A Brief ANSWER TO A False and Foolish LIBELL CALLED The QVAKERS Opinions For their sakes that Writ it and Read it By W. P. Being Defamed we Entreat 1 Cor. 4. 13. Printed in the Year 1678. Sober Reader THe end of Controversie with good men is the Advancement of the Truth with ill men of themselves and their base Interests in all which God is Judge who judgeth righteously and will reward every one according to their works nor doth his Judgment slumber Most Parties in Europe boast themselves of being Christians an excellent Character indeed but the worst is there is little more then a Boast in it I am not incharitable I have first judged my self Let none deceive themselves To be like Christ is to be a Christian and not else and Christians are in Concord for Christ is not divided neither is that Body of which he is truly Head at Variance how much Discord so much Degeneracy from God for he is one and so are those that are born of him the Children of God are not divided because one and the same holy Spirit leads them That which is the Guide of one is the Guide of all and by this shall it be known who are Gods Children if they bring forth the Fruits of his divine Spirit which saith the Apostle are these Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law And they sayes he that are Christs have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts this only will avail in the great Judgment of the Lord. Therefore I beseech all vain Contenders to consider of their own Standing what their Work is who Employes them and what their Wages will be Tell me thou vain Disputer and Vitious Liver what is Religion without Holy Love what is Faith without Good Works what is Worship without Godly Fear and Christianity without true Self-denyal it is not he that cryes Lord Lord but he that does the Will of my Father said Christ shall be accepted There is a great talk of mans Laps in Adam and Restoration in Christ but they serve only for a sound with too many For did people sincerely believe that they are fallen from true Love Meekness Patience Humility Mercy Justice Purity c. and did they but consider that they are not restored to those Heavenly Qualifications but that they live in fleshly lusts of one sort or other some in Voluptuousness others in Envy and therefore not really restored or redeemed by Christ nor truly in a state of Salvation but in peril of eternal Misery certainly they would not pass away their little span of precious time in so much worldly Pleasure neglect of God and Carelesness of the other World if they have any the least hope of it Reader the Petulancy of some Adversary or other has given occasion for this little Treatise The design of which is both to reprove him and to hinder others from being abused by him that so the Innocency of a People whom God hath raised by his own Power and Wisdom to glorify him in their Bodies Souls and Spirits which are his may be delivered from the mistakes of his Ignorance and the reflections of his Malice And truly my servent Prayers to Almighty God are that he would yet more and more send forth his Light and his Truth to inform the Understandings and overcome the Hearts of all People that they may experimentally know the Redemption of their Sou's from the prevalency of Sin and the power of the God of this World's Lusts by the Blood of Jesus who is the Lamb of God that takes away the Sin of the World then shall Love Faith and Holiness encrease and all Unrighteousness come to an End Amen W. P. AN ANSWER TO A False and Foolish Libel CALLED The QVAKERS Opinions OPINION I. THe Quakers deny the Authority of holy Scriptures as the Rule of Faith and Practice unto Christians Answer This we flatly deny and charge our Adversary to make it good in terminis in so many words or retract his Charge For the Authority of the Scripture is the Spirit and Power of God which we say is our Rule and Guide as it was the Rule of the holy Men of God both before the Scriptures were written and when they spoke and writ them And to say we deny it to be our Rule is to say we deny our own Principle for owning of which you are angry with us Moses is taken on all hands to have been the first Penman of Sacred Story and that we cannot rise higher then his time for Scripture consequently then the Scripture must take date but who will deny that Abel had a Rule to worship God by Enoch to walk with God by Noah to preach by Abraham Isaac and Jacob to believe by if they had none say so if they had what was it if not the Spirit of Truth and Holiness that strove with the old World but was resisted And if the Spirit of God was the Rule of Faith Worship and Practice then have we got another Rule in the room of it now No such matter those that loved feared God in all Ages were ruled and guided by the Spirit of God though many Helpers have been afforded men by the Father of Mercies and Lights yet still the Spirit of Truth is the great Rule in and through them