but reviving that old and durable Ministration of the Spirit Therefore Blasphemous Derogations will return to our Adversary as unduely charged upon us with a Charge upon him of base Derogation from the Truth of our Belief But he thinks that Humph. Smith has made much for him in thus Querying Whether should People be led in these dayes by Moses according to his outward Ministration or the Person of Christ limiting it to his Visible Appearance or the Spirit of Truth which he promised to pour out after his Ascension which contains the Substance of what he quotes out of H. Sm. to which he thus answers There is no sober Christian can read this Passage without Anger and Disdain to see such wicked Wretches scoff and fleeringly insult upon the sacred Person of our Lord Jesus The whole History of whose Life and Death in the Letter of it they esteem no better then one of Aesop's Fables Answ But our Adversary will not so easily escape the Hands of the Just God whose is Vengeance for these Ungodly Defamations as he well knows he may do ours Anger Disdain and Lyes become him and it is little to be wondred that he should be guilty of them all against a Quaker If H. Sm. had asserted that Moses could not be our Leader neither the Visible Person of Christ but the Spirit of Truth he had not exceeded the Warrant of Scripture nor the very Judgment of this Reviler It is not two pages off that he quoted Joh. 16.14 He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Which if I understand any thing imports thus much That those things which they knew not whilst Christ was with them after his Ascension the Holy Ghost should reveal unto them as these two preceeding Verses fully prove I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and he will shew you things to come Nay Christ himself sayes in the 7th Verse Nevertheless I tell you the Truth It is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you And in the 14th Chapter he speaks thus I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter 〈◊〉 will abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth So that the personal Ministration was manifestly transient and temporary but That of the Spirit was to abide for ever But I would not any should think it to be less Christ's Ministration because the Ministration of the Spirit for the Lord is that Spirit as his own Words manifest Again I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you Yet a little while and the World seeth me no more but ye see me Because I live ye shall live also For he that dwelleth with you shall be in you At that day you shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you And that this Comforter is Christ in his Spiritual Coming and Appearance let it be further observed that the same Word for Comforter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in John 16.7 is the Word used by the same Apostle in the first Verse of the 2d Chapter of his first Epistle for Advocate when he sayes We have an Advocate with the Father Christ Jesus the Righteous In short the Dispensation of his Visible Appearance was but Temporary It is expedient for you that I go away But his Ministration who so appeared then dis-appeared and after re-appeared in a Spiritual and unalterable Ministration Lo I am with you to the End of the World And truly thus much our Adversary in Contradiction to himself grants us that the Ministration of Christ was indeed the Ministration of the Spirit Now what Scoffs Fleerings or Insults against the sacred Person of our Lord Jesus any can see in this Doctrine to incite a sober Christian to Anger and Disdain I leave to any but such an Angry and Disdainful Enemy to judge I cannot forget his horrible Ly of us concerning the Scriptures stolen probably out of an Anabaptists lying Dialogue lately printed against us Prelaticks and Sectaries can sometimes agree against Quakers Aesop's Fables have more worth in them then all the Books that ever were written against the Quakers I do not at all doubt but there are Twenty Fables in Aesop that well considered would have taught them more Discretion and it should have been their own Fault if not more Honesty too then any or all of them have shown in their utmost Endeavours against us But that we have no more Regard to nor Belief in the Holy Scriptures of Truth then in Aesop's Fables is a Story more prophane and fabulous then any Fable in Aesop and God will recompence with a Vengeance this Defamer of an Innocent People unless diverted by his unfeigned Repentance §. 