serve thee with all Sincerity for the Truth 's sake as it is in Jesus William Penn. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Introduction Our Adversary's Definition of Christianity Defective True Christianity stated Quakerism mistaken by him It is prov'd True Christianity and a Quaker a Right Christian Page 1. CHAP. II. How Christianity was introduc'd it hurts not the Quakers The Question is not of Christ's Visible Coming that is Owned by them Nor is their Religion a New One from that of Christianity but the Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity since the Reign of Anti-Christ in the World That Quakerism as call'd made its Way by Purity Sorrow and Rejoycing as well as Christianity The Priest's Vilifying Expressions Rebuk'd That the Distinct Times of their Appearance is no Argument against their Harmony or being but Two Words for the same Thing since the same Truth may appear at Two distinct Ages of the World It would strike out J. Faldo as well as the Quakers if the Contrary were admitted That he grosly Contradicts himself as to Time Christianity has more or less been in the World where Godly Men and Women have been as well before as since that Appearance We intend no New Dispensation but the Renewed Revelation of the same Power which is the True Gospel p. 11. CHAP. III. J. Faldo's Charge That the Scriptures are not the Word of God Reasons for it The Scriptures by him urg'd against us clear'd and prov'd to be for us They are the Words of the Word a Declaration of the great Law Word or Commandment but not that Law Word or Commandment p. 24. CHAP. IV. His Charge What he quotes proves it not Revelation Infallibility and Inspiration consider'd The Priest prov'd Uncertain of his own Faith Our Friends debase not the Scripture but Lift them up His Objection about our Books Titles answer'd The Use of Scripture asserted The Light vindicated from Insufficiency Something of the True Rule p. 32. CHAP. V. The Charge Stated not Proved The Scriptures not the most Excellent nor only General Rule God may speak by Instruments The Instruments not the Rule but that which useth them That the Scriptures being Obligatory does not conclude it the General Rule under the Gospel The Dis-ingenuity of our Adversary in citing the Apostle's Words Reprehended The Scriptures no Judge in that sense wherein they are not the General Rule The Scriptures Confest to p. 52. CHAP. VI. We deny the Charge His Proof no Proof but against himself We Own Believe and desire to Obey the Scriptures they afford Comfort and are as Lights in the World but not that True Light The Light and Spirit Superior to them p. 63. CHAP. VII Commands upon Conviction to be obeyed All General Commands Obligatory Particular not but upon particular Commission Our Adversary's Dis-ingenuity The Scriptures a Means by which God may be known but not the Principle p. 70. CHAP. VIII His Charge of our Denying the Scriptures any Means by which God doth enable Men to resist Temptations And that we say they are Dangerous to be read rejected His Proofs lame The Scriptures are believed to be a Means c. The true Knowledge of them Divine No Knowledge of Divine Things but upon Experience It does not destroy Faith W. Penn's Words safe and sound The Priest a meer Shuffler Learning a Servant to Truth Christ the Word of God Faith by our Adversary preferred before Scripture The Scriptures ought to be Read Believed and Obey'd p. 76. CHAP. IX That we do not put the Scripture and Holy Spirit in Opposition The Wickedness of the Priest in his Proof They accord and we acquiesce in their Testimony We do not say that they are not to be obeyed without extraordinary Apostolical Revelation as basely suggested His Proof fictitious and forged Such only are by us deny'd as are only Literal Formal Christians The Scriptures own'd and believ'd in by us according as they testifie of themselves p. 91. CHAP. X. He chargeth us with a Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel First in general then in particular His Proof of the first Invalid His great Dis-ingenuity in wresting our Words especially I. Pennington's p. 102. CHAP. XI The first of the particular Ordinances he says we deny is the Ministry His Proof lame W. P. and his Friends defended J. F. and his Gang Reproveable We own a Gospel one but not his The Calling abused by such Pretenders p. 105. CHAP. XII The Second particular Ordinance is a Gospel-Church His Definition for us by its gross Contrariety to the Scripture His base Inference of our Denial of Religious Societies and Outward Gifts from our Friends asserting of but one Catholick Church and that it is in God A Gospel-Church owned Our Adversary proved Heterodox about Apostolical Preaching Inward Sence preferr'd before Intelligence p. 112. CHAP. XIII We deny Preaching says he His Dis-ingenuity in stating our Principles We hold and practise true Gospel-Preaching No Difference between what the Light teacheth and the Scripture Our Gospel is Peace Our Adversary's is War c. True Preaching Converts our Adversary's not p. 117. CHAP. XIV His Charge of our Denial of Gospel-Prayer inverted The Prayer he pleads for Anti-Gospel True Prayer stated asserted and defended with plainness from Scripture and Reason That as well in Families as Meetings and at Meals as both False Worship detestable to God All False wherein God's Spirit is not the first and Chief Mover and Assister The Subtility of Satan in putting upon unacceptable Prayer to prevent true Prayer p. 121. CHAP. XV. His Charge of our Denial of Baptism and the Sacraments introduc'd with a Discourse of positive Commands Destructive of the Foundation of Religion The Priest against God Scripture and Reason He confounds himself Baptism of Water prov'd John's and not to continue Mat. 28. 19. 1 Cor. 1. 17. Ephes 4. 5. cleared and vindicated The One Spiritual Baptism defended p. 129. CHAP. XVI The Supper he says we deny not denyed but fulfill'd The Scriptures consulted No Perpetuity proved That it was a Sign and that Signs were done away in Christ demonstrated The present Practice in the Case not Primitive Our Faith left with God in the Matter p. 141. CHAP. XVII His Charge of our Denying Christ's Transactions to influence into our Justification consider'd His Proofs not for him His Abuse of our Friends words Justification distinguished upon as Remission and as daily Acceptance The Transactions of Christ largely own'd by us The Scriptures confirm our Faith in Christ as a general and particular Saviour No Works of Man Meritorious p. 147. CHAP. XVIII He says we disown the True Christ It is prov'd that He denies in Contradiction to himself what we deny and that we are Scriptural and sound in our Belief And though we cannot exclude that Divinity from the true Christ Yet we also own that the true Christ took Flesh that he appeared for the Salvation of Mankind and that his Bodily Appearance was instrumental in the Point Christ
