the disingenious Snake both to laugh Scornfully Lye and Flatter because he acknowledges not for his Guide the Holy and Infallible Spirit of God But that W. P. laughs not as is falsly said we will now see Ibid. p. 37. W. P. in a sheet of his Entituled A Winding Sheet for Controversie ended catches up Hen. Hedworth for saying he had been mistaken in the good Opinion he had before of Mr. Penn 's Judgment and Conscience How can he chuse says Mr. Penn who denys Infallibility But if mistaken before why not in the Quakers now And so ad infinitum being fallible Judgment and Conscience in respect of Matters Spiritual in Articles of Faith can only be certainly and knowingly judged of by the Spirit of God and what Man soever shall judge of these things without the assistance thereof must of necessity be mistaken for the reason which the Apostle has given 1 Cor. 2.11 For the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God And if Hen. Hedworth did by Opinion not the assistance of the Spirit of God judge of W. Penn's Judgment and Conscience no marvel if he were mistaken and if by the same medium he would Judge of the Quakers he was equally lyable to be also mistaken in them and so ad infinitum in all his natural Guessings about Spiritual Things and so must this Snake also Ibid. p. 38. Quoted from p. 3. Sect. 2. of W. P's Winding Sheet c. He vindicates what G. F. had asserted of the Quakers Infallibility for having repeated these words of G. F. which were put as an Objection against him How can ye be Ministers of the Spirit and not be infallible And how can they but delude the People who are not infallible He makes this reply I Answer says he G. F's words stand immoveable for ever And he gives this strange reason to support himself and G. F. For says he He that is a Minister of the Spirit is Infallibly so and in that Ministry is Infallible otherwise the Spirit 's Ministry is Fallible I have here been large in transcribing the whole Quotation that the Reader may see whether the Wild Consequences which the Snake does falsly suggest can naturally follow from the Doctrine aforesaid His Consequences are these Ibid. p. 38. That if any Man who is Lighted by the Sun stumble or miss his way the fault is in the Sun which shewed him a false Light what else can be the meaning of that saying If a Minister be not infallible then the Ministry of the Spirit is fallible To make God himself Fallible rather than we should be Infallible O wretched false and perverse consequence of this Snake But truly and easily following is this Consequence If a Man who is Lighted by the Sun stumble or miss his way the fault is not in the Sun that shewed him a true Light but the fault is in his neglecting of it And according to this the meaning of that saying If a Minister of the here the Snake has basely and falsly left out the word Spirit be not infallible then the Spirits Ministry is Fallible The meaning is this God the Holy Spirit is Infallible and those whom he qualifies fits and prepares for his Ministry such are Infallibly assisted to be Ministers of the Spirit But if any who have been so assisted depart from the assistance of the Holy Spirit such in their Ministry are not Infallible tho' the Spirit is Ibid. p. 38. Quoted from Winding Sheet p. 4. Sect. 3. He roundly checks his Opponent H. Hedworth saying I bestowed 32 pages to prove G. F's Spirit to be Infallible for that belongs simply to God alone and then those that are Led by it which was my Question in which sense he is and all such persons are Infallible as he himself confesseth c. Here says the Snake H. Hedworth is made Infallible too But that is false for the words are plain that those that are Led by the Holy Spirit are infallibly Led By this G. F. might be infallibly Led by this any other may be infallibly Led This Hen. Hedworth hath confessed this is what W. P. saith but he could not say H. H. was infallible Because he had quoted him in p. 37. denying of infallibility Ibid. p. 39. Nay the Devil himself is infallible at this rate for he has his Knowledge as well as Being from God Knowledge is Light And if that Knowledge which comes from God be infallible then while the Devil follows that Light or Knowledge he must be infallible And if this be all the Infallibility which the Quakers ascribe to themselves it distinguishes them not from Wicked Men or Devils Profane perversion The Almighty God by his Almighty Fiat did create the several Species of Beings and Creatures and furnished each according to the order in which he placed them To Angels and Men he gives Knowledge and Understanding in their several Degrees by which they might answer the end of their Creation But some Angels and all Men have fallen yet have not thereby lost all that Knowledge which by the Degree of their Beings they had But in their fallen estate employ what Knowledge they have to other purposes than those for which it was given Hence the Devil goes about seeking whom he may Devour 1 Pet. 5.8 And the Devil did follow his Knowledge when in Mat. 4.5 8. he tempted our Saviour And did know that had our Saviour worshipped him he had been conquered Yet the Devil was not herein infallible Nay the Devils believe and tremble from the Knowledge which they have of the Eternal God and their own Eternal Damnation How profane Reader must it be to suppose that this their Knowledge makes them infallible that is guided by the Holy Spirit of God Which none can be unless obedient to it But the Infallibility which does distinguish us from Wicked Men and Devils and which we say is possessed by us Is no other than this That whereas all Men are fallen short of God's Glory and are by Nature Children of Wrath. Man cannot be restored out of this estate but by the benefits of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ outwardly slain by which Sacrifice our High-Priest who was touched with the feeling of our Infirmities hath put Man into a capacity of accepting his Mediation And in order to our reconciliation with God hath given to every one a manifestation of the Infallible Holy Spirit in which he did the Will of the Father To this manifestation such as are obedient are infallibly led in all things that concern Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life which neither Devils nor Wicked Men can be because disobedient to it See Reader how much the Jugler this Snake plays in endeavouring to obtrude under a shew of reason a most dangerous notion and directly contrary to all Revealed Religion which doth agree that the Light and Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son is able as our Saviour saith to lead into all Truth