2. Of Revelation He tels us the second thing wherein the Familists and Quakers are all one is the Pretence of Immediate Revelation Dav. Geo. and H.N. both pretend to receive their Doctrine from the Angel Gabriel And W. Gibson the Quaker sayes that the Gospel which they preach they have not received it from Men nor from Books nor from Writings but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in them and then denyes the Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be the revealed Will of God Answ After what manner D.G. and H.N. received their Commission I know not but sure I am that W. Gibson's Assertion is sound Take away Revelation and the Gospel ceases of course Christ is put besides the Dignity of his Prophetical and Priestly Office the Promises of God will be broken and the most excellent part of the Scriptures God's Traditions made void Who was it said A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me Him shall ye hear in all things There is a Spirit in Man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding As for me This is my Covenant with him saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed's Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever I will REVEAL unto them the Abundance of Peace and Truth I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast REVEALED them unto Babes And no Man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will REVEAL him No Man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him But God hath REVEALED them unto us by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God If anything be REVEALED to another that sitteth by
and his Apostles which how true soever it may be of them I am sure is False enough of us for those hideous Consequences he makes are not deducible from any unperverted Saying to be cited out of Truth 's Defence And least any should think we deny with the Papists the Perusal of the Scriptures to Ignorant People from what our Adversary sayes know that they spoke of such Ignorant and Unlearned Persons as in reading wrested them to their own Destruction now unless it be not Dangerous to read to Destruction they are not chargeable witâ— Bâ—ame in that Matter But who are the Knowing and Learned The Jewish Doctors and Greek Philosophers No but Fishermen and poor Mechanicks discipled in Christ's School for the Excellency of whose Knowledge Paul reputed his Gamaliel-Acquisitions but Dross and Dung So that their Knowing and Learned are many times the Ignorant Unlearned we speak of whose Wisdom God will confound and whose Understanding he will bring to nought His last Comparison of us in this Chapter is with Marcus an old Heretick The Agreement he makes betwixt us lyes in our mutual Pretences to Inspiration and Prophecy For as he reports him to have abused many silly Women under colour of conferring on them the Gift of Prophesying and that he had a familiar Spirit by which 〈◊〉 brought himself into Credit with his deluded Followers So he tells us that he has had it confidently affirmed That about the first rise of the Quakers in the North of England several Persons by Gloves and Ribbands and divers Charmes were really bewitched by them And doubtless many of their Quaking fits were real Possessions by the Devil Answ What Marcus was is nothing to us If he has done amiss he has answered for it by this time I confess I am not over-fond of the Characters left us of ancient Hereticks knowing what kind of Creatures the best Protestants are with Papists and what fearful Monsters several sober Separatists are reputed among some Protestants But this I know if what he hath said of several Ancients be no Truer then what he hath said of us he has grosly abused their Doctrines and their Memories For the Witchcraft of our Gloves Ribbands and Charmes 't is scarce worth my Notice his Folly in mentioning it being a sufficient Reproof and Confutation to himself A Story fit for none at this time of day to report or believe but a Man of his size I thought they had been worn out by this time But let the sober Reader judge which savours most of Satan's Design this Idle yet Scandalous Story or our Fearing and Trembling at the Word of the Lord and those Terrors that broke in upon our Souls because of Sin and Iniquity 'T is but the old Spirit of Mockery that acted the Jews and Heathens against the Christians and Papists against Protestants and too many Protestants of several Sorts against some more reformed Separatists For had the Reverent Fear of God possessed our Adversary's Heart in the writing of this Discourse there had been no room for such Irreligious Scoffs against an inoffensive People But the Devil because he would be God calls God the Devil Christ Beelzebub Light Darkness and the Power of God the Power of Satan and the Fear and Trembling brought by the one the Possessions and Witchcrafts of the other Certainly such Men live in a dry Land they see not when Good cometh But what will not an Enraged Tything Priest do to destroy us who he knows are Discoverers of such Deluders CHAP. III. His pretended Agreement between the Authors of Familism and the Quakers considered His Objections answered I Now come to consider the Reason of the Title of his Book and what Ground he had to name us the Revivers Propagators of Familism with the most weighty Objections he makes against us