chief aim Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new As if he should say This proves those that are in Christ to be new creatures that their aims and ends are holy and spiritual which is too high for an unregenerate man whose faith and love to them and concerning them is much too weak to steer the course of their lives as those that are bound for Christ and Heaven And as their ends so the means is altered for as before they shaped their whole course to please the flesh 't is now conformed to pleasing the Lord and providing for their souls welfare And whereas it is said though we have known § 12. Christ after the flesh c. It may refer to the Apostles in whose person the Apostle speaks though he himself were not concerned with them who did sometimes dream of being great in the world and sharing with Christ in an earthly kingdome but now being better informed and attained to a higher and more noble degree of spiritual understandings and affections they were crucified to those childish and carnal designs and their considerations of Christ in his glorified body and his exaltation in Heaven at the Fathers righthand did raise their souls to a longing after a further and compleat view of his glory and sharing with him in his heavenly Kingdome This is sutable to the eighth Verse of this Chapter which hath some Contexture with Verse 16. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Then Christ was not in them as in his Heaven and Glory To conclude I beseech you who are engaged with the Quakers from the good opinion you have of their § 13 Tenets or from the other respects which may quickly produce their entertainment do not think it a light thing to disown him who must be your Redeemer or you must for ever perish or that the difference between the true Christ and any thing else that is so called is so small that you may wink and choose no danger of miscarrying which ever be your foundation If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins was the saying of Truth it self and he was not the light within but the man Christ Jesus who was then in Judea and no where else who is now in Heaven not on earth How is it that the Apostles whose knowledg of and zeal for Christ is not to be equalled by any of ours did preach Christ so abundantly by the name of JESVS which was the proper name of his humane nature and as the CHRIST which is a name proper to God and man in one person he that is the all sufficient Saviour and not by the name of the light within which is not to be found once in the Scripture and where the words are found which Christ himself spake which is but once it may be a terrible and a seasonable monitor to you But if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness I beg of you once more to weigh what I have written in this Chapter and beg for you that the Lord would give you understanding in all these things CHAP. XVI The Quakers are gross Idolaters and Quakerism gross Idolatry THere have been great Contests in the world SECT I about the imputation of this Character of Idolaters and what is Idolatry Some have contended That not only a false worship though of the true God is Idolatry and by consequence that those who live in the practice of such a worship are Idolaters but also that any Appendices to that worship of God which in the substance of it is true worship are also Idolatry being of mans invention and added by his own proper Authority as a part of divine worship and that so doing is a crime against the second Commandment in the Decalogue or ten words or Commandments written in tables of stone The proof of my Charge against the Quakers will not depend upon such nice and disputable premises but if there be any such thing as Idolatry in the whole world I shall prove them guilty in the highest degree And because this Charge looks very big and would be no small sin against both the principles and persons of those concerned if untrue and also that such a crime of theirs is not so visible to the world as may be within the cognizance and notice of all who converse with them I shall dispose my Argument plainly and formally All those that own and profess that to be God which is § 2 not God are gross Idolaters But the Quakers own and profess that to be God which is not God Therefore the Quakers are gross Idolaters My second proof is in this Argument All those who worship that as God professedly and according to their professed principles which is not God are gross Idolaters But the Quakers do so Therefore they are gross Idolaters My first Argument I shall first prosecute and with that perspicuity as will be apparent to all that are not more blind than Bats For the first Proposition viz. That all those that own and profess that to be God which is not God are gross Idolaters I know none but will grant the truth of it who in matters of a religious nature can discern their right hands from their left The Minor or second proposition of my Syllogism I am concerned to confirm Here will be the issue depending and if this be throughly proved no man convinced thereof but will sit down by the conclusion That the Quakers are gross Idolaters I shall manage my proof of this by these two § 3 Syllogisms They who own and profess the light within every man to be God own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do own and profess the light within every man to be God Therefore The Quakers own and profess that to be God which is not God Again They that own and profess the souls or spirits of all or some men which are constitutive parts of all or some men to be God do own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do own and profess so Therefore They own and profess that to be God which is not God The first Syllogism I shall manage in the first place the Major and Minor of which I shall fully prove And although some have attempted the conviction of the Quakers by shewing the natural faculties of light in man to be far short of what they ascribe to it I shall not go their way to work for so long as the Quakers hold their light within to be Christ or God 't is vain to restrain it to less than infinite And I having to do with those whose opinion of the light within depends on such a conceit I shall prove the light within every man not to be Christ or God
