Velata quaedam Revelata pag. 13. of which he is very cheery As to the Spirit of Man which concurs to the Constituting of Man in his primitive Perfection it is the Breath of Life which God breathed into his Soul after he had formed him as to his Body of the Dust of the Earth whereby he came to be a Living Soul a Soul that did partake something of God's own Life This Spirit of Man is that living Principle of the Divine Nature which Man did before his Degeneration and shall again after his Regeneration partake of This Charge sayes our Adversary being of so black and horrid a Nature I did judge it meet to prove it by abounding Instances and now Reader put on the largest Charity and give me thy Verdict if I have not made appear that the Quakers are gross Idolaters c. To answer which briefly and to Purpose and to close this Chapter with a contrary Conclusion I say That the Spirit of Man is not to be taken as of or from Man or that it is any part of Man's Nature take Man in an Abstractive sense And had he been so fair as to give us S. Fisher's Words at large they would have prov'd themselves of Age enough to answer for themselves S. Fisher is to be understood of that Spirit or Breath of Life not that made Man simply a Living Creature of a meer Reasonable Capacity but that Divine Life or Breath which makes alive to God and gives a kind of Heavenly Animation Motion or Life to live to him which constituted Adam not a meer Man but a blessed holy heavenly-minded Man before his Degeneration And that S. Fisher did never intend it of the Natural Soul of Man but rather of the Divine Life of the Soul without which the Soul is destitute of the Knowledge of the True and Living God his own Words very plainly show For if S. Fisher intended that Spirit which is the Divine Principle that Man did partake of before his Degeneration certain and clear it is that since Man did under that Degeneration partake of his own Soul or else he could not have been a Man S. Fisher never meant the meer Soul of Man but the Life of that Divine Principle which regenerates and renews the Soul unto a Life of Purity and Blessedness So that we conclude the Quakers not believing any such Strange and Unscriptural Doctrine as that the Soul of Man is the God that made the Heavens and the Earth for so it would make it self and what is greater then itself They are not those Idolaters they have been represented and fouly charactered by J. Faldo But Innocent and Free of all such Imputation and he their Accuser most of all Condemnable yea and that for Idolatry too who professeth no Knowledge of God but from Outward Sense by Hearing Reading c. p. 91. So that being destitute of the Revelation of the Son that only can make known the Living Father what Apprehensions he has of God are not Experimental but Imaginary and worshipping such an Idea he worshippeth not the true God but the Images of his own Brain therefore an Idolater See Bish Andrews upon the Command and Pagnin upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XXI Our Adversary at a loss to prove his Charge We own so much of the Resurrection as the Scriptures express more Curiosity Dangerous and Condemnable Eternal Rewards own'd by us J. Faldo's Book will prove it to Him and our Tribulations to Us. § 1. THe two last Charges of this second Part of his Discourse are our Denyal of the Resurrection of the Dead that is Dead Bodies and future Rewards To the First he brings in I. Pennington thus We say that Christ is the Resurrection to raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him viz. Adam so Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and so renews Man c. Princ. Elem. Peop. cal Quak. p. 34. Upon which he comments What is this Resurrection but what they call Regeneration it seems he does not and the Resurrection of the Body is but in the same sense as the Soul and Spirit is raised I can't help it if J. Faldo has made so unapplicable a Quotation out of I. P. to his Business I hope none are so Blind or Partial as to be angry that I. P. did not write to his Purpose it was sufficient that he spake to his own or rather to the Truth 's Our Adversary falls down right upon us with a Charge of Denying the Resurrection of the Body and is angry that the Place he produces helps not his Design Certainly with sober Men the Blame will not lie at our doors for not making good his Charge but at his own that he exhibited one he could not prove But will he deny the Resurrection in I. P's Words If he does I pronounce him no Christian nor indeed will a bare Confessing to it render him One And where he stands I fear he is but too far from both Let it suffice that those Words are a modest serious and full Answer to this Caviller since he does plainly acknowledge All that the first Adam lost to be restored by Christ the second Adam and all that the Sin of one incurr'd the Righteousness of the other redeem'd from Now let his Notions of the Way and Method of Effecting this be what they will we desire not to be wise beyond what the Lord sees convenient for us as this busie Intruder into sacred Mysteries hath done that lives in the Land not of Light but gross Darkness within and whose very borrowed made framed Light from Reading Art Study and his own Conceptions is the very Blackness of Darkness § 2. But he affirms that George Whitehead should say being prest in the Matter that he did not believe his Body should rise again after its Death which he can prove by many Witnesses I know not if ever G. Whitehead did so express himself But I see every Expression must be treasured up to defend a decrepit Cause Truth stands in no need of such Watchings that would make a Man an Offender for a Word But what if he did say so and I should second him would it follow that we deny a Resurrection I am sure I will deny all such Consequences Doth not the Apostle say expresly Thou Fool thou sowest not THAT BODY THAT SHALL BE. Is Scripture grown into such mean Request with J. Faldo or doth his Rage against the Quakers so transport him that he knows not Scripture when he meets it from a Quaker But sayes our Adversary upon a like place and to this purpose viz. We shall all be changed I would ask if they would be content to be refused their Debts if contracted before Quakers and demanded when Quakers I suppose they would believe that the Change in a Person is not the Change of a Person and that they are the same still to
out of that Sense in which they were given forth and to an other End then that for which they were given forth which proves to us that the Sense and not the Words shows the End of their being so given forth The Scriptures are a Sealed Book to all but those who know them by the same Hand which Originally gave them So that however Common they may be in the World they are Strangers to them that understand them not And though Old respecting the Time when they were revealed to the Saints yet New to every Age so that we assert not a Revelation of New Things but renewed Revelation of those Things God made former Ages Witnesses of otherwise Men are no more benefited by them And to be benefited they must be made ours by the Spirit which made them the Holy Ancients § 7. In short No Man can understand Spiritual Things but the Spiritually Discerning None can so be without the Inspiration of the Almighty or Spirit of God This is Scripture Now the Author of those Queries and J. Faldo also Denying Inspiration they consequently deny themselves to be Spiritually Discerning and for Men not Spiritual to Judge of Religious and Spiritual Matters much less to Write of them and bid their Writings go and throw down Self-Will and exalt the Truth is Vain and Idolatrous For the Scriptures themselves consider'd meerly as such are unable much less Writings founded on the Authority of Self Will for it is the alone Priviledge of God's Power and Spirit and no Writing whatever distinct from it can perform that Great and Mighty Work in Man § 8. And for Equaling our Writings with the Scriptures because we assert Inspiration and that what we have received and do declare of the Things of God is from the Revelation of his Spirit in our Hearts it is a Foolish Inference Truth was and is Truth all the World over and there was and is but One Way to come to it in all Ages I mean Inspiration The Scriptures are True and our Writings are True but will it therefore follow that we bring them upon a Vie Is this your Disputant But to determine this Case He should first have prov'd if he could what Power God gave to the Ancients and what to Us. How much of his Spirit to those Ages and what to This or else he loseth himself If he can Experimentally tell what were their Discoveries and Experiences and what are Ours he would be a Proper Judge But to think to run us down by Exalting them or to lessen what we are by Increasing their Praise is an old Artifice of the Devil and Sober Men will be more True to Themselves and Just to the Matter then so to censure us Cannot one Man be another Man's Brother and not the Elder Brother Doth it follow that because God has made what we know our own by his Holy Inspirations and Operations that therefore we put our selves upon the Comparison with the Ancients If true Christians fill up or add to Christ's Sufferings yet behind why should their Writings be shuffled out of all Relation to the Scriptures There may be a Relation where there is not an Equality much less a Preference and that we do assert against all Opposers § 9. But now let us see what he says of our setting the Scriptures beneath our own Writings and I will take his own Way to do it The Characters of the Scriptures given by the Quakers as says J. Faldo Characters of their own Teachers Writings and Sayings given by them Feeding Death with Death The Letter which Killeth Declar. from the Minist of the Word p. 7. The Voice of the Son of God was utter'd forth by him by which the Dead was rais'd F. H. Life of E. B. p. 20. Seeking the Living among the Dead J. Parn. Shield His Words Ministred Grace to the Hearers Fox jun. Life E. B. A Mistake for he dy'd before E. B. Reconciliation Death is a State without the Living Experimental Knowledg of God and his Work in the Heart And that State will talk of the Fame of Wisdom as saith the Scripture and that from the Scripture that is from or in the words of Scripture being Ignorant of the true Sense of the Scripture thinking there to have Life which Literal Knowledg it feeds upon and contents it self with where Nations have lain Apostatized from the Life of God and Power of Godliness The