Again by way of Defence of his severe Rebuke of this insolent and scoffing Adversary like mine when he told him that he Raged he thus replyed Thy foolish Blasphemies have compelled the Spirit of God that is in me to speak that which I have said to thee thou Enemy of all Righteousness I tell thee plainly thou art not able to answer that Spirit of Truth which speaketh in me for the Defence of Christ's true Religion Of this Judgment were the most eminent Martyrs I shall conclude with John Bradford's plain Assertion to the Arch-Bishop of York We do believe and know the Scriptures as Christ's Sheep not because the Church saith they are the Scriptures but because they be so being thereof assured by the same Spirit which wrote and spake them How all these Testimonies can be True and yet Inspiration Untrue I shall leave with the sober Reader to judge And if my Arguments are still Irrational and my Testimonies Insufficient or Erroneous in his Account it will become his Pretences to Divinity not with Squibs and Railing but Reason Scripture and better Authorities to discover it The second way he took to prove our Equalling our Writings to and preferring them before the Scriptures is our Pretence to Infallibility Hear what he sayes Rep. Infallibility W. P. does not deny to be their Pretence but would make it very necessary and casts the contrary Opinion again and again and again too as Dirt in my Face This is your Fallible Errable Uncertain J. Faldo Rejoyn It is ill done of my Adversary to call my Answer Dirt which is so serious and to which he has replyed little else but Dirt I perceive all along notwithstanding the vast Difference he represents us to be at as to a Worldly Condition this Priest is ten times more enraged at the Just Consequences I draw from his own fallible Doctrines then he thinks a Quaker ought to be displeased with him for his numerous and scurrilous Provocations But if it be Dirt it sticks fast still for I find none of it wiped off And how dirty it is the Reader may judge by perusing it He that doth not Infallibly know what he pretends to know of God or Religion knows nothing certainly which concerns either Now if men cannot attain to any such Certainty farewell all Religion For that a man should affirm and not know whereof That he should profess God and Religion yet be uncertain of both But that J. Faldo should preach up and profess himself Errable in all such Doctrine Who ought to believe him Why spends he his Breath at a venture What Reason have any to believe him against us who is Uncertain of what he says against us by his own Principle This is your Independent Errable Fallible Vncertain J. Faldo Reader this is by much the greatest part of that Dirt he sayes I cast in his Face But I must tell him that greater Ignominy no Man can well bring upon the Gospel then that those who are converted by it are both Vncertain of the Truth of it and their own Conversion he either seems to have forgot or never to have understood the Meaning of those words delivered by the Apostle Paul That their Hearts might be comforted and being knit together in Love and unto all Riches of the full Assurance of Vnderstandding to the Acknowledgment of the Mystery of God Again And we desire that every one of you do shew the same Dilligence to the full Assurance of Hope unto the End Let us draw near with a true Heart in full Assurance of Faith And the Apostle John tells us He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself That they knew that they were of God and the whole World lay in Wickedness And that the Son of God was come and had given them an Vnderstanding that they knew him that was True and were in him that is True even in his Son Jesus Christ And this is the Record that God has given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life 1 John 5. 10 11 12 19 20. If these prove not Certainty in Faith Hope and eternal Life there is no Truth proved in Scripture for that People should have full Assurance Christ in them their Hope and Life and Witness of these things in themselves knowing him that 's true and being in him that 's true and yet be Uncertain of their Faith Hope and Life and doubtfuâ—l of their Inward VVitness and the Evidence and Knowledge that is given by him cannot be less contradictory then to affirm men Ignorant of what they know or guilty of what they are Innocent To be infallibly assured of what we believe is no Error in the Opinion of John Philpot and Bishop Latimer whatever use is made of it now to discriminate a Quaker The first to the Bishop of Chiehester who reflected upon him as conceiting himself better learned them the Bishop and the rest of his Brethren a Flout my lordly Adversary has more then once bestowed on me answered I take upon me the Name of no Learning I boast of no Knowledge but of Faith and of Christ and that I am bound undoubtedly or infallibly to know as I am sure I do The Bishop replyes These Hereticks take upon them to be sure of all things they stand in you should say rather with Humility I trust I know Christ then that I be sure thereof which is so like J. Faldo that he seems to be the Bishop revived proudly catechising reproving the poor Quakers But hear John Philpot's bold and smart Answer Let him doubt of his Faith that listeth saith he God give me alwayes to believe that I am sure of true Faith and Favour in Christ Bishop Latimen in his second Letter directed to Sr. Edward Bainton a Favourer of him that little time he lived in Queen Maries Reign who through his desire to preserve him was willing to allay the honest Man's Zeal for the Truth from the great Uncertainty that is in the World about Truth sayes he First ye mislike that I say I am sure that I preach the Truth saying in Reproof the same that God knoweth certain Truth Indeed God alone knoweth all certain Truth and God alone knoweth it as of himself and none knoweth certain Truth but God and those that be taught of God as saith St. Paul For God hath shewed it unto them And Christ himself They shall be all taught of God And your Friends deny not but that certain Truth is communicated to us according to Capacity But as to my Presumption and Arrogancy either I am Certain or Vncertain that it is Truth that I preach If it be Truth why may not I say so If I be Vncertain why dare I be so bold to preach it And if your Friends be Preachers themselves after their Sermon I pray you ask them whether they be certain and sure they
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
Principles Dwell ◠while here then give thy Judgment of both My Answer unencountered by him lay thus Let it suffice to all impartial People that we only desire to make a Difference betwixt the Writings and the Thing written of And to the eternal Overthrow of our Adversaries not wholely without their own Help since they think the Titles we gave our Books very glorious in themselves most unworthy of them but proper to the Scriptures whom they say we slight Let it be considered that not one of those Books is destitute of Scripture but is either generally in a Scripture stile this Distinction I fear my Adversary wilfully omitted or particularly defended by plenty of express Scriptures cited Therefore of necessity they the Scriptures must also partake with them in common of those famous Titles And thus far have they the Preference that they are quoted on purpose to give the Truth we write of greater Credit VVhat is that Greater Credit but to be exactly agreeable with them Now Reader first consider I did not say that no◠one Book is not without plenty of express Scripture cited as my answer clears but that every one of them is in a Scripture stile or particularly defended by express Scripture cited W. Smith's Catechism belongs to the first and if he would have fastened the Lye deservedly upon me he should have made appear that he treated not on the Truth declared of in Scripture scripturally which is as much the contrary as any thing can be For his Catechism contains nothing else neither is it managed any other way Secondly If he can produce one Book endeavouring to defend or prove our Principle to be true without such Quotation for to such Books the Passage by him cited relates I will confess his Ranting Abuse to be a Just Rebuke But I make this Challenge to him To give me one Book out of a Scripture Stile that is not controversal or any Controversal Book without express Scripture cited if he cannot his vain Insults fall thick upon his own Head But let us see if the Design of W. Smith's Catechism be to deny and throw Dirt upon the Scriptures In the thirteenth page of William Smith's Catechism printed 67. we have this Question and Answer concerning the Scriptures Q. Of what Service are the Scriptures as they are given forth and recorded without A. MVCH EVERY WAY unto those that have received the same Spirit from which they were given forth for unto such they are Profitable and make Wise unto Salvation and are unto them of Service for Instruction Edification and Comfort The same Spirit in them receiving the Testimony of the Spirit as it is declared in the Scripture And there is an Agreement and Vnion in the Spirit within AND ALSO IN THE WORDS without And so there is Instruction Edification and Comfort by the Scriptures unto all that are in the same Spirit that gave them forth Now in my Adversary's words I leave it to my Reader to give a Name to his Passage both against me our Books and particularly William Smith The like to which for a daring Vntruth is not commonly told For if to confess to the Scriptures to believe to read and to fulfil them as what by the right Spirit makes Wise through Faith to Salvation being full of Instruction Edification and Comfort If this I say he to deny and throw Dirt upon them William Smith is deeply guilty but I leave it with God and my Reader 's Conscience whether J. Faldo hath not denyed all Honesty in throwing so much