in the Church concerning Preachers Is it fit that only one or two speak or many more if moved thereto 1 Cor. 14.30 31 32 33. A. If any thing be Revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his Peace For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and that all may be comforted And the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets for God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints Q. Is there any Promise that Daughters as well as Sons shall Prophesie under the Gospel Joel 2.28 A. And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie your old Men shall dream Dreams your young Men shall see Visions Q. Is that Promise fulfilled and to be fulfilled Acts â—â— 17. A. But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel and it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out 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 Q. Is there any such Instance of Old in the Scripture Acts 21.9 A. And the same Man had four Daughters Virgins which did prophesie Q. But may All Women speak or are any commanded to keep Silence in the Church 1 Cor. 14.34 35. A. Let your Women keep Silence in the Church for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under Obedience as also saith the Law And if they will learn any thing let them ask their Husbands at Home for it is a Shame for Women to speak in the Church 1 Tim. 2.11 12. Let the Woman learn in Silence with all Subjection But I suffer not a Woman to teach or usurp Authority over the Man but to be in Silence Q. The first of these seems only to relate to Women that have Husbands What comes of them that have none The second speaks nothing of the Church but only that she ought not to usurp Authority over the Man hath this no Limitation Doth not the same Apostle give Directions how Women that speak should behave themselves in the Church 1 Cor. 11.4 5. A. Every man Praying or Prophesying having his Head covered dishonoureth his Head But every Woman that Prayeth or Prophesieth with her Head uncovered dishonoureth her Head for that is even all one as if she were shaven CHAP. X. Concerning Worship Question WHat is the Worship that is Acceptable to God Answer But the Hour cometh and now is John 4.23 24. when the True Worshippers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Q. Seeing Prayer is a part of Worship when ought we to Pray A. And he spake a Parable unto them to this End Luke 18.1 That men ought Always to Pray and not to faint Pray without ceasing 1 Thes. 5.17 Q. Hath God no respect to the Manner of Calling upon him For there is no Difference between the Jew and the Greek Rom. 10.12 for the same Lord over all is Rich unto all that call upon him Q. Doth God hear the Prayers of all that call upon him A. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him Psal. 145.18 to all that call upon him in Truth The Lord is far from the Wicked Prov. 15.29 but he hears the Prayer of the Righteous Now we know that God heareth not Sinners John 9.38 but if any man be a Worshipper of God and doth his Will him he heareth And this is the Confidence that we have in him 1 John 5.14 that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us Q After what Mannner doth the Apostle then declare he will Pray A. What is it then I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the Vnderstanding also I will sing with the Spirit 1 Cor. 14.15 and I will sing with the Vnderstanding also Q. Must we then pray always in the Spirit A. Praying always Ephes. 6.18 with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and Watching thereunto with all Preseverance and Supplication for all Saints Q. Since we are commanded to pray always in it can we do it of our selves without the Help thereof A. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8.26 27. but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with Groanings which cannot be utter'd And he that searcheth the Hearts knoweth what is the Mind of the Spirit because he maketh Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God Q. I perceive that without the Leadings and Help of the Spirit prayers are altogether unprofitable may not a man truly utter these things that are Spiritual without the Spirit 's Assistance A. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus Accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 18.3 Q. That is strange It seems the Spirit is much more necessary than many called Christians suppose it to be some of which can scarce give a good Account whether they have it or want it But if a man speak things true upon the Matter are they not true as from him if spoken without the Spirit Jer. 5.2 A. And though they say The Lord liveth surely they swear falsly Q. It is apparent from all these Scriptures that the True Worship of God is in Spirit and as it is not limited to a certain place neither to any certain time what shall we think of them that plead for the Observation of certain Days A. But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God Gal. 4 9 10 11. how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly Elements whereunto ye desire again to be in Bondage Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain Col. 