure when shall ye be sure that have so doubtful and unsure Teachers Thus much of Infallibility when he has answer'd this we may give him some more mean time we shall proceed Rep. But further sayes W. P. Cannot one Man be another Man's Brother and not the Eldest Brother This hath done your Work or all Hope is lost It seems the Scriptures and your Writings may without Offience call one another Brother yet not be thought to aspire to Equallity But why Because for sooth you do not say they are the Scriptures Elder Brother I thought till now that Brethren had been a term of Equallity And though in Humane Births there is a Natural Right to the First-born above the Rest yet not in the Productions of Scripture for the new Excelleth the old Testament in Glory Rejoyn In Similes there is some Allowance with honest Men but none to be hoped for from J. Faldo But if it be so hard for him to bear I cannot help it Several Writings may be given forth from the same Spirit without coming upon the Vy If we must needs equaâ— some of our Writings to the Scriptures because given forth by the same Spirit then must every the least True Christian be equal to the greatest Apostle because indued with the same Spirit The Pouring forth of the Spirit which was the Promise of the Father we have proved the very Substance of the Gospel and Inspiration as necessary as divine Knowledge because the only Way to it Whatever therefore hath been writ from Adam's day to this or shall yet be to the End of the World from the Motion of God's Spirit in the Hearts of any of his Children stands as nearly related to the Scriptures as his several Manifestations of his Spirit in his Servants Writing The Ancient Christians were Brethren having one Father Were they therefore equally dignified in Degree of Fellowship And that was the Meaning of my former Simile disingenuously taken by my Adversary For as there is a Degree in natural so in spiritual Births The Dignity of the first lies in Priority of Time the Dignity of the last in a more full Discovery of Immortality and eternal Life Thus the Scriptures of the New exceed those of the Old Testament Where there is the first and most ample Declaration there must be the Preheminence Now alas what can we boast of that was not formerly testified unto we exalt no singular Spirit neither walk we in an untroden Path 't is the Everlasting Gospel we bear witness unto and to the Revival and Breakin gs forth of that ancient Life Truth Spirit and Power which according unto divers Dispensations hath made People true Children of God What do you esteem your own Meanings and Interpretations Do you not intitle them to a very near relation the Text interpreted We never intended to bring our Writings upon the Vye and dispute with it the Scriptures for the Preheminence But our Writings further declaring of the same Truth from the same Spirit are related to them If to testifie and exhort to the same Truth the Scriptures declare of and that in the same Spirit of Christ by which they were given forth be offensively to equal or prefer such Testimonies we are indeed guilty of great Presumption But if it be Scripturally True That as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and that such as so led may by that Spirit further be drawn forth to fresh Testimonies to any ancient Truth or Truths declared of in the holy Scriptures whether by way of Prophecy Information Exhortation Reproof or Comfort to Believer or Unbeliever as must not be denyed since God cannot be limited it cannot be Presumptuous or Arrogant to affirm any Kindred or Relation between any such Writing or Wrirings of the Scriptures of Truth In short Either there are never to be more Inspiration after the Apostles Decease and consequently no more Testimonies nor Prophecies to be then what the remaining Scriptures give us or the Pouring out of the holy Ghost belongs as well to after Ages as to that as hath been abundantly proved and therefore fresh Testimonies and Prophesies by way of further opening or pressing the ancient Truth recorded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament may in after Ages be given forth unless God and his Spirit should be limited and many parts of the Scripture remain unfulfilled If any shall object 'T is Adding according to Revel 22. 18. I would have them know that the Addition intended was not of other Writings but other Doctrines I will conclude this with a very notable Passage delivered in a Book entituled An Examen of the late Assembly of Divines Confession of Faith presented to the Parliament Anno 165â— pag. 8 10. It is evident that the Lord will have Prophets in all Ages especially when he is about to bring extraordinary Judgments upon the World in general and upon the Church is special and that the Last Times shall abound most of all with the Prophetical Spirit So that these extraordinary Wayes of God's revealing himself neither are ceased nor shall determine in the militant Church Thirdly whereas you say in the sixth Section that nothing at any time is to be added to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament whether by new Revelations of the Spirit or Traditions of Men We desire to know what Warrant you have thus to determine If you say that in Revelat. 22. 18. it is written That if any Man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book We answer That so much in effect was forbidden long before as Prov. 30. 6. Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a Lyar yet many Books of the Holy Prophets and Apostles have been added since the written Word of those times Yea the same Inhibition was given by Moses Deut. 4. 2. 12. 32. Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it Therefore this Addition thus probibited must necessarily be understood of any new Doctrine in substance differing from the Old but even that of Moses But that there should be a Vindication of the same when mis-understood or a more full and free Publication of the same by the Prophets of the Old Testament or Inspired Men of the New Rep. My Adversary tells me a Blind Story a preferring our Writings above the Scriptures as being from God essentially in us But this saith he P. has not one word to Rejoyn I had little Reason for it He confesseth pag. 43. of his former Discourse that he expected not to find any such word as Essentially in our Authors Doth he think I was to play the
