Answer in Writing the thing Queried G. F. They are the properest for his Spirit to undertake Clem. Recognit p. 5. The trifling question put to Barnabas was more witty Why a Gnat being so small a Creature hath six feet and wings besides whereas an Elephant so bulky an Animal hath onely four feet 4. In the late unhappy Times when Hell was broke loose our own Countrey affords Instances too many being as anciently credulous in believing pretended Inspirations so also then in their production too fertile and the Quaker is Junior to the most of them and they are all able to produce as good Evidences and Deeds so that it seems strange the Quaker should ingross both the birth-right and the blessing too from all the rest 1. The Seekers or Religious Scepticks laid Claim to Inspirations I call them so because those various differing Sectaries may be best comprized under such a general name Edward Gangre second Part p. 2. They affirm and hold they have not onely had Revelations but they have seen Visions also The means of Gods revealing himself and his mind and will to his Servants in reference to their Salvation is immediately by himself without Scripture without Ordinances without Ministers or any other means but especially many in the Army about 1645. took themselves to be intimate with God Idem p. 5. Some Officers and Souldiers affirmed That they had had Revelations and seen Visions and took upon them to Prophesie A Lieutenant a great Devoto denyed the Trinity of Persons affirming them to be three Offices he denyed that Christs presence in Heaven could be proved by Scripture p. 7. and made a great question whether there was a Resurrection or no. Mrs. Attaway the Woman-Preacher then begun to exercise Boggis wish'd he had not known so much of the Bible which he said p. 163. was but only Paper And Clarkson the Seeker vilifies the Scripture Ordinances p. 165. c. would not have People to live upon black and white and said That they of themselves were not able to Reveal God T. E. is the Successor of such Blades as these 2. The Antinomians maintained their undutiful Notions by recourse to this Armour and the Quakers have borrowed much from them as Perfection Discerning who were Elected the Notions about Christs Person and Christ within humane Learning and the like but I shall onely consider their Inspirations a large account of which we find in one who diligently traversed their Writings Rutherford's Survey of Spiritual Anti-Christ p. 173 174 175. The Witness of the Spirit is meerly Immediate without respect to Sanctification or Acts thereof all Doctrines Revelations and Spirits must be tryed by Christ rather than by the Word A Christian is not to Pray nor to do any Spiritual Acts but when the Spirit moveth him thereunto That all other askings or seekings of God which are not thus in Spirit are but the askings of Creatures as Creatures p. 222. The Scriptures are not to be understood according to Grammatical construction p. 229. but as the Spirit of God reveals them The meer Commandments of Scripture are not a Law to Christians p. 305. but the Law written in our Hearts The Holy-Ghost comes in place of the Natural Faculties of the Soul and acteth us immediately to all internal and external acts Part 2d p. 195. c. And that Amcrican Jezebel Mrs. Hutchinson said That her particular Revelations about events to fall out p. 211. are as Infallible as any parts of Scripture and that she is bound as much to believe them as the Scripture for the same Holy Ghost is the Author of both 3. The Levellers do make out their Free-born Community with Arrows fetched from this Quiver Winstanley the great Master of the Craft is exact herein New Law of Righte p. 46. This Phrase Mine and Thine shall be swallowed up there shall be no need of Lawyers Prisons or Engines of Punishment no Beggar nor cause of complaining there shall be no Buying nor Selling no Fairs nor Markets but the whole Earth shall be a common Treasury for every man The Poor upon their Commons p. 47. saying This is Ours the Earth and Fruits are common Now this Platonick fancyful Model he raiseth upon Revelation As I was in a Trance divers matters were presented to my sight p. 57. which here must not be related likewise I heard these words Work together eat Bread together declare it all abroad Likewise I heard these words Whosoever it is that Labours in the Earth for any Person or Persons that lift up themselves as Lords or Rulers over others and that do not look upon themselves equal to others in the Creation The hand of the Lord shall be upon that Labourer I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it Declare this all abroad And this very Trumpet he saith is still sounding in his Ears p. 67. Work together c. Surely the Lord hath not revealed this in vain This Heavenly Voice was so delightful p. 58. that he was filled with abundance of quiet Peace and secret Joy and he obeyed the Command of the Spirit which bid him Declare it all abroad by word of mouth and Pen and he waited till God shewed him the place and manner how to work upon the Common Lands p. 64. I will then go forth and declare it in my Action to eat my Bread with the sweat of my brows looking upon the Land as freely mine as anothers I have now Peace in my Spirit c. Fire in the Bush the Preface And elsewhere up-the same Subject he opens freely This Declaration of the Word of Life was a free gift to me from the Father himself When I had writ it I delayed the sending it almost a fortnight then the Voice was ready go send it to the Churches which he did well I have obeyed the voice and have sent this to you but what was the substance of the voice That he relates the voice is gone out Freedom Freedom Freedom he that hath ears to hear let him hear And what was this Freedom Even a setting the Earth free a breaking down all Pin-folds and laying all open to the Common Now have not I an equal if not greater Reason to believe his so particular and exact Revelations concerning Equality rather than your general and withal mixed ones concerning other matters Nay have not you as much ground to believe his pretence in this as to take the very lineaments of your Profession from him and yet herein desert him when as he Challengeth Inspiration for this as fully as for any other Doctrine But that you dare pick and chuse mangle and alter your own Revelations as well as his may in its due place appear 4. A Sober Answer p. 56. The Ranters deluded themselves and others with this blind and Fox acknowledged the affinity of his and their Principles that black Divinity challenged