Letter Killeth that is the Literal Knowledge or rather their Imaginations from the Letter not being Divinely Inspir'd so as to understand it by which Men buoy and lift up themselves as Christians in the World and yet are Strangers to the inward sensible Work of God And it does Kill the Soul with respect to that true Life the Spirit and Power of God begets in all right Christians through whom the Voice of the Son of God has does and will utter it self to the Ends of the Earth for the Raising the Dead in Trespasses and Sins as that worthy Servant of God did which is now with his Lord. This disreputes not the Scriptures but those who make a wrong Use of them nor is there any Comparison betwixt Reading what God's Spirit requires immediate Hearing his Voice and being sensible of his present living Touches upon the Soul Writings are but holy Things at second hand a Living Ministry is the very Life Power and Spirit present and more immediate In short the Testimony of F. H. we prefer not before the Testimony Luke gives of holy Stephen We prefer the Scriptures before all Writings but before God's immediate Power we dare not do Paper Ink and Writing the same pag. 7. A Shield of the Truth Title J. P's Book Reconcil What 's this to the purpose We say that the Scriptures or the Writings not the Things written of mark that are Paper Ink and Writing which was spoken abstractively and upon a Comparison of them with the Word of God that was with God and was and is God over all blessed for ever Doth any Man think that we believe greater things of J. Parnel's Book By no means He call'd not his Book consisting of so much Writing Ink and Paper a Shield of Truth but that of which it treated was the Truth and with respect to the Controversial part of it as it was writ in Defence of the Truth it might be tearm'd a Shield in which sense the Scriptures by him urged have the upper-hand of his Writing by whose greater Authority with Men he abets and maintains the Doctrine contended for Shews you I suppose the Light your own Faces which the Scriptures cannot do Scorned Quak. accounts p. 20. A Spiritual Glass opened Smith ' s Cat. c. Morn Watch. Reconcil This can be no way hard to reconcile For when we say the Scriptures cannot show Men at all Times and in all States their Conditions but the Secret In-shining Light of God alone we are not so unworthy as to intend that any Book of
Nature of a Light unless to acknowledge their Testimonies to be as Lights be to deny them to have any Light at all Is this the great Originalian Linguist Critick Philosopher and what else his own conceit will have him What is it but to say that six burning Candles are six Lights but not that they give a Light either joyntly or separately But 't is below us to pursue every Advantage his Ignorance gives us I find him more in Words then Matter a great deal and I suppose more are of that Mind or else what means his great Pains to be made waste paper of already Quakerism no Christianity has exchang'd the Book-Sellers Stalls for the Tobacco Shops Poor Man perhaps he will write another Book to complain of the Deadness of Professors Hearts that they make so ill Use of the Labours of painful Ministers I am confident nothing but his Fear of loosing by it could divert him from such a Lamentation But to his Reflection upon the Light as our Idol and their Folly who attend upon the Scriptures when they have so excellent a Light in their own Bosomes the Substance of the rest of the Chapter I thus return God is that Light which hath enlightned Mankind and to have the highest Reverence for him and believe in him can be therefore no Idolatry And for the Scripture all grant that there is a State above them For I hope the Man does not think that People shall have Bibles in Heaven and the more any approach to the heavenly Life and Glory the less need there will be and yet not the less value of them But this we also say that they are profitable for Instruction and Comfort in this World And God hath spoke does and yet will by the Scriptures speak to the Consciences of Men For being given forth by the Spirit of God they do declare that Reproof Exhortation and those Promises which being felt in some Sence of the same Divine Light do administer Knowledge and Refreshment But we do also and again declare it as our Faith that the Pouring out of the Spirit is a Gospel Priviledge yea the very proper and peculiar Promise and Blessing of the Father in that State and that as the Spirit is superior to the Letter so we earnestly contend not against the Scripture but for that Living Experimental Knowledge of them which all witness who are truly taught and led by the Spirit and which can't be obtained by any meer Writings whatsoever Nor does it follow that because God has given a sufficient Light therefore all other Means should be superfluous Certain I am this Argument is fitter for Bedlam then one who more then once Vaunts himself to be a Critick indeed a Quibler For what is it but to say that though every Man has Reason enough in him to know that Intemperance is below a very Brute yet because he is Intemperate his Reason is not sufficient to inform him better Or if it be sufficient he ought to despise anothers Admonitions however seasonable his Reason being enough to his Information Was Nathan of no use to David who had so secret and sufficient a Teacher And here I do observe that all our Opposers split themselves and will forever unless better inform'd They ignorantly or basely infer a Fallibility or Insufficiency to be in the Light from the Fallibility and Rebellion of those Persons whom we say are lightned by it And on the Contrary hand that all should be necessarily Infallible who are Inlightned by an Infallible Light not considering that neither is the Grace of God Insufficient to Save because Men refuse to be Saved by it nor though it be sufficient and Infallible in it self that therefore all those to whom it is tender'd are sav'd or therefore are Infallible without any Consideration had to their Obedience How False How Injurious How almost Unpardonable is this Priest then Who seems to charge us with believing that all Power in Heaven and in Earth is in every Particular Man because sayes he this Light in every one is God Christ Spirit c. For though we confess that as to every individual Person all the Power which is requir'd to redeem that Soul from the Pollutions of the World unto the pure and undefiled Religion is in that Divine Principle which with respect to the great Darkness of the World is very aptly denominated Light yet that therefore the whole Light and Power of it should be comprehended by or contained in every Individual Soul I utterly Renounce as no Consequence of our Doctrine For that were to say in every Room where the Sun shines there is a distinct Sun These are but some of the Priests old Bulbeggars to scare the Simple and they will at last do as much for their Inventors It shall suffice us 1 that though the Light shines not alike into all habitable Places yet the same Light by Nature shines into all such Places For illustration only If a Man has six Rooms expos'd to the Sun there may be more Light in some one then another yet not therefore another Sun or Light 2 If People refuse to see by it it implies no Deficiency in the Light but argues manifest Rebellion in the Party 3 That whatever Means it may please God to use to stir up Men to observe obey the Light they withstand they ought not to be thought superfluous or the Light therefore Insufficient 4 That all such Means as can be effectual proceed from that Divine Principle in others and with Design of turning the Rebellious to the Grace which they resist in themselves So notwithstanding the Quakers do own and assert the Spirit to be Superiour to the Scriptures especially in this Administration yet they do not deny the Scripture all Service or Benefit by no means but believe it ought to be Read Believ'd Honour'd and Obey'd as that by which God has doth and may yet reach to the Hearts and Consciences of People And to the Righteous Lord God of Heaven and Earth do we make our Appeal in this Matter against the Unrighteous Dealing of this traducing Priest who is the Searcher of the Hearts of all Men. CHAP. VII Commands upon Conviction to be obey'd All General Commands Obligatory Particular not but upon particular Commission Our Adversaries Disingenuity The Scriptures a Means by which God may be known but not the Principle § 1. THough indeed we need not concern our selves any further in this Subject after the Disproof of his Premisses namely that because the Quakers Deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God therefore they deny them to all Intents and Purposes much less that we should esteem our selves oblieged to consider what remains after such plentiful Confutation being but Consequences of the Priests drawing from his own False Assertions already enervated or a mistaken Understanding of ours plainly discover'd and which indeed seems both to resemble and follow the old way of two and twentiethly Beloved to