and consequently the Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith for how can any thing be ruled by that which is inferior to it Thus much we get granting to him that the Scriptures are the Word of God in the Text. Now Reader tell me of this Argumentation what has he taken what has he replyed to Yet this man is deem'd worthy by the Professors of our Times to act the Tertullus against the poor Quakers For those words The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God I told him then We rejected his Gloss for the spiritual Sword as he sayes Beza renders it must be of the Narure of the rest of the Armour mention'd in that Chapter that is invisible and Spiritual which the Bible or meer VVritings we know are not To which let me add that I know no Reason why the Shield of Faith should be preferred before the Sword of the spirit unless it be because that 's in the Verse before this if we consider them in an abstract Sense or as they are in themselves For Above all is not a preferring the Shield of Faith in Dignity before the Sword of the Spirit respecting their own Nature and Quality but with regard to the Creature For if Vnbelief enters how can the Loins be girt with Truth the Breast arm'd with Righteousness the Feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace the Head covered with the Helmtt of Salvation or the Enemy encounter'd with the Sword of the Spirit So that respecting Man not respecting the Dignity of the several parts of the Armour Faith is above all or first necessary for though God Christ the Holy Spirit Eternal Salvation be all or either of them greater then Faith as in themselves yet without Faith no interest can be had in them Wherefore our Adversary's Preference vanisheth and his Consequence about the Scriptures being the VVord of God falls to the Ground Concerning Christ's Answer to the Devil It is written it is written I shall desire the Reader to observe in my Adversary's Reply what of my Answer he trans-scribes which I gave to the use he made of that Scripture and what sort of Treatment he affords me These are his words Rep. Once more and I have done with this Chapter But said Christ to the Devil It is written VVhat then sayes W. P. Therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any means to resist Temptation pag. 90. You may fear the Man is craz'd or was almost asleep when he wrote this I produced the Example of Christ to prove that the Scripture is a Means for resisting Temptation he resisting so effectually with It s written it s written But Penn would make you believe I intended it to prove that the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be such a Means Can you think such a Man to be sinlest yea Infallible Rejoyn His Froth and Reflection I am no otherwise concern'd at then that it ill becomes a Pretender to Divinity It is enough for me to shew that he has willingly conceal'd my Answer and hath made a Reply as if he had taken in all that was fit to be consider'd my Answer lay thus But said Christ to the Devil It is written VVhat then Therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any Means to resist Temptation Here J. F. leaves me but I go on or rather are they not such Means which I am sure no right Quaker ever deny'd Now Reader mark Besides it was reasonable that Christ should so answer set that Power aside which filled up those words and chain'd Satan because the Devil used Scripture to prevail upon him as the place proves However we deny not but confess that where-ever God is pleased to speak by any place of Scripture to a Tempted Soul it may very well be acknowledg'd to be a Means by which God scatters such Doubts and Despondences and gives Power over Temptations and that it may often so occur yet we would not have People fly to them as what of themselves may be sufficient but rather have Recourse to that Divine Faith which the Scriptures testifie is able to Quench the fiery Darts and which J. F. himself has largely confest is to be preferred above the Scriptures themselves Now I desire the Reader to consider First That he gave not the 10th part of my Answer in any respect 2ly That what of it would have prevented his reflecting upon me he wholy omitted He seems di pleased that I made such a Question upon his citing Christ's words to the Devil as this therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any Means to resist Temptation telling Folks They may fear I was craz'd or a sleep when I wrote it asking If they think such a Man to be sinlest or infallible as thinking it improper to his Quotation and yet would take no notice of these words that were directed immediately to it viz. it was therefore reasonable that Christ should so answer because the Devil used Scripture to prevail upon him the very Answer in his pretended Reply was wanting VVith what Face then can our Adversary over above his other ill words charge me with designing to render him impertinent by making him