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
Coming in the Flesh and that which Christ Jesus and his Apostles taught was not in kind but in degreâ— only the Ceremonial part excepted which the same Clemens calls childish and Trifling and the Apostle Paul Beggarly Elements serving only the non-Age of the World in Religion and therefore to be laid aside upon a more improved Knowledge and full Enjoyment of it And this Christ's own Sermon upon the Mount clearly evinceth who runs the Sin of Adultery as far beyond the Act as the first lustful Desire conceived in the mind And from true Swearing to yea yea and nay nay and from loving our Friends to loving our Enemiese and from self-saving to suffering I say unless we should with the Uncertain and Irreverent J. Faldo exclude the Life Doctrine and Miracles of Christ from any share in Christianity because sayes he it s dated with more reason from Christ's Resurrection and consequently Christ Jesus before but an extraordinary kind of Jew we must needs conclude that as the tendency of Christ's Life and Miracles was to preach live and confirm his divine Doctrine so the very bent of that Doctrine was the Improvement and Perfection of that Righteousness which in former Ages was but begun and more imperfectly manifested so that to be under Grace is not to live in the Breach of God's Law Uncondemned through Christ's personal Obedience wrought wholely without us but to be led to deny all that Vngodliness and those Worldly Lusts for which the Law takes hold upon the World according to the Apostle to the Romans There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit implying that who walked after the Flesh were so long not under Grace but under Condemnation Again For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death that is not only from Death the Wages but from Sin the Work that leads to it yet further For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in vs who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit So that to be under Grace is to be under the Government Leadings of it and to enjoy that divine Power which fulfills the Law and redeems from those Corruptions which prove men rather to be alive without Law then under Grace that fulfils it Upon the whole since some in all Ages have been taught to deny Ungodliness and to live godly and that they could not so have done without the Grace that brings Salvation And since the Seed of the Serpent has been bruised in them and that it could not be without Christ the promised Seed and since such were then turned from Darkness unto Light and from Satan's Power unto God and that all this is purely Gospel and Christian something of Christianity was in the World before that visible Appearance of Christ from whose Name the true Religion was so called For though there have been Diversities of Gifts yet the same Spirit though Difference of Administration yet the same Lord. And though God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Son yet he was the same God who spoak by the Prophets that spoak by the Son though it is always confest not in so plain express and excellent a manner the Difference therefore lay in the Manifestation rather then in the Thing manifested For through all Generations there has been but one Seed Truth Grace Word Life Power or Spirit by which any of the Sons and Daughters of Men were ever saved and consequently J. Faldo has greatly wrong'd the true Christian-Religion as well as contradicted the Ancient Writers and abused us in dating Christianity from the time of Christ's Bodily Resurrection and so bitterly reflecting upon them that conform not to his narrow and false Apprehensions CHAP. II. Of Quakerism as this Independent Priest scoffingly calls our holy Religion IN my Defence of the Truth we profess shewing not only the Consistency of it with Christianity but proving it to be Christianity there are Four Passages he takes an abrupt notice of His words concerning the first run thus Rep. To purge away the Character I give of a Quaker he tells you p. 9. We never said that the Light within every Man was the only Lord and Saviour and very God let him shew us any such Passage of any one acknowledged Quaker and he will say something Now Reader observe his Reply The Man cannot see Wood for Trees I quoted him Forty Places in my Book that will prove it For instance All Power in Heaven and Earth is in it Smith's Primmer p. 14. Again I will make you know that I the Light which lighteth every man that eomes into the World am the true eternal God G. Fox junior c. These I quoted in my Book yet could Penn say I thought to be believed hand over head Rejoyn That this Adversary is base with a Witness remember Reader that there is not One Testimony much less Forty in that place I quoted and unto which my Answer was made Next observe how he suggests my smothering of those Testimonies he brings whereas I have particularly answered the latter which includes the force or tendency of the former and five more of his falsly pretended forty But to the Point That I cannot see Wood for Trees is a very mean and wooden Reply what I have said in my former Book stands unanswered and indeed is Vnanswerable I shall contract it thus No man that believes Scripture will dare to deny that God is Light That every Man is enlightened by Him and that by Him who is called Light all things are upheld And that He alone is Saviour A Doctrine J. Faldo teaches pag. 84 85 89. That we never did assert that the God that made Heaven and Earth was comprehendible within the Soul of Man yet that he gave Light to the Soul of Man To which with much more he returns us not one word of Answer but would make People believe it has been the course I have taken with him To conclude He must either deny Christ to have all Power in Heaven and Earth to be the True Eternal God or that He who has that Power and is that God is not that True Light that enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World or his Labour is but very Vanity whose Wages will be Vexation of Spirit But thus far we are well assured that J. Faldo for all his Shews of Reverence to the Scripture overturns the most evident Testimonies therein contained by withstanding and defaming this one Assertion that God who is Light shines not in the Heart of any Man on
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
we declare against all who come not in by the Door but seek to clime up another Way by their Study Inventions and Sepentine Wisdom and Knowledge and so are Thieves and Robbers Such Ministers and their Ministry we deny for the Hand of the Lord is against them c. Great and true Words No Man can minister that which he hath not no Man can have those things which qualifie him a true Minister but by the Inspiration of the Almighty and the effectual Operation of his Power and Spirit God's Messengers were ever led taught and furnisht by God's Spirit not by human Invention and Acquisition which Paul counted Dross and Dung in Comparison of the Excâ—llency of the Knowledge of his Lord Christ Jesus through the Revelation of the Eternal Spirit But that J. Faldo may be the better understood about the Ministry he pleads for take Reader a Passage he cites out of G. F's Book called Gr. Myst which doubtless he reputes very hetrodox or he would never bring it to prove a Charge containing such Matter as he counts so Thou the Priest art corrected by the Scripture and the Apostle corrects thee who said I have not received it of Man nor by Man and bid others look at Jesus the author of their Faith Their Writings saith J. Faldo are abounding with Matter of this Nature So much the better say I for it is old Scripture Doctrine and J. Faldo gives us plainly to infer by his Dislike of this Passage that he maintains a Ministry received of man and by man and that People ought to look unto them and not to Jesus the Author of their Faith If this be one of J. F's Christian Ordinances as his Discourse evidently makes it I hope my Reader will the less wonder at those hard Names he gives us in it for the plain English of his Charge against us is this The Quakers deny the Ministry that is of man or by man therefore they deny the Gospel-Ministry Poor Man what a pass hath he brought his Affairs to Indeed I pitty him and fear the Consequence of his Disappointment since a Man of his Stomach to charge so high and make so little of it may with the Loss of his Honesty for ought I know hazard his Wits too To wind up this Chapter and prove to all the World I have not mistaken him hear him Reply p. 55. W. P. produceth one of my Testimonies out of J. Parnel yet but by halfs And here is the Difference of the Ministers of the World and the Ministers of Christ The one of the Letter the other of the Spirit To which he replies Strange Impudence to call this a Proof But I cannot help it if P. will say the Sun is Darkness Before I part with him here I will furnish my Reader with that part of the same Testimony he treacherously leaves out for they are meer Deceivers and Witches bewitch People from the Truth holding forth the Shadow for the Substance and what is the Chaff to the Wheat Add this to the other as it was in my Book and I dare trust my Reader that is willing to speak Truth to pass his Censure It follows in the same Author before quoted And so the Devil takes Scripture to mantain his Kingdom and this he delivers by the Mouth of his Ministers which he sends abroad to deceive the Nations leading People in Blindness Rejoynder Let the Reader observe that what he here pretends to quote out of J. P. follows as himfelf said what we have just before transcribed Three things contain my Rejoynder First He reports not my Answer which was to this Purpose It is a Proof indeed but against him for if a false or worldly Ministry under the Form of Godliness may not be farewell Scripture But if such a Thing will be allowed us then since the Letter or Scriptures are not by such rejected but in Shew most highly admired and that they pretend to collect all they believe or know from thence though indeed they understand them not we have great Reason to say That those who are Ministers only from the Letter with what they imaginarily comment upon it they are not Christ's Ministers p. 110. Of which and much more he hath not given us a Word how can he reply honestly and intelligible who neither gives nor takes notice of the Answer he should reply to J. Parnel's Words plainly relate to a Ministry not gifted nor qualified by the holy Ghost and J. Faldo tells us in so many Words that without it none are worthy of the Name or Thing Yet doth he make it as unreasonable for me to say J. Parnel's Words prove not our Denyal of a Gospel-Ministry which so obviously own it as for him to assert the Sun is Darkness Secondly I did not leave out that which he chargeth me to have done Treacherously the best Word he can afford me on the like Occasions he must be quite bereaved of his Sences that thinks I should fear defending J. P. in calling such Decâ—ivers and Witches as bewitching the People from the Truth who are made Ministers by the Will of man without the Inspiration of the Spirit Gift of the Holy Ghost Will of God and are Coveters of men's Silver or Gold Preachers of their own Inventions Persecutors Revilers stirring up of the Magistrates to stone stock whip imprison c. all which J. P. gives as the Character of the Ministry he writ against for if this be the Gospel-Ministry the Devil is a Saint The Truth is John Faldo's Book is generally to be read backward Lastly There is no such Passage of the false Ministry much less of the true in page 15 16 or 17. of J. Parnel's Shield c. as J. F. suggests however I believe the Devil useth sometimes Scripture and that he hath had and hath many Ministers whom he sends abroad to deceive the Nations leading and keeping People in Blindness under a Pretence of Christianity and Conformity to the Doctrine of the Scriptures in order to maintain his Anti-Christian Kingdom all true Protestants were of that Mind but J. F. is none of that number Doubtless the poor Man is brought to a low Ebb that brings this to prove we deny Gospel-Ministry which the honest Martyrs primitive Reformers and what is more to our Purpose the Scriptures themselves say again and again The contrary will unavoidably prove the Ministry of the Church of Rome to have been not Anti-christ's but Christ's true Ministers since they both use Scripture preach Scripture and call themselves the Ministers of the Gospel by Apostolical Institution and Succession In this disarmed Condition we leave him and the Chapter confessing to all the World that such a Ministry as hath effectually known the Operation of the Spirit of God in themselves as to those things which concern Redemption and Eternal Salvation and that he draws sorth by his holy Spirit indues with his Heavenly Power for the turning of Men from Darkness to Light from
