led by that Spirit When the truth of any matter in question is to be tryed by a written Testimony and that writing may be produced he that shall then instead of the determinate words of that Testimony produce other words to the prejudice of his Neighbours cause shall be counted forger and lyar And I nothing doubt but that G. F. if he had dealt so with other writings of civil concern as he has done with the holy Scriptures would by this time have lost his ears And it would not have excus'd him in such a change to have urged that his own knowledge and testimony were of greater cortainty and vilidity than the words of that written Testimony forasmuch as Party concern'd acknowledg'd no such matter 7. G. F. in accusing Professons of perverting Scripture in the Instances cited follows his own Judgment and Principle and not theirs for the makes it an Argument of the Quakers their being sent of God because they speak of Scripture right as it is but Professors the contrary and tells them they run into all absurdities that give their meanings to Scripture Lastly such is the unhappiness of W. P's undertaking in this matter that almost all his reasonings and scornings too against me in vindication of G. F. turn directly to his condemnation For because Prefessons do not acknowledge any other common Rule of Faith but the Scriptures it was necessary therefore for G. F. to confute them by express Scripture especially in that he had undertaken so to do and dar'd them to go to a tryal at than Tribunal See the Epistle to his Mystery I have been long in the answer of this Allegation because it seems to be the only thing of weight in his whole Book but you see how it disserves him Having now seen my Argument against G. F. confirm'd and improv'd with much bitterness by W. P. under pretence of vindicating him I might here fairly conclude but having added to my Argument in my Epistle that he had not only done to same or the like to that which he condemn'd in other but much more and that which was really conclemnable and urg'd my Instances to prove that also it may perhaps be sit for me to say something in vindiation of them or some of them from W. P.'s exceptions Though indeed if the Reader would but take the pains to compare my Epistle with his Answer and what I have here already written I might well spare mine and his further labour in this Matter But because every Reader may not have opportunity so to do I will proceed The first instance I have spoken to already The second Instance is form John 1.7 where G. F. applies that to the Light which John speaks of the Baptist vis That all men through him might believe Which taken as it is spoken proves that the preaching of John Baptist was a means of bringing all men to believe and consequently that the true Light may light every man by the foolishness of preaching or outward means which is contrary to the Quakers Doctrine of the Light and is avoided by his perverting the Text. The third Inst in from 2. Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ G. F. hath it thus When as Paul said that the Light which shined in their hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 1. He puts the light insted of God 2. He leaves out Light immediately before of the knowledge 3. The whole Sentence is non-sense and notwithstanding all this W. P. has the face to tell his Reader He obtrudes an arrant lie upon our very senses and call me wretched Scribler How idle How frivolous c. The error that 's couch'd here is 1. That God and Christ the Light are not distinct but all one 2. That by Light here is not meant Knowledge 3. That this Light is not an effect of Creation 4. Inst from Col. 3.10 where G. F. reads them for him and so takes away from us a proof that the New Man there spoken of is created W. P. saith in his defence If he did put Them for Himit is not false but if we in common discourse say you for thou he 'l say it's false 5. Rom. 2.15 G. F. puts Conscience for Thoughts because Conscience was more easily drawn to signifie the uncreated Light in every man 6. John 7.38 There he puts Christ's helly for the Believers belly to countenance the foresaid Notion 7. 2 Cor. 2.16 G. F. applies that to the immediate Word which is plainly spoken of the Apostles And W. P. that he may be true to his way of abusing me falsly saith I undertake to prove him to be an Impostor for putting the before Death and Life which the Translation doth not Did ever man make less conscience of what he wrote 8. Col. 1.23 Putting was for is to prove inward preaching without outward I have spoken of it before 9. 2 Cor. 13.5 Within you for in you to countenance as he supposes their Doctrine of God's immediate Light 10. 