Darkness and grand enemies of Souls especially the two great Antichrists the Roman Bishop and Church and the new Upstarts who hold the light within every man to be the Saviour Light Righteousness all who do not only as other erroneous or heretical persons a little eclipse or pervert the light of the Scriptures but attempt to pull it down out of the Firmament or render it a dark and useless body but as it receives Light from their Idol the one party to set up the Pope at Rome as absolute in matters of Religion The other to set up the Pope within as absolute and more than he in the little world of every individual man I shall within these following parallel lines give you a view though but in part how both these adversaries do openly spit their venom and discharge their shot against the holy Scriptures And considering how they in most things jump together in the contempt of and detracting from the Scriptures you may conclude that although the Jesuite was not the first contriver of the Quakers grand notion of the Light within to be Christ which I am verily perswaded of to be true yet that he was a promoter of the building erected on that foundation we may easily guess by his mark on so many parcels of it yet I must say that the Romanists were much more sound in their opinions of the Scriptures until about Luther's time wherein the Protestants were too hard for them at those weapons I give you the mind of the Spirit of God expressed in the middle collumn the Quakers Tenets on the left and the Jesuites and Papists on the right hand The Quakers Opinions and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scriptures are not the rule of Faith and life Parnel Shield of the Truth The Spirit of God speaking by the Scriptures Thou shalt not turn aside to the right hand or to the left viz. Gods Statutes and Judgments Deut. 5. 23 32. The Jesuists and Papists Tenets and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scripture is not the rule of Faith Greg. de Valentia Jesuita libro quarto analyseos Carranza in prima controver The Scriptures are not the judge and determiner of Controversies in religious matters Smith Prim. He mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Acts 18. 28. He had put the Sadduces to silence Mat. 22. 3. viz. by Scripture Neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is the supream and general judge of matters of Faith Beccanus item Gretserus Jesuitae in Colloquia Ratisbon It is impossible for the Scripture to be judge of doubts concerning Faith and the Christian Religion Lorichius Jesuita in fortalitio Matthew Mark Luke and John The beginning of the Gospel of Christ The Gospel is not Scripture it was commanded is not the Gospel Paper sent into the World pag 2. the Son of God Mark 1. 1. to be preached but not to be written Carranza Jesuita in colloquio The light within every man is the rule and guid and not the Scriptures and this light is infallible and will teach you all things Smith Catechis If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. 23. Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Job 11. 12. The Tradition of the Church i. e. Roman is the first chief certain and infallible rule from which any thing may be known to be true and certain to be held in matters of faith and Christian Religion Carranza Jesuita in prima controversia The Tradition of the Church is the very rule of Faith and Piety Pighius The Spirit was before the Scripture therefore we must be led by the Spirit not by the Scripture the Spirit with the Quaker is the light within Smith Prim. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 2. Tim. 3. 16. We say that the Church is a rule before the Scripture and more known than the Scripture Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scriptures are the Traditions of men Naylor's love to the lost Holy men of God spake the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Traditions of the Church to be preferred before the Scriptures Frequent among the Papists Light without must be guided by light within John Story short discovery Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 29. I have hid the wâ—rd in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119. 11. The Scripture is to be ruled by the Church and not the Church by the Scriptures Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scripture is a dead Letter carnal Letter Ink and Paper Parnel Shield of the Truth The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life Joh. 6. 63. For the Word of God is quick and powerful Heb. 4. 12. The Scripture hath no voice it cannot pass judgment viva voce Beccanus Gretserus in Colloquio Ratisbon The Scriptures are but dumb Judges Pighius controversia tertia The Scriptures may be burnt Frequent The Scriptures cannot be broken John 10. 35. Write this for a Memorial in a Book c. Exod. 17. 14. All the Scriptures in the common and native Tongues are to be burnt by a Law The light within was the rule from the beginning and not the Scriptures Smith Prim. The Scriptures were a rule so soon as they had a beginning The Fathers of the Church were expert in the Traditions of the Church from the beginning as being more effectual than the Scriptures Pighius Jesuita in Colloquio Dry cavelling Letter-mongers Scraping in the Scriptures Will. Pen Spirit of Truth c. Fisher veluta quaedam c. An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18 24. And Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days râ—asoned â—ith them out of the Scriptures Acts 17. 2. These Lutherans and Hâ—gonots are all for the Letter Frequent He that prefers the Scriptures before the light within is blind in darkness Parnel Shield of the Truth To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because they have no light in them Isa 8. 20. He that shall say the Scripture is to be believed rather than the Church is to be condemned as a Heathen and a Publican and a Sâ—ranger to Gods people Noguera libra secâ—ndo de Ecclesia They are Idolaters that act by Whatever things were written were They are Hereticks and to be condemned who Scripture examples not having their rule by inspiration immediate from God Naylor's love to the lost Morning watch written for our examples Be ye followers of us and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example take the Scripture for their rule without the authority of the Church The Scriptures do not
give light nor are they binding any further than they come by inspiration and are recceived in Spirit James Naylors love to the lost Let us break his bands asunder and cast his câ—rds from us Psal 2. They that are under the Law shall be judged by the Law The Scripture not being understood is no Scripture Lorinus Jesuita in Psalmum 119. 105. The Scripture without the authority of the Church not binding The Gospel of Matthew no more than the History of Titus Livius Surdisius Cardinalis in Catechismo No more to be valued than an Aesops Fable Papists Prelates Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists all fly to the Scriptures Morning watch To the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8. 20. Most of the Hereticks if not all take refuge in the Scriptures Gretserus Jesuita All that are unconverted that is not Quakers must be shut out of the Scriptures Naylors love c. Parn. Shield c. I have written to him the great things of my Law but they accounted them a strange thing The Scriptures are neither necessary fit nor profitable for the common people to read Harding Jesuita Petrus Lizetus Scriptures prophaned by their Reading All the false Religions this day take their Rise from the Scriptures Morning Watch. The words of the Lord are pure words Psal 12. 6. Every word of God is pure Prov. 30. 5. All the Hereticks pretend to the Scriptures and will seem thence to fetch the venom of their Heresies Hardingus Jesuita Bellarminus PART II. CHAP. XIII The Quakers deny and subvert all the Ordinances of the Gospel THe Ordinances of God are those means SECT I in which God and his creature Man do hold and maintain a professed and mutual converse and communion wherein all men are as their duty to draw nigh to God in their express worship and acknowledgements of the divine Being and therein to expect from God his gracious presence with them and his blessing them both with spiritual temporal and eternal blessings And although God be not tied to this or that way wherein to shine upon his poor creatures by his manifold goodness yet he is far from being bound to the loose and wanton humours of men And having Isa 64 5 commanded some things to be done by us as means in order to our being so blessed and thereto annexed Deus non superstitione coli vult sed pietate God will not take superstition but piety for hâ—s worshâ—p Cicero many great and gracious promises of being so found of us it is an affront of no mean nature to the divine Majesty and contempt of our own welfare yea and implicite denial of our dependance on him to neglect much more to deny most of all to disdain those his Ordinances and to cast reproach and scorn upon them The eternal God who gives being to all things that are and to whose being and blessedness it is beyond the reach of any or all together to make the least â—ota or tittle of addition owes us nothing and whatever of his free bounty he shall please to reach us with it is not only suitable to Scripture revelation but right reason also that in order thereunto he should choose his own wayes And although many enjoy plenty and prosperity § 2 in the outward good things of this life in all whose thoughts God is not and who are utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the way which pleaseth his own mind Socrat. in Plato Viz God will be worshiped Quicunque Deum aut Numen non agnoscit no â—anâ—um ratione caret sed etiam sensu Avicenâ—a strangers to his worship yet God will make them know one day that they not coming into the possession of those good things by the right door of his holy and religious Ordinances they are but thieves and robbers But for men to attempt or expect spiritual blessings from God out of his own wayes so far as they are capable of understanding what they are and how to reach them is such a direct opposition and contradiction to a soul truly addicted and disposed to spiritual blessings as would fill up a volume to enumerate its parts and express its folly except you will say that spiritual blessings have nothing to do with a conformity to the will of God and a holy complacency and delight resulting to our souls therein and that they are made up of nothing but a self pleasing conceit and fancy that we have brought God to our own bow and made him a subject and captive to our unbridled lusts and so our blessedness hath been § 3 hitherto spell'd backward but newly found out really Who acknowledgeth not God is void not only of reason but sense also to consist not in our conformity to God but his conformity to us Some of these Ordinances of the Lord have been written in natures Book by the light of which men have been led to prayer and some kind of thankful and reverend acknowledgments of God More by revelation which with respect to Ordinances had three steps the first what was revealed before Moses the second by Moses the third at the beginning of Christs administration By Gospel Ordinances therefore I do not intend either those with their circumstances that were known and practised by the light of nature nor those which were under the Mosaical administrations with their circumstances but those Ordinances which were commanded by precept or prescribed by example in the New Testament or which being of natural obligation are therein formed with the substantial and additional respect to a Mediator already come in the flesh and ascended in his humane nature into heaven All those Gospel Ordinances according to the § 4 above-mentioned account being so spiritual and so suiting the grace of the Gospel stripped of those costly and burthensome members of the Mosaical dispensations which the Appostle calls beggarly Elements Gal 4. 9 Heb. 9. 10 carnal Ordinances how aggravated a rebellion must it needs be to kick against them and not endure so easie and so becoming a yoke beside it s rich and plentiful Incomes I shall first prove that the Quakers deny Gospel SECT II Ordinances in general and then in particular You must not expect on the first head that I shall produce their denial of ordinances under the terms Gospel Ordinances but if I prove they deny all the things that are truly such it is as much as can be reasonably expected And we say he Christ hath triumphed over the Ordinances and blotted them out and they are § 2 George Fox great mystery 〈◊〉 p 16. not to be touched and the Saints have Christ in them who is the end of outward forms and thou art deceived who thinks to find the living among the dead This is the Quakers chief Apostle to whom they have all regard as the first among the first three of their Worthies In the first place he abuses the Scripture by a grosly false and directly contradictions Exposition The Scripture which
divine things read the 46 â—7 Verses where he is said to be disputing with the Doctors and that his answers were astonishing to the Hearers Fifthly Apostolical inspirations were intended by the Spirit for a divine and authoritative Obligation to the Faith Order Life and Consciences of others and arâ— therefore rightly placed among the Scriptures or written Word If any man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write are the Commandments of the Lord. But the teachings of the Spirit to the Saints as Saints are no such obligation any farther than they agree with and have their authority from the mind of God revealed in the Scriptures Sixthly Apostolical teachings and inspirations § 11 were of authority to constitâ—te a new order and poâ—ity of the Church to which the former though of divine authority in their season were to give place Yea those Doctrines and Promises so revealed to them by God and by them declared as such are binding to our faith and practice although we cannot discern any of the like import in the Scripture before written But the teachings and illuminations by the Spirit of the Saints as such do not add to or change any thing of the Doctrine or Order established by Christ and his Apostles neither are they contrary to the written Word nor in point of Doctrine beside the sense of it or beyond it To conclude the teachings of the Spirit and its § 12 motions in the Saints which are most purely divine and immediate in our days are the bringing to remembrance explaining to the understanding imprinting on the affections the matter contained in the Scripture and directing them to understand Providences to act in their occurrent occasions suitable to his will revealed in the Scripture and moving their wills to â— compliance with his but are all to be tryed by the Scripture and not the Scripture by them Some I believe will reply How did the Prophets SECT VI and Apostlâ—s when they received immediate Revelations â—nâ— were inspired of God know it was no delâ—sion and it they knew it being men as we are why may not we I dâ—râ— not attempt to pry into the most secret ways of God and undertake to give you a history and description to the full of the Spirits workings on the Souls of his Prophets in conveying his will to them and satisfying their judgments and Consciences that they were the inspirations of God Yet I shall say so much of them as may satisfie any willing Reader to be informed that they had more to evince it than any have now and we have enough to convince us that they were inspired First Whoever they were that were givers forth § 2 of the Law or the Covenants in their first promulgation had the Testimonies of God for them by Gods outward Call to that as their special Office and his promise of guidance in the discharge thereof signs and wonders wrought either by God immediately or by their hands as the Apostles Jesus Christ Mâ—ses Secondly All the Prophets have a Testimony of their being inspired of God by Miracles which they wrought or by the quoting Scripture out of the Books written by them or bearing