thou livest and art dead And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot but luke-warm The worst of all tempers in Religion Now minde that Christ doth commend what ever was good in any of these Churches and reproveth them for their evill but calleth them Churches and the Ministers Angels But you Quakers will take no notice of any good that is in any of our Churches or Ministers but are like the Crow or Raven that love to feed upon Carren so your only delight is to revile against our Ministers and Churches and to publish any fault you can finde in them but I never read in any of your books one word of commendation of any Minister or Church but your selves neither did I ever hear any of you Quakers speak in the praise or commendation of any Minister or any Church or people but your selves but railing and reviling I have heard more than enough of But surely you Quakers have no love to any but your selves for the Apostle saith That Love covereth a multitude of faults and that Charity or Love suffereth long and is kinde envieth not vanteth not it selfe is not puffed up thinketh not evill beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things But you Quakers vant your selves are puffed up with spiritual pride think speak evil of all persons that are not of your minde calling them Reprobates Heathens and Dogs and that you are the only Church of Christ being pure from sin and so do not only condemn all other Churches now in being but all that ever have been I the famous Churches of Asia Corinth Galatia and Thessalonica who were the first Churches and were as Brightman in his book called A Revelation of the Apocalips the best and the purest Churches for after the Apostles dayes greater corruptions sprang up in the Church Now if there were such corruptions in the Church in the first and purest times shall we think to have the Churches in our times free from all corruptions I do not write these things to plead for sin and corruption I rather desire to mourn and be humbled for them But I write these things to shew you your great mistake in that you say there can be no true Church nor Ministers where such fruits are but beware of condemning the generation of the Just because of miscarriage of some persons that live in the Church or because of the faults and infirmities of the godly men in the Church remember what a curse Ham brought upon himself for uncovering his Fathers nakednesse and what a blessing Shem and Japhet brought upon themselves for covering their Fathers nakednesse But above all take heed of slandering and belying our Ministers and Churches by accusing them falsely a sin that is too frequent among you it is better to erre in over much charity then in sensoriousnesse and rash judging But that I may the better rectifie your judgements and all other that separate from our Churches I shall endevour to shew you your mistake in and about the perfection of the Church of Christ which I conceive is because you do not distinguish between the outward visible Church of Christ and the invisible Church the mystical body of Christ Now I say that the invisible Church is perfect in Christ because all the members of that Church are members of the body of Christ being joyned in one Spirit and to such the Apostle Peter doth speak unto Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ Also the Apostle to the Hebrews saith But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God and unto the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and to the sprinkling of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel Now minde the Apostle saith they are elected or chosen the Church of the first born which are written in Heaven but when Jesus Christ speaketh of the visible external Church he saith Many are called but few are chosen that is many called to the profession of the Gospel of Christ but few of those are elected and chosen to Life and Salvation Also Christ saith The Kingdome of Heaven is likned unto ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom and five of them were wise and five were foolish Minde They were all Virgins and they all had Lamps that is they all had the outward external profession of the Gospel but the wise Virgins only had the oyle of Grace Also Christ saith The Kingdome of Heaven is like unto a Net that was cast into the Sea and gathered of every kinde good and bad Now by the Kingdome of Heaven is not meant the Kingdome of Glory but the Chruch visible here on earth in which there are good and bad But you say that our Ministers are no true Teachers because they profit not the People to which I have answered in part before where I shewed that the Prophet Esai profited not the People of Israel and yet was a true Prophet But I do deny what you speak to be true and say that our Ministers do profit the People what ever you say to the contrary because a blind man cannot see the Sun therefore doth not the Sun shine because you Quakers who are blinded with error and cannot see that our Ministers doth profit the People do they not therefore profit the People I shall shew you what I see and know of a truth of their profiting the People I have known several Ministes who have come to Parishes to Preach where the People have been generally Ignorant Profane and Superstitious and God hath so blessed the labours of the Ministers among those People that they have been generally reformed from their Ignorance Profanenesse and Superstition and is it not profitable to People that were Ignorant to be instructed for those that were Profane to be morally civil for those that were Superstitious to be brought off from their Superstition and many that have been not only convinced of their sins but truly and really brought to believe and repent of their sins and many that have been in great horrour and trouble of conscience even ready to despair have been by their meanes as instruments raised up and have received true spiritual comfort and are not such profitable Ministers Also they do by their Preaching strengthen and confirm the Faith of Believers for it is the work of a Minister of Christ not only to convert