endeavour to prove that the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be such a Means by the Question I ask'd as if I had wrong'd him that he never intended any such thing through the bent of the Chapter And what can be clearer then that he on purpose avoided the shock and took notice only of that part of my Answer which being torn from the rest he thought fittest for him to play upon But I see no VVrong I did him in so asking what I did for I am sure it was one End for which the Scripture was quoted by him and the Jeers he bestows upon me and it besides his wilful Neglect of the rest of my honest Return and yet complain for want of it when he had done so is a pittiful come off for a Man of his Pretence to Controversie CHAP. IX Not we but our Adversary opposeth the Teachings of the Spirit to the Doctrines of the Scriptures The Testimonies brought by him cleared and delivered from his Application Our Doctrine proved from Scripture and several Testimonies His frequent and gross Perversions of our Words and Writings discovered and justly rebuked VVE are now got to his last Chapter relating to the Scriptures in which he pretends to justifie his Charge by further evidencing a Consistency between it and William Smith's Doctrine which I utterly deny'd to have been William Smith's VVords or Meaning The Charge was That the Quakers put the Spirit of God and the Scriptures in Opposition to each other His Proof of the Charge lies in these words Traditions of Men Earthly Root Darkness and Confusion Apostacy the Whore's Cup the Mark of the Beast Bastards brought forth of Flesh and Blood c. which sayes John Faldo in his first Book would amaze a
as said of the Scriptures out of W. Smith's Book which was one part of my Stress he was willing to shake off but it will not so easily acquit him Observe his Reply Rep. And whereas W. P. saith No such Words can be produced he intends no other but that Smith doth not accuse himself in so many words of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received Rejoyn His first Words belye me nor can any Man be so sottish as to believe I intended any such thing as he would have his Reader believe for that were no Answer to the Objection but an arrant yet fond Cheat and Illusion My Meaning went with my Words and my Words meant as I just now explain'd them the substance of which was in my Answer though evaded by his Reply and perhaps my Rejoynder will meet with no better Usage For his Phrase of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures I will tell him and that upon very good Authority that he now playes the Canter with us and that shamefully The Spirit of God IN the Scriptures a Scripture for that I intreat him You may see what a Doctor he is you that believe in him that thinks he can clasp up the Spirit with his Bible It seems thus far John Faldo and Simon Magus agree for the one thought he could buy it of Peter and the other implies he may have it of his Book-seller Indeed if I thought J. Faldo could believe what he sayes I should be the tenderer of him for Ignorance is to be pittied But when he shall shut the Spirit of God out of Men and shut him up in the Scripture though it call Men the Temples or Tabernacles of God and his Spirit whilst it never calls it self so but Holy Writings or a Declaration of things certainly believed he is to be censur'd for his improper and ambiguous Terms and the rather because his Charity is so small to others in Cases more excusable and that no Man acts the Doctor of the Sentences to others more snappishly and imperiously then himself however I shall be so favourable as to take his Words in this Sense else I know not which way he will turn himself viz. The Spirit of God speaking when it pleaseth by the Scriptures which brings him and his Cause unavoidably over to us But let us see if J. F. can honestly fasten any of those fore-cited Epithetes upon W. Smith's Book If he can we will condemn the Book as heartily as J. F. traduceth us in his But if he shall be found to have wrong'd W. S. God that lives forever will avenge our Innocency upon him which we desire may extend no further then to work him into true Repentance and effectually to vindicate us in the Understandings of the Mis-informed His words are these Rep. But that all that Inventory of execrable Names W. Smith doth intend of the Scriptures and the Holy Doctrines grounded on the Authority of the written Word take these Testimonies John 1. 9. He that is John beheld him and his Glory and felt his Power and what his Power took away then he declared him as he knew him and not from any Tradition or Writing before him why then do teach for Doctrines Men's Traditions running into the Lines of what others have written Morn Watch pag. 6. Rejoyn The Passages from whence the particular Epithetes are taken shall be consider'd anon This is one of those Testimonies he brings to prove he rightly cited and apply'd his former Testimonies out of the same Author which had he intended in reallity he should as well have inserted the one as the other to help such as had not seen his other Book into a true Judgment of this but then may he say I should not make the best of my Case which to do him no Wrong he studies more then the Truth or any thing else next to his making the worst of ours And now Reader that this Proof is as lame as his former and wholely as silent to his Wicked purposes consider I entreat thee the Drift of this Man as his Discourse at large manifests Two things he had in his Eye First to beat People off from the Doctrines and Traditions of Men in the Sense Christ once spoke those words to wit not the Scriptures but Men's humane