monstrous men in India Non loquntur sed latrant they do not speak but bark by positive Assertions reproachful Epithites rayling Speeches conquering the modest and civil and indeed by their black mouthes become like the Basilisk killing the Birds of the Air in their very flight by their very breath for if once reason begin to traverse their black Indictments thou art Carnal Antichristian Devils and the like must stay the Process and confirm the sentence Many ways I might manifest the darkness of their pretended light but I must not now stand on an History of them but leave them to the view of their carriage the witness of such who have been seduced by them and the writings of such as have withstood them amongst which I here commend to thee this small Tract written in a plain simple and rustick stile like unto its Author a plain simple country-man in a private Calling possessing an honest heart and publick spirit filled with zeal to plead the Cause of Truth to his power and to prevent his Country-men and Neighbours from being seduced by this Fanatick Generation and following a plain Ignis fatuus into a wilde Wilderness of pretended light within only before I part with thee give me leave to prescribe to thee these few Rules for thy preservation 1 Set Reason in its Throne I mean not reasons Dictates which yet as thou art a man thou must observe and follow though they are too short to guide thee to Heaven but the rational faculty and power of discerning discoursing and determining things which God and Nature hath given thee for observe the Devil blindes this Eye and dethrones this Judge when he advanceth this pretended light when you are mad you may be brought to any thing 2 Stick close to Scripture as the Light unto thy feet and Lanthorn to thy paths by this the light exhibited by Christ and his Apostles was manifested and by this the Spirit of Light will be judged whilst Reason doth sit Judge see that it sentence by the Law of Scripture therefore in the right use of Scripture see that thou do own and embrace First Scripture sentences not words this sort of men do speak words and but words leaving sentences and so making the Word of God of none effect Secondly Sense of Scripture not meerly sentence the sentence may be figurative and to be understood otherwise than the words do simply shew as This is my Body and other like expressions do evidence Thirdly Sense rationally inferred as well as positively asserted reasoning from the Scripture is suitable to an enlightned rational being Fourthly Sense plainly flowing from the scope and circumstances of the text not strained by allusion unto Allegories and the like 3 State to the Soul standing Principles of Christianity see some things to be true and out of all controversie not to be admitted to debate but retained with all resolution against all temptation know that a Sceptick is a Quakers Gentleman-usher 4 Shun their Society especially solemn Assemblies how shouldest thou chuse but learn a lesson in the Devils School if thither thou resort day by day if their air bee infectious and Inchantments only Spiritual which on good ground and I beleeve experience too are found to bee natural canst thou accompany with them without danger it was once the Churchesery Cant. 1.7 Why should I turn aside by the flocks of thy companions 5 Sue by fervent prayer for the spirit of a sound mind now that thou art faln into a fanatique age prize the many helps thou hast to keep thee in thy wits and know that spirit of sobriety is the blessing of God but thereby effected in special use this Tract unto its especial end and that thou by it and helps of the like nature may be delivered from the error of the wicked is and shall be the constant prayer of Thine in and for the truth of the Gospel Zach. Crofton April 17. 1656. THE QUAKERS Paper truly copied out as it was by them written and sent to the Ministers and People in and about Walton and Liverpool To which the following Treatise is an Answer To the Priests and people of Walton and Liverpool and thereabouts FOr as much as there was a Dispute at the Greave-house near Walton betwixt the people called Quakers and the aforesaid Priests before mentioned In which Dispute the Priests was to prove the lawfulness of receiving of Tythes which by Scripture they could not do but one Scripture they brought in for their own ends which makes nothing for their purpose in Luke 11.42 to prove the receiving of Tythes for this was before he was sacrificed up when he said Woe unto ye Pharisees for ye tythe Mint and Rue and all manner of Herbs and pass over judgement and the love of God These ought yee to have done and not to leave the other undone Now let all people who have any understanding consider and see whether this be any ground or command for the Priests to take Tythes of the people after his being sacrificed up for he said These ought ye to have done but he gave no commandement to continue in them for he was the end of the Priesthood and the end of the Law by which the Priests took Tythes for the Priesthood being changed there was of necessity a change of the Law and a disanulling of the Commandement going before as Heb. 7.12.18 But in the time of the Law they was to take Tythes of the people according to the Law Heb. 7.5 and those that did not bring their Tythes into the Store-house whilst that Law and Commandement was of force robbed God Mal. 3.8.10 And the Lord commanded that all the Tythes should be brought of the increase and laid up and the Levite because he had no part nor inheritance with the people and the stranger and the fatherless and the widows should come and eat and be satisfied Deut. 14.28 29. And this was in the first Priesthood and before Jesus Christ was sacrificed up the unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 8.1 The everlasting Treasure Col. 2.3 In whom dwells all fulness vers. 9. Who hath blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances and took it out of the way and nayled them to the Cross triumphing over them vers. 14 15. Then the Apostle denied all Ordinances that were hand written and said the Law was changed and the Priesthood was changed Heb. 7.12 and the Commandement disanulled so the Law now being changed by which the Priesthood was made and the Commandement disanulled by which they took Tythes of the people of God himself and the hand-writing of Ordinances blotted out therefore who art thou O man that goeth about to build again set up allow write for and uphold that which God put down disanulled and blotted out and nayled to the Cross Gods enemy thou art whoever thou bee for the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Psal. 24.1 And all are commanded to honour God with their substance who are his Stewards