unworthiest Reflections however unprovoked without any Reproof is to merit their sharpest Retorts in the most vilifying Terms I know not what to infer from such an humorsome Carriage but that it is expected from the Quakers Religion it should bear that which J. Faldo's Vindication tells us his cannot a great Credit to our Cause against his Will Thus far of Christianity and Quakerism as they are contra-distinguished by our Adversary CHAP. III. Of the Scriptures MY Adversary begun his first Chapter in his former Discourse upon this general Charge The Quakers deny the Scriptures The Proof he offered was this The Quakers deny the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and therefore they deny the Scriptures Upon this account I thus delivered my self He entitules his Chapter That the Quakers deny the Scriptures I was almost astonished at it because he pretended to prove all out of our own Books and none such had ever come to my Hand but upon Perusal I found this to be the Upshot That the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God My Adversary's Reply is Rep. This is not the first Cordial you have made of a wilful Vntruth nor yet the last by a great many And you who summed up nine Arguments of mine more which were the Contents of the nine Chapters next following should have been ashamed of calling this one which was the first of ten the Vpshot and then insult But I shall try how you break this single Cord this one of ten Rejoyn I will not say he has Wilfully wronged me but Wronged me he has I did not say that it was the Upshot of his whole Discourse concerning the Scriptures but of that single Chapter For had I reputed his nine following Arguments undeserving of any notice I might have called this single one the Upshot but having singlely refuted his subsequent Arguments I could not in good sense call the First the Vpshot 'T was not therefore the Vpshot of the Whole but of that Chapter in which the Word is used I had good Reason so to term it since the Proof was too particular for the Charge It was not my wilful Untruth but his Mistake His suggesting as if I only encountered that single Cord is very Disingenuous for I throughly considered Nine following Chapters Hear him further Rep. That you deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God you grant But you say pag. 25. I declare to the World that we own them to be a Declaration of the Mind and Will of God with many other things which I have shewed to be short of the main Ends of the Scriptures Rejoyn Whether those other things left out are short of the main Ends of the Scripture or no will best be seen by considering what those Things are I do declare to the whole World that we believe the Scriptures to contain a declaration of the Mind and Will of God in and to those Ages in which they were written being given forth by the holy Ghost moving in the Hearts of holy Men of God That they ought also to be Read Believed and Fulfilled in our Day being Useful for Reproof and Instruction that the Man of God may be perfect Now if this belongs not to the main Ends of Scriptures either there are none or they are unknown However it was 〈◊〉 much the End as name of Scripture that was then controverted Again he goes on thus Rep. I shall easily grant that one Word may stand representative of many An odd Phrase that represents him not able to express himself congruously I have heard of Persons as Parliament-men but never of a representative Word before Rejoyn He might have pardoned me an Incongruous Phrase if such it had been for I have twenty times over been so kind to him But I must tell him it is not less proper though less used in Words then in Persons He shews Ignorance in that Philosophy he pretends to be a Master of where there are many single words or Terms that are significative of entire Sentences but argumentum ad hominem granting to the Scriptures that they are the Word of God does not our Adversary repute that Title Representative as well as Expressive of those many thousand Words contained therein if so then there is a Representative Word If not it can never be called so in our Adversary's sense Again he brings me in thus I think it is as good sense to call a King's Letters King as the Scriptures the Word of God Rep. But by your favour Mr. Penn It is neither non-sense nor bad sense to call a King's Letter the Word of a King Rejoyn This is nothing to the purpose the Stress lies here The Word of God being a Title given to Christ as the Title King is to a supreme Magistrate whether it be Reverent or Significant to call the Declaration Christ the Word of God any more then to call the Declaration of a King by the Title of King For we therefore decline to give that Title to any thing below Christ himself to whom the Scriptures most emphatically ascribe it Because I said that it might be the Word of Advice Reproof Instruction which Christ the Great Word of God livingly sows in the Hearts of Men and Women that Christ spoke of when he said The Cares of the World choak the Word and it becomes Unfruitful He replyes Rep. Here you have yielded the Cause to save Christ from being the choaked and unfruitful Word Rejoyn I need not have done so for any such Reason since Christ may in a sense as well be Choaked as by Sin afresh Crucified and the Spirit Quenched Nor could unfruitful obliege me to give away the Cause since the Word is alwayes Vnfruitful where rebelled against But is there no Difference J. Faldo between a Word of Advice spiritually livingly and powerfully sown in the Heart by Christ the great Word of God and that Advice Reproof or Instruction declared by Writing This brings to the Point Whether the Scriptures or Christ may most deservedly be stiled the Word of God Christ is God's living Oracle and rightly called the Word of God because that which livingly speaks forth the Will of God to the Souls of Men The Scriptures are but that Revelation declared and recorded consequently they can have no right to that Title which is so suitably ascribed to the Author of that Revelation To be sure J Faldo acknowledges that they are not the Living Powerful Self-sufficient Word of God Nor does he pretend to dispute for them to be such a Word of God as the Quakers deny them to be Though it seems very strange to me that there should be Two Words of God the one quite differing from the other or that any Word of God if two there were should be of it self Impotent or Insufficient as he seems to allow in his first Book pag 20 27. Vind. pag. 14 16. That the Word of God
cannot grow old decay be lost misrendred corrupted transcribed reprinted But hear what he sayes to me Rep. Did we hold as you that it is to be understood of no other but Christ it would be an Absurdity but upon our Principles none at all Would you say that the Scripture is absurd For we are not as many that corrupt the Word of God 2 Cor. 2. 17. Many did so and many do so still of who you are a Ring-Leader Rejoyn Truly if I am I would be glad to know it that I might be sorry for it I would not willingly deceive my self and others both of the Joyes of this Life and that to come But I would desire J. Faldo to consider if his Greek Testament will allow his Translation and least of all his Argument which is this If Christ cannot be corrupted soÌ„mewhat else besides Christ is in Scripture called the Word of God I am not so lean with my Learning but I will spare him a little I find Valla Erasmus Vetablus Castalio Clarius Zegerus and Grotius say the Greek word there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not adulterantes but cauponantes vel abutentes re quapiam ad quaestum that is We are not as many who Merchandize with the Word of God or use it to self Ends making a Trade of it or as several of our Old English Translations have it chop and change which more sorely reflects upon my Adversaries Profession then mine For though I am a Corrupter of Scripture in his sense I am sure he is a Trader with it in its own sense I might instance to my Defence in several other Languages particularly the Italian Spanish and ancient French Translations but I will be brief Now unless it be absurd to assert that some Men have and may make worldly Advantage to themselves from that place the Living Eternal Word of God hath ministerially given them in the Hearts of People and false to affirm that the Scriptures of the New Testament were not then all written nor gathered or compiled as now they are or made canonical and publick till the Council of Laâ—dicea about the time of Julian the Apostate Anno 364â— I cannot see how any may justly blame me for denying the Scriptures to be the Word of God from the Passage cited by my Adversary that men may make so ill an use of the Living Word of God none dare deny Now that the Scriptures were at that time Imperfect and scattered is clear They were Imperfect in as much as but five of twenty one Epistles were then writ besides John's History of the Gospel and his Revelation and Luke's Acts of the Apostles J. F. may hence see what a lame imperfect kind of Word of God he disputes for But I would query Was there not a Word of God before them What was that Word of God that grew and multiplyed before any New Testament Writings were in being Did not the Apostles preach it Therefore I rather take it to be such a Word of God as attended the Prophets before them in an inferiour Ministration namely the Living Powerful Quickening Word who from its various Operations is said to be as a Fire an Ax an Hammer a Sword a Word of Reconciliation of Patience of inward Washing of Faith that overcomes the World in true Believers that was with God in the beginning and was God which at sundry times and in divers manners spoak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in and by the Prophets and Apostles which was the Author of the Scriptures and therefore before them So that the Scriptures are no more then the Mind of the Living Word of God declared by Writing upon several occasions consequently to call them an Holy Declaration of the Word of God is a more Evangelical and suitable Title then the Word of God whose Declaration they are That they were scattered and several Centuries or Ages uncollected History tells us particularly we find it in the Council of Trent which is given us by the Learned and Juditious Pietro Soane Polano They could not run their Canon higher then the Council of Laodicea which as we said before was about 364. years after Christ at what time sayes a great Author Ambition prevailed with the Doctors of the Church and they began to think de pijs fraudibus of holy Cheats and would have their Doctrines pass pro legibus non pro consilio for Laws not Counsel I could prove as much and more out of several Independent Authors who seem to give all for gone before the end of the third Century though if some of them should now stand to the purest Tradition they must needs give their present Practice for gone I cannot but observe after what a suspected rate the Scriptures have been both first collected and then convey'd through the several succeeding Ages â—twas well said of my former Author Dubium igitur non est quin Testamenta vetus et novum monumâ—nta vera sint earum rerum quae dictae et factae sint a Prophetis et Apostolis Where though he calls them not the Word of God yet allows them to be Monuments of those things which were said and done by the Prophets and Apostles But as he and others so I may well object Are we sure that the Judgment of those who collected them was sufficient to determine what was right and what not For that which gives Scripture its Canon is not Plurality of Voices but that Word of God which gave it forth If that Divine Counsellor presided not what Assurance have our Anti-revelation Adversaries of their Doctors Câ—oce And granting that they have not rejected any Writing given forth by the holy Ghost which is a great question and that what they have given us was in the main writ by Inspiration which I believe yet how we shall be assured that in above three hundred yâ—aâ—s so many hundred Copies as were doubtless taken shoâ—ld be pure and uncorrupted Considering the private Dissensions the Readiness of each Party to bend things to their own Belief with the growing and succeeding Faults of leaving out adding transposing c. which Transscribers might be guilty of perhaps more through Carelesness then Design is beyond J. Faldo's Skill upon his Principles to inform us From hence we may observe the Vncertainty of J. Faldo ' s Word of God who by Authorities can never prove the Scriptures to be given forth by Inspiration nor that they are truly collected neither could those Persons who first made them Canonical be assured of the Exactness of those Copies they then found extant nor was the Collecter's Judgment Infallible and to come nearer to our times Learned Men tell us of little less then Three Thousand several Readings in the Scriptures of the New Testament in Greek Far be it from me to write this in any the least Vndervalue of that holy Record It s only to shew the weak Foundation my Adversary's Faith stands upon I
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