Interpretations of them with such Forms and Worships as they had invented in the Apostacy from the true Spirit of Christianity as these words by J. F. purposely omitted notwithstanding they lay between the two first Sentences which therefore make an absolute Break though he makes none do undeniably evince to wit VVeigh this Truth all ye Priests and Professors and ponder it in your Hearts have you beheld Christ and seen his Glory Have you felt his Power to take away your sin If yea then why do ye teach for Doctrine Men's Traditions Again pag. 16. For they being from the Life that gave forth Scriptures their Vnderstandings are darkened and they err and know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God Lastly in the 14th page he hath these words All the vain Worships and Customs which People at this day are in who yet abide in Forms and Traditions are all come up since the dayes of the Apostles and are after Men's Traditions and not after Christ And the Conception of all hath been in Man's Imagination and hath been brought forth in his own Will and Wisdom By all which Reader it appears that he distinguisheth between Men's Traditions and God's Tradition For first how can he mean the Scriptures in the first Passage the middle of which our Adversary so wilfully dropt when he implies that from feeling the Power of Christ to take away Sin Men would leave off Teaching for Doctrine the Traditions of Men making them thereby sinful and a Sin to teach them when J. Faldo confesses that upon the Spirit 's moving and giving us the understanding of Scripture we do allow the Doctrines therein deliver'd to be rightly preach'd In the second Passage he undeniably distinguishes between the Scriptures rightly understood and their Mistake of them to whom he wrote Not knowing says he the Scriptures nor the Power of God being darkned which imports that truly to know and teach according to the sense of Holy Scripture is a quite differing thing from Teaching for Doctrine the Traditions of Men. Nor is his third Passage less clear in the Point pag. 14. sinâ—â— he explains what he means by those offensive Words to J. Faldo's Ear by such Customs Worships and Traditions as were not of Christ and that took their rise since the time of the Apostles and proceeded from the Imagination Will and Wisdom of Man therefore not the Writings of either Prophets or Apostles that were before such Apostacy and which were given forth as they were mov'd of the Holy Ghost The second thing greatly in the Author's Eye and with which his Spirit seems to be prest through the
whole Book is this Men ought to teach and preach to others no further then they have a living Sense or Experience of what they so teach or preach that this was his Meaning by those Words Running into the Lines of what others have written hear the following Words in his Defence How dare any of you saith he make mention of his Name or speak of his Glory or of his Power seeing you have not beheld him yet made manifest in your selves Again thus For John testified that the giving forth of the Law was by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. Mark says he Grace and Truth were come unto John by Jesus Christ and he had felt the Vertue of it by which Moses ' s Admistration was fulfilled in him I say Reader his whole scope was to inforce the Necessity of coming into the Enjoyments of the Holy Ancients and an Experiencing of the Truth of those Doctrines they declar'd before Men are fit to teach them unto others And as this is the Tendency of his Words so does holy Scripture strongly warrant the same Particularly Jeremiah and the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians in Jeremiah thus He that hath my Word let him speak my Word faithfully What is the Chaff to the Wheat saith the Lord Is not my Wordlike a FIRE saith the Lord and like a HAMMER that breaketh the Rock in pieces Therefore I am against the Prophets saith the Lord that steal my Word every one from his Neighbour Chap. 23. Vers 28 29 30. The Meaning of which notable place is plainly this Such as have God's Word to declare which is known from all False Pretenders who steal the Word from their Neighbour and then cry he saith as the 31th Verse expresseth by the Resemblance it bears to Fire a thing easily to be felt let them faithfully speak it But those who steal and preach the Word or Testimony that came from the Lord by and through another as if the Lord spake the same by them unto whom the Lord never spoak it such Prophets the Lord is against which strikes J. Faldo dead respecting his Pretence for Preaching who abundantly proves it to be his Belief that such are as Good Ministers as any yea the only Orthodox and the other but a Pack of giddy-headed Enthusiasts The next place is in the Apostle's 2d Epist to the Corinthians Chap. 10. Vers 15 16. Not boasting of things beyond our measure that is of other Men's Labours but having Hope that when your Faith is encreased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our Rule abundantly to preach the Gospel in the Regions beyond you and not to boast in another Man's Line of things made ready to our Hands Of this sort of Boasters is John Faldo who hath nothing for his Religion but the mâ—er Bible and but an usurpt Title to that Reader take notice that all along J. F. hath made no Difference between the Truths the Scriptures truly declare of and Man's dark and unregenerated Conceptions upon Scripture about Truth and Error Thereby confounding that which in it self is most clearly different to the end he may bring all those Blows we give at Men's Traditions and Doctrines which they pretend to be rightly deduced from Scripture