Dirt undeservedly upon W. Smith But let us see what Reply he makes to my Answer in his Inferences and indeed there is need of Patience in having to do with so much unworthy Shifting and ill Language His first Inference was this If the Light within was alwayes sufficient the Scriptures and other Means were ever superfluous His second By the same Ground the Writings of the Gentiles yea the bitter Scoffs of Lucian and Julian the Apostate are of equal Authority with the Scriptures for they resulted from their Light within To all which as my full Answer only thus much I will say That though all Ability was and is in him the Light whom we declare to be the Light of all Mankind to reveal the whole Mind of God Here he leaves off and takes the rest from the beginning of another Paragraph about a page off to clap to it Yet that he so 〈◊〉 mistakes Reason and abuses his Reader as to infer from the ability of the Light whether obeyed or disobeyed the Uselesness of the Scripture Now hear his Reply Rep. Obeyed or Disobeyed were no Words of mine But how can we know any thing the better for VV. P's hard Names he puts upon it seeing there is nothing that pinches him but he hath presently 〈◊〉 hard Name for it And so impertinently and slovenly imposed that a man might learn far more gentile Railing under a Hedge As base Comparison p. 43. Black as Hell in Malice p. 46. The Impudence of his Wickedness p. 49. Rejoyn VVhatever pincht me before I hope the Reader will bear witness for him he has been more merciful in this Reply He first brings little or nothing out of my Answer and sayes just nothing to what he brought He did not say obeyed or disobeyed The more the Shame As my Answer to the Inference will sufficiently manifest the substance of which was this That if the Light had been obeyed and God's Spirit not rebelled against there had not been so much need of Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept Therefore was the Light or Spirit in it self insufficient or Line upon Line superfluous Is the Ability of a Master questioned by the Use of Books or the Use of Books superfluous because of his Ability Insufficiency belongs not to the Light but to the Creature that cannot receive it as it is in it self A Condiscension to such VVayes and Means as suits the great VVeakness and Distance of degenerated Man from God can no more conclude the Light insufficient then God Christ and the holy Spirit To which let me add that as the Law so very much of Scripture was added because of Transgression that makes it not superfluous no more then the succesless Strivings of the Spirit to bring out of Transgression because of Man's obstinate Rebellion renders the Spirit not sufficient To the second Inference he drew I gave a large Answer which I shall contract That the Light of the Jews and Gentiles was one in it self That as either writ by that Degree of Light they had they might both be said to write by the same Light and yet the VVritings be no more equal then the Degrees of manifestation That the VVritings of the Jews greatly transcended those of the Gentiles from that greater Discovery God vouchsafed to them That his bringing Lucian and the best Gentiles upon an Equallity was wicked That nothing lies heavier against the Light
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
Christian to read what is contained in the two pages quoted of vilifying Reproach to the Scriptures If this be not opposing the Spirit of God to the Scriptures the Devil himself must dispair of inventing words to express it by Thus far John Faldo And indeed I must confefs If all or any of these things were ever said or publish'd by VVilliam Smith there is great Cause for Amazement and Abhorrence too But what said I to this Truly enough but that J. F. was careful to conceal he brings in a small Limb of my Answer and then scares it with hard words Take notice of his Reply to what he ventures to trans-scribe of my Answer Rep. Penn saith VV. Smith reflected not in the least upon the Scriptures nor those Doctrines which were truly received thence No such words can be produc'd by our Adversary No Jesuit in the World did ever out-do VV. P. in Equivocations and Subterfuges His stress lies on the words TRULY received thence Rejoyn Suppose them to be my stress what Subterfuge lies there Are there not Doctrines falsly deduced through Men's Ignorance of the true Intendment of Scripture And do not such as confidently think them to be truly receiv'd from Scripture as if they really were so But the Stress lies here with J. F. His Religion cannot bear a Scruting and is as well nigh as shy of a Search as Mahometism it self Though had John Faldo and the rest of his Gang continu'd where they were the poor Quakers might have had an Inquisition with a VVitness at their Heels by this time But he has a further Comment for us Rep. The Quakers allow no Doctrine to be truly received from the Scriptures but such as is received by immediate Inspiration and not from the Authority of the VVritten VVord Rejoyn VVhere 's the Opposition now Doth not he set the Authority of the Scriptures against the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost at least exclude the holy Inspiration from any share in that Authority and so do what he can to shuffle out the Spirit from being concerned in the Authority of the Scriptures which is if not the only yet the greatest Proof of their Authorities since it is chiefly by the Testimony of the Spirit in our selves that we know them to have bin given forth by the Inspiration of the holy Ghost in others as held both the Primitive Christians our Famous Martyrs and most Considerable Protestants He speaks as if he affected Obscurity and aim'd only at jumbling and intricating instead of explaining the Matter But had we put the Spirit in Opposition to the Letter it is no more then what the Scripture hath done before us as H. Bullenger that notable Reformer observes upon Rom. 2. 29. The Spirit saith he is opposed to the Letter as when Paul saith The Circumcision of the Heart is the Circumcision that consisteth in Spirit not in the Letter And again The Lord hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life 4 Dec. 8 Serm. A notable Application to our Purpose but while we only so oppose them as to give the Preference to the Holy Spirit J. F. falls foul of us for a Pack of Enthusiasts shutting out the Spirit at least setting it aside to exalt the Letter But what doth he mean by these Terms Immediate Inspiration for a Mediate Inspiration I never heard of Sure I am that Inspiration is God's own Breathing into the Soul by which it hath Understanding given it whether it be of things written or not written and how that can be done and not immediately I know not If he will exchange his impertinent Distinction of Mediate and Immediate for Ordinary and Extraordinary we shall allow him more then we can upon the other for by Ordinary Inspiration or Revelation I understand such daily and common Vision and Discovery to the Soul as concerns it in its general Station respecting God and Men By Extraordinary such as great Fore-Sights or Divine Prospects which give to fore-tell or prophesie things to come or decide some signal Controversie or very special Case of Difficulty The first is what I speak of and do affirm that neither can the Scriptures be understood our Souls fed and comforted nor our Duties to God rightly perform'd without it The last is a Case so peculiar that all along it is plain I never intended it But if by Immediate Inspiration respecting us he understands that from thence forwards we cast off all Scripture as an antiquated or insignificant piece of Business which are yet Words too Modest for his Malice to father upon us as I shall anon make appear then doth he wrong us and our Doctrine to an high Degree And no matter what he thinks of me or what Names he may please to call me who is too far gone in his present splenetick Disease to think any better of such as I am I shall plainly set down what was my Meaning by the Words he cavils at viz. TRULY received thence I hope to their Satisfaction who will be more dis-interested in their Judgment By Doctrines TRULY owned and received from Scripture we mean such holy Truths as God by his Spirit inlightning our Understandings hath given us a true Discerning of to be such and those are they which we put in Opposition to Men's Carnal Interpretations upon and Imaginary Deductions from the Scriptures and not that we clash the Spirit 's Inspiration against the Scripture for they harmonize and bear reciprocal Testimonies to each other And this God that knows all Hearts both knows to be our true Sense in the Matter controverted and will one day abundantly prove to our Adversary's Eternal conviction This I fear J. Faldo will never swallow and why because it would choak him Perhaps I must be a Jesuit an Equivocator and what else he pleaseth but wherefore because it strikes at his Honesty indeed Dishonesty for he had rather we were what he sayes we are then receive a Contradiction by finding us otherwise then he hath so confidently represented us to be So much dearer is Humor Pride and Worldly Credit to him then our being not so mistaken as he thought for Is this Man like to make Converts that first maims my Answers and then either pelts what he doth take with Dirt or if one Sense worse then another may be had that usher'd in with a Rant and wound up with a Quibble must be given for an apt and irrefutable Reply This hath hitherto been his Practice and we now go upon both a Proof of it and yet more evidently to clear the Truth In that little piece of my Answer he cropt off from the rest for after his wonted manner he thought it not best for him to encounter it at large but a snap and away I told him that he could produce no such Words as Traditions of Men Earthly Root Darkness Confusion Corruption Deceitful Whore's Cup c.