2 Cor. 3.6 G.F. saith The Scripture said The Letter was dead and did not give Life W. P. blames me for referring these words to this Scripture which is the nearest I can find but he finds no Scripture nearer to which to resen it How captious he is Paul saith The Letter â—illeth speaking of the first Covenant as W. P. confesseth but G. F. intends that the outward dispensation of the New Covenant in the Scriptures is dead An Opinion that has done no small mischief in the World 11. I have charged G. F. that twenty times or more as I suppose he denies that the Scripture is called Word but saith it is called a Treatise Acts 1.1 And yet that word there rendred Treatise is the same which is rendred Word when applyed to Christ But W. P. to help at a dead lift saith G. F. intended The Word of God by way of excellency Which of G. F. his Adversaries did ever affirm it was 12. But W. P. can desend him in any thing even when he obtrudes upon his Reader the grossest absurdity instead of Scripture and will not have it to be any more than a trivial Objection against his infallible Prophet when he saith And so to the Word Christ Jesus Him by whom the World was made before is was made This G. F. puts in a Scripture Letter and this he repeats in his Book at least seven times without any variation the eighth time he has it thus By which the World was made before it was made It 's evident enough he has respect to John 1.3 Without him was not any thing made that was made What saith his Chamption now But is there no allowance to be had for curt Expressions eseapos of the Pen oversight in Compositors and Errors in the Press
mean time he sits at God's right hand that is he has all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him and reigns over Men and Angels as will appear by comparing 1 Cor. 15.25 with Psal 110.1 They believe that the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Joh. 5.23 Therefore they worship Christ and call upon him as their Lord their King their great High-Priest their God that searcheth their hearts and is perfectly able to save them that come unto God by him And they say it 's no wonder that they honour Christ as God whilst they acknowledge God his Father to be above him forasmuch as the Author to the Hebrews doth the same Heb. 1.8 9. saying But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is forever and ever Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity Therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellaws Finally When all things shall be subdued under him this Man Jesus then shall the Son also himself be subject to him that put all things under him that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.28 Now I know not any thing of all that I have said concerning the Manhood Resurrection and Exaltation of Jesus wherein the Trinitarians and Vnitarians do not agree The only Point in difference between them is this Whether this Dominion Power and Glory which are conferred upon the Man Jesus be conferred upon him by assuming him into a personal Union with God so that the Man and a Person of God make one individual Person or whether they be conferred upon him by God's communicating to him such a Supernatural and Divine Power as he never communicated nor ever will to any Man or Angel and greater than which God himself cannot bestow The first the Trinitarians hold the latter the Vnitarians Herein they both agree That the Man Jesus is really invested with this Power But for the Quakers I have shew'd that they really deny this Person this Man Jesus and consequently all that power and glory which he is invested with So that all that they talk of him and all their contention for him is meer equivocation The Man Jesus the Mediator between God and Men is according to them so far from being our King our Lord and God our High-Priest and Intercessor and from being in himself immortal most happy and glorious that he has not so much Being as a Bat I mean a proper Bat not one of Mr. Pen's Bats So that he that shall call Jesus accursed O horribled meaning by Jesus that personal Beeing or Man that was dead and is now alive in Heaven a place remote from men on Earth he commits really no greater offence than he that shall call the man i' th Moon accursed for the one as they hold hath as much Beeing as the other And now let the World judge whether I did not use a soft expresson when I said that some Doctrines of the Quakers did render them very dishonourable and dangerous to Christian Religion If the Deists in France should once get the Quakers knack of equivocating and meaning by Jesus Christ when they speak of him nothing but God then what havock might they make of Christian Religion I would not be mistaken when I charge these things upon the Quakers I mean the Leading Men for I am still perswaded there are some honest-hearted among them that neither know this that I have said to be their Doctrine nor believe it And perhaps there may be some that own it and profess it that are so silly they neither know what they say nor whereof they astirm Moreover I prosess solemnly that it is not from any malice envy or revenge that I impute these things to them for I do heartily believe their Doctrine is such as I have said and I hope the Proofs I have quoted out of their Writings will sufficiently vindicate me in the eyes of all impartial Readers and I can easily produce more of the same kind See the Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker Now as I have shew'd that