their names in the New Testament by Christ or his Apostles Thirdly For the Historical part which hath a § 3 respect to the things done within their knowledge as men the Writers of that or those parts of the Scripture were either under the Testimonies of Miracles or were by some express Testimony of God rendred holy men and being so qualified they would not write more than they knew and could not easily be mistaken in matter of fact and being Scripture is said by Paul to be of Divine inspiration Fourthly All those Books of the Old Testament § 4 out of which somewhat is not quoted in the New as Scriptuer were received as Scripture by the Jews and then Church of God and that in the time of many Prophets to whom Divine Testimony hath been given and it cannot with any shew of Reason be supposed that those Writings should be falsly fathered on God or taken for Authentick Scripture and the Prophets not discover and reprove it whereas far less heinous evils than that would have been were often the subject matter of their sharp reprehensions Let any Quaker or other give me or themselves § 5 the like satisfaction of their being immediately inspired and they shall have my leave to hold such an Opinion of it But for those inspirations which they say many had before the Scriptures were written the mention of their time will give full satisfaction it will be a poor Argument to prove men are now inspired as they considering they had not the revealed written Word at all and we have iâ— sâ— fâ—ll 〈…〉 necessary for any to know are therein included and thereby expressed The second thing I must reply to is what the Quakers § 6 frequently object viz. That we make the Scripture the Judge of the Spirit whereas the Spirit gave forth the Scriptures I answer this is for want of judgment in the Objectors Far be it from us to bring the to-be-adored Spirit of God to any mans Bar for judgment to be passed on it or any thing that is his immediate work or word All we profess in this matter to make the Scripture a Judge or Determiner of is whether this or that be the mind of the Spirit or no but if once it appear to be the voice and mind of the Spirit we profess it our duty to reverence and submit to it And we being certain that the holy Scriptures were given forth from God and that God is not opposite to himself we conclude that what is contrary to the Scripture cannot be the Word of the Spirit because then the Spirit should bear witness against it self and the word of the Spirit would be contrary to the word of the Spirit And moreover if any shall pretend to abolish by § 7 the Authority or inspiration of the Spirit those Ordinances and Institutions which were setled by Christ or Christ in his Apostles it would be unreasonable to credit them without the same Testimonials such Miracles as they wrought by which they were erected But the Quakers are far enough from shewing such a zeal for their pretended Ministry and Order And further we are obliged not to receive another Gospel and that by the Holy Spirit though an Angel from Heaven should preach it and we are warned not to believe any other as Truth Divine against it though many wonders should be wrought for confirmation The third thing I must reply to is that our knowledge § 8 of the mind of God by the Scriptures is uncertain I answer If you mean a knowledge of all Gods mind you are not to expect it if you mean all that is there contained it is not necessary and you may go to Heaven and do your duty without such a vast knowledge and if you
their room and stead But let us hear another Witness and he none of the § 9 Isaac Penington concerning Unity p 1. meanest Yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then about the beginning of the late troubles given forth and I can never be drawn to deny the truth and worth of that dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by a greater desolation soon following after and since by the breaking forth of a more lively dispensation And a little after p. 2. and remained fixing their mind on that former dispensation which the Lord had departed from It is hereby as plain and clear as the Sun shining § 10 at noon-day that Quakerism is a late dispensation taking its date since the beginning of the late troubles But to put all out of doubt in page 3. he saith Is not this Quakerism the lowest of all dispensations Is not this common to all mankind doth not this fall short in it self as I may say and as it hath formerly been dispensed by young Countrey-Lads of no deep understanding or ready expression but very fit to be despised every where by the Wisdom of Man of the dispensation of the Law of Moses to the Jews much more of the dispensation by Christ and his Apostles who would have looked for the Lord here And yet this hath the Lord chosen to gather his people by and to appear to the World in and hath gathered the life vertue and substance of all former dispensations into it c. So that this new despensation hath swallowed up all others yea that of Christ and his Apostles and if so it is not the dispensation of Christ and his Apostles but another accounted by the Quakers more excellent and compleat and therefore is not Christianity any more then Christianity is Judaism by their own account To shut up the proof of this as owned by themselves according to the most plain Construction of their own words or consequence not to be disowned by a rational man I will give you James Naylor's doctrine But yours Commands in the Letter and Love to the Lost p. 16. so of another Administration for the literal Ministration is done away in the spiritual Well then if Christianity began in a manner so vastly differing from and a time so long before Quakerism which is not that but another Administration Quakerism is no Christianity but the former hath been proved to be true therefore the latter CHAP. III. The Quakers deny the Scriptures SECT I THAT the Quakers pretend to own the Scriptures I do not deny but I shall prove it to be one of the most naked and self-contradicted pretences that ever peep'd out into the World with such a noise and confidence If meer pretences were of sufficient Authority 'T is Satans Master-Piece to betray with a kiss to command our faith that portion of Scripture might be well spared 1. Thes 5. 21. Prove all things c. If they should deny the Scriptures in so many words they cannot but know it would nip their designs in the bud and in stead of promoting their principles render themselves odious but Satan is not so silly an Impostor as to spoil his Market by appearing so unseasonably and at first dash in so deformed a shape he is not ignorant of that Text Surely in vain is the Not spread in the sight of any Bird. I shall therefore wave pretences on both sides and bring my charge to a fair triall wherein their own Testimonies shall be their principal Judges I desire them not to accuse me of wounding their reputation seeing the stabs are given with their own daggers and the Murther is no better nor worse then felo de se as the Law phrases it but in plain English Self-Murther this I shall prove by sufficient Argument The Quakers deny the Scriptures of the Old and Arg. 1 § 2 New Testament to be the Word of God This Charge none of them that ever I read heard or heard of will deny and if you please to cast your eye on the instances you may take it on their own words Blasphemy for any to say To all that would know p. 4. Naylors answer to the Jews p. 25 Cuffs Ribands Lace and such other like things invented by the devil F. Howgill one of Antichrists c. p. 2. the Letter is the Word of God It is the Devil that contends for the Scriptures to be the Word of God This errour is by some reputed meerly verbal and that in other words they allow the Scripture as much as this comes to I would it were true of this and all the rest of their errours which they trumpet out in the Scripture titles and dialect upon that condition I would be really content to Yea and Nay it and Thee and Thou it and moreover forbid Ribands Lace and Cuffs though the most modest that were ever worn to pollute my Garments and offend their unnecessary self-denial from that time forward But they have another opinion of it or they would not call it blasphemy to be otherwise minded and we shall finde it ere I have done to be their forelorn Hope by which they attempt to make a breach on the Authority and esteem the Scripture hath justly obtained in the hearts of all serious Christians and thereby with more ease and security to enter the whole Army and gross of their delusions and therefore I shall encounter it first and in good earnest It will be necessary before I proceed to let you § 2 know what we intend by the phrase that the Scriptures are the Word of God that you may know what we hold and contend for though they know not what they contend against except the vain fictions of their own begetting Know therefore that we do not assert them to be the Son of God the Christ and Saviour nor the Spirit of God neither do we say that they are so self-sufficient and all-powerful as to sanctifie and enlighten savingly without the coagency efficiency or assistance of the good Spirit of the Lord to open our understandings and write them in our hearts These things are too high for them On the other hand we dare not call them a dead letter who have felt them sharper then any two-edged § 3 sword and tasted them sweeter then then the honey or the honey-comb nor yet Ink and Paper-Divinity or meerly the words and works of men These are too low an opinion of them But positively First we intend the sense and matter by them expressed § 4 containing those Histories Prophesies Promises Threatnings Doctrines Exhortations c. which God at sundry times and in divers manners revealed to and pake by his Son and servants inspired by God or by inspiration of God Secondly the sense and matter aforesaid being § 5 written or printed we call the Word of God so far as the print or writing agrees in its kind with the Original Copies which were
written by or by the Direction of God himself his son or servants inspired by him so we call it the Word of God but with this distinction the written Word Now that the Scriptures are the Word of God in the SECT II senses aforesaid I shall vindicate from the violent contradictions of the Quakers They have these three Objections against this truth 1. That it is improper so to call them viz. The Word of God 2. That many things or sayings contained in them were spoken by wicked men or the devil 3. That this Title is peculiar to Jesus Christ the Son of God First they deny them to be the Word of God in the singular number I must therefore in dealing with this great Criticism reconcile the plural number to the singular I answer to the first it sounds methinks very harshly § 2 that not one word in the Scriptures should be the Word of God because there are in them more words then one Surely if the first second third fourth and so on be the Word of God then every word in it is the Word of God and never the less but rather the more for being united for that there are few single words which standing alone will signifie any thing whereas divers put together have a sense and signification And the whole body of the Scripture considered together doth signifie the mind of God more compleatly then if it were dismembred and considered apart But I know they aim at more then a meer Grammar-nicety at which kind of failings they use not much to quarrel but are rather affected with them as if the Spirit of God delighted in real non-sense though I think the causes to be three especially First that their first Authors could speak or write no better and they take it to be a perfection to write false English and nonsense after such infallible persons Secondly because they have so few of those they call their Ministry able to write true sense and English that those who can if they list will not lest they should disgrace their Brethren and rather then that should be admitted it shall become the fashion and obtain in time to be better English then sense A third reason may be their taking all matter and form to be infallibly from the Spirit and therefore dare not amend the sense of the Spirit But to what is the Question I return after this so § 4 long yet not altogether inexcusable digression One of their zealous Ministers as they call them thus exclaims And what an improper speech were this to call Fr. Howgil one of Antichrists Voluntiers â—efeated p. 26. twenty thousand Sentences one word and it is called a Declaration and what a Declaration would that be which consisted but of one word but where do we say the Scripture is but one word there is a great deal of difference between but one word and the Word And if the Scriptures be a Declaration in the singular number it must take many Declarations into one for it contains what was declared from Moses time to the Apostles and why not the word in the singular as well as a Declaration in the singular seeing the Scripture contains many Declarations But he gives one kick backward more at what he pleads for Pray have the patience to read this man passing the sentence against himself A Rod for the fools back Prov. 26. 3. And what a foolish man is this to assert his own imaginations and then imagines the Scriptures will prove it what an improper speech is this c. I know not the person he brands with folly but I am sure the Cause as laid down by Howgil himself deserves it not I am confident he understands not what improper means if he intend by improper that it is figurative he need not wonder and say what a figurative speech is this Alas the Scriptures and all Writings abound with figurative speeches but if he mean by improper incongruous or unmeet he offends greatly for then the Scriptures are very guilty herein as will appear by and by and I know not what else he should mean by proper unless not peculiar or a tall speech as we call a tall man or woman a proper and by improper a short speech Let a Propheâ— Naylors Love to the lost p. 17. of their own and he none of the small Prophets neither decide this Controversie Nay who never yet came so far as Balaam who had the Word of the Lord from his own Mouth But to cast this Objection out of doors we are to § 5 take it in a collective sence which is very frequent in the Scripture For instance the Scriptures themselves are sometimes expressed by a plural sometimes by a singular word Ye do erre not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 23. Here it is plural It is contained in the Scripture 1 Pet 2. 6. Here it is singular A sentence is called a word Where the word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 3. They were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with Power Either of these instances contain more then one single word The ten Commandments graven on the Tables of Stone are in the Hebr. ten words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you have so rendred in the margin of some of your Bibles Deut. 10. 40. Now divide these Commandments into ten single ones and then each will have but one word come to its share to express it by and some It is too frequent with them to call the holy Scriptures dead Letter and a letter is somewhat less then a word one viz. the fourth hath at least 60 single words in the Hebr. but many more in the English Rom. 2. 9 10. To the Jew not Jews and also to the Gentile not Gentiles can you suppose that one and but one single Jew or Gentile is hereby intended read the sixth verse and you shall have it explained Who will render to every man according to his deeds so that under the single word Jew is expressed all the Jews from first to last in every generation and under the word Gentile all the world of mankind besides Take one Text more to conclude with Isa 8. 20. To § 6 No Morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ei aurora Montanus the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them not so much as the dawning of the day Both Law and Testimony are here rendred by Word in the singular number in this one Text there is enough not only to silence this petty cavil but to pluck up both root and branch all the principles of Quakerism if they who profess them had any regard to the Authority and verity of the eternal and Almighty God and a few grains of understanding at liberty to consult it 2. Object Many passages in the Scriptures contain the SECT III sayings of wicked men Yea some have been so irreverent and
