therein as a work but under another Notion and Formality See I pray how he opposes them Rom. 3.27 28. and 4.2 3 4 5. and 9.32 and 10.5 6. Galat. 3.11 12. Yea the very Attributes of the Deity admit of a Formal Precision upon their divers Considerations and Connotations and I am sure the Attributes of God have as strict an Identity as the Predicates of any Essence beside can have And when he Quarrels such distinctions as not plain for Instruction I must answer him that then Confusion is certainly plain Doctrine as he thinks but qui bené distinguit bené docet But why is George himself so nice Quakerism no Popery page 52. to distinguish Faith as Receptive from it self as Inward Righteousness Unto this I will say with reason as he has said page 8. of his book without reason to a man of very great worth Turpe est Doctori immediate inspirato cum culpa redarguit ipsum The next thing that comes in this Query all the petty Questions whereof I will resolve in this Section is a Consequence which they draw from the Mill to the Moon Christ say they set up his worship above Sixteen Hundred years since in Spirit and in truth so must not every man come to the Truth and to the Spirit in their own hearts if they come to the Worship he set up Ans I shall not stand long in Taxing the Antecedent whereby they seem to insinuate that there was no Spiritual Worship and consequently Worshippers under the Old-Testament which is most evidently false for then these had no Faith in God nor love to or fear of him but were all Black Atheists and must all be Damned Christs meaning therefore in that place viz. Joh. 4.23 is not that there was no Spiritual Worship in the Church before that time but that the vail of Ceremonies wherewith the Spiritual Worship was as it were covered and hidden under the Old-Testament should be removed and taken away under the New and the Worship rendred more simple and more clear and the Spirituality thereof more appear and be expressed externally as it is plainly declared in the event 2 Cor. 3.13 with 18. as also the Context of the place shews that it is of the removing of that vail of Ceremonies whereof he speaks under which the Worship was tied unto Typical places But how shall it be inferred from that that the Worship under the New-Testament shall not be vailed with Ceremonies Types and shadows as before it was but shall be more simple manifest and clear that therefore every man under the New-Testament must come to the Truth and to the Spirit in his own heart here is a Consequence led by the Quakers in a weighty matter of Faith so quite blind and wild that the Chimeraes of Utopia may sooner break the Bars of Impossibility and the Bolts of their necessary Imprisonment then it shall ever be established with one grain weight or Scruple of either Scripture or Reason But of the Light within which here they aim at we have said enough already But say the Quakers near the close of this Query are not your Catechisms Confessions of Faith and Directories your own works and your own Worship that ye have set down they should have said set up for people to fall down and do Worship to and be saved by Ans Whose works soever these are I have at the Survey of their Ninth Tenth and Eleventh Queries sufficiently in the general vindicated them against all the Quakers Cavillations Secondly I have also vindicated our Church from the Doctrine of Salvation by works and I will not repeat Thirdly does the explaining and opening up or clearing of the Principles of Religion and our Christian Faith by Catechism Confession Vive-voice or otherways by the very deed done make men Guilty of holding a Salvation by works O brave the Apostles that were diligent in these things are much Guiltier then then we are As for the Worshipping of these and the Will-worship which here they are pleased to charge us with we shall meet with these in the next Query SECT II. Confuting the Quakers Popish Justification Upon this Debate I will not stand long it hath been so much tossed already betwixt our Writers and the Papists only I shall bring two or three forcible Arguments against our being justified before God by any Righteousness wrought or inherent within us my Assertion being That we are justified before God by the Righteousness of Christ without us Imputed by God unto us upon our apprehending and Imbracing of Christ and his Righteousness offered to us by Faith and not by any Righteousness wrought or inherent in us Before we prove that we are not justified by any Righteousness wrought or inherent in us but by Christs without us Imputed to us we shall premise this ground viz. that in the Scripture our own Law-righteousness and the Righteousness of our works are still taken for one and the same thing and stated in opposition to Christs Righteousness received by Faith in this point of Justification as I have often shewed before from these following Scriptures viz. Rom. 3. chap. from ver 20. to the end and 4.2 3 4 5.6 and 9.30 31 32. and 10.3 5 6. Galat. 2.16 21. and 3.11 12. and 5.4 Philip. 3.9 nor can the Righteousness of our works and our Law-righteousness be diverse upon any account that is possible to be shewn by any man and I pray consider the Scriptures that I have Cited which I may not stand to form into Arguments and which are so clear that they need not these things premised I Argue First we are justified before God by the Righteousness of Faith which is the righteousness of Christs obedience and sufferings without us for he did not obey and die within us as we have before proved Ergo we are not justified before him by a righteousness wrought or inherent within us seeing that which Christ wrought and suffered in his own Person before we were born without us was not then nor is it now over again by way of reproduction which if they say is still Popish enough wrought within us Secondly We are justified before God freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Rom. 3 24. Eph. 1 7. Col. 1 14. Ergo we are justified by the satisfaction of Christ without us not by any righteousness wrought or inherent within us The antecedent is the Apostles I prove the consequence because first a man cannot be freely justified or pronounced righteous by a judge because he is personally in himself Inherently righteous for he is bound in all justice to pronounce a man righteous that is such and it is not done freely or gratis and if he do otherwise he does most unjustly Secondly I prove the consequence because this redemption whereby we are justified is in Jesus in whom the righteousness wrought or inherent in us is not except the Quakers Blasphemously will have every justified man to
