says T. Elwood in his way of quibling six and an half All these Manuscripts were read at the Meeting two years ago and for the Censure they gave of them I said I thought they had tho I confess I judg very mincingly censured these unsound expressions Yet Tho. Elwood tells me that I am guilty of Forgery that I said the Yearly Meeting said any thing like it Here is the Paper of the Yearly Meeting this Paper shews whom it came from does it find no fault with these Expressions in these Pensilvanian Papers Here is seven or eight I will read a few lines I have brought an Original here it is somewhat worn but it may be read well enough I am glad that my Neighbour has such Charity for me that he thinks I will not read wrong I can read every word of it tho it be somewhat worn I shall forfeit the Name of an honest man it I read one word different from the Original The words in John Humphrey's first Letter Who is he that dares to make a Distinction between Christ's Body and his Spirit and to put asunder what God hath joyned together Is not this to divide Christ to use that Terms viz. Christ within and Christ without when he himself in that very Body that suffered said he that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him and in that day we shall know that it is the very same that liveth in us that hath died for us which before we could not come to know altho any should tell us of it for Christ in us is the hope of Glory and they that draw us to look for Christ without we are not to go forth after them to divide Christ's Body from his Spirit I perceive by G. Keith's Ten Articles of Faith that they relish 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 to hear some say they did expect to be Justified by that Blood that was shed at Jerusalem Is 't not to be carnally minded I have not read the whole Letter but an intire Paragraph of it So farewel Christ without You divide Christ if you mention Christ without Now mark these Ten Articles of mine that he calls Carnal they are short will you hear them They are in Print My Adversaries sent them over from America to England and that before I came to England as an Inditement against me Frances Bugg met with them and Printed them my Adversaries here sent them about as a great Crime against me Some of the Principles of G. Keith and his Friends 1. That Bodily Sickness and Death came in by the Fall 2. That Christ has now in Heaven a Soul and a Body that is not the Godhead but the Temple of it and most gloriously united therewith 3. That Christ's Body that was Crucified and Buried without us rose again without us and is now in Heaven without us 4. That the Man Christ Jesus will come again in that Body without us to judg the Quick and the Dead 5. That there shall be a general day of Judgment that all the deceased Saints are in expectation of 6. That we get not the Resurrection of the Body either in this mortal Life or immediately after Death 7. That Faith in the Man Christ without us as he Died for us rose again and is gone into Heaven wrought in us by thy Spirit of Christ is universally necessary to make Men true Christians and Children of God born of the Free Woman who have the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father 8. That Christ's Obedience and Righteousness which he performed in himself without us is imputed to us by Faith for the Remission of Sins 9. That Christ is not only God's Elect but all that shall be saved from the beginning to the end of the World are God's Elect being chosen in him not only before they Believe and Repent but before the Foundation of the World 10. That all and every one of the Members of the Church of Christ who are at age can speak ought to confess with their Mouths in the hearing of some of their fellow Members the Fundamental Principles of their Christian Faith before they can be owned to be Members of the Church that by the same as well as by a good Life and Conversation it may be known who are qualified to be Members of our Church which is a boundary Term and Bond of our Union the Spirit being the Principal which may be easily done by Answering to some plain Questions G. Keith his Ten Articles read all condemned to be Carnal by the Pensilvania Letter of J. H. a Preacher among the Quakers there these Ten Articles were read at the Yearly Meeting at London 1694. and the Letter that Condemned them also read at the said Yearly Meeting and that Letter Justified by Th. Elwood the Patron and Advocate for that Yearly Meeting and therefore we ought if we give Credit to Th. Elwood to conclude that the Yearly Meeting at London 1694. hath concluded all these Ten Articles to be Carnal which yet express the Common Faith of all Christendom The Second Letter Read The Words of John Humphery's Second Letter I craved no favour to my Paper from thee nor them but that word only which was the omission of my Pen and never intended to be put under a Bushel if occasion did require But however let Deceit and Malice have its full force and scope upon it and that word only taken off the conclusion of my Paper which that saying of our Saviour himself when he Expounded his meaning unto them who in these days had offended at his own words will clear me of your Aspersion John 6.63 It is the Spirit that Quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing so he himself ascribed the Work of man's Salvation and Sanctification not to the Flesh that Suffered but to the Spirit that Quickned not to the Blood that was Shed at Jerusalem but unto the Flesh and Blood that is Spiritual which the Saints was to feed upon and their Robes was made white by and it doth appear that these that are otherwise minded do not rightly discern the Lord's Body Some of his own Fraternity perswaded him to put in the word only and that would excuse the matter he puts in the word only and he thinks it was against his Conscience and so bids put it out again Quaker Whether do ye own sanctification to the blood outwardly shed or to the Spirit inwardly given G. Keith I say to both to the blood of Christ that was outwardly shed at Jerusalem and to the Spirit of Christ inwardly given to believers Now they say that I have belied them they never knew any that said they were not sanctified by that blood You see what proofs I have brought and therefore I must be an Apostate for accusing them of errours
