Light which he denys to us therefore less Charitable nay Unjust to the Light for he esteems us only fit Company for the worst Sort of Heathens such as Julian and Lucianâ— It seems we must be viler then Heathens and Mahometans with J. F. witness his first Book But we ought not by any means to repute such as he is that denyes us and our Principles with Abhorrence as to us either Heathen or Infidel What shall we call him then But hath the Man forgot that the drift of his Book is to Vnchristian us That the Title of it is Quakerism no Christianity and that the Cry of his Associates for these 20. Years has been Heathenism Gentiles Moral but not Christian Men and therefore have excommunicated beaten imprisoned and that to Death and yet by no means must wedeny these Folks to be true Christians that have so long proved themselves to be none Though this might suffice that such as that Paper concerned thought us Christ's Church therefore just to them whatever it may be to others for whom it was not intended A man may abuse the highest Truths taking to himself the Liberty he doth to pervert our Words and Sayings His two Books in God's Day will prove to his great shame and Condemnation this one Charge that I have often in other words upon occasion said concerning him viz. J. Faldo's Charges against the Quakers are not their Principles but his own Consequences falsely drawn from them To conclude If such Inoffensive nay Christian and necessary Resolves for the right Disciplining the Church of Christ in the Wayes of Peace and Righteousness cannot escape J. Faldo's Cruel Hands instead of rendring us Papists I shall not wonder if from a Non-Conforming Priest he turns a Spanish Inquisitor or any thing else that can be worse but it is pitty he should leave us and not see his face before he goes I will acquaint him therefore if yet a stranger with an Excommunication drawn up and pronounc'd by an Independant of great note being in the Parliament's time Master of Pembrook Hall in Cambridge and Pastor of a Church in London Sydach Sympson's Excommunication of Capt. Robert Norwood I do in the Name of the Lord Jesus and his People declare Mr. Norwood one that hath lifted up his Tongue and Heart against the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father one that from hence forward we have no more to do withall till he repent but shall continually pray that his Nights may not be quiet for the Thoughts of his Sin but that his Bed may be filled with Tears I charge all you both of the Church and all other that are Christians that you should look upon him as one that God would have thus severely used until that he buckle under his Sin and then our Souls shall rejoyce In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ we deliver him unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that his Soul may be saved To prove this Authority by Example he produceth this piece of Antiquity however ill it befits an Independent Church-Man The Church of Pallemnis as Semetius reports excommunicates Andronicus in these Words Let 〈◊〉 Man account Andronicus a Christian but look upon him as one whom God execrates have no Company with him 〈◊〉 but what is necessary This Reader is the Moderation and Charity of such as J. Faldo accounts both a true Minister and a Christian Society much of this have we found at the hands of the same Sort of Separatists But first observe according as J. F. would have us understand it by his Censure of us in a Case less obnoxious the absolute Authority personally assumed and how much S. S. acted the Pope in J. F's Language or arbitrary Prelate in this matter that had been an earnest Decryer of the same Spirit in a more national Clergy 2ly It is worth our Notice that the matter First charged was a pretended Untruth relating to civil Commerce from which he cleared himself to his Adversaries publick Confusion But this was but the Preface the Business is behind for he denyed the Locallity of Heaven and Hell that is void of outward Place as looking upon them to have a more spiritual Signification and that the other was too carnal indeed Mahometan and that he believed the Soul to have been breathed from God thereby assigning to it something more of Divinity than the usual Opinion doth For this and no more as the Pamphlet informs me which recites the Reasons of the Excommunication do they excommunicate him yet to colour the Business the better like as J. F. does with us S. S. expells him their Society for denying a Heaven and Hell at all and as rendring the Soul God himself crying out Satanical Devices Atheism and Blasphemy There is one Passage this Captain took notice of not unfit to be observed by us with Respect to the Use J. F. makes of our Paper S. S. in his Proem or Introduction to his Excommunication used among other these Words That though Men may withdraw themselves from the People of God they cannot from the Oâ—dinances of God meaning as I suppose that his pastroal Power could or should reach beyond Constantinople or a further Place to excommunicate Anathema Meranatha an Offender c. But to this the Person so dealt with answers and for ought I know more justifiably then J. F. can pretend to do to us for we allow no such personal and pastoral Dignity and prerogative Power to any Man nor do we use any such Forms of Excommunication siyes he Have I therefore withdrawn my self from the People of God because I have withdrawn from you ARE NONE THE PEOPLE OF GOD BUT YOUR SELVES What are all those you are withdrawn from ALL DAM NED This is such an Argumentum ad hominem as I am of the Mind ought to trouble J. F. if the least Grain of Modesty be in him what he chargeth upon us is out-done by themselves and the Aggravations he would render us odious by are made the natural Consequences of theâ—r own Excommunications I will conclude this with telling my Reader that for no other Cause then what is exprest namely Opinion and that not very offensive this Person once accounted greatly of among them being a Member of their high Court of Justice was first traduced then excommunicated after this complained of to the Powers by them therefore deprived of his civil Employ and though they were his Debtors both for Money lent and his Services done them if we may credit his printed Narrative the Priesthood so prevailed that the Lord Mayor Andrews sent a Warrant for him had him brought rudely and violently to the Sessions at the Old Bayly and there placed among Thieves and Murderers in Order to his Tryal for Blasphemy These were the meek and hearty Pretenders to and Fighters for Liberty of Conscience that when they had the Power in their Hand proved abundantly they intended it only for themselves not unlike to their