if in Truth I may repute the strongest of them such and that with what Brevity Truth and Faithfulness I can The great Authors of this Doctrine of Familism he sayes were David George and Henry Nicolas but more especially the latter as having more improved and disseminated the pernicious Errors introduced by the former He bestows many severe Expressions upon them more I think then becomes a Man of any Charity to give I am not their Advocate But so much Splene and so little Reason against Dead Men can be neither Christian nor Manly What he sayes they held and how far we are concerned in it it is our Business to enquire § 1. Of Christ's Ministration And first he tells us that H.N. should say that not only the Law of Moses but the Ministration of Christ and his Apostles were only Temporary things instituted to bring Men to the perfect Reign of the Spirit and then like Horn-Books and Primers to grown Understandings to be thrown away pag. 10 11. And that this is the full Sense of the Quakers sayes our Adversary Hear John Crook a Quaker We believe by the same Gift of Grace that there are several Ministratitions and several Operations according to 1 Cor. 12. And all by the same Spirit as before and after the Law by Moses and after by John the Baptist and Christ and his Apostles And by this Spirit were the Scriptures given forth and the Holy Men of God did speak prophesy preach and pray as they were moved and to answer the Service God had for them to do they were to wait as Christ commanded his Disciples to receive the Promise of the Father And therefore as it was the Practice of the People of God in old time to wait for the Moving of this Spirit that they might speak as it gave them Utterance in the Evidence and Demonstration thereof so do this People called Quakers now Upon which our Adversary dares to observe that we with the Familists deny the Ministration of Christ to be the Ministration of the Spirit and consequently a Blasphemous Derogation from the Honour of our Blessed Saviour who said to his Apostles Joh. 16.14 He shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Answ If our Adversary's Weakness has run him into this strange Parrallel he is to be pittyed but if his Envy he is severely to be rebuked Will any Man that has Sense or Honesty say it is all one to affirm that Christ's Ministration is an Horn-book that time casts off with Infancy and that it is a Waiting to receive the same Spirit Christ commanded his Apostles to wait for as the Promise of the Father and the peculiar Gift and Priviledge of his own Ministration Does not J. Crook expresly draw a Parallel between the Holy Men of God of old and the Quakers of our time that as they then so the Quakers now wait to be taught moved and ordered by the same Eternal Spirit through which all come to be baptized into One Body How was that then no Spiritual Ministration when we desire to be conformed unto the Spirit and Holy Example thereof not making this anew
some Form of his making Answ But can this Man have the Vanity to plead the Necessity of the Use of this Form much less of those that are of Mens Invention and Appointment from those Quotations Has his Religion brought him no farther Can he believe that Matthew writ by the holy Ghost and yet imply an absolute Reproof in his so much more commending Luke's account which he thinks requires the express Words and not others like them But let it be considered that this was a time of Infancy and that it was before the more full pouring out of the Spirit is certain and that they knew not Gospel Prayer as afterward is undeniable Besides It is either Sufficient or it is not If Insufficient it reflects on Christ beside who can supply its Defect If Sufficient why do you use any other What ever it is upon our Principles you must confess it be a setting of your Postes by God's Postes your Invention by his Institution It is meer Deceit to attempt the Defence of the Popish English Mass-Book from Christ's Prayer Prove your Forms to be of Divine Institution and that God by his Spirit now requires them and the Debate will end otherwise we reject the Allusion as improper and incoherent The Spirit is not confinable to set Forms though in times of Ignorance he hath administred Comfort in them by those who were sincere and knew no better But Forms are not therefore to be perpetuated for that were to obstruct the more free Operation of the Spirit and our Expression by it It is at best but a State of Weakness to be condescended to but never to be pleaded for God's Spirit will be unlimited as well as the Words he prompts us to must never by another be confined §. 4. Of Baptism He sayes we both deny Baptism by which I understand Water because Christ finding it among the Jews adopted it into his Religion a Ceremony neither burthensome nor offensive and the only Door set open under the Gospel for Salvation For which he brings three Scriptures Matth. 