be commanded under the Law of Moses is it therefore presently to be thrown by and neglected So a man may excuse himself from all Religion and be a worse heathen than any that ever yet lived in the World And if this be good reasoning a man may upon the same score deny to fear God under the Gospel as refuse to swear by him since serving him and swearing by him are both joyned together in Deut. 6. 13. But the taking of an Oath either to be true to a Trust committed or for the decision of such things where nothing but an Oath can be available was never thought unlawful or sinful amongst Christians nor are they any where forbid to swear in such a sort in the New Testament but the use of it is rather declared and confirmed St. Paul asserting the Sovereignty of Jesus Christ and Subjection of all things to him brings a place out of the Prophesie of Isaiah As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God But in Isa 45. 23. it is said Every tongue shall swear that is shall confess and acknowledge Gods Omniscience and his sure avenging Justice which is the true meaning of and is done in every lawful Oath So that if the taking an Oath were a part of Gods worship under the Law St. Paul makes it to be so likewise under the Gospel Again Heb. 6. 16. For men verily swear by the greater and an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife For if an Oath had been simply unlawful the Apostle would never have made use of a sinful Practice to assure us of the Immutability of Gods Promise but that as an Oath is a final determination of all businesses and Controversies and puts things beyond all further doubts and exceptions God willing to manifest to us the Immutability of his Promise confirmed it by an Oath that there might be no possibility left of doubting the Truth of it There remains only an Objection to be dispatcht wherewith the Heretics endeavour to fight against the Lawfulness of taking an Oath And here two Texts are alleged Matth. 5. 34. But I say unto you swear not at all And Jam. 5. 12. But above all things my Brethren swear not That neither our Saviour nor his Apostle do condemn or disallow the taking of an Oath administred by those who are in Authority is evident from v. 37. But let your communication whereby we are given to understand that to swear in ordinary Communication or Discourse or Conversation is utterly unlawful and a disparagement and dishonour to the sacred Majesty of God to bring his Name in question for every petty trifle To which we may add that Christ likewise condemns all swearing by the Creatures as the manner of the Jews was to swear by Heaven or Earth by Jerusalem or by their Head as the Heathens used to swear by the Fortunes of their Emperors So he in Lucan lib. 1. Per signa decem felicia castris Perque tuos juro quocunque ex hoste triumphâ—s And that the Precept of St. James is to the same purpose appears by the Expression Let your yea be yea and your nay nay i. e. Let your Promises and Performances be all one by which likewise we learn this Lesson That all voluntary that is all such Oaths as have no other motive but a mans self or his own gain or interest but especially promissory Oaths are unlawful for a Christian for he that is so just in performing his Word there will be no need of his Oath and he that perpetually swears to every thing he speaks or promises will be in danger to fall into Lying and Deceit for that is the meaning of Lest ye fall into condemnation that is Lest ye be found deceitful Thus I have made it appear that the Quakers are Enemies to all Magistrates and particularly such as do condemn and disallow of their ways and practices which Contempt and undervaluing of Authority must needs at last end in disorder and confusion and therefore so much the more to be abhorred by every one professing the peaceable Gospel of the Lord Jesus CHAP. VI. Of the Light within THe first Principle that the Quakers so earnestly inculcate and strive to impress upon those whom they seduce is To come to the Light and to the witness within therefore it will be necessary to know and enquire what this Light within is and what they mean by it which must if any where be had out of their own Writings For surely no man can think that they will so constantly call upon men to hearken to and come to the Light within them but they will at the same time tell them what it is and how they shall know it But so unhappily it falls out that though this Light be within every one of them yet they are not agreed among themselves what it is Thomas Forster in his Guide to the Blind printed 1659. pag. 1. says That God is the Light but then pag. 7. as if he had forgotten himself he tells us That Christ within is mans true Light to walk by But yet doubting whether this will hold water or not in pag. 9. he concludes That the Spirit of Christ in man is the true Light and Guide and this Light enlightens every man that comes into the World And since this is so a man would wonder who those blind people are to whom this Blind Guide writes But if James Naylor may be Judge