God are known for Sin which they shake off on another mistaken Account and in this Mystery the Devil works most subtilly and vigorously against the Light of Christ within and its True and Holy Birth § 3. But says he How Know God's Omnipotency experimentally Very well say I against the Folly of this cavilling Priest Experience is Demonstration and the World without and the Redemption I know within which no Power but what is Almighty could ever have effected make up that Demonstration which is that Experience therefore I only know God's Omnipotency by Experience § 4. But is it thus that you know Christ died that there shall be a Judgment and an Immortality I answer not altogether thus One Part is Matter of Story and is believed first Historically upon the Credit of History and then upon the Account of Inward Conviction too The other is Knowable only upon Experience For we feel in our selves Rewards and Punishments for Good and Evil in this Life and receive them as Earnests of what will attend Man-kind in the next And we have an inward Sence of a never dying Life which as we are Gather'd into it and Grow up in it we shall Inherit Eternal Felicity and as there is an Erring from that Holy Spirit of Life the Wages of such Rebellion will be the direful Portion of Death and Misery to every Soul forever § 5. Nor does this clash with Faith whatever the Priest would suggest For Faith is a believing in or relying upon God with respect to a further Knowledge and Enjoyment of him which no wayes impugnes or withstands a Knowledge of God upon Experience so far as Men do experience wherein they simply believe they do not yet so perfectly experience which ends Faith yet it abides certain that when they do experience that further Revelation of the Goodness and Mercy and Riches of the Love of God as the End of their Faith then and not before they may be said to know those things Why then should we be denyed to conclude and that most rightly that to Know and to Experience are equivalent Terms No Knowledge without Experience no Experience without Knowledge And though Men may believe in a further Enjoyment of what they now have but an Earnest of yet that as such they know not consequently they experience it not And so much this insolent Vilifier of that serious Expression confesseth to us and disputes for as he thinks against us when he sayes where is Faith all the while and if none but Believers be Saints such as W. P. are professedly none Since then my Affirming no Knowledge of God without Experience strikes not at Faith because Faith says our Adversary is not a clear knowing but believing or relying upon God as to things not yet clearly known and enjoyed what has the Man been a doing all the while But here was his shameful Mistake and Contradiction That Knowing and Believing are one and the same thing and this I will make appear from his own Words and a Contradiction to himself at the End of it § 6. He quarrels my affirming all Knowledge to rest upon Experience and opposes to it this question Can we experience his Omnipotency as much as to say yet we know it else he queries impertinently If so then that God's Omnipotency may be known and not Experienced the purport of his Query it must be only by Faith and if by Faith then a Man may certainly know any thing to be what it is and yet at the same time only believe it to be so which he as earnestly withstands when he asks Where is Faith all the while c. I would then sain be resolv'd whether that Man suppose J. Faldo who says that Knowing and Believing are One and Knowing and Experiencing are Contraries be more ridiculous or W. P. who affirms that Faith which stricktly taken is but an Evidence of things not yet clearly seen experienc'd or known and Knowing are not one and the same thing and that experiencing and knowing can never be Contraries § 7. I would advise this Priest to be less conceited and better grounded the next time he has to do with us for even in those places where he seems most Insulting he appeares most Weak Reader what we experience we know and from hence are taught to believe that Fulness to be in God which we can never comprehensively Know so that our Knowing God from Experience does not weaken Faith but as Enjoyment is the End of Faith so from thence great Encouragement is to be taken to press on from Faith to Faith till there is an Arriving at the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ But he leaves not off here § 8. I shall not Comment on his ravening comprehending Brain a most affected Pharisee among the Quakers nor his clear Mysteries as clear a Contradiction as it is nor Fleshly Comprehensions as much Untruth and Non-sense as according to their Meaning of it it Comprehends for I have not Room to spread all his Rubbish I wonder not at his course Usage of me 't is like a Man of his Breeding Fury and Profession there is abundantly more yet behind some of which will be observ'd in a more proper place But to reply Ravening is a most proper Word and due to J. Faldo with his whole Tribe of Priests and if he will Raving too some few more moderate ones excepted for we commonly understand by a Ravenous Dog one that is Greedy Sharp-set that hunts hard for Prey that snatches and ketches at every thing it likes or may answer his hungry Appetite now whether this may relate to that greedy pursuit of the Priests after Hire the Bason the Box the Purse or that insatiable Thirst they have after Knowledge of those Religious Matters which were the dear-bought Experiences of ancient Saints whilst Strangers to the Fiery and Refining Judgments of the Lord through which alone it is obtained certain it is that the Word is most aptly used by the Quakers against that Ravenous Generation § 9. Comprehending Brain is compassing or mastering of any thing in the Understanding and where People are more studious to fill their Heads with Knowledge then to adorn their Hearts with Righteousness we use those Words in a way of Reproof Since having learnt of God what we know of him through the Operation of his Light in our Consciences it is our Testimony and our work in the World to beat down that Thirsting Spirit after much Head-Knowledge and press all to the continual Observance of an humble and constant Obedience to the Grace of God manifested in their Hearts that teacheth to deny all Ungodliness and Worldy Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godlikely in this present Evil World which is the Undefiled Religion Nor his Clear Mysteries as clear a Contradiction as it is It was not Clear but Clean in my Copy which I suppose I can produce and has been so corrected by me Ingenuous Men
Flesh and Blood the Birth that persecutes the Son and Heir Graven Images Morn Watch p. 22 23. It would amaze sayes he a Christian to read what is contain'd in the two Pages quoted of vilifying Reproach to the Scriptures and the Doctrines from them received If this be not Opposing the Spirit of God to the Scriptures and rendering them advers to each other the Devil himself must dispair of Inventing Words to express it by And now Reader it is time for me with a Soul full of Grief to make my Appeal to the Righteous Lord God of Heaven and Earth and his equal Witness in thy Conscience if ever Quakers writ or said any such thing of the Holy Scriptures O far be it from us and very great and heavy will the Damnation of J. Faldo be in the Day of the Lord unless he shall unfeignedly Repent because of these detestable Lyes that he seems wilfully to fasten upon our Writings What William Smith said reflected not in the least upon the Scriptures nor yet those Doctrines which were truly received thence No such words can be produced by our Adversaries had W. S. written any such thing he that adds so much that was not we are to suppose would not have omitted mentioning of that if it had been But W. Smith addrest himself to that Adulterated Spirit which had defiled Nations that nevertheless were under the Profession of God Scriptures and Religious Worship though in Works they deny'd God and as concerning Scripture and true Worship grosly err'd not knowing the Power of God nor how to Worship him in Spirit and in Truth not that he ever durst to entertain so Blasphemous an Apprehension of those Holy Writings or those Doctrines that are truly received thence as is suggested by our most unfair Adversary And is it not the height of all Unrighteousness to our Neighbour that when he condemns the Degenerated Spirit Knowledge and Worship of any People however professing the Scriptures and it may be pretending to believe accordingly as W. Smith does all Apostate Christians J. Faldo should infer that his Neighbour calls the Scriptures themselves and not a wrong Knowledge of them Will-Worship Corruption Rottenness Deceitful Whore's-Cup Apostacy Earthly Root Graven Images c. and that he should intend nothing less then Opposition betwixt the Spirit and its own Scriptures There needs no further Confutation then the gross and black Envy of our Adversary about this one Passage Be it known to all we do affirm the Scriptures never did jarr with the Spirit nor the Spirit oppose himself against the Scriptures and thus much our Writings can plentifully prove to all sober Enquirers § 3. But he offers another and the last Proof of his Charge from J. Naylor That of this sort are they false Prophets as I suppose he means who have their Preaching from Study and other Men's Mouthes and not from the Mouth of the Lord. From which he infers that what we have in the Scriptures is not from the Mouth of the Lord and queries I would know saith he of the Quakers what they will make of the Mouth of the Lord It was said to Jeremiah Jer. 15. 19. Thou shalt be as my Mouth Our Meaning is still over-look't by this disingenuous Adversary and a quite contrary thing substituted The natural Purport of the Words can be no more then this That though the Things declared of in the Scriptures were the Word of the Lord to the holy Ancients and Jeremiah as God's Mouth not his Mouth therefore to the People of Israel yea and much of it the Word of the Lord to us too yet for Men to say any part thereof by wrote especially if they add their own Comments and Glosses fraim'd from Study to any part of the Scriptures and cry Thus sayes the Lord or Hear the Word of the Lord and not in the same living Sense nor upon the like Commission every such one doth Rob his Neighbour and Steal his words And He is no more a True Prophet for so doing then a Parrat is a Man because he can talk If then no such Creature is therefore to be reputed Rational nor what he says Reason as to him though so in it self because it proceeds not from the Root and Principle of Reason but by meer Imitation and consequently a Prater in no case to be minded Neither is he a true Prophet nor that the Word of the Lord with respect to that Prophet who has not received what he delivers from the immediate Word of God himself but by Hear-say or meer Imitation No he is but a very Babbler and begets People no further then into meer Words and Imaginary Glosses which is the Ground of that Uncertainty that is in the World about Religion The Scriptures then are to us oblieging as the Things they declare of were the Word of the Lord to several Ages Temporal Commands excepted and they are not without a Mouth yet they and Jeremiah too are Inferior to the Mouth of the Eternal Word which speaks in this Evangelical Dispensation the Will of God unto Mankind after a more living and immediate Manner as was prophesied of old And I may thus far gratifie our Adversary's Curiosity about God's Mouth and tell him that the Word of God is the Mouth of God and the true Prophets and Apostles in all Ages have been the Mouth of the Word of God and the Scriptures are the Writings of those holy Prophets and Apostles as they were the Mouth of the Eternal Word revealing God's Will in their Hearts that they might declare it whether by Word of Mouth or Writing to the People and this is the true Order and Descent of things § 4. But he has one Kick more at us before he gives up the Ghost in his Mis-representation of us concerning the Scriptures The Quakers hold it is a sin and the sign of Idolatry to Believe and Live according to the Instructions and holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate Inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them And now says he I am come to the highest Round of their Ladder Indeed those Rounds of Ladders are very dangerous places I will not say how often nor for what an Army Chaplin might deserve to be so high exalted but since his eager pursuit after an Innocent People has brought him actually thither and it falls to my Lot to be his Executioner I shall take all the care I can to acquit my self well of my Employment I will warrant him for ever coming down the same way he went up In order to which let us first hear what kind of Speech he will make us to the Point in hand William Dewsbury in his Discovery of Mans Return pag. 21. All People may search the Scriptures and see how you have been deceived by your Teachers who have caused you to seek your lost God in Carnal and Dead Observations which they have not any