wilful Seducers and malicious Opposers of the Truth whose Blasphemous Mouths must be stopt and their Heretical fury repressed that the Truth may not be Troden under foot and the simple Seduced who are easily ensnared where such men get way and are not Redargued That which hath deceived and been a Snare unto many simple and ignorant people is some hairy Garments of a few and but a few external Duties of the second Table of the Law wherewith these Instruments of Satan have Clothed themselves But such should remember that false Apostles and Ministers of Satan do Transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and Ministers of Righteousness even as Satan also Transforms himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. and false Prophets being inwardly Wolves do notwithstanding come in Sheeps Clothing Mat. 7.15 and even Resisters of the Truth put on a form of Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 8. and however these Doctors of the Quakers Mask and Vizorn themselves with some few externals of the second Table yet how even in Doctrine they trample generally upon the whole Moral Law but more especially upon the first Table thereof which yet in reason ought to have the first room is not obscure For as for the First Commandment it is notour to all acquaint with the Principles of the Quakers how manifestly even in Doctrine they contradict and oppose the same while they Impudently deny that any man who hath not received the Spirit ought to Worship God This is so known a Tenet of the Quakers that we need hardly to produce Testimonies thereof but it may be seen in a Book of theirs Published in the year 1668 entituled The Principles of Truth or a Declaration of their Faith in the 81 82 and 92 pages whereof they expresly Teach and I shall repeat their very words That all men ought First to wait Vntil they receive the Spirit in Truth Then in the same Truth to worship God in Spirit who is a Spirit In plain Terms that is to say men must first wait until they receive the Spirit before they offer to meddle in worshipping of God The same also may be seen in a most virulent Printed Pamphlet of theirs Intituled in the beginning of the Chapters or Sections thereof for I had it without a Title page The Principles of the Priest so they call the Ministers of Scotland of whom they there speak of such a Place and such a Place in the 14. and 15 pages whereof they directly Impugn and oppose this Position and Principle alledged by them to have been Taught by Mr. John Carstairs Minister at Glasgow viz. That all men whatsoever ought to Worship God Unto this their Atheistical Doctrine is Subalternate that other impious Principle of theirs That no man ought to Pray to God till he be actually moved thereunto and Influenced by the Spirit otherwise Mr. George Keith one of their Chief Apostles affirms it is but Will-worship and Superstition in his Quakerism no Popery page 99. and 100. Good Reader allow me to take a small word of these Mad Principles and I shall do it very briefly Therefore first all men whatsoever they be are bound to Fear Reverence Love and praise God say the Contrary who dare but these are all most principal Arts or parts of the Worship of God Therefore this Principle of the Quakers is both False and Prophane Secondly Obedience to God Essentially and Indispensably includes worshipping of God seeing it includes a subjecting and stooping to his Yoke and Soveraignity and a doing of Homage and Honour unto him and this also includes Reverence all which are no mean parts of his most Substantial and Moral worship Well then if no man ought to Worship God until first he receive the Spirit then no man ought to obey God until first he receive the Spirit seeing obedience Essentially includes Worship and cannot be performed without it as is shewed but it is utterly Atheistical Profane and Absurd to say that no man ought to obey God until first he receive the Spirit for then no unrenewed man ought to obey God seeing such men have not received the Spirit Joh. 14.17 Rom. 8.9 if then unrenewed men ought not to obey God then they are not under any Law of God and he requires no obedience of them for if they be under any Law of his and if he requires any Duty of them I am sure the Quakers will never get them exempted from it Well then if unrenewed men be not under any Command or Law of God and he requires no Duty of them then it follows Infallibly first that let unrenewed men do what they will they cannot sin against God seeing such as are not under any Command or Law of God cannot trasgress any Law of his and so sin against him see Rom. 4.15 1 Joh. 3.4 Such men then in the Quakers Principles may deny disown reject hate and Contemn God Worship the Devil and Debauch at their pleasure and yet they cannot sin against God for all that seeing they are not under any Law of God Secondly it follows thereupon that Reprobates are all most unjustly Condemned for their sinning against God seeing they not having received the Spirit are not under Law to God as is supposed and so cannot be Guilty of sinning against him Thirdly it follows thereupon that unrenewed men cannot sin albeit they should never so much Counte-ract and Contraveen all the Precepts of the second Table of the Law also seeing these that Transgress no Law of God nor any Command of his cannot be sinners seeing Sin is a Transgression of the Law and where no Law is there is no Transgression they are not capable of Trangressng a Law who are not under it and bound to obey it Hence then in the Quakers Principles unrenewed men may Lawfully Dishonour and Defame all men Murder commit Adultery Steal bear false Witness and what not Is not that a sweet Doctrine that tends so directly to all mischief and wickedness losing all men that have not received the Spirit from all Bonds of God and cutting asunder all the Divine Cords of their Duty are not the Sage Doctors of these black Mysteries of Satan very Divinely Inspired Do they not seem to be very Pious Would it not be a sweet world if these Principles were put in practise God preserve us from from so Impious a Piety and such stark Mad Inspirations which I am sure are the very quintessence of the Devils whole Treasury and the utmost of his strength and endeavour Hence falls that other Lewd and Prophane Principle of the Quakers subalternate to their Doctrine here presently Confuted viz. That no man ought to Pray to God until he be actually moved and influenced thereunto by the Spirit seeing calling upon God is a part of Moral Worship or of our Obedience to the Moral Law whereunto all men are obliged Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Kingdoms that call not on thy