Again by way of Defence of his severe Rebuke of this insolent and scoffing Adversary like mine when he told him that he Raged he thus replyed Thy foolish Blasphemies have compelled the Spirit of God that is in me to speak that which I have said to thee thou Enemy of all Righteousness I tell thee plainly thou art not able to answer that Spirit of Truth which speaketh in me for the Defence of Christ's true Religion Of this Judgment were the most eminent Martyrs I shall conclude with John Bradford's plain Assertion to the Arch-Bishop of York We do believe and know the Scriptures as Christ's Sheep not because the Church saith they are the Scriptures but because they be so being thereof assured by the same Spirit which wrote and spake them How all these Testimonies can be True and yet Inspiration Untrue I shall leave with the sober Reader to judge And if my Arguments are still Irrational and my Testimonies Insufficient or Erroneous in his Account it will become his Pretences to Divinity not with Squibs and Railing but Reason Scripture and better Authorities to discover it The second way he took to prove our Equalling our Writings to and preferring them before the Scriptures is our Pretence to Infallibility Hear what he sayes Rep. Infallibility W. P. does not deny to be their Pretence but would make it very necessary and casts the contrary Opinion again and again and again too as Dirt in my Face This is your Fallible Errable Uncertain J. Faldo Rejoyn It is ill done of my Adversary to call my Answer Dirt which is so serious and to which he has replyed little else but Dirt I perceive all along notwithstanding the vast Difference he represents us to be at as to a Worldly Condition this Priest is ten times more enraged at the Just Consequences I draw from his own fallible Doctrines then he thinks a Quaker ought to be displeased with him for his numerous and scurrilous Provocations But if it be Dirt it sticks fast still for I find none of it wiped off And how dirty it is the Reader may judge by perusing it He that doth not Infallibly know what he pretends to know of God or Religion knows nothing certainly which concerns either Now if men cannot attain to any such Certainty farewell all Religion For that a man should affirm and not know whereof That he should profess God and Religion yet be uncertain of both But that J. Faldo should preach up and profess himself Errable in all such Doctrine Who ought to believe him Why spends he his Breath at a venture What Reason have any to believe him against us who is Uncertain of what he says against us by his own Principle This is your Independent Errable Fallible Vncertain J. Faldo Reader this is by much the greatest part of that Dirt he sayes I cast in his Face But I must tell him that greater Ignominy no Man can well bring upon the Gospel then that those who are converted by it are both Vncertain of the Truth of it and their own Conversion he either seems to have forgot or never to have understood the Meaning of those words delivered by the Apostle Paul That their Hearts might be comforted and being knit together in Love and unto all Riches of the full Assurance of Vnderstandding to the Acknowledgment of the Mystery of God Again And we desire that every one of you do shew the same Dilligence to the full Assurance of Hope unto the End Let us draw near with a true Heart in full Assurance of Faith And the Apostle John tells us He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself That they knew that they were of God and the whole World lay in Wickedness And that the Son of God was come and had given them an Vnderstanding that they knew him that was True and were in him that is True even in his Son Jesus Christ And this is the Record that God has given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life 1 John 5. 10 11 12 19 20. If these prove not Certainty in Faith Hope and eternal Life there is no Truth proved in Scripture for that People should have full Assurance Christ in them their Hope and Life and Witness of these things in themselves knowing him that 's true and being in him that 's true and yet be Uncertain of their Faith Hope and Life and doubtfuâ—l of their Inward VVitness and the Evidence and Knowledge that is given by him cannot be less contradictory then to affirm men Ignorant of what they know or guilty of what they are Innocent To be infallibly assured of what we believe is no Error in the Opinion of John Philpot and Bishop Latimer whatever use is made of it now to discriminate a Quaker The first to the Bishop of Chiehester who reflected upon him as conceiting himself better learned them the Bishop and the rest of his Brethren a Flout my lordly Adversary has more then once bestowed on me answered I take upon me the Name of no Learning I boast of no Knowledge but of Faith and of Christ and that I am bound undoubtedly or infallibly to know as I am sure I do The Bishop replyes These Hereticks take upon them to be sure of all things they stand in you should say rather with Humility I trust I know Christ then that I be sure thereof which is so like J. Faldo that he seems to be the Bishop revived proudly catechising reproving the poor Quakers But hear John Philpot's bold and smart Answer Let him doubt of his Faith that listeth saith he God give me alwayes to believe that I am sure of true Faith and Favour in Christ Bishop Latimen in his second Letter directed to Sr. Edward Bainton a Favourer of him that little time he lived in Queen Maries Reign who through his desire to preserve him was willing to allay the honest Man's Zeal for the Truth from the great Uncertainty that is in the World about Truth sayes he First ye mislike that I say I am sure that I preach the Truth saying in Reproof the same that God knoweth certain Truth Indeed God alone knoweth all certain Truth and God alone knoweth it as of himself and none knoweth certain Truth but God and those that be taught of God as saith St. Paul For God hath shewed it unto them And Christ himself They shall be all taught of God And your Friends deny not but that certain Truth is communicated to us according to Capacity But as to my Presumption and Arrogancy either I am Certain or Vncertain that it is Truth that I preach If it be Truth why may not I say so If I be Vncertain why dare I be so bold to preach it And if your Friends be Preachers themselves after their Sermon I pray you ask them whether they be certain and sure they
within in that Blasphemous Saying then against the Spirit in the Prophets Apostles and every good Christian who by his infatuated way of Arguing would make us believe that Lucian and Julian acted from the Light within because they acted from something within and that there is no Distinction to be made between their Writings and the Scriptures themselves upon our Principle because they writ according to the Light that was in them as he sayes VVhat is this but to deny all Testimony within or at least allows but of such a one as gives equal Evidence to Apostates and Christians Men acted by the Power of Darkness and the Principle of Light It shall now rest with my Reader to point where the Pinch was For the Ill Language he sayes I gave him to wit a Line and a half made up out of six pages given on distinct Provocations Let us examine Base Comparison pag. 43. This fell out upon his comparing us with the Papists which we shall anon consider How slovenly I was in doing so I will not be mine own Judge Black as Hell it self in Malice page 46. fell from me on this Occasion sayes J. Faldo I know not hardly any worse Lucian and Julian said of Jesus of Nazareth the Scripture and Christianity THEN THE QUAKERS HAVE DONE VNDER OTHER NAMES Now Reader if thus to Unchristian Unscripture in fine Unreligion Prophane yea Atheize a whole Body of People bringing them into parallel with loose and heathenish Scoffers and Persecuters of the Christian Religion who all this while reverently believe in Christ Jesus the Saviour of the VVorld in his Life Death Resurrection Ascension Doctrine and Miracles I say If thus to use us is not as black as Hâ—ll in Malice against us there can be nothing Black Hellish or Malicious For the last piece of Raiâ—ing as he calls it The Impudence of his Wâ—ckedness p. 4 9. VVhat could it be else to charge the Impiety of Julian and Lucian upon the Light within and telling the VVorld That upon the Quakers Principle they may conclude their Writings as Canonical as the Scriptures of Truth But this man studied Personal Reflection more then the Cause or he would not have given but five Lines of nine Pages of my Answer and never have considered that as he ought I could be glad to read one page of his Vindication without unnecessary Reflection who for a Line and a half of pertinent Rebuke by him out of six Pages of my Answer hardly pickt and by me fully defended cryes out of my impertinent slovenly hard Names and that gentiler Railing may be learned under a Hedge where I leave him to be better taught But he is very angry I contract his Comparison of us with the Papists in the Matter of Infallibility and Inspiration thus He tells the VVorld the Papists own Revelation and the Quakers hold Revelation also therefore the Quakers are Papists or very near them Hear his Reply Rep. How can I guide W. P's Pen to write Truth in Matter of Fact If he find such an Argument in my Book I will be content to be his Bond-slave Can you believe that a man can be blest with Apostolical immediate Revelations for every thing in Religion that is not so honest as to use the very Eyes in his Head Rejoyn By this we may perceive it is high Tide with J. Faldo First Reader I deliver not the words in a different Character from my own because I did not pretend to quote him But that it was the drift of the Comparison and so no wrong to his Intention the thing it self abundantly proves The Papists hold Revelation and the Quakers own Revelation what 's the meaning of these two Propositions unless it be the Conclusion I drew But lest the Man should be believed hear what he sayes himself in his first Book It is no little Absurdity in the Quakers to make Out-cry against Popery while they plant and hug the Root in their own Bosoms Again in the same page It were no hard matter to prove an Agreement in a multitude of Particulars between the Papists and Quakers Besides all this he brings in a Story pag. 55. of a certain Romanist who coming into England and being asked which of the multitude of Sects came nearest unto the Roman Church replyed The Quakers And this J. Faldo sayes he remembers How then he should forget to that degree of Abuse that there is any Argument in his Book to prove the Quakers very near to the Papists who in his Story uses that very Word to make People believe it I cannot tell unless his great Desire to bedirt William Penn transported him beyond all remembrance of what he had writ I might now demand his Promise of being my Bond-Slave But alas Proud Man and Insolent he is too high for that Office if such I could accept of Though I know not how he can come off unless with this Passage p. 57. The Quakers out-go the Papists FAR therefore the Quakers are not Papists nor NEAR them He thought I made him abuse us beyond his Intention and he both intended and abused us beyond what I represented If in that I wronged him he has more Reason to Forgive then Revile me But how comes it to pass that he sayes nothing of my argumentum ad hominem The Papists own a God a Trinity of Persons c. And J. Faldo owns a God and a Trinity of Person therefore J. Faldo is a Papist or near a kin to one VVould this be just If not neither is his Conclusion of force against us J. Faldo holds something in common with Jews Turks Heathens and Papists he would not take it kindly if we should therefore conclude him to be all or any of them But he gave this the go-by which shews he seeks not the Promotion of Truth but Disgrace of his Adversary indeed his very good Friend though his own Indeserts will not let him believe it CHAP. V. Of the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie THe first thing in this Chapter he chargeth me with is Forgery Let us see how he proves it Rep. The Charge in my fifth Chapter is That the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Life or a Judge and Determiner of Religious Controversies but P. as if he had sworn not to repeat my words faithfully trans-scribes them That we deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversies Rejoyn Reader observe the Forgery lies here that I left out Life after Faith and Determiner after Judge and Religious before Controversies But because that which is the Rule of Faith is the Rule of Life and that Judge and Determiner are all one and that the Controversies intended were not about Questions in Mathematicks Philosophy Trade or Law common or civil but purely about Religion I thought it no Forgery to leave out words not necessary or what from the Nature of the
