how sad a subject the Truth of an immortal soul and its being for ever it to such whom the Devil hath so far got under his Command and Power as those visibly are at this day Pos 10. This they professedly own also That not the same individual body is raised again which is laid in the dust but there is a change thereof in substance as well as in qualities which is no new opinion but what was the Heresie of the Marcionites and the Valentinians of old but according to the Scripture it is clear 1. That there shall be a transforming of those vile bodies at the resurrection to be fashioned after the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3. 21. and no forming of a new one which could not possibly be understood if the same numerical body should not be raised and that this change here is but in qualities not in substance 2. If the resurrection of the Saints be conformable to the resurrection of Christ then must it be the very same numerical body that is raised up from the dead and not another 3. This was not Job's testimony only but the Holy Ghost's speaking in the Scripture to us what was his assured hope herein that though worms destroy this body yet in his flesh should he see God whom he should see for himself and his eyes behold and not another Job 19. 26 27. 4. We may humbly adventure to say it is suitable to the holy and unspotted Righteousness of God that the same very body which did accompany the soul here in the pain and labour of duty and under much tribulation for the Truth should be its companion in Glory that those who strove together and run in one race should be both interested in the same crown and reward and the same body also which was the souls Organ and Co-partner with it in committing of sin should partake also of that punishment after the resurrection One thing farther I must here add in which they seek to make themselves remarkable to the World by these austere appearances of Mortification and strictness in denying all civil respects to others which they seem to intend as a visible badg of their prefession but if this be a matter of such weight whereon serious Religion and Mortification to the flesh leans so much as they would have us believe it is then clear 1. That the Popish-Capucchins and Mahumetan-Dervices to whom this way hath so visible a resemblance can sufficiently pretend to and contend for a preference 2. Then the Christian Church must take a new Copy and have no regard to the Example and deport of the Saints this way in Scripture such as Nathan the Prophet of whom the Holy Ghost records when he came in to the King he bowed himself to the very ground 1 Kings 1. 23. Or the Apostle Paul in his expressing himself to Festus and Agrippa Acts 26. 25. Or Luke the Evangelist in the designation he hath of Theophilus Luke 1. 31. 3. If a conformity to this mode and way must be an essential requisite to Religion we must quit the Scripture-Rule also Lev. 19. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the boary head and honour the face of the old man the reason of which Precept is undeniably moral and founded upon immutable grounds and that Rom. 13. 7. Give honour to whom honour is due nor does this suit the Apostles Rule and practice in things indifferent I was all things to all that I might gain some which would be far from denying an humane civil deport to others where this might be gaining 4. But oh what amazing confidence is this for those who find it easie to turn the great Realities of the Gospel and most express institutions of the Word into a shadow and allegory yet to lay such a stress of duty on an outward gesture Do they think the World is such as they may impose upon it what they please and hath so far lost reason though there were no sense of Religion as not to discern such an imposture SECT III. HAving touched a little the most concerning Tenets which these great adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Truth do publick own in their Doctrine we would in the second place seriously consider what so strange and amazing an attempt against the Truth can mean or what these possibly intend except they have concluded the Christian World to be turned wholly Atheistical and to have so far lost all Sense and Impression of Truth as that they need not hide their design to perswade men to quit Religion and Reason at once whilst with so strange a confidence they own yea thus in the open Light dare offer such an assault to the Church 1. To give up at once the whole of Christian Religion and quit that good and old way wherein since Abel the Righteous and Enoch who walked with God it is so clear the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles yea the whole race of the Saints have to this day walked to come over and embrace a way that if no other were known for Religion in the World it might give Atheism some warrant to judg there were none at all What have we to leave to posterity so precious as the Truth or what can any other gain and advantage amount to if this be lost And why did such an innumerable company of Martyrs on whom the Spirit of God and of Glory was seen to rest seal it with their blood Was it not to stand in defence of the Gospel and of these Truths which they so visibly oppose 2. And is the Night so dark as such a Party dare come forth to have us believe there hath been no true Church in the World but since these twenty or thirty years past except what hath its rise from John of Leyden Thomas Muntzer c. whose steps in most of their Doctrine they seem to follow yea that the great substantials of Christian Religion until now have been but some imposture or mistaken thing and all such who were the excellent of the Earth in their time who expresly owned the same Doctrine and died in the Faith thereof which the Protestant Church doth at this day as can be unanswerably demonstrated have been but false witnesses against God for however they may seek to shift this by undeniable Consequence it must follow either Quakerism is a horrid Imposture or the Truth and way of God hath not been found out till now and the Church both under the old and new Testament hath steered her Course by a wrong compass in taking the Scripture for her Rule 3. Is all sight of the Truth so far lost as that it should be easie for some to come forth and impose upon the World a new Bible a new Guide to follow which every one may find within himself to perswade us to build on another Foundation than that of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Ephes 2. 20 Yea thus put in our hand instead of
