Gain-sayers could with an infallable certainty preface their Determinations in matters controverted in the Churches referred to them Viz. It seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to us which for any Person or Persons now to pretend to by an alledged uninterrupted succession from the Apostles or by a Revelation to that end now in this Age received withouâ— giving the like Evidence of their being so sent and conducted is but a vain empty boast to make void the certainty of the holy Scripture thereby to establish in themselves an unscriptural Ecclesiastick Papacy over all in the Church And as the Apostles were careful to establish the Spiritual Order of the Gospel in the Churches they were no less careful to preserve their Christian Liberty lest under the pretence of Order it should be incroached upon by Church-Rulers in whom the Form of Words might become stronger then the Power of Godliness as after the Apostles dayes it indeed came to pass Hence we also find in the New Testament Church-Rulers required to be apt to teach sober patient in Meekness instructing them that oppose no Striker no Railer but in much for-bearance to feed the Flock of God not as Lords over Gods Heritage but as Ensamples to the Flock not as having Dominion over their Faith but as helpers of their Joy For saith the Apostle the Authority given us of the Lord is not for Destruction but for Edification The Spiritual Authority intrusted of the Lord with Church Officers is to reach the Consciences of all in the Church to be manifest there and not to exalt Man over the Consciences of the Disciples Church-Rulers are not because of their authority to force by Church-Orders or Laws every one to submit to every particular appointment they judge necessary to be established in the Church because Practices or Doctrines imposed upon Persons to be believed and submitted to unconvinced edifies not but destroys the work of God in their Hearts the true Ministers beareth with the Vnclearness of the weak waiting till their Submission to outward appointments be made necessary to them of the Lord by inward Convincement whereas the false Minister allows not unclearenss in Dissenters as an excuse for non-obedience being satisfied in an outward formal bodily Compliance Those that are to be ruled in the Church are also required in the New-Testament to submit to those that have Authority over them in the Lord yet So as every one is to be fully perswaded in his own Mind Christs Government is to be exercised in the Hearts of his People Truth is to carry with it conviction in the Conscience first before it be submitted to outwardly Matters of this kind are not to be taken upon trust we are commanded to try the Spirits whether they be of God or not we are to examine Doctrines to hold fast that which is good Christ's Sheep they hear his Voice and follow him a Strangers Voice they will not hear they that are Christs are led by the Spirit of Christ this is the main thing in Religion Persons are not to be hurried too hastily into the Practice of the decent Church-Orders but are to wait on the Lord to clear the matter to their Understandings they are to do nothing of this kind doubtingly but in clearness and Faith for what is not of Faith is Sin an Error here is an Error in the Foundation because without Faith it is impossible to please God And further that Church-Government might not degenerate into Tyranny and to preserve Christian-Liberty the Apostle tells us wherein the Vnity of the Church consists the great end of Government is to preserve Church-Vnity that there be no Schism in the Body Christians are therefore required to be of one Mind but in the Lord their Vnity is in the Spirit not in an Vniformity of outward Practices We find that in the first Churches they walked in different outward Practices some observing a day and some not observing it some eating and some not eating and that in one and the same Church wherein they were commanded by the Apostle Paul as a rule in such cases to all Christian Societies not to judge one another because of them whence iâ—s mâ—nifest that not outward different Practices breaks the Spiritual Vnity of the Church but judging one another because of them he that observes a day or other outward appointment in the Church doing it in the Lord may have unity with him that observes it not also in the Lord It was so in the Apostles times and it will be so still where GOD and not Man POWER and not Form is exalted for indeed the true ground of Unity among Christians is not that such a Person is conform to me in outward Practices but because I find him in what he doth differing from me walking in his integrity according to his own understanding in the Lord and this is the stronger band of Unity betwixt us then if we were both without inward Convincement in one uniform practice nothing is more pleasant to behold in Christian Societies while we see but in part and every individual is to see for himself then different sorts and sizes of Christians every one in their own Station learning their own Lessons from Christ to whom they are to give an Account and yet in their different Practices having Vnity in the Lord one with another this is indeed lovely to a Spiritual Eye though to the Carnal Eye it seems undecent and disorderly Indeed Vniformity in a Christian Society is much to be desired but the Lord is to be waited upon to bring People to this Christianity was begun in the Spirit and so it must be continued nothing must be received