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{Page 126} A Postscript To the READER, Concerning the Unity of our Adversaries against us, amidst the great Discord they are at amongst themselves.
HOw hearty these Men are in their Envy against us, and Hatred to the Way we profess, is very discernable from their close Confederacy and strict Union, who are as remote, and differing from, and absolutely contradictory to one another in their Faith, Worship and Discipline, as to the Quakers themselves, against whom they have combined. They are made up of some Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Socinians and Apostates from us. A strange Medley of Adversaries, and stranger, that there should be such Union to Mischief! But let us view some of their Principles.
1st, The Presb. Indep. And Anab. believe that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (though three Names, denoting three Personalities or Subsistences) are One, Infinite, Eternal and Omnipotent God, At which the modern Socinian cryes, Blasphemy and Idolatry; For, sayes he, Christ is but purely a Man, and the Spirit but a Creature. Now come in these Apostates against the Presb. Indep. Anabapt. We deny your Personalities and Subsistences; And to the Socinians, {Page 127} We own Christ and the Spirit to be of one Nature and Being with God the Father; And it is Blasphemy to say, that Christ and the Spirit are Creatures. Here’s the first Discord or Jumble between our Adversaries.
Secondly, The Presbyter. Indep. Anab. and these Apostates, assert God to be a Spirit, At which these Socinianiz’d Followers of John Bidle say,
There’s no such thing; but, with J. Reeve and L. Muggleton, That he has a Body like to a Man, and inhabits a certain Place.
Thirdly, The Presb. Indep. and Anab. concerned chiefly against us, hold, That God from all Eternity elected a certain Number to Salvation, and reprobated the residue to eternal Damnation, without respect to any Condition of Obedience or Disobedience, thereby to illustrate his own Soveraignity and Glory; which Principle these Apostates have so much Understanding yet left, as to repute pernicious and damnable. The like do some of these Socinians we have to do with; others of them having wheel’d off a few years since to the Geneva Predestinarian side.
Fourthly, The Presb. Indep. and Anab. believe, That by Christ’s Life and Sufferings wholely without, God’s Justice was Satisfied for Sins, and
Justification compleatly wrought for the Elect, not only by Forgiving Sins past, but reputing them really Just and Righteous whilst actually Sinful; which kind of Doctrine these Apostates deny, as also doth the Socinian, affirming, That God needed no such rigid Satisfaction; that this is not to make him Righteous, but Revengeful; and that Christ cannot so properly be said to be the Cause as the Effect of the Father’s Love; For God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, &c. And though such are forgiven who truly Repent, and that Remission was sealed by Christ’s Blood, as a Sacrifice; yet Men are not made really Righteous within, by any Imputation from another’s Righteousness {Page 128} without, while they are really Unrighteous within. This is the 4th. Contradiction.
Fiftly, Presb. Indep. and Anab. believe Christ to have now in Heaven an Human Body, or one of Flesh, Blood and Bones. The Socinian and these Apostates say, he hath no such Body, but that which he hath is more Spiritual and glorified.
6ly, The Presb. Indep. Anabapt. and these Apostates affirm the Immortality of the Soul. The Socinians deny it.
7thly, The Presb. Indep. Anab. and Socinian deny the Light that shines within, to be Christ in his Spiritual Appearance. These Apostates, though erred from it, yet affirm it to be such.
8thly, The Presb. Indep. Anab. deny that it can lead Men that obey it unto Salvation. The Socinian with these Apostates, affirm, that it is able to lead such as follow it to Eternal Life.
9ly, The Presb. Indep. Anab. and Socinian deny the Spirit to be poured out in these, as former Ages; or that Men ought to wait for the Motions of it to Preach, Pray, or Praise God, These Apostates in words confess to maintain the contrary.
10ly, The Presb. Indep. Anab. and Socinian affirm, That the Scriptures are the only standing Rule, to measure and try Doctrines, and Spirits by under the Gospel; These Apostates believe no such thing.
