forget those things which are behinde and reaching forth unto those things which are before I presse toward the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded that is as many as are perfect by Justification But you will say that the Apostle was then in his warfare as you say he was when he writ the seventh Chapter to the Romans To which I answer that the Apostle and every Christian are in a warfaring condition so long as they live in this world else why doth the Apostle exhort the Ephesians to take unto them the whole armour of God For we wrestle not with Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against Spirituall wickednesse in high places And the Apostle writing to Timothy saith He is a good Soldier of Jesus Christ and saith fight the good fight of Faith For every Christian hath three great enemies to fight against so long as they live The Devill the World and the Flesh and I say you are no Christians if you do not finde these enemies to fight against Christ is called the Captain of our Faith I marvel that you Quakers are so proud to think and say you are more perfect than the Apostle Paul but you say that Paul had overcome his corruptions To which I answer that the Apostle saith that he had a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me my Grace is sufficient for thee Now by that thorn in the flesh is understood some corruption or some temptation which he was troubled with and was to war and fight against it so long as he lived for the Lord denyed his Petition to take it away but answered him My Grace is sufficient to support and uphold thee Wherefore know that so long as the Church of God in general or any member in particular have spiritual enemies so long are they in a warfare But the Church and people of God have spiritual enemies so long as they live in this world therefore are in a waring condition so long as they live in this world But you object the Apostle John saith He that commiteth sin is of the Devil I answer by the committing of sin is meant for a man to give himself up wittingly and willingly to sin to love it and delight in it now a Christian may say as the Apostle Paul said I do the evil that I would not so that it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me Also the Apostle saith He that is born of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him To which I answer that as a Christian is regenerate or born of God the regenerate part sineth not but there is in every Christian an unregenerate part which some time as the Apostle saith rebelleth against the Law of my minde or regenerate part and leading me captive unto the Law of sin which is in my members Then I my self though an Apostle in my minde serve the Law of God but in my flesh or unregenerate part the Law of sinne But some of you do farther object and say that Adam in Paradise was perfect and in his Innocency had no sin in him and all that are regenerate and born again are as righteous as Adam was in Innocency To which I answer that every believer is as righteous in and through Christ the second Adam as Adam was in the estate of Innocency and hath a more excellent righteousnesse than Adam had before his Fall for Adams righteousnesse was but that righteousnesse in which he was created the righteousnesse of a man subject to be lost but the righteousnesse which every Christian hath in and by Christ by which alone he is Justified is the righteousnesse of God as the Apostle saith we are made the righteousnesse of God in him for it is the righteousnesse of him who is God Minde in him not in your selves for if our righteousnesse were in our selves then might it be lost as Adams was but that conceit of yours of being as righteous in our selves as Adam was in Paradise you Quakers learned of the Familists and Adamites and as the Adamites did many of them go many times naked to manifest that they are as perfect as Adam was so have many of your Quakers goâ—e up and down naked to manifest that they are as perfect as Adam was in Innocency who was naked and was not ashamed And some of your company have justified the lawfulnesse of their going naked because Adam and Eve were naked in Paradise and were not ashamed But all this doth proceed from your ignorance of the righteousnesse of Christ by Faith by which alone we are made perfect not in our selves but in Christ according to that saying of the Apostle Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us that being justified by his Grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life But I say you being ignorant of this righteousnesse of Justification go about to stablish an imaginary righteousnesse in your selves by which you rob Christ of his glory and take the glory due to him unto your selves and I have been the larger in this point that so you may be convinced of this your grosse error for if you erre in this you erre in the foundation and stumble at Christ the Corner-stone who will break you in pieces But if a Man hold the foundation and build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble If a mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer losse but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Wherefore I say if you did hold the foundation for your other stuffe of wood hay and stubble I should believe