they resist the Grace grieve the Spirit turn from the Way of the Light and are in a State of Death God hath been frequently pleased to move in the Hearts of the Obedient to visit the Rebellious that the Inward Strivings of the Holy Spirit might be the more Efficacious by its Strivings through some Outward Instruments but still it is the same Light Grace or Spirit of God Nor is the Light within any whit the more Insufficient to reclaim the Rebellious if minded for it is the same Light with that which moves in the Hearts of the Obedient to bear Record for God against their Ungodly Deeds Only Mens Minds being far strayed from that Holy Light or Word in the Heart and gone abroad into the wide World of Lusts and Vanities it hath pleased God to visit Mankind so degenerated by those who have been Obedient Children to the End they might be the more easily gained to a Subjection unto the Holy Light in themselves so that all Conviction and Conversion are to be ascribed to the Light Grace and Spirit of God whether immediately in the Creature or mediately by any Instrument Only take this by the way that whatsoever is Efficacious mediately is not to be understood simply of another Man's Measure of Light or Grace but in Conjunction with what God hath given and may be at work in the Party convicted and converting for every Mediate Conviction gives and Addition of Life and Strength to the Immediate Conviction that is wrought by the Operation of that so long neglected Measure of Light Grace or Truth in the particular Conscience We appeal then to every Impartial Person that reads us if we own not the Scriptures in that very Sense he would have People believe that we deny them to wit That God may and doth speak to People through the Writings of the Holy Prophets and Apostles which are commonly call'd Scriptures and consequently we do not deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ and Our selves so often as it shall please the Eternal God to reach into the Hearts of Men by any of those Truths therein declared of CHAP. VIII His Charge of our denying the Scriptures any means by which God does enable Men to resist Temptations and that we say they are Dangerous to be read rejected His Proofs Lame The Scriptures are believ'd to be a means c. The true Knowledge of them Divine No Knowledge of Divine Things but upon Experience It does not destroy Faith W. Penn's Words safe and sound The Priest a meer Shuffler Learning a Servant to Truth Christ the Word of God Faith by our Adversary prefer'd before Scripture The Scripture ought to be Read Believ'd and Obey'd § 1. HE further charges us with denying the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation and that we say That they are Dangerous to be read For Proof of which he quotes a Book called Love to the Lost and mine Entituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated The first is this For those only are Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God to whom they who were led by the Letter were Enemies From whence he concludes That we account it a very dangerous thing to read the Scriptures Now if this Passage hath any relation to his Charge or Conclusion no Man ever saw the like the whole Scope of which is but this That there are Children of the Fleshly Literal and Historical Knowledge of the Scriptures and Religion who are Strangers to and therefore Persecutors of the Children born of the Spirit And that in all Ages there hath been more or less of this among Inward and Outward Jews and Christians and let J. Faldo deny it if he dare How Wicked then is he to extort indeed invent an Inference so forreign to the Matter and then charge it upon the Quakers in general and as if it were prov'd by that Passage in particular which can no wayes be concern'd in any such Unrighteous Doctrine I perceive it is as impossible for our Adversaries to do any thing against us without they have the Making of our Consequences as we are sure to find them mis-shapen enough by that time they get clear of their Hands but blessed be the Name of our God who has given us an Understanding and Boldness both to search the Reins of our Enemies Cause and defend his which he has put into our Hands in this our Day § 2. But hear him further if it may be worth while That this Abominable Tenet is the Quakers Take one Instance more out of their Famous Author W. P. or William Penn. But I will assure them they shall grope in the Dark till they come into the dayly Obedience of the Light and there rest contented to know only as they experience and not from a ravening comprehending Brain that would in its Unregenerated State grasp at the clear Mysteries of the Kingdom into which Fleshly Comprehensions and Notions can never enter but all must be as Unlearned from their first Birth Education and Traditional read Knowledge as he is unman'd that is again become a little Child before the Secrets of God's Work come to be made known Spir. Truth Vind. p. 23. Upon which hear his Comment That W. P. of all others should talk at this rate is most Ridiculous What! Know only as they experience know what God is no farther then they experience Can we experience his Omnipotency What! Know the Death of the Man Christ Jesus the Life to come and judging of all Men by the Lord Jesus only by Experience Where is Faith all the while If none but Believers are Saints such as W. P. are professedly none If Reader we are got beside the Matter charg'd against the Quakers to wit that they deny the Scriptures to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation our wandring Adversary who led me thither is only to be blam'd But since I am here I shall endeavour to clear the Truth and My self before we return to the Point in hand It cannot be so ridiculous in W. P. to assert the Impossibility of any Man 's Knowing God or the Things belonging to his Everlasting Kingdom but by Experience or as God hath been pleased by the Inspiration or Illumination of his Light or Spirit to demonstrate or discover unto Mankind as it is Impious and Antichristian in J. Faldo to assert the Right Knowledge of God obtainable any other way then by Experience And this Reader choaks J. Faldo and the rest of his Partners more then they are willing their Followers should know who for all their Cries against us as Overturners of a Gospel and Establishers of a Legal Righteousness dread the Consequence of having their own Strivings Runnings Willings and Literal Knowledge laid aside in which their Life Faith Worship and whole Religion mostly stand and of being reduced to the very Alphabet of Inward and Experimental Religion where the Righteous Judgements of
