in his own unclean VVisdom to be performed at his own Time and in his own Will which I answered thus It seems then that what Prayer W. Smith's Passage reflects upon is Gospel-Prayer in J. Faldo's Account Of this he takes no notice he might think it is his Inâ—â—st but I am sure it was not his Honesty to omit it for it was to entitle Prayers hateful to God Gospel that he might have his Will of us in making the World believe that we deny Gospel-Prayer he was far from the Carriage of a worthy and generous Adversary in this that knowing how apt many are to receive any Charge against us would have acted deliberately and faithfully as one concerned by the Constraint of Conscience when he alass sent his many Charges as false as black to incense the Ignorant and Credulous against us Revenge for the Loss of some Hearers and that which follows animating him to this Unchristian Essay But he proceeded thus That we own no Prayer that is not by immediate Inspiration and Motion of the Spirit and without the Vse of our Conception and Direction of our Understanding He brought two or three Testimonies to confirm this Limb of his Charge I avoided reporting them by confessing the Matter my Business was therefore to mantain our Assertion in order to which I produced John 4. 24. The Worship of God is in the Spirit and in the Truth which he left out and from thence I gave the Argument by him repeated which he is pleased to call Witless and Truthless as if sayes he the Vnderstanding Conceptions and Will of man in Prayer must needs exclude the Motion of the Spirit or the Motions of the Spirit exclude them But this Reader we will easily scatter for if Man offer up his own Conceptions he cannot be said to offer up what is injected by the Holy Ghost by whom alone God's Children cry Abba Father for by Man's own Conceptions I mean what simply proceeds from man and where any man prayes such Conceptions he must needs exclude the Injections and Motions of the holy Spirit and offer up an unclean Sacrifice else there would be no difference between the Prayers of the righteous and the wicked The Will of man in Prayer was not mentioned in the first Boook But if by Will he means Man's Praying in his own Power and how and when he pleaseth we also deny that for how can he be said to pray with thâ— Spirit and worship in the Spirit who acts without the Will Guidance and Motions of the Spirit And if hâ— means the Will of man subjected to the Will of God anâ— Râ—le of the Spirit then we say Such Prayer is not in tâ—â— Will of man properly but in his Will to whom the Willâ— man is subjected That is properly done in the Will of Man which is done at Man's Disposal or is in Man's Power to perform but it is not within the Compass of Man's Will to offer up a spiritual Prayer consequently it belongs to the holy Spirit to furnish Man with that Capacity So that by the Will of man we do not understand the Will subjected but the Will absolute and that we exclude The Will of Man in that Case is swallowed up in the Will of the Spirit as the Apostle Paul's Life was swallowed up in Christ It is not I Paul that live but Christ in me It is not I Paul that pray but the Spirit that prayeth in me that is I Paul live by and through the Life of Christ Jesus and in Subjection to him and I Paul pray by and through the Spirit and in Subjection to its holy Motions I distinguish between things being done contrary to the VVill of Man and not according to the VVill of man for Paul might pray not according to his own VVill but the Mind of the Holy Spirit and yet not pray contrary to his own VVill because resigning of his own Will unto the Power and Leadings of the Holy Spirit To be acted by that whereby he receives a new Will even the Will of the holy Spirit he does not resist or act contrary to the Will of the Spirit though not according to his own Will But for our Adversary to say we deny the Vse of our Vnderstanding in Prayer is a great Mistake if not a Slander That which I objected against was an other VVord by him carelefly or designedly omitted to wit the DIRECTION of our Understanding for there is as much Difference between the USE of our Understanding and DIRECTION of our Understanding as between a Master and a Servant as to command obey Understanding is alwayes made Use of by the holy Spirit in Prayer for without it there would be no Subject for the Spirit to act or work upon But the Direction of our Understanding in Prayer is perfectly exclusive of the Direction of the Holy Spirit for there cannot be two Directors Besides if the Direction in Prayer be ascribed to the Understanding there is nothing left that may be attributed to the Spirit wherefore say we The Vnderstanding is not to direct but to be directed in Prayer to Almighty God by his own holy Spirit according to that notable Passage Rom. 8. 26 27. The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we KNOW NOT what we should pray for as we ought but the SPIRIT IT SELF MAKES INTERCESSION for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered and he that searcheth the Heart knoweth what is the Mind of the Spirit because he maketh Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God I offered Eight Arguments in Defence of this Doctrine whereof he cited but one and said no more to it then I have reported For that little he added was but an Aggravation of his Fore-mentioned Consequence Seven then of my Arguments remain unmedled with I will hint at three to show not any Reason but my Adversaries Shuffle If the Children of God are led by the Spirit of God and not by their own VVils Conceptions and Directions then no Access to God without it consequently Prayer without the Leading of God's Spirit is not acceptable with him Again If no Prophecy or Preaching was to be of old but by the Revelation or Motion of the Spirit though but to mortal men of far greater Reason should not any Prayer be made to the Eternal only Wise God without the Motion of the Holy Spirit Lastly Man of himself is Vnable to think a good Thought and as the Professors say from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot altogether Vnclean therefore he can not perform Gospel-Prayer by the Directâ—on of his own Understanding Vse of his own Conceptions and Strength of his own Will To this Purpose was my fourth Argument which with those that went before and follow after it my Adversary unmanfully declined I will conclude this Chapter with six Testimonies the first out of a venerable Author with almost all Nonconformists J. Calvin In one of his
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
there is an unavoidable necessity of coming to that Spirit which made it theirs 'T is granted that all True Doctrine is according to Scripture but the Question is What is true Doctrine Scripture is a strong Testimony but what enlightens the Mind resolves Doubts and works Faith and informs guides and helps the Soul through the whole Work of Conversion and without which the Testimony of Scripture it self is truly an unintelligible and an incredible thing This must be nothing less then the Spirit it self In short The Scripture is not the Rule but Declaration of Faith and Knowledge That only must be the Rule of Faith which gave and ruled the Faith of those that gave forth Scripture And because none can give or work Faith now but what did give and work Faith then 't is not the Scripture but that which was before the Scripture even the Spirit of Truth which was the Author Rule and Finisher of their Faith And if our Faith in this Age be the same with the holy Men's of old that gave forth the Scriptures they are no more our Rule now then they were theirs then who had a Rule and a Faith before them But as it was a Declaration of what they believed knew and witnessed so it is a Declaration of what we now believe and desire to know and witness John's Epistle was not writ to be the Saints Rule for he directed them to the Anointing yet their Faith and Life of which the Anointing was the Rule was according to John's Epistle Agaiâ— The Declaration in time was after the Faith declared of but where there was Faith there was a Rule consequently that Declaration which was after that Faith and Rule was not that