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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	holy_a	trinity_n	9,904	5	10.2376	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50679	An antidote against the venom of Quakerism, or, Some observations, on a little pamphlet, stiled, The Christianity of the people commonly called Quakers by John Meriton ...	Meriton, John, 1666-1717.	1699 (1699)	Wing M1816; ESTC R11247	24,688	49

AN ANTIDOTE Against the Venom of Quakerism BEFORE I enter upon the Examination of the Quakers Principles as here Professed and as I suppose Owned by them I shall very briefly desire the Reader to take Notice what is understood by the Term Christianity or what is necessary in a strict and proper Sense to Entitle a Man to be a Christian For the making up then this good Composition it is not enough for a Man to know and acknowledge God as the One only true God Creator of all things to Depend upon and to be Subject to him to Love him our Neighbour and our Selves to walk Soberly and Honestly and to practice all those other Duties which by the Light and Law of Nature he may be Convinced of for these a Man may believe and be consormable thereto and yet be no Christian For who doubts but that some of the Heathens thus far believed and practiced who were not only altogether ignorant of Christ but also vehemently opposed him and the Christian Name Tho' according to Will Penn's Notion of Christianity in his Address to Protestants p. 119. Second Edition these must be Christians For what is Christ says he but Meekness Justice Mercy Patience Charity and Vertue in persection Nay even the Jews themselves who were once God's Chosen People and must be Saved thro' Faith in the Messiah that was to come cannot in a strict Sense be called Christians their State being no Christian State however Obedient they might be to the Legal Dispersation they lived under yet they could no from thence be Entituled Christians For to Entitle a Man to be a Christian 〈◊〉 must necessarily believe 〈◊〉 to be already come nay that Partic●●●● and Numeric●● Man Christ Jesus who was Born of the Vi●gin Mary and was of the Seed of Abraha● according to the Flesh to be the Christ 〈◊〉 God that was promised to come in due time that this very Man was Crucified Died a●● Rose again from the Dead and is Ascende● c. Without Controversie great is the M●stery of Godliness God was Manifest in t●● Flesh Justified in the Spirit Believed on the World Received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3. 〈◊〉 This Christ God-Man as come and crucified was that main Foundation of the Gospel and Christianity These were new Articles Founded upon a new Dispensation without the belief of which not to name some others which may be thought by some also necessary such as Baptism by Water and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by Bread and Wine a Man cannot be called a Christian Many there are indeed who lay Claim to this Holy and Honourable Profession but without a Just Title who fiercely contend for the Name tho' woful strangers to the Nature of Christianity who set up for more Pure and Refined Christians than are to be found in other Societies tho' they have scarcely any better Title to this Name than their being Born in a Christian Nation And thus the Quakers impose and put upon the World they set up for the great Modellers and Refiners of Religion and Condemn all others as full of Filth and Dreggs whenas they themselves as deceitful Workers 〈◊〉 themselves into the Apostles of Christ cannot be looked upon any otherwise at best than good Moral Heathens and many of them short of that Indeed could we take them at their word or would they take words in their common Acceptation it must be granted then that their Profession throughout the greatest part of this Pamphlet as well as some others viz. Will. Penn's Key Crook's Principles c. would seem Orthodox but this they will not do no you must Construe them by their Intentions for says George Whitehead in his Counterfeit Convert p. 72. I may see cause otherwise to word the Matter and yet our Intentions be the same You may then see Just Cause to mistrust them in these their seeming Orthodox Confessions They have a Nauseous Pill to give you but that it may not be Distasteful and Loathsom to the Palate they Gild it over as the Writers for Popery in the Late K. J's Reign the other Day did to make it the more Glib and Easie to a Protestant Gust and Swallow they are Masters at the Art of Painting using feigned words and fair Speeches which was the old way of deceiving the Hearts of the Simple by which means many Poor Unthinking and Well-meaning People are now Ensnared and Involved in the same Errors with themselves By these and the like plausible Professions and smooth Pretences have they endeavoured to insinuate into and impose upon our Governours who no doubt can easily discern however Artificially Gilded and Varnished their Blasphemous Opinions relating to Christianity as well as to our Government And to this end and purpose in the Month of March last past there were Two Books presented to Both Houses of Parliament the one Entituled A Brief Discovery of some of