28.19 Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father c. To the same purpose by Mark Chap. 16. v. 15 16. And Christ's Saying Joh. 3.5 Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Answ If Baptism was ever Jewish as our Adversary grants then because Christ came to end all Jewish Ceremonies Water-Baptism can bear no Evangelical Perpetuity And if it should be objected that it was used after the Pouring forth of the Holy Ghost I answer so was Circumcision Vowes Purification Forbearing to eat things strangled and Blood And the common Practice of Christendom so called sufficiently tells us what is become of those Observations Using and Instituting are two things The Apostles condescended where they never commanded In the two first Scriptures which contain a Commission there is no Water mentioned That there is a Baptism of the Holy Ghost I hope all will grant That such a Baptism admits of no outward Water is plainly implyed And that it was the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and therefore not of Water which Christ intended I will briefly prove First this Commission was some of the last Words Christ spoak that it is to be fulfilled is certain that they could not do it without Power is clear that neither of those Chapters mentions any such Endowment must be granted Whether then must we go to fetch that Account here omitted I would desire my Reader to turn to the first Chapter of Luke's Acts of the Apostles where we shall find Christ's last Words to his constant Followers thus left upon Record And being assembled together with them he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father which saith he ye have heard of me For John truly baptized with Water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many Dayes hence When they therefore were come together they asked of him saying Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel And he said unto them It is not for you to know the Times or the Seasons which the Father has put into his own Power But ye shall receive Power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be Witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and 〈◊〉 Samariah and unto the uttermost part of the Earth And when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of their Sight Now if the Promise of the Father was the Pouring out of the Holy Ghost and if the Pouring out of the Holy Ghost be the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost was that which qualified them to be his Witnesses as the whole place fully proves Then Go and teach all Nations c. in Matthew and Go ye into all the World in Mark must not have been spoken before these Words in the Acts at least not to take place till they themselves had been baptized with the Holy Ghost and consequently the Baptism mentioned in that Commission must not have been a Water-Baptism as John's was but that of the Holy Ghost which they were to be baptized with so that the Order of the Words at least in Execution if not in Expression must have been this John indeed baptized with Water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many Dayes hence Then go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in or rather into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And lo I am with you alwayes unto the End of the World Nor is this incredible when we consider without their so baptizing it had been utterly Impossible for them to have turned them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God And doubtless they might as well baptize with the Holy Ghost as reconcile by the Word For where the one was the Power of the other could not be wanting For the third Scripture though Water be mentioned yet what Water will be the Question That it is not meant of outward Water I offer several Reasons 1. To be born of Water and of the Spirit is no more then to be born of Water or of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being here explicative For were it otherwise and that by Water were understood External Water this Absurdity would inevitably follow that the Soul of Man which is Spiritual and Internal could in part be regenerated by Water External and Elementary But this place is excellently unfolded by that notable Passage of the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to Titus Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the Washing of Regeneration and Renewing of the Holy Ghost where we not only have the WASHING of Regeneration to parrallel being born again of Water which say we must be as Spiritual as the NewBirth it produceth but also the Renewing of the Holy Ghost to answer being born again of the Spirit That