but in Reallity are their own Imaginations to bear hard upon the Scriptures themselves and those Doctrines and Traditions that are truly delivered by them which is a wretched begging of the Question that was not about the Scriptures to which he would turn it but his and their way of understanding them as if it were the same thing to decry the Scriptures as to disclaim against J. F.'s false Opinions concerning them But he thinks he has quite done our Business and sav'd himself from the Black Blemish of Forgery by another Testimony produced to the same purpose which is this And reading in the Scriptures that there were some who met together and exhorted one another they observe and do as near as they can what they read of the Saints Practice and so conceive a Birth in the same Womb and bring it forth in the same Strength that others do and in the Ground it differs not W. S. pag. 22. But what of all this J. Faldo Can this Saying rise higher then a Reproof of those who are but in the Form of Godliness whom the Scriptutes exhort us to turn away from But why was he so disingenuous as to refuse us our Friends words at large thereby making People believe that the Imitation reprov'd by W. S. concerns the holy Life and Conversation of the Saints For it s not two Lines before that he tells us expresly what sort of Practice he means when he writes thus And because they Baptists read of some that went into the Water and were baptized they do the same In short The Zeal of his Spirit runs against all Apish Religions and those Persons who take unto themselves the Name and Form they are Strangers to the Nature and Power of being not led by the Eternal Spirit to Worship God but with an Unregenerate Mind and Ambitious Will eagerly rush into those things for which they have neither Commission nor Quallification I could urge several Testimonies out of Authors that neither liv'd nor dy'd in Fellowship with the Quakers as a further Vindication of their Sense in this Particular but Three shall suffice at this time The first is given us by Jo. Canne stiled by Parson Ball an Eminent and Early Presbyter The Leader of the English Brownists or Independents at Amsterdam more then 30 Years ago viz. Labour to Experience the Power and Leading of the Spirit It is very dangerous to rest in any thing that comes from the Creature till you have the Witness of the Spirit which is not fleshly heady or empty but powerful inward and abides and settles the Soul In thy Light shall we see Light and no where else let them pretend never so high Attainments A Knock to J. Faldo The second is a Passage in W. Dell's Tryal of Spirits writ as I take it while he was Master of Cains Colledge in Cambrige They says he who want Christ's Spirit which is the Spirit of Prophecy though they preach the EXACT LETTER of the Word yet are FALSE PROPHETS and not to be heard by the Sheep And one Reason among many for this Assertion was this Under the New Testament we are not to regard the Letter without the Spirit but the Spirit as well as the Letter yea the Spirit more then the Letter And therefore Paul saith That Christ shall destroy Antichrist with the Spirit of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming He scarce saith this Author takes any notice of the Letter but calls the true Preaching of the Gospel the Spirit of Christ's Mouth or the Ministration of the Spirit His next Reason is this They that preach only the outward Letter of the Word without the true Spirit they make all things outward in the
chosen by Man though he be thereto disposed by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture W. P. This is False Many things may be and are daily chosen by Man that is not in the Will of the Flesh nor by his own Will much less when any should be disposed thereto by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture An Abominable Untruth and so Notorious that I need say no more only Challenge him to produce any of us that is any of our Sayings or VVritings in Proof of his Exposition if he can otherwise be hath Slandered Us and Our Principles For the Wâ—ll of the Flesh is that which is quite Contrary to God and inconsistent with the Good of the Creature How well he hath acquitted himself in point of Honesty as well as Ability first in so maiming my Answer and next in saying nothing to it is still referred to my Reader 's Judgment and so we proceed Reply pag. 92. The second is pag. 249. CHRIST THE OFFERING i. e. the Light within W. P. calls this no Quakers Expression that it is take this Proof We believe that Christ in us doth offer himself up a Living Sacrifice to God for us Smith Cat. pag. 64. Rejoynder I still say it is no Quaker's Expression Though the Light that shineth in our Hearts be Christ the true Light But that which I most insisted on he hath as he useth to do quite left out viz. for he would by this insinuate that we deny Christ to be an Offering as in the Flesh and that Body then offered up to be concerned in our Belief of the Offering but I do declare it to have been an Holy Offering and such an one too as was to be once for all therefore let none receive his Abuse of us for our Faith He that hath half an Eye may see how poorly and meanly he hath shifted off the Weight of my Answer Again Reply p. 92. The third MEN-PLEASERS Sense They who comply with Men though in things not only Lawful but also to Edification This W. P. calls an arrant Lye but the ground is provided J. F. meaneth by Lawful unto Edification what we do I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth Rejoynder Indeed I never took him to be so Silly as Mischievous in the Matter not to use his own Phrase more then Ignoramus