A KEY Opening a way to every Common Understanding How to discern the Difference betwixt the Religion professed by the People called QUAKERS and the Perversions Misrepresentations and Calumnies of their several Adversaries Published in great good Will to all but more especially for their sakes That are actually under Prejudice from vulgar Abuses LONDON Printed for Thomas Northcott in George-yard in Lombard-street 1693. CONTENTS 1. OF the Light within what it is and the Vertue and Benefit of it 2. Of the Scriptures and their Truth and Service 3. Of the Spirit of God and its Office with respect to Man 4. Of the Holy Three or Scripture-Trinity 5. Of the Divinity of Christ 6. Of the Manhood of Christ 7. Of Christ Jesus and his performances for Man's Salvation 8. Of Good Works that they are necessary and rewardable but not Meritorious 9. Of Water-Baptism and the Supper 10. Of the Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Recompence 11. Of Civil Honour and Respect 12. Of Civil Government Reader IT is very unfair and indiscreet in any to oppose and calumniate what they do not understand It has been our unhappiness far more than all that our Adversaries have been able to say against us that hitherto we remain unknown by those who yet stick not to condemn us We must confess that our Principles as disguised and misrepresented in the World may well enough have given Offence to Those That have not thought it worth their while to take the Pains of enquiring further Nor indeed can we take it ill that People should be shy to entertain them under those frightful Vizards some have put upon them and yet they must be inexcusable that will take our Belief at our Enemies Hands rather than our own who best know what we believe But it will be the business of this little Key to explain the Difficulty and shew the Difference between our Principles and the Vulgar Mistakes and thereby open a way into so clear and plain an Understanding of the Quakers Principles from their Enemies Perversions as we hope with God's Blessing all impartial Enquirers will be satisfied of our Holy and Christian Profession Which we earnestly desire for their Good Knowing that as we have been called of God to be a People to him through his Grace none may stumble or be offended at the Truth we testifie of but seeing the Excellency of it may imbrace it and walk in it the only best way to end Controversy and obtain the great and true End of Religion the Salvation of the Soul Perversion I. THe Quakers hold that the Natural Light in the Conscience of every Man in the World is sufficient to save all that follow it and so overthrow Salvation by Christ. Principle This is a great Mistake for their Belief and Assertion is That Christ who is the Word that was with God and was God and is so for ever hath enlightned every Man that cometh into the World with his own Light as he is that True Light or such a Light as there is no other to be compared to him Which is the meaning of the Emphasis True in the Text and that such as follow the Reproofs Convictions and Leadings of that Light with which he enlightens the Understandings and Consciences of Men shall not walk in Darkness that is in Evil and Ignorance of God but shall have the Light of Life which Life is a living Condition towards God and a state of acceptance and Salvation and for which end Christ was given of God See Isa 49. 6. Jo. 1. 4 9. 3. 21. 5. 40. 8. 12. 10. 10. So that they assert the Light of Christ sufficient and not a Natural Light otherwise than as all Men born into the world have a measure of Christ's Light and so it may be said to be natural to all Men. For this Light is something else than the bare Understanding Man hath as a rational Creature For as such Man cannot be a Light to himself But has only a capacity of seeing by means of the Light that Christ the Word enlighteneth him withal For we can no more be a mental or Intellectual Light to our selves than we are an External and Corporeal Light to our selves But as the Sun in the Firmament is the Light of our Bodies so the Light of the divine Word is the Sun of our Souls the glorious Luminary of the intellectual World and they that walk in it and by it will come to Blessedness Pervert 2. The Quakers hold the Light within them is God Christ and the Holy Spirit so that every Quaker has whole God Christ and Spirit in him Which is gross Blasphemy Princ. This is also a Mistake of their Belief They never said that every Illumimination in the Hearts of Men was whole God Christ or the Spirit whereby to be guilty of that gross and blasphemous Absurdity they would fasten on them But that God who is Light or the Word Christ who is Light the Quickning Spirit and God over all blessed for ever 1 Cor. 15. 