they do not believe the Beeing of Jesus the Mediator and consequently none of those Articles of Christian Faith which depend upon his Beeing so it were not very difficult to demonstrate that they cannot upon their Principles believe any of them I will try a little and for Example let the Proposition to be believed be God raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead It you bring them Scripture and universal Tradition to get credit with them it 's all nothing G. Keith saith in his Immediate Revelation p. 35. The best words uttered from Christ in the dayes of his flesh or from any of the Apostles or Prophets and yet recorded in the Scriptures cannot reveal the Father nor the Son either Again p. 37. Outward Revelation or Discovery by words spoken from without of Chirst or any of his Disciples or Apostles cannot reveal the Father nor the Son It seems then that if Christ himself as after his Resurrection with his Apostles should converse with us and preach to us that God had raised him from the dead and if the whole Colledge of the Apostles should bear witness to what he said all this could not work in us any true saving-Faith of the Proposition aforesaid without an immediate Revelation within for that 's the purport of his Book the Title whereof is Immediate Revelations not â—â—â—siâ—â— but remaining of indispausable necessity as to the whole Body in general so to every Member thereof every true Believer in particular And by immediate Revelation he tells us p. 16. They understand not onely immediate supernatural influences of the Spirit of God to assist and enable or elevate the mind to know and understand savingly but also such inward influences as are the very immediate Objects of our mind Hence he saith p. 40. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of Man to be but vanity and his wisdom foolishness and enmity against God even all that wisdom which the carnal mind can gather into it self whether from the Words of Scripture or from the Works of Creation and Providence Here by mans wisdom and carnal mind mind you must understand him of all wisdom whatsoever which comes not by immediate inward Revelation So p. 59. All your Scripture literal traditional Knowledge and Wisdom is a burthen unto this something in you And G. White head saith Christ Ascend p. 28. That Faith that is without the divine and immediate illumination of the Spirit within which is no Divine Faith but mens Knowledge Faith and Religion are but Traditional Literal and Lifeless So that if W. P. would have told candidly and plainly with us he should have told us that the infallible Spirit is the immediate Judge Rule and Guide to men and so that no man can have any true Faith or Religion without its immediate proposing by way of Object unto him as
omitted his many reproachful and virulent expressions Besides I doubt not but to make it as evident as the Sun at noon that W. P. is himself guilty of those very Crimes which he falsly charges upon me and in those very Instances Before I came to the main Argument of my Epistle to the Quakers I addressed my self to them by way of Introduction wherein I gave some reasons of that manner of Argument which I intended This Mr. P. first falls foul upon and by the honesty and discretion he useth here we may judge of his performance in the whole Treatise In his first and second Sections the Reader may take notice how greedily he catches at the commendations I give of some of them I said there were honest-hearted amongst them and he saith He is pleased to allow us at least a great many among us to be honest-hearted It may as well be understood of some few Is he not a modest man If his Neighbour say Honest-hearted he will have it at least a great many honest-hearted I said Whilst some of you excel in many things c. But W. P. like a man that will rob his Neighbour for praise rather than go without it saith thus Sect. 2. If we excel in all things as he confesseth Here W. P. has committed a double falsity 1. He puts all for many and 2. the Quakers indefinitely for some of them I have look't among the Printers Errata's whether he had not corrected all by many but find no such thing And if I should grant him that error without good reason yet the other piece of falsity viz. putting we the Quakers in general for some of them will abide by him to the gross injury of me and the shame of himself Doth he call me idle Boaster and at the same time vainly boast of the praise I never gave them In his third Sect. He calls those praises which by falsifying my words he wrings out paying them their due In his fourth Sect. he saith of me Nor doth he less then palpably belie us in telling the World we condemn all virtuous Persons whatsoever if not of our own Perswasion And yet I cannot understand his Answer to be less than an implicite concession of the Charge Sure I am G. F. denies the Worship and whole Religion of all Sects that differ from the Quakers It seems I belie them with a matter of truth which because it is not plausible W. P. would palliate You may see what he 's resolv'd on He saith Sect. 