to be in believers, I hope his light and Spirit are there with him; which is more than the effects of the perceptive powers of their fouls, or outward ministerial help in the bufinefs of religion, a thing he has fo often denied to any but the holy penmen, and here and there an extraordinary perfon, that has had the power of miracles, to confirm the truth of their infpiration: "For if he has given us his Son, how much more "with him fhall he give us all things?" So that our adversary has herein granted, what he has fo often denied and oppofed.

The like in that paffage of the apostle to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. xiii. 15. "Unless Chrift be in you, you "are reprobates." This,' fays he, proves, no reprobates have Chrift in them: how, then, is Chrift in every man, if he be in none of these? But then, fay 1, he is in all but reprobates, by this man's conceffion and we can fay no more. For if by reprobates we are to understand a Judas's ftate; a feared confcience; one that has abfolutely crucified to himfelf afresh the Lord of life and glory, and has finned the fin against the Holy Ghoft; in fhort, an apoftate, or an obftinate oppofer, and perverter of the right way of the Lord; then, I fay, our principle of Chrift being, in fome fenfe, in every man (viz. as a light lightening every man) receives no difadvantage from his objection for therefore reprobates have not Christ, because they have finally blown out the candle, extinguished confcience, and are become dead to all fenfe of religion; which is, because they have out-lived the day of God's love and mercy to them: they would not be gathered; they would have none of him; they would not have this man to reign over them. But then, all others, by this text, and this man's arguing from it, have Chrift in them; and fo it makes greatly for us, fince it plainly concludes, That if all that have not Chrift in them are reprobates, then thofe that are not reprobates have Christ in them: but fuch is every man that cometh into the world; therefore, every man that cometh into the world, bath Chrift in him:' for, to be fure,

men

men come not reprobates into the world. They have a day of grace; God calls; his Spirit ftrives; his longfuffering waiteth, as in the days of Noah, for their re pentance. And this is that which will give the greateft weight in the fcale against the rebellious, at the great judgment, that they had a talent; a feed was fown; grace did appear; and all had light, but fuch loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

The last scripture he would turn upon us, is that in the Galatians; " My little children, of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you:" upon which he fays, The perfons fpoken to then, had not Chrift in them.' Thus does this man walk in a circle, and contradict himself. One time, all but reprobates have Chrift; another while, the Galatians, though not reprobates, had him not. But when he confiders, that there is a great difference between a feed and an ear, a plant and a tree, he may better understand the apostle, and what he now fays. For the poor man, after fo often allowing Chrift to be in the people of God, fays, pag. 59. But neither in believers is Chrift a light

within.' I wonder, then, what he is there, fince he is the light of the world, John i. 4, 9. and that true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and yet not to be a light within man, though he be within man, is furprizing. I fhall leave it with my reader, to do our principle juftice; and I hope he will find reafon to think I have afferted no errors, nor prevaricated with my friends, nor lost my point, nor acted with leger-de-main, or meditated temperament, to deceive; and that all the wards of my KEY, after his many ftrainings, wreftings, and forcings, keep their places, and anfwer the end for which the KEY was first inade, viz. To open, to every common understanding, the difference between the principles of the people called Quakers, and the perverfions and mif' representations of their enemies:' wifhing this adverfary, for all his fcoffs, fcurrility, and abuse upon us and our religion, repentance to salvation.

VOL. V.

F

His

His Exceptions to our Refufal of OATHS, and his Arguments for them, confidered.

PA

AGE 62. To their (the Quakers) fcruple about Oaths, I fhall only hint thefe few thoughts: because true Speaking is not only a part of bonefty, but religion; therefore not only honefty, but religion, is engaged, with its full force, to fupport itfelf: but • if a man engage all his religion for the fupport of a true fpeech, he takes an oath.

If this be true arguing, then we fwear as often as we fay Yea and Nay in evidence; fince we acknowledge we stake the credit of our religion and confcience for the verity of it; and then, methinks, there needs no dispute in the matter: for it is certain we do, and that fwearers can do no more: and fince that is our principle, it is as binding on us, as fwearing is upon those that give themselves the liberty of fwearing. But pray let us hear what follows.

I fhall not,' fays he, infift upon the nature of an oath, but confider its place in the political state of • Chrift's kingdom.'

