into and preserved in it I find the Author of the Book I am Replying to doth not weigh his matter in the true Ballance before he brings it forth but runs on in a dark way of natural Reasoning wherein his greatest strength seems to ly which leads him to lay hold too suddenly of Crude and indigested Notions which will not stand when brought to the true Tryal But to manifest more directly to him and his Party their mistake in the present Instance I recommend to their Consideration whether they among themselves have or pretend to have any Fellowship one with another or no. If they have whether All in that Fellowship can in truth say they are cleansed from All Sin If they cannot then whether according to their own Position before laid down that Fellowship of theirs is not ineffectual This concerns all them that value that Fellowship or themselves for being in it to consider In their 27th and 28th pages having spoken of the Church 's going into the Wilderness and of her being led out of it again by Christ they say As we believe there is to be no end of the Increase of his Government now begun we are to consider there is some alteration in the work it then decreased it must now increase and if it must increase we may will consider as God is infinite and eternal he hath still more Wisdom Power and Glory to reveal Rep. There is no doubt but he hath And in his Wisdom he hath revealed such things as his Wisdom saw needful and useful to his Church and People which by his glorious Power he hath confirmed them in And which the Adversaries in their carnal Wisdom judging too mean and low for them to receive have despised reproached rejected and opposed But while they here admit that God hath still more Wisdom Power and Glory to reveal they seem to have forgotten how oft throughout their Book they have scornfully rejected things as New and Novel and bounded all to their beginning Again they say there must be a looking forward and not backward for the mind of Christ. Rep. Why then would they limit us to their beginning as in their 5th and 9th pages as if nothing were to be received but what is in their esteem Essential to true Religion or which hath been from their beginning Is not that looking backward instead of forward Besides if there must be a looking forward and not backward as they say for the mind of Christ why then do they twit us with unscriptural Orders and peremptorily call for a plain Scripture Proof for this or that Practice Is not this looking backward instead of forward For the Scriptures they know were written many hundred years ago Thus their weakness and self Contradiction appears But this is not all Their Position is unsound in it self They say there must be a looking forward and not backward for the mind of Christ. This Negative part of their Position is false and Erronious excluding the Scriptures of Truth to be looked in for the mind of Christ. Herein they Err to one Extream as the World 's People do to the other They are for looking backward not forward for the mind of Christ backward to the Scriptures which they call such a compleat Canon as admits no Addition or further discovery of the mind of God not forward as believing God hath so bound himself up to what is revealed in the holy Scripture that he will not reveal his mind any further These on the other hand are for looking forward not backward for the mind of Christ. The Truth lies between these two Extreams There ought to be a looking both forward and backward for the minde of Christ. not only forward to every fresh and further manifestation discovery or Revelation of his minde but also backward to those Revelations discoveries or manifestations of the minde of Christ which we have already received from him in our selves and which the Church of Christ in Ages past received from him through the holy Spirit and are recorded in the holy Scriptures which were written for our Instruction Thus running on headily and in haste the Adversaries have shut out the use and Service of the Scriptures of Truth from being look'd into for the minde of Christ. They say We should not think by what we know to measure what is to come and they add we hereby limit the holy One as much as is in our power c. Rep. They directed us before at the end of their Preface to understand the term We of those that are of the same minde with the Author of their Book Now this which they here say of limitting the holy One c. They speak in the term We. So that this is applicable to themselves by their own direction I am sensible indeed that what they here speak concerning themselves is true and I am sorry for it for hence has proceeded their hurt and the loss that is come upon them They have measured the Lord 's Appearances by the false Metwand of their own conceited Knowledge and the things they so measured not answering their expectation by that measure they have rejected despised and vilified the things themselves blasphemed the Power which led Friends into the practice of them turn'd head against their Brethren disquieted and disturbed the Church of Christ proclaimed in Print open War and set up their separate Meetings as Ensigns and Standards thereof Their 29th page contains a Quotation out of the Book they pretend to Answer It is too long to transcribe being almost a page consisting of many particulars pickt out of the 6th and 8th pages of that Book but not fairly for besides other Variations there is this material one that whereas the Author 's own words are If I will not comply with him that God hath made an Eye c. They have cited it If I will not comply with him that is made an Eye c. leaving out God that they might make room for an evil minde to furmise that the Eye there spoken of might be of Man's making not of God 's though the Author had expresly said Him that GOD hath made an Eye This shews as they elsewhere reflect page 25th more Cunning in Daubing than honesty in Dealing In their Answer they say 't is plain the Author intended to gain a dependance upon what he calls the Church Rep. 'T is plain they herein abuse the Author and endeavour to mislead their Reader 'T is plain the Author had no intention nor doth his Discourse tend to gain a dependence upon the Church or upon any thing else than what the Church it self is built and depends upon Christ Jesus the Head thereof That which they Carp at is a Scripture-Metaphor borrowed from the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 12. And the Author 's intention in using it was no other than to reprove and refute the folly of those who from the variety of Measures diversity of Gifts and Offices in the