5. Christ's Person which he meaning me prejudicially sayes we deny is c. My words are these But you seem at least to deny his Person Is there no difference between denying and seeming to deny But I shall have occasion to speak further of this matter Only the Reader may take notice all along of his great honesty in quoting my words But this is a trivial fault in comparison with that which follows W. Penn Sect. 8. But saith he he promiseth for the future to decline this way of proceeding and withal to avoid the use of both Scripture and Reason c. I will not saith he give him the lie but I hope he will not say I am uncivil if I tell him He has already â—â—ntradicted himself and broke his word with us for within eight lines he that promised to relinquish all personal reflection layes to our charge c. And in p. 92. he has it up again and gives me the lie in plain English which he saith here he will not give me He words it thus First Then he has broke his word with us which in plainer English is he has told us a lie in assuring us at the beginning he would deal with us neither from Scripture nor Reason and yet undertakes both Now Reader have patience to hear my words which run thus But it is not my design at this time to take a full view of you And indeed I have found it very fruitless to deal with you by way of Reason and Scripture for your leading men c. It follows in my next page I will not therefore now deal with you so much by Arguments drawn from Reason and Scripture and depending purely upon the understanding and mind but by such Arguments whose evidence depends mostly upon the outward Senses Now let the sober Reader judge on whom the lie is to be fixed and whether I have not sufficient reason to tell him He is both uncivil and unchristian Behold here the infallible Minister the Censor of the World and of other mens foul language Behold the Spirit of Truth vindicated Let me beg of thee Reader to read his Book See how he treats me and what himself deserves Acknowledge the special hand of our Lord Jesus in giving up this man to these shameful failings in the very entrance of his work Pag. 15. Upon occasion of my savine they look upon themselves as led by an infallible Spirit this plain English-man takes up his Post and will defend this That God's Holy anâ—Vn-erring Spirit is or should be the proper Judge of Truth Rule of Faith and Guide of Life among men I commend him for his wit I have charg'd G. F. with about fifty such failures as for which he condemns his Adversaries to be perverters of Scripture and consequently Deluders and Blasphemers W. P. here in vindication of him enters into a long discourse of two and thirty pages to prove from Scripture Reason and humane Authority That G. F. is or if he is not should be led by an infallible Spirit for his Hypothesis is no other way to his purpose 1. I do not only willingly grant but contend for it That there was in G. F. at that time when he wrote his Mystery c. a Conscience which had he hearkened to he should thereby have been a Law to himself and it would not have suffered him to be guilty of such things as he condemns in others 2. I grant also that this Rule is infallible viz. That he that judgeth another for any thing is inexcusable if he do the same thing himself I grant 3. that God is the Author of this Conscience Light or Knowledge 4. That G. F. might have known the Rule aforesaid by a good use and improvement of his own understanding but I suppose he came to the knowledge of it by some outward Teaching or Tradition especially by the Scriptures And so 5. the Spirit of God may in a true and good sense be said to have taught G. F. that Rule because it inspired those that preached and wrote that Rule in the Scriptures 6. That the Spirit of God was ready to have assisted him in walking according to that Rule 7. That it may be God did by his Power and Providence work upon him toward obedience Lastly Perhaps the Spirit of God did at that time when he was about to disobey suggest to him his Duty and Rule But there is little reason to think so
Did they not all own the eternal Divinity of Christ And did not Mr. P. know it Let the Reader judge whether he doth not knowingly abuse me and whether he has not abus'd him too in writing so much to no purpâ—se As for the difference between lighteth and enlighteth I stood not upon it but now after all his impertinent labour I say There is as much difference between these words as between destroy this Temple and destroy ye the Temple and our Translators seem to use the word lighteth for the Gospel preached and the word enlighteth for the Gospel received and believed W. P. deals here like a cunning Lawyer who having a bad Cause labours hard to turn off the Judges from the Matter in issue to something that is not so In order to that another Artifice he useth is To make an hideous out-cry against me as a Socinian Mungrel-Socinian Bidlean and other frightful names as if it were a sufficient vindication of G. F. from the charge I have prov'd against him out of his own Writings that I am an Erronious or Heretical Person Let