Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Acts 3. 6. These were new Articles of their Creed without the belief of which they were such as had nothing to do with Christ as their Mediator Again the whole frame of the Administration was altered from Moses to Christ even the man Christ Jesus as well as God Hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son Heb. 1. 1. And Moses verily was faithful in all his House as a servant for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after but Christ as a Son over his own House Heb. 3. 5. We have now nothing to do with Moses Law as such and also the manner of Administration which is not in a multitude of carnal observancies types and resebmlances but in that way which is more real and more purely spiritual But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth John 4. 23. They were to worship him in spirit before for where the heart was not in the â—eremonial and typical worship they were not accepted and God never indulged hypocrisie The meaning must therefore be That spirit must be taken in opposition to those carnal Ordinances and the material Temple and Truth in opposition to thofe Types which were not a Lie but were only the shadows of good things to come I might enlarge to the Officers Offices and restrained § 8 Extent of the Mosaical Administration and shew that in all it is Alien to the Administration of Christ come and that wherein Christianity consists For if that Ministration which is done a way was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3. 11. Now to resume the intent of what I have said § 9 observe that neither the natural light and practices of Heathen nor the revealed light law and practices Judaical were Christian as such though the latter a great part of them had a respect to Christ and the medicinal and remedying part of Religion And the Jews who were immediately before the Church of God yet when the Administration was changed they were cut off from the Church though they retained their Morals and those Ceremonial Respects to an expected Messiah if they did not admit into their Creed or Faith the Articles aforesaid viz. a Christ come That Jesus who was crucified was the Christ and that he was the Supreme Head and Administrator to the Church of God and those who did so were transmitted into the Christian Church the other being dissolved Having expressed with what brevity I could SECT III what Christianity as such is I shall in a few lines give an Account what I intend by the term Quakerism I do not mean thereby that all that are called and reputed Quakers are no Christians for my charity is large enough to believe That many of them would abhorr the Principles of their Leaders did they but well understand them for whose sakes in part I have undertaken this Discovery Quakerism is a Heap of Tenets with the usurped Names of true Christian Principles which are yet really no such things but subverting both Foundation and Fabrick of Christianity And I call him a Quaker that professes the Light within every man to be the only Lord and Saviour and very God So that when I say Quakerism is no Christianity I do not say that common Civility Justice among men or whatever of their principles or practices which are morally good for these are generally owned as the principles of those Christians whom they separate from and bitterly reproach as Antichristian And it cannot be for want of Instructions or Examples in such kind of goodness that they withdraw from the serious Professors that are as far from their opinions as the East is from the West CHAP. II. The Beginning of Quakerism different from and opposite to Christianity THe first Argument which I shall begin my attempt SECT I with shall be from the beginning of Quakerism which I shall take notice of under two Considerations First The manner of the beginning of Quakerism Secondly The time of its beginning Both of which I shall prove exceedingly to oppose and differ from the beginning of Christianity The Christian Religion or Christianity was first § 2 introduced by the preaching of the promised Messias to be come into the world whose humane Nature was pointed at by John the Baptist and visible to the bodily eyes of a multitude of beholders The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world This is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me But Quakerism was introduced by preaching a § 3 Christ within every man born within every man which was never seen with the bodily eyes of any man and this Testimony of John concerning the true Christ perverted for the maintaining of their feigned Christ And as you give up to that measure of light in your Morning-Watch p. 41 own Consciences and wait to be guided by it and exercised in it you will know Christ revealed within you whom you are looking for without you and put his day far off from you and so you live in want of him and know not how to come to him nor the place where to find him but live in the dreamings and night-visions and have a talk of him and what he hath done for you and so spend your precious time in slumbring and dreaming c. This Quakers Text will bear a large Comment but I will take notice of that only which is to the present purpose Here is preached a Christ within in opposition to and contempt of a Christ without which John preached and that faith and hope of the Saints which according to the Scripture are the substance of things not seen and the evidence of Heb. 11. 11. things hoped for reproached as a slumbring fancy and a nocturnal dream But if you would infallibly be convinced of the gross darkness wherewith this sort of men are benighted or their palpable dishonesty in abusing the Holy Scripture weigh the following instance out of the preceding Author Then God sent him John to bear witness to the § 4 light which in him was made manifest that all in Morning-Watch p. 5. the light might believe and he called unto others to behold him and said he was the Lamb of God and was to take away the sins of the world Least you should mistake him and gâ—â—ss that a man that could but write his name should not have so little wit or modesty as to expound that Text of Scripture after this sort he quotes chapter and verse John 1. 9. and the next word is mark in a Parenthesis lest his folly should not appear to all men who should have the hap to read him And moreover at the close of the
universally entertained as the name of Christ it might be said without an Hyperbole that the whole World could not contain the Pamphlets that would be written and called The Word or Words of the Lord and of what value the Holy Scriptures would be in such a crowd of its pretended betters it is not hard to conclude Naylor Love to the Lost Pref. W. D. printed in the year 1663. Hear what James Naylor saith The things following which I have declared of are not the things of man nor by man did I receive them but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ The Word of the Lord to his beloved City c. This is the Title He concludes Through your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience in the Lord Jesus imitating the words of John in Rev. 1. 9. This I say in Parnel shield of the Truth p. 41. the Presence of the living God and by the Spâ—rit of the living God Give a most undeniable Exposition of a Scripture against their way the Answer is thy carnal minde discerns not the things of God Thou puttest thy meanings to the Scriptures the Scriptures must be judged of by the light or the Spirit from whence they came but thou art in neither If we bring a plain text in so many words against their Tenets and practices the Answer then is Thou art in the Letter And therefore Penington prays seriously My Penington qu. p. 12. upright desire to the Lord for you is That he would strip you of your knowledge of the Scriptures according to the flesh By Flesh their sense is the use of our understandings though sanctified as will appear in the KEY at the end of this Book to which I must referre you for construing all such ambiguous and Parnel Christ exalted p. 3. hard words and Parnel stigmatizes those who prize them Doting on the Scriptures with your dark minds That the Quakers do thus equal their Writings and SECT II Sayings c. with the Scripture shall appear by four undeniable things First they pretend to Infallibility This they assert to be necessary in all their Ministers who ordinarily declare or write and that without it it were impossible to be fitted for that work Hear what the chiefest of their Apostles saith How can ye be Ministers of the Spirit and not of the Letter G. Fox great myst c. p. 12. if ye be not infallible And how can they but delude people who are not infallible and George Whitehead in a Letter to me writes thus Quest Whether Infallibility be attainable by any in these dayes which we affirm is to true believers which if thou deniest we question thy Call to the Ministry They pretend to speak and write by the immediate Inspiration of God and this is another part whereby they aspire to equality The Apostle Paul gives this Character of the Scripture All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3. 16 c. And the Apostle Peter For the Prophesie came 2 Pet. 1. 21. not in old time by the Will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Let us now compare Notes and see how far in these respects the Quakers will give the Scriptures the upper hand of their sayings or Writings And F. H. one of Antichrists Voluntiers defeated P. 18. how should he do otherwise seeing he hath denied the infallible spirit from which all the Ministers ministred and all the Prophets prophesied and spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost He was here pleading for their Mens and Womens prophesying and concludes that to deny the Infallible spirit to be and speak in the Quakers was to deny the infallible spirit by which all the Prophets prophesied c. Therefore may I say much more it is not in the Power Jo. Story short Discovery in Answer to Christian Queries of that little Book either to throw down self-will in any in whom it is not yet subdued or to exalt the truth in general because its only Queries gathered by the Author from the Letter of the Scriptures without and no Message of heavenly Prophesie Doctrine or Exhortation received by the Author from the Lord through the divine Inspiration of his light and spirit within therefore I say it is a very vain and idolatrous Exhortation The Writings of the Quakers are full to this purpose but my business in these instances being to prove matter of Fact only this may suffice Thirdly they pretend the Spirit of God to be in § 3 them in an essential consideration and in all his devine Properties and that it is Gods indwelling in them thus considered from which their sayings and writings proceed In this they arrogate to themselves and their expressions more then any of the Prophets and Apostles durst once imagine All they believe and declare they say is from the light within yea it is the light within that reveals it and not they and therefore they will not call them their sayings ordinarily but such as pass through them as if God spake through them as one may speak through a Trunk which is only a passage for the voice but no proper Organ of speech Through your Brother and Companion c. The W. D. Conclusion Voice of the Son of God was uttered forth through him by which the dead was raised And indeed this light within they pretend to be both Father Son and Life of Ed. Burroughs Spirit for they make no distinction But this being matter of fact I shall prove it out of their writings yet you must not suppose that I shall find any such words as essential or properties in their Authors for such words are too proper for them and expressive of the truth to such who understand them yet I shall find the things as very God cloathed with those Attributes which are peculiar to him And whoever reads what immediately follows and considers the Evidences to be but the Quakers own Confessions and shall not be touched with horrour and indignation against their principles let that man or woman know that a Conscience seared with a hot iron is too soft a term for their insensibleness G. B. true saith of the Gospel of Peace p. 18. Every man hath that which is one in union and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure Child I am sensible that there is something in my Smith Prim. p. 14. Conscience that lets me see my secret Thoughts and the Intents of my heart c. Father That is the true light of Christ within that lets thee see the thoughts and the intents of thy heart and God hath freely given in unto thee and requires thy obedience to it Ch. But if I should turn unto it and obey it when it reproves me for sin is there Power in it to save me from my sin Answ All Power in Heaven
celebrated Orders at this day in the Roman Church are the Bellar. de Pont. Rom. l. 3. c. 18. Benedictines Carthusians Dominicans Franciscans and Jesuits It is a very fair way towards the proof of it that Bellarmin confesseth concerning the four first and that of Romoaldus that they were at first instituted by S. Benedict S. Romoaldus S. Bruno S. Dominick S. Francis by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and for Ignatius Loyola if he do not appear as great a Fanatick i. e. Enthusiast as ever hath been in the World we shall be contented to be upbraided with the Charge of Fanaticism among us You may find the Doctor as good as his word in the p. 234. Bonaven vita Franc. c. 2. following Pages St. Francis is said by Bonaventure a canoniz'd Saint to be an illiterate man had no Teacher but Christ and learned all by Inspiration for a long time wherein he got his credit among the Papists once casting away his very breeches and being stark naked before them all he said thus to his Father Hitherto I called thee Father on Earth but henceforward I can securely say Our Father which is in Heaven I know not but the Quakers learned their going naked and denying to call any Father which was their practice at first but the light grows wiser and wiser from St. Francis rather then the Prophet Isaiah Let us cite a little of the doctrine and phrases some § 3 of which are pretended from Inspiration by the Popish Votaries and first of Mother Juliana That the soul is so deep-grounded in God and so endlesly p. 224. treasured that we may not come to the knowing thereof till we have first knowing of God which is the Maker to whom it is oned Our kindly substance is beclosed in Jesu with the blessed soul of Christ resting in the Godhead for into the time that it the soul p. 285. Pref. to Sanct. Sophia is in the full mights we may not be all holy The only proper disposition towards the receiving supernatural Irradiaâ—ions from Gods Holy Spirit is an Abstraction of life a sequestration from all business that concerns others and an attendance on God alone in the depth of the Spirit And a little after the lights here prayed for and desired are such as do expel all images of Creatures and do calm all manner of passions to the end that the soul being in a vacuity may be more capable of receiving and entertaining God in the pure fund of the spirit But they seek rather to purifie themselves and inflame their hearts to the love of God by internal quiet and pure actuations in spirit so disposing themselves to receive the influxes and inspirations of God whose Guidance chiefly they desire to follow in all things Rejecting and striving to forget all images and representations of him God or any thing else yea transcending all Operations of the imagination and all subtilty and curiosity of reasoning And lastly seeking an union with Sanct. Sophia c. 3. God only by the most pure and intime affections of the Spirit what possibility of illusion or errour can there be 289. The Approbations 519. to such a soul In which passive unions God after a wonderful and unconceivable manner affords them interiour illuminations and touches yet far more efficacious and divine then active Exercises in all which the soul is a meer Patient and only suffers God to work his divine pleasure in her The which unions though they last but even as it were a moment yet do more illuminate and pacifie the soul then many years spent in active exercises of spiritual Prayer and Mortification could Treat 3. sect 11. c. 1. 292. 215. do Yea so far is the soul from reflecting on her own Existence that it seems to her God and she are not distinct but only one thing That God only by his holy Inspirations is the Guide and Director of an internal and contemplative life Reynaldus tells of Nerius the Father of the Oratorians out of Bacius the Writer of his Life that he was so offended with the smâ—ll of filthy souls that he would desire the persons to empty the Jakes of their souls Such a divine Nose had this Saint among them a degree of Enthusiasm above the Quakers who can but discern not smell souls Some of you called Quakers pretend a great advantage § 4 from 1 John 2. 27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him The Anointing here cannot be understood of Christ neither do we find the Anointing any where to be understood of Father Son or Spirit essentially considered and indeed the phrase is not fit to be applied to God who is the Anointer or Christ who is the Anointed The teaching of the Anointing being understood of the Graces and the habitual and special Enlightnings of the Spirit these devote and addict the soul under the power of them to adhere to the true Christ For the all things it is to be considered as restrained to the matter agitated in the Chapter which is their adhering to the true Christ and this is plain in the 26. ver These things have I written to you concerning them that seduce you The summe then is this they knowing certainly the true Christ from any Antichrist that which they were mainly to look after was a heart cleaving to and improving him which the Graces of God in their souls actuated by the Spirit of God was sufficient in this matter to make their knowledge of Christ sanctifying and saving As for the words in him which render it Masc in the Gr. it may be rendred in any Gender These Considerations duly weighed if there § 5 were no more are sufficient to any who have respect to the pure truths of the Gospel to render the principles here detected and opposed not only suspicious but hateful It is no little absurdity in the Quakers to make an out-cry against Popery Babylon false worship formes that are not onely unscriptural but also idolatrous while in the mean time they plant and hug the root in their own bosomes from which all those evils and more and worse naturally spring It were no hard matter to prove a symbolizing and agreement in a multitude of particulars between the Papists and Quakers in those things wherein they are contrary to the Protestant Profession of Christianity and the Scripture Rule but more especially in the spiritual part of their errors which in the sight of God are of all other the most sinful and to men a snaâ—e most dangerous The Apostle speaks of more Antichrists then one § 6 though of one as the Chief of whose Characters Quakerism hath the blackest I shall mention only two the first expressed in 1. Ep. of John chap 2.
