into our Justification an uncooth Phrase before God and our Salvation To prove which he brings forth three Passages of our Friends All that are called Presbyterians and Independents with their Feeding upon a Report of a thing done many hundred years ago E. Burroughs's Trump p. 17. Which J. Faldo wickedly construes thus This he saith by way of Reproach against all that act Faith on and receive Comfort from the Blessed Effects of Christ's Righteousness and Sufferings by him wrought and suffered when he was in the World Whereas in Honesty and Truth which J. Faldo shews himself wholy unacquainted with he meant no more then their Excessive Admiration of and the Regard to what Christ did without whilst they neglected undervalued and decry'd for Blasphemy and Euthusiasm the Appearance Work and Righteousness of Christ within But he thinks we have mistaken him and that he is better armed for us then we are aware of What Righteousness Christ performed without me was not my Justification neither was I saved by it R. Farnsworth he quotes for Author but no Book which is very unfair However this may be said in Defence of R. F. that what gives daily Access and Acceptance to and with the Lord is that Preparation of Clean and Righteous Adornment the Soul actually receives from Christ who is the Lord her Righteousness And take Justification in this sense and not for Remission in which he meant it if ever he said it and we do all own and acknowledge the same and let our Adversary do his worst Only I desire him to tell us the Book next time which affords that Expression § 2. But I. Pennington he thinks he has made his own Can Outward Blood clense the Conscience Can Outward Water wash the Soul clean Quest p. 25. I beseech you that read me hear his comment A plain Denial of the Efficacy of the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross to clense the Soul from the Guilt of Sin by its Satisfaction to the Justice of God I have had to do with many Enemies to God's Truth But I must profess to the whole World I never yet saw spoak to or read of a more disingenuous Man To pervert our Words alter Sentences draw Generals from Particulars and then call them Ours is Base and Unmanly I would fain have an impartial Man answâ—r me Doth I. P. deny or any way meddle with the Outward Blood concerning the Guilt of Sin past how far it had an Influence into Justification taking Justification in that Sense But does he not treat of the Outward Blood with respect to Purgation and Sanctification of the Soul from the present Acts and Habits of Sin that lodge therein Is he so Sottish as to make no Distinction betwixt being pardon'd Sin past and the Ground of it and being renewed and regenerated in Mind and Spirit and the Ground of that Conversion or else is he so impiously Unjust that because we do deny that Outward Blood can be brought into the Conscience to perform that Inward Work which they themselves dare not nay do not hold Therefore I. Pennington denys any Efficacy to be in that Outward Offering and Blood towards Justification as it respects meer Remission of former Sins and Iniquities This may give the Sober-minded some Relish of his Rancker We do say that Outward Blood can no more clense then Outward Water But we also say that Christ's Blood had an Influence into Justification as he phraseth it which I shall presently show § 3. He undertakes the Defence of what he falsly says we deny but so confusedly as ought to shame a modest Man and a Pretender to Controversy His first Scripture is this And he received the Sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that Righteousness might be imputed to them Rom. 4. 11. His Observation and Inference run thus that Imputation is a Reckoning that to any which they have not from themselves nor actually from another otherwise it could not be Grace therefore it was the Righteousness of another not his own This is so base a Pervertion and Mis-using of the Word that Imputation both in Scripture and Common Discourse is always taken and used in the contrary sense Let him produce me one Scripture that countenanceth his Notion This imputed Righteousness is best understood by the Context Even as David also describeth the Blessedness of the Man unto whom God imputes Righteousness without Works saying Blessed are they whose Iniquitys are forgiven and whose Sins are covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord will not impute Sin Cometh this Blessedness then upon the Circumcision only or Uncircumcision also for we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness How was it then reckoned when he was in Circumcision or Uncircumcision And he received the Sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had yet being Uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not Circumcised that Righteousness might be imputed unto them also vers 6 7 8 9 10 11. In which we may perceive First that the Righteousness was by the Apostle inferr'd from David's Words of the Blessedness of that Man unto whom God imputed not Sin As much as if he had said whom God forgives he imputes not Sin to and to whom he imputes not Sin such he lookes upon as Righteous that is to be as clear of the Guilt of former Sin by Remission as if it had never been committed Secondly that not Works of our own no though assisted by the Holy Spirit to perform them stricktly consider'd can justifie in this sense but Faith only in the Goodness Mercy and Promise of God to Pardon Remit and show Favour unto all such who Distrusting their own Weakness and Repenting of their former Miscarriages humbly yet firmly put their Confidence in him This being Abraham's Case with respect to himself and Posterity God no more lookt upon him as a Stranger at a distance from him but one who by Faith was brought nigh and became thus justified not by Works of Righteousness that he wrought but by Faith in God which was accounted unto him for Righteousness and that really too since he could not believe without an Inward Act of Righteousness but not of his own § 4. In short Justification bears a twofold sense in the Scripture and because we are frequently mistaken about it by such as understand not the Extent and Use of the Word I will explain it Justification is sometimes to be understood of Remission or non-Imputation of Sin upon Repentance and Faith in the Promise of God In which sense we say That all the righteous Works Man is capable of either from himself if such can be or from the Assistance of the Holy Spirit stricktly as such can never move one Jot to
out of that Sense in which they were given forth and to an other End then that for which they were given forth which proves to us that the Sense and not the Words shows the End of their being so given forth The Scriptures are a Sealed Book to all but those who know them by the same Hand which Originally gave them So that however Common they may be in the World they are Strangers to them that understand them not And though Old respecting the Time when they were revealed to the Saints yet New to every Age so that we assert not a Revelation of New Things but renewed Revelation of those Things God made former Ages Witnesses of otherwise Men are no more benefited by them And to be benefited they must be made ours by the Spirit which made them the Holy Ancients § 7. In short No Man can understand Spiritual Things but the Spiritually Discerning None can so be without the Inspiration of the Almighty or Spirit of God This is Scripture Now the Author of those Queries and J. Faldo also Denying Inspiration they consequently deny themselves to be Spiritually Discerning and for Men not Spiritual to Judge of Religious and Spiritual Matters much less to Write of them and bid their Writings go and throw down Self-Will and exalt the Truth is Vain and Idolatrous For the Scriptures themselves consider'd meerly as such are unable much less Writings founded on the Authority of Self Will for it is the alone Priviledge of God's Power and Spirit and no Writing whatever distinct from it can perform that Great and Mighty Work in Man § 8. And for Equaling our Writings with the Scriptures because we assert Inspiration and that what we have received and do declare of the Things of God is from the Revelation of his Spirit in our Hearts it is a Foolish Inference Truth was and is Truth all the World over and there was and is but One Way to come to it in all Ages I mean Inspiration The Scriptures are True and our Writings are True but will it therefore follow that we bring them upon a Vie Is this your Disputant But to determine this Case He should first have prov'd if he could what Power God gave to the Ancients and what to Us. How much of his Spirit to those Ages and what to This or else he loseth himself If he can Experimentally tell what were their Discoveries and Experiences and what are Ours he would be a Proper Judge But to think to run us down by Exalting them or to lessen what we are by Increasing their Praise is an old Artifice of the Devil and Sober Men will be more True to Themselves and Just to the Matter then so to censure us Cannot one Man be another Man's Brother and not the Elder Brother Doth it follow that because God has made what we know our own by his Holy Inspirations and Operations that therefore we put our selves upon the Comparison with the Ancients If true Christians fill up or add to Christ's Sufferings yet behind why should their Writings be shuffled out of all Relation to the Scriptures There may be a Relation where there is not an Equality much less a Preference and that we do assert against all Opposers § 9. But now let us see what he says of our setting the Scriptures beneath our own Writings and I will take his own Way to do it The Characters of the Scriptures given by the Quakers as says J. Faldo Characters of their own Teachers Writings and Sayings given by them Feeding Death with Death The Letter which Killeth Declar. from the Minist of the Word p. 7. The Voice of the Son of God was utter'd forth by him by which the Dead was rais'd F. H. Life of E. B. p. 20. Seeking the Living among the Dead J. Parn. Shield His Words Ministred Grace to the Hearers Fox jun. Life E. B. A Mistake for he dy'd before E. B. Reconciliation Death is a State without the Living Experimental Knowledg of God and his Work in the Heart And that State will talk of the Fame of Wisdom as saith the Scripture and that from the Scripture that is from or in the words of Scripture being Ignorant of the true Sense of the Scripture thinking there to have Life which Literal Knowledg it feeds upon and contents it self with where Nations have lain Apostatized from the Life of God and Power of Godliness The Letter Killeth that is the Literal Knowledge or rather their Imaginations from the Letter not being Divinely Inspir'd so as to understand it by which Men buoy and lift up themselves as Christians in the World and yet are Strangers to the inward sensible Work of God And it does Kill the Soul with respect to that true Life the Spirit and Power of God begets in all right Christians through whom the Voice of the Son of God has does and will utter it self to the Ends of the Earth for the Raising the Dead in Trespasses and Sins as that worthy Servant of God did which is now with his Lord. This disreputes not the Scriptures but those who make a wrong Use of them nor is there any Comparison betwixt Reading what God's Spirit requires immediate Hearing his Voice and being sensible of his present living Touches upon the Soul Writings are but holy Things at second hand a Living Ministry is the very Life Power and Spirit present and more immediate In short the Testimony of F. H. we prefer not before the Testimony Luke gives of holy Stephen We prefer the Scriptures before all Writings but before God's immediate Power we dare not do Paper Ink and Writing the same pag. 7. A Shield of the Truth Title J. P's Book Reconcil What 's this to the purpose We say that the Scriptures or the Writings not the Things written of mark that are Paper Ink and Writing which was spoken abstractively and upon a Comparison of them with the Word of God that was with God and was and is God over all blessed for ever Doth any Man think that we believe greater things of J. Parnel's Book By no means He call'd not his Book consisting of so much Writing Ink and Paper a Shield of Truth but that of which it treated was the Truth and with respect to the Controversial part of it as it was writ in Defence of the Truth it might be tearm'd a Shield in which sense the Scriptures by him urged have the upper-hand of his Writing by whose greater Authority with Men he abets and maintains the Doctrine contended for Shews you I suppose the Light your own Faces which the Scriptures cannot do Scorned Quak. accounts p. 20. A Spiritual Glass opened Smith ' s Cat. c. Morn Watch. Reconcil This can be no way hard to reconcile For when we say the Scriptures cannot show Men at all Times and in all States their Conditions but the Secret In-shining Light of God alone we are not so unworthy as to intend that any Book of
ours can No but with respect to that Principle which it directs to and is able to tell a man All that ever he did The only Spiritual Glass and which the best of Writings fall short of Precepts and Traditions of Men Morn Watch p. 18. Truth 's Principles Title of Crook ' s Book Reconcil It is deny'd that ever any such Words were ever spoken or written of the holy Scriptures as Precepts and Traditions of Men for they contain the holy Precepts and Traditions of the Word of God who is God himself it is base and unworthy thus to mince and mis represent our Writings For Truth 's Principles it signifies no more then the Declaration of what we believe as the very beginning of the Book expresly proves That Light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell me what one Scripture hath Light in it Lip of Truth p. 7. Light risen out of Darkness Title of Farnsworth's Book Reconcil There is not Light in the Scriptures that is there is not Living Spiritual Essential Light in the Scriptures or by way of Excellency but a descriptive and declarative Light they carry with them of the true Light the Author of those excellent Things therein mention'd In which Sense alone do we understand Richard Farnsworth's Title God having caused his Light to spring out of Darkness and he being then the Witness of it testified to the Truth thereof by a Declaration to the World of what he knew in the Matter He did not say That Book was that Light for so it had never been before him that writ it and the Writings of it and what Casualities the Book was or is liable to would fal upon the Light though he bears Record to an Everlasting Spiritual Light that shines Within where his Book cannot be But rather that he knew and witnessed the Visitation of the Day-spring of God's Eternal Light of Life to the World he writ his Book to give Notice thereof calling it by that Name because his Subject treated on doth manifestly import so much not that the Book was that Holy and Eternal Light § 10. 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 wholly without their own Help since they think the Titles we give our Books very Glorious in themselves most unworthy of them but proper to the Scriptures whom they say we slight Let it be consider'd that not one of those Books is destitute of Scripture but is either generally in a Scripture Style 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 what is that greater Credit but to be exactly agreeable with themselves so that our Adversaries Argument amounts to thus much They therefore prefer their own Writings before the Scriptures because they in all their Writings earnestly endeavour by numerous Quotations to prove what they write to be according to the Scriptures Behold Reader how at one Blow we fall The whole Chapter of this Fallible Errable Uncertain Busie Priest with respect to his Charge of our preferring our own Writings before the Scriptures § 11. But there remain two Things to be considered before we close this Chapter First his untrue Inferences Secondly his base Comparison of us with the Papists with Design to render us Odious to all that abominate their Idolatry First That the Scriptures both are and ever were Superfluous for the Light within as they pretend was alwayes fitted to Inspire every Man and Woman in the same Manner and to all Intents and Purposes as they were inspired and written Which how just and true it is we do reserve the Examination of it to God's Witness in the Conscience of the Reader Only this much I will say that though all Ability was and is in Him whom we declare to be the Light of all Mankind to Reveal the whole Mind of God yet in as much as very few in all Ages were so resigned up to the Holy Conduct of it as they ought to have been the Lord hath put it into the Hearts of Many to stir up the Negligent and Sloathful by a Reminding them with that Counsel in outward Writings or other Verbal Testimonies which they had long slighted in themselves that it might Instrumentally work upon them unfeigned Repentance and Conversion to God Therefore went God's Messengers forth Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little But this I affirm and that in the Name of the Lord against the uttermost Strength of this Busie Priest that had those Prodigal◠in all Ages lived up to that Measure of Divine Light the Talent God gave to every Individual there had not been any such need for those Messages Wherefore the Occasion of them was not for want of any sufficient Gift from God but because of their own Rebellion Nay they were the Testimonies of the very Light of Christ in the Prophets and Apostles who were Heirs and Children of Light which they gave forth at divers Times in their several Ages as God pleased to move upon their Spirits with respect to Mankind so that still it was the Light within which so reprov'd and exhorted But suppose that the World had not been so Rebellious neither will it follow but that a slow Improvement of the Heavenly Gift might have occasioned many Divine Exhortations yea the Exercises of Mens Spirits as Davids for Instance in reference to the Spiritual Travel might for the Benefit of others have been written Let us suppose the highest State of Deliverance and Praise Men are capable of arriving at in this World yet Epistles of divine Love Experience heavenly Praises c. might have been transmitted from Church to Church as of the Flock and Family of God Therefore I utterly deny that the Perfection of the Light 's Teachings makes the Scriptures superfluous much less the general best Attainments that have been and now are in the World § 12. But that any Man so conceited of his Abilities as J. Faldo should so basely mistake Reason and abuse his Reader as to infer from the Ability of the Light in It self whether obey'd or not obey'd the Uselesness of the Scriptures or Testimonies of holy Men to the World is Ground for just Censure and severe Rebuke for it were to say that because a Master is of himself able enough therefore all Books are superfluous The Scripture don't argue the Insufficiency of the Light since so the Instrument would rise against its Principal but the Insufficiency of the Creature in which condition Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept may by the Light within good Men be given forth to invite and encourage Man to yield Obedience to the Conviction