me be all that W. P. saith I am a Turk a Jew an Anthropomorphite an Arrian or Sabellian or what he will will G.F. his Doctrine be e're the truer or his Person the wiser or honester Away with such Mercurial sleights Here he would fain draw us into the Controversie of his stating viz. Whether the Light be natural and created or supernatural and eternal Into which if we should be so foolish as to follow him I dare say we might have work enough for a full age and be never the wiser at last For how is it possible to come to any determination with one that is equivocating in his terms as I shall shew the Quakers to be Next he falls upon my Concessions concerning the Light in every man and pleases himself hugely in making me contradict my self and give away my Cause But it 's no great matter for one that is wont to equivocate in his own words to make his Neighbours contradictory by the same art And 2. if if should appear that I had failed in expressing my mind concerning that matter yet still the Argument of my Book might be firm and valid against G. F. Here under this Head upon my sober appeal to the Light in the Quakers he falls as it were into an exstacy and cries out monstrum horrendum as if some Poetick Deity had inspir'd him Why what 's the matter He saith That unto which a man makes an appeal must be capable of giving an infallible judgment and so a true Judge or else he appeals foolishly Answ It seems when Paul appealed to Caesar that is Nero that Nero was capable of giving an infallible judgment or else Paul appealed foolishly Do not all men know that Appeals are made to men upon the account of necessity or conveniency not upon an opinion of his infallibility to whom the appeal is made Doth not Mr. P. reason like a man in a fright 2. He saith that G. F. is by the verdict of that Light in them pronounced not guilty and I tell him that G. F. is by the verdict of the Light in me and as many thousands as the Quakers pronounced Guilty On which side now is the infallible judgment or are we both infallible What tristing is here with terms and words Upon the question if self of the Light in every man I have in effect discours'd already when we consider'd W. P's Position touching the Un-erring Judge c. I add further That every man that grows up to years of discretion has a capacity by Nature or otherwise to know so much of Gods Will concerning his Duty as whereby his honesty and sincerity may be tryed 2. That he that is faithful in the obedience of that knowledge he has shall have more 3. That such an one as was Cornelius Acts 10. who feareth God and worketh Righteousness shall be accepted of him But. 4. that such a person may be yet without the Knowledge or Faith of Jesus the Mediator between God and men And 5. that God did not to Cornelius neither was wont in those Primitive times nor doth he in these dayes that can be made to appear reveal unto such men inwardly by his Spirit the knowledge of Christ the Mediator which was contained in those words which Peter preached to Cornelius whereby he and his House were to be saved 6. I say That that knowledge in those words are conveyed to us by the Holy Scriptures as unto Cornelius by word of mouth 7. I say That the Quakers in vilisying the knowledge from tradition and the profession of the Person of Christ by tradition and contending for an immediate revelation of this Knowledge do vilifie the dispensation of the Gospel by the Mediator Jesus and his Apostles and Evangelists their Preaching and Writing These things are evident partly by themselves partly by Scripture as Acts 10. 11. Mat. 25. Rom. 2. Now let us look into Mr. P. and his Associates their sense of that Doctrine they so much glory in and upon the account of which they sing such loud tryumphs in the World viz. The Light in every man is infallible and they that are not infallible are Deluders For we shall deceive our selves if we think we understand them when we understand the words in one sense 1. Then you must know that by the term Light sometime they mean Christ so when they say the Light is supernatural and eternal they mean by the Light Christ that is God and the sense is God is supernatural and eternaly and God is infallible Who ever denyed it But 2. when they say the Light justisies or condemns then they mean that which we call Conscience for so G. F. expounds it Myst p. 11. saying And the Light condemns which you call Cousciouce Sutable to this sense when a man proceeds rightly in the use of his faculties and those means which God assords him and attains to a true knowledge then he is infallible and the Light that is his Judgment is infallible But when he doth not proceed rightly and gives a wrong judgment then he is fallible and his judgment fallible but not the Light And so the sense of their Position The Light is infallible when they do not mean by the Light God is that true knowledge or true judgment is true knowledge or true judgment And Mr P. has unhappily by being a little more open than their Doctrine will bear utterly betray'd both his Cause and his Friends For thus he saith p. 82. Infallibility of persons any further then as they are joyned and conformed to the Light of God me never affirmed and fallibility of the Light because of the fallibility of persons we never owned That is to say when G. F. and W. P. preach nothing for truth buth what they certainly know to be so then and in that point they give a true judgment and are infallible and so
