THE Apostate Incendiary REBUKED And the People called Quakers vindicated from Romish Hirarchy and Imposition IN A Serious Examination OF VVilliam Mucklows Liberty of Conscience asserted against Imposition But proved a Liberty of the Flesh Self-Will and Confusion repugnant to the Liberty which is in Christ Jesus and against Unity and Order in his CHURCH By one whose Rejoycing is the Testimony of a good Conscience towards God and Man G. Whitehead Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16. 17. They crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open Shame Heb. 6. 6. But if any Man seem to be contentious we have no such CUSTOM neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11. 16. Printed in the Year 1673. A SHORT EPISTLE To Friends who love the true Light and desire Sion's Prosperity Dear Friends WHo have received and do retain the Love of the precious Truth it was for your Sakes and the Truth 's that I was pressed in Spirit in a godly Zeal thus to appear against this deceitful Worker and treacherous Spirit which at length hath shewn it self in open Enmity against the Truth and us the Church of Christ and elect People of God called Quakers otherwise we were unwilling these Controversies should have been brought into the World being occasioned by some that have walked among us who should have been reclaimed by the Strivings of God's holy Spirit with them and the Churches Admonition therein to them but they had kickt against the Lord and spurned at his People hating to be reformed and therefore open Rebuke is just upon such treacherous Betrayers and deceitful Workers one of whom this W. M. hath shewn himself to be even an Engine of Sathan and Member of Anti-christ not only in his being an Informer of Truth 's Adversaries against us but also in publishing and delivering near our Meeting Door to the People his malitious lying and confused Papers striking at Elders and ancient Friends among us in this City of London whereby he hath gratified Scorners and afforded a Theam and Text to that insolent Scoffer and irreligious Agent of Hypocrites Fra. Chadwel that old disturber of our Assemblies who frequently abuseth the Name of Christ and whom the Truth hath often confounded and discovered his Wickedness and Lyes This is the Fruit of W. M. his Work to animate Scornes and Blaphemers the Lord will reward him and all such perfidious Apostates who crucifie to themselves the Lord of Life afresh and put him to open Shame who most unworthily have eaten and drunk among and been convinced of the Power and Presence of the Lord being with us in our Assemblies and that thereby he hath chosen us to be his People and Church but they went out from us because they were not of us and now are become open Enemies in their self-Separation Conceit and whimsical Motions opposing the Power of God in his People rendring his Church fallible subject to err and under an Apostacy and setting up themselves as the infallible Judges over the Church even over the antient Friends and Elders who have kept their Integrity to the Lord and such as therein are grown in that divine Understanding Wisdom and Power as many are among us wherein all the Apostates and Anti-christs in the World cannot come near nor touch them blessed be the Lord for ever And as for our confessing that we are the Church of the first-born let our Doctrine Testimony Lives and Sufferings bear witness and God's Power which is with us and his Witness in Men's Consciences be our Proof beyond all that can be spoken being therein manifest in men's Consciences that are tender in the Sight of God having such a Place in the truly tender Consciences that we need not impose upon them as it was never our Principle to force or drive them or impose or infringe upon their real Liberty which is in the Gospel and Power of God out of which there is no true Liberty but for the feared and hardned Consciences of Apostates Judasses and deceitful Workers whose hypocritical Conformity is not at all desirable to us we leave them to the Judgments of God to awaken who in his Day will further discover them and kindle a Fire in them that will burn to the lowest Hell and be to their incessant Torment and Anguish if they seek not a place of Repentance before it be too late therefore dear Friends be ye diligent and watchful in the true Light to retain the Love of the Truth unto the End and beware of deceitful Workers and Sowers of Discord for they are Abomination to the Lord And mark them that make Division and cause Offences contrary to the Gospel for they serve not the Lord Jesus Christ nor his People but their own Bellies the Flesh and Self-Will Your Faithful Friend and Servant in the Lords Work G. W. London 30th 11th Month 1673 A Serious Examination OF William Mucklow's Liberty c. To his Title Liberty of Conscience asserted against Imposition proposed in several Queries THe first part makes a great Shew and proclaims him an eminent Asserter of a conscientious Liberty against some great Infringement and Bondage but he varies in his very next Words proposed in several Queries as if he could not write consistant Matter for this contadicts his great Pretence before and discredits it to those that understand the Difference between asserting Liberty and proposing