the Objection no body denying that if Christ that 's crucified be not within us we are Reprobates but within six lines after he has these Passages the Brief Discovery charges The Apostles preached Christ that was crucified within c. Now allowing this Sophistry we defy any Turk Jew or Atheist nay even the Devil himself to utter so vile a Blasphemy but that it may be made as Orthodox as the Creed But let wise Men judg whether this ought to be allowed any Writer who undertakes to vindicate another when by his confession if the words be read as they are and have been printed for many and many years the Author must be guilty of Blasphemy Great endeavours has he used in many places to vindicate himself and others from Blasphemy as where he says That which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures and greater but the best way he ever took was when charg'd with that most blasphemous passage against the Trinity in a Book put out by him and three other Quakers called Ishmael and his Mother cast out where they bespeak their Adversary thus The three Persons thou dreamest of which thou wouldst divide out of one like a Conjurer are all denied and thou shut up with them in perpetual darkness for the Lake and the Pit Geo. Whitehead does now expresly disown the words tho they were justly chargeable upon him as well as the others being Partner with them in the whole and setting his Name without any distinction to the intire Book affirming that they are none of his and that he wrote not that part of the Answer and that he shall neither stand by nor own these words c. This we are sure is the best way he could take to vindicate himself tho thereby he has left his three Brethren under this black mark of being Blasphemers for to say only The words appear too rash and irreverent is handling the Ulcer too gently which ought to be cut out to the very Coar But if we may believe a great and good Man Geo. Whitehead could not always thus excuse himself in this particular for the Reverend and Learned Dr. Falkner in his Treatise of Reproaching and Censure Part 2. cap. 3. sect 1. num 5 6. p. 265 266. tells us That when he disputed with Geo. Fox and Geo. Whitehead at Lynn Regis in the County of Norfolk Anno 1659 they sent him nine Questions or Positions rather the first of which was against the three Persons of the Deity And in the first day they plainly declared themselves against the three Persons of the Trinity and then says Dr. Falkner I charged G. Whitehead in the presence of Geo. Fox and a great number of other Witnesses with those horrid and blasphemous words against the Trinity aforementioned which says the Doctor he neither did nor could deny but this wicked Assertion was written and published by him and his Companions it seems he made no such excuse for himself then or declared that he would not stand by or own them as he now does for what Reason let the World judg Nay in his dispute with Mr. Suith of Christ's College in Cambridge he owned the Book for says Mr. Smith to him tell me plainly whether you will own it or not if you will not at all then tell me what you will own and what not if you will not own it speak To which George Whitehead answers Well I will own it prove what you can Smith's Quaker disarmed printed 1659. Tho the licentiousness of those times permitted Men to belch forth any Poison their corrupt minds had conceived against the Trinity which they durst not now do but to show says that Reverend Person their particular zeal to oppose the Holy Trinity I received a Paper of four Queries directed to them that affirm that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead and that the Father is the first and the Word the second and the Spirit the third and that the second was begotten as to his Godhead wholly level'd against the Doctrine of the Trinity and subscribed by G. Whitehead and G. Fox After I had returned an Answer to these I received another large Paper containing a long Harangue against the Holy Trinity with Geo. Whitehead's Name alone subscribed In this Paper which says the Doctor I have by me it is declared That to call three distinct Persons in the Trinity are Popish Terms and Names the Papists do call the Godhead by c. As if none but Papists did so or 't was never done till the days of Popery thus labouring to render the Doctrine odious by representing it as Popish However whether it be owing to the change of his Mind or for fear of the Scourge that was over him viz. that Passage in the Act for Toleration which secures a Reverence to this Doctrine of the Trinity Provided that neither this Act nor any Clause Article or Thing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to give any Ease Benefit or Advantage to any Person that shall deny in his Preaching or Writing the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity as it is declared in the aforesaid Articles of Religion we are glad to find him at length returning to a more fober mind and wish he would have corrected if not his Sentiment yet his Stile in many other Particulars as plainly blasphemous as this taken notice of in the Brief Discovery but meerly to seek out and study Evasions does but multiply words and argues a mind very mean and insincere studious only of preserving a Name and upholding a Party We have endeavoured a just and honest Reply labouring to set things in a right Light and thereby evidencing the Truth of what we had charged them with We speak as to wise Men and let them judg between us for we can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth And as to the Persons of these Men we have no particular quarrel with them neither have we to our knowledg any Family of their Perswasion in all our Parishes which is a happiness that many of our neighbour Ministers cannot boast of and had they not grown to such an insolence as even to dare all our Robe with a particular Challenge as not only we but our Superiors apprehended we should never for ought we know in any publick way have entred the Lists with them but being duly and regularly called forth as we made appear in our first piece stiled The Quakers Challenge we hold it both just and dutiful to our Religion Superiors and our selves to indeavour maintaining the Orthodox Faith of that Church we profess our selves Members and Ministers of And whereas many the Laodiceans of this Age have blamed us for contesting with so foolish a People as the Quakers generally are telling us That we might have found a better employment than to be busied with such Impertinents as these planting a Battery against Aspin Leaves