you might be saved yet so as by fire And now I hope I have proved that our Ministers do not preach to maintain people in sin but contrary they Preach that we are justified and made perfect in and by the righteousnesse of Christ alone which righteousnesse apprehended by Faith doth draw the Soul out in love to God in Christ which love of Christ doth constrain them to walk in all works of righteousnesse towards God and love to their brethren and these works are evidences of the truth of their Faith and negatively wheresoever these good works are wanting there is no true saving justifying Faith Now I come to your last ground by which you would prove our Ministers to be false Teachers Your seventh and last ground is because there is no better fruits of or by their Preaching for say you there are many sins in which both Priest and People do live in For answer to which I say that if this be a ground to prove a Minister to be no true
any conference with the Papists Armenians Pelagians and Familists that they all hold plead and maintain that there is a light in every mans conscience which if he improve and husband well they may attain Salvation by which you may see how much you are deluded and deceived that think your selves run so far from the Papists when you are run to their chief principles of Religion I do not much wonder at your change seeing you are fallen from this article of Justification by Faith alone for as Luther well observeth and foretold Wherefore saith he I say as I have oftentimes said that there is no remedy against Sects and Errors or power to resist them but this only article of Christian Righteousnesse if we lose this article it is impossible for us to withstand any Errors or Sects as we may see at this day in the fantasticall Spirits the Anabaptists and such like who being fallen away from this article of Justification will never cease to fall erre and seduce others untill they come to the fulnesse of all iniquity Minde There is no doubt but they will raise up innumerable Sects and shall devise new works but what are all these things though they have never so goodly a shew of holinesse if we compare them to the Death and Blood of the Son of God who gave himself for me and is it any strange thing to see a man go astray when he hath lost his right way Now Christ is the way and the only way all other wayes are by-paths of a mans own invention he is the rock of ages the chief corner-stone and who ever stumbleth on him he must be dashed in pieces and though a man do erre in many things as we all do yet if he hold fast the foundation he shall be safe and this doctrine of Christian righteousnesse or the righteousnesse of Christ alone apprehended by Faith is this sure foundation and if we miscarry in that we perish eternally but holding that fast we shall be safe to all eternity And now I shall endevour to answer you and the Papists objections concerning this doctrine preached and maintained by our Ministers that a Christian is made perfect by what Christ alone did and suffered and not by any thing done in us or by us Now you Quakers and the Papists do object against this doctrine that it is a doctrine that giveth people liberty to sin and to neglect good works for say you if we lay all our sins upon Christ then we make him a pack-horse for to bear our sins and it matters not how we live in sin Christ having satisfied for them For answer to this I say that this doctrine is a doctrine of Christian Liberty and not a doctrine of Carnal Liberty but such who have carnal hearts and never felt the life and power of Faith have abused this doctrine of Christian Righteousnesse to Carnal Liberty and will abuse the same for the best things are most subject to abuse but the abuse of any thing doth not take away the lawful use of it In the Apostle Paul's dayes there were such for the Apostle having preached the doctrine of Free Grace That where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound what then shall we say shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid Offences will come saith Christ but woe be unto those by whom they are given Some followed Christ for by-ends and there were many in the Church of Corinth and Galatia and Philippa that walked disorderly but yet the Apostle Preached and writ this doctrine of Free Justification We know in civil things how apt men are to abuse them as Wine and strong Beer to Drunkennesse good Meat to Gluttony shall we say therefore they are not good nor lawfull to be used and we know a sick Stomach cannot well digest the best meat and shall we therefore say the meat is not good do you not know that Christ saith that many are called but few chosen many called to the external profession of the Gospel but few that live answerable thereunto But the Gospel is still the same and to be Preached as the Apostle saith I am called to Preach the Gospel and wo is me if I Preach not the Gospel and the chief cause why so many walk disorderly is because people do not believe this doctrine of Free Grace for The Grace of God which hath appeared and bringeth Salvation teacheth us That denying ungodlinesse and wordly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world The apprehending of the love of God in Christ is that which draweth the heart to love God and