not deny that there was such a man as § 2 Jesus the Son of Mary and that God was in him or rather Christ was in him but this is no more than they profess of themselves that Christ as God and the Eternal Word is in them yet that body of the Man Jesus which he calls here the bodily garment he tells us they can never call it Christ Another passage out of the same Author will explain this For that which he took upon him was our garment even the p. 20. flesh and bloud of our nature very right But what follows is wofully false Which is of an earthly perishing nature but he is of an heavenly nature and his flesh and bloud and bones are of his nature The sum is this The Flesh and Bloud and Bones or Body of Christ which they own is of a heavenly and Eternal Nature but the body which Christ took on him of our nature is earthly and perishing and therefore they can never call that or own that to be Christ This is as plain a denying the Man Christ Jesus § 3 whose body of flesh was of our nature and of the seed of Abraham and the Son of Mary as can be They own him as one that once had a Being but is now perished that is his body of flesh and bloud What can we expect of those men who can disown what the Scripture speaks so plainly and frequently and that not now and then by the by but as its main scope Do not all the Prophets that prophesie of Christ speak of him as to come Doth not he himself and others contemporary that lived with him in the flesh speak of him as then come Do not the Scriptures after his Death and Resurrection speak of him as having finished the Merit of our Redemption and Salvation and departed from the earth ascended into Heaven and there at his Fathers right hand ruling the affairs of Heaven and Earth and making intercession for his people And all this of the Body of Christ which he took of mans Nature and this called Christ and Jesus and the Saviour Let not these Blasphemers of the Lord of Life and Glory delude people with a fancy as if we believe and preach the Flesh and Bloud of Christ to be Christ separated from his Soul his Soul of the nature of mans soul but undefiled or that we take his humane or mans nature to be Christ separate from his Eternal and Divine Nature for they cannot be separated the one is not now without the other nor was the Divine Nature of Christ compleat Christ until united to and dwelling in its fulness in the humane or mans nature of Christ Yet as what the mind conceives in a man the man § 5 conceives and what the least member of the body doth or suffereth the man doth and suffereth so by a communication of properties and union of natures in Christ the Divine and Eternal Being of Christ is called Christ sometimes but much more often the humane nature or the Man Christ Jesus And the reason is clear because although Christ offered up himself by the Eternal Spirit as both dignifying him to a worthiness for such a Sacrifice and enabling him to undergo it as a Lamb for patience innocency and meekness and to overcome death yet the mans nature of Christ his soul and his body was the only proper sufferer and sacrifice for God cannot suffer nor be put to death and by the obedience and sufferings thereof was our reconciliation and redemption wrought Only as I said before its union hypostatical with the Divine Nature did put it into such a capacity and entitle God or the Divine Nature which in its fulness dwelt in him bodily to all that he did and suffered Having thus explained my self that the weakest § 6 that are but willing may understand the truth in this point I shall quote some Scriptures wherein the Man Jesus who was born of the Virgin is called the Christ and Saviour and that this Man Jesus is now in being and in that body of flesh which he took of the Virgin and wherein he eat and drank and slept and performed those actions proper to a body of flesh and bloud and bones and that this man Jesus is still and ever shall be the Christ of God And it was revealed unto him by the holy Ghost that Luke 2. 26 27 28 29 32. he should not see death before he had seen the Lords Christ And he came by the spirit unto the Temple and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus to do for him after the custome of the Law then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said Lord now lett est thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation a light to lighten the Gentiles This was the Lords Christ whose parents were Mary by nature Joseph in Law and by reputation as being Mary's Husband though after Christs birth whom Simeon then saw and not before whom he took up in his arms not only into his heart by faith and love and this Christ is Gods salvation and a light to lighten the Gentiles Therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God Act 2. 30. 31. had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit upon his Throne he seeing this before speaks of the resurrection of Christ that his Christs soul was not left in hell neither his Christs flesh did see corruption This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are Verse 32 witnesses Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly Verse 36. that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye Acts 5. 30. 31. slew and hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing Act. 1. 11. up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Opening and alleadging that Christ must needs have Acts 17. 3. suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ Be it known unto you all and to the people of Israel Acts 4. 10 11 12. that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand before you whole This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of the corner Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And though they found no cause of death in him yet
and a poor puffed deluded creatures errors and miscarriages from the obedience of him who is God-man who is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person Let us first see what they profess of justification by § 2 Smith â— Cat. p. 74. Christs righteousness Quest Do not you depend on the things you do for life and salvation Answ Nay We do not so c. Quest What is the righteousness that justifieth in the Pennington mysteries of the Kingdom p. 17. sight of God Answ The righteousness of Christ alone c. One would think the Quakers in this point very sound by this part of their profession but their Bell sounds not long before its jarring with truth discovers it to be foully crackt It follows in the Answer to the first Question For we have lifâ— before we have motion to act or do any thing that is pleasing to God and in that life we have salvation and so life and salvation is freely given us of God The latter part of the Answer is brought to prove the truth of the former and you will say they are huge good at proving who reason at this rate They are not the things we do because we have life from God and that freely before we can move or do any thing This being one of the great delusions of this poor people wherein they shew so much ignorance as without much grace from God they are utterly uncapable of instruction I shall hoping in that grace for a blessing of conviction upon them demonstrate by the most familiar and easie things the falsity of their such Conclusions By the same Reason all your bodily motions and actions are the motions and actions of God and you do nothing at all the while Was there not life before motion And did not God give you this life Can any man move hand or foot or tongue in any natural action but by