leave it out to make the better sense of thy Blasphemy shouldest thou have put in that Conjunction what nonsense would it have been it would have been thus all Scripture given by Inspiration and is profitable the copula and methinks should couple like Sentences and the former part of the Text cannot be a sentence without a Verb and if it must be like Sentences the Verb in the former part must be is as in the latter and so it runs as we well translate it is by Divine Inspiration and is profitable rather than the Scripture should be a perfect Rule Howgil would make it perfect nonsense 2. The Scripture must be our Rule for we are to try all things by it and hold fast that which we find streight and right nay by that we are to try the Quakers Rule it self 1 John 4. 1. we are to try the Spirits What must we try the Spirit by the Spirit 't is evident we are to bring it to some Rule or Ballance to find out its just weight and rectitude for there are many Spirits that walk now about and haunt our stuary ground the Spirit of Muggleton Fox and Naylor and there is one Spirit to be sure that challenges it as its right to possess it and dwell there and by what rule shall we determine the Controversy but by Scripture there 's none of these Pretenders can challenge any greater Authority over our Faith than others only the Scriptures which are the Letters missive and circulatory of the Spirit of God to his Church have such a right which have their Authority confirmed by such a Seal as cannot be counterfeited by Men or Devils and therefore may oblige us to believe them and that Spirit which agrees with their testimony 'T is utterly false what Smith says That the Spirit was the rule to them that Primmer p. 10. gave forth the Scriptures We say not the Spirit it self but the dictates of the Spirit which were as much a rule to them when written as when spoken to them This does not exclude the Spirit from having any thing to do to direct us what to believe and how to live for the Scriptures are the Spirits Rule given to guide us by Besides the Spirit of God opens our Eyes too much closed up since the fall so that we may the better perceive and believe the things contained in the Scripture and stir up our affections to embrace them observe the Rule our Saviour sends us to Mat. 21. 42. Did you never read in the Scriptures Ver. 22 29. Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Acts 8. 35. He began at the same Scripture and preached unto them Jesus Acts 17. 2 11. Paul reasoned with them out of the Scriptures Acts 2. what a long Sermon St. Peter preacheth there from the 14 th almost to the end all out of the Scripture Luke 24. 17. as also 32. he opened to them the Scriptures Moses and the Prophets were the Text he preach'd on Ver. 46. he carries their attention to what was written Joh. 7. 38. He that believeth on me not as the Light but as the Scripture saith John 19. 37. another Scripture saith all along they are sent to the Light without them to see what the Scripture saith John 20. 9. their want of Faith in Christ's Resurrection is attributed to their ignorance of the Scriptures strange the Light could not have informed them Philip corrects not the Eunuch for poring upon and scraping in the Scriptures as Fisher does in his Velata Revelata p. 845. Such Men says he as the Scribes are ever scraping in the Scriptures neither does he call them to mind the Light within Away with this dead Letter this Dust will choak you this Serpents Meat will poison you Ver. 35. he opened his Mouth and began at the same Scripture and preached Jesus But when shall we hear a Quaker begin a Sermon from a Text of Scripture By the way you see a Man may preach Jesus from the Letter Acts 18. 24. Apollo was mighty in the Scriptures the Scripture was the Sword of the Spirit Ephes 6. 17. by which the mighty Man and Evangelical Hero hewed down the Enemy before him they were not able to stand before the Dint of his Scripture-charge he mightily convinced them out of Scripture ver 28. Paul in his Dispute about Justification Rom. 4. 3. crys What saith the Scripture Rom. 11. 2. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith he brings all his Proofs from the Letter of Scripture Rom. 15. 4. all our comfort flows from those Wells of Salvation all written for our Learning that we through comfort and patience of the Scriptures might have hope And should these envious Philistines be suffered to stop up these Wells 2 Tim. 3. 15. Paul commends Timothy that from a Child he had been well acquainted with this Rule so that he became a Workman that needed not be ashamed The Scriptures you see in the Apostles days as many as were written were the only Rule they appealed to Fox jun. for above 200 Pages hath vehement Exhortations to mind the Light but not a word of reading the Scriptures in that whole Book Esa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word they may pretend the Spirit of God and a Light within if they will but they have no light in them says the Prophet That such an one as W. Penn should please himself with such a Gimcrack as to say in his answer to Faldo By the Law and the Testimony are meant God and Christ seeing then William we are saved by Christ we are saved by the Law 'T is much Mr. Pool should forget to grace his Synopsis with this Criticism if thou hadst any respect for Scripture sure thou wouldst not dally and play with it so wantonly We conclude then that the Scriptures are a Rule to them they are given to and 't was never denyed by any in the Christian part of the World but Quakers besides Atheists Deists and Papists and we envy them not the Honour of such Company Whitehead says p. 23. l. 7. They don't slight the Scripture nay p. 17. l. 4. They acknowledg them to be divine and prefer them before all other Books in the World We do them wrong to lay such an heinous Crime to their charge Alas poor Quakers to be so hardly censured when they call the Scriptures Dust Serpents Meat killing and deadly this is all for the profound Veneration they have for Scripture When they say their own Speakings are of equal Authority nay to be preferred before them nay the Scriptures may as well be burnt as their nonsensical Scriblings This is yet for the great respect and honour they bear to the Scriptures When they tell us the Scriptures have no authority of themselves not so much as that golden Legend of Father Fox's Journal unless we have a Câ—mmand again from within that is they have no authority unless we think they have
a great many more of the Gang who can scarce speak or write good sense should dare to challenge Inspiration and immediate Revelation from Heaven equal with the Apostles themselves a thing not to be claimed without the greatest certainty in our selves and the highest evidence given to Mankind since the Glory of God the Authority of the Scriptures the State and Welfare of human Societies as well as the Interest of the Christian Religion and the Souls of so many thousands easily intangled by such pretences are deeply concerned therein May we not Sleidan ' s Comment 5th and 10th Books Ross ' s Appendix to his View of all Religions Casaubon of Enthusiasm Spencer ' s Vulgar Prophecies Rutherford ' s Surve of the Spiritual Antichrist Short History of the Anabaptists in Germany be convinced from the accounts given us by many learned and impartial Writers mentioned in the Margin that evil Designs inward Heats melancholy Fancies Satan's Suggestions nay the want of good Arguments have frequently taken sanctuary under this sacred Cover It were easy to make good this by Instances some from Hereticks in the primitive times others from the Enthusiasts amongst the Romanists and very many from the Sectaries of late days both at home and abroad as the persons cited and others have largely done The Anabaptists flew high with this Claim and it was Rutherford p. 6 7 8. their Blind to carry on every design Their Founder Nich. Storke boasted of Dreams and Visions rejecting the Scripture as being a carnal and literal Rule saying God spake to him by an Angel and revealed to him his Will in Dreams promising him the place of the Angel Gabriel and the Empire of the World See the Short History of the Anabaptists of High and Low Germany chap. 2. p. 6. His Follower Tho. Munster pretended the like Communications from God and would fain have