in a publick Meeting with Blasphemy for asserting it but whither the Body of Christ now since his Ascension is in all things and every where If not every where then but some where and that some-where is a Local Heaven which W. P. hath said is Mahometan E. Burrough charg'd John Bunnion with Wickedness for saying Christ was in Heaven in our Nature And for the same did G. Whitehead blame John Horn as I have shewn in my Narratives And saith G. W. in his Nature of Christianity p. 41. That Christ existeth outwardly bodily without us at God's right hand What Scripture hath he viz. his Opponent R. G. for these words W. Bailey will have it That Christ ascended into Heaven in no body but what came down from Heaven All which and much more is proved out of my three Narratives the third especially And whereas he saith Let it be never so true it cannot affect the People if not the act of the People the Church of England has Doctors of very differing Sentiments c. I answer what any one of your Teachers have asserted in Print especially it affects your Second days Meeting that licenseth all your Teachers Books and yet profess to be all one and the same in all that ye believe as God and Truth is the same And if the Church of England hath Teachers of different Sentiments in lesser Matters yet not in Fundamentals so far as she knows and if they had and she should know it and not censure them it would affect her From all which it appears that W. P. and his Brethrens Conciseness in their Gospel Truths was on purpose in general Terms to cover their gross Errors And where Men are sound in the Faith and of known Sincerity what is implied in their words may in Charity and Justice be granted but not if they be Insincere and given to equivocate as is the present Case Section 6. His Fallacy in asserting that his owning future Rewards and Punishments in his Sense doth imply his owning the Resurrection of the Dead which it is proved he hath disowned His unjust Offence at the Bishop's Censure of his unsound Notion of the Light within and his uncivil Treatment of the Bishop on that account as if he were a meer Natural Man a Persecuter a Nicodemus in the Knowledge of Regeneration The Bishop's Doctrine of the Light within more sound and intelligible than that of W. P. By W. P 's Definition of Light within and Sight within a Natural Man is capable to understand it though in contradiction to himself W. P 's Ignorance in making the natural rational Faculty to be all the Spiritual Sight even in Regenerated Persons The Bishop's Doctrine of the Light within and Spiritual Sight of regenerated Persons as more sound so more sublime than that of W. P. IN Page 43 he proceeds in the like Fallacy and Equivocation alledging That their acknowledging the future state of the Just and Unjust implys the resurrection of the Dead which as it is true in a Scripture sense it is as false in his sense and in the sense of all others of his Heathen Brethren many of whom professed to believe the immortality of Men's Souls both Greek and Latin yet that profession did not imply they believed the resurrection of the Body either of the Just or Unjust for they generally disbelieved it and opposed the Christians for asserting it And that W. P. himself hath opposed the Resurrection of the Body is above sufficiently proved In his Page 51. and 52. W. P. seems not a little moved with the Bishops saying their discourse about the Light within as far as he can see is perfectly such as we usually call Banter that is when Men have a faculty to speak things seemingly profound but in the end neither themselves nor others can make any distinct Sense of what they have said This Modest Censure of the Bishop upon his discourse of the Light within in his 5th 6th and 7th Sections W. P. calls one of the severest Persecutions This to me saith he is one of the severest Persecutions because Spiritual things are only to be Spiritually discern'd and understood I would fain know saith he how a regenerate Man can possibly make a Carnal Man understand the new Birth yea he chargeth it to look Antichristian as well as unreasonable and he quotes diverse places of Scripture which he at least implicitly levels at the Bishop as if the Bishop were the Unregenerate and Natural Man that because he is so he cannot understand W. P's profound Doctrine of the Light within And the Bishop is he that is born after the Flesh who persecutes W. P. that 's born after the Spirit and his Brethren with Tongue and Pen when he and others such as he can no longer commit violence upon their Persons and Estates and as if the Bishop were a very Nicodemus in the Doctrine of the new Birth All which it plainly appears and much more W. P. indirectly and implicitly levels at the Bishop otherwise why quotes he such places of Scriptures with such large discourses on them if not to point to him and that his want of the new Birth and being but a Natural Man tho' not wanting Academical Learning made him uncapable of understanding W. P's Spiritual Doctrine about the Light within and after his instance of the blindness of the Scribes and Pharisees and the High-Priest of the Jews in not discerning the Messiah when he came he infers let the Bishop also have a care and he further tells the Bishop he should be glad to see the Bishop's evidence for the knowledge of God by the Revelation of the Son of God in his own Soul To give my sense freely so far as I am able to understand the Bishop hath given a better account and evidence of his knowledge in the Mystery of God and of Christ by his Christian Scriptural and sound expressions than W. P. and I suppose in his manner of Life is nothing inferior to him And what evidence of his true knowledge by Internall Illumination or Revelation can W. P. give or has given that the Bishop cannot give yea hath not given in this very case Is it enough for W. P. to say he has it and the Bishop has it not Or wherein do W. P's fruits of a holy Life give more evidence of his knowledge and experience of the new Birth than these of the Bishop I shall first take notice of the Bishop's sound words in giving his sense how the Conscience of Man is enlightned to know and believe aright the Doctrines and Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation Conscience saith the Bishop opened by the holy Spirit under the Ministry of the word Acts 16. 14. does and must take in its Light from holy Scripture quoting Psal 19. 8. Eph. 1. 18. Psal 119. 105. Isaiah 8. 20. Now these things saith he are intelligible this Rule is fixt and certain nothing of which can be said of your Light within
