them forth which I deny for the spirit is given to every Beleever to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 though we have not the same measure of the spirit the Apostles had yet the Lord hath left us sufficient to understand the Scriptures by Hath the Lord left in the Church to that end Pastors and Teachers and have not they Gods spirit Eph. 4.8.11 Gal. 4.6 1 Cor. 12.3 but the truth is they would have no opening the Scripture at al as by their writing Pamphlets doth appear Whereas did not Ezra wade and give that sence of the Law Nehem. 8.7 8. did not Christ expound Isaiah 61.1 Luke 4.17.22 for all wondred at the gracious words that came from him which intimates he Preached from that Scripture So read Luke 24.27 after his resurrection he opened the Scriptures concerning himself Did not Philip Acts 8.32.35 expound Isaiah 55.7 to the Eunuch read also how many Scriptures Paul expounded and opened Acts 13.33 he opened the 2d Psalm as also Isaiah 55.3 so he gave the sence of Psal 16.10 Acts 13.36 when Paul was brought Prisoner to Rome he expounded both the Law and the Prophets Acts 28.23 So that what the Minister doth now in taking a Text and opening thereof is warranted by the former practises In that the Quakers say the Epistles was written to such a people in that they say true but what would they infer hence therefore they are not for us to use or Preach upon they may say the like of all the rest of the Scriptures but if they would have no interpretation of Scriptures what will they say of 2 Peter 3.6 who saith that in Pauls Epistles are many things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do other Scriptures to their own destruction whereby I gather that even in Pauls Epistles many things are mystical and must be opened in the spirit of wisedome Alas if no expounding Scriptures then wil they take these in the Letter John 3.4 How can a man be born again shall he enter again into his Mothers Womb Cut off thy right hand pull out thy right eye I have read of some that understood this in the letter did pul out their eye but if they had let it alone the Scripture had not been broken What misery fel upon the Jews because they did not better expound Christs words Destroy this Temple and I will raise it in three days I might call a Cloud of witnesses in this case Therefore let them say what they will God hath owned the way of expounding and opening Scriptures to the conversion of thousands as Seals to the Ministry And herein I blesse God I am not without witnesse in the hearts of some at this day yea some of them now turned enemies to truth have openly owned me as the instrument in Gods hand for their good I speak it with grief and to their shame to the intent if God will give them grace to repent of their errours and hypocrisie 2 Tim 2.25 Now I come to the fifth which you shall see whether they own or not 5. That which thou callest errour that we are not justified by faith upon Christs death and resurrection in what Christ hath purchased for us but by what Christ doth in us Answ To this they answer seemingly fair yet as the Pox Herod did to Christ so do they with the truth The Saints say they were justified by faith and its Christ that justifies and he that hath the faith of Christ lives in him But the faith and justification which stands in the comprehension and conceiving of Christ without will stand thee in no stead And thou that puts the Scriptures for the word art not justified at all but art under the condemnation and had not thou been a reprobate thou wouldst have known Christ in thee Confut. I confesse in this answer of theirs they contradict themselves often one while affirming and denying I know this before them that Christ is in the Beleever and that its that Christ justifies but not by his being in us for so they would have it by telling us that the faith which stands in the conceiving Christ without will stand us in no stead I wonder first how all the Patriarchs and Prophets was justified before Christ came but in conceiving Christ without And where did the Apostles teach such Chymical Doctrine as this so that to me this opinion of theirs totally rejects justification upon Christs death without us which is directly contrary to the following Scriptures Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 4.25 Being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.9 But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself its needlesse to heap Scriptures to prove this which is as clear as the Sun What a riddle is that in Divinity for them to say we are justified by faith and that upon Christ within is this faith or sight what I have in poffession I need not beleeve I have it for I know it this is sence and not faith therefore they speak non-sence The Prophet tels us by his stripes we are healed but they make all Christ did but a Pattern and example which is an old heresie newly revived it seems all the faith of the Apostles will stand them in no stead by this Doctrine for they never did Preach justification by what 's done in us but by Christ without us read Rom. 5.10 Heb. 9.14.15 Alas what need Christ to have taken upon him our nature and suffer such mighty persecutions as he did if he hereby did not perfect Salvation for us or as if such a faith as lies upon his merits were invalid as the Quakers would make