the Objection no body denying that if Christ that 's crucified be not within us we are Reprobates but within six lines after he has these Passages the Brief Discovery charges The Apostles preached Christ that was crucified within c. Now allowing this Sophistry we defy any Turk Jew or Atheist nay even the Devil himself to utter so vile a Blasphemy but that it may be made as Orthodox as the Creed But let wise Men judg whether this ought to be allowed any Writer who undertakes to vindicate another when by his confession if the words be read as they are and have been printed for many and many years the Author must be guilty of Blasphemy Great endeavours has he used in many places to vindicate himself and others from Blasphemy as where he says That which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures and greater but the best way he ever took was when charg'd with that most blasphemous passage against the Trinity in a Book put out by him and three other Quakers called Ishmael and his Mother cast out where they bespeak their Adversary thus The three Persons thou dreamest of which thou wouldst divide out of one like a Conjurer are all denied and thou shut up with them in perpetual darkness for the Lake and the Pit Geo. Whitehead does now expresly disown the words tho they were justly chargeable upon him as well as the others being Partner with them in the whole and setting his Name without any distinction to the intire Book affirming that they are none of his and that he wrote not that part of the Answer and that he shall neither stand by nor own these words c. This we are sure is the best way he could take to vindicate himself tho thereby he has left his three Brethren under this black mark of being Blasphemers for to say only The words appear too rash and irreverent is handling the Ulcer too gently which ought to be cut out to the very Coar But if we may believe a great and good Man Geo. Whitehead could not always thus excuse himself in this particular for the Reverend and Learned Dr. Falkner in his Treatise of Reproaching and Censure Part 2. cap. 3. sect 1. num 5 6. p. 265 266. tells us That when he disputed with Geo. Fox and Geo. Whitehead at Lynn Regis in the County of Norfolk Anno 1659 they sent him nine Questions or Positions rather the first of which was against the three Persons of the Deity And in the first day they plainly declared themselves against the three Persons of the Trinity and then says Dr. Falkner I charged G. Whitehead in the presence of Geo. Fox and a great number of other Witnesses with those horrid and blasphemous words against the Trinity aforementioned which says the Doctor he neither did nor could deny but this wicked Assertion was written and published by him and his Companions it seems he made no such excuse for himself then or declared that he would not stand by or own them as he now does for what Reason let the World judg Nay in his dispute with Mr. Suith of Christ's College in Cambridge he owned the Book for says Mr. Smith to him tell me plainly whether you will own it or not if you will not at all then tell me what you will own and what not if you will not own it speak To which George Whitehead answers Well I will own it prove what you can Smith's Quaker disarmed printed 1659. Tho the licentiousness of those times permitted Men to belch forth any Poison their corrupt minds had conceived against the Trinity which they durst not now do but to show says that Reverend Person their particular zeal to oppose the Holy Trinity I received a Paper of four Queries directed to them that affirm that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead and that the Father is the first and the Word the second and the Spirit the third and that the second was begotten as to his Godhead wholly level'd against the Doctrine of the Trinity and subscribed by G. Whitehead and G. Fox After I had returned an Answer to these I received another large Paper containing a long Harangue against the Holy Trinity with Geo. Whitehead's Name alone subscribed In this Paper which says the Doctor I have by me it is declared That to call three distinct Persons in the Trinity are Popish Terms and Names the Papists do call the Godhead by c. As if none but Papists did so or 't was never done till the days of Popery thus labouring to render the Doctrine odious by representing it as Popish However whether it be owing to the change of his Mind or for fear of the Scourge that was over him viz. that Passage in the Act for Toleration which secures a Reverence to this Doctrine of the Trinity Provided that neither this Act nor any Clause Article or Thing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to give any Ease Benefit or Advantage to any Person that shall deny in his Preaching or Writing the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity as it is declared in the aforesaid Articles of Religion we are glad to find him at length returning to a more fober mind and wish he would have corrected if not his Sentiment yet his Stile in many other Particulars as plainly blasphemous as this taken notice of in the Brief Discovery but meerly to seek out and study Evasions does but multiply words and argues a mind very mean and insincere studious only of preserving a Name and upholding a Party We have endeavoured a just and honest Reply labouring to set things in a right Light and thereby evidencing the Truth of what we had