making the Spirit inwardly supply all we Christians are instructed to hearken unto that Prophet whom God raised up like unto Moses Deut. 18.15 and T. E. can scarce make Moses and the Holy-Ghost alike we do Believe in and Obey that Beloved Son upon whom the Blessed Spirit descended Mat. 3.17 for we are commanded to hear him Mat. 17.5 he discharged his Prophetick as well as Priestly Office in our Humane Nature to this the Prophecies and Promises refer and we must render to each their due in the work of our Instruction to the Son as well as to the Spirit T. E. hath made the most untrue and desperate choice that could be the Apostles to receive the knowledge of the Gospel by the Immediate Revelation of the Spirit what is become of all the Promises of the Messiah John 4.25 I know that Christ when he is come he will tell us all things saith the Woman of Samaria But by Ellwoods model he is com'd and gone and hath taught the Disciples nothing why did Christ chuse the Apostles Live Converse with and betwixt three or four years Instruct them in the things of Gods Kingdom if they were no better for all those Divine Lessons which came from him whom never man spoke like unto what quarrels have the Quakers against Jesus of Nazareth Luke 24.19 that Prophet or Divine Teacher mighty in Deed and Word before God and all the People that they must lay aside his Person or his Office either substituting the holy Spirit in his place or making their great Idol the Light or Christ within to do all the necessary work of Instruction Cannot T. E. permit Jesus to be the great Law-giver and Teacher and then upon his bodily removal from the earth the Holy Spirit to descend and build upon Christ the Foundation but as far as in him lies in imitation of the Heathens quarrels among their Deities he must have the Spirit to drown the Word the outward incarnate Christ to signify nothing but the inward Manifestation to Communicate all Was it the Holy Ghost who assumed our flesh lived and preached and Sealed the truth of his Doctrine with his Blood or it was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who performed all those things and of whose fulness we receive were they the Apostles of the Spirit or the Apostles of Christ Jesus who breathed on them gave them Authority and sent the Holy Ghost to inable them to execute their Commission Why do the Quakers thus confound the works of the Word and the Spirit like the Libertines qui nihil ponunt inter filium Dei Calvin adversus Libertin Cap. 10. Spiritum ejus discriminis but suppose they were right about the Holy Unity that there is no destinction of Persons in the Godhead but that they are only different names of the same one Subsistence yet T. E. hath laid a wrong Foundation for it was not this Spirit which inwardly did all But it was Jesus the Son of Mary be he but a piece of the Christ or have he an Heavenly body sheathed up within that which he took of the Virgin or however else for they know not what to make of him nor do with him The man Jesus who was as truly visible in Jewry as Ellwood was in the House of Pennington stands much in their way and hinders their Light or Christ within who called the Apostles taught and instructed them as appears from the Series of the four Gospels which we shall adhere to rather than to these who do but dream dreams while they conceit that they see Visions This being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is the procreative cause of so many delusions viz. a Disregarding Christs Personal Prophetical Office and placing their supposed Spirit in his room I shall make a short Narrative how the Apostles came to the knowledge of the Gospel how Religion was delivered by Christ that it was settled in an outward Bodily and Sensible way and thereby Ellwoods account of the Spirits doing the work by his inward Immediate teaching will appear not only distant from truth but the very subverter of the Christian Religion God having at sundry times and in divers manners made known his Will unto the Fathers at the last in the highest Dispensation which is never to be out dated he spoke unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things that is by the God-man Christ Jesus who took our flesh and blood and was of the same nature with us this Son of God was God himself who came to visit the earth and be his own Interpreter yet still he discharged this Office whilst he was Tabernacling in our Flesh He was God with us instructing us in the likeness and true Nature of man of a Reasonable Soul and Humane Flesh subsisting And thus I suppose those Prophecyes were fulfilled Taught of the Lord or Taught of God he had the Spirit without measure he was the very Temple of God the Holy of Holyes in and by whom the Divine Oracles were made known to Mortals The Divine Majesty resided in this man Jesus all the former owned ways of Revelation came to attend him into the World to usher him into his Office and give Credence to what he spoke and yet excepting some short Sentences serving as Testimonials to him they were all silent while he was Teaching but still Jesus in Humane Nature took the Chair and was Gods mouth and voice unto mankind as might be more fully and advantageously shewed The Apostles conversed with Christ saw heard eat drunk and lived with him how oft is this referred to of their being Eye and Ear Witnesses of what he did and said he taught them by Sermons Parables Conferences explaining things privately to them during the whole Term of his Ministry and after his Resurrection And must his whole Prophetick Office be thought nothing and can such select Scholars be still non-proficients under so powerful and so diligent an Instructer other Quakers think contrarily to T. E and let one Infallible buffet another Whilst Christ abode with them in his bodily appearance they had some knowledge till the manifestation of the Spirit Keith Im Rev. p. 162 163. they were ignorant of many things many is not all that is for their knowledge and for their life he saith elsewhere the very Disciples themselves while they followed Christ outwardly were truly Religious and another of them surely none will or can deny Idem p. 230. who profess Christianity but the Apostles Taylors Faithful and True Witness the Light c. p. 12. in some measure before Christs outward departure from them had the Comfort of the Holy Spirit in them and were both Believers and obedient Children in their measure c. What though the Apostles being involved in the fatal prejudices of their Nation were ignorant of some things as about the Kingdom of God the Resurrection c. must they therefore know nothing of Faith
Repentance a Christian Life or Duty Christ who knew them the best speaks otherwise John 17.6 7 8. they have kept thy word they have known they have believed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost apud Theop. in locum having known by my words and by my Doctrine The Apostles were as certain knowing Witnesses of Christ as we can be of any matters of Fact and the Christian Religion was entertained upon their Testimony that they had been with seen heard and known Jesus God would not send that Religion into the World which was to be the perpetual Rule of all mankind and command others to trust the bringers upon their inward manifestations which would have exposed rather than have propagated Truth but what they spoke they attested as matter of Fact and Knowledge all the twelve having had personal converse with Jesus upon whom the Holy Ghost visibly descended audible voices were heard his Doctrine was delivered before multitudes of Witnesses men were perswaded by outward sensible even bodily evidences and not barely left to internal suggestions in which there may be great danger of Delusion And not only the Apostles Preached but all the Pen-men of the New-Testament wrote upon their certain knowledge S. Mathew S. John S. James S. Peter and S. Jude had personal Conversation with and attendance on Christ were able to testify both what they saw and heard S. Luke wrote part from his own knowledge and part from certain Information The like Antiquitie testifyeth concerning S. Mark S. Paul had that want of personal attendance and acquaintance supplyed by Christs appearing and speaking to him Acts 22.14 Cateches 10. 15. 