A SURVEY OF Quakerism As it is STATED IN THE Professed Doctrine and Principles OF THAT PARTY With a Serious REFLECTION ON THE Dreadful Import thereof to Subvert the very Being and Reality of the Christian Religion By a Lover of the Truth LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the Lower end of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1677. Licensed and Entred according to Order To the READER Christin Reader IT should be a sad and unpleasing Subject this to converse with in a time when so much is on every hand to cause grief if the defence of the Truth and a Being guarded against the contagion of so horrid a way did not necessarily require the same which besides a surprising call and pressing desire of some for whom I owed greatest respects hath occasioned these few lines to go forth to the World I may say with much aversion of spirit otherways thereto It seems peculiar to this Age to have out-gone all former times in a new and unusual way of sinning and a daring insolence to oppose the Truth whilse such amazing Prodigies of Atheism Prophanity and Error do at once meet together To let this generation see how inexcusable they are if Judgment from the Lord yea some unusual and stupendious stroke thereof do surprize them where so loud a cry goes before of its coming But it is well the Truth abides sure and immoveable and we know must out-live with a growing splendour and brightness this so remarkable an hour of the power of darkness yea hath that Authority not only on the Conscience of such who embrace it in love but on its Enemies as must enforce some awe and dread on the greatest blasphemers of the time whether they will or not The Virgin-daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee whom hath thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the holy One of Israel Should it not deeply affect such as love Our Lord Jesus Christ to see such a party crouding in the streets and high-ways of Britain whose express design is so obvious not to darken only but subvert the whole of the Gospel in the Incarnation Death and Sufferings of our glorious Redcemer and of his being truly God and Man in two distinct Natures united in one Person Oh if we should be bereaved of this inestimable treasure we were bereaved indeed Yea such whose work is to depress the credit and authority of that great and sacred Instrument of Truth the Scripture in the light whereof the redeemed of the Lord now in Glory have got thus safe to Land without any other Light or Rule besides this to walk by and on which so innumerable a company have adventured hitherto bearing their witness to its truth and faithfulness whose record we know to be true and some should reckon themselves under singular engagements to seal this Truth though with their dying breath That in all the steps of the Lords way even such as seem most dark to these who look on them at a distance assuredly he is what he hath declared himself to be in the written Word I shall only add what with much confidence I may here witness that as I know no quarrel but one with any of that way which is for the Truths sake I could not but judg I had too sure ground to charge these as their Principles and Doctrine upon them which they have publickly owned to the World if they keep not some reserved sence contradictory to their own words and so far as I can reach without any known retractation SECT I. THOUGH it is undeniably sad and one of the most searching Tryals of the Church at which many are ready to be shaken when the Truth seems intangled in a consusion of contrary Doctrines and the spirit of Error let loose to darken the same and that we see it also one of the greatest strokes from God inflicted here yea greater than that on the Affections in the delivering up of mens Reasons and Judgments to strong delusion with these fearful productions which are this way oft found because they received not the love of the Truth yet it is well we know the Faithfulness of God is sure and stands good to bring the Elect safe unto Glory whatever Rocks and Shelves be in the way on which so many have visibly made shipwrack nor can the Truth conflict with such a Tryal but for its farther Triumph and some more bright breaking forth of its light and that no evil eye nor the cursing of any shall ever blast that Interest which God hath blessed One thing I confess seems strange and most threatning in this time whilst Religion and the Christian Faith is in such eminent hazard and the Devil in an unusual manner let loose to deceive to see how great a part of those who professedly own the Truth are fallen as in a dead Palsey and indifference about the things of Christ though never more vigorously moving about their own things nor seem they with such suitable fear to be jealous of the corruption of the mind and intellectual Errors as they are of moral Corruption as though diseases in the Head were not to be feared which are usually found of all to be most mortal yea when so discernibly this is one of the depths of Satan and his known devices to bring in Atheism and Irreligion by Error and turn the World from all setled perswasion of the Truth by some high pretences thereto for which one sad instance I must here give that I am sure except men shut their eyes they cannot but see No engin could have a more native and effectual tendency to bring such as were unstable the farthest length of Vaninus and his followers even to deny and blaspheme a Deity than to unhinge them once from founding on the Scripture and turn them over to that way of the Quakers which now seems to have such a formidable growth in the Church What these are who under this name and peculiar cognizance of Quakers have become so known and stated an adversary to the Truth this day the account they give of their own Doctrine and Principles can too clearly witness nor needs there any great search to be made about their rise and descent it is too late and but a few years since the World knew such a monstrous birth though I confess in its complex frame if it be seriously considered it is a most discernible compound of these ancient Heresies that have sprung up in the Church which did formerly each in their turn essay to ruin the Truth But this also we may know how at an ebb-tide after much former abuse of Light and in an hour of great Temptation on the Churches of Christ these did adventure to creep forth to whom once the Light and authority of the Truth would have been