that life they first receive from God but will you say therefore these are Gods actions and not mens For you to say Your good actions and motions are Christs righteousness because you have life from him to perform them is no less absurd Let us see if Pennington who had somewhat of a § 3 Scholar will do any thing better in the explanation and proof of his Answer to the second Question This righteousness conveyed to the creature in and through the seed and brought forth in the creature by the seed and the creature united to Christ in the seed here is justification of life A strange justifying righteousness by Christ alone brought forth in the creature by the seed I would ask any of this opinion Whether their tongues and lips did not move in the words they call righteous words And the hands in some of those they call righteous actions Sure they will not deny they do and how then can they say it is the righteousness of Christ alone in which the bodies of Thomas John c. are imployed But yet the fine mysteries in this Doctrine which I must confess may puzzle many an honest Countreyman to find out the sense of amoâ—nts to no more than this great absurdity What a contradiction there is in the creatures being united to Christ in the seed the Quakers themselves if any liberty be left them so to do will find out Christ is the seed and the seed is Christ both but one and the same thing and yet the creature is united to Christ in the seed that is to Christ in Christ But the blind swallow many a Fly For by the Law of faith is self-fanctification self-mortification § 4. Naylor Love to the lost p. 6. 4. â— and self-justification excluded right so far the worst will be in the tail Though they who receive the Spirit were called to all this by faith in his bloud yet it is the work of God wrought by Christ in the beleiver Two things are here observable for errour and ignorance First They who received the Spirit were called to all this self-work he talks of and that by faith in Christs blood too and yet by the Law of faith it is all excluded So here faith does and undoes calls for self-justification c. and when it draws nigh shuts the door against them begets children and that by Christ too and so soon as they are born utterly disclaims them If he had said they were called to sanctification mortification and not put that blot of self in their Escutcheons to render them base-born and then have asserted they were not the righteousness by which we are justified he had spoken like a man and a Christian but they are two things in the Quakers account adverse and together by the ears and therefore Nailor will have to do with neither But that a man should be called by faith to self-justification is a strange riddle and after all the condemnation of these things it is for all that the woâ—k of God wrought by Christ in the believer But to finish Naylor's testimony of justifying righteousness observe what he faith somewhat more plainly Whereby such become his workmanship in Christ Naylor Love to the lost p. 37. Jesus wrought into his obedience and his obedience into them in their measure till they become of one heart one mind one soul one spirit one flesh one bone and bloud and one obedience and one life that it is no more we that live but Christ that lives in us Here is some shew but a great deal of abuse of the holy Scriptures and the Spirit of God by whom they were given forth Whereas those who are God's workmanship in Christ Eph. 2 10 Jesus created to good works are thereby designed and disposed by God to walk holily Naylor will have the Saints wrought into the obedience of Christ and his obedience into them and blended together so perfectly that the most discerning Quaker of them all can make no distinction between the one and the other yea untill body and soul flesh and spirit bloud and bones and the obedience of both Christ and his Saints and their very life too be no more distinguished but what is the one is the other the Quaker is Christ for which Naylor's tongue was bored with a hot iron and Christ is I am afraid to write it From such stuff as this the poor souls who hug these Angels of darkness talk at that confused and blasphemous rate as they do and adopt whatever is the Product of an idle proud deluded raw undâ—rstanding into the very acts and expressions of Christ himself He saith moreover which may a little explain this § 6 p. 36. last Instance Which obedience stands not in any thing seen from man or by man done thereby to imitate or do the like for that is two obediences That as the same Father calls for the same obedience in spirit so in the same spirit doth the believer offer up himself c. I leave you to brood on
Acts 13. 28 29 30. desired they Pilate that he should be slain and when he had fulfilled all that was written of him they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre but God raised him from the dead Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of Verse 38. sins For there is one God and one Mediator between God 1 Tim. 2. 5. and man the man Christ Jesus I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am Rev. 1. 18. alive for evermore amen and have the keys of hell and death I might fill many Pages with Scriptures of the like import these are so plain for what I produce them and the Quakers deny that they need no Exposition or Comment or as the Quakers phrase it have any meanings put to them If men be so blind as not to see the errour of disowning § 7 Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary who was hanged on a Tree put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea to be yet alive and the Christ of God by all these Scriptures it is a blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers who professed the Scriptures to be a true testimony were smitten Surely God hath given them up for their pride giddiness or idle ignorance and that in Justice and the Devil the Destroyer hath blinded their minds with a witness that this light of the glorious Gospel should not shine unto them Can yea dare any of you guilty of the errour here charged say That all this is true of and to be applied to the light within every man which these Scriptures assert of Gods Christ Read them over and compare them with that which is your only Christ and Saviour If this man Christ Jesus in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead and who was thus described by the Spirit of God be the Saviour your light within is not If your light within be the Saviour and Christ and Redeemer he was not of whom all these Scriptures and a thousand more speak so plainly The Lord be merciful to your souls the Lord rebuke you who are so bold in denying the Lord that bought you and trampling under foot the bloud of the Covenant O consider that fancies and dreams though having ever so strong an impression while you are possessed with them will when you awake out of your graves of earth and dust yea when your souls depart from your bodies leave you to the naked truth which God in his Word the Scriptures hath revealed to us not to be abused after your manner but that we might believe and live after their direction which who despises Wo unto their souls for they have rewarded Isa 3. 