with a more glorious Manifestation of the same Divine Power Purity Truth Wisdom and Righteousness then former Ages were either capable of or attended with To exclude then all Antecedent Times from any share in Christianity is both Weak and Cruel since it plainly shuts them out of all hopes of Eternal Salvation for if no Name be given but the Name of Christ under the whole Heaven by which Men can be saved then either Christ was alwayes in some measure or other a Saviour and such as were saved in some degree or other Christians or there was one Saviour before Christ's outward coming and another since or lastly all that were antecedent to that Appearance were damn'd § 6. I appeal then to the Consciences and Understandings of all impartial People if our Belief be not the most Just Merciful and True that however it pleased God to send his Son a Light into the World at that time more eminently then before yet that he was so far Spiritually manifested in all Ages as the Word of God nigh in the Heart and great Commandment in the Consciences of Men as who believed and obey'd obtain'd Remission of Sins and Eternal Salvation This is clear for if no man could ever see or know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him then because many of the Holy Ancients both spiritually saw and knew God otherwise they could never be saved it follows that Christ did in all Ages reveal God who being Light and that it is Light alone which can Reveal or Manifest it was as a Light within that he communicated unto the Soul of Man which is within Man the Knowledge of the Pure God Whatever may be known of God is manifest within Man for God hath shewed it unto him so that the Contradiction and Error of the Man's Definition of Christianity is evident § 7. But yet a little further He plainly Heathenizes that notable Christian Passage of the refusing it all Priviledge within the bounds of Christianity viz. Whatsoever things are True Honest Just Pure Lovely of Good Report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things Now if this Religious Chymist shall once extract all things that are Honest Just Pure Lovely and of Good Report from Christianity which the Apostle maketh the Sum of what he had been writing unless it is not a Christian Epistle and therefore ends with a Finally my Brethren tell me O sober Reader what a kind of Christianity there would be in the World O Monstruous Impiety Is this Man fit to write of Christianity that places it beneath the lowest step of Purity making manifest Difference betwixt being a Child of God and a Christian True the outward History of Christ's exceeding Love to Man-kind deserves all humble and reverent Credit as a Godly Tradition and it should forever bind Men to receive and fear and worship him yet I boldly affirm that though the Manifestation was clearer yet Salvation was Salvation and a Child of God a Child of God in all Ages For what is it but to say that Pure Religion and Undefiled which is to keep our selves unspotted from the World belongs not stricktly to the Christian but Jewish or Pagan Religion and that James was but a moral Man in the Matter and not writing on a Christian Subject What an empty Trunk a Vox praeterea nihil a sounding Brass and Tinckling Cymbal would this Man make of true Christianity Yet thus far we may force him to speak Truth though in double Contradiction to himself that since Christianity takes in all that was worthy in all Ages not as Alien then but related to her self something of the Nature of true Christianity was in the World before that more Visible and Glorious Manifestation of it unless Christianity be supposed to take into it self what is not of its own Nature thus was Christ the Rock the Ancients built on before Abraham was whose Day he had a Sight and Sence of and from it exulted greatly § 8. Christianity then is not an Historical Belief of the exteriour Acts the true Christ did in that bodily Appearance which is but Historical Christianity as our Adversary weakly argues for that was the least part of it since Christianity is that which brings to God which thousands that believe the other will never arrive at but a firm belief in him that so Appeared Lived Died Rose and Ascended both as testified of in the Scriptures of Truth and more especially as he breaks in upon the Soul by his Divine Discoveries as the true Light inlightning every Man this I call Christianity and that Man is a Child of Light who obeys that Light a true Christian who is Christ-like a Child of God and Heir of the Promise who is inwardly renewed and begot anew of the Incorruptible Seed and Word of God For those who were Christians of old were such as came to know Christ no more after the Flesh but as the second Adam the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit who said I am the Resurrection and the Life really witnessing him to be that in themselves wherefore they Believed and upon Repentance received Remission of Sins and Eternal Salvation And I do affirm that Christianity stands in the Manifestation of a Measure of that Righteous Power Wisdom Truth and Life in the Soul which appear'd so largely and gloriously in that Body at Jerusalem to work Repentance then give Remission so Renew Redeem and finally Save and who came to be made sensible of that Heavenly Treasure in their mortal Bodies and to improve it as good Stewards were Possessors of true Christianity and therefore Right Christians The Distinction betwixt Moral and Christian the making holy Life Legal and Faith in the History of Christ's outward Christianity Manifestation has been a deadly Poyson these latter Ages have been infected with to the Destruction of Godly Living and Apostatizing of those Churches in whom there might once have been begotten some Earnest Living Thrist after the Inward Life of Righteousness § 9. By this I think it may be pretty well known what we mean by Christianity and a True Christian How far this will agree with his Definition of Quakerism and a Quaker I will proceed to examine Quakerism is a heap of Tenets with the usurped Names of true Christian Principles which are yet really no such thing but subverting both Foundation and Fabrick of true Christianity And I call him a Quaker that professes the Light within every Man to be the Lord and Saviour and very God So that then I say Quakerism is no Christianity § 10. Indeed if Quakerism respecting us were this I would say so too but because it is justly a Stranger to any such Imputation I rightly fasten that of Ignorance or great Malice upon our Adversary I have already exprest our Judgment of Christianity which I suppose to be the Quakerism struck at what ever may be pretended at