A REPLY TO AN ANSWER Lately Published to a BOOK Long since written by W. P. Entituled A Brief Examination and State of Liberty Spiritual c. By Thomas Ellwood 2 Tim. 3.13 Evil men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Printed and Sold by T. Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch 1691. THE PREFACE IN the Year 1681. there was a small Treatise published by a Friend under the Title of A Brief Examination of Liberty Spiritual c. The occasion of writing that Treatise was a sense the Author thereof had and an Observation he had made how much the Nature of that true Spiritual Liberty was misunderstood by some and the Name thereof abused by others in the Profession of the Truth who under pretence of being left to that Liberty in themselves and to their own Freedom therein both took liberty to do such things as were inconsistent with that true Liberty and with the Principle of Truth which they professed and despising those useful good and necessary Helps and Means which the Lord hath provided and furnished his Church or People with for the preventing and keeping out such Disorders Evils and Scandals as the unruly Nature of man through such a mistake of true Liberty might and would bring in did reject the Counsel Admonition or Reproof of their Brethren with a What hast thou to do with me Leave me to my own Freedom To reclaim if it might be those that were thus deceived and prevent others from being so the Author being pressed in Spirit for Zion's sake and for the Peace of Jerusalem and having a deep Sense as himself expresses of the working of the Enemy of Zion's Peace to rend and divide the Heritage of God did write the fore-mentioned Treatise for the Establishment of the Faithful Information of the Simple-hearted and Reproof of the Arrogant and High-minded as his Title Page sets forth As that Treatise had its Service and Acceptance with the Faithful and Simple-hearted So it has passed hitherto for between nine and ten Years free from the Cavils at least Publick of the Arrogant and High-minded till now that of late some of them who are of a restless Spirit and to whom it is uneasie to be or to let others be quiet have singled out that Book for a fresh Butt to shoot at make that a new Occasion to renew Contention and revive the old Controversie In order to this they have very lately published a Book in Answer as is pretended to several material Passages in that Book That Answer hath in the Title Page the Letters J. H. as standing for the Author's Name But since I have no certain knowledge who is meant by those two Letters and I find the general stile of the Answer both in the Preface and Book it self to run in the first Person Plural We which by the Advertisement at the End of the Preface I am told may be understood in respect of those of the same mind with the Author of that Book I chose in my Reply to entitle the Adverse Party to it without regard to any particular Person They labour much throughout their Book to fasten an ugly Imputation or Charge upon the Author of that Treatise they pretend to Answer of endeavouring to bring in a blind Obedience an implicit Faith Conformity before and without Conviction a Dependence on Men instead of a Dependence on God endeavouring to obtrude or set up Opinion or the likeness of Truth instead of Truth c. How far from Truth this Charge is the following Reply is intended to manifest How far from true Christianity a man must be that could be guilty of all this is manifest of it self The Adversaries therefore that they might not hereby too much disgust such of their Favourers as have not wholly cast off all good thoughts of him they thus traduce make as if they would in Charity excuse the Author from doing those things knowingly pretending to believe him both a better Man and more a Christian. But how unlike Christians they have dealt with him in Answering his Book the following Reply will in part discover Here in their Preface for the reason of his doing the things they slanderously tax him with they assign his being deceived through the mysterious working of the Enemy which that it may not seem strange they wish their Reader to consider how many have been deceived thereby both great and small and some at times hurried into things grosly Evil as killing their fellow-Creatures and yet at the same time think they did God service But as no good Christian ever did so So by the Comparison they have made they sufficiently shew what a sort of Christian they in reality esteem him to be Their Preface is so much both for matter and manner of the same Piece with their Book that much of what is in the Preface will be taken notice of in the Reply to the Book to which therefore for avoiding needless Repetitions I refer Yet because they have loosely scattered through their Preface many unsound Expressions which perhaps may not so fitly be handled in the Reply I will