Sermons upon Job 32. 8. It is the Spirit of God who dwells in Men c. Man sayes he cannot discern any whit of God's Secret until he be enlightned we can never by our Will reach so high as to know God we must put our Reason from us and renounce it utterly what sayes J. Faldo to this Doctrine of his Father Calvin Again If we will have our Lord to fill us with his Wisdom it behoveth us to become Fools that is to say We must not bring any thing of our own for that were the shutting of the Door against God H. Bullenger's 4. Decad. Serm. 5. p. 665. The Spirit of Man praying in this World being enlightned and kindled with the Spirit of God groaneth and maketh Intercession for the Saints W. Perkins the English Calvin in the same men's Thoughts p. 336. 21. writes thus All Exercises of Christian Religion are to be in the Spirit The Inward Motions of the Spirit are of themselves the Worship of God whereas our Words and Deeds are not simply but so far forth as they are found in the renewed Motions of the Heart Gualt Cradok upon Ephes 3. p. 169. That you may see the greatness of his Power what a World of Prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy Heart that thou art never able to utter with thy Mouth All the Wisdom of the World cannot make one spiritual Petition We may make Forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knows the Mind of God THAT makes Prayers according to the Will of God and HE Spirit prayes with Sighing and Groaning unutterably I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit If the Lord should only hear the Prayers thou makest with thy Mouth thou wouldst be a Poor Man but the Lord respects the Prayer of thy Heart W. Dell. Serm. Christ Spirit c. p. 35. When God hath a Mind to give us the Spirit he puts us in Mind to ask it yea God gives us the Spirit that by it we may ask the Spirit seeing no Man can ask the Spirit but by the Spirit Acts 1. 14. Dr. J. Everad the great Spiritual Separatist in King James and Charles the firsts Time Be assured whatever Prayers whatever Sighs whatever Groans thou puttest up to him he loaths all but what his SON MAKES but all his Requests are heard and granted pag. 225 Be sure that your Prayers be such as become God's Ear to hear for all the Prayers of ALL FLESH through the whole World is displeasing to God pag. 243. Not the best Duties you can perform will please him except they be salted and seasoned by his own Son p. 9. Never think that all your Prayers your Tears your Alms c. pleases him but only that which is his Son 's own Action and Work in you p. 355. But know he God regards none of these Prayers But when his Son in whom he is well pleased when he prayes he hears him alwayes but if any other Prayes he regards not p. 438. 442. Again It must be his Son's Work in us else he loaths all even the best of the Sacrifices if it be not Jesus Christ in us that doth all viz. that loves God and fears God and obeyes God and believes in God c. his Father regards it not But what thinks J. Faldo of all these Things J. Calvin W. Perkins H. Bullenger Gu. Cradok are unquestionable W. Dell Master of Cajus Colledge in late times And for Dr. J. Everad his Works were licenced Decemb. 6. 1652 by no less Man then J. Caril and approved by Tho Brooks and Mat. Parker all three Independent Pastors the first lately deceased the other two not many dayes ago living who I hope are able to justifie their Kindness to that notable and doubtless very religious Man Perhaps the Truth may find better Quarter for these great Authors Sake therefore I bring them though indeed it is truly lamentable that the Professors of our Age will not know the Doctrines of Men they hold in great Admiration when they meet with them in the poor Quakers Writings but instead of acknowledging miseraby brow-beat them with oppobrious Language thereby bringing the greatest Truths into Suspition with the Vulgar But Oh Lord God of Truth This hath been the Portion of thy People and Lot of thy Children whom thou hast gathered out of the World in all Ages at the Hands of those who boast themselves in other Mens Labours and have a Name to live but are dead to that Life in which they should live to thee They seem to honour the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of thy Servants that are at rest but having erred from the Conduct of thy Spirit and resisted the holy Motions of it they are become the greatest Persecutors Resisters and Vilifiers of thy holy living pure and spiritual Way Oh Lord God arise for thy great Names Sake seaze upon their Consciences by thy Invisible Word of Power Lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet Dash their fine carved Images in Peices and let thy consuming Fire take hold on their Chaff and Stubble and bring them to thy righteous Ballance that they may see they and their Religion to be lighter then Vanity that they may witness thy mighty Work of Redemption and Salvation before they depart hence and are never seen more through Jesus Christ the alone Advocate and Mediator Intercessor Redeemer and Saviour of all thy dear Children who have believed in his Heavenly Appearance by whom be Everlasting Honour Glory and Dominion Amen CHAP. VI. Of Positive Ordinances as our Adversary calls them to wit Baptism and the Supper HE introduced his Discourse of Baptism and the Supper with an Account of the Nature of these Ordinances distinguishing them by Natural and Positive He excepts against my reporting of one part of his Doctrine calling it by no milder a Name then Forgery I will give both our Quotations that my Reader may the better see what Ground he hath for such severe Reflection I cited him thus The Ordinances hitherto considered are called Morral from their Natural Obligation although respecting their Substance they deserve a more Evangelical Denomination without which we cannot call them Christian Ordinances This he calls Forging Corupting his Words and that he that hath the Conscience to deal with such an Adversary may make him say what he lists Reply p. 56. I will now puncually transcribe his Words as himself hath quoted them and a plain self-Defeat will lye at the bottom of all this Displeasure Reply p. 66. My Words were these to a Letter The Ordinances I have hitherto considered are called Morral from their Natural Obligation although that Substantial and Essential Part and Qualification of them their Respect to a Mediator will require a Denomination more Evangelical and without which we cannot call them Gospel or Christian Ordinances Let VV. P. make the best Advantage for his Causes these Words will afford him and spare not Rejoynder Having
Justification HE introduceth his Chapter of Justification in these Words Reply p. 71. Vpon the Point of Justification I cited 18 Proofs to my Charge To three of which W. P. answers by Way of Evasion and Railing being silent to the rest Rejoynder Icited but three thought them as sufficient as threescore sure I am they carried the Sence of the other fifteen if not he did ill to produce them I have answered the Law in the Point And for Evasion and Railing if ever I used either it was not in this Chapter where I have bestowed ten Pages of Sober and Christian Discourse unto which he returns me but three Pages in Defence of his former Application of our Friends Writings for Maintenance of his Charge and what his Carriage in this particular is I will leave with my Reader His Charge was that we denyed the Transactions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh to have any Influence into our Justification before God Three of his Proofs I considered and rescued from his Tyranny The first was this All that are called Presbyterians and Independents with their feeding upon a Report of a Thing done many hundred Years ago E. Bur. Trump p. 17. This J. Faldo called Reproaching such as act Faith on Christ's Righteousness and Sufferings by him wrought and suffered when he was in the World An Answer that suits all Hypocrites at what time their Historical Faith is struck at but what said I why thus he brings me in E. B. meant no more then their Excessive Admiration of and Regard to what Christ did without Thus far J. Faldo quotes me and then replyeth Reply p. 72. Thus W. P. thinks to salve all with his Meanings which are well nigh as corrupt as the Quakers Text for the Admiration of what Christ then did will admit of no Excess Rejoynder There is much more Reason that we should give our Meanings of our own Writings then J. Faldo for us since he is alwayes sure to make them against us if he will not allow us to explain our own Minds but make it the Priviledge of an Adversary we are sure to be worsted be it right or wrong nor can he escape by his own Practice But why is my Meaning corrupt or the Text either May not nay do not People rely upon those external Transactions of Christ as recorded in Scripture Story so as to neglect the whole Work of Redemption and Sanctification by the Power oâ— Christ within Or is it false Doctrine to affirm thaâ— those who hold the whole Work of Man's Salvation to have been throughly wrought by Christ's visible Transactions in the VVorld thereby excluding the most necessary Opperation of his Power and Spirit for the Redemption of such as have been imbondaged by Satan are Excessive in their Apprehensions of what Christ did for Man-kind when visibly in the VVorld If it be we must ingenuously confess we are Holders and Mantainers of corrupt Doctrine But whilst Scripture is of any Value that denyes Heaven to wicked Workers though fair Professors that says without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord and without being born again no Man shall enter the Kingdom of God That Men shall reap what they sow and that Men are sanctified before they are compleatly justified We need not much fear to say That such as attribute all unto Christ's visible Transactions when he was in the World are Excessive in so doing And if this be true how unfair was my Adversary in leaving out that Part of my Answer which would have further explained my Mind and prevented his making so ill an Use of that which he did report but perhaps this might be one Reason for his Omission which ought to have been a Reason against it for to these Words E. B. meant their Excessive Regard to what Christ did without I added whilst they neglected undervalued and decryed for Blasphemy and Enthusiasm the Appearance Work and Righteousness of Christ within p. 148. To be short friendly Reader J. Faldo either designed to drop this Part of my Answer that he might the better rack the other to his own End and our Disgrace which if he did it was unmanly much more unchristianly done or he intended his Reply for my whole Answer and then his Doctrine will ly thus Whoever so regards Christ's Transactions without as to neglect undervalue and decry for Blasphemy and Enthusiasm the Aâ—pearance Work and Righteousness of Christ within are not Excessive or out of the Way in their Apprehension of Christ's Transactions But J. Faldo hath that Regard to the History of Christ's Transactions whilst he neglects undervalues and decryes for Blasphemy and Enthusiasm the Appearance Work and Righteousness of Christ within Therefore J. Faldo's Regard to Christ's Transactions whilst he so neglects undervalues c. is not Excessive or out of the Way Thus it lyeth for him Let us now see how his Reply formeth it for us Such as say We ought not so intirely to regard or rest upon Christ's visible Transactions in the World as to neglect undervalue and decry for Blasphemy and Enthusiasm the Appearance Work and Righteousness of Christ within hold and mantain corrupt Doctrine But so say E. Burroughs and W. Penn Therefore E. B. and W. P. mantain corrupt Doctrine These Arguments are the Natural Import of J. F's Reply how sound and consistent with Scripture and Reason is left to the Judgment of Impartial Men. Had E. Burrough's VVords been more ingenuously weigh'd he would have seen them to have bin no witnes for his turn for may not Men feed upon a Report of good Things and for want of unfeigned Repentance true Faith and humble Obedience never be benefitted by them If J. F. denyes it he consequently excludes the Inward VVork of Faith and Repentance to be necessary sayes he and all such Professors to apply Christ's Transactions beneficially and if he confesseth Repentance and Faith to be requisite for the right and profitable Application of Christ's Transactions then is not feeding upon a Report of them sufficient for at that rate all the Hypocrites and Lord-Lord-Cryers in the World however impious would be certainly saved doth E. B's Reproof of such who vainly hope thereby to be justified and saved in the Sight of God deserve to be stiled corrupt Doctrine I could here produce many solid Testimonies out of the Writings of several ancient and worthy Protestants but shall confine my self within the Compass of a Passage given us by a present Writer quoted by our Adversary in his first Book p. 58. and that is Dr. Stilling fleet in a Discourse called his six Sermons If they did believe Christ came into the World to reform it that the Wrath of God is now revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness that his Love which is shown to the World is to deliver them from the Hand of their Enemies that they might serve him in Righteousness and Holiness all the Dayes of their Lives they could never imagine
THE INVALIDITY OF John Faldo's Vindication Of his Book called Quakerism No Christianity BEING A REJOYNDER In Defence of the Answer intituled Quakerism a New Nick-Name for Old Christianity Wherein many Weighty Gospel-Truths are handled and the Disingenuous Carriage of our Adversary is observed for the better Information of all Moderate Inquirers In II Parts By W. P. Who loves not Controversie for Controversie sake Every day they wrest my Words all their Thoughts are against me for Evil Psa 56. 5. But he that doth a Wrong shall receive for the Wrong which he has done Col. 3. 23. Printed in the Year 1673. To all that Seriously Profess RELIGION Among those called Episcopalians Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Socinians and Latitudinarians THe Duty I ow to Almighty God and the Respect I bear to his Truth with that great Concern which lives in my Mind for your better Information about us a poor People traduced by some despised by others and our Principles mis-given here perverted there are the only Inducements I have to pursue this tedious and unpleasant Controversie And that you might be undeceived of those false Apprehensions vulgar Stories or the Insinuations of more prevalent Agents have imprest you with I could God knows be contented that even Sufferings were added to my Labours What would I not cheerfully undergo to win you into a serious View and impartial Consideration of our Case Truly I have that Belief of many of you that were the Prejudice of Education and common Vogue of the World set aside you would do us some Justice And I beseech you weigh how much it becomes you you the serious Professors of Religion to give us a fair Hearing for our Principles and Reputations before you finally determine any thing against us To Try all things was an Apostolical Exhortation Nor can you escape the Censure of Dis-regarding it if you decline a fair Inquiery after us Let not Education be dearer to you then Truth and see if more be not to be known by you then yet you know Objected Novelty ought to have no Force with a Christian since had that prevailed he had never been one Nor should the Offence Formality or Worldly Learning takes at us stave you off from a serious Search much less the Crucifie Crucifie of the Vulgar because the God of Truth when manifested in the Flesh was not exempted from more of that then ever yet attended us Indeed it should rather be an Argument for us Believe us we intreat you when we tell you that Religion Pure and Vndefiled Religion we greatly love 'T is that we desire as well to Live as Defend God knows we have long made it the Bent of our Hearts and the whole Aim of our Lives without it we were the Miserablest of Men Yet how are we Defamed Undervalued Contemned and set at Nought for a Company of Seducers Blasphemers Idolaters and what not But why because we are not understood and as cunningly by some hindred from being so But therefore is this Discourse more particularly Dedicated to you that you may be both acquainted with the Foulest Charges one of our greatest Enemies hath exhibited against us his kind of Witnesses produced to confirm them and his Management of the whole Debate with our Plain and Honest Vindication If we shall be found guilty then let us be Condemned for such as he hath represented us to be but if innocent suffer us not any longer to Groan under the Heavy Pressure of such Infamous Accusations for in omitting to Right us for these Grievous Wrongs you will make your selves Accessories to an Injustice that must needs be detested of all Vertuous and Good Men. I leave this Rejoynder with you containing the True Meanings of our Wrested Principles those confirmed by express Scriptures many Râ—â—sons and a Cloud of Testimonies And shall conclude with a Passage out of Jerome well-becoming all Honest Writers and fit to be observed of every impartial Reader Quaeso Lector ut memor Tribunalis Domini de judicio tuo te intelligens judicandum nec mihi nec Adversario meo faveas neve Personas Loquentium sed causam consideres I beseech thee Reader that remembring the Judgment-Seat of the Lord and understanding that as thou dost judge so thou shalt be judged thou favourest neither me nor mine Adversary that writes against me that thou regardest not the Persons but the Cause only I am a real Valuer of whatsoever is Worthy in any of you and an Hearty Wisher of your Improvement in the Knowledge of those things that lead to Eternal Peace which are only to be found in the Light and Life of Righteousness William Penn. THE CONTENTS Part I. CHAP. I. OF Christianity in General pag. 12. CHAP. II. Of Quakerism as this Independent Priest scoffingly calls our Holy Religion pag. 25. CHAP. III. Of the Scriptures pag. 31. CHAP. IV. His Preâ—ence of our Equalling our own Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures pag. 41. CHAP. V. Of the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie p. 68. CHAP. VI. Of our Dehorting People from Reading the Scriptures c. as charged by this Adversary pag. 94. CHAP. VII Of Scripture-Commands what are binding and what not Our Adversary's Disingenuity observed pag. 103. CHAP. VIII That we do not Deny the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation in Opposition to and Denyal of our Adversary's Charge pag. 121. CHAP. IX Not we but our Adversary opposeth the Teachings of the Spirit to the Doctrines of the Scriptures The Testimonies brought by him cleared and delivered from his Application Our Doctrine proved from Scripture and several Testimonies His frequent and gross Perversions of our Words and Writings discovered and justly rebuked pag. 141. PART II. CHAP. I. Of Gospel-Ordinances in general such truly imbraced pag. 187. CHAP. II. Of true and false Ministry p. 203. CHAP. III. That we own a Gospel-Church contrary to our Adversary's Charge pag. 217. CHAP. IV. His Charge of our Denying to hear the Word of God examined True Preaching acknowledged pag. 237. CHAP. V. Of True and False Prayer p. 240. CHAP. VI. Of Positive Ordinances as our Adversary calls them to wit Baptism and the Supper Of Baptism in particular pag. 249. CHAP. VII Of the Bread and Wine which Christ gave to his Disciples after Supper commonly called the Lord's Supper pag. 264. CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrine of Justification pag. 273. CHAP. IX Of the True Christ We own and our Adversary proved to deny him pag. 296. CHAP. X. Three Scriptures rescued from the false Glosses of our Adversary Joh. 1. 9. Rom. 10. 8. 2 Pet. 1. 19. pag. 317. CHAP. XI That we are not guilty of Idolatry as charged by our Adversary True Worshippers The Charge inverted pag. 343. CHAP. XII Of the Resurrection of Dead Bodies and Eternal Recompence Our Doctrine maintain'd by Scripture Reason and Authorities pag. 362. CHAP. XIII My Adversary declines medling with my Appendix