A SURVEY OF Quakerism As it is STATED IN THE Professed Doctrine and Principles OF THAT PARTY With a Serious REFLECTION ON THE Dreadful Import thereof to Subvert the very Being and Reality of the Christian Religion By a Lover of the Truth LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the Lower end of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1677. Licensed and Entred according to Order To the READER Christin Reader IT should be a sad and unpleasing Subject this to converse with in a time when so much is on every hand to cause grief if the defence of the Truth and a Being guarded against the contagion of so horrid a way did not necessarily require the same which besides a surprising call and pressing desire of some for whom I owed greatest respects hath occasioned these few lines to go forth to the World I may say with much aversion of spirit otherways thereto It seems peculiar to this Age to have out-gone all former times in a new and unusual way of sinning and a daring insolence to oppose the Truth whilse such amazing Prodigies of Atheism Prophanity and Error do at once meet together To let this generation see how inexcusable they are if Judgment from the Lord yea some unusual and stupendious stroke thereof do surprize them where so loud a cry goes before of its coming But it is well the Truth abides sure and immoveable and we know must out-live with a growing splendour and brightness this so remarkable an hour of the power of darkness yea hath that Authority not only on the Conscience of such who embrace it in love but on its Enemies as must enforce some awe and dread on the greatest blasphemers of the time whether they will or not The Virgin-daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee whom hath thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the holy One of Israel Should it not deeply affect such as love Our Lord Jesus Christ to see such a party crouding in the streets and high-ways of Britain whose express design is so obvious not to darken only but subvert the whole of the Gospel in the Incarnation Death and Sufferings of our glorious Redcemer and of his being truly God and Man in two distinct Natures united in one Person Oh if we should be bereaved of this inestimable treasure we were bereaved indeed Yea such whose work is to depress the credit and authority of that great and sacred Instrument of Truth the Scripture in the light whereof the redeemed of the Lord now in Glory have got thus safe to Land without any other Light or Rule besides this to walk by and on which so innumerable a company have adventured hitherto bearing their witness to its truth and faithfulness whose record we know to be true and some should reckon themselves under singular engagements to seal this Truth though with their dying breath That in all the steps of the Lords way even such as seem most dark to these who look on them at a distance assuredly he is what he hath declared himself to be in the written Word I shall only add what with much confidence I may here witness that as I know no quarrel but one with any of that way which is for the Truths sake I could not but judg I had too sure ground to charge these as their Principles and Doctrine upon them which they have publickly owned to the World if they keep not some reserved sence contradictory to their own words and so far as I can reach without any known retractation SECT I. THOUGH it is undeniably sad and one of the most searching Tryals of the Church at which many are ready to be shaken when the Truth seems intangled in a consusion of contrary Doctrines and the spirit of Error let loose to darken the same and that we see it also one of the greatest strokes from God inflicted here yea greater than that on the Affections in the delivering up of mens Reasons and Judgments to strong delusion with these fearful productions which are this way oft found because they received not the love of the Truth yet it is well we know the Faithfulness of God is sure and stands good to bring the Elect safe unto Glory whatever Rocks and Shelves be in the way on which so many have visibly made shipwrack nor can the Truth conflict with such a Tryal but for its farther Triumph and some more bright breaking forth of its light and that no evil eye nor the cursing of any shall ever blast that Interest which God hath blessed One thing I confess seems strange and most threatning in this time whilst Religion and the Christian Faith is in such eminent hazard and the Devil in an unusual manner let loose to deceive to see how great a part of those who professedly own the Truth are fallen as in a dead Palsey and indifference about the things of Christ though never more vigorously moving about their own things nor seem they with such suitable fear to be jealous of the corruption of the mind and intellectual Errors as they are of moral Corruption as though diseases in the Head were not to be feared