G. KEITH's NARRATIVE OF THE PROCEEDINGS at TURNERS-HALL THE Eleventh of the Month called June 1696. AN Exact Narrative OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT TURNERS-HALL The 11th of the Month called June 1696. Together with the DISPUTES and SPEECHES There BETWEEN G. KEITH and other QVAKERS Differing from Him in Some Religious Principles The Whole Published and Revised By GEORGE KEITH With an APPENDIX containing some New Passages to prove His Opponents guilty of Gross Errors and Self-Contradictions LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill and J. Dunton at the Raven in Jewen-street 1696. The PREFACE THE Preface to the Friendly Readers throughout these Three Nations and elsewhere professing the Christian Faith in Sincerity To aâ—l you sincere Bâ—lievers in the Lord Jesus Christ and true lovers of him and of that Holy Christian Religion whereof he is the Author throughout these three Nations and other Countries where the Christian Religion is Professed I do humbly recommend this following Narrative to your serious Reading and Consideration of what Station Rank or Quality soever ye be the subject matter treated on in the said Narrative being so great Fundamentals of the Christian Religion and Faith that the denyal of them is a downright denyal of the Christian Religion and Faith it self Seeing therefore the Subject is so great and so essential to the Christian Faith it worthily deserveth and calleth for the due and serious Consideration of all the sincere Professors of Christ to whose hands thâ—t may happen to come And since the report of our late differences about Religious Matters one with another remaining under one common Name and Designation of Quakers is spread far and near not only through these Three Nations but other Places abroad as is apparent by the late GENERAL HISTORY of the QUAKERS Written by Gerard Croese a Hollander writ Originally in Latin and lately Published in English here at London And that the Report of the late Meeting and Conference held at Turners-Hall in London the 11th of the Month called June is much gone abroad through both City and Country chiefly with respect to the subject matter there discoursed and my undertaking against them of the opposite Party to prove certain Persons of greatest Note among them guilty of denying and opposing these great Fundamentals particularly specified in the following Narrative out of their Printed Books it may be judged that both the love of Christian Verity and the sense of Christian Duty will oblige and induce you to read the said Narrative if it fall into your hands and others to enquire after it that the truth of the matter may be searched into whether these whom I have undertaken to prove guilty of denying and opposing these great Fundamental Truths be really so or I be guilty in accusing them I cannot suppose that any sincere Professor of the Christian Faith to whose Ears the Report of this great Controversie hath come will be a Gallâ—o in the Case so as to care for none of these things If your outward Estates Liberty and Property lay at stake to be endangered would ye not be awakened to provide the bâ—st Remedy to secure them how much more I hope will all sincere Professors of the Christian Religion be concerned for that which is incomparably more valuable than all these outward things Even the Redemption of your Souls which is your true riches according to that in Prov. 13.8 The Redemption of the Soul of a Man is hâ—s Riches It is reckoned the greatest Cheat and Impâ—sture that can happen in a Nation to corâ—upt and adulterate the true Coyn and falsifie it so as to make Brass or Iron pass for true Silver what shall then be judged of such who seek to adulterate and falsifie the true Christiâ—n Religion as to put another thing in place of it even plain Deism or Gentilism to wâ—t a Profession of Religion towards God and Light in Men excluding Christ God Man and the Faith of him as he dyed for us and rose again and is sat down in the Kingdom of the Father and as he is to come again to judge the Quick and the Dead in the true intire glorified Nature of Man having the true Soul and Body of Man the same he had on Earth The denyal of these great Fundamental Truths of the Christian Religion with some others necessarily related to them and joyned with them inseparably I have undertaken to prove my Opponents guilty of and not only I but many Judicious Persons that were present at that Meeting at Turners-Hall the 11th of the Month called June of this instant 1696 of the several Professions of Protestants in this great City did judge that I have effectually done it But if I have not done it and cannot make it justly to appear that these particular Persons are guilty of the things charged by me on them I shall freely acknowledge that I deserve great blame and therefore I greatly desire if it were the Will of God that I might have yet a more Publick Opportunity to be heard as concerning these things were it to be called before the greatest Persons of Authority in the Nation either to make good my Charges against them and if they be found guilty the blame to lye on them or