gained Luther to his side but he wrote to the Senate of Mulhaysen a famous Town in Thuringia to beware of that Wolf John Becold a Taylor afterwards called John of Leyden carried on all his Designs by a pretence of immediate Revelation from Heaven and the great Mischiefs caused thereby are abundantly known above a hundred thousand being kill'd by occasion of these bloody Inspirations John Matthiz or Matthias the Baker of Harlem had Secrets reveal'd to him which God had not reveal'd to others he being Enoch the second High Priest of God and was in effect perpetual Dictator at Munster Yea Herman the Cobler profess'd himself a true Prophet Hist of the Anabapt chap. 3. p. 21. and the true Messiah These with Knipperdolling Tuscocurer the Goldsmith and many more of that Sect pretended Inspirations from Heaven for all they did and said and at all turns made known their Revelations to the People which betraved them to Ruin and Destruction which made Melancthon severely censure them saying These Fanatical Dotages are accursed And we in opposition to such who assert new Revelations are to be expected from Melanct. de numero sacrament God do declare that God out of his infinite Goodness having revealed his Will to us in the Gospel other Revelations are not to be expected And 't is evident Revelation has been pretended for very ill purposes among the Quakers themselves one of them replying to his Creditor 'T is revealed to See Christianity no Enthusiasm pag. 125 126. me that I owe thee nothing Thus Mary Gadbury pretended a Revelation to get some Cloth from Mrs. Woodward And there were two Quakers near Stukely in Yorkshire whose Consciences bidding them destroy Original Sin they apprehending their Mother was the Fountain thereof went and murder'd her Agreable to the Practices of some of the Anabaptists beyond Sea who being drunk with Enthusiasm the spiritual Lunacy of this Schismatical Age as a Dr. Hicks Short History of the Anabaptists p. 51. Learned Man calls it committed many such wild Freaks One of their Sect being in his prophetical mood call'd his Father Mother Brother and Sisters to him and commanding his Brother to kneel down cut off his Head with one Blow crying out The Will of God is done Thus John of Leyden led by his prophetical Spirit wrote several Conclusions which he commanded the Preachers to teach the People the sum of which was That men are not tied P. 24. to one Wife but may have as many as they please and he had fifteen for his share which when they refused he declared the Doctrine was revealed to him from Heaven and commanded the first Opposer thereof to be beheaded which was done presently These and the like Extravagancies made a Learned Man declare That Dr. Hicks ' s Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcis'd p. 37 38. it was a dangerous Principle to assert That immediate Revelation or Inspiration is not ceased but is a standing and perpetual Gift in the Church of Christ and that this Spirit is not like the Spirit in the Primitive times to be tried by the Scriptures and Reason but both of them are to be tried by it as Barclay in his Theses asserts And he very well observes further That amongst all the miraculous Gifts taken notice of in the New Testament there is no mention made of Heroical Impulse by which men were sometimes irresistably moved from the Spirit under the Jewish Oeconomy to execute Judgment P. 39. in an extraordinary manner upon the Enemies of God for God being the Political King and Legislator of the Jews did as other absolute Monarchs do in some special Exigencies send men with extraordinary supra-legal Commissions to do present execution upon great and dangerous Offenders without staying for the ordinary process by Law but our Saviour one end of whose coming was to put an end to the Jewish Oeconomy and who came not to destroy mens Lives but to save them gave no such Gifts unto Men There is to be no Fire from Heaven nor no Phineas's under the Christian Dispensation accordingly the first Apostolical Ages of Wonder were utterly ignorant of killing Impulse and Zeal And let us saith he P. 40. a little more particularly reflect upon that blasphemous Doctrine of the Quakers concerning a spiritual Ministry and spiritual Worship whereby they pretend that the Holy Ghost now comes down upon their Assemblies as it did in the Apostles time and moves them to preach and pray by inspiration without any regard to Condition or Sex Hence when they meet together they sit hanging their heads in a silent dumb manner till the Spirit as they pretend shall move some body it is indifferent be it Man or Woman to preach or pray Accordingly they call their Preaching Prophesying and precariously say that they have the Spirit of Adoption by which they call God Father and that the Spirit in the inspired Minister maketh intercession for them with unutterable Groans that they groan sufficiently we grant for sometimes in their Meetings they do nothing else but if their groaning or vocal Devotions be
else besides Ink and Paper and if not Pen Ink and Paper they must be somewhat conveyed to our knowledg by them But he tells us they mean only our dead preaching and commenting on it so then God be thanked the Letter is alive again and 't is only our preaching and commenting on it is dead tho Fox in direct opposition to him says 't is the Letter is dead But let us a little expostulate with the two Georges herein Why are they not as bold and plain with their own Writings as they are with the Scriptures are they not Pen Ink and Paper as well as these or are the Ink and Paper of Fox and Burroughs's writing made of more lasting materials than our Bible How comes it to pass then that they are not Dust and Death and Serpents Meat as well as the Scriptures No they are all messengers from Heaven given from the Mouth of the Lord sealed with the Eternal Spirit What care is there to guard the honour of their own Writings see Snake in the Grass p. 102. To you this is the Word of the Lord says Fox every where of his Scribbles No no yours are not dead and killing Serpents Food they are all Manna Quail Honey and the Honey-Comb our Souls Nourishment as Coal said of Fox's Book a good stomach surely he had which could feed so savourly as some Africans are said to do upon Guts and Garbage nay on Snakes and Serpents In the mean time St. Paul's Scriptures are but Dust Husks Rottenness scarce Dogs-meat 'T is true of late they give the Scriptures better names but 't is their cunning Artifice very highly to complement and caress this Favorite of the People especially when they have some Act of Parliament to procure which may tend to their advantage and when their turn is served perhaps you may hear of them under their old Character and they may be as much Serpents Meat as ever That place 2 Cor. 3. 