Mr. George Keith's REASONS FOR Renouncing Quakerism And Entring into COMMUNION WITH THE Church of England WITH Other Remarkable Occurrences that will be Acceptable to all Orthodox Christians of every Persuasion LONDON Printed and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1700. Mr. George Keith 's REASONS FOR Renouncing Quakerism c. BY vertue of an Evangelical Precept it is an incumbent Duty on every Convert to endeavour the strengthening of his Brethren in the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and to Reduce all those that by any indirect Offices or for want of regular Instructions have wandered out of the strait ways of Peace Truth and Holiness into the crooked Mazes of Sin Schism and Heresie to the hazard of their eternal Interests How much I have concerned my self in the Discharge of this Duty is legible to all that have either had the Justice or Curiosity to inform themselves about it for as soon as it pleased God to open the Eyes of my Understanding and shew me the Error of my own ways I industriously set my self upon the good Work of Reclaiming others and have cause to bless his holy Name that I have not altogether laboured in vain but have been an Instrument in the Hand of God to convince some of the necessity they were under of â—enouncing their Errors and Delusions and returnâ—â—g to the Lord their God in Truth and Sincerity In this attempt it is notoriously known also what Injuries Contempts Slanders and ill Usages I have encountred both beyond Sea and in England from the Quakers with whom I have inoffensively associated above Thirty Years And that for no other Reason but that I endeavoured by all the fair candid and honest ways imaginable to convince them that they lived in many gross Errors and Heresies and that they ought to make some compensation for the Evils and Errors they were guilty of by a speedy return to the Truth as it is in Jesus and by an unfeigned Repentance for all the Evils they had been guilty of in seducing so many well-meaning Souls into Principles and Practices that border upon Death and Destruction It would be altogether needless in this Discourse to enumerate the several steps I made in order to the Conviction and Conversion of the Quakers and to shew all the Arts their Chiefs employ'd to frustrate my good Intentions and to keep up their own Reputations with their Party since I have already published the whole Proceedings â—n Four Narratives to which they have as yet made no satisfactory Answer and therefore shall only now having totally renounced all their Errors deserted their Meetings and by Imposition of Holy Hands entred upon the Ministery in the Church of England answer some Objections and Calumnies that the Quakers have made upon my Change and shew the Reasons for which I left them In both which I hope to acquit my self with so much Justice though I have no hope to stop the Mouths of those clamorous Persons that are become my Enemies for telling them the Truth yet to satisfie all that are honestly and soberly inquisitive into the Motives and Reasons that caused me to leave the Society of the Quakers and embrace the Doctrine and Discipline of thâ— Church of Englaâ—d The first quarrel that of late they seemed to have against me was that in exposing their Principles in publick Audiences and in my Printed Narratives I had dealt unjustly and this false Report they have been exceedingly industrious to divulge not only to possess them of their own Way but any others they could influence into an ill Opinion of me for falsly quoting their Authors and thereupon without any kind of Proof call me Lyar False and Treacherous Man Deceitful and Malicious all which Names return upon themselves since I have printed a Certificate in my third Narrative under the Hands of some eminent and judicious Ministers of the Church of England whom I procured to hear and examine all my Quotations that fully vindicates my Innocency in that particular which being well considered I have reason to expect a more favourable Censure in relation to their other Calumny viz. That the ground of my Contests with the Quakers was out of meer Prejudice and Revenge arising from their ill treatment of me and not out of Zeal and Love to the Truth of Christianity whereas nothing could be suggested more False and Scandalous for the only motive that I had to oppose the spreading Gangrene of their vile Errors which have already leavened many Thousands in these Nations and if not prevented will corrupt many more was purely out of Zeal for the Cause of God and his true Religion and not out of any private Pique I had with any of them of which as I have given no Evidence so my Conscience bears witness to my Innocency Seeing then my Charges are just against them as is proved in all my Narratives and their Clamours and Accusations against me are wholly false and scandalous the Crime will be laid at their own Door in calling Names and I shall bear their Revilings with greater Patience since 't is universally known that this is the way they commonly treat all Persons how Innocent and well-deserving