how can this consist with his now saying that we are Justified from the guilt of Sin by Christ the Propitiation Again in his Sandy Foundation from P. 24 to P. 32. he pretends to bring arguments from both Scripture and Reason to refute the Justification of impure Persons by an imputative Righteousness I shall quote a few passages out of many to shew the inconsistency of his late and former Doctrine about Justification from the guilt of Sin P. 25. from Ezek. 18. 20 26 27 28. He draws this Argument That the Condemnation or Justification of Persons is not from the imputation of anothers Righteousness but the actual performance and keeping of God's Righteous Statutes or Commandments otherwise God should forget to be equal Again in P. 26. he saith Christ is so far from telling them of their being Justified abiding in his Love by virtue of his Obedience imputed unto them that unless they obey his Commandments and obey for themselves they shall be so remote from an acceptance as wholly to be cast out in all which Christ is but our example Where note Reader the words BUT our example Again in the same Page Nor let any fancy saith he that Christ hath so fulfilled it for them as to exclude their Obedience from being requisite to their acceptance BUT only as their pattern Where note again Reader these words but only as their pattern This is plain Socinianism Again in P. 27. he thus argueth If rejoycing and acceptance with God or the contrary are to be reaped from the Works that a Man soweth either to the Flesh or to the Spirit then is the Doctrine of acceptance and ground of rejoycing from the works of another utterly excluded every Man reaping according to what he hath sown and bearing his own Burden Thus Reader thou seest how earnestly he hath contended against all Justification from the Righteousness of Christ wrought in his own Person without us though in this late Paper of Gospel Truths he seems fully to assert it I shall not need to insist at large to shew his fallacious way of stating the question about Justification by Christ's Righteousness without us and of his reasoning against it As if these against whom he argueth did plead for a Justification or Righteousness of Christ actually imputed to Men wholly unsanctified and remaining altogether in a state of disobedience wherein hemost unfairly represents them But whereas he pleads at such a high rate that none are Justified while having the least Sin or impurity so as that none are Justified but who perfectly in all points without the least sinful defect or imperfection obey the Law of God and come up in their Obedience to the outmost demand of the Law as the whole strain of his Arguments run by this rate of arguing either W. P. and all his Brethren are under a state of Condemnation and the Curse of the Law If they have the least impurity or sinful defect and have not attained a sinless perfection which yet can be proved sufficiently they have not attained and some of them have so much ingenuity in them as to confess they have not yet arrived unto And W. P. would do but equally in the case to tell us whether he is such a Sinless Person that answers every demand of Justice and who in his obedience comes up to the highest perfection of Holiness that the most Holy Law of God doth now at this present require of him If he thinks he is he is miserably mistaken while his sinful Imperfections in his asserting such gross Untruths for Truths and some of them against the Conviction of his Conscience are so manifest that he who runs may read them besides a great vein of Pride Levity and Vanity of Mind and Scornful Disdain that appears running through his pretended Answer to the Bishop of Cork his modest Observations and his most uncivil Language and Epithets he hath used in his former Books never to this day repented of so far as we can understand given by him to his Opponents in his several Books of Controversie whereof the Author of The Snake in the Grass hath given a large Catalogue Section 3. His Fallacy in seeming to own Justification by Christ the Propitiation whereas by Christ the Propitiation he doth not mean the Man Christ without but the Light within His bold attempt in his Sandy Foundation to throw down three great Fundamentals of Christianity viz. The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity The Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction and the Doctrine of Justification by Christ's imputed Righteousness His excluding Faith in Christ Crucified from being necessary to Justification and placing it wholly on Repentance and Obedience his agreement with G. W. therein BUT under this seemingly fair acknowledgment of W. P. that we are only justified from the Guilt of Sin by Christ the Propitiation let us search whither there be not even in this acknowledgment The Snake in the Grass If W. P. remain in his former Perswasion as he affirmeth he doth by his former Books I shall clearly prove that by Christ the Propitiation he doth not mean the Man Christ Jesus as he outwardly suffered Death and the shedding of his Blood outwardly for the Remission of our Sins being the great and only Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of Men and thereby by his most perfect Satisfaction paying to Divine Justice the Debt of our Sins In his Christian Quaker p. 97. he contendeth That the Sacrifices and Lamb in the Passover under the Law were not proper Figures of Christ without but of Christ the promised Seed within One outward thing saith he cannot be the proper Figure of another nor is it the way of Holy Scripture so to teach the outward Lamb shews forth the inward And in Page 145 he saith As the outward Jew had an outward Priest at whose mouth he ought to seek the Law so the Jew inward and Circumcision in Spirit has an inward and Spiritual High Priest the King Ruler Judge Law-giver High Priest Law Rule Temple are all Spiritual i. e. Inward And in his Rejoynder to J. Faldo p. 284. he affirmeth That Christ offers himself in his Children in the nature of a mediating Sacrifice to appease the Wrath of God Again in his Sandy Foundation from p. 16 to p. 24. he disputes against the Satisfaction of Christ giving this Title to his Disputation The vulgar Doctrine of Satisfaction being dependent on the second Person of the imagined Trinity refuted from Scripture to p. 20 and from p. 20 refuted from right reason to p. 24 where p. 17. arguing from Jer. 31. 31 33 34. he saith Here is God's meer Grace asserted against the pretended necessity of a Satisfaction to procure his Remission And p. 18. he argueth thus And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors Where nothing can be more obvious saith he than that which is forgiven is not paid And if it is our Duty to forgive without a Satisfaction received and that God is
