as his Brethren uses to make Scripture for us as well as wrest it But as to the Interpretation by him advanced Though here be a Doubt or Ambiguity raised where there is none yet suppose not admit the Text doubtful However let that be the sense of it which the Saints in Scripture ever understood to be such If then they in whom CHRIST JESUS was already come and in whom he dwelt continually even by the power of his Spirit did notwithstanding this some of them dayly others every Lords-Day celebrate this his Supper Then this shewing forth his Death till he came was not by them understood of his Inward and Spiritual but of his Second Outward coming to Judgement For in such Case feeling so fully his being come in their Hearts they would have desisted But notwithstanding their having received the Holy Ghost and CHRIST's dwelling in them by his Spirit they in some places and while the Disciples dwelt together in Common dayly Celebrated the Lords Supper Acts II. 46. and in others where they were dispersed amongst the Heathens they met on the First Day of the Week to Celebrate it Acts XX. 7. Therefore the Saints in Scripture had no such Notion of our LORD 's coming in this case nor did they understand it as Mr. P. has wrested it of an inward but of an outward coming as the Church Universally has ever taken it since that day to this present Mr. P. has another touch which may stumble some for laying aside Baptism and the Lords Supper These visible Signs saith he which the Bp. calls the Badges of Christianiiy are not made an Article of any of the antient Creeds Had they been of that importance they are by some esteemed we cannot think they would have been forgot by the Compilers of those Creeds Answ Nor were they forgot Mr. P. either was never Catechised as he ought to have been or has forgotten what he was taught to be the meaning of that Article I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints That is in short I believe all the Faithful are made one Body by Communion in the same Faith Covenant and Ordinances of Worship especially Baptism and the Lord's Supper But in the Constantinopolitan Creed which was Compiled about the Year 379 or 380 when Re-baptising of Hereticks had been for some time matter of Controversie and had turmoil'd the Church it is exprest I believe one Catholick Church I acknowledge one Baptism for the Remission of Sins That is Persons being once Baptised and thereby ingrafted into the Church ought not to be Baptised again which is the true sense of one Baptism and not what Mr. P. suggests Further were Mr. P. such a thorough read Man as he would seem the Creeds of the Waldenses to whom he would have us as he pretends more conformable might have satisfied him in this point In one of which presented by them to Uladislaus King of Hungary extant in Fascic Rerum expet fugiend p. 162. there are two distinct Articles one of Baptism the other of the Eucharist too large to be here inserted And in another more brief which is to be seen in Hovedens Annalls fol. 319. we have these words We believe that no man is saved who Eats not the Body of CHRIST which Body is not Consecrated but in the Church and by a Priest We believe also that none is saved unless he be Baptised and that Infants are saved by Baptism This Creed is also produced by Arch-Bishop Usher in his learned Book De success stat Christ Eccl. cap. 8. To mention the Creeds of other Churches would signifie little in Mr. Ps. opinion and the Bp. knows not how much Authority he will allow the poor Waldenses now when he finds they are against him but let him take it as he pleases he must know the consent of all Christians from the time of the first Institution of the Lord's-Supper as has been shewn runs against this his Perversion of the Text. To summ up all in brief that has been now said of the Sacraments The Bp. says to Renounce or cast off the outward Badges of the Profession of Christianity which our LORD CHRIST Instituted and his Apostles delivered and which the Apostolical Churches received and constantly practiced which all Christian Churches ever since have held to is to renounce or cast off the outward Profession of Christianity Put M. P. and his Party renounce or cast off these outward Badges of the Profession of Christianity which Christ Jesus appointed and his Apostles delivered which the Apostolical Churches received and constantly practiced which all Christian Churches ever since have held to Therefore Mr. P. and his Party have recounced or cast off the outward profession of Christianity that is outwardly are no Christians As to their Hearts the Bp. leaves them to GOD and Judges not And thus as to the Sacraments The last Point which the Bp. thinks of moment in Mr. Ps. Book yet remaining untoucht is The great difference or Ground of Dissent betwixt the Quakers and the Establisht Church and this Mr. P. tells us is the great Carnality and Emptiness both of Ministers and People under the profession of