it I must tell you plainly that I had rather live amongst Heathens that never heard of Christ nor the Scripture then with such people who after they have had all their knowledge of God and Christ through the Scriptures and the preaching thereof should now vilifie them and blaspheme them Yea some pretend that they should have known as much if they had never read the Scriptures O detestable Doctrine and ungratefull men thus to despise the outward means of Salvation how many Saints of old and in Queen Maries dayes sacrificed their lives for this very truth now opposed What difference betwixt Popery and this opinion for that which he calls justification by works or inherent grace that they call Christ I make no question but the Pope will give them his blessing for this yea and Canonize them as Saints also Now Antichrist works 〈…〉 and is within men indeed I am sure if he be 〈◊〉 they are Mystical Antichrist John tels us that Antichrist was in the world in his time which was before the Pope or Papâ—â—â— had a being many years 1 John 2.18 this of justification by a righteousnesse within us is mans grand Idol and
them they preached faith altogether which relates to some object without men Now God willing I shall without partiallity give you my friends especially in and about Cardiffe a faithfull relation so far as I can remember of my dealings with them though I am a stranger in this County where I was called both by God and good men yet am I made the chiefest mark of their shafts I know not why unlesse it is because I formerly loved them too much therefore they will now hate the the more and my residence amongst them lays me open to their more often oppositions I did warn some amongst them to avoid the society of some whom I knew not sound in the faith yet they would plead for a liberty which I feared would in the end snare their souls which is now wofully effected I have been four times publickly railed at three times by one man whereof twice in one day at St. Andrews and Licwith at Cardiffe since that and now lately on the 16. Octob. being the Lords day at Cardiffe by a young man and two women I never met with such a railing reviling brawling spirit or heard the like they might give us as good language as the Angel did the Divel but I think they cannot bridle their tongues James 1.26 such words as these I have had from them thou Priest deceiver false Prophet hireling thou preachest nothing but lies blind guide with such a bed-role of junctives that the Oyster women of Billingsgate would blush to name O Sirs is this the spirit of Christ which is a meek sweet gentle loving spirit certainly their hearts are not very clean whose mouths are full of cursing and bitternesse yea the poyson of Asps is under their tongues Rom. 3.13 they manifest Pride and passion sufficiently the Lord rebuke them F. G. At Cardiffe on the 19 Septem 1955. In discourse with a Quaker about the Scriptures I exhorted him to own them as Gods word and it would be no dishonour to Christ he denied saying often thou liest they are not Gods word I said to deny them under this name was the way to derogate from truth and in time this will lead us next not to use them at all he gave most intollerable revilings for this that would have moved the tongue of the dumb but I bore all patiently through grace After that he held out perfection in this life from sin I told him we are free from sin onely in respect of the guilt Heb. 10.2 and power thereof Rom. 6.14 but not in respect of the seed or motion or act of sin I confest that I had sin in me he answered then thon hadst none of Christ for he that 's born of God doth not commit sin 1 John 3.9 I told him the word was doth not make sin it reigns not in him but he would admit no interpretation thereof then said I doth not the same Apostle tell us if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and are lyars 1 John 1.8 his answer was that word was spoken by the carnal man Friends I pray take notice he calls John the Apostle a carnal man because he confessed he had sin I could not make him acknowledge that Christ ascended with his body to Heaven but he did shift and evade the same After this he came to St. Andrews and when the Sermon was ended he began publickly to rail at me in the usual terms And there denied any mediate call to the ministry charged me with a lie for saying Paul had sin after converted but I quoted the 7 Rom. 13. to prove it he would not hear but fell to the Fisher-womens weapons so I left the place but could not be rid of him Since this to silence their Rabshekah spirits I often made a challenge to dispute if they could find a man of reason or Scripture for they commonly say that Ministers preach nothing but lies and indeed they deny any Minister or Ordinances since the days of the Apostles So that by their Doctrines the blessed Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes was no Ministers Most abhominable Doctrine At last in answer to my challenge I received this Letter from a Quaker JOshuah Miller I being brought by Providences in the place where thee and Edmund Ellis were together And at my coming away thou didst boast in challenging any of us whom thou callest Quakers to dispute with thee Appoint the time and place and its like some of them whom thou in scorn callest Quakers may be with thee to know what thou hast to lay to their charge From one who is known to thee by the name of Francis Gauler Octob. 