believe great and good things of them and that from no less Evidence then the Eternal Word that gave them forth which hath oftentimes given my Soul a deep Savour of those blessed Truths it declares of only we cannot allow them to be The Word though the Words of God and the rather forasmuch as we see the great and general Neglect that People are guilty of towards that Living Powerful Regenerating Word of Life by whom alone all right Knowledge and lasting Peace is derived to the Soul of Man through this Apprehension that in having the Writings they have the Word of God and therefore look no farther the very State of the professing Jews of old who thought better of the Scriptures then of Christ believing to have Life in them at what time they crucified the Lord of Life and Glory From whose Proceedings we learn thus much That the worst Enemies to the invisible Word of Life may carry the greatest seeming Respect to and bestow the highest Titles upon the Scriptures that were given forth from it In short It was when Men turned from the Power of Godliness to the Form only that they did Canonize and lay so vast a Stress upon them In the first and second hundred years after Christ they were so scattered that very few had all of them and it is not unreasonable for us to believe that many had none of them especially those of the New Testament Were they therefore without the Word of God and a sufficient Rule for Faith and Practice Surely not It was an Administration of Life and Power of writing the Law in the Heart and putting the Spirit in the inward Parts From whence came that Christian Answer to the Heathen concerning Swearing Fighting such contra-Evangelical Practices They could not do so because of God in their Consciences At that time of Day the Anoâ—nting led them into all Truth But in process of time when Christians grew Careless and Worldly whereby they lost the Power of Godliness then they began to set up an outward pompous Religion ascribing that to the Letter and Form which was only due to the Spirit and Power And as thus entered the Apostacy into the World so where Men are not turned and conformed to that eternal Spirit and divine immortal Power the Apostacy still remains And our End in pressing People unto the Eternal Word of Life is that they may be brought out of Death and Darkness which the Scriptures can never do They are a Declaration and Testimony of Heavenly Things but not the Heavenly Things themselves and as such we carry an high Respect unto them We accept them as the Words of God himself and by the Assistance of his Spirit they are read with great Instruction and Comfort I esteem them the best of Writings and desire nothing more frequently then that I may lead the Life they exhort to and whatever sleight Apprehensions my disingenuous Adversary is pleas'd to have of these kind of Acknowledgments I write the naked Truth of my Heart knowing I must give an Account to God CHAP. IV. His Pretence of our Equalling our own Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures VVIthout any flourishing Reflections most commonly the Head and Tail and sometimes Middle too of my Adversary's Reply I shall lay down his words Rep. The Means I used for confirming the first part of this Charge were two First Their pretending them to be from Immediate Inspiration This he is so far from denying that he pleads for it but after such a rude impertinent manner that I should but injure you and shew my self Idle to transscribe and animadvert upon it Rejoyn How rude and impertinent a manner I pleaded for it the Reader may best judge by perusing something of the Passage For Inspiration the Scriptures are not more express in any one thing No man can know the things of God by the bare Spirit of a Man The Scriptures are a sealed Book to all but those who know them by the same Hand that originally gave them so that however common they may be in the World they are Strangers to them that understand them not And though Old respecting the Time when they were revealed to the Saints yet New to every Age. So that we assert not a Revelation of New Things but a renewed Revelation of those Things God made former Ages Witnesses of otherwise men are no more benefitted by them And to be benefitted they must be made ours by the Spirit which made them the Holy Ancients In short No Man can understand Spiritnal Things but the spiritually Discerning nor can he so be without the Inspiration of the Almighty This is Scripture Now the Author of those Queries and J. Faldo also denying Inspiration they consequently deny themselves to be spiritually Discerning And for Men not spiritual to judge of spiritual Matters much 〈◊〉 to write of them and bid their Writings go and throwdown Self-will and exalt the Truth is Vain and Idolatrous For the Scriptures themselves considered meerly as such are unable much less Writings founded on Self-Will For it s the alone Priviledge of God's Power and Spirit and no writing whatever distinct from it can perform that Great and Mighty Work in Man Now as Rude and Impertinent as this Answer may be in John Faldo's Eyes his Reply has not afforded me Light enough to see it He would prove us guilty of holding Inspiration as if to do so were a Crime From a Passage of John Story 's who rejected certain Queries exhibited against the Quakers because meerly grounded upon the Author's Imagination of certain Passages in Scripture and not any certain Knowledge or Experience received from the Revelation of the Spirit It must be left to the Reader to judge how pertinently I returned upon my Adversary Sure I am that Self-willed Queries can never throw down Self-will And to urge Scripture not experienced is to steal the words of Truth from our Neighbour Inspiration was in request after Scriptures were in the World And indeed are unintelligible without it The New Birth is never the more known for Christ's Saying to Necodemus though thereby we are taught that without it no man shall enter into the Kingdom of God It is the Spirit alone that reveals the Mysteries of Regeneration therefore to deny Inspiration or Revelation is to overthrow the only and Evangelical Way to divine Knowledge Erasmus himself could tell us What Men set forth by Man's Device may be perceived by Man's Wit But the thing that is set forth by the Inspiration of the holy Ghost requireth an Interpreter inspired with the like Spirit And without the Inspiration of it the Secrets of God cannot be known which is also the substance of the fourth Article exhibited against the Lutherans in the Council of Trent as an erroneous Doctrine they held That to understand the Scripture neither Gloss nor Comment is necessary but only to have the Spirit of a Sheep of Christ's Pasture Vetablus
preach you the Truth or no and send me word what they say that I may learn to speak after them If they say they be Sure ye know what followeth If they say they be Vnsure when shall ye be sure that have so doubtful and unsure Teachers Thus much of Infallibility when he has answer'd this we may give him some more mean time we shall proceed Rep. But further sayes W. P. Cannot one Man be another Man's Brother and not the Eldest Brother This hath done your Work or all Hope is lost It seems the Scriptures and your Writings may without Offience call one another Brother yet not be thought to aspire to Equallity But why Because for sooth you do not say they are the Scriptures Elder Brother I thought till now that Brethren had been a term of Equallity And though in Humane Births there is a Natural Right to the First-born above the Rest yet not in the Productions of Scripture for the new Excelleth the old Testament in Glory Rejoyn In Similes there is some Allowance with honest Men but none to be hoped for from J. Faldo But if it be so hard for him to bear I cannot help it Several Writings may be given forth from the same Spirit without coming upon the Vy If we must needs equaâ— some of our Writings to the Scriptures because given forth by the same Spirit then must every the least True Christian be equal to the greatest Apostle because indued with the same Spirit The Pouring forth of the Spirit which was the Promise of the Father we have proved the very Substance of the Gospel and Inspiration as necessary as divine Knowledge because the only Way to it Whatever therefore hath been writ from Adam's day to this or shall yet be to the End of the World from the Motion of God's Spirit in the Hearts of any of his Children stands as nearly related to the Scriptures as his several Manifestations of his Spirit in his Servants Writing The Ancient Christians were Brethren having one Father Were they therefore equally dignified in Degree of Fellowship And that was the Meaning of my former Simile disingenuously taken by my Adversary For as there is a Degree in natural so in spiritual Births The Dignity of the first lies in Priority of Time the Dignity of the last in a more full Discovery of Immortality and eternal Life Thus the Scriptures of the New exceed those of the Old Testament Where there is the first and most ample Declaration there must be the Preheminence Now alas what can we boast of that was not formerly testified unto we exalt no singular Spirit neither walk we in an untroden Path 't is the Everlasting Gospel we bear witness unto and to the Revival and Breakin gs forth of that ancient Life Truth Spirit and Power which according unto divers Dispensations hath made People true Children of God What do you esteem your own Meanings and Interpretations Do you not intitle them to a very near relation the Text interpreted We never intended to bring our Writings upon the Vye and dispute with it the Scriptures for the Preheminence But our Writings further declaring of the same Truth from the same Spirit are related to them If to testifie and exhort to the same Truth the Scriptures declare of and that in the same Spirit of Christ by which they were given forth be offensively to equal or prefer such Testimonies we are indeed guilty of great Presumption But if it be Scripturally True That as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and that such as so led may by that Spirit further be drawn forth to fresh Testimonies to any ancient Truth or Truths declared of in the holy Scriptures whether by way of Prophecy Information Exhortation Reproof or Comfort to Believer or Unbeliever as must not be denyed since God cannot be limited it cannot be Presumptuous or Arrogant to affirm any Kindred or Relation between any such Writing or Wrirings of the Scriptures of Truth In short Either there are never to be more Inspiration after the Apostles Decease and consequently no more Testimonies nor Prophecies to be then what the remaining Scriptures give us or the Pouring out of the holy Ghost belongs as well to after Ages as to that as hath been abundantly proved and therefore fresh Testimonies and Prophesies by way of further opening or pressing the ancient Truth recorded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament may in after Ages be given forth unless God and his Spirit should be limited and many parts of the Scripture remain unfulfilled If any shall object 'T is Adding according to Revel 22. 18. I would have them know that the Addition intended was not of other Writings but other Doctrines I will conclude this with a very notable Passage delivered in a Book entituled An Examen of the late Assembly of Divines Confession of Faith presented to the Parliament Anno 165â— pag. 8 10. It is evident that the Lord will have Prophets in all Ages especially when he is about to bring extraordinary Judgments upon the World in general and upon the Church is special and that the Last Times shall abound most of all with the Prophetical Spirit So that these extraordinary Wayes of God's revealing himself neither are ceased nor shall determine in the militant Church Thirdly whereas you say in the sixth Section that nothing at any time is to be added to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament whether by new Revelations of the Spirit or Traditions of Men We desire to know what Warrant you have thus to determine If you say that in Revelat. 22. 18. it is written That if any Man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book We answer That so much in effect was forbidden long before as Prov. 30. 6. Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a Lyar yet many Books of the Holy Prophets and Apostles have been added since the written Word of those times Yea the same Inhibition was given by Moses Deut. 4. 2. 12. 32. Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it Therefore this Addition thus probibited must necessarily be understood of any new Doctrine in substance differing from the Old but even that of Moses But that there should be a Vindication of the same when mis-understood or a more full and free Publication of the same by the Prophets of the Old Testament or Inspired Men of the New Rep. My Adversary tells me a Blind Story a preferring our Writings above the Scriptures as being from God essentially in us But this saith he P. has not one word to Rejoyn I had little Reason for it He confesseth pag. 43. of his former Discourse that he expected not to find any such word as Essentially in our Authors Doth he think I was to play the
Fool in answering of him as he begs Excuse for in Replying to me We affirm with the Scripture that God tabernacles in his Children that Christ dwells in 〈◊〉 People and that the holy Spirit Temples in his Saints He was full of all Grace and Truth and of his Fulness have we received a measure of Grace and Truth and he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one After this Way that he calls Heresie know we worship we and enjoy we the God of our Fathers But what was the second Argument by which he endeavoureth to prove we prefer our Writings and Sayings above the Scriptures Rep. My second is their Characters they give of them concerning the Scriptures Feeding Death with Death the Letter which killeth Of their own Sayings The Voice of the Son of God was utter'd forth by him c. Rejoyn I told him before That Death is a State without the living experimental Knowledg of God and his Work in the Heart And that State I said will talk of the Fame of ◠Wisdom as saith the Scripture At this he Scoffs and makes as Merry with it as would some prophane Stager And in the midst of his Desires to be thought Meek to this little piece of a large and sober Answer basely cropt he gives the hard Names of Non-sense Folly and Impious The Scripture justifies me in what I said For Men dead in Trespasses and Sins talk of God and that perhaps according to the Letter of Scripture too why may it not be then said That Death talks of Wisdom as well as Dead Men. But this he calls arriving at as perfect Non-sense as G. Fox himself He would have done better not only to have answered but considered my following words Death or dead men's talking or feeding upon the Words of Scripture being ignorant of the true Sense of the Scripture But it had been vain to have expected this Candor from him In short The Scripture without the Spirit is Dead say some Independents as well as Quakers Men Unregenerate are dead in Sins say all What can such men's Feeding upon the Scriptures be but one dead thing feeding upon another Remember it was Christ that said It was the Spirit alone that quickens But that this Man may shew himself almost irrecoverably gone in Dishonesty because I said There is no Comparison betwixt what God requires and an immediate hearing of his Voice and being sensible of his living Touches upon the Soul Writings are but holy things at second hand He implyes and replyes thus Rep. Their Writings and Sayings they pretend to be perfectly immediate from the Spirit of God But the Scriptures handed through many Ages And therefore there is no Comparison because he affirms theirs to be more immediate Rejoyn Reader Right me in this Matter Was the Comparison betwixt our Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures or any Writings or Sayings and the Immediate Voice and Living Touches upon the Soul Do not I expresly say Writings are but holy things at second hand If so how do I make our Wrings holy things at the first hand Do not I prefer the Voice of God to the Soul and his Immediate Touches upon it as well before our own Writings and Sayings as the holy Scriptures of Truth And who dare deny that heavenly Enjoyment of God to be the blessed End of Writings and Sayings too It is after a manner not less Perverting though much more Scoffing that he deals with my Answer about Our Friends Denying Light to be in Scripture That is said I There is not Living Spiritual Essential Light in the Scriptures Now hear him Rep. Did he not intend his Writings for the View of those only who understand no more Right Reason then a Horse doth Hebrew He could not expect any success in such pittiful Attempts Whatsoever makes manifest is Light saith the Scripture But if there be no Light but according to the Character he gives Candles Stars Moon Sun Reason W. P's Writings also are gross and perfect Darkness Rejoyn This Man would pass both for Just and Rational Just he is not who has left out those very words which remove all Pretence to Scruple viz. That the Scriptures carryed a Descriptive and Declarative Light with them that is a Declaration from and of the divine Light Dares he affirm more or does this deny all other Lights besides the Living Spiritual and Essential Light Unjust Man to leave out that which only could wrong his Adversary and answer his infamous Ends. Besides he abuseth Scripture the Light mentioned in that Passage is the Living Spiritual Light of God in the Conscience as the Verse at length proves viz. That all things that are Reproved are made manifest by the Light for whatsoever makes manifest is Light Again Hear what he sayes to the same Matter Rep. And yet W. P. tells you of the Author of the Quakers Book he writ to give notice of the Day-spring of God's Eternal Light of Life to the World i. e. the Light within that needeth the Light of Farnsworth's Book to be seen by What cannot such a Reconciler do Rejoyn But what cannot such a Scoffer do who dare Affront God and be Injust to Men in the View of the World which is manifested thus First as I denyed a Living Spiritual and Essential Light to be in the Scriptures or any other VVritings so did I acknowledge a Descriptive and Declarative Light to be in them and measurably in other VVritings as well as the Scriptures which he hides from the Reader and then triumphs over a false Consequence Secondly If the Light within needs Rich. Farnsworth's Book as a Light without to be seen by because it is by it testified to the same upon his Argument may be said of God himself who is Light that he needed the Light of the Scriptures to be seen by But what shall I say The man is desperate in his Ventures From my concluding upon his Accusation and my own Answer so that our Adversary's Argument amounts to thus much We therefore prefer our own Writings before the Scriptures because in all our Writings we earnestly endeavour by numerous Quotations to prove what we write to be according to Scripture For this he flyes out into this following Reply Rep. I leave it to my Reader sayes J. Faldo to give a Name to this Passage the like to which for a daring Vntruth the World hath scarcely been ever acquainted with yet the man pretends besides all other Graces to Infallibility In many a large Libel I could produce where there is not one Quotation of Scripture W. Smith often quoted in Quakerism no Christianity in his Directory for Religious Principles consisting of above Two Hundred Pages hath not one Scripture quoted not one Exhortation to read the Scriptures But as his main Scope denyes and throws Dirt upon them Rejoyn Reader right a poor People once Never I think did man so slander Persons