our friend Thomas is very much mistaken for in his Book called A Door opened to the imprisoned Seed printed 1659. pag. 2 3. he says That the Light of the World is Gods Love to the World and this Light is not given to any till they come out of the World George Whitehead in the Seed of Israels Redemption pag. 20. says That the Light within is a measure of the Lords Life and Light Well something it must be though this is certain that if their Writings were given forth by immediate Revelation from the Spirit of God they would not have contradicted one another in their Testimony But since they differ so much in their Opinions I will take that which is most common amongst them that the Light within them is Christ and here I shall help them out a little from their Master H. N. whose Scholars they have hitherto proved themselves to be H. N. therefore affirms thus Every godly man partaker of the Being of God and Spirit of Love is God incarnate and Christ incarnate and Christ is not any one man the Son of the Virgin Mary but every man is Godded with God and Christed with Christ that comes to the Perfection of the Doctrine of H. N. Christ therefore within is that state in man which leaves the written Word or Letter and hearkens wholly to the Revelation of the Spirit and this is the true Light and the Regeneration or Birth into this state is Jesus
An ACCOUNT of FAMILISM As it is Revived and Propagated BY THE QUAKERS SHEWING The Dangerousness of their Tenets and their Inconsistency with the Principles of common Reason and the Declarations of Holy Scripture By Henry Hallywell 2 Pet. ii 1. There shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1673. To the Right Worshipful Sir John Covert Of Slaugham in the County of Sussex Knight and Baronet SIR THe daily and numerous Increase of the Heretical Generation of Quakers in these Parts made me a little more than ordinarily inquisitive into their Doctrins and Persuasions which I found not only destructive of all Civil Politie and Government but of Religion itself and the Worship of Almighty God established amongst us For what else can be expected from them who deny the Scripture to be the Word of God and our Rule and Guide in matters of Salvation And they being so well known to you as having had frequent Experience of their obstinate and perverse Humor in the Discharge and Execution of those Trusts and Employments committed to you under His most Sacred Majesty I could do no less than present you with this small Treatise that going under the Name and Protection of so worthy and accomplisht a Person as your self it may in some measure obtein its desired Effect by putting a stop to the growing Evil and confirming those who are not yet seduced in the Truth of their Profession and may testifie to the World how much I am Honoured Sir Your most Obliged and Affectionate Servant Henry Hallywell An Account of FAMILISM As it is Revived and Propagated BY THE QUAKERS CHAP. I. The Cognation and Agreement between the Quakers and other Antient and Modern Heretics OUr blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ came from Heaven and took upon him our human flesh and bloud and by his sufferings and death upon the Cross redeemed and purchased a Church with his own bloud and of this he took a singular care after his glorious ascension into Heaven and fully instructed and impowered his chosen Apostles to gather it from all parts and quarters of the world and they communicated to men the Word of Reconciliation and the Doctrin of eternal Salvation But the Devil who looked with an evil eye upon the Happiness of our first Parents in Paradise now envied mankind so great a Good and stirred up Persecutions against the Church of God round about And when it pleased the watchful Providence of God to give Peace to his Church by the Conversion of Emperors and Kings to the Faith of Christ the Devil then quickly shifted the Scene and what he could not do by open violence he endeavoured to effect by Subtilty and sought to undermine the Church by Schisms and Heresies and to destroy her by those who pretended to be her own children And this Course he holds on still and to come nearer to my present design it is the envy and hate the Devil bears against true Christianity that hath stirred up here in England an Heretical sort of People called Quakers to draw away and seduce men from the true Profession of Religion into damnable and pernicious Errors And because they borrow something of many Heresies which have been already in the world it will not be amiss to shew briefly in some particulars the Agreement that is between them Simon Magus of old gave out That he was God the Father And how much I pray did George Fox come behind that great Magician when before the Justices of the Peace at Lancaster he affirmed That he was equal with God And James Nailor was no bad Proficient in that cursed School when he said That he did witness that he himself was as holy just and good as God Menander affirmed himself to be sent from the invisible Regions to be the Saviour of