Had God commanded every day of our Lives to be wholly devoted to him it had been but Reason and Equity and since that out of regard to our Weakness and that condition of Mortality wherein he has placed us he requires but one day in a week to be more especially set apart for his Service it were most irrational not to give him that Besides our merciful Lord has a regard in this Commandment even to the Beasts themselves as a part of his Creation which surely are not to be worse used now under the Gospel than under the Law but have as much reason to be rested on the Sabbath day now as they had then 3. Since that this is reasonable what fitter day can we pitch upon than the first day of the week on which our blessed Saviour Jesus arose from the dead For if the Jews together with the Commemoration of the Creation of the World wherein God having perfected all his works rested on the seventh day did likewise keep holy that day with respect to their deliverance from the Tyranny of Pharaoh How much greater reason have we to solemnize the Christian Sabbath with them indeed to celebrate the Goodness Wisedom and Power of God in making of all things in remembring the glorious Resurrection of the Son of God wherein he rose as a triumphant Conquerour from his bed of Darkness after he had dis-mantled the Prisons of Hell and the Grave and wrought a mighty Salvation for Mankind 4. That as God did then so Christ having transmitted his Power to them the Apostles and succeeding Church of God now may very reasonably dispose of us in matters of this nature and direct all its Members into some uniform way at such set times of the Worship of God And that they have done so appears both by some mentions of the Lords day in the Holy Scriptures and by the constant suffrage of the Fathers of the Church since that time which is a sufficient Obligation on all Christians to a due constant and diligent Observation of the Christian Sabbath Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day And lest any man shall say that this Command was given by Moses and so at an end and therefore that Christians are not bound by it Let him take this for an Answer and consider it well and then he will see there is no weight in the Objection and so will not be moved when by impertinent cavilling Fellows 't is urged upon him I say therefore first That every one of the ten Commandments is moral and for that very reason binds all Christians still and therefore the Church of England though these rebellious Quakers disown their Mother hath made them a part of her Liturgy and all good people teach them to their Children in their Catechisms as knowing that all Christians are to give obedience to them under the Gospel Secondly our blessed Saviour says Matth. 5. 17. that he came not to dissolve the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil Think not says he that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets that is to take away the Obligation of that Rule of the Duty of Man to God and his Neighbour given first by Moses and afterwards repeated and inculcated by the Prophets but to fulfil them that is to supply accomplish and perfect those Rules and Doctrins of just and unjust conteined in them by a more ample Interpretation and other Improvement befitting the state of the Gospel And if as these Familists persuade their unwary Proselytes to fulfil were to put an end to a thing the sense must be thus that Christ came not to destroy that is to put an end to the Law but to put an end to it But who can imagine without Blasphemy our blessed Saviour would be guilty of such an absurd speech Now if it shall be asked why then Christ did not improve the fourth Commandment touching the keeping holy of the Sabbath it is answered That this was already strictly observed among the Jews even unto Superstition and therefore there needed rather a Relaxation than an Addition to this Commandment For whereas the Jews on that day would not so much as kindle a Fire or dress the Meat they should eat or carry any Burden or take a Journey and hence accuse our Saviour for healing on the Sabbath and his Disciples for plucking the ears of Corn Jesus tells them that The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath intimating that Works of Necessity and Mercy may lawfully be done on the Sabbath though not the Works of a mans ordinary Trade and Employment SECT II. Almighty God having given the whole Earth to Man for his Habitation common Reason and Justice require that Man should sanctisie and separate some peculiar place for the Service and Worship of his great Creator And accordingly we find in all Ages of the world and by all Persons professing any Religion at all some particular and set places appointed to invocate and worship the supreme Deity Among the Jews God had his Temple whither all the Tribes went up to worship And in Prophane Histories we read of Temples dedicated to the Use and Service of some Supreme Deity From whence it appears that the very Law of Nature commands to fix and set apart a place for the Service of God And God will have this of us too that as he hath reserved a portion of the Time of our Life for the celebration of his Honour so hath he also reserved a Portion out of the Place of our Residence Therefore in Ezek. 45. God commands the children of Israel and in them all the Nations of the World that when they come to inhabit the Land he gives them they must divide it into three Parts one for the People another for the King but the first for God himself But and if it shall be said that this was a Command under the Levitical Law and so not obligatory to us Christians who live not under that Law It must be remembred that though God commanded a House and Place for his Service to be built and set apart yet all Mankind were tied to the same Duty by a Law more Antient than that of Moses even by the very Law of Nature which lays a perpetual and indispensable Injunction upon all men that God have his Place of Worship and as it were Residence among them that they might live in a continual Dependence upon him and remember that that they receive the very Places of their Abode and Habitation from his Gift and Benevolence And it was some hundreds of years before the Law of Moses was given that Jacob when he was poor and had not wherewithal to build God an House yet consecrated a Portion of Ground by erecting a Stone and pouring oil on the head thereof calling the Place Bethel that is The House of God and vowed to build it when God should bless and make him able to do it Gen. 28. 22. So that