45 47. hath enlightned Mankind with a Measure of Saving Light So that the Illumination is from God or Christ the Word but not therefore whole God or Christ in every Man no more than the whole Sun or Air is in every House or Chamber There are no such harsh and unscriptural Words in their Writings It is only a frightful Perversion of some of their Enemies to bring a Scandal upon their Holy Faith Yet in a Sense the Scriptures say it and that is their Sense in which they say the same thing He that is with you shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you I in them and they in me Christ in us the hope of Glory Unless Christ be in you ye are Reprobates Of whom I travel in Birth again until Christ be formed in you Jo. 14. 3 17. 18. 20. Col. 1. 26 27. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Gal. 4. 19. Now if they who denied his coming in the Flesh though high professing Jews were Antichrists because Enemies to that Appearance and Dispensation of God to Men what must they be reputed who as stiffly disown his nearer and more spiritual coming formation and dominion in the Soul Which is to be sure the higher and nobler Knowledg of Christ yea the Mystery hid from Ages and now revealed to God's People the Riches of the Glory of the Mystery which God reserved to be made known to the Gentiles Col. 1. 27. Certainly though they are called Christians they must be no whit less Antichrists than those obstinate Jews of old Pervert 3. By the Quakers Doctrine every Man must be saved for every Man they say is savingly enlightned Prin. Not so For though the Light or Grace of God hath and doth more or less appear to all Men and that it brings Salvation to as many as will be taught by it to deny Ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godlikely in this
subtilty of Satan as in other things to darken the Appearance of Truth and prepossess Peoples Minds against it For since he cannot hinder the Exaltation of the Spirit above all visible Instruments and the Necessity of its Motions and Operations to be known in the Hearts of Men and the great suitableness of it to the Gospel Administration he would spoil all by overdoing For they never denied the use of Means but to this Day from the beginning they have been in the use of them But then they are such Means as are used in the Life and Power of God and not in and from Mans meer Wit Will or Imitation the thing they strike at For instance they cannot own that to be a Gospel Ministry that is without a Gospel Spirit or that such can be sent of God that are not taught of God or that they are fit to teach others what Regeneration and the Way to Heaven are that have never been born again themselves or that such can ever bring Souls to God that are themselves strangers like those in the Acts 19. 21. to the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost This is only the Ministry and these the Ministers that the People called Quakers cannot own and receive and therefore cannot maintain For the Ministry and Ministers that are according to Scripture they both own and delight in Read Jo. 14. 16 17 26. ch 16. 13. Acts 1. 8. Gal. 1. 1 15 16. It is strange because they deny all false Means or means not used in the Leadings of God's Power and Spirit that therefore they must deny all means however rightly employed This is an Injustice in their Enemies Wherefore all are desired to take notice That Evangelical Means and Order they love and desire to keep for they diligently assemble themselves together to worship God where they both pray in the Spirit and prophesie one by one as any thing is revealed to them according to 1 Cor. 14. 15 29 30 31. Nor are they without Spiritual Songs making Melody in their Hearts to God their Redeemer by the same Holy Ghost as they are comforted and moved by it Eph. 5. 19. Pervers 9. The Quakers deny the Trinity Princ. Nothing less They believe in the Holy Three or Trinity of Father Word and Spirit Jo. 1. 1. ch 14. 9. Rom. 9. 5. 1 Jo. 5. 7. And that these three are truly and properly one Of one Nature as well as Will. But they are very tender of quitting Scripture Terms and Phrases for Schoolmen's 1 Cor. 1. 18 31. ch 2. 2 6. Col. 2. 8. as Persons and Substances c. are And they judge that a curious Enquiry into those High and Divine Relations tends not to Godliness and Peace which should be the Aim of true Christians and therefore they cannot gratify that Curiosity in themselves or others Speculative Truths being to be sparingly and tenderly declared and never to be made the Measures of Christianity or Christian Communion For besides that Christ Jesus hath taught them other things the sad Consequences in all Times of superfining upon Scripture Texts hath sufficiently forbid them Men are too apt to let their Heads out-run their Hearts and Notion Obedience and with Passion to support their Conceits Pervers 10. The Quakers deny Christ to be God Princ. Nothing can well be more untrue and unreasonable for their great and characteristick Principle being this That Christ enlightens the Souls of all Men that come into the World with a Saving Light which nothing but the Creator of Souls can do It does sufficiently shew They believe him to be God But they truly and expressly own him so according to Jo. 1. 