which are usually found of all to be most mortal yea when so discernibly this is one of the depths of Satan and his known devices to bring in Atheism and Irreligion by Error and turn the World from all setled perswasion of the Truth by some high pretences thereto for which one sad instance I must here give that I am sure except men shut their eyes they cannot but see No engin could have a more native and effectual tendency to bring such as were unstable the farthest length of Vaninus and his followers even to deny and blaspheme a Deity than to unhinge them once from founding on the Scripture and turn them over to that way of the Quakers which now seems to have such a formidable growth in the Church What these are who under this name and peculiar cognizance of Quakers have become so known and stated an adversary to the Truth this day the account they give of their own Doctrine and Principles can too clearly witness nor needs there any great search to be made about their rise and descent it is too late and but a few years since the World knew such a monstrous birth though I confess in its complex frame if it be seriously considered it is a most discernible compound of these ancient Heresies that have sprung up in the Church which did formerly each in their turn essay to ruin the Truth But this also we may know how at an ebb-tide after much former abuse of Light and in an hour of great Temptation on the Churches of Christ these did adventure to creep forth to whom once the Light and authority of the Truth would have been
bodily as though it were some low and carnal dispensation to know Christ and him crucified but as he is within But it 's sure if any reality be in the Christian Faith and the whole mystery of Godliness no delusion the Christian Church will never debate 1. That it is the same Jesus who is preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world that is received up into Glory 1. Tim. 3. 16. and the connexion there indissoluble nor can another true conception of him be possible than what the Scripture hath given 2. It is sure the literal sense of the Word is no new distinct sense from the spiritual though by a different Light and evidence understood and this great Truth That Jesus the Son of Mary is the Saviour of the World revealed within by the Spirit doth found no other objective Christ nor hath any different sense from what is objected to us in the Letter but is the very same though seen with another Light and irradiation thereof on the Soul 3. We know there was no dispensation nor Allegory meaned Acts 5. 30. The God of our Fathers hath raised up Jesus whom you hanged on a tree him hath God exalted to be a Prince and Saviour and that we must seek him else where than within even he whom the Heavens must contain till the time of the restitution of all things 4. We have sure warrant to say let him be accursed though an Angel from Heaven should come to give another account of Jesus Christ than what we have in the Scripture and that this is he 1. Who was the Faith of the ancient Church to whom all the types and shadows under the Law did so expresly relate concerning whom the Prophets did diligently enquire searching to what or what manner of time the Spirit in them did point concerning his being revealed to the World and the precise time set thereto 2. He who hath passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God and is still there the glorious Object of our Faith and Worship 3. He who surely was wounded for our transgressions and hruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was on him and by his stripes are we healed Isa 53. 5. O blessed and unexpressibly sweet Truth that we know to be no notion or allegory and that all these Sin-offerings and sacrifices under the Law pointing at this were not the true Victim offered to God but had a discernible respect to that one great propitiatory sacrifice now offered up for the Sins of the people 4. It was in truth and an undoubted reality that Thomas knew a Christ without when his Master gave him leave to put his hand in his side and when his Disciples beheld his Being taken up into Heaven whilst a cloud received him out of their sight even the same Jesus who shall in like manner come again at the last day We know there is an unexpressibly near and spiritual Union betwixt Christ and his People here which is undoubtedly sure and that as he is truly revealed within so he leaves a resemblance of himself on the soul such as neither the World nor the Powers of darkness can ever put a counterfeit in his room but such is this Union as his body here upon the earth doth still know her head to be in heaven at the right hand of God rejoycing in hope of that day when they shall be translated to that blessed place where he is to see and for ever wonder at that inconceiveable mystery of the glorious God-head dwelling bodily in the man Christ Pos 4. This also is a part of the known Doctrine of the Quakers That by no righteousness without us which Christ hath fulfilled in his person we are justified but by a righteousness wrought within and that there is no truth in Christs Satisfaction to justice for the sins of the Elect but in this they are not alone nor is it strange that in all times now under the new Testament men have been acted forth in a high degree of opposition to this head of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ even beyond other Scripture-truths and that so great an assault is made to poyson this Fountain when of such import to the Church as it may be called articulus stantis cadentis ecclesiae But I must say in this the Quakers seem to have taken the most effectual way and have the advantage of others who own the same Doctrine with them that they first essay to depress the credit and authority of the Scripture without which their Cause is lost since nothing possibly can be more express and clear than it is there 1. That our high Priest hath entred into the holy Places having obtained eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. and is that sacrifice which being offered without spot to God pacifies all whose blood alone could silence that cry that sin hath for vengeance having nailed that hand-writing of ordinances which was against us and contrary to us to his cross Col. 2. 