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or Drink or in respect of an Holy Day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath Day which are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. Q. Seeing it is so may not some Christians as lawfully esteem all Days alike as others may esteem some Days above another What Rule giveth the Apostle in this Case A. One man esteemeth one Day above another another esteemeth every Day alike Rom. 14.5 6. let every man be fully perswaded in his own Mind He that regardeth a Day regardeth it unto the Lord and he that regardeth not the Day to the Lord he doth not
from things strangled and from Blood was Nailed to the Cross which was Commanded long after Christ was Crucified And yet some of their Divines as they call them use this Scripture for a Repeal of it Their second Charge against the Quakers and to prove they are not led by the Spirit is A Legal Righteousness distinguished from the Gospel Righteousness because They assert a possibility of not sinning upon Earth Which they say is expresly contrary to the Scripture As first to Isaiah 64.6 We are all an unclean thing All our Righteousness are as filthy Rags But they should have proved that the Prophet speaks here not only of the Legal Righteousness of the Jews but even of the Righteousness wrought by Christ in the Regenerate under the Gospel which they have not so much as attempted to do and therefore prove nothing Yea the Chiefest of their Divines as Calvin Musculus Corretus deny this Place to be understood of the Righteousness of the Saints under the Gospel Freedom from Sin demonstrated by Scripture-Testimonies but only of the Legal Righteousness of the Jews whom we leave them to Refute or Reconcile themselves to And proceed to their Second Argument from the Words of the Prayer Forgive us our sins But Men may pray for Forgiveness of Sins past though they sin not daily and this is the thing in Question Likewise this Argument drawn from these Words doth militate no less against Perfect Justification than it doth against Perfect Sanctification as G. K. hath at more length in his Quakerism no Popery in Answer to their Master J. M. pag. 41. They argue from the Words of the Apostle Paul Rom. 7.18 20. c. To will is present with me c. but they should have proved That the Apostle wrote of his own Present Condition and not as personating the Condition of others For the Apostle in the same 7 Chap. ver 14. saith of himself But I am Carnal sold under Sin But who will say That the Apostle as to his own Present Condition was then Carnal or if he was was there no Spiritual Men then or was he none of them But fourthly they urge 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves c. and here they are offended R. B. should say This is Conditional like the 6 Verse which they Confess is so For say they at the same rate he might alledge all the rest of the Verses of the Epistle to be Conditional But if it refer or allude particularly to the 6 Ver. the Reason will hold as to it though not of the rest that both they and the rest of the Verses of this Chapter do allude to the fifth The Supposition If so often repeated doth shew they are angry that R. B. should alledge WE here doth not include John more than the Apostle James 3.9 With the Tongue Curse we Men doth include James For first the Students will have James here included alledging it is spoken of Excommunication And here they take occasion to upbraid R. B. with Ignorance in Ecclesiastical Discipline but surely they have been either Dreaming or Doting when they so wrote For had they read the following verse they might have observed the Apostle Condemning this Cursing saying These things ought not so to be And we suppose they judge not their Ecclesiastical Discipline to be Vnlawful But being it seems ashamed of this Shift they give another Interpretation which destroyeth their own Cause alledging James might have understood it of himself before his Conversion The Tongue c. therewith Curse we Men how interpreted by the Students while perhaps he was a Curser Very well then let them give us a Reason why the Apostle John might not also have understood If we say c. of himself also before his Conversion But are not these thinkest thou Reader Learned Divines who to evite the Strength of a Scripture give it within the Compass of one page two Contradictory Expositions affirming them both and yet if the one be true the other must be false And then can shake them both off alledging They may render the Word by way of