that for their Sin of not believing in Christ God-man without them especially they were to dye in their Sins And as fallacious he is in interpreting John 16. 7. that the Comforter which Christ promised to send was the Light within or the Word God with respect only to his common Illumination reproving for common Sins whereas it 's plain from v. 9. that the Sin of which especially the Comforter viz. The Holy Spirit should convince Men should be the Sin of unbelief viz. For not believing that that very Man that spoke unto them was the Christ of God the promised Messiah the Redeemer and Saviour of the World Now unless W. P. can show that the Light within allowing it to be the Word God with respect to the common Illumination and by the said common Illumination universally given to Mankind without any superadded special inward Illumination of the Divine Word and without all external Revelation of Scripture-Light and Doctrine doth convince all Men of the Sin of not believing in the Man Christ Jesus that was born of a Virgin who spoke those words John 8. 21. 24. and John 16. 7 8 9. he but beats the Air and argueth to no purpose that the Light within every Man giveth a sufficient discovery of the way to Eternal Life and Salvation by the common Illumination without all special Illumination and external Revelation as aforesaid Why God hath not given the External Revelation of the Gospel Doctrine concerning Christ the Propitiation as he outwardly dyed for the Sins of Men nor the special Illumination nor conviction of the Spirit that ordinarily accompanieth the outward Preaching of the Gospel to many parts of Mankind belongeth to the depth of his most righteous Judgments against which we have no cause to dispute but to cry out with the Apostle Paul Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out and also with Holy Admiration and Thankfulness to bless God that he has given us the Light of his Gospel both by the Doctrine of it outwardly and by the special Illuminations of his Spirit and Divine word inwardly which he has not given to many others though we were not more worthy of it than they So that what the Psalmist said concerning the Jewish Church of old may be well and fitly applied to the Christian Church and Nations in Christendom where the Gospel is preached Psal 47. 19 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Nor doth all that I have said on this Head render Salvation impossible to these parts of Mankind to whom the Light of the Gospel hath not shined outwardly by any external Revelation of it seeing God can supply that defect by ways and methods unknown to us who worketh by his Spirit when where and how he pleaseth it is sufficient to us to know that the ordinary way and means that God hath provided for Mens eternal Salvation is by outward means of Instruction to wit the Doctrine of the Gospel as outwardly delivered us in the Holy Scriptures which is always accompanied with the special Illumination of Christ by the Holy Spirit to all that shall obtain eternal Salvation and that there is no other way or name under Heaven whereby Men must be-saved but the Name of Jesus nor no Promise of Salvation to any but through Faith in that Name even of Christ as outwardly he came and was and is a Propitiation for our Sins And though God can Save and hath saved some without the outward means of the Word as outwardly preached yet this will not prove that ever any was or shall be saved by the meer common Illumination given to all Men which yet is W. P's and his Brethrens great Fundamental and Evangelium eternum their everlasting Gospel from which they exclude the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ Crucified and by Faith in him from being any part of it because not falling within the ordinary discoveries given to Mankind that Doctrine is none of the absolute necessaries of Deism is very true but that any were saved by meer Deism without all knowledge of Christ and Faith in him the great and only Propitiation for Sin which is W. P's great Fundamental he hath not proved and the Greek Calends will sooner come than ever he or any for him can prove it In his Page 21 he tells us The Nature of this excellent Principle the Light within every Man is to discover Sin reprove for it and lead out of it all such as love and obey the Convictions thereof That the Principle of the Light within even with respect to its common Illumination to and in every Man is excellent is granted and I do not think will be denied by the Bishop or any true Christian but he derogates greatly from the Excellency of it to tell us the Nature of it is to do so and so as if it were a natural and necessary Agent as it is the nature of the Fire to burn of the Sun to give light I ask W. P. Is it the nature of the word God to Create as a necessary Agent If it is the nature of the Divine word to Create he could not but Create otherwise he should change his nature as because it is the nature of the Fire to burn if it did not burn it should change its nature And if it be the Nature of the word God to discover Sin and reprove for it and lead out of it then that Divine word can do no otherwise and consequently is he not a necessary and not a free Agent It had been better and more Sound and Christian for W. P. to have said It is the good will and pleasure of the Divine word to reprove for Sin and also of the Spirit who bloweth where he pleaseth according to the old Latin Translation and which the Greek well beareth and was generally so understood by the Ancients both Greek and Latin Spiritus spirat ubi vult The Spirit breatheth where he willeth and pleaseth in all to discover and reprove for Sin and yet not in all absolutely to bring them out of Sin or to work that Obedience in all so as to be brought out of Sin It had wont to be a Doctrine among the Quakers that God giveth a Day of Visitation which may expire and pass over some before they dye and yet even such after their day of Visitation is expired have that Light in them which reproveth for Sin And as the Visitation of some may be expired so the Visitation of others may be yet to come the outward Sun though a natural and necessary Agent yet shineth not to all at once when it is setting to some it is rising to others and when it is midnight to some it is mid-day to others that is an Emblem
