Acts 8.19 but George Magus own'd no other Holy Ghost than what was within himself of which he was the Possessor and Owner These have far out-strip'd their Master For Simon Magus was the Father of the Quakers Socinians and all the rest of the Anti-Trinitarian Hereticks He first Blasphem'd against the Holy Trinity slighted the Scriptures Epiphan Haer. 21. Iren. Advers Haer. l. 1. c. 20. denying the Law of Moses to be from God set up Magic Idolatry and Sensuality In all of which he was not more follow'd by the Gnosticks than the Quakers as I think I have sufficiently shewn I hope without Exception unless it be that sometimes I do not name every Voucher and sometimes set down but the two first Letters of their Names which is but seldom and then only when they were not willing unless upon necessity to clear the Truth which they will not refuse to have their Names expos'd to the Fury of the Quaker-Spirit which throws so much Dirt upon any who dare oppose them that no Man tho never so Innocent wou'd desire to be so bespatter'd which is the Reason given by the Ingenious Author of The Third Part of the Quakers Quibbles Printed 1675. why he did not let himself be known And may be one Reason why they have not yet attempted any Answer to that Book alone I think I may say of all that have been wrote against them being depriv'd of their beloved Topick which they use instead of Argument to Vilifie and Discredit all that is in their Power the Good Name of any who writes against them Let the Reader take this for one Reason if he please tho' I say not that it is the only one why the Author of this small Treatise has not troubled the World with his Name For he desires no stress to be laid upon who says but upon what is said Besides he thought it needless to tell his Name to these Gentlemen with whom he has to do because as hereafter Quoted p. 71. George Fox says That they the Quakers have an Infallible Judgment to judge Personâ— and Things Which yet has not discoverâ—d to them the Author of The Quakers Quibbles and this Author may perhaps escape as well tho' his Concern is not great if it prove otherwise But this by the bye To return to Edw. Burrough p. 47. of his Works determines clearly that the Scriptures are not now of any Authority at all to us at this day Why Because they were Commands given to others and not to us For example That the Epistles to the Corinthians bound no other Church that to the Galatians had respect only to those of Galatia and so of all the rest And that the old Prophets were only to be hearkened to at that time by those particular People or Nations to whom they then directed their Prophecies For it being objected that the Quakers held this pernicious Principle That the Saints were not to do Duties by or from a Command without but from a Command within and that the word Command in Scripture was not a Command to them till they had the word within them Burrough owns and justifies it I answer says he That is no Command from God to me which he Commands to another neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by the Command which was to another not having the Command to themselves I Challenge an Example of it they obey'd every one their own Command and thou or any other who goes to Duty as you call it by Imitation from the Letter without which was Commands to others your Sacrifice is not accepted but is Abomination to the Lord c. Here it is made Abomination to the Lord to obey the Command of Scripture or to live by Imitation as he calls it from the Letter that is not to follow our own Imaginations without the controul of Scripture or any other Law This is the same Principle which is hereafter p. 156. related from Mr. Penn and almost in the same words That what was a Command of God in old time that is in the Scriptures is not so to us unless requir'd by the same Spirit Anew Here the whole Authority of Scripture is at one blow cut down For no Command in Scripture is by this Rule obligatory unless it be Commanded Anew by the Quaker Light within that is by every Man's Roving Imagination and if it be Commanded by their Light within then they think that it is Dictated by the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures of old and upon that account only that it is obligatory but not because it is contain'd in Scripture which was only a Command to those in former Ages but not to us who have another Rule given unto us Anew that is our own Light within So that the Scriptures are by this as much out-dated as an old Almanack And we must no longer search the Scriptures we must not live so much as by Imitation of what we find there Burrough says it is Abomination to the Lord. And therefore it was no strange thing to hear George Whitehead in his Serious Apology p. 49. Prefer not only their Writings but their Extempore Preachments and even all whatsoever they speak upon any account to the Holy Scriptures themselves The Question demanded was this Do you esteem your Speakings to be of as great Authority as any Chapter in the Bible And his Answer is in these words That which is spoken by the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures and Chapters are and Greater And therefore tho' they have let no suppos'd contempt of their own Books go unrebuked as in the Instance before of Chandler yet we never heard of any Censure they have pass'd upon those many much grosser contempts of Scripture which daily are found among them Particularly that we may always name some Instance of Mary Tucker a Quaker Servant to William Reyman a Barber now living in Queen-street Cheap-side but formerly in Bread-street where this Mary then his Servant took the Bible and in the open day publickly Burnt it against the Church in Bread-street to shew her Zeal Pursuant to this their Principle in their Disputes among themselves they appeal to their own Writings instead of the Holy Scriptures Thus when in their Publick Meeting at Philadelphia upon Sunday 11. Dec. 1692. G. Keith was Accus'd of Heresie See Heresie and Hatred before Quoted p. p. in saying That the Light within was not sufficient to Salvation without something else i. e. Christ Jesus as without us And that G. Keith desir'd to have that Pretended Heresie prov'd against him by Scripture it was Reply'd by Sam. Jennings as the Mouth of the Meeting we are not to prove it from Scripture but from Friends Books for the Question betwixt us and George Keith is not who is the best Christian but who is the best Quaker And indeed they did rightly distinguish betwixt the Christian and the
cannot be Infiniteness in it self Against this G. Fox Disputes and no Kind of Infiniteness will serve his turn but Infiniteness in himself which is the Infiniteness of God alone for He only has Infinity in Himself as not being given by any other Is not the Soul says he without Beginning Hath this a Beginning â—r Ending and is it not Infinite in it self and more than all the world P. 29. Now consider what 〈◊〉 â—â—â—dition these call'd Ministers are in They say that which is a Spiritual Substance is not Infinite in it self but a Creature Here he will not let the Soul be a Creature His proof is in the next words That which came out from the Creator and is in the Hand of the Creator which brings it up and to the Creator again That is Infinite in it self I do not medle with his Philosophy which is wretched I only shew you his Opinion that the Soul is not a Creature but Infinite and that in it self Which is making of it God in the strictest terms Will you have any more of it He makes the Soul to become one Soul with God Christ says he p. 19. brings the Soul up into God from whence it came whereby they come to be one Soul And p. 229. who are come up into the Bishop Christ they are one Soul It is horrid Blasphemy said Alexander Ross to say The Soul is a part of God It is not horrid Blasphemy reply'd G. Fox p. 273. to say the Soul is a part of God for it came out of Him and that which came out of Him is of Him Fox does not say that the Soul came from God that is that God Created it But that it came of God as a Part of God of his Substance Person and Essence And p. 100. is not this of God's Being Says he And he Disputes against this Position That there is not an Essential In-dwelling of the Divine Nature in God's People and That God dwells not in the Saints by a Personal Union Or that Christ's Person is not in Man which is as much as to say replies G. Fox p. 248. as if we were not of his Flesh and Bones and had not his Substance Here the Light within is not only an Illumination or Inspiration from Christ but the very Person of Christ his Substance his Flesh and Bones And he says p. 207. That Christ is not distinct from his Saints That Christ is the Elect. p. 88. That the Light within is Christ p. 310. That they who are of the Faith are the Flesh of Christ the Flesh of Him who Suffered But this will come under a following Head Sect. 17. therefore for the present we dismiss it Only I will tell you before I go Mr. Penn's Excuse for G. Fox in all these particulars He lays it upon George's extreme Ignorance The Invalidity of John Faldo 's Vindication c. 1673. p. 353. That when he said the Soul was Equal with God by Equality he meant only Unity And that when he call'd the Soul Infinite he did not mean Infinite but something that is not Finite or which comes to an End And that when he said the Soul was without Beginning and a Part of God he did not mean the Soul but the Breath of God c. He says that George observ'd no nicety of Expression and finds great fault with those who make ill use of his Plain and Vulgar Phrases An Indifferent Man wou'd rather have said Ne sutor ultra Crepidam That this Fox shou'd rather have kept to his Original Trade than to set up for Interpreting the Scripture before he had learned to speak Sense or write English A defect in which is a strange excuse for Infallibility But it is just with God thus to detect such Wicked and Blasphemous Pretences to all who are not resolv'd to shut their Eyes For will any one believe that that Spirit which cou'd dictate an Infallible Knowledge of the Scripture and of all Persons and Things as G. F. c. pretended cou'd not have enabl'd these Men to speak common sense or to understand plain English words But the truth is all this was a Bewildring of G. F's poor understanding and not to be charg'd only as Mr. Penn's over Charity does upon his Plain and Vulgar Phrases For in both the above Instances of the Soul 's Infinity and Equality with God the Distinctions were plainly given to G. F. what sort of Infinity and Equality was allow'd to the Soul and he expresly Disputes against such Distinctions and rejects any Limited Sense of the Souls Infinity and Equality with God But will have it Infinite in it self and no Lesser kind of Infiniteness which was allow'd him And to be Equal to God not only in Quality but in Equality which was a great deal too much to be Granted But that it self wou'd not satisfie G. F. And this must proceed past help of Mr. Penn and all the World either from a most Impious Blasphemy or such an immoderate degree of Dullness and lack of Understanding as cou'd not befall any thing in Human shape much less any one who pretended to Inspiration and proudly to Decry and Damn all the World since the Apostles SECT VIII Of the Quakers pretence to a sinless Perfection THis is dispatch'd already Sect. 6. where we see them claim a Perfection even Equal to God But because I suppose there are some of them who are not willing now to go that Blasphemous length I will set down some of their more Moderate Pretences to Perfection that is to a sinless State even in this Life I have before Quoted Mr. Penn upbraiding the Church of England as Opposers of Perfection and Ridiculing us for confessing our selves sinners and imploring God's Mercy Now hear G. Fox p. 101. It is the Doctrine of Devils that Preacheth that Men shall have sin and be in a Warfare so long as they be on Earth They that pretend coming to God and Christ out of Perfection they be in the Error p. 111. All who come to Christ they come to Perfection p. 231. They attain to Perfection in the Life of God p. 271. For who are Sanctified have Perfect Unity Perfect Knowledge Perfect Holiness p. 281. The Life of the Saints is Christ not sinful at all This will appear further in what follows which might be put all under one Head but for Method's sake and Plainness I distinguish them SECT IX Concerning the Quakers pretence to Immediate Revelation Equal to what was given to the Pen-Men of the Holy Scriptures GEorge Fox says p. 242. That they are in the same Power Understanding Knowledge and Immediate Revelation from Heaven that the Apostles were in Are not ye says he to the Professors p. 241. in the Presumption and Usurp Authority to Preach or to Teach that have not the Immediate Revelation as the Apostles had p. 213. Thou canst not know the Scriptures but by the same Degree of the Spirit the Prophets and Apostles had They
c. This is plain Language They will not yet take Arms not For the present not till they see their time But they have enter'd a Caveat to secure their Right and Title to it till they think fit to set up their Claim for their Heirship to the uttermost parts of the Earth But this is a Secret and to be kept under their Thumb for the present And therefore in their New Edition of Edward Burrough's Works Anno 1672. This Passage is left out with others against the King c. But no ways Disclaimed or Censur'd by them Which is now Requir'd from them or otherwise they must give us leave to believe that it is their Principle to take Arms and to Fight to set up their Heirship to any Kingdom they please when their King the Son of God Commands them And they believing that their Light within is that very Christ the Son of God as is fully shewn in what follows the Consequence is that they are free to take Arms whenever they say it is the time Or if the Mission of a Prophet be necessary to signifie the Command of their King to Fight for Him and for their own Heirship that can never be wanting to them because they do pretend to keep up a continual Succession of Prophets among them And the Word of every True Prophet being the Command of God Himself consequently whoever believes such a one to be a True Prophet must at his Command think themselves oblig'd to pull down any King and to set up whomsoever that Prophet names in his Place As Hazael was made King of Syria and Jehu of Israel by the Command of Elijah 1 Kings 19.15 16. Now the Quakers do pretend to have still Prophets and with as great a Power 9. For by their Printed Injunctions from the Meeting of Sufferings in London the 18th of the 6th Month 1693. to the respective Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England and Wales for preserving and spreading Friends Books for Truths Service among other of their Works to be carefully by them spread by way of Epistle Warning Caution and Exhortation they add likewise Prophecy And by a Canon of their General Assembly in London the 27th of the 3d Month 1675. they strictly Caution and Forbid to say That the Faithful Friends Papers which we say they testifie have been given forth by the Power of God are Mens Edicts And in their Paper of Orders from London in the 3d Month 1666. they reckon them as Heathens and Infidels who will not submit to the Judgment of their Church and dare oppose it as the Judgment of Man This is beyond all Acts of Parliament they are but the Edicts of Men And we pretend our Canons and Ecclesiastical Injunctions to be no other But whatever a Quaker Dictates if it were to Depose the King and set up their Universal Monarch above-told and to assert by Arms their own Heirship to the uttermost parts of the Earth If they should abrogate any or all of our Laws as they have done that of Tithes or any thing else whatever their Arbitrary Enthusiastical Spirit shall suggest to them this must not be look'd upon as any thing that is Humane that is below a Quaker's Pride but as the very Words of God as if pronounc'd by an Angel or an Apostle So that we must look well to our selves These are no Ordinary Men believe it 10. And their Design I mean of their Leaders is not only Liberty of Conscience that 's but a poor business but the total overthrow of the Church of England And that by a very Crafty Policy first to take away their Maintenance that is the Tithes and then they are sure it will fall to the ground And this Rob. Barclay does not conceal Anarchy p. 42. An. 1676. That Anti-Christian Apostatiz'd Generation says he the National Ministery have received a Deadly Blow by out Witness against their forc'â— Maintenance and Tythes So that their Kingdom in the Hearts of thousands begins to Totter and shall assuredly fall to the Ground But what if the Light within some Quakers shou'd allow them to pay Tythes And think that they ought in Conscience to do it as being Legally Established c. Wou'd the Quakers Rulers allow them Liberty of Conscience and give them leave to follow their Light within No. No. That is but scaffolding to pull down our Church and to build their own And they will not have their Cannon turn'd against themselves See his Animadversions on George Whitehead 's Innocency Triumphant 1694. p. 30. For when Thomas Crisp and other Quakers thought themselves oblig'd to pay their Tythes and did so accordingly they were Proceeded against as Rebels under no less a Denomination and that not only as against Men but against God Himself For their Writings as above told are not to be look'd on as the Edicts of Men. But as G. Fox Proclaims in his Answer to the Westmorland Petition p. 30. If ever you own the Prophets Christ and the Apostles you will own our Writings which are given forth by the same Spirit and Power And in another place See G. F. and R. H. Truths Defence c. p. 2. 