verily nothing then but a Christ within you c. and the next sentence is come thou then O come with boldness to Gods faithful Witness within you If he had said the Scriptures without the knowledg of them or the notion of them without the power or without the Spirits concurrence he had spoken truth But to beat these Weapons out of their hands to cry out with a vehemency to throw down those Arms as useless and run away to that second Antichrist the light within this is horrid The true Christ is not so far from the Scriptures nor so disagreeing with them but he can dwell in one heart with them and arms all his Souldiers with the weapons of the truths therein contained but Christ Jesus the Christ of God and Redeemer of his people and the Quakers Christ are nothing of kin But one would think this should be but a slip of § 3 his Pen let us see if he speak not more favourably of the holy Scriptures in his following discourse but alas the darkness within hath so bewitched him that nothing but the Quakers Idol is good for any thing The Scriptures nor any other outward things Pag. 11. are able to grapple with him the Devil you must put on the armour of light light within and with that resist him or be taken captive by him What a rapture of zeal is here for the thing within though the Scriptures alone can do little yet sure if God Almighty undertake the combat either with or without the Scriptures he will be too hard for all the Devils or he had not kept his Throne from being usurped by them and if God be not without the Quakers or any other creature as well as within them he is not infinite as we have taken him to be by the light of Reason and more by the light of Scripture But what blasphemy will not men run into who have changed their God for that which is no God and have turned their backs on the Lord Jesus and taken so gross a delusion in the room of him Again he goes on to the same purpose least you Pag. 11. should not understand him If you use any other Weapons than the light within in this spiritual war yâ—u cannot prosper nor prevail against him I have lighted on a proof of the latter part of my Charge before I was aware viz. for then it is dangerous to read the Scriptures lest you should be tempted to try some of those inviting Arms which that Magazine is stored with and so spoil all your prosperity and prevalence in your spiritual Warfare However this shall not prevent the producing my SECT II intended proofs of the danger as the Quakers say that attend reading the Scriptures But seeing as the Quakers say we must try the Spirits by the Spirit let us try William Smith's spirit by Isaac Pennington's who speaking of knowledge gained by the Pennington's quest c. P. 12. Letter of the Scriptures speaks thus Making him wise and able there in his head to oppose truth and so bringing him into a state of condemnation wrath and misery beyond the Heathen and making him harder to be wrought upon by the light and power of truth than the very Heathen By opposing truth we must needs understand it of the Quakers truth and if reading the Scriptures and getting knowledge from or by them puts us in to a bad condition both as rendring conversion difficult and our misery and condemnation great beyond the Heathen I scarce know what is more dangerous than reading the Scriptures But the comfort is it doth but render us harder to be wrought on to entertain the pernicious Guide and Saviour the Quakers light within and therefore is exceeding safe and necessary It follows in the same Author My upright desire to the Lord for you is that he would strip you of all your knowledge or wisdom of the Scriptures after the flesh Their meaning of after the flesh is that which comes not by immediate inspiration For those only are the Children of God who are led by the Spirit of Naylors love to the lost p. 53. God to whom they who were led by the Letter were ever enemies So Naylor doth as certainly say 't is dangerous to read the Scriptures to be led by them as it is truly dangerous and evil to be Enemies to the Children of God That this abominable Tenet is the Quakers I know SECT III it sufficiently and that they look upon our adhering to the Scripture light as the greatest adversary in the world to their adored light within But I love not the Quakers way of demonstration viz. we witness this and that but if you would know how they witness it it is only their own experience which is a dumb kind of witness while they can make no proof or testimony of it to another nor will ordinarily attempt it and so their witness is to themselves alone But my witnessing of what I here charge them with shall have more light in it that all that read it may be convinced of its truth Therefore take one instance more out of their famous Author W. P. or William Pen. But I will assure them they shall yet grope in the dark § 4 W. Pen's Spirit of truth c. p. 23. till they come into the daily obedience of the light and there rest contented to know only as they experience and not from a ravening comprehending brain that would in its unregenerated state grasp at the clear mysteries of the Kingdom into which fleshly comprehensions and notions can never enter but all must be as unlearned from their first birth education and traditional read knowledge as he is unmanned that is again become a little Child before the secrets of Gods Work come to be made known That W. P. of all others should talk at this rate is most ridiculous What! know only as they experience know what God is no farther than they experience Can we experience his Omnipotency his infiniteness which is not within the experience of all finite beings put together What! know the death by Spear and Nails of Iron or Steel and Cross of wood of the man Christ Jesus which he suffered above 1600 years since only by experience What! know the life to come the judging of all men that are ever were or shall be by the Lord Jesus only by experience where is faith all the while what credit hath God with W. P. that he will know him nor any thing he saith no further than he sees feels in his experience If none but Believers be Saints such as W. P. are professedly none if he know not that objects of faith and experience as such are contradistinct things he is very unfit to assure who they are that grope in the dark and is very unlike to mend his confused scribling I shall not comment on his ravening comprehending brain a most affected phrase amongst the Quakers nor his clear
his mouth as eminently as any thing yea all things in the world and more For God spake by them to us more than by all other things he saith to Jeremy Jerem. 15. 19. Thou shalt be as my mouth As thou spakest by the hand of Moses 1 Kings 8. 53 2 Sam. 23. 2. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue Hear the rod. c. Is it not a frequent phrase in the Scripture As saith the Scripture They believed the Scripture And what is that but God speaking by the Scripture and believing what God spake by the Scripture But now is made â—om 16. 26. manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the â—â—mmand of the everlasting God made known unto all Nations for the obedience of faith What more plain that the Scriptures are the mouth of the Lord or those means by which the Lord doth manifest his mind to men But the Quakers will not have it so and therefore it must not be so But they who â—nquire of or at the Scriptures for the mind of the Spirit run another way than that the Spirit walks and is to be found in and sin against the Spirit of God And that you may see how they set the Spirit and Scripture together by the ears Naylor saith further For those only are the Children of God who are Love to lost c. p. 25. led by the Spirit of God so far is true as truth it self but as the old Serpent he never heads a saying with the Scripture but he brings in a lye at the end and tail of it to whom they who are led by the Letter were ever enemies Here you have two great Commanders or Leaders § 5 brought into the field as the most hostile implacable Enemies whose followers from the time there where any were foes each to other And what can render the Spirit and the Sâ—ripture more opposite than that whosoever follows the Letter is a foe to him that follows or is led by the Spirit And the Leaders are the formal cause of it too and therefore it was ever so and is as inseparable as natural cause and effect It this be all true well W. Pen Sp of truth â— might W. P. say We livingly witness against all the dry cavelling Letter-mongers in the world Having frequently met with that Scripture SECT II 1 Cor 3 6. By them produced to prove the Scriptures to have a contrary tendency to the Spirit I shall here open it and shew their mistake The words are Who alsâ— hath made us able Ministers of 1 Cor. 3 6. openeâ— 1. the new Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth â—ife Whereas they would have us by the Letter to § 2 understand the whole written word as written that is the body of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament Law and Gospel without distinction and by the Spirit the inward immediate teachings of the Spirit of God they are in both mistaken For it is as certain as that the following words are truth that by the Letter here is meant the Law as given forth by God from Mount Sinai and by the Spirit the Covenant of Grace especially as expressed in the New Testament under the administration of the Reedemer But if the ministration of death written and engraven Ver. 7. Ver 9. one stones was glorious c. for if the ministration of condemnation be glory c. Thâ—se passages express and explain the same § 3 thing called the Letter in the 6. Verse and that it was the Law given forth by God before it was written not only as written the matter and manner of which was glorious but in terribleness insomuch that Moses said I exceedingly fear Heb. 12. 21. and quake and it was death for any to touch the Mountain yea the Israelites were ready to dye Exod. 20. 19. with fear at the appearences of God on that Mount Sinai at the giving forth of the Law And as the manner of giving it forth by God so § 4 the matter of it was mortal nothing but death was written in the forehead of it going alone The Law worketh wrath That is the Law of meer Rom. 4. 15. Rom. 7. 11. 12. Commandments And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sâ—n taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me Thus it is plain what is meant by the Letter the Law of meer Commandments as given forth on Mount Sinai That by the Spirit is to be understood the Covenant § 5 of promise in the hand of the Mediator is as certain and not of the Scripture or written Word in general for in the 6. Verse it is opposed to the Letter of the New Testament not of the Letter that is the Gospel not the Law and it is called the Spirit in three respects First As the New Testament or Covenant of promise especially in the hand of Christ promiseth and conveyeth soul quickning grace in a good measure to sanctifie and enable and dispose the soul to keep the Laws of God Secondly As by the New Testament or Covenant life and spirit comfort and refreshment is put into the hearts of poor drooping sinners under the sense of the severity of the Law and their liableness to the punish of it Thirdly And chiefly the intent and mind of § 6 the Spirit in the terrible dispensation of the Law of Works was by discovering mans woful estate to make the promises of the Gospel or the new Covenant sweet and welcome and to put souls on embracing the redemption through Christ So that the matter of the pure New Testament or Covenant in the hand of the Mediator was that which God especially aimed at to promote by the Letter or the meer Law of Commandments in which alone there was not the least appearance of mercy or mans welfare implied CHAP. XII The Quakers hold it is a sin and the sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the instructions and holy examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by imme iate inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them I Am now come to the highest round of their SECT I Ladder and I know not what one step of sin beyond it except the unpardonable one they could charge those with who walk by the light of Scripture day Samuel whole rebuke to Saul for his sin in the matter of the Amalekites was expressed in the keenest and highest terms compared his sin but to Witchcraft Iniquity and Idolatry And if this charge against us were as true as it is that they so charge us it is high time to serve the Scriptures as Hezekiah served the brazen Serpent And brake in peioes the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made 2 Kings 18. 4. for unto thâ—se days the Children
Darkness and grand enemies of Souls especially the two great Antichrists the Roman Bishop and Church and the new Upstarts who hold the light within every man to be the Saviour Light Righteousness all who do not only as other erroneous or heretical persons a little eclipse or pervert the light of the Scriptures but attempt to pull it down out of the Firmament or render it a dark and useless body but as it receives Light from their Idol the one party to set up the Pope at Rome as absolute in matters of Religion The other to set up the Pope within as absolute and more than he in the little world of every individual man I shall within these following parallel lines give you a view though but in part how both these adversaries do openly spit their venom and discharge their shot against the holy Scriptures And considering how they in most things jump together in the contempt of and detracting from the Scriptures you may conclude that although the Jesuite was not the first contriver of the Quakers grand notion of the Light within to be Christ which I am verily perswaded of to be true yet that he was a promoter of the building erected on that foundation we may easily guess by his mark on so many parcels of it yet I must say that the Romanists were much more sound in their opinions of the Scriptures until about Luther's time wherein the Protestants were too hard for them at those weapons I give you the mind of the Spirit of God expressed in the middle collumn the Quakers Tenets on the left and the Jesuites and Papists on the right hand The Quakers Opinions and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scriptures are not the rule of Faith and life Parnel Shield of the Truth The Spirit of God speaking by the Scriptures Thou shalt not turn aside to the right hand or to the left viz. Gods Statutes and Judgments Deut. 5. 23 32. The Jesuists and Papists Tenets and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scripture is not the rule of Faith Greg. de Valentia Jesuita libro quarto analyseos Carranza in prima controver The Scriptures are not the judge and determiner of Controversies in religious matters Smith Prim. He mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Acts 18. 28. He had put the Sadduces to silence Mat. 22. 3. viz. by Scripture Neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is the supream and general judge of matters of Faith Beccanus item Gretserus Jesuitae in Colloquia Ratisbon It is impossible for the Scripture to be judge of doubts concerning Faith and the Christian Religion Lorichius Jesuita in fortalitio Matthew Mark Luke and John The beginning of the Gospel of Christ The Gospel is not Scripture it was commanded is not the Gospel Paper sent into the World pag 2. the Son of God Mark 1. 1. to be preached but not to be written Carranza Jesuita in colloquio The light within every man is the rule and guid and not the Scriptures and this light is infallible and will teach you all things Smith Catechis If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. 23. Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Job 11. 12. The Tradition of the Church i. e. Roman is the first chief certain and infallible rule from which any thing may be known to be true and certain to be held in matters of faith and Christian Religion Carranza Jesuita in prima controversia The Tradition of the Church is the very rule of Faith and Piety Pighius The Spirit was before the Scripture therefore we must be led by the Spirit not by the Scripture the Spirit with the Quaker is the light within Smith Prim. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 2. Tim. 3. 16. We say that the Church is a rule before the Scripture and more known than the Scripture Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scriptures are the Traditions of men Naylor's love to the lost Holy men of God spake the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Traditions of the Church to be preferred before the Scriptures Frequent among the Papists Light without must be guided by light within John Story short discovery Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 29. I have hid the wâ—rd in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119. 11. The Scripture is to be ruled by the Church and not the Church by the Scriptures Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scripture is a dead Letter carnal Letter Ink and Paper Parnel Shield of the Truth The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life Joh. 6. 63. For the Word of God is quick and powerful Heb. 4. 12. The Scripture hath no voice it cannot pass judgment viva voce Beccanus Gretserus in Colloquio Ratisbon The Scriptures are but dumb Judges Pighius controversia tertia The Scriptures may be burnt Frequent The Scriptures cannot be broken John 10. 35. Write this for a Memorial in a Book c. Exod. 17. 14. All the Scriptures in the common and native Tongues are to be burnt by a Law The light within was the rule from the beginning and not the Scriptures Smith Prim. The Scriptures were a rule so soon as they had a beginning The Fathers of the Church were expert in the Traditions of the Church from the beginning as being more effectual than the Scriptures Pighius Jesuita in Colloquio Dry cavelling Letter-mongers Scraping in the Scriptures Will. Pen Spirit of Truth c. Fisher veluta quaedam c. An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18 24. And Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days râ—asoned â—ith them out of the Scriptures Acts 17. 2. These Lutherans and Hâ—gonots are all for the Letter Frequent He that prefers the Scriptures before the light within is blind in darkness Parnel Shield of the Truth To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because they have no light in them Isa 8. 20. He that shall say the Scripture is to be believed rather than the Church is to be condemned as a Heathen and a Publican and a Sâ—ranger to Gods people Noguera libra secâ—ndo de Ecclesia They are Idolaters that act by Whatever things were written were They are Hereticks and to be condemned who Scripture examples not having their rule by inspiration immediate from God Naylor's love to the lost Morning watch written for our examples Be ye followers of us and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example take the Scripture for their rule without the authority of the Church The Scriptures do not
