though he says he did not mean by agreeing a humane political Contrivance or Design but a Divine Agreement yet I make no question but he meant an Agreement of his own contriving and cutting out And I doubt not that he would call any such thing Divine that were of his Contriving He asks If I know not that Men may well agree together in one Faith by the Spirit 's inward working in their Hearts as well as they may agree together in one Prayer by the Spirit c I answer Yes I do But would he have some certain Form of Prayer agreed upon and set forth for all to be obliged to pray by at all times because Men may agree together in one Prayer by the Spirit That would be Common Prayer indeed It is one thing to propose certain Principles Doctrines and Points of Faith to be necessarily agreed upon and being so agreed upon a Confession thereof to be imposed to be owned professed and declared to be as it were terms of Communion and the Bond of Fellowship And it is another thing to be drawn together by the inward force and vertue of Truth through the Operation of the Divine Spirit in the Heart into an Agreement in the Belief of the same Principles Doctrines and Points of Faith and so also to agree substantially in making confession thereof when and wheresoever the honour of God requires it of us My Discovery that he has falsly quoted R. B. angers him extreamly and he rails at me for it like himself but that will not clear him He says I most fraudulently put a false gloss upon his Words about the Word agreed on and next that I deceive and abuse my Reader as if he G. K. did put the same Gloss upon R. B 's Words But all this is trifling both his Book and mine are in the Reader 's Hands and I dare trust it to the Impartial Reader 's Judgment He complains that I endeavour to make the Reader believe he wronged R. B. in citing some Words of his and that because he cited not so many of his Words as I cited after him This is a foul fallacy for G. K's Blame lies not in giving a Quotation out of R. B. too short but in giving a false Quotation for a true one or in forging a Quotation For neither in the Words he quoted nor in that Page nor in that Book nor in all the Books of R B. can G. K. find that which he has pretended to give as the express Doctrine and Testimony of R. B. in the 48th Page of R. B's Book called the Anarchy c. He struggles to get loose but cannot He says he cited as many of R. B's Words as were sufficient to prove that it is R. B's Doctrine and Testimony that Principles and Doctrines c. are as it were the Terms that have drawn us together c. But R. B. doth not say so of Principles and Doctrines indefinitely or of the Principles and Doctrines in general that we will agree upon to be such but of those Principles Doctrines and Practices into the belief of which we are gathered together without any Constraint or Worldly respect by the meer force of Truth upon our Understandings and its power and influence upon our Hearts Again G. K. says he did not say R. B. used the Word Agreed See his own Words in p. 8. of his Book called The causeless Ground of Surmises which are these That some Principles and Doctrines and Points of Faith are necessary to be agreed upon c. is the express Doctrine and Testimony of R. Barclay 's Book above mentioned pag. 48. Judge now how little this Man is to be trusted He calls it a gross Perversion in me for insâ—…ating that in his Book Some Reasons and Causes pag. 16. He had cited R. B's Words But it was not says he his Words but his Doctrine that I mention in that place as to the substance of it but not as to that particular circumstance of answering to some plain Questions with Yea or nay Had not I discovered his Falshood in this he had gon off snug with his Quotation as a very fair Quotation taken out of R. B's Book But now he is put to his shifts and to shift it off he pretends now that he did not intend to give R. B's Words but his Doctrine and lest that cover should prove too short for him he falls from the Doctrine to the substance of the Doctrine Now let us repeat again the Quotation he gave and then let the Reader Judge of it It is in p. 16. of his Reason of the Separation where he proposes that we agree together to put Rob. Barclay 's Doctrine into Practice which says he is He does not say the substance of which is but which is to declare our Faith and Perswasion in certain Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith and Religion that by the same as well as by a good Life and Conversation it may be known who are qualified to be Members of our Church and that every one owned to be a Member of our Church declare his Faith and Perswasion in every one of these Fundamentals which is a Secondary Bond of our Union the Spirit being the Principal which may be easily done by answering to some plain questions with Yea or Nay Let any one now that reads