chosen called out of the World they are not of this World as he is not of this World W. Dell's Sermons p. 152 156 186. The Church is a Spiritual Invisible Fellowship gathered together in the Unity of the Faith Hope and Love Christ and the Spirit are the only Officers CHAP. IV. His Charge of our Denying to Hear the Word of God examined True Preaching acknowledged HE hath maintained this Charge against our Answer with the same sort of Jeers and Florish but manifest insuccess too that he hath done what went before His words are these Reply pag. 61. Concerning denying the Ordinance of hearing the Word preached to my Proof from G. F. We must not hear Man c. W. P. saith That is so far from making against us that it makes for us at an high rate Much like the Mad-man of Athens who called all the Ships that came into the Port his own while he was for all that but a poor Thred-bare Gentle-man I proved that they asserted the Light to be only preached to be the only Preacher and only â—eached to yea and the only Obeyer Rejoynder If this be done Erit hic mihi magnus Apollo If to cease from Man be not false Doctrine then not to hear Man is no false Doctrine for Man is taken in the same sense in both places For as God never intended by ceasing from Man that they should not regard his Prophets who were Men when they came to declare his VVill so neither did G. F. intend that Man ought not to be heard when he comes on God's Errant or Message in the Name of the Lord but meer Man Man in his Natural Capacity and Ability without the Holy Spirit and Power of God which is but a carnal humane and worldly Ministry To say we only preach the Light is no more then to report The Quakers preach Christ for our Doctrine directs People to the Knocks of Christ the true Light at the Door of the Soul who is the Saviour Redeemer and Preserver of them that believe in him and keep his Commandments But that we ever said That it was only preached to yea and the only Obeyer of such Preaching is as false as any Thing that can be said He tells us he proved it I will give the strongest Passage he brought J. Parn. Shield c. Epist To the Light of God in all your Consciences I speak Very well and what then Is the Light therefore preacht to taught or instructed when he only appealed to the Light in all their Consciences concerning the Truth of what he said as the Apostle did To the Light I speak that is To the Light I direct my self To that I make my Appeal if what I write be not true for what soever is reproveable is made manifest by it Ephes 5. 13. This Construction is Natural Our Adversary's forced for nothing is more common with us in General and that Author in particular then to turn People to the Light pressing their Conformity to the Reproofs and Instructions of it alwayes respecting it as given us of God to be our true certain and constant Teacher and alwayes have we been reproacht by such as J. Faldo for doing so But above all that this Passage should be brought to prove the Light is the Obeyer of such Doctrines and Instructions who is the Author of them is an Absurdity that reflects great Ignorance or something worse upon our Adversary We have already declared our Faith so freely and plainly in this Matter besides the Testimony of our dayly Practice that we need say no more then this A true Living Gospel-Ministry we own and the Service and Benefit of such a one we have enjoyed and beautiful are their Feet who come in the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit that open the blind Eye turn People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. that He may be their Instructer according to that Promise They shall be all taught of Me which is the chiefest End of all External Instrumental Ministry To prove our Sence of true Preaching we may add these two following Testimonies out of that renowned Independent Dr. Everad Dr. J. Everad's Sermon Militia Coelestis Truth it 〈◊〉 many toss and tumble the Letter and make you believe they expound it and give you the Sense and Vertue yet how shallow how literal how humane how low how sensual and carnal do they make the Worlâ— to be Even your Rabbies your Doctors your great Schollars which shews if God himself if the Lion of the Tribe of Juda if the Root of David do not open the Seals 't is not all the Learning or all the Universities in the World can help us to the Mystery and the Mind of Christ as the Apostle calls it Shadows vanishing c. p. 326. I dare not offer at any Method in the whole nor at any Connection in the Parts For I find that all the curious Dichotomzers do but dream and play with the Scriptures feeding themselves with Fancies and not Truth for Sure I am the only Method that holy Men of old observed was to speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit There be many Expositions on this Place which I will not trouble you withall for Men speak according to Men but the Scriptures were written by God's Spirit dictated by his own Finger We must therefore labour to find out what is God's Mind in the Scriptures whatever Men say pag. 369. 370. CHAP. V. Of True and False Prayer HE pretends in this Chapter which containeth not a page to refute several pages in my Book relaing to Gospel-Prayer in which if I 〈◊〉 not he hath done me and the Truth I defend the greatest Service that a reasonable Man would desire at the Hands of his Adversary for the Truth of the Matter is the Man hath shrunk from his Post and deserted his Colours which we shall make appear by comparing his first Book with his Reply Reply VV. P. according to my Charge disowns man's Wilâ— and the Vse of his Conceptions to have any thing to do in Gospel-Prayer pag. 122. and disowns all Prayer that is not by and in the Light within The Quakers Christ The Reasons he gives are as Witless as his Assertion Truthless Thus Now unless Men may perform Gospel-VVorship without the Spirit and the Truth or if in the Spirit and the Truth yet not by the Motion of either a thing absurd it must needs be that Men ought only to preach and pray by the Motion of the Spirit and of the Truth How absurd is W. P' s Reasoning here as if the Vnderstanding Conceptions Will of Man in Prayer must needs exclude the Motions of the Spirit or the Motions of the Spirit exclude them Rejoynder The first Thing our Adversary charged upon us in his former Book was our Denyal of Gospel-Prayer to prove which he cited W. Smith who in his Catech. p. 107. spoak against Prayers of Man's forming
Coming in the Flesh and that which Christ Jesus and his Apostles taught was not in kind but in degreâ— only the Ceremonial part excepted which the same Clemens calls childish and Trifling and the Apostle Paul Beggarly Elements serving only the non-Age of the World in Religion and therefore to be laid aside upon a more improved Knowledge and full Enjoyment of it And this Christ's own Sermon upon the Mount clearly evinceth who runs the Sin of Adultery as far beyond the Act as the first lustful Desire conceived in the mind And from true Swearing to yea yea and nay nay and from loving our Friends to loving our Enemiese and from self-saving to suffering I say unless we should with the Uncertain and Irreverent J. Faldo exclude the Life Doctrine and Miracles of Christ from any share in Christianity because sayes he it s dated with more reason from Christ's Resurrection and consequently Christ Jesus before but an extraordinary kind of Jew we must needs conclude that as the tendency of Christ's Life and Miracles was to preach live and confirm his divine Doctrine so the very bent of that Doctrine was the Improvement and Perfection of that Righteousness which in former Ages was but begun and more imperfectly manifested so that to be under Grace is not to live in the Breach of God's Law Uncondemned through Christ's personal Obedience wrought wholely without us but to be led to deny all that Vngodliness and those Worldly Lusts for which the Law takes hold upon the World according to the Apostle to the Romans There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit implying that who walked after the Flesh were so long not under Grace but under Condemnation Again For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death that is not only from Death the Wages but from Sin the Work that leads to it yet further For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in vs who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit So that to be under Grace is to be under the Government Leadings of it and to enjoy that divine Power which fulfills the Law and redeems from those Corruptions which prove men rather to be alive without Law then under Grace that fulfils it Upon the whole since some in all Ages have been taught to deny Ungodliness and to live godly and that they could