be the Lord they are all for ought I know or can hear cast forth as corrupt and unprofitable members and the Lord complaining by the Prophet Zephany maketh complaint against the Princes and Judges as well as the Prophets and Priests saying Her Princes are roaring Lyons her Judges are ravening Wolves and yet the Lord calleth them Princes and Judges for the wickednesse of the person doth not disanul his office being lawfully called thereunto neither in Magistrates nor Ministers untill they be degraded from that office You farther object in your paper That the Apostles did take only that which was freely given them I answer That our Ministers do take nothing but what was and is freely given either by their ancestors or otherwayes and who ever payeth the Ministers Tâ—thes payeth nothing of his own but that which was freely given for no man in buying any Land or leasing any Land doth buy the Tithes because by Law they cannot be sold You farther object That the Apostles did work with their hands to maintain themselves because they would not be chargeable to others I answer That the Apostle Paul and Barnabas did work but the rest did not as appeareth by the Apostles words Or I only and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working by which the Apostle plainly sheweth that the rest did forbear working and they had power to forbear working but that the Apostle did because of the poverty of the Church of Corinth and because he would give no offence to any He became as a Jew to the Jew to them that are without Law as without Law he became made all things to all men that he might by all means save some to that end he caused Timothy to be Circumcised that he might gain the Jews Now why do not you Quakers follow the Apostle in that as well as in your Teachers working which I think is very seldome Besides as I said before the Apostles had extraordinary Gifts as well as an extraordinary Call and were able to Preach without Study but the Apostle writing to Timothy commandeth him to meditate upon those things Give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all and do you Quakers think that you are more able to preach without Study than Timothy was and that you can work on your ordinary Callings and preach too when Paul commandeth Timothy the contrary And now I answer your sixth Ground against the lawfulnesse of our Ministers and that is you say because they teach that none can be perfectly freed from sin while they live here For answer to which I say that you Quakers neither know nor understand what our Ministers preach wherefore that you may know and be better instructed I shall by the assistance of Almighty God shew you what our Ministers do preach and hold concerning this great point in controversie of being perfectly freed from sin and that according to what I do believe concerning the same according to that measure of light within me according to the Scriptures And I pray God to open your eyes that you may be able both to see and believe the same without which there is no salvation Wherefore know you that our Ministers do both Preach and Write that all and every one that doth by a true and lively Faith believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for Life and Salvation are perfectly freed from all sin here by Justification and that alone by the blood of Christ and are made perfectly righteous by the righteousnesse of Christ imputed and that all those who are so justified by the blood and righteousnesse of Christ are truly sanctified by the spirit of Christ Which Sanctification is perfecting all our life here and perfected at the end of our lives according to that of the Apostle Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us clense our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God not perfected but is alwaies a doing Now that I may prove these two points and explain them I shall first shew you by the Scriptures that we are made perfectly free from sin and made perfectly righteous by the blood and righteousnesse of Christ for as Adam in the estate of innocency was not only without sin but made in an estate of righteousnesse being made in the Image of God which as the Apostle saith consisteth in knowledge and righteousnesse and holinesse so all that are saved are by Christ the second Adam made perfectly free from all sin by his death resurrection and intercession and made perperfectly righteous by his righteousnesse Wherefore I shall plainly prove both these to be by Justification in and by Christ alone according to that of the Apostle being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ And be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgivenesse of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted unto him for righteousnesse Even as David also describeth the blessednesse of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himselfe by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation To wit That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him and by one offering he hath made perfect or hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified You see the Apostle doth make our perfection to be by that which Christ alone hath suffered and done for us and not by what we work or do But I know this is a strange new doctrine unto you and hard for you to believe because you dote so much upon a Light within you and Righteousnesse within you wherefore I shall endevour to make this doctrine appear plain unto you if you will not shut your eyes against the Light or that the God of this world hath not blinded your mindes lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto you Werefore minde what I shall write from the Scriptures First I shall shew how this perfection by Christ was typed out in the time of the Law as in the scape-Goat the Lord commanded saying Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confesse over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the
salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousnesse And as this righteousnesse was typified prophesied of and promised in the Old Testament so did Christ accomplish the same for saith Christ It becometh us to fulfill all righteousnesse wherefore the Apostle Paul saith But of him are ye in Christ Jesus not in your selves who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption He is made wisdome for our folly he is made righteousnesse for our unrighteousnesse and sanctification for the corruption of our conception birth and conversation and redemption for our bondage the same Apostle also to the Romans saith But now the righteousnesse of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the righteousnesse of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ The Apostle calleth it the righteousnesse of God because wrought by him that is God to shew the worth virtue and excellency of the same also the Apostle saith For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Therefore as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Minde the Apostle saith as and so that is as by Adams sin or disobedience we were made sinners so by Christs obedience we are made rigteous this is the wedding garment without which we have no acceptance but are abominable and filthy in Gods sight as Christ saith to the Church of Laodicea Thou saist I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and do not you Quakers say the same in effect for they thought they were rich by doing good works and had need of nothing do not you Quakers say you are so perfect by what you do and suffer that you have no need of any teaching or exhortation reproof or admonition But what said Christ to them and take it home to your selves And knowest not that thou art poor and wretched and miserable blinde naked because they were destitute of the true wisdome righteousness of Christ hasted to a wisdome righteousness in themselves But Christ saith I councel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist be rich white raiment that thou maist be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakednesse do not appear which is the merits and obedience of Christ to put him on as the Apostle saith this is that righteousnesse that Christ said Except your righteousnesse shall exceed the rigteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven The Pharisees thought themselves the only righteous people in the world as you do for said the Pharisee I thank God I am not as other men nor as this poor Publican for I do many good works like those Hypocrites spoken of by the Prophet Esay Stand farther off for I am holier than thee But they were ignorant of the righteousnesse of Christ as the Jewes were who went about to establish a righteousnesse of their own works for saith the Apostle They being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves unto the righteousnesse of God Again What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousnesse have attained to righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is of faith But Israel which followed after the law of rigteousnesse hath not attained to the law of righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by faith and this the Apostle knew by himself as may appear by his own words Touching the righteousnesse of the Law blamelesse But he was an enemy to this righteousnesse of Christ because he was ignorant of the same and are not you Quakers ignorant of this rigteousnesse Faith for some of your Speakers have said to me when I have spoken the same things among you that here with Hold thy peace and speak no more thy dirty puddle thy stinking stuff and some of you in your printed Pamphlets have written against this Doctrine of Justification by faith But may I not justly return the same unto you hold your peace and speak no more nor write no more your dirty dungy righteousnesse For if the Apostle Paul counted all his righteousnesse to be but dung in comparison of the righteousnesse which is of God by Faith well may I count and call yours so for while you pretend to be the only friends of Christ you are his greatest enemies I Traitors to Christ and his Gospel Traitors to his Church and Children and Traitors to your Bodies and Soules seeming great friends to all these but betraying every one of these with a Judas his kisse because you are enemies to this perfect righteousnesse of Christ by faith by which alone we are justified and saved But you maintain a perfection within you by the Spirit saying that you are freed from all corruption of sin Wherefore having at large proved that all believers are perfect by Justification I shall now prove that all those who are perfectly Justified are not perfectly freed from all sin and corruption in themselves and then I shall answer your objections against both And to make this appear to be true according to the Scriptures I shall first lay down this proposition That all Believers are Justified by the blood and righteousnesse of Christ are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ which Spirit of Christ doth remain and abide in them together with the body of sin which I shall plainly prove to that end know that this body of sin is sometimes in Scripture called Flesh sometimes Concupisence Now you do deny that there is both Flesh and Spirit in one person which is the thing that I undertake to prove by the Scripture Wherefore minde what Christ saith to his Disciples The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak The Apostle Paul saith It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me and after that When I would do good evill is present with me and yet in the next verse I delight in the Law of God after the inward man But saith he I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde Now dare you say the Apostle had not the Spirit of Christ at that time seeing he saith he delighted in the Law of God which none can do that have not the Spirit of God Besides consider what a grosse error and absurdity will follow by denying the same which is this that if Paul had not the Spirit at that time then was not the Spirit the author