these words Judge whether they were not designed to perswade the Reader that not only this was R. B.'s Doctrine but that these were the very words in which he had delivered it Whereas ye see now G. K. not only confesses they are not his words but dares not adventure to say they are plainly and directly his Doctrine but the substance of his Doctrine And yet even that I deny I say they are neither R. B.'s Words nor Doctrine nor the Substance of his Doctrine And had his Quotation lain in a tolerable compass to be recited I would have given it But he cites for it Sect. 4 p. 32 33. and Sect. 6. p. 48 49. to which I again refer and recommend every Reader that has or can procâ—…re that Book of R. B.'s called The Anarchy of the Ranters c. That G. K.'s Deceit herein may be more generally known He says all my proof that it is not R. B. 's Doctrine is that I assure the Reader it is not But says he let the Reader compare my Citations at length in my Reason and Cause of Separation p. 24 25. and he shall find it is his Doctrine But besides my assuring the Reader it is not so and my Referring him for certainty to the Original Book I have now too other proofs to offer which though not positive and direct are strong Presumptives against G. K. One is that he hath not attempted to Prove that this is the Doctrine or Substance of the Doctrine of R. B. in that Book by producing now R. B.'s own words to manifest it And the other is that he doth not now refer his
Christ withn is held in common by him with them of all sorts of other Professions Besides seeing as G. K. says The true Doctrine of the Faith of Christ without teacheth Thâ—… the only true saving Faith of Christ'â—… Death c. is wrought in Mens Hearts by Divine Illumination Revelation and Inspiration and is taught and begot by the Spirit in Mens Hearts There is the greater reason that the inward Appearance of Christ by his Light Grace and Spirit in the Heart should be the more frequently preached and Men directed and turned to that inward Teaching by the Spirit in their Hearts that by the Divine Illumination Revelation and Inspiration thereof the true Faith of Christ's death c. may be begot and wrought in their Hearts His 33d 34th 35th Charges relate all to one matter and seem to be divided and subdivided by him to make the greater shew The first he calls a Perversion of his modest Proposition about correcting some unsound Words in some Friends Books as if with purpose he would hunt for discover and expose if he can the nakedness of such as in comparison of himself may justly be reputed and called Fathers in the Truth This he thinks an uncharitable construction of his Words and that no good Christian that loves the Truth more than Men would judge the worse of him for correcting them tenderly and Christianly not as an Enemy but as a Friend and Brother But it may be guessed how tenderly and Christianly he would deal with the Dead by his harsh and unchristian dealing with the Living whom he has not dealt with us as a Friend and Brother but as an Enemy His comparing his correcting work to Sem's and Iaphet's going backwards to cover their Father's Nakedness gave me fit occasion to tell him he had mistook his point and taken up Ham's work instead of Sem's and Iaphet's For Sem and Iaphet covered the Nekedness which execrable Ham had discovered and exposed as G. K. would do In this he says I falsly accuse him but instead of proving I do so he turns off and says I reflect not only on him but on the late Christian Teachers and Writers who have corrected the Errors and unsound Expressions contained in the Books of them called the Greek and Latin Fathers In comparing the Books of Friends to the Books of them called The Greek and Latin Fathers he has not done as a Friend and Brother but as an Enemy in supposing Friends Books to have been written by no better guidance nor clearer sight than theirs who lived and writ in those dark times He is so idle as to charge me with perverting the Scripture Words in saying Blessed Sem and Japhet did therefore go backward that they might not see their Father's Nakedness And he makes this one of my 50 Perversions by which you may see how hard he was put to it to make his number up But instead of proving this a Perversion he says As if there were not a further matter and mystery in it Perhaps there might be but if there were he hath not shewed it nor my Perversion But he says If it had been only that they must not see their Father's nakedness they might have covered their Face and Eyes and gone forward and not see their Father's Nakedness But they took a more sure way in going backward and that which freed them from all suspicion of seeing or being willing to see their Father's Nakedness 36. He says I pervert his modest Proposition for every Proposition of his is modest with him and perhaps none but his That every one owned by us to be a Member of our Christian Society give some Declaration of their Faith This which he calls a modest Proposition I shewed from his own Words was an Imposition of a Verbal Confession of Faith without which none should be admitted into Church fellowship with him His Words are We are convinced and perswaded in our Consciences that God calleth us to separate from such Unbelievers and not to be yoked together in Church-fellowship and Discipline with any that we have not proof of by Confession of the Mouth c. Reas. of Sep. p. 22. 