104. 107. You might as well Condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as our Queries Our giving forth Papers and Printed Books it is from the Immediate Eternal Spirit of God You are Answered from the mouth of the Lord c. And from the same mouth of the Lord Thomas Ellwood Denounces Antidote against the Infection of W. Rogers c. p. 78. That they who pay Tythes thereby deny Christ to be come in the Flesh which is a mark of Anti-Christ And G. Fox in his Decretal Epistle bearing Date the 3d Month 1677. See his Journal p. 431. Commands severely that the Friends Testimony against Tythes be kept up with vigor He says That for any to cry against the Priests in words and yet to give them means and put into their Mouths is a Contradiction And therefore take heed says he for if the Lord God do Bless you with outward Creatures and you do bestow them upon Baal's Priests the Lord may justly require the outward things from you again So all the Preachers for Tythes and money and the Takers and Payers of Tythe must be testified against in the Lords Power and Spirit and therefore in the power of the Lord maintain the War against the Beast that is as well Payers as Receivers of Tythes And that is the whole Kingdom King and Parliament who made Laws for the Payment of Tythes and all who dare obey those Laws are The Beast Anti-Christs and have deny'd Christ's coming in the Flesh as T. Ellwood and therefore G. Fox concludes his Epistle above-said keep your Authority and Dominion That is over that Beast and these Anti-Christs This was wrote 1677. and Printed 1694. whereby we may understand what Church they mean to which Tythes are paid and against which they have Proclaim'd War 11. But there
the Quakers p. 97. Witness Immediate Revelation They are come to that the Apostles was in the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of God they Witness Immediate Revelation p. 153. But the rest of the World have never heard the Voice of God nor the Voice of Christ and have not the same Infallible Spirit as the Apostles had and no Immediate Revelation nor Inspiration as they had p. 221. Revelation is now witnessed in our Days as it was in the Apostles but not amongst you who have inwardly Ravened from the Spirit of God which have Apostatized from the Apostles And so you be in the Diabolical Devilish that expects not that now which was in the Days of the Apostles If ever you own the Prophets Christ New Rome Unmask'd p. 42. G. F's Answer to the Westmorland Petition p. 30. Truth 's Defence G. F. and R. H. p. 2 89 104 and the Apostles you will own our Writings which are given forth by the same Spirit and Power You may as well Condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as our Quaeries Our giving forth Papers and Printed Books it is from the Immediate Eternal Spirit of God You are now Answered from the Mouth of the Lord. Of their stiling their own Writings The Word of the Lord and denying it to the Holy Scriptures you will see farther Sect. 11. Concerning the Authority of the Holy Scriptures SECT X. Concerning the Quakers Infallibility THis Section may seem needless as being included in the former For who pretend to an Equality with God to the same Immediate Revelation with Christ the Prophets and Apostles had must needs be Infallible But I conceive it will be worth the Readers while to see how they Branch it and Descend to particular Marks and Instances of their Infallibility This Section therefore is like opening the Jugler's Box And you may expect to see Rareties I told you before how their Infallibility was Palm'd upon them by the Church of Rome Of which they were so greedy that they swallow'd it down by whole-sale and wou'd have none of those Cautions with which the Church of Rome us'd to Defend themselves or else forgot them in their Haste and in their Hony Month while they were New-fangl'd Thus while the Church of Rome plac'd their Infallibility only in their Church or at most in the Pope alone as the Head of it the Quakers set up for it All and every One of them There was an Infallibility for you The Church of Rome had cunning Hiding Places and if you attack'd the Infallibility of their Church they wou'd not tell you what they meant by their Church nor where to find their Infallibility some wou'd make you believe that it was in the Pope as Head of the Church and only Successor of Peter to whom the Promises Super hanc Petram and Tues Petrus were made But then some distinguished and said not in Peter alone nor always but only when he was in Cathedra and some said that was with his Conclave others said no but only with a General Council Again some plac'd the Infallibility in the Council above the Pope others in the Pope above the Council others in neither of them asunder but only in both together And lastly some will have it none of all these ways but say it is only to be look'd for in the Diffusive Body of the Church And then as to the Infallibility it self some tell us that it relates to Manners as well as Faith and to Practice as well as Theory Others will by no means admit of that but confine it wholly to matters of Faith And then it will be a long Dispute what shall be adjudg'd a Matter of Faith and what not but only as Relating to Faith These are long and intricate Mazes and it requires no little Skill to be able to follow them thro' all these various Subterfuges But the Simplicity of our Quakers has depriv'd them of every one of these Helps For as they place Infallibility in every single Quaker so they confine it not to matters of Faith but extend it to all Persons and Things To know all Mens Hearts and all Things in the World by their inward Light without being told by any I am sure by this time the Reader is impatient to come to the Proof to see if it be possible for Men to be possess'd with such an incredible degree of Enthusiasm And I am willing to begin that I may no longer lie under the suspicion of Imposing unjustly or at least of Aggravating any thing against them G. Fox says plainly Gr. Myst p. 89. That they can discern who are Saint who are Devils and who Apostates without speaking ever a word Ibid. p. 5. That they have the Word of God Christ which is Eternal and Infallible in their Hearts to judge Persons and Things Thou says he to his Opponent p. 96. not being Infallible thou art not in the Spirit and so art not a Minister and art not able to judge of Powers that is not Infallible nor Magistrates nor Kingdoms nor Churches Now which of the Quakers is it who have this Spirit to judge thus Infallibly of Persons and Things of Powers Magistrates Kingdoms and Churches And to discern Mens Hearts who are Saints and who Apostates and that without being told by any as G. F. expresses it without speaking ever a word This is told us in p. 7. of Edward Burrough's Epistle to the Reader of G. F's Great Mystery where he says that this Infallible Spirit was given To us says he every one of us in particular And this Light gave us to discern between Truth and Error between every false and right way and it Perfectly discover'd to us the true state of All Things Thou say'st says Fox to his Opponent p. 107. that the Holiest Man is not able to give an Infallible Character of another Man Hast thou not in this discover'd thy self to be no Minister of Christ or of the Spirit Who cannot give an Infallible Character of another Man how canst thou Minister to his Condition How canst thou see where he is How canst thou see them that be turned from the Darkness and that be in the Darkness and distinguish the one from the oother and an Holy Man from an Unholy Man that canst not give an Infallible Character of and Man's Estate And p. 94. Have ye given your selves a Name of the Church of Christ and is there not a Spirit of discerning among you Have ye not manifested here that ye are Harlotted from the Church of Christ the Apostles were of And how can ye Minister or Teach People if ye do not discern their states how they stand before God How can you commend your selves to every Man's Conscience in God's sight How can ye present the Souls of Men to God and see not their states how they are in his sight How come ye to have Fellowship in the Spirit How can you or any Minister to the state and condition that People be
of the Truth as were in few years gathered then the Heavenly motion came upon George Fox as the Lord 's Anointed as being the Great Apostle of Jesus Christ and as one whom the Lord had ordained to be in the place amongst the Children of Light in this our Day as Moses was amongst the Children of Israel in his Day to set forth Methods and Forms of Church Government and to Establish Monthly and Quarterly Meetings of Men and of Women distinct from Men and these Meetings are since called the Church whose Counsel Advice and Judgment as occasion shall offer is to be submitted unto by every one who Professeth himself a Member of the Church And saith George VVhitehead We are to Believe as the true Church Believes c. Christian Quaker Part 1. p. 9. 1680. I was told by one present at the Quaker-Meeting at Radcliff on Sunday the 17th of February last 1694 5. that Mr. Penn having Preached and after George Keith rising up and Expounding some Scripture in another manner than Mr Penn had done that Mr. Penn stopt him and solemnly Denounced these words against him In the Name of the Lord I Pronounce him an Apostate over his Head Upon which occasion I have these few Questions to ask 1. Whether this was a Sentence from Mr. Penn himself or from their Church If the latter it comes in the Class just before-mention'd of their Church-Authority over the Light within particular Persons But if the former then here is Private Light against Private Light And Mr. Penn will please to tell us by what Authority he Pronounc'd this Sentence against G. Keith in the Name of the Lord. If by an Ordinary Commission of Succession to Christ and the Apostles by Regular Ordination That I should be glad to hear But if by an Extraordinary Commission such as the Prophets and Apostles had we wou'd desire such Credentials as they had that is Miracles Otherwise any Reason why this is not rank Enthusiasm and liable to the Sentence of those who spoke In the Name of the Lord when He had not sent them Mr. Penn owns the Enthusiasm but does not shew the Miracles for he said publickly in their last Yearly Meeting in May 1695. in Excuse or Justification of his above-said Sentence of Apostacy against G. Keith That he was then so Transported with the extraordinary Power of God upon him that he knew not whether he was sitting standing or kneeling when he spoke the words But whether this Enthusiasm proceeded from Divine or what other Inspiration will be best known from the Doctrine it supported and which was the ground of the Contest And it was thus told to me by one who was present viz. That Mr. Penn at a former Meeting had Explain'd this Scripture 1 John 1.7 The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin in this manner That the Blood was the Life and the Life was the Light within This Resolves all into the Light within which as will be further shewn they make to be the Archi-Type and Substance of what Christ's outward Body Blood and all that He did or suffer'd in it were but the Types and Shadow and so of much less Value and Consequence to our Salvation But to go on with our present matter of Fact At the fore-mention'd Meeting the 17th of Feb. 1694 5. G. Keith taking occasion to Discourse upon the above-said Text 1 John 1.7 did Expound it in a quite different manner from what Mr. Penn had done but without naming of Mr. Penn Said that it ought to be taken Literally that it was the outward shedding of Christ's Blood which cleanseth from sin and that this was not to be Resolv'd into the Light within nor to be Spiritualiz'd away from the Letter For that this was overthrowing of the Faith Upon which Mr. Penn rose up and Interrupted him in the middle of his Discourse which I am told is contrary to the Method and Freedom of their Meetings and Church-Discipline and taking it to himself and his former Exposition of that Text which is told above he inveigh'd not without great Passion against G. Keith concluded with the Sentence of Excommunication above-told and stopping G. Keith from any Reply immediately Dissolv'd the Assembly I will not here enlarge upon the Subject matter of this Dispute betwixt them because it will be fully Discuss'd in the following Sections Particularly Section 12 17 and 18. But for the present I only apply it to the point of their Church-Authority over the Light within particular persons which was their Original and Great pretence SECT XI Concerning the Authority of the Holy Scriptures THE Quaker's Refuge Printed Anno 1673. p. 17. states this as truly own'd by the Quakers in these words VVhether the first Pen-Man of the Scriptures was Moses or Hermes or whether both these are not one or whether there are not many words contained in the Scriptures which were not spoken by Inspiration of the Holy Spirit whether some words were not spoken by the Grand Impostor some by wicked Men some by wise Men ill Apply'd some by good Men ill Express'd some by False Prophets and yet True some by True Prophets and yet False And from these Suppositions he goes on and concludes that some part of the Scriptures concerning the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind were True And p. 18. That the Scriptures as above Distinguished are a true Record c. Instead of Answering these Diabolical Suggestions against the Sacred Authority of the Holy Scriptures of God and which evidently overthrow the Certainty of the whole G. VVhitehead in his Innocency Triumphant Printed 1693. in Answer to F. Bugg's New Rome Arraign'd p. 28. does own the whole by way of an Excuse for it and says That this question'd but of some words in Scripture not all But the Holy Scriptures confirming the whole of themselves one part Quoting another if the whole be not therefore True the whole must be False And we must take this to be the Opinion of the New Quakers as well as the Old because Non Asserted G. VVhitehead endeavours to solve this Ibid. p. 21. in Answer to the Quotations which F. Bugg had brought out of their Authors which call'd the Holy Scriptures by the Wicked and Contemptible Names of Dust Death Serpents Meat c. Whitehead says that was only in opposition to those who wou'd have the very Paper and Ink and Characters to be the Word of God and the Gospel wherein they were oppos'd says he Christ being the Word and the Gospel the Power of God which Endures for ever which the Books and Letters or Characters cannot Here Whitehead says that there were some Priests in the North in and before the year 1653. when those Books which Bugg Quoted were Printed who were thus Ignorant And that this was the Reason for those Expressions in these Quaker Books First This had been no Reason for these Barbarous Expressions if it had been so But Secondly I will joyn Issue with