14. and hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. Is it possibly conceivable if our sin was imputed to Jesus Christ as the Surety and on him all our iniquities were laid but there must be an imputation of his Righteousness to us and if the Debtor be acquitted by the Cautioners payment and the fruit of Christ's Satisfaction at all redound to us that it must needs be by Imputation of the same Now it is clear thus the Scripture reasons yea I may say with such a plainness as it is strange men can be in the dark here without making it their choice He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 1 Cor. 5. 20 21. and having fulfilled all Righteousness and so fully satisfied the Law as Surety in our stead as a common person representing the whole elect Church Must it not undeniably acquit those at the hand of Justice and be accounted theirs who were then thus represented and judicially one with him 3. We know the Scriptures shew one great end of that blessed contrivance into which the Angels with wonder desire to look is not only to manifest grace but to declare the righteousness of God that he is just and the justifier of them that believe Rom. 3. 20. And no way could ever have been conceived like this to make these two shine forth together in one and the same work or how the Law and Justice could have had such satisfaction as by this blessed Surety who at once and to the full hath satisfied beyond all that the united Obedience of Angels and Men though extended and multiplied to Eternity could ever have done 4. Nor is it possible to suppose how works should be concauses with Faith in the Justification of a Sinner since this acts only instrumentally as the hand embracing that inestimable jewel of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ as
the great Realities of the Gospel a new device and mould of their own framing Or do they think their Authority such as is enough to patronize a Doctrine that gives an express lie to the God of Truth in the most clear discoveries of his Word 4. It may seem a strange and amazing assault to obtrude a way of Religion in the face of the Christian Church in so manifest a contradiction to the whole experience of the Saints and that seal which in all ages they have put to this Truth that the Scripture is the Power of God to Salvation and is that mean whereby he maketh the simple wise that it is the very way whereby Jesus Christ keepeth intercourse with his Church here on Earth and such as no line nor tittle thereof did ever deceive any that adventured on the same This we are sure is and hath been the Testimony of the followers of the Truth ever since that great Trust of the Oracles of God was committed to the Church which they have put in their Testament and with their dying breath have owned how oft in this blessed way of the Word hath the Lord sealed their instruction whilst under sad and dark plunging yea thus hath made Life Power and enlivening Influences even to the melting of their heart break up when under their greatest deadness 5. It is a strange attempt and seems a new essay the Devil intends to try in acting forth a Party not to dispute the Scripture and Christian Faith out of the World but to brawl it away in an unusual manner of reviling as if they would out-cry the Truth with a continued flood of noise and reproach whilst they know there is no serious and sober Christian but under the A we of God is restrained from answering them at their rate But yet for answer here is nothing needs seem strange when we see 1. How hard it is to fix in such a way as error and delusion or find land when men once are carried off the Truth and do lanch out into that horrid gulf of error but seducers must wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3. 13. 2. How in all times it may be discernable that a delusion is a turning men judicially mad and their deliberate acting to deceive others hath the very same effect on themselves nor is it strange such aremarkable stir and noise is made by the Spirit of Error which thus rages when at this day let loose knowing his time is short and that such an hour of the Power of darkness doth but go before some great and remarkable restraint yea that this is near for which with an assured hope upon that blessed Warrant and Security of the Scriptures of Truth we wait and believe SECT VI. IN pursuance of this subject whilst such a darkness is over the Churches of Christ and the very Foundations like to be shaken It should be this day a serious call for our enquiry what solid Improvement might be made of such a Tryal in this strange appearance and growth now of Quakerism for clearing of the Holy and unspotted way of the Lord and our being farther strengthned in the Faith since it is sure that nothing is here before our eyes but what brings a convincing Seal therewith to the Truth and may be an antidote against its own poyson if we but consider 1. That the necessity of Day and Night and of the Ordinances of Heaven to continue as they are is not more clear from the Truth of the Word than that Heresies must be in the Church that such as are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 10. And if these were not the Scriptures would want an undoubted witness of its Truth and Certainty 2. That it is undeniably clear this is the very time and season of bringing forth those monstrous Births in the World according to the Scripture-Prophecies thereof for the Spirit speaketh expresly to the latter times 1 Tim. 4. 