my forwardness should give them Offence in thinking I did it without such a religious Consideration and Preparation as was requisite before Receiving those Holy Mysteries That through Mercy being also much removed I became uneasie to delay that longer which I was convinced was my indispensable Duty and declared I would receive it at the first opportunity and accordingly did receive it as has been before related And heartily wish that all others who are under the same Delusions and Prejudices in which I too long continued would follow my Example and be made partakers of the same inward Peace and Satisfaction which through Mercy I enjoy in the Communion of the Church of England To conclude Another Reason why I deserted the Quakers was because I am able through Mercy to prove That they do not believe One Article of the Apostle's Creed in the true Sense of Scripture and all Orthodox Christians in the whole World and that all their Teachers pretences to Infallibility and extraordinary Prophetical Inspirations are all Artifice and Delusion which joined to the Errors Heresies and Blasphemy already mentioned will sufficiently justifie my leaving them Now what remains in this short account of my Change is to give you the Reasons why among all the Pretenders to the best reformed Church I have at last enter'd into Communion with the Church of England in which I shall use all the Brevity imaginable Now as nothing so much concerned me as the Salvation of my Soul and in order to that the choice of my Religion so I exerted all my Care in examining things conducing to it that I might be able to give account to others and have satisfaction in my self that my Religion was not the Effect of Chance but espoused upon a deliberate and well-advised Choice which I take to be the regular Method towards a Settlement Men may indeed be Confident but can never be Certain without Knowledge a diligent Examination of the Things proposed to their Consideration And this made me more in love with the Church of England that does not require a blind Obedience but is contented her Doctrines should be examined by the clearest Light in which I could largely expatiate in her Commendation and the Reproof of others that withhold the means of Instruction from their Members and boast of an absolute Infallibility which they have no pretence to but I hasten to the Reasons that obliged me to close with the Church of England And the first was because in Purity of Doctrine and Discipline the comes nearest to the Pattern of Primitive Christianity â— She retains the Three Creeds and does not reject the first General Councils and administers the Sacraments according to the Divine Prescription All her Children pray in a Tongue they understand and only to God through Jesus Christ This Church presses Men to Piety Loyalty Humility and Charity and earnestly desires the Salvation of Mankind She Preaches up the Excellency of Good Works but places her hope in the Mercy of God and the Mercy of his Son and every one that lives up to the Principles of this Religion are Safe and Happy Secondly Because in the main Articles of Faith the whole Church is of one mind and have as much Unity in Faith among them as they had in the first Churches planted by the Apostles themselves And their Differences are in lesser and secondary things which have no relation to the Primitive Doctrines of Christian Religion Which who ever opposes they disown him and look upon as in a Faction against the Church which is not thereby broken nor the Unity of its Faith destroyed For though some Men have preached strange Doctrines and drawn Disciples after them which is no more than they did in Apostles days yet they have not prevailed against this Church nor overturned its Faith And if some looser Part of the People have been carried away yet the Body of the Church like an unmovable Rock still persists in as great Unity as was antiently in any of the Apostolical Churches and that is abundantly sufficient to invite us to Conformity with it and Perseverance in it Thirdly Another Reason that induced me to embrace the Religion professed in the Church of England was Because she maintains the Scriptures to be the Word of God the Rule of Faith the Judge of Controversies and the Guide of Humane Life so that if we consult our Reasons use our Eyes and mind our Rule we cannot miscarry To this Rule St. Paul sends Timothy for Instruction and commands him to give attendance to Reading viz. the Holy Scriptures which he had known from a Child and which were able to make him wise to Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus They being given by Inspiration of God that even a Man of God like the antient Prophets might be perfected and throughly furnished unto all good Works for every part of his Employment St. Paul directs him to these Holy Writings as a means to preserve him in the Christian Belief ver 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast leâ—â—ned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast learned the Holy Scriptures c. What we have learned from them we are assured of we know from whom they come and are certain we are taught of God when we read these holy Books But cannot be assured of any other Tradition or pretended Revelation of the Spirit and therefore ought to continue stedfast in our adherence to the Scriptures and both to suspect those who would draw us from this hold and stick to those Guides who bid us stick to this and prove all things by it for it is evident that they have no mind to deceive us but do in effect bid us believe God and follow his Directions and rely upon his Authority Who