6. which they often quote to depreciate the Letter of Scripture by is understood of the Legal ceremonial Dispensation which the Apostles were not made Ministers of and in that place the Law is the Letter that killeth and the Gospel the Spirit which giveth Life as will appear plainly to them who attentively read the following Verses to the end of the Chapter Lawson's Brief Discovery p. 9. saith The Ministers are Babylon's Merchants selling beastly Ware for a large price the Letter which is Dust and Death A very high complement to the Ministers as if they were no better than a company of Pedlars that cheat the Country selling the excrements of Beasts cunningly drest up for choice Perfumes but our comfort is we fare as well as the Holy Scriptures for they are the beastly Ware we sell as follows the Letter which is Dust and Death Here George begins to open against the injustice and falshood of this Quotation saying the Quotation runs thus selling beastly Ware for a large Price all the week time heaping up a rabble of Notions into the Brain And there he stops as Balaam's Ass could be got no further for the Sword truth is had he gone any further he would have felt the point of it which was in these words the Letter which is Dust and Death so that beastly Ware relates not only to the rabble of Notions in our Brains but to the Letter also George says again This was never spoken of the Ministers without exception P. 20. l. 19. but of the false Ministers Geo. we thank thee for nothing we know who they are very well that are the false Ministers in your account even my Lord of Canterbury and all the Bishops and Priests of the Nation that take Tithes as Rob. Barclay that Antichristian apostatized Generation the National Ministry His Anarchy p. 41. And as Smith says They are the false Ministers which preach Christ without Primmer p. 8. so that all the Christian Ministry in the World are here rank'd as well as ours amongst a company of cheating Pedlars And when he says He excepts the Ministers that are not the false ones he excepts none but themselves Br. Discov p. 9. quotes Saul's Errand All that study to draw a living thing P. 7. out of a dead the Spirit out of the Letter are Conjurers neither is Fox alone His brief Discovery of the threesold state p. 7 8 9 10. for Lawson says the same The Priests of the World are Conjurers raising dead doctrines out of the Letter dead reasons dead uses dead motives We have proved before 't is not the Scripture as it is barely Ink and Paper but as containing a System of Doctrines necessary to be believed and practised for our Salvation which they profanely call a dead Letter which is yet that very salutary Letter the Spirit himself hath written to his Church Besides how can we or the Devil himself draw any Doctrines Reasons or Uses at all from Paper and Ink abstractly considered as G. says but from some doctrinal Propositions contained under those Letters and so there will be no such need to conjure to raise a living thing out of a living viz. the Word of Life or a spiritual Doctrine from the Spirit 's Letter yet thus all the Ministers of the Gospel from Christ's time to this day are villainously traduced by the yea and nay Men as a company of Magicians and Sorcerers that work by the Black Art that preach out of the Scriptures as out of a conjuring Book and no doubt those Wretches would not be much concerned to see them burnt with the rest of those Acts 19. 19. Books of Sorcery thereby to spoil the Priests trade of conjuring by them Here again G. upbraids us of partiality for leaving out some passages of Fox P. 20. l. 29. wherein he distinguishes between the Letter and the Light the Letter and the Spirit while by his good leave the Letter containing such Doctrines as abovesaid is the Light as David says the Spirit 's Epistle to us containing lively Directions in our way to Heaven the lively Oracles of God which are quick and powerful and therefore there needs no conjuring to raise Spiritual matter out of them As for what he adds ibid. Mic. 3. 11. that the Prophet prophesys against such Priests that preach for hire we can't imagin how it comes to be fetch'd in here unless it be a device to start another Subject before us about Tithes on purpose to divert us and draw us off from the pursuit of their Blasphemy only by the way we say our Tithes are no Hire neither did we ever hear that it was accounted Wages what was paid to a Man out of his own of that which was due Debt before * P. 9. l. 31. Brief Discovery quotes Truth 's †P. 101. defence saying 'T is dangerous to read the Scriptures which the Prophets Christ and his Apostles spoke forth freely G. Whitehead clamours hideously the Qotation is abused for
he says the P. 21. l. 6. words are these T is dangerous to read and to make a trade of that which the Prophets Christ and his Apostles spoke forth freely and to give meanings to it contrary than it is We have not now the Book by us and therefore are forced to yield him his Quotation neither do we see any great hurt it will do us as he hath stated it for he makes three different Sentences of it joined together by two Conjunction Copulatives 't is dangerous to read them and to make a trade of them and to give contrary meanings to them so that with him every one of these is dangerous both to read them to make a trade of them and to pervert the sense of them which is Blasphemy Nay further we say 't is a profane Slander upon the Scriptures to affirm that they are dangerous to be read by any tho they wickedly make a trade of them or pervert their Meaning 't is only that wicked Merchandize and Perversion that is so dangerous nay to say 't is dangerous for Men to read the Scriptures that read them with a design to pervert and scoff at them such a design is dangerous but not their reading the reading the Scriptures being a good means to bring them into better Temper and Sobriety 'T was happy for St. Austin that he heard that Sermon of St. Ambrose tho it 's said he went with a purpose to flout and jeer at him and the Officers had no reason to repent them John 7. 45 46. of their coming to Christ though they came with a purpose to take him Prisoner who were so happily taken by him they could not for never man spake like him So then this must still go for a Blasphemy against the Scriptures that Ibid. l. 16. it 's dangerous to read them as 't is to make a trade of them and pervert them As for what he says 'T is dangerous for any to read them for an unlawful end we say 't is not the reading them is dangerous but the propounding an unlawful end is dangerous such a man that hath such ends may safely read them though he may not safely read them with such ends Come come G. never stand mincing of this gob 't will go down well enough with other Friends Isaac Pennington very ingenuously tells us That Knowledg gain'd by the Letter of the Scripture makes a Man wise and able in his Head to oppose Truth and brings him into a state of Condemnation Wrath and Misery beyond the Heathen and makes him harder to be wrought upon by the Light than the very Invalid of Faldo's Vindie p. 124. Heathen This Citation of Faldo Will Penn quotes and owns Well said Isaac thou sayst the Knowledg gain'd by the Letter makes us worse than Heathens and it must be very dangerous sure to read such a Letter that will make us all turn Heathens or worse perhaps to Will. Penn this seems to be no fault to His Address to Protestants p. 118 119. make us Heathens since with him to be an Heathen and a Christian is 〈◊〉 one He says every meek and patient Man is a Christian he argues largely for Heathens to be Christians Thomas Elwood justifys this That moral Heathens are very good Christians See his Answ to Keith ' s Narrat p. 75. and pleads for his Master Penn at large so that a Man may learn the Principles of Christianity out of a Seneca or a Socrates as well as out of a Bible Well whatever Whitehead may think if Isaac says true that the reading the Scriptures will bring us into an Estate of Wrath worse than Heathens we can't but think it sadly dangerous to meddle with them and if Will. Penn be to be believed