Mankind And it is well known to the world that James Nailor asserted himself to be Christ For though his followers would mince the matter as being ashamed of his Blasphemy yet it is certain that he accepted of Hosanna and Divine Worship in the Streets of Bristol and when he was charged with it would return no other answer but in the words of our Saviour Christ Thou sayest it which is as much as I assent to it or acknowledge it Photinus denied the Trinity acknowledging only the Father and excluding the Son and the Holy Ghost And George Fox in the Book called Saul's Errand to Damascus affirms that there is no distinction of Persons in the Godhead And if at any time they are forced to a Confession of it they deliver it so ambiguously that it amounts to no more than what Arius himself affirmed as his Faith who when he was commanded by the Emperor Constantine to give a Confession of it delivered a Creed in words ours but in sense his own Socinus denied the satisfaction of Jesus Christ and looked upon his Death and Passion only as an Example And this is expresly found in their Book called Saul's Errand to Damascus And James Nailor in his Love to the Lost p. 56. says That the end for which Christ did suffer was to be a living Example to all Generations The Valentinians arrogated to themselves a knowledge beyond Christ and his Apostles And what else do the Quakers when they so impudently throw away the written Word of God and by a false application of the Spirit of God to themselves blind and delude the easie and credulous Vulgar with new-fangled Revelations Thomas Holbrow a Quaker to one that urged Scripture answered What dost thou tell me of the Scriptures which are no better to me than an old Almanack Fox and Hubber thorn in a Book called Truth 's Defence say The Scriptures are no standing Rule and 't is dangerous for ignorant people to read them Are not these as impudent Heretics when they shall slight and contemn the Dispensation of Jesus upon Earth as an empty insignificant thing and reject the Ordinances of Christ as childish being themselves under an higher Oeconomy even the Rule of the Spirit And no question but they are under the Rule and Power of the Spirit but 't is of that Spirit which works in the children of Disobedience even the Prince of the Power of the Air. The fore-mention'd Heretics the Valentinians boasted of themselves as the only Spiritual Persons calling themselves Perfect and all others who in the humility of their souls profess themselves sinners and study to serve God with fear Idiots and Ignorant People And does not the same Spirit still possess the Quakers who in an extravagant and proud humour affect the Title and Appellation of Perfection When God knows the very boasting of a thing they have so little of argues their weakness and folly and those that talk and vaunt highest of this Perfection among them are
looked for better satisfaction for his money when the Quaker upon demand of it replied That the Light within him told him that he owed him nothing SECT III. A third Manifestation of the Familists and Quakers being one and the same Sect is their abrogating and disanulling all outward Ordinances and Institutions of Religion That this was the Opinion of David George and H. N. cannot be unknown to any who have but heard or read any thing of them and their Persuasions See H. N.'s Epistle to the two Daughters of Warwick Sect. 5. 7. 10. And that those high-flown Spiritualists the Quakers are of the same mind needs no proof but is evident from their Practice in condemning and censuring men for using a Form of Prayer for baptizing their children for receiving the Sacrament for paying their Tithes and honouring God with their Substance setting apart a place and time for the Worship of God and indeed the whole Duty of Religion if there be any thing outward and of the body in it But that God who has commanded us to worship him in Spirit and in Truth has likewise commanded us to do it with our bodies as well as with our souls 1 Cor. 6. 20. and that bodily expressions by Gestures and Postures are to be used in Christian Religion as kneeling bowing and the like is apparent from the examples of Christ and his Apostles The Holy Jesus himself lift up his sacred Eyes to Heaven when he prayed for Lazarus fell on his face when he prayed in his Agony And St. Paul as himself says Eph. 3. 14. bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ He and St. Peter and the rest of the believers do the like more than once in the Acts of the Apostles Besides confessing praising and glorifying God by the Voice is as much an outward and bodily Worship as any other and therefore if God be not to be honoured and worshipped with bodily Worship we must not pray nor praise him with the Voice Again the very Frame of Christian an Religion presupposes a bodily and outward Worship of God for the Christian Religion is given to men who consist of Body as well as Soul and not to Angels and while we are in these bodies it is impossible but that they must partake in our worship of God yea when it is performed in the most spiritual manner of all Lastly if bodily Worship be not a part of Gods Service there can be no such thing as Idolatry when a man worships an Image As for Example Idolatry is the giving of that Worship to a Creature which is incommunicably proper to God now when a man bows his body to an Image as to an Object of Religious Worship he gives that honour to the Image which is proper to God therefore bowing the body is proper to God and a part of his Worship By this 't is evident what a loss these foolish people are at when they so impudently cry down bodily Worship they run hand over head and never consider the Conclusions that must be drawn from such dangerous Premisses for their very praying together is bodily Worship SECT IV. With a like silly and weak confidence they exclame against Forms of Prayer whenas our Blessed Saviour taught his Disciples a Form Matt. 6. 9. Thus therefore pray ye and lest we should think that this was only a Pattern as if Christ had said Pray after this pattern or to this sense St. Luke Chap. 11. expresses it When ye pray say Our Father c. that is do it in haec verba Moreover that this is a Form of Prayer to be used in the very words it was delivered appears sufficiently from the Occasion of it It came to pass saith St. Luke as Jesus was praying in a certain place that when he ceased one of his Disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples where we are told first that John delivered a certain Form of Prayer to his Disciples Secondly that the Disciples of our Saviour besought him that he also would give them in like manner some Form of his making that they might also pray with their Masters Spirit as John's Disciples did with theirs For 't is ridiculous to think that either John's or our Saviours Disciples knew not how to pray before whenas they were Jews and had their constant hours of Prayer as the third sixth and nineth But besides all this I shall come nearer to themselves when an Enthusiastic Quaker at a meeting starts up and begins to pray I would fain know whether the rest of the Company join with him and go along with him in this Prayer or not If they do not to what purpose doth he pray in a vocal and audible manner for he might as well have prayed to himself as to speak aloud if it be not for Edification that others may join with him If they do join with him in that his Prayer is it not then a Form to all them that hear it and are not they bound to pray in those very words and expressions which he utters And though he be never so much over-flowed with the Spirit of the Lord as they talk yet the hearers are limited and confined to those very expressions which the inspired Prophet utters With what confidence then can men separate from the Church of God and run after these Whifflers when the case is so plain against them certainly any man that has but half an eye may see that they are mere cheats in these things Let it not be said then that men who can use their Reasons well enough in other things should be so far to seek in these as to be carried away against Scripture Sense and Reason and the Experience of every man only by the prate and talk of an ignorant sottish fellow Object But here they object that St. Paul in Rom. 8. 26. saith That the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Therefore we ought not to put up our petitions to God in a Form of Prayer Answ Here we may see those very persons who deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God yet like the Devil make use of them for their own advantage But if it shall be manifested that the Text alledged has not one syllable in it that proves an immediate Inspiration of God both for the words and matter of Prayer their boasting will be found to be ridiculous and vain May not this then be St. Paul's meaning who all along before was discoursing of bearing the Cross that the Holy Spirit helps the weakness of our natures lifting and bearing up as it were a part of the burden of the Cross for us for that we know not which part to chuse or to pray for either a perfect deliverance from it or that we should continue longer under the
God for him and that Abraham did thereupon give him the tythe of all Now look in the seventh of the Hebrews where this story is repeated you shall find that Melchisedek was a Type of Christ and hence Christs Priesthood is said to be after the order of Melchisedek and it is said that Melchisedek in the Person of Christ received Tythes of Abraham therefore Tythes are now due to Christ for as much as he is still a Priest after the order of Melchisedek and consequently they are the right and portion of his Ministers The next place of Scripture mentioning Tythes before the Law is in Gen. 28. v. 22. Jacob going upon his adventure voweth that if God will be with him in his journey and give him meat and cloath and so that he return safe then saith he the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I here set up shall be Gods house and of all that thou shalt give me will I give the tenth unto