cannot mislead us and will not suffer us to be misled if we continue in the things which we have learned out of the Holy Scriptures For taking them to be our Rule we shall neither admit any thing which is contrary to that Rule nor shall we take any thing to be an essential part of the Christian Faith which is not there delivered unto us For it is not consistent with the Notions we have of God's Infinite Goodness and Wisdom to believe he would give us a Rule which is defective in necessary things No he hath abundantly provided here for our Instruction in all such Matters And as we ought to refuse that which contradicts any part of these holy Books so we ought not to think it necessary that we should entertain any thing which they do not teach us And teach us plainly and evidently for in all necessary things they are very clear and perspicuous else they could not be a Rule unto us but we must seek for some other The Apostles Creed for instance which the Antients call the immovable Rule of Faith a short Summary of Christian Faith beyond which as they speak we ought not to seek for Faith together with the Nice Creed and Athanasius's which expound the Apostles Ought throughly to be received and believed for that they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scriptures But whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to required of any Man that it should be believed aâ— an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation This is the Doctrine of the Church of England in its Sixth and Eighth Articles unto which let us strictly keep if we would not be carried to and fro uncertainly with the Blasts of vain Doctrines which have no certain Warrant in the Holy Scriptures and therefore are not to be Received or are contrary to them and therefore are to be Rejected Here we must fix and believe that here we are safe For the Scriptures want nothing to compleat us in Christian Wisdom which they do not wrap up in Obscurity but as far as is needful give us a clear understanding of the Doctrines of Faith And make us understand withal if we please to consider them that having laid our Foundation well in a firm Belief of those great and necessary things which out of the Scriptures are summed up in the Creeds before named we need not trouble our selves about other Matters which are not so evident but make it our whole Business in this World to raise the solid Superstructure of a Holy Life upon the Foundation of Faith in Christ The last Reason I shall mention at this time is That this Church has not suited her Doctrines to advance any secular Interests but her Religion is Heavenly in its Principle and Pure in its Aim disdaining to stoop to mean Arts for Wealth and Worldly Dignities Religion was designed as the greatest Blessing to Mankind and the Author of the Christian was a great Lover of humane Race in conformity to whose blessed Example this Holy Church cancels none of our Obligations to God or Man but teacheth the absolute Necessity of Contrition and Repentance and Mortification of our Lusts to Obey our Superiors to Love God and our Neighbours to follow Justice Mercy and Peaceableness To be Charitable to the Poor and to do to all Men as we would they should do by us To use no Craft or Equivocations but to be Sincere in all our Actions and Professions to live in Kindness Civility and under the firmest Obligation to a true and lasting Friendship And if any of the Quakers think fit to oppose these Doctrines they may promise themselves an Answer FINIS
associate longer with them lest being tainted with their Erors I should be obnoxious to their Punishment I shall in the next place give you some of my Reasons that engaged me to Abandon Quakerism and to embrace Christianity according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England And the first Reason I assign for leaving Quakerism is because they are at such great Vncertainties in what they profess that no Man can have any assurance where to bottom or whether that which they own to day will be allow'd to be Truth to Morrow They are constant in nothing but in Contradiction and 't is Reason enough for them to Disbelieve any Position and with all their Force and Powers to oppose it if it had not the â—onour of their Invention and became Current by the Stamp of their own Authority and if it were not for their Habits they would be all taken for Mahometans by refusing to believe or act like Christians All other Religious Societies have their Confessions of Faith under some Appellation or other by which Men may know what they believe but the Quakers are such Lattitudinarians that if a Stranger should ask what they were he could receive no other Answer than that they are what other Men are not but such as in Humour Gesture Garb Meinâ— and Pedantick Canting Nonsence are Antipodes to all the World of which nothing is a greater instance than carrying dead Men to their Graves with their Heads foremost And if enquiry should be made what Faith they profess it must be answered that no Body knows nor themselves neither and their Meeting-Houses might be Dedicated to the unknown God A second Reason is That if their Principles may be collected out of the Books they publish they are too Erroneous Heretical and Blasphemous for any good Christian to comply with some of which I shall recite in this Discourse and refer you in the Margin to such Places in my Narratives where the Quotations are proved beyond contradiction Now the first thing I shall charge the Quakers with is That the Scriptures according the Dictate of their greatest Teachers are not the Word of God This Notion is so common among