that can be nam'd that have Apostatized While they were led by the Spirit of Truth were by that Infallibly led and it was no Delusion to affirm so much of them or others while in their obedience to that Infallible Guide But G. Fox c. did never say that any were or could be Infallibly led but by the Holy Spirit Therefore G. F. c. were not herein led by the Spirit of Delusion but by the Spirit of Truth Ibid. p. 63. The Infallibility of the private Spirit or of each particular Quaker is now damned by their Church and their Infallibility is now reduced by them to that of their Church 'T is a notorious Falshood that ever Infallibility was by us placed in the private Spirit of any or every Quaker as it is by this Snake asserted or that it is now reduced to the Church Infallibility is now by us placed where it ever was that is in the Infallible Spirit of God privately or particularly working in the Hearts of Men. Ibid. p. 64. All I am concerned for at present is that their Churches have censured these Separatists and given Judgment against the Light within particular Persons which was the Original Pretence and only Infallible Guide of the first Quakers And upon this only ground they exclaim'd against any Church assuming Authority over any Man 's private Spirit or his Light within as Anti-christian and Diabolical and gave this as the reason of their Separation from the Church of England One but not the only reason and ground of some that separated from the Church of England might possibly be Her Hierarchy and Government or assumed Authority over Conscience as she in her turn made it part of the reason for her Separation from Rome as see Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae printed 1617. But that bond of Union and spiritual Fellowship which united us to be a People was First and Principally The Light of Jesus Christ shining into our Hearts whereby through obedience we had and have Unity with all who in any measure are turned to it and walk in it and by this Union of Spirit we were gathered into one Body of external Fellowship and Society in matters of Doctrine and Discipline and being so gathered into particular Assemblies or Churches with respect to place at unity The Authority which these our Assemblies do claim towards them that do so declare themselves Members and who do believe and profess the same Doctrines and Principles of Faith and are so distinguish'd and denominated is grounded in this That every such Member is gathered as above and not by any external constraint or outward respect but only by the real force of Truth upon their Understanding And of such as do profess to be so gathered into Unity and Fellowship with us If any shall Innovate in Doctrine and Discipline and make Defection from the Spirit of Love contrary to that Belief and Profession which by the force of Truth and Convictions of God's Grace on their Hearts they did make and declare at their coming into Unity and Fellowship with us Such the Church or Assembly hath Power to declare Separated from the Body because by this their Innovation and Defection they have dissolved that bond of Union by which they became Members and when censure is denounced against these who are thus separated It cannot be accounted or esteemed A giving Judgment against the Light within particular Persons Because the Light of Jesus Christ is not contrary to it self and if by the inshinings of that it was that they through obedience came into Fellowship and did profess and declare to believe as above it does necessarily follow that their Innovation and Defection must proceed from being darken'd and decay'd from that Life of Righteousness in themselves which was the first Principle of true Union And when we have declared against any Church assuming Authority towards any Man and that Light of Grace which is in him it hath been because such Church hath assumed that Authority without that previous bond of Union which is above declared Having thus briefly but truly stated the Ground and Nature of that Government which is among us and the reason of our refusing Church Government not so constituted it will serve to dispatch all the Objections of the Snake upon this head with greater speed I shall here in fit place acquaint thee Reader that the Snake takes up a considerable part of the following Pages in this Section and some in that concerning Tithes particularly about G. Keith and our Controversy with him I shall take little more notice of them than as they relate to Government that being what the Snake says p. 118. foregoing He is chiefly concerned for Besides that Controversy which Books may be had of Tace Sowle in White-Hart-Court Gracious-Street is in such hands as I doubt not are still ready to maintain the Justice of that Cause they are concerned in if G. K. or the Snake for him shall think fit to reply to what they have written that is yet unanswered by him and also the compass of this Tract will be too short to allow room for a matter so much controverted as that has been Therefore what I shall chiefly say concerning him and what the Snake is most concern'd for will be as above with respect to his quondam Society and Fellowship with us and to shew that the Judgment given against him was not against that Light of Jesus Christ which he once acknowledged for his sufficient Teacher The like for brevity sake I would be understood concerning John Wilkinson John Story Bugg and others who may have Separated or Apostatized as these have done From p. 64. to 68. The Snake is wholly imploy'd on G. K. giving in them some short and false bits of Stories relating to that difference with him in Pensilvania which I should have wholly passed by but that in one Instance the Snake is remarkably false That is p. 66. G. K. was accused for Preaching two Christs i. e. a Christ without besides the Christ within This Sam Jennings after their manner of mumbling Thistles will not confess but dare not deny That G. K. was so accused Sam. Jennings does deny so far as it came to his Knowledge but the Snake carps at S. Jennings because he does not affirm or deny upon such incompetent Authority and Evidence as himself uses which has as I have already shewn and may hereafter shew led him into notorious Lyes and false Stories For S. Jennings says State of the Case p. 6. In the Judgment given forth against him G. K. by Friends they say W. Stockdale denyed the words so spoken as in the Charge above and Ibid. p. 7. which I have heard him W. S. often solemnly to deny Is this mumbling of Thistles or does it not rather shew that S. J. took care to speak Truth to the utmost of his Knowledge and is a full denial of G. Keith's Charge Snake p. 66. Why was this the business of
so many Meetings and so great stir among theâ— For G. Keith was not so much as accused for Preaching any thing else but this But now Snake who mumblâ—â—â—â—istles was not he accused of very many Turbulent and Indecent Actions and Expressions as is at large seen in The State of the Case which I have above quoted and which the Snake also quotes with perversion as I have before shewn Snake p. 67. Here is a many forked and involved Infallibility one Meeting Justifying another Condemning G. Keith and all for the very same Doctrine Ibid. p. 68. This will not only overthrow the Infallibility in each particular Person but even of their Churches or Meetings That particular Persons may make Defection from the Guidings of the Spirit of Truth and may Apostatize from that Union and Fellowship which they had once with the Friends of it I have already largly shewn and what particulars may do Assemblies made up of such particulars may also do Floods and Parties as the Snake expresses it may Apostatize as well as particulars nay a whole Community may Apostatize and yet the Infallibility of the Guide of any one particular Person who continues Faithful and Obedient to the Holy Spirit remains firm and sure Thus 1 Cor. 10.4 The Apostle testifies of the Jews They all Drank the same spiritual Drink for they Drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. Now this Rock could have as Infallibly preserved the whole Tribes of Israel from Egypt thro' the Wilderness to the promised Land had they been Obedient to it as it did Caleb and Joshua who were the only two of all the Thousands that left Egypt and entered in But further that Assemblies or Churches may Apostatize and Backslide the Holy Spirit is sufficient Warrant by the particular reproofs or cautions it gives to the seven Asiatick Churches mentioned Rev. 2.2 and 3. And sure the Snake will not be so hardy as to say that the Holy Spirit was able only to give Reproof and Caution suitable to their wants and defects but not to have preserved them blameless and to have guided them Infallibly in that way he appointed them to go Ibid. p. 68. Besides this first proof in Pensilvania there is yet another more express and positive called The Barbadoes Judgment c. And besides the detecting the Snake's false conclusion in that I have to say to this that according to his usual Injustice he herein makes use of an Adversary's Book Babel's Builders c. without taking notice of the Answer which was published to it Intituled A Babilonish Opposer of Truth reproved c. By S. C. I. P. and R. R. as he also passes over in Silence tho' mentioned in that Adversaries Book a Letter of G. â—'s and others writ to Barbadoes concerning this very thing wherein they are shewn their cause is not right that they had taken which Letter and the matter it relates to is fully spoken to in our Answer above mentioned wherein is also S. E's condemnation of his rashness in those words spoke by him to J. S. mentioned p. 125. foregoing Ibid. p. 69 70. I was told by one present at the Quaker Meeting at Ratcliff on Sunday the 17 th of February 1694 5 That Mr. Penn having Preached and after G. Keith rising up and expounding some Scripture in another manner than Mr. Penn had done Mr. Penn stop'd him and solemnly denounced these words against him In the Name of the Lord I pronounce him an Apostate over the Head of him Vpon which occasion I have these few Questions to ask Q. Whether this was a Sentence from Mr. Penn himself or from their Church Whether by an Ordinary Commission of Succession to Christ and the Apostles Whether by an Extraordinary Commission such as the Prophets and the Apostles had To the first W. Penn being in Unity with the Church declared this of one who had broken Unity by making defection from that term of Union which in time passed he had declared he was by the Light of Christ in him led to profess and believe Secondly All who are kept living by the Spirit of Truth in that bond of Union which that did at first lead into such have ordinary Commission therefrom to testifie against Apostates And this not by such falsly pretended Succession as the Papal Chair or others may pretend to from the Apostles But by succeeding in a measure of that same Light and Holy Spirit which they were in To the Last W. Penn tho' then knowing G. K. to have broken Union as is before expressed he might at that time in the Openings of the Spirit of Truth have a larger and fuller Sight of his Apostacy and so a Warrant to Declare it And for this there needed no new Credentials viz. Miracles it being no more than what hath been confirmed by those the Apostles wrought Ibid. p. 72. But for the present I only apply it to the point of their Church Authority over the Light within particular Persons their original and great pretence The Light within particular Persons is as much our Characteristick now as ever and we have no Church Authority over it or repugnant to it and that in the case of G. K. no such Authority was used Consider the following Lines G. Keith hath often Printed and Declared that he did believe and profess the same Doctrines and Principles of Faith with us and that he was led so to do only by the Light of Jesus Christ shining into his Heart Through and by which Light he did profess to have true union and fellowship with us and accordingly he so was denominated and distinguished Now the Light of Jesus Christ is not contrary to it self and if by the inshinings thereof and his obedience to it it was that G. K. did profess as above Then it naturally follows G. K's innovation to the contrary of what he hath so professed cannot proceed from that Light of Jesus Christ from which the above profession of Unity and Fellowship did Therefore to give Judgment against G. K. is not to give Judgment against the Light of Jesus Christ but agreeable to it even in G. Keith against himself The like is to be said of J. Story c. and others who have innovated and made defection as these did whose Works being bad the issue is the same with what Gamaliel shews Acts 5.28 They are come to naught And therefore after all the Boast which the Snake makes about Separation and Faction We may concerning all of them now declining and towards their end hope and have ground to believe that as many as are yet in a Spirit of Separation in whom are any true desires towards God for his guidance in the Truth such he will restore to the Fold they have strayed from And he will scatter them whose end is not his Honour agreeable to what the Psalmist said concerning the Wicked Psal. 37.36 He is gone I sought him but he could not be
