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
great deal of poison I shall therefore for the sake of the Ignorant and such as lie most obnoxious to their snares discover the Cheat. To omit that this Expression Several Ministrations before and after the Law by Moses and after by John Baptist and Christ and his Apostles can scarce be made tolerable sense a fault pardonable enough in Mechanics and the Brethren of the Family but a notorious instance of their Hypocrisie in pretending immediate Inspiration from the Spirit when they write nonsense In the Discourse such as it is we learn these three things 1. That the Ministration of Christ was but a temporary Ministration to continue only till the Dispensation of the Spirit came and therefore was disliked and rejected of God as wanting that full Measure Rule and Power of the Spirit which should afterwards come into the world Whereas the Ministration of Christ was indeed the Ministration of the Spirit and therefore to set up a Dispensation of the Spirit above and in opposition to that of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel is a blasphemous derogation from the honour of our blessed Saviour who said to his Apostles Joh. 16. 14. He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you 2. It follows from the forementioned passage that the Spirit of God equally moves and acts in them as it did in the Apostles therefore say they As the Apostles were commanded to wait at Jerusalem for the gracious illapse and descent of the Holy Spirit so they and this signifies to them both what and when to speak But will any sober person believe that a Quaking Speaker is divinely inspired when he commits endless Tautologies and vain repetitions and makes inconsequent illations and especially when the greatest part of his Harangue shall be downright railing Shall the eternal Spirit of Wisedom and Reason be guilty of nonsense and absurdities 3. It will follow that what they speak or write must be as good Canonical Scripture as the Bible and we are as much bound to believe George Fox and James Nailor as S. Paul and S. Peter I shall instance but in one Quaker more to prove this first part of their Doctrin all one with Familism and that shall be out of Humphrey Smith's Discourse of the three Ministrations of Moses Christ and the Spirit If Moses says he with all his Priests Tythes and long Prayers were now upon earth and Christ in his own body with his Miracles Baptism and Supper then whether those obey not Moses who leave the Priests and come to Christ And whether such when they are come to Christ should always be looking and following after his Body Miracles Baptism or Supper without them or tarry and wait to receive the Spirit within them And then which of these now should all people that profess Christ be led by in these days either Moses or the Person of Christ or the Spirit of Truth There is no sober Christian that can read this passage without anger and disdain to see such wicked wretches scoff and flearingly insult upon the sacred Person of our Lord Jesus the whole History of whose blessed Life and Death in the Letter of it they esteem no better than one of Esop's Fables Again the same Person hath this Whether they be not compassed about with a cloud of error who are upholding that Ministry of the Law which Christ is the end of and likewise such as are upholding and keeping up that which Christ said he had finished And being that Moses nor indeed his true Ministers of the Law are upon Earth neither the body of Christ which by the Professors was murdered at Jerusalem visibly to be seen upon earth then what was it these have to follow who have not received the Spirit to be led by Here again the Personal Offices of the blessed Jesus are laid aside SECT II. The second thing wherein the Familists and Quakers are all one is the Pretence of immediate Revelation David George and H. N. both pretended to receive their Doctrin from the Angel Gabriel And Wil. Gibson the Quaker says that the Gospel which they preach they have not received it from men nor from books nor from writings but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in them and then he goes on and denies the Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be the revealed Will of God There are two things especially by which our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles demonstrated the Truth of their Doctrin 1. The Miracles which they did And these were so many infallible Seals and Marks of the Divinity of the Doctrin they communicated to the World that God was the Author of it For there can be no surer evidence of any thing being delivered from heaven than when a man in favour of it is enabled to work Miracles And this was the sign which Moses gave the children of Israel when they asked how they should know the word which God has not spoken Deut. 18. 22. When a Prophet speaks in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is if he do no Miracle that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken 2. The Reasonableness of the Doctrin which they delivered To this S. Peter seems to appeal 2 Pet. 3. 15. when he bids us be ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us Now let us examin a little the Doctrin of these Modern Familists or Quakers by these two foregoing Rules they pretend Divine Revelation and would fain have the World believe that they are divinely inspired but is any man so simple as to believe they are so merely because they say it so a man may believe all the Cheats and Impostors in the World What sign do they shew or what evidence do they bring that they have received their Doctrin immediately from God If they can work any Miracles to confirm it we will believe them otherwise we have no more faith to believe them than we have to believe that Mahomet discoursed with the Angel Gabriel and received his Alchoran from him As for the Reasonableness of their Doctrin a very easie and mean capacity can find none in it for how should there be any Reason in what they teach when they themselves deny the use of Reason and tell the world they are guided by a Light within them that is neither Reason nor Conscience which yet is but like a dark Lanthorn that gives light to none but themselves And besides by this Principle it is impossible they should ever convince any man that is not merely besotted As for Example the Quakers Light says that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is needless but the Light within me tells me it is not And is not my Light as good as his nay much better for I have the warrant of Christ and his Apostles but he has only his own bare blind Fansie And the man
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