Rule so that the most that can be said against us is this The Scriptures cannot be a Declaration of your Faith till you come to such a Belief of the Truth 's thereby expressed as they had who writ them and a great Truth it is But then say we The Spirit must work that Faith before the Scriptures can be accounted a Declaration of our Faith or we interested in them And because that Faith has a Rule so soon as it has a being it must needs follow that the Declaration of that Faith cannot be either the Author or Rule of it Here lies the Mistake of my Adversary and many more that because what a Man does is according or agreeable to a thing therefore that is the Rule of the thing done To proceed For this reason it is a Constraint lies upon us from God to direct and exhort all People diligently to mind that Measure of the Holy Spirit which God hath given them to profit with as that alone by which Man comes to a certain Knowledge of his Mind and Will and to do the good and acceptable Thing in his Sight and that by which his poor labouring Mind is brought out of the Incertainties numerous Interpretations vain Janglings Men have pesterâ—d the World withal who have darkened Counsel and bewildered many in their Conscientious Enquieries after God drawing out their Minds from the seasoning Principle of Life instead of bringing them nearer to the Lord for which great and heavy Plagues hang over the Head of this Generation who make War against the Spirit with the Letter instead of confirming its Appearance from the Letter and under Pretence of calling the Scriptures the Word of God and Rule of Faith and Life divert People from Waiting for the Word nigh unto themselves which is the Word of Faith and gives Life to all that believe and obey it decrying us as Seducers and deriding us as Euthusiastick Canters because we prefer and turn all to the Spirit of Life within an Out-side Carnal Envious and Hypocrical Generation as it is I will conclude this Head with a Passage out of some certain Authors that were never professed nor reputed Quakers Wherefore they who are true Believers sayes the first and have received Christ's Spirit their Judgment is to be preferred in the Tryal of Spirits before a whole Council of Clergy-Men And they only who can try Spirits by the Spirit of God and Doctrines by the Word of God written in their Hearts by the Spirit can in measure discern all Spirits in the World And the Spirit of Christ which dwells in all true Christians cannot deceive nor be deceived in the Tryal of Spirits With abundance more to the same purpose The other brings in Two Objections frequently made against us and by him pertinently answered for us Object 1. It is said Isa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if any Man speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in him Answ Truth there is the Law and Testimony in the Spirit as well as in the Letter The Law of God is in the Heart there it is written and there it testifies the Truth of God and if any Man speak not according to this Rule it is because there is no Light or Morning risen in him The Spiritual Man judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no Man Object 2. It is said Gal. 6. 16. That whoso walketh according to this Rule Peace upon him Answ True but that is not the Rule of the Letter but of the Spirit even the Rule of the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Read the Words before and you shall see it There is nothing of any Value but the New Creature And whosoever walketh according to This Rule Peace shall be upon him c. And truly my Brethren it is my earnest Desire to see Souls to live more in the Spirit and less in the Letter and then they will see that we judge of the Letter by the Spirit and not of the Spirit by the Letter which occasions so much Ignorance amongst us and those who profess themselves to be our Teachers are chief in this Trespass Observe this J. Faldo Again The Spirit of God who is God is the ALONE RULE of a spiritual Christian c. Further declaring That some setting the Scriptures in the room of the Spirit they make them an Idol Ibid. p. 248. Let him either discard these Men from being Christians that were reputed great and refined Professors before the Breaking forth of the People called Quakers or leave off censuring this part of our Doctrine as no part of Christianity Nor have we any Ground to believe that they were intended for the Rule at first since they were not given forth all at one time and yet every Age stood in need of such a Rule but on divers Occasions as Miscarriages in the Churches Threatning of Judgments Prophecies Histories and Comfortings under Afflictions c. required Nor do they carry the least Method or Designment of the great Rule with them here they are Proper there Figurative in one thing Literal in another Allegorical without all Definition of Terms framing of Articles such Plainness and
a higher Judge and Rule then any of those written Laws or any Interpretations of men upon them so that if J. Faldo compares the Scripture to the written Laws they who are led by the Spirit have an higher Rule then the Scripture and as he that lives up according to written Laws by the Rule of his Synteresis or Law of Laws the just Principle in himself does not destroy but fulfil those written Laws so they that live according to the Rule of the Spirit do not invalidate but fulfil the Scriptures There is no need of Swearing for a Remedy against that Man's Falseness who is come to the Truth-speaking of Christ's Righteousness he that is come up to the greater does not sleight but answer the lesser Secondly I beseech the Reader to observe that these written Laws had once a beginning and that those that made them were not without a Rule and Judge in themselves both before and in the making of those Laws neither is that peculiar to them the Law-makers I still mean Synteresis of which many Lawyers speak great things particularly a good old Law-Book called Doctor and Student which is not lessened by those Laws nor ought any Law to be made or take hold on any Person further then he acts contrary to that just Principle in himself which is called the Law of Laws the Immutable Law by Chief Justice Hobart in his Reports pag. 87. So that both the Law was made according to this Synteresis and is to be understood and judged according to this Synteresis which Synteresis or Law of Righteousness has not left us with a meer Declaration of its Mind subject to many Casuallities and Difficulties but remains in the Heart of Man to inform his Understanding and correct his Life consequently the Judge of Controversie respecting the written Law about which and the Application of it many times arises the Controversie must not be the written but this Immutable Law in Judge and Jury from whence all good Laws proceed It is a very depraved State indeed that knows no further Obligation then a Written Law whereas a great part of Mankind is free from those Enormities the Law forbids and punishes who yet know not the Letter of the Law like unto the Gentiles of old who having not the Law became a Law unto themselves shewing the Work of the Law written in their Hearts which Law Cicero in his Books of the Commonwealth cited by Lactant. 