within in that Blasphemous Saying then against the Spirit in the Prophets Apostles and every good Christian who by his infatuated way of Arguing would make us believe that Lucian and Julian acted from the Light within because they acted from something within and that there is no Distinction to be made between their Writings and the Scriptures themselves upon our Principle because they writ according to the Light that was in them as he sayes VVhat is this but to deny all Testimony within or at least allows but of such a one as gives equal Evidence to Apostates and Christians Men acted by the Power of Darkness and the Principle of Light It shall now rest with my Reader to point where the Pinch was For the Ill Language he sayes I gave him to wit a Line and a half made up out of six pages given on distinct Provocations Let us examine Base Comparison pag. 43. This fell out upon his comparing us with the Papists which we shall anon consider How slovenly I was in doing so I will not be mine own Judge Black as Hell it self in Malice page 46. fell from me on this Occasion sayes J. Faldo I know not hardly any worse Lucian and Julian said of Jesus of Nazareth the Scripture and Christianity THEN THE QUAKERS HAVE DONE VNDER OTHER NAMES Now Reader if thus to Unchristian Unscripture in fine Unreligion Prophane yea Atheize a whole Body of People bringing them into parallel with loose and heathenish Scoffers and Persecuters of the Christian Religion who all this while reverently believe in Christ Jesus the Saviour of the VVorld in his Life Death Resurrection Ascension Doctrine and Miracles I say If thus to use us is not as black as Hâ—ll in Malice against us there can be nothing Black Hellish or Malicious For the last piece of Raiâ—ing as he calls it The Impudence of his Wâ—ckedness p. 4 9. VVhat could it be else to charge the Impiety of Julian and Lucian upon the Light within and telling the VVorld That upon the Quakers Principle they may conclude their Writings as Canonical as the Scriptures of Truth But this man studied Personal Reflection more then the Cause or he would not have given but five Lines of nine Pages of my Answer and never have considered that as he ought I could be glad to read one page of his Vindication without unnecessary Reflection who for a Line and a half of pertinent Rebuke by him out of six Pages of my Answer hardly pickt and by me fully defended cryes out of my impertinent slovenly hard Names and that gentiler Railing may be learned under a Hedge where I leave him to be better taught But he is very angry I contract his Comparison of us with the Papists in the Matter of Infallibility and Inspiration thus He tells the VVorld the Papists own Revelation and the Quakers hold Revelation also therefore the Quakers are Papists or very near them Hear his Reply Rep. How can I guide W. P's Pen to write Truth in Matter of Fact If he find such an Argument in my Book I will be content to be his Bond-slave Can you believe that a man can be blest with Apostolical immediate Revelations for every thing in Religion that is not so honest as to use the very Eyes in his Head Rejoyn By this we may perceive it is high Tide with J. Faldo First Reader I deliver not the words in a different Character from my own because I did not pretend to quote him But that it was the drift of the Comparison and so no wrong to his Intention the thing it self abundantly proves The Papists hold Revelation and the Quakers own Revelation what 's the meaning of these two Propositions unless it be the Conclusion I drew But lest the Man should be believed hear what he sayes himself in his first Book It is no little Absurdity in the Quakers to make Out-cry against Popery while they plant and hug the Root in their own Bosoms Again in the same page It were no hard matter to prove an Agreement in a multitude of Particulars between the Papists and Quakers Besides all this he brings in a Story pag. 55. of a certain Romanist who coming into England and being asked which of the multitude of Sects came nearest unto the Roman Church replyed The Quakers And this J. Faldo sayes he remembers How then he should forget to that degree of Abuse that there is any Argument in his Book to prove the Quakers very near to the Papists who in his Story uses that very Word to make People believe it I cannot tell unless his great Desire to bedirt William Penn transported him beyond all remembrance of what he had writ I might now demand his Promise of being my Bond-Slave But alas Proud Man and Insolent he is too high for that Office if such I could accept of Though I know not how he can come off unless with this Passage p. 57. The Quakers out-go the Papists FAR therefore the Quakers are not Papists nor NEAR them He thought I made him abuse us beyond his Intention and he both intended and abused us beyond what I represented If in that I wronged him he has more Reason to Forgive then Revile me But how comes it to pass that he sayes nothing of my argumentum ad hominem The Papists own a God a Trinity of Persons c. And J. Faldo owns a God and a Trinity of Person therefore J. Faldo is a Papist or near a kin to one VVould this be just If not neither is his Conclusion of force against us J. Faldo holds something in common with Jews Turks Heathens and Papists he would not take it kindly if we should therefore conclude him to be all or any of them But he gave this the go-by which shews he seeks not the Promotion of Truth but Disgrace of his Adversary indeed his very good Friend though his own Indeserts will not let him believe it CHAP. V. Of the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie THe first thing in this Chapter he chargeth me with is Forgery Let us see how he proves it Rep. The Charge in my fifth Chapter is That the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Life or a Judge and Determiner of Religious Controversies but P. as if he had sworn not to repeat my words faithfully trans-scribes them That we deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversies Rejoyn Reader observe the Forgery lies here that I left out Life after Faith and Determiner after Judge and Religious before Controversies But because that which is the Rule of Faith is the Rule of Life and that Judge and Determiner are all one and that the Controversies intended were not about Questions in Mathematicks Philosophy Trade or Law common or civil but purely about Religion I thought it no Forgery to leave out words not necessary or what from the Nature of the
there is an unavoidable necessity of coming to that Spirit which made it theirs 'T is granted that all True Doctrine is according to Scripture but the Question is What is true Doctrine Scripture is a strong Testimony but what enlightens the Mind resolves Doubts and works Faith and informs guides and helps the Soul through the whole Work of Conversion and without which the Testimony of Scripture it self is truly an unintelligible and an incredible thing This must be nothing less then the Spirit it self In short The Scripture is not the Rule but Declaration of Faith and Knowledge That only must be the Rule of Faith which gave and ruled the Faith of those that gave forth Scripture And because none can give or work Faith now but what did give and work Faith then 't is not the Scripture but that which was before the Scripture even the Spirit of Truth which was the Author Rule and Finisher of their Faith And if our Faith in this Age be the same with the holy Men's of old that gave forth the Scriptures they are no more our Rule now then they were theirs then who had a Rule and a Faith before them But as it was a Declaration of what they believed knew and witnessed so it is a Declaration of what we now believe and desire to know and witness John's Epistle was not writ to be the Saints Rule for he directed them to the Anointing yet their Faith and Life of which the Anointing was the Rule was according to John's Epistle Agaiâ— The Declaration in time was after the Faith declared of but where there was Faith there was a Rule consequently that Declaration which was after that Faith and Rule was not that Rule so that the most that can be said against us is this The Scriptures cannot be a Declaration of your Faith till you come to such a Belief of the Truth 's thereby expressed as they had who writ them and a great Truth it is But then say we The Spirit must work that Faith before the Scriptures can be accounted a Declaration of our Faith or we interested in them And because that Faith has a Rule so soon as it has a being it must needs follow that the Declaration of that Faith cannot be either the Author or Rule of it Here lies the Mistake of my Adversary and many more that because what a Man does is according or agreeable to a thing therefore that is the Rule of the thing done To proceed For this reason it is a Constraint lies upon us from God to direct and exhort all People diligently to mind that Measure of the Holy Spirit which God hath given them to profit with as that alone by which Man comes to a certain Knowledge of his Mind and Will and to do the good and acceptable Thing in his Sight and that by which his poor labouring Mind is brought out of the Incertainties numerous Interpretations vain Janglings Men have pesterâ—d the World withal who have darkened Counsel and bewildered many in their Conscientious Enquieries after God drawing out their Minds from the seasoning Principle of Life instead of bringing them nearer to the Lord for which great and heavy Plagues hang over the Head of this Generation who make War against the Spirit with the Letter instead of confirming its Appearance from the Letter and under Pretence of calling the Scriptures the Word of God and Rule of Faith and Life divert People from Waiting for the Word nigh unto themselves which is the Word of Faith and gives Life to all that believe and obey it decrying us as Seducers and deriding us as Euthusiastick Canters because we prefer and turn all to the Spirit of Life within an Out-side Carnal Envious and Hypocrical Generation as it is I will conclude this Head with a Passage out of some certain Authors that were never professed nor reputed Quakers Wherefore they who are true Believers sayes the first and have received Christ's Spirit their Judgment is to be preferred in the Tryal of Spirits before a whole Council of Clergy-Men And they only who can try Spirits by the Spirit of God and Doctrines by the Word of God written in their Hearts by the Spirit can in measure discern all Spirits in the World And the Spirit of Christ which dwells in all true Christians cannot deceive nor be deceived in the Tryal of Spirits With abundance more to the same purpose The other brings in Two Objections frequently made against us and by him pertinently answered for us Object 1. It is said Isa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if any Man speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in him Answ Truth there is the Law and Testimony in the Spirit as well as in the Letter The Law of God is in the Heart there it is written and there it testifies the Truth of God and if any Man speak not according to this Rule it is because there is no Light or Morning risen in him The Spiritual Man judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no Man Object 2. It is said Gal. 6. 16. That whoso walketh according to this Rule Peace upon him Answ True but that is not the Rule of the Letter but of the Spirit even the Rule of the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Read the Words before and you shall see it There is nothing of any Value but the New Creature And whosoever walketh according to This Rule Peace shall be upon him c. And truly my Brethren it is my earnest Desire to see Souls to live more in the Spirit and less in the Letter and then they will see that we judge of the Letter by the Spirit and not of the Spirit by the Letter which occasions so much Ignorance amongst us and those who profess themselves to be our Teachers are chief in this Trespass Observe this J. Faldo Again The Spirit of God who is God is the ALONE RULE of a spiritual Christian c. Further declaring That some setting the Scriptures in the room of the Spirit they make them an Idol Ibid. p. 248. Let him either discard these Men from being Christians that were reputed great and refined Professors before the Breaking forth of the People called Quakers or leave off censuring this part of our Doctrine as no part of Christianity Nor have we any Ground to believe that they were intended for the Rule at first since they were not given forth all at one time and yet every Age stood in need of such a Rule but on divers Occasions as Miscarriages in the Churches Threatning of Judgments Prophecies Histories and Comfortings under Afflictions c. required Nor do they carry the least Method or Designment of the great Rule with them here they are Proper there Figurative in one thing Literal in another Allegorical without all Definition of Terms framing of Articles such Plainness and
dangerous then reading the Scriptures Reader 't is worth our while to see if I. Penington be as bad a Man as J. Faldo represents him in order to which I ask First May a Man that reads and pretends to value the Scriptures from up an Vnderstanding of them and yet be absolutely mistaken for want of the True Interpreter the Spirit of Truth I cannot think but J. Faldo himself will say that such a thing may be I am sure I believe so for it hath often been so already and J. Faldo's present Writings are an Unanswerable Instance for the Point The next Question I would ask is this Whether such Persons so mistaken are not very apt in Defence of their own Conceivings to oppose the Truth it self Methinks the whole Jewish Church at the time of Christ's Visible Appearance in the World in disputing against him and decrying of his Religion while they magnify'd the Scriptures as the only great Doctors of them should without further Labour answer that Question in the Affirmative Next Let me ask J. Faldo If the high Conceit the Jews had of their Knowledge in the Commands Doctrines and Prophecies of Scripture however Erroneous for want of the True Interpreter did not render them more captious and obdurate then the Heathen themselves If he can read the Scriptures of the New Testament he may answer this Question to our Mind and his own Shame Lastly Was not this State more dangerous then that of the Gentiles God himself long since resolv'd this Question when he brought such heavy Judgments upon the Jews and turn'd the Stream of his Love to the Gentiles It was not for nought those words were left upon record He came to his own and his own received him not That is He came to the Nation and People of all others God had selected for his Service to whom he had been propitious beyond measure whom he redeem'd by wonderful Miracles and blessed with Holy Leaders Just Judges a Righteous Law True and Faithful Prophets whose were the Covenants and Scriptures who were the Seed of Abraham and of whom Christ came as concerning the Flesh yet they received him not as God over all blessed forever manifested in Flesh in the Fulness of Time for their Deliverance but vehemently rejected him under the Title of Beelzebub Prince of Devils By this time I hope Isaac Penington's Passage is vindicated from the Malignity of our Adversary's Comment whose Perversion must needs be open and conspicuous to all that read him First in charging him To have made this Reflection upon the Knowledge gained by the Letter of the Scriptures which are none of I. P's words Next in concluding that by I. P's Doctrine nothing can well be more Dangerous then Reading the Scriptures who alwayes was and yet is a great Respecter and Reader of them making the Stress of I. P's Saying to lie in a Dislike and Contempt of the Scriptures absolutely instead of their dark Interpretations upon and Carnal Deductions from the Scriptures which he only levell'd his Discourse against Thus have we been serv'd in every pretended Proof he has brought out of our Friends Writings to prop and enforce his feeble and incredible Charges For where we reprove Men's forming unto themselves Religion from the Letter of the Scriptures according to their own Conceptions of it and give a Check to their great Eagerness to comprehend the most weighty Mysteries therein expressed and their continual Questioning Cavilling and Contending concerning them whilst they themselves are Ignorant of the very first Principles of Religion being yet Strangers to Unfeign'd Repentance fâ—om Dead Works and Fear towards the Living God with Loud Voices and Clamorous Tongues they thus exclaim against us after this Unruly as well as Unjust Manner The Quakers Deny the Scriptures The Quakers say they are not binding upon them The Quakers say it is Dangerous to read them but I say in their Name Blessed are they who reading truly understand them and live according to them I might here break off but I intreat my Reader to peruse Two notable Testimonies given by University-Men and such as were reputed Famous Thirty Years ago The first is out of Joshua Sprigg's Book entituled A Testimony to an Approaching Glory pag. 96. Christ desires that his Disciples may be sanctified not by planting the Knowledge of the LITERAL Word in their Minds but by ingrafting the Nature of the DIVINE Word in their Hearts Again in pag. 107. Christ may offer himself long enough in the LETTER in the HISTORY of the Gospel but if he appear not in the SPIRIT and sit in our Consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true Understanding of the Word aright And in page 79 80. We may see what is to be done by looking upon the HISTORY of Christ but till we find the same things done in us in some measure in the MYSTERY we can find little Comfort The whole HISTORY of Christ will profit you nothing nor all that you know except you find EXPERIMENTALLY the same things done in you by the Spirit The second is afforded us by Christopher Goâ—d stiled Bachellor of Divinity and Fellow of King's Colledge in Cambridge in his Book entituled Refreshing Drops c. pag. 12. There is no Knowledge of Christ nor of the Scripture but by REVELATION it is that the Apostle prayes for That God would give unto us the Spirit of Revelâ—tion Again in pag 18. It is neither Moses nor the Scriptures nor Christ's Works can settle our Hearts unless the Father be in them c. Also in pag. 89. To go forth in Man's Power in the Power of a Letter of the Scripture only is not safe Yet again pag. 87 upon Acts 17. Here they hold Paul play in Reasoning and Disputing Paul holds up Christ out of the Scriptures and the Jews do dispute against Christ by the Scriptures And this is that that all the Learning of Man doth all his Knowledge in the Scripture doth but serve him to oppose the Spirit The greater Knowledge in the Scriptures and the more Learning if it be only of Man the greater Opposition unto Christ and unto the Spirit These Jews had LEARNING AND KNOWLEDG IN THE SCRIPTURES MEERLY TO OPPOSE THE TRUTH THE POWER AND LIFE OF THE SCRIPTURES And lastly that we may not be too prolix we shall content our selves in the over-looking many more with this Passage in his last Testimony pag. 71. upon Esa 25. There are that have devoted themselves to the Law and the Letter of Scripture There are others that have their Life in the Creature God will shortly draw all Life unto himself and all they that run after other Gods shall starve and famish They and their Gods These Passages Reader speak for themselves and which is more so much for us that till J. Faldo and his Fellow-Separatists have publickly renounced them and their Authors we have great Cause to say that such as themselves have hitherto reputed their Spiritual and
