you went out from us And the Apostle Paul saith Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God Now the thing that I am to prove is that you do deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh and to that end I shall first shew what was the end of Christs coming in the flesh The Apostle Paul to the Romans saith Through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Whom God hath set forth or sent to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood To declare their righteousness for the remission of sins To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of them which beleive in Jesus Where the Apostle sheweth that the end of God his sending Jesus Christ was that he might be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare Christ his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that he might be just and the Justifier of all them that beleive in Jesus Now you deny this for E. B. saith that our Ministers tell people a Lie and why they tell him that Christ is his righteousnesse to justifie him which he denyeth for you teach that Christ did come to send a light into every man and by hearkning and obeying that light he shall be saved which is the old Popish Antichristian Doctrine Also the Apostle to the Hebrews saith to Christ Loe I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Having therefore bretheren boldnesse to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is his flesh By which words it is plain that the end of Christs coming in the flesh was to do the will of God by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And by that one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But you deny that we are sanctified and perfected for ever by Christ his doing the will of God and through the offering of his body once for all and that we have boldnesse to enter into the holyest by the blood of Jesus a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through his flesh But you teach that you are sanctified and perfected by hearkning to a light within you and obeying the same by which you deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh and are of the Spirit of Antichrist Also you do some of you deny that Christ rose from the dead with his Body but his Spirit rose and deny that he ascended into Heaven with a Body and there remaineth with a Body by which you deny the Scripture and deny Christ 〈◊〉 Mediatorship For the Apostle saith There is one God and one Mediator between God and men mind The Man Christ Jesus Now if Christ have no Body how is he a Man Do not you make Christ a monster if he be a Man without a body what a Mediator do ye make And great is the Mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh received up into glory according to that Scripture in the Acts Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into Heaven and that he shall so come Christ himself hath declared and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of heaven with power and great glory Now those that deny these Articles of our Faith are not they of the spirit of Antichrist for they do invent a fantastical Christ in their brains But you say you have a Christ within you and by that Christ within you you shall be saved Christ in you the hope of Glory To which I answer that I deny that you or any man have a Christ within you you cannot have the body of Christ within you because the Heaven must contain it untill his second coming unless you be of the Papists opinion that say they receive Christs body into their mouths and then must Christ have many bodies or his body must be torn into many pieces Wherefore that I may if it may please God shew you your ignorance even in this particular I shall shew you how I do believe Christ is in every true Christian and that is by his Spirit These things have spoken unto you being yet present with you But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name But now I go my way to him that sent me and it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you By which Christ sheweth that he must depart and go to the Father and that he must there abide But his Father should send that Comforter his Spirit which should abide in them But how doth Christ by his Spirit abide in a Christian Answ Not essentially as the Familists hold and aver to many Quakers but operatively by the operation and working of the same Because ye are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby you cry Abba Father In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our Inheritance to be strengthned by his Spirit in the Inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith By which Scriptures and many more we may see how Christ is in us by his Spirit of Adoption by his Spirit sealing the promises of the Gospel by strengthning us in the inner man and Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and as Christ is said to be in us by his Spirit and by faith so we are said to be in Christ and to dwell in Christ which is by faith If any man be in Christ for ye are all one in Christ but of him ye are in Christ Jesus That we may present every one perfect in Christ Jesus And that Prayer of Christ That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they all may be one in us I in them and thou in me that they may he made perfect in one And as Christ is said to be in us by his Spirit and by faith and we are said to be in him by faith and by the Spirit because the same Spirit that dwells in Christ doth act and work in us So also we are said to be in Christ by Love and Christ to be in us by Love as Christ teacheth that the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them
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
with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the throne and the smoak of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand Now that Altar was Christ and that Incense was nothing else but Christs merits and mediation by which alone the prayers of all Saints are perfumed and so become acceptable with God or before him for we do not conceive that Christ now in Heaven maketh any vocal prayers to to God the Father for us but that he doth continually present the virtue of his Death and Sufferings before his Father whereby not only our persons are accepted but our services also Now whoever doth deny this intercession or mediation of Christ doth in effect deny Christ because they deny the end of Christ his coming and all such the Apostle John saith That whoever denyeth that Jesus is the Christ is Antichrist and many deceivers are entred into the world which confesse not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh this is a deceiver and an antichrist Now all those that do deny the end of Christs coming in the flesh do deny his coming in the flesh and all those that deny perfect Justification from all sin in and by Christs Death Resurrection and Intercession alone do deny the end of Christs coming and that you Quakers do for you say you are made perfect not by what Christ did and suffered but by what the Spirit worketh in you I some of you have affirmed that Christ never rise from the Grave and that his body is rotted in the Grave and some of you have made a mock of this Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation and Intercession of Christ and some have written against it in theis Pamphlets Now I pray you that revile against all others that are not of your minde calling them Antichrist and the brood of Antichrist Now see whether you are not the Antichrists your selves and the deceivers spoken of by the Apostle We know from whence you learned this Doctrine better than your selves and that is from your Fathers the Papists as I said before for all you cry out against them and all others that are not of your minde to be Popish and as this Doctrine of the Papists and yours doth make Christ and his Mediatorship void and uselesse so it doth make Faith to be uselesse for if a man be justified and saved not by what Christ hath done and suffered for us but being free from sin inherently in us by following and obeying the light within us then we need not believe our perfection because we see and feel it in our selves Now the Apostle defining Faith what it is saith That Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and the just shall live by Faith and we walk by Faith and not by sight even as Abraham the Father of the faithfull is said by the Apostle to believe against hope and believed in hope and being not weak in faith he considered not his own body nâ—w dead neither yet