Interrogation And do we therefore Curse men Are not these rare Interpreters because the Apostle useth an Interrogation elswhere in this Chapter therefore this may be so done also But what then becometh of their Church-Discipline and other Interpretation These must be shut out of Doors Are not these like to be stable Preachers who give three different Interpretations to one Text if any one of which be true the other two cannot be admitted It seems these Young Men think to make a quick Trade of the Bible Cauponari verbum Dei who can thus play fast and loose with it at pleasure But to proceed they alledge Ecclesiast 7.20 There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Their Plea for sin from an Error in the Translation of the Text. This Argument is built upon an Errour of the Translation it should be translated Who may not sin qui non peccet so Junius and Tremellius Vatablus the Vulgar Latin and almost all the Interpreters have it and our English Translation Psal. 119. ver 11. translateth the same Hebrew Word so being in the same Tense which is the Second Future I have hid thy word in my heart that I may not sin against thee A second Place Ja. 3.2 In many things we offend all What then it followeth not thence that we offend at all Times or we can never but offend which is the thing under Debate But to Conclude they Confess we have other Exceptions which themselves it seems take no notice of because they are solidly refuted by their Divines and therefore say the Students the Quakers herein teach a doctrine contrary to the Revelations of God's Spirit in the Scriptures Answ. A quick way to dispatch Controversies indeed if it could hold but at present it may serve to shew the Students Folly not to Refute our Principles If their Divines have already done the Business so solidly might not they have spared their Labour which some of their own think had been their Wisdom Their Third Instance against the Quakers is pag. 74. their allowing of Women to Preach alledging It is directly contrary to 1 Cor. 14.34 35. Let your Women keep Silence c. and 1 Tim. 2. I2 Let the Woman learn in silence c. Here to begin like themselves they say G. K. is too much addicted to Women but they are dared if they can to produce any real Ground for this malitious Insinuation G. K. Vindicated from their Insinuations G. K. besides the Testimony of a good Conscience hath the Testimony of Hundreds who have known his manner of Life and Conversation from his Childhood to this Day that it hath been Honest and of Good Report so that he feareth not that the Lying Reports which the Malice of his Adversaries may raise can hurt him Yet these
are Men that solemnly profess they have abstained from Personal Criminations but seeing they have belied the Apostle Paul as is above observed G. K. may take it patiently to be treated at this Rate by Men of such Circumstances But if they think to infer it because G. K. doth plead for the Liberty and Priviledge of Women they might as well plead That G. K. is too much addicted to a Perfect Holiness because he doth plead for it or that the Students are too much addicted to sin since they plead for the Continuance of it for Term of Life They are little less than inraged that G. K. should have alledged the Testimony of Augustine and Bernard interpreting this Place of the Flesh and therefore they labour like Men in a Sweat for a whole Page against this to no purpose the only Reason of G. K's citing them being because some of their Preachers cried out against this Allegory as a horrid abusive thing in some Quakers to shew them it is none of the Quakers Coining but already used by Men by themselves applauded and commended Upon this they ask Have not some of our Antagonists been observed to make a Welchman's hose of the first Chapter of Genesis If they mean us let them prove we have so done as we have already proved they have again they ask Have not some Quakers been bold to aver that there was never any such real Tree as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil If they have let them instance and prove by whom it was spoken and writ and then they shall have an Answer As they proceed they give an egregious Specimen of their Folly alledging That if it did hold Womens Speaking in the Church Lawful as G. K. affirms that Women are not allowed to speak by Permission then a fortiori it is unlawful for them to speak by Commandment Who but the Students would talk at this rate As if a Commandment might not authorise a Man to do that which a bare Permission will not G. K's Arguments drawn from their own allowing Whores to speak and Women to sing they call Quibbles because they cannot answer which they Reply to only by Questions Do they allow Whores Authoritative Preaching affirming Women may sing Very well whether it be Authoritative or not whatsoever way they speak they keep not Silence