great Non-sense as well as Blasphemy and utterly inconsistent with the first Notions of a God And upon this Scheme no tolerable account can be given for the Death of Christ. For whether as an Example or an Intercessor or a Teacher which are all the Notions wherein the Socinians and Quakers do receive him in none of these is there any Necessity or Rational Account to be given for his Death This is the Mill-stone of Socinianism which will sink it into the Sea These Men pretend to the highest Reason and reject the most express Revelations of the Holy Trinity of God and the Divinity of Christ meerly upon the account that their Reason cannot comprehend these profound Mysteries These Men reject the Doctrine of the Satisfaction upon the like pretence of Reason and advance in its place the most Arbitrary and Unaccountable suppos'd Covenant betwixt God and Christ to remit the sins of the Penitent for the altogether Needless and Barbarous Murther of the most Innocent Person in the World But having wrote at large upon this Subject I will not here repeat My business at the present being not to enter into the large Field of the Socinian Controversy But to shew the much misled generality of the Quakers how Ignorantly and blind-fold they are led in the most gross and vile Heresie that ever the Enemy sow'd in the Christian Church which is that of the Socinians and which in Name the Quakers do so much abhor SECT XVI Concerning the Holy Trinity THE Quakers and Socinians acknowledge a Three but deny a Trinity which is to confess the same thing in English and to deny it Latine For Trinitas is only Latine for the Three But the meaning is they wou'd not have the Three in Heaven to be three Persons Tho' they cannot tell what Three they are if they be not three Persons And the Quakers who own the Divinity of Christ are under greater difficulties than the Socinians who deny the Divinity of Christ For if Christ be God and that there is but one Person in the God-head it must necessarily follow that God the Father was Incarnate and Dy'd And that Christ was his own Father to whom he pray'd upon the Cross And too many the like Absurdities which are avoided by those Socinians who do not acknowledge Christ to be God Tho' others of them do own the Divinity of Christ but with such distinctions and salvo's as I am afraid are at the bottom of the Quaker Pretences G. Fox opposes Chr. Wade for saying Great Mystery p 246. That the Holy Ghost was a Person and that there was a Trinity of Three Persons before Christ was born It seems by this they do not acknowledge that there were Three in Heaven before Christ was born And if so then the Quaker Three in Heaven must be Creatures The Scriptures says G. Fox Ibid. to Chr. Wade do not tell the People of a Trinity nor three Persons but the Common-Prayer Mass-Book speaks of three Persons brought in by the Father the Pope and the Father Son and Holy Spirit was always One He means one Person As Muggleton does who says That the God-head was Incarnate and that there was no God while Christ was upon the Earth But that Elijah was Deputed by God upon his Divesting himself of his God-head to Govern as God That Christ knew no more of himself nor what he was than Elijah pleas'd to let him know That Elijah was the Father to whom Christ Pray'd upon the Cross That Elijah rais'd God from the Dead carry'd him to Heaven restor'd him to his Throne and then he was God again All this I have had from Muggleton's own Mouth as well as from his Writings It terrifies my very Soul while I repeat such Dreadful and Senseless Blasphemy And I wou'd not have done it but to shew to what unimaginable Excesses Enthusiâ—sm may drive Men and that all shou'd beware of that desperate Shelve upon which both our Church and State have suffered miserable Shipwreck That we may once again if it be the will of God learn some Sobriety of Religion and Modesty in our own Conceits to distinguish Fancy from Revelation and not to think our selves Wiseâ— than all the World beside How far the Quakers differ from Muggleton in what is here told excepting the Deputyship of Elijah will appear by their allowing no distinction betwixt the Father and the Son Great Mystery p. 142.293 Christ is not distinct from the Father says G. Fox They the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not distinct and you Priests are not fit to judge in such things as they are they are too weighty and too heavy for you This was because these Priests as he calls them had said That the Father Son and Holy Ghost were Distinct which Fox thus violently opposes I hope Mr. Penn's former Excuse will not serve here too that this must go off upon the account of G. Fox's Ignorance and that by Distinct he did not mean Distinct but may be as an Ingenious Stickler may pretend for him that he thought Distinct meant Separated for there is nothing that can be said for which something may not be alledg'd but sure G. F. if he were alive wou'd give little thanks to any who shou'd vilifie his Understanding for George here exalts his own Understanding and reproaches that of the Priests who he says were not fit to judge of such Great and Weighty things And now for any Quaker to say that it was George himself who was not fit wou'd be a severe Reproof and look like playing Booty But secondly these Priests of G. Fox's did not hold or alledge any Separation but only a Distinction between the Father Son and Holy Ghost And if you will suppose G. F. so incapable as not to know any difference betwixt these two he was a very sorrowful Beginner of a Religion and cou'd neither be Separated nor Distinguish'd from a Tool that Knaves do work with call'd a F He licks up or stumbles upon old exploded Heresies and vents them for Immediate Revelations He falls in here with the Patripassians so call'd because they held that it was God the Father who was Incarnate and Suffer'd Which G. Fox asserts ut supra p. 246. where he Disputes against Chr. Wade for saying That God the Father never took upon him Human Nature Which says George is contrary to the Scripture And says That Christ was call'd The everlasting Father And in his usual Stile accuses Chr. Wade for his Ignorance in this Mystery which G. Fox thought none understood but himself and Partners Of which you will see yet greater proof in what follows SECT XVII Concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ THE Quakers Heresie in this is taken from the Socinians they say Christ took Flesh but no otherwise as they explain it than as Angels assum'd Bodies or as He Christ or the Word did Inspire or Dwell in Prophets or Holy Men of old tho' they allow not always that
Book another Monstrous Possession of one James Milner who said that he was Christ and that he must suffer as Christ did and in a jugling manner with a Knife and a Bason pretended that his Blood was shed and that he gave up the Ghost as Christ did He prophesy'd Twelve strange Prophesies and liv'd to see them all prove False George Fox answers Gilpin in a very pleasant sort of manner He owns that the Lord did open True Prophesies Great Mystery Printed 1659. p. 298. and mighty things to him James Milner But then as an Excuse for his false Prophesies and his Blasphemies in calling himself Christ c. he makes this Comical Apology In some things his Mind runned out and that he condemns and yet these wicked men will go tell the Nation of it This was a very sad case that he could not call himself Christ and give forth false Prophesies but these wicked Men must tell the Nation of it It was nothing but his Mind Runned out He only Blasphem'd and sought to delude the Nation and yet they must not be told of it For notwithstanding of all this he is a good enough Prophet for Fox Fox thinks that the Lord did open true Prophesies and and mighty things to him True and False Prophet in one Or else there never was one among the Quakers I will trouble the Reader but with one Instance more John Toldervy has printed a very punctual Narrative of his own Conversion to Quakerism and of the most astonishing Possession of the Devil in which he was held after his said Conversion even to the Apparitions of Evil Spirits Dancing and Singing about him and directing him what he shou'd do and encouraging him in the Principles of Quakerism chiefly to adhere strongly to his own Light within which he was to make a superiour Guide to Scripture it being the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures and consequently that he himself was as Infallible as any of the Prophets or Apostles as having the same Spirit which they had And thus being brought to believe every strong Imagination which came into his Head to be the immediate Dictate of the Holy Ghost And these Unclean Spirits having the power to make Impressions upon his Imagination he became intirely subject to their Will and was carried into strange Excesses even to attempt Miracles That as Fire proceeded from the Lord See John Toldervy 's Book call'd The Foot out of the Snare Printed 1656. p. 30. upon the Altar in the sight of Moses Aaron and the Children of Israel so from the Lord in me says he so he call'd his Light within thinking it to be very God and Christ and that he thereby was Christ the true and real Christ of whom that Man Christ Jesus was but a Type or Figure which is the Quaker Doctrine as is shewn Sect. 17. and 18. shou'd there proceed that Vertue which shou'd infuse a heat into these Coles and Sticks which he had gather'd together for that purpose by which a Fire shou'd be kindled now being confident he goes on I shou'd effect the Work yea had I been Master of the whole World I shou'd have ventured all with a value of no worth upon the performance of this Deed having laid all things in their order as directed by that Spirit which moved me to the Work Page 31. I was moved to blow with my Mouth Expecting still that from my Life The Lord there shou'd Heat proceed with my Breath to the lighting of the Fire But in the end not being able to effect the thing I was extreamly troubled that I The Christ of God should fail in the performance of the first Miracle since so many Miracles were wrought by him that was a Figure of me It is dreadful to repeat such Horrid Blasphemy After this he was tempted to mimick over in himself our Saviour's Agony Crucifixion his Death Burial and Resurrection thrusting a Needle through his Thumbs Page 37. for the piercing of Christ's Body falling down and covering himself with Shavings of white Paper for a Winding-Sheet c. There are multitudes of prodigious Instances in the said Narrative of the incredible power of Enthusiastick Delusion to which I refer the Reader He pretended to be directed by Flies in most of his This minded me of the Etymology of Beelzebub Extasies which signifies The God of Flies But to go on James Naylor wrote an answer to Toldervy call'd Foot yet in the Snare c. printed in the same Year 1656. To which Toldervy reply'd the same Year and call'd his Replication The Snare broken c. And in the same Year again in two Sheets call'd The Naked Truth c. he made a sort of a half Vindication and half Recantation not of the Matters of Fact of his foresaid Delusions for these were undeniable but to free the Quakers from the Imputation and Scandal of them and to clear himself to have been and still to continue a true Quaker which makes the Cause much worse on their side James Naylor in his answer to Toldervy makes him to be both a true Prophet and a False like Fox 's Apology beforetold for Milner and where Toldervy tells of his being moved to say Thee and Thou Foot yet in the Snare p. 16. not to pull off his Hat to pull off the Points at his Knees and his Buttons that were unnecessary and not to direct his Mind in Drinking to any and the like Essential points these things Naylor says were dictated to Toldervy by the Spirit of God But as to his being led with Flies to Crucifie himself and to burn his Legs and prick Needles in his Thumbs and the like these Naylor says were the Devils Work And yet they were the same Spirits which bid Toldervy do both the one and the other and so both Good and Evil Spirits by Naylor 's Account But after Naylor had thus endeavour'd to Vindicate the Quaker-Spirit and to shew that Toldervy had it not like him Naylor in perfection even that same Year viz. 24. October 1656. all the Good or Evil Spirits entered into Naylor himself and he set up to be Christ and was Hosanna'd into Bristol Quakers leading his Horse strowing Branches and their Cloths in the way and singing Hosannah to him and Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Israel These Quakers said upon their Examinations That he James Naylor was the Christ that his Name was changed from James to Jesus that he was the only begotten Son of God the only Saviour See Ra. Farmer 's Narrative of this Triumph of James Naylor Entituled Satan Enthroned c. Printed 1657. p. 18 c. and that they knew no other Saviour but him And James Naylor upon his Examination wou'd not disown any thing of this But Justify'd and own'd it in Terms Equivalent p. 14. But this was Threatning to the Great For who pretended to be the Christ himself Naylor was but For 's Disciple And now was setting