so ever that touch them in the tender part and oppose their Errors so that the Proverb may be fitly applied to them That their Tongue is no Slander But the great Argument that they make of my Insincerity is my having been formerly so long among them and yet never till of late pretended to know that they held such gross Errors as I now accuse them of That I have been a Quaker long I acknowledge and am of Opinion that none are sorry that I was so once but they that are angry that I did not continue so always let them make what Reflexions they please upon my Weakness and want of Consideration in continuing among a Society of People whose Principles I was so much a stranger to I confess my Weakness and am ashamed to think that I have been so long deceived by them but yet this is no impeachment of my Sincerity unless knowing them Guilty I had connived at it flattered them in it or dâ—fended their Errors contrary to my Conviction or against the Light of my own Conscience had encouraged them to Perseverance But in this I am no way culpable for though I know some of them were Ignorant and Vnsound I did not dissemble with them or cloak the matter but upon all occasions check'd and reprov'd them as will ere long be shewn in several Instances Yet I was wholly unsensible that either George Whitehead William Penn and many other of their chiefâ—st Teachers had been guilty of these Errors having read but few of their Books and them but slightly too and when I found any thing that I disliked a blind Affection swayed me to an over-charitable Judgment and I imputed lesser Faults rather to their Inadvertency than their deliberate Judgment until they sided with my
Adversaries in Pensilvania and then it grew to Rupture and I withstood them to their Faces Another Objection that they raise against me is That the things which I now call Vile Errors and Heresies in them I had formerly Defended and declared that in so doing I had a Divine Sense and Acceptance to which I answer First by utterly denying that ever I defended them in those Vile Errors which oppose the four great Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion which I have since charged them with or indeed any other Article of the Christian Faith properly so called or distinguished Those things wherein I defended them were only stating the Matter fairly between them and their Opponents in several Cases wherein I thought them unduly charged partly in the undue Use and Application of places of Scripture to prove certain Truths and partly in too much aggravating and widening through my too great Heat and preposterous Zeal and being too Biggotly affected though ignorantly to that Party who call all others Sects and Sectaries and themselves the Church yet are certainly more Biggoted into a Sect and more implicitely led by Sect-Masters than any People in Christendom that I know of And lastly I have acknowledged and lamented my Sinful Ignorance and Rashness in my former opposing any Divine Institution or reflecting in my Books upon any particular Persons or Religious Societies And to argue a little with my Adversaries who object That I have formerly defended the Quakers Principles I would fain know what Principles they mean Whether they relate to the Fundamentals of Religion if so let them name them that I may give the World Satisfaction by confessing my Fault or justifie my self where I am falsly accused And if through Humane Infirmity Weakness or Ignorance for humanum est Errari Labi Decipi I have misunderstood any thing which by a more diligent Examination and Application to the Holy Scriptures I have discoverd afterwards to be a misapprehension this will be no proof of my Insincerity or that I am an Apostate gone from all Divine Sense and Tenderness lost my good Condition without any inward Feeling for these are the lovely Epithets they bestow upon me But are not these Qaakers uncharitable Men Can a mistake in some things render a Man Universally mistaken in all things Because some are beguiled with Shews and Shadows of Reason Is there therefore no such thing as true and sound Reason in the World Because St. Paul once thought he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus must his Conversion be call'd an Argument of his Insincerity Must he be thought an unsound Christian because he was once a Jew and continue a Persecutor and a Blind leader of the Blind for fear of being call'd an Apostate from the Principles which he imbibed in the days of Ignorance Away with these ridiculous Notions which are but the Evasions Quiblings and Shiftings of the Party which by muddying the Water hope to escape undetected Why will they not be try'd by their own Rule and allow that Liberty to others that they exercise among themselves Have not some of the most Eminent among them been egregiously deceived and taken their Fanciful Imaginations for Divine Lights Their Consciences will tell them what particular Persons of great Note among them I could name that have been scandalously mistaken by their own Confession and took things upon Trust for Divine Breathings that upon