if I be found guilty that I may have the blame laid on me But let them be found ever so guilty as I am most sure they are let them cover and cloak as much as ever they can I would not in the least have them persecuted or any Sufferings either in Person or Estate to come upon them My design in this undertaking is that they may be shamed out of their gross Errors if possible or if they continue shameless in them yet that all others who are not as yet tainted with them may be preserved from them and cautioned and warned against them for this Gangrene of their vile and gross Errour and Heresie that is a complex of the worst sort of Errors and Heresies that ever infested the Christian Profession hath to my certain knowledge overspread many parts and many persons in these Three Nations as well as elsewhere Though I charge them not either upon the generality far less the universality of all them called Quakers But if they really disown these gross and vile Errors which I have proved them guilty of in this following Narrative and be cordial in the belief and acknowledgment of the great Fundamental Truths opposite to those Errors then it will be that which the sincere Professors of Christianity in these Three Nations will expect from them and may justly require of them as publickly to retract and renounce these Errors as they have publickly asserted them in their Printed Books in the face of the Christian World otherwise no sincere Christians will believe them to be in good earnest but that they resemble many old Hereticks and particularly the crafty Arrians that pretended and made great Protestations that they owned the true Faith according to
all contained in the Scriptures when they did nothing less And whereas some have Objected to me that since I have acknowledged divers passages in my own Books need correction and have promised to do it I ought to have done that in the first place before I had charged Errors upon others otherwise it would look like the Hyprocrites seeking to pull cut the Mote out of his Neighbours Eye when the Beam is in his own Eye I Answer The things that need Correction in my Books compared with the vile Errors in theirs are but as my Motes to their Beams which I had so far already pulled out of my own Eye that I have freely acknowledged them to many viva voce and have them in readiness to Publish in Print with the first conveniency Nor are they such things as oppose any Christian Principles of Faith but of an inferiour nature And it must be one of these two things that are their greatest hinderances to publish any such Corrections that is either that they are still entangled in those Errors but are not willing it be known fearing lest the present publick avouching of them may bring some Persecution on them or great Infamy and Reproach or if they be in their Consciences convinced of those Errors and so are come to a better understanding of Christian Doctrines and Principles yet their Pride and high Authority that they have gained over their too credulous followers will not suffer them to make any such free acknowledgment but especially because any such free acknowledgment by their own argument and way of reasoning against all other Ministers in all Christian Professions would as much unminister them as others they have unministred on that account viz want of Infallibility or being subject and lyable to Errors and Mistakes in Articles of Christian Faith And this will also not a little stick in the way to be so humbled that they must acknowledge G. Keith has not falsly accused them as they have severely charged him to have done if they confess their former Errors But how much better were a sincere Confession in the case taking shame as due to them and humbling themselves under the power and victory of Truth than a haughty and arrogant standing out to justifie themselves in these things that neither God nor good Men will ever justifie them in And if they continue so bold as to hold such palpable Contradictions as are discovered in their former and latter Books and sometimes in the same Books all ingenuous Persons that know their Contradictions will conclude them not only still guilty of those Errors but great Hypocrites for nâ—ne but stark mad men and crased in their Vnderstandings as they have falsly and injuriously represented me to be will hold perfect Contradictions as such but Hypocrites may so dissemble and juggle with them that are weak so as to make them think these things that are real Contradictions are not so indeed but well consistent Truths It nothing I thank God moves me that they so severely accuse me as they have dâ—ne in their late Printed Pamphlets and Papers that Envy and Malice hath influenced me thus to expose them the Testimony of my Conscience and which is more of that holy witness in my Conscience clearing me of all such imputation is as a Brasen Wall to me against their evil and injurious Aspersions As they cannot prove it to be so by any of my words or deeds so the comfort I have in that inward Peace of Conscience in that discharge of my Duty both to them and to all in the Three Nations to whom this my so publick Appearance I hope will be of service is safeguard enough unto me against their uncharitable constructions And I do freely leave it to all Impartial Judges whether they or I be guilty of this severe Charge and let the Tree be judged by the Fruits Their pretended Excuses for not meeting me as desired at the Place and Time mentioned in my Printed Advertisement are so frivolous and weak that they are scarce worth noticing But however the chiefest of them I Answered on the Place as the following Narrative will certifie Their pretence of their not meeting me for the sake of Religion the Liberty granted