37. He complains also and makes it his 37th Charge that I pervert his Words that he makes a verbal Confession the Door of admittance into our Society which he says is altogether false This depends upon the former and is proved by those Words of his which I gave for proof of that viz. We are convinced said he and perswaded in our Consciences that God calleth us to separate c. and not to be yoked together in Church-fellowship and Discipline with any that we have not proof of by Confession of the Mouth c. This is that I call Verbal Confession If he like not the Word Verbal let him take Oral or Confession of the Mouth which is all one From my observing out of R. Barclay's Book called the Anarchy p. 48. which G. K. had perversly quoted that R. B. doth not make a bare Profession verbal Confession or Declaration of Principles c. to be any Terms at all of Church-Communion G. K. taking it to himself charges a Perversion on me and says This is false I make them not the Terms at all when the Profession is but barely verbal But he hath no such guard in the Place before quoted where he says We are convinced c. that God calleth us to separate c. and not to be yoked in Church fellowship c. with any that we have not proof of by Confession of the Mouth that they are sound in the Faith So that he makes a Verbal Confession a proof of their being sound in the Faith and this makes a Verbal Confession yea a bare verbal Confession sufficient to yoke them as he phrases it together in Church-fellowship His 39th 40th and 41st Relate to his pretended Quotations out of R. Barclay's Book before mentioned and my Observations thereupon from which he picks several Quarrels one that from his saying as the express Doctrine of R. B. though it be not That some Principles and Doctrines and Points of Faith are necessary to be agreed upon c. and to be owned professed and declared by us to be as it were the Terms that draw us together and the Bond by which we become centred into one Body and Fellowship c. He says I pervert his Words to a wrong sense as if his Sense were That Men were to contrive and cut out their own Terms and before they entred into a Society or Fellowship should consider consult and conclude among themselves what Principles Doctrines and Practices they would have to be the Terms and Bond of their Society Though this was not spoken directly of him but with respect to the Quotation he feigned to give out of R. B. yet he did well enough to take it to himself for I verily think it to be his Sense and the Terms he propounded it in speak the same And
A Further DISCOVERY Of that Spirit of Contention Division Which hath appeared of late in George Keith c. Being a REPLY to Two Late Printed Pieces of his the one Entituled A Loving Epistle c. the other A Seasonable Information c. Wherein his Cavils are Answered his Falshood is laid open and the Guilt and Blame of the Breach and Separation in America and of the Reproach he hath brought upon Truth and Friends by his late Printed Books are fixed faster on him Written by way of Epistle and Recommended as a further Warning to all Friends By THOMAS ELLWOOD Prov. 22. 10. Cast out the Scorner and Contention shall go out yea Strife and Reproach shall cease London Printed by T. Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holy-well-lane Shoreditch and near the Meeting-House in White-hart Court in Grace-Church-street 1694. A Further DISCOVERY Of that Spirit of Contention Division Which hath appeared of late in G. Keith c. Dear Friends WHO have received the Truth in the love of it and have kept your Habitation therein unto whom the Truth is exceeding precious and who desire the Prosperity thereof above all things Unto you is the Salutation of my endeared love in this blessed Truth in which the Fellowship of the Faithful stands In this it is I desire to know you to be known by you and to have Fellowship with you earnestly breathing to the God of Truth the Father of Spirits that he will be pleased to pour forth more abundantly of his good Spirit into all our Hearts and fill us with the blessed Fruits thereof that there may be no room for the Enemy to enter to break this holy Fellowship But that all who profess to believe in the Light may so walk therein that a clear sight they may have thereby and a true discerning between