thee 3. If the payment of Tythes under the Gospel were meerly Judaical then should the Ministers of the Gospel receive much more than a tenth part which they do not nor is there hardly a Parish in England where the Minister is paid the full tenth without purloining and snipping by some sacrilegious hand or other Now though Christs Ministers ought to have a more honourable maintenance than the Priests and Levites yet such is the iniquity of men that they have not the tenth whereas the Israelites paid out of their increase of Corn almost a fifth part for several Tythes and Duties commanded to them And by what is said I have manifested the frivolousness of this Objection That Tythes are Levitical and if there were not some sweetness which the covetous and sacrilegious man reaped by pinching the Parson he could never deny the payment of his Tythes upon such a silly pretence Object 2. They say that Christ told his Disciples Freely they had received therefore they should freely give Mat. 10. 8. and the Apostles Paul and Barnabas preached freely working with their own hands that they might not be chargeable to any therefore Ministers should not grieve the people by taking Tythes Answ That of our Saviour to his Disciples Freely ye have received freely give belongs not to the case of Tythes as any one that reads the foregoing words may see the gifts which Christ gave to his Apostles were to heal the sick cleanse the Lepers raise the dead and to cast out Devils which miraculous gifts if it had been lawful would have been a way to bring in gain enough for what would not a Parent give to have his dead Child raised to life or a man to have his dear and sick Friend recovered or dispossessed of an evil spirit Therefore our blessed Lord that he might declare his own Mission that he was sent for the good and common benefit of all men charges his Disciples that they should not think of appropriating these extraordinary gifts to their private interest and advantage but that as God without any merit of theirs had graciously conferred these Powers upon them so they should as freely make use of them for the benefit of others Neither do the Ministers sell the Holy Ghost or the Gospel for money but preach it freely being maintained at Gods charges for there is a Rent or Portion of every mans Estate due to God as an acknowledgment they hold all they have of him and God being self-sufficient and standing in need of nothing of ours has assigned and given this Portion of his for the maintenance of his Ministers And as the Apostles were never charged with this sin of selling their gifts when they lived at the costs of those to whom they preached the Gospel so neither are the Ministers now guilty of this sin when for their Preaching they are maintained at Gods charges and live upon his Revenue for the Lord himself said Dignus est operarius Mercede suâ Then for the Apostles Paul and Barnabas preaching the Gospel freely it rather makes against than for them that object it for this was no binding Commandment to them nor had Christ any where said to them Ye shall not take Tithes but it was a Charter of Liberty and Power granted to them they might both use and exact Maintenance if they would or they might discedere de jure leave it if they listed 1 Cor. 9. 6. I only and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges Who planteth a Vine-yard and eateth not of the fruit thereof Or who feedeth a flock and eats not of the milk of the flock As if he had said May the other Apostles eat and drink upon the expence of the Church and keep their Wives also and Family by the Revenue dedicated to God by their Children whom they beget in the Gospel and must I only and Barnabas not live but by the works of our hands And that he may not in the least reprove the Apostles who were mainteined by the Church he shews that it was just and lawful for them to live as they did of the Churches Allowance by an Argument of Comparison seeing Soldiers live by their Wages and Husband-men by the Fruit of their Labours and Shepherds of that which comes of the Flock It is plain then that St. Paul might have lawfully demanded and received Tithes if he would but he did not use that Power which he might have done because he would not have them think he was burdensom to them But if a man will recede from his right and not take what he lawfully may does that prove that he has no right nor due to it I have now made it manifest and evident that Tithes as they are now the stated and set Maintenance of the Ministers are due by Divine Right which also the very Text and Body of the Common Law of England holds them to be as Judge Coke says in the second Part of his Reports Dismes sont choses spirituels due de jure Divino But suppose they were not what advantage can a hungry Familist reap by it surely very little It is said Nehem. 10. 32. that Nehemiah and the Jews made Statutes for themselves to give every year the third part of a Shekel for the service of the House of God It was in their power before to give what they pleased but they by a joint consent fix upon the third part of a Shekel every year and by this Ordinance and Statute they were bound to make good their Grant The Case is the same with us our Forefathers made Laws among themselves to give a portion of their Land and the tenth part of their Substance that is these Parsonages for the Service of the House of God Now suppose that Tithes were not due before yet now being voluntarily given and this Grant confirmed by so many Acts of Parliament they are now become due and the Ministers have as