9. evil to themselves I have not yet given you all the evidence I have § 8 out of the Quakers chief Writers that they disown the man Jesus the Son of Mary to be Gods Christ Some of them take together Can outward bloud Penningtons Questions P. as Fox cleanse the conscience We witness the same Christ that ever was now manifested in the flesh The man Christ Jesus was not ever for he was made and born in time of the Virgin Mary was Abraham's and David's seed after the flesh and though he now have a Being in Heaven and is manifested on earth by his Word and by that Faith which is in the hearts of his people yet he is not now manifest in the flesh according to that Scripture which saith God was manifest in the 1 Tim. 3. 16 flesh not is And Christs nature is not humane which is earthly Fox mystery c. p. 71. for that is the first Adams And immediately before Where doth the Scripture speak of humane Now we do not deny that Christ according to the flesh was of Abraham but not the word humane How pitifully doth he wind and turn to get out § 9 of the Noose and holds the world in hand as if he did not deny the thing that Christ is constituted of the humane nature only he will not allow the word humane Yet he that hath a small measure of discerning may see that peep out which he would fain hide He denies Christs nature to be earthly which the first Adams was Sure if Christ was the seed of the woman by Adam his nature as man was such as Adams But for his questioning the word humane as not in the Scripture he pretending to he able to examine the Justice of our Translators in turning the Greek into English in his great Libel called Mystery of the Great Whore should methinks have found as much as humane in the Greek though not in the English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being five times used in the Epistles which in the Latine is more hominum humanus after the manner of men humane And Christs humane nature is no more but his mans nature of his nature according to man and so he is now in the humane nature in the Heavens Seeing then that we Heb 4 14 15. have a great High-Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Mark the last clause For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Infirmities here must not be understood of sin the Text bars that but such a weak nature as is constituted of flesh and bloud liable to pains grief hunger and weariness And he was found in fashion as a man and that I think is more hominis Now this man is not was but is our High-Priest in the Heavens and not as Fox hath it was of the seed of Abraham but is so A few Instances more yet And they that are false Ministers preach Christ Smith prim p. 9. without Your carnal Christ is utterly denied by the light Your imagined God beyâ—nd the Stars But none Sword of the Lord c. p. 24. Shield of the Truth p. 30. can witness this whose eye is outward looking at a Redeemer afar off So much of the proof of their denying that man to be Christ I must not say that the Quakers do not own a SECT II man Christ for that they frequently in their writings and sayings express such a thing but I desire that none will be offended that I will not take Chips for Guinâ—ys or half-Crowns because some silly Cheats would put them upon me under those valuable names much more ought I and every one else take heed of receiving that for Christ which God the Father hath not sealed because men of what countenance soever will perswade us it is no other whilst by the very Candle-light of meer reason it will appear to be a meer fancy If I should say no more but that it is an absurdity as big as an impossibility for a man constituted not only of a soul for
God I proceed to the proof of the Minor or § 10 second Proposition Viz. That the Quakers do own and profess the light within every man to be God This I must prove from their own Writings which will easily be done it being the grand foundation of the whole Fabrick of Quakerism so that I may say its first stone is laid in gross Idolatry It would be needless morning Watch p. 5. 6. 7. is filled with this Subâ—ect to bring Instances of their asserting the light in every man to be that Word which John speaks of John 1. 1. Which was in the beginning which was with God which was God It is the first thing they teach and that not suddenly and amphibiously as they do many other points but in so many words But I shall furnish you with proofs enough over § 11 Fox the younger p. 53. and above that I will make you know that I the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world that all through me should believe am the true eternal God which created all things that by me the light all things are upheld and that there is not another besides me can save Although in this passage he doth not call it the light in every man yet it being a personating the light within in a large and continued discourse he doth often express it the light within as in pag. 50. You scorn me the light in you Pag. 54. Which will not own me the light in them All power in Smith prim Heaven and Earth is in it the light in the conscience They that cannot read out of these passages and § 12 that without spelling that the Quakers own and profess the light in every man to be God are not like to be much the wiser for whatever they read That it is in every one hear one speak his mind Lip of Truth c. p. 45. who would be believed Light is the same in him that hates it and in him that loves it I have done with the first grand Argument and proved abundantly that the light within every man is not God That the Quakers own the light within every man to be God and profess it And these will prove that they are Idolaters or none will ever be so proved I shall now shew you another God of the Quakers SECT II owning or at least their Idol in another dress in manageing the second proof of the Quakers owning that to be God which is not God My Argument is this They that own and profess the souls or spirits of all or some men which are constitutive parts of all or some men to be God do own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do so Therefore They own and profess that to be God which is not God Two things will prove the whole of this Syllogism First To prove that the souls or spirits of any men are not God Why I put in all or some in the proposition you will see the reason when I prove Secondly That the Quakers hold the spirits or souls of all or some men to be God If the souls or spirits of any men were God then God Arg. 1 may be polluted with sia But God cannot be polluted with sin Therefore The souls or spirits of any men are not God The second Proposition will be granted not only § 2 Rom 3. 