A Serious CALL to the QUAKERS Inviting them to Return to CHRISTIANITY THIS Sheet of Paper doth set before you some of the many vile and monstrous Doctrines Principles and Uncharitable Sayings of the Chiefest and most Noted of your Teachers Faithfully Collected out of their own Books the Titles and Pages whereof are set down in the Margin and most of them are attested by Eight Ministers of the Church of England of known Integrity and Judgment whose Names hereafter follow You are earnestly Requested as you Regard your Eternal Salvation to Consider them and with Prayer to Almighty God to enable you by his good Spirit to compare them with the Holy Scriptures by which you may clearly see that your Teachers have led you quite off from the Principles of Christianity without the Faith of which ye have no ground to expect Salvation It is hoped that if you will duly and well Consider these things you will not only Renounce your Teachers Errors but gladly embrace the Doctrine and Religion of Christianity to which you are hereby sincerely Exhorted Concerning their pretended Infallibility and discerning of Spirit and Equallity with God OUR giving forth Papers or Printed Books is from the immediate Eternal Spirit of G. Fox and Rich. Hubberthorn truths Defence p. 2. God to the shewing forth the filthy Practices of the Worlds Teachers c. And thou and you all that Speak and Write G. F. Great Mystery p. 98. and not from God Immediatly and Infallibly as the Apostles did and Prophets and Christ but only have gotten the Words you are all under the Curse in another Spirit ravened from the Spirit that was in the Apostles Do not you George Whitehead Blasphemously take to your self an Attribute of God G. W. Truth Defend p. 24. while you pretend ordinarily to know the Hearts of Men. And tell Mr. Townsend Minister of Norwich in the second Page of your Ishmael that the Light of God is departed from his Conscience George Whitehead Answers I take no Attribute of God to my self but what God hath given me by whose Gift I witness that promise fulfilled in me ye shall discern between the Righteous and the Wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Mal. 3. 28. Observe This in Mal. â—3 28. or any other place of Scripture proves not that any Man shall have one of God's Attributes given them to know Mens Hearts The Quakers can discern who are Saints and who are Devils and who are Apostates G. F. Great Mistery p. 89. without Speaking ever a Word They that have the Spirit of God which all the Quakers say they have are equal with G. F. Saul's Errand p. 8. Francis Howgill 's Works p. 232. God He that is joyn'd to the Lord is one Spirit there is Unity and the Unity stands in Equality it self Concerning the Scriptures GEorge Fox says The Scriptures are not Infallible nor Divine but Humane Great Mist p. 302. No Command in Scripture is any farther W. Penn in his Quak. a new Nick-name for old Christianity p. 71. Obliging upon any Man than as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise Men should be engaged without if not against Conviction a thing unreasonable in a Man Note According to this there can be no Sins of Ignorance He that saith the Letter is the Rule and Guide of the People of God is without feeding J. Parnel Shield of Truth p. 11. upon the Husk and is ignorant of the true Light The Question being put whether the Quakers did esteem their Speaking to be of as great G. W. and W. P. Serious Apology p. 49. Authority as any Chapter in the Bible George Whitehead Answers That which is Spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scripture and Chapters are and greater How can or dare any say without the highest Blasphemy that the Scripture is the G. Bishop Mene Tekel p. 22. Word of God If ever you own the Prophets Christ or the Apostles you will own our Writings which G. Fox Answer to the Westmorland Petition p. 30. E. B' s. Works p. 105. are given fotrh by the same Spirit and Power You are in the Witchcraft who observe Commands from without from the Letter So Dust is the Serpents Meat their Original is but Dust which is but the Letter which G. F. News out of the North p. 14. and in Several Papers given forth by the Quakers p. 45. and 46. is Death so these Serpents feed upon Dust which feed upon all these carnal things and their Gospel is Dust Matthew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter The Cursed Serpent is in the