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
Revelation p. 74. Sect. V. Concerning Infallibility p. 85. Sect. VI. Concerning the Authority of the Holy Scriptures p. 150. Sect. VII Concerning Idolatry p. 173. Sect. VIII Concerning the Holy Three Bearing Record in Heaven p. 184. Sect. IX Concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ. p. 191. Sect. X. Concerning the Satisfaction of Christ. p. 230. Sect. XI Concerning the Resurrection p. 239. Sect. XII Concerning Baptism and the Supper p. 258. Sect. XIII Shewing Popish Emissaries did not set up Quakerism in England p. 276. Sect. XIV Shewing that we do not Damn all but our selves p. 293. Sect. XV. The Quakers clear'd from the Charge of Venom and Nastiness and it shewn to be his own True Character p. 308. Sect. XVI Of Fâ—ghting and Loyalty p. 316. Sect. XVII Concerning Tythes p. 376. Sect. XVIII Shewing that the Pretensions of the present Quakers as of the former to the Spirit of Prophecy Infallibility c. is according to and agreeable with the Scriptures of Truth p. 434. Sect. XIX Visible Possessions by the Devil Examin'd and Refuted p. 442. Sect. XX. Of Enthusiasm or Inspiration as said by the Snake to be own'd by the Church p. 462. Sect. XXI His Falsly Entituled Impartial Comparison between G. Fox L. Muggleton and Oliver's Porter shewn to be Prophane c. p. 472. A Supplement by G. Whitehead p. 486. Sect. XXII A Reply to some Remarks upon as it is call'd by the Snake G. W's Creed p. 486. Sect. XXIII Some Reflections by G. W. upon A Supplement pretended upon occasion of his Answer to The Snake in the Grass p. 343. p. 507. ERRATA PAge 32. l. 24. things r. thing p. 34. l. 23 it r. is p. 64. l. 17. Teâ—â— r. Fell p. 76 l. 16.21 r. 28 p. 91. l. 7. after gave us add to discenâ— p. 94. l. 5 swearing r. to swear p. 111 l. 17 after have add little 〈◊〉 p. 126 l. 32. it r. is p. 144 l. 27 dele unless p. 152 l. 27 after is 〈◊〉 as p. 168 l. 1. after was add said to be ib. l. 22. r. as before is p. 180. â— 34 word r. world p. 197 l. 19 after that add it p. 202 l. 30 〈◊〉 here add desire him to p. 216 l. 9. after to add the ib. l. 10 land 〈◊〉 lamb p. 272 l. 28 after what add it p. 286 l. 13 dele Qua p. 398 〈◊〉 28 after of dele the p. 413 l. 30 dele all p. 431 l. 5 drink r. druâ—â— Anguis Flagellatus OR A SWITCH FOR THE Snake in the Grass INTRODUCTION Wherein also the Preface and Introduction of the Snake are Consider'd and Reply'd to AGainst the Venome of the Snake as it at first appeared an Antidote has been already given in an Answer under that Title by George Whitehead to the First Edition of the Snake in the Grass Of which Answer the crafty Sophister having gotten notice hastned a Second Edition of the Snake so different from the First that it might rather seem a New Book than a New Impression of an Old One. For besides the Additions which he made he alter'd the Frame and Contexture of it by choping and changing the Parts and melting as his Phrase is a Preface of above 350 Pages and bigger than the Book it self into the Body of the Book which as himself says in his Account of the Second Edition renders it in a manner a New Work and he calls it a pulling down the whole and rearing it in a new Form Thus the Snake cast its Skin chang'd both Colour and Shape in the several Subsequent Editions By which Artifice the Answer which was designed and adapted to the First Edition was render'd less Serviceable and Useful The Reader not knowing by the Pages referr'd to in the Antidote where to find in the later Editions the Matter treated of As this together with the Adversary's Allegations in his latter Editions that in the Answer to his first his Quotations were not disproved was the Ground or Motive to this Second Answer So also the Reasons why this Answer came not sooner forth were partly that we might see in what Shape this Proteus who has transform'd so often would at length settle that we might not be again obliged Actum Agere And partly that we might have had his Reply to G. W's Antidote which is his Third Edition p. 358 and 366. He hath as good as promised that That also might have been considered But since our Adversary has thought fit to suspend if not wholly to throw off his pretended Intention of giving a particular Reply to the Antidote I was not willing longer to delay this Answer to the Third and Last Edition of the Snake And do here acquaint such Readers who have the Second Edition of the Snake that though the Pages differ so that the References by them do not agree yet the Sections in both the Second and Third Editions standing in the same Order and bearing the same Titles and this Answer being adapted to each Section mostly separatim it will not be very difficult for the Reader herein to find the Matter referr'd to in the Second Edition of the Snake also Thus having given some short Account both of the Reasons why this Answer was delay'd till now and why written now It will be necessary to proceed to the Work in which that I may not omit any thing in the Snake deserving notice I shall begin with his Preface The Preface considered THE Snake that he might not miss any occasion of shewing the World the Squint Opinion he has of us is pleased to link us in his Preface with one Antonia Bourignon of whose Principles he pretends to give some Account and that she perfectly agrees with us Pref. p. 11. even in those things wherein himself says she hath writ against us and takes up a great part of 44 Pages of which his Preface consists to shew some Instances of those Wild Heretical and Barbarous Notions which in Pref. p. 4. he says Antonia holds and which he in order bestows upon us thereby to prepossess his Reader Not unlike the Fellow who to shew his Squint and Blasphemous Opinion of the Apocalyps bound up St. John's Revelations and Aesop's Fables in one Volume But as St. John's Revelations had another Origin than the Imaginary Fables of Aesop So the Revelations of the same Holy Spirit at this day do vastly differ from all Imaginary Flights from all Heretical Wild and Barbarous Notions and does give Solid Reasons of that Faith it begets in us and which we are ready to give to the Sober Inquirer As for Bourignon her Errors concerns not us if she be what the Snake says she appearing an Enemy as well as he by having writ against us not but that there is some reason to suspect he wrongs her from the certainty we have of his often and greatly abusing us Pref. p. 11 12. The great design of the Devil is and has always been to beat down the Priesthood and outward
Enthusiasts both born in the Year 1650. for then it was Muggleton says he got his Inspiration If Muggleton did come forth in the Spirit of Deceit in the same Year that G. F. came forth in the Spirit and Power of the Lord What can be inferr'd from thence Theudas and Judas of Galilee came forth with their Impostors not much differing in time from our Saviour's coming in the Flesh Yet to correct the Snake's Lying Chronology the Reader may please to know that G. F. did come forth in the Power and Spirit of the Lord some Years before the Date the Snake assigns Ibid. p. 6. It will be proper in this place once for all to obviate a Prejudice which some may take at a little Railery I am forc'd to now and then in answer to such Sensless Arguments and Pretences as deserve no otherwise to be Confuted The Sober and Judicious Reader will no doubt but be Prejudic'd against such prophane Railery and manifest Contradictions as frequently appear of which these Lines are one Instance In pag. 34. foregoing We are the most subtle in Distinction of any Hereticks and it is not usual for such who Distinguish Subtilly to Argue Senslesly But Contradictions of this sort are frequent with our Adversary who throughout his whole Book as the Sober Reader may hereafter Observe doth frequently Contradict himself that he may Bely Us Mistake our Principles that he might have the Glory of a Triumph and Pervert and false Quote our Books that he might have the Reputation of Great Discoveries Of all which having gone through his Introduction remains next in order to be spoken SECT I. Our Principle of the Light of Christ in Men shewn to be Scriptural and our Books herein agreeable thereto THE Light preached and testified to by us ever since we were a People is no other than Jesus Christ the Son of the Father's Love who in due time was born of the Virgin Mary dwelt on the Earth and was in all things like unto Us Sin only excepted Who was Crucify'd under Pontius Pilate died was buried and rose again the third Day and ascended into Heaven This Jesus Christ while he dwelt on Earth preached himself the Light and Way to the Father and speaking of himself to his Disciples John 14.17 said He Dwelleth with you and shall be in you And of this Jesus Christ John Testifies He was the Word in the Beginning with God and that this Word was God and that in him is Life and that Life the Light of Men and that this Light Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World John 1.1 4 9. This is that Glorious Truth testified unto by us which is not Notion except to those only who have barely an Historical Knowledge hereof For to those that do reverently attend its discoveries it is no more Notion but a Home-felt Truth With this Testimony it was that it pleased God to send forth his Servant George Fox who tho' despised mean and unlearned in the accounts of Men was of God made an Apostle in this Age and hath been instrumental in his hand for the directing of Thousands to the Light of Christ in Men. Upon which Light as Men come to attend it will fully teach them their Duty to God and enable them to perform it it will discover to them a System of Principles truly Orthodox with more certainty than Council or Synod can not taught by it for he is indeed a Wonderful Counsellor And this not in Notion not meerly Historical No! But in Practice according to their Obedience to it It will first fully and truly beyond any Casuist shew unto Man what is his Sin and if Man dispise not this Discovery but close with it it will beget in him a loathing of his Sin and then procede to work in him a repentance from Dead Works which if unfeigned it will go on to sanctify him and when Man by this Light Spirit or Grace is sanctified it will then witness to his Spirit that he is justified So will Man truly come to be redeemed This in short is the substance of what hath been by us declared concerning this Divine Light Christ in Men and which is not more than is witnessed of it in the Holy Scriptures in the words whereof our Friends have frequently given their belief in this as in other Articles and that with good reason for the Spirit of God in his Church in this Age can well agree with the Language of the same Spirit in and to the Churches in the former Ages And here I may fitly observe that too nice expressing and minute particularizing of Articles of Faith has been frequently one ground of Heresie and Schism and occasioned great disturbance in the World and indeed it 's no wonder that when Men forsake that teaching Grace which brings Salvation they should set up that Earthly Wisdom which in matters of Faith breeds confusion Ibid. p. 7 8. And this Notion of the Light within as a Ray only or Illumination from the Holy Spirit the Ingenious Mr. Penn has let us see in some of his late Books to draw us insensibly off the Scent of the Quaker Notion of the Light within This Adversary that he may scratch more undiscernedly he Hypocritically flatters W. Penn of which as we pass shall meet with divers instances But it is false that W. Penn hath in any of his Books explained our Belief of the Light within in terms contrary to what G. Fox or other our Ancient Friends have done He being a Scholar might use other terms but not contrary he might vary from the express words of G. Fox or others but not from their sense Of this Holy Writ affords instances The Holy Apostle Paul's rethorical forms of Speech might be more agreeable to the Rules of Art but not of the Holy Spirit than those of the rest of the Holy Apostles Yet his Learning and their Illiterature were both of excellent use the minds of the Persons being under subjection to the Spirit of God This was their great Rule so that though according to the Humane helps they had had they might use various yet not contrary terms in the same Article Ibid. p. 8. And that is to make this their Light within not only an Inspiration or Illumination sent from God but to be it self the Essential God and Christ. What Christ hath promised and by the Holy Spirit hath dictated concerning God and Christ's Dwelling in Men as in these places refer'd to among many others it may be seen is so experienced a Truth as well as good an Authority for such like Scriptural expressions that it will stand the Shock of any capricious Gramarian who would pretend to speak more properly and distinguish more nicely than it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost to do John 14.17 20. Rom. 8.10 1 Cor. 10.4 2 Cor. 15.4.10.6 7.14.25.13.7 Gal. 2.20 Heb. 2.11 Col. 1.27.4.19.2.6 Ibid. 8. And from hence O Blasphemy to repeat it they
to withstand this his Day of Visitation in the reproofs and discoveries of this Light it must of necessity once come to pass as to the Jews that it will be hid from their eyes and in this final impenitency they will according to Isa. 5.20 call good evil and evil good and of such the Apostle testifies Ephes. 4.18 They are strangers from the life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their hearts And that 2 Thess. 2.11 They are given over to strong Delusion to believe a lye because they received not the Love of the Truth that they should be saved But they were not given over to strong Delusion till they had refused the Truth and they could not refuse the Love of it unknowingly To the Second Quaere Whether a Man may sin while he follows the Light It may be safely answer'd no! Because it is affirmed by the Apostle Ephes. 5.9 The fruit of the Spirit or Light is in all goodness righteousness and truth And the Christians were advised to walk in the Light that they might become Children of it And if they are Children of it they must of necessity bring forth the fruits of it for that it is sufficient to make Men able so to do these Scriptures among many others testifie Luke 9.21 22. Phil. 4.14 2 Cor. 12.9 And as what is said herein is agreeable to the Gospel so it is not contrary to the Law Because as the Apostle testifies Acts 17.30 In the times of Ignorance God winked But now he willeth all men every where to repent And Heb. 7.19 Tho' under the Law which made nothing perfect there were expiatory Sacrifices for the Sins of Ignorance yet now there needeth not for as much as by the Gospel the bringing in of a better hope made perfect For the several Texts urged by our Adversary as Luke 23.24 where Christ speaking of those who crucified him saith They know not what they do It is no wonder they should be so stupidly blind when we consider the Testimony of Stephen concerning them Acts 7.51 Ye always resisted the Holy Ghost And in John 16.2 where Christ foretels his Disciples the time shall come that whosoever killeth you shall think they do God service But the Snake has left out the reason of that Ignorance which in the next verse as our Saviour says is Because they have not known my Father nor me The like curtailing of the Text the Snake hath practised with that of 2 Thess. 2.11 where he only quotes the words They should believe a lye but left out the reason of it which the Apostle says was because they received not the love of the Truth The Snake's Perversion of that Text Mat. 6.13 is very remarkable where he quotes That the Light which is in some Men is Darkness When our Saviour said no such thing But is here shewing of us How that by Sin and Evil Man becomes Darkned and that a continuance herein leads into great Darkness and thus words it If thine Eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of Darkness wherefore if the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness The Eye is the Organ for Light That being blinded the whole Body is in Darkness so in the Mind with this addition of unhappiness that in this Blindness they think they see and therefore call good evil and evil good But our Saviour hath no where taught That tho' Men should fervently humbly and sincerely pray for the Gifts of his Grace Light or Spirit that it will still be so much a Guess so much in uncertainty as to be possible for these so sincerely seeking To take the Devil for God and his wicked Spirit and his bad Acts for the Holy Spirit and Innocent Life of Jesus Christ. No! It is a most abhorred imputation upon the Doctrine of our Saviour either to suppose it contradictory to it self or that he who according to Mat. 28.18 Has all power in Heaven and Earth given to him should yet be so short in his Power or in his Good Will that he hath not afforded to Man a most certain and infallible Guide to that Glory to which he calls him But further If herein Man can without a Crime be ignorant or disobedient The whole tenour of the Gospel is overthrown the New Covenant Joel 2.29 is of no force and we may with the Apostle in another case conclude 1 Cor. 15.14 Preaching is vain and Faith is vain For if the Light of Jesus Christ is not an Infallible Guide to Salvation Men are in utmost uncertainty of what concerns them most nearly viz. the Salvation of their Souls and are herein more at a Guess than they would care to be in the state of their Healths or the titles of their Estates But now if for Guide and Certainty for it is necessary Men should herein be certain he will turn us to the Holy Scriptures Traditions Councils Fathers Ordinances We shall find all of them declared even by Men of that Church this Snake says he is of such as are not void of uncertainty for that through ignorance iniquity and false pretences all these have been abused So that it remains of absolute necessity for all that would have an Infallible Guide to Salvation to attend the guidings of the Spirit of God which only can infallibly witness to their Spirits Rom. 8.16 thâ—â— they are the Children of God Ibid. p. 11. It would make one merry were therâ— not too much of tragedy in the miserable and distrâ—â—ctive error to see what pains G. Fox takes to strugglâ— from under this Objection If G. Fox's pains could make this Man merry the Priest's pains ought to make him laugh out because they were the greater of the two foâ— G. Fox hath answer'd 26 words of the Priests bâ— 25 of his own As for the Tragedy Misery anâ— Destruction which the Snake supposes in what hâ— calls our error there is nothing in it The Destructiâ—on c. will be eminently so to them that sell pretended Spiritual Ware and among them it will make havock for when Men come to feed upon that substantial Food John 6.35 48. The Bread of Life They will no longer give their Mony for that which is not Bread nor their labour for that which profitteth not Ibid. p. 11. He G. Fox repeats the Professor's objection against him in these words The Apostle Paul thought to do many things against the Church and thought he ought to do so and the Light within did not inform his Conscience To which G. Fox replies in these words did not Christ say that it was hard for him Paul to kick against that that prickt him and was not that within him that prickt him The Snake crys out against this Answer Ibid. p. 11. saying it is manifest perverting of Scripture when indeed the Answer is sound and true as appears by the verse immediately following Acts 9.6 And he trembling and astonished
contrary now to what they were then But if the Doctrine be true now how comes G. Fox to be blame-worthy for asserting it then and telling them then that such who denyed it were ravened from the Spirit of God And after all the Daubing Hypocrisie of this Snake let him shew if he can that such who deny this Doctrine which is essential to Salvation do not thereby shew themselves ravened c. Ibid. p. 30. Quoted from p. 30. of G. Fox's Answer to the Westmoreland Petition If ever you own the Prophets Christ and the Apostles you will own our Writings which are given forth by the same Spirit and Power The Liberty which this Adversary takes to himself is very great sometimes supplying to our words what he is pleased to think they want as at other times to bite and curtail them And to shew thee Reader what Supplements he gives to our words take the place as it is in G. Fox's Answer c. If ever you own the Prophets Christ and the Apostles you will own them which are given forth by the same Spirit and Power And it is very true for whosoever shall write from the movings of the Spirit and grace of God upon his heart tho' in the least manifestation thereof them Writings so written cannot fail of being acknowledged in their Degree By all who through the Spirit of God are led to own the Prophets Christ and the Apostles And the Reason is plain because every Member partakes of the same Spirit by which the whole Body and Church of Christ is kept living And it is impossible for the Holy Spirit in one Member to contradict the same Spirit in the rest of the Body Thus Reader thou may plainly see that that Sinless Perfection maintained in our Books which the Snake carps at misrepresents and wilfully lyes against is no other than the Perfection of the Holy Spirit and which is no further Ours than we walk in obedience to that Spirit by Obedience to which the Apostle hath testified 2 Pet. 1.4 That by escaping the Corruption that is in the World through Lust we may be made partakers of the Divine Nature It were a foul and false imputation upon this Doctrine of the Apostles to suggest that he hereby advised the true Believers to pretend to any such equality of Perfection as that of God who in his Wisdom and Power c. is Infinite God hath promised to his People I will dwell in them and walk in them 2 Cor. 6.16 And all who do witness this Holy In-dwelling of God must of necessity say and confess that he is able to give a perfect Deliverance and Freedom from Sin But have not nor cannot say That they are God or they are Christ because of the In-dwelling of the Holy Spirit never did any of us so say as falsly suggested by the Snake which in reply to the foregoing quotations doth I think evidently appear Wherefore I now proceed to his 6th Section of the Quakers Infallibility SECT V. Shewing that Infallibility is by us placed in the Holy Spirit and only is ours as guided by that THis Section therefore is like opening the Jugler's Box and you may expect to see Rarities The Snake is the Jugler and this Section or rather his whole Book the Box. The Rarities which the Reader may expect to see will no doubt be agreeable to such a Jugling Undertaker Before I come to open his Box this Section I will shew thee Reader his Jugling Artifice on the Lid of it Ibid. p. 31. This Section may seem needless as being included in the former That it is included in the former is true for who claims to be equal of the same Being and Substance with God Such doubtless claim to be infallible as he And then why this needless Section Why the Jugler doubting to put the matter of Charge upon that Issue multiply'd this Section tho' needless and drew it to a length near twice that of all his foregoing Sections that he might indeed Jugler like blind the Readers observation in the length of it And with respect to us the Jugler might hope it should by its length be admitted as Billa Vera rather than any should examine its Contents and detect its Lyes But to begin with the Snake's first head of Distinction Ibid. p. 31. 1. This their Infallibility was palm'd upon them by the Church of Rome That the Snake may not palm this Story upon the World without proof I do on the behalf of the People called Quakers deny the Assertion and put our Adversary upon the Proof of it which if he cannot do he is hereby registred for a Lyar. Ibid. p. 31. Of which They were so greedy that they swallow'd it down by wholesale and would have none of those Cautions with which the Church of Rome used to defend themselves As we did not receive from the Church of Rome or any other Society of Men our True Principle of the Infallibility of the Spirit or Grace of God so neither did or do we want any of those Cautions which the Romanists may have and use in their claim of Infallibility That this may appear more plain to the Sober Reader I will shew the vast difference between us and them herein The Papists how much soever they differ among themselves in placing of Infallibility in their Church as whether in the Pope and in him Simply or in him in Cathedra or with his Conclave or him in General Counsel or in such Counsel without him or in the Church diffusive yet they do all agree herein that this Infallibility is possessed by Original Grant made by Jesus Christ to one or other or all of them in the Person of the Holy Apostle Peter and doth descend by Ordination in a continual Succession not alienable This I doubt not will be allow'd to be the declar'd sentiments of some of that People in this point and which do abundantly differ from what hath been always professed by us herein which in Brief is to the following purpose viz. First We have constantly said that the Holy Spirit of God is Infallible and that through the Mediation and Intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ a Manifestation of this Infallible Holy Spirit is given to every Man to profit with Secondly We have constantly said that whoever is obedient to the Convictions and Leadings of this Infallible Holy Spirit as they are tendred to their Souls during the day of their Visitation shall thereby be Infallibly lead into all Truth necessary to Salvation both in Principle and in Practice for it doth not only Teach sound Doctrines but also teacheth to deny all ungodliness and hath no fellowship with the Vnfruitful Works of Darkness Thirdly We have constantly said that of such as through their working together with the Grace of God are thereby become Strong in the Lord Of these I say As Christ doth now Prepare Fit Furnish and Qualify with and by his Holy Spirit those whom