more I that live but Christ in me that is The Apostle had no Life in him in any sense Would this be good Doctrine But more openly do the Words of Christ lay to the Exception of such Cavillers 'T is not I that speak but the Father in me Again It is not you that speak but the Holy Gost in you For after J. Faldo's Parapharase we must either deny that Christ or his Apostles spoak those words or confess that they contradicted themselves in saying they did not speak when they did or lastly He must acknowledge to us That such Teachings and Speakings are not the Teachings and Speakings of Men but of God by and through Men. Let him first see if he can reconcile himself to these Scripture-Passages so pertinent to our Purpose and leave off his silly Shifts as easily confuted as discovered Upon my saying That we do believe that there is One and but One Universal Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth and that is in God and that the Members of it are washed in the Blood of the Lamb and grafted into the True Vine bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness p. 113. he thus replyes and I beseech my Reader to consider it Reply p. 59. If he own no other Church but this which is the Character of the invisible Church he owns not a Gospel-Church whose Order and Frame is according to the Doctrine of the Apostles and Practice of the Saints in the New-Testament Rejoynder VVe are beholden to him for this May we ever meet with such kind Adversaries It seems then my Definition hath nothing to do with the gospel-Gospel-Church VVhat is it but to say that the Gospel-Chruch is not the Pillar of Truth The Gospel-Chruch is not washed in the Blood of the Lamb The Gospel-Chruch is not grafted into the true Vine that Men may be in the Truth washed in the Blood of the Lamb grafted into the true Vine bring forth Fruit unto Holiness and yet no wayes concered in the Gospel-Church in short the Gospel-Church is not the Vniversal Church nor the invisible Church a Gospel-Church and what is his Reason if any there can be for all this pernicious and Anti-christian Doctrine Because a Gospel-Church is one whose Order and Frame is according to the Doctrine of the Apostle and Practice of the Saints Worse and worse it seems then in J. F's Sence that the Order and Frame the Doctrine of the Apostles brought the Church of Christ to and the Practice of the Saints in the New Testament had nothing to do with the Pillar of Truth dwelling in God being washed in the Blood of the Lamb grafted in the true Vine and bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness What Sort of impious Gibberish is this For according to his Notion of the Gospel-Church the most Satanical Crew may as well be of that Church as the best of Christians since the External Order at most but the Form of Godliness was and is imitable and imitated by arrant Hypocrites By this Argument Elias and the Seven Hundred who had not bowed their Knees to Baal so invisible as Elias himself knew not of them were Schâ—s maticks or Infidels to the then Jewish Church being without all Visible Church Policy or Order and the Jews that had it though Apostatized must have been God's Legal Church It will also follow that for above 1200 Years together since Christ's time there hath been no Gospel-Church yet Gospellers as their Enemies have called them which were to grant to the Roman-Catholicks all they Desire What was that Church that fled into the Wilderness It must either be the Gospel-Church or not the Gospel-Church If not the Gospel-Church then not the Christian and consequently the Antichristian-Church But that could not be because she fled from Antichrist If the Gospel-Church then may a Church be Gospel without punctuallity in visible Order for it is notorious by all Story the Remnant of the Woman's Seed who have born a faithful Testimony against the Spirit of Antichrist in their Sack-Cloth and Wilderness Estate have been destitute of that Visible Order Indeed I hitherto thought that a Gospel-Church constituted necessary external Order and not that meer external Order constitutes the Church Gospel or Evangelical But John Faldo sayes No who seems not to scruple at the Word Church but to play upon the Word Gospel as if external Order and Gospel were synonimous or of equal force whereas the Gospel is called in Scripture The Power of God to Salvation from that Spiritual Redemption it efficatiously worketh in them that receive it from the Bondage of Corruption under which they have fruitlesly laboured which is the Reason and a good one too why it signifieth Glad-Tidings since nothing can be more Joyous to a weary and heavy-loaden Sinner then to be eased of his former Iniquities by Remission and purged from the Nature and Habits of it out of the Soul by the Operation of this Heavenly and Everlasting Gospel which worthy Christopher Goad Right Spirit of Christ pag. 17. calls the forming or bringing forth of Christ in us What is all our Adversary hath said but to make Remedies against or Condescension to the Weakness of the Church's Infancy as sayes honest W. Tindal in his Works p. 9. 436 438. the only great Constitutes of a Gospel-Church By which he denyes a Gospel-Church to have been antecedent to that External Order and consequently that the Believers were not a Gospel-Church when met together on the Day of Penticost not long after since the Gospel had been many years preached Multitudes converted and many baptized by the One Spirit into the One Body of true Gospel-Fellowship before ever those Epistles were written by the Apostle Paul either to the Church at Corinth or to Timothy in which only External Order is mentioned Nay at this rate he hath Unchurched every Party in England but one if yet one may be excepted for if External Order only constitutes a Gospel-Church every Party in England differing greatly in their External Order it must follow that none but one if any one can have any just Pretence to a Compleat Gospel-Church consequently Mungrils He still forgets what he promised that None of them were further concerned against the Quakers then Vindicated Howbeit herein they may hold him excused that he hath equally unchurched Himself and these he preacheth to in Company with all other Parties in England being out of that Order But I intreat the Reader to consider what a Monster he hath made of Christ who describeth him with two such Bodies to one Head one Invisible the other Visible one washed in the Blood of the Lamb grafted into the true Vine bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness Qualifications hid from the Eye of the World as worthy John Bradford told T. Weston as in B. Martyr p. 104 312. That the Church of Christ is Invisible to him that hath not a Spiritual Eye The other constituted of People no matter how Vnregenerated if submitted to