Religion amongst us A humane and lifeless Ministry and Worship together with the great Worldliness of Professors The Ministry being made a Temporal Preferment Turning Alms into Dues and by Law making Gifts Rents p. 97 98 99. c. 1. As to Carnality Mr. P. must not be offended if he having exempted himself and Party from all this Guilt and charged it upon the Establisht Church and Ministry the Bp. hereby enforced speak out He says then that if Eating the Fat and Drinking the choicest be Carnality if minding worldly Gain and being so intent on it Day and Night as to pass most Days in the Week without a Prayer to GOD either in publick Assembly or Family if the slyest ways both to get Money and keep it be worldliness he knows no sort of People according to the degree of each more given to these Vices than the Quakers There is nothing to be Eaten which is better than Ordinary that comes into our Markets here which the People observe not presently bought up by the Quakers They are still the earliest and best Chapmen every Market-Day for such Commodities and much good may they do them The Bp. could mention more scandalous Particulars or Instances both of Carnality and Worldliness amongst them but it is not agreeable to his Temper And indeed how they should be a Heavenly minded People who so much restrain Prayer that is lay a side forbear or neglect it as to common Practice at least have done so till of very late Years and defended the same as the Bp. could speak upon his own knowledge is not accountable Next as to the point of their being Spiritual because we of the Establisht Church are often taxed of want hereof and so charged of being unable to understand the Works of the Holy
Cunning as well as Unfaithfulness in citing another particular Writer against the Bp. His Cunning and Mr. P. ought to have remembred who lately Printed that amongst his Maxims Cunning Borders upon Knavery in that he never produces his Authors Words And his unfaithfulness in representing the sense widely different if not contrary to what it is Ouzelius in his Notes on Minutius Foelix tells us the Primitive Christians forbore the Heathenish Customs and particularly therefore they rejected the Custom of Crowning their Dead with Garlands This Mr. P. refers to if he refer to any thing to be found in that Author to Justifie the Quakers affecting Dresses different from other Christians of their degree Is there no difference betwixt Idolatrous Rites and the innocent Fashions of Christians ordinary Apparrel But to return to Minutius whereas Coecilius the Heathen had there objected to the Christians that as soon as they saw one another they knew each other Occultis notis insignibus by secret Marks and Signes Octavius the Christian Answers they knew one another onely by their Innocence and Humility not by any Bodily Mark. This the Bp. takes to be rather against the Quakers singularity in Dresses Fashions and Behaviour And as to their Language after all Artifices Mr. P. has not been able to produce which was a pressing point of his Business one Precedent or Shadow of a Testimony that the Primitive Christians used not the ordinary Civilities in their common Discourse and Salutations but affected a different Style or Way by themselves Contrarily he might have remembred that the beloved Disciple being to Write to a Christian Sister of Quality Salutes her by an Inscription To the Elect Lady The next Head worth taking notice is Baptism Touching which the Bp. sincerely professes he Mourns to see Men so hardned as it appears by Mr. Ps. wresting Scripture to elude the Truth he is in this matter Mr. P. first in a manner confesses himself put to his Shifts I am sensible of the disadvantage I am under c. saith he p. 68. yet proceeds he to shift on But to reduce all into as short a compass as may be The Bp. had avouched those words of our LORD Matth. XXVIII 19. to be an Institution and Command of Baptism with Water And gave two substantial reasons which he holds to 1. Baptising with the Holy Ghost said the Bp. was not in the Apostles power Therefore it could not be the thing commanded them 2. Baptising with Water was the Apostles and Primitive Practice and has been ever since the Practice of the Church To the First of these Mr. P. answereth it is not true and to make that good alledges Acts X. 44. While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all those that heard the word Hence he infers that Peter Baptised Cornelius with the Holy Ghost Now was there ever any thing more impertinent and inconsequent While Peter spake c. the Holy Ghost fell on them c. Therefore which was the Point to be proved was it Peter's Act and in his power to Baptise with the Holy Ghost No The Spirit breatheth where it listeth John III. 8. But GOD says Mr. P. by the Apostles did Baptise Believers with the Holy Ghost Did he so Then 't was GOD Baptised them with the Holy Ghost and not the Apostles They were only instruments at pleasure as long as the