26.16 and in many other places Hence Cyril of Jerusalem rationally infers That the Testimony of Paul being an Enemy and Persecutor before must needs be undeniable though some suspicious person should alledge that Peter and John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Familiars and Domesticks yet the Testimony of Paul first an Enemy to Jesus and then a Martyr for him cannot be denyed And this he assigns as the Reason why Paul wrote more Epistles than the rest because being a Persecutor before his Doctrine could not be doubtful but commanding of our Belief and therefore when Quakers think there may be new Inspired Books now That the closing up the Ganon of Scripture is a limiting God from moving or Inspiring any men Quakerism no Popery p. 62. in any Age of the World to come to write any Book or Books which may be of equal Authority with the Scriptures They proceed upon gross mistakes for unless Christ converse on Earth again and Ellwoods Monstrous fancy of Repetition prove a real Certainty there can be no such Inspired Books as the new Testament gives us to be written in these Ages or unless there be another Dispensation viz. that of the Spirit yet to commence which Dream is the most of all Destructive to Christianity Thus was Christianity made known and settled in the World not by Philosophy or Rhetorick or any Humane Art but by two such Methods as Heaven and Earth cannot afford greater which S. John calls the Witness of men and the Witness of God the Witness or Testimony of men is this already given And Religion being entertained upon that Account to tell us of new Revelations now is a renouncing of the Faith of Christ which doth command Belief not only by inward teachings but outward proofs But lest this Witness of so many men might have been rejected as proceeding from Delusion or Design the Witness of God interposed in so Publick visible and audible ownings both of Christ and his Religion that the World was not capable of receiving more unexceptionable and convincing proofs And further as for the Teachings of the Spirit which T. E. only mentions they were of a different Nature from what he drives at the supervening of the Spirit was not to evacuate or obliterate what Christ on Earth had spoken The Testimony of the Apostles and the Spirit are conjoyned John 15.26 27. he conferring extraordinary gifts to engage men to believe what they delivered from their own personal or certain knowledge and where there were inward teachings there were outward powers to testifie thereof to others and still the Spirit did but pursue Christs teachings acted in his Name took of his and shewed it to them opened such things as they understood not re-called to remembrance such as they had forgotten and instructed in such things as before they could not bear as about the Sabbath Circumcision Christian Liberty and the like Though I think that Christ in our Nature in discharge of his Prophetick Office Publickly and Audibly made known all the Essential Eternal Duties or all the parts of Everlasting Righteousness And possibly in strict speaking that Inspiration which the Apostles had ought not to be called Immediate especially not in every thing Because it was conferr'd but in pursuance of what our Lord had before orally delivered in matters of Duty for certain knowledge destroys not Inspiration nor Inspiration certain knowledge Nor is the use of former helps rejected but taken hold of by the Spirit Thus were the Apostles instructed thus was our Religion settled thus must our Saviours Prophetick Office be secured and his and the Spirits workings must not be confounded And T. Ellwood's Method of the Apostles coming to the knowledge of the Gospel is not the Method of God's making And let it be further considered if herein Satans policy do not appear what he cannot effect by Atheism and Prophaneness he attempts by Enthusiasm under the pretence of an higher Religion to root out the old one so Divinely and firmly settled for the taking away the rational motives to Faith and the sensible grounds of Religion And devolving the belief and understanding of Sacred things upon their pretended Revelations Witnessings and Experiences renders Religion both uncertain and indemonstrable And while Men observe the Differences Contradictions and Ungroundedness of such Claims they will be apt to entertain the like prejudices against the Christian Religion it self Supposing that it relies upon such grounds as their Witnessings and invisible Inspirations for so they bear the World in hand Fox love to Mankind p. 11. What the Apostles said we do by the same Power and Spirit And in a little time by such Arts Religion will be in danger to be fatally undermined all being rejected together as relying upon a like bottom But if T. Ellwood's Castle in the Air be erected it is not material though Christianity be blown up and if his Dreams be admitted he seems not concern'd what disservice is done to the other though blessed be Gods goodness he hath rooted his Gospel in a different manner as if purposely to prevent Satans transforming himself into an Angel of Light and those pretences to Inspirations which he hath all along fomented But though there were real Revelations now yet T.E. is the unlikeliest Person to be favoured with them For he first
enervates the written Word as will in its place appear and withal over-looks the Essential Word taking no notice of him whom God the Father sent into the World and sealed endeavouring to annihilate that Jesus as to his Prophetick Office however in whom the whole Covenant of Grace is founded and in and by and through whom all Blessings whatever are conveyed to us And this is a sad stumbling upon the very threshold a fit Pillar for nothing but a Monstrous Fabrick But to use his own words Had he not been a Quaker he could not have given such an Answer CHAP. III. Whether Quakers be the Apostles Successors and receive the Gospel in the same manner as the Apostles did II. THE other Pillar is as rotten that the Apostles Successors or all Believers do receive the knowledge of the Gospel in the same manner as they did In which three things are couched 1. That all Believers or the Quakers are the Apostles Successors 2. That these Successors receive in the same manner as the Apostles 3. The proofs produced to make out this claim 1. That all Believers or Quakers are the Apostles Successors if the first then he argues for all Parties as well as for himself and their Revelations will out-weigh his a Turk is a Musulman or Believer in the light within him withall he makes Christ to have a Monstrous Body if all Believers be the Apostles Successors But his Charity without question designed the latter by using the first Person We and Us The Apostles Successors p. 228. truly the Apostles Successors in Faith and Doctrine p. 230 233 but he should first have proved it and not have begged the question The Lamb's Officer p. 11. The Apostles Successors a great Humility Lately they were higher even true Prophets and Apostles now they are dwindled into Successors not Apostoli but Apostolici They succeed them in Inspiration Infallibility Divine Commission Discerning of Spirits he does well to add in Faith and Doctrine Pray proceed you succeed in their Chairs in their Bishopricks in their Power of binding and loosing and prove it all by succeeding in their Miraculous Powers But how do you succeed the Apostles You differ vastly among your selves what time the Apostacy entred into the Church but stating it as some do to commence at the entry of the first Century Smith's Spiritual glass opened p. 36 Keith's Universal Free Grace 92. then for 1548 years the Gospel