is some thing more Immediate Living Spiritual and Inward and that brings Thoughts Words and Deeds to Light savours relishes discovers and accepts or condemns In short thus if whatever makes manifest is Light then because the Thoughts Words and Deeds of Men and Women have been manifested unto them in all Ages as well before Scritures were and where they have not been as since they were and where they have been it follows that they had Light and that the same Light cannot be the Scriptures though the Matter Written called Scriptures was manifested by that Light to the holy Pen-men before they were written which still makes for the Authority of the Light within The Priest exhorts us to that he endeavours to overthrow and with which holy Armour we have fairly foyl'd him in his own Field The same may be said of the Word of God though not of the Scriptures any further then the sharp-Word of God may speak or pierce through them into the Consciences for with good Reason do we affirm that the Scriptures or Writings are not that Sword but that from whence they came The word was a Fire an Hammer a Sword in the Prophets But the Words or Writings it spoke by were not that Fire Hammer nor Sword neither bad they any other Edge then what the Word put upon them To the same purpose may I argue against their being the Off spring of God properly for as such they could not be subject to Casuality God's Off-spring is more Living and Eternal that Word is to high for properly taken I mean as Writings they were the Off-spring of the Writers only but the Truth they declare of is of God and that will abide forever § 12. But upon the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God he has a pretty Fetch Faith in the 16. verse is preferred above the Word in the 17. verse Therefore it is not Christ the Word but the Scriptures the Word for Faith is not above Christ But neither will this do his Business and a Shame it is that this Man should bring these Places to prove that the Scriptures are Means whereby to resist Temptation which concern them not especially this in hand unless he would have Faith to be the Scriptures or Word of God in his Sense which as it is absurd so it will by him be denied since he allows the Faith to be preferr'd above the Word of God therefore distinct from it and not Consequently the same with it And should we grant to him That Christ is not understood by the Word of God but the Scriptures yet observe the fatal Blow his Cause receives at his own Hand Every true Christian hath Faith that Faith is above the Scriptures therefore every true Christian hath some thing in him above the Scriptures Every true Faith overcomes the World and quenches the fiery Darts of Satan consequently Temptations therefore not so properly the Scriptures but true Faith which is preferred above them and resists Temptations and overcomes the World The just they live by Faith but Faith is above the Scripture Therefore the Just live by that which is above the Scriptures and of course the Scriptures are not the Rule of Faith for how can any thing be ruled by that which is inferiour to it Thus much we get granting to him that the Scriptures are that Word of God But we deny that Gloss too For the Spiritual Sword as he says Beza renders it which is that Word of God must be at least of the Nature of that rest of the Armour mentioned in that Chapter I mean of an Invisible Spiritual Nature which the Bible as a meer Writing is not If any should say but the Truth it declares of I say so to and the very Words when by the living Word brought into the Conscience do Pinch Prick and Wound but then that Operation comes from the Power of the Word which through them reacheth into the Heart of the Creature and so the Words without and the Word within carry a double Conviction with them But said Christ to the Devil it is written what then therefore must the Quakers needs deny the Scriptures to be any Means to resist Temptation Or rather are they not such Means when God is pleased to use them which I am sure no right Quaker ever denyed Besides it was Reasonable that Christ should so answer set that Power aside which fill'd up those Words and chained Satan because the Devil used Scripture to prevail upon him as the place proves However we deny not but confess that where-ever God is pleased to speak by any place of Scripture to a tempted Soul the Scripture may be very well acknowledg'd to be a Means by which God scatters such Doubts and Dispondencies and gives Power over Temptations and that it may often so occur Yet we would not have People fly to them as what of themselves may be sufficient but rather have Recourse to that Divine Faith which the Scriptures testifie is able to Quench the fiery Darts and Overcome the Temptations of this World and which J. Faldo has largely confest is to be preferred above the Scriptures themselves § 13. The other part of his Charge to wit That they are dangerous to be read has been answer'd again and again We say Let them that read understand fear believe and Obey and then they will read worthily otherwise men read their own Condemnation and Destruction For the Holy Truths they declare of are not to be seen known or injoyed by every Prophane nor yet professing Person that reads them they are a sealed Book to all who err from and despise that Word of God nigh in the Heart which originally gave them forth and now bears living record to them Blessed are they that rightly Understand and Do them to such they are of great Price CHAP. IX That we do not put the Scripture and Holy Spirit in Opposition The Wickedness of the Priest in his Proof They accord and we acquiesce in their Testimony We do not say that they are not to be obey'd without extraordinary Apostolical Revelation as basely suggested His Proof fictitious and forg'd Such only are by us deny'd as are only Literal Formal Christians The Scriptures own'd and believ'd in by us according as they testifie of themselves § 1. TO close up his false Charges against us about the Scriptures though I thought not to bestow so much time about him be pleased to hear him and his Testimonies which he thinks sufficient to prove what he sayes of us to be true § 2. That the Quakers put the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in Opposition to each other To make this good he quotes W. Smith thus Traditions of Men Earthly Root Darkness and Confusion Nebuchadnezar's Image Putrefaction and Corruption Rotten and Deceitful all out of the Life and Power of God Apostacy the Whore's Cup the Mark of the Beast Babylon the Mother Bastards brought forth of
Apostolical or primitive Christianity And this shall close our Chapter and my honest and clear Answer to the second part of his Discourse which makes up more then three parts of four of his Uncharitable and Disingenuous Treatise AN APPENDIX Being A Reply to that last Part of his Book which pretends to answer the first of my Spirit of Truth Vindicated entituled An Examination of the first part of W. P's Spirit of Truth c. with a Rebuke of his Exorbitances § 1. THough there has been no Adversary which has fallen to my share that has shown more Incivility and less Learning a thing he pretends to in Answer to any of my Books then J. Faldo has done in this last part of his Quakerism no Christianity yet how little soever I have at least to bestow upon him I desire to manifest more Temper Truth and Civility then to recompence him with that Ill-bred Language those School-puns and loose irreverent if not prophane Sayings amidst the most weighty Matters it hath pleased him to give me for a great share of his Answer to the first Part of my Book I will rather betake my self to single out the Strength of his Objections if any there be and bestow my Time in Vindication of the Truth then to rail revile undervalue and stigmatize with I know not how many disgracefull Epithites a Way that never yet reacht into any Man's Conscience And this Ken I have of J. Faldo That all his Discourse of Christianity interlined with so much Babling Prattle and base Abuse would never move a sober Turk and a Banian is a Saint to a Congregation of such kind of Christians § 2. He tells me he expected great Things when first he set about to read my Book and began to stagger in his Mind as to that Ingenious Piece call'd The Spirit of the Quakers tried or to that purpose But knowing himself better I hope he will excuse me if I do not believe him He never had that Opinion of any thing writ in Defence of a People he testifies such irreconcilable Hatred to which is none of the meanest Blots in his Scutchion Pen the Answerer if he were not furnisht with Fore-head and Tales beyond measure his Pamphlet would have had nothing remarkable in it Whether this be most a Lye or an Abuse I know not perhaps the Reader may but sure I am there is more of both then stands with true Christianity to give a comprehensive Under value of what he can never answer which perhaps goes for one among such as have Faith in him or know no better § 3. But he is angry at my Stating the Question thus Whether God's Holy and Unerring Spirit is or should be the proper Judge of Truth Rule of Faith and Guide of Life among Men especially under the Administration of the blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or no. I affirm it and proceed to prove it by Scripture and Reason Upon which be pleased to hear his Reflection and from hence make a Judgment what that Spirit must be that should so pretend to answer my Spirit of Truth c. Considering his Words foregoing which are too many and too worthless to transcribe And what he drives at in the handling of this Question I never read one so lame and deformed in my Life come forth with such State and Confidence and such a train and rout of Mediums as deformed as it self There is in it neither Logick nor Honesty Certainly if he had not turned Quaker and in that Fall put all out of joynt he could not likely after such good Nursing have been thus lamentably cripled in his Intellects and somewhat besides One would think the Strain of this Comment were Answer to it self Why so much flourish and little done Must Noise supply the Absence of Reason and base Reviling go for Confutation Shallow Man what Lameness is there in the Question I profess I see none nor has he so much as pointed at one Limb that is defective in all this Rabble of Reflection I have neither Logick nor Honesty It had been to be wish'd that he had shown more of both in saying so or held his Tongue But my turning Quaker has put something out of joynt But what I know not unless the good Opinion I once undeserved had of such Mountebank Priests But give him his due he is the first Man that ever acquainted me with the Ground of Cripling I was never yet wise enough to think it a Natural Effect of Ill-nursing only through Carelesness in Nurses Falls and the like have brought it I perceive he is not only a Wel wisher to Physick by his hard Word Ebullitions but a small Pretender to Chyrurgery by his Terme out of joynt when he has given better Proof of his well-setting to rights his own dis-joynted or if he will dislocated Cause with that of Chistianity he may better set up for a Religious Bone-setter and in the mean time he can pass but for a Pretender But I have no Logick And why Because I say pag. 37. there is no more Difference to me between a Judge Rule and Gaide then essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God he should have added sayes J. Faldo nor between Truth Faith and Life amongst Men. I would know of any Man that can think himself capable of judging in the plainest Case if this be an Answer to my Argument I said then I do again that there is no more Difference in them respecting the Principle then essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God which are but so many Words to express the Perfection of one and the same Being for he is all and that in all Wise in being Just and both in being Holy They are inseparable for That which gives me a right Sense or Judgment of Truth from Error is as well to me a Rule what I should believe or dis-believe and a Guide what I should practise or not practise as at first it was my Judge of what was Truth from what was Errour All which sober and indeed unanswerable Arguing he thought fit to over-look which is very Disingenuous I say that the same Spirit which is a Judge is a Rule and Guide even in that very Act when it is a Judge and that unavoidably Therefore to distinguish them is frivolous and to maintain one to be a Rule and another a Judge is absurd and heterodox For his Addition it is not hard to answer That there is more Difference between Truth Faith and Life for one may be without the other two I mean Truth abstractly But if it shall be understood of Truth received into the Heart I say that there is so great an Affinity between Truth true Faith and an Heavenly Life that they follow each other almost at an instant and cannot be separated from each other § 4. But he is Angry that I should use these Words of Lord
serve thee with all Sincerity for the Truth 's sake as it is in Jesus William Penn. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Introduction Our Adversary's Definition of Christianity Defective True Christianity stated Quakerism mistaken by him It is prov'd True Christianity and a Quaker a Right Christian Page 1. CHAP. II. How Christianity was introduc'd it hurts not the Quakers The Question is not of Christ's Visible Coming that is Owned by them Nor is their Religion a New One from that of Christianity but the Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity since the Reign of Anti-Christ in the World That Quakerism as call'd made its Way by Purity Sorrow and Rejoycing as well as Christianity The Priest's Vilifying Expressions Rebuk'd That the Distinct Times of their Appearance is no Argument against their Harmony or being but Two Words for the same Thing since the same Truth may appear at Two distinct Ages of the World It would strike out J. Faldo as well as the Quakers if the Contrary were admitted That he grosly Contradicts himself as to Time Christianity has more or less been in the World where Godly Men and Women have been as well before as since that Appearance We intend no New Dispensation but the Renewed Revelation of the same Power which is the True Gospel p. 11. CHAP. III. J. Faldo's Charge That the Scriptures are not the Word of God Reasons for it The Scriptures by him urg'd against us clear'd and prov'd to be for us They are the Words of the Word a Declaration of the great Law Word or Commandment but not that Law Word or Commandment p. 24. CHAP. IV. His Charge What he quotes proves it not Revelation Infallibility and Inspiration consider'd The Priest prov'd Uncertain of his own Faith Our Friends debase not the Scripture but Lift them up His Objection about our Books Titles answer'd The Use of Scripture asserted The Light vindicated from Insufficiency Something of the True Rule p. 32. CHAP. V. The Charge Stated not Proved The Scriptures not the most Excellent nor only General Rule God may speak by Instruments The Instruments not the Rule but that which useth them That the Scriptures being Obligatory does not conclude it the General Rule under the Gospel The Dis-ingenuity of our Adversary in citing the Apostle's Words Reprehended The Scriptures no Judge in that sense wherein they are not the General Rule The Scriptures Confest to p. 52. CHAP. VI. We deny the Charge His Proof no Proof but against himself We Own Believe and desire to Obey the Scriptures they afford Comfort and are as Lights in the World but not that True Light The Light and Spirit Superior to them p. 63. CHAP. VII Commands upon Conviction to be obeyed All General Commands Obligatory Particular not but upon particular Commission Our Adversary's Dis-ingenuity The Scriptures a Means by which God may be known but not the Principle p. 70. CHAP. VIII His Charge of our Denying the Scriptures any Means by which God doth enable Men to resist Temptations And that we say they are Dangerous to be read rejected His Proofs lame The Scriptures are believed to be a Means c. The true Knowledge of them Divine No Knowledge of Divine Things but upon Experience It does not destroy Faith W. Penn's Words safe and sound The Priest a meer Shuffler Learning a Servant to Truth Christ the Word of God Faith by our Adversary preferred before Scripture The Scriptures ought to be Read Believed and Obey'd p. 76. CHAP. IX That we do not put the Scripture and Holy Spirit in Opposition The Wickedness of the Priest in his Proof They accord and we acquiesce in their Testimony We do not say that they are not to be obeyed without extraordinary Apostolical Revelation as basely suggested His Proof fictitious and forged Such only are by us deny'd as are only Literal Formal Christians The Scriptures own'd and believ'd in by us according as they testifie of themselves p. 91. CHAP. X. He chargeth us with a Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel First in general then in particular His Proof of the first Invalid His great Dis-ingenuity in wresting our Words especially I. Pennington's p. 102. CHAP. XI The first of the particular Ordinances he says we deny is the Ministry His Proof lame W. P. and his Friends defended J. F. and his Gang Reproveable We own a Gospel one but not his The Calling abused by such Pretenders p. 105. CHAP. XII The Second particular Ordinance is a Gospel-Church His Definition for us by its gross Contrariety to the Scripture His base Inference of our Denial of Religious Societies and Outward Gifts from our Friends asserting of but one Catholick Church and that it is in God A Gospel-Church owned Our Adversary proved Heterodox about Apostolical Preaching Inward Sence preferr'd before Intelligence p. 112. CHAP. XIII We deny Preaching says he His Dis-ingenuity in stating our Principles We hold and practise true Gospel-Preaching No Difference between what the Light teacheth and the Scripture Our Gospel is Peace Our Adversary's is War c. True Preaching Converts our Adversary's not p. 117. CHAP. XIV His Charge of our Denial of Gospel-Prayer inverted The Prayer he pleads for Anti-Gospel True Prayer stated asserted and defended with plainness from Scripture and Reason That as well in Families as Meetings and at Meals as both False Worship detestable to God All False wherein God's Spirit is not the first and Chief Mover and Assister The Subtility of Satan in putting upon unacceptable Prayer to prevent true Prayer p. 121. CHAP. XV. His Charge of our Denial of Baptism and the Sacraments introduc'd with a Discourse of positive Commands Destructive of the Foundation of Religion The Priest against God Scripture and Reason He confounds himself Baptism of Water prov'd John's and not to continue Mat. 28. 19. 1 Cor. 1. 17. Ephes 4. 5. cleared and vindicated The One Spiritual Baptism defended p. 129. CHAP. XVI The Supper he says we deny not denyed but fulfill'd The Scriptures consulted No Perpetuity proved That it was a Sign and that Signs were done away in Christ demonstrated The present Practice in the Case not Primitive Our Faith left with God in the Matter p. 141. CHAP. XVII His Charge of our Denying Christ's Transactions to influence into our Justification consider'd His Proofs not for him His Abuse of our Friends words Justification distinguished upon as Remission and as daily Acceptance The Transactions of Christ largely own'd by us The Scriptures confirm our Faith in Christ as a general and particular Saviour No Works of Man Meritorious p. 147. CHAP. XVIII He says we disown the True Christ It is prov'd that He denies in Contradiction to himself what we deny and that we are Scriptural and sound in our Belief And though we cannot exclude that Divinity from the true Christ Yet we also own that the true Christ took Flesh that he appeared for the Salvation of Mankind and that his Bodily Appearance was instrumental in the Point Christ
own'd according to Scriptures p. 157. CHAP. XIX Our Adversary's proposed three Scripture-Places are by us rightly applyed and his Charge is found untrue Christ is prov'd the true Light Comforter Creator and Redeemer Our Adversay's Objections examin'd and refuted His Triumph turneth to his Shame The true signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmed p. 166. CHAP. XX. Our Adversary's Charges deny'd His Proofs fail him The Quakers are no Idolaters and Quakerism no Idolatry We own and profess the only true God that made Heaven and Earth p. 191. CHAP. XXI Our Adversary at a loss to prove his Charge We own so much of the Resurrection as the Scriptures express more Curiosity Dangerous and Condemnable Eternal Rewards own'd by us J. Faldo's Book will prove it to him and our Tribulations to Us. p. 199. An Appendix being a Reply to that Last Part of his Book which pretends to Answer the First of my Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. p. 206. A Key opening a Way to every Common Understanding whereby to discern the Difference betwixt the Quakers Faith Doctrine and Practice and the Perversions and Traducings of their several Adversaries p. 236. J. Faldo's Key proved Defective p. 246. ERRATA READER THough this Civility of Excusing the Author from the Miscarriage of the Press be that which is both due in it self and alwayes acknowledged by Sober and Impartial Men yet having to do with a Generation of People resolved to our Ruin any way whose onely Clemency to the Printer is Cruelty to the Author and are therefore not weary of Excusing the one that they may the more Colourably Accuse the other I have endeavoured at a Correction of such Escapes as seemed to me in over-looking the whole Discourse most hurtful to the Sense For many Literal Mistakes want of due Points Points misplaced Transpositions or the like Impunctuality and Impropriety I bespeak my Excuse from thee If thou art Ingenuous thou wilt not deny it and if thou art not I shall the less concern my self in the Advantage taken Pag. Line Errors Corrected 6 32 Outward Christianity Outward Manifestation 11 28 Comparence Comparison 12 11 and but 23 19 had so had he so 39 17 Reconciliation reconciled 40 8 which who 47 17 want went  20 this his 50 19 for to 51 23 whatsoever whomsoever 68 27 lightned lighted 76 17 to be any c. 85 5 Words Word 88 21 to too 89 25 that Rest the Rest 93 3 our his 94 31 Temporal Temporary  34 Word God 95 16 high highly  25 129 124 96 6 Scriptures Scripture 107 16 God respoke God shall have respoken  17 made makes 109 5 Rich as Rich  6 which what  28 Hawking Hackny 116 9 Certainty Certainly 123 21 are is 125 29 all Conceivings all Self-conceivings 126 4 joyned enjoyed 127 24 pure Ware blot out 128 17 risen departed risen and departed 132 2 punctually punctual 139 5 I blot out 140 4 John ' s John 142 2 my the  13 with respect in Comparison 144 21 or and 146 8 to me self with my self  â—â— back â—â— back at us 152 15 could would 157 19 such too as such as  29 there with where with 158 10 as at 159 12 had has  23 else it was not or else it had not been 161 34 p. 72 77 p. 72 77 84 85 93. 