I find it in the Collection of his Scribble lately printed in Folio By Order and Authority given unto me by the Spirit of the living God King of Kings and Lord of Lords the 31 day of the 10 month in the year of the Worlds account 1655. about the fourth hour in the morning when my Meditations were on my God upon my Bed in Kilkenny City in the Nation of Ireland at that time the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Write my Controversie with all the Inhabitants of the Earth unto all sorts of people as I will shew thee Given under my hand and sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God who lives for ever E. B. Then follows O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord. After this he lays about him on all sides as if he were mad and like a ravening Wolf worries every thing that comes in his way threatning Plagues and Vengeance to all that are not Quakers But I must not forget his Prophetical Epistle to the Pope in the conclusion of which he tells him That he has many more things to write to him when he receives his answer and if the Pope will give him ground to accuse him he will thresh him and lay it to his charge by the Authority and Spirit of the Lord. Then this Postscript Return your Answer to me or any of the people called Quakers for me in London from whence this is sent being written the 24 of the 8 month 1658. A pretty way of prophesying to threaten destruction from the Lord against the Pope and then to desire an Answer I suppose how he liked of it The man it seems had a strong faith and if he did believe that his Prophetical Letter should come to the Popes hands yet he was but a fool if he thought either that would convert him or that the Pope would trouble himself to answer it Having discovered from their Writings that they conceit themselves to be divinely inspired which is a thing common to all Enthusiastical Hereticks I shall give two or three Examples of the folly and ridiculousness of their Inspirations A Gentleman of Newcastle affirmed that some Quakers came to Kendale Church and said They had a Commission from the Lord to pull down the Steeple One Thomas Castley a Quaker came to Kendale Church in the time of the Sermon and said That he was commanded from God to pull down the Hour-Glass And the same man went a long mile with no other Message from God as he pretended but this to tell one of the Ministers of Newcastle Thou art an High Priest which words having spoken he went his way A certain Quaking Woman at Cambridge stript her self of her Cloths by the River side and went stark naked through the midst of the Town and being asked the reason of such a shameful action she answered That she was commanded in that manner to go to the House of the Mayor of the Town and deliver a Message from God unto him But so unhappily it fell out that the Mayor was gone a Journey and came not home till some days after Either such Revelations as these must be meer Cheats or else it must be said that the Spirit of God took no notice whether the Mayor were at home or not One Williamson's Wife coming to Appleby to see James Milner a Disciple of Foxes said in the hearing of divers there That she was the Eternal Son of God and when the men that heard her told her that she was a woman and therefore could not be the Son of God she said No you are women but I am a man This I mention that the Reader may see to what absurd Impieties these Enthusiastick people are lead by their own Dreams At Weighton a little Town in Yorkshire a woman of this Goatish Herd came naked from her own Bed to another womans husband a companion of hers it seems of the same Sect and bid him Open his Bed to her for the Father had sent her to him the man had at that time another man lying in Bed with him who rose to give place to this woman and left this honest couple to lie together according to the womans Revelation By this taste which I have here given there is no rational person but will conclude the Quakers to be a simple deluded people taking their own Dreams and Melancholick Fancies for Divine Inspirations and having cast off the use of Reason and the written Word of God are made obnoxious to all the Impostures and Injections of the Devil and till they return to that Guide I mean the voice of Reason and Scripture which they have so wilfully abandoned and forsaken must inevitably lie under everlasting Errours and Deceits CHAP. VIII Of the Quakers Perfection THe Quakers talk much of Perfection and Freedom from sin in this life and that they have already attained to it but he that shall look into the Manners and Conversations of the most of them shall find their Pretensions to this high state no greater than for a common Strumpet to brag of her honesty for the very boasting of a thing they have so little of does evidently declare their enormous and monstrous pride and those to whom they upbraid the want of it do better deserve the name than they in that their lives are indeed not worse but their spirits in not pretending to it far more humble and modest For if the Pharisees Litany God I thank thee that I am not as other men are stand upon record as a mark of the Pharisaical arrogance and pride I know not how these high-flown Enthusiasts can justifie themselves And certainly for them to arrogate to themselves a freedom from sin and perfection above all other men when yet the vulgar and common people discern and take them tripping in daily faults and miscarriages even in their ordinary converse with the world it must needs appear that either they do the most unjustly challenge this state of perfection or else by an Antinomian liberty they conceive themselves to have a freedom to act any thing and that after they are arrived to such a way and dispensation they are no longer obliged by any Law nor can any thing they do be called a sin And as hitherto I have proved by undeniable Instances that the Familists and Quakers are one and the same in their Opinions and Judgments so in this boast of their perfection and freedom from sin they both walk in the same Path. And in them is that of the Apostle St. Peter verified 2 Pet 2. 18 9. When they speak great swelling words of vanity such as perfection and freedom from sin they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped from them who live in errour While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage I do not find that any of the holy
looked for better satisfaction for his money when the Quaker upon demand of it replied That the Light within him told him that he owed him nothing SECT III. A third Manifestation of the Familists and Quakers being one and the same Sect is their abrogating and disanulling all outward Ordinances and Institutions of Religion That this was the Opinion of David George and H. N. cannot be unknown to any who have but heard or read any thing of them and their Persuasions See H. N.'s Epistle to the two Daughters of Warwick Sect. 5. 7. 10. And that those high-flown Spiritualists the Quakers are of the same mind needs no proof but is evident from their Practice in condemning and censuring men for using a Form of Prayer for baptizing their children for receiving the Sacrament for paying their Tithes and honouring God with their Substance setting apart a place and time for the Worship of God and indeed the whole Duty of Religion if there be any thing outward and of the body in it But that God who has commanded us to worship him in Spirit and in Truth has likewise commanded us to do it with our bodies as well as with our souls 1 Cor. 6. 20. and that bodily expressions by Gestures and Postures are to be used in Christian Religion as kneeling bowing and the like is apparent from the examples of Christ and his Apostles The Holy Jesus himself lift up his sacred Eyes to Heaven when he prayed for Lazarus fell on his face when he prayed in his Agony And St. Paul as himself says Eph. 3. 14. bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ He and St. Peter and the rest of the believers do the like more than once in the Acts of the Apostles Besides confessing praising and glorifying God by the Voice is as much an outward and bodily Worship as any other and therefore if God be not to be honoured and worshipped with bodily Worship we must not pray nor praise him with the Voice Again the very Frame of Christian an Religion presupposes a bodily and outward Worship of God for the Christian Religion is given to men who consist of Body as well as Soul and not to Angels and while we are in these bodies it is impossible but that they must partake in our worship of God yea when it is performed in the most spiritual manner of all Lastly if bodily Worship be not a part of Gods Service there can be no such thing as Idolatry when a man worships an Image As for Example Idolatry is the giving of that Worship to a Creature which is incommunicably proper to God now when a man bows his body to an Image as to an Object of Religious Worship he gives that honour to the Image which is proper to God therefore bowing the body is proper to God and a part of his Worship By this 't is evident what a loss these foolish people are at when they so impudently cry down bodily Worship they run hand over head and never consider the Conclusions that must be drawn from such dangerous Premisses for their very praying together is bodily Worship SECT IV. With a like silly and weak confidence they exclame against Forms of Prayer whenas our Blessed Saviour taught his Disciples a Form Matt. 6. 9. Thus therefore pray ye and lest we should think that this was only a Pattern as if Christ had said Pray after this pattern or to this sense St. Luke Chap. 11. expresses it When ye pray say Our Father c. that is do it in haec verba Moreover that this is a Form of Prayer to be used in the very words it was delivered appears sufficiently from the Occasion of it It came to pass saith St. Luke as Jesus was praying in a certain place that when he ceased one of his Disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples where we are told first that John delivered a certain Form of Prayer to his Disciples Secondly that the Disciples of our Saviour besought him that he also would give them in like manner some Form of his making that they might also pray with their Masters Spirit as John's Disciples did with theirs For 't is ridiculous to think that either John's or our Saviours Disciples knew not how to pray before whenas they were Jews and had their constant hours of Prayer as the third sixth and nineth But besides all this I shall come nearer to themselves when an Enthusiastic Quaker at a meeting starts up and begins to pray I would fain know whether the rest of the Company join with him and go along with him in this Prayer or not If they do not to what purpose doth he pray in a vocal and audible manner for he might as well have prayed to himself as to speak aloud if it be not for Edification that others may join with him If they do join with him in that his Prayer is it not then a Form to all them that hear it and are not they bound to pray in those very words and expressions which he utters And though he be never so much over-flowed with the Spirit of the Lord as they talk yet the hearers are limited and confined to those very expressions which the inspired Prophet utters With what confidence then can men separate from the Church of God and run after these Whifflers when the case is so plain against them certainly any man that has but half an eye may see that they are mere cheats in these things Let it not be said then that men who can use their Reasons well enough in other things should be so far to seek in these as to be carried away against Scripture Sense and Reason and the Experience of every man only by the prate and talk of an ignorant sottish fellow Object But here they object that St. Paul in Rom. 8. 26. saith That the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Therefore we ought not to put up our petitions to God in a Form of Prayer Answ Here we may see those very persons who deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God yet like the Devil make use of them for their own advantage But if it shall be manifested that the Text alledged has not one syllable in it that proves an immediate Inspiration of God both for the words and matter of Prayer their boasting will be found to be ridiculous and vain May not this then be St. Paul's meaning who all along before was discoursing of bearing the Cross that the Holy Spirit helps the weakness of our natures lifting and bearing up as it were a part of the burden of the Cross for us for that we know not which part to chuse or to pray for either a perfect deliverance from it or that we should continue longer under the
burden of it But what is this to immediate infusions and inspirations in Prayer SECT V. Now as for Baptism it is no wonder if they throw that by as a useless carnal Ordinance for they rejecting the Gospel of Christ Jesus and pretending one of their own by immediate Revelation do but follow the conduct and guide of their own Opinions in denying Obedience to a positive Command of that Lord whose Rule and Dominion they have cast off and disallow They that refuse and despise the Governour will not stick to slight his Laws and these men undervaluing and contemning the Person of Jesus Christ the Son of God and Judge of Men and Angels will easily contemn and vilifie his Commands as things of no value and moment But the Christian Church has always looked upon Baptism as a rite of Initiation into a Religion and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ finding it in use among the Jews adopted it into his Religion and made it subservient to holy and blessed purposes under the Gospel And being a Ceremony neither burdensom nor offensive he has commanded it to be used by every one that professes Christianity whereby we enter and are admitted into the Church of Christ and we know of no other door set open under the Gospel for Salvation but this Matth. 28. 19. Go and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost So Saint Mark Chap. 16. 15 16. Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature he that believes and is baptized shall be saved but he that believes not shall be damned And Christ says expresly Joh. 3. 5. That Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God When therefore the Apostles had received this Commission from the Lord Jesus they baptized every one that desired to enter into Christs Religion and lest these Deceivers should apply this Baptism to a mystical sense the Acts of the Apostles will furnish us with Examples enough that the Apostles baptized with the outward element of Water Acts 2. 41. They that gladly received his word were baptized Acts 10. 47. 48. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we Mark here they were baptized with the Spirit and yet needed the Baptism of Water And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord. Acts 8. 36. See here is Water says the Eunuch to Philip what hinders me to be baptized And v. 38. They went down both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him And this Custom of admitting men into Christs Family and Religion by Baptism hath been used successively in the Church of Christ in obedience to his Command and conformity to the Apostles Practice without any Interruption from their time to this very day And because 't is likewise necessary that every good Christian be furnished with knowledge to defend his Religion against the Adversary I shall answer what they bring to seduce the ignorant People from this Institution of our Saviour Jesus Christ And though what the Quaker urges for himself be nothing to this purpose yet because it will manifest to the world that there is nothing in Quakery but Folly and Cavils I will produce it He says therefore that Baptism is a Figure or Type and therefore now not to be used and for this he brings 1 Pet. 3. 