us and the Civil Peace is an empty shift and poor evasion Is it contrary to their Religion to dispute their Adversary viva voce Why then did they dispute with the Baptists and mightily provoked them thereunto and that viva vocâ— And not only with them but with many others both at London and in many other Places in the Nation and that before promiscuous and mixt Auditories as they commonly call the World excepting their own Party whom they call The Elect People of God And why did W. Penn give such a daring Challenge to Thomas Hicks Reason against Railing p. 184. and complain against him in these words I must needs tell the World the base Cowardice of this Adversary in hand for we have offered him a free Meeting with his Books in our hands proffering to refute them viva voce before the World but instead thereof or any other way as several have been tendered he disingenuously slinks away and puts us off by meer Shifts and Evasions And let the Reader judge if W. Penn has not shown great Cowardice and his Party charged by not appearing at all whereas T. Hicks at least once appeared But why should such a Dispute viva voce be construed to be against the Liberty granted us and the Civil Peace more now than then when at that time those in Civil Authority were more severe whereas now they are very propitious And why should Disputes viva voce be more offensive to Civil Peace than Disputes in Print I believe they can give no Reason And it is altogether incredible that my undertaking the Vindication of the Fundamental Principles of the Christian Faith professed by the present Authority against such manifest Opposers of it as I have proved my Opponents to be can be construed by the Authority to be any breach of the Civil Peace especially when I had procured the Leave of the Lord Mayor of London for such an undertaking whereof my Opponents were not ignorant Their upbraiding me with vain speculations not telling what those are showeth their great impertinency But such who are but a little acquainted with the Religious Differences betwixt them and me may easily guess what they mean by my vain speculations even the Fundamental Truths of the Christian Faith and other solid and sound Articles of Doctrine thereunto belonging And if these be not they I dare them to name what my vain Speculations are whereof they accuse me But to be sure the plain and manifest Proofs I have brought out of their Books against the greatest Truths of Christianity demonstrate their Speculations not only to be Vain but Pernicious and Pestiferous Their Hypocrisie is manifest in making what they call my Passionate and Abusive Behaviour an Excuse for not
this 1. I tell you I am here accidentally 2. I observe that G. Keith takes the Liberty of putting his own Interpretation on the Passages of several Books and since G. K. has departed from the Quakers he has taken on him to write several Books which are extant and over and over he makes his Appeal to this Assembly which I desire you to consider how improper and impracticable it is to decide it here Therefore what he purposed to urge here if he will print it and proceed no further in this Meeting I will be at the Charge of whatever he shall print G. Keith I say If he would lay me down five hundred Pounds I would not break up this Meeting till it is over Stranger He will pay for it i. e. N. Marks G. Keith But it is upon Terms Quaker Began to speak thus they oft sought to interrupt him to divert the Proofs G. Keith Thou knowest thou art not so qualified to speak in this Auditory Let me go on with my Proofs I prove further that G. Whitehead writing against one Jo. Horn reflects on him scornfully he calls his Book the He-goats Horn broken Now see whether G. Whitehead has not broken his own Horn rather It is a Shame the Reflections they have made on Men sounder than themselves Let me read the Words The He-goats Horn broken or Innocency c. in answer to two Books against the Quakers Printed London 1660. Now if I understand any thing of true Divinity or Theology the Passage this Man or Men for there are two of them lays down here is a sound Passage which G. Whitehead contradicts Now here is the Passage and do you judg of it And where we lay down this as Tho. Moor's Principle That their Nature is restored in Christ and that their Nature is a filthy Nature This they say is falsly expressed and perverted and yet J. H. and T. M. a little after say thus viz. That our Nature Kind or Being as in us not in Christ is corrupt and filthy in it self yet Christ took upon him our Nature not as it is filthy in us by Sin in it And they say That we might as well have taxed the Apostle of Confusion for saying Men by Nature do the things contained in the Law p. 11 12. Now here is G. Whitehead's Answer We may justly tax these Men for Confusion indeed but not the Apostle for here they cannot discern between the sinful Nature and the pure Nature for the Nature of Christ is pure so that it 's not their Nature for their Nature is filthy and therefore it is not in Christ Observe Christ did not take upon him Jo. Horn's Nature No says he As I have oft told G. Whitehead that he and W. Penn will needs imbrace false Notions in Philosophy they will needs seem to be Philosophers by Divine Inspiration as well as Ministers and Preachers by it But it is a sad thing that their false Philosophy should destroy their Faith Now here is a false Notion that Christ could not take on him Man's Nature except he took on him the Pollution of it As if the Pollution of Sin were an essential Attribute of Man's Nature Now Sin if it be like Scarlet is no more essential to the Nature of Man than Filth to a Garment for a Garment is the same Garment still whether it be filthy or clean Therefore I say