mind relating to these things I have observed that such as oppose the Order of Truth under pretence for Truth do frequently in their writings and speakings call upon us To keep to that which first convinced us Good Counsel Would they themselves were obedient to it But they abuse it by applying it to a wrong end For when they bid us keep to that which first convinced and withal tell us of the blessed Appearance of the Lord among Friends in the beginning their sence is we should keep to that Order and Discipline which was then among Friends Which I grant to be good and suitable for that day and time But by directing to that now they secretly insinuate a Reproof of what ever is more than was at first as if set up by Man's Wisdom as Womens Meetings Monethly Quarterly and Yearly Meetings our present Order of Marriage c. And so such Friends as now walk in this Order being thereunto led and guided by the same Spirit which convinced them in the beginning are by these pretending Friends cryed down as men of Form Apostates Innovators c. And now to shew that this is their design and sence mark but the scope and drift of W. R's Book against the Apostate Quaker as he calls them because in his meaning fallen from what they were in the beginning which he dates to be about twenty six years then last past pag. 3. 1st part But more briefly this may be seen in Anne Docwrays Paper later printed wherein there is some Rhyme but not a word of Reason to convince that what she scoffingly calls Formalities and Directories have any Evils or Absurdities in them W. R. and She exclaim much against Imposition which we disown more than they But mark how she concludes after many fine words against Forms outward Rules Contrivances c. thus But God is bringing back again his People to their first Principles and Practice whereby they were gathered into Community with him and with one another in his Life and Power By this it s as clear as the Sun that she misapplies this Doctrine as before noted Many such Instances might be given Had this Woman lived in the Apostles days might she not as readily have charged them with Apostacy when they left oft having all things common and set up Property among them Might she not have said to Paul Keep to that which first convinced thee and tell not us of ordaining Elders or Overseers in Churches Tit. 15. 1 Tim. 3. Away with thy form of sound Words 2 Tim. 1.13 That Light which met thee going to Damascus spake nothing then to thee of these things Thou art now got into an aspiring Mind and seekest Preheminence over others Thou art setting up Forms and Directories outward Rules and Prescriptions which will be but Baits for the Enemy to with-draw mens Minds from the inward Teachings of the Grace of God into Contention After this rate A. D. runs on in her Paper against the Truth of God now which may as well be applied to the Primitive Times as ours But now let us consider whether these who cry out so much of Apostacy are not themselves the Apostates Whom the Lord convinceth and converts them he adds to his Church Acts 2.47 Whom he adds to his Church them he teaches to be obedient to the Discipline therein Heb. 13.17 This is plain Scripture And the true Light in us if we keep to it will certainly satisfie us in the truth of this spiritual Rule and Government and the strength of it over our Spirits we shall as sensibly feel as outwardly we may feel the strength of another mans Body over ours by trying it But as stubborn Bodies will not yield to stronger Bodies though they dye for it so stubborn forward Spirits will despise this spiritual Government till they loose their spiritual Life 2 Pet. 2.10 A false Birth may cry but not for the Breasts That which is born of God first breathes after him and then after the Flocks of his Companions Cant. 1.7 Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Neon For why should I be as one that turneth aside from the Flocks of thy Companious Love to Christ and to his Flock cannnot be seperated So though I joyn to this Flock it s not because they are a Flock but because they are Christ's Companions And although I believe as they believe yet I can faithfully say it s not because they believe or practise this or that but because that Power which brought me from the barren Mountains blessed be his Name gave me the same Faith and led me into the same fruitful Vallies where they were feeding So by this I know and dare be bold in Truth to say not to upbraid but in Love to inform our Opposers pretending Friend ship That either they mistook at first their Opinions were not right-they took that for the Lords Anointing which was not or else they are really fallen off or to speak most moderately turned aside from the Works of the Lord Oh! that they may return with greater Zeal than ever to serve the Truth in this their day before eternal Night come over them It is very sad to see any that were first to be last but more to feel them in danger to be lost Obj. If any should Reply That our Meetings are fallen from their first Faith and have set up Formalities contrary to Scripture and Reason and therefore it s as lawful now for any one as it was for Luther formerly to oppose a whole Body when so corrupted Ans Blessed be the Lord this is not our case I do not find nor did I ever meet any impartial Friend or friendly Man that would say These our Opposers have proved any one of our Principles or any part of our Order guilty of any Errors or Evils or any way contrary to Scripture or sound Reason Neither did I ever hear they propounded a better Order or Discipline But the burden of all their Books and Papers I meet with is either against particular Persons or for Liberty Liberty against Forms Orders outward Rules c. which if they would speak plain English is as much as to say We would have a Religion like the Earth in its Chaos without Form void of Order Gen. 1. We would be a Garden but not inclosed like that in Cant. 4.12 We would be fellow Citizens with you provided there may be no Walls or Gates about your City We are for Salvation for Walls in that sence which allows no means of Salvation though lawful and honest We are for liberty of go in and out of the City which way and when we please In short they say in effect as Israel of old We would have liberty for every one to do what is right in his own Eyes Thus strange confused Notions have entred under pretence of keeping to the Light within a true Doctrine and have deceived many