as the washing of Regeneration or Renewing of the Holy Ghost are Synonymous or Expressions to the same Purpose so being born again of Water or being born again of the Spirit are equivalent But if our Adversary will have this Water to be material in Honour of his Baptism Let him never refuse the like Liberty to us in Construction of that great Water-Baptist's own Words But he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with Fire that is material Fire My Judgment is if that were the Church of Englands Baptism he had never been her Son though such Sons are ready to Christian many with that Fiery Baptism But if such an Interpretation be absurd let him not esteem his own Rational And if it must be the holy Ghost or Fire then let it be Water or Spirit for indeed they are but so many Words intimating the various Operations of one Divine Power In short John was but a Forerunner therefore not to be perpetuated He was the Water but Christ the great Spiritual Baptist The Former to decrease the Latter to increase And the least in Christ's Kingdom which is not of this World is greater then John not then his private State but outward Administration Paul whose Commission was larger then any Priests in England tells us He was not sent to baptize with Water but to Preach And instead of enjoyning the Practice of it upon others he thanks God that he baptized but very few himself which surely he had never done if it had been part of his Commission or the durable Baptism of the Gospel For he had just Reason to suspect some disaffected would make that Ill-Use of his Liberty that it was to ingratiate and set up himself being conscious that he had no Authority for what he did This he further gives us to believe in that pertinent Passage to our Purpose There is One Body One Spirit One Lord One Faith One Baptism One God and Father of all If more Baptisms then one then more Bodies Spirits Lords Faiths Gods and Fathers of all who were above all and through all and in them all unto whom Paul wrote If this be absurd and that there is but one Baptism I hope it will not be denyed to be that of the Holy Ghost which is both most suitable to the Evangelical Ministration and the peculiar Baptism of Christ Jesus our Lord. I shall touch upon one Passage more The like Figure whereunto even Baptism also doth now save us as our modern Translation has it From which though our Adversary would infer that Water-Baptism is to be used as co-assistant with the Answer of a good Conscience to Salvation I doubt not unanswerably to mantain from it our foregoing Assertion This Verse admits of various readings in ancient Copies and diverse Interpretations by learned Men. We shall a little disquisite the matter that he may see we shall not refuse Learning where it may perform the Office of an honest Servant not an Usurper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the modern Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustin has it Vos and our old Books saith Zegerus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Vatabalus makes the truth relative to the Type Flood And saith Grotius Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est communis utrique relatâ— i. tam figurae tribuitur quam rei per figuram significatae signifiing Type and Antitype or the thing signified by the Type Erasmus hath it cui nunâ— simile sive respondens Baptisma so that Baptism may answer as the thing typified not another Type 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Dr. Hammond a famous Man of the English Church is certainly best renderd Antitype yet there be â—wo different senses sometimes Contradiction thus Zenophon and Hesychius Then Destruction was by Outward Water now Salvation by Inward otherwise pro or in lieu of another as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that supplies the Consul's place so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in an old Coppy in Oxford is the Ark inward supplying the place of the Ark outward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Capellus understands to be Baptismum internum quo fimus mortis resurrectionis Christi participes Hujus interni baptismi typos aliquot habemus in V.T. imprimis autem arcam diluvii et arcam Noae By Inward Baptism we are made Partakers of Christ's Death and Resurrection Of this Inward Baptism we have several Types in the old Testament of which Noah's Ark was one Grotius refers us to these Scriptures for an Apostolical Exposition Rom. 6.3 4. Ephes 4.5 Gal. 3.27 Col. 2.12 all which refer to Man's being baptized into Christ's Death his putting on of Christ and to the One Lord One Faith One Baptism And indeed Beza shewed them the Way who will have it that the Baptism which answered to Noah's Ark was not material Water but the Power of Christ within wich preserves us cleansed and enables us to call on God with a good Conscience Nor is Doctor Hammond of a different Judgment in this Case who not only will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Antitype but the Baptism that is that Antitype answering to Noah's Ark to be the Inward Washing of Men's Consciences from Pollution and delivering them from the Deluge of Sin and Destruction Not