c. p. 16. Call to that Office and Imployment And their Call to the Ministry we deny which is mediate But who can witness an immediate Call from God and speak it the Gospel as they are moved by the Holy Ghost and such travel from place to place and have no certain dwelling place this Ministry we own and witness Thou art corrected by the Scripture and the Fox mystery c. p. 48. Apostle corrects thee who saith I have not received it of man nor by man and bid others look at Jesus the Author of their Faith Their writings are abounding with matter of this nature We acknowledge that all the true Ministers of § 3 Christ ought to have an immediate Call such as consists in grace and gifts and disposition to that worthy Office and Imployment and such as have not this immediate Call we account unworthy of the thing and name but the Quakers pretended immediate Call is far from the Apostles as I have proved at large on the point of Inspirations neither are the Ministers of Christ now Apostles as they were But if we call for the Quakers proof of their immediate Call hear what Farnworth saith As for pretences Farnworth against Stalham p. 22. we do not pretend that we are immediately call'd but we witness that we are And what is their Witness their own fancy and their own say-so and we witness that such Witnesses will carry the Cause no where but in the fools Court who the wise man saith believeth every word And G. Fox's proof is as much to the purpose not § 4 of man the call of the Apostle while we pretend not to be Apostles And bid others look at Jesus the Author of their Faith as if that Text intended a a Faith that they were called to be Apostles which speaks of the faith of all believers who received it by the mediate Ministry of the Gospel For being moved by the Holy Ghost which is by them made an Essential mark of a true Minister we allow but yet affirm That those who are moved by the Commands of the Spirit in the Scripture are moved by the Holy Ghost especially when the Authority of God therein prevails with them As for having no certain dwelling place and leaving § 5 houses lands and possessions let them repair to William Pen and others of their Ministers for an Answer to it who have large possessions and brave habitations such as few Ministers whom they disclaim especially the poor Non-Conformists enjoy and will not so easily as Pen's phrase is be fohb'd out of them as they fob others out of the truth of the Gospel But indeed will you deny that the Elders that were 〈◊〉 6. ordained in every City by the appointment of Paul Tâ—â— â— and by the hand of Titus had any mediate Call or those spoken of Acts 14. 23 And when they had ordained Acts 14. â—3 them Elders in every Church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed If you will not believe these had a mediate Call I despair of your believing any thing but what you list Another ground of their denying our Ministry is SECT IV that they teach from the Scripture And the Word is immediate and all the Ministers of Christ preach the Fox mystery â— c. p 44. immediate Word and wait for it and the outward written words with ink and paper are mediate So then the written Word being preached from makes a man no Minister And of this sort are they that have their W. D p. 30. preaching to study and to seek at other mens mouths or from the letter but have it not from the mouth of the Lord. If the Scripture be not the mouth of the Lord there is no such thing as Gods mouth And here is the difference of the Ministers of the World and the Parnel ' s Shield of the Truth p. 17. Ministers of Christ the one of the Letter the other of the Spirit For they are meer Deceivers and Witches bewitch people from the truth holding forth the shadow for the substance and what is the Chaff to the Wheat Here is not a bare denial of those to be Christs Ministers § 2 who preach the Word of God out of the Scriptures but charging them with Witchcraft and what are the instruments of their Witchcraft but the holy Scriptures most horrid doctrined and yet these wretches will tell you they honour the Scriptures and a Scripture Ministry But this is not all the tide rises yet higher And so he the Devil takes Scripture to maintain his kingdom and this he delivers by the mouth of Ministers which he fonds abroad to deceive the Nations leading people in blindness c. These words are plain and no parable therefore I leave you to behold without a glass the vileness of these misleaders I have already proved that not only we ought § 3 but Christ and his Apostles did teach out of the Scriptures therefore by the Quakers account they were also as bad as they charge us to be witches and deceivers c. O but there is another inditement against us we are not infallible How can ye be Fox Mystery c. p. 72. Ministers of the Spirit and not of the Letter if ye not infallible There is none but God alone absolutely infallibly And for certainty of what we teach we dare weigh with the Quakers at any time But sure I am that I never met with one of their Teachers yet in Writing or otherwise but I found him more than fallible even foolish contradicting the Spirit of God speaking by the Scripture contrary to the clearest reason and themselves also But more than all this We are Hirelings preach § 4 for Hire and take Hire for preaching And a main question for a scrutiny into the truth of our Ministry is Whether is your Gospel free and without Charge yea Fruits of a Fast p. 21. or nay This is the nail they find will drive People love a Cheap Gospel they that will sell them such a one shall buy their souls into the bargain and vassalize their understandings to their most corrupt dictates To preach for Hire we call a Vile iniquity to § 5 receive Hire for preaching we dare not condemn because Christ hath said The labourer is worthy of his 10 Luke 7. 2 Cor. 11 8. hire And the Apostle said He took wages of other Churches to serve them the Corinthians It is ordained 1 Cor 9. 14. that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And so hath the Lord ordained So that a Ministers maintenance for preaching the Gospel is Gods Ordinance The Apostle exhorts Timothy To give himselfe to the work of the Ministry as it is the duty of every one-ordinarily imployed therein And is God and Christ a hard Master to oblige his Ministers to give up themselves to that work and let them and theirs starve
for it But moreover you may know if you please that there are thousands this day in England who § 6 preach the Gospel in poverty and distresses and cleave to their work when stripped of their wages which number there needs not one Quaker to make up yet take heed you commend them not for it Another objection is we study for our Sermons § 7 What is study but meditation and searching to understand the truth and to get it into our heads and hearts if this be a sin obedience to God is so And the Apostle bids Timothy who had excellent 2 Tim. 2. 15 gifts and was brought up from a child in the holy Scripture study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth Then it seems it is no idle task to preach like a workman and divide the Word of truth aright and that we may be approved to God and free from shame among men we must study But that which turns us all off hand-smooth is SECT V That till we are taught by the light within immediately we cannot speak one word of truth but all lyes though the matter we deliver be the highest truth And all be in the Satanical delusions Fox great mystery p. 5. p. 62. that be not in the immediate teachings from the Spirit But the greatest professors upon the earth are there of the Devil that speaketh the words of truth but not as they are in it as so saith Christ to the Jewes they were of their Father the Devil they speak of themselves they speak of themselves as the Devil doth but abide not in the truth but a lyar from the beginning The Devil speaks a lye from himself that is a truth for no body need teach the Devil to lye But how will it follow that whatever any man speaks of himself is a lye then it seems for a man to be first in telling any thing true or false 't is a lye whereas we use most to suspect the truth of that which comes by a second or third hand or more but the conclusion is what we have not by immediate inspiration and teach it we speak it of our selves and therefore are devillish lyars § 2 The learned Fisher will help the Fox at a dead Velata quaedam revelata p. 7. Jer. 5. 2. lift and piece his tale And to such wise sayers and knowers as these God saith though ye say God lives yet as I live ye swear falsly and why falsly was not that a truth that God lives but not a truth truly testified unto by them ◠any more than what is testified in foro hominum in mens Courts by such as being not eye witnesses thereof have it only by hear-say from others because they witnessed to it but in stoln words Here is then the proof that we speak more than we know and therefore lye This is indeed pretty near a lye but that they who live in the light of the Creation and read and believe and know the Scripture to be the Word or the Words of God and affirming no nicer a truth than that God liveth should lye because they know it not by immediate Inspiration is very strange He that lives may know from thence that God lives who holdeth every soul in life that lives But the meaning of the Text may be and I will trust the sober Readers judgment to decide it betwixt us that they did not believe the Lord lived and swearing what they thought untrue or doubted of they therein swear falsly or that they dared to swear to a falshood and yet abuse the Name and Ordinance of God to confirm it But I desire those who give credit to such Teachers as infallible and inspired immediately from God to try by the instance I am now upon whether we are not likely to speak more rightly concerning God from the Scripture than their Teachers without book In the Quotation of this Text Fisher hath falsified beside his Exposition in three plain cases for they say he writes ye say for the Lord lives God lives there is both taking away a word and changing another and makes God swear too where there is not a word or tittle of it in the Text and so adds to the Word of the Lord these words yet as I live This is ordinary from these inspired Teachers and to tell us God saith so lest we should take them to be his own words adds to the boldness of the perverting the Scripture I could write a Catalogue of a thousand such faults in the Quakers citing of Scripture some adding some leaving a word or two out through carelesness or wilfulness I have from what is here evident reason to say to you as the Apostle to the Galatians O foolish Quakers who hath bewitched you Certainly Gal 3 1. it must be a strong delusion that thus blinds you He feedeth on ashes a deceived heart hath turned him aside Isa 44. 20. that he cannot deliver his soul nor say is there not a lye in my right hand The next Ordinance I shall prove them to deny is a Gospel-Church And the Church so gathered into Naylor love to the lost p. 17. God is the Pillar and ground of truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers and not the Spirit alone but such a Church is not James Naylor's nor the Quakers The Church wherein the Apostles were sure had some Teachers beside the Spirit whereas the Apostles gave themselves to preaching of the Word And Elders were ordained in every particular Acts 14. 23 1 Cor. 4. 17. 1 Cor 12. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Church As I teach in every Church God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Teachers The Elders are exhorted to feed the Flock of Christ which is among you Priest that is the Minister he brings in saying § 2 We utterly deny all their ways and doctrines who exclude Fox great mystery p. 32. all teachings of man Answ Contrary to the Prophets who bid people cease from man whose breath was in their nostrils a Text hugely to the purpose But most will conclude that these Authors do not speak the minds of the Quakers for that they have more Teachers than all others Men-Ministers Women-Ministers and any one of them when there is a motion to it It is confessed that in point of fact it is so but it § 3 is a most palpable contradiction to their professed Principle I should be glad to hear they were more true to it that the Light within might be their only Teacher and they would let others alone till that turned them Quakers But Satan is cunning and can give a dispensation where it may serve so greatly to the promoting of his Kingdom Sometimes they have silent meetings as is known to most then they say they attend to the Teacher within which is
by any other way Smith Cat. p. 12. but by the manifestation of his light within him Now I shall prove that the light is the main § 3 if not the only thing to be preached according to the Quakers Tenets Mind the light of God which hath convinced you And this is the meaning of our Doctrine to bring people to the everlasting Word of God in themselves And that this light within is also preached to and the only Auditor of the Doctrines which the Quakers say are preached and taught by the light is proved by these instances To the light of God in all your consciences I speak which is one in all So I desire that Parnel ' s Shield of the Truth Epistle p. 42. Fox great mystery c. p. 15. you may mind the light of God to which I speak which is my witness Priest There is nothing in man to be spoken to but man Answ How then ministred the Apostle to the Spirit And Christ spake to the Spirits in prison And Timothy was to stir up the gift that was in him I must not ravel into these Texts now as brought in by Fox I shall say more of it in the following 1 Pet 3. 19 opened pages only take notice that these Spirits were the souls of those men and so a part of them with whom the Spirit of God did strive before the Floud but are now as the Devils under the irreversible sentence of damnation which is in part already executed on them Over and above George Fox is both out of the humility and the meekness as they phrase it and out of the knowledge of himself and out of his wits also in saying That there is a proof to thee that the Quakers are sent of God who speak to thee of the Fox great mystery p 64. §. 4. Scriptures right as they are I am lastly to shew you by good proof that the light within is the obedient subject also to its own absolute and infallible dictates and then I have discharged a very fair Province Now is the life the faith the obedience of the Son the thing which is of value Pennington quest â—26 in us So that their obedience is the obedience of the Son alias the light in them which is all one with the light in me obeys And upon this conceit it is that they say they are saved by the righteousness of Christ because they account all the righteousness done by them to be the pure and unmixt acts of the light within We are accused that we judge people Answ Where Parnel Shield of the truth p. 3. Christ rules in his Saints he judgeth as Paul said It is no more I but Christ in me I forbear here to remark his forging of Scripture or making Gods stream to turn the Devils Mill But right or wrong 〈◊〉 plain he would have you believe it is not their act but Christs act And if you enquire of any of them that have drunk in their principles and are not Novice Quakers whether any act of their obedience to the light be their obedience they will answer no no 't is the obedience of Christ the obedience is of the light The Quakers disown Gospel-Prayer I take Gospel Prayer to be the souls uttering its SECT II wants and desires to God by way of humble supplication with an audible voice when it is exercised solemnly in a Congregation or Family with or without an audible voice when a person is private but alway in the name and for the sake and merits of Jesus Christ And this the Quakers disown That they use not prayer audibly at least with § 2 their Families daily is known by all that have opportunities of so conversing with them wherein they sin against our Saviours Directory After this manner Mat. 6. 9. Luke 11. 2. pray ye c. When ye pray say Our Father c. And in both one Petition is Give us this day our daily bread wherein two things are implied First Prayer by more than one Our Father give us Secondly Family-Prayer for that the whole Family sharing in common in the plenty or scarcity of provision especially for the Belly which is the great spender they are concerned to put up their joynt supplications to God for daily bread and that daily which might have made a third Note viz. That although we may pray every prayer we offer up to the Lord for provision to our lives end yet we are to pray for it every day and especially for the provision of the present day But this the Quakers wholly disuse as a con 〈…〉 〈…〉 tible form That they crave not Gods blessing nor express § their thankfulness at Set-meals for their Table mercies is as notorious as the other whereas we have Christs example for it And Jesus took the loaves and John 6 9. Mark 6 41. Acts 27 35 when he had given thanks he distributed c. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes he looked up to heaven and blessed c. So Paul He took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all and when he had broke it he began to eat c. All that ever I could learn of the Quakers acknowledgment § 4 of benefits received or receiveable by us from what the Man Christ Jesus did and suffered in the world amounts but to this He left us a perfect example and yet they think scorn to follow that as below such spiritual persons He loâ—ked up to heaven which implies he did it for example sake at least though all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily express the Divine Being especially and in his more glorious Manifestations to be above or beyond the visible boundaries of this little World And as it is against Christs example so against somewhat more than a Gospel-precept For every Creature of God is good and nothing 1 Tim 4. â— 5. to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer So thaâ— to omit this duty which therefore Paul would not when in a storm and the company in a consternation wâ—â—h sâ—ar of death renders the Creature no good to us as being unsanctified by God But rather than this shall pass for a proof of what we assert and for a rebuke to the Quakers spirit of disobedience James Naylor will ingage his Infallibility Naylor love to the lost p. 57. to bring them off clear But where the pure is not viz. the light all things are defiled when they are not sanctified by the Word and Prayer and therefore are to be received in fear and therein remembring his death till he come who is the Word and Prayer And now soul take thine ease eat and drink for if thou hast the Quakers light within thee thou needest not frame thy self to the serious imployment of Prayer and Thanksgiving at Meals for the light