Dispensation was lost and is now revealed Christs Spiritual Dispensation is now again revealed in this day after the Apostacy And so many years make an hiatus large enough to disturb Succession 'T is not the Apostles but Winstanley whom you succeed In the year 1648 God did cause a branch to spring forth out of the root of David which was filled with Vertue J. Whitehead in Mr. Faldo's Q. no Christ p. 16. for the Covenant of Life and Peace was with him he spread forth many Branches which did partake of the fatness of the Root the weary came to rest under his branches with him was the Word of Reconciliation And to that purpose the Blasphemous Harangue proceedeth so that you do but succeed that Leveller as Whitehead did in 1655. Ibid. Being a branch of this Tree viz. the branch afore said the life of its Root caused me to blossom and bring forth fruit c. It is the Spirit of Winstanley whereby you are Acted and whether that be the Spirit of God deserves your diligent enquiry But supposing with the Socinians that Doctrinal Succession is sufficient without Personal we can discern no likeness between their and your Doctrine You Allegorize that Baptism and the Lords Supper which they practised you set up that Christ within whom they saw ascending into Heaven there to abide till the day of Judgment You make but small esteem of those Scriptures which they wrote or commended as able to make the Man of God wise unto Salvation They did eat and drink with Christ you have scarce allowed him to be a distinct Person from you They make Christ the Redeemer of Men you must have him to Redeem himself even a lost God and a lost Christ They expected Justification by the suffering Jesus that you make a Doctrine of Devils and will be saved by your own Works or by a Christ within you They believed Christ to be made a Sin-offering for them you entertain him but as your Pattern They believed their dead Bodies should rise again you do style it a Carnal Resurrection with several such irreconcileable differences between their Doctrines and yours There are other Fathers whom you succeed even many of the old Hereticks as might easily be shewed but especially Henry Nicholas is your Grand-father the Life and Spirit of Familism runs through your writings you have taken many things from the Libertines Swenckfeldians and Anabaptists the Antinomians also as Saltmarsh in his Sparkles of Glory and others of them contributed towards your Original for those and other Sects agree much in one bottom that of Immediate teaching these prepared the Materials out of which your Father Winstanley formed the most part of your Opinions which being thrown together in a confused manner you fancy the result to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Image fallen down from Jupiter and prettily style your selves the Successors of the Apostles in Faith and Doctrine by Immediate Revelation But supposing out of an excess of Charity that you are the Apostles Successors The next is more Prodigious 2. That these Successors receive in the same manner as the Apostles in the same manner he prints in a different Character p. 228 230 233. to shew the stress lyeth there and he affirms it to be no presumption ungodliness or absurdity in those who are the Apostles Successors in Faith and Doctrine to expect to receive the knowledge of the Gespel in the same manner as they received it p. 228 230 233. Expect and think what he please Sober men can judge the thought to be no less than madness and the thing a meer impossibility for unless Christ be now on Earth or T. E. was alive when Christ was on Earth and did personally attend him he cannot have received as the Apostles did no not though it was possible daily to repair to Jacob Behmen's Theosophick School of Pentecost But T. E. hath out-gone that Father who being 1300 years nearer Christs time might have been sooner qualified for it he hath seen Christ on Earth heard Paul in the Pulpit and by this token then he saw Rome in its Glory Did S. Mark know the Gospel in the same manner as S. Matthew Or came S. Luke to it by the same means as S. John The one saith 1 John 1.1 That which we have seen looked upon and handled The other Luke 1.2 They that were eye-witnesses have delivered them unto us And if the difference in coming to the knowledge of the Gospel was so early then Quakers can receive like
is made the Motive to Mens believing in him and Immediate Revelation is not once named He would have also the promise of sending the Comforter given without Restriction but in Scripture limitations must be given to general words according to matters c. concerned Joel 2.28 I will pour my Spirit upon all Flesh is not upon Horses Asses no nor the unconverted Indians John 14.26 He shall teach you all things is not giving the skill of Astronomy or Algebra So the promise of the Spirit is not onely to be understood with Restriction but the very Limitations are given John 15.27 Ye have been with me from the beginning that limits it to the Persons of the Apostles who accompanyed with Christ beginning from the Baptism of John Acts 1.22 Hereupon Christ saith Ye also shall bear Witness which none could do upon their certain knowledge but his Personal Attendants And John 16.13 He will shew you things to come restrains it also to the Apostles which clause T. E. as too tough for him ungodlily leaves out But to Argue upon their Principles what is Ellwood concerned in Christ's Promise made before his Death when as he slights Luke 14.8 because spoken before the one Offering was Actually offered up Edw. Burroughs p. 47. p. 37. Another saith A Command to one binds not another no more should a Promise to one benefit another The gift of Tongues and working Miracles were peculiar to the Apostles Times Geo. Whitehead's Reprehension and so was Inspiration also Those Promises Christ made just before his Death having discharged his Prophetick Office he betook himself to his Priestly the Multitude being gone he addressed himself in his Sermon to his Apostles whom he left his Commissioners on Earth and having finished his Prayer was presently Apprehended Now to enlarge to all Believers what was spoke to that select Company will make wild Divinity T. Ellwood so may pass for Thomas Didymus and challenge one of the twelve Thrones whereon to sit and Judge the twelve Tribes of Israel But suppose he inferred truly in an extensive Relation to all Believers till he prove me to be no Believer he hath argued me to have Inspiration as well as himself and withal Faith being an Internal invisible Grace without another Immediate Revelation I cannot be assured who is this true Believer nor who hath the Spirit It may suffice humble Souls that those Promises may extend in some sort to the whole Church diffusive not to every single Man no nor Sect of Men nor to any Church of one Denomination whatsoever and that God will bestow the Spirit of Illumination and Sanctification upon sincere Christians But that those are different from the Apostolical Inspiration without which a man may be saved and with which he may be damned To these he adds Auxiliary Proofs as John 17.37 38 39. p. 128. in which neither Repeated nor Immediate Revelation as perpetual is named And he reads it differently from his Master Fox Great Mystery p. 130. in the Spirit of the Quakers tryed Universal Grace p. 102 who thus turns it Out of whose Belly viz. the Light Christ flowed Rivers of Living water as also the Text above is differently by him Interpreted from his Tutor Keith He prayeth for them that they may be converted and believe as John 17.21 That Text as to us is now abundantly fulfilled in that Vital Principle of Holiness implanted in all Regenerate Hearts whereas it doth explain it self v. 39. to belong to the day of Pentecost But T. E. deals with it as Satan did with that Mat. 4.6 leaveth out the Holy-Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet Glorified Chrysost apud Theop. in locum because it looked unkindly on his Project 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He brings in also p. 229. 