our blessed Lord might well take on him our Nature and the Nature in us be sinful and in him pure and holy And Jo. Horn distinguishes so Now judg ye whether G. Whitehead has broken Jo. Horn's Horn yea or no or rather whether has he not broken his own Horn Thus I have done as to the Object of Faith at present at least Now I come to the Act of Faith or the Vertue of Faith See for the Proofs William Penn his Quakerism a new Nick-name for old Christianity p. 12. Printed Anno 1672. This Book is without the Printer's Name and most of W. Penn's Books are without it tho they persecuted William Bradford in Philadelphia for printing some of my Books without putting his Name Here is the Point Jo. Faldo makes this Charge against the Quakers p. 12. Christianity was introduced by preaching the promised Messiah and pointing at his humane Person but Quakerism by preaching a Light within Now if I had this to answer I would have said Any Quakerism I know of that I learned was introduced into my Heart both by believing in Christ without and in Christ within at once and by one Faith but instead of that he answers thus I answer That this is nothing injurious to the Quakers at all but highly on their side for had they preach'd a Christ now coming in the Flesh they had dented his true and only great visible Appearance at Jerusalem which all true Quakâ—rs own Since tâ—en they believe that Appearance but therefore need not preach whâ—t is not to be again And that the whole Christian World besides have so long aâ—d lazily depended on it without their thirsting after his inward holy Appearance in the Conscience c. This is the thing I come to Since then they believe that Appearance but therefore need not preach what is not to be again if every one of them believe there was such a Man that was born of a Virgin and died for our Sins sixteen hundred Years ago they therefore need not preach that he was so born or that he died for our Sins c. Christ is not to be born again is not to die again c. We need not preach it but throw it over the Shoulder and give it up and bury it in Oblivion from Posterity Judg if this â—e not the true Consequence Let them retract these Errors and not say I am an Apostate for telling them of them As I told G. Whitehead there are Errors in thy Books as well as others and either thou or I must correct them and he was very angry with me Lâ—t them retract them and not count me a Liar for telling them of them But let me again râ—ad out the entire Paragraph Since then they believe that Appearance but therefore need not preach what is not to be again There it clinches they need not preach what is not to be again Take notice also of his uncharitable dealing here if he had said many it might have past But he says the whole Christian World has lazily depended on it Is there none in the Christian World but the Quakers that thirst after the Power of God in their Souls I was never so uncharitable to think so There is more yet p. 6. The Distinction between Moral and Christian The making holy Life legal I know none that do so of any that are sincere in all the Professions in Christendon and Faâ—th in the History of Christ's outward Manifestation has been a deadly Poison these latter Ages have been infected with to the Destruction of Godâ—y Living and apostatizing
two Twelve months But if J. Faldo speak Truth against my Father I must defend him against my Father Hear what J. Faldo says p. 100 101. For Christ to be in the Gentiles rightly understood would be no hard Matter for the Gentiles to believe as to believe such a Glory to be attain'd by Faith in and Obedience to the Laws of a Man who died as a Malefactor and that this Death of his should reconcile God to Man with the Addition of such a Purchase To this W. Penn answereth This sort of Doctrine will becometh John Faldo I perceive I have not mistaken him What Carnalist in the World could have let drop a more perricious Sentence to the Doctrine and Kingdom of Christ than to render it more difficult to believe and lay a greater stress upon the external than the internal Work of Christ we must read the most weighty Scriptures backwards upon this Man's Principles he hath helped us to a new way of rendring the Text not this Mystery among the Gentiles is Christ in you the Hope of Glory but this Mystery among the Gâ—nâ—ilâ—s is a Man who died as a Malefactor by his Death reconciled to God c. Behold your Expositor I dare warrant this Man's Comment will never trouble the next Collection of Criticks At this rate the Lord Lord Criar is highly privileged and the Galatians had passed the most difficult Birth before they had known Christ to be formed in them Regeneration is a slight thing in comparison of the Knowledg of Christ after the Flesh This Doctrine brings not Men to Christ in them the Hope of Glory but inticeth them into the vain Hope of the Hypocrisy which perisheth the History is made the greatest Mystery and to believe the one matter of greater Difficulty than to experience the other 'T is strange that should be reputed most mysterious which was the Introduction to the Mystery and those Transactions counted most difficult that were by the Divine Wisdom of God ordained as so many facile Representations of what was to be accomplished in Man In short it is to lessen if not totally to exclude the true Mystery of Godliness which is Christ manifested in his Children their Hope of Glory We had wont to say All other Professions denied Christ within but here J. Faldo owns Christ to be in the Gentiles rightly understood But to me Christ crucified in whom the Fulness dwell th is a greater Mystery and a greater Matter to be believed I can shew many of the Philosophers that owned the Light within under the Denomination of the