he makes Choise of to send forth and imploy in the work of the Ministry So they who are so sent forth have or may have if they diligently attend to the Voice of this Infallible Holy Spirit speaking in them a certain Infallible Knowledge and Assurance of the Truth of what they so deliver And they who hear have or may have if they duly attend to that measure or manifestation of this Infallible Holy Spirit which they have received a like certain Infallible Knowledge and Assurance of the Truth of what they hear But tho' they who so minister and they who so hear have or may have this Infallible Assistance Yet this Assistance continues no longer with any than they to whom it is so given do continue faithful to it and herein is one remarkable difference between the Law and the Gospel the Law in its Offices went by Succession to the several Ages of the People of the Jews and was not alienable from them but fulfill'd and so ended by Christ Thus the Office of the Priesthood descended in that Tribe in which it was appointed at the giving of the Law so that in the execution of their Office they had the benefit of the promises made to the Priesthood at that time tho' some of them were wicked Men an Instance whereof is John 11.51 in Caiphas of whom it is there said He spake not of himself but being High Priest that Year he prophesied But in the Gospel Dispensation it is not so the Gifts of the Holy Spirit not being limited either to Person or Office in the Church nor can Man witness any Union with it or infallible Assistance from it but through obedience to and perseverance both in the Principles which it teacheth and that Holiness of Life which it leads into This thus briefly stated will plainly and truly shew the Inquiring Reader the great difference between us and the Romanists in this great Article of Infallibility Ibid. p. 32. But the Simplicity of our Quakers has deprived them of every one of these helps The Quakers as I have now shewn have no need of those helps because their Simplicity is Godly Sincerity which had the Snake had he would not have bely'd us as he does in the following words Ibid. p. 32. For as they place Infallibility in every single Quaker so they confine it not to matters of Faith but extend it to all Persons and Things To know all Mens Hearts and all things in the World by their Inward Light without being told by any Which are Abominable Lyes and Slanders as will be further manifested in detecting his Perversions and other Abuses of those quotations which he makes from our Friends Books to prove this Assertion Under the second head the Snake makes divers quotations Ibid. p. 33. he quotes from Great Mystery this Objection of the Priest's That is another Error of the Quakers that say he who is not Infallible in his Judgment when he gives Counsel and Advice is no Minister of Christ. The Snake has fairly as above put the Objection but hath falsly quoted G. F's Answer which is truly thus Now he that is not Infallible in his Counsel and Judgment and Advice is not he in Error And are not the Ministers of Christ the Ministers of the Spirit And is not that out of the Error which is Infallible in Counsel and Judgment And are they Ministers of Christ that are fallible And is not the Power the Gospel Infallible Which is briefly thus The Ministers of Christ ministring from the Gospel the Power of God which is Infallible are in such their Ministry Infallible This every Eye not blinded with Prejudice and Envy may by the context perceive to be the sense of the place But this Adversary hath here given a fair mark of his Prejudice and Envy in that he would rather false quote G. F's words by leaving out sentences in the middle of the Quotation than by setting it fairly down let it speak for it self Which practice of the Snake is base and cowardly as well as unchristian He hath posted himself Knight Errant like to Demand Reparation in the name of the Church of England And from this assumed Post he descends to call G. F. Valpoon one of poor Vnderstanding c. yet meanly and in very poor Manner false quotes his Books that he may be sure of a Triumph plainly enough intimating that G. F's words are sound till he has mangled them and which being restored do plainly shew that the Infallibility of which G. F. speaks is that of the Holy Spirit from which Holy Spirit so far as any do Minister so far and no farther are they Infallible in their Ministry Ibid. p. 33. quoted from Great Mystery p. 89. They can discern who are Saints who are Devils and who Apostates without speaking ever a word Tho' the Snake injuriously stop here G. F. goes on and in his next words shews who they be that can do so They that be in the Power and the Life of Truth Which does very plainly shew that G. F. did not attribute this Knowledge or Discerning to the Quakers or any Man but to the Power and Life of Truth where it is manifested And if the Snake will take upon him in his own name or others to deny and disown that any of the Church of England have the word of God or Christ in their Hearts or will say that Christ is not Eternal Infallible and Able to Judge of Persons or things which is the Doctrine that he opposes let him do it in plain terms Ibid. p. 33. quoted from Great Mystery p. 96. Thou not being Infallible thou art not in the Spirit and so art not a Minister and art not able to Judge of Powers that is not Infallible nor Magistrates nor Kingdoms nor Churches Here as I have just now observed the Snake breaks off too soon having purposely left out the very next following words which are these For who is in the Infallible Spirit is in the Spirit that Christ was in c. which words do very fully shew wherein the Infallibility of the true Ministry does stand And do as fully shew the injustice of this Adversary in the curtailing of them Ibid. p. 34. Quoted from p. 7. of E. B's Preface to Great Mystery The Snake says That E. B. says this Infallible Spirit was given to every one and then thus quotes him To us says he every one of us in particular And this Light gave us between Truth and Error and between every false and right way and it perfectly discover'd to us the true state of all things The Snake in this Quotation has treacherously abused and mangled E. B's Words and perverted his Sense I will desire the Reader 's patience to read what I have transcribed from E. B. his clear sense and true Gospel Doctrine will I hope answer the pains thou shalt be at in doing it And for the detection of the Snake in this his nibling practice I will
distinguish what he has taken as above in a different Character Pref. p. 7. of Great Mystery First The Lord brought us by his Power and Wisdom and the Word by which all Things were made to know and understand and see perfectly that God had given to us every one of us in particular a Light from himself shining in our Hearts and Consciences which Light Christ his Son the Saviour of the World had lighted every Man and all Mankind withal which Light in us we found sufficient to reprove us and convince us of every evil Deed Word and Thought and by it in us we come to know Good from Evil Right from Wrong and whatsoever is of God and according to him from what is of the Devil and what is contrary to God in Motion Word and Work And this Light gave us to discern between Truth and Error between every False and Right Way and it perfectly discovered to us the true state of all things And we thereby came to know Man what he was in his Creation before Transgression and how he was deceived and overcome by the Devil and his estate in Transgression and in Disobedience And how he is drove and banished from the presence of the Lord and the Sorrow and Anguish which he is in and to undergo And also by the Light in us we perfectly came to know the way of Restauration and the means to be restored and the state of Man being come out of Transgression and restored These things to us were revealed by the Light within us which Christ had given us and Lightned us withal What Man was before Transgression and what he is in Transgression and what he is being redeemed out of Transgression and also the Light which shined in every one of us as to it our Minds became turned and our Hearts inclined the perfect estate of the Church we came to know Her estate before the Apostles days and in the Apostles days and since the days of the Apostles And her present state we found to be as a Woman who had once been clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her Feet who brought forth him that was to rule the Nations but She was fled into the Wilderness and there sitting desolate in her place that was prepared of God for such a season which season in the very end thereof when the time of her sojourning was towards a full end then were we brought forth If any have an Ear they may hear So that all these things concerning Man and concerning the Times and Seasons and the changing and renewing of Times and all things that pertain to Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life needful for Man to know ALL THIS WAS discover'd revealed and made known to us by the Light that was in us which Christ had lighted us withal Thus E. B. The Snake's next Quotation is from E. B's Works p. 862. and his quotation is thus Every true Member of the Church hath certainty and infallibility of Judgment and discerning who are out of the Truth and in the way of Error and are Hereticks In this as in the last he hath abusively mangled E. B's words which are these Every true Member of the true Church hath its particular Measure of the Infallible Spirit of Christ whereby he is certainly persuaded of the way of Truth in which he walks and knows and believes the Infallibility of the Truth he professes and is certain and secure of the way of his Peace and Assurance in God which he hath received and believed and hath also certainty and infallibility of Judgment and discerning who are out of the Truth and in the way of Error and are Hereticks Such are infallibly known and discerned by the Spirit of God in the true Church of Christ. See here Reader the great perversion of words sound as can be deliver'd and which I dare the Snake to deny if he can for if he does he must of necessity thro' away all that Enthusiasm to which he says the Church in her Offices does pretend Ibid. p. 34. Quoted from E. B's Works p. 861 862. So both the Law-makers and the Judges of the Law must be infallible in Knowledge and Judgment in this case of Heresie otherwise the Law made for that purpose and the Judgment given by that Law are both false and unjust and not according to God and his Truth but are to be justly Judged and Condemn'd of the Lord God in his day and season This the Snake says dissolves our Laws Damns the Law-makers and infers necessarily the Quakers Opinion of their own Infallibility To this Charge let the Snake himself answer whether or no his refusing Swearing Obedience to the Present Government dissolves the Law which requires it of him Damns the Makers of that Law and does infer an Opinion of his own Infallibility Ibid. p. 35. Quoted from E. B's Works p. 198. where I have look'd for the words quoted by the Snake but find no such if he be mistaken in the page when that is rectified it may be answered Ibid. p. 35. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 107. Thou sayst that the Holiest Man is not able to give an Infallible Character of another Man Hast thou not in this discovered thy self to be no Minister of Christ or of the Spirit who cannot give an Infallible Character of another Man how canst thou minister to his Condition How canst thou see them that be turned from the Darkness and that be in the Darkness and distinguish the one from the other and an Holy Man from an Vnholy Man that canst not give an Infallible Character of any Man's Estate Ibid. p. 36. Quoted from Great Mystery p. 94. Have you given your selves a Name of a Church of Christ and is there not a Spirit of Discerning among you have you not manifested there that you are Harlotted from the Church of Christ the Apostles were of and how can you minister or teach People if ye do not discern their estates how they stand before God how can you commend your selves to every Man's Conscience in God's sight How can ye present the Souls of Men to God and see not their states how they are in his Sight How came ye to have fellowship in the Spirit How can you or any minister to the state and condition that people be in and see where they are and doth not see how they stand in God's sight From these two long Quotations he draws two Inferences or Conclusions which I will briefly repeat and then reply to them Here the Quakers have excluded all from the Church of Christ from having any fellowship in the Spirit who have not this Infallible Spirit of Discerning every Man's Heart Secodly It is evident they did not discern Keith and Bugg whom for many years they own'd as true Quakers thought them principal Pillars whom now they vilifie as Apostates Therefore by their own Argument all the Quakers are Harlotted from the Church of Christ have no fellowship in the
Spirit because none of them had this Spirit of Discerning To the first That all are excluded c. Every Member of the Church of Christ must necessarily have a measure of the Spirit of Christ else they are none of his Rom. 8.9 And this Spirit of Christ the Holy Ghost as in its fulness it is Infallible so every even the least measure or manifestation of it is Infallible To the second This Infallible Holy Spirit being of the THREE in the Godhead searcheth the Heart and trieth the Reins Jer. 17.10 But tho' this Holy Spirit can discover unto one the Heart and Thoughts of another as of Ananias to Peter Act. 5. Yet as that is not usual so neither is it necessary nor is it that which we pretend to nor hath G. Fox in the fore-quoted places pretended to it But that which G. Fox means and which we pretend to is That such who minister in and by that Holy Spirit which hath an Infallible Discerning of the Hearts and States of all the Persons ministred to This Holy Spirit doth direct the ministry accordingly that it may be suitable to the states of the Auditory Which they who pretend not to be led guided and assisted by that Infallible Holy Spirit in their Ministry cannot pretend to And as to his Objections that the Quakers did not discern G. Keith F. Bugg and other wicked Apostates There was a time when those Men I in Charity think were truly Quakers as they pretended and to have discerned them Apostates before they were such had not been true discerning There was a time when Demas walked with Paul was owned by Paul to be a Fellow-Labourer with him in the Gospel Col. 4.14 Phil. 2.4 There was a time when through the Love of the World he forsook the Apostles 2 Tim. 4.10 so I may say of these and others there was a time when they walked with us and now is the time when through the Love of the World and other things they are departed and fallen from that Unity and Fellowship they once had with us Ibid. p. 37. quoted from Great Mystery p. 105. We says he the Pope and you the Protestants whom he calls Professors are apostatized from the Infallible Spirit that the Apostles was in in which we are come For who witness these conditions that they were in that gave forth the Scriptures they witness Infallibility an Infallible Spirit which is now possessed and witnessed among those called Quakers Glory to the Highest for ever I shall first detect the Snake's base practice of mangling this as other places by setting down G. F's words as they lie in that Book and then shew plainly their Scriptural meaning The first viz. the Quotation And we say the Pope is not Infallible neither though he be your Father the Ancient Yet we say he and you are Apostatized from the Infallible Spirit that the Apostles was in in which we are come with which ye are seen and judged so not to have the Spirit of Christ Jesus not to have the Spirit of the Prophets and Apostles not to be led by the Spirit of Truth into all Truth not to be in the Spirit not to speak as ye are moved of the Holy Ghost But to be such as ravened from the Spirit of God inwardly and have gotten the Sheeps Cloathing ye and the Pope and so have devoured Nations for this many hundred years so have all been like ravening Wolves For who witness these conditions that they were in that gave forth the Scriptures they witness Infallibility an Infallible Spirit which is now possessed and witnessed among those called Quakers Glory to the Highest for ever This the Snake says Ibid. p. 37. Is Dreadfully Astonishing but gives no reason why it is so but that his practice is astonishing there are several reasons to prove it First In so basely picking and mangling Books that they may thereby be suborned to speak what the Writer never intended Next In his wilful perverting the plain and known sense which they carry and which their Writers had And upon Sober Inquiry what in this can be astonishing That the Pope is not Infallible I suppose the Snake will allow And that the Spirit of Truth doth see and judge such who apostatize from it the Scriptures teach And if the Snake doth account it astonishing that the Quakers should possess and witness according to Holy Writ the manifestation of the Holy and Infallible Spirit of Christ he shews his Ignorance therein tho' all who are truly sensible of these manifestations can in deep Humility of Soul give Glory to the Highest Yet to him must be applied that of Hab. 1.5 For it is a Work that God hath wrought in this day whether he will believe it or not Hitherto Reader pray Observe that tho' the Snake as quoted p. 88. foregoing hath said we placed Infallibility in every single Quaker confine it not to Faith but extend it to all Persons and Things in the World by their inward Light Yet the Charge is notoriously false and that the colourable pretence which he had for this his false assertion was owing to his own false quoting curtailing and mangling of our Books of which I have shewn eminent instances since that assertion of his in p. 88. And that our Books in the instances produced speak according to Scripture I shall leave with the Impartial Reader to Judge only adding that the Forms of Speech Try all things Teach all things Know all things and Judge all things which are frequently found in the New Testament cannot without great perversion be applied otherwise than to that Trying Teaching Knowing and Judging which are the proper effects of the Operations of the Holy Spirit in the Hearts of all that are obedient to it And that in order first to their own Salvation and then to the Service of God in his Church In this sense G. F. E. B. and others have used these Forms of Speech in this sense the Woman of Samaria testifies of the Messias our Saviour John 4.25 He will teach us all things In this sense our Saviour promised John 14.26 That the Holy Ghost should teach us all things In this sense John the Beloved Disciple testifies of the Believers 1 John 2.20 Ye know all things And in this sense the Apostle testifies of the Spiritual Man 1 Cor. 2.10 He judgeth all things And in this sense the Beloved Disciple 1 John 4.1 adviseth to try the Spirits whether they be of God Now these forms of Speech in these and many more places all things are truly as E. B. p. 137. foregoing hath said All things that pertain to Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life needful for Man to know all this was discovered revealed and made known to us by the Light which was in us which Christ had Lighted us withal Ibid. p. 37. But I was much more surprized to find the otherwise Ingenious Mr. Penn laugh at his Adversary for not being Infallible It is no surprise to find
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
And that to this Holy Spirit Wicked Men and Devils are disobedient yet still have such degrees of Knowledge which are the proper Distinction of their Being Ibid. p. 39. Sometimes it makes them as Infallible as the Apostles nay as Christ himself But at other times when they are pressed they bring down this Infallibility to mean nothing in the World that does distinguish them from other Men. It is utterly false no Quaker hath said he was as Infallible as the Apostles or Christ himself I demand an Instance But without pressing we have often said that a Manifestation of the Light and Infallible Spirit or Grace is 1 Cor. 12.7 given to every Man to profit withal without distinction That which makes the Distinction is Obedience to it By this it was Paul could say 1 Cor. 15.10 By the Grace of God I am what I am and by the same Grace we say we are what we are Ibid. p. 40. But this will no more prove it to be Infallible or sufficient of it self to bring us to Heaven than it will follow that Man cannot die because God breathed into him the Breath of Life or that he is omnipotent because his strength comes from God That the Holy Spirit is Infallible and sufficient for the purposes for which God hath given to Men manifestations of it is very certain from the testimony of God himself 2 Cor. 12.9 My Grace is sufficient for thee But it follows not from this that Man cannot Die or that he is omnipotent because his Life and Strength came from God God hath been pleased to give to Men such Natural Powers as are agreeable to the Nature of their Humane Being And these Natural Powers being employed according to that Great Law of Order in which we stand in the Creation we may act in them our appointed time But the Principles of our Humane Being being finite their power to act is the same and must come to an end With Spirits It is otherwise They are more simple and uncompounded Beings therefore of eternal Duration And the God of the Spirits of all Flesh in Infinite Compassion when Man had forfeited his Title to Happiness to us that this Eternal Duration might be in happiness gave the Son of his Love that we who were afar off might be reconciled to himself which cannot be but as the Spirit of Man which hath rebelled and been in Disobedience comes by the Operation of the Spirit of God upon it to be restored into obedience to its Guidings Which if he will be in the day of his Visitation That Grace and Truth which comes by Jesus Christ will sufficiently and infallibly lead him into Reconciliation with God from whom through disobedience he was fallen And this is not as the Snake says p. 41. Derogatory to the Satisfaction paid by Christ for our Sins But on the contrary places the true value upon it It being that by which we are put into a capacity of being reconciled and not by any power of our own And when the Apostle bids Phil. 2.12 To work out our own Salvation We never understood it otherwise than by the assistance of that Grace which comes by Jesus Christ to Men during the day of their visitation Ibid. p. 41. That does not make the Light within the efficient cause of our Salvation or give it any Title to Infallibility more than vers 13. of the 4th Chap. in the same Epistle can entitle us to Omnipotence because St. Paul says there I can do all things That Christ in his Spiritual Appearance the Light within is the Efficient cause of our Salvation I need not give a greater proof than this same 13th vers which the Snake has quoted For there the Apostle Phil. 4.13 says I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me that is all things relating to his Ministry as an Apostle or his Duty as a Christian. I come now to the Snake's 4th Head of Distinction which is little more than Profane and Scornful Banter after the first Paragraph p. 41. But if any could pretend to Infallibilty They will be found to have the best title to whom the Quakers would most unwillingly grant it For it is written Prov. 16.10 A Divine Sentence is in the Lip of the King and his Mouth transgresseth not in Judgment Why then does the Snake deny that best Title and not obey that Divine Sentence which confirmed the present Government Why would he flee the Judgment of a Mouth which transgresseth not in Judgment By fleeing and denying he loudly proclaims his unwillingness to grant it But as for us we do not unwillingly but readily grant That God is ready to supply Kings with Wisdom and Justice suitable to their High Station for the good of themselves and those they govern if they in humility will receive it But as with God there is no respect of persons so we do as readily grant That God by his Spirit does as infallibly teach the Governed in their private capacities all that is necessary to their Salvation if they will but attend and learn Ibid. p. 42. Do you think that the Quakers infallibility is limited to speaking only They can make an Infallible Judgment of Men's Hearts and tell who are Saints and who are Devils by very winks and glances At the first glance and so throughout this appears to be a very Lye for no Quaker hath so said But we do say that such who be in the Power and Life of Truth can discern between Saints and Devils for all true Spiritual Discerning is in the Holy Spirit Not but that there often are exteriour marks of inward wickedness Hence Gen. 4.5 When Cain was very wroth his Countenance fell Hence David saith Psal. 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God And the Prophet Isaiah chap. 3.9 The shew of their Countenance doth witness against them and in the 16th vers the Lord numbers up among the exterior marks of inward wickedness wanton Eyes mincing and tinkling with their Feet Yet these exterior infallible marks as they have been declared by God himself is in the language of this Profane Adversary p. 43. Dwindled down to a meer Gypsie a paultry Fortune-teller to nothing but a little skill in Physiognomy Reader Is it possible for one who so profanely ridicules both the Inward Discerning and the Outward Marks of Secret Iniquity to advance the great end of good Life and Conversation No such ridiculing is in direct opposition to them and is distructive to Exemplary Modesty how great soever his pretence may be of love to Souls I come now to his Fifth Head of Distinction of divers Stories of particular Failings which he brings in opposition to that Infallibility I have so largely spoken of which Plea the Snake says p. 48. leads us naturally into this sort of Redargution Though here as before he is altogether out For tho' to give a Man a Fall is it 's true a plain Conviction