God as to Preach and Pray by it But can it be supposed that Men are acted or moved by the Spirit of God to bring forth so many false Doctrines vile Heresies and Errors and gross Untruths and Fallacies and uncharitable Judgments and Perversions of their Opponents words as they commonly do in their writings generally But what way to the Kingdom do they Preach Possibly they will say Christ who said he was the way But how do they Preach him to be the way Just as W. P. hath here and elsewhere Preached him in Print to wit as the Word God and the Light within whose Nature is to discover Sin and lead out of it all such who Love and obey the Convictions of it and that only and alone by the common Illumination which by W. P's confession discovers nothing of Christ as he became a Propitiation for our Sins by his Death on the Cross The great subject of the Apostles Preaching was Christ Crucified and remission of Sin by Faith in him and how all Spiritual Blessings yea the gift of the Holy Spirit himself comes to us by the Crucified Jesus and Faith in him but little or nothing of this sort of Preaching is to be found either in your Meetings or Books but much against it though to cover your Vile Errors you will now and then seem to own it but forgetting your selves quickly disown it all again Yea W. P. knoweth in his Conscience how both publickly and privately he hath blamed me and charged me with my being an Apostate for my asserting the necessity of Friends Preaching this Faith to wit in Christ as he dyed for our Sins c. as being absolutely necessary to Regeneration for us to have this Faith and to know and experience Christ formed in us and to live dwell and Rule in us For this my Christian Testimony he charged me at Ratcliff Meeting that I did what in me lay to pluck up the Testimony of Truth by the Roots And at the Yearly Meeting at Grace-Church-street in the Year 1694 he stood up and accused me before some hundred Friends of them called the Ministry and others that I was seeking to bring in a New method of Preaching among Friends which was to Preach Christ without and the necessity of Faith in him in order to bring People to the knowledge and experience of the new Birth and Christ in them as he dwells in the Saints And also he knows in his Conscience when and where and to whom he hath accused me for Preaching Christ without in opposition to Christ within which God knoweth I never did And therefore in his so doing he hath falsly accused me though his and his Brethrens false Notions of Christ within as above explained I have opposed and by God's help shall oppose and witness against while I live But the true Scripture sense of Christ within as the Word God and of Christ the Word made Flesh without us who is still but one Christ and of his sufficiency to our Salvation both as without us and within us without us as he came to procure and purchase it for us by his Blood and Merits and within us by his Spiritual appearance and special Illumination of the Holy Spirit in the use of the outward means to apply it to us and to work the blessed and glorious effect of it in us I have owned and still hope to own it to the end of my days As for W. P's Arguments against Baptism and the Supper as outwardly administred I know not one of them but I have fully answered that may seem to require an answer and many more in my late Book called The Arguments of the Quakers against Baptism and the Supper Examined and Refuted which he ought more particularty to have answered being so particularly concerned than to have brought them up again as if they had been new Dishes which are nothing but the Old after some Fashion new dressed If the Bishop thinks fit to notice them he may for me to meddle with them were but Actum agere to do what I have already done Section 11. His uncivil Treatment of the Bishop of Cork as if he were Ignorant of Regeneration and the way how it is wrought The Bishop has soundly and Christianly explained the Doctrine of Regeneration and the way how it is wrought W. P's great Fallacy in his definition of Regeneration and the way how it is wrought His Fallacy in seeming to agree to the Bishop's Assertion from that Text Rom. 10. 9. His Fallaeious Argument that because the Spirit Leads and Rules therefore the Spirit is the Rule detected the Ruler and the Rule distinct The great Blessing and Advantage of the Scriptures being a means to preserve us by the Grace of God and assistance of his Holy Spirit from Satan's Delusions and Impostures IN his 26th Page he saith I think nothing makes a Man a true Christian but Regeneration the Power of the Son of God revealed in the Soul converting it to God And in his P. 29 he saith I would have my Reader reflect well upon this great and Essential Truth Tho he were as Big as a Bishop Reader what thinkst thou of this Uncivil Proud and Disdainful Treatment But so far as I understand W. P. sheweth himself as if he were much more big than a Bishop he treats the Modest and humble Bishop as if he were one of his meanest subjects But for all W. P's pretence to be so Skilful in that great and essential Truth of the necessity of Regeneration and the manner and way of its being wrought above and beyond the Bishop the Bishop has beyond all doubt in his short Testimony in three or four lines on that Head made it evident that he understands the Mystery of Regeneration and the manner how it is wrought better than W. P. for all his Big and Lordly thoughts he has of himself and for all his Big talk of the new Creature and Self-denial there is great a deal more of it in his Books than in his Life But mark how W. P. describes the manner how Regeneration is wrought That it is by the power of the Son of God revealed in the Soul converting it to God which are such general words and terms and true when taken in a true Scripture sense that not only every Bishop but every Curate of the Church of England and every ordinary Christian can say the same But under these general Words W. P. hideth a great Fallacy what doth W. P. mean by the power of the Son of God revealed in the Soul converting it to God No other thing but the power of the common Illumination of the Light within given to Infidel Jews Mahometans and all moral Heathens who if they are but meer Just Men according to W. P's Gospel and System of Divinity they are Regenerated Persons though they have no special Illumination of the Holy Spirit giving them any inward and spiritual knowledge and Faith of the Son of
