§ 6 contribute a good measure Neverthelâ—ss deâ—th reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come There are two respects wherein at least many of those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression First They did not sin against a revealed Law which Adam did in eating the forbidden fruit and there was no revealed Law or Covenant of life expresly and explicitely given from God after Adam's time before the fall untill Moses Secondly They did not all sin actually and in their own persons as Adam did yet death reigned over Infants who were in respect of actual sin Innocents And by what Law did Infants suffer death if not as they were included in Adam the first man and his offence becoming theirs thereby according to those words 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die so 1 Cor. 15. 22 in Christ shall all be made alive So that if it were not by the imputation of Adam's sin Children or Infants suffered a penalty without all Law which is contrary to the Apostles words Rom. 5. 13. But sin is not imputed when there is no Law But there was a Law then in force viz. the penalty of Adam's sin which by imputation reached to his posterity And in this very respect Adam was the figure of him that was to come viz. Jesus Christ So that if the righteousness of Christ of that one man Christ Jesus be not imputed to justification of all his children by faith or that are considered by God in Christ the whole frame of the Apostle's arguing seems but trifling and to conclude nothing of what it seems to aim at There are four Objections among others I have § 7 met with against the evidence of these Texts to the Doctrine I have vindicated Object 1. Christ was our example and therein did answer to Adam as his figure for sin came into the world by Adam's example and righteousness by Christ's Answ This is an old error and what error so old and rotten that the Quakers will not embrace who live in error as their element The Texts I have quoted have not the least appearance of sin entring the world by example and the Infants over whom death reigned were not capable of sinning by example Object 2. There might be a derivation of § 9 Adam's corrupted nature to all his posterity and so all of them might be guilty of sinfull disposition and habits in their own persons yet by generation from Adam and not by imputation of his sin committed in his own person so the righteousness that justifies may be derived in spiritual regeneration whereby the soul is disposed and enabled to work righteousness by that spiritual life and vigour it receives from him as its root Answ That cannot be the meaning frr then the condemnation spoken of would be by all and every one which though it be true that dispositions to sin are derived from Adam by natural generation and dispositions to holyness by regeneration from Christ yet cannot be the meaning of these Texts for the emphatical word which as upon the hinge the whole argument turns is the word one by one mans offence by the obedience of one whereas if the Objection did hit the meaning the Apostle must rather have said So by all or every mans offence condemnation came upon all But there is no mention of that middle thing mans corrupt disposition to knit condemnation to Adam's sin as a more original and remote cause Also it should then be in or into all and not upon all Object 3. The condemnation that came upon § 10 all and that reigned from Adam to Moses was but tempopal death and what is that to eternal or to bear a prnportion with justification to life spirtual and eternal Answ It is more than you prove or can prove that it was but corporal and temporal death and we can prove that it was the guilt of eternal death if we go no further to fetch the proof than from what is opposed to it in the last verse of the Chapter righteousness to eternal life And temporal death is not remitted or discharged to those who enjoy the benefit of the grace by the second Adam Jesus Christ Object 4. The Apostle James saith what doth it § 11 Jam. 2. 14. opened 21. profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have no works can faith save him Was not Abraham our Father justified by works c. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only To the first Instance in the objection I answer The saying a man hath faith is not sufficient to render him justified or to justifie him Secondly A dogmatical or historical faith cannot justifie or so act on the promise and Covenant as to put us under the imputation of justifying righteousness for such a faith the Devils have and there is a vast difference between believing the History of the Gospel and believing in Christ And this is the dead faith the Apostle speaks of verse 17. To the second instance Abraham's works though they justified his faith yet they did not justifie his § 12 person And the History of his offering up his Son doth give evidence for this Exposition Now I know Gen 22. 12. Jam 2. 18. that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me And I will shew thee my faith by my works To the third Instance which seems to joyn works § 13. with faith in justification that is our works I answer That although justifying faith is not without works yet faith justifies without works as a man cannot have seeing eyes if he have not lungs and heart and brains which are essential to life and the living motion of every member yet the eye only sees and not the lungs or brains c. but if you should pluck the eyes out of the head they would so alone be to little purpose So works are essential to the being of justifying faith yet faith alone is in the act of justitying or so acts on Christ as to justifie the person in the sight of God by cloathing the soul with Christs righteousness And although in the Text it is translated not by faith only it may and I was going to say ought to be translated alone and then the sense is but this That faith which is alone without works doth not justifie a man in the sight of God And I shall give two good Reasons for it The one because it may be so without wrong to the Original Secondly It must be so because it will otherwise contradict the Apostle Paul and the truth also as expressed abundantly in other Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as well signifie alone as only and is very § 14. often so rendred as Joh. 8.