better Examination proved to be Infamovs Delusions Did not some of the most celebrated Quakers nay even their Preachers follow the Blasphemous Enthusiastick Delusions and Waking Dreams of James Naylor and John Perrot Was it not one of their great Preachers Samuel Cater by Name now living that lead James Naylor's Horse by the Bridle when he Rid Triumphantly into Bristol Was that a Divine Sense in George Fox who said his Marriage with Widow Fell was a Figure of the Church coming out of the Wilderness and that the Figure might be compleat those that credited that Deceit concluded her to be with Child though she was past Sixty Years of Age and therefore accounted it Miraculous Other considerable Instances might be given of their extravagantly Wild and Frenetick Delusions than I thank God can be charg'd upon me for notwithstanding all the Mistakes and Errors I lay under yet as to the main I bless God I was preserved But what a sad and scandalous Inference does this way of Arguing cast upon themselves who generally in their Books Father all their Vilest Errors and Heresies upon the Spirit of Truth according to the Notion they have of the Spirit dwelling in them by which means they Hedge up their way and Baricado up themselves against all discoveries and acknowledgments of their Errors because they think they are guided by the Spirit and are sure they possess the Spirit because they think so otherwise by their own arguing they must be Apostates When a Man turns from Error to Truth must he be call'd an Apostate When a Man through humane Infirmity slides into Mistaken Notions without denying or opposing any Article of the Christian Faith can this be call'd Apostacy Surely in the Judgment of any sober and unprejudiced Party it cannot and therefore their censuring me is unchristian as well as uncharitable since I have only renounced the Errors I was tainted with whilst I lived and convers'd among them as for their Herisies I was never I bless God corrupten with them As Idle Impertinent and Vain is their arguing that 't was very unlikely that living thirty years among them I could be Ignorant of their Principles Which is a Fallacy in Terms for as they are a Body of People how could I or any Body else know their Principles when 't is known to all the World they have none and are profess'd Enemies to All Creeds and Confessions of Faith owned by all their Members without which 't is impossible without a Miracle to know what their Principles are for to this day never any Confession of Faith has been universally received by them but some are of one Opinion some of others and what is affirm'd to Day for Truth is denied to Morrow A Weather-Cock is not more variable in its Motion than the Quakers are dexterous in shifting their Opinions through all the parts of the Compass They are now more enraged against me than ever and call me the Epitome and very common place of all their Preceding Adversaries with other vile and abusive Names which is but acting like themselves and spewing out the Venom of their Hearts against me from the Infection of which I pray God preserve me and all Christian People and that if it please God he may give them a Sense of their great Sin of uncharitableness towards me and true Repentance and forgiveness of it who hate me and count me their Enemy for endeavouring to do them good and seeking sincerely to reduce them from their Errors to the Truth the Success of which my sincere
Labour I commit to Almighty God with whom I leave my Righteous Cause and in whose Mercy I trust through Jesus Christ that he will preserve me in Soul and Body from being a Sacrifice to their Fury and Rage I know their way of Extolling themselves as the only People of God discoverers of Truth vilifying all others as unfound and mistaken that have no such high Pretences whilst it 's a crying Sin that so many false Teachers should be suffer'd that speak Lyes in the name of the Lord pretending the same immediate Message and Authority that the true Prophets had when they can give no Proof of it but many undeniable Proofs can be given to the contrary as particularly their Antichristian Errors publish'd in their Books wherein they Lye for Conscience sake and Entitle their Errors and Blasphemies to the holy Spirit of God The last Objection that they raise against â—e is assign'd as a Reason for refusing to dispute with me at Turners's-Hall is That none of the Quakers that are at Unity with them do acknowledge or regard me Now to confute their Allegation and to prove it all of a Piece with the rest of their Suggestions I am obliged to acquaint the Reader That as an Evidence of my owning the Ch. of England to be a Branch of the True Catholick Church of Christ I did with great Inward Peace and Satisfaction I bless God Receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by the Ministry of Dr. Bedford at his Church in Buttolph-Lane London with others of that Congregation the first Lords Day in the Month of February 1699 and since again at the same place by the same Person the first Lords Day in March 1699 and to let the Quakers know