a good Champion in the Snake's Army and well enough to serve to Revile a People more Righteous than himself and for whom his Iniquities would no longer admit him a Companion and was therefore denied by them p. 10. And though now he is grown so hard in Impiety as to revile them that denied him for his Uncleanness Yet while some little tenderness was remaining he agreed to the Judgment of our Friends against him as may further appear by his own acknowledgment cited also p. 7 8. Thus Be it known to all People unto whom these presents shall be read that I H. W. and A. my Wife do acknowledge and confess before the living God and all People that we have sinned and done that which we ought not to have done in suffering the Temptations of Sin in the Flesh to overcome us So this know all People that it was not because the Quakers Judgment or Doctrine or way of Worship is false that it caused us to fall from them But our Fall was of our Selves So here 's H. W. and his Wife against the Snake his reviving this false matter was to vilifie the Quakers and their Holy Doctrine H. W. confesses to his Shame there Fall was of themselves And on their Heads and his let it rest till they Repent and Ask Pardon of God they for their Transgressions and he for his Revilings on their behalf SECT XX. Of Enthusiasm or Inspiration as said by the Snake to be Owned by the Church of England Ibid. p. 314. THe Word Enthusiasm signifies Inspiration and may mean a good as well as an evil Inspiration I am no more in doubt of the Truth of this than I am certain that the Snake did affirm falsly when in Pref. p. 43. he said There is no Enthusiasm where there is not Pride Ibid. These poor misled Quakers are made to believe that the Church of England does wholly throw off all Inspiration of the Holy Spirit The Snake has told us as above quoted there is no Enthusiasm where there is not Pride And if he would so mislead the poor Quakers as to believe that she does wholly throw off all that it would be in him no less a fault than it is to bely the poor Quakers and mislead his Reader concerning what the Quakers do or do not believe Ibid. I will here briefly set down the Doctrine of the Church of England in this Point To which if the Snake could have truly added and my Agreeable Practice as it would have been for his Credit so it would have dwindled his Libel to a much less bulk than that which his numerous and many fork'd Falshoods have swell'd it to But now he spends 4 or 5 Pages in giving Instances from the Service and Liturgy of the Church of England concerning her Doctrine in this point of Inspiration of the Holy Ghost with which I am so far from being displeased that I could with pleasure have read them all over if he had given as many more and am glad that so Essential a Truth as is the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit is owned by her tho' this is not the first Knowledge I had of it for I have some Years since read the same in her Liturgy And after the Instances he has given of the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit he says p. 319. It is made necessary to every good word and thought and the Cause of all the Good that is in us And we are directed to it to Follow and be Guided by it and are assured that it will lead us to all Truth that is requisite and necessary for our Eternal Salvation It is this which opens the Scriptures to us and our Vnderstandings rightly to apprehend the true sense and meaning of them c. In all this the Snake as he hath said what is agreed to and believed by every Sober Quaker So he hath herein declared the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost to be as Infallible as we believe it is And now before we part from a point in which we do as he says so exactly agree let us a little reason upon it and examine whether he has Squared his foregoing Sections by this Infallible Rule And first I shall observe the Snake says We are directed to it to Follow and be Guided by it and are assured no doubt by a certain Knowledge that it will lead us to all Truth that is requisite and necessary for our Eternal Salvation Supposing this to be true the Snake did very Scandalously not to say worse when he made the Devil as Infallible as any of their Church For in p. 39. speaking of that Light or Knowledge which comes from God which is the Inspiration of the H. Spirit he saith If that Knowledge which comes from God be Infallible then while the Devil follows that Light or Knowledge he must be Infallible And if this be all the Infallibility which the Quakers ascribe to themselves it seems it is all the Snake ascribes to the Church It Distinguishes them not from Wicked Men or Devils This is very hard but there is worse yet For though he does here say That the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost will lead us to all Truth requisite and necessary to our Salvation and so consequently will bring them that follows it to Heaven Yet this they are his own Words p. 40. will no more prove it to be Infallible or sufficient of it self to bring us to Heaven than it will follow that Man cannot die because God breathes into him the breath of Life or that he is Omnipotent because his Strength comes from God These Instances from the Snake though they clash yet in some that follow they will be found to cut one another up by the Roots For here in p. 319. He is very confident That the Church of England does agree with us concerning what we mean by the Light within And I must needs say the same Yet in p. 60. He gives the Light within in which he says we do so much agree with the Church of England a very evil Character and says It does totally root up and destroy all Church Government and Order Nay in p. 96. speaking of this Enthusiasm he says It is Inconsistent to the Government either in Church or State or any Security from all the Dismal and Enthusiastical Murthers Rapines and Outrage of the Zealots among the Jews who went upon the same Principle Fye Snake what the same Principle with the Church These are very ill Characters to recommend that Inspiration in which he is Confident the Church of England does agree with us Indeed he endeavours with a strange Contradiction to make all whole again by adding in the next Words yet shew'd no evil signs of it I would not willingly tire my Reader with Observations of the Snake's Contradictions upon this Head and therefore I shall but gather and add a few more of which this is one worthy of notice That though here in Page 319. he has made
Anguis Flagellatus OR A Switch for the Snake BEING AN ANSWER To the Third and Last Edition OF THE Snake in the Grass WHEREIN That Author's Injustice and Falshood both in Quotation and Story are Discover'd and Obviated And the Truth Doctrinally Deliver'd by Us Stated and Maintained in Opposition to his Misrepresentation and Perversion By Joseph Wyeth To which is added a SUPPLEMENT By George Whitehead Psal. 37.12 The Wicked Plotteth against the Just and Gnasheth upon him with his Teeth Prov. 26.18 19. As a Mad-Man who casteth Firebrands Arrows and Death So is the Man that Deceiveth his Neighbour and saith am not I in Sport London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street and at the Bible in Leaden-Hall-street 1699. Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber PREFACE Impartial Reader AS I here present to thy View and Serious Consideration Our Vindication against the Attempts of an Enemy So I judge it necessary at least briefly to give thee some Account some Reasons for my so doing I am sensible that Business and Action tread so close upon the Heels of Leisure with very many that tho' this may incline yet that may prevent the bestowing time to read Discourses either tedious in their Length or in their Nature If this partake of both these I can assure thee Reader with respect to its Length it hath so hapned not through any abounding Leisure that I had to swell this but from a necessity to follow the Snake through his Windings or to speak in his Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thereby to obviate his Objections which were of any seeming force and how far that is done thy Judgment is for thy self to determine Of this I shall only say that as on the one hand I have endeavour'd to avoid prolixity so on the other I have endeavour'd to use such and so many words as might sufficiently express the Matters spoken to If in this endeavour I have prov'd something short or defective in Expression or have sometime used not the most proper and apt Expressions to the purpose intended I hope the impartial Reader will from the Bulk Scope and general Tendency of what I have said find cause to conclude that the fault is only in that and not in the meaning And that this is always sound if that be not always so this being our Duty that so far as it relates to Art being only an accomplishment is tho' a conveniency to them that have it yet a Duty upon none Which as I do not profess to be my Talent so neither will it I hope be strictly exacted of me But as to the Nature or Kind of this Tract that was wholly out of my Power for Controversial it must be and that is not always pleasant to every Reader And what may yet serve to add to that Ground of Dislike is that the Chain or Thread of the Discourse being frequently broken by Quotations from the Adversary and other occasions there often may be an uncertain or uneven Stile Yet I hope the Reader will not be hereby prejudiced against the Truth delivered but accept that tho' meanly drest This in general for the Book I here present And now I may add some few things with respect to that to which this is the Answer viz. The Snake in the Grass Which Title imples a Lurking Practice not imputable to us since the things Charged are mostly from Books that are Publick to all and made so with Design that they might be more generally look'd into than they are so that Lurking is not our Way but his Practice which is yet more manifest in that the pretended Relations of Fact which he gives to support the Title Snake in the Grass are by their Falshood true Evidences that this Title is his Character But as Naturalists observe Things Venomous do often carry with them their own Antidote so it is by this Snake In which the Antidote is near the Poyson and the Remedy near the Disease His Disingenuity is the Poyson its Counterballance is his Self-contradiction and apparent Perversions which are such as may be seen by little Observation For what greater Contradiction can there be than after having Ridicul'd Aspers'd and Prophanely Treated our Belief of the Sufficiency of the Light within and having endeavour'd to represent it as Inconsistent and Impossible by fallacious Arguments in several of his Sections Yet after all this to come and say and acknowledge concerning its Sufficiency as much as we do and to persuade his Reader that it is his belief Thus p. 39. he has endeavour'd to represent wicked Men and Devils to be as Infallibly guided as those who are guided by the Light of Christ in Men which we say is Suffitient to guide Men in the way of true Obedience to God And in p. 60. he hath endeavour'd to represent this our Belief of the Suffitiency of the Light within as that which does totally root up and destroy all Church Government and Order And p. 167. he saith Outward Preaching must be wholly inconsistent with this Suffitiency of the Light within And now in Opposition and Contradiction to all this and much more of this sort scattered throughout the whole Book he seems in p. 319. to be as fully persuaded of the Suffitiency of the Light within as any Sober Quaker as he expresses it and there says of this Light within or Inspiration for he makes them Synonimous It is the Cause of all the Good that is in us and we are directed to it to follow and be guided by it and are assured that it will lead us to all Truth that is requisite and necessary for our Eternal Salvation And this he delivers not as his own Sentiment only but also as the belief of the Church of England which if it be it will concern him to prove for himself and them that this Inspiration which is suffitient to lead to all Truth requisite and necessary to Eternal Salvation do not run into the Error of Origen that the Devils shall be finally saved That it do not totally root up and destroy all Church Government and Order That it be not wholly Inconsistent with all outward Preaching And with many other things which he hath said it is as is before quoted But now more Particularly with respect to the Author of the Snake he is disingenious and a false Witness And as a Clipper or Coiner is of no Credit so he by perverting words spoken and forging that for ours which never was has sufficiently shewn what Credit is to be given to him As for his Perversions they are detected in every of the following Sections and are so numerous that to repeat them all I must transcribe a great part of the Book into the Preface wherefore I shall only take notice of one and that is a Quotation which he has made in p. 81. out of W. Penn's Address c. which he has notoriously perverted as I have shewn Sect. V. p. 144 145. And
And I firmly believe that if the Professors of Truth keep in the Possession of it the Kingdoms of this World will become the Kingdoms of God and of his Son Jesus Christ who in his smallest appearance as in the vision declared by the Prophet Dan. 2.31 32 33 34. breaks to pieces the seemingly strong and gay Combinations and Pretences of Men which shall oppose his Work in Men and will Blow them away as the Chaff of the Summer threshing Floor Pref. p. 31. Enthusiasm has been the root of the greatest Evils that have befallen the Church It is a perfect opposition to all Rule and Government And there can be no order kept where it is admited Thus Indefinitely and without distinction he brands Enthusiasm yet in the same Page allows it to be Divine admits the greatest flights and extasies of it And says The Higher the Better And in Sect. 22. p. 314 c. defining Enthusiasm to signifie Inspiration and saying it may mean a Good as well as an Evil Inspiration He takes some pains to prove from the Liturgy and Offices of the Church Service that the Church of England which he pretends to be of allows it pretends to it and prays for it Yet in Pref. p. 43. He says There is no Enthusiasm where there is not Pride Which being dressed in the Garb and Guise of Humility is literally the Devil Thus he fights against himself by owning and denying the same thing And not less in the Marks he gives to know that Enthusiasm which he calls Divine from that which he calls Diabolical The first Pref. p. 323. is that Enthusiasm or those Inspirations for he makes them Synonymous which are Divine fill us with Humility and withal a great Charity for others being more apt to have a good Opinion of them than of our Selves Now Reader I will shew thee that the Snake our Adversary is free from this first Mark of Divine Inspiration For as contrary as Hatred is to Love as Cruelty is to Mercy so is his Disdainful and Scornful Insulting and Scoffing which throughout his Book appears contrary to the Humility and Charity which the holy Spirit teacheth And it is in Disdain and Scorn where this Adversary p. 16. speaking of G. F. says it was a bewildring of his poor Vnderstanding And in p. 17. speaking of G. F. he says he had an immoderate degree of Dulness and lack of Vnderstanding as could hardly befall any thing in Humane Shape And in p. 150. speaking of G. F. he says But George Magus owned no other Holy Ghost than what was within himself of which he was the Possessor and Owner P. 42 43. Speaking to G. W. he says Scoffingly and Insultingly George hold up thy Face and look like a Man Come be brisk and tell me by yea and by nay Ibid. Alas poor George Is the Infallible Quakers dwindled down to a meer Gypsie Ah! George What a blessed Spirit wouldst thou have thought Satan These few instances may shew how far the Snake is from that Humility and Charity which himself makes the first and proper Mark of Divine Enthusiasm or Inspiration Charity he says Pref. p. 35. believeth all things that are good or can be well construed of another But himself is so far from this Charity that he misconstrues all things against us with set purpose to abuse us When he says Pref. p. 