But we know this way is the purpose of God made effectual concerning all he hath from Eternity predestinate to life as is express from Scripture 2 Thes 2. 13. That they are chosen to Salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth though the evidence of this recovery in some where it hath been in Truth may be but little discernable to others The Lord so disposing in his infinite Wisdom that his People may be taught an alone recumbence on the Word even when his Works seems to justle therewith 2. We know no such length in profession of the Truth from which any have fallen through the prevalence of Error can go beyond those who after they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the Knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are yet again intangled therein and overcome 2 Pet. 2. 20. or beyond those degrees of Conviction and common Illumination that may even have some transient taste of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come Heb. 6. 5 6. To which the Apostle shews some may come even that length by a temporary Work of the Spirit who have yet fallen into a most dreadful Apostacy from the Truth and opposition thereto with the greatest hight of malice in both which Scriptures may be seen that it is such an Apostacy there meant as follows upon the prevalence of Error and Delusion 3. With what marvelous plainness doth the Holy Ghost in the Word speak to this Case that we may know what it means and have no cause for stumbling when it shall become the Churches Tryal as we see Mat. 13. 5. in that seed which fell upon stony places where it had not much earth and forthwith sprung up because it had no depthness of earth but when the Sun was up was scorched and because they had no root withered a Truth I may say is not more express in the Scripture when we read it with our eyes than its ratification in after-times in the Church hath oft been on many a sad instance such as after their being enlightned have sprung up yea forthwith with a hasty growth and too early appearance but no solid growing to the root yet such as for a time have most remarkably seemed to out-run those who had in Truth received the ingrafted word by a more forward profession than whom none have been a sadder sight to the generation they lived in and by as remarkable a withering have too visibly witnessed the want of root in which I must say and with some confidence appeal to any serious discerners of the time about this remark if in such who have most observably fallen from the Truth and plunged into that gulf of Error some precious evidence hath not been of such springing up forthwith and hasty appearance in profession of the Truth that hath taken the growth more to the blossom than to any sure founding under the sense of their sinful and lost estate by Nature 6. This also seems strange and may be shaking to some How tenacious and violent such usually are found in this way even when silenced with the clearest discoveries of the Truth so as it is rare almost in an age to find an instance of one who after some observable Hight of Illumination beyond others hath ever found a recovery or shown their returning by repentance after he hath thus fallen into damnable Heresies as the Apostle terms them But is not here also a convincing and marvelous seal to the Scripture if men will but seriously read what is so clear 2 Pet. 2. 20. and that Heb. 6. How dreadful an arrest thus in the Holy Judgment of God is put on this kind of Apostacy even beyond the most gross falling away from the Truth in practice which should cause fear to all that stand and do yet retain their stedfastness Yea is not the reason of this there also held forth that it is a putting the Son of God to open shame and so direct a doing despite to the Holy Ghost in counteracting his Workings and Discoveries once put forth in the soul For my self I must confess nothing in those times I have found more shaking who before a higher Judg than Men have some confidence to say The greatest joy I have upon Earth is to know that assuredly the Lord is God and the certainty of his Truth But I must here also profess how in this I have found cause for being more confirmed yea with admiration to consider How many ages past such things have been foretold what sore assaults the spirit of Error and Delusion should give the Church with so express circumstantiating of this Tryal in its whole frame conveyance and manner of appearance as hath been seen in the Event and at this day before our eyes which by the Holy Ghost only could be revealed to the Church and could never have been supposed or entred into mens thoughts at a distance SECT V. A Fourth particular that calleth for some serious enquiry upon this subject is what should be the grounds of so strange and prodigious a contagion of this way of the Quakers as is at this day in the Church whose Doctrine and Principles are such as the very recital thereof might be judged a sufficient antidote against its own poyson yea this after such clear and bright times of the Gospel but here none needs be in the dark if these things were seriously considered 1. That where a form of Knowledg and mens receiving of the Truth but not in Love comes some great length in the Church there is then cause to fear and foresee some remarkable flood of Error and Delusion to follow for in this the Scripture is express 2 Tim. 2. 10. and lets us see how nothing does more ripen the harvest to make the field white for the spirit of Error 's putting in his Sickle than most solemn times of the brightness of the Gospel if no suitable fruit be found thereof Light is one of the greatest Talents of the Church that must bring either some remarkable gain or loss with it nor need any wonder seduction from the Truth bear some blacker dye now in those days and have a more singular addition of grossness even beyond all former times since thus the Stroke and Judgment must keep proportion to a further degree of the Churches Exaltation and more clear discoveries of the Truth than former ages have known 2. As the formentioned culpable and provoking cause may at this day be discernable to all should the Holy Judgment of the Lord inflicted thereupon be strange to us in a visible Tradition and giving up such a Party unto strong Delusion with a withholding of the very exercise of their Reason and Judgment that they do not see the Light when it is most clearly shining forth before them since this a convincing seal also to that Scripture 2 Thes 2. 10. I confess it is one of the marvelous things of God
