Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
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A45353
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An account of familism as it is revived and propagated by the Quakers shewing the dangerousness of their tenets, and their inconsistency with the principles of common reason and the declarations of Holy Scripture / by Henry Hallywell.
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Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?
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1673
(1673)
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Wing H458; ESTC R25413
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52,525
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144
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Had God commanded every day of our Lives to be wholly devoted to him it had been but Reason and Equity and since that out of regard to our Weakness and that condition of Mortality wherein he has placed us he requires but one day in a week to be more especially set apart for his Service it were most irrational not to give him that Besides our merciful Lord has a regard in this Commandment even to the Beasts themselves as a part of his Creation which surely are not to be worse used now under the Gospel than under the Law but have as much reason to be rested on the Sabbath day now as they had then 3. Since that this is reasonable what fitter day can we pitch upon than the first day of the week on which our blessed Saviour Jesus arose from the dead For if the Jews together with the Commemoration of the Creation of the World wherein God having perfected all his works rested on the seventh day did likewise keep holy that day with respect to their deliverance from the Tyranny of Pharaoh How much greater reason have we to solemnize the Christian Sabbath with them indeed to celebrate the Goodness Wisedom and Power of God in making of all things in remembring the glorious Resurrection of the Son of God wherein he rose as a triumphant Conquerour from his bed of Darkness after he had dis-mantled the Prisons of Hell and the Grave and wrought a mighty Salvation for Mankind 4. That as God did then so Christ having transmitted his Power to them the Apostles and succeeding Church of God now may very reasonably dispose of us in matters of this nature and direct all its Members into some uniform way at such set times of the Worship of God And that they have done so appears both by some mentions of the Lords day in the Holy Scriptures and by the constant suffrage of the Fathers of the Church since that time which is a sufficient Obligation on all Christians to a due constant and diligent Observation of the Christian Sabbath Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day And lest any man shall say that this Command was given by Moses and so at an end and therefore that Christians are not bound by it Let him take this for an Answer and consider it well and then he will see there is no weight in the Objection and so will not be moved when by impertinent cavilling Fellows 't is urged upon him I say therefore first That every one of the ten Commandments is moral and for that very reason binds all Christians still and therefore the Church of England though these rebellious Quakers disown their Mother hath made them a part of her Liturgy and all good people teach them to their Children in their Catechisms as knowing that all Christians are to give obedience to them under the Gospel Secondly our blessed Saviour says Matth. 5. 17. that he came not to dissolve the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil Think not says he that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets that is to take away the Obligation of that Rule of the Duty of Man to God and his Neighbour given first by Moses and afterwards repeated and inculcated by the Prophets but to fulfil them that is to supply accomplish and perfect those Rules and Doctrins of just and unjust conteined in them by a more ample Interpretation and other Improvement befitting the state of the Gospel And if as these Familists persuade their unwary Proselytes to fulfil were to put an end to a thing the sense must be thus that Christ came not to destroy that is to put an end to the Law but to put an end to it But who can imagine without Blasphemy our blessed Saviour would be guilty of such an absurd speech Now if it shall be asked why then Christ did not improve the fourth Commandment touching the keeping holy of the Sabbath it is answered That this was already strictly observed among the Jews even unto Superstition and therefore there needed rather a Relaxation than an Addition to this Commandment For whereas the Jews on that day would not so much as kindle a Fire or dress the Meat they should eat or carry any Burden or take a Journey and hence accuse our Saviour for healing on the Sabbath and his Disciples for plucking the ears of Corn Jesus tells them that The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath intimating that Works of Necessity and Mercy may lawfully be done on the Sabbath though not the Works of a mans ordinary Trade and Employment SECT II. Almighty God having given the whole Earth to Man for his Habitation common Reason and Justice require that Man should sanctisie and separate some peculiar place for the Service and Worship of his great Creator And accordingly we find in all Ages of the world and by all Persons professing any Religion at all some particular and set places appointed to invocate and worship the supreme Deity Among the Jews God had his Temple whither all the Tribes went up to worship And in Prophane Histories we read of Temples dedicated to the Use and Service of some Supreme Deity From whence it appears that the very Law of Nature commands to fix and set apart a place for the Service of God And God will have this of us too that as he hath reserved a portion of the Time of our Life for the celebration of his Honour so hath he also reserved a Portion out of the Place of our Residence Therefore in Ezek. 45. God commands the children of Israel and in them all the Nations of the World that when they come to inhabit the Land he gives them they must divide it into three Parts one for the People another for the King but the first for God himself But and if it shall be said that this was a Command under the Levitical Law and so not obligatory to us Christians who live not under that Law It must be remembred that though God commanded a House and Place for his Service to be built and set apart yet all Mankind were tied to the same Duty by a Law more Antient than that of Moses even by the very Law of Nature which lays a perpetual and indispensable Injunction upon all men that God have his Place of Worship and as it were Residence among them that they might live in a continual Dependence upon him and remember that that they receive the very Places of their Abode and Habitation from his Gift and Benevolence And it was some hundreds of years before the Law of Moses was given that Jacob when he was poor and had not wherewithal to build God an House yet consecrated a Portion of Ground by erecting a Stone and pouring oil on the head thereof calling the Place Bethel that is The House of God and vowed to build it when God should bless and make him able to do it Gen. 28. 22. So that