Queries which are about the Imposition as well as Liberty However we will take the Substance of them insinuating Aspersions upon us as positive as his Title but the ground of his Queries and Charge implyed throughout them against those of the People called Quakers is as false as is his Work inconsistent and in order to make it so appear Let us inquire First What this Imposition is in his Sence that he pretends to oppose 2ly Who those of the Pople called Quakers that have assumed to impose contratry to their former Testimonies as he saith 3ly What this Liberty of Conscience is in the Exercise of it that he pretends to assert First To the first This Imposition in his Sence and an inforcing Uniformity and Unity in outward Ceremonies and Gestures yea and that upon Persons before they found Convictions in themselves thereby retaining and letting in the complying Hypocrite that should be cast out 2ly Those of the People called Quakers thus charged and some Persons counted famous and renowned in the Congregation at the City of London Ancient Heads Elders in God c. that have reduced the People under this Yoak of Bondage 3ly The Liberty of his Conscience is to keep on his Hat in the time of publick Prayer to God in our Assemblies when owned by him an unreverent Posture and causless Sign as among Beleivers contrary to that Order and Custom in the Churches of Christ w ch was at first brought forth
Ch. 4. 17 19. with many more Now let us consider W. M's tender Conscience as to the Lord his further Manifestation c. for his wearing his Hat in time of publick Prayer where he tells us that we greatly err who say the keeping on the Hat is a Practice introduced unless we can prove it is done upon a religious Account when as in Truth it is only a Custom left which they formerly practized this agrees with what they say in their Spirit of the Ha p. 24. That they keep it neither off nor on upon a religious Account Then this bespeaks their meer Indifferency in the Case if not upon a religious Account there is no such tender Conscience nor farther Manifestation in the matter on their parts wherefore their Pretence of both is a meer Dissimulation and Cheat and if then this Man's Conscience were not asleep or much hardned he might see it is in his Wilfulness and Opposition that he hath persisted in such a reproved and offensive Gesture as he hath neither the Exercise of Conscience nor Religion in See what his asserting Liberty of Conscience amounts to he should have rather entituled his Paper Liberty of self-Will and a perverse Spirit asserted against the Unity and Order of the Church of Christ and People of God called Quakers And how do we err in saying their irreverend Posture is introduced when it was both brought in and imposed long after they accustomed the contrary in the Church But his main Allegation is He wants or finds not the Lord's Requiring for the Practice of him How should he know his Requiring for that which he is prejudicially engaged against And in such a hardned wilful State that feels not the living Union wherein he hath resisted the holy Spirit in his People and quencht it in himself and how should such a one that despises the Church of Christ and reviles the Lord's People in that State joyn with them either in the Unity or Order of Life This Man therefore playes the hardned Hypocrite and Dissembler while he seems to complain of being excluded out of our Communion when he desires it not with us having excluded himself and odified us as grosly as he can to the World His Complaint of Excommunication denying him and others the Benefit of Marriage and Burial having a Propriety therein only for the Omittance of keeping of the Hat in time of Prayer is neither fully nor truly stated for first we do not deny them Marriage in it self but among us and as being out of Unity and Charity with us which is more then only for the said Omission we may not in Conscience be their Witnesses 2dly Denyal of him Burial He hath not Cause to cast that upon us without Distinction 3dly Yet our Friends have Reason to take Care whom they admit Burial among us to prevent Reproach as much as in them lies His saying They give that Meeting this Appellation THE BODY is not true but also falsly scornfully given in the Spirit of the Hat to the Meeting in Devon-shire-House for the Lody is but one and hath many Members so also is Christ which is not made up of one particular Meeting but of the universal Church of Christ or general Assembly of the first-born and the Tryal of Motions and Unity is by that Life and Spirit which searches all things and whereby the spiritual Man judgeth all things and not by a few that seek Preheminence nor do such sway over us or our Body as he falsly insinuates who himself is one of the same Spirit Many are filled with Prayer and Praises to the Lord in silent Meettings who notwithstanding sometimes requires some outward Expressions thereof both in Words and Gestures and that in deep Humility of Soul with unvailed Spirits and Heads too which for this Man to oppose and shew a publick Sign against is no token of Humility but of Hardness and self-Exaltation As for what Gestures we may use in our private Devotion and Prayer whether walking by the Way or on our Beds it follows not that we must needs be in