outward things Doth he not bring them off things that are seen to things that are not seen And whether or not ye ever intend ye your selves called Ministers or your hearers shall come any nearer to Christs Death and Die and be Buried with him but only to take Bread and Wine in remembrance of Christs Death lest ye and they should come to forget Christs Death Answer us plainly these things Yea or Nay Twelfth QUERY What is Original sin Whether it be not the Devil yea or nay For doth not the Original signifie the beginning And what did Christ come to Destroy Was it not the Devil and his works Thirteenth QUERY Whether or not did Christ die for all the ungodly in the world and Sinners that they should live and die in their ungodliness and sins or live unto him and whether or not did Christ shed his blood for all men and was a Propitiation for the sins of all men and whether or not these that do not hold this are these that make Sects and are out of the same Spirit and Doctrine of the Apostles Fourteenth QUERY What makes a Believer Whether or not is it by believing in the Light according to Christs Doctrine who says He is the Light of the World and doth enlighten every one that comes into the world that all men through him might Believe and who follows him shall not walk in darkness for he is the Light and says That he that believes is saved Then is not the Light saving which he believes and he that does not believe in the Light is damned already Then is not the Light or his disobedience to it his Condemnation Yea or Nay Fifteenth QUERY Can any man be saved by his own works Self-righteousness Will-worship and are not all men in the Self-righteousness that are not in the Righteousness of Christ Jesus and are not all of their own works that be out of the Light and the Faith that is the Gift of God and are not all in their will-Will-worships that are not in the worship that Jesus Christ the heavenly man set up above Sixteen hundred years since that is in the Spirit and the Truth So must not every man come to the Truth and to the Spirit in their own hearts if they come to the worship Jesus Christ set up and are not your Catechisms Confessions of Faith and Directories your own works and your own worship which ye have set down for people to fall down and do worship to and be saved by and have ye not set up this since the Apostles days and since Christ set up his worship Sixteenth QUERY Whether or not your Directory and Catechism and Confession of Faith be Gospel yea or nay And if so whether it be not another Gospel then that which the Apostles Preached who said the Gospel was the power of God Rom. 1.16 Seventeenth QUERY Whether or not the Scriptures do not say that he that believes hath ceased from his own works as God did from his and entred into his rest and whether or not your Directory and Church-maid Faith and Catechisms and Confessions be not your own works and ye follow them and worship them and not cease from them And whether or not in so doing ye keep people and your selves in your own works and from the Rest or we desire you shew us what difference their is betwixt Spiritual Babylon and Sodom and Egypts works of their hands and Temporal Babylon and Sodom and Egypts works of their hands and their worship Of each distinguish I desire you Distinguish the mystery from a plain outward Idol These Queries were Subscribed I. S. and I could fill up his Name at length but I forbear for some reasons that I think more pertinent to Conceal than Divulge unto the world This is the true Transcript of their Queries which were directed unto me as is said which I can Attest by many others that saw and read them before they came to my hand and some after that knows they owned them and they are also the true Pourtraiture of their known Principles and beside I have in this Controversie carried along two of their most famous Books yet extant the Positions whereof which I always Cite do exactly agree with the Scope and Import of these Queries viz. their Confession of Faith Subscribed by Eight or Nine of their most famous Ring-leaders in England by them called The Principles of Truth or a Declaration of their Faith and their Quakerism no Popery written by Mr. George Keith and Subscribed both by him and Mr. Robert Barclay two of their chiefest Luminaries and greatest Apostles forsooth in Scotland This Book Mr. Keith writes against Reverend Mr. Menzies Professor of Theology at Aberdeen a man of so great Veneration and Learning that it may be justly thought a daring boldness for him to have meddled against him So that no man knowing the Quakers Principles or searching these grounds will in the least doubt the faithfulness of my Transcription beside what Credit may be allowed unto my own Ingenuity who never loved the straining of any mans Principle too sore in Consequences unclear and remote much less the fixing of Principles falsly upon such as disclaimed them But of this I need say no more for the Quakers Principles are known and these Queries they will own An Alphaâ—â—â—ical TABLE A GRacious Acts necessarily require gracious Principles proved pag. 157. Adam a common Representative head of Mankind pag. 134. The Analogy of Faith what it is pag. 78. Apocryphal Books not Canonical or of immediate Inspiration pag. 209. Apostacy of the Saints confuted pag. 162. Christian assurance needs not immediate Dictates p. 32. Authority of the Scripture-rule over all other Rules proved ibid. The Pope before the Reformation had Church-Authority and how pag. 199. B THe Baptism of John and the Apostles the same in substance p. 69. Baptism with Water of Divine Institution under the Gospel p. 68. Baptism with Water only properly called Baptism p. 78. Baptism with Water meant in the Text of Matthew Matthew 28.19 proved p. 76. Baptism with Water necessary to Salvation and how p. 74. Baptism with Water not an Old-Testament Ceremony p. 68. Baptism succeeded in the room of Circumcision p. 86. Baptism of Believers Infants a Divine Institution under the Gospel ibid. Baptism the Initiating Seal proved ibid. Probable Evidences enough for admission to Baptism p. 88. The great Beast mentioned in the Revel not our will pag. 195. Bilocation pregnant with Contradictions p. 191. Blasphemies reported in Scripture not Scripture-sentence p. 20. C EXtraordinary calls attended with extraordinary Furniture pag. 7. An inward call not necessary to the validity of Ministerial Acts. pag. 202. A Catechism requisite in a Church and why pag. 123. Our Westminster Catechism aimed at materially Scripture-sentence pag. 129. How the Command is said to be nigh unto us Deut. 30.14 p. 37. Christs coming again mentioned 1 Cor. 11.26 not meaned of his coming at the Pentecost but at the