renders all Discourse vain and inessectual Or is it possible to convince those men by Reason that will deny the evidence of Sense Besides how can there be either end or fruit of writing where a man shall not only musunderstand things that are plain but impute to his Adversary Words and Sayings of his own coyning and proceed to the bitterest reproaches thereupon and in the mean time omit to take notice of Matters of moment Therefore I have entituled this Discourse CONTROVERSIE ENDED for I am bold to affirm that it must either be ended here or if not It may be continued infinitely upon the same grounds What remains then to be done but earnestly to beg of God through Jesus Christ that he would give them repentance to the acknowlegment to the Truth O Holy Jesus who wast dead but art alive and livest for evermore who wast crucified through weakness but livest through the Power of God to whom God even thy Father hath given al Power in Heaven and Earth who canst be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities for thou wast in all things tempted as we are Have pity upon these men who some of them have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge work in them Humility and enlighten the eyes of their minds that they may acknowledge thee to be their Lord and the Mediator between God and Men that they may no longer despise that Knowledge and Faith of thee which is by Preaching or Tradition through the Holy Scriptures but may contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Have morey upon me O Lord pardon mine Infirmities and judge whether I have not been as careful not to wrong them in this Work as I would have them or any man to be of not injuring me and grant that it may be fo benefit and advantage to many and that thou mayest be glorified thereby Amen POSTSCRIPT NOw it will appear whether there be any prudent and houest men among the Governing Quakers by their dealing with W. P. for this Book of his for I appeal to the Reader whether he thinks there be any such inconsiderable Society of Christians in England that would not either have requir'd a publick acknowledgment of his Offence or have disown'd that Member which should have wrote in their Desence a Book of 138 papges and but two of them that is p. 130 and 131. that have any pertinency of Auswer to their Antagonist's chief Argument and that also which is there alledg'd to be partly false and altogether inconsequent save against himself But to contain many pages that directly confirm and aggravate the Charge brought against them and moreover to be so stuff with palpable calumnious and self-praysing untruths and virulent Language that it makes their Cause and Dealing odious in the sight of sober men all which I have prov'd W. P. to have done in relation to the Quakers It will easily appear to the considering Reader that I have for brevity sake omitted to impprove many Advantages which my rash Adversary has given me contenting my self to in timate them and so proceed And he that has diligently and judiciously read my Epistle and his Answer may perceive that I have not so much as intimated divers things of much advantage to my Cause and Person Among those is that Passage in p. 136. where he essayes to answer some of my Reasons for keeping my Name from them and sayes very civilly That I horribly bilie them why wherein Not in this That there are some of their Writers that make it a great part of their Answers to Books the reproaching the Author Let this very Book of W. P. be an Instance How many Sheets must it have wanted if all of that kind had been substracted Not in this That they are very Rhetorical in that point I am perswaded W. P. could not Rhetoricate so well in the praise of any Person in the World G. Fox not excepted as he hath in reproach of me He has taken up one of Muggleton's peculiar Phrases wherewith to abuse me and my Friends calling us Serpentine Associates It 's like Muggleton had us'd it in W. P's hearing and W. P. according to his nature was taken with it and so bestowed it upon his next Adversary Neither in this do I belie them that if they had my Name then it must be considered what Party I am of and accordingly all that is odious or so reputed either in the Doctrine or Practice of the whole Party must be raked up against me Let his Book be witness whether he has not dealt so with me even upon a suspition of my name But saith he we never charg'd the infirmities of a single Person further then upon that guilty Person unless he were connived at or justifyed in his wickedness by any whole Party Now here lies the Wit If any part of the Charge be not found apparent all the rest how manifest soever must go for a horible lie But W. P. kind Man will not put