34. Hence We himself and Party dispise others and are apt to censure them even unto Hell he says true to the Shame of himself and them But when he adds The Quakers have damn'd all but themselves he says false and that it may appear he hath falsly charged us pray Reader consider the following Quotation taken from one of our Ancient Friends Isaac Penington in his Treatise Entituled An Answer to that common Objection against the Quakers that they condemn all but themselves which was writ early and reprinted with his Works Anno. 1680. where p. 310. of the first part of his Works He thus speaks The Protestant Churches as they are called in way of distinction from the Church of Rome the blessed Martyrs who suffered for the Testimony of a pure Conscience towards God and all the Worthies of the Lord in their several Generations who fought against the Scarlet Whore were accepted of God in their Testimony against Her and are not disowned by us but dearly owned and honoured therein He continues in giving Instances both of persons and things as Luther Hus Brute and Fox with whom we agree in these things as against deriving a Ministry from Rome and maintaining it by Tithes and denying Swearing c. And then adds p. 311. But all things were not discovered at once The Times were then dark and the Light small yet they being Faithful according to what was discovered were precious in the Lord's Eyes and what through Ignorance they err'd in the Lord winked at and overlooked being pleased with the Sincerity and Simplicity of Heart which he had stirred up in them towards himself Thus he as who please may read with more to the same purpose Now pray Reader consider whether this be Damning all but our selves or whether it be not of that Charity which the Snake hath made one Mark of Divine Inspiration And more Instances of this sort I could heap but that I aim to satisfie not cloy thee and therefore come to the Snake's Second sure Mark and which is a Mark of Diabolical Inspiration and that is Pref. p. 35. Heresie Instill'd contrary to the Truth of the Gospel Which as apply'd to us is begging the Question And the Charge is the same from the Church of Rome to the Church of England and from other Dissenters to her also So that this his Sure Mark does by such begging the Question as surely hit himself as others And therefore I shall let this Mark rest till I come to the Instances which he shall give of Heresies we hold contrary to the Truth of the Gospel and may then have opportunity to shew that the Snake is with the Papist as ready to bestow the name Heretick as I have shewn him to be Uncharitable Proud and Disdainful I come now to his third and last Mark Pref. p. 36. viz. of Schism upon which our Adversary mentions that of the Corinthians reproved by the the Holy Apostle 1 Cor. 12. where he says To speak with the Tongue of Men and Angels to understand all Mysteries c. To which the Snake adds Pref. p. 37. All this would signifie nothing to us if we keep not in the Vnity of the Body which is the Church Pref. p. 38. And be not content with our Station as Members tho' never so Eminent as an Eye or a Hand without making a Schism in the Body by withdrawing our due Subjection to the Head our Spiritual Governors who are the Principles of Vnity in the Body Pref. p. 39. And now Reader stay and admire That if even Miraculous Gifts were not a sufficient Pretence for any to
advance himself above his Bishop or withdraw from under his Government And the Snake gives us a Reason why this strict Subjection must hold Pref. p. 41. Because Corruptions in the Church are better amended by living in the Communion of the Church and there-by Exhorting Admonishing and Shewing Good Example to Reclaim Thus the Snake And Reader Let me now shew thee how in all this he hath combated the Reformation and thrown down the Church-Services as Schismatical which in Sect 22. he calls Divine Enthusiasm That I may shew this It hath been acknowledged by Members of the Church of England in Dispute with those of the Church of Rome That there is Possibility of Salvation in the Church of Rome She being truly a Church though Corrupt Now if so according to the Doctrine of the Snake the first Reformers from Popery how Eminent soever nay if endued with Miraculous Gifts had not sufficient Pretence to advance themselves Above their Bishop who being their Spiritual Governour and Head they did owe a due Subjection to him And this the Snake endeavours to enforce Pref. p. 40. That notwithstanding the Wickedness of the Priests and People of the Jews Yet the Holy Prophets sent from God set not up opposite Altars to the Altars of those wicked Priests nor invaded their Office Readers who are in Communion with the Church of England See your Advocate is gone to Rome in his Preface and to his Power hath struk at the Root of the Reformation not only here in England but throughout Europe By which Key we may open his meaning in Pref. p. 42. where he would be understood to have a Flaming Charity for the good of the Body and the Vnity of the Church And now for a Man that has in such large Characters Apologized for Rome and endeavoured to weaken the Reformation in the nullity of those Arguments on which it is partly built to be so much in Passion as in Page 189. he is with Josiah Coale for Reprinting in a piece of his what he calls A Sensless but bitter Libel against the Church of England written by A. S. a Papist is very odd it shews his Disposition to be very Uncertain by the Unsettledness of his Reason But hitherto I have only apply'd his Doctrine to the Reformation It 's true it fits not there but there may be some Excuse in that he might in hast not think of squaring his Doctrine by that Rule But then let 's Examine his Doctrine by his own Practice which being under his Daily Observation or else he is very forgetful it is not so likely to run Counter to that Yet such is this Man's blindness That Reader what he objects against us called Quakers and all other Dissenters from the Church of England for Instances of Schism are directly within the Line of his Practice For this doughty Champion who with so much Confidence in Page 336. does Demand Reparation in the Name of the Church of England did yet withdraw himself from his acknowledged due Subjection to his Spiritual Head and Guide his Bishop in not acknowledging of the present Government and has been more apt to Censure others than himself and to Divide than Heal which in Pref. p. 43. he saith We ought not Hence his Momus-like Disposition in Ireland And Hence the Occasion of the Warrant for his Apprehension while endeavouring to escape to France when at War with us in which Practices I doubt not but he is disowned by that Church as that Church must be acknowledged to be disowned by those who tho' in Corners set up private Altars against her Thus in Examination His private Practices run Counter to his publick Pretences which is a Mark of Hypocrisie to which more may be spoken anon But besides all this If Corruptions in a Church are best mended by living in the Communion of it and there by Exhorting Admonishing and Shewing Good Examples Does the Church of England give Liberty so to do to those that continue in her Communion If not what is this but to sham and deceive the unwary Reader But we are rather to take the account of his disposition towards us by the Character which he makes of 30 or 40 different Sects as he calls all Dissenters Pref. p. 43. that they are like the Spawn of the Viper And I cannot think they or he would like the Exhortation and Admonition of such Spawn Pref. p. 44. He advises to be willing chearfully to submit our selves to our Superiours both in Church and State Here he would again impose upon the Reader as if himself did both when in truth neither which if he did it might be hoped in Charity he would be more a Christian and a better Subject The Introduction considered HAving dispatched the Preface before I reply to the Book I shall here observe to thee Reader the Profaneness Hypocrisie and Injustice of this our Adversary in some few collected Instances that I may not postpone thy inquiry to a distinct survey of the whole And first for his Profaneness He doth in a stile not Grave or Serious but Light Airy Deriding and Scoffing treat of Matters most Grave and Serious at least herein equalling if not outdoing the Stage Hereby stirring up Levity in the Wild and Wanton and keeping the Reader from a Sober and Serious Consideration of things rather than make it his endeavour to convince Gain-sayers satisfie the Scrupulous reduce the Erronious propagate the Gospel or to bring Converts or Honour to the Church he pretends to be of And it is not to be imagined that Persons of solid Judgment Sobriety and a serious Sense of Religion should endure much less be taken with an attempt running counter to these purposes Of this sort is his whole 23 Sect. where in most Prophane Manner he redicules the Operations of the holy Spirit calling it p. 330. a mad Joy and p. 336. Enthusiastick Madness And of G. Fox says p. 330. he was a Liberal Cursing Prophet a Journey-man Shooe-maker the Ground and Occasion of whose Enthusiasm was Despair p. 331. So Ignorant p. 335. that he knew not before but God dwelt in a Church as Man does in a House so as to be locked up and to be no where else when he is there And that George Magus as he is pleased to call him owned no other holy Ghost than what was within himself of which he was the possessor and owner p. 150. And speaking to George Whitehead p. 42 43. he does in scoffing Mood bid him by yea and by nay hold up his Face be Brisk and look like a Man This with abundance more scatter'd throughout the whole Book He says p. 6. he is forced to now and then in answer to such sensless Arguments and Pretences as deserve no otherwise to be confuted And on this account it is that of Dissenters in general he can afford no better Character or Simile than that they are like the Spawn of the Viper Now sober Reader pray consider Do
distinguish what he has taken as above in a different Character Pref. p. 7. of Great Mystery First The Lord brought us by his Power and Wisdom and the Word by which all Things were made to know and understand and see perfectly that God had given to us every one of us in particular a Light from himself shining in our Hearts and Consciences which Light Christ his Son the Saviour of the World had lighted every Man and all Mankind withal which Light in us we found sufficient to reprove us and convince us of every evil Deed Word and Thought and by it in us we come to know Good from Evil Right from Wrong and whatsoever is of God and according to him from what is of the Devil and what is contrary to God in Motion Word and Work And this Light gave us to discern between Truth and Error between every False and Right Way and it perfectly discovered to us the true state of all things And we thereby came to know Man what he was in his Creation before Transgression and how he was deceived and overcome by the Devil and his estate in Transgression and in Disobedience And how he is drove and banished from the presence of the Lord and the Sorrow and Anguish which he is in and to undergo And also by the Light in us we perfectly came to know the way of Restauration and the means to be restored and the state of Man being come out of Transgression and restored These things to us were revealed by the Light within us which Christ had given us and Lightned us withal What Man was before Transgression and what he is in Transgression and what he is being redeemed out of Transgression and also the Light which shined in every one of us as to it our Minds became turned and our Hearts inclined the perfect estate of the Church we came to know Her estate before the Apostles days and in the Apostles days and since the days of the Apostles And her present state we found to be as a Woman who had once been clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her Feet who brought forth him that was to rule the Nations but She was fled into the Wilderness and there sitting desolate in her place that was prepared of God for such a season which season in the very end thereof when the time of her sojourning was towards a full end then were we brought forth If any have an Ear they may hear So that all these things concerning Man and concerning the Times and Seasons and the changing and renewing of Times and all things that pertain to Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life needful for Man to know ALL THIS WAS discover'd revealed and made known to us by the Light that was in us which Christ had lighted us withal Thus E. B. The Snake's next Quotation is from E. B's Works p. 862. and his quotation is thus Every true Member of the Church hath certainty and infallibility of Judgment and discerning who are out of the Truth and in the way of Error and are Hereticks In this as in the last he hath abusively mangled E. B's words which are these Every true Member of the true Church hath its particular Measure of the Infallible Spirit of Christ whereby he is certainly persuaded of the way of Truth in which he walks and knows and believes the Infallibility of the Truth he professes and is certain and secure of the way of his Peace and Assurance in God which he hath received and believed and hath also certainty and infallibility of Judgment and discerning who are out of the Truth and in the way of Error and are Hereticks Such are infallibly known and discerned by the Spirit of God in the true Church of Christ. See here Reader the great perversion of words sound as can be deliver'd and which I dare the Snake to deny if he can for if he does he must of necessity thro' away all that Enthusiasm to which he says the Church in her Offices does pretend Ibid. p. 34. Quoted from E. B's Works p. 861 862. So both the Law-makers and the Judges of the Law must be infallible in Knowledge and Judgment in this case of Heresie otherwise the Law made for that purpose and the Judgment given by that Law are both false and unjust and not according to God and his Truth but are to be justly Judged and Condemn'd of the Lord God in his day and season This the Snake says dissolves our Laws Damns the Law-makers and infers necessarily the Quakers Opinion of their own Infallibility To this Charge let the Snake himself answer whether or no his refusing Swearing Obedience to the Present Government dissolves the Law which requires it of him Damns the Makers of that Law and does infer an Opinion of his own Infallibility Ibid. p. 35. Quoted from E. B's Works p. 198. where I have look'd for the words quoted by the Snake but find no such if he be mistaken in the page when that is rectified it may be answered Ibid. p. 35. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 107. Thou sayst that the Holiest Man is not able to give an Infallible Character of another Man Hast thou not in this discovered thy self to be no Minister of Christ or of the Spirit who cannot give an Infallible Character of another Man how canst thou minister to his Condition How canst thou see them that be turned from the Darkness and that be in the Darkness and distinguish the one from the other and an Holy Man from an Vnholy Man that canst not give an Infallible Character of any Man's Estate Ibid. p. 36. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 94. Have you given your selves a Name of a Church of Christ and is there not a Spirit of Discerning among you have you not manifested there that you are Harlotted from the Church of Christ the Apostles were of and how can you minister or teach People if ye do not discern their estates how they stand before God how can you commend your selves to every Man's Conscience in God's sight How can ye present the Souls of Men to God and see not their states how they are in his Sight How came ye to have fellowship in the Spirit How can you or any minister to the state and condition that people be in and see where they are and doth not see how they stand in God's sight From these two long Quotations he draws two Inferences or Conclusions which I will briefly repeat and then reply to them Here the Quakers have excluded all from the Church of Christ from having any fellowship in the Spirit who have not this Infallible Spirit of Discerning every Man's Heart Secodly It is evident they did not discern Keith and Bugg whom for many years they own'd as true Quakers thought them principal Pillars whom now they vilifie as Apostates Therefore by their own Argument all the Quakers are Harlotted from the Church of Christ have no fellowship in the