5. Job 40. 2. by Christians but Heathens Is there unrighteousness with God who taketh vengeance God forbid He that reproveth God let him answer it The first Proposition I prove from Adam's pollution with sin who of all men except Jesus Christ was the most unlikely to have his soul polluted who was created upright and had the greatest advantages of maintaining his innocency yet his soul was polluted as may appear Gen. 3. Rom. 5. At large Let us cleanse our selves 2 Cor. 7. 1. from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Now the God of peace sanctifie you wholly and preserve you blameless in spirit and soul and body c. This is enough to prove that the spirits of men yea of the Saints and best of men may be and have been polluted with sin If the souls or spirits of men were God then God Arg. 2 may be in prison But God cannot be in prison Therefore They are not God The first Proposition I prove from 1 Pet. 3. 19. By § 3 which he went and preached to the spirits in prison And these were the sinful and disobedient spirits who provoked God in the dayes of Noah The second Proposition all men will grant except the Quakers who often speak of the seed in captivity by which seed they mean no other but Christ or God within every man or the light within every man Arg. 3 § 4 If the spirits or sâ—uls of men were God then God might be condemned But God cannot so be Therefore The spirits or souls of men are not God That the spiriâ—s or souls of men may be so I tremble to write the word appears by that Text 1 Pet. 3. 19. The disobedient spirits in the dayes of Noah are now in prison which is a part of their torment The whole current of the Gospel saith it or implies it I shall now prove out of the Quakers chief and allowed Writers whom they account infallible and SECT III honour with their chief respects that they hold the spirits or souls of men or both to be God Every man hath that which is one in union and like the Spirit of E. B. True Faith c. Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure This he speaks of the Spirit in man which every man hath and sure if it be as good as the Spirit of Christ it must be God for the Spirit of Christ and of God are one and the same But to talk of its measure their usual phrase is a blaspheming God to speak his divine Being any thing less than infinite Now my soul and spirit is centered in its own Being with God and this form of person must return from E. H. Testimony c. whence it was taken The words of Ed. Burroughs the morning before he died Here he makes his soul and spirit one Being with God or God to be the souls own Being And what follows implies that as the body and soul are the form of man while in this world so at dissolution as the body resolves into dust its first Being so the soul to God its first Being A miserable Exposition of the Scripture which saith The body shall return to the dust and the spirit shall return to him that gave it He lived and died a true Quakers but a false Christian if he changed not his mind his last day Priest It is an expression of a dark deluded mind to say that God is not distinguished from the Saints § 2 Fox great mystery c p. 16. Thus he brings
in the minister saying Answ But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine If it were only out of ignorance in not understanding the word distinguished or of the manner of Gods Being in his Saints it should not be his Charge in this place But you shall if you read further see he intends no less than the wicked import of his words But to call him reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine is over measure a great deal he might have spared him that in charity John Bunion saith He God is distinct from the Saints and Bunian is deceived who saith he is distinct p. 16. from the Saints and so you are a company of pityful Teachers By these expressions he renders not only the Souls and Spirits of the Saints the same being with God but their whole man without distinction Again thou makes a great pudder that any one should witness he is equal with God Answ A Catechism of § 3 the Assembly of the Priests and put forth to the nation in which they have laid down that the holy Ghost and the Son is equal in power and glory with the Father Fox great mystery yet if any come but to witness the Son revealed in him or come to witness the Holy Ghost in them as they gave out the Scriptures or witness the mind of Christ and witness that equal with the Father they cry out horrid blasphemy Observe he doth not in the least deny the priests charge as he calls him but calls it a pudder he makes as if the most horrid blasphemies opposed or charged on the blasphemers were but making a pudder And to heal his sore he would wound the assembly of Divines by laying the like monster at their door but herein he shews his ignorance with his malice and slander For the rest of his phrases I shall only say this that they make no difference between the Spirit of the Quakers yea of all men and the Son of God or the Holy Ghost And is not that of God which comes out from God § 4 is not that of his being the soul which he hath in his Fox great Mystery hand and so divine There is a great difference to be of God with respect to relation or creation and to be of God as of his being or the same being with him the one is common to the whole Creation for of him are all things the other is peculiar to the blessed Creator Magnus Bine saith the Soul is not infinite in it self but Fox great mystery p. 29 is a Creature and Richard Baxter saith it is a spiritual substance Answ Now consider what a Condition these called Ministers are in they say that which is a Spiritual substance is not infinite in it self but a creature that which came out from the Creator and is in the hand of the Creator which brings it up and to the Creator again that is infinite in it self which the hand goes against him that does evil in which hand the Soul is which is immortal and infinite which hand is infinite which brings it up to God is infinite If any man can match the ignorance confidence blasphemy and nonsence of this passage out of the mouths or pens of any but the Quakers he may be reckoned a great discoverer But this is received by those poor deluded souls as infallibly true and divine mystery being the dictates of George Fox whom none of them dare or will contradict such is the stupendious captivity of these poor people Is not the Soul without beginning come from God It is not horrid Blasphemy to say the Soul is a part of God for it § 5 Fox great mystery came out of him and that which came out of him is of him Thus I have proved not by remote consequences but their open and plain assertions and that pleaded for after their wild manner hat they hold the Soul of Man to be God apart of the Divine being infinite in it self without beginning-part of the creator here is enough of blasphemy and