Congregation and if any through ignorance doe sing that which is not sutable to their condition may not or must not others in the same congregation sing those things that are sutable to their condition That the Psalmes to be read by such is no sin unless you count reading the Scripture to be sinne and why may they not as well sing them as read them seeing the one is a duty as well as the other they may sing them doctrinal as well as read them doctrinal as the truths contained in the Psalms and such may be convinced by singing them as wel as reading them as in the particulars objected O Lord I am not puft in mind may not a proud person be convinc'd that he ought not to be proud and when a wicked man singeth My heart is bent to keep thy Law may not he thereby be convinced and taught by that Doctrine that his heart ought to be bent to keep the Law That it is ignorance of a mans own condition and of the matter contained in the Psalmes to think or say that the Psalmes are not sutable to our conditions for every Psalm setteth forth either the Attributes and workes of God and his Christ or else describeth the estate and wayes of the Church and People of God or describeth the estate and wayes of the wicked or else it doth lively express mine own affections and afflictions temptations and comfort But whatsoever the matter of the Psalm concerneth either of God or his Christ the godly or the wicked my self or others the good or evil estate of one or other it ever ministreth fit matter and occasion to me of singing forth the prayses of the Lord since the name of God is to be blessed in and by all whether it goe well or ill with our selves or others and I believe that there is no condition the Church is or can be in in general nor no condition which any Member is or hath been in but there are Psalms sutable to the same and several Clerks are able to chuse such Psalms as are fit and sutable for all times and for all states and conditions of the Church and sutable for all Ordinances and sutable to all Doctrines And lastly the general practice of the Churches of Christ is to me a thing much to be considered and that it was the practice of the Churches of Christ after the Apostles dayes several Histories do testifie as Mr. Cotton doth largely prove in his book written in defence of this Ordinance of singing of Psalmes against the Antipsalmist But you follow the Papists your Fathers who are as great enemies to singing of Davids Psalmes as your selves and I could wish that some Protestants were not too much tainted with that Opinion The Papist in contempt of singing of Psalmes call them Genevah Jigs as you Quakers and other Sectaries the brood of Antichrist scoff at our Ministers and people for singing of Psalmes calling them Hopkins Jigs But I hope I have sufficiently proved that we follow the example of Christ and his Apostles and all reformed Churches and that you do sin in not following the command and example of Christ and his Apostles and therefore are not perfect and so I pass from this particular in which I have been the longer in regard I have been so often opposed by you for practising this duty And now I come to a fourth particular in which you walk contrary to the rule of the Scripture and that is your practice in suffering and maintaining women to teach in your meetings which you call your Church Now this practice I have not only heard of but am an eye and ear witness of having heard two several women speak and teach in your meetings where I heard them speak such nonsensical erronious stuff that it is a shame to write it And this practice is justified and maintained in Print by one of their chief teachers Richard Fanworth for so he saith is his name in the flesh who hath written a Pamphlet called A woman forbidden to speak in the Church the Grounds examined the Mystery opened the Truth cleared and the Ignorance both of Priests and People discovered where by the way take notice that where ever the letter of the Text doth speak directly against your errors then you say there is a Mystery in it and that none can open but your selves But where the Letter of the Scripture seemeth to speak for your errours then you say away with your mystical meanings the Scripture is to be understood as they speak according to the Letter which I have often heard from your own mouths and read in your books Wherefore I shall indeavour to prove Mr. Fanworths Mystery opened to be the mystery of iniquity proceeding from the spirit of Antichrist being directly against the Doctrine of Christ contained in the Scripture For saith the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians Let your women keep silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the Law And if they will learn any thing let them aske their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the Church also the Apostle to Timothy Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence Object But you Quakers say that there is a mystical meaning which none know but your selves And that is that by the woman is meant the flesh and by the speaking is meant the Spirit which is in the Saints and that may speak in the Church whether in man or woman male or female this Farnworth writeth in opening the Mystery Also Sarah Blackbury when I alledged the Apostles words to her in William Bonds House after she had been three or four hours there a teaching or prating on the Lords day she made me this Answer thou art the woman for thou art Flesh that is weak and therefore thou art to keep silence and I may speak because I have the Spirit by which the Scripture was written but thou hast not the Spirit and therefore hold thy babling for thou knowest not the meaning of the Scripture To which I replied but what is meant by the Husbands that the women are to learn of and to ask them at home To which Susan Bond answered Christ was the Husband and of him they were to be taught and Sarah Blackbery seemed to like the Answer well for she made no exceptions against it neither can she nor any one else if their doctrine be true that they all have an infallible Spirit and cannot erre else they cannot be perfect for error is sin and I shall prove this to be an error when I have taken away the false Vizzard which you have put upon the these Texts of Scripture Wherefore to shew you your error I shall shew you the great