Learn'd Ministers do defend and rather out-word us in Testimony to the Truth But before J. F. proceeds to any such Excommunication let him remember that he cannot do it without Disturbance to the Grave and Injury to the Memory of Joseph Carl that Famous and Ancient Independent Pastor who Licensed J. Spâ—â—gg's Book Ann. 1647. and consequently entituled himself to the Doctrine therein exprest And for Christopher Goad's not only J. Sprigg perform'd the Friendly Office of Publisher after his Decease but himself was Pastor of a very eminent Congregation of Independents in his Life-time Strange that the Men of these dayes should not know the Principles of their Admir'd Fathers and Teachers when they meet them but that worthy Witness C. Goad in his Conclusion of his last Testimony pag. 74 77. gives a good Reason for it He that hath Ears to hear let him hear he that hath not it may be will cry Whimsie Fancy and turning the Scripture into an Allegory and whilst the Vail is over Error Heresie Blasphemy I had thoughts of adding no further Testimony but a most remarkable Passage of that Christian and Learned Martyr Dr. Barnes Burnt for his Faith in King Henry the Eighth's dayes after having been his Ambassador and in high repute pressed hard upon me and I know not but his greater Distance from us then those before cited may carry more Authority and obtain greater Favour with our Enemies who will at least make shew of Reverence to his Autiquity and Martyrdom his words are these That Man's Will Reason Wisdom Heart Soul or whatsoever thing is in Man without the Spirit of God is but the Wisdom of the Flesh let him intend his best do all that lieth in him with all his Might and all his Power and yet can it not please God for it is but all Flesh Again It is the Spirit of Christ that maketh him Christs and the Spirit of God giveth witness to our Spirit that we be the Children of God Our Spirit giveth no witness to himself thâ— he is Christ's for then were the Spirit of God frustrate wherefore let our Spirit as well as he can study his best to apply himself to Goodness or to the uttermâ—â— of his Power and yet it is but WISDOM OF THE FLESH and HATH NO WITNESS OF GODâ— yea it is but an ENEMY and it must needs bâ— SIN as St. Austin saith He that feedeth without mâ—â— feedeth against me Thus far D. Barnes which is but a little of the greaâ— deal that he writes to the same purpose against thâ— Papists about their Doctrine of Free-will And iâ— deed he cleaves the Hair and hits the Mark above moâ— Ancient Writers for as he unanswerably argues in thâ— very Smart Discourse that Man's cleaving to his oâ— Power brought him into transgression and consequenâ—â—ly could never redeem him out of it So doth he eâ—â—press the absolute Necessity of Man's having Recourseâ— the Spirit of God in himself for Counsel and Assistanâ— in order to understand and fulfil the Good-will of Goâ— which implyes that all those who call it opposing 〈◊〉 Spirit to the Scripture and vilifying the Knowledge Scripture to press the understanding of it and witnessing the Truths therein declared of from the Revelation and Operation of the Eternal Spirit only are upon the rankest strain of Free-will that was ever yet broach'd among Men and there we leave our bitter Enemy J. Faldo I am now come to a Passage more immediately concerning my self which he thinks touches me to the Quick but I know not why unless he measures me by himself being a Man so quick to be touch'd that at the soberest and solidst Answer which I could give him he doth so gaul and fret that there is no coming near him without being kick't and abus'd His Carriage towards me in this Particular amongst many Instances already past and yet to come proves what I say In a Book of mine called The Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. in Answer to a Socinian who seem'd to deride the Quakers asserting a Necessity of having a Right Faith in God and Knowledge of the Scriptures from the Revelation and Operation of the Eternal Spirit I used these words But I assure them they shall grope in the Dark till they come into the daily Obedience of the Light and there rest contented to know only as they Experience At this he scoffed What know God only as they experience Can we experience his Omnipotency That W. P. of all others should talk at this rate is most ridiculous To which he brings me in thus answering 'T is Unchristian in John Faldo to assert the right Knowledge of God obtainable any other Way then by Experience Here 's my Reflection by way of Consequence but where 's my Argument That he left behind as being better able to jeer it then confute it some short Account of it I will give That it is the Light or Spirit of God that by its illuminatition giveth the right Knowledge of God that such Knowledge never goes without Experience Again The World without in its Make Order Perservation Providences his Powerful Work of Redemption within prove what I writ But of this he takes no notice Now his Dis-ingenuity thus far is two-fold First his stretching the word Experience to all Cases when the Scope and End of my words went no farther then every Man 's particular Saving Knowledge of God with respect to his Repentance Conversion and Eternal Salvation 2 ly He not only has taken no notice of my Argument but has abused the Consequence viz. That the Right or Saving Knowledge of God is not obtaiâ—able but by Experience after this manner Rep. Reader you have his Character of asserting that Reason Faith Scripture yea the Spirit of God too all which are not one and the same thing with Experience are any Means by which to obtain the Right Knowledge of God Rejoyn How like a Disputant or an honest Man he deals with me may be seen First In that no Man can have Experience without Reason because Reason is that part of a Man which is eminently concern'd in receiving that Experience therefore not the Giver of it nor yet it without Reason Secondly The Work of Faith is one great thing experienced Thirdly The Scripture is oftentimes an Instrument to that Experience Lastly The Spirit of God is the efficient Cause or Worker of the Experience in the reasonable Soul For must not He be very Blind or Malicious that can suppose I meant by the Knowledge of Experience such an one as God's Spirit brings not to who have been all this while pleading for that Knowledge and Experience which the Spirit of God can only give and abused with a Witness by J. Faldo for doing so but that he should suppose me to exclude Reason from Men in their Experiences which is to render them Brutes and because therefore unreasonable to be sure most uncapable of Experience unless Men may Experience without their
and consequently the Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith for how can any thing be ruled by that which is inferior to it Thus much we get granting to him that the Scriptures are the Word of God in the Text. Now Reader tell me of this Argumentation what has he taken what has he replyed to Yet this man is deem'd worthy by the Professors of our Times to act the Tertullus against the poor Quakers For those words The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God I told him then We rejected his Gloss for the spiritual Sword as he sayes Beza renders it must be of the Narure of the rest of the Armour mention'd in that Chapter that is invisible and Spiritual which the Bible or meer VVritings we know are not To which let me add that I know no Reason why the Shield of Faith should be preferred before the Sword of the spirit unless it be because that 's in the Verse before this if we consider them in an abstract Sense or as they are in themselves For Above all is not a preferring the Shield of Faith in Dignity before the Sword of the Spirit respecting their own Nature and Quality but with regard to the Creature For if Vnbelief enters how can the Loins be girt with Truth the Breast arm'd with Righteousness the Feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace the Head covered with the Helmtt of Salvation or the Enemy encounter'd with the Sword of the Spirit So that respecting Man not respecting the Dignity of the several parts of the Armour Faith is above all or first necessary for though God Christ the Holy Spirit Eternal Salvation be all or either of them greater then Faith as in themselves yet without Faith no interest can be had in them Wherefore our Adversary's Preference vanisheth and his Consequence about the Scriptures being the VVord of God falls to the Ground Concerning Christ's Answer to the Devil It is written it is written I shall desire the Reader to observe in my Adversary's Reply what of my Answer he trans-scribes which I gave to the use he made of that Scripture and what sort of Treatment he affords me These are his words Rep. Once more and I have done with this Chapter But said Christ to the Devil It is written VVhat then sayes W. P. Therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any means to resist Temptation pag. 90. You may fear the Man is craz'd or was almost asleep when he wrote this I produced the Example of Christ to prove that the Scripture is a Means for resisting Temptation he resisting so effectually with It s written it s written But Penn would make you believe I intended it to prove that the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be such a Means Can you think such a Man to be sinlest yea Infallible Rejoyn His Froth and Reflection I am no otherwise concern'd at then that it ill becomes a Pretender to Divinity It is enough for me to shew that he has willingly conceal'd my Answer and hath made a Reply as if he had taken in all that was fit to be consider'd my Answer lay thus But said Christ to the Devil It is written VVhat then Therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any Means to resist Temptation Here J. F. leaves me but I go on or rather are they not such Means which I am sure no right Quaker ever deny'd Now Reader mark Besides it was reasonable that Christ should so answer set that Power aside which filled up those words and chain'd Satan because the Devil used Scripture to prevail upon him as the place proves However we deny not but confess that where-ever God is pleased to speak by any place of Scripture to a Tempted Soul it may very well be acknowledg'd to be a Means by which God scatters such Doubts and Despondences and gives Power over Temptations and that it may often so occur yet we would not have People fly to them as what of themselves may be sufficient but rather have Recourse to that Divine Faith which the Scriptures testifie is able to Quench the fiery Darts and which J. F. himself has largely confest is to be preferred above the Scriptures themselves Now I desire the Reader to consider First That he gave not the 10th part of my Answer in any respect 2ly That what of it would have prevented his reflecting upon me he wholy omitted He seems di pleased that I made such a Question upon his citing Christ's words to the Devil as this therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any Means to resist Temptation telling Folks They may fear I was craz'd or a sleep when I wrote it asking If they think such a Man to be sinlest or infallible as thinking it improper to his Quotation and yet would take no notice of these words that were directed immediately to it viz. it was therefore reasonable that Christ should so answer because the Devil used Scripture to prevail upon him the very Answer in his pretended Reply was wanting VVith what Face then can our Adversary over above his other ill words charge me with designing to render him impertinent by making him endeavour to prove that the Quakers deny the Scriptures to be such a Means by the Question I ask'd as if I had wrong'd him that he never intended any such thing through the bent of the Chapter And what can be clearer then that he on purpose avoided the shock and took notice only of that part of my Answer which being torn from the rest he thought fittest for him to play upon But I see no VVrong I did him in so asking what I did for I am sure it was one End for which the Scripture was quoted by him and the Jeers he bestows upon me and it besides his wilful Neglect of the rest of my honest Return and yet complain for want of it when he had done so is a pittiful come off for a Man of his Pretence to Controversie CHAP. IX Not we but our Adversary opposeth the Teachings of the Spirit to the Doctrines of the Scriptures The Testimonies brought by him cleared and delivered from his Application Our Doctrine proved from Scripture and several Testimonies His frequent and gross Perversions of our Words and Writings discovered and justly rebuked VVE are now got to his last Chapter relating to the Scriptures in which he pretends to justifie his Charge by further evidencing a Consistency between it and William Smith's Doctrine which I utterly deny'd to have been William Smith's VVords or Meaning The Charge was That the Quakers put the Spirit of God and the Scriptures in Opposition to each other His Proof of the Charge lies in these words Traditions of Men Earthly Root Darkness and Confusion Apostacy the Whore's Cup the Mark of the Beast Bastards brought forth of Flesh and Blood c. which sayes John Faldo in his first Book would amaze a
as said of the Scriptures out of W. Smith's Book which was one part of my Stress he was willing to shake off but it will not so easily acquit him Observe his Reply Rep. And whereas W. P. saith No such Words can be produced he intends no other but that Smith doth not accuse himself in so many words of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received Rejoyn His first Words belye me nor can any Man be so sottish as to believe I intended any such thing as he would have his Reader believe for that were no Answer to the Objection but an arrant yet fond Cheat and Illusion My Meaning went with my Words and my Words meant as I just now explain'd them the substance of which was in my Answer though evaded by his Reply and perhaps my Rejoynder will meet with no better Usage For his Phrase of Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures I will tell him and that upon very good Authority that he now playes the Canter with us and that shamefully The Spirit of God IN the Scriptures a Scripture for that I intreat him You may see what a Doctor he is you that believe in him that thinks he can clasp up the Spirit with his Bible It seems thus far John Faldo and Simon Magus agree for the one thought he could buy it of Peter and the other implies he may have it of his Book-seller Indeed if I thought J. Faldo could believe what he sayes I should be the tenderer of him for Ignorance is to be pittied But when he shall shut the Spirit of God out of Men and shut him up in the Scripture though it call Men the Temples or Tabernacles of God and his Spirit whilst it never calls it self so but Holy Writings or a Declaration of things certainly believed he is to be censur'd for his improper and ambiguous Terms and the rather because his Charity is so small to others in Cases more excusable and that no Man acts the Doctor of the Sentences to others more snappishly and imperiously then himself however I shall be so favourable as to take his Words in this Sense else I know not which way he will turn himself viz. The Spirit of God speaking when it pleaseth by the Scriptures which brings him and his Cause unavoidably over to us But let us see if J. F. can honestly fasten any of those fore-cited Epithetes upon W. Smith's Book If he can we will condemn the Book as heartily as J. F. traduceth us in his But if he shall be found to have wrong'd W. S. God that lives forever will avenge our Innocency upon him which we desire may extend no further then to work him into true Repentance and effectually to vindicate us in the Understandings of the Mis-informed His words are these Rep. But that all that Inventory of execrable Names W. Smith doth intend of the Scriptures and the Holy Doctrines grounded on the Authority of the written Word take these Testimonies John 1. 9. He that is John beheld him and his Glory and felt his Power and what his Power took away then he declared him as he knew him and not from any Tradition or Writing before him why then do teach for Doctrines Men's Traditions running into the Lines of what others have written Morn Watch pag. 6. Rejoyn The Passages from whence the particular Epithetes are taken shall be consider'd anon This is one of those Testimonies he brings to prove he rightly cited and apply'd his former Testimonies out of the same Author which had he intended in reallity he should as well have inserted the one as the other to help such as had not seen his other Book into a true Judgment of this but then may he say I should not make the best of my Case which to do him no Wrong he studies more then the Truth or any thing else next to his making the worst of ours And now Reader that this Proof is as lame as his former and wholely as silent to his Wicked purposes consider I entreat thee the Drift of this Man as his Discourse at large manifests Two things he had in his Eye First to beat People off from the Doctrines and Traditions of Men in the Sense Christ once spoke those words to wit not the Scriptures but Men's humane Interpretations of them with such Forms and Worships as they had invented in the Apostacy from the true Spirit of Christianity as these words by J. F. purposely omitted notwithstanding they lay between the two first Sentences which therefore make an absolute Break though he makes none do undeniably evince to wit VVeigh this Truth all ye Priests and Professors and ponder it in your Hearts have you beheld Christ and seen his Glory Have you felt his Power to take away your sin If yea then why do ye teach for Doctrine Men's Traditions Again pag. 16. For they being from the Life that gave forth Scriptures their Vnderstandings are darkened and they err and know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God Lastly in the 14th page he hath these words All the vain Worships and Customs which People at this day are in who yet abide in Forms and Traditions are all come up since the dayes of the Apostles and are after Men's Traditions and not after Christ And the Conception of all hath been in Man's Imagination and hath been brought forth in his own Will and Wisdom By all which Reader it appears that he distinguisheth between Men's Traditions and God's Tradition For first how can he mean the Scriptures in the first Passage the middle of which our Adversary so wilfully dropt when he implies that from feeling the Power of Christ to take away Sin Men would leave off Teaching for Doctrine the Traditions of Men making them thereby sinful and a Sin to teach them when J. Faldo confesses that upon the Spirit 's moving and giving us the understanding of Scripture we do allow the Doctrines therein deliver'd to be rightly preach'd In the second Passage he undeniably distinguishes between the Scriptures rightly understood and their Mistake of them to whom he wrote Not knowing says he the Scriptures nor the Power of God being darkned which imports that truly to know and teach according to the sense of Holy Scripture is a quite differing thing from Teaching for Doctrine the Traditions of Men. Nor is his third Passage less clear in the Point pag. 14. sinâ—â— he explains what he means by those offensive Words to J. Faldo's Ear by such Customs Worships and Traditions as were not of Christ and that took their rise since the time of the Apostles and proceeded from the Imagination Will and Wisdom of Man therefore not the Writings of either Prophets or Apostles that were before such Apostacy and which were given forth as they were mov'd of the Holy Ghost The second thing greatly in the Author's Eye and with which his Spirit seems to be prest through the