and the Assistance of the Spirit of God are not these in my Book all made necessary to render the Scriptures such a Rule and Determiner Rejoyn But why such a trivial Rant for a Reply and why such hard words from a Man of his Circumstances one on many Accounts so near what he represents me to be Is it not true that if something be more firm then Writing that which is more firm and not the Writing is the Judge and Determiner Suppose a Scripture for every Case that ever did or may happen which we know there is not and therefore not THE RULE yet if such Scripture need an Exposition who is most truly the Judge and Determiner the obscure Text or the clear Expositor Certainly where the Stress lies the Power of Determination must be and there the Judgeship rests but that is alwayes in the Interpretation since the Difficulty is not about believing the Text but the Exposition given of it therefore the Expositor is both Judge and Rule and not the Text exposited And since J. Faldo has granted to us the Assistance of the Spirit for knowing the Scriptures the Spirit then which gives us how to understand and believe and enables us to fulfil them must needs be the Rule and Judge and no Writing whatever I shall conclude this Point with my Rejoynder to this following Passage in his Reply Rep. But W. P. hath not done triffling yet neither is the Law the Judge but there is a Judgâ— who interprets and speaks from the fresh Discoveries of his own Reason the Meaning and â—â—â—tendment of those written Laws But Mr. Penâ— The Judge is the Mouth of the Law and subject to thâ— Law and prescribed in his Judgment to that sense 〈◊〉 the Law which is expressed by the Letter of it If soâ—â— of the Judges had the handling of you for imposing yoâ— canting fresh Discoveries of his Reason upon them thâ— would tell you they give Judgment from a Deep Stuâ— and Weighty Consideration of the Letter of the Lâ—â— and moreover give you some hard Names or worse for youâ— canting Law added to your canting Gospel and yet the LIGHT IN THEIR CONSCIENCES NOT GIVE THEM THE LEAST REBUKE FOR SO DOING Rejoyn I perceive he measures the Judges Displeasure by his own Indeed they would be very Vnfit Persons to sit for our Judges that should be like him Men that would call hard Names and do worse to any Man for allowing them to be guided by a Living Reason would greatly evidence they had little or none and therein indeed that we mischaractered them But who most dishonours them I that suppose them to judge and explain Written Reason by the Living Principle of Reason in themselves or he that renders them so many Posts or Pillars that are to be moved by incens't Letters without relation to any Reason inherent to themselves and not otherwise But hear my forme Answer before I further rejoyn His Instance about the Law is same For the good Laws of any Land are but Reason written or rather declar'd by Writing which is oblieging against the Corruption of a Judge but not the Reason of the Judge neither is the Law the Judge but there is a Judge who interprets and speaks from the fresh Discoveries of his own Reason the Meaning Intendment of those written Laws If the Laws be sufficient without a Judge why is there a Judge If then they are Dark Obscure and Doubtful in many Cases so as to need a Judge and Interpreter which I call living and immediate Reason since the Scriptures are Writings in which are many things difficult to be understood it follows that there must be an Immediate Living Judge which must be therefore the Spirit of Truth that gave them forth because none knows the things of God save the Spirit of God And that those who are the Makers of Laws are the only Persons who are fit to judge and determine in Case of Difficulty by a Declaration of their Mind and Intenâ—ion in any such obscure Passage In short Either the Scriptures are not obscure a thing we daily see or if so yet sufficient which is impossible or they must have a Judge which is most true and necessary and what Judge but the Spirit of Truth which leads into all Truth p. 61 62. Now one would have thought that an Answer so sober and reasonable might have deserved a Reply more civil and pertinent then my Adversary gave me But I do the less wonder at it since he makes it his Practice to give hard Words instead of solid Answers But to his Reply as it is Rejoyn He tells me the Judge is the Mouth of the Law and Subject to the Law But I would have him consider two things First that the Scriptures of Truth were never given forth after that formal regular course that the Laws of England were but to particular Persons or Churches on particular Cases though together with hearty respect I acknowledge and enjoy the Benefit of them Secondly The Question is not about things obvious but obscure and herein the Judge is not only the Mouth but Interpreter of the hidden Meaning of the Law This our Adversary's own words import For if the Law were so plain as only to need a Mouth what need would there be of deep Study and Weighty Consideration which he makes necessary to a Judge the bare reading of the Law would be sufficient to determine all Cases Nay it would end all going to Law But inasmuch as the Laws are both numerous and intricate as the Vexatious Cases and Disputes of our Times fully prove 't is manifest that some other Judge and Determiner must be found out one that understands compares and rightly applies Law whose Judgment must decide and determine the Controversie Now though every such Judge may be said to determine according to the Mind of the Law yet his Interpretation and not the bare Letter is recorded for the Determination of the Case depending from whence come our Book-Cases Nor indeed is this only referrable to any certain Person explaining the obscure Passages of Law but the Application of the Law to the Fact in which not only the whole living Reason of the Judge is deeply and circumspectly exercised but the Understanding and Conscience of the Jury respecting the Nature of the Law the Evidence of the Witness the Heinousness of the Fact and Variety of Circumstances wherein the obnoxiousness to Error lies according to the Greâ—k Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Error is about the Circumstances all in order to a definitive Sentence or Determination about the Point handled Now for any Man to call the written Law the Judge and not Synteresis or living sound Reason and Conscience in the Judge and Jury to me seems very absurd Besides Let it be considered First that the Law is added because of Transgression and such as live to that noble Principle from whence all good Laws come have
for Instruction and Comfort Penn objects against my first Proof as not bet having any such Consequence pag. 63. And this is the meaning of our Doctrine to bring People to the Everlasting Word of God in themselves Smith Cat. pag. 95. bestowing on me within Eight Lines Deeply-â—gnorant Malitious Vngodly Possessed by an Evil Spirit Wretched Impious Grosly-blind Malignity Frothiness Envy Impious Injustice Rejoyn If ever Man had to do with an Vnjust Adversary it is my Lot And let this very Passage be the Measure First What are those Words cited out of William Smith that prove we take Men off from Reading the Scriptures What Reason has he urg'd or Argument attempted that were by me employed in Defence of the Passage and Illustration of our Innocency Shall this pass for my Confutation Must my Book be no better answer'd and yet led captive by J. Faldo's meer Pretences to wit Reason Religion and Learning It s a Shame to Professors of Religion to Countenance his Attempts that maintains his Controversie with so much Weakness and silly Evasion He tells you of my Rebukes but is as true in that as just in the rest For neither has he given all those â—ords which abate that Harshness they seem now to carry with them nor do they lie within the compass of Eight Lines as he would have you believe But be they as they are what Man not possessed with a Malitious Spirit would charge Untruths upon a Body of People and then lay sound Expressions upon the Rack if possible to extort a Confession of them Who but one deeply ignorant would repute it an Vndervalue of Scripture to bring People to the Everlasting Word of God that gave them forth that only gives to understand rightly and esteem them And can he be less then Impious and Frothy that sports himself with our serious Belief as well as very Vnjust that draws Conclusions our Premises will not bear and then call them Charges proved out of the Quakers own Writings To give the greater Authority to what I said I urged the Testimonies of Calvin Erasmus and Beza concerning which hear him Rep. But pag. 64. he fathers his Error on Calvin Eras Beza He directs precisely only to Erasmus and Beza in Nov. Test 2 Pet. 1. 19. Beza ' s words on the place which I have examined are these So it may be taken for the Doctrine of the Prophets which was to those to whom Peter wrote more without Exception to whom he may be said to have a respect in this Passage Thus this Man can abuse Scripture Reason Reformers all at once Rejoyn If it be an Error Calvin Beza and Erasmus held it as I will breifly prove But why must Beza's words be cited and Calvin not deny'd so to have writ neither Erasmus by him consider'd who of the rest I most precisely cited But it made not for his turn He seems to adventure at my Dishonesty provided it may bring Disgrace or Weakness to the Quakers Cause But to make good my Quotations J. Calvin expresly tells us Idem spriritus qui per os Prophetarum loquntus est in corda nostra penetret necesse est ut persuadeat fideliter protulisse quod divinitus erat mandatum Calv. Institut lib. 1. cap. 8. That is It is necessary the same Spirit that spake by the Mouth of the Prophets should pierce into our Hearts to perswade us that they faithfully delivered that which was committed to them of God What sayes J. Faldo to this Now let 's to Beza Our Adversary seems resolv'd to mistake me that he may render me mistaken I cited him to one part of the Chapter and Verse and he to another For my Purpose was to prove that Beza held it to be the Right Way of understanding the Scriptures to have recourse to the Everlasting Word and he takes a piece of the Nineteenth Verse which related to the Comparison 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or more sure Word of Prophesie which is sufficiently cleared in my Answer to his first Book But to pass by this part of his Dis-ingenuity I will set down Beza's words on the 19th Verse it self thus Imó quid si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocavit solem ipsum i. christum ipsum exhibitum qui simul et ipsa lux est et veram lucem mundo intulit That is Yea What if he called the Day-Star the Sun himself that is Christ himself exhibited which both is the Light it self and brought the True Light into the World Then He was to arise in the Heart if He was the Day-Star in the Heart And on the 20th verse of the same Chapter thus Vt prophetiarum intelligendarum et ad verum scopum referendarum rationem sciant ab ipso spiritu petendam qui prophetis ipsis illas dictavit That is It was required that they might know the Way of understanding Prophesies and referring them to the right Scope must be SOUGHT or FETCHT FROM the SAME SPIRIT which dictated them to the Prophets themselves and more to that purpose Now let us come to Erasmus by him willingly passed over who on that place sayes thus in his Paraphrase The Thing that is 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 Further rendring the Scripture so mystical and allegorical as not to be understood without it Nor shall this serve me I will yet add Two or Three Testimonies more and begin with Luther Scriptura non nisi eo spiritu intelligendae sunt quo scriptae sunt i. The Scriptures are not to be understood but by that Spirit by which they were written Peter Martyr that famous Italian Protestant teacheth thus The Spirit is the Arbiter by whom we must assure our selves for understanding of the Scriptures that thereby we must discern between Christ's Word and a Stranger 's quoting Christ's Words My Sheep know my Voice and follow not a Stranger 's and among many other Scriptures he cites these The Spirit searcheth out the deep things of God The Comforter shall declare all things that I have said unto you The Spiritual Vnction shall shew you all things Again The Spirit of God reveals the Truth in the Holy Scriptures Lastly I find him expressing himself in his Oration to the Vniversity of Strasborough thus concerning the Scriptures The School of this Philosophy is Heaven Moreover saith he We must remember that the Teacher hereof is the Holy Ghost And Doctâ—r Ames a great Father of the Independents and both a Learned and Good Man his Day considered in his Disputations against Bellarmine takes this Advantage upon Bellarmine's Acknowledgment that the Unction 1 Joh. 2 taught though not all things yet all those Doctrines which they had already received of the Apostles We require no more sayes Dr. Ames the Anointing of the Holy Spirit doth teach the Faithful to understand those