that he is not Almighty Yet when Man does fall it is no plain Conviction that he could not have stood by an Almighty assistance We have never placed Infallibility in Persons otherwise than by the assistance of the Holy Spirit to which if Men are obedient it will infallibly guide them to Heaven and so safely protect them that as our Saviour saith John 10.29 No Man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand But when Men depart from the Grace of God They may as Samson when he had lost his Strength Judg. 16.20 say I will go out as at other times and shake my self And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him But their weakness will soon discover they are gone from their Guide Thus it was with the People of the Jews and thus with all those Persons whose failings the Holy Spirit has recorded in the Scriptures when they departed from the Lord they left their Strength and fell some very fouly Yet what less than Blasphemy is it to say That the Holy Spirit had they been obedient could not have preserved them as well as there are Instances it did restore several of them And it is no breach of the Oath of God made to Abraham and his Seed nor any argument of the Shortness of his Arm as the Prophet's phrase is That they are become a Desolation because they refused to hear and obey And should it which God forbid come to pass that the Defection of the People called Quakers from the guidings of the Holy Spirit should be as general as is now that of the Jews who sometime were the People of God Yet the Holy Spirit of Christ were not at all the less infallible or sufficient in it self to be the Author of Salvation to all that do obey it His first Story p. 44. is of one Christopher Atkinson who he calls in ridicule p. 43. a Precious Brother in p. 44. a Bright Lamp with other such marks of Scorn insulting over his Miscarriage in the Lust of the Flesh And this Story the Snake makes a twofold use of one to reproach the Memory of the Person who fell and the other to reproach the Principle and Practices of those with whom the fallen Person had walked To both I shall say somewhat To the first I know of no good use which can be made of raking in the Crimes of the Deceased unless for Cautions to the Living But then their Crimes are not to be dressed in the Scornful Garb of a merry Andrew Because tho' that may raise more Vanity yet it can raise no Reformation on such as are guilty or be any means of Preservation to those that are not yet so And therefore we find that the Holy Spirit in recording the failings of Noah Lot Moses David Solomon Peter and others hath done it in Language proper to these purposes And there is not a truer mark of a mean and base as well as an unchristian Spirit in a Man than only for the Glory of Insult and Liberty of Ridiculing to call back to the minds of the Living the Crimes of the Dead To the Second it can be no fault in the Holy Spirit of God that Men are disobedient to it nor is it any argument that the Infallible Spirit of God does not preserve any because I or another may fall but it is certain the Holy Spirit will teach and will preserve all who will keep in Subjection and Obedience to it and they who do so keep have a Godly Jealousie and Care that the Practice of those who make Profession of the Guidings of the Holy Spirit be according to it in all the Fruits of it and accordingly Richard Huberthorn and some others who were then at Norwich did wait for the Counsel of God that in his Wisdom they might search out this evil which C. A. had wrought and by their dealing with him did bring him so to a sense of his Naughtiness that he did confess it and condemn it And further that it might not be supposed that such Naughtiness was tolerated and allowed by a Society professing Christianity it was communicated to the Publick that the guilty Person might bear his own Iniquity and the Holy Truth he had made profession of be cleared The like Laudable Practice tho' call'd by the Snake p. 45. A not regarding the Sacredness of the Seal of Confession was practised by the Prophet Nathan towards King David and the Apostle Paul towards his Brother in the Apostleship and also by others recorded in Holy Writ and yet the Holy Spirit is not at all the less Infallible Ibid. p. 46 47. There was much more tender regard shewed to some Young Women who had given a Confession in Writing to John Bolton of their frailty in the Flesh as is told in the Spirit of the Hat but it was hush'd up because it touched many eminent Ones in the Ministry who from day to day resorted unto them and giving them these appellations Innocent Lasses and Daughters of Sion This Charge and Story upon nameless Persons is Reader another Instance of the Injustice of this Adversary in that he hath taken it out of a Book written against us and Printed Anno 1673. and which was answered in the same Year as the Snake well knows and hath not been since reply'd to and what is an aggravation of the Snake's Injustice herein is that in the Answer to it there is a Certificate under the hands of John Bolton and Sam. Newton testifying to the contrary of this very Charge and of this the Snake could not be ignorant because he makes Quotations from the same Book and in or near the same Page in which this Certificate stands which I shall here set down as answer sufficient to this nameless Charge Whereas the Author of the Spirit of the Hat Insinuates that our Ministry is guilty of Vncleanness Whoredoms and such like beastly Practices under a feigned commendation of us under written as prosecutors of such Persons that they may be brought to Judgment We do declare in the Fear of the Everlasting God that tho' we abhor with our whole Souls such unrighteous Practices and if such things were we should we hope clear our Consciences for God and His Living Truth and People Yet we do declare in the Uprightness of our Hearts that we know of no such nor can acknowledge any such to be either of our Ministry or our Body much less eminent among us as hath been wickedly suggested by the Author of The Spirit of the Hat whom we have found painful and faithful to God his Truth and People Therefore to say we were hindred from bringing them to Judgment whom we never went about to charge neither can we is a wicked envious and false suggestion of the Adversaries of the Truth and this in God's Fear we testify to the World John Bolton Sam. Newton Ibid. p. 47. Instances can likewise be given of some of their She Preachers whom they call
Stranger when I was in Prison with these words Thy Name shall be no more James Naylor but Jesus This I judge to be written from the Imaginations and a Fear stroke me when I first saw it and so I put it in my Pocket close not intending any should see it which they finding on me spread it abroad which the simplicity of my Heart never occasioned So this I deny also that the Name of Christ Jesus is received instead of James Naylor or after the Flesh for the Name is to the Seed to all Generations and he that hath the Son hath the Name which is Life and Power the Salvation and the Unction into the which Name all the Children of Light are Baptized So the Name of Christ I confess before Men but not according to Men which Name to me hath been a Strong Tower in the Night and in the Day And this is the Name of Christ Jesus which I confess the Son and the Lamb in the Seed where he speaks in Male or Female but who hath not this in himself hath not Life neither can have by Idolizing my Person or the Person of any Flesh but in whom the Heir is born and hath spoken or doth speak there he must not be denied the Mouth to spake by who is Head over all and in all his own God blessed for ever And all those Ranting Wild Spirits which then gathered about me in that time of Darkness and all their Wild Actions and Wicked Words against the Honour of God and his pure Spirit and People I deny the Spirit the Power and the Works thereof and as far as I gave advantage through want of Judgment for that Evil Spirit in any to arise I take shame to my self justly having formerly had Power over that Spirit in Judgment and Discerning where-ever it was which Darkness came over me through want of Watchfulness and Obedience to the Pure Eye of God and diligently minding the Reproof of Life which condemns the Adulterous Spirit So the Adversary got advantage who ceases not to seek to devour and being taken Captive from the True Light walked in the Night where none can work as a wandring Bird fit for the prey And if the Lord of all my Mercies had not rescued me I had perished for I was as one appointed to Death and Destruction and there was none could deliver me And this I confess that God may be justified in his Judgment and magnified in his Mercies without end who did not forsake his Captive in the Night even when his Spirit was daily provoked and grieved but hath brought me forth to give Glory to his Name for ever And it is in my Heart to confess to God and before Men my Folly and Offence in that day Yet was there many things formed against me in that day to take away my Life and bring Scandal upon the Truth of which I am not Guilty at all as that accusation as if I had committed Adultery with some of those Women who came with us from Exeter Prison and also those who were with me at Bristol the Night before I suffered there of both which Accusations I am clear before God who kept me at that day both in Thought and Deed as to all Women as a little Child God is my Record and this I mention in Particular hearing of some who still cease not to reproach therewith God's Truth and People that the Mouth of Enmity might be shut from evil speaking though this touch not my Conscience And that Report as though I had raised Dorkas Erbury from the Dead carnally this I deny also and condemn that Testimony to be out of the Truth tho' that Power that quickens the Dead I deny not which is the Word of Eternal Life And this I give forth that it may go as far as the Offence against the Spirit of Truth hath gone abroad that all Burthens may be taken off with the Truth and the Truth cleared thereby and the True Light and all that walk therein and the Deeds of Darkness be condemned and that all that are in Darkness may not Act in the Night but stay upon God who walks in the Light who with the Workers of Iniquity hath not fellowship which had I done when first Darkness came upon me and not been led by others I had not run against the Rock to be broken which so long had born me and of whom I had so largely drank and of which I now drink in measure to whom be the glory of all and to him must every Tongue confess as Judge and Saviour God over all blessed for ever And this further is given me to say to every particular Person to whom this Writing shall come Whatever is thy Condition walk in the Light which lets thee see it there is thy Counsel and thy strength to be received to stay thee and recover thee Art thou tempted to Sin Abide in that which lets thee see it that there thou mayst come to feed on the Right Body not on the Temptation for if thou mind the Temptation it will overcome thee but in the Light is Salvation Or having Sinned art thou tempted to despair or to destroy thy self mind not the Temptation for it's Death that Sin hath brought forth feed not on it nor mind it least thou eat Condemnation for that 's the Wrong Body The Body of Christ is felt in the Light in which is Life from Death Grace and Truth to Feed on which will overcome for thee being followed but if thou follow the Temptation Fear and Condemnation will swallow thee up If there appear to thee Voices Visions and Revelations feed not thereon but abide in the Light and feel the Body of Christ and there wilt thou receive Faith and Power to judge of every appearance and Spirit the Good to hold fast and obey and the False to resist Art thou in Darkness mind it not for if thou do it will fill thee more but stand still and Act not and wait in patience till Light arise out of Darkness to lead thee Art thou wounded in Conscience feed not there but abide in the Light which leads to the Grace and Truth which teaches to deny and put off the Weight and removes the Cause and brings Saving Health to Light Yea this I say to thee in the Name of Jesus Christ that tho' thou has made thy Grave as deep as the nethermost Hell or were thy Afflictions as great as Job's and thy Darkness as the Depths of the Sea yet if thou wilt not run to vain helps as I have done but stay upon the Lord till he give thee sight by his word which commands Light to shine out of Darkness from thence will he bring thee forth thy Eye shall guide thee and thou shalt praise his Name as I do this day glory for evermore and this word is nigh thee which must give thee Light tho' Darkness Comprehends it not And hast thou Gifts Revelations Knowledge Wisdom or
Infallibility of all and every one must be a Deceit because the Infallibility is asserted to belong to every one of them FestÃna Lentè may be a useful Caution to one that makes such hasty and false Conclusions The Infallibility of all and every one is the Holy Spirit and if every one that make profession of it should fall from it and turn from the Grace of God into Wantonness or Delusion yet the Holy Spirit would be no Deceit I will give that Memorable Instance of the two Prophets mentioned 1 Kings 13. where both of them had true Prophesies yet by giving way to Error both fell the first ver 24. lost his Life And of the last it 's said ver 18. He lyed Yet it cannot be but falsly and wickedly concluded that because the Prophesy of one of them was false and the other thereby led into Error therefore the Infallible certainty of all and every one of the Prophesies of the Prophets in the Old and New Testament was a Deceit Nay from hence Holy Writ does not conclude against but confirm the Prophesies of them two Prophets which they delivered in their Obedience to God This brings me to his 8th Head of Distinction of Prophesies which he says are false VIII But here in this place let me give two or three instances to shew their false and wicked pretence to Infallibility And I will not travel far for an example But I will be as merciful in exposing them as I can I will see the Instances before I make the like Conclusion The first instance is of as he calls him a Quaker Glover in Cheapside The Snake did tell us he would not travel far for an Example This is some small hint that he Sculks about the City But if in his next he will be more particular as to his place there is a Poor Man formerly the King's Messenger would gladly speak with him but at present to return to the Mercy of the Snake in Exposing Mercy when properly spoken I know what it means but when it proceeds from an Adversary so Profane Unjust and Hypocritical as is this Snake it cannot have fewer alias's added to it than hath his proper name it may be alias this or alias that but that it is not Mercy in the true Signification of the word will in a few words be seen The Snake calls it Mercy in that he spares names but that it is no such thing may be seen by this he calls one p. 51. Prophet John and there was no such Person of that name and the true reason why he forbore others was because he might err as much in them But be all this as it may the Relation and Story is false and to shew that his Mercy is rejected the Quaker Glover speaks for himself and subscribes his name The Glover replies for himself thinking it no favour to have his name conceal'd under a true state of the Case and minds his Author it is not safe nor warrantable to publish by hear-say for his account is almost in every part false containing at least twelve plain mistakes at best A natural consequence of being over officious and medling in other Mens affairs which he is the readier to let him know that if he will please to appear Face to Face and hath two Ears may be better inform'd by him who is willing to joyn Issue with him in his great many more instances as he saith Nat. Markes Reader I have transcribed this out of G. W's Antidote which he wrote in Answer to the first Edition of the Snake that I might not want an Answer to a Story pompously tho' falsly set out in 3 or 4 Pages His second Story of Prophesies is p. 54. of Solomon Eccles who he says did denounce concerning John Story that he should Dye within one Year and that he meant it of a natural Death The Snake who Glories in the miscariages of them that fall does apply this to the whole Body tho' it can be with no more Justice or Strength of Argument so apply'd than the Lye of that Prophet 1 Kings 13.18 which he spake in the name of the Lord can be apply'd to all the Faithful Prophets in the Messages which from the Lord they did in faithfulness deliver But further S. E. did himself find his words his Burden and did under his own hand condemn that Hastiness Anger and Darkness of Spirit in which he does confess he spake those words and it is not unlikely but the Snake hath either seen or heard so much and if he hath either it is a manifest Lye in him to lay that to the Quakers which they then did deny and which also the Person offending did truly and justly take to himself His Words are these in Babylonish Opposer c. p. 8. As I was sitting waiting on the Lord on the 29th instant these things rose in my Heart that I should acknowledge my Offence to all the Brethren in London and thereabouts and Bristol and to all the Brethren North and South that had been witnesses against the Spirit of Separation and am to let you know that it doth truly Repent me and sorely Grieve me that you that do bear a faithful Testimony for God should have any Prophesie thrown at you which I spoke to John Story in an angry Spirit I do therefore acknowledge as I have signified in my last Paper about two Years ago that I have had little rest Day nor Night at times ever since I spoke these words to John Story That it was the word of the Lord that he should dye that Year which were mine own words and soon became my Burden and were spoken in the Dark and Darkness was upon my Spirit and so under a strong Temptation which I was suffered to fall into I not standing in the Counsel of God for which I bore God's Indignation But I soon saw I should have gone to him in a meek Spirit to beseech him to be reconcil'd to his Brethren But I do judge and condemn that hasty Spirit that set a time for his dying and called it the word of the Lord. And do desire this may go as far as where-ever it may have a service for Truth Solomon Eccles. His Third Instance is p. 55. A Prophecy of W. Penn 's against one Tho. Hicks So sure as the Lord liveth and I testifie to thee from the Lord 's Living Spirit If thou desist not and come not to deep Repentance the Lord will make thee an example of his Fury and thy Head shall not go down to the Grave in peace Ibid. p. 55. Now Tho. Hicks did go down to the Grave in Peace and no Visible Example of God's Fury was shewn upon him And which the Snake has not mentioned Tho. Hicks did desist and did not as I have heard as the Snake falsly says he did p. 56. remain to his Death an Opposer of the Quakers which was the terms of the Denunciation So that the Quakers may