11. 1655. In answer to this because I would not shun any occasion to own the truth I instantly sent this answer following in general to any of them LET him who hath a spirit of love meeknesse and moderation void of railings and bitternesse judgings and condemnings that can bridle his tongue if any such man be among you if he will own these errors here set down and dispute for them let me know it and I shall God willing appoint the time and place 1. That the light which God hath given to every man that comes into the world is sufficient to Salvation without the help of any other means or discovery 2. That the Scriptures are not the word and mind of God to us but the conditions of them that spake them forth 3. That spirits are not to be tried by Scriptures 4. That there ought to be no sence meaning or expounding the Scriptures to the people 5. That we are not justified by faith upon Christs death and resurrection in what Christ purchased for us but by what Christ doth in us 6. That Christ ascended not into Heaven with the same humane body he had on earth though glorified 7. That the humane bodies of all men after death shal not rise again at the day of judgement He that will undertake to maintain any or all of these and will dispute them by Scripture send me word thereof F. G. Upon the next day at night I received a long Letter from the same man whereby he would seem to justifie some of the aforesaid opinions but because he could not spel my name nor write true English and much nonsence I sent the Letter back with this answer that I would receive no Papers from him for I challenged a publick dispute according to promise T. H. After this on the 13 of October came another Quaker into my house who in his Mummical posture sate down I asked him his businesse he said he came to deny that John Apostle John was not his Idol as I had told him I answered thou speakest falsely I never told thee so it seems my wife had spoken those words but his memory was not perfect hereupon I entred into discourse with him in hopes to convince him of his errours And after about two hours conference I made him recant these four opinions 1. ' That
Christs arch enemy O beloved take heed of losing your faith on Christs satisfaction to God for you without you lest you hereby at once lose all your comfort To the sixth opinion that Christ ascended not to Heaven with the same body he had on earth though glorified Answ To this they make an equivocal answer in these words concerning Christs body as the Divel contended about the body of Moses And if thou hast ears to hear thou mayest hear the same is he that descended hath also ascended who is a spirit that saith the flesh profiteth nothing c. Consut Wherein I easily perceive they speak like the blind Oracles of Delphos which shews their hearts not right in this matter 1. They imply ye might as well say I am a Divel for disputing about Christs body for so they make the comparison 2. It seems that as the Divel nor none could find Moses body to this day Deutr. 34.6 so Christ either hath no body or else it s not to be found truly this sence I most in charity make of their words yea I have sufficient ground to beleeve that some do deny Christ ascended with his body whereas Acts 1.11 12. Men and Brethren why stand ye gazing this same Jesus which ye see go up into Heaven shall so come c. Christ ascended with a body because they saw him with their natural eyes for a spirit is not seen in that manner Our vile bodies shall be made like to his glorious body Phil. 3.21 Paul it seems knew that Christs body was glorified and affirms the resurrection of the Saints bodies to the same glory Job longs before Christ came in the flesh beleeved that he should with his eyes yea and in his flesh see the God-man Christ Jesus at last Job 19.26 there is one Mediator betwixt God and Man the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 mark Paul affirms it in the present tense not there was as if his humane nature was vanisht but there is still the man Christ its needlesse to spend time in proving so plain and glorious a truth but that I find some question it and others deny it yet the first fathers of this Heresie was above 1500 years agone Apâ—lles a Syrian by birth taught that Christ onely ascended with his spirit and left his body to return to the earth And if Christs body did not ascend as some would have it then the bodies of the Saints shall not ascend and this must necessarily follow But as to that they give me no answer by way of justification therefore I will not treat of supposing here is sufficient delivered for confutation of six most damnable Heresies which its evident by their words they maintain unlesse they will confesse and deny in an hour as some of them have learnt the Act of dissimulation equivocation and mental reservation indifferent well already Therefore my humble request to all Gods people especially to those in the County of Glamorgan with bleeding hearts consider the Blasphemies vented forth yea and publickly owned and pleaded for by some men and shall not Ministers Preach and Pray against these things Shall Quakers have their liberty and we be deprived of ours by their revilings even in the times of our exercise In the paper they sent me they deny disputing for indeed they cannot for their mouths are full of railings so that Argumentum Baco alinum is the fittest way to deal with them As Agur said of himself may well be applied to them surely they are more brutish then any man and have not the understandings of a man Prov. 30.2 And in contending with them I have fought with beasts not at Ephesus as Paul did but at What monstrous Doctrine is this to suffer women to be Preachers by way of authority condemned as against nature Isaiah 3.12 1 Cor. 14.34 35. 