for them to have come to the true Sense and Knowledge of him and escaped that Wicked Murder and the Deplorable Consequences of it had not been to have waited upon God for the Convictions Discoveries and Guidance of his Holy Spirit since Flesh and Blood and the utmost VVit of Man with the Exactness of the meer Letter of the Scriptures could never give the certain Discerning Knowledge and Savour of him unto that Generation whose very VVords themselves were Spirit and Life It was by a Divine Touch Sense and Knowledge given from above that he was truly diâ—cern'd own'd and follow'd of those that believ'd in him and cleav'd to him therefore said Christ No man cometh to me but whom my Father draweth Where was that Drawing but within Again Simon Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed what who I am but my Father that is in Heaven So that at last Men must come to this Spiritual Sense in themselves to understand and apply the very Commands of Scripture otherwise not Justice but detestable Murder may under the Name of it be confidently perpetrated Wherefore we Exhort all To have Recourse unto God's Spirit that illuminates certainly and gives to act unblamably by which the Scriptures are only understood as they should be and People brought into the Possession of that Life of Righteousness they plentifully declare of Had it not been for this inward Discerning there had been no Ground for the Abolishment of the whole Jewish Service which follow'd some years after Christ's Ascension And it is the same Eternal Spirit that is the great Rule and Judge now which God promised more particularly to shed abroad in the latter Dayes and is the great inseparable Priviledge from the New and Everlasting Covenant But to conclude Why should it seem so Heterâ—dox in J. Faldo's Judgment since if Men believe the Scripture upon the Testimony of the Spirit they practise it by the Knowledge and Power of the same How else could Paul have decry'd Jewish Ceremonies or we know what to take and what to leave Or why do we omit any Command therein mention'd They Cicumcised therefore must I Circumcise They Baptized must I therefore Baptize with forty more particular Cases wherein nothing can secure any from the Imitation of them set Conviction or Spiritual Disâ—erning aside I will offer two or three Testimonies from approved Men in our Defence William Tindal that ancient faithful Protestant Martyr whom J. Fox that writ the Books of Martyrs calls the English Apostle speaks thus That it is impossible to understand in the Scripture more then a Turk for whosoever or any that hath not the Law of God writ in his Heart to fulfil it Again Without the Spirit it is impossible to understand them John Jewel Bishop of Salisbury in his excellent Book against the Papists writ above One Hundred Years ago sayes thus to our purpose The Spirit of God is bound neither to Sharpness of Wit nor to abundance of Learning Oftentimes the Unlearned see that thing that the Learned cannot see Christ saith I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and the Politick and hast revealed them unto the Little Ones Therefore Epiphanius saith Only to the Children of the Holy Ghost all the Holy Scriptures are plain and clear Again Flesh and Blood is not able to understand the Holy Will of God without SPECIAL Revelation Therefore Christ gave Thanks unto his Father and likewise opened the Hearts of his Disciples that they might understand the Scriptures Without this special Help and PROMPTING of God's Holy Spirit the Word of God is unto the Reader be he never so wise or well learned as the Vision of a Sealed Book Now unless Men are bound to do what they do not understand how to do then only are they to do them where they are Revealed or Discovered to them which being by the Spirit only according to their Doctrine the Testimony and Discoveries of the Spirit are requisite to our understanding of the Scriptures which implies and comprehends a Discriminating Knowledge or Certain Discerning of what we should practise from what is not oblieging upon us to practise and consequently that we ought not to run head-long without such knowledge T. Collier an Ancient and Eminent Man among the Western-Separatists of our Nation writeth thus For me to speak of God because another speaks of him and to be able to talk much of God as I read of him in Scripture NOT BEING MADE ONE IN THE SAME TRUTH I see and speak BUT WHAT ANOTHER HATH SPOKEN and so may speak truly sometimes of God but it is by Hear-say ANOTHER MAN's TRUTH BUT NOT MINE So I doubt many a Soul BOASTS IN ANOTHER MAN's LIGHT Again I see that external Actings according to a Rule without is nothing if not flowing from a Principle of Life and Love within Which is more then E. B. said of whom J. Faldo with unworthy Reflection and base Wrestings hath said so much Thus much of sober Rejoynder and much more then my Adversary's scurrilous Reply deserves but the ConCernment I have for the Information of others drew this from me I shall pass by his Ranting Strain against us at the top of his 36th page desiring to keep close to the Business and where I may without breaking his Matter avoid troubling the World with a Transcript of them I am very careful to do it But this next particular as many more being little else and since he suggests thereby an Untruth with great Confidence against me I should wrong both the Truth and my self in omitting it He charged us with Denying the Scriptures to be any Means to know God Christ or our selves for which he quoted W. Smith's Primmer pag. 2. because he there tells the Questioner that Christ is the Only Way to which J. Faldo answered That though Christ said No Man can come to the Father but by me yet he did not say that there is no coming to the Knowledge of God but by Christ thereby making as I observed in my Return to him a Difference between coming to the Father by the Son and to God by Christ though no other Name be given under Heaven then the Name of Jeâ—us Christ c. That we never deny'd the Scriptures to be a Means in God's Hand to convince instruct or confirm nor could this be W. Smith's Meaning since he would thereby have cut off all Benefit from accruing to People by his Books and also that Ministry he had receiv'd of God In short From our Denying that there is any other Way to the Father but Christ he concludes that we exclude the Scriptures and consequently our own Books and Ministry with them from being any way Instrumental of Good however if I err'd it was in good Company and that J. F. must acknowledge for worthy W. Tindal p. 80. of his Works and H. Bullenger a learned and famous Reformer in Switzerland
to enable People to understand the Romish Translation for we never yet heard of so much as any part of the Scripture that was Originally writ in that Tongue 'T is strange to me he should so much despise the People whose Language he so much extols and count the one serviceable to the Knowledge of God whilst with more Reason he reputes the other such gross Idolaters Luther jerks the Papists for their laying that Stress J. F. doth upon Humane Learning W. Tindal rejects it W. Dâ—ll and T. Collier write expresly and unanswerably against the Necessity of it or that it can give Man the Knowledge of God In short Common Experience and the Christian-Spirit and Conversation of Thousands that understand nor one Sentence of Hebrew Greek or Latine make good the Assertion of our Honest Friend and is a sufficient Rebuke to this vapouring Adversary whose Defiance to me to encounter his Proofs return Weakness with Shame upon his Head For though he thought to fling me to the Dogs or give me a Prey to Fierce and Lyonly Seconds behold they are my Friends and unananimously turn with me against himself who had designed them upon such ill Service a Recompence may he ever find at what time he shall endeavour to abuse our Friends and pervert their Writings And so I shall end this Chapter wishing for his sake as well as mine own that I may meet if not with more Reason yet with more Moderation in the remainder of his Discourse CHAP. VIII That we do not deny the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation in Opposition to and Denyal of our Adversary's Charge THe Charge by him endeavour'd to be defended in his Eighth Chapter is this That the Quakers affirm the Scriptures to be no Means whereby to resist Temptation I will set down his words Rep. He passes over no less then Six Testimonies without a word to invalidate them among the rest this If you use any other VVeapon then the Light within in-this Spiritual VVar you cannot prevail against him that is the Devil So I more then proved my Assertion Rejoyn I therefore avoided considering every Testimony he brought first because many of them were so forraign that there could be no Pretence for bringing them And next that I might not be prolix I thought it sufficient to examine three in six and with good Conscieâ—e I can assure my Reader I took as I thought those he built most upon if he doubted of any he should not have brought them I have answer'd the Law in the case For this now recited 't is as weak as Water to his Purpose though a strong Truth in it self For the Intent of the words could be no other then this that the Armor of Light the Apostle exhorted the Church at Rome to put on was sufficient to Encounter the Power of Darkness and that such as would overcome should not neglect or exchange that Armour for other Weapons thereby not in the least excluding other such Instruments as this spiritual Light might arm or give Strength and Invigourate to our Help And I am so far from doubting that I firmly believe that God's Spirit not only in times past hath made this use of the holy Scriptures to Instruction and Comfort but doth even yet to them who read them in his holy Fear and Wisdom Reader I am truly weary not because I find my way difficult from the great Perspicuity and Reason that are on the Side of my Adversary no nothing less in this VVorld But I know not which way to turn my self but I meet either with School-Boy Jeers Insolent Language Equivocations or horrible Perversions God is Record between J. Faldo and I who of us two hath behav'd himself with most Ingenuity in encountering the strongest and fullest Arguments and shown most Reason and Moderation in Confuting them Two or Three Instances of his Failure in both respects this Chapter presents thee with Rep. The first thing VV. P. deals with is a Passage of James Naylor ' s For those only are the Children of God who are lead by the Spirit of God to whom they who were led by the Letter were ever Enemies From whence saith Penn He concludes that we account it a very dangerous thing to read the Scriptures Now if this Passage hath any relation to his Charge or Conclusion no Man ever saw the like He should have added that was alwayes stark blind Rejoyn Here he has given my Reflection upon his ill Application of the Passage omitting both my Exposition and Argument An Injustice I do affirm every Page of his Book to be guilty of VVhat I said to explain the Sentence was this That there are Children of the Fleshly Literal and Historical Knowledge of the Scriptures and Religion who are Srrangers to and therefore Persecutors of the Children born of the Spirit and that in all Ages there hath been more or less of this among outward Jews and Christians And let J. Faldo deny this if he dare To all which and much more he sayes nothing but to his blind Squib before-mention'd he adds this Wrestâ—ing of the Passage by me so clearly exposited Rep. It is a Sign his Judgment is very feeble that â—ould not or would not know that it is dangerous to be â—od by the Letter if they that were so led were ever Eâ—emies to the Children of God Rejoyn What is this but to make us Enemies to thâ— very Scriptures who without any Distinction gives so Wretched a Meaning to words so far from bearing it whose true Sense was as I observ'd already to which I may add for further Explanation thus That those who have Confidence in the Letter Erring from and Grieving the Holy Spirit are not withstanding Enemies to the Children of God who are led by the Spirit according to the true Meaning of Scripture which the meer Letter-Professor as such can never attain to so that the Danger lies here to be led by the Letter without the true Meaning of the Letter or rather by his own dark Apprehensions concerning the Mind of it in the stead of it As the Jews when they crucified Christ by the Law of God against Blasphemers This is the genuine Sense of our Friend's words For had they been writ in the Sense in which John Faldo takes them we had then as greatly detested them as he has now wrong'd them A second Passage is in his first Book pag. 109. his words these Isaac Penington who speaking of Knowledge gain'd by the Letter of the Scriptures writes thus Making him wise and able in his Head to oppose Truth and so bringing him into a State of Condemnation Wrath and Misery beyond the Heathen and making him harder to be wrought upon by the Light and Power of Truth then the very Heathen Upon which J. Faldo bestows this Comment If reading the Scriptures and getting Knowledge from them puts us into a bad Condition beyond the Heathen I scarce know what is more
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