onely by detaining the Ministers dues from them but by disturbing them in the exercise of their Ministery and of this I have heard several Relations upon which the Ministers for their own quiet were forced to complain to the Magistrates and when they have been brought before them they have abused them upon which severall have been sent to prison and I think justly But that any Ministers committed any to prison for not paying Tithes that I deny and say it is a false lie for suppose that some Quakers in those Countries or other Countries would not pay the Ministers their dues and these Quakers have been sued and the Jewry according to Law hath given their verdiet for payment of so much mony and they refuse to pay but will rather go to prison then pay their dues they put themselves in prison to save their money for neither the Minister nor the Law could put them into prison if they would pay their dues and that Tithes are the Ministers due I have already proved and suppose they were not due of Divine Right yet being due by a Civil right in regard of the Laws and Customs of the Nations I say they have as good right to them as any man hath to any house or land or money and if you plead it is against your conscience to pay Tithes as you do say I say suppose you should say it is against your conscience to pay any money you borrow as I hear some of you have done being asked for money lent have answered what conscience have you to ask me money seeing Christ saith Give to him that asketh if you should be sued and would not pay might not you justly be cast into prison and no sin in him that seeketh his own and I say the case is the same and Christ by his example never taught you to deny payment of Tribute for when they demanded Tribute of Christ though saith he the children be free yet lest we should offend them go and take the money out of the mouth of the fish and give them for me and thee because it was a Law and a Custome Christ would not offend them And by this you see all your great clamours and accusations against our Ministers are proved to be meer lies and slanders with which I shall conclude that you Quakers are not perfect because you do publish so many lies I have proved ten several Particulars against you all of which shall be witnesse against you that you are not the perfect holy innocent Lambs of Christ as you call your selves But you may all confess as it is in our English Liturgy We have left undone those things that we ought to have done and we have done those things that we ought not to have done and there is no truth in us And pray as Christ in that perfect form of Prayer And forgive us our trespasses Though some have said they thank God they have forgotten that Prayer And may not we say so of you as Agur said There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthiness But I know your Objection by what I have heard from you in disputing with you and that is that what I speak is not from the Spirit but from flesh and from the Letter that I have read in other mens Books or lines with which you think to wipe off all that I have said or written For Answer to which I desire you to consider and examine what I have written by the rule of the Scripture and if it be not according to that rule or what ever part is not according to that rule I shall confesse it is from the flesh neither do I pretend to an infallible Spirit so as that I cannot erre as you do and I desire you to examine your own by that rule and let that be the Judge between us according to the Prophet Isaiah his exhortation To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Where mind that the Law and the Testimony is called this word and those that speak not according to this word there is no light in them if no light in them then no Christ in them Now you say all men have the light of Christ in them I say they have not because the Scriptures say if they speak not according to this word it is because their is no light in them So that all men have not the light in them But seeing you say all men have the light of Christ in them I may say then I have the light in me as well as you and why may not or why doth not the light inlighten me to speak or write the truth as well as it teacheth you This I do declare to you and all that shall read these lines that what I have here written is according to that light within me and I hope from Christ the true light For I beleive there are false lights with which many are decieved as there are false fires that leadeth people about in dark nights into bogs and water And I beleive that what you write and speak is according to the light within you But I fear it is a false light that hath led you into many dirty errors It is your own phrase wherefore let what you have written and what I have written be layed to the line the Law and the Testimony and let that be the Judge between us whether the light in me be the light of Christ or whether the light in you be the light of Christ Try the Spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets or spirits are gone out into the World The Apostle sheweth how to know such Spirits as are of God and such as are of Antichrist Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that Spirit of Antichrist Now let us examine who they are that deny that Christ is come in the Flesh I say you are they and what I say I shall prove for whomsoever doth deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh doth deny his coming in the flesh But you do deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh Therefore you do deny his coming in the flesh For when the Apostle doth write of such as deny Christs coming in the flesh he doth not mean the Jews or other Heathens which denyed that Christ was come But of such as did confesse that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and yet did deny he was come in the flesh because they denyed the end of his coming in the flesh Now that the Apostle doth speak of such is plain For the Apostle saith Now are there many Antichrists They went out from us but they were not of us even as