Act was not principally theirs it cannot be concluded hence to have been in their power Baptising with the Holy Ghost and with Fire the words Mr. P. alledges p. 69. and runs upon was a special Prerogative of our Lord Christ predicted only of him Matth. IV. 11. and fulfilled only by him Acts II. not by any man ever living The Bps. First Reason then is true But his Second says Mr. P. seems to be defective and short yet all the substance that Mr. P. speaks in 12 or 13 Pages to prove it so is Practice is no Institution Nor was the Bp. so weak as to pretend it is But by Mr. Ps. leave continued Practice in obedience to Command and such Practice allowed urged and re-inforced by the Holy Ghost is a good Explication of the sense of the Institution or of the words of the Command The summ of the Command was Baptise them that Believe The summ of the Practice pursuant is All those that believed wereby the Apostles or Persons Commissionated by them Baptised with Water Yea though they had been before Baptised with the Holy Ghost as the Bp. pleaded from Acts X. 47. Was ever any Institution more clearly evidenced and asserted As to all Mr. Ps. agravating Excursions on this Subject he full well knows the Church of England-men no more allow Water-Baptism to be sufficient to the Salvation of adult persons without the New Creature or Baptism of the Spirit then he does But some Persons have the faculty to be blind when they list to contradict and accuse even against their own Sense Thus as to what Mr. P. has Replyed touching Baptism As to the Lords-Supper that stands upon the same unmoveable Foundation with Baptism viz. our LORD's Institution and the continued Universal Practice of the Church To what the Bp. had mentioned of the first of these Mr. P. excepts in these words The Bp. will have this Supper Four times repeated in the Scripture of the New Testament besides that of the Apostle Paul which must be his mistake Whereto the Bp. says To report his words thus is not Mr. Ps. mistake but in all appearance his wilful prevarication The Bp. said no Command could be more express then that touching the Outward use of Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper Four times repeated namely the Command in the New Testament and that St. Paul adds as a reason of the Command and Argument for its Observation it is a shewing forth the LORD's Death till he came All this being undeniable Mr. P. that he might have something to except against was forced to misreport the Bps. words Is there not a vast difference betwixt rhese two Assertions This Supper was Four times repeated and the Command for this Supper is Four times repeated or recorded in the New Testament Which last was most evidently the Bps. sense But having to his Credulous Readers that is his own Party convinced in his way that is charged the Bp. of a mistake he proceeds to what is more dangerous plainly to diffuse his Poison This coming of CHRIST was Spiritual and the words may reasonably be Read he means Paraphrased thus Eat this Supper of outward Bread and Wine till I come and Sup with you and be your Supper that am the Bread and Wine from Heaven c. By Mr. Ps. favour the Scripture no where styleth CHRIST Wine from Heaven In respect of the Union of the Saints with him he is styled a Vine and his Grace or Spirit in respect of its indeficiency Water and Living Water but no where Wine This a fetch of Mr. Ps. who
A BRIEF and MODEST REPLY To Mr. Penn's Tedious Scurrilous and Unchristian DEFENCE AGAINST THE BISHOP OF CORK Father Forgive Them Luke XXIII DUBLIN Printed by Joseph Ray and are to be sold at his Shop in Skinner-Row over against the Tholsel 1699. A Brief Modest REPLY to Mr. PENN's Tedious Unchristian Defence against the Bishop of CORK THE Bishop of Cork being to Vindicute the Truth and Himself from many foul Imputations and virulent Invectives which Mr. Penn in his defence of a Paper of his own styled Gospel Truths has been pleased to bestow upon both in the first place thanks Mr. Penn for having Printed both his own Paper and the Bishops Testimony against it at length before his Book For the Bishop believes that all sober and reasonable Christians who shall read those two over and consider them will easily acquit the Bishop from the first of Mr. Penn's Imputations in his Preface that he is a man of a mind different from those who would have Strife amongst Christians abated and who are against Quarrels and for the discouraging Controversies in that holy and peaceable thing Religion The Bishop says a peaceable Testimony against the sleight of Men touching whom it is questionable whether they be Christians or not and against their cunning Craftiness who lye in wait to deceive is no moving Strife or raising Quarrels amongst Christians Mr. Penn adds he gave his Paper to the Bishop in a private way at a friendly Visit upon his own desire This is what the Bishop called Writing in such a way that it is hard to know what is meant If Mr. Penn