all This is the Rule of all Rules as God is the Light of all Lights yea this is that Rule of the New Creature for the walking of the true Christian is in and after the Spirit yea 't is the Mark of being a Child of God to be led and guided by the Spirit of God this is the Scripture's Testimony There is no Condemnation to those that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God The Argument is plain and altogether as unanswerable That which is to lead Christians is to rule Christians but the Spirit of Truth is to LEAD CHRISTIANS consequently the SPIRIT OF TRUTH is to RULE CHRISTIANS So that to deny that the Spirit of Truth is the Guide and Rule of Christians is to gainsay the Testimony of Scripture and the very Tenure and Nature of the second new and everlasting Covenant of Life and Salvation for in that state the Law is writ in the Heart and the Fear and Spirit put in the inward Part and what for if not to rule and guide the Soul in the Path of Life To conclude As the Spirit of Truth revealed to the Prophets things to come and was a Rule to them in discerning receiving declaring and writing those things so is the same Spirit of Truth the Rule and guide to all God's People in their reading and understanding of them now written and blessed are they that read with a good Understanding And that the Simplicity of none may be abused we declare as we have frequently done
that the Scriptures of Truth were given forth by the holy men of God as they were moved by the Spirit of God and that they are a Rule yea an Excellent Rule for Instruction Reproof and Doctrine and all true Christians ought to embrace and practice the holy Mind and Will of God thereby declared And they are those that truly and substantially deny the Scriptures who in Words own them but in Works deny them and in their Conversations walk not according to the godly Rules therein contained such are Whoremongers Fornicators Drunkards Lyars Back-biters Slanderers such as the Author or Authors of this Impious Libel Envious Persons Rioters Sporters Vain Persons Lovers of Pleasures more then Lovers of God These and such like are they that deny the Authority of holy Scripture yet as the Devil used Scripture against Christ so do his Children use Scripture at this day against the Disciples of Christ OPINION II. The Quakers deny the Resurrection of the Body Answ The Quakers deny no Resurrection that is according to Scripture we own the Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust and that our Adversaries shall know one day to their Confusion if they repent not And as the Charge is laid down we literally deny it and require our Adversaries to prove it for we declare to all people we own the Resurrection of the Body according to the Pleasure of God and every Seed shall have its own Body and Wo to the Wicked in that day OPINION III. The Quakers deny the Person of Jesus Christ Answ If by Person of Christ is meant the Man Christ Jesus we deny the Charge for there is no other Name given under Heaven by which Salvation can be obtained 'T is Christ alone that hath brought Life and Immortality to light he is the Propitiation the Mediator and Intercessor and by him only can man come to God and no man can come to him but such as come to his Spirit in their own Hearts And such as have not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them are none of his And these are they that deny Christ that deny his Cross break his Law and live not according to his Example who is meek and lowly pure and undefiled and separated from all Sinners So that the Antichrists of our dayes are those that live according to the Lusts of the Eye the Lusts of the Flesh and Pride of Life without God in the World that is without a sense of God upon their Hearts but their Minds run after the things that are seen which are temporal neglecting the things that are eternal And though such may profess Christ in words yet it shall be said unto them in the great Day of Account Depart from me ye that work Iniquity I would have our foolish and envious Adversaries look at home and prepare for the Day of their Account to God and leave off their Envy and Bitterness and mind God's Fear which will teach them to be meek and loving sober and vertuous that they may provide for their Latter-end For pure Religion stands not in accusing and slandering reviling and persecuting but in keeping unspotted of the World for they who are of the World are not of Christ they who love the Pride Pleasures Honours and Lusts of this World deny Christ they are the Antichrists indeed for Christ saith I am not of this World neither is my Kingdom of this World nor are his Followers of this World therefore it is the World hates them but not under the Name of Christ's Disciples Christians or Children of God by no means for such the World nominally owns but as Hereticks Blasphemers and the like which hath alwayes been the Devil's Policy For the Woolf with the Sheeps-skin on him has in every Age been worrying the Sheep that hath been covered with the Wolf's-skin such have called Light Darkness and Darkness Light OPINION IV. The Quakers hold that the Light in every man is a sufficient Guide unto Salvation Answ This is unfairly laid down but we say that the Light of Christ in every man is a sufficient Guide to Salvation and who dares deny it I am the Light of the World faith Christ they that follow me shall not walk in Darkness but have the Light of Life And saith John If we walk in the Light the Blood of Jesus Christ shall cleanse us from all Unrighteousness And it was the Doctrine in old time The Path of the Just is as the shining Light that shines more and more unto the perfect Day And the Prophet Isaiah prophetically writes of the latter dayes thus Come let us walk in the Light of the Lord and by the same Prophet saith the Lord I will give thee Christ for a Light to the Gentiles that thou may'st be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth And the Apostle Paul had that good Opinion of the Light that he advised the Saints of old to put on the Armour of Light that they might walk honestly as in the day not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envy but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof And it is nothing else but the old Jewish Darkness that spurns against the Light of Christ in our day for the same Spirit that rejected that Light Grace and Truth with which he was filled in the day of his Bodily Appearance is the same that resists and sleights that Light Truth and Grace which from his Fulness is distributed to the Children of men but as it was then so it is now the Condemnation of the World that Light is come into the World and that men love Darkness rather then Light and the Reason is plain because their Deeds are Evil. Every thing loves its like OPINION V. They hold that Perfection is attainable in this Life Answ This also is not fairly laid down being without distinction and did not Compassion to the well-minded incline me to deliver our Judgment in these matters I would have put our Adversary upon the proof of his Assertions without giving him the least help by a sight of our true Principles till he had first seen and acknowledged his own Ignorance and Inadvertency We own Perfection according to the Scriptures Walk thou before me said God to Abraham and be thou perfect who dare quibble this into an Imperfection or who dare charge God with commanding what was impossible to be done Noah was a just man and perfect in his Generation and Noah walked with God so did Enoch Job also was a perfect man and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil This Christ exhorted his Disciples to Be ye therefore PERFECT even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect This also the Apostle Paul prayes for That they might be sanctified THROUGHOUT in Body Soul and Spirit Again thus And the very God of Peace sanctifie you WHOLELY and I pray God your Spirit and Soul and
falsified the Book for there is that quoted which is not there The words are these as given by our Adversary in the Name of G. F. and R. H. We do deny the Scriptures to be the word of God and also to be a Standing Rule and that it is dangerous for ignorant People to read them see Fox and Hubberthorn in Truth 's Defence pag. 101. I answer All these words We do deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God and also to be a standing Rule are not to be found there they are added which is a great piece of injustice for the last part which lies as if we would deny that ignorant people should read the Scriptures hear the words themselves Query The Priest asks Whether the Scripture being carnal and the Letter killing as you Quakers say we may read them without Danger To this G. Fox and R. Hubberthorn answer The Letter which killeth is dangerous for thou takest it her to war with against the Saints with thy carnal Mind and Expositions Again thus Here you read with DaÌ„nger who speak of them and speak a Lye and its dangerous to read that and make a Trade of that which the Prophets Christ and the Apostles spoke forth freely and you wrest the Scriptures to your Destruction and to you 't is dangerous to read c. Now let all people of Cander yea common Sense judge if this sort of reading and using the Scripture be not dangerous thus the Pharisees and Iews used the Scripture against Christ But does this give ground to our Adversary to say We hold it dangerous for ignorant people to read the Scripture because we say that a Covetous Persecuting or Malicious End or Use of Scripture is dangerous O the perversion that is made of the words and sense of this passage the Lord forgive him or them that deal thus with us Hear what the same page says But I say Blessed is he that doth read and doth understand This I have else where observed more at large To the fourth Passage viz. That J. N. in