Had God commanded every day of our Lives to be wholly devoted to him it had been but Reason and Equity and since that out of regard to our Weakness and that condition of Mortality wherein he has placed us he requires but one day in a week to be more especially set apart for his Service it were most irrational not to give him that Besides our merciful Lord has a regard in this Commandment even to the Beasts themselves as a part of his Creation which surely are not to be worse used now under the Gospel than under the Law but have as much reason to be rested on the Sabbath day now as they had then 3. Since that this is reasonable what fitter day can we pitch upon than the first day of the week on which our blessed Saviour Jesus arose from the dead For if the Jews together with the Commemoration of the Creation of the World wherein God having perfected all his works rested on the seventh day did likewise keep holy that day with respect to their deliverance from the Tyranny of Pharaoh How much greater reason have we to solemnize the Christian Sabbath with them indeed to celebrate the Goodness Wisedom and Power of God in making of all things in remembring the glorious Resurrection of the Son of God wherein he rose as a triumphant Conquerour from his bed of Darkness after he had dis-mantled the Prisons of Hell and the Grave and wrought a mighty Salvation for Mankind 4. That as God did then so Christ having transmitted his Power to them the Apostles and succeeding Church of God now may very reasonably dispose of us in matters of this nature and direct all its Members into some uniform way at such set times of the Worship of God And that they have done so appears both by some mentions of the Lords day in the Holy Scriptures and by the constant suffrage of the Fathers of the Church since that time which is a sufficient Obligation on all Christians to a due constant and diligent Observation of the Christian Sabbath Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day And lest any man shall say that this Command was given by Moses and so at an end and therefore that Christians are not bound by it Let him take this for an Answer and consider it well and then he will see there is no weight in the Objection and so will not be moved when by impertinent cavilling Fellows 't is urged upon him I say therefore first That every one of the ten Commandments is moral and for that very reason binds all Christians still and therefore the Church of England though these rebellious Quakers disown their Mother hath made them a part of her Liturgy and all good people teach them to their Children in their Catechisms as knowing that all Christians are to give obedience to them under the Gospel Secondly our blessed Saviour says Matth. 5. 17. that he came not to dissolve the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil Think not says he that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets that is to take away the Obligation of that Rule of the Duty of Man to God and his Neighbour given first by Moses and afterwards repeated and inculcated by the Prophets but to fulfil them that is to supply accomplish and perfect those Rules and Doctrins of just and unjust conteined in them by a more ample Interpretation and other Improvement befitting the state of the Gospel And if as these Familists persuade their unwary Proselytes to fulfil were to put an end to a thing the sense must be thus that Christ came not to destroy that is to put an end to the Law but to put an end to it But who can imagine without Blasphemy our blessed Saviour would be guilty of such an absurd speech Now if it shall be asked why then Christ did not improve the fourth Commandment touching the keeping holy of the Sabbath it is answered That this was already strictly observed among the Jews even unto Superstition and therefore there needed rather a Relaxation than an Addition to this Commandment For whereas the Jews on that day would not so much as kindle a Fire or dress the Meat they should eat or carry any Burden or take a Journey and hence accuse our Saviour for healing on the Sabbath and his Disciples for plucking the ears of Corn Jesus tells them that The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath intimating that Works of Necessity and Mercy may lawfully be done on the Sabbath though not the Works of a mans ordinary Trade and Employment SECT II. Almighty God having given the whole Earth to Man for his Habitation common Reason and Justice require that Man should sanctisie and separate some peculiar place for the Service and Worship of his great Creator And accordingly we find in all Ages of the world and by all Persons professing any Religion at all some particular and set places appointed to invocate and worship the supreme Deity Among the Jews God had his Temple whither all the Tribes went up to worship And in Prophane Histories we read of Temples dedicated to the Use and Service of some Supreme Deity From whence it appears that the very Law of Nature commands to fix and set apart a place for the Service of God And God will have this of us too that as he hath reserved a portion of the Time of our Life for the celebration of his Honour so hath he also reserved a Portion out of the Place of our Residence Therefore in Ezek. 45. God commands the children of Israel and in them all the Nations of the World that when they come to inhabit the Land he gives them they must divide it into three Parts one for the People another for the King but the first for God himself But and if it shall be said that this was a Command under the Levitical Law and so not obligatory to us Christians who live not under that Law It must be remembred that though God commanded a House and Place for his Service to be built and set apart yet all Mankind were tied to the same Duty by a Law more Antient than that of Moses even by the very Law of Nature which lays a perpetual and indispensable Injunction upon all men that God have his Place of Worship and as it were Residence among them that they might live in a continual Dependence upon him and remember that that they receive the very Places of their Abode and Habitation from his Gift and Benevolence And it was some hundreds of years before the Law of Moses was given that Jacob when he was poor and had not wherewithal to build God an House yet consecrated a Portion of Ground by erecting a Stone and pouring oil on the head thereof calling the Place Bethel that is The House of God and vowed to build it when God should bless and make him able to do it Gen. 28. 22. So that