the Scriptures are at leastwise needless and 't is but a wise caution to cast them quite out of their Meetings * P. ◠l. 2◠Brief Discovery quotes Fox and Hubberthorn †Truths Defence p. 2. and 〈◊〉 4. again saying You might as well condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as some of our Queries and also giving this Reason Because our giving forth Papers and printed Books is from that same immediate Eternal Spirit of God G. says 't is a great Evil to condemn the Scriptures to the Fire or any of their Books given forth by the Eternal Spirit of God as without question all those are that are authorised by their second Day 's Meeting nay all that they have spoken or printed or else they must be Conjurers that have so spoken and printed if not from the mouth of the Lord you may be sure Fox's Great Myst and Burrows's Works were so for they stoutly witness it in the beginning of them May the Bible as well be burnt as these Most impudent Blasphemy To compare such Writings full of Ignorance Blasphemy Barbarisms Nonsense Contradictions pouring out such Filth and Nastiness upon God's Ministers not to be read but when a Man stands in need of a dose of Physick to make him vomit Must such Stuff come in competition with that holy and heavenly System of our Religion the Scriptures that are able to make a Man wise unto Salvation Ah G. may we as well spare all the Bibles the World as such Writings This thou cunningly insinuatest while thou only sayst 'T is dangerous to burn them both but rebukest not in the least that blasphemous comparison That 't was as well to burn the Scriptures as their Writings but speakest as if it were equally wicked to burn either which Fox and Hubberthorn have spoke out plainly yet sometimes the Bible is the best Book in the World though now it be no better than a nonsensical Battledoor and may as well be burnt We have known the time when such a comparison as that would have made their Tongues have hist with an hot Iron though we are accounted Persecutors we rather desire their Tongues should confess the Blasphemy than so hiss for it 'T were an easy matter for us to pretend to immediate Revelations and Inspirations such as the Apostles had as well as they and we could cry as loud as they This is from the Mouth of Lord a Message from the Great God and could prove it too by the same Argument that they prove theirs by we are sure of it and we could cluck and call Shoals of Followers after us among the credulous Multitude as well as they but we dare not be so bold with God as to set his Hand and Seal to every Fancy and Dream of our own and call it divine Revelation nor dare we be so treacherous to the Souls of Men as to loobel them into a snare by false Lights or to hold up an Ignis fatuus before them which God knows some are apt enough to follow thereby to lead them into Pits and Precipices could they prove their Revelations as convincingly as Christ and his Apostles did theirs we should not envy them the comparison What
Discipline our Saviour says That they did it ignorantly nay they had Luke 23. 34. as they thought Manifestations c. to the contrary for in all their oppositions to Christ and his Gospel they thought they did God service The same may be said of St. Paul he knew nothing of the Power of the Lord Christ till he was informed by a Vision Says Paul Who art thou Lord and he answered Acts 9. â— I am Jesus whom thou persecutest He also pleads for himself Because I did 1 Tim. 1. 1â— it ignorantly As for the two nameless Scriptures G. W. mentions which he saith we had left out the first is an exhortation not to do those things whereof they were ashamed The Scripture he means we suppose is Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had you of those things whereof ye are now ashamed This is brought to prove no Command in Scripture is obligatory any further than I have a conviction c. 'T was fit we should tell the Reader this or else he could never have thought so G. we cannot but wonder what fruit thou hopest to gather from this Scripture but Shame who wouldst fain prove such a Doctrine from it which is every whit as apt to prove the contrary and yet thou art not at all ashamed of such an abuse of those holy Writings The second nameless Scripture we suppose is Rom. 1. 19. which speaks nothing at all to the case of Conviction but seems rather to countenance the sufficiency of the Light within without the Scripture which some of thy Brethren have brought it for The words are That which may be known of God is manifested within But what is there nothing needful to be known of Jesus Christ without what he hath done and suffered and taught us for our Salvation No Truth defending Quakers p. 65. George when Wadâ— says our Saviour instructs to abide in such a Faith which confideth in himself without us thou tellest him plainly That was false Doctrine that is thou meanest since we have a Christ within Whitehead p. 22. l. 4. complains of our Partiality He tells us 'T is evident that E. Burroughs means special Commands as to baptize preach and Reason against Railing p. 102. pray The same W. Pen says But G. Edward Burroughs's Proposition was universal no Commands c. But the Quaker Commentary is quite spoiled if you will not allow them a liberty to interpret Universals by Particulars Negatives by Affirmatives by no Commands he must mean some P. 22. l. 15. He tells us again There are universal moral Commands and Prohibitions which are universally binding to Mankind but chiefly from inward Light and Conviction Which is very false Had Man stood in Innocency his own Reason unobscured which is Light might have been sufficient to have instructed him in the practice of Justice and Honesty c. but alas now there 's a Thief in our Candle a thick Mist about our Understanding that clouds it so as that we are ready without other helps to take the most brutish Immoralities to be laudable Virtues as in those unscriptural Countries of Africa and America Therefore Almighty God in his Love to Mankind the first Edition of his Laws being so blotted and effaced is pleased to set forth a new one more correct in the Holy Scriptures wherein we read them in a clearer and fairer character than in that old blur'd and blotted Book of Nature and therefore the Scriptures being a clearer discovery of the Mind of God may oblige us sure as well as that inward Light that is so dark and dim and somewhat more and yet tho now our inward Light be so weak and glimmering we have Light enough left us to discover that this Scripture Revelation is from God and to inable us to understand the sense of it in things that are necessary and if we have not that special Revelation whereby we are inabled to believe and love the Doctrine of it and conform to it yet we are bound to believe c. because 't is our fault if we have not that special Light for God will never be wanting with his special Grace to those that use that common Light as well as they are able and if men do what they can do by their common Light God will certainly help them with his special Grace to do what they cannot do without it P. 22. l. 6. Whitehead says again They that go to prayer or preaching in their own wills and time or perform any other Acts of Worship or Devotion towards God without the moving of the Spirit of God 't is Will-worship and not accepted But George we had thought a Christian could never have gone to Prayer c. but he must be moved by the Spirit it being the Spirit 's