me to much trouble in searching for an Instance It is but turning back to p. 7. and there I find a single Person described as it were in a Hue and Cry and his being wanting in the very Alphabet of common civility attributed plurally to him and me at least and I think to all the Party that W. P. assigns for us Has he not then rak'd up against me what is odious or so reputed both in the Doctrine and Practice of a Party and of a particular Person Which he can never prove me guilty of justifying in that case Another Instance shall be of an elder date see the Epistle to G. Whitehead's Divinity c. where G. F. tells the Presbyterians and Independents that when the people of God called Quakers were gathered together in divers places to Worship God then you said They were plotting together against Oliver whom some of you called the Light of your Eyes and Breath of your Nostrils to bring in King Charles If they can make it appear which I much doubt that one or another Presbyterian or Independent did suggest any such thing against them it can never be believed by any sober Man that that Person was connived at or justifyed therein by one or both Parties Presbyterians or Independents and yet here G. F. and J. S. impute it to them both indefinitely and that so as thereby to insinuace that the Quakers were generally at least esteemed Friends to the King and sufferes upon that account But the Presbyterians and Independents Friends to Oliver and Enetnies to the King and the Quakers O the Candour and Simplicity of G. Fox O the Modesty and Meekness of W. Pen Again Inreference to their calling men Tinker or Tayler W. P. replyes We never told the World mens Trades in a way of detraction or reproach our Souls abbor it When he has taken shame to himself in the ingenuous acknowledgment to the World of those untruths I have prov'd him guilty of then he may better be believed In the mean time who can believe that G. W. did not call Bunyan the Tinker by way of detraction when he adds immediately a rayling envious man and in a late Pamphlet calls rayling Language Tinkers-Rhetorick Besides Tinker is a term of reproach and he that is such may by Stature be punished as a Rogue FINIS The Book intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed c. is to be had at the Elephant and Castle heat the Royal Exchange in Cornhil London Why may not he prophane Scripture to abuse men Mystery Epist It had been to be desired that he had not failed in his English in this place The instances of these things out of G. F's Book are to be seen in my Epistle p. 5 6. The Mystery of the great Whore I suppose they will not deny that writing to all the Worlds in defence of Religion is Speaking or Preaching or equivalent * Here this great Linguist has forgot to write good English that is his Mother Tongue What an unworthy thing is it in W. P. to intimate p. 67. that I would have the Text rendered Haec est lux illa vere quae venientem in mundum illuminat omnem hominem Ambiguitatem sustulisset See p. 68 c. W.P. p. 13. W. P. p. 117. P. 127. Divinity of Christ Pref. P. 119. He chargeth me p. 61. with driving at the Divestigating Christ of all right to eternal Divinity This is learned non sense G. F's spirit could never elevate him to such a degree of Jargon Besides except he can produce some Author for it which I am perswaded he cannot I shall conclude him the first that ever us'd the word divestigate or divestigare in any sense whatsoever Though the word One is not in the Hebrew in some Texes where he so confidently puts an Emphasis Yet eight lines after himself confounds and abuses Scripture Heb. 2.16 with Rom. 4.5 Non-sense as was observed before pag. 68. pag. 92. Tradita
him Well! what 's his censure against me which lights upon G. F His carping there is like all the rest malicious and troublesom It seems G. F. is a malicious and troublesom Prophet Thus I might go through all the instances and present W. P. wounding and goring himself and Friend upon the Horns of my Argument but the Reader will easily excuse me from that travel and do it himself in his own mind And yet methinks I cannot but note one more of his mercurial watchings He 'l go near to charge me with palpable lying as he has done divers times in the like case for this common phrase because I say I cannot when I can It is in my p. 33. in his p. 126. where I fault G.F. for saying absolutely God said For did not sin with his mouth where the Scripture saith In all this did not Job sin with his lips Now my exception lies in those words In all this which W. P. according to his wonted honesty leaves out and gives out that my exception lies in the putting of mouth for lips and that I charge G. F. with imposture on that account when as he has found as great a change as that in Christ and his Apostles their quoting of Scripture Well! suppose what is not that my exception had been that Is it not as great a corrupting of Scripture to put mouth for lips as to put to for in where Mr. P. faith To and In may he the same or as destroy ye for destroy ye understood Thus all the foul play that W. P. can