are not all of their own works that be out of the light and the Faith that is the gift of God And are not all in their will-will-worships that are not in the worship that Jesus Christ the Heavenly man set up above Sixteen hundred years Since that is in the Spirit and the truth So must not every man come to the truth and to the Spirit in their own hearts if they come to the worship Jesus Christ Set up And are not your Catechisms Confession of Faith and Directories your own works and your own worship which ye have set down for People to fall down and do worship to and be Saved by And have ye not set up this since the Apostles days and since Christ set up his worship SVRVEY Because this Survey will divide it self into three Subjects and it would be too long together therefore I shall order it into three Sections The First shall Vindicat us from a Popish Salvation or justification by works or Inherent Righteousness and shall fix a Popish justification upon the Quakers The Second shall very breifly confuted their Popish justification The Third shall overturn an exception made by the Quakers against the charge of a Popish justification which we justly lay to their door SECT 1. Vindicating us from a Popish Salvation and Justification and fixing a Popish Justification upon the Quakers The great scope of this Querie is to make us seem guilty of holding a Popish Salvation by works albeit the whole Christian World knoweth what a lewd Calumny this is It having been the constant Doctrine of ours and all other Protestant Churches against the Papists that the good works of the Saints are not the causes or Meritorious procurers of their Salvation and it is founded upon Scripture-Testimony as clear as the Sun For eternal Life is none of our merit and due but is the Free gift of God Rom. 6 23. And by grace not by works we are Saved Ephēs 2 5 8 9. not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he Saveth us Tit. 3.5 And the best of our works are in this Life imperfect as is proven and so they cannot merit any good but Contrarily every defect and short coming of our Duty Merits Damnation and the Curse Deut. 27 26. Galat. 3 10. And if our good works could merit then we might trust to them which the Apostle dare not do Philip. 39 Nor is there any proportion betwixt our best works and eternal Life Rom. 8 18. And therefore they cannot merit it The whole Protestant Church hath no less always abhorred the Doctrine of justification by our own Inherent Righteousness and good works from the same clear Evidence of the Scripture for which see Rom. 3 Chap. from Vers 20. to the end and the whole Chap. following As also Galat. 2 16 21. and 3 10 11. and 5 4. Philip. 3 9. and seeing that is still imperfect in this life it can neither be the cause nor Condition of our justification before God in whose sight no man living shall be justified Psal 143 2. viz. by any Righteousness inherent or inward in himself Nevertheless albeit our inherent Righteousness and good works be not necessary to Salvation as Efficient or Meritorious causes thereof yet they are necessary indispensably thereunto by necessity of presence or as pure Antecedents without which no man is Saved excepting these that Die Immediately after Conversion and Infants from the Actual performance of good works For which see Mat. 3.10 and 5.20 and 25. from vers 34. to the end and Rom. 2.9 10. and 8.13 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Galat. 5.21 and 6.8 Heb. 12.14 And albeit our inherent or inward Righteousness be neither the Cause nor Condition of our justification before God yet it is still an inseparable Concomitant of justifying Faith For which see Rom. 8.1 9 10. 2 Cor. 5.17 Jam. 2.17.20 1 Joh. 3.3 But what if the Quakers be Guilty of a Popish justification Do not the Quakers hold justification by a Righteousness wrought within them and formally inward and inherent in themselves in this they joyn hands with the Papists in one of their most Fundamental Errors which does indeed contradict the very Design and Current of the Gospel which is to Teach us to seek Righteousness for justification in Christ and not in our selves yea and the very plain Design of Christs Death See Rom. 3.25 and 10.4 Galat. 2.16 21. and 5.4 But the Quakers endeavour to elude this our Charge pretending that they are far from holding justification by their own Inherent Righteousness with the Papists but by the alone Imputed Righteousness of Christ Thus they pretend in their Confession of Faith pag. 4.21 22. But the Quakers will not so Cheat and deceive the Christian world for first in that 21. pag. Cited where they purposely handle this Question and pretend as is now said they deny us to be justified by a Righteousness received of us by Faith calling that but an Act of the Creaturely skill and an Imputation which is an Act of mans Spirit and forging and a Fiction and Imagination in the Creaturely will and power Hence then they deny us to be justified by the Righteousness received of us by Faith and so consequently by the Imputed Righteousness of Christ seeing the Righteousness of his Obedience and Sufferings Imputed to us in Justification is not a diverse Righteousness from the Righteousness of Faith but is one and the same as is clear from Rom. 3.21 22 24 25. and 4.6 11 13 22 23 24. and 9.30 and 10.4 10. Galat. 2.16 and 3.8 and 5.5 Secondly this justification held by the Quakers must either be by the Righteousness received by Faith or else by the Righteousness of the Law and its works for there is no other third sort of Righteousness known to compet in this point but these are always stated as the only two Members of the Distinction for which see Rom. 3.28 and 4.2 3 4 5. and 9.30 31 32. and 10.3 5 6. Galat. 3.11 12. But the Quakers plainly deny the Justification held by them to be by the former yea they Scoff and Mock at that more than ever Papist did as is evident from their preceeding Language Therefore they do inevitably hold Justification by the latter wherein they manifestly joyn hands with the Papists for all their pretexts to cover it Again in the fore-Cited 22. page of their Confession they have these words and because say they we are against the latter viz. Justification by a Righteousness received by Faith whereof they were last speaking we are Clamoured upon as if we denied the Imputation of Christs Righteousness when it is only to these that are not made Righteous by it to walk as he also walked Here they hold Justification by a Righteousness Making their walk Righteous which is the plain inherent Righteousness of our Life and Conversation But the Quâkers in that last Cited pag. of their Confession go on and add that it
