for being in a perfect Estate but acknowledged he was not so But in another place if you will believe him he tells you We don't think of any Imperfection in us or desire of Forgiveness or to that effect But now L. S. don't pretend to it but wisht he was so Who will Credit such a Sayer and Unsayer But as we are exhorted to Confess our Faults one to another and not to hide our Sins for then we shall not prosper but confess and forsake and we shall find Mercy so the Quakers believe and also practice And if he is Ignorant hereof it 's his Fault and not ours In short Confession we own and know it to be our Indispensible Duty To God for every Sin against him either in Thought Word or Action To Man wherein we have Trespassed against him To the Church wherein we have offended her And when the Lord is pleased by his Spirit to draw forth any of his Servants and Ministers into either an Acknowledgment of Sins past or Desire of Forgiveness or both in the exercise of their Gifts amongst the People they represent and on whose Behalf their Petitions are put up we are so far from disapproving hereof or thinking our selves above it that it is exceeding Comfortable and Edifying to us But this we shall never deny that those inward Pangs of a Penitent Soul those Sighs and Groans as well as Words that arise from a wounded Spirit are more acceptable to God than such a Customary Formal crying out Lord the best of our Performances are Sin yea our Holy Duties are Sin but do thou be merciful to us miserable Sinners and so go and so come from Year to Year as if after such a Confession God Almighty was obliged to forgive not considering that 't is those only that Confess and Forsake that shall find Mercy Then again How often are we scofft and mockt at and compared to the Pope because we assert That Men ought to be Infallibly assured of their Duty to God and that the Spirit of God a measure of which is given to every Man to profit withal is Infallible and if minded will so Infallibly assure them that they shall be beyond doubt which is a tossed but not Comfortable Estate From this 't is common with our Adversaries to say That the Quakers pretend to Infallibility and when once turn'd Quakers are Infallible Now that we pretend to Infallibility is true but 't is as before expressed not placing it in Persons or Opinion but the Spirit of God which they themselves can't deny to be Infallible And as Man is governed by that Spirit he will Infallibly be led out of all that which is Fallible and Erroneous both in Faith and Life Yea they themselves will I hope allow the Scripture to be an Infallible Rule and if so the Spirit of God must be yet much more so since from it the Scripture came For Holy Men of Old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost But for my part I would not give a Rush for that Religion that is only Certain in Vncertainty which is the state of all that hath not an Infallible Rule to walk by Again about the Holy Scriptures how abominably have our Adversaries abused us particularly this Hammerer saying 'T is no Rule to us and that we have Cursed more than a Thousand times those that call the Scriptures the Word of God This needs no Confutation from me since every Body that know the Quakers know also that they use Cursing no more than Swearing yet this is the Man that if he don't speak Truth of us Desires to be Esteemed a Persecutor or the greatest Defamer on Earth c. Now although we do not commonly call the Scriptures the Word of God because we distinguish between them and Jesus Christ who is called in Scripture the Word of God yet it is not in the least to derogate from the Honour and Dignity that is due thereto but because it is an Attribute peculiar to Jesus Christ the Word although as they declare the Mind of God with respect to us and are his Commands to us they may in that respect be called the Word or Command of God and so the Quakers Own and Esteem them and Rejoice in them since they afford such a Comfortable History of the Dealings of the Lord with his People through many Generations and of the Coming of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Works Doctrine Miracles Sufferings Death Resurrection Ascention Glorification and present Mediation and of his Coming at the End of the World to Judge both Quick and Dead of the Resurrection of the Just and Unjust with many more Precious and Comfortable Doctrines all which are contained in the Holy Scripture and Writ for our Learning that by Faith in Christ the Man of God through them may be thoroughly furnisht to every good Word and Work And to that end we may have the true and right use of them it is requisite Men apply themselves to the Spirit of God in the reading thereof which never Contradicts its own Testimony in the Scripture but Corroborates it and makes it much more Effectual for Edification and Comfort as said the Prophet I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and keep my judgments c. and to this end we have direc 〈…〉 People to the Spirit of God within them For without the Assistance thereof the Reader hath not the true Comfort of them and therefore it 's false in Fact that the Quakers deny the Holy Scriptures and esteem them but Dirt Serpents Meat Death and Dead Letter as this Hammerer the Snake in the Grass Crisp Bugg c. saith For we sincerely believe the Scripture in it self is very good and profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness That the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works But the Best Instruments in the World put into the Hands of a Fool or one of no Capacity is no more to him than those which are worse unless to do Mischief with but in the Hand of an Artist the Work is excellently done Even so the Capacity for the right use of the Scripture is the Qualification of the Spirit without which the Scripture is not of that advantage though otherways very excellent in it self Now as some part of the Scripture is Allegorically to be understood as well as some other Literally and some both as our Adversaries confess so to turn that to an Allegory which is to be understood Literally is equally Foolish with taking that Literally that is to be understood Allegorically For the right understanding hereof can there be any better Method proposed than for Men to have recourse to that Spirit from whence it did at first flow And in that Gift of the Spirit to wait with patience until the Matter is clearly opened to them and not be hasty to conclude