Mouth signifying no more then something in lieu of a Mouth and not His Mouth therefore was on purpose brought in by me to prevent that very Construction which my Adversary hath not withstanding hit upon But to the next part of his Reply which is still by way of Consequence as he thinks from my Principles Rep. 4thly What the Scriptures say the Lord doth not say unless he that utters them hath the like Commission from God as Jeremy Rejoyn A meer Tale of J. Faldo's making They are the VVords of the Lord let who will speak them or say them over But they are not the words of God by or through that Person that is dead to them And instead of hearing and receiving them from such Intruders and False Pretenders they ought to be flunâ— back into their Faces and they reprov'd for False Prophets VVhat hast thou to do to take my Name into thy Mouth saith God that hatest to be reformed And how is he reform'd that is not renew'd into that Life Power and VVisdom that Man was indu'd with before he came to be through Transgression deform'd The Drift of our Adversary is to prop and maintain a Company of dry sensless and unregenerate Talkers for VVorldly Maintenance They are of their Race who taught for Hire and divined for Money the Chemarims or Black-Coats of old times The plain English of all J. F's Jeers and Railings against us is this VVe deny him to be a Minister of the Gospel who preaches or teaches what he has not experienced of God's VVork in his own Heart viz. who preaches of David's Languishings and never was in them of the Terrors the Apostles knew and never felt them In fine the whole Exercise that attends the Soul of Man from the beginning of his Repentance to the Compleating of his Salvation and never have experimentally trod that Path and pass'd thorough those divers States He is an ill Guide that never went the VVay himself and an unskilful Physitian who is ignorant both of the Disease and Cure His 5th Consequence is this Rep. That all that call them by that Name and tender them to others are Thieves and Robbers Rejoyn This is a piece of Gibberish I do not understand VVhen did we call any Thieves or Robbers for a Name given to the Scriptures if them he mean On what part of my Answer can he fasten these words 'T is true I said then and I say again They are all Thieves and Robbers that steal other Men's Experiences and then preach them for Advantage For they that stole of old were such as spoke other Men's VVords without their Sinse And as the False Prophet stole the True Prophets VVords which was one of their Marks so the True Prophets did not speak in Immitation of one another but as the VVord of the Lord came upon their Spirits so they declar'd it which is prov'd thus First If it had been the VVords or VVritings of the true Prophets themselves then it could not have been said Let the Prophet that hath a Dream tell a Dream and he that hath My VVord speak My VVord faithfully since most if not every one of them had the VVords or VVritings of the true Prophets by them So that after J. F's Conceit every one of them might have spoken it and then too when it best pleas'd him which being utterly inconsistent with the very VVords and Nature of the Text. I conclude It was an Invisible Immediate and Spiritual VVord the true Prophets spoak by as they were moved of it 2dly It was a Fire and Hammer and that the Scriptures were not 3dly It came at certain times to them who had so much of the Scripture as was then extant always by them therefore not the Scripture but an Immediate VVord 4thly Otherwise there had been no more Scripture upon Inspiration but a continual discanting upon those they had therefore still an Immediate VVord and not the VVords and VVritings of others Lastly If the Difference then between a true and a falâ—e Prophet was the declaring faithfully the VVord of the Lord when and as they felt the Operation and Motion of it in themselves and a borrowing or rather Stealing those words and so without either the Operation or Motion of the same Eternal Word which was before the coming of Christ much more then ought the true Prophets in these Evangelical Times to whom were promised a more large Effusion of the Holy Spirit to wait for the Operation and Motion of God's Eternal Power Word or Spirit of Life in order to instruct others And more reason have we to repute them False Prophets that in these days of greater Light should prop up themselves as God's Ministers with the old Cheat of Stealing their Neighbours VVord Certainly they are less sufferable now then at that time And if that Dispensation renounce them this ought much more But J. F. thinks he saith something when he flings this Consequence upon me as ridiculous Rep. That Jeremy and the Prophets are our Neighbours though dead Two or Three Thousand years since Rejoyn I never said they were John Faldo's Neighbours nor does he deserve so good Company though he needs it But let it suffice that J. F. steals as bad as Jeremiah's Neighbours did And thus far more boldly and notoriously in that they perhaps got the true Prophets Words so soon that some might not know who had them first whereas J. F. runs back Two or Three Thousand Years a pilfering for his Hackny-Sermons out of them which are so well known to be other Men's Lines and Labours Methinks People should not suffer themselves to be so miserably guld nor lie at the Expence of maintaining a Priest to tell his Tales who may buy each of them a Bible containing the Writings of the Holy Prophets and Apostles for Five Shillings more to their Edification since their Ministers or Masters rather deny Inspiration and consequently all inward certaintâ—â— to their own Conceptions and Glosses hugging Fallibility as a necessary Article and flinging it more then once in our Teeth as arrogant Heresie to say VVe are Certain of what we teach Truly my Soul magnifies the Lord and I rejoyce in God my Saviour that he has dis-vail'd this Mystery of Iniquity and dis-spoil'd that Painted Jezabel and splendid VVhore of Babylon who hath long fate upon the many Waters and hath discover'd her Merchants her Wares her Witchcrafts whereby her Abominations are known and her darkest Stratagems and deepest Subtilties found out It s not her saying She 's a Bride a Church nor her Merchants and People that they are Ministers and Christians that will serve their turn for their Conception is known their Original their Number their Power their Devices and utmost Extent and they are all found to be out of the Redeeming Power Life and Spirit of the Lamb. And for this Cause am I engag'd on Earth and the Reproaches that attends me on that Account are unutterably more grateful to me then
true and living God Fifthly We have proved our Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit as by us distinguisht and cleared from J. F.'s Perversions by abundance of such Authorities as I think he dares not gain-say So that we cannot be longer Hereticks and those continue Orthodox showing thereby that we are but pressing more intirely plainly and effectually what the best Protestants and Separatists have at times not only let drop from their Mouths and Pens but insisted on and prophesied also the increase and Enlargement of in the hearts of Men however forgot or denyed by their Dry and Degenerated Posterity Lastly That we do not therefore exhort People to hearken unto the Voice and Leadings of the Holy Spirit which strive with them as that by which God who is a Spirit comes truly to be known and the Scriptures themselves only to be read with a right Understanding and true Benefit with any the least Design to justle the Scriptures out of their place and Authority No God knows it is not our Purpose but for this very End do we so write and speak that People may come to possess what they declare of and witness them fulfilled in themselves instead of contending about what they do not understand and which can never be revealed to that dead dark and unregenerate State in which they live for the Lord is at work as I said before to gather People more and more into the Spirit and Life of his Son accomplishing his Glorious Promises in these latter Dayes and bringing People to the good Things themselves by which Out-sides are daily wearing off more and more and the Testimonies of Holy Scripture witnessed and fulfilled in them that believe Which is not to Overthrow but to answer the great End of their first Publication Preservation unto this very Day Whereas the contrary is not truly to esteem them but under the very vain Pretence of it to withstand and as much as in them lieth to bar out the Great Gospel-Ministration which stands in the Convictions Instructions Leadings and Orderings of the Holy Spirit And unto that must all come who in this Life would witness a Translation into Christ's Kingdom that is not of this World and know a being made free of that Jerusalem which comes down from above the Mother of the Free-born which they only are that have been born again by the Regenerating Word to whom the Formal and Literal Professors are but as Hagar and her Off-spring unto Sarah and the Seed of the Promise And this is the Word of the God of Heaven and Earth unto all those that are yet unacquainted with this Convincing Baptizing Reconciling Ingrafting and Regenerating Word Power or Spirit within And so I am thus far clear of your Blood and am at Peace with the God of my Salvation THE INVALIDITY OF John Faldo's Vindication Of his Book called Quakerism No Christianity PART II. CHAP. I. of Gospel-Ordinances in general such truly embraced THis second Part of my Rejoynder is a Consideration of his Defence of his Charge of our Denying Gospel-Ordinances the True Christ with his Transactions at Jerusalem also that we are guilty of Idolatry and own not the Resurrection of the Dead The Work of this Chapter will be to see how he will make good our Denyal of Gospel-Ordinances in general Be pleased to hear how he handleth both me and the Matter Reply pag. 49 50. The first Proof is out of Fox Myst p. 2. He hath triumphed over the Ordinances and blotted them out and they are not to be touched and the Saints â— Christ in them who is the End of outward Forms This saith W. P. pag. 103. is Scripture Language But why so because some Scripture-words are in it although the Text be mangled Corrupted and abused to the Contradiction of Scripture-Truth Thus they apply sinfulyenough False Prophets Dogs Serpents Hypocrites Devil Lyar c. But if I should call W. P. Thou Child of the Devil Thou Enemy of all Righteousness he would not therefore allow it to be all very true though so applyed it looks much more like Truth then G. Fox's scriptural Language who hath these Words about Baptism and the Lord's Supper Rejoynder For his Proof as he calls it it is not in pag. 52. of G. F's Book which were Answer enough to so shuffling an Adversary I confess in page 16. I find it but it is so far from being immediately directed to either Baptism or Supper that there is no such thing mentioned much lest insisted on from the Beginning of G. F's Answer to J. Timson's Book to the very place wherein the Words are found Now what to call this piece of Invention is sest with every Readers Discretion But it is not less worth our notice that of all my Explanation of G. F's Words he only reports these three viz. is Scripture Language who further told him Christ did blot out the Hand-writing of Ordinances Collos 2. 14. That he was to the Saints then and is to those now who rightly believe in him the End of all Meats Drinks Washing Dayes or any other Temporal Elementary or Figurative Worship according to verse 16 17. By this it will appear whether of us two have most honestly and most truely applyed Scripture I in thus expositing and vindicating G. F's Passage or J. Faldo in calling me by Implication a Child of the Devil and an Enemy of all Righteousness But again Reply p. 50. I also told Mr. Penn That if the Saints having Christ in them were the Consideration of which the Ordinances were not to be touched then not only we but even all other Saints under the Mosaical Administration sinned in their Practices of God's Ordinances also for they had Christ in them in those Dayes in the same Sence as the Saints in these Rejoynder This Saying carries with it a large Concession to Christ's Manifestation in the Hearts of his People as well under the Mosaical Administration as that which we call for Distinction Evangelical Indeed larger then true if by the same Sence he understands that all that he was to his Apostles and the Churches by them planted he was to the People of Israel under the Conduct of Moses for first it is manifest they were not capable of such Discoveries being weak-Sighted carnal and greatly addicted to embrace the Fopperies of the Heathen Secondly There would have been no need of shewing forth a further Glory by Types and Figures or to entertain minds so enlighted and Heavenly with such low and as the Apostle phraseth them beggarly things had they enjoyed Christ under the Administration of Moses as in more Gospel Times But above all that J. Faldo should plead for the Continuance of Ordinances after Christ had blotted them out and such Meats and Drinks c. as Christ ended being the Substance of them because Christ might be in some measure known to the Saints of old at what time such Ordinances were given forth and such Meats
the Power of Satan unto God we own honour and love and only deny and reject that Ministry which is by the Will Study or Acquisition of Man in his unregenerated State who not being acquainted with the Effectual Operation of the Word of God in themfelves are wholy dark as to those things which relate to the true Ministry not knowing what they deny nor whereof they affirm which doth not edifie but hazard the immortal Souls of Men And as they want the Inspiration of the Almighty to instruct them so being Strangers to the Work of God in themselves and not waiting to feel an Enduement with Divine Power from on high there proceeds no spiritual Life or divine Vertue from them to make their Ministry effectual which is the Cause of that Lamentable Decay of holy Living that is in the World and great Increase of all manner of Unsavoury and Irreligious Conversation I will conclude with two or three Testimonies given by men once in request with Separatists Christopher Goad's Invalidity of Church's Censures pag. 64 65. It is the Spirit that makes Ministers and those Ministers that remain by the Spirit do minister the Spirit and that is ministring of the Gospel when we miuister the Spirit I am a Minister of the new Testament so far as the Spirit speaks in me and by me In whomsoever the Spirit stands up and speaks that Person for the Time is a Minister a true Minister The Spirit doth not regard Sexes the Spirit regards not Age Learned or unlearned 'T is not Age nor Sex nor any major Part can minister Spirit but whom the Spirit pleaseth Christopher Goad Right Spir. c. p. 21 22. The Ministry that is calling us off from Man from the Gloworm Light of this Creation from Man's Parts an Gifts into the Spirit that is the Ministry we should look after The Truth is there is no true Prophet no true Testimony given of Christ but by those that see him and the nearer to him the clearer Sight of him the more clear and powerful is the Testimony given of him That Testimony that is given to him by those that do not see him present and come is not in deed a Testimony to Christ but to Anti-christ he is such a Prophet as Balaam was that had nothing but Notion All true Prophets that prophesied of Christ saw him and he was in them Christopher Goad's Paraphrase upon Act. 17. p. 18. We know no other Guide but the Spirit There is not any Minister in the World that is our Guide or any Company of Ministers â—ut the Spirit if he speaks in them and by them VVe have but one Master that is Christ T. Collier in his Works p. 47 48. and p. 430. Upon that Scripture Mal. 27. The Priâ—st's Lips should preserve Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Host Now this usually is applyed to the Ministers who have given themselves the Title of Priest's and that the People should seek the Knowledge at their Mouths and indeed they themselves have done what in them lies not only to bring People into this Error and Ignorance but to keep them in it whereas Christ is indeed the alone Priâ—st the Substance of the Jews Type and the People are to seek the Law at his Mouth but he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts he is called the Messenger of the Covenant Mal 3. 1. the alone Prophet and Teacher of his People The Spirit being lost Anti-christ sets the VVisdom of the Flesh human Industry Tongues and Arts in room of it it is the Anointing of Anti-christ for in all things Anti-christ seeks to imitate Christ as well in the Flesh as in the Spirit Again The Saints are made partakers of the same Spirit the Apostles were W. Dell's Sermons pag. 16 17 18. There is a Necessity of this Power of the Holy Spirit for Ministers For first If they have not this Power of the Holy Spirit they have no Power at all for Christ sent them only as his Father sent him Without this Power they are insufficient for the Ministry for no Man is sufficient for the Work of the Ministry by any natural Parts and Abilities of his own but only by this Power of the Spirit and till he be endued with this notwithstanding all his other Accomplishments he is altogether insufficient but only by the Power of the holy Spirit coming upon them He cannot speak the Word of God but by the Power of God Christ himâ—elf without this Power of God could not have spoke one VVord of God W. Dell. Stumble Stone p. 8. The Ministry of the new Testament is a common Ministry belonging equaly and the like to all the Seed of Christ W. Dell. Tryal of Spirits p. 17 18. The true Prophets speaking the Word of God by and in the Spirit as Paul sayes of himself and other Believes who had received the Spirit We have the mind of Christ But the false Prophets though they speak the Word of the Letter exactly and that to the very Original and Curiosity of Criticisms yet speaking it without the Spirit they are false Prophets before God and his True Church seeing all right Prophecy hath proceeded from the Spirit in all Ages of the World but especially it must so proceed in the Dayes of the New-Testament wherein God hath promised the largest Effusion of his Spirit Greenham Serm. 1. p. 51. Without this Spirit of God no Holy Exercise can have its full Effect for the word works not where the Spirit of God is wanting when we have not the Spirit of God to teach us speak of the Law or the Gospel c. we are little affected therewith unless God give us of his good Spirit to profit by the same CHAP. III. That we own a Gospel-Church contrary to our Adversary's Charge THe next thing our Adversary charged us with a Denyal of is a Gospel-Church one of his Proofs as he will have them called was in J. N's Love to the Lost pag. 17. And the Chruch so gathered into God is the Pillar and Ground of Truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher Upon which he argued thus The Gospel-Church is a Church which had other Teachers and not the Spirit alone Therefore the Quakers deny a Gospel-Church and they contradict themselves for they have more Teachers then all others Thus his first Book pag. 16. To which I returned That such as are not blinded with Prejudice may discern that from our speaking of the Universal Church of God which sayes the Apostle as well as the Quakers is in God he inâ—ers That we deny all Visible Religious Societies commonly called by the Ancients Asia Thessalonica Ephesus Corinth c. Now observe his Reply Reply pag. 59. Not one word of this in all my Book My Charge was That they deny a Gospel-Church not Visible Religious Societies Rejoynder Confidently said but if all the Words be not there doth it follow