love our Brethren as it is said of Mary Magdelen Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Her loving much was not the cause of her sins being forgiven but her sins being forgiven was the cause of her loving much as appears by Christs own words But to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little As for the other Objection That this doctrine of being Justified by the righteousnesse of Christ alone is a means to make men neglect good works I Answer That no man can do one good work before he be justified by Faith in Christ for The person must be accepted before the work can be accepted By Faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain but without Faith it is impossible to please him The Lord had respect first to Abel then to his offering for as Christ saith Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt Now we are made good trees only by bâ—â—ng ingraffed into Christ by Faith and all the works that men do before Faith though never so good for the matter and morally good in themselves yet are they but beautifull abominations in Gods sight the person being not Justified the works that a man doth though good in themselves do not make any man good no more than the good fruit on a tree maketh the tree good but because the tree is good therefore the fruit is good But you Quakers and Papists say then it matters not whether a man do any good works seeing they make him not good By which you manifest your grosse Ignorance of the truth for the Scripture doth teach that good works do declare and manifest the truth of our Faith that it is not a dead but a living Faith as the fruit which the tree beareth doth shew and manifest what the tree is if the fruit be good then is the tree good if the tree bring forth no fruit then it is a barren tree or a dead tree and that is the Apostles meaning when he saith that Faith without works justifieth not The Apostle treateth of manifesting and declaring the truth of our Faith that it is a living Faith and not a dead Faith or rather a bare profession of Faith for saith
Spiritual gifts are necessary to make melodie unto the Lord in singing yet are they not the onely cause and ground of singing but the chief ground is the moral dutie lying upon all men by the commandment of God If any be merry let them sing Psalms now wicked men are merry as well as godly though they have no true cause All men in general are by the commandment of God and by the light of nature taught to pray to God for his blessings and to praise him for his mercies although I know you Quakers say and maintain the contrary having several times heard you affirm it But I shall make good what I have written by Scripture that it is a dutie incumbent to all good and bad to pray unto God for his blessings Is any afflicted let him pray is any merry let him sing Psalmes Also the Lord hath given a general Commandment to all men upon earth Sing unto the Lord all the Earth make a joyfull noise unto the Lord all the Lands come before his presence with singing Sing unto the Lord all the Kingdoms of the earth O sing praises unto the Lord. Now by all the Earth all the Lands all the Kingdomes of the Earth is to be understood all the People of the Earth Lands and Kingdomes and surely all are not Saints in them The Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods and therefore make a joyfull noise to him with Psalmes he is to be feared above all gods and therefore sing unto him all the earth So that Gods greatness and goodness in his works of creation and providence that concerneth all the sons of men in general are grounds of prayer and praises The Lord giveth food to all flesh therefore let all flesh bless his holy Name Let every thing that hath breath wicked men have breath praise the Lord for his mightie Acts and for his exceeding greatness and let us call upon him and praise him for it is he that made us and not we our selves Now God made all men the wicked as well as the godly and therefore they are bound to pray to God and praise God as well as the godly and therefore the Lord threatneth that he will poure out his wrath upon the Heathens and all the Families that call not on his Name What then shall become of you Quakers that not onely neglect this Dutie of Prayer and Praysing God in your Families but sit down to meat and rise from it more like Swine then Christians But you teach men so to do telling them that it is a sin and so teach men to sin while you teach them to disobey Gods cōmand The Heathen that were in the ship with Jonah may rise in judgement against you for they by the light of Nature knew that God was to be prayed unto and the Heathen Nincvites repented proclaimed a fast and surely prayed as well as fasted and God repented of the evil that he had said he would doe unto them Also wicked Ahab when he humbled himself before the Lord by fasting and prayer the Lord said to Eliah Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me I will not bring this evil in his dayes But you Object That the Prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord and so their Praises for what hast thou to do to take my Name in thy mouth and hatest to be reformed I answer That it is said also by the same Prophet That the plowing of the plow-man is sin and it is a truth that