21. The like figure whereunto even Baptism also doth now save us Which place does very much confirm the use and practice of Baptism for the Apostle speaking of Noah and his Family being saved in the Ark from perishing by Water answerable to which Baptism says he now saves us not only the external sign or washing with water but the answer of a good Conscience the being baptized into the Death of Christ and rising with him to newness of life Now if the washing with water together with the answer of a good Conscience save us then it ought still to be used For if the Apostle had here denied the baptizing with water there had been no Analogy or correspondence in his speech but he expresly says that as Noah was saved by Water so answerable to that are Christians by Baptism But these Heretics would fain separate the sign and the thing signified which the Apostle does not SECT VI. By the same Diabolical Spirit wherewith they are possessed they lay aside the Sacrament of the Lords Supper as a thing too carnal for such high flown and conceited Spiritualists as they are But I desire those that are not yet taken in their snares nor bewitched with their enticing and subtle words to look back to Christs own Institution and if they have any fear of God or love to that Saviour who redeemed them to consider seriously with what confidence they can deny so plain a Command and cast off a Duty to the practice o which not only Christ Jesus the great Law-giver but their own particular needs and necessities bind and oblige them In Matth. 26. v. 26. 27. we have Christs Institution of this holy Sacrament how that He took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body Then he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it St. Mark Chap. 14. repeats the very same and says They all drank of it But St. Luke Chap. 22. 19. and St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 24. add these words Do this in remembrance of me the full importance of which words is First a Commission given by our Lord Jesus to his Apostles to continue this Ceremony now used by him as an holy Ceremony or Sacrament in the Church for ever Secondly a Direction that for the manner of observing it they should do to other Christians as he had now done to them i. e. Take bless break this Bread take and bless this Cup and then distribute it to others settling this on them as a part of their Office a branch of that Power left them by him and by them communicable to whom they should think fit after them Thirdly a specifying the end to which this was designed a commemoration of the Death of Christ a representing his Passion to God and a coming before him in his Name first to offer our Sacrifices of Supplications and Praises in the name of the crucified Jesus as of old both among Jews and Heathens all their Sacrifices were rites in and by which they supplicated God And secondly to commemorate that his daily continual Sacrifice or Intercession for us at the right hand of his Father now in heaven It is not my purpose to make here a Discourse of the Sacrament but to shew that Christ by his Institution of it intended it to continue in his Church till his coming again to Judgment and that
this Office of Administring it was by our Lord Jesus bestowed and settled upon his Apostles and that they planting of a Church which should continue after their Death should appoint and ordain Successors to themselves to preside and officiate in that Church and particularly to administer this Sacrament to the People by way of Office to do as here Christ did And this not in a Mystical and Allegorical but Literal Sense so that though it be true that he that eateth not Christs Flesh and drinketh not his Bloud has no Life in him yet is this to be done by the partaking of the outward Bread and Wine and by our communicating of that according to Christs Institution we partake of his Body and Bloud in a Spiritual manner and all other benefits of his Death and Passion So that these Apostates and Heretical Persons by their Allegories and Mystical meanings would bereave the Christian World of the choicest Mystery of Religion in which we are confirmed and assured of the Pardon of our Sins and by Gods free remission the burdned and distressed Soul is refreshed and we receive further supplies and increase of Grace and the Spirit of God to enable us to do that which he will graciously in Christ accept at our hands i. e. to serve him in holiness and renewed Righteousness and to impower us if we be not wanting to our selves and to our own best hopes and Interests to continue and persevere thus to our lives end And now let all men consider seriously how heinous a thing it is Schismatically to separate from the Church and how grosly they are cheated and abused by these deceitful Quakers and imposed upon against the plain Sense and Current of the Holy Scripture and how they hope to look that Jesus with comfort in the Face at the dreadful Day of Judgment whose sacred Institutions they now vilifie and contemn Christ saith Eat this bread and drink this wine in remembrance of me and Saint Paul says that as oft as we shall eat this bread and drink this cup we do one to another annuntiate or proclaim the death of the Lord till he come again to judge us But these Fanatic Spiritualists would persuade us that this Communion is Heathenish and Abomination Now judge whom we are to follow in this matter whether Christ and his Apostles or these deceitful Whifflers For Christ and his Apostles did corporally eat and drink the material Bread and Wine and left command to his Church that it should so be done and that this Order was observed Saint Paul plainly shews 1 Cor. 11. where he sets down the manner of Christs Institution of this Holy Sacrament and rectifies some abuses the Corinthians were guilty of CHAP. III. Of the Holiness of Times Things and Persons under the Gospel BEcause the Church of God hath ever set apart some Times Things and Persons in a more immediate relation to God and his Service and that these seducing Familists persuade the People that all these are equally common with others and so no difference to be put between one day and another one thing and another or one person and another though in the nearest relation to God and his Service but that the Christian Sabbath is no more than another day the Church no more than a Stable or Barn nor a Minister or Euangelical Priest than another man as appears by their following many times their usual Imployments and Trades on a Sunday their despight and scorn cast upon the material Edifices or Churches wherein Divine Service is celebrated calling them Steeple-houses in derision and the reviling Gods Ministers by the names of Baals Priests Hirelings Serpents and whatever their black and impure Hearts and Mouths can think and utter I shall therefore for the sake of those ignorant People who are not yet drawn away nor bewitched with their Sorceries and Inchantments shew plainly and distinctly the Reasonableness of these things When God created Man he wrote this Truth on his heart that he was a Creature and therefore acknowledging Gods Sovereignty and Dominion over all the Works of his hands he must likewise confess that God has a Right and Propriety in every thing from his Sovereign Majesty and Dominion which can never be alienated from him or he ever dispossessed of Since then God by Royal Bounty has not only given Man his Being but likewise draws out this Existence which is the Time and Duration of it and enriched him with various Gifts and