6. Institut 8. calls Right Reason agreeable to Nature given to all constant and eternal which calls to Duty by commanding and by Disswasion deters from Deceit No other Law may be put instead of this neither is it lawful to derogate any thing from it neither can it be wholely abrogated neither can we be loosed from this Law by Senate or People There is no other Explainer or Interpreter of it to be sought neither will there be one Law at Rome another at Athens one now another hereafter but being one Law Everlasting and Immortal shall hold all Nations at every time And there will be one as it were Master and Commander of all God that Inventor Disputer and Maker of this Law to whom he that will not be obedient must fly himself and even in this thing must suffer very great Penalty though he should escape other Punishments An excellent Place which clearly explains the Nature and Vertue of this innate Light sayes Rob. Sanderson late Bishop of Lincoln in his Oxford Lectures concerning the adaequate Rule of Conscience prol 4. where he also calls it from Calvin A Spark of the Light of God that he might have Preachers of his Will in our very Bosoms and that all other Laws are but subservient to this in the Synteresis the very thing that we assert concerning the Scriptures being a Rule Thirdly I would entreat the Reader to consider that cessante ratione legis cessat lex i. the Reason of the Law ceasing the Law ceases is an old Law-Maxim Now who shall be Judge of that the written Law By no means Yet that preposterous Answer only can suit our Adversary's Principle Wâ— say Living Reason must be the Judge In like manner did the Spirit of God give his Servants an Understanding in past Ages how to behave themselves with respect to those Laws which were but Temporary for whose Abrogation there was no express Scripture which the Scribes and Pharisees â—y neglecting and grieving that Spiritual Leader and sticking in the Letter of the Scripture only continued and maintained against Christ himself who fulfilled them To conclude That which makes Law That which explains Law That contrary unto which no Law ought to be made or obeyed That which gives to know what is contrary or according to just Laws That which gives to apply and execute Law rightly must be the Judge and Superior Rule But that is this Synteresis Law of Laws sayes Chief Justice Hobart Right Reson sayes M. T. Cicero Innate Light sayes B. Sanderson The Law of God writ in the Heart sayes Doct. and Stud. Spark of God's Light sayes Calvin A Living Rule and Everlasting Foundation of Vertue planted in all Reasonable Souls sayes Plutarch God within sayes Seneca and Epictetus Consequently not any meer written Law can be the Judge and Determiner of Controversies in Law This Reader holds almost all along the same with the Scriptures That the Law is not Judge of the Doubts that arise about it self but another is already prov'd and that the Scriptures can no more determine Cases of Difficulty within themselves is as evident by the same Argument and that Judge must either be some Man endued with the Spirit of God as in Law Cases some Judge with Right Reason or else thâ— Eternal Spirit as he is universally manifested in Men. The first I suppose our Adversary will think too fair a Pretence for Popery to be allowed and the last he can never avoid unless Man without the Spirit of God be able to determine of the things of God which were to deny the Scriptures of Truth the Faith of the Antients the Doctrine of the Reformers and Right Reason Thus Reader I conclude this Point and could have been willing to have done so long before had not the great Necessity of People's better Information drawn me into a more free and large Discourse then my Adversary's very empty Replyes could have deserved at my hands CHAP. VI. Of our dehorting People from Reading the Scriptures c. as charged by this Adversary THough I have said enough to perswade all sober Persons of our reverend Esteem of the Scriptures yet am I willing to remove any the least Ground of Scruple by a brief Consideration of his Four following Chapters in which he would fain maintain his former False and Vnadvised Charges of our holding in great Contempt those Holy Writings He begins thus Rep. My Charge in my Sixth Chapter was That the Quakers take Men off from reading the Scriptures
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
the Matter they import is not there If he doth not mean That we deny a Visible Religious Society to be a Church what makes him to infer our Denyal of a Gospel-Church from our asserting it to be Invisible Two things must follow from this Reply Either a Gospel-Church is not visible and then he breaks his own Neck or not a Religious Society and so he is impious If then a Gospel-Church is a Visible Religious Society and we deny a Gospel-Church it must follow that we deny a Visible Religious Society which in John Faldo's Opinion makes up a Gospel-Church To conclude a Gospel-Church and a Visible Religious Society he makes to be quite differing things But perhaps he will come off thus I did not say ye denyed the visible religious Societies called the Churches of Asia c. but that you deny them or such as they are to be Churches But neither will this serve his turn for we both own them to have been Gospel-Churches and are taught by J. F. to believe That a Gospel-Church is not only not invisible but an other Thing then a visible religious Society too It is worth our while to hear his Reason for it Reply p. 59. Religious Societies may be as far from a Gospel-Church as half a dozen Christian Friends associated together to eat a good Dinner or carry on a Trade yet he dirts me with want of Honesty to grace his Forgery Rejoynder He might as well have said to the Ale-House or Tavern whether he invited a Friend of ours after disputing with him doubtless not out of Love to our Friend but the good Liquor a Sort of Liberty once counted Scandalous by many of his Pretensions especially when just after so serious an Exercise but it is grown familiar with Men of his Coat to fall from the Bible to the Pot and so back again But Friendly Reader what sayst thou of this Man's Evasion Who will have me to mean by visible religious Societies visible civil Societies for such I count good Men at an Ordinary or a Committee of Trade Vain and Shallow Man Did I not give Intimation enough what Religious Societies I meant when I instanced the Churches of Asia Thessalonica c. to explain what I meant thereby Whether I did play the Forger or my Adversary the Dishonest Shifter Let the Impartial Reader judge Again Reply W. P. proceeds p. 113. in the same Evil And from our asserting the Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher he concludes that we deny all Preaching of men though by the Spirit the four last Words though by the Spirit are added by him and meerly forged Rejoynder They may be added but not forged One would think it is only then when without the holy Ghost that we deny it by his Words and that hurts us not but I take it the other way and the Truth is it is a Mistake he commits against us where-ever the like Subjects fall in his Way for this implies as if we denyed Preaching by Inspiration and that he all along had mantained it A Doctrine he ever now and then flings in our Dish scorns and derides Thus can this Man's Conscience sail by any Wind to gain the Shore and after all these Shuffles dares to conclude That we in Terminis deny all Preachings of men because G. F. said cease from man when there is nothing more palpable then that G. F. meant man considered in his own meer Ability that is from such as the Prophet forbid not from true Prophets but our Adversary the Preachings of Men though by the Spirit of God for how can he make us to contradict our selves in saying man is the Spirits Instrument which he understands to be the Preaching of Men by the Spirit if he doth not make us deny all Preaching though by the Spirit In short I hope my Reader will think it no Forgery whatever my Adversary may who ever and anon would hide his own weakness by hard word flung upon me to amuse the credulous Reader to say that from our Asserting The Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher of all who believe he concludes That we deny all Preaching of Men though by the Spirit else there would be no sense in his charging us with a Contradiction because we say The Spirit is the only Teacher and yet that the Spirit teacheth by Men if he did not understand our Ceasing from Men or Denying Man's Ministry to be our Denyal of Man's Preaching by the holy Spirit But he will not give over yet These words The Spirit the only Teacher he often flings up as words indigestible by his foul and phlegmatick Stomach for upon my saying That such as preach by the Holy Spirit are rather the Instrument then the Teacher or Man is that by which the Spirit conveyeth his Teaching unto others he replyes thus Reply pag. 58. So that after W. P's own strict Account he allows their Practices viz. Preaching of Men to give the Lye every Day to their Tenets Rejoynder If Preachings of Men by the Spirit be the Preachings of Men such Preachings we shall alwayes allow and