the eating and drinking of every man out of Christ is sin Will you therefore say that wicked men ought not to plow I fear then we should want corn and if wicked men should refrain from eating and drinking would they not strave and would not they then be guiltie of their own death and so be self murtherers But you must learn to distinguish between Actions morally good and divinely good and between actions civilly good in themselves and divinely good Now to plow or do any other action or work of a mans calling are good civill morall works in themselves and yet the person doing them being not justified they are not good unto him because Whatsoever is not of faith is sin will you therefore teach that no wicked man ought to doe the works of his calling nor eat nor drink because they are sin to him in doing them The reason is the same in morall works to hear read pray sing Psalmes and giving of thanks they are works morally good being commanded by the Lord but the person doing them being not justified they are not good to him but yet ye may no more neglect these duties then the civil duties of your calling For if a wicked man neglect these morall duties he sinneth more then in doing of them for in doing of them he may have a temporary good as Ahab and the Ninevites and we read that when the young man in the Gospel said to Christ All these have I kept from my youth that Jesus beholding him loved him so that Christ did shew his liking and approving of those moral works which he said he had done Wherefore to conclude this answer I believe that although a wicked man cannot be saved by his doing works morally good in themselves yet he shall have less torment in Hell then those that do them not For he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes I have made a little digression in answering these Objections because I desire to take in all your Objections by the way and answer them hoping you will not be offended seeing your selves are often guilty of the same fault if it be a fault I aim onely at your good to rectifie your judgements But you Object That in our Assemblies many sing they know not what and many do know that they sing many of the Psalmes that are not sutable to their condition nor sutable to the time and season as when they sing O Lord I am not puft in mind they being proud and My hearts desire is bent thy Laws to keep when their hearts is against the Law This I have heard some of you often object unto me and others against singing of Psalmes That the ignorance of men in discerning the true matter or the right manner of a duty doth not exempt them from performing of their duty for if a man know not what to pray nor how yet that will not excuse him either from praying himself or from joyning with others that are better acquainted with Prayer then himself So what if many a man know not what to sing nor how to sing to Gods praise yet that will not excuse him either from singing himself or joyning with others that have more spiritual skill in that kind then himself That none are compelled to joyn in singing any Psalm in or with the
much strictness in their lives as any Quakers as Luther writeth of himself when he was a Monck and of several others Also the young man in the Gospel said All these Commandements I have kept from my youth and I believe many of the Pharisees were as strict and zealous in their way as they and the Apostle Paul testifieth of himself while he was a Pharisee that touching the righteousness which is in the Law blameless But all that his and their righteousness did not make them nor manifest them to be Christians because they did do those works not from an inward principle of life but for life to be justified and saved thereby as the Papists and Quakers do Now what the Devil spake in this sense is most true Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life and what would not a man do suffer for the saving his soul and gaining heaven But all that a man can do and suffer will not make him a Christian nor manifest him to be such if he beleive not the Gospel nor profess the same For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved saith the Apostle Rom. 10. 9 10. for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and therefore Luther saith that Doctrine is heaven and practice is below here among men and therefore I am of the opinion or judgement of those that understand Christ his words You shall know them by their faces to be meant their doctrines as well as their lives because generally false Prophets and false teachers are such as walk very strict in their lives yea the devil is more cunning then to send men of profane lives to vent and spread errors for he knoweth people will not be easily deluded by such and therefore he sendeth such as cover over their errors with the sheeps clothing of a pretended strict holy life then any others as the fals teachers did among the Galatians and the ringleaders of all sects and errors ever since have done wherefore I return their own Argument upon their own heads which they often bring against our Ministers that they are the false Prophets Christ spake of I say their teachers are the false Prophets because I know them by their fruits their errors which they hould and teach as well as their practise Judas was a true