And that to this Holy Spirit Wicked Men and Devils are disobedient yet still have such degrees of Knowledge which are the proper Distinction of their Being Ibid. p. 39. Sometimes it makes them as Infallible as the Apostles nay as Christ himself But at other times when they are pressed they bring down this Infallibility to mean nothing in the World that does distinguish them from other Men. It is utterly false no Quaker hath said he was as Infallible as the Apostles or Christ himself I demand an Instance But without pressing we have often said that a Manifestation of the Light and Infallible Spirit or Grace is 1 Cor. 12.7 given to every Man to profit withal without distinction That which makes the Distinction is Obedience to it By this it was Paul could say 1 Cor. 15.10 By the Grace of God I am what I am and by the same Grace we say we are what we are Ibid. p. 40. But this will no more prove it to be Infallible or sufficient of it self to bring us to Heaven than it will follow that Man cannot die because God breathed into him the Breath of Life or that he is omnipotent because his strength comes from God That the Holy Spirit is Infallible and sufficient for the purposes for which God hath given to Men manifestations of it is very certain from the testimony of God himself 2 Cor. 12.9 My Grace is sufficient for thee But it follows not from this that Man cannot Die or that he is omnipotent because his Life and Strength came from God God hath been pleased to give to Men such Natural Powers as are agreeable to the Nature of their Humane Being And these Natural Powers being employed according to that Great Law of Order in which we stand in the Creation we may act in them our appointed time But the Principles of our Humane Being being finite their power to act is the same and must come to an end With Spirits It is otherwise They are more simple and uncompounded Beings therefore of eternal Duration And the God of the Spirits of all Flesh in Infinite Compassion when Man had forfeited his Title to Happiness to us that this Eternal Duration might be in happiness gave the Son of his Love that we who were afar off might be reconciled to himself which cannot be but as the Spirit of Man which hath rebelled and been in Disobedience comes by the Operation of the Spirit of God upon it to be restored into obedience to its Guidings Which if he will be in the day of his Visitation That Grace and Truth which comes by Jesus Christ will sufficiently and infallibly lead him into Reconciliation with God from whom through disobedience he was fallen And this is not as the Snake says p. 41. Derogatory to the Satisfaction paid by Christ for our Sins But on the contrary places the true value upon it It being that by which we are put into a capacity of being reconciled and not by any power of our own And when the Apostle bids Phil. 2.12 To work out our own Salvation We never understood it otherwise than by the assistance of that Grace which comes by Jesus Christ to Men during the day of their visitation Ibid. p. 41. That does not make the Light within the efficient cause of our Salvation or give it any Title to Infallibility more than vers 13. of the 4th Chap. in the same Epistle can entitle us to Omnipotence because St. Paul says there I can do all things That Christ in his Spiritual Appearance the Light within is the Efficient cause of our Salvation I need not give a greater proof than this same 13th vers which the Snake has quoted For there the Apostle Phil. 4.13 says I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me that is all things relating to his Ministry as an Apostle or his Duty as a Christian. I come now to the Snake's 4th Head of Distinction which is little more than Profane and Scornful Banter after the first Paragraph p. 41. But if any could pretend to Infallibilty They will be found to have the best title to whom the Quakers would most unwillingly grant it For it is written Prov. 16.10 A Divine Sentence is in the Lip of the King and his Mouth transgresseth not in Judgment Why then does the Snake deny that best Title and not obey that Divine Sentence which confirmed the present Government Why would he flee the Judgment of a Mouth which transgresseth not in Judgment By fleeing and denying he loudly proclaims his unwillingness to grant it But as for us we do not unwillingly but readily grant That God is ready to supply Kings with Wisdom and Justice suitable to their High Station for the good of themselves and those they govern if they in humility will receive it But as with God there is no respect of persons so we do as readily grant That God by his Spirit does as infallibly teach the Governed in their private capacities all that is necessary to their Salvation if they will but attend and learn Ibid. p. 42. Do you think that the Quakers infallibility is limited to speaking only They can make an Infallible Judgment of Men's Hearts and tell who are Saints and who are Devils by very winks and glances At the first glance and so throughout this appears to be a very Lye for no Quaker hath so said But we do say that such who be in the Power and Life of Truth can discern between Saints and Devils for all true Spiritual Discerning is in the Holy Spirit Not but that there often are exteriour marks of inward wickedness Hence Gen. 4.5 When Cain was very wroth his Countenance fell Hence David saith Psal. 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God And the Prophet Isaiah chap. 3.9 The shew of their Countenance doth witness against them and in the 16th vers the Lord numbers up among the exterior marks of inward wickedness wanton Eyes mincing and tinkling with their Feet Yet these exterior infallible marks as they have been declared by God himself is in the language of this Profane Adversary p. 43. Dwindled down to a meer Gypsie a paultry Fortune-teller to nothing but a little skill in Physiognomy Reader Is it possible for one who so profanely ridicules both the Inward Discerning and the Outward Marks of Secret Iniquity to advance the great end of good Life and Conversation No such ridiculing is in direct opposition to them and is distructive to Exemplary Modesty how great soever his pretence may be of love to Souls I come now to his Fifth Head of Distinction of divers Stories of particular Failings which he brings in opposition to that Infallibility I have so largely spoken of which Plea the Snake says p. 48. leads us naturally into this sort of Redargution Though here as before he is altogether out For tho' to give a Man a Fall is it 's true a plain Conviction
travelling Friends that went abroad c. It is not good manners to name Names upon such an occasion Yet if the Friends will plead Ignorance something may be done for their Satisfaction That Women as well as Men may forsake the Guidings of the Spirit of God and run into Wickedness is very true but that any who have so run into Wickedness are Preachers or as such Travelling Friends as he in scoffing Mood calls them and intimates is very false and I dare him to name any that are such I come now to his 6th Head of Distinction which is a continuation of Stories of particular Failings VI. But we may make a little more bold with the Mens Infallibility And I will not go to mean Ones The Great James Naylor was brought upon his knees before their Church where G. F. presided to acknowledge his Failings This James Naylor suffered himself to be Hosannah'd into Bristol as Christ was into Jerusalem Of this Adversaries Boldness and Scoffing we have great Proof but of his Honesty and Truth we have none of his Lyes here is also fresh Proof For it never was the Practice of any Church or Meeting of ours to bring any Transgressor upon their knees nor did G. F. ever preside in them or any other Person We neither have nor own in our Assemblies any Headship of Man or Men the only Head of them being Christ Jesus who dignifies whom he pleases with fit qualifications by his Holy Spirit for the Service of his Church and they that continue faithful in their Gifts such we with the Apostle esteem worthy of double Honour But now as to James Naylor of whom the Snake often makes mention I shall here at once speak concerning him J. N. was a Man who had been highly favoured of God with a good degree of Grace which was sufficient for him had he kept to its teachings For while he did so he was exemplary in Godliness and great Humility was Powerful in Word and Doctrine and thereby Instrumental in the hand of God for turning many from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to the Power of God But he Poor Man Became exalted above Measure through the abundance of Revelations And in that Exaltation did depart from the Grace and Holy Spirit of God which had been his sufficient Teacher Then blindness came over him and he did suffer himself to be accounted of above what he ought Here he slipt and fell but not Irrecoverably For it did please God of his Infinite Mercy in the Day of his Affliction to give him a sight and sense of his outgoings and fall and also a place of Repentance And he did with the Prodigal weep bitterly and humbled himself for his Transgression and he besought God with true Contrition of Soul to pardon his offences through Jesus Christ God I firmly believe forgave him for he pardons the truly Penitent His People received him with great Joy for that he who had gone astray from God was now returned to the Father's House and for that he who had separated himself from them through his Iniquity was now through Repentance and Forsaking of it returned into the Unity of the Faith and their Holy Fellowship in the Gospel of Christ. And I do hereby testify that I do esteem it a particular mark of God's owning his People in bringing back into Unity with them a Man who had so dangerously fallen as did James Naylor And here let none Insult but take heed least they also in the hour of their Temptation do fall away Nor let any boastingly say Where is your God Or Blasphemously suppose his Grace is not sufficient for Men in Temptation because the tempted may go from and neglect the teachings of it David and Peter as their Transgressions came by their departing from this Infallible Guide the Holy Spirit So their recovery was only by it And for the Reader 's further satisfaction concerning James Naylor's Humiliation and Repentance I here subjoin his own Testimony Glory to God Almighty who ruleth in the Heavens and in whose Hands are all the Kingdoms of the Earth who raiseth up and casteth down at his Will who hath ways to Confound the Exaltation of Man and to Chastise his Children and to make Man to know himself to be as Grass before him whose Judgments are above the highest of Men and his pity reacheth the deepest Misery and thâ—s Arm of his Mercy is underneath to lift up the Prisoner out of the Pit and to save such as trust in him from the great Destruction which vain Man through his folly brings upon himself who hath delivered my Soul from Darkness and made way for my Freedom out of the Prison-house and ransomed me from the great Captivity who divides the Sea before him and removes the Mountains out of his way in the day when he takes upon him to deliver the Oppressed out of the Hand of him that is too mighty for him in the Earth let his Name be exalted for ever and let all Flesh fear before him whose Breath is Life to his own but a Consuming Fire to the Adversary And to the Lord Jesus Christ be Everlasting Dominion upon Earth and his Kingdom above all the Powers of Darkness even that Christ of whom the Scriptures declares which was and is and is to come the Light of the World to all Generations Of whose coming I testifie with the rest of the Children of Light begotten of the Immortal Seed whose Truth and Vertue now shines in the World unto Righteousness of Eternal Life And the Saviour of all that believe therein Who hath been the Rock of my Salvation and his Spirit hath given Quietness and Patience to my Soul in Deep Affliction even for his Name 's sake Praises for ever But condemned for ever be all those False Worships with which any have Idolized my Person in the Night of my Temptation when the Power of Darkness was above all their casting of their Clothes in the way their Bowings and Singings and all the rest of those Wild Actions which did any ways tend to dishonour the Lord or draw the Minds of any from the measure of Christ Jesus in themselves to look at Flesh which is Grass or to ascribe that to the Visible which belongs to Christ Jesus all that I condemn by which the pure Name of the Lord hath been any ways blasphemed through me in the time of Temptation or the Spirits of any People grieved that truly loves the Lord Jesus throughout the whole World of what state soever This Offence I confess which hath been sorrow of heart that the Enemy of Man's Peace in Christ should get this Advantage in the Night of my Trial to stir up Wrath and Offences in the Creation of God a thing the simplicity of my Heart did not intend the Lord knows who in his endless Love hath given me Power over it to condemn it and also that Letter which was sent me to Exeter by John