parts he seeks for wherein Naylor Love to lost p. 16. none of you can worship who know not the living Word in your hearts to keep them up to God in your worship and that worship which is not in the will of God is the worshipping of Devils If you ask any of them What is the truth in the inward parts They will not answer it is sincerity meanings suitable to our expressions and appearances but it is Christ the light within who is the truth And for knowing the living Word it is of the same sense it is all but the light within every man the Quakers Christ And for the Will of God that is nothing but the immediate life and motions of the light within I have said enough out of their Writings to prove these things neither will they deny them but Naylor telleth you and it is not for any Quaker to resist the Spirit by which he spake that worship not thus qualified is the worshipping of Devils It may be some of the Quakers though they know in their consciences that I speak but the very truth of their Tenets and Notions will say I put my meanings to their words but if they will but bate me speaking from their light within which they hold necessary to qualifie a man to speak truly I dare undertake to expound according to their meaning their ill-meant phrases as well as the most of them and their mystery is none to me at all And although they talk of praying in the Name of Christ yet as Naylor phrases it That is done in the Name of Christ which is done in his Light and Power But when all is done this Christ and Name and Light and Power is but the light within and its teachings and motions It is to me reported on all hands that they never § 5 pray in the Name of Christ as their Mediator much less then do they pray to God in or in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary or of that one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus even that Jesus who was Crucified at Jerusalem between two Thieves above 1600 years since I have put this to many of them and they denied not this Charge neither can I see how they can pray to the Father in the Name of Christ seeing God the Father and Christ with them admit of no distinction and for the Man Christ that was born of Mary they have nothing to do with him The Apostle saith A Mediator is not of one but God is one And whoever they are that deny and disown prayer in the Name of Christ are far from owning the Gospel-Ordinance of prayer Reading the Scriptures and Meditation which are Gospel-Ordinances SECT IV they also deny I need not tell you of the contempt they put upon the Scripture as a dead Letter the carnal Letter and on those who attend to it as dry Letter-mongers Take only one instance of William Pens But all must W. P. Spirit of truth be as unlearned as from their first Birth Education and Traditional read knowledge as he is unmanned that is again become a little child before the secrets of Gods work come to be made known And Fisher calls studying the Scripture scraping in the Scripture I wonder wherefore God ordered and commanded them to be written if they are not to be read and studied The Spirit of Christ within is the end of the Tables Great mystery p. 32. William Deusbuty Return p. 7. Law Works and Books and the Law is now in the heart Whatever thou be whether a Teacher of others or a Professor of what thou comprehends to be truth from the Letter of the Scripture under what form name or title soever thou be thou art a dead man and a dead woman and the wrath of God abides on thee though thou see it not Rom. 7. 9. Miserable man that talks at this rate and will father it on the Scripture too and such a one as is directly against him But we have had enough of this smoak I shall say somewhat of their abundant scorn of SECT V of the Lords Supper and Baptism wherein they express a superfluity of naughtiness not only in their Tenets but down-right railing The Ordinances I have hitherto considered in particular are called Moral from their natural obligation although that substantial and Essential part and qualification of them their respect to a Mediator will require a denomination more Evangelical and without which we cannot call them Gospel or Christian-Ordinances Those two Gospel-Ordinances I come now to consider are purely and perfectly positive and depend meerly upon Divinely-revealed Institution without which they had never come within our notice nor had they been any way obliging to us Yet such is the Sanction that the Lord hath put upon § 2 Institutions of this nature that not only since his revealed Law hath abounded to his Church but also when the Revelation of his mind immediately to his Servants was very rare he did not omit Injunctions of this kind The Sacrifices we read of as early as Cain and Abel Yea Adam in his state of Innocency who then needed not any indication of Moral duties beyond what was within the reach of his natural entire and uncorrupted light and innate to his perfect frame and holy disposition had the obligation of a positive duty from God in the matter of the Tree in the midst of the Garden And to me the main ground of it was that the absolute Soveraignty of the Creator might be acknowledged and man might learn to render obedience to God not only because the matter of it is just in its self and would be so if God had never explicitely commanded it but also because it is the Will of God yea where his Will obliges singly without the respect of natural and unchangeable Equity And God hath so expressed his jealousie over this ◠3. right of his that when sins against not only natural light but superadded Precepts to confirm and strengthen its doubtfulness and decays have been passed by without any special expressions of his provocations sins committed against his positive Laws have been avenged with a high hand Adam's and Eve's transgression was against an Institution and positive Law the Commission of which so stirred up the displeasure of God that he banished them out of Paradise and imposed that Curse under which the World groans to this day And it is not below our notice that although they were capable of sinning against God in many other respects yet God affixes the direful penalty to this positive Law In the day that thou 2 Gen 17. eatest thereof thou shalt surely die The case of Nadab and Ahihu when God bare § 4 witness against them from heaven by consuming them with fire was as a Pillar of Salt to season others with an awful Reverence of God in his purely instituted worship Vzzah was smitten and died on the spot when
For the proof of the first proposition I must prove That the light within every man is not God and in so doing all that is requisite to the first proposition will be discharged § 4 That the light within every man is not God I prove thus That which hath not power in it to dispose and order Arg. 1 the wayes of a man is not God But the light within every man hath not power in it to dispâ—se of the wayes of a man Therefore It is not God The first Proposition will be granted by all who § 5 own the omnipotence of God take away that and you un-God him The second Proposition I prove from Jâ—r 10. 23. O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps If it be not in man it is not within man I cannot say that to be within me that is not in me though that may be said to be in me that is not a part of me So then if the prophet Jeremy were not mistaken there is nothing in man or within man that hath the power to dispose or wisdome to direct his steps but he may either fail in directing unwisely or for want of power to perform what is well directed or determined Therefore I must conclude against the Quakers That the light in every man is not God Arg. § 6 That which is not infinite and immense or without or beyond measure is not God But the light within every man is not infinite and immense or beyond measure Therefore The light within every man is not God The first proposition I prove from Psal 47. 5. Great is our Lord and of great power his understanding is infinite To say That which is infinite is not beyond measure is a contradiction in it selfe The second proposition I prove by their own concession and grant There is scarcely any one thing more frequent in their Writings than to talk of the measure of God the measure of Christ the measure of the light in men But turn your ear inward to that measure â—arnel's Shield of the truth P. â— 2. of light in you I could fill a volume with Instances of this nature how they measure out the light within and Christ and God and the Spirit but none of them will deny this It is a horible abomination for men through their gross and dark conceits thus to dishonour God to share him into more and less degrees and measures who is intire infinite indivisible who is not with respect to his Being less in one place than in another This measuring would agree well to his manifestations and discoveries of himself to his creatures and by his works it would agree well to those graces wrought by his Spirit in the hearts of his people which in some is more in some less and capable of growing in all bâ—t God cannot be more or less than he is and ever was That which may be darkness in a sinful and evil sense § 7. Arg. 3. and that in the abstract cannot be God But the light within some men may be darkness in a sinful and evil sense in the abstract Therefore The light within every man is not God I suppose and hope they are not yet arrived to that height of wickedness as to charge God with ignorance or sin in the least degree or that he is capable of so degenerating therefore I will take the first proposition for granted For the second I shall prove from Scripture Eph. 5. 8. For ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. What can be more exclusive of all spiritual light or light in spiritual things than to be darkness in the very abstract But if you who adore the light within shall say this is meant of man but the light within is God and Christ and that is not man of whom the Apostle speaks I Answer That sometimes you plead hard that the lighteth in Joh. 1. 9. should be rendred enlightneth and W. P. tugs hard for it in his pamphlet called The Spirit of Truth c. But it will be granted with less ado Well than if the light within every man be the enlightning of every man at least virtually so that if he be willing to be guided by its conduct it will lead him as you dream then it must be within him as a qualification of his conscience though it be not produced into exercise And you tell men they have that within them that will be a sufficient guide if they will but listen to it therefore this Text reaches the light within you which saith there was a time when they were darkness It would be a strange affirmation to say the world or Creation were darkness while the body of the Sun were in it shining although not one man should move by its light And it is worth the noting that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text rendred darkness signifies such a darkness as is the total absence of light A second Scripture that proves this is Mat. 6. 23. § 8 But if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness It is the same word in the Greek as in the fore cited Scripture And lest you should cavil and say Christ doth but suppose it he doth not affirm that the light in any one is darkness the foregoing Verse tells you That if thine eye be evil that is not single and sincere in its aims thy whole body shall be full of darkness And sure you will not say but there are many in the world whose eyes are evil who account all such that are not Quakers And it may be considered that where the whole body is full of darkness there cannot possibly be in it any light And that this which men conceit to be light and are conducted and led by it as if it were such is sinfull ignorance and darkness I shall not think it calls for proof Well then 't is as clear as day that the best light some men have within them is but perfect night therefore it cannot be God Thus I have proved by three Arguments That the Arg. 4 light within every man is not God I will but name a few more and leave them to the judgment of the Reader without further proof That which may be kept under and in captivity by the lusts of men is not God But the light in some men not only may be but is kept under and in captivity by the lusts of men and that by the Quakers own confession Therefore The light in every man is not God That which may be crucified and put to pain in Arg. 4 a proper sense is not God But the light within every man which the Quakers call God may by their own confession be put to pain and crucified and that in a proper sense or they talk but madly of being saved by its being crucified within them Therefore It is not
in the minister saying Answ But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine If it were only out of ignorance in not understanding the word distinguished or of the manner of Gods Being in his Saints it should not be his Charge in this place But you shall if you read further see he intends no less than the wicked import of his words But to call him reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine is over measure a great deal he might have spared him that in charity John Bunion saith He God is distinct from the Saints and Bunian is deceived who saith he is distinct p. 16. from the Saints and so you are a company of pityful Teachers By these expressions he renders not only the Souls and Spirits of the Saints the same being with God but their whole man without distinction Again thou makes a great pudder that any one should witness he is equal with God Answ A Catechism of § 3 the Assembly of the Priests and put forth to the nation in which they have laid down that the holy Ghost and the Son is equal in power and glory with the Father Fox great mystery yet if any come but to witness the Son revealed in him or come to witness the Holy Ghost in them as they gave out the Scriptures or witness the mind of Christ and witness that equal with the Father they cry out horrid blasphemy Observe he doth not in the least deny the priests charge as he calls him but calls it a pudder he makes as if the most horrid blasphemies opposed or charged on the blasphemers were but making a pudder And to heal his sore he would wound the assembly of Divines by laying the like monster at their door but herein he shews his ignorance with his malice and slander For the rest of his phrases I shall only say this that they make no difference between the Spirit of the Quakers yea of all men and the Son of God or the Holy Ghost And is not that of God which comes out from God § 4 is not that of his being the soul which he hath in his Fox great Mystery hand and so divine There is a great difference to be of God with respect to relation or creation and to be of God as of his being or the same being with him the one is common to the whole Creation for of him are all things the other is peculiar to the blessed Creator Magnus Bine saith the Soul is not infinite in it self but Fox great mystery p. 29 is a Creature and Richard Baxter saith it is a spiritual substance Answ Now consider what a Condition these called Ministers are in they say that which is a Spiritual substance is not infinite in it self but a creature 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 which the hand goes against him that does evil in which hand the Soul is which is immortal and infinite which hand is infinite which brings it up to God is infinite If any man can match the ignorance confidence blasphemy and nonsence of this passage out of the mouths or pens of any but the Quakers he may be reckoned a great discoverer But this is received by those poor deluded souls as infallibly true and divine mystery being the dictates of George Fox whom none of them dare or will contradict such is the stupendious captivity of these poor people Is not the Soul without beginning come from God It is not horrid Blasphemy to say the Soul is a part of God for it § 5 Fox great mystery came out of him and that which came out of him is of him Thus I have proved not by remote consequences but their open and plain assertions and that pleaded for after their wild manner hat they hold the Soul of Man to be God apart of the Divine being infinite in it self without beginning-part of the creator here is enough of blasphemy and idolatry for one author to fill the mouths of many I shall cite yet more of them that none may think it is but one Quaker though I may stand for a thousand who is so prodigiously wicked § 6. Fisher velata quaedam revelata p. 17. And whereas you Querie whether the said Spirit the Spirit of man is mortal or immortal I answer it is immortal and neither mortal nor corruptible but the immortal and incorruptible seed of God even something of the living word which is said to be made flesh What the word is that was made flesh John saith was God 1. John 1. That which the Lord from Heaven begetteth of his own Penningtons Quest 27. Declaration against poverty query 27. image and likeness of his own substance of his own seed of his own Spirit and pure life Speaking of the Saints the members of Christ Whether do you wait and believe to have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus who thought it no robbery to be equal with God And Christ thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he was no Pharisee though of the pharisees judged a blasphemer and as he is so are we saith the Saints And they who dwell in the truth witness Parnel Shield c p. 37. one with another For the light of God owns its own for God cannot deny himself They own the Spirit of God Christ the seed and the § 7 spirit of man to be but one and the same thing but some times will deny any to have a Spirit at all but the regenerate that they may not say the unregenerate have the Spirit of God or God the Spirit in them See Fishers rare distinction to serve this turn Fisher velata quaedam revelata p 13 As to the Spirit of man which concurres to the constituting of man in his primitive perfection it is the breath of life which God breathed into his Soul after he had formed him as to his body of the dust of the earth whereby he came to be a living Soul a Soul that did partake something of Gods ovvn life this Spirit of man is that living principle of the divine nature vvhich man did before his degeneration and shall gâ—vin after his regeneration partake of This Charge being of so black and horrid a nature I did not judge it unmeet to prove the truth of it by abounding instances and now Reader judge and put on the largest Charity that a man or Christian ought in any case to exercise and give thy verdict if I have not made appear That the Quakers are gross Idolaters so far as owning and professing that to be God which is not God will contribute to a demonstration I shall manage my second grand argument but briefly SECT IV for the work I have done will render it not very