not so have done without the Grace that brings Salvation And since the Seed of the Serpent has been bruised in them and that it could not be without Christ the promised Seed and since such were then turned from Darkness unto Light and from Satan's Power unto God and that all this is purely Gospel and Christian something of Christianity was in the World before that visible Appearance of Christ from whose Name the true Religion was so called For though there have been Diversities of Gifts yet the same Spirit though Difference of Administration yet the same Lord. And though God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Son yet he was the same God who spoak by the Prophets that spoak by the Son though it is always confest not in so plain express and excellent a manner the Difference therefore lay in the Manifestation rather then in the Thing manifested For through all Generations there has been but one Seed Truth Grace Word Life Power or Spirit by which any of the Sons and Daughters of Men were ever saved and consequently J. Faldo has greatly wrong'd the true Christian-Religion as well as contradicted the Ancient Writers and abused us in dating Christianity from the time of Christ's Bodily Resurrection and so bitterly reflecting upon them that conform not to his narrow and false Apprehensions CHAP. II. Of Quakerism as this Independent Priest scoffingly calls our holy Religion IN my Defence of the Truth we profess shewing not only the Consistency of it with Christianity but proving it to be Christianity there are Four Passages he takes an abrupt notice of His words concerning the first run thus Rep. To purge away the Character I give of a Quaker he tells you p. 9. We never said that the Light within every Man was the only Lord and Saviour and very God let him shew us any such Passage of any one acknowledged Quaker and he will say something Now Reader observe his Reply The Man cannot see Wood for Trees I quoted him Forty Places in my Book that will prove it For instance All Power in Heaven and Earth is in it Smith's Primmer p. 14. Again I will make you know that I the Light which lighteth every man that eomes into the World am the true eternal God G. Fox junior c. These I quoted in my Book yet could Penn say I thought to be believed hand over head Rejoyn That this Adversary is base with a Witness remember Reader that there is not One Testimony much less Forty in that place I quoted and unto which my Answer was made Next observe how he suggests my smothering of those Testimonies he brings whereas I have particularly answered the latter which includes the force or tendency of the former and five more of his falsly pretended forty But to the Point That I cannot see Wood for Trees is a very mean and wooden Reply what I have said in my former Book stands unanswered and indeed is Vnanswerable I shall contract it thus No man that believes Scripture will dare to deny that God is Light That every Man is enlightened by Him and that by Him who is called Light all things are upheld And that He alone is Saviour A Doctrine J. Faldo teaches pag. 84 85 89. That we never did assert that the God that made Heaven and Earth was comprehendible within the Soul of Man yet that he gave Light to the Soul of Man To which with much more he returns us not one word of Answer but would make People believe it has been the course I have taken with him To conclude He must either deny Christ to have all Power in Heaven and Earth to be the True Eternal God or that He who has that Power and is that God is not that True Light that enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World or his Labour is but very Vanity whose Wages will be Vexation of Spirit But thus far we are well assured that J. Faldo for all his Shews of Reverence to the Scripture overturns the most evident Testimonies therein contained by withstanding and defaming this one Assertion that God who is Light shines not in the Heart of any Man on
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-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
we declare against all who come not in by the Door but seek to clime up another Way by their Study Inventions and Sepentine Wisdom and Knowledge and so are Thieves and Robbers Such Ministers and their Ministry we deny for the Hand of the Lord is against them c. Great and true Words No Man can minister that which he hath not no Man can have those things which qualifie him a true Minister but by the Inspiration of the Almighty and the effectual Operation of his Power and Spirit God's Messengers were ever led taught and furnisht by God's Spirit not by human Invention and Acquisition which Paul counted Dross and Dung in Comparison of the Excâ—llency of the Knowledge of his Lord Christ Jesus through the Revelation of the Eternal Spirit But that J. Faldo may be the better understood about the Ministry he pleads for take Reader a Passage he cites out of G. F's Book called Gr. Myst which doubtless he reputes very hetrodox or he would never bring it to prove a Charge containing such Matter as he counts so Thou the Priest art corrected by the Scripture and the Apostle corrects thee who said I have not received it of Man nor by Man and bid others look at Jesus the author of their Faith Their Writings saith J. Faldo are abounding with Matter of this Nature So much the better say I for it is old Scripture Doctrine and J. Faldo gives us plainly to infer by his Dislike of this Passage that he maintains a Ministry received of man and by man and that People ought to look unto them and not to Jesus the Author of their Faith If this be one of J. F's Christian Ordinances as his Discourse evidently makes it I hope my Reader will the less wonder at those hard Names he gives us in it for the plain English of his Charge against us is this The Quakers deny the Ministry that is of man or by man therefore they deny the Gospel-Ministry Poor Man what a pass hath he brought his Affairs to Indeed I pitty him and fear the Consequence of his Disappointment since a Man of his Stomach to charge so high and make so little of it may with the Loss of his Honesty for ought I know hazard his Wits too To wind up this Chapter and prove to all the World I have not mistaken him hear him Reply p. 55. W. P. produceth one of my Testimonies out of J. Parnel yet but by halfs And here is the Difference of the Ministers of the World and the Ministers of Christ The one of the Letter the other of the Spirit To which he replies Strange Impudence to call this a Proof But I cannot help it if P. will say the Sun is Darkness Before I part with him here I will furnish my Reader with that part of the same Testimony he treacherously leaves out for they are meer Deceivers and Witches bewitch People from the Truth holding forth the Shadow for the Substance and what is the Chaff to the Wheat Add this to the other as it was in my Book and I dare trust my Reader that is willing to speak Truth to pass his Censure It follows in the same Author before quoted And so the Devil takes Scripture to mantain his Kingdom and this he delivers by the Mouth of his Ministers which he sends abroad to deceive the Nations leading People in Blindness Rejoynder Let the Reader observe that what he here pretends to quote out of J. P. follows as himfelf said what we have just before transcribed Three things contain my Rejoynder First He reports not my Answer which was to this Purpose It is a Proof indeed but against him for if a false or worldly Ministry under the Form of Godliness may not be farewell Scripture But if such a Thing will be allowed us then since the Letter or Scriptures are not by such rejected but in Shew most highly admired and that they pretend to collect all they believe or know from thence though indeed they understand them not we have great Reason to say That those who are Ministers only from the Letter with what they imaginarily comment upon it they are not Christ's Ministers p. 110. Of which and much more he hath not given us a Word how can he reply honestly and intelligible who neither gives nor takes notice of the Answer he should reply to J. Parnel's Words plainly relate to a Ministry not gifted nor qualified by the holy Ghost and J. Faldo tells us in so many Words that without it none are worthy of the Name or Thing Yet doth he make it as unreasonable for me to say J. Parnel's Words prove not our Denyal of a Gospel-Ministry which so obviously own it as for him to assert the Sun is Darkness Secondly I did not leave out that which he chargeth me to have done Treacherously the best Word he can afford me on the like Occasions he must be quite bereaved of his Sences that thinks I should fear defending J. P. in calling such Decâ—ivers and Witches as bewitching the People from the