Letter R. Huberthorn's Words Truth 's Defence p. 102. Concerning the Trinity THE Three Persons which thou dreams of which thou would divide out of one like G. Whitehead c. in Ishmael and his Mother cast out In Answer to Mr. Townsend p. 10. a Conjurer are all denied and thou shut up with them in perpetual Darkness for the Lake and Pit for thou hast no Scripture that mentions any such things Since the Father is God the Son is God W. Penn his Sandy Foundation p. 12 13 and 15. and the Spirit is God which their Opinon necessitates them to confess then unless the Father Son and Spirit are Three distinct nothings they must be Three distinct Substances and consequently Three distinct Gods That frequent but impertinent distinction that God is One Substance but Three in Persons or Subsistances A most absurd Blasphemy They the Trinitarians must necessarily conclude their Kind of Trinity a Fiction It 's requisite I should inform the Reader concerning its Original Thou may'st assure thy self it 's not from the Scripture nor Reason since so expresly repugnant It was conceived in Ignorance brought forth and maintained by Cruelty The Scriptures do not tell People of a Trinity G. F. Great Mist p. 246. nor Three Persons but the Common-prayermass-book speaks of Three Persons brought in by the Father the Pope Concerning Christ and his Blood c. THat the outward Person that suffered was W. Penn Serious Apol. p. 146. C. A. Sword of the Lord Drawn p. 5. properly the Son of God we utterly deny Your imagined God beyond the Stars and your carnal Christ is utterly denied To say Christ is God and Man in one Person is a Lye The Devil was in thee thou sayest thou art saved by Christ without thee and so hast G. F. Great Mist p. 250. recorded they self a Reprobate The Light which every Man hath that cometh G. F. Great Mist p. 47. into the world is sufficient to Salvation without the help of any other Means or Discovery The Light within all Men is sufficient G. W. Antidote p. 28. for Salvation without any thing else And this Light in thee wherewith thou art Stephen Crisp 's Collection p. 160. Enlightened is the Life of Jesus John
Quakers Faces if they will dare to deny them and if they will dare to own them I offer to prove them monstrous Heretical and Antichristian and so far as they reflect on the Persons of their opposers most uncharitable POSTCRIPT From the above-cited Quotations it is plainly evident that the Quakers Belief in these Ten Articles is as followeth 1. COncerning their Infallibility They affirm that they are Infallible that God hath given to them his Attribute to know Men's Hearts and that they are equal with God 2. Concerning the Holy Scriptures They say that the Scriptures are Humane and that no command in them is in itself obliging that what they speak is of greater Authority than the Holy Scriptures that the Gospels of St. Matthew Mark Luke and John are Dust and the Serpent's Meat that is the Devil's Meat 3. Concerning the Holy Trinity They damn the Holy Trinity to the Pit of Hell and call it Conjuration affirming the Three Persons of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost are Three Nothings 4. Concerning Christ and his Blood They utterly deny that Jesus Christ who suffer'd under Pontius Pilate was properly the Son of God or that we are to be sav'd by his Merits but affirm that the Light which every Man brings with him into the World is sufficient for every Man's Salvation without any thing else and that the Blood of Christ is no more than the Blood of any Saint 5. Concerning Baptism and the Lord's Supper They affirm that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are no more Duties to Christians than Circumcision is which they renounce as they say by the same Spirit by which St. Paul renounced Circumcision They call Infant Baptism the Doctrin of Devils and the Lord's Supper the Table of Devils 6. Concerning the Resurrection They deny the Resurrection of the Body after Death calling that Article of our Faith as absurd as the Doctrin of Transubstantiation is 7. Concerning Christ's coming to Judgment They deny the Article of Christ's coming to Judgment at the end of the World saying that there will be no other coming of Christ than what has been already or that be within Men. 8. They deny any other Heaven or Hell than what is within Men calling all other Mahometism 9. They allow doing servile Work as opening Shop on