up to be above him to be his Lord and Master And being thrown into Gaol for that his Blasphemous Cavelcade G. Fox and his Myrmidons watch'd their time run down Naylor who was at last brought upon his Knees before G. For Confessing his Error c. Thus he who but a day or two before thought to justifie the Quakers from the False Spirit of John Toldervy and his Quakers was Condemn'd himself for a False Spirit by other Quakers That nothing might be wanting for the full Conviction of that Cursed Spirit which Possess'd them both and G. Fox as much as either of them and his followers in their several Measures Many more Instances might be added to Gilpin Milner Toldervy and Naylor of Quakers in an high Degree Possess'd with the Devil There have not been among so many of all Mankind such a number as of these Quakers that have run quite Mad of whom Catalogues might be produc'd For their Principle is little short of Madness Reading the Story of Toldervy one night to as sober a Quaker as I believe is of the Number he own'd that he had many times sat alone expecting of Revelations So very Susceptible do the Quaker Principles make Men of the wild Impressions of Enthusiasm None of them have yet been able to give us any Mark whereby to distinguish betwixt their Explanation of the Light within and the mere strength of Imagination which in its Excess is Madness And they having Encourag'd this beyond all other sorts of Enthusiasts consequently more of them have been carry'd to the height of it And thereby their Reason the Seat of Religion being thoroughly disturb'd they have been laid open and Fenceless to the downright Possessions of Satan not only in the Opinion of those that Scoff at it as G. Fox says in his Journal above Quoted but forc'd to be confess'd by themselves by the Best of them That part of For 's Journal wherein he thus complains of their monstrous Quaking c. to be constru'd as Witch-Craft and the Power of the Devil is said to be wrote in the Year 1655. in the very height of their Inspiration which began in the Year 1650. and went on Trembling and Quaking in most Prodigious manner till the Restauration An. 1660. since which time the Nation having recover'd some sense of sobriety their strange and Enthusiastical fits of Quaking have been for the most part left off by them or their Numen which Inspir'd them has forsakeâ— them and there is now seldom any such thing to be seen among them Buâ— They too pretend to be Sober What! Are they asham'd of their former Quaking Or have they not now so great a Degree of Inspiration as they had before Patrick Livingston one of their Preachers makes a very pleasant Excuse for this in his Plain and downright Dealing with them that were with us and are gone out from us p. 10. when Physick is given to the Body says he is it not to work terribly See the 3d Part of the Quakers Quibbles Sect. I p 4. 1675. that it may Purge the Body And when all is Purged out the Physick leaves working and the Body is still Were not all the Breakin gs and meltings and Terrible Shakings and Quakings of Friends Bodies to Purge out sin and to bring to Stillness Coolness and Calmness of Mind Now when Terrible Shakings Breakin gs c. were they were but for a little time and so were quickly gone again and the Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discern'd there but these were that sin might be Purged out and then the cause of Terrible Potions was taken away and the stillness being come that 's a durable thing a solid Condition and Here the Mind is brought into a Capacity to discern the Voice of the Lord whereas in the time of the violent motions the Mind was so Hurry'd and Loss'd with the Rage of the Enemy so that there was not a clear Discerning what might be done or left undone in many things And this he gives as an Answer to those modern Quakers who were offended that this Spirit of Quaking had Ceased among them and objected that because the mighty motions of the Bodies of Friends are Ceased and Friends are still cool and quiet therefore that the same Power is not in meetings and they cry where is the Power that was at first Now here is a Comparison made betwixt the State of the Quakers from 1650 to 1660 and from thence to this time The first State was their time of Physick they were those Ten long years in Purging out their Sin And their Terrible Potions of the Spirit wrought violent Convulsions in their Bodies of Tremblings and Quakings to the Admiration of all Beholders But there was worse than that For as Livingston here Informs us during these Extatick years they were not in a Solid Condition and the Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discerned among them their Mind was so Hurry'd and Loss'd so that there was not a Clear Discerning what might be done or left undone in many things This is a very sad Beckoning For what now will become of the First Quaker Infallibility set up in these same Ten Quaking Purging years to Discern between Truth and Error between every False and Right way and which Perfectly Discover'd to them the true State of All things And that not only to G. Fox or some of the Chief of them but to every one of them in Particular as you will see hereafter Sect. X. p. 72 c. It seems that these Hurryings and Tossing for the first Ten years did not come from the Holy Spirit of God because Livingston says that they Hindred the Discerning the Voice of the Lord. Whereas the Extasies of the Holy Prophets did most perfectly discover to them the Voice of the Lord and what was to be done or left undone But Livingston says plainly that they the Quakers were Hurry'd and Toss'd thus by the Rage of the Enemy That is of the Devil And that it was this which hindred them from the Clear Discerning of what might be done or left undone in many things For surely no Inspiration from God cou'd Hinder this And I hope no Quaker Now will say that the Extraordinary Commotions of the Holy Prophets of Old were caus'd by the Rage of the Enemy when the Scriptures tell us plainly that they were caused by the Extraordinary Impulse of the Spirit of God Those caused by the Rage of the Enemy the Quakers have Vindicated to themselves And as a farther Demonstration of it it is apparent that since their Extraordinary Quaking Fits have ceased they have many of them return'd to a more Sober Mind And the Wisest of them now seek to Cover and Palliate all that they can the Madness and Extravagance of their first Quaking State But they will not yet Condemn it Nay sometimes for they are all made up of Contradictions they will support it and plead for it And that not
only as an Extraordinary Inspiration for some time but as an Holy Duty And if it be such it must bind for ever Sam. Fisher in his Rusticus ad Academicos Exercit. 2. p. 18. says As for that Holy Duty it self of Quaking which as Blind a Guide and Brute a Beast as Thou thus he treats Dr. Owen in the Quaker Courtly Dialect art in speaking evil of c. Now if it be an Holy Duty then are the Present Quakers fallen from their Duty and from their Holiness If it is an Effect of the Extraordinary Inspiration of God then have not the Present Quakers such a Degree of the Spirit as the First Quakers had which I suppose they will not be willing to own For then there will be Degrees in their Infallibility And if it be once coming Down Stairs But if as in truth it is that their Quaking and Shaking proceeded from a strong Possession of the Spirit of Enthusiasm it will follow that all was a Delusion then and must be so still while our Modern Quakers take upon them to Justifie those who went before them and their Doctrines And by G. Fox's Sentence above-told all Was and Is Conjuration and their Quaking was the Possession of the Devil and the Quakers now are Inspir'd by Him and are False Prophets Diviners and Conjurers And this as G. Fox teaches must certainly be so if they have spoken any thing not only Against the Word of God but if All that they have said was not spoken from the Mouth of the Lord. Even to make it Heathenism and Idolatry to have the Image or likeness of any Ceature in Heaven or in Earth painted upon a Sign See a Treatise of G. Fox's which was surnam'd Iconoclastes And an Order of his Printed at the end of Tyrany and Hypocrisie 1673. But only a Bed-Staff Fire-Shovel Saw Fork or the like of Man's making And where he Preaches against Skimming-Dish-Hats Unnecessary Buttons on Coats or Cloaks Slit-Peaks behind on the Skirts of Womens Wast-coasts Short Black Aprons needless flying Scarfs Vizard-Masks Bare-Necks c. All which he Dictates as from Immediate Inspiration 5. But because these poor misled Quakers and other Enthusiasts among us are made to believe that the Church of England does wholly throw off all Inspiration of the Holy Spirit and rests only on their outward Forms I will here briefly set down the Doctrine of the Church of England in this Point and shew what sort of Inspiration She allows and what it is which She rejects 1st She constantly Teaches That all the Saving Graces are wrought in our Hearts by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Insomuch that of our selves we are not able so much as to think a good Thought And that this Inspiration is as necessary to our Fructifying or bringing forth Good Works as the Influence of the Sun is to the Earths bringing forth of her Fruits That whatever may bear the appearance of Good Works in us and is not wrought by this Inspiration is not Good nor Acceptable to God As it is express'd in our 13th Article Works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of His Spirit are not pleasant to God Yea rather for that they are not done as God hath Willed and Commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin What fuller can be said for the necessity of this Inspiration And if the Quakers will have this call'd The Light within we will not Dispute with them about a Word it is the Thing and Meaning that we Contend for This is the constant Tenor of all our Prayers Almighty God 2d Sunday after Lent who seest that we have no Power of our selves to help our selves keep us c. And because we can do no good thing without Thee Who seest that we put not our Trust in any thing that we do We humbly beseech Thee 1st Sunday after Trinity that as by thy special Grace preventing us Sexagesima Thou dost put into our Minds good Desires Easter-Day so by Thy continual Help we may bring the same to good Effect That 5th Sunday after Easter by Thy Holy Inspiration we may think those things that be Good Grant us by Thy Spirit to have a Right Judgment in all things Whit-Sunday c. And in The Ordering of Deacons this is the first Question Demanded by the Bishop from those who are to be Ordainâ—d Do you trust that you are Inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office Do you think that you are truly called according to the Will of our Lord Jesus Christ c. The same is Demanded in the Ordination of Priests and Bishops And the words of Consecration of a Bishop are Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church of God And the Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus is Sung Come Holy Ghost our Souls Inspire And lighten with Coelestial Fire c. And according to this we Pray that God wou'd Cleanse the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of His Holy Spirit First Collect in the Communion Service That He would Prevent and Further us Last Collects in all our Works And that of His only Gift it cometh 13th Sunday after Trinity that we do unto Him True and Laudable Service Nay not only our Works 3d. Sunday after Trinity or Prayers but that our very Desire to Pray is his Gift We Pray for Pensons to be Baptized that God wou'd Wash them and Sanctifie them with the Holy Ghost Baptism And our Catechism teaches 1st Collect. that we are not able of our selves to walk in the Commandments of God Catechism and to serve Him without His special Grace And lastly for I must Transcribe our whole Liturgy to name every place where the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost is Witnessed and Prayed for thus the Bishop Prays for Persons to be Confirmed Strengthen them we beseech Thee O Lord with the Holy Ghost the Comforter and daily increase in them Thy manifold Gifts of Grace Confirmation the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Council and Ghostly Strength the Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and fill them O Lord with the Spirit of Thy Holy Fear now and for ever Here is an Enumeration of the Principal Gifts of Grace for which we Pray And in the Exhortations before the Communion it is earnestly Inculcated upon us that if we be not thus Spiritually prepared all the Outward Ordinance will avail us nothing For otherwise as it is there worded the Receiving of the Holy Communion doth nothing else but encrease your Damnation And there is not one Book of Devotion us'd among us that does not tell us the same That the Inward is the Soul of Religion without which the Outward part is but a Dead Carcase and stinks before God And that the Inward Purity of the Heart cannot be wrought but by
Month 1659. being above seven thousand of the Names of the Hand-maids and Daughters of the Lord and such as feel the Oppression of Tythes c. London Printed for Mary Westwood and are to be sold at the Black Spread-Eagle at the VVest End of Pauls 1659. And this Book of Subscriptions contains 72 Pages in Quarto This was the Quaker Solemn League and Covenant a formal Association wherein they bind themselves under their Hands their Lives and Estates to Extirpate the Church and the Laws and Government which support it And this was no Volunteer of the VVomen They did not do it without their Men Jer. 44.19 For here follows G. Fox's own Order Verbatim For all Women Friends to set their Hands against Tythes they may freely as they are moved and do not Quench the Spirit of the Lord in any for the Women in the Truth feel the weight as well as the Men for the Seed of God in the Women bears witness against Tythes in the Priests and Pope the Author of them and suffers in Prisons and are Summoned up in Courts so that is good which beareth the Testimony against them and is to be receiv'd and set a top of the Author of the Holders of them up And so if all the Women in England send up their Names I shall send them by the Women to the Parliament for many Women have sent up their Names and some have not but have been stopped Therefore that all may send their Names against Tythes that be Free with speed to London G. F. He did not Date this as it was not his Custom to Date the Papers he gave out and the Reason he gave for it was because as he said the Apostles did not Date their Epistles But the year before these Subscriptions of the VVomen he printed a Paper A. D. 1658. call'd Papists Strength c. where p. 19. he leads the way to these Pious Hand-Maids in all the Particulars which they Requested or Demanded from the Parliament even to the Abolition of Schools and Colleges as well as Churches These are his Words And this I declare in the Presence of the Lord God and all the Magistrates that be in God's fear they will break down the Mass-Houses Schools and Colleges which you make Priests and Ministers in c. I cou'd enlarge upon this Head out of the Quaker-Writings But what Authorities I have already produc'd are abundantly sufficient to shew their deep design against the Church and the means by which they have agreed to Destroy Her this especially of keeping up to use their own Phrase their Testimony against Tythes Therefore this Handle must by no means be let go Insomuch that tho' their Pretence to the Sufficiency and Infallibility of the Light within was the Original and is the Fundamental Principle of all the whole Quaker Doctrine yet if any Plead it in this Case they shall be run down as Hypocrites and Rebels against God and to have fallen from the True Light within and to be guided by a False Light which comes from Satan to be very Anti-Christs and to have denied Christ's coming in the Flesh c. as I have above shewn from Tho. Ellwood's Antidote against the Infection of William Rogers c. Now I must tell the Reader that this William Rogers is a Quaker but of the more moderate sort and he wrote 〈◊〉 Book call'd The Christian Quaker Printed 1680. where Part 2. Chap. 8. touching Tythes He disputes expresly against Tythes and against the Lawfulness of Suing for them or Compelling any to Pay them Only p. 43. he allows those to Pay them who are Free so to do And that only as a Voluntary Contribution 〈◊〉 those who Teach them but not as any thing of a Divine Right And p. 44. he again limits this to those only who own such Ministers as true Ministers of Christ and go to Hear them and upon that account bestow a Fifth Tenth or what they please upon them So that hereby he cuts off all Dissenters to the Church of England from Paying Tythes to the Clergy of the Church of England Seconly