Truth who are made Ministers by the Will of man without the Inspiration of the Spirit Gift of the Holy Ghost Will of God and are Coveters of men's Silver or Gold Preachers of their own Inventions Persecutors Revilers stirring up of the Magistrates to stone stock whip imprison c. all which J. P. gives as the Character of the Ministry he writ against for if this be the Gospel-Ministry the Devil is a Saint The Truth is John Faldo's Book is generally to be read backward Lastly There is no such Passage of the false Ministry much less of the true in page 15 16 or 17. of J. Parnel's Shield c. as J. F. suggests however I believe the Devil useth sometimes Scripture and that he hath had and hath many Ministers whom he sends abroad to deceive the Nations leading and keeping People in Blindness under a Pretence of Christianity and Conformity to the Doctrine of the Scriptures in order to maintain his Anti-Christian Kingdom all true Protestants were of that Mind but J. F. is none of that number Doubtless the poor Man is brought to a low Ebb that brings this to prove we deny Gospel-Ministry which the honest Martyrs primitive Reformers and what is more to our Purpose the Scriptures themselves say again and again The contrary will unavoidably prove the Ministry of the Church of Rome to have been not Anti-christ's but Christ's true Ministers since they both use Scripture preach Scripture and call themselves the Ministers of the Gospel by Apostolical Institution and Succession In this disarmed Condition we leave him and the Chapter confessing to all the World that such a Ministry as hath effectually known the Operation of the Spirit of God in themselves as to those things which concern Redemption and Eternal Salvation and that he draws sorth by his holy Spirit indues with his Heavenly Power for the turning of Men from Darkness to Light from
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
more I that live but Christ in me that is The Apostle had no Life in him in any sense Would this be good Doctrine But more openly do the Words of Christ lay to the Exception of such Cavillers 'T is not I that speak but the Father in me Again It is not you that speak but the Holy Gost in you For after J. Faldo's Parapharase we must either deny that Christ or his Apostles spoak those words or confess that they contradicted themselves in saying they did not speak when they did or lastly He must acknowledge to us That such Teachings and Speakings are not the Teachings and Speakings of Men but of God by and through Men. Let him first see if he can reconcile himself to these Scripture-Passages so pertinent to our Purpose and leave off his silly Shifts as easily confuted as discovered Upon my saying That we do believe that there is One and but One Universal Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth and that is in God and that the Members of it are washed in the Blood of the Lamb and grafted into the True Vine bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness p. 113. he thus replyes and I beseech my Reader to consider it Reply p. 59. If he own no other Church but this which is the Character of the invisible Church he owns not a Gospel-Church whose Order and Frame is according to the Doctrine of the Apostles and Practice of the Saints in the New-Testament Rejoynder VVe are beholden to him for this May we ever meet with such kind Adversaries It seems then my Definition hath nothing to do with the Gospel-Church VVhat is it but to say that the Gospel-Chruch is not the Pillar of Truth The Gospel-Chruch is not washed in the Blood of the Lamb The Gospel-Chruch is not grafted into the true Vine that Men may be in the Truth washed in the Blood of the Lamb grafted into the true Vine bring forth Fruit unto Holiness and yet no wayes concered in the Gospel-Church in short the Gospel-Church is not the Vniversal Church nor the invisible Church a Gospel-Church and what is his Reason if any there can be for all this pernicious and Anti-christian Doctrine Because a Gospel-Church is one whose Order and Frame is according to the Doctrine of the Apostle and Practice of the Saints Worse and worse it seems then in J. F's Sence that the Order and Frame the Doctrine of the Apostles brought the Church of Christ to and the Practice of the Saints in the New Testament had nothing to do with the Pillar of Truth dwelling in God being washed in the Blood of the Lamb grafted in the true Vine and bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness What Sort of impious Gibberish is this For according to his Notion of the Gospel-Church the most Satanical Crew may as well be of that Church as the best of Christians since the External Order at most but the Form of Godliness was and is imitable and imitated by arrant Hypocrites By this Argument Elias and the Seven Hundred who had not bowed their Knees to Baal so invisible as Elias himself knew not of them were Schâ—s maticks or Infidels to the then Jewish Church being without all Visible Church Policy or Order and the Jews that had it though Apostatized must have been God's Legal Church It will also follow that for above 1200 Years together since Christ's time there hath been no Gospel-Church yet Gospellers as their Enemies have called them which were to grant to the Roman-Catholicks all they Desire What was that Church that fled into the Wilderness It must either be the Gospel-Church or not the Gospel-Church If not the Gospel-Church then not the Christian and consequently the Antichristian-Church But that could not be because she fled from Antichrist If the Gospel-Church then may a Church be Gospel without punctuallity in visible Order for it is notorious by all Story the Remnant of the Woman's Seed who have born a faithful Testimony against the Spirit of Antichrist in their Sack-Cloth and Wilderness Estate have been destitute of that Visible Order Indeed I hitherto thought that a Gospel-Church constituted necessary external Order and not that meer external Order constitutes the Church Gospel or Evangelical But John Faldo sayes No who seems not to scruple at the Word Church but to play upon the Word Gospel as if external Order and Gospel were synonimous or of equal force whereas the Gospel is called in Scripture The Power of God to Salvation from that Spiritual Redemption it efficatiously worketh in them that receive it from the Bondage of Corruption under which they have fruitlesly laboured which is the Reason and a good one too why it signifieth Glad-Tidings since nothing can be more Joyous to a weary and heavy-loaden Sinner then to be eased of his former Iniquities by Remission and purged from the Nature and Habits of it out of the Soul by the Operation of this Heavenly and Everlasting Gospel which worthy Christopher Goad Right Spirit of Christ pag. 17. calls the forming or bringing forth of Christ in us What is all our Adversary hath said but to make Remedies against or Condescension to the Weakness of the Church's Infancy as sayes honest W. Tindal in his Works p. 9. 436 438. the only great Constitutes of a Gospel-Church By which he denyes a Gospel-Church to have been antecedent to that External Order and consequently that the Believers were not a Gospel-Church when met together on the Day of Penticost not long after since the Gospel had been many years preached Multitudes converted and many baptized by the One Spirit into the One Body of true Gospel-Fellowship before ever those Epistles were written by the Apostle Paul either to the Church at Corinth or to Timothy in which only External Order is mentioned Nay at this rate he hath Unchurched every Party in England but one if yet one may be excepted for if External Order only constitutes a Gospel-Church every Party in England differing greatly in their External Order it must follow that none but one if any one can have any just Pretence to a Compleat Gospel-Church consequently Mungrils He still forgets what he promised that None of them were further concerned against the Quakers then Vindicated Howbeit herein they may hold him excused that he hath equally unchurched Himself and these he preacheth to in Company with all other Parties in England being out of that Order But I intreat the Reader to consider what a Monster he hath made of Christ who describeth him with two such Bodies to one Head one Invisible the other Visible one washed in the Blood of the Lamb grafted into the true Vine bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness Qualifications hid from the Eye of the World as worthy John Bradford told T. Weston as in B. Martyr p. 104 312. That the Church of Christ is Invisible to him that hath not a Spiritual Eye The other constituted of People no matter how Vnregenerated if submitted to