irrational as to say some part of it is the words of the devil this expression hath been frequent with them and uttered in contempt of the Scripture I answer although the Scriptures make frequent mention of such Passages it is to a good and holy end and hereby Satans malice is discovered whereby in a good measure we are not ignorant of his devices and hereby we understand his snares in which our first Parents were taken and others both good bad in after-Ages and Satan is also rendred the most wicked and hateful of all that God created But to speak close to the Objection Those speeches of wicked persons such as Job's wife the Pharisees Jews and Rabshakeh and the speeches of the Devil are not the Word of God or any part of holy Writ as they were uttered by them but far from it We are to consider the Scripture as partly Historical and all those passages being reported historically there is not the least stain upon the Scriptures thereby What if I make a true report of the Powder-plot the Massacres in France Ireland c. And that to good ends and purposes yea if I report the blasphemous speeches by them uttered against God his Saints and the holy Scriptures am I therefore blameable as if I my self had been their Author I know what hath been said is convincing Now by the Inspiration and Guidance of the Holy Spirit these things were written and there is not only a truth but also a divine truth of History in them Object 3. That this title the Word of God is peculiar to the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ whom they call the light within the Scriptures within Here it is indeed that the shoe pinches and they would fain put off the honour and put out the light of the Scriptures because they stand in the light of their fancy Pardon me the expression for it is truth I shall prove by the Lords assistance ere I have done But what have they to say that the Scripture should not be the Word of God notwithstanding the Son of God is so called I will give you the best that ever I met with The first is the Authority of their Leaders who say It is so and it must be so He Christ is the Ja. Parnel Christ exalted p. 4. Word the Scripture is not Why should it be doubted after such an evidence it is unreasonable and superfluous to expect that infallible persons for so the Quakers believe all their Ministry to be should give a reason for what they affirm especially considering they are constrained to be infallible for want of reason And now seeing he can carry it so easily he goes on like an empty Cloud carried with the wind He Christ is the light the Scripture is not he is the Ruler Guide Teacher and Judge and the Scripture is not What may not a man prove in one infallible breath did he not prudently to make haste before that gale was spent Well but who can stand before a whirl-wind one blast hath torn from the Scripture no less then six of those glorious Garments wherewith God hath cloathed it Let us hear G. F. if he do not amend the matter § 4 by a thing like an Argument He did not say John 1. 1. the Declaration was the Word but said in his Declaration the Word was God and he who saith the Latter Difference of Ministers p. 1. is the Word is a Deceiver and erres for the Scripture saith That in the beginning was the Word If you could have found where John said in his Declaration as you call it that the Scriptures are not the Word of God a thousand to one but some or other of the Lords people would have found it out long before Quakerism was in being and have ceased to take that name in vain For the second Argument he said the Word was § 5 God what then Why then the Scriptures cannot be the Word unless they be God also I am sure I have hit on your Conclusion and the best you can make of it but let me tell you that the Scripture may be the Word and Christ the Word also and yet though Christ be the Word of God the Scriptures the Word may be quite another thing Let me give you just such another place of Scripture They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed ◠Cor. 10. 4. them and that Rock was Christ Will you conclude from hence that there is no other Rock but every Rock in the World must needs be Christ or that it is sinful yea Blasphemy to call any thing a Rock but Christ but it may be you will say 't is a spiritual Rock in that place And I say it was spiritual only as it was mystical or typical of Christ but in other respects it was a Rock as others are hard and stony So I say of the Word that was God it was the Word that was in the beginning that created all things Shew me any such Word and I will call it God too yea I will say it is blasphemy to deny it to be so But the Scriptures which we call the Word of God were not in the beginning nor did they create any thing much less all things Pray let me ask you that are so stiff in this point § 9 do you not take the light in John 1. 9. to be Christ and God say nay if you dare Yea and will you not say that John saith so in his Declaration I know you will and I will say so too what then Is there nothing called light or that is truly so but Christ or God the Sun Moon Day are called Gen. 1. 5 16. Mat. 5. 14. Light also yea the Disciples are called by Christ himself The Light of the World And must they be God too or Christ be to blame for calling them the Light of the World a phrase so very near that in John 1. 9. Christ is called the Way the Truth and the Life but if you should make every such expression to be meant of Christ and God I am sure we should have Lords many and Gods many in a far lower sense then the Magistrates and great men of the world and Christ would be little beholden to us I beseech you therefore who are not stark blind and steel-hard either to abandon such principles or at least do not pretend to Scripture for them and abuse it after this manner for the Scriptures are no friend to your crooked unholy principles and that your Leaders know well enough That I may blow the dust out of your eyes I shall SECT II take a little pains to shew you your mistake and also how to amend it in more and weightier points in themselves then this under present consideration You do not honestly distinguish betwixt proper and figurative words and phrases in reading the Scriptures but have gotten an Art to construe them backward quite cross to their true intent and
There are two words in the Greek which are Translated § 10 and signifie the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first is sometimes used for Christ the personal Word but the other never And have tasted of the good Word of Heb. 6. 5. Eph 6. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza renders it Gladium spiritualem the spiritual Sword God And also And the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God A little skill in the Original would free them from this and many more mistakes What I have done here will be to such as are willing to understand good measure pressed down shaken together and running over As for those who are of a perverse mind until the Lord give them a better frame I shall not wonder if they wink out the Sun at noon-day I shall next and briefly say somewhat of the written Word which we are greatly concerned to be satisfied in to be the Word of God for that we have no other § 11 standing Word as our Testimony of Gods revealed Will but what is written or printed which is all to a like purpose the one being by an impression of the Pen the other of Stamps This the Quakers deny with the addition of many absurdities arising from so calling and owning it Where saith one of them and a Chief readest Ja. Naylor Sauls Errand to Damascus p. 33. thou in the Scriptures of a written Word it will be no hard matter to find an Answer to this Question I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were accounted as a strange thing A sharp rebuke to the Objectors The Ten Commands or words according to the Hebr. as I have already shewed were written by the Finger of God himself and Exo. 31. 18. John 5. 47. Thou hast printed my words Naylor afterward by Moses The Law of Moses is called his Writings If ye believe not his Writings And if the matter and sense be the Word of God before surely when it is written which any word that ever I heard may be it is a word written or a written word which you will Some there are who have written against the Quakers SECT V who judge that although the Quakers will not admit of this Appellation of the Scriptures yet in other terms they allow them such titles as amount to as much and that the difference is rather verbal then real But let me tell such that besides the imprudence and danger of removing the ancient Land-Marks and not holding fast the form of sound words there is a wide difference and great shortness in the best titles they will afford them yea take them altogether from this Appellation and therefore I shall examine the◠and discover their defects herein First they will allow them to be of God So they affirm their own Writings and Sayings to Morning Watch. 52. be also of God And let not this seem small in your eyes ye shall you all one day know that the Lord hath spoken it not only in some sense but in a higher then the Scriptures at least with respect to them and the times wherein we live But this phrase to be of God is of so large an import that the silliest Worm and the basest clod of Clay we tread on may claim a share in the Priviledge yea nothing in the whole Creation but will bear this expression sin only excepted in Rom. 11. 36. its obliquity for of him are all things Secondly the Scriptures of truth § 2 This is ground enough for us to deal with them by the Authority of the Scriptures but there are many other Writings that are true and if you take the Scriptures to be understood by way of Eminency the Scriptures of truth so as no other Writings extant are so absolutely and divinely true they will utterly disclaim such a sense Thirdly They are the Experiences of the Saints and § 3 what they witnessed This is with them a very common phrase Though A true Testimony of what the Saints were made witnesses of Smith Prim. p. 10. this be true of some part of the Scriptures especially the Book of Psalms it is too narrow a title by far for the whole Body of the Scriptures And for that part of the Scriptures which expresses the Experiences of the Saints it hath somewhat more as its end then a meer witnessing or expressing how it was with them But I do not wonder that they so much delight in this phrase when I consider that they themselves restrain almost all the Concerns of Religion to their Experiences yea things Historically related that were done without them long ago and are never again to be acted on the stage of this world and things Prophetically related in the Scriptures which shall not have a being until the end of the world They experience the Birth Righteousness Sufferings Death Burial Resurrection Alcension and Exaltation of Christ They experience the downfall of Babylon the Day of Judgment Heaven Hell and all within them and not with respect to some effects impressions and similitudes of these things but really and almost if not altogether exclusively of any other meaning all of which you will find proved in the following Discourse But this is far short and wide of owning the Scriptures to be the Word of God There are no Saints but have their Experiences both good and bad but he that should write them and affirm them to be the Word of God as they are the Experiences of the Saints will fall with Rev. 22. 18. 19. Deut. 4. 2. a witness under that severe censure of that true and legitimate Word of God Fourthly They call them a Declaration of the Mind § 4 of God This all things considered is the highest expression of their esteem of the Holy Scriptures and Word of God for so I will call them whether they will or no but so were some part of the Writings of the Heathen-Idolaters who knew not the true God Yea many things which they spake of as the Duty of Man and against many immoral Vices The Apostle sayes no less when he quotes such Passages out of such Heathen-Authors Evil communications 1 Cor. 15. 33 corrupt good manners This is found in the Comedy of Menander called Thadia For we are also his off-spring Acts 17. 28 is a Declaration of God Jovis omnia plena Virg. And some such things they have not only dictated for the matter but have also pressed them as the mind of God according to those notions they had of him And much more may the large and precious Sermons and Writings of the Servants and Ministers of Christ whose Discourses are grounded on the Holy Scriptures yet he that should call them the Word of God in a strict sense deserves correction A man may declare his mind yea or some things of the mind of God by gestures nods becks frowns smiles yet they are not to be
must not call him their Great Light for that is in the Lanthorn 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. Let your women keep silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law And if they will learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for Women to speak in the Church I have known some of them to break the Bonds of this inhibition by expounding the Women to be weakness she being called the weaker vessel and so weakness must not speak But let us hear G. F's Exposition it may be that may not be so weak Now the woman here hath a husband to Mystery of The Great Whore p. 86. ask at home this Note hath some wit in it but he proceeds and not usurp authority over the man but Christ in the male as in the female who redeems from under the Law and makes free from the Law that man may speak Now the knot is untied and the womans tougue loosed beyond all question But would any man in his Wits expound this after this fashon the Woman may not speak but the Man Christ in the Woman may and what must their home be then that must be their Consciences within where they say the light Christ is And they are directed to ask their Husbands in the plural number then according to this Exposition there must be as many Christs as there are Women in the world at least for every one hath a husband at home Also this home the Conscience must needs be when the women were there in the Church Take but one more though I could fill a Volume § 8 with them Ye have Moses and the Prophets within Fisher velata quaedam revelata viz. This written spoken manifested in you Quod tibi ne vis fieri alteri ne feceris and retro Whatever you would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them This saith Christ is the Law or Moses and the Prophets but if ye will not be admonished nor perswaded by Moses and the Prophets neither will ye be perswaded by such of us who were once dead in sin with you but are now risen to life by the Power of God which is his light and in the same sent to speak unto you from the dead I will conclude this Chapter with some Inferences SECT V and Conclusions that naturally flow from this errour for one errour never goes alone viz. That their writings and sayings are equal with the Scriptures and to be preferred before them First it would follow that the Scriptures both are § 1 and ever were superfluous for the light within as they pretend was alway fitted to inspire every man and woman in the same manner and to all intents and purposes as they were inspired and written Secondly upon the same ground the tenets and § 2 assertions of all the Heathen are to be received as of equal Authority with the Scriptures for although they did not pretend them for divine Inspirations or Revelations yet they resulted from their light within improved much more orderly and to purpose then the Quakers do theirs whose ungrounded Pretensions to Inspirations weigh nothing in the case yea the bitter scoffs of Lucian and Julian the Apostate must be admitted into the same Orders for if it be admitted they did not vilifie and scorn