went too far In his second he has done little else What shall we say of those whose Pride has brought them to such a pitch of Passion that Rage must follow Reproof and Revenge a Confutation Without out breaking one part of the Law of Modesty I may say for I know he is irrecoverably gone in my Answer Not one Charge can he prove nor one Friend of ours can he make to speak to his Purpose He was for having us to assassinate our selves our Friends he would fain have to turn Executioners to their own Principles This Fool 's Paradise pleased him but the Discreet know and think better Some were startled at the Pretences of the first wherein nothing less then our own Books wâ—â—e to bear Witness against us who are now great Abominators of his Injustice and Railing Blessed be God for that Good Success we hope the like of our following Endeavours I have for the sake of such as expect an Answer sent forth this Rejoynder wherein several weighty Points are as clearly handled as Time Place and other Occasions would permit It greatly concerns all to be fully satisfied therein And I hope there is enough said for all Impartial Readers to reap that Benefit I seek no Revenge I aim not at Reputation God is Record neither has he done enough to raise up the One or question the Other yet he has done doubtless what he could and I must take the Will for the Deed. I shall not show my self so Personally concerned in this Rejoynder as his Personal Reflections would make me 't is below the Spirit of a Christian Man to be disturbed by such Barks of Malice Curs yelping at the Moon neither questions nor ecclipses her Light 'T is a sort of Suffering I must expect to undergo and the best is I find little Difficulty in it And though I shall not cite all his Injustice towards me for that were well nigh to transcribe his Book yet that which may be requisite to give a further Relish of this pretended Christian may be done in its proper place In the mean time I shall betake my self to the Consideration of such Passages in his Reply as may be thought to call for my Rejoynder and that without those insolent Checks frequent Abuses and very vain and gingling Taunts he has cramb'd his Pamphlet with For I can suffer that my self I cannot let the Truth suffer Nor can I think my Silence to his Revilings the worst Answer especially when my Religion will not allow of a like Return in Vindication For though Scoffs and Abusive Reflections may discredit an Adversary with the Weak or Prejudiced yet with a Serious Reader such rather pollute then defend a Cause I will leave the whole Honour of that Way of Confutation to my Adversary not being in such Necessity for Conquest as to take that Dishonourable and Dishonest Way of procuring it If I can make my Rejoynder a little more intelligible then he has done his Reply defend the Truth I own and honour so as to answer my Reader 's Conscience I shall have obtain'd my whole End and maugre the Impetuous and blustering Humour of a few Enraged Adversaries my Mind will sweetly rest in Peace with God in whom I have believed and for whose Cause only I am thus warmly concerned in the World CHAP. I. Of Christianity in General JOhn Faldo in his Book entituled Quakerism No Christianity begins with his Account of Christianity What it is as I honestly observed in my Answer called Quakerism a New Nick-Name for Old Christianity What he laid down was this By Christianity we are not to understand all those Matters of Faith and Practice which Christianity doth obliege us unto for Christianity is a large and noble thing and takes in all that 's worthy in those Religions which it hath out-stript To which I gave this Answer though disingenuously mangled and transposed by my Adversary A strange Definition of true Christianity For if to Believe and Do all Christianity requireth be not Christianity then there is something beyond all that Christianity requireth to be believed and done that is Christianity else I understand nothing This is all he brings of my Answer to ground his Reply upon omitting that part of his Definition and my Return to it which in Honesty stood him most upon to consider But first let us hear his Reply to what he has quoted for Reply and Rejoynder distinguish our matter Reply You may as well affirm a Finger to be a Man when separated from the rest of the Man as common Justice Truth c. to be Christianity Rejoynder Though the Finger be not the Man yet it is Part of the Man therefore common Justice Truth c. by his own Instance are a Part of Christianity but if no Part of Christianity then may Christianity be without Justice or Truth My Drift was in my Answer and is in my Rejoynder That something of what was at Antiâ—ch called Christianity was in the World before Chrst's Visible Appearance at Jerusalem And that his Coming was but to bring the World to a more improved Knowledge and large Enjoyment of that Divine Power Wisdom Life and Righteousness which former Ages had comparatively but an obscure Sight and imperfect Sense of and this was my Reason because the contrary Opinion excludes all antecedent times from any Share in Christianity and plainly shuts them out of all Hope of Eternal Salvation which my Adversary takes a little notice of in these words Rep. If the Scripture had any where said that none but Christians shall be saved his Consequence had been grounded But he might have found asserted in my Book THAT SALVATION DEPENDS ON A RIGHT BELIEF AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE Rejoyn The Scripture saith as I instanced for Proof of that little Part of my Answer by him considered For there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be Saved neither is there Salvation in any other Now how to distinguish betwixt a Man being saved by Christ and his being a true Christian I must declare my Ignorance Nay John Faldo though in Contradiction to himself tells us That Salvation depends on a right Belief and Acceptance of the Covenant of Grace Let him either show how a Man may rightly believe and accept of the Covenant of Grace and yet be no Christian or else he does nothing to his own purpose whatever he does for ours Christ is called God's Covenant The New Covenant stands in him How a Man may believe in the Covenant and not in Christ How in Christ and not be a Christian concerns John Faldo to reconcile only Reader let me tell thee that of about Six Pages concerning Christianity this Man has not undertaken Eight Lines to reply to neither are those the Strength of my Discourse To conclude I dare not repute Enoch to be no Christian who walked with God Abraham no Christian who saw Christ's Day and rejoyced