1 John 2.20 27. wherein Immediate perpetual Revelation is not named but it referreth to the Subject matter the discovering of false Teachers and Doctrines by the anointing that gift of discerning the Spirits then in the Church But if T. E. conceit that he know all things I shall grant him to succeed some in such thoughts Irenae advers Haeres Lib. 1. C. 1. Origen L. 1. p 31. the Gnosticks and Valentinians Abundantiùs gloriantur plus quam caeteri cognovisse Gloryed themselves to know much more than others And Celsus had as high conceits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boasted he knew all the Doctrines and things belonging to Christians His other Proofs from John 14 15 16 Chapters belong in their proper and prime sence to the Apostles who were Christs Attendants whilst he lived on Earth and his Commissioners and Witnesses when Ascended The fancy that without Revelation we are left comfortless is foolish for God hath afforded the certain Original Revelations to us in his Bible we have his Spirit and his Comforts to many purposes besides Inspiration and he is still with us in the use of means as he causeth Corn to grow and yet our Labour and Sowing are required Thus Vbi supra like those in Irenaeus he doth ex arenâ resticulas nectere his whole Scheme thus far is but a rope of Sand drawn out of untrue and unconcluding Premisses Jesus that Prophet is laid aside and the Spirit made the whole Teacher and that Employment is devolved on him to make way for their inward unaccountable suggestions Then he kindly supposeth his Friends to be the Apostles Successors thence infers that all must be taught for ever as the Apostles were And lastly attempts at some Proofs which without a Quakers Spectacles cannot be therein spelled Feed my Sheep the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. serve the Pope as clearly and with more likelihood The Disciples of H. Nicholas may be esteemed the Nicholaitans Rev. 2. or the two George Foxes be Interpreted those little Foxes Cant. 2.15 that spoil the Vines CHAP. IV. Concerning their Renewed or Repeated Revelations UPON these tottering Pillars he raiseth several and different Notions I. To begin with their Youngest that which is their Fondling viz. the Claim of Renewed and Repeated Revelations which without offering one Text in favour thereof he thus wordeth p. 238. Not new Revelations that is new things Revealed but rather renewed Revelations that is Old things revealed anew The same Gospel the same way of Salvation the same Essentials of Religion the same Principles and Doctrines in a word the same good Old Truths which were Revealed to the Saints of Old and are Recorded in the Holy Scriptures Revealed now anew This he is large upon p. 243. That they are again Revealed by the same Spirit which he calls a repetition of the former Revelations p. 254 256. But why names he not the Author of this knack That would have looked untowardly upon the Immediateness of it Im. Revelation not ceased p. 3. But George Keith Inspired him therewith Observe the difference betwixt these two the new Revelation of new things and the
Revealed to others Clements Recogn L. 8. some do apply as spoken to themselves doth well befit this novel Fancy of Repetition Christianity being a Certain True and Determinate Religion so done and spoken as is related is not capable of Repetition the things of Jesus were True Real and Substantial not performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its Faith which makes them certain and even present to us and not Hystrionical Representations Our Holy Religion is a rational thing not a Drammatical Imaginary shew to be done over and over as in a Scene Christ lived on Earth Taught Instructed and lastly Dyed but once which Faith so receives and Entertains but Fancy cannot renew as dayly in doing that will destroy the reality of the History and make the very Religion to expire with it If Ellwood then feel such a thing as renewing former Revelations it is either Satans Delusion or his own Fiction of Imagination CHAP. V. Concerning their Immediate Revelations II. BEsides their Repetition they have Immediate Revelations The Apostles had an Immediate Revelation of the Mind and Will of God to them and these Successors receive in the same manner p. 228. The Ministration of the Spirit by Divine Revelations was not to cease but continue inthe Church p. 227. inward and immediate teaching p. 229. The Revelations made to the Prophets and Apostles confirm'd by Miracles and Believed by Christians we own But for any further ones we can discern no Necessity thereof or if there was we cannot discern that God by you sends them to us It is not reasonable we should believe you in such a Concern meerly upon your own Witnessings nor will God I hope Damn him who died before the Quakers or never heard of them or doth seriously search into and yet disbelieve them and to call them Immediate must needs reflect upon the Scriptures which are Means appointed by God or else are nothing Immediate Revelation remains a Standing and Perpetual Ordinance in the Church of Christ Keiths Title page and of indispensible Necessity to every true Believer Living stone in 3d. Q. Quibbles p. 11. just such another Ordinance as giving the Hand and pulling off the Hat which are to continue in the true Church To what end they enjoy this Ordinance is differently related between the Tutor and his Pupil the latter claims it to the renewing old Scripture Revelations denying they have any new ones as to substance p. 237. but Keith is open-hearted tells what plenty they have and to what purpose things relating to our Conversation in the World Commanding or Forbidding Im. Rev. p. 5.6 or Licensing us how to carry and be conversant about them as in eating drinking marrying or giving in marriage plowing digging or any other employment going coming to a place abiding therein things Revealed to them from the Lord which are not to be found in the Scriptures particularly not so much as by consequence Happy men they cannot do Ill certainly who eat drink get Children and know who get them c. by Revelation 'T is strange to see men who are Wise in the World to be so Fancyfull in Religion to Intitle God to the Risings and Bublings of their own Spirits they shut up those Reasonable Souls which God gave them as Spirits in Prison Anima suilla pro sale a Swines Soul serves for Salt and a Quakers doth no more just keeps his Body from Corruption How low and cheap is Inspiration made when the Holy Spirit must be Imployed in Inviting men to Dinner and they must be carryed on by Wires and Pullyes and not proceed by Humane measures T. E. hath such Immediate teachings as the Apostles had ask a Proof thereof the return is They Witness it but they will not swear it and I think it unreasonable to believe them on easier terms than our Lord himself was believed upon But whilst good Men are baffling Atheism with the rational grounds