Command to pray always or if thou meanest some inward Motion we have met with none that went to Prayer that did not find some inward motion and disposition to it If thou meanest yet a more special Impulse of the Spirit and that the Spirit being a Wind that bloweth when and where it listeth we are not to adventure rashly upon that Duty before we feel those powerful Gales upon the Soul which we must wait for as the Seaman for his Wind why may not a man pray that he may have such assistances But George how often do you preach and pray too in your own will and time not at all waiting for the spiritual Blasts you seem to have a power to command that Wind to be at your beck and lure and can appoint time and place for it Good people are told they shall have a precious Exhortation and a devout Prayer at Life and Spirit at such a time and place One thing we wonder at that you can never make this Wind blow into your Houses where you have not a Prayer for a month or a year together As Dan. Leeds informs us who was a Quaker twenty years in his Preface to the Trumpet sounded out of the Wilderness of America p. 2. That he remembers well his Mother being a religious Woman used oft to take him aside to pray with her upon his knees but as soon as she turned Quaker he heard no more of that kind of exercise And your great Prophet Sol. Eccles says in his Musick Lecture p. 25. Where they are viz. the Professors I was in Performances in Family Duties in Hearing in Reading in Fasting but when I came to bend my mind to that of God in me then I began to be a Fool insomuch as I durst not give thanks for the Victuals that was set before me What thou sayest concerning Sacrifices and Oblations we say that neither Prayer now is P. 22. l. 10. nor offering Sacrifices of old was Will-Worship and God did not blame that People because they performed those Services but because they relied upon and trusted to them as the only Duty required of them for Salvation To these Quotations give us leave to
are so he 's our Judg and Guide rather than our Rule and he judges and guides us by the Rule and Laws of the Holy Scriptures 2. Because we are yet at uncertainties where to find that Rule that we may be guided by it if the Light within be a guide to us we would be glad to know whose Light it is that hath the honour whether that Light in Whitehead or Pen or Burroughs or Hubberthorn for without our Compass how can we steer a right Course and therefore we intreat you to tell us whether we are to go to London York Bristol or Rome for our Christians Rule If they say the Spirit it self is our Rule 't is no more than to say the Light within us or the Light the Spirit of God â—heds into our Hearts is so for the Spirit substantially considered is no Rule to any for so it guides and teaches none but as it effects and sheds abroad a Light into our minds to guide and direct us by as is proved before which Light being different in every one of us for as they phrase it 't is in every one of us according to our different incasures so that we cannot have one and the same Rule of Christianity common to all but as many Rules as there have been or will be Men in the World to the World's end which was an inconvenience God Almighty thought fit to obviate in the beginning by sending our first Forefathers a Revelation concerning the Seed of the Woman the Sabbath Sacrifices and other Doctrines of Faith and Means of Worship a settled standing Rule they were to walk by he did not leave every own to his own Light to hammer out and invent a Rule for himself and now in these last Ages God hath given by a particular Revelation of his Mind tho conveyed to us in ten thousand Bibles any one that pleases may know where to find our Rule 't is in our Bibles and if we had a mind to it we could tell where to search for the Popish Rule in the Tomes of their Councils but we think it not worth our pains but where to find the Quakers Rule we should be beholding to him that will inform us Again how shall I know which are those Dictates of the Spirit of God that I may not be deceived in the choice of my Rule seeing I have no Rule to judgthem by Will not every Fancy and strong Inclination of Man vicious or virtuous be ready to put in a Plea for that honour to be accounted his Rule One Man hath an unsatiable thirst after the glittering Glorys and Honours of this World why may he not pretend to that Spirit of God that moves him to climb that Precipice Another hath a brutal lustful Inclination why may be not pretend he hath a vehement impulse of the Spirit upon him to commit Fornication and Adultery as a Speaker in Maryland Tho. Thurston pretended P. 138. to a Woman when her Husband was absent in England See Bugg's Pilgrim Mather ' s Answer to the Switch p. 4. G. Fox ' s Great Myst â— 77. ult Another that hath a violent inclination to Sodomy as Mather relates of Clark a Quaker Speaker why may he not pretend 't was a motion of the Spirit of God lead him to it for love of the Creature Another whose fingers itched to be robbing a Till or a Church why might he not pretend as one did he was moved to it by God s Spirit having no Rule to judg by but the Spirit in every Man and you may be sure that no Man's Spirit will bring in its Verdict against it selt If they say the several individual Lights in the several members of their yearly meetings that make up our great Luminary collectively is their Rule what must poor Quakers do all the interval of this meeting being all that while without a Rule without Light for it seems the Light in particular Defence of the Snake Collect. p. 15. Numb the first Quakers is too weak and glimmering sufficient to guide them in their course which was the reason when some hard Questions were propounded to the Pensylvani in Quakers the other day their Light being so dim that they could not answer them by it they were sam to send to London for more Light to resolve them by We hope they will not say 't is their inward Light in specie as abstracted from the several individual Quaker Lights is to be our Rule to guide us We say a Species operates nothing as it does not exist but in Individuals it was not homo in specie that begot Geo. Whitehead or Will. Pen but some unhappy individual Man to be a Plague and Pest God permitting to our common Christianity 3. Because this Rule is uncertain and mutable A Rule ought to be fix'd and steady as we ought to have a rational Evidence that it was constituted so to us by a sufficient Authority which their Light within hath not so a Rule ought to be a certain standard to measure by that never alters as is the Scripture the same for 1600 years together but their Light within how oft hath it turned even to every Point of the Compass Some years since their Light within taught them that the Scriptures were Dust Death Serpents meat but now it seems it teacheth them that they are given by inspiration and they are the Holy and Sacred Scriptures A few years since it told them their own Writings were to be preferred before them but now we know not what Wind hath turned the Cock they are the best Books in the World Sometimes it hath strictly forbidden to go to Law * An Account from the Child of Light p. 19. Now as for our selves say they so many as walk in Christ Jesus we have one Judg and Lawgiver appointed to us by Christ Jesus and we may not go to law with one another as Men being come to Christ But in Serious Search †P. 43. it gives them a liberty it says some of them are necessitated to make use of the Law to maintain their just Rights and Properties It was never christ's Faith to sue and contend says Naylor Living Faith p. 7. We sue no Man at the Law but are sued by them Shield of the Truth p. 3. But Tho Elwood's Light within taught him otherwise In civil Cases 't is no injustice saith he for a Man to recover his Due by Law Truth prevailing and detecting Error p. 361. see Christianity no Enthusiasm p. 108. cap. 7. Sometimes their Rule is against fighting with a carnal Weapon as in their Declaration to King Charles the Second but we have reason to think their Rule will direct them to other things as soon as they have opportunity J. Pennyman in his Remarks upon Christ's Lambs defended p. 1. cites a Quaker Minister saying We direct all Peopel to the Spirit of God in them and if that leads them to fight I have nothing to say
