Powerfully Poor sense and a powerful Voice will not do I cannot believe ever God sends Fools about his work and such as expose it to contempt Too many justifie the Quakers in their affected tones theatrical gestures contrary to plain express words of Scripture 2 Titus 7. In doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity Vncorruptness respects the soundness of the matter of our Doctrine Gravity the manner of our delivering it Sincerity the Principle from which all should come and end to which all should be directed And for our Hearers many of them are much more ignorant than any one would suspect I know a Man of a great Estate an Entertainer of Ministers who asked lately one of them at his house Whether Abraham were not a Protestant and the Canaanites Papists Whether Joseph that we read of in Genesis that was sold into Egypt by his Brethren was not the same Joseph that we read of in the First of Matthew who was Espoused to the Virgin Mary If you say What difference then between their ignorant Speakers and ours Much every way Theirs despise Scripture and helps Providence puts into their hands of being better informed and pretend to Inspiration and so blaspheme the Spirit and talk how they can confound any of the Priests by the Spirit when others are ashamed of their folly and not flee in the face of an Instructor I have heard such say Wilt thou talk to me against what I feel and handle of the word of Life Alluding no doubt to the 1 Epistle of John ch 1. v. 1. John lay in the bosom of Christ and his natural hands handled the natural body of him who is call'd the Word of life To question them is to question the Spirit I am unwilling to say all I think and know of such filthy dreamers clouds without water Jude 12. Is it not able to make a Wise Man sick to hear what I have heard in their Assemblies remote from Religion Reason and Gravity For a half-witted Fellow and a Jackpudden that unmans himself to stand up and say I have been in many places in Kersendom and I will never sell my reason to think Christ came to save men from sin and yet sin to be in them And now my Freinds ah may you fe feel ah the life ah and the power ah Now you must suppose this was some notable Traveller that had compass'd Sea and Land to make Proselytes according to 3 Matthew 15 verse and sure if his reason were to be sold he would be most lamentably chous'd in a woful pennyworth that should buy it Thou fool and blind said Christ in another case to your elder Brethren 23 Matthew 15. Cannot you believe a Physician should come to give Physick or give a Man ease in order to perfect Health in time if pains atches or any disorders be in him from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot The Women I observed and Women like Men when they heard their affected modes would according to their frequent custom say La La La La c. Now tell me Reader Whether such a speech of incoherent Blasphemies were not able to make a Man purge both ways In the time of great danger when Twenty pound was to be paid by the Speaker they would seldom speak Therefore I remember when an Informer came into a Quakers Meeting he was very busie to find the Speaker that he might pay the Money Where is your Speaker said he Up stood a Quaker Thou art he In many Meetings nothing is said some times only one place of Scripture I have heard that when they sate a long time and said nothing a Quaker was moved to speak a place of Scripture and in my opinion he chose the most suitable place for them he stood up and said O ye fools when will ye be wise and down he sate again When indeed When these sinless Creatures fall out which is not seldom you would think they had gone down to Hell to fetch their Rhetorick from thenee fouly charging and condemning one another But presently the Devil transforms himself into an Angel of Light the Old Man was stirr'd in them nay their chief Leaders complain of one anothers Pride and ill Temper and say Their hearts are ready to break for Friends Disorders And yet they the Perfect Sinless Pure Innocent Lambs all the while I am not more assured that Turcism is not of God than that Quakerism is not or than that I have proved it in this Book I declare before all the world That I am ready at an open Dsputation to prove my Charge against them If what I have writeen recover any Quakers I shall rejoyce Why should we despair seeing the recovery of the Honest and ingenious George Keith Pennyman and many more However I cannot but hope or more than hope this will prevent the fall of not a few who till now knew not the Men as I and others have long known them to be some of the greatest Doctrinal if not Practical Enemies to Christ that ever were in any Age that would sometimes call themselves by the Name of Christians Reader I do assure thee by my Observation and the Observation of others that this People that were wont