in jeopardy every hour 1 Cor. 15. 29. 30. Thirdly it utterly subverts and makes Shipwrack § 3 of the faith of the Gospel that looking at a prize and reward on the other side the Grave But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also in vain 1 Cor 15 13 14. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15 16 17. So that there is a Chain of the most woful consequences that this wicked error draws after it Fourthly Then the Gospel is a meer fallacy and § 4 delusion which promises a reward to men whose persons are constituted of a body as well as a soul Many more might be inferred of so grand an import as would render this Doctrine the most pernicious that was ever hatched among pretended Christians CHAP. XIX The Quakers profess not the Doctrine of a future reward in another World I Have been a diligent Enquirer to find some expressions SECT 1 in their Writings or Verbal Converse that might satisfie me they owned a future happiness or misery after this life but all to no purpose in this point they make no noise at all I have searched those Writings of theirs especially which have pretended an account of their Principles in all or most points of Religion but though this of a future state of reward or punishment be the vitals and end of all Religion yet they do not so much as touch upon it From whence I must conclude it is blotted out of their Creed 'T is said of the Gospel which is the Christian Dispensation that it brings life and immortality to light what was in the Scriptures of the old Testament more seldom and obscurely expressed is the very scope of the Gospel or New Testament the peculiar of Christianity But then certainly Quakerism is no Christianity that is so silent in this matter I know they talk of immortality and eternal life but what is immortality with them Fox saith man is immortal before death in his Great Mystery and their Salvation is no more but what they have within them and is accomplished in this world Farnsworth saith speaking of the righteousness of Christ neither was I saved by it So that his Salvation was not future but present or past And Pennington in some Principles of the Elect c. saith and so they who forget God and do wickedly they are to be turned into Hell But what Hell is this no more than what they say is in this life For they who forget God and do wickedly they go from the life and power of God into the separation from him and out of his acceptance For in the life is the acceptance What is here more than is suffered in this life which we call paena damni or the punishment of loss A Book intituled The Spirit of the Quakers c. § 1 charges the Quakers for having their hearts much set on a Heaven within them but not on the things above to which Pen replies and vindicates after his fashion the Kingdom of God within but saith not a word to assert their belief of and affections to the Heaven above from whence it is plain that they believe no such thing to have a being I wonder not therefore that this is so frâ—quently their saying That if we are not perfect here we shall never be perfect It is easily deduceable from their more openly professed § 2 principles that they deny and disown a blessedness or misery in another world For if they deny the body to have life any more after it is dead and turned to dust and that the Soul and Spirit are of the being of God and that as the body returns to its former dust from whence it came and never revives again so the Soul and Spirit returns into God its first being all which I have already proved what then remains to be the subject of happiness or misery E'ne nothing at all except God and he is not man E. Burroughs the day he died expressed himself thus that he was now putting off this manner of person and returning to his own Being or words of the same import which I have quoted on the Chapter of their Idolatry When I have asked some of them what should become of their souls after death Their answer hath been they shall be taken into God Let them profess that they believe a happiness to be enjoyed by men and women after their bodies are rotted to dust distinct from the Being of God or that which they had not a thousand years before they were born i. â— to be in God from whom as of his Being they say the soul came and it will be news to me and all that are acquainted with them In the mean time I have given you Reasons enough to conclude they believe no future blessedness or misery in anoâ—her world I shall now resume the Question and gather up all the proofs of what I have affirmed into an entire body If Quakerism be another Dispensation than that of Christ setled and preached by the Apostles If it deny the Scripture If it deny all the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny any influence of Christs transactions in Judea above 1600 years since into our Justification and Salvation If it deny Jesus the Son of Mary the Christ of God If it own false Gods and be Idolatry If it professedly owns the worshipping of false Gods If it deny the Resurrection of the Dead If it affect not a future blessedness or misery in another world to men and women according to their deeds in this Then Quakerism is no Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism Therefore Quakerism is no Christianity PART III. BEING AN EXAMINATION Of the First Part of VV. PEN'S Pamphlet CALLED The Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. WITH A Rebuke of his Exorbitances WHiles I was writing this Book I met with SECT 1 a Pamphlet of William Pen's intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated against that of Errour and Envy c. Which is pretended to be an Answer to a malicious Libel intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed c. I having the piece by me I once perused it In the general I resâ—nted it as one of the best and most ingeniously 〈…〉 aged and beyond all material and just excepti 〈…〉 at least by the Quakers that ever I read against 〈◊〉 sort of people But reading Pen's Answer 〈◊〉 finding his Epistle giving such a Character of his 〈…〉 versaries Book and himself for malice lameness 〈…〉 ing and what not that might render it and him 〈…〉 ed and contemptible I began to mistrust my conclusion supposing a person of P's education and pretences would not say so much evil of it without great cause and therefore I compared them
diligently But for P's sake I shall believe it more than possible § 2 that a man of the highest pretences having some more than ordinary means to deal rightly and ingenuously may yet so far deceive my expectations as to give the highest contradictions to them all I am altogether ignorant of the name or person of the Author of the Piece opposed by Pen and if he be a Socinian as Pen affirms I shall be far enough from vindicating him therein but for the Piece it self wherein Pen saith he could find neither head nor tail I will sell my eyes and brains for two pence if it deserve so contemptible a Character And for the Answerer Pen if he were not furnished with forehead and tales beyond measure his Pamphlet would have had nothing remarkable in it I expecting next his Epistle and Preface an â—rderly § 3 combating his Adversaries Charge I find him taking up his Post in the Quakers conceited strong hold of the infallible guidance of the Spirit of God afforded to his people exclusive of any other means In the debating of which he roams and tosses to and fro like a man in a confused troubled dream for above thirty pages His pretences therein lying athwart my present work I thought meet to give some account of his Forces especially considering him to be a man of noise and no small prop to the Quakers Cause in their own esteem His Question in which he pretends to include the Quakers strength and which he saith he is resolved to stand by as such he states in these words The Question stated Whether Gods holy and unerring Spirit is or should SECT II be the proper Judge of Truth Rule of Faith and Guide of Life among men especially under the Administration of the blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or not I affirm it and proceed to prove it by Scripture and Reason Considering his words foregoing which are too many and too worthless to transcribe and what he aims at in the handling of this Question I never read one so lame and deformed in my life come forth with such state and confidence and such a train or rout of mediums as deformed as it self There is in it neither Logick nor Honesty Certainly if he had not turned Quaker and in that fall put all out of joynt he could not likely after so good Nursing have been thus lamentably cripled in his Intellect and somewhat besides First of all here is a fallacy à bene divisis ad malè § 2 conjuncta many Questions confounded together Secondly no explanation of the terms most all of which are metaphorical or amphibious and in that part especially affirmed the greatest ambiguity of all Vt quisque est linguâ nequior Solvans ligantque quaestionum vincula Per syllogismos plectiles He tells us indeed pag. â—7 that there is no more difference to him between a Judge Rule and Guide than essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God he should have added nor between truth faith and life among men and then he would have shewed himself a work-man indeed to have so stitched them together into one as would admit of no distinction I do not admire that his Acumen cannot distinguish Essence and Subsistence three Persons in one Divine Being and God-Head who cannot distinguish these Attributes of God nor these acts with respect to men mentioned in the Question He is unlike to wade through a deep River who is so often over head and ears in a shallow Dish But these escapes are but the Dâ—st of the Ballance § 3 to what follows The word proper in a Question as modifying these Offices or Acts of the Spirit is greatly improper Proper is sometimes in opposition to figurative sometimes in opposition to common sometimes in opposition to meet or fit in which sense he would be understood it doth not fit his purpose nor principles to tell us but this is an unworthy part of a Disputant and becoming none but those who are resolved not to be understood If he would assert the Quakers Tenet he must say it is the peculiar sole and immediate Guide Rule and Judge and this is that he pleads for now and then after his fashion in his following arguments and all the Quakers I have read or discoursed plead for in plain terms But if it had been so expressed in the Question his Nose would have been held too hard to the Grind-stone in attempting strictly to prove it and most would have smelt the Rankness of Quakerism But Mr. Pen do you deal fairly and honestly with your Adversaries to imply in your Question that we deny the Spirit of God to be a proper that is one that is fit and hath right to be a Rule of Faith Guide of Life Judge of Truth You know that we own it to be such and that it doth both in the Conscience and by the Scripture Creation and Providence perform such acts to such purposes and that of right only we deny that the Spirit always performs these acts without the use of the Scripture or any external means or Ordinances or that it doth so at any time contrary to its mind expressed in the Scripture This you should oppose or you do but trifle and abuse us and your unwary Readers The latter part of your Question which expresses § 4 the Administration of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ especially to countenance your Tenet is playing at Blind-mans-buff You should have told us who or what you mean by Lord and Saviour If it be understood of the Quakers Lord and Saviour the light within every man that is none of our Lord and Saviour If it be understood of the Man Christ Jesus who was of the seed of David according to the flesh who was the Son of Mary crucified to death on the Cross of Wood by shedding his blood and is now in his humane or mans nature united to the God-head in one person ascended above the visible heavens he is none of your Saviour and can be no more within you personally considered than the body of one individual man can be entirely in all the men and women and children in the world and at the same time It must be a Transubstantiation much more ridiculous than the Papists that must support such a fancy It is also no less strange that you should talk of the § 5 Gospel Administration of our Lord and Saviour who hold nothing of a Saviour but what is Eternal à parte ante nor any other Gospel but the light within and its immediate Dictates which you generally affirm was within every man from the beginning of the world I shall not spend time and paper to shew the many other absurdities in your question I have left a Hâ—rvest for Gleaners For the proof of your affirmation such a blind one as it is you produce abundance of Scriptures which are as much to your purpose as if you had quoted
only the 36. Chap. of Genesis wherein is contained Esau's posterity and how many Dukes there were of his Race Yet I shall produce your arguments for the Readers satisfaction that he may believe his own eyes and I shall be more honest than to frame a meer whimsie out of my own head to abuse you and say after this lofty manner of disputing you undertake our overthrow which is your guilt in the fourth page of your Book Your first proof you pretend from Gen. 6. 1. And SECT III the Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years I will for once transcribe your Argument verbatim that it may be notorious how loftily you dispute If God's unerring Spirit has been wont to strive with men either to convince them of or convert them from the evil of their thoughts words or deeds or else to provoke them yet more fully to do the will of God so as to press on from one degree of glory to another then men hâ—ve had an unerring Spirit to be their Teacher and Judge and Rule and Guide of that Truth concerning that Faith and in that most holy way which leads to Eternal Life But the Scripture proves the first Proposition that Gods Spirit hath frequently strove with men and for the ends before-mentioned and câ—nsequently they have not been without an holy unerring Spirit to teach judge regulate and guide them If I should only say your whole Argument is a § 2 meer confused thicket of impertinencies and non seâ—uitur's I believe your conclusion would be most absolute that it was for want of eyes and that I dare not touch a bough of it for fear of pricking my fingers A man had need of good Arithmetick also to numbâ—r the terms You tell us the Scripture proves your first Proposition You are a non Such for diving if you can fetch up from this Scripture what is expressed in your first proposition especially the latter member of it It is more than probable that the Spirit did strive with them to make them better than they were yet none of those ends are expressed in the Text but that it should be that they might more fully do the Will of God and press on from one degree of Glory to another is a guess wonderfully well becoming your infalliblity Why did you not say or to turn them into Suns Moons and Stars which were all out as much in the Text as the other and I dare say some of your Friends would have taken themselves bound to believe it who find no fault with greater absurditiâ—s dropt from their admired Dictâ—tors but Quos Dâ—us vult perdere hos dementat There were eight persons saved in the Ark but one Noah said to be righteous before God and all the â—est overwhelmed by the Deluge for their extreme impieties yet these were pressed on from one degree of Glory to another The consequence of your first Proposition is all manner of Fruits which you had a mind should be grafted on this Stock but as the Text will not impart its Sap to your Proposition so your Proposition is as dry to your Consâ—quence but that 's no matter if they will not grow one upon another you 'l make them hang together right or wrong Yea and if the Spirit do but strive it must be how you will have it and for what ends you please or you 'l rack the letter for it but the'res no cruelty to a dead letter Bâ—t Mr. Pen if your conscience have any eyes § 3 I intreat you make use of the light here afforded you to compare the Text and what you lay at its doors and see how alike they look Your Question is of the Spirits teaching among men c. indefinitely and your proof speaks of the Spirits striving with wicked men Your aim is to prove it an immediate and peculiar Teacher c. of Gods people the Text speaks of neither If I affirm the Spirit strove with them by providential Chastisements ominous presages of Calamities at hand by his goodness which leads to Reâ—entance by the Ark which Noah built moved by faith and fear and by which he condemned the unbelieving besotted World by his Preaching righteousness I can prove my being guided therein by the unerring Spirit of God at another rate than you 2 Pet 2. 5. can your contradiction But your wandrings from truth and reason can § 4 hardly have a higher instance and evidence than that you should be so infatuated as to conclude from a Text which saith my Spirit shall not always strive with man that it doth now teach c. and God hath not left his people in our present nor will in future ages without his Spirit to teach them immediately and solely which is in your Question or your prosecution of it and should have been expressed there if you had had so much ingenuity Instead of being angry that I have shewed your vanity and made your folly in this argument such a spectacle to the world you have reason to give me thanks that I examine it no further However before we part I will try you at another SECT III weapon which you forge out of Neh. 3. 19 20. Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness the pillar of the Cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way c. This part of your quotation is not onely no friend to your affirmation and principles but an invincible adversary No man in his wits will say the pillar of the cloud and fire were the Spirit of God and if God led his people by them they were not led onely and immediately by the Spirit of God It may be the latter part of your citation may do more for you Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them This good Spirit was mainly the Spirit of God which he put upon Moses and Joshua and some other their chief Persons by God's appointment as is evident from these Texts And I will take off the Spirit which is upon thee and § 2 will put it upon them and they shall bear the burthen of the people with thee Num. 11. 17. And the Lord said unto Moses take thou Joshua the Sun of Nun a man in whom is the Spirit and lay thy hand upon him Num. 27. 18. Thou leadest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron Psal 77. 20. Now God is said to give them his good Spirit to instruct them by bestowing it in such a way and measure on their instructers and guides though I deny not but every true Israelite had the Spirit also dwelling in him yet they were never the less but the more submiss to the conduct of their mediat or if you will men-teachers and guides for that Your third chosen Scripture for your service is SECT III But there is a Spirit in man