be known which is also a very great Truth that we have towards all Governours utterly denied all Fase Dealing and have dealt faithfully and plainly with every one without favour or partiality reproving and blaming every one for their Faults shewing every one their Dangers and warning every one by the Fall of others that went before them to beware of shun and turn from those Evils which brought ruine upon the former But they never joined with fell in with acted with sought or accepted Places of Profit or Trust from any of them which the Fawning Priests and some Professors did and therefore as with very great Truth and Boldness they might and did say all that the Snake has quoted above So with like Truth and Boldness they say more which the Snake has cut out least while he remember'd their Faithfulness his relucting Mind should object his own past Treachery The words as they stand in the place he quotes from are these Treason Treachery and False Dealing we do utterly deny False Dealing Surmising or Plotting against any Creature upon the Face of the Earth and speak the Truth in plainness and singleness of Heart If the Snake could for himself in truth say so much it would be a brave Testimony I come now to a Book of George Bishops Entituled The Warnings of the Lord to the Men of this Generation Printed 1660. Under the Title of which Book because of Directions to two Places at which it was then sold the Snake says they did industriously spread their Treasons But I would know of him why a Warning to Peace Love and Vnity and Caution against Persecution and such this Book is may not at least be disposed of at as many publick Places as his Defamatory Libels or as his Seditious ones was at private Places But now from the Manner of its Disposal we come to the Matter of the Book The Snake begins with p. 27. of this Book and quotes thus p. 228. Beware of falling under this Spirit or of thinking the Breach between you can be healed for I declare it to you from the Lord That it is irreconcileable it cannot it will not be healed Thus far the Snake quotes and by a dash strikes out about three following Lines which are these Yea the day will come and now is wherein it will be said we would have healed Babylon but she would not be healed let us depart every one to his own place And now upon a Consideration of these Lines what more can be the meaning than that that separation and distance which was between the Spirits and Interest of the Conquerors and Conquered was irreconcileable And the Breach of their Contention was such as could not be healed with the peaceable and quiet possession of those who were then uppermost viz. in the Year 1659. which some might then either foolishly hope or wish But now the Snake after his Dash at which he left out the Lines above-mention'd continues his Quotation thus Therefore in the Power and Dread of the Almighty stand and bear over it viz. that Spirit of Persecution which would vainly hope a Reconciliation Crush it to pieces for that Spirit of which G. Bishop is here speaking had persecuted and afflicted and in many ways made Men to suffer for their Tender Consciences Stamp it to Powder i. e that Spirit of Persecution But the Forgery of the Snake is remarkable here for that after the words last above-quoted he puts an c. and then goes on as if what followed in his Quotation did follow in the same order in the Book from which he quotes it but it is far otherwise for the Lines which he here makes to follow do in that Book precede the beginning of his Quotation eleven or twelve Lines and by the like packing and transposing of Lines which this Snake uses a Man may make the Decalogue or the Lords-Prayer speak to answer any purposes which the wicked Projector shall design Ibid. p. 229. Yet in their Declaration to Him the King after his Return p. 7. they Gravely tell Him We are a People that follow after those things that make for Peace and Vnity and which the Snake has left out it is our Desire that others Feet may walk in the same and here the Snake goes on do deny and bear our Testimony against all Strife and Wars and Contentions c. that is says the Snake when they were beaten and cou'd fight no longer First It is notoriously false that the Quakers did Fight or bear Arms in the Year 1659. or any other Year to the opposing of the Restauration Nor indeed was the Restauration brought to pass by Fighting but there was more immediately the Hand of God in it in that without outward Strength the Powers which then were crumbled and broke to pieces as they were often by our Friends foretold they should having in their several Days and Times of Trial been found to encrease that Yoak which was the Original Pretence of their First Opposition to the King And that it was always our Principle to follow after those things that make for Peace and Unity and have desired that others might walk in the same and did bear our Testimony against all Strife and War and Contention c. George Bishop does in this Book of his the Warnings of the Lord testifie where in p. 10. speaking to O. Cromwell and shewing him in what and how far he had regard to him He saith in behalf of Liberty of Conscience which Oliver had before declared to be a Natural Right yet was herein so far darkned as not to establish this Right which once was in his power to have done and therefore G. B. enumerates some of the Sufferings of our Friends to him herein and at the same time tells him what was the nature of that Dispensation which the Quakers were come to which he tells him in these words We who through the unspeakable love of the Father are come to Witness the end of the Wars the Son of God made manifest in the Flesh whose is the Kingdom and the Glory and the Dominion for ever even his Immortal Seed raised and raising up in us by which we are brought to testifie against the World and all the Deceivers therein and against the Fashions and Customs and Works and Deeds thereof that they are Evil as by his Light we have been shewn and by his Blood redeemed therefrom in our own particulars c. And in p. 14. G. B. enumerating some Instances of those whom the Spirit of Persecution had overthrown and the pretences on which they went as Haman to Ahasuerus the Informers against Daniel and the Three Children and the Pretences of the Elders Chief Priests and Scribes against our Saviour as also their pretences against the Apostles under which they would cloak their wickedness hath these words This is what that Spirit viz. of Persecution suggested throughout all Ages on Record in the Scriptures of Truth and with this