the gaudiest Titles and sweetest Entertainments this Temporal World can bestow It s for God against the Devil his Power and Spirit against Satan's the Spiritual against the Formal Man and the real Life of Jesus and Heavenly Experience of his Salvation within whereby the Doctrine of the Gospel is accomplish'd in Men against all Transformation into Likenesses and but meer verbal Immitations and Outsides of Religion For every Plant that the Heavenly Father hath not planted will he root up in this the Day of his Power in which the Lord will make his People a willing People and that notby indulging but rebuking and taking Men off from their own Willing and Running For the Lord has decreed to over-throw the Banks which the False Prophets of the Nations have cast up in the Night of Darkness whereby all Refreshment has been damm'd up from them and the Nations have been like a parched Heath and desolate Wilderness that his Life Power and Spirit may flow over every Kindred Nation and People under the whole Heaven and they shall be all taught of God and in Righteousness will he establish them and there shall be one Sheep-fold and one Shepherd and the Idol Shepherds who have no Vision neither have any Bread of Life wherewith to feed the Flock God will utterly scatter and make an end of and his Name shall be Famous and Renowned through all Generations Amen But Reader my Adversary is not yet willing to leave me he proceeds to tell us That the Quakers charge him and such others with the Sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the Iustructions and holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except they have them by Immediate Inspiration And though the Substance of it hath been already consider'd by me yet I shall not grudge my Pains if the Reader will bestow his perusal and perhaps he may find something not unserviceable to the further Clearing of our Sense and Detection of our Adversary's Dis-ingenuity He writes thus in his Reply Rep. I produced among others two Testimonies which W. P. takâ—s notice of My first is out of Morn Watch page 23. And this is Babylon the Mother of Harlots and the Abomination of all Uncleanness Rej. I need say the less to this because I have so clearly and lately defended W. S. in that Book and Page from any such wretched Meanings and Applications which J. F. has employ'd his Wits to rack his Words to Only Reader observe his Fallacy that he sets not down what Examples and what Instructions but confounds Moral with Ceremonial Precepts on purpose to make us at one Blow cut off all Regard to Scripture indifferently Next mark his Antichristianism in that he maketh the Mind of God and Doctrines and Lives of the holy Ancients in Scriptures capable of being understood and follow'd without the Inspiration of God's holy Spirit thereby giving the Lye to the most express Texts of holy Scripture and the plainest Assertions of the purest Fathers most famous Reformers and constant Martyrs I will say no more to this then that our Adversary himself hath in the same page cited so much of W. S. as declares his Perversion of the other part of his Book viz. And are all out of the Life and Power of God that is Those that say they have God to their Father speak high things of Holy Scripture and bedeck themselves with the Passages thereof and notwithstanding are out of the Life and Power of God are not true Jews or Christians but are of the Synagogue of Satan the Abomination of all Uncleanness and which help to make up Babylon the Mother of Harlots For the other Proof he brought which indeed was his first though in his Reply he tells us it was his last he was affraid to meddle with it and there was great Reason for it For he knew not which way to handle it but would bite his Fingers I will set it down with my Answer contracted that I may help the Reader to another Instance by which he may take his just Measures of the Man in hand respecting his sort of Fair Dealing or Strength of Argument W. Dewsbury he cites thus in his Discovery of Man's Return pag. 21. All People may search the Scriptures and see how you have been deceived by your Teachers who have caused you to seek your lost God in Carnal and Dead Observations WHICH THEY HAVE NOT ANY SCRIPTURE FOR. Now Reader was not this an extraordinary Passage to prove J. Fâ—do's Charge viz. That it was Idolatry to act according to Scripture c. which is given by our Friend as a Reason why People ought not to follow their Blind Teachers But be pleased to read my Defence as I then writ it W. Dewsbury is so far from making it Idolatry to live up to the Scriptures that he condemns the seeking for the True God where he was not to be found which saith he they have no Scripture for As much as to say that such seek after God not according to Scriptures And therefore are both Deceivers and Deceived Unto which J. F. reply'd nothing unless it be that he had nothing to Reply except an Acknowledgment which he thought would not make for his present sort of Credit He winds up this Chapter with a Justification of his Comparison of our Doctrine about the Scriptures with that of Jesuits and Papists I will set him down at large Rep. Concerning my Parallel between the Jesuits and the Papists in the venomn Spit against the Scriptures W. P. hath thus little to say It is Ridiculous and every way unworthy our notice a meer begging of the Question We can never allow of the Comparison But why all this Contempt Rejoyn Contempt pinches his proud Stomach But Curteous Reader ask J. F. why he left out the Words immediately proceeding viz. He has been so Cunning or Vnjust rather as to quote their Authors and not ours and some Passages we justly doubt What base Juggling is this with his Reader and Abuse of his Adversary It concern'd him more to be just in this then to ask Why all this Contempt And had he not had less Honesty then Stomach we might have expected that Justice the want of which brings greater Contempt upon him then my sober Reflection upon such unfair Dealing But he proceeds to cite these words as the whole Reason why we disallow the Comparison Sence the Papists place the Rule and Judgship in a Pope and General Council and the Quakers in the Eternal Unerrable Holy Spirit of God To which he replies thus Rep. The first is as I said the second is Blasphemously False for the Quakers call their Light within the Spirit of God which I have sufficiently proved to be a BLASPHEMER of the Spirit of God a SORDID SINFVL CORRVPT and RIDICVLOVS THING Rejoyn What he means by his first I know not unless that he said true of the Papists And if any of them have writ or spoak
true and living God Fifthly We have proved our Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit as by us distinguisht and cleared from J. F.'s Perversions by abundance of such Authorities as I think he dares not gain-say So that we cannot be longer Hereticks and those continue Orthodox showing thereby that we are but pressing more intirely plainly and effectually what the best Protestants and Separatists have at times not only let drop from their Mouths and Pens but insisted on and prophesied also the increase and Enlargement of in the hearts of Men however forgot or denyed by their Dry and Degenerated Posterity Lastly That we do not therefore exhort People to hearken unto the Voice and Leadings of the Holy Spirit which strive with them as that by which God who is a Spirit comes truly to be known and the Scriptures themselves only to be read with a right Understanding and true Benefit with any the least Design to justle the Scriptures out of their place and Authority No God knows it is not our Purpose but for this very End do we so write and speak that People may come to possess what they declare of and witness them fulfilled in themselves instead of contending about what they do not understand and which can never be revealed to that dead dark and unregenerate State in which they live for the Lord is at work as I said before to gather People more and more into the Spirit and Life of his Son accomplishing his Glorious Promises in these latter Dayes and bringing People to the good Things themselves by which Out-sides are daily wearing off more and more and the Testimonies of Holy Scripture witnessed and fulfilled in them that believe Which is not to Overthrow but to answer the great End of their first Publication Preservation unto this very Day Whereas the contrary is not truly to esteem them but under the very vain Pretence of it to withstand and as much as in them lieth to bar out the Great Gospel-Ministration which stands in the Convictions Instructions Leadings and Orderings of the Holy Spirit And unto that must all come who in this Life would witness a Translation into Christ's Kingdom that is not of this World and know a being made free of that Jerusalem which comes down from above the Mother of the Free-born which they only are that have been born again by the Regenerating Word to whom the Formal and Literal Professors are but as Hagar and her Off-spring unto Sarah and the Seed of the Promise And this is the Word of the God of Heaven and Earth unto all those that are yet unacquainted with this Convincing Baptizing Reconciling Ingrafting and Regenerating Word Power or Spirit within And so I am thus far clear of your Blood and am at Peace with the God of my Salvation THE INVALIDITY OF John Faldo's Vindication Of his Book called Quakerism No Christianity PART II. CHAP. I. of Gospel-Ordinances in general such truly embraced THis second Part of my Rejoynder is a Consideration of his Defence of his Charge of our Denying Gospel-Ordinances the True Christ with his Transactions at Jerusalem also that we are guilty of Idolatry and own not the Resurrection of the Dead The Work of this Chapter will be to see how he will make good our Denyal of Gospel-Ordinances in general Be pleased to hear how he handleth both me and the Matter Reply pag. 49 50. The first Proof is out of Fox Myst p. 2. He hath triumphed over the Ordinances and blotted them out and they are not to be touched and the Saints â— Christ in them who is the End of outward Forms This saith W. P. pag. 103. is Scripture Language But why so because some Scripture-words are in it although the Text be mangled Corrupted and abused to the Contradiction of Scripture-Truth Thus they apply sinfulyenough False Prophets Dogs Serpents Hypocrites Devil Lyar c. But if I should call W. P. Thou Child of the Devil Thou Enemy of all Righteousness he would not therefore allow it to be all very true though so applyed it looks much more like Truth then G. Fox's scriptural Language who hath these Words about Baptism and the Lord's Supper Rejoynder For his Proof as he calls it it is not in pag. 52. of G. F's Book which were Answer enough to so shuffling an Adversary I confess in page 16. I find it but it is so far from being immediately directed to either Baptism or Supper that there is no such thing mentioned much lest insisted on from the Beginning of G. F's Answer to J. Timson's Book to the very place wherein the Words are found Now what to call this piece of Invention is sest with every Readers Discretion But it is not less worth our notice that of all my Explanation of G. F's Words he only reports these three viz. is Scripture Language who further told him Christ did blot out the Hand-writing of Ordinances Collos 2. 14. That he was to the Saints then and is to those now who rightly believe in him the End of all Meats Drinks Washing Dayes or any other Temporal Elementary or Figurative Worship according to verse 16 17. By this it will appear whether of us two have most honestly and most truely applyed Scripture I in thus expositing and vindicating G. F's Passage or J. Faldo in calling me by Implication a Child of the Devil and an Enemy of all Righteousness But again Reply p. 50. I also told Mr. Penn That if the Saints having Christ in them were the Consideration of which the Ordinances were not to be touched then not only we but even all other Saints under the Mosaical Administration sinned in their Practices of God's Ordinances also for they had Christ in them in those Dayes in the same Sence as the Saints in these Rejoynder This Saying carries with it a large Concession to Christ's Manifestation in the Hearts of his People as well under the Mosaical Administration as that which we call for Distinction Evangelical Indeed larger then true if by the same Sence he understands that all that he was to his Apostles and the Churches by them planted he was to the People of Israel under the Conduct of Moses for first it is manifest they were not capable of such Discoveries being weak-Sighted carnal and greatly addicted to embrace the Fopperies of the Heathen Secondly There would have been no need of shewing forth a further Glory by Types and Figures or to entertain minds so enlighted and Heavenly with such low and as the Apostle phraseth them beggarly things had they enjoyed Christ under the Administration of Moses as in more Gospel Times But above all that J. Faldo should plead for the Continuance of Ordinances after Christ had blotted them out and such Meats and Drinks c. as Christ ended being the Substance of them because Christ might be in some measure known to the Saints of old at what time such Ordinances were given forth and such Meats