be true Prophets still His Fourth and last Instance here is of whom in Scorn he calls the Great Edw. Burroughs p. 57. quoted from p. 540 535 536 537. of his Works the words he quotes are these and stand in this order The time is come their Church meaning Rome cannot stand long And as sure as the Lord lives so shall it come to pass Here the Snake is himself to some purpose having in as deceitful and false manner as well can be represented the words of E. Burroughs in the pages quoted I will give thee Reader the several Instances from the several pages quoted by the the Snake The first page he here quotes it 540. where the Snake says he advises the Army to carry their Arms to the Gates of Rome But minds not that he there tells the Army That might be a work honourable in its day and season And that there is a Victory more honourable to wit the Victory over Sin and Death and the Devil in your selves and that you are to mind And at the bottom of p. 535. speaking of the Romish Church But their Weapons are Carnal and Devilish and by Murders Oppressions and Tyrannies they do defend themselves and when these things are broken down then their Church cannot stand long He continues p. 536. And as sure as the Lord lives so shall it come to pass a Generation shall accomplish it and in the Generation of the Righteous it shall be finished And in p. 537. E. B. saith thus Whether the Lord will revenge the grievous blood-guiltiness that lies upon them by himself without an Instrument or whether by you speaking to the Army or others as an Instrument Whether this way or another that God will do it I determine not But this I know that the time is not long that he will one way or other avenge and revenge the Blood of the Just upon the Murderers Head By all this Reader it abundantly appears that E. B. doth not assign Time or Means by or in which it shall be accomplished and so much any Good Man may warrantably speak concerning the finishing and putting an end to those Carnal and Devilish Church-Weapons of Murder Oppression and Tyranny Which tho' this Adversary would hug yet thanks be to God they are out of his power So that this Prophecy if the Snake will have it one must doubtless in its season be accomplished I come now to his Ninth Head of Distinction which is little else than one vehement Invective against the Authority of the Reformation I will briefly consider its parts p. 58. Extraordinary Inspirations are not to be credited unless vouched by Miracles which God always sent to attest his Extraordiry Commissions The Inspirations of the Prophets Joel Amos Obediah Micha and others mentioned in the Old Testament and of Agabus Acts 21.11 were all of them Extraordinary Inspirations But I find no Miracles that these their Extraordinary Inspirations were vouched by John the Baptist the Greatest Prophet born of a Woman his Mission was very extraordinary yet not attested by Miracles Now let us see where the Doctrine of the Snake will lead us Why he says Extraordinary Inspirations are not to be credited unless vouched by Miracles These Inspirations I have now spoken of are not to us so vouched are they therefore not to be credited This will break an Article of the Snake's pretended Faith and make imperfect the Scriptures which he says are a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners Ibid. p. 58. Let us take this one mark more to judge when such Inspirations are from God or from the Devil Yes we will Those from the Devil generally tend to Schism and Rebellion as in that of Jeroboam and the Ten Tribes who broke off from the Priesthood of Aaron as well as from the House of David and set up opposite Altars to that at Jerusalem This does deserve to be mark'd in that it First gives the Lie to the Scriptures and then kicks against the Reformation It gives the Lie to the Scripture for that God by his Prophet Shemiah 2 Cron. 11.4 when Rehoboam would have fought against Israel that he might have brought the Kingdom from Jeroboam to himself and that they were ready to fight they were of God forbid and the reason God by his Prophet gives is For this thing is done of me But the Snake says it 's done of the Devil Thus much for the Kingdom now for the Priestood That they broke off from the Priesthood of Aaron and set up opposite Altars is a mark applicable at this day or to what purpose does the Snake make it And say that separation from the Priesthood at this day is from the Devil And now if the Snake please let him prove how many of these separations which have been made within three hundred years from the Priesthood of the Roman Pontiff have been made by the Devil and let him not forget the Reformation in England But of this kind of arguing we have more Ibid. p. 58. But as they paid all Dutiful Obedience to their persecuting Kings and suffered Martyrdom under them without Resistance So did they always keep in the Communion of those same Priests whom they had provoked and reproved c. That Dutiful Obedience was paid by the Holy Prophets to persecuting Kings in their Days and hath been paid by us to persecuting Kings in our Days is very true But as for the Doctrine of Resistance if that be it the Snake quarrels at he may find Opponents enough in the Communion of that Church he pretends Membership in as he also may have the Voice of the Church of England against him Justifying themselves in that they did not keep the Communion of the Roman Priesthood but did set up a Separate Communion and Opposite Altars See Reader this Doughty Champion as he pretends for the Church of England under the false pretences of esteeming and valuing her Communion does in truth and reality as much as in him lies scandalize the Reformation by putting upon it very gross imputations as if it were from the Devil But worse yet Ibid. p. 59. And when our Saviour himself came into the World he did not separate from the publick Worship and Communion of the Jewish Church And to shew that the receiving of Christianity it self was no exemption from paying all Obedience to them he commands his own Disciples as well as the Multitude to pay them all manner of Obedience Our Saviour is declar'd Rom. 10.4 the end of the Law Then he must of necessity be the end of that Worship and Communion which was grounded on the Law And that the receiving of Christianity was an exemption to Obedience in that Worship and Communion The Apostle Paul is positive Gal. 5.2 for Christianity was not to be blended with Judaisims And when our Saviour said Matt. 23.3 Whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do He did not thereby continue the observance of the Ceremonial Law beyond the date of
Life is thus prefer'd Reader I cannot here omit by a serious Appeal to thy self on the great Injustice and Falsehood of this Adversary And if thou art one who by Conversation with us or our Books hast any knowledge of us thou dost know the Charge of this Adversary is false And I do truly declare that our Value and Esteem for the Books of the Old and New Testament is much greater than for any other Book exstant in the World and this G. W. doth freely own and hath declared as much So also in this particular I will shew his falshood and perversion of G. W's words in the place quoted which the Snake has injuriously curtail'd They are these That which was spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures or Chapters are and greater intending as received and proceeding immediately from that Spirit and spoken in the sense thereof as Christ's words were of greater Authority when he spake than the Pharisees reading the Letter and they in whom that Spirit speaketh not and their speaking we deny So that according to G. W's words that speaking or reading of the Scriptures which is deny'd to be of Authority is when spoken or read by such in whom that Spirit speaketh not that gave forth the Scriptures and we have good Authority for this for thus our Saviour Mat. 22.24 denyed the Sadduces when they spoke and repeated the Law mentioned Deuteronomy 25.5 and thus he also denyed the Devil Mat. 4.6 when the Devil repeated the Prophesy of the Psalmist 91.11 and thus also he deny'd the Pharisees of which are divers Instances Ibid. p. 110 111. Mary Tucker a Quaker Servant to W. Reyman a Barber now living in Queen-street Cheapside but formerly in Bread-street where this Mary then his Servant took the Bible and in the open Day publickly burnt it against the Church in Bread-street to shew her Zeal About 40. Years since one Mary Tucker then Servant to W. Reyman not in Zeal but discomposure of Mind did one Morning early before her Master or Mistriss were stirring burn the Bible For which act she was not only reproved by them but also by sundry of our Friends and disowned and among others concerned herein to reprove and disown this Mary Tucker E. B. as W. Reyman does testify was one which by the way Reader is another Evidence that E. B. had the Scripture in great Authority and Esteem As it is also no small mark of the Snake's Injustice to relate a Lye and say that no Censure was passed upon this Mary Tucker when he might have been informed to the contrary by W. Reyman the place of whose aboad he knew so well But we find he is rather willing to relate a Lye than either know or knowing speak the Truth not only in this Instance of Mary Tucker And the Censure past upon her which he might with little trouble have been informed of so much as this Snake hids in the City And in the Instance of Solomon Eccles p. 124 125. foregoing but also in divers other before and hereafter to be given wherein he hath affirm'd egregious falshoods not from any necessity he was under to depend upon false reports but from a base Inclination in him to shun the Truth and to hate Justice For had not this been his hinderance he might with the trouble of a few Lines and the small additional Charge of the Penny-Post to W. Reyman of Queen-street N. Marks of Cheapside R. Scoryer of Wansworth hereafter to be spoken c. have discharged these out of his Libel and by such other not chargable nor troublesome further than it is so to him that we should be in the right means he might have spared the rest Ibid. p. 111. Pursuant to this their Principle in their Disputes among themselves they appeal to their own Writings instead of the Holy Scriptures Pursuant to this Snake's Practice he hath affirmed a notorious Lye I dare him to give any Proof that may be allowed by Impartial Men that ever we did so appeal It can be no more Proof to quote a Book wherein G. Keith hath said so of us than it is for the Snake to quote Julian Porphery or Celsus for Proof that the Primitive Christians were in the wrong or to quote his own Opinion for Proof that the present Government is so But if the Snake will confute the Answer made to that Book of G. K's which he quotes that may be considered and reply'd to SECT VII His Charge of Idolatry refuted and the Quotations restor'd from his Perversions THat our Belief concerning the Light or Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in Man is according to Scripture I have before shewn and how that by a sincere Obedience to it it will lead to God and Christ whence it comes and to have true Agreement and Unity with the Declarations from the same Holy Spirit which are recorded in the Scriptures of Truth and also with all the Manifestations of the same Holy Spirit wheresoever and in whomsoever appearing For as God is one so the Holy Spirit leads all that obey it into Unity and Oneness and to account worthy of double Honour the Elders that rule well especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 And in this Section I shall shew that what is by this Adversary called The Quakers Idolatry is not so but only owing to his perversion for as Truth leads to give Honour to whom Honour is due So it also leads to account of no Man above what we ought Ibid. p. 112. They think it not Honour enough to stand before the Throne of God But G. Fox places them upon the Throne p. 31. I suppose Great Mystery for he mentions not the Book The Quakers are in the Power of God and in the Authority of the Lamb above all Houses and are upon the Throne I shall first here detect the Snake's Evil Practice in mangling this Quotation by giving it as it is in the page quoted and afterwards speak to the Doctrine of it To the first The Priest G. Fox's Opponent had said That the Quakers scorns to creep into Houses meaning when persecuted To which G. F. replies This doth not agree with the rest of his Company who say they do Creep into Houses The Quakers are in the Power of God and in the Authority of the Lamb and into Houses creep not but are upon the Throne but you that be in the Form that Deny the Power creep into Houses These Reader are his words and their sense is as plain and nothing but Envy and Ignorance I suppose the first in the Snake could cavil at them or it For who knows not that the word Throne in Religious Matters is a metaphorical expression denoting Spiritual Power and Dominion Christ promised Mat. 19.28 That they who followed him in the Regeneration should sit upon Thrones And to him that overcometh will I grant says he to sit with me in my