the Sealing his own Testament with his Blood For if he had then all who are not in Communion with the Jews at this Day are Schismaticks and which is worse the Snake says it is from the Devil Ibid. p. 59. And the Apostles after our Saviour frequented the Jewish Temple Luke 24.53 And observed their hours of Publick Worship Acts 3.1 This Adversary would here falsly and Hypocritically insinuate as if the Apostles hereby joined in Communion with the Jews which was against the whole Scope of their Commission The Business of the Apostles in the Temple and wheresoever else their Lots were was to preach up Faith and Salvation through Repentance in and by that Jesus whom the Jews had Crucified For this purpose they went to the Jewish Temple and no wonder they went at the hour of Prayer because then they might find the People together That this was the Reason why they went at the hour of Prayer is fully seen by the Sermon of Peter Acts 3.12 to the end of the Chapter Ibid. p. 60. But the Quaker-notion of the Light within and their pretence to Infallibility as consequential to it does totally root up and destroy all Church Covernment and Order For if the Light within be God it must be self-sufficient and not to need the Rules and Directions of any other The Apostles it 's allowed were infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost God in them yet this was so far from rooting up and destroying all Church Government that they by the Directions of the Holy Spirit did give Rules and Directions for Discipline in the Churches where they laboured to bring the People to be partakers with them of the same Promise which was Christ in them the hope of Glory Ibid. p. 60. Vpon this Ground the Quakers broke off from the Church and refused to be under the Government of any outward Authority 'T is false the Quakers broke not off upon this Ground but rather to carry on that Reformation which the Church of England began here when she broke off from Rome Neither did the Quakers ever refuse to be under the Government of any outward Authority for we always for Conscience sake have been Obedient to Authority by actively doing what in Conscience we could or by passively suffering for what in Conscience we could not do Let the Snake say so much for himself if he can and prove it Ibid. p. 60. And thus they stood several years in the Infancy of their State till they began to grow numerous and rich 'T is false we never were even when first a People without Government and Discipline such as might answer the good end of the Gospel of Christ. But that there may be occasion as the Community enlarges to add some points of Discipline for the same good end for which the first were appointed Holy Writ does sufficiently justifie The Disciples while in their Infancy had Acts 2.44 and 4.32 All things common afterwards particular Churches made Contributions for the Poor c. When they grew more numerous the Question of the Circumcision began to trouble the Churches in Syria Antioch and Cilecia concerning which the Apostles sent a Determination by Paul and Barnabas Acts 15.25 And in after times as the Churches and their Necessities did increase the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 8.4 and 10.25 27. did yet enlarge the Borders of that Discipline which was before setled And to other Churches according to their Necessities such was their prescribed Discipline Thus at first while the Professors of Christianity were few there necessities were so too but as their Numbers increased so did their Necessities and the Apostles and Overseers of the Church did provide accordingly that they might in all things adorn the Doctrine of Christ Tit. 2.10 who is a God of Order And as the fullest state of their Discipline was no contradiction to their few first Precepts so neither was a contradiction to the infallible Spirit of God Tit. 11.12 to the Guidings whereof the end of their Preaching was to bring People I come now to his Tenth and Last Head of Distinction Concerning that Church Government which is among the Quakers Ibid. p. 61. The Quakers pretence to Infallibility has been disproved First In particular Instances of several of their Prophets Secondly In whole Floods and Parties for F. Bugg and many others have come openly off from their Communion c. The particular Instances which the Snake hath brought have been above sufficiently disproved being either falsly or insufficiently by him pretended But had they been all such as the Snake hath pretended yet then they couâ—â— not have answered his purpose to overthrow the Infallibility of the Spirit of God as is also largely before declared Secondly That whole Floods and Parties have left us F. Bugg is with the Snake an Instance and indeed a particular single weak one But had the Floods and Parties been much greater than ever yet any were that did Apostatize and backslide from us They may indeed be Instances of such Backsliders as those mentioned 2 Pet. 2.22 but no Argument that the Holy Spirit of God is not Infallible for as by the power of that in times past these backsliders were in some degree washed so had they continued under its Guidings it would have made them altogether clean Whereas by deserting it they are returned to wallow in the Mire again This Through Disobedience hapned to many in the Primitive times Nay so general was the Defection and Backsliding of that People that the Holy Spirit expresseth it by the Church going into the Wilderness For Darkness and Apostacy did overspread all Lands Ibid. p. 62. Now if their above-told pretences to Infallibility do hold then it will follow that these their former Opinions which the Separatists now condemn were true Then and false Now. Nay that they are both true and false even now because some Quakers do hold them to be true A fine Conclusion and spakes thus much If the Declared Claim of the Church of England to Loyalty do hold then it will follow that that Declared Claim which the Snake and other such Separates now condemn was true then and false now Nay that it is both true and false even now because that Church doth still declare that Claim Thus Reader thou seest the folly of this Snake's reasoning and it cannot be otherwise when Men shall attempt to prove by the precarious and evil practice of Particulars the Unsoundness of Principles Good Principles do always abide the same whatsoever the Practice of their Professors may be Thus the Grace and Spirit of God continues Infallible let whosoever will backslide from it and Loyalty continues to be Loyalty still if the Snake never practice it Ibid. p. 62 63. But if Keith and Bugg were true Quakers then true Quakers are not Infallible And then G. Fox c. who said they were Infallible were led by the Spirit of Delusion and not the Spirit of Truth Keith and Bugg with whosoever else
that can be nam'd that have Apostatized While they were led by the Spirit of Truth were by that Infallibly led and it was no Delusion to affirm so much of them or others while in their obedience to that Infallible Guide But G. Fox c. did never say that any were or could be Infallibly led but by the Holy Spirit Therefore G. F. c. were not herein led by the Spirit of Delusion but by the Spirit of Truth Ibid. p. 63. The Infallibility of the private Spirit or of each particular Quaker is now damned by their Church and their Infallibility is now reduced by them to that of their Church 'T is a notorious Falshood that ever Infallibility was by us placed in the private Spirit of any or every Quaker as it is by this Snake asserted or that it is now reduced to the Church Infallibility is now by us placed where it ever was that is in the Infallible Spirit of God privately or particularly working in the Hearts of Men. Ibid. p. 64. All I am concerned for at present is that their Churches have censured these Separatists and given Judgment against the Light within particular Persons which was the Original Pretence and only Infallible Guide of the first Quakers And upon this only ground they exclaim'd against any Church assuming Authority over any Man 's private Spirit or his Light within as Anti-christian and Diabolical and gave this as the reason of their Separation from the Church of England One but not the only reason and ground of some that separated from the Church of England might possibly be Her Hierarchy and Government or assumed Authority over Conscience as she in her turn made it part of the reason for her Separation from Rome as see Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae printed 1617. But that bond of Union and spiritual Fellowship which united us to be a People was First and Principally The Light of Jesus Christ shining into our Hearts whereby through obedience we had and have Unity with all who in any measure are turned to it and walk in it and by this Union of Spirit we were gathered into one Body of external Fellowship and Society in matters of Doctrine and Discipline and being so gathered into particular Assemblies or Churches with respect to place at unity The Authority which these our Assemblies do claim towards them that do so declare themselves Members and who do believe and profess the same Doctrines and Principles of Faith and are so distinguish'd and denominated is grounded in this That every such Member is gathered as above and not by any external constraint or outward respect but only by the real force of Truth upon their Understanding And of such as do profess to be so gathered into Unity and Fellowship with us If any shall Innovate in Doctrine and Discipline and make Defection from the Spirit of Love contrary to that Belief and Profession which by the force of Truth and Convictions of God's Grace on their Hearts they did make and declare at their coming into Unity and Fellowship with us Such the Church or Assembly hath Power to declare Separated from the Body because by this their Innovation and Defection they have dissolved that bond of Union by which they became Members and when censure is denounced against these who are thus separated It cannot be accounted or esteemed A giving Judgment against the Light within particular Persons Because the Light of Jesus Christ is not contrary to it self and if by the inshinings of that it was that they through obedience came into Fellowship and did profess and declare to believe as above it does necessarily follow that their Innovation and Defection must proceed from being darken'd and decay'd from that Life of Righteousness in themselves which was the first Principle of true Union And when we have declared against any Church assuming Authority towards any Man and that Light of Grace which is in him it hath been because such Church hath assumed that Authority without that previous bond of Union which is above declared Having thus briefly but truly stated the Ground and Nature of that Government which is among us and the reason of our refusing Church Government not so constituted it will serve to dispatch all the Objections of the Snake upon this head with greater speed I shall here in fit place acquaint thee Reader that the Snake takes up a considerable part of the following Pages in this Section and some in that concerning Tithes particularly about G. Keith and our Controversy with him I shall take little more notice of them than as they relate to Government that being what the Snake says p. 118. foregoing He is chiefly concerned for Besides that Controversy which Books may be had of Tace Sowle in White-Hart-Court Gracious-Street is in such hands as I doubt not are still ready to maintain the Justice of that Cause they are concerned in if G. K. or the Snake for him shall think fit to reply to what they have written that is yet unanswered by him and also the compass of this Tract will be too short to allow room for a matter so much controverted as that has been Therefore what I shall chiefly say concerning him and what the Snake is most concern'd for will be as above with respect to his quondam Society and Fellowship with us and to shew that the Judgment given against him was not against that Light of Jesus Christ which he once acknowledged for his sufficient Teacher The like for brevity sake I would be understood concerning John Wilkinson John Story Bugg and others who may have Separated or Apostatized as these have done From p. 64. to 68. The Snake is wholly imploy'd on G. K. giving in them some short and false bits of Stories relating to that difference with him in Pensilvania which I should have wholly passed by but that in one Instance the Snake is remarkably false That is p. 66. G. K. was accused for Preaching two Christs i. e. a Christ without besides the Christ within This Sam Jennings after their manner of mumbling Thistles will not confess but dare not deny That G. K. was so accused Sam. Jennings does deny so far as it came to his Knowledge but the Snake carps at S. Jennings because he does not affirm or deny upon such incompetent Authority and Evidence as himself uses which has as I have already shewn and may hereafter shew led him into notorious Lyes and false Stories For S. Jennings says State of the Case p. 6. In the Judgment given forth against him G. K. by Friends they say W. Stockdale denyed the words so spoken as in the Charge above and Ibid. p. 7. which I have heard him W. S. often solemnly to deny Is this mumbling of Thistles or does it not rather shew that S. J. took care to speak Truth to the utmost of his Knowledge and is a full denial of G. Keith's Charge Snake p. 66. Why was this the business of
so many Meetings and so great stir among theâ— For G. Keith was not so much as accused for Preaching any thing else but this But now Snake who mumblâ—â—â—â—istles was not he accused of very many Turbulent and Indecent Actions and Expressions as is at large seen in The State of the Case which I have above quoted and which the Snake also quotes with perversion as I have before shewn Snake p. 67. Here is a many forked and involved Infallibility one Meeting Justifying another Condemning G. Keith and all for the very same Doctrine Ibid. p. 68. This will not only overthrow the Infallibility in each particular Person but even of their Churches or Meetings That particular Persons may make Defection from the Guidings of the Spirit of Truth and may Apostatize from that Union and Fellowship which they had once with the Friends of it I have already largly shewn and what particulars may do Assemblies made up of such particulars may also do Floods and Parties as the Snake expresses it may Apostatize as well as particulars nay a whole Community may Apostatize and yet the Infallibility of the Guide of any one particular Person who continues Faithful and Obedient to the Holy Spirit remains firm and sure Thus 1 Cor. 10.4 The Apostle testifies of the Jews They all Drank the same spiritual Drink for they Drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. Now this Rock could have as Infallibly preserved the whole Tribes of Israel from Egypt thro' the Wilderness to the promised Land had they been Obedient to it as it did Caleb and Joshua who were the only two of all the Thousands that left Egypt and entered in But further that Assemblies or Churches may Apostatize and Backslide the Holy Spirit is sufficient Warrant by the particular reproofs or cautions it gives to the seven Asiatick Churches mentioned Rev. 2.2 and 3. And sure the Snake will not be so hardy as to say that the Holy Spirit was able only to give Reproof and Caution suitable to their wants and defects but not to have preserved them blameless and to have guided them Infallibly in that way he appointed them to go Ibid. p. 68. Besides this first proof in Pensilvania there is yet another more express and positive called The Barbadoes Judgment c. And besides the detecting the Snake's false conclusion in that I have to say to this that according to his usual Injustice he herein makes use of an Adversary's Book Babel's Builders c. without taking notice of the Answer which was published to it Intituled A Babilonish Opposer of Truth reproved c. By S. C. I. P. and R. R. as he also passes over in Silence tho' mentioned in that Adversaries Book a Letter of G. â—'s and others writ to Barbadoes concerning this very thing wherein they are shewn their cause is not right that they had taken which Letter and the matter it relates to is fully spoken to in our Answer above mentioned wherein is also S. E's condemnation of his rashness in those words spoke by him to J. S. mentioned p. 125. foregoing Ibid. p. 69 70. I was told by one present at the Quaker Meeting at Ratcliff on Sunday the 17 th of February 1694 5 That Mr. Penn having Preached and after G. Keith rising up and expounding some Scripture in another manner than Mr. Penn had done Mr. Penn stop'd him and solemnly denounced these words against him In the Name of the Lord I pronounce him an Apostate over the Head of him Vpon which occasion I have these few Questions to ask Q. Whether this was a Sentence from Mr. Penn himself or from their Church Whether by an Ordinary Commission of Succession to Christ and the Apostles Whether by an Extraordinary Commission such as the Prophets and the Apostles had To the first W. Penn being in Unity with the Church declared this of one who had broken Unity by making defection from that term of Union which in time passed he had declared he was by the Light of Christ in him led to profess and believe Secondly All who are kept living by the Spirit of Truth in that bond of Union which that did at first lead into such have ordinary Commission therefrom to testifie against Apostates And this not by such falsly pretended Succession as the Papal Chair or others may pretend to from the Apostles But by succeeding in a measure of that same Light and Holy Spirit which they were in To the Last W. Penn tho' then knowing G. K. to have broken Union as is before expressed he might at that time in the Openings of the Spirit of Truth have a larger and fuller Sight of his Apostacy and so a Warrant to Declare it And for this there needed no new Credentials viz. Miracles it being no more than what hath been confirmed by those the Apostles wrought Ibid. p. 72. But for the present I only apply it to the point of their Church Authority over the Light within particular Persons their original and great pretence The Light within particular Persons is as much our Characteristick now as ever and we have no Church Authority over it or repugnant to it and that in the case of G. K. no such Authority was used Consider the following Lines G. Keith hath often Printed and Declared that he did believe and profess the same Doctrines and Principles of Faith with us and that he was led so to do only by the Light of Jesus Christ shining into his Heart Through and by which Light he did profess to have true union and fellowship with us and accordingly he so was denominated and distinguished Now the Light of Jesus Christ is not contrary to it self and if by the inshinings thereof and his obedience to it it was that G. K. did profess as above Then it naturally follows G. K's innovation to the contrary of what he hath so professed cannot proceed from that Light of Jesus Christ from which the above profession of Unity and Fellowship did Therefore to give Judgment against G. K. is not to give Judgment against the Light of Jesus Christ but agreeable to it even in G. Keith against himself The like is to be said of J. Story c. and others who have innovated and made defection as these did whose Works being bad the issue is the same with what Gamaliel shews Acts 5.28 They are come to naught And therefore after all the Boast which the Snake makes about Separation and Faction We may concerning all of them now declining and towards their end hope and have ground to believe that as many as are yet in a Spirit of Separation in whom are any true desires towards God for his guidance in the Truth such he will restore to the Fold they have strayed from And he will scatter them whose end is not his Honour agreeable to what the Psalmist said concerning the Wicked Psal. 37.36 He is gone I sought him but he could not be
we know it to be beyond our practice and liking For whoever is disowned by us for practices contrary to the Terms of their Union and Fellowship is not thereby broke and undone in his outward estate which the Excommunication above hath sometimes threatned Because our disowning of Backsliders and Immoralists does only extend to testifie against such Persons and Practices and it is the Duty of a Christian Community so to do And I herein charge the Snake with a Lie till he can prove Fifty in one Hundred who have been broke and undone in their Trade by such our Testimonies Ibid. p. 83. The surest method for a Young Man to step into an Abounding Trade and a Rich Wife is to set up first for a Preacher of which many Examples daily occur Tho' the Snake in his own Language p. 16. does boldly and impudently aver this yet no such Examples do daily occur because we own not any for true Preachers who do so set up themselves But who are thereunto inwardly moved of the Holy Ghost And this Call the Snake would have us think he owns it being a previous Question to Ordination as himself says p. 316. Ibid. p. 83. G. F. had more Mony at his Disposal than any Bishop in England he having the Command of the Quaker-Treasury It is a notorious Lie G. F. never had the Command of the Treasury of the Quakers Ibid. p. 83. There is a Topick behind which if the former convince them not may at least shame them out of their vain pretences to Infallibility and is the Pitiful and Childish Blunders which are daily seen among them This remaining Topick will on examination like the rest be turned Topsie Turvy for why should a real mistake be more prevalent to make a Man relinquish the guidings of the Spirit of Truth which is able and ready infallibly to guide him in all that concerns his Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life Then the Snake's false Suggestion of Heretical Opinions which he says we hold Which if it were true were a better Argument against Infallibility than the most Childish blunder that can be He quotes W. P. in his Christian Quaker p. 104. repeated by Tho. Elwood in his Truth Defended p. 167. Saying that Christ was born at Nazareth it was a Mistake And what will it thence follow that the Holy Spirit is not able infallibly to inform W. P. and T. E. all that pertains to their Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life If the Snake so think it is easie to know that he blunders and that very dangerously The same is to be understood of the mistake of G. F. if there be one which I have not seen He does also instance one William Walker who he says p. 84. did mistake John 14.2 In my Father's House are many Mansions for in my Father's House are many Manchets Ibid. 84. Another Preaching on Paul 's being bred at the Feet of Gamaliel and being asked by one in the Meeting what that Gamaliel was answered a Town in Judea These two hearsay Stories I disbelieve till proved and in his next desire it be not forgot if it can be done Ibid. p. 84. But above all his Battle-Door a large Book in Folio in defence of the phrase Thee and Thou out of several Languages Greek Hebrew c. of which G. F. understood not one Letter yet subscribes G. F. not only to the Book but to the several pages of this Poliglot That Book the Battle-door is a Collection of Scripture-Examples in the words of the several People recorded therein as the Medianites Hittites Sodomites c. and also a Collection of Examples in the ancient and Modern Languages testifying or proving their concurrence in the essential difference in expressing one and many This Compound work is subscribed by G. F. J. Stubbs and B. Furly For Scripture Examples it needed no greater Learning than English to collect them and that G. F. had For the other Languages the other Subscribers were qualified But the Snake is angry that G. F. is subscribed to the pages of this Polyglot But if he had not been blinded by Envy he might have observed That these words in the Handle of the Battle-Door The Light which Christ hath enlightned you withal believe in that the anointing within you may know to teach you which words are subscribed G. F. in the first page and are of the same signification in the other Languages throughout all the Battle-Door pages So that the words in the first page being G. F's his Fellow-Labourers in that Work to do him justice did in their translating his words into other Languages still put his Name to them Ibid. p. 85. But some Friends know the Jew who had 60 l. in New Crowns as himself told it out of the Quaker-Treasury for helping G. Fox 's Infallibility as to the Hebrew A Liar had need have the help of a Great Memory The Book was printed in 1660. And if a Jew helped he had earned his Mony before that and it is not likely if a Jew wrought for Bread that he could trust and I am sure there could be no new Crowns before 1660. But what is better there was no occasion for a Jew to do that which John Stubbs and B. Furly could and did do themselves that is throughly understand the Hebrew Language And if the Snake cannot prove to the contrary he has done like a Turk in telling this Lying Story of a Jew Ibid. p. 85. He is angry that G. F. should say in the Preface to this Battle-Door That all Languages are to me no more than Dust But has basely omitted to give G. F's reason why they are so which is being redeemed out of Languages into the Power wherein Men shall agree Thus having Tract and Discover'd this Snake through his many Lies base Insinuations and gross Perversions in this tedious Section I now proceed to his Seventh Section SECT VI. Concerning the Authority of the Holy Scriptures WE have always testified according to 2 Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness And the reason of this is because according to 2 Pet. 1.21 The Prophecy came not in old time by the will of Man but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And therefore it is that we have constantly directed Men to the Holy Spirit for the true understanding of them by the movings whereof they were at first written For as they do contain a true declaration of the things of God so they are not to be truly understood but by the Spirit of God How much the contrary of this can be prov'd by this Snake I shall now examine Snake p. 85. The Quakers notion of the Light within as before explained must necessarily out off our dependance upon the Holy Scriptures as a Rule either of Faith or Manners The Light within Christ in us as before I have explained