just a claim to them as any man has to his own Free-hold Estate I am sure their title to Tithes is much more antient than any mans title to his Temporal Inheritance and no one thing hath been oftner confirmed and ratified by the Acts and Statutes of this Kingdom than the Possessions Tithes and Rights of the Clergy SECT IV. Having proved by undeniable Arguments that God is to have a portion out of our Lands and Goods and that no man unless he be impiously prophane and Atheistical can deny the just payment of these Dues much less plead Conscience to excuse Sacrilege It remains only now to shew the grounds upon which the present Ministers of England claim these devoted Lands and Profits as their Inheritance The Foundation of their claim is this That they are true Ministers of the Lord Jesus or true Pastors under that great Shepherd and Bishop of all our souls Now 't is required in every true Minister of the Gospel that he be rightly and duly called to the executing of this his Function According to these express Scriptures Heb. 5. 4. No man taketh this Honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron And Rom. 10. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent Yea our Blessed Saviour himself did not take upon him publicly to preach the Gospel till he was solemnly inaugurated and installed in his Office by the descent of the Holy Ghost and a voice from heaven which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3. 16 17. And when the Lord Jesus was risen from the dead before he ascended into heaven he gives a Commission to his Disciples John 20. 21. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you Christ here rehearses his own Commission and then gives the Apostles theirs and when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost And lastly v. 23. he declares to them the Power that he had invested them withal Whos 's soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained and this Power was not only inherent in them but is derived to all the succeeding Ministers of the Gospel to the end of the World But the most solemn and public Inauguration of the Apostles in their Office was by a bright and shining glorious Descent of the Holy Ghost upon them by this visibly ratifying and confirming the Commission that Christ had before given to them This being certain then that no man ought to execute that sacred Function of a Minister of the Gospel but he that is called thereto I shall now shew the manner of the Designation or Authorizing of any man to execute this holy Employment and that was by Imposition of hands according as it was used by the Apostles and commanded by them to their Successors and continued from thence in the Church unto this very day Insomuch that the great Apostle of the Gentiles St. Paul though he were honoured by a singular Prerogative and Call from Heaven by Christ himself yet was to stay till he had the ordinary Call of the Church too and was consecrated by the Imposition of hands Acts 13. 2 3. As they ministred to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have â—alled them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away And these same very persons having in their travels converted whole Cities and Towns to the Gospel of Christ they leave them not as sheep without a Shepherd but they ordain them Elders in every Church Acts 14. 23. And St. Paul leaves the Ordination of Timothy upon record together with the manner of it that it was by the Imposition of his hands and the hands of the Presbytery 2 Tim. 1. 6. and 1 Tim. 4. 14. And because the Apostles could not live always they transmitted their Power to others and those likewise to their Successors As the Scripture informs us Tit. 1. 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest ordain Elders i. e. Pastors and Ministers of the Gospel in every City as I had given thee order These things being so it follows First that the present Ministers of the Gospel in the Church of England are true Ministers of Jesus Christ and therefore have right to Tithes forasmuch as they have both an inward and outward call The inward call is the Testimony of their own Consciences in that they believe themselves furnished in a good measure with gifts for the discharge of their Office and desire to employ them for the advantage of mens souls And then they have the outward call of the Church being consecrated and set apart for that Office by Imposition of hands and Prayers Secondly it follows that no man though he have the inward call that is find himself gifted ought to take upon him the Office of a Priest or Minister of the Gospel without the outward call likewise And therefore it is an intolerable presumption for illiterate Mechanics and Tradesmen to take upon them the Office of a Minister of the Gospel and for this their boldness they may justly expect if not the same yet as great Judgments as befel Korah Vzzah and Vzziah for invading of and intermeddling with the Priests Function And it were easie to imagin the Idolatry and Heresie that must needs overspread a Nation where the Russet-Rabbies and Apron-Levites are the Instructers of the People CHAP. IV. That Quakery though it pretend high is mere Sadducism at the Bottom IT is well known that the Immortality of the Soul by the Doctrin of H. N. was nothing but the Perpetuation or Continuance of the Succession of the Family of Love and the Resurrection was nothing but a Mystical Rising into his Doctrin that the day of Judgment was then in being the Nations of the Earth being judged by him as by the Man whom God had appointed as he sacrilegiously arrogates that place which was spoken of Christ to himself Acts 17. 31. Now according to this Doctrin if there be no other but a Mystical Resurrection and that Immortal Life be but the Continuance of H. N.'s Doctrin among his Followers for ever and that the day of Judgment be already past then it is certain that men have no Souls nor any thing to answer for in another world but die like beasts The full sense of H. N. concerning these things is expressed in his Euangel c. 34. Behold and consider my beloved how wonderfully God worketh in his holy ones and how that now in this day or light of the love the Judgment-seat of Christ is revealed and declared unto us out of heaven to a righteous Judgment upon Earth from the right hand of God and how that on the same Judgment-seat of Christ that the Scripture might be fulfilled there sitteth one now in Truth in the