due time And he is now the object of the Faith of all true Christians not only as born of the Virgin c. but also as known and witnessed in his Inward and Spiritual Appearance in Man to bruise the Serpent's Head Power and Strength which has had Dominion and Rule in Man To this sense our Saviour himself does also explain the Spiritual Nature of the Seed the Word of God Luke 8.11 Ibid. p. 143. The Snake brings from Christian Quaker another Argument to the purpose foregoing which is this One Outward thing cannot be the proper Figure or Representation of another nor is it the way of Scripture so to Teach us c. To which the Snake says All the outward Sacrifices under the Law were Types or Figures of the Sacrifice of Christ the Outward Christ upon the Cross c. The whole Legal Dispensation of the First Covenant was a Figure of Christ and of that Dispensation of the New Covenant Grace and Truth which came by him But that it was not only a Type or Figure of Christ upon the Cross I shall shew in several Instances The Serpent which Moses made Numb 21.9 Our Saviour declares John 3.14 that as that was lifted up in the Wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up And this in a sense may be understood to have respect to our Saviour's being lifted up on the Cross but not only that for our Saviour carries the Type further and shews that it did respect that Spiritual Obedience and Faith in him which gives Eternal Life For as the Sting of the Serpents in the Wilderness were cured by looking to the Brazen Serpent So by coming through Faith and Obedience to look to Christ the Sting of Sin and Death are taken away by him Wherefore he saith v. 20.21 For every one that doth Evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doth Truth cometh to the Light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God In like manner the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our passover is crucified for us may have respect to Paschal Land as Type and to Christ crucified as typified but not altogether that for he carries it further and shews that whereas vers 1. It was reported there was Fornication among them And vers 6. That they gloried in what was not good He adviseth them to purge out the old Leaven and from the advantages of Power from Christ received he presseth them to keep the Feast not with old Leaven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness but with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth The same Apostle to the Colossians 11.16 17. Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy-Day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath Day which are a Shaddow of things to come but the Body is of Christ And that they were Shadows of the Spiritual Appearance of Christ whose Dispensation to Mankind was introduced by his outward Appearance the Apostle to the Hebrews shews chap. 9. that the Service which stood in Meats and Drinks and divers Washing and carnal Ordinances did not make perfect as pertaining to the Conscience but was a Figure of good things to come even the purging the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God by the spotless Offering of the Blood of Christ through the Eternal Spirit Thus the benefit of that Offering cannot be witnessed by Man but through the inward Operation of the Eternal Spirit whereby the Conscience can be purged from Dead Works And thus the Scripture plainly teaches That the Types and Shadows of the Law and the Ministry of it are the Figure of the Covenant promised Jer. 31.33 which is also plentifully shewn by the Apostle to the Hebrews throughout that admirable Epistle And agreeable herewith is W. P. in the place last quoted by the Snake for those words of his One Outward thing cannot be the proper Figure or Representation of another c. had relation to his foregoing words which the Snake hath cut off and are these As Abraham Outward and Natural was the Great Father of the Iews outward and natural whose Seed God promised to bless with Earthly Blessings as Canaan c. And that they were figurative of the one Seed Christ and such as he should beget into a lively hope through the Power of his Spiritual Resurrection c. Thus W. P. And as the Snake cannot deny that Abraham was figurative of Christ and that to his Seed as they continued in his Faith the Oath of God was to them in that outward Covenant So it must of necessity follow that this Great Father of the Jews Outward and Natural doth not herein otherwise Typify Christ than as Christ is the Spiritual Father of all the Nations of them that are saved through Faith and Obedience in and to his Spirit in their Hearts Ibid. p. 143. They can upon a pinch subscribe the whole Creed and yet not mean one word of it of God or Christ at all that is of any God or Christ without Men. Reader is not this a fair mark of what kind that great Charity and real kindness must be which in p. 23. foregoing he pretends to have for the Generality of us Or is it not rather a mark of that Flaming Charity which himself declares to have for the Church But Charity and Truth are at an equal distance from him who can thus notoriously belie us by charging such Dissimulation on us as is his own practice That we can subscribe not upon a pinch but heartily and readily all the Testimonies of Holy Writ and the Articles of Faith therein contained is True but that we do not mean one of them Testimonies of God or Christ without Men is as great a falshood as the Devil can utter And if Preaching if Writing if constant Profession in Words together with Practice agreeable from a People can be a sufficient evidence that they do so own and mean I defy the Snake with all his Confederacy to give better and greater evidence that they acknowledge any of the Truths therein contain'd The Snake next repeats a Quotation from Saul's Errand p. 8. which is answered before in p. 59. and another from the Sword of the Lord drawn c. p. 5. which is also answered p. 204. foregoing and therefore need not be here repeated Ibid. p. 145. The Snake speaking of W. Smith's Primmer says Here is an Admirable Cue given to Young Children to prevent their ever receiving the least tincture of Christianity that if they should at any time hear of a Christ in Heaven they might immediately stop their Ears and believe all who spoke of it to be false Ministers That this Snake is a false Accuser and has not the least tincture of Christian Charity there needs little more trouble to prove than barely to give truly which the Snake has not but curtail'd those Questions
Bread or Perish'd for want for any Care or Pity these Priests who call themselves the Clergy of the Church of England took of them or shewed to them Ibid. p. 250. They did not think it sufficient to Preach and Print against Tythes but they went about and got Subscriptions of many Thousand Quakers throughout all England against Tythes and sent them to the Parliament in a Humble Threatning Manner By this he must mean That this was Subscriptions of Men For he adds And as if this had not been sufficient the Women too must be Assembled And they too must sign the like Subscriptions Yet this Subscription of the Men which he says they sent up in an Humble Threatning Manner he confesses in the next Page he had not seen I have not yet seen the Subscriptions of the Men p. 251. So that he throws out his Scoffing Lye of an Humbling Threatning at a venture on hear-say from others or his own bare Surmise of which when he brings truer Proof it may be further considered And for the Subscriptions of the Women I have already spoken to it p. 345 346 fore-going Yet for further Discovery of the Malice and Falshood of this Adversary herein I will Remark upon his Quotations from those Papers of the Women's Subscriptions against Tythes concerning which he says p. 251. The Women do positively declare for Annulling of Tythes if the Parliament wou'd not alter the same He begins his Quotation thus The Commands of Men say they p. 3. must be Annulled that takes Tythes and not be obeyed by them that live in the Covenant of God Here he stops and dashes out what follows as he left out what went before these Words The Commands of Men must be Disannulled How By the Covenant of Life which Abrogates the Levitical Law that gave Tythes And if the Covenant of Life hath Abrogated the Levitical Law that gave Tythes which Law was given by God Shall it not also Annul the Commands of Men upon that Abrogated Law I think it must But how Must it be as the Snake says If the Parliament wou'd not alter the same Insinuating that they then wou'd Rebel which is a most false Insinuation Yes if they wou'd not it must be Annulled to as many as are in the Covenant of Life because such Witness as the Words in p. 3. immediately foregoing the Snake's Quotation are the End of the Command of God to the Jews that gave Tythes Thus much for the Words left out at the beginning which sufficiently shews the Malice of the Snake Now for what he hath dash'd out at the end of this Quotation which is this Now if you the then Parliament act in the same Power that hath held up Tythes since the Apostles Days which hath taken away many of our Friends Lives that have been Imprison'd till Death in nasty Holes and Corners for bearing their Testimony against that unjust Oppression of Tythes This the Snake Conceals it is not with him worth minding if Quakers are Imprison'd till Death But whether he will mind it or not I think it did very highly concern them who were exposed to such Sufferings for their Testimony against an Abrogated Jewish Law to represent as they did to the then Powers their Case and warn them that they stood not in that same Power by and from which they had known such Sufferings The Snake continues thus And they tell p. 4. That they bear their Testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ in Opposition to Tythes against the Commands of Man set up in Opposition to him since the Days of the Apostles c. which to you say they is the Word of the Lord God In the Compass of this short Quotation here are three Abuses which the Snake was willing to do to this Place that thereby he might twine it to his purpose The first is he gives for our Friends Words Bear their Testimony c. Whereas it is Printed Bearing But that would not suit his purpose therefore it must be chang'd for that wou'd have spoil'd his Connection and given cause to suspect that it was Relative to something that went before which he was very desirous should be conceal'd but now it must out It is this There are many in Prison at this Day in nasty Holes bearing their Testimony c. I find the Snake wou'd have us lye so close in Nasty Holes as neither to be seen nor heard of His Second Abuse is his Parenthesis in Opposition to Tythes which he puts as looking with a better Grace than the Words which really are in a Parenthesis in this Quotation in the Book it self for they are these That Disannulled the Command that gave Tythes But he thought that it was not proper to have it seen that the Reason why our Friends did lye in Nasty Holes was for bearing their Testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ that Disannulled the Command that gave Tythes His Third Abuse is after these Words since the Days of the Apostles c. he adds which to you is the Word of the Lord God Now these last Words stand not thus in that Page but five or six Lines higher and are a Warning from the Lord to that Parliament in these Words Let not the Nation be ruin'd and the People Prison'd to Death and the Blood of the Innocent be drunken as abundance of it hath been within these few Years which lies upon the Heads of some therefore keep it clear from off your own Heads we warn you which to you is the Word of the Lord God c. The Snake now takes for his Quotation from p. 21. these Words The shout of a King is amongst us the Lord God omnipotent And then gives a Dash instead of these Words which follow Who will throw down all that is come up since the true Church went into the Wilderness And it is no doubt a great Truth That when Jesus Christ the Spiritual Head of the true Church comes to take that Power which of Right belongs to Him He will throw down and deliver his Church from all that Deceit and Oppression which hath come up since his Church went into the Wilderness And it is the Duty of all true Christians to bear their Testimony accordingly Ibid. p. 252. He quotes thus from those Papers of the Womens Subscriptions p. 40. This Priesthood which takes Tythes now this was not the Popish Priesthood says the Snake we in the Power of the Lord God deny them And a very good Reason is in this p. 40. given why we do deny them which is Because there was never no Priesthood that took Tythes who was made by the Law of God but what was in the time of the Law c. And if the Priest-hood now taking Tythes are not so Constituted by the Law of God under the Gospel Is there not very great and good Reason why it should be denied Ibid. He goes on and quotes from the aforesaid Papers page 63. We Declare with our Hands and
the Fatherless and the Widow ver 29. And the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widow which are within thy Gates shall come and shall eat and be satisfied that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest This is a brief Account of these Ceremonial Tythes and the manner of their Payment according to that Law from whence the Snake pretends to fetch his Authority for their continuance at this Day Now according to this Rule let me ask the Snake Whether the Tythes at this Day claim'd by the Priests be first offer'd as an Heave-offering unto the Lord which those in the Law were to be before they were given to the Levites And to offer these Tythes as an Heave-Offering does necessarily infer both a Sacrifice and an Altar without which the Tythes given by that Law were unholy 2. The Priesthood at this Day are under no Sentence of Deprivation from Inheritances in the Land as were the Tribe of Levi they may and do many of them acquire large Possessions 3. Do they let the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widow to whom of Right they did belong as well as to the Priests and Levites partake with them of the Tythes Or do the Priests at this Day let the Persons with their Housholds from whom they exact the Tythes partake of them with themselves For to them that paid the Tythes it is said Numb 18.26 And thou shalt eat thereof before the Lord thy God and thou shalt rejoice thou and thine houshold Indeed The Snake says p. 266. all their Arguments as to the Law and Levitical Priesthood being superseded operate nothing against Priests of a Superiour and more excellent Priesthood But they are not superseded for the Objections still remain and the Arguments heretofore offer'd by our Friends are Unanswer'd as are these I have here already given and more that follow So that they do operate effectually against the claim of Tythes from the Law and Levitical Priesthood upon the false and vain pretence of being Priests after the Order of Melchisedec to pretend to which Bishop Reynolds p. 528. says Is Most Sacrilegiously to Rob Christ of his Honour Ibid. And there being as Ancient mention of Tythes as there is of Priesthood in the World I have no manner of doubt but they are as Ancient as Priesthood it self that is as Adam â— have already observ'd That the earliest mention of Tythes in the World is in Gen. 24.18 concerning Abraham and Melchisedec less ancient than Adam by more than Two Thousand Years and therefore I have no manner of doubt which is Answer Sufficient to such Insufficient Arguing that the Snake is quite out in making Tythes as ancient as Adam But if Tythes were as Ancient as Adam who paid Tythes To whom were they paid And when were they paid That the Knowledge of Tythes as of Sacrifices and Priesthood descended from Adam Is Gratis Dictum much of Confidence and Assurance but no Proof That the one was the Maintenance the other the Office of the Priesthood and therefore one must be as Ancient as the other Is no true Consequent For in those elder times and before the Levitical Priesthood was Instituted every one was in a Sense his own Priest and offer'd for himself as appears in the first Recorded Instances of Sacrifice offer'd by Cain and Abel each in his own Person and so downwards whereas after the Institution