Benefits such as the free Use and Enjoyment of all earthly Creatures he is obliged and bound to pay some Service Duty and Fealty to this great Lord of the World and must return him back something of all that he hath given him But lest this should be left to the frail and mutable will of Man who being possessed of these Benefits might forget the Lord therefore God has expresly declared how and in what sort he shall hold and enjoy all these Blessings that is So that God the great Lord have a Rent or Portion reserved out of them to himself that thereby Man might still acknowledge Gods Sovereignty and his own Dependency upon him Now the Benefits God has conferred upon Man they are 1. The Time or Duration of his Life 2. The Place of his Habitation 3. The Means of susteining his bodily Life upon Earth Out of all these God must have his Honorary Part That is since God has given us our Beings and draws them out in length and continues our Life to us we owe in Justice some portion of this time to God So likewise since God has given Man so wide a place for his dwelling as the whole Earth he must allot some place some part of this great space for God And lastly since all Creatures are given Man for his own Use and Benefit 't is fit that God likewise have his Rent out of what we possess and enjoy SECT I. In the fourth Commandment God designed the seventh day for his Service and Worship For the Worship of Almighty God being once setled in all the Parts and Duties of it it necessarily follows that some time should be set apart for the more special performance of it And this Commandment being Moral as all the rest of the Decalogue are a Symbol of which was their being written by the finger of God in Tables of Stone to denote their eternal Permanency and Morality we are as much bound to the Observation of it as to its main Importance as to the sixth or seventh I say we are bound to the Observation of it as to the Equity and Morality of it And from this we conclude 1. That it is reasonable there should be a time set apart for Gods Worship For we being commanded to worship honour and serve God it is impossible to do it but within the Comprehension of some time or other 2. One day in seven is time little enough to be allotted for the more special Service of God
the very secret instinct and working of Nature leads men to the Practice of this Duty and hence likewise it was that the Jews though never commanded of God had two sorts of Places for Religious Duties besides their Tabernacle or Temple the one called Proseuchae Oratories and the other Synagogues The Oratory or Place of Prayer was a Plot of Ground encompassed with a Wall or some other like Mound or Inclosure and open above and the use was properly for Prayer and this stood without the City But the Synagogue was a covered Edifice as our Houses and Churches are where the Law and the Prophets were read and expounded and the People instructed in Divine Matters according to that Acts 15. 21. Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day and this stood within the City The Oratory or Place of Prayer is sometimes mentioned in the New Testament as in Luke 6. 12. where it is said that our Saviour went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an Oratory or Prayer-house of God And in Acts 16. 13. St. Luke tells us that St. Paul being come to Philippi in Macedonia On the Sabbath day they went out of the City to a river side 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where there was famed or reported to be an Oratory yet if we render it Where Prayer was wont to be made it will follow that here was a place set apart and used for Prayer and there St. Paul sate down and spake to the women that were come together there From what has been said it follows that to set apart a Place for the Worship of Almighty God is the common Voice and Dictate of Reason and Nature inasmuch as the Jews had set Places in and about every City and Town where the Word of God was preached and to which they assembled to pray unto him which Places God never commanded them to erect and build and yet both these sorts of Places were sanctified with Christs own presence in them And what they did all other Nations equally thought themselves obliged to do as I have above instanced in the Heathens yea the very Turcs have their Moschs or Places to pray in and to worship God Only these Familistical Heretics because they deny the Lord Jesus Christ do likewise despise his Religion and the Place wherein he is worshipped And because the Familistical Generation do at this time befool ignorant though many honest and conscientious People and draw them off from the Truth which their Fore-fathers peaceably and harmlesly mainteined by telling them that to call a Material Building a Church is Popery and Antichristianism I shall shew 1. That it is so called and used in the Holy Scripture 2. That there were such Places in the Apostles times That the word Church Ecclesia is used for the Material Building as well as to signifie the People or Congregation let any man that doubts consult 1 Cor. 11. 22. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God That by Church here is not meant the Assembly or Congregation but the Place appears 1. By comparing the 18. and 20. verses before-going When ye come together in the Church and the Apostle in the 20. verse continuing his speech upon the same subject goes on thus When ye come together therefore into one place so that now it is determined what the word Church signifies namely the Place whither they came together 2. The Apostle opposes the Church to their own Houses Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in As if he had said Your houses are the places to eat and drink in but the Church is the Place of Prayer and to commit such a Disorder there is to vilifie and contemn the Place which is set apart for Gods Worship And therefore in the last verse the Apostle says If any man hunger let him eat at home by which 't is plain the Church and their Houses were different Places 3. The very Etymology of our English word Church denotes the Place for that comes from the German word Burken and that of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Dominicum the Lords House or the Place where the Lord is worshipped But if such Whifflers did not despise all Learning as well as the Church of God they might from an ordinary School-Boy be furnished with Examples enough where one and the same word signifies both the Persons and the Place as he would tell them that Civitas signifies both the Citizens and the City Collegium the Society and the House Senatus the Senators and the Senate-house Synagoga the Assembly and the Place of the Assembly and so Ecclesia Church signifies both the People and the Material Building For the second thing that there were Churches that is Oratories or Places set apart for Divine Worship in the Apostles times and that they did not assemble promiscuously and uncertainly here and there as they pleased and in places of common use appears not only from those Records which make mention of their Times but from some places in the New Testament We read in Acts 2. 46. of the first Christian Society at Jerusalem That they continued daily in the Temple and breaking bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the house ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart That which I observe from hence is this that the Disciples at Jerusalem met together in a certain House which was dedicated and set apart from common use for the peculiar Worship of God and therefore ought to be read in the House and not as we translate it from house to house And so 't is used elsewhere in the New Testament as Rom. 16. 