A Modest DETECTION OF George Keith's MISCALLED JUST VINDICATION OF HIS Earnest Expostulation PUBLISHED By him as a pretended Answer to a Late Book of Mine Entituled Some Brief Observations c. By E. P. Isa 28. 20. For the Bed is shorter then that a Man can stretch himself on it And the Covering narrower then that he can wrap himself in it LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Meeting-House in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street and at the Bible in Leaden-Hall-Street near the Market 1696. A Modest Detection of George Keith 's miscalled Just Vindication of his Earnest Expostulation c. HAD I not by Observation of past Actions known George Keith a little too well I might have been induced to have Thought that the extravagancies of Expressions bitterness of Words and angry Language vented against those whom he calls A Gang or Sort of Quakers were only the product of a suddain angry Fit which in a more serene Temper he would be ashamed of But alas I find if I had so thought I had been mistaken in the Man and consequently my Opinion of him and his malicious Work but too true and that is that his Spleen is so swelled with the Ill-will he bears us that a common venting his Passion wont ease him but as if not only Intoxicated but perfectly Drunk therewith he Vomits out great Floods of Railing Accusations and what is worse still Sucks in more whereby he is so far from coming to his right Mind as that he may be said to be continually inflamed therewith and thereby hindred from seeing the Deformity of it and the inconveniencies it subjects him to whence it is that instead of being ashamed he Vindicates what any Sober Moderate Man I am perswaded cannot read with Approbation I confess his Answering if his deserve that Name my late small Treatise Entituled Some brief Observations upon George Keith 's Earnest Expostulation is no surprize upon me For I did suppose that he who declines answering an Antagonist more considerable in every respect to whom he is Debtor for three Books yet unanswered by him would fall upon me if possible to Nip me in the Bud which is all of a Piece with his answering Caleb Pusey of Pennsilvania who living at so great a distance he might in probability not expect a Reply in hast not knowing 't is like that any Body here would take up the Cudgels against him on behalf of C. Pusey But as I therein consulted not with Flesh and Blood nor entertained any reasonings in my Mind concerning the Arts Parts or Qualifications of the Man or my own meanness or inabilities for such a Work So now I must needs say I do not find his performances in his Reply to mine so considerable as to render the Piece unanswerable but rather what he is pleased to Term mine Trifling Exceptions therefore I shall now betake my self to it In my former I taxed him with fondly imagining that he and he alone amongst the Quakers had monopolized Knowledge and for Proof thereof produced a Paragraph out of a Book Entituled A Modest Account c. p. 28. viz. If you serve George Keith so George Keith will leave you and then ye shall wander about for lack of Knowledge and shall not find it Brief Observations p. 3. This he now tells us p. 1. is a lying Story an abominable Falshood I Answer He knows whence I had it I reserred to Book and Page which is more then he does in some of his Stories therefore I made it not but that it is false we have only his bare Denial now and not so much before in his Answer to the said Book He only says Antichrists and Sadducees p. 8. concerning some Relations C. Pusey gives in his Modest Account Most of which are absolutely False and that little that 's true in any of them is not fairly nor duly related should he not have told us which were and which were not false and how far true how far false However upon the whole it is but his denial against the others Affirmation which Whether the one would be guilty of Forging a lying Story without any ground or the other of denying a real Truth to save his Credit as not being willing to be thought so presumptuously conceited of his own profound Knowledge and so undervaluingly slighting of others must be left to every Reader to judge as he sees occasion and in the mean time he must excuse me if I disbelieve him and tell him in his own Dialect to C. Pusey he hath brought nothing in disproof of it but his own forseited Credit He proceeds And this and the like false Accusations are the best Armour these my Adversaries have to Fight against me Which is a gross Abuse and proofless Assertion and as such I reject it the only Reason of my producing it being as an Instance of his Malice which is one of my Charges upon him under which he is uneasie What I charged upon him Brief Observations p. 4. relating to ' his imposing fond Notions and unscriptural Creeds he will have to be no other then some of the great Fundamentals of the Christian Religion the denial whereof says he I have sufficiently proved them guilty of in the Meeting at Turners-Hall c. I Answer He mistakes the Point I called not those fond Notions which he falsly accused us at Turners-Hall with denying but I 'le tell him where he may find some that I call so viz. in Truth Advanced from p. 17. to p. 30. likewise p. 115 116 117. and from p. 124 to p. 127. besides other places of that Book what they are he has been already told in part in a Book lately Published Entituled Keith against Keith from p. 39 to p. 53. and from p. 93 to p. 100. and so that Labour saved me for the present Then what I call unscriptural Creeds I shall now tell him viz. Articles of Faith not delivered in Scripture Terms imposed as a Boundary Term and Bond of Vnion which unless a Person confess with his Mouth in the hearing of some of his Fellow-members he is not to be owned as a Member of the Church see the last of the Ten Articles and methinks G. Keith should not call this a false Charge for the very ten Articles themselves mentioned Exact Narrative p. 42. are not in Scripture Language though whether right or wrong and wherein I wave at present and how far they were offered to be imposed is known to some and that himself refused to accept of a Confession of Faith drawn up in Scripture Phrase by the Pennsylvanian Friends himself hath acknowledged therefore my Charge stands grounded upon a good Bottom Besides he 's too hasty to take it for granted that what he said and alledged at Turners-Hall was sufficient Proof I may as well tell him his so called Proofs were sufficiently disproved by T. Ellwood in his Answer to the Narrative and shall have more ground for my so saying than