not Belie or Abuse the Quakers if he do let him be accounted the greatest Defamer upon Earth c. But that they the Quakers do not understand it to be Conscience he himself has proved quoting Ro. Barclay calling it Vehiculum Dei whose Book is approved by the Quakers and contains their Faith and Doctrine in the Points Controverted and thither I refer the Ingenious Reader for a more full and ample satisfaction but since that Book is large and this being part of our present Controversie in pursuing this Hammerer I shall freely declare first Negatively That by the Light we never understood it to be Conscience since Conscience is liable to be corrupted and hardened as said the Apostle but this Principle of Divine Light is not obnoxious to any alteration or change from its own pure and holy Nature to any degree of Corruption whatsoever nor is it natural Reason for there is an apparent depravity come thereupon But secondly I declare Positively That by the Light we understand a glorious Beam or Ray proceeding from Christ the Fountain of Light displaying it self into our Souls for the enlightning of our Understandings and to put us in a Capacity to distinguish between Object and Object for as a Blind Man cannot discern the difference in Colours for want of his sight so all Men in their natural Estate are in as great a degree of Spiritual Blindness until by this Light they are in a degree enlightned hence it is that all are called Children of Wrath and that there is none that doth good no not one nor can it be otherwise for although Custom and Tradition may influence Men to do what they think they ought to do and deter them from what they have been taught to avoid yet till by a degree more or less of this Light they are enlightned it 's a Blind Zeal and Will-worship which is not at all acceptable to God but is Iniquity as is the Plowing of the Wicked though otherwise in it self an inoffensive Exercise so that the sight and knowledge of what makes for Man's Everlasting Happiness depends upon this Divine Light for without it we have no sight and consequently no Spiritual Knowledge since Man's Natural Reason is so depraved that he can no more search into and behold the glorious things that relates to the Kingdom of God and his Immortal State they being too Sublime for him than 't is possible for a Man to look into and search out the Matter and Nature of the Sun with his Bodily Eyes which if he attempts is soon Convinced of his Folly by being blinded by the inaccessible transcending Glory and Light thereof so that as the Apostle said 1 Cor. 2. 11. For what Man knoweth the things of a Man save the Spirit of a Man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God And in Verse 14. But the natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned I say then since Man in his Natural Estate is not able to know the things of God it is most certain that he must if ever he know them come to it by the help not of a Natural but Divine Light and such a Divine Light God who is in Christ Reconciling the World to himself the Father of Lights has sent his Son the Light of the World to bless the World withal that by believing in him Men may come out of Darkness and be turned every one of them from the Evil of their Ways It 's true he was a glorious Light in his Life Ministry Miracles Sufferings Death and Resurrection and as such there is no Dispute but we are obliged to believe in him and then we shall not abide in that Darkness and Unbelief the Jews c. are now in but that it should be restricted to that we deny since himself promised to come again and to be in his and with his to the end of the World to lead them into all Truth to Comfort as well as Convince them and in fine to dwell with them and in them according to Jo. 14. 16 17 18 21 23. and 15. 26. and 16. 7. with many more in the New Testament so that notwithstanding a Belief of Christ's Coming in the Flesh and Suffering and therein becoming a most Compleat Sacrifice for Remission of the Sins of the whole World Men may live and die in an unreconcileable State and fall short of that Salvation Jesus Christ has by his Blood purchased for them for a bare Belief and Consent to the Truth hereof doth not Entitle any Man to the Salvation therein offered unless he lives conform to the Will of God viz. Repent of his former Life and Vanity Believes viz. has Faith in God and Christ and that holy Spirit sent forth to purifâ—e his Heart and submits to the Work of it and leads a Life of Godliness and Honesty for time to come these are terms upon which Christ the Saviour is offered to every Man and they that perform these Conditions have the Benefit of the Sacrifice of Christ and for his sake God will look on them as if they had never sinned at all Now since to come to this Qualification where the Righteousness of Christ is truly to be imputed requires a real and effectual Change from Nature to Grace from Darkness to Light how is it possible that this Change can be effected without a steady adhering to this Divine Light which as it is obeyed in all its Manifestations leads out of all Darkness and Death into the Marvelous Light of Life nor doth this Principle of Light that manifest whatsoever is reprovable Eph. 5. 13. to that end it may be relinquished contradict the Light in the Scriptures for the Commands of the Holy Ghost in Scripture are made by this Light much more Effectual and Obligatory upon us for we do not place the Authority of Scripture only from its being esteemed Canonical but also from the Testimony of the Divine Light in our own Hearts which would have obliged the Believers therein to have believed the Holy Scriptures Sacred and of Divine Authority if no such Canons had past to put a Sanction on them How Unjust Uncharitable and Wicked then are our Adversaries that stick not to say We debase the Scripture to set up our own Light In short by the Light within we understand not Conscience nor Natural Reason but that Light which from the Son of Righteousness Jesus Christ the Light of the World shines into the Hearts of the Sons of Men to give them the Knowledge of the Glory of God or that Spirit of Truth that was promised should Convince the World of Sin and lead into all Truth or that Word nigh in the Heart and Mouth to be heard and obeyed or that still small Voice that saith This is the Way walk in it when turning to the Right