was to remove an Offence taken against my Friend J. P. for using the same And it would have become this Adversary to have forborn his blasphemous Scoffing at my Light as George if thy Light has hitherto forgot to tell thee I bless the Lord my God who is my Light Life and Salvation he has shewn me the new and living way of the New Covenant which our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ consecrated prepared or set open thro' the Veil that is to say his Flesh yea through his Sufferings and Death as being the Testator he hath enforced that New Testament or Second Covenant he took away the First that he might establish the Second and so hath open'd the Passage into eternal Life into the Holiest of Holies within the Veil and beyond all the Shadows and Veils under the Law It was in the most Holy Place within the Second Veil in the Tabernacle which was called the Holiest of all in the Old Covenant that the golden Censor and Ark of the Testament were put and the Golden Pot which had Manna and Aaron 's Rod that had budded and the Tables of the Testament and over the Ark the Cherubims of Glory shadowing the Mercy-Seat Heb. 9. Exod. 26. So the most excellent things were within the Veil tho' there was a Beauty and Glory also without it All which I doubt not were Shadows of the New Covenant and the Spiritual Dispensation thereof in Christ Jesus in whom the Most Holy Place of that Divine Service and Worship in the New Covenant-Sanctuary which the Lord has placed in the midst of his People is in the Spirit and in the Truth And all our Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly Treasures are in Christ Jesus who is our Sanctuary and Hiding-place And it is in the inmost or most inward and Spiritual Dispensation of the New Covenant that Mercy and Forgiveness is receiv'd and Christ most livingly and effectually known to us and enjoy'd and in him the most holy and heavenly Places wherein the true Spiritual Believers sit down with him and as being washed from their Sins in his Blood by his Spirit are his Church and Sanctuary also and thereby have boldness to enter into the Holy Place even by that new and living Way which Christ hath prepared for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh Heb. 10. that we may follow him therein into Heaven it self And what entrance through Christ our Mediator we have here in Measure received into this new and living Way and Holy and Heavenly Places in him we doubt not but it is to us an Earnest of a more full Enjoyment of Heaven and Glory hereafter with Christ Jesus our Fore-runner Leader and Captain of our Salvation we continuing faithful to the end in this his new and living Way as true and constant Followers of him God in his great Love and Wisdom has afforded several Dispensations one higher and more glorious than another in order to bring Man nearer and nearer to himself as that of the Law and of Shadows and Types that of the Prophets that of John the Baptist that of Christ in the Flesh and that of Christ in the Spirit and New Covenant which is higher more powerful and more glorious than the former and therein a more clear knowledge of Christ than in all the former wherein there was some Sight of him through Shadows and Veils but by his Divine Light shining in our Hearts God is pleased to give us the Light of the knowledge of his Glory in the Face of his dear Son Christ Jesus that we all with open Face as in a Glass may behold the Glory of God and be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 and Ch. 4.6 7. Now tho' our Adversary has made a deal of Dispute and Quarrel with us about calling Christ's Flesh the Veil as in Heb. 10. yet he is fain to grant That Christ's Body is called a Veil in Relation to its Type the Veil of the Temple p. 182. but he 'll have this not to be in the Quakers Sense They call it a Veil that is saith he a Garment in contra-distinction to its being Christ's Substance and of his Nature Whereas it 's rather in contra-distinction to its Being his Divine Nature or to its Being in the first place or principally or chiefly Christ himself who is the Son of God for whom the Body was prepared because he did pre-exist it or was in Being before he took upon him that Body even in his Father's Glory before the World began wherewith he is Glorified However the Veil which was Christ's Flesh through which he set open the new and living Way we never deny to be Christ's Body or to be a real Body but own it was and never believed it be a Fantastical Body as I have often said but that Christ the Son of God took upon him real Flesh and Blood of our Nature yet pure and incorrupted in him And as his Flesh was called the Veil it answers its Type or Figure i. e. the Veil of the most Holy Place or Oracle where God gave Answers 1 Kings 6.20 and 8.6 8. and 2 Chron. 3.10 16. And these Most Holy Places in the Tabernacle and Temple being Places of Divine Service then peculiar to the High-Priest to enter into their Antitype is in Christ Jesus the New Covenant where in Spirit and in the Truth God is truely worshipped and meets with and speaks to his People even by Christ Jesus their High-Priest who is present in the midst of his Church and Assemblies of his People the true and Spiritual Worshippers who meet in his Name Spirit and Power whose Light and Truth brings its Followers unto his Holy Tabernacles Psal. 43.3 And as to Christ's Substance and Nature what does our Opposer mean thereby how has he distinguished in this Point Christ has in him a Divine Nature as well as that of Man which he hath also in the purest Sense But which is the greatest Is not the Divine Nature the Deity in him greater than the Manhood As he said My Father is greater than all greater than I John 10.29 Nevertheless as our great and only Mediator and Intercessor it was necessary he should be Man as he is the most glorious heavenly Man and as the Christ of God he is Spiritually in Us in the Saints and Members in some measure by his Spirit Light Life and Power even as the incorruptible immortal Seed in Man is of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and therein all true spiritual Believers do in measure partake of the Divine Nature being born again of this incorruptible Seed SECT XXIII Some Reflections by G. W. upon A Supplement pretended upon occasion of his Answer to the Snake in the Grass p. 343. THE very Entrance into the said Supplement consisting of divers Falshoods I need take the less notice thereof and spend the less time in its strict Examination besides