I find it in the Collection of his Scribble lately printed in Folio By Order and Authority given unto me by the Spirit of the living God King of Kings and Lord of Lords the 31 day of the 10 month in the year of the Worlds account 1655. about the fourth hour in the morning when my Meditations were on my God upon my Bed in Kilkenny City in the Nation of Ireland at that time the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Write my Controversie with all the Inhabitants of the Earth unto all sorts of people as I will shew thee Given under my hand and sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God who lives for ever E. B. Then follows O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord. After this he lays about him on all sides as if he were mad and like a ravening Wolf worries every thing that comes in his way threatning Plagues and Vengeance to all that are not Quakers But I must not forget his Prophetical Epistle to the Pope in the conclusion of which he tells him That he has many more things to write to him when he receives his answer and if the Pope will give him ground to accuse him he will thresh him and lay it to his charge by the Authority and Spirit of the Lord. Then this Postscript Return your Answer to me or any of the people called Quakers for me in London from whence this is sent being written the 24 of the 8 month 1658. A pretty way of prophesying to threaten destruction from the Lord against the Pope and then to desire an Answer I suppose how he liked of it The man it seems had a strong faith and if he did believe that his Prophetical Letter should come to the Popes hands yet he was but a fool if he thought either that would convert him or that the Pope would trouble himself to answer it Having discovered from their Writings that they conceit themselves to be divinely inspired which is a thing common to all Enthusiastical Hereticks I shall give two or three Examples of the folly and ridiculousness of their Inspirations A Gentleman of Newcastle affirmed that some Quakers came to Kendale Church and said They had a Commission from the Lord to pull down the Steeple One Thomas Castley a Quaker came to Kendale Church in the time of the Sermon and said That he was commanded from God to pull down the Hour-Glass And the same man went a long mile with no other Message from God as he pretended but this to tell one of the Ministers of Newcastle Thou art an High Priest which words having spoken he went his way A certain Quaking Woman at Cambridge stript her self of her Cloths by the River side and went stark naked through the midst of the Town and being asked the reason of such a shameful action she answered That she was commanded in that manner to go to the House of the Mayor of the Town and deliver a Message from God unto him But so unhappily it fell out that the Mayor was gone a Journey and came not home till some days after Either such Revelations as these must be meer Cheats or else it must be said that the Spirit of God took no notice whether the Mayor were at home or not One Williamson's Wife coming to Appleby to see James Milner a Disciple of Foxes said in the hearing of divers there That she was the Eternal Son of God and when the men that heard her told her that she was a woman and therefore could not be the Son of God she said No you are women but I am a man This I mention that the Reader may see to what absurd Impieties these Enthusiastick people are lead by their own Dreams At Weighton a little Town in Yorkshire a woman of this Goatish Herd came naked from her own Bed to another womans husband a companion of hers it seems of the same Sect and bid him Open his Bed to her for the Father had sent her to him the man had at that time another man lying in Bed with him who rose to give place to this woman and left this honest couple to lie together according to the womans Revelation By this taste which I have here given there is no rational person but will conclude the Quakers to be a simple deluded people taking their own Dreams and Melancholick Fancies for Divine Inspirations and having cast off the use of Reason and the written Word of God are made obnoxious to all the Impostures and Injections of the Devil and till they return to that Guide I mean the voice of Reason and Scripture which they have so wilfully abandoned and forsaken must inevitably lie under everlasting Errours and Deceits CHAP. VIII Of the Quakers Perfection THe Quakers talk much of Perfection and Freedom from sin in this life and that they have already attained