the deadnesse of â—arahs wombe though he did see and feel nothing in his body nor Sarahs whereby to believe that he should have a Son yet he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification Now the Apostle doth argue that as Abraham believed the promise contrary to what he saw or felt in himself so also should we And as this doctrine doth make Faith void and uselesse so doth it also make Repentance uselesse for if a Christian can live without sin then he need not repent for sin Now the Doctrine of Repentance is of use in the Church as we may see by what the Apostle writeth saying Godly sorrow causeth repentance never to be repented of also Christ saith to the Church of Ephesus I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast born and hast patience and for my name sake hast laboured and hast not fainted Such a commendation as never any Quaker deserved and yet Christ said neverthelesse I have somewhat against thee remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works Now these were the first Churches and lived in the purest times and yet had need of repentance and dare you Quakers say you are more perfect than they I know you are so in your own eyes but Christ knoweth you are solely pride and â—ypocrisie and how you hold and maintain the Popish doctrine That a man is not justified and saved by Faith in believing only what Christ hath done and suffered for us and for our salvation but those workes of the Spirit in us in being obedient unto the light within us Now that you may see and know that this is an old Popish doctrine I shall shall shew you what Luther writeth concerning the Papists judgement in this particular who knew better than you do because he was trained up many years in the same Religion having been one of their Monks I shall write his very words in his Exposition of the Epistle to the Galathians upon chap. 2. ver 16. Know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ We have alwaies saith he recourse to this article that our sins are covered and that God will not lay them to our charge not that sin is not in us minde as the Papists have taught saying that we must be alwaies working well untill we feel that there is no sin remaining in us Yea sin is indeed alwaies in us and the godly do feel it but it is covered and it is not imputed unto us of God for Christs sake Also on the chap. 3. ver 20. Who loved me and gave himselfe for me the Papist saith he use this Verse God will no more require of man Than of himself performe he can Moreover they say that nature is corrupt but the qualities of nature notwithstanding are sound and uncorrupt upon which ground they reason that mans will and understanding are sound and uncorrupt are pure and perfect in him and therefore do infer that a man is able of himself to fulfill the Law and to love God with all his heart and so consequently to be justified thereby It is well known by all that have read the Jesuites writings or have had
opinions And face doth not more answer face in a Glasse then you do answer each other as I can shew you in several of their opinions and practises compared with yours as their hearkning to a light within them and revelations which they followed contrary to the Scripture some of them running about the streets naked as many of you have done some of them burning their clothes as some of you have done although at their first springing up they seemed to be such meek humble Saints that they would suffer any thing yet after they had gotten a sufficient number and strength then they shewed themselves in their Colours for then it was revealed that John of Leyden may be a King and that all the wicked must be destroyed and King John and his Disciples must govern all and have all the goods of the wicked because they had no right to them to which end they fortified Munster against the Emperor perswading the people that God would feed them by a miracle it being so revealed to them by which the poor people were many of them starved and at last King John and his company taken himself and two more of his chief companions hanged and put in three Iron Cages and set on the top of the three high Towers or Steeples the rest banished two ships laden with them the Author saith came into Great Brittain where they first sowed those seeds of Heresie from which have spang up all those errors of Anabaptism Familism Antinomianism Adamites Seekers and Quarkers I hope you will be convinced by all that I have written that your Practise in denying the ordinance of Baptism is contrary to the example of Christ and his Apostles and therefore in that you are not perfect And now I come to a second particular in which I shall prove that you walk contrary to Christ command and example and the example of the Apostles and that is in that you deny the partaking of the Lords Supper and teach that it is abolished and not to be used in the Church of Christ as Jona Dell in his Book called A Voyce from the Temple writeth and several others Wherefore I shall briefly prove that it was Christs command and Example and the practise of the Apostles and all the reformed Churches ever since the Apostle days Now Christ before his Death did institute and appoint this ordinance as you may read in Matthew Mark and Luke And he took bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying this is my body which is given for you this do remembrance of me Likewise also the Cup after Supper saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which is shed for you Where we are to take notice that Christ saith this do in Remembrance of me which is a command for them to do as he had done and that it was Christs meaning to have them do the same after his Ascension is plain because the Apostles did practise the same afterwards which they would not have done had it not been Christs command and the Apostle Paul doth plainly prove it to be Christ command For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you and what was that but the Supper of the Lord as the words following shew but you will say how long was the practise of that to continue The Apostle doth tell you For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come But you say Christ is come by his Spirit to every believer and that is the meaning of it till he come To which I answer that I wonder you Quakers are not ashamed to give such a sense of the words and had I not heard it from several of your Mouths and read it in several of your Books I should not have believed it Wherefore to convince you of your error pray tell me Whether Christ was not come to his Apostles by his Spirit and to all others that believed the Gospel of Christ If Christ was not come to the Apostles by his Spirit how did they write the Scriptures Besides the Scripture saith That the Apostles were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues and yet the Apostles practise was to break bread after that and therefore the meaning of the Apostle to eat this bread and to drink this cup for so often as you eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he comes must needs be meant of Christs second coming namely his coming at the end of the world when he cometh to Judgement when the Saints bodies shall be raised out of their Graves and those that are then alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever abide with the Lord where then we shall have no need nor use of Sacraments because faith then shall cease being swallowed up in vision But till then we have need of these outward ordinances to help strengthen our faith the Supper of the Lord being appointed by Christ himself to that end where we may see a representation of Christ crucified before our eyes to help strengthen our faith for the Apostles themselves had need of these ordinances the Apostle Paul saith VVe know in part For now we see through a glasse darkly But then face to face mind Now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known Now is it not a horrible pride in you to say you are more fuller of the Spirit than the Apostles that you have more knowledge and stronger faith than the Apostles for you see the Apostles made use of this ordinance to strengthen their saith and if you say you have no need of this partaking of ordinances do not you declare your selves to be more perfect than the Apostles But Jona Dell in his Voyce from the Temple doth affirm that you Quakers have such an infallible knowledge that you cannot erre but we can smell from whence you sucked in this poyson even from your Father the Pope the great Antichrist who only claimeth this infallible Spirit But this by the way Also Jona Dell in the said Book saith that this outward ordinance of the Lords Supper hath been much abused and therefore not to be used in the Church any longer as that Ceremony of the brasen Serpent after it was abused by the Israelites to Idolatry it was broken in pieces and not to be used any more and so he calleth it a Ceremony and shadow and all other ordinances which having been abused ought to be abolished For Answer to which I shall only mind you of the Example and practise of the Apostle Paul concerning the same in his Epistle to the Corinthians who had so abused the Supper of the Lord as I have not heard of greater nor the like for saith