charged them with We speak as to wise Men and let them judg between us for we can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth And as to the Persons of these Men we have no particular quarrel with them neither have we to our knowledg any Family of their Perswasion in all our Parishes which is a happiness that many of our neighbour Ministers cannot boast of and had they not grown to such an insolence as even to dare all our Robe with a particular Challenge as not only we but our Superiors apprehended we should never for ought we know in any publick way have entred the Lists with them but being duly and regularly called forth as we made appear in our first piece stiled The Quakers Challenge we hold it both just and dutiful to our Religion Superiors and our selves to indeavour maintaining the Orthodox Faith of that Church we profess our selves Members and Ministers of And whereas many the Laodiceans of this Age have blamed us for contesting with so foolish a People as the Quakers generally are telling us That we might have found a better employment than to be busied with such Impertinents as these planting a Battery against Aspin Leaves
and St. Ignatius tho rather from the latter A Man would be apt to believe that these Authors wrote the Life of George Fox by Prophecy truth is you may take it to be the life of Loyola or Fox which you please but to return P. 6. Brief Discovery charges Fox for saying in Saul's Errand p. 8. He that hath the same Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ is equal with God To which Whitehead P. 9. ult answers We deny the Words as there printed to be according to Fox ' s sense P. 10. init or ours and he tells us the words he that hath should be left out It must be so or I can't for my heart tell how to defend our dear Friend George Fox from the Imputation of Blasphemy and then Panduntur Portae we break down our Walls and strongest Bulwarks and let in the deceitful Greeks upon us and so our Troy is lost No those words he that hath must be left out And had the Fool left out the little Monosyllable no when he said in his Heart there was no God he had been as Orthodox as Brother Fox But for once George deal a little sincerely with us and tell us whether as the Words lie in the Citation P. 5. col 2. they are Blasphemy or no. In thy Charitable Essay thou tellest us it was only an accidental Mistake an Excuse thou hast cut out for Fox which may serve for every Blasphemy Quakers or any other can be charged with slips of the Pen accidental Oversights innocent Mistakes and 't is a good Horse never stumbles tho we are told yours never does being infallible in all his paces But George do words slip accidentally from the mouth of the Lord as those were said to have been spoken does the Spirit of the Lord write blindfold and at adventure Had his Brother Fox been alive he would not have been ashamed to father the Brat being so like him in all its Features neither would he have taken it kindly for thee to deny him such a friendly Office and hadst thou not thought it a Monster thou wouldst not have refused as much asthou hatest Godfathers to have answered for it notwithstanding a Mole or a little blemish upon its Face a small Mistake But now these words he that hath must be discarded and cashiered But George to be sure those words are found printed there and have been so this 40 years and not only in Fox's life time but view'd and review'd by the second day's Meetings and never yet amended or corrected tho now when a more diligent search is made into your Principles these words are disown'd and rejected as stoln goods are thrown away by the cunning Thief when the hue and cry is close at his Heels We are glad however so hardy a Forehead as Whitehead's is can blush at the Blasphemy of these words They are not Fox's says Whitehead but Francis Howgill very ingenuously P. 232. owns that they are Fox's and is ready to fall fowl upon Whitehead as well as his other Opponents calling them even Beetles and Owls for stumbling at such a Straw The first thing thy dark mind stumbles at says Howgill is that some have said it seems Fox had Company with him He that hath the Spirit of God is equal with God and he labours to confirm it by adding he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit there is Unity and the Unity stands in equality it self Silly Creatures and blind Buzzards saith he to be offended at so light so trivial a Blasphemy We expected Whitehead would have given Howgill a sharp rebuke for so bold a Reflection no he passes it over without any notice for Friends must not fall out for a hard word or two but when he labours to clear Howgill whom we cited as justifying George Fox herein he with great sincerity leaves out the first part of the Quotation viz. The first thing thy dark Mind stumbles at is that some have said that they that have the Spirit of God are equal with God and begins He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit there is Unity and the Unity stands in Equality it self there is Equality in Nature tho not in Stature Here says Whitehead the Equality is placed between the Father and the Son as the Union is between him and them A most evident Falshood such an one as if he has not Aes triplex circa pectus his Conscience must feel Remorses for Do but read the Words He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit Is not the Unity here between the Lord