by force of Church-Authority or Arguments of mans Wisdom but as by Convincement the Conscience is perswaded thereunto where the Lord alone is to rule who leads his People into the Vnity of the Spirit in the midst of different outward Practices Thus without forced or constrained Commentaries and Meanings by repeating the very Words of the New-Testament its manifest to him whom the Power of an outward Form of Words without Life or the Ways of Unrighteousness hath not blinded that both Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty were established by the Apostles in the first Churches Now that this Spiritual Government and Christian Liberty are consistent in one and the same Christian Society necessarily follows beyond the reach of Contradiction because it was so appointed by the Apostles in the first Churches Secondly because they walked in their Church-Fellowships in the practice of them both which is already cleared Neither can any man suppose either that the Apostles gave forth inconsistent and unpracticable Instructions to the Churches or that even in their own time while present among them they were never practiced though given forth except he design to lessen their Authority in the Churches or the divine Authority of the holy Scriptures conveying to us the truth of these things as I have already shewed But
Corporations pretend to Many more are the Cavils and Clamours that are raised by Babylon's Builders against this Doctrine treated of in this Discourse which are easily confuted by such as will consult the New Testament from the plainness and simplicity whereof some Men of Learning Masters of Sects in their deep Wisdom finding it their Interest to depart making indeed a show of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility and neglecting of the Body have intangled themselves in many Inventions beginning even in the Apostles Days so early did the Mystery of Iniquity in the Churches begin to work at first indeed under a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof which once being departed from by degrees they come to make Shipwrack both of Faith and Order of the Gospel as it was at first delivered by the Saints In which Apostatized State the Church-Rulers puffed up with Pride and covetousness never rested until by crafty sinister and wicked means they had established in themselves an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Supremacy over Emperours and Kings and the Consciences of all Persons in as they pretended the whole Catholick Church whereby under the Names of Church Ministry Ordinances and Order thereof the true Church-State Spiritual Order true Ministry and Ordinances of it were quite lost and the Image of those things in a Carnal Worldly Politick Ecclesiastical Church-State erected in the stead thereof against which in several times and seasons as it pleased God he raised up faithful Witnesses who sealed their testimony against some or other of these introduced Abominations with their Blood after whom others arose through their Ministry and Sufferings who running too hastily in their own Wisdoms to build up the Ruines of Zion out of the Rubbish of Babylon which as accursed stuff should have been utterly rejected God in his infinite Wisdom divided them in their understandings so that instead of Building one uniform Ecclesiastick Structure after the Pattern of that of Rome they were scattered into several Parties and Sects each pitching a Tabernacle for themselves and confining God to their Way or Party Among whom here is a sad Instance of them who having condemned this kind of Imposition as Babylonish and Antichristian in others are nevertheless casting after the same Copy yea behold here the very same Persons testifying of themselves that they were raised as Instruments in God's hands to gather his People out of Babylon out of the many divided Sects in Christendom have fixed themselves in one particular Sect bounded by and limited unto outward Observances and thereby established in themselves Preheminence over all their Little Flock who altho they have no authority from the Scriptures nor the Law of the Nation yet burden their Consciences with unscriptural Inventions under the preâ—ence of the Comely and Decent Orders of the Church being deluded with this Errour that they and they only of that particular Company and Denomination are the only true Church and People of God and that there is no further Dispensation of Light to be expected from the Lord in bringing his People out of Babylâ—n than that measure they are settled under hence boldly judging all oâ—hers not having their Outward Mark in their Foreheads as out of the Truth as if any further appearance of God in his People were to be avoided as New Light which thereby they become tempted to resist and oppose not considering that whatever Outward Dispensation of Light God hath once gloriously appeared in yet he is not limited thereby the Life of God in every outward Administration is one and the same the administration being but the Outward Garment that he chuseth and refuseth at his pleasure gathering his People not out of one Sect or Path only but out of various Administrations into himself who is Love and in his Love comprehending all the upright hearted however distinguished from one another who therefore cannot be tied to any one Form the Form being for ever to be subject to the Power of God in its various appearances there is therefore no certain knowing of the power of Godliness by any outward Form it hath manifestly once appeared in the outward Form being to be known and owned as the Power manifests it self in and through it and this the Lord doth that no Flesh may glory in his Presence that God alone and not Man may be exalted in delivering his People out of all the streets of that great City Babylon I shall conclude this Discourse with the words of our Lord to his Desciples in a day when a Lofty Spirit was exalting it self in some of them which be excludes out of his Church to have no place in his Ministers Mat. 20.25 26 27 28 29. Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Lordship upon them but it shall not be so among you whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be Chief among you let him be your Servant even as the Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister THE END Postscript THE Writing hereof did ease and lighten my Mind very much and I have Peace in casting in my Mite in behalf of Zion's Friends against the Builders of Babylon whose Spirit under various Disguises God hath in Mercy revealed to me and made me a Witness against the appearance of this Beast fore prophisied of and rightly described in the Spirit by the Apostle John Rev. 13. from the 11th verse to the end of that Chapter among the Quakers under the Government and Order of against in the year 1663 at which time I foresaw what is brought forth among them and now known to the sad Experience of many precious Souls under that Denomination and I expect no other Measure for if our Lord was judged and rejected by the Sect-Masters and Form-Builders in the Days of his Ministry for not observing the Traditions of the Elders what can those of his Family look for from Opposers and Gainsayers in this day brought under the Power of Forms and Outward Observances as the Band of their Church-Communion since it was ever and will be so in all Generations the Sons of the BOND-Woman will judge and persecute the Children of the FREE-Woman but I rest satisfied in the Will of the Lord waiting the day of Zion's Redemption when the scattered of the Lord's Flock through many Outward Forms shall be brought under the Power of that one great Gospel Truth That the Union of the whole Israel of God walking under various Outward Practices because of different apprehensions is in the Lord only in whom they are one even then when they are found in different Observances about Outward Circumstances Note Reader this above Postscript was not annexed to the Discourse but is part of a Letter to a Friend who apprehending it might be of Service to many of the scattered Ones of the true Fold who are despised and rejected by the Proud and Self-Righteous Pharisees the Sect-Masters of this PEOPLE hath therefore inserted it FINIS
SPIRITUAL ORDER AND Christian Liberty PROVED To be Consistent in the Churches of Christ AND Impositions upon the Consciences of Believers in Religious Practices FOUND To be Antichristian and Destructive to both By R.G. A Protestant Acts 2.42 And they continued in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship Yet Rom. 14.5.23 Let every man be fully perswaded in his own Mind for what is not of Faith is Sin But 1 Cor. 14.10 Let all things be done decently and in Order Yet 2 Cor. 1.24 Not that we have Dominion over your Faith For 2 Cor. 13.10 The Power given of the Lord to us was not to Destruction but to Edification Therefore Gal. 5.1 Stand fast in the Liberty wherein Christ hath made you free and be not again intangled with Yoaks of Bondage Yet Gal. 5.13 Vse not this Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh but in Love serve one another To the Christian Reader whether Bound or Free COuld I have satisfied my self in smothering this Discourse it had not appeared in publick from me now in this my retiredness from the noise of the many Debates about Rites and Ceremonies in Religion which have so miserably rent and divided Protestants-Societies in separate Communions judging and condemning one another because of different outward Practices and various apprehensions in debatable Questions wherein though they differ each abounding in his own sense yet they ought to continue as One in the Lord though in several distinct Fellowships and differing in Outward Practices But being alaramed with the loud clamour on the one hand of Church Government Laws and Orders of general and particular Meetings of the Friends of the Ministry and others the necessity of one or more in the Church having power infallibly to determine all Matters controverted therein to whom all must submit though unconvinced or unclear in themselves or else be branded with the odious Names of Schismatick Stragler Breaker of the Vnity of the Body and many worse appellations not worth the repeating And on the other hand with the Groans and Struglings of a few who have not defiled their Garments but are wrestling for their Christian Liberty under different outward Practices against Impositions and introduced Innovations contrary to that great Principle of Conviction and Choice upon which all Christians were at first united in distinct Societies And that from among a People separating themselves from â—he Communion of all other Christians of what Denomination soeveâ— upon the Principle of Immediate Inward Revelation of Light and Spirit communicated to every man as he cometh into the World for his convincement and conduct in all things he is to believe and practice in Religion and condemning in others an Imposing Ecclesiastical Power as