that my Example has influenced others the same day Robert Bridgman and Margaret Everard and some other of my Friends which formerly were Quakers and in great Repute among that People whom God in Mercy has lately enlightened to see their former Error and Renounce it did receive the Lord's Supper in Huntington and have declared That they received it with great inward Peace and Satisfaction In a Letter since of a later date I am imform'd That Ten of my Friends in Huntington Godmanchester and thereabouts who were formerly Quakers of good Reputation do all now go to Church there and that Margaret Everard has had her youngest Son and three Daughters baptized lately By Letters from Bedford I have an Account that some that had been Quakers both in that Town and Country are gone off from the Quakers and go to Church particularly W. Maâ—her and his Wife Also at Reading divers who were formerly Quakers and were so Educated have gone to Church and were Baptized and that others have brought their Children to be Baptized Here in London divers of both Sexes who were Educated under the Profession of Quakers have been lately Baptized and go to Church one of whom is my youngest Daughter my Elder having been Baptized above a year ago So that to my certain Knowledge above forty Persons within a few Months past are come off from Quakerism and brought to the Church which gives a good ground to hope that many more will follow Which God in his great Mercy grant and prosper my Sincere tho' mean Indeavours and Labours and other his Servants whom he has made Instrumental in this Work and for the Success he has been pleas'd to give us therein All Glory Honour and Praise be given to his most Holy Name through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen And whereas my Adversaries George Whitehead and other Quaking Preachers have given it as a Reason why they would not meet me at Turner's-Hall was because they know none who had been in Unity with them since I came into England who did own me or were in danger to be brought off from them that Objection to their own Knowledge and full Conviction is now quite removed for both Robert Bridgman and M. Everard besides divers others that might be named were not only in Vnity with them since my Arrival in England but in great Repute among them Robert Bridgman having not only been a Member of their Mens Meeting in London but one that was enâ—rusted with receiving and distributing the Money Collected for their Poor in the City of London Margaret Everard has for many years till very lately been received and well owned as a Speaker among them both in City and Country And it is most certain That the Quakers refusing to meet and dispute with me in Defence of their own Principles at Turner's-Hall has been a great Means to let many of those formerly in Unity with them see their Sandy Foundation and the badness of their Cause and will yet be a further Means to give many others the like Discovery who are dissatisfied with their not appearing either to vindicate their Books and Authors or to acknowledge the great Errors contained in them and to Retract them They are indeed brought to a very Pinching Dilemma for if they dare not appear to answer the change of Error Heresie and even Blasphemy that is brought against them but invent frivolous Discourses to excuse themselves the People will soon perceive their Cause is bad that stands in need of such weak Props to support it One Pretence for their non-appearance was That they might not offend that Authority that had indulged them with Liberty of Conscience and in the mean time make little other use of it than to Rail against that Religion and Church whereof the King himself and the best of his Subjects are Members and to call me and my Friends for owning that Church and coming into Communion with it and Relinquishing the Errors condemned by it Apostates and Runagado's For his Insinuating that 't is Envy increasing in me that has led me into a disturbance of Mind which in its Course resembles the returns of a delirious Affliction and that has caus'd me to give them so much Disquiet I think it not worth an Answer and therefore shall leave it as an Instance of their Scornful Proud and Haughty as well Vncharitable and Vnchristian Tempers They reckon me their Enemy because I tell them the Truth and labour to Rescue them out of the Snares of Satan But since God has been pleas'd to prosper this Work in my Hand both in America and England none of their malicious Insinuations shall be able to stop my Progress in this Duty to contend earnestly for the Faith of Christ which was once delivered to the Saints and which the Quakers labour to Destroy Having thus answered their Objections and being now by Imposition of Holy Hands Ordain'd a Minister of the Church of England that I may not be thought to desert the Quakers out of any Personal Disgust or for Worldly Interest but purely out of the Dissatisfaction of my Conscience because they had forsaken God and Renounced the Principles of Christian Religion And that I durst not on the Peril of my Eternal Salvation