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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth chiefly signifie that which is DIVINE and Reasonable that God doth give unto us H. Bullenger saith The Soul is a Spiritual Substance poured of God into Man's Body in his 4 Decad. 10 Serm. Augustine saith It is felt in the Life it is unutterable breathed into Man's Body by God of his own Essence and Nature from the secret Power of God In short Very various have been the Opinions of the Ancients concerning the Soul Plato divided it into Two parts Zeno into Three Panaetius into Five or Six Soranus into Seven Chrysippus into Eight Apollophanes into Nine by some of the Stoicks into Ten by Possidonius into Twelve as Tertullian reports in his Book de Anima p. 273. and H. Bullenger tells us That hardly two say one and the same thing concerning it Seeing then that Men of such excellent Abilities and nicest Disquisitions both in Nature and Theology rather prove their own Contradiction and Confusion then give us any certain Account of the Soul what she is and that the Scripture mentions it so rarely and obscurely and that J. Faldo denies all immediate Inspiration as he calls it which is the only Way left us to understand it he hath not shown himself a Charitable Divine but an Impious Wrangler in falling so heavily upon us with the opprobious Name of Idolaters for assigning something more of Divinity unto the Soul in its primitive Perfection then his Opinion will allow us CHAP. XII Of the Resurrection of Dead Bodies and Eternal Recompence Our Doctrine maintained by Scripture Reason and Authorities IN his former Book he charged us with the Denyal of the Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Recompence The Testimonies he brought for Proof were such as rendred him very weak or something worse I hope they were sufficiently dis-engaged from his Service unto which according to his old Custom he hath not thought fit to reply He only takes notice of two or three short Passages out of six or seven pages of Answer on which he bestows a few Squibs and concludes with that Contempt and Rudeness no Man pretending to Religion or Humanity would have vented especially against a Man that he provok't to answer him by beginning to abuse his Friends in general and him in particular considering withal that his Profession is to suffer not to insult Strange that my Religion and Conscience should subject me to so much Contempt with a Man that pretends to both But W. P. I dare say had not been thus treated by J. F. could he threaten the Law and Flant and Swagger at the rate J. F. doth But it is like such Folk to insult where he may do it safely One of his Testimonies was this Christ is the Resurrection to raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him So Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and sorenews Man Princ. pap call Quak. p. 34. I will not trouble my self nor spend my Reader 's time in transscribing what I said in Defence of this Passage as to the End he designed it Nothing can be clearer then that this concerns Regeneration so sayes J. F. himself pag. 132. consequently the Resurrection of Dead Bodies is not concerned in it His second Testimony fell from G. Whitehead in these words if we may believe him I do not believe this Body shall rise again after it is Dead I told him of his Disingenuous Catching and put him in mind of the Apostles own Expression that justifies the Saying if it was ever said Thou Fool Thou SOWEST NOT that Body that shall be But unto whatever I urged for the clearing of our Friends Words and Writings from his ill Constructions like an unfair if not a fearful Adversary he makes no Return I will now set down what he thought fit to give us Reply p. 88. Take W. P' s own words acknowledging the Truth of my Charge Either the Resurrection of the Body must be without the Matter or it must not If it must then it is not the same numerical Body and so their proper and strict Resurrection they must let go although this allows my Charge true and so enough to its Vindication yet I shall Answer P's Arguments against the Resurrection wherein be opposes Philosophical Conclusions to the express Doctrine of the Scriptures Rejoynder If I have herein vindicated his Charge it must follow that he charged us with Denying the Resurrection of the Body without any Allowance of Change as to that Matter and Corruptibility it was buried with consequently That J. Faldo believes a Resurrection of the same Carnal Bodies that are interred without any Alteration whatever for that allowed they cannot rise properly and strictly the same Bodies If our rejecting this Carnal Dream of his is that horrid Principle he charged us with Denying we have no Reason to be much concerned about the Success But he proceeds Reply pag. 88 89. The latter part of W. P's Dilemma is the Horn with which he pushes at the Resurrection viz. If it must not be without that same gross matter it dyed with then I affirm it cannot be incorruptible because it will carry with it that which will render it corruptible ad infinitum The Body must necessarily be the same Matter is allowed but W. P. calls it in his assumption of the 2d part of his Dilemma the same gross Matter which makes his Argument Falacious in the Form of it But to let that pass it shall be the same Matter and numerical though not of the same Grosness and shall have the same Substance and Essential Form though not the same Accidents Rejoynder Is this the Scripture-Doctrine he says I oppose with Philosophical Conclusions Would he would give us but one Scripture that looks but favourably towards this Reply I never read one yet of a Body's having the same Matter and not the same Grosness the same substance and Essence and not the same Accidents For shame must our Denyal of Physical Nicities or rather J. Faldo's Absurdities be branded for horrid Doctrine 'T is true in Philosophy that a Substance may loose its Accidents and yet remain the same Substance Things may be discolour'd yet the same Beings they were before But that Matter should be such and not gross is incongruous with Scripture and Philosophy Matter and Grosness or Corruption are Synonimous in Philosophy and common Speech But that Grosness or the Substantial Part of any Man's Body should be but an Accident that the Accidence teaches all Boyes in a Noun-Substantive deserves a Lash at least Are Flesh Blood and Bones Accidents or that of them which is gross and corruptible an Accident I wonder what a fearful sort of a Noun-Substantive J. F. would be in case he were condens'd and rarefied of such gross and corruptible Accidents Indeed one would think his Head if not all the rest had been near akin to them when he writ this piece of new Philosophy But this abundantly proveth
how can he conclude The Quakers deny the Scriptures yet so he concludes per fas per nefas What can be said to a Man of this hardy Stamp whom neither Logick Reason nor Modesty can bound yet a pretended Master of them all Had I used him at this toyish gibing and illogical Rate I had been an airy Sophister of no more serious Conscience or Religion then Punchenello but being his Adversary I must be a Dunce an Ignoramus and something else he was so wise as to hide from us which are the Epithetes he is pleased out of his great Store-House of Ill Language to bestow upon me at parting But which is stranger if any thing be strange that he doth after all the Perversion Addition Diminution Wresting Misquotation Evasion and School-Boy Puns and Gibes he hath the Confidence thus to end this Chapter and his Defence of the first and second Part of his first Book Thus I have honestly clearly vindicated every Charge in that Part of my Book which intends the Proof of Quakerism to be no Christianity How honestly and how clearly he hath vindicated his Charges belongs not to either of us to judge whatever we think but is leâ—â— with every impartial Reader to determine though if it be as he saith I am yet to learn what an Honest and Clear Vindication meaneth for according to that Sense I have had of him through this whole Controversie and the most upright Observation I could make of his Management it seems to me a moral Impossibility that he should not be conscious to himself of exhibiting Charges he hath not proved of abusing our Writings to endeavour it of declining the Strength of our Answers and Vilifying of our Persons for writing them To the Righteous God I recommend the whole and according to our Truth and Honesty in this Matter may we receive the Sentence of Well or Ill done c. I hope my Conscience will abide the Search for God that knoweth all Hearts is Witness I have not the least Guilt upon me for my Concern Carriage in this Affair having done to him as I would all Men should do unto me and therein