only from all this do I conclude the Baptism mentioned in that place to be the Antitype or Truth answering to the outward and typical Salvation of Noah's Ark but for those Reasons which were with me before my Perusal of these Authors and which I shall now briefly offer First If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were but a Type or Figure one Type would answer another which is not proper 2 dly It were both to suppose that the Gospel were a State of Figures which is the Substance of all and of such Figures too as are less demonstrative or significant for what is that Sprinkling Baby-Baptism for Dipper or dipped I suppose our Adversary to be neither to the Worlds Deluge and Noah's Ark. 3 dly The Baptism in the Text must be such a one as hath Efficacy enough in it to save which outward Water can't do Besides the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or saveth hath Relation to Noah's Ark wherein the eight Souls were saved Therefore the Antitype or Truth answering to That as Type 4 ly It is such a Baptism as saves by the Power of Christ's Resurrection answerable to Rom. 6.3 4. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death that like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in Newness of Life 5 ly And this the Parenthesis in the Verse undeniably proves
Impure and Antichristian But what have we Seduced People to Drunkenness Whoredom Perjury Wantonness Idleness or any such Unseemly or Irreligious Practice Let him tell me who of us are less Serious less Moral or worse Livers then we were before But the Truth of the Matter is this Our Way of Devouring Peoples Souls as he calls it is that which hinders the Hireling Pâ—iests from Devouring the Peoples Pockets and endangering their Souls too who teach for Hire and divine for Money and make Religion but a Stalk to Preferment who have the Shell without the Substance the Form without the Power From such in obedience to God's Spirit we have turned away and because we have dared no longer to put into their Mouthes their Covetous Spirit has swelled notwithstanding their Pretences and their Sheep-Skin burst and an arrant Woolf has come forth no true Sheep but a Sheep-Fleecer and a Sheep-Sucker of their Blood whose Innocency and Patience have plainly proved them such But the Wolf and the Fox's Skin have been always good enough for us any thing to disguise and make the Dogs fasten and worry to Death Our Conscience they call Enthusiasm and our solemn Confession Collusion and Equivocation our Perseverance is reputed Obstinacy our Plainness Singularity our Industry Worldly-mindedness and our Retired-Living Penuriousness our Rebukes of Evil they will have to be Censoriousness and our Disregard of Company Pride and Sullenness Whatever God by his Light has made Conscience to us there are a sort of Men that have so little Conscience as to construe it all backwards rendring us instead of Honest Conscientious Men A Pack of Fraudulent Cheating Fellows But we cannot help it if Men will Rage they must Their Shame and our Patience will the more appear He sayes Our Second Stratagem is to bring the People out of Love with their Pastors who have the Care of them Answ I know not a Quaker in the World that would not administer both Food and Rayment to the worst Persecutor as a necessitous Creature But I hope they would suffer unto Death before they would contribute either to him as a Priest No God's Witness in our Consciences never said Amen to their Ministry They have the Scriptures true But the Word of Reconciliation that brings to God and of which they declare they want I know that some of them can talk well so can some Mountebanks And Comedians Do they witness the Truth of what they speak Their Heads know but do their Hearts feel the Operation of That Truth they will sometimes in Words declare Have they travelled the Way and traced the many anxious Steps of that new Birth which is the only Door into the Heavenly Kingdom But alas Oxford and Cambridge make them and their Parents and Patrons prefer them a good round Maintenance is mostly their Aim on all hands Tell them of the Necessity of an Inward Work that it is the Spirit of God that only makes a Man a Minister of God and that the Anointing which true Christian-Men receive is Sufficient to their Instruction and presently the Cry is Donatism Pelagianism Familism Brownism Jesuitism Quakerism or any other Name that begets Jealousie Undervalue and Hatred In short we do believe that the setled Ministers of the World are so far from being Beneficial to People that on the contrary they excercise their minds with a sort of unexperienced unauthoriz'd Preaching from the secret Strivings Discoveries and Leadings of that Spiritual Minister of the Everlasting Covenant which is able to bring Man into that way of Holiness without which no Soul shall ever see the Lord And this is the true reason why we are turned unto God's Minister Christ Jesus who says Learn of me of whom God said this is my beloved Son hear him reject the Ministry of Man Our Third Artifice by which he sayes we gain our Proselytes is decrying all Human Learning Use of Reason That we are the most sottish Ignorant Sect that ever appeared in the World Yet for our own turn we will be nibling at it as G.W. in mentioning a Moth-eaten Manuscript mentioned by Beza in his Annotations Answ We have already said enough to defend Christianity from the absolute Necessity of Human Learning either to understand or vindicate it and so false is his Assertion that since Prophecy has ceased in the Church secular Learning hath been of greatest Use and Benefit to Religion that there is nothing more true then the contrary as it is commonly understood promoted and practised in the World I would fain know how many Rabbies Greek and Latin Philosophers yielded themselves Proselytes to the Christian Religion though they had his Presence Ministry Miracles Death and Resurrection amongst them who was and is the Author and Master of it If such Learning be so great a Friend to Truth How comes it that the greatest things have fallen to the Share of Poor and Illiterate Men And that such have been most apt to receive and boldest to suffer for it Why not Rabbies rather then Fisher-Men which was before the Pouring out of the Spirit of Prophecy And for what Reason should so many learned Academies since the pretended * Ceasing of it be overrun with such Foul Idolatries Gross Superstitions and flagitious Living as 1200 years past will witness Nay on the Occasion of any Reformation with whom is there more to do and who harder to be brought to yield then Universities have been Scripture and Story give it clear against him Not that I would be thought to oppose a Sort of Learning neither It has been Man's Erring from his Divine Guide that has made way for those numerous Theses Distinctions Books and Controversies the World for Ages hath been infested with Such are the Obscure Unintelligible and Unprofitable Metaphysicks of the Heathen too greedily received and mischeiveously increased by Fathers Councils School Men and our modern Universities to the corrupting of Christian Doctrine and disputing away the Benefit of Christian Life An unbounded Curiosity and Phancy have been the Womb that hath brought forth so much troublesom and unprofitable matter which began with a Degeneration of Philosophers True Philosophy in the beginning of it being no more then the Way of Holy Living by the Mortification of Passions But Learning as Religion failing by Corruption of Men is now degenerated into quite another thing Socrates taught proper Speech and good Life and such a Course of Learning turned to daily Practice and Profit severely forbidding all Curiosities and Niceties as what turned not to Good Life which he reputed the best Science And Plato would have the Poets banished out of his Common-Wealth as corrupting it with Fables thus was Learning as Religion once pure and Simple In short all right Learning is to be divided into these two True Knowledge and proper Language This Knowledge relates first to God and that 's only to be received from the Spirit of God and 2 ly the things of this
let the first hold his Peace For when it pleased God to REVEAL his Son in me For I neither received the Gospel of Man neither was I taught it but by the REVELATION of Jesus Christ If any be other-wise minded God will REVEAL it to him As I said before so again Who uttered these excellent Sayings and for what End If no Inspiration no Understanding If no Revelation no Knowledge And if the Spirit cease to teach as it can never teach but by Inspiration or Revelation then the Administration of Christ and his Apostles is ceased indeed And so not the Quakers but their Adversary overturns the Gospel-Ministration as begun and preached by Christ and his Apostles And be it known to all the World we think Revelation no Disgrace to our Cause Parrats may learn Scripture but can never experience it And those know little better who know not by Experience They are unprofitable Canters indeed who confidently talk of what they never felt and Idle Boasters who bo◠up themselves unto the Reputation of Ministers and Christians with a loud talk of their Travels Tryals Inspirations and Experiences whom they plainly mock in their Posterity concluding all blind because they cannot see In short Let it be the Character of the despised Quakers and we glory in it that all the Councils Synods Universities Doctors Scholars and the most Unanimous Decrees Learned Books and what ever the Power and Art of the Spirit of Man can produce will never be able to give or rule that true Faith which overcomes the World For that which may be known of God is manifested within Man And though outward Records may testify of and direct to that Unerring Light and Spirit by which Man comes both to know God and to be made conformable