not build up themselves on their faith nor pray as is your practice and for Prayer some of your company are not ashamed to say and write that Ministers praying before and after Sermon is a will-worship and that you know not one example left for it either by Christ or any of his Apostles and that praying is for the honor and magnificence of our Idol and that is preaching they are Tomlinsons own words But let all sober minded persons judge whether your silent meetings or praying and preaching is will-worship and an Idol If you have no example of Christ and his Apostles of such silent meetings then it is an Idoll and a will-worship of your own devising which I challenge all you Quakers to bring any one example of Christ or his Apostles of any such meetings or any example of any Church since the Apostles dayes whether Separate or any other and do you think that the Apostles and all the Churches were ignorant of any part of the Service of God while now of late dayes you Quakers have found it or rather invented it had not they the light of Christ within them to direct them seeing you say all men have the light of Christ within them Wherefore I conclude that this your light is darkness and this your practice is a meer invention of your own brains and therefore are not perfect A ninth particular practice used amongst you is your Quaking fits with which many among you are strangely taken falling on the ground their arms and leggs shaking their mouths foaming their bellies swelling and some of them purging to which I may add your strange kind of disfiguring your faces and countenances hanging down your heads or holding them awry looking like a company of forlorn dejected condemned persons that were afraid to look up to Heaven Now for those quaking fits from whence you have the name of Quakers many are of opinion that they are Diabolical by a kind of witchcraft and to that end I have heard strange relations of inchanted ribins of giving of drink after which the persons have been taken with quaking fits and some say possessed with the divel And when I have read John Gilpins Book called The Quakers shaken and John Toldarns Book called The foot out of the snare in which they relate such strange kind of actings and workings of their bodies besides the relations of several others and compare them with those whom we read of in the Evangelist Luke I confess there is a likeness and a resemblance between them And lo a spirit taketh him and he suddenly crieth out and it teareth him that he foameth again and bruiseth him All which actions the Quakers have had in their quaking fits as you may read in the two forenamed books and many have been eye witnesses of the same effects in others in which fits some of the chief Quakers have said that now the good spirit was driving out of the bad But however if it be not a bodily witchcraft sure it is a spiritual witchcraft whereby the minds of the people are bewitched to believe that those shakings and quakings of the body are from the Spirit of God I have read in the Scripture that the Mystery of iniquity in the spirit of Antichrist even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power signes and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie I believe these are some of those signs and lying wonders with which the followers of Antichrist shall be deceived The Papists who have deceived you Quakers as that divine Lawyer M. Will. Prin doth at large prove in his book called The Quakers unmasked Also I have read in the Scripture that God hath caused such shaking and trembling to fall upon wicked men as a punishment for their sins as Belshazzar that his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against another And in the Philistians Camp or Loft there was trembling and among all the people the Garrison and they all trembled so it was a very great trembling and among those curses pronounced in Deuteronomy against wicked men this is one The Lordshal give thee a trembling heart And it is threatned as a curse upon the wicked Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their loyns to shake I wish it be not your condition that your eyes be not darkned in that you take shaking for a blessing when it is a curse the Devils are said to tremble But you object that we read in the Scripture of shaking quaking and trembling rejoyce with trembling Psalm 2. 11. and work out your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. and Paul is said to tremble Acts 9 6. and the keeper of the prison came trembling before Paul and Silas Acts 16. 29. By trembling I understand no other then the fear and trembling of the heart generally spoken of in Scripture and not a quaking and trembling of the body as is usual amongst you Quakers and that fear and trembling is twofold First that which is at the first Act of conversion as that of Paul and the Jaylor whose trembling I understand of the soul and if it were of the body it was extraordinary and not to be brought to a rule and that fear or trembling of the soul at the first act of conversion is general to all that are truly converted called the spirit of bondage Ye 〈◊〉 not received the spirit of bondage again to fear and those that were converted at Peters Sermon being about three thousand souls they were pricked in their hearts We read not of any trembling or quaking of their bodies but that they gladly received his word and this fear or trembling of the soul at the first conversion is not in all alike but in some more and in some less though in all some We read that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia hearing the Apostles that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul and she was baptized and her houshold We read not of any fear or trembling much less quaking and yet no doubt but she had a conviction of her own unworthiness the Apostle John saith that perfect love casteth out fear that is all slavish hellish fear Secondly there is a son-like fear after conversion which is a fear whereby the soul is fearful of doing any thing that is contrary to the will and mind of such a good loving and kind God and Father and this fear or trembling is no wayes agreeable to the quaking and trembling of the body practised amongst you nor to the disfiguring your faces with holding down the head
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
believe in Charity that they are honest hearted and strict in their lives and yet through ignorance and the fair shews and pretences of a strict holy life are seduced and drawn away but I hope not so far gone but that they may be reclaimed and brought back to the truth To that end I desire them seriously to examine what I have written by the Scriptture rule and if they can shew me my error by that and that their religion is more agreeable thereunto I shall lay down all my weapons and joyn with them for I strive not for victory but for truth but if they cannot I hope they will remember from whence they are faln and repent and do their first works but if any of them are so obstinate that they will go on in their delusions my soul shall mourn for them in secret but I hope better things at least of some The fifth reason why I writ and published this was to strengthen such as are wavering through ignorance and weakness For I observe that when the Quakers come into a Parish to vent their errors many ignorant people are ready to hearken to their errors and be taken with their pretended shews of zeal and holiness and when they see none to oppose them nor answer them they are ready to think and say it it is because they are unanswerable which I have heard some say in the place where I live the which did move me to enter into disputation with them several times until they gave over their meetings there and what I have written is the same that was spoken in reasoning with them more