MY Lord Bishop of Edinburgh laving appointed me to reveiw and examine a Book Compiled by Mr. John Alexander Preacher of the Gospel Intituled Jesuitico Quakerism Examin'd or Quakers Confuted These are assuring that it not only Contains nothing contrary to the Christian Religion to the Doctrine Worship or Government of the Church of Scotland but that it exactly though briefly compriseth the Marrow of many great Truths in order to the vindication of those solid Articles of our Faith ignorantly and unreasonably invaded by that Heretical fry of Quakers and that with knowledge and care the Author hath Refuted their Irreligious and Blasphemous Positions so that it may prove a very useful Book And therefore I humbly judge it very deserving to be Imprinted This is Testified by John Hamilton Leith Octob. 16. 1679. Jesuitico-Quakerism Examined OR A CONFUTATION OF The Blasphemous and unreasonable Principles of THE QUAKERS With a Vindication of the Church of God IN BRITAIN FROM Their Malicious Clamours and Slanderous Aspersions By John Alexander Preacher of the Gospel Isaiah 8.20 Te the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Luk. 16.29 31. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead 1 John 4.1 Beloved believe not every Spirit but trie the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the Sign of the Kings Arms in the Poultry 1680. To the Right Honorable Sir Robert Clayton Knight Lord Mayor of the Famous City of London the Author wisheth Grace Mercy and Peace MY Lord this ensuing Treatise comes to Salute the World and appear upon the publick Stage under the Honorable Shade and Patrociny of your name not presuming to add any Lustre thereunto whereof it is uncapable and whereof your Lordships Prudence and Vertues have been such publick Heraulds to the World that I shall rather impose a Cessation to my Pen and enjoyn my self a necessary silence as my highest Encomium than be Guilty with Apelles in forming of the Image of interweaving the constrained Failzeurs of my best Rhetorick with your Lordships deserved Commendation But knowing the hazard of these publick Scenes and the Worlds view where there is always a Momus ready to carp it comes to seek shelter under your Lordships favorable Protection whereunto it is also encouraged with good hopes of obtaining the cheerful Countenance of your Authority because of your Pious and Laudable Zeal against all the enemies of our Orthodox Faith and the Divine Truth especially these pernicious and beyond all Heathens most inhumane Proto-plasta's of Quakerism I mean the Jesuits unto whom the latter Profession owes the Founding of their Order and a great many of their Principles be they never so shie and nice to Confess it It doth also with Modest humility lay claim to one interest into your Lordships Tutelage because albeit it was elsewhere conceived and had the form of one Embryo yet it hath received its just measures for a regular Birth within the precinct of your Honorable Jurisdiction and though of Scottish Parentage yet it is truly London Born I know very well there are many in this declining Age of Christianity who account all Disputations about Principles of Religion how necessary soever providing men live well to be but vain Jangling wherein they exactly Homologate the Quakers as I well know but their provision though it were granted to be enough which it is not is impossible if people be misled in necessary Principles seeing no man can live well who mistakes his Rode-way and follows wrong directions and lies and therefore as we are very heartily willing to Discharge all Debates about Opinions which yield no fruit to Edification and make us no sounder Christians so their great care is to have all the other Cashiered also But when the most necessary Truths are boldly invaded and our common Faith in danger to be supplanted it looks not like Christian Courage or Zeal but is rather a plain betraying of Truth for us to hold our peace and suffer the enemy how contemptible soever they may seem by their real Triumphs though but counterfeited Trophees of a pretended Victory erected meerly upon our Cowardise and Sloth not the overthrow of our Cause or their Strength to gather Proselytes and increase their numbers This is not to be valiant for the Truth upon the Earth Christ did not so let the Sadduces a contemptible and foolish people pass without a demonstrative Confutation Paul also fought with Beasts at Ephesus and his Epistles declare what care he took at the Spirits direction too to redargue the Errors of his time This Tractate shall not much value the obloquy and Sarcasms of these men nor of any other whom nothing can please which is not either the fruit of their proper Invention or else at least adequately adjusted to their prejudicate apprehensions and foreconceived Opinions if it be but which is its great ambition acceptable to your Lordship and Edifying to such as desire to know and love the Truth And though reflecting upon the Brutish absurdity of the party against whom I have Embarqu'd in this Province not only renouncing all true Principles of Religion but also stifling their very faculties of reason my adopting of this piece so high may almost seem unsutable yet when I contemplate the great Worth and Excellency of the Subject Matter and Theme I am to treat upon being no less then the whole Divine Ordinances of the Gospel and the most precious and many of them most necessary Truths of Jesus I hope my Nuncupation shall no ways be thought incongruous if I have but been so happy as rightly to encounter the Adversaries and dextrously to vindicate and display the Standard of the Sacred Truth which with what force and evidence I have done I submit to your Lordships Vmpirage and Judgment whom that God may bless and make prosperous here and eternally happy hereafter is the earnest Prayer of your Lordships most Obedient Servant John Alexander TO THE READER THese seventeen following Queries of the Quakers having come to my hand with a direction bearing my Name I did for some time stand in Bivio doubting with my self if it should be worth the while to bring them to the Anvil one while fearing lest Truth through my weakness should be at a disadvantage and another while accounting it almost an unnecessary undertaking to offer to redargue such distracted and Brutish Errors the very Grossness whereof might alone be sufficient to overthrow and Crush their Reputation with every man not depriv'd of sense and rob'd of a sound mind But after more mature and due consideration that an undervalued and neglected enemy proves ordinarily the most dangerous and that unsavory Hemlock except it be digged out and Exfundat may grow and