things that diffeâ—… and may be able to make a right Judgment what is of God and what is not that so the Design of that Spirit by whatsoever Instrumenâ—… it works which would break or disturb the Churches Peace and cast Reproach upâ—… the Heritage of God may be so discovered and laid open that all may see and shun it As this is the Exercise and Travel of my Spirit so it is the Service I have been of late and am at present engaged in For Friends It is not many Months since I saluted you with an Epistle wherein my Spirit was drawn fortâ—… â—…fly to Commemorate the gracious Dealings of the Lord with his People and as in a general way to remind you of the many Attempts the Enemy hath made by Force and Fraud to hinder the Work of God from going on So more particularly to Warn you to beware of that Spirit of Contention and Division which hath appeared of late in George Keith and some few others that join with him who have made a Breach and Separation from Friends in some parts of America In writing that Epistle I did not consult Flesh and Blood neither had I an Eye to my own ease and quiet as outwardly for I had no reason to expect rest from so restless a Man nor fair Treatment from one who in his late Writings and personal Debates hath so notoriously let loose his Pen and Tongue to an unbridled liberty of Railing and Reviling But I cleared my Conscience in discharging my Duty to God and to his Church and therein have that Peace which all his Abuses cannot disturb After that Epistle of mine had been sometime abroad G. K. published a Sheet of Paper which he called A loving Epistle to all the moderate judicious and impartial among the People called Quakers c. In that Sheet he charged me with Fifty Perversions Forgeries and false Accusations which he said he had noted in my Book but left his Proofs behind to come after in another Book which he then threatned should be published if my Book was not called in and disowned Some Weeks after the publishing of that Sheet he hath now sent forth his threatned Book pretended to be an Answer to that Epistle of mine and containing his Proofs such as they are of the Charge he had made publick so long before As soon as I had notice of the coming forth of his last which he calls A Seasonable Information c. I gave direction for the stopping what I had before written and sent to London in Answer to his other Sheet chusing rather to make but one work of it than to multiply Books as he does who notwithstanding his alledging that the Scripture says Of making many Books there is no end seems to have an Itch to writing and a Pride in Printing He begins his Epistle with a double or two fold Boast One of his Labours and Services in the Truth to which perhaps I may say something hereafter The other of the considerable Number of those that he says he has Experience are in true Unity with him To which at present I shall only say If that were true the more were the pity But as I am far from believing it to be true So I wish for his own sake as well as others he may be as much misstaken concerning the number of his Favourers as those few that do favour him are concerning his Sincerity His second page and part of his third is in a manner wholly filled with Railing at me He says I labour to take from him his Innocency and Christian Reputation and Testimony Of all which I think he brought but little if any into England What stock of each he carried with him into America he has I fear made Shipwrack of there He charges me with a sordid way of Sophistâ—…l Wrangling Perversions Forgeries and false Accusations to the number of Fifty and upwards This Charge he sent abroad in his Printed Epistle in general Terms without instancing the Particulars which he kept in reserve to furnish out another Book But was not this a sordid way of Sophistical Wrangling in him thus to Charge without making Proof How often and highly does he complain in several of his former Treatises of being charged in generals without producing particular Proofs In his Plea of the Innocent p. 8. He with others of his Party say Seeing their Accusations against G. K. lye much in bare generals we see no cause further to take notice of them but to shew that for want of particular matter against him they thus labour to defame him in bare generals a way says he common to all Sophisters and false Accâ—…ers Did he not then take the way which he says is common to all Sophisters and false Accusers when he accused me in bare generals without producing the Particulars Did he not take the most deceitful way he could when he accused me in bare generals seeing himself says p. 17. of his Plea Nothing is more deceitful than bare generals It will not excuse him that he has now at length in another Treatise set forth the Particulars of his Charge that being but