consistent with the Doctrine of antient Friends and agreeable to the Witness of God in them and that all this while here 's not the least mention of the Scripture The reason of Submission to the Doctrine of their Church is it seems its consistency with the Doctrine of antient Friends and the Witness of God in them The Judgment of antient Friends and a whimsical Witness called the Light within fetch'd from Terra incognita must be set upon the Bench and authoritatively judg and determine all and the Scriptures must be turned out of office for some disservice sure they have done the Quakers Accordingly Keith was sentenced as an Heretick not from Scripture but from Friends Books So Jennings told him to his Face He was not to prove his Heresy from Scripture but from Friends Books and the question was not now who was the best Christian but who the best Quaker and therefore they produced a Book of W. Pen's instead of Scripture to prove Keith an Heretick and no Christian And indeed it would be a hard task to prove a Quaker to be a Christian if they had not somewhat else to prove it by than Scripture See G. Keith's Heresy and Hatred printed at Philadelphia 1693. The Truth of this Story Whitehead only questions he dares not deny p. 24. l. 6. Now George is all this nothing to the purpose as thou pretendest Do not all the Protestant World but our newly espoused ones and the Papists resolve their Faith into the Authority of God in the Holy Scriptures and not into the Authority of a Montanus and his Paâ—â—clete or the Roman Pope with his Council or Cardinals or his Holy Ghâ—st he could send about in a Male or the Authority of our English Pope Fox with his Pigeon whispering Divine Doctrines in his Ear like another Mahomet This was a deadly Blow at the Head of thee George tho thou cunningly dissemblest it Thou wert loth any one should take notice of thy broken Pate CHAP. VIII Of the Person of CHRIST BRief Discovery p. 12. l. 10. charges Fox in Saul's Errand c. p. 14. for saying Christ is the Substance of all Figures and his Flesh is a Figure and in Truth defending Quakers p. 20 22. Christ's coming in the Flesh is but a Figure To this Whitehead p. 24. l. 33. They mean by Figure an Example The same says Father Fox Saul's Errand p. 8. He is the Example and Figure which are both one Whitehead proves it because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek frequently signifies Example But George what sense is here The coming of Christ was an example tho it be good enough Christ come in the Flesh is so Again what if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signify Figure and Example must Figure in English signify so too What if Liber in Latin signify a Child and a Book must a Child in English signify a Book too Did ever any understand by the English word Child to be meant a Book or by the English word Figure to be meant a Pattern Had he said Christ's coming in the Flesh was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it might have been understood to have meant Example because that word is often interpreted so but the word Figure never George why shouldst thou thus dodg and shuffle with us for once be so ingenuous as to own your antient Testimony or openly disown it That Christ's Flesh is a Figure of Christ within So Hubberthorn and also Fox Saul ' s Errand p. 14. and Pen in his Rejoinder p. 336. says Those Transactions of Christ were as so many facile Representations of what is to be accomplish'd Truth desending Quakers p. 20. in Man And Whitehead himself learnedly proves it because Christ was transfigured which could not possibly have been as he argues with great Quaker Subtilty if he had not been a Figure He says again Men need not be directed Light and Life p. 8. to the Type for the Antitype nor yet to Jerusalem either to Jesus Christ or his Blood where our Jerusalem Christ is but a Type And what could he be the Figure or a Type of but a Christ within as W. Pen above plainly And Whitehead cannot name any thing else but their Christ within to be the Antitype and so all that Christ did and suffered must be a Figure of what is done within the Shadows of the Law that typified Christ were but Shadows of Shadows See further for this purpose G. Keiâ—h ' s 4th Narraâ— p. 41 42 43 44 45. and Figures of Figures and the Person of Christ his living and dying at Jerusalem were no benefit to us but as they figured and typified this Christ within He taught as a Figure died and rose again and sits at the Right Hand of God as a Figure And thus by making Christ without a Figure they have made him a very Cypher Well but tho Whitehead owns Christ's Flesh to be a Figure he storms at it p. 24. l. 25. when we affirm that he should say Christ's Flesh is but a Figure George we have not that Book at present by us we 'll let that go as it will we are sure W. Pen speaks plain enough in his Sandy Foundation p. 26. Christ is but our Example And again ibid. He 's but our Pattern And Whitehead owns Figure and Pattern are the same thing viz. synonymous p. 24. l. 33. But thou mayest say this is by consequence only because Pen says but an Example therefore he must say but a Figure Tho this consequence sufficiently affects G. Whitehead who says Figure and Pattern are all one yet see a little further Pen says plainly Câ—râ—stian Quaker p. 97. The Paschal Lamb was not the Figure or Type of the outward Christ but of the Light within of which Christ himself was but a Figure Whitehead doth not deny Truth and In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. â—4 l. â— but Pen hath the very word but there he only denies that was the Quakers Doctrine or that it was his But George was not this also the Doctrine of Hubberthorn and didst not thou stoutly defend the same in Truth defending Quakers as the Gag for Quakers p. 67. l. 8. charges thee to have done And is not that an owning of what Hubberthorn asserted That Christ is but a Figure But to compound the matter supposing the word but be not in thy Truth defending Quakers if thou wilt confess those Expressions of Pen and Hubberthorn were blasphemous we will ask thee pardon for the Mistake contenting our selves to have proved that you have owned him oft to be a Figure of Christ within without the word but for then he must be either the Figure of himself or of another Christ within or only of some Graces and Influences Christ sheds in our Hearts which are figuratively Christ All which are Absurdities too gross for any but a Quaker that would also advance Christ within to be that Principal and render Christ without as a Shadow only Brief Discovery p.