1. and Rom. 9. 5. to be God over all blessed for ever Pervers 11. The Quakers deny the Human Nature of Christ Princ. They never taught or said or held so gross a thing if by Human Nature be understood the Manhood of Christ Jesus For as they believe him to be God over all blessed for ever so they believe him to be of the Seed of Abraham and David after the Flesh and therefore truly and properly Man like us in all things and once subject to all things for our sakes Sin only excepted See Is 7. 14. Matt. 1. 23. Luke 1. 31. Pervers 12. The Quakers deny Christ's Transactions at Jerusalem and the shedding his Blood to be beneficial to them for it is the Light within only they expect to be saved by Princ. This is untruly charged upon them They do say that the Appearance of the second Adam Jo. 1. 14. Heb. 10. 5. the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit in that holy Body prepared of the Father for him was for the Salvation of the World that had fallen in the first Adam That whatever Christ then did both Living and Dying was of great Benesit to all that then believed and is still to all that now do and hereafter shall to the end believe in him as they receive and obey the manifestation of his Light in their Consciences which leads Men to believe and value and not to disown Christ as the common Sacrifice and Mediator For they do affirm That to come to that Light and turn their Minds and bring all their Deeds and Thoughts to that is the readiest nay the only right way to come to have true Faith in Christ as he appeared in the Flesh and to discern the Lord's Body aright and to receive any real Benefit by him as their only Sacrifice and Mediator And it is not another than that Blessed Word Light Power Wisdom and Eternal Righteousness who then appeared in that Holy Body by whom they have received or can receive any true spiritual Benefit Light is from him Forgiveness through him and Sanctification only by him So that their ascribing Salvation in this Age to him who now appears to their Souls as before expressed cannot render him no Saviour in that Age or invalidate the Benefit of his blessed Appearance then on Earth or Mediation now in Heaven Whose Doctrine pierced whose Life preached whose Miracles astonished whose Blood attoned and whose Death Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven confirmed that Blessed Manifestation to be no less than the Word God who is Life and Light manifested in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. for the Salvation of the World and therefore properly and truly the Son of Man on Earth and now the Son of Man in Glory Pervers 13. The Quakers set up Works and Meriting by Works like the Papists whereby Justification by Faith in Christ is laid aside Princ. By no means They say with the Apostle James ch 2. That true Faith in Christ cannot be without Works no more than a Body can live without a Spirit and where there is Life there is Motion and where there is no Divine Life there is no Faith Nay by the Comparison if they were separable Works being compared to the Spirit would have the better The very believing is an Act of the Mind and therefore a godly Work and
no sooner is true Faith begotten in a Soul but it falls to working which is both the Nature and in some respect the end of it Nor do we say that our very best Works proceeding from the true Faith it self can merit no nor Faith joyned with them All that Man is capable of believing or performing can never merit everlasting Blessedness because there can be no proportion as there must be in case of Merit between the best Works that can be performed in the Life of Man and an Eternal Felicity Wherefore all that Man can do even with the Assistance of the Holy Spirit can never be properly said to merit but that right Faith and good Works which will follow it may and do obtain the blessed Immortality which it pleaseth Almighty God to give and priviledge the Sons of Men with who perform that necessary Condition is a Gospel and necessary Truth And this the Quakers groundedly and therefore boldly affirm So that they deny all Merit from the best of Works especially by such as the Papists are wont to conceive Meritorious But as they on the one hand do deny the meritoriousness of Works so neither can they joyn with that lazy Faith which works not Let not good Works make Men Papists because they make Men Christians I am sure believing and not working and imagining a Salvation from Wrath where there is no Salvation from Sin which is the cause of it is no whit less unscriptural and abundantly more pernicious to the Soul Blessed is he that hears Christ's Words and does them The doer is only accepted for though Death be the Wages of Sin yet the Gift of God is Eternal Life to such Rom. 6. 