The Reviler Rebuked, Treatise · Part 2 · Head 11
11. Head of Self-contradiction. Concerning Forms of Religion.
Section 26.
WHereas they pretend againſt all mens Forms, and are againſt Gods Forms of adminiſtring water-Baptiſm, and a Bread and Wine-Supper; yet they take up a Form of keeping on the Hat, a Form of words, Thou and Thee, &c. All this R. F. paſſeth over, as having ſaid enough (to the latter at leaſt) in a Pamphlet of a ſheet that he entituleth, The pure language of the Spirit of truth; where alſo he defendeth nakedneſs, or ſome mens going naked in theſe times, as a figure and ſign of their nakedneſs who are naked from God, and clothed with filthy garments; all this upon ſuppoſition, if the Lord bid them go naked: But doth not his fellow W. Dewſbery *Diſcovery of perſecution in Northamptonſhire. p. 8.tell him, the Scripture ſaith, Let your adorning be with modeſt apparel: and till R. F. can prove that God ſends any in theſe days, as he did Iſaiah to go barefoot, and naked, he muſt contradict Scripture and his Fellow, and give us leave to challenge them of affected forms, and habits, placing Religion where there is none, beſides their miſtake of the Lords meaning in Iſaiah 20. 2. about the Prophets going naked and bare-foot (at Gods command)Iſai. 20. 2. vindicated. which was not ſtark naked, for then it would not have been added bare-foot, but onelyonly his upper garment was to be put off, with his ſhooes, and he was to go in ſome diſguiſed maner, as Acts 19. 16. the word naked is uſed.
As for the forms of Thou and Thee;
1. Where they not ſpoken out of affectation, and in contempt of Magiſtracy and Order, and from a Levelling ſpirit, the expreſſions are proper enough: but if they ſtick to theſe terms as proper, they are as looſe at other times in their Soleciſms, incongruities, and improprieties; And R. F. in this is Self-contradictious; for while he would have Thou and Thee to be the proper and pure language of the Spirit, he denies the Scripture properly to be called the word of God: whereas if Thee and Thou in Scripture be theThe language of the Sp…rit, and the word of God all one. pure language of the Spirit, all the Scripture (to which Thou and Thee is joyned) is ſo, whether ſpoken in proper or figurative expreſſions; And if all the Scripture be the pure language of the Spirit, it is all the pure word of the Spirit; and conſequently the pure word of God; why then doth he and others deny to call the Scripture the word of God? but that they are given up both to contradict the Scripture and themſelves.
2. This language of Thou and Thee when it is given to God, it is given reverently (except from Satan, Job 1. 10. or wicked men, as Cain, Gen. 4. 14. &c.) not as a term of equality with God, but in adoration of his Majeſty, and with reſpect to his greatneſs: and when it is uſed in addreſſes to Kings and great Perſons, it is joyned with ſome note of honor, as Dan. 3. 10. Thou O King, ver. 18. Be it known unto thee O King; in like maner as when Abigail tendred her Petition to David, 1 Sam. 25. 25. Let not my Lord, I pray thee, &c.
3. If the Scripture be a Rule for Thou and Thee, it is a Rule for reſpect to Superiors, and that in words and geſtures; and therefore Thou and Thee, and putting off the Hat may ſtand together when uſed in humility, but keeping on the Hat before them, with Thou and Thee in the mouth, ſpeaks impure pride in the heart, when they think they have pure language in their lips.
4. George Fox, in his late News out of the North, *Page 25.brings in Chriſt thus ſpeaking to his Father, [Father you in me and I in you] here is Thou and Thee, the expreſſions in Joh. 17. 21. either denied, or forgotten, and ſtrangely varied, that they who are captious at others varying from Scripture-language, may be ſeen in their own inconſiſtencies.