saith that Author of theirs the Scripture saith not When we were enemies God was reconcil'd to us but when we were enemies we were reconciled to God But may not G. F. say what him pleaseth for he speaks by an infallible spirit 43 p. 100. He introduceth the Priest saying Nor is it an essential in-dwelling of the divine nature in Gods people c. His Answ Doth not the Apostle say the divine nature the Saints was made partekers of But where doth any Apostle say so Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.4 Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature he doth not say They were was made partakers of the divine nature but They might be which may relate to the time to come after the day of Judgment and not to the present time Hewever he affirms that which is false concerning the Apostle 44. The 44 th Instance shall be that in Heb 10.26 27. which he quotes thus p. 339. And be that sinneth after he hath received the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of Judgment Heb. 10.27 But the Scripture saith For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth c. where it 's evident enough that the stress of this Text lies in the term wilfully which G. F. is plesed to leave quite out for so it agrees better with his Doctrine of perfection and the Scripture must be made to speak to his mind though it be false or nonsence To let pass other differences between him the Text. 45. The next Instance is rather of his ignorance and idleness in the use of Scripture than of his corrupting it by misrecital for p. 337. against his Adversary that salth that they and the Papists and Jesuites do agree all together that the Scripture is the word of God c. he saith the Minisrers of the word calls the Scripture a Declaration as ye may read Luke 1. and ye do not agree with them that set forth the Acts that called it a Treatise Acts 1. and ye do not agree with John Rev. 22 who saith the words nor with Moses nor God who spake all these words Exod. 20. In the beginning was the word and the word is God and the word liveth and abideth for ever but the Scripture is words and the Scripture cannot be broken p. 337. I suppose he has this distinction between the word and words above 20 times in his Book But if he would have looked upon his Greek Testament wherein he pretends to such skill that he often corrects the Translators he might have found that that very word which they translate Treatise Act. 1.1 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Logon which is the same which in Jo. 1.1 is translated Word so that that very Text which he produceth against the Scripture it's being call'd word is a plain Text for it and the. Translators might justly and with great reason have translated thus The former word have I made c. and then Scripture would have been call'd in English word as it is in Greek So he saith p. 68. they the Scripture are not called the written word but words and yet his Greek Testament if he have one which I much doubt would have inform'd him that Scripture is called the word written 1 Cor. 15.54 where the English read the saying that is written but in Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ho logos ho gegrammenos the word written So that his distinction that he cracks so much of is come to nothing But we have little reason to expect that he that is so intolerably unfaithful in quoting the English should any way help it by the Greek which I shall show that for all his arrogant pretences he doth not at all understand 46. The A postle Paul 1 Cor. 14.31 For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted But G. F. practice and Doctrine of the Apostles in the true church which said let all speak one by one Thus he changeth prophesy into speak as if all speaking were prophesying 47. The 47 th particular shall be that of-womens speaking in the Church which the Apostle disallows in the same 14 th Ch.v. 34 35. in as plain and express words as can well be spoken saying Let your women keep silence in the Chruches 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 bus bands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the Church Here if the Apostle do not command silence to women by sex in those cases wherein he allows men by sex to speak I understand nothing tht's written But G. F.p. 386. speaking of the woman that is forbid to speak in the Church saith now the woman here hath a Husband to ask at home and not usurp authority over the man but Christ in the male as in the female who redeems from under the Law and makes free from the Law that man may speak c. Here we may perceive he allows women as well as men to speak in the Church and indeed your practice shews that women are not in any case excluded from speaking where it is permitted to men Also we may perceive that by the husband that is to be asked at home he means Christ Now if we may take liberty to expound Scripture after this manner I count it utterly impossible to prove any truth by Scripture then we may as well deny Scripture as affirm it It will be a nose of wax that may be turned which way we please I do not in this particular charge G. F. with misrecital of adding or diminishing from Scripture words because he neither quotes the place nor puts the words in Scripture Character as he doth in the other instances but the exposition which he gives of it is so gross and absurd that it may well be reckon'd among his abuses of Scripture Besides it seems to be built upon a mis-reading of Husband for Husbands because Christ who is but one is made the Husbands that must be asked at home So one of your Authors saith But what husbands have widows to learn of but Christ And was not Christ the Husband of Philips 4 danghters And may not they that learn of their husbands speak then 48. The 48 th Instance of his abusing Scripture shall be that great doctrine of yours of not calling men Master and thus he saith p. 43. Priest Why may they not be called Master Answ It is his master that teacheth him to be called of men Master that is gone out of the truth but Christ said ' Be not of men called Master and wo be to them that are Matt. 23. Thus for G. Where I observe first that he puts in here of men into the Text as
