Twenty-One Divines Cleared, Treatise · Vindication 6 – Vindication 10
John Faldo's Vindication.
YOu are still in the meanings of words, which if I should have mistaken, were no great Crime, seeing we have no Dictionary wherein you expresly tell us, what the meanings of your new-coyn'd phrases, and new-meanings of old ones are. But it seems I am as able to make one as any of you, seeing that of about three hundred words and phrases of yours, which had peculiar meanings of your own, whose meanings I gave, your chief Objections are against these three, and yet without cause. Why did you not charge me here with forging words, and fathering them upon you? or pretending those Citations of mine to be in your Books, which were not there? This had been of some weight, and easily discovered. But this you dare not attempt, and without it all my Charges stand firm; and I have P's Reb. &c. p. 6.your word for it, who say, Since the strength of the Book depends upon Testimonies out of our Writings. But seeing I must combate your trifling Forces, or you will brag of the Victory, I shall clear my self of the falsity of this meaning also.
I have found the meaning I gave of, The Veil is over them; and have also found you very unfaithful in your report of it. I beg of my Reader to compare our Reports in this, and all others which are within his reach, that he may be able to determine on whose part faithfulness lies. My words are these to a syllable: The belief of the man Christ …ak. no …r. impr. …. p. 324.Jesus, which was of our nature, to be the Christ; and now existing in Heaven, in that body of flesh of our Nature, which he took of the Virgin Mary.
Thus was I bound to word it, to express the Humane Nature of the true Christ, distinctly from your fallacies: For you fancy a man Christ Jesus, flesh, blood, and bones to be in you; yea, and who was born of the Virgin; yea, that Heaven is within you; and so your man Christ in your Heaven, is quite another thing than ours.
That the meaning I gave is genuine, your own words shall prove, The phrase you deny not; Because …. Penn's …ejoynder Faldo, 309.(say you) the Apostle Paul desired not thenceforth to know Christ after the flesh, but spiritually as he was the Son of God revealed in himself. It is but a mere blind, for you to construe this saying of yours to intend a fleshly knowledg, for that is the quality of the Faculty, or its Act; for you intend it of the flesh, or body of Christ as the Object. And you bring in this Argument, among others, to back a saying of J. Pennington's, and another of yours; which were these, This we certainly know, and can … 's Rejoy. … Faldo, … 296.never call the bodily Garment Christ, but that which appeared and dwelt in the body. This is Pennington's. But say you, In short, Christ qualified that body for his service, but that body did not constitute …d in eo…. …. 300.Christ. He is invisible, and ever was so to the ungodly World.
All this I produce, to give light to your sense, in what I shall produce farther out of the same Chapter, and relating to the same subject.
In your seventh Reason, So must all know a death Id. p. 3…to their fleshly ways, and Religion, yea, their knowledg of Christ himself after the flesh, or they stick in the veil. You proceed in your eighth Reason, And these who at this day do feed upon the history of the bodily appearance (yet honourable in its place) and know not a breaking through the veil by witnessing a measure of the same Divine Wisdom, Power, Righteousness, Grace and Truth, revealed and born forth in themselves, they are but carnal and fleshly Christians. Here is enough and to spare for the proof of the meaning I gave of your phrase, The veil is over them. I shall be shorter in the rest.
William Penn's Accusation. 7.
FRom W. Smith's saying, That the present practice Quaker. n… Christian… p. 163.of the Sacraments, as baptizing with a Cross, and counting the Bread and Wine the Flesh and Blood of Christ, arise from the Popes invention; you in the person of John Faldo give out, that W. Smith calls the Lords Supper the Popes invention. At this rate, what will your testimony be worth? Little certainly, with such as know good Coyn from bad.
John Faldo's Vindication.
IF what you here report Smith to say be scanned, neither he nor you can be guiltless; for there is not a greater opposition in any thing betwixt the Pope and us, than about the sence of the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament being the Body and Blood of Christ. But what you say; scil. That I conclude that W. Smith calls them the Popes Invention from the words you offer, is a great untruth: For first, I do not cite divers of them. And secondly, Smith saith in so many words, They arose from the Popes Invention. And for my Readers satisfaction, I will recite him out of his own Book, where I quoted him: And it will appear, that he said it of both the matter, and our use of it.