is plain seeing they would never have been commended for examining and trying his Doctrine by the Scriptures except the Scriptures were the Rule or for making that a Rule for examining and receiving of Doctrines of Faith which is no Rule of matters of Faith Nay for this they would have been deservedly discommended Fifthly The Scriptures are able to make us Wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 Therefore they contain the Rule of Faith and Duty The Consequence is easie seeing without the Rule of these we cannot be wise unto Salvation but plainly ignorant of the way thereunto having no Rule to direct us Sixthly the whole Scriptures were given by Inspiration of God and they were written purposely for the Churches Instruction and Learning as is before shewed Therefore they must surely be the Rule of Faith and Duty for I am sure there is nothing wanting here that is requisite to the Constituting of them for a publick Rule or else let the Quakers if they can shew us what that is for I can not perceive it without the Spectacles of their Eagle-eyed Inspirer Seventhly That Doctrine must be the Rule of Faith and Manners which in all matters of Faith and Manners we ought to observe and take heed to as a Doctrine full of shining light for our instruction and direction but that is the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures are the Rule of Faith and Manners The Major is clear nor do the Quakers deny it The Minor is laid down in 2 Pet. 1.19 20. where Peter after his rehearsing of the glorious Revelation on the Mount at the Transfiguration which was as glorious a Revelation as any else he addeth That they had a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto they did well to take heed as unto a light shining c. knowing this first that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation here it is clear that it is the Scriptures which he calls the more sure Word of Prophecy and prefers before all transient Revelations not as if the Scriptures were more certain in themselves Quoad se than Gods immediate voice from Heaven but because they are a more sure way in regard of us Quoad nos they being a Written yea Sealed and Sworn Evidence and Contract of the whole Bargain and Terms of Salvation and Life delivered into our custody to be perused by us upon all occasions and this gives more assurance in regard of our weakness than a passing Revelation and is more ready for our constant direction than a transient Revelation which we cannot always command nor retain often in our memory till we understand nor are all men able to bear them That on the Mount made the Disciples roave and mistake exceedingly Mark 9.6 The Quakers answer in their Confession of Faith or Principles of Truth page 135 136 140. That by the more sure Word of Prophecy the Apostle means the Light within us and so they deny our Minor But contrariwise the 20 Verse there where he cautions the interpreting of the Scripture-Prophecy clearly coheres with the 19 Verse as a caution subjoyned concerning the same thing which he had there called The more sure Word of Prophecy and so by the more sure Word of Prophecy must be meant the Scriptures because of the clear coherence Secondly I must demand of the Quakers to shew if they can How the Dictat or Light within is more sure than Gods immediate Voice from Heaven such as that was at the Transfiguration I have shewed how the Scriptures are called and are so in regard of us but I cannot understand how the Light within can be or be called so Thirdly The Testimony of other Scriptures produced and to be produced will not permit this violent Gloss Again They ordinarily answer to this Scripture That in it we are only appointed to take heed to the Scriptures until the day dawn and the day-Star arise into our hearts that is as they expound till the Holy Ghost be bestowed on us but no longer But contrariwise First by this answer they retract their former Gloss upon the Text and confess the more sure Word of Prophecy here to be meant of the Scriptures and not the Light within Secondly By this answer they overturn one of their own chiefest Principles viz. That all men ought to follow the Light within for now they yield That such as have not received the Holy Ghost and these are not few are exhorted here to follow the Scriptures and not the Light within them Thirdly Hereby they insinuate That the Scriptures in their Opinion serve for nothing to Renewed Men and Believers who are born of the Spirit and Sealed therewith Joh. 3.5 Rom. 8.9 Eph. 1.13 and so the Scriptures as they will are recommended only to Men unrenewed and so that blessing pronounced upon the Readers Hearers and Keepers of the things written in the Scriptures Revel 1.3 and 22.7 is designed and belongs only to unrenewed Men seeing the reading hearing and keeping of the things written therein whereunto the blessing is annexed belongs only to them as the Quakers will What Does not Paul Peter and John direct all their Epistles and the Book of the Revelation to the Churches the Saints and them that had obtained like precious Faith with them delivering them many Rules of Faith and Manners therein See their Inscriptions I pray and these will inform you better Eightly That must be the Rule of Faith by which we are commanded to try the Spirits 1 John 4.1 seeing we cannot try the Spirits or Doctrines without the Rule for that were to try them by guess But that whereby we are commanded to try the Spirits must certainly be the Scriptures seeing the Quakers do not as yet openly profess the Popish Lesbian Rule of Believing as the Church of Rome does and it cannot be the dictat or light within that we are to try them by seeing that is as fallible as their Light whose Doctrines I try and George Keith a Ring-leading Quaker confesses the possibility of their declining from Infallibility both in Speaking and Writing and consequently in Examining or Judging too in his Quakerism no Popery page 33. and beside the Dictat within hath no Divine Institution to be the Rule and if it were the Rule then the Dictat within every diverse Man would be the Rule to try the Dictat or Dectrine proceeding from the Dictat in another which would make the Dictat of every Man both Superior and Inferior to the Dictat of another Superior when it tries and examines and Inferior when it or its Doctrine is tried and examined which is repugnant Ninthly John shews us 1 John 4.6 That the true and sound imbracing of their Doctrine now written in the Scriptures is a manifest evidence of the Spirit of Truth and the rejecting of it a manifest evidence of the Spirit of Error and so their Doctrine written in the Scriptures must be the Rule of Faith and Manners For How shall it be an evidence