to it but he that shall look into the Manners and Conversations of the most of them shall find their Pretensions to this high state no greater than for a common Strumpet to brag of her honesty for the very boasting of a thing they have so little of does evidently declare their enormous and monstrous pride and those to whom they upbraid the want of it do better deserve the name than they in that their lives are indeed not worse but their spirits in not pretending to it far more humble and modest For if the Pharisees Litany God I thank thee that I am not as other men are stand upon record as a mark of the Pharisaical arrogance and pride I know not how these high-flown Enthusiasts can justifie themselves And certainly for them to arrogate to themselves a freedom from sin and perfection above all other men when yet the vulgar and common people discern and take them tripping in daily faults and miscarriages even in their ordinary converse with the world it must needs appear that either they do the most unjustly challenge this state of perfection or else by an Antinomian liberty they conceive themselves to have a freedom to act any thing and that after they are arrived to such a way and dispensation they are no longer obliged by any Law nor can any thing they do be called a sin And as hitherto I have proved by undeniable Instances that the Familists and Quakers are one and the same in their Opinions and Judgments so in this boast of their perfection and freedom from sin they both walk in the same Path. And in them is that of the Apostle St. Peter verified 2 Pet 2. 18 9. When they speak great swelling words of vanity such as perfection and freedom from sin they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped from them who live in errour While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage I do not find that any of the holy
Sugar-Plumbs lay under their Tongues when a deadly poison lodges in their Hearts which being nothing but a canting in Scripture-phrase and expression and fitted to feminine fancies yet has a very great influence upon the people especially when their minds are prepared and prejudicated with an opinion of their being inspired In these respects now it appears that Quakery hath a very great advantage above all other Heresies and hath strong and powerful temptations to allure unstable and wavering minds from the knowledge of the truth But their Impostures and Cheats being so plainly detected and discovered in this foregoing Treatise if any man knowing and warned of them yet wilfully and presumptuously shall fall into them his destruction is of himself and his ruine inexcusable he hath now no cloak for his sin The Conclusion I have now run through the chiefest of the Quakers Opinions and plainly and evidently proved them in every thing to be exactly Familistical I shall now for a Conclusion of this Treatise only add this serious Admonition to those who approve of and are hankering after Quakery And to this end I would have them consider that the Quakers do deny the Books of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and say that they are no Rule of our Faith and Manners which must needs be of the most dangerous consequence to the souls of men for men being reasonable Creatures and in that Princely Prerogative Superiour to the Beasts of the Field must of necessity guide and determine their Actions by some Rule and Measure and if neither Reason nor Scripture be that Rule they are liable to be imposed upon by every Cheat and led into any errour whatever and so at last eternally destroyed for by this means having cast away Reason and Scripture from having any thing to do with their Actions good and evil Truth and Falshood will be all alike and there will be no difference between Virtue and Vice and to kill a mans Neighbour and seize upon his Estate may be no sin if the voice of Reason and Scripture be not to judge of it These things will be of a very sad consequence to every one that expects and looks for another life when this is ended But it may further be considered that the rejecting of the Scriptures and denying them to be the Word of God is likewise a piece of Familism and was a part of the Doctrine of Caspar Swenckfield a Silesian and that upon this ground which the Quakers likewise urge because Christ is called the Word But so are the Scriptures too called the Word of God 1 Thes 2. 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is indeed the Word of God So Heb. 13. 