think it no Lye or Contradiction to our Tenets But if he that dictates a Letter of Intelligence be the Informer and not the Scribe the Holy Spirit must be the Teacher and Man but the Instrument True Teachings are not only Words but Matter and that accompanied with Divine Power which flow from the Eternal Spirit Men give them but the simple Covering of Expression and that by the Spirit 's appointment therefore not so properly the Teachings of Men by the Holy Spirit as the Teachings of the Holy Spirit by and through Men consequently not Man's Teachings but the Spirit 's Again Because we charge him with bringing in ot her Teachers then the Holy Spirit contrary to express Scripture the Promise of God and the very End of the Blessed Gospel he replies Reply pag. 58 59. Can you think this Man worth Disputing with who rambles and talks he cares not how If what P. said be true the Exhortations to do the Work of an Evangelist feed the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Over-seers were not intended of Man's Teaching but the Spirit of God only exhorted the Spirit of God to these Actions and Man had not hath not any Agency in Teaching Rejoynder But did we ever say Man had no Share in being taught whatever we have said against the utmost of man's natural Ability considered separately from God's Spirit about his Teaching We never yet said That Man was not to be taught Is there no Difference betwixt Men's Teaching without God's Spirit and Men's being taught of God's Spirit At whose Door then should we lay this Absurdity The Spirit of God exhorted the Spirit of God What an Idle Non sequitur is this Nor do we deny all Agency in Man when mannaged by the Holy Ghost A Man might as well argue following J. Faldo's Steps against the Apostle Paul when he said It is no
chosen called out of the World they are not of this World as he is not of this World W. Dell's Sermons p. 152 156 186. The Church is a Spiritual Invisible Fellowship gathered together in the Unity of the Faith Hope and Love Christ and the Spirit are the only Officers CHAP. IV. His Charge of our Denying to Hear the Word of God examined True Preaching acknowledged HE hath maintained this Charge against our Answer with the same sort of Jeers and Florish but manifest insuccess too that he hath done what went before His words are these Reply pag. 61. Concerning denying the Ordinance of hearing the Word preached to my Proof from G. F. We must not hear Man c. W. P. saith That is so far from making against us that it makes for us at an high rate Much like the Mad-man of Athens who called all the Ships that came into the Port his own while he was for all that but a poor Thred-bare Gentle-man I proved that they asserted the Light to be only preached to be the only Preacher and only â—eached to yea and the only Obeyer Rejoynder If this be done Erit hic mihi magnus Apollo If to cease from Man be not false Doctrine then not to hear Man is no false Doctrine for Man is taken in the same sense in both places For as God never intended by ceasing from Man that they should not regard his Prophets who were Men when they came to declare his VVill so neither did G. F. intend that Man ought not to be heard when he comes on God's Errant or Message in the Name of the Lord but meer Man Man in his Natural Capacity and Ability without the Holy Spirit and Power of God which is but a carnal humane and worldly Ministry To say we only preach the Light is no more then to report The Quakers preach Christ for our Doctrine directs People to the Knocks of Christ the true Light at the Door of the Soul who is the Saviour Redeemer and Preserver of them that believe in him and keep his Commandments But that we ever said That it was only preached to yea and the only Obeyer of such Preaching is as false as any Thing that can be said He tells us he proved it I will give the strongest Passage he brought J. Parn. Shield c. Epist To the Light of God in all your Consciences I speak Very well and what then Is the Light therefore preacht to taught or instructed when he only appealed to the Light in all their Consciences concerning the Truth of what he said as the Apostle did To the Light I speak that is To the Light I direct my self To that I make my Appeal if what I write be not true for what soever is reproveable is made manifest by it Ephes 5. 13. This Construction is Natural Our Adversary's forced for nothing is more common with us in General and that Author in particular then to turn People to the Light pressing their Conformity to the Reproofs and Instructions of it alwayes respecting it as given us of God to be our true certain and constant Teacher and alwayes have we been reproacht by such as J. Faldo for doing so But above all that this Passage should be brought to prove the Light is the Obeyer of such Doctrines and Instructions who is the Author of them is an Absurdity that reflects great Ignorance or something worse upon our Adversary We have already declared our Faith so freely and plainly in this Matter besides the Testimony of our dayly Practice that we need say no more then this A true Living Gospel-Ministry we own and the Service and Benefit of such a one we have enjoyed and beautiful are their Feet who come in the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit that open the blind Eye turn People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. that He may be their Instructer according to that Promise They shall be all taught of Me which is the chiefest End of all External Instrumental Ministry To prove our Sence of true Preaching we may add these two following Testimonies out of that renowned Independent Dr. Everad Dr. J. Everad's Sermon Militia Coelestis Truth it 〈◊〉 many toss and tumble the Letter and make you believe they expound it and give you the Sense and Vertue yet how shallow how literal how humane how low how sensual and carnal do they make the Worlâ— to be Even your Rabbies your Doctors your great Schollars which shews if God himself if the Lion of the Tribe of Juda if the Root of David do not open the Seals 't is not all the Learning or all the Universities in the World can help us to the Mystery and the Mind of Christ as the Apostle calls it Shadows vanishing c. p. 326. I dare not offer at any Method in the whole nor at any Connection in the Parts For I find that all the curious Dichotomzers do but dream and play with the Scriptures feeding themselves with Fancies and not Truth for Sure I am the only Method that holy Men of old observed was to speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit There be many Expositions on this Place which I will not trouble you withall for Men speak according to Men but the Scriptures were written by God's Spirit dictated by his own Finger We must therefore labour to find out what is God's Mind in the Scriptures whatever Men say pag. 369. 370. CHAP. V. Of True and False Prayer HE pretends in this Chapter which containeth not a page to refute several pages in my Book relaing to Gospel-Prayer in which if I 〈◊〉 not he hath done me and the Truth I defend the greatest Service that a reasonable Man would desire at the Hands of his Adversary for the Truth of the Matter is the Man hath shrunk from his Post and deserted his Colours which we shall make appear by comparing his first Book with his Reply Reply VV. P. according to my Charge disowns man's Wilâ— and the Vse of his Conceptions to have any thing to do in Gospel-Prayer pag. 122. and disowns all Prayer that is not by and in the Light within The Quakers Christ The Reasons he gives are as Witless as his Assertion Truthless Thus Now unless Men may perform Gospel-VVorship without the Spirit and the Truth or if in the Spirit and the Truth yet not by the Motion of either a thing absurd it must needs be that Men ought only to preach and pray by the Motion of the Spirit and of the Truth How absurd is W. P' s Reasoning here as if the Vnderstanding Conceptions Will of Man in Prayer must needs exclude the Motions of the Spirit or the Motions of the Spirit exclude them Rejoynder The first Thing our Adversary charged upon us in his former Book was our Denyal of Gospel-Prayer to prove which he cited W. Smith who in his Catech. p. 107. spoak against Prayers of Man's forming