answer to the Iews says It is the Devil that contends for the Scriptures to be the Word of God I can say the less because I have not the Book out of which it is pretended to be quoted But certain it is that the Devil that loves not the very Form of Godliness but to exalt it against the Power and shelter himself for a Saint has more then once on the same score pleaded for the scripture against Christ and the letter against the spirit not that he loveth the Scripture or that the Scripture opposeth either Christ or the Spirit but that he hath subtilly used the very Scripture as little as he loves it both to tempt and oppose even Christ himself This is plain in his tempting Christ in Scripture-Language and in the Persecutions of the Iews both against Christ and his Disciples for which they urged Scripture they relyed upon them for Life eternal and not upon Christ him they set at nought then as much as the false Christians sleight his Light now And it was Christ's Complaint then In them you think said he to have eternal Life but you will not come unto me that you may have Life Thus the outward Iew set up the scripture against Christ in the flesh and thus the outward Christian sets up the scripture against Christ in the spirit or in his spiritual appearance in the soul insomuch that a man runs the hazard of being proclamed a Blasphemer that speaks but of Christ within yet it is express Scripture and of being stigmatized for an Heretick that calls Christ only that Word of God to whom only that Name is given in the Evangelical Writings though at the same time a man confess the holy Scriptures to be given forth by Divine Inspiration and that they are the Words of God That the Word is his Name John will be our Warrant in the beginning of his History and that his Name is called the Word of God Iohn also affirms in his Revelation I will end with this that Luke the Evangelist in his Dedication of his History to his excellent Theophilus now part of the sacred Scripture calls it A Declaration of those things that were most surely believed among them and not the Word of God We take him for our Pattern when he is confuted it will be time enough for us to confess our Mistake To the fifth Quotation viz. that G. Fox says The Soul is part of God of his Being without Beginning and Infinite Gr. Mystery p. 68 9â— 29. I answer briefly That G. F. speaks of the Divine Soul or Life of Man that comes from God by which Man liveth to God so Augustine calls it anima animae the Soul of the Soul or Life of man's Soul so Rabbi Nunchmanni and Hiskuni in the Comment of Paulus Fagius take it saying it s of the Being of God his own Breath This is without Beginning respecting God and Infinite or without End respecting Man Where is the Heresie of this To the sixth Quotation out of the Works of G F. junior viz. We own the Scriptures as a true Declaration of the Saints Conditions I answer The Allegation is frivolous on the side of our Adversary for he doth not deny what G. F. asserts nor does G. F. deny but that there are many Scriptures which are Promissary Threatning and Prophetick does our owning the Scriptures to be an account of the Experiences of the Saints of God of old time exclude any farther Character or say that they are no more What! have people lost their senses or must any thing serve to blemish Quakers What Injustice is here For shame do as you would be done by To the seventh Passage alledged out of Geo. Whitehead's Apology pag. 49. viz. That what is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures yea and greater I answer in G. W's own words which are these That which was spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures or Chapters are and greater as proceeding immediately from that Spirit as Christ's words were of greater Authority when he spoke then the Pharisees reading the Letter and they and their speaking we deny thiâ— â—ays he was my Answer Now I appeal to the just Witness of God in every Conscience if this Adversary was not very disingenuous to take no notice of this Distinction for in short two things are in our Friend's words first That what comes from the same Spirit of Truth is of the same Authority and who denies that no body that is in his senses Next That what is spoken by the immediate Motion Life and Power of the Spirit is of more Authority that is Force and Efficacy to move quicken enliven or operate upon the Hearers then the bare reading of a Chapter in the Scripture especially by such as the Pharisees were as a Letter cannot
