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A47174 A serious appeal to all the more sober, impartial & judicious people in New-England to whose hands this may come ... together with a vindication of our Christian faith ... / by George Keith. Keith, George, 1639?-1716. 1692 (1692) Wing K205; ESTC R33000 63,270 72

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A Serious Appeal To all the more Sober Impartial Judicious People IN NEVV ENGLAND To whose Hands this may come Whether Cotton Mather in his late Address c. hath not extreamly failed in proving the People call'd Quakers guilty of manifold Heresies Blasphemies and strong Delusions and whether he hath not much rather proved himself extreamly Ignorant and greatly possessed with a Spirit of Perversion Error Prejudice and envious Zeal against them in general and G.K. in particular in his most uncharitable and rash Judgment against him Together with a Vindication of our CHRISTIAN FAITH In those Things Sincerely Believed by us especially respecting the Fundamental Doctrines and Principles of CHRISTIAN RELIGION By GEORGE KEITH Printed and Sold by William Bradford at Philadelphia in Pennsylvania in the Year 1692. A few Words of Preface WHereas Cotton Mather in his Preface begineth 〈◊〉 a gross Falshood to wit that it hath been fully pr●●●● that Quakerism is Paganism for it never yet 〈◊〉 been proved by him nor any other nor ever will be to wit 〈◊〉 the Religion professed by the sincere and faithful P●ople called 〈◊〉 scorn Quakers is either Paganism or any other thing than re●● Christianity although there may be some that may be calle● Quakers but are not owned by us to be our faithful Brethren even as they are not all true Christians who are so called nor were they all Israel who were called Israel The Reader may expect what full store of Lyes he may be entertained with by Cotton Mather when the first two Lines of his Preface are such a notorious Lye And as for the Etymology of the Name Christian which as he alledgeth one that appears lately in Print as an Advocate of the Quakers giveth as if Christianoi were Christionoi that is Christ's Asses he should have given us the Name of that Advocate that we might have found how truly he hath cited him It hath been thought that some of the Heathens by way of Reproach did devise such an Etymology of the Name Christianos as if it were Christionos i. e. Christs Ass but I judge not that to be the true Etymology of that Name but that Christianos is as much as to say A Follower of Christ or one partaking of that heavenly Anointing which in all Fullness was poured by the Father on Christ and is derived in various Measures from Christ according to the good pleasure of God unto all that believe sincerely in him But supposing that Etymology that a Christian Quaker is one of Christs Asses I propose it to the serious Consideration of the People of New-England whether it be not much more honourable and profitable to be one of Christs Asses so as to witness a fullfilling 〈◊〉 figure of Christs riding upon the Ass outwardly as was ●●●phecied of him than to be the Priests Asses in New-England 〈◊〉 else-where to be rid upon by them as is too manifest they 〈◊〉 been And for his supposed Load he hath imagined he hath 〈◊〉 on us it toucheth us little and returneth on himself and 〈◊〉 be his own Burden And concerning Christian Lodowick his Challenge to the Quakers in Rhode-Island it is sufficiently answered and he declared to be a gross Calumniator CHAP. I. WHereas Cotton Mather in his late Address seemeth 〈◊〉 lay great weight on the Opinion of Richard Baxte● whom he calleth Reverend Baxter concerning th● Quakers I thought fit to Transcribe some few Passages of Richard Baxter in a printed Book of his called Directions for weak distempered Christians that may be of some service to that injured People called in scorn Quakers In pag. 142. of that Book he saith From my own Observation which with a grieved Soul I have made in this Generation I hereby give warning to this and all succeeding Ages that if they have any regard to Truth or Charity they take heed how they believe any factious partial Historian or Divine in any evil that he saith of the Party that he is against for though there be good and credible Persons of most Parties yet you shall find that Passion and Partiality prevaileth against Conscience Truth and Charity in most that are sick of this Disease and that the Envious Zeal which is described James 3. doth make them think they do God Service first in believing false Reports and then in venting them against those that their Zeal or Faction doth call the Enemies of Truth And a little after he saith pag. 143. Most Christian is that Advice of Dr. Henry Moore That all Parties of Christians would mark all the good which is in other Parties and be more forward to speak of that than of the Evil And this saith Baxter would promote the Work of Charity in the Church and the interest of Christianity in the World whereas the overlooking of all that 's Good and aggravating all the Evil and falsly feigning more than is True is the Work of greatest Service to the Devil c. Now if both Richard Baxter and Cotton Mather had well practised this Advice they would not have been so Uncharitable to the People called Quakers But seeing C.M. layeth so great weight on his Reverend Baxter as he calleth him though I find not any where that he calleth Paul Peter or John or any of the Prophets or Apostles by such a high designation even by Baxter's own Judgment neither G.K. nor his Brethren who are of his Faith are guilty of any Fundamental Errors that are repugnant to the Essence of the Christian Faith And it is a thing generally acknowledged by all Protestants That where any Man 〈…〉 ●ociety of Men err not in a Fundamental Article of the Christian ●●●th we ought to have Charity towards them as our Christian ●●ethren if in some other things they are under some Mistakes and ●●at their Conversation and Practice be free of Scandal And that I ●ay the more effectually make it apparent how that by the Judgment 〈◊〉 Richard Baxter neither G.K. nor his Brethren who are of his Faith ●●e guilty of any Fundamental Errors touching the Christian Faith 〈◊〉 think fit to transcribe faithfully a Passage in his fore-cited Book pag. 84 85 86. where he undertaketh to describe the intire Essence of the Christian Faith as to the matter of it The Foundation Principle saith he or Fundamental Matter is God the Father Son and holy Ghost the secondary Foundation or Fundamental Doctrine is those Scripture Propositions that express our Faith in God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost When we name three Persons as the Object of the Christian Faith we express Names of Relation which contain both the Persons Nature and Offices and undertaken Works without either of which God were not God and Christ were not Christ and the holy Ghost were not in the sence of our Articles of Faith the holy Ghost as we must therefore believe That there is one only God so we must believe That God the Father is the first in the holy Trinity of Persons that