use will not excuse his good Friend but every blow that he strikes at me wounds G. F. mortally But the most deadly of all comes at last 't is this without change of his Argument If Christ and his Apostles have not observed such exactness as G. Fox so severely reproves his Adversaries for the want of It is to be hoped that be will either retract his unworthy abuse or else not think it hard in us to charge this blasphemous inference upon him namely that he makes Christ Jusus and his Apostles perverters of Scripture and what else be wickedly concludes against Professors This inference falls with all its weight upon G. F. as the Reader may readily perceive But for me it touches me not at all For First We will suppose G. F. but equal to Christ and his Apostles in changing words to the same sense yet there will be this difference between them 1. They testified the infallibility of their spirit by many Miracles c. but I never heard of any that G. F. did except the eating and making one or more meals of Spidars of which I hear not of any evidence but his own word 2. Christ never call'd the Scribes and Pharisees Perverters of Scripture for such change of words as G. F. hath done Professors 3. Christ did not at the same time challenge the World and call them forth to come and have their Doctrines tryed by that very Scripture that is that Version or that Copy then in use among them and which he corrects them for not following exactly in every point without their meanings as G. F. has done in his Mystery c. and Preface to the same Which things considered are enough to render him according to his own Judgment as Deluder and Blasphemer and W. P. no less in making the Parallel but our Lord and his Apostles innocent But secondly of fifty instances there are not above three or four that have not either addition or substration both of words and sense or an alteration of words either importing or countenancing a bad sense or at least varying from the sense of the place as I doubt not but will appear to any judicious Reader And W. P. himself in most of the Instances doth not deny the various sense onely he endeavours to make that sense consist with truth in general or some opinion of their own which others count error Lastly It 's more than Mr. P. knows for all his skill in the Hebrew which is very notorious among learned men whether out Lord and his Apostles in their Citations of Scripture did not keep to the very words of that Version which was then in use or allowed by those to whom he spake and they wrote So vast a difference is there between the Citations of Christ and his Apostles and those of G. F. that it 's a most shameful thing they should be brought into comparison Here I might transcrible much to the bitter condemnation of them out of their own mouths but I must hasten Notwithstanding after Mr. P. has writ a Book stuft with Invectives and opprobrious condemnations of G. F. his Doctrine and Person under my Person and Cause he comes at length in the end of it to say something to his purpose of Vindication if it were true and reasonable but it proves no Armour of proof but a meer Cobweb He argues thus Professors hold the Scripture to the such a sufficient infallible Rule as that God hath not given unto men any thing more clear and certain But G. F. and the Quakers hold That the eternal Spirit is by way of excellency the Rule and Guide of Christians Therefore he was not consined to the very express words and points thereof as his Rule Could he satisfie his Conscience in this Apology But I answer 1. This arguing clearly supposes that the Dictates of G. F.'s Spirit are more excellent than the Scriptures 2. It supposes that the Spirit of God or God himself can affirm that to be written which is not written that is can lie for in citing Scripture men have respect to the very express words and upon those they build the sense 3. It supposes that because G. F. has a less esteem of the Scriptures than other men have therefore he may honestly do that to the Scriptures which will render other men Pervertors and Corruptors of them 4. It supposes that which is false viz. That Professors hold the prosent English Transslation to be unalterable for G.F. chargeth them with perverting Scripture for altering it to the very same sense as both he and they must acknowledge 5. G. F. chargeth the Translators with corrupting Scripture for rendering it so as W. P. confesseth to be the same with the rendring that G. F. would have as I shew'd upon Col. 1.23 6. It seems by this arguing that when G. F. calls upon other Christians to come forth and be tryed by the Scriptures we must understand not the form of found words contained in the Scriptures but his interpretation of Scripture But they poor Men must be charged nay commanded to give him plain Scripture printed Scripture Chapter and Verse What though G. F. his words are to W. P. of equal yea greater authority than the Scriptures as proceeding fresh and new from the holy Spirit but these have pass'd through many foul hands must they therefore be so to other men that do not acknowledge him