and walkest despightfully against the Spirit of Grace Oh vain man yet thou canst say God is merciful and live in thy Wickedness passing on thy time without the Fear of God sporting thy self in thy Wickedness What think you now Does this man say the people ought not to pray for a sight of their sins which they see not in order to Repentance or can he mean so let Candor speak For that I said before must be the meaning of this Adversary or he means nothing because in the other sense all must grant that men ought not to tempt provoke and mock God by praying for a fight when they have it and don 't use it What then is the Conclusion of this Matter why plainly this that from G. F. saying that those who say the Lord give us a sight of our sins that have a sight of them already and forsake them not do therein tempt God This Enemy of ours makes no scruple of Conscience to infer and conclude that G. F. says that we ought not to pray to God to give us a sight of our sins at all without any regard to the Distinction of having the sight already be it that such have forsaken what God has given them a sight of or that they have Sins they have yet no sight of yet G. F. says we must not pray for a sight of our sins if this Adversary may be credited Well the Lord God Almighty who is the Searcher of all Hearts knows the end of this Person in writing and spreading these Calumnies and Perversions and with him I leave him and his Work but so as that I sincerely desire that he may have a sight of his sin against God and an harmless People if he acts ignorantly and that he may sincerely repent and find Mercy with the Lord if he acts maliciously before he goes bence and be no more seen for it s not a sleight thing to mischarge and that so peremptorily too an entire People about matters of the World that is without end I shall conclude this Defence with these three things the first is that most of the Opinions he calls ours are not so evinced or so much as attempted to be proved by the Author of the Libel against us 2dly Those that are endeavoured to be fastened on us have not their due proof one Person it may be is produced to make good a Charge against a Body of People would our Adversaries be thus used would they be concluded by the Word or Act of any one Member of their numerous Communion certainly no Besides the Proofs that are brought are some lame others perverted and some forged which looks very dishonourable on the part of our Accuser first to mis-charge then mis-cite and lastly wrack words well intended to extort if possible a Consession of guilt but the truth is Error can only be maintained by Error and therefore there is no wonder in the case This is the Usage we have mostly met with put thanks be to God we are neither surprized nor unqrepared Lastly I do hereby offer a fair and free Conference with the Author or Authors of the Libel or any other that can soberly pretend to a Conscientious Dissatisfaction about our Faith or Practice at such time as shall be mutually agreed upon to be convenient And this I offer not out of Vanity or Oftentation but in Duty to God my great Lord and Master and in good will to all such Persons and did not these Considerations prevail and carry me to this Condescention my manifold Affairs and the many and large Books I have already writ on occasion of these and the like Imputations would have disswaded me from any fresh undertaking of this nature and sufficiently guarded me against all Reflections upon my Silence I am a Friend to Mankind William Penn. THE END ‖ This was the Doctrine of Luther Zwinglius Calvin Oecolampadius Beza and Marlorat abroad and of W. Tindal D. Barns John Frith John Bradford J. Woodman Philpot Fox Jewel Whittiker c. at home that the Scriptures Authority to us stood in the inward Testimony of the Spirit of God See my Quakerism a New Nick-Name for Old Christianity and my Rejoynder in defence of the same from pag. 24. to pag. 101. and from pag. 31. to pag. 186. Gal. 6. 15. Rom. 1. 14. Jer. 35. 33 34. Hebr. 8. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. Chap. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Luke 20. 35 36 37 38. Joh. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 15. 34 35 36 37 38. Rev. 20. 5. Acts 4. 12. 2 Tim. 1. 10. Rom. 3. 25. 1 John 2. 2. 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Heb. 8. 6. Chap. 12. 24. Rom. 8. 34. Heb. 7. 25. 1 John 2. 16. Mat. 7. 23. James 1. 27. John 8. 23. Chap. 15. 18 19. Chap. 18. 36. Mat. 5. 11. 1 Cor. 4. 10 13. John 8. 12. 1 John 1. 7. Proverbs 4. 18. Isa 2. 5. Chap. 49. 6. Rom. 13. 12 13. 14. John 9. 14 16. 1 Cor. 12. 7. John ◠19. Gen. 17. 1. Gen. 5. 22. 6. 9. Job 1. 1. Matthew 5. 48. 1 Thessal 5. 23. Ephes 4. 13. 1 Timoth. 3. 17. Heb. 6. 1. 13. 21. 2 Pet. 5. 10. 1 John 1. 7. Chap. 2. 13. Chap. 3. 9. Chap. 4. 12 16 17. Chap 5. 4 18. Chap. 3. ver 4 5 8 9. Mat. 1. 21. 1 John 1. 5. Acts 17. 27 28. Jer. 23. 23 24. Iob 25. 3. Genesis 2. 7. Mat. 4. 6 12. Iohn 5. 9. and 19. 7. 5. 39 40. Iohn 1. 1. Revel 19. 13. Luke chap. 1. Iohn 6. 63. Gal. 1. 16. 4. 19. 2 Cor. 13. 4. John 14. 1 3 18 19 20. Chap. 16. 20 21 22 23 25 26. Matthew 10. 38. Chap 16. 24. Mark 8. 34. Luke 9. 23. Revelat. 3. 20. 1 John 5. 8. Matthew 12. 29. Chap. 15. 19 20. Chap. 3. 11 12. Rom. 1. 16. Ephes 6. 19. 3. 3. Col. 1. 26. 1 Tim. 1. 11. Psalm 109. 7. Prov. 28. 9. Isa 1. 13 14 15.