for Conscience sake out of regard to the Command of your Lord and Master Christ who have made Obedience to Magistrates a part of his Religion and therefore herein they rebel not only against the Law of the Land but against the Law of Jesus whom they pretend to be their King and only Ruler But King and Parliament can make no Collars for the Necks of Quakers they are established contrary to all Men and to any outward Authority they cannot seek but to the Lord alone though now they can creep and cringe to Parliaments as well as any other The next Citation is from George Fox who p. 31 of his Great Mystery saith That the Quakers are in the Power of God and in the Authority of the Lamb above all Houses and into Houses creep nor but are upon the Throne Not standing about the Throne as Angels do those daily Attendants on the King of Glory but they are upon the Throne as well as Christ and who knows but ere long they may croud him out and reign alone But this saith George Whitehead “ is no doubt meant Spiritually not Literally Then the Sense must be this they are above all Spiritual Houses and into Spiritual Houses creep not for they are upon a Spiritual Throne for otherwise their being upon a Spiritual Throne can be no reason why they should not creep into Material Houses for all Quakers as Whitehead here owns are upon a Spiritual Throne and yet can nestle into these Material Houses and some very fine ones too We are therefore afraid George thy Brother Fox had a farther design even at these Material and Earthly Thrones But says Whitehead p. 29. l. 9. He must mean Spiritually for they are not upon an Outward Throne No God be thanked for it but Burroughes in a Declaration tells us They are the right Heirs to it 't is their Right of Inheritance they are Kings de See the Declaration in the Brief Discovery p. 22. Jure though not de Facto 't is their Heirship to possess the utmost parts of the Earth and doubt not ere long to tumble down the Usurpers out of their Thrones though at present they must bear 'T is true the Scriptures every where encourage the Servants of God to persevere in their Christian Course with the hopes of a Crown and Kingdom but the time of their Reign is not yet come they are not already upon the Throne but Quakers it seems are and therefore it must be a different one from that promised by God hereafter to the Saints As an evidence of the truth of what George Fox said Whitehead quotes Job 36. 7. with Kings are they viz. the Righteous on the Throne and are exalted but George's are Kings upon a Spiritual Throne and is not this Text then cited very pertinently to prove Quakers upon a Spiritual Throne The truth is they cannot stay for the promised Kingdom after Death Kings they must be presently and a Throne they must now possess but whether Eternal Spiritual Material or Figurative they know not so * His Letter is at the end of the Snake Coale tells George Fox He was a King and ruled in Righteousness and of his Kingdom there was no end But Eâ—ihu going upon this Principle That God could not be so severe to them that were dear to him insinuates that Job must be a Hypocrite for God uses to exalt his Friends and true Servants unto Thrones and not throw them upon Dunghils he makes them even Companions for Kings and by way of Hyperbole says they set them upon the Throne with them the expression is Figurative for 't is not said they are Kings upon the Throne but on the Throne with Kings meaning in short no more than what 's express'd in the close of the verse they are exalted and honoured even by Kings though we do not remember Quakers ever so honoured by any save by the late King some of them being admitted though not to sit with him on 's Throne yet in his Closet and lean too much on his Bosom Brief Discovery p. 15. quotes Truth defending the Quakers p. 9 10. wrote by Whitehead and George Fox Jun. who being ask'd whether they did not say That the Magistrate who made Acts of Parliament and doth not receive them from God as Moses doth act contrary to the Law of God They answered The Magistrate that is sent of God he receives the Law from the Mouth of God and he is the Prophet whom Moses spoke of Deut. 18. 58. An Answer notoriously shuffling The Question being whether the Magistrate that is sent of God receives the Law from God as Moses The answer is if sent of God he receives the Law from the Mouth of God but does not say as Moses No doubt thou wer 't sensible George that the Laws of Magistrates are not accompanied with those Appearances of Terrour and Amazement which Moses's Laws were and therefore as Moses must be drop'd Well George we will abate thee the thick Cloud the Thunder and Lightning the Smoak and the Tempest Exod. 19. with which Moses's Law was attended Must every Law of the Magistrate be from the Mouth of the Lord as Moses's was or else he that made it is not sent of God then every Law of the Magistrates even that for burying in Woollen may be prefac'd God spake these Words as well as the Ten Commandments or else the Magistrates that make them are not sent of God And thâ—â— all the Magistrates in the World are exaucthorated by a dash of Whitehead's Pen who made Laws which came not from the Mouth of God as the Ten Commandments did Our Magna Charta and other Statute Laws may oblige us surely to Obedience tho not of equal Authority to our Bibles But Whitehead complains the last Words are mis-quoted instead of he is the Prophet it should be he hears the Prophet whom Moses spoke of We had the Book it self when we wrote the Quotation tho now it be out of our hands and can't but wonder that three of us together should be so dimsighted as not to discern he is from he hears Howsoever George the Objection we make is thou seest strong enough without any support from that Passage We desire therefore thy clear and positive Answer whether the Magistrate be sent of God who makes Laws and yet does not receive them from God as Moses This is what was objected against thee and thy Companion Fox Jun. that you had affirmed formerly and tho Friends may be satisfied yet do not believe that wise Men will think thou hast conquered the Objection as the French use to conquer our Fleet by running away from it There is a bloody Charge laid against George Fox in the Brief Discovery p. 16. where out of his Book called several Papers given forth to Presbyterians c. just before the Restoration of King Charles II. these Passages are cited Friends to all you that desire an Earthly King in England c.