inlarged and I hope the reading hereof may be a means to stablish and settle some that are wavering and keep them from those baits and snares which are laid to draw and catch them by these seducers The sixth reason was to clear my self from those lies and slanders raised by some Quakers as that they laid me in the dirt and that because I was not able to answer them I was a great persecutor of them the truth of which I refer to the impartial Reader to judge and some of them have reported that I am faln from those Principles that I formerly held and and published in a Treatise of the grounds of Religion called The Christians Profession the truth of which I refer to those that have read the same that shal read this And although I know it is their usal manner to revile and slander all that oppose them in their wild opinions yet I see too many are apt to believe what they say because of their pretended shew of holiness and some think them so perfect that they cannot erre wherefore lest my silence should be taken for a confession of being guilty I thought it necessary to publish this to clear clear my innocencie for if a man be bound by the law to pleasure the good name and credit of his neighbour surely he is bound by the same law to preserve his own Lastly the reasons moving me to publish this in print was first the desire and request of several friends to whom I was ingaged to grant their desires in what might be for their and the publick good 2. Because if I had onely sent a written Coppy to the Quakers they would have kept it from the knowledge of such whom they feared might be drawn away from them would have rais'd several fals reports I could not have had so many of my friends who are Quakers have had the sight thereof because I could not have gotten so many written Coppies because of the largeness thereof so that it would have been like the Tallent hid in the earth 3. Because I conceive it may be more profitable by being in many hands then in a few Although I know I shall thereby incur the revilings of some and the mocks and scoffs of others and the sensour and judgeing of many all of which I am contented to pass through so that my poor labour may be profitable to any And I know some will Object That I spent more time then I needed in regard I have written not onely against the Quakers but the Anabaptists also who write nothing to me I Answer That they do so nearly joyn together in some things as that I could not Answer the one without the other For the Quakers both in their Printed books and in their Disputations doe make the Baptism of Infants their great objection against our Ministers and Churches also the Quakers and Anabaptists are both of opinion in denying the lawfulness of singing Psalms and some Anabaptists agree with the Quakers in hearkning to Revelations and impulses of the Spirit and in hearkning to a light within them in things contrary to the light of Scripture and they agree in opposing our Ministers and Churches with great eagerness although in many other things they disagree and oppose and are contrary to one another Like Sampsons Foxes whose heads were all contrary one to the other but they were tied together by the tails with a fire-brand to set the corn on fire Even so do those Quakers and Anabaptists seem contrary one to the other and oppose each other and yet they knit and unite together to set the Church on fire by their fierce and fiery opposing our Churches and Ministers witness the severall books written and published by the Anabaptists against our Ministers and their maintenance as John Can his book called The first and second voice from the Temple and several others cmpared with Jona Dell his book called A voice from the Temple and several others by which it appears that they agree in one in opposing our Ministers because they knew if they could destroy the Ministery it were an easie matter to perswade people to any Religion as a man that hath lost his guide in a wilderness may easily lose his way Also who knoweth not that the Anabaptists were the first Original from whence the Quakers came for most of the Quakers were first Anabaptists as Mr. Baxtar hath at large proved wherefore considering how these agree in several opinions practices I have by the way as I found occasion written against their errors not their persons Also some will Object against my writing against the Quakers because they say they are a people that live very strict holy lives 1. I Answer That for their strict holy lives I refer the Reader to those ten Particulars I have proved against them 2. I Answer That the holyness of a Christian life doth not consist in Negatives only but in Affirmatives as well as Negatives now that they doe live in the neglect and contempt of many Christian Duties commanded by Christ and his Apostles is plain by what I have written 3. I Answer That the living a strict moral life only doth not prove them nor manifest them nor any other to be Christians for many heathens have done as much as Histories relate and many Papists have walked with as
first lay down this proposition that all Ministers since the Apostles days are not called immediately by an extraordinary call as the Porphets and Apostles were but mediately in an ordinary way of calling Which calling is not the calling of men but the calling of the Holy Ghost because that calling which the Holy Ghost hath revealed in the Scripture and that I shall prove by Scripture for after that he was ascended into heaven Judas being faln from his Apostleship and another to be chosen in his room the Apostles being met together concluded from what was written in the Scripture that another should take his charge wherefore they presented two out of the number of those who was conversant among them from the Baptism of John and they prayed and gave forth their Lots and the Lot fell on Matthias and he was numbred with the eleven Apostles No man pretended that he had the Spirit and therefore that was a sufficient call neither did God call any by revelation or a Voyce from Heaven to that place of an Apostle in his room Also after the Apostles had gathered Churches they ordained Elders by election in every Church and the Apostle Paul saith that he left Titus in Creet that he should ordain Elders in every City and the Apostle writing to Timothy saith Despise not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery or Eldership And Paul directed him whom to make Bishops or Elders And also the Apostle doth not only direct him but also charge him among other things that he should lay hands suddenly on no man One of your Speakers or Praters at one of your meetings at VVilliam Bond 's house hearing some in the Street threaten to pull them out of the house cryed out lay hands suddenly on no man as if the Apostle had meant of striking men suddenly But the Apostle saith that a Bishop or Elder must be no striker By which you may see how you are mistaken in the meaning of Scripture who pretend to have the infallible Spirit by which the Scripture was written as I have heard some of your company say And Jona Dell in his Book called The Voyce from the Temple writeth But your Spirit of error in misapplying Scripture is plainly discerned by all that have the Spirit of discerning and now I pray mind these things to use your own phrase and consider of these Texts of Scripture here written and let the Light of the Scripture enlighten your dark minds to see that those who have an external call as well as an internal call are the lawful Ministers of the Gospel and such are our Ministers Can you believe that God hath appointed order and government in a Common-wealth and in a Family and hath appointed none in his Church Now is it a sufficient warrant for a man to execute the Office of a Justice of the Peace a Constable or any other office in the Common-wealth because he hath sufficient gifts and inward qualifications without an outward call by those who are in authority either by Commission or otherwise and it is lawful for any man to execute the the Office of a publick Minister without a lawful call from those who are in publick Authority But I know your opinions are against all order or offices in the Church and so much you write in your paper making it to be a great fault that our Teachers bear rule Now that I may show you your error mind these Scriptures that prove Ministers to be Officers and such officers as are to rule in the Church The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy saith If a man desire the Office of a Bishop or Elder he desireth a good