to do SECT VI thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of uprightness Psal 43. 10. To bend this Text to your bow you talk thus The Question will be whether it was Davids intent and the scope of his desire that God should teach and lead him by his good Spirit or some other thing But methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative in two respects What a strange Question is this Who doubts but David commended the Spirit of God as a good Teacher what then must all other Teachers which the Spirit of God makes use of as the means by which he teaches be cast off Suppose I should say such a man is a good School-master I would fain be taught by him doth that imply I would not learn out of a Grammar or other books which he uses to that end or doth it not rather conclude that I like not only his abilities but his method and means by which he teaches The Psalmist saith Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest out of thy Law You would little less than hoot at him that should from hence conclude the Psalmist to reject the Spirit as a Teacher and to admit of no other Teacher but the Law It is after this lofty manner of disputing you undertake our overthrow When you have so learnedly framed your Question § 2 which by the disjunctive Or you make to consist of two members which would he have for his Teacher the Spirit or some other thing You answer it like your self Methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative But I pray which of the parts of your Question do you affirm which do you deny Why truly it is the safest course you take to affirm it of both for then the truth is owned and in this point the quarrel ended But then what need your fighting against what you affirm unless you are resolved to be quarrelsome Alas poor man it was by a meer mistake you said truth you intended to resolve in the affirmative that he desired to be taught by the good Spirit of God but in the negative of any other thing Canis festinans coecos parit catulos The two respects which thus blinded you are enough § 3 to keep any mans eyes open that is but willing to see First How that the Word was hid in his heart That internal Law Word and Spirit of God which plentifully shews how much he was an Enthusiast and Quaker in the sense this man esteems us most Heterodox Law Word and Spirit are all one with you But where do you find the Word hid in the hearts of the Saints called the Internal Word 'T is true that it is within in the memory faith love and hid there with the hiding of security but it was as much without before it was within as the Childs Lesson which it gets by heart out of a book which when done you might as well call it the Child 's Internal Lesson Your second respect is the very words viz. of the § 4 Text imply the thing we urge them for and can import no other sense Also what did that clause do there viz. thy Spâ—rit is good Can the Spirit be good for nothing if the external word be good for something as a Teacher I mistrust not the eyes of any but the Quakers but that they will see at first glance what a feeble Champion you are without my pointing Parvas habet spes Troja si tales habet I shall trace you foot by foot no further you shoot at so many marks at once that 't is hard to find which you level at only in the conclusion you presume you have hit the Pin of the white Vnisâ—nat cuculis rudibus geminantibus odis Your Arguments are generâ—lly sick of one disease § 5 you argue from the presence of the Spirit of God in and with his people by his motions influences manifestations gifts graces means to his Essential Being as the sense of those Texts which is fallacious as I prove by this Argument answer it when you can The Spirit of God essentially considered or as very God is every where at all times without the least change or alteration for ever But the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not every where at all times without any the least change or alteration for ever Therefore the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not the Spirit of God essentially considered or very God The first Proposition is proved from Mal. 3. 6. For § 6 I am the Lord I change not The second Proposition I prove from Joel 2. 28 29. which you cite Pag. 21. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie c. This was in time what and where it was not before Ezek. 36. 27. Pag. 20. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes c. it was future what it was not before and is spoken of the gathering of the Jews from all Countries Then the Spirit of God shall be put within them but this is not alway the same without alteration 1 Cor. 6. 19. cited by you Pag. 30. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you The Holy Ghost did not dwell in them according to the import of that Text before their Conversion The Lord was in the Temple at Jerusalem and dwelt therein I have built a House of habitation for 2 Chron. 6. 2 thee and a place for thy dwelling Who is able to build him an House seeing the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens 2 Ki. 19. 15 cannot contain him How did God dwell there more then elsewhere but by placing his Name owning a relation to it as his house sanctifying it to his own use manifesting himself in it to those who waited on his Ordinances there solemnized But now the place is void of all the foot-steps of that presence I deny not I doubt not but the presence of God § 7 by his Spirit in and with his people is much more glorious than that Type possessed yea such a Mystery of Union and Glory as will be matter of intellectual exercise and delight for ever yet it is most certainly no more his Essential Presence than is every where The difference is his being related to actuating of effecting in and manifesting himself to and union with the Souls of his people so as none in the world but they are blessed withal And herein the Saints are so happy they may well be content and not put the name of the God-head in a strict and proper sense on these his blessings Such conceits are the natural source and have been of Opinions and practices
rant and charging your adversary with infatuation that he hath given himself the lie and and you the cause as if thereby he acknowledg'd the light within you to be so alsufficient as you pretend and that if a man can judg infallibly when he reads and compairs a few written or printed lines whether they agree in the same words The Quakers light must needs be infallible and indefinitely and without any bounds at least in Religious and Divine Concerns But above all let me intreat you that if your § 5 Adversary give you your due saying moreover The light â—n every man is not to be extended to all cases whatever as if every man that attends to the Light in him did certainly know what is good what is evil right or wrong in every case That then you will not gratifie him with such Reason and Rhetorick as in the following words of yours I heartily pity the man and am really afraid he has overcharged the strength of his brain for with me such manifest contradiction is but a smaller degree of distraction I would fain have a rational answer from him if he be yet capable of one How can the Light be a Judge of good and evil and not be so and all within the space of ten lines If the Light as by him acknowledged be a Judge of good from evil and the contrary then in all cases wherein good and evil right and wrong make up the Question the Light cannot be secluded as wanting in â—rue judgment because good and evil are part of the Question in the granted Proposition deny that the Light is sufficient in any case of right and wrong and deny all Verily Mr Pen you seem to lay a plot here to § 7 blow at least all the Judges off from the Bench to make room for any Quaker though the most witless of them all For if he can but discern right and wrong in any case suppose whether in changing a shilling he hath wrong done him if he receive but two groats for it and right if he receive three he can then discern right and wrong in all cases whâ—â—soever and he that shall say the contrary you will chastise him with Sarcasms as keen as a Badg 〈…〉 Teeth Though I am a little pleasant for I cannot sudare § circa nuces pray bear with me I assure you I have had some heart-akes for you when I have deeply considered that a man of your hopes should be thus left of God I fear for pride and giddiness as to be made a Pillar of Salt to caution others to take heed lest they fall into the same snare which whatever conceit you may have of your self is too apparent Do not affect to be a Chief of a Party learn that Lesson by Scripture-light It is better to hear the rebukes of the wise I mean Eccles 7. 5. not my self than for a man to hear the Song of Fools It is great pity that what parts God hath given you should be fettered and smeared with the polluted Chains of the grossest delusions expect no other but that God will wither you in your Rationals more and more if you will needs Deifie such a poor Creature as Natural Conscience and reduce so much within the compass of a poor Earthen defiled Vessel But if you are resolved to go on at this rate let the Title of your next Book be instead of The Spirit of Truth c. The Spirit of Babel and this will much more properly express the Contents of it Note Confusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Babel in the Hebr. comes our English word Bable The Pretences of the Quakers to Apostolical and immediately Divine Inspirations considered and a Spiritual and Rational account of truly Apostolical men and their immediate Inspirations NExt to their Tenet of the Light within every SECT I man to be the Christ and God essentially considered this of its immediate Dictates which they hold to be as purely Divine as any the Apostles had or the Scriptures express is the grand Pillar of their other opinions and practises called Religious This Pretext according to an Author of their own E. H. one of Antichrists Voluntiers defeated pag. 5. gives the credit to what they affirm And yet would fasten all these upon the Lord so that his deceit might be of more Authority and none might question the matter thereof because the Lord always moveth to Truth and Righteousness Well then if we can prove that the Quakers are not inspired persons but far otherwise we shall prove them gross Impostors abominable persons slanderers and blasphemers of the Holy and Divine Spirit and break that snare by which their poor deluded Proselites are fast bound and chained to their Dictates But sure you will judge that they who pretend thus high have somewhat like a Reason for what they affirm The main Props of this opinion of themselves I shall bring to light and examine The first is a Prophesie of the pouring out of the § 2 Spirit Joel 2. 28. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie c. Let us consider how much this will befriend them They will not say I am perswaded that all flesh in the Text is to be understood without any limitation at all for then Sheep and Oxen must prophesie nor yet will they allow that the Spirit shall be poured forth upon all men and women old and young without some limitation for then the most wicked and sottish must be of the number yea those who are the keeâ—est Adversaries to their Doctrine among which I doubt not they will give me a room but if they say every one hath the Light within which is a principle capable of this Character if they gave heed to it and set it at liberty I answer so had all men this principle ever since the world began if what they say themselves be true but the Prophesie saith It shall come to pass after those days So that it must needs be meant of a time then to come but if it be to be understood as without doubt it is as well of some particular persons and not all Universally as of some Age or Ages and not all Universally They must bring some proof that they are the persons intended or give us leave to tell them they have herein stoln the words of the Lord which belonged not to them by falsly applying it to themselves And if the Exposition which Peter the Apostle gives of this Prophesie be worth the heeding it was fulfilled at least in a good measure 1600 years since and whether the World shall ever hereafter behold the like in that part of it I shall not assert Act. 2. 16 1. and so on But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel c. What They spake with other Tongues about fifteen in number the wonderful works of God and this was ushered in by Signs from heaven A
in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 1 Cor. 3. 16. So that every Babe in Christ hath the Spirit of Christ in its saving manifestations and opperations or effects though but a few were immediately inspired And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. The Apostle Paul doth plainly express this specifical § 3 difference or difference in the very kind of the Spirits teachings in and to his own person But she is happier if she so abide after my judgment and I think also that I have the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 7. 40. The Apostle doth in the case there agitated give his advice as a Saint who had the Spirit of God in the same kind of enlightning which other Saints had or all the Saints had but in an eminent measure yet this enlightning and teaching of the Spirit was not by way of immediate and Apostolical inspiration but by enlightning his judgment and enabling his natural faculty of discerning to pierce into and rightly decide the difference For if the Apostle had received what he here expressed by Divine inspiration or the Spirit of the Lord immediately inspiring it would have been not only unnecessary but very much injurious to the infallibility and authority of the Spirit of God to have made his judgment bear a part with it Yea it had been an usurping on the Divine Spirit which an exercisâ— of our judging faculty concerning its truth or falshood must needs be where it is evident that the Spirit of God doth its part by way of immediate inspiration to which ready and full credit ought to be given without hesitation Characters of Divine Apostolical Inspirations SECT V distinguishing them from all other Instructions That Divine inspiration whereby the Apostles and Prophets as such were illuminated came in without the use of the bodily senses as râ—ceptive o◠〈◊〉 outward Objects and carrying them to the rational and considering faculties to make conclusions from â—â—em and this is properly immediate Divine inspiration But Divine Truths received by the Saints as Saints ordinarily are received by such means as are Objects to the bodily senses as significative sounds to the ear visible Objects to the eye c. let the Quakers or any other shew me if they can that the knowledg of God comes ordinarily to men by any other way without these Faith comes by hearing that is ordinarily for a Babe may have the habits of saving faith whose hearing serves litle to that purpose or by reading that knowledg of God which the Heathen had or might have had without the Word revealed handed to them as to us it was by considering the works of God's Creation and Providence which were the Book wherein God wrote to them many Lessons concerning him and their duty So that in few words persons being illuminated by inspiration it was first within them others have it first from without them at least in the premises from whence the understanding assisted by God infers Truths The great Objection of the Quakers against the § 2 later Position is from this Scripture Rom. 1. 19 20. because that which may he known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them for the invisible things of him c. The words in them in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are either in or among them the later sense is to me the most probable because that while the far greater part of the Gentile-world were so bruitish that they little regarded or understood any thing of God but were so besotted with sensuality that they understood and minded nothing but what might gratifie a blind and impetuous appetite some among them whose intellects were better imployed came by the knowledge of excellent things concerning God which they not only taught but left in writing as a witness to Posterity But to put all out of doubt the 20 verse speaks what § 3 I affirm plainly For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead c. Here you have an account what may be known of God by the Heathen who had neither revelation immediate to themselves nor handed to them from others by the Word heard or read viz. the eternal power and Godhead and that which they were condemned for ver 26. was not for not knowing or practising what had relation to the Mediator or not believing the word of promise which never was within the reach of their ears but for their miscarriages against God the Creator whom they might and ought to have known and acknowledged God is in his Essential Being the Invisible God but he was manifest among them How From the Creation of the World by the things that are made Take another Text for the confirmation of my Exposition of this Act. 14. 17. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons c. They were not without witness concerning the Divine Being and Attributes of Mercy and Goodness yet if the Rain and fruitful Seasons were without them the Witness was without them before it was within them But for the Quakers pretences of their conceits of § 4 Divine things to be by immediate inspiration of the Spirit to them when we hear of Pagans and Heathen who never had the least notice of or from the Scripture talk of Jesus Christ a Crucified Redeemer and the Promises and Covenant of God we may a little listen to them but for a people who live where the Scriptures are so much known to talk Scripture-phrases and Gospel-phrases and then tell us they had it all by Divine Revelation immediate to themselves is as ungrateful and foolish as for those who were born and bred in England and have learned their Mother-tongue from their Childhood after 30 or 40 years to affirm they learned every word of it by immediate Inspiration or could have known it as perfectly if man had never taught them while in the mean time those forreign Languages they never heard spoken they can neither speak nor understand one sentence of if it would save the world Again Those Gospel-illuminations for the matter § 5 which are by immediate inspiration are beyond the utmost reach of our natural faculties of the mind though sanctified to attain by their improvement and therefore it is said to be 2 Tim. 3. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired It is not produced in the exercise of the Rational Faculties the Soul is purely passive or receptive therein and is to those Illuminations as the Wax is to the Seal according to 2 Pet. 1. 21. For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted carried Some of them viz. the Prophetical part were so far from being attained by the use of Natural Faculties though sanctified that their very wills which are the first movers even in intelligent Agents did not ordinarily so much as direct their understandings to the finding out the Truths which were revealed to them but when their thoughts in their present posture had no tendency to any such particular things no more than a man in a deep sleep they were then moved by the H. Ghost that whereas ordinarily they are fixed and bent to such or such ends by the humane will here the Divine will takes its place and doth all And for those Historical parts of the Scripture § 6 as of the Creation Fall of Man written by Moses c. and the Doctrinal parts written by the Apostles c. although the things in general might be the scope and aim of their intentions yet the Gale by which they were driven steadily and infallibly was not the utmost of their natural and sanctified and highest improved faculties but the supernatural guidance of the Divine Spirit whose product was like it self without the least stain or spot of humane frailty and wâ—aâ—ness Whereas that illumination of the Spirit which in the kind of it is common to all Saints flows in by the Lords blessing on the improvement of their understandings and judgments whether on Creation Providence or matter divinely revealed without them originally viz. that contained in the Scripture which although their faith be resolved into and determined by yet the highest pitch of their spiritual understanding is raised by a right and sanctified ratiocination from those principles comparing spiritual things with spiritual And experience teacheth that though an idle Loyterer may grow giddy with empty swimming notions which are rather the disease of a spiritual pride and intoxication yet God doth mostly if not only bless those with high and solid illuminations who humbly wait on him and beg the concourse and assistance of the Father of Lights and Spirit of Truth That God doth bless in such ways to the such § 7 illuminations of the Spirit is clear from this Scripture Heb. 5. 