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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A26979 One sheet against the Quakers by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1657 (1657) Wing B1334; ESTC R13573 13,247 18

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One Sheet against the QUAKERS By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Book-seller in Kederminster Anno Dom. 1657. One Sheet against the QUAKERS THE lamentable ignorance and ungodliness of too many of the common people and the pride and self-conceitedness of many Professors of godlyness and the weakness unsettledness and giddiness of others doth give advantage to all sorts of Hereticks and Deceivers to make their attempts with hope of success And to our wonder grief and shame we see that scarce any of them are so grosly unreasonable and vile but they get some followers in most places where they come And when this wind ariseth to try our Congregations and neighbours the light unstable chassie Professors are carried away And though one sect have carried away some of them and another hath risen and condemned that and carried away more and another and another have done the like by them yet still the next sect that riseth up is as confident that they are in the right and as zealously vent their own conceits and condemn all others as if they had never been warned by the examples of so many before them whose confidence hath left them in contempt like Prognosticators Wizards and false Prophets that will be bold to prophesie of uncertain events though so many of their predecessors have lest their names to the derision of posterity We cannot wonder therefore if among other sects the Quakers with their German Brethren the Paracelsians Behmenists and Seekers do step in and take their turns in the game who will come down with greater shame then most that have gone before them when they have plaid their part The man that will stand safe and look on the folly and misery of all these sects with prudence to his own advantage must be A sincere Catho●●ck Christian saved from Infidelity and Impiety Having one God one Mediator between God and man one holy Spirit being a member of that one Catholick Church which is not confined to the sect of Papists or the sect of Anabaptists or any sect but containeth all the true Christians in the world though some parts of it be Reformed and pure and others more deformed and corrupt having one Catholick Rule the Word of God and a Catholick Love to all Christians in the world with a care and desire of their welfare proportionable to their several degrees of loveliness Being my self a member of this Catholick Church and finding my self on the Rock which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the security of my station encourageth me the more boldly to do my part in defending the cause of God against the assaults of all these deluded ones and particularly the Quakers And if any man find in himself the least temptation to like of their way I shall here give him those Reasons in a little room that move me to conceive that no Christian or reasonable man should be a Quaker or approve of or excuse their way Reason 1. The Quakers with the Seekers deny and revile the Church and Ministers of Christ and yet cannot tell us of any Church or Ministry which is indeed the right and to be preferred before these that they do despise If the Quakers are of no Church themselves they are no Christians and then they are Infidels Atheists or Heathens If they be of the Church let them tell us which is the Church that they are of They renounce the Church that we are of and that is the only Church on earth containing all true believers in Christ They have not told us of any sect but their own which they take to be the true Church And he that takes the Quakers to be the only Catholick Church must deny the Church and Christ himself if he understand what he saith For the Quakers are but of a few years standing They rose from among the Papists Seekers Ranters and Anabaptists but a while ago And if Christ had not a Catholick Church before then and ever since his Ascension he ceased to be Christ in Office the Head and Saviour of the Church For no Church no Saviour No body no Head No School no Teacher No Kingdom no King No Wife no Husband So that its all one to say that the Quakers have made a new Catholick Church when there was none before and to say they have made a new Christ where was no Christ before This Argument the Papists abuse upon false suppositions but it is only the Catholick that can make just advantage of it and may better ask the Papists Where was your Roman Catholick Church before 400. or 500. or 600. years after Christ then they can ask us Where was your Church before Luther Where there were visible Societies of Christians there was a visible Church I dare not be of so narrow a Catholick Church as the Papal is much less as the Quakers or any upstart sect I profess my self a member of a far wider Catholick Church then all of them set together in which I hope to live and die Reason 2. No wise man can be a Quaker because their Religion is an uncertain thing And so is not that Religion that must save us The things that they agree in besides the furious opposition of others are but a few broken scraps of Doctrine which they never yet set together as making the substance of their faith I never met with man that heard of any sum or body of their Divinity Faith or Religion which they have published No not so much as in Catechism or short Confession Nor did I ever hear that one of their Speakers did ever recite the substance of their belief If they know not yet the contents of their own Religion they are too blame to be so zealous for it and thrust that upon others which they know not themselves and well may we stay till they know it better before we become their followers for we know not what The Christian faith is known long ago even this 1600 years and more If they say that they wait till the Spirit revealeth it I answer The Spirit hath revealed and sealed the Christian Faith long ago though it must transcribe it out of the Scripture into the heart of every believer The Spirit is not given now to make us a new Religion or new Gospel Gal. 1. 8 9. but to cause us to believe and receive the old one I abhor any Gospel or Religion that was not made 1600. years ago at least If they look for a Spirit to make them a new Religion or belief they have not and expect not the Christian Religion or belief Well and will any but a mad man let go his Christian Faith before he know where to have a better or for he knows not what shall we turn Quakers meerly because they bark and bawl at our Religion Ministry and Church before they once tell us where to find a better or give us so much as a Catechism or Confession to tell us