1. and gives warning that this will be one of the special and greatest Tryals of the Christian Church whereof the Old Testament doth make but little mention yea thus it may be understood why such a Party now must have some blacker dye and a singular edition of grossness beyond all that have gone before as suiting to a greater Light and more flourishing times of the Church than former ages have known 3. Is there not advantage here for being more confirmed in the good ways of the Lord that no such length the Principles of this adversary come and there 's nothing so horrid and amazing in their Doctrine which in the Scripture hath not been foretold such as damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 2. 1. even such as tend not to darken the Truth only or a building hay and stubble on this Foundation but most visibly raze the same 4. It should be for our strengthening also in the Truth that nothing is so strange in this marvelous depth of error and delusion as to the way and manner of its spreading in the Church but what hath been foretold by the Holy Ghost to be brought in privily by subtile insinuation and a sowing of these tares while men sleep yea how such shall make merchandize of their souls for in nothing more is the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive known to the World than in this Trade which seducers drive to turn those they converse with from that simplicity which is in Christ but as thus Error in its first approaches knows how to take on a cover Is it not seen also where once this is aloft and delusion drunk in with what discernable fury and violence such are then driven so as all may know what mean these clouds which the Apostle speaks of carried about with a tempest 2 Pet. 2. 17. which are then hurried by a judicial stroke and can find no fixing 5. This one thing I confess seems astonishing and that whereat some pretend most advantage for their stumbling at the way of God to see at what rate such have walked under a profession of godliness not only as to Light but with a convincing evidence of their being serious and tender therein who at last to the amazement of the World have fallen into a visible Apostacy from the Faith so as to come even to that dreadful length therein of being Quakers yea thus may seem to bring in question that great Truth of the perseverance of the Saints But it 's well we have the Scripture to go to and know what this means whilst nothing here is such as does not convincingly answer to what is expresly shewed us there and should confirm more than shake if we consider 1. Though it is true that Heresie as other works of the flesh may be consistent with a regenerate estate yet is it impossible for the Elect to be deceived into a falling from the Faith without some gracious recovery as is shewed Matt. 24.
But we know this way is the purpose of God made effectual concerning all he hath from Eternity predestinate to life as is express from Scripture 2 Thes 2. 13. That they are chosen to Salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth though the evidence of this recovery in some where it hath been in Truth may be but little discernable to others The Lord so disposing in his infinite Wisdom that his People may be taught an alone recumbence on the Word even when his Works seems to justle therewith 2. We know no such length in profession of the Truth from which any have fallen through the prevalence of Error can go beyond those who after they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the Knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are yet again intangled therein and overcome 2 Pet. 2. 20. or beyond those degrees of Conviction and common Illumination that may even have some transient taste of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come Heb. 6. 5 6. To which the Apostle shews some may come even that length by a temporary Work of the Spirit who have yet fallen into a most dreadful Apostacy from the Truth and opposition thereto with the greatest hight of malice in both which Scriptures may be seen that it is such an Apostacy there meant as follows upon the prevalence of Error and Delusion 3. With what marvelous plainness doth the Holy Ghost in the Word speak to this Case that we may know what it means and have no cause for stumbling when it shall become the Churches Tryal as we see Mat. 13. 5. in that seed which fell upon stony places where it had not much earth and forthwith sprung up because it had no depthness of earth but when the Sun was up was scorched and because they had no root withered a Truth I may say is not more express in the Scripture when we read it with our eyes than its ratification in after-times in the Church hath oft been on many a sad instance such as after their being enlightned have sprung up yea forthwith with a hasty growth and too early appearance but no solid growing to the root yet such as for a time have most remarkably seemed to out-run those who had in Truth received the ingrafted word by a more forward profession than whom none have been a sadder sight to the generation they lived in and by as remarkable a withering have too visibly witnessed the want of root in which I must say and with some confidence appeal to any serious discerners of the time about this remark if in such who have most observably fallen from the Truth and plunged into that gulf of Error some precious evidence hath not been of such springing up forthwith and hasty appearance in profession of the Truth that hath taken the growth more to the blossom than to any sure founding under the sense of their sinful and lost estate by Nature 6. This also seems strange and may be shaking to some How tenacious and violent such usually are found in this way even when silenced with the clearest discoveries of the Truth so as it is rare almost in an age to find an instance of one who after some observable Hight of Illumination beyond others hath ever found a recovery or shown their returning by repentance after he hath thus fallen into damnable Heresies as the Apostle terms them But is not here also a convincing and marvelous seal to the Scripture if men will but seriously read what is so clear 2 Pet. 2. 