habitation of David which judgeth uprightly thinketh upon Equity and requireth righteousness Through him God will now in this day which he himself hath appointed or ordained thereunto judge the compass of the Earth with righteousness Again Chap. 35 he speaks thus Behold in this present day is this Scripture fulfilled and according to the testimony of the Scripture the raising up and the Resurrection of the Lords dead cometh also to pass presently in this same day through the appearing of the coming of Christ in his Majesty Which Resurrection of the dead seeing that the same is come unto us from Gods grace we do likewise in this present day to an Evangelie or joyful message of the Kingdom of God and Christ publish in all the world under the obedience of the love in which Resurrection of the dead God sheweth unto us that the time is now fulfilled that his dead or the dead which are fallen asleep in the Lord rise up in this day of his Judgment and appear unto us in godly glory It is plain from hence that both the day of Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead are in this life and that H. N. doth both raise them up and judge them by his Doctrine And because the Reader shall be sully satisfied and see that it is not without cause that I lay this charge upon this beastly Generation of Quakers I shall produce some Testimonies from their Writings wherein they deliver themselves after the same manner with H. N. Thomas Forster in a certain Pamphlet which he calls A Guide to the Blind when the blind lead the blind the consequence is apparent speaks thus Christs first appearance to the world was in flesh and the fleshly eye saw him but his second appearance is in spirit which no fleshly eye can behold and live for as the Lightning cometh from one part of Heaven to lighten another part under Heaven so shall the coming of the Son of man be and blessed are all they who wait for his second coming to wit without sin unto salvation for his second coming is to put an end to sin to finish transgression and to bring in everlasting righteousness He that hath an ear to hear let him hear From hence it appears that Christs second coming is made only his spiritual coming into mens hearts to make them without sin and to bring in everlasting Righteousness and that when he thus comes no fleshly eye can see him all which make Christs coming to Judgment to be nothing but his appearing in the Generation of Quakers But the Scripture is express that Christ shall at the end of the world descend from Heaven as he went thither Act. 1. 11. that is visibly and bodily for so he ascended And in Revel 1. 7. it is said Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him Therefore his second coming to Judgment is not his coming into mens hearts by his Spirit but his coming with thousands of Angels to give sentence upon all men and this by a visible descent from Heaven to be seen by the wicked as well as the righteous The same person in another place expresly denies the second coming of our Lord and Saviour to Judgment in the plain and literal sense The Children of the Light says he that is the Quakers can tell you that as Christs first appearance to the world was in the flesh and the fleshly eye saw him so his second appearance is in spirit and no fleshly eye can behold him he being a spirit Is not this a denial of Christs coming to Judgment besides a manifest falshood For Christ is no more a Spirit now than he was in the days of his flesh but sits in his Body at the right hand of God and in the same Body that now he hath in Heaven shall he come to Judgment and be seen of all by their natural sight as we behold one another Now for the glorious Immortality and blessed Rest that every holy Soul expects in the life to come it is perfectly allegorized away and made nothing but a certain condition and state of mind in this life So that Sadducee Forster in the Book before-named pag. 45. declares Our Captain says he is able to make War with the Enemy and not only give us Victory but also an entrance into the Holy of Holies within the Veil here By which it appears that if we enter into the Holy of Holies here that is into Heaven in this life then there is no Heaven nor happiness to be expected in the life to come But to make all sure and compleat the Quaker a perfect Sadducee George Fox in his Great Mystery affirms That the Soul is a part of the Essence and Being of God This was the very thing which caused such an irreconcileable hatred between the Pharisees and Sadducees in our Saviour Christs time But the Fox was not so cunning here as he might have been nor did he well weigh the monstrous and wicked consequences of this his Assertion For if the Soul be a part of the Essence of God it will follow 1. That the Essence and Being of God is discerpible and may be shred and divided into millions of pieces which is a notorious Blasphemy against the sacred Majesty and Perfection of God 2. It will follow That God must reward and punish himself because every mans Soul after death returns according to this opinion and is joined to and lost in the Essence of God and there being nothing but God if he reward and punish any thing it must be himself 3. It will follow that a part of God must be sinful for every mans Soul being fallen into sin and yet is a part of Gods Essence it follows of necessity that a part of God must be sinful A prodigious Blasphemy I forbear any further Citations because the thing it self is so obvious to every man that understands but the drift and purpose of Familism wherein the chiefest Articles of a Christians Faith are made but a Fable whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral is the mystical meaning which they put upon it And are not these brave Guides think you of the Gospel when they frustrate and make void the greatest Arguments that Christ Jesus has thought fit to excite and stir men up to holiness withal that is the consideration of a Judgment to come and a blessed Immortality in the Kingdom of Heaven I grant that there is to be a Resurrection from sin and all men are to be conformable to the Resurrection of Jesus by their rising to a new and holy life and placing their affections upon heavenly and divine Objects according as the Apostle speaks Col. 3. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above But besides this there is likewise a Resurrection of the natural body to be expected at the end of the world which St. Paul charges those Hereticks Hymeneus and Philetus with