and deride Christ the Scripture and Christianity according to the dictates of their Consciences it cannot be denyed that they therein acted from the power within which whether it were the power of darkness or not the Quakers having no rule to judge it by but their own sentiments it is left by them undetermined And I know not hardly any worse they said of Jesus of Nazareth the Scripture and Christianity then the Quakers have done under other Names The Quakers reduce their sentiments and motions § 3 to the power within of which I will give you one taste from a chief Author But sink down from these Isaac Penington concerning Unity p 1. the reasonings about things and wait to feel that which lies beneath in the free nature virtue life power and motions whereof alâ—ne is your souls salvation power and motion from within is all with them and if this be truly divine and of equal Authority with the Scriptures or accounted so the scornful and virulent invectives of some of late against many worthy Ministers of Christ and multitudes of serious Christians are not only not to be rebuked but to be reverenced as divine emanations and verities for it could be nothing but a power within with a witness that had such Productions It will absolve many of those from sin whom the § 4 Scripture speaks of as gross and heinous offenders The Apostle Paul when a persecuting Saul dealt so hardly with the Cause and precious Saints of the Lord from the Conduct of what he took to be light or the light in his Conscience Christ doth also foretell us of such who should think they did God good service in killing his Servants and if meer think so 's perswasions impressions motions without a demonstrable ground may be taken for divine dictates on the one part why not on the other and by consequence the Holy Spirit must be entituled Dux omnium malorum and every evil which is the fruit of ignorance and conceit fathered on it It will warrantize a great part of the Popish inventions § 5 and Orders which had their erection on the pretended inspirations and revelations of some among them who were Monkish and cloystered Votaries whose humorous abstinence moroseness and uncommanded sanctity gained credit with the people for any thing they would affirm and the Politick Clergy made their advantage of it I remember a passage of a Romanist who coming § 6 into England and observing the multitude of Sâ—cts here he being asked which of them came nearest to the Roman Church he replied The Quakers And it the fundamental principles of Sects as such agreeing together do most exactly express their agrcement and likeness each to other the Quakers and Papists may claim Kindred upon more demonstrable terms then any other Sects whatever The three main principles Pillars of the Roman SECT VI Absurdities are First A Contempt of the Scriptures as insufficient to determine in all Religious Concerns Secondly And therefore a necessity of some other infallible Judge which may supply that defect Thirdly Immediate Revelations and divine Inspirations The first of these is so apparently and abundantly proved of both Papists and Quakers in the Parallel in the close of the 12th Chapter of this Book and other places here and there that I need not agitate it in this place See Chap. 5. The second That the Romanists build their Faith § 2 on the pretence of Infallibility is not doubted by any who are in any degree acquainted with their Writings yet I shall furnish you with a few proofs In
ver 22. Who is a lier but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son That you who are called Quakers deny Jesus to be the Christ I prove at large in a Chapter by its self that you deny the Father and the Son is no less true of you who will admit no distinction between the Father and the Son so that the Father is with you as much the Son of the Father as the Son is the Son of the Father and the Son is as much the Father with you of the Son as the Father is the Father of the Son that by distroying these distinctions you destroy the relation of Father and Son in the Godhead which the Scripture speaks of so plainly and it is hereby apparent that your quarrel is not so much with the word Trinity as with the thing thereby expressed The next black mark of Antichrist which is upon you is that in 2 Thes 2. 4. who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Do not you advance your light within above the Man Christ Jesus whom we worship as God and who is so called in the Scriptures even that Man whose being is above the visible Heavens Do not you call your light within you God eternal Omnipotent c. Yea you say it is the light in the Conscience which is the Temple of God and there it doth as if it were God rule govern judge execute in contempt of the written and true Laws of the divine being I beseech you consider these things and lay them to your hearts CHAP. V. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Life or a Judge and Determiner of Religious Controversies THat this is to deny the Scripture is obvious and SECT I plain to all who have not the beam in their eyes I have before proved them to deny its proper and most frequent appellation but if that be not sufficient to prove they deny the Scripture methinks denying their main use and imployment should render them guilty of the full measure of that iniquity To little purpose will it be to call them the Scripture the Holy Scripture c. if after all a conformity to their guidance and conduct will render our belief and practice never the less prophane I shall not further perswade my Reader that to deny the Scripture to be a Rule of Faith and Life c. is to deny the Scripture for if this suffice not I know nothing will carry the Question unless the Scripture should be brought in begging some boon at the Quakers hands and they proved so hard-hearted as not to grant it If this were necessary I should not fail in the proof notwithstanding For the proof of the Charge I shall first call forth § 2 James Parnel an early and forward Quaker and Parnels Shield of the Truth p. 10. much esteemed for his works sake And he also that saith the Letter is the rule and guide of the people of God is without feeding upon the husk and is ignorant of the true Light which was before the Letter was By this mans Verdict the Scripture is cast and condemned for husks a false light or but a shadow and its Observers charged with ignorance of Christ the true light for so doing But it were well if they could come off so Behold in the next Accusation a Charge of no less then the highest robbery and sacriledge And if thou lookest upon the Scripture to be for a rule Smiths Prim. p. 10. and for trying thou givest that unto them which belongs unto Christ for he is the rule and leads his people and he alone searches the hearts and trys the reins and not the Scripture But if you will see a mouth full of blasphemy against the authority of the Scripture read with horrour and amazement the following words God is at Naylors Light of Christ c. p. 19. liberty to speak to his people by them the Scripture if he please and where they are given by inspiration he dâ—th so but the sting is behind in the tail of this non-such sentence and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass Then such a thing as Balaams Ass may call up our expectations of Gods teachings guidance and rebukes as well as the Scriptures for God is at liberty to teach us by an Ass and he hath put no more authority into the Scripture unless he shall please to hand them to us by renewed and immediate inspiration But I shall not rake into this Dunghill further which of its self gives forth so offensive a savour I intended to have given you upon this Head the § 3 assertions of some of the Romish Writers who trample on the neck of the Scripture with the same foot only the difference betwixt them and the Quakers lies in the aim and design the Jesuits spurn at them to advance the dictates of the Pope and the Romish pretended Church above the Scriptures but the Quakers to advance the conceit within above them all Yet I care not if I give you one instance at large Omnis Judex praesertim supremus generalis ita debet dicere sententiam ut altera pars litigantium evidenter sciat se vicisse altera pars evidenter sciat se causam amisisse quantum est ex parte hujus judicis At hoc neque Scriptura Sacra neque Spiritus Sanctus loquens per Scripturam potest facere Ergo neque Sacra Scriptura nec Spiritus Sanctus Argumentum Jacobi Beccani item Gretseri Jesuitae in Col loquio Ratisbon loquens per Scripturam est talis judex Et minorem illustrabat his totidem verbis Stamus ego Collegae Domini adversarii in conspectu hujus judicis Bibliorum en contendimus an sit judex Controversiarum Jam ille judex debet pronunciare sententiam ut nobis constet evidenter Sumus hîc in conspectu Sacrae Scripturae Spiritus Sancti pronunciet sententiam sic dicat tu Jacobe Gretsere male sentis cecidisti causa tua Tu Jacobe Hailbrunnere vicisti Tunc ego statim transibo ad vestrum scamnum Et paulo post Adsit jam Spiritus Sanctus jam judicet jam me condemnet In English thus Every Judge especially who is supreme and general ought so to give sentence that the one part of the contenders may plainly know they have overcome and the other that they have lost their cause so far as it is in the Judge But this neither the holy Scriptures nor the holy Spirit by the Scripture can do Therefore neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is such a Judge The minor he illustrates in these very words I and my Collegues and the Lords Adversaries stand before
this Judge the Scripture behold we dispute whether it he a Judge of Controversies Now this Judge ought to give sentence so as it may be evidently manifest to us We are here before the holy Scripture and the holy Spirit let him pronounce sentence and say thus thou Jacob Gretserus believest not aright thy cause is overthrown thou Jacob Hailbrunnerus hast overcome then I will quickly go over to you And a little after Now let the Holy Ghost come now let him judge me now let him condemn me If he had not had the metaphorical word to have played with the world had not been troubled with so impertinent an Argument and language so ludicrous abusive and daring to the Holy Spirit By this you may see that if the Quakers and Jesuits agreement in the same false Witness against the Scripture will carry it our cause is gonâ— and the Scripture must not determine Religious matters But 't is a bad step that so well fits the Popes Foot to mount his usurped and infallible Chair by and which both Papists and Quakers tug for as for life I remember when I was a small Lad I heard our § 4 Protestant Divines usually affirm that every man was born with a Pope in his belly which to my then childish genius seemed a very pretty phrase but such an one as I thought as was not only improbable but also impossible but the Generation I am contending against tug for the truth of it though under other terms tooth and nail And I have ceased wondring that so many so easily turn Quakers when I consider how natural it is to shake off the Doctrine and Discipline even of God himself that we alone may rule if not over the great world of all others at least over the little world our selves without controul For convicting the Quakers of gross errour and SECT II establishing others in the truth I shall prove from the Divine Authority of the Scripture these three things First That whatsoever is by the Lord affirmed in the Holy Scripture it is our duty to believe Secondly That whatsoever is thereby or therein commanded of the Lord not being repealed by the coming of Christ it is our duty to obey Thirdly That the Holy Scriptures do in their kind determine or discover to us whether we believe and walk or practise aright or not For the first of these I shall prove from our Saviours § 2 own words O fools and slow of heart to believe Luk. 24. 25. all that the Prophets have spoken c. If it had not been their duty to believe according to the sayings of the Lord by the Prophets which were not immediate to the Disciples it had been neither their fault nor their folly not to believe or to have been so slow and unready to believe even those Prophesies which foretold the death and ill handling of the Messias which was so much above their understandings and so thwart to their affections Yea the innocent and compassionate Jesus would have been not a little faulty for so severely rebuking them for what was no crime at all But lest you should say these Prophecies were within them as some of you have said know first that they were ignorant of them for as yet they John 20. 9. knew not the Scriptures And 't is said Luke 4. 27. Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Thus much may suffice to prove it our duty to believe what the Scriptures speak and that all and universally Secondly What is therein commanded we ought § 3 to obey c. Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord yâ—ur God Deut 5. 32. hath commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left If it be objected this was obliging to them not to us who are not under Moses's Administration I answer first that the commands here chiefly intended were such as oblige all men in all Ages for the matter of them which is alway just and righteous Secondly the ground of their authority being the Lord commanding reaches to whatever he commands in hiâ— written Word in all Ages of the world Thirdly the Israelites had them not immediately by inspiration but by the hand of Moses either from his mouth to that Generation or by Writing and Tradition to the Generations following Who gave Jacob for Hos 12. 8. a spoil and Israel to the Robbers did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient to his Law Thirdly the holy Scriptures determine according § 4 to their kind or as much as a Writing can do whether we believe and practise aright or not I hope you are not yet resolved with the Jesuits and William Pen that because they do not express the sense contained in them viva voce or direct it to thy conscience without any other help and say thou A. art in the right thou B. art amiss therefore thou wilt not take them to be meet to determine good and evil right and wrong We may as certainly determine by words written as by words spoken and they are altogether as worthy of credit Those who come under the executive determination of Laws do find that Process in writing doth not lose its force for the decrees and sentence being put into that form All Scripture is given 2 Tim 3. 16 17. by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God maybe perfect throughly furnished unto all good works the words for correction here are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for conviction And herein all things which are written in the § 5 Law and the Prophets do I exercise my self to have a Acts. 24. conscience void of offence towards God and towards men What can be more plain the judgment whether he did righteously with respect to God and men was passed in his conscience by the Scriptures and that not by immediate inspiration only though he were an Apostle but by the written Law attained by study and serious meditation Herein I exercise myself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he laboured by study and meditation therein as the Greek imports he was not an idle Quaker that must have knowledge dropt in his mouth for dig he cannot and to ask of others he scorns it But for all that I had rather be laborious rich and humble with Paul than flothful poor proud and meerly in conceit rich with them To the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8. 20. if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them G. Fox the grand Quaker will needs have Christ to be the Law and the Testimony if so I am as sure as can be that they that are saved by Christ are saved by the Law and then farewel the Gospel and the