wholely Wilderness'd If so consequently the Resurrection of Truth is no more a New Dispensation or not that of Christianity then a Man that is exiled his Country is not essentially the same Man when he returns that he was before But since we are of another Religion by his Account then the Christian because we cannot say that we were alwayes successively from the Apostles time I will argue that the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists are not Christians nor is what they profess to be esteemed Christianity because they cannot prove a regular Succession from the Apostles Times their date also being of later years What will they say then The Church was fled into the Wilderness Truth exiled God as a Stranger in the Earth yet Truth still the same in it self Very well so say we God was pleased to renew the Right Christian Dispensation to us and by us according to John's Vision that the Everlasting Gospel was preached again intimating that there had been a Time wherein it was not preached If this be not a New Gospel because anew or again preached neither is that which J. Faldo calls Quakerism a New Dispensation because it is preaching anew the Everlasting Gospel to the Sons of Men which is God's Power inwardly manifested for the Conviction Conversion Redemption and Salvation of the Souls of such as believe in it In which First I take in that part of the Quotation which was material to the proving of Quakerism No Christianity at least in my Adversary's Apprehension Secondly I have Answered that Objection both by showing that the Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists whom he owns to be Christians were novil and that the Everlasting Gospel was to be preached again which implyed that a Time there was in which it was not preached consequently that his Objection could not be therefore of any Force as levelled at us To all which he sayes nothing only asks a Question concerning my Reproof for his want of Candor in explaining I. Penington's words viz. As if Penington who was a Schollar could not express his Mind Congruously but must have Penn to be his Interpreter Let us see if this be any solid Confutation of what I said Reader hear me And though he particularly seems to Triumph over Isaac Penington's distinguishing between the Dispensation of Moses Christ and his Apostles and THIS of our Day as if they had been three several Dispensations and consequently if Christ was not that of Moses because it swallowed it up neither this the Dispensation of Christ which Isaac Penington saith it swallows up yet to me it seems a pittiful Catch and shows he knows not how to take things with that Candor they are writ 〈◊〉 J. P. means not a Distinct Administration in Kind but Dispensation of one and the same Light Life and Power by Nature at several Times and sundry Manners to the World Christ was before the Law under the Law with the Prophets but never so revealed as in that Holy Manhood will it therefore follow he was not Antecedent to that Appearance or He that appeared then more Gloriously had never shown himself before Or because of a Difference in Manifestation therefore not the same H E through all those several Manifestations in himself Certainly this Man is very Unjust to J. P. especially when the Words above quoted that speak of a Dispensation he experienced a little before God broke forth by us called Quakers could have informed him that he meant the Divers Breakin gs forth of God's Light and Truth in order to the full Discovery and Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity So that this present Appearance swallowing up all going before it had he so termed it as he doth not and therefore wronged is no more then God's Retriving to us the Ancient Gospel with Additional Blessings and Assistances giving us the same Life and Foundation they had and what else he pleased by way of Improvement which alters not the Nature no more then a Child in Christ is not that Numerical Creature but another Distinct Being when a Man Now can any Understanding Man account my Adversary's Idle Shifting Question a Pertinent Reply What if I. P. was a Schollar might he not therefore be Abused or Misunderstood Is Schollarship a Protection against Wresting Must I. P. intend what J. F. will have him and not what really he did But that it should be so Offensive to him for W. P. to Clear and Defend the Passage is delighting rather to have us Wrong then Right But the Quakers must be Heterodox though it be but to save J. F. from the Disrepute of Lying 'T is clear that I. P. intended no New Administration but the Restauration of Pure and Vncorrupted Religion that he never so worded it as by J. F. cited that I charge him with but he thought it best to give it the slip or else I must impute it to his Carelesness Any Unbyast Reader may perceive my Adversary has enough of the Controversie or he would never write so mean a Reply to such an Answer To wind up this which more particularly concerns Christianity I say That there never was but one True Foundation from Adam's day to this upon which the Holy Ancients built and that was Christ Jesus the Lord from Heaven called the Second Adam and Quickening Spirit To deny this were to overturn the Chief Corner-Stone of the Christian-Religion and how Men could build on this Foundation and not be Christians I know not The Christians of the first Three Hundred Years after Christ were then by the Jews and Heathens as we are by certain Professors and Prophane in this Age accused of Affecting and Following Novelties as we learn out of Eusebius Pamphili Paeparat Evang. lib. 1. and Theophilus Antiochenus lib. 3. pag. 119. Arnobius lib. 2. pag. 40. Tertull. ad nation lib. 1. cap. 10. with several other Writers The Account some of them give us of what the Christians said in their Defence was this That the Christian Religion was for Substance the same with that of the Ancient Jews whose Religion claimed the Precedency of all others in the World That the Religion was in Substance the same is expresly asserted and proved by Eusebius The Ancient Patriarchs were the Christians of the Old World who had the same Faith Religion and Worship common with us nay the same Name too Touch not mine Anointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Christ's or Christians Thus D. Cave in his Primitive Christianity out of Eusebius Praepar Evang. l. 1. c. 5. p. 9. Clemens Alexandrin admonit ad Gent. p. 57. about this old Objection queries thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Why do we not use our Mother's Milk for Food to which we were accustomed when we came first into the World And why do we encrease our Estate our Fathers left us c. intimating that the Difference between what we call Law and Gospel or that Religion which the holy Ancients professed before Christ's
