Preacher a Lying Herald to proclaim his own vain glory They charge him with horrid Hipocrisie Deceit and a Romance 4. They represent the Baptists and Independants as Makers and Worshippers of Images 5. They term the Narrative a Brat crying in our Streets a Fragment of Deceit Cruelty Malice and Hipocrisie and the methods of its Writing they term Irksom 6. They scornfully term the Narrative a new vampt story hereby deriding J. Green by his Calling for that he is a Shoomaker 7. They tauntingly call J. Greene a zealous London Brother and charge him with envious desires 8. They charge Ralph James to be uncharitable beyond measure because he visited not Richard Andersons family though he was not desired This shews what measure the Quakers give to those whom they love not in their representment of them to the World and whiles they tax Ralph James for want of Charity they bewray their own barrenness of that grace 9. They deride the Baptists and Independants saying They buoy one another up and term them an Hipocritical Generation 10. They term the Relater and Evidencs of the Narrative Imposters whose evidence they say centers in the same pitch of folly and falsity 11. They scornfully call F. Baldock one of the Sacrificers for the Leper because he is a witness that the Church at Donnington prayed for Richard Anderson and his family 12. They represent J. Greene as a Fool and a Knave by his own handy-work thereby deriding him for calling the judgment which befel Richard Anderson the Lords handy-work 13. They charge their opposites to be guilty of horrid deceit and term them an Hipocritical Fraternity because the time when that judgment which befel Richard Anderson for his presumptuous undertaking was not set down But sure this is the way to make the very Apostles c. Hipocrites too for though many of those things which God did by them be set down and that long after they were done too yet the time is seldom mentioned And what would it have signified if the time had been precisely set down for that the business was more ancient then of yesterday was sufficiently intimated in the Letters Printed seeing the Men concerned are both living the places of their abode known and easie to be found by any that would know further concerning that matter 14. But it s not sufficient that they deride men but they deride the way of the Lord and therein God himself Mal. 3. 13 14. also As every discerning Reader may perceive by reading Page 4. of their Lying Wonder where having occasion to mention Baptism the Ordinance of God they add this Parenthesis that is Dipping in Water and before that another thus that is Dipt thereby to mislead their inconsiderate Readers as if the Ordinance of Baptism were onely a Dipping in Water whereas every Dipping in Water may not be called The Ordinance of God having nothing of that divine signification of Christs dying for sin and rising again for our justification and our dying to sin and rising to a new life as the Sacred Ordinance of God hath I mean the Baptism of Repentance for Remission of Sins wherein the Washing or Dipping in the Element Water in the Sacred Name of the Father Son and holy Spirit is to be observed according to Christs Commission Matth. 28. 19. And the Apostles Injunction Acts 2.38 10. 47 48. And Christs own practice Matth. 3. 16. John 3. 22. 4. 1 2. 8. An Exhortation to all Christians to beware of the delusions of the people called Quakers Nor can I do less having this occasion put into my hand then to admonish and exhort all Christians to look well to their goings for let us know assuredly that the days are perillous because the time is come wherein that doctrine which is according to Godliness even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and that form of sound words delivered to the Churches by the holy Apostles that form of Doctrine once obeyed from the Heart that Faith once delivered to the Saints is now in every place turned from or lightly regarded by many pretending to the high Calling of Christianity and they are therefore and shall be more and more turned into Fables according as is foreshewn in the Word of Truth Wherefore seeing we know these things before Let us beware least at any time we be led away with the Errors of these days and fall from that stedfastness in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship to which through the grace of God we have attained And above all Let us beware of those who either directly or indirectly deny the onely Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ whiles they believe not his Death Resurrection and Ascension and second coming according to the Scriptures But in stead of those necessary points of the Christian Faith labor to refer by obscure ways and a fair shew of words all these things to the work of mortification and what they pretend to experience in themselves Labor therefore to distinguish between the work of Christ in redeeming Man and the Work of his Spirit and Word in sanctifying