164 1 answer'd consider'd  27 Matter Nature 165 17 Creco crew 168 8 of of our Principles 203 10 to too 209 14 I do and I do  30 when wherein 213 28 the gift of Spirit a Gift of the Spirit  31 not blot out 214 28 not Agents not prime Agents 217 3 the Truth of blot out 227 1 Creator Creation 229 34 reputed reputed him 230 4 due duly 239 7 is rightly is it rightly QUAKERISM A NEW Nick-Name for OLD Christianity BEING A Short and Round Answer to a Book Entituled Quakerism No Christianity c. CHAP. I. The Introduction Our Adversary's Definition of Christianity Defective True Christianity Stated Quakerism Mistaken by him It is proved True Christianity and a Quaker a Right Christian § 1. AMong many other Persons that have of late Industriously essayed the Mis-Representing the Quakers and their Religion overcasting the Sincerity of the One and darkning the Excellent Beauty of the Other by their Mists of Ignorance and Prejudice John Faldo though the Last has not been the Least concern'd § 2. I am truly Sorry to see that among the several Arguments some Men's Prudence render'd for Toleration that of giving Dissenters Liberty and they would War within themselves should be so amply verified by their Unchristian Irruption upon us disturbing those by Slanderous Pamphlets who would not be concern'd in their Heats But this Folly and Uncharitableness I am to tell the World lies not at the Quakers Door who seek Peace with all Men but some Restless Spirits among other Perswasions whose whole Food seems to turn into Contest and shew they can no more live without it then the Air they breath in What shall we do then Suffer their Slanders Detractions Additions and Down-right Abuses of us to pass Unanswer'd No for then we shall be concluded either Guilty or Vanquisht What then Why we will defend our selves with Truth and Moderation and that I hope with God's Assistance to do in this short Treatise to the Confusion of our Enemies and Renowning the Truth and Clearing our Innocence to the World § 3. The Author is pleas'd to call his Book Quakerism no Christianity A Title of more Reproach and Infamy then became a Christian-Man to give But let 's hear what he means by Christianity § 4. By Christianity we are not to understand all those Matters of Faith and Practice which Christianity doth obliege us unto A strange Definition of true Christianity For if to Believe and Do all Christianity requireth be not Christianity then there is something beyond all that Christianity requires to be believ'd and done that is Christianity else I understand nothing But saith he It takes in whatever is worthy in those Religions it hath superceded yea the very Heathens What then Is it not therefore Christianity Egregious Weakness What an Hair has he split but it flyes in his Eyes Is it not therefore Christianity because Christianity takes it in If Christianity takes in whatever is worthy in other Religions then since Christianity is Worthiness It self Comprehensive of whatever was in any degree Excellent among Jews or Heathens will it not follow That to Believe and Practise all that Christianity requires is Christianity unless we are to understand That Christianity does not require what was Worthy and Commendable among Jews or Heathens which he says we are § 5. This then does not make Christianity a Distinct Thing in kind from what was Worthy as he calls it that is Godly among either Jews or Heathen but that Christ did by his Visible Appearance benefit the World
Spirit O the Hell-dark Expressions of the Quakers Spirit frightful and amazing Words bitter Curses Howlings and Roarings and what else J. Faldo's Devil pleaseth by which to render the Quakers Odious Well! But to Answer him It was a time of Joy and a time of Sorrow the Spirits of the Just rejoyced that he was born forth into the World and that Sun of Righteousness risen whose Discovering Light and Refreshing Beams would renew the World that had been in great measure bewilder'd since its first Innocent State but therefore was it not a time of Wo Sorrow Terror and Grievous Distress to all the Workers of Iniquity did not Christ come to bring War as well as Peace a Sword a Fire upon Earth Did not his Fore-runner come in an Astonishing Manner in Differing Attire of another Diet and from a Desolate Place to Preach Repentance and to Warn them with an O Generation of Vipers to flee the Wrath to come Did he not say that an Ax a Sharp and Terrible Instrument should be laid to every unfruitful Tree And did not the Apostles Preach to the Pricking of the Hearts of Thousands and Paul by name that Felix himself Trembled and all as knowing the Terrors of the Lord themselves they warn'd others wherefore Judgment is said to have begun at the House of God Finally did not the Devils Howl Roar and Tremble foreseeing they should be dislodg'd by one stronger then themselves Christ the Son of the Living God and was there no Terror Dread and Amazement in all this I perceive it may be a Vertue in the Primitive Christians but a Vice in the Quakers at least in J Faldo's Account § 7. But this know O Impartial People the Quakers were overtaken by the mighty Hand of God and great were their Travels and Pangs of Sorrow under the Righteous Terrors of the Lord whose hour of Just Judgments was come and being thereby made Witnesses of his handy Work and redeem'd through Judgment they became Ministers of Judgment unto others and the Terror of it struck Thousands the Devils Trembled and all Flesh at least in some was as Grass and the Beauty of their Carnal Outside Religion but as the Flower of the Field which in the Name of the Lord we testify fell and wither'd before the Brightness of his Appearance to us who put on Strength like a Giant that was to run his Race and girded himself with Power and who was able to stand before him the Hills melted at his Presence and the Mountains fled before him into the Sea And art thou given up J. Faldo to call Light Darkness and Darkness Light the Terrors of God the Possessions of Satan and the Remorse of Conscience Hell Broke Loose O Unhappy Man The Lord will reckon with thee for this Blasphemous Impiety and this I say to thee and all thy Associates that Eternal Misery will be the End of you for all your sweet Notions of Religion unless you obtain it through the Fire the firy Judgments of the Lord reveal'd in your Consciences For that end is Christ now as formerly manifested that Judgment might be laid to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet in all and because we earnestly contend for the Inward Work of Christ as the most beneficial to Mankind therefore is it that you Priests have us in Hatred Scorn and Derision all the Day long and indeed we are grievously wronged by your Wickedness and Cruelty but the Lord is our Strength of whom therefore should we be afraid and why do you Rage and Imagine a Vain Thing concerning us § 7. Now for the time when Christianity and Quakerism came as he is pleas'd to distinguish them Some says he date Christianity from the Birth of Christ others WITH MUCH MORE REASON FROM THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST witness that place All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth The Consequence of this Assertion is thus much That Christ taught not Christianity That his Disciples who believed in him were but better kind of Carnal Jews That Christ's Life Doctrine and Miracles were not perform'd under a State of Christianity That he had not all Power before his Resurrection contrary to the Scripture In short That Christ and Christianity did not go together and if you will that Christ was not Christ but a good extraordinary Jew before his Resurrection for I am sure his Notion of the Beginning of Christianity warrants the Consequence O the Orthodoxality of this Wiffling Priest Busy-Body and Conceited enough Well but this is not all we have a Contradiction to add to his Burden Christianity made its Way by many Signs and Wonders wrought before Multitudes and that not only by Christ himself but also by his Disciples and Servants BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER HIS DEATH If this be not Giving and Taking Granting and Denying there is no such Thing in the World For here is Christianity before Christ's Death and yet WITH MUCH MORE REASON here is a Denial of that Assertion and AFFIRMING THAT IT TOOK ITS RISE AFTER HIS RESURRECTION Truly we need not much fear the Consequence of such Encounters when our Adversary puts Weapons into our Hands to his own Shame and Overthrow § 8. But that he may be further kind to us he proceeds The Disciples were called Christians at Antioch Act. 11. 26. but the Thing Christianity might well be before the Name Christian Enough for us Sober Reader to defend our first Chapter but a Woful Contradiction to himself where we say that what was call'd Christ was before the Name and something of the Excellent Nature of Truth Purity Holiness which leads to Salvation c. which the Word Christianity with us imports at large unless they should be excluded as any parts thereof which supposeth a Christianity Destitute of Truth Purity Holiness c. like that of this Age though in no appearance so clear as in that in which Christ visibly manifested himself § 9. But upon Peter's Words If any Man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed 1. Pet. 4. he observes Here Christianity is Distinguisht both from Judaism and Heathenism Both the Gentiles and the Jews were bitter Enemies to the Christian Name and that not for the Name but the Thing 's sake This must either regard the Apostate Jew and Gentile and so we close or the Jew and Gentile upon their Inward Knowledge of God and Obedience to him and here we recede and must deny his Assertion nay it would be a Contradiction to that Justice Purity and Worth he allows them to have had since it were to say that such Qualifications could be Ignorant of Christianity the Perfection of them for the Good among them became Disciples at least Lovers of the Christian Religion then not Haters of either Name or Thing For where among Jews or Gentiles their Hearts were Upright to God according to that Discovery he made of himself to them and that they kept to the divine Sence and Relish which they
had of the Love Purity Justice Mercy Goodness and Recompence of God for such as in any Age could come to God did first know that God was and that he was a Rewarder of all those that did draw nigh unto him to obtain which knowledg God had manifested it in man for he had shown it there unto him I say those who so retained the Sence of God in their knowledg were not aggriev'd Christianity should take Place for they measuring things as they inwardly felt them were proper Judges of Gods Rising and Breaking forth among the Sons of Men they could feel him leading out of and beyond the Use of those Elements which were once added because of Weakness and now became beggarly by a brighter Glory An inward sense being that they kept to as the more sure Word as they felt a with-drawing of the divine Life Power Spirit out of those inferiour Institutions they followed it not staying in any outward dispensation because God had been there if he had once left it But such as were Litteral Formal Exact Critical they were the Persons who having least of the Divine Sight and Sense of God's goings among the Sons of Men they contended for God's Exteriour Appointments as that they were signally given Good Men had Practised them and are we Wiser then our Fathers No we will have our Reasons indeed Darkness satisfied in the Matter Behold the Pharisee and Greek of Old to whom Christ's outward Appearance was to the one a Stumbling Block and to the other Foolishness and the many-headed Professor now who esteems no better of his Spiritual Manifestation in the Hearts of the Children of Men. O! what will the End be of the Gawdy Obstinate Hypocrites of this Age who resist so great Salvation Tribulation and Anguish forever unless they repent for what Men Sow that they shall Reap and who have improved their Talent shall enter into the Joy of their Lord. § 10. Well But when came this Quakerism into the world he tells us about the year 1651. quoting E. B's Epistle before G. F's Gr. Mist also a small Treatise writ by J. Whitehead and J. Pennington from whence he infers that Quakerism is a Late Dispensation therefore not that of Christianity But certainly this Man hath taken a very Quick Course to Un-Christian himself and all the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists in the World as well as the Quakers For I would ask him if there was not a Time since the Primitive Age wherein Darkness had overspread the Earth the Beast did Reign and the Pure Religion was wholly Wildernest If So Consequently the Resurrection of Truth is no more a New Dispensation or not that of Christianity then a Man that is exiled his Country is not essentially the same Man when he returns that he was before And so far is my Argument for those Separatists that though I take them to be short of the True Evangelical Faith and Righteousness yet I acknowledg them to have a Reformation unknown in that thick Apostacy which has couer'd the World and Ecclipst the blessed Light of the Glorious Gospel that shin'd in the first Ages after Christ But since we are of another Religion by his Account then the Christian because we cannot say that we were alwayes successively from the Apostles Time I will argue that the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists are not Christians nor is what they profess to be esteem'd Christianity because they cannot prove a Regular Succession from the Apostles Times their Date also being of later years What will they say then The Church was fled into the Wilderness Truth exil'd God as a stranger in the Earth yet Truth still the same in it self Very well so say we God was pleas'd to Renew the Right Christian Dispensation to us and by us according to John's Vision that the Everlasting Gospel was preacht again intimating that their had been a Time wherein it was not preacht If this be not a New Gospel because anew or again preacht neither is that which J. Faldo calls Quakerism a New Dispensation because it is Preaching anew the Everlasting Gospel to the Sons of Men which is God's Power inwardly manifested for the Conviction Conversion Redemption and Salvation of the Souls of such as believe in it § 11. And though he particularly seems to Triumph over Isaac Pennington's Distinguishing between the Dispensation of Moses Christ and his Apostles and THIS of our Day as if they had been three several Dispensations and consequently if Christ's was not that of Moses because it swallow'd it up neither this the Dispensation of Christ which J. Pennington saith it swallows up yet to me it seems a pittiful Catch and shows he knows not how to take things with that Candor they are writ J. P. means not a Distinct Administration in Kind but Dispensation of one and the same Light Life and Power by Nature at several Times and sundry Manners to the World Christ was before the Law under the Law with the Prophets but never so revealed as in that Holy Manhood will it therefore follow he was not Antecedent to that Appearance or He that appeared then more gloriously had never shown himself before Or because of a Difference in Manifestation therefore not the same HE through all those several Manifestations in himself Certainly this Man is very Unjust to J. P. especially when the Words above quoted that speak of a Dispensation he experienced a little before God broke forth by us called Quakers could have informed him that he meant the Divers Breakin gs forth of God's Light and Truth in order to the full Discovery and Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity So that this present Appearance swallowing up all going before it had so term'd it as he doth not and therefore wrong'd is no more then God's Retriving to us the Ancient Gospel with additional Blessings and Assistances giving us the same Life and Foundation they had and what else he pleased by way of Improvement which alters not the Nature no more then a Child in Christ is not that Numerical Creature but another Distinct Being when a Man And if this Account of Things will not satisfie him he may chuse I have thus far cleared the Truth and those who sincerely profess it and therein my own Conscience both to God and the World CHAP. III. J. Faldo's Charge That the Scriptures are not the Word of God Reasons for it The Scriptures by him urg'd against us clear'd and prov'd to be for us They are the Words of the Word a Declaration of the great Law Word or Commandment but not that Law Word or Commandment § 1. THis Chapter will concern the Scriptures more directly in which we hope to prove that not We but our Adversary is mistaken with respect to what he chargeth upon us § 2. He intitles his Chapter thus That the Quakers Deny the Scriptures I was almost astonisht at it because he pretended to prove all out of our own Books
and none such had ever yet come to my hand But upon my sober Perusal of the Matter I found this to be the Upshot That the Quakers Deny them to be the Word of God therefore they deny them altogether Whence I take good Heart to show his Ignorance or great Dishonesty § 3. I will allow to him without going any farther that the People called Quakers do deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God and therefore shall take for granted what he quotes out of J. N. F. Howgil J. Parnel and W. Smith But that we do consequently Deny the Scriptures we shall oppose we hope to the Death § 4. I do declare to the whole World that We believe the Scriptures to contain a Declaration of the Mind and Will of God in and to those Ages in which they were written being given forth by the Holy Ghost moving in the Hearts of holy Men of God That they ought also to be Believed Read and Fulfill'd in our Day being Useful for Reproof and Instruction that the Man of God may be perfect And that they have been and are Instrumental to great Good upon the Spirits of People by the secret Power of God which often strikes and presseth home to the very Conscience the weighty Truths declar'd therein yet We do Deny them to be the Word of God ascribing that alone to Christ himself and that not without Scripture and Reason § 5. First It is granted on all hands that Christ is expresly called in Scripture the Word of God but no where that the Scriptures are so styled Secondly That though I should allow it to be a Figurative Expression and therefore says our Adversary Improper yet because a Word among Men conveyes the Mind of one unto another and that Christ is the great Word of God that in all Ages hath convey'd or spoken the Mind of God unto Mankind and so the Author of all good Words he only may by way of Right and Excellency be so styl'd of Us. Thirdly I shall easily grant to him that one Word may stand representative of many and that the Ten Words were not Ten Numerical Words because each Word contained many yet this I will say that Word in Scripture is taken for Commandment and they have an equivalent Signification as in Deuteronomy may be seen And since that was the Import of the Ten Words to wit Ten Commandments each Word has its own Commandment Therefore it is no more against us to allow those Ten Words to be more then Ten Words then Ten Commandments to have more then Ten Words And whatever our Adversaries may say or think of us We therefore Decline to call the Scriptures the Word of God because we believe It to be a Title only due to that Living Quickning Word by which God vouchsafes to disclose his Mind and Will unto Man-kind Christ the Way to the Father § 6. But sayes our Adversary to this Argument The Word was God therefore the Scriptures cannot be the Word because they are not God Let me tell you that the Scripture may be the Word and Christ the Word also and yet though Christ be the Word of God the Scriptures the Word may be quite another thing Certain I am this is quite another thing then good Doctrine How can the Scriptures be the Word of God and Christ the Word of God too Are there two Distinct Words of God the one quite another thing from the other O shameful Arguing If he had said Christ is the Word of God and the Scriptures a Word of God he would have a little better hit the Mark But to assert Two General Comprehensive Words of God sounds Harsh and Inconsistent I would fain know in Case we should admit this absurd Assertion how he would distinguish between these Two General Comprehensive Words For my part I think it as good Sense to call a King's Letters King or an Ambassador's Credential's Ambassador O no says our Adversary you Mistake Christ is called a Light a Rock a Lyon will it thence follow that there are no other Lights Rocks or Lyons I Answer There is no other Light Rock or Lyon then Christ with respect to That for which He is so call'd Neither is there any other Word then Christ with respect to that for which he is so styl'd to wit God's Living Powerful Word And this decides the Controversie and plainly adjudges us the Matter against the utmost Force of our Adversary to the Contrary For if he is therefore a Light because he only can and doth Discover the Unfruitful Works of Darkness a Rock because whoever build on Him is Safe and a Lyon because the King of all whose Utterings are able to Terrifie all Destruction from his Walks but what he brings upon his Adversaries and therefore there is not another Light to inlighten Man's Soul or Rock for Christ's Church to be built on neither any other Lyon to secure them from the Devourer consequently because he is the Living Spiritual Powerful Word of God there is not another that 's The Word of God § 7. But he further says That the Word of God is so exprest in Scripture as it must needs be understood not of Christ but the Scriptures He that regardeth not the Word of the Lord. He that feared the Word of the Lord Stand thou still a while that I may shew thee the Word of God the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God And the Cares of the World choak the Word and it becometh Unfruitful Mark 4. 19. which saith he cannot be understood of Christ or God and that a little Skill in the Original would free us from these Mistakes and to that Purpose To which I answer that the Word of the Lord mention'd in Exodus and Samuel are properly to be understood of the Living Spiritual Word of God which spoke to the People through those Servants of the Lord For who Received or Rejected the Mind of that Word exprest in many Words received the Word and it had a place in their Hearts or else rejected it and it had no place in them This makes nothing against us in the least For that Passage in the Ephesians Beza whom he quotes I suppose as embracing his Judgment has determin'd the Matter for he has it the Spiritual Sword Then let us read the Words thus The Spiritual Sword is the Word of God or The Word of God is the Spiritual Sword For Christ is as truly a Sword an Ax a Fire which the Word of God is call'd as a Lyon a Rock a Door And for the last Passage out of Mark which seems to carry most of Weight in it for our Adversary it may rightly be understood of that Truth which Christ the Word livingly sows in the Hearts of Men Women the Word of Advice Reproof Instruction and the like But of the Scriptures it cannot be understood as neither can any of the other places For first those