He bars the Clergy from Suing or using any Compulsory means to recover their Tythes even from those of their own Communion But he makes Tythes meerly Eleemosynary and the Clergy to have no better Title to them than a Beggar has to our Alms. Yet all this was not sufficient for the Quakers But Tho. Ellwood falls upon him like a Turk for granting so much as to make Tythes Lawful upon any Account or Consideration whatsoever And writes against this Book of William Rogers the above Quoted An Atidote against the Infection of William Rogers's Christian Quaker Where p. 78. he Denounces as above against those who Pay Tythes even according to William Rogers's aforesaid Limitations That they who Pay Tythes thereby deny Christ to be come in the Flesh which is a mark of Anti-Christ And in Westmorland there were 44 Articles Exhibited against John Story and J. Wilkinson two Quakers by sundry of their Chief Preachers and Rulers One of which Articles was That he John Story said he knew a Man that was an honest Man that cou'd have given up his Body to be Burnt for the Truth who said he never saw Evil in Paying of Tythes and that he cou'd Pay them and wou'd Pay them Another Article was That John Story said he believ'd every Man had not a Testimony for God laid upon them to bear against Tythes But them which had he wou'd have them be Faithful And these two John Story and John Wilkinson were Proceeded against by a General Meeting of the Quakers in London who the 12th Day of the 4th Month 1677. gave Judgment against them and those that joined with them in a Formal Instrument Subscrib'd by Sixty Six of them But this was soon Re-buffeted back again upon them by the Quakers in the VVest of England who adhered to Story and VVilkinson in as Solemn and Judicial a Condemnation of them and their Sentence and this was Subscrib'd by Sixty Seven of the other Party and Styl'd A Testimony against the 66 Judges called Quakers c. and Printed under that Title together with the Paper of the said Judges and all their Names Subscrib'd It is pleasant to see them Play their Infallibilities against one another For each of these Parties pretend to the Immediate Spirit of God and in the Name of God Pronounce the other to be led by a False Ravening Spirit Our Souls say the Defendants do in the highest Degree Abominate it and do surge against it p. 15. that is the Authority which the Plaintiffs assumed over Conscience in Judging of others and not leaving them to their Primitive Liberty of following their own Light within On the other Hand the London Quakers who assum'd a Superiority over the Countrey Quakers Condemn'd that Spirit which Possess'd them as a wrong Murmuring and Dividing Spirit p. 5. And our Day say they hath lamentably shewn us the
and he shall want no Encouragement from me for I love his Spirit and Honour his Gifts and his Peculiar Learning especially Tongues and Mathematicks his Platonick Studies too All being sanctify'd to the Truths service which is worthy to have the Preheminence Thus Mr. Penn. And that which I wou'd know from him is whether G. Keith has since vary'd from that Doctrine which he Then Preach'd in Pensilvania I do not hear that it is so much as alledged that he has in the least tittle vary'd since that time And if so Here will be sad account of that Infallible Discerning Spirit which the Quakers do appropriate to themselves to Judge Persons and Things See hereafter Sect. X p. â—1 Powers Magistrates Kingdoms and Churches And may it not upon this occasion be said to Mr. Penn in the words of G. Fox Gr. Myst. p. 96. Thou not being Infallible thou art not in the Spirit and so art not a Minister For when he wrote the above Letter he judged G. Keith to have a Right Spirit and desir'd to let him live in his Principles And yet for the very same Principles he has since judged him an Apostate over the Head of him I love his Spirit says Mr. Penn. It is An Vnchristian Spirit says the Yearly Meeting whereof Mr. Penn was a Principal Member The Tendency of divers of his late writings says the Yearly Meeting in their aforesaid Bull of Excommunication against G. Keith hath been to Expose the Truth Did not Mr. Penn then Guess very ill when he gave it under his Hand as abovesaid that All G. Keith 's Studies were Sanctify'd to the Truths service These Writings which the Meeting meant were what G. Keith had Printed in Pensilvania in Defence of those Principles which Mr. Penn then approv'd at least so far as to give them Toleration and to let G. Keith live peaceably in them For G. Keith had not before that Excommunication Printed any thing against the Quakers after his return into England from Pensilvania The use I have to make of this is not to Upbraid or Expose but to beseech Mr. Penn and all the sober-minded among the Quakers now at last to consider whither their strange Pretences to Infallibility has led them Even from the only Infallible Oracles now in the World the Holy Scriptures by setting their Light within above the Scriptures which they do in refusing to let their Light within be judg'd by the Scriptures But on the contrary allowing no Obligation which the Holy Scriptures have upon them in any thing which is not likewise Dictated to them by their Light within But thinking the Dictates of their Light within to be Obligatory and Infallible in things wherein the Scriptures are silent Alas If that were all Even in things where the Scriptures are Repugnant and Command quite otherwise But in the Authority which they have taken over the Letter of the Scriptures they can over-rule every Command in Scripture tho' in Terms never so Positive as in the Case of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and many other Instances Chiefly in that upon which I have so much insisted because it is the Principal their Spiriting away the Letter of the Promised Seed The Humanity of Christ and the Satisfaction Thereby made for our sins and his Intercession and Mediation Therein now at the Right Hand of his Father to which we Dayly owe the Gifts and Graces of his Blessed Spirit And the Adversary cou'd never have gain'd this point upon them which is the Heart of Christianity if he had not first Disarm'd them of the Assistance of the Holy Scriptures wherein this is so mainly and so frequently insisted upon by persuading them to take their own Light within for the Infallible Rule instead of the other And the Devil cannat keep his hold much longer than we shall return to the Scriptures and submit to them as our Rule Which we may perceive by this That no other Sect amongst us has run into this Excess of throwing off the Humanity of Christ but the Quakers because no other has under valu'd the Scriptures so much as they What other sort of Men that call themselves Christians have abus'd the Scriptures by the contemptible Names of Beastly Ware Dust Death Serpents-Meat c. but the Quakers If they say That this was only meant of the Letter that is sufficiently answer'd in what follows But I have now to ask them whether the Letter of their Writings be not as Beastly Ware c. as the Letter of the Scripture And then why they do not give the same Epithets to their Writings No no. Let them not Dissemble the matter They know very well that the giving of Vile and Contemptible Names to any Writing can be for no other end but to render the Contents of such Writing not the Letters Ink or the Paper Vile and Contemptible And this is the Reason that they have taken such care to secure the Honour of their own Writings not only from such Vile Names as they bestow upon the Holy Scriptures but even from such Names as are Honourable and of the Highest Estimation among Human Writings such as Canons for the Laws of the Church and Edicts for the Laws of Emperors and Temporal Government But these the Quakers think too Mean and Contemptible Names for their Writings they will have them nothing less than the Immediate Commands of God Himself And as to themselves they scorn the Titles of Elders Popes and Bishops or that their Meetings shou'd be call'd by such Contemptible Names as Courts Sessions or Synods Hear the Order of their Yearly Meeting at London for the Year 1675. in the following words It is our Sense Advice Admonition and Judgment in the Fear of God and the Authority of his Power and Spirit to Friends and Brethren in their several Meetings That no such Slight and Contemptible Names and Expressions as calling Mens and Womens Meetings Courts Sessions or Synods That Faithful Friends Papers which we testifie have been given forth by the Spirit and Power of God are Mens Edicts or Canons Elders in the Service of the Church Popes and Bishops with such scornful sayings be permitted among them but let God's Power be set upon the top of that unsavory Spirit that uses them c. Here you see the World has not Language or Titles good enough for the Quakers nor for their Writings Edicts or Canons are too slight and contemptible Popes and Bishops are scornful sayings to them But while they thus vindicate their own Honour and the no less than Divine Authority of their Writings at this Sublime raâ—e They take upon them to vilifie the Holy Scriptures of God in the most opprobrious and disgraceful Terms You must not call their Writings by such Slight and Contemptible Names as Canons or Edicts of Men. But you may call the Holy Scriptures by the not only much more Contemptible Names of Dust and Beastly Ware but the Cursed Appellations of Carnal Death and the Meat
Burrough in his Word of Advice to the Soldiers p. 2. Oh! says be with a Gusto give the Priests Blood to drink for they are worthy But this with other sweet bits is left out in the new Edition of his Works wherein there is yet enough behind to shew the largeness of his Bowels and to what narrow Limits he wou'd confine that Inundation of Blood which the Good Old Cause had brought upon these Nations and which he Justifies and that from the Mouth of the Lord. In his Warning to the English Army 1659. he assures them p. 540. of his Works in these words Your Victory hath been of the Lord. But then he wou'd have them go on and carry Blood and Slaughter into other Countries What are these few Poor Islands says he p. 537 538. that you have run through And then he advises them to fall upon 〈◊〉 and Spain and Avenge says he p. 537. the Blood of the Guiltlâ—ss through all the Dominions of the Pope p. 538. that your Sword and the Sword of the Lord may neither leave Root nor Branch of Idolatry that your Sword be lifted up against them p. 540. Set up your Standard at the Gites of Rome And Prophesying of the time when Vengeance shou'd be taken of Rome The time is come says he p. 537. their Church cannot stand Long. p. 535 536. and as sure as the Lord lives so shall it come to pass But this is long since pass'd and their Church stands still And which is much a greater wonder this Burrough is counted still a true Prophet among the Quakers in whom the fullness of Grace and Virtue châ—elâ— â—us was said of him in his Life â—rote 1663. p. 24. by a Club of the Principal Quakers G. Fox â—os Coal G. Whitehead c. who thus Blasphem'd in Praise of a Wretch that durst Pawn the very Being of God That as sure as the Lord lives so it must come to pass as he said And since it is not so come to pass are â—â—tiâ—ll the rest of these Quakers as Mad and Blasphemous as he who will still believe that he was sent from God or spoke His Words And that all these Lyes and Preaching up of Blood their Blasphemies and Treasons are of Equal Authority with the Holy Scriptures yea of Greater as I will shew you presently from George Whitehead And if this be true we must believe the 〈◊〉 Contradictions of the Quakers before the Scriptures As that notwithstanding all these loud Proclamations of Blood and War which we have beâ—â—d from them and that if their Advice were follow'd all whole Christendom wou'd be turned into an Aceldamâ— the Protestants falling upon all Popish Countries and the Papists upon them I say that notwithstanding of all this if the Quakers Writings are given forth by the Spirit of God as they boldly pretend we must believe their Declaration given to King Charles II. upon the 21st of January 1660. subscrib'd by G. Fox and Eleven more in the behalf of the whole Body of the Quakers wherein p. 4. They Declare positively against the lawfulness of Fighting upon any account And this say they is both our Principle and Practice and hath been from the beginning so that if we suffer as suspected to take up Arms or make War against any it is without any Ground from us for it neither is nor ever was in our Hearts since we owned the Truth of God neither shall we ever do it because it is contrary to the Spirit of Christ his Doctrine and the Practice of his Apostles And in The Quakers Plea Printed 1661. p. 5. They say Such of us whose Principles were once so that is for Fighting are changed even from that Principle and Practice of going to Wars and Fighting and Now are all of that Mind and Heart That in the Administration of the Gospel 〈◊〉 on all Occasions whatsoever unlawful to go to War and Fight with any Man with Carnal Weapons contrary to the Doctrine of Christ This was in the Year 1661. to fix this Opinion of them the Quakers in the King and Government But when by this Deep Deceit and Hypocrisie they did prevail and it had for Twelve Years after the Restauration been generally receiv'd that this was in good earnest the Principle of the Quakers as it continues with most to this day and I doubt not but many of the simple well-meaning Quakers themselves are Imposed upon in this to think that the Quaker Principle is against all War and Fighting upon any Occasion whatsoever as in their Plea above Quoted Yet I say when the World and many of themselves had been thus Deluded by their Leaders they in the Year 1672. to secure to themselves their Old Principle of Fighting whenever The Good Old Cause shou'd stand in need of it did Reprint what I have above Quoted of Edward Burrough for carrying Blood and War into all the Popish Countries and much more to the same purpose in the New Edition of his Works To which there are high Testimonies affix'd of George Fox George VVhitehead Josiah Coal Francis Howgil and Ellis Hookes Now if this Doctrine of Fighting or making VVar upon any Occasion whatsoever was contrary to the Spirit of Christ and His Doctrine in the Year 1â—60 that part of the Year I mean after the Restauration how came the Saints above-nam'd to Publish the contrary Doctrine of Edw. Burrough with such mighty Pomp in the Year 1672 And we must believe Both to be Infallible as the Holy Scriptures themselves being Both given forth by the same Spirit But these Editors of Burrough's Works are yet more Chargeable with whatever is in the New Edition because they took more upon them than barely as Editors that is to Correct and Amend and to Expunge what they thought fit as his Declaring VVar against the King and the Church before-told which tho' Dictated as he said by the Eternal Spirit yet they made bold to set these things aside lest they shou'd offend the Powers then in being but they thought that carrying the VVar into Italy and Spain wou'd be less taken notice of and wou'd continue their Claim to the Privilege of Fighting when they shou'd have occasion for it Why otherwise were not these Expung'd as well as the Traiterous Passages against the King and the Government If it was through the Inadvertence of their Infallibility let them now Disclaim it and confess Burrough to have been in an Error as to that Principle of Fighting No they will not and therefore it is their own They will not They have not done it for since the New Edition of Burrough's Works 1672. when a fair occasion seem'd to offer towards the Re-asserting of the Good Old Cause in Monmouth's Rebellion 1681. Several of the Quakers in the VVest where he Landed took Arms and Fought in his Quarrel and tho' some of them were taken Prisoners yet we heard nothing of their Repentance or that they were oblig'd by the rest to sign any Instruments