reduce men to Morall vertues let them rightly display the beams thereof and I shall desire they may meet with many Proselytes but whilst they publish this light to others I cannot but observe they darken it themselves they darken it by their disorderly expressions declaring things in general terms not defining the nature of them doth not the incongruity of their expression the inconsistence of their Sentences each one other multiplying words in an undigested immethodical heap leave all men in the dark what they mean by their light whilst they are to them that hear plain barbarians A vox praeterea nihil and doth not Nature teach to speak in order and method Principles in which to be instructed doth it not count him the most elegant Orator who speaks so distinctly and plainly that the beams of light from him may be seen and acknowledged by all did not Nature call Heraclitus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the dark Philosopher for rendring Obscura per obscuriora losing a Principle in a cloud of obscure insignificant words nay and doth not their practise which should be the clear comment on their Principles render them much more dark or rather distastfull as acts of darkness so detected by the very light of Nature what will you say to their altogether decrying Gods outward Worship doth not Nature it self direct to some acts of Worship to an acknowledged Deity only their light renounceth it Is it Light that leads to the disrespect of all superiours neither to give them honour in words or gesture was not the Fifth Command ingraven on the heart by Nature Teacheth it noâ— all men in the World to observe that order which God hath set among men and give to every man that civil honour that is due unto them by reason of age place or quality The light of Nature blusheth at their rude Language and behaviour and bespeaks them beasts of darkness rather than subjects of any distinguishing light Doth the light of Nature give liberty for women to be common controulers and ordinary speakers Is not silence the duty imposed and Property adorning that Sex will not the Heathen reject the Religion which is inforced with feminine voyce and stile finde you them not without natural affection to their Husbands and Children not only in a neglect of their time and callings in idleness following the pretended light within them but also wickedly leaving them and wandring from Country to Country from Nation to Nation in a rabid and savage way to advance the pretended light within them these and the like acts of most gross and palpable darkness are so obvious to every observant eye that they seeing them cannot but blush if Natures weak and vitiated eye be but half open and I cannot think that there needed any more pregnant or perswasive argument to stay thee from closing with their delusions than a plain Historical representation of their works of darkness so directly contrary to the light of Nature But their light pretends it self to be that of Grace and if so how was it acquired how is it approved They have indeed by Providence been cast into Gospel-times and places and so know the Scripture and its phrases but by it they gained not this Light for the Scripture they disown and decry they must needs then have it by some extraordinary infusion and this certainly is not from the spirit of Truth and Light for besides that it enlightens us in and by the Scriptures it brings into the soul a Light that doth clearly discover the object and irradiate the Organ a Light that doth dispel all disorder and confusion distinguishing things that differ defining things that exist declaring duties and detecting sins with a conviction irresistable it is to be feared nay positively affirmed that this Light so full of confusion darkness and disorder is no other than the enlightnings of the Prince of Darkness darting out Scripture words without either sence or reason and suited to the seducement of a people to whom by providence Scripture-language is grown natural that no delusion will down with them that savours not of it This will appear more certain if you consider how this Light is approved and here consider what are the properties of it what object doth it discover what duty doth it direct what real evil doth it detect and convince of as to the former it doth not so much as pretend to them by either propounding any object or prescribing any duty more than the Light without description and heeding it without any rules of direction so that it gives you no center or ground to hope no counsel to the soul nay so farre is this Light from directing unto that it diverts the soul from every duty the subjects of it sanctifie no Sabbaths seek not God at any time in prayer crave not so much as a blessing on their meat and drink but in a word throw off every act of religion as a work of darkness the only property of Light to which it doth pretend is that of reproving and convincing of evil and if the matter reproved and manner of reproving bespeak it not to be positive darkness let the sons of Light judge 1 As to the matter reproved Is it not generally the very Worship of God and duties of Christianity that the which every rational enlightened Christian must needs see to be prescribed by Jesus Christ and declared in the Scriptures Is it not the Sabbaths solemn assemblies of God and his people Is it not Prayer Reading Hearing receiving the Sacraments c. even all the practices of Piety they decry insomuch that we cannot but see them obnoxious to that sad woe denounced against such as call good evil evil good light darkness darkness light in a word they decry those things that Sathan durst not have spoken against had he not prepared the spirits of men by a spirit of Scepticism having brought them to such an equipoiz that a very calling light darkness and darkness light may cast the scales so that indeed we have cause to say of their reproofs as Augustine in another case Nos non curamus de eis qui reprehendunt quae non comprehendunt We regard not their reproofs for they blame what they do not understand and are justly to be branded with the Apostles note of Seducers They speak evil of things they do not know Jude 10. 2 As the matter of their reproof so the manner in which they mannage it manifesteth it to be darkness enmity at light for they condemn as Judge without any convincing Arguments or Demonstrations thou lyest being their form of reproof and only forcible reason of conviction they are confused blaming every thing but convincing of no one the whole fabrick of Religion is the cloud of darkness they strike at they distinguish nothing at denoted guilty and to be demolished They cursedly rail rather than convincingly reprove for it may be said of them as Munster notes of the