two Passages in Exodus and Samuel concern only particular Cases at a time when not a third part of the Scriptures were written as our Adversary will confess And for that in the Ephesians 't is manifest that the Scriptures are not the Spiritual Sword or Sword of the Spirit which are subject to so many Casualities as they are therefore not the Word of God whose Edge never blunts For as is the Spirit such is the Sword and such the Word to wit Living Spiritual Powerful which the Scriptures of themselves I think all will or should acknowledg are not I will not stick to confess also that a Word of Advice a Word of Counsel a Word of Reproof and a Word of Comfort lodge in the Scripture or the Scriptures with respect to the Times wherein they were given forth and now daily as brought home to the Conscience by the One Word of God who gave them first forth are Words of Truth Knowledg Wisdom Love Reproof Exhortation Edification c. yet never can we be brought to attribute unto the Declaration that Title which is peculiarly due to Him whose Declaration it is A Prince may express his Mind in Words but those Words are not that Prince neither can any one of his Titles as a Living Prince be properly given to his said Declaration Nor have we any other Way to Distinguish between the Word and Words Commandment and Commandments the Thing It self and those Expressions by which it doth declare it self then the Word of God and the Words of the Word which are Words of God or Holy Writings Holy with respect to the Matter or Truth they treat of § 8. But here J. Faldo steps in and seems to offer an Expedient in this Streight Says he Though you say they are not the Word of God eminently and I believe so too for the Scriptures cannot be the Word of God in that Sense wherein Christ is yet you may call them the Written Word of God for so we Distinguish them Truly this seems pretty modest though here we must part too unless he will come a little nearer For neither can the Word of God properly be said to be written The Words by which the Mind or Will of the Word is exprest may be recorded and as such a True Declaration but it is as Impossible for the Word of God to be written as it would be for a Prince or Senate to be written or contained in Letters though their Will and Pleasure may be largely declared by a Writing because it would be to say that the Word of God could grow Old Decay be Lost mis-Rendred Corrupted Transcribed Reprinted Corrected and be Subjected to Fire Water Vermin c. which were impossible So would it be an absolute Derogation from the Dignity peculiarly Due to the Living Word of God to give that which is its proper Title to any thing beneath its Living Powerful Quickning Self He has a Scripture or two for us I have written to him the great Things of my Law A sharp Rebuke says he to the Objecters against the Written Word of God but I don't see it for my share The great Things of the Law Word or Commandment which are required may be written but that doth not follow that the Eternal Law Word or Commandment Requiring is a written Law Word or Commandment but the Contrary And for Moses Writings of which Christ spoke 't is manifest they were not call'd the Word of God but the Word of God himself call'd them Writings § 9. But J. Faldo objects on t'other hand that he much feareth the Scriptures will lose of their Authority with People in case they should not be so acknowledg'd and at last he falls so down right upon us that he boldly but weakly concludes who Deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God deny them in every respect For who Denyes them that Title denyes what they have been generally Known by Distinguisht from and Lifted up above all other Writings and that Appellation on which is grounded their Authority and which puts an Awe upon the Consciences of Men. How Weak and Vain this is I could freely leave to the Reader without any further Consideration But that it might not be thought by any therefore Unanswerable I will say That to call them the Words of God and declared Mind and Will of God to Mankind is no such Diminutive Title but altogether Worthy of them § 10. If we do Deny to them what has been wrongly Attributed that no ways Lessens their Authority but Corrects the Mistake of those who thought of them beyond what they really are It is a poor Begging of the Question to say We Deny them that which many have Ascrib'd to them Their Authority is grounded upon the Living Word of God and who comes to that Honours the Scripture aright and who Err from the Holy Conduct of it their Verbal Praises of the Scripture are but like the Pharisees Painting the Prophets Sepulchres whilst they were Persecutors of One greater then the Prophets And who knows not how much the Shell hath had ascrib'd unto it the Honour only due to its Substance by those Watchmen of the Night whose Dark Minds could see no farther § 11. And for the Awe they have upon Men this is my Judgment and I am not asham'd of it that Attributing so much to the Letter of the Scriptures and Declining that Regard Men ought to have had unto the Holy Living Word of God that alone creates all things New and was the Author of and Rule to those sound Words themselves hath Rob'd the Living Word of God of its True and Rightfull Honour and rendred Mens Hearts more Formal and less Aweful then they would otherwise have been So that the only Way for People to come to a True Sight of Sincere Respect for and Grounded Belief in the Holy Scriptures is to be turned to the Voice of the Living Powerful Word of God from whom they came which is nigh unto every one to Direct and Order and Discipline to and in that Way of Holiness they testifie of and which Leads to Eternal Happiness CHAP. IV. His Charge What he quotes proves it not Revelation Infallibility and Inspiration consider'd The Priest prov'd Uncertain of his own Faith Our Friends debase not the Scripture but Lift them up His Objection about our Books-Titles answer'd The Use of Scripture asserted The Light vindicated from Insufficiency Something of the True Rule § 1. HIs Fourth and next Chapter to be examin'd endeavours to prove That we Equal our Writings and Sayings to the Scriptures and preferr them before the Scriptures In this Undertaking he must either prove what he asserts from our own Writings expresly or consequentially To run through every Quotation he makes would be as Tedious as Importinent But a few of what make most to his Purpose I will faithfully observe with his Inferences § 2. He begins with a Book Intituled Love to the Lost and so
will I The Things following which I have declared of are not the Things of Man nor by Man did I receive them but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ W. Dewsberry thus The Word of the Lord to his Beloved City through your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience in the Lord Jesus Christ Now what to say here in their Defence when he lays nothing to their Charge but what hath been generally exprest I know not Certain it is that No Man knows the Father but the Son and Him to whom the Son REVEALS him The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding and No Man can know the Things of God but by the Spirit of God Well may we conclude then that J. Faldo knows God no better then I do Terra Incognita for he denyes all Knowledge of him by any Internal Discoveries What he knows is by Man and from Man What Offence or Undervalue I would fain know can it be to the Scriptures that Men should know God that only Way by which they testifie God can be known of Men Or Why should he be Angry at his Author for Confessing to have known God that very Way by which the Scriptures declare him only to be known But indeed it happens ill to the Priest for all this is to prove too that We deny the Scriptures though hereby we fulfil them § 3. For W. D's Words they are also firm for God promised the Repouring out of his Spirit and the Repreaching of his Everlasting Gospel And since the Question is not whether we have it but whether it be an Invalidating the Scriptures for any under the plentiful Pourings out of the Spirit and Power of God to say This is the Word of the Lord I say it is firm that so Saying may therefore be in the Latter as well as Former Dayes allowable and no Detraction at all from the Scriptures And for the Conclusion of his Epistle it is what every good Christian Man can say What Folly what Impudence is it in J. Faldo to make that an Equaling our Writings to Scripture or Preferring them before it which both his own Tribe I am able to make appear hath frequently us'd though by Themselves Irreproveably And which indeed is the Condition of every good Christian-Man namely to be a Brother and Companion to the Children and Family of God in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience in the Lord Jesus Well! If this Man's manifest Weakness make not for our Cause I should very greatly strange § 4. And therefore says he Pennington prays seriously My Upright Desire to the Lord for you is That he would strip you of your Knowledg of the Scriptures according to the Flesh By Flesh says he their Sense is the Use of our Understandings though Sanctified as will appear in the Key c. But this Expression serves for a Notable Key to open his Ignorance and Dishonesty His Ignorance is evident in Reputing it a Slight of the Scriptures to desire that Men might be stript of their Fleshly Knowledg of them I do affirm it to be both Seasonable and Serious and did not J. Faldo stand upon a tottering Basis he would not so declaim against us for Undermining it But let all behold his Dishonesty to say that we desire to be Script of the Knowledge of the Scriptures after our Sanctified Understandings making a Sanctified Understanding and that Flesh which can never inherit the Kingdom of God to wit the Carnal Dead Dark Unregenerated Understanding to be all one O Disingenuous Man Art thou fit to be a Gospel Minister who hast not learnt to do as thou wouldst be done by I leave it with the Conscience of the Reader how Justly or Unjustly thou hast dealt with us in this Matter and what all or any of it concerns the Scriptures For if Men will not understand them as they are is it the Fault of the Scriptures No surely shall then Isaac Pennington's Desire that their wrong Knowledg of those weighty and Holy Writings be interpreted a Dis-Respect to them and a preferring our own Writings before them which so heartily seeks their Right Knowledge of them If this be the Way to prove Quakerism no Christianity we need not much fear the Issue of his Attempt § 5. But he proceeds to prove our Equaling of the Scriptures two Wayes First from our pretending to Infallibility Secondly our Plea for the Necessity of Inspiration He quotes G. Whitehead's Letter to him Whether Infallibility be attainable by any in these dayes which we affirm is to true Believers which if thou denyst we question thy Call Of Inspiration he cites J. Story 's short Discovery thus Therefore may I say much more it is not in the Power of that little Book either to throw down Self-Will in any in whom it is not yet subdued or to exalt the Truth in general because it is only Queries gather'd by the Author from the Letter of the Scriptures without and no Message of Heavenly Prophesie Doctrine or Exhortation received by the Author from the Lord through the Divine Inspiration of his Light and Spirit within Therefore I say It is a very Vain and Idolatrous Exhortation To all which sober Matter I have no other Answer from him then that the Quakers Writings are full to this Purpose Indeed I am glad of it or we had little Reason to Suffer what we do for our Descent from the Carnal Professors of Religion in the World But I have this to say to him He that doth not Infallibly know what he knows 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 of both and profess himself Errable in all such Doctrine Who ought to believe him Why spends he his Breath at a Venture Rather let him Eat Drink for to Morrow he shall Dye for Death is certain This is your Independent Fallible Errable Uncertain J. Faldo Preacher to a People at Barnet and God knows a Lamentable one too What Reason have any to Believe him against Us who is Uncertain of the Truth of what he says against us by his own Principle § 6. For Inspiration the Scriptures are not more express in any one thing No man can know the things of God by the bare Spirit of a Man But the Spirit of a Man or a Man distinctly considered from the Inspiration of the Almighty can read Scripture and form Queries and call them Christian too yet who will dare affirm this Man's Queries to be Christian Can they beat down Self-Will They may talk of it or exalt the Living Truth that came not from it This is the Scope of J. Story 's Answer to the Questioner For what is this but Stealing the Prophets and Apostles Words when they are made Use of
they resist the Grace grieve the Spirit turn from the Way of the Light and are in a State of Death God hath been frequently pleased to move in the Hearts of the Obedient to visit the Rebellious that the Inward Strivings of the Holy Spirit might be the more Efficacious by its Strivings through some Outward Instruments but still it is the same Light Grace or Spirit of God Nor is the Light within any whit the more Insufficient to reclaim the Rebellious if minded for it is the same Light with that which moves in the Hearts of the Obedient to bear Record for God against their Ungodly Deeds Only Mens Minds being far strayed from that Holy Light or Word in the Heart and gone abroad into the wide World of Lusts and Vanities it hath pleased God to visit Mankind so degenerated by those who have been Obedient Children to the End they might be the more easily gained to a Subjection unto the Holy Light in themselves so that all Conviction and Conversion are to be ascribed to the Light Grace and Spirit of God whether immediately in the Creature or mediately by any Instrument Only take this by the way that whatsoever is Efficacious mediately is not to be understood simply of another Man's Measure of Light or Grace but in Conjunction with what God hath given and may be at work in the Party convicted and converting for every Mediate Conviction gives and Addition of Life and Strength to the Immediate Conviction that is wrought by the Operation of that so long neglected Measure of Light Grace or Truth in the particular Conscience We appeal then to every Impartial Person that reads us if we own not the Scriptures in that very Sense he would have People believe that we deny them to wit That God may and doth speak to People through the Writings of the Holy Prophets and Apostles which are commonly call'd Scriptures and consequently we do not deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ and Our selves so often as it shall please the Eternal God to reach into the Hearts of Men by any of those Truths therein declared of CHAP. VIII His Charge of our denying the Scriptures any means by which God does enable Men to resist Temptations and that we say they are Dangerous to be read rejected His Proofs Lame The Scriptures are believ'd to be a means c. The true Knowledge of them Divine No Knowledge of Divine Things but upon Experience It does not destroy Faith W. Penn's Words safe and sound The Priest a meer Shuffler Learning a Servant to Truth Christ the Word of God Faith by our Adversary prefer'd before Scripture The Scripture ought to be Read Believ'd and Obey'd § 1. HE further charges us with denying the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation and that we say That they are Dangerous to be read For Proof of which he quotes a Book called Love to the Lost and mine Entituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated The first is this For those only are Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God to whom they who were led by the Letter were Enemies From whence he concludes That we account it a very dangerous thing to read the Scriptures Now if this Passage hath any relation to his Charge or Conclusion no Man ever saw the like the whole Scope of which is but this That there are Children of the Fleshly Literal and Historical Knowledge of the Scriptures and Religion who are Strangers to and therefore Persecutors of the Children born of the Spirit And that in all Ages there hath been more or less of this among Inward and Outward Jews and Christians and let J. Faldo deny it if he dare How Wicked then is he to extort indeed invent an Inference so forreign to the Matter and then charge it upon the Quakers in general and as if it were prov'd by that Passage in particular which can no wayes be concern'd in any such Unrighteous Doctrine I perceive it is as impossible for our Adversaries to do any thing against us without they have the Making of our Consequences as we are sure to find them mis-shapen enough by that time they get clear of their Hands but blessed be the Name of our God who has given us an Understanding and Boldness both to search the Reins of our Enemies Cause and defend his which he has put into our Hands in this our Day § 2. But hear him further if it may be worth while That this Abominable Tenet is the Quakers Take one Instance more out of their Famous Author W. P. or William Penn. But I will assure them they shall grope in the Dark till they come into the dayly Obedience of the Light and there rest contented to know only as they experience and not from a ravening comprehending Brain that would in its Unregenerated State grasp at the clear Mysteries of the Kingdom into which Fleshly Comprehensions and Notions can never enter but all must be as Unlearned from their first Birth Education and Traditional read Knowledge as he is unman'd that is again become a little Child before the Secrets of God's Work come to be made known Spir. Truth Vind. p. 23. Upon which hear his Comment That W. P. of all others should talk at this rate is most Ridiculous What! Know only as they experience know what God is no farther then they experience Can we experience his Omnipotency What! Know the Death of the Man Christ Jesus the Life to come and judging of all Men by the Lord Jesus only by Experience Where is Faith all the while If none but Believers are Saints such as W. P. are professedly none If Reader we are got beside the Matter charg'd against the Quakers to wit that they deny the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation our wandring Adversary who led me thither is only to be blam'd But since I am here I shall endeavour to clear the Truth and My self before we return to the Point in hand It cannot be so ridiculous in W. P. to assert the Impossibility of any Man 's Knowing God or the Things belonging to his Everlasting Kingdom but by Experience or as God hath been pleased by the Inspiration or Illumination of his Light or Spirit to demonstrate or discover unto Mankind as it is Impious and Antichristian in J. Faldo to assert the Right Knowledge of God obtainable any other way then by Experience And this Reader choaks J. Faldo and the rest of his Partners more then they are willing their Followers should know who for all their Cries against us as Overturners of a Gospel and Establishers of a Legal Righteousness dread the Consequence of having their own Strivings Runnings Willings and Literal Knowledge laid aside in which their Life Faith Worship and whole Religion mostly stand and of being reduced to the very Alphabet of Inward and Experimental Religion where the Righteous Judgements of