hath sought occasion by secret flurts to throw more on suggesting as if the Yearly Meeting was guilty of covering or cloaking thosevile Errors heexclaim'd against and of lessening them with the smooth name of Weakness He replies How can faithful witnessing against Error be a throwing Reproach on Truth and Friends of it he may as well say one contrary produceth another c. Ye see â—…now Friends how forward he is advanced in his Charge of Error and what ye may expect from him when ever he shall have a mind to throw Dirt upon any or all of you He can instance himself under the pretence of faithful witnessing againâ—… Error and then tell you ye may as well say Truth produceth Error Light Darkness Good Evil as that he doth Evil in throwing Dirt on you 28. His next Cavil which he calls Perversion and Fallacy in me is that I seem to own the Doctrine in his Book and yet altogether wave the chief thing of Doctrin wherein the Controversie he says lieth betwixt them of the other side and him and as he judges betwixt him and me viz. That the faith of Christ as he died for our Sins and rose again is necessary to our Christianity and Salvation that God doth justifie us and pardon our Sins for Christ's sake who died for us through our Faith in him that is always accompanied with sincere Repentance In this he hath judged wrong for I have no Controversie with him about this Doctrine which I own as well as he And if he had not had a wilfully bad memory he might have remembred that himself hath cited a Passage out of a former Book of mine Foundation of Tythes shaken p. 240. where I say If any one expects Remission of Sins by any other way than the Death of Christ he renders the Death of Christ usâ—…ss This Passage which I then urged against the Priest on behalf of the Quakers clears me now from G. K's groundless suggestion His Cavil at me now is for not reciting the fore-mentioned Doctrine of the Faith of Christ as he died for our Sins c. when I recited other Doctrines out of his Book and he takes advantage thence to call â—…is the chief Doctrine in Controversie betwixt him and them of the other side By this I perceive I must either quote all or nothing out of his Books if I mean to escape his Censure for I am perswaded had I recited this and omitted any other of the Doctrines he mentioned that Doctrine should then have been singled out for the chief Doctrine in Controversie betwixt him and them whatever it had been The truth is I omitted to recite that as not understanding he had reputed that a Doctrine in Controversie between him and them And therefore I chose to recite those Doctrines about which I apprehended he had made the greatest Clamour He would increase his own and others Jealousie concerning me by noticing that I joyn not as he says the works of Sanctification in the Heart to Christ's outward Appearance but to his inward Appearance This he labours to shew from several Passages in my Epistle which mention Christ's inward Appearance and work of Sanctification in the Heart To all which I give this short and plain Answer I do not divide Christ nor set his inward Appearance in opposition to his outward And therefore when I speak of Christ's inward Appearance in the Heart and the work of Sanctification wrought there I do not exclude nor intend to exclude his outward Appearance in the Flesh and what he did and suffered therein for Man's Redemption from being concerned in our Sanctification through a living Faith in him But I do not allow that the work of Sanctification is wrought in any by that outward Appearance of Christ in the Flesh in whom his inward Appearance by his Light Grace and Spirit in the Heart is not known received and subjected unto And it is this inward Appearance of Christ that gives Man a right knowledge of and saving faith of the outward Appearance of Christ. 29. His next is no less a Charge against me than that of gross and bold Fiction and Forgery in saying Whatever Jealousies and Dissatisfactions any of other Professions had entertained against us on this account before they had no ground or occasion given them therefore whereas now he has given them occasion though unjustly and without cause to entertain wrong jealousies of us This he says is false in both parts 1. That other Professions had no ground of Dissatisfaction given them touching these Doctrines before his Books came forth for they had he says but too much ground from too many unsound Expressions contained in their Books In whose Books he must needs mean the Books of Friends and why not in his own Books as likely as in any others and which says he some of that Profession hath objected unto me That Profession what Profession We spake of other Professions in general not of any one Profession in particular But whatever Profession it was that objected or whatever were the Expressions objected against they were such he says as he could not answer otherwise than to