abroad if the reading of other books beside the Scriptures be not necessary unless you believe what some of your fellow Quakers have said that James Naylors books are of as Divine authority as the Scriptures because he is inspired by the same Spirit the Prophets and Apostles were when they writ the Scripture in which you are like your Fathers the Familists for such like Titles and Stiles I have read in their books written by H. N. and have heard some Familists call them his Gospels and that they 〈◊〉 of equal authority with the Gospels of Jesus 〈…〉 such blasphemous Familists and Quakers errors good Lord deliver us And the Lord open your eyes that you may see your errors that you have patched up your new Religion with the old errors of the Papists Arminians Anabaptists Antinomians and Familists and the Lord give you hearts to repent and do your first works A POST-SCRIPT Courteous Reader SInce the writing the foregoing answer to the Quakers I had some conference with a woman Quaker one of my ancient friends whose name I forbear to mention about the said answer after which the said friend did write me a letter the Contents whereof were as followeth That my written paper is higher then Vanitie because as she saith I confessed that I was not led by the infallible Spirit therefore it must needs be flesh for the Spirit of God is infallible and cannot erre which she desireth I would consider by the light of Christ that convinceth me of sin and that lest I be found fighting against God wherefore she saith in love to thy soul I warn thee Wherefore lest the said woman or any other Quakers should say that I have not answered all their Objections I resolved to answer the said letter though the things objected in the said letter are in part answered before yet for a more full answer I desire the said friend and all other Quakers whether friends or enemies to mind and consider what I have written in answer to the said letter Having received thy letter I was moved to write an answer to shew thee thy error in misunderstanding and misreporting my words for I neither writ nor said that I was not led by the infallible Spirit but said that I doe not pretend to an infallible spirit so as that I cannot erre For I say that all the faithfull are led by the Spirit of Christ which Spirit is infallible but I say they are not so led by that Spirit that they cannot erre which is the thing you maintain but I deny And yet I say that all the Prophets and Apostles were led by the Spirit infallibly guiding them in writing the Scriptures so as that they could not erre and that all the faithful are led by the Spirit so as that they erre not in the foundation or fundamentals of Religion but in other things I say they are subject to erre and the best men that ever lived that that we read of in Scripture have erred Christ Jesus who was God and Man excepted and this I shall plainly prove by Scripture the Prophet David a man after Gods own heart and a Penman of holy Scripture said Lord who knoweth the errors of his life clense me from my secret sins Psal 19. 12. and he having a mind to build the Temple and spake his mind to the Prophet Nathan the Prophet said to the King Go do all that is in thine heart for the Lord is with thee they being both Prophets were both mistaken they were not infallible for that night the Word of the Lord came to Nathan to the contrary that David should not build the Lords House but his Son Solomon but you Quakers will say this was before Christ his coming in the flesh and before the fulness of the Spirit was sent wherefore mind what is written in Scripture after that time There arose a dissention and a disputation among the brethren about Circumcision and Paul and Barnabas with others were sent to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Elders to have their advice and there were great disputations between them about it no one pretending by an infallible Spirit to determine the same were not Paul and Barnabas led by an infallible Spirit what need they then to have gone to Jerusalem to the rest of the Apostles and Elders surely if they had been infallible they made a needless journey and the rest of the Apostles and Elders made a needless disputation Also there arose a doubt amongst the Corinthians about believing husbands having unbelieving wives and believing wives having unbelieving husbands and other things concerning which they wrote unto the Apostle Paul to determine the matter Was there never a man among them that had an infallible spirit so as that he could not erre surely then they were no Quakers for then they needed not to have sent to the Apostle to have the matter determined and the Apostle in his answer concerning some thing saith I speak this by permission and not by command and concerning Virgins I have no commandment from the Lord yet I give my judgement I suppose saith the Apostle but had he been a Quaker and of your opinion would he not have said why or what need you write unto me to know the lawfulness of these things are you not all led by an infallible spirit that cannot erre But the Apostle was so humble and modest that he said I suppose he would not say I am sure or I know certainly I having an infallible spirit I cannot erre No the Apostle confesseth of himself and others we know but in part But you Quakers say you have such an infallible spirit that you cannot erre But God resisteth the proud and hath promised to teach the humble also the Apostle saith If any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble where the Apostle plainly proveth that Christians do sometimes build upon the foundation wood hay and stubble that is some things of their carnal spirits for there is some carnality in those that are in Christ for saith the Apostle I speak unto you as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ now there being flesh as well as spirit and sence and reason as well as faith in every christian is it any wonder that they sometimes erre And therefore honest Luther saith That there being flesh as well as spirit and sence as well as faith in the best men that therefore sometimes that will fall from their tongues and their pens that savours of the flesh as well as of the spirit and of sence as well as of faith and therefore saith he All Christians should be like the clean beasts that chew the Cud and devide the Hoofe that is they should meditate and examine what they hear and read by the Scriptures and devide the truth from the error as those men of Barea did they searched the Scriptures to see whether those things which they heard were according to