Sermons upon Job 32. 8. It is the Spirit of God who dwells in Men c. Man sayes he cannot discern any whit of God's Secret until he be enlightned we can never by our Will reach so high as to know God we must put our Reason from us and renounce it utterly what sayes J. Faldo to this Doctrine of his Father Calvin Again If we will have our Lord to fill us with his Wisdom it behoveth us to become Fools that is to say We must not bring any thing of our own for that were the shutting of the Door against God H. Bullenger's 4. Decad. Serm. 5. p. 665. The Spirit of Man praying in this World being enlightned and kindled with the Spirit of God groaneth and maketh Intercession for the Saints W. Perkins the English Calvin in the same men's Thoughts p. 336. 21. writes thus All Exercises of Christian Religion are to be in the Spirit The Inward Motions of the Spirit are of themselves the Worship of God whereas our Words and Deeds are not simply but so far forth as they are found in the renewed Motions of the Heart Gualt Cradok upon Ephes 3. p. 169. That you may see the greatness of his Power what a World of Prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy Heart that thou art never able to utter with thy Mouth All the Wisdom of the World cannot make one spiritual Petition We may make Forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knows the Mind of God THAT makes Prayers according to the Will of God and HE Spirit prayes with Sighing and Groaning unutterably I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit If the Lord should only hear the Prayers thou makest with thy Mouth thou wouldst be a Poor Man but the Lord respects the Prayer of thy Heart W. Dell. Serm. Christ Spirit c. p. 35. When God hath a Mind to give us the Spirit he puts us in Mind to ask it yea God gives us the Spirit that by it we may ask the Spirit seeing no Man can ask the Spirit but by the Spirit Acts 1. 14. Dr. J. Everad the great Spiritual Separatist in King James and Charles the firsts Time Be assured whatever Prayers whatever Sighs whatever Groans thou puttest up to him he loaths all but what his SON MAKES but all his Requests are heard and granted pag. 225 Be sure that your Prayers be such as become God's Ear to hear for all the Prayers of ALL FLESH through the whole World is displeasing to God pag. 243. Not the best Duties you can perform will please him except they be salted and seasoned by his own Son p. 9. Never think that all your Prayers your Tears your Alms c. pleases him but only that which is his Son 's own Action and Work in you p. 355. But know he God regards none of these Prayers But when his Son in whom he is well pleased when he prayes he hears him alwayes but if any other Prayes he regards not p. 438. 442. Again It must be his Son's Work in us else he loaths all even the best of the Sacrifices if it be not Jesus Christ in us that doth all viz. that loves God and fears God and obeyes God and believes in God c. his Father regards it not But what thinks J. Faldo of all these Things J. Calvin W. Perkins H. Bullenger Gu. Cradok are unquestionable W. Dell Master of Cajus Colledge in late times And for Dr. J. Everad his Works were licenced Decemb. 6. 1652 by no less Man then J. Caril and approved by Tho Brooks and Mat. Parker all three Independent Pastors the first lately deceased the other two not many dayes ago living who I hope are able to justifie their Kindness to that notable and doubtless very religious Man Perhaps the Truth may find better Quarter for these great Authors Sake therefore I bring them though indeed it is truly lamentable that the Professors of our Age will not know the Doctrines of Men they hold in great Admiration when they meet with them in the poor Quakers Writings but instead of acknowledging miseraby brow-beat them with oppobrious Language thereby bringing the greatest Truths into Suspition with the Vulgar But Oh Lord God of Truth This hath been the Portion of thy People and Lot of thy Children whom thou hast gathered out of the World in all Ages at the Hands of those who boast themselves in other Mens Labours and have a Name to live but are dead to that Life in which they should live to thee They seem to honour the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of thy Servants that are at rest but having erred from the Conduct of thy Spirit and resisted the holy Motions of it they are become the greatest Persecutors Resisters and Vilifiers of thy holy living pure and spiritual Way Oh Lord God arise for thy great Names Sake seaze upon their Consciences by thy Invisible Word of Power Lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet Dash their fine carved Images in Peices and let thy consuming Fire take hold on their Chaff and Stubble and bring them to thy righteous Ballance that they may see they and their Religion to be lighter then Vanity that they may witness thy mighty Work of Redemption and Salvation before they depart hence and are never seen more through Jesus Christ the alone Advocate and Mediator Intercessor Redeemer and Saviour of all thy dear Children who have believed in his Heavenly Appearance by whom be Everlasting Honour Glory and Dominion Amen CHAP. VI. Of Positive Ordinances as our Adversary calls them to wit Baptism and the Supper HE introduced his Discourse of Baptism and the Supper with an Account of the Nature of these Ordinances distinguishing them by Natural and Positive He excepts against my reporting of one part of his Doctrine calling it by no milder a Name then Forgery I will give both our Quotations that my Reader may the better see what Ground he hath for such severe Reflection I cited him thus The Ordinances hitherto considered are called Morral from their Natural Obligation although respecting their Substance they deserve a more Evangelical Denomination without which we cannot call them Christian Ordinances This he calls Forging Corupting his Words and that he that hath the Conscience to deal with such an Adversary may make him say what he lists Reply p. 56. I will now puncually transcribe his Words as himself hath quoted them and a plain self-Defeat will lye at the bottom of all this Displeasure Reply p. 66. My Words were these to a Letter The Ordinances I have hitherto considered are called Morral from their Natural Obligation although that Substantial and Essential Part and Qualification of them their Respect to a Mediator will require a Denomination more Evangelical and without which we cannot call them Gospel or Christian Ordinances Let VV. P. make the best Advantage for his Causes these Words will afford him and spare not Rejoynder Having
Man that knows so little of them and sets so sleight by them But let us hear him a little further Reply pag. 67. Many things are expressed by the Word Baptism yet but one Proper Baptism which is Water Rejoynder If he had said one shadowy Baptism it had been better expressed for that he himself elsewhere acknowledges it to be however his one proper Baptism is not the Apostle's One Baptism Eph. 4. 5. unless he will make the Baptism of Water and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost to be but one and the same Baptism if he can he will perform an impossibility if he cannot there will be two Baptisms John's proper Baptism Christ's improper Baptism as J. F. will have them contradistinguisht Now which of these two is the Evangelical and Durable Baptism the one the Figure the other the Substance the one the Fore-runner the other the Thing Fore-runned May we not ask of Water-Baptism as Christ askt concerning John What went ye forth to see one that said of his Dispensation I must Decrease Christ Increase I will not allow of J. Faldo's word proper at this time though allowable enough among School-men because the Philosophical Sense of it is not known to the Vulgar The word proper now bearing a different Signification and in the after common usage of the word Christ's Baptism of the Holy Ghost is the only proper Baptism and that of Water but shadowy and figurative I will give him a like Case upon his use of the word proper and leave it with my Reader what to call this part of his Reply There was but one proper Pascal Lamb and that was a Beast with four Legs Also there was but one proper Circumcision and that was the Circumcision of the Flesh therefore are they Evangelical or to continue But doth not he know that they are notwithstanding abrogated by that Lamb and Circumcision which according to his Language are not proper but metaphorically so Insomuch that after the Apostle's Speech that is no more that Lamb nor the Circumcision that is outward neither Baptism c. but that which is not in the Letter but in the Spirit Rom. 28. 