he cites W. Smith's Catechism p. 107. Though some may not speak in such formal composed Words yet in the same Wisdom their Words are formal they can set their own Time to begin and end and when they will they can utter Words and when they will they can be silent and this is the Unclean Part which offers to God which he doth not accept Very well and what is this to the denying of Gospel-Prayer It seems then that what Prayer this Passage reflects upon is Gospel consequently if I understand any thing formal wise Words in Man's Time and Will which is Unclean is Gospel-Prayer in J. Faldo's account otherwise it is utterly false to say That W. Smith's Words prove the Quakers to contemn Gospel-Prayer But what can be more clear to the View of every Impartial Soul then that J Faldo's making that Prayer only which he is capable of himself that stands in his own Time Will Wisdom and Invention to be Gospel rather then to deny it and seek after one more truly Evangelical is not so much to maintain the Truth as himself § 2. Secondly he sayes That we own no Prayer that is not by immediate Inspiration and Motion of the Spirit and without the Use of our Conception and Direction of our Understanding His third I will add to this because to the same Purpose viz. That we own no Prayer but what is by and in the Light Within and here he brings 3. or 4. Testimonies which are to the same purpose I grant what he says of us in this particular to be our Faith and shall prove it to be sound Doctrine from the Scriptures of Truth The Worship of God is in the Spirit and in the Truth Now unless Men may perform Gospel-Worship without the Spirit and the Truth or if in the Spirit and the Truth yet not by the Motion of either a thing absurd it must needs be that Men ought only to pray or preach by the Motion of the Spirit and of the Truth If such only are Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God and walk in the Light as Christ is Light and that therein Access alone may be had to God who is Light and in whom is no Darkness at all then with good Reason may we say That no Prayer that ascends to God without the Leading of God's Spirit and which is not by and in the Light can be acceptable with him consequently Gospel-Prayer is only from the Motions of the Spirit of God and by and in the Light of Christ Again If no Prophecy or Preaching was to be of old but by the immediate Revelation or Motion of the Spirit though it was but to Men of far greater Reason should not any Prayer be made without a Motion of the same Spirit which is to the Eternal only Wise God § 3. Nay the Creature considered from under the Leadings of God's Spirit in all Religious Actions is unable to think a good Thought much less to perform one good Work and as the Professors say from the Crown of the Head to the Soal of the Foot are altogether unclean will it follow then that either such corrupt and sinful Duties are Gospel-Prayer and an Ordinance of God or else that what we assert of Praying by the Motions of the Spirit and in and by the Light of Christ in our Hearts must be the only Gospel-Worship which we are yet further inclined to believe For it is said in Scripture that the Word and Prayer sanctifieth all things Now if we take this Word in our sense to wit the Word of God then we are to consider whether the Word derives its Sanctifying Vertue from the Prayer or the Prayer from this Word Not the former to be sure If then it be allowed to be the latter since this Prayer which to be sure is Gospel or the Apostle would not have owned it hath a Sanctifying Vertue in it that no Prayer begun or carried on by meer Man can sanctifie because we are of our selves unable to think one good Thought it evidently follows That this Word of God which gives Prayer that Sanctifying Power doth begin or move first to that Sanctifying Acceptable Truly Gospel-Prayer § 4. But now suppose by Word is meant the Words either of Scripture or Preachings yet are we safe For since nothing can sanctifie but it must be from it self or something else and that meer Man in Preaching or Praying cannot and that God is that alone Power Wisdom and Eternal Spirit that is able to sanctifie it will follow also that God's Spirit or Power moving in the Heart is that alone which renders the Words or Prayers of any sanctifying Nor is this all The Pool of Bethesda is a notable Figure of the Matter in hand where the Certainty of being cured upon stepping into the Pool so soon as ever the Angel had moved the Waters doth very lively represent to us that what Benefit we may ever expect to receive from the Lord comes not from an hasty Rushing into any Religious Performance in our own time but our patient Waiting till the Lord's holy Angel stirs and moves the Waters and then to lay all aside to imbrace so blessed an Opportunity Further § 5. The Gospel-State is an Eternal Sabbath He that prayes in his own Will Time Wisdom Invention is picking Sticks and kindling a Fire and compassing himself about with the Sparks of the Fire of his own kindling This Man hath not Ceast from his own Works he will suffer loss in the Day of God and his Bed will be made in Sorrow § 6. Nor is this the utmost of our Force For whatever God hath not required just will it be with him to say who hath required these things at your hands 'T is true God loves that his People should pray and Christ injoyns it but he also bids all Watch unto Prayer that is wait to feel that Spirit of Life to stir which gives Life to Prayer the Key of David by which Heaven's Door is opened and the Soul comes to receive True and Heavenly Refreshment The Want of which maketh so much Complaint among some that their Duties are Unholy Things they want Power they have prayed long but to little purpose whereas had they pray'd aright that had never been Much more might be said to this but my Conscience is clear in the Matter and I shall conclude this Point with a general Confession and Caution § 7. We do acknowledge That God is That he ought to be worshipped That Worshipping of God is stricktly a bowing down before him in Fear and Holy Reverence according as he makes himself known to the Creature That Prayer is a Gospel-Ordinance That it is not only Good but Necessary to be used That God only can give us to pray aright as well to pray at all That therefore his Assistance is necessary to have which there ought to be a Waiting out of all Conceivings Inventions or Forms to receive
a Living Touch and Sence from his Pure Living and Eternal Spirit whereby to set our Spirits at work This is that Oyl which makes the Chariot Wheels go smoothly and without which they grate and jarr Those who have not Words especially in Publick Places have Sighs and Groans and a deep and silent Exercise of Spirit God-wards In which blessed Communion is joyned and Refreshments that out-do all Worldly Satisfaction That it is the Duty of all to wait upon God and that not only at Publick Meetings but at their own Houses also and therein as well at their Meals as at all other times for Worship If any have the Motion of God's Eternal Spirit upon their Hearts let it be answer'd to God's Praise and the Edification of others if not let none offer up an unsanctified dead Sacrifice to the Lord as all that comes from meer Man is for it will be their Burden neither prodigally spend their own Portion or that Bread upon others God has bestowed for their own Use Thus whether such Eat Drink Sleep or otherwise Enjoy of God's Benefits Let all be done with holy Aw and to the Glory of God our Father as it will certainly be if there be but a still and reverent Waiting in Spirit upon the Lord in the Light of Christ to be made sensible of his Goodness and Blessings upon us and Unity with us in our Undertakings and Enjoyments And let this be a Warning unto all in the Name and Fear of the Jealous God of Heaven and Earth that they do not offer up to God their halt and lame and blind Self-Sacrifices which my God abhorrs Especially you Professors whose Leaves are large but your Fruit little Think not to be heard by your Multitude of Words nor Variousness of Duties God regards the Root the Life the Power the Spirit that begets them and whose Life it is that animates them if they arise from God's Holy Spirit and Seed of Life they can they will interceed and prevail but if not God will say to you one Day who has required these things at your Hands O! for the Love of God and your own Souls offer not God a Worship out of His own Spirit much less Contend for it for you strengthen Satan's Bonds in so doing and feed the Mystery of Iniquity the painted Jezabel the Mother of Harlots from whom these false accursed Births have come who under outward Imitations and Performances holds People in Death and Darkness and perfect Enmity against God and his Living Spiritual Holy Seed in them and others that is able to bruise the Serpent's Head which is the Pure Way of God and in whom is the Blessing forever For the Devil the subtil Serpent having got into those outward Courts of Religion Signs and Shaddows of the Good Things which God had given Credit to by his Appearing once in them he pleads their Divine Institution against the very Life and Substance that like old Garments it hath put off And so all are deceived by his Transformations and subtil Twinings who come not to that Inward Sence of Life and Power which relish the very Spirit and can try the Inside Servants are