THE Snake in the Grass Further Discovered OR THE QUAKERS No Christians Proving out of their own WRITINGS that they Deny I. The Scriptures to be the Word of God II. Baptism and the Lord's Supper III. The Manhood of Christ c. With an Account of their Canons Constitutions Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline LONDON Printed for J. F. and are to be Sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-lane 1698. TO THE READER THE Proofs I have given in this Book of the Quakers Principles being taken out of divers particular Authors of theirs it may be objected That it is not reasonable that what is Asserted by any one particular or private Person should be imputed to a whole Party of Men who go under the same Name To which I answer That if we take not the Writings of particular Quakers for the Quakers Principles in general we must be altogether uncapable of finding them The Quakers pretending all their Ministry to be Infallible they themselves own as well as their Writings and Declarations to be infallibly true Yea they affirm them to speak and write by Divine Inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles in the Old and New Testament Whatever is in their Writings and Declarings though they may deny our Sence of them they own the Words as from the Lord. J. F. QVAKERISM NO CHRISTIANITY PART I. CHAP. I. The Explanation of the Title SECT I THat I may inform my Reader of the true state of the Controversie agitated in the ensuing Treatise I hold my self bound as a rational man and as a Christian the Controversie being of a Religious Concern both to state the main Question to which I shall endeavour that all those which are subordinate or by me pretended to be so may be plainly reducible and also to open the terms that I may neither write nor my Reader be led into a thicket of impertinencies but as it may be clear and conspicuous whereof I affirm so also the Reader may be able to judge how much what is offered is to the purpose I need not trouble the Reader with any further § 2 account of the Question then the Title wherein I affirm that Quakerism is no Christianity which if it be not only sufficiently proved and clearly but also abundantly I shall not doubt but all honest hearts who shall peruse this Discourse will be irreconcileably alienated from all appearances of so horrid an Imposture And I am not altogether out of hope that many of those who have inclined or adhered to those woful Tenets or persons here discovered with a design to elevate their Christianity to a higher Standard of Purity will be convinced that instead thereof they have but plunged themselves into the ditch of the grossest delusions and made work for Repentance For the term Christianity we are not to understand SECT II by it all those matters of faith and practice which Christianity doth oblige us unto for Christianity is a large and noble thing which is not only a curious Garden which hath in it that which common Fields yea and common Inclosures are not furnished withal but also doth take in beside what is peculiar to its self all that is worthy in those Religions which it hath superseded and outstript yea whatever is good and commendable among the very Heathen according to that of the Apostle Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things Christianity in a full sense consists of those principles of Faith and Life that Worship Order and those Ordinances which have not only a respect to Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Man in his lapsed state but also that frame of them which is proper to the Gospel or New Testament-Administration which was constituted by Christ while he was manifest in the flesh and after he had actually finished the meritorious part of our Reconciliation and Salvation and as God-Man united in one Person was invested with all Power both in Heaven and Earth according to that Scripture All Power is given unto me in Heaven Mat. 28. 18 and in Earth and that full Text to this purpose And being found in fashion as a man he humbled PhIl 2. 