If he will not infift upon the nature of an oath, I have no reason to infift upon the use or disuse of it at this time; fince here it is an argument upon an individuum vagum; a nothing. He fhould firft have afcertained us, what an oath is; and when that had been adjusted and settled, then he should have proved fuch an oath lawful, and us unreasonable for refufing it upon all accounts. However, I will both obferve, and anfwer, his notions of it.

Firft, he fays, He cannot understand how fwearing can be wholly put down, where people may swear by law, as in England.' True, unlefs that law be repealed, that requires it. But it is a great bull to fay, That they who make a law cannot repeal it. If the legislative power is pleafed to make yea and nay the force and acceptance of an oath, they may have it in any government; and that is what the people called

have

Quakers

Quakers defire in this, for all of their communion : and to fhew him how much he is mistaken, the highest judicature in England fits upon honour, and not oaths, viz. The boufe of lords: fo commiffioners of oyer and terminer, that judge life, are rarely, if ever, upon oath. So that I have herein anfwered his question, pag. 63. If an order against all fwearing were not, Ipfo Jure, void.' He carries it higher than any body ever did, that I have met with. It is, with him, the great hinge or axle-tree upon which religion turns; and explodes my reafon as falfe, that I gave for the rife of oaths, viz. Want of faith, either in him that swears, or in him to whom the oath is fworn.

For,' fays he, God the Father fwears to the Son, Heb. vii. where there is infinite faithfulness on both <fides.'

But to this I fay, That, ftrictly speaking, God cannot be faid to fwear; for he that fwears, fwears by the greater, Heb. vi. 16. So that it is called fwearing, that it might ftrike unbelieving man with the greater affurance of God's love to him. And though there was infinite faithfulness between God and Christ, yet it referring to man, it is termed an oath, to heighten and augment man's credit and confidence in God, as to the means of his falvation; and not that God did properly fwear, or can do fo.

But he tells us, That Chrift anfwered upon adjuration before a judge, which is the way of fwearing in our English courts.'

I cannot allow it, fince he does not prove that Christ fwore in his answer; for all he faid was, "Thou hast "faid," Mat. xxvi. 63. Now that is putting it back to the high priest; as if he had faid, What need I answer that upon oath, which thou thyself fayeft? • Dost thou first accuse me, and then query to confirm it? Thou haft faid.' But next, if it be said, 'That it was an anfwer ufual, and the propriety or peculiarity of that language fo to speak,' he fhould have proved it: for, as the words are in the scripture, there appears no oath in them: but if it were as he fays,

F 2

(which

(which I cannot grant) yet it concludes nothing against us; for as he was in the state of a fervant, a Jew of the Jews, made and born under the law, Gal. iv. 4. he was to fulfil the righteousness of it, and fo might act as a few; as he did in the inftance of circumcifion, the paffover, &c. Yet after his refurrection, we hear nothing of an oath, any more in example than in doctrine; which, with all other cuftoms of the Jews, that, in old time were practifed, was, as it were, left with the grave-clothes behind; and he ascended in his evangelical righteoufnefs and glory, triumphing over principalities and powers, and vanquishing hell, death, and the grave, and brought in a better hope, fanctuary, and tabernacle, where yea and nay fucceeded, and fuperfeded all oaths. So that the very bafis this man builds upon is unfound, and his premifes precarious. How, then, can he build well, or conclude rightly against us? But he fays, "The angels fwear;" which, I conceive, is more than he knows; for no body can think, by his writings, he is very converfant with good angels. However, I grant that the angels have fworn; but that is no reason to continue oaths among men, if Christ, the bleffed author of the Christian religion, hath forbid them: for the angels, as well as men, must worship him, Heb. i. 6. and therefore Christ and not the angels, are to be followed by us: but whenever an angel hath fworn, it hath been in condefcenfion to the incredulity and diffidence of man, and to heighten his credit of the mind and will of God; and is therefore an inftance for us, because it refers to a low and imperfect ftate, propofed as an expedient and remedy against untruth; which is out of the queftion; truth leaving no room for fwearing; which, in its nature, is but a terrifying of the mind into true speaking; as, in fome countries, in default of evidence, they ufe racks, to extort confeffions from the fufpected parties: an instance of which we have near us, in the Scotch boots and thummikins.

He alleges alfo, That the apostles fwore: but he has not mentioned any one of them, nor any place:

how