possibly can be which he makes them but to be § 9. In short either the Scriptures are not obscure a thing we daily see or if so yet sufficient which is impossible or they must have a Judge which is most true and necessary and what Judge but the Spirit of Truth which leads into all Truth And so far are Decrees from determining because written that they are therefore determinative of Controversie because of that Conviction the Power from whence they came works upon the Conscience So that though what is true in it self is not the less so because written yet is not the Writing subject to an hundred Casualities nor Matter therein declared as there eminently the Rule much less the Judge after our Adversaries Notion of a Judge But that Living Powerful Spirit which gave it forth and who are made spiritual Men by it For the spiritual Man judges all things Such Writings may be declaratory of the Mind and Determination of the Living Rule or Judge I grant but also I utterly deny that the Writings themselves are that Rule how People are to believe them and a Judge how to determine of the Difficulties and Obscurities within themselves A meer Begging of the Question and a thing altogether absurd We cannot end this Chapter without an Acknowledgment of the Goodness of God in Opening things so clearly to the making known his Divine Light and Truth and manifestly Discovering the great Darkness and Blindness of its Opposers CHAP. VI. We deny the Charge His Proof no Proof but against himself We Own Believe and desire to Obey the Scriptures they afford Comfort and are as Lights in the World but not that True Light The Light and Spirit Superior to them § 1. THe next Charge he brings against us is a Consequence of his already mistaken Judgment and untrue Assertions concerning us viz. That we take People off from Reading the Scriptures and Looking into them for Instruction and Comfort to prove which as he thinks for none else can that is not either as deeply Ignorant of us or as Malicious against us as J. Faldo shows himself in almost every particular he brings out W. Smith speaking thus in his Catech. pag. 95. And this is the Meaning of our Doctrine to bring People to the Everlasting Word of God in themselves O Ungodly Man What Evil Spirit hath possest J. Faldo into this wretched and impious Consequence Certainly he is grosly blind or he has sinned against the Light of his own Conscience if he hath Conscience enough to think it a Sin which I profess I doubt when the Malignity Frothiness Envy and Impious Unjustice of the Man are set before me For 1 let any tell me if it be a Sin to bring People to the everlasting Word of God in themselves though he Dirts us not a little for so doing 2 If we do hereby take Men off from reading and looking into the Scriptures I do affirm against this Ungodly Priest and that by Authority from God the Scriptures Reason and the first Reformers too that no Man on Earth can understand them but by being first brought to the Everlasting Word of God nigh in the Heart by which the Lord speaks forth his Will to the Creature and the Scriptures themselves direct to this and never said that of themselves some over-doing Priests assert concerning them whose whole End is this that by Exalting the Letter and Excluding the Spirit they may lock up all Knowledge in their own Areanum and plead the Impossibility of Knowing the things of God any other way then by their literal Ministration for should Men be but turned to the Certain Witness of God in their own Consciences there placed of the Lord their whole Trade Power and Reputation would fall and their Deceits be made manifest in the View of the World which God the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth is now accomplishing § 2. But he says that J. Parnel censures such that draw Peoples Minds from the Light within to the Light without putting the Letter for the Light c. Shield of Tr. pag. 10. And what then Because we say that he who inlightens all Men God that is the Sun and Fountain of all Divine Light and in whom there is no Darkness at all is greater then the Scriptures therefore will it follow that we take People off from Reading or Looking into them Behold your Priest you that hear him Is this Man to be accounted of as a Minister of the Gospel that thus unrighteously deals with us But God will recompense upon his Head in the Day of his terrible Vengeance for all his Hard and Ungodly Sayings against us We do say and that rightly Whoever puts the Letter in Opposition to or above the Spirit is an Idolater For there can be no Comparison rightly made between them the Heavens don't excell the Earth more then the Spirit does the Letter and the Power the Form But if we do not therefore deny the Form of Godliness because we prefer and press more earnestly the Power neither do we exclude the Scriptures because we prefer and press the Everlasting Word of God nigh in the Heart And this I will tell him that to busie the Minds of Men with the Depth of those Truths the Scriptures declare of by reading and exercising their Minds in Meditating thereon before they have been turned unto the Measure of the Light or Grace of God in the Heart to believe and obey that in its secret Discoveries Reproofs and Strivings is to set Men about Images to conceive a God a Christ a Salvation a Damnation an Heaven an Hell by which the Inward Work of God is overlook't and they become Rich in Notion whilst most barren in Obedience and of all People that live upon the Earth the Greatest Idolaters because they bow down to their own Imaginations for real Truths And this is the State of every Opposer to the Sacred Light within how full soever of the meer Literal Knowledg of the very Scriptures themselves for indeed who knows the new Birth though the Scriptures declare of it but who really experience it § 3. But J. Story he thinks has Contributed much to prove his Assertion in this Passage And although the holy Scripture without and the Saints Practices are as Lights in the World yet far be it from all true Christian Men so to Idolize them as to set them in Esteem above the Light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them Equal with the Light and Spirit of God within J. S. Short Discourse Pag. 2. To this he objects that J. S. confesses them to be as Lights but not a Light and that our Commendations of that Idol the Light within are such that if they were true he were a stark Fool that would direct his Eyes to the Scripture But here the Priest fail's egregiously For if the Scriptures are as Lights I cannot see how they should be denyed to be as in the
