death as their Ancestors have done Reason 16. What reasonable man would turn Quaker that seeth the common fruit of their Doctrine What good do they where they come but make people hare both godly Teachers and people whom they loved and doubtless Love is Christs work and Sheep-mark and envy strife and hatred is the Devils They break people into Divisions and set them a reviling and cast their spirite into a malicious mould and tincture of bitterness and bring in confusion and abominable error And to say that this wisdom is from above is to glory and lye against the truth No it it earthly sensual devilish For the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated c. Jam. 3. 13 14 15 17. The fruit of their labour is to make some silly professors turn Malignant enemies of the Church and to shew themselves humble to cast off some points or lace and wander about the Country and at last many of them fall into distraction Reason 17. And it s no great encouragement to us to turn Quaâ—ers when we consider who are their followers and society that make all this ado in the world Very few experienced humble soâ—er Christians that ever I heard of that turn to them but its the young raw professors and women and ignorant ungrounded people that were but novices and learners in the principles and such as are notorious for self-conceitedness and pride being wise in their own eyes And most of all these that ever I heard of were Anabaptists or the members of some such Sect that by their division and errour were prepared before Reason 18. So that t is an evident judgement of God upon those people that turn Quakers and a punishment for their former sin Because they received not the truth in the love of it that they might be saved God giveth them up to believe a lye 2 Thes. 2. 10 11. Because they were false to the light revealed and unprofitable under precious helps and proudly disobeyed and slighted their faithful guides God giveth them up as a prey to these devourers And who would choose that for his Religion which is nothing but a dreadful judgement of God upon proud dividing self-conceited ignorant men especially of the Anabaptists Reason 19. They are already in Divisions among themselves as few as they are As the contention between Naylor and his followers and Fox and his followers and others of them shew Reason 20. And to make all their delusion a more odious wickedness they father it upon the holy Ghost and would perswade the world that they speak all their most wicked speeches by his inspiration or command and say Thus saith the Lord and the Spirit of God within me saith thus or thus O horrible impiety when they dishonour the very Word of God the Righteousness yea the â—erson of Christ they say God bids them do it and indite all as from the Spirit of the Lord when they speak against the Doctrine of the Spirit They cry down the union and love of the Saints and the Ministers and Ordinances of Christ and say the Spirit bids them do it When they pronounce damnation against Gods Church or holy servants to whom Christ hath promised salvation and the Spirit sealed it yet do they prophanely make the Holy Ghost the author of their wickedness I think there 's not a whore or thief or swearer in the Town or Country but might as justly say The Holy Ghost commandeth them to whore or steal or swear Yea when some of them preach another Gospel they father it on the Spirit when Paul saith If an Angel from heaven preach other Gospel then had been preached he should be accursed Gal. 18. Reason 21. The Quakers themselves renounce in words the Ranters and the Papists as a deluded sort But the Ranters and Papists hold the substance or greatest part of the Quakers Doctrine in which they differ from us Yea the Ranters did fall into trances as they do and spoke just as they against the Ministry and Scripture Yea the Drunkards and all Prophane ungodly Malignants cry out against the same Ministers and same exercises and ordinances and same Churches and godly people as the Quakers do Now let any man judge that hath not forsworn all wit and reason whether it be likely that the Holy Ghost would inspire a generation of new Prophets to acquaint them with the same points which Ranters Papists and Drunkards knew before and could have taught them without the Spirit Or whether the same point be Heavenly in a Quaker and Hellish in a Ranter Papist or Drunkard And whether the Quakers have not condemned themselves in condemning these sects that hold their opinions And whether it be likelyer that Ranters Drunkards and all Malignants or the holy and faithful Ministers and people of Christ should in these points be in the right Reason 22. And if I had any cause to be weary of the Christian Catholick Reformed Religion what reason have I to turn Quaker any more then to any other sect why not to the sect of Papists as well or to the Anabaptists or the Antinomians or Libertines or Familists or Socinians or such like How do they prove that they are more in the right then all these What do they bring to satisfie a wise man that they only among all these and many other sects are in the right Reason 23. Moreover the way by which they prevail is not by producing any evidence For they renounce that and offer you all on the Authority of the Spirit within them and therefore they must prove that Authority and their Revelations and Divine Mission by Miracles or such supernatural means before any reasonable man can believe them Unless you will believe every man that saith he is sent of God I have askt them to shew their Commission from God or prove that he sent