all their Authors and so frequent in the Mouths of their Proselites that it is almost lost labour to prove it upon them One of their famed Authors is so angry with his Opponent for affirming that the Scriptures are the Word of God that he charges him with Blasphemy * Nar. 4 p. 22. for Asserting it and by consequence makes the Church of England and all other Protestant Churches to be guilty of that direful Imputation Nor is this Doctrine of theirs a strife about Words but the Foundation of their Deism and a handle for the Overthrowing Christianity and therefore the Quakers have very lately Reprinted William Penn's Discourse concerning the General Rule of Faith and Practice who brings Fourteen Arguments to prove that the Scriptures are not the General Rule of Faith and Practice in Three of which Arguments he accuses them of Imperfection Vncertainty and Obscurity And this is a most dangerous Heresie for by this Principle they are not obliged to believe one intire Doctrine in the Apostles Creed as indeed I could easily prove they do not George Fox does not only deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God * Nar. 4. p. 24. but gives them contemptible Names as Ink and Paper Dust and Serpent Meat But that the Scriptures are the Word of God is clear from abundant of Places in the Scriptures Our Gospel came unto you said Paul to the Thessalonians not in Word only by Word here is meant Doctrine Isai 28.13 The word of the Lord was made unto them Precept upon Precept Line upon Line here the Precepts and written Lines of the Prophets are called the Word of the Lord and John 15.25 it is called the written Word which was a short Sentence written in one of the Psalms And when Paul bid Timothy preach the Word it cannot be justly thought that he would have him only preach the Inward Word but by the Word he meant the Doctrine of the Gospel and all that the Quakers say against this received Truth is but mere trifling and humouring their Spirit of Contradiction The next stroke the Quakers make towards the Destruction of Christianity is against the Divinity of Christ and to this purpose William Penn in a Controversie between himself and some Presbyterian Ministers in Ireland where the Question was whither he that suffered Death without the Gates of Jerusalem was not and is properly the Son of God William Penn in his Book called a Serious Apology p. 146. saith That the Outward Person which suffered was properly the Son of God we utterly deny With the like Confidence G.W. assaults the Humanity of Christ in pos 〈…〉 tively denying that Christ consisted of Flesh and Bones in those words I distinguish says he between consisting and having Christ had Flesh and Bones but did not consist of them as a Man has a Coat or Garment but does not consist of it and that outward Person that suffered at Jerusalem was Christ by a Metoning of the the thing containing for the thing contained But all Sound and Orthodox Christians say according to the Scriptures that Christ is both God and Man having his Godhead and Manhood so united as to constitute one Christ which is a miraculous and extraordinary Vnion that no other Creatures neither Angels nor Men are dignified with And though Christ as Man was the Son of God miraculously conceived and born in time and also as God was by a Generation from all Eternity yet he is but one Son of God and because of the personal Union of the Godhead with his Manhood both as God and Man is properly the Son of God The Excuse the Quakers make that Christ did not meerly consist of Flesh Blood and Bones signifies nothing for none ever affirm'd any such thing Whatsoever has Parts consists of those Parts Incompleatly of one or more Parts Compleatly of them all The Foundation of the Quakers great Error on this Head lieth here That because Christ was before the Body was therefore that Body is no part of him which is easily answered thus Christ was before that Body was but he was not compleatly and in all respects fitted to be the Anointed Saviour of the World until the Word was made Flesh that is till the Word did take our Flesh and whole Nature into a personal Union with him which was necessary to the compleat Performance of his Mediatory Offices of King Priest and Prophet and especially of his Priestly Office The next thing I charge as abominable Blasphemy upon the Quakers especially G.F. and G W is for affirming That Christ's coming in the Flesh and his Suffering without us in the Flesh and his outward Flesh and Blood was a Figure and but a Figure of Christ of what he suffered in us and his Blood shed in us Thus
What Scripture Proof is there that Christ subsisteth outwardly Bodily without us at God's Right-hand and where is God's Right-hand is it visible or invisible within us or without us only and is Christ a Saviour as an outward bodily Existence or Person without us distinct from God and on that consideration to be worshipped as God Yea or Nay This way of Talking and Writing is the peculiar knack of the Quakers who have more Shifts and Subterfuges to cloak their Heresies than any of the Ignation Tribe In writing about Justification by the Blood of Christ the same Authors contrary to the express words of Scripture say That 't is a Confusion a Labyrinth and Vncertainty to be directed to Christ for Justification and Salvation both as he suffer'd at Jerusalem and as he Rose again and is Ascended into Heaven above the Clouds and Firmaments and to fill up the Measure of their just Condemnation Solomon Eccles has published it in Print * Nar. 1. p. 27. That the Blood of Christ in respect of Justification is of no more efficacy than the Blood