acknowledge them to be unsound If this be true I am perswaded it was since he himself came to be unsound And this Passage of his puts me in mind of that filthy Libel lately published with the Letters D. S. to it in which I thought I trackt the print of his Foot 2. He says it is false that he has now given them occasion to entertain wrong Iealousies of us But in this he contradicts Experience and the several Pamphlets that some of other Professions grafting on his Crab-stock have either reprinted of his or printed of their own grounded on his against us prove what I said to be true His saying That it is clear as the Light of the Noon Day that particular Persons among us are chargeable with erroneous Doctrines is without Proof And if when he says It is clear he means by his Books it is so far from being clear as the Light of the Noon Day that it is not near so clear as Moon-shine 30. He quarrels with me for construing his Words That the Doctrine of Christ crucified c. was buried in silence as if he understood it generally and universally whereas he says his Words have a Restriction and Limitation very expresly for says he I do not say buried in silence by all or most part or opposed by all or most part but buried in silence by some and opposed by others So I cited his Words before and thereupon put the Question What saving is here what Exception made either of the Quakers in general or in the Plurality or indeed of any at all Buried by some and opposed by others will hardly pass for a very express Restriction and Limitation Nay according to common manner of speaking some and others may be taken to comprehend all in this case especially when we shall consider that he represents
also relating to Conversation which that Man well knows I know of him and have both privately and publickly reproved him for some of them But as for G. K.'s saying that my speaking against that Person gave offence to Hundreds it is not to be regarded it being his way and words of course with him when he has a mind to magnify his matter by Numbers to use the word Hundreds at a venture So he does here thrice in one page gave great Offence to Hundreds whose Ministry was well owned by Hundreds Hundreds hear Witness c. now that these are but words of course with him and used only to deceive may be seen in this last Instance of his Hundreds of witnesses by taking notice what he says they bear witness too viz that my Ministry says he is both refreshing and edifying to them and is burdensom to none but to the Ignorant and unfaithful c. If his Hundreds of witnesses could have witnessed truly that his Ministry is refreshing and edifying to them Yet if they will take upon them to witness that it is burdensome to none but the Ignorant Unfaithful and prejudiced it is an Hundred to one if one in an hundred believe them But by this hint it may be seen what little weight there is in his talk of Hundreds both in this and his other Books He complains of me for accusing his innocent true words as savouring of a Boasting Spirit because says he I humbly and modestly did mention my Thirty Years Labour in the work of the Ministry and God having blest my Labours with great Success in being an Instrument to the bringing many into the blessed Unity c. And he appeals to all that have a true savour whether these words savour of a boasting Spirit he as he says only using them by way of argument to perswade some that had a wrong jealousy of him that he intends no breach among faithful Friends His modesty and humility is pretty well seen and known by this time And had not this boasting Vanity been deeply rooted in his Nature the gentle Touch I gave him in my former Epistle p. 70. upon this passage now recited of his setting forth his Thirty Years Labour in the work of the Ministry and his Great Success therein c. might have taught him to think more modestly and humbly of himself But he was so far from taking warning by that that he begins his Epistle which he writ since much after the same manner thus Notwithstanding that I find some of whom with respect both to my former Labour of love and Service in the Truth towards them and to my present Service in the Truth c. I might have expected better things so deeply prejudiced c. What else doth this bespeak but a fond Conceit of his own Doings Many I believe who have deserved more have less sought Commendation for their Services And had he been in the true Humility and in that Charity which vaâ—…nteth not it self and is not puffed up 1. Cor. 13. 4. he would have followed the Apostle's Counsel not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think Rom. 12. 