10 11. himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name c. A Christian in the narrowest sense is one that owns the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to be the Lord and Saviour That this account of Christianity may be understood § 2 aright I shall spend a few lines and as few as I can to inform of the difference between Christianity as such and those other things which Christianity obliges to which yet may be where there is not any the least footsteps of Christianity To know and acknowledge in some way the § 3 one and only true God Creator of all things or dependance on and subjection to him the love of God our Neighbour and our selves Justice Temperance and all other duties which by the Light and Law of Nature we may be convinced of these a man may be exercised in and yet be nothing of a Christian and so were some of the Heathens who not only were altogether ignorant of Christ but also opposed him and the Christian name To come yet nearer the Church of Israel under § 4 Moses's Administration who had not only the Moral Law or Law of Nature given forth by God himself but also the Promises Descriptions Types and Shadows of Christ the Redeemer through the faith of whom all them that were saved came by their salvation yet their state was not in a strict sense Christian nor the Law and Administration under which they lived and to which they subjected Christianity which I shall confirm by some essential excâ—ptions Christianity necessarily includes the faith and belief § 5 of Christ already come a Christ crucified that died rose again from the dead is ascended c. Without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit believed on in the World received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. This was Christian Godliness But we preach Christ crucified to the Jewes a stumbling blocâ— this Christ as come and crucified was the main basis of the Gospel and Christianity Christianity necessarily includes the beleif of that Particular and numerical man Christ Jesus who § 6 was born of the Virgin Mary and was of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh to be the Christ of God that was promised to come in due time I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins for if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins John 8. 24. Therefore let all the House of
doubt not the truth of Nailor's speech and that the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were all strangers to such a Conversion Before I part with this Subject it will not be unmeet § 3 to inform you what they mean by the Lords Supper which they own But if you eat in remembrance of him and so come to die to that which slew him then do you shew the Lords p. 57. Naylor Love to the lost death till he come and when he comes he shall not find you eating and drinking with the drunken c. So that mortification to sin taken in the best sense is with him the Lords Supper but in his own sense it is a dying to all that doth not obey the Christ of the Quakers The light within At another turn it is somewhat else and quite p. 56. contrary Which all know who come to his Supper where the Father and the Son are come in and sup with the Creature which all the Imitators and Observers of times are ignorant of whose contention is about outsides In the words cited before it was a Fast a Popish cruciating Fast But this last cited a Feast a Spiritual Feast and the Feast is constituted of the coming of the Father and the Son supping with the Creature whereas before his mind was that when Christ comes the Supper is ended but now it is no other but Christ himself present But the strangest Supper of the Lord is expressed by the same Author in these P. 54. words And this was to be done at all seasons when they eat and drink in their eating and drinking they were to do it to the Lord and therein to have Communion with his Body and Bloud yea when they were to eat with Gentiles they were to partake of the Table of the Lord as is plain 1 Cor. 10. Thus hath the Lord given up these people to confusion § 4 Sometimes the Lords Supper is quite gone and done away then it remains but 't is a fasting from and dying to sin and what they call Excess Then it is Spiritual and within and Christs coming makes the Supper And last of all 't is every meal you eat and every draught you drink you ought therein to remember the Lords death till he come at breakfast dinner supper and afternoons luncheons also And yet this Wretch Nailor to whom some of the Quakers sang Hosanna and worshipped him and calleâ— him the Son of God The Christ and none of the Quakers now that I can hear of but own him as a great Prophet and highly honoured and beloved of God and yet he dared to say concerning this false confused stuff What I have received of the Lord that p. 56. I shall declare unto you And again And this is known from the Lord in the Eternal to be the true end of the p. 57. Supper of the Lord c. If denying the Ordinances of Christ after the manner proved of the Quakers in this Chapter be Christianity or consistent with a Christian the holy Scriptures have given us a very unintelligible account of Christianity or a Christian And that mouth which said I deny that God did ever Ch Atkinson or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thâ—u callest the means of Grace was not full of blasphemy or in any fault against Scripture Prayer Hearing which were intended by it CHAP. XV. The Quakers deny the transactions of Jesus Christ when he was manifest in the flesh in Judea above sixteen hundred years since or as he is now at the right hand of God to have any influence into our Justification before God and our Salvation SECT I IN this point they come not short of themselves who in every path of Errour out-strip all others who are found in the same câ—ooked way I shall proceed to the proof All that are called Presbyterians Ed. Bur. Trumpet c. p. 17. and Independents with their feeding upon the report of a thing done many hundred years ago This he saith by way of reproach against all that act Faith on and receive comfort from the blessed Effects of Christs Righteousness and sufferingâ— by him wrought and suffered when he was in the world What Righteousness Christ performed without me was Farnworth not my Justification neither was I saved by it I believe it of himself if he died in the same mind Can outward Bloud cleâ—nse the Corscience Can outward Penningtons Questions p. 25. Water wash the Soul clean A plain denial of the Efficacy of the Bloud of Christ shed on the Cross to cleanse the Soul from the guilt of sin by its satisfaction to the Justice of God Seeing the Apostle speaks Pennington of purifying the heavenly things themselves Heb. 9. 