briefly touch a few of them here As Their calling the likeness of Truth a Third thing besides what is Evil and Good and saying that it stands betwixt Evil and Good though they bring it in with as As we may say will not hold weight but unsound For that which is only like Truth but is not Truth doth not stand betwixt Evil and Good but whatever it seems to be is really and directly Evil and stands in and with the Evil. So their making the Covering of the Soul where the likeness of Truth is received for Truth c. to be as the Linnen and Wollen-Garment forbid to be worm under the Law is an unfit and unsound Comparison For neither the Linnen nor the Wollen was Evil though as a Type of Sincerity and Singleness of Heart they were then forbidden to be worn in one Garment together but either the Linnen might lawfully be worn by it self or the Wollen by it self But the likeness of Truth that which is only like Truth but is not Truth may neither be received together with any thing that is Truth nor alone by it self without Truth So when they speak of Outward Rules they say Every adding of outward Rules shews a want of Christ's Government by his holy Spirit They mistake If it shews a want of any thing it shews a want of Subjection to his Government by his holy Spirit not a want of that Government Neither is Christ's Government by his holy Spirit incompatible with outward Rules but whatever outward Rules Christ by his Spirit gives are consistent with and agreeable to his Government by his Spirit So again when they say It is certain that no outward Rule
and certainly known as the Tares in the Parable at the first sight were to be Tares Ah how would this loose Spirit that is got up in some turn Spiritual Zion the inclosed Garden of God into a Plowed-Field However it is to be hoped Their applying the Parable of Tares to themselves may help to make some others understand them better than hither to they have done And their pleading for a Toleration for Tares to grow in the Church for of the Church and its Members they here treat not of the World may give some a further sight of their Design for sheltring Evil and what they aim at in this Plea than ever they had before After they have shewed the utmost of Immoderation in managing the Difference on their own part they now at length begin to preach Moderation to Others If say they this Difference cannot be ended manage it with more Moderation they might have added than themselves have done and in that love of God that it may be shewed the Lord is at hand to gather different apprehensions into a better Temper They might have added than Themselves have hitherto been in Rep. But why did they not think of this Moderation before they published their many scandalous and malicious Books to the defaming of Truth and Friends to the world as much as in them lay Why did they not preach this Moderation to their own Party at Reding and other Places to have gathered them into a better temper for a worse they could hardly have been in than to keep Friends out of their Meeting-Houses wherein they had a just and legal Property and expose them for divers Years together to those hardships that Heat and Cold Rain and Storms of Weather bring They who have done the greatest mischief by their Immoderation that they can begin now to recommend Moderation to others And they who have done their utmost to dishonour the God of Truth and Peace before the People by publishing their wicked Books and setting up their separate Meetings do now take upon them to exhort Others to Moderation Otherwise say they you will dishonour the God of Truth and Peace before the People Is not this Hyprocrisie in grain They add pag. 46. You must agree together quietly or part friendly or you are no Preachers of Righteousness whatever your Principles of Truth may be Rep. To what end do they propose this now so long after they have actually parted from us They have had their separate Meetings these many years And more than a year ago some of them gave us to understand in Print that they had chosen to meet apart and had withdrawn But since they did neither agree quietly with us while together nor did part Friendly when they withdrew does it not follow upon them according to their own words that They are no Preachers of Righteousness whatever Principles of Truth they may hold They urge the Example of Abraham and Lot for parting by agreement But they do not take notice that that was only a parting of outward Habitations and that through Necessity because the place was not large enough to hold them So that this was not a Religious parting muchless a parting through Opposition of their Spirits Yet this was in the Vncircumcised state too for Circumcision was not instituted till after this But they would do well to consider that Lot who took his Choice and parted from Abraham the Friend of God came to great Loss and suffered deeply thereby For though at first remove he pitched his Tent but towards Sodom Gen. 13.12 yet quickly after we find him settled in Sodom chap. 14.12 And he had not long been there before he was made a Captive and was glad to be rescued by him he had parted from O that all that are in danger of being beguiled betrayed and led away by this Dividing Spirit and its Agents would consider these things in a Spiritual Application and beware of Separating from God's Friends lest by the pleasantness of the Plains where liberty freedom room and scope may be had to walk at will they be allured to pitch their Tents towards mystical Sodom and by degrees drawn into it It follows in their Book But why cannot you agree together whilst you own one and the same righteous Principle Rep. By this it seems as if owning a Principle were Terms of their Communion To own the Principle