idolatry for one author to fill the mouths of many I shall cite yet more of them that none may think it is but one Quaker though I may stand for a thousand who is so prodigiously wicked § 6. Fisher velata quaedam revelata p. 17. And whereas you Querie whether the said Spirit the Spirit of man is mortal or immortal I answer it is immortal and neither mortal nor corruptible but the immortal and incorruptible seed of God even something of the living word which is said to be made flesh What the word is that was made flesh John saith was God 1. John 1. That which the Lord from Heaven begetteth of his own Penningtons Quest 27. Declaration against poverty query 27. image and likeness of his own substance of his own seed of his own Spirit and pure life Speaking of the Saints the members of Christ Whether do you wait and believe to have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus who thought it no robbery to be equal with God And Christ thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he was no Pharisee though of the pharisees judged a blasphemer and as he is so are we saith the Saints And they who dwell in the truth witness Parnel Shield c p. 37. one with another For the light of God owns its own for God cannot deny himself They own the Spirit of God Christ the seed and the § 7 spirit of man to be but one and the same thing but some times will deny any to have a Spirit at all but the regenerate that they may not say the unregenerate have the Spirit of God or God the Spirit in them See Fishers rare distinction to serve this turn Fisher velata quaedam revelata p 13 As to the Spirit of man which concurres to the constituting of man in his primitive perfection it is the breath of life which God breathed into his Soul after he had formed him as to his body of the dust of the earth whereby he came to be a living Soul a Soul that did partake something of Gods ovvn life this Spirit of man is that living principle of the divine nature vvhich man did before his degeneration and shall gâ—vin after his regeneration partake of This Charge being of so black and horrid a nature I did not judge it unmeet to prove the truth of it by abounding instances and now Reader judge and put on the largest Charity that a man or Christian ought in any case to exercise and give thy verdict if I have not made appear That the Quakers are gross Idolaters so far as owning and professing that to be God which is not God will contribute to a demonstration I shall manage my second grand argument but briefly SECT IV for the work I have done will render it not very
not gone after Baalim See thy way in the Valley know what thou hast done thou art a swift Dromedary traversing her ways A wild Ass used to the Wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away All they that seek her will not weary themselves in her moneth they shall find her CHAP. XVII The Quakers deny the Resurrection of the Dead I Doubt not but all who are not infatuated with the SECT I Quakers Spirit to a perverting the genuine sense of almost all the expressions of Principles of Faith will understand by the Resurrection of the Dead the raising again to life and from the dust and corruption the bodies of men and women however disposed of after their natural death or dissolution The Quakers will deny their guilt of this Charge and come off with an Allegorical evasion They will tell youâ— that they believe and own the Resurrection of the Dead yea of the dead body whereas in truth their opinion and meaning is quite another thing than the ordinary acceptation of that Doctrine as will appear by the instances following And hath no will nor wisdom nor reason left in him Smith Cat. p. 31. §. 2. but all baptized down into the sufferings of Christ and there the power kills him and gives him life again and so man lays down his own life and takes up life in Christ in which life he comes to be raised in the Resurrection of Christ I must confess this account is like his who though he may have too much Will is utterly void of Reason But he that shall own no other Resurrection of the Body than what Smith expresses comes under that severe rebuke of the Apostle Who concerning the Faith have erred saying that the Resurrection is past already and have destroyed the faith of some The foresaid Author saith farther Quest But must man pass through death and rise p. 29. again while he is in the Body Answ Yes for except he be regenerated and born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And therefore he must die to the first Adams flesh and be quickned and raised again in the second Adams Spirit And so in the Resurrection and life enter the Kingdom as a little Child You see here plainly that their Resurrection of the Body is but their Regeneration and this is fulfilled while they are in the body But above all that I have read of the Quakers § 3 Velata quaedam revelata Fisher is the best skilled in the allegorizing of the Resurrection But if you will not be admonished nor perswaded by Moses and the Prophets within you neither will you 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 know not how they can deny his words to be his gloss on 16 Luke 31. If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets neither wilâ— they be perswaded if one should rise from the dead If Christ had intended Conversion or Regeneration there by rising from the Dead it were no rare thing to have such Preachers sent to them for all the Saints of God are such as are Regenerated and such Preachers they had many at that time we may conclude that the Resurrection spoken of by Christ was of some one in the state of the Dead to have his body raised to life and with that advantage of experience to preach to them Whereby the heart is free from corruption and § 4 Naylor Love to the Lost p. 3. made able to escape the pollutions of the World and to run in the pure ways with delight which is the glâ—rious liberty of the Sons of God the Resurrection from the Dead I have said enough of what abundantly implies their denial of this great and fundamental truth I do not at all expect nor can I with any reason that they should in their writings in so many words deny the Resurrection of the Dead because so open and plain dealing in this great point would render them intolerable and shut the door against Proselites but yet in verbal and private converse they stick not to deny the Resurrection of the same bodies which ordinarily when dead are put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth I have examined many of their Books that pretend to give a full account of their Tenets and Belief but in all of them their Resurrection is no other than I have already expressed Take an Account of one or two in their Systems of their Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead We say that Christ is the Resurrection and the Life to § 5 Isaac Pennington Some principles of the Elect called Quakers p. 34. raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him viz Adam so Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and so renews man c. What is this Resurrection but what they call Regeneration and the Resurrection of the Body is but in the same sense as the Soul and Spirit is raised which is not from a natural death or dissolution of their essential form but from their depravation and defection to a sensual and sinful disposition and their aversation from God Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead In the Chapter intituled ' as above he hath these Naylor love to the lost p. 78. words But to such busie minds who are saying how are the dead raised and with what bodies do they come I say to such the Apostles words are very suitable Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die but the mystery is sealed with the Sons of God nor can any ever know with what bodies they shall arise but who comes to the Flesh of Christ and discerns his Body the sight whereof in the life slays the Serpent and opens the Mystery Till then cursed is he that reveals that which God hath sealed and hidden from the Serpents Wisdom c. Naylor before and after quotes many Scripture-phrases which abundantly prove the Resurrection of the Body after dissolution or natural death but when all is done there is a Mystery a sealed Mystery in his meaning and a curse laid on those who reveal their Tenet No wonder then that they speak not out to any other but themselves whom he dare trust with the greatest abominations in their delusions but notwithstanding his inhibition divers of them have to me acknowledged that they believe not that the body which when dead is ordinarily put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth and turns to dust shall ever be made alive again And that which may put you out of doubt that this is their Tenet I can prove by many Witnesses that George Whitehead one of their chief Misleaders after much importunity to speak his mind plainly in this
in jeopardy every hour 1 Cor. 15. 29. 30. Thirdly it utterly subverts and makes Shipwrack § 3 of the faith of the Gospel that looking at a prize and reward on the other side the Grave But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also in vain 1 Cor 15 13 14. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15 16 17. So that there is a Chain of the most woful consequences that this wicked error draws after it Fourthly Then the Gospel is a meer fallacy and § 4 delusion which promises a reward to men whose persons are constituted of a body as well as a soul Many more might be inferred of so grand an import as would render this Doctrine the most pernicious that was ever hatched among pretended Christians CHAP. XIX The Quakers profess not the Doctrine of a future reward in another World I Have been a diligent Enquirer to find some expressions SECT 1 in their Writings or Verbal Converse that might satisfie me they owned a future happiness or misery after this life but all to no purpose in this point they make no noise at all I have searched those Writings of theirs especially which have pretended an account of their Principles in all or most points of Religion but though this of a future state of reward or punishment be the vitals and end of all Religion yet they do not so much as touch upon it From whence I must conclude it is blotted out of their Creed 'T is said of the Gospel which is the Christian Dispensation that it brings life and immortality to light what was in the Scriptures of the old Testament more seldom and obscurely expressed is the very scope of the Gospel or New Testament the peculiar of Christianity But then certainly Quakerism is no Christianity that is so silent in this matter I know they talk of immortality and eternal life but what is immortality with them Fox saith man is immortal before death in his Great Mystery and their Salvation is no more but what they have within them and is accomplished in this world Farnsworth saith speaking of the righteousness of Christ neither was I saved by it So that his Salvation was not future but present or past And Pennington in some Principles of the Elect c. saith and so they who forget God and do wickedly they are to be turned into Hell But what Hell is this no more than what they say is in this life For they who forget God and do wickedly they go from the life and power of God into the separation from him and out of his acceptance For in the life is the acceptance What is here more than is suffered in this life which we call paena damni or the punishment of loss A Book intituled The Spirit of the Quakers c. § 1 charges the Quakers for having their hearts much set on a Heaven within them but not on the things above to which Pen replies and vindicates after his fashion the Kingdom of God within but saith not a word to assert their belief of and affections to the Heaven above from whence it is plain that they believe no such thing to have a being I wonder not therefore that this is so frâ—quently their saying That if we are not perfect here we shall never be perfect It is easily deduceable from their more openly professed § 2 principles that they deny and disown a blessedness or misery in another world For if they deny the body to have life any more after it is dead and turned to dust and that the Soul and Spirit are of the being of God and that as the body returns to its former dust from whence it came and never revives again so the Soul and Spirit returns into God its first being all which I have already proved what then remains to be the subject of happiness or misery E'ne nothing at all except God and he is not man E. Burroughs the day he died expressed himself thus that he was now putting off this manner of person and returning to his own Being or words of the same import which I have quoted on the Chapter of their Idolatry When I have asked some of them what should become of their souls after death Their answer hath been they shall be taken into God Let them profess that they believe a happiness to be enjoyed by men and women after their bodies are rotted to dust distinct from the Being of God or that which they had not a thousand years before they were born i. â— to be in God from whom as of his Being they say the soul came and it will be news to me and all that are acquainted with them In the mean time I have given you Reasons enough to conclude they believe no future blessedness or misery in anoâ—her world I shall now resume the Question and gather up all the proofs of what I have affirmed into an entire body If Quakerism be another Dispensation than that of Christ setled and preached by the Apostles If it deny the Scripture If it deny all the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny any influence of Christs transactions in Judea above 1600 years since into our Justification and Salvation If it deny Jesus the Son of Mary the Christ of God If it