the Matter they import is not there If he doth not mean That we deny a Visible Religious Society to be a Church what makes him to infer our Denyal of a Gospel-Church from our asserting it to be Invisible Two things must follow from this Reply Either a Gospel-Church is not visible and then he breaks his own Neck or not a Religious Society and so he is impious If then a Gospel-Church is a Visible Religious Society and we deny a Gospel-Church it must follow that we deny a Visible Religious Society which in John Faldo's Opinion makes up a Gospel-Church To conclude a Gospel-Church and a Visible Religious Society he makes to be quite differing things But perhaps he will come off thus I did not say ye denyed the visible religious Societies called the Churches of Asia c. but that you deny them or such as they are to be Churches But neither will this serve his turn for we both own them to have been Gospel-Churches and are taught by J. F. to believe That a Gospel-Church is not only not invisible but an other Thing then a visible religious Society too It is worth our while to hear his Reason for it Reply p. 59. Religious Societies may be as far from a Gospel-Church as half a dozen Christian Friends associated together to eat a good Dinner or carry on a Trade yet he dirts me with want of Honesty to grace his Forgery Rejoynder He might as well have said to the Ale-House or Tavern whether he invited a Friend of ours after disputing with him doubtless not out of Love to our Friend but the good Liquor a Sort of Liberty once counted Scandalous by many of his Pretensions especially when just after so serious an Exercise but it is grown familiar with Men of his Coat to fall from the Bible to the Pot and so back again But Friendly Reader what sayst thou of this Man's Evasion Who will have me to mean by visible religious Societies visible civil Societies for such I count good Men at an Ordinary or a Committee of Trade Vain and Shallow Man Did I not give Intimation enough what Religious Societies I meant when I instanced the Churches of Asia Thessalonica c. to explain what I meant thereby Whether I did play the Forger or my Adversary the Dishonest Shifter Let the Impartial Reader judge Again Reply W. P. proceeds p. 113. in the same Evil And from our asserting the Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher he concludes that we deny all Preaching of men though by the Spirit the four last Words though by the Spirit are added by him and meerly forged Rejoynder They may be added but not forged One would think it is only then when without the holy Ghost that we deny it by his Words and that hurts us not but I take it the other way and the Truth is it is a Mistake he commits against us where-ever the like Subjects fall in his Way for this implies as if we denyed Preaching by Inspiration and that he all along had mantained it A Doctrine he ever now and then flings in our Dish scorns and derides Thus can this Man's Conscience sail by any Wind to gain the Shore and after all these Shuffles dares to conclude That we in Terminis deny all Preachings of men because G. F. said cease from man when there is nothing more palpable then that G. F. meant man considered in his own meer Ability that is from such as the Prophet forbid not from true Prophets but our Adversary the Preachings of Men though by the Spirit of God for how can he make us to contradict our selves in saying man is the Spirits Instrument which he understands to be the Preaching of Men by the Spirit if he doth not make us deny all Preaching though by the Spirit In short I hope my Reader will think it no Forgery whatever my Adversary may who ever and anon would hide his own weakness by hard word flung upon me to amuse the credulous Reader to say that from our Asserting The Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher of all who believe he concludes That we deny all Preaching of Men though by the Spirit else there would be no sense in his charging us with a Contradiction because we say The Spirit is the only Teacher and yet that the Spirit teacheth by Men if he did not understand our Ceasing from Men or Denying Man's Ministry to be our Denyal of Man's Preaching by the holy Spirit But he will not give over yet These words The Spirit the only Teacher he often flings up as words indigestible by his foul and phlegmatick Stomach for upon my saying That such as preach by the Holy Spirit are rather the Instrument then the Teacher or Man is that by which the Spirit conveyeth his Teaching unto others he replyes thus Reply pag. 58. So that after W. P's own strict Account he allows their Practices viz. Preaching of Men to give the Lye every Day to their Tenets Rejoynder If Preachings of Men by the Spirit be the Preachings of Men such Preachings we shall alwayes allow and think it no Lye or Contradiction to our Tenets But if he that dictates a Letter of Intelligence be the Informer and not the Scribe the Holy Spirit must be the Teacher and Man but the Instrument True Teachings are not only Words but Matter and that accompanied with Divine Power which flow from the Eternal Spirit Men give them but the simple Covering of Expression and that by the Spirit 's appointment therefore not so properly the Teachings of Men by the Holy Spirit as the Teachings of the Holy Spirit by and through Men consequently not Man's Teachings but the Spirit 's Again Because we charge him with bringing in ot her Teachers then the Holy Spirit contrary to express Scripture the Promise of God and the very End of the Blessed Gospel he replies Reply pag. 58 59. Can you think this Man worth Disputing with who rambles and talks he cares not how If what P. said be true the Exhortations to do the Work of an Evangelist feed the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Over-seers were not intended of Man's Teaching but the Spirit of God only exhorted the Spirit of God to these Actions and Man had not hath not any Agency in Teaching Rejoynder But did we ever say Man had no Share in being taught whatever we have said against the utmost of man's natural Ability considered separately from God's Spirit about his Teaching We never yet said That Man was not to be taught Is there no Difference betwixt Men's Teaching without God's Spirit and Men's being taught of God's Spirit At whose Door then should we lay this Absurdity The Spirit of God exhorted the Spirit of God What an Idle Non sequitur is this Nor do we deny all Agency in Man when mannaged by the Holy Ghost A Man might as well argue following J. Faldo's Steps against the Apostle Paul when he said It is no
Besides the Apostle tells us That though an Vnknown Tongue might render him as a Barbarian to him that understandeth him not will it therefore follow that he was a Barbarian or that he had not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him By no means for he might speak Mysteries in the Spirit as saith the Apostle vers 2. Men may also pray in the Spirit in an Vnknown Tongue vers 14. A Man may Bless Praise and give Thanks to God in an Vnknown Tongue vers 14 15 16 17. Nay the Apostle saith of such a one Verily thou givest Thanks well Now how all this can be and yet that such a Person should be acted by another Spirit then the Spirit of God and the Apostle for my own part I cannot see In short The Apostle tells us That Tongues are for them that believe not vers 22. But our Friend spoak among them that believed and though they did not all know what her bare words imported yet they might be and were sensible of the Divine Power in which she spoak which gave a general Refreshment unto them of that Assembly that were acquainted with it otherwise all Fellowship in Spirit must be renounced But 't is to be any thing J. F's Froth will have it because its unknown to his thick and carnal Understanding However the want of a Known Tongue may render one less Profitable but not less a Christian for a time should come the same Apostle said that Tongues should cease but never that Christianity or having the Spirit of Christ should cease Therefore to reâ—ute all that cannot speak in a Known Tongue Antichristian or of another Spirit then the Spirit of God and his Apostle is unworthy of any Man that makes any the least Pretence to the Christian-Religion indeed to common Sense One Passage more then we conclude this Chapter Reply p. 60. To my Reflection upon their affirming she spake by the Spirit because they all found Reâ—reshings viz. so have Children many a time of Puppet-Plays W. P. calls me all to nought especially because I could not as he saith but think it meant by Refreshings what came from God But let not Penn think we take our selves bound to reverence such Fooleries Rejoynder That it was a Reflection he confesseth whether it were not an Unseemly one I refer to every Man of Conscience I did not intend to obliege J. Faldo to believe what we say but reprove his prophane Scoffs at what we believe I would have so much regard to any People seriously professing Religion as not to explain what they mean by their Refreshment by the Pleasure some irreligious People take at the vain and frothy Sport of Puppet-Play And the worst Word I gave him and his Comparison was Prophaness further adding that it out-did Ben. Johnson's Alchimist a Play made in Scorn of Puritans which all good Men detest and himself dying abhorred But why may not People be refresht in their Souls from that divine Power which may attend a Person speaking in a Language unknown Suppose a Godly Assembly of English People and an English Preacher endued with God's holy Spirit and there happen into such a Congregation some serious Forreigners of the same Judgment is it absurd to say That notwithstanding their Ignorance of the Signification of the Words spoken they may have an inward and spiritual Sence of the Zeal Power and Spirit that eminently attends the Preacher if it be how much more ridiculous is it then for People to say It gladâ—ed their Hearts to see such a Godly Countenance or to hear the Voice or Sound of this or the other good Man though they had no distinct Understanding of his Words I am in this Case a more allowable Witness then J. Faldo who have seen Sinners struck the Weak strengthned and the Strong confirmed at the hearing of the Truth of God declared in a Language they could not understand The divine Power and Vertue went forth and they were judged comforted or confirmed in themselves and they no Fools though J. Faldo calls such things Fooleries and Pupppet-Playes To deny this is to overthrow Spiritual Fellowship in the Ground of it and to center in this Atheistical Notion That all our Knowledge of God comes in by our carnal Eyes and Ears that is What others have written and what others have told me that I believe and therefore I believe and not from the Testimony of this Infallible Spirit of God in my self which Credulity renders him more like Rome in that wherein she is condemnable then any thing he can truly suggest of us but this gross Doctrine being so obviously taught by our Adversary in his first Book second Part p. 91. we have the less Reason to wonder that Fooleries and Puppet-Playes are the best Words he can bestow upon the divine Consolation Refreshment and Communion of the holy Spirit within Men. We will add these Testimonies as the Conclusion of this Chapter W. Tindal in his Works p. 250. Church the Elect in whose Hearts God hath written his Law with his Holy Spirit and given them a feeling Faith of the Mercy that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. D. Barns's Works p. 244. The Holy Church of Christ is nothing else but that Congregation that is sanctified in Spirit redeemed with Christ's Blood and sticketh fast and sure alonely to the Promises that he made therein So that the Church is a Spiritual Thing and no exteriour Thing but invisible from Carnal Eyes I say not that they be invisible that be of the Church but that holy Church in her self is invisible as Faith is and her Pureness and Cleanness is before Christ only and not before the World for the World hath no Judgment nor Knowledge of her but all her Honour and Cleanness is before Christ sure and fast Peter Martyr fourth part of Common Places cap. 1 pag. 1. The Name of a Church is derived of the Greek verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to call for none can be Partakers thereof which come not thereunto by the Calling of God And to define it we say that it is a Company of Believers and regenerate Persons whom God gathereth together in Christ by the Word and the Holy Ghost It is every where called the Body of Christ because all the Members thereof have him for their Head of whom by the Joints and Sinnews they take their growing and attain unto Life by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Christoph Goad p. 37. 'T is a sad thing that there are Churches that think it is enough there is a Form of Godliness that we are in Church-Fellowship and so lie down together and sleep I have no Quarrel with Churches or any Form but such as have not the Spirit in them here are all asleep asleep in Death T. Collier's Works p. 42. The Church of Christ under the Gospel are the Spiritual Seed the Seed according to the Promise T. Collier p. 102. The Church which is Christ's Kingdom are a People Saints
to Mis-eite Mis-render or Mis-apply our Writings To conclude He seems to write at all Adventures supplying his VVeakness with Confidence and drowning the Noise of his own Forgeries by his vehement Clamours against such imaginary ones as he hath provided for me to go under my Name which is his greatest of all I heartily pray to God that he may be stopt in this Unconscionable Course and come to find true Repentance that Eternal Anguish do not irrecoverably over-take him as the Just Recompence of such Unjust Dealing with us His third Citation was out of I. Penington Can outward Blood cleanse the Conscience Can outward Water wash the Soul clean His Comment upon it is this A plain Denyal of the Efficacy of the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross to cleanse the Soul from the Guilt of Sin by its Satisfaction to the Justice of God To which I answered Doth I. P. deny or any way meddle with the outward Blood concerning the Guilt of Sin past how far it had an Influence into Justification taking Justification in that Sense But doth not I. P. treat of the outward Blood with respect to Purgation and Sanctification of the Soul from the present Nature Acts and Habits of Sin that lodges therein Is there no Difference betwixt being pardon'd Sin past and the Ground of it and being renewed and regenerated in Mind and Spirit and the Ground of that Conversion His Reply to this though he gives not two Lines of what I now repeated out of my Answer lyes thus Reply pag. 74. And if we allow Penn's Construction that he denyed the Blood of Christ which he calls outward to have an influence into Sanctification he commits a foul Error for cleansing the Conscience by Sanctification is the Effect of the Blood of Christ as well as the other The New Testament or Convenant is by Christ said to be the Cup of the New Testament in my Blood wherein all the Promises and Mercies of the New Covenant are asserted of which I think Cleansing by Sanctification is none of the least Rejoynder If by the Promise of Sanctification to be asserted in the Blood of Christ he understands that both the Promise of Sanctification and all other Promises relating to the Dispensation of the Gospel were asserted ratified and sealed to them that believe in and by the Blood of Christ I shall heartily and cheerfully submit But if he mean that the Blood of Christ shed so many Hundred Years ago by the Hands of Ungodly Men is the inherent real Purger of the Conscience from Dead Works I must deny what he sayes for the Scripture attributes Sanctification to the Eternal Spirit It is one Article of the common Creed of the called Christians viz. the Lavour of Regeneration which is by the Spirit But what is all this to J. Faldo's defending himself from abusing I. Penington's Words to wit that by asking Can Outward Blood Cleanse Can Outward Water wash the Soul He would make him to deny Christ's sacrificing of himself upon the Cross to have any Influence towards the Remitting of the Guilt of Sin past which is quite another thing as this Argument manifests which naturally expresseth J. Faldo's wresting of I. P's words He that denyes Outward Blood can cleanse the Conscience denyes that Outward Blood may be a Sacrifice whereby to declare the Remission of the Guilt of Sin past which is so absolutely and obviously false that it may be seen of every mean Capacity Yet hitherto J. Faldo's Reasoning runs Once again before we leave him thus He that is pardoned the Guilt of Sin that is past by the Blood of Christ as a Sacrifice declaring Remission to all that believe is by the same Blood washed cleansed renewed and regenerated in his inward Man from the very Nature Power and In-dwelling of Sin which is as untrue as the other yet both these Arguments follow upon J. F ' s mis-rendering of I. Penington ' s words But his Credit in this Particular is not at all blemisht by his Comment upon I. P' s words if we will believe him for he thinks it may be justified by a Passage out of W. Smith Reply Catech. pag. 64. We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself a Living Sacrifice to God for us by which the Wrath of God is appeased to us This Passage I cited which Penn among many others takes no notice of And if this can be the Blood of Christ shed at Jerusalem on the Cross of Wood it is a most incredible Mystery Rejoynder There is no Difficulty Friendly Reader in unfolding his pretended Mystery if the Question unto which the Answer was made be considered which was this What is your Faith concerning Christ IN YOU as a Redeemer which relates not to the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross of Wood wherefore to make the Answer deny Remission of Sins to be declared by Christ's sacrificing of his Body upon the Cross which was no part of the Question to be answered is like all the rest of his Injustice towards us If the Answer had rejected that Sacrifice we should have condemned it as much as he hath abused it But unless he denyes that Christ offers himself in his Children in the Nature of a Mediating Sacrifice W. Smith's words are so far from Denying the Blood of Christ shed upon the Cross of Wood that he must allow them to be sound in themselves for Christ is a Mediator and an Attoner in the Consciences of his People at what time they shall fall under any Miscarriage if they unfeignedly Repent according to 1 John 2. 1 2. as allowably as that he prayes in his People as their Head which A. Sadeel saith out of Augustine and D. Everad as anon So that upon the whole this is as strong and clear a Proof as others that he hath hither to brought for as they so this in Question and Answer wholely concerns what Christ is to Man in Man which was no part of the Question and not what he was to any in his Visible Appearance which was the only Question Before I leave this Particular I must again declare That we are led by the Light and Spirit of Christ with Holy Reverence to confess unto the Blood of Christ shed at Jerusalem as that by which a Propitiation was held forth to the Remission of the Sins that were past through the Forbearance of God unto all that believed And we do embrace it as such and do firmly believe that thereby God declared his great Love unto the World for by it is the Consciousness of Sin declared to be taken away or Remission sealed to all that have known true Repentance and Faith in his Appearance But because of the Condition I mean Faith and Repentance therefore do we exhort all to turn their Minds to the Light and Spirit of Christ within that by seeing their Conditions and being by the same brought both into true Contrition and holy Confidence in God's Mercy