great deal of poison I shall therefore for the sake of the Ignorant and such as lie most obnoxious to their snares discover the Cheat. To omit that this Expression Several Ministrations before and after the Law by Moses and after by John Baptist and Christ and his Apostles can scarce be made tolerable sense a fault pardonable enough in Mechanics and the Brethren of the Family but a notorious instance of their Hypocrisie in pretending immediate Inspiration from the Spirit when they write nonsense In the Discourse such as it is we learn these three things 1. That the Ministration of Christ was but a temporary Ministration to continue only till the Dispensation of the Spirit came and therefore was disliked and rejected of God as wanting that full Measure Rule and Power of the Spirit which should afterwards come into the world Whereas the Ministration of Christ was indeed the Ministration of the Spirit and therefore to set up a Dispensation of the Spirit above and in opposition to that of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel is a blasphemous derogation from the honour of our blessed Saviour who said to his Apostles Joh. 16. 14. He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you 2. It follows from the forementioned passage that the Spirit of God equally moves and acts in them as it did in the Apostles therefore say they As the Apostles were commanded to wait at Jerusalem for the gracious illapse and descent of the Holy Spirit so they and this signifies to them both what and when to speak But will any sober person believe that a Quaking Speaker is divinely inspired when he commits endless Tautologies and vain repetitions and makes inconsequent illations and especially when the greatest part of his Harangue shall be downright railing Shall the eternal Spirit of Wisedom and Reason be guilty of nonsense and absurdities 3. It will follow that what they speak or write must be as good Canonical Scripture as the Bible and we are as much bound to believe George Fox and James Nailor as S. Paul and S. Peter I shall instance but in one Quaker more to prove this first part of their Doctrin all one with Familism and that shall be out of Humphrey Smith's Discourse of the three Ministrations of Moses Christ and the Spirit If Moses says he with all his Priests Tythes and long Prayers were now upon earth and Christ in his own body with his Miracles Baptism and Supper then whether those obey not Moses who leave the Priests and come to Christ And whether such when they are come to Christ should always be looking and following after his Body Miracles Baptism or Supper without them or tarry and wait to receive the Spirit within them And then which of these now should all people that profess Christ be led by in these days either Moses or the Person of Christ or the Spirit of Truth There is no sober Christian that can read this passage without anger and disdain to see such wicked wretches scoff and flearingly insult upon the sacred Person of our Lord Jesus the whole History of whose blessed Life and Death in the Letter of it they esteem no better than one of Esop's Fables Again the same Person hath this Whether they be not compassed about with a cloud of error who are upholding that Ministry of the Law which Christ is the end of and likewise such as are upholding and keeping up that which Christ said he had finished And being that Moses nor indeed his true Ministers of the Law are upon Earth neither the body of Christ which by the Professors was murdered at Jerusalem visibly to be seen upon earth then what was it these have to follow who have not received the Spirit to be led by Here again the Personal Offices of the blessed Jesus are laid aside SECT II. The second thing wherein the Familists and Quakers are all one is the Pretence of immediate Revelation David George and H. N. both pretended to receive their Doctrin from the Angel Gabriel And Wil. Gibson the Quaker says that the Gospel which they preach they have not received it from men nor from books nor from writings but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in them and then he goes on and denies the Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be the revealed Will of God There are two things especially by which our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles demonstrated the Truth of their Doctrin 1. The Miracles which they did And these were so many infallible Seals and Marks of the Divinity of the Doctrin they communicated to the World that God was the Author of it For there can be no surer evidence of any thing being delivered from heaven than when a man in favour of it is enabled to work Miracles And this was the sign which Moses gave the children of Israel when they asked how they should know the word which God has not spoken Deut. 18. 22. When a Prophet speaks in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is if he do no Miracle that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken 2. The Reasonableness of the Doctrin which they delivered To this S. Peter seems to appeal 2 Pet. 3. 15. when he bids us be ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us Now let us examin a little the Doctrin of these Modern Familists or Quakers by these two foregoing Rules they pretend Divine Revelation and would fain have the World believe that they are divinely inspired but is any man so simple as to believe they are so merely because they say it so a man may believe all the Cheats and Impostors in the World What sign do they shew or what evidence do they bring that they have received their Doctrin immediately from God If they can work any Miracles to confirm it we will believe them otherwise we have no more faith to believe them than we have to believe that Mahomet discoursed with the Angel Gabriel and received his Alchoran from him As for the Reasonableness of their Doctrin a very easie and mean capacity can find none in it for how should there be any Reason in what they teach when they themselves deny the use of Reason and tell the world they are guided by a Light within them that is neither Reason nor Conscience which yet is but like a dark Lanthorn that gives light to none but themselves And besides by this Principle it is impossible they should ever convince any man that is not merely besotted As for Example the Quakers Light says that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is needless but the Light within me tells me it is not And is not my Light as good as his nay much better for I have the warrant of Christ and his Apostles but he has only his own bare blind Fansie And the man