to his heavenly Image yet nothing below the Discoveries Convictions and Effectual Operations of the Eternal Spirit can give Man the certain Knowledge of God nor that daily Ability by which alone he may be enabled to obey him But he opposeth to us Miracles and Reason insinuating that we have no more of the last then the first and therefore not to be believed To the first I say we pretend to no other Religion then what was professed and practised by the Apostles and therefore need no new Miracles after that Manner to confirm that which has been confirmed by Miracles already especially by those who believe those Miracles And to deny Revelation where there are no Miracles is to discard many of the Prophets and to deny the Pouring forth of the Spirit upon the primitive Christians But above all hear the Man's Interpretation of Deut. 18.22 When a Prophet speaks in the Name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is saith this horrible Perverter of holy Scripture if he do no Miracle whereas the Verse intends no such thing Is this to rant over the Quakers for Idiots as if he were some Doctor of the Chair that where the Scripture speaks of Prophecy he should render it Miracle as if he that is a Prophet is a Worker of Miracles and that Miracles and Prophecy are equivalent But Argumentum ad hominem let us see how it will hold He that is a true Prophet must necessarily work Miracles But the Priests of England cannot work Miracles therefore the Priests of England are all False Prophets A true Conclusion yet false Premises A Paradox Now for the Reasonableness of our Doctrine He thinks a very mean Capacity can find none in it for how should there be any Reason in what they teach when they themselves sayes he deny the Use of Reason But none have less then they which pretend to so much This Man dares swagger for Reason and yet cryes out Heresy as soon as he sees it His Reason is the Authority of his Church The SAY-SO of some University Doctor finally The Workes of some learned Men and offer never so much Reason Conscience against them and your Reason is Sophistry and Conscience Enthusiasm The justest Separation in the World is with such but Schism and which is the last Stratagem such Persons must be Enemies to Caesar But I may say of those Men as Heraclitus said of their Fore-Fathers If blind Men were to judge of Sight they would say Blindness were Sight God is the Fountain as well of Reason as Light And we assert our Principle not to be without Reason but most Reasonable Whence it is frequent with us in our Reproof of Cruel Men to say they are Unreasonable whether it be to Man or Beast making good what the Prophet saith For his God doth instruct him to Discretion and doth teach them Again Come let us Reason together And Tertullian will have the first Verse of John thus rendr'd In the Beginning was Reason and that Reason was with God and that Reason was God by that were all things made c. And this seems no forreign Interpretation for in the 10th Verse of Jude we have sensual Men not having the Spirit called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unreasonable Creatures according to which the Apostle Peter speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that askes Reason ready to give it Thus much to overlook our own Translation in Paul's second Epistle to the Thessalonians where he calls such Unreasonable Men that have not Faith concerning Reason So that it is very evident by our Adversary's denying and the Quakers asserting an unerrable Principle to be in Man and the Refusal of the one and the Readiness of the other to be governed thereby not the Quakers but their Enemies are Unreasonable both in their Faith and Practice §. 3. Of Forms of Prayer Our Adversary spends two or three Pages in proving the Necessity of Bodily Worship and he doth it so lamely that if it were so much my Judgment to deny it as it is to practise it I know nothing he has said to encline me to it This he makes an Introduction to that Agreement he sayes there is between D.G.H.N. and the Quakers in their mutual Renouncing both Bodily Worship and Visible Ordinances For Bodily Worship I need say no more then that our publick Meetings judge him guilty of great Dishonesty For his Visible Ordinances we shall proceed to consider them The first is concerning a Form of Prayer hear him With the like silly and weak Confidence they exclaim against Forms of Prayer wheras our blessed Saviour taught his Disciples a Form Math. 6.9 After this manner therefore pray ye c. And least sayes he we should think that this was only a Pattern Saint Luke Chapt. 11. expresses it when ye pray say Our Father c. that is do it in these Words Moreover John taught his Disciples and one of Christ's Disciples desired that he would teach them where we are told first that John delivered a Form of Prayer to his Disciples 2. That Christ's Disciples besought him that he would also give them