in their Answers to all the rest of this Book And that they are not sound in the Faith THE SNAKE in the Grass OR SATAN Transform'd into An Angel of Light Discovering the Deep and Unsuspected Subtilty which is Couched under the Pretended Simplicity of many of the Principal Leaders of those People called QUAKERS THE Controversie with the Quaker-Dissenters has not been pursu'd by the Church of England with the like Zeal and Pains as those against the Presbyterians Independents and other Dissenters because the Quakers were not so Considerable either for their Learning or for their Influence upon the Publick Revolutions which the others caus'd both in Church and State But their Numbers whether increas'd by being so neglected are now really Formidable I mean for the many Souls Seduc'd by them for I speak not now of Temporal Considerations they not only swarm over these Three Nations but they Stock our Plantations abroad It is wholly for the love of Souls that I have enter'd into this Controversie And therefore to do Right to All I have made a Distinction between them in the very Title I name many of their Principal Leaders because I have great Charity for the generality of the Ignorant sort of them some of whom I know to be very Honest and Well-meaning Men and Devout in their way and who suspect nothing of the Depth of that Mystery of Iniquity wherein they are Blindly and Implicitly led And therefore it is chiefly for the sake of these that I detect the Errors of their Leaders and Ministers that they may now at length if it be the Will of God recover themselves out of the Snares of the Devil wherein they are taken Captive by him at his will Secondly I name the Subtilty of these Rabbies of the Quakers Sect. For tho' they are generally thought the most Ignorant and Contemptible Sect amongst all our Dissenters and therefore are most neglected by us yet since I have perus'd their Books and Convers'd with some of them I have much alter'd my Opinion as to that I find them to Inherit the Subtilty as well as Heresie of the Arians and Socinians who were the most Subtile and hardest to be Detected of any of the Christian Hereticks And the Quakers do defend themselves with the same Distinctions and even add to their Arts as you shall see But they are now at a very hard Lock For many of them have really gone off from the height of Blasphemy and Madness which was Profess'd among them at their first setting up in the Year 1650. and so continu'd till after the Restauration Anno 1660. since which time they have been coming off by degrees especially of late some of them have made nearer Advances towards Christianity than ever before And among them the Ingenious Mr Penn has of late refin'd some of their gross Notions and brought them into some Form has made them speak Sense and English of both which George Fox their First and Great Apostle was totally Ignorant as you will see in the few Quotations which I have Transcrib'd out of his Great Mystery in his own words But so wretched is their State that tho' they have in a great measure Reform'd from the Errors of the Primitive Quakers yet they will not own this because as they think it wou'd Reflect upon their whole Profession as indeed it does and Argues that their Doctrine was Errouneous from the Beginning and their Pretence False and Impious upon which they first left the Church and run into Schism Therefore they endeavour all they can to make it appear that their Doctrine was Uniform from the Beginning and that there has been no alteration and therefore they take upon them to defend all the Wrizings of George Fox and others of the first Quakers and turn and wind them to make them but it is impossible agree with what they Teach now at this day On the contrary they have by these Arts brought back their New Reformation to the Old Standard and while they wou'd Reconcile they in effect Justifie and still Maintain their first Blasphemous Pretences only have Dress'd and Couch'd them more Craftily which is more Wickedly Therefore to rid them out of this Difficulty I wou'd persuade them openly and above-board to Renounce George Fox and their first Reformers and all their Blasphemous and Heretical Doctrine Which whoever refuses to do must be concluded to remain still in that Root of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity For this Reason I have taken my Rise from the Writings of George Fox and others of their Scribes and shewn the little pretty Distinctions which the Modern Quakers make use of to Cover Palliate and Reconcile those Doctrines of Devils at first taught by them And I hope I have perform'd thus much That our present Quakers must either plainly Renounce George Fox and other their Original Rabbi's or otherwise that they are not to be believ'd in that fair Face which they at present wou'd put upon their Doctrine There is nothing so Monstrous or so Senseless for which excuses may not be made and some seemingly plausible meaning put upon the grossest Absurdities No Quakers in the World do Defend themselves with greater vehemence and self-assurance than the Muggletonians do And they go as the Quakers do upon the Pretence of an Infallible Inspiration of the Spirit of God or the Light within and are as Positive as any Quaker of them all And I must say it they give the same Proof for their Extraordinary Inspiration as the Quakers do that is none at all but their own Confident averring of it Mr Penn in his Winding-Sheet hereafter Quoted p. 6 Sect. 6. calls Muggleton the Sorcerer of our Days Now I wou'd beseech Mr. Penn who has more Wit than all the rest of his Party to let us know what Ground he had for leaving the Church of England more than Muggleton Or than others of the Separate Quakers have for leaving of him and his Party Or why we shou'd trust the Light within Him or George Fox rather than the Light within Lodowick Muggleton Has Lodowick wrought no Miracles to prove his Mission No more have George Fox or William Penn. Are they very sure that they are in the Right So is he Are they Schismaticks So is he Are they above Ordinances Have they thrown off the Sacraments Muggleton has done more He has discarded Preaching and Praying too For these are Ordinances Is He against distinct Persons in the Godhead So are They. Is He against all Creeds So are They. Does He deny all Church-Authority So do They. Yet does He require the most Absolute Submission to what Himself teaches So do They. Does He make a Dead Letter of the Holy Scriptures and Resolve all into his own Private Spirit So do They. Does He Damn all the World and all since the Apostles So do They. All which will be shewn at large in what follows These are Twin-Enthusiasts both born in the year 1650. for then
in and see where they are and doth not see how they stand in God's sight Here the Quakers have Excluded all from the Church of Christ from having any Fellowship in the Spirit who have not this Infallible Spirit of discerning every Man's Heart And it is evident as I will shew presently that they did not discern George Keith Francis Bugg and many others whom for many years they own'd as true Quakers and some of them as Ministers among them and boasted a long time in their Gifts and thought them to be Principal Pillars among them whom now they Vilifie as Wicked Apostates And therefore by their own Argument they are Harlotted from the Church of Christ and have no Fellowship in the Spirit Page 33. He that is not infallible in his Council and Judgment and Advice is not he in Error And are they Ministers of Christ that are Fallable Page 105. G. Fox condemns all Protestant Churches as well as the Church of Rome for want of this Infallible Spirit which the Quakers ascribe only to themselves These are his words We says he the Pope and you the Protestants whom he calls Professors are Apostatized from the Infallible Spirit that the Apostles was in In which we are come For who witness these Conditions that they were in that gave forth the Scriptures they witness Infallibility an Infallible Spirit which is now Possessed and Witnessed among those called Quakers Glory to the Highest for ever This is dreadfully Astonishing But I was much more surpriz'd to find the otherwise Ingenious William Penn laugh at his Adversary for not being Infallible There was an Anonymous Book wrote against the Quakers call'd Controversy Ended to this Mr. Penn Reply'd in a Sheet of large Paper in Print which he Entituled A Winding-Sheet for Controversy Ended which bears Date the 16 of the 12th Month 1672. In the first page he catches up the Author whom he calls Henry Hedworth for saying that he had been mistaken in the good Opinion he had before of Mr. Penn's Judgment and Conscience How can he chuse says Mr. Penn who denies Infallibility But if mistaken before why not in the Quakers now And so ad Infinitum being so Fallible And p 3. Sect. 2. He Vindicates what George Fox had asserted of the Quakers Infallibility for having Repeated these words of G. Fox's which were put as an Objection against him How can ye be Ministers of the Spirit and not be Infallible And how can they but Delude the People who are not Infallible He makes this Reply I Answer says he G. F's words stand immovable for ever And he gives this strange Reason to support himself and G. F. For says he He that is a Minister of the Spirit is Infallibly for And in that Ministry is Infallible otherwise the Spirit 's Ministry is Fallible Which is such a Consequence as this that if any Man who is lighted by the Sun stumble or miss his way the fault is in the Sun which shew'd him a False Light What else can be the meaning of that saying that if a Minister be not Infallible then the Ministry of the Spirit is Fallible To make God himself Fallible rather than we shou'd not be Infallible But he comes quite off of this again in the next page and Sect. And this says he Roundly checks his Hen. Hedworth his Opponent saying That I bestow'd 32 pages to prove George Fox's Spirit to be Infallible For that belongs simply to God alone and then those that are led by it which was my Question and in which sense He is and all such persons are Infallible as he himself confesseth page 27. And if be fool'd himself by any other Belief of us before let him look to that Here Henry Hedworth is made Infallible too Whom in this same Winding-Sheet as above Quoted he calls a very Night-Bird and Vagrant Bursten'd with Folly and Revenge a Busie-Body Cavelling Conceited Proud Wrathful Equivocating Slandering Cowardly Man c. all which Epistles and all the rest which the Quakers so Liberally bestow upon their Adversaries may by this Rule belong to George Fox or any other Infallible Quaker Nay the Devil himself is Infallible at this rate for he has his Knowledge as well as Being from God Knowledge is Light and if that Knowledge which comes from God be Infallible then while the Devil follows that Light or Knowledge he must be Infallible And if this be all the Infallibility which the Quakers ascribe to themselves it distinguishes them not from Wicked Men or Devils But sure George Fox meant something more by it when by it he distinguish'd the Quakers from all other sorts of Men and ascrib'd to them an Infallible Discerning Spirit to know the Hearts of Men without speaking ever a word Of which I wish Mr. Penn wou'd afford us I will not say an Infallible but an Intelligible Comment for I protest I say not this out of any Obstinacy or Perverse Temper but to be able to apprehend if possible what these Men wou'd be at For they turn and wind this Infallibility of theirs at such a rate that no Man can I am sure cannot know what they mean by it Sometimes it makes them as Infallible as the Apostles nay as Christ Himself But at other times when they are press'd they bring down this Infallibility to mean nothing in the World that does distinguish them from other Men Tho' it was upon the pretence of this that they did separate them selves from the Church and from all other Men For they said that they ought not to be Subject to nor had need to be Guided by any Church who had an Infallible Guide within their own Breasts that is each Particular Person for himself as before is told But this pretence is now exploded by the Separate Quakers and Explain'd at some turns by the others as above by Mr. Penn to mean just nothing that is nothing which differences them from other Men or any thing New or other than what all Mankind have ever acknowledg'd to wit Thaâ— every Man's Reason Knowledge Conscience Light within or by what ever other Name or Names you may express it was given him by God and so is an Inspiration or Breathing of His into our Soul But this will no more prove it to be Infallible or Sufficient of it self to bring us to Heaven than it will follow that Man cannot die because God Breathes into him the Breath of Life or that he is Omnipotent because his Strength comes from God Omniscence and Infallibility is as much God's Attribute as Omnipotence And the Strength which God has given to our Bodies is as sufficient to climb up to the Skies as the Wisdom or Light which He has given to our Souls was sufficient of it self to have found out the Redemption of Lost Man by the Incarnation and Satisfaction of Christ to God's Justice for our sins or if found out to have paid that Price and to have accomplished that whole wonderful Oeconomy of