work and shewing how he ought to be qualified saith he must be one that ruleth well his own house else how shall he take care of the Church And the Apostle writing to the Corinthians saith That God hath set some in the Church first Apostles Secondarily Prophets Thirdly Teachers helps to Government Also the Apostle writing to the Romans saith All Members have not the same Office Wherefore he that is a Minister let him wait on Ministering or he that Teacheth on Teaching he that ruleth with diligence Also the Apostle writing to the Hebrews saith Remember them that have the rule over you and who are they the Apostle saith such who have spoken unto you the Word of God and in the same Chapter Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls But though you are like Korah and his company who were many Two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of renown who gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron and said as you Quakers do to other Ministers and Magistrates you take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy and the Lord is among them So you say Have not we the same Spirit the Apostles had Are not we all holy wherefore do you Priests take so much upon you But what became of those men God caused the Earth to open and swallow them up and take heed lest God show some special Judgement upon you by delivering you up to blindnesse of mind and hardnesse of heart Korah and his company had the same prâ—â—ences that you have but know it is not the inward gifts and qualifications only that makes a publick Teacher as I have proved but the lawful ordaining a man to that office and a man that is so called although he want the power of that which he teacheth as the Sons of Ely were lawfull Priests because lawfully called though they were wicked men and the Pharises and Scribes Christ saith sit in Moses Seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observed that observe and do but do not ye after their Works for they say and do not Now by their sitting in Moses Seat was that it was their office or calling to teach the Law and therefore Christ spake both to the Multitude and to his Disciples to hear them and Judas was a true Apostle and one that preached as the rest of the Apostles for it is said he had part in this Ministery But all those who are authorized for that work ought to be careful that they ordain none but such who are inwardly fitted and called and to that end the Apostle chargeth Timothy that he lay hands suddenly on no man but to try and examine both himself and others of his fitnesse and ability lest he be partaker of other mens sins Consider what I have here written in answer to your first Ground And now I shall answer your second Ground which is because they go to Oxford or Cambridge and learn Latine Hebrew or Greek To which I answer I know many Ministers that never went to these places to learn these languages and yet think
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
before Christs coming in the flesh than we Christians in the dayes of the Gospel since his coming for to be out of the pale of the Church was counted an unholy unclean condition I they were counted Doggs by Christs own words It is not lawful to give Childrens bread unto Doggs and without are Doggs and if the children of the Church of the Jews were externally holy by being visible members of the Church and Christians children unholy because no visible members of the Church Are not our children in a worse condition than theirs and so we have lesse priviledge than they now the Scripture declareth that the Church and People of God in the dayes of the Gospel have far greater priviledges than the Church of the Jews and this Christ himself sheweth where he saith Verily I say unto you among them which are born of women arose there not a greater then John Baptist notwithstanding the least in the kingdome of Heaven is greater than he whereby Christ would teach us that John the Baptist was the greatest among all the Prophets that went before him because he had the presence of Christ pointing at him Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and yet the least believer in the Kingdome of Grace is greater than he because Christ had not then actually suffered for sin nor was not risen from the dead but the least believer doth now by Faith see Christ hath actually taken away sin by his Death and Suffering and is risen again for our Justification Also Christ saith Blessed are your eyes for they see and your eares for they hear for verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them And are not these great priviledges Also the Apostle writing to the Hebrews in the eleventh Chapter writeth a Catalogue of the faithfull and in the end concludeth And all these having obtained a good report through Faith received not the Promise God having promised some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect The Apostle Peter also testifieth the same Teaching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the Sufferings of Christ Minde and the glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are nâ—w reported unto you of which Salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you By which Texts of Scripture ye may plainly see that the Church and people of God in these times of the Gospel have greater priviledges then the Church of the Jews and therefore our Children as well as theirs have the priviledge of being outward visible Members of the Church which is only by Baptism But you Antibaptists and the Anabaptists say that although Believers have now greater priviledges then the Jews yet it doth not follow that our Children are to be admitted visible Members of the Church because there is no express command nor example for baptizing Children To which I answer that whatsoever may be proved from the Scripture by consequence to be the scope and meaning of the Scripture it is sufficient proof and that is already made good But seeing you do both stand to have express word of Command or express Example I shall desire you or either of you to shew me one command or example in Scripture for the baptizing of those that are grown up whose Parents one or both were Christians by professing the Gospel of Christ Now if you have no rule nor example in Scripture as I am sure you have not why do you condemn another when you Anabaptists are more guilty in that you baptise those that are of years whose Parents profess the Gospel of Christ and were formerly baptised in the name of Christ Unless you count all those that profess the Gospel of Christ to be Heathens that are not of your Churches which is a most uncharitable opinion But you farther object that the Apostles baptibaptized none but such as did beleive and make a profession of their Faith To which I answer that it is more then you can prove seeing the Apostle baptized Housholds and it is more then you can tell there were no Children in those Housholds unlesse you know it by revelation Secondly I say that those whom the Apostles baptized who were of years were such as were converted from Judaisme or Heathens and neither they nor their Parents ever professed the Gospel of Christ and did any of you or any other know any of our Ministers baptize any Jews Turks or Indians not professing the Gospel they have baptized some that have come from those parts after they have been converted and made a profession of their Faith according to the example of the Apostle Thirdly I answer that elect Infants may have the root or habit of Faith though not the act of Faith if you believe Christs words For Christ called a little Child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said who so shall receive one such little Child in my name receiveth me but whoso shall offend one of these little ones mind which believe in me By which words it doth appear that elect Infants may have the seeds of grace in their hearts we read that some have been sanctified from the womb and that must be by the Spirit for so the Text saith speaking of John Baptist And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost mind even from his Mothers womb It is the opinion of many ancient and modern Ministers that elect Infants do ordinarily recieve the Spirit in or at their Baptism as Christ at his Baptism had the Holy Ghost descending like a Dove and lightning upon him Now Christ was full of the Holy Ghost before for in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily And therefore the descending of the Holy Ghost at that time was to teach us to have a high esteem of that ordinance as most of our protestant Ministers do hold and teach and as Dr. Burges doth at large prove in his Book called Baptismal Regeneration Where this point of elect Infants ordinarily receiving the Spirit or seal of the Spirit in their Baptism is fully handled with all objections against it answered and I do the more press this point because the Baptism of Infants is so much slighted neglected and contemned by many in our days For I suppose that elect Infants being meer patients in the work of Regeneration are as capable of the Spirits sealing or applying the blood of Christ for the remission of their sins as those that are of Age for if there were a power in Adam by hâ—s sin