23. it would seriously be enquired into and the Lord waitedon to know what nature thâ—se Sacrifices must be of which cleanse the heavenly things Whether they must not of necessity be heavenly If so then whether it was the flesh and bloud of the Vail or the flesh and bloud within the Vail Whether was it the flesh and bloud of the outward earthly nature or the flesh and bloud of the inward spiritual nature Whether was it the flesh and bloud which Christ took of the first Adam ' s nature or the flesh and bloud of the second Adam ' s nature § 2 By these Queries you may see how far he is from believing that the offering up of the Man Christ Jesus the Seed of the Woman hath any influence into our remission and cleansing from the guilt of sin contemning the value of the Flesh and Bloud of the Man Christ Jesus as beneath and short of such an Efficacy and that of necessity there must be flesh and bloud mysteriously included in the outward and visible flesh and bloud of a more heavenly and spiritual nature contrary to the words of the Apostle which he quotes Heb. 9. 23. which is the Apostles most forcible and plain argument to prove the Efficacy of the offering of Christs Flesh and Bloud For if the bloud of those Beasts as they were shadows and types of Christ were so effectual how much more the true Sacrifice shadowed out by them But we may with pity and horrour behold the woful shifts men are put to and bewildred in who forsake the plain paths of the Lord in his Word and are resolved to lay hold on any fancy and foolish imagination rather than let go the lye in their right hand § 3 And this we witness who through the Lamb our Saviour Parnel's Shield of the truth p. 30. do reign above the World Death Hell and the Devil but none can witness this whose eye is outward looking at a Redeemer afar off and still live in sin As for the qualification of living in sin they frequently express it to put a blind before the Readers eyes and are far from the true meaning of that phrase in the Scripture for whereas the Scripture
intends it of the unconverted and those who are not sincere in their hatred of sin and obedience to God the Quakers will needs have all to be such as live in sin who have any remains of sin in them or whose lives are not totally free from the stains of it But nothing is more plain than his utterly disowning the Christ without and Faith that looks at him to have any thing to do in the victory over Death and Hell c. and that the Man Christ Jesus who lived and died as far off as Jerusalem is not the Lamb their Saviour § 4 Let us hear one more that it may not pass for only one two or three of their Doctors Opinions And conclude to themselves a belief in Christ and apply Morning Watch p. 21 his promises what he did for them in the body that suffered without the gates of Jerusalem and by his death and offering all things is accomplished for them and no sin shall be imputed to them though they live in it And through his mediation and intercession for thom as he is at the right hand of God at a distance from them they believe that they have access to God and are accepted of him and yet they neither know God nor Christ nor the place where they say he sits at the right p. 22. hand of God and being in their mind perswaded that Christ hath satisfied and hath reconciled them to God though they be yet sinners Those he calls sinners and condemns are all that repair not to the light within as their Saviour by his teaching and power within them as is the scope of his Book I should but cloy you to cite more for this purpose It is their Opinion that Christ did what he did in the flesh which he took of the Virgin Mary and what he suffered therein also as our Example and no more The influence of Christs transactions without us above SECT II 1600 years since into the Justification and Salvation of Believers asserted and vindicated I shall not need to be voluminous in the agitating this subject many far more able and worthy having wrote on it at large And although amongst persons who deserve not only the name of Christian but Venerable in the Church of God there is not the same prospect into some of the more curious parts of it yet that the transactions of Christ without us and before we were born are the merit of our Justification and Salvation they are so firmly agreed in that they may as soon be perswaded to condemn and throw away their Bibles as to be of a contrary belief I shall therefore consider Christs Obedience as active and passive and prove them to have in them the efficacy denyed by the Quakers and answer some Objections And then shew you what Righteousness they profess Salvation and Justification by The righteousness of Christ's active Obedience without and before us considered § 2 And he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised Rom 4. 8. 