of the Levitical Priesthood it was peculiarly the Priests office to offer the Sacrifices for all the People And till the Priesthood was settled in Levi's Tribe there was no need of a settled Maintenance nor does there any footsteps of any such appear Ibid. They were all alike received by the Heathen World by an Immemorial Tradition from the beginning Immemorial Tradition A Fable which in many things has been long and often falsly pretended in the Church of which in the lump hear Bishop Taylor in his Liberty of Prophecying p. 95. Printed 1647. To Dispute says he concerning the Truth or necessity of Traditions in the Questions of our Times is as if Historians Disputing about a Question in the English Story should fall on wrangling whether Livy or Plutarch were the best Writers And the earnest Disputes about Traditions are to no better purpose For no Church at this Day admits the one half of those things which certainly by the Fathers were called Traditions Apostolical and no Testimony of Ancient Writers does consign the one half of the present Questions to be or not to be Traditions Thus he which as it shews the light esteem and little dependence which is to be had on Tradition pretended Apostolical so necessarily it includes at the least as great if not greater uncertainty and as little if not less dependence on pretended Heathen Immemorial Traditions But for his more full Conviction herein I shall add one more Authority particularly respecting his pretence of Heathen Immemorial Tradition upon this Point of Tythes It is Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity Printed 1622. Book V. p. 427. Sect. 79. His Words are these And as Abraham gave voluntarily as Jacob vowed to give God Tythes so the Law of Moses did require from the Hands of all Men the self same kind of Tribute the Tenth of their Corn c. Insomuch that Paynims being herein Followers of their Steps paid Tythes likewise And that the Heathens were herein as in several of their Religious Performances borrowers from the Jews is not only the Opinion of this but many other Learned Men. Ibid. p. 267. God reserv'd the Tenth Part of our Substance as the Seventh of our Time to be paid as a Tribute and an acknowledgment to Him from whom we receive all c. Non constat No such Reserve ever was or can be made appear from Adam to Moses By Moses 't is granted God made a Reserve of a Tenth part not of our Substance but of some part of the Substance of his then peculiar People the People of Israel outwardly of the Increase of the Land of Canaan when they should come into the Possession of it And this Reserve he made as I have before shewn for the Maintenance of the Tribe of Levi the Poor Fatherless c. which Tribe he then Consecrated wholly to the Priesthood and excluded from their share of the Land at the Division thereof among their Brethren And as this is the only Reserve of the Tenth which it appears God did ever make So neither the Heathens at that Day nor the Christians in this were or are at all oblig'd by it or concern'd with it The Heathens were not oblig'd by it or concern'd with it because what the Law said it said to those that were under it Rom. 3.19 which the Heathens were not The Christians are not oblig'd by it or concern'd with it because the Tenth was appropriated to that Priesthood Worship and Oeconomy of the Jews which lasted no longer than till the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 till
false Prophets did also speak in his Name and say Thus saith the Lord when he sent them not Ibid. p. 281. This is the Prince of the Spirits of Delusion and this Prince they worship for God who mistake his Inspirations for God's Very well I say so too but that the Quakers are they who mistake his Inspirations for God's is Gratis Dictum 't is saying but not proving as more particularly will appear upon the several Instances which the Snake brings The first Instance in this Section is what he calls a Prophetical verse of George Whitehead's with which he says G.W. pursued George Keith after he was denied by us He gives it in these words Thus saith the Lord Because thou hast poured out great Contempt and Reproach upon my Servants and People I will assuredly pour out and bring great Contempt and Confusion upon thee Of this the Snake says p. 282. Copies were given out amongst the Friends that they might admire these Prophetical Gifts and if any thing unfortunate should in all George Keith 's Life-time befall him that it might certainly be esteemed as the Consequence of this Curse What Proof is this that what he calls G. W's Prophetical Verse did proceed from Rage Malice or Folly Or that G. Whitehead hath therein mistaken the Inspirations of the Prince of the Spirits of Delusion for God's See Reader how forward the Snake is to give hard words and how backward to prove them That G. Keith hath with great Contempt and Reproach treated the Quakers is very certain and not only so but hath Contemptuously and Reproachfully spoken many things of that way of Truth which they profess and which himself did also for many years profess with them which practices as it is an apparent mark of Confusion in him so it nâ—â—essarily draws after it Contempt upon the Actor from all Observing Men. So that the Prophetick Verse as the Snake calls it of G. W.'s carries with it many evidences of Truth which plainly shew he did not therein mistake the Inspirations of the Prince of the Spirits of Delusion for God's And which is further seen in that there is no proof given by the Snake that it did proceed from Rage Malice or Folly in G. W. as is falsly and maliciously suggested by the Adversary And as there can nothing more unhappy fall out to G. K. in all his Life-time than to continue and go on from one degree of Confusion to another so that Confusion is not the Consequence of what the Snake calls George Whitehead's Prophetick Verse But that Verse was the Consequence of Confusion began in G. K. Ibid. Mr. Penn did own before the Yearly Meeting That the Glorious Power of God which he felt did so transport him that he was carried beyond himself and knew not whether he was Sitting Standing or Kneeling when he pronounced that Sentence of Apostacy concerning G. K. This was like St. Paul's whether in the Body or out of the Body he could not tell Well! Suppose it is like it I would ask the Snake whether he dare affirm that at this day it is altogether impossible for the Spirit of God to influence any to that degree of Extasie or Rapture If he will deny that or which will answer the end of our Present Inquiry if he will allow that but deny this to be so it will then be necessary for the Snake to produce the marks by which he proves it to be what in p. 283. he hath so confidently said it is viz. the Violent Transports of Passion But if the Force of this Mad Spirit of Malice had not govern'd the Snake he might have seen that while he does acknowledge what he there says W. P. does speak of himself to be like the Apostle This was like says he St. Paul whether in the Body c. and calls W. Penn's words The force of this Mad Spirit of Enthusiasm He does then Intimate that the Apostles words proceeded from the like force And how far this may expose Religion and the whole Scriptures to Loose and Atheistical Wits may concern some to see who are more truly concern'd for the honour of both than he who while he is inquiring How great is the force of this mad Spirit of Enthusiasm Observes not how great is the force of the mad Spirit of Atheism in himself But further I do own with the Snake that this Extasie or Rapture of W. P's is like that of Paul Whether in Body or out of Body he knew not That is they are a-like in Kind but not Degree W. Penn's as the Snake says did relate to the Posture of the Body but the Apostle's was much higher even so as to forget the Body Ibid. p. 283. And he is thus far towards it that he must either make out his own Inspirations to be from God in as High a Degree as those which were given to the Prophets and Apostles or otherwise that he has no Authority to inscribe the name of God upon them as they did The Snake does here as before allow the Inspiration to be the same but falsly supposes W. Penn under a necessity to make it out to be in as High a Degree which he is not because the Operation of it on W. Penn the Snake says was not in so High a Degree as on the Apostle And while the Snake does falsly suppose that the Inspirations from God at this day must be made out to be in as High a Degree as those which were given to the Prophets and Apostles Or else his name is not to be inscrib'd on them Besides that the Snake does hereby overthrow what in Pref. p. 31. he calls The greatest Flights and Extasies of Devotion and which he there advises to let Rise as High as they can the Higher the better He does also overthrow all that Enthusiasm which he says the Church of England owns for these he hath acknowledged to be Revelations and in some sense immediate too Yet here he says they are not so to be inscrib'd unless they are in as High a Degree as those given to the Prophets and Apostles Which I think he will hardly presume to affirm But altho' this Adversary is thus Contradictory to himself by denying and affirming the same thing yet Truth remains unmoveable and the Inspirations of the Holy Spirit at this day in what Degree soever they are given are truly the same in kind with those given to the Holy Prophets and Apostles In that now as then God by the divers Gifts of his Spirit doth fit furnish and qualifie his Children and Servants to the several Duties and Services in his Church to which he calleth them Ibid. He must likewise justifie all the False Lying Prophesies before told or otherwise he must unherd W. P. is not obliged to defend False Lying Prophesies but deny them nor doth he Herd as the Snake scornfully speaks with any such Ibid. p. 284. Gives two Quotations one for G. F's Answer to The Westmerland
Discoveries are often small not only to try the Obedience but to encourage to Faithfulness And they who will not thankfully receive its lowest Manifestations and obey the Discoveries of the Light of Christ in the forsaking and denying vain Honours and Language are not likely to be obedient to greater Discoveries if they had them Ibid. p. 332. But G. Keith for his Christian Doctrine of a Christ without was condemn'd by their Late Yearly Meeting in their Bull of Excommunication It was not for Christian Doctrine but Unchristian Practice which G. Keith was denied as the Testimony given against him does fully shew in these words George Keith of late hath been and yet is acted by an Unchristian Spirit which hath moved and led him to stir up Contention and Strife in the Church of Christ and to cause Divisions Separations and Breaches amongst them that Profess the Truth and that the tendency of Divers of his late Writings and Actings hath been to expose the Truth and Friends thereof What has Christian Doctrine to do with such Unchristian Actions They have no agreement and this was the Cause there assigned of our denying him The Snake now gives p. 333. part of a Letter which he says W. P. sent to R. Turner of Pensilvania in which speaking of G. Keith are these words I love his Spirit and honour his Gifts and his Peculiar Learning especially Tongues and Mathematicks his Platonick Studies too all being sanctified to the Truth 's Service which is worthy to have the Preheminence Upon which the Snake says here will be a sad account of that Infallible Discerning Spirit which the Quakers do appropriate to themselves To which I shall first say that it is utterly false that the Quakers have ever appropriated to themselves the Spirit of Discerning It is only appropiated to the Holy Spirit and what true Discerning of Spirits is given to Men must be from that Fountain Now as to the Letter the words above quoted do well consist with that Spirit of Discerning because in order of Time it appears not but that that Letter was writ some Years before the Testimony of the Yearly Meeting against G. K. which I have before quoted And if G. Keith's accomplishments in Learning had continued to have been all sanctified to the Truth 's Service as it is there exprest which was the ground of that Love therein declared He could not have stirred up Contention and Strife nor caus'd Divisions Separations and Breaches which was the reason of his being denied But further If that Letter was writ when there was some small beginnings of Misunderstanding betwixt G. K. and those in Pensilvania Yet the words of that Letter referring the Love declared to his Spirit and Learning to be as all are sanctified c. they are very safe as G. K. would also have been had he kept to the Holy Spirit which sanctifies and that would both have prevented further Disturbance and removed all Misunderstanding Ibid. p. 336. I do here demand Reparation in the behalf of the Church of England But particularly in behalf of one whom they have most Scandalously Robb'd The Person wronged is Mr. Selden and the Thief is Francis Howgil A Snake turn Knight Errant the Scandal of the Church presume to set up for her Representative O Monstrum But to his Ridiculous Arrogance I do here demand c. What mighty I is this What Ratling Snake Why an Anonymous who is as fear ful of putting his Name to his Demand as he is to appear before Justice One who Jugler-like plays Tricks in the Dark Therefore sure no true Pleni-Potent of the Church not one Legally Delegated by Her And he is not less the Church's Delegate than he is John Selden's who in his time was one of the Glories of this Nation one whose Living Labours may at once endear and preserve his Memory with those who know his Works And with what Forehead one so differently qualified as is the Snake should pretend to demand Satisfaction if the Demand were just in his Behalf is no small wonder But the Demand is Arrogant Trifling and Impudent in that he says F. Howgil has stoln whole Paragraphs verbatim out of J. Selden's History of Tythes I have with what care I can examined the Charge by comparing the Books and cannot find one whole Paragraph so taken I find that F. H. does in some places treat of Tythes in the same manner as J. Selden does and the Books which are his Authorities he puts mostly in his Margin And among others which he quotes J. Selden by Name is one in his History of Tythes and upon this Subject of Tythes he is twice quoted by F. Howgil viz. p. 482 and in p. 567. which is sufficient to shew that F. H. is no Plagiary But since the Snake hath thus taken upon himself to be a Knight Errant I will direct him to a piece of Work of the sort he here speaks of and if he can get satisfaction he may pretend to be Captain of the Band of Knight Errants He may find it in John Daille's Treatise of the Right use of the Fathers first Book p. 104. In these words St. Hilary St. Ambrose and others who robbing poor Origen without any Mercy do not yet do him the Honour so much as to name him scarcely This is certain that you shall find in St. Ambrose many times whole Periods and whole Pages too taken out of St. Basil but unless my Memory fail me very much you shall never find him once named there Thus he I spare to give more such Instances till the Snake shall here have demanded Reparation in due form But now we are speaking upon the vice of Stealing it may not be improper to remind him that it had been highly necessary for him to have surveyed himself and considered with what Face he could unjustly object Theft to F. Howgil because he speaks of the same Subject in the same manner with John Selden whom he also names While himself if he had been duly prosecuted for Theft must of necessity have been hang'd if at least the Law of the Country where he stole the Virgin whom he made his Unhappy Wife be in that case agreeable to ours But as to the Punishment I shall not now enquire nor yet what Reparation he made to the injur'd Parents or Relations But as to the Fact it had the Forms of Theft in that he had not their good leave before he took her and whether the Canons do not declare the Theft of Souls the Stealing of a Wife to be in the same Class of Crimes in which himself puts Obedience to the King de Facto It may be proper for him to consider which if he find and that he squares himself in his Repentance for that by his practice in this his Repence will be as singular as his tenacious Disobedience hath been observable But of this now no more nor had there been so much nay here none at all had