them and not one of them would ever do it but tell me I was blind and he had the witness in himself But why must I believe him that saith this more then other men Can I see the witness in him He must be a witness to me if he will have credit The Ministers of Christ do not call you to receive their Doctrine upon the Authority of themselves or their own Mission but of the Apostles and their Mission from whom they prove they had it and who sealed it with Miracles long ago And therefore whether we were Ministers or no you have reason to believe us when we prove our Doctrine to be from God as delivered by Apostles in Scripture and Sealed by the Spirit But Quakers that give us their Doctrine on a new Authority within them and so Behmenists Paraceisians and all Enthusiasts and Papists that give it us on their own Authority as above or before the Scripture Authority these are bound to prove their pretended Authority by Miracles if they will be believed by wise men that love their salvation And we see that it is by the Novelty and the seriousness and earnestness of speech and threatning Hell to poor people that frightneth-in their followers to them and not by evidence of truth I have urged many of them to name one truth which the Quakers held but what we hold as well as they and I could never yet hear of any one Reason 24. Lastly they teach but such like Doctrines and take the like course as many of the antient Hereticks did of whom Epiphanius Irenaeus and other Antients will give you a full account Presently after the Apostles daies just such Hereticks as these arose and troubled the Church And they brought themselves to shame by their wickedness folly and division and God was still against them and brought them to confusion And so all along through most ages have they sped even down to the David-Georgians Wegelians Familists aad the like of late And shall we play an old game as if it were a new one where all have sped so ill before And shall we run our selves into the fire which hath consumed such Heresies through former ages To conclude as I am sure it is not an unwillingness to be informed but the knowledge of their gross deceits that hath caused me to oppose the Quakers So I beseech all young and raw Professors to consider impartially of these 24 REASONS and withall to bethink themselves 1. What a doleful case it is that Professors of Religion should be so ignorant loose and unstable and God and his word should have no more hold of them but that any confident sect that riseth up shall presently carry them away even with non-sense or that which a child might see through O what a shame is this to your profession 2. What an heavy judgement is it to your selves to be self-condemned and self-divided from the Church Tit. 3. 10 11. and carried away as chaff with every wind of Doctrine Ephes. 4. 14. and to prove rotten in a day of tryal Know you not that Heresies must arise that those that are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. 3. Would you not turn Jews and Infidels and renounce Christ himself if you had but some body to â—ry you It s most likely that you would For an Infidel can put a far greater shew of reason upon his cause in opposing Christ then these Quakers have yet put on theirs Well Sirs as ever you would stand fast and be saved 1. See that you be serious Christians and true to the light received and prepare not by unholy hearts and lives to be forsaken of God 2. Stick close to the Word of God 3. And to a faithful Ministry and obey their Doctrine 4. And to the Unity and Catholick Peace of the Church 5. And to the communion of Saints 6. And to the Spirit which still concur's with these Sept. 5. 1657. FINIS
One Sheet against the QUAKERS By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Book-seller in Kederminster Anno Dom. 1657. One Sheet against the QUAKERS THE lamentable ignorance and ungodliness of too many of the common people and the pride and self-conceitedness of many Professors of godlyness and the weakness unsettledness and giddiness of others doth give advantage to all sorts of Hereticks and Deceivers to make their attempts with hope of success And to our wonder grief and shame we see that scarce any of them are so grosly unreasonable and vile but they get some followers in most places where they come And when this wind ariseth to try our Congregations and neighbours the light unstable chassie Professors are carried away And though one sect have carried away some of them and another hath risen and condemned that and carried away more and another and another have done the like by them yet still the next sect that riseth up is as confident that they are in the right and as zealously vent their own conceits and condemn all others as if they had never been warned by the examples of so many before them whose confidence hath left them in contempt like Prognosticators Wizards and false Prophets that will be bold to prophesie of uncertain events though so many of their predecessors have lest their names to the derision of posterity We cannot wonder therefore if among other sects the Quakers with their German Brethren the Paracelsians Behmenists and Seekers do step in and take their turns in the game who will come down with greater shame then most that have gone before them when they have plaid their part The man that will stand safe and look on the folly and misery of all these sects with prudence to his own advantage must be A sincere Cathoâ—â—ck Christian saved from Infidelity and Impiety Having one God one Mediator between God and man one holy Spirit being a member of