mean that either he gave the Paper to the Bishop upon the Bishop's desire or made that Visit upon the Bishop's desire in both senses the saying is utterly false for both the Visit and the Paper were a surprise and altogether unexpected by the Bishop But to confess freely all the truth there can be in this Colour if it should be so that Mr. Penn has amongst the other spiritual gifts he pretends to that of discerning Spirits and knew that the Bp. was as desirous to see the * The Bp. was inform'd that Mr. P. discoursing of Penal-Laws c. did while he was lately in Cork say He had a Kingdom of his own which was understood of Pensilvania King of Pensilvania as he would be the Pope or the Great Turk or any other Great Man of Sin supposing them in the Country in this sense the Bp. acknowledges the saying true He had a little Curiosity which may pass for a desire to see Mr. Penn. Then as to the Privacy of the Matter Mr. Penn well knows he brought two Witnesses with him the one a good Protestant the other a Quaker And his giving the Bp. that Paper before them both gave occasion to the Bp. to suspect there was some design in it Had the Bp. received it privately indeed that is without Witness of both sides Mr. Penn perhaps had never heard more of it And thus as to Mr. Penn's Preface The First charge in his Book against the Bp. is that he did not prove such a Reader as he profest himself Mr. P. would have had him such a Reader that had rather they should be in the right than in the wrong The Bp. never profest himself such for either here also the Bp. understands not what Mr. P. means or else Mr. P. desires a strange partial Reader who should have more inclination and affection to the Quakers that is his Adversaries opinion than to his own Or who would rather be in an Error himself than that his Adversaries should be in any Such unheard of partiality as this the Bp. admires Mr. P. should require and confesses himself void of But a very impartial Reader he was which he took to have been Mr. P s meaning And without prejudice both did he does and will own the truth where-ever he finds it And as to what Mr. P. so often objects that the Bp. has Writ against him without any Provocation it is readily acknowledged The Bp. neither had nor has any personal private Quarrel with Mr. P. All he impleads him of is his Doctrine The Bp. can return Mr. Ps. own words to him p. 23. he has a respect for him and desires not to be upon these terms with him any longer than he thinks fit to make it necessary by spreading and defending such Principles which tend to the subverting Christianity at which no Bishop ought to connive To omit things less material p. 24. he would insinuate the Bp. guilty of insincerity in saying It was the first time he ever heard the Quakers own the necessity of Christ as a Propitiation in order to Remission of Sins and justifying them as Sinners from guilt And tells the Bp. where possibly he might have read it Answ Possibly the Bp. may have read more than either then he did or now does actually remember He never had so much as many of the Quakers Books much less has he them in his Memory but one he has now before him Intitled The Second Part of the serious Apology for the Principles and Practices of the People called Quakers By WILLIAM PENN Printed 1671. In which p. 148. are these words This namely Justification by the Righteousness which Christ hath fulfilled in his own Person for us in the words before We deny and boldly affirm it to be the Doctrine of Devils and an Arm of the Sea of Corruption which does now deluge the whole World This the Bp. does not understand to be owning Justification by Christ He thefore now was glad to find Mr. P. more Orthodox in 1698 than he was in 1671. But says W. P. If the Bp. commends their believing in Christ as a Propitiation for Sin he ought not to have censured them as short in any Fundamental Article of Christian Religion for that all the rest follow from or are comprehended in this p. 25 26. Truly he ought For 1. He does not find the Quakers to be so good at believing or drawing due consequences or deducing and discovering all the particulars which are comprehended in generals 2. It is not true that all the Fundamentals of Christian Religion follow from or are comprehended in this Doctrine Christ is our Propitiation Some of them particularly mentioned by Mr. P. do not thence follow as that there is a Holy Ghost that he convinces Men of Sin c. Nay not that p. 34. That Christ is Ascended for he might have been a Propitiation and Sacrifice as were those under the Law and yet never have ascended no nor rose again 3. To tell Mr. P. thus much as to his Paper once for all Implication of Faith is not a Profession of Faith Remote consequences not mentioned which yet 't is possible may be drawn must not be taken for a Confession of Faith For he that deduces such consequences is the person that truly makes them And in such case the Quakers confession of Faith