29. I more then hinted p. 138 139. of my Answer at this very thing upon his making the Baptism the Sign and Thing signified but one Baptism as a true Exposition of that Passage of the Apostle to the Ephesians One Lord one Faith one Baptism But he is afraid to meddle with that for indeed never Man more over-shot himself opening such a Gap to Judaism as I suppose no Man pretending to be a Christian ever ventured at But he faintly goes on in these words Reply p. 67. W. P. tells me p. 137. of the Apostle Paul's Pracitce Practice then we see and all the reasonable World knows is not Institution This is not a very sound Expression in it self I do not say that Practice is Institution but the Practice of the Apostles in pursuance of an Institution is a Proof of its Continuance Rejoynder The Expression is sounder then he is Ingenuous He neither sets down his own Passage nor my Answer how then can he Honestly or Intelligibly reply However he tells us that he can beg the Question that is That the Apostles practised upon an Insittution Thus he defends his Assertion by repeating his Assertion We have great Reason to suppose him pincht or else we should not find him so tame Here a Man may handle him without Knocks But why did he take no notice of the rest of my Answer and say so little to this and which is worse an Untruth too For he positively layes down in the second Part of his first Book pag. 39. this Argument Because Paul diâ—â—â—aptize some therefore it was an Ordinance Now what can we call this but a Contradiction to himself who manifestly infers Institution from the Apostle's Practice and yet sayes He doth not say that Practice is an Institution unless he will shroud himself under the doubtful Signification of the word Practice which may as well be used about one thing as another but as I meant it of an Apostolical Religious Practice so he ought to mean in his use of the word Practice or else he equivocates He also told us before That the Reason why Water-Baptism was not laid upon the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 1. was because his Call was extraordinary and out of due time To which I answered That if he was inferiour to no Apostle in his Works why should he be reputed so in his Coâ—â—ission That the Priests generally allow them to have been all extraordinarily called it has been their Plea against our Call in these dayes That no Man in our Dayes has a larger Commission in the Point and lastly That since he was a Gospel-Christian-Apostle if Water-Baptism had been then reputed a Gospel-Christain-Ordinance neither had God omitted that in his Commission nor had the Apostle spoak so sleightly of it as he doth when he thanks God that he baptized so few for sayes he I was NOT SENT to baptize but to preach the Gospel ICor 1. 14 17 Acts 26. 18. But to all this and abundance more he was willing to be silent Yet that he may not be thought to say nothing although he gives not the Reader that part of my Answer unto which he replyes I conceive lest his Weaâ—â—ness should be too nakedly exposed he doth at a venture to bestow thus much at randum upon me Reply pag. 68. If W. P. intended by the thing signified saving Grace then it was come to many before Baptism at all was instituted and Faith in Jesus Christ was required in all before Baptism was offered If of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost the Apostle Peter was so lfar from Arguing after his fashion that he makes it the Ground of Baptizing them Can any Man forbid Water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we But if W. Penn had been there he would have reproved Peter of Ignorance and Sin Rejounder No such Matter But I may well reprove John Faldo as guilty of both who is 〈◊〉 ignorant as not yet to know the Thing signified and so firful as to charge the Apostle Peter with that which his own words will not bear for here is no more of an Institution then there is in Paul's Words to the Corinthians As often as you do this c. Christ's Baptism is the inward Washing by the Word of Regeneration which makes perfect as pertaining to the Conscience of which â—ater-Baptism was but a Figure I grant that the Sign ended not so soon as the thing signified began in Point of Practice but I affirm it did in Point of Institution It is not bright Day as soon as it is Day-break Shadows vanish gradually and Customs especially if grateful as were Signs and Ceremonies to Jewish-christians are not easily left Water-Baptism was the Prologue to Christ's Visible Appearance and when he was come a kind of out ward
Vail and know not any Entrance into the Holy of Holies where the Divine Vnction from the High Priest is received and the Blessed Holy Spiritual Fellowship of the Gospel is witnessed for which Glorious Dispensation we contend through all Difficulties making it our Business to promote it in the World and though it be now but as a Cloud of a Span long yet it shall spread and cover the Heavens from whence the Inhabitants of the Earth shall receive Refreshment being bedewed and covered with the Vertue and Righteousness thereof for want of which the World is as a Wilderness being over run with all manner of Impiety under a specious Shew of Religion making up that Whore of Babylon and Mother of Harlots and City filled with all sorts of Abomination against which the Wrath of God is now and will yet be more and more revealed Oh! Compassion to the Souls of Men our Brethren in the Flesh opens our Mouthes with frequent Cryes that they would come out of her lest they be Partakers of her Plagues for knowing the Terrors of the Lord we therefore perswade them to a diligent search after the one Thing necessary which shall never be taken from them I mean the Testimony of Jesus in themselves that they are his by the Washing of Regeneration For with great Sorrow I write it God he knows Unspeakable and Irreparable is the Loss Multitudes have sustained by such Carnal Conceits as their Preachers through Blindness have begot a Belief in them of and a Zeal for as sufficient to Salvation to the suspecting and open decrying under the hateful Names of Error Heresie and Blasphemy the very Soul or Substance of True Christian Religion which only brings to the Inheritance of it For us our Appeal is to God and that Impartial Generation he is now bringing forth who will have an Ear to hear and a Palate to savour and taste the Truth of this Ancient Mystery Christ in them the Hope of Glory at what time these testimonies shall be of value however dis-regarded by the false Jew and Carnal Christian of the present Age. I will end my part herein with our most solemn Confession in the Holy Fear of God That we believe in no other Lord Jesus Christ then he who appeared to the Fathers of old at sundry Times and in divers Manners and in the Fulness of Time took Flesh of the Seed of Abraham and Stock of David became Immanuel God manifest in Flesh through which he conversed in the World preached his Everlasting Gospel and by his Divine Power gathered faithful Witnesses and when his Hour was come was taken of cruel Men his Body wickedly slain which Life he gave to proclaim upon Faith and Repentance a general Ransom to the World the Third Day he rose again and afterwards appeared among his Disciples in whose view he was received up into Glory but returned again fulfilling those Scriptures He that is with you shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you again and receive you unto my self John 14. 