not Masters because they wear their old Clothes neither is the Devil an Angel of Light because he puts on the Pure Ware the Spirits old Clothes God once appeared at the Mountain and Jerusalem therefore was either Worship to continue No God disappeared that he might set up a more Spiritual Worship where ends Meats and Drinks and all outward Services figurative of the Good things come § 8. Let it not be evilly taken by any of you neither be ye offended in me or the Doctrine I here defend For all Preachings Prayings Graces as they are called with the rest of the Worship of the Day which arise not from the Holy Power and Spirit of God it is at this time laid upon me and I am bold to declare in the Name of the Eternal Holy God A Blast an utter Blast is coming upon them all and they shall be found amongst the Chaff and not the Wheat in the Day of God's terrible Tempest where nothing but the solid and weighty Seed shall remain Stable and Unshaken O bow bow ye tall Cedars and sturdy Oaks Come out and be ye separated by the Power of my God from all your Inventions self-Contrivances self-Runnings and Willings ye Children of the Night and Lovers of your own Works more then Lovers of God's who out of the Living Pure Eternal Spirit of Life are holding forth Faith Worship Prayers and Ordinances and contending for them against the very Life it self that in a more plain Appearance is risen departed from them and come to know the one True Faith Worship and Great Ordinance of God by the Operation of his Spirit in all your Hearts and Consciences else you will dye in your Sins and Christ shall profit you nothing but your Dreams of Salvation shall vanish and utter Destruction will be your Portion for evermore CHAP. XV. His Charge of our Denial of Baptism and the Sacraments introduc'd with a Discourse of positive Commands Destructive of the Foundation of Religion The Priest against God Scripture and Reason He confounds himself Baptism of Water prov'd John's and not to continue Mat. 28. 19. 1 Cor. 1. 17. Ephes 4. 5. cleared and vindicated The One Spiritual Baptism defended § 1. I am now come to the two last Particulars of this Charge Baptism and the Lord's Supper which he introduceth with a short Discourse of the Nature of God's Commands respecting Gospel-Ordinances which he sayes we deny I shall onely take notice of this Passage where he tells us that the Ordinances hitherto consider'd are called Moral from their natural Obligation although respecting the Substance they deserve a more EVANGELICAL Denomination without which we cannot says he call them CHRISTIAN ORDINANCES But these two I come now to consider are purely positive and depend meerly upon divinely reveal'd Institution and God has so express'd his Jealousie over this Right of his that when Sins not onely against natural Light but superadded Precepts to confirm and strengthen its Doubtfulness and Decays have been passed by without any special Expressions of his Provocation Sins committed against his positive Laws as CIRCUMCISION and all Ceremonial Laws as well as Water-Baptism and what is generally call'd the Lord's Supper have been avenged with a high Hand To all I return these short Heads of Matter First that a Ministry grounded Internally upon the Grace and Gifts of God externally upon the Scriptures of Truth A well order'd Church consisting of Religious Members Preaching Praying and that Scripturally too by him call'd Christian-Ordinances are by him made Natural to all Nations antecedent to Christ's outward Coming and consequently there was the Thing Christianity before the Name Christianity which pleads our Cause against his first Chapter and a gross Self-Contradiction Next that those he calls Natural Ordinances and of Universal Obligation are far more
Let him find me says J. Faldo such a Scripture and I will be bound to turn Quaker I perceive the Man thinks he can turn Quaker much at the rate he can Pray I mean when he will but I will tell him so much that it is as hard a Task for him to turn True Quaker as to be a true primitive Christian a thing most difficult to be sure But to his Quibble about But that J. Parnel has told a I willfull Untruth in saying the Baptism is but One suppose it will be allow'd that there was one Baptism in the same sense that there was one Lord one Faith Now if there is but One Lord One Faith as it is to be supposed J. Faldo believes why should it be so Criminal to say there is but One Baptism If saying there is one Lord and one Faith be synonimous or equivalent with affirming that there is but one Lord and one Faith I cannot see how it should be an Untruth to say that there is One Baptism is one and the same thing wish our saying there is but One Baptism In short if there is more then One Baptism because the Apostle does not say there is but one Baptism then there are more Gospels Lords and Faiths because the Apostle did not say there was but one Gospel but one Lord and but one Faith consequently there may be many Gospels Lords and Faiths as well as Baptisms § 7. Enough of this Weakness His Strength follows Water-Baptism is the Sign the Baptism of the Spirit something but not all signified Now to call the Thing signifying and signified by the same Name doth not make them Two of that Name no more then there were two New Covenants because both the Matter contained in it Hebr. 8. 10. and Circumcision the Sign Gen. 17. 13. are called the Covenant I shall grant to him that the Thing signifying and signified are sometimes called by one and the same Name as Baptism But when distinguisht by Water and Holy Ghost I hope nothing that is not as blind or hardened as J. Faldo if yet he himself will say that therefore they are but One Baptism Christ himself distinguishes betwixt John's and his Baptism and himself and his Baptism And frequently his Apostles yea the Baptist himself seem'd to take all Occasions whereby to let People know that his Baptism was but that of Water and that the Baptism of Christ was not of Water but of the Holy Ghost as the Scriptures in the Margent plainly prove So in the Word Circumcision compounded of the same Letters and Syllables let it be used to express that of the Body or the Flesh or that of the Heart in Spirit Yet it is to be hoped that none will conclude there were not Two Circumcisions and so Two Jews the one Inward and the other Outward Though now he is no more a Jew that is one Outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh but he is a Jew which is one Inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose Praise is not of Men but of God § 8. And should we grant him what he desires as to the same Name being applicable to the Sign and the Thing signified yet Weak and Wretched must his Sophism appear to all clear-sighted Readers For if therefore the Baptism of Water and of the Spirit are One because the same Word is applicable to the Sign and the Thing signified and in that sense they are both of them One Baptism Then by just Consequence must the Circumcision outwardly in the Flesh and the Circumcision of the Heart in the Spirit be One because the Word of it self is equally applicable to both and Consequently they are both of them One Circumcision And here but must and will be allow'd us What Jew Living could have reason'd better for the Continuation and Perpetuity of Circumcision But because he has said nothing here for Baptism more then what may be said for Circumcision and that Circumcision is utterly exploded of the Christian Religion as a Sign whose Signification is come and therefore no more a Sign our Assertion of the One Spiritual Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost as onely upon the same Fundation proper to Christ's Kingdom doth remain fix and Immoveable against all the Batteries of our Adversary CHAP. XVI The Supper he says we deny not deny'd but fulfil'd The Scriptures Consulted No Perpetuity prov'd That it was a Sign And that Signs were done away in Christ demonstrated The present Practice in the Case not primitive Our Faith left with God in the Matter § 1. BUt the Quakers he says disown the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper to be now a Gospel-Ordinance for which he cites J. Parnel a Young Man often in his Eye now dead as he was grieveously so to J. Faldo's Brethren the Independents at Cogshall in Essex who by unparallel'd and never to be forgotten Cruelties murder'd him as may be seen in my Second part of our serious Apology pag. 185. 186. 187. His words as he quotes them are these For the Bread which the World breaks is Natural and Carnal so also the Cup which they drink and here is no Communion but what is Outward and Carnal Shield of Truth pag. 13. Also W. Smith thus They Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper are the Popes Invention His Primm pag. 39. To the first Citation I answer that the Bread and Wine being of an Outward Elementary Nature and Substance may with respect to what they signifie be very properly tearmed Natural and Carnal for so they are And the World that is those who are doing it upon meer Imitation and not from any Heavenly Commission they see no further and their Communion may well be said to be Natural Outward and Carnal To the second I do challenge J. Faldo to make it good and require it at his Hand in the View of the World to produce any such words out of W. Smiths Books and that he may not plead Mistake of Authors I will give him the Scope of all our Books Friends to prove that we ever call'd the Bread and Wine Christ blest the Invention of the Pope O ungodly Man What hast thou done that God should thus give thee up not onely to believe Lyes thy self but to endeavour to make others do the like Thy Book shall be a Milstone about thy Neck in the Day of the righteous and terrible Judgments of Almighty God We deny the Expression and lay the Slander at John Faldo's door § 2. But the Quakers main Objection says he is that Christ is come in Spirit to them and his Disciples were to do it in Remembrance of him till he came therefore this Precept doth not binde them J. Faldo pretends thus to answer But who would think that Christ in the Spirit was not come either in shedding it abroad miraculously as in the 2. of the Acts or as a