Scriptures for What this is to his purpose I cannot understand to be sure it is for ours For W. D. is so far from making it Idolatry to live up to the Scriptures that he condemns their seeking for the true God where he was not to be found which sayes he they HAVE NO SCRIPTURE FOR As much as to say that they seek after God not according to Scripture and therefore are both Deceivers and Deceived Certainly this is a Miserable Farewel he takes of the first part of his Book and the Quakers Denial of the Scriptures that they should therefore affirm a Practice according to Scripture without immediate Inspiration Idolatrous because they assert such to be deceived who seek after God not according to Scriptures If so much Impertinency should fall from a Poor Quaker's Pen what Reproach Insolence and Triumph would there be But he has another Witness that by the Mouthes of two Witnesses his Charge against us may be not establisht but evidently disprov'd § 5. And this is Babylon the Mother of Harlots viz. to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles of the Scriptures of the New Testament and the Abomination of all Uncleanness W. Smith's morning watch p. 23. Forgery in the abstract as base black and dishonest as Man can be to Man What! rob him of Truth of a good Conscience foist in put out alter gloss pervert and what he pleaseth What make us lve against God his Servants Scriptures the Light within and our own Souls But I have the less need to make our Defence where his manifest Corruption of our Words accuse him and my Answer to the first part of his Charge in this Chapter has done it at large Only thus much give me leave to say That if Words urg'd upon one Subject shall be apply'd to another of a different Nature and that our Adversary can never prove his Charge against us but by abusing corrupting mis-rendering and interlineating our Words there is no Reason that we should much concern our selves in the Consequence of such Debates that Way of Demonstration will save us the Labour of a Vindication with all Sober Persons But he has not done with us yet § 6. I am e'en tired with searching the sulphureous Veins of the Pit and Mire of Quakerism the Root of all which is the Deified Light Within if you have not enough of this Smoak to satisfie you it is the Bottomless Pit it rises out of I will give you two Ebullitions more and then leave you satisfied or to get better Senses So amongst the words you find how the Saints in some things walked and what they practised and then you strive to make that thing to your selves and to observe and do it as near as you can and here you are found Transgressors of the Just Law of God who saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the Likeness of any thing And sayes J. Faldo it follows now what Difference is there in the Ground betwixt you and the Pope though in the Appearance there seems to be such a great Space I have been the more punctual in the Recital of this that I might show to my Adversary I will be just to him though he be most egregiously Unmanly with us He says That he is e'en tired indeed he has Reason for it though for nothing else For who ever got any thing by Beating the Air or Spitting against the Heavens The Sulphureous Pit of Quakerism we can in one sense allow and J. F. may be better acquainted with it For the Plagues which the never-dying Worm the sharp reproving condemning Light Within will inflict upon the Spirits of them who resist and gainsay the Truth are aptly resembled to a Sulphureous Bottomless Pit Sulphureous because of the Insufferableness of the Smoak A Bottomless Pit by reason of a Dismal Endless State and Condition of Wo. And I doubt not but J. Faldo has an Earnest of this for his Attempts against the Light and the Children of it This long Discourse is no more to us then the rest of his Trash that we have already rejected as his own Invention and base Perversion of our real Meanings Take W. Smith in his own Sense and Belief and all is well But receive him in J. Faldo's Disguize and truly we should not know him our selves He intended that all those real Experiments of other Persons of which the Scriptures are full talkt unexperimentally over by Unregenerated Spirits can be no wayes beneficial Nay that what Ideas or Notions they may have to themselves of the Holy Ancients Enjoyments while altogether unacquainted with them are but a kind of Images which their believing in and bowing to as indispensible Gospel-Truths is to be reputed nothing below Idolatry it self Yet far be it from us to say that to believe the Truth as declared in the Scriptures is Idolatry as well as that it is manifest Folly in any so to say or think of us when not only we are most careful and desirous of rendering what we believe purely Scriptural But I do declare that as no man can live the Life of the Scriptures without the Operation of that Spirit which gave them forth so to live up to what they do exhort and declare is the highest Pitch of Purity Man's Nature is capable of aiming at and attaining to § 7. He now intends to wind up his Discourse on the present Subject with a retrospective and contracted Argument of all those particular distinct Charges viz. They who deny the Scripture to be the Word of God equal their own Writings Sayings deny them to be a Rule of Faith and Life a Judge of Religious Controversies take Men off from Reading them deny the Scripture to be any Means whereby we may come to know God or Christ or our selves affirm them to be no Means whereby to resist Temptation and are Dangerous to be read deny them to be Profitable but as Experienced put Scripture and Spirit in Opposition affirm the Doctrines Commands and Holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such to be not at all binding to us hold it as the Sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the Instructions and Holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate Revelation as the Apostles They who do all these things mentioned in the fore-going Particulars Deny the Scriptures But the Quakers do all these things therefore they Deny the Scriptures To which I return this Argument If to Deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God to make what Writings are given forth by the same Spirit relative of the Scriptures if not to prefer any Writings before the Scriptures nor equal them to the Scriptures if to deny the Scriptures to be most properly the General Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie and not the Spirit rather if not to take Men off from Reading the Scriptures for Instruction c. if
not to Deny them to be any Means whereby Men may come to know God Christ or our selves if to affirm them to be a Means whereby to resist Temptation not Dangerous to be read if to deny them to be read to any profit without the Assistance of the Spirit especially by such as know them not who are in a Rebellious and Unregenerate State if never to dare to put the Scriptures and Spirit in Opposition to each other if not to affirm the Doctrines Expressions and Holy Examples as such not to be binding Temporary Services excepted if to hold it as no Sin of Idolatry nor any other to Believe and Live according to the Instructions and Holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures If to do all these things so mentioned be not to deny contemn and Undervalue but rather to honour rightly instate and recommend the Scriptures then the Quakers who Believe and Do all this are not Denyers but Owners Asserters and Defenders of the Scriptures so far as they themselves desire to be Defended But we have largely prov'd that so to do is not to deny them and that the Quakers so hold therefore the Quakers are no Denyers but Maintainers of the True and Divine Authority of the Scriptures § 8. For his Comparison of us with the Papists though he has been so Cunning or Unjust rather as to quote their Authors and not ours and some passages we justly doubt it is Ridiculous and every way Unworthy of our Notice A meer Begging of the Question and by what we can guess design'd only to bring an Odium upon us He puts the Scriptures in the middle and the Quakers and Papists like the two Theeves upon the Cross on each side to discover their Harmonious Agreement against them which of them he makes to be him that should go to Paradice I know not but we have the upper Hand But we can never allow of the Comparison since the Papists place the Rule and Judgship in a Pope or General Council and the Quakers in the Eternal Unerrable Holy Spirit of God and consequently our Adversary is basely Irreverent to God that brings the Pope or a Council of Fallible Men upon a Comparison with his Infallible Spirit Nor if it were true would it be any thing against us since Protestants will not allow themselves to be therefore Papists because in several things they agree as about God Eternity Christ his Life Death Sufferings Resurrection Last Judgment and Eternal Recompence § 9. To conclude We dare leave it with God and all sober Men to judge how far J. Faldo hath abused us in giving in so black a Charge against us and traducing our Persons and perverting our Writings to prove it by base Characters fastned upon the one and false Inferences charg'd upon the other Which of themselves conspire the Overthrow of their Inventer and thus is he fairly turn'd off from the highest Round of the Ladder which he hath so unadvisedly adventur'd to mount And as it fares with some Notorious Malefactors he remains there Pendent as a Monument of his own Rash and Dishonest Undertakings to the Terror of all Passengers who shall happen to travel by this way of Controversie to the Land of Truth CHAP. X. He chargeth us with a Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel First in general then in particular His Proof of the first Invalid His great Disingenuity in wresting our words especially I. Pennington's § 1. THe Second part of his Book begins with the Quakers Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel as he will have it It is more then possible that we shall prove him ere we part not only to be a Denier of the True Gospel Ordinances but indeed an Introducer of another Gospel if such a thing may be But to his Charge First in general then in particular The Quakers deny the Ordinances of the Gospel in general by which sayes he I understand not those of Nature's Book nor what was revealed by Moses but those Ordinances which were commanded by Precept or prescribed by Example in the New Testament Now to prove what he says of the Quakers he cites G. Fox thus And we say He Christ hath triumphed over the Ordinances and blotted them out and they are not to be touched and the Saints have Christ in them who is the End of outward Forms G. Myst p. 52. In all which I find no Denial of Gospel Ordinances Nor were they so much as meant by him His Language is Scriptural For Christ did blot out the Hand-writing of Ordinances and he was to the Saints then and is to those now who rightly believe in him the End of all Meats Drinks Washings Days or any other Temporal Elementary or Figurative Worship for J. Faldo then to charge a Denial of all Gospel-Ordinances upon these words is to plead for a Legal Dispensation and Bondage to the Shadows of the Good Things to come thereby making Christ's coming of none Effect and Consequently introducing of another Gospel as speaks the Apostle besides that he basely wrests our Words § 2. Again But Pennington is so Cruel by that time he arrives to P. 38. of Unity that he says Such of the People of God as do not follow the Lord perfectly out of the City of Abomination VISIBLE WORSHIP but be found in any part thereof when the Lord cometh to judge her the Lord will not spare them I perceive that unless we will allow J. Faldo the Liberty of telling the World our Meaning or rather making his own to be ours his Essays come to nothing What Words can be sounder of their Kind Visible Worship being left out and which our Adversary unworthily puts in Are not People to follow God fully Strange Doctrine that he teacheth But grant him his Gloss alias gross Comment without Distinction and I know he do's his Work But we are not so easily to be overlaid We do declare that while Men have Bodies which are the visible Parts of Men and the Bodies of Men are conversably concern'd in Religious Worship as well as the Soul there will be there must be and there ought to be a Visible Worship Therefore most false is J. Faldo's Paraphrase yet thus far we could go That Visible Worship as such without a due Regard to what Kind of Worship it may be and what is the Root from whence it came cannot be well pleasing to God For then that so Splendid Whore and Deceitful Prophet at large described in the Revelation of Saint John would be therefore true Worshippers because their Worship was Visible But I do perceive that here it pincheth with almost all Professions The Quakers would put us off our own Strivings Willings Runnings in our own Wisdom Contrivance Appointment whereby we must take up such a Cross to self as is insupportable to Flesh and Blood And indeed it is so which all must come to know a Crucifying of or they enter not into the Kingdom of God here nor
he ow's all that he hath But why poor Non-Conformists after all their preacht up Battles Spoyls Plunders Sacriledges Decimations c. Rich and Covetous as ever As Rich because the Bason walks and takes its Rounds two to one of which it did and Covetous because they remain as discontented as if they were starving witness a Late begging Book from a Non-Conformist's hand which conjures their Hearers into larger Benevolence though by the style one would think it were their just Due I am perswaded their Preachings Christnings Burials Churchings alias Lying in Visits Exhortations Thanksgivings and Prayers have cheated People of more Gold and Silver then ever they did dare to make the least Pretence to though they alwayes dar'd to take what they could get in their former Dayes of Power But this is nothing to me further then that it is less dishonourable to William Penn or any other Quaker whom God hath blessed with a plentiful Subsistence that having Estates they notwithstanding should sustain the Labour and Suffering of Preaching the Gospel and that at all seasons then in J. Faldo and his Brethren who it's greatly to be feared preach what they call the Gospel that they might get Estates at least Livelyhoods by it let him or them say what they will I could give him a long List of more Exacting Jocky Hawking Mercenary Bargains of Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists then can readily be parallel'd by Parish-Priests A thing once denyed by them and ought still to be Detested of all others § 4. But he ends not here concerning the Ministry For says he The Quakers deny our Ministry because we preach from the Scripture A wicked Lye minted out of Hell it self We have laid down no such Proposition nor tending to it But he supposeth J. Parnel helps him to prove this Assertion 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 Strange Impudence to call this a Proof 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 allow'd us then since the Letter or Scriptures are not by them 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 are not Christ's Ministers We are so far from making it a Reason why we deny your Ministry who are under that Qualification that we utterly deny you to have that Knowledge from the Scripture which we except against but your own Inventions and groundless Conceits alone For though J. Faldo thinks it very Heterodox to say that unless we are immediately assured from the Light within of the Truth of what we hold and that all Belief not so discover'd is a Lye deriding at Samuel Fisher's Answer in that Case Those who swore as the Lord lived swore falsly because they knew him not to Live affirming to us that they were such as did not believe him to live at all and therefore S. Fisher erred in his Construction I say though it be so yet we are not forelorn of Reason as well as Scripture to our Defence For no Truth is such to me which I either do not know to be true or have not some real Ground to believe to be such however true it may be in it self And that Sam. Fisher urg'd that Scripture pertinently and Consequently his return upon it is impertinent He himself has provided us with an Argument for if he will not have it that they therefore lyed in saying as the Lord liveth because they knew him not to live we must see what was the Reason that God gave their Asseveration the Lye Sayes J. Faldo they did not believe him to live at all Very well then the Narrow of the Difference lyes here That we say They knew him not to live And J. Faldo says That they believ'd him not to live Now I would fain know which are most excusable One sayes they who said as sure as the Lord liveth lyed because they know not God to live and the other that they believ'd him not to live If any thing be to be gotten it is this that they who know him not to live might believe him however to live whilst those who believ'd him not live would not believe a thing they had no Ground or Knowledge inducing them to it But he has lead us to a quick Expedient They did know God to live because he that lives may know from thence that God lives who holds every Soul in Life that lives To which I return that they did believe God to live because they lived for how could they doubt of his Living who held them in Life But enough of this To conclude A Living Spiritual Ministry we own that preaches the Everlasting Gospel in its own Power and that freely to the Raising of People dead in Trespasses and Sin to turn them from Darkness to Light that they might serve the Living Lord God of Heaven and Earth in the Newness of the Spirit who is worthy of all Honour and Glory forever CHAP. XII The Second particular Ordinance is a Gospel-Church His Definition for us by its gross Contrariety to the Scripture His base Inference of our Denial of Religious Societies and Outward Gifts from our Friends asserting of but one Catholick Church and that it is in God A Gospel-Church own'd Our Adversary proved Heterodox about Apostolical Preaching Inward Sence preferr'd before Intelligence § 1. THe Next Gospel-Ordinance he says we deny is a Gospel-Church Not to spend time about his Way of Phrasing it though uncooth enough We shall attend his Proof And the Church so gathered into God is the Pillar and Ground of Truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher J. N. Love to the Lost pag. 17. Upon which he argues thus The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers and not the Spirit alone whereas the Apostles gave themselves to Preaching of the Word and Elders were ordained therefore the Quakers deny a Gospel-Church and they contradict themselves for they have more Teachers then All others A Lye to be sure There is greatly wanting to this Priest a better Understanding or more Honesty in using what he has for who is not blinded with Prejudice may discern that from our speaking of the Universal Church of God which says the Apostle as well the the Quakers is in God he infers that we deny all Visible Religious Societies commonly called by the Ancients the Churches of Asia Thessalonica Ephesus Corinth c. And from our Asserting the Spirit to be the only Gospel-Teacher of all who believe he concludes that we deny all Preaching of Men though by the Spirit O blind or else most disingenuous Man