as it is not contrary to the Scriptures So it does not cut them off from being useful as before declared viz. for Doctrine Reproof Correction c. For tho' the Holy Spirit is as infallible now as ever and it is the same Holy Spirit manifested in the Hearts of Men at this day by which the Holy Men did write the Scriptures yet the manifestations thereof to them being in greater degree we justly give them the priority this with respect to the Writings of any faithful Servant of Christ at this day But with respect to the Holy Spirit that being as I have just now said as infallible now as ever it must of necessity also follow that whosoever through obedience follows the guidings of it must have as sure because the same rule as the Prophets and Apostles had And this is no more contradictory than the Parable of the Talents Matt. 25. In which our Saviour shews the different proportions of Trust of the same Treasure And the one Talent had it been imployed in the same way which the five were it would as certainly have gained Profit Thus they who through obedience improve their Talent and are in the Apostles Phrase 2 Cor. 6.1 Workers together with Christ they shall witness a growth in his Grace and who do so grow have the same sure rule of the Holy Spirit to read and understand the Scriptures by even the same sure rule which the Prophets and Apostles had when they writ them Hence it is that he that hath and obeys the least measure of this sure Rule the Holy Spirit in himself will easily and readily acknowledge and consent to the further Degrees of the revealed Will of the Holy Spirit recorded in the Scriptures of Truth Ibid. p. 85 86. But because the Scriptures are often brought in crontradiction to the Quaker-Light therefore they have made it their business to depreciate and undervalue them nay sometimes to run them down as hurtful and pernicious That Light of Jesus Christ which we profess cannot be in contradiction to the Holy Scripture and therefore when so brought it hath been by such who as our Saviour saith Matt. 22.29 Do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God Nor did we ever depreciate undervalue or run them down The Charge is false as will more manifestly appear by the instances he brings Ibid. p. 86. To make them false in many things that we may believe them or trust to them in nothing To make their Authority Doubtful by disputing their Pen-Men and raising all the evil Suggestions that can be against them The Quakers Refuge Printed 1673. p. 17. States this as truly owned by the Quakers The Book Quakers Refuge does not State this as owned by us that the Scriptures are false in any thing Nor does it raise evil Suggestions nor dispute the Pen-Men of them That there have been very many Questions raised concerning them and the Pen-Men of some Books or Epistles the many Treatises on them Subjects are sufficient Evidence But it not being profitable here to remember them I pass them by in Silence Now several of these Questions the Author of The Quakers Refuge numbers up and concludes p. 17. It is not the Subject of my Argument at this time But that which he therein declares to be the Subject of his Argument is The Authority of the Holy Spirit in Judging or Discerning the Mind of God in the Holy Scriptures This he saith Is as truly stated as owned by us and he declares it to be the concern therein under most Serious Consideration This Reader is the true import of the Author's words which the Snake hath as Injuriously perverted as before I have detected him p. 144 145. perverting W. P's words and the Advantage he will get is much the same because I must hereupon shew thee Reader that what seems to be the occasion of the Snake's Cavil and Perversion is because we assert the Authority of the Holy Spirit in Judging or Discerning the Mind of God in the Holy Scriptures Which Truth as it obtains upon the minds of Men will rather incline them to wait for the sensible experience thereof in themselves than to depend implicitly upon the guest Opinions of any who deny the possibility of such certain guide at this day Ibid. p. 87. Whitehead says that there were some Priests in the North in and before the Year 1653. when those Books which Bugg quoted were Printed who were thus Ignorant And that this was the reason for those expressions in the Quaker Books First this had been no reason for these Barbarous Expressions if it had been so But Secondly I will joyn Issue with G. W. upon it that there never were such Priests in the North or any where else that were so Ignorant No George This is an Arrant Lye without all doubt did any Man ever think or say that the very material Paper and Ink and Letters wou'd endure for ever That there were in the North c. Priests Scandalously Ignorant herein I will presently shew and if they were reproved herein in such manner as they might account contemptuous The Expressions are not therefore Barbarous because so called by the Snake as I may also shew from Authority of Holy Writ and the Practice of them esteem'd by the Snake the Fathers as that expressions which seem contemptuous are not therefore so being in their end directed to rectify the evil Practices of Men related by John Daille To the First viz. the Authority of the Holy Scriptures we know that the Sacrifices Oblations and Offerings mentioned in the Levetical Law had a Divine Sanction and the promise annexed Lev. 18.5 Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and Judgments which if a Man do he shall live in them I am the Lord. These tho' they had the Promise of this Life yet the Jews thro' their Disobedience made these their Sacrifices not delightful to the Lord their Oblations were Vain and their Incense an Abomination and New Moons and appointed Feasts his Soul hated Isa. 1.11 13 14. And by their continuance in Disobedience while in performance of the Letter of the Ceremonial Law the same Prophet 66.3 tells them from the Lord He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that Sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck and he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol These in the Judgment of our Adversary must be very Barbarous Expressions of these Ordinances and which there was no reason for tho' the People were departed from that true use to which they were at first appointed Tho' this be an abundant Testimony that through Mens misuse of things appointed by God to a determinate purpose he hath been pleased to shew and declare his dis-esteem of them Yet I shall not to confirm this Testimony for it needs it not but for the Readers Satisfaction also shew the Practice of the Fathers herein as testified by John Daille in his Right use
of the Fathers first Book p. 194. Whilst they beat down one Error they seem to run into the contrary Error In like manner as those who would streighten a crooked Plant are wont to bow it as much the contrary way that so having been worked out of its former bent it may at length rest in a middle posture Now if our Friends have formerly met with those in the Priesthood whose crooked expressions did need streightning they are not to be wondred at or condemned in their Christian endeavours for that end And whether there were such or not I will now joyn Issue with the Snake and shew from a much narrower compass than the extents of the Snake's Challenge which is That there never were in any place such Priests I shall at present only give some few instances out of the Book Great Mystery which the Snake does so often quote which take as follows P. 16. John Timson did affirm that the Holy Scriptures alone is to be the object of Faith P. 38. Tho. Collier did affirm that the Scriptures shall be our Judge one day which we call the Letter P. 111. Jeremy Ives did affirm it to be an Error to say the Letter of the Scriptures was Carnal P. 247. Christopher Wade affirmed The Written Word is the Sword of the Spirit P. 261. Roger Atkinson affirmed That the Letter of the Scripture was God Ibid. Richard Stoakes affirmed That the Scripture is God P. 280. Edw. Price affirmed The Scriptures is the Power of God and that all Men shall be Iudged by them Now Reader upon the Issue joyned in this little space whether appears the Arrant Lyar G. Whitehead in saying There were in the North where most of these did live Priests who had so affirmed of the Letter of the Scriptures or the Snake in saying That neither there nor any where else were such Priests For it cannot be allowed I suppose That the Written Word and Letter of the Scripture as above affirmed is either God or the Power of God or the Iudge of the World or Spiritual or the Sword of the Spirit These and the like crooked Expressions of some in the Priesthood it was the necessary work of our Friends to oppose and straiten according to the Authority of Holy Writ not that we then did or now do charge all the Men with whom these so affirming have held fellowship to have the same Sentiments tho' this be the Practice of the Snake against us notwithstanding his distinction in the Title page of his Libel Ibid. p. 88. How comes it that since they are such bitter Enemies to the Letter they yet make a Conscience of saying Thee and Thou instead of You in the Singular because these were old English words in the first Translations I need not ask How comes it That envy and prejudice is Blind and Ignorant We are not bitter Enemies to the Letters of which the Books of Scripture are composed No Sober Reader that which we have opposed and for our so doing have the Authority of the Scriptures is that Men should only from them gather some account of the dealings of God with the Holy Men in past Ages and from their Declarations therein nay sometimes contrary to them make to themselves Creeds and herein Copy after those to whom our Saviour says Ye search the Scriptures in them ye think to have Eternal Life but ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life This we have opposed and directed Men to the Spirit of God in them to which as they are obedient they will find it to open the Scriptures to them and give comfort in the reading of them Thee and Thou instead of You in the Singular are as well Modern English Words as Old from the Essential difference that there is between the Signification of One and Many and upon this account it is according to the best Information I can get that there is hardly any Nation whose Language does not differently express that different Signification And that which engages us Conscientiously to this Practice is not that they are Old English Words but that the same Holy Spirit in us at this day leads to that same Simplicity of Language which it did lead the Servants of God into in former Ages And in all Ages of the World it hath been the Language of the Holy Spirit to Man And accordingly before our day at the beginning of the Reformation Erasmus and others whose Language was not Old or Modern English did reprove that Vanity of Mind which did practice and acccept the contrary Ibid. p. 88. Is there any Immorality or Iniquity in these Letters Y. o. u. more than in T. h. o. u Foolish Question Which may serve to please and tickle the Wanton But Sober Reader I doubt not thou wilt perceive the Vanity of the Querist The Alphabet which with us according to its various joynings does serve to express the thoughts of our Minds cannot have Immorality or Iniquity in the Letters Yet whosoever in evil Mind by joyning them does express words either Blasphemous Profane Hypocritical Unjust as this Snake or any other way bad in their Signification of these Men do pronounce accordingly And thus it is if any to shun the Cross of our Lord Jesus tho' in this small matter of the plain Language and to please the vain Mind contrary to the Convictions of the Spirit of Truth in themselves shall say You instead of Thee and Thou such will find that disobedience their Burden In p. 89 90. Snake has gathered many instances from G. F's Writings wherein he saith This is the Word of the Lord which the Snake puts in opposition to G. F's Answer to Christopher Wade Great Mystery p. 246. They the Scriptures are not the Word of God But this soon vanishes for upon Examination of Christopher Wade's words they seem to imply as if he affirmed of the Scriptures that they were the Eternal and In-dwelling Word of God and therefore and thereupon G. Fox opposed him and asserted Christ to be the Word of God p. 247. Great Mystery which is true and from him the Eternal Word the Servants of God have often said to the People Hear the Word of the Lord. And the meaning of it both in the Prophets and since is only this Hear from the Eternal Word a Declaration of his Will Ibid. p. 91. They knew that the Holy Scriptures could not be discarded openly and above-board nor all at once That the World has been long in the possession of them and of a just Veneration of them and therefore would not part with them nor accept of any Fox 's Inspirations instead of them That the World hath been long in the possession of the Books of Scriptures we well know but for want of being in possession of the Holy Spi-the Power of God they have erred not knowing the Scriptures and therefore could not have a just Value or Esteem for them And God who knoweth the Sincerity of
Life is thus prefer'd Reader I cannot here omit by a serious Appeal to thy self on the great Injustice and Falsehood of this Adversary And if thou art one who by Conversation with us or our Books hast any knowledge of us thou dost know the Charge of this Adversary is false And I do truly declare that our Value and Esteem for the Books of the Old and New Testament is much greater than for any other Book exstant in the World and this G. W. doth freely own and hath declared as much So also in this particular I will shew his falshood and perversion of G. W's words in the place quoted which the Snake has injuriously curtail'd They are these That which was spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures or Chapters are and greater intending as received and proceeding immediately from that Spirit and spoken in the sense thereof as Christ's words were of greater Authority when he spake than the Pharisees reading the Letter and they in whom that Spirit speaketh not and their speaking we deny So that according to G. W's words that speaking or reading of the Scriptures which is deny'd to be of Authority is when spoken or read by such in whom that Spirit speaketh not that gave forth the Scriptures and we have good Authority for this for thus our Saviour Mat. 22.24 denyed the Sadduces when they spoke and repeated the Law mentioned Deuteronomy 25.5 and thus he also denyed the Devil Mat. 4.6 when the Devil repeated the Prophesy of the Psalmist 91.11 and thus also he deny'd the Pharisees of which are divers Instances Ibid. p. 110 111. Mary Tucker a Quaker Servant to W. Reyman a Barber now living in Queen-street Cheapside but formerly in Bread-street where this Mary then his Servant took the Bible and in the open Day publickly burnt it against the Church in Bread-street to shew her Zeal About 40. Years since one Mary Tucker then Servant to W. Reyman not in Zeal but discomposure of Mind did one Morning early before her Master or Mistriss were stirring burn the Bible For which act she was not only reproved by them but also by sundry of our Friends and disowned and among others concerned herein to reprove and disown this Mary Tucker E. B. as W. Reyman does testify was one which by the way Reader is another Evidence that E. B. had the Scripture in great Authority and Esteem As it is also no small mark of the Snake's Injustice to relate a Lye and say that no Censure was passed upon this Mary Tucker when he might have been informed to the contrary by W. Reyman the place of whose aboad he knew so well But we find he is rather willing to relate a Lye than either know or knowing speak the Truth not only in this Instance of Mary Tucker And the Censure past upon her which he might with little trouble have been informed of so much as this Snake hids in the City And in the Instance of Solomon Eccles p. 124 125. foregoing but also in divers other before and hereafter to be given wherein he hath affirm'd egregious falshoods not from any necessity he was under to depend upon false reports but from a base Inclination in him to shun the Truth and to hate Justice For had not this been his hinderance he might with the trouble of a few Lines and the small additional Charge of the Penny-Post to W. Reyman of Queen-street N. Marks of Cheapside R. Scoryer of Wansworth hereafter to be spoken c. have discharged these out of his Libel and by such other not chargable nor troublesome further than it is so to him that we should be in the right means he might have spared the rest Ibid. p. 111. Pursuant to this their Principle in their Disputes among themselves they appeal to their own Writings instead of the Holy Scriptures Pursuant to this Snake's Practice he hath affirmed a notorious Lye I dare him to give any Proof that may be allowed by Impartial Men that ever we did so appeal It can be no more Proof to quote a Book wherein G. Keith hath said so of us than it is for the Snake to quote Julian Porphery or Celsus for Proof that the Primitive Christians were in the wrong or to quote his own Opinion for Proof that the present Government is so But if the Snake will confute the Answer made to that Book of G. K's which he quotes that may be considered and reply'd to SECT VII His Charge of Idolatry refuted and the Quotations restor'd from his Perversions THat our Belief concerning the Light or Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in Man is according to Scripture I have before shewn and how that by a sincere Obedience to it it will lead to God and Christ whence it comes and to have true Agreement and Unity with the Declarations from the same Holy Spirit which are recorded in the Scriptures of Truth and also with all the Manifestations of the same Holy Spirit wheresoever and in whomsoever appearing For as God is one so the Holy Spirit leads all that obey it into Unity and Oneness and to account worthy of double Honour the Elders that rule well especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 And in this Section I shall shew that what is by this Adversary called The Quakers Idolatry is not so but only owing to his perversion for as Truth leads to give Honour to whom Honour is due So it also leads to account of no Man above what we ought Ibid. p. 112. They think it not Honour enough to stand before the Throne of God But G. Fox places them upon the Throne p. 31. I suppose Great Mystery for he mentions not the Book The Quakers are in the Power of God and in the Authority of the Lamb above all Houses and are upon the Throne I shall first here detect the Snake's Evil Practice in mangling this Quotation by giving it as it is in the page quoted and afterwards speak to the Doctrine of it To the first The Priest G. Fox's Opponent had said That the Quakers scorns to creep into Houses meaning when persecuted To which G. F. replies This doth not agree with the rest of his Company who say they do Creep into Houses The Quakers are in the Power of God and in the Authority of the Lamb and into Houses creep not but are upon the Throne but you that be in the Form that Deny the Power creep into Houses These Reader are his words and their sense is as plain and nothing but Envy and Ignorance I suppose the first in the Snake could cavil at them or it For who knows not that the word Throne in Religious Matters is a metaphorical expression denoting Spiritual Power and Dominion Christ promised Mat. 19.28 That they who followed him in the Regeneration should sit upon Thrones And to him that overcometh will I grant says he to sit with me in my
Throne c. Rev. 3.21 And John says he saw Thrones and they who sate on them Rev. 20.4 And after all the Exception that the Snake may take at it it is true that as many as through the Power and Authority of the Spirit of Christ in them do follow him in Regeneration they shall sit upon Thrones metaphorically speaking that is in the Power of God over that which heretofore while in Disobedience they were in Captivity to Ibid. p. 113. The Snake quotes part of a Letter said to be writ by G. F. but for any proof that he has given it may either be adulterated by the Snake or some Apostate or forged by them If they were G. F's why did not the Snake give the whole Letter To what purpose hath he made a break in it And what is left out at it The Editors of the Journal had no Reason why they should have left out or altered as p. 114. he says they have those words My Kingdom is not of this World and those words who is the Son of God which need not have given offence if they had been in For they whom Jesus Christ hath washed from their Sins in his own Blood are by him made Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 and to them it is their Father's good pleasure to give the Kingdom Luke 12.32 which is not of this World And for those last words said by the Snake to be omitted and instead of which he says are added I set my Name what room or place was there for all that to come after his Name was set which the Snake hath given and omitted with a Ibid. p. 114. In a Book called News coming out of the North p. 15. G. Fox says I am the Door that ever was the same Christ Yesterday to Day and for ever Reader if now upon view of G. Fox's words they shall plainly appear to be by him spoken of Christ thou wilt I doubt not agree with me that the injustice of this Adversary must be very great who hath of set purpose traduced and perverted G. F's words insinuating that he spake them of himself when in truth it is no such thing This will best appear by giving the Quotation with the Marginal Scriptures from the page quoted by the Snake and is as follows P. 15. Now to all dear Ones and dear Hearts I speak The same Seed which is Christ the same Spirit takes upon it now as ever was the same World is now as ever was the same Temptations and the same Devils and the same Worship of the World twining into one another Form and Colour And Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life he is the Door that all must pass through and he is the Porter that opens it I am the same Door that ever was the same Christ Yesterday to Day and for Ever Look at the Captain Jesus Christ who hath passed before who was tempted the Captain of our Salvation and the same temptation to Worship the Devil and if thou wilt Worship the Devil thou shalt have the Glory of the World but if thou wilt not bow down and Worship the Devil thou shalt have none of the Worlds Glory but be called a Devil as Christ was and be called a Mad-man as he was This Reader with much more of the like Import which I have omitted G. F. does there speak concerning the Power of Jesus Christ to preserve Men out of Temptation and the workings of the Devil to destroy Men by them Yet this by the Snake is accounted part of the Quakers Idolatry The Snake's Quotation from the Introduction to G. F's Battle-Door I have already reply'd to p. 149. and therefore need not say more to it here The Snake 's next Quotation p. 114. is from The Title Page of News coming out of the North from whence he insinuates and charges G. F. with saying of himself that he was prophesied of His Quotation is this Written from the Mouth of the Lord from one who is Naked and stands Naked before the Lord Clothed with Righteousness whose Name is not known in the World risen up out of the North which was prophesied of but now is fulfilled here the Snake leaves off but G. F. continues The Army is coming out of the North against you Terrible Ones whose Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual G. F. Now from G. F's words it is plain that those words which was prophesied of relate to that Prophecy of Jeremy the 31.8 and not to himself or any Person and are only an allusion to those Prophesies of the H. Prophets concerning the Armies of the North which were to fight against and overcome the Jews and other Nations for their Disobedience and Wickedness Which as they litterally did do so by a usual allusion the People fulfilling this Prophecy Jer. 31.8 will through the Assistance of God's Grace their Weapons being Spiritual not Carnal go on in the Warfare of the Gospel-Day The Snake's next Quotation p. 114. is from Several Petitions answered c. p. 60. And he gives it thus My Name is Covered from the World and the World knows not me nor my Name G. F. Now who would not take this to be either all that G. F. had here spoken or else the words last delivered But Reader it is neither of these for G. F. is subscribed at the bottom of several lines more than these the Snake hath given and are continued by G. F. thus The Earthly Name the Earthly Man knows and he is afraid of Reproach and cannot bear it upon the Earthly Name he that overcometh hath the New Name and knoweth it Now Reader what is this but the sense of those Scriptures 1 Pet. 4.14 Rev. 2.17 and 3.12 which whether this Adversary did not know or had wilfully omitted to consider are yet sufficient to shew the falsity of his Charge of our Idolatry herein The Snake's next Quotations are from an Adversaries Book which was answered Yet such is his Injustice that he takes no notice of the Answer but objects as if they had not been reply'd to wherefore it deserves not to be taken notice of till he shall have reply'd to that Answer and disprov'd it And any Man may with equal Justice quote the Books of the Romanists to prove the Church of England Schismatical Heretical c. without taking notice of the Answers written to them Charges But whether such practice would be reasonable or not not only the Agrieved Party but all impartial Men can readily determine One of these Quotations is from part of a Letter writ by Josiah Cole to G. Fox and which had been formerly objected against by John Faldo and other Adversaries to which Objections W. P. did Answer in two several Books one Entituled Judas and the Jews the other Entituled The Invalidity of J. Faldo 's Vindication Of the first of these Books the Snake takes so much notice p. 115. as to say that W. P. does in p. 44.