says we are in pag 3. he says We speak Sense and English have in a great measure reform'd from the Errors of the Primitive Quakers Thus as his Mood Humor and Occasion Changes we are with him either Subtile or Simple speak Sense or Non-sense Blasphemous to the hight or in some measure reform'd But after all the Ipse Dixit of an Enemy is neither good Argument nor Conclusion as will hereafter appear in the examination of the several Heads of Doctrine P. 3. Many of them have really gone off from that hight of Blasphemy and Madness which was professed among them at their first setting up in the Year 1650. and so continued till after the Restauration Anno. 1660. What the Snake doth acknowledge is at present Sober and Christian in us is really no other than what he calls at our first setting up the hight of Blasphemy and Madness for the colourable Pretences of these are only the spurious Brood of his own ill-forming Fancy and as bad joyning Fingers which have been imploy'd in Mangling the Books of our Friends in his phraise not unlike Rats and Moths Ibid. p. 3. Therefore they endeavour all they can to make it appear that their Doctrine was Vniform from the beginning and that there has been no alteration And that endeavour has not been in vain it having been often made so to appear Ibid. p. 4. I would perswade them openly and above-bord to Renounce George Fox and their first Reformers and all their Blasphemous and Heretical Doctrine Before this be done two things are necessary First to examine whether what our Adversary calls Blasphemy and Heresie be so or not and then to know what he would perswade us to for the first hard names are no Proof For in the Way which some called Heresie the Apostle did Worship God and our Saviour himself The Green Tree was call'd a Blasphemer And for the Last it 's not Good or Safe to be at all much less easily perswaded to forsake Truth for Lying Vanities Ibid. p. 5. And I must say it they give the same Proof for their extraordinary Inspirations as the Quakers do that is none at all but their own confident averring of it And I must say that our first Reformers from Popery having urged for their Separation the Authority of the holy Spirit and being asked for Proof of that Authority could give no other but what in the Language of our Adversary is none at all but their own confident averring of it The Apostle Paul when questioned by the Corinthians for a Proof of Christ speaking in him did not evade the question nor direct to an impertinent Solution of it when he advised them Search your selves try your selves know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 This Proof the Quakers also give and that with reason for the publick Spirit of God privately working in the Hearts of Men is only able to give those in whom it does so Work evidences of its proper effects The Apostle is positive to the same purpose 1 Cor. 2.11 The things of God knoweth no Man but by the Spirit of God And all Inspiration of the holy Spirit will I doubt not be owned to be some things of God and of these no Man can make a right Judgment but by the Spirit of God Which who want it is no wonder that by such this be call'd as by the Snake no Proof but a confident averring of it Though I doubt not but the Sober Reader will have another sense of this Matter Ibid. p. 5. Now I would beseech Mr. Penn who has more Wit than all the rest of his Party to let us know what ground he had for leaving the Church of England more than Muggleton What Muggleton's ground was is not now our Business to examine and what W. Penn's was he hath often declared many Years ago which yet if I should here repeat the Snake might possibly mistake in Judging of it as it is possible he may also in the judgment he pretends to have of Wit Nay supposing it true that W. P. hath more Wit than all the rest of the Quakers yet this Snake not having had distinct Knowledge of every Quaker and of every Degree of their Wit was not capable of more herein than to give some Testimony of his Confidence not Judgment Ibid. p. 5. Why should we trust the Light within him or G. Fox rather than the Light within Lodowick Muggleton W. P. and G. F. did never direct or desire Men to trust the Light within them but have constantly directed Men to trust in the Light of Jesus Christ which is given to each Man for himself and is a sufficient Guide to the true Knowledge and Worship of God notwithstanding all that Men may speak against it Ibid. p. 5. Has Lodowick wrought no Miracles to prove his Mission No more hath G. Fox or W. Penn. To which I may add No more hath the Church of England nor the Snake in the Grass unless we account that for one Miracle in the Snake when he at Billingsgate run away from the Messenger Of which more in its place Are they G. F. W. P. very sure that they are in the right So is Muggleton If the Snake be not very sure that he is in the right he hath but an intention to deceive when he calls others into Communion with him Are they Schismaticks So is he And so is the Snake and by the Snake's Doctrine so is the Church of England as I have shewn p. 15 16 17. foregoing Are they above Ordinances If they be I know not but that we the Quakers are not I know For we own and use Preaching and Praying which the Snake owns to be Ordinances Is he against distinct Persons in the Godhead So are they Distinction in the Godhead we own according to Scripture but think the word Person too Gross to express it Is he against all Creeds So are they It it false we own the Matter contain'd in the Creed called the Apostles Does Muggleton deny all Church Authority So do they So does the Snake that does not please him But that we do not the Snake hath disprov'd himself as see Pagâ— 61. Yet does he require the most absolute Submission to what himself Teaches So does thâ— Snake But we do not so but like the Apostles commend our Testimony to the Conscience c. 2 Cor. 4.2 Does he Damn all the World and all since the Apostles So do they So does the Snake counting all others as the Spawn of the Viper Does he make a dead Letter of the Holy Scripture and resolve all into his own private Spirit So do they 'T is false we reject all private Spirits acknowledge the Scriptures to have been writ by Divine Inspiration and to contain a Declaraion of the Will of God and do refer to the publick Spirit of God for the understanding of them Ibid. p. 6. These are Twin