Apostle called by Christ and yet a covetous wretch and a devil but that did not prove him a false Apostle he being called by Christ and teaching the Doctrine of Christ Also Christ saith the Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat Wherefore what they command you that observe and do for they say and do not so that by Christs commanding to hear them it doth appear that the Pharisees not walking according to what they taught was no ground to prove them false teachers nor to refuse to hear them they being called to teach and teaching the truth It is one of the cunning wiles of Satan to perswade people as the Quakers do not to hear any Minister that walketh not perfectly in his life and that they are no true Teachers that have any failings in their lives though lawfully called and teach the truth and one of the other hand to perswade people that those are the onely true teachers that walk with an outward shew of holynesse though never called to teach teach false erroneous doctrines contrary to the grounds of Religion and this the Apostle Paul proveth saying false Apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is translated into an Angel of light wherefore the Apostle warneth the Galatians though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached let him be accursed the false Apostles and false teachers pretended to be the only holy men for they taught That faith alone was not sufficient to justifie but that they must joyn their good works and that the Apostle Pauls Doctrine tended to carnal liberty and taught people to live in sin as the Quakers say of our Ministers and their Doctrine But the Apostle charged the Galatians and the Corinthians not to hear them for all their pretended holyness seeming like Angels because they preach another Gospel of their own as the Quakers do for they teach the same Doctrines those the false Apostles taught namely that we are not justified and saved by believing what Christ did and suffered for us but by hearkning to and obeying not Gods Commandements but a light within us and some of them do deny Christs Body to be risen from the grave and to be in Heaven and are not these sufficient grounds to write against such people that hold teach and maintain such erronious doctrines I mean not their persons but their errors What esteem soever many have of them for their outward pretended holyness I say outward for did people see their hearts they would see them foul the Lord said unto the Prophet Ezekiel Sonne of man these men have set up their Idols in their heart he did not say they did worship Idols with their bodies and do not the Quakers set up idols in their hearts when they set up their inward works in the room and place of Christ What do they else when they say and teach that they are not justified and saved by what Christ did and suffered but by what they do in obeying a light within them and is not this to make an idol of their own works which is worse then the Papists Images made of wood and stone and is not their maintaining that they can perfectly keep the law by living without sin a making of themselves equal with Christ for it is his Prerogative only to have no sin that Satan found no sin in him and to say which of you can accuse me of sin and do not they thereby Idolize themselves and will people still be so mad to Idolize them by saying they have no sin and that they never sin Wherefore I hope I have answered that Objection There is one objection more which I have heard against others writing against them and I must look for the same Wherefore I shall indevour to answer that and so conclude The 2. Objection That it is lost labor to write against them because they are a peeople so wedded to their own opinions and so self-conceited of their own knowledge that they will not be convinced let any man say or write what he will against them Answer I confess it was an Objection that did stick much with me before I began to write and did keep me back for some time from writing but I did satisfie my self before I began and shall indevour to satisfie the Reader Wherefore I say first That I have heard and known some that have
for so saith the Apostle Iohn If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we say that we have not sinned we make him a lyer and his word is not in us you make God a lier because he saith All men are liers you are men therefore liers and therefore sinners in themselves which I have formerly proved at large Wherefore I should insist upon those lies which you have written and printed and reported For those untruths which thou John Horwod hast written in thy Letter concerning the Ministers and my self I shall but briefly touch them Thou sayest that our Ministers keep people in sin abominable lie For they preach against sin Thou saist that our Ministers know nothing but by Tongues and Art and that they preach for nothing but money Most gross lies If our Ministers did not preach for Conscience to discharge their duties in publishing the Truth how and why have so many of them suffered the loss of their lives and estates and so many lost their Livings and suffered Imprisonment and some Banishment I never heard of any Quakers that suffered so much for their Religion nor never shall for it is not worth suffering for but you