lusts of men and this pure sensation of stirrings and motions becomes better by far the stark blind than those who have eyes in their heads We grope for the wall like the blind and we grope Isa 59. 10. as if we had no eyes we stumble at noon-day as in the night One of the severest curses for disobedience threatned against Israel was and thou shalt grope at Deu. 28. 29. noon-day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosper in thy wayes And what is this principle of the Quakers but to turn us again into the darkness and Chaos of Gentilism instead of beholding as in a Glass with open face the glory of the Lord to be feeling after him by the corrupt and half senseless touches of a natural conscience acting on the narrow and uncertain indications of Creation and providence which though they may teach something concerning God and our original duty to him will be as far from acquainting us with Gospel truths or such as concern Christ and our redemption by him as a stone or tree is from discerning and expressing the secret and bosom counsels of God or man I would not yet have you think that we deny § 7 or disown a sensation and feeling of the holy and blessed mind of God for we look on nothing of greater moment than to have a heart and conscience delivered from searedness and being past feeling But our feeling and sense of the truths of God is by the Faith of them revealed to us in and by his Word into which we desire absolutely to resolve our belief and which is the objective rule to the understanding by the senses CHAP. VI. The Quakers take men off from reading the Scripture and looking into them for instruction and comfort IT is no matter of wonder at all that they who are SECT I so far entred in the denial and contempt of the Scripture should advance this step further it being but the natural off-spring of what I have already proved to be their Tenets And whatever else is the round of their writings and declarings all centres in putting people upon looking to the light within as the only Counsellor and Comforter And this is the Smith Ca◠p. 95. meaning of our Doctrine to bring people to the everlasting Word of God in themselves Whereby they steal away their esteem and use of the Scriptures insensibly and they are shut up and lost in another Book viz. The light within before they are aware whereas if they should in so many words forbid them to read the Scriptures it would make their hearts recoil Alas that men are such Children who suspect not a design to rob them of their Gold when a Counter a trifle is commended to them and imposed upon them that they may not think of or mind that which is a Treasure By this means the Scriptures are forgotten 'till the love and esteem of them be lost by doting on the new and gay fancy of a divine and perfect light within But to the proof further But turn your ears inward to the measure of light in § 2 Morning Watch Epist you which is without guile So to that of God in thee I will direct thee Their Pamphlets are stuffed so full with expressions of this nature that I should but shew you their great road in citing their words neither will any of them deny what they are brought to prove But if they intended the judgment and conscience enlightned and that this ought to be minded in its place we should not condemn for such directions but when it is made a God of and by consequence an Idol and those beams of Divine light shining in the Scripture excluded as if they had the body of the Sun within themselves it is the highest instance of folly and proof of taking men off from reading the Scriptures for instruction and comfort Yet take their minds in express words And by the § 3 Parnel ' s Shield of she truth p. 10. same light do we discern and testifie against him to be in darkness and blindness and is a deceiver who putteth the letter for the light and so draw peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them seeking the living among the dead You may here discern the confidence they have in their light within that they dare oppose it to the Scripture yea and take its false witness which it bears against the Scripture and with what a black coal he marks those who put the letter i. e. the Scriptures for the light and this he construes to be a drawing peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them so that by his own way of reasoning I have authority to say that putting the light within them for the Scripture the light without them they draw peoples minds from the Scripture But the close of this sentence is no less than a murtherer of the holy Scripture seeking the living among the dead yea a strangling the Scripture with one of its own silver Cords Why seek ye the living among the dead as if the Scripture Luke 24. 5. were a very Grave and Charnel-house from which the living Jesus is for ever departed or which is more congruous to their sense they are no more able to minister instruction and comfort than a dead Carcase rotting in the Grave Hear one more of their Trumpets sounding to the § 4 John Story short discovery c. p. 2. same purpose And although the holy Scripture without and the Saints practises are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them as to set them in esteem above the light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the light and Spirit of Christ within The Scriptures are as lights but they will not right them so far as to call the Scripture a light and the commendations of that Idol the light within are such as if they were true he were a stark fool who would direct his eyes to the Scripture having such an excelling light in his own bosom But lest after all these allurings they should not be understood and people should be so silly as to attempt to light their Candle at the Scripture Taper they will tell you in plain English the vanity of such an undertaking For he Smith Prim. p. 12. Christ the light within alone searches the hearts and not the Scripture So that to draw people from attending to the Scripture they do not only commend the light within being silent concerning the Scripture in the mean while but tell you in plain words the Scriptures are in this matter of no service at all as Parnel before cited he is the light and guide c. the Scriptures are not They assert the light within to be sufficient yea all-sufficient SECT II This where it takes hold of the credulity will draw as hard from attending
before he found it in the Book why did God commend and reward his tenderness of heart in fearing when the Law was read out of the Book if he were so hard-hearted as not to hear the Law within Why did Jesus Christ never rebuke the Jews for not heeding the Scripture within while he oft rebuked them for not heeding and believing the Scripture without these are enough and to spare to discover the vanity of this conceit The truth is the Scriptures were written with respect to us first without then within I would gladly hear any of the Quakers make § 6 a report of any of the Gospel truths contained in the Scriptures which you could assure me you never heard or read without or that you could all agree without conferring together in a Narrative of those Traditions which the Thessalonians were taught by word and of those many other things which Jesus 2 Thess 2. 15. did or some of them spoken of John 21. 25. which were not written this would be somewhat of conviction to us But you are unworthy beyond all men of the holy Scriptures who by such means as these not only take off others from reading them for their instruction but also deny the mediate and visible instruments and means of those notions you make such a noise and jingling with in the ears of men as if they were but home-born things They affirm that there is no light in the Scriptures SECT IV That light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell Lip of truth opened p. 7. Ephes. 5. 8. me what one Scripture hath light in it If the Scriptures gives us a true description of light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light this is not only an errour of the first magnitude but also one of the greatest discouragements imaginable of looking into the Scriptures for instruction and comfort for if they manifest or signifie nothing to us it will be but lost labour I am apt to believe they may hold it for very Orthodox Doctrine intending thereby that there is no light in the Scriptures more than they have or may have without them and that the Scriptures can add no more to them than the boasting Galatians who were false Brethren though they Gal. 2. 6. seemed to be somewhat added to Paul or that there is no Scripture hath Christ the light in it he being in their opinion no where but within as a light I shall only prove that the Scripture is a light or § 2 hath light in it and so dismiss this argument O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead Psal 43. 3. me let them bring me to thy holy hill By which we are to understand the promises made to David He knew the way to Gods holy hill as well as most but his Adversaries had barred it up and therefore he prays that God would preform his promises which were not only the light of comfort to him but a guide to his faith and hope as they were truth and good and such light the Scriptures are replenished with and adorned as the Firmament with Stars and Constellations But lest they should say this is but my meaning put to the Scriptures take one Text that telleth its own meaning in so Prov. 6. 23. many words For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light A fifth Argument may be raised out of those dirty and disparaging Titles and Characters which they give of the Scriptures Of this you have enough before CHAP. VII The Quakers affirm the Doctrines Commands Promises holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such not at all to be binding to us THis is a denying of the Scriptures and the authority of the God of the Scriptures at once and with a witness If any shall be furnished with so small a measure of reason as not to be able to apprehend that such an affirmation is a denying of the Scriptures I have little hope to convince them Yet I shall not leave them altogether without some Scripture evidence of the strength of this Argument Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the § 2 Lord To say who is the Lord or what hath the prov 30. 9. Lord to do with us to command or bear rule over us is to deny the Lord and to say of the Scriptures what are they to us is as plainly to deny them What is self-denial but rejecting and denying what it would oblige us to and impose upon us to relinquish and abandon its authority To deal so by the Scriptures must needs then be a denying of them But why do I burn day light the Argument shines bright enough in its own light and evidence The greatest expectation will be of the proving § 3 matter of Fact or that they do thus affirm I do verily believe that few who have some tolerable opinion of the Quakers and their principles except the rank Quakers themselves have had a suspicion that they are so grosly wicked but I shall blow the dust out of their eyes by as strong a proof as their own confessions And it was the rule unto them that gave forth the Scripture and they spake the words as the Spirit moved so that the Spirit was before the Smith prim p. 10. words and was their rule that spake the words and it changes not but is the same for ever This he writes to prove that the Scriptures are not a rule and doth hereby affirm that they had been no rule to the Pen-men of the Scriptures themselves had they not been moved so to take them by the Spirit and that this way of obligation is unchangeable and abides for ever He that shall read the foregoing and following words in the Piece quoted will no more doubt what I have said than that two and two make four For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit Naylors love to the lost p. 1â— but yours is in the Letter and so of another ministration By the phrase in Spirit they intend not that only which râ—aches the heart but that which hath its original immediately from the Spirit of God in them That Naylor intends no other in this place than its being from the Spirit immediately he telleth you plainly for that it is a different ministration from that of the Letter by which words the Letter they alway intend the Scripture But more plain yet if more plain may be that § 4 is no command of God to me what he commanded to Burroughs answer to choice experiences p. 6 7. another Neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by that command which was to another not having the command to themselvesâ— I challenge to find an example to it E. D. A bold Challenger who shall be answered in good time but let us hear a few more first Because it 's only queries gathered by the Author from the letter of the Scriptures without and no
Jesus of Nazareth he that then talked with them was he they have read it but you will not c. as if the one were exceeding opposite to the other viz. searching the Scripture whereas the true sense is it condemns you as irrational men that you should think to have eternal life in the Scriptures and will not believe their testimony I must remember to tell you that I do not take the Scriptures to be able to give eternal life to all that have them in their houses or heads or that do barely search them and not set thâ—â—r hearts according to its direction to find eternal life It were ten to one if I had not said so much some or other of them would have had a fling at me as making a Christ of the Scripture By what hath been produced you may be sure § 4 there is the best profit by Gods blessing on an honest reading of the Scriptures Young Timothy was bred up from a Child in the Holy Scripture and it was the commendation of his Mother and Grand-Mother for so educating him but can you think he experienced all he read before he read it some of them are prophetical of things to come Can any of you all experience things that never yet had an existence or being And should the Gentiles and Jews have been reproved for hearing Paul and Peter and Christ himself preach the Gospel and the Mediatour of it because they did not experience it in themselves But why should I use many words about such a cause the willing to understand may see its grossness and forthose that will be ignorant means signifie little to their cure CHAP. XI The Quakers put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other I Could produce a thousand instances of this crime SECT I against the life and being of the Scriptures committed by the Quakers as their principle and duty This wickedness is their open high-way and beaten road If the Scripture had not been the word of the Spirit of God the revelation of his mind and will whose holiness and authority had its being from God its author the frame of it agreeing to the nature and will of God we would not think it worthy the name of Scripture in that peculiar sense which it hath obtained among Christians But if once we knew it opposite and an adversary to the Spirit so far at least that it must come to a parting and they that cleave to the teachings of the Spirit must forsake being taught comforted c. by the Scriptures and they that cleave to the Scripture teaching by the Spirit have forsaken the Spirit of God and his teachings we would own our such profession to be a denying the Scriptures yea should take our selves bound in so many words to deny it and send it as far out of the way as may be as dangerous to the just prerogative of the Spirit of God And if those who profess what I shall instance had any honesty in them they would tell the world they utterly deny the Scriptures to be what the Christian world hath accounted them and in plain and open words and testimonies as far as they can produce exhort and move them to lay them aside and have no more to do with them nor give them one good word least the adversary to the Spirit should in the hearts and lives of men be exalted against him For the proving of the Charge at the head of this Chapter take the words of James Naylor the § 2 Quakers proto-Confessor For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the Letter Naylor's love to the lost p. 8. and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual Here you have the commands in Spirit or by the Spirit put in opposition to the Letter which is with them the written Word