God as the word Incarnate or word made Flesh and as he was Miraculously conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Blessed Virgin dyed for our Sins and rose again None of all this doth the common and ordinary discoveries of the Light within teach W. P. and his Brethren and yet this is all he sets up in order to bring People to the work of Regeneration and to become the Sons of God Not only the Bishop but the meanest Curate in his Diocess I charitably think can give a better account according to Scripture of the manner how Regeneration is wrought in Men to wit by receiving Christ through a lively Faith wrought in them by the Spirit and Power of the Son of God inwardly revealed in them and by the Doctrine of Christ outwardly Preached in God's ordinary way and believing in his Name according to all his Offices viz. his prophetical priestly and Kingly Office The Faith and perswasion of the great Love of God in giving his Son to dye for us and of the great Love of Christ who gave himself for us inwardly revealed in us not by the common Illumination given to Heathens but by special Illumination of Christ in our Hearts perswading us of the truth and certainty of the Scriptures Doctrine and Testimony concerning this Love works that change in us that the Scripture calls Regeneration or the New Creature for thus the Scripture witnesseth John 1. 12. To as many as received him he gave them Power to become the Sons of God even to as many as believed in his Name And this believing in his Name was not only a believing his inward appearance or Light in them but by special Illumination and operation of his mighty power in them believing in him as he outwardly came in the Flesh dyed for our Sins and rose again as our King Priest and Prophet without us as well as the Light within or Word God within us as Paul testified ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 26. to wit as outwardly Crucified and raised again And as John testified 1. John 5. 1. Whosoever believeth to wit with a sincere Faith that Jesus even that very Jesus that was born of Mary is the Christ is born of God But none of all this Faith doth W. P. think necessary to Regeneration or Eternal Salvation for otherwise it would exclude all his Deist Brethren and moral Just Men among Jews and Mahometans and Heathens from being Regenerate Persons and his sort of Christians whereas the Bishop hath plainly owned the necessity of this Faith to Regeneration and eternal Salvation in his sound but short Christian Testimony and W. P. taken notice of it and seems but most fallaciously to agree to it in his Page 44. In the first part of his note saith W. P. I agree with him that all who rightly believe the Text Rom. 10. 9. Will be Saved for that must be by the Illumination and working of the saving Power of Christ in the Heart that he can so believe Here W. P. and the Bishop would seem to agree for no doubt the Bishop doth so believe But O the stupendious fallacy of W. P. in this very thing All that Rightly believe the Text Rom. 10. 9. Will be Saved But what if they do not believe it at all or but only Historically and in the mean time Love and obey the convictions and common discoveries of the Light within given generally to Heathens according to W. P. they are Regenerated and shall be saved Can there be a greater fallacy and greater Jesuitical Equivocation under Heaven The Illumination and Working of the saving Power of Christ in the Heart he will have it to be none other either in him or any of his Brethren or any else but the common Illumination that every Heathen hath or may have which yet he confesseth discovereth nothing of Christ as he outwardly dyed and rose again that discovery belonging to extraordinary Revelation as he acknowledgeth and yet pretends not to have any such thing In his 150th Page he thus Argueth That which Leads Rules and that which Rules is a Rule to them that follow it But the Spirit Leads Rom. 8. ergo c. It is just such a Sophism as this That which ploweth is the Plow but the Plow-Man Ploweth therefore the Plow-Man is the Plow This is a piece of dull Sophistry and shews W. P. to be no very good Logician But further to shew his Sophistry by an Argumentum ad Hominem that which Rules is a Rule to them that follow it But W. P's Justices of Peace in Pensilvania Rule the People there and so doth his Deputy Governour Ergo he and they are the Rule to that People But then what need of any Laws It seems when Governour Penn goes over to Pensilvania because he is to Rule them he must be their Rule also Stat pro ratione voluntas his Will and not the Laws established by the general Assemblies of that Province must be the Rule according to which he proposeth to Rule them Can any King on Earth be more Arbitrary It hath pleased God Almighty whose Will is most Holy and Just for ever to give us an External Revelation of his Will concerning our whole Duty and that as well to us under the New Testament as to them under the Old and that that External Revelation contained in the Holy Scriptures setting aside some Ceremonial precepts and some other peculiar to the Jewish Nation should be our general Rule to instruct us both what to believe and what to do and this partly to give example to all Kings and Governments to do the like as all good and pious Kings and Governours have done viz. To give forth Laws and publickly to have them recorded that the People may have the due notice of them and regard to them and partly to prevent the Delusions and Impostures of Deceivers and Spirits of Delusions who would wonderfully prevail to deceive the Professors of Christianity were there no outward Rule of Faith and Life established by God himself one would pretend his Revelation and another his and Thousands of contradictory Revelations would daily appear and deceive many were it not for the established Rule of God's Will and Word outwardly revealed and recorded in the Holy Scriptures It 's true there are too many Deceptions still and Deceivers and all pretending that their Doctrine is conformable to the Holy Scriptures But notwithstanding so long as the publick Standard of God's Holy Word and Will remains with us in the Holy Scriptures they are a sufficient Armory to us by the Grace of God and assistance of his Holy Spirit out of which to bring sufficient Armour both to withstand and overcome all Heresies and pernicious Doctrines Nor would W. P's Fundamental Principle of bringing all to the General Rule of the common and ordinary Discoveries of the Light within given to all Mankind be any Remedy in the case for besides