Coherence in Matter and Intelligibleness of Language to all Nations which may render them such a Rule Besides it is more then probable that much of the Writings of the New Testament are lost from Luke ' s Word 's in the beginning of his History where he tells us that he was but ONE OF THE MANY who did set forth a Declaration of those things which were most surely believed amongst them even sayes he as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word For it must be considered when Luke writ his Narrative that John's History was not in being and some will have it that Luke wrote before Mark But whether it be so or no certain it is that Mark and Matthew could not make up those many that took that Work in hand neither can we think he should call Matthew and Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie with the Athenians a Multitude for a certain Learned Man will have it That no better Greek was spoken then that wherein Luke wrote his History That those Narratives were not Apocriphal but at least of equal Authority with his dedicated to Theophilus his own words tell us For those that writ were such as related what they received from Eye-witnesses and the first Ministers of the VVord Besides which there were in the Apostles Age and the two following Centuries several Writings reputed genuine which either dyed out of the World through that Neglect brought upon them by the Advantage some accounted Hereticks might make of them in Defence of their Opinions or stifled by the subtilty of the Romish Church being more expresly opposite to her growing Superstition and Grandeur And for such Writings as still remain among us methinks it should not be unknown to a Man of J. Faldo's Pretences to Learning how much the Authority of several of them has been questioned by some and exploded by others though never by any of us particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of James second and third of John second of Peter Jude the Revelations and with some Matthew's History it self has not escaped the like Censure Of which Reader thou hast an Account at large in that Notable French-Man Dallaeus De usa Patrum and a late Discourse mainly directed against the Roman Church entituled Christoph Christophori Sandy Nucleas Historiae Ecclesiasticae I would not any from hence should repute me so Impious as to endeavour to weaken the Testimony of Scripture or beget any the least Doubt of the Doctrine thereby declared only upon our Adversary's Principles which so strongly oppugn'd the Doctrine of Revelation or Inspiration I must take leave to conclude in his Name and upon his Principles that the VVord of God is imperfect and a great part of the Rule of Faith and Life and Judge of Controversie is lost and that he has no more Reason to believe the Truth of those great things related in that part of the Scriptures yet remaining then any Legend at Rome For exclude Revelation and what Ground has he for his Faith besides Tradition and what Evidence can he give us upon his Principles of the Truth of the former and Falshood of the latter These Councils and Synods who collected and canonized them he accepts for one part and rejects for the other Again he trusts their Judgment in picking and chusing and yet rejects their Interpretation as if it were not so difficult to relish Genuine from Spurious Scriptures as when rightly discerning them to be such to understand them which is an absolute Contradiction For how should they know true from False and not understand the True That Council which made the Writings of the New Testament Canonical left out the Revelations as Apocriphal yet I hope J. Faldo accepts that as heartily and unquestionably as the rest And that Council which took in the Revelations and made it first Canonical brought in with it the Books of Tobi Judith c. which J. Faldo I suppose with all his Brethren rejects as Apocriphal Thus are meer Men and the Judgments of such Councils as he otherwise rejects his Rule for believing the Scriptures that remain to be Canonical if it be proper to say the first is the Rule of his Canon which is too short and the other which is superfluous as by his Account My next Question is What was his Rule for believing those Councils I am sure he must have been without all other then a Willingness to believe so because they said so which how like this is to his Papist unto whom he would resemble us let all sober Protestants consider I cannot see how he is able to oppugn any thing they say upon Tradition who mounts no higher for his Assurance then Tradition and such too as rests mostly within their Hands But if it shall be granted us that to know Scripture to have been given forth upon Inspiration Men must have Recourse to Inspiration then not so much Councils and Synods as the Inspiration of the Almighty which gives certain Understanding is our Rule in the Case as well saith the Assembly of Divines in their Confession of Faith chap. 1. § 4. The Authority of the holy Scripture for which it ougâ—t to be believ'd and obeyed depends not on the Testimony of any man or Church but only upon God who is Truth it self the Author thereof And since J. Faldo himself confesseth the Spirit necessary to the Vnderstanding of the Scripture which implies the Insufficiency of the Scripture to give that Understanding of it self the Spirit must be the Rule of our Vnderstanding the Scripture as it was before the Rule of our Faith concerning the Divine Authority of Scripture For the Light of the Interpreter and not the Thing interpreted is the Rule both of Faith and Practice which is undeniably evident from the reconciling of seeming Contradictions If the meer Letter of the Scripture were to be followed no Man could ever make them meet in the same Truth The many Different Perswasions at this Day about Religion prove this whose respective Authors and Abettors think it no mean Advantage to their Cause that they hold the Scriptures to be their Rule But such as come unto the Spirit of God know and believe the Truth as it is in Jesus David ' s Key that opens and none shuts is given unto them and the Secrets of their God remain with them This reconciles those seeming Contradictions and leads through the Greatest and Deepest Truths mentioned in Scripture without the least Doubt or Stumble This is the Super-excellent Benefit of the New-Covenant Administration the Promise of the Father the Instructer Leader and Comforter of all God's Children And for a further Account of which I refer the Reader to my Book entituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated from pag. 16. to pag. 47. and Reason against Railing from pag. 24. to pag. 46. To prove his former Charge he produces this Passage out of James Naylor