1 Tim. 2.12.14 this opinion was first held by the Pepuzians that women might Preach because they wickedly affirmed Christ assumed the form of a woman and not of a man In France they allow not a woman to bee a ruler over the affairs of mens goods But with us some women will be rulers over and directers of mens consciences for so amongst the Quakers women commonly teach as wel as men 1. I wil touch now upon some of their lesse trivial matters At first they keep a stir about the Ministers going into the Pulpit saying he is a Pharisee for that verily if Ezra the Scribe was alive they would call him Pharisee also for going into his Pulpit Neh. 8.4 is not that the most convenient place for the people to hear So they quarrel about words to no purpose Paul condemns such strifes 1 Tim. 6.4 2 Tim. 2.14 avoid such contendings 2. F. G. As for thee and thou to one person its indifferent to me but when they lay a command upon it As one did in discourse with me I asked him where was the command he said the firth Commandment saith Thou shalt honour I told him the command was not to the word thou but the honouring of Parents which I feared he did not yet read John 1.51 where Christ saith you to Nathaniel Again what a noise have we about putting off the Hat with them as if respect was to be shewed to none wherein they miserably wrest that Scripture that hee who respects person finneth Which is meant principally for Magistrates and such as sit in the seat of judgement and condemns onely partiality but there is a civil respect to all men Honour all men 1 Pet. 2.17 let them read that word if they dare Levit. 19.32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man and fear God it seems by this that little fear of God dwels in the heart when honour and respect is denied to the ancient seeing God calls himself the ancient of dayes Dan. 7.9 And for their horrid a buse of Christ Ministers we can best bear it seeing we should have most patience Paul did teach Timothy another lesson the Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 3.17 Heb 13.17 But all the dirt and plagues they cast on the faithfull Ministry wil fall upon their own heads for the younger not to honour the elder and ruler is threatned as a turse which I think in these men is now manifest Did not the Lord by Isdiah the Prophet complain of this that the Child shall be have himself proudly against the Antient and the Base against the Honourable Isa 3.5.6 read but what evils and Tyrannies fell on the State of the Jews after this therefore we know through grace how rightly to divide the word of truth in this case better then the Quakers for all their immediate calls 2. Tim. 2.15 Thirdly I have observed the strange kind of Apish postures they appear in sometimes like the Swine looking and bending to the earth then staning and raving like the men
worship of God but Idolatry which opinion is an absolute point of the Papacy to this very day And to believe or think our justification is by some thing wrought in us is that Antichrist whose name is Mystery Babilon the great the mother of Harlots which John saw in his Vision Rev. 17.5 and this was before any Pope appeared in the World therefore beloved remember that there 's a twofold Antichrist in the World Literal and Mystical the one all have heard of the other few believe because its inward and lesse dissemblable and this is that Antichrist now amongst the Quakers who say in these words But the faith and justification which stands in the comprehension and conceiving Christ without will stand thee in no stead I leave every understanding Christian to judge whether this affirmation be not a denial of Salvation by the blood and satisfaction of Christ But this I have fully answered before onely I request all that love their Souls to take heed for there are many Christs now in the world Mat. 24.5 Grace and Peace be with all that love the Lord Jesus An APPENDIX I Conceive it not amisse to give a brief answer to that act of their quaking fits the ground they have is because the Prophets did so But to this I shal answer in a few particulars First for Moses quaking remember the occasion thereof and the place where it was even at Mount Sinai and the terrour of the sight was thundrings and lightnings the noise of Trumpets the Mountain smoking Exod. 20.18 now this is no pattern to us unlesse we live at Sinai for the Authour to the Heb. 12.21 saith we are not come to Sinai but to Zion where is no more such terrours and legal tremblings and to me Moses quaking at that time was the weaknesse of his Faith as well as the peoples which practise we must not follow in their fears and amazements if we be the sons and daughters of Zion And verily to judge charitable of some called Quakers I think they are gone back with the Galathians to the Law of Moses onely some opinions they hold even contrary to that Law Secondly for the Prophets quaking we read of three especially but they are not examples to us for what they did was for signs As Jerem. 