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A51023
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Mr. George Keiths reasons for renouncing Quakerism, and entering into communion with the Church of England with other remarkable occurrences that will be acceptable to all orthodox Christians, of every persuasion.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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Wing M2265A; ESTC R32938
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22,833
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associate longer with them lest being tainted with their Erors I should be obnoxious to their Punishment I shall in the next place give you some of my Reasons that engaged me to Abandon Quakerism and to embrace Christianity according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England And the first Reason I assign for leaving Quakerism is because they are at such great Vncertainties in what they profess that no Man can have any assurance where to bottom or whether that which they own to day will be allow'd to be Truth to Morrow They are constant in nothing but in Contradiction and 't is Reason enough for them to Disbelieve any Position and with all their Force and Powers to oppose it if it had not the â—onour of their Invention and became Current by the Stamp of their own Authority and if it were not for their Habits they would be all taken for Mahometans by refusing to believe or act like Christians All other Religious Societies have their Confessions of Faith under some Appellation or other by which Men may know what they believe but the Quakers are such Lattitudinarians that if a Stranger should ask what they were he could receive no other Answer than that they are what other Men are not but such as in Humour Gesture Garb Meinâ— and Pedantick Canting Nonsence are Antipodes to all the World of which nothing is a greater instance than carrying dead Men to their Graves with their Heads foremost And if enquiry should be made what Faith they profess it must be answered that no Body knows nor themselves neither and their Meeting-Houses might be Dedicated to the unknown God A second Reason is That if their Principles may be collected out of the Books they publish they are too Erroneous Heretical and Blasphemous for any good Christian to comply with some of which I shall recite in this Discourse and refer you in the Margin to such Places in my Narratives where the Quotations are proved beyond contradiction Now the first thing I shall charge the Quakers with is That the Scriptures according the Dictate of their greatest Teachers are not the Word of God This Notion is so common among all their Authors and so frequent in the Mouths of their Proselites that it is almost lost labour to prove it upon them One of their famed Authors is so angry with his Opponent for affirming that the Scriptures are the Word of God that he charges him with Blasphemy * Nar. 4 p. 22. for Asserting it and by consequence makes the Church of England and all other Protestant Churches to be guilty of that direful Imputation Nor is this Doctrine of theirs a strife about Words but the Foundation of their Deism and a handle for the Overthrowing Christianity and therefore the Quakers have very lately Reprinted William Penn's Discourse concerning the General Rule of Faith and Practice who brings Fourteen Arguments to prove that the Scriptures are not the General Rule of Faith and Practice in Three of which Arguments he accuses them of Imperfection Vncertainty and Obscurity And this is a most dangerous Heresie for by this Principle they are not obliged to believe one intire Doctrine in the Apostles Creed as indeed I could easily prove they do not George Fox does not only deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God * Nar. 4. p. 24. but gives them contemptible Names as Ink and Paper Dust and Serpent Meat But that the Scriptures are the Word of God is clear from abundant of Places in the Scriptures Our Gospel came unto you said Paul to the Thessalonians not in Word only by Word here is meant Doctrine Isai 28.13 The word of the Lord was made unto them Precept upon Precept Line upon Line here the Precepts and written Lines of the Prophets are called the Word of the Lord and John 15.25 it is called the written Word which was a short Sentence written in one of the Psalms And when Paul bid Timothy preach the Word it cannot be justly thought that he would have him only preach the Inward Word but by the Word he meant the Doctrine of the Gospel and all that the Quakers say against this received Truth is but mere trifling and humouring their Spirit of Contradiction The next stroke the Quakers make towards the Destruction of Christianity is against the Divinity of Christ and to this purpose William Penn in a Controversie between himself and some Presbyterian Ministers in Ireland where the Question was whither he that suffered Death without the Gates of Jerusalem was not and is properly the Son of God William Penn in his Book called a Serious Apology p. 146. saith That the Outward Person which suffered was properly the Son of God we utterly deny With the like Confidence G.W. assaults the Humanity of Christ in pos 〈…〉 tively denying that Christ consisted of Flesh and Bones in those words I distinguish says he between consisting and having Christ had Flesh and Bones but did not consist of them as a Man has a Coat or Garment but does not consist of it and that outward Person that suffered at Jerusalem was Christ by a Metoning of the the thing containing for the thing contained But all Sound and Orthodox Christians say according to the Scriptures that Christ is both God and Man having his Godhead and Manhood so united as to constitute one Christ which is a miraculous and extraordinary Vnion that no other Creatures neither Angels nor Men are dignified with And though Christ as Man was the Son of God miraculously conceived and born in time and also as God was by a Generation from all Eternity yet he is but one Son of God and because of the personal Union of the Godhead with his Manhood both as God and Man is properly the Son of God The Excuse the Quakers make that Christ did not meerly consist of Flesh Blood and Bones signifies nothing for none ever affirm'd any such thing Whatsoever has Parts consists of those Parts Incompleatly of one or more Parts Compleatly of them all The Foundation of the Quakers great Error on this Head lieth here That because Christ was before the Body was therefore that Body is no part of him which is easily answered thus Christ was before that Body was but he was not compleatly and in all respects fitted to be the Anointed Saviour of the World until the Word was made Flesh that is till the Word did take our Flesh and whole Nature into a personal Union with him which was necessary to the compleat Performance of his Mediatory Offices of King Priest and Prophet and especially of his Priestly Office The next thing I charge as abominable Blasphemy upon the Quakers especially G.F. and G W is for affirming That Christ's coming in the Flesh and his Suffering without us in the Flesh and his outward Flesh and Blood was a Figure and but a Figure of Christ of what he suffered in us and his Blood shed in us Thus
