You may as well affirm a Finger to be a Man , when separated from the rest of the Man , as common Justice , Truth , &c. to be Christianity .

If the Scripture had any where said , that none but Christians shall be saved , his Consequence had been grounded . pag. 5. But he might have found asserted in my Book , THAT SALVATION DEPENDS ON A RIGHT BELIEF AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE .

The Scripture saith ( as I instanced for Proof of that little Part of my Answer by him considered ) For there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men , Acts 4. 12. whereby we must be Saved , neither is there Salvation in any other . Now how to distinguish betwixt a Man being saved by Christ , and his being a true Christian , I must declare my Ignorance : Nay , John Faldo , though in Contradiction to himself , tells us , That Salvation depends on a right Belief and Acceptance of the Covenant of Grace . Let him either show how a Man may rightly believe and accept of the Covenant of Grace , and yet be no Christian , or else he does nothing to his own purpose , whatever he does for ours . Christ is called , God's Covenant ; The New Covenant stands in him . How a Man may believe in the Covenant , and not in Christ ; How in Christ , and not be a Christian , concerns John Faldo to reconcile ; only , Reader , let me tell thee , that of about Six Pages concerning Christianity , this Man has not undertaken Eight Lines to reply to , neither are those the Strength of my Discourse .

To conclude , I dare not repute Enoch to be no Christian , who walked with God ; Abraham no Christian , who saw Christ's Day , and rejoyced ; David no Christian , who was a Man after God's own Heart : Neither can I believe with him , that the Apostle's Exhortation , Phil. 4. Whatsoever things are True , Honest , Just , Pure , Lovely , of Good Report , if there be any Praise , think on these things , is no Part of Christianity ; or , that a Man may be a Saint and not a Christian ; or , that a Child of God is not a Good Christian ; or , that James was mistaken , who said , That the Pure and Vndefiled Religion was to keep our selves unspotted of the World ; which strange kind of Consequences unavoidably follow from J. Faldo's Assertion and Definition . For our Parts , As we think it no Wrong to Christianity , so no Discredit to our Cause , that it should be reported that we believe the Word nigh in the Heart ( the Apostle Paul calls the Word of Faith and Reconciliation ) to have been preached by Moses , that Chist , the Promised Seed , bruised the Serpent's Head , 1 John 1. 7. as well before , as at , and since his Visible Appearance ; That Enoch when he walked with God , walked in the Light , in which he felt the Blood of Christ cleansing from all Sin ; That the Spirit of God strove with Men as well before Christ's Coming as since ; and that some were led by it before as well as since ; and therefore Children of God ; Rom. 8. 14 , 17. and if Children , then Heirs ; Heirs of God , and Joynt-Heirs with Christ . Not that we deny a Preheminence to Christ's Visible Coming , ●nd the greater Benefits that came into the World thereby ; we would not be thought so to mean , at no hand : only this , that something of that Divine Life , Power , Wisdom and Righteousness , that then so super-excellently appeared and broak forth , was revealed in all former Ages , as Mankind was in a Capacity to receive it ; wherefore the Difference lay in the Manifestations of the One Thing necessary , and not in several things : So that the Law is , as it were , the Gospel begun , and the Gospel the Law finished ; or as Augustine expresses it , Lex est Evangelium absconditum , et Evangelium est lex revelata . The Law is the Gospel obscured , the Gospel the Law revealed ; That is , suited to the Capacity of Ages .

But J. Faldo is Angry , that in my Recital of these words out of his former Discourse , Qua. no Chr. pag. 13. But the Thing Christianity might well be before the Name Christian , that I left out these following words , so short a space . Saying , I am a Man of a seared Conscience , and that it is pitty any Reader should be so tame to be thus imposed on .