would allow some Grains for Ill-Printing to us especially who have not the Press open nor those Advantages for Well-Printing which our Adversaries Enjoy that Day is not yet come to us J. Faldo's Title is Imprimatur enough we swim against the Stream such as be with it But God can and will turn the Rivers of Waters and make the Sea Dry Land Vincit qui patitur § 10. But once more hear him What is to my present purpose is in the last part of his saying All must be as unlearned from their traditional read Knowledg as he is unman'd c. Where he falls out of all bounds upon us and draws this Consequence and asks these Questions Sure the Scripture-Knowledge being Read-Knowledge or Knowledge that comes by reading as one means is a most hateful thing to God That he will impart none of his Secrets to those that will understand any thing by his written Word How came God to fall out with his own Off-spring Did he write and cause it to be written and yet never intended we should read it or reading it that we should not believe a Word of it Shall they be judged by the Law who live under it and yet the Knowledge of God thereby be a Sin and Hinderance to their Salvation To what a height of Wickedness and Folly do they quickly go who are poysoned with that Abomination of holding the Light in every Man's Conscience to be God Father Son Spirit Christ Scripture all W. P. what means your Latine Greek Authors Logick Scripture-Quotations Did you learn all those things by Immediate Inspiration But I smell your Design you would have us throw away all the Knowledge we have by Reading or Tradition till we come to be regenerate that is Quakers But in the mean time you would have us without the Armour of Light For whatsoever makes manifest is Light that we may not be able to defend our selves against the most Ignorant Non-sense that the meanest of your Votaries can attempt us with But the GOD ABOVE and the Scriptures without have taught us better things I am not unwilling to quote a few Scriptures Put on the Armour of Light Rom. 13. 12. The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged Sword Hebr. 4. 12. Above all taking the Shield of Faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench c. and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Observe Faith in the 16th verse is preferred above the Words of God in the 17th verse therefore it is not Christ the Word but the Scripture the Word For Faith is not above Christ Jesus Christ who had less need of Scripture then any of us all resisted Satan's Temptation by Scriptures It is written It is written Mat. 4. I have Reader given his Mind at large and the rather that the Inconsistency of it with the Charge he begun his Chapter upon and the Contradiction of it to himself might more evidently appear My Meaning is too fouly conceal'd and disingenuously evaded by the Man How could he think that I should speak so reverently of the Scriptures and quote them diligently and very often to the Proof of my Assertions and yet mean nothing less abusive of them then his untrue Consequences I intended no more then this That Men in a State of Degeneracy from God may have a Profession of God and Religion taken up from the Words of Scripture and outward Practice of the Saints not being so much as sensible of the Remorse Convictions and Judgments God brings upon every Soul for Sin which is the Beginning of his Work of Redemption and that many are Rich in Notion and a Shew of Religion who never begun right but must know a being stript of all their Knowledge and those wrongly apply'd Promises they have taken as to themselves out of the Scriptures and those Imaginations they have raised thence towards a Fabrick of Religion and so become Poor and Naked and Hungry and Thirsty as a little Child or new Bottle fitted for the new Wine of the Spirit and to which the Scriptures testifie Many can talk of Christ from the Scriptures which crucifie him in themselves by Wicked Works and do render Praises to him as the Seed that hath bruised the Serpent's Head while the Serpent may be yet raigning in them All such Knowledge and Profession of Religion from the meer Letter of the Scriptures distinct from the Revelation and Operation of the Eternal Spirit within must be Unlearnt Unravill'd Unbottom'd one Stone must not be left standing upon one another that there may be a Beginning upon a right Foundation But far be it from me to say that a Man must unlearn that Knowledge he has had of the Scriptures from the Key of David the Living Word of God when it has opened the Mysteries therein declared of By no means for such Knowledge is Right Natural Sanctified from God and to be esteem'd very Excellent and Divine § 11. My Latin Greek Authors Logick Scripture-Quotations I therefore us'd and urg'd with plainness and brevity to prove and recommend the Truth I defended to the World that lying under great Discredit with too many they might see that ready to its Confirmation which they perhaps would not otherwise have thought upon But the Priest has been as Uncandid with me here as with my Friends and Self abundantly elsewhere for he infers general Affirmatives or Negatives from particular Propositions because I affirm'd that Unregenerate Men must begin again that their Religion must be unlearn't as to their way of acquiring it the Priest concludes the Quakers deny all Knowledge which comes from reading Meditation or any such Means however sanctified then which there can be nothing of that kind more Untrue since it were to say because we deny an erroneous Understanding therefore we deny all Understanding or in as much as we comdemn all ill-acquired or wrong-gotten Knowledge for that cause we are to be concluded Enemies to all true and well gotten Knowledge But we must bear this and a great deal more and the rather since he does so seasonably assist to his own Confutation by acknowledging that the Scriptures without and God above has taught him better things Now what is this Teaching of the God above If it be in the Scripture it was impertinent to say any more then that the Scriptures have taught them better things but if he meant that God taught by his immediate Discoveries with and beside the Seriptures then wherein do we differ Why has he taken so much Pains and flung so much Dirt He bids us also to put on the Armour of Light If he means that of the Scriptures he errs egregioussy for no Man can put them on neither are they that Light which manifests every Thought Word or Deed but that Light which we assert to have been before the Scriptures were and now is where they are not or at least when they are not thought upon which