the Blasphemous and Seditious Principles c. The other Entituled Some few of the Quakers many Horrid Blasphemies Heresies c. And also a Sheet Entituled Some Reasons humbly Offered Why the Quakers should be Examined But to proceed to an Examination of their Pamphlet in its several Parts Quest What is your Belief concerning the Blessed Trinity as our Term is Answ Our Belief is That in the Unity of the Godhead there is Father Son and Holy Ghost these Three Divine Witnesses that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the H. Spirit and that these Three are One according to Holy Scripture Testimony OBSERVATION Note It is said of the Oracles of the Heathen that they were made to look with Two Faces that they might the better effect their Deceits and agreeable hereto whatever was delivered by them was spoken in such Dubious and Equivocal Terms as that it should either way tend to the Satisfaction of the Devotee Just so do the Quakers now it being necessary to serve a present Turn give out a very cunning and plausible Profession but in such Dubious Terms as may look like Good and Orthodox and yet be in a great Measure Reconcileable to their Ancient Friends Principles and Testimonies It is well known that the most Virulent Poison may be Gilded over and that Varnish and Paint may be laid on the Foulest Cause and consequently the Quakers may be guilty of the grossest Errors under the Mask of Innocence and Zeal Religion and Purity But I shall not trouble the Reader with their Intentions and Meanings nor Trace them into all their Equivocal Reserves wherein they may be thought to exceed their Brethren the Jesuites but rather have recourse to their own Books which can't but be allowed to be the best and only way to know and understand their real Principles as well as Meanings they being most if not all pretended to be Wrote from the Mouth of the Lord. First They pretend to make the World believe that they own the Blessed Trinity that is they pretend to acknowledge a Three

but deny a Trinity which is to confess the same thing in English and deny it in Latine Trinitas being only Latine for the Three they Profess to Believe in the Holy Three or Trinity of Father Word and Spirit as Penn tells you in his Key p. 15. but not as Three Persons But if not Three Persons What Three are they But for your satisfaction give Ear to the Ancients in their Ministry to that end hear what their Great and First Apostle George 〈◊〉 says in his Great Mystery p. 246. who earnestly opposed his Adversary one Christopher Wade for affirming That the Holy Ghost was a Person and that there was a Trinity of Three Persons before Christ was Born The Scripture saith he doth not tell People of a Trinity nor Three Persons b●t the Common-Prayer-Mass-Book speaks of Three Persons brought in by thy Father the Pope And Will. Penn tells us in his Sandy Foundation p. 13. Printed 1668. That if we pretend to Credit the Scriptures we must necessarily Conclude our kind of Trinity a Fiction And lest the Reader should not be satisfied with his Scripture Proofs and Interpretations he labours hard to refute it from right Reason so called by him as in p. 13 14. to give you a Taste of them The Divine Persons are either Finite or Infinite if the first then something Finite is inseparable to the Infinite Substance whereby something Finite is in God If the last then Three distinct Infinites Three Omnipotents Three Eternals and so Three Gods Secondly If each Person be God and that God Subsists in Three Persons then in each Person are Three Persons or Gods and from Three they will Increase to Nine and so ad Infinitum c. Again in p. 32. he tells us That our Trinity or our imagined Trinity as he Terms it in p. 16. has not so much as a Foundation in the Scriptures it being but Man's Invention and doubtless it hath occasioned Idolatry See further George ●●itehead and Three other Quakers in their Book Entituled Ishmael and his Mother cast out p. 10. where is this Passage He i. e. Mr. Townsend a Minister in Norwich against whom they Disputed is shut up with the Three Persons in perpetual Darkness for the Lake and the Pit I shall add here nothing by way of Inference but leave it to the Reader to judge whether they own the Trinity being Those Three Divine Witnesses that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit But what Heaven is that which the Quakers mean not the Glorious Heaven above but it is the Heaven within thee where these Three Divine Witnesses are for says Geo. Fox in his Gr. Myst p. 214. There is none have a Glory and a Heaven but within them Again see his Trial at Lancaster Assize c. p. 21. I was moved to Pray and the Thundering Voice answered I have glorified thee and will glorifie thee again and I was filled so full of Glory that my Head and my Ears was filled full of it Mark Reader here was Thunder within Glory within yea full of Glory aurum tenus up to the Ears And says W. Penn in his Rejoinder p. 179. To deny the Locality of Heaven is not very offensive and that it looks too Carnal and indeed Mahometanism viz. to assert it Now Reader let this serve to Construe their meaning in their Pamphlet when they speak of Three Divine Witnesses