the Scriptures They did not hearken to a light within them to see whether they were true But if you Quakers had such an infallible spirit that you cannot erre as you say you have then all that you speak and write musts need be truth and then we need not examine them by the Scriptures to see whether you write and speak the truth But I am not of that implicit faith to beleive what you write without examining the same by the Scriptures and by them I find you have a falable lying spirit that leadeth you into error but seeing you say you are so infallible that you cannot erre give me leave to examine some of your Books in Print Besides what I have already examined and proved many gross errors in them therefore not written by an infallible spirit so as that you cannot erre I shall examine some particulars in your new Primer made by George Fox the younger and some others in which there is as many errors as Pages I shall mention some few particulars by which we may discern what the rest are of the said Primer Children such are Deceivers who tell you that the way to come to know the truth is by the Scriptures Now if this be a true Doctrine then was Christ and his Apostles Deceivers for they taught the same Christ exhorteth to Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me Now if the Scriptures testifie of Christ then the reading of the Scriptures is a means to know the truth unless you deny that Christ is the truth if you do he affirmeth it saying I am the truth It was a true saying of a good man that The whole Scriptures are the swadling band that foulds the Child Jesus Also Christ saith to the Saduces ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Then by consequence the way to avoyd error and to know the truth is by the knowledge of the Scriptures and therefore Christ would have all to search the Scriptures And the Apostle Paul said that Timothy had known the Scriptures from a Child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation and that is by knowing the truth And the Apostle Peter saith We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto you do well that ye take heed But you are enemies to the reading the Scriptures or expounding them Pag 15 Of the said Primer Children such are no Ministers of Gods word who tell you the Scriptures are the word of God Now if this be an infallible truth then I say the Prophets and Apostles were fallible and were no Ministers of Gods word for the Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and most of the small Prophets said that The word of the Lord came unto them and they spake the word of the Lord. I beleive you may find what the Prophets preached called the word of the Lord or God above a hundred times and in the 20. of Exodus God spake all these words and what God spake is Gods word and what Christ spake and preached is the word of God unlesse you deny Christ to be God Also the Apostle James exhorteth Be ye doers of the Word and if any be hearers of the word and not doers c. And do you think the Apostle meaneth the word of man or the word of God Also the Apostle Peter saith We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed And if the Apostles call the Scripture the word surely they are Gods word and by the word of Prophesie can be meant no other word I marvel that you Quakers who pretend to an infallible Spirit to know all things do not know that as Christ is called the eternal word of God so are the Scriptures written called the revealed will or word of God or his word revealed As when we write our mind or cause another to write our will or mind to another we are properly said to send word or what is so written to be our word Pag. 33. Of the said Primer That by the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing you from all sin is meant the life of Christ Now I would know where you ever read in Scripture that we are cleansed from all sin by the life of Christ or whether the blood of Christ were ever taken for the life of Christ in Scripture I would fain know your meaning of this dark mystical expression Whether you do believe that the blood which Christ shed upon the Crosse when he suffered without the Gates of Jerusalem be that blood that cleanseth from all sin I know partly your meaning by what I have heard from several of your company and read in several of your Books wherefore that I may shew you what I beleive concerning the same according to the Scriptures mind the Apostle saith Without shadding of blood is no remission And he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight And having made peace by the blood of his crosse But I fear you are strangers to this blood of Christ and it is a mystery hid from your eyes who pretend to know all mysteries but they are mysteries of iniquity while you count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing And as you are strangers to this blood of Christ that cleanseth from all sin so I fear you are Ignorant of the life of Christ For I would know whether by the life of Christ you mean the life that Christ lived in the dayes of his converse on earth from the time of his Birth to the time of his suffering death on the crosse or the life he now liveth in heaven or whether by the life of Christ you do not understand the life of a leigned Christ in you or a life imitating Christ his Life I know by what I have heard from the mouths of several and read in several of your books that you are strangers to the true life of Christ mentioned in Scripture and is a mystery hid from your eyes But mind what the Scriptures saith For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them By which texts of Scripture you may see that we are justified or saved by Christ his life living now in heaven to make intercession for us But I never did read in the Scripture that our sins are washed away and that we are saved by what Christ wrought in us nor by imitating the life of Christ and yet I say that all those who are saved by the blood and the life of Christ have faith wrought in their hearts by the Spirit of Christ