from the Priesthood of Aaron as well as from the House of David and set up opposite Altars to that of Jerusalem But on the other Hand tho' God sent many Prophets to Reprove the Kings and the Priests yet they neither Rebell'd against the Kings nor set up opposite Altars against those of those wicked Priests But as they paid all Dutiful Obedience to their Persecuting Kings and suffer'd Martyrdom under them without Resistance so did they always keep in the Communion of those same Priests whom they had Provok'd and Reprov'd and paid all due Obedience to their Sacred Authority and never wou'd Countenance any Separate Communions set up in Opposition to Their Communion at the same time that they were Denouncing the Judgments of God against them for their manifold Iniquities and Prevarications And when our Saviour himself came into the World he did not Separate from the Publick Worship and Communion of the Jewish Church But in the same Chapter Mat. 23. where he inveighs most severely against their Wickedness he Guards their Authority as Sacred and Inviolable and to shew that the receiving of Christianity it self was no Exemption from paying all Obedience to them he Commands his own Disciples as well as the Multitude to pay them all manner of Obedience Then spake Jesus to the Multitude and to his Disciples saying The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses Seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do And the Apostles after our Saviour frequented the Jewish Temple Luke 24.53 and observed their hours of Publick Worship Acts 3.1 Acknowledged the Anthority of their High Priest and submitted themselves to him as to one invested with God's Commission as to God's High Priest even when he was judging them unjustly and Commanding them to be smitten contrary to the Law Acts 23.3 4 5. And they frequented the Jewish Temple and Liturgy tho' they had Separate Meetings for the breaking of Bread and other Institutions of the Christian Religion which they cou'd not have in the Jewish Communion from which they did not abstain while it lasted in the World that is till the Destriction of Jerusalem by the Romans By all which Examples we are instructed how strongly we are to adhere to the Publick Communion of the Church and to suspect all pretended Inspirations which wou'd draw us away from it But this concerns the others of our Dissenters as well as the Quakers Let us return to them And we shall find their Infallibility disprov'd not only in particular Instances such as that fore-mentioned of Solomon Eccles and the Glover's Prophets But 2dly in whole Floods and Parties for Francis Bugg and many others have come openly off from their Communion after having liv'd many years with them and as Zealous Quakers as the best But now Detect their gross Errors Publickly and in Print But Thirdly Those among them who continue still Quakers have notwithstanding joyn'd in disproving their Pretences to Infallibility and discovering many other Damnable Heresies and Doctrines of Devils among them Denying the Lord who bought them c. From which Diabolical Errors George Keith being Converted he has endeavour'd to strengthen his Brethren and has gain'd many and has Separated them in a distinct Communion from the other Quakers who call these Separatists Apostates and False Brethren that have Erred from the Faith And the Separatists say the same of Them Now if their above-told Pretences to Infallibility do hold then it will follow that these their former Opinions which the Separatists now Condemn were True Then and False Now. Nay that they are both True and False even Now because some Quakers do now hold them to be True and others contend as Zealously that they are False Then the Separate Quakers and the others do not differ tho' they Damn one another nor are they Separate tho' they be Separate All these Contradictions must be Reconcil'd or else it must be granted that G. Fox and others have grosly Erred who asserted that They the Quakers and every one of them in particular were Infallible as above is Quoted And that they cou'd discern who were True Quakers and who were only False or Pretended ones without speaking ever a word For either Francis Bugg who liv'd 25. years in their Communion their Secretary and a Principal Man among them G. Keith who as Sam. Jennings tells us in his State of the Case hereafter mentioned p. 2. was 28 years of their Communion Yea says he most of that time a Preacher amongst us a Vindicator of us and others were true Quakers or not If not why were they own'd as such all that time Then G. Fox nor any of them had an Infallible discerning Spirit to which they have falsly pretended But if Keith Bugg c. were True Quakers then True Quakers are not Infallible And then G.F. c. who said they were Infallibile were led by the Spirit of Delusion and not by the Spirit of Truth But that nothing may be wanting to the full Conviction of this Fourthly The Infallibility of the Private Spirit or of each Particular Quaker is now Damn'd by their Church and their Infallibility is now Reduc'd by them as in the Church of Rome whence their first Inspiration came as told before and wherein it naturally ends to that of their Church For Proof of this First Their Meetings or Churches in Pensylvania c. in America have Censured G. Keith and other Separatists there for not submitting to their Judgment which these Churches have given forth against them This appears in the Account of the Proceedings There against the said G. Keith c. in the Year 1692. which was Published by G. Keith or some of his Party and Printed in the Year 1693. under this Title New-England's Spirit of Persecution transmitted to Pensylvania and the pretended Quaker found Persecuting the True Christian Quaker in the Tryal of Peter Boss George Keith c. In Answer to this was Publish'd a Vindication of the Proceedings against G. Keith c. call'd The State of the Case betwixt the People called Quakers in Pensylvania c. in America and George Keith with those seduc'd by him into a Separation from them This was wrote by Samuel Jennings a Quaker Justice of Peace in Pensylvania and one of the Prosecutors of G. Keith and the Separatists and Printed in London in the Year 1694. To which G. Keith hath Printed a Replication Entituled A further Discovery of the Spirit of Falshood and Persecution c. I will not trouble my self nor the Reader to say any thing either for or against the manner of these Proceedings of the Old Quakers against their Modern Separatists let them implead one another as to that All I am at present concern'd for is that their Churches have Censur'd these Separatists and consequently given Judgment against the Light within Particular Persons which was the Original Pretence and only Infallible Guide of the First Quakers And upon this only ground they
exclaim'd against any Church assuming Authority over any Man 's Private Spirit or his Light within as Anti-Christian and Diabolical and gave this as the Reason of their Separation from the Church of England And yet now Condemn the Pretence of the Light within others who Separate from them Nay more they flie to the Brachium Seculare when it is on their side for G. Keith and other of their Separatists were try'd before Samuel Jennings and other Quaker Justices of Peace at their Sessions in Philadelphia c. and some of them were Imprison'd for Printing and Publishing Defences for themselves without Licence tho' it be their daily Practice in London most if not all their Books Here being Printed without Licence they Issu'd Warrants one is inserted in the above-nam'd Narrative New Englands Spirit of Persecution c. p. 4. against the Printer and Publishers of a Vindication of Georgâ— Keith and his Separatists Entituled An Appeal from the Twenty Eighâ— Judges to the Spirit of Truth c. The 28. Judges were 28. oâ— their Ministers who had pass'd Sentence against G. Keith at Philadelphia the 20th of the 4th Month 1692. As a person without the feaâ— of God before his Eyes c. Anâ— they Published a Paper of this Judgment against him In Answer to which came out the abovesaid Appeal for which the Printer William Bradford was Apprehended and put in Prison and his Letters seiz'd whereby he was disabled to support his Family and at last forc'd to quit that Countrey and fled to New-York and one John Mackcomb a Taylor was prosecuted for Dispersing one of them his Name is inserted in the abovesaid Warrant And Sam. Jennings was one of the Five Justices who Sign'd the Warrant But the Pretence in the said Warrant was for Reflecting upon Their Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said Appeal for some of these 28 Ministers who judg'd George Keith were likewise Justices of Peace as the abovesaid Samuel Jennings c. Yet how severely do they inveigh against Ministers in our Church being Justices of Peace But this double Capacity of Justices and Ministers serves them in stead in other matters as in the Case of the Sloop above-mention'd But I must not omit to acquaint the Reader that the ground of this Prosecution against G. Keith was his Preaching Christ without or a Personal Christ in Heaven besides the Light within which he said was only the Spiritual presence of Christ by his Light and Life in all his Children Upon this G. Keith was accus'd for Preaching Two Christs i. e. a Christ without besides the Christ within And so Denying the sufficiency of the Light within which Light the other Quakers say is sufficient without the Man Christ Jesus This Sam. Jennings after their manner of mumbling Thistles will not Confess but dare not Deny If they took no Offence at Preaching a Christ without and thought this not derogatory to the sufficiency of their Light within Why was G. Keith accused for this and nothing else What need was there for the Ministers of the Quakers as Thomas Fitzwater and Will. Stockdale to appear as Witnesses against G. Keith for Preaching that Doctrine and no other even as his Adversary Sam. Jennings himself gives the Account Why was this the business of so many Meetings and of so great stir among them and at last of an open Separation if the Quakers do in good earnest believe in a Christ without them or in a Personal Christ who suffer'd and dy'd for us and now Reigns in Heaven in the same Body For G. Keith is not so much as Accus'd for Preaching any thing else but this And I think this as good as a Demonstration That however they endeavour to mince the matter they do not Really believe in any other Saviour than their own Light within which they call Christ and so endeavour to amuse us But Reader take notice that as it is told in G. Keith's Apology above-said call'd New England's Spirit of Persecution c. p. 2. and own'd likewise by Sam. Jennings a Meeting consisting of at least sixty Monthly Meeting Members gave Judgment in Vindication of G. Keith against his Accusers T. Fitzwater and W Stockdale the substance of which was That they shou'd forbear Preaching and Praying in Meetings till they had Condemned their Ignorance and Unbelief c. But at the next Quarterly Meeting a Party withstood the said Judgment and said That the Persons being Ministers none but them of the Ministery were fit to Judge Which many says the Account thought relishâ—d too much of Popery But as above-told after this an Assembly of Twenty Eight of their Ministers met together at Philadelphia and Publish'd a Paper of Judgment against G. Keith the 20th of the 4th Month 1692. in answer to which he Publish'd An Appeal from these 28 Judges to the Spirit of Truth c. In Reply to which these Ministers being likewise Justices of Peace Issu'd their Warrants against the Printers Publishers c. as above is told Here is a many-forked and involved Infallibility one Meeting Justifying another Condemning G. Keith and all for the very same Doctrine There were in America sixteen Meetings against G. Keith and as many for him This will not only overthrow the Infallibility in each particular Person among them but even of their Churches or Meetings However their Churches or Meetings assuming an Authority over the Light within particular Persons totally destroys their Original pretence of Infallibility in particular Persons Secondly And besides this first Proof in Pensylvania there is another yet more Express and Positive call'd The Barbadoes Judgment The Dispute was this very Point whether they were to adhere to the Spirit or Light in each particular Person or to the Judgment of their Church or Meetings And it was Resolv'd as follows At a Quarterly Meeting at Ralph Fretwell 's House in Barbadoes the 23d day of the Tenth Month 1680. I desire to give up my whole Concern if requir'd both Spiritual and Temporal unto the judgment of the Spirit of God in the Men and Womens Meetings As believing it to be more according to the Universal Wisdom of God than any particular Measure in my self or any particulars with which the Men and Womens Meetings have not Unity This Judgment was subscrib'd by 39 Men and 43 Women in all 82. And the Party that sent the above-said Judgment writes thus This Paper hath been Promoted in sundry Meetings since and subscrib'd some few have Refused in Abhorrence whereof other Persuasions have Posted it This you have in Babel's Builders before Quoted p. 4. There are further Testimonies to this in some of the Quakers Principles c. before Quoted p. 14 15. where the words of some of them are set down as followeth 'T is true Friends in the beginning were turned to the Light in their own Consciences as their Proper Guide but when it pleas'd the Lord to gather so great a Number into the Knowledge and Belief
G. Whitehead upon it that there never were such Priests either in the North or any where else that were so Ignorant No George This is an Arrant Lye without all doubt Did any Man ever Think or Say that the very Material Paper and Ink and Letters wou'd Endure for ever Where is now thy Infallibility Where thy Common Honesty or Morality thus grosly to bely these Priests as thou callest them But they thank Thee that it was so Grosly for it is so very Ridiculous that it is in no Man's Power to believe Thee or that Thou canst have the least pretence to Infallibility or even that Thy word shou'd be trusted in any thing that Thou averrest when Thou darest Print so notorious and impossiblean Untruth Like G. Fox's senseless Reply to Richard Baxter c. Writing says he Paper and Ink is not Infallible Great Mystery p. 302. nor the Scripture is not the ground of Faith Your Rule Paper and Ink that will come to Dust Here I wou'd fain ask them a Question How it comes that since they are such bitter Enemies to the Letter they yet make a Conscience of saying Thee and Thou instead of You in the singular because these were old English words in the first Translations Is there any Immorality or Iniquity in these Letters y o u more than in T h o u And is not every Nation Master of its own Language Besides these were not the words of the Languages in which the Scriptures were wrote It is likely that G. Fox and the rest in the Year 1650. thought they were and lighting upon some old English Bible took it for the Original For if stress must be laid upon the Letter it must be surely upon the Original Letter in which the Scriptures were wrote And the Quakers may as well lay stress upon the Latine or French or Dutch Translation as upon the English in this Case How do they in other Languages make the Distinction betwixt thou and you when you is us'd in the singular Number Behold here these Men whose Chief Principle it is to Decry and Damn the Letter do set up at the same time the most Superstitions and Ridiculous sticking to the Letter that ever was heard of since Adam so very Extravagant that if it had not been no Man cou'd have believ'd that it cou'd have been Or that any Men cou'd have made a Case of Conscience of such a senseless and insignificant Criticism But as the Scorpion is said to carry Oyl which cures its own Venom so the wise Providence of God has dispos'd of most Errors that they carry Contradictions to themselves in their own Bowels But if the Holy Scriptures of God must not be call'd the Word of God because they are wrote in Letters why must the Quakers most Blasphemous and Prophane Scribbles be Stil'd the Word of the Lord Even Solomon Eccles's Lying Prophesie before told in his Letter to John Story To you all this is The Word of the Lord says George Fox of his own Writings Great Myst p. 225. I charge you says he in the presence of the Lord God Some of the Quakers Principles c. p. 4. to send this amongst all Friends and Brethren every where to be Read in all Meetings To you all This is the Word of God G. Fox's Letter to all Friends Printed 1671. with several Papers c. p. 60. 62. The Scriptures are not the Word of God G. F. c. Fire-brand c. p. 159. 2d Part 1678. A Printed Letter of G. Fox's which is now lying before me Dated at Dalston the 13th of the 10th Month 1683. Bears this Title All Friends every where this is The word of the Lord unto you all And there is a Postscript in these words This you may read amongst the Children of the Light and of the Day And p. 4. of the Letter he says I remember before we were call'd Quakers as I was sitting in an House in Nottingham-shire about the Year 1648. the word of the Lord came to me and said c. And yet in his Great Myst p. 246 247. he calls it Blasphemy to say that the Scriptures are the Word of God His words are these They the Scriptures are not the word of God which thou Christopher Wade hast Blasphemously affirmed But says he Jesuitcally to amuse the Reader Christ is the word of God As if Christopher Wade or any Christian had ever affirmed that the Book of Scriptures was the Word of God in the same sense as Christ or any otherwise than as the Records of those Revelations which God by his Holy Spirit did dictate to the Inspired Pen-Men But not a Living Person partaking of the Substance of the Father like the Word Eternally Begotten Cou'd this George either of these Georges Fox or VVhitehead produce any one Man even in Bedlam who ever asserted this of the Ink or Paper of the Holy Scriptures Why then do they use this Distinction Against whom do they use it Against No Body it was only to Shufle and Cut to Cover and Excuse their Contempt of the Holy Scriptures and in their place Deifying of their own Spirit and their own Scriptures They knew that the Holy Scriptures cou'd not be discarded openly and above Board nor all at once That the World had been long in Possession of them and of a just Veneration of them and therefore wou'd not so easily part with them nor accept of any Foxes Inspirations instead of them Therefore they set up a Power like that of the Church of Rome of Infallible Interpretation of Scripture And improv'd it as above is told into Immediate Revelation equal to that of the Prophets and Apostles And pursuant to this Plenitude of Power they have taken upon them not only to Abrogate the most express Ordinances of the Gospel and Pronounce them expir'd at their Pleasure as Baptism and the Lord's Supper But to set up and Institute new ones as the Womens Preachings directly contrary to 1 Cor. 14.35 which suffers not VVomen to speak in the Church and the Prelacy of the VVomens Meetings an Invention never heard of in the World till G. Fox Cobbled it out And they Enjoyn not these only as Ecclesiastical Injunctions of their Church but upon their pretence before told to the same Immediate Revelation which was given to the Apostles as the Institutions of Christ Solomon Eccles in his Letter already mention'd to John Story calls these the VVomens Preachings and the VVomens Meetings the Great and Good Ordinance which Christ Iesus hath set up in his Church This is directly giving us New Scriptures and a New Gospel For which they will find their Reward Gal. 1.8 9. Rev. 22.18 19. And they having as they pretend the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures they cannot be bound by the Scriptures or any Command in them unless their Spirit does anew require the same thing which the Scripture Commands So that the Scripture remains of no Authority with them