Word Light Spirit c. yet it was so hard for them to believe that a Man that was crucified as a Malefactor should die for their Sins Yea Julian the Apostate and Porphirius professed and owned a Divine Principle within as generally the Platonist Philosophers did and Aristotle also but Christ crucified they could not away with And now it is a Stumbling-block to these Quakers This sort of Doctrine well becomes J. Faldo See how he hanters him W. Penn thinks it is a Matter of little or no Difficulty to believe God sent Christ to die for Sinners and to reconcile God to Men by his Death But Christ told the Jews This is the Work of God John 6.29 that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And surely that was the Man Christ Jesus And he said also No Man can come unto me exâ—ept the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6.44 And every one that has heard and learned â—f the Father comes to me ver 45. Now to come to him is the same as to believe in him with a true saving Faith So that it is plain he teaches the Jews that they cannot believe in Christ that appearâ—d outwardly among them whom God has sent but as they are taught of God and drawn of him And yet W. Penn makes it inseriour to Regâ—neration as you may see by his Words Whereas true saving Faith in Christ crucified who died as a Malefactor to reconcile us to God is a great and principal Part of Regeneration and is as great a Work of God as to make us believe Christ's inward Appearance in us But says William Penn Behold your Expositor I dare warrant this Man's Comment will never trouble the next Collection of Criticks c. A rare way to refute him to banter him at this rate Now I will give you my Sense I do not reckon J. Faldo was so ignorant a Man that he believed a Man could be a Christian only with a traditional Knowledg or Faith of Christ without him But tho Regeneration is no slight thing yet I say comparing Christ's Incarnation that is a Complex of Mysteries a certain Writer shews a Complex of twenty and more Mysteries in that one Mystery of Christ's Incarnation I say comparing that with the Work of Regeneration I do affirm the Work of Regeneration is a light thing tho not light in it self Therefore this of W. Penn is but a mere Banter There is none of all the Church-of England-men or Independents or Presbyterians say the mere historical literal traditional Faith of Christ will save any But the Matter is there is a saving Faith of Christ without us and Christ without us as he is both God and Man the Emanuel as well as his inward Appearance in us is the Object of saving Faith but these Men would not own it I desire you well to mark and consider the several Passages in this whole Paragraph of William Penn's Rejoinder what gross and absurd things it contains He saith This Doctrine brings not Men to Christ in them the Hope of Glory but inticeth them into the vain Hope of the Hypocrite which perisheth Yea see how he makes it the vain Hope of the Hypocrite to believe that Christ without is a greater Mystery than Christ within that 's History this is Mystery according to him Now I have some other principal Proofs yet remaining about this gross Error of W. Penn. I shall read to you in his Christian Quaker a Passage p 97 98. printed Anno 1674. but the Printer's Name is not to it To conclude as Abraham outward and natural was the great Father of the Jews whose Seed God promised to bless with Earthly Blessings as Canaan c. and that they were figurative of the one Seed Christ and such as he should beget unto a lively Hope through the Power of his Spiritual Resurrection it will consequently follow that this Seed must be inward and spiritual since one outward thing cannot be the proper Figure or Representation of another nor is it the way of holy Scripture so to teach us The outward Lamb shews forth the inward Lamb the Jew outward the Jew inward As God attended the one with many singuâ—ar outward Mercies to say no more above other Nations so the Jew in Spirit doth he benefit above all other People I have these two short Arguments to prove what I believe and assert as
Who would have thought but that the yearly Meeting if they had any regard to the honour of Christ's blood would have shown greater zeal against these Men than to excommunicate me for opposing their vile errors in Pensilvania and for rendring that precious blood shed for us as an unprofitable thing so trampling it under foot But ye see they have little at all censured them and if you will believe their Patron as ye have cause they owning his Books nothing at all Th. Ellwood affirms I am guilty of Forgery for saying that the yearly Meeting passed any reproof on those passages and whereas I was accused for saying the light within was not sufficient to salvation without something else I have a Letter from B. Chambers one of the principal Evidences that were against me he owns that I mean by that something else not humane Learning not the Letter of the Scripture not outward preaching but I mean only the Man Christ Jesus and his death and sufferings and resurrection c. Now here is a new book of Caleb Pusey come out he calls it a modest account of the difference in Principles between G. Keith and his Adversaries and he would father it on me tho it was not in my thoughts that Jesus of Nazareth cannot be something else than the light within I tell you he would father it on me because I say there is but one only Christ Now I say Christ without does not admit of another Christ within and Christ within does not admit of another Christ without us But Christ without us admits of something else within us and that is his Spirit and Grace And Christ within us admits of something else without and that is his man-hood This is not another