to be the Effect or purchase of inward Righteousness and Holiness for its impossible but the free Love and Mercy of God yet without the Holy Sanctifying or Regenerating Work of God in the Heart by the Operation of his Eternal Spirit whereby to do the Will of God as it is in Heaven it is impossible to have Access into God's Tabernable and Holy Hill much less to be justified by him And indeed as true Repentance which is the beginning of the Work of Sanctfication opens the Way for the Remission of Sins that are past which I call the first part of Justification so is Regeneration or Sanctification throughout in Body Soul and Spirit as well the compleating of Justification as Sanctification consequently it is that second Part of Justification because it is a making Man just by Nature who was before Just but by Imputation that is he that was accounted just by not having Sin imputed through Repentance and Faith in the Love of God declared in and by Christ is now inwardly made more just because made Holy as God is Holy Levit. 20. 7. Perfect as his Heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5. 48. Righteous even as God is Righteous 1 John 3. 7. through the effectual Working of the Holy Ghost There are Two Scriptures which prove this The one is 1 Cor. 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption where the word Justification is left out and yet the Thing Justification doubtless included and implyed The other is Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified where Sanctification is left out yet without Dispute the word Justification includes it Nor are we alone in this Judgment since both Ancient and Modern Writers avouch the same Irenaeus adv Heres lib. 4. cap. 30. Irenaeus Disciple to Polycarpus who was Disciple to John the Divine Apostle sayes Justiantem Patres virtute Decalogi conscriptam habentes in cordibus sâ—is legem The Patriarchs sayes he were justified by vertue of the Law written in their Hearts Again Lib. 3. cap. 4. He speaks of many Nations of the Barbarians of whom they that believe in Christ have Salvation written in their Hearts by the Spirit without Paper or Ink. Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. lib. 7. And sayes Clemens Alexandrinus who lived in the same Century Ye are made of him to be Righteous as he is Righteous and leavened of the Holy Ghost Orig. Epist ad Rom. L. 4. c. 4. And Origen also tells us Therefore Christ Justified them only who have betaken themselves to a New Life by the Example of his Resurrection and have cast away the Old Garments of Unrighteousness and Iniquity as the Cause of Death Thus far of Fathers Of the Reformers from Popery H. Bullenger Decad. 1. Serm. 6. de Justif H. Bullenger thus To justifie signifieth to remit Offences that is as I distinguisht the first part but hear what followeth to cleanse to sanctifie and to give utterance of Life Everlasting Again Justification is taken in this present Treatise for the Absolution and Remission of Sins for Sanctification and Adoption into the Number of the Sons of God D. Barns's Works p. 243 244 245. To him I will add D. Barnes Burnt in Henry the Eighth's Dayes who in his Discourse of the True Church against the Romish Bishops asserts in full and pathetical Expressions That what gives her Acceptance in the Sight of God is her being presented to God by Christ her Head without Spot through the Washing of Regeneration B. Downam of Justif chap. 1. So Bishop Downam of Justification distinguisheth and determineth this Point almost in the very same Terms I will conclude with some Passages out of J. Spirgg's Book entituled A Testimony to an Approaching Glory J. Sprig Test p. 81 82 83 84 85 88 89. We may be bold to say after Christ That Flesh profitteth nothing If you only know Christ's Dying and Rising without you it will profit you nothing except you have him Dying and Rising within you Error in this is the Root of the Dead Faith whereof the World is full Paul doth not say that the Hearing that Christ dyed for the Sins of Men doth make them free No there was the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Here is that which puts a Difference when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings the Covenant to the Heart of a poor Creature when the Spirit of Adoption and Sonship revealing us God as our Father revealing God in Vnion with us our Righteousness and our Strength he doth indeed seal us to the Day of Redemption He sets apart Christ's Sheep this distinguisheth them from the other So that if you lay your Salvation upon an Historical Christ ye will be deceived If you will have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit This is the sum of all I desire to commend unto you that we are not justified we are not sanctified by Christ's dying by Christ's suffering in the Flesh only That is not the compleat Ministration of our Salvation There indeed we see our Salvation as in a Glass and it is transacted as in a Figure as in the History but then are we actually sanctified wher as God doth send that same Spirit of Adoption into our Hearts revealing unto us the Love of the Father and revealing unto us our Reconciliation that Reconciliation that was held forth to us on the Cross but which is dispensed unto us by our being offered up upon the Cross as Christ was All these Persons put great Value upon the Inward Work of God and Christ in the Heart and plainly determine Sanctification and Justification to be one and the same thing but if any one have the Preference the Scripture it self gives it to Sanctification 1 Cor. 6. 11. Know ye not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God H. Grotius expounds the word sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accepistis spiritum sanctum ye have received the Holy Ghost and the word Justified majores quotidie in justitia fecistis progressus ye have made daily greater progress in Righteousness And D. Hammond in his Annotations upon the fifth Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Righteousness a being first sanctified and then justified To end this Chapter serious Reader It is our Faith that Christ to conform us to his Heavenly Image who have
by wicked Works degenerated into the Earthly and thereby rendered our selves Aliens yea Rebels to his pure Law of Life first declares or holds forth Forgiveness of Sins past upon true Repentance by the laying down of his Life and then works out by his Holy Power and Spirit in our Consciences the Sin that is inherent and in the room thereof brings in his own Everlasting Righteousness So that our being accounted Righteous is as Christ was accounted a Sinner That is he was not a Sinner by Commission or Guilt neither were we as of our selves Righteous by Innocency or Non-commission of Sin for then there had been no need of Remission to have been declared by his publick offering up of himself But he was so reputed from bearing away the Sins that were past through the Forbearance of God and we are accounted as Righteous upon Repentance and true Faith because of that Remission and perfect Acquittance of Sins that are past as if we had never committed them Therefore wofully will they be mistaken that shut out the inward Work of God in the Heart and stretch this to Sins past present and to come without any regard thereto when as the Benefit of Christ's Suffering can in no sense be known or enjoyed without the true Faith and unfeigned Repentance which must precede Remission it self by whom or where is that wrought if not by Christ within much more must they go before compleat Justification which comprizeth Sanctification and Redemption we cannot but pron ounce it a Dangerous Doctrine since it flatters People with that being compleated that is not thereby deluding their poor Souls into a Perishing Security CHAP. IX Of the True Christ We own and our Adversary prov'd to deny him THe sixteenth Chapter of his first Book charged us with the Denyal of the Christ of God Among other Testimonies that he brought out of our Friends Books to maintain it I did eflectually consider two viz. This we certainly know and can never call the Bodily Garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the Body Again For that which he took upon him was but a Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature I. Peninington Quest p. 20 23 32. To introduce my Answer I observed at the same time and in the very same page He confost That we don't deny there was such a Man as Jesus the Son of Mary and that God or rather Christ was in him which I then said makes up our Christ I meant God manifested in the Flesh He replyeth thus Reply p. 76 77. But this I told W. P. was no more then the Quakers profess themselves We witness saith Fox the same Christ that ever was now manifested in the Flesh Rejoynder He should have given us the Book and Page where G. F. hath so expressed himself however we deny not that Doctrine for God doth dwell and walk in his Children who are called his Temples and Tabernacles in Holy Scripture 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 21. 3. But we must forever reject J. Faldo's ignorant or worse Consequence That because we own that God dwells in his Children therefore he dwelt no more in that Body of Flesh he prepared to manifest himself by then he doth in his People Or that our asserting that God appeared and dwelt in that Holy Body eminently prepared by him is to be understood in no larger Sense then that in which we understand him to dwell in his Children I might as well argue against the Scripture as J. Faldo doth against us Christ was full of Grace and Truth therefore when he fills his Children with Grace and Truth they have as much Grace and Truth in them as their Lord and Master Or thus God was in Christ and God was in Paul therefore he was as much in Paul as he was in Christ It is after this Rate Reader our Adversary essayes to confute us as if we made no Distinction between the Fulness and the Measure the Treasury and the Gift He was full of Grace and Truth and of his Fulness have we received and Grace for Grace Joh. 1. 14 16. The next Thing I observed from what he gave as our Confession of the true Christ was this That he whom we call Christ is not John Faldo ' s Christ for he was that Body only that dyed here he cuts my Answer of short and bestoweth this Reply upon it Reply pag. 76. Here the Word Only W. P. forgeth he makes my allowing Christ's Body to be his Garment to imply it is not Christ himself Rejoynder Why did he not give my Words who knows by what he quoted of my Answer that he had ever been so kind the Man knew it pincht him and seem'd resolved to conceal it It was this In the midst of his second Proof he inserts these two Words VERY RIGHT as his Assent to that Part of it which to me seems as inconsistent with his Purpose as may be to wit that which Christ took upon htm was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature therefore said I John Faldo as well as we acknowledgeth That the Garment is not Christ unless there be no Difference betwixt Christ and his Garment Or that Christ was but the Garment of that divine Being that dwells therein which were unscriptural and very carnal and I still say That Christ's Garment can never constitute him Christ And that as he darkly calls it the intire Christ as I shall make appear so hath he in this Concession contradicted himself and utterly given away the Cause But he is of another Mind as his Reply will inform us Reply pag. 76. The Apostle Paul calls his and the Saints Bodies their Cloathing 1 Cor. 5. yet they were never the less a part of themselves Rejoynder A meer Rattle for Children Did the Body God prepar'd for his Son to do his Will in help to constitute him Christ as much as the Apostles Body did help to constitute him Paul If it did why may we not as well say that Paul was among the Fathers in the Wilderness so many hundred Years before he was born as the same Apostle doth assert Christ by Name to have been the spiritual Rock of which the Fathers drank in the Wilderness 1 Cor. 10. 4. for if the Body constitute him Christ as sayes J. F. then he could no more be Christ before he had that Body then Paul could be Paul before he had his Body and consequently There is no more Absurdity in affirming That Paul was Paul so many hundred Years before he was born then that Christ was Christ so many hundred Years before he was born Again If Paul's Body were but a Cloathing how much more remote doth J. F's Comparison make Christ's Body to be from his Divinity since Paul did not preexist Christ did but he that took that Body and that Body that was taken were not of equal Date for the Body was taken in the Fulness of Time but he that took it and
to invalidate the most convincing Testimony Man can have of a Deity and to principle Men for the rankest Atheism that ever was Yet such a sort of a Doctor J. Faldo is become and of all other Texts in the Bible from which to preach it hath chosen this Col. 1. 27. This Mystery among the Gentiles is Christ in you the Hope of Glory which indeed of all other doth most oppose and subvert it Once more and he hath done with us upon this Passage for this time Christ is in his People by his Graces wrought by his Spirit which is his Image and Likeness by the Manifestation of his Love and Glory his Works and Image in and on the Soul and do as effectually possess the Soul for Christ his Vse and Interest as a Faithful Friend can do according so that Text That Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. But I would fain know of J. Faldo how Christ's Graces Works and Image can be there and Christ the Workman excluded If Christ be not actually there they can never Actually be wrought there for none can work them but Christ by his Spirit In short either they may be wrought without Christ's Spirit which J. Faldo disallows or Christ's Spirit may work them and yet not be where iâ— works them or if the Spirit may be where it worketh them yet Christ cannot be where it works them and consequently divided from his own Spirit though indeed the Lord Christ is that Quickening Spirit which only makes alive again to God who is the Resurrection and the Life Oh the Dreadful Darkness that yet over-spreads the Hearts of called Christians It may be as truly said of them as it was of the Jews The Vail is yet over them and Christ Jesus the Anointed Saviour is unknown to them by that Redemption which he effectually worketh in all those that hearken to his Voice and are conformed to his holy Government They are Witnesses of his Graces Works and Image through believing in his Appearance and giving up like the Clay in the Hand of the Potter to be ordered and disposed by him Nor doth the Scripture he quotes impugn the Real Presence of Christ in his People for by Faith Christ dwelleth in the Hearts of his Children that is by believing in Christ he cometh to live and dwell in us who through the Unbelief of Men is shut out from being Head and Ruler in them Our Adversary would make Faith and Christ's real Presence incomparable or inconsistent whereas the one cannot possibly be enjoyed without the other Faith being as the opening of the Door of the Heart to receive Christ in to be Lord and King and if this be not J. Faldo's Faith he is void of the Faith of God's Elect which purifieth the Heart and gives to see God according to Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God This Doctrine is the Overthrow of Christianity a turning back of the whole Stream of the New Covenant a cutting off the Spiritual Union for the Christian Dispensation is IMMANUEL God with us the Word is not stinted to Christ as the Head but concerns the Body also and God is manifested measurably in his People as he was in fulness by and through that holy Body nay some eminent Professors have gone so far as to say They make up but one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Anointed for the Oyl runs from the Head to the lowermost part of the Garment which takes in all It gives the Lye to Christs own Words who said He would come and receive them to himself he would not leave them Orphants which implies a real Presence Testimonies Good Old Apostolical Ignatius was not of J. Faldo's mind who in his Epistles produced and endeavoured to be proved genuine by Bish Vsher Isaac Vossius and D. Pearson says in that to the Ephesians pag. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Let us do all things he so dwelling in us that we be HIS TEMPLES and he our God IN us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Corrupters of his House shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Iust Mart. Expos Tid p. 375. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. See saith he how he Paul is teaching the Edification that is in Christ whence we are the Temple of Christ according to what is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God The Story of Richard Woodman in the Book of Maâ—tyrs affordeth us thus much to our Purpose in answer to the Bishop of Winchester I believe verily that I have the Spirit of God No Man can believe aright without the Spirit of God It is impossible to believe in God unless God DWELL IN US C. Goad defends our Faith in these words The Gospel is nothing else but the bringing forth of Christ IN us It calls us from Conformity to the World and from walking as Men unto the Life of God Right Spirit of Christ p. 17. T. Collier God is a Mystery Col. 22. and it is by the Appearance of God IN US we come to know God who is a Mystery The Truth is that we have had and stâ—ll have low and carnal Thoughts of God judging him to be a God AFAR OFF and not a God NIGH AT HAND This is that ANTICHRIST WHICH DENIES CHRIST TO BE COME IN THE FLESH See his Works p. 399. Again God who is in himself and in the Son not only by Union but also by a Dispensation of Grace to Men is likewise IN THE SAINTS and that not as in the Creatures or other Men BUT HE IS IN THE SAINTS AS HE WAS IN CHRIST The Saints are TRULY made Partakers of his Nature hence called CHRISTIANS they are CHRISTED and indeed Christ and Christians MAKE BUT ONE CHRIST ONE ANOINTED ONE GOD FILLS THEM BOTH See his Works p. 241 242. J. Sprig in his Preface saith thus Those that know Christ in them only immediatione virtutis not suppositi know not so Full and Glorious a Proportion in him to their End It is and must be confessed that God is and subsists otherwise in Himself then Men but this hinders not the IMMEDIATENESS OF HIS PRESENCE AND DWELLING IN MEN If you confine Christ's Dwelling to a LOCAL HEAVEN you are ignorant of that which is the greatest Joy that can be CHRIST DWELLS IN THE HEART Sprig ' s Testimony p. 87. Thus Martin Finch who stiles himself Preacher of the Gospel in his little Treatise intituled Animadversions upon Sr. Henry Vain ' s Book pag. 81. The Word of God abided and dwelt in them 1 John 2. 14. If we take it for Christ they had him Christ ABIDING IN THEM and surely they that abide in Christ and have Christ abiding IN THEM they are true Saints Thus Reader we take leave of this Chapter and proceed to examine his next CHAP. XI That we are not guilty of Idolatry as charged by our Adversary True Worshippers The Charge inverted