23.9 he did tremble in respect of the Adulteries and swearings of the people being amazed to think what judgements should fall upon them for their sins And Ezek. also ch 12.18 he was commanded to eat his bread and drink his water with quaking the reason in the next verse he gives is for a sign of the desolat on and famine that should come upon the Israelites and their Cities So Habbakkuk did quake also at the high consideration of Gods Wonders in the Sea for the Children of Israels deliverance so that to me here 's no ground for example to us unlesse some wil pretend to be Prophets by fore-telling things to come which I shall never beleeve until they can manifest a better Commission then I see they have therefore le ts not wonder if you hear some go naked also because Isaiah did for beleeve it they may as wel attempt to walk on the Sea as Peter did too but how they condemn us for taking the Prophets and Apostles words and preaching them to the people and yet themselves take the Prophets signs and would imitate them in doing the same but remember Christ tels us that an evil and adultrous generation seeks after signs even such as Adulterate the precious truths of Christ Mat. 12.39 Yea they would willingly be Prophets if the people would but account them so then they might thunder us with Bell Book and Candle like the Pope as they do pretty well already because we receive not their Doctrine Thirdly trembling of the body was never commanded nor yet used as a sign of conversion as the Quakers make it som saying they were never converted til now Indeed I read onely of Pauls trembling Acts 9.5 6. at the voice when going to Damascus which did arise onely from a terrour and fear being at once struck to the earth and blind his conversion was after this in a miraculous way and one Swallow makes not a Summer So you read the Jaylor trembled at the Earth-quake for fear of the losse of his prisoners So Foelix trembled at Pauls speaking of judgement yet went away the same man Acts 24.25 So that sin was not the ground of trembling in these men Fourthly neither did the Apostles preach such Doctrine how many do you find that thus trembled corporally at their preaching Verily you may put their names all in a Ring but for men now to make it necessary yea a sign of conversion to quake the Apostles themselves are strangers to this Sure the conversion of some with us is very sudden if quaking be a sign but Pauls words satisfie me that there 's nothing of God yea no profit in such motions of the flesh for bodily exercise profits nothing 1 Tim. 4.8 I have seen counterfeit Beggars in London that would artificially shake their whole body for mony without doubt if they came among the Quakers they might pass for good converts Fifthly neither can I read any quakings of the former Prophets above once and that for signs but behold these do it often yea I admire at one thing why they tremble seeing some of them affirm they have no sin herein their very practise opinions are riddles even to themselvs So that out of their mouths the most just hand of God toucheth them that they shall fear where no fear is Psal 53.5 And for the Scripture bidding us work out our Salvation with fear and trembling signifies not a bodily one but that of the heart as Elihu tels us Job 37.1 which is an awful reverence of Gods presence in the beholding all our actions but slavish fear is excluded Luke 1.74 he hath delivered us from the hands of our enemies that we might serve without fear Lastly trembling sometimes is an effect of Gods wrath which a beleever is freed from Jer. 10.10 at his wrath the earth shall tremble so that the Divels tremble at the wrath of God and the execution of his Justice upon them James 2.19 how far this quaking differs or how near kin it s to that of Satans and hypocrites he that hath an eye may resolve the Lord tels us that fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrites Isa 33.14 And if so then trembling as an effect of fear will follow so that in this act of their quaking they do no more then the Divel and wicked men from slavish fear and legal frights did before them But where perfect love is it casts out this fear which hath torment 1 Joh. 4.18 for unbelief is one of the proper causes of all such motions whether it be in Saints or Sinners By all this its evident that their quaking is not from the Prophets seeing they did it for signs and but once I wil not wish that which David did prophetically to Christs enemies to fall on them Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their loyns continually to shake Psal 69.23 truly poor souls their eyes are too much darkned already therefore I beg of God they may be opened to see their error nor can I desire their loyns should continually shake for that 's as great a judgement as the former but affectionately request that they may shake no more yet I wil comfort my self with this though the Mountains do shake and tremble with them Though great men should quake too for they are Mountains yet I wil not fear Ps 46.3.3 but shal through grace with the humble Saints of Christ stand still and see the salvation of God Exod. 14.13 FINIS