Jesuit Philosophy was then and there taught The place by me cited maketh no mention of Jesuit Philosophy or distiction between one sort and another only in general terms The Philosophy which is taught them is meer Deceit and Pedantry But to drive him out of his hole I shall produce a passage in another part of the same Book which manifests what sort of Philosophy he then meant see p. 30 31. viz. Your Fathers the Primitive Protestants and Reformers made not Latin Greek and Hebrew and Aristotle's Logick and Philosophy with other humane Learning and the passing of so many Years course at the Colledge and that you call School Divinity the qualifications of a Minister of Christ Now upon the whole I query whether Aristotle was a Jesuit or no Since 't was Aristotle's Philosophy it seems that was taught at the Colledges in short I look upon it little better then a Jesuitical Evasion which shews he has not quite forgot what he learnt almost word for word But enough of this he goes on p. 2. And since that time both that Colledge and I suppose all other Colledges in both Nations have changed that sort of Philosophy out of their dislike to it as I my self had done before I was a Quaker Answ It may be so for indeed I must confess he tells his Reader p. 76. Which even I came to see when among them and many of themselves see it and confess it to be but Vanity But what then it seems their changing of it is but labour in vain all to no purpose for he says Ibid And many among themselves have attempted the Reformation of their so called Philosophy and squeezed their Brains to find out a new one but all in vain it shall never be found out till they come to the Cross of Christ and under his Cross denying their own Wisdom become Disciples of Christ c. The reason he gives is The invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made which carry upon them indeed the Characters of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power but are a sealed Book no less then the Scriptures to such who are not come to the teachings of him who made them and who only can give an Eye to read them with a true Understanding and to Advantage And this he testifies from his own Experience and Trial who as he saith hath had a Trial and Experience of both the one and the other Now I would ask him Are they under these qualifications now If so then my former question is answered viz. Are ye changed For it seems they were otherwise then or else he falsely accused them But if they were so then and not exceedingly changed for the better now in the abovementioned respects then is he egregiously changed for the worse But adds he what if I should blame the Philosophy that is now taught in all the Colledges Is there no other good Learning but that called Philosophy He has but little Learning that so Argues Answ I have little Learning enough I confess yet I did not so Argue for I produced a quotation which includes Colledge Learning generally and condemns it by the Lump without this distinction between Philosophy and other Learning See Brief Observations p. 5. viz. And I certainly know that Humane Wisdom or Learning taught in them is one of the main Bulwarks of Antichrist against the Revelation and setting up the Kingdom of Christ in the Earth and because this is arising and shall rise down must the other go and all who seek to uphold it shall fall therewith said G. Keith Help in time of need p. 76. In farther excuse of himself he proceeds thus viz. What I then said against Schools and Vniversities was against the ill Constitution and great Abuses in them at that time but not against Schools well and duly Constituted as neither was Luther whose Authority I cited against them Answ Here he uses slight of Hand thereby to slip his Neck out of the Collar he changeth the Terms from Universities and Colledges of Philosophy to Schools and Universities and then in the next Line goes about to vindicate himself as not being against Schools whereas I did not object that against him and by the way I may tell him neither are the Quakers for if they were or had been they would hardly have given him so large a Sallary as they did at Philadelphia for teaching School there but against the other he is positive without any exception as to constitution and brings in Luther to back him See Help in time of need c. p. 75 76. viz. And away with the Education of your Youth at Universities and Colledges of Philosophy so called I may say of them which Luther stuck not to call them in his Day that they were stews of Antichrist Next adds he as to what I said concerning Prelacy and Lording Bishops for so I cautioned it in that Book Neither doth this prove that I did conclude there could be no Pious Bishops Answ It is not here material whether he did then allow or yet allows that some Pious Bishops have been or yet are but the Hierarchy it self he disapproved of Prelacy in general he disowned not some particular Bishops only their Ministry in general not some particular Ministers only of that Communion and that it was I then objected I then shewed that he called Prelacy a Limb of Antichrist therefore what particular Persons he is now pleased to except is but exceptions out of a general rule therefore foreign to the matter He farther called Prelacy That filthy thing set up in the Land which Thousands of the Presbyterians vowed to God against and he upbraids them with Not bearing a suitable testimony against it according to their very Principles and says We have kept our vow and ye have shrunk there from p. 38 39. And p. 50. tells them Oh ye did run well who did hinder you But ye are become so foolish who began in the Spirit to end in the Flesh and now when ye got up upon the Walls and Bulwarks of your Enemies buildings and Levelled it to the Ground when ye had rooted out Prelacy and the many Corruptions and Superstitions accompanying the same and digged down a good part of Babylons up-setting then ye betook your selves to Build c. Now hereby the Reader may see that he slips the matter in controversie from a disowning the whole order of Prelates as corrupt qua talis he comes to granting there may be some among them pious as Men perhaps there may have been Pious Popes and Cardinals too as Men Doth that infer that the order and constitution of them is not Antichristian Well so much for the Episcopal Church Government Now see what he says of the Ministers of an inferiour Degree ordained according thereto and their worship p. 47 48. part whereof I gave in my Brief Observations but shall now be more large which
he for his 'till he Reply thereto In the next Place he labours to palliate the Contradictions I charged upon him relating to the different Characters given both of the Episcopal Clergy and Dissenting Ministers in his former Books to what he gives them in his Expostulation but therein he useth such poor Evasive Shifts as shew he is hard put to it He would fain reconcile them or at least seem so to do that 's his Drift he 's loath to have it thought that George contradicts Keith but all his Daubing won't serve 't is untempered Mortar he useth that won't stick and so the Crack becomes wider than it was before I urged Quotations out of three of his Books viz. 1. Help in Time of Need. 2. Way cast up 3. Presbyterian and Independent Visible Churches of these he takes Notice only of the first saying For which he citeth some Passages in a Book of mine called Help in Time of Need Printed above thirty Years ago As if I had quoted nothing out of any other Books of his upon this Subject but withal let him take Notice that 's within these thirty three Years consequently they either much changed for the better or else he much for the worse since Now though I am at my Liberty to quote passages out of any Book of his to disprove his following Evasions yet that he may see his own weapon turned against himself in this Point now in Debate I shall confine my self to this one Book having Proof enough and to spare from thence to drive him out of his subterfuges He begins his Matter thus But none of these Passages prove that I did judge there were none among them all Church of England and Dissenters Pious and Learned for indeed I was never so uncharitable This Man who will needs Print Books had need to go to School to learn that from particulars to the Vniversal the Consequence is not good Answ What if he had not said they were universally bad so as to include every individual yet I do affirm his Words extend far beyond Particulars even to the Generality yea to so great a Majority as falls very little short of Universal as may be seen in Help in Time of Need p. 36 37. Where taxing the Ministers with Preaching up that then in 1664. which they had preached down three or four Years before adds Which breeds no small Admiration to poor People as if they had changed their God but I know well generally they have kept their God all along very constantly among all their Changes being such the Apostle mentions GENERALLY whose God is their Belly and this Master they have served and do serve very faithfully making every Change answer its desire Here 's a Charge upon Ministers GENERALLY which how consistent it is with true PIETY needs no Comment Again p. 29. Now Judas fell from his Ministry as saith the Scripture in selling his Master which GENERALLY your Ministers have done and have they not thereby fallen from their Ministry supposing but not granting they had once been true Ministers This is general again as inconsistent with Piety as the other but this is not all see p. 24 25. And were not the set Forms of Prayer cryed down also in Scotland as lifeless barren things and the Service Book denied and now ye have again licked up that Vomit and through your Cities Men set up MOSTLY also SCANDALOUS in their Conversations at such Hours of the Day or Night to read a set Form of Prayer And is there any material Difference between this and the Service Book And have not your BRETHREN IN ENGLAND taken it up again And when it 's offered to you to read will ye not also do the like There is no Question of it but MOST of you will and WORSE also when ye are put to Tryal Again p. 75. And that whereon there is so much stress laid to wit the calling of the People or Patrons is NOT OF GOD but of Babylon for in the State they are in they will be loath ever to call a good Man unto them SUPPOSING HE COULD BE FOUND but such who will wink at their Faults and run with them thereinto Well to conclude this Point I shall give one Instance more and that is in p. 35 36. viz. And were it not for a livelyhood and worldly Honour and Respect would SO MANY betake themselves to such a Work And does not your gain from your quarter which you so punctually Exact and they that will not put into your Mouths ye prepare War against them and your removing from one Parish to another where ye can have a fatter Stipend manifestly prove ye are moved thereto rather from a Principle of Covetousness then from any desire of doing good to the Souls of the People And how came MANY of you to be Teachers Was it not the design of your Fathers and Relations who saw it a ready way for them to put you in a way of Livelihood and sent you to Schools to learn the Calling as ever the Shooemaker or other Tradesman past his Apprentiship and then becomes free to use the Trade The thing is well known and I speak it with regret and have not many of your selves some time a Day intreated the Lord that he would send a Purge and put away out of his House such BUYERS and SELLERS and now the Lord is come to make the Purge and who of you can abide the Day of his coming The Purge goes so deep it 's like to scourge you ALL out of Doors and e're you be put out ye will rather hold in who are in and seek to uphold one another but ye shall ALL fall together What saiest thou now Reader are these Quotations a Description of PIOUS Men or the contrary Do they refer to Particulars only Here 's in so many Words generally mostly a doubt whether a good Man be to be found amongst them and at last all methinks that should be something a-kin to Vniversal and truly a little unlike his Expostulation which begins thus It may seem strange how it comes to pass that while so many Pious and Learned Men are judged to be found in this Nation not only of the Church of England but among the Dissenters and Nonconformists c. Now I am ready to conclude this contradictory to the former and perhaps some others may do so too he would do well to undeceive us if he can Philosophy is the next point he goes upon he tells us What I said of the Philosophy then taught in the Colledges of that Nation many Learned and Pious Men in both Nations will assent to be true to wit the Jesuit Philosophy for that was it which was then taught and which I learned almost word by word out of Jesuit Authors Answ That Jesuit Philosophy was then and there taught may be true for ought I know I have no reason to contradict him but the question with me is Whether no other Philosophy besides
take as follows viz. And ye said G. Keith did well in disowning and departing from such Men who gave themselves forth to be the Lords Ministers and Servants but they ran and he sent them not and their Covetousness and Ambition and seeking how to please Men for their own ends and not his honour nor any true zeal for him set them on such a work to Lord it over the People which he had forbidden and it is Abomination to him together with the many things accompanying them which they gave forth for his ordinances good order decency and comeliness in the Church but were the meer Inventions of Men and Babylons Golden Cup of Fornications and that ye vomited up and refused to drink of this Cup or to admit of such things as his Ordinances or belonging to his Worship or as if he allowed it whereby your Iniquity is exceeding aggravated before God and his Indignation and Jealousie burns as Fire against you for your returning thereto and because of the iniquity of such Men their Pride Covetousness Tyranny and Ambition his wrath kindled against them and he poured Contempt and Desolation upon them c. Well for a close of this point take another quotation p. 53. viz. Ye denied their Lordships and took to your selves Masterships both equally forbidden by Christ ye would not suffer them to Lord it over you but ye would Lord it over the People yea and did as Tyrannically as ever the Bishops had done and ye were offended at the Surplices and Canonical Coats and Belts of their Clergy and yet ye were equally Superstitious and Vain in your Black Cloaths and Gowns with Pasmâ—â—â—s and Ribbons upon them and other superfluity of naughtiness and ye were angry at their Revenues being so great and yet ye stept in also to many of them and some of you had as much by the year as some of them and into their Pride Covetousness Lightness Vanity Ambition Carelesness concerning the Work of Jesus Christ and the Salvation of poor People whereof ye took up the Charge and many other Iniquities they were found in for which the Lord was provoked against them ye have taken as it were a Succession of and ye thought the Lord should have winked at you c. Here are a parcel of home strokes at both Episcopal and Presbyterian Ministers of his own Nation and truly at that time I question not but he would have given the like Character of both sorts in this Nation But how suits this I pray with the before cited Passage in his Expostulation viz. It may seem strange how it comes to pass that while so many Pious and Learned Men are judged to be found in this Nation not only of the Church of England but among the Dissenters and Nonconformists c. Neither will his saying For within a few Lines in that very Page I did own there were some Bishops in Queen Mary's days to whom the Lord had regard according to their Faithfulness to what they saw Excuse him for to what he here alledgeth he there added but such who came after saw further into Mistery Babylon so that herein ye have not only Apostatized from your Fathers but from what ye were of late your selves So that it seems he once accounted it Apostacy to submit again to Prelacy after having once forsaken it and seen further and I suppose at that time would have thought it some degree thereof to have solicited a Bishops favour against his then Brethren or to have Appealed to a Prelate in point of Doctrine though it can now go down very glibly and why should he blame us for calling him an Apostate when as it was his own charge against the Presbyterians and that too not on the score of Errours in Fundamentals but Matters of Church Government and Method of Worship as the above specifies whilst part of our Charge upon him is an alteration in Principle and Doctrine He proceeds thus By Lording Bishops it is obvious what I meant even the same that is meant 1 Pet. 5. 3. Being Lords over Gods Heritage Answ What he meant by Lording Bishops is plain by his joyning it to Prelates viz. The Hierarchy its self who as Bishops have the Title of Lords and as such sit in Parliament so that we have no other but such in these three Kingdoms and that that Title of Lord Bishop hath been disrelished upon the account of its savouring too much of Lording and Lordship by all sorts of Dissenters be the Men who go under those Titles Lordly or Humble or what they will he cannot but know therefore this is nothing but a weak come off Besides the Text he quotes hath respect to Elders in general who feed the Flock which comprehends the whole Ministry without having any particular relation to Bishops only therefore unduly applied in this place His Reflection upon G. Whitehead and W. Penn as more Lordly then ever he found any of the Bishops either English or Scottish carries its answer along with it viz. for by none of them was I ever Excommunicated but by the former I was Excommunicated This quite blunts the edge of his Charge against them by shewing the ground thereof viz. Their having been concerned against him and the motive thereto viz. his Spleen against them therefore But his complaint of being Excommunicated appears a false pretence to cover himself He was justly reprehended and warned to Repentance for his Divisions and Turbulent Behaviour This he has called a Bull and Excommunication when he himself hath not spared to send out his furious Bulls of Excommunication and Reproach in Print against others and by persisting in his Turbulent Unchristian Spirit and Behaviour he has apparently Excommunicated himself and is gone out from our Peaceable Christian Society His Book of Retractations I shall speak something to by and by so shall wave it here And as to his Recrimination of the Quakers in giving hard Names and passing hard Censures c. I answer When the Quakers desire the help of the National or Dissenting Ministers against G. Keith or any other of their Oponents it will be time enough then either to retract or smooth them over till then I intend not to concern my self about them Only thus much I shall say to his insinuation of Uncharitableness I believe and that upon good grounds too that their Charity to All in general dissenting from them is greater than his Having done with their Piety He next takes a touch at their Learning and says And that there are Learned Men among them far beyond any stock of Learning any of the Quakers lay claim to I suppose they will not gain say Answ Why truly I am ready to suppose so too but why then doth he in his Help in time of need p. 73. bid the People put away this Dead Lifeless IGNORANT Prophane Scandalous Ministry and p. 75 76. as quoted in my former say For out of them comes this IGNORANT Scandalous Ministry which
will look more like a Gang than the other for by T. Crisp's own concession if he say true those Influenced by W. Penn may pass for the main Body I will next examine his second particular and see whether they be not both of a piece which is 2. That he makes me represent them I so charge absolutely worse then Papists when as I cautioned my words thus Vile Errors not only as bad as any Popery but much worse then the worst of Popery in divers respects Observe in divers respects I said not absolutely and in all respects but in divers respects Answ Very well I 'le allow him his full Scope he did not say absolutely in all respects neither did I mention all matters in respect of which the Papists differ from the Quakers but saies he in divers respects so I quoted him What wrong have I done him Wherein am I guilty of the gross Vntruth and Falshood he charges upon me For my part I can see none This he tells us he can easily prove and in proof thereof goes about to answer one of my Queries viz. Do we promote Errours worse then worshipping a piece of Bread as God He replies I say that 's a Transition from the Subject of the Controversie betwixt them and me to another forreign Subject viz. Transubstantiation Answ He chargeth this Gang of Quakers as he calls them with promoting Errours not only as bad as any Popery but much worse then the worst of Popery in divers respects Now I am ready to think that most Protestants will agree with me that Transubstantiation Adoration of Images Praying to Saints and Angels meritorious Works and Purgatory are not only Popery that is Principles wherein Protestants dissent from Papists but some of the worst of Popery Now my Queries were Do we promote Errours worse than c. mentioning all these former Heads at large denying his charge as not yet proved Therefore wherein he can prove this a Transition and Transubstantiation another foreign Subject unless he will be so kind to the Papist's darling Sacrament as not to Rank it amongst the worst of Popery or indeed allow it to be any Popery at all I see not He proceeds It seems this bold Novice has not learned the Maxim Words are to be understood according to the Subject matter If I say this is not one of these respects wherein I have charged them this Junior Sophister is at a Nonplus Answ Hold a little George not so fast If Transubstantiation say I be any part of the worst of Popery then thou must shew in what respects the Quakers hold Errours not only as bad but much worse than it and this I take to be according to the Subject matter call me what thou pleasest In short G. Keith saith Our Principles are much worse than the worst of Popery in divers respects and he is offended with me for taking him at his Word who so seldom holds to it and reciting the worst of the Papists Principles as if foreign from the matter Surely Transubstantiation is none of the best If he thinks 't is let him apply himself in the next place to them and see if they will trust him and be at his beck as he would have the Pious and Learned among the Protestants be Well in further Vindication of his aforesaid Affertion he refers to his Narrative telling us He has clearly proved that G. Whitehead has destroyed the true Object of the Christian Faith and Worship c. All which are so far from being clearly proved by him that his pretended Proofs are clearly disproved by T. Ellwood in his answer thereto which unless he had replied to he might be ashamed to entitle the matters contained in his Narrative by so wrong a name Yet upon the Foot of the aforesaid lame Objections he utters many foul Reproaches against us not worth the notice and what is worse I am satisfied writes what he knows to be false in his Vilifying the Light the Quakers Preach and direct People to as if that led them to Vilifie and Reproach the Man Christ Jesus without them Therefore his Insinuation that the Quakers Worship the Devil within thereby to prove them worse than the Papists who he grants Worship a piece of Bread without is wholly Proofless Groundless envious in the highest degree and such a Slander as he might well be ashamed to Impose upon the World But to what a degree of hardness must this Man be come who can tax us with adoring a false Christ within and setting up a false Notion of Light within upon no other Foundation but Misconstruction and Wresting of Sentences pickt out of Books whereon he erects his Fabrick of Slanders and false Accusations of his own Inventing not without knowledge but contrary to his own certain knowledge He says He is sorry we give him this Occasion to detect us Alas Poor Man he discovers himself and hurts not us the more he takes such Work in hand he does but encrease his Burthen whilst we being safe in the Sanctuary of our own Innocency can appeal to the Searcher of all Hearts concerning the Falshood of his Malicious Charges and commit our Cause to Him who in due time will ease us of this troublesom Detractor as he hath already of many of his Predecessors He slips over the rest of my Queries saving that about Merits and to that he says I am sure most Papists are more sound then some of them Answ That 's more than he can be sure of Is he acquainted with most Papists Yet however it comes to pass he is a little more modest than usual than some of them says he But let us hear wherein some of them are less sound in this particular than most Papists viz. Whereas Papists generally profess highly to value Christs Merits and own their first Justification to the Merits of Christ's Obedience and Righteousness without them W. Penn hath called this Doctrine A Doctrine of Devils and an Arm of the Sea of Corruption deluging the whole World Answ His Charge against W. Penn I did intend to have passed over as defective because he mentions neither Page nor Book a way of Managing Controversie unbecoming a Schollar neither for some time did I know where to find the Passage he carps at but having at length received Information where I might meet with it accordingly I had recourse to the Book from whence he produceth it and there find that G. Keith hath much abused and misrepresented W. Penn For whereas he states the Case as if Christ's Merits and the owning Men's first Justification to the Merit of Christ's Obedience and Righteousness without them was by W. Penn called A Doctrine of Devils and an Arm of the Sea of Corruption deluging the whole World He therein mistates the Case for the Doctrine which he so called was the attributing Justification wholly to the Works wrought by Christ without us so as thereby to exclude the works wrought by the Spirit in
us from having any share therein as plainly appears from the place referred to though not named by G. Keith viz. A Serious Apology p. 148. Wherein W. Penn reciting an Objection of one Tho. Jenner viz. That we deny Justification by the Righteousness which Christ hath fulfilled in his own Person for us WHOLLY without us and therefore deny the Lord that bought us He Answers And indeed this we deny c. Now mark the stress of his denial lies upon his Antagonist's Word WHOLLY whereupon W. Penn argues thus No Man can be Justified without Faith says Jenner No Man hath Faith without Works any more than a Body without a Spirit says James Therefore the Works of Righteousness by the Spirit of Christ Jesus are necessary to Justification Observe he doth not say the Works of the Spirit are only necessary thereby excluding the Righteousness which Christ fulfilled in his own Person without us but joins them together the Works wrought without us and the Works wrought within us and calls that Doctrine which would divide them and Attribute all wholly to the outward A Doctrine of Devils which to manifest the more clearly and thereby the more fully to detect G. Keith's Injustice and Falshood I shall give the Reader another Quotation out of the very next Page of the same Book where explaining our Faith concerning the Father Son and Holy Spirit in that part relating to the Son he saith Who took upon him Flesh and was in the World and in Life Doctrine Miracles Death Resurrection Ascension and Mediation perfectly did and does continue to do the Will of God to whose Holy Life Power Mediation and Blood we only ascribe our Sanctification JUSTIFICATION Redemption and perfect Salvation But besides G. Keith his abusing and misrepresenting W. Penn in the above-mentioned Passage I have another Remark to make upon him and that is That the very same Doctrine which W. Penn in his aforenamed Serious Apology called a Doctrine of Devils in T. Jenner G. Keith in his Postscript to the Nature of Christianity calls corrupt Doctrine in R. Gordon see p. 70. of the said Book The Title of that Part is Some of Robert Gordon 's corrupt Doctrines and p. 71. the eighth Head is That Redemption Justification were finished and compleated in the Crucified Body in Christ for us not in our Persons And the twelfth Head viz. That Redemption c. and all things are wrought purchased c. for us without the help of any thing to be wrought in us Now if these are corrupt Doctrines with G. Keith now which were so it seems with him in 1671. the Time of the Date of that Book is he not insincere in a high Degree in quarrelling with W. Penn for opposing the very same Doctrine in the very same Year his Serious Apology being likewise Printed in 1671. And on the other Hand if these Doctrines be not corrupt according to his Opinion and Judgment at this Time then doth he give himself the lye in this very Paper of his now before me p. 4 and 5. wherein he expresseth himself thus But whereas they upbraid me again and again with contradicting my former Doctrines and Principles as to Articles of Faith I cannot find that they have proved it against me in one Particular Of which more anon Well to conclude this Matter I shall tell him yet farther that I know not of any Quakers who do not ascribe Remission of Sins to that one Offering upon the Cross through Faith in the Name of Jesus Christ but if I understand any thing of the Quakers Principles as I think I do that is one of them and to prove that I speak not by Rote I will produce another Author approved amongst them viz. my Father Isaac Penington to confirm what I say as the Reader may see in his Treatise Entituled The Flesh and Blood of Christ c. p. 16. and of his Works Part 2. p. 186. It was a spotless Sacrifice of great Value and Effectual for the Remission of Sins And I do acknowledge humbly unto the Lord THE REMISSION OF MY SINS THEREBY and bless the Lord for it even for giving up his Son to Death for us all and giving all that believe in his Name and Power to partake of Remission through him In my Brief Observations p. 8. I produced a Proof out of A brief Narrative of the second Meeting c of his Self-contradiction in then saying The whole Protestant cause lieth at stake in the Defence whereof we with all true Protestants are concerned against the Jesuites and Baptists And yet in his Expostulation We promote vile Errours worse than the worst of Popery This he shuffles off saying p. 4. In vain are all his shuffling Aggravations against me upbraiding me with my being changed in my Opinion of what these Quakers were and a little lower I own it they deceived me they were the Deceivers and I was the Deceived Answ Any intelligent Reader may perceive it was Principles and not Persons he vindicated the Cause not Parties he then espoused therefore this is only a Sophistical turn to serve a turn and his Pretences to knowing them better only a false gloss that he may abuse them the worse and the Cause of their Changing their Opinion of him is his changing Sides and now taking up the Baptists old Arguments against his quondam Friends which he once assisted them in Baffling and now wou'd insinuate a mistake in the Men and not in the Principles to hold up his Credit of not being changed whereas the Men are the same their Principles the same now he opposes them as they were when he Vindicated them and he is the Man that is Changed Deviated Apostatized and therefore an ill Man which hath been over and over proved upon him and not disproved by him any other way than by a bare denial without Demonstration and so any farther Proof at present needless Yet to shew the Reader his former Judgment of our Principles both as Consonant with Scripture and also with those of the first Reformers so far as theirs agreed with Scripture I shall add a Quotation out of Help in Time of Need p. 46. viz. And now ye who accuse us in Derision called Quakers by you as Apostates and that we have denied our Fore-fathers Faith try your selves and Paralel your Fathers Principles and Practices with your own and also with ours and ye shall find ye are degenerated from them exceedingly as we were while with you but through the Grace of God are we recovered and brought to witness the Spirit and Life of the Primitive Protestants and Christians and ye cannot Instance to us one Particular wherein we Dissent from them warranted from the very Letter of the Scripture The Second Head viz. His Reflections upon the Protestant Clergy as more Lukewarm if they oppose not the Quakers here than the Popish Clergy at Rome would be in such a case He saith Hath nothing in it worth noticing but their
to his referring to G. Fox's Journal and E. Burroughs's Collected Treatises they are large Books and what part of them he quarrels with I know not therefore let him mention particulars and then if I think it worth my while he may perhaps hear farther from me And since he has not Enervated but only Shufled off the state of the Case I laid down in my former I need say no more at present then that it was too much truth to be denied even by G. Keith himself though I 'le say that for him he is a Man very expert in that faculty The Fourth Head viz. His itch to have you the Pious and Learned Dance after his Pipe viz. Challenge Disputes with the Quakers He tells us contains nothing but repeated Recriminations and Reflections against him already answered except in the latter part of it c. Answ As he says already answered though I say only Evaded as the Reader may see if he please to be at the trouble of comparing the one with the other yet what part of it he has already taken some small notice of is already replied to and so I shall follow him to the latter Part which he gives thus They propose it whether it would not be most equal and reasonable for them viz. such to whom I have directed my Expostulation to begin with me by calling me forth to a publick Hearing upon my former Books To this I answer that I am most willing they do and what I cannot justly and safely defend of any passages in my former Books I will fairly retract Answ A very fair Proposal so say and so do and so far we shall be agreed but I am afraid if it were to be put to the Tryal he would draw back for I can tell him of one Passage which I quoted in my former and which for the remarkableness of it I care not if I quote again which he must retract in the first place or else he can never be sincere in retracting the rest viz. I know not any fundamental Principle nor indeed any one Principle of the Christian Faith that I have varied from ever since I came among the Quakers which is about Thirty three Years ago Exact Narrative p. 15. Moreover in this very Sheet now before me he says But whereas they up-braid me again and again with contradicting my former Doctrines and Principles as to Articles of Faith I cannot find that they have proved it against me in one particular To which I answer If he will shut his Eyes and will not see who can help it Or if he will be so Partial in his own Cause as to resolve not to be convinced of it let what Proof will be offered 't is his own fault T. Ellwood whath proved it upon him in three Tracts and that in more than one particular and his not having answered either of them is sufficient ground to continue the Charge upon him taking it for granted that if he could have done it fairly he would or if by any Sophistical Art he could have neatly blinded it he would not have been wanting in his endeavours In the next place in p. 5. He would fain persuade those to whom he directs his Expostulation that 't is most proper to begin with us first because says he whatever just Offence I have given to any of them my late Adversaries of that Gang among the Quakers have far exceeded me Answ That is but his say so whereof himself is no competent Judge And adds he they have that which casts of Ballance as to them that they justifie all they have said and Printed against them to every Tittle to maintain their Infallibility which I have not done but in divers things I confess my mistakes and wherein I have justly offended any I humbly ask their Forgiveness Answ Supposing but not granting what he says to be true have not those he applies himself to the more need to begin with him first that they may take him in the mind while he is in the mind and bring him from lurking in bare Generals to descend to Particulars and so try whether he be sincere in his Protestations by bringing him to a thorow Recantation Whereas if the Case be as he represents it with us they must expect no such compliance from us but a steddy adherence to our Assertions consequently like to be a more tedious as well as a more difficult Work therefore most Prudence to begin with the easiest first especially having to do with a slippery Chapman of whom they can have no assurance that he will long continue in the same Humour though he were at present never so much seemingly resolved to be as good as his word And as to the Flout he throws at the Quakers concerning Infallibility I shall add a passage out of Help in time of need to shew what he formerly Asserted as to the necessity of People's being led by the Infallible Spirit see p. 23. Therefore another Head was set up in the Church then Jesus Christ and the Pope and his Council was made Judge to determine all Controversies in Religion and no Man was to look at an Infallible Judge the Spirit of Truth within him and are ye not become as bad who openly affirm that ye are not led by the infallible Spirit and consequently not by the Spirit of God My Fifth Head viz. His pretended tender Compassion to the Souls of People highly insincere And my Sixth Head viz. The Irregularity of his Proposal of Disturbing our Meetings contrary to Law He joins together as sufficiently answered in his Narrative and Expostulation so that he sees not the least cause to say any thing unto them Answ He has the prettiest faculty of answering Matters beforehand as a Man shall likely hear of he has answered good part of my Book it seems before its self was in Being 't is much he had not answered it all beforehand when his Hand was in yet here still comes in some buts and onlys that spoil his antecedent Answers and if it were not for these buts and onlys he needed have wrote but two or three Words in Answer to the whole Book and have left it so to the Readers Consideration as he doth now He says Only I take notice of the bold untruth he chargeth me with of my proposing the Disturbing of their Meetings Answ The untruth is his not mine as the Words I then quoted will evince to rational Men which I shall again Transcribe viz. Or if they continue to justifie them to refute them openly in the Face of their own Meetings and in the Presence of them that do so much admire and follow them His Reason for promoting this work is And thus to serve them as they have served others and with what Measure they have met to others the same to meet to them again Which he tells us a little before was Some of their Teachers assaulted the National Ministers in the Face of their
accuseth us now or else in 1664 he was guilty of transcendent Presumption in pretending to say as above in the Name Power and Authority of the Living God if it was not so but quite otherwise He concludes thus But though they have not their Souls I am sure they have their Heathenish Anti-christian Principles Answ This in substance is answered already yet because he so often calls us Anti-christs and our Principles Anti-christian I shall not think much of my Pains to give the Reader an account what he once accounted Anti-christianism and then leave it to the impartial to judge how far that affects us Help in time of Need p 22. This is the Anti-christ who denies Christ the Son come thus in the Revelation of himself in the Heart for that coming of Christ in his Bodily Appearance at Jerusalem Anti-christ will not does not deny it being he knows it will never harm his Kingdom so to confess him come providing Christs Kingdom be not set up in the Heart Now upon the whole as he said to the Teachers he directed his Speech to Ibid. p. 33. Ye could be better employed in holding a Plow or digging in a Field or any other honest Occupation then to be deluding poor People So say I he might be better employed in Teaching Scool or any other honest Occupation then in thus Villifying and Abusing an honest People and imposing that upon the World as truth of which he is sure when in the mean time he knows otherwise One thing more though not so very Material I shall take notice of before we part and that is In the management of his Vindication and the Objections he raises against my Brief Observations he sometimes uses the words they and their sometimes he and his as if Synonimous truly if I did not conclude him to be a good Grammarian I might be ready to query whether he took these Pronouns to be all of a Number but since his Schollarship is not to be questioned at all much less in so common a Case as the first parts of the Accidence taught School-Boys it argues confusion in him and want of circumspection both in Penning and Revising and might have been better excused had he been a Novice though a bold one or an Ideot either I have now gone through his Sheet and cannot but here observe to what a pass an ill cause brings a Man though qualified with Arts Parts and Learning That the heat of Controversie the current whereof I must needs tell him hath run against him let him Bolster himself up with what Bull-rushes he pleases should instigate him to pour out so virulent a peice as that Expostulation a plain indication that he is not led by the peaceable Spirit of Christ but a froward angry revengeful Spirit and when laid open and proved plainly upon him by Matter of Fact without stretching or straining Words or Sentences Rather then he will fall under Reproof or seem to be sensible that in his Passion he had over-shot himself by lying still under a tacit acquiescing that he had so done disdaining 't is like that a young Man of so inferiour qualifications should tell him his own must Publish something in Defence of a thing not at all Defensible Which how it is performed whether he hath not done it very slightly without answering or so much as touching some of the most Material Passages I urged against him and whether this my Rejoinder have not answered the whole substance of his so called Just Vindication as it is not so proper for me to determine so I shall again submit to the Learned Pious and Judicious among all sorts of Protestants into whose Hands these Treatises may happen to light Edward Penington THE END BOOKS Printed and Sold by T. Sowle next to the Meeting-House in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street And at the Bible in Leaden-Hall-Street near the Market 1697. AN Epistle to Friends Briefly commemorating the Gracious Dealings of the Lord with them and warning them to beware of that Spirit of Contention and Division which hath appeared of late in George Keith and some sew others that join with him who have made a Breach and Separation from Friends in some Parts of America By Thomas Ellwood Price Stitch'd 6 d. The State of the Case briefly but impartially given betwixt the People called Quakers in Pennsylvania c. in America who remain in Unity and George Keith with some few Seduced by him into a Separation from them As also a just Vindication of my Self from the Reproaches and Abuses of those Backsliders By Samuel Jennings Price Stitch'd 6 d. A Further Discovery of that Spirit of Contention and Division which hath of late appeared in George Keith c. Being a Reply to two late Printed Pieces of his the one Entituled A Loving Epistle c. The other A Seasonable Information c. Wherein his Cavils are answered his Falshood is laid open and the Guilt and Blame of the Breach and Separation in America and of the Reproach he hath brought upon Truth and Friends by his late Printed Books are fixed faster on him Written by way of Epistle and Recommended as a further Warning to all Friends By Thomas Ellwood Price Stitch'd is Truth Defended and the Friends thereof Cleared from the false Charges foul Reproaches and envious Cavils cast upon It and Them by George Keith an Apostate from them in two Books by him lately Published the one being called Atrue Copy of a Paper given into the Yearly Meeting of the People called Quakers c. The other The Pretended Yearly Meeting of the Quakers their Nameless Bull of Excommunication c. Both which Books are herein Answered and his Malice Injustice and Folly Exposed By Thomas Ellwood Price Stitch'd 1 s. 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More Work for George Keith Being George Keith's Vindication of the People called Quakers as well in his Part of the Dispute held at Wheelers-Street the sixteenth Day of the eighth Month 1674. As in his Treatise against Thomas Hicks and other Baptists with the rest of their Confederate Brethren at the Barbican Dispute held at London the twenty eighth of the sixth Month 1674. Price Stitch'd 4 d. The
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