3 5. Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the Church that is in their house And again sending salutation from them 1 Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the Church in their house Now that by the Church in their house is not to be understood their Family is evident in that St. Paul useth it only to some persons and not to others who questionless were Masters of Families likewise Thus St. Paul salutes Philemon and v. 2. the Church in his house from which I gather that Philemon's House was the Church in which the believers met to serve God in Laodicea And I have these two reasons to think it to be so 1. That if by the Church in Philemon's house were meant his Family it should properly and regularly have been joyned immediately after the greeting of Philemon whereas St. Paul salutes Apphia and Archippus between 2. It were very strange he should not salute the Family of Archippus who was then Bishop of Laodicea as well as the Family of Philemon By the Church therefore at such a mans house must be the whole Congregation of the Saints which assembled at such a house which House
God for him and that Abraham did thereupon give him the tythe of all Now look in the seventh of the Hebrews where this story is repeated you shall find that Melchisedek was a Type of Christ and hence Christs Priesthood is said to be after the order of Melchisedek and it is said that Melchisedek in the Person of Christ received Tythes of Abraham therefore Tythes are now due to Christ for as much as he is still a Priest after the order of Melchisedek and consequently they are the right and portion of his Ministers The next place of Scripture mentioning Tythes before the Law is in Gen. 28. v. 22. Jacob going upon his adventure voweth that if God will be with him in his journey and give him meat and cloath and so that he return safe then saith he the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I here set up shall be Gods house and of all that thou shalt give me will I give the tenth unto thee 3. If the payment of Tythes under the Gospel were meerly Judaical then should the Ministers of the Gospel receive much more than a tenth part which they do not nor is there hardly a Parish in England where the Minister is paid the full tenth without purloining and snipping by some sacrilegious hand or other Now though Christs Ministers ought to have a more honourable maintenance than the Priests and Levites yet such is the iniquity of men that they have not the tenth whereas the Israelites paid out of their increase of Corn almost a fifth part for several Tythes and Duties commanded to them And by what is said I have manifested the frivolousness of this Objection That Tythes are Levitical and if there were not some sweetness which the covetous and sacrilegious man reaped by pinching the Parson he could never deny the payment of his Tythes upon such a silly pretence Object 2. They say that Christ told his Disciples Freely they had received therefore they should freely give Mat. 10. 8. and the Apostles Paul and Barnabas preached freely working with their own hands that they might not be chargeable to any therefore Ministers should not grieve the people by taking Tythes Answ That of our Saviour to his Disciples Freely ye have received freely give belongs not to the case of Tythes as any one that reads the foregoing words may see the gifts which Christ gave to his Apostles were to heal the sick cleanse the Lepers raise the dead and to cast out Devils which miraculous gifts if it had been lawful would have been a way to bring in gain enough for what would not a Parent give to have his dead Child raised to life or a man to have his dear and sick Friend recovered or dispossessed of an evil spirit Therefore our blessed Lord that he might declare his own Mission that he was sent for the good and common benefit of all men charges his Disciples that they should not think of appropriating these extraordinary gifts to their private interest and advantage but that as God without any merit of theirs had graciously conferred these Powers upon them so they should as freely make use of them for the benefit of others Neither do the Ministers sell the Holy Ghost or the Gospel for money but preach it freely being maintained at Gods charges for there is a Rent or Portion of every mans Estate due to God as an acknowledgment they hold all they have of him and God being self-sufficient and standing in need of nothing of ours has assigned and given this Portion of his for the maintenance of his Ministers And as the Apostles were never charged with this sin of selling their gifts when they lived at the costs of those to whom they preached the Gospel so neither are the Ministers now guilty of this sin when for their Preaching they are maintained at Gods charges and live upon his Revenue for the Lord himself said Dignus est operarius Mercede suâ Then for the Apostles Paul and Barnabas preaching the Gospel freely it rather makes against than for them that object it for this was no binding Commandment to them nor had Christ any where said to them Ye shall not take Tithes but it was a Charter of Liberty and Power granted to them they might both use and exact Maintenance if they would or they might discedere de jure leave it if they listed 1 Cor. 9. 6. I only and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges Who planteth a Vine-yard and eateth not of the fruit thereof Or who feedeth a flock and eats not of the milk of the flock As if he had said May the other Apostles eat and drink upon the expence of the Church and keep their Wives also and Family by the Revenue dedicated to God by their Children whom they beget in the Gospel and must I only and Barnabas not live but by the works of our hands And that he may not in the least reprove the Apostles who were mainteined by the Church he shews that it was just and lawful for them to live as they did of the Churches Allowance by an Argument of Comparison seeing Soldiers live by their Wages and Husband-men by the Fruit of their Labours and Shepherds of that which comes of the Flock It is plain then that St. Paul might have lawfully demanded and received Tithes if he would but he did not use that Power which he might have done because he would not have them think he was burdensom to them But if a man will recede from his right and not take what he lawfully may does that prove that he has no right nor due to it I have now made it manifest and evident that Tithes as they are now the stated and set Maintenance of the Ministers are due by Divine Right which also the very Text and Body of the Common Law of England holds them to be as Judge Coke says in the second Part of his Reports Dismes sont choses spirituels due de jure Divino But suppose they were not what advantage can a hungry Familist reap by it surely very little It is said Nehem. 10. 32. that Nehemiah and the Jews made Statutes for themselves to give every year the third part of a Shekel for the service of the House of God It was in their power before to give what they pleased but they by a joint consent fix upon the third part of a Shekel every year and by this Ordinance and Statute they were bound to make good their Grant The Case is the same with us our Forefathers made Laws among themselves to give a portion of their Land and the tenth part of their Substance that is these Parsonages for the Service of the House of God Now suppose that Tithes were not due before yet now being voluntarily given and this Grant confirmed by so many Acts of Parliament they are now become due and the Ministers have as