of Christianity Satan tacks about and would baffle Christianity by Impostures Is Inspiration grown so common that every one must have it Or is God so Prodigal of Miracles to exceed his regular Dispensations St. Paul who healed the Sick exerted not that Power on Believing Timothy Trophimus and Epaphroditus Christ increased the Loaves and yet commanded the fragments to be gathered up Hebron was promised unto Caleb for an Inheritance God could have ordered the Lot to fall upon it and yet it was settled by vertue of the Promise Where things can be had in an ordinary way it is not Gods Method to exceed nor heap Miracle upon Miracle his works are perfect and immediate answers were never common the Lot must not pass upon that which was promised before that would have been irreligion or a Tempting God There are no need of Teachers or Scriptures if all receive immediate Instructions The Ancients were too curious in their esteem of the Bible and the Traditores had too harsh Measure Though all Bibles were burnt a Quakers Light could verbatim write a new one as Jeremy gave Baruch the same words a second time The Jews say one Prophet who hath the Testimony of another Prophet is true I can discern no such attestation among them as S. John gave to Jesus but they first make themselves Prophets and then give Honour one to another Till they produce some undoubted Evidence I am guilty of no sin in denying I must either see some Miracles or have an Immediate Revelation my self to assure me that each of them hath such and such Inspirations and it being difficult to distinguish between the Dictates of spirits and the Fancies and Motions of a Man 's own upper and lower Soul Quakers will need a second Revelation to ascertain them of the first and a third to ascertain them of a second and so forward which is like the dancing of Fairies a skipping and running round but an advancing nothing And they are got into such a Circle wherein they may run themselves blind They believe the Scriptures from their Inspirations and those again from the Scriptures making one to prove another The Spirit ascertains them it is Gods Word and from thence T. E. attempts to prove they have the Spirit In that Debate at Jerusalem Acts 15. it was not the Immediate Inspiration which was the Rule which certainly would if every one had been so fitted but it was the Epistle from the Council that concluded all Set up this Notion and there would be none to be Ruled nor any such thing known as Obedience either in Church or State for Immediate Instruction must not be controlled by any thing below it self nor is it reasonable the Divine Voice should be prescribed to So that this pretence hath an evil aspect upon Kingdoms which have been frequently disturbed thereby Admit T. E. to be Heavens Privado to receive immediate Communications from thence we have no security but the same impetus may carry him on to imitate the Prophets words
that supposed Body lodgeth or who are the Members of it or when these little talkative Oracles speak by Inspiriation and when by their own afflatus I would have a Reasonable Religion understand what to believe do and pray and then proceed accordingly but if the Spirit that guides be inshrined in such a Body against which so many prejudices lie the case of those Souls is very sad whose Directions flow from so foul a Fountain That they do not always act by Inspiration Im Rev. p. 36. we have a full Confession not as if in every thing-we did act think speak or write infallibly nor as if in nothing we could act in a disjunction from the Spirit for we do freely acknowledge we are capable to run out and both think speak write and do things that are not only not infallible but may be wrong and false Only what is done in conjunction with the Spirit of God and in his Immediate manifestation and co-operation in us is infallible And elsewhere he makes the like acknowledgement we are conscious to our selves that both in speaking and writing Qâ—no Popery p. 33. it is possible for us in some measure more or less to decline from those infallible leadings and consequently both to speak and write in a mixture How can I then infallibly know when the Conjunction is or be able in that mixture to seperate the Divine from the Humane or to know the Prophet from the man it may prove an Opposition or side Aspect when I expected a Conjunction I may take him to be inspired when he writes of himself and his Wine may have a mixture of Water if not Poyson If one Chapter or Section be writ in Conjunction and another not he must both make an unequal Yoking and also affront the Spirit in not distinguishing this I received from above this I invented of my self he also deludeth others who in such mixtures do wrong on one hand they in swallowing the whole as Divine we in rejecting the whole as worse than Humane Let him acquaint by some marks which parts are so and so that we may pay our respects accordingly Their manner also of wording the Receit as I find it with me I find it in my heart I find it rising up in me c. Look more like an Answer from Pythia which ascended up from the Feet unto the Breast then Divine Inspiration which is an illapse or influx from Heaven We are told that the Children of God do infallibly know one another Im. Revel p. 118 189. and hence have Vnity Peace and Concord one with another If this be true Quakers will scarce pass for Gods Children for among themselves they are as much distant as the Poles and as other Sects crumbled the Anabaptists into 70 and the Familists into very many among the rest into those of Caps his Order so there are Quakers of the Hat the prevailing party of the Foxonian Order and the Murmerers under the Banner of George Bishop and his associates Their mutual Carriages are unlike those of inspired men and he who believes their Witnessings must swallow contradictions they set Spirit against Spirit the same against it self and that bad Language which they first poured on others is now bestowed on their own dissenters Their Contradictions Carriages and Expressions are smartly exposed in three little Tracts The Quakers Quibbles in 3 parts which make unnecessary any large account thereof here only I shall observe some in prosecution of their Inspirations and digest them into what Order so much Variety and confusion will permit 1. We shall consider their Contradictions or Differences in Doctrine 2. Their Carriages therein and means of convincing one another 3. Consider the debate about the Hat and their Canons so far as Inspiration is concern'd 4. Present other matters that are subservient thereto 1. Their Contradictions and Differences in Doctrine To begin with T. Ellwood's Tutor Vniversal Grace p. 6. who in a Book which he wrote from the Lord produceth twice or thrice Joel 2.28 for his purpose wherein are mentioned Visions Dreams and Prophecyes and yet he denyeth or minceth their having any of them For Visions and Dreams he avoids them nor Dreams and Visions upon the imagination in the night season nor yet by Trances Im. Rev. p. 7. so called which is by a cessation of the exercise of all the outward Senses and for the other he denyeth the necessity thereof as signifying p. 2. foreseeing or foretelling things to come but the rest do not digest such Doctrine Will. Shewin outgoes St. Paul ten years I knew a man twenty four years ago who had Heavenly Sights The true Christians Faith and Experience p. 130. and Revelations and Raptures into the Third Heaven and heard and saw things unutterable and