Christ than what the Scripture speaks of but the Light within is one thing the body of Christ is another thing Now they of Pensilvania and Th. Elwood give out that I differ from them in Doctrine these men say I do not What Confusion is here among them that say they are in Unity I say the Light within is not sufficient without the Light without Christ without us yet the Sufficiency of the Light and Grace of God within in a true sense I deny not but own And whereas they say the most of my Proofs I have brought have been from Philosophy but it has been only that I may by true Philosophy overthrow their false Phylosophy which destroys their Faith I need not bring Scripture to prove these Points because they now profess to own them but the thing is the Honour of Infallibility and that they have accused G. Keith that G. Keith has not charged them truly And here are the two things their own infallibility and that I have unjustly accused them Now whether I have or no see by the Articles But if they grant or yeild that they have any Errors in any of their Books or unsound passages that they need retract and correct then they are found the false Accusers against G. Keith and G. Keith's found Innocent But this will be hard for them to own First That they have Erred And Secondly That they have falsely accused G. Keith for saying they did Err. I have here a Testimony from W. Penn to prove that Bodily Death did not come in by Man's Sin and then it followeth that the Resurrection of the Body doth not come by Christ's Resurrection W. Penn's words are in Answer to Muggleton and Reeve p. 55. If the Flesh of Beasts is capable of Dying rotting and going to dust who never sinned why should not Man have Dyed and gone to dust though he had never sinned You see this is almost expresly in terms And whereas J. H. calleth one of my Articles a Carnal Reprobation There is nothing about Reprobation in my Articles and the word Carnal is not in-any of the Ten. Auditor Now let him that Answers for W. Penn and Geo. Whitehead tell us what he says to them Articles But they said nothing to them good or bad rare Defendents G. Keith I happened to charge W. Penn with self contradiction will you hear that proved It was in my Printed Paper G. Keith has contradicted himself How Not as to Principles or Practices but as to his Opinion of W. Penn and G. Whitehead but I distinguish betwixt G. Whitehead and VV. Penn Orthodox and G. VVhitehead and VV. Penn Hetrodox so far as I quoted them as Orthodox I stand to these quotations but when in other Books and places they have contradicted them they are accountable for their Contradictions and not I. So not the G. VVhitehead Hetrodox and guilty of these vile Errors I have commended but the G. VVhitehead Orthodox and the like of W. Penn. Now I beg your Patience for one or two Quotations more before I have done It is out of Tho. Elwood to shew you that Tho. Elwood charges me with forgery because I said the Yearly Meeting did censure some of these unsound Papers Here is the passage it is but short p. 84. T. Ellwoods further Discovery Here ye see Friends saith T. Elwood that that Paper of the Yearly Meeting is so far from owning them of the other side as he calls them that is the Friends in America to be guilty of unsound and Erronious Doctrines which G. K. here Expresly saith it doth that it doth not undertake to determine whether the Offence said to be given by some persons was throuhg Erronious Doctrines and unsound Expressions or through weakness frowardness want of VVisdom and right understanding And yet this man hath the confidence and falseness meaning G. K. to say positively that paper doth own them guilty of holding unsound and erronious Doctrines This was my Charity to them that I thought they censured them in some part or degree at least Now these are their words in their Yearly Meeting Paper 1694. London from which I gathered that they censured the words of those in Pensilvania And although it appears that some few Persons have given offence either through Erronious Doctrines unsound Expressions or weakness forwardness want of Wisdom and right understanding I construed or to be equivalent to and as sometimes it is Now see if I was not more charitable to the Yearly Meeting than he is to them Here you see that that Paper of the Yearly Meeting is so far from owning them guilty of unsound Doctrines which G. Keith says it does c. By all which it is plain that not only Th. Elwood but all that approve his Books approve and justify all these Vile Errors I have proved them in Pensilvania guilty of and if he may be credited the Yearly Meeting at London 1694. is equally guilty with them Quaker This is only thy different apprehension G. Keith He says the Yearly Meeting has not found fault with any of these Expressions Now let me read one Passage more it is but about six Lines and I have done with the Printed quotations at present pag. 99. He blames me