the denial of 2 Tim. 2. 17. Who concerning the truth have erred saying that the Resurrection is past already and overthrow the Faith of some We therefore who are taught and believe the written Word of God and make that the Rule of our Faith and Manners do own and profess a Resurrection of our mortal bodies at the last day when Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God whom the Heavens shall contain till in his own good time he shall think fit to put an end to the Generations of men and the frame of this visible World shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and having called the dead from their graves shall visibly distinguish the righteous from the wicked taking them up with him into Heaven to join with his glorious Host of Light and sentencing these into everlasting fire which heavy doom and vengeance shall presently be executed upon them for through the stupendious Operation of the Son of God the Earth that now is with all the works therein shall be on fire and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and all wicked men and devils shall be plunged into that Lake that burns for ever Knowing therefore these terrours of the Lord the Ministers of the Gospel perswade men by a speedy repentance to turn unto God to mortifie and subdue all their carnal lusts and corruptions and to be regenerated and born again in the spirit of their minds to cast off the old man with his deeds and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and holiness because God will bring every man into judgment and they must look to give an account after they are dead of all that they have done in the body whether good or bad But it is a very great argument to me that these Familistical Quakers believe none of these things in good earnest because I find these arguments of the Immortality and future subsistence of every mans Soul of the satisfaction and death of Jesus for the sins of men upon the Cross and his intercession for us now in Heaven of the Resurrection of the Body and the general day of Judgment at the end of the World either not at all made use of by them or but lightly touched and that in a mystical and allegorical way Whereas the holy Apostles did in their Sermons most commonly make use of some or more of these general heads according to the capacities or needs and necessities of their Auditors As for example what can be more effectual for the begetting sincere holiness in men than to press upon them the consideration of the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ who out of meer good will gave his life a ransom for the sins of all the world and that he is now an Advocate and Intercessor in Heaven for those that believe on his Name And if they will not be moved by love and kindness then to advise them to look to their Interest and Advantage forasmuch as all men must give an Account to God at the general Day of Judgment for all their Actions and shall receive either Reward or Punishment as they have been either good or evil and therefore since their Souls are immortal and live after their Bodies are dead it behooves them to provide for them in time and secure them a happy Entrance and Admission into the other world Would not this be much better than to make a long Harangue and nonsensical Story of the Light within and coming to the Witness within which their Auditors understand nothing of in the way they propound it and at last concluding like mad People with downright railing against every man that is not of their mind which way of Preaching the Gospel is very much different from the manner of the Apostles and such as the true Ministers of God in England desire never to be guilty of Learning I have now made it more than a probable Conjecture that although these modern Familists the Quakers make a great noise about Christ within them and the Light of God yet they are mere Sadduces really denying the Immortality and Life of the Soul after the death of the Body and therefore so much more carefully to be avoided by every man that tenders his Happiness in the other world for though they beguile the simple and unwary yet the more prudent and understanding person who is able to dive into the bottom of their Errors and Heresies will undoubtedly confess it to be a piece of beastly sottishness undermining the very foundation of all Religion in the World CHAP. V. That the Quakers are dangerous Enemies of the Civil Magistrate WE have seen their Opposition to the Church and their Disaffection to the Ministry of the Gospel let us now see if they are any better-natur'd to the Civil Magistrate And here you shall find them dissembling their Opinions and because something must be said as well to satisfie the minds of the common People whom they delude as to keep themselves out of the reach and cognizance of the Laws of the Land they pretend a kind of a partial subjection and obedience which when strictly examined is indeed no obedience at all And herein they shew themselves as in all other things excellent Proficients in the School of H. N. who in his Exhortat speaks thus That his Instructions of the upright and Christian Baptism his crying voice c. These may be confessed among the adulterous and sinful Generation and the false hearts of the Scripture-learned for so he calls all that are not of his way but says he ye shall not talk of your secrets or utter your Mysteries openly or nakedly in the hearing of your young Children or Disciples but spare them not in the ears of your Elders which can understand the same or are able to bear or away with the sound thereof In like manner the Quakers conceal the Depth and Mystery of their way from their new-made Proselytes and when they must say something for satisfaction of the world they speak so doubtfully that their Expressions seem not to mean what they carry in them But to descend to some Particulars They are dangerous Enemies to the Civil Magistrate 1. Because their Principles tend to the exciting of Sedition and Rebellion In the Book called The Principles of Truth p. 58. they say thus Such Magistrates who be proud and lofty who rule not for God but for themselves who love the praise of men c. such Magistrates they deny and testifie against This at the first looks very innocently and harmlesly but let the Reader beware how he swallows it for there is Death in the Pot. The Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. commands thus Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and