3 17 18. and that he did come and abide at really in them and doth now in his Children by Measure as without Measure in that Body prepared to perform the Will of God in That He is their King Prophet and High Priest and intercedes and mediates on their behalf bringing in Everlasting Righteousness Peace and Assurance forever into all their Hearts and Consciences to whom be Everlasting Honour and Dominion Amen A few Testimonies in Defence of our Sense B. Jewel Serm. upon Jos 6. 1 2 3. My first Testimony is out of that great English Author and worthy Man B. Jewel who speaking of what Christ was to the Jews in the Wilderness sayes thus Christ had not yet taken upon him a Natural Body yet they did eat his Body He had not yet shed his Blood yet they drank his Blood St. Paul saith all did eat the same Spiritual Meat that is the Body of Christ All did drink of the same spiritual Drink that is the Blood of Christ and that as VERILY AND TRULY AS WE DO NOW and whosoever then did so eat lived forever I think a pregnant and apt Testimony to Christ's being the Christ of God before his Coming in the Flesh But this being the Language of a Bishop though more then an Hundred years old Perhaps his Stomach will not digest it and therefore let 's hear what some considerable Separatists will tell us Joshua Sprig Test to an Approaching Glory Pag. 80 81 86. I beseech you therefore be not offended whenas we say That Christ according to the History of him only and according to his Ministration in the Flesh is but a Form in which God doth appear to us and in which God doth give us a Map of Salvation Thou knowest it not to be thy real Salvation except it be revealed within thee by the Spirit A map serves until a Man knows the Country There is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit Christ in the Flesh is the Witness the common Person in whom our Salvation is transacted as in a Figure Christ in the Spirit is the real Truth and Principle of Righteousness and of Life he is the real Salvation within us Again in his Preface he saith That in that Degree that the Spiritual Administration takes place the Fleshly Administration gives place in that Measure that Christ's Second Appearance draws on us we are drawn from under his first Appearance Thus far Joshua Sprig whose Book was licensed as we have formerly said by Joseph Caril a reverend Minister among the Independents C. Goad's Last Testimony pag. 76 77. Destroy the Vail and destroy Death the taking away of the Vail is the taking away of Death Death upon a true Account is nothing but a Vail upon God who is our Life even Christ's Flesh was a Vail Ordinances are Vailes If God be our Life the less we are in these things the more we are in Life T. Collier's Discovery of the New Creation pag. 399. We have had very narrow Apprehensions of Christ and the Manifestation of the Glory of Christ limiting it to the one Man when the Truth is that Christ and all the Saints make up but One Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. And God as Truly manifesteth Himself in the Flesh of all his as he did in Christ although the Measure of that Manifestation is different What sayes John Faldo to these things Are not we Out-done in our Expressions by profest Ministers and those of the Independent and Baptist Way shall we be stiled Blasphemers that more modestly utter our Belief whilst these Men notwithstanding pass for Orthodox I hope J. Faldo has more Reverence for J. Caryl then to question his Judgment in the License of the first and not so little Respect for the two last as to cry out Heresie Blasphemy c. CHAP. X. Three Scriptures rescured from the false Glosses of our Adversary Joh. 1. 9. Rom. 10. 3. 2
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
not said by me concerning the last Passage in which lay the Difficulty to wit me the Light in them but the first on which he very little insisted himself viz. that the Light is the Eternal God c. this transposing of my Answer and exchanging it was not ingenuous This Reader in short I offered as the Explanation of G. F's Expression and the Conclusion of a great deal more too large to be recited viz. That he who is the Eternal Fountain of all Life and Sun of Light caused his Light to visit the Hearts and shine in the Consciences of all Man-kind as well of such as rebel against it and scorn it to reprove them as of those who receive it and gladly submit to it to direct and justifie them wherefore we utterly deny that the Manifestation in Man strictly considered is the most high God but a Manifestation of God and from God by the In-shining of his blessed Light and we cannot be said to worship the Manifestation but that Eternal God who is Light that is thereby manifested p. 194. The next Testimony brought by him and examined by us was out of E. Burroughs's True Faith c. for page he gave us none neither then nor now but supposing true Citation a Thing most unusual with him I will set down his Words as they lye Reply p. 85. The next W. P. brings off as clearly Every Man hath that which is one in Union with the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to his measure E. Burroughs Can any Man saith W. P. be so stupid as to think that E. B. ever intended the Soul of Man that purely and simply constitutes him such for he is speaking of that universal Grace Light Spirit which God hath given unto all c. His purely and simply constitutes is pure learned Non-Sense If what every Man hath be as good in kind as the Spirit of Christ which E. B. confesseth it must be God and Christ Rejoynder He should either have past the Manner of my Expression or have corrected it better but I had rather be guilty of Non-sense then horrible Perversion J. F's Crime for he applies that to the meer Soul of Man which E. B. not only intended but expressed of the Light of Christ within Men. I will set down some of his Words that it may be an indeleable Brand upon J. F. a notorious Abuser of our Writings E. Burroughs in his Answer to J. Bunnion and this Passage Heathens Turks Jews Atheists have that that doth convince of Sin yet are so far from having the Spirit of Christ in them that they delight to serve their Lust Thus expresseth himself Do they serve Sin or Lusts because Christ hath not given them Light to discover their Sin or because they hate the Light that is given them Tell me Is not the Light or Spirit of Christ the only Thing that doth convince of Sin Or doth any Thing convince of Sin contrary or besides or without the Spirit of Christ If nay then it must needs be that it is from or by or something of the Nature of the Spirit of Christ which is in the Heathens E. B. argues and about five or six Lines lower thus concludes Till thou provest the Light of Christ which thou confessest every Man hath to be contrary to the Spirit of Christ I shall say Every Man hath that which is one in union with and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its Measure Now let J. Faldo blush if he can Certainly Reader greater Injustice could not well have been acted towards any Man's Writings then he hath acted in this Particular for what is clearer then that the Soul is no further concerned in E. B's Words then that it onght to obey the Light and Spirit he wâ—â—â—es of I told him this before as that Part of my Answer he hath transcribed into his Reply shows to wit that E. B. was speaking of the Vniversal Grace Light or Spirit which God hath given unto all c. of which he takes no Notice but thinks an Epitomy of his first Book of Accusation and Wresting Reply enough to my Answer But which is yet baser he hath the Confidence for all this to cry out against Shifting and Evasion But to make it yet plainer I will set it down more distinctly E. B. Every Man hath that which is as good and like the Spirit of Christ J. F. Then every Man's Soul is as good and like the Spirit of Christ whiâ—h is God therefore the Soul is God W. P. answers E. B. understood it not of the Soul but the Vniversal Grace Light or Spirit therefore no Proof J. F. If what every Man hath be as good in kind as the Spirit of God which E. B. confesseth it must be God and Christ W. P. That which E. B. confesseth is of the Light or Spirit and not the Soul therefore J. F's Charge is false Now Reader what shall we call this but Petitio principii a begging of the Question a repeating of his Perversion It is so because I will have it so as much as if he should say I have charged them higher