profess Christianity if Wantonness Vanity Covetousness Passion Envy Wrath Malice and such like don't make Profession of Religion read pray preach go to Church and the like I say in the Fear of Almighty God let all that profess him and the Christian Religion examine themselves and prove themselves whether Jesus Christ live in them and rule in them or another Nature Principle and Spirit for God will not be mocked such as men sow such must they reap in the terrible Day of Judgment To the tenth Quotation out of G. F's Way to the Kingdom viz. That the four Books of Matthew Mark Luke and John are not the Gospel I answer If this be a piece of Heresie we have good Company for Paul Ignatius Justine Martyr Origen Chrisostom and some of our English Martyrs are of this Mind Paul sayes The Gospel is the Power of God but it were Blasphemy with a witness to call these four Narratives or Declarations the Power of God in which there are the Sayings and Actions of the Devil and Wicked Jews and Persecutors recorded as well as the Expressions and Deeds of Christ and his Disciples Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philadelphians calleth it very near to Paul's Expression of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Perfection of Incorruption which these four Books are not that are composed of Paper and Letters containing meer reports and Records though never so true or the Consequence would be that the Writings of the Prophets because Ignatius saith in the same Epistle that the Prophets have anounced and declared the Gospel are the Gospel in our Adversaries account if he receives Ignatius that lived soon after But it s clear that our Adversaries refuse the Prophets Writings that Title and do not give it even to the Apostolical Epistles yet are displeased with our Tenderness in not stiling these four Books or Histories the Gospel When Justin Martyr speaks of those four Books especially when he citeth out of them the mocking of Christ prophesied of in the Psalms and of Christ's Silence to Pilate he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is written and expressed not in the Four Evangelists or in the Four Evangelia or in the Gospel or in the Writings of the Four Evangelists as they do commonly now but saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Records or History of his Christ's Apostles Yea he is so far from calling the Books of Scriptures either the Law or Gospel that he saith Christ Jesus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eternal Law and the New Testament which according to the Prophecy should come forth to the universal World Chrysostom not only refused an Oath but denyed those four Books to be the Evangile or Gospel though he refused not to call them The Writings of the four Evangelists So said William Thorp as may be seen in the Book of Martyrs Besides the Gospel is called A Mystery hid from Ages and Generations which four Books were not and it is still hid from all Envious Proud Lustful Vain and Evil-minded People To Conclude The Bible it self declares of the Gospel but is not that Gospel it declares of the Spirit but is not that Spirit it declares of the Light but is not that Light and it declares of the Eternal Power and Word but it is not that Eternal Word and Power of God neither is the Light Power and Spirit in the Scripture though they were in those that gave them forth and live and abide forever in him who is the Fulness of all Wisdom Life and Truth who is Lord and Author of the holy Scriptures given forth by divine Inspiration To the last Citation and Exception viz. that G. F. sayes That we ought not to pray to God to give us a sight of our Sins I answer That this Adversary misgives his words and suggests by those he cites another thing then is plainly and honestly intended by G. F. in his own words they are these And to you that tempt God and say The Lord give us a sight of our Sins mark he speaks to those that tempt God and let me add mock God too for to such he speaks as what follows declares viz. Priests and People sayes G. F. does not the Light which Christ hath enlightned you with let you see your Sin that Lying and Swearing Cursed Speaking Theft Murder Whoredom Covetousness Pride Lust and Pleasures all these things to be the Works of the Flesh and Fruits of Darkness Mark now this Light within you lets you see it so you need not tempt God to give you a Sight of your Sins for ye know enough and waiting in the Light Power and Strength will be given to you Now let the Impartial judge if the Consequence of these words be That we must not pray to God to give