no such thing as to imply a Bodily Resurrection but a change from Earthly Mindedness to a renewed State to God thro' the Operation of the Spirit Which shews us how they deceive the unwary Readers who would make them believe they own the Resurrection of the Body according to the Scripture and yet mean nothing thereby but Regeneration or the New Birth in time before the Death of the mortal Body And seeing this is the Resurrection they own and no other according to the Scriptures cited by George Whitehead one of them being Matthew 22.30 31 32. in the Resurrection they neither Marry nor give in Marriage might not one ask them whether they don't commit a hainous Crime who Marry and continue in a Married State after they have attained to this Resurrection And whether their Quondam Brother Thomas Case did not act more Agreeably to his Principles who turned away his Wife after he reckon'd he was come to the Resurrection and whom I heard say all Marriage was of the Devil and many know that it was his Principle but whether he did not supply that Defect by a more fashionable method Quere The Quakers also deny the last Judgment as is plain from George Whitehead in his Light and Life â— 40.41 who there contending with W.B. about Christ's outward coming in his Glorified Body to Judge the Quick and the Dead answer'd to the â—everal Scriptures that W.B. brought for Christ's outward coming at the end of the World and carries them all to his Inward coming already fulfilled and whereas it is said in the 1 Thess 4.5 That we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord He asks the Question after his way of Eluding positive Proofs Whether they did live and remain to a personal coming of Christ in the Clouds Yea or Nay Or whether it can be reasonably thought to be a Coming that is not yet nor that they â—ived and remained unto Which is so gross and absurd an Insinuation that it renders St. Paul to have spoken an Untruth even by Divine Inspiration when the Apostle said This we say unto you by the Word of Lord but they according to their common way of Shifting and Excusing themselves say these were but Queries tho' the imporâ—ance of those Queries imply a positive Denial â—nd so will be taken in the sense of all Mankind â—hat read them for it is evident in several plaâ—es in his printed Books besides what is here alâ—edged that he does deny that Christ would come to Judge the World in natural and passible Flesh and not only so but that he would not come in the same substance of that Body he had on Earth which was a mortal and passible Body of the same Nature with ours for he makes it most absurd that an Earthly Body and an Heavenly Body can be the same Substance and so denies Christ's being now in Heaven without us in that Body which rose from the Grave or his coming without us from Heaven in that Body to Judgment for there is no place of Scripture of the many that are justly brought by Orthodox Christians to prove Christ's coming without us in his glorified Body to Judge the World at the great Day of Judgement but some of their Teachers have turned altogether to his inward Coming which they say they Witness already fullfilled in them and they look for no other coming To which give me leave to add That they deny the Vse of Baptism and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which be pleas'd to take in their own words in a Book call'd Some Principles of the Elect People of God in scorn call'd Quakers p. 75. The Baptism say they that we own is the Baptism of Christ with the Holy Ghost and with Fire but we deny all other for there is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all They that would have one Baptism outward and another inward would have two Baptisms when the Scripture saith the Baptism is but one and whosoever hath the Baptism outward are the same they are before but the Baptism of Christ makes a new Creature And now I see the other to be but a formal Imitation the Invention of Man and a meer Delusion And speaking of the Lord's Supper they say It is but feeding upon the Husk and Shell which is Carnal for the Bread which the World breaks is Carnal and â—atural and only feeds the outward Carnal Body and goeth into the Belly and so passeth out into the Dunghill and so likewise the Cup which they drink and so the Communion and Fellowship of the World passeth away but this is no Nourishment of the Soul but still the Soul lies in Death and here is no Communion but Natural Outward and Carnal of several Minds and Hearts full of Filthiness and Vncleanness which Is the Table of Devils eating and drinking their own Damnation not discerning the Lord's Body which is Spiritual and cannot be discerned by the Natural Man William Penn in his Reasons against Railing p. 108. affirms That Circumcision is as much in force as Water Baptism and the Paschal Lamb as Bread and Wine they were both Shadows and both Elementary and Perishable And we can testifie from the same Spirit by which Paul renounced Circumcision that they are to be rejected as not now required neither have they since the false Church espoused and exalted them ever been taken up afresh by God's Command or in the leading of his eternal Spirit and the Lord will appear to gather his People out of them but never to establish or keep People in them What a sad and fearful Delusion are the Quakers under who call the Institutions of our Blessed Saviour and which are expresly enjoined to be continued to the end of the World by such hard Names which is but spitting their Venom in the Face of the Institutor Some of the Quakers when they heard me defend the Sacraments said George since thou art for Outward Baptism and the Supper why dost not practice it To which I answered because I had no lawful Call to Baptize others and as to my self I was satisfied with the Baptism I received in my Infancy being born of Christian Parents for I believe that Baptism being a Seal of God's Covenant of Grace does as truly belong to the Infant Children of Believers under the New Testament as Circumcision did to Infant Children of Believers under the Old Testament Next as concerning the Lord's Supper after it pleased God to convince me that it was and is an Institution of Christ and let me see my Sin and Errour in rejecting it for which I have been humbled before God sincerely and heartily asking him forgiveness and which I hope God for his Blessed Son's sake has given me I had for a considerable time some Hesitations about the Lawful and Due Administrator and being clearly satisfied in all my Scruples in that particular I delaid receiving it for the sake of others lest