for instead of putting Bonds on the Truth he hath broken all Bonds of Truth he pretends to give our Sense of Men-Pleasers and substitutes his own in the room of it and when we tell him that if he means by Lawful and to Edification what we do he belies us he confidently replies I am not so silly to put such Bonds on the Truth as if in rendring our Sense of words he were not bound to keep to our Sense of them how is it our Sense if it be his and not ours and how truly ours if it be putting Bonds on the Truth to render ours truly But the Man's present Hardiness is beyond wondring at To the next Reply p. 92. TRADITIONS OF MEN i. e. The Scripture or written Word p. 250. To this W. P. adds But to say they are the Traditions of Men in the sense Christ forbid the Pharisaical Religion God forbid I had rather my Tongue were cut out of my Head Oh base Man to abuse an Innocent People thus grosly I have already proved the Phrase to be the Quakers viz. Smith ' s and Nailor ' s. Rejoynder This answers it self if he had taken off the Force of my Words I might have bestowed a Rejoynder upon him in the mean time I have disproved his pretended Proof where I met with it and what I find here is but a meer begging of the Question The fifth and last Particular he thus endeavours to vindicate is this Reply p. 93. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM p. 251. Their Sense I give of this he presents the greater half of which explains the other by an c. to blind the Reader and make the Quakers believe I deserve the Imputations of Malice and wicked Man which it seems he is resolved afore hand to bestow on me Rejoynder The Man is weary of his Work as we may see by the great haste he makes over every particular No Man living that hath not read both our Books can make any Sense of this Hodge-Podge Section that ever any Man should touch with Religious Controversie that is so visibly defective in it My Answer shall be my Rejoynder for sure I am he hath overlookt it and therefore yet to be replyed to J. F. p. 89. THE VAIL IS OVER THEM that is sayes J. Faldo the Belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be p. 251 252. the Christ c. W. P. Let this be the last though several more might be observed which at this time shall be considered in which we shall see that J. Faldo has done like himself and the Man we have all along taken him to be The Vail is over them it is a Scripture-Phrase 2 Cor. 3. 15. used by the Apostle to express the Darkness and Ignorance that to that time remained over the Understanding of the Jews in reading the Law and this Vail he makes us to interpret after this gross and absurd manner namely that the Vail is the Man Christ Wicked Man Did ever Quaker so irreverently express himself Give us his Name or tell us in what Book we may find it What greater Malice couldst thou have shown then thus injustly to pervert the Scripture in our Name abusing both As if because Christ's Flesh is called a Vail and the Ignorance of the Jews a Vail that therefore the Quakers must of Necessity mean by Vail in the first Sense Vail in the second Sense as if the Way to have the Vail rent were to deny the Man Christ Jesus All this my Adversary thought fit to conceal left his transcribing it into his Reply would have made that Discovery of his Baseness which he should never have been able by all his Shifts to palliate I think I did not nick-name this Chapter when I called it a Representation of his whole Reply He ends as he begun with Squibs Puns Evasions and Ill Language for unless the Goodness of a Book be to be measured by the Paint of a Title-Page or bare Writing reputed Replying he might with more Sense and Reason have called it Froth Folly and Fiction then a Religious Vindication c. No Man I ever read of hath exceeded the Bounds of Truth by obtruding Falshoods and wandred from the Dâ—corum of a fair Adversary by unfair Citations and obvious Wrestings betaken himself for Sanctuary to such silly Shifts School-boy Jeers at the rate this Adversary hath done And I have no Reason to Doubt of others being of the same Mind since the World is not so destitute of Understanding as to be cheated with his hocus-pocus Tricks to take Tin for Silver or Copper for Gold or Froth for
God himself and so God saves God and God worships God This my Reader may find in his Vind. from p. 75. to 87. particularly this following of E. B. about the Soul 10. From E. Burroughs affirming the Light of Christ in every Man to be one with the Spirit as good as the Spirit of Christ in order to prove it the same J. Faldo infers he made the Soul of Man God because that which is as good as the Spirit of God is God Book 1. Part 2. p. 122. Vind. p. 85 86. As if E. B. had spoken it of the Soul of Man and not the Light of Christ shining in the Soul of Man as his Words express it 11. Lastly from our Denyal of his carnal Resurrection as inconsistent with Scripture and Reason he takes Heart to tell all People that W. P. and all the through Quakers deny the Resurrection of the Dead and are guilty of not believing a future Reward in an other World with a Train of Ill Language too long to bring in Vind. p. 88 89 91. This Friendly Reader hath been the Entertainment we have received at J. Faldo's Hands but all things shall work together for good III. of his evading my Answer and Arguments It is very frequent with him next to leaving out what I say or fastening false Consequences upon what he transcribes to evade the Strength of mine Answer either by pretending to have said enough in his first Book as if that had foreseen my Answer and anticipated his Reply with a Refutation or by some one Word which will serve him to play