the Christ or the Body of Christ onely I leave with Christ Scripture and Reason to determine Certain I am that this Principle must center in that senseless Dream of J. Reeve and L. Muggleton as well as that it makes a perfect Difference betwixt Him that was before Abraham and Him that said so Him that told his Disciples I will not leave you comfortless and Him that said I will come to you again Nay why should Christ say to his Disciples it was expedient he should go away since certainly if some more Excellent and Profitable Appearance of himself had not been to succeed at least as to them it had been far more Expedient he should in that Manner have remained amongst them And why did the Apostle speak of no more knowing Christ after the Flesh and of his being revealed in him and in the Saints as their Hope of Glory and that he was the Quickning Spirit and Lord from Heaven If that Body was the Intire Christ not rather the Body prepared for that Divine Power Wisdom and Righteousness to transact in and appear by and to the Sons of Men which with respect to that great Manifestation was denominated Christ or Anointed shall we dare think that he who so spoak and of whom the Apostle so testified was not the true Christ which to be sure was before that Visible Body God forbid Let that Sin lie at J. Faldo's Door § 2. But he offers to us Scripture And it was reveal'd to him Simeon by the Holy Ghost that he should not see Death before he had seen the Lord's Christ And he came by the Spirit into the Temple and when the Parents brought in the Child Jesus then took he him up in his Armes and said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation a Light to lighton the Gentiles c. and it is and will be granted that Simeon saw the Lord 's Christ But I hope J. Faldo will not deny unto that good Man who waited for Israel's Consolation that he had as well a Spiritual as Natural an Inward as Outward Sight of Christ For can he think that the Word which took Flesh was nothing of that Saviour and that the True Light which then appeared is to be excluded any Share therein Will J. Faldo or any Man that owns Scripture dare to affirm there was not something belonging to the True and Compleat Christ beyond what his outward Eyes could possibly see Certainly this Allegation from Luk 2. 26. will never prove the Body of Jesus which the Father prepared for him to be the Whole Intire Christ Saviour Light Salvation and Glory of Israel unless Christ under all these Considerations consisted or was made up of the more Outward Body that only was obvious to the Outward Eyes which to affirm were both to deny his Divinity and to conclude Simeon void of any Spiritual Sight or Intendment in these Words of the Lord 's Christ as a Light enlightning the Gentiles and God's Salvation to the Ends of the Earth Though still be it understood that we confess that Child as seen and understood by Simeon with respect to that great End of his Appearance to be the Lord 's Christ Nay J. Faldo himself sayes as much p. 70. otherwise there would be an exalting the Body above the Divinity nay an utter Exclusion of the Divinity with respect to the True Christ Let none then be so Ungodly and Unjust to us as to infer we deny the Lord 's Christ because we rather chuse to say the Body of Christ then Christ for sayes he Christ is God manifest in the Flesh see J. F. p. 72 77. § 3. And lest any should think that therein I contradict the inspired Saying of that Just Man when he said Mine Eyes have beheld thy Salvation the Words import no more then this Mine Eyes have beholden the Manifestation and Breaking forth of thy Seed and Heir who is come to visit the World and bruise the Serpent's Head Mine Eyes have seen him by whom thy Salvation shall be declared through whom thou wilt put forth thine Arm and work mightily for the Salvation of Man And this his other Scriptures prove at large for me the most Considerable of which I take to be this The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree Him hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sin Act. 5. 30 31. which can no more be understood expresly stricktly and intirely so then it would be reason able for a Man to say that when Samuel died the Soul and Body which was call'd Samuel died and not rather the Body of him who was called Samuel And this is the Ground and Reason why the Socinians Muggletonians and several Anabaptists hold the Mortality of the Soul because otherwise those Words which speak of the Death of Christ could not be taken properly as they take and defend them I say then and that with Force of Reason and which at this time may be more to the Conviction of some the Suffrage of our malignant Adversary J. Faldo himself however contradicting to his fore-mentioned Sense the Words are thus to be understood The God of our Fathers who raised up the Body of Jesus from the Dead which ye slew and hung upon a Tree Him whose Body you so cruelly used hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sin To put this out of Doubt hear J. Faldo his own self Let not these Blasphemers of the Lord of Life and Glory delude People with a Fancy as if we believe and preach the FLESH AND BLOOD OF CHRIST TO BE CHRIST SEPARATED FROM HIS SOUL OF THE NATURE OF MAN's SOUL but undefiled OR THAT WE TAKE HIS MAN's NATURE TO BE CHRIST SEPARATED FROM HIS ETERNAL AND DIVINE NATURE One would think I had spent my Time in vain when I set about to prove that the Divine Light Life Power Wisdom and Righteousness were not unconcerned in the true Christ and consequently that the Body which only died was not the Entire Jesus or Saviour since our Adversary calls us Blasphemers and Deluders and I know not for what except it be for Teaching that Doctrine he recommends in the same Paragraph wherein he calls us those hateful Names § 4. But that his great Inconsistency with himself may be further manifest hear him again If Men be so blind as not to see the Error of Disowning Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary who was hanged on a Tree put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia to be yet alive and the Christ of God by all these Scriptures the most considerable whereof are answerd it is a Blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers who professed the Scriptures to be a true Testimony were smitten
to be God are not like to be much the wiser for what they read This cuts off all Hopes of J. Faldo's being wiser for I suppose he read what he writ as blind as he is However for the sake of others I will endeavour to reconcile this seeming Contrariety In the first Passage he grants that within Man was not mentioned and by his Silence I suppose I may conclude it Orthodox For no Man that believes Scripture will dare to deny that God is Light That every Man is enlightned by Him and that by Him who is call'd Light all things are upheld and that He alone is Saviour A Doctrine J. Faldo teaches pag. 84. 85 89. To the other Scraps of Matter I answer That we never did do nor shall assert the God that made Heaven and Earth to be comprehendable within the Soul of Man No it is more impossible then that the Sun in the Firmament could be contain'd within the Body of any individual Person But that God who is the great Sun of Righteousness doth as truly cause his Light Spiritual to arise upon the Souls of Men as his Sun Natural upon their Bodies and as what Knowledge we have of the Natural Sun is by its Light Operations and Effects upon the World so our Knowledge of the Eternal Sun of Righteousness God who is Light and in whom is no Darkness at all is only and alone by his Divine Light Operations and Effects in and upon our Understandings and Consciences so that when we say that the Light is within any we do not intend the whole Being of Light nor was it in this gross sense that G. Fox the Younger ever meant it But that He who is the Eternal Fountain of all Life and Sun of Light causeth his Light to visit the Hearts and shine into the Consciences of all Mankind as well of such as Rebel against it and scorn it to reprove them as those who Receive it and gladly submit to it to direct and justifie them Wherefore we utterly deny that the Manifestation in Man strictly consider'd is the most-high God but a Manifestation of or from God by the Inshinings of his blessed Light And we cannot be said to Worship the Manifestation but that Eternal God which is Light that is thereby manifested and all Worship otherwise founded is not of God nor pleasing to him but of the Invention of Men which he will confound and this Scripture and Reason are ready to defend Scorning the Light in them and not owning the Light in them by our Adversary so strongly insisted upon is no more then scorning and disowning him who is the Light that shines in them and that gives Light to them What very vanity then is all his Boast And how does his Charge retort upon himself But that we may send it quite back to the Pit from whence it came le ts hear how he proves our Belief of the Soul to be God which he begins to do with no small Shew of Assurance that he shall cleaverly compass his End § 2. Every Man has that which is one in Union and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure E. Burroughs True Faith c. And what 's this to the Purpose Can any Man be so stupid as to think that E. Burrough ever intended the Soul of Man that purely simply constitutes him such For he is speaking of that Universal Grace Light and Spirit which God has given unto all whereby they may be led to Eternal Felicity And unless he will say that a Measure of the Holy Spirit a Scripture-Phrase which God hath given to every Man to profit with is not in Union with Christ nor as Good in Kind as the Spirit of Christ which our Adversary sayes is God it will evidently follow that what E. B. writes is found and Scriptural however this makes nothing for our Adversaries present Charge But he ends not with him Now my Soul and Spirit is center'd in its own Being with God and this Form of Person must return from whence it was taken F Howgil Test of E. B. This Expression is deliver'd to us by Francis Howgil as Edward Burorghs's a little before his Departure in that sensible Testimony he gave to the late Life Labours and Death of that worthy painful effectual Labourer and his Companion in the Gospel of Jesus But to help J. Faldo's Intellects that they may no more look asquint upon such weighty dying Words Let him know that E. B. spoke not of God as his Souls Being by Nature or as of that very Being for so the Soul would be God indeed and yet subject to all those Pollutions and Punishments which do and will attend Wicked Men Blasphemy with a Witness but God as that Being which by Regeneration the New Nature and Spirit of Adoption all the Righteous Souls are gather'd too and center'd in as their Everlasting Habitation and Life Eternal The World may perceive