and him that is joined to him Is not here the Unity and is it not this very Unity that is the Unity between God and Believers which stands in Equality it self Or else how would he have vindicated Fox's words which he undertook to do and by consequence calls George Whitehead as good as Fool for stumbling at them It would not answer the Design of Howgill which was to prove a good Man was equal with God only to prove God the Father and God the Son are equal Where Howgil says there is equality in Nature tho not in Stature hear what Whitehead says to this The Equality in Nature relates to the Divine Nature which the Child of God partakes of in measure Did ever any one hear before now of an Equality to the Divine Nature in measure i. e. a short defective unequal Equality Equal in Nature to God in measure See Wyeth's Switch p. 20. may pass for another Blasphemy or at least Nonsense without measure Whitehead p. 11. appeals to his Reader whether he has not more right to put a sense upon his Friends words than we so then tho Fox's words were Blasphemy yet we may be assured for Whitehead says it his sense and meaning was not so it seems he wrote one thing and meant another which William Penn in his Rebuke p. 8. saith is to be no better than one of the worst of Knaves when he said Equal he meant not Equal when he said Infinite he meant not Infinite when he said a part of God he did not mean a part of God so that we must read him as we do Hebrew backwards This is a common muse Whitehead has made for the Fox to creep out of here and in many other places he meant thus and thus but let this serve for a general Answer We charge not their Meanings but their Words with Blasphemy nor has G. Whitehead nor any Man else a power to put what sense they will upon words but they must be conceiv'd to signify what in the common usage and custom of the Country they import that being Vis Norma loquendi the Force and Rule of speaking CHAP. III. Of INFALLIBILITT AND now for Infallibility the grand Sinew of Quakery and Popery too and if we can but shake this Pillar we certainly pull down the House upon the Heads of these Philistines we say then this is
thing which is of God and from God Now where is the Blasphemy I pray cries Whitehead 'T is strange he should ask when Fox asserts good men to be perfect as God and that as he is so are they in Equality with him had he said as G. Whitehead does here 'T is not for any Man or Men to be perfect God but perfect men true Men as their heavenly Father is true God tho these Expressions are far from being distinct and clear as we wish them and as their following words are Men after God's own Heart in sincerity and truth none of us would have quarrelled him for it But to oppose Men when they say That the Saints are partly sinful and falling in their best works as Fox did Mr. Cawdry P. 281. there and Phil. Langford for faâ—â—ing St. Paul was not freed from the Act P. 279. of Sin whilst in this Life and that tho Faith turns us from Sin yet we are subject to Sin the Act of Sin whilst in this mortal Body to oppose Men we say for speaking thus and tell them they are ignorant of Christ and this is not sound Doctrine speaks him a Pleader for absolute Perfection and a sinleâ—s state in this Life which we had Reason to censure as blasphemous When some Libertines broacht the same Doctrine and patronizâ—d it by the same Text Be ye perfect c. they were as severely brandâ—d by a learned Man who told Mat. 5. 48. them it was most impudently wrested to establish their most flagrant Wickedness Ad stabiliendam suam falsissimam impietatem impudentissime detorquetur herein And as to absolute Perfection which Fox assert in this and the following Quotations tho Whitehead would avoid the Odium of it we aver it not attainable by any mere Man in this state the Scriptures teaching us that in many things we offend all Jam. 3. 2. that there is not a Man that sinneth not 1 King 8. 46. and there is not a just Man upon Earth that doeth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7. 20. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth Bez. in Mat. 6. 10. is not in us 1 John 1. 8. which made David cry out Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143. 2. and hereupon our Saviour teaches us not more humbly than truly whatsoever either Pelagians or Quakers think of it to pray daily Forgive us our trespasses But they have thrown this Prayer out of their Houses and Meeting-places as Apocryphal as an old Almanack out of date in this their new year of Revelation And we shall add another Proof from thy self George which will convince thee sure that there are failings amongst the best in this Life even amongst the Quakers themselves In thy Epistle to Friends 1689 thou makest a lamentable P. 7. complaint of Quakers Failings that few of them had their minds exercised P. 10. in Prayer and Meditation that too many had their Hearts taken up with these fading Objects that they were degenerated into Pride Height of Spirit and Apparel contrary to Gravity Modesty Sobriety Plainness Simplicity Innocency and Humility We should con thee thanks George for this plain and honest Testimony but only we are afraid it dropt from thy Pen unawares thou didst not consider sure What a Quaker and confess Failings in Friends Can Infallibility ever trip or stumble Thou didst not perhaps consider how thou hast here exposed the Friends to the Pit and the Lake