meer Imitations of real things as I have been credibly told we know not but our Ignorance of an Inward Sence might render us very fit to judge in favour of the Priest his Puppet-Play Doctrine till when we leave Imitating J. Faldo and the Puppets together who alike fainedly represent Life Power and Spirit but in reality are empty Sounds and meer Wind ratling through lifeless Truncks CHAP. XIII But we deny Preaching says he His Disingenuity in stating our Principles We hold and practise true Gospel-Preaching No Difference between what the Light teacheth and the Scripture Our Gospel is Peace Our Adversary's is War c. True Preaching converts our Adversary's not § 1. ANother of those Ordinances he falsly affirms us to deny is Preaching of which he speaks thus They will allow a Hearing the Word preach'd and that must be the Light within but the Mind of God contained in the Scripture they must by no means hear preached for as I hinted from G. Fox we must not hear Man for the Prophets bid cease from Man This is so far from making against us that it makes for us at an high rate For who preaches without that Light of Christ that the Quakers affirm all True Preaching proceeds from preaches not from the Discoveries and Leadings of the Light and consequently all such Preaching is in the Darkness where God's Counsel cannot be known Nay how is it possible that People can be turn'd from Darkness to the Light the End of Preaching by those who deny that Men ought to preach from the Revelations and Guidings of the Light § 2. He hath also with manifest Baseness brought us in as putting a Difference betwixt our Preaching by the Light within and that Doctrine of God which is contained in the Scriptures Whereas we Read Believe Practise and Preach no other Doctrine for Truth then what is explicitely or implicitely there held forth and testified unto Though we confess that we don't only so believe practise and preach it because there written but from an Inward Living Power or Spirit which both Opens the Mysteries thereof to our Understandings begets right Belief in them and at sundry times moves upon our Hearts to declare a fresh those Ancient Blessed Truths therein exprest And this is what G. F. meant and we All understand by Ceasing from Man to wit meer Man not Man Inspir'd or so Divinely qualified But he has a Scripture and a Passage out of W. Smith to justifie his Charge at least he thinks so And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written How beautiful are the Feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace c. We say so to and did we mean the same 't were happy for J. Faldo By being sent we understand by the Light within and the Scripture without a being anointed by the immediate Power of God without which the Disciples themselves who had so many Advantages above us were not to budge They could have told most of what Jesus had done and suffer'd which though Truth in it self and they able to relate it yet bare Truth and all they had seen or known without a Living Immediate Power and Commission within the Baptism of the Holy Spirit they were not to budge on God's Account If J. Faldo could give us as good Evidence of his being so call'd as he hath done of a False and Enrag'd Spirit against the Truth we should acknowledge him for a Gospel-Minister but since he dis-acknowledges all share in any such Mission we justly refuse him any part in a Gospel-Ministry § 3. In short If none can preach without being sent then since he his Tribe were never so sent they ought not to preach nor any to hear them For Right Faith can never come by such a Ministry No They are Right Gospel-Ministers their Feet truly beautyful whose Gospel is Peace on Earth good-Will towards Men Not Garments rold in the Blood of Kings Princes Rulers and People No Worldly Armies Battles Victories Trophies Spoiles Sequestrations Decimations and the like Blood-thirsty and Tyrannical Projects In which J. Faldo and his POOR NON-CONFORMING MINISTERS have had their Hands almost over Head and Ears till they had well nigh lost their Ears and their Heads too Such Covenant-breaking Self-seeking Proud Covetous Tyrannical Club-law Persecuting Priests we could never own but ever did and ever shall earnestly bear our faithful Testimony against them as the Locusts Caterpillers Serpents and Dragons of the Earth whose Cruelty Self-seeking and Falsness hath griev'd Good Men and caused the Wicked to Blaspheme the Name of the God of Heaven whose Damnation slumbers not if by unfeigned Contrition not prevented § 4. Well but we are to hear what strength William Smith's Primmer can give to his Charge Quest Is there something of God in my Conscience that will give me the Knowledge of him Answ There is not any thing else that can do it That is principally there is no other Teacher no other Revealer or Discoverer of the Mind and Will of God to us then Christ the Light as saith the Scripture No man knows the Father but the Son the true Light and he to whom the Son reveals him And whatever makes manifest is Light Now unless a Man may know God without any Manifestation it is impossible that he should be known without Light that only gives it especially when it shall be considered That HE is Light it self If then there is no Knowing of God but that which we know must first be manifested and that whatever makes manifest the Things of God is Light it evidently follows That the Light is the Alone Author of those Discoveries Men receive of the Mind of God And whatever Knowledg may be given or rightly obtained through the Scriptures is not to be imputed to the Scripture as such but that Divine Light which gives inward Conviction of the Truth of what is outwardly read or writ in that excellent Book called Scripture So that still to Christ the True Light as the Chiefest Cause in which sense he is most properly so called do we rightly ascribe all the Knowledge we have of God and his Everlasting Kingdom CHAP. XIV His Charge of our Denial of Gospel-Prayer inverted The Prayer he pleads for Anti-Gospel True Prayer stated asserted and defended with Plainness from Scripture and Reason That as well in Families as Meetings and at Meals as both False Worship detestable to God All False wherein God's Spirit is not the first and chief Mover and Assister The Subtilty of Satan in putting upon unacceptable Prayer to prevent True Prayer § 1. BUt we deny Prayer as well as Preaching if he may be credited and indeed we do so by the same Figure or contrary Way of Speaking that We deny them that is as John Faldo owns them but not that therefore we should deny them at all His Charge lies in three parts First That we Contemn True Gospel-Prayer To prove which