attributed unto the Blood of that very Body of Christ to wit that it did propitiate For however it might draw stupendious Judgments upon the Heads of those who were Authors of that Dismal Tragedy and died impenitent yet doubtless it thus far turn'd to very great account in that it was a most precious Offering in the sight of the Lord and drew God's Love the more eminently to mankind at least such as should believe in his Name as his solemn Prayer to his Father at his leaving the World given us by his beloved Disciple doth plainly witness Thus W. P. Wherein I take it to be as plain as can be that he does declare and confess that the true Christ was Man And when he speaks of the Spirit of Christ in its appearance in Man under the Name or Epithet Principle he sufficiently shews that he intends more thereby than any Moral Virtue For in p. 100. speaking of the Spirit of God under this Epithet of Inward Principle he saith And as in Wicked Men God's Holy Light and Spirit or that Principle which is so called hath been deeply wounded yea as one slain so in Good Men that have had a sense of the Worlds Abominations hath it also born many Burdens and Weights for the Light and Life is one in all Now Reader what clearer Testimony can there be that W. P. does under the name Principle understand the Holy Spirit of God and not any Moral Virtue as the Snake would basely and falsly insinuate And for this his manner of expressing the Holy Spirit there are plenty of Examples in the Scriptures of Truth where under the Principle of Wisdom Isaiah speaking of Christ and his Dispensation in the Gospel-times Chap. 33.6 saith Wisdom shall be the stability of thy times And our Saviour saith Mat. 11.19 Wisdom is justified of her Children And the Evangelist speaking of the growth of the Child Jesus saith Luke 2.40 And the Child grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with Wisdom c. These with abundance more of like import the observing Reader may easily find in Holy Writ Ibid. p. 131. The Snake makes a Quotation from W. P's part of Serious Apology c. p. 146. But that the outward Person which suffered was properly the Son of God we utterly deny And perversely would draw W. P's words to say or mean that the Body which Christ assum'd was but as a Cloak or a Vail like the Body in which Angels appear for a time and throw them off again Against this false and unjust Imputation I shall first give W. P's words in the page quoted from whence the impartial Reader may be able to take W. P's meaning from himself and then observe somewhat upon the Snake's perversion To the first Jenner W. P's Opponent had said We deny that Person the Son of God that died at Jerusalem to be our Redeemer To which W. P. replys Which most horrid Imputation has been answer'd more I believe than a Thousand times that is that he that laid down his Life and suffer'd his Body to be crucify'd by the Jews without the Gates of Jerusalem is Christ the only Son of the Most High God But that the outward Person which suffer'd was properly the Son of God we utterly deny and it is a perfect contradiction to their own Principles A Body hast thou prepared me said the Son then the Son was not the Body though the Body was the Son's This brings him more under the charge of making him but a meer Man than us who acknowledge him to be one with the Father and of a Nature Eternal and Immortal for he was glorified with the Father before the World began Thus W. Penn whose plain meaning is no other than that the Outward Person that Body which our Lord did take of the Virgin was not properly the Son of God by Eternal Generation and was not Glorified with the Father before the World began He is here distinguishing between the Divinity and Manhood of our Saviour and that according to Scripture The Divinity was from Everlasting the Manhood not so that was taken up in the fulness of time appointed by God born of Mary nourished and encreased in Stature Strength c. according to Nature's Law and Course This Body Christ laid it down for the Sins of the World he did thereby consecrate for us a new and living way Through the Vail that is to say his Flesh Heb. 10.20 and here the Flesh or Body of Christ is called a Vail by allusion to the Vail mentioned Exod. 26.33 which did divide between the Holy Place and the Most Holy and this the Apostle shews Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entred into the Holy Places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us And in this sense and no other have we ever used the words Vail or Garment in this case and not as is falsly alledged by the Snake to signifie a Body Ibid. p. 130. in which Angels appear for a time and throw them off again In like manner the Snake p. 131. curtails and perverts a Quotation from a Book of ours Entituled some Principles c. from which he quotes p. 126. thus The Scriptures do expresly distinguish between Christ and the Garment which he wore And we can never call the Bodily Garment Christ. If the Scriptures do so expresly distinguish Of which Instances are given why did the Snake injuriously make a Break in the Quotation instead of giving those instances For upon the Authority of Holy Writ it is that we do thus distinguish and if our Distinction be bad or weak he should have given us a better Exposition of the Scriptures therein brought for that purpose That he may not omit it in his next I here give some of the Instances from that Book wherein the Scriptures do expresly so distinguish Ibid. p. 131. I come now to a Quotation made from Isaac Pennington in his Question to the Professors p. 25. which the Snake does not only break to pieces but also to the several pieces joins some words of his own that they may like his Brethen of the Inquisition by them be forced to sound as he would have them It is in the manner following Isaac Pennington p. 25. Denies that it was the Flesh and Blood of the Veil of the outward Earthly Nature as he calls the Body of Christ by which we are cleansed for says he Can outward Blood cleanse the Conscience Thus the Snake gives it and makes nonsense of it for by the Pieces of the Quotation as he has placed them he says that I. P. calls the Body of Christ the Flesh and Blood the Vail of the Flesh and Blood or the Outward and Earthly Nature Thus making the Body a Vail to it self But Reader I will shew thee from the Book it self that I. P. is neither Nonsensical in his Expression nor Heretical in his Meaning but Scriptural
are these Light and Life c. p. 59. I do not make S. E's Expression therein especially as construed by our Adversaries an Article of our Faith And G. W. for himself does there declare He did own the Blood shed to be more than the Blood of another Saint Thus saith not only G. W. but thus also say the Quakers who at all times since a People have readily declared their true and scriptural Sense of it But with respect to S. E's words having first inform'd my Reader that no Quaker did ever approve much less justifie them and therefore surely not make them an Article of our Faith either of which if the Snake can prove he is required to do it I say having first acquainted my Reader thus much it will not I hope be expounded a defending of them words of S. E's if I do briefly shew that had this Snake had in himself any of that great Charity for others which he says p. 10. is more apt to have a good opinion of others than of our selves and which he makes one of the Marks of Divine Enthusiasm or Inspiration He would have looked to see whether S. E's words would not have born Sano sensu some honest and innocent Construction and accordingly have judged rather than put a bad Construction on words which if not safely exprest were however so intended That S. E. did so safely and scripturally intend them is I think plain in that he declares He had no light esteem of the Blood of Christ it self as it was made by Christ a part of that blessed Offering for Man and that what he spake of that part of the Blood which was let out by the Spear and which is that the Snake now makes his advantage of was with respect to the Soldiers Act and the time of doing it which was after his Death So that I think it may in truth appear That that upon which Solomon Eccles did ground the difference he put between the Blood of Christ in one respect and in another was that in the one it was a voluntary Offering of Christ himself in and by the Eternal Spirit before his Death In the other it was the forcible act of a Soldier after he was Dead and the Sacrifice compleated And this with much more our Friend Tho. Ellwood had heretofore said Truth Defended p. 111 112. in reply to G. Keith upon the same Charge and which the Snake might have reply'd to if he could before he had renew'd it Ibid. p. 140. They have evaded the most express Texts for Christ's Humanity even that Gen. 3.15 his being the Seed of the Woman They allegorize that too into a Spiritual Sense quite away from the Letter and to mean nothing else in the World but their Light within We have not evaded any Text of Scripture for Christ's Humanity therefore not that of Gen. 3.15 wherein he is testified of as The Seed of the Woman Nor have we allegoriz'd it into a Spiritual Sense beyond the Authority of express Texts of Scripture much less quite away from the Letter but as we now do so we always since a People have owned that it did mean something more than the manifestation of the Spirit or Light of Christ in Man But the Snake for Proof of this Charge makes a Quotation from W. P's part of The Christiâ—n Quaker p. 97 98. The Serpent says he is a Spirit Now nothing can bruise the Head of the Serpent but something that is Internal and the Snake has left out Spiritual as the Serpent is But if that Body of Christ were the Seed then could he not bruise the Serpent's Head in all because the Body of Christ is not so much as in any one And consequently the Seed of the Promise is an Holy and Spiritual the Snake has left out Principle of Light and Life and Power the Snake has left out that being received into the Heart bruiseth the Serpent's Head And because the Seed which cannot be that Body is Christ as testify the Scriptures the Seed is one and the Seed is Christ and which the Snake has cut off as not to his purpose and Christ God over all blessed for ever We do conclude and that most truly that Christ was and is the Divine Word of Light and Life that was in the beginning with God and was and is God over all blessed for ever Thus W. P. From which the Snake says p. 140. His consequence is that the promised Seed was not any Person but a Principle Which consequence is falsly drawn by the Snake from W. Penn's words the consequence of them being more truly that the Promised Seed was not only that but also a Principle of Light Life and Power which I shall now further shew as it is also declared by T. E. Truth Defended p. 113 114. that The Scope and design of W. P. in those words was to prove against his Opponents that the Son of God who in the fulness of time took upon him a Body of Flesh in which he suffered on the Cross was and was properly called Christ before he appeared in that outward Body which his Opponents denied not owning Christ as Christ to have any existence before that Body which was Born of the Virgin but confining Christ to that Body And because all acknowledge the Promised Seed to be Christ W. P. used that as a Medium to prove that Christ was before that outward Appearance Now this affirming Christ to be the Seed and that Seed to be Inward and Spiritual is not a denial of Christ having a bodily existence without us for he may have and hath a bodily existence without us and yet may be and is spiritually within us 'T is true he denied that that Body which Christ had from the Virgin Strictly considered as such was the Seed and he gave divers reasons for it And which are mentioned from p. 94. to p. 99. of his Christian Quaker From the consequence which the Snake hath falsly drawn from W. P's words viz. That the Seed is not a Person but a Principle He goes on p. 141. fighting against the Bugbear which himself hath conjured up and declares it to be A Supposition of so pernicious a nature that it Vn-christians any who holds it For the Faith of Christians is built upon that Man Jesus Christ as The Seed Promised to bruise the Serpent's Head His Supposition so far as respecting us the Quakers and W. P. in particular is false For we believe the Manhood of Christ gloriously united with the Godhead to be the Seed Promised Gen. 3.15 and also that that Seed being of a Divine and Spiritual Nature did inwardly work against the Serpent and did bruise his Head and break his Strength and Power in some measure in the Holy Men and Women in all Generations T. E. Truth Defended p. 114. and by this their inward experience of his Spirit and Power he was the object of their Faith to be made manifest in God's
say they do appoint Institutions tho' the Matter of One viz. Water and the Manner of Both as now used is not therein exprest why has not another as much liberty If what he contends for be not the Text as it is not but an exposition of it what medium will he use to assure me his exposition is right since all Outward Means lye under the same Objection which his own particular Exposition does and they are not a few For I may object to his understanding to the Interest he is in and to the accidental means by which he came so to conclude And thus Men may grope in the Dark concerning the Mysteries of Religion and the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven while they have only Outward and Corporal Means for which the Snake does so much contend for their Guide But if Men would once come to implore the Assistances and wait for the Guidance of the Holy Spirit That as it illuminated the Holy Men of Old to deliver in Writing a Declaration of the Deep Things of God's Kingdom so it would illuminate their Minds to see and know the Meaning of the Holy Ghost in that Declaration By other means than this there can be no certainty herein But this means the Snake depends not on and would represent us as Criminal because we do Wherefore we justly refuse his Expositions for being Inventions which whether set up new or of old standing makes little difference And while the Snake is contending for Inventions set up he does abrogate if not to use be so as the Snake will have it be an Outward Command of Christ delivered in at least as plain if not plainer terms than either of the foregoing for here is both Matter and Manner recorded I instance in the Command of Christ to his Disciples to wash one anothers Feet John 13.14 15. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your Feet ye also ought to wash one another's Feet For I have given you an Example that ye should do as I have done to you Yet here neither the Example nor the declared Intent of it is interpreted to mean an Outward Institution But it is an Allegory and the Command fulfilled while the Sign is disused if we walk humbly before God and serve one another with Love We say so too yet if practical Obedience is here the intent of an Outward Command Why might not Spiritual Baptism and Communion be the intent of Outward Commands Had there been any such which those before mentioned are not As before I have shewn Ibid. p. 170. Vpon this poor pretence that Baptism is not the putting away the filth of the Flesh but the Answer of a good Conscience c. 1 Pet. 3.21 Which Text they so understand as that the Outward Baptism is thereby disanulled because the Inward Baptism is preferred before it and not reckoned perfect without it This which the Snake calls a poor pretence is but poorly assaulted by him and does remain to be a clear and very plain account of that Baptism which Saves In the Description whereof the Apostle is very particular First Negatively shewing what is not then Affirmatively defining what it is viz. The like Figure or Anti-type as it may be truly rendered whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And according to this account of that Baptism which Saves it cannot be the Baptism with Water because that is putting away the filth of the Flesh but it is the Answer of a good Conscience towards God Now outward Water cannot give this answer for as the Apostle saith 1 John 5 6. It is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth And nothing but this Spirit which is Truth can wash and purify the Soul from its Corruptions and Lusts and having so purified it can give to it the justifying Answer of a good Conscience towards God and therefore with great reason it is to be preferred to John's Baptism with Water which cannot add to the Perfection of Christ's Baptism with Fire and with the Holy Ghost Ibid. p. 170. And so it was in the Institution of Circumcision under the Law The Outward Circumcision of the Flesh was not the chief thing meant by it but the Inward Circumcision of the Heart as the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.28 29. Will it follow hence that there were no Outward and Litteral Jews Or that there was not an Outward and Litteral Circumcision under the Law But though the Outward Circision was not the Circumcision i. e. not that alone unless the Inward did accompany it yet the Outward Circumcision was commanded and that under pain of Death Thus both Baptism and the Lord's Supper c. As the Circumcision under the Law was Outward so it was the Sign of an Outward Covenant Gen. 17.7 8. And I will establish my Covenant between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an Everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy Seed after thee And I will give unto thee and to thy Seed after thee the Land wherein thou art a Stranger all the Land of Canaan for an Everlasting posession and I will be their God The Apostle who was a Minister of the Spirit and of the New Covenant does in this Epistle to the Romans shew the Jew that his Outward Dependance was not Good for he tells him Rom. 2.17 21. Behold thou art called a Jew and restest in the Law and makest thy boast of God Thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thy self Thus the Apostle having here reproved that Spirit in the Jew which our Saviour had before reproved in them when they told him We are Abraham 's Seed c. and the dependencies which they had because there was in their Flesh the Sign of that Covenant which God made with Abraham The Apostle brings the matter nearer from the Type to the thing typified from the Outward Jew and Circumcision to the Inward Jew and Circumcision vers 28 29. For he is not a Jew who is one Outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is Outward in the Flesh But he is a Jew which is one Inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God The Apostle is here speaking what the Spiritual Jew is not what the Legal Jew was for of him the Apostle had spoken before and in the like manner it may be spoken of them who have dependence upon the Outward and Decreasing Baptism of John and the Outward and Temporary Commemoration of Christ's Death by Bread and Wine and wait not to know the purifying and strengthning of their Hearts and Spirits by the Holy Spirit of God Thus the Apostle shews the necessary Duty of Christians in the Gospel Dispensation which is to witness the Inward Circumcision
of the Heart and Spirit this work the Law could not perform because as the Apostle says Heb. 7.19 The Law made nothing perfect Nor can Outward Water or Outward Bread and Wine That can only be done by the Inward Operation of the Spirit of God upon the Heart and Spirit This is that which is as useful and indispensable to Christians as the Outward Law was to the Outward Jew To which Outward Law Christ who was greater than Moses having put an end He hath established not another Outward Covenant but the Inward Dispensation of Grace and Truth which comes by Him Ibid. p. 171. Only let me tell the Quakers That their Objections which are answerd in that Treatise a piece writ by the Snake particularly upon this Subject are mostly the same which the Socinians have set up And let me tell the Snake that if the Socinians Arguments herein were sound and according to Scripture it can be no Objection to ours if they were not only mostly but altogether the same And it does not follow that they who err in some things are therefore right in nothing But if what the Snake tells us of our Arguments being mostly the same herein with those of the Socinians It will I hope be of as good purpose for me to tell the Snake that his Objections which are answered in this Treatise are mostly the same which the Romanists did make to the Reformation And then his Witty Remark may be of use to himself To see out of whose Quiver those Arrows came which he hath shot against us Ibid. p. 171. Thus the Socinians having thrown off or slighted the Sacraments have lost the true Faith in the Divinity of Iesus and have rejected him from being the Christ or Word of God which they say only dwelt in him or inspired him but was not Personally united to him Thus say the Quakers What the Socinians have thrown off and lost is not now my business to enquire But that the Quakers have not Thrown off or Lost the True Faith in Christ either as He is the Divine Word or as he was truly Man and dwelt on Earth I have already abundantly shewn in the Section foregoing wherein is particularly treated of and owned the Divinity and Incarnation of Jesus Christ. SECT XIII That Popish Emissaries did not first set up Quakerism in England as is said by the Snake THE Snake that he might be compleat in all the parts of his false and abusive Attempts against us having before by many ill practices in vain endeavoured to make us Heretical in points of Faith would here shew that our Original and Rise was from Popish Emissaries But in this I hope to shew his falsity and abuse as I have already done in those In order to which I desire my Reader to observe that the Snake's first Argument is drawn from the time of our Appearance which he makes to be about 1650. and 1654. And of these dates of time he says P. 187. Then it was that Rome was reaping a plentiful Harvest which they had long been sowing by setting up in that Universal Toleration Multitudes of Various Sects on purpose to Divide and so Confound their only Substantial Adversary the Church of England And here let it be observed that he imposes upon his Reader and would have it taken for granted upon his bare Word that about them Years there was a Vniversal Toleration and that during that time of Toleration there were by Romish Emissaries set up Multitudes of Various Sects Neither of which is true in Fact but contrary to the Faith of the History of them times and also to the Experience of many who are yet living who were eye witnesses of the Transactions of them and some who were Sufferers in them But first to the Toleration which the Snake calls Vniversal I doubt not but upon second thoughts the Snake will allow that at that time the Church of England was in Exile so that it was not Vniversal And as to the Quakers then Beginning they were not included in the Vniversal Toleration As our Testimonies easy to be produced of Imprisonments Blows Fines c. which our then few Friends suffered and underwent can testify These Instances I give to which others it's like may add more to shew that there was no such thing as a Vniversal Toleration Now to his Multitudes of various Sects which he says were then set up It is only a Romantick Story of his own Brain which has no truth in it For should it be supposed that there were in them Years People gathered into Religious Societies under Twelve distinct Denominations tho' I know not of one quarter that number What Multitudes can Twelve be called It may be he may say that Multitudes is an Hyperbole And indeed so it is for it so far beyond Truth that the Expression has nothing of Truth in it And now having briefly hinted at his falsity both with respect to his Toleration and Multitudes I shall proceed to shew That had there then been that Vniversal Toleration and such Multitudes of various Sects as the Snake hath falsly alledged Yet it doth not follow that these Multitudes or various Sects were set up by Rome Because there were various Dissents from the Church of England even from the first Reformation And it was objected to Her by the Author of an Apology for the English Seminaries Printed 1581. That there was Contention and Dissention among themselves This was not in 1650. but in 1581. at such time that if there was not Vnviersal Toleration yet the Church at least was Tolerated and who sowed the Dissentions then And if the Snake will not be angry with me as he is with Josiah Cole p. 189. for Reprinting something of a Papist's which he calls a Sensless and Bitter Libel though it is his practice often to repeat part of our Adversaries Bitter and Sensless Libels against us for which it may be he would have us thank him I will briefly quote that Apology Printed 1581. p. 60. His words are these We charge them with rebelling against Christ's Church Laws and Ordinances with disobedience to their Lawful Pastors with contempt of Holy Councils Fathers and Doctors with falsifying corrupting denying divers Books and Places of Holy Scripture With Contention and Dissention among themselves Disturbances of Kingdoms and Countries desire of Liberty and Novelty in-constant and daily change of their Opinions Presumptuous Arrogance and Vaunting of their Knowledge above all Antiquity with Singularity Sacriledge Apostacy c. Thus he And now what Reader but would take this to be the Snake's Declamation against the Quakers were it not for its Title and Date of Print And that we know it to have been a Papist's Declamation against the Church of England So like the Snake it is that to use his words we see out of whose quiver his Arrows came But as we have now to this Snake's so the Church of England did to this and such like Charges of