own false Gods and be Idolatry If it professedly owns the worshipping of false Gods If it deny the Resurrection of the Dead If it affect not a future blessedness or misery in another world to men and women according to their deeds in this Then Quakerism is no Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism Therefore Quakerism is no Christianity PART III. BEING AN EXAMINATION Of the First Part of VV. PEN'S Pamphlet CALLED The Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. WITH A Rebuke of his Exorbitances WHiles I was writing this Book I met with SECT 1 a Pamphlet of William Pen's intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated against that of Errour and Envy c. Which is pretended to be an Answer to a malicious Libel intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed c. I having the piece by me I once perused it In the general I resâ—nted it as one of the best and most ingeniously 〈…〉 aged and beyond all material and just excepti 〈…〉 at least by the Quakers that ever I read against 〈◊〉 sort of people But reading Pen's Answer 〈◊〉 finding his Epistle giving such a Character of his 〈…〉 versaries Book and himself for malice lameness 〈…〉 ing and what not that might render it and him 〈…〉 ed and contemptible I began to mistrust my conclusion supposing a person of P's education and pretences would not say so much evil of it without great cause and therefore I compared them
in them doth offer up himself a Living Sacrifice to God for them by which the wrath of God is appeased towards them Justifying-Righteousness They hold That the Righteousness of Christ and their Righteousness is but one and the same thing That what Righteousness they perform is the Righteousness of Christ because performed by the Teachings and Power afforded to them by him That they are justified by a Righteousness within themselves and not by a Righteousness performed without them or before they had a being That no man is justified who doth not perform every demand of the Law i. e. Of the Light or Law within Concerning Sin They deny Original Sin They deny that motions from within to sin are sin if not complied with They hold That men may attain to be without any sin in this life And that some of them are perfectly freed from its stains and prevalency They hold That there can be no sin but what is commited against Conviction Concerning the Light within They hold That the Light within them is God Christ the Spirit the Law the Gospel the Life the Power the only and sufficient Rule of faith and Life Vid. The Key That all men have this Light within themselves That this Light is not a natural or created Light or Humane faculty That it is of the same nature in those who obey or disobey it That while men resist this Light the Light or Christ is in bondage and kept under That men heeding and obeying this Light Christ is risen in them which is the Resurrection and the life Concerning Ordinances They hold That there is no such thing as Ordinances now under the Gospel That Baptism and the Lords-Supper were once Ordinances butâ— now since the Spiritual Administration are abolished Concerning a Ministry and Preaching They hold That all that pretend to be Ministers of the Gospel and have a Call from Men are not the Ministers of Christ That their Ministry teach only from the immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Spirit That their Ministers are infallible in their ministring That our Ministers who receive Maintenance for their work are Hirelings Thieves and Robbers That those who preach from the Scriptures taking their Sermons from thence steal the Prophets words and are not sent of God That men are to preach nothing but what they have a motion to from the Spirit at that time That those who preach Christ without are false Ministers and those are true Ministers who preach Christ within and put people upon believing on him as he is manifested in themselves That the end of all their Teaching is to bring men to the Everlasting Word of God in themselves i. e. To follow the Light within That whatever their Ministers teach it is not they that teach but the Spirit through them Concerning Prayer They neither confess their sin in publique Prayer nor beg pardon for themselves They pray not Ministerially in their publick Assemblies as the mouths of others but alway in the singular number scil I pray c. They pray not in the name or for the sake of Christ the Mediator They use no Family-prayer or at set-meals They deny That we are to use our wills or understandings in prayer Concerning the Church of Christ and its Officers They hold themselves only to be the Church of Christ They hold some of them That there ought to be no such thing as Elders and Overseers in the Church but that the Spirit alone is Apostle Prophet Elder Overseer c. This was the first and general Opinion But since they have so far changed their minds the most of them as to hold Dignities Offices Government necessary and also That it is not the Officers but the Spirit in the Officers that doth all the parts belonging to their Offices They hold only one Vniversal Church not particular Churches and that Church to be in God the Jerusalem which is from above In their Meetings sometimes they have nothing but a profound Silence which formerly was when they had no motion but now for most part when none of their Ministry either of the men or women in that Office are there They have a strange Officer among them George Fox whose Titles are full of Blasphemies scil A King the Witness of God the Father of many Nations c. See the Letter to him from Coale This man is a Sphere above any of the rest Concerning Judgment Heaven and Hell and the Resurrection All these things they hold to be within in the time of this life The Day of Judgment is with them the judging of the Flesh or all disobedience to the Light by the Light within and this is the same with Hell And for Heaven they hold 't is within too but no such place as that where we believe the man Christ to be above the visible Heavens The Resurrection of this body wherein the soul now lives they peremptorily deny affirming The belief that ever it shall be quickned and made alive again to be ridiculous and irrational They profess Eternal Rewards but it amounts only to this conceit That the body shall not live again after its death and so there is no reward to that And the soul they say is Eternal came out from God is a part of his Being shall return into him again So that the soul shall be changed from a part of God dwelling in flesh to a part of God resolved into his own and original Being which was the state of their souls a thousand years afore they were born as they conceit Thus God alone shall be Eternally rewarded by being delivered out of these Prisons of the Quakers bodies FINIS ERRATA PAge 8. line 26. for distraction read detraction p. 7. l. 29. for Denomination r. Domination p. 11. l. 16. for Babes r. Babel