he is pleas'd to repute him though it be for Vindicating the Pure Christian Religion as it was once deliver'd to the Saints § 6. But to shut up this Discourse let us take notice of an Expression or two that this Critick le ts fall in the close of this Paraphrase and that is Concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Coming it being more properly referrable to Light then Man That was the true Light which coming into the World lighteth every Man rather then that was the true Light which lighteth every Man coming into the World If sayes he it should refer to Man every Man in the very instant of or before his Birth Christ enlightneth it must be meant of created Faculties For Experience and Sense without any one Instance to controle it will tell us that none can believe without Hearing nor hear without a Preacher He might much better have said of himself then of the Quakers-Meeting that he was but a Puppet indeed who knows nothing but by Hear-say or meer Imitation If Man have not some more inward Teacher farewell to the Truth of all Revelation the Scriptures and whatever comes by or from the Inspiration of the Almighty This Man if yet he ben't to much besotted to deserve so excellent a Name at once destroys all Wayes or Means whereby to know and that not only to the Quakers but himself too For the Scriptures themselves being grounded upon Revelation and his Knowledge upon them as he pretends Take away Revelation and ye take away the Scriptures and consequently what Knowledge J. Faldo pretends to have from them falls to the ground To pass by what might be offer'd from the Ancient Puritans Brownists and Independents on our behalf who were once reputed warm Sticklers for that J. F. proudly esteems Enthusiasm for which they became the Derision of Carnalists He forgets to whom Phanatick belongs and cuts off his pretended Preaching from the God above c. p. 113. Thus is this Blind Leader faln into the Ditch of his own digging But must it be absurd because Children at the Instant of their coming into the World can't be said to be so enlightned Very well and what thinks he of the Instant of Christ's coming into the World out of the Virgin 's Womb Did he enlighten all who should savingly be enlightned at that Instant A mad Disputant indeed What was it enlightned Simeon Who told and revealed to him the Lord 's Christ For Shame quit all Pretence to dispute § 7. But let 's hear him further There is a Reason in the Text gives such a Countenance to referring it to the Light as will never be found for the Contrary That was the true Light not This or This is not as Christ is now in Heaven nor as present with the Evangelist John and the then Saints but it points at Christ's Appearance in the Flesh Very notable indeed and we will not let it slip our Observation If the Word that made all things which was with God and was God was that true Light as saith J. Faldo himself p. 84 then can it never be restrained to that Appearance as the Beginning or End of it Nay the Evangelist is not yet come so much as to mention any thing of his Manifestation in Flesh and if we will believe J. Faldo the Verse concerns the Word as Creator and not as Redeemer which he stints to his Coming in the Flesh see pag. 89. But by his Interpretation that is not relative to his Appearance in the Flesh but rather to the Word which was with God and was God as p. 84. and so the Spanish Translation has it That Word was the true Light c. so that either the Word was not before that Appearance or if it were being that true Light that true Light was before that Appearance And Mankind being also antecedent to that Manifestation may very well be said alwayes to have been enlightened by that Light For that the Word should be before that Appearance that true Light which is the very Life of the Word or Word it self should be stinted to that Appearance is as absurd as any thing well can be Again that we should take It to deny Christ now to be the true Light that enlightens all because he was so is a strange Impertinency and gross Falshood for then by good Reason ought we to infer that because the Word was with God and was God therefore he is not now either with God or God Is this your Tertullus Besides If we had nothing of this to offer the Evangelist might very well refer to that Appearance without any Denial at all of an antecedent Illumination It being the most excellent Breaking forth of the Divine Light And this is largely acknowledged and proved in my Spirit of Truth Vindicated Which had he consider'd but half as much as he importunes us to have his own he might have saved us the Labour of this Animadversion But God knoweth it is our Portion from many such like base and unworthy Adversaries Every thing is a Fault in a Quaker and nothing in them We have great Reason to dispair of any Good upon the most of them whose Spirits are so leaven'd into Prejudice and Revenge that not to bear their Lyes and to rebuke their Slanders is accounted scarce so tolerable as Railing But with God the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth do we leave our Cause to be by him pleaded upon the Necks of that Crooked and Perverse Generation § 8. Upon the Second Scripture which he pretends we abuse to wit But what saith it The Word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thy Heart That is the Word of Faith which we preach and which he saith we joyn with the first of John In the Beginning was the Word c. He observes thus much in short The Apostle alludes to the Words of Moses in Deuteronomy But the Word is very nigh unto thee in thy Mouth and in thy Heart that thou mightest do it that is saith he the Laws Statutes and Commandments written in the Book of the Law making the having the Word in the Heart to be an having them without Book or by rote as he expresseth it But none of the most mistaken of our modern Socinians the greatest Contra-Spiritualists Men of our time I am perswaded could have given us a more dark and carnal Interpretation of the place for the Word of Faith is the Word which gives Faith and in which Faith should be It is called the Word of Reconciliation and Regeneration which can be no other Word â—â—en that which was in the beginning with God That by which God utter'd and declar'd his Mind to the Sons and Daughters of Men in all Ages That Word whose Life was and is the Light of Men To make the Apostle to have preacht another Word is as much as in him lies to render him no Gospel-Preacher Besides that Word mention'd by Moses could not