12 14. For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk c. It was their sin which was rebuked as the cause of their ignorance and what that should be but their slothful unfaithfulness in the use of advantages I know not But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age this must not be understood of number of days but measure of knowledge even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil They were thus illuminated by the Spirit in the way of the use and exercise of their sanctified Natural Faculties and the Ordinances of God for that end If any Quaker shall say True we are illuminated not by Study and poring as they call it on the Scripture or any thing else but have our knowledge without such carnal toil and the wisdom of the flesh and therefore it is by inspiration immediate Let such know that they must shew somewhat more than palpable errour gross ignorance and unparallel'd confidence e're they gain credit with any but those simple ones in a silly sense who believe every word Pro. 14. 15. §. 9. A third Difference is that Apostolical illuminations and immediately inspired are not habitual they are not the more constant frame of the soul but have their fluxes not as Springs or running Rivers or Tydes which have their ebbings and flowings yet the Chanel alway plentifully supplied but as bourns and flouds that sometimes rise high yet the grounds they cover for a while are sometimes and ordinarily a long time dry and no appearance remaining of those inundations The Apostles and Prophets had not such a Well and Spring of this sort as alway run or out of which they might ordinarily give advice and teachings of this kind Whereas the Spirits most ordinary illuminations common to all Saints do in their several degrees and measures in dwell in their souls and are as qualities adhering to their subjects their minds and faculties being so united to them as Sugar being melted in the Wine its sweetness is constant and abiding thereby And hence it was that the Apostles though they could alway teach from the habits of light and knowledge they were blessed with yet in some cases at some times could not speak as inspired by the Holy Ghost witness Paul who in the body of his Epistle to the Corinthians makes this distinction 1 Cor. 7. 6 12. to the end of the Chapter But I speak this by permission ver 6. but to the rest speak I not the Lord ver 12. Now concerming Virgins I have no commandment of the Lord yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful 25. But she is happier if she so abide in my judgment and I think also that I have the Spirit of God The same Apostle gives instruction concerning the Choice of Bishops that they be such as are apt to teach 1 Tim. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifies both the habit or faculty and also a promptitude and readiness to imploy it And to Timothy to be instant in season and out 2 Tim. 4. 2. of season that is not only at necessary times in a constant course but occasionally and he could not so preach the Word as became it and an Evangelist but from habitual illumination Mat 13. 52. Then said he unto them Therefore every Scribe which is instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth of his Treasure things new and old A fourth Difference the inspiration of the Spirit § 10 doth not grow and increase gradually and according to time and industry Samuel had as elegant and powerful an inspiration or revelation when a Child as when he was old And the Apostles on the sudden at the effusion of the Spirit in that way of ministration had as eminent inspirations as ever afterward But the illumination wherewith God doth usually by the efficiency of his Spirit bless his people doth ordinarily grow at least is capable of it Some to whom John writes were grown to be Fathers For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers Heb. 5. That is ye might have grown to such a degree of il 〈…〉 nation if you had stood in the way wherein the Spirit of God doth usually bless therewith as to have been able to teach others Yea the Lord Jesus Christ himself as man did increase gradually in these habitual illuminations Luke 2. 45 46 47. Jesus grew in wisdome and instature And that it was meant of divine light oâ— light in
Moses and other Prophets were seized with at the appearance of God The Truth No other but Christ the light within Speaking Truth Truly When it is spoken from immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit but however true without these it is falsly spoken Witnessing to the Truth Declaring or suffering for the light within and its dictates V The flesh of the Vail The Body wherein Christ dwelt and tabernacled which for a while he took of the Virgin Mary but at the death of that left it no body knows where The Vail is over them The belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be the Christ and now existing in Heaven in that body of flesh of our Nature which he took of the Virgin Mary The Vessel The Body wherein for a while Christ dwelt also our bodies Victory over the devil sin flesh world Perfection in this life resulting from the travail of the light within In the Vnbelief Not acknowledging the light within to be the only Teacher and Saviour whatever the faith and life otherwise may be The Vncircumcised and Vnclean All that are not Quakers Vngodly The same Vnlearned and without Vnderstanding To be without the light within its teachings and immediate Revelations The Voice of the Lord. The secret immediate lively touches and teachings within W Hirelings serving for Wages Ministers who receive maintenance little less then Robbery at least very Jewish and Antichristian Wait on the light Desisting from a search after Truth by any external means and passively attending to the motions and teachings within Watch to the light To be so listning and attentive to the inward teachings as not either to let slip any of its motions or reject them Blind Watch-men Those Ministers who see and warn by Scripture-light and not their light within Watch to the Morning To be diligent to observe and improve the first breakin gs forth of the power of the light within The Way CHRIST The way of Truth Those into which they are led by the pure light within The Whore of Babylon All forms of Worship visible Worship all that is believed or practiced from the written Word Will of God The Commands from within from the light Will of Man Will of the Flesh All that we chuse by the direction of the understanding or in which the humane faculties have any thing to do Will-worship Whatever Worship is not from the motions of the light within Children of Wisdom The Quakers born to the light within We Witness We experience we speak it from the testimony and feeling of the light and motions within And Pen saith This is right witnessing to witness what they experience But they that testifie what they believe from the Scriptures and right rational demonstrations go by hear say and reports but cannot witness it The Word The Word of God The Word of the Lord. No other but Christ the Eternal God The secrets of the Work of God The inward power and motions neither wrought nor perceived by or with the use of the humane understanding and will Righteousness of Works Whatever man hath any hand in or doth chuse The World All that are not Quakers Worship in Spirit Not the Worship where the heart and will goes along with the outward appearance but what is from the motions of the light within Wrath of God Day of Wrath. The inward judgings and terrours by the Light Christ within and that in this world The Writings when spoken diminishingly The Scriptures or written Word I have the Witness of my Conscience that I have not in this Key in any measure abused or wronged the Quakers but have declared what in their Writings and Verbal Converse I have found to be true and could have proved by particular instances but for being too large They who weigh what is written in the Body of the Book may find satisfaction in the most if not all of them THE CONCLVSION I Have not in this Treatise dealt with the more minute and light Errours and Absurdities of the Quakers because they would amount to too large a Volume for this Subject and I love not to Tythe Mint Annis and Cummin where weightier matters call forth my thoughts Where the Lord shall make what hath been written convincing and effectual those Superstructures and Appendices of the conceit of Perfection denying the sober use of Civil Ceremonies unnecessary scrupling at modest Ornaments Pedantick Words Phrases and Gestures obstinate Jewish and Ceremonious respect to this or that place for Worship and a multitude more will quickly and easily dissolve of themselves I doubt not but all whose Judgments are not in § 2 captivity to the silliest Errours will conclude with me that Quakerism is no Christianity yea Not consistent with Christianity being no more capable of dwelling together in one Breast than light and darkness in their absolute and supreme Dominion I am perswaded that all who have honest meanings among the Quakers little think that in turning to Quakerism they turn Christianity out of doors yet it is a truth a sad truth that calls for more serious notice than themselves or most others afford it who profess and that sincerely a love to Truth and Souls My greatest discouragement in writing this Treatise § 3 was from the sense of the Quakers being out of the reach of Scripture and Reason to almost or altogether a Spiritual Delirium Yet I was not without some encouragement from my hopes that the Lord would bless it to the informing and securing of many whose feet are yet out of their snare I have not a little been amazed to read in their Authors such Expressions as prompt us to divest our selves of being men that we may be Christians As if Rational and Spiritual God and the Scriptures Understanding and Christianity were mortal Foes I intended a Chapter by it self to demonstrate Quakerism to be no Christianity from its excluding right Reason any thing called Reason from having to do in the search after Christianity its Choice Defence or Approbation I care not if I collect a few for my Readers satisfaction § 4 Smith's Prim. pag. 56. Quest How do you manifest this inward foundation which you say is Christ to be the true and only foundation which God hath laid Answ From the feeling we have of it by which we know that it is sure in us and from the sure and certain knowledge which we have of it in the feeling we manifest it from its own Nature and Being to its own Nature and Being You may here perceive what a reasonable Religion the Quakers is whose demonstration is nothing else but sense and feeling and this sense and feeling nothing is capable of but the very nature and being of this Foundation He proceeds further pag. 65. Quest And can § 5 none have true Faith unto Salvation and Life Eternal but such as are of your Opinion Answ We are not in any Opinion but in the principle of Life by which we are
saved and receives life and in this state we stand not in any Opinion but in a feeling of life and salvation for all Opinions are in notions and apprehensions in which none feels the Life and Salvation in Christ but what they apprehend in the natural part unto that they give up their own belief and so erres from the life in themselves and neither believes unto Salvation nor receives Eternal Life Smith Prim. p. 61. I shall not trouble you with an explanation of these uncouth phrases you may turn to the Key and resolve your selves Sure if this be the way to understand Truths we may cashier our understandings and judge the most Sensual to have most of the Spirit Mr. Pen is much of the same mind He calls those disputing from the Scriptures Dry § 6 cavilâ—ing Letter-mongers Penington is a little ingenious when he saith in his Questions concerning Vnity pag. 4. Wherein I confess my heart exceedingly despised them and cannot wonder that any wise man did or doth yet despise them Speaking of the way the Quakers have to get Proselites being without Rational demonstrations This is far from the Apostles Doctrine and Practise who demonstrated by Reason that Jesus was the Christ who reasoned with Faelix and exhorts to be ready to give a Reason of the hope that is in us to every one that shall ask us I expect some Replies to my Book agreeable to § 7 this irrational humour But I desire those who shall think fit to undertake an Answer that they would not play the Rats and gnaw here and there a scrap leaving the grand designs and demonstrations of it untouched I do assure them I am not arrived yet in my own Opinion to such a perfection but I am willing to learn from even my Adversary although I must likewise acknowledge I am not very big with expectation from the Quakers power of convincing But if they shall instead of answering fill some sheets with personal reproaches and reflections which do not render the things asserted more or less true I bless God I am too much above them to be moved and have cast up my accounts of those Costs before I began this Building If they shall deny what I charge them with in my Book they must discard their Authors I quote or prove I give not the sense of their words I shall be glad of the former and I fear not the latter I desire the Quakers from henceforth if they will § 8 maintain Moral Honesty even such as many Heathens were possessed of that they would no more call themselves Christians until they fall under another Conversion for it is gross Hypocrisie and Cheating if not of themselves yet of others And although some of them have scorned my prayers and told me they hated I should pray for them I shall love them with so much benevolence as to beg of God to convince them of the Truth by this or what means he pleaseth that they may not only be loved of the truly good with good will but also delight but above all that they may glorifie God on Earth in a better way and enjoy God in Heaven to a greater blessedness than their Principles express I have done But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Gal. 6. 4. FINIS AN APPENDIX TO Quakerism no Christianity Wherein is published The Quakers Canons and Constitutions for Ecclesiastical Censures and Discipline with an Account of their Symbolizing with Rome therein and in other matters of Order and Polity Also a Catalogue of their Principal Errours and Blasphemies IT hath been the common Opinion of those who are unacquainted with the Quakers That they are a People altogether Confused as well in other things as their Principles But Satan the great Enemy to Mankind and Master of Errour is not so sottish as to decline all Polity and Order where he designs to advance his Kingdom And therefore wherever he subverts the Laws and Ordinances of Christ he sets up some of his own in their room and stead well knowing that Vnity in Evil is its Strength and any Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand And although the known Principles of the Quakers was and is That every man ought to be guided by the Light within himself as sufficient yet as the Reason of others so their own Experience have taught them That such a Guide without another to guide and restrain that tends to Distraction and Confusion And therefore they have erected their Canons and Constitutions What they are in part and how imposed may be seen in this following Account which was conveyed to me out of their Registry by sure hands and which I have given you entire to prevent all pretences of unfair citing That this Testimony is no feigned thing but really what it pretends to be W. Penn hath given sufficient evidence I cited a few lines out of it in my Vindication of Quakerism no Christianity in answer to Penn. He finding by that little shread that I had gotten the whole piece into my hands expresses his discontent in these words If such inoffensive nay Christian and necessary Resolves for the right Disciplining the Church of Christ in the ways of Peace and Righteousness cannot escape John Faldo's cruel hands instead of rendring us Papists I shall not wonder if from a Non-conforming Priest he turns a Spanish Inquisitor or any thing else that can be worse Penn's Rejoynder to Faldo p. 177. A Testimony from the Brethren who were met together at London in the third month 1666. to be communicated to the faithful Friends and Elders in the Countries by them to be read in their several Meetings and kept as a Testimony among them WE your Friends and Brethren whom God hath called to labour and watch for the Eternal good of your Souls At the time aforesaid being through the Lord's good hand who hath preserved us at liberty met together in his Naâ—e and Fear were by the Operation of the Spirit of Truth brought into a serious Consideration of this present state of the Church of God which in the day of her return out of the Wilderness hath not only many open but some Covert Enemies to Conflict against who are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities and despise Government without which we are sensible our Societies and Fellowship cannot be kept holy and inviolable Therefore as God hath put it into our hearts we do communicate these things following unto you who are turned from darkness to light and profess with us in the Glorious Gospel throughout Nations and Countries Wherein we have travelled as well for a Testimony against the unruly as to stablish and confirm them unto whom it is given to believe the Truth which is unto us very precious as we believe it is also unto you who in love have received â—t and understood the Principles and felt the Vertue and Operation of it In which our