was to remove an Offence taken against my Friend J. P. for using the same And it would have become this Adversary to have forborn his blasphemous Scoffing at my Light as George if thy Light has hitherto forgot to tell thee I bless the Lord my God who is my Light Life and Salvation he has shewn me the new and living way of the New Covenant which our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ consecrated prepared or set open thro' the Veil that is to say his Flesh yea through his Sufferings and Death as being the Testator he hath enforced that New Testament or Second Covenant he took away the First that he might establish the Second and so hath open'd the Passage into eternal Life into the Holiest of Holies within the Veil and beyond all the Shadows and Veils under the Law It was in the most Holy Place within the Second Veil in the Tabernacle which was called the Holiest of all in the Old Covenant that the golden Censor and Ark of the Testament were put and the Golden Pot which had Manna and Aaron 's Rod that had budded and the Tables of the Testament and over the Ark the Cherubims of Glory shadowing the Mercy-Seat Heb. 9. Exod. 26. So the most excellent things were within the Veil tho' there was a Beauty and Glory also without it All which I doubt not were Shadows of the New Covenant and the Spiritual Dispensation thereof in Christ Jesus in whom the Most Holy Place of that Divine Service and Worship in the New Covenant-Sanctuary which the Lord has placed in the midst of his People is in the Spirit and in the Truth And all our Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly Treasures are in Christ Jesus who is our Sanctuary and Hiding-place And it is in the inmost or most inward and Spiritual Dispensation of the New Covenant that Mercy and Forgiveness is receiv'd and Christ most livingly and effectually known to us and enjoy'd and in him the most holy and heavenly Places wherein the true Spiritual Believers sit down with him and as being washed from their Sins in his Blood by his Spirit are his Church and Sanctuary also and thereby have boldness to enter into the Holy Place even by that new and living Way which Christ hath prepared for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh Heb. 10. that we may follow him therein into Heaven it self And what entrance through Christ our Mediator we have here in Measure received into this new and living Way and Holy and Heavenly Places in him we doubt not but it is to us an Earnest of a more full Enjoyment of Heaven and Glory hereafter with Christ Jesus our Fore-runner Leader and Captain of our Salvation we continuing faithful to the end in this his new and living Way as true and constant Followers of him God in his great Love and Wisdom has afforded several Dispensations one higher and more glorious than another in order to bring Man nearer and nearer to himself as that of the Law and of Shadows and Types that of the Prophets that of John the Baptist that of Christ in the Flesh and that of Christ in the Spirit and New Covenant which is higher more powerful and more glorious than the former and therein a more clear knowledge of Christ than in all the former wherein there was some Sight of him through Shadows and Veils but by his Divine Light shining in our Hearts God is pleased to give us the Light of the knowledge of his Glory in the Face of his dear Son Christ Jesus that we all with open Face as in a Glass may behold the Glory of God and be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 and Ch. 4.6 7. Now tho' our Adversary has made a deal of Dispute and Quarrel with us about calling Christ's Flesh the Veil as in Heb. 10. yet he is fain to grant That Christ's Body is called a Veil in Relation to its Type the Veil of the Temple p. 182. but he 'll have this not to be in the Quakers Sense They call it a Veil that is saith he a Garment in contra-distinction to its being Christ's Substance and of his Nature Whereas it 's rather in contra-distinction to its Being his Divine Nature or to its Being in the first place or principally or chiefly Christ himself who is the Son of God for whom the Body was prepared because he did pre-exist it or was in Being before he took upon him that Body even in his Father's Glory before the World began wherewith he is Glorified However the Veil which was Christ's Flesh through which he set open the new and living Way we never deny to be Christ's Body or to be a real Body but own it was and never believed it be a Fantastical Body as I have often said but that Christ the Son of God took upon him real Flesh and Blood of our Nature yet pure and incorrupted in him And as his Flesh was called the Veil it answers its Type or Figure i. e. the Veil of the most Holy Place or Oracle where God gave Answers 1 Kings 6.20 and 8.6 8. and 2 Chron. 3.10 16. And these Most Holy Places in the Tabernacle and Temple being Places of Divine Service then peculiar to the High-Priest to enter into their Antitype is in Christ Jesus the New Covenant where in Spirit and in the Truth God is truely worshipped and meets with and speaks to his People even by Christ Jesus their High-Priest who is present in the midst of his Church and Assemblies of his People the true and Spiritual Worshippers who meet in his Name Spirit and Power whose Light and Truth brings its Followers unto his Holy Tabernacles Psal. 43.3 And as to Christ's Substance and Nature what does our Opposer mean thereby how has he distinguished in this Point Christ has in him a Divine Nature as well as that of Man which he hath also in the purest Sense But which is the greatest Is not the Divine Nature the Deity in him greater than the Manhood As he said My Father is greater than all greater than I John 10.29 Nevertheless as our great and only Mediator and Intercessor it was necessary he should be Man as he is the most glorious heavenly Man and as the Christ of God he is Spiritually in Us in the Saints and Members in some measure by his Spirit Light Life and Power even as the incorruptible immortal Seed in Man is of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and therein all true spiritual Believers do in measure partake of the Divine Nature being born again of this incorruptible Seed SECT XXIII Some Reflections by G. W. upon A Supplement pretended upon occasion of his Answer to the Snake in the Grass p. 343. THE very Entrance into the said Supplement consisting of divers Falshoods I need take the less notice thereof and spend the less time in its strict Examination besides
them in that Catalogue beginning at Page 93 of his Preface to the Snake and before that I begin at Page 7 8 9 17. of the first Edition of the Snake and was so far from passing by his said Objection of manifest Possessions by the Devil c. that I declare his great Injustice false Reflections black Characters and Charges upon the Quakers therein together with his absurd way of Arguing and Falacy to prove the same as evidently appears in my Answer i. e. my Antidote from the second to the twelfth Page thereof to which I refer the Reader for Satisfaction and how far short he is of Proof that either we or our Preachers are Possess'd by the Devil because of any of their Quaking or Trembling alleadg'd against them as both Holy Prophets and other Saints and Christians have done by the Word and Power of God and not from any Diabolical Possession And he can no more prove such Exercise among us to proceed from the Devil than he can prove the visible Possessions of many Quakers by the Devil as he falsly stiles his 21. Sect. or than his Mr. Firmin or Thomas Tillam whose Story is quoted in the same Section p. 297 298 299. could demonstrate his seeing the Devil shake the Quakers like as a Dog doth shake a Hog c. But if this Author has ever seen any visible Possessions of Quakers by the Devil I would ask him in what Shape or Form he saw the Devil at any time so visibly Possess or Act them I never heard that T. Tillam could tell when questioned about it at Colchester tho' he raised the Story as Richard Thomas of Hartford who was present can give further account II. As to all he objects in his 18th Sect. of The Quakers manifold Treasons against the King of their taking Arms and Fighting against him for Oliver and the Rump c. their vigorous opposing the Restauration of King Charles to the very last c. p. 352. Hereupon G. W. is blamed for Answering all this in a few words p. 24. of his Antidote viz. We need but answer these with Negation and Detestation as being most foul Raileries proceeding from a Spirit of Persecution and deadly Malice which the Righteous Lord will Rebuke Which I am still perswaded he will though the Snake-Author hereupon thus Reviles viz. They cannot refrain their Trade in blasphemous and cursed Prophecies which among many other odious Revilings I leave to the just cognizance of the Great and Righteous Judge of all The Man 's charging manifold Treasons taking up Arms and Fighting c. upon the Quakers I still deny as a general and gross Calumny upon that People yet supposing some before they were Quakers or so reputed and before they were in Society with that People were in Arms against the King as many of other Persuasions were and yet some were dissatisfied with Monarchy or afraid of the consequence thereof whilst they were under a Common Wealth 's Government and Principles it follows not that the People called Quakers must be concluded thereby as either guilty of manifold Treasons Fightings Murder or Regicide such absurd kind of unnatural Inferrences against the Quakers I had reason to give my Negation against as neither Just nor Reasonable but altogether the contrary And the Truth of it is I looked upon his said 18th Sect. so extreamly Malicious and so Repugnant to the Act of Indempnity even that of King Charles the Second and divers others since if any charged were culpable And much of the Substance of the said 18th Sect. being answered in my Book Entituled Christ's Lambs defended from Satan's Rage That I thought my self the less concerned again to enter into the Particulars of the said extreamly Malicious Section but to refer him and the Reader to my Treatise of Christ's Lambs c. However in my Antidote referring thereto there 's more of Answer in this case than is cited in the Snake being full of Partiality and Curtailizing in Citation as well as of Perversion and Absurd Defamation And if no authority of Bugg's be quoted at all for the charges before mentioned as he saith it is for divers others which are very false I find in his said 18th Sect. Quakers Vnmask'd p. 4. Is quoted on the same Subject And if this Quaker's Vnmask'd was John Peâ—nyman's and not F. Bugg's then 't was my oversight which I shall not excuse which might easily happen from the near resemblance they have upon the same subject J. P. begun it against us and the other follows it in divers Books upbraiding us about O. C. and his Army and the Government And the Snake in his 8th Sect. quotes F. Bugg's New Rome Arraign'd and New Rome Vnmaskâ—d p. 109.111 and note that two Years after F. B. left our Communion and joyn'd himself to the Church of England he published a Book stiled The Quakers Detected wherein he confesses to the Truth of our Doctrine and Ministry of the Light as a Dispensation of the Love of God sent as a Visitation to Mankind and to our Christian Communion Love and Conversation and that God blessed our Meetings with the comfortable enjoyment of his Presence c. But being gone from the same he complained against our Friends p. 8. as if they had Sold him into Egypt as Joseph was applying to himself his words to his Brethren Gen. 50.20 and 45.4 5. viz. But can say i. e. F. B. can say as Joseph did to his Brethren Gen. 50.20 But as for you ye thought Evil against me but God meant it unto Good now therefore be not Grieved nor Angry with your selves that ye Sold me hither Thus F. Bugg after he was turn'd into the Church of England And finding both J. P. Bugg and Crisp run much in one strain of Enmity against us and their Authorities quoted and so much valued in the Snake 't was the more easie to mistake one for another as to the Titles of their Angry Books However their work so much agreeing and resembling to take one for another in Writing quick as 't is no great Crime so 't is no great Damage to any of them supposing Quakers Vnmasked be put for Quakers Detected or for New Rome Vnmasked And so Bugg's authority for J. Pennyman's his excuses not his Partial credulity of either of them wherein they are a-like invective But a greater Injury than this is done the Quakers in Quotation I find a Pamphlet stiled Some of the Quakers Principles over and over quoted against us in the Snake Sect. 7. Which being thus quoted as The Quakers Principles some may therefore take it to be a True and Real Account of our own when that Pamphlet as I take it to be the same is but a nameless Libel to abuse us with Partial Quotations and Perversions and it is answered in my Just Inquiry Printed 1693. And that I have not endeavoured to deceive the Reader as p. 354. in that I did not perceive he took notice of my