us a sight of our Sins that we don't see which must be our Enemies suggestion or nothing or not rather that we should not tempt and mock God by praying for a sight of our sins whilest we see and that there is not a forsaking of the sins that we do already see I ask Does it follow that because we should not tempt or mock God in praying for a sight of the sins we have a sight of and yet don't forsake that therefore we must not pray to God for a sight of those sins that we have no sight of having first renounced those we have had a sight of Well the Lord keep our Lives out of the Power of a Jury that would take this Latitude of Construction The following words of that good man are these and very savoury and Christian they are For they that wait upon the Lord their strength shall be renewed but for what if not to forsake sin and serve the Lord God and living in the Light and walking up to God it will bring you to true Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness that you may receive the Blessing from God and give over tempting of God to give you a sight of your sins And why because you see more then you forsake forsake what you see before you pray for more sight for all such Prayer in such Disobedience is a meer Mockery and God will not be mocked and be it known to all that God has determined not to hear the Prayers of the Wicked for they are sayes the Prophet an Abomination unto him This yet appears to be his sense by the following Paragraph And to all ye that say God give us Grace and we shall refrain from our Sin there ye have got a tempting customary word for the free Grace of God has appeared to all men and this is the Grace which shews you Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts Now thou that livest in Ungodliness Lying and Swearing and Theft and Murder and Drunkenness and Filthy Pleasures and lusting after the World thou art he that turns the free Grace of God into Wantonness and casts his Laws behind thy back
that the Scriptures of Truth were given forth by the holy men of God as they were moved by the Spirit of God and that they are a Rule yea an Excellent Rule for Instruction Reproof and Doctrine and all true Christians ought to embrace and practice the holy Mind and Will of God thereby declared And they are those that truly and substantially deny the Scriptures who in Words own them but in Works deny them and in their Conversations walk not according to the godly Rules therein contained such are Whoremongers Fornicators Drunkards Lyars Back-biters Slanderers such as the Author or Authors of this Impious Libel Envious Persons Rioters Sporters Vain Persons Lovers of Pleasures more then Lovers of God These and such like are they that deny the Authority of holy Scripture yet as the Devil used Scripture against Christ so do his Children use Scripture at this day against the Disciples of Christ OPINION II. The Quakers deny the Resurrection of the Body Answ The Quakers deny no Resurrection that is according to Scripture we own the Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust and that our Adversaries shall know one day to their Confusion if they repent not And as the Charge is laid down we literally deny it and require our Adversaries to prove it for we declare to all people we own the Resurrection of the Body according to the Pleasure of God and every Seed shall have its own Body and Wo to the Wicked in that day OPINION III. The Quakers deny the Person of Jesus Christ Answ If by Person of Christ is meant the Man Christ Jesus we deny the Charge for there is no other Name given under Heaven by which Salvation can be obtained 'T is Christ alone that hath brought Life and Immortality to light he is the Propitiation the Mediator and Intercessor and by him only can man come to God and no man can come to him but such as come to his Spirit in their own Hearts And such as have not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them are none of his And these are they that deny Christ that deny his Cross break his Law and live not according to his Example who is meek and lowly pure and undefiled and separated from all Sinners So that the Antichrists of our dayes are those that live according to the Lusts of the Eye the Lusts of the Flesh and Pride of Life without God in the World that is without a sense of God upon their Hearts but their Minds run after the things that are seen which are temporal neglecting the things that are eternal And though such may profess Christ in words yet it shall be said unto them in the great Day of Account Depart from me ye that work Iniquity I would