fulfilled the Royal Law CHAP. XIII My Adversary declines meddling with my Appendix His Dising enuity great His Perversions and Wrestings about his Key pretending to open our Words Detected VVE are now come to his Two and Twentieth and last Chapter which for his Truth Reason Language and Carriage towards me is an exact Representation of his intire Reply which will not be hard for any serious Reader to observe and make that use of it which may forever discard J. Faldo in his Opinion from any future Pretence to honesty in Writing till he hath publickly recanted this but because I always desire he should speak for himself be pleased to hear him this Reply p. 91. In W P's Answer to the third Part of my Book he sayes nothing to the Chapter of the Characters of Apostolical Persons and Inspirations wherein it consisting of Twenty four Pages I agitated at large these Points to the Overthrow of their pretended Apostolical Ministry and Inspirations of the same kind with theirs common to all Believers on which Quakerism is founded Rejoynder This Complaint might have been very allowable in case I had not already sufficiently considered and answered whatsoever was of moment in those Twenty Four Pages under the Head of Inspiration and that himself had not been so shamefully injust as after having attackt the first Part of my Book intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated with Thirty Four Pages and I replied in an intire Appendix of Thirty Pages he had not wilfully neglected to give â—s one word of Rejoynder I beseech my Reader to take notice of this one great Piece of Disingenuity for if I must be chid because I did not unnecessarily repeat Controversie having already defended our Doctrine in this Point under the Head of Inspiration and Gospel-Ministry What shall be said to him that unprovokedly fell foul of my fore named Book and after I had replied in its Defence takes no more notice then if he were wholly unconcerned in any such Attempts He must either think what he writ irrefutable or indefensible If the first then he need not have replyed at all since I am perswaded he believes one part of what he writ to be as irrefutable as the other If because indefensible he is to be excused yet deservedly to be blamed for finding that Fault with others which he is much more guilty of himself To say nothing of his Pretence of Answering Two Hundred Fifty Four Pages within the Compass of Ninety Six and that Skip he makes over my whole Key consisting of about half a score Pages added for the Opening our true Meaning from that perverted sense ignorant and malicious Persons have put upon our Principles And lastly his Vindication of his Key in not a page and an half against Six or Seven Pages of my Answer wherein I hope it was proved abundantly defective But let us hear what he sayes to remedy those defects I therein charged upon it Reply p. 92. In my Key of Two Hundred and Fifty Particulars he excepts against Ten Five of which he further explains the other Five he opposes Rejoynder This looks unfair on my part till my Reader be informed that not one of these Two Hundred and Fifty Particulars had so much as the Name of Man or Book consequently no Page how to find and read any of those things he affirms to be our Sense or Meaning which is enough to discredit an Honester Writer then J. Faldo so that what I did was more then could be justly expected much less challenged from me however I took Ten of the most suspicious If he be disproved in those there is great Reason to suspect him about the Rest till he hath produced more unquestionable Evidence Of these he tells us I explain one Five and oppose the other Let us hear how he gives my Opposition and what is his Replication Reply The first of these is in pag. 247. THE WILL OF THE FLESH i. e. All that is chosen by Man though he be thereto disposed by the Will of God revealed in the Scriptures This W. P. calls False and an Abominable and Notorious Untruth I have proved at large their calling all things of a Religious Nature by that Name which are not by Immediate Inspiration although the Scriptures have Precepts and Examples commanding and prescribing them Rejoynder If this be not to beg the Question no Man ever did since the World was He sayes he hath proved it at large and I say I have refuted it at large and what sayes he to that no more then this I have proved it at large c. Doth this Man look like an able Disputant That he is not an honest one take my Answer by him omitted with his own words faithfully cited J. F. pag. 69. THE WILL OF THE FLESH i. e. All that is
VII Of his Vain Glory and Self-Praise At this he is excessive So conceited is he of his own Abilities and impatient after Praise the greatest Discovery of Pride and Weakness that any Man can make which my Reader may find p. 28 32 33 34 50 52 61 63 65 84. I will give one Proof for all My Charge and Argument in this Chapter sayes he is such an Argument and so proved by me as a THOUSAND PENNS can never invalidate it p. 34. The truth of which as also the Vanity of it may be seen both in my Answer and Rejoynder however he stops his Reader 's Mouth and counts him senseless and desperate that is not of the same Mind p. 36. VIII Of Railing and Ill Names No Man pretends to dislike yet no Man practises these ill-bred as well as un-christian Courses more then J. Faldo where he wants Reason he imposes an hard Name and if he be rebukt he calls it Railing reflecting that upon us for reprehending it in him If I call his Comparison base that is so and that he manages it malitiously against us he replies that more gentile Railing may be learned under a Hedge and that those Words are slovenly imposed UPON HIM as if he were too great to be reproved or licensed to rail without Controle at least against the Quakers for if I tell him he is unmannerly he counts our own Practice a Dispensation inferring from our Dislike of vain and fruitless Complements a Liberty to treat us with what unseemly Language pleased him best This my Reader may see at large if it please him to look into these Pages of our Adversary's Reply p. 5 8 16 20 27 29 33 35 45 49 50 52 54 58 62 63 64 69 72 73 77 82 87 91 95. But to omit whole Sentences and yet to give some Instance more at large then by bare Figures my Adversary hath liberally bestowed out of his great Store of ill Language these following Epithetes as well upon our Religion and Friends as my self for defending them That our Light is the second Antichrist the Quakers Idol Pernicious Guide and Saviour Fancyful Teacher in fine a sordid sinful corrupt and ridiculous Thing and our Religion and Practice Blasphemy and Idolatry p. 47 85 87. Our Friends Quakers so called benighted with palpable Knavery and Impudence Absurd and Blasphemous Idiots Out of the Knowledge and Wits also Prodigiously wicked Speak the amazing Delusions of Satan And that I am a presumptuous and blind Accuser a Sophister an Hamam an accursed Ham a treacherous and wilful Deluder a Mad-man an Hangman an infallible Stager a Fool an Ape a Dunce an impudent Forger and what not that his Rage and Folly can foam out pag. 4 53 54 59 61 63 65 90 91 95. I desire my Reader would also take notice that besides his excessive ill-using of us and ruputing our Rebukes for doing so Railing which shows the Beam to be in his own Eye and that his Nature is as proud to reject Reproof as it is foul and rough to occasion it he gave us the On-set Had he not begun with us we know not that ever we should have meddled with him but having begun and withal so miserably abused us by foul Charges false Citations and vilifying Language that it should be more unreasonable in us to censure him then in him to deserve it no impartial Man can ever think What is John Faldo for a Man of what Rank what Quality what eminent Office or Dignity in the World that we must be kickt by him up and down four or five Hundred Pages for whatever he pleaseth to count us not be told he wrongs us Is the Quality of this diminutive Priest so much and the whole Body of the People called Quakers and that to stop him in his Career of Scoff Jeer Taunt foul Names and Reflection is to deserve them But over and above that this shows his Disposition to be Imperious and Impatient as well as Rude and Frothy and therefore very inconsistent with his Pretences to Meekness and Good Manners but most of all with his Reprehension of others in Cases less offensive it will neither confute my Arguments nor damnifie my Person which makes me the less solicitous of making any other Rejoynder I should here bring in my Conclusion to this whole Discourse but lest any may yet doubt of the Truth of these things as believing me to have made an ill Use and partial Relation of them I shall yet offer for further Confirmation