his people Hold fast the first by Faith and labor to live in the latter by blessed experience Waiting for the Redemption of your Bodies in the glorious Resurrection of the Just according to the working whereby our Lord Jesus is able to subdue all things to himself And be not deceived by any means by the empty boasts of some in those days as if they had already obtained to the Resurrection of the Dead saying That they even now do witness mortality to be swallowed up of life with divers other such great swelling words of vanity But ever remember that Paul in his greatest attainments wherein he heard things too high to be uttered to the Churches yet had he not then no nor to this day attained to the Resurrection of the Dead but labored if by any means he might attain it And follow not those who indirectly or by consequence deny Jesus Christ I mean those that deny his Commandments for as one hath well said Such as deny those things which Christ hath ordained to declare and keep in memory his coming in the flesh his dying rising ascension and second coming do at the best unawares by consequence deny him to be come in the Flesh. By these things which are ordained to declare Christ come in the flesh c. I mean all Gospel Institutions for whether it be Preaching and Praying according to the Word Sacred Baptism or the Table of the Lord c. they serve to this end specially to hold forth Christ and him crucified to come again and receive his servants into his Everlasting Kingdom And thus the holy Gospel being duly observed in all its parts with a constant waiting for the Son of God from Heaven even Jesus who was raised from the dead you shall be found unto praise and honor for keeping the Ordinances here as they were delivered to the Churches and to the glory
of God hereafter for if any Man will serve Christ him will the Father honor 9. Antiqueries to John Whitehead Author of the Postscript annexed to the Lying Wonder In the Postscript I note three things 1. John Whitehead calls himself a Laborer in the Gospel 2. He calls the Quakers The People of God 3. It is said Richard Anderson was not joyned to or owned by the People called Quakers Upon these particulars I Quere 1. Whether he be fitly called a Laborer in the Gospel who holds that the Gospel was never Preached in England till George Fox preached it Not yet forty years ago And whether thou did not assert this And being admonished of the consequence of that saying viz. That then the Gospel preached by Fox could not be the Gospel of Christ because Christs Gospel was preached in England many hundreds of years before Fox was born Whether thou did not still persist in thy assertion with this emendation That the Gospel was not preached in England as it is preached by the People of God called Quakers till George Fox preached it And whether this do not make the Matter worse And is it not hence evident That thou Laborest not in the Gospel of Christ but the Gospel of George Fox which being no Gospel it follows thou art no Laborer in the Gospel 2. Whether he that holds that nothing which was Mortal was called Christ doth not thereby deny the death of Christ And whether thy conscience do not tell thee thou asserted this and being shewed the sequel of thy words viz. That then Christ died not and an offer made by thy opposite to recal that saying if thou thought thou wast mistaken whether then did not thou refuse to recal it and chose rather to persist in thy error And whether he that holds this dangerous position can truly Preach the dying of the Lord Jesus for sin And how then can he Preach the Gospel 3. Whether he that shall assert That Christ hath no Body of Flesh beside his Church can Preach truly the Resurrection Ascension and second coming of the Body of our Lord Christ according to Scripture And whether thou did not assert this before many witnesses and if thou still art of the same opinion how canst thou truly Labor in the Gospel 4. Whether by the words People of God thou means the Church of Christ in visible Profession of the Gospel according to the pattern of the Churches in the Apostles days 5. Whether the people called Quakers are gathered constituted and governed in a Church capacity according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Matth. 28.19 Acts 2. 38. to 43. 10. 47,48 8. 12 13,14 15,16,17 Heb. 6.12 Ephes. 4.4 5,6,11,12,13,14,15,16 Tit. 1.5 Acts 14. 23. Phil. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 5. 4. 