of the Church meeting together in their respective places do set and keep the affairs of it in good order beware of admitting or encouraging such as are weak and of little faith to take such trust upon them for by hearing things disputed that are doubtful such may be hurt themselves and may hunt the Truth not being grown into a good understanding to judge of things Therefore we exhort That you who have received a ture sense of things be diligent in the Lord's business and keep the Meetings as to him that all may be kept pure and clean according to that of God which is just and equal We also advise That not any be admitted to order Publick business of the Church but such as have felt in a measure of the Universal Spirit of Truth which seeks the destruction of none but the general good of all and especially of those that love it who are of the Houshold of Faith So dear Friends and Brethren believing that your souls will be refreshed in the sense of our spirits and integrity towards God at the reading of these things as ours were while we sate together at the opening of them and that you will be one with us on the behalf of the Lord and his precious Truth against those who would limit the Lord to speak without Instruments or by what Instruments they list and reject the counsel of the Wise-men and the testimony of the Prophets which God sanctified and sent among you in the day of his love when you were gathered and would not allow him liberty in and by his Servants to appoint time and place wherein to meet together to wait upon and worship him according as he requireth in Spirit and calling it Formal and the Meeting of man We say believing that you will have Fellowship with us herein as we have with you in the truth we commit you to God and the Word of life which hath been preached to you from the beginning which is neither limited to place nor time nor persons but hath power to limit us to each as pleaseth him that you with us and we with you may be built up in our most holy faith and be preserved to partake of the Inheritance which is heavenly amongst all them that are sanctified Richard â—arnsworth Alexander Parker George Whitehead Josiah Coale John Whitehead Thomas Loe Stephen Crispe Thomas Green John Moone Thomas Briggs James Parkes It will not be lost-labour to give my Reader an Account of the occasions of this Testimony and of those things contained in it which are of special remark The first and chief Principle which the Quakers cried up and endeavoured to obtrude on all they attempted to draw off from the common Principles of the Christian Religion and to prâ—selyte to themselves was That every man hath a light in him which is no less than Christ and the Spirit Christ the Word of God the Life the Power c. and that this Light is sufficient to lead into the knowledge of all Truth and to move men by its Power to the compleat and perfect Obedience And as upon this Principle they did and do discard the Scriptures from being a Rule of Faith and Life and from bearing the name of the Word of God So many of them believed it as rationally followed That all their Ministry and ordered Meetings to declare what they called their Testimony was not only superfluous but also a contradiction to their main Principle which is indeed rightly inferred Another Principle grounded on the former Foundation was To exclude all Forms of Worship Order or Discipline and every one to be left to his own proper liberty to meet or not to meet to speak or be silent as he or she should be guided by his or her private Light c. But the practices which suited to this Principle as it rendred its Professors discordant and contrary to each other and ridiculous to Observers So also it deprived their Heads and Leaders of that Denomination which was as ambitiously sought by them as by any Sect-Masters heretofore Upon these Considerations those who were chief in esteem and interest among them began to impose upon the rest what they pretended was by the Spirit dictated to them although it did not meet with the same inward relishes and sentiments of the rest Many of the Quakers who kept to their first Principle were hereat greatly offended and made opposition against those Obtrusions as Tyrannical and subverting their Foundation One of whom was the Author of that large Letter of Complaint published in a little Piece entituled THE SPIRIT OF THE HAT Muclow In which may be seen the main Grounds of difference between the Ruling and Non-Conforming Quakers and as well penn'd as was ever any thing by a Quaker But to reconcile these Impositions with the Principle of the Sufficiency and Divinity of the Light within every man the Imposers pretend That the Light of the Body i e. Such who bear the sway can taste and discern what is from the true Light in any and therefore what answers not to that Discerning-Spirit in the Body is to be exploded as not from the true Principle In this Testimony alias The Quakers Canons and Constitutions I shall remark these following particulars 1. That in the Title it is ordered to be read in all their Meetings and kept by them as a Testimony Which are Priviledges that the Scriptures obtain not with them 2. That the Subscribers and those others who joyned with them in their Convocations pretend to have met by the Operation of the Spirit and to have had in that Negotiation the presence of the Lord with them and that hereupon they ground the following Dictates and Impositions 3. That although they take it so grievously that they should be accounted no Christians by us yet they own no other to be the Church of Christ but themselves and have the Charity to reckon of all others as Without and as Heathen and Infidels among which sort they are to be numbered whom they Excommunicate 4. That notwithstanding their former decrying a stated and ordained Ministry Rule and Dignities in the Church as Tyrannical and Antichristian they have now a Ministry Rulers Dignities Offices and Dominions erected among themselves as necessary to the subsisting of their Fellowship And affirm That it is abominable Pride for any particular not to submit to the judgment given by them called The judgment of the Body 5. That although they have with their Authors the Romists and Jesuites reproached the holy Scriptures as a lame and insufficient Rule yea as no Rule Countenancing this their Distraction from the diversities of Opinions Parties and Factions which are found among those who own it for their Rule yet they themselves for all the All-sufficiency of their Light within have Doubts Discords and Factions among themselves and each pretending the Light for its Authority So that their pretended Remedy is an early breeder of those Diseases for which
the present posture of the Quakers Religion as may render it no great strain to jump into it when-ever they find it their interest For why should it be thought unreasonable that they should rather choose to submit their particular Sentiments to the Determinations of a Pope and Council who pretend to the Spirits guidance infallibly therein than to the Determinations of George Fox and his silly Adherents called the Body who can give no better assurance of their Infallibility or common Reason either than mere pretences mounted on confident Ignorance and Arrogancy Especially considering that such a change will better bear the fine affected Mystery of being felt in a measure of the Vniversal Spirit which seems to be no other than the so-much vaunted Universality of Rome cast in the Canting Mould of the Quakers Phraseology Besides they will then have the Accession of the numerous Auxiliaries of Rome not needing to be so straitned and put to their shifts as now by laying the weight of their yet unformed Cause on so many Equivocations and thin Subterfuges defended by only two or three unskilful and unwary Patrons And what if they shall think meet to embrace the Traditions of Rome instead of THE DOCTRINES OF GOOD ANCIENT FRIENDS I am sure it would be short of a Miracle And the things being the same in Substance why should a mere verbal difference be a Gulph unpâ—ssable And if many of the more devout sort of Quakers should be loth to part with their Darling Singularities and Morosities If Rome be pleased so far to indulge to them as to afford them a Dispensation till time and other things have weaned them it is not the first time she hath been so kind a Mother However if they will but own the Roman Head as far as they now own George Fox they may have their Religion with all or most of its other Disorders and be owned good Catholicks of the Foxonian Order and George Fox Sainted to boot for his good service I desire the Quakers to be but so just to themselves as to consider whether what hath been said do not at least call them to a suspicion that their Leaders are rowing towards Tybur whatever face they put upon it And what an exchange they have made in rejecting the Scriptures from being their Rule taking at length the Impositions of men in its room which are so much the more wicked and blasphemous as they lay them to the Spirit of God as their Father and so much the more dangerous as the Opinion these men have obtained among them will render it neither pleasant nor credible for them now to question any thing they say or reject any thing they impose A Summary of the Capital Errours and Blasphemies of the Quakers Concerning the Godhead THey deny a Trinity of distinct Persons to subsist in the Godhead They own the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be God under those distinct terms yet deny either of them to have any relation or property incommunicable to each other They divide the Divine Being and Godhead into measures and parts Concerning the Scriptures They hold That the Scriptures are not the Word of God and that Christ only is the Word of God That much of them were the Words of God but those things are not now the words of God That a great part of the Scriptures were the words of wicked men and the Devil therefore cannot be the Words of God Not considering those parts of the Scriptures to be the Historical Word or Words of God containing in them a Divine Truth of History That the Scriptures are not a Rule of faith and life That not any part of the Scripture hath Authority to oblige us to any matter of faith or practice unless it be dictated to us or inspired into us by the Spirit immediately as the Prophets Apostles and Penmen of the Scriptures received it That those who determine their faith and practice by the Scripture are begotten into the words without the life and power That he that preaches the Doctrines of the Apostles and Prophets expressed in the Scriptures not having them by Inspiration as they and yet calls them the Word or Words of the Lord tells lies is a Thief and a Robber stealing the Prophets words c. and runs into other mens lines and labours That to follow the examples of the Church in those things which were commanded to them and practised by them under the Gospel or New-Testament-Administration is to commit Idolatry and to offend God by making to our selves Graven Images and Likenesses That to own and embrace the Scriptures for our Rule is Idolatry placing them in the room of Christ the Light within Concerning Christ. They hold That the Son of God is Christ and also that the Father or the Spirit is Christ as well as he That God or the Godhead only is the Christ That Christ is not of the Humane Nature or Man according to Adam's nature That the Body of Jesus the Son of Mary which died on the Cross without the Gates of Jerusalem was never nor is not an Essential Constitutive part of the Christ of God That the aforesaid Body is not now glorified and in Heaven and that it is not now alive That Christ was never seen with bodily eyes That Christ never died in a proper sense he being only God and so immortal That God is now manifested in the flesh as he was in the Son of Mary above 1600 year since That Christ hath Manhood but is not a Man of our nature That there is a heavenly Body of Christ consisting of Spiritual flesh blood and bones which came down from Heaven and dwelt in the Body that was born of the Virgin Mary and dwells now at least in every Quaker That every man hath a Light in him which is Christ the Eternal Word of God Concerning Christianity They hold That the Quakers only are true Christians and own the true Christ and all who own not and submit not unto the Light within as Christ are Infidels That those whom we call the Heathen have somewhat of Christianity because they have some justice and common naural Vertues although they believed not on Jesus the Son of Mary nor have any knowledg of him nor make any Profession of him to be their Lord and Saviour Concerning the Soul of man They hold That the Souls of men are a part of the Being of God of his very Life and Substance came out of God are no Creatures are Infinite in themselves and shall return into God again Concerning Redemption They hold That Christ came to Redeem the Seed which is no other but Christ himself That Christ before man's Conversion is the lost in man That the Redemption by Christ is to obedience to the Light within and thereby to Peace and Righteousness That we are not redeemed by what was done and suffered by the Son of Mary above 1600 years since and without us in respect of place That Christ
spirits breath that we all may be preserved until we have well finished our Course and Testimony to the honour and glory of our Lord God who is over all blessed for ever 1. We having a true sense of the working of the Spirit which under a Profession of Truth leads into a Division from and Exaltation above the Body of Friends who never revolted nor degenerated from their Principles and into marks of Separation from the constant Practice of good and ancient Friends who are found in the Faith once delivered to us And also into a slight esteem of their Declarations or Preaching who have and do approve themselves as the Ministers of Christ and of the Meetings of the Lords people whereby and wherein Friends are and often have been preciously revived and refreshed And under pretence of keeping down Man and Forms doing down the Ministry and Meetings or encourage those that do the same We say the Lord giving us to see not only the working of that Spirit and those that are joyned to it that bring forth these ungrateful fruits but also the evil Consequents and Effects of it which are of no less importance than absolutely tending to destroy the work of God and lay waste his Heritage We do unanimously being thereto encouraged by the Lord whose presence is with us declare and testifie That neither that Spirit nor such as are joyned to it ought to have any Dominion Office or Rule in the Church of Christ Jesus whereof the Holy Spirit that was poured forth upon us hath made us Members and Overseers Neither ought they to act or order the affairs of the same But are rather to be kept under with the power of God till they have an ear open to Instruction and come into Subjection to the Witness of God of the encrease of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no end 2. We do declare and testifie That that Spirit and those that are joyned to it who stand not in Vnity with the Ministry and Body of Friends that are constant and stedfast to the Lord and to his unchangeable Truth which we have received and are Witnesses of and Ambassadors have not any true Spiritual Right or Gospel-Authority to be Judges in the Church and as the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ so as to condemn you and their Ministry Neither ought their judgment to be any more regarded by Friends than the judgment of other Opposers who are without For of right the Elders and Members of the Church which keep their habitation in the Truth ought to judg matters and things that differ and their jugdment which is so given therein ought to stand good and valued among Friends though it be kickt against and disapproved by them who have degenerated as aforesaid And we do further declare and testifie That it is abominable Pride which goeth before Destruction that so puffs up the mind of any particular that he will not admit of any judgment to take place against him For he that is not justified by the Witness of God in Friends is condemned by it in himself though being hardned he may boast over it in a false Confidence 3. If any difference arise in the Church or amongst them that profess themselves Members thereof We do declare and testifie That the Church with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ have power without the assent of such as dissent from their Doctrine and Practices to hear and determine the same If any pretend to be of us and in case of Controversie will not admit to be tried by the Church of Christ Jesus nor submit to the judgment given by the Spirit of Truth in the Elders and Members of the same but kick against their judgment as only the judgment of Man it being manifested according to truth and consistent with the Doctrine of such good ancient Friends as have been and are found in the Faith agreeable to the Witness of God in his people Then we do testifie in the Name of the Lord if that judgment so given be risen against and denied by the party condemned then he or she and such as so far partake of their sins as to countenance and encourage them therein ought to be rejected And having err'd from the Truth persisting therein presumptuously are joyned in one with HEATHENS and INFIDELS 4. We do declare That if any go abroad hereafter pretending to that weighty Work and Service who either in Life or Doctrine grieve good Friends that are stedfast in the Truth sound in the Faith so that they are not manifest in their Consciences but disagree to the Witness of God in them Then ought they whatever have been their Gifts to leave them before the Altar and forbear going abroad and ministring until they are reconciled to the Church and have the Approbation of the Elders and Members of the same And if any that have been so approved of by the Church do afterwards degenerate from the Truth and do that which tendeth to Division and countenance Wickedness and Faction as some have done then the Church hath a true Spiritual Right and Authority to call such to Examination and if they find sufficient cause for it by good testimony may judg them unfit for the Work of Gods Ministry whereof they have rendred themselves unworthy and so put a stop to their proceedings therein And if they submit not to the judgment of the Spirit of Christ in his people then ought they publickly to be declared against and warning given to the Flock of Christ in their several Meetings to beware of them and to have no fellowship with them that they may be ashamed and Lambs and Babes in Christ preserved 5. And if any man or woman which are out of the Unity with the Body of Friends print or cause to be printed or published in writing any thing which is not of service for the Truth but tends to the scandalizing and reproaching of faithful Friends or to beget or uphold Division and Faction then we do warn and charge all Friends that do love Truth as they desire it may prosper and be kept clear to beware and take heed of having any hand in printing republishing or spreading such Books or Writings And if at any time such Books be sent to any of you that sell Books in the Country after that you with the advice of good and serious Friends have tried them and find them faulty to send them back again whence they came And we further desire from time to time faithful and sound Friends may have the view of such things as are printed upon Truth 's account as formerly it hath used to be before they go to the Press that nothing but what is sound and savoury and that will answer the Witness of God even in our Adversaries may be exposed to publick view 6. We do advise and counsel That such as are made Overseers of the Flock of God by the Holy Spirit and do watch for the good