dangerous then reading the Scriptures Reader 't is worth our while to see if I. Penington be as bad a Man as J. Faldo represents him in order to which I ask First May a Man that reads and pretends to value the Scriptures from up an Vnderstanding of them and yet be absolutely mistaken for want of the True Interpreter the Spirit of Truth I cannot think but J. Faldo himself will say that such a thing may be I am sure I believe so for it hath often been so already and J. Faldo's present Writings are an Unanswerable Instance for the Point The next Question I would ask is this Whether such Persons so mistaken are not very apt in Defence of their own Conceivings to oppose the Truth it self Methinks the whole Jewish Church at the time of Christ's Visible Appearance in the World in disputing against him and decrying of his Religion while they magnify'd the Scriptures as the only great Doctors of them should without further Labour answer that Question in the Affirmative Next Let me ask J. Faldo If the high Conceit the Jews had of their Knowledge in the Commands Doctrines and Prophecies of Scripture however Erroneous for want of the True Interpreter did not render them more captious and obdurate then the Heathen themselves If he can read the Scriptures of the New Testament he may answer this Question to our Mind and his own Shame Lastly Was not this State more dangerous then that of the Gentiles God himself long since resolv'd this Question when he brought such heavy Judgments upon the Jews and turn'd the Stream of his Love to the Gentiles It was not for nought those words were left upon record He came to his own and his own received him not That is He came to the Nation and People of all others God had selected for his Service to whom he had been propitious beyond measure whom he redeem'd by wonderful Miracles and blessed with Holy Leaders Just Judges a Righteous Law True and Faithful Prophets whose were the Covenants and Scriptures who were the Seed of Abraham and of whom Christ came as concerning the Flesh yet they received him not as God over all blessed forever manifested in Flesh in the Fulness of Time for their Deliverance but vehemently rejected him under the Title of Beelzebub Prince of Devils By this time I hope Isaac Penington's Passage is vindicated from the Malignity of our Adversary's Comment whose Perversion must needs be open and conspicuous to all that read him First in charging him To have made this Reflection upon the Knowledge gained by the Letter of the Scriptures which are none of I. P's words Next in concluding that by I. P's Doctrine nothing can well be more Dangerous then Reading the Scriptures who alwayes was and yet is a great Respecter and Reader of them making the Stress of I. P's Saying to lie in a Dislike and Contempt of the Scriptures absolutely instead of their dark Interpretations upon and Carnal Deductions from the Scriptures which he only levell'd his Discourse against Thus have we been serv'd in every pretended Proof he has brought out of our Friends Writings to prop and enforce his feeble and incredible Charges For where we reprove Men's forming unto themselves Religion from the Letter of the Scriptures according to their own Conceptions of it and give a Check to their great Eagerness to comprehend the most weighty Mysteries therein expressed and their continual Questioning Cavilling and Contending concerning them whilst they themselves are Ignorant of the very first Principles of Religion being yet Strangers to Unfeign'd Repentance fâ—om Dead Works and Fear towards the Living God with Loud Voices and Clamorous Tongues they thus exclaim against us after this Unruly as well as Unjust Manner The Quakers Deny the Scriptures The Quakers say they are not binding upon them The Quakers say it is Dangerous to read them but I say in their Name Blessed are they who reading truly understand them and live according to them I might here break off but I intreat my Reader to peruse Two notable Testimonies given by University-Men and such as were reputed Famous Thirty Years ago The first is out of Joshua Sprigg's Book entituled A Testimony to an Approaching Glory pag. 96. Christ desires that his Disciples may be sanctified not by planting the Knowledge of the LITERAL Word in their Minds but by ingrafting the Nature of the DIVINE Word in their Hearts Again in pag. 107. Christ may offer himself long enough in the LETTER in the HISTORY of the Gospel but if he appear not in the SPIRIT and sit in our Consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true Understanding of the Word aright And in page 79 80. We may see what is to be done by looking upon the HISTORY of Christ but till we find the same things done in us in some measure in the MYSTERY we can find little Comfort The whole HISTORY of Christ will profit you nothing nor all that you know except you find EXPERIMENTALLY the same things done in you by the Spirit The second is afforded us by Christopher Goâ—d stiled Bachellor of Divinity and Fellow of King's Colledge in Cambridge in his Book entituled Refreshing Drops c. pag. 12. There is no Knowledge of Christ nor of the Scripture but by REVELATION it is that the Apostle prayes for That God would give unto us the Spirit of Revelâ—tion Again in pag 18. It is neither Moses nor the Scriptures nor Christ's Works can settle our Hearts unless the Father be in them c. Also in pag. 89. To go forth in Man's Power in the Power of a Letter of the Scripture only is not safe Yet again pag. 87 upon Acts 17. Here they hold Paul play in Reasoning and Disputing Paul holds up Christ out of the Scriptures and the Jews do dispute against Christ by the Scriptures And this is that that all the Learning of Man doth all his Knowledge in the Scripture doth but serve him to oppose the Spirit The greater Knowledge in the Scriptures and the more Learning if it be only of Man the greater Opposition unto Christ and unto the Spirit These Jews had LEARNING AND KNOWLEDG IN THE SCRIPTURES MEERLY TO OPPOSE THE TRUTH THE POWER AND LIFE OF THE SCRIPTURES And lastly that we may not be too prolix we shall content our selves in the over-looking many more with this Passage in his last Testimony pag. 71. upon Esa 25. There are that have devoted themselves to the Law and the Letter of Scripture There are others that have their Life in the Creature God will shortly draw all Life unto himself and all they that run after other Gods shall starve and famish They and their Gods These Passages Reader speak for themselves and which is more so much for us that till J. Faldo and his Fellow-Separatists have publickly renounced them and their Authors we have great Cause to say that such as themselves have hitherto reputed their Spiritual and