and so the Apostle's Words are not taken strictly and literally which gains us the Cause and shews our Doctrine is no more directly against the Apostle's Words than their own Besides from this it followeth by the Students Confession that Women may as lawfully speak in the Church as the Licentiate Students whom the Presbytery permits to speak in the Church before they are Ordained They pass our chief Objection very overly drawn from 1 Cor. 11.5 where the Apostle gives direct Rules how Women should behave themselves in their publick Praying and Preaching alledging There are Rules given in Scripture concerning things that were never lawful but only permitted c. as of Polygamy under the Law But they should have remembred that these are Rules given by the Apostle to the Christian Church of Corinth And seeing the Students suppose That the Apostle gave directions to the Church of Corinth not only of things that belong not to them now but which are not lawful for them a Doctrine we question if their Masters will approve of or of the Consequence of which themselves are aware it remains for them to prove That these Two Rules forbidding Womens Speaking belong to us or is not of the number of these useless Rules more than that other concerning the manner of their Preaching So we hope this Solution it Impugned and desire they may be sure not to forget to bring us this Reason when they write next SECTION IV. Concerning the Necessity of Immediate Revelations to the Building up of True Faith containing an Answer to the Students second Section from pag. 78. to pag. 92. IN their stating the Controversy they say These Inward Revelations are not subjective Revelations or Divine Illuminations This is false for as we have above shewed one and the same Illumination that is Effective or Subjective is also Objective and the Objective is Effective Again they say The Question is not if Immediate Objective Revelations be possible or be sometimes made to some de facto This Concession will overthrow much of all their own Work For if they admit that any Person in our Time hath Immediate Objective Revelations admit Peter or John their former Argument will as much militate against this Real Immediate Immediate Objective Revelation asserted Objective Revelation granted by them as against those which they do not grant Seeing pag. 7. at the Letter A they say Suppose that the Spirit Reveal the Objects of Faith immediately none will deny that he is a Rule or rather Ruler to them who have him so A good Concession but which quite undoes their own Cause For now let us apply their former Argument against this Real Objective Revelation granted by them as thus We ought to believe That as the Rule of Faith of which there can be no Evidence given But There can be no Evidence in the World given of the Spirit that is in Peter and John Therefore c. Again if Peter and John say they can give an Evidence of the Spirit of God in them to wit their own Declaration in Life and Power as also the Immediate Testimony of the Spirit or the Scriptures-Testimony let us Apply in the last place their Argument used against us and see if it will not be as good against Peter and John whom they grant de facto according to their Hypothesis to have Immediate Objective Revelation The Argument is this That which as really agrees to Enthusiast Hereticks as to them can be no Evidence But That Evidence to wit their own Declaration and Saying that both they and their Adversaries have the Immediate Testimony of the Spirit witnessing to the Truth of it would as really agree to Enthusiast Hereticks Therefore c. Yea not only might they thus Argue against any Mens having Immediate Objective Revelation in our days but against the Prophets and Apostles having it seeing the Argument might every way be as strong against their having it as against our having it especially at such times as they wrought no outward Miracles in the sight of the People to whom they were sent as oft they did not When the Lord sent Jonas to preach to the Ninivites he wrought no Miracle in their sight Now let us put the Students in the Ninivites place and we shall find they could Argue as stoutly and hardily against Jonas as now they do against any Quaker They could tell him He could give no Evidence of the Spirit of God in him giving any such Message as for his Declaration it would not suffice because his saying he had the Spirit would be as good a ground for any other Enthusiast Heretick