said Lord what wilt thou have me to do Which shews his inward sense of Mind But the Apostle Rom. 7.9 is large in the account of the Work of his Regeneration and he does acknowledge he was alive without the Law once But when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died Which plainly shews the Command was inward and it was hard for Paul to kick against this Command which did thus slay him as in the 11th verse Our Adversary does acknowledge that the Pricks there are to be understood the Power of Christ. And this Power it was Acts 2.37 That prickt them at the heart who were witnesses of the sheddings abroad of the Spirit at the time of Pentecost And of this Power David speaks Psal. 73.21 Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins Whence thus in short Paul a zealous Man and a Persecutor is by the Power of Christ let see that he was opposing his Power in his Saints by such Persecution At this in the Apostle's language Sin revived i. e. the sense of it whereby he saw his guiltiness and then he died from any further Life in it And whether this be not a heart work all experienced Readers may judge Ibid. p. 12. Besides they are in great confusion and contradictions amongst themselves concerning their Notion of the Light within denying and affirming backwards and forwards as you may see in Mr. Tho. Crisp his just and lawful Tryal of the Foxonian Quakers Reader This is one of those Instances wherein the great Injustice of this adversary appears in that he takes this false Charge from a Book writ against us by an open Enemy and takes no notice of any reply by us Which was largely and fully given to this Adversary by our Friend Ed. Penington And if after the same manner I should object and say The Church of England are in great Confusions and Contradictions amongst themselves in their Notion of the Trinity which has been abundantly treated of here of late affirming backwards and forwards and recommend for proof of this some Book disowned by that Church the Proof were much the same Or if I should object and say They are in great confusion and contradiction in their Notion of any other Article and bring for proof Harding Stapelton or any of the Romish Church who being Adversaries have so affirmed having no regard to the disallowance of the first or answers to the last I might deservedly be accounted a confident and prejudic'd but not a fair or reasonable Man Yet Reader this is the practice of this Snake with us SECT II. Shewing that we do not make our Souls of the same Person and Substance with God nor aspire to an Equality with him I Shall here consider and reply to his Second and Third Sections together the Charge being the same and the distinction unnecessary For in his mode of speaking a Sameness of Person and Substance imply an Equality concerning which before I procede to the Quotations in the Snake I shall observe to thee Friendly Reader That having in the beginning of the foregoing Section given a brief but real and true account of our Scriptural Belief concerning The Light of Christ in Men. Shewing that the Soul of Man being subjected thereunto he may by the guidance and assistance thereof without it he cannot attain unto Salvation I say having shewn thus much concerning our belief herein it is impossible that we so believing as we do should make our Souls to use his phrase of the same Person and Substance with God or Aspire to an Equality with him Our Friends according to Holy Writ have frequently said and writ and may safely That those who by walking in the Light are become Children of it are such for whom our Saviour Jesus Christ did pray to his Father John 17.21 22 23. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee That they also may be one in us That they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me This Oneness in the Holy Spirit our Friends have pressed and contended for in Opposition to the hurtful belief that had too much prevailed upon Men of an imagined Distance of God from Man at this Day and that Man was now no more to expect the Revelation of the Holy Spirit without which our Saviour hath testified Mat. 11.27 And no Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him This testimony of Jesus Christ with many more to the same purpose do shew the certainty of Revelation as in many others the absolute necessity of it is shewn First By our Saviour who saith John 12.50 And I know that this Commandment is Life Everlasting and the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.5 Know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates And for our acknowledging to and witnessing of the truth of these Testimonies declared in Holy Writ have we met with great opposition and misrepresentation of which Reader there follows now divers instances in these Sections of the Snake's which he thus begins p. 13. Thou sayest says G. Fox to his Opponet Great Mystery p. 247. Christ doth not dwell in them Personally Doth not Christ dwell in his Saints as he is in the Person of the Father the Substance Reader This our Adversary gives for a quotation from G. Fox his Great Mystery and that we might see at what he carps he puts it in Large Black Characters which yet are not blacker than his Envy and Injustice which will appear thus First In that he hath left out the Priests Words which are unsound and unscriptural Secondly In that he hath left out the beginning and end of G. Fox his Answer For thy more certain knowledge of which I subjoin first the Priest's Words and then G. Fox his Answer Priest The Scriptures are the Word except yâ—u dare to deny Christ is God Let the Word of God meaning the Scripture dwell in you richly To this G. Fox thus Answers So he makes the Scripture Christ and God and he doth not say Let Christ dwell in you but means the Scripture and God dwells in you The Apostle saith Let Christ Dwell in your hearts by faith and God will dwell in you But thou sayst Christ doth not dwell in Them Personally Doth not Christ dwell in his Saints as he is in the Person of his Father the Substance And are they not of his Flesh and of his Bone Here Reader thou mayst see that the plain meaning and drift of G. Fox's words are to assert and maintain that Spiritual Oneness of which I have been speaking and shewing that Christ prayed that his Followers might witness and not to make the Soul of the same Person