superior to the Scripture But this is W. P's Fallacy and Ignorance and not the Bishop's the Bishop owneth with all true Christians the Spirit to be superior to the Scriptures as the Author and Lord of them and who useth them as his Instrument as the Work man useth a Rule or Tool that he worketh withal but the Bishop and all sound Christians think that it is no dishonour to the Spirit to acknowledge the Office proper to him which is to Rule and the Office proper to the Scripture to be the Rule and Instrument in the Hand and Management of the Spirit And thus the Office of the Scripture is a far inferior Office to the Office of the Spirit as the Servant and his Office is inferior to the Master and his Office but to put the Spirit in the Office of the Scripture is to degrade the Master and put him in the Servant's place The last thing I shall notice in this Book of W. P. is not so properly a Fallacy as a down-right open-faced Falshood and false Charge and Accusation against all Protestants whatsoever except themselves who though they affect the Name of Protestants yet for the vast disagreement of Doctrine betwixt them even in Fundamentals deserve neither the Name of Protestants nor Christians so much as at large The Accusation is this Page 97 That the Church of England and Dissenters and generally all Protestants Confine the Operations of the Spirit to the first or Apostolical Times as if these did not want them as much or that Christ would be less Propitious where his Gifts were not less needful This I say is a down-right false Accusation the contrary of which cvidently appears from all the several Confessions of Faith of all the Protestant Churches truly owned to be such and which also appears from the afore-cited words of the Bishop in his Testimony where he owns That Conscience must be opened by the Holy Spirit under the Ministry of the Word citing Acts 16. 14. to take in its Light to wit the Doctrine Instrumentally from the Holy Scriptures Can this be done without an Operation of the Holy Spirit If W. P. say Nay it cannot then his own words are an Evidence against the Falsity of his Accusation Again That he chargeth it on them that Ministers are made such and preach without the Spirit and the People worshipping without the Spirit which is too rash and uncharitable Judgment in him so to affirm without any Caution or Restriction How doth it appear that the Quakers Preach and Pray with the Spirit and all others do not Will the Quakers saying it prove it Or doth the great Noise of their Preaching and Praying by the Spirit from an elevated high-flown Conceit through their Spiritual Pride prove it to be so oft-times where there is greatest noise and shew there is least Reality and Substance Surely if Preaching and Printing more unsound Doctrine than all others do and uncharitable Judgments of them that do really excel them both in Knowledge and Piety be proofs that they are not acted by the Spirit of God commonly in either their Preaching or Praying and who are scarce ever heard to acknowledge their sinful Imperfections or ask Forgiveness of them If these be Marks of Men sensual and not having the Spirit notwithstanding of their Boastings Laodicea and Pharisee like they are abundantly to be found among them It is indeed matter of Regrate and Humiliation that there is so little Preaching and Praying with the Spirit among many of all sorts as the little Success it produceth doth manifest in many places yet blessed be God for what is among many of all the several Churches and were there but more Love and Charity Humility and Self-denial it might certainly be hoped that God would give more of his Spirit And for such a Time I joyn with all sincere Christians both to Hope and Pray G. K. A Synopsis or short View of W. P 's Deism and Scepticism collected out of his Book called A Discourse of the General Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie first Printed in the Year 1673 as an Appendix to his Christian Quaker and Reprinted in this present Year 1699. Compared with some Passages in his other Books With some plain and necessary Consequences naturally flowing from the Positive Doctrine therein delivered by him 1. ALL Mankind hath one General Rule of Faith and Life Page 1 2 3 4 c. 2. This General Rule of Faith and Life cannot be the Scripture because all Men have not the Scripture and because of their uncertainty unless upon the ground of inward extraordinary Revelation and for their Imperfection and many other Reasons given by him in the following Pages to the number of about fourteen 3. The General Rule of Faith and Life must be the Light in every Man's Conscience P. 6 7. 4. The Light in every Man's Conscience is the Rule of Faith and Life not abstractly and seperately considered from the inward Discoveries it giveth but with respect thereunto For without some inward Discovery it teacheth Men nothing and therefore it can be no Rule to any Man but with respect to its inward Discoveries 5. The inward discoveries of the Light within are of two sorts P. 32. the one extraordinary such as were given to the Prophets and Apostles concerning Adam's fall and the extraordinary manifestation of God in the Flesh of that Man called Jesus Christ whom some call the Son of God But that he was properly the Son of God we utterly deny faith W. P. in his Serious Apology P. 146. The other ordinary such as fall within the ordinary discoveries given to all Mankind 6. The Light within is the general Rule of Faith and Life not with respect to these extraordinary discoveries above mentioned P. 32. but with respect to the ordinary discoveries given to Mankind in general universally 7. We have no need that the Light within should give us any of these extraordinary discoveries P. 32. concerning Adam's fall and that extraordinary manifestation of God in the Flesh of that Man improperly called the Son of God and Jesus Christ because the Historical account of these things is extant in Scripture and it not being needful to be given us by any new inward Revelation we may conclude it is not given to any of us it sufficeth we have the Historical account of them given us in Scripture which is sufficient to beget in us a Historical Faith of these things without any new inward Revelation of them such as was given to the Prophets and Apostles 8. The Historical account of these things though it may be called a Historical Rule of the Historical Faith of them yet it cannot be called the Rule of Faith and Life that is necessary to Salvation For as all have not this Historical Faith because the History hath not reached them so to them who have the History the Historical Faith doth not profit them to Salvation but doth far rather hurt