the Power of Satan unto God we own honour and love and only deny and reject that Ministry which is by the Will Study or Acquisition of Man in his unregenerated State who not being acquainted with the Effectual Operation of the Word of God in themfelves are wholy dark as to those things which relate to the true Ministry not knowing what they deny nor whereof they affirm which doth not edifie but hazard the immortal Souls of Men And as they want the Inspiration of the Almighty to instruct them so being Strangers to the Work of God in themselves and not waiting to feel an Enduement with Divine Power from on high there proceeds no spiritual Life or divine Vertue from them to make their Ministry effectual which is the Cause of that Lamentable Decay of holy Living that is in the World and great Increase of all manner of Unsavoury and Irreligious Conversation I will conclude with two or three Testimonies given by men once in request with Separatists Christopher Goad's Invalidity of Church's Censures pag. 64 65. It is the Spirit that makes Ministers and those Ministers that remain by the Spirit do minister the Spirit and that is ministring of the Gospel when we miuister the Spirit I am a Minister of the new Testament so far as the Spirit speaks in me and by me In whomsoever the Spirit stands up and speaks that Person for the Time is a Minister a true Minister The Spirit doth not regard Sexes the Spirit regards not Age Learned or unlearned 'T is not Age nor Sex nor any major Part can minister Spirit but whom the Spirit pleaseth Christopher Goad Right Spir. c. p. 21 22. The Ministry that is calling us off from Man from the Gloworm Light of this Creation from Man's Parts an Gifts into the Spirit that is the Ministry we should look after The Truth is there is no true Prophet no true Testimony given of Christ but by those that see him and the nearer to him the clearer Sight of him the more clear and powerful is the Testimony given of him That Testimony that is given to him by those that do not see him present and come is not in deed a Testimony to Christ but to Anti-christ he is such a Prophet as Balaam was that had nothing but Notion All true Prophets that prophesied of Christ saw him and he was in them Christopher Goad's Paraphrase upon Act. 17. p. 18. We know no other Guide but the Spirit There is not any Minister in the World that is our Guide or any Company of Ministers â—ut the Spirit if he speaks in them and by them VVe have but one Master that is Christ T. Collier in his Works p. 47 48. and p. 430. Upon that Scripture Mal. 27. The Priâ—st's Lips should preserve Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Host Now this usually is applyed to the Ministers who have given themselves the Title of Priest's and that the People should seek the Knowledge at their Mouths and indeed they themselves have done what in them lies not only to bring People into this Error and Ignorance but to keep them in it whereas Christ is indeed the alone Priâ—st the Substance of the Jews Type and the People are to seek the Law at his Mouth but he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts he is called the Messenger of the Covenant Mal 3. 1. the alone Prophet and Teacher of his People The Spirit being lost Anti-christ sets the VVisdom of the Flesh human Industry Tongues and Arts in room of it it is the Anointing of Anti-christ for in all things Anti-christ seeks to imitate Christ as well in the Flesh as in the Spirit Again The Saints are made partakers of the same Spirit the Apostles were W. Dell's Sermons pag. 16 17 18. There is a Necessity of this Power of the Holy Spirit for Ministers For first If they have not this Power of the Holy Spirit they have no Power at all for Christ sent them only as his Father sent him Without this Power they are insufficient for the Ministry for no Man is sufficient for the Work of the Ministry by any natural Parts and Abilities of his own but only by this Power of the Spirit and till he be endued with this notwithstanding all his other Accomplishments he is altogether insufficient but only by the Power of the holy Spirit coming upon them He cannot speak the Word of God but by the Power of God Christ himâ—elf without this Power of God could not have spoke one VVord of God W. Dell. Stumble Stone p. 8. The Ministry of the new Testament is a common Ministry belonging equaly and the like to all the Seed of Christ W. Dell. Tryal of Spirits p. 17 18. The true Prophets speaking the Word of God by and in the Spirit as Paul sayes of himself and other Believes who had received the Spirit We have the mind of Christ But the false Prophets though they speak the Word of the Letter exactly and that to the very Original and Curiosity of Criticisms yet speaking it without the Spirit they are false Prophets before God and his True Church seeing all right Prophecy hath proceeded from the Spirit in all Ages of the World but especially it must so proceed in the Dayes of the New-Testament wherein God hath promised the largest Effusion of his Spirit Greenham Serm. 1. p. 51. Without this Spirit of God no Holy Exercise can have its full Effect for the word works not where the Spirit of God is wanting when we have not the Spirit of God to teach us speak of the Law or the Gospel c. we are little affected therewith unless God give us of his good Spirit to profit by the same CHAP. III. That we own a Gospel-Church contrary to our Adversary's Charge THe next thing our Adversary charged us with a Denyal of is a gospel-Gospel-Church one of his Proofs as he will have them called was in J. N's Love to the Lost pag. 17. And the Chruch so gathered into God is the Pillar and Ground of Truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher Upon which he argued thus The Gospel-Church is a Church which had other Teachers and not the Spirit alone Therefore the Quakers deny a Gospel-Church and they contradict themselves for they have more Teachers then all others Thus his first Book pag. 16. To which I returned That such as are not blinded with Prejudice may discern that from our speaking of the Universal Church of God which sayes the Apostle as well as the Quakers is in God he inâ—ers That we deny all Visible Religious Societies commonly called by the Ancients Asia Thessalonica Ephesus Corinth c. Now observe his Reply Reply pag. 59. Not one word of this in all my Book My Charge was That they deny a Gospel-Church not Visible Religious Societies Rejoynder Confidently said but if all the Words be not there doth it follow