they may come to receive the Benefit thereof for without that necessary Condition it will be impossible to obtain Remission of Sins though it be so generally promulgated thereby To conclude As in my Answer at large so here in short I say Justification may be taken in a two-fold Sense Compleatly and Incompleatly or rather thus compleat Justification hath two parts the first is not imputing past Sins or accounting a true Penitant as Righteous or clear from the Guilt of past Sin as if he had never Sinned through the Remission which God declared and sealed up to all such in the Blood of his Son and thus far Righteousness as imputed goes and is the first part or Justification begun The compleat or last part of compleat Justification is the Cleansing of the Conscience and Regenerating the Mind from the Nature Power and In-dwelling of Sin by the effectual working of the Heavenly Power of Christ and bringing into the Heart and establishing his Everlasting Righteousness in the room thereof Some Scriptures considered relating to this Doctrine To the first part belong such Scriptures as these Isa 53. 11. He shall bear their Iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is He shall bear away their Iniquities as did the Scape Goat figuratively under the Law or That God would declare his remitting or passing over the Sin that was past and. that he would be in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them Also Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justified the Vngodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness that is God acquitted upon Repentance and Faith in his Promise such as have lived in a Course of Vngodliness For no present Work how good soever can justifie any Man from the Condemnation which is due for the Guilt of Sin that is past So that justifying the Ungodly in this place is pardoning the Ungodly and being so pardoned upon Faith in the Promise of God is accounted for Righteousness or as if the Person pardoned had never sinned and this appears from the 7th and 8th verses Blessed are they whose Sins are forgiven and whose Iniquities are Covered Again Chap. 5. 6. For when we were yet wit hout Strength Christ in due time dyed for the Vngodly and verse 8. But God commended his Love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us That is Christ laid down his Life to reclaim Sinners and to declare the Righteousness of God for the Forgiveness of the Sin that is past to all Ungodly and Sinful Men that turn from the Evil of their Wayes by unfeigned Repentance it was done in and by Christ for all Ungodly Men but not to the Benefit of any without Repentance Not that people should go on in Sin but by so recommending of his Love and sealing such Glad-Tidings with his own Blood to allure and engage them from their present Course of Sin 1 John 4. 19. He first loved us men must not therefore continue in Sin that Grace that is Forgiveness may abound God forbid Rom. 6. 1. The last considerable Place is in the second Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 5. 21. For he hath made him Sin for us who knew no Sin That is He was made a Sacrifice for the remitting or passing over of the Sin that was past for such as repent and believe that they might be made the Righteousness of God or rather accounted Righteous in the Sight of God as if they had never committed Sin by not imputing or forgiving the Sin that was past This Sence the two fore-going Verses confirm to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them and hath committed unto them the Word of of Reconciliation Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseeeh you through us We pray you in Christ's Stead that you would be reconciled to God verse 19 20. agreeing with Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitâ—ation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission or passing over of Sins that are past through the Forbearance of God which is neither a rigid Satisfaction for nor a Justification from Sins that are past present and to come as a late shallow VVriter in his Preface to the Hartford self-confuting Pamphlet idlely and falsely called the Quaker converted would have us believe but an acquitting from or remitting of past Sin upon Faith and Amendment of Life which makes up that only imputative Righteousness that the Scripture holds forth or we can allow of The Scriptures that belong to the second Part of this Doctrine which makes up compleat Justification are such as these Keep thee far from a false Matter the Innocent Righteous slay thou not for I will not justifie the wicked Exod. 23. I. Lord who shall ABIDE in thy TABERNACLE who shall DWELL in thy HOLY HILL He that WALKETH UPRIGHTLY and WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS and SPEAKETH THE TRUTH IN HIS HEART Psalm 15. 1 2. When a Righteous man turns away from his Righteousness for his Iniquity that he has done shall he dye Again when the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness and doth that which is Lawful or Right he shall save his Soul Ezek. 18. 26 27. Not every one that sayeth unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that DOTH the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Math. 7. 21. Vnless a Man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3 5. If ye keep my Commandment ye shall abide in my Love John 15. 10. For not the Hearers of the Law are justified but the Doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God Rom. 18. 13 14. That the Offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 16. But this is the Will of God even your Sanctification 1 Thes 43. Because God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and Belief of the Truth 2 Thes 2. 13. Was not Abraham our Father JUSTIFIED by WORKS when he offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Ye see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only Jam. 2. 22 24. In all these weighty Passages there is nothing more clear then that Sanctification both ushers in and compleats Justification First In that no Man can have right to Remission of Sins but upon Vnfeigned Repentance and True Faith begotten in the Heart which is as well the Beginnings of Sanctification as Introduction to Justification 2 dly That though we grant as before at large Remission of Sins not
ignorant in the Latine Tongue for the Superlative or firmissimum exceeds the positive or firmum by valde very as well as by maxime most However had we nothing of this to urge yet his own use of the Comparison as his Concession to what I said in my Answer and Erasmus and Beza confirmed there at large gives us all we desire for he acknowledges That the Writings of the Prophets are not MORE true in themselves then any other Revelation of the Mind of God but more certain with respect to the Jews who had a greater Esteem for and Testimony of the Writings of the Prophets to be of God and not a Delusion then of Peter's Revelation So that we see from J. F. himself the Scripture is not set above the Spirit as the more sure Word the thing promoted of old by our Enemies and which we only oppose for I doubt not but the Scriptures were more sure to the Jews then Christ himself else they would never have thought to find Eternal Life in them whilst they neglected yea persecuted him which whether it was their Perfection or Imperfection so to do I leave with the Judgment of my serious Reader yet doth the poor Man vainly call this his defending these three Passages from my Corruption and the Quakers Service May my Adversaries alwayes defend themselves at this rate and I shall never fear any loss to the Cause For what with his misrendering of our Writings unfair Quotations plain Wrestings pittiful Evasions and at best weak Replies never diâ— Cause receive more Advantage at the hand of an Enemy then ours hath from J. Faldo I will give one Proof more before we leave this Chapter Reply pag. 84. My Exposition of Coloss 1. 25. Christ in you c. though the most opposite to the Quakers Christ within W. P. hath not one Word of Answer to Rejoynder I know not whether he means the Text or his Exposition to be most opposite to our Christ within The Text is Coloss 1. 27. not 25. and lyes thus To whom God would make known what is the Riches of the Glory of the Mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ IN you the Hope of Glory In which I find not one word that opposeth Christ's Dwelling in his People One would think our Adversary spoak Ironically or by Contraries if he meant it of the Text for it seems an impossible thing to me that a Text so plainly expressing Christ to be in Men should notwithstanding prove Christ not to be in Men. If he understood it of his Exposition how can that truly exposite the Text who exposites it quite to another sense then it will bear at least he should call this a begging of the Question Let us hear what he offers First Book Part 2. p. 100 101. For Christ to be in the Gentiles rightly understood would be no hard Matter for the Gentiles to believe as to believe such a Glory to be attained by Faith in and Obedience to the Laws of a Man who dyed as a Malefactor and that â—his Death of his should reconcile God to Man with the Addition of such a Purchase This sort of Doctrine well becomes J. Faldo I perceive I have not mistaken him What Carnalist in the World could have let drop a more pernicious Sentence to the Doctrine and Kingdom of Christ then to render it more difficult to believe and lay a greater Stress upon the External then the Internal Work of Christ VVe must read the most weighty Scriptures backwards upon this Man's Principles He hath helped us to a new VVay of rendring the Text not this Mystery among the Gentiles is Christ IN you the Hope of Glory but this Mystery among the Gentiles is a Man who dyed as a Malefactor by his Death reconciled to God c. Behold your Expositor I dare warrant this Man's Comment will never trouble the next Collection of Criticks At this rate the Lord-Lord-Cryer is highly priviledged and the Galatians had passed the most difficult Birth before they had known Christ to be formed in them Regeneration is a sleight thing in comparison of the Knowledge of Christ after the Flesh This Doctrine brings not Men to Christ in them the Hope of Glory but inticeth them into the Vain Hope of the Hypocrite which perisheth The History is made the greatest Mystery and to believe the one matter of greater Difficulty then to experience the other Besides why should his Dying as a Malefactor render him unfit to be believed since his Vertue was most Exemplary his Miracles stupendious his Doctrine Spiritual and Powerful his whole Deportment amongst the Jews Innocent and Heavenly Did not Tiberius himself move to the Roman Senate his being taken into the Number of their Godds upon the Report of his mighty Works 'T is strange that should be reputed most Mysterious which was the Introduction to the Mystery and those Transactions counted most difficult that were by the Divine Wisdom of God ordained as so many facile Representations of what was to be accomplished in Man In short It is to lessen if not totally to exclude the True Mystery of Godliness which is Christ manifested in his Children their Hope of Glory But he proceeds thus The Man Christ that was nailed on the Cross the Quakers do not believe to be in them for the Godhead if Christ that is every-where and every-where alike he is in every thing at all times and nothing can be void of his Presence So that if this be it you mean the Saints have no more Priviledge then any other Creature whatsoever The second New and Living Man who is the Lord from Heaven the Quickening Spirit the Anointed Saviour whose Body was nailed to the Cross we confess before Men to be the Christ and do by Vertue and Authority of Scripture assert him to dwell in his Children and we see nothing offered by J. Faldo that can induce the weakest of us to desert this Faith having with the Testimony of Scripture that of Christ in our selves But let it be considered with what Confidence this Man excludeth Christ the Souls of his People as well with respect to his Godhead as Manhood but if in any Sense he may be said to be in them as God it is no more then he is in Cats and Dogs Oh Irreverent oh prophane Man Are Beasts and Birds as properly the Temples of the Living God as sanctified Men How can God be said to dwell and walk in his People if so remote from them as J. Faldo represents him to be The Apostle is much to be blamed according to our Adversary's Doctrine for letting fall this Passage I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. The Upshot of this sort of Doctrine is down-right Atheism for as they that know not God from the manifestation of God within are ignorant of him if Rom. 1. 19. sayes true So those who teach that God is no more in his Saints then in any other Creature endeavour