he has left us to guess who set it up in England For he having enumerated some Instances in which Enthusiasm is owned in the Liturgy and Offices of the Church Does declare p. 317. There is not one Book of Devotion used among us that does not tell us the same What Same Why the same Enthusiasm or Inspiration p. 119. Full as much as any sober Quaker can mean by the Light within Now if this same Enthusiasm came chiefly from Rome and Labade a Jesuit set it up in Holland he will be yet more particular if he can help us to his Name and Character who set it up in England But the Snake says R. B. was tinctur'd with it in his younger Years in the Stotch Convent at Paris What it was R. B. tinctured with If with the same Enthusiasm that he says is allow'd and own'd in the Church full as much as any sober Quaker can mean by the Light within Can there be any fault in that And that it was not the same Enthusiasm he has no where prov'd nor attempted to do it no more than he has attempted to prove that it was the same Enthusiasm with which R. B. as he says was tinctur'd and which Labade set up in Holland But the Snake's Argument has yet another Branch to shew that Popish Emissaries set up Quakerism c. viz. John Vaughton and William Southby formerly Roman Catholicks are now Preachers one in London the other in Pensilvania Therefore c. Reader It may be worth thy while a little to consider the unconcluding Rodomantade of this our Adversary in this point Enthusiasm came chiefly from Rome Labade a Jesuit set it up in Holland Therefore Popish Emissaries first set it up in England Robert Barclay when Young was at the Scotch Convent in Paris J. Vaughton and W. Southby were formerly Roman Catholicks tho' neither of them were more than Infants if born when Quakers first appear'd in England yet he will have it hence follow that Popish Emissaries first set up Quakerism in England Besides that his reasoning is false I take it to be foolish for if all the Religious Societies of Men in England who have in their Communion Persons formerly Roman Catholicks were set up by Popish Emissaries it will be harder for the Snake to shew which of them Popish Emissaries did not set up than which they did because there is hardly any Community in which there is not one or more who have formerly been Roman Catholicks And to carry his Folly to its full length he might with as great force of concluding say That the Quakers set up the Church of England for Francis Bugg formerly a Quaker is now a Member of that Church Ibid. p. 188. But God has punished them by sending the same Spirit among themselves and has made a Great Fraction in the Church of Rome Here is a Soloecism could Rome dress Enthusiasm in several Shapes and set it up in Holland before they had it among themselves I think they could not But as much a Novelty as the Snake would insinuate Fraction to be in the Church of Rome If he will rub his Eyes and look upon the Church of England's Apology afore quoted p. 21. Art 50. He will find her there to object against the Romanists Vix enim unquam inter se conveniunt nisi forté ut olim Pharisaei Sadducaei aut Herodes PÃlatus contra Christum They scarce ever agree among themselves unless perchance as the Pharisees and Sadduces or as Herod and Pilate against Christ. This Character was given by at least as good an Authority as is the Snake's and that long before Robert Barclay was at Paris or John Vaughton and William Southby were Preachers nay indeed many years before they were born Ibid. p. 188. The Quaker-Infallibility was contrived on purpose to bring Men back to the Infallibility of the Church of Rome It is both false and impossible that there should have been any such contrivance because they stand in direct opposition to each other For that Infallible assistance of the Holy Spirit of which we speak we say continues not with any Man or Men longer than they continue subject and in obedience to the workings of it But the Infallibility to which Rome pretends is from the Person of the Holy Apostle Peter by a Continual Succession or by Ordination not Qualification not alienable from the Church Concerning which I have more largely spoken in the Section particularly treating of Infallibility Ibid. p. 188. First the Infallibility was placed by G. Fox and all the Primitive Quakers in every single Quaker And all the Modern Quakers do continue to say with the Primitive ones that not only every single Quaker but every single and individual Person hath given him from Christ a manifestation of his Grace Light or Holy Spirit to which as People come to be obedient it will infallibly guide them into all Truth in all those things that pertain to Salvation Redemption and Eternal Life This tho' the Snake in his profane manner calls a Ridiculous pretence yet it is a Gospel Truth and will continue when his Profane and Ridiculous Attempts against it shall vanish Ibid. p. 188. And now there is but one step behind and that is to dispute the Infallibility betwixt the Two Churches that of Rome and that of the Quakers Yes there is one step more behind and that is the Infallibility of the Snake which is also to be disputed For it cannot be doubted but he too set up for Infallible certainty because of the frequent great assurance with which he delivers himself in Matters utterly false If the Snake had not an Infallible certainty that what he calls the Qua-Quaker-Infallibility was contriv'd on purpose to bring back Men to the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and that it was impossible it should be so contriv'd I have shewn what confidence must it be in him to affirm that to another of which he hath no such certainty himself Ibid. p. 188. And the Issue of this who does not see when their Succession and other Marks of the True Church come to be compared together The Issue may with more certainty be seen when the Dispute is ended and the Comparison made Tho' for the present I can see that if the Snake be the Manager Rome will not lose in any Question with any Protestant Dissenters whatsoever Ibid. p. 189. Of all the Dissenters now in England the Quakers have come nearest to the Church of Rome They only have taken the pretence of Infallibility unless they will bring in Muggleton for a Third Man none other except Papists and Quakers do set up for it Neither any of the Dissenters nor the Church of England do hold more Negatives in Doctrine to Rome than do the Quakers for we do not only hold all the Negatives which any of them do hold but also more And in the Doctrine of Infallibility as held by Rome there is not any manner of
Quaker-Spirit No it can't because it is not only Cloudy but it is Dark and False to say that words are Furious Venemous or Nonsensical and not give any Proof that they are so It is no help to the Snake to say as he does There needs no Argument to Discern betwixt Perfume and Stench Because that if the Nose can Discern as his Philosophy expresses it without Argument yet the Mind is not established but by Arguments drawn from true Judgment and Reason and none such nay none at all does the Snake offer The Snake for Conclusion to this Section has brought in two texts from the Psalms which he does improperly apply to the Quakers as he has before falsly charged them with Venom Fury Spite Envy and Nonsense And till he can prove that the words spoken by our Friends which whether these quoted were so or not remains to be proved being only taken from Adversaries were in their Original from Fury Spite and Envy and in their delivery Nonsense The Texts of Scripture are but abused by him as a Text in the same Book Psal. 91.11 was by the Devil when he repeated it to our Saviour Luke 4.10 and it will be answer sufficient if after the Example of our Lord we answer in the words of Scripture Psal. 101.7 There shall no deceitful Person dwell within my House he that telleth Lyes shall not remain in my sight SECT XVI Of Fighting and Loyalty I Have hitherto shewn the falsity of the Snake's Charges and his perversions of our Words Doctrines and Principles and how Unduly and Unrighteously he would endeavour to inferr from them Meanings and Consequences which neither are nor ever were ours but which we Abominate as destructive of and contrary to those Doctrines and Principles of the Christian Religion which the Spirit of Truth teacheth and leads into and which we do sincerely Believe And what is thus already in the foregoing Sections made appear will be further manifested in this and the following Sections for that in these as in those he hath not shewn what we are but what he would have us appear to be under the disguise which himself has put upon us In the pulling off which disguise there is at least this accidental Help and Advantage that the disguise in which he has represented us is exceedingly unlike our true Features I call it an accidental Advantage because if his Malice could have been satisfied in accusing us with only an abundance of improbable things they might have found some unthinking People who might have been misled into a too easy belief of them But as that could not be satisfied but by charging us with a number of Absurd and Impossible things So all that shall consider the ground and nature of our Principles and the nature of his Charge will with little difficulty be satisfied of their Contrariety and Inconsistency And tho' from this Consideration the sober Reader might and would have ground sufficient to determine the Question in this particular Yet for the detecting his particular Charges Perversions and Abuses I shall as in the former follow him through them And for his more full and plain Confutation herein I will briefly hint our Principles as Influencing Men with respect to Fighting and Loyalty The first of which the Snake most falsly does Charge us to approve and use and that in the last we are short and defective And first as to Fighting We say the end of the coming of our Lord Jesus as is prophesied of him Dan. 9.24 was to Finish the Transgression and to make an end of Sin And in the Room thereof to establish Truth and Righteousness in the Earth And as many as do witness the Power of his Coming by the Operation of his Holy Spirit in them do know that the work thereof is to take away and cleanse from all the Fleshly Lusts that War against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 which the Apostle makes to be the ground of Outward Wars and Contentions James 4.1 and as the Holy Spirit in all those in whom it does effectually work does destroy and purge away the very root from whence unjust Wars do proceed so it prevents in them the occasion of all outward Wars And this our Saviour did Teach in that Sermon of his upon the Mount Matth. 5.21 22. Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time Thou shalt not kill c. But I say unto you whosoever is angry with his Brother c. vers 38 39. Ye have heard it said an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth But I say unto you that ye resist not Evil but whosoever shall Smite on thy right Cheek turn to him the other Vers. 43 44. Ye have heard it hath been said thou shalt love thine Neighbour and hate thine Enemy But I say unto you Love your Enemies c. And if Anger Resistance and Hate be taken away What then can remain to occasion Wars Surely nothing From a sight of this Gospel Dispensation it was that the Prophet in the Holy Vision did foretel the peaceable practice of those who should come under the peaceable Government of Jesus Christ They shall beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more Isa. 2.4 And they who thus are redeemed out of the Grounds and Occasions of Wars by the workings of the Holy Spirit in them Such if they continue obedient cannot any more take the Sword into their hands Hitherto with respect to those who are in and under the Administration of the Gospel of Peace concerning whom we have from the first since we were a People declared that God hath taken the Sword out of their hands But tho' God hath thus disarm'd his peculiar People of the outward Sword that he might bring them to have a full and entire Dependance upon him for their safety Yet he hath never disarm'd himself of the outward Sword and as he is as well Soveraign of the World as of the Church and ought to have the command of all Mankind so he may put the Sword into the hands of those who are not yet brought under the Administration which I have above spoken of and he can make them Instrumental in his hand to Chastize his and his Peoples Enemies Thus Cyrus who many years before he was born was by name foretold of by the Prophet Isa. 44.28.45.1 is there called in the Word of the Lord Cyrus is my Shepherd he is the Lord 's Anointed These Titles were given with respect to the Services which God had fore-appointed he should do viz. be instrumental in the delivery of Jacob his Servant his Elect. In like manner and to the like purposes the Prophet Jeremiah in the Word of the Lord does in three places call Nebuchadnezzar the Lord's Servant but neither of these were of the peculiar People of God but it pleased him to appoint the Sword into their
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
if he did not reckon them any part of her ten pound Estate he might if he had sold them somewhat encreased that Ibid. p. 277. Nihil Dicit is Confessing of Judgment c. Supposing Nihil Dicit to be Confessing of Judgment yet that is not our Case we have been far from saying nothing for we have replyed I think to all that Bugg hath writ against us at least while he pretended to bring a Stock of new Charges and so Contentious a Man deserves not to be hearkned to or answered only for his noise sake But now to Nihil Dicit which the Snake says is Confessing of Judgment Sure he unluckily forgot the Suspicions he lay under to which he never yet dare appear to make answer so that Nihil Dicit is Confessing of Judgment Ibid. If they could prove Tythes to be Abrogated by Christ then indeed Bugg 's Impeachment would appear to be Malicious Very well I am contented to put it to that Issue because they have not only been proved heretofore to be abrogated by Christ in the Writings of several of our Friends but herein also as I take it it is fully proved that Christ by coming in the Flesh and offering up himself hath abrogated Tythes And that confirmed by Scripture Reason and Authorities Ibid. It is no Objection that Quakerism has not been voted in St. Stephen 's Chappel as bad things have c. What he means by Quakerism being voted in St. Stephen 's Chappel may seem doubtful yet that the Parliament have given us a Christian Liberty we are truly thankful tho I question not but this Malicious Abdicated Priest is sorry for it But why Snake that scurvy and saucy flurt upon the House of Commons as bad things have Can't the Parliament escape the Lash of this Lurking Snake who by the base treatment he has given to the Reformation in England from Popery and also to the present Government seems to intimate both these to be some of the bad things he flurtingly means to have been voted in St. Stephen 's Chappel This brings me to the end of this Section of Tythes SECT XVIII Shewing that the Pretensions of the Present Quakers as of the Former to the Spirit of Prophecy Infallibility c. is according to and agreeable with the Scriptures of Truth THe Snake that he may encrease the Bulk tho' not the Weight of his Charge does in a Multiform manner repeat the same thing We have before had one Section and that not a very short one Concerning the Quakers Infallibility and another Section Concerning the Quakers Pretence to Immediate Revelation And in both these are included this Section Entituled The Pretensions of the Quakers to the Spirit of Prophecy Infallibility c. In almost every particular Instance which he has here mentioned so that to be distinct and particular in this to all the Parts of it were but to say the same thing over again which would be equally unnecessary both for my self and Reader But if in my way through it I meet with any thing new and not answered before I shall not willingly escape it or pass it over The three first pages and it hath but seven are near all taken up in quibling and foolish unprov'd Reflections not worth a Confutation when they are not dress'd in a false shew of Reasons Garb and then only for this Cause that by Derecting an Enemies false Reasoning he may not be able to deceive or impose upon his Readers which this Snake doth frequently endeavour both by false Relations of fact by false Quotations from our Books by gross known Perversions of our Words and giving meanings to them which were never ours and also by boldly affirming of things utterly false As where he says p. 280. Our present Obstinate Quakers refuse to be brought to disown their own False Prophets We have not refused to Disown and Testifie against any who have spoken falsly in the Name of the Lord No but have according to the Examples of like kind recorded in Holy Writ denied them of which I have already in the Section concerning Infallibility given some instances Ibid. But do still fearlesly go on and pretend themselves to the same Extraordinary Commission of Immediate Divine Revelation That Divine and Immedate Revelation to which we do pretend is no other than that which is declared and held forth in the Scriptures of Truth as I have already shewn Section IV. and which the Snake does acknowledge p. 27 28. In some sense they may be called Revelations and Immediate too And as to Extraordinary Commissions or the Special Manifestations of God to his Children in the Higher Degrees of Immediate Revelation those which we own are not repugnant to the Scriptures but are consistent and agreeable therewith as I have there more largely shewn to which I shall only add that God hath not in the Scriptures of Truth declared or bound himself that he would not any more manifest himself to Men in such special Manifestations or extraordinary Commissions which it is recorded he did give to his Ministers in the breaking forth of the Gospel Dispensation Nay on the contrary the Apostle Peter shewing the People what was the Dispensation of God to Men in the Gospel-day Acts 2.17 18. he saith having reference to the Prophecy of Joel 2.28 And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall Prophesie and your Young Men shall see Visions and your Old Men shall dream Dreams And on my Servants and on my Handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit and they shall Prophesie Are not Etraordinary Commissions herein promised I think there be so that there is not any uncertainty or doubt to know whether such Commissions may be or not Which though the Snake wou'd suggest yet he dare not undertake to prove And therefore chuses to oppose the Spirit of Prophecy in the Servants of God at this day by saying they affix God's Seal Thus saith the Lord to whatever their Rage their Malice or Folly shall suggest This is to affirm but not to prove and unless it be proved it deserves not be believed Ibid. This is nothing short of Blasphemy Rank Wild Blasphemy To affix Thus saith the Lord to Rage Malice or Folly it is indeed as the Snake says nothing short of Rank Blasphemy But that the Quakers do affix Thus saith the Lord to Rage Malice or Folly is nothing short of Rank Lying in the Snake to affirm unless he can prove it It is no Objection to give particular Instances of some that have been called Quakers and have spoken falsly in the Name of the Lord and thence conclude and say therefore none of the Quakers speak truly in the Name of the Lord. For by such undue Inference all the True Prophesies in the Old and New Testament are at once denied and refused as not from the Lord because some
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
pretends to be a Lover of Souls to be really a Hater of Truth and a gross Perverter of Words Is it any Excuse for False Prophesies or Wild Whimsies to say of those who are guilty of them That they are got up into Pride and Exaltation of Spirit and that they are run out from Truth I think it is not but is on the contrary a Sound and Substantial Denial of them as it was an evidence of their Return who had so been guilty when from a sight of and sorrow for the Wickedness they had been guilty of they did Condemn their Wickedness and return into the Way of Truth which they had forsaken and when Erring Persons are so return'd it is no less than Wickedness imperiously and by way of Taunt to object to them their past Miscarriages and much more so to throw them Evils so forsaken and repented of at a Community for their Scandal Ibid. p. 289. I will trouble the Reader but with one Instance more Then we are not like to have very many for we have had yet but two And were I dispos'd to vie Numbers with the Snake I could enumerate more pretended Members of the Church of England who have in Wicked and Freakish manner pretended falsly to Revelations and Inspirations Ibid. John Toldervy has Printed a very Punctual Narrative of his Conversion to Quakerism and of the most Astonishing Possession of the Devil in which he was held after his said Conversion even to the Apparitions of Evil Spirits dancing and Singing about him and directing him what he should do and encouraging him in the Principles of Quakerism The Snake has taken up near three pages with the story of this Man of which the foregoing words are the substance which are a complex of falshoods as I shall presently make appear But first I shall desire my Reader to observe that the Snake affirms that the Astonishing Possession of the Devil did encourage this J. Toldervy in the Principles of Quakerism which is so venemous a falshood that nothing short of Envy could lead him to affirm it and that in opposition to the Authority he quotes viz. the Book Foot out of the Snare which is the Book which the Snake here calls a Punctual Narrative and also quotes in p. 290. I will give my Reader some account both of the Man J. Toldervy and his Book above-mentioned from both which it may fully appear how far the Astonishing Possession of the Devil or bewitched Imaginations in which he was was from being either owing to or encouraging of the Principles of Truth which we profess And first for the Man He was one who I shall anon give my Authority for what I say had been zealously affected in divers ways of Worship at length he made a shew of a Convincement upon his Spirit and did come to our Meetings but it was not long before he did discover himself not to have any true work of Regeneration upon his Mind but run out into very strange and wicked Imaginations for which he was soon reproved by the Quakers but he persisting they did separate from him and deny him both by Word and Writing because of his following a Bewitched Spirit The Quakers being thus discharged of him his Wild Imaginations turn'd to Envy and he endeavoured to charge his Crimes upon the Principle of the Light of Christ in Men professed by us in order to which he writes a Book Entituled Foot out of the Snare and to give it greater Grace it hath Eight Warrantees or Subscribers for the truth of it Wherein they pretend to set forth the Manner of his Separation from the Quakers In answer to this of theirs James Naylor wrote a Piece entituled as above Foot yet in the Snare in which he shews and often repeats it that J. Toldervy was denied by the Quakers and that they had Testified against him And for the fuller evidencing that the Quakers had denied him he does in p. 21 22. refer to their Book Foot out of the Sare and says In p. 33. Do you not confess that when he came to the Meeting at the place where the Quakers were shewing the holes he had made in his Thumbs and telling of those Lying wonders which he had been acting many of the Quakers being there all of them Judged him with one Consent charged him to be silent and told him that he was in Darkness and had slain the Witness of God in him Thus by their own Testimony nay by the Testimony of Toldervy himself for he was it seems the Author The Quakers had denied him of which we can desire sure no better proof than his own Confession attested by Eight Witnesses of which Tho. Brooks Tho. Jacomb Geo. Cockaine Joh. Tombs and Will. Adderly were part Having thus shewn that the Quakers did deny and therefore not chargeable with him nor his Actions I shall further shew from the same Authority which hath testified our denial of him as above that those his strange and wicked Imaginations were neither owing to nor encouraging of the Principles of Quakerism in him as the Snake has wickedly said For proof of this see Foot yet in the Snare p. 20. where James Naylor clearing our Principles from this suggestion saith thus quoting their own Book before-mentioned And have not you confessed p. 49. the Cause of these Distractions and Confusions in his Mind was having been zealously affected in divers ways before There was begotten in him much Fleshly Wisdom in which his Hope did rest believing it to be the Holy Spirit revealed in him and that he was covered with Deceit and could glory in that Condition Here in their own Testimony they say he was Covered with Deceit did rest in Fleshly Wisdom and believed it to be the Holy Spirit and in this he had been zealously affected in divers ways which was as themselves say the Cause of his Distractions and Confusions and all this before he came among us and staid not long when he was come But yet further James Naylor does in p. 26. quote them more amply clearing the Quakers Principle from his Delusions where they clear the Truth and say He J. T. being fully persuaded by what he learned from the Quakers of the Truth which was made known by the Light in us which Light is Spiritual and guides out of the Work of the Flesh to worship God in Spirit and Truth he was then to wait out of Thoughts and Imaginations c. And his Understanding being now thus opened he was possessed with much Joy in the Sense of that Love he had received whereupon he was resolved to give all diligence that his Calling and Election may be made sure But being naturally of a hasty and forward Mind and his Resolution in part being a Covenant of his own there was speedily begot in him an extream Fiery Zeal so that in the general he was hastily carried forth before the true Light by which in a short time he became lost in his
Understanding and so the Disputer was raised to Life and that which was for Condemnation having darkned the Light of the Sun form'd it self in the shape of the True Light and so Deceit got the Power and led out of the true Obedience in things before related by which the Simple be-became exceedingly deceived But when he was restored by the Clear Light of Life being guided in that Obedience which was professed by those People among whom he was being the Quakers and his Witness Here is a Clear Testimony that the Truth and Light professed by the Quakers leads out of the Works of the Flesh to worship God in Spirit and in Truth And that by this J. Toldervy's Understanding was opened What hinder'd then that the Work of Regeneration did not go on in him Why they say that he being of a hasty and forward Mind it was in part a Covenant of his own which raised a Fiery Zeal by which he lost his Vnderstanding and thereby the Sun was darkned a very natural consequence of that Covenant which was his own and not of the Spirit of God and here it was that that which was for condemnation formed it self in the shape as they express it of the True Light And thus indeed the Enemy of Man the Devil works in a Mystery to drive Men to make Covenants in their own Wills for their Regeneration which as they can never last so according to the various Disposition of the Person so Covenanting are the extreams which they run into Thus they acknowledge in direct opposition to the Snake that that Deceit which was in J. Toldervy was so far from encouraging him in the Principles of Quakerism that it did lead him out of the True Obedience to that Prinliple which they say he learned from the Quakers Ibid. p. 291. He made a sort of a half Vindication and half Recantation not of the matters of Fact of his aforesaid Delusions for these were undeniable but to free the Quakers from the Imputation and Scandal of them and to clear himself to have been and still continue a true Quaker which makes the Cause much worse on their side Supposing John Toldervy did endeavour to clear himself to have been and still continue a true Quaker at a time and in things wherein we had by Word and Writing denied him I pray how shall that make the Cause much worse on our side any more than it makes bad of the side of the Church of England because the Snake a former Scandalous Member does pretend to have been and still continue a True Member in her Communion But to proceed the Snake is here forc'd to acknowledge that J. Toldervy did free the Quakers from the Imputation and Scandal of his Delusions which whether he had or not the Quakers had freed themselves from them by denying of him both by Word and Writing And as he stood thus denied by them so they could not be chargeable with any of his after Actions But if he had sincerely repented of his great Wickedness and thereby found favour in the sight of God to have restor'd to him the Light of his Countenance and had so been received again into fellowship with those from whom he had been separated this would have been far from making the Cause much worse on their side For with respect to their own satisfaction it would make the Cause much better Because the People of God in all Ages did always rejoice when one that had err'd and stray'd from the Fold did by sincere Repentance return into it again Ibid. p. 292. That same Year viz. the 24th of October 1656. all the Good and Evil Spirits entred into Naylor himself Profane Snake why must both Good and Evil Spirits be thus flouted It shews no true Sense of Religion in one who can with so much ease ridicule both the beginning of all true and saving Religion in Man viz. the entrance of the Good Spirit of God and the beginning of all Misery viz. the entrance of the Evil Spirit into Man But with respect to Jame Naylor and his Great Fall and yet greater deliverance from it I have already spoken from p. 111 to 118. and therefore need not enlarge further here The Snake now turns to Quotations again where in p. 295. he quotes Patrick Levingston in a Piece of his Entituled Plain and Downright Dealing with them that were with us and are gone out from us in p. 10 of which Book P. L. makes an Allusion of the Operations of Physick upon the Body to the Operation of the Spirit or Power of God upon the Soul and shews thence what melting into Tears and Shakings he had known upon his own Body and also what some others had known when the Lord did first appear with a mighty hand as he says p. 9. to bring his People out of Spiritual Egypt in this our Age. And he here goes on and shews that these emotions of Body and terrible breakings the Soul were but for a little time and that the Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discerned there they being only preparatory of that way of Peace Stilness and Quietness in which as they continued obedient they came to be established This briefly is the substance of what the Snake hath pick'd and quoted from p. 10. And I will now shew thee Reader his strange perversion of all this Ibid. p. 296. Now here is a Comparison made betwixt the State of the Quakers from 1650 to 1660. and from thence to this time No Snake the Comparison does not lie in any date of Years but in the Progress of the Work of God in Men. Ibid. Their first State was their time of Physick The first State of all who have been Regenerated and Born again may by allusion be called a time of Purging or Cleansing and so it hath been frequently term'd in Holy Writ Our Saviour speaks of this first State in such Pathetick Terms Mark 3.27 as does evidently denote it to be a State of Trouble For the binding the Strong Man of Sin by the Stonger Power of God is not to be effected while the Soul is at ease and secure in Sin Nor can the Strong Man's Goods be spoil'd in Man unless through Obedience he comes under the Workings of the Power of the Holy Spirit and that will not give Deliverance to Man before he sees the great necessity he is in of a Deliverer Ibid. But there was worse than that For as Levingston here informs us The Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discern'd among them the Mind was so Hurried and tossed so that there was not a clear discerning what might be done or left undone in many things This is a very sad Reckning For what will become of the first Quaker Infallibility This is nothing so Sad a Reckning as the Snake is like to make when he shall account for all that Profaneness Injustice and Hypocrisie which he hath delivered under the gilded pretence of advancing the Glory
