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<DATE>2011-05-04</DATE>
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<NAME>Pip Willcox</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch Z110410.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<IDG S="marc" R="OX" ID="A93410">
<STC T="W">S420</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">45578428</BIBNO>
<VID>172346</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="answer">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>William Salmon's ANSWER TO Jeremiah Ives's REQUEST.</HEAD>
<P>WHereas one <HI>Jeremiah Ives</HI> has publickly Challenged the De&s;pi&s;ed <HI>Quakers</HI> to a particular Di&s;pute with him&s;elf, where|in he promi&s;es to prove two things, <HI>viz. That the Quakers are no Chri&s;tians: And that their Mini&s;ters are Impo&s;tors.</HI> I hereby de&s;ire the &s;aid <HI>Jer. Ives</HI> to Con&s;ider the weight of his <HI>A&s;&s;ertions,</HI> and to make good his Po&s;ition in Print (if he can) which I think it much the better way, than to brag and boa&s;t of a Victory before the putting on of his Armour; than to begin Di&s;putations in great A&s;&s;emblies, where there is nothing of Order or Method, but Di&s;order, Confu&s;ion, and Vain Janglings, where a giddy Multitude, who being carried away with &s;ini&s;ter Affections and private Intere&s;ts pre&s;ume to pro|nounce Judgment from the &s;ingle Con&s;equences of their <HI>Ne&s;cience,</HI> and repre&s;ent things not as they <HI>are</HI> indeed, but as they would <HI>have</HI> them; flattering them&s;elves onely with the thoughts of a <HI>Conque&s;t,</HI> whil&s;t they are really <HI>Victims:</HI> and with a Faith (not &s;o good as that of Devils) promi&s;e to remove Mountains, whil&s;t they them&s;elves are carryed away with every wind, &s;peaking evil of tho&s;e things they know not. This therefore (for the &s;akes of every &s;imple Soul) is de&s;ired of <HI>Jeremiah Ives,</HI> that he would not <HI>&s;ay,</HI> but <HI>do;</HI> not <HI>Di&s;pute</HI> but <HI>Prove;</HI> not report <HI>Lies,</HI> but &s;peak the <HI>Truth;</HI> and Ju&s;tifie Publickly in Print what he has only affirmed with a Face of Bra&s;s to the World: In &s;o doing he avoids a twofold Inconvenience, (to wit) the Interruptions of his Cogitations, and mi&s;repre&s;entations of his Words; the which (if they be not Arguments Cogent enough to per&s;wade) I &s;hall urge the &s;ame upon one more, which is the Credit of his <HI>Cau&s;e</HI> wherein he is now engaged. If he e&s;&s;ays to an&s;wer my Reque&s;t, I here faithfully promi&s;e, not only for my &s;elf, but in the Name, or in the Sted of that De&s;pi&s;ed People, that if he can make good his <HI>A&s;&s;ertions,</HI> I will really re|nounce the Cau&s;e he &s;o much oppuggnes, and publickly declare him and his Abettors, in the Right: But if he cannot ju&s;tifie his Slanders and Lies (for &s;uch they are till he has proved them) or otherwi&s;e refu&s;es this &s;o rea&s;onable a Propo&s;al; I &s;hall conclude the &s;aid <HI>Jeremiah Ives</HI>'s Charges to be not only the refu&s;e of Lyes, (which God in due &s;ea&s;on will &s;weep away) malicious Slanders (of which the Devil him&s;elf is the Author) but al&s;o the Propugners thereof to be men of <HI>Beltal</HI> and profe&s;t Enemies to <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> and <HI>Christianity.</HI></P>