for Brother Burroughs hath told thee that God will accept none of them who have any Failings or perhaps thou mayst think because Fox says that Perfection is given to every Quaker in particular that all these Imperfections don't hinder the Perfection of a Quaker or that in them they are no Faults or Failings and so tho thy Testimony be very true we have no reason to thank thee for it yet we should be very glad to hear that when thou prayest among thy Friends thou shalt make as frank and open confession of Friends Sins and Failings to God that you may obtain Forgiveness as you have done to men Now if after all this the Scripture in several places stile some Men perfect and exhort all thereunto it ought to be understood so as neither to contradict plain Experience nor other Testimonies thereof which assert no Man to be without Gen. 17. 1. Sin whilst he is in this state and therefore Divines well say that our Job 1. 8. Perfection in this Life either refers to Sincerity and Uprightness or to our Endeavours Psal 37. 37. and Strivings after it which cannot be an absolute Perfection since Additions Phil. 3. 12 13 14 15. may be made thereunto and yet such are there stiled perfect or to a ripe well confirmed and settled Habit of true Holiness when the Soul is established in 1 Pet. 5. 10. Faith Love and Hope The God of all Grace make you perfect establish strengthen settle you Or else 't is a Perfection of Parts not of Degrees with reference to which a Child is as perfect as a Man and Christians in this Life have the Seeds of all Graces planted in them by the Holy Ghost tho they are not grown up to the highest degrees Or else they are stiled perfect comparatively 1 Cor. 2. 6. with respect to those that are less so Or lastly our Holiness is the same Mat. 5. 48. for Kind and Quality with that of God's and Christ's and therefore said to 1 Joh. 3. 3. be perfect tho not for Equality These and the like Distinctions give us a true Notion of our Perfection in this State which is far different from that we 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. shall attain unto in the Life to come where the Spirits of just Men are said to 2 Pet. 1. 4. be made perfect and when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away And whereas G. Whitehead asks Was not Perfection of Holiness Righteousness and Purity the Apostles Doctrine Intent and End of their Ministry No doubt so far as that they pressed upon Christians a striving after the highest measures attainable in this Life because when they had done their uttermost there was yet a plus ultra a higher measure that might be attain'd to And a learned Man shews that when St. Paul exhorted the Hebrews to go on to Perfection he means nothing else by it but the state of Chap. 6. Manhood which consists in a well-settled Habit of Wisdom and Goodness This is plain first from ver 11 12. where he more fully explains his meaning We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance v. 11 12. of Hope unto the end That ye be not sâ—othful but followers of them who thro Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Secondly from the latter end of
leave it out to make the better sense of thy Blasphemy shouldest thou have put in that Conjunction what nonsense would it have been it would have been thus all Scripture given by Inspiration and is profitable the copula and methinks should couple like Sentences and the former part of the Text cannot be a sentence without a Verb and if it must be like Sentences the Verb in the former part must be is as in the latter and so it runs as we well translate it is by Divine Inspiration and is profitable rather than the Scripture should be a perfect Rule Howgil would make it perfect nonsense 2. The Scripture must be our Rule for we are to try all things by it and hold fast that which we find streight and right nay by that we are to try the Quakers Rule it self 1 John 4. 1. we are to try the Spirits What must we try the Spirit by the Spirit 't is evident we are to bring it to some Rule or Ballance to find out its just weight and rectitude for there are many Spirits that walk now about and haunt our stuary ground the Spirit of Muggleton Fox and Naylor and there is one Spirit to be sure that challenges it as its right to possess it and dwell there and by what rule shall we determine the Controversy but by Scripture there 's none of these Pretenders can challenge any greater Authority over our Faith than others only the Scriptures which are the Letters missive and circulatory of the Spirit of God to his Church have such a right which have their Authority confirmed by such a Seal as cannot be counterfeited by Men or Devils and therefore may oblige us to believe them and that Spirit which agrees with their testimony 'T is utterly false what Smith says That the Spirit was the rule to them that Primmer p. 10. gave forth the Scriptures We say not the Spirit it self but the dictates of the Spirit which were as much a rule to them when written as when spoken to them This does not exclude the Spirit from having any thing to do to direct us what to believe and how to live for the Scriptures are the Spirits Rule given to guide us by Besides the Spirit of God opens our Eyes too much closed up since the fall so that we may the better perceive and believe the things contained in the Scripture and stir up our affections to embrace them observe the Rule our Saviour sends us to Mat. 21. 