with ease at what rate and what Tearmes J. Faldo swaggers over the Quakers But let him boast that puts off his Armour § 3 The next Person he singles out is G. Fox thus answering a Priest But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrin Great Myst pag. 16. I perceive J. Faldo will rather quarrel Scripture when he meets it in a Quaker's Book then not have something against them But certainly if that be the Way to prove that we believe the Soul is God to wit that God and Christ are in the Saints what will become of the Scriptures Will they escape J. Falao's heavy Censures who say That Christ is in his Saints the Hope of Glory I in them and they in me The Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell in them Must every thing that is in another be necessarily of that in which it is But I hope his Heat being abated he may discern the Weakness of his Attempts against us To proceed I. Pennington he also brings in to make good his Charge How serviceable he may prove will better appear when we have examin'd the Passage That which the Lord from Heaven begetteth of his own Image and Likeness of his own Substance of his own Seed of his own Spirit and pure Life Quest 27. But J. Faldo has mist his Aim and mistaken his Man For I. P. is not now speaking of the Soul of Man simply consider'd but of that Divine Life Nature Image and Birth that God by his Word of Life creates or begets in the Souls of those who once lived not to God but themselves bearing the Image of the Earthly and do turn at his Reproof to walk in the Way of Life This will not move the Business one Jot further on the behalf of our Enemies Charge § 4. We will close this Point with a Passage out of Samuel Fisher's
of private Spirits and not rather of the Holy Spirit of God and such only as were conformable to it § 11. His other Cavil confirms the Truth of my former Argument and his own great Ignorance or Baseness My words are these If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit grounded upon that Scripture Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts Gal. 4. 6. To which he sayes Your Adversaries have not so little Knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is Fallible nor yet so Ignorant of your Spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are Infallible Now I have two things to desire of the Ingenuous Reader First to find me out so much as one Syllable in my Argument that infers or concludes the Spirits of such to be Infallible into whose Hearts God has shed abroad his Infallible Spirit whether they are led by it or not or that I could intend a concluding of the Spirit of Man Infallible because God has given his own unto Men that is unquestionably so I am sure such a Thought never entred my Mind as fruitful of them as our Adversary may be Adversary I may well say not only because he is one but that he acknowledges to me as much which let him know however I am not such to him The Second thing I have to desire of the Candid Reader is that he would weigh with himself how Unjust this Man is to me to infer Infallibility to Men from my Affirming it to belong only to the Spirit of God And as if he fear'd I should not be as Heterodox as his Envy would have me to conclude on my Account from what I urged to prove That God's Children in all Ages had an Infallible Spirit to Judge Rule and Guide them the Affirmative of the very Question debated that is God's Spirit That every such one was Infallible in and from his own private Spirit Oh Monstrous Perversion I would impute it to his Mistake of me it being far better to be Ignorant than Dishonest but he will not let me who a little below has Impudence enough to write but we are NOT IGNORANT that your Principles make no Difference or Distinction between the Spirits of God's People and the Spirit of God manifestly intending not that they are at variance for so we should esteem his Charge a piece of Justice but that the Spirit of the Creature and the Spirit of God are but one Spirit An Absurdity that never fell from us How many times hath J. Faldo been guilty in his Discourse of plain Forgery and Dishonesty against us So certain as there is a God in Heaven terrible will his Judgment be in that great Day of Inquest if he repent not § 12. He makes a great Stir about my Checking the late Socinian for making Christ the Head of a Fallible Body saying If Christ be Head to none but the Infallible Wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath Pitty on the Ignorant and those that are out of the Way and I am sure Christ is then none of your Head We have enough and leave his very Ill Language out 1. It is granted to us that Christ is Head to a Fallible Body or at least to Fallible as well as Infallible I charge him to give us one Scripture for this or he is gone for all his idle Puns Shifts and scoffing Flings at us 2. That a Man may be a Saint which if we take it strictly is one of that Number the Apostle prayed the Churches might be of I mean those which were sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit I say that a Man may be such a Saint and yet be Fallible or Erring 3. That the Saints are Ignorant and out of the Way Truly this Doctrine very well becomes J. Faldo I had rather it should be his then mine I will venture them in the Scale of Truth without thinking I run an Hazard in the Matter especially when if I err that hinders not from being a Saint Member of Christ But J. Faldo can a Man be a Saint and yet Ignorant of so much of God as is requisit to constitute him such Or can he be such and yet out of that Way which renders him a true Saint It is the first time that I ever heard in so many words that a Man might be a Saint and out of God's Way Oh Doctrine of Devils No Marvel so many Unclean Fowls flock to this Carkass What! Saints and err from God's Way Strange Saints and ignorant of God's Mind It seems then that neither Ignorance nor Erring from God's Way indispose any to be Saints If this be not a plain Contradiction to the whole Record of Scripture none ever was is or shall be esteemed such to the End of the World How many how grievous and how sharp have God's Complaints been against those who have left the Right Way of the Lord which has been the Way of Light and Righteousness the Just Man's Path through every Generation No Wonder that such Doctrines are hoth greedily received and furiously maintained that sooth up People in the Belief of such Pernicious Soul-murdering Doctrines And the Truth is and I do boldly affirm it and that in the Counsel of the Eternal God it is our striking so constantly and earnestly at this and such like Sin-pleasing Principles that makes the Devil thus bestir himself in his ready Agents to raise up and bespatter us with such heavy Calumnies as almost every one produceth against us But we lose not an Inch of Ground nor a Dram of Courage our Godly Resolution redoubles with our Adversaries On-sets and whatever may befall us here as our Hope so our Reward is from God in that high and heavenly Place which is above the Reach of Time and every Assault of our Implacable Adversaries § 13. He tells me He might proceed to my fallacious Arguing from the Spirit 's Teaching indefinitely expressed that is by Scripture Visions Providences c. means our Adversary to its Teaching peculiarly frequently in my Pampblet pag. 18 29 c. that is to the Spirit 's Teaching Men and Women by its daily and Inward Discoveries Motions and Operations But he will not the Reason is he dare not For if the Spirit be not an Immediate Living Teacher and works not as such to the Information Conviction and Conversion of Men to God in these dayes let him for Shame relinquish all Pretence to Gospel or an Evangelical Dispensation of which it is the peculiar Promise and Priviledge § 14. Though for want of better Language he is pleased to bestow upon this Godly Proposition the Term of Beetle-headed Saying and affirms that the Scripture knows nothing of it For which I may more reasonably affirm that He knows nothing of it For can this Man be
Unchristian Reflections Names and Epithites upon our Faith and Principles be due weighed by the Impartial Reader § 19. Penn furnished with Fore-head and Tales beyond measure I am assured that 's a Lye I think my Fore-head and Tales are like other Mens if not I have this Satisfaction they are unlike J. Faldo's His Post is the Quakers conceited Strong-hold of the Infallible Guidance of the Spirit of God A Post his Post can never stand long by and such Hold as all his Assaults can never enter or force And we are glad it is ours indeed for as above all People we need it most so are we the only Sufferers in Defence thereof Satan's Bulwarks shall be broken down before it § 20. In debating of which he waves and tosses like a Man in a confus'd trouble some Dream I thought meet to give some Account of his Forces considering him to be a Man of Noise and no small People the Quakers Cause in their own Esteem I toss not beyond the Bounds of Scripture and Truth my Arguments were short and plain and what I writ was in Conscience and Seriousness little meriting such rough and flashy Reflection from any Person pretending to seriousness and least of all one that I never had to do with in my Life Dreams I have none they lie on J. Faldo's side He that calls Christ Lord and not by the Holy Ghost He that says he is his Redeemer Saviour c. and knows not the Internal Operation of his saving Power nor that Vertue and Life to quicken to God which comes there-from dreams of all these things and that is J. Faldo's Condition who scoffs at Internal Knowledge without External Means though to his own Consusion he sometime reads another Lecture I am no Man of Noise further then your Noise makes me The Profession of the Way I am in I came to through Sorrow for Sin Circumcision from the World Desires after God and Life that is Everlasting and ever since God has enabled me to his Service and here I hope to stand while I live My Life Spirit Power and Principle wars against all yours that are embattell'd against us and no Quarter I proclaim in the Name of the Lord to that wicked Spirit that acts you all against us though to you Peace and Salvation if ye Repent Do you leave off your Envious Endeavours against us or else blame your selves and not us for appearing on the Stage against us § 21. Deformed Confidence neither Logick nor Honesty Certainly if he had not turn'd Quaker and in that Fall put all out of Joynt he could not likely after such Good Nursing have been thus lamentably cripled in his Intellects Rankness