all before his Conversion and Regeneration strange Doctrine indeed an unclean thing to enter into the Third or Highest Heaven p. 129 131. In her Letter he names their Visions also Smiths Wife had a Vision signifying to her her Husbands Death which brought her into the Stillness They also challenge Prophecyes Some Principles p. 26. Noble Salutation p. 7. Sons and Daughters do Prophesy in our age as formerly among the Apostles The Lord raised up many Servants and Prophets but least Prophecy should not be taken in the proper sense for foretelling they speak out to that purpose Some Principles p. 18. Preface to living Faith The Glory of the true Church p. 27. it to wit the light will shew you things to come saith Fox Naylor often Prophesied as of things which we have seen come to pass The Spiritual through the Spirit of Prophecy see when Bells Hourglasses Puspits c. shall be no more adored Thomas Ellwood seems to limit his Inspirations to such as are recorded in Scripture p. 237. Keith enlargeth them to all Humane concernments as eating Im. Rev. p. 6. going c. which are not in Scripture particularly no not so much as by consequence Th. Ellwood is for the Immediate Teachings of the Spirit without any help from Humane Learning towards the understanding of the Bible p. 219. Im. Rev. p. 39. Winding sh for controv ended p. 4. others are more Wise do not exclude and shut out the Service and usefulness of all means and Instruments whatsoever whether Books or Men and another as freely acknowledgeth we cannot call it our faith or knowledge till quickned to it by that eternal Spirit be it mediately or be it Immediately but here lieth the Fallacy it is Immediate though with means with and without are all one such a way of Communication Im. Rev. p. 42. though it be through a means yet this hinders it not in a true sence to be Immediate to palliate this Paradox the better we are informed that Dreams and night Visions those secret ways whereby God did communicate his mind were but very shadowy and remote Idem p. 17. and
in the World one while man must be thou'd because God is so Q. plainness p. 70 71. The true Christians Faith p. 187. anon the Hat must not be put off to man that must be reserved to God alone as a necessary piece of his Worship These and many such are the crooked ways and interfering paths wherein their private Spirit is bewildred Spirit of the Hat p. 25. 2. Having taken an Essay of their different Doctrines it will be pleasant to consider their Carriages in such oppositions and the means they have of convincing one another for allowing no outward Rule whereby they should be concluded Spirit is opposed to Spirit and the boldest Face or the best Lungs or the strongest Interest doth carry it and should I say I wrote this tract by Inspiration upon their Principles they could not confute me and every one having the Light within the comparatively small number of the Quakers argues them to be in the wrong When differences arise among them they esteem the diffenters to be cheats Mr. Jenner p 86 the Woman at Dublin condemned their old Light producing a span new one of her own the rest were displeased saying she was a false Prophetess but she still maintained that her Light came immediately from God Living Stone to the Dissenters made this Rejoynder you are led by a private Spirit 3d. Quibble p. 19. though you pretend it to be Vniversal here is a deceitful whining Spirit rarely confuted for the other upon their Principles may better call Living-stones a private deceitful whining Spirit Pens answer to Faldo p. 53. I declare in the name of all the right Quakers in the World it seems he knows all their Hearts and Principles but how must we do that what is the Earmark of a right Quaker can any of them be in the wrong or is their perfection gone or is Thee and Thou the pure Language Hicks 2d Dialogue p. 12. the badge of a right one as Thomas Ruddyer would have it Tyran Hipo. detected p. 16. The former Author calls anothers dissent very prettily Imaginations and Whimsyes And I can as cheaply and Inspiredly call his and theirs all by the same phrases Keith in a publick dispute attempted to prove that Pen speaks by Immediate Inspiration Hicks 3d. Dialogue in the Preface and yet others say he is a heady rash young man we take no notice what he saith and Luddington looks upon him as not Catechized enough I would rather have compared him to Apollos Q. is Paganism p. 5 6. and wishing him a little more fully instructed in the ends of Christs Life and Death Gotherson Alarums them all to purpose saying That wicked men are crept in among them Mr. Jenner p. 177 178 179. as Judas among the Apostles calls their Spirit a blind ignis fatuus that they are led by Imaginations Lusts and Fancyes It is not as Roger Crab William Smith and John Dunck surmise the head of the Serpent is too powerful in Roger Crab and his followers With such like severity And no question but Crab could make the like reply and Smiths Works are since Printed as Living Divine Testimonies but whom must I trust when such as these can pass for Inspirations and Confutations of them 't is usual to call one another Antichrist Ranters Scotch-men Taylors or what will look illfavouredly John Swinton wrote a Paper Tyran and Hipo. detec p. 39 42. Spirit of the Hat p. 35. in the express motion of God who justifyed him in every tittle of it after this he retracted and denyed the Spirit in which it was Writ saying it was fit for the fire and was done in an hour of Temptation and Weakness the Account is large and deserves reading but what evidence had he he was in the right after retracting more than when asserting and if he for four or five years together took the Spirit of Delusion for the Spirit of God they can give no security but it is the same Errour that still enthralls them contradictory partyes dare both use the name of the Lord John Osgoods Marriage with R. T. was well approved of Spirit of the Hat p. 30.31 the Elder Rebeckah Travers and J. O. declared it to be of the Lord. John Bolton with two or three more opposed its passing in the name of the Lord Tyran and Hipo. detected p. 22. unless he would give Testimony against the Hat Spirit The like difference there was about the Marriage of M. B. one part declared positively from the Lord that it was to pass Briggs told the Opposers that they opposed the mind of the Lord when as the good man knew not so much as the persons he spake of Spirit of the Hat p. 33. the other part greatly opposed it under the same pretence setting the Lord against the Lord. John Whitehead wrote a Letter in the name of the Lord Tyran p. 20. Geo. Fox blotted out a line or more altering it to a quite contrary sense without any liberty from Whitehead so to do by which both the Spirit of God and the Writer were belyed and yet others of them justifyed that alteration Never did any in such a manner debase and prostitute sacred Inspiration as these Controulers and Correctors of the Spirit do But as the Romish infallibility is by some shrunk into an Indefectibility so that of the Quakers keeps a somewhat like pace Whiteheads Spirit offers it self willing to receive Information and in a Letter I have from a leading Quaker 3 Quib. p. 49. he thus write on behalf of Keith that if he have held any thing contrary to the Testimony of Holy Scriptures and sound Christian experience he will be willing to hear and be convinced by a sober Christian demonstration they either have no Inspiration or its impression is very weak for if it was real it would assure it self both to them and others and leave no such place for second thoughts and demurrings A just rebuke to 21 Divines p. 22. Pen saith we ascribe not Infallibility to men but to the Grace of God and to men so far as they are led by it for that it certainly teacheth what it doth teach an acute invention so he certainly writeth what he doth write and I am as good an Infallible as he is but this only covers and doth not cure for still the Quaery recurs how can I be infallibly assured p. 7. that such a person is led by Gods Grace or not he also calls it a being assured of what a Christian ought not to make a doubt of but Certainty is capable of degrees and there is a vast difference between actual certainty and absolute Infallibility But it is well we have got Company Whitehead at Cambr. p. 10. and Gag for Q. p. 4. Ann Pearsons warning to Judges p. 7. other Professions are to be guided by Inspiration all Acts of Parliament are to be made and