What Charge that upon us which our Practice gives the Lye to every day But when we urge this against him and such like Adversaries then it is not that he hath Mis-represented us but that we have Contradicted our selves But to clear the Point if it can yet be doubtful We do believe there is One and but One Universal Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth and that is in God anchor'd establisht and built upon him the Rock of Ages and Foundation of many Generations and as such neither is every Visible Society making Profession of Religion nor are all of them together that Church but such alone who are washed in the Blood of the Lamb and ingrafted into the True Vine bringing forth the Fruits of Holiness to the Eternal Honour Glory and Renown of Christ the Head who is over all God blessed for evermore And though there be a Mediate Preaching which is to say that the Spirit speaks by such whom he hath anointed to preach yet it cannot be strictly said that Man preaches or it is Man's Ministry but rather the Spirit by Man and that it is the Spirit 's Ministry and Man only a Mean or Instrument through which the Teaching is convey'd or Direction rather to the true Teacher the Light in the Conscience Not that the Lord doth not sometimes plentifully teach his Children without any such Means too who are turned to the Grace in the Heart and believe and walk in his Holy Light where God is to be found and an Access to this Holy Blessed Presence administred for he hath both promised it of old and perform'd it in our Dayes Thus the Apostles were Preachers not from Man nor by Man but by the Revelation of the Son of God declaring of the Mysteries of God's Everlasting Kingdom as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And so none are exempted for all may Prophesie one by one that the Church may be edified Yet I cannot but observe that 1 the Man implicitely denies that to be a True Church which is the Ground and Pillar of Truth for such the Quakers style a Gospel-Church 2 That he affirms the True Church to have other Teachers then the Spirit which is to say that the Primitive Churches were not led guided and taught by the Spirit of God only but by some other Teachers also contrary to express Scripture the Promise of God and very End of the blessed Gospel If he sayes that he meant the Apostles that were inspired I answer that was never deny'd by us because that was the Teaching of the Spirit by them which was very little less then if it had been immediately in them So that one of these two things must follow from his kind of Arguing Either the Apostles preacht without the Motions of the Eternal Spirit Or Preaching as they were moved of God's Spirit was their Preaching and not the Holy Spirit 's that so plentifully dictated to them what they were to say But in as much as neither can be reputed true by true Christian Men I conclude the Quakers sound and their boasting Adversary Heretical § 2. But he thinks he hath clearly got the Point of us about a Quaker's telling him they knew that one of the Dutch Nation spoke by the Spirit in a Meeting of ours though in that Language which was not understood by the Meeting because they all found Refreshings I will be faithful in giving his Observation upon it Of the unknown Language he sayes This was orderly according to the Popish Mass who read Prayers in an Unknown Tongue to the People but herein he wrongs us for though we do acknowledge that the pure and single Power of the Almighty may both strike Astonishment and give Refreshment where the words utter'd are not alwayes understood since he doth both frequently without them and that Understanding and Sence are two things for the Devil may speak the best words in the Bible and be an undiscover'd Devil still except by this Divine Light Power or Spirit he be inwardly manifested consequently a right Sence may be had where words may not be understood which is the One Tongue to the Children of the Light Yet we not only decry all design'd Obscurity by Praying and Preaching in unknown Languages but with the Apostle say that we choose rather by far to speak in a known Tongue that the People may understand our Words as well as have a sence of our Spirits Nor did ever any Quaker yet pretend to be moved to pray in an Unknown Language whilst he was Master of that which was well known to the People since then we don't affect such Obscurity the Case of all those Papists who pray in Latin rather then in their Native and vulgar Tongue he is very disingenuous in that reflection § 3. Upon the Quakers Reason why they knew that Declaration was from the Spirit of God viz. because they found Refreshings he bestows this Confutation so have Children many a time AT PUPPET-PLAYES What a pass are these People come to who yet deny all Teachings of Man But what a Pass may I rather say hath this Man 's implacable Spirit against the Truth of God brought him to who to his Dishonesty before adds Prophaneness joyn'd with Scoff and Impudence when he denies all Refreshment that comes not by sound of Words in a known Tongue to be any more Certainty from God's Spirit then the Pleasure Children take at Puppet-Plays though he could not but think the Person that spoak to him meant by Refreshings what came from God that there can be no Proportion or Comparison betwixt that Pious Answer and the Ungodly Sport of Puppet-Playes Ben. Johnsons ALCHYMIST which all good Men detest and himself dying abhorr'd hath nothing in it half so gross in Abuse of Religion I even tremble at the Thoughts of that Hand writing upon the Wall which this Man's Impiety is writing I fear with indeleble Characters against him who will receive a just and certain Recompence at the hand of the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth for all his hard Speeches against the Holy Way of the Lord. § 4. But let me not omit to show the Blow he gives his own Cause in this Expression since by the same Reason that we know no Refreshment to be any more of God without known Words then that of a Puppet-Play he knows not any more the Teachings of the God above p. 113. nor the Motions of the Holy Ghost or Dictates of the Grace of God within 2. Part. 9 10. known Words being excepted to be of God then that Refreshment little Children have in a Puppet-Play The Consequence of which Diabolical Comparison is nothing less then to overthrow all inward sence of God's Presence or that Refreshment which comes from it And then indeed we must confess we should be necessitated either to deny all Teaching or conclude with this Antichristian Priest That Man 's Teaching or Ministry ought to be adhered to Where if Puppet-Playes be
is manifest first That no Commission was given by Christ before he broke Bread with his Disciples Consequently he must intend John ' s onely And next That John ' s Commission it self is not extant muâ—h less any Commission to perpetuate his as generally oblieging But above all that the Disciples of Christ should not onely use but esteem for an Ordinance of Christ a Baptism that had not their Lord for its Administrator as saith the Scripture for Jesus baptised not is absurd and all together Anti-Gospel If we will credit Christ's own saying The least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater then John as if he should have said John's Administration was an Introduction and a Kind of Preparation in order to my Coming but no otherwise is it interessed in my Kingdom which is Spiritual and that I am now about to set up in the Hearts and Consciences of Men and the least of that Spiritual Kingdom is greater then the Children of John ' s Watery Dispensation § 4. That this is Truth I will further prove even from that very Place which they repute a sufficient Commission for Water-Baptism Go therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and the Holy Ghost c. In discoursing of things laid down by the Evangelists it will not alwayes suffice what some one Evangelist saith as in the Passage Controverted We have here a Commission it is granted but what it was with respect to the Baptism mentioned and the Time when it was to take place will be the Question To resolve which we must have recourse to another place without which this cannot be so clear to those who seek after Scripture-Demonstration Luke in his History of the Acts of the Apostles soon after his Address to Theophilus gives us an Account of some farewell-Expressions Christ used to his Disciples not so fully exprest in his History which he delivers to us after this manner And being assembled together with them he Christ commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father which sayes he ye have heard of me FOR JOHN TRULY BAPTIZED WITH WATER BUT YE SHALL BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY GHOST NOT MANY DAYES HENCE From whence nothing can be clearer then first that the Baptism mention'd in Go teach all Nations Baptizizing them c. was not the Baptism of John but the Baptism of the Holy Ghost call'd the Promise of the Father which they were to wait for recorded by Luke both in the 24th Chapter of his History of Christ and the first Chapter of his History of the Acts of the Apostles Nay lest it should be thought that he meant of another Water-Baptism as some vainly imagine to help their Understanding and prevent all such Mistake he distinguishes not betwixt John ' s Water-Baptism and his own but betwixt Any Water-Baptism at all and his own Baptism of the Holy Ghost John indeed baptized with Water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost Then you will be fitly qualified and commissionated after you shall have received the Promise of the Father which you are to wait for and then to go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Suitable to those Expressions of the Baptist himself I indeed Baptize you with Water but he shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost His Fan is in his Hand he will throughly purge his Floor He that cometh after me is preferred before me Besides the very words themselves taken in the Original Tongue import in Point of Propriety nothing less For the Greek knows no such thing as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. baptizing them in the Name but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 baptizing them into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which by the frequent use of that Preposition ' Eis Into it is impossible for Water-Baptism to do no more then for a Man by it to be baptized with the same Baptism where-with Christ was to be baptized to be buried with him Christ to be baptized into Christ and so to be baptized into his Death or by it and not by One Spirit to be baptized into One Body Which because no Water-Baptism could ever do it consequently follows that it was never intended of Water-Baptism since it would then have been to ascribe that to meer Water-Baptism which it is both utterly impossible for it ever to perform and is really the alone Property of the Spiritual Baptism of Christ to effect § 5. To our Objection of the Apostle's Answer Christ sent me not to Baptize but to Preach he argues Because he did Baptize some therefore it was an Ordinance and that he baptiz'd so few was but providential not designed and the Reason why it was not laid upon the Apostle Paul was because his Call was extraordinary and out of due time But the Confusion and the Weakness of this Reply might save me the Labour of an Answer with all but those who might esteem it Unanswerable because almost Unintelligible For if every Practice was an Institution then because the same Apostle Circumcised it was a Christian-Ordinance Practice then we see and all the reasonable World knows is not Institution Many things indifferent in their Nature may be practised and used and yet never instituted or required That he had it not in his Commission the Priest himself grants but excuses that Defect by a greater viz. He was called extraordinarily and out of due time But as they were all extraordinarily called or else the Priest contradicts himself so if we may believe the Apostle he was Inferior to none of them If not in his Works I know no Reason why he should be reputed so in his Commission That his Commission was of God is granted on all hands And if it pleased God to make it none of Paul's Commission we would be glad to see any of our time produce one more large and effectual till when we are contented with no more Extent in the Point then God pleased to give his great Apostle and believe whatever J. Fuldo sayes to the contrary that he was a Gospel-Christian-Apostle And if Water-Baptism had been then reputed a Gospel Christian-Ordinance neither had God omitted that in his Commission nor had the Apostle spoke so lightly of it § 6. But J. Parnel offends him in these words at least he takes Offence at them They who would have one Baptism inward an other outward would have Two Baptisms when the Scripture saith The Baptism is but One. Shield of Truth p. 11. Which he would be thought to Confute thus and it seems more material then any thing he has writ on this Subject I must tell him by the way that he tells an Untruth wilfully He uses or rather abuses the Words of the Apostle just before repeated one Lord one Faith one Baptism and there he adds but which the Text has not And here the Scripture saith the Baptism is but one
Christ was before his Appearance and consequently our former Chapter is justified on our part against his Notions of the Lord 's Christ For it was impossible That the Visible Body taken from the Virgin should have made all things which was hung upon a Tree and buried c. But J. Faldo expresly says As the Word is the Light of Men so or in that manner is Christ the Light of Men Nay he calls it Christ's Appearing in the Flesh therein transacting and declaring Salvation c. intimating That Christ was before he took that Flesh or appeared in that Body and that he therefore took it and appeared in it to transact work declare and bring to pass by and through it as a peculiar Vessel and prepared Holy Instrument the great Salvation c. and consequently Christ was and is that Word which was with God and is God and the Light of Men c. And lest we should yet mistake him he calls it God manifested in the Flesh for those Ends to wit Salvation and Eternal Life And that he might speak all for us in a little and give the Deaths-wound to his own Cause he tells us in so many Words That the Salvation and Life Eternal of poor Sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God Is not this pretty fair for an Adversary as ill-willing to us and to the Truth as J. Faldo one of Ten Thousand in his Displeasure against us Certainly if the Quakers are condemnable for believing It was and is Christ as the Word in whom was Life and that Life the Light of Men that he was and is a Saviour J. Faldo must not be the Man that shall give the Sentence who I know not how nor why but that God and his Truth may be glorified by his Self-overthrow hath asserted the Quakers Principle and that at an high rate and if it can be an Honour to him that he has assisted to the Conquest of himself he ought to have it without any Envy § 2. But he is as serviceable to us altogether in Defence of the Light however undesigned which I prove thus If Christ be properly that Light which manifests or discovers any thing the terms of his Concession and therefore it doth manifest the Purpose and Grace of God which was given in Christ before the World was whereby Death comes to be abolished and Life and Immortality brought to Light Then must Christ Jesus this manifesting Light be a Divine and Saving Light without all Dispute Now J. Faldo affirms Christ to be that Word and proper Light that so manifesteth discovereth as exprest consequently that Light which doth so Manifest and Discover is a Saving Light Again If the Light be not only a Manifesting Light which is to take it Properly but a Comforting Light also which is to take it Metaphorically as saith J. Faldo Then this Light as the Word-Creator is not therefore call'd Light from a bare Act of Discovery but is a Principle of Life Power Vertue c. by which such as obey it are consolated and by the Reason of Contraries who rebel against it are condemned Which makes up those two States of Light and Darkness and their Rewards Consolation and Misery And thus much our Adversary further proves for us In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men that is the Salvation and Eternal Life of poor Sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God which is to say That the Life of the Word was and is the proper Light of Men and unto all such poor Sinners as did and do believe in it that Light is unto them Salvation and Eternal Life then which nothing can be more Orthodox in the Point Who would think that J. Faldo should ever undertake the Quakers so little understanding their Principles And if he did know them What should aile the Man to be so much our Friend to write against himself under Pretence of writing against us One would think he did it by the same Figure Irony that some call Fools Wits Yet he would fain distinguish Christ the Light as Creator and Redeemer making the first Common the other Peculiar and that spoils all To which I shall briefly answer for he only starts it himself There is but one Kind of Light which results from the Life of the Word and because it cannot be such but it must be Divine and Sufficient as well to Redemption as Conviction it will unanswerably follow that the manifesting Light of the Word J. Faldo confesseth all Mankind more or less to be lighted with is of a Divine and Saving Nature and that which strengthens this Conclusion is that Christ as God is by our Adversary made the Saviour and unless he would deny him that he calls God to have been before that Manifestation in Flesh a Redeemer to the Ancients which were to conclude the Damnation of all that died antecedent Christ the Word as that Light was the proper Redeemer through all Generations Though I will grant to him and that in the Name of all that People call'd Quakers the Discoveries made by Christ or God manifested in the Flesh transcended all former Manifestations and as in my Spirit of Truth Vindicated it is largely confest had this Adversary been Ingenuous enough to have weigh'd it So again I declare that eminently whatever was before or hath been since might in a sense be said of that Manifestation because he that then appeared was the Fulness of that Light Life and Power which measurably was is and may be dispensed to the Sons of Men wherefore in that sense he was both before and after the same Convincer Converter Redeemer and Saviour to the Souls of Men. § 3. But he is much stumbl'd and not a little abusive because I would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render'd Enlightneth rather then Lighteth in my Spir. of Truth Vindic. saying of me I perceive he is as very as those Physicians who impose severe Abstinence on others but they themselves will take their Cups off and their good Cheer to Wantonness and Giddiness How far this Character may be by any thought to resemble William Penn a Man he often strickes at I know not but I dare say for him he never was so Disingenuous as to deserve it and least of all from J. Faldo with whom he never had to do and who must needs make a Random-guess in the Matter But this is not the only Scurrility William Penn however unconcern'd he be has receiv'd at the hands of that Rude Priest nor that he is able to bear He takes it for granted that W. P's Passive Religion is like to be a Protection to his base Tongue and so long the Priest sleeps in a whole Skin I cannot imagine what his dashoe should signifie But it is ill done of a Priest to quarrell his next Order and one too which if I am not mistaken the Non-Conforming Priests have swarm'd after as the next way of Maintenance to their displac'd Carkasses