11. opened that he might be the Father of all them that Believe though they be not circumcised that rightousness might be imputed to them also The righteousness here spoken of is in a compleat sense and unlimited to this or that particular case 't is a righteousness without stain of sin or unrighteousness And indeed there is no such thing as a compleat righteounsess in the sight of God that hath any the least crookedness obliquity or fault in it 'T is that rightcousness of the Covenant of grace or thereby expressed for Circumcision the seal of this righteousness was a seal of that Covenant The imputation of it is according to this Text § 3 a reckoning it to a person verse 10 How was it then reckoned verse 9. Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness not as James Naylor saith And Love to the Lost p. 7. with him his righteousness is freely imputed or put into the creature as if imputing were a putting in It was imputed to James Nailâ—r that he was a blasphemer was it then and thereby put into him to be a blasphemer A very fit Expositor of mysterious Scriptures However he hit right of the Quakers mind and therefore it must be no more but put in to this day But to return it being reckoned and that as a grace of the new Covenant it was not the righteousness § 4 of Abraham by him wrought or wrought in his own person as the subject of it for then it had not been any grace or favour from God to reckon it to him therefore it was a righteousness of another that was reckoned to him not his own Whose righteousness it was then may be gathered by the title of the imputed or reckoned righteousness verse 11. A seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being yet uncircumcised Well then this consideration may lead us to the truth of imputed righteousness if we consider faith as being an act of the soul and therefore not the righteousness imputed for so far as that is righteousness in obeying the command of God it is our own act The just shall live by his faith His faith Hab. 2 4. Rom. 4 5. is accounted for righteousness It must needs then be the object of faith or that which faith acts on or looks to and this is no other but the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23 6. the great subject of the promise and Covenant and is therefore called The promise the Covenant and frequently The righteousness of God he being the worker of that righteousness in his own person which is of Gods appointment to justifie a poor believer which is not a believers but as it is reckoned or imputed to him A second ground of this Doctrine of imputed Rom. 5. 21 § 5. righteousness is in Rom. 5. 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That this righteousness of Christ is imputed to Justification and therein the abounding grace of God is plain in the 17 18 and 19 verses where the Apostle lays his argument for grace and righteousness through Christ in its similitude to the influence of Adam's sin by imputation For if by one mans offence death Rom 5 17 18 19. reigned by one verse 17. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men verse 18. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners verse 19. much mâ—re they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ verse 17. so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life verse 18. so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous verse 19. And further to clear this truth if clearer evidence may be possible the consideration of verse 14. will
not deny that there was such a man as § 2 Jesus the Son of Mary and that God was in him or rather Christ was in him but this is no more than they profess of themselves that Christ as God and the Eternal Word is in them yet that body of the Man Jesus which he calls here the bodily garment he tells us they can never call it Christ Another passage out of the same Author will explain this For that which he took upon him was our garment even the p. 20. flesh and bloud of our nature very right But what follows is wofully false Which is of an earthly perishing nature but he is of an heavenly nature and his flesh and bloud and bones are of his nature The sum is this The Flesh and Bloud and Bones or Body of Christ which they own is of a heavenly and Eternal Nature but the body which Christ took on him of our nature is earthly and perishing and therefore they can never call that or own that to be Christ This is as plain a denying the Man Christ Jesus § 3 whose body of flesh was of our nature and of the seed of Abraham and the Son of Mary as can be They own him as one that once had a Being but is now perished that is his body of flesh and bloud What can we expect of those men who can disown what the Scripture speaks so plainly and frequently and that not now and then by the by but as its main scope Do not all the Prophets that prophesie of Christ speak of him as to come Doth not he himself and others contemporary that lived with him in the flesh speak of him as then come Do not the Scriptures after his Death and Resurrection speak of him as having finished the Merit of our Redemption and Salvation and departed from the earth ascended into Heaven and there at his Fathers right hand ruling the affairs of Heaven and Earth and making intercession for his people And all this of the Body of Christ which he took of mans Nature and this called Christ and Jesus and the Saviour Let not these Blasphemers of the Lord of Life and Glory delude people with a fancy as if we believe and preach the Flesh and Bloud of Christ to be Christ separated from his Soul his Soul of the nature of mans soul but undefiled or that we take his humane or mans nature to be Christ separate from his Eternal and Divine Nature for they cannot be separated the one is not now without the other