THE Good Order OF TRUTH JUSTIFIED Wherein our Womens Meetings and Order of Marriage by some more especially opposed are proved agreeable to Scripture and Sound REASON By an old and true Friend to Liberty of Conscience but not to Disorder William Loddington Formality not Form feeds the Spirit of Persecution So the Service of the House of the Lord was set in Order 2 Cor. 29.35 Though I be absent in the Flesh yet am I with you in Spirit joying and beholding your Order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ Col. 2.5 Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch 1685. The Good Order OF TRUTH JUSTIFIED UNITY in Spirit is the true and firm Foundation of Love and Fellowship All Vniformity and Conformity not springing from this is but Hypocrisie Where there is Unity in the Life and Spirit of Christ there will be Uniformity if no Temptation hinder in the visible Life and Order answerable to the measure received Do men gather Grapes or Grape Leaves of Thorns The Sap puts forth the same Leaf as well as Fruit in every Branch Yet the comparison holds no further than to the faithful because Men may counterfeit but Trees cannot Outward appearances beget a Name as to outward Fellowships He shall by men of the World be reputed a Quaker that is conformable to their Language and Gesture but the true Quaker or rather true Christian takes his Measures from better Foundations There are Vertues Behaviours or Operations of mens Spirits discernable to the Spiritual more or less and according as they feel Unity in these they joyn together to exalt his Glory who brought them to a sence of Life Immortal into which the Hypocrite cannot enter though from this men may fall Never more need to watch and pray that we be not deceived for Truth was never more lively counterfeited nor never did the Mystery of Iniquity work more plausibly to break Sion's Peace What more hated than Imposition What more nauseous than Formality What more ridiculous than impertinent Ceremony The Serpent knowing all this covers himself in some places with pretences for Moderation and Liberty of Conscience as it were in opposition to all Imposition when indeed it s to bring in Bondage to corruption But the Daughter of Babylon is known though decked with Pearls and fine Array glorious words of Truth This Spirit never had a fairer advantage because so many have turned Persecutors under pretences of Conformity to Religious Order and Government so that many Arguments now brought in behalf of good Order though sound and rational yet are slighted because formerly some Persecutors have made use of them to a wrong end Hence strong Delusions get over such as receive not the Love of Truth that they may be saved Yea some who I believe did in love receive it yet not keeping to it are drawn into opposition to its Order whereby Divisions and Offences arise contrary to the peaceable Doctrine of Christ Jesus our Lord. Two things are principally pretended to be the subjects of their Dissatisfaction viz. our Womens Meetings and Order of Marriage But alas if these two things were removed other Dissatisfactions would spring up and others after them till and Order and Government were dissolved They know not what Spirit it is which makes them stumble give it an Inch and it will take more Nay some have even lost all their Profession of Religion by doing so Now because I am verily perswaded in my own Spirit that good Words and fair Speeches deceive many simple hearts I feel a freedom for their sakes some are so far gone pure Reason doth not reach them to write something of what the Lord not man nor by Man opened to me about these matters that after my searching and trying them I might be established glory to his Name in his blessed Truth and enabled in some measure to give a Reason of my Hope and Practice 1. As to the First then this Question in my Understanding contains the whole matter Q. Whether it be agreeable to Scripture for our Women Friends to meet by themselves or to sit speak and act equally with men in Meetings of Business of an outward or temporal nature or tendency Answ I put Scripture in the Question because I know its a common Objection That Womens Meetings are not to be found there Is not this plain limiting the Spirit of the Lord to those only times when that was written as if nothing of Order hereafter may or must be necessary and expedient but what was so in those days There is a general Rule not the worse because Superstition hath abused it in 1 Cor. 14. That all things be done Decently and in Order but the particular Circumstances of Decency and Order are left to the judgment of Christians in every Age a the Lord shall direct them But to come closer to the Question it s very clear to me that our Womens Meetings are plainly agreeable to the scope and fence of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 13.3 where he weightily argues and earnestly presseth us to take notice of it saying I would have you to know That the Head of the Woman is the Man If so then if our Womens Meetings consist with the Headship they are justified by this Scripture but such Meetings as are destructive to it and take it away cannot be lawful That the first are consistent with this Headship and the other destructive appears by what follows If Women be taken into Mens Meetings appointed for outward or temporal Concerns with equal freedom to sit speak and act with them then I see no Headship man hath For if he hath any it must be either in Temporal or Spiritual matters In Spirituals he hath none for the same Apostle Gal. 3.28 affirms That Male and Female are all one in Christ that is in services purely spiritual relating only to Christ and the Soul such as Prayer and