then any more then that I pretend to bring their own Books for Evidences If I yeild to have perverted them my Credit is gone my Books are despised and which is worst of all my Gain is lost But to the next Reply p. 86. That of Fox he deals treacherously in leaving out the Proposition to which the Answer is made and thereby its Sense also F. brings in the Priest saying It is an Expression of a dark Mind to say that God is not distinguished from his Saints To which he reples He is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine What can be better proved If God be not distinct from them not only their Souls but the Composition of the Saints Souls and Bodies are God But if this Passage do not prove P. a designed Deluder none in the World will Rejoynder The Substance of my Answer took in the Priest's Assertion but that J. Faldo almost alwayes takes Care to conceal G. F. writ not like a Philosopher but an honest plain Christian Man Nor is it any Disadvantage to our Cause that either willingly or through Unskilfulness he neglects them for he meant by not being distinct that they were not at a Distance in point of Place by Reason of the dwelling of God and Christ in his People It is apparent G. F. intended no more by his Answer which our Adversary in his first Book gave in these Words But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine We see by this that the Question was not whether the Soul be God and Christ but whether God and Christ are at a distance from or dwell in the Saints yea or nay I leave it with my Reader
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
unworthily of the Scriptures we utterly detect their Actions For his second I confess I am greatly at a stand I have travell'd several Nations convers'd with Men of most Ways of Religion read a great many Books for my time but never yet did I meet with such an Insolent Blasphemous and Scornful Expression as this I now transcrib'd word for word out of his Reply 'T is true there was an Old Peevish Priest in Ireland who to get a little Money as clearly appear'd writ an Envious Book against us in which he called the Light within an Ignis Faetuâ—â—s a Dim Light c. who lived long enough to vex himself to Death with our Answer as we are credibly informed not long surviving its Arrival and general Acceptance of most sorts of People in those Parts But never yet have I heard or read of such hard Names from the worst of our Adversaries For Tho Hicks himself in his Dialogues against us acknowledges that the Light within checketh for many Evils and excites to many good things c. It were too large to go over the Praises given it by the best Jews Gentiles and Christians Philo the Jew calls it an Immortal Precept Plotin a Gentile sayes it is the Root or Life of the Soul That this Divine Principle in Man makes a true and good Man Clemens Alexandrinus a Christian-Father speaks of it thus The Light will shine out of Darkness therefore it shines in the hidden part of Mankind in the Heart Again Man cannot be void of Divine Knowledge who naturally or as he cometh into the World partaketh of Divine Inspiration c. Thus Munster Vetablus Clarius Castellio Drusius and Codurcus upon this Passage in Job And upon whom doth not his Light arise acknowledge both its Vniversallity and Sufficiency too where obey'd I could produce a Multitude of approved Protestants without being beholding to one Papist whatever J. F. says of us in Commendation of the Universal Light within but will conclude with J. Caryl one of the most ancient and eminent Pastors of the Independent Way in his Exposition on Job and J. Owen that great Doctor of Independency in his Latin Exercitations formerly writ against the Quakers under the Name of Phanaticks a Term since bestowed and improved by he knows who upon such as need no pointing at J. Caryl on Job 32. 8. says that Wisdom and Knowledge in the Things of God come from the Inspiration or In-shining of the Light or Spirit from above And on Chap. 24. 13. That Light there mentioned shined in Wicked Men's Hearts as well as Good or to that purpose And that it is not a Natural or Proper Light as the Sun in the Firmament but such as reproved them for their Iniquity and comes from above c. J. O. abundantly confesseth to the Morallity and Vniversallity of the Light calling it also a Supernatural and Spiritual as well as Moral Light as he frequently phrases it Good Use of which hath been made by our Christian and Learned Friend Samuel Fisher in Answer to Him Rich. Baxter J. Tombs and T. Danson unto which they have never attempted any the least Reply that we hear of though it greatly concerns their Cause and Credit to do something in it For my own part I shall say no more to J. Faldo's Refutation then that he calls the Light within us by which it hath pleased God to redeem us from our Vain Conversation against the Judgment of many Good and Learned Men in several Ages A BLASPHEMER OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD A SORDID SINFUL CORRUPT AND RIDICULOUS THING for which God rebuke him But there yet remains a notable Testimony of our Friends to be consider'd which J. F. produceth to prove our great Affinity with the Papists Rep. If any pretend to be of us and in Case of Controversie will not admit to be tryed by the Church of Christ Jesus nor submit to the Judgment given by the Spirit in the Elders and Members of the Church but kick against it such we testifie ought to be rejected as Heathens Rejoyn Nothing but Rank Ranterism can call this Popery in such Disgrace or reject it as unsound as I will make appear The Church of Christ indued with his Spirit hath a Judgment This Christ allows her and that every Individual ought to rest satisfied in it in Case of Difference therefore said Christ Tell the Church and if he refuse to hear the Church then let him be as an Heathen and Publican The Saints shall judge the World and much more by their Judgment determine or reconcile things among themselves No Caution or Resolution could be more soundly and scripturally laid down First It is the Church of Christ that judges Secondly It must be the Judgment of the Church by the Holy Spirit or rather the Holy Spirit in the Church not consisting of Elders only but Elders and Members which make the whole Church Lastly The Persons rejected are such as first kick or spurn against the Admonitions of the Church of Christ VVhat Man not bereaved of his Senses or as Irreligious as a Ranter can so scornfully upbraid us with this Serious Christian and Necessary Discipline Yes J. Faldo who pretends both to his Wits and Religion dares offer something against it Rep. Oh the Charity of the Quakers Leaders All that will not submit to their little Juncto are with them numbred with Heathens and Infidels Here the poor Quakers may see the Image of the Beast among themselves Rejoyn It were well if J. Faldo would show more Charity in pretending to rebuke us for the want of it But will he allow of those Aggravations the Episcopatians and Presbyterians made upon and against the first Brownists about Gathered Churches Did not they draw as large Conclusions And had they not as much Ground for doing it as our Passage can give to J. F. since they deny'd in most harsh Terms The Church of England to be the Church of Christ The same did the People call'd Anabaptists both of the Church of England and National Presbytery But why our little Juncto otherwise call'd the Spirit of G. Fox and his Ministry or Representative Body Is not this cast out on purpose to insinuate as if G. F. with other publick Travellers in the Service of the Church were Lordly or Domineering as J. Faldo a little further calls it who rarely meddle with those things leaving every Meeting to their own Power But what Occasion had he for this Reflection of our Friends Paper even as by himâ—elf given us Doth it not mention the whole Church and afterwards explain who that Church is by those two Words Elders and Members for such is the Practice of J. F. in his pretended Discovery of us Nor iâ— there any Reason why J. F. should so much stomach the Word Heathen since he thinks it a Priviledge to be so to us at least to call us so Besides we own every such one to have a Saving