As this manner of Separating men for the Ministry is nothing like the Church in the Apostles days so great Evils have and do follow upon it For first Parents seeing both the honour and profit that attends the Clergy do allot their Children sometimes from their Infancy to it and so breed them up on purpose And others come to Age upon the same Account betake them to the same Trade and having these natural and acquired Parts that are judged the Necessary Qualifications of a Minister are thereby Admitted and so are bred up in Idleness and Pleasure thinking it a disgrace for them to work with their hands onely if they study a little out of their Books to make a Discourse once or twice in a week During the Running of an Hour glass whereas the Gift The Clergy's Study out of Books the Gift of God Neglected Grace and Spirit of God to call gift and qualify for the Ministry is neglected and overlooked And many Covetous Corrupt Earthly Carnal men having a meer shew and form but strangers to and utterly ignorant of the inward work of Grace upon their hearts are Brought-in and Intrude themselves and so through them death barrenness and darkness and by consequence Superstition Error and Idolatry hath entred and leavened the Church And they that will narrowly observe shall find that it was thus the Apostasy came to take place of the truth of which I could give many Examples which for brevity's sake I omit For so the Office Reverence and Respect due to it was annexed to the meer Name so that when once a man was Ordain'd a Bishop or a Priest he was heard and believed though he had nothing of the Spirit Power and Life that the true Apostles and Ministers were in that in a short time the Succession came to be of the Name and Title and the Office was thereto annexed and not of the nature vertue and life Which in effect made them to Cease to be the Ministry Ministers of Christ but onely a Shadow and vain Image of it The Marred Church Compar'd to Thesci pieced Boat which also decaying was in some Ages so Metamorphosed that not onely the Substance was lost but the very Form wholly vitiated alterated and marred that it may be far better said of the pretended Christian Church as was disputed of Theseus's Boat which by the piecing of many new pieces of timber was wholly Altered whether indeed it were the same or another But in case that the first had been of Oak and the last pieces put in but of rotten Fir and that also the Form had been so far changed as to be nothing like the first I think it would have suffered no Dispute but might have easily been concluded to be quite another retaining nothing but the Name and that also Vnjustly Secondly The Abuse following the Distinction of Laity and Clergy from this distinction of Laity and Clergy this Abuse also followes that good honest mechanick men and others who have not learned the Art and Trade of Preaching and so are not Licentiated according to these Rules they prescribe unto themselves such I say being possessed with a false Opinion that it is not lawful for them to meddle with the Ministry nor that they are any ways fit for it because of the defect of that Literatur do thereby neglect the Gift in themselves and quench many times the pure breathings of the Spirit of God in their hearts which if given way to might have proved much more for the Edification of the Church than many of the Cunned Sermons of the Learned And so by this means the Apostles Command and Advice is slighted who exhorteth 1 Thess. 5.19 20. Not to quench the Spirit nor despise prophesying Both Protestants and Papists exclude Mechanick men from Preaching who greatly contributed to Reformation And all this is done by men pretending to be Christians who glory that the first Preachers and Propagators of their Religion were such kind of plain Mechanick men and Illiterate And even Protestants do no less than Papists Exclude such kind of men from being Ministers among them and thus limit the Spirit and Gift of God though their Fathers in opposition to Papists asserted the contrary and also their own Historys declare how that kind of Illiterate men did without Learning by the Spirit of God greatly contribute in divers places to the Reformation By this it may appear that as in Calling and Qualifying so in Preaching and Praying and the other particular steps of the Ministry every true Minister is to know the Spirit of God by its vertue and Life to accompany and assist him But because this relates to Worship I shall speak of it more largely in the next Proposition which is concerning Worship The last thing to be considered and inquired into is concerning the Maintenance of a Gospel-Minister But before I proceed I judge it fit to speak something in short concerning the Preaching of Women and to declare what we hold in that matter Seing Male and Female are one in Christ Jesus and that he gives his Spirit no less to the one Womens publick Preaching and Praying Asserted than to the other when God moveth by his Spirit in a Woman we judge it no ways unlawful for her to preach in the Assemblies of God's People Neither think we that of Paul 1 Cor. 14.34 to reprove the Inconsiderate and Talkative Women among the Corinthians who troubled the Church of Christ with their unprofitable Questions or that 1 