in so much that we have almost as many Physicians as Patients One would have thought J. Faldo had been looking that way by his Ebullitions a Tearm of Art in pag. 127. But that is one of their last Refuges For it requires Pains which Men of his Function can't abide to do They are for the Land of Milk and Honey whoever toyles and that they will make the Labours of others yield them in a Land of Briars and Thorns But it happen'd unluckily that he should charge so much Epicurism upon Physicians whilst they impose such Abstinence on their Sick to whose way of Life so many of his Friends are devoted Shall I infer it is to have those Cups and that Cheer their Ill-Preaching could not give and that J. Faldo is therefore as very a as those Pharisees that bound heavy Burdens and layd them upon the People but themselves would not put their Fingers to support them Does he live to what he requires from others if not and the Course he takes I know not how he should let him take his as very a to himself which much better becomes Him then any Body I have to bestow it upon But to the Point controverted I said then and do now again that the Light must be in the Soul or Intelligent Place of Man and with respect to the Inward parts I saw no Difference between saying the Light of Christ lighteth the Soul or inward parts of Man and that the Light inlightneth Man Only sometimes I granted that Enlightning did import a Belief in the Light and some Divine Attainments thereby both which are sober and true and granted by I. Faldo if I understand what he sayes when he confesseth that most Translators render it enlightneth § 4. The last of what concerns his pretended Defeat of our Construction of that Verse That was the true Light c. is Every Man hear him If this Phrase be taken stricktly in its full latitude a Phrase I do as little understand as many of his other uncooth and contradictory Tearms Intending every Individual without Exception Christ's Enlightning must be understood so doing as Creator not as Redeemer this is the Opinion of many Superiors to me in Judgment by far It may be so though I am apt to think J. Faldo scarce thinks so But this hath been so effectually consider'd already that it would be needless Repetition a Fault I would not be guilty of especially at this time to say much to it Let it suffice that the Light Naturally and Immediately resulting from the Word which was and is the Life of the Word is the same in Kind both before that Manifestation of God who is Light in that Holy Manhood then and since though not the same with respect to the Degree of its Discoveries But he tells us though he can allow it universally as Creator yet not as Redeemer and brings us these Scriptures Whom we preach warning every Man and teaching every Man c. Commending our selves to every Man's Conscience c. The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that are bowed down The last an old Objection Now says he the Apostle could not warn all nor recommend himself to every Man it must be then all that he preacht to and who heard him So who were upheld God upheld and who are raised up are raised by him But this is too mean to invalid the Force of the Place and our plain and inextorted Understanding of it The Reason of this Mistake lies here If it be his Light sayes J. Faldo as Creator then it hurts us not if as Redeemer why are not all redeem'd putting no Difference betwixt the Sufficiency of the Light to save and the Salvation that may be wrought by it upon the Obedience of the Creature A Doctrine accurst from God and detested of all Men not mad or abused by the Suggestions of others for the Calviniz'd Predestination is the Bottom of it Let it suffice and so we will venture it 1 That Christ died for all Men though all Men receive not the Benefit intended by it The Neglect of Men don't render God's Love no Love or that it is not Universal and least of all that it should be Insufficient in it self 2 If God has not lightned the Soul of all Mankind with a sufficient Light to Salvation the Damnation of Men can never lye at their own Door neither will they be left without Excuse 3 The Light with which he enlightens being the Life of the Word must be Saving call it the Light of the Creator or Redeemer for He is one in himself and so is his Light 4 All Mankind in all Coppies and Translations and from the Reason of the Thing must be confest to be the Subject of this Illumination Neither let it be hard for our Adversary to grant since it may be the Light of Christ as Redeemer and yet Men may not be redeemed thereby through their own Disobedience An inevitable Redemption then not following upon Mens being thus lighted but upon their Receiving of it I cannot see but it may be allow'd us that all Mankind not being redeem'd is no Argument why all Mankind should not be enlightned consequently for all the Force our Adversary brings to the Contrary Every Man in our Sense is lighted with a Saving Light in it self I omit to mention many ancient great and learned Authorities some of which are and more may elsewhere shortly be produc't in Defence of our Assertion § 5. Now as to his Scripture-Quotations they are no whit to his Purpose For the Warning and Commendation were Universal there is not one Soul exempted And should I grant him his Desire what could it availe For if the Apostle had a particular Regard to those among whom he laboured neither doth that hinder the Universality of the Truth of the Thing in it self for the Warning is to all or the Scripture is not binding to all contrary to our Adversaries Judgment of it Nor is the Case parallel with the Relation given of the Divinity of the Word its Creating Power and peculiar Benefit of Light from its own Life universally extended to Mankind unless that in the places where the word All or Every is used without any Exception an Exception should be made because some one particular Case may admit of an Exception For neither doth God raise up all who fall Nor is it to be understood that all who are raised up in all cases God doth immediately raise but rather thus the Lord alone is able to uphold all who fall and raise up all that be bowed down as to a spiritual State the purport of the words So that the Universal I mean All remains entire and the contrary Opinion respecting the Light ends in an absolute Denial of a Saving Light to the greatest parts of Mankind which dreadful Consequence I had much rather should result from J. Faldo's Opinions then W. Penn's Faith as ill a Christian as
be the outward Commandments and Statutés For the Question was not about them but about the Commandment of Commandments and Word of Words which he resolves thus Let none say who shall ascend descend or go beyond the Seas to fetch the Great Word and Commandment But the Word is very nigh thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Innermost parts of Men. Whereinto the Outward Commandments could never come Nay I do affirm and that with holy Boldness in the Spirit Power and Illumination of the blessed Gospel that all the by rote Learning of the Letter of either Law or Gospel as they are conâ—â—â—-distinguisht is of no more Value to the true Knowledge or Worship of God then the Cutting off a Dog's Neck either to God's Honour or Man's profit without the Inward Living Word should powerfully write and engrave upon the Soul its Holy Precepts neither could there be any Conviction in the Conscience concerning the Truth of those Statutes nor indeed any Conscience at all since Conscience is no other then that manifest Judgment Man makes of the Truth or Falshood of things with respect to his own Soul from the Word or Light of God in his Heart according to the Practice of the Apostle who was manifest and desir'd to Commend himself to the Consciences of all Men Not as to a blind unsensible Thing but that Judgment in Man though not from him which was right and not learned of Man but received of God Whereas J. Faldo scoffs at such kind of Knowledge the Perniciousness of which Doctrine ought to antidote all sober Persons from ever adhering to it or him that preacheth it For I will be bound to make it appear that by his own Principles he is assured of nothing and must set down under the extreamest Scepticism in the World Or if concludable by any thing it must be by the way Rome takes to resolve all Scruples that is Plurality of Votes however directed and this too rather for Peace sake then any Certainty there can be in it For who bars out of all Inward Senses Motions Revelations Inspirations or Enlightnings resolving only to insist upon what may arrive them from meer Books because of the Fallibility of Man and Difficulty of the Matter they do contain which Way can there be to compass any tolerable Certainty to rest Men's Souls upon This is your once Phanatical t'other day Enthusiastical now Pragmatical and Scoffing J. Faldo The first in the very beginning of Independency in the World the best part that belong'd to it I meane Enthusiasm but now deserted by many as much as the true Religion is by the Church of Rome § 9. The third and last Scripture he undertakes to secure us from all Share in is that of Peter We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a dark Place until the Day dawn and the Day-Star arise in your Hearts By this more sure Word of Prophecy says J. Faldo is meant those Prophecies written in the Old Testament which are call'd Verse 20. Prophecy of Scripture and are called the Light that shineth in a dark Place I hope it will be alwayes forreign to me to detract from the holy Scriptures But the Truth I will take Liberty to defend The whole Chapter is a very weighty and zealous Recommendation of the Gospel to the Churches pressing them to call to Mind the Love of God unto them and to mind their Duty to him who had so loved them And as a great Ground both of their Faith Love and Duty the Apostle in the 16th verse tells them For we have not followed cunningly divised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ But were Eye-Witnesses of his Majesty for he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the Excellent Glory THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED And this Voice which comes from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy c. Now that this cannot be meant of the Scriptures and take in the Comparison I thus prove If the Reason of their Assurance that what they delivered to the Churches was not Fabulous but true was their being Eye-Witnesses of his Majesty and Eye and Ear-Witnesses of that Testimony God gave of his Son in the Mount by that Honour Glory and Voice of Words which were there utter'd and did in that Plaee uppear then the Scriptures not only were not a surer Word of Prophecy but not so sure because they never heard nor saw them so delivered nor yet had any of the Prophets so Glorious so Transcendent and Unquestionable a Testimony to their outward Eyes and Ears that we read of J. Faldo's most infallible Way of true Knowledge see pag. 91. as was that which God gave to the Disciples when he testified This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased But we may inform our selves from the Verses recited that they were a more eminent Ground for their Knowledge Assurance and Belief then the meer Scriptures And consequently the Scriptures are not the more sure Word of Prophecy Again the written Account of another's Revelation cannot be more sure to me then that Revelation which I do immediately receive from God suppose it be from God But this was a Revelation to the Disciples and they were sure it was from God Consequently the writen Account of another's Revelation as were the Prophecies of the Old Testament so called to the Disciples could not be a more sure Word of Prophecy For it were to say that they were more sure that he among them who was called Jesus was the Son of God from Isaiah's Testimony That he would give him for a Light to lighten the Gentiles c. then the Immediate Voice of God when he pointed so clearly at him This is my beloved Son He that is amongst you whom you have followed This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Then which what could be more demonstrable on God's part and incredulous on their side who should yet subject that living Testimony to any the best Tradition Let me not forget to add That what the Disciples then saw and heard from God and the Epistle Peter wrot by the holy Ghost being made part of the New Testament-Writings and they accounted more eminent by far then the Old with respect to the more eminent Pouring forth of the Holy Ghost in that Day which the Prophets fore-saw and they enjoyed the Old cannot in any wise be reputed a more sure Word of Prophecy as J. Faldo asserts therefore this more sure Word of Prophecy must be another thing § 10. What that is which may be reputed a more sure Word of Prophecy will much deserve our serious Consideration If it was not the Voice in the Mount which
we have invincibly proved to be more Immediate Living Fresh Convincing and Confirming to the Disciples then any the best written Prophecies they had It will follow that it was meant of the holy Anointing that Spirit and measure of the Grace or blessed Light of Christ which is Internal and out of the Reach of all Visible Things to sophisticate corrupt mis-represent mis-render or mis-translate all which have greatly befallen the Scriptures For I do affirm that Sense it self is not so certain as Reason and what clearly and fully occurs to the Understanding part of Man is a more solid Ground for Faith and Knowledge then those External Sights and Visions which Man might be attended with to Confirmation For what shall be the Rule for trying the Certainty and Truth of any such Visions and Prophecies It must be some measure of that Anointing which was afterwards given more largely to them in order to try Spirits and in all other Cases which concern the Gospel otherwise they should not have believ'd with any Certainty or upon spiritual Conviction as to themselves For if a Man has not something Divine to direct and inform his Understanding as to the true Relish Judgment and Application of what he may read in any Book or externally might appear to his Sences in the Way of extraordinary Vision there could be no probable much less certain Ground for his Belief in or Knowledge of the Truth of that thing however true in it self In short That which is Truth it self which is able to teach all things to try all things and to lead into all Truth which the Scriptures though Truth cannot do for then they would be Clear Plain Perfect uncapable of Additions Diminutions Corruptions Mistranslations c. must be this more sure Word of Prophecy But that the Anointing which the Saints had received of him was able to do as saith the Apostle John but the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and need not that any Man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lye And even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him Therefore this Anointing thus able to do all things must needs be that more sure Word of Prophecy if more shall be allowed In short The Law written in the Heart is a more sure Covenant Law and Word then the Law written upon Stones or the Outward Book of the Law else the Dispensation of the Law of Life within the Gospel-State would be less Sure and therefore less Noble then the Law without and the Prophecies of the Old Testament so call'd more Certain then the Scriptures of the New that belong to a more excellent Dispensation and are an Account of the fulfilling of those very Prophecies Nay it would be to assert that the Words of both Scriptures are more sure and certain and our Regard ought to be more eminently after them then the very Spirit from whence they came which at least in the Church of God every one has received a Measure to profit with and so perfectly subvert the very State of the Gospel which was and is the Time of the Pouring out of the Spirit upon all Flesh and bringing Mankind to a more near sure and living Word of Prophecy then any Outward Writings whatever can possibly be § 11. But because he tells us in another place that a little Skill in the Original would free us from many Absurdities we shall a little examine both what the Original Text will make for the clearing the Point in Controversie and what may be the sense of some Men of Learning a thing he pretends to and Impartiality which I hope he has not Confidence enough to pretend to I will suppose then the Prophecies of the Ancients to be intended but deny any Comparison at all to have been made between them and that Voice in the Mount 2 Pet. 1. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We also have a More sure Word of Prophecy as by our late Translation render'd I cannot perceive that Comparison in the Greek so hugg'd by the Priests and insisted upon by our Adversary with manifest Design to prefer the Writings before the Spirit that gave them forth the great Evangelical Word of Prophecy for the Words without any wrong not only may which were enough but ought to be rendred thus Also we have a very sure Word of Prophecy which neither questions the certainty of the Voice nor so much as intends any the least Comparison at all with it which I take to be the very Ground of that Opposition which is made against us The Reason why I so render it is ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also I know our Translation hath but it is commonly understood by our Adversaries for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But which is a great Injury to the sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also is conjunctive and signifies onely another confirmatory Testimony whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or But is a word that mostly doth and to be sure in that place would signifie a Comparison and Opposition Also then not being taken in the same sense with But there is nothing therein that can make for the Comparison or any Opposition whatsoever Now the Comparison it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately rendred more sure is in the ancient Translations more truly interpreted sure and very sure in which there is no room for any Comparison or Opposition in the least And if J. Faldo has but Greek and Honesty enough he must needs acknowledge that Positives Comparatives and Superlatives are used promiscuously in the Greek See Acts 25. 10. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred as thou very well knowest whereas in J. Faldo's sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be interpreted as thou knowest better then I which certainly the Apostle Paul never intended when he spoke to Festus And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also is connective and joyns the 19th Verse to the 18th Verse so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the expositive and distinctive Article doth not preceed but follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Syriack one of the most approv'd Versions by learned Men has it thus We have over and above a true or sure Word of Prophecy The Arabick We have beside a very true Prophetick Word The Aethiopick has a Comparison not respecting the Sureness but the Antiquity of the Voices We have over and above an ancienter Word or Testimony which is so respecting time The French German Low-Dutch Swedish and several of our ancient English Traslations run thus We have also the sure Prophetick Word We have also the right sure Word of Prophecy We have also the very sure Word of the Prophets All which imports no more then that they had over and above their own particular Assurances of the Truth of the Christian Religion the Testimony of the Prophets whose Prophecies were fulfilled by the Coming of Christ and the Pouring out of
the Holy Spirit but if it were more it was only so in point of Authority with their Adversaries Not that the Voice the Disciples heard in the Mount was less sure in it self or that Knowledge of God and Christ through the Operation of the Power of the Gospel in the Hearts of those Believers then the ancient Prophecies of the Prophets But perhaps they were not so effectual to perswade as the words of the ancient undoubted Prophets to confirm their Allegations Thus Christ in our Translation Search the Scriptures not that they were a more sure Testimony then what he himself livingly and immediately gave forth But they so reputing them whilst they opposed him his Direction to search the Scriptures was for Confirmation of the Truth they seem'd to gain-say from the Scriptures What then Shall we say that the Prophets are a more sure Testimony then what Christ the Living Word of God himself declar'd or the Saints became Witnesses of By no means But rather that the old Prophecies are also a true Prophetical Testimony like a small Light in a dark Night they do shew forth a Prophetick Light till the Day-Star of fulfilling them which some then knew and others prest after should arise in their Hearts which is that Blessed State of Witnessing J. Faldo and T. Hicks have bestow'd so many impious Scoffs upon To this agree many learned Men. I will begin with Erasmus If so be that the Prophets plain Oracles be in great weighty Estimation among you which Prophecy by figurative dark Shaddows of Christ of much more Gravity or Weight ought so evident a Declaration by the Father himself of his Son be They with their Prophecies prepare the Minds of Men to the Truth of his Gospel In that they Shaddow and covertly point out the thing that the Gospel doth preach The Prophets agree with the Father's Voice if a Man do rightly interpret them The thing that Men set forth by Man's Device may be perceiv'd by Man's Wit But the thing that is set forth by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost requires an Interpreter inspir'd by the like Spirit A severe Check to the Contra-Spirituality of J. Faldo and those other of the Carnal and Apostate Professors of Religion in our time who have forgot the Ground of their Fore-fathers Revolt from the Idolatry of Rome and Superstitions of a degenerated Prelacy as well as that is shows how much more Erasmus inclines to give the Preference if any there be to the Voice of God then to the Ancient Prophecies He also quotes Aug. to his Defence Beza not only renders it we have also a very firm Word of Prophecy shutting out all Comparison the Priests Break-neck but affirms if it should be accepted as a firmer Word of Prophecy it can only relate to such who might have entertain'd such an Extraordinary Belief of the Writings of the Prophets and not that in themselves they were a surer Word of Prophecy Vatablus in short tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or more sure is a Comparative for a Positive more sure for sure usual with the Greeks So sayes Clarius And Grotius that great Man thus renders this part of the Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sayes he the Writings of the Prophets have been alwayes in Credit and of Force with us But now much more because we have seen the Fulfilling of them by the Messiah and their Agreement with him Certainly then others besides the Quakers must needs have been Perverters of this place of the Scripture in J. Faldo's sense But he may hear from Grotius that the Scriptures are never the less valuable by those who witness their Accomplishment but the more A Notion very rife in J. Faldo's head Let it suffice that we have stated and Vindicated the true Christ to wit God manifest in Flesh That we have attributed to God manifested in that visible Body what we believe to be congruous and according to Scripture and sound Reason And lastly that those Scriptures which he thought to disinterest us in are fully and clearly vindicated from his false Glosses proving their express Design perfectly destructive of those Ends our Adversary endeavour'd to bend them to which were his own and not the Truth 's CHAP. XX. Our Adversaries Charges deny'd His Proofs fail him The Quakers are True Christians and Quakerism True Christianity We own and profess the only True God that made Heaven and Earth § 1 HE has hitherto charg'd us one would think as home as ever Man did for what is beyond Denying the Lord's Christ and that Love he manifested in the World for the Salvation of Mankind But it is our Happiness that his Proofs have been alwayes found as Weak as his Charge Desperate and the little Quarter promised us by the One more then made up by the faint Performances of the Other else how terrible would this Grim Character be to our selves and much more to others who do and yet will we hope believe better things of us viz. The Quakers are gross Idolaters and Quakerism gross Idolatry And he assures us if there be any such thing as Idolatry in the World he will prove us guilty in the highest degree The Way he takes to prove this heavy Charge is this Those which own and profess that to be God which is not are gross Idolaters but the Quakers do so The second Proposition the first being granted by all he endeavours to prove thus Who own and profess the Light within and the Soul of every Man to be God own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do so therefore Idolaters The making good this Charge will lie upon the Testimony he brings out of our Friends Writings since he pretends to no less Demonstration for every thing he has to lay against us I deny in the Name of all that abused People first that we ever own'd or profest the Light within every Man to be God though we say it is of God much less that we worship it as such And secondly we do forever renounce any such Principle As that the Soul of Man simply as such is the very Essence or Being of God If he fails in his Proofs he must fall with Infamy to the Ground The first Man he hopes to make sure with is G. Fox the Younger The words as he quotes them are these I will make you know that I the Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World that all through me should believe am the True Eternal God which created all things that by me the Light all things are upheld and that there is not another beside me can save Fox Young p. 53. Although sayes he in this Passage be doth not call it the Light within Pag. 50. You scorn me the Light in you p. 54. which will not own me the Light in them They he says that cannot from hence read the Quakers own and profess the Light within