whereby they beleive this blood of Christ shed for them and that Christ now liveth in Heaven to make intercession for them and this faith is not a dead idle faith but a lively working faith working love to God and man Faith worketh by Love But this faith doth not save as it is an act or work in us but as it apprehendeth and layeth hold on Christ the Object And what ever infallible knowledge you pretend unto without the knowledge of this you are in Ignorance and know nothing as your ought But the Devil hath beguiled you as he did Adam and Eve when he made them beleive they should be as Gods knowing good and evil but they became like the Devil by sin And as the Devil hath deceived you so hath the Pope your Grandfather deceived you by sending his Iesuits and Friers here to seduce and delude you as Mr. William Prynne that Patron and Defender of his Countries Laws and Liberties hath plainly proved in his Book called The Quakers unmasked in which he proveth that several Friers of the Franciscan order have been chief Speakers in your metings as Coppinger and others And I know none but the Pope and his Church and you Quakers that do pretend to an unerring infallible Spirit and I know none that hold and maintain more errors then the Pope and you Quakers whom I conceive are made drunk with Popish errors for all your pretending to an infallible Spirit that cannot erre by an inward light What I have here written is by the light within me which you advise me to consider and hearken unto because it convinceth of sin Concerning which we had some discourse when I affirmed that the Law in the heart doth convince man of sin in the estate of Nature according to the Apostle Paul his words The Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while else accusing or excusing one another Also those that accused the woman taken in Adultery Christ said He that is without sin cast the first stone and they that heard it being convicted in their own conscience went out one by one the Law in the Conscience convicted them of sin And as the Law in the heart convinceth men of gross sins though they never had the Law written So doth the Law written convince of lesser and smaller sins As the Apostle Paul saith I had not known sin but by the Law and that he meaneth the moral Law is plain for saith he I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not lust Also the Apostle writing to the Corinthians to reform the evil custome of men wearing long hair saith Doth not nature it self teach you that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair And if it had not been sin they had no cause to be ashamed and the Apostle saith That nature doth teach it to be a shame But I see some Quakers that are not ashamed to wear long hair for I have observed some of those men Quakers wear longer hair then ordinarily Ruffins or Roysters wear and in stead of shame do defend and maintain the same to be lawful But I shall not beleive them for all their pretended infallible Spirit but rather think they are such as Christ spake of whose light is darknesse If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darknesse like those Locusts that came out of the smoak of the bottomless pit who are said to have hair as the hair of women But this by the way But you objected then that Christ saith the Spirit will reprove the world of sin To which I Answer that Christ and the Apostle doth not contradict one another I shall shew how they agree The Law in the conscience convinceth them of sin by discovering what is sin as the Apostle expoundeth I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not Lust Rom. 7. 7. But the Spirit reproveth for sin by shewing or discovering sin to rest upon the conscience by reason of unbelief as Christ expoundeth the meaning of sin because they believe not in me that is the Spirit shall convict by their own conscience that because they believe not in him there is nothing but sin for because of unbeleif sin resteth on the conscience and by beleiving in Christ only sin is abolished and taken away Wherefore Luther saith If the whole world did believe in Christ God would see nothing but a meer cleansing according to that of the Prophet David Thou hast forgiven the iniquitie of thy people and covered all their sins Selah Psal 85. 2. This have written in love to thy soul and the rest of your profession to undeceive thee and others who are lead by a fallible erring spirit Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures I desire you to examine what I have written by the Scriptures and let them be the Judge between us Whether those that are lead by the Spirit are not subject to erre though the Spirit of God is infallible and cannot erre yet the man that hath the Spirit is fallible and doth erre and so I commit you and what I have written to the blessing of Almighty God and remain a friend and lover of thy Soul FINIS 1. Answ Acts 1. 20 21. 22. Act 1 23 24 25. Act. 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 14. 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 22. 1 Tim. 1. 4. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Rom. 12. 7 8. Heb. 13. 7. 13. 17. Numb 16. 1 2 3. Numb 16 Matth. 23. 2 3. Acts 1. 17. 1 Tim. 5. 22. 1 Cor. 14. 18. Act. 22. 3. 1 Tim. 3. 6. â— Pet. 3. 15 16. Act 2. 3 4. Fox the Quaker 1 Tim. 4. 13 14 15 16. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Rom. 12. 7 8. 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6 7 8. 1 Thes 5 21. Tit. 1. 9 10 11. Tit. 1. 12 13. 1 Cor. 9. 14. Math. 10 10. Act. 4. 37. Act. 5. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 9. 4 5 7 8 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. 2 Cor. 11 8. Gal. 6. 6. Luther on Gal. 6. ver 6. fol. 246. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. 1 Tim. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 3. 8 9 10. Matth. 23 23. See Sir Henry Spelman Cancil Anno 855. 1 Object Answ Mal. 3. Ezek. 34. 3. Esa 56. â—0 11. Zeph. 1. 3 4. 2 Object Answ 3 Object Answ 1 Cor. 9. 4. 1 Cor. 9. 20 21 22 23. Acts 16. 3. Minde 1 Tim 4. 15. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Ephes 4. 24. Colos 3. 10. Act 13 38 39. Rom. 4. 5 6 7. 2 Cor. 8 18 19 20 21. Heb. 10. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Levit. 16. 21. 22 23. Minde Esa 53. 4 5 6. Dan. 9. 24 25 26. Zach. 3. 8 9. Joh. 19. 30. Colos 2. 13 14. Colos 1. 21 22. Colos 1. 28. Heb. 10. Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Numb