the same posture in publick Prayer in Meetings any more then we are to follow our usual Labours or Vocations in our publick Meetings and we are not accountable to Apostates of the manner of our private Devotion What we do is singly to the Lord without Respect to Spectators none being present but in our Assemblies he who is the God of Order and not of Confusion hath called us to express or shew forth Reverence and Order for the Sake of others and to do all things to Edification and God's Power Presence we feel with us in what we do but one while this Man is heaping Questions against our Practice another while his Complaint is only about imposing Postures upon our Fellow-Members which is false for they give us no such Occasion nor hath he approved himself as our Fellow-Member who hath slighted our Testimony and Exhortation and refused to hear the Church being one of them that went out from us for that they were not of us for had they been of us they would have continued with us To his Query Whether the Head mentioned in Cor. 11. may not be covered with a Hat off and uncovered with a Hat on Answ. The Head Christ whom he means may but this Man hath nor rightly considered the Apostle's Words in restraining them only to that Sence of the Head when they also relate to an outward Order or different Postures of Men and Women see ver 5 6 7 13. which argue that the Women would be uncovered then which was not comely in them as in the Men and the men's being uncovered appears to be in Opposition to the Jews Vails and Coverings under the Law as for the Head Christ he ought not to be covered in the Women any more then in the Men. Que. Have not some kneeled sat and stood in publick c. Whether a Cap is not as real a Covering to the Head as a Hat Answ. No that it is not but these Questions are to excuse himself and recriminate our Friends he states not the Ground of the Difference which lies chiefly in that Spirit of Division and Opposition in himself and some others which should it seek to make Discord and Parties either about kneeling Cap on or Cap off in Prayer the Life and Power of God in the Church would rise up in Judgment against it and the Discord-Makers he triffles touching wearing a Cap standing or sitting for God allows a Conveniency and what is expedient for the Necessity of the weak and aged and feeble in Body who are not in Prejudice or Opposition in what they do yet however where the substantial part of true Worship is known which is in Spirit and Truth with a naked bowed and broken Heart before the Lord there will be no Straitness nor Scruple to express it with uncovered Head and bended Knees as to the Lord which was practiced among
our selves to every man's Conscience in the Sight of God and therein are we manifested yet that I may loose nothing of Truth 's Testimony To the first I affirm That the true Church is in the true Faith that is in God and we must either believe thus as the true Church believes or else it were but both a Folly and Hypocrisie to profess our selves Members thereof this man hath treacherously betrayed both his own Conscience and Testimony who while he would seem to own the Church of Christ as a Member of her yet tells the World It is a most dangerous Position that we are to believe as the Church believes Oh Treacherous Enemy to the Church of Christ. 2dly Is it so dangerous that this Church or universal Body of Christ cannot err Whenas the Church signifies the Elect and Christ implies an Impossibility that the very Elect should be deceived Mat. 24. 24 Or that the Gates of Hell should prevail against his Church and promiseth his Presence to the End of the World Were it either reasonable or just to conclude the whole Body or Church of Christ is liable to err because some particular Members may Observe the Darkness and perverse Spirit of this Apostate and Accuser of not only the Brethren but the whole Church for he states not this Charge against a false Application made of the said Positions by the Church of Rome but against the Positions themselves as being destructive and dangerous and as asserted concerning the Church not this nor that particular Church Congregation or Assembly but it s the Church his Quarrel lies against 3dly He is even also against the Church having Power to bind and to loose though this was a certain Priviledge given of Christ Jesus unto the Church who in him received a living Sence of both Judgment and Mercy even to bind and to loose by the Power of the holy Ghost given unto her see Mat. 18. 