20. and that Heb. 6. How dreadful an arrest thus in the Holy Judgment of God is put on this kind of Apostacy even beyond the most gross falling away from the Truth in practice which should cause fear to all that stand and do yet retain their stedfastness Yea is not the reason of this there also held forth that it is a putting the Son of God to open shame and so direct a doing despite to the Holy Ghost in counteracting his Workings and Discoveries once put forth in the soul For my self I must confess nothing in those times I have found more shaking who before a higher Judg than Men have some confidence to say The greatest joy I have upon Earth is to know that assuredly the Lord is God and the certainty of his Truth But I must here also profess how in this I have found cause for being more confirmed yea with admiration to consider How many ages past such things have been foretold what sore assaults the spirit of Error and Delusion should give the Church with so express circumstantiating of this Tryal in its whole frame conveyance and manner of appearance as hath been seen in the Event and at this day before our eyes which by the Holy Ghost only could be revealed to the Church and could never have been supposed or entred into mens thoughts at a distance SECT V. A Fourth particular that calleth for some serious enquiry upon this subject is what should be the grounds of so strange and prodigious a contagion of this way of the Quakers as is at this day in the Church whose Doctrine and Principles are such as the very recital thereof might be judged a sufficient antidote against its own poyson yea this after such clear and bright times of the Gospel but here none needs be in the dark if these things were seriously considered 1. That where a form of Knowledg and mens receiving of the Truth but not in Love comes some great length in the Church there is then cause to fear and foresee some remarkable flood of Error and Delusion to follow for in this the Scripture is express 2 Tim. 2. 10. and lets us see how nothing does more ripen the harvest to make the field white for the spirit of Error 's putting in his Sickle than most solemn times of the brightness of the Gospel if no suitable fruit be found thereof Light is one of the greatest Talents of the Church that must bring either some remarkable gain or loss with it nor need any wonder seduction from the Truth bear some blacker dye now in those days and have a more singular addition of grossness even beyond all former times since thus the Stroke and Judgment must keep proportion to a further degree of the Churches Exaltation and more clear discoveries of the Truth than former ages have known 2. As the formentioned culpable and provoking cause may at this day be discernable to all should the Holy Judgment of the Lord inflicted thereupon be strange to us in a visible Tradition and giving up such a Party unto strong Delusion with a withholding of the very exercise of their Reason and Judgment that they do not see the Light when it is most clearly shining forth before them since this a convincing seal also to that Scripture 2 Thes 2. 10. I confess it is one of the marvelous things of God
pressure and incitement from such an Impulse as they seem to have no freedom in their own motions but though before of most discernably calm and sober dispositions are then acted forth to those strange expressions of railing and reproach as can leave it under no debate from what spirit they move and how far they are from that wisdom from above which is first pure and then peaceable 2. This strange appearance and change such are under who once embrace this way of the Quakers is seen to be by no moral swasion or conviction suited to a reasonable soul no receiving of the ingrafted word or any discernable impress thereof to shew the Laws being written in their heart but as hath been greatly observed by some is by a strange rude leap and enthusiastick impulse sudden and violent the Conscience being made sound and whole before it be lanced and their false peace broken 3. It may be clearly seen whatever Impulse these pretend to for such a change that this is from a spirit of blasphemy even to a denying of Jesus Christ the blessed Head and Redeemer of the Church except as a Principle within yea from a leud and prophane spirit such as counteracts Holiness in hearing reading of the Scripture praying singing of Psalms sanctifying of the Sabbath the use of the Sacraments 4. That it is from such a spirit also whatever pretences they have to follow a Light within them as counteracts the most express dictates of a natural Conscience in these notes of difference which by the Light of Nature have in all Nations been betwixt Man and Man to a denying that due reverence Children should have to Parents Servants to Masters Subjects to Magistrates 5. And is it not here most discernably a strange bewitching of their Judgment and Reason who once fall in with that Party into such absurd extravagancies both in