the Apostle In eating every one taketh before other his one Supper And one is hungry and another is drunken What have ye not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God By which it seemeth by the way that the place where the Corinthians met was not a house but some place set apart for them to meet in But what did the Apostle order and appoint in that case did he say you Corinthians have so abused this Supper that I command you not to use it any longer No the Apostle was no Quaker for he exorteth them and instructeth them how to reform these abuses and how to receive the Supper of the Lord aright and that he doth First by laying down Christs institution and command unto him for the use of that ordinance And secondly sheweth the great danger of unworthy receiving Thirdly directeth them how to receive the same aright But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that Cup. As if the Apostle had said though there be such danger in unworthy receiving yet would I not have you neglect the same But examine your selves and so come And in the end of the chapter tells them that The rest I will set in order when I come But you Quakers will have no order And as this was the practise of Christ and his Apostles so hath it been the practise of all reformed Churches since the Apostles days You Quakers are alone in this practise and woe be to him that is alone and a woe be to them who are so wise in their own conceipt as to think themselves wiser then Christ and his Apostles and all the Churches of Christ ever since the Apostles days which I leave to your serious consideration and be your own Judges whether you be perfect who walk so contrary to the command and example of Christ and his Apostles Seeing the Apostle exhorteth Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ And so I come to a third particular wherein your Practise is contrary to the example and Practise of Christ and his Apostles and all reformed Churches The third particular is your different practise from Christ and his Apostles in singing of Psalms Wherefore I shall lay down this for a truth That singging of Psalms with a Voyce is a part of Gods worship now in the days of the New Testament as well as in the days of the old For proof whereof take the example of Christ and his Apostles Who sang a Psalm or Hymme together after the administration of the Lords Supper which was a time of Sorrow and Heavinesse for Christ had newly told them before of his being betrayed and the time of his suffering was neer at hand and yet they sang a Psalm together which surely was for our example also the Apostle Paul and Silas being in prison Sang praises unto God also the Apostle Paul instructeth and exhorteth the Ephesians to speak one to another in Psalms and Hymnes and spiritual Songs and so to the Colossians Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymnes and spiritual Songs Also the Apostle commandeth the Corinthians that such as sing in the Church should not only sing in the Spirit but with understanding Also those who sang when they had gotten Victory over the Beast are said to sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb by which it seemeth that the Song of Moses did suit with that deliverance But it is objected by you and others that these were not the Psalms of David but some other Hymnes or spiritual Songs immediately inspired which you like well and sometimes perswade your selves that you have such inspirations and fall a singing meer non-sense which edifies neither your selves nor others Wherefore I shall shew that all these three Titles are given to David's Psalms some are called Psalms some are called Hymnes some are called Songs that is spiritual Songs The Prophet David hath given these titles or names to them To the chief Musician a Psalm of David also a Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah a Song upon Alamoth Now what reason can be given why the Apostle should direct us in our singing to the very Titles of David's Psalms if it were not his meaning that we should sing them so that you must exclude the Psalms of David from the name of Psalms and Hymnes and spiritual Songs or else you must be forced to acknowledge that we are exhorted to sing them as well as any other Is it not better to sing those Psalms or Hymns of David which we know to be indited by an infallible Inspiration of the spirit then to sing such Songs or Hymns as men invent of their private spirits or pretend to be immediately inspired by the spirit which appears to be their own fancies by the distractions and contradictions that are in them Doe you not think that Christ was better able to indite and sing new Psalmes or Hymnes then you Quakers and yet we have not the least intimation in Scripture of any new Psalm or Hymne indited or sung by Christ and his Apostles after the Lords Supper which certainly would have been recorded by the Evangelist who records far less matters in things which pertain to Gods Worship And it is supposed that Christ did sing with his Apostles one of these Psalms appointed or used to be sung at the end of the Passover and some affirm that it was the 118 Psalm which Christ did sing I confess by the suitableness of the Psalm to the occasion there may be some probability but I think no certainty But our Psalmes are not the same in meeter nor the same tunes which the Jews had That seeing the singing of Psalmes is a dutie commanded and amongst others those of David and hath hid from us the Hebrew tunes wherewith the Psalms of David were wont to be sung it must needs follow that the Lord hath left it to the libertie of the Church to sing them in such plain grave tunes as may fit the solemnitie of Gods Worship and that because that tunes are but circumstantial and not the substance and the Church now in the dayes of the Gospel is not in her minoritie or young age but in her man-age or full grown age as the Apostle speaketh and therefore fitter to appoint circumstantial things in Gods Worship then the Jews being in their non-age But Davids Psalmes are to be sung with Davids Spirit or the same Spirit which David had but in your Churches wicked persons sing that have not the Spirit That the whole congregation of the Church of the Jews did sing the Psalms of David and do you think that all those among the Jews that sung Davids Psalms had the same Spirit which David had in composing of them Though
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
absurdities that do follow upon your interpretation and for a full clearing of the text in the Corinths consider the words before The Apostle saith ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn For God is not the Author of confusion Now lest the women from the word all should think themselves permitted to prophesie as well as the men the Apostle to prevent their mistake whom he knew loved to speak too much saith Let your women keep silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak where take notice that the Apostle speaketh in the plural number women and not permitted unto them to speak The Apostle always when he speaketh of the flesh speaketh in the singular number flesh also the Apostle speaketh in the plural number Husbands and not in the singular Husband by which you may see what most barbarous conclusions will follow upon your interpretation For if by the women be meant the flesh and by asking their Husbands be meant Christ then is Christ the Husband of the flesh and that there are more Christs then one seeing the Apostle saith ask their Husbands at home by which word home it will follow that Christ and the flesh dwell together and that Christ is the fleshes home so that you may see by maintaining an error you run into many grosse errors But you will say the Apostle to Timothy saith woman in the singular number To which place I answer that there will several errors