or the Scripture and so far in opposition that as heat being opposite to coldness and light to darkness the one so far as it prevails expelleth the other by its contrariety and opposite qualities so the spiritual ministration or ministration of the Spirit banishes and expelleth that of the Letter as its enemy and contrary But if you will have a prodigious instance a non-such for Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures read what follows out of a great Writer of theirs William Smith And reading in the Scriptures that there were some who met together and exhorted Morning Watch. p. 22 23. one another and were edified and comforted one in another they observe and do as near as they can what they read of the Saints practice and so conceives a birth in the same Womb the Scriptures and brings it forth in the same strength as others do and they make haste thither and open their eyes to look at the things which are seen the Scriptures and this is pleasing to the carnal mind c. They Worship Order Ordinances Faith Practice understood by the written Word must all come under the severity of his judgment because they are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous births have provoked the Lord and grieved his Spirit It would amaze a Christian and sound mind to read § 3 what is contained in the two pages in the Margin quoted of vilifying and reproach to the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received Traditions Ib. 22 23 of men earthly root darkness and confusion Nebuchadnezzars Image putrefaction and corruption rotten and deceitful all out of the life and power of God Apostacy the Whores Cup the mark of the Beast Babylon the Mother of Harlots Bastards brought fâ—rth of flesh and blood the birth that persecuts the Son and Heir viz. the Spirit of God or light within Babylons Brats and Children Graven Images contrary to him the everlasting powerful God c. If this be not opposing the Spirit of God to the Scripture and rendring them adverse to each other the Devil himself must despair of inventing words to express it by I conclude the proof of this Charge with the words § 4 Naylors love to the lost p. 30. of Naylor And of this sort are they who have their preaching to study and to seek at other mens mouths or from the Letter and have it not from the mouth of the Lord. Then with him and the Quakers who are of his mind what we have from the Scriptures we have not from the mouth of the Lord. I would know of the Quakers what they will make of the mouth of the Lord Do they take it to be some part of his body which is like our mouths the Organs of speech We have thought hitherto that God being a Spirit hath no mouth at all only to express things to our understandings he speaks by similitudes taken from such things we are acquainted withall and so whatsoever God reveals his mind by may be called his mouth And it will follow that the Scriptures are
of Israel did burn Incense to it and he called it Nehushtan that is Brass nothing of a Deity in it but a little piece of Brass So it were fit the Scriptures should be demoâ—ished as having nothing of divine authority stamped upon them When I have established this Charge by the mouths of two or three Witnesses it will be time to leave off pouring in more where the measure is already running over § 2 W. D. discoveâ—y of mans return p. 21. All people may search the Scriptures and see how yâ—u have been deceived by your Teachers who havâ— caused you to seek your lost God in carnal and deaâ— observaâ—ions which they have not any Scripture forâ— Who this lost God should be except Jesus Christ who is ascended above the visible Heavens is not to be imagined by those who are acquainted with the Quakers Tenets and Phrases as will appear more plainly where I treat on their Idolatry And if so as there is reason to believe there are two grand parts of Idolatry we are charged with in complying with the Scripture Precepts and Institutions as in Preaching Prayer Church-order Baptism Lords-supper The first is a false object of worship which all § 3 of them that ever I met with in print or otherwise will not deny that to be which is given to the man Christ Jesus who was crucified between two Thieves at Jerusalem The second is false worship for the matter which is Idolatry although it were intended to the true God as the object the sacrificing of Children was intended ultimately to the true God yet it was gross Idolatry And they have huilt the high places of Tophet which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom Jer. 31. to burn their Sons and Daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart But you will say how is this charge for walking § 4 according to Scripture instructions and examples seeing he doth seem to advise to trying by the Scriptures whether they do not thus I answer that they take not any thing in the Scripture to be obliging but what comes by immediate inspiration as the Scriptures were given to the Prophets and Apostles and whatever we do however consonant to the precepts there expressed is all contrary to the Scriptures with them as I have proved already if not by immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit If this be not clear we shall pump clear by and by And this is Babylon the mother of Harlots viz. § 5 Morning watch p 23. to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles in the Scripture of the New Testament and the abomination of all uncleanness That many Children have been brought forth of flesh and blood and of the will of man that is our choice and not passive obedience to the motions of the thing with in which is the birth that persecutes the Son and heir And not one of them must stand though ever so seemingly glorious fâ—r the day is come and the true birth is born the light within whose right it is to reign and his glory he will not give to another nor his praise to Graven Images If erecting and worshipping God by graven Images be Idolatry than the Quakers do charge us with Idolatry for walking according to Scripture instructions and examples He who will take the pains to read this inspired Author though by an evil spirit pag. 18 19 20 21 22 23. will find it his scope to prove all Idolaers that ground their worship and order on the Scripture examples and in page 17. he likens all professions among Christians this day to Nebuchadnezzar's Image and though some are more shining and glorious in appearance as the head of Gold was beyond his legs of Iron yet he calls all part of the Image and the Scriptures the Feet of Clay they had their standing on And in pag. 16. hath these words Then searches the Scripture for words to prove their Image a lawful Son and this is the bottâ—m and foundation of all Religions this day I am e'en tired with searching these sulphureous § 6 Veins of the Pit and Mine of Quakerism the root of all which is the deified light within If you have not enough of this smoak to satisfie you it is the bottomless Pit it rises out of I will give you two ebullations more and and leave you satisfied or to get better senses So amongst the words you find how the Saints in Morning watch p. 45. some things walked and what they practised and then yâ—u strive to make that thing to your selves and to observe it and do it as near as you can and here you are found transgressours of the just Law of God who saith thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Exod. 20. 4. Image nor the likeness of any thing And it follows now what difference is there in the ground betwixt you and the Pope though in the appearance there seem to be such a greate space The Quakers having thus stript the holy Scrip SECT II tures of their divine beauty and authority both name and thing plucked out their very heart and strength let us resume the particular Arguments produced to prove that they deny the Scriptures and look on them at one view so shâ—ll we better discern their united testimonies and strength They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Equal their own writings and saying with the Scriptures and prefer them before the Scriptures Deny the Scriptures to be a rule of faith and life or a Judge and determiner in religious controversies Take men off from reading the Scriptuses and looking into them for instruction and comfort Deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to knâ—w God Christ or our selves Affirm the Scriptures tâ— be no means whereby to resiâ—t temptation and that they are dangerous to be read Deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit any farther then they are beforehand experienced by them that read them Put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other Affirm the doctrines commands promises holy examples expressed in the Scriptures as such to be not at all binding to us Hold it is a sin the sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the instructions and holy examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate revelation as the Apostles They who do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars deny the Scriptures But the Quakers do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars therefore the Quakers deny the Scriptures If any one or all these arguments together will prove what they are brought to confirm it is proved if it be not I shall for ever dispair to prove any thing For as much as the holy Scriptures being our § 3 compass on earth and our evidence for Heaven are mostly struck at by the Prince of
matter did affirm That he did not believe that his body should rise again after its Death I never knew any of them affirm the Resurrection § 2 of the Body intending thereby the Body which is such in a proper sense and common acceptation I have often discoursed them about it and when I have proposed the question so plainly that they had no room to evade by their Allegories their Answers have been Thou art upon the Catch we shall not answer thee Or Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Sometimes with that in Job If a man die shall he live again and as the Beast dieth so dieth Man But when all their Arguments are answered which they think are lodged in their Scriptures their last refuge is their false interpretation of 15 Cor. 38. God giveth it a Body as it pleaseth him Who will doubt but that such who will not give a plain answer yea or nay when questioned about the Resurrection of the Dead but instead thereof produce all those Texts which to them seem to deny the Resurrection I say who will doubt that such do deny the Resurrection of the Dead before I discharge this subject I shall answer their Cavils about this point prove the truth and give some inferences from their corrupt wicked Religion and soul-destroying Tenet First their Cavil from that Scripture 1 Cor 15. 50. Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God By § 3 Flesh and Blood here is to be understood Corruptible flesh and blood which is clear from the consideration of the following words neither doth corruption inherit incorruption compare this with ver 42. it is sâ—wn in corruption it is raised in incorruption and ver 49. and as we have born the Image of the Earthly so also we shall bear the Image of the Heavenly So that it is still the same body only with the Change to spiritual and incorruptible For that in Job if a Man die shall he live again the meaning can be no more than this if Job understood himself he shall not live again in this world and in that state in which he liveth before death which is plain from what he most confidently affirms Job 19. 26 27. And though after my skin Worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my Reins be consumed within me And it is remarkable that God whom he here speaks of seeing is intended by him Christ the Redeemer who shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth verse 25 for that in Fcclesiastes 3. 19. As the one dieth so dieth the other It is expounded in the next verse all go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again But this doth not at all oppose Mans Resurrection out of his dust again But that silly evasion which is very frequent with § 4 them but God giveth it a Body as pleaseth him It doth no way deny the resurrection of the Body or condemn those that enquire into the manner of its being after the Resurrection For if God be pleased to acquaint us in his word that there shall be such a resurrection and that it shall be then spiritual and incorruptible it is our duty to take his word and to understand what he is pleased to manifest to us of this great truth Another text they frame an objection out of is 1 Cor. 19. 36 37. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be I answer that the Apostle doth not call him a Fool who enquires concerning the resurrection which is the common charge of the Quakers from this Text but him that doubts of the resurrection from its seeming impossibility and for the sameness of the body though not in all circumstances yet that it shall be the same essence is plain from the relative it all along which hath for its antecedent the body of flesh and blood wherein we now live and are visible to the bodily eyes of one another and ver 38. to every seed it s own body I have met with some of them who could not or would not understand it of the same body because the § 5 Apostle saith vers 51. We shall all be changed From whence they conclude it cannot be the same body I would ask such if they would be content to be refused their debt owing to them when young being demanded when old or owing when well if demanded when sick or contracted when they were not Quakers and demanded when Quakers for as to the latter they will affirm they are changed and that from natural to spiritual But I suppose in such cases they will shew more sagacity and be content to believe that a change in a person is not the change of a person and for all those changes they are the same persons still to whom the money both was and is due I might say moreover that if it be another and not the same body that shall be raised again it is a § 6 contradiction for then it must not be a resurrection but a creation and who will guess so wide of the mark that God should create another body which was never in this world and did either good or evil to be rewarded or punished in stead of the body concerned in those actions which in the mean time shall be free among the dead and buried in everlasting forgetfulness Some of them have denyed the resurrection of the body of Christ and stood by their error upon the account of his entering the room when the coors were shut and his appearing in such forms that his Disciples did not know him To which I shall say only this that Christ as God could convey himself how and where he pleased and that the Disciples not knowing him was not because he was not in the same form as before but because their eyes were withholden that they should not know him Luk 24. 16. The woful companions and consequences of the error SECT III here charged on the Quakers and proved to be theirs take a few of which are enough and great enough to make any who are not resolved to be Atheists or Infidels to tremble at the first motions to such a delusion First This tenet of the Quakers doth naturally eat out the heart and vitals of all Religion if the dead rise not Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die All Religion obliges with a respect to the life to come The opinion of no resurrection le ts loose the reins to the most extream sensuality an Epicure is then the wisest Man Secondly this errour renders it a meer humour § 2 and a peice of foolish obstinacy to persist in the profession and practice of any thing Religious when indangering our temporal concernments If the dead rise not at all and why stand we