bearing Record in Heaven that is to say the Heaven within them Quest Do you believe the Divinity and Humanity of Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God or that Jesus Christ is truly God and Man Answ Yes we verily Believe that Jesus Christ is truly God and Man according as Holy Scripture Testifie of him viz. God over all Blessed for Ever the True God and Eternal Life the One Mediator between God and Man even the Man Christ Jesus OBSERVATION Now let us see whether they believe as they say or whether it be only Paint or Varnish to deceive the Hearts of the Simple To that end see Geo. Whitehead s Nature of Christianity p. 41. where he thus speaks That Christ Existeth outwardly Bodily without us at God s Right Hand What Scripture proof hath he for these Words See also his Truth Defending the Quakers p. 22. where he affirms Christ s coming in the Flesh to be but a Figure or Example Which is also the saying of R. Hubbertborn and Justified by G. Whitehead in his Judgment Fixed p. 336. who tells you plainly what Man Christ the Quakers own i. e. their Light within only His words are these Therefore the Man Christ Jesus was before he came in the Body or Flesh And Christopher Atkinson in his Book called The Sward of the Lord drawn which was written as he pretended from the Mouth of the Lord and this I cannot omit quoting for tho his Person was disowned and denied after he was Hanged for Felony by some of the Quakers at West-Dereham Church at the Conference yet I never heard it before No he was a good Man then and Inspired however fallible afterwards and therefore those his Writings must be Valuable and Venerable and that they are by them so accounted is evident from matter of fact for when the Quakers were pressed by a Clergyman and others there present at the Second Day Conference to reject and disown his Writings under their Hands they would not be brought to such a reasonable compliance I must therefore beg leave to insist upon this Book where in p. 5. he hath these words Your imagined God beyond the Stars and your Carnal Christ is utterly denied and testified against by the Light And that this Christ is God and Man in one Person it is a Lie And again Because as Will. Penn says it is not reasonable that a Body of Men should be Concluded by the Word or Act of any one Member vid. his Brief Answer to a false and foolish Libel c. p. 25. Printed 1678. I shall therefore add One or Two more to that end see G. Fox Gr. Myst p. 206. If there be any other Christ but he that was Crucified within he is the false Christ And says Smith in his Primer p. 8. Printed 1668. They that are false Ministers preach Christ without and bid people believe in him as he is in Heaven above but they that are true Ministers they preach Christ within and direct People to wait to feel him in themselves And in p. 9. he affirms That these have no more fellowship than the East hath with the West Nay Will. Penn in his Address to Protestants p. 119. makes Christ nothing but Meekness Justice Patience Charity and Vertue in perfection In short nothing but an Holy Princiciple as he elsewhere hath it Now whether these Quotations do not amount to a plain denial of the Humanity of Christ let the Reader Judge whatever in this Pamphlet or in Will Penn's Key is pretended to the contrary But yet once more to corroborate

26 27. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter Day upon the Earth and altho' after my Skin Worms destroy my Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and not another Mine Eyes shall behold him tho' my Reins be consumed within me We say the Quakers sincerely Believe That God will Judge the World in Righteousness by his Son Jesus Christ in the Day appointed even in the Great Day of Judgment and that Harvest which is the End of the World Observe their sincerity to that end see G. Whitehead's Light and Life p. 41. What is that Glory of the Father in which his Coming is Is it visible to the Carnal Eye And when was that coming to be Is it now to be looked for outwardly We do acknowledge the several Comings of Christ according to the Scriptures both that in the Flesh and that in the Spirit but Three Comings of Christ not only that in the Flesh at Jerusalem and that in the Spirit but also another Coming in the Flesh yet to be expected we do not read of Vid. his Nature of Christianity p. 29. Dost thou look for Christ as the Son of Mary to appear outwardly in a bodily Existence to save thee if thou dost thou maist look until thy Eyes drop out before thou wilt see such an Appearance of him c. To this purpose see Dewsbury's Discovery of Man's Return written from the Spirit of the Lord p. 7. Printed 1654 where he quotes Rev. 20. 12 13. I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of th●se things which were written in the Books according to their Works and the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the Dead which were in them and they were judged every Man according to their Works And 2 Cor. 5. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the B●● Observe here his gross Perversion he applying all this to the Light within and the Judgment within so that the outward Judgment at the Last Day which is here so plainly described is not by him professed as a thing to be expected His words are these Every one arise out of your Earthly Wisdom and mind the Light in thy Conscience and wait on the Power of the Lord in it and it will bring thee to Judgment before the Throne of the Lamb viz. within thee where the Righteous Law will be opened in thy Heart that will cry through thy Earthly Heart for Righteousness and Judgment and the Book will be opened IN THEE where thou shalt see all written that thou hast done in the Body and shalt give an account for every idle word i. e. to the Light within and receive thy Reward for what thou hast done and thy Reward is Wrath and Condemnation which will pass upon thee from the presence of the Lamb within thee for thy Disobedience and breaking of the Righteous Law And thus according to Scripture i. e. according to their Interpretation of Scripture do they believe the Doctrine of Eternal Judgment viz. the Judgment of the Heart or Conscience accusing or excusing them We Believe say the Quakers That the Soul of Man tho Created is Immortal and never dies c. OBSERVATION They seem here to Confess and Believe That the Soul is a Created Being and indeed to it is as also Immortal But hear what G. Fox says in his Gr. Myst p. 100. where he makes the Soul to be part of God Is not this that cometh out from God which is in God's Hand part of God And is not that which came out from God which God hath in his Hand taken up into God again which Christ the Power of God is the Bishop of is not this of God's Being lb. p. 91. Christ the Bishop of their Souls brings the Soul up into God from whence it came whereby they come to be one Soul If it be of God's Being it cannot be a Creature And that it is not a Creature see further G. Fox's Myst p. 29. One Magnus Byne had said The Soul is not Infinite in it self but it is a Creature and saith R. Baxter It is a Spiritual Substance c. To which he answers Now consider what a Condition these called Ministers are in They say That which is a Spiritual Substance is not Infinite in it self but a Creature That which come out from the Creator and is in the Hend of the Creator which brings it up and to the Creator again that is Infinite in it self And p. 90. Is not the Soul without beginning coming from God returning into God again who hath it in his Hand And Christ the Power of God the Biship of the Soul which brings it up into God which came out from him hath this a beginning or ending And is not this Infinite in it self A Infinite in it self it must be God nothing being Infinite in it self but God consequently the Soul is then no Creature or Created Being These Passages are vindicated by W. Penn in his Tract Entituled A Brief Answer to a False and Foolish Libel c. p. 16. after a very Brief Vindication he thus concludes Where is the Heresie of this For a Conclusion if the Quakers be Sincere in this their Profession if this little Pampalet under Consideration as well as many others of the like nature of late dispersed about the World do really truly and unfeignedly contain their Faith it is but then reasonable to expect that they should by some Publick Act of theirs Retract Censure and Condemn all those Tenets or Doctrines which as I have shown are directly opposite and contradictory to these New Creeds THIS INDEED and NOTHING but THIS can satisfie or convince the World of their Honesty and Sincerity But how little of Sincerity there is in these Confessions I leave it to the Reader and the World to judge for they are so far from Censuring Condemning or Disowning those Books which contain in them these Horrid Blasphemies that they tell you They have not deviated in any one Paint of Doctrine which they first held For Joseph Wyeth in his Primitive Christianity Continued p. 6. Printed 1698. thus affirms That our Principles are now ●o other than what they were when first a People And in their Yearly Epistle Printed 1696 they say We cannot but recommend unto you the holding up the Holy Testimony of Truth which had made us to be a People and that in all the Parts of it for Truth is one and CHANGES not And in a Piece called the Quakers Cleared p. 7. thus they declare God is the same his People the same and their Principles the same And says G. Whitehead in his Counterfeit Convert Printed 1694. p. 72. I may see cause otherwise word the Matter and yet our Intentions be the same Thus do they stifly maintain That they are not changed in any Point of Doctrine they do but word the Matter otherwise they mean the same with them only it is convenient now to disguise our Meanings for at the same time we will stand by the Testimonies of our Ancient Friends as being all given forth by the immediate Dictates of the Holy Ghost to this end they inserted a Paragraph in the Postman Numb 568. upon occasion of the late Conference at West-Dereham in Norfolk wherein are these wards The Quakers not questioning but to acquit their Ancient Friends and their Writings from those black Charges nor being Conscious of deviating in any ONE POINT of Doctrine from what they first held So that as I said at first there is just Cause to suspect them in all they say FINIS