their Tenets and Practice as no reason can possibly comprehend but that it is the very immediate power and working of Satan Whilst it is so clear that this is such a Religion and way as none can close therewith but by ingaging upon these two Principles to forego their Reason and Judgment and all subjection to the Scripture of God a Religion which is so far from rendring a reason of the ground thereof with meekness to these who ask that it turns visibly inraged upon the most sober Christian essay for bringing of it to the Light SECT VI. IN the fifth place let us consider on this subject what might be of most special use to guard and preserve all who profess the Truth against this horrid and spreading contagion now in these times for clearing of which some few Preservatives I would seriously offer 1. To live much by Scripture and have more near intercourse therewith as that alone rule without which none can write one line in Religion aright but according to the same and is so marvelously suited to enlighten and take the wayfaring man through all these snares here by the way so as the whole race of the Saints since the beginning to this day could not possibly have wished it another thing than it is Oh! what do such part with that can part with this guide which reveals the whole Counsel of God and shews us what is good lovely and just gives Law to the inward man and commands his very thoughts yea that which the God of Truth hath magnified above all his Names Sure it is if such blasphemers knew what converse a serious humble Christian hath oft found this way with Jesus Christ and which his soul knows well to be no dream or shadow they should rather wish their words choaked them in the throat than to adventure to speak at the rate they usually do I know this quarrel they have therewith which Ahab had with the Prophet Micajah that it prophesieth sad things to them and therefore they must hate it and seek a new Light because this is their torment for it 's sure the Scripture and Quakerism are no more compatible to lodg in one heart than the noon-day and mid-night can meet together but their appeal herein is cast for whether they will or not by this word they must be judged in the day of the Lord. 2. That great Counsel of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 13. I would press on Christians at this day for holding fast the form of sound words as one great intent of the Scripture to give the Church a full model and standard of saving Doctrine whereon every one may know how he foundeth Now this great duty is the more pressingly called for in such times when most satisfie themselves with some loose notions of the Truth and to know things at random who seem but little concerned to be stable and rooted in the faith so as to know that close contexture and dependance of the Truths of God in the Scripture and how they are linked in the nearest tye and correspondence as there can be no essay for corrupting of one part but must have the same tendence against the whole yea thus reach a thrust at the very life and being of Religion It will be rare to find such as are in earnest for a solid founding on the great Foundation-Truths and Principles of the Word and to feed much thereon to have ever become a prey to delusion and error 3. A third safe Preservative against this contagion should be more deep and serious thoughts How horrid a way this of Quakerism is And to consider 1. What the Apostle shews 2 Pet. 2. 2. that such damnable Heresies bring swift destruction therewith 2. How hopeless the recovery of such prove and how rare 't is to bring them of who are once Prisoners to an erring Conscience or to see them either seek or find out a way of escape these being Trees twice dead pluckt up by the root 3. The very near approach of this to that sin against the Holy Ghost where there is a falling once into those destroying Heresies which subvert the Faith especially where some remarkable work of the Spirit hath gone before to enlighten and convince as we see Heb. 6. 4 6. For it is impossible for those who were once inlightned if they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance 4. And what an awful Impression should this also have on men that such as are thus subject and reject means of conviction are condemned of themselves as the Apostle shews Tit. 3. 11. Since they chuse Delusion and will not hearken to the Truth thrusting the Word from them whereby they judg themselves unworthy of erernal life 4. It should be a singular guard also against this way for Christians to walk humbly and have such a disposition much their study in these times while it is so clear 1. That the most solid and eminently fixed Christians in the Church who have shined most brightly even to the setting of their Sun have still been the most humble 2. That this is a remark
Conscience enforce this conviction upon them that in the Church of Christ from which they are gone out there are still Ministers of the Spirit and not of the dead Letter and empty sound and a Ministration of Power and Life found to go along with these blessed Ordinances they so avowedly contemn yea that by this Doctrine of the Church they have now quit the followers of the Truth do in these times as well as in former ages receive the Spirit and know the certainty thereof that it is the Spirit of Holiness most exactly corresponding with the written Word 8. Does not that conviction also follow them though they flee never so fast from it what burning and shining Lights there have been and yet are among the Ministers of Christ in these late times such as were Mighty in the Scriptures servent in Spirit cloathed with the Power and Authority of God before whose Ministry the most daring and stout-hearted