all his Vagaries who hath the faculty only to the stupidly ignorant Fallere mille modis nâ—c non intexere fraudes In the winding up of your intangled bottom you frame an Objection thus Object 1. Though you have said a great deal to Page 37. prove that Christians should have an infallible Spirit in general Yet you prove nothing distinctly but confound a Judge Rule and Guide together Habemus confitentem reum Least you eat your words I shall put good proof § 2 of the truth of your confession upon Record You say in your answer to your own Objection That to me there is no more difference then essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God They are so interwovâ—n that the one goes not without the other P. 17. 6 Thus it is in being a Judge Rule and Guide c. What would you say of a man that should affirm his brains heart and lungs being essential to the life of the body and so interwoven that the one goes not without the other are but one and the same thing the one cannot live and be in good state without the other and therefore they are but one and the same thing without difference or distinction And the man suppose John-a-Nokes should upon this ground when he hath a Delirium or Vertigo diseases seated in the brain be very busie to enquire what is good for the Pthysick or Cough of the Lungs or palpitation of the heart but being rebuked for his impertinencies should reply they cannot be one without the other They are essential to the body of man its perfection therefore what is said of the one may be said of the other and what is good against the Pthysick or Cough is good must be good for a Vertigo or Delirium Let me advise you next time you write to frame no Objections against your self unless you shall have learned better to solve them A second Objection you frame thus But at this § 3. Page 38. rate you utterly contemn and seclude the Scriptures as having no part nor portion in being a Rule Judge or Guide to Christians I would your whole book had consisted of Objections for you have spoken more truth of your own framing in two Objections than in most of your affirmations You attempt to solve this with much the like success as the other you praise the Scriptures and hug them hugely till you have reduced them to much like the shadow of the true Rule And then you illustrate the sense of their Authority in these very words He that is so inward with a Prince as to know vivâ voce what his mind is heeds not so much the same when he meets it in print because in print as because he hath received a more living touch and sensible impression from the Prince himself to whose secrets he is privy And this the Scriptures teach us to believe is a right Christian state and priviledge For said the Apostle we have the mind of Christ and the secrets of God are with them that fear him And guide me by thy counsel and bring me to thy glory What Friends but when they read this Princely § 4 flourish but will conclude not only that he hath done it neatly but hit the Nail o' th' head full and spoken their minds e'n as right as if he had been inspir'd by them all and no doubt he shall be their White Boy for all his defects who strokes them so finely and advances them to such a singular Dignity of privacy and inwardness with God that not only his revealed will in print is known by them in a more honourable and immediate way but also his secrets which never stooped so low as to be wrapt in letters Here we have as in a glass W. P.'s Opinion of the immediate teachings of the Spirit to be not only above his teachings by the Scripture as to have a thing whispered in the ear from the Princes own mouth doth excel any Narrative by a Declaration but also so much above them that he who enjoys this favour which must still be no other but a Quaker heeds not so much the same in print How much just not at all For if this viva vox more living touch and sensible impression do not put Authority into them they are but meer Cyphers And if this living touch c. as he believes be without or contrary to the Scripture 't is all as good and Authentick It is upon my Spirit is of much more Divine Obligation than it is written But Mr. Pen That the Scriptures teach us to believe this is a right Christians state and priviledge is a hard-hearted saying The Scripture knows nothing of it nor could I ever yet have a proof that any of you all ever heard the Voice of God as vivâ voce is to be understood and I am very well satisfied the Quakers may be mistaken if they should presume they did ever since some of them took Paul Hobsons mumbling through a Trunk and a hole in the wall to be the voice or the Lord. But that this should be the state of a right Christian wo worth the days past for so many Ages wherein among all professed Christians but now and then one were in this state and that but a little while e're their folly appeared to all men only now and then the Papists had a Job to do for which a viva vox was a fit pretence But you have little Charity in unchristianing all the § 5 world whose very state is not according to these Characters A man in the dark especially if his fancy be strong is full of Visions which have no other being than his imagination affords them this appears to be your state and the part you are acting I shall in short consider your warrants which you § 6 annex to your rare Harangue For said the Apostles we have the mind of Christ Sure he had a good part of it by Tradition from the other Apostles who were Christs Witnesses of what he said and did and we have it in the Scripture And the Secrets of God are with them that fear him But where did the Apostle say this 'T is no matter if it was not the Apostle Paul it was the Apostle David and that 's as good Psa 25. 14. Nay it is all one if it had been the Apostle G. Fox or the Apostle W. Pen whose words and writings are of Prophetical and Apostolical Authority and may be numbred among the Scriptures as well as Pauls or Davids or any other witness your audacious lines put in a different letter to be so understood You say but the Scriptures are herein fulfilled the holy way the vulturous eye did never see Pag. 84. and that same ravenous Spirit after knowledge our adversary must come to know judged c. It is further to be considered that the words you quote out of the Scripture you pervert and the sense also
sound as of a mighty rushing wind Cloven Tongues like as of fire all of which were witnesses sent by God for the confirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they preached to be Gods Messias before promised But let us see how near the Quakers approach to § 3 this evidence That they began with a noise yea a rushing noise we know but that it was a sound from heaven we are sure of the contrary That they have Tongues and fiery and Cloven Tongues also we shall not deny but these are not such Cloven Tongues like as of fire sitting on them and appearing to the bodily â—yes of others Nor do they speak variety of Languages by the gift of the Holy Ghost though some of them have gone into forreign Countries with a confidence they should be gifted with strange Languages but their Spirit deceived them Those in the Text in those Languages or Tongues spake the wonderful works of God but the Quakers with their Native Language only speak the amazing delusions of Satan The persons in the Text had and used these gifts to confirm and evidence Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ 22 verse and that same Jesus to be exalted by the right hand of God verses 32 33. but the Quakers improve their gifts with all their might to disclaim that man Christ Jesus as having any being and to exalt their own Christ whom they call the light within every man And considering also that the Prophet saith the Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh methinks they of all others should claim the least share in it who call others flesh who are not of their mind but themselves Spiritual and will not seem to endure any thing that hath a relation to the flesh though sanctified by the Spirit and Grace of God which they rebuke in such-like terms as these Silence all flesh before the Lord. Thus I have discharged this Text from so bad a service The next main Prop for this mistake is that they SECT II speaking and writing by the conduct and motion of the light within them that being with them the Spirit of God as well as Christ the Son of God it must needs be by Inspiration of God and motion of the Holy Ghost And by the same light light within do we discern and testifie c. Parnel Shield of the Truth pag. 10. Yea they will have Moses and all the Prophets to be inspired Divinely as they were guided and moved by the light within The Word said Let there be light Gen. 1. 4. mark this and the light was brought out of darkness so the morning was come and the day was created in the Eternal Word and into this life I suppose it should be light was Moses gathered and had his understanding opened that he could see to the beginning And there was no Tradition to give him the knowledge of it but the light which shone out of darkness in his heart Morning Watch pag. â— What words can express the untruths absurdities and blasphemies of this saying The Word Christ created the Light Christ the first created morning is Christ and all this together within was the Inspiration by which Moses understood what he wrote of the Creation Hear a third that by the mouth of more than § 2 two Witnesses what I have said may be confirmed John Story Short Discovery c. pag. 2. And though the holy Scripture without and the Saints practises are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them the Scripture and Saints practises as to set them in esteem above the Light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the Light and Spirit of Christ within from which the Scriptures were given forth and are but branches of that holy râ—ot and as it were fruits of that heavenly Tree viz. the appearances of God in the hearts of his people You may see then whence their Opinion of Divine Inspiration to be the Inlet of their Notions arises and that the Scriptures are but branches growing from the same root viz. the light within That I may arm those who are willing to be defended § 3 against such a strong delusion where ever it hath once seized the belief by Scripture-light I shall take the pains to lay down some certain Characters of all the Apostles divinely inspired and all their Doctrines that flowed from the Spirit of God by way of Inspiration immediate contained in the Scripture and having the same Divine Authority Characters of the Persons who were Christs Apostles SECT III and preached or wrote the Gospel by Inspiration of God which we call the Scripture or Word of God They had an immediate Mission and Call from without them by Jesus Christ to preach and declare the Gospel That Call and Commission which the Apostles had Mat. 28. 16. to the end of the Chapter was from without it was Christ who conversed with them and was the object of their bodily eyes It was that Christ whom the women held by the feet ver 9. and his Call as his person was without them the sound of which was received by their bodily ears in those words ver 18 19. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore c. And it is a strong Argument to prove this immediate outward Call to be essential to the Apostolical Office and Power that when by Judas's fall the number was imperfect he that was chosen in his room was chosen and called by an outward call the Spirit of God determining by a Lot Matthias to be the twelfth Apostle as Christ did the rest by his voice without them Acts 1. 24. and 25 verses they had a large measure of the Spirit within and Matthias in particular but that was not sufficient Yea the Apostle Paul who was born out of due time had this immediate outward Cal when Christ appeared to him in that glorious and terrible form Acts 26. 13. At mid-day O King I saw in the way not in the heart or â— in the way saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun the light in the Quakers I am sure would be seen by any who are not bodily blind if it were such shining round about me then it could not be a light only within and them that journeyed with me if it had not been without him they could not have seen it Verse 14. I heard a Voice speaking unto me not within me I am Jesus Chap. 10. Ver. 22. Jesus of Nazareth and I am sure the light within is not of Nazareth These things are enough to prove the Apostles had all of them an outward Call or a Call from Christ without them to their Ministry and Apostleship and that the Quakers Apostleship and inspired Ministry is far from Apostolical They were all such as had seen and conversed with § 2 the Lord Jesus in an outward
they boasted of it as an Infallible Cure 6. That therefore they now reduce the Light within each particular under the Superintendency of that they call the Light in the Body or Church of Christ which is no other than the Dictates and Impositions of those among them who assume that name and have the greatest interest to maintain it 7. That while they disown the Scriptures or Written Word to be a Rule of Faith and for tryal of Doctrines and Practices affirming the Spirit to be the only Rule they set up the Doctrines of GOOD ANCIENT FRIENDS i. e. of James Naylor who was bored thorow the Tongue for Blasphemy George Fox Edw Burroughs and such Wretches in its stead To which all must be Consentaneous or be condemned and by which their Ecclesiastical Censures must be passed 8. That the Faith they pretend to adhere unto claims no longer standing in this Testimony than good ancient Friends and what was delivered to the Authors of this Testimony I suppose by the foresaid good ancient Friends 9. That as great Disturbers and Contemners of Christian Congregations Ministry and Forms of Worship as they have been they having now set up such-like things of their own cannot digest the contempt and neglect of them from those Quakers who according to their Fundamental Principle oppose that among themselves which they all condemned in others 10. That to difference their Ministry Worship Meetings and Appointments of time to that end from theirs whom they condemn they father all on the Spirit of God calling themselves only its Instruments 11. That among the Quakers those who dissent from the Ruling party are as little endured as Dissenters among any whom they charge with Antichristianity and Oppression And upon persisting in their Non-conformity to the Dictates and Impositions of those who will call themselves the Church are ejected out of their Ministry Rule Office Dominion and Membership and shut out from having any thing to do in their Church-affairs yea and persecuted too so far as to be kept under with the power of God which is a Sentence that hath in it without their help an inexplicable as well as an unlimited sense 12. That they admit of none to their Debates about their more private and offensive Principles and ordering of their Ecclesiastical matters but such as they have made sure of and have well digested their Tenets or as they phrase it have a good understanding and true sense of things and are felt in a measure of the Vniversal Spirit 13. That the Counsel given by the leading Quakers is by them said to be the Counsel of the Wise-men and the Prophets 14. The Authoritative and Magisterial stile in which they express these Canons scil We declare and testifie We testifie in the Name of the Lord We warn and charge you 15. That they are very industrious for the suppressing of all Prints and Writings that have an ill Aspect on their Persons or Principles though published by Quakers No wonder then that their Votaries will not or dare not take the liberty of reading those Books which are published for their Conviction by professed Friends to their Souls who are as professed Adversaries to their Soul-destroying Opinions and Practices 16. 