at or by being in haste or else my Answer deserves no Reply at all c. An Evidence of this Sort of Carriage my Reader may find in his Reply p. 5 17 18 38 51 57 58 59 69 71 76 91 93 One at large for all To my several Arguments in defence of Immediate Revelation Inspiration as he terms it he returns three or four Lines This W. P. is so far from denying that he pleads for it but after such a Rude Impertinent manner that I should but injure you and shew my self idle to animadvert upon it p. 17. The cheapest Way that ever Man took to confute his Adversary Doth this become any Man of his Pretence to either Schollarship or Christianity IV. Of his Forgery or Perversion I am sorry I have such reiterated Occasion to charge him with Forging that is foisting in Words into our Writings and Sayings that are wholly inconsistent with them or perverting those he delivers to the End he may make them ponounce his Mind the more plainly A few of many Places I have observed as in page 22 25 41 42 50 51 92 93. Of which I shall give four Instances more particularly 1. â— Pennington speaking of Knowledge according to the Flesh By Flesh sayes he The Quakers understand the Vse of our Vnderstandings though sanctified first Book p. 41. Vind. p 24 25. 2. His second is making W. Smith to call the Scriptures Traditions of Men Earthly Root Darkness Confusion Corruption Rotten Deceitful the Whore's Cup the Mark of the Beast all out of the Life and Power of God and not that the meant them of those who had degenerated from the Power of Godliness and had set up their own Imagination in the stead of God's Institutions teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of Men first Book p. 117. 119. Vind. 41 45. 3. The Third is his making I. Pennington to call visible Worship the City of Abomination Vind. p. 50. 4. Lastly That he gives in our Name this Interpretation of the Vail is over them i. e. the Belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be the Christ c. Vind. p. 93. V. Of his grand Improbabilities and downright Untruths This Charge I know must needs be very unpleasant to a Man as Vain Glorious as many Places of his Book declare him to be but I cannot help it 'T is Truth if there be anâ— Truth in the World that he hath writ a great many unlikely and absolute untrue Things Let my Reader take the Pains to look over these following Pages of his Reply and I am well assured if impartial he will not think that I have in a Tittle wrong'd him p. 6 7 19 21 33 35 38 39 42 46 47 48 49 55 56 65 70 72 73 89 93. Of which I will only instance four 1. First he affirms that he quoted forty Places out of our Friends Books that would prove the Light within as within us to be the only Lord and Saviour and very God p. 6. whereas he brought not any one that either proved the Terms or the Matter 2. Secondly He confidently accused us of charging the Miscarriage of Mens Souls on the Knowledge the Letter of the Scriptures by God's Blessing doth convey p. 21. 3. Thirdly Whereas I said that W. Smith's Words reflected not in the least upon the Scriptures nor those Doctrines truly received thence neither that any such VVords can be produced by our Adversaries he boldly tells his Reader I intended no other but that Smith doth not accuse himself in so many Words of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received as much as to say We both knew it to be Blasphemy but W. Smith did not call it so p. 41. There is no ingenuous Man that will not abhoâ—â— the Falseness of this Passage 4. Lastly I opposing his Affirmation that we did not profess or believe Eternal Rewards thus pretends to confute me W. P. opposes me rather because he would not be thought to subscribe to me then that he believes not what I say to be true p 69. But if this be true sure I am there is no Truth in the World And indeed there is no giving this Sort of Carriage at large but by transcribing far the greatest Part of his Book VI. Of his idle Jeers and frothy Expressions I have not met with any Man writing upon so serious a Subject as Religion is that gives himself the Liberty of so many vain Expressions as if he had intended his Discourse for vulgar Merriment not to Christian Information If my Reader please to trouble himself with the Perusal of these following pages he shall find enough to nauseate p. 6 22 23 26 27 29 30 34 37 40 47 50 51 53 58 60 69 71 72 95. Take two Instances He cackles like a Hen when he had laid a WORSE THING then an Egg p. 47. Again because we said God spoak once by Balaam's Ass thereby proving that he did not alwayes speak by the Scriptures he thus reflects I wonder not that they leave the Teachings of God by the Scriptures to attend on the Ministry of Asses thereby calling us Asses p. 27. Which how Witty soever he thinks such sort of Sayings to be sure they are more Frothy and Irreligious then becomes a Man professing Religion much less writing of the Weightiest Points of it