the Lord's Day to sell Goods and Taylers to mend Clothes on that Day and deny the Ten Commandments are a Rule to Christians and especially the Eighth Commandment for a Quaker said he had a Command immediatly from Heaven to take away the Priest's Hour-glass which being complain'd of G. Fox makes this answer Great Mist p. 77. viz And for any being moved of the Lord to take away your Hour-glass from you by the eternal Power it is owned Note by the same pretence they may take away the Church Plate or any thing else for as E. Burrough their Prophet saith Our HEIRSHIP is to possess the uttermost part of the Earth in a Declaration of the Quakers signed by E. Burrough and 15 more p. 9. which is the same Principle with John of Leiden and other German Enthusiasts that all right to any worldly Substance is founded on Grace and that none had a right to any thing but the Saints 10. For these Reasons they call all Ministers of Jesus Christ and Preachers of his Gospel always excepting themselves by most unchristian and uncharitable Names The Quakers are not wronged in any one Citation and it is left to the Judgment of all serious Christians whether these are not the Doctrines which are contain'd in them All good Christians are desired to have this Sheet in their Houses and as they have opportunity to shew the poor deluded Quakers their Errors which 't is hoped many of them do not know and will reonunce assoon as they do ☞ Note Reader 1st That the Quakers have printed a most fallacious answer to this Sheet to which they give this Title The Christianity of the People called Quakers asserted c. containing sundry Quotations out of my former Books writ by me when I was too much leavened with the Errors of Quakerism though I thank God I never had the worst of their Errors nor ever denied any of the Fundamentals of Christianity as they have done whereof this Sheet is a Suffitient proof all which I have retracted in Print several Years ago and therefore they are most unfair and unjust either to charge me with them or make what I then writ te be their defence 2d That they have not in all their Printed Sheet discovored one unfair Quotation in that called a Serious Call only blamed two or three Marginals wrongly paged that are in this Sheet Corrected LONDON Printed for W. Haws at the Rose in Ludgate-street 1700.
acknowledge the several coming of Christ according to the Scriptures both that in the Flesh and that in Spirit But three comings of Christ not only that in the Flesh at Jerusalem and that in the Spirit but also another coming in the Flesh yet to be expected we do not Read of Dost thou look for Christ as he was the Id. Nature of Christianity p. 29. Son of Mary to appear outwardly in a bodily Existence to save thee If thou dost thou may'st look till thy Eyes drop out before thou wilt see such an Appearance of him And as for that 1 Thess 4. 15. concerning the coming of our Lord from Heaven which Id. Brief Discovery of the dangerous Principles of J. Horn p. 9. Men blindly put afar off the Saints who then were alive remained unto it So their Conversation was in Heaven viz. a Heaven within them they did not say their Conversation was at a distance above the Clouds from whence you look for a Christ Concerning Heaven and Hell THere is none have a Glory and a Heaven but within them G. F. Great Mistery p. 214. W. Penn Rejoyn p. 179. To deny the Locality of Heaven and Hell not very offensive and it looks too Carnal and indeed Mahometan viz. to assert it Concerning doing Servile Work on the Lord's Day and of the Moral Law DId that Quaker Sin therein or not who lately brought on the Lord's-day an old Truth Defending Qua. p. 20. Doublet into Dr. Gells's Church in London and sat upon the Communion Table mending it while the Dr. was Preaching G. W. Ans What wilt thou still continue a Papist that thou countest it such a crime to work upon the Communion Table as if it were a more holy place than another Where dost thou read in Scripture that Men must do no work on the first day of the Week Obs But to save them on all sides the Quakers Infallible Spirit can go both ways for and against the observation of the Lord's Day And both as directed by the same Spirit Thus G. Fox Determines in an Epistle to all Christian Magistrates and Powers in Christendom p. 12. So all Friends of the Lord God that be moved to set open your Shops or do any work on the First-day which the