because if what the Scripture Commands be anew required by their Spirit they are bound to obey it because required by their Spirit But if the Scripture Command the thing they are by their Principles not bound to obey it unless it be requir'd by their Spirit Anew Which is most effectually overthrowing the Scriptures and resolving all into their Private Spirit or Light within This will yet further appear in the Sections which follow But let me first give an Authority for the last thing that I have said and it is such a one as does astonish me because first it is from the ingenious Mr. Penn secondly it is where he accuses others of Mis-representing the Quaker Principles and rescuing them from such Mis-representations Reason against Railing 1673. p. 150. Article 21. he sets them down in their most Moderate and he says True sense And he averrs That what was a Commandment to any Servants of God in old time that is in the Scriptures That such are not Commandments to us unless required by the same Spirit Anew And he instances in those Elementary Types Shadows and Figures appointed as he says for a season and to pass off These are the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords's Supper which he calls Elementary Types and Figures But that they were appointed only for a season and to pass off that is not to be prov'd from Scripture which enjoins them till Christ's coming again 1 Cor. 11.26 always even unto the end of the VVorld Matt. 28 19 20. But all this signifies nothing These Commandments are not required by the Quaker Spirit Anew And so they pass off This we are sure is not Aggravated upon them Indeed Mr. Penn does in the same place find fault with those who would improve this Principle of theirs to justifie Immoralists and things inconsistent with Government As if says he that Eternal Holy Omnipresent Light with which we are enlightned did not continually declare and require Just and Righteous things at our Hands This with submission instead of an Excuse is a full Confession oâ— the whole Charge unless Mr. Penn can make it appear that the Quakers and every one of them in Particular have this Light more than other Men Or if they have it that they must necessarily be guided by it Because otherwise they may commit Theft Sacrilege and all Immoralities under this Umbrage And no Command of Scripture can Restrain or Convince them by this Latitude here granted because if they shou'd Enthusiastically Believe or Hypocritically Pretend that such Command of Scripture was not required by their Spirit Anew it is ipso facto superseded by this Principle Thus it being Objected to G. Fox that one of his Quakers had Pretended an Immediate Call from Heaven to commit Theft or Robbery Great Myst p. 77. and Sacrilege in taking out of the Church an Hour-Glass G. F. does vindicate it in these words And as for any being moved of the Lord to take away your Hour-Glass from you by the Eternal Power it is owned And if another shou'd pretend an Immediate Call to take away the Communion-Plate for that is us'd to Superstitious uses where is the end of these loose Principles Mr. Penn can tell whether he did not solicite G. W. to return a Letter Some of the Quaker Principles p. 8. which another Quaker had stoln and given to him and whether G. W. did not make this Answer That unless the Lord requir'd him he wou'd not return it again See more of this in Tyranny and Hypocr c. p. 37. But as for things Inconsistent with Government which Mr. Penn supposes their Light can never dictate I refer him to the first Section and to some of the Quakers Principles Sect. 10. to 18. These concern the Government of the State But as for Church Government I think Mr. Penn will not say but their Principles are wholly Inconsistent Have they not broke off from the Church-Government established in England and in all the Christian World And â—o they not pretend that their Light guides them in it Have they not by the same Light Rebell'd from Episcopacy which they cannot deny was in the times of the Apostles and through all Ages of Christianity to this day If they think this a Light sin let them read the 16th of Numb and see if the sin of Korah was small Or if it was for any thing else but Church-Government And St. Jude tells us ver 11. of those under the Gospel who perish in the gain-saying of Rorah But if disobedience to Church-Government be no such great matter why do the Quaker-Church treat their Separatists with such violent fury and strain their Invention to find Names bad enough for them Devil-driving Dungy Gods c. as if already smoaking in Hell Why do they charge them so desperately with the heinousness of Schism It is true indeed that the Church cannot subsist more than any other Society without Government But it is as true that the Quaker Pretence to the Private Light in Particular Persons as a Principle over-ruling Scripture and all outward Ordinances is Inconsistent with Government either in Church or State or any security from all the Dismal and Enthusiastical Murthers Rapines and Outrage of the Zealots among the Jews who went upon the same Principle yet shew'd no evil signs of it nor I do Charitably believe had at first any Evil Designs nor knew more than Hazael 2 Kings 8.13 whither these Principles would at last hurry them But if Hard Words are a Natural Presage and shew and Inward Disposition to come to Blows no People have shewn more Virilence in the First nor do I believe that they are Infallibly securâ—d from the Latter But no Tempting occasion has yet offer'd it self to them For it is a very convenient Principle to be protected by other Mens Swords without running any of the hazard our selves to enjoy the Benefits of Peace equally with others and to be freed if not from the Charge at least from the Slavery and Dangers of War It is good to sleep in a whole Skin But yet if they had a Government of their own they wou'd not part no not with a Sloop And I do not think any sort of People wou'd less encourage under their own Government their now Pretended Principle of Enthusiasm or the Private Spirit We see how violently they now oppose it in their Separatists They call any Opposition to the Orders of their Church no less than Rebellion and that against God Himself Thus Solomon Eccles told John Story in his Letter above-Quoted That his opposing the Divine Right of the Womens Preachings and Womens Meetings set up by G. Fox was Rebellion against the Living God More Instances of this see in some of the Quakers Principles Sect. 13. And they make Orders in direct opposition to the Laws and make it Rebellion against God to obey the Laws T. C's Animadversions upon G. W's Innocency Triumphant p. 16. and 30. as in the
Heavenly seem to imply a Bodily Resurrection but let the whole verse be consider'd and we shall find no such thing c. I will not take up the Reader 's time to repeat all his Arbitrary Interpretations They are such as will by the same Liberty be useless take away the Literal Adam and Literal Christ as well as the Literal Resurrection And I shall have occasion Sect. 17. to shew that the Quakers have Spiritualiz'd away all the Body and the Being of Christ into their Light within Indeed if the Spiritualizing Art be allow'd in this Latitude there can remain no one word of Certainty or Reality in the whole Bible or in any other Book or Writing or in any other Book or Writing or in any words that Men can speak When I urg'd to a Quaker-Preacher towards a proof of the Resurrection of Bodies that Text Mat. 27.52 53. that many Bodies of Saints arose and came out of the Graves after Christ's Resurrection and went into the Holy City and appeared unto many He made answer That that was not meant of the Literal or Earthly Ierusalem that any Dead Body arose there but of the Spiritual Ierusalem which John saw coming down from Heaven And others told me they heard the same Exposition in a Quaker Sermon at one of their Meetings Here we have Spiritual Graves Spiritual Dead Bodies Spiritual Ierusalems Spiritual Resurrection and Spiritual Christ whenever any Text pinches them Among other Names of Reproach which Mr. Penn in his Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith before Quoted p. 4. bestows upon one of the Separate Quakers he calls him Hymeneus and Philetus who as St. Paul tells of them 2 Tim. 2.18 concerning the Truth have erred saying that the Resurrection is past already That is they Spiritualiz'd it from the Letter and meant it only of the Spiritual rising up of Christ in our Hearts which having obtain'd as their Light within did assure them their Resurrection they suppos'd was past already and they expected no other But this St. Paul calls overthrowing the Faith And I can tell of a Preacher among the Quakers who was as confident of himself were they not all so see Sect. 8 9 10. and said that he had already obtain'd the Resurrection by Christ having Risen in his Heart and that he believ'd no other Resurrection nor expected any And G. Fox says plainly in these words Great Myst p. 214. There 's none have a Glory and a Heaven but within them SECT XIV Of the Sacraments AT the same rate they answer that Text 1 Cor. 11.26 of shewing forth the Lord's Death by the Celebration of His Last Supper till He come That is say they with Hymeneus and Philetus till His coming Spiritually in our Hearts And they supposing that He is so come there is an end of the time limitted for the Celebration of that Ordinance of Christ Tho' they cannot deny but that Christ was so come in the Hearts of the Holy Apostles and of the purest Primitive Christians and Blessed Martyrs none of whom Dream'd of the time being thus expir'd but did continue and the Catholick Church from their days to this in the Religious Observance of that Holy Institution thinking it obligatory till his coming again that is at the Literal Resurrection in the last day The same time that was limited to the continuance of the other Sacrament of Baptism Mat. 28.20 That is always even unto the end of the World as it is there said by Christ to his Apostles and their Successors Go ye and teach all Nations Baptizing them and lo I am with you that is you and your Successors in the Execution of this Commission of Baptizing c. Alway even unto the end of the World For if this be the time during which Christ promised to assist his Commission it must doubtless infer the like continuance of the things requir'd in the said Commission And I wou'd fain know from any Quaker why Teaching does not cease as well as Baptism since both are in the same Commission and the time of Continuance spoken equally of both And the necessity of Baptism greatly inforc'd in the same Commission Mark 16.16 Go ye into all the VVorld He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved And upon the Quaker Pretence to Infallibility and the unerring guidance of the Light within every particular Person why shou'd not all outward Teaching cease as well as Baptism For what need of Teaching to Infallibility And is not Teaching an outward Ordinance as well as Baptism And to last only till we are Taught And does not the Light within teach sufficiently The Quakers dare not deny the sufficiency of the Light within Therefore there is greater need by their own Principles for the continuance of Baptism than of Preaching because Baptism is an initiating Ordinance and therefore always to be continu'd while there are any to be initiated or Admitted into the Society of the Church But Teaching does of its own Nature cease when Men are sufficiently Taught Therefore to those who hold the sufficiency of the Light within outward Preaching must be wholly inconsistent Yet they keep up Preaching and abolish Baptism All that can be said is That their Power of Interpretation is a very Arbitrary and Despotick Power And we must ask no Reasons Inward Baptism must supersede the Outward but Inward Teaching must not even to those whose sole Foundation is the Inward Teaching Let me here add one Observation for the sake of those who pretend that the Baptism which is spoke of Mat. 28.19 Go ye and Teach all Nations Baptizing them c. was meant only of the Spiritual Baptism or the Baptism with the Holy Ghost Let me observe to those That Christ only is He who cou'd Baptize with the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost is His Gift only To say that Man cou'd bestow God which the Holy Ghost is is the highest Blasphemy Men indeed are made Ministerial Officers by whose Hands Christ does bestow the Holy Ghost in the use of those Rules and Means which He has appointed And Simon Magus himself understood it no otherwise Acts 8.18 19. He desir'd only to be made such a Ministerial Officer through whose Ministry the Holy Ghost might be given And in all the Gospel there is no such Command given to any Apostle as to Baptize with the Holy Ghost Nor is it said that any of them did Baptize with the Holy Ghost That is the Peculiar of Christ himself and spoke Characteristically of him alone John 1.33 They indeed were impowered as John to Baptize with Water which being duly Administer'd and Receiv'd according to Christ's Institution He has promisâ—d the Spiritual Baptism with the Holy Ghost to go along with it but as His Gift not as the Gift of his Ministers by whose Hands He pleases to convey it Therefore if the Quaker Interpretation of Mat. 28.19 do hold it will follow That the Apostles and their Successors have power to Baptize with the Holy