may write over their Doors as over the Doors of them that have the Plague Lord have Mercy on them But what then This is but one of his Complements upon us for he is sure we cannot be saved why then should he pray God to have Mercy on us Is not this to pray not only against Faith but certain Knowledge too besides taking the Name of God in vain which he so often exclaims against But what can we expect different from this from a Man that seems to be made up of Malice Forgeries and Lies as he appears to be through his Book But as for his Account of Hugh's of Plimouth I wonder his Friends would suffer him to over-hale it in Print unless the reviving of that Story would take off the Imputation which can never be unless there were better Vouchers for it than this Hammerer no nor then neither but with such as knew not the Man But being at length fully recovered from his Doctrinal Part he falls in p. 123. into an angry Humour with Ministers Wives for giving some Quakers an account of the ill Conditions of their Husbands I take this to be the Story and if so I say it was not well done of the Women to expose their Husbands Infirmities unless it were a Case of Conscience Though many a Poor Woman pays dear enough at Home for being led abroad once a Week in her Topknot but what their Lot is they must submit to and wade through it as they can Yet if the Women will Gossip and tell of the Cheats of their Husbands why should not they be believed as well as the Quaker's Wife he told of in p. 74. When it becomes his own Case he is not for hearing any Womens Complaints against their Husbands but then he not only if you will believe him heard it but hath also printed it though never the truer for that He says he knew a Famous Minister whose Wife broke his Heart he advises Ministers to keep their Ground for if they do not rule their Wives will He quotes many Presidents for being Henpeckt which would make one suspect that he himself was too deeply affected that way But on enquiry I find his Wife hath the hardest side of it by far and so according to the Proverb The worst Spoak cracks first But to come to an end for 't is time nor had I been here but to clear the Truth and its Professors and expose his Folly that if possible he may be ashamed of it and of himself for its sake with a Parcel of Verses though none of his very well adapted to a Chiding Woman and a few Scoffs and Jeers upon She Friends as he calls them together with another Ramble of unheard of Lies which he pretends to deliver as the Sence of the Quakers he ends his Work and lays down his Hammer but not without a false stroke to the very last lest it should any where fail of being all of a Thread which is thus This Barclay says he tells us if Infallibility be not in his Enthusiasms 't is not lodged in the Scripture but we must go for it to the Chair of Rome Here I cannot find a softer Expression than this The Lake is for the Liar and the Liar for the Lake and that 's the Portion of all such unless they Repent for R. B. no where in his Printed Books says so though this Lying Adversary of ours has the Impudence to assert it but the best of it is 't is with the same Credit with the rest But he goes on thus Every thing Poor Robin to its Centre thy Doctrine came from Rome tends to Rome and many that knew thee believe that thou were 't not to be reckoned in the number of Protestants But why thus Poor Robin And once before away Poor Robin what should induce him to call over his Name at this rate I will not determine whether it was from his great Intimacy with Poor Robin's Almanacks as part of his Study or with a design to lessen the Reputation of R. B. if it was the first he has shewn himself an apt Scholar by his Freaks and Comical Raileries But if it be the latter I pity him that he should be carried away with such Whims as to think that he was able to Impeach R. B. who was well known by most Ranks and Degrees of Men to be raised far enough above the Envy of such a Whiffling Petulant Adversary as this Hammerer hath all along appeared to be And now Reader having done for the present with Trepidantium Malleus I shall Address my self to thee IT is not because I Love Controversie or affect popularity that I have undertook to write the foregoing Reply but because I would take off those Bear-skins this lurking Adversary has endeavoured to wrap us in nor indeed had I undertook it if many or most of our Friends that are qualified for such Services had not declined it as a Scurrilous Libel not worth their notice partly from the Matter it self as being False Idle Comical and Vain and partly from the Knowledge they had of the Author since he is so well known to be out of his right Mind But because he may not be generally known to be so where his Book may come and understanding that the Book is handed about from one to another of the Brotherhood and entertained with great Applause as an unanswerable Piece I found my self concerned to Vindicate the Truth against his Malicious Slanders I observe it 's not his Case only but many more of that Complection for many Years past especially in peaceable Times to be throwing their Squibs at the Quakers although in Times of Persecution they generally are more quiet If they had any reasonable or just Cause to Reproach us for holding any Erroneous or Hurtful Principles it were something But when we are Condemned for Hereticks it is by their Forgeries Lies and Perversions which they would insinuate was our Belief One while we are Papists and Jesuites although we Challenge any of them to go as far as they dare in any of the Negative Doctrines of the Reformation Another while we deny the Humanity of Christ by and by his Divinity One while we cannot Pray without the Spirit by and by we expect to Merit Salvation by our own Works One while we are for turning the whole Scripture into Allegories by and by Persecuted because we keep to Scripture words Their great News about our not Confessing our Sins is as false as the rest though perhaps grounded upon our not doing it in the same Customary way and manner that our Adversaries use But what then doth it therefore follow as he wickedly insinuates page first That we think our selves too good and too perfect to ask a Holy God forgiveness for any imperfection in Thought Word or Astion by no means Nay see how Contradictory he is he chargeth L. S. for Pride and falling into the Condemnation of the Devil because he wisht