the whole Godhead is perfect and infinite in Being and Power and Wisdom and Goodness in which all his Attributes are comprehended but yet a distinct Vnderstanding of them all is not of absolute necessity to Salvation That this God is the Creator Preserver and Disposer of all things and the Owner and Ruler of Mankind most Just and Merciful that as he is the beginning of all so he is the ultimate end and the chief good of Man which before all things else must be loved and Sought Concerning the Son we must moreover believe That he is the same God with the Father the second Person in Trinity Incarnate and so became Man by a Personal Vnion of the Godhead and Manhood He omitteth his being conceived of the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary which was needful to have been exprest it being a great Article of our Christian Faith That he was without Original or Actual Sin having a sinless Nature and a sinless Life That he fullfilled all Righteousness and was put to Death as a Sacrifice for our sins and gave himself a Ransom for us and being buried he rose again from the dead and afterward ascended into Heaven where he is Lord of all and interceedeth for Believers That he will come again and raise the dead and judge the World the Righteous to Everlast●●● Life and the Wicked to Everlasting Punishment That this is the on● Redeemer the Way the Truth and the Life neither is there access to th● Father but by him nor Salvation in any other Concerning the Holy Ghost we must believe That he is the same one God the third Person in Trinity sent by the Father and the Son to inspire the Prophets and Apostles and tha● the Doct●ine inspired and miraculously attested by him is true that he i● the Sanctifier of these that shall be saved renewing them after the Image of God in Holiness and Righteo●sness giving them true Repentance Faith Hope Love and sincere Obedience causing them to overcome the Flesh the World and the Devil thus gathering a holy Church on Earth to Christ who have by his Blood the Pardon of all their sins and shall have Everlasting Bl●ss●dness with God This saith Richard Baxter is the Essence of the Christian Faith as to the Matter of it And now as concerning that judged by Richard Baxter the Essence of the Christian Faith as to the Matter of it I declare sincerely without all Equivocation or mental Reservation in the true and genuine sence of the Words that I have transcribed out of his said Treatise that I know not wherein I or my Brethren of my Faith and Perswasion differ from him in any one particular as to the matter of it or substance therein contained the only exception we have is against that unscriptural Term or Phrase of Three Persons or a Trinity of Persons but we own sincerely That our Faith ought to be and is in God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost and that these Names are Names of Relation respecting the Relations as well as the Relative Offices and Works of those Three and this being granted by us in the sincerity of our Hearts we are excused or cleared by John Calvin for whose Memory I suppose C. Mather hath as full and great esteem as for R. Baxter for in his first Book of Institutions cap. 13. n. 5. he saith expresly Vtinam quidem sepulta essent se invent● Nomina as he expresly calleth them Trium Personarum constaret modo hec inter omnes Fides Patrem et Filium et Spiritum esse unum Deum nec tamen aut Filium esse Patrem aut Spiritum Filium sed proprietate quadam esse distinctos neque enim tam precisa sum austeritate ut obnudas voculas digladiari sustineam In English thus I wish saith he the invented Names viz. of Three Persons were buried providing this Faith were manifest among all that the Father the Son and the Spirit is one God and yet that the Son is not the Father nor that the Spirit is the Son but that they are distinct by a certain Property to wit in their ●●lative Attributes as that the Father did beget the Son and the ●on was begotten of the Father and that the holy Spirit did proceed ●●om both for I am not of such precise Austerity said Calvin that ●or bare small Words I would contend and withall he confesseth That the Orthodox antiently did not agree about these Terms or invented Words ●●at he acknowledgeth were invented since the Apostles dayes to guard ●gainst the Arrian Sabellian and other Heresies And therefore since we are altogether free of these Heresies and that we detest them from our very Souls no sober Christian will judge uncharitably of us in that respect And as for the word Distinct if some of our Friends taking it to signifie distant or seperated asunder one from another as in remote and distant places have refused it in this and other matters as indeed sometimes at least vulgarly it doth so signifie as when we say America is distinguished from Europe by a great spacious Sea interveening they ought not to be accused for so doing seeing in that other sence of the word Distinct that is more in use among Schollars as when we say Things are distinct when the one is not the other they own a Distinction as that the Father is not the Son the Son is not the Father though he is our Father and is expresly call'd in Scripture the Everlasting Father and Christ's Manhood and Body is not the Godhead and yet one Christ as the Body of a Man is not his Soul and yet Body and Soul is one Man and in this second sence we do allow the word distinct And as to the Manner of receiving the Christian Faith we grant with him first That it must not only be received as true into our Understanding by a special divine Illumination that is supernatural but must be imbraced by the Will Heart and Affections as good yea exceeding good and worthy of all acceptation by a special divine Motion and working of the holy Spirit that is supernatural in upon the Will Heart and Affections 2 dly That as touching all the peculiar Mysteries and Doctrines of Faith the Scriptures have been Instrumental by and together with the immediate working of the Spirit to beget in us the true Faith of them But in this we differ I suppose from him as well as from C. Mather and his Brethren of New-England that whereas they hold That the Spirit of God worketh in Believers Effectively but not Objectively or by way of sensible Object or sensibly and perceptibly by its own Self-Evidence and Demonstration to mens Hearts and Souls We affirm That the Spirit of God worketh in Believers both Effectively 〈◊〉 also Objectively or by way of sensible Object or sensibly and ●●●ceptibly by its own Evidence and Demonstration to mens Hea●●● and Souls And this divers call'd Protestants have