42. Did you never read in the Scriptures Ver. 22 29. Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Acts 8. 35. He began at the same Scripture and preached unto them Jesus Acts 17. 2 11. Paul reasoned with them out of the Scriptures Acts 2. what a long Sermon St. Peter preacheth there from the 14 th almost to the end all out of the Scripture Luke 24. 17. as also 32. he opened to them the Scriptures Moses and the Prophets were the Text he preach'd on Ver. 46. he carries their attention to what was written Joh. 7. 38. He that believeth on me not as the Light but as the Scripture saith John 19. 37. another Scripture saith all along they are sent to the Light without them to see what the Scripture saith John 20. 9. their want of Faith in Christ's Resurrection is attributed to their ignorance of the Scriptures strange the Light could not have informed them Philip corrects not the Eunuch for poring upon and scraping in the Scriptures as Fisher does in his Velata Revelata p. 845. Such Men says he as the Scribes are ever scraping in the Scriptures neither does he call them to mind the Light within Away with this dead Letter this Dust will choak you this Serpents Meat will poison you Ver. 35. he opened his Mouth and began at the same Scripture and preached Jesus But when shall we hear a Quaker begin a Sermon from a Text of Scripture By the way you see a Man may preach Jesus from the Letter Acts 18. 24. Apollo was mighty in the Scriptures the Scripture was the Sword of the Spirit Ephes 6. 17. by which the mighty Man and Evangelical Hero hewed down the Enemy before him they were not able to stand before the Dint of his Scripture-charge he mightily convinced them out of Scripture ver 28. Paul in his Dispute about Justification Rom. 4. 3. crys What saith the Scripture Rom. 11. 2. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith he brings all his Proofs from the Letter of Scripture Rom. 15. 4. all our comfort flows from those Wells of Salvation all written for our Learning that we through comfort and patience of the Scriptures might have hope And should these envious Philistines be suffered to stop up these Wells 2 Tim. 3. 15. Paul commends Timothy that from a Child he had been well acquainted with this Rule so that he became a Workman that needed not be ashamed The Scriptures you see in the Apostles days as many as were written were the only Rule they appealed to Fox jun. for above 200 Pages hath vehement Exhortations to mind the Light but not a word of reading the Scriptures in that whole Book Esa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word they may pretend the Spirit of God and a Light within if they will but they have no light in them says the Prophet That such an one as W. Penn should please himself with such a Gimcrack as to say in his answer to Faldo By the Law and the Testimony are meant God and Christ seeing then William we are saved by Christ we are saved by the Law 'T is much Mr. Pool should forget to grace his Synopsis with this Criticism if thou hadst any respect for Scripture sure thou wouldst not dally and play with it so wantonly We conclude then that the Scriptures are a Rule to them they are given to and 't was never denyed by any in the Christian part of the World but Quakers besides Atheists Deists and Papists and we envy them not the Honour of such Company Whitehead says p. 23. l. 7. They don't slight the Scripture nay p. 17. l. 4. They acknowledg them to be divine and prefer them before all other Books in the World We do them wrong to lay such an heinous Crime to their charge Alas poor Quakers to be so hardly censured when they call the Scriptures Dust Serpents Meat killing and deadly this is all for the profound Veneration they have for Scripture When they say their own Speakings are of equal Authority nay to be preferred before them nay the Scriptures may as well be burnt as their nonsensical Scriblings This is yet for the great respect and honour they bear to the Scriptures When they tell us the Scriptures have no authority of themselves not so much as that golden Legend of Father Fox's Journal unless we have a Câ—mmand again from within that is they have no authority unless we think they have
nay when they say 't is Blasphemy to say they are the Word of God and they are no rule at all to us All is for the wonderful deference they have for those â—â—â—â—ed Books For shame â—ir after all the Wounds you have given to the Scriptures to add Mockery and Scorn to Stripes and after you have spit upon them reviled and buffeted them to put the Purple and the Crown upon them as the Jews did upon their Author after such Indignities to cry out O how we love and honour them after the Treason to bestow the Kiss See Will. Penn's Courtship to the Scripture * Reâ—â—inder p. 1â—â— but especially Sam. Fisher's †Additional Append. p. 21. He calls the Scripture a Nose of Wax and it 's capable of being made no other a Character he took from the mouth of a Jesuit Andradius but Quakers we hope like it never the worse for that We could easily shew you that all the Arguments that Fisher and Pen use to prove the Scriptures are not the rule of Faith are the same the Papists have used this 100 years if they had been 7 years at School at Rome they could not have spoke Italian plainer than they have done A little further Fisher tells us he and the Quakers have put it to the question how it may be