of Truth is one thing to hold it keep to it and obey it is another Many do the one that do not the other Many own the Principle of Truth in words that never came into Obedience to it and some that have departed from obedience to the Principle have yet retained a verbal Acknowledgement of it And of them that have made Profession of the Truth and afterwards turned their Backs upon it how few are there that do not own the Principle They find fault with something or other in the Society to make themselves an Out-let that they may thereby slip out and shake off the Yoke of Christ which is as uneasie to the Wrong as easie to the Right But they commonly cry up the Principle still Do not Pennyman Crisp and Bugg own in words the same righteous Principle still Let me turn the Question then upon the Adversaries and ask them Why cannot you and those men agree together whilst you and they own one and the same righteous Principle Nay why cannot you and they agree in other things as well as in contending against Truth and writing Books against Friends They add You came out together have you not done the greater and cannot you do the less That 's strange Rep. That 's not so strange as they would make it Israel of old came out of Egypt together and with them a mixt multitude Exod. 12.38 or as in the Margin a great Mixture But all they that came out together did not agree to travel on together No some grumbled and murmured at the Hardships in the way Some emulated and repined at the superior Gifts and Graces of their Brethren Some let in and cherished Evil Surmises and false Iealousies concerning their Brethren as if some of their Brethren took too much upon them and lifted themselves up above the Congregation and sought a Principality or Lordly Dominion over the rest Numb 16. Thus wrought the subtil Enemy after divers manners to divide scatter and turn aside some after one manner some after another Some were swallowed up of the Earth and perished in their Gain-saying Some were for making themselves a Captain in opposition to the Captain God had made and for returning again into Egypt the Land of Darkness out of which they came up together Others were consumed by the Fire of the Lord which in hot Indignation brake forth against them And all the Murmurers fell in the Wilderness Now all these things as the Apostle says hapned unto them for Examples and they are written for our Admonition 1 Cor. 10.11 Therefore Murmur not ye as some of them also Murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer ver 10. That which remains of the Adversaries Book is mostly a Recapitulation or contracted Repetition of their foregoing Reasonings grounded upon a false Hypothesis or Supposition that Friends would impose new things as matters of Faith and terms of Communion and would bring in blind Obedience by pressing Conformity before Conviction and the like which I hope the Reader will find to his Satisfaction refuted before That therefore I may not swell this Book with unnecessary Repetitions I will only recommend to the Reader 's Observation what after all their Outcry against bringing in new things as they call them the Adversaries themselves grant in page 48. in these words Any Particular or any Assembly of the Community may offer what is new if they sincerely believe it good and Serviceable without breach of Vnity or at least of Communion but say they we cannot find to the bringing of new things in as matters of Faith or terms of Communion that any Assembly have any more power than a particular Person Rep What Power an Assembly may have more than a particular Person I list not here to dispute because I would not like them pick occasion of Debate and Quarrelling But since Friends have not offered any of the things the Adversaries except against under the Notion of new things as matters of Faith to others or as terms of Communion but have only offered such things as they sincerely believe are good and Serviceable let it suffice that Friends have herein done no more than the Adversaries here grant may be done by any Particular or any Assembly of the Community without breach of Unity or Communion The Breach therefore of Unity and Communion that now is betwixt them and Friends must lie and doth at the Adversaries Door who by the heady willful violent and turbulent Opposition they made to obstruct and hinder Friends from proceeding on in the use and practice of those things which the Friends sincerely believed and do yet believe to be good and Serviceable have run themselves into open War and that in Print against Friends and into open Division and Separation from Friends So that it is They have broken themselves off from the Unity Communion and Society of Friends both inwardly in Spirit and outwardly also in Religious Exercises The Lord if it be his good pleasure give them yet a clear sight and true sense of the great Evil and Mischief they have done against God his Truth and People that in the sense thereof they may be truly humbled and bowed down before him and brought to such an honest and sensible Acknowledgment thereof as may evidence their sincere Repentance that through Judgment they may find Mercy and obtain Remission from him THE END Of the Mistakes committed in Printing the most material that have been yet observed are here noted to be Corrected Others of less moment as mis-spellings mis-placing of Letters or Stops the Reader is desired to amend in reading PAge 10. line 21. read is in pag. 20. line 8. r. reprove l. 13. for immoral r. Evil p. 22. l. 33. for not yet r. nor yet p. 23. l. 25. after dispensation make Commâ— p. 40. l. 13. f. present r. recent p. 44. l. 1. r. Iohn 6.56 p. 50. l. 27. r. Peter p. 52. l. 9. f. of Evil r. for Evil. p. 63. l. 12. f. prevent r. pervert