Child. I would fain know how it is concerning …ith's …immer, 163.those things called Ordinances; as, Baptism, and Bread and Wine, which are mucb used in their Worship?
Father. Why Child, as to those things, they rose from the Popes Invention, who hath had power in the night of Apostacy, and hath set up his devices, which are yet continued in England. Where was your fear of God when you wrote this slander?
William Penn's Accusation. 8.
FRom Edw. Burrough's making the Light of Christ within to be one in nature with the Spirit of Christ; J. Faldo infers, That the Quakers hold the …indicat. …. 75. to p. …7.Soul to be God: As if that had been said of the Soul, which was said of the Light of Christ shining in the Soul, or that they were Synonimous. What cannot a man of skill in this Black-Art do? yet this is your own Reverend Author, who for his proof against the Quakers, is not a little in your Books.
John Faldo's Vindication.
THis is as like the rest of your slanders, as the Child of their Father. You make my Consequence from Burrough's words to take up 12 pages. In looking for matter relating to Burrough's words, according to your Quotation, I almost despaired of finding any: At length I found somewhat in p. 80. and all I said to it, took up not eight lines. And you leave out a material part of the Citation (for you use not to be guilty of but one fault;) viz. Even as good as the Spirit of Christ.
I shall give a better, and truer account of my reasoning, which will prove you an unworthy Traducer: Burrough's words, as cited, and as you recite P's Answ to Faldo, p. 194.them in your Answer, were these to a letter: Every man has that which is one in union, and like the Spirit of Christ; even as good as the Spirit of Christ, according to its measure. Now I will repeat my Conclusion both from Burrough's words and yours in my VINDICATION, which your Quotation saith took up twelve pages: If (said I) what Fald. Vin… of Quak. no Christ. p. 86.every man has, be as good in kind as the Spirit of Christ (which he [Pen] confesseth) it must be God; for there is nothing so good in kind as the Spirit of Christ, which is God, but God himself. But by its measure, Penn will have, 'Tis as good, but not so great, or so much as the Spirit of God.
Here is not a word of the Light of Christ in my Citation, nor of the Soul in my Conclusion.
Whether yours or mine be the Black-Art, let all sober men judg. It is not such revilings, and weak (though Confident) slanders, will make those Reverend Divines you traduce and scorn, ashamed to own their Author's proofs against you.
William Penn's Accusation. 9.
BEcause G. F. rejected that Carnal Notion, that Quak. no …hrist. p. … 10.confines the Infinite, Omnipresent God, to a residence only above the Stars; he makes no difficulty of inferring, That we deny the Humane nature of Christ. As absurd as base!
John Faldo's Vindication.
I Find you as tardy in this, as any man can wish, who must prove you a Deluder, or abide under the burthen you load me withal. There is not one word of the Humane Nature of Christ in both those pages; nor do I attempt to prove your denying it, till Chap. 16. which is near 200 pages off. I find indeed these words of G. Fox's, cited p. 10. Your imagined God beyond the Stars. But I infer from thence in that place, your Blasphemy, and that is all. And in Chap. 16. I have produced such, and so many proofs of your denying the Humane Nature of Christ, as you will never clear your selves of, till you repent, and change your Religion.
William Penn's Accusation. 10.
FRom our affirming, that such a kind of reading of Quak. no Christ. p. 190.Scriptures as the Pharisees used, and to those ends, makes men harder to be wrought on to true Conversion, than the Heathen: John Faldo infers, That reading the Scriptures, and getting knowledg thence, puts men into a worse condition than the Heathen; and that there is scarcely any thing more dangerous, than reading the Scripture. Yea, he accuses us of charging the miscarriages of mens souls on the knowledg the Scripture by God's blessing doth convey.
John Faldo's Vindication.
I Have sought for the matter of your Charge where you direct me: But in the first Impression there is no page signed with 190, because the figures begin at the several parts. In the last Impression, page 190 I find, but no more of the matter you charge me with, than is on the back-side of the Book. Do you not by such shifts as these, design to burrow your Falshoods from Discovery; and to tire me with following an—used to the Wilderness? I greatly suspect it.