of Holiness attainable in this life Nor doth the praying for Forgiveness imply universally the want of it more than the praying for the Spirit implieth the want of it Again Whereas it was said in the above Narrative That G. Whithead hath allegorized away the Birth Death Resurrection and coming again of Christ without us to Judgment take these plain Proofs 1. His allegorizing away his Birth prophesied of by Isaiah 9 6. Unto us a child is born a Son is given This he expoundeth of Christ born within He-Goats Horn Page 51. 2. He allegorizeth away his Resurrection expresly denying that Christ was bodily seen of Paul and perverting that place in 1 Cor. 15.8 to Christ within Page 51. 3. He allegorizeth away his coming without us to Judgment in these Scriptures Matth. 16.27 28 1 Thes 4 15 16 17 Light and Life Page 40 41. 4. Both he and Richard Hubberthorne allegorize away his Burial Light and Life Page 52. and He-Goats Horn Page 62 perverting that Scripture Isa 53. He made his grave with the wicked he adulterates the true Translation and turns it in the wicked which the Hebrew doth not bear Where see a most absurd account of the Resurrection turning it wholly to the Resurrection of two Seeds in two Bodies within men 5. He allegorizeth away the Resurrection of the Saints Bodies by his perversion of that place of Scripture Who shall change our vile body and fashion it like to his glorious body Phil. 3.21 to a change of the Body that the Apostles and Saints witnessed before death and yet in contradiction to that in his Real Quaker a Real Protestant Page 105. he understands that very place of a change of the vile or low and humble Body like unto the glorious Body of Christ as a thing to come Some other of Geo. Whithead's Contradictions 1. GEO. Whithead in his Light and Life page 69. thinks him a very blind and ignorant man that reckons Bodies Celestial and Terrestrial to be all one in Matter and Substance and yet the same G. W. in malice of the Independant Agent pag. 17. recited and approved by John Pennington Apostat expos'd p. 16. owns that Christ's Body now in Heaven is the same in substance he had on earth So by his own words he hath declared himself to be a blind and ignorant man and yet Infallible otherwise by his own word no true Minister 2. In a late printed Half sheet signed by him and seventeen more he owneth Christ to be both God and Man and owneth the Humanity of Christ making it synonimous with Manhood and yet it is proved in the above Narrative that he neither owneth him to be God or Man finding fault with W. Burnet for saying that Christ as God had a Father and had Glory with God before the world began arguing as the Socinians do that this would imply two Gods sâ—e Light and Life page 47. Again He finds fault with T. Danson for saying that the Man Christ had a Created Soul Answer to T D. 's Synopsis p. 18. And he blames R. G. for saying Christ hath a Bodily Existence without us in Heaven Nat. of Christianity page 41. 3. In his late Answer to the Queries sent to the Yearly Meeting of the people called Quakers at London signed by Dr. Lancaster Chaplain to the Bishop of London he owns the Blood of Christ that was outwardly shed to be a part of the Sacrifice even Christ's Blood that was shed without the gates of Jerusalem together with the whole Sacrifice of himself both of Soul and Body was a true Propitiation and Atonement for man's Reconciliation and Peace with God for Remission of sin through a living Faith and true Repentance c. But in his Light and Life he denieth that the outward Blood was that by which we are either sanctified or justified and calleth it a Type and saith the shedding of it was a wicked man's act from whence he inferreth that we are not justified by the outward Blood but pleadeth that the Offering Passover Blood by which we are cleansed is within as the New Covenant is and not without See in the Narrative above And this sort of Unchristian Doctrine G. Whithead as many others did receive neither from the Spirit of Christ within nor from the Holy Scriptures but as it seems from G. Fox who in a printed Paper of his having this Title To all People in Christendom concerning Perfect Love c. also concerning Christ's Flesh which was offered which printed Paper I have it is joined with some other printed Papers under this general Title Several Papers given forth for the spreading of Truth See Page 55 57 59. hath very unsound and unchristian Doctrine concerning Christ's Flesh that is the Offering in which is the belief by Christ's Flesh meaning not his outward Flesh Some of his words I shall faithfully recite as followeth that to me are very unsound and I believe in general to all sound in the Faith And Christ according to the flesh crucified the Lamb slain that flesh of his which is a Mystery when the first Adam's and Eve's flesh was defiled and so death reigned from Adam to Moses pag 55. And Pag. 57. So Adam's Eve's flesh was defiled but the flesh of Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world yet his flesh never corrupted which flesh is the offering for as he was God he did not dye and this flesh is a Mystery and in this flâ—sh Note is the belief that takes away the sin that never corrupted that is the Offering for sin and the Blood of this flesh cleanseth from sin p. 58. Now they that are in the belief of this flâ—sh and offering sees over all offerings to the beginning into the Glory which was with the Father before the world began for all outward Offerings and Sacrifices was given to man after he fell and the Lamb slain which Offering is a Figure of Christ the Seed to be brought forth and offered up and he the Top stone over all laid to end and finish all the outward Offerings and Types and Shadows and in him there is none Page 59. So through this Offering is the Reconciliation through the offering of his flesh that never corrupted but takes away corruptions and his Blood cleanseth from Corruptions the Life real And so this pure Flesh this Offering is set over all which never corrupted which must be your meat if you live Though there is more in all these things which is hard to be uttered and cannot be uttered Yet Annot. It seems what G. Fox did not so fully utter as to this Mystery George Whithead had a mind to utter in his Book called Light and Life that may be as a proper Key to these dark Sayings of George Fox If any object to me as Th Elwood hath done in his Book falsly called Truth defended That I have in some of my Books owned Christ's flesh and Blood within I answer I confess it but no otherwise but