nor was the Divine Nature of Christ compleat Christ until united to and dwelling in its fulness in the humane or mans nature of Christ Yet as what the mind conceives in a man the man § 5 conceives and what the least member of the body doth or suffereth the man doth and suffereth so by a communication of properties and union of natures in Christ the Divine and Eternal Being of Christ is called Christ sometimes but much more often the humane nature or the Man Christ Jesus And the reason is clear because although Christ offered up himself by the Eternal Spirit as both dignifying him to a worthiness for such a Sacrifice and enabling him to undergo it as a Lamb for patience innocency and meekness and to overcome death yet the mans nature of Christ his soul and his body was the only proper sufferer and sacrifice for God cannot suffer nor be put to death and by the obedience and sufferings thereof was our reconciliation and redemption wrought Only as I said before its union hypostatical with the Divine Nature did put it into such a capacity and entitle God or the Divine Nature which in its fulness dwelt in him bodily to all that he did and suffered Having thus explained my self that the weakest § 6 that are but willing may understand the truth in this point I shall quote some Scriptures wherein the Man Jesus who was born of the Virgin is called the Christ and Saviour and that this Man Jesus is now in being and in that body of flesh which he took of the Virgin and wherein he eat and drank and slept and performed those actions proper to a body of flesh and bloud and bones and that this man Jesus is still and ever shall be the Christ of God And it was revealed unto him by the holy Ghost that Luke 2. 26 27 28 29 32. he should not see death before he had seen the Lords Christ And he came by the spirit unto the Temple and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus to do for him after the custome of the Law then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said Lord now lett est thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation a light to lighten the Gentiles This was the Lords Christ whose parents were Mary by nature Joseph in Law and by reputation as being Mary's Husband though after Christs birth whom Simeon then saw and not before whom he took up in his arms not only into his heart by faith and love and this Christ is Gods salvation and a light to lighten the Gentiles Therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God Act 2. 30. 31. had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit upon his Throne he seeing this before speaks of the resurrection of Christ that his Christs soul was not left in hell neither his Christs flesh did see corruption This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are Verse 32 witnesses Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly Verse 36. that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye Acts 5. 30. 31. slew and hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing Act. 1. 11. up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Opening and alleadging that Christ must needs have Acts 17. 3. suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ Be it known unto you all and to the people of Israel Acts 4. 10 11 12. that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand before you whole This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of the corner Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And though they found no cause of death in him yet
in jeopardy every hour 1 Cor. 15. 29. 30. Thirdly it utterly subverts and makes Shipwrack § 3 of the faith of the Gospel that looking at a prize and reward on the other side the Grave But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also in vain 1 Cor 15 13 14. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15 16 17. So that there is a Chain of the most woful consequences that this wicked error draws after it Fourthly Then the Gospel is a meer fallacy and § 4 delusion which promises a reward to men whose persons are constituted of a body as well as a soul Many more might be inferred of so grand an import as would render this Doctrine the most pernicious that was ever hatched among pretended Christians CHAP. XIX The Quakers profess not the Doctrine of a future reward in another World I Have been a diligent Enquirer to find some expressions SECT 1 in their Writings or Verbal Converse that might satisfie me they owned a future happiness or misery after this life but all to no purpose in this point they make no noise at all I have searched those Writings of theirs especially which have pretended an account of their Principles in all or most points of Religion but though this of a future state of reward or punishment be the vitals and end of all Religion yet they do not so much as touch upon it From whence I must conclude it is blotted out of their Creed 'T is said of the Gospel which is the Christian Dispensation that it brings life and immortality to light what was in the Scriptures of the old Testament more seldom and obscurely expressed is the very scope of the Gospel or New Testament the peculiar of Christianity But then certainly Quakerism is no Christianity that is so silent in this matter I know they talk of immortality and eternal life but what is immortality with them Fox saith man is immortal before death in his Great Mystery and their Salvation is no more but what they have within them and is accomplished in this world Farnsworth saith speaking of the righteousness of