13. But if it might have becomed him at any time to have spoken so highly of his own Services Yet his doing it now is as unseasonable as if a Cow that had given a good soop of Milk should boast of the goodness or quantity thereof after she had spilt it by kicking down the Pail I have no inclination to render his former Services Cheap which I think he hath but too much done himself though he sees it not by coupling them with his present Doings And I give but a Touch on this not doubting Friends that ye will observe in those Expressions of his A Vein of Spiritual Pride which he in vain endeavours to cover by pretending he used them by way of Argument to perswade some that he intended no breach among Faithful Friends Which yet could be but a weak Argument to them that know and consider that Others before him some of whom had laboured long in the Work of the Ministry and perhaps as successfully as he have turned aside as well as he and made Breaches among Friends of which he himself seemed formerly sensible Thus Friends I have gone through his Fifty Charges And said more to them than either they or he deserved of me Which I have done for Truth 's sake and yours more than for my own For I dare trust to the Goodness of the Cause I have undertaken and the Innocency of my Intention in undertaking it an Evidence of which I have no doubt to find in the Heart of Faithful Friends But my Desire and Care is so plainly and nakedly to lay open before you what Spirit he is of and is acted by and the mischievous Design thereof that none may be longer deceived by him nor any by seeming to countenance him may strengthen and harden him in his Opposition to Truth to their hurt and his Ruin I confess I cannot treat him as a Friend because I find him an Enemy to Truth Yet none could be more glad than I to see him return to a right mind For then he would see himself to be what you and I see him to be and would be more forward to condemn himself than to quarrel with others But I must needs say I have little hopes to see so good an effect wrought on him because I cannot find sincerity in him I gave many Instances in my former Epistle of his Insincerity and double Dealing Since which he hath sent forth First That Sheet single by it self which he calls a Loving Epistle but without any spark or appearance of Love in it He directs it to all the Moderate Judicious and Impartial among the People called Quakers intimating thereby that in his Opinion the Quakers as a Body or People are not Moderate Judicious or Impartial I dare say should any one of those that have appeared most favourable to him but thwart him in his way or reprove him for his Unruliness and disorderly Doings he shall forthwith reject such an One and rase him out of his Roll of Moderate Judicious and Impartial Ones And I am perswaded should all Friends deal so with him which they have just cause to do he would reject them all and not own one Moderate Judicious or Impartial among us Do ye not see Friends how he Slights Rejects and casts off not only Persons but Meetings at his pleasure if they answer not his mind The Second Day 's Morning Meeting consisting mostly as ye know of Ministring Friends he Derives and Scoffs and Represents it as mannaged by Parties The Yearly Meeting he represented in his former Paper called The Causeless Ground c. as divided For which I tax'd him in my last In his Epistolary Sheet he doth not vouchsafe to acknowledge it for a Yearly Meeting but when he speaks of it says That which he called the Yearly Meeting p. 4.
these Doctrines as Dead let fall extinct which as I noted before though he takes no notice of it is implied by his Words to revive and raise up Nor does his later Invention help him to wit that he did chiefly intend this with respect to those parts of America where the Controversie began for his Word Chiefly shews he did intend it elsewhere besides America And he now says he finds it buried with too many hereaway in England as well as in America Nay he can conclude no other he says concerning me But the best on 't is I am not to be concluded by his Conclusions 31. His One and Thirtieth is worded nonsensically But that which I gather to be his meaning in it is that my saying The Servant is not to frame his Message himself but to deliver the Message his Lord gives him to deliver which was said to answer or rather obviate an Objection That those Doctrines relating the Birth Death Resurrection Ascension c. of Christ as to the outward Body are not so frequently or constantly declared in our publick Meetings as those that relate to the inward Appearance and work of Christ in the heart He says imports that the Lord doth not call his Servants so frequently to preach the Faith of Christ without as of Christ within and this he saith proveth that in the Opinion of T. E. the Doctrine and Faith of Christ without is not so necessary to Regeneration as the Faith of Christ within or rather not at all absolutely necessary This is a grosser Perversion on his part of my Words than any he can charge on me for the Reason I gave for this was not