Sugar-Plumbs lay under their Tongues when a deadly poison lodges in their Hearts which being nothing but a canting in Scripture-phrase and expression and fitted to feminine fancies yet has a very great influence upon the people especially when their minds are prepared and prejudicated with an opinion of their being inspired In these respects now it appears that Quakery hath a very great advantage above all other Heresies and hath strong and powerful temptations to allure unstable and wavering minds from the knowledge of the truth But their Impostures and Cheats being so plainly detected and discovered in this foregoing Treatise if any man knowing and warned of them yet wilfully and presumptuously shall fall into them his destruction is of himself and his ruine inexcusable he hath now no cloak for his sin The Conclusion I have now run through the chiefest of the Quakers Opinions and plainly and evidently proved them in every thing to be exactly Familistical I shall now for a Conclusion of this Treatise only add this serious Admonition to those who approve of and are hankering after Quakery And to this end I would have them consider that the Quakers do deny the Books of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and say that they are no Rule of our Faith and Manners which must needs be of the most dangerous consequence to the souls of men for men being reasonable Creatures and in that Princely Prerogative Superiour to the Beasts of the Field must of necessity guide and determine their Actions by some Rule and Measure and if neither Reason nor Scripture be that Rule they are liable to be imposed upon by every Cheat and led into any errour whatever and so at last eternally destroyed for by this means having cast away Reason and Scripture from having any thing to do with their Actions good and evil Truth and Falshood will be all alike and there will be no difference between Virtue and Vice and to kill a mans Neighbour and seize upon his Estate may be no sin if the voice of Reason and Scripture be not to judge of it These things will be of a very sad consequence to every one that expects and looks for another life when this is ended But it may further be considered that the rejecting of the Scriptures and denying them to be the Word of God is likewise a piece of Familism and was a part of the Doctrine of Caspar Swenckfield a Silesian and that upon this ground which the Quakers likewise urge because Christ is called the Word But so are the Scriptures too called the Word of God 1 Thes 2. 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is indeed the Word of God So Heb. 13. 7. Remember them which have the rule over you and have spoken to you the Word of God Moreover they would do well to reflect and consider how they hope to be saved If they profess Quakery it cannot be by the Death and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ the Son of God because the Quakers own no such Person living without them nor do they believe the History of his Death and Passion at Jerusalem in the letter of it so that every man who turns to be a Quaker puts himself out of a capacity of being saved for there being no Name by which any man shall be saved but by the Name of JESVS and he being denied by them as a Person living in Heaven they are by the Tenour of the Gospel excluded from having any Salvation by him By which it appears that every man professing and embracing Quakery hazards and sets at stake the everlasting Happiness of his Immortal Soul But it is no wonder they take so little notice of their Souls when they believe they have none and he that follows their ways and opinions must cast away all care for another life nor think of any thing but for the present for Heaven Hell and the Day of Judgment are as they say in this Life And though the Quaker will impudently deny all this and boldly affirm that he holds no such things yet I have produced nothing as their Judgment but what I find published by some of them in their printed Papers or has been delivered by them at their own Conventicles and Meetings and therefore is sufficiently known to be their own opinion But it need not startle any man to hear a Quaker out-face his own Errours when challenged with them for he that takes away all distinction between good and evil will not stick to lye when it is for his advantage Wherefore these Hereticks being so dangerous and their Doctrine so destructive of the Salvation of mens Souls they ought carefully to be avoided and their society detested and abhorred for he that associates himself with them cannot be free from Sin but as he is guilty of Sin in the sight of God by joyning himself to them so unless he speedily return and repent he will partake of their Punishments For so said the Spirit of God Numb 16. 26. Come out from the Congregation of these men lest ye be consumed in their sins And the Apostle St. John Epist 2. ver 10. 11. says that If there come any to you and bring not the Doctrin of Jesus Christ which is conteined in the Books of the New Testament he is not to be received into your house nor to be bid God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds Lastly if any man would keep himself from being drawn into their Errors he must be sure to observe the written Word of God as the Rule of his Belief and Actions nor must he forsake the Dictates and Notices of right Reason For by these two things he may judge of any Doctrin propounded to him and whatever any man tells him if it be contrary to Scripture and Reason he may be certain that it is false As for instance the Quaker comes and pretends that what he delivers it is divinely inspired to him by the Spirit and that he hath immediate Revelations from God In this Case now I am to try what he brings by the Word of God and right Reason St. Paul says Gal. 1. 8. 9. That if any man or an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Doctrin than what they had already preached and the believers received he should be accursed Now therefore if these Quaking Inspirations contein any other Doctrin than what is delivered in the Bible that Doctrin is false and those that broached it are accursed And if the Revelation be of something which the Word of God meddles not with as concerning the going or not going to such a Place the doing or not doing of such an Action Common Reason will help a man to judge very much in it and will afford so much light as to discover the Revelation to be foolish and ridiculous and nothing else but a Fansie arising from a deep Melancholy and mistaken for the Inspiration of the Spirit of God And by these two helps supposing a man to be faithful to God and his own soul he may easily discover and avoid such pernicious Errors For it is the cunning of these wicked People to deny the Scriptures and the use of Reason because they know they are so diametrically opposite to their Doctrins and Opinions The Contents CHAP. I. THe Cognation and Agreement between the Quakers and other Antient and Modern Heretics CHAP. II. Of the Authors of Familism and the Quakers Agreement with them in their Doctrin CHAP. III. Of the Holiness of Times Things and Persons under the Gospel CHAP. IV. That Quakery though it pretend high is mere Sadducism at the Bottom CHAP. V. That the Quakers are dangerous Enemies of the Civil Magistrate CHAP. VI. Of the Light within CHAP. VII The Quakers Pretence of Immediate Revelations CHAP. VIII Of the Quakers Perfection CHAP. IX The Ways and Arts the Quakers use in gaining Proselytes CHAP. X. The Advantage of Familism above other Sects and Heresies FINIS Lib. 1. c. 18. Concerning a form of Prayer Of Baptism Of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Of the Time allotted for the Service of God Exod. 20. 8. Of the Place of Gods Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is found to signifie in Homer So Herod in Erato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et apud Euripīdem Helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Ministers Maintenance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Object I. Of the Ministers of the Gospel The Lawfulness of taking an Oath Rom. 14. 11. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. Job 34. 30. Mat. 24. 51. 2 Thess 2. 10 11.