having a peculiar intrinsick aptitude and fitness beyond all the Graces of the Spirit for applying him to the soul 5. Must not all serious Religion begin first at this great Truth of an imputed Righteousness since no access can be to perform new Obedience till we have got once from under the curse of the Law and be found that in another which we are not in our selves It is a blessed and inseparable tye by which these are conjoined in the Scripture which none may essay to divide but upon that dreadful penalty of being shut out of all possible right or claim thereto that Christ is made over to be both our Righteousness and Sanctificacation yet so as the alone weight of our peace and acceptation with God must still lye on what Jesus Christ hath done for and not what he hath wrought in us but as it is an assured evidence of the former our Faith being thus made discernable and justified by works O what can thus influence so strange an opposition to the Doctrine of Grace as is this day in the World and to that unexpressibly sweet and excellent Truth of the Righteousness of the Gospel the clear breaking up of which Light in these last times hath been as life from the dead to the Church after a long and dark night of Antichristianism had gone before to obscure it It is clear the Holy Ghost hath indissolubly conjoyned our being justified by faith and having peace with God through Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 1. And in this I can attest such as ever knew the sensible intimation of pardon and what it is to have a spirit broken and wounded under the sense of sin put under the hand of the great physician and a solid cure thereunto if this ever came in another way than by some clear warming discovery and sensible application of the Righteousness of Christ and that the alone sure and effectual way to heal is by appplying his blood and laying that blessed propitiatory sacrifice as a salve thereto But oh what another thing is the power and efficacy of the Truth on the soul than can be expressed in some scholastick notions about it such as brings a demonstration of its certainty to those who know it indeed that all the disputers of the World could never answer yea I must say if a possibility could be for such a choice as to carry Heaven by works of our own I should think it a sad evidence of those whose heart did not warrant them to witness that no choice could be to them here but to this alone blessed way of being saved by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ doth their soul cleave and 't is that which gives a more indearing sight of Heaven in holding the same only of him who hath purchased it for them and them for it by his own blood which shall thus draw forth and intend their love to the highest pitch for all eternity Pos 5. It is one of their known Tenets that none should move in the commanded â—â—â—ties of a Christian but by some inward call and motion on their spirit and that we ought to forbear where this is wanting but it is sure herein we are taught from the Scripture 1. To have the command as the rule and object of our Faith and not any spiritual disposition nor is there a restriction thus shewed to the Church when it so expresly injoyns pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5. 17. Trust in him at all times c. Psal 62. 8. nor gives it any Latitude to sift our obedience upon the want of actual influence 2. It is clear moral Commands are perpetually obliging though the breathings of God and his immediate assistance be not in our power But the wind bloweth where it lists John 3. 8. And though it 's ever true that it is in vain for one to rise early or essay any work without God Psal 127. 1. Yet this argument should then conclude for the Husbandmans restraining his plowing and sowing in the season thereof until he be sure of the Lords joyning his influences with the same since it 's as impossible to sow without the common influence of God who is the first Cause as it is to pray in Faith without the special breathings of the Spirit 3. It is not such Doctrine can darken the undoubted experience of all the Saints whilst nothing is more known to them than this what singular advantage they have found in essaying duty under the greatest indisposition and deadness and how oft ere they were aware their spirits with a blessed surprisal even to astonishment have been revived and inlarged 4. What assurance can men have the next hour or to morrow more than in the present time of the Spirits moving on their souls or that they shall be thus at a farther advantage by waiting the call of the Word for duty until they have some inward call and motion thereto Pos 6. Though these men pretend to own Teachers of their own wav and mould such as they say are commanded by the eternal Spirit to that work yet do they expresly deny a fixed ministry in the Church with a mediate call thereto or any Scripture-institution thereof But I confess it needs be no wonder that such whose great intent is to destroy the City have the first and sorest thrust at the Watch-men and that in so strange a manner their rage and passion should burst out against the faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ whom by all possible means they seek to withstand in their work since the more enforcing convictions there are of the Authority of God and his Power with them the more does their pain and torment turn them inraged though in this they are such a sight and should be to us as calls for some sad and compassionate resentment when there seems no access to convince those who do but express the greatest cruelty against themselves in making them the But of their wrath and revilings who before the Lord dare say they have no other revenge but how to pluck such out of the fire and if possible reclaim their soul from perishing But who is that Party here against whom they thus quarrel sure it is not the Ministry so much as the Scriptures of Truth in which it's express warrant is too clear and there 's no possible access to debate 1. That such a marvelous erection of the Church as a politick body is undeniably there shewed with its peculiar offices and service and a fixed Ministry thereto 2. That this Ministry given by Jesus Christ is a perpetual standing ordinance in his house to the end of the world Matt. 28. 20. Ephes 4. 11 12. 3. That it lyeth not common but hath a peculiar guard and hedg set about the same For no man taketh this honour to himself but be that is called thereto as Aâ—ron Heb. 5. 4. And what this calling was is told us in the first verse that he was taken from among men and ordained for