Christ neither was I saved by it So that his Salvation was not future but present or past And Pennington in some Principles of the Elect c. saith and so they who forget God and do wickedly they are to be turned into Hell But what Hell is this no more than what they say is in this life For they who forget God and do wickedly they go from the life and power of God into the separation from him and out of his acceptance For in the life is the acceptance What is here more than is suffered in this life which we call paena damni or the punishment of loss A Book intituled The Spirit of the Quakers c. § 1 charges the Quakers for having their hearts much set on a Heaven within them but not on the things above to which Pen replies and vindicates after his fashion the Kingdom of God within but saith not a word to assert their belief of and affections to the Heaven above from whence it is plain that they believe no such thing to have a being I wonder not therefore that this is so frâ—quently their saying That if we are not perfect here we shall never be perfect It is easily deduceable from their more openly professed § 2 principles that they deny and disown a blessedness or misery in another world For if they deny the body to have life any more after it is dead and turned to dust and that the Soul and Spirit are of the being of God and that as the body returns to its former dust from whence it came and never revives again so the Soul and Spirit returns into God its first being all which I have already proved what then remains to be the subject of happiness or misery E'ne nothing at all except God and he is not man E. Burroughs the day he died expressed himself thus that he was now putting off this manner of person and returning to his own Being or words of the same import which I have quoted on the Chapter of their Idolatry When I have asked some of them what should become of their souls after death Their answer hath been they shall be taken into God Let them profess that they believe a happiness to be enjoyed by men and women after their bodies are rotted to dust distinct from the Being of God or that which they had not a thousand years before they were born i. â— to be in God from whom as of his Being they say the soul came and it will be news to me and all that are acquainted with them In the mean time I have given you Reasons enough to conclude they believe no future blessedness or misery in anoâ—her world I shall now resume the Question and gather up all the proofs of what I have affirmed into an entire body If Quakerism be another Dispensation than that of Christ setled and preached by the Apostles If it deny the Scripture If it deny all the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny any influence of Christs transactions in Judea above 1600 years since into our Justification and Salvation If it deny Jesus the Son of Mary the Christ of God If it own false Gods and be Idolatry If it professedly owns the worshipping of false Gods If it deny the Resurrection of the Dead If it affect not a future blessedness or misery in another world to men and women according to their deeds in this Then Quakerism is no Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism Therefore Quakerism is no Christianity PART III. BEING AN EXAMINATION Of the First Part of VV. PEN'S Pamphlet CALLED The Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. WITH A Rebuke of his Exorbitances WHiles I was writing this Book I met with SECT 1 a Pamphlet of William Pen's intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated against that of Errour and Envy c. Which is pretended to be an Answer to a malicious Libel intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed c. I having the piece by me I once perused it In the general I resâ—nted it as one of the best and most ingeniously 〈…〉 aged and beyond all material and just excepti 〈…〉 at least by the Quakers that ever I read against 〈◊〉 sort of people But reading Pen's Answer 〈◊〉 finding his Epistle giving such a Character of his 〈…〉 versaries Book and himself for malice lameness 〈…〉 ing and what not that might render it and him 〈…〉 ed and contemptible I began to mistrust my conclusion supposing a person of P's education and pretences would not say so much evil of it without great cause and therefore I compared them
crucifying within us by disobedience to the light in our Consciences A strange merit and purchase of Salvation and way of pacifying the wrath of God for sin D Damnation Being condemned within by the light in the Conscience and the terrour and affliction arising from thence but nothing of a pain of sense after the body is dead and turned to dust Darkness Not acknowledging the light in every man to be Christ and being guided by its immediate teachings as the only and all-sufficient Rule Death of Christ The light within not obeyed The dead Body The Body living in sin Disciples of Christ No other but those who submit to the light within and follow only its dictates E Election Christ the seed not the persons of men and women Vulturous-Eye The understanding faculty piercâ—ng into and earnestly seeking after Divine Knowledge F Faith A believing in the light within Righteousness of Faith Those acts of Obedience performed by themselves in their own bodies conformable to the dictates of the light withinâ— and in the Faith of its being Christ and the Rule Teaching or doing falsly When not from the immediate motions and teachings of the light within though what is taught be in its self true and what is done be in its