that one Catholick Church which is not confined to the sect of Papists or the sect of Anabaptists or any sect but containeth all the true Christians in the world though some parts of it be Reformed and pure and others more deformed and corrupt having one Catholick Rule the Word of God and a Catholick Love to all Christians in the world with a care and desire of their welfare proportionable to their several degrees of loveliness Being my self a member of this Catholick Church and finding my self on the Rock which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the security of my station encourageth me the more boldly to do my part in defending the cause of God against the assaults of all these deluded ones and particularly the Quakers And if any man find in himself the least temptation to like of their way I shall here give him those Reasons in a little room that move me to conceive that no Christian or reasonable man should be a Quaker or approve of or excuse their way Reason 1. The Quakers with the Seekers deny and revile the Church and Ministers of Christ and yet cannot tell us of any Church or Ministry which is indeed the right and to be preferred before these that they do despise If the Quakers are of no Church themselves they are no Christians and then they are Infidels Atheists or Heathens If they be of the Church let them tell us which is the Church that they are of They renounce the Church that we are of and that is the only Church on earth containing all true believers in Christ They have not told us of any sect but their own which they take to be the true Church And he that takes the Quakers to be the only Catholick Church must deny the Church and Christ himself if he understand what he saith For the Quakers are but of a few years standing They rose from among the Papists Seekers Ranters and Anabaptists but a while ago And if Christ had not a Catholick Church before then and ever since his Ascension he ceased to be Christ in Office the Head and Saviour of the Church For no Church no Saviour No body no Head No School no Teacher No Kingdom no King No Wife no Husband So that its all one to say that the Quakers have made a new Catholick Church when there was none before and to say they have made a new Christ where was no Christ before This Argument the Papists abuse upon false suppositions but it is only the Catholick that can make just advantage of it and may better ask the Papists Where was your Roman Catholick Church before 400. or 500. or 600. years after Christ then they can ask us Where was your Church before Luther Where there were visible Societies of Christians there was a visible Church I dare not be of so narrow a Catholick Church as the Papal is much less as the Quakers or any upstart sect I profess my self a member of a far wider Catholick Church then all of them set together in which I hope to live and die Reason 2. No wise man can be a Quaker because their Religion is an uncertain thing And so is not that Religion that must save us The things that they agree in besides the furious opposition of others are but a few broken scraps of Doctrine which they never yet set together as making the substance of their faith I never met with man that heard of any sum or body of their Divinity Faith or Religion which they have published No not so much as in Catechism or short Confession Nor did I ever hear that one of their Speakers did ever recite the substance of their belief If they know not yet the contents of their own Religion they are too blame to be so zealous for it and thrust that upon others which they know not themselves and well may we stay till they know it better before we become their followers for we know not what The Christian faith is known long ago even this 1600 years and more If they say that they wait till the Spirit revealeth it I answer The Spirit hath revealed and sealed the Christian Faith long ago though it must transcribe it out of the Scripture into the heart of every believer The Spirit is not given now to make us a new Religion or new Gospel Gal. 1. 8 9. but to cause us to believe and receive the old one I abhor any Gospel or Religion that was not made 1600. years ago at least If they look for a Spirit to make them a new Religion or belief they have not and expect not the Christian Religion or belief Well and will any but a mad man let go his Christian Faith before he know where to have a better or for he knows not what shall we turn Quakers meerly because they bark and bawl at our Religion Ministry and Church before they once tell us where to find a better or give us so much as a Catechism or Confession to tell us
will not be beholden to thee for the patdon of any more sin or for the blood of Christ to that end They will not say Forgive us our trespasses For what need they a Christ and pardon that have no sin And thus they suppose themselves to be in heaven already For if they are perfect and sinless what 's that but a great part of heaven and how is it that they have not the beatifical vision and be not with the Angels for what can hinder them but sin Nay it seems they take themselves to be as perfect as Christ himself For what can they have more then a sinless perfection And see here what an unhumbled people these are that dare think so highly of themselves and how shameless to boast of finless perfection even with railing and other sin in their mouths or open in their practices and Doctrine Reason 10. And in this and many other Doctrines they do so openly comply with the Papists that we may plainly see that the Jesuites and Fryers are their Leaders