of the Spirit of Truth to imbrace a Doctrine that is not the Rule this is liker to be an evidence of the contrary Or How shall it be an evidence of the Spirit of Error to reject such Doctrine this also is rather an evidence of the contrary providing the Rule be retained Lastly God denounces all the plagues mentioned in the Scriptures quake that dreads then against every Man that shall presume to add in matters of Faith and Duty for of these its meant to the Doctrine and Rules written in the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures do certainly contain the Rule and whole Rule of Faith and Manners The antecedent is laid down Rev. 22.18 where it is peremptorily said That if any Man shall add unto these things that are written in the Scriptures for there is the like reason and no other or more reason against adding to this Book of the Revelation and the rest of the holy Scriptures after the Canon is compleated and this Sanction is added here in the close of this Book as the close of the whole Scriptures God shall add to him all the plagues written in the Book The consequence is also evident For if not the Scriptures but some other Doctrine were the Rule then we not only might add to the Scriptures in matters of Faith and Duty but we ought of necessity to set up that other Doctrine as the Rule and Directory of both which is much worse methinks than any partial adding and so we could not be liable to such a doom for a partial adding And hence by a few arguments of many that may be produced we see that the Scriptures are the infallible Rule of our Faith and Manners that sure Word of Prophecy whereunto we ought to take heed and if an Angel from Heaven shall preach another Gospel to us than that which Christ and the Apostles did let him be accursed Every new Dispensation of the Covenant by the Ministery of Men though it were but only new in the manner was confirmed by Miracles and Wonders Exod. 4.28.30 Deut. 34.11 12. 2 Cor. 12.12 Heb. 2.4 much more need hath the Quakers Doctrine of such confirmations being new not only in the manner but also in the matter contrary to the Doctrine formerly dictated by the Holy Ghost and left upon Record unto us nor heard we ever of so great a company of Inspired Teachers as all the Doctors of the Quakers pretend to be and never one Miracle or Wonder to be had amongst them all excepting only their extream Infatuation and Brain-sickness or that they still retain the proportion and features of Human bodies having quite enervated their rational essence SECT II. Proving the Scriptures to be the principal Rule and overthrowing the Light within George Keith an Arch Quaker and a Man too learned as he imploys it doth here distinguish our Arguments yielding us That the Scriptures are the most compleat external Rule of Faith that is in the World but That they are not for all that the Principal Rule of Faith but only a Secundary Rule thereof and that the Spirit or his Dictat within is the Principal Rule in his Quakerism no Popery pages 9.13 25 59 108 109 110 111. and like Proteus turning himself into all shaces 〈…〉 â—mes designs Christ himself oftner the Spirit 〈…〉 he 〈…〉 of the Spirit within to be 〈…〉 oftnest the dictat◠〈…〉 But I am sure if George Keith be in earnest while he would have Christ himself or the Spirit himself to be our Rule he is beside himself For a Person cannot be a Rule of Faith for that must be some complex Proposition Direction or Precept and the like but Christ and the Spirit are Persons and so they cannot be a Rule of Faith The Major is already proved nor will the Quakers deny it But George Keith as many of his Brethren to my hearing doth flatly refuse the Minor as an uncertain unscriptural notion and a barbarous heathenish term to speak of a Person in the Godhead in his Quakerism no Popery page 97.104 and so according to him there are no Persons at all in the Godhead ah Blasphemy for if there be I am sure we may say there are and if Men believe that there are Three Persons in the Godhead they will not refuse to say the same The Quakers then do reject both the thing and notion and believe not there are Three Persons in the Godhead And therefore that there are I shall shortly prove First The Father Son and Holy Ghost are each of them an Intelligent Being subsisting incommunicably or distinctly from another Ergo each of them is a Person The consequence being from the Definition to the thing defined cannot be denied without a broad contradiction for if they grant the Antecedent that is the thing which all the World understands by a Person The Antecedent I prove for that each of them is an Intelligent Being Subsisting the Quakers dare not deny and their great Works declare it and that they subsist Incommunicably or distinctly from one another though in the same Godhead I prove because one and the same Subsistence cannot beget it Self or be begotten by it Self nor proceed from it Self as is palpable but the Father begets the Son the Son is begotten by him and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both and so they must be distinct Subsistences or subsist distinctly Secondly There are Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father Son and the Holy Ghost 1 John 5.7 Ergo they must either be Three Persons or Three Gods which is the beight of impossibility or let the Quakers shew how they will call them Three for though they also be one viz. one God yet the same Text cited says they are Three too I could never get any other answer to this from a Quaker but That they are three Manifestations viz. of Moses of Christ and of the Spicit But if these were the Father Son and Holy Ghost the World is much elder than they and then Who made it Thirdly While Christ proves Himself the Light of the World against the Jews who denied it He says John 8.17 18. It is also written in your Law That the Testimony of two Men is true I am one that bears Witness of my Self and the Father that sent Me beareth Witness of Me. Now Christ and the Father could not have been two Witnesses according to their Law except they be two distinct Persons for their Law admitted the Testimony of two Men proof enough because it was the Testimony of two Persons and otherwise the Testimony had not been admitted as proof enough Christ then clearly teaches Himself and the Father to be two Persons while he asserts that their Witnessing was proof enough according to their Laws demand Lastly Christ is said to be the express Image in the Original Language Character of the Fathers Person Heb. 1.3 Therefore the Father is a Person and Christ also and distinct Persons for the Father is plainly called so and