23. so that as they do not hold that their good Works merit neither believe they that their good Works justifie For though none are justified that are not in measure sanctified yet they are not justified because they are sanctified but for his sake that sanctifies them Isa 26. 12. and works all their good Works in them and for them to wit Christ Jesus who is made unto them as to the Saints of old Wisdom Righteosness Sanctification and Redemption that he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. Pervers 14. The Quakers deny the two great Ordinances of the Gospel Baptism and the Supper Princ. Whatever is truly and properly a Gospel Ordinance they desire to own and practise But they observe no such Language in the Scriptures as in the Objection They do confess the Practice of John's Baptism and the Supper is to be found there but that is no Institution or sufficient Reason of Continuation That they were then proper they believe it being a time of great Infancy and when the Mysteries of Truth lay yet couched and foulded up in Figures and Shadows as is acknowledged by Protestants but it is their Belief that no Figures or Signs are perpetual or of Institution under the Gospel Administration when Christ who is the Substance is come though their use might have been indulged to young Converts in Primitive Times It were to overthrow the whole Gospel Dispensation and to make the coming of Christ of none effect to render Signs of the nature of the Gospel If it be said But they were used after the coming of Christ and his Ascension too They answer So were many Jewish Ceremonies not easily abolished If any say But Christ commanded that one of them should be done till he come They say That he that said so told his Disciples also That he would come to them again That some should not taste of Death till they saw him come in his Kingdom And he that was then with them should be in them And that he would drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till he should drink it new with them in the Kingdom of God Joh. 14. 1 2 3. Mat. 16. 28. Joh. 14. 17. Mat. 26. 29. Mark 14. 25. Which is the new Wine that was to be put into the new Bottles Luk. 5. 37. and is the Wine of the Kingdom as he expresseth it in the same place Which Kingdom is within as may be read Luk. 17. 20. He was the heavenly Bread that they had not yet known nor his Flesh and Blood as they were to know them as may be seen John 6. 53 to 63. So that though Christ was come to end all Signs yet till he was known to be the Substance to the Soul as the great Bread of Life from Heaven Signs had their Service to shew forth and keep in hand and remembrance especially to the People of that day whose Religion was attended with a multitude of the like Types Shadows and Signs of the one good Thing and Substance of all Hence it is That the Quakers cannot be said to deny them that is too hard a word But they truly witnessing that the very thing that Water Bread and Wine do signifie is come to them they leave them off as fulfilled and henceforth have but one Lord one Faith one Baptism one Bread and but one Cup of Blessings which is the new Wine of the Kingdom Mark 14. 25. Pervers 15. They acknowledge no Resurrection of the Dead nor Rewards to come Princ. In this also they are greatly abused They deny not but believe the Resurrection according to Scripture the one from Sin the other from Death and the Grave but are cautious in expressing the manner of the Resurrection intended in the Charge because 't is left a Secret in Scripture Are People angry with them for not believing or asserting what is hidden and which is more curious than necessary to be known and which the Objectors themselves cannot be positive in Thou Fool is to the curious Inquirer as says the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 36 53 54. which makes the Quakers contented with that Body which God shall please to give them being assured that their Corruption shall put on Incorruption and their Mortality Immortality in such manner as pleaseth him And in the mean time they think it their Duty as well as Wisdom to acquiesce in his holy Will It is enough they believe a Resurrection and that of a glorious and incorruptible Body without further Niceties for to that was the ancient hope Now as to Eternal Rewards they not only believe them but above all People have the greatest reason so to do for otherwise who is so miserable Do they inherit the Reproach and Suffering of all that have separated from time to time that is are the Out-cries that have been against the Protestants by the Papists and those of the Church of England against Puritans Brownists and other Separatists fallen upon them and shall they hold Principles inconsistent with an Eternal Recompence of Rewards By no means It is their Faith their Hope and what they press as an Incouragement to Faithfulness and the contrary therefore both an unjust and foolish Suggestion of their Adversaries Pervers 16. The Quakers deny all Civil Honour