Some of the Many FALLACIES OF WILLIAM PENN DETECTED In a Paper called GOSPEL TRUTHS Signed by him and Three more at Dublin the 4th of the 3d Month 1698. And in his late Book called A Defence of Gospel Truths Against the Exceptions of the B. of Cork's Testimony concerning that Paper With some Remarks on W. P. his unfair and unjust Treatment of him To which is added A Synopsis or short View of W. Penn's Deism Collected out of his Book called A Discourse of the General Rule of Faith c. By GEORGE KEITH LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street 1699. THE PREFACE Christian Reader THE following Treatise is not intended to be any direct or compleat Answer to the Book called A Defence of a Paper entituled Gospel-Truths against the Exceptions of the Bishop of Cork 's Testimony By William Penn. Printed 1698 that Work belonging not to me but to the Bishop of Cork who as I am certainly informed doth intend to give him a meet Answer to his Book In the mean while I hoped it would be acceptable both to the Bishop and to many good Christians thus far to interpose in the Defence of the Common Cause of the Christian Faith especially in the detecting of some of the greatest Fallacies W. P. hath used in his Book under a seeming Disguise and Vizard of Christianity really to undermine and destroy it I being of late Years better acquainted with W. P's Fallacious way of Writing than probably the Bishop of Cork is If this small Treatise comes to the Bishop's Hand before he publish his Answer to W. P. he will find that he hath been more charitable to him than indeed he deserved and that he had in his large Charity judged him more Orthodox than he really is although W. P. has made but an ill use of his Charity and has badly requited him with many uncivil as well as unjust Reflections some of which I thought it was but Justice that I should vindicate the Bishop from and the rather because I suppose the Bishop's Innocency and Station may lead him in great part to neglect them as not being so proper for him to notice as for another that stands by and beholds their mutual Treatment of each other which according to my best understanding and observation as fair as it hath been on the Bishop's part hath been as unfair on the part of W. P. who as he treats him not with the least due respect to his Station so nor indeed as a Christian Some of the many Fallacies of William Penn detected in a Paper called Gospel Truths c. Section 1. W. P 's Fallacy in calling the Illumination of the Holy Ghost which to him is nothing but the common Illumination given to all Mankind together with the Scriptures a double and agreeing Record of true Religion His false Notion of Heaven and Hell denying the Locality of them His abusive Reflection on the Bishop of Cork his keeping the true Hell to himself His Fallacy in pretending to the Bishop that he owned the Holy Trinity where as in his Sandy Foundation he hath expresly denied it and argued against it His denying that outward Person that suffered at Jerusalem to be properly the Son of God His denying that the Body of Christ was any part of Christ and his agreement with G. W. and other Quakers in denying the Humanity of Christ to be any part of the true Christ Page 1. HE saith The Testimony of the Scriptures of Truth and the Illumination of the Holy Ghost are the double and agreeing Record of true Religion In this he is very Fallacious in the very entrance this Illumination of the Holy Ghost he will have to be that which is given to be a general Rule to all Mankind see his Discourse concerning the General Rule of Faith and Life Printed by T. Sowle 1699. But how is that together with the Scriptures a double and agreeing Record whereas that general Rule that he contendeth is given to all Mankind to wit that general Illumination as given to Infidel Jews Mahometans and the Heathen World is no Record to any one Article of the Apostles Creed or any one peculiar Doctrine of Christianity but only to some few Precepts of Morality and general Piety towards God Yea W. P. hath confessed see his Page 32 of that Discourse That neither he nor his Brethren have any new superadded Revelation concerning Adam's Fall and Christ's Birth Death and Sufferings c. and saith It is not necessary Therefore the Illumination that he sets up for the General Rule to Quakers and Heathens is not any Record agreeing with the Scriptures in any one particular Article of the Christian Faith or positive Precept of the Gospel peculiar to the Christian Religion as distinct from Deism and Heathenism Page 2. In his first Section the makes the eternal Reward of Happiness to be given to all them that fear God without the least mentioning of any Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ considered as both God and Man towards the obtaining the eternal Happiness nor is there the least hint of any such Faith being necessary in all his Sections And whereas he saith They that fear him not shall be turned into Hell as the Bishop of Cork did well observe What W. P. means by Hell by that Paper no one knows but elsewhere what he means either by Heaven or Hell he hath sufficiently told us in his Rejoinder to J. Faldo p. 179. viz. To assert the Locality of Heaven and Hell is too Carnal indeed Mahometan Seeing them W. P. doth not own any place without us to be either Heaven or Hell it is easie to understand what Heaven or Hell W. P. is for to wit the Light within that 's his only Heaven and Darkness within his only Hell which is the old Ranters Notion that is destructive to the great Fundamentals of Christianity such as that Christ is bodily ascended into a real Local Heaven without us which Heavens all the Saints shall after the Resurrection in their glorified Bodies he taken up into and the Bodies of the Wicked together with their Souls shall be cast into Hell that is a place of Torment as really as the other is a place of Joy and Felicity It is prodigiously Shameful and Astonishing in W. P. that though he knew in his Conscience he did not mean Hell in the common sense of Christians which without doubt is the Bishop's sense to wit a real place of Torment without us yet that he should so treat the Bishop and so rudely and unchristianly reflect upon him by a consequence as false as it is foul and dirty saying in his Page 40 either one of these is an Article of his belief or else he keeps the true Hell to himself Page 2. In his second Section though he professeth to express his and his Brethrens Faith in Scripture Words that there are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the