pag. 15. pag. 30. pag. 16. Act. 12. 24. Pietr. Soan Polan p. 152 p. 36 37. Erasm on 2 Pet. 1. 19. Ibid in 1 Cor. cap. 2. Polano Hist Coun. Tr. p. 150. Crad Divine Drops p. 171 172 210 215 221 217. This gives the Lye to J. Faldo Wil. Dell. confut of Simps pag. 114 115 116 117. Tom. 3. fol. 169. Mart. vol. 3. p. 572 573. 3 vol. of the Book of Martyrs p. 298. pag. 17. My Answ pag. 36. Col. 2. 2. Hebr. 6. 11. Chap. 10. 22. â— Book Martyr p. 577. This J. Faldo kicks at he is one with the Papists 3 Book of Martyr p. 475. p. 18 19. pag. 19. pag. 19 20. pag 39. An ellegant way of speaking and Scriptural pag. 40. pag. 21. Answ p. 42. Ephes â— 13. pag. 22 Which concerns him if he would have what he writes to be according to Scripture pag. 22. My Answ pag. 42. Quak. no Chr. p. 59. pag. 23. pag. 24. pag. 63. p. 25 26. Ibid. p. 26. Acts 8. 30 31. Dell Tryal of Spirits p. 10. Collier Gen. Epist pag. 249. c. 10. pag. 258. c. 12. Those Famous Poor Suffering Christians the Waldenses in their purer times besides many other weithty Points wherein they symbolized with us in this very Matter are not forraign who in a Confession about Five Hundred and Fifty Years old â—aid this down as a piece of their Creed That the Discoveries Testimonies of the Holy Spirit in them were the most Convincing Evidence and Infallible Proof of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures Consequently the Spirit must have been their Judge and Rule concerning their Understanding the Truths testified by them as â— P. Porrin their Historian in so many words assures us concerning them in the beginning of his notable History of their Rise Doctrine Sufferings and Progress pag. 23 24 25 26 27. Concil Tom. 1. p. 481. can 60. Anno 364. and p. 549. can 27. Anno 417. after Christ * I find Iohn Faldo often Scorning Inspiration and bringing it into odium under the word Enthusiasm used of late to signifie Whimsical Pates or Heads troubled with a Religious kind of Frenzy as if he had abandoned the Plea Enjoyment and Practice of the best Separatists whose Names he emptily honours and resolved to set up for a Coffe-House Droll or a Play-Prophanist To cool his Courage and stop his Career I commend Two or Three late Discourses to his perusal writ by Men of Undoubted Learning and pretendedly defended by J. F. in his Quakerism no Christianity against the People called Quakers The first is D. Patrick his Friendly Debates 2d Fowler his Design of Christianity never to be answered by that Angry Man that designed it And W. Sherlock his late Discourse of Jesus Christ c. If both Presbyterians and Independents are not throughly and truly charged to be Enthusiasts Men holding what J. F. condemns us for owning though less justifiably and if more ridiculous Interpretations are not to be found among them then was ever yet read in any Quakers Book I am content to suffer J. F's Reproach as Just who does not do as he would be done by his great Scab or Leprosie of some other of his Fraternity too for alas it is at best but a piece of Heathenism with him and a Man may be a very good Christian forsooth by a New Art of Imputation found out and accommodated to the Ease of Hypocrites without that streight and legal Way of just and holy Living pag. 27. pag. 28 29. pag. 58 59. pag. 29. * At whose Hand-Writing pag. 61. * His Blasphemy against the Lighâ— Pag. 61. * I would desire the Reader to take notice that the first Reformers never intended by their great respect to the Scriptures to establish them their Rule exclusive of the Spirit as most do now W. Kiffin for instance only they did on all Occasions prefer them as God's Tradition to the place of a Rule beyond Popish Doctors or Councils which they who know any thing in these Matters are well assured to be the Truth of the case So that they were but a Rule comparatively as we also hold but by no means can we allow that they prefer'd the Scriptures to that great Office exclusive of the Spirit or that Men were not to have their Immediate Dependence upon the Instruction Discoveries and Revelations towards Faith and Good Life So much at this time * Note I have not made any considerable Distinction between â—e Rule and the Judge from thy Judgment of that little if any Difference that is between them And my Adversary to his own Confusion seemeth of the same Mind for notwithstanding he severely tauntingly reflects on that Passage upon me in my former Book yet in making the Scripture both Rule and Judge he shows to us that the Judge the Rule are not at so great a Distance as his little Skill in Philosophy would have rendered it And herein he thwarts D. Stillingfleet and D. Tillosson who against the Papists assert not the Scripture to be the Judge but Right Reason And to speak the Truth of it Nothing can be more absurd next to Transubstantiation then that the Scripture should be the Judge of a Man's Meaning of any part of it self that is if it be applied as a Right Rule since in such Cases of Difference no Scripture ever yet spoak clearer then its first Text and the Question lies not about that but the just Interpretation Prov. 8. Doct. Stud. c. 2. p. 4. Rom. 2. 14 15. San. pag. 138 139 140 141. Plut. Dron Prus Dis lib. 1. c. 14. Senec. Epist 73. pag. 30 31. Luth. Tom. 2. Pol. 309. 2. Pet. Mart. com loc part 1. cap. 6. Part 2. Cap. 18. Lib. 1. c. 5. Thes 32. Hos 6. 9. pag. 34 Ed. Bur. pag. 34 35. pa. 71 72 73. Levit. 19. 18 19. Phil. 3. 15. W. Tindal's Works pag. 319. p. 80. B. Jew contr Hard. p. 532 534. T. Coll. Works p. 247. pag. 36. De praescr Haeretic adoer Marcion lib. 4. De carne Christi * Against the Anabaptâ—sts p. 1. pag. 37. pag. 37 pag. 38. pag. 39. My Answ pag. 87. pag. 39. pag. 40. Ephes 16. 17. pag. 41. pag. 41 42. pag. 42. pag. 43. pag. 45. But J. F. Is not that Babylon or the Antichristian Church which has the Shew and Outside but not the Life and Power of Godliness May not Antichrist adorn himself with the Literal Profession of the Gospel Certainly all Protestants have accorded to this I am sure I. Sprig C. Goad W. Dell I. Saltmarsh T. Collier yea J. Fox B. Jewel I. Renolds D. Willet R. Abbot and a nameless worthy Author about Qu. Elizabeth's time in his Voice out of the Wilderness c. allow of W. Smith's Doctrine viz. That the meerly Literal Formal and Fleshly-wise Church not regenerated into the Image and Liâ— of the Son of God is Babylon and some of them are most â—press in the Matter which I omit for haste pag.