follow if by the woman be meant the flesh in that place Let the woman learn in silence if by the woman be meant the flesh then is the flesh to learn But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence If by the woman be meant the flesh then the flesh can teach and can usurp authority over the Spirit for Adam was first formed then Eve if by the woman be meant the flesh then is the flesh Eve and was of Gods forming Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in Faith and Charity and Holynesse with Sobriety if by the woman be meant the flesh then may the flesh be saved in child-bearing and may have Faith Charity and Holynesse with Sobriety Now let your selves and others judge whether you have an infallible Spirit the same Spirit that the Apostles had that writ the Scripture and that you know the true meaning of the Scripture And whether such are fit to be Teachers of others Whether men or women that give such interpretations of Scripture and maintain such grosse errors Also the example of all the Churches of Christ is a ground why women ought not to speak in the Church But if any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the churches of God But you object that several women did prophesie as Deborah and that one man had four Daughters and Virgins and they did prophesie And your Sons and Daughters shall prophesie Answer that those women and virgins who prophesied were extraordinarily called by an extraordinary gift which is now ceased and they did not take upon them to be Teachers in the Church but did prophesie of such things as were extraordinarily revealed or done in the Church for the prophesie in the Prophet Joel the same was accomplished in the Acts for saith the Apostle Peter These are not drunken as ye suppose But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel I will poure out of my spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie I would have any of you shew any one example where a woman took upon her to be a Teacher in the publick Church if any did take upon them so to do the Apostle teacheth that they did transgresse for it is to usurp authority over the man which is a sin and for a woman to take upon her to be a Teacher unto men is to exercise the authority of a man for we read of no women Teachers in the Church But you say that none are to exercise authority over others But are all in the Church equal and alike which bringeth me to a fifth particular wherein your practise is contrary to the command example and practise of Christ and his Apostles and therefore are not perfect The fifth is your not giving any reverence honor nor civil respect unto your Superiors and those that are in authority but are in your carriage tou Superiors more like Heathens then Christians Now it remaineth on my part to prove that Christ and his Apostles did both command and walk contrary to your practice herein Christ said Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Now the name Caesar was a word of Honour given unto all the Roman Emperours what ever their names were as we used to call our Supream Magistrate King Now Christ though a King himself did not say Give unto William or John the things that are his but give to Caesar He gave him the same title of Honour that the Romans gave him though a heathen Emperour Also Christ teaching his Disciples humilitie When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding sit not down in the highest room left a more honorable man then thee be bidden of him and he come and say Give this man place he being a more honourable person but when thou art bidden goe and sit down in the lowest room that when he that bad thee cometh he may say unto thee Friend goe up higher then thou shall have worship or honour in the presence of them that sit at meat by which Christ doth teach that some persons are more honourable then others and such are to be honoured of others But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattel will say unto him by and by go and sit down to meat and will not rather say unto him Make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thy self and serve me till I have eaten and drunk and afterward thou shalt eat and drink now though this be to teach us that we are all Gods servants and that when we have done all we are commanded to say we are unprofitable servants We have done that which was our dutie yet Christ useth this similitude because of the equitableness and justness of the same And as it is contrary to what Christ taught so is it contrary to the practice and doctrine of the Apostles for when Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles was brought before Agrippa to speak for himself Paul said I think my self happy King Agrippa because I shall answer for my self this day before thee mind The Apostle doth not onely say Agrippa but King Agrippa though he were a Heathen King And when he spake for himself Festus said with a loud voice Paul Thou art beside thy self much learning hath made thee mad Paul said I am not mad mind most
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
and I in them and we have known and beleived the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him And that I may make it more plain I will set this forth by a similitude We know that the Sun doth shine and give light and heat by its beams or operation and we do say the Sun shineth into such a house or room and the Sun doth warm such a place and such a creature Now the body of the Sun remaineth in the Firmament but its beams and light and heat are in several places here below So in like manner Christ his body is in Heaven but he sendeth abroad his light and heat several operations and workings of his Spirit in the hearts of his people and this Metaphor of the Sun is often used in Scripture wherefore I shall alleadge some of those Scriptures because they do fitly serve to illustrate this truth The Prophet Malachy prophesieth of Christ saying but unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings And as it is the property of the Sun to give light and warmth or heat and to expel mists and fogs that do infect the Air and to compleat and enliven things that seem to be dead in the Winter so is Christ to his Church and people here on earth though he be in Heaven he is the light of his Church as the Prophet Isaiah saith Arise shine for thy light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising And this Sun of righteousnesse is said to expel the of his people as a thick cloud is expelled by the Sun And the Lord is said to be a Sun to his people that is in Christ for out of Christ he is a consuming fire Object But you say that Christ doth enlighten every man as the Sun giveth light to all and by hearkning too and obeying that light all may be saved I have answered this before but for a farther answer Answ That I confesse Christ doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world in some sense for as the Sun in the Heaven doth give light and heat unto all so doth Christ as the Creator give a common light of nature He maketh his Sun so shine or rise upon the evil and the good All that common light of Knowledge and understanding that wicked men have and all outward blessings come from Christ In him saith the Apostle we live move and have our being but that Christ doth give a spiritual light of grace unto all that are born that I deny For we are all born blind and dark in regard of spiritual light so saith the Apostle ye were once darkness and St. John saith That the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not as the Sun shining on a man that is born blind he receiveth no light from the Sun and every man that hath this spiritual light hath it or receiveth it from God in and through Christ as the Apostle Paul saith For God who commanded light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ This light is a free gift and we were not born with it If we were what need Christ have dyed for our sins Or what use is there of his intercession if all men have a light within them by hearkning to which and obeying it they may be saved I have taken this by the way because it is one of your cheif grounds upon which you build your religion But it is a sandy one that hath no foundation on Christ or the Scriptures For you do not make the Scriptures to be the rule of your faith and practise but some revelations or impulse of Spirit And therefore you object against what is spoken or written by reading or study or reading other mens works which is the last of your objections that I know of with answering