cry out of suffering and persecution when none hurt you and that is another of your lies that you are persecuted when you are only perswaded out of your errours And this I know by experience and shall endeavour to clear my self from your lying slanderous tongues for some of your Quakers did report to several of my friends and acquaintance in London and to some of near relation that I was the greatest persecutor of the Quakers in all the Countrey which is a most gross lie for I never did doe them the least harm but indeavoured to doe them all the good that lay in my power both by labouring to convince and reclaim them from their errors and by endeavouring to restrain people from offering any violence against them I was sent by the Magistrate to desire a man at whose house they met to come to him where the Minister of the place was present and the Magistrate and Minister both did use all the love and meekness that could be expressed to perswade and convince him of his errour and did bring such plain proofs from Scripture to prove him to be seduced and brought into severall errours that both of them and my self did hope that the man was convinced he promising to come to the Ministers house for a Catechise of the grounds of Religion and to read the same but after the man came to his old company of Quakers they turned him to his errours and did continue their meetings at his house on the Sabbath day and on the Thursdayes where I had several conferences with them and their Teachers and seeing many rude boyes and others come about the door I desired the Magistrate to send the Officers of the Parish to fetch them away from the House lest their should be any disturbance which he did And now let all persons that hear this judge whether there were any persecution in all this and whether it was not a lie to say that I was the greatest persecutor of them in the Countrey For at Branford some of them were set in the stock some sent to Newgate and indited at the Scessions and severall of them beaten and was my reasoning with them and endevouring to reclaim them and endeavouring to restrain rude persons from disturbing them worse than all that they suffered at Branford which I never knew of while afterward But the first time that I met Sarah Blackbury at Cheeswick after some discourse with her she looked on me and said Thou wilt be a great or the greatest Persecutor of Gods People in all this countrey and I suppose because she would be counted a true prophetess she raised this lie on me which was soon spread abroad by her Disciples for she was counted one of the chief Teachers and doth send several of them abroad to several places to teach or rather to seduce and spred their lies abroad which are so many that I should weary my self to write them and others to read them wherefore I shall onely make mention of the lies in Print which are the greatest lies in Print that ever I read and that is in a Book or Pamphlet called A just and lawfull Trial of the Teachers and professed Ministers of this Age and Generation by a friend to Englands Common-wealth for whose sake this is written and sent abroad E. B. Which Book being given me as a piece unanswerable in the conceit of him that gave it me I did ingage my self to answer it I saw it was nothing but revilings and slanders and lies against our Ministers and indeed they are the Buts at which they shoot their Arrowes and the truth is I had answered all the chief grounds alleadged in the said Book against our Ministers before I saw it in answer to John Horwood But for those many Lies in the said Book I shall give answer to some of the chiefest proving them to be grosse Lies and therefore that he who writ the same being a Quaker is not perfect The first of E. B. his grosse Lies against our Ministers is that our Ministers do things contrary to the Spirit of Jesus and they have seen nothing but lying vanities and divinations whereby they seduce the people for Life is promised him though he be wicked and ungodly living in all unrighteousnesse Now I appeal to the Consciences of all that hears this whether this be not a grosse Lie for was there ever any Minister in the worst of times or the worst of Ministers that ever taught such Doctrine or speak such words but how doth this profound Lier prove these words for saith he they tell him that Christ is his righteousnesse to justifie him and then he thinks he needs not turn from his sin and so their hands are strengthned that they cannot turn from their sins By which E. B. doth discover his grosse Ignorance as well as Malice For he doth believe that the Doctrine of free Justification by Christ his righteousnesse is a Doctrine that doth teach peole to live in all unrighteousnesse But doth not this Lier make the Apostle Paul to be a false Teacher and one that had seen nothing but lying Vanities as well as our Ministers seeing the Apostle taught the same Doctrine Now to him that worketh not but beleiveth on him that justifieth the ungodly His faith is counted for righteousnesse Even as David describeth the blessednesse of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one that is Christ shall many be made righteous being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ And did not the Apostle John teach the same Doctrine And if