tyrannous and contrary to that Inward Revelation they have so often asserted to be in every man to lead him into all Truth I am constrained in my mind thus to appear in publick testifying to that Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty established by the Apostles in the first Churches and recorded in the New-Testament as the only proper means for preserving any Christian Society from a confused disorderly Licentiousness and Tyrannous usurped Imposings I intend not by publishing this Discourse to enter into a debate with any Person being resolved what ever entertainment it may meet with to possess my Soul in Patience committing the Issue to the Lord. Neither would I be understood to be so ingaged in any particular Company of Protestants so as to plead for the one against the other It is the first great Foundation Principle upon which the Protestants separated from those of the Roman Communion that is here pleaded for to wit That the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures without us and the Illumination of the Holy Spirit within us gives final determination in Matters of Religion Whereby every Christian for himself is restored to his Liberty of Inquiry Choice so freed from the Imposition of unscriptural Traditions by Popes General Councils Therefore what I am matters not to this Discourse and what others may judge me to be because of it doth but little concern me every man is to give an account of himself to God and not he that commends himself or is highly accounted of by others but he whom the Lord commends is approved FAREWEL Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty c. THE Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ having received the Promise of the Father and fitted with Power from on high went forth Preaching the Gospel with great Power giving Witness to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and Multitudes believed and great Grace fell upon them all They came not with outward Force upon the unbelieving World neither did they magisterially as by an unaccountable authority impose upon Believers Doctrines and Practises to be received by them without inward convincement Nay nay God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness shined in their Hearts therefore they knowing the terrours of the Lord perswaded men they beseeched prayed men to be reconciled to God commending themselves in the sight of God to every mans Conscience by requiring every one in the Church to be fully perswaded in himself Whereby they became manifest both to God and in the Consciences of those that believed Whereupon the Disciples multiplying first at Jerusalem and afterwards in other Places they were gathered into several distinct Congregations or Churches each distinct Congregation continuing together with one accord abode stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship the care of whom was upon them by whose Ministry they were first gathered for their Establishment in their most Holy Faith who therefore delivered to them when present among them and in Letters when absent from them such Instructions as being observed might preserve them though in distinct Fellowships as the Houshould of God built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner Stone in the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Hence we read in their Epistles these and such like Precepts I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them Be perfectly in the same Mind and in the same Judgment I beseech you Brethren be Followers of me for this Cause have I sent Timotheus who is faithful in the Lord who will bring you in remembrance of my ways as I teach every where in every Church Now I pray you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them to you Know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord esteem them highly for their Works sake exhort rebuke with all authority let no man dispise thee let all things be done decently and in Order Thus also the Apostles being guided by the unerring conduct of the Spirit of God in discarge of the Ministry committed to them whereof they gave sufficient Evidence to the stopping the Mouthes of
Immediate Revelation of the Light in his own Particular then received which he is to abide in hearken unto and obey is so very manifest that indeed it is a deserting the Cause of Immediate Revelation once so fiercely contended for to be in every Man to lead him into all Truth and on 〈◊〉 acknowledgement of the Insufficiency of that Light within of it self so to lead them in whom it is or to preserve them therein It remains in order to the closing of this Discourse to examine some of the arguments of old mustered up by those of the Roman Church against the Protestants and long since refuted by them and manifest in their Consciences to have no force in them against this Doctrine of the New Testament treated of in this Discourse yet now again raised out of that Rubbish to uphold this little new erected Papacy Is the Body to be without Government And if so will it not turn into the confusion of the Ranters every one having liberty to do what he pleaseth Is not this rather a Carnal Licentiousness than Christian Liberty I answer It is not pleaded for here that every one or indeed any one should do what he pleaseth but that none should be constrained or imposed upon to do what others please but they should be left free to do what God pleaseth They that are Christ's are led by his Spirit whose Conduct cannot