keep down all the makers of such things for the Ground of them is from the Heathen But set up a Bed-staff Fire-shovel Saw Fork Compasses Andirons Harrow Plough or any such thing And Freinds every where admonish one another Young and Old that ye do not run after the Worlds Fashions which are invented and set up by the vain and light mind which if ye do how can ye Judge the World for such things Away with your skimming-dish Hats and your unnecessary Buttons on your Cloaks and Coats and on the tops of your shoulders behind and on your sleeves Away with your long Slit-peaks behind on the skirts of your Wastcoats and short sleeves punishing your shoulders so as you cannot have the use of your arms Away with your short black aprons and some having none Away with your Vizards whereby you are not distinguished from bad Women and your bare-necks and your great needless flying Scarfs like Colours on your backs And so set not up nor put on that which you did once with the Light Condemn but in all things be plain that you may adorn the truth of the Gospel of Christ and Judg the World and keep in that which is comely and decent George Fox Wherein he supposeth that Bed-staffs Fire-shovels c. are none of Gods Creatures when Art hath passed over things they are no part of his Workmanship His injunctions for Habits are very Magisterial Tyran and Hyp. detect p. 11. A Maid having a slit in her Wastcoat skirt behind was commanded in Obedience to the injunction above to sew it up her reply was She saw no evil in it and James Claypool like a Primitive Quaker said She should first see the Evil of it in her self before she judged it and not saith he because we say it but for these words he was forced to acknowledg his Error Spirit of the Hat p. 42. though in private he confest it no Error but others obeyed this uninspired Injunction Fox gave out a paper Spirit of the Hat p. 42. that his Marriage was a figure of of the Marriage between Christ and his Church and was above the state of Adam in his Innocency in the State of the second Adam who never fell but it was so ill resented that the Inspired mans Paper was called in again Tyran and Hypo. p. 18. and so was Eccles his explication of his Blasphemous words about Fox suppressed The Horrid words were these it was said of Christ that he was in the World Spirit of the Hat p. 27. and the World was made by him and the World knew him not so it may be said of this true Prophet Fox whom John said he was not and at another time Blessed be the man that came out of the North Tyran p. 19. Blessed be the Womb and Paps Jo. Coal Deifies him Dear Geo. Fox who art the Father of many Nations whose Life hath reached through us thy Children even to the Isles afar off viz. Barbadoes to the begetting of many again to a lively Hope for which Generations to come shall call thee Blessed whose Being and Habitation is in the Power of the Highest in which thou Rules and Governs in Righteousness and thy Kingdom is Established in Peace and the Encrease thereof is without End A Letter of such Blasphemy as is not to be parallel'd unless it be in that of Joan. Baptistacatum Spiritus In Fowlis Histo of Popish Trea. p. 37. presented to Pope Innocent the Tenth in allusion to his name Pamphilio but this Letter of Coal though later in date is placed first in the Quakers Registry that may well be applyed to them Rev. 13.1 upon his Heads the name of Blasphemy and lest Fox should only be adored Tyran p 53. Naylor is highly advanced by R.T. Preface to the possession of the living Faith I suppose Rebeckah Travers as one redeemed out of the earth in the Heavenly was his dwelling being Holy Harmless Vndefiled that he appeared in this great City in the power of an endless Life to gather us unto God and yet by good intentions or figurative expressions 't is frequent to defend such Abominations the said R. Travers declared Tyran p. 45. that if she had a motion from the Lord as she Believed yet if Fox did not own it to be so she should deny it a most insolent denying God and making another Master of her Revelations Newton did thus took the Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding his Vision but what Sin is it to deny or suppress ones own and submit to anothers Inspiration the Prophet that went to Bethel dyed for this for Revelations must be rescinded in the same way as conveyed what is inwardly injoyned must be as inwardly prohibited the Spirits of the Prophets being subject to the Prophets concerns but the time of speaking that the impulse was not so violent but it might be restrained till others had done speaking or if it should concern Tryal then the Prophets owned for such by Divine Attestations might approve and Recommend others but a denying my Motions at anothers pleasure is a contemning my Inspirer or believing my own Light how can I submit to another And when a Quaker changeth doth he believe himself to be more Infallible at one time than at another or to be more Infallible then another man and when one of their Revelation is Rescinded as that of Swintons it is not done by Command from God but by a Confession of their own Mistakes One Scripture Revelation no where offers to lessen or Invalidate another Scripture Revelation But the Quakers make sleight account of them so that it cannot be the same Spirit Thus Mr. Pen claims Revelation against the Sacraments testify's by the same Spirit Hicks 3. Dial. p. 65. by which Paul Renounced Circumcision that they are to be Rejected And others deny and sadly Juggle about them they are much fall'n away from their former Principles and Demeanors what security have we how far they will go or where they will stand and fix and in case of Difference between themselves or the Scriptures what must decide it or by what do they try the Motions of their Spirit or why may not their Immediate Revelations alter as well as their Doctrines what marks have we to know when they speak or Write by Inspiration when at their own Motion or what Reason have we to believe them when they will trust the Revelation of none of their Competitours Imme Rev. p. 223. when their Pretences differ we have no new Revelations saith T.E. we have saith Keith what Evil is this or rather is it not a blessed Dispensation Whether must carry it or must the latter be corrected by the former and if the Scripture be not the Judge by what must the Debate about Revelation be ended by the Spirit That is the thing in Question and you must first prove you have it before you can prove any thing by it Though we should