of private Spirits and not rather of the Holy Spirit of God and such only as were conformable to it § 11. His other Cavil confirms the Truth of my former Argument and his own great Ignorance or Baseness My words are these If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit grounded upon that Scripture Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts Gal. 4. 6. To which he sayes Your Adversaries have not so little Knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is Fallible nor yet so Ignorant of your Spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are Infallible Now I have two things to desire of the Ingenuous Reader First to find me out so much as one Syllable in my Argument that infers or concludes the Spirits of such to be Infallible into whose Hearts God has shed abroad his Infallible Spirit whether they are led by it or not or that I could intend a concluding of the Spirit of Man Infallible because God has given his own unto Men that is unquestionably so I am sure such a Thought never entred my Mind as fruitful of them as our Adversary may be Adversary I may well say not only because he is one but that he acknowledges to me as much which let him know however I am not such to him The Second thing I have to desire of the Candid Reader is that he would weigh with himself how Unjust this Man is to me to infer Infallibility to Men from my Affirming it to belong only to the Spirit of God And as if he fear'd I should not be as Heterodox as his Envy would have me to conclude on my Account from what I urged to prove That God's Children in all Ages had an Infallible Spirit to Judge Rule and Guide them the Affirmative of the very Question debated that is God's Spirit That every such one was Infallible in and from his own private Spirit Oh Monstrous Perversion I would impute it to his Mistake of me it being far better to be Ignorant than Dishonest but he will not let me who a little below has Impudence enough to write but we are NOT IGNORANT that your Principles make no Difference or Distinction between the Spirits of God's People and the Spirit of God manifestly intending not that they are at variance for so we should esteem his Charge a piece of Justice but that the Spirit of the Creature and the Spirit of God are but one Spirit An Absurdity that never fell from us How many times hath J. Faldo been guilty in his Discourse of plain Forgery and Dishonesty against us So certain as there is a God in Heaven terrible will his Judgment be in that great Day of Inquest if he repent not § 12. He makes a great Stir about my Checking the late Socinian for making Christ the Head of a Fallible Body saying If Christ be Head to none but the Infallible Wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath Pitty on the Ignorant and those that are out of the Way and I am sure Christ is then none of your Head We have enough and leave his very Ill Language out 1. It is granted to us that Christ is Head to a Fallible Body or at least to Fallible as well as Infallible I charge him to give us one Scripture for this or he is gone for all his idle Puns Shifts and scoffing Flings at us 2. That a Man may be a Saint which if we take it strictly is one of that Number the Apostle prayed the Churches might be of I mean those which were sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit I say that a Man may be such a Saint and yet be Fallible or Erring 3. That the Saints are Ignorant and out of the Way Truly this Doctrine very well becomes J. Faldo I had rather it should be his then mine I will venture them in the Scale of Truth without thinking I run an Hazard in the Matter especially when if I err that hinders not from being a Saint Member of Christ But J. Faldo can a Man be a Saint and yet Ignorant of so much of God as is requisit to constitute him such Or can he be such and yet out of that Way which renders him a true Saint It is the first time that I ever heard in so many words that a Man might be a Saint and out of God's Way Oh Doctrine of Devils No Marvel so many Unclean Fowls flock to this Carkass What! Saints and err from God's Way Strange Saints and ignorant of God's Mind It seems then that neither Ignorance nor Erring from God's Way indispose any to be Saints If this be not a plain Contradiction to the whole Record of Scripture none ever was is or shall be esteemed such to the End of the World How many how grievous and how sharp have God's Complaints been against those who have left the Right Way of the Lord which has been the Way of Light and Righteousness the Just Man's Path through every Generation No Wonder that such Doctrines are hoth greedily received and furiously maintained that sooth up People in the Belief of such Pernicious Soul-murdering Doctrines And the Truth is and I do boldly affirm it and that in the Counsel of the Eternal God it is our striking so constantly and earnestly at this and such like Sin-pleasing Principles that makes the Devil thus bestir himself in his ready Agents to raise up and bespatter us with such heavy Calumnies as almost every one produceth against us But we lose not an Inch of Ground nor a Dram of Courage our Godly Resolution redoubles with our Adversaries On-sets and whatever may befall us here as our Hope so our Reward is from God in that high and heavenly Place which is above the Reach of Time and every Assault of our Implacable Adversaries § 13. He tells me He might proceed to my fallacious Arguing from the Spirit 's Teaching indefinitely expressed that is by Scripture Visions Providences c. means our Adversary to its Teaching peculiarly frequently in my Pampblet pag. 18 29 c. that is to the Spirit 's Teaching Men and Women by its daily and Inward Discoveries Motions and Operations But he will not the Reason is he dare not For if the Spirit be not an Immediate Living Teacher and works not as such to the Information Conviction and Conversion of Men to God in these dayes let him for Shame relinquish all Pretence to Gospel or an Evangelical Dispensation of which it is the peculiar Promise and Priviledge § 14. Though for want of better Language he is pleased to bestow upon this Godly Proposition the Term of Beetle-headed Saying and affirms that the Scripture knows nothing of it For which I may more reasonably affirm that He knows nothing of it For can this Man be