of which I shall conclude For Answer I say that your slighting of reading and studying the Scripture and reading of the writings of godly Ministers and others that have written on them is a chief cause of all your errors For Christ exhorteth all to search the Scriptures and that cannot be without reading them And the Apostle Paul exhorteth Timothy To give attendance to reading and to meditate upon these things and give thy self wholly to them Surely Paul knew Timothy was no Quaker for some of you Quakers have said that they may not read the Scriptures But the Apostle commendeth Timothy That from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation If he had not been a Reader of Scriptures he had not known them for although many read the Scriptures that never knew the will and mind of God revealed in them yet ordinarily none knoweth the Scripture but those that have read them or heard them read or preached upon and as faith cometh by hearing so by reading some have been converted if we may believe their own testimony in History which bringeth me to the second part of your objection The reading of other mens Books or writings To which I say that the Apostle Paul though a man indued with extraordinary gifts of revelations Yet he did read other mens Books or writings as you may see by his writing to Timothy When thou comest bring with thee the books but especially the parchments Now if the Apostle did not read them what need he to have sent for them but that the Apostle did read other books besides the Scripture is plain for the Apostle writeth of Jannes and Jambres withstanding Moses and he must read it in some other book or writing then the Scripture for there is no such thing there Also the Apostle to Titus doth alledge what one of the Cretians own Prophets said which he had read in some of their books and the Apostle Jude saith that Michael the Arch-angel strove with the Devil and disputed about the body of Moses and Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophecied of such men saying Behold the Lord cometh with thousands of his Angels Now we read of none of these in the Scripture and therefore the Apostle did read them in some other books or writings and will you say the Apostles did not bost in other mens lines as you say of us surely if the Apostles made use of other mens writings much more may we and to what end hath God given gifts unto men if they may not improve them by writing for sometimes they have not opportunitie to exercise them otherwise unless you would have them hide their Talents and to what end doe you Quakers write so many books and spread them
of that Scripture contrary to that of the Apostle Peter Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Besides if Paul had not the Spirit at that time then he had lost it unlesse you say he had not the Spirit while after he had written the seventh Chapter to the Romans Also the Apostle Paul complaineth in his Epistle to the Corinthians saying That a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Sathan to buffer me which is taken to be some corruption Also the Apostle writing to the Galathians saith For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other So that ye cannot do the things that ye would according to what he said of himself before Also the Apostle Peter that Pillar of the Church which the Papists your Fathers do so much boast of that he could not erre as you Quakers say of your selves To passe by his sin in denying Christ before Christ suffered you may read in the Epistle to the Galathians that the Apostle Paul withstood the Apostle Peter to the face because he was to be blamed Why for what the Apostle saith That before the Jews he dissembled fearing them of the Circumcision and that Barnabas was also carried away with their dissimulation But saith the Apostle When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel Now this sin of theirs was not a sin of Ignorance but of Knowledge dissembled and now I am writing of Barrabas I call to minde that great strife that was between Paul and him that although they were put apart together for the ministery of the Gentiles had travelled through many regions and preached unto them the Gospel that then they should so fall out one with the other that they should parâ— asunder there must needs be a fault either in Paul or Barnabas and surely they both had the Spirit of Christ at the same time and were Justified and Sanctified Also this passion of theirs bringeth to minde what the Apostle James writeth concerning the Prophet Elias That he was a man subject to like passions as we are that you may read of him in the Book of Kings Now if Elias that was taken up into Heaven was a mah subject to passion and Paul and Barnabas dare you Quakers say you are more holier then they I the Apostle saith That in many things we offend all and was not the Apostle a true teacher because he taught such doctrine as you say our Ministers are not Also the Apostle John saith If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Minde the Apostle doth not say if you but we putting himself within the nnmber Also he saith If we say that we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us I marvel not that you Quakers do so often give Men the lye seeing you give God the lye for so saith the Apostle that knew better than you for you know not your own hearts if you did you durst not so speak you never yet knew the Spiritual meaning of the Law that the least evil thought or motion to sin though not acted is a breach of the pure Law of God if you did then would you say and pray as the Prophet David did Who can understand his errors cleanse thou me from secret faults or sins If the Prophet David who was a man after Gods own heart and a pen-man of holy Scripture confessed that who can which interrogation is a negation none can understand or know all the secret sins of his life prayed to God to pardon them Do you Quakers know more and are you more holy than he I know you are so in your own opinions But I shall have occasion hereafter to discover the falsenesse of your opinion in that particular Now to make this appear more plain consider that there is no need of Christ his mediatorship propitiation or intercession for if the Church and people of God do not sin why then doth the Apostle John say And if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins Minde the Apostle saith We have an advocate and he is the propitiation for our sins the Apostle includeth himself within the number Also the Apostle Paul saith to the Romans Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect why Minde the Apostle doth not say for they have no sin But it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us he includeth himself Also the Apostle to the Hebrews Wherefore he is able also to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Now consider that this intercession of Christ is necessary for the Saints in regard of their best works For the Prophet Esay saith in the name of the whole Church But we are all as an unclean thing and all our Minde rigteousnesses are as filthy rags Also the Apostle Paul saith of himself Yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse all things and do count them but dung that that I may win Christ Now the Apostle counted his righteousnesse which is of the Law to be such that he might be found in Christ not having his own righteousnesse but that which is through the faith of Christ This intercession of Christ for the Saints for to take away the pollution of their best actions was typified by the High-priest Aaron was to have a plate of pure gold and engraven upon it holinesse to the Lord. And it shall be upon Aarons fore-head that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things that the Children of Israel may be accepted before the Lord. A Mans best works as they come from Man are unclean because there is corruption in the best men for all men are conceived and born in sin as David confesseth of himself Behold I was shaped in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Now this original corruption is in the best Man what ever you say or think to the contrary Now as water that is pure and clean in the fountain if it run or come through a corrupt pipe or channel it will be foul and unclean even so the Spirit of God in Man being the fountain from whence all good cometh is pure and clean but passing through Mans corrupt nature becometh defiled And therefore you may read that the Angel stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer it