here 's manifest and horrid violence offered to the Majesty of the Almighty both in his nature and essence and to the doctrine of the Trinity And now in the second place I shall shew thee that they offer violence to Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousness God over all blessed for ever For as for Christ though they often mention him yet in deed and truth they make no more use of him then they doe of Moses and the Prophets I say in deed and in truth for they are meer juglers they speak one thing and mean another jesuitically equivocating So that it is a harder matter to find out their doctrines then to confute them It s usual with them to say they witness Jesus Christ and the death of the man Christ Jesus which suffered at Jerusalem they own and witness But what do they mean by these words they own and witness Is it any more in truth then what the very Devil is forc'd unto sc that there was such a Christ and that he did such and such things But as for Christ and the death of Christ and his righteousness wrought and done in his own individual person to be relied upon by faith rested in for justification of the Saints to life without any thing wrought or done in them or by them for that end this they utterly deny And whereas the Word proposes Christ the rest of souls they on the contrary say that he is not to be rested in They say that we must go through him as we go through Moses and the Prophets as thou hast seen in Foxes and Nailors book called A word from the Lord where they blame the Ranters that they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ I have in part opened this already but if thou wouldest Reader more fully know their meaning what it is to go through Moses and the Prophets and Christ read but a passage in that book of Fox and Hubberthorne the title whereof I have formerly given thee sc Truths defence and there p. 68. l. 24. thou shalt find the meaning for he that will understand the language of Cut-purses and pick-pockets must learn it of their fellows and there thou shalt find what it is to come through the Law The Answerer to the Queries says that many do profess the Gospel and the new law of righteousness and are not come through the Law And that is as he there explains himself that the Law hath no more power over a man and that he is dead to it misapplying that which the Apostle there speaks of the law of sin or sin ruling by the Law to death and condemnation to the holy Law of God the Moral Law it self the eternal rule of righteousness as if a Christian should ever be dead to that and free from that as not to be bound to observe it And that this is his meaning the next page shews there in the beginning he says the Law and the Prophets were until John and John until Christ and bids those that can receive it that is understand him receive it and if they can they may So he says implying a mysterie something more then ordinary to be intended by him in that expression And then tels them that when they come to go through Moses and through the Prophets and through John to come to Christ then they shall see the light is but one sc the light of Moses and the light of Christ for that was the question propounded Whether there were any distinction between them as thou mayst see in that book Quer. 4. There 's just ground of exception against that too but 't would be endless to follow them to every by-path But by this thou seest their meaning what it is to go through Moses the Prophets and John scil to go beyond them and to be dead and free from them And the same say those Quakers in their short Answer to the 7 Priests who stile themselvs those Quakers who shal make all the world to quake and tremble printed by Calvert 1654. In the first page of that book they give good words of the Law viz. that it is holy just and good and perfect and pure But for these good words they presently in the next line say that it is but a Schoolmaster till faith and when faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster And this say they is witnessed amongst us And in the 8 page of that book speaking of the Moral Law they say that 's without and there it shall stand as you are the Priests in the first nature and that in their tongue is the perishing nature Why now says Naylor and Fox the Ranters failed in that though they had a pure convincement and started up to be as Gods they did not proceed they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ All must be gone through we must not so much as rest in Christ And indeed what need is there For if we be once come to be equal with God as they say perfectly righteous in our own persons so that we can perfectly keep the Law and not sin in any thing what need Christ as a Mediator or an Intercessor and so no need of him for any thing This one desperate opinion is the very cutthroat of Christ and Christianity and makes Christ especially as to a believer of none effect and useless They are now their own Christs they have gone through him and beyond him They have now no more to do with our imagined God beyond the stars and our carnal Christ which they say those precious and godly servants of Christ would make appear through their heathenish Philosophy Nay beloved Reader do they not make Christ altogether useless to the Saints whenas they say the Elect were never defiled as they do in their answer to the 4. Querie put by Reeve and answered by Borro and Howgill And in the answer to the 5. they say again the Elect are not nor ever were defiled And surely if so no need of a Christ a Saviour and if the Elect have no Saviour none else shall and so no need of Christ at all then he came in vain and dyed in vain unless it be only to be a figure an example which is the cursed doctrine of the Socinians and which as in the brief Relation of the irreligion of the Northern Quakers p. 5. error 13. stands charged and not answered in the Lancashire Charge against them And well may this be their opinion if every man have a light within him sufficient to lead him to salvation then sure there is no absolute necessity of a Saviour Thus doe they offer violence to Jesus Christ our Saviour making him a meer shadow a type a temporary manifestation to be gone through not to be rested in and making void the chief end of his coming in the flesh and nulling his death and sufferings I might farther manifest this unto thee
Christ were redeemed How can ye but deny the truth when as ye act those things which the Ministers of truth were sent to declare against therefore let shame cover you and let your mouthes be stopped in the dust for ever professing Christ or his Gospel who are found enemies to it And now ye covetous Priests who seek for your gain from your quarters ye may be ashamed of your profession How often have ye declared against the covetous practice of the world in words outwardly and yet your selves are found acting in them in covetousness and and extortion as is daily made manifest by you and is contrary to the practice of the Apostles For shame ye covetous Priests give over your wicked practices and your beastly actings lest the Lord rip off your coverings and lay you naked to all men Thus have I cleared my conscience to you and to all the world in the presence of the Lord whether you will hear or forbear There is another which is all I have read thorough of theirs that I would have inserted but because I feared it would make my Book swell too much I have omitted it only I shall give you the Title of it because I shall make use of it to discover their opinions And those who have the Book may examine my Quotations which I shall do faithfully reserving the Book by me to satisfie any that have it not and may desire to see it to that purpose The Title is thus Truths defence against the refined subtilty of the Serpent Held forth in divers Answers to several Queries made by men called Ministers in the North Given forth by the light and power of God appearing in George Fox and Richard Hubberthorn Printed for Tho. Wayte at his house in the Pavement in York 1653. And now having given you a view of these pieces of the Quakers which are their own and received from one of their Proselytes in this City I shall desire thy patience Reader to go a little further with me and thou shalt see these Quakers acted by the same spirit of delusion and doing Satans work though seemingly otherwise That deceiver of the Nations being now almost cast out of the prophane Ranters who made such foul work that I suppose the devil himself was ashamed of them And now he will appear in his white garments as an angel of light under the disguise of humility and mortification to carry on his dark design of divelism to the overthrow of all Religion And first let me tell the Reader I have very good ground to conclude as I suppose the mystery of the Quakers to be the same with the Ranters for this reason besides that it will manifestly appear afterwards when I come to lay part to part as I promised because I finde the Quakers in a book of theirs called A word from the Lord unto all the faithless generation of the world c. Printed 1654 By George Fox and James Nayler wherein they have a word among others to the Ranters I finde these Quakers giving this Testimony 13 page of the book to the Ranters in these words The word of the Lord God say they to you which are called Ranters You had a pure convincement I witness which did convince you but having fled the Cross and now to it are become enemies which turns the Grace of God into wantonness c. and then they blame them as justly they may for their abominable prophane conversation But however it seems they had a pure convincement that he witnesses So that their light their Doctrine was good however they abused it They had a convincement under the Law as they say and started up to be as Gods by that pure convincement it seems that God and they were one and not distinct but as they still say there they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ Mark their language They never came through the Prophets nor Christ Here the Prophets Moses and Christ are all proposed not to be rested in but to be gone thorow They must go thorow Christ as they go thorow the Prophets and Moses Christ as well as Moses must cease and be gone thorow not rested in And the Ranters it seems abused their good Principles their pure convincement whereby they started up as gods but falling into prophaneness did not rightly improve their Godship And so came short of their Christ ship which these Quakers by hearkening to the light of their own Godhead within them attain unto Thus for the Ranters but now as for the Anabaptists Independents and Presbyterians they fall upon them and quarrel their very light and doctrine as living and teaching in the letter and taking up outward commands are witches c. As may be seen in that book of theirs So that the light and principles of the Ranters is more pure in these mens eys It s true the Levellers to whom they there spake also they have some indifferent esteem with these men if they had gone on for they tell them that they had a flesh in their minds I suppose some of this pure light for they add a simplicity but their minds run into the earth they say and smothered it and much of it they say is withered not all it seems So that Reader thou maist hereby plainly see what Principles and Lights these Quakers most approve of and so consequently follow sc the Ranters in the mystery of ungodliness before discovered And you will not think it strange that one and the same Principles are made use of to such seemingly differing ends as these are by the Ranters and these Quakers if you consider that even the sacred truths of God by the subtilty of the Serpent working in mans heart are abused and the Grace of God turned into wantonness by lascivious and fleshly spirits For observe Reader one of the same perswasion or opinion yea or truth works diversly as it is diversly received as they are that entertain it A Truth meeting with a sober and temperate spirit will strengthen and encrease his temperance For men naturall improve every thing that agrees with their temper and constitution and the same Truth meeting with an unsober and intemperate spirit shall finde the same entertainment sc advance his actings according to his temper either to excuse him and uphold him in his intemperancy or by irritation to provoke him to more intemperance So that let truth be what it will most men are what they were Only they know and can say more then they did before And in truth this is the Religion if I may give it that name of all men in the world except of those whose hearts the Lord changes makes suitable to spiritual truths they made new men as hath been opened in the mystery of godliness which onely makes a man a Christian whatever the Quakers Arminians and Papists say of general Light universal Grace and Free-Will to the contrary And which one truth is able and sufficient
to overturn all their rotten and ungodly and ungospel-like opinions But now Reader that these Quakers are acted by the same cursed ungodly ungospel-like principles of the Rantors before opened I shall prove from their own writings and expressions And first as the Rantors offer violence to the Majestie of God himself as you have seen by making themselves equal with and not distinct from the Majestie and glory of God himself which I suppose thou wilt grant is high blasphemy and the sin the principal and capital sin of the devil so do these Quakers For it is their down-right and plain expression That they are equal with God as Fox said the words expresly I am equal with God And Naylor being speaking upon the point of perfection being asked whether he did believe that any could be as holy just and good as God himself answered That he did witness that he himself was as holy just and good as God All which you may find in a Book called the Perfect Pharisee written by some Ministers of Newcastle And they also affirm that the nature and glory of the elect mark the nature as well as the glory differs not from the nature and glory of the Creator These are the words of Howgill and Burrough in answer to certain queries put by one Reeve and which are printed together with their Answers to Bennets Queries here before inserted and which I had a purpose to print also but that I was unwilling to make my book swell too much in bulk and so discourage the Reader in regard of the price and the rather I omitted it because in it the answers are longer by much then those to Mr. Bennet and full of impertinences which I feared would tire and discourage the Reader in that regard also But Reeve having proposed this Query which is his second Whether is not this an infallible demonstration to all men that a man is sent forth by the eternal Spirit if he have received a gift from the holy Ghost to demonstrate what the true Creator was in his own distinct essence nature and glory from all eternity in time and to all eternity and wherein elect men and Angels differ in their natures and glory distinct from their Creator in their persons They after some revilings and judging the Querist say as before That the nature and glory of the Elect differs not from the nature and glory of the Creator And add thus For the Elect are one with the Creator in his nature enjoying his glory which was from eternity unto eternity He that reads say they let him understand And then further add Thy word Distinct essence I deny For the Elect is not distinct from the Creator but lives by the dwelling of the Son in him and with the Son the Father dwels also if thou hast an ear thou maist hear And in their Answer to the first Query which I had omitted where the Question was thus Whether these men meaning the Quakers were sent forth by the eternal Spirit to Preach which in the least cannot demonstrate what the only true God is in himself and how he is a distinct being from all living creatures and how he reigns in the elect by a created word voice or spiritual motion only They give this Answer God is a Spirit and he is not distinct from living creatures for in him living creatures lives moves and hath their beings and he is not far from them nor distinct from them Which minds me of one Sebastian Frank a man of this gang in Germany who hath this blasphemous expression In trunco Deum esse truncum in porco porcum in diabolo diabolum In English thus which I do with abhorrency and trembling In a log God is a log in a swine he is a swine in a devil a devil And whether these men be not of the same mind who say That God is not distinct from the creature let any man judge And for their equality with God it s their common judgement as may be seen in a discourse called A brief Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers Sold at the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard And also in a Book Entituled The perfect Pharisee under Monkish holiness opposing the Fundamental Principles of the Doctrine of the Gospel A Book pen'd with much judgement by five Ministers living in Newcastle Mr Weld Mr. Prideaux Mr. Hammond Mr. Cole and my reverend friend Mr William Durant Printed for Richard Tomlins at the Sun and Bible near Pye-Corner 1654. To which Books for brevity sake I refer the Reader and close this Head with what I find written by the Quaker Atkinson in his Book called The Sword of the Lord c. herewith before printed where thou shalt find this solid principle of truth laid down by those reverend men That God who is the Creator is eternally distinct from all other creatures So the se Quakers languages it as if God were a creature too whereas those worthy men say in their Proposals thus That he is eternally distinct from all the creatures not using the word other they say according to the truth That he is distinct in his being and blessedness after some revilings charging them upon this Principle of truth with Heathenish inventions as thou maist see there have said That the being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him And further add That as the Father and the Son are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him Now ye know that the Father and the Son are one eternally both in essence and all glorious excellencies And these blasphemers say That as they are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him Reader I took not upon me to confute or answer them in this or any of that which follows for recitasse est confutasse but to let thee see what bold impudent audacious blasphemous wretches these Quakers are and that they build upon that rotten foundation that mystery of ungodliness formerly represented to thee and that they offer violence to the Majestie of God himself as God levelling him with the creatures which is the head and the first principle of this man of sin and the first thing propounded And unto this we may add their denial direct denial of God as he hath revealed himself in the Scriptures and that is that he is three in one which for brevities sake supposing our meaning to be understood by our people who are instructed in this principle we express by the word Trinity And for the better apprehension as the creature now is able to apprehend of God we express by three subsistances or persons Whereas I say we are taught in the word That God is three in one Atkinson in his Sword drawn before printed saith that this is one of their lies and saies that God is but one in all though ten thousand times ten thousand make out what they can So that
That Jesus Christ is God and man in one person which as before most blasphemously they answer was a lie What doth he mean to alter their words and to call him only the man of God not God and man as they express it Whereas you say in the eight saith he that this Christ the man of God is God and man in one person it is a lye If he did believe him to be God and man would he have altered their words and given him such a diminishing appellation as the man of God a title given to meer creatures And as for the humane nature of Christ his distinct particular and proper body do they not deny it For a query being put to George Fox Whether Jesus Christ have a body in heaven and whether it be the same that appeared among men in the flesh c. Thou shalt find him answering That Christ hath but one body which is saith he the Church and he saies he remains in the heavens but he will not say he hath a humane body there And being asked as before Whether it be the same that appeared amongst men He answers It is the same that did descend the same did ascend not acknowledging any other body than what did descend And in the eighty page being asked with what bodies the Saints shall arise and dwell and live in for ever And whether every particular Saint shall have a particular body He answers The Saints shall arise in that body which Christ doth live in for saith he he is the Saviour of the body he is the head of the body and the resurrection and the life of the body and his body is but one So that here thou seest that Christ and the Saints have no distinct bodies of their own and but one common body all blended together And as they thus offer violence to Jesus Christ in his nature and person so do they also to him in his death bloudshed and merits This in part appears by what hath been shewed already in their scoffing at our hopes of being saved by that Jesus Christ that died at Jerusalem and in saying that they are redeemed by the blood of Christ but not at Jerusalem onely but say they made manifest in us So that there is something in themselves whereby they are redeemed Truths Defence pag. 95. and in the 86. page of the same Book they say There is that light and power in every man which if he take heed to it and wait within there he shall find his Saviour Mark there within he shall find his Saviour And affirming the elect were never defiled c. But it appears further in that they hold the sufferings of Christ now in the Saints to be satisfactory for sins past present and to come For Howgill and Borr. as thou maist see in their Answer herewith printed before to the seven Queries say thus Thou blasphemer askes thou knows not what is not Christ the same now as ever and is not the sufferings of Christ satisfactory wherever Nay which is more horrid if we take the question and answer together do they not in effest say for they will not yet speak out all their mind that the sufferings of Christ now in the Saints is all the satisfaction to or which the Justice of God looks for for sins past present and to come For that as thou maist see was the question and they answer as thou seest Are not these men their own saviours and as they make satisfaction for their sin by their own sufferings so they hold they are justified by their own righteousness This also shalt thou find in the last quoted book in their answer to the 9 query where they rail upon the querist for asking Whether there be not another righteousness by which the Saints are justified meaning the righteousness of Christ as in the former query then that righteousness which Christ works in them and by them viz. the saints For this they most wretchedly revile and rail upon the querist because he would have another righteousness then the righteousness of Christ which he works in the Saints and by them Reader if thou be a Christian and knowst any thing of Christ and the Gospel tell me woulst not thou have another righteousness than that righteousness of Christ which he works in thee and by thee I know thou wouldst have and shalt and must have if ever thou be saved the righteousness of Christ wrought in thee and by thee for thy sanctification But dost thou not look for and rely upon another righteousness for thy justification viz. the righteousness of Christ wrought in his own person and made thine by faith and imputation Reader as I told thee before so I tell thee again I am weary with raking in the filthy puddle of their blasphemous opinions and I will follow them no further here If thou wouldst be confirmed in this that these are their received opinions and more of the same nature I refer thee to two Books written by those who dwell amongst them and have most to do with them and have known them longest viz. The perfect Pharisee and The brief relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers both before mentioned But as for these men and their opinions and particularly as to the last mentioned I profess in the presence of the great God were I to chuse my Religion I would rather be a Papist then of these Quakers perswasion for the Papist though he bring in inherent righteousness and righteousness wrought in us and by us as the matter of justification yet he grants and owns another righteousness as necessary yea as most necessary viz. the righteousness of Christ wrought in his own person which these Quakers deny as thou hast seen Nay further in express English they deny it In their answer to the 15 Query I own no righteousness but what is of Christ and wrought by thee Oh fearful blasphemy against the Gospel Thus they offer violence to Jesus Christ And lastly which naturally and must necessarily follow they offer violence to all the ordinances of the Gospel As they deny an outward Christ or a Christ without as they call him so do they deny all outward ordinances So Fox and Nailor in their book A word from the Lord We deny them whose law is without their law without their Church without their baptism prayers and singing without their Christ without their righteousness without c. If they had denied that which is only without they had said somthing but thou seest it is otherwise here 's all outward ordinances worship and Christ and righteousness without struck off at one blow And those Quakers before mentioned in their Answer to the seven Priests say that who are of the Lord are freed from the ordinances of men so they call Gospel-ordinances and outward means and for it most wratchedly abuse these words For where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty And Truths Defence says
And pag 43. by way of reproach Thou saist it because the Scripture saith it Nay do they not in page 90 of the same book answer to the second querie call the letter of the Scripture dust And calls him Serpent for asserting the word preacht as the means of Faith Serpent like saith he thou feedest upon dust And in the next page Answer to the fourth query All thy hearing and all thy pratling of that which thou callest the word by it thou shalt never get Faith which is the gift of God but it is all the Serpents meat which feeds thee thou serpent which art curst above all the beasts of the field And do not they say page 104 of that book Answer to querie the thirtieth That their giving forth of papers or printed books it is from the immediate eternal Spirit of God And then what difference between their stinking rotten blasphemous papers and the sacred Scriptures Yea to make up the measure of their blasphemie do they not say the same spirit which gave forth the Scriptures which gives forth now is as true as the Scriptures and not contrary to the Scriptures The charge being against them for magnifying papers equal to the holy Scriptures what damnable hypocrites are these to say they establish the Scriptures If we take their words in every honest mans sense But what mean these hypocrites then in saying they establish and they confirm and they witness the Scriptures Why forsooth it pleaseth their Godship and Christship or rather devilship to speak from their eternal spirit in the Scripture language and so add their Authority to it as the Papists The Scriptures are but as Aesops Fables with them if not allowed of and confirmed by the authority of their Church Or else they establish it by asserting it to be within them in the power of it For I would allow them all fair interpretation But I pray are not the Scriptures truth and the written and sacred Word of God in themselves whether man doth believe or entertain them yea or no Doth mans believing them make them the Word of God more then they were before It s true as to his comfort or advantage that receives them not to him they are not as the Word of God But in themselves they are and will be though all men in the world reject them They speak lies therefore in hypocrisie in saying they establish the word But further to discover their lying hypocrisie they speak not forsooth from the letter of the Scripture i. not as taught by or from the letter i. what they get by reading of the Scripture in the letter No though the Scripture had never been written they could have spoken as they do from and by the eternal and immediate and infallible spirit But oh ye hypocrites I 'le ask you a question did our English Translators of the Scriptures teach the eternal Spirit to speak English Or if you would speak without lying Did you never read the Scripture in our English translation that you speak the very words for the most part except your canting language from Jacob Behmen as the straying of Eves minde and lust into the visibles and being redeemed out of the perishing nature and such like stuffe will any man believe that the spirit which gives the gift of utterance and expression could not have spoken the same truths in other English As every one knows may be done and yet keep the same sense and truth But it must pedantically teach you like school-boys to speak so by rote Fye for shame It smels leave your hypocritical lying and do not so poorly and basely belye the spirit and speak against that light which is within you But once more and a little further to this what leads your Holiness forth to speak in Scripture language Is it not hypocrite-like that thereby you might catch poor simple plain-hearted people in your snares who having a due and reverent esteem of the Scriptures you allure by pretences of establishing the Scripture to insinuate those poisonous doctrines which I have before discovered you to be guilty of As for Antichrists other two Doctrines of forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats I shall not now prosecute I may speak of that when I shall a little open the effects of their teachings But before I speak to that I shall but suggest my apprehensions of the end these men may have in their undertakings and on whose errand they are come I will present them and leave them to thy judgement They may come in their own Anti-christs or the Devils errand First they may come in their own to cheat the people of the money and this hypocritical lying too For though they raile upon Ministers as Preaching for hire which who so doth let him answer for himself yet they themselves do teach That where they have planted and sown there they may reap Which in plain English is this Those whom they have seduced they may take money of and whether they do or no time will discover Sure I am they have necessary supplies for nature which some able Ministers have not and no doubt a large Diocess which these ramble over will yield more then any particular Parish And they plead hard for Community for in their Answer to the seven Priests page 22. whereas it seems they had charged them with reading for it The Quakers there answer and say Here you are against the Spirit of life For say they they that did believe were of one heart and they that do believe are born of God and amongst such there was no oppressor no taskmaster and it s said all things were common and no man said this is my own And conclude thus You who are not come to Christs Doctrine who is not come to give your coat yet who hath two you we deny So that though they come not for money before-hand they can take it afterwards and though with the Fryars they may not touch money they have a poak in their sleeve into which if you put it some can take it out and know what to doe with it So that this may be one end of their coming Secondly they may come upon Anti-Christs errand and not much improbable for Lancashire and those parts is as famous for Papists as Witches and on good grounds we may conceive them to be Anti-Christs factors if we consider their doctrins For any intelligent Reader may easily discover the doctrines of Vniversal grace Free-will Satisfaction by our own sufferings Justification by inherent holiness Ability to keep the Law Perfection Nulling the Doctrine of Original sin and the Popish real presence All which with some other things I intended particularly to evidence from their writings but I fear being too large There are many other wretched opinions of theirs worse then the Papists which others have discovered from other of their writings which I have not seen and I leave it to others who have more strength and leisure if they