<P>The Inequality and di&s;ingenious dealings of the Adver&s;ary with the <HI>Quakers</HI> is worthy to be con&s;idered, in their denying of their Charg again&s;t <HI>T. Hicks</HI> to be read, although they not only granted it, but had the &s;ame liberty them&s;elves: and then the urging of tho&s;e things fir&s;t to be proved, which would have had a clear Demon&s;tration by the Sequel of the Di&s;cour&s;e, to put them to the pro|ving of them&s;elves to be Chri&s;tians, (which they affirm) when it was their part to prove that they were none, (which they denyed) and might have given to all the Auditory a clear proof of the &s;ame, would <HI>Jeremiah Ives</HI> or his A&s;&s;ociates have brought forth their Arguments in proof of their A&s;&s;ertions; the not re&s;elling of which had been Witne&s;s enough again&s;t them, that they had been what the <HI>Bapti&s;t,</HI> affirmed them to be: till when, the <HI>Quakers Denyal</HI> is Proof and Ju&s;tification enough again&s;t all the Ma|lice and Envy of <HI>Jeremiah Ives,</HI> and all other Broachers of Fal&s;hoods, and they do undenyably remain what they affirm them|&s;elves to be, (even True Chri&s;tians).</P>
<P>But wherefore de&s;ire I the&s;e Rea&s;onable things, from the hands of Unrea&s;onable Men? who, (let us &s;ay what we can) will always make a Con&s;truction of our words to the the oppo&s;ite of what we mean, and force them to &s;ignifie that which is the con|trary, both to their Natural <HI>&s;en&s;e</HI> and <HI>intentions;</HI> who make the Confe&s;&s;ion of Faith, although in the Language of the Holy Scrip|ture, to be but a meer Equivocation, an old art of Deceivers. I &s;hould de&s;ire of this Adver&s;ary to the Form of Sound Words, and Enemy to the Chri&s;tian Faith, to declare how he would have a Chri&s;tian to expre&s;s his Belief, &s;ince he likes not the expre&s;&s;i|ons of the Holy and Chri&s;tian Spirit, nor Language of its Mini&s;ters declared in Scripture. If my &s;erious Profe&s;&s;ion, and Owning of Chri&s;t our Lord, be the <HI>Denying</HI> of him; and con&s;tant belief of Salvation in his <HI>Name</HI> only, and no other under Heaven, be again&s;t the Doctrine of <HI>Chri&s;tianity,</HI> I would de&s;ire of <HI>Jeremiah Ives,</HI> or his Abettors, what is the <HI>Owning</HI> of him, and by what manner of expre&s;&s;ions we mu&s;t <HI>Confe&s;s</HI> to his Name?</P>
<P>Whether what I &s;ay is may Faith, ought not rather to be taken for my Faith, than what my Adver&s;ary &s;ays it to be, &s;ince I better know what I believe than another do's? if yea, wherefore &s;hould Envious <HI>Jer. Ives</HI> and his Abettors &s;ay the contrary? if nay, wherefore &s;hould they, or any el&s;e, be any more believed in any of their Verbal Confe&s;&s;ions, than I, or another man, &s;ince there is no rea&s;on that their credit &s;hould exceed in the lea&s;t mea&s;ure ours, or any other per&s;ons?</P>
<P>Let <HI>Jeremiah Ives</HI> out with his Fardle of Slanders and Fal&s;hoods as &s;oon as he will, and mu&s;tur up all the Power and Forces of his Might in the defence and proof of the &s;ame, and <HI>Goliah</HI> like come forth with his <HI>Spear</HI> and his <HI>Sword,</HI> and with the highe&s;t of Indignities, and Bla&s;phemies again&s;t <HI>Heaven,</HI> defie the Ho&s;ts, and Armies of the Living <HI>God:</HI> I here promi&s;e (through the A&s;&s;i&s;tance of the <HI>Divine Power</HI>) to encounter him and all his Abettors, and doubt not but by the vertue of the &s;ame, in the behalf of <HI>God,</HI> his <HI>Truth,</HI> and <HI>People</HI> to &s;tand in the face of all their Oppo&s;ites, and &s;miting the Head of the Adver&s;ary with his own Weapon, prove that, at length, upon them&s;elves, which they have with &s;o much Impudence and Fal&s;hood charged upon others.</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE>Ea&s;t end of <HI>Pauls</HI> neer the Free-&s;chool, <HI>London,</HI> <DATE>the 20th of <HI>Octob.</HI> 1674.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED>VVilliam Salmon.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
<BACK>
<DIV1 TYPE="colophon">
<P><HI>London,</HI> Printed in the Year. 1674.</P>
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