11ly, The Presb. Indep. Anab. and Socinians disown the Practice of Keeping on the Hat in time of publick Prayer; These Apostates call the Pulling of it off, a Tradition of Men, a Romish Tradition, &c.
Yet, Reader, for our seasonable and due, proceeding against them, as Innovators upon the Church of Christ, and Disturbers of our Peace, by this new, unprofitable, {Page 129] and irreverent Practice, denying them in their persistence and rejecting their Motions, as not coming from the Spirit of God, are we furiously fallen upon by some of each of those fore-mentioned Parties; who (as Men forgetting their own Essential Differences, and that Persecution they have followed one another with for years) like the ancient Scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees, unanimously endeavour our Disgrace & Overthrow in the World; as if they were all of one Faith in Doctrine, who scarcely in any two most weighty Points hit: which shews, that Men under divers fundamental Differences, may be acted by one and the same Spirit of Envy and Bitterness against the Truth, and them that live therein. What else can I call that which has given these Apostates that place in their Hearts (that while Faithful, hated them, as they still do us) who Judas-like have run away from us, to inform our Enemies which way they may take us at an Advantage?
These Men they hug, commend and vindicate at so high a rate, as if they were the only great Pilgrims on Earth for Righteousness (as much as they differ) and we, a Crew of Tyrants and Hypocrites. Their Innovation must be called Gospel-Liberty; but our Religious-Government, Tyranny: They justifie the Motions of these Apostates, and, condemn Us for refusing them, whom themselves, both deny Motions, and the Way to know them. They put me in mind of the Jews, of old, who were seldom wanting, in the Promotion of the Christians Sufferings by the Heathen; nay, they were glad, and improved the least Occasion to set the Infidels upon their backs alwayes the Jew and Heathen said Amen to the Destruction of the Christians; yea, that very thing for which the Jew in his time suffered from the Heathen, to wit, That they worshipped an Ass’s Head, was after abusively {Page 130} made the Reproach of Christians, both by Jew and Heathen. What others have we received from the Separatists of this Age? who make us to inherit that sort of Suffering which they once thought Ungodly in their Adversaries, How welcome was a Renegado Christian to the Heathen, or a Backslider to the Jew? How cheery were they of such an one’s Intelligence? and how apt to aggravate it to the Wrong of Christianity? But if that was nevertheless True, because of the Unfaithfulness and Treachery of its Professors; neither is our Way to be concluded False, nor our Society Criminal, because a few stragling Renegadoes have in their Discontents, furnisht some common Enemies with a broken & imperfect Account of our Church-Proceedings: But as this will turn little to their Credit with Wise and Just Men, so have we Confidence in God, that having brought us through many Difficulties, he will continue to preserve us through the Peril of False Brethren, and all other Tribulations, which do, and will but work a far more exceeding Weight of Glory, yea of that Glory which was with the Father before the World began; and in the Possession of which, the now despised Flock of God shall rest with him in that World which never had Beginning, and is without End.
William Penn.
THE END
ERRATA.
Reader,
THou art still desired to continue thy Kindness in Correcting such Faults as have through Speed of Work escaped the Press; whether they be Words, Letters, Points or Parenthesis: some of the most Considerable are here collected.
Page, Line, Error, corrected.
4, 17, that, blot out
9, 15, shewn, shown
19, time, blot out
28, time, blot out
33, head, hear
18, 24, those, these
21, 15, entitle, entitling
25, 20, a, and
26, 12, the Hat, the Spirit of the Hat
33, 12, Introductoction, Introduction
37, Godliness, Godliness undeservedly
34, 37, an, on
35, 1, the, these
36, 32, of, in
38, 6, and Indep., Independents
9, God given, God hath given
37, had, hath
49, 21, ever, never
54, 14, were, was
29, that both, that the Intent of both
57, 36, Cowardness, Cowardize
59, 26, upon, upon it
62, 17, as, blot out
71, 3, a Paper, part of a Paper
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