This hath been proved by many Confessions as I have shewed elsewhere The Papists make the Scripture a dead letter no sufficient Rule of faith or Judge of Controversies and so do they The Papists cry down our Church and Ministry and so do they The Jesuites cry up free-will and sufficient grace to all and a common sufficient Light and so do they The Papists do extenuate imputed righteousness in setting up inherent and so do they The Papists place most in external abstinence and observances and seeming austerity and so do they The Papists say the Pope is not the Antichrist and so do they The Papists say that they can keep all Gods Commandments and have a sinless perfection and so do they Many other of their Doctrines they maintain So that you may easily conjecture that Quakers do but prepare you to be either Papists or open Infidels at last Reason 11. Their Doctrines are self-contradictory and therefore they cannot be of God They say that all men have a sufficient light within them And yet they go up and down preaching with great zeal and violence And what do they preach is it light or darkness If darkness who would have such Preachers If light what needless labour is this when all men have sufficient Light already And they will revile the Ministers as blind guides and tell their people they are all in darkness and the way to damnation And yet all have sufficient Light within them If all why not the Ministers and their people Are not they men Reason 12. Consider also how suitable their Doctrine is to the Interest and Pleasure both of the Papists and the Devil When they damn all the Ministers and Churches of Christ how can they please the Devil better O what would he give them that this were but true Now the Kings of France and Spain are striving for part of Italy or Flanders if you say This Countrey is all the King of Spains and none of it the Kings of France is not this for the interest of Spain So Christ and the Devil are striving about the souls of men and you step in and say of almost all the Church of Christ yea of the most eminent godly Christians all these are hypocrites and the children of the Devil is not this for the Devils interest and are you not the Patrons of his cause against Christ And if you do but unchurch all the Reformed Churches the Papists will give you a see Reason 13. The Doctrine and practice of the Quakers is contrary to the experience and holy nature of the Saints They have found a renewing light and life by this Scripture and Ministry which the Quakers make so light of They tell our people that our Ministry doth no good and none are the better for it which the experience of many thousands doth confute who can say as the man in John 9. 25. One thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see Moreover the Christians nature containeth in it a Catholick Love to all the Saints and they honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. And therefore it is quite against their holy nature to damn and reproach the Saints and call them the children of the Devil and to dishonour and spit in the faces of them that are their fathers or guides in Christ that watch for their souls as men that must give an account 1 Thes. 5. 12. Heb. 13. 17. They cannot be so barbarously ungrateful and so rebellious Reason 14. The Quakers are unlikely to be better then other men seeing they are so notoriously Proud Pride is an high esteem of our selves with a desire to be highly esteemed by others And this they manifest openly without all shame some may take them to be humble that judge by their cloaths and crying down high titles But alas it is a childish Pride to be Proud of fine cloathes This is too low a game for them to play The greater the matter is that men are proud of usually the greater is their pride It is the supposed Spirit of God and extraordinary holiness and inspiration and abilities that they are Proud of Do you need any proof How could the Devil himself shew Pride more notoriously when they proclaim themselves perfect without sin can they yet think highlier of themselves or speak highlier of themselves then this What is proud boasting if this be not And when they pretend to know mens hearts which is the prerogative of God and to speak by inspiration when they condemn almost all the Church of God and vilifie the holyest of his people as if they should say Stand by we are more holy then you you are all ungodly in comparison of us When they revile the ablest godly Ministers as if they said Come down thou deceiver thou ignorant man thou hypocrite thou dog and let us be the Speakers that can do it far better then thou that are more understanding holy self-denying and sincere Is not one half of this their ordinary speech and the other half their practice when they set up themselves to speak in the stead of Ministers yea and proclaim their own goodness to the world I confess I never saw greater appearance of Pride in men Reason 15. They plainly discover a persenting spirit For what man can in reason think but that they that run up and down the world to bring the Ministry into hatred and call them greedy dogs and Devils and judge them to damnation and call on the Magistrates and people to cast them out as dung would quickly use them thus themselves if it were in their power Will they perswade others with such exceeding pains and zeal to that which they would not do themselves And they that so damn our godly hearers would not they persecute them also I confess I make no doubt of it but if they had power many of them would do more then silence the ministry even persecute them to