is the Devil For verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the Sins of the People Again For we have not an High-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin And as to his Suffering both in Body and Soul and thereby becoming a most compleat Sacrifice for the Remission of the Sins of the whole World according to Isaiah Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for Sin he shall see his Seed he shall prolong his Days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his Hand He shall see of the travel of his Soul and be satisfied by his Knowledge shall my Righteous Servant justifie many for he shall bear their Iniquities Neither by the Blood of Goats and Calves but by his own Blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the Living God Again Who gave himself for us that he might Redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Again For Christ also hath once suffered for Sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to Death in the Flesh but quickened by the Spirit Again And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour That I may know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the Fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death With many more all which we as truly and as faithfully Believe as any Protestants whatever and he must have a Face of Brass that will say the Quakers either deny or undervalue any part of it And for the Trinity as he calls it we as much believe it as the Scripture declares it viz. For there are Three that bare Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One. And there are Three that bare witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these Three agree in One. And as for the Body of Christ turning to Dust is so great an untruth that he must set up for the Trade of Lying that attempts a greater for the Quakers Believe according to the Acts of the Apostles which saith Ye Men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Again He seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his Soul was not left in Hell neither his Flesh did see Corruption This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are Witnesses Therefore being by the Right Hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear For David is not ascended into the Heavens but he saith himself The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my Right Hand until I make thy Foes thy Footstool Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have Crucified both Lord and Christ Again Whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the Mouth of all his holy Prophets since the World began So that as his Flesh saw no Corruption he Ascended far above all Heavens and sits at the Right Hand of the Majesty in the Heavens c. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum We have such an High-priest who is set on the Right Hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens And though Christ was Anointed with the Oyl of Joy and Gladness above his Fellow referring to his Manhood which the Quakers readily confess yet never called it Anointings as he says for what reason I know not unless to abuse the Quakers And that all Christians have a degree or measure of the same the fulness of which was in him is sound Doctrine and to be believed and lookt for since he that has not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and since the Hammerer don't expect it no marvel he is so great a Slave to Sathan as he is His Scoffs at Perfection and Freedom from Sin I shall next take notice of and answer as follows That by Perfection the Quakers never pretended to any other than a being freed from Sinning and of a growth from one degree of Grace to another to the perfecting of Holiness but a Perfection of the fulness of Knowledge or of Glory is what is not to be expected in this World nor did we ever pretend to it but if a being delivered from sinning is not attainable the Quakers are indeed Fools to pretend to it and our Adversaries are in the right to reflect on us for it but if it be who is Fool then And that it is is most clear from Mat. 5. 48. Luke 6. 40. 2 Cor. 13. 9. 2 Tim. 3. 17. Eph. 4. 11 12 13. Heb. 6. 1. or else we must Charge an Absurdity on the Holy Ghost for injoining what was impossible to be attained to and where will that Centre And whereas he often reflects and abuseth the Quakers for denying Prayer and particularly Page 78. They must wait for the Spirit 's Call to Prayer saith he then asks how they and the Spirit came to be such Strangers that it calls not to them all the Day Week Month or Year long to pray alone or in their Families This also is like the rest and what that is is plainly made appear for 't is a hard matter for him to speak Truth in any one thing unless it be where he can strike us in the Teeth with a Demas or Judas an Alexander or Hymeneus or Philetu or a Nicholas c. which that we should be without is more than can be expected since the first Planters of Christianity were not yet that neither rendred the Christians Impostors or Apostates nor their Religion the Sink of Heresie though our Hammerers Elder Brethren thought it and them so and prosecuted them accordingly as their Rabbies did their Lord and Master Now as to Prayer in Families and alone as well as in publick Meetings this is the known practice of the People called Quakers but because they have not set hours for it any more than