I know not what he means by these ▪ last words , unless he would have every Man that reads me , beat me . I have alwayes thought it becoming a Minister of the Gospel to make People Tame and not Wild ; Sufferers , not Hectors ; but such Expressions very well suit with John Faldo's Religion : For my Conscience , it is not so seared , but I can feel and resent John Faldo's Injustice . God knows I left out no words designedly ; nor could the Insertion of them have disappointed me : For if the Thing Christianity may be before the Name a Day , then a Year , and so an Age , till we shall come to the first Man that ever God saved . All Men must be saved by either Law or Gospel ; Now the Law strictly considered , could never save , it gives Life to none : So imports the Scripture , and so asserts B. Vsher , B. Sanderson , Allen , and others ; then it must have been by the Gospel , which is by the Apostle called the Power of God unto Salvation : and if all Men that were ever saved , were saved by the Gospel , then True Christians ; unless Men may believe the Gospel , be saved by the Life and Power of it , and yet be no Christians , that is , not the Men , the term Christians ( given first at Antioch ) doth fignifie . I shall offer this short Argument to the Reader 's consideration . If He that is born again , be a Christian , and such , as enter into the Kingdom of God , be born again , then because Abraham , Isaac , Jacob , Samuel , David , &c. entered into God's Kingdom , it follows , that they were born again , and consequently Christians . How pernicious is that Principle , which denyes the New Birth to be so much as any part of Christianity , when , indeed , the greatest , as Christ's own Saying proves .

The Truth of the Matter is , The very Life , Power and Spirit of the Gospel , or Christianity , which to other exteriour Performances , is as the Soul to the Body , John Faldo would fain exclude from any Share in Christianity ; and for our preferring and pressing That , as the most important Matter , he over-runs us with all the Vilifying , Scornful Epithetes a Lucian could bestow upon a Christian : Indeed , his Frothiness is such , that were it not for their sakes , who may yet be ensnared by his Adventrous and Imperious Assertions and Reflections , I should not think his Vindication worth one Minute of my Time . But he proceeds .

I undertook to prove Quakerism No Christianity from the confessed Newness of it by their own Party . pag. 8. Penn tells us , p. 21. the first Letters of the Names of some , the bare Names of others , whose words I quoted , but dare not transscribe their words , being so fair to my Purpose : only a part of Penington's , who saith of the Quakers Dispensation , that it swallowed up that of Christ and the Apostles : which Penn would take off by telling me , I have no Candor in so Construing the words ; as if Penington , who was a Schollar , could not express his Mind congruously , but must have Penn to be his Interpreter .

Now what any can make of this Cloudy Paragraph , that has not read our former Books ( indeed of the greatest part of his Vindication ) if then , I know not : but sure I am , he ignorantly or willingly puts the Lye upon himself , and greatly berayes his own Weakness . Is this your Combatant , you , that blow him with Pride and Rage , that he may only have Wind to Crack out against the Quakers ? What Reply is this wretched , disingenuous Section to my Answer ? If I quoted not E. Burroughs's and J. Whitehead's words at length , and but a few they were , I quoted that for which the rest left out were quoted . He would fix the beginning of Quakerism about the Year 1651. this was the Drift , of his Quotations , from whence he concluded Quakerism No Christianity . Hear my Answer , and by that it will appear how suitable or sufficient his Reply is . Well , But when came this Quakerism into the World ? He tells us , pag. 21 , 22. about the year 1651. quoting E. B's Epistle before G. F's Great Mystery , also a small Treatise writ by John Whitehead & Isaac Penington ; from whence he infers , that Quakerism is a late Dispensation , therefore not that of Christianity . But certainly , this Man hath taken a very Quick Course to Vnchristian himself , and all the Presbyterians , Independents and Anabaptists in the World , as well as the Quakers : For I would ask him , if there was not a Time since the Primitive Age , wherein Darkness hath overspread the Earth , the Beast did Reign , and the pure Religion was wholely Wilderness'd ? If so , consequently the Resurrection of Truth is no more a New Dispensation , or not that of Christianity , then a Man that is exiled his Country , is not essentially the same Man , when he returns , that he was before — But since we are of another Religion by his Account , then the Christian , because we cannot say that we were alwayes successively from the Apostles time , I will argue , that the Presbyterians , Independents and Anabaptists are not Christians , nor is what they profess to be esteemed Christianity , because they cannot prove a regular Succession from the Apostles Times , their date also being of later years . What will they say then ? The Church was fled into the Wilderness ; Truth exiled ; God as a Stranger in the Earth ; yet Truth still the same in it self : Very well , so say we . God was pleased to renew the Right Christian - Dispensation to us , and by us , according to John's Vision , that the Everlasting Gospel was preached again , intimating , that there had been a Time wherein it was not preached . If this be not a New Gospel , because anew or again preached ; neither is that which J. Faldo calls Quakerism a New Dispensation , because it is preaching anew the Everlasting Gospel to the Sons of Men ; which is God's Power inwardly manifested for the Conviction , Conversion , Redemption and Salvation of the Souls of such as believe in it .

In which , First , I take in that part of the Quotation which was material to the proving of Quakerism No Christianity , at least in my Adversary's Apprehension . Secondly , I have Answered that Objection , both by showing that the Presbyterians , Independents and Anabaptists , whom he owns to be Christians , were novil ; and that the Everlasting Gospel was to be preached again ; which implyed , that a Time there was in which it was not preached ; consequently , that his Objection could not be therefore of any Force , as levelled at us : To all which he sayes nothing , only asks a Question concerning my Reproof for his want of Candor in explaining I. Penington's words , viz. As if Penington , who was a Schollar , could not express his Mind Congruously , but must have Penn to be his Interpreter . Let us see if this be any solid Confutation of what I said . Reader hear me .

And though he particularly seems to Triumph over Isaac Penington's distinguishing between the Dispensation of Moses , Christ and his Apostles , and THIS of our Day , as if they had been three several Dispensations , and consequently , if Christ was not that of Moses , because it swallowed it up ; neither this the Dispensation of Christ , which Isaac Penington saith , it swallows up : yet to me it seems a pittiful Catch ; and shows , he knows not how to take things with that Candor they are writ 〈◊〉 J. P. means not a Distinct Administration in Kind , but Dispensation of one and the same Light , Life and Power by Nature , at several Times , and sundry Manners to the World : Christ was before the Law , under the Law , with the Prophets , but never so revealed as in that Holy Manhood ; will it therefore follow , he was not Antecedent to that Appearance ? or He , that appeared then more Gloriously , had never shown himself before ? Or because of a Difference in Manifestation , therefore not the same H E ( through all those several Manifestations ) in himself ? Certainly , this Man is very Unjust to J. P. especially , when the Words above quoted , that speak of a Dispensation he experienced a little before God broke forth by us , called Quakers , could have informed him , that he meant the Divers Breakin gs forth of God's Light and Truth , in order to the full Discovery and Recovery of Lost Primitive Christianity : So that this present Appearance swallowing up all going before it ( had he so termed it , as he doth not , and therefore wronged ) is no more then God's Retriving to us the Ancient Gospel , with Additional Blessings and Assistances , giving us the same Life and Foundation they had , and what else he pleased by way of Improvement ; which alters not the Nature , no more then a Child in Christ is not that Numerical Creature , but another Distinct Being , when a Man .

Now can any Understanding Man account my Adversary's Idle Shifting Question a Pertinent Reply ? What if I. P. was a Schollar , might he not therefore be Abused , or Misunderstood ? Is Schollarship a Protection against Wresting ? Must I. P. intend what J. F. will have him , and not what really he did ? But that it should be so Offensive to him , for W. P. to Clear and Defend the Passage , is delighting rather to have us Wrong then Right . But the Quakers must be Heterodox , though it be but to save J. F. from the Disrepute of Lying . 'T is clear that I. P. intended no New Administration , but the Restauration of Pure and Vncorrupted Religion ; that he never so worded it , as by J. F. cited , that I charge him with , but he thought it best to give it the slip , or else I must impute it to his Carelesness .

Any Unbyast Reader may perceive , my Adversary has enough of the Controversie , or he would never write so mean a Reply to such an Answer .