have our foolish and envious Adversaries look at home and prepare for the Day of their Account to God and leave off their Envy and Bitterness and mind God's Fear which will teach them to be meek and loving sober and vertuous that they may provide for their Latter-end For pure Religion stands not in accusing and slandering reviling and persecuting but in keeping unspotted of the World for they who are of the World are not of Christ they who love the Pride Pleasures Honours and Lusts of this World deny Christ they are the Antichrists indeed for Christ saith I am not of this World neither is my Kingdom of this World nor are his Followers of this World therefore it is the World hates them but not under the Name of Christ's Disciples Christians or Children of God by no means for such the World nominally owns but as Hereticks Blasphemers and the like which hath alwayes been the Devil's Policy For the Woolf with the Sheeps-skin on him has in every Age been worrying the Sheep that hath been covered with the Wolf's-skin such have called Light Darkness and Darkness Light OPINION IV. The Quakers hold that the Light in every man is a sufficient Guide unto Salvation Answ This is unfairly laid down but we say that the Light of Christ in every man is a sufficient Guide to Salvation and who dares deny it I am the Light of the World faith Christ they that follow me shall not walk in Darkness but have the Light of Life And saith John If we walk in the Light the Blood of Jesus Christ shall cleanse us from all Unrighteousness And it was the Doctrine in old time The Path of the Just is as the shining Light that shines more and more unto the perfect Day And the Prophet Isaiah prophetically writes of the latter dayes thus Come let us walk in the Light of the Lord and by the same Prophet saith the Lord I will give thee Christ for a Light to the Gentiles that thou may'st be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth And the Apostle Paul had that good Opinion of the Light that he advised the Saints of old to put on the Armour of Light that they might walk honestly as in the day not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envy but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof And it is nothing else but the old Jewish Darkness that spurns against the Light of Christ in our day for the same Spirit that rejected that Light Grace and Truth with which he was filled in the day of his Bodily Appearance is the same that resists and sleights that Light Truth and Grace which from his Fulness is distributed to the Children of men but as it was then so it is now the Condemnation of the World that Light is come into the World and that men love Darkness rather then Light and the Reason is plain because their Deeds are Evil. Every thing loves its like OPINION V. They hold that Perfection is attainable in this Life Answ This also is not fairly laid down being without distinction and did not Compassion to the well-minded incline me to deliver our Judgment in these matters I would have put our Adversary upon the proof of his Assertions without giving him the least help by a sight of our true Principles till he had first seen and acknowledged his own Ignorance and Inadvertency We own Perfection according to the Scriptures Walk thou before me said God to Abraham and be thou perfect who dare quibble this into an Imperfection or who dare charge God with commanding what was impossible to be done Noah was a just man and perfect in his Generation and Noah walked with God so did Enoch Job also was a perfect man and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil This Christ exhorted his Disciples to Be ye therefore PERFECT even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect This also the Apostle Paul prayes for That they might be sanctified THROUGHOUT in Body Soul and Spirit Again thus
and walkest despightfully against the Spirit of Grace Oh vain man yet thou canst say God is merciful and live in thy Wickedness passing on thy time without the Fear of God sporting thy self in thy Wickedness What think you now Does this man say the people ought not to pray for a sight of their sins which they see not in order to Repentance or can he mean so let Candor speak For that I said before must be the meaning of this Adversary or he means nothing because in the other sense all must grant that men ought not to tempt provoke and mock God by praying for a fight when they have it and don 't use it What then is the Conclusion of this Matter why plainly this that from G. F. saying that those who say the Lord give us a sight of our sins that