to invalidate the most convincing Testimony Man can have of a Deity and to principle Men for the rankest Atheism that ever was Yet such a sort of a Doctor J. Faldo is become and of all other Texts in the Bible from which to preach it hath chosen this Col. 1. 27. This Mystery among the Gentiles is Christ in you the Hope of Glory which indeed of all other doth most oppose and subvert it Once more and he hath done with us upon this Passage for this time Christ is in his People by his Graces wrought by his Spirit which is his Image and Likeness by the Manifestation of his Love and Glory his Works and Image in and on the Soul and do as effectually possess the Soul for Christ his Vse and Interest as a Faithful Friend can do according so that Text That Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. But I would fain know of J. Faldo how Christ's Graces Works and Image can be there and Christ the Workman excluded If Christ be not actually there they can never Actually be wrought there for none can work them but Christ by his Spirit In short either they may be wrought without Christ's Spirit which J. Faldo disallows or Christ's Spirit may work them and yet not be where iâ— works them or if the Spirit may be where it worketh them yet Christ cannot be where it works them and consequently divided from his own Spirit though indeed the Lord Christ is that Quickening Spirit which only makes alive again to God who is the Resurrection and the Life Oh the Dreadful Darkness that yet over-spreads the Hearts of called Christians It may be as truly said of them as it was of the Jews The Vail is yet over them and Christ Jesus the Anointed Saviour is unknown to them by that Redemption which he effectually worketh in all those that hearken to his Voice and are conformed to his holy Government They are Witnesses of his Graces Works and Image through believing in his Appearance and giving up like the Clay in the Hand of the Potter to be ordered and disposed by him Nor doth the Scripture he quotes impugn the Real Presence of Christ in his People for by Faith Christ dwelleth in the Hearts of his Children that is by believing in Christ he cometh to live and dwell in us who through the Unbelief of Men is shut out from being Head and Ruler in them Our Adversary would make Faith and Christ's real Presence incomparable or inconsistent whereas the one cannot possibly be enjoyed without the other Faith being as the opening of the Door of the Heart to receive Christ in to be Lord and King and if this be not J. Faldo's Faith he is void of the Faith of God's Elect which purifieth the Heart and gives to see God according to Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God This Doctrine is the Overthrow of Christianity a turning back of the whole Stream of the New Covenant a cutting off the Spiritual Union for the Christian Dispensation is IMMANUEL God with us the Word is not stinted to Christ as the Head but concerns the Body also and God is manifested measurably in his People as he was in fulness by and through that holy Body nay some eminent Professors have gone so far as to say They make up but one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Anointed for the Oyl runs from the Head to the lowermost part of the Garment which takes in all It gives the Lye to Christs own Words who said He would come and receive them to himself he would not leave them Orphants which implies a real Presence Testimonies Good Old Apostolical Ignatius was not of J. Faldo's mind who in his Epistles produced and endeavoured to be proved genuine by Bish Vsher Isaac Vossius and D. Pearson says in that to the Ephesians pag. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Let us do all things he so dwelling in us that we be HIS TEMPLES and he our God IN us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Corrupters of his House shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Iust Mart. Expos Tid p. 375. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. See saith he how he Paul is teaching the Edification that is in Christ whence we are the Temple of Christ according to what is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God The Story of Richard Woodman in the Book of Maâ—tyrs affordeth us thus much to our Purpose in answer to the Bishop of Winchester I believe verily that I have the Spirit of God No Man can believe aright without the Spirit of God It is impossible to believe in God unless God DWELL IN US C. Goad defends our Faith in these words The Gospel is nothing else but the bringing forth of Christ IN us It calls us from Conformity to the World and from walking as Men unto the Life of God Right Spirit of Christ p. 17. T. Collier God is a Mystery Col. 22. and it is by the Appearance of God IN US we come to know God who is a Mystery The Truth is that we have had and stâ—ll have low and carnal Thoughts of God judging him to be a God AFAR OFF and not a God NIGH AT HAND This is that ANTICHRIST WHICH DENIES CHRIST TO BE COME IN THE FLESH See his Works p. 399. Again God who is in himself and in the Son not only by Union but also by a Dispensation of Grace to Men is likewise IN THE SAINTS and that not as in the Creatures or other Men BUT HE IS IN THE SAINTS AS HE WAS IN CHRIST The Saints are TRULY made Partakers of his Nature hence called CHRISTIANS they are CHRISTED and indeed Christ and Christians MAKE BUT ONE CHRIST ONE ANOINTED ONE GOD FILLS THEM BOTH See his Works p. 241 242. J. Sprig in his Preface saith thus Those that know Christ in them only immediatione virtutis not suppositi know not so Full and Glorious a Proportion in him to their End It is and must be confessed that God is and subsists otherwise in Himself then Men but this hinders not the IMMEDIATENESS OF HIS PRESENCE AND DWELLING IN MEN If you confine Christ's Dwelling to a LOCAL HEAVEN you are ignorant of that which is the greatest Joy that can be CHRIST DWELLS IN THE HEART Sprig ' s Testimony p. 87. Thus Martin Finch who stiles himself Preacher of the Gospel in his little Treatise intituled Animadversions upon Sr. Henry Vain ' s Book pag. 81. The Word of God abided and dwelt in them 1 John 2. 14. If we take it for Christ they had him Christ ABIDING IN THEM and surely they that abide in Christ and have Christ abiding IN THEM they are true Saints Thus Reader we take leave of this Chapter and proceed to examine his next CHAP. XI That we are not guilty of Idolatry as charged by our Adversary True Worshippers The Charge inverted
in his 4 Decad. and 8th Sermon dedicated to King Edward the Sixth accord with me in the Matter The former thus Without the Spiriâ— it is impossible to understand them Then say I They are not a Mean to know God savingly without the Spirit The other sayes plainly Men fetch the understanding of Heavenly Things and Knowledge of the Holy Ghost FROM NO WHERE ELSE THEN FROM THE SAME SPIRIT This hits the Mark But to proceed Of all this and two whole pages more he cites but two Lines and an half included in what I re-cited on which he bestows this notable Reply Rep. This might look like an Argument for his Meaning if it concerned almost any but the Quakers who assert nothing almost but with a Contradiction I should think it as hard a Task to reconcile the Quakers to themselves as to make the Poles to meet or to dig through the Earth with a Spade to the Antipodes Rejoyn Yes J. Faldo it concerns W. Tindal and H. Bullenger thou seeâ—t as well as the Quakers But did ever any Man not miserably baffled put off such serious Matter with such vain Reflections and Pedantick Similes Will nothing serve the Man's Fancy besides Poles and Antipodes Must the Quakers needs contradict to save him from the Discredit of fouly belying them They are there it seems to oppose one another where they will not harmonize to his End Certainly this Reflection can never be consistent with J. Faldo's own Practice who in a Book of nigh Thirty Sheets writ wholely against the Quakers pretends to confirm his many infamous Charges by scores of Testimonies cold out of many of their own Books which must be unanimous or they prove not his Charges as he calls it nay he has again and again brag'd of their Harmony to his Purpose Thus are we in highest Concord when he thinks it makes for his Designs and when against them as opposite as the Poles But blessed be the Lord We have receiv'd that One Eternal Spirit by which we have been Baptiz'd into One Living Body and are of One Heart One Mind and One Sense concerning the Mysteries of God's Everlasting Kingdom But as our Adversary has said nothing sober or rational to what I answer'd in Defence of W. Smith's words so would he make the World believe I dared not to encounter with one of his Testimonies Hear him Rep. I produced many Testimonies to prove my Charge which Penn dares not deal with nor bring to Light take two of them Matthew Mark Lukeand John are not the Gospel but the Letter The next Hebrew Greek and Latine is nothing worth as pertaining to the Knowledge of God J. Hig. VVarning pag. 7. Rejoyn That he so suggests as I said his own Words prove yet that I did examine some of his Testimonies is undeniable and to let him see I dare handle these without fearing they should bite me I say and that not without very good Seconds They are not the Gospel I mean Matthew Mark Luke and John or their Histories for the Gospel of Christ is the Power of God to Salvation so are not the Scriptures The Gospel is Everlasting so are not the Scriptures John saw the Angel flying in the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to preach which could not be the Scriptures The Gospel was preached before the Scriptures were written therefore the Scriptures cannot be the Gospel The Gospel is but One but after this Man 's Reckoning there should be Four therefore they cannot be the Gospel Which is further proved from the Signification of the Word Gospel to wâ—t Glad-Tidings which are to be understood of the Coming of him that was the Saviour of the World of whose Blessed Appearance and Wonderful Transactions these Scriptures are but the Narratives Besides one of their Authors Luke expresly calls them a Declaration consequently not the Gospel thereby declared of which Definition Peter Martyr that Superintendent Reformer in England chuseth of all other Part 1. Chap. 6. of his Common-Places Tertullian calls the Scriptures Instrumenta doctrinae i. e. Instruments of Doctrine And the New Testament Writings Evangelicum instrumentum i. e. An Evangelical Instrument And Matthew he calls A Faithful Commentator of the Gospel Chrysostom being requir'd to Swear upon the Gospel both denyed those Histories to be the Gospel and to Swear at all And D. Featly will not acknowledge the English Bible to be the Authentick Word of God because of Corruption consequently not Authentick Gospel therefore not the Gospel for that is Authentick I hope then I may without Offence in Defence of the Trâ—th and that Honest Man now at Peace yet so severely reflected upon conclude that Matthew Mark Luke and John are not the Gospel but the Letter or Declaration of the Gospel For his second Proof viz. That Hebrew Greek and Latine is nothing worth as pertaining to the Knowledge of God I see no Error nor Blasphemy in so Innocent an Assertion This is so like the catching at Twigs by drowned Men for Safety that no Man not as Destitute of Succour would boast of the Evidence of so Speechless a Witness There is not one Word it can speak on the behalf of his Charge He is fled from the Scriptures to meer Language and makes that a Letter indeed which one would think he took just now for all Spirit perhaps with this Distinction though that the Scriptures may be the Gospel in Hebrew Greek and Latin but by no means in the English What becomes of the Vulgar then But what can there be more Sottish then for a Protestant at this time of day to talk of knowing God by Hebrew Greek and Latine but above all 't is unpardonable in an Independent Priest to write at this rate whose Folk for these Threescore Years have totidem verbis in express terms deny'd the Knowledge of all or either of those Tongues to be necessary to the Knowledge of God Alas who once pretended more to the Spirit and was more derided for doing so then some of the Predecessors of these very Independents and Anabaptists now so hot against us What less were the Invectives cast abroad against Ancient Separatists as the Alchimist Assembly-Man Heudebrass with abundance of more serious Declamations against them under the Names of Tub-Preachers Gifted-Brethren c. But if Language learn Men to know God which Christ himself said was Life Eternal how comes it that Schollars are such Ill Christians and Jews the natural Hebrews were such Persecutors in Christ's time and that they remain Infidels to this very day Methinks at this rate the Greeks when God condescended to speak forth the Gospel in their Language should not have counted it Foolishness nor have mocked at his Embassadour when he came on no less Errand then that of Salvation and least of all since they believ'd should they have Degenerated into so much Superstition But why the Latin must be brought in I cannot conceive unless it be the better