that it was less necessary but that it was more known Therefore I said p. 55. When it pleased God to raise up and send forth a true Gospel Ministry again c. it was agreeable to the Divine Wisdom to bring to light that which had been hidden to restore to the Nations that which had been lost to turn People to that which they had been turned from to instruct them in that which they were most ignorant of c. Hence said I I conceive it hath come to pass that they whom the Lord have sent forth to preach the everlasting Gospel in this Day have been led and guided by him to teach People that which they knew not rather than that which they profest to know before to open those Doctrines of Life and Salvation which the People were ignorant of and Strangers to rather than those which they were acquainted with and had been all along trained up in From all which it is very apparent that I did not deny the Doctrine and Faith of Christ without to be necessary to our Regeneration as well as that of Christ within but that that without was more known already to the People than that within 32. He quarrels with me for saying That though as the Apostasy from the life and power of Christianity gained place c. the inward Appearance of Christ by his Spirit in the Heart was departed from and the Doctrines thereof generally lost and forgotten Yet the Doctrines relating to the outward Appearance of Christ in the Flesh and what he therein did and suffered for Man's Redemption were not lost but retained and preached through all Ages and by every sort or sect of professed Christians insomuch that G. K. now calls those Doctrines which he pretends to be raised up to revive and raise up such Doctrines as are held in common by us with all other Professions This angers him so that I have scarce found him more fretful in any part of his Book than here From whence I conclude he finds himself pincht and would supply his weakness and want of Argument with noise and angry words He calls it Fallacy Perversion Feigning Threadbare Excuse Fig-leaf that cannot cover deceitful Excuse frivolous Excuse c. His Answer is The true Doctrin of the Faith of Christ without as he came in the Flesh c. was as much lost in the time of the Apostasy as the true Doctrine of the Faith of Christ within to wit not the bare historical literal faith of Christ that I confess was not lost but the true living Faith and the Doctrine of it was as much lost as that of his inward Appearance Here he varies the Terms from the Doctrines relating to the outward Appearance of Christ which was the subject we were upon to the true living Faith and the Doctrine of it which was not the Subject we were upon And to prove his Charge against me of Fallacy Perversion Feigning c. He alledges that the true living Faith and the Doctrine of it was lost in the Apostasy which it might be and yet the Doctrines relating to the outward Appearance of Christ in the Flesh c. might not be lost as I asserted they were not This shifting the Terms is a Fallacy and Perversion in him and seems to be done with design to help himself off from what he was upon But he cannot so escape he has hampered himself too fast to get off For in his Causeless Ground p. 3. this very Doctrine of the Faith of Christ without viz. That the Faith of Christ as he died for our Sins and rose again is necessary to our Christianity and Salvation and that God doth justify us and pardon our Sins for Christ's sake who died for us through faith in him that is always accompanied with sincere Repentance c. This I say which he now says was as much lost as the true Doctrine of the Faith of Christ within is there set by G. K. amongst the many great Doctrines of the Christian Faith and the first of them which he says we hold in common with all sorts of other Professions But if this Doctrine of the Faith of Christ without was lost as he says it was how comes it that all sorts of other Professions have it and hold it in common with him as he says they do If he and they hold it in common they must hold it as he doth And that he holds they do so appears by his saying Many of all sorts that frequent our Meetings of other Professions are well affected with our Testimony to the inward Appearance of God in Christ together with the Holy Spirit in Mens Hearts while they find us warm and zealous in our Testimony to the other great Doctrines of the Christian Faith held in common with them Of which in the next Line he gives this Doctrine of the Faith of Christ without for the first instance as I have cited it before But if all sorts of other Professions hold it and hold it as he doth which they must if he hold it in common with them how can he say and say truly that it hath been as much lost in the time of the Apostasy as the true Doctrine of the Faith of Christ within Sure he will not say that the true Doctrine of the Faith of