have a sight of them already and forsake them not do therein tempt God This Enemy of ours makes no scruple of Conscience to infer and conclude that G. F. says that we ought not to pray to God to give us a sight of our sins at all without any regard to the Distinction of having the sight already be it that such have forsaken what God has given them a sight of or that they have Sins they have yet no sight of yet G. F. says we must not pray for a sight of our sins if this Adversary may be credited Well the Lord God Almighty who is the Searcher of all Hearts knows the end of this Person in writing and spreading these Calumnies and Perversions and with him I leave him and his Work but so as that I sincerely desire that he may have a sight of his sin against God and an harmless People if he acts ignorantly and that he may sincerely repent and find Mercy with the Lord if he acts maliciously before he goes bence and be no more seen for it s not a sleight thing to mischarge and that so peremptorily too an entire People about matters of the World that is without end I shall conclude this Defence with these three things the first is that most of the Opinions he calls ours are not so evinced or so much as attempted to be proved by the Author of the Libel against us 2dly Those that are endeavoured to be fastened on us have not their due proof one Person it may be is produced to make good a Charge against a Body of People would our Adversaries be thus used would they be concluded by the Word or Act of any one Member of their numerous Communion certainly no Besides the Proofs that are brought are some lame others perverted and some forged which looks very dishonourable on the part of our Accuser first to mis-charge then mis-cite and lastly wrack words well intended to extort if possible a Consession of guilt but the truth is Error can only be maintained by Error and therefore there is no wonder in the case This is the Usage we have mostly met with put thanks be to God we are neither surprized nor unqrepared Lastly I do hereby offer a fair and free Conference with the Author or Authors of the Libel or any other that can soberly pretend to a Conscientious Dissatisfaction about our Faith or Practice at such time as shall be mutually agreed upon to be convenient And this I offer not out of Vanity or Oftentation but in Duty to God my great Lord and Master and in good will to all such Persons and did not these Considerations prevail and carry me to this Condescention my manifold Affairs and the many and large Books I have already writ on occasion of these and the like Imputations would have disswaded me from any fresh undertaking of this nature and sufficiently guarded me against all Reflections upon my Silence I am a Friend to Mankind William Penn. THE END ‖ This was the Doctrine of Luther Zwinglius Calvin Oecolampadius Beza and Marlorat abroad and of W. Tindal D. Barns John Frith John Bradford J. Woodman Philpot Fox Jewel Whittiker c. at home that the Scriptures Authority to us stood in the inward Testimony of the Spirit of God See my Quakerism a New Nick-Name for Old Christianity and my Rejoynder in defence of the same from pag. 24. to pag. 101. and from pag. 31. to pag. 186. Gal. 6. 15. Rom. 1. 14. Jer. 35. 33 34. Hebr. 8. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. Chap. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Luke 20. 35 36 37 38. Joh. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 15. 34 35 36 37 38. Rev. 20. 5. Acts 4. 12. 2 Tim. 1. 10. Rom. 3. 25. 1 John 2. 2. 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Heb. 8. 6. Chap. 12. 24. Rom. 8. 34. Heb. 7. 25. 1 John 2. 16. Mat. 7. 23. James 1. 27. John 8. 23. Chap. 15. 18 19. Chap. 18. 36. Mat. 5. 11. 1 Cor. 4. 10 13. John 8. 12. 1 John 1. 7. Proverbs 4. 18. Isa 2. 5. Chap. 49. 6. Rom. 13. 12 13. 14. John 9. 14 16. 1 Cor. 12. 7. John ◠19. Gen. 17. 1. Gen. 5. 22. 6. 9. Job 1. 1. Matthew 5. 48. 1 Thessal 5. 23. Ephes 4. 13. 1 Timoth. 3. 17. Heb. 6. 1. 13. 21. 2 Pet. 5. 10. 1 John 1. 7. Chap. 2. 13. Chap. 3. 9. Chap. 4. 12 16 17. Chap 5. 4 18. Chap. 3. ver 4 5 8 9. Mat. 1. 21. 1 John 1. 5. Acts 17. 27 28. Jer. 23. 23 24. Iob 25. 3. Genesis 2. 7. Mat. 4. 6 12. Iohn 5. 9. and 19. 7. 5. 39 40. Iohn 1. 1. Revel 19. 13. Luke chap. 1. Iohn 6. 63. Gal. 1. 16. 4. 19. 2 Cor. 13. 4. John 14. 1 3 18 19 20. Chap. 16. 20 21 22 23 25 26. Matthew 10. 38. Chap 16. 24. Mark 8. 34. Luke 9. 23. Revelat. 3. 20. 1 John 5. 8. Matthew 12. 29. Chap. 15. 19 20. Chap. 3. 11 12. Rom. 1. 16. Ephes 6. 19. 3. 3. Col. 1. 26. 1 Tim. 1. 11. Psalm 109. 7. Prov. 28. 9. Isa 1. 13 14 15.