of another Saint and certainly if ever Comparisons were Odious this Quakeristical Absurdity is intolerable All their Writings are stuffed with such inexplicable and unintelligible Phrases and wild Notions that they seem rather intended to puzzle and distract than inlighten a Reader and notwithstanding all their fallacious Pretences of being an innocent plain simple People that are most affected with Scripture Language yet they are as far from it as Light from Darkness for in truth no Society of Men that are called Christians no not the Church of Rome it self have so much deviated from Scripture Language and Scripture Doctrine and Sence as the Quakers have done And as the Spirit of Pride and vain Glory does always abound in worthless Minds as empty Vessels and shallow Brooks are known to yield the loudest sound so the Quakers are always filling the World with their own Commendations as if there were no good wise nor vertuous Men upon Earth but what were enclosed within the narrow confines of a Quaking Conventicle whereas in truth the readiest way to know them rightly is read them in the reverse of the Characters they give themselves The Quakers also say that we are not Justified by the Blood of Christ outwardly shed which is a piece of Divinity more fit for Bedlam than any sober Society of People * Nar. 1. p. 33. but as if this was not sufficient to Stigmatize them with the approbius Name of Obstinate or Blind Hereticks they are pleas'd to add also That we are not Sanctified by that Blood of Christ that was shed without the Gates of Jerusalem but by an inward Blood whose Power and Vertue is unknown to any but the Quakers and if these are not bold Strokes against the whole Doctrine of the Bible and the Declarations and Confessions of the whole Christian World you may add to these another of their Tennets and that is * Nar. 1. p. 34. That the Body that dieth never riseth again which is expresly opposite and contradictory to many places of Scripture that especially in Acts the 26th That Christ should suffer and should be the first that should be raised from the Dead In all parts of the World where the Quakers have spread themselves there is a Universal Neglect among them of Preaching Christ Crucified and concerning Faith in him Preaching only the Light within and Christ within And when I began to preach up the Fundamental Principles of the Christian Religion among them they stood up against me and charg'd me with preaching up new Doctrines and one appeal'd to the Monthly Meeting whether they ever heard of such Doctrines preach'd in the Quakers Meetings directing them to Faith in a Christ without them I Reverence Divine Providence that I became a Quakers but if I had known they had had such Errors among them I would as soon have put my Head into the Fire as have associated with them They were so assiduous in maintaining their own Erroneous Principles that they did all they could to prevent me from opposing them by reporting that I was a False Teacher and accused me for setting up thre Heterodox Principles * Nar. 1. p. 38. 39. The first was That Christ's Body rose out of the Grave and they affirm'd it never did and dared me to give an Instance that one English Quaker was of my Opinion The Second Accusation was that I had said That it was lawful to pray to Jesus Christ Crucified And in this also challeng'd me to name one Quaker that I ever heard pray to Christ and when the 1 Cor. 1.2 was read To all that call upon the Lord Jesus Christ both their Lord and ours The Quakers answer'd That Paul was as Dark and as Ignorant as George Keith is adding for our part we know better The third piece of False Doctrine they accused me of was for saying That the best Saints had need to come always to God by the Mediator the Man Christ Jesus This they inveighed against as a gross Error and said they would come to God without him this sort of Doctrine is to be found in William Shewen's Book a Quaker in great esteem among them For these things they Excommunicated me first and afterwards presented me by a Grand Jury at Philadelphia in Pensilvania and they would have found me guilty of Death though I was wholy Innocent of indeavouring to change the Government which they accused me of if the Government had not been taken out of their Hands and I discharg'd from that false and malicious Accusation by Governour Fletcher George Whitehead and William Penn * Nar. 1. p. 38. 40. by Allegorizing Plain and Positive Texts of Scripture have endeavoured to overthrow the Belief of Christ's Birth his Death Resurrection Ascension and coming to Judgment and by this Artifice has left us no Scripture to prove that the Death of Christ was any benefit to us and as to Christ's coming to Judgment Whitehead says in an Answer to R. Gordon that he might look till his Eyes dropt out before he should see Christ appear again outwardly in a Bodily Existence After this having read over my Books they drew up ten Articles against me charging me with false Doctrine in ten Particulars and John Humphrey says in his first Letter that he perceives by those Articles That my Faith relished too much of Carnality a carnal Body of Christ in Heaven a carnal Election and Reprobation a carnal Justification and Adoption a carnal Day of Judgment and Resurrection beyond the Grave I am grieved says he to hear some say they did expect to be justified by that Blood of Christ that was shed at Jerusalem Is not this to be carnally Minded William Baily who was a great Preacher among the Quakers and whose Books * Nar. 3. p. 3.4 they have Re-printed says That the Apostle Preached Christ the word nigh in the Heart and in