that Spirit blinded the Kings Princes and Rulers and set them against the Lord and against his Anointed which prov'd in the Issue their destruction This is that the Bishops said of the Puritans to the Late King this is that which brought forth the Law in those days against their Meetings to seek the Lord upon pretence of Conventicles and with this the Late King they blinded and set him against these People which became the overthrow of Him his Posterity and Followers and of that Generation and of those that joined with them And this is that Spirit that is now blinding of thee viz. Oliver Cromwell who wast the Lord's Battle-Ax and Weapon of War to the cutting down of him and those whom after this manner it blinded and set against the Lord and his People and which is now setting Thee against the Seed of God which in this fulness of the Dispensation of times he is raising up to reign for ever and ever unto which Spirit if thou continue to hearken and to follow and to be guided by thou shalt be cut off the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it This is part of a Letter which is in that Book and which G. Bishop did send to Oliver as it is there dated the 16th of the 5th Month 1656. By which and much more such plain Dealing in the said Letter wherein he tells him p. 17. Because thou hast hardned thy Heart and turned against him He God hath turn'd from thee his Presence Wisdom from thy Councils Spirit from thy Men of War and Success from thine Vndertakings and is Stripping of thee of thy Fence and Guard and making thee naked and bare and is coming against thee c. It appears from all this according as our Friends in their Declaration to King Charles upon his Restauration had said That the Quakers even in the Days of Oliver c. were a People that did follow after those things that made for Peace c. in that they did faithfully warn the then Powers against that Spirit of Persecution which was as they had foretold their overthrow And that they did not fight but were redeemed out of all outward fighting and through the Vnspeakable Love of the Father were brought to the end of the Wars So that it is false and malicious in the Snake to say the Quakers were Beaten and could Fight no longer when they gave that Testimony in their Declaration that they did Deny and Bear their Testimony against all Strife and Wars and Contentions c. For had they been in that Warring Nature there was space and time when that Letter of G. Bishop to Oliver Cromwell before-mentioned was writ wherein he testifies that the Quakers did witness the end of the Wars it being near four years before the Restauration of the King But tho' there was time and space yet the Quakers did never joyn with them or fall in with them nor were they concerned in places of Trust or Profit under them but when those who were in such places or in the Army did in their own particulars come to be redeem'd out of all outward Wars and to be obedient to that Convincement they laid down such their Places or Arms which is more than can be truly said of many fawning Priests and Professors And what is more the Quakers from the first even all the time of those several Changes in Government before the Restauration were great Sufferers by them because of that Truth and Plainness which they witnessed forth both to Governors and Governed And thus G. Bishop not soothingly but plainly told O. C. in his time wherein his safety and danger stood Thus he told R. Cromwell in his time wherein his safety and danger stood Thus he told the General Council of the Army wherein their safety and danger stood Thus he told the then Parliament wherein their safety and danger stood Thus he also told the Council of State wherein their safety and danger stood viz. In Establishing that equal and just Liberty and Freedom of Conscience in matters of Worship which near all of them in their turns promised and engaged to do but did it not therefore were they as he shews overthrown And when the King was Restored George Bishop did also Warn Him and his Parliament as in his piece A Book of Warnings c. p. 2 it is seen where after having recounted the Mercies of God to the King and Them he says And now what doth the Lord require of you That you take not upon you to rule over his Kingdom or to prescribe to his Dominion whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion that which shall never have end that of him in the Conscience Thus Reader under the different Governments his Advice was that Persecution might be taken away and in great Plainness without Soothing or Flattering of any to whom his Messages were he did it appears deliver them Ibid. p. 232. But after all this Sweetness as soon as ever the King was Restored Anno. 1660. the Quakers stoutly deny that ever they had Complemented Oliver or they had forgot it What the Snake calls Sweetness that We the Quakers did shew to Oliver we take to be our Duty as required by the Lord to shew to all whom it shall please God come to have Government That is to Advise that they Govern for God and his Truth that all Profaness Immorality and all Wickedness may be discouraged in which the Blessing both of Governors and the Governed doth consist This O. C. was frequently admonished of but he rejecting his Vows to God his Pretences to Men and the Admonition which God by his Servants did frequently send Several of our Friends in great Truth and Plainness did foretel him of his Overthrow which none of those his Soothing and Flattering Priests did dare to do The same plain Dealing our Friends did use to the other Changes in Government and also to Richard Cromwell not Complementing nor Flattering any And when W. Caton in his Truth 's Character of Professors said that the Priests and Professors did Sooth and Flatter O. Cromwell and his Son and made great Promises to him the Proof was apparent by their Addresses to him which in that Book he does briefly give What less than Flattery was it when the Priests c. of Suffolk in their Address to Richard Cromwell upon the Death of his Father told him Although our Sun is Set no Night hath ensued And what less was it in the Priests of Norfolk who did solemnly Promise and Engage Faithfully to serve and obey his most serene Highness for so they then called R. Cromwell as his Leige People in the Defence of his Person and Government with their Lives and Estates It 's true they did afterwards so soften the terms of their Allegiance that they found themselves ready to embrace another Shelter when the Gourd was withered and thus they turn'd to the Rising Side But after all if all this was