introduce Confusion or Licentiousness in them especially who own the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture as their Outward Rule Indeed such things may enter into a Christian Society but its only then when the Doctrine of the New Testament and the Leadings of God's Spirit according to them is departed from But are we not to believe as the True Church Believes Is not the Infallible Spirit of God in his Church If so what will you believe if not as the True Church doth believes I answer This is the old reasoning of Carnal Wisdom whereby Christ is justled out of his Office and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture trampled upon to introduce an Implicit Blind Obedience the strength of which Argument is at large solidly refuted and the Deceit lurking under that Covering clearly laid open by W. Pen a Protestant in his Book entituled An Address to Protestants the Perusal whereof is recommended to the People called Quakers for their Information herein I am saith he to believe as the true Church believes but not because she so believes but because I am convinced in my Conscience of the truth of what she believes otherwise my Faith may be false though hers be true We have the same Rule for our Faith the true Church hath and the same Reasons to induce us to believe that she hath the whole multitude of the Believers who make up the whole Church having the same Rule of Faith with me in particular therefore I believe as the whole Church believes but upon the same Principles and Motives upon which every one in particular believed who first made up a Christian Church which was Conviction and Choice and though I ought thus to believe as the Holy Catholick Church believes and that the Spirit of God rests in his Catholick Church yet I am not therefore blindly without examination and convincement to give up my whole Concern Temporal and Spiritual unto any particular Society of Christians even though I be ingaged as one among them in Church-Fellowship as unto the Judgment of the Spirit of God in the Men's or Womens-Meetings the generality among whom may be in a Decay and the Dissenters may be the few who keep their Garments undefiled as most ordinarily in ages past it hath happened actually to be in other Christian Societies Obj. But was there not a Government in the Churches in the Apostles Days And were there not Governours and Governed And should it not be so still Were not the Elders to seed the Flock and rule over them and was not the Flock to submit themselves to them and to follow their Faith as they that must give an account of their Souls And it was not Tyranny then to exercise this Authority in the Church how comes it to be so now I answer Church-Government is Spiritual and only to be exercised Spiritually in the Consciences of the Governed not as Lording it over their Consciences by an Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction but by Perswasion and Conviction to become manifest in their Consciences waiting till the Lord shall reveal it to them thus was Spiritual Government exercised in the first Churches by their Governours according to the Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity and thus did the Governed submit themselves in the Lord whereby they were preserved in the Unity of the Spirit in different Outward Practices which being departed from the Government becomes Tyrannous Obj. But the infallible Judgment in reference to Differences in the Church though it be fixed in the Spirit of God according to the Testimony of the Scriptures ought it not to be exercised by one or more certain Person or Persons in the General Meetings of the Elders of the Body so long as he or they abide in the Conduct of that Spirit and are not in a Decay And what can be the hazard to say That in such a Church there is still an Infallible Judgment in one or more so guided to whom all are to submit In respect we are not to imagine that in a Christian Society there must be no Orders made or executed for the better regulating of the Society or that among them Matters controverted shall never be finally determined I answer In such a Society Matters controverted may and ought to be finally determined by Persons of the Society to whom they should be referred and it rests in the power of any one particular Church to make Orders for the better Governing of the Church the Exercise whereof may be committed by the Church to particular Elders and Overseers to whom in their acts of Government they are accountable but in the framing such Orders and in the Exercise of Church-Government the Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity are ever to be observed that the Consciences of the Desciples may be preserved tender under the feeling of Christ's Government within them that Obedience be never imposed as necessary upon them but as the Lord shall clear the Matter to them for this being departed from it ceaseth to be the Spiritual Government of Christ exercised in his Church according to the New Testament and becomes an Ecclesiastâ—cal Jurisdiction usurped and tyrannously exercised over the Consciences of the Disciples So that in any particular Church there is no necessity of any Person or Persons one or more Pope or General Council's having such a Power though Builders in Babylon would make it necessary for preserving in themselves an Ecclesiastical Supremacy over the Scriptures and the Consciences of all in the Church the hazard of which Doctrine is manifest in the Apostacy of those