known infallibly that the Scripture is all of God and not a cunningly devised Fable He tells us of the uncertainty of Translations the various Lections and the loss of many Portions of them which they needed not have taken such pains about for the Papists have done that before and Penn in the forecited place hath mustered up a great many more such Popiâ—â— Objections against the Scriptures which were cast in our dish by Papists and as often answered before Quakery was born but all that you must understand is said for the great respect they bear to the Scriptures Reader if thou desirest to see more of such respect to the Scriptures see Parnel p. 16. You Teachers are doting upon Scriptures without with your dark Minds with the blind Pharisees seeking for life where it is not to be found P. 18. We can do all things without the Scriptures or any thing without Solomon Eccles coming into a Church at London naked and besmeared with T d carrying his â—ands fuâ—l of the same Filth compared it to the Bible which the Minister carried in his hand into the Pulpit Fisher in his Velara Revelata p. 845. says Such Men as the Scribes are ever scraping in the Scripture to find God yet never know him nor see his Shape To call our love to the Scriptures a senseleâ—s Dotage to compare David's Hony and Hony-comb as he calls the Word to a stinking Excrement and our reading the Scriptures to a Brute's scraping or rooting in a Dunghil must needs manifest a mighty respect they have for those Writings By the way does not Fisher deserve to be accounted Angelicus Doctor for talking of the Shape of God how glad would some Papists be if he could shew it them that they might draw his true Picture by it Lorreto Market would go near to be spoiled by it and most of her Votaries would come thronging hither sure to worship an Original But as a further Testimony of their respect for Scripture hear what Smith Morning-Watch p. 22 23. says Reading in the Scripture that there were some that met together exhorted one annother edified and comforted one another they observe and do as near as they can what is the Saints practice and so conceive a Birth in the same Womb and bring it forth in the same strength that others do these are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous Births have provoked the Lord and gâ—â—â—â—â—ed his Spirit What an hellish Smâ—ak is this a Belch sure from the bottomless Pit to say that our meeting together according to Scripture Examples to exhort comfort and edisy one another is no better than going to a Brothel-house for there can be nothing but Bastards got by it and adulterous Births This may pass for another Quaker-Panegy rick upon Scripture Penn calls Searchers of Scripture as Faldo quotes him p. 113. and in his Answer Penn does not deny it Lettermongers We suppose though he differ in expression from his Brother Smith his intention is the same he means Whoremongers or Bastard-getters All these Quotations have we brought to prove Friend Whitehead's Assertion That Quakers have a marveilous Honour for the Scripture though we believe heâ—ll hardly be so grateful as to give us thanks for our pains In a Testimony from the Brethren in London met 66 together signed Farnsworth Parker Whitehead see Brief Discovery p. 11. l. 5 they say If any difference arise in the Church we declare and testify that the Church with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ hath power without the assent of those that differ to hear and determine the same and if any of ours will not submit so to be tried nor submit to the Judgment given by the Spirit of truth in the Elders and Members of the same being consistent with the Doctrine of such good antient Friends as have been and are found in the Faith agreeable to the witness of God in his People viz. the Light within then we testify in the name of the Lord that he or she is to be rejected and joined with Heathens and Infidels Mark we pray if he or she kick against their Judgment consistent with the Doctrine of antient Friends and agreeable to the Light within Here is no notice taken of the Scriptures how agreeable or disagreeable soever it be to them And p. 23. l. 26. yet Whitehead hath the face to say this makes nothing against them It seems to be a small fault or none with G. to take away the Commission God hath given to the Scriptures to be Judg of Controversys in matters of Faith The Question G. is not whether the Church hath any Power in matters of Religion which is all thou provest from Mat. 18. 17. and we know none deny it 1. If it be exercised about indifferent matters in Discipline and Worship we allow her not only a Judgment of discretion to discern what 's fit to be imposed but also an authoritative Judgment to oblige her Members to obedience or else she would have less Authority over her Members than every Master hath over the Servants of his Family 2. As for things that are necessary to Salvation we think our selves only obliged to submit our Faith and Practice to the Authority of God in the Holy Scriptures and not to the Authority of any Church pretending to Infallibility meeting together in Treat or in Gracechurch-street So then that which we find fault with you for is a profane neglect of Holy Scriptures in determining matters of Faith or Doctrine that your Church should censure its Members only for this cause that you will not submit to the Authority of the Churches Judgment