Petition p. 5. the other from his Saul's Errand p. 7. which are both to this purpose All that speak and not from the Mouth of the Lord are false Prophets and Diviners At this the Snake is wonderfully offended and taking his Copy from other Adversaries for he is not the first herein no more than in his other Charges makes many false Inferences from them As for the Assertion of G. F's it was as I have just now hinted objected against in the Year 1656. by Jeremy Ives and answer'd by James Nayler in a Peice of his printed that Year Entituled Weakness above Wickedness In p. 12 13. of which Book answering to this Charge he saith What is done now by such Diviners as deny the Faith of Christ and his Call and Spirit in them what such raiseth must needs be Conjuration who denies the Faith and Spirit of God And in like manner we find God by his Prophets hath often rebuked them who spake Lyes in his Name and who were Strangers to his Holy Spirit by the name of Diviners Jer. 27.9 Micah 3.7 Zach. 10.2 And their False Prophesies are frequently called Lying and Flattering Divinations which were Truths they could hardly bear any more than those to whom this was spoken But whether it can be born by them or not it will remain a Truth that such who deny the Faith and Spirit of God and shall yet pretend to speak in his Name it can be no other than the Lying Divinations of their own Brain Ibid. p. 285. If all the False and Foolish Miracles which G. F. tells of himself If all these were not from God then was he and those who recommended that Journal all Conjurers That the Miracles there related are False or Foolish is Gratis Dictum it is boldly said but not prov'd Prove them False and Foolish and then there needs no If they were not from God but till they be so prov'd their Authority and Being from God remains a Truth SECT XIX The Charge of Visible Possessions by the Devil Examined and Refuted HAving hitherto trac'd the Snake through the Twinings of his several Charges and discover'd at least in some measure his Falshood Hypocrisie and Malice in them I am not less in hope to perform the same in this His Charge is that many Quakers have been Visibly Possest by the Devil A Charge which if upon Inquiry it prove not true upon the Quakers will at least prove some such thing in the Charger who from a collected Malice cou'd with so much Confidence and bold Effrontry pretend to tell such Visible Falshoods Ibid. p. 286. A Visible effect of this Possession by the Devil was that extraordinary Shaking and Quaking like Fits of Convulsions which these Quakers at the first either acted or like the Heathen Priests of old were possess'd with If the Snake will venture to affirm that all Extraordinary Shaking and Quaking is a Visible effect of Possession by the Devil I can give him two Instances wherein himself has been so possessed The one was when he was seized at Lidd in Kent by Tompson the Messenger and the other was not very long since in the City when he was under some Apprehension of being retaken by the same Person from whom he run away And I make no Question but he hath frequently been attended with the like visible effects of Possession which whether he will attribute to the strong Impression made by the Devil upon his Imagination as I know not so I shall not trouble my self to inquire nor should I have in this place told this Truth but to redargue the Confidence of one who from a course of Clandestine and Base Practices shuns Day-light and is thereby justly subjected to the Frights which the ugly shapes of Fear can terrifie him with from his Superiours yet not that I might thereby pass over his False Allegation which I shall now consider And here concerning Quaking and Shaking I make no Doubt or Scruple to own and acknowledge agreeable to the Instances thereof Recorded in Holy Writ That God by his Power sometimes in this Age hath brought Holy Fear Trembling Quivering and Quaking upon the Bodies of some as in the former Ages we read he frequently did of which some few follow Thus the Israelites in the Camp Exod. 19.16 Trembled Thus Moses Acts 7.32 Trembled Thus the Psalmist 119 120. saith My Flesh trembleth Thus Habakkuk 3.16 saith My Lips quivered Thus God Commanded the Prophet Ezekiel 12.18 Son of Man eat thy bread with Quaking Thus Daniel 10.7 testifies of the Men that were with him Great Quaking fell upon them And many more such Instances there are of the visible effects of God's ower which howsoever Ridicul'd or Stigmatis'd by such who are Strangers to it are not to be despised or profanely contemn'd by any who are at all acquainted with the Work of Christ in them How much less then ought they Blasphemously to be call'd the visible effects of possession by the Devil which are really the visible effects of the Power of God And it is nothing strange that when God by the Discoveries of his Light in the Heart lets Men see their undone Estate without him that then they should be in trouble and cry out with the Apostle of that Body of Sin and Death by which they are held in Bondage And as many as have come to this Discovery and patiently abode under the Judgment of God's Grace by which they might be made Victors do know that through the gradual workings of the Power of God in the binding of the strong Man in the spoiling of his Goods and finally in casting him out of the Heart they can say it was the Day of Jacob's Troubles and these oft-times are such as do affect the Body And while the Soul is in this Conflict and the Creature groaning to be delivered the Tempter who as he always opposes the Work of God in Men so in this Day of Trouble he aims to Subvert the Soul by his Stratagems sometimes by Imitating the Discoveries of God and endeavouring to lead the Mind into Imaginations and False Appearances thereby to lift it up above the Sense of the Operation of God's Grace Sometimes by Imitating the Judgments of God and by endeavouring to lead the Mind down into Despair and a Distrust of God's Mercy An Instance of this sort is Martin Luther concerning whom Harding the Jesuit objected to the Bishop of Salisbury That the Devil in a Night Vision did reason with him against the Sacrifice of the Mass as the Jesuit calls it and the Jesuit quoted for this a Book of Luther's entituled De Missa Angulari Vnctione Sacerdotali and infers from it that the Reformation sprung in the School of Satan The Bishop in his Reply to Harding Printed 1565 p. 2 saith D. Luther sheweth what terrible Temptations the Devil hath to trap Men withall taking occasion sometime of well-doing sometime of Evil sometime of Truth sometime of Falshood And for example