They object That Christ promises to send his Spirit to guide us into all Truth Joh. 16.13 Therefore there is no need of External Rules and Ordinances to guide us yea in their Confession where they propound this Objection they contend That all External Ordinances ought to be rejected because of this promise of the Spirit See their Confession pages 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82. Where they so triumph in this Argument as if now they had incontrollably gained the day and for ever banished all External Ordinances out of the Church and had no more to do but sing Te Deum Victory We have won But he that Reckons without his Host may come to Reckon twice Therefore I answer first That this promise is only made to Believers Joh. 7.38 39. and 14.17 and so it will not serve their turn for absolving all Men from External Rules and committing them to the conduct of their Dictate within Secondly Though they should crack and rent their Brains to do it they will never prove from hence that the Spirit is to guide us without the Word and External Rule of Scripture which yet is the very thing in Controversie and which they must either prove or else lose the Cause for all their boasting for Christ does not promise here nor any where in Scripture That the Spirit shall guide us without the written Word and so from this Text they can never prove their point Thirdly I proved at the Survey of their third Query above and in my Answer to their second Objection here That the written Word of God is an Organ and Instrument whereby the Spirit of God worketh upon our hearts enlightning converting renowing and quickening us thereby and so the Spirit is not here promised to guide us without the written Word but with it Lastly We have the word of that same Spirit for it and that since he was poured out in the largest measure That it is not he but a Spirit of Error that leads men when they hearken not to the Doctrine of the Apostles which is written in the Scripture 1 Joh. 4.6 He exhorts us to take heed to the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1.19 20. He affirms the Scriptures were written for our learning and that we might have hope Rom. 15.4 He affirms that the Scriptures are profitable for Reproof Doctrine Correction and Instruction in Righteousness 2 Tim. 3.16 He threatens to take away their part out of the Book of Life that diminish from the Scripture-rule Rev. 22.19 He pronounces them blessed that read hear and keep the Doctrine of the Scripture Rev. 22.7 and 1.3 Whoever then rejects the Scripture-Rule he intends not to learn or have hope or profit any more in the way of Righteousness or be blessed but to have his part taken out of the Book of Life Will not that Man be a good Christian and a happy Saint no doubt Christ then means nothing less than to absolve us from the External Rule of Scripture in this Text of John which the Quakers here wrest to that purpose Vaunting themselves of an Abortive Victory which shall never see the Sun like so many windy Bravadilloes Et preterea nihil Fifthly They object from the first Epistle of John 2.20 27. where Saint John says But ye have an Unction from the holy One and ye know all things and the anointing which ye have received abideth in you and ye need not that any Man Teach you Therefore there is no need of External Rules and Teaching seeing there is an Unction within that teaches all things Answ First The Apostle does not say That all men whatsoever have that Unction to teach them but only such as he writes to viz. Believers and so this Text will not serve their turn for all men Secondly He does not say That that anointing teaches without the External written Word yea in this same Epistle Ch. 4.6 Ch. 5.13 He plainly shews the contrary where he affirms That those that are of God hearken to and so are taught by for there is no other end of their hearkening but to be taught their External Doctrine which is written in the Scriptures and that he wrote this same Epistle of purpose to be an Instrument of Faith and Knowledge unto them And would they then force an Argument from this Epistle against Scripture-Rule nay there is in this Epistle evident demonstrations establishing it Thirdly We have before shewed That the Spirit teaches us by the External written Word and the Quakers with all their wranglings can never make it appear that he teaches us without it For all the Texts which they produce or can produce prove no more but only that the Spirit teaches us which we never denied but heartily acknowledge but not one Text in all the Scriptures can prove that the Spirit teaches us without the External Word which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet the Quakers by a new sort of Logick invented by their Alogical Spirit for the abuse of Mankind do from every Scripture-Text where it is said That the Spirit teaches us very bruto-rationally infer Ergo he teaches us without any External Mean or Rule As for that of their knowing all things it is not to be understood of all things whatsoever without exception or else they had been too wise and their knowledge too infinite but it is meant of all things Essential to Salvation which they knew in some measure though not perfectly 1 Cor. 8.2 and 13.9.12 and therefore still needed Scripture-Rule to teach them more knowledge And therefore that part of the Text That they needed not that any man should teach them is the same with that of Jeremiah whereof before and hath the same comparative meaning That the knowledge of Christ and of the Covenant was now so manifest and clear that having received the anointing for opening the eyes of their understanding viz. Effectively which is therefore called Eye-salve Rev. 3.18 which an inward objective Dictate cannot well be called that they might be able to behold it They in regard of and compared with their Fathers living under the Old Testament Dispensation did scarce seem to need a Teacher which is most true For though they needed still Teaching yet in comparison of them they might all rather have been Teachers of others and so the Scope of the place is to commend the New-Testament Dispensation above that of the Old and to decry External Ordinances and Rules or Teaching by Men Yea and if it were meant so then the Apostle did here by his Practice contradict his Doctrine and by his Doctrine condemned his Practice as needless and idle for which he had a sad Accompt to make according to Christs Doctrine Matth. 12.36 and if the Quakers think that this Text overturneth all Teaching by Men we again Charge them in their own Principles and by the Law they live on to give over their Teaching and spreading of their damnable Delusions by Word or Writ for I am sure the