to talk against Pride are some of the proudest Persons upon Earth so Proud that though they have condemned putting off the hat and kirching as Sins yet some tell you in plain terms they expect it of you and take it amiss if you do it not as the abovenamed L. S. said to a Friend of his and mine And as great is their Pride so great is their ignorance so that some Wise Men leave them and are ashamed Mr. S. of Bristol seldom if at all goes to their Meeting though at their first appearing one of their most Learned Advocates he troubleth not himself much now about Mens Souls but is well acquainted with what is good for their Bodies especially his own by which he much obligeth his Friends not Quakers but any Men of Civility Churchmen and others A late Writer Mr. Norrice hath made this People not a little to value themselves by favouring their Opinion about the Light within and by telling the world That he more dreaded one Barclay than an Army of Bellarmines or Stapletons which make me doubt he is not well acquainted with the latter though with the former I doubt that young rash though ingenious Gentleman hath a design to make a new Party bearing his Name whose grand Particularity is this that we must love nothing complacentially but God I hope whilst he retains this Notion he will continue in Celibacy for he is not fit for Marriage forgetting that of Solomon Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times and be thoâ— ever ravisht with her love Yet by the way observe he asserts That God not absolutely considered but relatively is to be the Object of this Love This is indeed to make our selves the end God the means To love
a better diversion to shake off Melancholly THou scoffing persecuting Ishmael thou blaspheming Devil thou Limb of Antichrist I testify to thee in the Name that thou hast belied the People called Quakers yea I say unto thee the People called Quakers hast thou belyed They are an innocent people and to that do I bear witness Therefore thou Devils Bloodhound thou Thief and Robber that never didst come in at the door but didst climb up some other way Thus saith Thou art not able to judge for thou art blind Thou Beast thou Sot thou Incarnate Devil I am full of Zeal yea with Zeal I am filled ready to burst in testifying against thee thou scarlet-colour'd Beast thou canker'd Apostate thou Son of Belial Thou greedy Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing thou Dog thou dumb Dog thou barking Dog thou Emissary of Satan thou Beelzebub the Chief of Devils Repent and know that this People whom thou hatest and dost not love are dear precious ones To this will I set my Seal and do I bear witness Hear O thou Serpent fiery Serpent biting hissing Serpent thou unclean Spirit thou Devil-driven Sot I am sent to thee to declare against thee I am sent as Mary Fisher was to the great Turk who could speak nothing but English when she came to him as honest Friend G. Bishop is forced to confess in his New-England tryed Now I speak to thee in the same Language she did to him If any of you intend thus to set upon me I wish it may be when I am so costive that no other Physick would make me soluble I am sorry for the Dishonour that such bring to Religion and the Wrong they do themselves and the scandal they give to the Prophane but as for me I find nothing more easy than to forgive them pity them and love the Men though not the Quakers I must despair of understanding any thing or of proving any thing if in this little Book I have not sufficiently proved and that ex abundanti That William Penn and the Quakers are either Impostors or Apostates which they please from their Avowed Principles and Contrary Practices BUT methinks I hear some say We see what it is for men to talk of the Spirit which is nothing else but a warm Fancy following a deluded Judgment What may we think of Prophets of old and their Inspirations and Prophecies so much talk'd off We doubt all were such as these of the Quakers Stop Reader if these thoughts be in thee let us reason together Though I doubt not but that this giddy People have contributed very much to the increase of Scepticism and Atheism and Contempt of Religion Yet why Because there is so much bad Coin adulterate Coin Case-Pieces Clipp'd-Money is there therefore no Good Money or Money of full Weight Is it all alike Because there is so much False News going and so many Mistakes and idle Stories pass for Truth is there therefore no True News or True Relation of things Because we are so often mistaken in men who are often said to be good-natur'd wise and pious whom in our nigh approaches to them we find ill temper'd half-witted and scandalous are there therefore no good-natur'd no wise no pious Men in the World To talk of the Spirit is a Cant among some Men almost a Community of Men who own Scripture and read Lessons out of it They will talk of God and of Christ but nothing or next to nothing of the Spirit I desire them to read Neh. 9.20 Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts Rom. 8.9 He that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of his John 3.5 6 8. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the Spirit is spirit Rom. 8.16 The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Psalm 51.11 After David sinn'd so foully he prays Take not thy holy spirit from me Consider their abuse of such Phrases should not take us off from the use of them Because the Papist have abused the words of Christ This is my Body by their monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation and so to worship a Wafer for a God we are not therefore to deny the Bread the honourable Name Christ gave it The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is not so call'd from his Essence and Nature for so we might as well say The Holy Father or the Holy Son as the Holy Ghost but from his Office Whom the Father elects the Son redeems and the Holy Ghost sanctifies and makes holy Now a skilful Physician is not to be despised ridiculed because of some Quacks nor a good Lawyer because of some ignorant Pretenders nor a Spiritual Man because of some sensless vain Talkers of the Spirit Though I have written more already than I intended when I begun yet give me leave to add some Directions to cure this Malady which we find occasion'd for want of these things you are now prest to and that our Perfectionists little mind Direction 1. 1. Keep up a due Veneration for the Scriptures and their Authority He that cannot see a God one would think could see nothing Infinity and Eternity must be lodged in somewhat Some Cogitative Being which word with Mr. Lock I like better than Intelligent suited means to end Read him in that excellent Chapter of Human Vnderstanding Mr. Perkins's Cases of Conscience of the Being of God Is the Soul of Man made for God to serve and injoy him Not to say any thing of the Reflex Acts of the Soul That Matter cannot act on it self The tip of my finger that toucheth thousands of things cannot return upon it self touch it self But my Understanding that understands other things reflects on it self and understands it self and therefore the Spirit of a Man is not as the Spirit of a Beast The Poet could say Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Pronaque cum spectant No Creature but Man can turn up his eyes to Heaven for Man hath a Muscle more than they to help to look up to God Doth it not convince you Good Readers as well as this Pagan Ovid Met. That though Man was made in this world yet not for it Are not some men designed for the Recovery of the Lost Love and Favour of God That is hoped by all What then will follow That there must be some Rule whereby Man may know this God and serve him Now this must be either by Revelation or there must be some standing written Rule The former we see is gone and our giddy Pretenders to it prove it Therefore the latter Then say I The Scriptures must be the standing Rule or some other thing But no other thing Therefore the Scriptures If any thing What is it Mahomet's Alcoran I need not confute it None plead for it Nay It is worthy observation
stumbled regard it not As now How often is it objected That the Jews borrowed of the Egyptians Jewels of Silver and Jewels of Gold with an intent never to pay them and one gives one answer God bade them another another they had abused the Jews For my part I think the matter is clear they gave them for as the Jews borrowed so the Egyptians lent now did they think when God by a mighty Hand brought them out of Egypt they should see the Men more no nor the Jewels neither How often have I seen others mock 4. Matt. 8.9 The Devil took Christ on a high mountain to shew him the kingdoms of the world Why I hope the higher the Mountain was the more he might see and how high he was lifted up above the Mountain who can tell Divines say there was a Map and Idea of all to Christ Hobs himself in his Leviathan seems not to be scandalized here take his Opinion rather than blaspheme That all was done Visionary Many places in the Old Testament mentioned in the New are carried from their primary intention to a secondary one Out of Egypt have I call'd my Son 11. Hos 1.2 Matt. 15. is clear 8. Psalm 4. What is man is true of all though carried in a high sense of Christ And because some cannot be persuaded but that of the Prophet Isaith A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son 7. Isa 14. was of the Prophetess to whom Isaiah went who bare a Son one that was a Virgin when Isaiah made the Prophecy might not be so after They say That what was true in sensu diviso of that Prophetess was in sensu composito of the Virgin Mary a Maid and Mother at the same time as the Prophetess in a different time If this be yeilded I know not