he sheweth that the Devil on a time Assaulted him not in visible Form but by dreadful Suggestions in his Conscience as it were thus calling him to remembrance These many Years thou hast said Mass thou hast shew'd up Bread and Wine to be Worshipped as God yet now thou knowest it was a Creature and not God thereof follow'd Idolatry and thou wert the Cause thereof All these things he saw to be true by the Testimony and Light of his own Conscience and therefore confess'd he had offended and yielded himself unto God The Devil's purpose was to lead him to Despair but God mercifully deliver'd him If he think it so heinous a Matter for a Godly Man to be vex'd by the Devil perhaps he will also find some fault with Christ who was carried by the Devil into the Mount or with St. Paul that had the Angel of Satan to buffet him Thus the Bishop who seems to have had another Sense of this Matter than this our Adversary I shall only add to this before I come to his particular Instances to my Reader That if any Person Professing Unity with us in whom was began the work of Reformation hath not abode Faithful but run into the Temptations of the Enemy and hath had freakish Actions and Gestures and loose and wild Imaginations and have Falsly and Blasphemously Ascrib'd them to be the Operations of the Spirit of God We are not accountable for them as the Apostle was not for those in his time who were given up to strong Delusion because they receiv'd not the Truth in the Love of it All that we find the Apostle did to them that we have done to such that is testifie against them and their ways For we do not own such Inspirations as have not for their Origen the Holy Spirit and are warranted by the Scriptures of Truth I come now to the Snake's Instances His first is thus p. 288. John Gilpin of Kendal in Westmerland has given us a strange and wonderful account of his own Possession by the Devil while he was a Quaker in a Book which he Entituled The Quakers shaken Printed 1653. In Answer to this there was Published in that same Year 1653 a Book Entituled The Standard of the Lord c. to which Book E. Burroughs writ the Epistle to the Reader In which speaking of this same John Gilpin p. 2. he saith By hearing of the Truth declared through the Witness in his own Conscience he was Convinced of the Everlasting Truth c. This was very well but it seems he continued not under that Convincement for he ran out into Airy Imaginations and Imitations as E. B. saith who speaking further of him says I was mov'd to go to see him and his Will was at liberty got above the Judgment though the Judgment was upon the head of the Beast in him and a true Power working but his Will not being kept in Subjection it led him into Impatiency and into Rebelling against the Lord who was made manifest to destroy the unruly Will and wandring Mind And then I did declare against him and shewed him the deceit where it lodged in him Thus E. B. who it hereby appears did shew the Man his state and did also deny him and his doings But the Matter issu'd thus This Gilpin continu'd to go on in that same Rebellion of which E. B. speaks so that he quite run from under the Judgment and Gilpin in this his worst Estate endeavoured with the help of the then Priest of Kendal in a Book Publish'd under Gilpin's Name to charge the Wicked and Blasphemous Actions and Sayings which he had been guilty of upon that Principle of the Light of Christ in Men which the Quakers Profest though Gilpin being Charg'd with it did deny it in these Words I have neither written nor spoken any thing against the Quakers So that by this it should seem the Book was writ by the Priest and Gilpin's Name put for a Cover And if it had not been so but that Gilpin did really write it there was a fair opportunity given them to have prov'd it because the Words above-mentioned spoke by Gilpin were Publish'd in the Answer before-mention'd Entituled The Standard of the Lord c. which came forth in the same Year which that Book Subscrib'd by Gilpin did Ibid. Attested by the then Mayor of Kendal the Minister of Kendal and several other Persons It was not strange that the Mayor of Kendal should be procur'd to Subscribe what the Priest had so eminent a Hand in though he owns it no further than a Fellow Subscriber But as this was an early Instance viz. 1653. wherein the Priest did lead the Civil Magistrate into such a Mistake which a prudent Inquiry wou'd have prevented so we have often since found they have endeavoured to Ride the Civil Power blindly into Mistakes and Prejudices against us and where such have been able to Hood-wink a Magistrate we have seldom found so little disadvantage from it as is the setting his Name to Partial and Untrue Relations of Fact In fine the Case is thus Gilpin as before related was once under a Convincement of Truth but he abode not under the Judgment of God manifested in him for Sin but started aside as a broken Bow He got into Wild Blasphemous and Airy Whimsies and Notions In all this he was presently denied and testified against For Edw. Burroughs did while this Gilpin was under these Extravagancies deny him and we were sufficiently discharg'd of him And what may further shew the Degeneracy of the Man was the Dissoluteness of his After-time for some Actions of which a Warrant was it seems Issuâ—d out for his Apprehension but he like this Snake ran away from it as is express'd in the Book aforesaid which was writ in Answer to him The Snake's next Story is of one James Milner mention'd p. 66. fore-going This Man and some others did as the former start aside from under the Judgment but the Event was not the same as is seen in G. F's Journal p. 103. where speaking of this Man and his Condition he saith James Milner and some of his Company had true Openings at the first but getting up into Pride and Exaltation of Spirit they run out from Truth I was sent for to them and was mov'd of the Lord to go and shew them their Goings forth And they came to see their Folly and Condemn'd it and came into the way of Truth again That he did see and condemn his Folly was very well and it was yet better for him that he return'd into the way of Truth Ibid. p. 289. But then as an Excuse for his false Prophesies and his Blasphemies in calling himself Christ c. he G. F. makes this Comical Apology In some things his mind runn'd out and that he Condemns and yet these wicked Men will go tell the Nation of it Great Mystery Page 298. It is not very Comical but very Provoking to find one who