7. Remember them which have the rule over you and have spoken to you the Word of God Moreover they would do well to reflect and consider how they hope to be saved If they profess Quakery it cannot be by the Death and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ the Son of God because the Quakers own no such Person living without them nor do they believe the History of his Death and Passion at Jerusalem in the letter of it so that every man who turns to be a Quaker puts himself out of a capacity of being saved for there being no Name by which any man shall be saved but by the Name of JESVS and he being denied by them as a Person living in Heaven they are by the Tenour of the Gospel excluded from having any Salvation by him By which it appears that every man professing and embracing Quakery hazards and sets at stake the everlasting Happiness of his Immortal Soul But it is no wonder they take so little notice of their Souls when they believe they have none and he that follows their ways and opinions must cast away all care for another life nor think of any thing but for the present for Heaven Hell and the Day of Judgment are as they say in this Life And though the Quaker will impudently deny all this and boldly affirm that he holds no such things yet I have produced nothing as their Judgment but what I find published by some of them in their printed Papers or has been delivered by them at their own Conventicles and Meetings and therefore is sufficiently known to be their own opinion But it need not startle any man to hear a Quaker out-face his own Errours when challenged with them for he that takes away all distinction between good and evil will not stick to lye when it is for his advantage Wherefore these Hereticks being so dangerous and their Doctrine so destructive of the Salvation of mens Souls they ought carefully to be avoided and their society detested and abhorred for he that associates himself with them cannot be free from Sin but as he is guilty of Sin in the sight of God by joyning himself to them so unless he speedily return and repent he will partake of their Punishments For so said the Spirit of God Numb 16. 26. Come out from the Congregation of these men lest ye be consumed in their sins And the Apostle St. John Epist 2. ver 10. 11. says that If there come any to you and bring not the Doctrin of Jesus Christ which is conteined in the Books of the New Testament he is not to be received into your house nor to be bid God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds Lastly if any man would keep himself from being drawn into their Errors he must be sure to observe the written Word of God as the Rule of his Belief and Actions nor must he forsake the Dictates and Notices of right Reason For by these two things he may judge of any Doctrin propounded to him and whatever any man tells him if it be contrary to Scripture and Reason he may be certain that it is false As for instance the Quaker comes and pretends that what he delivers it is divinely inspired to him by the Spirit and that he hath immediate Revelations from God In this Case now I am to try what he brings by the Word of God and right Reason St. Paul says Gal. 1. 8. 9. That if any man or an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Doctrin than what they had already preached and the believers received he should be accursed Now therefore if these Quaking Inspirations contein any other Doctrin than what is delivered in the Bible that Doctrin is false and those that broached it are accursed And if the Revelation be of something which the Word of God meddles not with as concerning the going or not going to such a Place the doing or not doing of such an Action Common Reason will help a man to judge very much in it and will afford so much light as to discover the Revelation to be foolish and ridiculous and nothing else but a Fansie arising from a deep Melancholy and mistaken for the Inspiration of the Spirit of God And by these two helps supposing a man to be faithful to God and his own soul he may easily discover and avoid such pernicious Errors For it is the cunning of these wicked People to deny the Scriptures and the use of Reason because they know they are so diametrically opposite to their Doctrins and Opinions The Contents CHAP. I. THe Cognation and Agreement between the Quakers and other Antient and Modern Heretics CHAP. II. Of the Authors of Familism and the Quakers Agreement with them in their Doctrin CHAP. III. Of the Holiness of Times Things and Persons under the Gospel CHAP. IV. That Quakery though it pretend high is mere Sadducism at the Bottom CHAP. V. That the Quakers are dangerous Enemies of the Civil Magistrate CHAP. VI. Of the Light within CHAP. VII The Quakers Pretence of Immediate Revelations CHAP. VIII Of the Quakers Perfection CHAP. IX The Ways and Arts the Quakers use in gaining Proselytes CHAP. X. The Advantage of Familism above other Sects and Heresies FINIS Lib. 1. c. 18. Concerning a form of Prayer Of Baptism Of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Of the Time allotted for the Service of God Exod. 20. 8. Of the Place of Gods Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is found to signifie in Homer So Herod in Erato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et apud Euripīdem Helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Ministers Maintenance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Object I. Of the Ministers of the Gospel The Lawfulness of taking an Oath Rom. 14. 11. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. Job 34. 30. Mat. 24. 51. 2 Thess 2. 10 11.