have been made to tremble than whom none have witnessed more zeal for the Truth and that Doctrine so much now cryed down by the Quakers yea how some also of these we have known to have had very extraordinary discoveries and immediate in-breathings of the Mind of God in particular cases who in this were led by a Scripture-spirit and in no other path but in the way of the Word though by some more singular enforcing Application of the same 9. Are not such enforced also to see so as their Conscience cannot contradict What unspeakable joy and peace Christians do witness in their sufferings for the Truth and bearing Testimony to that way to which they are so known and stated Adversaries yea that when such are a-dying with what a marvelous gale of assurance and joy they have parted from time putting their Seal to the same Doctrine of the Church and Ministry thereof which they so virulently revile blessing the Lord that ever they were made acquainted therewith even then when all that lookt on might perceive their soul raised and under some present Transport with these begun unexpressible Tasts of Heaven and that some sight thereof was there broken up unto them which no Words could express 10. I must attest their Conscience if they be not constrained to justifie such as are most serious in adherence to the Truth even over the belly of the greatest prejudice that they are such as are real and serious in what they profess and may be known to make no naked and empty shew thereof but are willing to be tried in what is their Testimony and render a reason of that hope within them with the greatest seriousness by bringing it to the Tryal of the Scriptures of Truth I shall but further appeal to their own Conscience and Light within if they do not see this way of Holiness and serving the Lord according to that Rule of the Scripture which they so expresly disown to be that good and old way in which the footsteps of the Saints may be found since the beginning and how it is no new Light broken up in the World but a continued succession hath been still of those who from one time to another delivered over the same Truth to succeeding ages yea can they possibly deny that as at the first up-breaking of the Christian Faith so in these late times the Lord hath put to his Seal by extraordinary Signs and Confirmations with such an immediate appearance of himself to the same Truth now owned and professed by the reformed Churches as the greatest Atheists will stand in a we to question I must shut up this with one Word more of appeal to the World and most ordinary observers in this time If without shutting their eyes they can consider this way of the Quakers and not see the imposture thereof also 1. How their work is as the Serpent deceived Eva to engage more by enticing words and laying baits before the Affections than to clear and convince the Judgment so as it is not stange though such are induced to change their Religion as had never yet in earnest imbraced any 2. Can they see here any thing else but the grossest Atheism under a new dress when such do expresly deny whatever they pretend the only true God revealed in Jesus Christ except as an abstract Notion and Principle within every one 3. And may not the most ordinary observers of the time be struck with the conviction of a more excellent spirit in such as seriously own and imbrace the Truth with that savour their way hath of humility self-denial without daring to revile and what a more convincing resemblance this hath to that perfect Rule of the Scripture than that imbittered raging spirit which in such horrid scurrilous expressions fears not to vent it self among this Party 4. Do not all see this also their taking advantage to wrest the Scripture so far as they can see the least shadow there to bring it to their Interest whilst yet they fear not to throw off the whole and deny subjection thereto in its being the alone Rule of a Christians Faith and Practice as though these they converse with were in no case to discern so gross and visible an Imposture A Postscript READER This sad subject with the threatned effects of such a contagion in any of the Churches of Christ may have a serious voice to us this day if we could hear or be awaked to read from the sin and distemper of others and our own duty concerning which I shall in a few lines further add some things which thus seem to be convincingly pointed at First To be more deeply affected with such a plague on the spirits of men as we would be with the sword or pestilence breaking forth in the Land when withal it must be considered 1. That it is no consequent of ordinary sins but may be seen to follow some remarkable hight of resisting the Holy Ghost and rejecting of the Word of Truth in more bright discoveries thereof than most parts of the Christian World at this day have had 2. That this Meteor of Quakerism doth so obviously threaten and hath its proper aspect on the Churches of Britain and Ireland beyond any else of the Reformed Churches 3. That in all times the abounding of spiritual plagues in any place where the Truth did shine are still found to go before the saddest of temporal Judgments and can there now be found such threatning symptoms in any Church-history or Records of ancient time to have gone before the most desolating stroke which does not in some unusual manner meet in our case this day yea such prodigies both of Error and Prophaneness and the highest daring of the glorious God to his face as cannot be instanced by any paralel since the first dawnings of Christianity 4. And should not this also make it the more affrighting to us that it speaks with so audible a voice where some great pretences to Religion may yet end and what cause to fear lest many