〈◊〉 their way of Licensing Books of theirs to be printed permits none to pass the Press but such as have the Approbation of the Tryers as they believe will answer the Witness of God i e. the Light which is the Quakers God and Guide even in their Adversaries From which it may be inferred That not only the corrupt Opinions but also all other Weaknesses and Extravagancies contained in their Books printed according to their Order may be fixed on not only their particular Authors but also on the Body of the Quakers and the Spirit by which they are led 17. That in all the matters contained in this Paper they ground not any Advice Counsel Charge or Determination on the Scriptures nor make any mention of their Direction or Authority while the Witness of God in Friends and the Doctrines of good ancient Friends are again and again made the Proofs and Tests of their proceeds By which 't is easily understood of what value or use the Scriptures are in their esteem It is not without ground of more than a Suspicion that the hand of the Jesuite hath been laying a Popish Plot in the business of Quakerism And although I was sometime as far from entertaining that Opinion as most I have found that in their Concerns which hath forced me into a strong Presumption of the truth of it And the more I understand them the more I am of that mind especially when I consider That the nearer they approach to any form the more of the Image of that Man of Sin appears upon them It was a cunning Artifice of Satan in his first Attempts by by his Quaking Instruments to draw them off from the Yoke of Christ in his Word and Ordinances by asserting That every man had a sufficient Light and Motion within himself which if heeded would be more effectual to render them perfect than all the Precepts and Rules in the Bible by which Pride Idleness and Libertinism is exceedingly gratified And when they were sufficiently distasted at and hardned against the holy Laws and Ordinances of Christ beyond hope of return then to fall on hammering those Bonds of his own to put upon them and frame them for his farther designs Wherein that Scripture is sadly verified by them While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption c. 2 Pet. 2. 19 c. In my Book entituled Quakerism no Christianity I gave a large account of the Quakers building their Babes on the same Foundations on which Popery as such is foun 〈…〉 viz. Contempt of the Scriptures pretences of Infallibility 〈…〉 t immediate Inspirations vid. Chap. 4. Sect. 7. and Chap. 12. Sect. 2. Those instances I produced in them had chiefly a relation to their Doctrines and Enthusiasm I shall now add some remarkable parts of their Discipline Order and Rule wherein they symbolize with Rome no less than in the former 1. Do the Papists pretend themselves to be the only Church and all other Professors of the Christian Religion to be Heretick The Quakers call themselves only the Body the Church of Christ and all others Antichristian Heathen and Infidels 2. Do the Papists by their little Juncto's which they call General Councils make Laws Canons and Constitutions beside and contrary to the Scriptures and impose them on their Members as of Divine Authority So do the Quakers 3. Do the Papists admit none into their Councils but such as are in Unity with their Church and acknowledg the Pope the Roman Head Neither will the Quakers admit any though professed Quakers into their Councils or to order any thing in their Church-affairs who are Dissenters from the Ruling party are not in Vnity with the Body or that comply not with George Fox the
Quakers Pope 4. Do the Popish Councils with or without the Pope pretend the Spirit to be present with them and its Authority for all their Determinations to be Infallible Wherein do the Quakers differ from the same Arrogancy when they affirm themselves to meet by the Operation of the Spirit of Truth That the presence of the Lord is with them in their Confulâ—s and then testifie and impose them in the name of the Lord 5. Do the Romists call the Pope or the Pope with his Conventicle of the Prelates the Church and impose their Sentiments and Determinations as the mind and Laws of the Church The Quakers are herein not a hairs-breadth differing from them For that which they call the Light and Sense of the Body and its Determinations is no other than the Dictates and Opinions of George Fox and some of the Leading Quakers which yet are imposed on the rest of the Quakers as the Light of the Body or of the Church of Christ 6. Do the Papists obtrude a submission of the private Sentiments and Opinions of any of their Members to the Determination of the Pope or Pope and Council So do the Quakers requiring That no mans particular Opinion do lift up it self against the Light of the Body but be determined thereby and acquiesce therein 7. Do the Papists reject the Scriptures from being their Rule while they advance Traditions in their rooms The Quakers have gone beyond them who give not that Authority to the Scriptures which the Papists allow them and to over-match the Popish Traditions bring in the Doctrine of Good ancient Friends as their Rule while the Scriptures are denied that Preferment 8. For Implicite Faith the Quakers are no way inferiour to the most strict Votaries of Rome The pretended Light and Inspiration of their Leaders they have a swallow for that a Monster as big as a Whale will pass without haesitation And that these pretended Inspirations are indeed from the Spirit of God they have no other proof but the Opinion of their Infallibility or the Miracles in Spirit which George Fox talks of which are as indemonstrable as the other 9. The continual Sacrifice of Christ in the Popish Mass hath a good Preparative in that Principle of the Quakers That Christ in them doth offer up himself a living Sacrifice to God for them by which the wrath of God is appeased towards them 'T is but removing the invisible Sacrifice from the dark and close corner within to the Altar in some visible sign 't is all one Which may in time appear as agreeing to the light as W. Penn's Ceremony of keeping the Hat off in Prayer doth fitly signifie the Veil removed from their hearts It would yet seem a lame Comparison between the Papists and Quakers if among the Quakers there be no Idols nor yet the Image of the Pope the greatest Idol of all the rest But the Jesuites and Factors of Rome have not been such unskilful Artists and unfaithful Servants to their Master as to do their work so imperfectly 10. If the Light within be not God as certainly it is not then do they professedly give Divine Worship to a Creature or to an Imagination of their own framing And if the Souls and Spirits of men are God or a part of God and of his Being by their Principles which are as truly their Principles as words can express then they are Idolaters with a witness 11. But the Romists give Divine Worship to Saints which is not as most believe the Quakers Idolatry If I do not prove them herein to overmatch them I am greatly mistaken and whether I am or not I will leave it to my Readers judgment The Quakers Worship as they profess is inward Worship which all confess to be the most excellent part of Worship And therefore if they affirm Worship to be given to those whom they put in the room of Saints it must be acknowledged that they worship them though their bodies bow not down to them They profess to worship those who are sprung from the noble gentle Seed and that with Divine Worship and to bow down to the lowest appearances of Christs Light and Spirit Yea George Fox tells us That not to worship Christ in them is to worship Men Devils or Angels This kind of Idolatry may explain the mystery of the Quakers looking so devoutly for a considerable season in each others faces when they meet continuing all the while in a deep silence And there are sufficient witnesses living of the bodily and visible Worship which James Naylor received from divers of them Herein they exceed the Papists Idolatry in the number of their Idols being all that have Christ in them or that are sprung from the noble gentle Seed viz. All thorow Quakers And in the quality of their Idol-Saints for in the room of S. Peter Paul the Virgin Mary are William George c. who are as like to those Saints as the blacker sort of white Devils And also in point of Time for the Papists worship their Saints after their death but the Quakers worship theirs while living See Quakerism no Christianity Chap. 16. for a fuller proof of this 12. To find a Pope or somewhat like him among the Quakers we need seek no further than George Fox who is among them a Pope and more than a Pope His Supremacy among the Quakers is sufficiently known among them and by some lamented But I shall descend to some particulaâ— instances in which George Fox equals or out-does the Pope in his Papal Arrogance and Blasphemy I could produce woful instances from the hand of credible Reports but I shall decline them and present you with a Letter to him from Josiah Coale one of the Quakers chief Ministers which contains a Map of a world of Blasphemies in a small room This Letter I had out of the Quakers Registry it being there preserved as a Testimony of the greatness of George Fox And as bad as it is I having printed it in my Vindication William Penn undertakes twice in print to vindicate every line of it DEar George Fox Who art the Father of many Nations whose Life reached thorow us thy Children even to the Isles afar off To the begetting of many again unto a lively Hope for which Generations to come shall call thee Blessed whose being and habitation is the power of the Highest in which thou rules and governs in Righteousness and thy Kingdom is established in peace and the encrease thereof is without end Doth the Pope pretend that from Peter's Chair Ministers were sent out to convert all those Nations who professed or do profess the Christian Religion Such an one is George Fox said to be for he is called The Father of many Nations and indeed of almost all who are Quakers who with them are the only Christians Doth the Pope pretend to be Christs Vicar and clothed with his power So is it pretended of George that his Habitation is in the power
the present posture of the Quakers Religion as may render it no great strain to jump into it when-ever they find it their interest For why should it be thought unreasonable that they should rather choose to submit their particular Sentiments to the Determinations of a Pope and Council who pretend to the Spirits guidance infallibly therein than to the Determinations of George Fox and his silly Adherents called the Body who can give no better assurance of their Infallibility or common Reason either than mere pretences mounted on confident Ignorance and Arrogancy Especially considering that such a change will better bear the fine affected Mystery of being felt in a measure of the Vniversal Spirit which seems to be no other than the so-much vaunted Universality of Rome cast in the Canting Mould of the Quakers Phraseology Besides they will then have the Accession of the numerous Auxiliaries of Rome not needing to be so straitned and put to their shifts as now by laying the weight of their yet unformed Cause on so many Equivocations and thin Subterfuges defended by only two or three unskilful and unwary Patrons And what if they shall think meet to embrace the Traditions of Rome instead of THE DOCTRINES OF GOOD ANCIENT FRIENDS I am sure it would be short of a Miracle And the things being the same in Substance why should a mere verbal difference be a Gulph unpâ—ssable And if many of the more devout sort of Quakers should be loth to part with their Darling Singularities and Morosities If Rome be pleased so far to indulge to them as to afford them a Dispensation till time and other things have weaned them it is not the first time she hath been so kind a Mother However if they will but own the Roman Head as far as they now own George Fox they may have their Religion with all or most of its other Disorders and be owned good Catholicks of the Foxonian Order and George Fox Sainted to boot for his good service I desire the Quakers to be but so just to themselves as to consider whether what hath been said do not at least call them to a suspicion that their Leaders are rowing towards Tybur whatever face they put upon it And what an exchange they have made in rejecting the Scriptures from being their Rule taking at length the Impositions of men in its room which are so much the more wicked and blasphemous as they lay them to the Spirit of God as their Father and so much the more dangerous as the Opinion these men have obtained among them will render it neither pleasant nor credible for them now to question any thing they say or reject any thing they impose A Summary of the Capital Errours and Blasphemies of the Quakers Concerning the Godhead THey deny a Trinity of distinct Persons to subsist in the Godhead They own the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be God under those distinct terms yet deny either of them to have any relation or property incommunicable to each other They divide the Divine Being and Godhead into measures and parts Concerning the Scriptures They hold That the Scriptures are not the Word of God and that Christ only is the Word of God That much of them were the Words of God but those things are not now the words of God That a great part of the Scriptures were the words of wicked men and the Devil therefore cannot be the Words of God Not considering those parts of the Scriptures to be the Historical Word or Words of God containing in them a Divine Truth of History That the Scriptures are not a Rule of faith and life That not any part of the Scripture hath Authority to oblige us to any matter of faith or practice unless it be dictated to us or inspired into us by the Spirit immediately as the Prophets Apostles and Penmen of the Scriptures received it That those who determine their faith and practice by the Scripture are begotten into the words without the life and power That he that preaches the Doctrines of the Apostles and Prophets expressed in the Scriptures not having them by Inspiration as they and yet calls them the Word or Words of the Lord tells lies is a Thief and a Robber stealing the Prophets words c. and runs into other mens lines and labours That to follow the examples of the Church in those things which were commanded to them and practised by them under the Gospel or New-Testament-Administration is to commit Idolatry and to offend God by making to our selves Graven Images and Likenesses That to own and embrace the Scriptures for our Rule is Idolatry placing them in the room of Christ the Light within Concerning Christ. They hold That the Son of God is Christ and also that the Father or the Spirit is Christ as well as he That God or the Godhead only is the Christ That Christ is not of the Humane Nature or Man according to Adam's nature That the Body of Jesus the Son of Mary which died on the Cross without the Gates of Jerusalem was never nor is not an Essential Constitutive part of the Christ of God That the aforesaid Body is not now glorified and in Heaven and that it is not now alive That Christ was never seen with bodily eyes That Christ never died in a proper sense he being only God and so immortal That God is now manifested in the flesh as he was in the Son of Mary above 1600 year since That Christ hath Manhood but is not a Man of our nature That there is a heavenly Body of Christ consisting of Spiritual flesh blood and bones which came down from Heaven and dwelt in the Body that was born of the Virgin Mary and dwells now at least in every Quaker That every man hath a Light in him which is Christ the Eternal Word of God Concerning Christianity They hold That the Quakers only are true Christians and own the true Christ and all who own not and submit not unto the Light within as Christ are Infidels That those whom we call the Heathen have somewhat of Christianity because they have some justice and common naural Vertues although they believed not on Jesus the Son of Mary nor have any knowledg of him nor make any Profession of him to be their Lord and Saviour Concerning the Soul of man They hold That the Souls of men are a part of the Being of God of his very Life and Substance came out of God are no Creatures are Infinite in themselves and shall return into God again Concerning Redemption They hold That Christ came to Redeem the Seed which is no other but Christ himself That Christ before man's Conversion is the lost in man That the Redemption by Christ is to obedience to the Light within and thereby to Peace and Righteousness That we are not redeemed by what was done and suffered by the Son of Mary above 1600 years since and without us in respect of place That Christ