false Christians call their Sabbath Do not ye Judge all that do not open Shops as ye do that be not moved to the service as ye are to do that day And all that doth not do that service viz. open shop on that day as ye do as are not moved by the Power of the Lord God do not Judg them that doth such a service on that day Obs Here he makes them the false Christians who call the First-day of the Week their day of Sabbath or Rest Is the Moral Law or Ten Commandments P. 18. a Rule to a Christian's Life or is it not G. W. Ans Thou Might as well ask if the Moral Law as thou callest it be a Rule to Christ For the Christian's Life and Rule is Christ who is the end of the Law for Righteousness who came not to destroy but to fulfil it Concerning the Church of England 's Ministry THere is a Cup prepared for you being mixed Taken out of W. Mather's Appendix which he Collected out of a Noted Quaker's Book Intituled A Strict Account of Babylon's Merchants c. by R. Crane Printed for Tho. Symmonds at the Bull and Mouth 1660. with Plagues Woes Miseries Sorrows Torments and Eternal Burnings which you shall not pass for you are found from the Lord God worthy and a treble Portion is to be given unto you You are viz. Antichrists Deceivers Sorcerers and Ravening Wolves Flames Flames Flames of Fire is prepared by the Lord to consume you as dry Stubble In the Light of the Eternal God I have beheld you and all your Actions If I should parallel you with Salvage Beasts I could not truly do it I think be they never so fierce but Men of Prey such as you are is quite out of kind and not to be parallell'd by any thing that draweth Breath Oh! Full of all Subtilty Children generated of the Seed of Deceit brought forth out of the Womb of Wickedness and nourished up at the Breasts of Withchraft and rocked in the Cradle of Idleness Oh! What shall I say concerning you God's everlasting decree is Sealed against you Burnings burnings burnings with unquenchable fire is your Portion from the Lord God of Heaven and Earth Concerning the Dissenting Ministry AN Ill-bred Pedantick Crew the Bane of Religion and Pest of the World the old W. P. Quak. a new Nick-name c. p. 165. Incendiaries to Mischief and the best to be spared of Mankind Against whom the boiling Vengeance of an Irritated God is ready to be pour'd out And we have nothing for them but Woes and Plagues who have made Drunk the Nations W. P. Serious Apologue p. 106. and laid to Sleep on Downy Beds of soft Sin-pleasing Principles while they have Cut their Purses and Pick'd their Pockets Tophets prepared for them to Act their Eternal Tragedy upon whose Scenes will be renewed direful anguishing Woes of an Eternal Irreconcileable Justice The Quakers are the ONLY Ministers of Christ G. Fox Great Mist p. 267. The Quakers are in the Truth and NONE but they Quakers Chall p. 3. Now tho' G. Whitehead and other of your Teachers have Published some late Creeds seemingly Orthodox and repugnant to the errors above Quoted in divers particulars Yet considering what he hath said in his Counterfeit Convert p. 72. Printed 1694. I may see cause otherwise to word the matter and yet our intention be the same and that Joseph Wyeth in his Primitive Christianity p. 6. Printed 1698. hath said in behalf of the Quakers our Principles are now no other than what they were when we were first a People It is left to your serious Consideration whether the Quotations here given are consistent with those New Creeds and whether Joseph Wyeth's so saying is not a full confirmation that your Teachers are not in the least changed from their former vile and monstrous Principles Note As above said most of these Quotations none of which are Retracted by the Quakers are Attested with near 200. more of the same Nature in G. K 's Third and Fourth Naratives By Eight Ministers of the Church of England viz. Dr. Isham Rector of St. Botolph Bishops-gate Dr. Wincop Rector of St. Mary Abb-Church Dr. Bedford Rector of St. George Botolph-lane Mr. Altham M. A. Rect. of St. Andrew Undershaft Mr. Bradford M. A. Rector of St. Mary le Bow Mr. Whitfield M. A. Rect. of St. Martins Ludgate Mr. Butler M. A. Rect. of St. Mary Aldermanbury Mr. Adams M. A. Rect. of S. Alban Woodstreet Note That the Quotations above given do exactly agree with the Books out of which they are taken as cited in the Margin I George Keith do affirm and offer to prove before any impartial Auditory to the