tell me what is It is now saith Daille of the right use of the Fathers the space of some Ages past since the Eastern Church accused the Western of having added Pilióque and the Son in the Article of the Nicene Creed touching the procession of the Holy Ghost But the Pope and his Council were never so impudent as to make that addition to the Scripture as G. Fox hath done See how upon occasion of an Inference not asserting it to be the words of Scripture G. Whitehead pronounceth the curse upon his Adversary John Newman Christ ascended c. p. 21 22. J. N. from Rev. 1.7 Those that pierced him in his body of flesh shall see that body visibly come again G. W.'s Answ These are not the words of Scripture but added although to add or diminish be forbidden under a penalty Rev. 22.18 19. Yet this mans presumption leads him to incur that What would G. W. have said to him if he had done a G. Fox has done Well! there is a righteous God that judgeth the heart and tryeth the reins and is no respecter of persons It 's true he doth not quote the Ch. and verse but more to blame he for if he had we could soon have seen his forgery whereas now perhaps not one of a Thousand that has read his Book has discovere it Or if he can tell us where those words of his are to be found in Scripture he shall escape the Curse for addition to it till then it lies upon him 22. The 22 th instance of his negligence and fallibility in quoting Scripture may be that place p. 71. of his Book where he saith and Paul declares himself take Paul's own words not of Man nor by man but by the will of God now this citation might have passed currant for Scripture though it 's no where found in this form for all I know but that he so confidently calls them Paul's own words which is false if they be not found together and not only apart 23. The 23 th this p. 68. speaking of the Churches or Temples wherein God is worshipped by some saith he Is God worshipped in Temples made with hands Is not be worshipped in the spirit and in the truth the different letter wherein he puts it intimates that he would have us take it for Scripture and there are some words like his in Joh. 4. and Acts 17. but in neither of those places are either the same words or the same sence but it 's sufficient against him that there are not the same words 24. The 24 th Scripture perverted is Joh. 7.38 He that believeth on me saith Christ as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shalt flow rivers of living water where his belly is plainly spoken of him that believeth but G. Fox applies it to the light Christ saying p. 130. and believing in the light Christ out of whose belly flowed rivers of living mater The light the light must be magnified by G. F. and the Scripture must be wrested to that purpose come on it what will 25. The 25 th instance of his fallibility or deceitfulness in the use of Scripture is taken from p. 27. where he makes the Priest say A true Church is guilty of Injury G. F. Answ Contrary to the Scriptures where the Apostle saith the Church is the pillar ground of truth without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing The Apostle saith indeed Eph. 5.25 27 Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing He saith That it might and should not that it is as our G. reperesents it 26. So he abuseth us with a defective quotation of the 30 th verse of the same Eph. 5. which he has both in the 11. and 12 th pages in the same manner as in divers other places The 11 p. thus Priest They are no Christians that doth not hold Christ absent from his Church but Antichrists By the way I believe he wrongs his Adversaries in making them speak bad English Answ Which is contrary to the Scriptures which say they are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and they are as nigh together as husband and wife But the Apostle thus For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones If he had not left out the former clause we are members of his body the latter clause which he takes would not so well have served his purpose and also have been more easily understood for we know it 's ordinary for a member of a Body or for the head it self of a Body which is an assembly as the word Ecclesia here rendered Church signifies to be in one Countrey when the Body or Society is at a far distance in another But this was not so discoverable in the Allegory of flesh and bones alone 27. The 27 th place shall show that our Author's memofulness or negligence as fallible rather more fallible than that of other men which is a great reflection upon his infallible spirit Thus p. 152. he saith And the Apostle said the deep things of God was revealed by the spirit of God It 's a small matter with him to make the Apostle speak bad English But the Apostle speaketh neither so nor so but God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 And v. 11. the Apostle saith But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God but G. Fox thus p. 39. The natural man receiveth not the things that be of God he leaves out spirit though for ought he knows there may be a vast difference between the things of God and the things of the spirit of God as there is a vast difference between blasphemy against God which may be forgiven and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall not be forgiven unto men Mat. 12.31 28. And if G. F. were a man capable either of rendring or understanding reason I would aske him why in using those words of Paul Rom. 14.9 he puts in the term God in stead of Lord for thus he saith p. 99. who Christ both died rose again that he might be God both of the dead and the living But the Apostle saith For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living So p. 17. Let the word of God dwell in you richly The Apostle hath Christ Col. 3.16 But this savours of his willingness to have no distinction between God and Christ For he saith p. 142. Christ is not distinct from the Father 29. And p. 160. by the Character he writes in he gives us these words for Seripture and so who is in Christ is a new creature And old things pass away But the A postle saith 2 Cor. 5.17 Therefore if any