of Quakerism The latter Part of the Question which expresses the Administration of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is PLAYING AT BLIND MAN's BUFF your Guilt c. Baseness confused Thicket of Impertinencies if your Conscience have any Eyes Infatuated I have shewed your Vanity and made your Folly a Spectacle to the World you talk at a miserable lame Rate worse then ever Bear brought forth her Cubbs confident confused Non-sense I would as soon abandon my Time to Dispute with a distracted Man in his Raving Fits as with W. Penn till he come better to himself c. your pittiful Scribbling yet wretched Scribbler was my hardest word to H Hedworth he has observed against me not worth while to trace such a Trifler in all his Vagaries intaugled Bottom Beetle-headed Saying Audacious Lines he will daub his Adversary per fas per nefas Right or Wrong and he that shall say the Contrary you will chastize him with Sarcasms as keen as a Badger's Teeth The next Book you write let the Title be The Spirit of Babel from whence Babble in English This Reader is a short Account of some of that unhandsom Entertainment I a Stranger to J. Faldo have received at his hands May my Soul never come within his Habitation Prejudice Envy and Cruelty lodge with him Vanity Frothiness and Incivility are like Veins through his Book and serve to convey what Life it has to such as please themselves with that base kind of Satyre Strange that it should be reputed so Criminal by J. Faldo to check my Adversary for Abusing me and my Friends by Name when yet he exceeds in his Reflections upon us and that without any such Occasion given But if we were condemnable sure I am it belongs not to J. Faldo to fling the first Stone I am very willing to leave it with all sober Readers our Circumstances considered which of us ought to be accounted the Unfair Adversary Oh when will it fall to my Share to engage a sober modest Adversary But why do I wish for that since such are our Friends Well it will greatly become me to be contented with my Lot Faith I have these things will not last long and Patience will give to see the End of that Belief A little foul Weather and our Enemies are for their Creeks again 'T is natural with Insects to sting and Frogs to croak in Summer and therefore it is that our Best Actions are Evil in the Sight of these carping Zoilus's If a Man be one of them then a Saint though a Devil if gone from them then a Devil though a Saint Such is his Farewel to me who in three Lines tells me he is a little pleasant he cannot sweat about Cracking of Nuts and yet that he has had some Heart-akes for me Miserable Man Does Levity and Seriousness go together Froth and Sorrow keep Company What would any Man give for such Heart-akes that bring true ones upon a serious Mind But what are his Heart-akes Why he bewails that a Man of my Hopes should be thus left of God he fears for Pride and Giddiness as to be made a Pillar of Salt c. It seems then that there were once Hopes But to what To a Party I know you very well you will few of you stand by all that I could say and prove of some of you I would advise such Opposers to be quiet enjoy their Toleration a Kindness as great as they deserve and mind their own Concerns and now their Hands are tyed against the Powers not employ them upon our Shoulders But why should God leave me a Sufferer from 14 Yeares of Age for Conscience sake he feares for Pride and Giddiness But the Cause of my leaving you was that of my once frequenting you I mean Conscience when some I then dissented from had as hard Names to give for that non-Conformity But the Truth is when the King came First in at what time you were a little dejected there was something more Serious and Tender then ordinary revived among some of you which did begin to gather out of the National Pollution and sit for a further thing but taking up a Rest growing hard gaping after Changes looking back like Lot's Wife upon your Old Sodom for-sworn Government Kings and Bishops-Lands
the readiest nay the only Right Way to come to true Faith in Christ as he then appear'd and to receive any Benefit by him And it is not another then that Blessed Light Power Wisdom and Eternal Righteousness who then appeared by whom we have received any true Spiritual Benefit How then can our ascribing particular Salvation in this Age to him who thus now appears to our Souls render him no Saviour in that or invalidate his then Appearance whose Doctrine pierc'd whose Life preach'd whose Miracles astonish'd whose Blood atton'd and whose Death and Resurrection confirm'd his then Manifestation to be no less then God who is Light manifested in the Flesh Priest The Quakers set up Works and Meriting by Works like the Papists Whereby Faith in Christ is layd aside Quaker We say That True Faith in Christ cannot be without Works no more then a Body can live without a Spirit Nay by the Comparison if they were separable Works being compared to the Spirit would have the better The very Believing of any is an Act of the Mind and therefore a Work to God and no sooner is that Faith begotten but it falls to Working which is both the Nature and End of it Nor do we say that our very best Works proceeding from True Faith it self can merit No nor Faith joyn'd with them All that Man is capable of Believing or Performing can never merit There can be no Proportion as there must be in Merit between the best Faith and Works of three score and ten and Eternal Felicity Wherefore all that Man can do even with the Assistance of the Holy Spirit can never so merit but that Right Faith and Good Works which will follow it may and do obtain that blessed Immortality it pleaseth Almighty God to give and priviledge the Sons of Men with who perform that necessary Condition and that we groundedly and therefore boldly affirm So that we deny all Merit from the best of Works especially by such as the Papists are wont to conceive Meritorious But as we on the one Hand do stifly deny them so neither can we joyn with that lazy Faith which works not Let not Good Works make Men Papists because they make Men Christians I am sure Believing and not Working and conceiving a Salvation from Wrath where there is no Salvation from Sin the Cause of it is no whit less un-scriptural and abundantly more Pernicious and Damnable Blessed is He that hears the Word of God and does it The Blessing is to the Doer Priest They acknowledge no Resurrection nor Rewards to come Quaker In this also are we greatly abused We deny not the Resurrection but are cautious in expressing the Manner Are People angry with us for not Believing or Asserting what is Hidden and they know not themselves THOU FOOL is to the Inquirer We shall be contented with that Body God will please to give us and think it to be both our Duty and Wisdom to acquiesce in that For Eternal Rewards we not only own them but above all People have the greatest Reason so to do for otherwise who so Miserable Do we inherit the Reproach and Suffering of all that have separated from time to time That is Are the Out-crys that have been against the Protestants by the Papists and theirs against Puritans Brownists and other Separatists fallen upon us And shall we hold Principles inconsistent with an Eternal Recompence of Reward By no means It is our Faith and the contrary both a Malicious and Foolish Suggestion of our Adversaries J. Faldo's KEY Prov'd Defective I Was not willing J. Faldo's Key should go wholy Unconsider'd The greatest Part of which I here publickly acknowledge to have done us such Right that if his Explanation of many of our Words be not True I am not asham'd to pronounce that the Scriptures must be False so agreable to and consonant with Scripture has he spoken on our behalf And not only with Scripture but that Sense of it too which the Best Wisest and most Learned both of the Fathers and first Reformers have unanimously had and on which Foundation in some measure both Puritans and Brownists began their Building Low Meek Spiritual and Plain as is yet well remembred But how grosly he has mis-represented us in other Parts that the True may not give Credit to the False with any I will observe a few with what Brevity I may J. Faldo pag. 62. ASSEMBLING says he Meeting in Spirit W. Penn. This is not Ingenuous For with such as know us not nor our Practice it insinuates a Denial of Publick Worship which we ever own'd and hope shall to the End It is well known who have most shrunk from that Testimony And if J. Faldo means that they do not Worship in Spirit because he makes it Criminal in us we have Reason to say He and They are no Gospel-Worshippers For People must either worship in or out of God's Spirit If out of his Spirit then no Worship in Spirit and Truth but the Device of their own Hearts If in the Spirit then the Quakers assemble as they should do and J. Faldo is to be rebuk'd for little better then an Upstart Scoffer at Assembling in Spirit The once avowed Principle of the Ancient Brownists now call'd Independents J. F. pag. 69. THE WILL OF THE FLESH says he All that is chosen by Man though he be thereby disposed by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture W. P. This is false Many things may be and are daily chosen by Man that is not in the Will of the Flesh nor by his own Will much less when any should be disposed thereto by the Will of God revealed in the Scripture An Abominable Untruth and so Notorious that I need say no more only Challenge him to produce any of us in Proof of his Exposition if he can otherwise he hath Slandered us and our Principles For the Will of the Flesh is that which is quite contrary to God and inconsistant with the Good of the Creature J. F. pag. 69. STATE OF GLORY says he The State of Peace and Joy resulting from the Witness of the Light within in this Life W. P. It is true That Glory is revealed from Faith to Faith in this Life But to stint the State of Glory to the Peace and Joy of this Life only may justifie his wrong Opinion of us that we deny Rewards to come but it cuts off from our stedfast Faith in an Everlasting Mansion of Glory and Blessedness which from the Light within to all who obey it shall spring as a River and flow as an Inexhaustable Fountain And J. Faldo shall never know true Peace another way That is the Word of the Lord to him J. F. pag. 70. PREACHING FOR HIRE HIRELINGS says he to have a Provision for the Outward Man as a Maintenance for Preaching though no Bargain be made yea though such who receive it would Preach if they had never a Penny Reward in this World from