Tim. 2.11 That Women ought to learn in all silence not usurping authority over the man any ways Repugnant to this Doctrine because it 's clear that Women have Prophesied and Preached in the Church else had the saying of Joel been badly applied by Peter Acts 2.17 And seeing Paul himself in the same Epistle to the Corinthians giveth Rules how Women should behave themselves in their publick preaching and praying it would be a manifest Contradiction if that place were other ways taken in a larger sense and the same Paul speaks of a Woman that laboured with him in the work of the Gospel and it is written that Philip had four Daughters that prophesied Acts 21.9 And lastly it hath been observed that God hath effectually in this day Converted many Souls by the Ministry of Women and by them also Quest. IV frequently Comforted the Souls of his Children which manifest experience puts the thing beyond all Controversy Ministers Maintenance but now I shall proceed to speak of the Maintenance of Ministers The Ministers Food and their Maintenance Stated § XXVIII We freely acknowledge as the Proposition holds forth that there is an Obligation upon such to whom God sends or among whom he raiseth up a Minister that if need be they Minister to his necessities Secondly That it is lawful for him to receive what is necessary and convenient To prove this I need not insist for our Adversaries will readily grant
understood of true and saving Grace but let him Inform according to Scripture How any Man can come to tast of the Heavenly Gift and of the Powers of the Life to come and be made partaker of the Holy Ghost without true and saving Grace For what he adds to this being built upon the Supposition of Election I refer it to what is abovesaid upon this Subject He Concludes Vossius's Testimony to be false in saying That this was the Common Opinion of the Ancients But if so little Credit be to be given him he did not well that made so much use of him to prove what was Pelagius's Doctrine as he has done throughout this Treatise For John Owen's Citations I have neither Accommodation nor Time at present to Examine them it is enough to me that this is Contrary to Scripture though all these he mentions had said so To prove That Men may have a good Conscience and yet want true Faith he bringeth Paul's Words Acts 23. v. 1. where speaking of himself while a Pharisee he saith He lived in all good Conscience before God c. but that will not meet this Case Those 1 Tim. 1.19 who are said to Make shipwrack of a good Conscience are such who believed the true Doctrine of Faith in Christ A Man may live in good Conscience to other Principles while Ignorant of the true Faith in Christ. as himself before acknowledgeth Now albeit a Man may be said to live in good Conscience to other Principles while Ignorant of this yet he should prove How a Man can be said to have a good Conscience with respect to the true Faith of Christ held by him and yet without saving or true Grace With Railing he tells me pag. 358. N. 18. that Phil. 1.6 and 1 Pet. 1.5 speak of God's beginning and perfecting the Condition And what then yet God doth not this against our Wills it is with a respect to our performing the Conditions on our part which yet we cannot do without him Then he goes about to prove That Paul could not fall in answer to my saying from 1 Cor. 9.27 That Paul supposeth a possibility that he might become a Reprobate But if the Reader Consider how I bring that in my Apology he will find he had no reason for this Cavil for I alledged it only to Reprove those that are too too secure shewing where Sin was there was always a Ground of Jealousy Since the Apostle did reckon it needful to keep under his Body to subdue Sin that he might not become a Reprobate Which since the Apostle did but upon this Supposition if he did not keep under his Body suppose possible others had no Reason to presume SECT XI Wherein his Sixteenth Chapter Of the Church his Seventeenth Of the Ministerial Call his Eighteen Nineteen and Twenty First Of their Qualifications Office and Maintenance and his Twentieth Of Womens Preaching is considered ¶ 1. HIs Chapter of the Church is soon dispatched for it contains scarce any thing but Perversions and Railing For after he has given a large Citation out of their Confession of Faith and then added some Enlargements of his own and some little nibbling Cavils to what I say of No Salvation being without the Church pag 361. he goes on with his old reiterated Calumny That I suppose Men may be made Members of the Catholick Church by the Light of Nature which is utterly false And upon this false Supposition is built his N. 5. pag. 362. as also what he saith pag. 364. But N. 4. he screws this to a greater Pitch of Falshood affirming J. B.'s gross Calumny That our Faith and Principles are only taught by the Light of Nature That what I say of