a good Champion in the Snake's Army and well enough to serve to Revile a People more Righteous than himself and for whom his Iniquities would no longer admit him a Companion and was therefore denied by them p. 10. And though now he is grown so hard in Impiety as to revile them that denied him for his Uncleanness Yet while some little tenderness was remaining he agreed to the Judgment of our Friends against him as may further appear by his own acknowledgment cited also p. 7 8. Thus Be it known to all People unto whom these presents shall be read that I H. W. and A. my Wife do acknowledge and confess before the living God and all People that we have sinned and done that which we ought not to have done in suffering the Temptations of Sin in the Flesh to overcome us So this know all People that it was not because the Quakers Judgment or Doctrine or way of Worship is false that it caused us to fall from them But our Fall was of our Selves So here 's H. W. and his Wife against the Snake his reviving this false matter was to vilifie the Quakers and their Holy Doctrine H. W. confesses to his Shame there Fall was of themselves And on their Heads and his let it rest till they Repent and Ask Pardon of God they for their Transgressions and he for his Revilings on their behalf SECT XX. Of Enthusiasm or Inspiration as said by the Snake to be Owned by the Church of England Ibid. p. 314. THe Word Enthusiasm signifies Inspiration and may mean a good as well as an evil Inspiration I am no more in doubt of the Truth of this than I am certain that the Snake did affirm falsly when in Pref. p. 43. he said There is no Enthusiasm where there is not Pride Ibid. These poor misled Quakers are made to believe that the Church of England does wholly throw off all Inspiration of the Holy Spirit The Snake has told us as above quoted there is no Enthusiasm where there is not Pride And if he would so mislead the poor Quakers as to believe that she does wholly throw off all that it would be in him no less a fault than it is to bely the poor Quakers and mislead his Reader concerning what the Quakers do or do not believe Ibid. I will here briefly set down the Doctrine of the Church of England in this Point To which if the Snake could have truly added and my Agreeable Practice as it would have been for his Credit so it would have dwindled his Libel to a much less bulk than that which his numerous and many fork'd Falshoods have swell'd it to But now he spends 4 or 5 Pages in giving Instances from the Service and Liturgy of the Church of England concerning her Doctrine in this point of Inspiration of the Holy Ghost with which I am so far from being displeased that I could with pleasure have read them all over if he had given as many more and am glad that so Essential a Truth as is the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit is owned by her tho' this is not the first Knowledge I had of it for I have some Years since read the same in her Liturgy And after the Instances he has given of the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit he says p. 319. It is made necessary to every good word and thought and the Cause of all the Good that is in us And we are directed to it to Follow and be Guided by it and are assured that it will lead us to all Truth that is requisite and necessary for our Eternal Salvation It is this which opens the Scriptures to us and our Vnderstandings rightly to apprehend the true sense and meaning of them c. In all this the Snake as he hath said what is agreed to and believed by every Sober Quaker So he hath herein declared the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost to be as Infallible as we believe it is And now before we part from a point in which we do as he says so exactly agree let us a little reason upon it and examine whether he has Squared his foregoing Sections by this Infallible Rule And first I shall observe the Snake says We are directed to it to Follow and be Guided by it and are assured no doubt by a certain Knowledge that it will lead us to all Truth that is requisite and necessary for our Eternal Salvation Supposing this to be true the Snake did very Scandalously not to say worse when he made the Devil as Infallible as any of their Church For in p. 39. speaking of that Light or Knowledge which comes from God which is the Inspiration of the H. Spirit he saith If that Knowledge which comes from God be Infallible then while the Devil follows that Light or Knowledge he must be Infallible And if this be all the Infallibility which the Quakers ascribe to themselves it seems it is all the Snake ascribes to the Church It Distinguishes them not from Wicked Men or Devils This is very hard but there is worse yet For though he does here say That the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost will lead us to all Truth requisite and necessary to our Salvation and so consequently will bring them that follows it to Heaven Yet this they are his own Words p. 40. will no more prove it to be Infallible or sufficient of it self to bring us to Heaven than it will follow that Man cannot die because God breathes into him the breath of Life or that he is Omnipotent because his Strength comes from God These Instances from the Snake though they clash yet in some that follow they will be found to cut one another up by the Roots For here in p. 319. He is very confident That the Church of England does agree with us concerning what we mean by the Light within And I must needs say the same Yet in p. 60. He gives the Light within in which he says we do so much agree with the Church of England a very evil Character and says It does totally root up and destroy all Church Government and Order Nay in p. 96. speaking of this Enthusiasm he says It is Inconsistent to the Government either in Church or State or any Security from all the Dismal and Enthusiastical Murthers Rapines and Outrage of the Zealots among the Jews who went upon the same Principle Fye Snake what the same Principle with the Church These are very ill Characters to recommend that Inspiration in which he is Confident the Church of England does agree with us Indeed he endeavours with a strange Contradiction to make all whole again by adding in the next Words yet shew'd no evil signs of it I would not willingly tire my Reader with Observations of the Snake's Contradictions upon this Head and therefore I shall but gather and add a few more of which this is one worthy of notice That though here in Page 319. he has made
Spirit through the Flaming Sword into the Paradise of God c. And I do Testifie there is no other way to come into it than by obeying the Teachings of Jesus Christ and this Obedience is so far from raising any mad Joy as the Snake does Blasphemously call it that it is Impossible for a Man to have more evident Demonstration of any thing in the World than he may have of his future Happiness if he grows up in Obedience and Faithfulness to Jesus Christ the way that leads to it Ibid. He tells as a wonderful opening to repeat his Cant which the Lord gave to him thus p. 5. About the beginning of the Year 1646 as I was going to Coventry and entring towards the Gate a Consideration arose in me how it was said That all Christians were Believers both Protestants and Papists And the Lord open'd to me that if all were Believers then were all born of God Here was a mighty Discovery And after all the Snake's Prophane Banter of Wonderful Opening and Mighty Discovery It is a great Truth and it was a wonderful Opening in John the Apostle where he testifies 1 John 5.4 Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even your Faith This Divine Truth when it was again opened to G. F. by the Openings of the same Holy Spirit did well deserve to be mentioned by him to shew the Unity and Harmony that there is in its Discoveries the same may be said with respect to that other Opening from the Lord mentioned by the Snake p. 334. which G. Fox mentions p. 5. of his Journal That being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit and qualifie Men to be Ministers of Christ. Which is agreable to what the Apostle testifies Gal. 1.11 12. But I certifie you Brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man for I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. What the Apostle does here certifie the Primitive Christians concerning his Commission it pleased God to open to G. Fox was the way and means by which all that were truly his Ministers came to be such And tho' the Snake would suggest and insinuate as if the contrary was never the belief of any one Man in the World It is false nor can those who receive their Ordination from Men either after the mode of the Church of England or otherwise say they neither received it of Man nor were taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Ibid. p. 335. He tells p. 6. at another time it was opened in me That God who made the World did not dwell in Temples made with Hands And this at the first seem'd a Strange Word because both Priests and People use to call their Temples or Churches Dreadful Places and Holy Ground Thus G. Fox upon which the Snake adds a Prophane Lie It seems Fox did not know before but that God dwelt in a Church as a Man does in a House so as to be lock'd up and to be no where else when he was there No Snake there seems no such thing of G. F. but if the People who continue to call them Dreadful Places and Holy Ground do know no better their Superstitious Ignorance if it be as described by the Snake will much of it be laid to the Priests Charge who have so blindly led the People But if none of all this Gross Blindness there is yet a Reprovable Misapprehension not grounded upon any Example or Authority from the Gospel-Day so far as it 's recorded in the New Testament That is calling their Churches Dreadful Places and Holy Ground from a supposition that after their Consecration there is a kind of Inhabitation or more Immediate and Powerful Presence of God in them by vertue of it This Reprovable Misapprehension as Peoples Minds did continue under it so they were therein liable to let it increase to a Superstitious Reverence And God in the Calling Forth of his Servant did in this as in other things open his Understanding and let him see according to the Testimony of the Proto-Martyr Acts 7.48 The Most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And he there further shews that Consecrations of Houses are vain Nor indeed is there from the Authority of the New Testament any Holiness to be attributed to Place The Doctrine there deliver'd is 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and agreeable to this is 1 Cor. 6.19 2 Cor. 6.16 Ibid. And such are all his Discoveries all his New Light even this Fundamental Distinguishing Principle of the Quakers of the Light within The Discoveries before-mentioned I have shewn to be agreeable to the Scripture and the Snake hath been so far from offering to prove them otherwise that he would have it supposed they are the Concessions of every Man in his Right Wits Where is then the Objection Why they are Truths of Common Notice or in the Snake's Prophane Railery they are Notable Discoveries the Commonest Notions in the World which G. F. has here taken for Supernatural Revelations and because the Snake supposes them to have been the Common Knowledge of Mankind therefore he Concludes they were no Openings from the Spirit of Truth in G. Fox But this is a false Conclusion because he may find in Holy Writ that the Supernatural Revelations Discoveries and Openings which it hath pleased God to give to particular Persons have frequently been such Truths Thus the Apostle Paul had a Supernatural Revelation in answer to his Petition My Grace is sufficient for thee 2 Cor. 12.9 And I would know of the Snake who then there was that had received the Christian Faith that did not believe as much And had the Corinthians been as Blasphemously Prophane as this our Adversary they might have queried in his words p. 335. Why so sottishly Ignorant as to take the Commonest Notions in the World for such Wonders such Supernatural Revelations But how common or mean soever this Snake may judge many of those Truths to be which the Holy Spirit hath and doth at this day reveal and discover upon the Spirits of those who are obedient to it in the Openings which it gives of the Scriptures I must needs say that were it possible for a Man Distinctly to remember and repeat the whole Old and New Testament so that all the Truths therein contained were of easie and common notice to him yet the advantage he would thence reap would be nothing in comparison to the advantage he may reap from having but some of the Truths therein recorded opened upon his Spirit by the Holy Spirit which did at first Dictate them And the Reason is because men cannot be made Holy by Imitation but only by Regeneration which as it is the work of the Holy Spirit so that work is began in what the Scripture calls the Day of Small Things The first
Discoveries are often small not only to try the Obedience but to encourage to Faithfulness And they who will not thankfully receive its lowest Manifestations and obey the Discoveries of the Light of Christ in the forsaking and denying vain Honours and Language are not likely to be obedient to greater Discoveries if they had them Ibid. p. 332. But G. Keith for his Christian Doctrine of a Christ without was condemn'd by their Late Yearly Meeting in their Bull of Excommunication It was not for Christian Doctrine but Unchristian Practice which G. Keith was denied as the Testimony given against him does fully shew in these words George Keith of late hath been and yet is acted by an Unchristian Spirit which hath moved and led him to stir up Contention and Strife in the Church of Christ and to cause Divisions Separations and Breaches amongst them that Profess the Truth and that the tendency of Divers of his late Writings and Actings hath been to expose the Truth and Friends thereof What has Christian Doctrine to do with such Unchristian Actions They have no agreement and this was the Cause there assigned of our denying him The Snake now gives p. 333. part of a Letter which he says W. P. sent to R. Turner of Pensilvania in which speaking of G. Keith are these words I love his Spirit and honour his Gifts and his Peculiar Learning especially Tongues and Mathematicks his Platonick Studies too all being sanctified to the Truth 's Service which is worthy to have the Preheminence Upon which the Snake says here will be a sad account of that Infallible Discerning Spirit which the Quakers do appropriate to themselves To which I shall first say that it is utterly false that the Quakers have ever appropriated to themselves the Spirit of Discerning It is only appropiated to the Holy Spirit and what true Discerning of Spirits is given to Men must be from that Fountain Now as to the Letter the words above quoted do well consist with that Spirit of Discerning because in order of Time it appears not but that that Letter was writ some Years before the Testimony of the Yearly Meeting against G. K. which I have before quoted And if G. Keith's accomplishments in Learning had continued to have been all sanctified to the Truth 's Service as it is there exprest which was the ground of that Love therein declared He could not have stirred up Contention and Strife nor caus'd Divisions Separations and Breaches which was the reason of his being denied But further If that Letter was writ when there was some small beginnings of Misunderstanding betwixt G. K. and those in Pensilvania Yet the words of that Letter referring the Love declared to his Spirit and Learning to be as all are sanctified c. they are very safe as G. K. would also have been had he kept to the Holy Spirit which sanctifies and that would both have prevented further Disturbance and removed all Misunderstanding Ibid. p. 336. I do here demand Reparation in the behalf of the Church of England But particularly in behalf of one whom they have most Scandalously Robb'd The Person wronged is Mr. Selden and the Thief is Francis Howgil A Snake turn Knight Errant the Scandal of the Church presume to set up for her Representative O Monstrum But to his Ridiculous Arrogance I do here demand c. What mighty I is this What Ratling Snake Why an Anonymous who is as fear ful of putting his Name to his Demand as he is to appear before Justice One who Jugler-like plays Tricks in the Dark Therefore sure no true Pleni-Potent of the Church not one Legally Delegated by Her And he is not less the Church's Delegate than he is John Selden's who in his time was one of the Glories of this Nation one whose Living Labours may at once endear and preserve his Memory with those who know his Works And with what Forehead one so differently qualified as is the Snake should pretend to demand Satisfaction if the Demand were just in his Behalf is no small wonder But the Demand is Arrogant Trifling and Impudent in that he says F. Howgil has stoln whole Paragraphs verbatim out of J. Selden's History of Tythes I have with what care I can examined the Charge by comparing the Books and cannot find one whole Paragraph so taken I find that F. H. does in some places treat of Tythes in the same manner as J. Selden does and the Books which are his Authorities he puts mostly in his Margin And among others which he quotes J. Selden by Name is one in his History of Tythes and upon this Subject of Tythes he is twice quoted by F. Howgil viz. p. 482 and in p. 567. which is sufficient to shew that F. H. is no Plagiary But since the Snake hath thus taken upon himself to be a Knight Errant I will direct him to a piece of Work of the sort he here speaks of and if he can get satisfaction he may pretend to be Captain of the Band of Knight Errants He may find it in John Daille's Treatise of the Right use of the Fathers first Book p. 104. In these words St. Hilary St. Ambrose and others who robbing poor Origen without any Mercy do not yet do him the Honour so much as to name him scarcely This is certain that you shall find in St. Ambrose many times whole Periods and whole Pages too taken out of St. Basil but unless my Memory fail me very much you shall never find him once named there Thus he I spare to give more such Instances till the Snake shall here have demanded Reparation in due form But now we are speaking upon the vice of Stealing it may not be improper to remind him that it had been highly necessary for him to have surveyed himself and considered with what Face he could unjustly object Theft to F. Howgil because he speaks of the same Subject in the same manner with John Selden whom he also names While himself if he had been duly prosecuted for Theft must of necessity have been hang'd if at least the Law of the Country where he stole the Virgin whom he made his Unhappy Wife be in that case agreeable to ours But as to the Punishment I shall not now enquire nor yet what Reparation he made to the injur'd Parents or Relations But as to the Fact it had the Forms of Theft in that he had not their good leave before he took her and whether the Canons do not declare the Theft of Souls the Stealing of a Wife to be in the same Class of Crimes in which himself puts Obedience to the King de Facto It may be proper for him to consider which if he find and that he squares himself in his Repentance for that by his practice in this his Repence will be as singular as his tenacious Disobedience hath been observable But of this now no more nor had there been so much nay here none at all had
the Reproaches Detractions Contempt and Scorn cast upon my self by the Author are of less value or weight as to me seeing the Rancour Envy and Foulness of the Spirit from whence they proceed And I always thought my self more obliged in Truth 's Vindication than my own Personal Reputation having long been arm'd with so much of Christian Faith Patience and Good-will to my Enemies as Patiently to endure Persecutions by Reproach and cruel Mocking as well as I have endured by Imprisonments and other Hardships And now I do not believe the Author of the Snake says true That he is very well pleas'd with the said Answer I am persuaded the contrary That he is very much vex'd by having his Falshoods in many things so much detected as they are in the Answer or Antidote His following Reason for his being so very well pleas'd with the said Answer is as notoriously false as the rest of his Lies viz. Because it confirms all the Matters of Fact to every purpose and intent for which they were produced To evince the Falshood whereof I refer the Ingenuous Reader to the said Antidote for his Impartial Perusal I doubt not but this Man's Purpose and Intent in producing the Matters of Fact alledged against us was chiefly that they should be given Credit to and that the People called Quakers their Ministers especially might lie under all his gross and foul Imputations and Defamations of being Diabolically Inspired and Possess'd Deluded Bewitched Blasphemers Rebels Traytors c. How monstrous and improbable then is it that I by opposing these Matters of Fact charg'd should write to confirm them against our selves And his following Words are most notoriously false viz. That he i. e. G. W. had not detected One False Quotation of all that I have brought out of their Books With what Conscience could this Person so confidently thus Assert That G. W. has not detected One False Quotation c. Either he has read my said Answer or he has not If he has read it he must be a shameful Man herein if he has not he must be guilty of great Folly and Injustice And farther to Detect his notorious and foul Falshood in this I 'll produce a few Instances of his many more false Quotations detected in my Answer Antidote p. 15.16 That one of the Orders given forth by their Yearly Meeting 1693. Commands that None shall carry Guns in their Ships This is prov'd a false Quotation in my Answer quoted 2. Antidote p. 17. That in the Answer to F. Bugg 's Impeachment they i. e. the Quakers would persuade us That All they have said against the Payment of Tythes was Only meant by them to the Popish Clergy but by no means against the Right of the Church of England to their Tythes This is plainly detected as a False Quotation as in my Answer 't is declared This is Partially and Wrongfully Stated Our Answer to F. Bugg plainly shews our Conscientious Dissatisfaction with Tythes in general and the forcing thereof now in this Gospel-Day by any Clergy whatsoever as not consistent with the Practice of Christ's Ministers or Testimony of divers Martyrs c. See Antidote p. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. 3. Antidote p. 25 26. That G. Fox Professed and Avowed that he was equal with God that he Profess'd himself to be the Eternal Judge of the World Which is also a False Charge and Quotation against G. F. who being charg'd by his Persecutors with Professing himself to be equal with God Positively denies the Charge as not so spoken as that G. F. was equal with God but that the Father and the Son are one and that Christ and the Holy Spirit are equal with God Saul's Errand p. 5 6. Vid. Just Enquiry p. 12. 4. Antidote p. 35 36. Abusing the Scriptures by the contemptible Names of beastly Ware c. Which is false both in Charge and Quotation and over and over detected in Answer to his Author F. Bugg 5. Antidote p. 43. That G. Whitehead in his Serious Apology p. 49. prefers not only their Writings but their ex tempore Preachments and even All whatsoever they speak upon any account to the Holy Scriptures themselves This also is notoriously false both in Charge and Quotation as is manifest in my Answer Antidote p. 43. viz. He very perversly wrongs G. Whitehead in all these Expressions for there 's not a Word of Preferring our Writings to the Holy Scriptures much less of all whatsoever we speak thereto but a preferring the Holy Spirit and its Immediate Teaching In Man to the Letter of the Scripture and Preaching in the true Sense of the Spirit with Divine Power and Authority according as Christ did to the bare reading the Letter as the Pharisees did I may further add without offence or under-valuing the Holy Scripture or Godly Doctrine therein contain'd that I verily believe St. Paul and other Apostles Preaching in the Demonstration of the Holy Spirit and Power of Christ was of far greater Efficacy Power and Authority for the Converting People to Christ than the Priests reading their Writings or making a Trade of them as they do in these Days 6. Antidote p. 59 60. That they i. e. the Quakers give to themselves and to one another the most peculiar Titles of Christ as that of the Branch and the Star and the Son of God which he says are Attributed to G. Fox and which he takes to himself Quoting New Rome Arraign'd p. 33 34. And the Quakers Vnmask'd and New Rome unmask'd Referring the Reader to those Books of Fran. Bugg's which he has Quoted upon the Margent as he saith Here this Credulous Adversary has accepted and promoted Bugg's False Quotation and Charge against us though over and over detected as his Notorious Refuted Lies which this Adversary is as 't is told him in the Antidote so shamefully credulous of and that we positively deny giving those peculiar Titles of Christ to our selves or to one another as he falsly Prates and Bugg has been over and over Charg'd therewith and cannot Prove them i. e. that we give those said Titles either to G. F. or to one another and that G. Fox is not so much as mentioned in that Epistle of E. Burroughs out of which those Titles the Branch the Star and the Sun of Righteousness are taken which are peculiar and intended to Christ and no other Serious Reader these few Instances of our Adversaries false Quotation besides many more which are clearly Detected in my said Antidote in Answer to him I hope are sufficient to evince his Falshood in Asserting That Geo. Whitehead has not detected One false Quotation that he has brought out of our Books When the contrary is evident that he has both made and accepted many false even grosly false Quotations pretended out of our Books c. And if to detect such was the only proper Answer that could have been given as he says then he had that proper Answer at least in