will a man rob God it should seem by this text that your opinion is no new thing but as old as this Prophesie for the very same colour that yee pretend the Lord intimates to be this peoples pretence viz. Wherein have we robbed thee why saith the Lord in Tythes and Offerings and me thinks there is abundance of emphasis in the tenth verse by you likewise quoted Bring yee in all the Tythes into the store-house that there may be meat in my House and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open windows in Heaven and pour down such a blessing as there shall not be room to receive it as if the Lord had said Do yee pretend a scarcity of the fruits of the earth so as yee cannot spare the Tythe that I require of you why you may thank your selves for your unwillingness to pay them that the increase of your Fields and of your Flocks and Herds is so slender or that I have blessed your increase no better but prove me now bring in the full of your Tythes keep nothing back and see if I will not so bless your increase as that not only your Barnes and your Wine-presses and your Stalls c. shal be full but there shall not be room to receive them And were it not to hold a Candle to the Sun I might adde many more Scriptures both out of the Law and Prophets that would speak the same thing As also of the largeness and bountifulness of the provision that God made for his Ministers that waited at his Altars even under the Law And have wee any grounded reason to produce why God should be straiter handed in his allowance of maintenance for his Ministers that he hath imployed in more excellent work for so is Gospel-work when it is compared with Legal-work But you are ready to take me here at my own word and to reply that all that I have said concerning Tythes is Legal and from the Law though you know it is partly from the Law and partly from the Prophets But you will say again the Law and Prophets are all one yea and so say I too and further I affirm That Moses and the Prophets and the Gospel are all one in substance and in effect the very same thing they are all the word of one and the same immutable and unchangeable God I might prove this abundantly but for brevity sake this one Scripture shall serve for and instead of many and methinks it might it is so full Heb. 1.1 2 God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to our Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appointed to be heir of all things by whom also hee made the Worlds I pray you observe with me God one and the same God spake spake one and the same word yea at sundry times and in divers manners to our Fathers by the Prophets to us by his Son but to both one and the same word So then we may conclude the immutable God who was yesterday to our fore-fathers to day to us and the same for evermore hath spoken a Word and left us a Word like himself unchangeable in the substance of it though changeable in the administration of it according to the good pleasure of God the speaker of it yet the same Word spoken to his people whether in old time by his Prophets or in the fulness of time by his Son Gal. 4.4 5. or in the declining of time by the Ministers of the Gospel so then we see how dangerous a thing it is for us to separate or put asunder what God hath so joyned together that it is no more two but one I mean his whole entire and individual word and if this be granted the controversie is easily decided But you say further This Law so much insisted upon together with the Priest-hood of it is changed and the Commandement disannulled and this you bottom upon Heb. 7.12 18. the very same words that you mention in your Paper I confess is here the Scripture-word yet let mee tell you if we should take every word in Scripture in the bare letter of it not weighing the sence and meaning of the Spirit of God in the Scriptures such absurdities would follow as you and I little think of for instance one amongst many it were easie for me to prove that you have no faith or for you to prove that I have none if we only look upon the letter of one text of Scripture and our Saviours own words Matth. 17.20 Verily I say unto you if you have faith as a grain of Mustard-seed yee shall say to this mountain be thou removed hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible to you Observe Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed which our Saviour elsewhere saith is the least of Seeds yet if so small a quantity of faith be in you Mountains shall remove out of one place into another but which of us can speak this word of faith so as a mountain of stone or earth shall thus remove I bless God I know how to understand this Scripture better but I say if we take this Scripture in the letter of it who hath any faith at all when so small a quantity of it will do so great a work Therefore I say the sence and scope of the Spirit of God must be inquired of in all Scripture readings or else there are many things in the very Epistles of the Apostle Paul that are hard to be understood which the unlearned and unskilful do wrest to their own destruction as they also wrest all other Scriptures 2 Pet. 3.16 and therefore let us enquire into the meaning of this change of Law and Priest-hood and of this disanulling of the Commandement and we are right at this point or else not As for the change of the Priest-hood it is in relation to the manner of Administration not in point of Office for though the Sacrifices of Burnt Offerings be taken out of the way being nayled to the Cross of Christ yet there remains the Sacrifice of Prayer and Supplication with giving of thanks 1 Tim. 2.1 to be offered up upon the Altar the Lord Jesus Christ which is to God a Sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour Ephes. 5.2 and indeed is the sum and substance of all Burnt Offerings So David Thou requirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee thou delightest not in Burnt Offerings but the sacrifice of God is a contrite spirit a broken and a humble heart O God thou wilt not despise Psal. 51.17 So if I should instance in all the particular injuctions of the Ceremonial Law it self we should find only the manner of Administration changed not the matter substance and equity of any one of them for instance in one of the meanest of them There was a Law of divers washings of hands and cleansing of