18 Joh. 20 22 23. If it must needs be accounted dangerous to assert this then it s dangerous to confess the power of Christ that is in the true Church the man hath greatly wronged and out faced his own Conscience 4thly If he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man c. what is it but abominable Pride for any one especially that professeth himself a Member of the true Church to Refuse to hear her or submit to her judgment when demonstrated for she must needs have both the infallible Spirit and true Judgment if every living Member pertake thereof he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and God is come in ten Thousand of his Saints to judge the Ungodly and the Saints shall judge the World and doth not W. M. profess the Spirit of Christ that he hath it Yet tells the Word It is a Romish Position destructive and dangerous to assert that the Church hath alwayes the infallible Spirit that is the Spirit of Christ but did not Christ promise the holy Spirit the Comforter to his Church saying He shall abide with you forever and is not this infallible and the Church's Judgment therefore of Value Oh how sadly hath this Opposer violated his own Conscience perverted the right Wayes of God and abused the pretious Testimony of Truth And seeing his Charge is so high against us for asserting those four Positions afore-said on the behalf of the Church and that they are both Romish Destructive and of a most dangerous Consequence it naturally follows that he deems it not dangerous nor destructive for him to assert the contrary namely 1. That we are not to believe as the Church believes but rather as W. Mucklow and his Brother J. Pennyman believe seeing that they have assumed a Jurisdiction over the Church and a Power to judge her 2. That the Church can err is fallible or is liable to be deceived and apostatize as he questions us 3. That she hath no such Power as to bind and to loose Wherein he sets his Judgment above Christ's in Opposition to his express Promise to his Church 4. That the Church hath not alwayes the infallible Spirit which is Christ's and therefore it is no Pride but great Humility in W. M. and J. P. as being the lowly Ones not to submit to the Church in matter of Judgment So that at this Rate they will claim a Superiority and Preheminence above the Church which heretofore they have owned and confessed to the Power of God in her as if this had the Infallible Spirit when the Church wants it if this be not a Head-ship and Usurpation a degree higher then the Pope himself pretends to let all intelligent Readers judge is so be the Pope pretends to an Infallibility not as in a Separation from the Church but as professing Unity with her still though he be really Anti-christian in his usurping the Headship that he doth and so are these Men who like evil Spies have brought Evil Reports upon the good Land and despise the Church of God even his People called Quakers contrary to their first Love Testimony and Conviction As for W. M. his Addition to his Queries it contains both apparent Untruths Folly and Confusion against the Church of Christ implying the Churches Apostacy Declension or Fall from what was testifyed in the beginning among us which is as good Doctrine as to tell us that Christ's Spouse Bride or the Lamb's Wife is become an Adulteress where then is the Church's Security or Care taken over her by the Head But this Man himself is fallen and not the Church nor Ministry in it though most grosly slandered in the Spirit of the Hat which J. P. pretended in publick he would prove but instead thereof exhibited divers Articles against particular Persons to prove that our Preachers and Leaders are not so infallible as they prâ—tend to be which was much besides and short of the slanderous Charge given in the Spirit of the Hat p. 43. But how infallible they ever pretended themselves to be he told not he was not so ingenuous did we ever preach up meerly our selves as Infallible or pretend Infallibility any otherwise then as instructed by the Spirit of Christ which is Infallible Or did we ever place it upon human Understanding as meer Men but upon that divine Understanding that God giveth But these Apostates judge others from their own Darkness and evil Thoughts and therein render the Body as divided from the Head and rent to peices within it self which is that the Devil the old Divider hath sought and now sets his Agents on Work to make the World believe a Lye viz. That he hath made such Division in the Church as where W. M. saith In the Beginning Christ within us was then to be Head but now the Body without us A manifest Slander against the Body of Christ never such a Doctrine was preached or owned among us That now the Body without us is to be the Head and not Christ as
implyed and yet he grants Christ to be the Head of the Body and is not that Body the Church which he hath owned See what Contradiction Envy leads this Man into who also saith That the Chuch was then to be in Subjection to her Head and every Member governed and exercized according to the Order of the Head but now the Body the Church claims Authority over their Fellow-Members as peculiarly having the infallible Spirit c. These latter Words from BUT contain two false and Unjust Reflections upon the Church for First the Body or Church claims no such Authority over their Fellow-Members it is gross Confusion in him for to affirm it for all Fellow-Members thereof are included in the same Body in Subjection to one and the same Head which is Christ. 