Spirit and these three are really one yet in his former Books particularly in his Sandy Foundation never yet retracted by him he hath sufficiently discovered his gross and vile error in that fundamental Doctrine of the Christian Faith thus arguing not only against their being Three Persons but their being Three otherwise than Nominally which was the Sabellian Heresie since the Father is God the Son is God and the Spirit is God which their opinion necessitates them to confess then unless the Father Son and Spirit are three distinct nothings they must be three distinct Substances and consequently three distinct God's And he bringeth Five Arguments against their being a Holy Three P. 12 13 14. In his Third Section he seemeth to profess his and his Brethrens Faith in Scripture terms But this his professed Faith is quite inconsistent with what he hath delivered in his other Books here he saith That the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among Men and was and is the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth his beloved Son c. who tasted Death for every Man and dyed for Sin that we might dye to Sin But as it hath been above shewed out of his Sandy Foundation he hath argued against any such distinction as of the Father and the Son in the God-head as inferring a plurality of God's and though here he professeth to believe that this only begotten Son dyed for Sin yet in his Serious Apology Page 146 he saith That the outward Person that suffered was properly the Son of God we utterly deny And in his guide mistaken P. 25. Christ Co-essential and Co-eternal with his Father c. of being made Man of his Dying Rising and Ascending into Heaven c. he saith of all this that it is confused Babble and by Rote Canting by paths of vain Tradition and Invention results of Factious and corrupted Counsels And in his Rejoinder to John Faldo Page 299. he plainly denyes that the Body of Christ was any constitutive part of Christ and for seven leaves together contends against John Faldo That Christ did not Dye nor hang on the Cross but only the Body which he will not have to be any part of him To this Doctrine of W. P. doth that of G. Whitehead agree a Man as great or rather much greater among the Quakers as W. P. who saith in his Dipper Plunged P. 13. Jesus Christ God-man is not Scripture Language And in his Christian Quaker P. 140. 141. though he grants that Christ had a humane Body of Flesh and Bones yet he denys that he consisted of it and saith he distinguisheth betwixt Christ's having a Body and consisting of it And in a Book given forth by the Quakers from their second days Meeting whereof G. W. is supposed the Author called A Testimony for the true Christ and his Light in confutation of R. Cobbet printed 1668. They deny the Humanity of Christ as Humanity signifieth the Earthly Nature of Man's Body as coming from Humus the Ground but as Humanity signifies Meekness Gentleness Mercifulness as opposite to Cruelty in this last sence they own Christ's Humanity but deny it in the former which yet is the true sense of Scripture and of all true Christians Section 2. His Fallacy in pretending to own Justification by Christ the Propitiation in Contradiction to what he hath delivered in his Serious Apology and Sandy Foundation and his fallacious way of stating the Doctrine of Justification wherein he misrepresents his Opponents IN his fourth Section as seemingly Orthodox as he professeth himself to be as fallacious and insincere he is seeing he knoweth in his own Conscience that what he hath here delivered is utterly inconsistent with what is extant in his other Books never as yet retracted by him nor doth either he or his Brethren own any change of perswasion from what they had ever since they came under the profession of Quakers but as one of them hath lately said in Print As God is the same and Truth is the same so his People are the same viz. the Quakers I shall first set down his present profession of what he believes concerning Justification as followeth That as we are only Justified from the guilt of Sin by Christ the Propitiation and not by works of Righteousness that we have done so there is an absolute necessity that we receive and obey to unfeigned Repentance and amendment of Life the Holy Light and Spirit of Jesus Christ in order to obtain that Remissionand Justification from Sin c. But in contradiction to this see what his Doctrine is in his Serious Apology P. 148. And indeed says W. P. this we deny viz. Justification by the Righteousness which Christ hath fulfilled in his own Person for us wholly without us and boldly affirm it in the Name of the Lord to be the Doctrine of Devils and an Arm of the Sea of Corruption which does now deluge the whole World Note Reader If according to W. P's former words we Only are Justified from the guilt of Sin by Christ the Propitiation and not by works of Righteousness that we have done then it is plainly evident by the same Doctrine that we are Justified by the Righteousness which Christ hath fulfilled in his own Person for us wholly without us for these two manners of Speech are perfectly equivalent viz. That we are only Justified from the guilt of Sin by Christ the propitiation and that we are Justified by the Righteousness which Christ hath fulfilled in his own Person wholly without us The word Only plainly importing the Righteousness of Christ Wholly without us unless there be some great fallacy in W. P's words as the sequel will make appear a little after But if we take these two quotations in their genuine Sense the one that we are Justified by the Righteousness of Christ Only i. e. Wholly without us from the guilt of Sin and the other that this we deny i. e. that we are Justified by the Righteousness which Christ hath fulfilled in his own Person for us wholly without us and boldly affirm it in the Name of the Lord to be the Doctrine of Devils c. it is a perfect inconsistency and contradiction And yet now W. P. doth teach the same Doctrine which formerly he called the Doctrine of Devils without any change of his perswasion as he plainly tells in the conclusion of his Paper This saith he hath all along been the general stream and tendency both of our Ministry and Writings as our books will make appear But what a Forehead of Bras must W. P. have with so great confidence to assert so known an untruth Again the same W. P. in his forecited Serious Apology thus argueth P 148. against Christ's imputative Righteousness Death came by actual Sin not imputative therefore Justification unto Life came by actual Righteousness not imput ative Note Reader If we are not Justified by Christ's imputed which he calls imputative Righteousness as here he asserts