6. If not as doubtless not then shew by what authority and when that first order of gathering constituting and governing the Churches of Christ was abrogated and another way instituted instead thereof 7. Whether it be not sufficient for any to judge him to be a Quaker that having conversed with them receives their doctrine opposes the Truths by them opposed and upon the same pretences and owned not onely their doctrine but their persons as the onely people of God acts by their spirit and prophesies or preaches in their behalf and hath frequent conversation with them And whether the Quakers have any constant and visible order to receive Members into their Congregations and if they have then shew what it is And whether Richard Anderson had not all these demonstrable characters and therefore justly said to be a Quaker A Postscript of the Light within BEcause every Truth ought to have its just estimation and the design of the precedent Discourse being not to oppose any Light which God hath ordained for Mans direction Whether that which is common to all ordinarily at all times by some called the Light within or that which hath been manifested at sundry times and divers manners It shall not be inexpedient here to propose a few things And first 1. It is certain and not denied by the Baptised Churches that God Almighty hath endowed mankind with a Principle of Light Vnderstanding or Iudgment to lead him to the consideration and observation of things good and honest among themselves and to contemplate the divine goodness it self from the consideration of his wonderful Works and to render to him the honor of his Mercies c. For as there is a certain relation between the Creator and a Rational Creature even thence arises a necessity of obedience on the Creatures part Whereupon it behooveth that he know him and in general what is his Will whom he is to serve And this is the great work of the Law written in the Heart of Man Rom. 2. 2. But it is in the Liberty of the Creator to give further what particular discoveries of himself and of his will he pleases beyond the extent of this common principle of Light And this he did to Adam in forbidding by a Positive Law the Fruit of one Tree which without that prohibition had brought no inconvenience to eat thereof seeing it was good for Food and therefore not sin as some do vainly interpret this place 3. That there is in the Godhead the distinction of Father Son and Spirit and that Mans salvation must depend on the death of the Son that he to that end should be born of a Woman even the Blessed Virgin Mary by Name that he should rise from Death and ascend the Heavens come to raise the dead and judge the World are things wholly beyond the reach of the common principle of Light in Man and onely known by particular Revelation from the Omnificient God who revealed these things to the Prophets confirmed them by his Son and hath witnessed the same by the Apostles 4. That the Oeconomy Order or Government of the Church should vary viz. Be of one form in the old World of another from Abraham till Christ of a third from Christ to the end of the World is that of which the common principle of Light in Man fails to give any acâ—ount Onely the Wisdom and Pleasure of the Creator is the ground and cause of this alteration to which the Light of Mans understanding must be subordinate 5. That Abraham must cut off the foreskin and his posterity observe the same for a Law under pain of being cut off from the People of God is no way perceivable by the principle of Light in Man but may seem to be repugnant to it 6. That the Saviour of the World should come to be Baptised of John in Jordan and that it should become all his Disciples to follow him in that act of Obedience That Israel must commemorate their deliverance out of Egypt by the Paschal observation and Christians their deliverance from Sin and Satan by the Bread and Cup at the Lords Table c. Is that which the principle of Light in Man does not dictate but he onely who without controul might require Abraham to offer his own Son for a Sacrifice required these things and must be obeyed when and in what he requires 7. The sum of all is this The general principle of Vnderstanding Light or Iudgment in Man is capable of improvements and it is onely improved by how much it is subordinate to the Will of God as well in the lesser as in the greater things of his appointment And therefore the Quakers undeniably opposing themselves against many things required by the Positive Laws and made known by the Revelation of the Almighty concerning Mans redemption and the Order of the Church of Christ are not obedient to nor sincere favorers of the Light within but are under the guidance of the Spirit of Darkness and Error in such their opposition Reader WHereas it is said both in Word and in Print That I Iohn Green of Southwark deny the Truth of the Narrative given forth by Ralph Iames touching the Leprosie These may certifie all whom it doth concern that I do believe the said Narrative to be a Truth and do appeal to the Conscience of several Quakers Whether I did not both by Word and Writing acknowledge the same to their faces though by some of them pressed to deny it and now they have contrary to their promise published my name in Print This Testimony is true witness my hand Iohn Green 21 Sept. 1672. Attested in the presence of these Witnesses William Vridge Timothy Morloy Iohn Smith Peter Sâ—ager all living in Southwark Errata Pag 11. Line 7. for Richard read Ralph FINIS