not said by me concerning the last Passage in which lay the Difficulty to wit me the Light in them but the first on which he very little insisted himself viz. that the Light is the Eternal God c. this transposing of my Answer and exchanging it was not ingenuous This Reader in short I offered as the Explanation of G. F's Expression and the Conclusion of a great deal more too large to be recited viz. That he who is the Eternal Fountain of all Life and Sun of Light caused his Light to visit the Hearts and shine in the Consciences of all Man-kind as well of such as rebel against it and scorn it to reprove them as of those who receive it and gladly submit to it to direct and justifie them wherefore we utterly deny that the Manifestation in Man strictly considered is the most high God but a Manifestation of God and from God by the In-shining of his blessed Light and we cannot be said to worship the Manifestation but that Eternal God who is Light that is thereby manifested p. 194. The next Testimony brought by him and examined by us was out of E. Burroughs's True Faith c. for page he gave us none neither then nor now but supposing true Citation a Thing most unusual with him I will set down his Words as they lye Reply p. 85. The next W. P. brings off as clearly Every Man hath that which is one in Union with the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to his measure E. Burroughs Can any Man saith W. P. be so stupid as to think that E. B. ever intended the Soul of Man that purely and simply constitutes him such for he is speaking of that universal Grace Light Spirit which God hath given unto all c. His purely and simply constitutes is pure learned Non-Sense If what every Man hath be as good in kind as the Spirit of Christ which E. B. confesseth it must be God and Christ Rejoynder He should either have past the Manner of my Expression or have corrected it better but I had rather be guilty of Non-sense then horrible Perversion J. F's Crime for he applies that to the meer Soul of Man which E. B. not only intended but expressed of the Light of Christ within Men. I will set down some of his Words that it may be an indeleable Brand upon J. F. a notorious Abuser of our Writings E. Burroughs in his Answer to J. Bunnion and this Passage Heathens Turks Jews Atheists have that that doth convince of Sin yet are so far from having the Spirit of Christ in them that they delight to serve their Lust Thus expresseth himself Do they serve Sin or Lusts because Christ hath not given them Light to discover their Sin or because they hate the Light that is given them Tell me Is not the Light or Spirit of Christ the only Thing that doth convince of Sin Or doth any Thing convince of Sin contrary or besides or without the Spirit of Christ If nay then it must needs be that it is from or by or something of the Nature of the Spirit of Christ which is in the Heathens E. B. argues and about five or six Lines lower thus concludes Till thou provest the Light of Christ which thou confessest every Man hath to be contrary to the Spirit of Christ I shall say Every Man hath that which is one in union with and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its Measure Now let J. Faldo blush if he can Certainly Reader greater Injustice could not well have been acted towards any Man's Writings then he hath acted in this Particular for what is clearer then that the Soul is no further concerned in E. B's Words then that it onght to obey the Light and Spirit he wâ—â—â—es of I told him this before as that Part of my Answer he hath transcribed into his Reply shows to wit that E. B. was speaking of the Vniversal Grace Light or Spirit which God hath given unto all c. of which he takes no Notice but thinks an Epitomy of his first Book of Accusation and Wresting Reply enough to my Answer But which is yet baser he hath the Confidence for all this to cry out against Shifting and Evasion But to make it yet plainer I will set it down more distinctly E. B. Every Man hath that which is as good and like the Spirit of Christ J. F. Then every Man's Soul is as good and like the Spirit of Christ whiâ—h is God therefore the Soul is God W. P. answers E. B. understood it not of the Soul but the Vniversal Grace Light or Spirit therefore no Proof J. F. If what every Man hath be as good in kind as the Spirit of God which E. B. confesseth it must be God and Christ W. P. That which E. B. confesseth is of the Light or Spirit and not the Soul therefore J. F's Charge is false Now Reader what shall we call this but Petitio principii a begging of the Question a repeating of his Perversion It is so because I will have it so as much as if he should say I have charged them higher then any more then that I pretend to bring their own Books for Evidences If I yeild to have perverted them my Credit is gone my Books are despised and which is worst of all my Gain is lost But to the next Reply p. 86. That of Fox he deals treacherously in leaving out the Proposition to which the Answer is made and thereby its Sense also F. brings in the Priest saying It is an Expression of a dark Mind to say that God is not distinguished from his Saints To which he reples He is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine What can be better proved If God be not distinct from them not only their Souls but the Composition of the Saints Souls and Bodies are God But if this Passage do not prove P. a designed Deluder none in the World will Rejoynder The Substance of my Answer took in the Priest's Assertion but that J. Faldo almost alwayes takes Care to conceal G. F. writ not like a Philosopher but an honest plain Christian Man Nor is it any Disadvantage to our Cause that either willingly or through Unskilfulness he neglects them for he meant by not being distinct that they were not at a Distance in point of Place by Reason of the dwelling of God and Christ in his People It is apparent G. F. intended no more by his Answer which our Adversary in his first Book gave in these Words But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine We see by this that the Question was not whether the Soul be God and Christ but whether God and Christ are at a distance from or dwell in the Saints yea or nay I leave it with my Reader
Why did Christ say I thank Thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and revealed them unto Babes if they are discoverable by humane Reasoning for Babes are ignorant of that Art yet out of the Mouth of Babes and Sucklings c. The Apostle's Question 1 Cor. 1. 20. was very impertinent if J. Faldo may be of Authority who said Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer c. for this implies an Exclusion of all those Arts Sciences and Natural Gifts from any Capacity to reveal the deep Things of God shut up in the Divine Principle of Life Besides W. S's Words imply a Clouded Understanding and degenerated and therefore Uncapable J. F. must either intend by his Derision that he thinks W. S. deserves to be hiss'd for denying the Knowledge of Divine Things to be attainable by the Degenerated Understanding of Man or sanctified If the first All may have Cause to abhor his False Doctrine If the latter I would know which way that can be without the Divine Principle of Life This abundantly manifests J. Faldo's unsavory Spirit and proves him to be ignorant of the Way Method Work of God in his Children When the Natural Man by his Reason can know Christ he may know his Sheep the Scriptures and the Power of God and not before but because it is impossible in Reasoning or Arguing pro and con by the utmost Strength and Search of Natural Abilities to know Christ but by the Revelation of the Spirit of God alone as hath been abundantly proved therefore William Smith's words are sound and weighty and J. Faldo's carnal and prophane showing himself to be a Mocker of the Priviledges and Mysteries of the Gospel but what else may we expect from one that walks after the Lusts of his own vain Mind having not the Spirit Jude 18 19. Yet that we may manifest how inconsistent he is with himself as that he can't write against us but he must write for us take this Passage out of Quakerism No Christianity which ought alwayes to begin his Books against us upon this subject as it ends this Chapter of mine Those Gospel-Illuminations are beyond the utmost reach of our Natural Faculties of the Mind though sanctified and therefore it is said to be 2 Tim. 3. 16. Divinely inspired It is not produced in the Exercise of the Rational Faculties the Soul is purely passive or receptive therein and is to those Illuminations as the Wax is to the Seal CHAP. XV. His several gross Miscarriages summ'd and further observed I. Of his Over-looking my Answer and Arguments OF Twenty Two Chapters in his Reply there is not one of them in which he hath not wilfully declined inserting my Answer and Arguments and only flutters about pecks and scratches at some part that is of least moment to the Reason of the Point perhaps some Rebuke or Reflection upon the ill use he makes of our Friends Writings particularly pag. 9 22 23 24 30 31 35 53 56 57 71 73 82 83 85 86 90 92 93. How is it possible my Arguments should be conquered when they were never encounter'd I was never yet so unjustly dealt withal in this Particular by any Adversary of his Pretences II. Of his drawing False Inferences Where he ventures at any time to insert any considerable part of my Answer he is sure to draw some Inference that may bring an Odium my words never deserved I could particularize at large pag. 6 13 17 18 31 35 41 42 47 49 71 72 73 74 75 85 86 87 88 89 90 91. but take these following for the rest 1. From Edw. Burroughs Reflecting upon Peoples imagining God to be confined to some place beyond the Stars he implies they deny Christ's Manhood Vindic. pag. 6. 2. From our not styling the Scriptures the Word but Words of God he infers that we deny the Scriptures First Book p. 18 19. 3. From our Asserting the Doctrine of Inspiration and Certainty of what we are inspired either to write or speak he infers not only our Equalling with but preferring what we speak and write before the Scriptures First Book pag. 40. Vind. p. 17. 4. From our Condemning the Imitation of any of the Holy Men of God of former Ages in particular Cases without they are thereunto required by the Spirit of the Lord he infers that Commands of God in Scriptures are no Commands unless we think so and that it is no Sin to break all Commands in the Bible if our Consciences can but be so blinded as to tell us it is no Sin Vind. p. 34 35. 5. From our Asserting that there is no knowing of God but by the Spirit and that Mens Apprehensions of God and his Work in the Souls of his People are but the Endeavours and Effects of the Wisdom of the Flesh he infers that we oppose the Spirit and the Scriptures nay that we reject and scorn them Vind. pag. 41 42 47. 6. From our denying a Carnal Worldly Mercenary Ministry Lifeless Prayers a meer formal Church Preaching and not by the Spirit and W. Smith's saying that the present Use of Bread and Wine and Water called Baptism and the Supper as they are used at this Day are no other then Popish and Humane he infers that the Quakers deny the Gospel-Ministry Gospel-Prayer Gospel-Church Gospel-Preaching and that we CALL Baptism and the Lord's Supper as PRACTISED IN THE FIRST AGE AFTER CHRIST the Popes Inventions c. Vind. from p. 49. to p. 71. Oh Injurious 7. From our reproving People for feeding in an Unconverted State upon the meer Report of what Christ hath done without them and depending thereon from our asserting that Justification taken for Remission goes not before Repentance which is an inward Work much less that Men can be compleatly justifi'd or made inwardly just but by the washing of the Word of Regeneration Sanctification of the Eternal Spirit this Man dares to infer Our Denyal yea our Vndervalue and that to the Degree of Blasphemous Contempt of the Transactions of Christ at Jerusalem Vind. p. 71 72 73 74. 8. From J. Penning asking If outward Blood would cleanse the Conscience from indwelling Sin he infers that we deny all Benefit by the Blood of Christ shed upon the Cross for the declaring of Remission of Sins Rom. 3. 25. First Book 2. Part p. 46 47. Vind. 77. 9. From our chusing to call that Body God prepared in which to do his Will the Body of Christ rather then the Christ of God And from our asserting God to be that Light which enlightens every Man and that the Soul of Man had something of the Life of God in its primitive Perfection he makes no more ado but concludes First That we deny the Christ of God 2dly That we make the Measure of Light in every Man the Eternal God thereby confining him to Man's Soul And lastly That the Soul of Man is
47. pag. 101. T. Ienner a Presbyter-Independent Priest of Ireland writ a Book against us for Gain for he went from House to House of many sufficient and some great Men to present them some gave him a Crown some two Crowns some a Piece Among others he had the Confidence and Avarice to give one to the Lord Lt. of that Kingdom His Secretary carryed it to him he turning it over observed many black Charges of foulest and most pernicious Errors to Religion and Civil Government The Parson still stayed The Secr. thought he had favored him sufficiently but not understanding the Priests Aim that is Lucre the Old Priests Sin was prest to tell his Lord that he waited for his Excellencies Answer The Secretary was so civil as to answer his Desire But when the Lord Lt. understood his Drifâ— he returned the Book to the Parson with this Account That be was sorry to bear that the Quakers held such ill Principles but the Tares and the Wheat must grow together till the Day of ludgment So the Parson was corrected for his Baseness and disappointed of the great Bone he crept thither for Leg. alledg l. 1. Admonâ— ad Gent. Strom. l. 5. pag. 48. See Dr. Bilsons and the Heads and Doctors of Oxford against the Brownists Gifford against H. Barrow R. Bernard against Brownism answered by I. Robinson and Ball against I. Cann c. Rob. Nor. his Ans to Syd Sym. Excomm pag. 8. * An odd unsound Phrase Acts 1. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Job 23. 8 1. Cor. 2. Ephes 1 T. C Works page 249. I. John 1 To call any Day of the Week a Christian-Sabbath is not Christian but Iewish give us one Scripture for it I will give two against it Gal. 4. 9 10 11 12. where the Apostle makes their Observation or Preference of Dayes to be no less then a Token of their Turning from the Gospel Also Col. 2. 16. An outward Sabbath or keeping of a Day to be but a Shadow and that Christians ought not to be judged for rejecting such Customs for this very Reason the Protestant-Churches beyond the Seas generally deny the Morality of the First Day counting all Dayes alike in themselves only they have Respect to the First Day as an Apostolical Custom and think it convenient to give one Day of Rest from Labour to Man and Beast each Week Of this Mind several Learned Protestants of our own Country have declared themselves to be So that neither our English Episcopalians nor French Presbyterians can escape Iohn Faldo's Consequence any more then the Quakers for if those that deny the Supper Baptism and the first day of the Week to be the Christian Sabbath deny Gospel-Ordinances then those who deny the First Day of the Week J. F's Christian-Sabbath to be the Christian-Sabbath must needs deny a Gospel-Ordinances but that doth many English Episcopalians and most French Presbyterians therefore both several English Episcopalians and the generallity of the French Presbyter and are Denyers of a Gospel-Ordinance Consequently J. F. told an Untruth in his Preface when he assured both Episcopalian and Presbyterian that they were no further concerned in his Discourse then vindicated In short Though we assert but one Christian-Sabbath and believe that to be the Everlasting Day of Rest from all our own Works to Worship and Enjoy God in the Newness of the Spirit yet 't is well known that we both meet upon the First Day in the Week and behave our selves with as In-offensive a Conversation as any of our Sabbatherian Adversaries The Honour is God's by whom we are what we are but this Testimony I record for God His Gopel and Right-begotten Children that the Meats Drinks Washings and Dayes observing Christians are not come so far as those foolish Galatians for â—hom the Apostle travelled again until Christ were formed in them Gal. 4. 19. being yet Stranger to the Life Power Spirit and the Substance of the Gospel * See Iudas and the Iews comb again Chri. * See Iudas and the Iews comb against Christ c. John 14. 10. Mat. 10. 20. See my Answ pag. 133. Rom. 8. 13. 14. Math. 7. 27. 23. Heb. 12. 14. John 3. 3. 5. Gal. 6 7 8 9. Dan. 9. 24. A. Sadeel Oper. pag. 37. Rom. 3. 25. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. Psal 16. 11. * What sayes J. F. to this Is it not beyond what E. B. said of a Report of Christ H. Grot. in Epist 1 Cor. Phil. 2. 8. Christ was the Eternal Light before Iohn testified of him See Book called Annotations of certain learned Divines in the Year 1645 on Ioh. 1. verse 9. Gen. 45. 8. Plat. Pol. 1. Isa 2. 3. Clem. Al. Admo ad Gent. p. 2. Strom. l. 2. See Rom. 8. 9 10 11. where the Spirit of Christ and Christ are equivâ—â—ently taken E. B.'s Works p. 144. Homo rationabilis factus irrationabiliter vivens amisit rationem tradidit se terraâ—o spiritui Psalm 48. 21. vide Irraeneus P. 336. i. e. A Man who is made reasonable living unreasonably hath lost his Reason having given himself up to an Earthly Spirit * If it be objected that Adam is not mentioned as degenerated but as created and therefore this Interpretation will not do I answer 't is true he is said to be made a living Soul but first this makes not for the Resurrection of dead Bodies and so far our Adversary gets no Strength 2ly Though the Apostle beings with the first Adam's Creation yet he orderly comes to the Earthly Image that the living Soul put on by Disobedience which introduceth the Necessity of the coming of the second Adam and his Quickning Spirit to create a new bring into the Image of God So there is Adam as sown and his Posterity representatively in him and his and their Laps and then the Restoration by him that is the Resurrection and the Life the second Adam the Lord from Heaven however Annot. cert Divin anno 1645. * Note Reader that our Translation is erroneous Iob 19. 32. whom mine Eyes shall behold In the Hebrew thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. mine Eyes have seen the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vidit doth see as Drusius and Cadurcus observe * Oh the Angry Countenances the Wicked will have on that Day Oh the Angry Speeches It may be from Words they fall to Blows and tear one another Hair and spurn at one anothers Bellies bite one anothers Flesh and even claw out one anothers Eyes Dr. Barnea I. Brad. I. Calv. B. Iew. VV. Perk. VV. Green I. Car D. Owen with a Hundred more of this Mind admir'd by such as I. F. yet that Doctrine derided by him in us particularly I. de VVessalia No Man can know the Mind of Christ which he holds forth in his words but he alone Paradox in Fasc Rer. p. 163. Book 1. Part 3. pag. 50. Balaam's Ass shall rise up in Judgment against J. F. B. 1. P. 1. p. 107. p. 39 80 107. p. 109. P. 2. p. 20. B. 1. P. 1. p. 8. P. 2. p. 21. p. 22. p. 126. P. 3. p. 37. Book 1. Part 1. pag. 31 32 33 34 35 36. Part 3. from p. 62. to 90. Psalm 85 9 10.