but some are sooner and more fairly silenced I will not tell my thoughts if any conjecture they shall but conjecture Now the Scripture direct about matters of Faith and matters of Practice without which we should not know the one or the other Direction 2. Timely instruct your Children and endeavour to transmit Religion from Family to Family Do your Children love History What is better than that of Joseph and his Brethren of Esther Haman and Mordecai and Ahasuerus The Creation of the world Fall of Man Call of Abraham Plagues of Egypt Contract some things in hints and Books in Verses English ones such there are others in Latin as the Ten Plagues of Egypt are express'd in four Verses Fit cruor ex undis conspurcant omnia vanae Dat pulvis cimices postea musca venit Dein pectu post ulcera grando locusta tenebrae Tandem proto tocos ultima plaga necat Convince them of their natural state you may say 9. John 20. That this is our son we know and that he was born blind we know blind in Spirituals Look well to their Company Mr. White adviseth Parents to invite sober Lads to their House and make them their Childrens Companions He that walketh with the wise shall be wise a companion of fools shall be destroyed saith Solomon Above all duties teach them secret Prayer 6. Matt. 6. shew them the necessity benefit sweetness of this this gives life to all other duties Talk most against the Sins they be inclined to Pride Passion Idleness Stealing taking God's Name in Vain c. Allow them convenient time for Diversions and Recreations Look well they be such as for nature are Lawful for time Seasonable for use Moderate Avoid Plays suspiciously Evil. Mr. Perkins condemns in his Cases of Conscience Playing at Cards as an Evil in it self Dr. Taylor in his Ductor Dubitantium doth not so yet doth disswade from the use of them You will at a full Table let alone a suspicious Dish not proper for you when many safe ones Plays are lawful and the matter of God's Promise The Quakers have condemned all as well as Family Prayer and other Duties How feebly doth Robert Barclay the great Quaker in his Apology write against playing at Bowls and Nine-pins we have Bodies as well as Souls 8. Zech. 5. The streets shall be full of boys and girls playing Paul took delight to think of the Family Timothy came from 2 Tim. 1.5 When I call to mind the unfeigned faith which first dwelt in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice and I am persuaded that in thee also Not the same numerical Faith which could not be without a Transmigration of Souls but specifical like for kind Qui studes patrimonio terrestri magni quam caelesti filios tuos commendas Diabolo magis quam Christo I remember Cyprian somewhere says Pray consider he that minds his Child's Body more than his Soul is like one that if Child and Dog were like to he drowned should take care to save the Dog but let the Child be drowned To make your Childrens lives Religious is to make your own comfortable Let the Spirit teach my Children I will not say some Perfectionists If you will not an evil Spirit you see early doth Catechise them often and well Direction 3. Endeavour to retain what you hear or read to confirm your Faith against all unsound Doctrines Pray to God for good Heads and Memories as well as for good Hearts and Affections many are turn'd to and fro with every wind of Doctrine Many take want of Memory to be only their infelicity which I say is their fault To help you here take these Directions 1. Mind the chief word in a sentence direction story or comparison on which all depends revolve that in your mind over and over 2. Chuse some good Companions whose good Memories may help your bad ones ask them what they remember tell them what you do Thus let one hand rub another till both be warm 3. Write down if you can what most concerns you you do so in other things Debts Directions for Distempers New Affections many years hence will make old things heard new 4. Beware of Meats and Drinks for Quantity or Quality that indispose you to dullness in hearing 5. In the close of a Sabbath and in the opening of the next day in your Beds repeat what you are willing to retain in your mind 6. Use some mark with a Pen or Pencil in reading excellent Books where you are most willing to remember O what a shame it is for Men to remember every thing except what they should can tell all the News going long stories of Contentions or Pastimes but what is said to strengthen Faith they have forgot here Fuller in his Meditations says thus I heard a merry story long since and that I remember I heard a good Sermon lately and that I have forgotten thus Lord is my Memory like a filthy pond where Frogs live and good Fish dye Mind these Directions so may you give an account of the reason of the Hope in you so may you convince Gainsayers so may you be kept in an hour of Temptation for Heresies