a Particular Church gathered together in the Faith of the true Principles and Doctrines of Christ by the Spirit of God and Testimony of some of his Ministers is that these are Persons only taught by the Light of Nature and by such Ministers as preach nothing of the Gospel Against a Man thus desperately resolved and determined to Lie and Calumniate there can be no Guard bu sure all sober Readers will abhor such Dealing What I speak of a Church in this Respect is only of such as have the Advantage of the outward Knowledge of Christ as my Words afterwards shew where I say Such were the Churches gathered by the Apostles of which the Scripture makes mention And therefore what he Objects That cannot be done by Pagans is wholly Impertinent and doth but verify the grosness of his Calumny which he endeavours to inculcate as a Truth to his Reader pag. 363. as if what I say further of the things requisite to be a Member of this Particular Church were a third Sort and not a more particular Description of the former Which the Reader may easily observe by looking to the Place to be a meer Fetch of his to afford himself some matter of Cavil Which imagining he has got he fills up the Paragraph with gross Lies and Railing saying That the Quakers believe not the Holy Truths set down in the Scriptures because they oppose and contradict them J. B.'s further Lies against us of the Scriptures of Christ and our Faith That they believe not in nor make Profâ—ssion of Jesus Christ Revealed in the New Testament because they oppose him and all his Institutions That Faith according to them is not wrought by the Spirit of God but that Nature can sweetly and naturally Incline yea Compel thereunto All which are Gross Calumnies And then he concludeth saying And thus we have Run round and are again where we began which is very true for he began with Calumnies and having run round the same way his Work Resolves in them Pag. 364. He affirmeth Men may be Members of the visible Church and consequently ought to be reputed such who are ungodly and without holiness and offereth to make it good if I will form a Dispute upon it but I leave him as to this to Dispute with his Learned Dr. Owen whose Works he has Applauded in this Treatise and whom his Postscript-Brother R. M. has in his Preface to this J. B.'s Book highly Commended as a Gracious Man As for his Silly Argument that from the Apostle's saying Act. 2.39 The Promise is unto you and to your Children and 1 Cor. 7.14 it follows Men become Members of the Church by Birth I leave him to debate it with his great Author Thomas Hicks who will tell him if he be Consonant to his own Principles it is a Babylonish Invention But J. B. hath here unawares Contradicted himself for if these Scriptures prove Men become Members of the Church by Birth then the Sprinkling them with Water sometime after they are born or their Baby-Baptism J. B. shuts out their Baby-Baptism from making them Church-Members is not necessary to make them Members of the Church and they are to be accounted such without it He saith I am mistaken when I say
Motion or Assistance will come afterwards to be proved and to suppose God cannot or will not move any but Ministers by his Spirit to Exhort were to limit him which is presumptuous in us to do But in this appeareth the difference Some do not Speak altho ' endued with the Spirit in Publick that we Confess many may and know Thousands among us whom we acknowledge to be good Men and sufficiently Endued with the Spirit towards the work of Regeneration in themselves and brotherly Love and Care to their Brethren who never find themselves moved to speak a Word in Publick and there are others whom God calleth to make Teaching and the Over-sight of the Church so their Constant Business that they are less engaged in worldly Affairs than the generality of those called Clergy-men even among J. B.'s Brethren and therefore are owned and honoured and so far as need requires maintained by the Church But to say that no Man ought without he be thus particularly Called at any time speak in a Publick Assembly since we say that they ought not but when moved by the Spirit is not only to accuse us Yet none to bind up God from moving with his Spirit when and in whom he please but imperiously bind up God from moving with his Spirit whom and when he pleaseth And this being Applied will Answer his Queries pag. 369. where n. 14. he affirms That to suppose Ministers may use an honest Trade is to account the Work of the Ministry a light business But this is to account it no more a light business than the Apostle did who recommended Working with their Hands for a livelihood to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus Act. 20.34 35. giving them his own Example in so doing But they indeed must have small Experience of a true Ministry who do not know a Man may be better qualified