To wind up this , which more particularly concerns Christianity , I say , That there never was but one True Foundation from Adam's day to this , upon which the Holy Ancients built , and that was Christ Jesus , the Lord from Heaven , called , the Second Adam , and Quickening Spirit : To deny this were to overturn the Chief Corner-Stone of the Christian-Religion ; and how Men could build on this Foundation and not be Christians , I know not .

The Christians of the first Three Hundred Years after Christ , were then by the Jews and Heathens , as we are by certain Professors and Prophane in this Age , accused of Affecting and Following Novelties , as we learn out of Eusebius ▪ Pamphili Paeparat . Evang. lib. 1. and Theophilus Antiochenus , lib. 3. pag. 119. Arnobius , lib. 2. pag. 40. Tertull. ad nation . lib. 1. cap. 10. with several other Writers . The Account some of them give us , of what the Christians said in their Defence was this , D. Cave . That the Christian Religion was for Substance the same with that of the Ancient Jews , Primitive Christianity . whose Religion claimed the Precedency of all others in the World .

That the Religion was in Substance the same is expresly asserted and proved by Eusebius . The Ancient Patriarchs were the Christians of the Old World , who had the same Faith , Religion and Worship common with us , nay the same Name too ; Touch not mine Anointed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , my Christ's , or Christians : Thus D. Cave in his Primitive Christianity out of Eusebius Praepar . Evang. l. 1. c. 5. p. 9. Clemens Alexandrin . admonit . ad Gent. p. 57. about this old Objection , queries thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Why do we not use our Mother's Milk for Food , to which we were accustomed when we came first into the World . And why do we encrease our Estate our Fathers left us , &c. intimating that the Difference between what we call Law and Gospel , or that Religion which the holy Ancients professed before Christ's Coming in the Flesh , and that which Christ Jesus and his Apostles taught , was not in kind , but in degre● only , the Ceremonial part excepted ; which the same Clemens calls childish and Trifling , and the Apostle Paul Beggarly Elements , serving only the non-Age of the World in Religion , and therefore to be laid aside upon a more improved Knowledge and full Enjoyment of it . And this Christ's own Sermon upon the Mount clearly evinceth , who runs the Sin of Adultery as far beyond the Act , as the first lustful Desire conceived in the mind : And from true Swearing , to yea , yea , and nay , nay ; and from loving our Friends to loving our Enemiese ; and from self-saving to suffering . I say , unless we should with the Uncertain and Irreverent J. Faldo , exclude the Life , Doctrine and Miracles of Christ from any share in Christianity , because , sayes he , it s dated with more reason , from Christ's Resurrection ( and consequently Christ Jesus before but an extraordinary kind of Jew ) we must needs conclude that as the tendency of Christ's Life and Miracles was to preach , live and confirm his divine Doctrine ; so the very bent of that Doctrine was the Improvement and Perfection of that Righteousness , which in former Ages was but begun , and more imperfectly manifested : so that to be under Grace is not to live in the Breach of God's Law Uncondemned through Christ's personal Obedience wrought wholely without us , but to be led to deny all that Vngodliness and those Worldly Lusts , for which the Law takes hold upon the World , according to the Apostle to the Romans , Rom. 8. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit ( implying , that who walked after the Flesh were so long not under Grace , but under Condemnation ; Again , ) For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death ( that is , not only from Death , the Wages , but from Sin , the Work that leads to it ; yet further ) For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh , God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh , and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh , that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in vs , who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit . So that to be under Grace is to be under the Government & Leadings of it , and to enjoy that divine Power , which fulfills the Law , and redeems from those Corruptions , which prove men rather to be alive without Law , then under Grace that fulfils it . Upon the whole ; since some in all Ages have been taught to deny Ungodliness ; Tit. 2. 12. and to live godly , and that they could not so have done without the Grace that brings Salvation ; And since the Seed of the Serpent has been bruised in them , and that it could not be without Christ , the promised Seed ; and since such were then turned from Darkness unto Light , and from Satan's Power unto God ; and that all this is purely Gospel and Christian ; something of Christianity was in the World before that visible Appearance of Christ , from whose Name the true Religion was so called : For though there have been Diversities of Gifts , yet the same Spirit ; though Difference of Administration , yet the same Lord .