Velata quaedam Revelata pag. 13. of which he is very cheery As to the Spirit of Man which concurs to the Constituting of Man in his primitive Perfection it is the Breath of Life which God breathed into his Soul after he had formed him as to his Body of the Dust of the Earth whereby he came to be a Living Soul a Soul that did partake something of God's own Life This Spirit of Man is that living Principle of the Divine Nature which Man did before his Degeneration and shall again after his Regeneration partake of This Charge sayes our Adversary being of so black and horrid a Nature I did judge it meet to prove it by abounding Instances and now Reader put on the largest Charity and give me thy Verdict if I have not made appear that the Quakers are gross Idolaters c. To answer which briefly and to Purpose and to close this Chapter with a contrary Conclusion I say That the Spirit of Man is not to be taken as of or from Man or that it is any part of Man's Nature take Man in an Abstractive sense And had he been so fair as to give us S. Fisher's Words at large they would have prov'd themselves of Age enough to answer for themselves S. Fisher is to be understood of that Spirit or Breath of Life not that made Man simply a Living Creature of a meer Reasonable Capacity but that Divine Life or Breath which makes alive to God and gives a kind of Heavenly Animation Motion or Life to live to him which constituted Adam not a meer Man but a blessed holy heavenly-minded Man before his Degeneration And that S. Fisher did never intend it of the Natural Soul of Man but rather of the Divine Life of the Soul without which the Soul is destitute of the Knowledge of the True and Living God his own Words very plainly show For if S. Fisher intended that Spirit which is the Divine Principle that Man did partake of before his Degeneration certain and clear it is that since Man did under that Degeneration partake of his own Soul or else he could not have been a Man S. Fisher never meant the meer Soul of Man but the Life of that Divine Principle which regenerates and renews the Soul unto a Life of Purity and Blessedness So that we conclude the Quakers not believing any such Strange and Unscriptural Doctrine as that the Soul of Man is the God that made the Heavens and the Earth for so it would make it self and what is greater then itself They are not those Idolaters they have been represented and fouly charactered by J. Faldo But Innocent and Free of all such Imputation and he their Accuser most of all Condemnable yea and that for Idolatry too who professeth no Knowledge of God but from Outward Sense by Hearing Reading c. p. 91. So that being destitute of the Revelation of the Son that only can make known the Living Father what Apprehensions he has of God are not Experimental but Imaginary and worshipping such an Idea he worshippeth not the true God but the Images of his own Brain therefore an Idolater See Bish Andrews upon the Command and Pagnin upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XXI Our Adversary at a loss to prove his Charge We own so much of the Resurrection as the Scriptures express more Curiosity Dangerous and Condemnable Eternal Rewards own'd by us J. Faldo's Book will prove it to Him and our Tribulations to Us. § 1. THe two last Charges of this second Part of his Discourse are our Denyal of the Resurrection of the Dead that is Dead Bodies and future Rewards To the First he brings in I. Pennington thus We say that Christ is the Resurrection to raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him viz. Adam so Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and so renews Man c. Princ. Elem. Peop. cal Quak. p. 34. Upon which he comments What is this Resurrection but what they call Regeneration it seems he does not and the Resurrection of the Body is but in the same sense as the Soul and Spirit is raised I can't help it if J. Faldo has made so unapplicable a Quotation out of I. P. to his Business I hope none are so Blind or Partial as to be angry that I. P. did not write to his Purpose it was sufficient that he spake to his own or rather to the Truth 's Our Adversary falls down right upon us with a Charge of Denying the Resurrection of the Body and is angry that the Place he produces helps not his Design Certainly with sober Men the Blame will not lie at our doors for not making good his Charge but at his own that he exhibited one he could not prove But will he deny the Resurrection in I. P's Words If he does I pronounce him no Christian nor indeed will a bare Confessing to it render him One And where he stands I fear he is but too far from both Let it suffice that those Words are a modest serious and full Answer to this Caviller since he does plainly acknowledge All that the first Adam lost to be restored by Christ the second Adam and all that the Sin of one incurr'd the Righteousness of the other redeem'd from Now let his Notions of the Way and Method of Effecting this be what they will we desire not to be wise beyond what the Lord sees convenient for us as this busie Intruder into sacred Mysteries hath done that lives in the Land not of Light but gross Darkness within and whose very borrowed made framed Light from Reading Art Study and his own Conceptions is the very Blackness of Darkness § 2. But he affirms that George Whitehead should say being prest in the Matter that he did not believe his Body should rise again after its Death which he can prove by many Witnesses I know not if ever G. Whitehead did so express himself But I see every Expression must be treasured up to defend a decrepit Cause Truth stands in no need of such Watchings that would make a Man an Offender for a Word But what if he did say so and I should second him would it follow that we deny a Resurrection I am sure I will deny all such Consequences Doth not the Apostle say expresly Thou Fool thou sowest not THAT BODY THAT SHALL BE. Is Scripture grown into such mean Request with J. Faldo or doth his Rage against the Quakers so transport him that he knows not Scripture when he meets it from a Quaker But sayes our Adversary upon a like place and to this purpose viz. We shall all be changed I would ask if they would be content to be refused their Debts if contracted before Quakers and demanded when Quakers I suppose they would believe that the Change in a Person is not the Change of a Person and that they are the same still to
of private Spirits and not rather of the Holy Spirit of God and such only as were conformable to it § 11. His other Cavil confirms the Truth of my former Argument and his own great Ignorance or Baseness My words are these If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit grounded upon that Scripture Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts Gal. 4. 6. To which he sayes Your Adversaries have not so little Knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is Fallible nor yet so Ignorant of your Spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are Infallible Now I have two things to desire of the Ingenuous Reader First to find me out so much as one Syllable in my Argument that infers or concludes the Spirits of such to be Infallible into whose Hearts God has shed abroad his Infallible Spirit whether they are led by it or not or that I could intend a concluding of the Spirit of Man Infallible because God has given his own unto Men that is unquestionably so I am sure such a Thought never entred my Mind as fruitful of them as our Adversary may be Adversary I may well say not only because he is one but that he acknowledges to me as much which let him know however I am not such to him The Second thing I have to desire of the Candid Reader is that he would weigh with himself how Unjust this Man is to me to infer Infallibility to Men from my Affirming it to belong only to the Spirit of God And as if he fear'd I should not be as Heterodox as his Envy would have me to conclude on my Account from what I urged to prove That God's Children in all Ages had an Infallible Spirit to Judge Rule and Guide them the Affirmative of the very Question debated that is God's Spirit That every such one was Infallible in and from his own private Spirit Oh Monstrous Perversion I would impute it to his Mistake of me it being far better to be Ignorant than Dishonest but he will not let me who a little below has Impudence enough to write but we are NOT IGNORANT that your Principles make no Difference or Distinction between the Spirits of God's People and the Spirit of God manifestly intending not that they are at variance for so we should esteem his Charge a piece of Justice but that the Spirit of the Creature and the Spirit of God are but one Spirit An Absurdity that never fell from us How many times hath J. Faldo been guilty in his Discourse of plain Forgery and Dishonesty against us So certain as there is a God in Heaven terrible will his Judgment be in that great Day of Inquest if he repent not § 12. He makes a great Stir about my Checking the late Socinian for making Christ the Head of a Fallible Body saying If Christ be Head to none but the Infallible Wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath Pitty on the Ignorant and those that are out of the Way and I am sure Christ is then none of your Head We have enough and leave his very Ill Language out 1. It is granted to us that Christ is Head to a Fallible Body or at least to Fallible as well as Infallible I charge him to give us one Scripture for this or he is gone for all his idle Puns Shifts and scoffing Flings at us 2. That a Man may be a Saint which if we take it strictly is one of that Number the Apostle prayed the Churches might be of I mean those which were sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit I say that a Man may be such a Saint and yet be Fallible or Erring 3. That the Saints are Ignorant and out of the Way Truly this Doctrine very well becomes J. Faldo I had rather it should be his then mine I will venture them in the Scale of Truth without thinking I run an Hazard in the Matter especially when if I err that hinders not from being a Saint Member of Christ But J. Faldo can a Man be a Saint and yet Ignorant of so much of God as is requisit to constitute him such Or can he be such and yet out of that Way which renders him a true Saint It is the first time that I ever heard in so many words that a Man might be a Saint and out of God's Way Oh Doctrine of Devils No Marvel so many Unclean Fowls flock to this Carkass What! Saints and err from God's Way Strange Saints and ignorant of God's Mind It seems then that neither Ignorance nor Erring from God's Way indispose any to be Saints If this be not a plain Contradiction to the whole Record of Scripture none ever was is or shall be esteemed such to the End of the World How many how grievous and how sharp have God's Complaints been against those who have left the Right Way of the Lord which has been the Way of Light and Righteousness the Just Man's Path through every Generation No Wonder that such Doctrines are hoth greedily received and furiously maintained that sooth up People in the Belief of such Pernicious Soul-murdering Doctrines And the Truth is and I do boldly affirm it and that in the Counsel of the Eternal God it is our striking so constantly and earnestly at this and such like Sin-pleasing Principles that makes the Devil thus bestir himself in his ready Agents to raise up and bespatter us with such heavy Calumnies as almost every one produceth against us But we lose not an Inch of Ground nor a Dram of Courage our Godly Resolution redoubles with our Adversaries On-sets and whatever may befall us here as our Hope so our Reward is from God in that high and heavenly Place which is above the Reach of Time and every Assault of our Implacable Adversaries § 13. He tells me He might proceed to my fallacious Arguing from the Spirit 's Teaching indefinitely expressed that is by Scripture Visions Providences c. means our Adversary to its Teaching peculiarly frequently in my Pampblet pag. 18 29 c. that is to the Spirit 's Teaching Men and Women by its daily and Inward Discoveries Motions and Operations But he will not the Reason is he dare not For if the Spirit be not an Immediate Living Teacher and works not as such to the Information Conviction and Conversion of Men to God in these dayes let him for Shame relinquish all Pretence to Gospel or an Evangelical Dispensation of which it is the peculiar Promise and Priviledge § 14. Though for want of better Language he is pleased to bestow upon this Godly Proposition the Term of Beetle-headed Saying and affirms that the Scripture knows nothing of it For which I may more reasonably affirm that He knows nothing of it For can this Man be
to be the Great Rule to Believers and yet himself after much Opposition to give it away and accord as far as any Man need to do that would be of one Mind with us in the Point savours of great Weakness and Inadvertency not that he now speaks Truth but that he should so eager ly oppose it before § 17. There is one Passage more which being to this Purpose I will mention We value not the Sense of the Scripture for the Print's sake but the Print for the Sense sake and the Blessings that attend that Way of Conveying the holy and revealed Will of God and so much as to correct your Vapour This he speaks upon my Words that the Intimate of a Prince needs not so much an Edict because in Print as because of his living and more immediate Touches he may have had from his Prince Now let any tell me if the Quakers have put the Scriptures into any degree below that wherein J. Faldo himself has plac'd them Do the Quakers say that true Christians have the Spirit so sayes J. Faldo too Do the Quakers affirm that the Spirit of God is a Judge Rule and Guide and speaks forth the Mind of God into the very Conscience Does J. Faldo come one Jot behind them But do they say that it is the Sense of the Truth declared of in the Scripture that puts a Value upon the Declaration and that written or printed Words are valu'd for the Matters sake they treat of rather then their own yea that the Scripture of it self can do little It is J. Faldo's own Doctrine Very well But does J. Faldo say that God doth not alwayes speak in the Conscience immediately by his Spirit but sometimes by the Spirit through the Use of Means as the Scriptures Preaching Praying Creator Providence c. and that by such wayes he reacheth into the Consciences of Men so say the Quakers too Would the Man but be certain to himself we needed no other Advocate But his Ignorance of our Principles or Prejudice to mis-represent them makes him at once oppose us and contradict himself And now we are come to the Conclusion of the Matter which he sayes is to shew me my self in the Glass of Sense if I think my Eyes worth an Using Indeed I do and am willing to behold all he hath to shew me◠Reader hear him soberly § 18. Foul Epithites as Knave Puppy Fool Rascal Loggerhead Cheat This you say was the Language of your Adversaries smal Crier but as you call it of a loathsome Sent. It seems J. Faldo's Nose calls it no such thing A long experienced Chaplin a kind of a Religious Gentleman-Usher should have learned better Manners So sayes he You blow it on the Author of the Book within five Lines Tryers of other Mens Spirits who have it should be give so little Proof of the Knowledge of their own as to be wanting in the very first Principles of Cavility This is not fair sayes J. Faldo to charge him with anothers Faults It is some Justice to us that he will account such Language to a Quaker a Fault But I would have him know that I never intended any such thing as be basely infers that is to make H. Hedworth in the least guilty of usually calling G. Fox those scurrilous Names For though I think him Envious enough against G. F. in particular as appears by another sort of Language and the Quakers in general yet I believe him to have more Civility and Regard to his Way whatsoever he thinks of me then to dirt it with any thing so gross But for as much as T. Firman the Author of that foul Language was his great Intimate and Associate that they have in common the same Creed are joyntly interested against us thereby earnestly endeavouring to promote their beloved Socinianism or Bidleism in the World and Men acted not by two distinct Spirits though one might lanch forth more extravagantly then the other And lastly that H. H. had shewen other sorts of Rudeness and Injustice to us in general and many by Name in his Spirit of the Quarters tryed I did say These Men and continue there still the Method of their Proceed then and since especially that restless Calumniator Tho. Firman being such as must needs offend every Good Man Knave and Fool being more in his Mouth still then becometh any Man that is not more of both then such he very frequently calls so Some think it a Shame that so ill a Tongue should go unrebuk'd of those whose Principles and Interest give them the Liberty of doing it in a way that if they know the Man might be more effectual then all the Moderation and Reason that can easily be shown to him But sayes John Faldo in his or their Defence for they love to claw one another Compare this Civility of yours with your own To all this I say He obtrudes an arrant Lye upon our very Senses Wretched Scribler How Idle how Frivolous and how very Troublesome is he with his Ridiculous Remarks Very well And is this the great Blow threatned I fall not from one tittle of it 'T is all true all his due I could not well have spoken more plain and pertinent Words No Knave Puppy Fool Rascal Logger-head Cheat c. No Impostor False-Prophet Lyars Trapans and what not did we accost them with What! Must not we fling off the Dirt they cast upon us Shall it be accounted well-Phrasing to call us all to naught and our earnest Refuse of such base Epithites and severe Censure of such Scurrility be reputed Railing Oh Unreasonable Men Ought People therefore to be kill'd because they cry Murder or lose their Reputation because they are Zealous to maintain it But it was notably done of J. Faldo to provide for himself whose Ill Languague he thought might meet with as sharp Rebukes as that of our other Enemies had done Nor indeed will we let slip this Opportunity of Collecting Publishing to the World after what manner he has us'd us throughout his Discourse and my self in particular who never had any thing to do with him in all my Life If he has not said worse of us with whom we have had so little if any thing at all to do then he pretends I have against those Men that gave such Provocation let me fall in the good Opinion of the Reader and the Just Witness in his Conscience condemn me but if it appear that this unprovoked Person is far more guilty then he can possibly render us by vilifying Expressions against our Persons and Principles I hope and expect so much Justice from the Reader as that the Innocent may go free and the Guilty only be Condemned That J. Faldo has not shewn himself that Man of Moderation Civility or Religion he pretends himself to be and which I hear some few have hitherto reputed let the following Faithfull and True Collection of but some of his many