2. None of the Fellow-Members of the Body of Christ are excluded from having the infallible Spirit in some degree as if it were peculiar only to some few whenas its universal throughout the whole Body though there be diversities of Gifts given as the Lord sees meet to every Man his proper and peculiar Gift which all tends to Unity and Edification of the whole Body But this Man seems to claim a Member-ship in the Church or Body as he calls us and yet judges and reviles the Church what then would he be a Member of Is it of such a Body that he represents as torn to peices and rent from the Head or fallen under Apostacy for we cannot look upon the Church to be made up of himself and John Pennyman or a few of their Spirit and that were also contrary to J. P's writing himself One of the least of the Thousands in Israel but whether he had such low Thoughts of himself or not let God's Witness and his People who have beheld his Deportment and Luceferian Spirit judge W. M. saith Friends That which was declared of and testified unto in the beginning was to direct our Minds unto the Heavenly Gift not to the Church but to the Manifestation of the Spirit in the particular waiting there to feel its Motions and to hear its Voice which would infallibly teach us our Duty towards God our Neighbour and our selves and not to go forth into Reasonings to promote comely Orders after the Manner of men nor to be found in the Exercise of any thing in his pure Worship but what the Lord not the Body required else to stand still c. Herein he hath intermixt his perverse Parenthesis falsly charging us in divers Respects as if the Heavenly Gift and the Church were now separate and what the Lord and his People require in Oppositior or as if we were promoting a Body without the Spirit or Subjection to what the Lord requires as if our Testimony were now so much varied from what it was in the Beginning these are all most falsly suggested his saying It was to direct our minds to the Heavenly Gift not to the Church to what the Lord not the Body required See what Division this would make between the Lord and his People but he mistakes Not to the Church for our Testimony was in the beginning and still is to promote the Unity of the Spirit in our directing the Minds to the Spirit and to them that love the Lord to dwell in Love and Unity which all come unto who come unto the Heavenly Gift and to follow the Lord's Requirings therein which is unerring and what is this but to preach up a true Church-State which hath been the real Intent and Tendency of our Testimony from the Beginning And had this Man been faithful to what was testfied in the Beginning as he pretends a great Esteem thereof the Unity and Society of the Church and People of God called Quakers would have been of more value with him then now so enviously and confusedly to quarrel with them or any comely Order or reverent Custom in the Church as he doth which he did not in the Beginning for when his Mind was directed to the Manifestation of the Spirit which would infallibly teach us our Duty towards God our Neighbour and our selves as he saith then he and the rest concerned in the Beginning did not irreverently sit with their Hats on in publick Prayer among us nor say that the contrary among us was a going forth into Reasonings to promote comely Orders after the manner of Men for what needed that when the infallible Spirit which was then owned to be their Teacher freely led them into it Nor did the Apostle so go out into reasoning when he exhorted the Saints to think on whatsoever things were true honest just pure lovely of good Report c. But this Man is offended at our vindicating that Order which was made both lovely and comely by that Spirit that set it up since he is gone out from that infallible Spirit which he was directed to in the Beginning which then moved and led them into both Reverence to God Respect to his People and how to behave themselves in the Church of Christ both in Decency and in Order Note that W. M. in so plainly professing and in Words owning the Truth 's Testimony and Infallibility of the Spirits Teaching as it was in the Beginning testified to among us he hath therein said more for the comely Order that then was brought forth in our Assemblies and for the Church having the infallible Spirit to know Truth from Error and the right from the wrong Spirit then ever he can say or produce for the contrary viz. for his keeping on his Hat in Prayer for his accusing the Church with Fallibility Apostacy or the Antient Friends with Imposing Usurping c. Out of his own Mouth he is condemned as one apostatized from the Heavenly Gift from his first Love Convincement and Order and hath wilfully excluded himself from the Union and Society of the Church of Christ. He still boggles and seems offended at the Body the Church having the infallible Spirit the certain unerring Judgment reciding with them upon all Occasions to know Truth from Error and the right from the wrong Spirit will you limit the Lord saith he Answ. Is it a limitting the Lord for the Body or Church of Christ to have his Spirit which is infallible and an unerring Judgment so far as we received from the same Spirit What gross Darkness is come over this Man Doth not the spiritual Man judge all Things And the Saints shall judge the World and dare he say that the Spirit of Christ hath not taught the Church Truth from Error nor to know the right from the wrong Spirit Whenas the Principle we direct unto and our Testimony concerning it he dares not say is fallible but seems to justifie our Testimony as it was in the Beginning and in Words to own Inward Motions Voice and Teachings of the infallible Spirit and the measure thereof within to try the Verity of our Doctrine And why should it be rendred a limitting of the Lord