his Leave I hope he will not be angry if I take him at his Word but before I proceed I cannot but declare my Amazement in calling this circumstantial Omission by no milder term then Forgery who God is record between us of 50 Testimonies which he he hath pretended to take out of our Friends VVritings hath miscited or misreported one half of them and imposed false Glosses upon the other Now le ts see wherein I have wronged him I will observe every Variation The First lyeth between the Ordinances hitherto considered and the Ordinances I have hitherto considâ—red It seems I have was left out but this is not one Step to Forgery The next lyeth betwixt these two Passages although respecting their Substance they deserve a more Evangelical Denomination and his Saying although that Substantial and Essential Part and Qualification of them and their Respect to a Mediator will require a Denomination more Evangelical the Difference lyeth here first that I have put but the VVord Substance in the room of Substantial Essential Qualification their Respect to a Mediator wherein I conceive I have not wrong'd his matter for the substance of the Morral Ordinances the Substantial or Essential Part or Qualification of the Morral Ordinances are equivalent The Difference only lyeth that I did not rapeat his four Terms when one would serve but used the VVord Substance as carrying in it the import of the rest For the Moral Ordinances Respect to a Mediator I say they either respect the Mediator from the Substance or Circumstance of them not the Circumstance to be sure therefore the Substance and that VVord I used in the Place of Substantial or Essential as before I cannot yet see where the Forgery lyeth but let us proceed The next Variation lyeth between will require and deserve Now I know not any VVrong I did him in saying those morral Ordinances deserve instead of those morral Ordinances will require The harsher Word of the two is in his own Quotation There be yet two Faults more that I have committed that help to the Forgery in my Adversaries Opinion The one is this I cited it a more Evangelical Denomination instead of a Denomination more Evangelical The other was this instead of Gospel or Christian Ordinances I did only set down Christian Ordinances All these things considered I cannot believe these Omissions are able to stain my Credit in the Judgment of any sober Reader though J. Faldo tells me They are enough to stain any man which is not all black already This miserable Shift and causless Cry of Forgery designed to amaze divert the Reader from calling upon him for a more serious Reply to the Use I made of his own Doctrine against himself cannot take me off from persuing my Advantage for I think those Omissions so little to his Prejudice that the inserting what I left out would if possible have made more to my Purpose The Use I made of it was this First That a Ministry grounded internally upon the special Grace and Gifts of God externally upon the Scriptures of Truth 2ly That a Well-ordered Church consisting of Religious Members preaching praying and that scripturally too are by him called Christian Ordinances and made natural to all Nations before Christ's visible Coming and consequently there was the Thing Christianity before the Name of Chritianity which pleads our Cause against his first Chapter and his gross Contradiction to himself 3ly Those he calls Natural Ordinances and that are of universal Obligation are far more substantial and necessary to Salvation then those two of Water-Baptism and the Lord's Supper upon which he more peculiarly bestoweth the Title of Christian Since no Man can ever be saved without the one I mean those Natural Ordinances as he calls them grounded internally upon the Grace and Gifts of God and any Man may be certainly saved without the other that he so peculiarly calls Christian Ordinances viz. Water-Baptism and the Supper I say his Citation hinders me no more of this Advantage then mine he excepteth against for if the Substantial and Essential Part and Qualification of them and the Respect to a Mediator will require them to be Christian Ordinances that Part I left out and for which he quarreld me what Reason can there be for his counting me a Forger and telling the World that I first cut off his Matter and then tell him of self-Contradiction when the Words omitted give a further Weight to my Consequences and justifie them beyond all Opposition For if these Ordinances be Morral naturally obliging with all Gospel and Christian from their Substantial and Essential Qualification and the Respect to a Mediator then there must needs have been Christian or Gospel-Ordinances from the beginning of the World In short Since he denys not my Consequence upon that Citation I made and that we have shown the Difference to be little and what there was to make for me I think I may well conclude that my former Argumentation was found Thus much for this Cavil He goeth on Reply pag. 66. A Passage pag. 133. in W. P. I cannot Perswade my self to let pass W. P. thus It is no less then Blaspheming in our Adversary and an evident Contradiction to himself to assert That the Light he grants those immutable Ordinances to result from may be doubtful or decay respecting it self since it were to say that God were doubtful and liable to decay Thus far W. P. The Light I spoak of was Natural Light or the Light of Nature in express Terms which we dare not nor the Quakers do not say is God but a humane Faculty Rejoynder He might very well have perswaded himself to have let this Passage pass unless he had given it a better Reply He is willing to bring us in for Stars but we reject his Kindness The Quakers say That God is the great Sun of Righteousness and Fountain of all Light That he enlightens all with a Measure of his own Divine Light and that from thence proceed these Moral General and Obligatory Ordinances which J. F. himself confesseth to be Gospel and Christian and therefore it is both a Contradiction and little less then Blasphemy to call the Light a Sinful Sordid and Ridiculous Thing as p. 47. of his Reply and yet say so much in Praise of these Natural and Universal Ordinances But above all that he should say the Quakers Deny the Light to be God own it but for a Humane Faculty who imployes many pages to prove the contrary and not above two pages off expresly calls it the Quakers Christ shows him either to have been very careless or not well himself when he writ so extravagantly We are now come to consider the Ordinances themselves and first that of Baptism Reply pag. 67. Water-Baptism W. P. disowns to be a Gospel-Ordinance his Reasons I shall answer briefly Christ never was Administrator of Water-Baptism p. 133. It is Christ's Command and not his being immediate Administrator that