Prophecy Therefore in 1 Cor. 11. equal freedom is given to the Woman as much as to the Man to Pray and Prophecy But on the other hand Women Friends meeting by themselves may without the least suspition of usurping Authority over the Men confer and reason together how to serve Truth in their places in such things as are most proper and suitable for them still submitting to the Wisdom of God in the Mens Meetings Whereas being mixed together if a man should make a motion about any business and a Woman should stand up and signifie her dislike of it though in most mild and tender words would not any Man yea an Unbeliever if he should come in and hear it would he not conclude the Women in such Meetings had as much Power as the Men Let none Reply It matters not what Vnbelievers say for Paul himself was very careful that nothing might be done in the Church of Christ that might stumble Unbelievers as hereafter will be noted from 1 Cor. 14. Wherefore he knowing Man's Headship to be owned
and will certainly devour their strength unawares if they do not return speedily to the Lord Hos 7.9 I would not be supposed by writing this to be more zealous for the Form than for the Power of Godliness my daily Watch is against it And I pray God I and all that love the Truth may not only grow in Words to speak for it but also in unfeigned Love to the Brethren and that the very Spirit of our Minds may daily feel strength renewed to withstand all the fiery Darts and all the guilded Baits of the Enemy I do in this matter as the Apostles did about Faith and Works and as all Christians ought to do viz. to countermine where we feel the Enemy undermining When the Romans began an early beginning to be tainted with a Belief That Works without Faith would save them Paul zealously writes for Faith Rom. 4. But when James perceived the scattered Tribes inclinable to err on the other hand he writes as fervently for Works chap. 2. So a concern is upon my Heart to vindicate even the Form of Godliness because I feel the Serpent designing to bring us to Disorder and Confusion under the fair pretences of Liberty as before mentioned And if it be true as I heard one no small Opposer and for whom I greatly sorrow say That the Worm which spoils the Shell breeds in the Kernel then there is much more cause to examine their Pretences to Power than many apprehend For by this Argument all their talk of Power and seeming Power is to be suspected as wrong because no Worm can breed in the true living Power of God that will spoil the Shell or Form of Godliness Obj. There is one thing more with me to add concerning Judgment It hath sometimes been returned upon me in conference about these things That I judged none to be Friends by these Arguments but such as were conformable to our Order and Forms and this was judging according to outward Appearances and that I must not judge lest I be judged and such like Answ There is thick Darkness in this Objection especially being made by one in some things conformable to Truth whereby the World judges him to be a Quaker Now he must either own or disown this Judgment If he own it be contradicts himself in saying No judgment is to be made by outward Appearance If he disown it he condemns himself of Hypocrisie in appearing to be what he is not But further let such pretending Friends who thus object consider whether they themselves do not in their own Thoughts daily as they walk the streets make a judgment of People according to outward Appearances I do not mean as to their eternal state but do they not judge such to be no Quakers who are dressed in the World's Fashions So by the same Rule as they judge them to be no Quakers which have not the visible dress or habit of Quakers must they justifie me in judging them to be no Members of our Meetings whose Behaviour there is not orderly and agreeable to our Principles He is not of a right Spirit who is not as watchful not to offend those he pretends to own as a Church of Christ as not to offend â—â—…w or Gentile And if he believe us not to be a Church of Christ why doth he frequent our Assembly and there sit as in Unity with our Worship Qu. But what then is forbidden by these two Scriptures Mat. 7.1 John 7.24 Answ In Mat. 7.1 Christ forbids judging so of others as we would not be judged our selves Wherefore he adds For with what Judgment ye judge ye shall be judged He that judges without Mercy shall have Judgment without Mercy So this takes not away all but only partial and unjust Judgment 2. In John 7.24 That judgment is forbid which the Jews made according to the appearance of Letter of the Law When the literal Sence or Letter is a Figure we must not judge by that sence The fore-going Verses clear this The Jews were angry because Christ made a man whole on the Sabbath day He convinced them it was no Breach of their Sabbath by their own practice of Circumcision upon that day in case of necessity For that day was but a Figure of future Rest Exod. 31.17 So it was made for Man not Man for it that is it was to be subject to man not man to it Mark 2.27 And tho' the Letter of the Law was In it thou shalt not do any Work yet if they judged righteously this did not forbid good Works as necessity called for as Circumcision or saving the Life of a Beast themselves being Judges much more doing good to men Wherefore he reproves them for judging after the Appearance or Letter of the Law and not according to the Equity or Righteousness of it in his case as well as in their own Great is that blindness and ignorance which wrests these Scriptures to silence all judging and condemning what in Truth ought to be judged and condemned So I shall conclude with referring to what the Apostle Paul saith concerning our Bodies 1 Cor. 3.17 If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy This Temple in chap. 6.19 he expounds to be our Bodies Now as the Body is a Temple for the Soul so I own the Form to be but as a Temple for the Power Yet if any man wound this living Temple this living Form the Life Spirit and Power within it will cry out and testifie against him THE END