self good False Prophets All that are called by men however qualified otherwise all that teach from or out of the Scriptures and not from immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles by whom the Scriptures were penned False Witnesses All who speak not from inspiration and inward meerly divine motions and experience not what they affirm in themselves Flesh Whatever is not from the light within originally and immediately Wisdom of the flesh All Wisdom attained by industry Denying Christ come in the flesh Denying Christ come in the Flesh of Joseph John Sarah or any other who are Quakers Christ come in the flesh Come in their Flesh The Flesh of Christ The Spiritual Flesh that descended from Heaven not the Flesh that lay buried in the Sepulchre after death The Fold of Christ Christ himself Following Christ Obedience to the light within The Friends Friends All professed Quakers The will of the Flesh All that is chosen by man though he be thereto disposed by the will of God revealed in the Scripture G Preaching for Gain Receiving any thing as the reward of preaching the Gospel State of Glory The State of Peace and Joy resulting from the witness of the light within in this life GOD. Father Son and Holy Ghost without distinction the light within every 〈◊〉 the spirit of the Quakers every one of them the soul the seed and much 〈◊〉 that he is not Foundation of God The light within and the inspirations and motions of it The Gospel Christ the light within not the written Word or the sense of it as a Narrative of the good will of God to men in Christ H Handled the Word of Life Not as the Apostles who handled the Body of Christ but feeling by a spiritual sensation the motions of the light within or the Christ within them Hearing the Gospel or Word Listening to and obeying the light within Heaven Not the place where the Man Christ is above or beyond the visible Skies but the happiness they have within them I could never yet hear or read them mention any other Heaven to be enjoyed by them as distinct persons but what they have within them in this world Hell The present torment and loss within Preaching for Hire Hirelings To have provision for the oâ—tward man as a maintenance or reward for preaching though no bargain be made yea though such who receive it would preach iâ— they had never a peny reward in this world from those they preach to Holiness Obedience to the light within and that without any failing The womans Husband at home Christ the light in the conscience I Idolatry Often for worshipping the Man Christ Jesus who is at the right hand of God above or beyond the Stars and visible Heavens taking the examples of the Saints and Churches in the Scripture recorded and doing likewise JESVS The light within the Word in the beginning not the Son of Mary who was made or created The Imaginations All conclusions how demonstrable soever which accord not with their Tenets or are not by immediate inspiration Inchantments Bewitchings A being perswaded and established by Reason and Scripture but especially if humane Artâ— or Sciences have any hand in it Infidels All that obey not or do not place their Salvation in the light within Workers of Iniquity All that live not without sinning against God The Judgment day of Judgment Sin being judged in the Conscience by the light within in this life Justification Christ the light within obeyed K Kingdom of God The Rule and Government of the light within and the peace and joy arising from thence Carnal knowledge All knowledge but what comes by the immediate inspiration of the light within L The Law Christ the light within the Law written in the heart Leadings in Spirit The motions of the light within immediate inspirations and teachings The life Christ the light within The life of Christ The prevalency of the light within Eternal life Being taken into God Saved by the Life of Christ A being saved by the prevalency of the light in the conscience The Letter The dead Letter The Letter that killeth The Scriptures or written Word A Lye Lying What is spoken though true in it self if not from immediate teaching or the light within The Light within Christ God Father Son Spirit the seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh Jesus the only Saviour the Law the Testimony the Gospel the Prophets the Advocate Righteousness Sanctification Justification the only Rule Guide Teacher Judge the Way the only way to the Father the Truth the Life the Power of God the Eternal God God Almighty that which pardons and conquers sin the Judgment the Lamb of God that is slain from the beginning the Word in the beginning the Creator of all things the end of all Books Laws and abundance more than can be crowded into many Pages The Lust All desires that accord not to the light within and proceed not from thence M The Man Christ The spiritual Body of Flesh Blood and Bones which they say descended from Heaven and dwelt in the Body of the Son of Mary and doth also now in every Quaker Cease from man do not hear man What the Faculties of Man have any hand in either by inventing working or expressing all that comes not purely from the light within Measure of God of Christ of the Spirit That degree of the power and inspirations of the light within Something more or less of the very being and Essence of God the Father Son Spirit Meditate Not pondering or exercising the judgment and understanding on holy and divine Objects but a stilness and emptiness of all thoughts attending for the immediate impulses suggestions inspirations and motions of the