is sometimes used when there is no swearning it seems to have been necessary for the Translators to put in I protest or some other word equivalent or else they had not fully expressed the full Import of the Apostles words But whether they have translated well or ill it 's certain that ne is in the Text which they have so translated and therefore it 's false that there 's nothing in the Text for I protest This puts me in mind of what he saith p. 117. it is no where said that the Apostle swore as if every one that swears must say I swear by God or the like or else he doth not swear that would be a notable way to excuse many thoustands of Oaths that are sworn by prophane men every day Now I would not have you think that I can produce no more Instances of this mans failure in quoting Scripture for I can more and yet I suppose I have not read above half that Book whence I have collected these For in truth it 's a burthen to me to read so many Tautologies and Repetitions so much non-sence and bad English so many Contradictions and Absurdities c. If you produce any man that has wrote a Book this 500 years wherein you can find so many or half so many false quotations of Scripture as I have shewed you in G. F.'s Book you will somewhat lessen then wonder and make it appear that he is not an unparallel'd perverter of Scripture but still one of the greatest that the world ever saw Surely those that are ingenuous among you will blush when you read what I have written for you are not concerned in him only as one of your party but as one and the chief one of your Ministers leaders and not only so but as in one that was of the first if not the very first that came forth in your spirit way one of greatest authority among you so great that some of you are offended to behold it one that writes in your behalf and professes to give answer in this one Book to above one hundred Books and papers of your Adversaries So that his faults are in some degree imputable to you especially if being warned you do not declare against them disown both him them Neither are these things that I object against him matters whose proof and evidence depend upon any curious arguments or even logical Demonstrations but upon the Demonstration of sense for the Question is How readest thou Doth the Scripture God Christ the Apostles and divinely inspired writers say those words that G.F. charges them with If not as I have shewed to your eyes they do not then I have proved what I undertook viz. that G. Fox is not only not infallible but a false prophet a liar or Impostor and that in matters which concern the most holy God and his Son and the holy Apostles and writers If I have prov'd also to your eyes that he passes severe censures upon others for far less crimes than himself is guilty of in the same kind then ought ye to condemn him out of his own mouth Moreover if according to your principle which forbids all swearing those of you that affirm falsly are to be reputed as perjured persons then G. F. is highly liable to be so reputed And if ye being now called as his Peers and as it were a numerous Jury to try and judge the cause of G. F. whether he be guilty or not guilty of those crimes which I have set before your eyes if ye I say shall not find and declare him guilty why shall not you also be accounted for perjured persons The evidence is not only as clear as that Twice two are four for G. F. has deny'd as plain a proposition as that namely that twice one are not two but all one but as clear as that one Egg is not two Eggs a Horse not a Cow or that THE is not AND c. And now that I have brought such undeniable evidence against him in obvious matters of fact I will take the boldness to tell you that it 's manifest also to any common understanding that F. G. neither knows the meaning of the words he writes nor considers them to such a high conceit of himself is he arrived Who that either knew or car'd what he said would have given out for Scripture such a plain absurdity as that in the 9 th Instance by whom the world was made before it was made Suppose he had reference to that in Joh. 1.3 and without him was not any thing made that was made Would any man but he have rendered it as he hath done What Sottishness what pride and folly would not you impute to another that should so do If he had known the meaning of the word infallible would he have said How can they but delude people that are not infallible As if there were no difference between To fail and To be not infallible Who but he would have said it was contrary to Christ's words to say That the Son of Mary God man is absent from his Church Who that knew what he said would have urged that Bunyan is deceived who said he Christ is Distinct from the Saints p. 16 and p. 293. that the Son is not distinct from the Father Who that knew the meaning of words would contend against him that said The soul is not infinite in it self but a creature and have asserted that it is infinite it self inmortal and infinite p. 29. and p. 68. Is not that the Soul of his being and p. 90. Is not the soul without beginning coming from God c. and p. 273. it is not horrid blasphemy to say the soul is a part of God for it came out of him c. Who that knew what he said or whereof he affirmed would have reasoned thus p. 325. If the seed of Israel be men then by thy account the seed of Israel is the seed of the serpent for they are men His Adversary chargeth him that he professed equality with God and he answers as if he did grant that some do witness equality with God only he did not say it of G. Fox See p. 127. If he had known the sence of the word carnal would he have said of the Bells p. 30. If they be not carnal then they are spiritual Who but G. F. would have said It was contrary to the Apostle's Doctrine to assert The Enjoyment of immortality is not till they have put off the body p. 40. And p. 55. he saith They that are not worshipping him Christ in them are worshipping men Devils or Angels But he never play 's the Critick with greater glory than when he meets with the word humane spoken of Christs nature for then he answers where doth the Scripture speak of humane the word humane where is it written tell us that we may search for it Now we do not deny that Christ according to the flesh was of