of my Sense of the Man and his Undertaking against us this undeniable Evidence to wit that he hath dealt imperfectly and falsly with the World in his Account of our Writings which he makes the Foundation on which every Charge is built that he exhibits and aggravates against us I have here and there in my Book toucht already upon this great Failure But I shall more particularly inform my Reader of it in this place Of Imperfect and False Citations Forasmuch as J. Faldo would have all People believe that he hath charged the People called Quakers with nothing that their own Books do not clearly and plentifully prove insomuch as he counts those that think not so senseless and desperate and that many who read him may be ready to credit him because they see Books Names and Passages frequently cited especially those who have not the Books by them to examine how honestly he deals with us I thought it requisite to end this Book with this further Unanswerable Discovery of his Defective Foundation that in many places we find Names without Book Books without Parts Chapters Pages yea without Names and Pag. without Number or Figure many falsly cited some added to others diminished from in the beginning middle or end of Sentences thereby robbing them of their own Explanation that he might the better fit them for his purpose Take these few Instances I. Names without Books G. Fox Book 1. Part 1. pag. 47. G. Fox 48. J. Nailor 90. C. A. Part 2. pag. 7. W. Dewsbury 11. C. A. 45. R. Farnsworth 46. G. Fox jun. 83 119. R. Farnsworth 142. E. Burroughs 143. Thus far of Names without Book which is not fair in any Adversary Now of Books without Pages and Pag. without number II. Books Without Parts Chapters Pages Morning Watch Book 1. Part 1. pag. 37. Light out of Darkness 37. Shield of Truth Book 1. Part 1. pag. 45. Love to the Lost 45. Life of E. B. 45. Epistle of W. Dewsbury 47. Velata quaedam revelata 53. Morning Watch 92. Morning Watch Part 2. pag. 19. W. P. Spir. of Truth 32. Love to the Lost 39. True Faith 122. F. H. Testimony 123. Great Myst 124 125. Velata quaedam revelata 133. Great Myst 142. Some Principles of the Elect People 142. Great Myst Vindic. pag. 86. III. Books Falsly Cited G. F's Great Myst Book 1. Part 1. pag. 41. W. S's Primmer 44. Great Myst 52. Great Myst 57. Love to the Lost
118. G. Fox Great Myst Part 2. pag. 10. G. Fox Gr. Myst 12 J. Parnell Shield of Truth 22 23. W. Smith's Cat. 27. W. Smith's Prim. 37. Love to the Lost 40. W. Smith's Prim. 42. W. Smith's Prim. Part 3. pag. 94. W. Smith's Prim. Vindic. pag. 6 70. Thus much at present of False Citation which to say no more makes any Book uncapable of being answered IV. Several Passages Clipt and Maim'd J. St. Short Discovery Book 1. Part 1. pag. 42. Short Discovery 80. W. Smith ' s Prim. 88. J. N. Love to the Lost 89. E. B. Answ to Choice Experience 89. J. Story Short Discovery 89. W. Smith ' s Prim. 114. J. N. Love to the Lost 120. J. N. Love to the Lost Part 2. pag. 6. I. Penington ' s Quest 19 23. W. Smith ' s Cat. 26. W. Smith ' s Prim. 37. G. Fox Gr. Myst 40. J. N. Love to the Lost 43. W. Smith ' s Cat. 69. Love to the Lost 103. Reader These are but a very few of what we could offer for indeed there is scarcely one Passage that he hath not mangled on purpose to make it speak the better on his behalf which given at length would have cleared it self V. Certain Places more particularly Perverted by Adding or Mis-applying I. Penington ' s Question Book 1. Part 1. pag. 41. E. B' s Answ to Choice Exper. 89. I. Peningt Quest 109. W. Smith ' s Morning Watch 119 W. Smith ' s Morning Watch 126. Love to the Lost Book 1. Part 2. pag. 25. J. N. Love to the Lost 27. W. Smith ' s Prim. 42. I. Peningt Quest 46 47. W. Smith ' s Morning Watch 48 49. I. Peningt Quest 70 71. I. Peningt Quest 81. I. Peningt Quest 126. I. P. Quest 129. These Reader are but some Hints I was willing to give thee of our Adversary's Disingenuous Carriage towards us either in letting drop that which may be most material at least might be more explanatory of our Friends Intentions foisting in words wholely inconsistent with the Scope of our Passages or mis-applying them in favour of his black Charges all which may clearly be seen by a Comparison of his Books with our Friends Writings a great part of which I must confess it will be difficult to procure since to prove his Miscarriage in Citations I have not been able to compass above the one half of the Books he names but that carries this Woful Reflection with it if his use of 15. Books in Thirty affords us so many gross Instances of his Unfair Dealing with us what might we have expected upon our Examination of the rest In the mean time we shall without leave suspect him having so much Reason for it To compleat what I have done in this Particular let me tell thee Reader that in his Comparison of us with the Papists he sets down Twenty several Passages as our Doctrines and Opinions not producing so much as one Person Book or Page to avouch them a piece of Justice he denies not to the Papists themselves at what time he refuseth it to us though not they but we were the People against whom the Discourse was writ which though gross enough yet nothing compared with his Disingenuity at the end of his First Book where under the Pretence of furnishing his Reader with a Key to understand the Quakers Meanings by he sets down no less then about two Hundred and Fifty Particulars in our Name without so much as the bare mention of one Author Book or Page to countenance his Attempt Yet after all this he cannot bear to be told of his unfair Carriage and his Unjust Dealing towards us His Quality or his Pride is so great it will not bear a Reprehension I never met with a Man of so much Falseness and Stomach together He thinks it so great a Punishment to be told of his Miscarriages that if we will not let him pass for a Faithful Sober Meek and Christian Author however he hath proved himself the Contrary we must expect all that his Scorn and Anger can cast upon us But such Vindications of his Essayes will be Hand-writing enough against themselves and their Author who ought not to flatter himself after these great Evils with the Hopes of Impunity for such as he hath sown against us such shall he reap at the Hand of God the Righteous Judge of all who will reward every Man according to his Works But I desire with all my Soul that God may show him Mercy that Repentance may yet over-take him and this Iniquity be blotted out before he departs this World and is no more seen I would beseech him in the Love of God to fight no longer against the Truth and for a Cause his Conscience might it speak would tell him is not the only true God's but the Honour and Interest of the God of this World whom the formal Christian is lead and ordered by that is so sharp against us Let him not be afraid to take Shame for that which is shameful lest vain Credit here brings Sorrow hereafter I cannot be otherwise perswaded but that Reputation prevailed more with him then Conscience in this Controversie he tugs so hard to prop the one and there is so little savour of the other God could never be in that Design nor amidst those Thoughts that were laid with so great Mistake and which have been vented with so much Fury I must needs say There was neither Truth to inform us nor Charity to gain us It stumbled the Weak grieved the Tender offended the Peaceable among those Professions he pretended to vindicate gratifying only such as are of a Litigious and Contentious Nature whose unreasonable Heat it had been his Duty rather to abate by Sweet Perswasion and a meek Example I have this Comfort in my Conclusion of this Controversie that I most heartily forgive him all the Injustice and Vnkindness he hath shown at least so far as I am therein concerned and that I think is more then any Man And with the same Love that God hath loved me I do with all my Soul fervently wish his Solid Vnfeigned Repentance that he may receive the Love and Mercies of God in the Remission of his Sins and Reconciliation of him by the Power and Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord that he may knoâ— the Excellency and Glory of the Truth in the inward pâ—â—ts and what are those good things no Carnal Eye Ear or Heart hath ever seen heard or understood that God hath laid up for them that truly fear him and which he daily reveals unto all such by his Eternal Spirit The Conclusion THus Friendly Reader are we come to the End of our Task wherein I hope the Doctrines of that despised People in Derision called Quakers their Worship and Church-Practice are evidently and firmly vindicated against vulgar Mistakes and Reports and more especially those many black Charges so confidently exhibited by J. Faldo in his first