to discharge it by being inwardly exercised in the Spirit and Instructed thereby than by all the Labour and Study they can derive from their Books and perhaps it may be true Book-Study will not do Paul labour'd with his Hands which he after affirms that such who bring their Preaching always out of Books will find little time to follow another Trade but it seems such Preachers are uncapable to follow the Apostle's Exhortation above mentioned and therefore we will justly conclude them to be no true Gospel-Ministers ¶ 5. That he may be like himself he begins his 20 th Chapter of Women-Preachers with Railing saying The Quakers are against all the Appointments and Ordinances of Christ then he goeth on at a high rate Inveighing against the Liberty of Womens speaking from Paul's words 1 Cor. 14.34 as being against the Law as being contrary to Modesty and Shamefacedness urging pag. 398. the Apostle's Authority in Writing that Epistle which we deny not And then he urgeth against us 1 Tim. 2.11 alledging That its being said Adam was first formed and then Eva and Eva being first in the Transgression infers that Womens Preaching is against the Law of Nature and that this Silence is imposed upon Women as a just Judgment for Eva 's Transgression For this last Inference we have nothing but his Affirmation To the former I answered in my Apology shewing that these words of the Apostle cannot be taken absolutely and without limitation since the same Apostle giveth Rules How Women ought to Pray and Preach th' Apostle tells how Women should behave themselves in their Praying and Preaching in the Church But he reckons that this is for me to make the Apostle Contradict himself while this is his own Case who takes the Apostle's words without limitation else there is not the least Contradiction yea his desiring them to Ask their Husbands at home shews that it cannot be taken Vniversally seeing all Women have not Husbands And for his saying That what the Apostle saith Chap. 11. v. 5. But every Woman that Prayeth or Prophesieth with her Head uncovered c. is not to be meant of their carriage when they are Praying themselves but when they are present at others doing of it This is his bare Affirmation without Proof Contrary to the express words of the Text which saith Every Woman that Prayeth c. not when she heareth another Pray And by this way it might be as easily affirmed where the Apostle in the same place speaks of Men's Praying with their Heads covered that it is not when they Pray themselves but when they hear others And that there must be a Limitation he confesseth saying That the Lord made use of Prophetesses of Old and that he is free to make use of whom he will If so then if the Lord do so now who dare plead against it Yea the practice of J. B.'s Brethren doth Contradict this Scripture if they will not admit a Limitation For will he deny but heretofore at Presbyterian Meetings where sometimes 20 and 30. and more have been together Women have both Spoken and Prayed And have not Women Spoke and Prayed at your Meetings yea been Invited too yea been invited and urged to do so by Eminent Preachers there present And is not that properly a Church where Christians are met together to Worship God and Edify one another If he say this was only private I answer However Private it was it was still a Church for it is not the Greatness of the Number that makes the Church since the fewer Number may more properly sometimes be Esteemed the Church than the greater And if he take the Apostle's words absolutely without Limitation it will Exclude Women from speaking in any Assembly met for Religious Worship and Exercise unless he will be so Superstitious as to ascribe the Churchship to the old Popish Mass-house-Walls and if so What! is the Church Old Popish Mass-House-Walls it will trouble him to prove there were any such in Corinth used by Christians when the Apostle wrote to them so as to think that if Women speak not there they do not speak in the Church And yet how comes it that by the Acts of the General Assembly Whores are not only permitted but constrained to speak in the most publick Assemblies and that in a place allotted for them no less Eminent than the Pulpit Sure if such Women may there speak of their sins and tell how they have been Tempted of the Devil good Women moved by the Spirit of God may tell what God has done for them in preserving them from such Evils Neither will it serve to say that it is not Authoritative speaking for the Apostle's words are I permit not a Woman to speak not I permit her not to speak Authoritatively for the words added Nor to usurp Authority over the Man is a distinct Precept Women may usurp Authority over their Men who never offer to Preach in the Church as also some may speak there who may be very subject to their Husbands Besides they permit Women to Sing publickly which